-  \ 


L  I 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 

PRESENTED  BY 

Miss  Ethel  Bicker 

from  the 

Library  of  her  Father 
Nathan  Clifford  Ricker 
Head  of  the  Department  of 
Architecture,  1873-1911 


973 


L16I  — I 


r 


1 


SCRIBNER'S 

POPULAR    HISTORY    OF 
THE   UNITED  STATES 


. 


. 


SCRIBNER'S 

POPULAR  HISTORY  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES 


FROM    THE    EARLIEST    DISCOVERIES    OF   THE    WESTERN 
HEMISPHERE   BY  THE  NORTHMEN  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


BY 

WILLIAM    CULLEN    BRYANT 

SIDNEY    HOWARD    GAY 

NOAH    BROOKS 


WITH    MORE    THAN    SIXTEEN    HUNDRED 
ILLUSTRATIONS   AND    MAPS 


VOLUME    I 


NEW   YORK 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

1896 


COPYRIGHT,  1876,  BY 
SCRIBNER,   ARMSTRONG  &  CO. 

COPYRIGHT,  1881,  1896,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


RIGHT  OF   TRANSLATION  RESERVED 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


/tfa 


I 


PUBLISHERS'  INTRODUCTION. 

THE  plan  of  the  Popular  History  of  the  United  States,  now  finally 
completed,  was  laid  before  Mr.  William  Cullen  Bryant  in  1874,  and 
actual  work  was  begun  in  the  following  year.  It  was  Mr.  Bryant's 
ambition  and  the  purpose  of  the  publishers  to  produce  not  only  the 
best  but  the  most  comprehensive  history  of  the  country  that  had  been 
or  could  be  written  in  a  popular  form. 

Under  the  supervision  and  leadership  of  Mr.  Bryant,  Mr.  Sydney 
Howard  Gay,  long  Mr.  Bryant's  chief  assistant  in  the  editorial  man- 
agement of  the  "  Evening  Post,"  was  selected  as  the  best  equipped 
of  all  known  to  him  to  undertake  the  actual  writing  of  such  a  work. 

» 

Mr.  Bryant's  editorial  supervision  was  to  be  constant  and  active 
throughout  the  entire  preparation  of  the  history,  and  the  clear  and 
vigorous  Preface  which  he  wrote  (still  retained  in  the  completed 
work)  laid  down  the  lines  of  what  he  had  in  mind.  In  fact,  how- 
ever, he  was  able  to  read  the  proofs  only  of  the  first  and  second 
I  volumes  before  his  death.  Mr.  Gay  carried  on  the  work  to  the  com- 

pletion of  the  original  scheme.     He  had  several  assistants  in  the 

^ 

collection  and  preparation  of  material,  and  one  important  contributor 
in  the  Rev.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  who  wrote  the  chapters  in  the 
second  volume  upon  the  Spanish  Colonization  in  the  Southwest. 

Because  of  the  very  nearness  of  the  Civil  War  and  its  consequences 
to  the  time  at  which  the  history  was  begun,  much  less  space  was 
accorded  to  the  latter  half  of  this  century  than  its  importance  now 
calls  for.  Since  the  rise  of  the  great  literature  concerning  the  Civil 
War,  it  has  been  possible  to  give  to  that  passage  of  the  great  narra- 
tive a  scale  equal  to  that  of  the  rest,  and  to  take  advantage  of  the 
invaluable  material  ungathered  or  uncodified  at  the  time  when  Mr. 
Gay  ended  his  work.  Finally,  as  it  has  become  evident  that  the 


vm 


PUBLISHERS'  INTRODUCTION. 


quarter-century  following  the  war  is  also  to  rank  as  one  of  the  most 
momentous,  —  perhaps  materially  the  most  momentous  of  our  history, 
—  it  has  been  felt  that  no  book  can  now  fulfil  what  this  originally 
aimed  to  do  without  bringing  the  narrative  to  a  very  much  later  time 
than  was  at  first  thought  of. 

It  was  therefore  decided  a  year  or  two  ago  by  the  publishers  to 
remake  the  History  beyond  the  chapters  in  the  fourth  volume 
which  treat  of  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  to  confide  the  work 
of  completing  the  book  from  that  time  to  the  present,  and  upon  a 
greatly  enlarged  scale,  to  Mr.  Noah  Brooks,  whose  qualifications  for 
such  an  undertaking  need  no  attestation.  The  plan  adopted,  besides 
the  rewriting  of  a  portion  of  the  fourth  volume,  has  involved  the 
addition  of  a  fifth,  and  the  narrative  is  now  continued  down  to  within 
a  year  or  two  of  the  actual  present  with  a  fulness  not  attempted,  it 
is  believed,  in  any  other  history  of  the  same  comprehensive  scope. 

A  feature  of  the  history  to  which  from  the  beginning  great  care 
and  expenditure  have  been  devoted  is  its  illustration,  with  which  the 
greatest,  pains  have  been  taken,  not  only  as  to  historical  accuracy  but 
as  to  the  quality  of  its  art.  The  illustrators  of  the  original  history 
were  the  best  men  of  the  day,  and  the  same  standard  is  followed  in 
the  new  portion,  with  the  additional  advantage  of  the  improved  pro- 
cesses for  reproduction  and  perfected  printing.  The  complete  work 
contains  over  1600  illustrations,  which  represent  practically  every 
illustrator  who  has  been  favorably  known  for  the  last  twenty  years. 


PREFACE. 


THERE  are  several  excellent  histories  of  the  United  States 
of  North  America  in  print,  and  it  will  naturally  be  asked 
what  occasion  there  is  for  another. 

The  title  of  this  work  is  in  part  an  answer  to  the  question. 
It  is  intended  to  be  a  popular  history  — a  work  for  that  large 
class  who  have  not  leisure  for  reading  those  narratives  which 
aim  at  setting  forth,  with  the  greatest  breadth  and  variety  of 
circumstance,  the  annals  of  our  nation's  life.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  the  design  of  the  present  work  to  treat  the  subject 
more  at  large  than  is  done  in  those  compends,  some  of  them 
able  in  their  way,  which  are  used  as  text-books  in  the  schools. 
Unlike 'these  latter,  it  is  not  a  compilation  from  histories 
already  written,  but  in  its  narrativje  of  events  and  its  repre- 
sentation of  the  state  of  our  country  at  different  epochs,  has 
derived  its  materials  through  independent  research  from  orig- 
inal sources.  It  is  also  within  the  plan  of  this  work  to  rely  in 
part  for  its  attraction  on  the  designs  with  which  it  is  illus- 
trated —  likenesses  of  men  conspicuous  in  our  annals,  views 
of  places  and  buildings  memorable  in  our  history,  and  repre- 
sentations of  usages  and  manners  which  have  had  their  day 
and  have  passed  away. 

But  in  saying  this,  we  state  but  a  small  part  of  our  plan. 
It  is  our  purpose  to  present  within  a  moderate  compass  a 
view  of  changes,  political  and  social,  occurring  within  our 
Republic,  which  have  an  interest  for  every  nation  in  the  civil- 
ized world,  and  the  history  of  which  could  not  be  fully  written 
until  now.  In  the  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  our  existence 
as  an  off-shoot  of  the  great  European  stock,  a  mighty  drama 
has  been  put  upon  the  stage  of  our  continent,  which,  after  a 


x  PREFACE. 

series  of  fierce  contentions  and  subtle  intrigues,  closed  in  a 
bloody  catastrophe  with  a  result  favorable  to  liberty  and 
human  rights  and  to  the  fair  fame  of  the  Republic.  Within 
that  time  the  institution  of  slavery,  springing  up  from  small 
and  almost  unnoticed  beginnings,  grew  to  be  a  gigantic  power 
claiming  and  exercising  dominion  over  the  confederacy,  and 
at  last,  when  it  failed  in  causing  itself  to  be  recognized  as  a 
national  institution  and  saw  the  signs  of  a  decline  in  its  polit- 
ical supremacy,  declaring  the  Union  of  the  States  dissolved, 
encountering  the  free  States  in  a  sanguinary  five  years'  war, 
and  bringing  upon  itself  overthrow  and  utter  destruction. 

We  stand,  therefore,  at  a  point  in  our  annals  where  the 
whole  duration  of  slavery  in  our  country,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end,  lies  before  us  as  on  a  chart;  and  certainly  no  his- 
tory of  our  Republic  can  now  be  regarded  as  complete  which 
should  fail  to  carry  the  reader  through  the  various  stages  of 
its  existence,  from  its  silent  and  stealthy  origin  to  the  stormy 
period  in  which  the  world  saw  its  death-struggle,  and  recog- 
nized in  its  fall  the  sentence  of  eternal  justice.  It  is  instruc- 
tive to  observe  how  in  its  earlier  years  slavery  was  admitted, 
by  the  most  eminent  men  of  those  parts  of  the  country 
where  it  had  taken  the  deepest  root,  to  be  a  great  wrong ; 
and  how  afterward,  when  the  power  and  influence  of  the 
slave-holding  class  were  at  their  height,  it  was  boldly  de- 
fended as  a  beneficent  and  just  institution,  the  basis  of  the 
most  perfect  social  state  known  to  the  world,  —  so  powerfully 
and  surely  do  personal  interests  pervert  the  moral  judgments 
of  mankind.  The  controversy  assumed  a  deeper  interest  as 
the  years  went  on.  On  the  side  of  slavery  stood  forth  men 
singularly  fitted  to  be  its  champions ;  able,  plausible,  trained 
to  public  life,  men  of  large  personal  influence  and  a  fierce 
determination  of  will  nourished  by  the  despotism  exercised 
on  their  plantations  over  their  bondmen.  On  the  other  side 
was  a  class  equally  able  and  no  less  determined,  enthusiasts 
for  liberty  as  courageous  as  their  adversaries  were  imperious, 
restlessly  aggressive,  ready  to  become  martyrs,  and  from  time 
to  time  attesting  their  sincerity  by  yielding  up  their  lives. 
So  fierce  was  the  quarrel,  and  so  gener.il  was  the  inclination 


PREFACE.  xi 

even  in  the  free  States  to  take  part  with  the  slave-owners, 
that  the  name  of  Abolitionist  was  used  as  a  term  of  reproach 
and  scorn  ;  and  to  point  out  a  man  as  worthy  of  wearing  it, 
was  in  some  places  the  same  thing  as  to  recommend  him  to 
the  attentions  of  the  mob.  Yet  even  while  this  was  a  name 
of  opprobrium,  the  hostility  to  slavery  was  gathering  strength 
under  a  new  form.  The  friends  of  slavery  demanded  that 
the  authority  of  the  master  over  his  bondman  should  be  rec- 
ognized in  all  the  territory  belonging  to  the  Union  not  yet 
formed  into  States,  —  in  short,  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Republic,  wherever  established,  should  carry  with  it  the  law 
of  slavery.  A  party  was  immediately  formed  to  resist  the 
application  of  this  doctrine,  and  after  a  long  and  vehement 
contest  elected  its  candidate  President  of  the  United  States. 
Meantime  the  rapid  settlement  of  our  Pacific  coast  by  a 
purely  free  population,  in  consequence  of  the  opening  of  the 
gold  mines,  showed  the  friends  of  slavery  that  they  were  to 
be  hereafter  in  a  minority,  the  power  of  which  would  dimin- 
ish with  every  successive  year.  They  instantly  took  the  res- 
olution to  revolt  against  the  Union,  declared  it  thenceforth 
dissolved,  and  rushed  into  a  war,  in  which  their  defeat  carried 
with  it  the  fall  of  slavery.  It  fell,  dragging  down  with  it 
thousands  of  private  fortunes,  and  leaving  some  of  the  fair- 
est portions  of  the  region  whence  it  issued  its  decrees  ravaged 
and  desolate,  and  others,  for  a  time,  given  over  to  a  confusion 
little  short  of  anarchy. 

Writers  who  record  the  fortunes  of  nations  have  most  gen- 
erally and  wisely  stopped  at  a  modest  distance  from  the  time 
in  which  they  wrote,  for  this  reason  among  others,  that  the 
narrative  could  not  be  given  with  the  necessary  degree  of 
impartiality,  on  account  of  controversies  not  yet  ended,  and 
prejudices  which  have  not  had  time  to  subside.  But  in  the 
case  of  American  slavery  the  difficulty  of  speaking  impar- 
tially both  of  the  events  which  form  its  history  and  of  the 
characters  of  its  champions  and  adversaries,  is  far  less  now 
than  it  ever  was  before.  Slavery  has  become  a  thing  of  the 
past;  the  dispute  as  to  its  rights  under  our  Constitution  is 
closed  forever.  The  class  of  active  and  vigilant  politicians 


xii  PREFACE.  . 

,i 

who,  a  few '  years  since,  were  ever*  on  the  watch  for  some 
opportunity  of  promoting  its  interests  by  legislation,  is  now 
as  if  it  had  never  been ;  slavery  is  no  longer  either  de- 
nounced or  defended  from  the  pulpits ;  the  division  of  polit- 
ical journals  into  friends  and  enemies  of  slavery  exists  no 
longer,  and  when  a  candidate  for  office  is  presented  for  the 
suffrages  of  his  fellow  citizens,  it  is  no  longer  asked,  "  What 
does  he  think  of  the  slavery  question  ?  "  So  far,  indeed,  does 
this  fierce  contest  seem  already  removed  into  the  domain  of 
the  past,  and  separated  from  the  questions  and  interests  of 
the  present  moment,  that  when  a  person  is  pointed  out  as 
having  been- a  distinguished  Abolitionist  he  is  looked  at  with 
somewhat  of  the  same  historical  interest  as  if  it  had  been 
said,  "  There  goes  one  who  fought  so  bravely  at  Lundy's 
Lane  ;  "  or,  ''  There  is  one  who  commanded  a  company  of 
riflemen  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans."  The  champions  of 
slavery  on  one  side  —  able  men  and  skilled  in  the  expedients 
of  party  warfare,  and  in  many  instances  uncorrupt  and  pure 
in  personal  character, —  and  the  champions  of  the  slave  on 
the  other,  fearless  and  ready  for  the  martyrdom  which  they 
sometimes  suffered,  their  faculties  exalted  by  a  sense  of  dan- 
ger, —  can  now,  as  they  and  their  acts  pass  in  review  before 
the  historian,  be  judged  with  a  degree  of  calmness  belonging 
to  a  new  era  of  our  political  existence. 

But  the  great  conclusion  is  still  to  be  drawn  that  the  exist- 
ence of  slavery  in  our  Republic  was  all  utter  variance  with 
the  free  institutions  which  we  made^eiir  boast ;  and  that  it 
could  not  be  preserved  in  the  vast  growth  which  it  had  at- 
tained without  altering  in  a  great  degree  their  nature,  and 
communicating  to  them  its  own  despotic  character.  Where 
half  the  population  is  in  bondage  to  the  other  half  there  is  a 
constant  danger  that  the  subject  race  will  rise  against  their 
masters,  who  naturally  look  to  repression  and  terror  as  their 
means  of  defence.  The  later  history  of  slavery  in  our  coun- 
try is  full  of  examples  to  show  this  —  severe  laws  against 
sedition  in  the  slave  States,  an  enforced  silence  on  the  subject 
of  human  liberty,  an  expurgated  popular  literature,  and  vis- 
itors to  the  slave  States  chased  back  by  mobs  across  the  fron- 


PREFACE.  xiii 

tier  which  they  had  imprudently  crossed.  It  is  remarkable 
that,  not  very  long  before  the  civil  war,  certain  of  the  south- 
ern journals  began  to  maintain  in  elaborate  leading  articles 
that  the  time  had  arrived  for  considering  whether  the  entire 
laboring  class  of  whatever  color  should  not  be  made  the  serfs 
of  the  land-owners  and  others  of  the  more  opulent  members 
of  society. 

A  history  like  this  would  have  been  incomplete  and  frag- 
mentary had  it  failed  to  record  the  final  fate  as  well  as  the 
rise  and  growth  of  an  institution  wielding  so  vast  an  influence 
both  in  society  and  politics,  with  champions  so  able  and  reso- 
lute, organized  with  such  skill,  occupying  so  wide  and  fertile 
a  domain,  and  rooted  there  with  such  firmness  as  to  be  re- 
garded by  the  friends  of  human  liberty  with  a  feeling  scarcely 
short  ok  despair.  To  have  broken  off  the  narrative  before 
reaching  the  catastrophe,  would  have  been  like  rising  from 
the  spectacle  of  a  drama  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  act.  Few 
episodes  in  the  world's  history  have  been  so  complete  in 
themselves  as  this  of  American  slavery.  Few  have  brought 
into  activity  such  mighty  agencies,  or  occupied  so  vast  a 
theatre,  or  been  closed,  although  amid  fearful  carnnge,  yet  in 
a  manner  so  satisfactory  to  the  sense  of  natural  justice. 

Here  is  the  place  to  speak  of  another  important  conclusion 
to  be  drawn  from  the  result  of  our  late  civil  war.  It  has 
proved  the  strength  of  our  political  system.  When  the  slave 
States  first  revolted  it  is  wonderful  with  what  unanimity  the 
people  of  the  Old  World,  even  those  who  wished  well  to  the 
Northern  States,  adopted  the  conclusion  that  the  Union  could 
endure  no  longer,  and  that  the  bond  once  broken  could  never 
be  reunited.  Those  powers  which  had  regarded  the  United 
States  as  a  somewhat  uncomfortable  neighbor,  rapidly  becom- 
ing too  strong  to  be  reasonable  in  its  dealings  with  the  mon- 
archies of  Europe,  fully  believed  that  thereafter  there  would 
exist,  on  the  North  American  continent,  two  rival  common- 
wealths of  the  same  origin,  yet  so  diverse  from  each  other  in 
their  institutions  as  to  be  involved  in  frequent  disagreements, 
and  thus  to  prove  effectual  checks  upon  each  other,  relieving 
the  European  powers  from  the  danger  of  aggression  in  this 


xiv  PREFACE. 

quarter.  It  was  sometimes  said  by  Englishmen  who  thought 
that  they  were  speaking  in  the  interest  of  humanity :  "All  the 
interest  we  feel  in  your  quarrel  is  this,  that  you  should  go  to 
pieces  as  quickly  and  with  as  little  bloodshed  as  possible."  The 
steps  taken  by  Great  Britain  and  France  were  in  accord  with 
the  expectation  of  which  I  have  spoken  ;  Britain  instantly 
declaring  the  slave  States  a  belligerent  power, —  a  virtual 
acknowledgment  of  their  independence,  —  and  France  posting 
a  dependent  Prince  in  Mexico,  with  the  view  of  intervening  in 
that  quarter  as  soon  as  it  might  appear  politic  to  do  so.  Till 
the  close  of  our  civil  war  the  armed  cohorts  of  France  hung 
like  a  thunder-cloud  over  our  southwestern  border,  but  the 
hour  never  came  when  the  signal  might  be  given  for  the 
grim  mass  to  move  northward. 

The  period  of  time  at  which  the  nation  inhabiting  the  do- 
main of  our  Republic  came  into  being  is  so  recent,  that  we 
may  trace  its  growth  with  as  much  distinctness  as  if  we  were 
the  contemporaries  of  its  birth.  The  records  of  its  early  exist- 
ence have  been  preserved  as  those  of  no  other  nation  have 
been  which  has  risen  to  any  importance  in  the  annals  of  the 
world.  To  the  guidance  of  these  the  historian  may  trust 
himself  securely,  with  no  danger  of  losing  his  way  among 
the  uncertain  shadows  of  tradition.  It  is  with  a  feeling  of 
wonder  that  he  sees  colonies,  planted  in  different  parts  of  the 
North  American  continent  so  remote  from  each  other,  under 
such  different  circumstances,  and  so  entirely  without  concert 
on  the  part  of  the  adventurers  who  led  them  thither,  united 
at  last  in  a  political  fabric  of  such  strength  and  solidity.  The 
columns  of  the  great  edifice  were  separately  laid  in  the  wil- 
derness amid  savage  tribes,  by  men  who  apparently  had  no 
thought  of  their  future  relation  to  each  other  ;  but  as  they 
rose  from  the  earth  it  seemed  as  if  a  guiding  intelligence  had 
planned  them  in  such  a  manner  that  in  due  time  they  might 
be  adjusted  to  each  other  in  a  single  structure.  Those  who 
at  the  outbreak  of  our  civil  war  administered  the  govern- 
ments of  Europe  had,  it  is  certain,  little  confidence  in  the 
stability  and  duration  of  a  political  fabric  so  framed.  It  was 
loosely  and  fortuitously  put  together,  they  thought,  of  ele- 


PREFACE.  xv 

ments  discordant  in  themselves,  whose  imperfect  cohesion  a 
shock  like  that  of  the  southern  revolt  would  destroy  forever. 

It  survived  that  shock,  however,  and,  in  part  at  least,  for 
the  very  reason  of  its  peculiar  structure.  It  survived  it  be- 
cause every  man  in  the  free  States  felt  that  he  was  a  part  of 
the  government ;  because  in  our  system  of  decentralized 
power  a  part  of  it  was  lodged  in  his  person.  He  felt  that 
he  was  challenged  when  the  Federal  Government  was  defied, 
and  that  he  was  robbed  when  the  rebels  took  possession  of  the 
forts  of  the  Federal  Government  and  its  munitions  of  war. 
The  quarrel  became  his  personal  concern,  and  the  entire 
people  of  the  North  rose  as  one  man  to  breast  and  beat  back 
this  bold  attack  upon  a  system  of  polity  which  every  man  of 
them  was  moved  to  defend  by  the  feeling  which  would  move 
him  to  defend  his  fireside.  Perhaps  out  of  this  fortuitous 
planting  of  our  continent  in  scattered  and  independent  settle- 
ments has  arisen  the  strongest  form  of  government,  so  far  as 
respects  cohesion  and  self-maintenance,  that  the  world  has 
seen.  Certainly  the  experience  of  the  last  few  years,  begin- 
ning with  the  civil  war,  gives  plausibility  to  this  idea. 

All  the  consequences  of  that  war  have  not  been  equally 
fortunate  with  this.  It  may  be  admitted  that,  in  some  in- 
stances, the  influence  of  a  military  life  on  the  young  men 
who  thronged  to  our  camps  was  salutary,  in  bringing  out  the 
better  qualities  of  their  character  and  moulding  it  to  a  more 
manly  pattern,  by  overcoming  the  love  of  ease  and  accustom- 
ing the  soldier  to  endure  suffering  and  brave  danger  for  the 
common  cause.  Yet  it  is  certain  that  in  other  men  it  en- 
couraged brutal  instincts  which  had  been  held  in  check  by 
the  restraints  of  a  peaceful  order  of  things ;  that  it  made 
them  careless  of  inflicting  pain,  and  indifferent  to  the  taking 
of  life.  Accordingly,  after  the  close  of  the  war,  crimes  of  vio- 
lence became  fearfully  numerous,  men  more  often  carried 
about  deadly  weapons,  quarrels  more  often  led  to  homicide, 
robberies  accompanied  by  assassination  were  much  more 
frequent,  and  acts  of  housebreaking  were  perpetrated  with 
greater  audacity.  It  would  seem  invidious  to  say  that  these 
crimes  were  most  frequent  in  the  region  which  had  been  the 


xvi  PREFACE. 

seat  of  the  war ;  but  it  is  certain  that  there  the  peace  was 
often  deplorably  disturbed  by  quarrels  between  the  white  race 
and  the  colored  which  led  to  bloodshed.  Thus  the  state  of 
society  left  by  the  war  may  be  fairly  put  to  the  account  of 
the  great  error  committed  in  allowing  slavery  to  have  a  place 
among  our  institutions. 

But  while  men  were  watching  with  alarm  these  offences 
against  the  public  peace,  it  was  discovered,  with  no  little  sur- 
prise, that  crimes  of  fraud  had  become  as  numerous,  and  were 
equally  traceable  to  the  war  as  their  cause.  So  many  oppor- 
tunities had  presented  themselves  of  making  easy  bargains 
with  the  agents  of  the  government,  and  so  many  chances  of 
cheating  the  government  offered  themselves  in  the  haste  and 
confusion  with  which  most  transactions  of  this  kind  were 
accomplished,  that  hundreds  of  persons  of  whom  little  was 
known  save  that  they  had  become  suddenly  rich,  flaunted  in 
all  the  splendor  of  exorbitant  wealth,  and  exercised  the  in- 
fluence which  wealth  commands.  The  encouragement  which 
their  success  and  the  mystery  with  which  it  was  accompanied 
gave  to  dishonest  dealings  was  felt  throughout  the  commu- 
nity, and  the  evil  became  fearfully  contagious.  The  city  of 
New  York  was  a  principal  seat  of  these  enormities.  In  that 
busy  metropolis  men  are  so  earnestly  occupied  with  their  pri- 
vate affairs,  so  absorbed  in  the  competitions  of  business,  that 
it  is  not  easy  to  fix  the  attention  of  the  greater  proportion, 
even  of  the  most  intelligent,  upon  matters  of  public  and  gen- 
eral interest  as  long  as  the  chances  of  individual  success  are 
left  open.  But  the  boundless  waste  of  those  who  had  posses- 
sion of  the  public  funds,  the  sudden  increase  of  the  city  debt, 
and  the  enormous  taxation  to  which  the  citizens  were  sub- 
jected, at  length  alarmed  the  entire  community ;  the  tax-pay- 
ers consulted  together  ;  they  called  in  the  aid  of  the  most 
sagacious  and  resolute  men.  who  with  great  pains  tracked  the 
offenders  through  all  their  doublings  and  laid  their  practices 
bare  to  the  public  eye.  The  infamy  of  those  who  were  con- 
cerned in  these  enormities  followed  their  exposure. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  contagious  nature  of  these 
examples  of  corruption.  The  determination  to  effect  a  reform 


PREFACE.  xvn 

and  drag  the  offenders  to  justice,  when  onoe  awakened,  spread 
with  equal  rapidity.  It  is  remarkable  how,  immediately  after 
the  exposure  of  the  enormous  knaveries  committed  in  New 
York,  the  daily  journals  were  filled  with  accounts  of  lesser 
villainies  in  less  considerable  places.  It  seemed  for  a  while  as 
if  peculation  had  been  taken  up  by  a  large  class  as  a  profes- 
sion, so  numerous  were  the  instances  of  detection.  The  pub- 
lic vigilance  was  directed  against  every  person  in  a  pecuniary 
trust ;  some  who  had  never  before  been  suspected  found 
themselves  suddenly  in  the  custody  of  the  law,  and  others, 
fearing  that  their  turn  might  soon  come,  prudently  ran  away. 
There  never  has  been  a  time  when  it  was  so  dangerous  for  a 
public  man  to  make  a  slip  in  his  accounts.  Investigation  be- 
came the  order  of  the  day,  and  a  considerable  part  of  the  con- 
tents of  every  daily  paper  consisted  of  the  proceedings  of 
committees  formed  for  examining  into  the  accounts  of  men 
who  held  pecuniary  trusts.  At  first  sight  it  seemed  as  if  the 
world  had  suddenly  grown  worse ;  on  a  second  reflection  it 
was  clear  that  it  was  growing  better.  A  process  of  purgation 
was  going  on  ;  dishonest  men  were  stripped  of  the  power  of 
doing  further  mischief  and  branded  with  disgrace,  and  men 
of  whom  better  hopes  were  entertained  put  in  their  place. 
The  narrative  of  these  iniquities  could  not  properly  stop  short 
of  the  punishment  which  overtook  the  offenders,  and  which, 
while  it  makes  the  lesson  of  their  otherwise  worthless  lives 
instructive,  vindicates  to  some  extent  the  character  of  the 
nation  at  large. 

In  reviewing  the  history  of  the  last  hundred  years  there  is 
one  question  which  stands  out  in  special  prominence  :  the 
policy  of  encouraging  domestic  manufactures  by  high  duties 
on  goods  imported  from  other  countries.  It  was  recommended 
in  the  early  years  of  our  Republic  by  Hamilton,  whose  au- 
thority had  great  weight  with  a  large  class  of  his  fellow- 
citizens;  and  afterwards,  under  the  name  of  the  American  Sys- 
tem, was  made  the  battle-cry  of  a  great  party  under  a  no  less 
popular  leader,  Henry  Clay.  But  after  a  struggle  of  many 
years,  during  part  of  which  the  protective  system  seemed  to 
have  become  thoroughly  incorporated  into  our  revenue  laws, 


xviii  PREFACE. 

a  tendency  to  freedom  of  trade  began  to  assert  itself.  The 
tariff  of  duties  on  imported  commodities  became  from  time 
to  time  weeded  of  the  provisions  which  favored  particular 
manufactures,  and,  although  still  wanting  in  simplicity  of  pro- 
ceeding and  far  more  expensive  in  its  execution  than  it  should 
have  been,  was  in  the  main  liberal  and  not  unsatisfactory  to  all 
parties.  The  manufacturers  had  ceased  from  the  struggle  for 
special  duties,  and  seemed  content  with  those  which  were  laid 
merely  for  the  sake  of  revenue.  The  question  of  protection 
was  no  longer  a  matter  of  controversy. 

But  the  war  revived  the  old  quarrel,  and  left  it  a  legacy  to 
the  years  which  are  yet  to  come.  When  the  southern  mem- 
bers at  the  beginning  of  the  war  withdrew  from  Congress, 
there  were  found,  among  those  whom  they  left  in  their  seats,  a 
majority  who  had  been  educated  in  the  Henry  Clay  school  of 
politics,  and  were  therefore  attached  to  the  protective  system. 
In  laying  taxes  to  supply  the  necessities  of  the  Treasury,  they 
enacted  a  tariff  of  duties  more  rigidly  restrictive  and  of  more 
general  application  than  the  country  had  ever  before  known. 
This  opened  again  the  whole  controversy.  The  struggle  of 
forty  years,  which  had  ended  as  we  have  already  related,  is 
revived  under  circumstances  which  strongly  imply  that  we 
have  the  same  ground  to  go  over  again.  The  manufacturers 
are  not  likely  to  give  up  without  a  struggle  what  they  believe 
so  essential  to  their  prosperity ;  and  the  friends  of  free  trade, 
proverbially  tenacious  of  their  purposes,  are  not  likely  to  be 
satisfied  while  there  is  left  in  the  texture  of  our  revenue  laws 
a  single  thread  of  protection  which  their  ingenuity  can  detect 
or  their  skill  can  draw  out. 

The  history  of  our  Republic  shows  that  a  nation  does  not 
always  profit  by  its  own  experience,  even  though  it  be  of  an 
impressive  nature.  Our  government  began  the  first  century 
of  its  existence  with  a  resort  to  paper  money  and  closed  it 
with  repeating  the  expedient.  In  the  first  of  these  instances 
slips  of  paper  with  a  peculiar  stamp  were  made  to  pass  as 
money  by  the  authority  of  Congress,  and  were  known  by  the 
name  of  Continental  money,  which  soon  became  a  term  of  op- 
probrium. The  history  of  this  currency  is  a  sad  one :  a  his- 


PREFACE.  xix 

tory  of  creditors  defrauded,  families  reduced  from  competence 
to  poverty,  and  ragged  and  hunger-bitten  soldiers  who  were 
paid  their  wages  in  bits  of  paper  scarcely  worth  more  than  the 
coarse  material  on  which  their  nominal  value  was  stamped. 
The  more  of  this  Continental  money  was  issued  the  lower  it 
sank  in  value.  The  whole  land  was  filled  with  discontent,  and 
the  leaders  of  the  Revolution  were  in  the  utmost  perplexit\\ 
The  injustice  inflicted  and  the  distress  occasioned  by  this  policy 
are  not  merely  recorded  in  our  annals,  there  are  many  per- 
sons yet  living  who  have  heard  of  them  in  their  youth  at  the 
firesides  of  their  fathers. 

Eighty  years  afterwards,  in  the  midst  of  our  late  civil  war, 
when  the  necessity  of  raising  money  for  the  daily  expenses  of 
maintaining  and  moving  our  large  armies  from  place  to  place 
upon  the  vast  theatre  of  our  war,  began  to  press  somewhat 
severely  upon  our  government,  the  question  was  again  raised 
whether  the  government  notes  should  not  be  made  a  legal  ten- 
der in  the  payment  of  debts,  and  the  Treasury  relieved  from  the 
necessity  of  providing  for  their  redemption  in  coin.  The  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  applied  to  some  of  the  most  eminent 
bankers  and  men  of  business,  English  and  American,  for  their 
opinions.  Certain  of  the  wisest  of  these  vehemently  dissuaded 
him  from  a  resort  to  paper  money.  The}'  pointed  to  the  dis- 
asters which  experience  had  shown  to  have  invariably  attended 
the  measure,  and  urged  him  to  trust  to  the  loyalty  of  the  coun- 
try, of  which  he  had  seen  such  gratifying  proofs  already  given, 
for  obtaining  the  necessary  supplies  of  money  for  the  war.  This 
could  be  done  by  issuing  debentures  payable  at  a  somewhat 
distant  date,  and  for  such  moderate  sums  as  persons  of  moder- 
ate means  could  conveniently  take.  At  all  events  they  urged 
that  the  expedient  of  resorting  to  paper  money  should  be  post- 
poned till  every  other  was  tried  and  the  necessity  for  it  became 
imminent  and  unavoidable.  These  wise  counsels  were  not  fol- 
lowed. Others  had  given  their  opinion  that  a  resort  to  paper 
money  was  unavoidable,  and  after  some  hesitation  it  was  re- 
solved to  take  the  step  immediately.  The  moment  that  the 
project  was  brought  before  Congress,  it  found  eager  cham- 
pions, both  on  the  floor  of  the  two  chambers  and  in  the  lobbies  ; 


PREFACE. 

for  whenever  a  measure  is  proposed  which  involves  a  change 
of  nominal  values,  there  spring  up  in  unexpected  quarters  hun- 
dreds of  patriotic  persons  to  assist  in  hurrying  it  through  Con- 
gress. The  government  was  relieved  of  the  obligation  of  pay- 
ing its  notes;  but  a  solemn  pledge  was  given  that  they  should 
be  paid  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment.  While  the  war 
lasted,  we  went  on  making  issue  after  issue  of  these  notes,  with 
no  provision  for  their  payment.  Meantime  the  prices  of  every 
commodity  rose,  and  with  them  the  expenses  of  the  war,  — 
and  speculation  flourished. 

For  eight  years  after  the  war  no  approach  had  been  made 
towards  the  fulfilment  of  the  solemn  pledge  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  although  in  that  time  many  millions  of  the  national 
debt  had  been  paid  off  in  our  depreciated  currency.  So  vast 
was  the  mass  of  promises  to  pay,  and  so  small  the  accumula- 
tions of  gold  within  the  reach  of  the  government,  that  not 
one  of  those  who  within  that  period  administered  the  Treas- 
ury Department  ventured  to  propose  any  plan  for  returning 
to  specie  payments,  but,  averting  his  eyes  from  the  difficulty, 
allowed  our  finances  to  drift  toward  an  uncertain  future. 
Then  came  the  panic  of  1873,  which  swept  so  many  large 
banking  and  commercial  houses  to  their  ruin.  Immediately 
a  loud  call  was  heard  for  a  new  issue  of  paper  money,  from 
those  who  fancied  that  they  saw  in  the  measure  a  remedy  for 
theif  own  pecuniary  embarrassments.  The  question  was 
hotly  debated  in  Congress ;  a  majority  of  both  houses  was 
found  to  be  in  its  favor ;  the  pledge  which  bound  the  country 
to  return  to  specie  payments  was  scouted,  as  given  in  igno- 
rance of  the  true  interests  of  the  country  ;  and  a  bill  was 
passed,  adding,  as  President  Grant  observed  in  his  message,  a 
hundred  millions  to  our  depreciated  currency.  Fortunately 
for  the  country  he  sent  back  the  bill  with  his  'Objections,  and 
it  failed  to  become  a  law ;  else  the  mischiefs  and  disasters  of 
the  days  of  Continental  money  might  have  returned  upon  us, 
with  a  violence  proportioned  to  the  growth  wrhich  our  com- 
mercial interests  had  in  the  meantime  attained. 

It  is  not  likely  that  this  question  will  again  be  raised  in 
our  day,  and  the  bitter  experience  which  we  have  had  of  the 


PREFACE.  xxi 

mischiefs  of  paper  money  in  these  two  instances  will  remain 
as  a  warning  to  the  coming  times ;  —  though  who  shall  say 
with  any  confidence  that  the  warning  will  be  duly  heeded  ? 
But  there  is  another  controversy  bequeathed  to  ns  by  the 
late  civil  war,  which  will  probably  lead  to  acrimonious  and 
protracted  disputes,  and  perhaps  be  made  to  some  extent  the 
basis  of  party  divisions.  Of  that  I  would  now  speak. 

Before  the  war  the  boundaries  of  the  powers  assigned  to 
the  National  Government,  and  those  which  remained  with  the 
several  States,  were  pretty  sharply  defined  by  usage,  and  at- 
tempts were  but  rarely  made  to  go  beyond  them.  The  leaders 
of  opinion  in  the  Southern  States  deemed  it  necessary  to  the 
security  and  permanence  of  slavey,  that  any  encroachment 
of  the  National  Government  on  the  rights  reserved  to  the 
States  should  be  resisted  to  the  utmost ;  and  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that,  although  many  of  them  pushed  the  claim  of  State 
sovereignty  to  an  absurd  extent,  they  did  good  service  in 
keeping  the  eyes  of  the  people  fixed  upon  that  limit  beyond 
which,  under  our  Constitution,  the  National  Government  has 
neither  function  nor  power.  When  the  civil  war  broke  out  it 
was  apparent  that  the  majority  of  those  who  remained  in  Con- 
gress had  not  been  trained  to  be  scrupulous  on  this  point. 
One  of  their  early  measures,  —  the  creation  of  a  system  of 
national  banks,  —  would,  twenty  years  before,  have  been 
regarded  by  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  as 
a  direct  violation  of  the  Constitution.  Other  measures  were 
adopted  in  the  course  of  the  war  for  which  it  was  impossible 
to  find  any  authority  in  the  Constitution,  and  of  which  the 
sole  justification  was  military  necessity.  As  compared  witli 
the  state  of  opinion  which  prevailed  before  the  war,  it  is  man- 
ifest that  a  certain  indifference  to  the  distinction  between  the 
Federal  power  and  that  of  the  States  has  been  creeping  into 
our  politics.  Schemes  for  accumulating  power  in  the  govern- 
ment at  Washington,  by  making  it  the  owner  of  our  rail- 
ways, for  administering  telegraphic  communication  by  Federal 
agency,  for  cutting  canals  between  river  and  river,  and  for 
an  extensive  system  of  national  education  with  a  central 
bureau  at  Washington,  show  this  tendencv.  These  and  kin- 


xxii  PREFACE. 

dred  projects  will  most  certainly  give  ample  occasion  for  pro- 
tracted disputes  on  the  floor  of  Congress  and  in  the  daily 
press.  On  one  hand  will  be  urged,  and  plausibly,  the  public 
convenience ;  and  on  the  other  the  danger  lest  our  govern- 
ment of  nicely  balanced  powers  should  degenerate  into  a 
mere  form,  and  the  proper  functions  of  the  States  be  absorbed 
into  the  central  authority,  —  a  fate  like  that  predicted  by 
some  astronomers  for  our  solar  system,  when  the  orbs  that 
revolve  about  the  sun,  describing  narrower  and  narrower  cir- 
cles, shall  fall  into  the  central  luminary  to  be  incorporated 
with  it  forever. 

In  looking  over  this  vast  array  of  important  questions  set- 
tled, and  of  new  ones  just  arising  on  the  field  of  vision,  it  is 
difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  the  historian  of  our  Re- 
public would  perform  his  office  but  in  part  who  should  stop 
short  of  the  cycle  of  a  hundred  years  from  the  birth  of  our 
nation.  In  that  period  great  interests  have  been  disposed  of 
and  laid  aside  forever ;  with  the  next  hundred  years,  we  have 
a  new  era  with  new  responsibilities,  which  we  are  to  meet 
with  what  wisdom  we  may.  It  is  matter  of  rejoicing  that 
among  the  latest  events  of  this  first  century,  and  following 
close  upon  our  great  civil  war,  we  are  able  to  record  a  great 
triumph  of  the  cause  of  peace  and  civilization  in  the  settle- 
ment of  our  collateral  quarrel  with  Great  Britain,  a  quarrel 
which  in  other  times  might  easily  have  been  nursed  into  a 
war.  Let  us  hope  that  this  example  will  be  followed  by  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  in  their  future  controversies. 

To  what  has  been  said  of  the  plan  of  the  present  history 
in  the  first  paragraph  of  this  Introduction,  I  have  yet  some- 
thing to  add.  The  works  of  the  Mound  Builders,  which  lie 
scattered  by  thousands  over  our  territory,  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  Oregon,  and  which  within  the  last  thirty  years 
have  been  even  more  carefully  examined  than  ever  before, 
prove  clearly,  what  was  previously  doubted  by  many,  the 
existence  of  a  semi-civilized  race  dwelling  within  our  borders, 
who  preceded  the  savage  tribes  found  here  by  the  discoverers 
from  the  Old  World,  and  who  disappeared  at  some  unknown 
era,  leaving  behind  them  no  tradition,  nor  any  record  save 


PREFACE.  xxiii 

these  remarkable  monuments.  With  what  we  have  learned 
of  this  race,  since  any  history  of  this  country  has  been  pub- 
lished, and  what  has  been  discovered  by  modern  science  of 
the  pre-historic  existence  of  man,  pertaining  to  our  continent 
as  well  as  to  those  of  the  other  hemisphere,  the  present 
history  naturally  begins,  and  it  has  been  thought  important 
to  record,  briefly  but  clearly  and  comprehensively,  the  present 
state  of  our  knowledge  of  the  Mound  Builders,  as  well  as  of 
the  savage  tribes  by  whom  they  were  succeeded,  as  prelim- 
inary to  the  discovery  and  settlement  of  the  country  by 
another  race. 

The  history  of  the  early  voyagers  and  colonists  of  our  con- 
tinent, both  before  and  after  Columbus,  is  made  up  of  inci- 
dents which  have  often  been  wrought  into  connected  narra- 
tives, but  not  in  such  a  manner  as  to  deprive  other  historians 
of  the  power  of  giving  them,  by  a  due  selection  of  circum- 
stances, something  of  a  new  interest.  The  adventures  of 
those  whose  explorations  preceded  the  permanent  settlement 
of  our  territory  during  three  generations  of  mankind  were  of 
a  nature  to  call  into  exercise  qualities  which  command  our  ad- 
miration, —  courage,  perseverance,  patient  endurance  of  hard- 
ship, and  ready  resources  in  times  of  great  emergency.  The 
recital  of  these  adventures  brings  us  down  to  the  period  when 
our  country  began  to  be  peopled  from  the  Old  World,  by 
colonists  establishing  themselves  at  different  points  along  our 
coast,  —  companies  of  men  and  women  seeking  a  home  in  the 
New  World  for  different  purposes,  but  all  of  them  courageous 
and  adventurous,  unapt  to  quail  before  discouragement,  and 
prepared  to  encounter  disaster.  It  was  perhaps  owing  in 
part  to  a  conformity  of  character  in  these  respects,  that,  as 
they  grew  in  population,  these  settlements  coalesced  so  readily 
into  one  nation,  and  presented  so  united  a  front  in  resistance 
to  the  tyrannical  pretensions  of  the  mother  country.  In  giv- 
ing the  history  of  these  colonies,  in  tracing  their  origin  and 
growth,  and  delineating  their  character,  it  will  be  seen  that 
here,  like  the  future  oak  wrapped  up  in  the  acorn,  lay  the 
peculiar  form  of  government  which  distinguishes  our  republic 
among  the  nations,  and  that  from  what  may  be  called  the 


XXIV 


PREFACE. 


accidental  formation  of  these  communities,  small  at  first, 
distant  from  one  another,  and  organized  independently  of  each 
other,  grew  the  composite  structure  of  our  national  polity, 
which  we  regard  as  so  important  to  our  liberties.  The  events 
of  this  period  of  adolescence  and  immaturity  in  our  political 
institutions,  lasting  for  a  century  and  a  half,  must,  of  course, 
be  given  in  a  condensed  form ;  but  this  has  been  done,  it  is 
hoped,  with  sufficient  fulness  to  enable  the  reader  to  see  how 
naturally,  from  the  beginnings  of  which  we  have,  spoken,  arose 
the  confederated  Republic  now  so  great  and  powerful. 

The  attention  of  the  reader,  neither  in  this  part  of  the 
work  nor  elsewhere,  will  be  occupied  with  the  growth  of  our 
population  and  our  political  progress  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
neglect  the  advancement  made  in  the  arts  of  peace  and  the 
refinements  of  life.  The  customs  and  usages  of  past  gen- 
erations, their  modes  of  living  and  ways  of  thinking,  their 
occupations  and  amusements,  their  condition  in  respect  of 
public  and  private  morals,  will  be  found  described  in  these 
pages,  and  a  portraiture  given,  so  far  as  its  true  outlines,  its 
lights  and  shades,  can  now  be  discerned,  of  society  in  the  past. 
The  changes  which  these  at  different  periods  have  undergone 
will  be  carefully  noted. 

The  history  of  the  United  States  naturally  divides  itself 
into  three  periods,  upon  the  third  of  which  we  lately,  at  the 
close  of  our  civil  war,  entered  as  a  people,  with  congruous 
institutions  in  every  part  of  our  vast  territory.  The  first  was 
the  colonial  period  ;  the  second  includes  the  years  which 
elapsed  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  the  struggle 
which  closed  with  the  extinction  of  slavery.  The  colonial 
period  was  a  time  of  tutelage,  of  struggle  and  dependence, 
the  childhood  of  the  future  nation.  But  our  real  growth,  as  a 
distinct  member  of  the  community  of  nations,  belongs  to  the 
second  period,  and  began  when  we  were  strong  enough  to 
assert  and  maintain  our  independence.  To  this  second  period 
a  large  space  has  been  allotted  in  the  present  work.  Not 
that  the  mere  military  annals  of  our  Revolutionary  War  would 
seem  to  require  a  large  proportion  of  this  space,  but  the  vari- 
ous attendant  circumstances,  the  previous  controversies  with 


PREFACE.  xxv 

the  mother  country,  in  which  all  the  colonies  were  more  or 
less  interested,  and  which  grew  into  a  common  cause  ;  the 
consultations  which  followed  ;  the  defiance  of  the  mother 
country,  in  which  they  all  joined ;  the  service  in  an  army 
which  made  all  the  colonists  fellow-soldiers;  the  common 
danger,  the  common  privations,  sufferings,  and  expedients,  the 
common  sorrow  at  reverses  and  rejoicing  at  victories,  require 
to  be  fully  set  forth,  that  it  may  be  seen  by  how  natural  a 
transition  these  widely  scattered  communities  became  united 
in  a  federal  Republic,  which  has  since  rapidly  risen  to  take  its 
place  among  the  foremost  nations  of  the  world,  with  a  popu- 
lation which  has  increased  tenfold,  and  a  sisterhood  of  States 
enlarged  from  thirteen  to  thirty-seven. 

So  crowded  with  events  and  controversies  is  this  second 
part  of  our  history,  and  the  few  years  which  have  elapsed  of 
the  third ;  so  rapid  has  been  the  accumulation  of  wealth  and 
the  growth  of  trade ;  so  great  have  been  the  achievements 
of  inventive  art  and  the  applied  sciences ;  with  such  celerity 
has  our  population  spread  itself  over  new  regions,  and  so 
vehement  have  been  the  struggles  maintained  against  abuses, 
moral  and  political,  that  it  has  not  been  easy  to  give  due  atten- 
tion to  all  of  them,  without  exceeding  the  limits  prescribed 
for  this  work.  But  we  have  aimed  to  preserve  a  due  propor- 
tion in  the  recital  of  events  and  the  analysis  of  causes,  — 
treating  the  most  important  with  a  certain  fulness  of  recital, 
and  passing  rapidly  over  the  rest,  and  in  the  meantime  not 
permitting  ourselves  in  any  part  of  the  work  to  indulge  a 
boastful  vein,  nor  to  overlook  the  faults  and  mistakes,  the 
national  sins  and  wrongs  of  which  we  may  have  been  guilty. 
We  have  endeavored  to  divest  ourselves,  while  engaged  in 
this  task,  of  all  local  prejudices,  and  every  influence  which 
might  affect  the  impartiality  of  the  narrative. 

In  writing  the  history  of  the  only  great  nation  on  the 
globe,  the  beginnings  of  which  are  fully  recorded  in  contem- 
porary writings,  and  for  which  we  are  not  compelled,  as  in 
other  cases,  to  grope  in  the  darkness  of  tradition,  the  authors 
of  this  work  have  ascended  to  the  proper  sources,  the  ancient 
records  themselves.  The  narrative  has  been  drawn  irnme- 


XXVI 


PREFACE. 


diately  from  these  writings,  and  by  them  has  every  statement 
and  date  of  our  early  history  been  verified.  For  the  later 
periods,  the  materials  are  of  course  voluminous  and  circum- 
stantial, even  to  embarrassment.  We  are  not  without  the 
hope  that  those  who  read  what  we  have  written  will  see  in 
the  past,  with  all  its  vicissitudes,  and  with  all  our  own  short- 
comings, the  promise  of  a  prosperous  and  honorable  future, 
of  concord  at  home  and  peace  and  respect  abroad,  and  that 
the  same  cheerful  piety  which  leads  the  good  man  to  put  his 
personal  trust  in  a  kind  Providence,  will  prompt  the  good 
citizen  to  cherish  an  equal  confidence  in  regard  to  the  destiny 
reserved  for  our  beloved  country. 


WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. 


NEW  YORK,  1876. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE   PRE-HISTORIC    MAN. 

PAGE 

MAN  COEVAL  WITH  EXTINCT  ANIMALS.  —  THE  CAVE-PEOPLE. — SCANDINAVIAN 
SHELL-HEAPS.  —  LAKE-DWELLINGS  OF  SWITZERLAND.  —  HABITS  OF  THE  PRIM- 
ITIVE MAN. —  Two  STONE  AGES.  —  RESEMBLANCE  BETWEEN  STONE  KELICS  OF 
TWO  HEMISPHERES.  —  AMERICA  THE  OLDEST  CONTINENT. —  A  ZONE  OF  PYRA- 
MIDS.—  TRADITIONS  OF  A  LOST  CONTINENT.  —  SHELL-HEAPS  IN  UNITED  STATES. 
—  A  PRE-HISTORIC  HUNT  IN  MISSOURI.  —  HCMAN  REMAINS  IN  GOLD-DRIFT  OF 
CALIFORNIA.  —  SUPERIOR  ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA  1 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   MOUND    BUILDERS. 

PROGRESS  IN  CIVILIZATION  OF  NORTH  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  —  PRE-HISTORIC  RACE 
IN  THE  WESTERN  HEMISPHERE.  —  EARTHWORKS  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. — 
Bio  ELEPHANT  MOUND.  —  GARDEN-BEDS.  —  MILITARY  WORKS.  —  TEMPLE  AND 
ALTAR  MOUNDS.  —  RELICS  FOUND  IN  THESE  TUMULI. — ANCIENT  COPPKK- 
MINING  AT  LAKE  SUPERIOR.  —  CONNECTION  BETWEEN  THIS  AND  LATER  CIVILI- 
ZATIONS.—  REMAINS  IN  MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA. — SKULLS  FOUND  IN 
THE  MOUNDS 19 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   NORTHMEN    IN    AMERICA. 

EARLY  VOYAGES.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  ICELAND.  —  GREENLAND  COLONIZED  BY  ERIC 
THE  RED.  —  BJARNI  HERJULFSON  DISCOVERS  AMERICA.  —  SONS  OF  ERIC  THE 
RED.  —  LEIF'S  VOYAGE  TO  VINLAND  THE  GOOD.  —  EXPEDITION  OF  THORVALD. 
—  His  DEATH.  —  COLONY  OF  THORFINN  KARLSEFNE.  —  FIGHT  WITH  SKR.EL- 
LIXGS.  —  SUPPOSED  IRISH  SETTLEMENTS  IN  AMERICA.  —  COLONY  OF  FREYDIS. — 
THE  MASSACRE.  —  GLOOMY  WINTER  AT  VINLAND.  —  ROUND  TOWER  AT  NEW- 
PORT.—  DIGHTON  ROCK. — THE  ICELANDIC  SAGAS  ,  35 


xxviii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

PRE-COLUMBIAN    VOYAGES   WESTWARD. 

ARABIAN  SAILORS  ON  THE  SEA  OF  DARKNESS.  —  WELSH  TRADITION  OF  AMER- 
ICAN DISCOVERY. —  VOYAGE  OF  MADOC,  PRINCE  OF  WALES. —  EVIDENCE  AD- 
DUCED.—  SUPPOSED  TRACES  OF  WELSH  AMONG  DoEQS,  MANDAN8  AND  MoDND 

BUILDERS.  —  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  BROTHERS  /INI — SHIPWRECK  OF  NICOLO 
ZENO  AT  FRISLAXD. —  His  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGRONELAND. —  ADVENTURES  OF  A 
FRISLAND  FISHERMAN. — THE  WESTERN  VOYAGE  OF  PRINCE  ZICHMNI.  —  CHI- 
NESE DISCOVERY  OF  FISANG. —  STATE  OF  NAUTICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 
KNOWLEDGE  BEFORE  COLUMBUS 64 


CHAPTER   V. 

INDIA  —  THE   EL   DORADO   OF   COLUMBUS. 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  CATHAY.  —  EFFORTS  IN  EUROPE  TO  FI>D  A  SEA-WAT  TO 
INDIA. —  PRINCE  HENRY  THE  NAVIGATOR.  —  BIRTH  AND  EARLY  LIFE  OF 
CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.  —  His  DESIGN  OF  A  WESTERN  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA. — 
FAITH  IN  HIS  DIVINE  MISSION.  —  THE  THEORIES  OF  CONTEMPORARY  GEOG- 
RAPHERS.—  His  LIFE  IN  SPAIN.  —  THE  COUNCIL  AT  SALAMANCA.  —  His  FIRST 
VOYAGE. —  His  BELIEF  THAT  HE  HAS  DISCOVERED  INDIA.  —  THE  DELUSION  OF 
HIS  LIFE.  —  His  BRIKF  HONOR  AND  FINAL  DISGRACE 


CHAPTER   VI. 

COLUMBUS,    VESPUCCI,    AND   THE    CABOT8. 

THIHD  VOYAGE  OF  COLUMBUS.  —  His  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MAIN  LAND.  —  THE 
VOYAGE  OF  AMERIGO  VESPUCCI.  —  FIRST  PRINTED  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  NEW 
WOULD.  —  PUBLICATIONS  OF  ST.  DIE  COLLEGE.  —  THE  PRINTER-MONKS, 
WAI.DSEEMULLER  AND  RINGMANN.  —  EXPEDITION  OF  THE  CABOTS  FROM  ENG- 
LAXD.  —  NORTH  AMERICA  DISCOVERED.  —  MAP  OF  SEBASTIAN  CABOT.  —  JOHN- 
CABOT'S  PATENTS  FROM  HENRY  VII.  —  FIRST  ENGLISH  COLONY  SENT  TO  THE 
NEW  WORLD.  —  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  SAILS  DOWN  THE  AMERICAN  COAST  .  .  . 


92 


118 


CHAPTER   VII. 

SPANISH   DISCOVERIES   AND   EXPLORATIONS. 

•. 

DESIGNS    FOR    THE   DISCOVERY    OF   A    NORTHWEST    PASSAGE    TO    INDIA. — THE 

CORTEREAL  VOYAGES.  VASCO    NONEZ   DE   BALBOA  REACHES    THE    PACIFIC 

OCEAN. —  SEARCH  FOR  THE  FOUNTAIN  OF  YOUTH.  —  FLORIDA  DISCOVERED. — 
GULF  OF  MEXICO  SAILED  OVER. —  EXPLORATIONS  ON  THE  ATLANTIC  SEA- 
COAST. —  ESTAVAN  GOMEZ  ON  THE  BORDERS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  EX- 
PEDITION OF  PAMPHILO  DE  NARVAEZ  TO  FLORIDA.  —  ADVENTURES  OF  CABE£A 
DE  VACA.  —  THE  ENTERPRISE  OF  HERNANDO  DE  SOTO.  —  THE  DISCOVERY  op 
THE  MISSISSIPPI  RIVER.  —  DEATH  AND  DRAMATIC  BURIAL  OF  DE  SOTO. — 
RETURN  OF  THE  TROOPS  OF  DE  SOTO. — TRISTAN  DE  LUNA'B  ATTEMPT  TO 
FOUND  A  COLONY ....  ...  139 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FBENCH  DISCOVERIES  AND  ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION. 
BRETON    FISHERMEN  ON  NEWFOUNDLAND  BANKS. —  GIOVANNI    DA    VERRAZANO 

FIRST  ENTERS  NEW  YORK  HARBOR. — JACQUES  CABTIER  SENT  ON  AN  AMER- 
ICAN EXPEDITION.  —  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE  RIVER.  —  CAR- 
TIER'S  VISIT  TO  THE  INDIAN  TOWN  OF  HOCHBLAOA.  —  VOYAGE  OF  FRANCIS 
DE  LA  ROQUE,  LORD  OF  ROBERVAL.  —  THE  HlGULNOTS  SEEK  AN  ASYLUM 
IN  AMERICA. — THE  COLONY  OF  ADMIRAL  COLIGNY. —  JOHN  RIBAULT  GOES 
TO  FLORIDA.  —  SETTING  UP  THE  ARMS  OF  FRANCE.  —  LAUDONNIERE  COMMANDS 
A  SECOND  ENTERPRISE.  —  BUILDING  OF  FOKT  CAROLINE.  —  PROGRESS  OF  THE 
COLONY 17* 


CHAPTER   IX. 

FRENCH    AND   SPANISH    COLONISTS   IN  FLORIDA. 

PLOTS  AGAINST  THE  FRENCH  GOVERNOR  LAUDOXNIERE. —  OPEN  MUTINY  IW 
HIS  COLONY.  —  FIGHT  WITH  INDIANS.  —  VISIT  OF  AN  ENGLISH  FLEET  TO 
PORT  ROYAL. —  ARRIVAL  OF  RIBAULT  WITH  A  FLEET  OF  SEVEN  SHIPS. — 
CRUSADE  OF  PEDRO  MENENDEZ  AGAINST  HERETICS.  —  His  ATTACK  ox  FORT 
CAROLINE. —SLAUGHTER  OF  RIBAULT  AND  HIS  MEN  BY  THE  SPANIARDS. — 
FOUNDING  OF  THE  FIRST  PERMANENT  SETTLEMENT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. — 
INDIGNATION  OF  THE  FRENCH  AT  THE  SPANISH  ATROCITIES. —  DOMINIQUE 
DE  GOURGUES  GOES  TO  FLORIDA. — HE  MAKES  ALLIES  OF  THE  SAVAGES. — 
ATTACK  ON  THE  SPANISH  FORT.  —  THE  BLOODY  RETALIATION.  —  A  SPANISH 
MISSION  ox  THE  RAPPAHANXOCK  .  .  200 


CHAPTER  X. 

ENGLISH  VOYAGES   AND  ATTEMPTS   AT   SETTLEMENT. 

FIRST  IMPULSE  IN  ENGLAND  TOWARD  AMERICAN  COLONIZATION.  —  UNSUCCESS- 
FUL VOYAGES. — THEORIES  OF  A  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE. — VOYAGE  OF  SIR 
HUGH  WlLLOUGHBY  AND  RlCHARD  CHANCELLOR. — FROBISHER  AND  DAVIS 
IN  THE  NORTHWEST.  —  SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT'S  PLAN  FOR  AMERICAN  SET- 
TLEMENTS.—  His  DEPARTURE  FROM  ENGLAND  AND  ARRIVAL  AT  NEWFOUND- 
LAND.—  Loss  OF  SIR  HUMPHREY  ON  HIS  RETURN. — WALTER  RALEIGH  SENDS 

TWO    SHIPS    TO    EXPLORE    IN   AMERICA. HlS    FlRST   COLONY    REACHES    THE 

COAST  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. —TOBACCO  INTRODUCED  INTO  ENGLAND.  —  NEW 
PLANTATION  BEGUN  UNDER  GOVERNOR  JOHN  WHITE.  —  MYSTERIOUS  DIS- 
APPEARANCE OF  THE  SETTLERS.  —  UNSUCCESSFUL  SEARCH  FOR  THE  LOST  COL- 
ONY.—  RALEIGH'S  ATTEMPT  AT  COLONIZATION  ENDED  BY  IMPRISONMENT  .  .  224 


CHAPTER  XI. 

FIRST    ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT   IN   AMERICA. 

GOSNOLD'S  EXPEDITION.  —  PATENT  GRANTED  TO  LONDON  AND  PLYMOUTH  COM- 
PANIES.—  A  COLONY  SETS  OUT  FOR  VIRGINIA.  —  DISCORD  ON  SHIPBOARD. — 
THE  BUILDING  OF  JAMESTOWN. — NEWPORT'S  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  RIVER. — 


xxx 


CONTENTS. 


GOVEKNOKSIIIP  OF  EDWARD  WING  FIELD.  —  DISCONTENT  AND  SUFFERING  AMONG 
THE  COLONISTS.  —  THE  INDIAN  CHIEF  POWHATAN. — ACCOUNTS  OF  SMITH'S 
CAPITKE  BY  THE  SAVAGES.  —  DISCREPANCIES  IN  SMITH'S  OWN  STORY. — 
RETURN  OF  NEWPORT  FROM  ENGLAND. — CORONATION  OF  POWHATAN.  —  SER- 
VICES OF  SMITH  TO  THE  COLONY. — THE  NEW  CHARTER.  —  EXPEDITION  OF 
GATES  AND  SOMERS.  —  THE  TEMPEST  AND  THE  SHIPWRECK. —  OPPORTUNE 
.  COMING  OF  LORD  DE  LA  WAKRE.  —  CODE  OF  LAWS  FOR  THE  COLONY.  — 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  GATES  AND  DALE.  —  CULTIVATION  OF  TOBACCO.  —  MAR- 
RIAGE OF  POCAHONTAS.  —  SANDYS  AND  YEARDLEY.  —  THE  COLONY  FIRMLY 
ESTABLISHED.  —  WHITE  AND  BLACK  SLAVERY.  —  THE  FlKST  AMERICAN  LEGIS- 
LATURE :  .  262 


CHAPTER  XII. 

COLONIZATION   UNDER   THE   NORTHERN   COMPANY. 

THE  SEA-COAST  OF  MAINE. —  THE  EARLY  FISHERMEN.  —  FRENCH  TRADERS. — 
PONTGRAVE  AND  PODTHINCOURT.  —  GEORGE  WfiYMOUTH's  VOYAGE.  —  COLONY 
OF  CHIEF  JUSTICE  POPHAM.  —  SAMUEL  CHAMPLAIN  IN  NEW  YORK.  —  SETTLE- 
MENT ON  MT.  DESERT. —  ARGALL'S  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  FRENCH  COLONY. — 
JOHN  SMITH  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. — EXPEDITIONS  OF  FERDINANDO  GORGES. — 
.SECOND  CHARTER  OF  THE  PLYMOUTH  COMPANY.  —  NOVA  SCOTIA  GIVEN  TO  SIR 
WILLIAM  ALEXANDER. —  GRANT  OF  THE  PLYMOUTH  COMPANY  TO  GORGES. — 
FIRST  TOWNS  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  AND  MAINE. — THE  BREAKING  UP  OF  THE 
PLYMOUTH  COMPANY.  —  CHARACTER  OF  GORGES 


308 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

DUTCH    EXPEDITIONS   TO   NORTH    AMERICA.  —  SETTLEMENT   OF 

NEW   AMSTERDAM. 

COMMERCIAL  ENTERPISE  AND  PROSPERITY  OF  THE  DUTCH. —  THEIR  INTEREST 
IN  A  SHORT  ROUTE  TO  INDIA.  —  EARLY  NORTHEAST  VOYAGES. — HENRY  HUD- 
SON EMPLOYED  BY  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY. —  His  FlRST  VOYAGE  TO  AMER- 
ICA.—  ENTRANCE  INTO  NEW  YORK/'BAY  AND  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  HUDSON 
RIVER.  —  His  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  —  VOYAGE  TO  HUDSON'S  BAY.  —  THE 
DUTCH  ESTABLISH  TRADING-POSTS  AT  MANHATTAN  ISLAND.  —  DUTCH  WEST 
INDIA  COMPANY  CHARTERED. —  EMIGRATION  OF  WALLOONS.  —  SETTLEMENTS 
ON  SITES  OF  ALBANY  AND  NEW  YORK  CITY  ....  .  333 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE   PURITANS. 

THE  PURITANS  UNDER  JAMES  I. —  SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  ENGLISH  AT 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  —  THE  SEPARATISTS  OF 
NORTH  NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. — BREWSTER  AND  THE  EPISCOPAL  RESIDENCE  AT 
SCROOBY.  —  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  PURITANS.  —  THEIR  ATTEMPTS  TO  ESCAPE 
FROM  ENGLAND.  —  LONG  EXILE  IN  HOLLAND. —  MOTIVES  FOR  A  PROPOSED 
REMOVAL  TO  AMERICA.  —  PETITION  TO  KING  JAMES.  —  NEGOTIATIONS  WITH 
THE  DUTCH. — EMBARKATION  OF  THE  PILGRIMS  AT  DELFT-HAVEN.  —  FINAL 
DEPARTURE  OF  THE  "MAY  FLOWER"  FROM  ENGLAND.  —  ARRIVAL  AT  CAPE 
COD.  —  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT  ADOPTED.  —  EXPLORATIONS  ALONG  THE  COAST.  — 
SITE  KOR  A  COLONY  SELECTED.  —  CONFUSION  OF  FACTS  AND  DATES  AS  TO  THE 
LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH.  —  THE  FIRST  WINTER. —  SUFFERINGS  AND  DEATHS  .  370 


CONTEXTS.  xxxi 

CHAPTER   XV. 

* 

THE   PILGRIMS  AT   PLYMOUTH. 

THE  COMING  OF  FRIENDLY  INDIANS.  —  SAMOSET  AND  SQUANTO. —  CAPTAIN 
DERMER'S  PREVIOUS  VISIT  TO  PLYMOUTH. —  STANDISH'S  VISIT  TO  BOSTON 
HARBOR.  —  REINFORCEMENTS  FROM  ENGLAND. — THE  FIRST  CHRISTMAS  AT 
PLYMOUTH.  —  HOSTILE  MESSAGE  FROM  THE  NARRAGANSETTS. —  ARRIVAL  OF 
WESTON'S  COLONISTS. — THEIR  SETTLEMENT  AT  WESSAGUSSET. —  AN  INDIAN 
CONSPIRACY.  —  STANDISH'S  EXPEDITION  AND  THE  PLOT  DEFEATED.  —  THE 
GRIEF  OF  PASTOR  ROBINSON.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  ROBERT  GORGES.  —  FIRST  ALLOT- 
MENT OF  LAND  IN  PLYMOUTH. — JOHN  PEIRCE'S  PATENT. — THE  LYFORD  AND 
OLDHAM  CONSPIRACY.  —  THEIR  BANISHMENT. —  BREAKING  UP  OF  THE  LONDON 
COMPANY.  —  THE  PILGRIMS  THROWN  ON  THEIR  OWN  RESOURCES.  —  THE  FISH- 
ING STATION  AT  CAPE  ANN.  —  ENCOUNTER  BETWEEN  CAPTAIN  STANDISH  AND 
MR.  HEWES.  —  THE  DORCHESTER  SETTLEMENT  AT  CAPE  ANN.  —  CONANT'S 
CHARGE  OF  IT,  AND  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  NAUMKEAG.  —  SETTLEMENTS  ABOUT 
BOSTON  HARBOR.  —  MORTON  OF  MERRY  MOUNT.  —  STANDISH'S  ARREST  OF 
MORTON 400 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION. 

THE  ORDER  OF  PATRONS  ESTABLISHED  IN  NEW  NETHERLAND.  —  DIVISION  AND 
MONOPOLY  OF  LANDS.  —  THE  COMPANY  OVERREACHED  BY  THE  PATROONS.  — 
MASSACRE  OF  THE  COLONISTS  OF  SWAANENDAEL.  —  WOUTER  VAN  TWILLER 
APPOINTED  GOVERNOR.  —  WEAKNESS  AND  ABSURDITIES  OF  HIS  ADMINISTRA- 
TION. —  SUPERSEDED  BY  WILLIAM  KIEFT.  —  POPULAR  MEASURES  OF  THE 
COUNCIL  AT  AMSTERDAM. — PURCHASE  OF  LANDS  FROM  PATROONS. — INCREASE 
OF  IMMIGRATION.  —  PROMISE  OF  PROSPERITY  TO  THE  COLONY.  —  PORTENTS 
OK  COMING  CALAMITIES.  —  A  COUNCIL  OF  TWELVE  APPOINTED 429 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

WAR   WITH   THE   INDIANS.  —  THE    SWEDES   ON   THE  DELAWARE. 

CHANGE  OF  POLICY  TOWARD  THE  INDIANS.  —  KIEFT'S  CRUEL  AND  STDPID 
OBSTINACY.  —  MASSACRE  OF  INDIANS  BY  THE  DUTCH  AT  PAVONIA.  —  RETALI- 
ATIONS BY  THE  NATIVES.  —  MURDER  OF  THE  HUTCHINSON  FAMILY  AT  ANNIE'S 
HOECK.  —  DISASTROUS  CONDITION  OF  THE  COLONY.  —  APPEAL  OF  THE  PEOPLE 
OF  NEW  AMSTERDAM  TO  THE  STATES  GENERAL.  —  END  OF  THE  WAR. —  KIEFT 
REMOVED  FROM  OFFICE.  —  TERRITORIAL  ENCROACHMENTS  OF  RlVAL  COL- 
ONIES.  —  THE  ENGLISH  AT  THE  EAST.  —  A  SWEDISH  SETTLEMENT  ON  THE 
DELAWARE.  —  FORT  CHRISTINA.  —  THE  SWEDISH  GOVERNOP,  JOHN  PRINTZ  .  .  450 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

VIRGINIA   AND   MARYLAND. 

JEALOUSY  OF  JAMES  I.  OF  THE  VIRGINIA  COMPANY. —  EARL  OF  SOUTHAMPTON 
ELECTED  TREASURER. — PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLONY.  —  MASSACRE  OK  1622. — 
DISSENSIONS  IN  THE  LONDON  COUNCIL. —CHARTER  OF  THE  COMPANY  TAKEN 
AWAY. —  RAPID  SUCCESSION  OF  GOVERNORS  OF  THE  COLONY.  —  LORD  BAL- 


XXX11 


CONTENTS. 


TIM. >KK,  AND  HIS  VISIT  TO  VIRGINIA.  —  CHARTER  OF  MARYLAND.— CECIL 
CALVERT'S  COLONY.  —  ITS  LANDING  IN  MARYLAND  — THE  FIRST  TOWN. — 
ST.  MARY'S  BLUFF.  —  PURCHASE  FROM  THE  INDIANS.  —  THE  FIRST  CATHOLIC 
CHAPEL.  —  FRIENDLY  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  INDIANS 476 


CHAPTER   XIX. 


MARYLAND    UNDER    LEONARD    CALVERT. 

THE  COLONY  FIRMLY  PLANTED. —  HOSTILITY  OF  THE  VIRGINIANS. —  DISPUTE 
WITH  CLAYBORNE.  —  ENGAGEMENT  BETWEEN  CLAYBORNE  AND  COHNWALLIS. — 
GOVERNOR  HARVEY  DEPOSED  AND  SENT  TO  ENGLAND. —  MEETINGS  OF  THE 
MARYLAND  ASSEMBLY.  —  TROUBLE  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  DISSENSIONS  BE- 
TWEEN PAPISTS  AND  PURITANS. —  REVOLUTION  IN  ENGLAND.  —  A  PARLIA- 
MENTARY SHIP  SEIZED  IN  MARYLAND.  —  CLAYBORNE'S  RECOVERY  OF  KENT 
ISLAND.  —  His  RULE  IN  MARYLAND.  —  RESTORATION  OF  BALTIMORE.  —  DEATH 
OF  GOVERNOR  CALVERT.  —  MISTRESS  MARGARET  BRENT  ....  .  499 


CHAPTER  XX. 

MASSACHUSETTS   BAY. 

FRESH  EMIGRATION  TO  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  A  NEW  CHARTER.  —  ARRIVAL  OF 
HlGGINSON  AND  SKELTON.  —  THE  FlRST  CHCRCH  AT  SALEM.  —  THE  CASE  OF 
JOHN  AND  SAMUEL  BROWNE.  —  THEY  ARE  ORDERED  BACK  TO  ENGLAND  BY 
ENDICOTT.  —  THE  COUNCIL'S  REBUKE.  —  PROPOSED  TRANSFER  OF  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT OF  THE  COLONY  TO  NEW  ENGLAND. — PROBABLE  MOTIVES  OF  THE 
COUNCIL  IN  PROCURING  THE  PATENT.  —  THE  CAMBRIDGE  CONFERENCE. — 

WlNTHROP    CHOSEN    GOVERNOR.  DEPARTURE    FOR    NEW    ENGLAND.  —  His 

FAREWELL  ADDRESS  TO  ENGLISH  CHURCHMEN.  —  OLDHAM  AND  BRERETON'S 
PATENTS. —  SETTLEMENTS  IN  AND  ABOUT  BOSTON.  —  OLD  SETTLERS  ABOUT 
THE  BAY.  —  THE  COMING  OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS.  .  .- 517 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

NEW    ENGLAND    COLONIES. 

LAWS,  ECCLESIASTICAL  AND  POLITICAL.  —  JOHN  ELIOT'S  WORK  AMONG  THE 
INDIANS. —  JOHN  COTTON  ARRIVES  IN  BOSTON.  —  THE  RED  CROSS  IN  THE 
KING'S  BANNER.  —  PERSECUTION  AND  BANISHMENT  OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS. — 
THE  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  RHODE  ISLAND.  —  SETTLERS  FROM  PLYMOUTH  ON 
THE  CONNECTICUT  RIVER.  —  JOHN  WINTHROP,  JR.,  FIRST  GOVERNOR  OF  CON- 
NECTICUT.—  HOOKER'S  EMIGRATION  TO  HARTFORD.  —  ANNE  HUTCHINSON  AND 
HER  DOCTRINES.  —  MURDER  OF  JOHN  OLDHAM.  —  BEGINNING  OF  THE  PF.QUOD 
WAR  ....  .  .538 


' 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS,  VOLUME  I. 


STEEL    PLATE. 
Title.  Engraver.  To/ace 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS S.  Hollyer  .     .     Title 

From  Herrera''s  History  of  America. 

FULL-PAGE    ENGBA VINOS. 

To  face 
Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  page 

SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH .  .       1 

After  the  painting  attributed  to  Federigo  Zuccero. 

A  PRE-HISTORIC  MAMMOTH  HUNT      .  E.  Bayard  .     .     .  Hildibrand      .  .     16 

MOUNDS  NEAR  MARIETTA,  OHIO      .     .  J.  D.  Woodward  .  Meeder  &  Chubb  .     24 
COLUMBUS   BEFORE  THE    COUNCIL  AT 

SALAMANCA E.  A.  Abbey    .     .  J.  Miller      .     .  .108 

SEARCH  FOR  THE  FOUNTAIN  OF  YOUTH  .  E.  Buyard  .     .     .  Ch.  Barbant    .  .   146 

RIBAULT'S  PILLAR  ON  THE  RIVER  MAY  .  W.  L.  Sheppard  .  J.  Earst      .     .  .  196 

THE  LOST  COLONY W.  L.  Sheppard  .  W.  J.  Linton  .  .  254 

SITE  OF  GOSNOLD'S  FORT      ....  A.  Bierstadt    .     .  W.  H.  Morse  .  .  264 

From  a  picture  in  the  possession  of  Miss  Emma  Hathaway,  Boston. 

LAKE  CHAMPLAIN T.  Moran    .     .     .  E.  Bookhout  .  .  320 

THE  SABBATH  ON  CLARK'S  ISLAND     .  G.  H.  Boughton  .  W.  J.  Linton  .  .  392 

From  a  picture  in  the  possession  of  Robert  Hoe,  New  York. 
LANDING    OP    SWEDES  AT    PARADISE 

POINT T.  Moran    .     .     .  J.  A.  Bogert  .  466 

GEORGE  CALVERT,  LORD  BALTIMORE .  .  435 

After  a  copy,  in  the  possession  of  the  Maryland  Historical  Society,  of  the 
painting  by  Daniel  Mytens. 


xxxiv  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

THE  MULBERRY  TREE  AT  ST.  MARY'S 

POINT T.  Moran  .  .  .  Robert  Varley  .  496 

ENDICOTT  CUTTING  THE  CROSS  FROM 

THE  KING'S  BANNER E.  A.  Abbey     .     .  J.  G.  Suiithwick  542 

* 
ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  TEXT. 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

PRIMEVAL  AMERICA Runge Winham        .     .       1 

LONG-HAIRED  ELEPHANT " "  .    .      2 

CARVING    ON    BONE    (Long-haired   Ele- 
phant)     Hosier      ....  McDonald     .     .       3 

CARVING  ON  BONE  (Group  of  Reindeer)       " "  .     .      3 

LAKE-DWELLER'S  VILLAGE  (Restored  by 

Keller) •• Miller       .     .  4 

SAVAGE  OF  THE  STONE  AGE   ....  Runge      ....  Karst  ....      5 

STONE  IMPLEMENTS Hosier      ....  Walker    ...       6 

Flint  Awl.  —  Swiss  Stone  Axe.  —  Spear 
Head.  —  Stone  Celt.  —  Stone  Scra- 
per. —  Bone  Awl.  —  Stone  Dagger. 

EARLIEST  POTTERY " McDonald     .     .      6 

DRINKING-CUP " "  .    .      7 

THE  AGE  OF  ICE Runge      ....  Miller       ...      8 

BRONZE  IMPLEMENTS Hosier      ....  McDonald     .     .       9 

Celt.  —  Bronze  Hair-pin  (Swiss). — 
Bronze  Razor  Knife-blade  (Dennak). 

—  Bronze  Knife-blade  (Danish). 

SCULPTURED  STONE " McDonald    .    .      9 

LAKE-DWELLER'S  LOOM " Miller  ....     10 

ARROW-HEADS  FROM  DIFFERENT  COUN- 
TRIES           " Karst  ....     11 

Ireland.  —  France.  —  North    America. 

—  Terra  del  Fuego.  —  Japan. 

A  ZONE  OF  PYRAMIDS " Karst  ....  12 

Egypt.  —  Central  America.  —  India.  — 
North  America. 

DR.  KOCH'S  ARROW-HEAD " McDonald     .     .  17 

EARTHWORKS  IN  OHIO " Karst  ....  20 

ANIMAL  MOUNDS " McDonald     .     .  22 

BIG  ELEPHANT  MOUND " "           .    .  22 

TEMPLE  MOUND  IN  MEXICO     ....  " Miller.*  ...  26 

ALTAR  MOUNDS '' McDonald     .    .  27 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


xxxv 


Title.  Designer. 

POTTERY  PROM  MOUNDS 

STONE  AND  COPPER  RELICS  FROM  MOUNDS  .  Hosier     .... 
Axe. —  Bracelets. —  Stone  Arrow  Points. 

—  Stone  Axe.  —  Bronze  Knife. 
COPPER    IMPLEMENTS    RECENTLY    DIS- 
COVERED IN  WISCONSIN 

From  photographs  of  specimens  in  collection  of  Wisconsin  His- 
torical Society.     Selected  from  photographs  taken  under  the 
direction  of  Lyman  C.  Draper  and  J.  D.  Butler. 
Adzes.  —  Arrow-heads.  —  Chisel.  — 

Knife.  —  Awl.  —  Spear-head. 

POTTERY  AND  SUPPOSED  IDOLS    RECENTLY  FOUND   WITH 
HUMAN  REMAINS  IN  BURIAL  MOUNDS  IN  SOUTHEAST  MlS- 

8OURI 

From  photographs  taken  under  the  direction  of  A.  J.  Conant  of 
St.  Lnuis. 

MINING  TOOLS Hosier     .... 

CARVED  PIPES 

SCULPTURED  HEADS 

Mound  Builders.  —  Central  America. 

CLOTH  FROM  MOUNDS 

DISCOVERY  OF  GREENLAND A.  R.  Waud      .     . 

FLOKKO  SENDING  OUT  RAVENS       ...  ... 

NORSE  SHIPS  ENTERING  BOSTON.  HARBOR  .    .    . 

BURIAL-PLACE  OF  THORVALD    ....  ... 

NORSK  RUINS  IN  GREENLAND    ....  Hosier     .... 

SCOUTS  RETURNING  TO  THK  SHIP       .     .  A.  R.  Waud     .    . 

ESQUIMAUX  SKIN-BOAT Hosier     .... 

LEIF'S  BOOTHS A.  R.  Waud      .    . 

NEWPORT  TOWER Hosier     .    .    . 

CHESTERTON  MILL .... 

DIGHTON  ROCK .... 

STEUBENVILLE  ROCK ... 

THE  SEA  OF  DARKNESS A.  R.  Waud  . 

WELSH  BARD 

DAVID,  PRINCE  OF  WALES 

From  Powell's  History  of  Cambria. 

MADOC  LEAVING  WALES A.  R.  Waud .     . 

WELSHMAN Hosier 

MANDAN  BOATS 

From  Catlin's  North  American  Indians. 

WELSH  CORACLE A.  R.  Waud     . 

MANDAN  INDIAN Hosier 

SHIPWRECK  OF  NICOI.O  ZENO    .     .     .     .  A.  R.  Waud 


Engraver. 

Karst      . 
Eustmead 


Bobbett 


Roberts . 


McDonald 
Eastmead 
Juengling 

McDonald 
Miller  . 
Anthony 
Linton  . 
Anthony 
Nugent  . 
Anthony 
Speer  . 
Anthony 
Miller  . 
Roberts  . 
Eastmead 
Roberts  . 
Anthony 
Bookhout 
Eastmead 

Linton  . 
Miller  . 
Karst 

Miller      . 
it 

Anthony 


Page. 

28 
29 


30 


31 


30 
32 
32 

33 
35 
37 
43 
45 
46 
48 
51 
55 
59 
60 
61 
61 
64 
67 
68 

69 
71 
73 

74 
75 
77 


XXXVI 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.                                              Designer.                     Engraver.  Page. 

GREENLAND  GEYSER Hosier      ....  Juengling    .  .     79 

AZTEC  CITY A.  R.  Waud      .    .  Miller     ...     82 

CHINESE  JUNK Hosier      ....      "         ...     86 

THE  "FAR  CATHAY"       T.  Moran      .    .    .  Linton    ...     92 

ASTROLABE Hosier      ....  Karst      ...     96 

PRINCE  HENRY  THE  NAVIGATOR Nichols  ...    97 

From  General  Collection  of  Voyages  and  Discoveries  by  Span- 
ish and  Portuguese,  London,  1789. 

SHIP  OF  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  ....  Hosier      ....  Eastmead    .  .  100 

THE  CHRIST-BEARER Aikens   .    .  .  102 

Front  a  Map  of  Juan  de  la  Cosa. 

COLUMBUS  ON  SHIPBOARD A.  R.  Waud     .     .  Bobbett .    .  .  105 

ISABELLA,  QUEKN  OF  CASTILE Nichols  .     .  .  109 

THE  FLEET  OF  COLUMBUS Hosier Miller     .    .  .  110 

RECEPTION  BY  SOVEREIGNS A.  R.  Waud .     .     .  Anthony     .  .  115 

COLUMBUS  ENTERING  THE  ORINOCO      .                       ...                     .  .  119 

COLUMBUS  IN  CHAINS G.  G.  White     .    .  Varley  .     .  .120 

AMERIGO  VESPUCCI Nichols       .  .122 

From  a  portrait  in  Herrera's  Historia  General  de  las  Indias. 
VESPUCCI  AT  THE  CONTINENT 123 

From  De  Bry's  Duae  Navigationes  Amend  Vespucci,  1619. 

PRINTING  OK  VESPUCCI'S  BOOK     .     .     .  G.  G.  White      .    .  Anthony     .  .  125 

JOHN  CABOT  IN  LONDON Sheppard      ...  Karst     .     .  .  135 

SEBASTIAN  CABOT Nichols  .     .  .  138 

From  the  N.   Y.  Historical  Society's  copy  of  the  original  by 

Holbein. 

FAC-SIMILE  OF  SIGNATURE  OF  AMERIGO  VESPUCCI  ....  McDonald  .  .138 

From  Verhagen. 

CORTEREAL  AT  LABRADOR T.  Moran  ....  Bogert    .     .  .  140 

VASCO  NUNEZ  ON  SHIPBOARD        .    .     .  E  A.  Abbey      .    .  Bobbett .    .  .  143 

THE  SOUTH  SEA A.  R.  Waud     .     .  Varley   .    .  .144 

FIRST   EMBARKATION    ON   THK   SOUTH 

SEA "           ...  Bogert    .     .  .145 

JUAN  PONCE  DE  LEON        Miller     .     .  .  147 

From  a  portrait  in  He.rrera's  Historia  General  de  las  Indias. 

STRAITS  OF  MAGELLAN A.  R.  Waud      .    .  Hitchcock  .  .  150 

CLAVOS  AND  ESCLAVOS Sheppard      .     .     .  Varley    .    .  .152 

RETURN  TO  THE  BEACH "        ....  Bogert    .     .  .  154 

UPSET  IN  THE  SURF "        ....  Andrew  .     .  .  155 

DE  SOTO Nichols  .     .  .157 

From  a  portrait  engraved  for  the  Bradford  Club,  of  New  York. 

THE  MUSTER  AT  SAN  LUCAR    .    .     .     .  E.  A.  Abbey     .     .  Varley   .    .  .158 

SACRIFICE  OF  JUAN  ORTIZ Sheppard      .     .    .  Miller     .    .  .159 

THE  INDIAN   QUEEN "             ...  Bobbett.     .  .  162 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxxvii 

Title.                                               Designer.                       Engraver.  Page. 

PALISADED  TOWN Hosier Miller     .  .  .  163 

From  De  Bry't  Brevis  Nairatio,  1591. 

FLEET  OF  THE  CACIQUE A.  R.  Waud     .    .  Bogert    .  .  .165 

BURIAL  OF  DB  SOTO "          ...       "        ...  168 

DEPARTURE  OF  THE  SPANIARDS    ...  "          ...       "        ...  170 

FISHING  FLEET  AT  NEWFOUNDLAND.     .  T.  Moran      .     .     .  Miller     .  .  .174 

PORTRAIT  OF  GIOVANNI  DA  VERRAZANO Nichols  .  .  .  1 76 

INDIANS  MAKING  A  CANOE Hosier      ....  Varley    .  .  .177 

From  De  Bry's  Admiranda  Narratio,  1590 

VERRAZANO  IN  NEWPORT  HARBOR     .    .  A.  R.  Wau<l      .     .  Bogert    .  .  .179 

JACQUES  CARTIER Nichols   .  .  .180 

From  the  portrait  in  Histoire  de  la  Colonie  Francaise  en  Canada. 

SETTING  UP  THE  ARMS  OF  FRANCE  .     .  Bayard     ....  Hildibrand  .  .182 

DONNACONA'S  STRATEGY "            ...  Laplante  .  .  184 

CARTIER  AT  HOCHELAGA E.  A.  Abbey     .    .  Varley    .  .  .186 

CARTIER'S  DEPARTURE  FROM  ST.  MALO    A.  R.  Waud      .    .  Bogert    .  .  .  188 

FRENCH  COSTUMES  (16th  Century) .     .     .  W.  Waud     .     .     .  Langridge  .  .189 

ENTERING  THE  ST.  JOHN  RIVER    .    .    .  T.  Moran      .    .     .  Bogert    .  .  .191 

BUILDING  THE  PINNACK A.  R.  Waud     .     .  Fay    .    .  .  .195 

FORT  CAROLINE Hosier      ....  Roberts  .  .  .  198 

From  De  Bry's  Brevix  Narratio,  1591. 

ARREST  OF  THE  PIRATES E.  Bayard    .    .     .  Laplante  .  .  201 

FIGHT  WITH  INDIANS "       ....  .  .  203 

PEDRO  MENENDEZ Nichols  .  .  .  205 

From  Shea's  Charlevoix's  New  France. 

RESCUE  OF  LAUDONNIERE E.  Bayard    .     .     .  Laplante  .  .  208 

MASSACRE  OF  RIBAULT "         ...         "  .  .  211 

LAYING  OUT  OF  ST.  AUGUSTINE    .     .     .  Sheppard      .     .     .  Anthony  .  .  213 

DKATH  OF  THE  SENTINEL E.  Bayard     .     .     .  Barbant  .  .217 

THE  FRENCH  FIFER A.  R.  Waud      .     .  Anthony  .  .  223 

WILI.OUGHBY'S  SHIPS  IN  ARCTIC  SEAS     A.  R.  Wau.l     .     .  Bogert    .  .  .228 

FROBISHER'S  DEPARTURE  ......                "                    .  Kin<*  .  230 

O 

SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT Nichols  .  .  .232 

VIEW  ON  COAST  NEAR  TORQUAY  .     .     .  A.  R.  Waud     .     .  Bogert    .  .  .233 

DARTMOUTH  HARBOR "         ...        "       ...  234 

SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT  READING  HIS 

COMMISSION Fredericks   .     .     .  Bobbett  .  .  .237 

WRECK  OF  THE  "DELIGHT"     .     .    .    .  A.  R.  Waud    .     .  Anthony  .  .  238 

SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH       Nichols  .  .  .240 

From  a  portrait  in  Prince's  Worthies  of  Devon. 

LANDING  ON  THE  ISLAND T.  Moran     .     .     .  Anthony  .  .  242 

LORD  AND  LADY  OF  SECOTAN  ....  Hosier      ....  Winham  .  .  244 

From  De  Bry's  Admiranda  Narratio,  1590. 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH  OF  ENGLAND Walker  .  .  .  245 

From  an  original  by  Zuccero  in  Lodge's  Portraits. 


xxxvm  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.  Designer,  Engraver.  Page. 

SIGNATURE  OK  RALPH  LANE McDonald    .    .  246 

AN  INDIAN  VILLAGE Hosier Aikens     .     .     .  248 

From  De  Bry's  Admiramla  Narratio,  1590. 

TOBACCO  PLANT "        ...  250 

BARTHOLOMEW  GILBERT'S  DEATH  .     .  Sheppard.    .     .    .  Linton     .     .     .  260 

SIGNATURE  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH 261 

SIGNATURE  OF  SIK  WALTER  RALEIGH 261 

ENTRANCE  TO  CHESAPEAKE  BAY     .     .  T.  Moran  ....  Meeder    .    .     .  262 

PROVINCETOWN A.  R.  Waud  .     .     .  McCracken  .     .  263 

JAMES  I Nichols     .     .     .268 

From  a  portrait  in  Goodman's  History  of  Court  of  James  I. 
JOHN  SMITH "        ...  269 

From  Smith's  Map  in  his  General  History  of  Virginia. 
Fac-simile. 

NEWPORT'S  EMBARKATION Sheppard  ....  Varley     .     .     .  271 

DEPOSITION  OF  WINGFIELD      .    .     .     .  E.  A.  Abbey .    .     .  Bobbett   .     .    .  277 
JOHN  SMITH  TAKEN  PRISONER Richardson  .     .  280 

From  Smith's  General  History.     Fac-simile. 
POCAHONTAS    SAVING  LlFE   OF  SMITH "  .      .    282 

From  Smith's  General  History.     Fac-simile. 
POWHATAN    AND    HIS    WlVES "  .      .    284 

From  Smith's  General  History.     Fac-simile. 

CORONATION  OF  POWHATAN     ....  Sol  Eytinge  .     .     .  J.  P.  Davis  .     .  288 
TAKING  KING  OF  PAMUNKEY  PRISONER Richardson  .     .  290 

From  Smith's  General  Hit/ory. 

SIGNATURE  OF  SIR  THOMAS  GATES 292 

SIGNATURE  OF  WILLIAM  STRACHEY 292 

WRECK  OF  THE  "SEA  ADVENTURE"      .  A.  R.  Waud     .    .  King    ....  293 

SIGNATURE  OF  GEORGE  PERCY 295 

SIGNATURE  OF  LORD  DE  LA  WARRE 296 

ARRIVAL  OF  DE  LA  WARRE    ....  Sheppard      .     .     .  Smithwyck  .     .  297 

THE  IDLE  COLONISTS Fredericks    .     .    .  Bobbett    .     .     .  299 

POCAHONTAS Hosier Eastmead      .     .  303 

PRESENTATION    OF     POCAHONTAS    AT 

COURT     . Sol  Eytinge  .    .    .  J.  P.  Davis  .    .  304 

SIGNATURE  OF  JAMES  1 307 

INDIANS  AT  A  PORTAGE Sheppard       .     .     .  W.  J.  Linton    .  308 

SAMUEL  DE  CHAMPLAIN Hosier      ....  Aikens     .     .    .  312 

From  portrait  in  CEuvres  de  Champlain,  Quebec,  1870. 

SIGNATURE  OF  CHAMPLAIN 313 

THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  KENNEBEC  .     .     .  W.  Waud    .     .     .  W.  J.  Linton    .  315 

INDIANS  IN   LONDON Cary Varley    .     .     .317 

MEETING    OF    NAHANADA    AND     SKIT- 

WARROES Sheppard    .     .     .  Bogert    .     .     .  318 

SETTING  DOGS  ON  THE  INDIANS  ...          "  ...        "         ...  320 

GREAT  HEAD T.  Moran    .     .     .  Bookhout     .     .  323 

BAR  HARBOR  "  .  Hitchcock         .  324 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxxix 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

SOMES'S  SOUND T.  Moran  .     .     .  Anthony        .     .  325 

AKGALL'S  ATTACK  ON  THE  FRENCH     .    Sheppard  .     .     .  Gray    .     .     .     .326 

COD-FISHING Perkins      .     .     .   Andrew     .     .     .  328 

RICHARD  VINES  AT  CKAWFORD  NOTCH  Waud    ....  Anthony  .     .     .  330 

SIGNATURE  OF  FERDINANDO  GORGES 332 

VIEW  AT    THE   MOUTH    OF   THE   Pis- 

CATAQUA T.  Moran  .     .     .   Varley ....  334 

MEDAL  [Time  of  Charles  V.]  ....  Hosier  ....  Aikens  .  .  .  340 
DUTCH  SHIPPING  [16th  Century]  .  .  .  A.  R.  Waud  .  .  Varley  .  .  .  342 
BARENTZ  AT  NOVA  ZEMBLA  ....  "  .  .  Bookhout .  .  .  344 

HUDSON'S    ATTACK    ON    THE     INDIAN 

VILLAGE Sol  Eytinge     .     .   Andrew     .     .     .  349 

THE  APPROACH  TO  THE  NARROWS  .     .  E.  Perkins      .     .  King    ....  350 

ROBYN'S  RIFT A.  R.  Waud  .     .   Anthony  .     .     .  352 

VERDRIETIG  HOECK J.  D.  Woodward  .  Morse  ....  353 

LIMIT  OF  HUDSON'S  VOYAGE  ....  "          .     .   Annin  ....  354 

NAHANT T.  Moran  .     .     .  Bookhout  .     .     .  359 

BLOCK  ISLAND A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Hoey     ....  360 

UPPER  WATERS  OF  THE  DELAWARE    .  W.  H.  Gibson     .  Harley       .     .     .  362 

TRADING  SCOUTS A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Richardson     .     .  363 

FIRST  SETTLEMENT  AT  ALBANY  ...  *'  .     .  French      .     .     .  366 

EARLIEST  PICTURE  OF  NEW  AMSTEU- 

.  DAM Hosier  ....  McDonald      .     .  368 

From  a  map  of  the  period. 

FIRST  SEAL  OF  PLYMOUTH  COLONY Maurice    .     .     .  370 

VIKW  OF  SCROOBY  VILLAGE  ....  Warren  .  .  .  Gray  ....  372 
FIRE-PLACE  IN  16TH  CENTURY  ...  "  ...  French  .  .  .  373 
SITE  OF  SCROOBY  MANOR  .....  "  ...  "  ...  374 

SIGNATURE  OF  WILLIAM  BREWSTER 375 

ATTEMPTED  FLIGHT  OF  PURITANS  .  .  Fredericks  .  .  Bobbett  .  .  .  377 
CHURCH  AT  AUSTERFIELD,  BRADFORD'S 

BIRTHPLACE Hosier  ....  Karst   ....  380 

LEYDEN Woodward      .     .  Juengling.     .     .  384 

DELFT-HAVEN Hosier  ....  Karst   ....  386 

PLYMOUTH  HARBOR,  ENGLAND    .     .     .  T.  Moran  .     .     .  Varley 387 

HARBOR  OF  PROVINCETOWN  .  .  .  .  A.  R.  Waud  .  .  Harley  .  .  .388 
THE  LANDING  ON  CAPE  COD  ....  "  .  .  Langridge  .  .  390 

SIGNATURE  OF  MILES  STANDISH 391 

RELICS    FROM    THE     "MAYFLOWER"   Hosier.     .     .     .  Juengling.     .     .  395 

John  Alden's  Bible.  —  William  Clark's 

Mug  and  Wallet,  etc. 
LANDING  OF  JOHN  ALDEN  AND  MARY 

CHILTON Abbey  ....  Varley       .     .     .396 

STONE  CANOPY  OVER  PLYMOUTH  ROCK  Hosier  .     .          .   Bookhout  .          .  397 


xl  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.  Deriyner.  Enyraver. 
FIRST  BURIAL  PLACE  NEAR  THE  LAND- 
ING    Gibson ....  McCracken    .     .  398 

GOVERNOR  CARVER'S  CHAIR  ....  Hosier  ....  McDonald  .  .  399 
VISIT  OF  SAMOSET  TO  THE  COLONY  .  A.  R.  Waud  .  .  J.  P.  Davis  .  .  400 

SIGNATURES    TO    PLYMOUTH    PATENT 403 

CHRISTMAS  REVELLERS Fredericks      .     .  Bobbett     .     .     .  404 

BURIAL  HILL Hosier  ....  Miller  ....  406 

SWORD  OF  MILES  STANDISH 408 

SIGNATURE  OF  WILLIAM  BRADFORD 410 

SITE    OF    FIRST    CHURCH    AND    GOV- 
ERNOR BRADFORD'S  HOUSE      .     .     .  A.  R.  Waud  .     .  French      .     .     .411 

SIGNATURE  OF  EDWARD  WINSLOW 413 

EXPULSION  OF  OLDHAM Abbey  ....  Langridge      .     .415 

BARRICADE  AT  CAPE  ANN  ....  "  ...  French  .  .  .  418 
STANDISH'S  POT  AND  PLATTER  .  .  .  Hosier  ....  Maurice  .  .  .419 

SPINNING  WHEEL "         ...  Karst  ....  422 

FESTIVITIES  AT  MERRY  MOUNT  .    -.     .  Fredericks     .     .  Bobbett    .     .     .  425 

PLYMOUTH  ROCK Hosier  ....   Richardson    .     .  428 

AMSTERDAM W.  Waud .     .     .  Langridge      .     .  429 

SEAL  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND 430 

DUTCH  COSTUMES W.  Waud .     .     .  Langridge      .     .  431 

TRADING  FOR  FURS A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Bogert.     .     .     .  434 

INDIAN    TAKING    DOWN   THE    ARMS  OF 

HOLLAND '•  .     .         "         ...  436 

PORTRAIT  OF  DE  VRIES Bross    ....  437 

From  a  photograph  of  an  old  print  in  1st  edition  of  De  Vries's  Voyages. 
VAN  TWILLER'S  DEFIANCE      ....  Fredericks      .     .  Bobbett     .     .     .  438 
DE  VRIES  ON  THE  EAST  RIVER  .     .     .  A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Bookhout .     .     .  439 

DUTCH  WINDMILL 442 

GOVERNOR'S  HOUSE  AND  CHURCH  .  .  Hosier  ....  McDonald  .  .  442 
THE  OBSTINATE  TRUMPETER  ....  Fredericks  .  .  Bobbett  .  .  .  443 
LANDING  OF  DUTCH  COLONY  ON 

STATEN  ISLAND A.  R.  Waud  .     .  J.  P.  Davis    .     .447 

SELLING  ARMS  TO  THE  INDIANS       .     .  "  .     .  Langridge      .     .  450 

DE  VRIES  IN  THE  ICE A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Morse  ....  453 

DINNER  AT  VAN  DAM'S M.  A.  Hallock     .  Anthony   .     .     .  454 

INDIAN  FUGITIVES  FROM  PAVONIA  .  .  Fredericks  .  .  Bobbett  .  .  .  455 
MASSACRE  OF  ANN  HUTCHINSON  .  .  Sheppard  .  .  .  Richardson  .  .  457 

THE  BINNENHOF Hosier  ....   Hitchcock      .     .  459 

MARCH  AGAINST  THE  INDIANS  IN  CON- 
NECTICUT   Winslow  Homer.  W.  J.  Linton       .  461 

HALL  OF  THE  STATES  GENERAL  .  .  Hosier  ....  Avery  ....  463 
SMOKING  THE  PIPE  OF  PEACE  .  .  .  Sheppard  .  .  .  Bogert ....  464 
COSTUMES  OF  SWEDES W.  Waud .  .  .  Langridge  .  .467 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


xli 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Pag*. 

EARLY  SWEDISH  CHURCH Hosier  ....  Cocheu     .     .     .469 

PRINTZ  AND  THE  SAILOR Sheppard  .     .     .  Bogert.     .     .     .472 

TAKING  WARNING  TO  JAMESTOWN  .     .  Warren     ,     .     .  J.  P.  Davis    .     .  480 

DESERTED  SETTLEMENT W.  H.  Gibson    .  Harley  ....  483 

SCENERY  IN  THE  CHESAPEAKE      .     .     .   T.  Moran  .     .     .  W.  J.  Linton     .  485 

HENRIETTA  MARIA Bross   .     .     .     .  48< 

From  Lodge's  portraits. 

CECIL  CALVERT  [From  an  old  print] ...  489 

COWES  IN  THE  ISLE  OF  WIGHT  .     .     .  Woodward     .     .  Bogert ...     .490 

LANDING  OF  THE  COLONY Fredericks     .     .  Bobbett     .     .     .492 

GOVERNOR  CALVERT  AND  THE  INDIAN 

CHIEF Sheppard  .     .     .  J.  P.  Davis    .     .  493 

ST.  GEORGE'S  ISLAND T.  Moran .     .     .  Anthony   .     .     .495 

THE  BLUFF  AT  ST.  MARY'S     ....  "  .     .        "  .     .  496 

RETURN  FROM  A  HUNT Woodward     .     .  Meeder     .     .     .497 

MARYLAND  SHILLING     .     .     • 4" 

CLAYBORNE'S  TRADING-POST  ON  KENT 

ISLAND A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Richardson     .     .  500 

FIGHT  BETWEEN  CLAYBORNE  AND  CORN- 

WALLIS "  •     •   Bookhout  .     .     .  502 

EXCITEMENT  AT  JAMESTOWN  ....  Fredericks     .     .  Bobbett    .     .     .  503 

CLAYBORNE'S  PETITION '*  .     •  .     .  507 

INDIAN  ATTACK  ON  AN  OUTLYING  PLAN- 
TATION   Sheppard  .     .     .  Harley .     .     .     .509 

CHANCELLOR'S    POINT    FROM    ST.   INI- 

GOE'S T.  Moran  .     .     .  Varley .     .     .        512 

CHURCH  NEAR  THE  SITE  OF  THE  FIRST 

JESUIT  CHAPEL "  .     .  W.  J.  Linton .     .   513 

FAC-SIMILE  OF  MS.  RECORDS 515 

SHAWMUT Woodward     .     .  Meeder      .     .     .517 

PORTRAIT  OF  ENDICOTT Nichols     .     .     .  520 

SIGNATURE  OF  ENDICOTT • 521 

THE  OLD  PLANTER'S  HOUSE Roberts     .     .     .  522 

COLONIAL  RELICS Hosier  ....  French      .     .     .  523 

Endicott's  Sundial,  etc. 
SEAL    OF    MASSACHUSETTS    BAY    COM- 
PANY      Hosier 525 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  WINTHROP,  SENIOR Nichols      .     .     .  527 

SIGNATURE  OF  WINTHROP 527 

COLONIAL  FURNITURE Lathrop    .     .     .  Marsh  ....  530 

COLONIAL  RELICS "         ...       "       ....  531 

OLD  HOUSE,  BOSTON,  ENGLAND  .     .     .  Hosier  ....  Miller  ....  533 

MAP  OF  BOSTON  HARBOR 534 

SIGNATURE  OF   ROGER  WILLIAMS  .534 


xlii 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

FIRST  CHURCH,  SALEM Hosier  ....  Juengling  .     .        535 

SIGNATURE  OF  JOHN  COTTON 540 

ST.  BOTOLPH'S  CHURCH,  BOSTON,  ENG- 
LAND    .*.•.. Hosier.     .     .     .  Karst   .     .     .     .541 

ROGER  WILLIAMS'S  HOUSE,  SALKM Bobbett     .     .     .  545 

ROGER  WILLIAMS  BUILDING  HOUSE Anthony   .     .     .  546 

SITE  OF  FORT  GOOD  HOPE A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Annin  ....  548 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  WINTHROP,  JUNIOR Bross    ....  550 

TEARING  DOWN  THE  DUTCH  ARMS    .     .  Sheppard .     .     .  Bogert      .     .     .  550 

SIGNATURE  OF  LORD  SAY  AND  SEAL 551 

HOOKER'S    EMIGRATION    TO    CONNECTI- 
CUT   Slieppard  .     .     .  Bogert       .     .     .  552 

HENRY  VANE 553 

TRIAL  OF  ANN  HUTCHINSON     ....  Abbey  .     .     ,     .  Marsh  ....  555 
RECAPTURE  OF  OLDHAM'S  VESSEL    .     .  A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Langridge     .     .  557 


LIST   OF  MAPS. 


Titlt.  Page. 

MAP  OF  CAPE  Con  AND  NAWSET  ISLE 41 

THE  ZENI  MAP ~ 84 

GLOBE  OF  MARTIN  BEHAIM,  1492 103 

SEBASTIAN  CABOT'S  MAP,  1544 132 

MAP  OF  VIRGINIA 243 

From  Harlot's  Relation. 

MAP  OF  CAPE  COD      .    , 2G4 

MAP  OF  PLYMOUTH  HARBOR 394 

MAP  OF  NKW  ENGLAND 519 

Fac-simile.     From  Smith's  General  History. 


WALTER    RALEIGH. 
(From  the  jwtralt  attributed  to  f'ederigo  Zuccero.) 


Primeval  America. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   PRE-HISTORIC  MAN. 

MAN  COETAL  WITH  EXTINCT  ANIMALS.  —  THE  CAVE-PEOPLE.  —  SCANDINAVIAN  SHELL- 
HEAPS. —  LAKE-DWELLINGS  OF  SWITZERLAND.  —  HABITS  OF  THE  PRIMITIVE  MAN. — 
Two  STONE  AGES.  —  RESEMBLANCE  BETWEEN  STONE  RELICS  OF  Two  HEMISPHERES. 
—  AMERICA  THE  OLDEST  CONTINENT.  —  A  ZONE  OF  PYRAMIDS. — TRADITIONS  OF 
A  LOST  CONTINENT.  —  SHELL-HEAPS  IN  UNITED  STATES.  —  A  PRE-HISTORIC  HUNT 
IN  MISSOURI.  —  HUMAN  REMAINS  IN  GOLD-DRIFT  OF  CALIFORNIA.  —  SUPERIOR  AN- 
TIQUITY OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

THE  period  and  the  conditions  of  the  early  existence  of  man  have, 
within  the  last  half  century,  been  the  subject  of  fresh  and  interesting 
investigation.  The  recognition  of  human  relics  in  certain  geological 
relations  has  established  the  fact  that  there  once  prevailed  in  Europe 
a  barbarism  essentially  like  that  belonging  to  the  lower  type 

t  f  .  im  .  ,  „.        Antiquity  of 

or  savages  or  our  own  time.     This  primeval  state  of  man  in  man  in  EU- 

that  portion  of  the  world  existed  too  long  ago  to  be  included 

within  the  historic  period  ;  and,  so  far  as  careful  observation  has  been 

made,  similar  evidence  of  the  antiquity  of  the  race  is  found  in  the 
VOL.  i.  i 


2 


1HE   PRE-HISTOIUC   MAN7. 


[CHAP.  I. 


imperishable  signs  of  human  habitation  and  the  rude  arts  of  savage 
life  in  all  other  parts  of  the  globe. 

Northern  Europe  at  one  period  was  buried  in  an  Arctic  winter  for 
many  centuries.  On  the  summits  of  lofty  mountain  ranges,  great 
glaciers  of  ice  and  snow  were  piled,  which  advanced  by  slow  degrees, 
and  covered  land  and  sea.  When  at  length  this  long  and  dreary 
period  drew  toward  its  close,  the  glaciers  receded,  and  the  earth  be- 
came habitable,  then,  although  a  period  of  intense  cold  was  long  con- 
tinued, there  appeared  many  great  and  strange  animals,  now  known 

only  by  their  fossil 
remains.  Among 
them,  wandering  in 
herds  over  the  region 
which  afterwards  was 
shaped  into  the  pres- 
ent continent  of  Eu- 
rope, feeding  upon 
the  vegetation  of  a 
virgin  world,  were 
the  elephant,  with 
long  hair  and  mane, 
a  rhinoceros  clad  in 
fur,  a  gigantic  elk 
ten  feet  in  height, 
with  antlers  measur- 
ing eleven  feet  from  tip  to  tip,  the  cave-bear,  the  cave-lion,  and  other 
ferocious  beasts  after  their  kind,  hiding  themselves  and  their  prey  in 
dens  and  caverns.  In  caves  and  gravel  drifts  in  France,  in  Belgium, 
and  in  England,  man  has  left  the  indubitable  witnesses  of  his  life,  in 
association  with  the  bones  of  these  extinct  animals,  of  which  whole 
races  perished  while  he  survived  through  periods  of  successive  sub- 
mersions and  upheavals  of  land,  of  floods  from  slowly  receding  gla- 
ciers, of  alterations  in  climate  due,  perhaps,  to  the  changing  relative 
positions  of  the  earth  to  the  sun,  perhaps  to  the  relative  areas  of  land 
and  sea  in  different  portions  of  the  globe  at  different  periods. 

These  people  who  first  appeared,  or  the  first,  at  least,  who  are 
known  to  have  appeared,  in  Europe,  were  mere  naked  sav- 
ages with  an  instinct  to  kill  and  to  eat,  to  creep  under  a  rock 
as  a  shelter  from  the  cold  and  the  rain  ;  who  in  the  course  of  time 
learned  that  fire  would  burn  and  cook,  that  there  was  warmth  in  the 
skin  of  a  beast,  that  a  sharpened  stone  would  kill  and  would  scrape 
much  better  than  a  blunt  one.  From  generation  to  generation  they 
lived  and  died  in  the  caves  where  they  have  left  the  evidences  of  their 


Long-haired  Elephant. 


The  caye- 

Ulrn. 


REMAINS  IN   SHELL-HEAPS. 


Carving  on  Bone.     (Long-haired  Elephant.) 


existence ;  and  it  is  a  curious  and  interesting  mark  of  their  progress 
that  some  of  these  troglodytes  in  the  south  of  France  made  tolerable 
carvings  in  bone  and 
drawings  of  various 
animals  upon  horns 
and  tusks  of  ivory. 
Pictures  of  the  long- 
haired elephant  and 
of  groups  of  reindeer 
show  the  possession 
of  that  artist  -  sense 
which  seems  as  pe- 
culiar to  and  inher- 
ent in  man  as  the  power  to  laugh  and  the  faculty  of  articulate  speech ; 
and  they  prove  also  that  these  artists  were  familiar  with  the  animals 
they  sketched,  of  which  one  is  known  to  the  modern  world  only  by 
its  fossil  remains,  and  another,  though  still  extant,  is  able  to  live  only 
in  latitudes  of  extreme  cold. 

On  the  coast  of   Denmark   there   are  immense   shell-heaps  called 

Kj  okken-Moddings — kitchen 
middings  or  kitch-   Remsinflill 
en-refuse  -  heaps  —  sheii-heaps. 

differing  little,  if  at  all,  from 
similar  heaps  on  other  coasts, 
all  over  the  world,  except 
that  they  have  been  dug 
into,  turned  up,  sifted,  stud- 
ied, inch  by  inch,  atom  by 

atom,  with  that  sagacity,  pa- 
Caving  on  Bone.     (Group  of  Reindeer.)  ^^  &nd  milmtene88  which 

distinguish  modern  science.  In  these  are  found,  mingled  with  stone  im- 
plements, bones  of  various  beasts  and  birds  and  shells  of  different  fish, 
the  bones  of  a  certain  species  of  grouse,  —  a  bird  known  to  have  fed 
upon  the  buds  of  the  pine  tree.  But  the  pine  tree  does  not  grow,  and 
has  not  grown  within  the  historic  period,  in  Denmark.  It  is  found, 
however,  in  the  peat-bogs,  thirty  feet  beneath  the  present  surface  of 
the  soil.  Above  these  buried  pines  are  the  trunks  of  the  oak  and  white 
birch  that  followed  the  pine  forests,  flourished  for  centuries,  and  then 
in  their  turn  died  out.  On  the  upper  surface  of  the  bogs  grows  the 
beech,  the  common  forest  tree  of  Denmark  now,  as  it  has  been  so  far 
back  as  either  history  or  tradition  goes.  Thus  forest  after  forest  of  dif- 
ferent species,  to  which  the  climate  and  the  soil  were  adapted,  has  come 
and  gone  since  the  people  of  the  Kjokken-Moddings  fed  upon  this  bird, 
the  capercailzie,  which  lived  upon  the  buds  of  those  buried  pines. 


THE  PRE-HISTORIC   MAN. 


[CHAP.  I. 


Nor  are  these  men  of  the  caves  and  of  the  Kjokken-Moddings  the 
only  representatives  of  the  ancient  race  or  races  who  left  their  relics 
in  their  actual  habitations.  In  the  years  1853-54,  two  successive  dry 
seasons  reduced  the  waters  of  the  lakes  of  Switzerland  to  a  lower  point 
than  was  ever  known  before.  It  was  discovered,  first  by  accident  and 
afterward  by  careful  search,  that  dwellings  built  upon  piles  had  once 


Lake-dweller's  Village.     (Restored  by  Keller.) 

stood  in  these  lakes  near  their  shores.  Continued  systematic  and  pa- 
tient examination  of  the  sites  of  these  habitations  proves  that  some  of 
them  belonged  to  an  ancient  people,  and  that,  as  their  relics  show, 
they  lived  in  them,  from  century  to  century,  from  the  earliest  appear- 
ance of  man  down,  probably,  to  the  historic  period. 

With  these  last  discoveries  the  case  seems  complete.  In  the  dark 
caves  of  various  regions,  for  whose  possession  these  early  men  doubt- 
less contended  with  the  cave-lion,  the  cave-bear,  and  the  cave-hyena ; 
by  the  sea-shore  in  the  Kjokken-Moddings  of  Denmark;  in  the  huts 
of  the  Lake  region  where  they  put  water  between  themselves  and  all 
danger  from  wild  beasts  or  other  enemies,  their  history  is  read  in  the 
simple  implements  of  the  infancy  and  childhood  of  the  race. 

When  the  human  creature  learned  that  he  could  avail  himself  of ' 

his  hands  in  a  way  and  with  an  intelligent  purpose  to  which 
of  the  prim-  no  other  animal  had  attained,  and  of  which  mere  paws  and 
claws  seemed  incapable,  his  first  use,  probably,  of  that  dis- 
covery was  to  hurl  a  stick  or  a  stone  at  an  enemy  or  a  wild  beast  in 


IMPLEMENTS  OF  THE   STONE  AGE. 


5 


defence  or  attack.  Observation  and  experience  would  soon  lead  him 
to  some  contrivance  better  than  a  mere  missile,  and  to  combine  the 
stick  and  the  stone  into  an  artificial  weapon.  So,  also,  from  bruising 
or  crushing  with  a  pebble,  the  transition  is  equally  natural  to  a  rude 


Savage  of  the  Stone  Age. 

hammer  or  hatchet,  —  the  stone  prepared,  in  some  way,  to  receive  a 
handle,  or  sharpened  at  one  end  to  an  edge,  so  that  a  blow  could  be 
struck  to  break  or  cut  with  careful  limitations.  In  the  first  period  of 
this  early  age,  therefore,  when  man  is  supposed  to  have  begun  to  learn 
that  he  had  the  faculty  of  invention  which  might  make  him  superior 
to  all  other  animals,  are  found  the  first  rude  weapons  and  implements, 
arrow-heads  and  spear-heads,  knives,  hatchets,  hammers,  and  tools 
sharpened  to  edges  of  different  shapes  and  for  various  purposes,  all 
made  of  stone  or  bone,  but  all  only  roughly  chipped,  unground,  and 
unpolished. 

It  must  have  taken  generations,  it  may  have  taken  centuries,  before 
even  this  much  of  culture  was  secured  by  the  man,  whose  wants  were 
few,  whose  intellect  was  as  feeble  as  the  intellect  of  a  modern  child, 
but  whose  mere  brute  force  of  muscular  strength  and  whose  power  of 
endurance  were  probably  so  great  as  alone  to  suffice,  for  the  most 
part,  to  satisfy  all  his  wants.  Certainly,  as  the  relics  he  has  left  be- 
hind him  show,  a  long  time  elapsed  before  he  much  improved  his  con- 
dition. Slowly  and  gradually  he  added  to  the  number  of  his  tools,  and 
improved  upon  their  shape  and  capability.  Among  the  most  common 


6 


THE  PRE-HL5TORIC  MAN. 


[CHAP.  I. 


of  these  improved  implements  is  what  the  antiquary  calls  a  celt  — 
celtis,  a  chisel  —  and  which  may  have  been  used  either  as  a  chisel,  a 
hatchet,  or  an  adze  ;  he  contrived  a  scraper,  with  which  he  cleaned 


Fig.  1,  flint  awl.    2,  Swiss  stone  axe. 


Stone  Implements. 

3,  spear-head.    4,  stone  celt,    b,  stone  scraper.    6,  bone  awl. 
7,  atone  dagger. 


the  adhering  flesh  from  the  skins  of  the  beasts  he  killed  ;  he  invented 
bodkins  and  needles  of  bone,  to  pass  through  them  the  sinews  that 
served  for  thread  when  he  made  clothing  of  these  skins;  and  he  fash- 
ioned harpoons  for  fishing.  To  his  offensive  weapons  lie  added  dag- 
gers ;  his  axe  he  improved  in  size  and  shape;  and  he  cut  jagged  teeth 
in  long  flakes  of  flint  for  saws.  Such  of  these  implements  as  were  for 

use  once  or  twice  only  in  war  or  in  the 
chase,  or  for  rough  and  infrequent  purposes, 
he  left  still  rudely  chipped. 

But  with  the  exercise  of  the  inventive 
power  came  the  sense  of  beauty,  the  con- 
sciousness of  increased  effectiveness  in  the 
perfection  of  a  tool,  and  perhaps  the  de- 
velopment of  a  new  satisfaction  in  the  per- 
manent possession  of  personal  property  of 
his  own  creation.  Then  he  was  no  longer 
Earliest  Pottery.  content  with  the  rough  pebble  that  he 

picked  up  on  the  beach,  but  sought  for  better  material ;  he  studied  the 
grain  and  the  cleavage  of  different  flints  and  obsidians  ;  bestowed  time 


• 


THE    PRIMITIVE   MAN. 

• 

and  much  labor  upon  the  perfecting  of  his  implements ;  contrived  new 
and  more  convenient  handles  :  gave  grace  and  outline  to  their  shapes  ; 
ground  their  edges  to  keen  sharpness,  and 
polished  them  with  studious  care.  So  in 
the  lapse  of  centuries  he  attained  at  length 
to  the  age  of  Polished  Stone.  With  it 
come  the  first  evidences  of  the  manufac- 
ture of  a  rude  pottery,  learned,  perhaps, 
by  some  observant  savage  from  the  acci-  «mg-cuP. 

dental  baking  of  clay,  who  conceived  therefrom  a  better  drinking- 
cup,  or  vessel  to  hold  his  food,  than  a  clam-shell  or  the  hollow  of  his 
hand.1 

From  all  the  varied  relics  of  the  man  of  the  early,  and  so  far  as 
is  yet  known  the  earliest  epoch,  the  ethnologist  has  deduced  Hjgmo4eof 
that  he  was  of  small  brains,  retreating  forehead,  projecting  Ufe- 
jaws,  low  in  intellect,  but  of  great  strength  of  bone  and  muscle, 
which  enabled  him  to  encounter  and  overcome  the  formidable  dangers 
of  his  time.  He  lived  near  the  sea-shore  or  on  the  banks  of  lakes 
and  rivers,  from  which  he  drew,  in  part,  his  subsistence.  A  hunter 
and  fisherman,  compelled  to  a  constant  struggle  for  bare  subsistence, 
he  did  not  at  first  cultivate  the  earth,  and  it  is  doubted  if  even  he 
bestowed  much  labor  upon  gathering  the  fruits  and  vegetables  which 
irature  unassisted  might  have  afforded  him.  His  food  was  flesh  ;  the 
incisors  of  the  jaws  that  have  been  found  are,  like  those  of  the  Esqui- 
maux of  the  present  day,  worn  smooth,  and  it  is  surmised  that,  like 
that  people,  he  preferred  to  eat  raw — perhaps  because  he  was  slow  in 
learning  how  to  cook  —  the  flesh  of  the  animals  he  killed.  His  front 
teeth  did  not  overlap  as  ours  do,  but  met  one  another  like  those  of  the 
Greenlanders,  and  he  could  therefore  the  more  easily  tear  and  gnaw 
the  flesh  from  the  bones.2  Sometimes  on  the  bones  of  children,  as  well 
as  of  adults,  the  marks  of  such  human  teeth  have  been  observed,  and 
it  is  supposed  that  failing  other  food,  he  fed,  not  only  upon  his  enemies 
whom  he  killed  in  battle,  but  upon  those  whom  he  could  only  be  led 
to  eat  by  the  extremity  of  hunger  or  the  mere  fondness  for  human  flesh. 
But  he  was  not  always  a  cannibal,  or  at  least  the  testimony  to  this 
propensity  is  not  always  present  among  the  other  evidences  of  his  way 
of  life.  The  skins  of  the  beasts  he  killed  in  the  chase  or  trapped, 
perhaps  served  for  tents,  and  no  doubt  for  clothing ;  their  flesh  and 
the  marrow  of  their  bones,  for  which  he  seems  to  have  had  a  special 
fondness,  were  his  food.  These  skins  he  dressed  with  his  unpolished 
stone  scraper,  shaped  them  with  his  stone  knife,  sewed  them  with 

1  See  Tylor,  Lubbock,  Lyell,  Vogt,  Dawkins,  Gustaldi,  Busk,  Keller,  Figuier,  et  al. 

2  Pre-historic  Times.    By  Sir  John  Lubbock. 


8 


THE  PRE-HISTORIC  MAN. 


[CHAP.  I. 


threads  of  sinews  in  needles  of  bone.  A  flatness  or  compression  of 
the  shin-bone,  differing  from  the  shape  of  the  tibia  of  civilized  man, 
is  sometimes  found,  which  permitted,  it  is  suggested,  of  a  disposition 
of  the  muscles  peculiarly  adapted  to  men  living  by  hunting  in  a  rough 
and  mountainous  country.1  He  found  a  shelter  at  first  in  natural 
caves,  and  in  huts  of  the  simplest  construction,  partly  because  the  con- 
vulsions of  nature,  however  gradual  they  may  have  been,  were  still 
too  frequent  and  too  tremendous  to  admit  of  any  pretermission  of  the 
struggle  with  the  elements  by  which  alone  he  could  maintain  exist- 
ence ;  or  to  leave  any  leisure  for  the  development  of  the  architectural 
faculty. 

To  the  beginning  of  that  remote  and  long  continued  epoch  has 
been  given  the  name  of  the  Stone  Age,  because  then  men 
had  only  learned  to  fashion  from  the  pebbles  they  picked  up 
at  their  feet,  a  rude  weapon  for  warfare  or  a  ruder  imple- 
ment for  domestic  use.  And  this  era  of  the  childhood  of  the  race  is 
divided  into  two  periods,  the  Unground  Stone  Age  (Palaeolithic),  and 
the  Ground  Stone  (Neolithic)  Age.  But  the  dividing  line  between 


The  Age  of  Ice. 


1  See  Broca  upon  the  Ossemens  des  Azies ;  Busk  on  Human  Remains,  etc.,  in  the  Cave* 
of  Gibraltar.  Report  of  the  International  Congress  of  Pre-historic  Archaeology,  1868 ; 
Dawkius'  Cave  Hunting,  London,  1874. 


THE  LAKE-DWELLERS. 


these  two  periods  is  so  vague  and  uncertain  that  it  is  thought  by 
some  impossible  to  define  it  in  any  other  way  than  by  the  recurrence 
of  a  second  glacial  era  when  all  Europe  was  wrapped  in  an  Arctic 
winter,  and  buried  in  Arctic  ice,  probably  for  hundreds  of  years.1 

At  any  rate  a  long  period  passed  away  before  these  rude  men 
learned  to  grind  and  polish  the 
stones  which  at  first  they  only 
chipped,  and  it  is  doubted  if 
their  stone  axes  were  pierced  to 
receive  a  handle  till  working  in 
metals  in  later  times  had  taught 
them  a  method  for  the  process. 
For  the  Stone  Age  overlapped 
the  Bronze,  and  even  when  they 
had  come  to  know  how  to  smelt 
copper  and  had  learned  that 
nine  parts  of  that  metal  to  one 
of  tin  would  make  a  combina- 
tion hard  enough  for  a  useful 
tool,  or  sword,  or  spear,  they 
long  held  to  their  old  imple- 
ments of  stone,  no  doubt,  be- 


Fig.  1,  celt. 


Bronze  Implements. 
2,  bronze  hair-pin  (Swiss). 


IP 


3,  bronze  razor 
knife-blade  (Deuuak).    4,  bronze  knife-blade  (Danish.) 

cause  of  the  cost  of  material  and  slow  growth  of  skill.     But  when  man 
began  to  smelt  ores  he  began  to  make  history ;  and  there  is  a  visible 

connection  between  the  Bronze  Age  and  our 
own,  in  traditions,  oral  and  written,  in  in- 
scriptions upon  sculptured  stones,  in  picture- 
writing  in  temples  and  on  ancient  monu- 
ments. 

The  Lake-dwellers,  however,  though  some 
of  them  were  in  the  condition  of  the  earliest 
Stone  Age,  were  generally  of  that  more  re- 
cent period  when  the  continent  had  settled 
into  its  present  form  ;  their  population  was 
numerous  enough  to  gather  into  communi- 
ties sufficient  for  the  felling  of  trees  with 
their  stone  axes ;  these  trees,  sharpened  with 
the  aid  of  fire,  they  drove  into  the  muddy 
bottoms  of  the  lakes  as  piles  for  the  support 
of  the  platforms  of  their  houses.  With  their  relics,  in  beds  three  feet 
in  thickness,  the  accumulation  of  centuries,  are  found  the  first  evi- 
dences of  agriculture  and  horticulture.  Among  the  charred  remains 

1  The  Great  Ice  Age ;  and  its  Relation  to  the  Antiquity  of  Man.    By  James  Geikie.    1874. 


Sculptured  Stone. 


10 


THE  PRE-HISTORIC  MAN. 


[CHAP.  L 


Lake-dweller's  Loom. 


of  their  villages,  which  seem  to  have  often  been  destroyed  by   fire, 

are  wheat,  barley,  and  linseed,  ap- 
i-  pies  and  pears  cut  in  halves  as  if 
for  winter  use,  the  seeds  of  straw- 
berries, raspberries,  elderberries,  blackber- 
ries, loaves  of  bread,  fragments  of  woven 
cloth.1  But  the  earlier  men  of  the  caves, 
and  probably  of  the  Kjokken-Moddings,  hact" 
reached  to  no  such  point  of  culture.  Nor 
was  it  till  he  had  attained  to  the  Age  of 
Polished  Stone  that  man  domesticated  ani- 
mals. With  the  implements  of  that  time 
are  found  also  the  bones  of  the  dog,  the  hog, 
the  horse,  the  ox,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  ani- 
mals made  useful  for  labor  as  well  as  for 
food.2 

The  earliest  of  these  peoples  inhabited 
Europe  at  that  remote  period,  when,  as  geologists  believe,  the  lands 
now  called  Italy  and  Spain  were  joined  to  Africa,  and  in 
the  place  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  were  only  a  few  land- 
locked basins  ;  when  the  British  Islands,  as  far  north  as  the 
Shetlands,  were  a  part  of  the  continent  ;  when  the  present  bottom  of 
the  North  Sea  was  a  low,  wide  plain  covered,  probably,  by  magnifi- 
cent forests,  through  which  the  Rhine,  with  the  Elbe  and  the  Thames 
as  its  tributaries,  wound  its  way  to  discharge  its  waters  at  length  into 
the  ocean  north  of  Scandinavia  ;  and  when  the  western  boundary  of 
Europe  was  far  out  in  the  Atlantic  beyond  the  present  coasts  of  Ire- 
land and  France,  extending  in  an  unbroken  line  from  the  Arctic  Ocean 
to  Africa. 

Was  this  primeval  savage,  as  his  story  is  thus  read  in  the  relics  he 
has  left  behind  him  in  imperishable  stone,  a  man  of  a  dark  or  a  white 
skin  ?  In  what  tongue  did  he  speak  ?  Was  he  the  ancestor  of  any  of 
the  cultivated  European  races  of  to-day?  To  these  questions  there  is 
no  satisfactory,  perhaps  no  possible,  answer.  We  only  know  that  his 
condition  was  evidently  not  unlike  that  of  the  dark-skinned  barbarians 
of  our  own  time,  and  that  there  is  no  record  in  history  of  a 
white  race  at  so  low  a  point  of  culture.  There  is,  apparently, 


Geologic 
changes  in 
Europe. 


among  ^od-  no  trace  of  his  lineage  in  any  living  European  race,  unless 
it  be  in  the  small,  black-eyed,  dark-haired,  swarthy  people 
of  the  Basque  provinces  of  France,  of  Ireland  west  of  the  Shannon, 
and   of  the   mountains  of   Wales,   who,   it   is   supposed,  may   have 


1  Keller's  Lake  Dwellings.     Desor'a  Lacustrine  Constructions. 

2  Cave  Hunting,  Researches  on  the  Evidences  of  Caves,  etc.     By  W.  Boyd  Dawkins. 


SIMILARITY   IN   SAVAGE   RELICS.  11 

descended  from  Neolithic  ancestors.1  Otherwise  he  either  perished 
in  the  course  of  nature,  like  many  species  of  plants  and  animals  of 
former  eras,  or  was  exterminated  by  a  stronger  and  wiser  people, 
migrating  from  the  East,  who  came  with  weapons  of  bronze  in  their 
hands,  bringing  with  them  that  germ  from  which  has  grown  the  civili- 
zation of  Europe  and  America. 

It  is  a  curious  and  interesting  inquiry  what  bearing  this  new-found 
evidence  of  the  antiquity  of  man  has  upon  the  question  of  the  origin 
of  the  first  inhabitants  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  and  of  the  time  of 
their  first  appearance.  There  is  a  remarkable  resemblance  in  the 
relics  of  all  pre-historic  races,  as  there  is  a  similarity  in  the  rude  works 
of  art  of  barbarous  people  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  in  all  ages. 
So  great  is  this  resemblance,  that,  it  is  said,  a  skilful  observer  of  stone 
implements  could  not,  from  an  unticketed  heap,  tell  within  thousands 


Arrow-heads  from  different  Countries. 
Fig.  1,  Ireland.    2,  France.    3,  N.  America.    4,  Terra  del  Fuego.    5,  Japan 

of  years  or  thousands  of  miles  when  and  where  they  were  made.2  It 
is  only  by  their  positions  and  the  relations  in  which  they  are  found, 
that  it  is  possible  to  assign  to  them 


to  the  condition  of  the  people  to  whom  they  once  belonged.  But  as 
they  are,  in  certain  positions  and  relations,  accepted  as  proving  the 
antiquity  of  man,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  in  one  half  the  world, 
where  they  may  be  as  plentiful  as  in  the  other  half,  they  are  without 
any  such  significance.  However  puzzling  it  may  be  to  distinguish 
between  the  stone-hatchet  or  arrow-head  of  the  modern  Indian  and 
that  dropped  by  some  earlier  savage  before  the  Indian  possessed  the 
land,  it  is  possible  that  such  a  distinction  may  yet  be  clearly  estab- 
lished. 

"  First-born  among  the  continents,"  says  Agassiz,  "  though  so  much 
later  in  culture  and  civilization  than  some  of  more  recent 
birth,  America,  so  far  as  her  physical  history  is  concerned,  of'Smer^an 
has  been  falsely  denominated  the  New   World.     Hers  was  ' 
the  first  dry  land  lifted  out  of  the  waters,  hers  the  first  shore  washed 

1  See  W.  Boyd  Dawkins,  in  Cave  Hunting,  and  in  Fortnightly  Review,  September,  1874, 
who,  on  this  point,  follows  Dr.  Tliumam  and  Professor  Huxley. 
*  Tylor's  Early  History,  etc.,  p.  206. 


12 


THE  PRE-HISTORIC  MAN. 


[CHAP.  I. 


by  the  ocean  that  enveloped  all  the  earth  beside ;  and  while  Europe 
was  represented  only  by  islands  rising  here  and  there  above  the  sea, 
America  already  stretched  an  unbroken  line  of  land  from  Nova  Scotia 
to  the  Far  West."  1 

If  then  an  antiquity  of  the  human  race,  till  recently  supposed  to 
be  incredible,  be  accepted  as  true,  a  door  is  thrown  wide  open  for 
speculation  the  farther  we  go  back  in  time.  The  hypothesis  of  a 
Mongolian  migration  is  no  longer  indispensable  to  account  for  the 
earliest  appearance  of  man  on  that  half  the  globe  which  the  most 

i 


A  Zone  of  Pyramids. 
Fig.  1,  Egypt.    2,  Central  America.    3,  ladia.    4,  North  America. 

eminent  geologist  of  this  country  held  to  be  the  older  half.  Com- 
munication between  the  two  hemispheres,  it  is  conjectured,  may  have 
been,  long  ages  ago,  quite  as  possible  in  other  ways  as  in  our  era  across 
the  sea  of  Kamtschatka.  To  account  for  the  resemblance  in  the  works 
of  art,  the  temples,  the  pyramids,  the  hieroglyphics  of  Central  America 
and  Mexico,  to  those  of  Asia,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Continents  once  approached  each  other  where  the  ocean 
now  rolls  between,  and  that  a  zone  or  circle  of  the  earth  was  at  that 
period  occupied  by  a  pyramid-building  people.  And  to  strengthen  the 
supposition,  it  is  alleged  that  there  are  many  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  Guanches,  the  aboriginal  but  now  extinct  people  of  the 
Canary  Isles,  and  the  ancient  Egyptians  on  this  parallel  zone.2  In  the 
form  of  the  skull  the  Guanches  are  said  to  have  been  allied  to  the 

1  Geological  Sketches,  by  L.  Agassi/,  p.  1. 

*  The  Races  of  Men.     JJy  Robert  Kiiox.     London,  1 862. 


TRADITIONS  OF  A  LOST   CONTIXEXT.  13 

Caribs  of  the  Antilles,  and  both  to  the  tribes  of  the  whole  eastern  coast 
of  America  from  its  extreme  northern  limit  to  Paraguay  and  Uruguay 
in  the  south.1  Humboldt  suggests 2  that  the  summits  of  the  Madeira 
and  of  the  Canary  Islands  may  have  once  been  the  western  extremity 
of  the  chain  of  the  Atlas  mountains.  Others  go  farther  and  assume 
that  these  islands  and  those  of  the  West  Indies  are  the  summits  of 
mountain  chains  that  once  crowned  an  Atlantic  continent  which  was 
afterward  submerged  and  disintegrated  by  some  great  cataclysm.  The 
similarity  of  the  flora  on  the  islands  of  the  coast  of  Africa  and  Western 
Europe,  and  those  of  Central  Europe  and  Eastern  America  can  only 
be  accounted  for,  according  to  some  geologists,  by  the  supposition  of 
such  a  continent  before  the  human  period.3  The  bolder  theorists  are 
disposed  to  accept  the  fact  without  the  limitation,  as  the  time  of  the 
destruction  of  such  a  continent,  if  it  ever  existed,  and  the  first  appear- 
ance of  man  are  alike  uncertain. 

In  curious  coincidence  with  these  mingled  facts  and  conjectures 
the  story  is  recalled  which  Plato  says  was  related  to  Solon 

,.,,.,.  ,  Tradition  of 

by  an  Egyptian  priest  of  the  island  called  Atlantis,  "  larger  an  Atlantic 
than  Asia  [Minor]  and  Libya  combined,"  lying  beyond  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  inhabited  by  a  powerful  and  warlike  people,  and 
which  was  destroyed  by  earthquakes  and  floods  nine  thousand  years 
before  his  time.     In  later  tunes  the  "  Island  of  Antilia,"  the  "  Island 
of  the   Seven   Cities,"    the  "Island  of  the  Holy   Bishop  Brandon," 
placed  midway  in  the  "  Sea  of  Darkness,"  as  the  Atlantic  was  then 
called,  found  its  place  in  the  earliest  maps  of  the  world,  sometimes 
under  one  name,  sometimes  another,  when  ttre  geography  of  one  half 
the  globe  was  merely  guessed  at. 

These  speculations,  traditions,  and  supposed  fables  are  not  history  ; 
but  it  is  not  impossible  that  in  them  may  yet  be  found  some  aid  in 
putting  together  the  unwritten  story  of  the  early  human  race  on  this 
continent.  It  is  not  indeed  yet  established  upon  unquestioned  evi- 
dence that  man  is  as  old  here  as  anywhere  else  ;  but  that  such  evi- 
dence is  forthcoming  is  hardly  a  subject  of  doubt  now  even  among 
those  slowest  to  believe. 

The  natives  of  North  America,  when  first  visited  by  Europeans  a 
few  centuries  ago,  belonged  as  distinctly  to  the  Stone  Age  as  the  ear- 
liest inhabitants  of  Europe  did  at  an  epoch  too  remote  to  be  accu- 
rately measured  in  years.  It  is  not  easy,  therefore,  to  distinguish  in 
this  country  between  the  possible  relics  of  a  primeval  race  and  those 
of  the  modern  Indians,  where,  whatever  the  difference  of  time  be- 

1  Professor  Retzius  of  Stockholm.     Smithsonian  Report,  1859. 

2  Travels  to  the  Equinoctial  Ret/ions  of  America.     By  Alexander  von  Humboldt. 

8  See  Lecture  by  Edward  Sues*,  in  Vienna,  translated  for  Smithsonian  Report,  1872. 
Opinions  of  Professors  Unger  and  Heer,  quoted  by  Lyell,  Antiquity  of  Man,  p.  492. 


14  THE  PRE-HISTORIC  MAN.  [CHAP.  1 

tween  them,  there  was  none  of  culture.  Thus  Lyell  repeatedly  refers, 
in  different  works,1  to  the  shell-heaps  along  the  American  coast  from 
Massachusetts  to  Georgia  as  identical  with  the  Kjokken-Moddings,  the 
kitchen  refuse-heaps,  of  Denmark.  As  witnesses  to  the  existence  of  a 
people  in  an  early  stage  of  barbarism,  these  refuse  heaps  of 
shells  on  the  coasts  of  different  countries  are  undoubtedly 

IT    S 

identical,  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether  those  upon  our 
own  are  the  work  of  the  modern  Indian,  or  of  a  race  that  long  pre- 
ceded them,  and  coeval,  perhaps,  with  those  primitive  savages  who  fed 
in  Denmark  upon  shell-fish  which  can  no  longer  live  in  the  waters  of 
the  Baltic,  and  upon  the  birds  whose  food  was  the  buds  of  trees 
buried  now  in  the  bogs  beneath  successive  forests.  Such  heaps  are 
found  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Florida,  upon  all  the  Sea  Islands  of  the 
Southern  States,  along  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  upon  the 
banks  of  fresh-water  streams.  Their  number  and  their  size  suggest 
the  former  presence  of  a  lai-ge  population  and  its  long  continuance. 
One  upon  Stalling' s  Island,  in  the  Savannah  River,  two  hundred 
miles  above  its  mouth,  is  three  hundred  feet  in  length  by  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  in  width,  and  with  an  average  elevation  of  more 
than  fifteen  feet.2  Did  the  scattered  tribes  of  Indian  hunters  accum- 
ulate these  huge  relics  of  their  summer  fishing?  Perhaps  when 
longer  studied,  and  with  a  definite  purpose,  they  may  shed  new  light 
here,  as  the  shell-heaps  of  Denmark,  the  caves  of  Germany,  France, 
and  England,  the  remains  of  human  habitation  beneath  the  lakes  of 
Switzerland,  have  done  in  Europe,  upon  the  antiquity  of  the  early 
inhabitants.3 

But  where  the  fact  to  be  observed  depends  upon  geological  evi- 
dence, the  question  is  simply  one  of  verification  of  that  evidence. 
This  involves,  ordinarily,  scientific  knowledge  and  accurate  observa- 
tion. Such  observation  and  knowledge  will,  in  the  long  run,  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject  and  to  dispel  all  doubts,  if  that  is 
possible,  either  one  way  or  the  other.  Meanwhile  the  progress  of  the 
accumulation  of  such  evidence,  whether  more  or  less  conclusive,  is  nei- 
ther valueless  nor  without  interest. 

1  Visit  to  the  United  States.    Antiquity  of  Man. 

2  Antiquities  of  the  Southf-rn  Indians.     C.  C.  Jones,  Jr. 

8  The  late  Professor  Jeffries  Wyman,  of  Cambridge,  who  had  examined  the  structure 
and  contents  of  these  refuse-heaps  with  the  careful  habit  and  rigid  method  of  scientific 
research,  asserts,  in  a  private  letter,  that  no  glass  l>eads  or  tools  of  metal  have  hitherto  been 
found  in  them,  though  such  articles  were  largely  distributed  among  the  Indians  by  the 
earliest  European  visitors ;  that  some  of  the  older  mounds  are  wanting  in  any  traces  of 
pottery ;  that  no  pipes  or  fragments  of  pipes  have  been  found  in  them  by  him  and  other 
accurate  explorers,  though  smoking  was  the  universal  custom  of  the  Indians  when  first 
known  ;  that  trees  have  been  observed  upon  them,  which  showed  by  their  annular  growth 
an  age  antedating  from  one  to  three  centuries  the  landing  of  Columbus;  and  that  there 
is  no  record,  with  a  single  exception,  in  the  narrativ  es  of  the  early  voyagers  of  these  heaps 
marking  the  dwelling-places  of  the  Indians. 


FOSSILS  FOUND   IN  AMERICA.  15 

Thus,  near  Natchez,  Mississippi,  there  was  found  about  thirty  years 
ago,  a  fragment  of  a  human  bone,  the  pelvis,  in  association  with  the 
bones  of  the  mastodon,  the  megalonyx,  and  other  extinct  animals. 
Were  the  man  and  the  beasts  to  whom  these  bones  belonged  living 
at  the  same  time?  That  time  was  about  a  hundred  thousand  years 
ago,1  when  the  mastodon  and  megalonyx,  whose  remains  must  have 
been  buried  beneath  the  present  valley  and  delta  of  the 
Mississippi,  were  certainly  alive.  The  fissure  at  the  bot-  mains  in 
torn  of  which  the  bones  were  found  was  made  during  the 
earthquakes  of  1811-12,  which  extended  through  a  portion  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,  heaving  the  earth  up  into  long  hillocks,  and  tearing  it 
open  into  deep  ravines.  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  on  his  visit  to  this  coun- 
try in  1846,  carefully  examined  the  locality  and  these  fossils,  with  a 
stronger  bias,  he  has  since  said,  against  the  probability  "  of  the  con- 
temporaneous entombment  of  man  and  the  mastodon  than  any  geolo- 
gist would  now  be  justified  in  entertaining."2  He  suggested  that  the 
human  bone  may  have  fallen  from  the  surface  of  the  soil,  while  those 
of  the  fossil  beasts  came  from  strata  underneath.  Other  scientific  men 
afterward  adopted  this  suggestion,  though  he  has  since  candidly  ac- 
knowledged that  "  had  the  pelvic  bone  belonged  to  any  recent  mam- 
mifer  other  than  man,  such  a  theory  would  never  have  been  resorted 

tO."  3 

So  in  New  Orleans,  in  1852,  a  human  skeleton  was  dug  from  an 
excavation,  made  for  the  foundation  of  gas-works,  at  a  depth  of  six- 
teen feet,  and  beneath  four  successive  buried  forests  of  cypress.  Dr. 
Dowler,  into  whose  possession  this  skeleton  came,  believed,  from  its 
position,  that  it  had  lain  there  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  years,  but 
whether  this  be  correct  or  not,  depends  upon  intricate  calculations  as 
to  the  yearly  deposits  of  the  river,  about  which  there  is  great  differ- 
ence of  opinion  among  geologists.  There  is  on  Petit  Anse  Island,  in 
Louisiana,  a  bed  of  almost  pure  rock  salt,  found  in  every  part  of  it  at 
a  depth  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet.  On  this  spot  have  been  disin- 
terred the  fossil  bones  of  the  mastodon  and  the  elephant,  and  under- 
neath them  lay  fragments  of  matting  and  bits  of  broken  pottery  in 
great  profusion.  The  people  to  whom' this  refuse  once  belonged  had 
resorted  to  the  island  for  salt,  before,  it  is  assumed,  the  superimposed 
mud  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  in  depth,  and  in  which  the  mastodons 
and  elephants  were  buried,  was  deposited  ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
doubted  whether  the  whole  mass  of  soil  and  all  it  contained  may  not 
have  been  washed  down  from  the  surrounding  hills,  mingling  together 
indiscriminately  the  remains  of  various  ages. 

1  Sir  Charles  Lyell,   Second  Visit  to  the  United  States,  vol.  ii.  p.  151. 

Lyell's  Antiquity  of  Man,  p.  236. 
8  Ibid.,  p.  239. 


16  THE  PRE-HISTORIC  MAN.  [CHAP.  L 

Evidence  still  more  interesting  and  conclusive  that  man  and  the  ex- 
tinct animals  were  contemporaneous  is  alleged  to  have  been  found  in 
Missouri  nearly  forty  years  ago.  A  Dr.  Koch,  of  St.  Louis,  an  enthu- 
siastic, though  not  a  scientific,  collector  and  exhibitor  of  fossil  remains, 
affirmed  that  in  1839  he  dug  up,  in  the  bottom  lands  of  the  Bour- 
beuse  River,  in  Missouri,  from  a  depth  of  eight  or  nine  feet,  the  bones 
of  a  mastodon,  in  such  juxtaposition  with  human  relics  as 
i"n  to  show  that  man  and  this  beast,  whose  race  is  no  longer 


in  existence,  met  upon  that  spot  in  deadly  hostility.  He 
asserted  that,  when  the  exhumation  was  made,  the  great  bones  of  the 
legs  of  the  animal  stood  erect  as  if  the  creature  had  become  im- 
movably mired  in  the  deep  and  tenacious  clay.  Around  it  had  been 
kindled  a  fire  by  human  hands,  and  in  the  ashes  that  lay  about  the 
skeleton  to  the  depth  of  from  two  to  six  inches  were  scattered  bits 
of  charred  wood  and  half-burnt  bones,  stone  arrow-heads,  stone  axes, 
and  rough  stones,  —  these  last  brought  evidently  from  the  beach  of 
the  river  at  some  distance,  where  in  a  stratum  of  the  bank,  and  there 
only  in  the  neighborhood,  are  similar  stones  still  found.  All  these 
missiles  unquestionably  had  been  hurled  at  the  creature,  whose  gigan- 
tic strength,  stimulated  by  pain  and  rage  and  fear,  the  torments  of 
the  flames,  the  shouts  of  the  pursuers,  the  sharp  wounds  from  their 
stone  weapons,  was  not  enough  to  extricate  him  from  the  slough  into 
which  his  great  weight  had  sunk  him. 

There  are  in  this  case  two  considerations  to  be  borne  in  mind.  If 
man  and  the  mastodon  did  not  live  at  the  same  time,  a  discovery  of 
their  remains  in  the  alleged  relations  is  necessarily  impossible.  But 
there  is  no  inherent  improbability  in  the  story  if  they  were  contem- 
poraneous ;  so  huge  a  beast  might  easily  become  mired  in  a  swamp, 
and  then  be  surrounded  and  put  to  death  by  the  savages  by  such 
means  as  were  at  their  command.1  The  only  remarkable  thing  about 
the  incident  would  be  that  subsequent  deposits  of  earth  should  have  so 
completely  covered  these  fossil  remains,  without  disturbing  them,  that 
they  could  be  exhumed  in  their  original  condition  so  long  afterward.2 

1  Savages  are  alike  in  all  ages  and  countries.     "The  people,"  —  in  the  Lake  region  of 
Eastern  Africa,  —  says  the  great  traveller,  Livingstone,  "employ  these  continuous  or  set-in 
rains  for  hunting  the  elephant,  which  gets  bogged  and  sinks  in  from  fifteen  to  eighteen 
inches  in  soft  mud  ;  then  even  he,  the  strong  one,  feels  it  difficult  to  escape."  —  The  Last 
Journals  of  David  Livingstone  in  Central  Africa,  p.  143. 

2  See  Article  XXXV.,  Silliman's  Journal,  May,  1875,  by  James  D.  Dana;  which  is  de- 
voted to  a  discussion  of  this  case.     Professor  Dana  considers  Koch's  statement  "  very 
doubtful  ,  "  but  his  doubt  is  evidently  as  to  Koch's  truthfulness  and  character,  and  not  as 
to  any  inherent  improbability  in  such  a  discovery,  as  he  says,  "  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
geologists  of  the  Missouri  Geological  Survey  now  in  progress  will  succeed  in  settling  the 
question  positively."     And  on  the  essential  point  which  alone  gives  the  story  any  impor- 
tance, he  adds  :  "  The  contemporaneity  claimed  will  probably  be  shown  to  be  true  for 
North  America  by  future  discoveries,  if  not  already  established  ;  for  Man  existed  in  Eu- 
rope long  before  the  extinction  of  the  American  mastodon." 


r "'  '"        '"       '  V 


t* 

z. 


X 

o 


- 
o 

I 

W3 

- 
- 

— 
«< 


THE   CALAVERAS   SKULL.  17 

At  this  exhumation,  Dr.  Koch  always  affirmed  that  twenty  persons 
of  the  vicinity  were  present  ;  others  have  vouched  for  his  integrity 
and  general  truthfulness  ;  l  and  though  he  had  little  knowledge  of 
scientific  facts  and  methods,  and  made  grave  mistakes  in  the  classifica- 
tion of  fossil  bones,  his  experience  and  success  in  recovering  them  was 
greater  than  that  of  any  other  explorers.2  If  such  a  scene,  then,  the 
evidences  of  which  he  claims  to  have  uncovered,  ever  occurred  —  a 
scene  in  itself  by  no  means  improbable  if  man  and  the  mastodon 
lived  at  the  same  time  in  the  same  region  of  country  —  a  picture  is 
presented  of  a  hunt  by  pre-historic  men  on  this  continent  vivid  enough 
to  appeal  to  the  dullest  imagination,  and  more  remarkable  than  any 
similar  incident  yet  found  anywhere  else. 

A  year  later  than  this  asserted  discovery  on  the  Bourbeuse  River, 
the  same  diligent  collector  claimed  to  have  made  another 
which  must  be  considered  on  the  same  grounds.    In  the 
bottomlands  of  the  Pomme  de  Terre  River,  in  Benton 
County,  Missouri,  he  dug  up,  he  asserts,  an  almost  en- 
tire skeleton  of  another  mastodon,  beneath  which  were 
two  stone  arrow-heads  in  such  a  position  that  they  must 
have  been  there  when  the  animal  fell.     They  lay  in  a 
bed  of   vegetable   mould,  covered   by   twenty  feet  of     Dr.  Koch  s  Arrow- 
alternate   strata   of  sand,   clay,   and   gravel,   hitherto  head' 

undisturbed,  and  on  the  surface  of  the  ground  grew  a  forest  of  old 
trees. 

Later  discoveries  of  other  fossils  are  not  less  significant,  in  the  con- 
troversies to  which  they  have  given  rise,  of  growing  interest 
in  the  importance  of  the  subject.  In  1857,  the  fragment 
of  a  human  skull  was  taken,  it  is  asserted,  from  the  gold 
drift  of  California,  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  below  the  surface  of 
Table  Mountain,  in  association  with  the  fossil  bones  of  extinct  ani- 
mals. More  recently,  in  1867  or  1868,  another  human  cranium  was 
found  in  a  mining  shaft  in  Calaveras  County,  which  Professor  Whit- 
ney, of  the  State  Geological  Survey,  believes  to  have  been  an 
authentic  "  find."  To  all  the  alleged  circumstances  in  regard  to  it 
he  gave  a  careful  examination,  and  his  testimony  is  accepted  as  conclu- 
sive by  many  eminent  scientific  men.3  The  shaft  in  which  the  bone 
was  buried  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep,  and  was  sunk  through 
five  beds  of  lava  and  volcanic  tufa,  and  four  beds  of  gold-bearing 

1  Pre-historic  Races  of  the  United  States,  by  J.  W.  Foster,  p.  62.  Charles  Rau,  in  Smith, 
Ionian  Report  for  1872. 

3  The  Mastodon  giganteus  mounted  in  the  British  Museum  was  found  in  Missouri  by  Dr. 
Koch,  and  a  representation  of  it,  copied  from  Owen,  is  given  in  Dana's  Manual  of  Geology, 
1875,  p.  566. 

•  Among  others,  by  the  late  Professor  Jeffries  Wyman. 
VOL.   I.  2 


manekuiii 


18  THE  PRE-HISTORIC  MAN.  [CHAP.  I. 

quartz.  In  this  superincumbent  mass  no  crack  or  crevice  was  appar- 
ent through  which  the  bone  could  have  fallen  to  so  great  a  depth, 
and  the  inference  therefore  is  that  it  was  deposited  in  the  place  where 
it  lay  when  that  was  on  the  surface  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  that  over 
it  in  subsequent  ages  were  piled  up  the  successive  beds  of  gravel  and 
volcanic  cinders.  If  this  be  true  of  these  skulls,  then  the  men  whom 
they  represent  lived  before  the  human  race  appeared  in  Europe,  so 
far  as  is  yet  ascertained;  and  before  the  stupendous  peaks  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  of  California  were  lifted  from  the  sea. 

Though  the  number  of  alleged  facts  bearing  upon  the  antiquity  of 
the  human  family  on  this  continent  are  still  few  and  need  unques- 
tioned confirmation,  the  inclination  of  scientific  belief  is  that  the  evi- 
dence exists  and  will  yet  be  found.1  When  this  shall  be  done  beyond 
cavil  a  new  foundation  will  be  laid  on  which  to  base  the  inquiry  as  to 
the  earliest  people  of  the  Western  World.  However  strong  may  be 
the  probability  of  the  Asiatic  origin  of  the  North  American  Indians, 
behind  them  appears  another  race  which  must  have  been  displaced 
by  that  Mongolian  migration.  If  here  as  elsewhere  there  were  races 
more  ancient  than  has  hitherto  been  supposed,  we  can  no  longer  look 
upon  the  Western  Hemisphere  as  solitary  and  unpeopled,  unknown 
and  useless  to  man  till  he,  grown  old  in  the  East,  was  numerous 
enough  and  far  enough  advanced  in  intelligence  and  wants  to  wander 
abroad  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  in  search  of  a  new  home. 

1  See  ante,  p.  16.     Note  from  Silliman's  Journal. 


CHAPTER  II. 

• 

THE   MOUND  BUILDERS. 

PROGRESS  IN  CIVILIZATION  OF  NORTH  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  —  PRE-HISTORIC  RACE  IN 
THE  WESTERN  HEMISPHERE.  —  EARTHWORKS  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  BIG 
ELEPHANT  MOUND.  —  GARDEN-BEDS.  —  MILITARY  WORKS.  —  TEMPLE  AND  ALTAR 
MOUNDS.  —  RELICS  FOUND  IN  THESE  TUMULI.  —  ANCIENT  COPPER-MINING  AT  LAKE 
SUPERIOR.  —  CONNECTION  BETWEEN  THIS  AND  LATER  CIVILIZATIONS.  —  REMAINS  IN 
MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA.  —  SKULLS  FOUND  IN  THE  MOUNDS. 

THE  North  American  Indians  are,  as  a  race,-  in  no  higher  plane  of 
culture  now  than  they  were  three  hundred  years  ago.  If 

,  ,  .     ,  ,  ...  ,  .f  The  North 

they  have   any  inherent   capability  for   progress — it   they  American 
could,  had  they  remained  isolated  and  unmolested,  have  ever 
raised  themselves  above  the  conditions  of   the  second  age  of  stone 
implements,  that  progress  was  arrested  when  they  came  into  subjec- 
tion to  another  and  a  higher  race.     It  has  been  easy  enough  to  inten- 
sify the  weaknesses  which  distinguished  them  as  savages,  by  adding 
to   these   the   most   sensual  and  degrading  vices  acquired  from  the 
whites  ;  and  in  that  process  of  degradation  has  been  lost  whatever  of 
stern  and  manly  virtue  is  supposed  to  be  the  compensation  in  the 
simple  child  of  nature  for  the  minor  morals  of  civilized  life. 

It  seems  irrational  to  assume  that  such  a  people,  whose  contact  for 
two  centuries  and  a  half  with  the  culture  of  another  race  has  been 
unproductive  of  any  good,  can  have  once  fallen  from  a  semi-civilization 
possessed  by  their  ancestors,  but  of  which  they  have  neither  distinct 
inheritance  nor  even  dim  tradition.  There  is  no  influence  visible  or 
conceivable  to  account  for  a  change  so  remarkable.  They  had  evi- 
dently never  lost  their  physical  vigor  ;  no  enemy  had  ever  before  come 
to  dispossess  them  of  the  soil  which  they  claimed  as  their  own,  or  to 
trample  out  by  conquest  and  servitude  the  feeble  sparks  of  nascent 
development ;  and  no  higher  civilization  had  invaded  and  overwhelmed 
the  feeble  efforts  of  the  childhood  of  a  race.  It  is  to  set  aside  all  the 
facts  of  history,  as  well  as  all  rational  conjecture,  to  suppose  that  a 
race  now  apparently  so  hopelessly  incapable  of  improvement  had, 
without  cause,  at  some  former  period,  fallen  from  the  condition  of  a 
partially  cultivated  people,  to  that  of  savage  hunters  in  a  country 


20 


THE   MOUND  BUILDERS. 


[CHAP.  II. 


which  had  become  a  wilderness  through  their  own  voluntary  degrada- 
tion. 

But  behind  these  Indians,  who  were  in  possession  of  the  country 
Race  in  when  it  was  discovered  by  Europeans,  is  dimly  seen  the 
ttrior1  to  *""  shadowy  form  of  another  people  who  have  left  many  remark- 
Indians.  abie  evidences  of  their  habits  and  customs  and  of  a  singular 
degree  of  civilization,  but  who  many  centuries  ago  disappeared,  either 
exterminated  by  pestilence  or  by  some  powerful  and  pitiless  enemy, 
or  driven  from  the  country  to  seek  new  homes  south  and  west  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  evidences  of  the  presence  of  this  ancient  people  are  found 
almost  everywhere  upon  the  North  American  Continent,  except, 
perhaps,  upon  the  Atlantic  coast.  They  consist  of  mounds  sometimes 
of  imposing  size,  and  other  earthworks,  so  numerous  that  in  Ohio 


Earthworks  in  Ohio. 


alone  there  are,  or  were  till  quite  recently,  estimated  to  be  not  less 
than  ten  thousand  of  the  Mounds,  and  fifteen  hundred  enclosures  of 
earth  and  stone  all  evidently  the  work  of  the  same  people.  In  other 
parts  of  the  country  they  were  found  in  such  numbers  that  no  attempt 
has  ever  been  made  to  count  them  all. 

There  are  no  data  by  which  the  exact  age  of  these  singular  relics 
of  a  once  numerous  and  industrious  people,  living  a  long-sustained, 
agricultural  life,  can  be  fixed.  But  it  is  evident  from  certain  estab- 
lished facts  that  this  must  date  from  a  very  remote  period.  The  chief 
seat  of  their  power  and  population  seems  to  have  been  in  the  Missis- 


GREAT  AGE   OF  MOUNDS.  21 

-•S. 

sippi  Valley.    The  signs  of  their  occupation  are  many  along  the  banks 
of  its  rivers,  but  they  are  rarely  found  upon  the  last  formed 

,  ,-ii  Mounds  in 

terraces  of  those  streams,  —  those  which  have  been  longest 

^y 

in  formation,  and  which  were  the  beds  of  the  rivers  when 
most  of  the  earthworks  were  built.  It  is  very  seldom  that  the  human 
bones  found  in  them,  except  those  of  later  and  evidently  intrusive 
burial,  are  in  a  condition  to  admit  of  their  removal,  as  they  crumble 
into  dust  on  exposure  to  the  air ;  while  bones  in  British  tumuli,  known 
to  belong  to  the  Roman  period  and  to  ages  older  than  the  Christian 
era,  are  frequently  taken  entire  from  situations,  as  regards  soil  and 
moisture,  much  less  conducive  to  their  preservation,  than  those  of  the 
mounds.1  They  are  often,  also,  covered  by  the  primeval  forests,  which 
are  known  to  have  grown  undisturbed  since  the  country  was  first 
occupied  by  the  whites,  and  the  annular  growth  of  these  trees  has 
been  ascertained  to  be  sometimes  from  five  to  eight  centuries. 

But  this,  so  far  from  fixing  the  date  of  the  occupation  of  these 
works,  does  not  even  indicate  the  time  when  they  were  abandoned ; 
for  a  considerable  period  must  have  elapsed  before  the  ground  was 
occupied  by  trees  of  any  kind,  and  before  the  forest,  in  its  gradual 
and  slow  encroachment,  obtained  complete  possession  of  the  ground  ; 
and  then  forest  after  forest  may  have  grown,  and  fallen,  and  mingled 
with  the  soil  through  the  progress  of  many  centuries,  before  the  seed 
of  the  latest  growth  was  sown,  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  ago. 
The  late  President  Harrison,  who  Avas  considered  an  authority  on  ques- 
tions of  arboriculture,  and  who  has  been  quoted  by  almost  every  writer 
on  this  subject,  maintained,  in  an  address  before  the  Ohio  Historical 
Society,  that  a  long  period  elapsed  before  the  growth  which  came  in 
upon  abandoned  cleared  land  became  assimilated  in  kind  to  the  trees 
of  the  surrounding  forest.  For  that  reason  alone  he  believed  the  works 
of  the  Mound  Builders  to  be  of  "  immense  age." 

Even  the  purpose  for  which  they  were  erected  is  often  doubtful ; 
and  one  class  of  them  baffles  all  rational  conjecture.  In  the  State 
of  Wisconsin,  occupying  the  region  between  Lake  Michigan  and  the 
Mississippi  River,  are  many  earthworks  of  a  peculiar  character,  which 
find  few  parallels  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  while  in  the  same 
region  is  remarked  the  absence  of  the  circumvallations  and  immense 
mounds  so  numerous  elsewhere.  The  significance  of  these  works  in 
the  northwest  seems  to  be  in  their  configuration  alone,  though  what 
that  significance  could  have  been  is  altogether  inexplicable. 

Generally,  these  figures  are  in  groups,  though  sometimes  they  stand 
alone  ;  they  represent  animals,  usually  in  relief,  though  frequently  the 

1  Squier   and  Davis :  Monuments  of  the  ^f^ssissipp^    Valley.     Pre-historic  Man,  etc.,  Dr. 
Daniel  Wilson,  p.  228. 


22 


THE   MOUND  BUILDERS. 


[CHAP.  II. 


reverse,  and  the  figures  are  varied  enough  and  distinct  enough,  to 

show  that  they    were 

V 

meant  to  be  the  effigies 

O 

of  perhaps  every  quad- 
ruped then  known  in 
the  country,  of  birds 
with  outstretched 
wings,  of  fishes  with 
fins  extended,  of  rep- 
tiles, of  man ;  and  of 
inanimate  things,  the 

(  \     v    ( J  \t  LrJ     X     /  \    war-club,  the  bow  and 

«      \S  ~  ^*  *-««^        Sr     I    C    arrow,   the    pipe,    the 


Animal  Mounds. 


^ "I 


cross,  the  crescent,  the 
circle,  and  other  mathe- 
matical forms.  They 
rise  above  the  surface  two,  four,  sometimes  six  feet  in  height ;  the 
shapes  of  animal  figures  vary  from  ninety  to  one  hundred  and  twenty 
the  mounds.  fee£  'n  length,  jjut;  there  are  rectangular  embankments,  only 
a  few  feet  in  height  and  width,  that  stretch  out  to  a  length  of  several 
hundred  feet.  Among  all  these  representations  of  animals  there  is 
no  one  more  remarkable  than 
that  recently  described,  called 
the  Big  Elephant  Mound,  found 
in  Wisconsin  a  few  miles  below 
the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin 
River.  Its  name  indicates  its 
form ;  its  length  is  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  feet,  and  its 
other  proportions  are  in  accord- 
ance with  that  measurement.1  It 
does  not  seem  probable  that  the  people  who  piled  up  these  mysterious 
earthworks  could  represent  a  mastodon  or  elephant  if  it  were  not  a 
living  creature  with  which  they  were  familiar. 

In  other  parts  of  the  country  walls  of  stone  and  earth  were  raised 
Objects  of  f°r  defence ;  mounds  of  great  or  small  dimensions  were 
the  builders.  neape(j  Up  to  cover  the  dead,  or  erected  to  their  memory,  or 
set  up  as  monuments  where  some  mysterious  rites  of  incremation, 
or  sacrifice,  or  worship  had  been  celebrated  ;  or  they  marked  the 
former  site  of  temples  or  of  habitation.  The  precise  object  of  the 
builders,  or  how  they  attained  it,  can  often  be  only  guessed  at  ;  but 
that  there  was  a  purpose  connected,  in  some  way,  with  the  civil  or 

1  Smithsonian  Report,  1872. 


Big  Elephant  Mound. 


EARTH-WORKS  IN   MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  23 

religious  life,  or  the  hostile  or  the  social  relations  of  a  very  numerous 
people,  is  evident.  But  of  these  works  in  Wisconsin  there  is  no  such 
explanation.  It  does  not  seem  possible  that  they  could  have  been 
the  foundations  either  of  dwellings  or  of  temples  for  worship ;  they 
certainlv  could  not  have  been  for  defence  ;  they  were  rarely  places  of 
sepulture,  and  no  probable  conjecture  has  as  yet  been  advanced  that 
assigns  to  them  any  conceivable  human  intent.  Yet  they  exist  in 
great  numbers,  scattered  over  a  broad  extent  of  country.  They  must 
have  cost  a  vast  deal  of  labor,  and  they  indicate  the  presence,  when 
they  were  made,  of  a  large  population. 

In  a  portion  of  Wisconsin,  as  well  as  in  some  other  places,  are  found 
earthworks  of  another  kind,  but  quite  as  remarkable,  which,  from 
their  supposed  use,  have  been  called  "  garden-beds."  These  are  ridges, 
or  beds,  about  six  inches  in  height  and  four  feet  in  width,  methodically 
arranged  in  parallel  rows,  sometimes  rectangular  in  shape,  sometimes 
of  various  but  regular  and  symmetrical  curves,  and  occupying  fields  of 
from  ten  to  a  hundred  acres.  It  has  been  suggested  that  these  were 
beds  for  the  cultivation  of  maize  by  a  people  subsequent  to  those  who 
made  the  animal  mounds,  and  who  had  no  knowledge  either  of  their 
origin  or  purpose.  But  they  may  have  been  the  results  of  the  labor 
of  the  same  people  and  parts  of  some  general  design ;  or,  if  they  were 
really  "  garden-beds,"  the  fact  that  they  were  carried  across  the  effigies 
would  show  that  no  sacred  character  attached  to  those  works. 

Elsewhere  works  of  a  similar  character,  though  in  some  respects 
still  a  subject  of  conjecture,  are  better  understood.  Long  walls  of 
earth  and  rough  stone,  often  carried  in  connecting  lines  for  many 
miles,  mark,  if  not  sites  of  towns  or  cities,  at  least  the  presence  of  a 
dense  population.  The  selection  of  these  sites  was  plainly  guided  by 
convenience  of  access  to  navigable  streams  and  the  possession  of  lands 
best  suited  for  cultivation  ;  and  it  has  been  observed  that  the  places 
where  the  remains  of  this  ancient  people  are  most  abundant,  are  those 
which  the  pioneers  of  modern  civilization  selected  as  the  natural  cen- 
tres of  settlement  and  trade.  They  understood  the  advantages  of  sit- 
uations like  those  of  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis,  and  they  crowded  the 

•> 

pleasant  valleys  of  the  Scioto,  the  Miami,  the  Wabash,  the  Kentucky, 
the  Cumberland,  and  others  through  which  run  the  tributaries  to  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  where  the  bottom-lands  are  broadest,  the 
soil  most  fertile,  and  means  of  communication  by  water-carriage  the 
most  available. 

The  ruins  of  the  works  which  mark  this  occupation  are  generally 
in  groups  ;  the  walls,  however,  are  not  continuous  like  those  Fortjfica. 
of  a   walled    town,  even   where   most   extensive,  but  mark  tions 
different  enclosures  devoied  to  various  purposes.     Thus  at  the  mouth 


24  THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  [CHAP.  II. 

of  the  Scioto  there  are  embankments  which  measure  in  the  aggregate 
about  twenty  miles,  though  the  area  actually  enclosed  in  its  avenues, 
squares,  and  circles,  is  only  about  two  hundred  acres.  But  the  points 
most  capable  of  defence,  where  defence  was  evidently  intended,  were 
selected  with  military  skill.  The  summits  of  hills  were  made  inacces- 
sible to  attack  by  lines  of  circumvallation ;  peninsulas,  surrounded  on 
three  sides  by  a  deep  stream  or  precipitous  bluffs,  and  only  to  be 
approached  on  one  side,  were  there  made  difficult,  if  not  impossible 
of  access  ;  and  in  these  citadels,  doubtless,  the  outlying  populations, 
in  case  of  danger,  warned  by  the  smoke  or  flame  rising  from  mounds 
placed  on  the  loftiest  hills,  in  sight  of  each  other  for  many  miles, 
found  safe  refuge.  Nor  were  these  walls  made  in  haste,  or  for  a  tem- 
porary purpose.  In  height,  they  vary  from  five  to  five  and  twenty 
feet ;  at  their  base  they  are  often  twenty  feet  and  more  in  width  ;  and 
frequently  outside  the  wall  is  a  moat  measuring  twenty-five  or  fifty, 
or  eighty  feet  in  width,  according  to  the  importance  of  the  position  or 
the  difficulty  of  defending  it.  Military  works  like  these,  built  not  far 
apart,  and  with  so  much  care  and  labor,  enclosing  areas  from  five  to 
about  a  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  in  a  country  no  doubt  thickly  settled, 
indicate  that  this  was  a  people  skilful  in  military  affairs,  subject, 
probably,  to  frequent  attack  from  a  powerful  and  much  dreaded 
enemy,  but  quite  capable  of  making  a  long  and  sturdy  defence. 

So  far,  seems  plain  enough.  Defensive  earthworks  are  not  uncom- 
mon with  other  savage  or  semi-civilized  peoples,  though  their  complete- 
ness is  a  measure,  in  some  degree,  of  the  density  of  the  population, 
the  supply  of  labor,  and  of  skill  in  its  use.  But  with  these  Mound 
Builders  the  skill  of  the  soldier  and  the  engineer  was  used  for  the  pro- 
tection of  a  people  who  had  apparently  developed  a  degree  of  civil,  and 
perhaps  religious  culture,  altogether  above  anything  that  the  red  man 
has  ever  been  known  to  possess,  or  that  belongs  to  any  merely  barbar- 
ous race.  Their  works  of  circumvallation,  other  than  those  meant 
merely  for  defence,  were  singular  in  design  and,  in  some  respects,  re- 
markable in  construction.  They  are  usually  upon  the  table-lands,  and 
often  in  groups  extending  for  several  miles,  but  connected  with  each 
other  directly,  or  showing  a  relation  by  propinquity,  —  the  groups 
made  up  of  squares,  circles,  and  other  mathematical  figures,  ranging 
from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  feet  in  diameter  to  a  mile 
in  circuit. 

Near  these  enclosures,  or  within  them,  are  mounds,  some  large,  some 
small,  some  pyramids,  others  parallelograms,  generally  truncated,  some- 
times terraced,  or  their  summits  approached  by  inclined  planes.  Ave- 
nues of  imposing  width,  between  embankments  several  feet  in  height 
often  connect  these  enclosed  areas,  extending,  in  one  instance,  in  obvi- 


x 
o 

f 

5 


- 

at 

< 

bl 
S. 


2; 

D 
O 


DIMENSIONS  OF  MOUNDS.  25 

cms  connection  from  both  banks  of  the  Ohio  River  for  a  total  length 
of  sixteen  miles.     Other  graded  roads  lead  from  terrace  to 

...        Mathemiti- 

terrace,  apparently  to  secure  access  to  the  streams ;  while  <»i  correct- 
others  still,  so  far  as  can  now  be  discerned,  lead  from  nothing 
to  nowhere,  the  significance  of  the  avenue  being  apparently  in  its 
existence,  and  not  in  its  direction.  The  squares  in  these  works  are 
perfect  squares ;  the  circles,  perfect  circles ;  and  as  some  of  these  are 
a  mile  in  circuit,  there  must  have  been  brought  to  their  construction 
much  engineering  skill  and  knowledge,  and  the  use  of  instruments. 
They  bear,  moreover,  such  relations  to  each  other  as  to  show  unmis- 
takably some  fixed  and  general  design  ;  and  similarity  of  proportions 
in  places  sixty  or  seventy  miles  apart  seem  to  indicate  the  application 
or  some  common  geometrical  rule  to  their  construction.  Thus  in  Ohio 
is  often  found  a  combined  work  of  a  square  with  two  circles,  and  they 
usually  agree  in  this,  that  each  of  the  sides  of  the  squares  measures 
exactly  1,080  feet,  and  the  adjacent  circles  1,700  and  800  feet  respect- 
ively. This  identity  of  measurement  in  similar  works  in  different 
parts  of  the  country  can  hardly  have  been  accidental.  Within  these 
walls,  instead  of  outside  of  them,  are  occasionally  moats  or  ditches, 
and  this  is  accepted  as  conclusive  proof  that  such  works  were  not 
defensive.  They  may  have  surrounded  the  houses  and  estates  of  chiefs 
and  other  men  of  power  and  consideration ;  they  may  have  been  public 
parks  and  places  of  public  games ;  or  they  may  have  been,  as  is  gen- 
erally concluded  by  explorers,  the  metes  and  bounds  within  which  was 
enclosed  the  ground  held  sacred  to  the  superstitions  and  the  religious 
rites  of  a  people  who  found  room  elsewhere  for  the  duties,  the  avoca- 
tions, and  the  exigencies  of  their  every-day  life. 

These  witnesses  to  the  occupation  of  the  land  by  a  numerous  and 
busy  population  long  ago,  can  only  be  considered  as  the  ruins  which 
mark  the  site  of  that  ancient  habitation.  The  solid  earth  has  with- 
stood the  inroads  of  time  ;  whatever  was  perishable  and  once  bore  the 
impress  of  such  degree  of  culture  as  the  people  may  have  acquired, 
has  perished.  In  the  mounds,  however,  we  gain  some  farther  insight 
into  their  character,  though  they  are  themselves  as  remarkable,  and 
almost  as  inexplicable,  as  the  extensive  system  of  circumvallations, 
embankments,  and  excavations  of  which  they  make  a  part.  These 
mounds  are  of  all  dimensions,  from  that  of  Cahokia,  Illinois,  one  of  a 
group  of  sixty  which  covered  six  acres  of  ground,  and  that  of  Seltzer- 
town,  Mississippi,  of  about  equal  extent,  and  others  of  like  imposing 
dimensions,  to  those  of  the  region  extending  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
to  the  Valley  of  the  Arkansas,  and  westward  into  Texas,  which  are 
described  as  "  from  one  foot  to  five  feet  in  height,  with  a  diameter 
from  thirty  feet  to  one  hundred  and  forty  feet,  and  as  numbered  by 


26 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.. 


[CHAP.  II. 


millions,"1  and  innumerable  smaller  mounds  found  in  Missouri.  If 
these  were  the  foundations  of  human  dwelling-places,  the  country 
must  have  been  one  vast  town  ;  and  if  it  is  difficult  to  believe  this, 
it  is  no  less  difficult  to  conceive  of  their  being  raised  in  such  immense 
numbers  and  in  such  close  proximity,  for  any  other  purpose. 

Of  the  character  of  other  mounds,  many  of  which  have  been  care- 
fully explored,  there  is  less  doubt.     They  are  divided  by  Squier  and 
Davis,  and  their  classification  is  usually  followed  by  other  observers, 
into   Altar  or    Sacrificial    Mounds,    Mounds    of   Sepulture* 

Mounds  for  i       •»«•  T  i     •»»  T  e    r^\ 

various         Temple  Mounds,  and  Mounds  of  Observation,  though  there 
are  many,  such  as  the  "Animal  Mounds  "  of  Wisconsin  and 
a  few  of  a  similar  character  found  in  Ohio,  and  those  of  the  Arkansas 
Valley,  that  defy  all  conjecture  as  to  their  use. 

The  Temple  Mounds  are  so  called  either  because  there  are  similar 

elevations  in  Mexico  on 
which   temples 


were 

erected,  or  because,  hav- 
ing level  summits  which 
may  be  reached  by  ter- 
races, by  inclined  planes, 
or  by  spiral  pathways, 
they  may  be  supposed  to 
have  been  convenient 
sites  for  such  edifices,  or 
to  have  been  used  for 
religious  purposes  with- 
out buildings.  There  was 
certainly  ample  room  for 
either  mode  of  worship 
on  such  a  mound  as  that 
at  Cahokia,  whose  truncated  top  measured  two  hundred  by  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet,  and  on  many  others  in  the  Southern  States  of 
equal  dimensions ;  and  that  they  were  the  sites  of  buildings,  of  some 
sort,  seems  probable  also  from  the  fact  that  there  are  many  plat- 
forms of  earth,  acres  in  extent,  though  only  a  few  feet  high,  —  similar 
in  every  respect  to  the  larger  elevations,  except  in  height,  —  which 
could  hardly  have  been  used  for  any  other  purpose. 

But  as  these  mounds  have  none  of  the  peculiarities  of  those  con- 
taining the  singular  structures  called  Altars,  and  as  they  evidently 
were  not  places  of  sepulture,  their  use  must  have  been  different  from 
either.  As  they  are  usually  found,  however,  with  the  Altar  Mounds 
within  the  enclosures,  it  has  been  conjectured  that  all  the  extensive 

1  Statement  of  Professor  Forehey  in  Foster's  Pre-hittoric  Races  of  the  United  Statu. 


Temple  Mound  in  Mexico. 


TEMPLE  AND  ALTAR  MOUNDS. 


27 


works  of  circumvaHatie-n,  except  those  •evhterrtiy  erected  for  defence, 
with  the  many  and  various  elevations  enclosed  within  them,  whatever 
their  character  or  shape,  had  some  intimate  relation  to  the  religious 
faith  and  ceremonies  of  those  who  constructed  them.  If  the  grounds 
of  such  a  supposition  may  be  considered  rational  and  sufficient,  —  and 
in  the  absence  of  any  other  theory  it  seems  the  most  obvious,  —  it  is 
only  the  more  remarkable  that  at  a  period  so  remote  that  much,  if  not 
the  whole  of  Europe  was  still  in  the  darkness  of  primeval  barbarism, 
so  large  a  part  of  North  America  should  be  inhabited  by  a  numerous 
population  so  advanced  in  a  civilization  developed  by  themselves,  that 
they  could  expend  upon  a  single  phase  of  life  so  much  evident  reflec- 
tion and  accurate  knowledge,  and  devote  to  it  an  amount  of  manual 
labor  so  immense  and  so  continuous. 

These  so-called  Temple  Mounds,  whether  temples  really  crowned 
their  summits,  or  whether  religious  ceremonies  were  performed  upon 
them  under  no  other  roof  than  the  over-arching  sky,  are  in  themselves 
sufficiently  remarkable,  if  only  for  their  great  size.  The  cubic  con- 
tents of  that  of  Cahokia  are  estimated  as  equal  to  one  fourth  of  the 
great  pyramid  of  Ghizeh,  and  of  that  at  Grave  Creek,  Virginia,  as 
nearly  equal  to  the  third  pyramid  of  Mycerinus.1 

But  the  Altar  Mounds  are  still  more  interesting.  They  are  always 
symmetrical,  but  not  always 
uniform  in  shape,  and  in 
height  they  do  not  generally 
exceed  eight  feet.  Unlike 
all  other  mounds,  whether 
used  for  burial  or  as  places 
of  worship,  they  are  laid  up 
in  different  strata  of  earths, 
not  in  horizontal  lines,  but 
in  conformity  with  the  curve 
of  the  surface  of  the  mound.  Of  these  strata,  from  one  to  four,  though 
usually  two  or  three  only,  are  invariably  of  fine  white  sand,  and  be- 
neath the  whole,  upon  a  level  with  the  surrounding  plain,  is  found  a 
hard-baked  hearth  or  basin,  which  explorers  call  an  altar.  In  shape 
these  altars  differ ;  but  that  form,  Whatever  it  may  be,  is  always  sym- 
metrical and  carefully  constructed.  They  bear  always  the  marks  of 
the  fires  that  had  been  kindled  upon  them,  and  the  cremation  may 
have  been  of  dead  or  living  subjects  or  of  burnt-offerings  of  animals 
or  material  things.  But  whether  such  fires  were  for  sacrifices  or  were 
only  a  method  of  disposing  of  the  dead,  the  places  where  they  were 
made  were  important  enough  and  sacred  enough  to  require  that  they 

1  Foster's  Pre-histonc  Race*,  p.  346. 


Altar  Mounds. 


28  THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  [CHAP.  II. 

should  be,  not  the  careless  heaping  up  of  earth,  but  the  construction  of 
a  rude  work  of  art.  The  character  is  invariable  ;  wherever  a  mound 
is  found  thus  made  with  successive  strata  of  carefulty  imposed  earth 
and  sand,  conforming  to  its  outward  shape,  an  altar  is  beneath  ;  and 
wherever  the  altar  or  hearth  is  found,  if  covered  at  all,  the  alternate 
beds  of  earth  and  sand  are  carefully  laid  over  it ;  all  others  are  un- 
stratified. 

Beneath  these  mounds  are  found  chiefly  the  specimens  of  pottery,  of 

implements  of  war  and 
the  chase,  and  of  do- 
mestic life,  which  al- 
ways indicate,  in  some 
degree,  the  condition 
and  progress  of  the 
people  who  used  them ; 
but  this  curious  fact  is 
dwelt  upon  by  Squier, 
that,  though  the  num- 

Pottery  from  Mounds.  -  -  ,  .    ,         . 

ber  ot  such  articles  in 

any  one  deposit  may  be  large,  the  variety  is  limited  ;  a  collection  of 
Relief  found  pipes  may  be  found  upon  one  altar,  a  heap  of  pottery,  or 
m  them.  of  arrow-heads,  or  of  pearls,  or  of  copper  tools,  upon  others ; 
but  a  single  kind  predominates  in  each,  with  little  mingling  of  other 
implements.  The  most  plausible  explanation  of  these  structures  is, 
that  they  were  places  of  sacrifice,  with  a  religious  meaning,  for  the 
altars  were,  in  some  cases,  evidently  used  repeatedly  before  they  were 
finally  covered  with  so  much  care.  They  may  have  been  places  of 
human  sacrifice  ;  but  probably  were  not  for  the  burning  of  those  who 
died  from  natural  causes,  as  the  disposition  of  their  bodies  is  other- 
wise accounted  for.  Thousands  of  other  mounds  are  raised  over  the 
remains  of  one  or  two  persons  in  each,  while  the  common  multitude 
received  only  that  ordinary  burial  which  the  immense  accumulation 
of  human  bones  in  some  places  indicates. 

It  is  unfortunate  for  the  archaeologist  that  the  depositories  of  arti- 
cles of  personal  use  among  these  people  were  exposed  to  an  intense 
heat.  Only  stone  or  clay  could  resist  it,  for  it  melted  copper  and 
lead  and  destroyed  almost  entirely  whatever  was  perishable.  But  for 
this  something  more  might  be  learned  than  we  are  ever  likely  to 
know  of  their  habits  and  customs,  and  of  the  advance  they  had  made 
in  arts  of  which  there  are  found  some  indications.  But  there  is  cer- 
tainly enough  to  show  that  they  had  developed  a  civilization  of  a  vig- 
orous and  original  growth,  though  as  yet  in  its  earlier  stages,  and 
enough  to  justify  a  belief  that  there  must  have  been  much  else  in  theii 


RELICS   OF   STONE  AND   COPPER. 


29 


culture  to  answer  to  those  evidences  of  combined  labor  and  abstract 
thought  exhibited  in  their  public  works  of  defence,  and  their  apparent 
devotion  to  some  ceremonial  system.  "  The  art  of  pottery  "  among 
them,  says  Squier,  who  is  peculiarly  qualified  to  give  an  opinion  upon 
the  subject,  had  "  attained  to  a  considerable  degree  of  perfection.  Va- 
rious, though  not  abundant  specimens  of  their  skill  have  been  recov- 
ered, which,  in  elegance  of  model,  delicacy,  and  finish,  as  also  in  fine- 
ness of  material,  come  fully  up  to  the  best  Peruvian  specimens,  to 
which  they  bear,  in  many  respects,  a  close  resemblance.  They  far 
exceed  anything  of  which  the  existing  Indian  tribes  are  known  to 
have  been  capable." 

If  their  arrow-heads  and  hammers,  and  other  articles  of  bone,  of 


Stone  and  Copper  Relics  from  Mounds. 
Fig.  1,  axe.    2,  bracelets.    3,  stone  arrow-points.    4,  stone  axe.     5,  bronze  knife. 

polished  porphyry,  granite,  jasper,  quartz,  obsidian  —  this  they  could 
only  have  got  from  Mexico  —  and  other  minerals,  show  that  they  were 
still  in  the  Stone  Age,  their  implements  of  copper  prove  that  they 
were  gradually  approaching  to  the  age  of  metals.  The  late  Professor 
Foster  believed  that  many  of  their  implements  clearly  show  the  marks 
of  being  cast ; l  but  if  that  point  needs  to  be  confirmed  by  farther  in- 
vestigation, it  is  at  least  plain  that  they  had  advanced  beyond  the  age 
when  tools  and  weapons  of  stone  are  made  only  by  chipping,  to  that 
of  pounding  a  malleable  metal  into  shape  with  a  hammer.  They 
could  hardly  have  failed  to  observe  the  effect  which  the  fire  of  their 
altars  had  upon  this  material  which  was  superseding  stone,  and  a 
people  so  intelligent  would  not  have  delayed  long  in  availing  them- 
selves of  that  knowledge,  had  their  progress  not  been  arrested  by  some 
sudden  and  violent  interruption. 

The  copper  was  already  in  common  use,  and  extensive  and  syste- 
matic mining  was  established  on  the  southern  shores  of  Lake  Superior. 

1  Pre-historlc  Races  of  the  United  States,  p.  259. 


30  THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  [CHAP.  II. 

The  miners  of  our  time  find  excavations  and  trenches  in  that  region 
from  eighteen  to  thirty  feet  deep,  where  these  primitive 
L»ke  supe-  workmen  had  preceded  them,  and  half-finished  work  and 
their  scattered  tools  of  stone,  and  wood,  and  copper,  buried 
beneath  the  accumulations  of  many  centuries  of  vegetable  and  forest 
growth,  attest  at  once  to  their  active  and  intelligent  labor  and  to  its 
apparently  abrupt  abandonment.  So  numerous  are  their  stone  ham- 
mers —  some  of  such  weight  that  they  must  have  been  wielded,  by 
the  help  of  handles  of  withe,  by  two  men  —  that  they  have  been 
removed  by  the  cart-load,  and  in  one  spot  they  were  so  plentiful  as 
to  be  sufficient  for  the  walls  of  a  well.1  In  a  deserted  trench  in  the 
Minnesota  mine  was  found,  eighteen  feet  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  a  mass  of  copper  of  about  six  tons,  raised  upon  a  frame  of 
wood  five  feet  in  height,  preparatory  to  removal.  From  these  ancient 

mines,  of  whose  workings  the  Indians  had  no 
tradition,  was  supplied  the  metal  used  by  the 
Mound  Builders,  a  thousand  miles  distant  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  From  that  agricul- 
tural region,  probably,  the  miners  came  with 
their  supplies  for  their  summer's  support ;  and 
the  method  of  conveyance  which  took  them  and 
their  provisions  to  the  mines  sufficed,  no  doubt, 
for  carrying  back  the  ore  to  market  across  the 
lakes  and  the  long  land  journey.  They  must 
Mining  Tools.  have  had  boats  of  more  capacity  than  canoes  for 

such  cargoes,  and  better  fitted  for  the  navigation 

of  waters  not  much  less  perilous  than  the  open  sea  ;  but  how  they  pro- 
vided, without  animals,  for  the  carriage  of  such  heavy  burdens  over 
hundreds  of  miles  of  land  travel  it  is  not  so  easy  to  understand,  un- 
less they  depended  upon  a  servile  population  whose  presence  seems 
otherwise  indicated  by  the  immense  amount  of  manual  labor  which 
all  their  works  required.  Of  this  copper-mining  the  Indians  had 
even  no  tradition,  and  among  them,  at  the  time  of  European  discov- 
ery, copper  was  only  used,  and  that  rarely,  for  purposes  of  rude  orna- 
ment. 

This  dead  and  buried  culture  of  the  ancient  people  of  North  Amer- 
Cniture  of  i°a'  to  whose  memory  they  themselves  erected  such  curious 
bJJfidTng  nd"  monuments,  is  specially  noteworthy  in  that  it  differs  from  all 
P*0?1*-  other  extinct  civilizations.  Allied,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the 
rude  conditions  of  the  Stone  Age,  in  which  the  understanding  of  man 
does  not  aim  at  much  beyond  some  appliance  that  shall  aid  his  naked 
hands  in  procuring  a  supply  of  daily  food,  it  is  yet  far  in  advance  of 

1   Wilson's  Pre-hisloric  .lf«H,  p.  161. 


COPl'EK    IMPLEMENTS    RECENTLY    DISCOVERED    IN   WISCONSIN. 

[From  the  Collection  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society.] 

No.   1.  —  An  Adze,    with  "wings"   for  fit-]      No.  5.  —  A  Chisel,  apparently  cast,  the  rough- 
ting,  j  ness  showing  sand-mould  and  white   spots  of 
No.  2.  —  An  Arrow-head,  with  "wings"  for    melted  silver. 


fitting  to  arrow. 

No.  3.  —An  Arrow-head,  with  "wings"  for 
fitting  to  arrow. 

No.  4.  —  A  Knife,  with  socket  for  handle. 


No.  6.  —  An  Awl. 

No.  7.  —  A  Spear-head,  11  inches  in  length, 
with  socket  for  handle. 
No.  8.  —  An  Adze. 


POTTERY   AND    SUPPOSED    IDOLS 

RECENTLY   FOUND   WITH   HUMAN   REMAINS  IN   BURIAL  MOUNDS 
IN  SOUTHEAST  MISSOURI. 


OBJECT   OF  THE   MOUND  BUILDERS.  31 

that  rough  childhood  of  the  race ;  and  while  it  touches  the  Age  of 
Metal,  it  is  almost  as  far  behind,  and  suggests  the  semi-civilization 
of  other  pre-historic  races  who  left  in  India,  in  Egypt,  and  the  centre 
of  the  Western  Continent,  magnificent  architectural  ruins  and  relics 
of  the  sculptor's  art,  which,  though  barbaric,  were  nevertheless  full  of 
power  peculiar  to  those  parallel  regions  of  the  globe. 

It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  these  imposing  earthworks  were  meant 
for  mere  out-door  occupation.  A  people  capable  of  erecting  fortifica- 
tions which  could  not  be  much  improved  upon  by  modern  military 
science,  as  to  position,  and,  considering  the  material  used,  the  method 
of  construction  ;  and  who  could  combine  for  religious  observances  en- 
closures in  groups  of  elaborate  design,  extending  for  more  than  twenty 
miles,  would  probably  crown  such  works  with  structures  in  harmony 
with  their  importance  and  the  skill  and  toil  bestowed  upon  their  erec- 
tion. Such  wooden  edifices,  for  wood  they  must  have  been,  would  long 
ago  have  crumbled  into  dust ;  but  it  is  not  a  fanciful  suggestion  that 
probably  something  more  imposing  than  a  rude  hut  once  stood  upon 
tumuli  evidently  meant  for  occupation,  and  sometimes  approaching  the 
Pyramids  of  Egypt  in  size  and  grandeur.  These  circumvallations  of 
mathematical  figures,  bearing  to  each  other  certain  well-defined  rela- 
tions, and  made,  though  many  miles  apart,  in  accordance  with  some 
exact  law  of  measurement,  no  doubt  surrounded  something  better  than 
an  Indian's  wigwam.  That  which  is  left  is  the  assurance  of  that  which 
has  perished ;  it  is  the  scarred  and  broken  torso  bearing  witness  to 
the  perfect  work  of  art  as  it  came  from  the  hands  of  the  sculptor. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  conclusion  which  is  forced  upon  us.  These  peo- 
ple must  have  been  very  numerous,  as  otherwise  they  could  not  have 
done  what  we  see  they  did.  They  were  an  industrious,  agricultural 
people;  not,  like  the  sparsely  scattered  Indians,  nomadic  tribes  of 
hunters  ;  for  the  multitude  employed  upon  the  vast  system  of  earth- 
works, and  who  were  non-producers,  must  have  been  supported  by 
the  products  of  the  labor  of  another  multitude  who  tilled  the  soil. 
Their  moral  and  intellectual  natures  were  so  far  developed  that  they 
devoted  much  time  and  thought  to  occupations  and  subjects  which 
could  have  nothing  to  do  with  their  material  welfare  —  a  mental  con- 
dition far  in  advance  of  the  savage  state.  And  the  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion which  they  had  reached,  trifling  in  some  respects,  in  others  full 
of  promise,  was  peculiarly  their  own,  of  which  no  trace  can  be  dis- 
cerned in  subsequent  times,  unless  it  be  among  other  and  later  races 
south  and  west  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Doing  and  being  so  much,  the  wonder  is  that  they  should  not  have 
attained  to  still  higher  things.  But  the  wonder  ceases  if  we  look  for 
the  farther  development  of  their  civilization  in  Mexico  and  Central 


32 


THE  MOUND  BUILDERS. 


[CHAP.  II. 


America.     If  they  did  not  die  out,  destroyed  by  pestilence  or  famine ; 
if    they  were   not   exterminated  by  the   Indians,  but  were,  at   last, 

driven  away  by  a  savage  foe 
against  whose  furious  onslaughts 
they  could  contend  no  longer 
even  behind  their  earthen  ram- 
parts, their  refuge  was  probably, 
if  not  necessarily,  farther  south 
or  southwest.  In  New  Mexico 
they  may  have  made  their  last 
defence  in  the  massive  stone  for- 
tresses, which  the  bitter  experi- 
ence of  the  past  had  taught 
them  to  substitute  for  the  earth- 
works they  had  been  compelled 
to  abandon.  Thence  extending 
southward  they  may,  in  succes- 
sive ages,  have  found  leisure,  in 
the  perpetual  summer  of  the 
tropics  where  nature  yielded  a 
subsistence  almost  unsolicited, 
for  the  creation  of  that  archi- 
tecture whose  ruins  are  as  re- 
markable as  those  of  any  of  the 
pre-historic  races  of  other  continents.  The  sculpture  in  the  stone  of 
those  beautiful  temples  may  be  only  the  outgrowth  of  that  germ  of 
Their  sculp-  ar*  shown  in  the  carvings  on  the  pipes  which  the  Mound 
""*•  Builders  left  on  their  buried  altars.  In  these  pipes  a  striking 

fidelity  to  nature  is  shown  in  the  delineation  of  animals.  It  is  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  they 
were  equally  faithful  in  por- 
traying their  own  features  in 
their  representations  of  the 
human  head  and  face ;  *and 
the  similarity  between  these 
and  the  sculptures  upon  the 
ancient  temples  of  Central 
America  and  Mexico  is  seen 
at  a  glance. 

There  also  it  mav  be  that 

•/ 

they  discovered  how  to  fuse  and  combine  the  metals,  making  a  harder 
and  better  bronze  than  the  Europeans  had  ever  seen  ;  learned  to  exe- 
cute work  in  gold  and  silver  which  the  most  skilled  European  did  not 


Carved  Pipes. 


Sculptured  Heads. 
Fig.  1,  Mound  Builders.    2,  Central  America. 


SKULLS  EXHUMED  FROM  MOUNDS.  33 

pretend  to  excel;  to  manufacture  woven  stuffs  of  fine  texture,  the 
rude  beginnings  whereof  are  found  in  the  fragments  of  coarse  cloth ; 
in  objects  of  use  and  ornament  wrought 
in  metals,  left  among  the  other  relics  in 
the  earlier  northern  homes  of  their  race. 
In  the  art  of  that  southern  people  there 
was  nothing  imitative ;  the  works  of  the 
Mound  Builders  stand  as  distinctly  orig- 

.        i  i>i  i  t  f          •  •  Cloth  from  Mounds. 

mal  and  independent  of  any  foreign  in. 

fluence.  Any  similarity  in  either  that  can  be  traced  to  anything  else 
is  in  the  apparent  growth  of  the  first  rude  culture  of  the  northern 
race  into  the  higher  civilization  of  that  of  the  south.  It  certainly 
is  not  a  violent  supposition,  that  the  people  who  disappeared  at  one 
period  from  one  part  of  the  continent,  leaving  behind  them  certain 
unmistakable  marks  of  progress,  had  reappeared  again  at  another 
time,  in  another  place  where  the  same  marks  were  found  in  larger 
development. 

There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  there  is  yet  something  to  be 
learned  of  the  character  of  this  singular  people.  Some  recent  ex- 
plorers believe  that  they  find  new  traces  of  their  mode  of  worship  and 
of  their  religious  faith,  and  others  that  new  facts  are  coming  to  light 
from  a  study  of  their  skulls.  Hitherto  but  little  has  been  learned 
from  this  last  source,  so  great  is  the  difficulty  of  recovering  any  com- 
plete crania  from  deposits  where  the  decay  of  all  perishable  things  is 
so  thorough.  Till  quite  recently  the  number  of  authentic  skulls,  that 
is,  of  those  free  from  all  suspicion  of  being  of  later  and 
intrusive  burial  in  the  mounds,  was  less  than  half  a  dozen,  humed  from 

,  .  mounds. 

Their  shape  and  capacity  show  no  uncommon  type.  But 
those  lately  recovered  from  different  places  in  Illinois,  Indiana,  and 
Iowa  indicate,  like  the  Neanderthall  skull  found  in  a  cave  in  Prussia, 
and  the  Dorreby  skull  of  the  Stone  Age  of  Denmark,  a  very  low 
order  of  intellect.1  General  H.  G.  Thomas,  U.  S.  A.,  has  exhumed 
from  some  mounds  in  Dakota  Territory  a  number  of  skulls  of  the 
lowest  type,  "  unlike,"  he  says,  "  that  of  any  human  being  to-day 
alive  on  this  continent,"  but  "  like  those  of  the  great  Gibbon 
monkey."2  It  is  easier  to  believe  that  the  mounds  are  the  burial- 
places  of  more  than  one  extinct  race  than  that  their  builders  were  not 
far  from  idiots. 

Future  explorations  may  shed  more  light  upon  this  inquiry.     Man 
is  older  on  other  continents  than  was  till  quite  recently  supposed.     If 

1  See  Foster's  Pre-his'.oric  Races  of  the  L'nittd  States,  chap,  vii.,  for  collation  of  the  evi- 
dence on  these  crania. 

a  Sixth  Annual  Rejiort  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  by  F.  B.  Hayden,  p.  656. 
VOL.    I.  3 


34  THE  MOUND  BUILDERS.  [CHAP.  II. 

older  elsewhere  he  may,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  be  older  here.  We 
are  permitted  to  go  behind  the  Indians  in  looking  for  the  earliest  in- 
habitants of  North  America,  wherever  they  may  have  come  from  or 
whenever  they  may  have  lived.  In  such  an  inquiry,  relieved  of  some 
of  the  limitations  which  have  hitherto  obstructed  it,  we  may  find  in  the 
relics  of  an  early  and  rude  culture  much  to  dispel  the  obscurity  and 
mystery  which  till  within  four  centuries  have  shrouded  the  New  World 
in  darkness. 


Discovery  of  Greenland. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE   NORTHMEN    IN   AMERICA. 

EARLY  VOYAGES.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  ICELAND.  —  GREENLAND  COLONIZED  BY  ERIC  THE 
RED.  —  BJARNI  HERJULFSON  DISCOVERS  AMERICA.  —  SONS  OF  ERIC  THE  RED.  — 
LEIF'S  VOYAGE  TO  VINLAND  THE  GOOD.  —  EXPEDITION  OF  THORVALD.  —  His  DEATH. 

—  COLONY   OF  THORFINN   KARLSEFNE.  —  FIGHT  WITH   SKR^ELLINGS.  —  SUPPOSED^ 
IRISH   SETTLEMENTS   IN  AMERICA.  —  COLONY  OF  FREYDIS  —  THE   MASSACRE.  — 
GLOOMY  WINTER  AT  VINLAND.  —  ROUND  TOWER  AT  NEWPORT.  —  DIGHTON  ROCK. 

—  THE  ICELANDIC  SAGAS. 

WERE  these  great  Western  continents,  stretching  almost  from  pole 
to  pole,  unknown  till  1492  to  the  nations  who  had  made  the  world's 
history  ?  The  pride  of  human  knowledge  has  for  nearly  four  centuries 
resented  such  an  imputation.  If  facts  were  wanting,  ingenious  sup- 
positions of  more  or  less  probability  were  made  to  take  the  place  of 
facts.  Even  before  Flavio  Gioia  introduced  the  use  of  the  magnetic 
needle  into  maritime  Europe  some  unlucky  vessel  may  have 

i  ,    .  11-1  it  Pre-Colum- 

been  driven  across  the  Atlantic  and  stranded  upon  strange  bia 
shores  ;  or  some  Phoenician  navigator  who  understood  "  night- 
sailing  "  may  have  boldly  turned  his  ship's  head  to  the  West,  after 
passing  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  in  search  of  new  fields  of  adventure 
and  of  traffic  ;  or  some  of  the  fearless  navigators  who  steered  into  the 
Sea  of  Darkness  in  search  of  Antilia,  or  the  Island  of  the  Seven 
Bishops,  may  have  landed  for  a  night  upon  coasts  which  some  super- 
natural power  was  supposed  to  guard  from  the  intrusion  of  man.  Or 


36  THE  NORTHMEN  IN  AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

it  may  be  that  the  lost  Tribes  of  Israel  wandered  through  Asia  to 
the  Northwest  coast  and  were  the  progenitors  of  the  North  American 
Indians  and  the  ancient  Mexicans  ;  that  the  Malays  crossed  the  Poly- 
nesian Archipelago  and  invaded  the  Western  Hemisphere  on  the 
South ;  that  a  vast  army  of  Mongols  came  with  their  elephants,  whose 
bones  are  left  as  a  witness  of  their  invasion  from  Brazil  to  Rhode 
Island  ;  that  the  Apostle  St.  Thomas  preached  Christianity  in  Peru  ; 
or  that  St.  Patrick  sent  Irish  missionaries  to  the  Isles  of  America. 
All  these  theories  have  had  their  advocates. 

But  there  was  one  ancient  people  whose  warriors  wei'e  the  dread 
The  North-  °^  all  Europe,  from  the  North  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean,  and 
men-  whose  long  experience  as  pirates  made  them  fearless  and 

successful  sailors,  who,  there  seems  no  good  reason  for  doubting,  did 
cross  the  Atlantic  from  coast  to  coast,  almost  five  hundred  years  be- 
fore Columbus  stept  upon  and  knelt  down  to  kiss  the  sands  of  the 
beach  of  San  Salvador.  The  Northmen  had  a  genius  for  discovering 
new  countries  by  accident,  and  having  approached  and  settled  within 
a  few  hundred  miles  of  the  coast  of  the  Western  Continent,  it  would 
have  been  strange  rather  than  otherwise  if  such  bold  rovers  had  not 
found  their  way  thither.  They  made,  indeed,  no  permanent  settle- 
ment, and  if  it  may  be  held  as  an  argument  against  the  probability  of 
their  having  made  the  discovery  at  all  that  it  is  hard  to  find  a  conti- 
nent, it  may,  with  quite  as  much  force,  be  urged  that  it  is  still  harder 
to  lose  one,  when  found.  But  here  again  the  Northmen  are  not  with- 
out a  parallel  in  their  own  experience,  for  it  is  certain  that  they  dis- 
covered and  held  Greenland  for  more  than  four  hundred  years,  and 
lost  it  again  for  more  than  two  centuries. 

It  was  by  accident  the  Northmen  discovered  Iceland ;  Naddod,  an 
They  discov-  illustrious  sea-rover,  having  been  driven,  about  the  year  860, 
er  Iceland.  UpOn  its  coasts  by  a  storm.  He  called  it  Snoeland  —  Snow- 
land.  Four  years  later,  one  Gardar  Svafarson  was  also  carried  thither 
by  tempest,  and  finding  it  by  circumnavigation  an  island,  gave  it  the 
name  of  Gardar-h6lm  —  Gardar's  Isle.  His  account  of  it  was  so  pleas- 
ant that  soon  after  Floki,  or  Flokko,  another  famous  viking,  went  out 
to  plant  a  colony.1  Not  trusting  to  the  chances  which  had  befallen 
and  befriended  his  predecessors,  he  took  with  him  three  ravens,  which 
he  was  careful  before  starting  to  have  consecrated  to  the  g<xls,  and  to 

1  There  is  some  little  discrepancy  as  to  those  first  discoverers.  The  editor  of  Mallet's 
Northern  Antiquities,  Bohn's  edition,  puts  Naddod  first  and  Gardar  second;  De  Costa  — 
Pre-Columbian  Discovery  in  America  —  fjives  the  precedence  to  Gardar;  while  Crautz — 
History  of  Greenland —  who  cites  as  his  authority  "  the  learned  Icelander,  Arugrim  Jonas," 
says  Naddok  (Naddod)  was  h'rst  driven  on  the  coast  by  a  storm,  and  that  he  was  followed 
"  by  a  certain  pyrate  whose  name  was  Flokko,"  and  omits  any  mention  whatever  of  Gar- 
dar. 


DISCOVERY   OF  ICELAND.  37 

these  lie  trusted  to  guide  him  to  the  land  he  sought.  The  first  he 
let  loose  returned  toward  the  islands  of  Faroe,  which  Flokko  con- 
cluded, therefore,  must  still  be  the  nearest  land  ;  the  second,  sent  out 
some  days  later,  returned  to  the  vessel,  which  was  accepted  as  a  proof 
that  there  was  no  land  within  a  raven's  flight ;  but  the  third,  when  let 
loose,  circling  into  the  air,  turned  its  course  at  length  steadily  west- 
ward, and  him  Flokko  followed,  till  he  reached  the  island.  For  one 
winter  he  and  his  colony  lived  there  ;  but  his  cattle  all  perished  with 
cold.  In  the  spring,  when  he  would  have  sown  seed,  thick  ice  still 


Flokko  sending  out   Ravens. 

covered  the  coasts  and  rivers  ;  so  when  the  summer  came  he  sailed 
back  to  Norway,  declaring  that  the  land,  which  he  called  Island,  — 
Iceland  —  was  unfit  for  the  habitation  of  either  man  or  beast.  Ten 
years  later,  however,  another  colony  was  taken  out  from  Norway  by 
the  Earl  Ingolf,  who  sought  in  Iceland  a  refuge  from  the  tyranny  of 
King  Harold  Haarfager,  who  no  doubt  was  a  despot,  but  whose  offence 
in  this  case  seems  to  have  been  some  intolerant  notions  he  held  about 
a  manslaughter  that  Ingolf  had  committed.  The  attempt  at  coloniza- 
tion was  this  time  successful,  and  a  state  was  founded  which  for  sev- 
eral centuries  was  the  most  remarkable  community  of  that  age  for  the 
simplicity  and  freedom  of  its  political  institutions,  for  the  license,  not 
to  say  the  licentiousness,  of  its  social  life,  and  for  the  intelligence  and 
cultivation  of  its  people. 

Greenland  was  discovered  by  another,  almost  inevitable  accident, 
for,  from  mid-channel  between  it  and  Iceland,  both  are  at  the  same 
time  visible.1  Gunnbiorn,  or  Gunbioern,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of 

1  Craiitz's  Greenland,  book  iv.  p.  245. 


38  THE  NORTHMEN  IN  AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

Iceland,  was  driven  westward  by  a  storm,  when  he  saw  land  which 
was  held  in  remembrance  for  the  next  century  as  Gunnbiorn's  Rocks. 
Eric  the  Red,  a  man  disposed  to  acts  of  violence  which  he  was  too 
weak  to  sustain  when  resented,  was  compelled  to  find  safety  in  exile. 
Gunnbiorn's  Rocks  seemed  to  him  a  good  place  to  go  to,  and  thither 
he  went. 

In  three  years  he  was  back  in  Iceland,  full  of  glowing  descriptions 

of  this  country,  which  he  called  Greenland,  "  because,  quoth 
settles  he,  people  will  be  attracted  hither  if  the  land  has  a  good 

name."  He  returned  to  Greenland  with  large  additions  to 
his  colony.  It  was  the  sons  of  this  Eric  the  Red  who  were  the  first 
Europeans,  so  far  as  is  positively  known,  to  set  foot  upon  this  conti- 
nent. 

But  this  came  about  by  still  another  accident.     Among  those  who 

followed  Eric  to  Greenland  was  Herjulf,  who  had  a  son,  "  a 

Bjarni  sails  .    .  ,,       ,      ,  t    rt-          •  -r»- 

for  Green-  promising  young  man,  of  the  name  of  Bjarni,  or  Biarne. 
They  were  both  in  the  habit  of  making  trading  voyages  to 
Norway  in  the  summer,  and  passing  the  winter  together  at  home  in 
Iceland.  On  returning  from  Norway  in  the  year  985,  Bjarni,  who  was 
a  dutiful  son  as  well  as  a  promising  youth,  found  that  his  father  had 
followed  Eric.  He  instantly  proposed,  without  unloading  his  ship,  to 
go  after  him,  though,  as  he  said  to  his  crew,  "  Our  voyage  will  be 
thought  foolish,  as  none  of  us  have  been  on  the  Greenland  sea  be- 
fore." But  this  did  not  daunt  them  ;  they  set  sail,  and  in  three  days 
lost  sight  of  land. 

Then  thick  fogs  beset  them,  and  "for  many  days"  they  were  driven 
by  a  north  wind  they  knew  not  whither.  When  the  weather  cleared, 
they  made  all  sail  for  another  day  and  night,  and  then  welcomed  the 
sight  of  land  again.  It  was,  they  said,  a  country  covered  with  woods, 
without  mountains,  and  with  small  hills  inland.  This  they  were  sure 
could  not  be  Greenland  ;  so  they  turned  seaward  once  more,  and  —  for 
these  Northmen  knew  how  to  sail  on  a  wind  —  "left  the  land  on  their 
larboard  side,  and  let  the  stern  turn  from  the  land."  After  sailing  two 
days  and  two  nights  they  again  approached  the  coast,  which,  they  saw 
as  they  neared  it,  was  low  and  wooded.  Bjarni  refused  to  go  on  shore, 
at  which  his  crew  grumbled  ;  for  this,  he  said,  can  no  more  be  Green- 
land than  the  land  we  saw  before,  "because  in  Greenland  are  said 
to  be  very  high  ice-hills." 

Then  for  three  nights  and  days  they  went  on  their  way  as  before, 
with  a  southwest  wind,  when  for  the  third  time  they  made  land  ahead, 
and  it  was  "  high  and  mountainous,  with  snowy  mountains."  Once 
more  said  Bjarni,  "  In  my  opinion  this  land  is  not  what  we  want ;  " 
and  again  he  refused  to  leave  his  ship,  but  sailed  along  the  coast  and 
found  it  was  an  island.  Standing  out  to  sea  again,  still  with  the 


BJARNl'S  VOYAGE.  39 

southwest  wind,  after  three  days  and  nights  they  once  more  sighted 
land.  "  This,"  said  Bjarni,  "  is  most  like  what  has  been  told  me  of 
Greenland  ;  and  here  we  shall  take  to  the  land."  He  had  made  what 
sailors  would  call  a  good  landfall,  for  the  cape  before  him  was  called 
Herjulfness,  where  his  father,  Herjulf,  had  built  him  a  house.  Here 
Bjarni  went  on  shore  and  made  it  his  home  for  the  rest  oL  his  days.1 

Bjarni  was  blamed  both  in  Norway  and  at  home,  that  he  made  no 
exploration  of  the  country  that  he  had  thus  discovered.  But  Voyage  of 
the  voyage  was  the  subject,  no  doubt,  of  many  a  tale,  and  f^t™df^ 
of  much  discussion  in  the  long  winter  evenings  of  Greenland,  Greenland- 
among  a  race  of  bold  and  hardy  sailors,  themselves  hardty  yet  settled 
in  a  region  which,  till  within  a  few  years,  was  only  known  by  the 
name  of  one  who  had  looked  at  it  from  the  deck  of  his  ship.  Bjarni 
seems  to  have  preferred  an  annual  visit  to  Norway,  and  the  pleasures 
of  the  court  of  Earl  Eric,  to  any  more  voyages  in  unknown  seas  ;  but 
in  the  house  of  Eric  the  Red  in  Greenland,  whose  sons  were  growing 
up,  the  story  was,  no  doubt,  often  told  of  that  dreary  drift  in  the  fog 
for  many  days  before  the  northerly  wind ;  of  the  low  wooded  shores 
and  the  pleasant  green  hills  stretching  inland,  that  greeted  the  long- 
ing eyes  and  brought  hope  again  to  the  desponding  hearts  of  the  lost 
mariners ;  of  the  runs  of  two  and  three  days  each  from  coast  to  coast, 
and  that  wonderful  landfall  at  last,  when  they  dropped  their  anchor 
right  under  the  cape  where  the  father,  whom  the  son  was  in  search  of, 
had  built  his  house.  Thorvald,  the  grandfather  of  these  boys,  was 
among  the  early  Norwegian  pioneers  in  Iceland ;  Eric,  his  son,  had  led 
the  first  colony  to  Greenland  ;  so  the  sons  of  Eric  longed  to  throw 
their  seat-posts2  overboard  in  their  turn  on  some  unknown  coast. 

It  was  long  debated,  doubtless,  in  family  councils,  and  finally  deter- 
mined that  this  new  adventure  should  be  undertaken.  In  the  year 
1000,  Leif,  the  eldest  son,  went  to  Herjulfness  and  bought  his  ship  of 
Bjarni,  manned  her  with  a  crew  of  thirty-five  men,  Bjarni  among  them, 
perhaps  as  pilot.  When  he  was  ready  to  sail,  Leif  prayed  his  father 
to  go  with  them  as  the  most  fitting  commander  for  such  an  expedition, 
and  the  old  viking,  objecting  that  he  was  too  old,  consented.  On  the 
way  to  the  ship,  however,  his  horse  stumbled  and  threw  him,  and  look- 
ing upon  the  mishap  as  a  warning,  he  said,  "  It  is  not  ordained  that  I 
should  discover  any  more  countries  than  that  which  we  now  inhabit, 

1  This,  and  the  following  narratives  of  the  voyages  to  Vinland,  we  condense  from  the 
Antiquitates  Americana;,  by  Professor  C.  C.  Rafn,  and  published  by  the  Antiquarian  Society 
of  Copenhagen,  1837  ;  collated  with  the  translations  in  Beamish 's  Discovery  of  America  by 
the  Northmen,  and  De  Costa's  Pre-Columbian  Discovery. 

2  The  seat-posts  were  the  columns  of  a  chieftain's  seat,  which,  when  he  went  to  sea,  he 
took  with  him  and  threw  overboard  when  he  approached  a  coast ;  where  they  landed,  di- 
rected by  the  gods,  he  followed,  it  was  assumed,  in  safety. 


40  THK   NORTHMEN  IN   AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

and  we  should  make  no  further  attempt  in  company."  He  returned 
to  his  home  at  Brattahlid,  and  the  expedition  sailed  with  Leif  as  its 
leader. 

Leif  reversed,  the  order  of  Bjarni's  voyage,  and  sought  first  for  the 
voyage  of  land  which  the  other  saw  last  —  Newfoundland.  When  they 
Lucky,  son  reached  it  they  went  ashore  and  found  it  a  country  without 
Red.r'c  grass  ;  snow  and  ice  covered  it,  and  from  the  sea  to  the 
mountains  it  was  a  plain  of  flat  stones.  Said  Leif,  "  We  have  not 
done  like  Bjarni  about  this  land,  that  we  have  not  been  upon  it ;  now 
will  I  give  the  land  a  name,  and  call  it  Helluland."  1  Again  they 
put  to  sea,  and  sought  the  next  land  that  Bjarni  had  seen — Nova 
Scotia.  Here  also  they  went  on  shore,  and  found  a  country  covered 
with  woods,  with  low  and  flat  beaches  of  white  sand.  "  This  land," 
said  Leif,  u  shall  be  named  after  its  qualities,  and  called  Markland ; " 
that  is,  woodland.  They  set  sail  again  with  a  northeast  wind,  and  in 
two  days  once  more  made  the  land,  as  Bjarni  had  done,  sailing  in  the 
opposite  direction  with  a  southwest  wind;  and  the  land  now  before 
them  was  that  which  Bjarni  had  first  seen  when  driven  in  from  the 
sea.  There  can  be  little  doubt  they  were  now  on  the  coast  of  New 
England,  but  precisely  where  is  a  disputed  question,  for  there  are  cer- 
tain incongruities  in  the  original  narratives  which  it  is  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  to  reconcile. 

Their  first  landing-place  was  an  island  north  of  the  main.  The 
weather  was  pleasant ;  the  dew  was  upon  the  grass,  and  this 

New  Eng-  i  i     .  o        -ITTI 

land  coast  they  tasted,  and  it  was  very  sweet.'2  When  they  embarked 
again,  it  was  to  sail  through  a  sound  between  the  island  and 
a  cape  that  ran  out  northward  from  the  main,  past  which  they  went 
westward.  To  find  where  and  what  this  island  was,  is  the  chief 
source  of  difficulty.  Professor  Rafn,  who  says  that  by  northward  the 
Northmen  meant  eastward,  according  to  their  compass,3  believes  that 
it  was  the  island  of  Nantucket,  and  that  they  sailed  thence  across  the 
entrance  to  Buzzard's  Bay,  to  Seaconet  Passage,  and  then  up  the 
Pocasset  River  to  Mount  Hope  Bay.  But  this  is  unsatisfactory  to 
other  interpreters  of  the  Saga,  and  an  island  and  a  cape  on  the  out- 
side of  Cape  Cod,  between  Orleans  and  Chatham,  which  long  ago 
disappeared,  are  substituted  for  Nantucket.4  If  it  be  said  that  Nan- 
tucket  can  be  called  neither  east  or  north  of  any  main  land  in 
sight ;  that  the  waters  between  it  and  the  neighboring  coast  can  hardly 
be  called  a  sound  ;  so  it  may  be  objected  to  the  other  theory  that  it 

1  From  Hella,  a  flat  stone. 

2  Hcmey-de\v,  it  is  said,  is  still  found  on  the  grass  at  Xantuckct. 
8  Antiquitatfs  Americaiue,  p.  428. 

*  Pre-Columbian  Discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen,  B.  F  De  Coeta.  p.  29. 


VOYAGE   OF  LEIF   THE  LUCKY. 


41 


is  impossible  to  reconcile  the  incidents  of  the  narrative  to  so  long  a 
distance  between  the  first 
landing-place  and  the  place 
of  final  settlement;  and 
that  if  an  island  must  be 
brought  up  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea  to  meet  the 
exigency,  it  would  be  quite 
as  easy  to  place  it  where  it 
would  answer  to  all  the  dif- 
ficulties of  the  case.  Yet 
there  is  no  doubt  that 
marked  changes  have  tak- 
en place  within  the  last  few 
centuries  along  the  outer 
const  of  Cape  Cod  ;  that  an 
island  called  Nawset,  and  a 
cape  called  Point  Gilbert, 
once  existed  at  the  points 
indicated,  and  were  known 
to  Capt.  John  Smith  and 
Bartholomew  Gosnold  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century.1 

Making  due  allowance,  then,  Map  of  Cape  Cod  and  Nawset  Isle. 

for  possible  inaccuracies  in  a  narrative  written  long  after  the  event, 
it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that  some  discrepancies  may  be  ac- 
counted for  by  changes  along  the  coast  line  of  Massachusetts  within 
the  last  eight  hundred  years. 

It  is  now,  however,  generally  conceded  that  this  was  a  veritable 
discovery  of  the  coast  of  Rhode  Island  bv  the  Northmen,  and 

11-11  •  •!••.«•  TT  T»  Rhode  Isl- 

that  they  landed  at  some  point  either  in  Mount  Hope  Bay  or  and  inioth 
in   Narragansett   Bay.     They  went  up  a  river  that   came 
through  a  lake,  says  the  narrative,  and  this  is  in  accordance  with  the 
appearance  of  those  waters.     Here  they  cast  anchor,  went  ashore,  and 
built  a  house  in  which  to  pass  the  winter.     According  to  the  latest 
explanation   of   the  Scandinavian  calendar,  their  description   of   the 
shortest  day  gave  the  sun  as  rising  at  7.30  A.  M.,  and  setting  at  4.30 
P.  M.,  thus  fixing  the  latitude  at  41°  24'  10",  which  is  about  that  of 
Mount  Hope  Bay.     "  There  came,"  they  said,  "  no  frost  in  winter, 
and  little  did  the  grass  wither  there  ;  "  and  "  the  nature  of  the  coun- 

1  See  an  article  by  Amos  Otis,  of  Yarmouth,  Mass.,  on  The  Discovery  of  an  Ancient  Ship 
on  Xawset  Beach,  Orleans,  Cape  Cod,  ill  May,  1863.  New  England  Genealogical  Rtqister 
vol.  18,  p.  37,  et  serf. 


MAP  OP 

CAPE  COD 

and 
ISLE   NAWSET 


42  THE  NORTHMEN  IN  AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

try  was,  as  they  thought,  so  good,  that  cattle  would  not  require  house- 
feeding."  Such  a  season  would  be  exceptional  now,  even  for  the 
neighborhood  of  Newport ;  but  any  ordinary  New  England  winter 
would  seem  mild  to  these  hardy  Greenlanders. 

Leif  divided  his  company  into  two  parties,  one  of  which  was  alter- 
nately to  explore  the  country.  On  one  of  these  expeditions  a  man 
named  Tyrker,  a  German,  and  who  was  Leif's  foster-father,  was  miss- 
ing. A  party  had  just  started  to  search  for  him,  with  Leif  at  its 
head,  when  the  German  reappeared  in  a  state  of  great  excitement. 
He  gesticulated  wildly,  spoke  for  a  long  time  in  his  native  tongue, 
and  "  Leif  saw  that  his  foster-father  was  not  in  his  right  senses."  But 
Leif  was  mistaken ;  the  poor  German,  who  had  lived  long  in  the  ice- 
fields of  the  frozen  North,  had  only  been  carried  back  for  the  moment 
to  the  Vaterland,  for  he  said  at  length  in  Norsk, "  '  I  have  not  been 
much  farther  off,  but  still  I  have  something  new  to  tell  of  ;  I  found 
vines  and  grapes  ! '  '  But  is  that  true,  my  fosterer  ?  '  quoth  Leif. 
*  Surely  it  is  true,'  replied  he,  '  for  I  was  bred  up  in  a  land  where 
there  is  no  want  of  either  vines  or  grapes.'' 

Then,  no  doubt,  he  led  them  to  the  woods,  that  they  might  see 
witli  their  own  eyes  the  climbing  vines  and  the  clustering  fruit,  and 
it  may  well  have  seemed  to  them  that  in  a  country  where  these  grew 
wild  there  could  be  no  real  winter.  So  precious  were  they  to  Leif 
that  thenceforward  one  duty  of  his  men  was  to  gather  grapes,  and  he 
filled  his  long-boat  with  them  to  take  back  to  Greenland.  What  bet- 
ter evidence  could  he  bring  of  the  value  of  the  land  to  a  people  whose 
greatest  delight,  next  to  fighting,  was  drinking  ?  They  had  not  yet 
forgotten,  notwithstanding  their  new  religion,  that  the  chief  of  their 
old  Pagan  gods,  Odin,  had  no  need  of  food  only  because  wine  was 
to  him  both  meat  and  drink ;  that  all  the  heroes  of  Valhalla  drank 
daily  of  the  wonderful  flow  of  milk  from  the  she-goat  Heidrun,  and 
that  the  milk  was  mead.  So  heaping  up  on  deck  the  grapes  of  this 
viniand  the  beautiful  land  where  in  winter  was  no  frost,  and  which  he 
Good.  named  Viniand  (Vineland),  and  filling  the  hold  of  his  vessel 

with  timber,  about  which,  at  least,  there  could  be  no  questionable  value 
in  treeless  Greenland,  Leif  returned  home  in  the  spring.  It  was  on 
this  return  voyage,  or  one  of  the  year  before  from  Norway,  that  he 
saved  a  shipwrecked  crew  ;  but  whenever  it  was,  for  that  and  the  dis- 
covery of  Viniand  he  was  thereafter  known  as  Leif  the  Lucky. 

The  voyage,  as  we  can  readily  believe,  made  "much  talk"  in  Green- 
land, and  another  of  the  sons  of  Eric  thought  the  country 
goes  to  New  had  not  been  sufficiently  explored.  "Thou  canst  go  with 
my  ship,  brother,  if  thou  wilt,  to  Viniand,"  said  Leif ;  for 
Eric  the  Red  having  died  that  winter,  he  was  now  (1002)  the  head 


THORVALD  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  43 

of  the  house,  and  not  disposed  just  then  for  maritime  adventures. 
Thorvald  accepted  the  offer,  and  with  a  crew  of  thirty  men  sailed  for 
the  new  country. 

The  booths  which  his  brother  had  put  up  were  still  standing,  and 
he  went  into  winter  quarters,  his  men  fishing  for  their  support ;  the 
waters,  as  Leif  had  found  two  years  before,  abounding  with  salmon 
and  other  fish.  In  the  spring,  Thorvald  sent  some  of  his  men  in  the 
ship's  long-boat  to  explore  to  the  westward.  They  spent  the  summer 
in  this  pleasant  excursion,  coasting  along  the  shores  of  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  and  Long  Island,  the  whole  length  of  the  Sound,  pene- 
trating, probably,  to  New  York,  and  finding  there  another  lake  through 
which  a  river  flowed  to  the  sea.  They  landed  on  many  islands  ;  they 


Norse  Ships  entering  Boston   Harbor. 

beached  their  boat  many  times  on  the  broad,  wide,  shallow  sands,  down 
to  the  edge  of  which  grew  the  green  grass  and  the  great  trees  which 
made  this  pleasant  land  seem  a  very  garden  to  these  wranderers  from 
a  country  all  rocks,  and  ice-mountains,  and  fields  of  snow.  But  once 
only  did  they  see  any  sign  of  human  habitation,  and  that  was  a  coru- 
shed  built  of  wood. 

The  next  spring  (1004),  Thorvald  started  for  a  more  extended  trip, 
as  he  went  in  his  ship.  Standing  first  eastward,  he  then  sailed  north- 
ward along  the  sea-coast  of  Cape  Cod,  where  a  heavy  storm  caught 
him  off  a  ness  (cape),  and  drove  his  ship  ashoi'e,  perhaps  at  Race 
Point.  Here  they  remained  a  long  time  to  repair  damages,  putting 
in  a  new  keel ;  the  old  one  they  set  up  in  the  sand,  and  the  place  they 
called  Kjalarness  (Keel-ness  or  Keelcape),  in  commemoration  of  the 
disaster.  Then  they  cruised  along  the  opposite  shore  of  what  is  now 


44  THE   NORTHMEN   IN   AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts,  and  sailed  into  its  bays  till  they 
came  to  "  a  point  of  land  which  stretched  out  and  was  covered  with 
wood."  l  "  Here,"  said  Thorvald,  "  is  beautiful,  and  here  I  would  like 
to  raise  my  dwelling."  Before  the  day  was  out  he  looked  upon  his 
words  as  prophetic. 

For  the  first  time  the  Northmen  here  met  with  the  natives  —  met 

them  as  Europeans  so  often  did  in  subsequent  centuries, 
the  skra-i-  Looking  about  them  at  this  beautiful  spot,  they  saw  in  a 

secluded  nook  three  skin-boats  set  up  as  tents,  beneath  which 
were  nine  Skrrellings,2  on  whom  they  stole  unawares  and  captured 
eight  of  them.  The  ninth  escaped;  the  eight  they  immediately  killed 
in  cold  blood.  This  cruel  deed  done,  they  lay  down  to  sleep  upon 
the  grass  under  the  trees ;  but  it  was  not  to  pleasant  dreams.  "  There 
came  a  shout  over  them  so  that  they  all  awoke.  Thus  said  the  shout : 
'  Wake  thou  !  Thorvald  !  and  all  thy  companions,  if  thou  wilt  preserve 
life,  and  return  thou  to  thy  ship,  with  all  thy  men,  and  leave  the  land 
without  delay.' '  It  was  the  savage  war-whoop  of  the  enraged  Ski-tel- 
lings, come  to  avenge  the  murder  of  their  fellows.  The  Northmen 
fled  to  their  ship  to  defend  themselves  behind  their  battle-skreen.3 
"  Fight  little  against  them,"  was  Thorvald's  order,  mindful  now  of 
the  mercy  he  should  have  shown  before.  When  the  fight  was  over, 
and  the  Skraellings  had  retired,  the  answer  to  Thorvald's  inquiry  as 

1  It  is  conjectured  that  this  point  is  Nantasket  Beach,  at  the  end  of  which  is  Point  Alder- 
ton,  a  noble  promontory  opjwsite  the  narrow  entrance  to  Boston  Harbor.    But  this  can 
hardly  be,  for  Nantasket  Beach  is  not  "  a  point,"  but  a  peninsula  between  three  and  four 
miles  long,  not  "  stretching  out  "  into  the  sea,  but  making  a  continuation  of  the  coast  line 
from  Cohasset  Rocks  to  the  channel  connecting  Boston  Harbor  with  the  sea,  and  inclosing 
on  one  side  the  inner  bay  into  which  various  rivers  empty  south  of  Boston.    This  peninsula 
is,  most  of  it,  a  long,  narrow  beach  of  white  sea  sand,  and  can  never  have  been  covered 
with  wood.     Point  Alderton,  moreover,  is  a  hill  several  hundred  feet  in  height,  and  is  one 
of  a  group  of  similar  hills  within  a  mile  or  two.     The  description  in  the  Saga  does  not  in 
the  least  conform  to  the  natural  features  of  this  locality,  and  the  "remarkable  grove  of 
trees"  referred  to  in  Antifjuitutes  Americans  as  mentioned  in  Laurie  and  Whittie's  Sailing 
Directions,  and  the  Duke  of  Saxe  Weimar's  Travels,  is  a  singular  grove  of  small  wild  crab 
trees  covering  an  acre  or  two  of  ground,  but  not  visible  from  Point  Alderton  or  Nantasket 
Beach.     There  is  at  Cohasset,  about  ten  miles  south  of  Point  Alderton,  a  point  of  land,  a 
bold,  rocky  promontory,  jutting  out  from  beautiful  wooded  hills,  which  might  well  have  im- 
pressed Thorvald  with  its  beauty,  and  have  been  a  favorite  place  of  resort,  in  its  sheltered 
nooks  and  for  its  neighborhood  to  good  fishing-grounds,  to  the  Skraellings. 

2  The  Northmen  were  used  to  calling  the  Esquimaux  Skraellings,  a  term  of  contempt, 
meaning,  says  Crantz,  "chips,  parings,  i.  «.,  dwarfs."     The  assumption  is  that  these  people 
of  the  Vinland  vicinity  were  Esquimaux.    If  that  be  true,  and  the  term  was  not  used  merely 
for  want  of  any  other  to  apply  to  copper-colored  natives,  then  we  are  to  conclude  that  the 
Indians  were  later  comers  in  that  part  of  the  country.     Did  they  first  displace  the  Mound- 
building  people,  and  then,  in  the  course  of  time,  move  upon  and  displace  the  Esquimaux 
of  the  Atlantic  coast?     Was  it  this  race  who  were  not  smokers,  and  who  mude  the  shell- 
heaps  where  no  pipes  are  found  ? 

*  A  shield  made  of  large  planks  of  wood. 


THORSTEIN   OF   ERICSFIORD. 


45 


Burial-place  of  Thorvald. 


to  who  was  wounded  was,   None.     Then    said    lie,  "  I    have    gotten 
a  wound  under  the  arm,  for  an  arrow  fled  between  the  edge  Thorvaid 
of  the  ship  and  the  shield,  in  under  my  arm,  and  here  is  the   klllu<J' 
arrow,  and  it  will  prove  a  mortal  wound  to  me.     Now  counsel  I  ye, 
that    ye    get    ready    in- 
stantly to  depart,  but  ye 
shall  bear  me  to  that  cape 
where  I  thought  it  best  to 
dwell ;  it  may  be  that  a 
true   word   fell   from   my 
mouth,  that  I  should  dwell 
there   for  a    time  ;    there 
shall    ye    bury    me,   and 
set  up  crosses  at  my  head 
and    feet,    and    call    the 
place  Krossaness  forever, 
in  all  time  to  come."   And 
it  was  as  he  said  ;  he  died,  and  they  buried  him  on  the  pleasant  cape 
that  looked  out  upon  the  shores  and  waters  of  Massachusetts  Bay  ; 
at  his  head  and  feet  they  planted  crosses,  and  then  sailed  back  to  Vin- 
land  to  their  companions  with  the  heavy  tidings  of  the  death  of  their 
young  commander.     In  the  spring  the  colony,  with  another  load  of 
grapes  and  timber,  returned  to  Greenland. 

There  was  still  another  son  of  Eric,  Thorstein  of  Ericsfiord.  He 
had  married  Gudrid,  the  widow  of  Thorer,  captain  of  that  Eric-s  son 
crew  of  shipwrecked  mariners  whom  Leif  had  rescued.  Thor-  Thorstein- 
stein,  taking  his  wife  with  him,  sailed  in  the  spring  or  summer  of 
1005  for  Vinland,  chiefly,  however,  to  find  Krossaness  and  bring  home 
the  body  of  his  unfortunate  brother  Thorvald.  But  Vinland  he  did 
not  find,  nor  Krossaness  ;  and  after  cruising  about  for  months  without 
once  seeing  land,  they  returned  early  in  the  winter  and  landed  in  the 
western  settlement,  at  some  distance  from  Ericsfiord.  It  was  not  long 
before  sickness  broke  out  here  among  the  crew ;  many  died,  and  among 
them  Thorstein.  Wonderful  marvels  attended  this  season  of  death  ; 
the  dead  sat  up  in  their  beds  and  talked ;  they  shook  the  house,  as 
they  lay  down  again,  till  all  its  timbers  creaked  ;  and  they  made  them- 
selves preternaturally  heavy  when  taken  out  for  burial.  Thorstein 
was  one  of  these  ghostly  performers.  He  prophesied  to  the  weeping 
Gudrid,  telling  her,  first,  for  her  comfort,  that  he  had  "  come  to  a  good 
resting-place."  She  would  be  married  again,  he  said,  and  from  her 
and  her  husband  would  descend  "  a  numerous  posterity,  powerful, 
distinguished,  and  excellent,  sweet,  and  well  -  favoured."  Many 


46 


THE   NORTHMEN  IN  AMERICA. 


[CHAP.  III. 


Thorfinn 
Karlx'tn 

K\  j'«'.l,t  ]< 


other  pleasant  things  he  told  her,  all  of  which  came  to  pass  in  due 
season.1 

The  next  and  most  important  expedition  of  all  those  to  Vinland, 
next  to  Leifs  first  voyage,  was  made  by  Thorfinn,  surnamed 
Karlsefne.  that  is,  the  promising,  or  the  man  destined  to  be- 
come great.  He  was  a  merchant  of  Iceland,  wealthy,  and 
of  distinguished  lineage.  A  trading  voyage  had  brought  him  to  Green- 
land in  1000,  and  he  remained  for  the  winter  at  Brattahlid,  the  family 

seat  and  old  home  of  Eric, 
which  Leif  had  inherited. 
It  was  a  winter  of  festivi- 
ties. "  They  set  up  the 
game  of  chess  "  to  beguile 
the  long  winter  evenings, 
and  u  sought  amusement 
in  the  reciting  of  history, 
and  in  many  other  things, 
and  were  able  to  pass  life 
I  joyfully."  The  Yule  feast 
was  of  more  than  usual 
profusion  and  richness,  and 
that  was  speedily  followed  by  a  marriage,  -which  was  celebrated  with 
great  rejoicings.  Gudrid,  who  had  returned  home  in  the  spring  with 
the  body  of  her  late  husband,  Thorstein,  had  found  favor  in  the  eyes 
of  Karlsefne,  for  she  was  "  a  grave  and  dignified  woman,  and  there- 
with sensible,  and  knew  well  how  to  carry  herself  among  strangers." 
Thus,  before  the  first  year  of  her  widowhood  was  over,  was  brought 
to  pass  the  first  item  in  her  late  husband's  prophecy,  by  her  marriage 
to  an  Icelander. 

Vinland  the  Good  was  not  forgotten  ;  the  conversation  often  turned 
upon  it,  and  "  it  was  said  that  a  voyage  thither  would  be  particularly 
profitable  by  reason  of  the  fertility  of  the  land."  With  Karlsefne 
from  Iceland  had  come  three  other  merchants,  Snorri  Thorbrandson, 
in  the  ship  with  Karlsefne,  and  Bjarni  (or  Biarne)  Grimolfson  and 
Thorhall  Gamlason,  in  a  ship  of  their  own.  The  talk  of  the  new  land 
had  its  due  effect  on  these  strangers,  and  an  expedition  was  planned  to 
consist  of  these  two  Iceland  vessels,  and  a  third  commanded  by  a 
Greenlander,  Thorvard.  This  man  had  married  Frevdis,  a  natural 


Norse   Ruins   m   Greenland. 


1  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  Abstract  of  tfie  Ei/rlM/ijijia  Sni/n,  alluding  to  stories  of  this  sort 
amon<*  the  Icelanders,  many  of  which  are  curiously  like  the  alleged  phenomena  of  modern 
"  Spiritualism,"  says,  "  Such  incidents  make  an  invariable  part  of  the  history  of  a  rude 
ajre,  and  the  chronicles  which  do  not  afford  these  marks  of  human  credulity  may  he  j-riev- 
ouslv  suspected  as  heincr  deficient  in  authenticity."  Beamish  (  Di  scorer  >/ of  the  Northmen) 
cites  this  remark  as  peculiarly  applicable  to  the  narratives  relating  to  Vinland. 


COLONY   OF   TIIOKFIXN   KARLSEFXE.  47 

daughter  of  Eric  the  Red,  who  had  a  conspicuous  part  to  play  in  the 
subsequent  attempts  at  colonization.  Thus  in  one  winter,  at  a  Green- 
land fireside,  was  organized  a  voluntary  expedition,  to  consist  of  three 
ships  and  one  hundred  and  forty  men  and  women,1  about  equalling  in 
size  that  for  which,  four  centuries  later,  Columbus  waited  seven  years, 
with  prayers  and  in  poverty,  upon  the  Spanish  sovereigns. 

The  adventurers  sailed  in  the  spring  of  1007.  Gudrid  and  Freydis 
embarked  with  their  husbands  ;  and  there  were  on  board  many  other 
women,  married  and  unmarried  ;  which  was  not,  as  it  turned  out, 
fortunate,  for  among  their  subsequent  troubles,  and  when  they  divided 
into  parties,  "  the  women,"  says  one  of  the  narratives,  "  were  the 
cause  of  it,  for  those  who  were  unmarried  would  injure  those  who  were 
married,  and  hence  arose  great  disturbance."  But  the  object  evi- 
dently was  to  make  a  permanent  settlement,  and  that,  of  course,  was 
out  of  the  question  without  women.  They  took  with  them  also  cattle 
of  all  kinds. 

The  enterprise  was  plainly  full  of  promise  at  its  beginning;  but  it 
met  with  various  misfortunes,  and,  at  the  end  of  three  years,  was 
abandoned.  It  does  not  seem  certain  at  what  precise  spot  the  colony 
was  planted.  The  first  landfall  of  the  fleet  after  leaving  Markland  — 
for  they  touched  there  as  well  as  at  Helluland  —  was  Kjalarness, 
which  they  recognized  by  the  keel  set  np  there  by  the  unfortunate 
Thorvald  three  years  before.  They  ran  past  Cape  Cod,  and  because 
"  it  was  long  to  sail  by,"  they  called  it  Furdustrands,  or  Wonder- 
strands.  Somewhere  along  this  coast  they  put  in  at  a  cove,  and  Karl- 
sefne  sent  out  as  scouts  two  Scotch  slaves,  who  were  very  swift  of  foot, 
and  who  had  been  given,  years  before,  to  Leif  the  Lucky  by  the  King 
of  Norway,  as  one  of  the  inducements  to  persuade  him  to  become  a 
Christian.  The  historians  are  careful  to  describe  the  apparel  of  these 
Scots,  —  a  man  and  a  woman,  —  which  must  have  been  good  for 
running,  as  it  consisted  of  only  one  garment,  and  was  a  happy  combi- 
nation of  a  hat  and  a  breech-cloth,  covering  the  head,  buttoning  be- 
tween the  legs,  but  open  everywhere  else,  and  without  sleeves.  These 
scouts  were  gone  three  days,  and  came  back  with  encouraging  reports 
of  the  pleasantness  and  fruitfulness  of  the  country,  one  carrying  a 
bunch  of  grapes,  the  other  an  ear  of  corn.  Nantucket,  or  Martha's 
Vineyard,  which  the  fleet  next  reached,  and  where  eider-ducks  2  were 

1  The  Northmen  counted  by  the  long  and  the  short  hundred.     If  the  number  of  Karl- 
sefne's  expedition  were  reckoned  by  the  long  hundred,  they  counted  one  hundred  and  sixty 
persons. 

2  Though  the  eider-duck  is  no  longer  known  on  those  shores,  the  Northmen  are  not  likelv 
to  have  made  any  mistake  as  to  the  birds  they  saw  in  such  numbers.     That  particular  duck 
was  as  familiar  to  them,  no  doubt,  as  to  the  modern  Greeiilanders  and  Icelanders,  to  whom 
the  down  has  long  been  held  as  so  precious  an  article  of  traffic  that  the  bird  is  under  uni- 


48 


THE   NORTHMEN   IN   AMERICA. 


[CHAP.  III. 


so  plentiful  that  it  was  difficult  to  walk  without  treading  on  their  eggs, 
they  called  Stream  Island,  and  the  bay  beyond  —  Buzzard's  Bay  — 
Stream  Frith,  because  of  the  rapid  currents  around  their  shores.  On 
the  shores  of  this  bay  they  spent  the  first  winter. 

And  with  this  winter  their  troubles  began.    They  had  improvidently 
neglected  to  lav  in  a  sufficient  stock  of  provisions,  and  when, 

Malcontents  *  - 

:n  the  cui-  the  next  summer,  the  fishing  was  poor  there  came  absolute 
scarcity.  Now  in  Thorvard's  ship  was  one  Thorhall,  who 
had  been  the  huntsman  in  summer,  and  in  winter  the  steward  of  Eric 
the  Red.  He  was,  it  is  said,  "  a  large  man,  and  strong,  black,  and 
like  a  giant,  silent,  and  foul-mouthed  in  his  speech,  and  always  egged 


Scots  Returning  to  the  Ship. 

on  (eggjadi)  Eric  to  the  worst ;  he  was  a  bad  Christian."  Perhaps 
it  was  only  hunger  that  first  drove  him  to  desert  ;  but  he  pretended, 
after  three  days'  absence  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  others  believed 
him,  that  while  they  were  praying  to  God  for  food  without  an  answer, 
his  invocations  to  Thor  had  caused  a  whale  to  be  cast  upon  the  beach 
during  this  season  of  scarcity,  of  which  they  all  eat,  and  were  all  made 
sick.  But  he  was  insubordinate  as  well  as  morose  and  impious,  for 
when  soon  after  it  was  proposed  to  seek  a  new  and  better  habitation, 
and  Karlsefne  thought  it  best  that  they  should  go  southward,  Thor- 
hall refused,  and  would  go  northward.  It  was  made  plain  presently 

versal  protection.  See  Letters  on  fee/ami,  during  the  Banks'  Expedition  in  1772.  London, 
1780,  ]).  144,  tt  seff.  Crantz's  Greenland,  book  ii.  chap.  1.  Description  of  Greenland,  by 
Hans  Egede,  chap.  v. 


COLONY   OF  THORFINN  KARLSEFNE.  49 

that  he  meant  to  abandon  the  expedition  and  return  to  Greenland, 
and  he  persuaded  nine  others  of  the  company  to  follow  him.  As  the 
manner  was  with  these  old  vikings,  in  times  of  unusual  excitement, 
he  took  to  verse,  and  jeered  at  and  satirized  Vinland  the  Good.  As 
he  carried  water  to  his  ship,  of  which  they  seem  to  have  allowed  him 
to  take  possession,  he  sang,  — 

"  People  told  me  when  I  came 
I litlnT.  all  would  be  so  fine  ; 
The  good  Vinland,  known  to  fame, 
Rich  in  fruits  and  choicest  wine ; 
Now  the  water-pail  they  send  ; 
To  the  fountain  I  must  l>eiid  ; 
Nor  from  out  this  land  divine 
Have  I  quaffed  one  drop  of  wine." 

And  once  more,  as  he  hoisted  his  sails  to  desert  his  comrades  in  dis- 
tress, he  sang  another  song,  mocking  at  their  disaster  and  reminding 
them  how,  by  the  help  of  the  "  red-bearded  "  Thor,  he  had  poisoned 
them  with  boiled  whale,  thus  :  — 

"  Let  onr  trusty  band 
Haste  to  Fatherland  ; 
Let  our  vessel  brave 
Plough  the  angry  wave, 
While  those  few  who  love 
Vinland  here  may  rove, 
Or,  with  idle  toil, 
Fetid  whales  may  boil, 
Here  on  Furdustrand 
Far  from  Fatherland."  l 

But  disaster  attended  these  deserters.  After  doubling  Cape  Cod  a 
gale  from  the  west  struck  their  vessel,  and  merchants  from  Ireland 
afterward  reported  that  she  was  driven  before  the  wind  to  the  coast 
of  that  country,  where  Thorhall  and  his  companions  were  seized  by  the 
natives  and  reduced  to  slavery. 

After  the  departure  of  the  malcontents,  the  two  other  ships,  com- 
manded by  Karlsefne  and  Biarni  (Biarne)  Grimolfson,  set 

•  i    f  i  »i     ««  •  Karlsefne 

sail  from  the  settlement  at  Buzzard  s  Bay  upon  an  exploring  explores 

T      •  *  f      COaSt°f 

expedition  southward  along  the  coast.     According  to  two  of  Rhode  i»i- 
the  three  narratives,  and  these  the  best  and  most  circum- 
stantial, they  sailed  "  a  long  time  "  before  they  came  "  to  a  river  that 
ran  out  from  the  land  through  a  lake  to  the  sea."     The  other  account 
is,  that  they  went  directly  on  their  arrival  to  Leif's  booths,  and  Leif, 
it  will  be  remembered,  went  also  up  a  river  that  flowed  through  a 
lake.     The  supposition  is  that  Karlsefne  and  his  companions  anchored 

1  Beamish's  Translations. 
VOL.  i.  4 


- 


50  THE   NORTHMEN    IN   AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

in  Mount  Hope  Bay,  where,  it  is  supposed,  Leif  had  passed  the  winter, 
partlv  because  of  this  river  and  lake,  the  sandy  shoals  and  the  ebb  of 
the  tide,  which  answer  to  the  character  of  that  bay ;  and  partly  be- 
cause they  called  the  place  where  they  landed  Hop,  and  a  hill  near 
Bristol,  Rhode  Island,  the  seat  of  the  Indian  chief,  King  Philip,  was 
known  to  the  first  English  settlers  as  Mount  Hope.1  The  Indians, 
it  is  assumed,  had  preserved  the  name,  and  thus  the  settlement  of  the 
Northmen  is  fixed,  —  a  fanciful  and  rather  violent  supposition,  which 
will  hardly  bear  close  examination.  As  they  "  sailed  long  to  the 
south,"  and  as  their  course  from  Buzzard's  Bay  to  Mount  Hope  Bay 
would  be  first  southwest,  and  then  northward,  it  seems  quite  as  likely 
that  they  finally  reached  some  other  point  on  the  coast ;  where,  is  and 
always  must  be  a  matter  of  conjecture. 

But  wherever  it  was,  they  set  themselves  down  on  the  upper  side 
First  winter  °^  tne  ^Jl^e  or  bay,  some  putting  up  houses  directly  on  the 
invioiand.  sjlore  an(j  others  going  farther  inland.  For  one  winter,  at 
east,  it  proved  a  pleasant  abiding  place.  The  streams  were  full  of 
fish;  on  the  meadows  they  found  fields  of  "self-sown  wheat,"  —  that 
is,  of  maize  or  Indian  corn,  sown  probably  by  the  natives  ;  on  the 
uplands,  the  trees  were  festooned  with  grape-vines,  so  precious  in  their 
eyes;  and  the  woods  were  full  of  game.  All  the  winter  long  there 
was  no  snow  upon  the  ground,  and  the  cattle  sustained  themselves 
upon  the  still  green  and  juicy  grasses  of  the  fields.2  There  seemed  to 

1  "  How,  when,  or  by  whom  this  noted  point  received  the  name  of  Mount  Hope,  does  not 
appear.      Dr.  Stiles  notes,   in   his   edition  of  Church's  History,  that  '  its  name  is  Mont- 
haup,  a  mountain  iu  Bristol  '     The  editor  of  Yanioden  says,  '  The  Indians  called  it  Mont- 
aun  or  Hfont-haup ; '  and  Alden,  Epitaphs,  iv.  77,  that,  'according  to  authentic  tradition, 
however,  Mon  Top  was  the  genuine  Aboriginal  name  of  this  celebrated  eminence.'     But 
these  are  most  likely  all  corruptions  of  Mount  I/o/>e."     Drake's  edition  of  Hubbard's  In- 
dian Wars,  Koxbury,  1865,  vol.  i.  p.  46;  note  by  the  editor. 

2  As  the  mildness  of  the  winter  and  absence  of  snow  are  dwelt  upon  in  the  narratives  of 
the  different  voyages,  it  is  probable  that  the  climate  of  North  America  was,  nine  centuries 
ago,  more  moderate  than   now,  as  it  is  positively  known  that  of  Greenland  and  Iceland 
was.     And  this  would  be  entirely  in  accordance  with  the  astronomical  theory  of  that  grad- 
ual change  whereby,  through  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  the  order  of  the  seasons 
is  completely  reversed  in  every  period  of  10,500  years.    If  we  are  now  iu  that  cycle  which 
is  slowly  bringing  longer  winters  and  more  intense  cold  to  the  northern  hemisphere,  —  as 
some  astronomers  suppose,  —  one  tenth  of  that  period  would  make  quite  change  enough  to 
account  for  these  statements  of  the  Northmen.     Even  six  hundred  years  later,  Edward 
Winslow,  who  wns  exceedingly  careful  and  conscientious  in  all  his  statements,  wrote  in 
1624  (Narrative  of  the  Plantations  :  Purchas,  vol.  iv.),  "  Then  for  the  temperature  of  the  air, 
i'n  almost  three  years'  experience  I  can  scarce  distinguish  New  England  from  Old  England 
in  respect  of  heat  and  cold,  frost,  snow,  rain,  wind,  etc. ;  ....  if  it  (the  heat)  do  exceed 
England,  it  is  so  little  as  must  require  better  judgments  to  discern  it.     And  for  the  winter, 
I  rather  think  (if  there  be  difference)  it  is  both  sharper  and  longer  in  New  England  than 
Old  ;  and  yet  the  want  of  those  comforts  in  the  one,  which  I  have  enjoyed  in  the  other, 

may  deceive  my  judgment  also I  cannot  conceive  of  any  (climate)  to  agree  better 

with  the  constitutions  of  the  English,  not  being  oppressed  with  the  extremity  of  heat,  nor 


COLONY   OF   TFIORFIXX  KARLSEFNE.  51 

be  none  in  this  pleasant  land  to  molest  them  or  make  them  afraid,  for 
when,  soon  after  their  arrival,  a  great  number  of  the  natives  came 
upon  them  suddenly,  they  came  with  signs  of  peace.  They  landed 
from  their  canoes,  and  loitered  about  the  settlement,  gazing  in  wonder 
upon  the  strangers  and  all  that  belonged  to  them,  but  they  liad  appar- 
ently no  hostile  intent,  and  neither  meddled  nor  were  they  meddled 
with.  When  they  left,  they  disappeared  beyond  the  cape,  and  nothing 
more  was  seen  of  them  till  the  following  spring.  They  are  described 
as  "  black  and  ill-favored  (or  fierce),  and  with  coarse  hair  on  the 
head ;  they  had  large  eyes  and  broad  cheeks." 

But  in  the  spring  (1009)  they  came  back  again  in  much  augmented 
numbers,  "  so  many,"  it  is  related,  "  as  if  the  sea  was  sowen  Trade  with 
with  coal."  But  still  they  came  in  amity,  and  a  brisk  trade  thc  natiTeg 
at  once  sprung  up  between  them  and  the  colonists.  Red  cloth  was 
exchanged,  as  long  as  it  lasted,  for  skins,  sables,  and  other  furs  ;  when 
that  was  all  gone  the  women  made  milk  porridge,  which  satisfied  the 
savages  quite  as  well  and  brought  quite  as  much  as  the  bits  of  red 
cloth,  though,  as  the  Saga  says,  they  only  carried  away  in  their  bellies 
the  results  of  a  barter  of  which  the  Northmen  gained  the  more  sub- 
stantial benefit.  But  this  pleasing  state  of  things  was  interrupted  by 
an  unfortunate  incident.  A  bull  belonging  to  Karlsefne  rushed  out 
of  the  woods  with  a  hideous  bellow,  and  so  frightened  the-Skraellings 
that  they  fled  to  their  boats  and  paddled  away  with  all  the  strength 
that  a  new  terror  could  give  them.  It  was  a  ludicrous  interruption 
to  the  profitable  traffic  of  por- 
ridge for  peltries ;  but  the  na- 
tives evidently  looked  upon  it 
as  a  hostile  demonstration, 
having  the  same  dread  of  this 
huge,  unknown  beast,  that 
the  Indians  of  Hispaniola  had 
some  centuries  later  of  the  Esquimaux  skin-boat, 

horses  of   the  Spaniards. 

For  weeks,  perhaps  for  months,  for  the  accounts  differ,  nothing  more 
was  seen  of  the  Skraellings ;  but  when  they  returned  again,  they  came 
"  like  a  rushing  torrent,"  with  the  poles  of  their  boats  now  'turned 
away  from  the  sun,  whereas  in  their  previous  visit  they  had  been 
turned  toward  it.  The  Northmen  looked  upon  this  as  a  sign  of  hos- 
tility, and  accepted  the  challenge,  holding  up  to  them  the  red  shield  of 
war  instead  of  the  white  shield  of  peace. 

nipped  by  biting  cold."  No  truthful  and  accurate  observer  could  write  thus  now  of  the 
bitter  climate  of  Massachusetts,  with  its  extremes  of  temperature  in  summer  and  winter. 


52  THE  NORTHMEN  IN   AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

Then  began  a  furious  battle.  The  Northmen  had  the  advantage  of 
Battle  with  weapons,  for  they  fought  with  swords.  But  they  were  over- 
skrseiiings.  pOwere(j  by  numbers,  and  soon  fled.  Something  like  a  panic, 
moreover,  seized  upon  them,  even  more  senseless  than  the  fright  which 
overcame  the  Sknellings  the  spring  before  at  the  bello wings  of  the 
bull.  It  is  said  that  a  huge  ball  at  the  end  of  a  pole  was  flourished 
over  them,  and  thrown  to  the  ground  with  a  horrid  noise.  The  noise 
and  the  novelty  of  this  method  of  warfare,  with  the  accompaniment  of 
shouts  and  yells,  seem  to  have  been  the  only  frightful  thing  about  it, 
for  it  did  the  Northmen  no  harm,  though  they  fled  before  it  like 
affrighted  children.  But  there  was  one  among  them  who  was  not 
frightened  ;  this  was  Freydis,  the  natural  daughter  of  Eric  the  Red, 
and  wife  of  Thorvard.  Rushing  out  among  the  combatants,  she 
shrieked,  "  Why  do  ye  run,  stout  men  as  ye  are,  before  these  mis- 
erable wretches,  whom  I  thought  ye  would  knock  down  like  cattle  ? 
And  if  I  had  weapons,  methinks  I  could  fight  better  than  any  of 
ye."  But  thejr  gave  no  heed  to  the  dauntless  woman,  still  seeking 
safety  in  flight  to  the  shelter  of  the  woods.  Freydis,  Avho  was  heavy 
with  child,  followed  closely  behind,  pursued  by  the  Skrasllings.  Com- 
ing presently  to  the  dead  body  of  a  countryman,  —  dead  with  a  stone 
arrow  in  his  brain,  —  she  seized  his  sword  and  was  ready  to  defend 
herself. 

She  did  more  than  this,  for  she  completely  turned  the  tide  of  bat- 
of  ^le,  and  that  in  a  way  which  has  no  parallel  in  any  other 
record  of  Amazonian  exploits.  She  turned  and  faced  the 
advancing  savages  ;  but  instead  of  attacking  them,  she  tore  open  her 
dress,  and  exposing  her  naked  breasts,  beat  them  with  the  sword  with 
the  aspect  and  the  cries  of  a  fury.  The  Sknellings,  terrified  at  this 
strange  action,  turned  and  ran  with  all  speed  to  the  canoes,  and  seiz- 
ing the  paddles,  flew,  like  a  flock  of  startled  wild  duck  just  skimming 
the  surface  of  the  water  in  their  swift  flight,  down  the  bay.  Perhaps 
they  thought  the  woman  some  powerful  priestess  whose  incantations 
and  imprecations  would  bring  upon  them  swift  destruction  ;  or  it  may 
be  that  her  frantic  gestures  and  cries,  her  courageous  defiance,  and 
the  exposure  of  her  bare  booom  to  their  attacks,  daunted  them  be- 
cause it  was  something  they  could  not  understand  ;  but  this  picture  of 
the  fierce  Norse  warriors  flying  before  a  sheep's  paunch  tied  to  the 
end  of  a  pole,  and  owing  their  safety  to  the  fury  of  a  woman  beside 
herself  with  rage,  is  in  ludicrous  contrast  with  the  tradition  of  their 
reckless  and  invincible  courage. 

The  colony  This  was  virtually  the  end  of  Karlsefne's  attempt  at  colo- 
ab»Ddoned.  m'zation,  though  it  was  not  absolutely  abandoned  till  the 
following  spring,  of  1010.  He  and  his  companions  were  not  again  mo- 


COLONY   OF   TMORFIXN  KARLSEFXE.  53 

lested  by  the  Skradlings,  but  they  thought  it  not  worth  while  to 
remain  in  a  country,  however  otherwise  desirable,  where  they  were 
liable  to  such  attacks.  This  decision  was  probably  confirmed  by  meet- 
ing, on  one  of  their  excursions,  with  a  Uniped,  who,  after  killing  one 
of  their  number,  fled  out  to  sea.  Such  marvels  were  believed  in  even 
in  a  much  later  and  more  enlightened  age.1  Other  natives  were 
sometimes  met  and  generally  killed,  no  doubt  without  much  com- 
punction. Two  boys  they  took  as  prisoners  were  carried  back  to 
Greenland,  taught  Norse,  and  baptized.  From  them  it  was  learned 
that  there  were  two  kings  over  the  Skrsellings,  one  named  Avalidania, 
the  other,  Valldidia  ;  their  people  had  no  houses,  but  lived  in  dens 
and  caves.  In  another  part  of  the  country,  however,  there  was,  they 
said,  another  people,  who  "wore  white  clothes,  and  shouted  loud,  and 
carried  poles  with  flags.''  And  this  was  supposed  to  be  the  White 
Man's  Land,  a  mythical  colony  of  Irish  somewhere  south  of  Vinland.2 

1  Charlevoix  ( History  of  New  France,  vol.  i.  pp.  124,  128,  Shea's  edition)  repeats  the 
stories  told  five  centuries  later,  of  voyagers  who  saw  or  heard  of  Uuipeds,  —  men  with  only 
one  leg  and  foot,  and  with  two  hands  on  the  same  arm,  —  of  pygmies,  of  giants,  of  men 
who  never  eat,  of  headless  men,  and  of  other  monsters,  of  which,  he  says,  "  it  is  easy  to 
believe  that  there  is  some  exaggeration,  but  it  is  easier  to  deny  extraordinary  facts  than  to 
explain  them." 

2  The  Northmen  called  the  country  somewhere  south  of  Vinland  the  White  Man's  Land, 
or  Great  Ireland,  and  believed  that  it  was  occupied  by  the  Irish.     Professor  Kafn  supposes 
it  to  have  extended  from  Chesapeake  Bay  to  East  Florida.     One  of  their  narratives  relates 
that  in  the  year  928,  one  Ari  Marson,  an  Icelander,  was  driven  there  by  an  easterly  storm, 
and  was  not  permitted  to  go  away  again.     The  story  came  from  a  Limerick  merchant  and 
from  the  Earl  of  the  Orkneys,  and  it  is  therefore  presumed  that  occasional  intercourse  was 
kept  up  between  the  people  of  this  Hvitramanna-laud  and  Europe.     A  romantic  storv  is 
also  told  of  one  Bjarni  Asbrandson,  a  famous  viking,  who  was  always  fighting,  or  singing 
songs,  or  making  love.     The  marital  bond  sat  loosely  upon  the  women  of  Iceland,  and  it 
was  nothing  unusual  that  Bjami  should  overstep  the  limits  of  morality  and  propriety  in 
his  attentions  to  another  man's  wife,  and  that  her  husband  and  his  friends  should  therefore 
attempt  to  kill  him.     The  husband  of  this  woman  Thurid,  Bjarni  seems  to  have  held  in 
great  contempt ;  but  for  her  brother,  Snorri,  the  high-priest,  he  entertained  a  very  different 
feeling.     After  an  encounter  with  him,  in  which  they  both  showed  a  good  deal  of  magna- 
nimity, Suorri  trying  to  kill  Bjarui  and  failing,  but  frankly  acknowledging  his  intention, 
and  Bjarni  having  it  in  his  power  to  kill  Snorri  but  choosing  not  to  do  so.  it  was  agreed 
between  them  that  Bjarni  should  go  abroad  and  not  see  Thurid  for  a  year.     He  went,  and 
the  vessel  he  sailed  in  was  never  heard  of  afterward.     Thirty  years  later  an  Icelandic  ship 
was  driven  westward  by  a  storm  upon  an  unknown  coast,  where  all  her  people  were  made 
prisoners.     They  were  surrounded  by  a  great  crowd,  and  "  it  rather  seemed  to  them  that 
they  spoke  Irish."     The   prisoners  were  bound   and  taken  inland,  where  they  met,  sur- 
rounded by  a  large  number  of  persons,  a  white-haired  and  martial-looking  chieftain,  with 
a  banner  borne  before  him,  whom  all  treated  with  the  greatest  deference.    He  spoke  to  the 
strangers  in  the  Northern  tongue,  and  when  he  learned  that  they  came  from  Iceland  and 
the  district  of  Bogafiord,  he  asked  for  all  the  principal  men  of  those  parts  by  name,  and 
was  especially  minute  in  inquiries  about  Snorri  the  priest,  Thurid  his  sister,  and  her  son 
Kjartan.     The  prisoners  were  soon  released  by  his  orders,  with  injunctions  to  depart  with 
all  speed  from  that  country  and  never  to  return  again,  or  to  permit  others  to  come  thither. 
As  they  were  about  to  leave,  he  took  from  his  finger  a  gold  ring,  and  putting  that,  and  also 


54  THE   NORTHMEN   IN   AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

Karlsefne  and  his  ship  reached  Greenland  in  safety.  On  board  of 
First  Euro-  ner  was  the  ^rst  child,  so  far  as  is  known,  born  of  European 
bo™  on'this  piu'entage  on  this  continent.  This  was  Snorri,  the  son  of 
continent.  Karlsefne  and  Gudrid,  born  in  Vinland,  A.  D.  1007.  He  was 
their  only  child,  and  in  him  was  fulfilled  another  of  the  prophecies  of 
Gudrid's  former  husband,  as  he  lay  dead  in  his  bed,  for  in  Snorri 
began  a  long  line  of  distinguished  descendants.1 

There  remains  to  be  briefly  told  the  story  of  Freydis,  with  whom 
ends  all  positive  history  of  these  attempted  settlements  on  the  coast 
of  the  North  American  continent.  Other  voyages,  it  is  supposed,  were 
made  at  different  times  for  the  next  two  centuries,  as  allusions  to  such 
adventures,  though  there  are  no  distinct  narrations,  are,  according  to 
Professor  Rafn,  scattered  through  Icelandic  literature.  It  is  even  con- 
jectured that  the  colony  at  Vinland  may  have  been  kept  alive,  not- 
withstanding the  gloomy  memory  of  the  deeds  of  Freydis,  which 
would,  it  might  be  supposed,  have  made  the  spot  dreaded  as  one 
haunted  by  the  victims  of  the  savage  fury  of  a  cruel  and  unrelenting 
woman.  If  any  efforts,  however,  were  made  to  found  future  colonies, 
they  must  needs  have  been  feeble  and  desultory,  or  they  would  have 
left  some  permanent  signs  behind  them. 

That  Freydis  was  a  fearless  woman  we  have  seen  already  in  her 
encounter  with  the  savages.  It  was  with  her,  at  least,  no  dread  of 
them  that  induced  her  to  return  with  her  countrymen  to  Greenland. 
Greenland,  with  its  savage  rocks,  its  ice-bound  waters,  its  mountains 
of  perpetual  snow,  its  gloomy  fiords,  its  barren  soil,  its  long  winters 
where  the  sun  just  crept  above  the  horizon,  was  to  her  a  poor  ex- 
change for  the  fair,  bright  land  where  the  winters  were  sunshiny  and 
mild  ;  where  the  pleasant  waters  of  its  sequestered  bays  washed,  all  the 
seasons  through,  the  smooth  beaches  of  clean,  white  sand  ;  where  the 
great  oaks,  and  elms,  and  pines,  and  maples  cast  their  grateful  shadows 

a  good  sword,  into  the  hands  of  the  Icelandic  cnptain,  he  said,  "  If  the  fates  permit  you  to 
come  to  your  own  country,  then  shall  you  take  this  sword  to  the  yeomaii,  Kjartan  of  Froda, 
but  the  ring  to  Thurid  his  mother."  Wheu  asked  from  whom  it  should  be  said  these  gifts 
came,  he  answered,  "  Say,  he  sends  them  who  loved  the  lady  of  Froda  better  than  her 
brother,  the  priest  of  Helgafell ;  but  if  any  man  therefore  thinks  that  he  knows  who  has 
owned  these  gifts,  then  say  these  my  words,  that  I  forbid  anyone  to  come  to  me,  for  it  is  the 
most  dangerous  expedition,  unless  it  happens  as  fortunately  with  others  at  the  landing- 
place  as  with  you ;  but  here  is  the  land  great,  and  bad  as  to  harbours,  and  in  all  part 
may  strangers  expect  hostility,  when  it  does  not  turn  out  as  has  been  with  you."  So  say- 
ing, he  turned  away  with  his  banner  waving  over  him.  Gudlief,  the  Icelandic  captain,  on 
his  return,  faithfully  delivered  the  ring  to  Thurid,  the  lady  of  Froda,  and  the  sword  to 
Kjartan  her  son,  who  was  now  supposed  to  be  the  son  of  Bjarui  also.  For  it  was  plain 
that  the  stately,  white-hnired  chieftain  of  Hvitramanna-land  was  Bjarni  Asbrandson,  who, 
thirty  years  before,  had  disappeared  from  Iceland. 

1  Thorvnldsen,  the  eminent  Danish  sculptor,  and  Finn  Magnusson,  the  distinguished 
Danish  scholar,  are  among  the  later  descendants  of  Snorri. 


COLONY   OF   FREYDIS. 


55 


Colony  of 
Fioydis. 


over  the  rich  verdure  of  the  meadows,  and  in  the  deep  woods  the 
long  vines,  climbing  to  the  tops  of  the  lofty  trees,  festooned  them 
with  clusters  of  rich  fruit. 

The  restless  woman  had  hardly  reached  home  before  she  set  her  ac- 
tive brain  at  work  to  plan  a  return  to  that  land  of  promise, 
to  reap  a  fresh  harvest  in  the  trade  for  furs  with  the  natives, 
in  shiploads  of  timber,  in  boat-loads  of  dried  grapes.  Such  persua- 
sions, however,  were  futile  with  her  own  people,  either  because  they 
knew  as  much  about  Vinland  as  she  did  and  cared  less,  or  because  they 
knew  her  ;  but  they  succeeded  with  two  strangers.  There  came  that 
summer  (1010)  to  Greenland  from  Norway  two  brothers,  Helgi  and 
Finnbogi,  Icelanders,  in  a  ship  of  their  own,  laden  with  merchandise. 


Leif's  Booths. 


Freydis  was  at  home  at  Garde  when  she  heard  of  their  arrival,  but 
she  sought  them  out  at  once,  and  laid  a  proposition  before  them.  An 
expedition  was  agreed  upon  on  joint  and  equal  account.  The  brothers 
were  to  have  thirty  fighting  men  on  board  their  ship,  and  Freydis 
the  same  number,  among  whom  she  permitted  her  husband,  Thor- 
vard,  to  count  one.  Of  Leif,  her  brother,  she  asked  the  gift  of  the 
houses  or  booths  in  Vinland,  built  by  him  ten  years  before,  —  a  gift 
he  declined  to  make,  though  he  was  quite  willing  to  lend  them  to  this 
expedition  as  he  had  to  others.  It  was  a  question  fraught  with  future 
trouble,  for  Freydis  meant  that  these  shelters  should  belong  exclu- 
sively to  her  and  not  to  the  enterprise. 

They  set  sail  in  the  spring  of  1011.     On  board  of  Freydis's  ship 
went  five  more  fighting   men   than   the  stipulated   number,   stowed 


56  THE  NORTHMEN   IN   AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

away  out  of  sight.  Helgi  and  Finnbogi  were  the  first  to  reach  Vin- 
land,  and  before  the  other  ship  arrived  they  had  landed  goods  and 
j^jf.,,  stored  them  in  Leifs  booth's,  assuming  that  joint  occupation 

Booths.  was  a  parj.  0£  the  agreement.  But  when  FYeydis  came  and 
found  the  buildings  thus  partially  occupied,  she  resented  it  as  an 
unauthorized  intrusion,  and  high  words  followed  between  her  and  the 
brothers. 

"  Leif  lent  the  houses  to  me,  not  to  you,"  the  woman  asserted. 

"  We  thought  it  was  to  both,"  said  the  brothers. 

They  had  discovered  by  this  time  that  she  had  cheated  them  as  to 
the  number  of  fighting  men  which  each  party  was  to  take,  and  they 
added  that  she  was  more  than  a  match  for  them  with  her  sharp  prac- 
tices. So  they  left  the  booths  to  which  Freydis  claimed  that  she  had 
the  exclusive  right,  built  a  house  for  themselves,  and  into  it  moved 
their  company  and  their  goods. 

The  brothers  were  clearly  of  a  sociable  and  cheerful  disposition, 
desiring  nothing  so  much  as  harmony  and  peace.  It  was  they  who 
yielded  always,  and  Freydis  who  encroached.  Winter  amusement  is 
no  less  a  duty  than  a  pleasure  with  those  who  live  in  high  latitudes, 
when  without  it  men  would  sink  into  apathy  and  despair  in  the  long 
dark  night  of  months,  as  all  Arctic  voyagers  know.  The  good  Ice- 
landic custom  of  "  passing  life  joyfully"  in  the  winter  time  Helgi  and 
Finnbogi  maintained  in  Vinland,  more,  of  course,  to  keep  their  people 
occupied  than  because  of  any  exigency  of  climate.  They  contrived 
games  and  sports  within  doors  and  without,  inviting  the  Freydis  peo- 
ple to  these  diversions,  doing  all  they  could  to  keep  up  a  pleasant  in- 
Discord  in  tercouTse  between  the  two  houses.  But  discord  crept  in  ; 
the  colony.  ev^  reports  were  circulated  ;  jealousies  and  enmities  were 
aroused  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left ;  perhaps  more  even  than 
in  Karlsefne's  time,  two  years  before,  women  were  implicated  in  these 
troubles  ;  one  at  least  was  at  the  bottom  of  them  all,  and  she  was 
unsparing  of  the  rest.  The  games  first  languished,  then  dropped ; 
visits,  friendly  greetings,  intercourse  of  any  kind  between  the  two  com- 
panies became  less  and  less  frequent,  and  finally  ceased  altogether. 
The  evil  influence  was  at  last  triumphant.  The  colony  of  perhaps 
seventy-five  people  divided  into  two  hostile  camps,  hating  each  other, 
ready  to  fly  at  each  other's  throats.  Such  was  the  miserable  state  of 
feeling  nearly  all  winter,  growing  worse  the  longer  it  lasted  ;  none  the 
less  bitter  and  implacable  that  it  was  without  any  visible  and  suffi- 
cient cause. 

When  the  alienation  was  complete,  and  the  mutual  exasperation  at 
its  height,  Finnbogi  was  surprised,  one  day,  to  see,  in  the  dim  twilight 
of  the  early  morning,  Freydis  standing,  silent  and  alone,  in  the  door- 


COLONY  OF  FREYDIS.  57 

way  of  his  house.  He  was  shocked,  perhaps,  as  well  as  surprised^  at 
a  visit  at  such  an  unseemly  hour  ;  but  raising  himself  in  his  bed,  he 
said,  — 

"  What  wilt  thou  here,  Freydis  ?  " 

She  answered,  "  I  wish  that  thou  wouldst  get  up,  and  go  out  with 
me,  for  I  would  speak  with  thee." 

Finubogi  rose  and  followed  her  to  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  not  far  from 
the  house,  but  out  of  hearing  of  any  one  within,  where  they  sat  down. 

"  How  art  thou  satisfied  here?"  asked  Freydis. 

The  answer  which  Finnbogi  gave  was  unfortunate — even  fatal;  for 
the  question  was  a  leading  one,  and  Freydis  hoped  to  hear  him  say 
that  he  was  not  satisfied  at  all,  and  longed  to  be  gone.  But  he 
said,  — 

"  Well  think  I  of  the  land's  fruitfulness,  but  ill  do  I  think  of  the 
discord  that  has  sprung  up  betwixt  us,  for  it  appears  to  me  that  no 
cause  has  been  given." 

She  artfully  agreed  to  this,  for  her  purpose  evidently  was  to  show 
that  so  great  was  that  discord,  either  one  party  or  the  other  must  go 
away.  Finnbogi's  assertion  gave  little  hope  that  his  would  be  that 
party.  For  she  said,  — 

"  Thou  sayest  as  it  is,  and  so  think  I ;  but  my  business  here  with 
thee  is,  that  I  wish  to  change  ships  with  thy  brother,  for  ye  have  a 
larger  ship  than  I,  and  it  is  my  wish  to  go  from  hence." 

"  That  must  I  agree  to,  if  such  is  thy  wish,"  was  the  reply.  Then 
the  conference  broke  up. 

This  acquiescence  in  her  departure  and  readiness  to  expedite  it,  on 
the  part  of  Finnbogi,  and  his  avowed  satisfaction  with  the  country, 
which  had  no  drawback  except  this  discord  which  would  be  removed 
by  that  departure,  were  not  what  she  meant  to  get  by  that  early  visit. 
She  must  find  some  other  way,  however  desperate,  of  gaining  her  end. 
Returning  to  her  house  and  bed,  this  misplaced  woman,  so  clearly  fitted 
to  be  a  queen,  determined  to  move  her  husband  to  a  desperate  deed. 
She  had  gone  barefooted  through  the  dew  to  Finnbogi's  house.  The 
Saga  is  careful  to  relate  that  when  she  got  up  "  she  dressed  herself, 
6ut  took  no  shoes  or  stockings,  and  the  weather  was  such  that  much 
dew  had  fallen  ;  "  but  it  was  also  such  that  "  she  took  her  husband's 
cloak."  So  now  on  her  return,  exasperated  at  the  failure  of  her 
errand,  she  got  into  bed  cold  and  wet,  and  the  sleeping  Thorvard, 
awakened  in  this  unpleasant  way,  demanded  resentfully  why  she  was 
in  this  condition.  She  retorted  angrily,  — 

"  I  was  gone  to  the  brothers,  to  make  a  bargain  with  them  about 
their  ship,  for  I  wished  to  buy  the  large  ship  ;  but  they  took  it  so 
ill,  that  they  beat  me  and  used  me  shamefully  ;  but  thou  !  miserable 


58  THE   NORTHMEN'    IX    AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

man  !  wilt  surely  neither  avenge  my  disgrace  or  thine  own,  and  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  I  am  no  longer  in  Greenland,  and  I  will  separate  from 
thee  if  thou  avengest  not  this." 

Such  approaches  and  reproaches  could  net  be  withstood  by  the  pla- 
of     «ible  and  obedient  Thorvard.     With  all  speed  he  called  his 
"    nien  to  arms,  and  went  at  once  to  the  house  of  the  brothers, 
their  people    jj.  wag  yej.  early^  for  Freydis  had  lost  no  time,  and  Helgi  and 

Finnbogi,  and  all  their  people,  were  still  asleep.  By  a  sudden  and 
stealthy  attack  Thorvard  and  his  men  overwhelmed  and  bound  them  ; 
one  by  one  they  were  led  from  the  building,  and  one  by  one  they 
were  dispatched  as  they  came  out.  Not  a  man  was  left. 

But  among  them  were  five  women,  and  on  these  no  man  would  lay 
his  hands. 

"  Give  me  an  axe  !  "  shrieked  Freydis. 

The  axe  was  given  her  ;  she  fell  upon  the  five  women,  and  no  man 
stayed  her  hand  ;  and  "  she  did  not  stop  till  they  were  all  dead." 

This  cruel  and  cowardly  work  finished,  they  returned  to  their  own 
dwelling ;  and  Freydis,  says  the  faithful  chronicle,  "  did  not  appear 
otherwise  than  as  if  she  had  done  well."  But,  nevertheless,  it  was  a 
deed  to  be  concealed,  and  she  was  not  the  woman  to  forget  that  neces- 
sity even  at  such  a  moment.  Turning,  therefore,  to  her  people,  she 
gave  them  this  assurance  of  her  future  conduct :  — 

"  If  it  be  permitted  us,"  she  said,  "  to  come  again  to  Greenland,  I 
will  take  the  life  of  that  man  who  tells  of  this  business  !  Now  should 
we  say  this  —  that  they  remained  behind  when  we  went  away." 

She  was  now  in  sole  command  and  in  sole  possession,  for  Thorvard, 
the  husband,  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  possess  any  will  or  authority 
of  his  own  in  such  a  vigorous  presence.  None  ventured  to  disobey  the 
imperious  and  desperate  woman.  Under  her  stern  rule  the  rest  of  the 
winter  was  spent  in  cutting  timber  and  gathering  together  such  other 
commodities  as  the  country  afforded ;  and  so  successful  were  they  in 
this  work,  that  when  the  spring  came  and  they  were  ready  for  depart- 
ure, the  larger  ship  of  the  two  brothers,  which  Freydis  had  so  coveted 
and  had  obtained  at  such  bloody  cost,  was  loaded  with  all  that  she 
could  can-y. 

It  was,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  a  gloomy  winter,  though  thus  crowded  with 
oiooin  work.  The  silent  and  empty  house  of  Helgi  and  Finnbogi, 
lowetuhe  where,  for  many  weeks,  "life  had  passed  joyfully"  with  games, 
massacre.  am|  SpOrts  an(j  tale,  and  song,  after  the  manner  of  their  coun- 
try, was  always  before  them ;  in  the  murmurs  of  the  lonely  sea,  in  the 
sighs  and  sobs  of  the  winds  in  the  deep  solitude  of  the  melancholy 
woods,  they  heard  the  voices  of  those  late  comrades;  the  graves  of 
almost  as  many  dead  as  they  could  count  of  their  living  company 


SUPPOSED  RELICS   OF   THE  NORTHMEN.  59 

reminded  them  continually  of  that  cowardly  and  cruel  slaughter  of 
defenceless  men  ;  and  visions  would  come  to  sleepless  eyes,  in  the  long 
winter  nights,  of  the  relentless  woman  in  her  naked,  bloody  feet,  with 
her  bare  arms  red  with  blood,  as  she  cut  down  the  helpless  creatures 
whom  none  else  would  kill,  and  they  were  not  men  enough  to  save. 

But  their  consciences  were  stronger  than  the  threats  or  the  blan- 
dishments of  Freydis  ;  for  though  she  lavished  many  gifts  upon  them 
on  their  return  to  Greenland,  though  she  had  assured  them  she  "  would 
take  the  life  of  that  man  who  told  of  this  business,"  whispers,  never- 
theless, were  soon  abroad  of  frightful  deeds  done  in  Vinland,  and  cir- 
culating swiftly  from  mouth  to  mouth.  These  soon  reached  the  ears 
of  Leif,  who,  seizing  two  of  his  sister's  followers,  put  them  to  the 
torture  and  extorted  a  confession  of  all  the  atrocities  which,  under 
the  leadership  of  Freydis,  had  been  done  in  the  colony.  Then  said 
Leif,  "  I  like  not  to  do  that  to  Freydis,  my  sister,  which  she  has 
deserved,  but  this  will  I  predict,  that  their  posterity  will  never  thrive." 
It  certainly  was  not  a  severe  punishment  for  the  murder  of  thirty-two 
men  and  five  women,  that  no  one  from  that  time  forth  thought  other- 
wise than  ill  of  Freydis  and  her  accomplices.  But  she  disappears  from 
history  with  this  mark  of  execration,  and  with  her  ends  also  essentially 
the  history  of  the  Northmen  in  Vinland  the  Good. 

Enthusiastic  antiquaries  have  sought  to  find  in  the  region  supposed 
to  be  Vinland  some  visible  relics  of  its  several  colonies.     If 
there  were  any  it  would  be  much  more    remarkable  than  Northmen 

ff'ijii  sought  in 

that  there  are  none,  after  the  lapse  of  nine  hundred  years.   xe»  Eng- 
Leif's  booths,  though  they  were  probably  solid  structures  of 
hewn  timber,  would  hardly  abide  the  onslaughts  of  the  elements  for 
so  many  centuries  ;  and  there  is  no 
intimation  in  any  of   the  narratives 
that  the  Northmen  erected  more  last- 
ing monuments,  to  become,  in 

"  Unswept  stone,  besmeared  with  sluttish  time," 

the  witnesses  of  their  former  presence. 

There  is  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  a  round 

stone  tower,   which   Professor  Rafn 

and  others  believed  was  built  by  the 

Northmen  ;  but  Palfrey,  in  his  "  His-  Newport  Tower, 

tory  of  New  England,"  shows  quite 

conclusively  that  this  is  only  an  old  stone  mill,  erected  by  Governor 
Arnold  late  in  the  seventeeth  century,  who  in  his  will  referred  to  it 
as  "  my  stone-built  wind-mill."  "  Without  doubt,"  says  Dr.  Palfrey, 
with  peculiar  force,  "  it  is  extraordinary  that  no  record  exists  of  the 


60 


THE   NORTHMEN   IX    AMERICA. 


[•CHAP.  III. 


erection  of  so  singular  an  edifice  by  early  English  inhabitants  of 
Rhode  Island.  But  it  would  be  much  more  strange  that  the  first 
English  settlers  should  not  have  mentioned  the  fact,  if,  on  their  arri- 
val, they  had  found  a  vestige  of  a  former  civilization,  so  different  from 
everything  else  within  their  view."  Beside,  the  harbor  of  Newport 
was  undoubtedly  visited  by  more  than  one  voyager  before 
at  "Newport  any  permanent  settlement  was  made,  and  it  is  incredible,  if 

proved  Gov.  "  .  .  ,  i  • ,        i          i  i  -i 

Arnold;*  the  tower  was  in  existence,  that  it  should  never  have  been 
alluded  to  by  anybody  in  log-book  or  journal,  till  Governor 
Arnold  speaks  of  it  as  his  windmill.  Dr.  Palfrey  says,  moreover, 
that  the  Arnold  family  is  supposed  to  have  come  from  Warwick- 
shire, England.  Governor  Arnold 
had  a  farm  which  he  called  "  Lem- 
mington  Farm;"  and  in  Warwick- 
shire there  is  a  Leamington,  three 
miles  from  which,  at  Chesterton,  is 
a  round  stone  mill,  the  counterpart 
of  that  at  Newport.  The  tradition 
in  regard  to  this  mill  is  that  it  wsis 
from  a  design  by  Inigo  Jones.  If 
so,  it  was  probably  built  when  Arnold 
was  a  boy,  or  not  long  before,  and 
would  be,  as  the  work  of  an  emi- 
nent architect,  the  admiration  of  the 
country  round  about.  What  more 
natural  than  that  Governor  Arnold, 
when  advanced  in  life,  should  re- 
produce, as  nearly  as  he  could,  an 
edifice  supposed  to  be  a  master- 
piece of  architecture  of  its  kind,  and 
endeared  to  him  by  all  the  memories 
and  associations  of  his  early  home?1 

The  Danish  antiquaries  adduce  also  the  Dighton  Rock,  as  it  is  called, 
as  an  evidence  of  the  visits  of  the  Northmen  to  New  Eng- 
land. This  rock  is  on  the  bank  of  the  Taunton  River,  in  the 
town  of  Berkeley,  Mass.,  opposite  Dighton.  Upon  it  are  carved  rude 
hieroglyphics,  which  have  been  an  object  of  curious  interest  for  nearly 
two  centuries.  Various  copies,  differing  much  from  each  other,  have 
been  taken  at  different  times  during  all  that  period,  and  some  of  them 
have  been  sent  to  Europe  for  the  consideration  of  learned  societies. 
The  characters  have  been  assumed  to  be  Phoenician,  Scythian,  Roman, 
and  even  Hebrew,  until  the  Danish  antiquaries  pronounced  them  to 
1  See  Palfrey's  History  of  New  England,  p.  56,  et  seq. 


Chesterton    Mill. 


Dighton 
Rock. 


SUPPOSED    RELICS   OF   THE   NORTHMEN. 


61 


be  Runic.  They  profess  to  find  the  name  of  Thorfinn  in  the  middle 
of  the  inscription,  in  certain  rude  characters,  some  of  which  are  clearly 
Roman  letters  ;  other  marks  above  are  interpreted  as  signifying  the 
Roman  numerals,  CXXXI.,  the  number  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefne's  com- 
pany after  the  desertion  of  Thorhall  and  his  companions ;  below  is  the 
figure  of  an  animal  of  some  sort,  —  perhaps,  if  we  may  make  a  sug- 
gestion, the  bull  that  frightened  the  Skrjcllings, — and  a  ship,  which 
one  must  be  an  antiquary  to  find;  on  the  right  are  Gudrid  and  her  son 
Snorri,  born  in  Vinland  ;  on  the  left  Karlsefne  himself,  with  a  com- 
panion. These  and  other  fanciful  interpretations  are  held  to  be  a  com- 
plete record  of  the  expedition  of  Karlsefne  and  its  leading  incidents. 


Dighton   Rock. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  rude  pictures  have  been  declared  by  more 
than  one  Indian  chief  to  be  the  record  only  of  a  successful  Indian  hunt ; 
and  General  Washington,  when 
taken  to  the  rock,  said  the  figures 
resembled  those  he  had  often 
seen  upon  the  buffalo  robes  of 
the  Western  Indians.  The  let- 
ters and  numerals  were  probably 
added  by  another  and  later  art- 
ist. Such  picture-writings  upon 
rocks,  to  commemorate  successful 
hunts  or  successful  fights,  were 
not  uncommon  among  the  In- 
dians, and  they  have  been  found  s,eUbenv,,,e  Rock. 

in  various  parts  of  the  country.     There  is  an  instance  of  it  on  the 
Virginia  shore  of  the  Ohio  River,  near  Steubenville,  Ohio,1  bearing 

1  Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississip/ii  Valley.     By  Squier  and  Davis. 


62  THE  NORTHMEN   IN   AMERICA.  [CHAP.  III. 

a  marked  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Dighton  Rock.  In  1850,  Mr. 
J.  G.  Bvuff  found,  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  a  defile  fifteen  or 
twenty  miles  in  length,  where  the  face  of  the  precipices  was  covered 
with  picture-writing,  some  of  it  on  the  under  surface  of  rocks,  where 
it  could  have  been  done  only  by  the  aid  of  platforms.  These  sculp- 
tured hieroglyphics  are  so  numerous  that  it  is  estimated  to  have  painted 
them  with  a  brush  would  have  required  the  labor  of  many  workmen 
for  several  months.1 

But  the  claim  for  the  discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen  re- 
quires no  support  from  such  questionable  evidence,  and  is 

Icelandic  ••-,-,  •          , 

sagas.  Their  rather  iniured  than   otherwise   by  a  resort  to  it.     Its  real 

evidence.  i      i-         •         i  •  -i*  i  ,.,.          ,  . 

strength  lies  in  the  narratives  themselves,  which,  if  what  is 
claimed  for  them  be  true,  decide  the  question  beyond  controversy. 
The  Icelanders,  like  all  the  Scandinavians,  were  excessively  fond  of 
listening  to  the  poems  of  their  Skalds  and  the  stories  of  their  Saga- 
men.  In  Iceland  and  Greenland,  especially,  condemned  by  the  rigor 
of  the  climate  to  live  an  in-door  life  for  the  larger  part  of  the  year, 
it  was  necessary,  not  merely  "  to  make  life  pass  joyfully,"  but  to 
render  it  tolerable,  to  have  some  other  resource  than  merely  eating 
and  drinking.  They  resorted  to  "  recitals  of  history  "  and  of  songs 
or  poems,  often  of  inordinate  length;  sometimes  mythological,  some- 
times imaginative,  more  generally  tales  of  the  deeds  of  dead  and  living 
heroes ;  often,  no  doubt,  exaggerated  and  adorned,  when  the  deeds 
related  were  of  heroes  listening  to  the  praises  of  their  own  achieve- 
ments ;  but  nevertheless  these  were  faithful  relations,  in  the  main, 
of  actual  occurrences.  This  habit  of  the  people,  degenerating  on  the 
one  hand  into  a  mere  love  of  gossip,  feeding  an  insatiable  appetite 
for  details  of  the  affairs  of  their  neighbors,  on  the  other  hand  pre- 
served every  event  of  interest  or  importance  to  be  handed  down  by 
word  of  mouth  from  generation  to  generation.  When  with  Chris- 
tianity the  Roman  alphabet  was  introduced,  these  Sagas  were  reduced 
to  writing  by  diligent  and  studious  men  ;  inestimable  treasures  laid  up 
for  the  use  of  future  historians. 

Such  records  in  regard  to  the  settlement  of  the  Northmen  on  the 
American  coast  were  known  to  have  been  made,  and  the  fact  was 
frequently  referred  to  by  early  writers.  Thus  Adam  of  Bremen,  who 
wrote  an  ecclesiastical  history  about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, has  a  passage  relating  to  the  subject  which,  if  it  be  not  a  sub- 
sequent interpolation,  of  which  there  is  no  evidence,  is  an  incontestible 
proof  of  the  discovery  of  Vinland.  He  made  a  visit  to  Denmark,  and 
was  informed,  he  says,  by  the  king,  "  that  a  region  called  Vinland  had 
been  found  by  many  in  that  ocean,  because  there  vines  grew  spon 

1  Smithsonian  Report,  1873,  p.  409. 


EVIDENCE   OF   THE   ICELANDIC   SAGAS.  63 

taneously,  making  the  best  wine  ;  for  that  fruits  grow  there  which 
were  not  planted,  we  know,  not  by  mere  rumor,  but  by  the  positive 
report  of  the  Danes."  But,  though  several  historians  of  different  coun- 
tries, who  have  written  within  the  last  two  hundred  years,  have  rec- 
ognized that  this  discovery  was  actually  made,  the  details  of  so  inter- 
esting a  fact  were  not  fully  known  until  the  different  narratives  were 
gathered  together  by  the  Northern  Antiquarian  Society  of  Denmark, 
and  published  in  a  single  volume.1 

The  fullest  and  most  important  of  these  relations  exist  in  manu- 
script, in  a  collection  known  as  the  "Codex  Flatb'iensis,"  written  be- 
tween the  years  1387  and  1395.  These,  now  preserved  in  the  Royal 
Library  at  Copenhagen,  were  found  in  a  monastery  on  the  Island  of 
Flato  —  on  the  west  coast  of  Iceland,  —  where  they  had  lain  forgotten 
and  unnoticed  for  centuries.  There  is  no  serious  question  now  of  the 
authenticity  of  these  Sagas,  as  whatever  doubt  may,  at  one  time,  have 
been  entertained  has  been  effectually  put  to  rest.  Like  other  chron- 
icles, relating  to  the  early  history  of  Greenland  and  Iceland,  of  Swe- 
den and  Norway,  they  were  long  preserved  by  oral  tradition,  from  cen- 
tury to  century,  and  at  length  committed  to  writing,  long  after  the 
time  to  which  they  referred.  The  main  facts  related  in  them  are  un- 
questionably true  ;  the  incongruities,  discrepancies,  and  even  absur- 
dities which  can  be  pointed  out,  are  such  as  would  inevitably  occur  in 
verbal  repetitions,  for  nearly  three  centuries,  of  the  circumstantial 
details  of  distant  voyages  and  adventures ;  and  such  errors,  moreover, 
are  incontestible  evidence  that  the  narratives  were  not  constructed  for 
a  purpose  long  after  the  date  of  a  pretended  event,  but  are  veritable 
relations  of  actual  occurrences  told  by  those  who  took  part  in  them, 
and  unconsciously  changed  by  those  who  repeated  them,  from  time 
to  time,  on  points  which  seemed  to  them  of  little  interest  or  im- 
portance. Not  less  conclusive  is  the  simplicity,  sometimes  even  child- 
ishness, of  the  narratives,  —  the  preservation  of  unimportant  partic- 
ulars, remarkable  only  for  their  singularity,  so  characteristic  of  all 
uncultivated  people,  who,  like  children,  delight  in  marvels  and  are 
captured  by  novelty. 

1  Antifjiiilates  Americana,  sive  Scriptares  Septentrionales  Rerum  Colnmhianariiin  in  America. 
Samling  qfde  i  Nordens  Old-skrifler,  etc.,  etc.  Edidit  Societas  Regia  Autiquariorum  Sep- 
teutvioualiurn.  Copenhagen:  Hafuiee,  1837. 


The  Sea  of  Darkness. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES   WESTWARD. 

ARABIAN  SAILORS  ON  THE  SEA  OF  DARKNESS. — WELSH  TRADITION  OF  AMERICAN 
DISCOVERY. —  VOYAGE  OF  MADOC,  PRINCE  OF  WALES.  —  EVIDENCE  ADDUCED. — 
SUPPOSED  TRACES  OF  WELSH  AMONG  DOEGS,  MANDANS,  AND  MOUND  BUILDERS. — 
NARRATIVE  OF  THE  BROTHERS  ZENI.  —  SHIPWRECK  OF  NICOI.O  ZENO  AT  FRISLAND. 
—  His  ACCOUNT  OF  ENGRONELAND.  —  ADVKNTURES  OF  A  FKISLAND  FISHERMAN. — 
THE  WESTERN  VOYAGE  OF  PRINCE  ZICHMNI. —  CHINESE  DISCOVERY  OF  FCSANG. 
— STATE  OF  NAUTICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL  KNOWLEDGE  BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 

IN  the  town  of  Bristol,  England,  there  is  a  suburb  called  Cathay, 
so  pres«rving  the  memory  of  that  prosperous  time  when  Bristol,  next 
to  London,  was  the  richest  and  most  important  city  of  the  kingdom, 
—  of  that  proud  period  when  her  merchants  carried  on  a  thriving 
trade  with  the  Indies,  before  Columbus  sailed  to  find  a  Western  pas- 
sage to  the  far  East.  So  in  Lisbon,  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  there  was  a  street  called  Almagrurin,  —  which 
means  in  English  "Those  that  go  astray,"  —  so  named  in  commem- 
oration of  a  bold  adventure  of  some  Arab  sailors,  who  had  ventured 


ARABIAN   SAILORS   ON   THE    SEA   OF   DARKNESS.  65 

further  toward  the  Sea  of  Darkness  than  any  others  were  known  to 
have  sailed  before.1 

The  Arab  geographers  relate  the  incident,  the  memory  of  which 
the  street  preserves,  and  some  historians  have  found  in  it  a  sugges 
tion  of  possible  American  discovery,  as  early  as  the  twelfth  century, 
and  far  south  of  the  colony  at  Vinland.  Lisbon  was  then  still  in  pos- 
session of  the  Arabs,  who,  above  all  other  people  of  that  period,  were 
students  of  geometry  and  astronomy,  applied  those  sciences  to  geog- 
raphy and  navigation,  and  were  the  boldest  sailors  of  the  age.  Eight 
of  these  hardy  and  well-instructed  men,  bound  together  by 

,,.,.,  .         ,  .'  .  ..  ,    Expedition 

ties  of  relationship,  determined  to  explore  that  mighty  and  of  eight  Arab 
mysterious  ocean  which  stretched  from  the  coast  of  Portugal 
to  the  setting  sun,  on  whose  western  horizon  no  sail  ever  crept  up 
against  the  sky,  or  disappeared  from  sight  beneath  its  waters. 

Building  themselves  a  vessel,  they  put  on  board  provisions  for  sev- 
eral months,  showing  thereby  a  determination  that  their  explorations 
should  not  be  cut  short  for  want  of  time.  Taking  an  east  wind  they 
steered  fearlessly  westward,  and  after  eleven  days  their  ship  ploughed 
into  a  sea  thick  with  grass,  concealing,  as  they  thought,  many  reefs 
of  sunken  rocks,  and  giving  forth  a  fetid  smell.  They  imagined  that 
the  light  of  the  sun  was  failing  them  as  they  approached  the  confines 
of  that  dreary  sea,  whose  mysterious  waters,  they  did  not  doubt,  in 
accordance  with  the  belief  of  the  time,  were  concealed  in  perpetual 
night,  haunted  by  demons,  and  filled  with  strange  creatures  of  mon- 
strous shapes.  Alarmed  at  these  portents,  they  turned  their  vessel's 
head  southward,  and  in  twelve  days  more  reached  an  island  which 
they  named  El  Ghanam,  meaning  "  small  cattle,"  because  they  found 
upon  it  numerous  flocks  of  sheep.  Here  they  landed,  but  saw  no 
people.  Some  of  the  sheep  they  killed,  but  the  flesh  was  so  bitter  as 
to  be  unfit  for  food,  and  they  found  nothing  else  worth  taking  except 
figs  and  fresh  water. 

Then  they  sailed  away  again  southward ;  at  the  end  of  twelve  days, 
on  approaching  an  island  the  people  came  out  to  meet  them 
in  boats  and  made  them  all  prisoners.    When  taken  on  shore  incidents  of 
they  were  carried  before  the  king  of  the  country,  who,  on 
hearing   through  an  interpreter,  who  spoke  Arabic,  the  object  of  their 
voyage,  laughed  at  them  heartily  for  their  folly.     His  father,  he  told 
them,  had  once  sent  slaves  into  that  Western  Ocean,  who,  after  cruis- 
ing about  for  a  month,  lost  sight  of  the  sun,  and  thus  were  compelled 
to  return  without  the  voyage    profiting    them  anything.     From  this 
interview  the  Arabs  were  dismissed  to  prison  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  wind 

1  Notices  et  f^jrtraits  dc  In  Bihllotheque  du  Roi,  cited  in  The  History  <>f  Tlie  New  World  by 
Dun  Juaii  Baptista  Munoz,  p.  119 
vor..  i.  5 


66  PRE-COLUMBIAN    VOYAGES   WESTWARD.       L^'HAP.  IV. 


veered  to  the  west  they  were  put,  blindfolded  and  pinioned,  into  a 
boat,  carried  out  to  sea,  and  abandoned  to  the  mercy  of  the  winds 
and  waves.  They  drifted,  within  three  days,  upon  the  mainland  of 
Africa,  where  they  were  kindly  treated  by  the  natives  —  Berbers  — 
and  whence  they  returned  to  Lisbon.  Thereafter  they  were  known 
among  their  countrymen  as  "  the  strayed  ones."  1 

From  the  direction  in  which  these  Arabs  had  sailed,  and  from  the 
length  of  their  voyage,  the  most  reasonable  supposition  is  that  they 
first  reached  the  Madeira  group,  where  the  flesh  of  the  wild  goat  is 
bitter,  as  the  animals  browse  on  a  plant  called  la  coquerel?  and 
that  the  next  land  they  saw  was  the  Cape  Verde  Islands.  But 
the  natives  of  that  country  they  described  as  of  a  red  color,  with 
straight  black  hair,  and  for  this  reason,  and  because  some  of  the  ac- 
counts have  given  the  voyage  as  being  thirty  or  five  and  thirty  days, 
instead  of  twelve,  before  land  was  reached,  it  has  been  supposed  that 
these  wanderers  had  touched  the  shores  of  America  or  some  of  the 
islands  upon  its  coast.  If,  however,  the  narrative  of  Edrisi,  the 
Arabian  geographer,  be  accepted  as  authentic,  according  to  the  trans- 
lation which  we  have  followed,  the  course  pursued  by  these  Arabs 
from  Lisbon  could  hardly  have  taken  them  to  the  westward  of  the 
Azores.  One  claim,  therefore,  to  the  discovery  of  the  western  world, 
whether  by  accident  or  design,  before  the  voyages  of  the  navigators 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  may  be  held  to  be  disposed  of. 

The  tradition  that  America  was  discovered  about  the  year  1170  by 
a  Welsh  prince  named  Madog,  or  Madoc,  is  still  more  cir- 

Di**oovprv 

of  America  cumstantial,  and  attempts  to  support  it  by  later  evidence 
have  been  made  from  time  to  time  for  the  last  two  hundred 
years.  Even  so  cautious  and  judicial  a  critic  as  Humboldt  says  in 
allusion  to  it  :  "I  do  not  share  the  scorn  with  which  national  tradi- 
tions are  too  often  treated,  and  am  of  the  opinion  that  with  more 
research  the  discovery  of  facts,  entirely  unknown,  would  throw  much 
light  on  many  historical  problems." 

Certainly  we  are  not  to  forget  the  distinction  between  a  tradition 
and  an  invention  ;  it  is  impossible  to  establish  the  one,  and,  as  a  lie 
can  never  be  made  the  truth,  it  is  not  worth  repeating  ;  but  the  other 
is  an  honest  relation,  accepted  as  such  by  those  who  first  repeated  it, 
and  which  may  yet  be  sustained  by  evidence.  This  tradition  re- 
lating to  Madoc  had,  no  doubt,  some  actual  basis  of  truth,  however 
much  it  may  have  been  misapprehended  ;  the  evidence  adduced  from 
time  to  time  in  support  of  it  has  been  believed  by  many,  and  is  curious 

1  Edrisi,  the  Arabian  geographer's  account  of  The  Voi/aye  of  the  Arabs,  in  Major's  Life  of 
Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  p.  147  et  set].     Humboldt's  Krttmrn  Critique,  p.  137,  T.  2. 

2  Bertlielot's  Natural  History  of  the  L'anaries,  quoted  from  M.  d'Avezac  by  Major. 


THE   WELSH   TRADITION. 


67 


and  entertaining ;  the  tradition  itself  in  its  original  baldness  has  found 
a  place  in  historical  narrative  for  three  hundred  years ;  for  each  and 
all  of  these  reasons  it  demands  brief  consideration. 

The  story  was  first  related  in  Caradoc's  "  History  of  Wales,"  pub- 
lished by  Dr.  David  Powell  in  1584.     Caradoc's  history,  however, 
came  down  only  to  1157,  and  Humphrey  Llwyd  (Lloyd),  who  trans- 
lated it,  added  the  later  story  of  Madoc.      Lloyd  received 
it  from  Guttun  Owen,  a  bard   who,  about  the  year  1480,  forthV 

.     i,  .  ,.  i'i-i  ,1        Welsh  story. 

copied  the  registers  of  current  events  which,  as  late  as  the 
year  1270,  were  kept  in  the  Abbeys  of  Con  way,  North  Wales,  and 
StratFlur,  South 
Wales,  and  com- 
pared    together 
every  three  years 
by  the  bards  be- 
longing   to    the 
two  houses.   An- 


Welsh   Bard. 


other  bard,  Cynt'rig  ab  Gronow,  referred  to  the  tradition  of  western 
discovery  by  Madoc  about  the  same  time  with  Owen  ;  and  another 
allusion  to  it  is  claimed  in  the  following  lines  —  literally  translated  — 
written  three  years  earlier  by  Sir  Meredyth  ab  Rhy  :  — 

"  On  a  happy  Hour,  I,  on  the  water, 
Of  Mannaers  mild,  the  Huntsman  will  be, 
Madog  bold  of  pleasin-r  Countenance, 
Of  the  true  Lineage  of  Owen  Gwyned. 
I  coveted  not  Land,  my  Ambition  was, 
Not  great  Wealth,  but  the  Sens."1         » 

This  may  certainly  be  accepted  as  conclusive  evidence,  at  least,  that 
the  mild-mannered  and  good-looking  prince  was  fond  of  the  sea ;  but 
it  is  difficult  to  find  anything  else  in  it  that  can  be  supposed  to  refer 
to  the  discovery  of  America.  The  only  real  authorities  may  properly 

1  Williams's  Enquiry. 


68  PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES  WESTWARD.       [CHAP.  IV. 

be  considered  as  reduced  to  two  —  the  bards  Guttun  Owen  and  Cyn- 
frig  ab  Gronow.1 

The  story  is  briefly  this :  When  Owen  Gwynedd,  Prince  of  North 
Wales,  was  gathered  to  his  fathers,  a  strife  arose  among  his  sons  as  to 
who  should  reign  in  his  stead.  The  eldest  legitimate  son,  Edward, 
was  put  aside,  or  put  himself  aside,  as  unfit  to  govern,  "  because  of 

the  maime  upon  his  face," —  ho  was  known 
as  "Edward  with  the  broken-nose,''  —  and 
the  government  was  seized  by  Howel  who 
was  illegitimate,  "  a  base  son  begotten  of 
an  Irish  woman."  But  the  next  brother, 
David,  refused  allegiance  to  this  Howel, 
and  civil  war  followed.  At  length  the 
usurper  was  killed  in  battle,  and  the  right- 
ful heritage  established,  David  holding  the 
reins  of  government  as  regent  till  the  son 
of  Edward,  the  eldest  brother,  was  of  age. 
In  this  contention  Madoc  took  no  part,  but 
endeavored  to  escape  from  it ;  which,  in- 
Prince  of  Wales.  asmuch  as  it  was  a  struggle  for  the  lineal 

succession  of    his  family,  was  not  much  to  his  credit.     Leaving  his 

1  Compare  Lyttleton's  History  of  Henry  //..vol.  vi.  An  Enquiry  Concerning  the  First  Dis- 
covery of  America,  by  John  Williams,  LL.  I).  London,  1791.  Jones's  Musical  Relicks  of 
Welsh  Bards,  vol.  i.  From  Dr.  Powell's  History,  Hakluyt  copied  the  story  at  length, — 
referring  also  to  Guttun  Owen,  —  asserting,  however,  in  his  first  edition,  of  15S9,  that  the 
land  which  Madoc  reached  w»is,  in  his  opinion,  Mexico  ;  in  his  second  edition,  of  1600,  that 
it  was  some  part  of  the  West  Indies.  In  this,  as  in  most  other  accounts  of  early  voyagers, 
later  writers  have  followed  Hakluyt.  But  here,  Dr.  Belknap  interposes  a  word  of  caution. 
"The  design,"  he  says,  "  of  his  (Hakluyt)  bringing  forward  the  voyage  of  Madoc  appears, 
from  what  he  says  of  Columbus,  to  have  been  the  asserting  of  a  discovery  prior  to  his,  and 
consequently  the  right  of  the  Crown  of  England  to  the  sovereignty  of  America ;  a  point  at 
that  time  warmly  contested  between  the  two  nations.  The  remarks  which  the  same  author 
makes  on  several  other  voyages,  evidently  tend  to  the  establishment  of  that  claim."  [Amer- 
ican Biography,  etc.,  by  Jeremy  Belknap,  p.  65.]  While  of  Powell,  from  whom  Hakluyt 
copies,  Robertson  says  :  "  The  memory  of  a  transaction  so  remote  must  have  been  very  im- 
perfectly preserved,  and  would  require  to  be  confirmed  by  some  author  of  greater  credit, 
and  nearer  to  the  aera  of  Madoc's  voyage  than  Powell."  [Robertson's  History  of  America, 
vol.  ii.,  note  17.]  Thus  the  story  at  the  outset  has  to  contend  with  a  reflection  upon  the 
credibility  of  the  author  who  first  promulgated  it,  and  upon  the  motive  of  him  on  whose 
authority  it  has  generally  been  repeated.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  registers  of  the 
Welsh  abbeys  of  Conway  and  Strat  Flur,  copied  by  Guttun  Owen,  and  the  statement  of  Cyn- 
frig  ab  Gronow,  upon  which  Powell,  or  rather  Humphrey  Llwyd,  the  translator  of  Caradoc's 
History,  relied  as  authority  for  the  tradition.  The  writings  of  these  bards  are  supposed  to 
be  lost ;  but  if  they  really  related  the  story,  the  trustworthiness  of  Powell,  and  the  motives 
of  Hakluyt,  are  of  no  importance  whatever,  as  it  was  told  by  the  earlier  writers  twelve 
years  before  Columbus  made  his  first  voyage.  If  Madoc's  discovery  —  supposing  there  were 
any  —  was  made  upon  knowledge,  that  knowledge  could  only  have  come  from  Iceland  ot 
Greenland. 


MADOC'S  VOYAGE  AND  HIS  COLONY. 


69 


brothers  (about  1170)  to  fight  it  out  among  them,  he  got  together  a 
fleet  and  put  to  sea  in  search    of   adventures.     He   sailed    IIistorical 
westward,  leaving  Ireland  to  the  north,   which,   it  may  be    5££JJ!J  o£ 
remarked,  is  nearly  the  only  thing  he  could  do  in  sailing    ^jag6- 
from   Wales,   unless  he  laid  his  course  northward  through   the  Irish 
Sea.     But  at  length  he    came   to   an   unknown  country,  where  the 
natives    differed   from  any  people  he  had  ever   seen  before,   and  all 
things  were  strange  and  new.     Seeing  that  this  land  was  pleasant  and 
fertile,  he  put  on  shore  and  left  behind  most  of  those  in  his  ships 
and  returned  to  Wales. 

Coming  among  his  friends  again,  after  so  eventful  a  voyage,  he  told 
them  of  the  fair  and  extensive  region  he  had  found  ;  there,  he  assured 
them,  all  could  live  in  peace  and  plenty,  instead  of  cutting  each  other's 


Madoc  leaving  Wales. 

throats  for  the  possession  of  a  rugged  district  of  rocks  and  mountains. 
The  advantages  he  offered  were  so  obvious,  or  his  eloquence  The  Welgh 
so  persuasive,  that  enough  determined  to  go  with  him  to  fill  colony, 
ten  ships.  There  is  no  account  of  their  ever  having  returned  to 
Wales  ;  but  on  the  contrary,  it  is  said,  "  they  followed  the  manners  of 
the  land  they  came  to,  and  used  the  language  they  found  there,"  — 
a  statement  which,  if  true,  shows,  not  only  that  they  did  not  return, 
but  that  some  intercourse  was  preserved  with  their  native  land. 
Their  numbers,  nevertheless,  must  have  been  sufficient  to  have  formed 
a  considerable  colony,  and  if,  as  the  narrative  asserts,  the  new  country 
"  was  void  of  inhabitants  "  —  meaning,  probably,  that  it  was  only 
sparsely  peopled — it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they  could  have 
become  so  entirely  assimilated  to  the  savages  as  to  lose  their  own  cus- 
toms and  their  own  tongue. 


70  PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES   WESTWARD.       [CHAP.  IV. 

Moreover,  if  such  were  the  fact  it  destroys  all  other  evidence,  which 
•was  supposed  to  be  subsequently  found,  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
colony.  That  supposed  evidence  is,  that  a  tribe  of  Indians  of  light 
complexion  and  speaking  the  old  British  language,  was  found  within 
the  present  limits  of  the  United  States  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
that  traces  of  such  a  people  were  still  evident  at  a  quite  recent  period. 

The  earliest  testimony  on  this  point  is  a  letter1  to  Dr.  Thomas 
Lloyd,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  by  him  transmitted  to  his  brother,  Mr. 
C.  H.  S.  Lloyd,  in  Wales.  The  letter  purported  to  have  been  written 
by  the  Rev.  Morgan  Jones,  and  was  dated  New  York,  March 
to  HS  exist-  10th,  1685-6,  more  than  half  a  century  before  its  publication 
in  the  Magazine.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Jones  declares  that  in  the 
year  1660  —  twenty -five  years  before  the  date  of  the  letter  —  he  was 
sent  as  chaplain  of  an  expedition  from  Virginia  to  Port  Royal,  South 
Carolina,  where  he  remained  eight  months.  Suffering  much  from 
want  of  food,  he  and  five  others  at  the  end  of  that  time  started  to 
return  to  Virginia  by  land.  On  the  way  they  were  taken  prisoners 
by  an  Indian  tribe,  the  Tuscaroras,  and  condemned  to  die.  On  hear- 
ing this  sentence,  Mr.  Jones  "  being  very  much  dejected,"  exclaimed 
"  in  the  British  (z.  e.  Welsh)  tongue,"  "  Have  I  escaped  so  many 
dangers,  and  must  I  now  be  knocked  on  the  Head  like  a  Dog."  Im- 
mediately he  was  seized  around  the  waist  by  a  War  Captain,  belong- 
ing to  the  Doegs,  and  assured  in  the  same  language  that  he  should 
not  die.  He  was  immediately  taken  to  the  "  Emperor  of  the  Tusca- 
roras," and,  with  his  five  companions,  ransomed.  The  providential 
Doeg  took  them  to  his  own  village,  where,  they  were  kindly  welcomed 
and  hospitably  entertained.  For  four  months  Mr.  Jones  remained 
among  these  Indians,  often  conversing  with  them,  and  preaching  to 
them  three  times  a  week  in  the  British  language.  The  conclusion  is 
that  these  Indians  were  descendants  of  the  Welsh  colonists  under 
Madoc. 

The  Mr.  Lloyd  to  whom  this  letter  was  sent,  subsequently  adduced 
some  oral  and  hearsay  testimony,  to  the  same  effect ;  as,  for  ex- 
ample, that  a  sailor  declared  he  had  met  with  some  Indians  on  the 
coast,  somewhere  between  Virginia  and  Florida,  who  informed  him 
in  good  Welsh,  that  their  people  came  from  Gwynedd,  North  Wales. 
But  such  testimony  is  so  vague  that  it  may  be  set  aside  without  hesi- 
tation, leaving  the  letter  of  Mr.  Jones  the  sole  evidence  of  this  Welsh 
survival  on  this  continent,  within  the  first  century  of  its  settlement  by 
the  English.  In  the  next  century,  however,  there  came  forth  fresh 
witnesses. 

First.  A  missionary  from  New  York,  a  Mr.  Charles  Beatty,  travel- 

1  First  published  in  The  (f-oudon)  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  x.,  1740. 


SUPPOSED  TRACES   OF  THE   WELSH.  71 

ling  in  1776,  to  the  Southwest,  four  or  five  hundred  miles,  though  he 
did  not  himself  see  any  of  these  Welsh  Indians,  met  with  several 
others  who  had  seen  and  talked  with  them.  A  Mr.  Benjamin  Sutton 
assured  him  that  he  had  visited  an  Indian  town  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Mississippi,  whose  people  were  not  so  tawny  as  other  natives, 
and  whose  language  was  the  Welsh.  They  had  a  book  which  they 
cherished  with  great  care,  though  none  among  them  could  read  it, 
which  Mr.  Sutton  assumed  to  be  a  Welsh  Bible, — manuscript,  it  must 
have  been,  as  the  art  of  printing  was  not  invented  when  Madoc  is 
supposed  to  have  left  Wales,  in  1170.  One  Levi  Hicks,  who  had 
been  among  Indians  from  his  youth,  also  told  Mr.  Beatty  that  he  had 
visited  such  a  town  west  of  the  Mississippi,  where  the  language 
spoken,  he  was  informed,  was  Welsh  ; 
and  Joseph,  Mr.  Beatty 's  interpreter, 
had  seen  natives  whom  he  supposed 
to  be  of  the  same  tribe,  and  who, 
he  was  sure,  spoke  Welsh,  because 
he  had  some  little  knowledge  of  that 
tongue.  Mr.  Beatty,  in  repeating 
these  statements,  relates,  in  corrobo- 
ration  of  them,  the  story  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Jones,  adding  to  it,  however, 
that  that  clergyman  had  also  found 
a  Welsh  Bible  in  possession  of  the 
Doegs,  which  they  could  not  read, 
but  held  him  in  all  the  more  esteem 

Welshman. 

because   he  could,  —  a  circumstance 

which  Mr.  Jones  does  not  mention  in  his  letter,  but  would  hardly 

have  omitted  had  it  been  true. 

Second.  In  1785  was  published  a  narration  by  a  Capt.  Isaac  Stew- 
art, to  the  effect  that,  having  been  taken  prisoner  by  the  Indians,  with 
a  Welshman  named  David,  about  the  year  1767,  they  were  carried 
seven  hundred  miles  up  the  Red  River,  when  they  came  to  "  a  nation 
of  Indians  remarkably  white,  and  whose  hair  was  of  a  red  color,  —  at 
least,  mostly  so."  The  Welshman  found  these  people  were  of  his  own 
race.  Their  story  was  that  their  forefathers  came  from  a  foreign 
country  and  landed  on  a  coast  east  of  the  Mississippi,  which,  from  the 
description,  must  have  been  Florida.  When  afterward  the  Spaniards 
took  possession  of  Mexico  they  fled  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  up 
the  Red  River ;  and,  as  an  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  account,  they 
showed  to  Captain  Stewart  some  rolls  of  parchment,  covered  with 
writing  in  blue  ink,  which  they  kept  wrapped  up  in  skins  with  great 
care.  Unfortunately  neither  Captain  Stewart  nor  his  Welsh  com- 
panion could  read  these  precious  documents. 


72  PRE-COLUMBIAN  VOYAGES  WESTWARD.       [CHAP.  IV. 

Third.  Mr.  Williams,  the  author  of  "  An  Enquiry  Concerning  the 
First  Discovery  of  America  by  the  Europeans,"  from  whose  book  we 
condense  these  narratives,  asserts  on  an  authority  for  which  he  vouches 
as  respectable  and  truthful,  that  a  Welshman,  living  on  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio,  declares,  in  a  letter  dated  October  1, 1778,  that  he  had  been 
several  times  among  Indians  who  spoke  the  old  British,  and  that  he 
knew  of  another  person  in  Virginia  who  had  visited  a  tribe  of  Welsh 
Indians  living  on  the  Missouri  R'>er.  four  hundred  miles  above  its 
junction  with  the  Mississippi. 

Such,  it  has  been  assumed,  is  the  conclusive  evidence  that  the  de- 
scendants of  Madoc  and  his  companions,  who  migrated  from  Wales  in 
1170,  were  seen  about  five  hundred  years  later  —  in  1660 — some- 
where between  Jamestown,  Virginia,  and  Port  Royal,  South  Caro- 
lina, having  carefully  preserved  their  nationality  and  language.  That 
about  one  hundred  years  afterward  —  in  1767  —  the  same  tribe,  or 
others  of  the  same  lineage,  were  living  on  the  Red  River,  seven  hun- 
dred miles  from  its  mouth,  still  speaking  the  Welsh  tongue ;  that  ten 
years  afterward  a  similar  people,  with  the  same  language,  were  seen 
by  two  witnesses  somewhere  in  the  same  region  ;  that  ten  years  later 
still,  another  person  knew  of  a  similar  tribe  on  the  Missouri  ;  and  that 
Indians  had  been  met  with  by  other  persons  at  various  times  and  in 
various  places,  who  spoke  Welsh.  The  discrepancies  in  the  accounts, 
—  save  the  one  remarkable  fact  that  .some  of  the  witnesses  observe 
that  these  Indians  were  white,  while  others  do  not  mention  a  pe- 
culiarity so  striking  that  it  could  hardly  fail,  if  it  existed,  to  excite 
their  wonder,  —  are  not  greater  than  are  consistent  with  truth  under 
the  ordinary  rules  of  evidence.  But  the  one  point  on  which  they  all 
agree  —  the  speaking  of  ancient  British  —  is  the  most  formidable 
argument,  and  by  the  probability  of  its  truth  all  these  narratives  can 
be  most  conclusively  tested. 

The  thorough  exploration  of  all  the  territory  of  the  United  States 
within  the  last  half  century  has  left  little  to  be  learned  of  any  of  the 
Indian  tribes,  and  there  are  none  among  them  known  to  speak  a 
tongue  which  would  be  recognized  as  Welsh.  Yet  if  there  was  such 
a  tribe  a  hundred,  or  even  two  hundred  years  ago,  who  had  for  six 
hundred  years  preserved  their  language  when  surrounded  by  a  savage, 
alien  race,  it  is  hardly  possible  that  a  century  later,  such  a  people 
could  have  become  so  utterly  extinct,  or  so  absorbed  by  savages  whose 
influence  they  had  so  long  resisted,  as  to  leave  no  certain  trace  of  their 
origin. 

But  all  that  is  pretended  by  the  later  inquirers  is,  that  a  tribe  of 
Indians,  the  Mandans,  showed,  if  not  traces  of  an  intermixture  with 
the  blood  of  the  whites,  at  least  a  marked  difference  between  themselves 


SUPPOSED  TRACES   OF   THE   WELSH. 


73 


and  other  native  tribes.  Among  them  were  in  use  certain  words  in 
which  is  a  resemblance,  or  a  fancied  resemblance,  to  the  old  British 
language.  In  the  manufacture  of  their  pottery,  and  in  the  making  of 
blue  beads,  they  are  said  to  have  shown  a  superiority  over 
the  ordinary  savage.  Mr.  Catlin  believed  them  to  be  a  cross  theory  and* 
between  the  Indians  and  the  Welsh,  and  is  inclined  to  ac- 
cept a  theory,  favored  also  by  some  other  writers,  that  the  Mandans 
are  the  descendants  of  the  Mound  Builders,  and  that  the  builders 
of  those  numerous  earth- works  were  the  people  originating  in  Madoc's 
Colony.1  The  boat  they  used,  Catlin  says,  was  more  like  the  coracle 
of  the  Welsh  than  the  canoe  of  other  Indians ;  and  he  asserts  that  in 
complexion,  in  the  color  of  their  hair  and  eyes,  they  seemed  rather 


Mandan    Boats. 


to  be  allied  to  the  white  than  the  red  race.  Even  the  late  Albert 
Gallatin,  deservedly  a  high  authority  on  any  point  relating  to  the 
North  American  Indians,  acknowledges  that  a  chief  of  this  tribe  whom 

1  Messrs.  Lewis  and  Clarke,  in  their  expedition  across  the  continent,  passed  the  winter  of 
1804-5,  among  the  Mandans  and  other  Indians  on  the  Upper  Missouri ;  but  there  is  nothing 
in  their  journal  to  indicate  that  they  observed  those  striking  differences  in  complexion,  in 
character,  and  customs,  between  the  Mandans  and  other  tribes,  which  Catlin  describes 
at  great  length.  The  method  of  making  the  beads  which  Mr.  Catlin  considers  so  sig- 
nificant a  fact,  Lewis  and  Clarke  say  was  known  to  the  Ricarees  as  well  as  to  the  Man- 
dans.  As  the  material  used  was  pounded  glass,  the  process  must  have  come  into  use  since 
the  introduction  of  glass  by  modern  Europeans,  and  not  have  been  handed  down  from  the 
Welsh.  To  pound  up  glass,  however,  and  make  it  into  a  new  form,  is  an  indication  of  ex- 
traordinary intelligence  in  a  North  American  Indian.  The  Mandan  tradition  of  their 
origin  is,  that  the  nation  once  lived  under  ground,  near  a  lake.  A  grape-vine  extending  its 
root  through  the  earth  reached  their  village  and  let  in  the  light  of  day.  Some  of  the 
more  daring  climbed  up  this  root,  and,  to  their  astonishment  and  delight,  came  out  upon 
a  country  charming  to  look  upon,  rich  in  fruits  of  various  kinds,  and  covered  with  great 
herds  of  buffaloes.  The  grapes  which  they  carried  back,  and  their  report  of  the  delights  of 
that  upper  region,  set  the  whole  nation  wild  to  ascend  and  take  possession  of  a  land  so 
bountiful  and  so  beautiful.  Immediately,  men,  women,  and  children  rushed  to  the  root  of 
the  vine,  and  about  half  the  people  had  climbed  up  in  safety,  when  the  weight  of  a  woman 
of  unusual  corpulence  broke  the  tough  root  from  the  stem,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  was 
shut  out  forever  from  those  who  were  left  l>ehind  Nevertheless,  the  Mandans  believed  that 
when  they  died  the  good  among  them  would  return  across  the  lake  to  this  subterranean  vil- 
lage, and  rejoin  their  kindred  ;  but  that  the  wicked  would  never  reach  that  ancient  home, 
for  the  heavy  burdens  of  their  sins  would  sink  them  beneath  the  waters  of  the  lake.  The 
tradition  is  essentially  Indian  in  character. 


74 


PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES   WESTWARD.       [CHAP.  IV. 


- 


Welsh  Coracle. 


he  saw  in  Washington,  was  of  a  lighter  shade  of  complexion  than 
other  red  men,  and  that  he  was  the  only  full-blooded  Indian  he  had 
ever  seen  with  blue  eyes.  But  he  nevertheless  rejects  the  suppo- 
sition that  they  are  descendants  from  the  Welsh,  and  speaking  their 
tongue,  "  a  fable  "  he  considers  set  at  rest  by  a  knowledge  of  the 
Indian  dialects.  Certainly  it  is  not  pretended  that  any  Indian  tribe 
living  within  the  memory  of  man  has  used  the  old  British  tongue,  as 
was  asserted  to  be  the  fact  by  the  witnesses  of  a  century  and  two 
centuries  ago.  The  slight  resemblances  in  certain  Mandan  words  to 

Welsh,  which  Mr.  Cat- 
lin  found,  but  which 
had  no  weight  with 
Mr.  Gallatin,  are  not 
enough  to  have  en- 
abled the  Rev.  Mr. 
Jones  to  converse  fa- 
miliarly with  the 
Doegs,  or  preach  to 
them  three  times  a 
week  for  four  months 
in  their  own  tongue 
and  his. 

The  supposition  that  the  Mound  Builders  and  the  Welsh  were  iden- 
tical, is  equally  untenable.  Some  of  the  works  of  the  former 
identify  are  known,  by  the  trees  growing  upon  them,  to  have  been 
the  Mound  erected  before  the  date  of  Madoc's  leaving  Wales;  and  a 
colony  of  a  few  hundred  persons  could  not  have  so  increased 
and  multiplied  to  the  number  of  the  millions  who  must  have  been 
engaged  in  the  erection  of  the  Mound  Builders'  works,  and  have  ut- 
terly perished  and  disappeared  again  within  a  period  of  four  hundred 
years.1  The  Welsh  tradition  of  Madoc's  adventure  may  nevertheless 
be  true,  notwithstanding  a  faihu-e  to  sustain  it  by  evidence  of  its 
subsequent  existence  within  the  present  limits  of  the  United  States. 
Such  a  colony  may  have  been  founded,  and  have  perished  as  other 
colonies  have  done  since  ;  or  a  mere  remnant  of  it  may  have  survived 
to  be  absorbed  by  some  tribe  of  Indians,  on  which  it  stamped  in  lan- 
guage and  in  look  some  feeble  impression  of  its  own  origin.  But  the 
story  must  rest  upon  whatever  intrinsic  probability  of  truth  it  pos- 

1  The  Mandan  tribe  contained  about  two  thousand  persons.  As  a  tribe  it  was  completely 
extinguished  by  the  small-pox,  in  1838,  the  few  whom  the  pestilence  spared  being  made 
captives  of  by  the  Ricarees,  who  took  possession  of  their  village.  This  the  Sioux  soon 
after  attacked,  and,  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  the  unhappy  Mandans  rushed  out  beyond  the 
pickets  and  called  upon  the  Sioux  to  kill  them,  for  "  they  were  Ricaree  dogs,  their  friends 
were  all  dead,  and  they  did  not  wish  to  live."  They  fell  upon  the  besiegers  at  the  same 
time  with  such  impetuosity,  that  they  were  to  a  man  destroyed.  — Catlin's  A'ort/j  American 
Indians,  vol.  ii ,  Appendix  A. 


SUPPOSED   TRACES   OF   THE   WELSH. 


Maodan   Indian. 


seeses,  rather  than  upon  any  evidence  that  a  people  whose  color  in- 
clined to  white,  and  whose  tongue  was  Old  British,  can  be  traced 
on  this  continent  from  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  to  our  own  time. 
Should  the  original  sources  of  the  narra- 
tive, the  registers  of  the  Welsh  bards,  be 
ever  recovered,  or  should  other  manu- 
scripts be  found  touching  this  subject,  in 
the  diligent  search  of  later  years  for  fresh 
knowledge  on  these  old  voyages  of  dis- 
covery, there  may  be  some  further  light 
let  in  upon  this  of  the  Welsh  prince.  If 
his  course  was  westward,  leaving  Ireland 
to  the  north,  it  may  be  that  he  and  his 
people  settled,  not  in  Florida,  but  in 
one  of  the  Azores  or  of  the  West  India 
Islands.1 

It  is  a  superficial  objection  to  the  truth  of  any  narrative,  that  no 
mention  is  made  of  the  event  it  relates  by  any  contemporaneous 
writer.  It  is,  nevertheless,  true  that  an  event  which  when  it  happened 
was  not  worth  a  newspaper  paragraph,  or,  if  there  were 
no  newspapers,  wanted  the  vitality  to  get  itself  repeated, 
may,  a  century  or  two  afterward,  from  its  consequences  or  facts- 
its  relations,  be  of  intense  interest,  and  of  the  highest  importance. 
That  the  ancient  annalist,  —  who  did  not  believe  that  the  author  of 
History  should  ever  condescend  to  anything  that  was  not  an  affair  of 
state,  —  should  have  no  ear  for  the  adventures  of  a  petty  Welsh 
prince,  of  some  gallant  private  gentleman,  or  of  some  rough  master- 
mariner,  can  hardly  excite  surprise,  however  much  it  may  be  regretted 
that  treaties  and  protocols,  and  the  enactment  of  laws  were  not  for- 
gotten for  a  moment,  and  the  details  of  incidents  so  interesting  in- 
quired into  and  recorded.  There  is  to  be  considered  always,  not  only 
the  old  historians'  lofty  notion  of  the  dignity  of  history,  but  that  the 
circumstances  of  time  and  place  may  not  have  been  favorable  to  the 

1  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  this  story  of  the  Welsh  should  have  recently  appeared  in  a  new 
form  still  further  west.  Among  the  Zuni  of  New  Mexico,  there  are  said  to  be  white  Indians 
with  fair  complexions,  Hue  eyes,  and  light  hair.  Among  the  New  Mexicans  is  a  tradition 
that  long  ago  some  Welsh  miners  wandered  into  that  country  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, and  that  the  Zuni  killed  the  men  and  married  the  women.  The  Zuni  deny  the  truth 
of  the  tradition  ;  but  there  is,  nevertheless,  a  remarkable  resemblance  tetween  some  of  the 
words  of  the  Zuni  language  and  the  English.  Thus,  "Eat-a,"  is  to  eat;  " Eat-on-o-way," 
is  eaten  enoiir/h ;  and  the  Zunians,  to  express  admiration,  exclaim,  "  Look  ye !  "  or  "  Look  ye 
here !  "  The  surveyors  of  a  route  for  a  railroad  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  in  whose  Report  (vol.  iii.,  part  1,  p.  63),  we  find  this  statement,  "did  not  see  those 
white  Indians  at  the  time  of  their  visit,  as  the  small-pox  was  raging  among  the  Zuni,  nor 
did  they  give  much  heed  to  the  tradition  of  the  New  Mexicans." 


76  PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES  WESTWARD.       [CHAP.  IV. 

rapid  transmission  of  intelligence,  and  that  the  intelligence  itself  may 
not  have  been  supposed  to  be  worthy  of  transmission.  And  especially 
where  a  question  of  American  discovery  is  concerned,  another  im- 
portant fact  must  have  its  due  weight,  —  that  it  was  not  till  long  after 
the  death  of  Columbus  that  any  historian  thought  it  worth  while  to 
inquire  into  the  truth  of  any  report  of  a  pre-Columbian  voyage,  or 
even  that  there  were  any  such  reports  to  inquire  into.  If,  then,  we 
are  in  earnest  search  after  the  truth,  we  shall  first  seek  to  know  if,  in 
regard  to  any  alleged  voyage,  there  is  any  contemporaneous  record  or 
clear  tradition  of  it ;  and  failing  these,  if  the  report  be  above  all  sus- 
picion of  having  been  invented,  exaggerated,  or  perverted,  that  it 
might  aid  in  robbing  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  unfortunate  of  men 
of  the  immortal  fame  which  he  hoped  might  at  length  rest  upon  his 
name,  —  a  hope  which  was  almost  the  sole  compensation  and  consola- 
tion for  a  life  of  many  sorrows. 

•/ 

The  story  of  the  brothers  Zeni,  resting  upon  no  tradition,  and  upon 
no  contemporary  testimony,  is  open  to  all  these  considerations.  The 
The  zeni  Zeni  were  a  noble  and  distinguished  family  of  Venice  ;  in 
family.  jier  Wars  with  her  neighbors,  these  brothers,  and  others  of 
their  kindred,  had  won  renown,  and  were  thought  worthy  of  a  place 
in  history  for  their  deeds  of  valor  and  their  services  to  the  state.  But 
no  contemporaneous  historian  had  seen  fit  to  relate  other  achievements 
of  theirs,  which,  apart  from  the  special  importance  afterward  attached 
to  them,  were  full  of  romantic  interest ;  no  Skald,  or  Saga-man  of  the 
North,  had  even  mentioned  that  island  of  their  Northern  seas,  where 
these  achievements  were  said  to  have  been  performed.  One  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  years  later,  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
when  nations  were  approaching  that  great  power  and  opulence  which 
their  discoveries  and  possessions  in  the  New  World  had  given  them  ; 
when  national  jealousies  as  well  as  national  interests  were  aroused 
for  the  honor  of  having  originated,  or  of  sharing  in  the  most  marvel- 
lous accomplishment  of  human  genius  the  world  had  ever  seen,  then  it 
was  that  a  claim  was  put  forth,  unheard  of  before,  that  these  Venetian 
brothers,  by  more  than  a  century,  preceded  Columbus,  and  that  his 
laurels  must  be  shared  with  them. 

In   1558,  Francisco  Marcolini,  of  Venice,  published  a  volume   of 

letters,  arranged  and  edited  by  Nicolo  Zeno,  purporting  to  be  those 

of  his  ancestors,  Nicolo  and  Antonio  Zeno,  written  between  the  years 

1380   and  1404.     The  letters  and  a  map  had  remained  in  the  family 

archives,  apparently  unnoticed   and   unknown,  till  coming 

Publication      .  '  ,      ,  •     XT-      i  , 

of  the  zeni     into  the  possession  of  this  Nicolo  the  younger  in  his  child- 
hood,   as   playthings,    he   had   torn    them   into  fragments. 
When  he  came  at  an  age  to  understand  their  value,  he  put  together 


NARRATIVE   OF   THE   BROTHERS   ZENI.  77 

such  of  these  torn  and  scattered  fragments  as  he  could  recover,  and 
gave  them  to  the  world.  The  little  volume  was  afterward  included 
in  Ramusio's  "  History  of  Early  Voyages," — but  not  till  after  Ram- 
usio's  death,  —  and  was  subsequently  translated  and  transferred  by 
Hakluyt  to  his  cwn  works.  From  that  day  to  this  it  has  been,  and  is 
still,  a  controverted  question  whether  the  story  is  true  or  false.  By 


Shipwreck  of  Nicolo  Zeno. 

some  writers  it  is  denounced  as  a  fraud,  easily  compiled  from  infor- 
mation not  difficult  to  be  got  from  various  sources  in  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century ;  by  others  it  is  accepted  on  internal  evidence,  and 
especially  on  the  testimony  of  the  restored  map,  as  worthy  of  belief.1 
In  the  year  1380,  according  to  the  Nicolo  Zeno  of  1558,  his  ances- 
tor of  the  same  name,  who  was  wealthy,  brave,  eager  to  see  the  world, 
and  who  found  at  home  no  occupation  suited  to  his  active  and  daring 
disposition,  fitted  out  a  ship  at  his  own  charges,  and  sailed 
away  northward  for  England  and  Flanders  in  search  of 
adventures.  Nor  did  he  seek  long,  for  a  storm  overtook  him,  drove 
his  ship  out  of  her  course,  casting  her,  at  length,  on  an  unknown  and 
inhospitable  coast.  He  and  his  crew  escaped  with  their  lives  the  perils 
of  the  shipwreck  only  to  run  a  new  risk,  —  as  they  were  thrown  help- 
less and  exhausted  on  the  shore,  —  in  an  attack  from  the  natives.  But 
from  this  they  were  saved  by  the  appearance,  at  the  critical  moment, 
of  the  king  of  the  neighboring  island  of  Porland  at  the  head  of  an 
army,  who  rescued  the  strangers  from  the  hands  of  the  people.  Ad- 
dressing them  in  Latin,  and  learning  that  they  were  Venetians,  he  not 

1  The  latest  essay  on  the  subject,  and  iu  favor  of  the  Zeni  Narrative,  is  by  R.  H.  Major, 
published  by  the  Hakluyt  Society  of  London.  His  argument,  however,  is,  for  the  most  part, 
*n  elaboration  of  that  of  Reiuholdt  Forster  in  his  Northern  Voyages. 


78  PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES   WESTWARD.         [CHAP.  IV. 

only  gave  them  a  hearty  welcome,  but  begged  them  to  remain  in  his 
service.  To  this  they  consented,  and  served  him  so  well  by  their 
courage  and  their  skill  in  seamanship  that  Nicolo  Zeno  was  made  a 
knight  and  the  captain  of  the  king's  navy.  Then  Nicolo  sent  to 
Venice  for  his  brother  Antonio,  who  soon  joined  him  to  share  in  his 
prosperity,  leaving  behind,  at  home,  the  third  brother,  Carlo,  to  whom 
all  the  subsequent  letters  were  written.  The  name  of  the  king  whom 
the  two  Venetians  followed,  and  who  had  saved  their  lives,  was 
Zichmni,  and  the  country  was  called  the  island  of  Frisland.  This 
island  he  had,  not  long  before  Nicolo's  shipwreck,  wrested,  or  was 
about  to  wrest  by  conquest  from  the  king  of  Norway. 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  this  island  of  Frisland,  which  was  said  to 
be  larger  than  Iceland,  and  which  carried  on  a  brisk  trade  in  fish  and 
other  merchandise  with  "  Britain,  England,  Scotland,  Flanders,  Norway, 
and  Denmark,"  and  between  which  and  Venice  there  seems  to  have 
been  not  infrequent  communication,  should  never  have  been  mentioned 
any  where  but  about  the  time  of  these  letters  of  the  brothers  Zeni,  and 

• 

that  it  certainly  has  had  no  existence  for  some  hundreds  of  years.1  And 
not  only  Frisland  ;  there  were  various  other  islands  in  those  northern 
seas  held  by  this  Zichmni,  "  a  prince,"  says  Antonio  Zeno,  in  one  of 
his  letters,  "  as  worthy  of  immortal  memory  as  any  that  ever  lived  for 
his  great  valiance  and  singular  humanitie."  By  those  who  accept  the 
account  as  true,  some  suppose  that  Frisland  must  have  been  one  of  the 
Faroe  Islands,  and  that  among  the  Hebrides,  the  Shetland,  and  the 
Orkney  Islands  may  be  found  the  rest  of  the  dominion  subdued  by 
the  prowess  of  this  great  prince  ;  but  others  suppose  that  Frisland  and 
the  rest  were  long  ago  swallowed  up  by  the  sea  in  some  mighty  cata- 
clysm, which  is  the  reason  why  they  have  been  so  difficult  to  find.2 

With  Zichmni  the  Zeni  remained,  —  Nicolo  four  years,  till  he  died, 
and  Antonio  ten  years  longer.  So  long  as  Nicolo  lived  he  did  the 
king  good  service  in  aiding  in  the  subjection  of  a  number  of  the  islands 
of  an  Icelandic  archipelago.  But  he  also  sailed  as  far  westward  as 
Engroneland,  which  is  supposed  to  mean  Greenland.  He  gives  a  mi- 
nute and  interesting  account  of  a  monastery  of  friars  of  the  order  of 
the  Preachers,  and  of  a  church  dedicated  to  St.  Thomas, 
in  Engrone-  which  he  found  in  that  distant  country.  These  friars  lived 
in  that  severe  climate  with  a  remarkable  degree  of  comfort, 
and  even  of  luxury.  Their  monastery  was  built  near  a  hill  from 
which  gushed  forth  a  perennial  fountain  of  hot  water ;  this  they 

1  The  iiame  was  sometimes  applied  to  Iceland ;   but  the  Zeni  letters  speak  of  it  as  an  isl- 
iiinl  distinct  from  Iceland. 

2  See  Frobisher's  Voyages,  Hakluyt,  vol.  ii. ;  Forster's  Northern  Voyages  ;  Belknap's  History, 
vol.  ii. ;  Captain  C.  C.  Zahrtman  in  Journal  of  the  Royal   Geographical  Society,  vol.  v. ;  and 
particularly  the  Voywje.  of  the,  Venetian  Brothers,  Nicolo  and  Antonio  Zeno  to  the  Northern  Seal 
in  the  14f A  Century,  translated  and  edited  by  R.  H.  Major,  Hakluyt  Society  publications,  1 873 


NARRATIVE   OF  THE   BROTHERS   ZENI. 


79 


Greenland  Geyser. 


turned  to  many  useful  purposes  by  conveying  it  in  pipes  into  the 
church  and  monastery,  warming  their 
cells,  cooking  their  food,  heating  their 
covered  winter  gardens,  cultivating  the 
fruits  and  flowers  of  more  temperate 
zones,  putting  it  to  all  uses  for  which 
heat  is  requisite  as  a  substitute  for  fire. 
Thus  they  so  modified  the  rigor  of 
that  hyperborean  region  with  little 
or  no  labor  or  trouble  to  themselves, 
that  those  jolly  menks  made  their 
homes  as  cheerful  as  if  they  were  be- 
neath the  sifnny  sky  of  Italy.  Even 
for  the  buildings  of  the  monastery  this 
volcanic  mountain  furnished  them  with 
ample  material  ;  for  on  the  stones 
which  were  cast  out  of  its  crater  they 
had  only  to  throw  water  when  "  burning  hot "  to  reduce  them  to 
excellent  lime,  which  on  being  used  so  hardened  as  to  last  forever.1 

1  A  German  writer,  Dethmar  Blefkins,  a  minister  sent  to  Iceland  from  Hamburg  in  1 563, 
tells  much  the  same  story,  which  he  learned  from  a  monk  who  entered  this  monastery  of  St. 
Thomas  in  1546.  Blefkins,  whose  tract  is  in  Purchas,  vol.  iii.,  says:  "This  Monke  told 
us  marvellous  strange  things,  that  there  was  in  the  Monastery  of  St.  Thomas  (where  he 
lived)  a  Fountaine,  which  sent  forth  burning  and  flaming  water,  that  this  water  was  con- 
veyed through  Pipes  of  stone,  to  the  several  Cels  of  the  Monks,  and  that  it  made  them 
warme  as  stoves  do  with  us,  and  all  kinds  of  meats  might  be  boyled  in  this  Fountaine,  and 
fiery  water,  and  no  otherwise  than  if  it  had  bin  on  a  fire  indeed,  he  advertised  moreover, 
that  the  walls  of  the  Monastery  were  made  with  Pumice  stones,  out  of  a  certain  mountain 
not  farre  from  the  Monastery  :  like  to  Hecla  in  Iceland,  for  if  you  powre  this  water  upon 
the  Pumice  stone,  there  wiU  follow  a  slymie  matter,  which  instead  of  lyme  they  use  for 
mortar." 

Crantz,  in  his  History  of  Greenland  (p.  265  et  seq.),  in  treating  of  "  lost  "  Greenland,  refers 
to  this  statement  of  the  monk  as  related  by  Blefkin,  but  says  "  it  is  confessed  that  the  story 
is  told  a  little  incoherently,  and  its  truth  is  much  doubted."  "  But  yet,"  he  adds,  "  I  find  a 
sort  of  voucher  for  it  in  Ccesar  Longinus's  Extracts  of  all  Journies  and  Voyages."  There,  it 
is  said  that  an  English  sailor,  Jacob  (or  James)  Hall,  in  the  service  of  Denmark,  made  sev- 
eral voyages  to  Iceland  and  Greenland  and  wrote  a  description  of  the  wild  Greenlanders, 
the  most  particular,  ample,  and  conformable  to  truth  of  all  that  had  written  :  this  man 
affirms  that  he  also  had  spoken  with  the  aforesaid  monk  in  Iceland  in  the  presence  of  the 
Governor,  and  had  inquired  of  him  about  the  state  of  Greenland.  He  told  him,  likewise, 
several  things  about  St.  Thomas's  cloyster,  particularly  "  that  there  was  a  fountain  of  hot 
water  conveyed  by  pipes  into  all  their  apartments,  so  that  not  only  their  sitting-rooms,  but 
also  their  sleeping-chambers  were  warmed  by  it,  and  that  in  this  same  water  meat  might  be 
boiled  as  soon  as  in  a  pot  over  the  fire.  The  walls  of  the  cloyster  were  all  made  of  pumace- 
stone,  and  if  they  poured  this  hot  water  upon  the  stones,  they  would  become  clammy  and 
viscid,  and  so  they  used  them  instead  of  lime."  The  Danish  Chronicle  of  Greenland  [con- 
tinues Crantz]  also  makes  mention  of  this  cloyster,  and  speaks  besides  of  a  garden  through 
which  a  rivulet  of  this  hot  fountain  flowed,  and  made  the  soil  so  fruitful  that  it  produced 
the  most  beautiful  flowers  and  fruits. 

Thus  ttiis  monk  of  the  German  author,  Blefken,  and  the  English  sailor,  Hall,  told  in  1546 


80  PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES  WESTWARD.        [CHAP.  IV. 

But  discoveries  more  interesting  still  were  yet  to  be  made.  Nicolo 
died  soon  after  his  return  from  Engroneland,  and  Antonio  proposed 
to  return  to  Venice,  but  was  not  permitted  to  do  so  by  Zichmni,  who 
retained  him  for  further  service.  There  had  arrived  at  Frisland  an 
ancient  fisherman,  who  had  been  absent  many  years  in 
rf*M»  strange  lands,  and  the  tale  he  told  was  one  which  might  well 
arouse  so  bold  a  navigator  and  adventurous  a  Viking  as 
Zichmni.  Six  and  twenty  years  before,  he  said,  four  fisher-boats  from 
Frisland  were  driven  by  a  mighty  tempest  a  thousand  miles  to  the 
westward,  when  one  of  them  was  wrecked  upon  an  island  called  Esto- 
tiland  —  supposed  to  be  Newfoundland  —  and  taken  prisoners  by  the 
inhabitants.  They  were  led  to  "  a  faire  and  populous  city  "  and 
brought  before  the  king,  who,  learning  who  and  what  they  were, 
through  an  interpreter  —  also  a  shipwrecked  sailor  —  who  spoke  Latin, 
determined  they  should  be  retained  in  his  service.  Five  years  they 
lived  there  and  found  it  to  be  a  rich  country,  "  with  all  the  com- 
modities of  the  world,"  with  mines  of  all  manner  of  metals,  and 
especially  abounding  in  gold.  In  the  middle  of  it  was  a  high  moun- 
tain from  which  sprung  four  great  rivers  that  went  forth  and 
watered  all  the  land.  The  inhabitants  they  found  to  be  a 
"  witty  people,"  having  "  all  the  arts  and  faculties "  of  civilized 
nations,  speaking  a  language  of  their  own,  with  letters  and  characters 
peculiar  to  themselves.  Yet  they  had  intercourse  with  other  countries, 
for  in  the  king's  library  there  were  Latin  books  which,  however,  none 
could  read,  and  they  imported  merchandise  of  various  kinds  from 
Engroneland.  Southward  of  this  kingdom  was  another  great  and 
populous  country,  very  rich  in  gold,  where  there  were  many  cities  and 
castles,  and  where  the  people  raised  corn  and  brewed  ale.  They  were 
also  a  maritime  people,  though  they  did  not  understand  the  use  of 
the  compass ;  but  seeing  this  wonderful  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
the  fishermen,  and  discerning  its  great  utility  at  sea,  they  held  these 
strangers  in  such  esteem  that  they  fitted  out  twelve  barks  and  sent 
them  southward,  under  their  direction,  to  that  other  land  called 
Drogeo. 

precisely  the  same  story,  in  almost  identical  language,  of  the  Monastery  and  Church  of  St. 
Thomas,  in  Greenland,  and  the  ingenious  hot-water  works,  supplied  from  a  geyser,  which 
was  told  by  Nicolo  Zeuo  nearly  two  hundred  years  before.  The  monk  could  not  have  bor- 
rowed from  the  Venetian  book,  for  that  was  not  published  till  twelve  years  after  he  is  said 
to  have  entered  the  Monastery  of  St.  Thomas,  in  Greenland,  where  he  saw  this  remarkable 
oasis  in  the  arctic  wilderness,  but  which  nobody  but  he  and  Nicolo  Zeno  had  ever  thought 
worthy  of  description.  If,  therefore,  Blefkeu  and  Caesar  Louginus  may  be  relied  upon, 
and  there  really  was  such  a  monk,  telling  such  a  story,  about  the  time  of  the  publication  of 
the  Zeui  letters,  it  shows,  at  least,  that  other  sources  of  information  in  regard  to  Greenland, 
were  open  to  Nicolo  Zeuo  the  younger,  tliau  the  mutilated  fragments  of  his  ancestor's  letters. 


NARRATIVE   OF   THE   BROTHERS   ZENI.  81 

It  was  an  unhappy  expedition  ;  for  though  the  fishermen  escaped 
death  at  sea  in  their  storm-tossed  vessels,  they  met  on  land  a  fate 
more  cruel.  Helpless  and  exhausted,  they  were  made  prisoners  as 
they  were  thrown  upon  the  shore,  and  most  of  them  were  immedi- 
ately eaten  by  the  savage  people  "  which  feed  upon  man's  flesh  as  the 
sweetest  meat  in  their  judgment,  as  is."  But  the  man  who  had  got 
back  to  Frisland,  and  some  of  his  companions,  were  saved  ;  for  however 
excellent  they  might  be  for  eating,  they  were  held  as  better  still  for 
slaves.  He  taught  these  people  the  art  of  taking  fish  with  nets,  and  so 
grew  presently  into  great  favor  ;  so  great,  indeed,  that  powerful  chiefs 
quarrelled  for  the  possession  of  his  person,  and  went  to  war  about  him, 
so  that  he  was  the  royal  fisher  in  turn  to  no  less  than  twenty-five  of 
these  copper-colored  lords.  For  thirteen  years  he  lived  among  them 
and  thus  saw  many  parts  of  the  country.  It  was,  he  said, 
a  very  great  country,  as  it  were  a  new  world ;  "  but  the 
people  were  very  rude,  very  fierce  and  cruel,  and  voide  of  all  good- 
ness;" so  savage  that  they  all  went  naked  ;  so  wanting  in  intelligence 
that  they  had  not  even  the  wit  to  cover  themselves  with  the  skins  of 
the  beasts  they  killed  with  their  wooden  spears  and  arrows,  though 
they  suffered  from  the  cold.  Yet  they  had  laws  peculiar  to  each  tribe, 
and  one  custom  that  was  universal,  —  that  they  should  kill  all  they 
could  in  constant  wars,  and  eat  all  they  killed.  It  is  not  an  attractive 
picture,  but  is  thought  by  those  who  maintain  the  Zeni  letters  to  be 
authentic,  to  answer  accurately  to  the  character  of  the  Indians  after- 
ward found  within  the  present  limits  of  the  United  States. 

But  farther  to  the  southwest  the  fisherman  found  a  people  of  more 
"  civility,"  as  he  found  a  more  temperate  climate,  where  they  had 
cities  and  temples  for  their  idols.  To  these  idols  they  sacrificed  men 
whom  they  afterward  ate.  They  understood  the  use  of  gold  and 
silver,  whereas  the  more  northern  people  knew  nothing  of  metals. 
This,  it  is  assumed,  is  a  description  of  Mexico  and  her  semi-civiliza- 
tion, thus  giving  to  the  fisherman  a  wide  field  of  observation,  who 
must  have  travelled,  granting  the  truth  of  the  narrative,  down  the 
Atlantic  coast,  along  the  whole  of  the  northern,  and  part  of  the  west- 
ern coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  discovery,  if  discovery  it  was, 
was  more  extensive  than  that  of  Columbus  himself,  and  of  other  navi- 
gators, in  the  next  two  centuries  ;  and  the  marvel  is,  that  there  should 
be  no  record  or  tradition  of  an  event  so  interesting  as  this  finding 
"as  it  were  of  a  new  world,"  except  in  these  forgotten  letters  to  Carlo 
Zeno,  of  Venice,  and  that  such  letters  should  have  been  unknown  for 
nearly  two  hundred  years. 

For  the  fisherman,  after  his  twenty-six  years  absence  and  travel  in 
these  strange  lands  and  among  these  barbarous  people,  returned  to 

VOL.    I.  (! 


62 


PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES   WESTWARD.        [CHAP.  IV. 


Frisland,  where  his  tale  was  generally  believed  and  even  confirmed 
by  other  mariners  who   also  knew  something  of   that  far 

Expedition  o       •  •  i  i  • 

of  Prince       country,     bo  intense  was  the  interest  excited  that  the  prince 


Zichmni. 


Zichmni  resolved  at  once  to  fit  out  an  expedition,  and  so 
many  came  forward  to  join  it,  that  Antonio  believed  that  it  would  be 


Aztec  City. 

at  no  cost  to  the  state.  Zichmni  commanded  in  person,  setting  forth 
with  many  barks  and  men.  Two  days  before  sailing,  the  fisherman, 
who  was  to  have  piloted  the  fleet,  unfortunately  died,  and  his  place 
had  to  be  supplied  by  other  sailors  who  had  returned  with  him  from 
Estotiland.  Soon  after  leaving  the  last  island  which  owed  Zichmni 
allegiance,  he  encountered  a  gale  which  lasted  for  eight  days  and 
wrecked  most  of  his  vessels.  Nevertheless,  pushing  boldly  westward, 
he  reached,  at  length,  an  island  where  he  found  a  safe  and  com- 
modious harbor,  but  where  "  an  infinite  number  of  people  came  rush- 
ing furiously  to  the  water-side "  and  forbade  a  landing.  Zichmni 
made  signs  of  peace,  when  ten  men  came  off  to  him,  speaking  ten  dis- 
tinct languages,  none  of  which  could  he  understand  except  that  of  one 
from  Iceland.  From  him  the  prince  learned  that  the  island  was  called 
Icaria,  and  the  people  Icari,  after  the  first  king  of  the  place,  who  was 
the  son  of  Daedalus,  a  king  of  Scotland.  This  Daedalus  had  formerly 
conquered  the  island,  and  left  his  son  there  to  reign  in  his  stead, 
while  he,  setting  forth  in  search  of  new  conquests,  was  overwhelmed 
by  a  tempest,  and  the  sea,  in  memory  of  him  who  was  drowned  in 


NARRATIVE   OF  THE   BROTHERS   ZENI.  83 

it,  was  thenceforth  called  the  Icarian  Sea.  The  laws  and  the  land 
which  he  had  given  them  they  valued  far  more  than  life,  and  they 
would  not  tolerate  the  presence  of  strangers.  One  man  only  from  the 
fleet  would  they  permit  to  come  among  them,  and  he  must  speak 
Italian  that  they  might  add  that  to  the  ten  other  tongues  of  their  ten 
interpreters. 

The  prince,  making  a  pretence  of  departing  in  compliance  with  the 
commands  of  the  natives,  circumnavigated  Icaria,  but  a  multitude  of 
armed  men  watched  the  vessels  from  the  hill-tops,  kept  pace  along  the 
beaches  with  its  progress,  and  menaced  it  continually  ;  and  when  a 
second  attempt  was  made  to  go  on  shore,  the  Frislanders  were  re- 
pulsed, many  killed,  and  more  wounded.  Against  this  fierce  obsti- 
nacy Zichmni  was  convinced  at  last  that  it  was  ^  useless  to  contend. 
Once  more  he  set  sail,  still  steering  to  the  west. 

He  steered  to  the  west  for  five  days  with  a  fair  breeze ;  then  the 
weather  changed,  and  the  wind  came  out  from  the  southwest. 
With  this  "  wind  in  the  powpe  "  he  sailed  four  days  more  —  lands  du- 

covered 

sailed,  that  is,  before  the  wind  for  four  days  to  the  northeast, 
when  once  more  land  loomed  up  above  the  sea-line.  On  what  part  of 
the  American  coast  this  land  may  have  been,  it  is  not  considered 
prudent  even  to  conjecture;  for,  given  a  starting-point,  Frisland, 
which  never  existed  ;  a  voyage  thence  westward  of  not  less  than  ten 
days  to  another  fabulous  island,  Icaria ;  thence  still  westward  for  five 
days  more  ;  thence  for  four  days  in  a  northeast  direction,  and  the 
imagination  need  submit  to  no  trammels  of  latitude  and  longitude. 
But  wherever  it  was,  it  was  so  pleasant  a  country,  its  days  of  June 
were  so  delicious,  its  soil  was  so  fruitful,  its  rivers  so  fair,  its  fish  and 
its  fowl  in  such  abundance,  that  here  Zichmni  resolved  to  remain,  to 
build  a  city,  to  found  a  state.  The  harbor  where  he  anchored  he 
called  Trin,  and  the  point  which  stretched  out  into  the  sea  and  em- 
braced it,  he  called  Capo  di  Trin.  In  the  centre  of  the  island  was  an 
active  volcano,  visible  from  the  coast,  and  out  of  the  base  of  it  ran  a 
certain  matter  like  pitch,  that  flowed  into  the  sea.  The  country  was 
densely  populated  by  a  people  small  of  stature,  timid,  half  wild,  and 
living  in  caves  of  the  earth.  Zichmni  sent  his  ships  back  to  Frisland, 
under  the  command  of  Antonio  Zeno,  retaining  only  his  boats  and  a 
portion  of  his  people ;  but  whether  he  himself  ever  returned  thence, 
or  what  was  the  subsequent  fate  of  him  and  his  colony,  except  that  he 
built  his  town  and  explored  much  of  the  neighboring  region,  there  is 
no  account.  The  last  letter  of  Zeno  declares  that  he  has  written  many 
interesting  things  in  a  book,  which  he  should  bring  home  with  him, 
respecting  the  adventures  of  his  brother  and  himself,  of  the  prince 
Zichmni,  the  many  islands  he  reigned  over,  and  the  new  lands  he  dis- 


- 


84 


PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES   WESTWARD.       [CHAP.  IV. 


covered  ;  but  this  the  younger  Zeno  had  destroyed  in  his  youth,  and 
here,  therefore,  the  narrative  ends. 

The  warmest  defenders  of  this  irreconcilable  story  do  not  venture 
to  deny  that  much  of  it  is  fable,  and  of  that  which  they  accept  as 


THE  NORTH  ATLANTIC  OCEAN  BY  ANTONIO  ZENO  IN  THE  YEAR  I4OO 


The  Zeni    Map. 

true,  some  of  its  essential  facts  of  geography  and  navigation  stand  in 
need  of  the  most  ingenious  explanation.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that 

any  actual  navigator  should  have  described  so  many  islands 
to  this  that  had  no  existence  in  the  places  where  he  put  them,  both 

in  the  narrative  and  on  a  map ;  and  quite  as  hard  to  believe 
that  they  have  all  been  since  sunk  in  the  sea,  if  they  ever  had  an 
existence.  If  it  is  assumed  that  the  requisite  number,  and  the  con- 
quest and  discovery  of  those  referred  to,  may  be  found  by  looking  for 
them  among  the  Faroe  Islands,  the  Orkneys,  or  the  Hebrides,  it  is 
hard  to  reconcile  such  a  supposition  to  the  known  facts  of  history  — 
that  Norway,  at  the  end  of  the  14th  century  was  governed  not  by  a 
king,  but  by  a  queen,  Margaret ;  that  the  Orkneys  and  Shetland 
isles  were  never  wrested  from  that  crown,  but  belonged  to  it  till  late 
in  the  loth  century  ;  that  Henry  Sinclair.  Earl  of  Orkney,  held  pos- 
session of  the  islands  of  that  name  as  a  loyal  subject  of  Norway  at 
the  very  time  that  Zichmni  is  said  to  have  conquered  Frisland ;  that 
the  Hebrides  have  been  in  continual  possession  of  Scotland  since  the 
latter  part  of  the  13th  century.  While  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to 


CHINESE  DISCOVERY.  85 

adjust  the  main  statements  of  the  narrative  to  any  reasonable  theory 
consistent  with  their  truth,  the  meagre  information  it  gives  in  regard 
to  the  Western  Continent  was  possibly  accessible  from  various  sources 
when  the  letters  were  published.  The  most  rational  conclusion,  there- 
fore, seems  to  be  that  if  the  story  were  not  a  clumsy  attempt  to  patch 
up  an  account  of  a  voyage,  some  record  of  which  had  been  preserved 
in  mutilated  and  unintelligible  fragments  of  old  letters,  then  it  was  a 
bold,  but  still  clumsy,  fabrication,  whereby  it  was  hoped  that  the  glory 
of  the  great  discovery  might  be  snatched  from  Spain  and  Columbus. 
In  nothing,  in  either  case,  is  that  clumsiness  so  apparent  as  in  the 
adaptation  of  the  Grecian  names  and  fables  of  Daedalus  and  Icarus  to 
persons  and  places  in  the  frozen  North. 

There  is  a  still  older  claim  to  the  discovery  of  the  western  hemis- 
phere than  can  be  made  either  for  Northmen,  Arabs,  Welsh,  or  Vene- 
tians. In  the  Chinese  Year-Books,  in  which  are  recorded 

Chinese 

from  year  to  year  for  many  centuries,  every  event  of  interest  ^'j^^,, 
that  occurred  in  the  empire,  is  the  relation  of  a  Buddhist  Discovery, 
priest  named  Hoei-Shin,  who,  in  the  last  year  of  the  fifth  century, 
visited  a  country  fifteen  thousand  li  east  of    Tahan.     Precisely  the 
distance  measured  by  twenty  thousand  li  in  the  year  499,  and  whether 
by  Tahan  was  meant  Kamtschatka,  Alaska,  or  Siberia,  are  questions 
about  which  there  is  a  good  deal  of  doubt,  while  on  a  clear  under- 
standing of  them  depends  any  application  of  the  narrative  to  Amer- 
ican discovery. 

The  country  which  the  priest  reached,  however,  he  called  Fusang, 
from  its  most  remarkable  product,  a  tree  possessed  of  many  valuable 
qualities.  Its  sprouts  were  like  those  of  the  bamboo,  and  Description 
were  used  for  food ;  it  bore  an  excellent  fruit,  red  in  color,  in  of  Fu8an«- 
shape  like  a  pear,  and  which  would  keep  the  whole  year  round ;  its 
bark  was  fibrous,  and  from  it  the  natives  made  a  kind  of  linen  for 
their  clothing,  and  the  paper  on  which  they  wrote  ;  for  they  were  so 
cultured  a  people  that  they  used  written  characters.  Another  fruit 
they  had  was  apples  ;  from  a  kind  of  reed  they  made  mats.  As 
beasts  of  burden  they  used  horses,  oxen,  and  stags ;  these  were  har- 
nessed to  wagons.  The  hinds  Avere  kept  also  for  their  milk,  from 
which  cheese  was  made ;  and  the  oxen  had  horns  so  large  that  they 
would  hold  ten  bushels,  and  were  useful  as  receptacles  of  household 
goods.  Iron  they  had  not ;  but  copper,  gold,  and  silver  were  plentiful, 
though  but  little  valued. 

Fusang  was  governed  by  a  king,  who  when  he  appeared  in  public 
was  heralded  by  the  music  of  horns  and  trumpets  ;  he  clothed  himself 
apparently  in  accordance  with  some  astronomical  theory,  as  the  color 
of  his  garments  was  changed  every  two  yeai's  for  a  cycle  of  ten  years, 


PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES  WESTWARD.       [CHAP.  IV. 


when  the  same  order  was  begun  again.  The  title  of  this  king  was 
Ichi,  and  he  was  surrounded  by  a  nobility  divided  into  three  ranks. 
The  people  were  peaceful  and  had  no  weapons  of  war.  Offences 
against  the  law  were  punished  by  imprisonment ;  when  this  was  for 
life,  the  offenders  were  allowed  to  marry,  but  their  children  were  sold 
as  slaves. 

A  thousand  li  east  of  Fusang,  the  monk  said,  the  people  were 
white,  were  covered  with  hair,  and  were  all  women.  When  they 

wished  to  become  mothers 
they  had  only  to  bathe  in 
a  certain  river.  Their  chil- 
dren they  nourished,  not 
from  the  breast  but  from 
a  tuft  of  hair  upon  the 
shoulder.  Other  wonderful 
things  he  related,  but  these 
the  learned  translator,  the 
late  Professor  Neumann  of 
the  University  of  Munich, 
g:  thought  too  absurd  to  re- 
peat. The  old  Chinese 
poets  found  a  potent  stimu- 
lant to  their  imaginations 
in  these  stories  of  Hoei-Shin,  and  made  of  Fusang  a  delightful  region 
of  many  marvels  where  the  mulberry  trees  were  thousands  of  feet  in 
height,  and  the  silk-worms  more  than  six  feet  in  length.  In  a  land 
blessed  with  such  capabilities  for  making  silk,  a  Chinaman  could  con- 
ceive of  nothing  wanting. 

Not  the  least  remarkable  of  the  observations  of  Hoei-Shin  is  that 
the  people  of  this  distant  land  were  all  Buddhists.  For  he  was  not 
the  first  discoverer  ;  twenty-nine  years  before  his  visit,  he  said,  five 
beggar-monks  from  China  had  reached  Fusang  and  introduced  the 
religion  of  Buddha,  with  his  holy  books  and  images,  instructed  the 
people  in  the  principles  of  monastic  life,  and  thus  wrought  a  great 
change  in  those  few  years  in  their  belief  and  their  manner  of  living. 

This  alleged  discovery  has  been  the  subject  of  a  good  deal  of  con- 
troversy. There  is  nothing  incredible  in  the  supposition  that  the 
Chinese  may  have  sailed  across  the  Pacific  long  before  Europeans 
ventured  over  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  for  they  were  early  navigators ; 
knew  in  the  second  century  of  our  era  the  use  of  the  mariner's  compass  ; 
and  their  junks,  which  have  changed  little  in  form  since  they  were 
first  known  to  Europeans,  have  been  found  wrecked  upon  the  west 
coast  of  America,  at  different  periods,  from  the  time  of  the  first  Span- 
ish voyages  in  the  Pacific. 


Chinese  Junk. 


CHINESE  DISCOVERY.  87 

While  there  is  no  intrinsic  improbability,  then,  of  such  a  discovery, 
those  who  see  in  Hoei-Shin's  narrative  a  record  of  it,  maintain  that 
Fusang  was  either  California  or  Mexico ;  that  the  Fusang-tree  was 
the  great  American  aloe,  or  "  Maguey,"  as  the  Indians  call  it ;  that 
the  oxen  with  enormous  horns  were  bison  ;  that  the  stags  were  rein- 
deer, which  may  have  once  been  used  farther  south  than  now ;  that 
the  horses  were  of  a  race  that  afterward  became  extinct,  and  whose 
fossil  remains  have  been  found  by  geologists  in  the  western  territories 
of  the  United  States ;  that  the  ancient  Mexicans  were  accustomed  to 
milk  the  bison-cows  and  hinds,  and  to  manufacture  cheese ;  that 
though  Peru  was  not  Mexico,  from  one  the  people  may  have  gone  to 
the  other ;  and  Ichi  may  have  meant  Inca,  the  title  of  the  sovereign 
of  Peru,  which  may  have  been  brought  from  Mexico  ;  that  orders  of 
nobility  were  known  both  in  Mexico  and  Peru ;  that  the  Mexicans  had 
some  knowledge  of  astronomy,  and  the  cycle  of  ten  years,  the  obser- 
vance of  which  determined  the  Ichi  in  the  color  of  his  garments,  may 
have  been  a  subdivision  of  the  Mexican  astronomical  period  of  fifty-two 
years  ;  and  finally,  that  Tahan  was  Alaska,  and  according  to  the  most 
reasonable  computation  of  the  length  of  a  li  of  the  fifth  century,  the 
coast  of  Mexico  is  about  twenty  thousand  li  from  Alaska. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  observed  that  the  monk  speaks  of  no  long 
voyage  to  the  country  he  calls  Fusang  ;  that  in  using  the  vague  term 
20,000  li,  he  meant  to  indicate  a  great  distance  rather  than  any  definite 
measurement  in  miles ;  and  that  he  may  have  referred  to  no  region 
farther  off  than  Kamtschatka,  the  island  of  Saghalien  or  than  Japan ; 
that  by  Tahan  he  may  have  meant  Siberia ;  that  as  his  narrative  is 
acknowledged  to  be  largely  made  up  of  fables,  so  that  which  is  true  is 
composed  of  facts  and  rumors  in  regard  to  various  countries ;  as,  for 
example,  a  tree  similar  in  its  characteristics  to  those  ascribed  to  the 
Fusang  is  found  in  one  of  the  Aleutian  islands ;  the  reindeer  are  com- 
mon to  Asia  as  well  as  America,  and  other  peoples  beside  the  Mexi- 
cans are  known  to  have  been  ignorant  of  the  use  of  iron  and  to  have 
used  copper  instead. 

If  the  story  of  Hoei-Shin  was  not  meant  to  deceive  —  and  some 
Oriental  scholars  do  not  hesitate  to  call  him  "a  lying  priest,"  —  it  is 
too  indefinite,  until  supported  by  further  evidence,  to  be  accepted  as 
an  authentic  narrative  of  a  veritable  discovery  of  the  Western  conti- 
nent. Its  meagre  statement  of  the  character  and  manners  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Fusang  and  of  the  productions  of  the  country  can  hardly  be 
made  to  apply  to  the  ancient  Mexicans  by  seeking  for  similarities  from 
the  Arctic  regions  to  Peru.1 

1  See  Humboldt's  Kxumen  Critique,  tome  2,  p.  62,  et  seq.,  and  Fusang,  or  The  Discovery  of 
America  by  Chinese  Buddhist  Priests  in  the  Fifth  Century,  by  Charles  G.  Leland. 


88  PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES  WESTWARD.      [CHAP.  IV 

We  have  devoted  these  earlier  chapters  to  periods  which,  in  previous 

histories  of   the  United  States  and  of  America,  have  either  had  no 

place  at  all,  or  have  been  dismissed  in  a  page  or  a  paragraph. 

Claim  of  £  = 

the*e  pre-  should  it  ever  be  possible  to  penetrate  the  mystery  and 
periods  on  darkness  which  shrouded  one  half  the  world  almost  as  com- 
pletely as  if  it  had  been  another  planet,  from  the  time  of 
its  creation  to  a  thousand  years  after  Jesus  Christ,  such  an  addition 
to  human  knowledge  would  be  of  inestimable  value  and  intense  inte- 
rest. Modern  science  has  only  begun  to  read  this  story  of  races  and 
of  civilizations  that  long  since  disappeared,  leaving  no  other  record 
than  those  relics  which  till  recently  have  been  either  overlooked  or 
misunderstood. 

What  point  in  time,  or  what  degree  of  knowledge,  may  be  thus 
reached  by  future  discoveries  and  deductions  from  them  in  a  field  as 
yet  but  little  explored,  it  would  be  rash  to  hazard  even  a  guess.  But 
it  is  well  to  know  what  ground  there  is  for  presuming  that  it  is  possi- 
ble to  learn  anything  of  that  pre-historic  period.  And  still  more  in 
actual  history,  even  though  its  records  be  obscure  and  imperfect,  or 
only  traditions  reduced  to  writing ;  even  though  the  period  of  which 
we  can  gain  only  such  imperfect  information  be,  in  some  respects, 
legendary  and  romantic,  we  may,  nevertheless,  profitablv  and  prop- 
erly go  further  back  than  the  ordinary  starting-point  by  five  hundred 
years. 

Hitherto  the  legitimate  commencement  of  American  history  has 
been  held  to  be  toward  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  all 
beyond  fabulous  or  inscrutable.  But  there  were  bold  men  and  skilful 

•/ 

sailors  before  Columbus.  Ever  since  men  sailed  upon  the  sea,  or 
possessed  a  literature,  there  have  been  glimpses,  sometimes  transient 
or  illusory,  at  other  times  distinct,  of  a  mysterious  world  in  the 
Western  Ocean,  the  subject  of  curious  conjecture,  of  vague  prophecy, 
and  oftener,  perhaps,  than  is  supposed,  of  attempted  discovery. 
Though  there  was  no  permanent  occupation  and  no  positive  recogni- 
tion of  this  as  a  new  quarter  of  the  globe  till  the  Columbian  era,  the 
real  or  supposed  approaches  to  its  possession  for  the  five  hundred  pre- 
vious years  appeal  as  much  to  human  sympathy,  and  are  as  pertinent 
to  human  progress,  as  the  mythical  periods  of  the  historical  nations  of 
the  Old  World. 

From  discoveries  made  without  design  and  in  ignorance  of  their 
real  character,  we  are  led,  in  the  gradual  progress  of  events  and  the 
v  ue  slow  advance  of  knowledge,  to  that  later  time  when  the 
eariioina°i  ocean  was  traversed  with  a  distinct  and  intelligent  purpose 
gators.  an(j  with  unhesitating  faith.  The  Northmen,  the  Welsh, 
the  Venetians  —  assuming  their  narratives  to  be  wholly  or  partially 


NAUTICAL   AND   GEOGRAPHICAL  KNOWLEDGE.  89 

true  —  while  they  were  certain  that  they  had  sailed  into  unknown 
seas,  and  were  cast  upon  new  lands  and  among  strange  peoples  beyond 
the  accredited  limits  of  the  inhabited  world,  also  believed,  no  doubt, 
that  they  had  only  reached  the  farther  shores  or  the  out-lying  islands 
of  the  continent  whence  they  came.  The  notions  as  to  the  shape  and 
the  extent  of  the  earth  were,  at  that  period,  so  vague,  even  among  the 
learned,  and  the  art  of  navigation  was  so  little  developed,  that  there 
was  not  much  speculation  as  to  the  possibility  of  penetrating  beyond 
the  known  limits  of  the  continents  and  out  of  the  accustomed  tracks 
of  ships.  All  that  mariners  dared  to  do  was  to  creep  along  the  coast 
from  headland  to  headland,  with  a  fair  wind,  to  go  to  places  fre- 
quently visited. 

The  boldest  who  first  ventured  out  of  sight  of  land,  had  only  the 
sun  by  day  and  the  stars  by  night  to  steer  by  ;  when  these  were  ob- 
scured for  more  than  a  day  or  two  they  lost  all  reckoning 
and  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  winds  and  currents.  They  ofmmticai 
were  without  the  mariner's  compass  of  later  times,  for  the  andknowi- 
magnetic  needle  was  not  in  general  use  till  early  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  either  because  a  knowledge  of  its  properties  was  con- 
fined to  a  few,  or  because  there  was  a  timid  hesitation  to  spread  the 
knowledge  of  an  instrument  which,  it  was  supposed,  would  certainly 
be  looked  upon  among  the  ignorant  as  belonging  to  the  Black  Art, 
and  one  with  which  no  sensible  seaman,  who  thought  of  his  salvation, 
would  trust  himself  at  sea.  It  was  impossible  to  ascertain  the  position 
of  a  ship  out  of  sight  of  land,  for  it  was  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  before  there  was  any  nautical  instrument  by  which  the  alti- 
tude of  the  sun  and  stars  could  be  taken  with  any  approach  to  accu- 
racy. Even  sailing  on  a  wind  is  supposed  to  have  been  unknown  till 
the  Northmen  found  it  possible,  with  the  wind  on  the  quarter,  to  still 
keep  the  ship  on  her  course  if  they  ventured  to  haul  their  tacks 
aboard.  Before  that  time  the  sailor  was  no  wiser  than  the  nautilus, 
which  can  only  sail  with  a  breeze  from  astern.  What  little  knowledge 
there  was  of  distant  parts  of  the  earth  was  gained  by  a  few  travellers 
over  land  in  search  of  information  ;  by  priests  devoted  to  the  propa- 
gation of  the  Christian  faith  among  the  heathen  ;  by  travelling  mer- 
chants of  different  countries,  who,  meeting  each  other  at  certain  great 
marts  for  the  exchange  of  merchandise,  exchanged  information  also  as 
to  the  regions  whence  they  came,  or  others  which  they  had  visited  in 
the  pursuit  of  their  calling. 

Of  the  three  continents,  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  into  which  the  world 
was  then  supposed  to  be  divided,  the  boundaries  were  unknown,  and 
the  extreme  parts,  if  not  uninhabited,  —  at  the  north,  because  of  the 
intensity  of  the  cold  ;  in  the  torrid  zone,  because  of  the  intensity  of 


90  PRE-COLUMBIAN   VOYAGES  WESTWARD.       [CHAP.  IV. 

the  heat,  —  were  believed  to  be  either  absolutely  impenetrable  by 
those  born  in  more  temperate  climates,  or  to  be  entered  only  at  the 
risk  of  life.  It  was  death  from  cold  to  go  too  far  northward  ;  to  ven- 
ture too  far  southward  might  be  worse  than  death,  for  if  heat  did 
not  at  once  consume  the  flesh  and  bones  of  the  unhappy  traveller,  it 
would  singe  his  hair  to  a  crispy  wool,  and  tan  his  skin  to  the  black- 
ness of  a  coal. 

But  when,  at  length,  vessels  were  driven  by  the  fury  of  tempests, 
or  drifted  by  irresistible  currents  westward  upon  unknown  coasts, 
though  the  bewildered  crews  may  have  believed  that  they  had  only 
reached  the  farther  confines  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  extending 
northward  to  the  pole,  thence  southward  and  westward  to  some  un- 
approachable boundary,  such  voyages  were,  nevertheless,  the  natural 
consequence  of  that  boldness  which,  little  by  little,  ventured  farther 
out  to  sea,  and  led  at  length  to  such  grand  results.  They  were  the 
pioneers  of  subsequent  discovery,  and  the  traditions,  speculations,  and 
prophecy  scattered  through  ancient  literature,  of  islands  and  conti- 
nents in  and  beyond  the  Sea  of  Darkness,  arose  in  part  at  least  from 
vague  reports  of  ship?  having  sometimes  sailed  into  those  mysterious 
waters  and  touched  upon  distant  shores. 

Then  in  the  fifteenth  century  came  the  revival  of  learning  in  Europe. 
Enthusiasm  was  kindled  in  the  study  of  science  ;  especially  was  this 
true  in  regard  to  cosmography.  All  that  the  scholars  of  the  earlier 
of  aSes  had  taught  was  diligently  learned ;  and  the  new  the- 
ories  which  the  student  formed  in  his  closet,  the  adventurous 
learning.  voyager  sought  to  test  by  actual  experiment.  To  the  polit- 
ical jealousy  of  states  was  added  a  nobler  rivalry  in  efforts  to  enlarge 
the  boundaries  of  geographical  knowledge  and  to  augment  the  com- 
merce of  the  world.  Sailing  upon  the  sea  grew  into  an  art ;  it  be- 
came possible  to  ascertain  with  some  precision  the  position  of  a  ship 
out  of  sight  of  land  ;  to  tell  almost  with  absolute  certainty  the  direc- 
tion in  which  she  should  be  steered,  though  blackest  clouds  and  dark- 
est night  obscured  the  sky.  It  is  not  easy  now  to  conceive  how 
immense  an  impulse  this  was  to  the  activity  and  intelligence  of  that 
age  ;  but  it  opened  the  whole  world  to  those  who  could  avail  them- 
selves of  these  means  of  knowledge,  and  was  the  dawn  of  a  new 
era  in  civilization.  New  wants  were  created  ;  luxury  increased,  as 
the  products  of  different  and  distant  countries  became  known ;  a 
demand  arose  which  gave  a  new  importance  and  power  to  commerce 
and  to  expeditions  to  find  out  new  and  shorter  routes  to  those  distant 
lands.1 

And  there  was  no  discovery  which  offered  so  magnificent  a  return, 

1  See  Robertson's  History  of  America,  book  ii. 


EFFECT   OF  REVIVAL   OF  LEARNING.  91 

none  which  was  sought  for  with  so  much  intrepidity  and  eagerness,  as 
a  shorter  way  to  that  marvellous  India,  with  its  fabulous  riches  and 
strange  peoples,  which  such  travellers  as  Marco  Polo  and  Sir  John 
Mandeville  had  visited  and  written  of,  but  which,  as  yet,  could  only 
be  reached  by  adventurous  merchants  through  long  and  perilous  jour- 
neys overland.  The  pursuit  of  this  chimera,  rendered  possible  by  the 
fresh  acquisitions  of  knowledge,  and  the  wants  of  the  age,  was  the 
crowning  event  which  revealed  a  New  World,  whose  existence  had 
been  held  to  be  one  of  the  curious  fables  of  ancient  philosophers. 


The  "  Far  Cathay." 

CHAPTER  V. 

INDIA  —  THE   EL  DOHADO   OF   COLUMBUS. 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  CATHAY.  —  EFFORTS  IN  EUROPE  TO  FIND  A  SEA-WAY  TO  IXDIA. — 
I'KIXCE  HEXRY  THE  NAVIGATOR.  —  BIRTH  AND  EARLY  LIFE  OF  CHRISTOPHER 
COLUMBUS.  —  His  DESIGN  OF  A  WESTERN  VOYAGE  TO  INDIA. — FAITH  IN  HIS 
DIVIXE  MISSION.  —  THE  THEORIES  OF  COXTEMPORARY  GEOGRAPHERS.  —  His  LIFE 
ix  SPAIX.  —  THE  COUNCIL  AT  SALAMANCA.  —  His  FIRST  VOYAGE. —  His  BELIEF 

THAT    HE    HAS    DISCOVERED     INDIA.  —  THE     DELUSION     OF     HIS    LlFE.  —  HlS    HRIEF 
1IOXOR   AND   FlXAL   DISGRACE. 

IN  the  far  East  had  reigned  for  centuries  a  line  of  mighty  monarchs 
of  the  race  of  Kublai  Khan.     Among  many  provinces  owing  them 


THE  CITY  OF  QUINSAI.  93 

allegiance  was  that  of  Mangi,  bordering  on  the  sea.  In  this  province 
alone,  Marco  Polo  said,  there  were  twelve  thousand  cities,  all  within  a 
few  days'  travel  of  each  other.  Quinsai,  whose  circuit  was  a 
hundred  miles,  was  only  one  of  a  hundred  and  forty  cities  of  Mangi ° 
standing  in  such  contiguity  that  they  seemed  but  one.  A 
permanent  garrison  of  thirty  thousand  soldiers  guarded  Quinsai  alone ; 
a  police  force  of  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  was  always  on 
duty  to  preserve  its  domestic  peace  and  order.  Spanning  its  many 
streets  were  twelve  thousand  noble  bridges,  some  of  them  so  lofty  that 
ships  could  sail  beneath  without  interruption  to  the  passage  of  the 
multitudes  that  were  continually  crossing  them,  to  and  fro.  Its  prin- 
cipal street,  forty  paces  in  width,  bridged  in  many  places  by  these 
works  of  beautiful  architecture,  extended  from  one  side  of  the  city  to 
the  other  in  a  straight  line.  At  intervals  of  every  four  miles  on  this 
magnificent  avenue  of  thirty-three  miles  were  market-places,  each  two 
miles  in  compass  ;  behind  them  ran  a  canal,  on  the  banks  of  which 
were  great  stone  warehouses  always  filled  with  precious  merchandise. 
In  these  spacious  marts  from  forty  to  fifty  thousand  people  met  three 
days  in  the  week  to  trade,  thronging  through  the  streets  that  radiated 
in  every  direction.  These  thoroughfares  were  all  of  great  width  and 
length,  and  paved  with  stone,  as  indeed  were  all  the  highways,  in 
city  and  country,  of  the  province  of  Mangi. 

The  sewerage  of  Quinsai  was  more  perfect  than  that  of  any  modern 
city,  for  the  waters  of  a  river,  that  bounded  it  on  one  side,  rin.  of 
were  led  through  the  streets  and  washed  completely  away  Quin^"- 
all  filth  and  waste  matter  to  a  lake  on  the  other  side,  whence  they 
were  carried  out  to  sea.  Besides  this  system  of  thorough  drainage,  for 
the  preservation  of  the  public  health,  there  were  free  baths  of  hot  and 
cold  water,  with  attendants,  male  and  female,  for  daily  bathing  was 
the  habit  of  this  luxurious  people  from  earliest  childhood  ;  and  for 
the  sick  and  feeble  the  hospitals  were  "  exceeding  many,"  where  all 
were  taken  care  of  who  were  not  able  to  work.  A  trained  fire-depart- 
ment was  in  constant  readiness  to  protect  the  city  from  conflagrations, 
and  at  a  fixed  hour  of  the  night  the  putting  out  of  domestic  lights 
and  fires  was  enforced  by  severe  penalties,  as  a  safeguard  against 
accident.  All  the  inhabitants  were  required  to  be  within  their 
houses  at  a  certain  time,  and  from  every  guard-house  and  on  every 
bridge  each  hour  of  the  day  and  night  was  struck  on  great  resounding 
basons  or  gongs. 

The  marble  palace  of  the  king,  with  its  arcades  and  corridors,  its  ter- 
races and  courts,  its  lakes  and  groves  and  gardens,  filled  a  circuit  of 
ten  miles  ;  its  wide  expanse  of  roof,  profusely  wrought  in  gold,  rested 
upon  hundreds  of  pillars  of  pure  gold  cunningly  adorned  in  arabesque 


94  INDIA  — THE  EL  DORADO   OF  COLUMBUS.      [CHAP.  V. 

of  azure,  to  heighten  the  native  richness  of  the  yellow  metal.  Here  on 
holydays,  sacred  to  their  gods,  were  feasts  of  ten  and  twelve  days'  con- 
tinuance, with  guests  ten  thousand  at  a  time. 

The  annual  revenue  of  the  king  from  salt  alone,  from  Quinsai  and 
its  associated  cities,  comprising  only  one  ninth  of  Mangi,  was  six  mil- 
lion, four  hundred  thousand  ducats  ;  from  other  products,  sixteen  mil- 
lion eight  hundred  thousand  more.  The  population  of  this  one  of  the 
one  hundred  and  forty  contiguous  cities  was  one  million  and  six  hun- 
dred thousand  families  ;  they  consumed  daily  nine  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  sixty  pounds  of  pepper,  and  "  hence,"  says  Polo,  "  may  be 
guessed  the  quantity  of  victuals,  flesh,  wine,  and  spices  were  there 
spent."  So  wealthy  and  prosperous  and  luxurious  were  these  people, 
that  a  part  of  every  day  was  given  up  to  pleasure  in  boats  and  barges 
fitted  up  for  banquets  on  the  lake ;  in  driving  about  the  long  and 
beautiful  streets  in  chariots  lined  with  cushions  and  cloths  of  silk ;  in 
feasting  in  palaces  gorgeously  furnished  and  kept  for  public  use  ;  in 
loitering  in  public  gardens,  or  resting  in  inviting  bowers  scattered 
through  them  at  convenient  distances.  And  this  city,  "  for  the  ex- 
cellency thereof,"  said  Marco  Polo,  "  hath  the  name  of  the  city  of 
Heaven  ;  for  in  the  world  there  is  not  the  like,  or  a  place  in  which 
are  found  so  many  pleasures,  that  a  man  would  think  he  were  in 
Paradise." 

Of  all  the  provinces  of  the  East,  Mangi  was  the  richest,  as  it  was 
also  the  most  accessible  from  the  sea.  But  all  the  kingdoms,  both  of 
Mangi  and  Cathay,  teemed  with  people,  abounded  in  precious  com- 
modities of  nature  and  of  art,  and  their  cities,  villages,  fortresses,  and 
palaces  were  tens  upon  tens  of  thousands.  Armenia  the  Greater  was, 
>ike  Mangi  and  Cathay,  tributary  to  the  great  Khan.  There  also  were 
many  opulent  communities  ;  out  of  its  soil  sprang  wholesome  hot  wa- 
ters for  the  curing  of  all  diseases  ;  on  the  top  of  one  of  its  mountains 
Noah's  Ark  still  rested.  At  the  city  of  Cambalu,  on  the  northeast  of 
Cathay,  where  the  Khan  resided  for  three  winter  months,  his  palace 
was  of  marble  with  a  roof  of  gold,  so  blazoned  in  many  colors  that 
nothing  but  gold  and  imagery  met  the  eye.  It  stood  in  the  centre  of 
the  city,  which  was  a  succession  of  courts  from  one  to  six  miles  in 
width,  each  surrounded  with  a  wall,  the  outer  wall  of  all  extending 
eight  miles  on  each  side  of  a  square.  In  one  of  these  courts  stood  al- 
ways a  guard  of  ten  thousand  soldiers  ;  in  the  imperial  stables  near 
by  were  five  thousand  elephants. 

From  Cambalu  radiated  roads  to  the  most  distant  bound- 
offh"'  ora?  aries  of  the  empire  ;  at  every  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  on 
these  highways  were  post-houses,  wherein  were  many  cham- 
bers fit  to  lodge  a  king,  and  relays  of  horses  were  kept  always  in  readi- 


THE  GREAT  KHAN.  95 

ness  for  the  use  of  the  royal  messengers.  Of  these  post-houses  there 
were  about  ten  thousand  in  the  whole  empire,  and  the  number  of 
horses  kept  in  them  exceeded  two  hundred  thousand.  Between  these 
houses,  at  intervals  of  three  or  four  miles,  were  other  stations  where 
runners  swift  of  foot  always  stood  ready  to  carry  letters  on  the  king's 
business,  having  at  their  girdles  little  bells,  the  ringing  whereof  gave 
notice  of  their  coming,  and  as  they  met,  the  letters  were  handed  from 
one  to  another  and  thus  hurried  forward  without  a  moment's  delay. 
The  bridges  on  these  roads,  over  the  many  rivers  and  canals  which 
watered  this  wonderful  country,  were  noble  works  of  art,  built  some- 
times of  polished  serpentine,  sometimes  of  beautiful  marbles,  stately 
with  many  columns,  ornamented  with  great  stone  lions  and  other 
sculptures,  curiously  and  beautifully  wrought. 

In  another  city,  Ciandu,  the  Khan  made  his  residence  for  three  of 
the  summer  months,  and  there  also  was  "  a  marvellous  palace  of 
marble  and  other  stones,"  in  an  enclosure  of  sixteen  miles.  So  large 
was  the  banquet-hall  of  this  royal  residence,  that  the  Khan's  table  in 
the  centre  was  eighty  yards  high.  Here  the  royal  stud  was  a  herd  of 
white  horses  and  mares  to  the  number  of  ten  thousand,  which  were  in 
a  manner  sacred  ;  for  none  dared  to  go  before  or  to  hinder  these 
animals  wherever  they  went,  and  none  were  allowed  to  drink  of  the 
milk  of  the  mares  except  they  were  of  the  imperial  blood. 

The  Khan's  army  was  almost  like  the  sands  of  the  sea  for  numbers, 
and  so  magnificent  was  the  state  of  its  many  generals  that  they  sat 
in  chairs  of  solid  silver.  The  royal  fleet  was  fifteen  thousand  sail, 
and  each  vessel  carried  fifteen  horses  and  twenty  men,  or  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  thousand  horses  and  three  hundred  thousand 
men  for  the  fleet.  But  the  merchant  marine  far  exceeded  this,  for  in 
a  single  port  Polo  saw  five  thousand  ships  engaged  in  trade,  and  there 
were  many  cities  that  numbered  still  more. 

In  one  province  a  mountain  of  turquoises  pierced  the  clouds ;  in  a 
valley  of  another  nestled  a  lake  where  pearls  were  so  plentiful  that 
had  there  been  freedom  to  gather  them,  pearls  would  have  been  so 
common  as  to  be  of  little  worth.  There  were  many  mines  of  silver, 
many  rivers  whose  beds  were  spangled  with  gold.  The  beasts  and 
birds  were  various  and  wonderful :  serpents  with  two  little  feet  near 
their  heads,  with  claws  like  lions,  with  eyes  bigger  than  a  loaf ;  hens 
that  had  no  feathers,  but  were  covered  with  hair  ;  birds  of  gorgeous 
plumage  ;  oxen  as  large  as  elephants,  with  manes  as  fine  as  silk  ; 
game  of  all  kinds,  which  the  Khan  hunted  with  hawks  and  with 
leopards  seated  on  the  backs  of  horses,  whence  they  sprang  at  the 
prey.  Spices  grew  everywhere ;  and  of  fruit  there  were  nuts  as  large 
as  a  child's  head,  filled  with  a  delicious  milk,  pears  that  weighed  ten 


96 


INDIA  — THE   EL   DORADO    OF  COLUMBUS.       [CHAP.  V. 


pounds,  peaches  two  pounds  each ;  canes  fifteen  paces  long  and  four 
palms  thick,  somewhat,  no  doubt,  like  those  washed  up  on  the  beach 
of  the  island  of  Porto  Santo  and  seen  by  Columbus,  grew  everywhere 
in  abundance.  The  people  of  this  favored  land  clothed  themselves  in 
cloth  of  gold,  in  silks,  in  lawns  and  cambrics  of  the  finest  fabric,  in 
furs  of  ermine  and  of  sable,  which  they  called  "  the  Queen  of  Furs." 

Fifteen  hundred  miles  from  the  coast  of  Mangi  was  the  island  of 
Cipango,  —  Japan,  —  where  gold  was  so  plentiful  that  the  palace  of 
the  king  was  covered  with  golden  plates,  as  the  churches  of  Europe 
were  roofed  with  lead  ;  the  windows  were  gilded ;  the  floors  even 
were  paved  with  gold.  There  also  were  many  precious  pearls.  In 
the  surrounding  sea  there  were  four  hundred  and  forty  other  islands, 
most  of  them  peopled,  whereon  grew  not  a  tree  that  yielded  not  a  good 
smell,  while  many  bore  spices,  and  where  also  gold  abounded. 

All  the  people  of  these  nucuei-ous  and  opulent  kingdoms  were  infi- 
dels and  idolaters,  and  whoever  should  make  of  them  and  their  rich  pos- 
sessions a  prey  would  be  doing  a  service  to  God  and  the  true  Church. 
Of  the  right  to  do  so  there  was  no  question,  for  it  was  held  to  be  as 
much  the  duty  of  the  Christian  as  the  privilege  of  the  conqueror,  to 
spoil  the  unbelievers.  Even  if  they  were  not  spoiled,  a  power  and 
prosperity  hitherto  unknown  would  surely  come  to  the  nation  that 
should  open  easy  communication  with  a  people  whose  riches  seemed 

inexhaustible,  whose  commerce  exceeded 
that  of  all  the  world  beside,  whose  arts 
were  far  beyond  anything  known  in 
Europe,  whose  luxury  was  of  a  refine- 
ment and  magnificence  hardly  to  be  con- 
ceived of  by  the  ordinary  European 
mind. 

The  great  problem  of  the  age  was  to 
reach  this  "  far  Cathay  "  by  sea.  Navi- 
gation grew  to  a  science,  drawing  all 
ether  sciences  to  its  aid.  Dominion 
over  the  sea  increased  with  the  com- 
mon use  of  the  magnetic  needle  in  the 
new  mariners'  compass  ;  with  the  im- 
proved methods  of  drawing  sea-charts  ; 
with  the  additions  made  to  the  astrolabe 
—  which  the  quadrant  afterwards  superseded —  by  Martin  Behaim  and 
Rodrigo  and  Joseph  the  Jew,  the  king's  physicians,  the  three 

Endeavors  to  -A 

reach  India    ablest  astronomers  and  geographers  of  Portugal.     But  how- 
ever much  this  increase  of  knowledge  advanced  the  commerce 
and  civilization  of  Europe,  to  push  out  beyond  its  confines  and  find  the 


Astrolabe. 


PRINCE  HENRY  THE  NAVIGATOR.  97 

way  to  that  "  East "  of  marvels  and  mysteries  was  the  impelling  mo- 
tive of  the  most  enlightened  and  most  energetic  minds  of  the  fifteenth 
century.     It   was   only   in   royal  treasure-chests,   however,  that   the 
means  could  often  be  found  for   the  expenditure  involved  in  long 
expeditions  ;  still  more  the  civil  conditions,  and  moral  and  intellectual 
subservience  of  the  age,  suppressed  all  individual  effort  that  wanted 
a  regal  sanction.     But  fortunately  in  the  fifteenth  century  there  came 
forward  a  princely  adventurer,  Hemy  of  Portugal,  surnamed  H       of 
The  Navigator,  who  not  only  was  willing  to  listen  to  and  to  ^'^^i 
aid  all  those  who  proposed  voyages  of  discovery,  but  was  s»vis»tor 
himself  diligent  above  all  other  men  of  his  time  in  forwarding  such 
enterprises.     By  his  energy,  generosity,  and  success,  an  impulse  was 
given  to  cosmographical  studies,  and  ex- 
peditions under  his  auspices  or  by  his  ex- 
ample were  pushed  to  parts  where  hitherto 
it  was  supposed  impossible  to  penetrate.1 
Rejecting  the  absurdities  which  some  of 
the  wisest  of  men  then  accepted  as  true,  — 
that  human  life  could  hardly  be  sustained 
in  the  intense  heat  of  the  torrid  zone,  and 
that  it  was  impossible  the  antipodal  regions 
could  be  inhabited,  because  it  was  absurd 
to  suppose  that  there  could  be  a  people 
that  went  about  their  ordinary  business 

with   their  heads  downward,  —  rejecting         Prince  Henry  the  Navi^ator 
all  such  conjectures  as  unphilosophical,  he  devoted  his  princely  rev- 
enues and  all  the  energies  of  a  richly  endowed  character,  to  enlarging 
the  boundaries  of  geographical  knowledge. 

The  love  of  science  was,  perhaps,  the  primal  motive  which  ruled 
Prince  Henry  ;  but  to  this  was  added  a  desire  to  enhance  the  glory 
of  Portugal,  and  to  extend  the  blessings  of  the  Christian  religion 
for  the  salvation  of  souls.  A  desire  to  do  good — '-'•talent  de  lien 
faire  "  —  was  his  chosen  motto,  and  such,  undoubtedly,  was  the  aim 
of  his  life.  The  particular  good,  however,  that  he  never  lost  sight  of, 
was  —  India.  He  gathered  men  learned  in  the  sciences  about  him  in 
his  secluded  home  on  the  promontory  of  Sagres,  where  the  unmeas- 
ured, restless  sea  was  always  before  his  eyes,  and  the  melancholy  mur- 
mur or  the  mighty  roar  of  those  mysterious  waters  never  left  his  ears. 
Of  his  princely  court  he  made  a  sort  of  geographical  college  ;  he  pro- 
posed that  his  seamen  should  fearlessly  cross  the  line  and  breathe  the 
heated  air  which  none,  it  was  said,  could  breathe  and  live ;  he  would 

1  See  Life  of  Prince  Henri/  of  Poi-twjal,  surnamed  The  Navigator;  and  its  Kesults.     By 
Richard  Henry  Major.     London,  1868. 
vol..  i.  7 


98  INDIA— THE  EL  DORADO   OF  COLUMBUS.       [CHAP.  V. 

pass  Cape  Nam  or  Non  —  so  called  because,  according  to  the  provero, 
"  Whoever  passes  Cape  Not  will  return  or  not ;  "  he  would  bring  the 
benighted  heathen  of  Africa,  from  its  Mediterranean  coast  to  its  far- 
thest southern  limit,  to  a  knowledge  of  Christ  and  the  true  Church  ; 
but  the  end  of  all  was  to  double  that  southern  extremity  and  open  a 
new  route  to  India. 

India  —  always  India.  It  was  well  to  win  souls  to  God  ;  it  was 
well  to  dispel  the  clouds  of  human  ignorance,  whether  Christian  or 
heathen  ;  it  was  well  to  augment  the  glory  of  states  and  dynasties, 
and  add  to  the  sum  of  human  happiness,  by  the  discovery  of  strange 
countries.  But  commerce  with  the  gorgeous  East,  so  teeming  with 
all  precious  things,  would  enrich  kingdoms  and  make  states  and 
princes  powerful.  Courts  and  palaces,  lords  and  ladies,  the  increasing 
wealth,  refinement,  and  luxury  of  the  age,  demanded  its  rich  stuffs, 
its  precious  stones,  its  aromatic  spices,  all  its  costly  merchandise. 
Now  they  could  be  had  only  in  some  small  degree  by  tedious,  dan- 
gerous, and  expensive  travel,  partly  overland  through  wide  deserts, 
through  hostile  countries,  a  devious  and  a  doubtful  way.  Great,  then, 
would  be,  not  the  glory  only,  but  the  profit  also,  of  that  man  or  that 
people  who  should  shorten  that  way  in  distance,  remove  its  difficulties 
and  its  perils,  and  pour  the  precious  commodities  of  Asia  in  unstinted 
abundance  into  the  lap  of  Europe. 

The  devotion  of  a  long  life  and  of  his  great  revenues  by  Henry  did 
not  solve  this  problem  while  he  lived  ;  but  the  success  and  importance 
of  the  many  expeditions  undertaken  by  his  orders,  and  the  mari- 
time policy  he  established,  so  extended  the  knowledge  of  the  globe, 
so  added  to  the  power  and  wealth  of  Portugal,  and  led  generally  to 
results  so  brilliant,  that  thenceforward  for  nearly  two  hundred  years, 
the  spirit  of  adventure  and  the  zeal  for  discovery  animated  every 
maritime  state  of  Europe,  and  opened  a  new  world  to  the  races  and 
the  civilization  of  the  old.  Not,  indeed,  that  the  modern  discoverers 
of  the  Western  Hemisphere  were  in  search  of  another  continent ;  they 
were  as  far  from  being  guided  by  any  such  definite  purpose  as  their 
predecessors  of  earlier  centuries  were  innocent  of  all  knowledge  that 
they  had  made  such  a  discovery  when  accident  threw  them  upon 
strange  shores. 

Columbus,  like  the  navigators  of  Prince  Henry,  meant  to  find  a 
new  route  to  the  East,  only  in  a  fresh  direction  ;  and  he  died  in  the 
belief,  after  four  voyages  to  the  New  World,  that  the  countries  he 
had  discovered  were  literally  the  Western  Indies  —  the  coasts  of  Asia 
reached  by  sailing  west.  The  difference  between  him  and  those 
who  by  chance  crossed  the  Atlantic  before  him  was  that  he,  impelled 
by  a  fervid  religious  faith  and  by  conclusions  drawn  from  scientific 


EARLY  LIFE  OF  COLUMBUS.  99 

re 

study,  had  boldly  sought  to  explore  the  unknown  on  which  they  had 
only  been  ignorantly  driven. 

The  father  of  Columbus  had  followed  the  humble  calling  of  a 
carder  of  wool.  But  among  his  kindred  were  some  who  led  Chrlgto  her 
a  seafaring  life,  and  with  them  from  the  age  of  fourteen  a  coiumbus. 
ship  was  the  home  of  the  son.  One  or  two  of  these  relatives  were 
the  servants  of  any  state  that  would  give  them  a  roving  commission 
to  fight  against  its  enemies ;  and  if  a  commission  were  wanting,  they 
sought  and  found  a  foe  in  any  ship  carrying  a  cargo  worth  the  taking. 
They  did  not  differ  much  from  what  in  later  times  was  called  a 
pirate  ;  but  in  their  own  age  they  had  the  reputation  which  a  priv- 
ateer has  had  in  ours.  It  was  with  such  sea  rovers  that  the  great  cap- 
tain learned  the  practice  of  navigation  ;  learned  how  to  carry  himself 
in  fight  when,  sword  in  hand,  he  sprang  over  the  bulwarks  of  a  hostile 
vessel ;  learned  how  to  control  the  rough  and  lawless  men  with  whom 
he  sailed,  now  by  the  enforcement  of  an  iron  discipline,  now  by  those 
arts  of  persuasion  of  which,  with  his  winning  speech  and  commanding 
presence,  he  was  master.  In  one  of  these  sea  fights,  off  the  coast  of 
Portugal,  which  lasted  from  morning  till  night,  the  vessels,  lashed 
together  by  iron  grapplings,  became  enveloped  in  flames,  and  the  only 
escape  from  the  fire  was  to  jump  into  the  sea.  Columbus  went  over- 
board with  the  rest,  and,  being  an  expert  swimmer,  swam,  with  the 
aid  of  an  oar,  eight  leagues  to  land.  He  found  himself  not  far  from 
Lisbon,  where  there  were  many  of  his  countrymen,  —  Genoese, —  who 
received  him  kindly.  The  incident  is  related  on  the  authority  of  his 
son  Fernando,  and  if  there  is  an  anachronism,  as  there  seems  to  be, 
as  to  the  date  of  the  particular  naval  battle  referred  to  and  the  time 
of  the  residence  of  Columbus  in  Lisbon,  the  mistake,  probably,  is  in 
confounding  one  engagement  with  another.  In  Lisbon,  at  any  rate, 
he  was  living  before  he  was  thirty  years  of  age,  having  abandoned  his 
roving  life,  and  supporting  himself  and  his  father's  family  at  home  in 
Genoa  by  drawing  maps  and  sea-charts. 

Here  in  Lisbon  he  became  acquainted  with,  and  soon  married,  the 
Dona  Felipa  Moniz  Perestrello,  a  daughter  of  a  late  governor  of 
Porto  Santo,  one  of  the  Madeira  Islands,  and  a  renowned  navigator 
under  Prince  Henry.  The  charts  and  journals  of  Perestrello  thus 
came  into  possession  of  Columbus ;  and  going  afterward  to  R^J^^  of 
Porto  Santo,  with  his  wife,  he  was  brought  into  familiar 
intercourse  with  Pedro  Correo,  a  navigator  of  some  distinc- 
tion,  who  had  married  another  daughter  of  the  late  governor.  This 
family  connection  was  both  an  incentive  and  a  help  to  his  cosmograph- 
ical  studies,  and  it  was  at  this  period  of  his  life  that  he  became  per- 
suaded of  the  feasibility  of  a  western  passage  to  India.  In  the 


100 


INDIA  — THE    ELDORADO   OF  COLUMBUS.      [CHAP,  V. 


Madeiras  he  found  people  who  believed  they  had  seen  ample  evidence 
of  the  truth  of  the  strange  stories  of  the  islands  of  St.  Brandan  and 
of  The  Seven  Cities,  which  were  supposed  to  be  somewhere  in  the 
Western  Ocean.  He  was  told  of  pieces  of  curiously-carved  wood,  one 
of  them  found  by  Correo,  his  brother-in-law  ;  joints  of  gigantic  cane, 
such  as  Ptolemy  said  grew  in  India ;  branches  of  pine ;  covered 
canoes  ;  the  bodies  of  two  strange  men,  differing  in  complexion  from 
either  Europeans  or  Africans ;  and  all  these  had  been  picked  up  at 
sea,  or  were  found  upon  the  beach,  and  had  evidently  drifted  from  the 
west.  There  is  also  a  story  which  seems  to  have  been  current  in  the 
life-time  of  Columbus,  accepted  by  some  historians,  rejected  by  others 
as  an  attempt  to  detract  from  his  fair  fame,  but  passed  over  in  silence 
by  those  who  might,  from  their  own  knowledge,  have  either  contra- 
dicted or  confirmed  it.  It  is  that  about  the  year  1484  a  vessel  com- 
manded by  one  Alonzo  San- 
chez was  driven  across  the 
ocean  by  storm,  and  that  he 
and  his  crew  landed  and  spent 
some  time  on  the  island  of 
Hispaniola.  On  their  return 
they  again  encountered  tem- 
pestuous weather,  and  only 
five  out  of  sixteen  survived 
the  hardships  they  were  com- 
pelled to  suffer.  Sanchez 
found  a  refuge  in  the  house 
of  Columbus,  who  learned 
from  him  the  particulars  of 
his  western  voyage  and  the  land  he  had  discovered,  receiving  from 
him  also,  when  he  died,  his  charts  and  journal.  If  the  story  be  true, 
the  information  Columbus  thus  gained  could  have  only  helped  to  con- 
firm his  theory,  which  certainly  was  not  founded  on  a  single  fact  or 
a  single  supposition. 

He  found  from  ancient  authors  that  a  belief  in  such  western  lands, 

sometimes  under  one  name,  sometimes  under  another,  and  a  belief  in 

the  possibility  of  the  navigation  of  the  western  seas,  had  long  existed. 

From  his  geographical  and  astronomical  studies,  in  works 

His  theory  .  11,11 

of  the  size  ancient  and  modern,  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
earth  was  in  shape  a  sphere,  but  that  it  was  much  smaller 
than  it  had  been  generally  supposed  to  be.  Two  thirds  of  it  at  least, 
he  was  sure,  was  occupied  by  Europe  and  Asia,  and  the  eastern  coast 
of  Asia  must,  in  that  case,  come  within  the  other  third  of  the  whole 
circumference  and  stretch  toward  the  western  coast  of  Europe.  Other 


Ship  of   Fifteenth   Century. 


THEORIES  OF  COLUMBUS.  101 

men  more  learned  than  he  had  held  this  opinion,  but  he  was  the  first 
who  proposed  to  put  it  to  a  practical  test.  If  he  were  right  as  to  the 
size  of  the  globe,  —  the  one  weak  point  of  his  argument,  and  the  one 
which  his  opponents  seem  to  have  strangely  overlooked,  or,  at  least, 
did  not  answer,  resorting  rather  to  any  dogmatic  absurdity  in  reply  to 
him,  —  if  he  were  right  in  that,  his  reasoning  was  unanswerable.  A 
shorter  and  a  better  way  to  India  than  that  sought  by  Prince  Henry's 
navigators,  round  the  extremity  of  Africa,  would  be  to  sail  directly 
west. 

The  Sea  of  Darkness  and  the  monsters  that  guarded  it  were  fables 
fit  only  to  frighten  children.  Modern  voyagers  had  exposed  the  fal- 
lacy of  the  supposed  fatal  heat  of  the  tropics.  In  one  of  his  roving 
voyages  Columbus  himself  had  sailed,  as  he  says  in  a  letter  to  his  son 
Fernando,  a  hundred  leagues  beyond  the  island  of  Thule,  to  another 
island,  —  Iceland,  —  where  "  the  English,  especially  those  from  Bris- 
tol, go  with  their  merchandise."  This  voyage  was  made  in  1467, 
long  before  his  attention  was  turned  to  the  question  which  so  ab- 
sorbed him  ten  years  later.  Some  have  conjectured  that  he  then 
gained  a  knowledge  of  the  discoveries  of  the  Northmen  and  the  colo- 
nization of  Vinland  more  than  four  and  a  half  centuries  earlier.  But 
this  is  very  unlikely.  It  is  possible  that  the  ship  in  which  he  sailed, 
and  which,  no  doubt,  was  on  a  privateering  cruise,  made  a  short  stay 
in  Iceland  ;  but  the  young  sailor  of  one-and-twenty,  if  ashore  at  all, 
would  find  something  else  to  do  than  to  ransack  dusty  monastic  archives 
for  forgotten  manuscripts  in  ancient  Norse,  or  to  seek  for  old  traditions 
among  learned  monks  who  would  relate  the«rin  Latin.  He  recalled 
the  fact,  however,  that  he  had  sailed  so  far  beyond  the  uttermost 
western  boundary  of  Northern  Europe,  as  one  among  the  many  other 
reasons  he  had  for  maintaining  that  navigation  to  the  west  was  pos- 
sible. The  Indies,  the  kingdoms  of  the  Great  Khan,  the  dominions 
of  that  mysterious  potentate,  Prester  John,  the  island  of  Cipango,  or 
Japan,  perhaps  many  another  island  along  the  Asiatic  coast,  could 
easily,  he  was  sure,  be  reached  by  the  manner  bold  enough  to  defy 
all  fancied  terrors,  and  to  sail  for  thirty  or  forty  days  and  about  a 
thousand  leagues  into  those  unknown  seas. 

This  was  the  work  to  which  Columbus  consecrated  his  life,  and  it 
was  for  this,  he  believed,  that  God  had  singled  him  out  and  set  him 
apart  from  his  fellow-men.  He  was  a  most  diligent  student  of  the 
Bible.  Its  prophecies,  he  was  persuaded,  were  to  be  fulfilled  when 
rapid  and  easy  communication  was  established  between  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth,  and  all  the  human  family  were  brought  within  the 
saving  influence  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church.  He  looked  upon  him- 
self as  the  destined  "  Christ-bearer"  to  far-distant  and  benighted 


102 


INDIA— THE  EL  DORADO  OF  COLUMBUS.      [CHAP.  V. 


lands.1    "  God  made  me,"  he  said,  u  the  messenger  of  the  new  heaven 

and  the  new  earth  of  which  He 
spoke  in  the  Apocalypse  by  St. 
John,  after  having  spoken  of  it 
by  the  mouth  of  Isaiah ;  and  He 
showed  me  the  spot  where  to 
find  it." 2  The  power  and  the 
riches  which,  he  was  persuaded, 
he  could  win  for  himself  and  the 
sovereign  whom  he  should  serve, 
he  would  win  to  the  glory  of 
God  in  the  bringing  of  souls  to 
Christ  in  the  East  and  in  the 
West,  and  his  share  of  the  treas- 
ure gained  he  would  devote  to 
equipping  armies  to  be  led  to 
the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
from  the  hands  of  the  Infidel. 
He  was  as  genuine  a  fanatic  as 
Peter  the  Hermit,  or  a  modern 

Th,  Christ-bearer.  from  Map  of  Juan  de  I.  Co.a.          u  Adventist."        "  In    the     6XCCU- 

tion  of   my  western  enterprise  to  India,"  he  said,  "  human  reason, 
mathematics,  and  charts  availed   me  nothing.     The  design 


o?c£>ium™     was  simply  accomplished  as   the   prophet   Isaiah  had  pre- 
dicted. 


bus. 


Before  the  end  of  the  world,  all  the  prophecies 
must  be  fulfilled,  the  gospel  be  preached  all  over  the  earth,  and  the 
holy  city  restored  to  the  Church.  Our  Lord  wished  to  do  a  miracle 
by  my  voyage  to  India.  It  was  necessary  to  hasten  his  purpose,  be- 
cause, according  to  my  calculations,  there  only  remain  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  to  the  end  of  the  world."  3 

But  this  faith  in  his  divine  mission  was,  nevertheless,  a  corollary  to 

1  His  son  Ferdinand  says  that  as  most  of  his  father's  affairs  were  guarded  by  a  special 
providence,  so  there  was  "  a  mystery  "  about  his  name  and  surname.     He  was  a  true  Co- 
lumbus or  Columba  (a  dove),  inasmuch  as  he  conveyed  the  knowledge  of  Christ  to  the 
people  of  the  New  World  eveu  as  the  Holy  Ghost  was  revealed  in  the  figure  of  a  dove  at 
St.  John's   baptism.     And   as   St.  Christopher   was  so  called  —  Christopher,  or  Christ- 
bearer  —  because  he  had  carried  the  Saviour,  according  to  the  legend,  across  the  deep 
waters  at  his  own  imminent  peril,  so  this  Christopher  "  went  over  safe  himself,  and  his 
company,  that  those  Indian  nations  might  become  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  the  Church 
triumphant  in  heaven."    The  representation  of  Columbus  as  the  Christ-bearer  on  the  old 
maps  is  copied  from  the  pictures  of  the  gigantic  and  popular  saint,  —  St.  Christopher,  — 
which  were  common  in  the  churches  early  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

2  Letter  of  the  Admiral  to  the  (quondam)  nurse  of  the  Prince  John,  in  the  Select  Letter$ 
of  Christopher  Columbus,  translated  by  R.  H.  Major,  for  the  Hakluyt  Society,  p.  148. 

*  Letter  of  Columbus  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  in  the  Profecias.     See  Humboldt' 
Examen  Critique,  Tome  I.,  p.  15. 


THEORIES  OF  OTHER  GEOGRAPHERS. 


103 


the  logic  of  the  sphere.  It  was  because  the  world  was  round,  because 
one  third  of  it  yet  remained  to  sail  across,  and  because  it  was  possible 
to  sail  across  it,  that  God  had  given  him  that  mission.  On  the  ever- 
lasting truths  of  science  must  rest  the  possibility  of  human  achieve- 
ment. God  would  not  appoint  to  him  the  task  of  bringing  the  ends  of 
the  earth  together  if  it  could  not  be  done.  The  theory  of  the  spherical 
form  of  the  earth  was  not  new,  for  that  was  taught  five  hundred  years 
before  the  Christian  era.  But  the  ancient  geographers  supposed  that 
the  ocean  of  the  western  hemisphere  was  of  such  expanse  as  to  In- 
practically  if  not  absolutely  impassable.  It  was  on  this  all-important 


CT^.no  Verde 
CABO  VERB*        ^£*V° 

**  I  ..«m 


Circulus    -Equiaocalialis     ST. THOMAS  7 


Globus  Martini  Behaim 

Narinbergensis 

1492. 

Globe  of  Martin  Behaim. 

point,  the  size  of  the  globe,  that  the  learned  men  of  modern  times 
assumed  that  they  had  received  new  light.  The  globe  was  much 
smaller  than  the  ancients  supposed ;  the  ocean  west  of  Europe  covered 
only  one  third  of  it,  and  then  came  Asia.  Columbus  was  not  a  man 
of  wide  learning,  but  he  had  diligently  informed  himself  of  all  that 
had  been  advanced  on  these  points  by  both  ancient  and  modern 
writers,  and  he  knew  that  the  geographers  of  the  highest  reputation  of 
his  own  time  maintained  the  theory,  on  which  he  relied,  not  only  of 
the  shape  but  of  the  size  of  the  earth. 

From  these  he  sought  argument  and  encouragement.    He  can  hardly 


104  INDIA— THE  EL   DORADO   OF  COLUMBUS.      [CHAP.  y. 

have  failed  to  know  Martin  Behaim,  in  the  service  of  the  King  of 
Portugal  while  Columbus  was  in  vain  attendance  upon  that  court, 
Hnc^  wno  snowed  upon  his  famous  globe,  completed  in  1492, 
thafc  he  had  no  doubt  of  the  proximity  of  Asia  to  the  western 
coast  of  Europe.  From  Paul  Toscanelli,  of  Florence,  we  know  that  he 
received  encouraging  assurances  of  sympathy.  That  learned  physician 
and  cosmographer  confirmed  his  opinion  as  to  the  certainty  and  ease 
of  a  western  passage  to  India,  and  of  the  fame  that  awaited  him  who 
should  thus  bring  within  easy  reach  those  empires  and  kingdoms 
described  by  Marco  Polo,  whose  account  of  their  opulence  and  gran- 
deur had  so  inflamed  the  imagination  and  fed  the  fanaticism  of  Colum- 
bus. Toscanelli  sent  him  a  chart  whereon  he  had  laid  down  the  coast 
of  Asia  in  accordance  with  the  descriptions  of  the  Venetian  traveller, 
and  in  the  intervening  ocean  between  that  continent  and  Europe  he 
placed  the  islands  of  Antilla  and  Cipango,  at  convenient  distances,  as 
stopping-places  for  water  and  fresh  provisions  on  the  western  voyage 
to  the  city  of  Quinsai,  in  the  province  of  Cathay. 

It  was-this  sublime  faith,  and  a  knowledge  of  these  supposed  newly- 
discovered  facts  of  science,  which  sustained  Columbus  for 
eighteen  years  as  a  suppliant,  struggling  with   poverty  and 
sion.  obscurity  in  his  own  person,  with  stupidity,  obstinacy,  in- 

credulity in  others,  begging  from  court  to  court  for  a  royal  sanction  to 
his  enterprise,  and  a  few  ships  to  undertake  it.  And  when  the 
eighteen  years  were  passed  and  their  labor  seemed  all  for  naught,  he 
simply  turned,  sadly  and  wearily  indeed,  but  with  undiminished  zeal 
and  unmoved  convictions,  to  seek  in  a  new  quarter  the  aid  he  must 
have,  and  which  he  was  sure  would  come  at  last.  Should  he  find 
himself  once  on  board  his  fleet,  and  with  its  prows  turned  westward, 
nothing  but  the  hand  of  death  could  have  stayed  his  progress.  To 
turn  back  would  have  been  with  him  to  fly  in  the  face  of  Heaven,  to 
disregard  the  plain  counsels  of  God.  The  story,  always  doubted  by 
the  most  trustworthy  historians,  that  a  day  or  two  before  he  sighted 
Guanahani  he  promised  his  mutinous  and  despairing  followers  to 
return  if  land  was  not  seen  within  three  days,  is  best  confuted  by 
its  own  absurdity.  It  was  a  moral  impossibility  for  him  to  turn  back. 
His  faith  was  of  the  kind  that  removes  mountains,  for  he  was  chosen 
of  God  to  bear  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  to  millions  of  his  fellow- 
men  before  the  heavens  should  be  rolled  together  as  a  scroll,  that 
near  time  when  the  first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  should  have  passed 
away,  and  when  there  should  be  no  more  sea. 

The  geographical  theory  which  alone  saved  the  proposition  of  a 
western  passage  to  Cathay,  or  China,  from  being  preposterous,  and  on 
which  he  based  his  faith  in  his  divine  mission  and  all  his  hopes  of 


PERSEVERANCE  OF  COLUMBUS. 


105 


worldly  greatness,  he  never  abandoned.  Even  after  his  last  voyage, 
when  he  had  four  times  crossed  and  recrossed  the  Atlantic,  he  said : 
"  The  world  is  but  small ;  out  of  seven  divisions  of  it  the  dry  part 
occupies  six,  and  the  seventh  is  entirely  covered  with  water."  In  all 
his  voyages  he  was  constantly  finding  some  fancied  resemblance  in  the 
names  of  persons  and  places  among  the  Indians  to  cities  or  provinces 
or  princes  of  the  East  mentioned  by  Marco  Polo.  The  impression 
which  the  wonderful  stories  of  that  traveller  had  made  upon  a  mind 


Columbus  on   Shipboard. 

always  ruled  by  a  poetic  temperament  and  a  vivid  imagination, 
and  the  confidence  he  had  in  the  importance  and  magnificence  of 
the  discovery  he  proposed  to  make,  were  deepened  by  still  another 
conviction.  The  wealth  of  David  and  Solomon  in  gold  and  silver,  of 
which  he  read  in  Scripture,  he  believed  came  from  those  parts  of  the 
world  he  expected  to  reach.  Had  he  only  hoped  to  find  a  new  con- 
tinent, inhabited  by  some  nations  of  savages,  though  he  might  still 
have  represented  to  the  sovereigns  of  Portugal,  of  England,  and  of 
Spain  the  importance  and  the  glory  of  such  a  discovery,  he  would 
have  had  little  of  that  enthusiasm  and  perseverance  with  which  his 
belief  in  the  certainty  of  arriving,  in  little  more  than  a  month,  on  the 


106  INDIA  —  THE   EL   DORADO   OF  COLUMBUS.       [CHAP.  V. 

r 

confines  of  the  glorious  East  inspired  him  and  enabled  him  to  inspire 
others.  The  value  and  the  character  of  a  new  continent  could  have 
been  only  conjectural  ;  but  of  the  fabulous  wealth,  the  noble  cities,  the 
splendor  of  the  palaces,  the  magnitude  of  the  commerce,  the  millions 
of  souls  waiting  for  the  coming  of  a  knowledge  of  Christ  in  that  con- 
tinent to  which  he  meant  to  open  a  new  way,  he  was  sure  he  knew. 
He  asked  for  aid  to  enable  him  to  take  possession,  not  of  some  specu- 
lative advantage,  some  shadowy  good,  but  of  power  and  riches  and 
dominion  that  had  been  seen  of  the  eyes  of  men. 

With  a  patience  that  nothing  could  wear  out,  and  a  perseverance 
that  was  absolutely  unconquerable,  Columbus  waited  and  labored  for 
eighteen  years,  appealing  to  minds  that  wanted  light  and  to  ears  that 
wanted  hearing.  His  ideas  of  the  possibilities  of  navigation  were 
before  his  time.  It  was  one  thing  to  creep  along  the  coast  of  Africa, 
where  the  hold  upon  the  land  need  never  be  lost  ;  another,  to  steer 
out  boldly  into  that  wilderness  of  waters  over  which  mystery  and 
darkness  brooded.  Only  the  learned  could  understand  that  the  world 
was  a  globe,  and  that  it  might  be  as  safe  to  sail  upon  one  part  of  its 
surface  as  another  ;  only  the  enlightened  could  see  that  to  penetrate 
the  unknown  might  be  to  find  that  which  was  worth  knowing.  His 
knowledge  was  disbelieved  in  ;  his  religious  zeal  and  aspirations  de- 
rided. 

He  first  asked  aid  of  Genoa  ;  or  rather  he  first  offered  without  suc- 
cess the  empire  he  proposed  to  acquire  to  that,  his  native,  city.  Then 
he  assured  John  II.  of  Portugal  that  he  would  add  India  to 
his  crown  by  an  easy  voyage  of  less  than  two  months,  instead 


of  the  dubious  route  around  the  distant  and  stormy  cape  of 
Africa.  John  II.,  who  inherited  much  of  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
great  uncle  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  for  maritime  adventure,  and 
who  had  sent  one  or  two  expeditions  in  search  of  that  mysterious 
potentate,  Prester  John,  who  reigned,  it  was  supposed,  now  in  Central 
Africa,  now  in  farthest  India,  listened  with  so  much  interest  and 
attention  to  the  proposition  and  the  arguments  of  Columbus  that  he 
referred  the  question  of  the  possibility  of  such  a  voyage  to  the  most 
eminent  men  of  learning  in  church  and  state  in  the  kingdom.  The 
decision  was  against  the  project  as  visionary  and  impracticable.  This 
was  so  unsatisfactory  to  the  king  that,  it  seems  probable,  had  Columbus 
yielded  something  of  his  demand  of  honor  and  profit  to  himself  in 
case  of  success,  the  application  to  John,  in  spite  of  the  advice  of  his 
council,  'might  have  been  successful. 

But  at  length,  when  Columbus  had  been  kept  for  years  in  suspense 
and  doubt,  the  Bishop  of  Ceuta,  either  to  get  rid  of  him,  in  any  event, 
or  to  satisfy  the  king,  suggested  that  a  caravel  be  secretly  dispatched 


ATTENDANCE  ON  THE  SOVEREIGNS  OF  SPAIN.  107 

on  such  a  voyage  as  Columbus  had  proposed.  The  advice  was  treach- 
erous and  base,  but  the  king  was  weak  enough  to  accept  it.  A 
caravel  was  sent  out,  under  a  false  pretext,  provided  with  the  charts 
and  other  documents  which  Columbus  had  laid  before  the  council  to 
sustain  his  proposition.  But  those  in  command  of  her  had  little  in- 
clination for  a  venture  which  they  could  only  look  upon  as  mad,  and 
certain,  if  persevered  in,  to  end  in  their  own  destruction.  They  only 
went,  therefore,  as  far  as  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands,  and  reported,  on 
their  return,  that  the  proposed  westward  voyage  was  absurd  and  im- 
possible. When  Columbus  learned  of  the  trickery  and  trifling  of 
which  he  was  made  the  subject,  he  shook  the  dust  of  Portugal  from 
off  his  feet  to  go  and  offer,  as  he  believed,  to  some  other  prince  who 
should  be  wise  enough  to  accept  them,  the  richest  kingdoms  of  all  the 
earth. 

He  left  Lisbon  in  1483  or  1484,  and  first  went,  it  is  supposed,  to 
Genoa,  to  urge  in  person  upon  the  senate  of  his  native  city  the  pro- 
posal he  had  previously  made  in  writing.     But  whether  made  in  per- 
son or  by  letter  only,  the  offer  was  rejected,  and  he  is  next  heard  of 
in  Spain,  seven  or  eight  years  before  he  sailed  on  his  first  niBattend. 
voyage.     During   those   years  he  was  often  in  attendance  ^^l"^6 
upon  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  then  busily  engaged  in  war  for  o£  s')ain- 
the  recovery  of  Grenada,  sometimes  serving  in  the  campaigns  against 
the  Moors,  but  always  watchful  for  an  opportunity  to  urge  his  suit 
upon  the  sovereigns,  or  to  commend  it  to  any  great  man  of  the  court 
whom  he  could  get  to  listen  to  him.     He  was  thought,  at  length,  so 
far  worthy  of  respect  that  means  were  provided  for  his  maintenance 
when  his  proposition  was  actually  under  consideration,  but  he  sup- 
ported himself,  some  part  of  the  time  at  least,  by  making  maps  and 
charts,  as  he  had  done  in  Portugal. 

He  gained  some  friends  among  the  powerful  and  influential,  but 
none  were  more  useful  and  devoted  than  those  of  humbler  rank  whom 
he  found  without  seeking.  Stopping,  foot-sore  and  weary,  on  his 
journey  to  the  court  of  Spain,  at  the  gate  of  the  convent  of  Santa 
Maria  de  Rabida,  near  Palos,  to  ask  for  bread  and  water  for  his  little 
son,  his  appearance  and  conversation  so  interested  the  prior,  Juan 
Perez  de  Marchina,  that  he  persuaded  the  travellers  to  remain  for 
a  longer  rest  than  Columbus  had  intended.  Rabida  became  thence- 
forth the  permanent  home  of  his  son,  and  an  occasional  one  for  him- 
self, for  several  years. 

There  lived  at  the  neighboring  port  of  Palos  a  family  of  seafaring 
men,  the  Pinzons,  and  a  physician,  Garcia  Fernandez,  learned  in  geog- 
raphy and  mathematics.  The  prior,  Juan  Perez,  was  himself  inter- 
ested in  all  maritime  subjects,  and  Columbus  found  in  these  men  a 


108  INDIA  — THE   EL   DORADO  OF  COLUMBUS.      [CHAP.  V. 

little  circle  of  friends  so  well  informed  as  to  feel  at  once  an  enthusiastic 
interest  in  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  his  project.  With  them 
he  discussed  his  plans,  his  geographical  theories,  his  astronomical 
problems,  his  pious  aims.  From  them  he  received  encouragement  and 
sympathy  in  the  darkest  hours  of  doubt  and  despondency.  They 
took  up  the  enterprise  with  as  much  zeal  as  if  it  had  been  their  own ; 
Juan  Perez,  who  had  once  been  confessor  to  the  queen,  used  all  his 
personal  influence  with  her  to  forward  the  interests  of  Columbus,  and 
to  secure  him  friends  at  court ;  and  when  at  last  his  negotiations  with 
the  king  and  queen  were  successful,  it  was  among  these  good  friends 
that  he  found  the  means  to  contribute  his  eighth  part  of  the  expenses 
of  the  expedition,  and  two  of  his  three  vessels  were  commanded  by 
the  Pinzons. 

His  eight  years  of  probation  were  weary  years  of  poverty,  humil- 
iation, and  hope  deferred.  He  was  not  only  derided  as  an  enthusiast, 
almost  as  a  madman,  but  was  in  danger  of  being  denounced  as  a 
heretic  for  devising  theories  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  received 
doctrines  of  the  fathers  as  to  the  shape  and  habitation  of  the  globe. 
He  was  looked  upon  with  cold  suspicion  as  a  foreigner,  and  sneered 
at  as  vainglorious  for  assuming  to  be  wiser  than  many  of  the  learned 
Decision  of  °^  ^s  own  ^me'  anc^  a^  those  of  the  j  >ast .  The  Council  of 
ofCsaia"ncil  Salamanca,  summoned  by  royal  order  to  meet  at  the  convent 
m«nea.  of  g^  Stephen,  and  listen  to  his  plea,  decided  against  him. 
The  most  reverent  and  powerful  prelates,  fired  with  holy  zeal,  and 
dogged  in  their  hostility  to  new-fangled  and  presumptuous  notions, 
ridiculed  with  great  success  a  project  involving  such  an  absurdity  as 
the  existence  of  the  antipodes,  where  men  walked  with  their  heels 
above  their  heads,  where  the  trees  grew  downward,  where  the  snow 
and  rain  fell  upward  from  a  nether  heaven.  To  maintain  that  the 
earth  was  inhabited  beyond  the  tropics  savored  of  blasphemy.  The 
Bible  taught  that  all  men  are  descended  from  Adam  and  Eve,  whose 
primal  home  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Shat-el-Arab,  north  of  the 
Persian  Gulf ;  and  as  the  torrid  zone  was  impassable,  to  assume  that 
there  were  human  beings  beyond  that  line  was  to  assume  that  there 
were  races  of  men  who  did  not  descend  from  Adam  and  Eve. 

Moreover,  it  was  denied  by  these  bigots  that  the  earth  was  a  globe, 
for  the  Scriptures  and  the  fathers  taught  that  it  was  a  level,  extended 
plain,  whose  extremity  could  only  be  reached,  if  it  could  be  reached  at 
all,  by  a  voyage  of  several  years.  But  if  the  world  was  a  globe,  then, 
they  triumphantly  asserted,  such  a  voyage  as  this  ignorant  enthusiast 
proposed  would  be  absolutely  impossible  ;  for  either  one  way  or  the 
other,  in  going  or  returning,  the  sailing  would  be  all  up-hill.  There 
were,  indeed,  men  in  that  grave  assembly  too  enlightened  not  to  detect 


•J 

25 
< 
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< 


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J 


O 


a 

a: 

O 

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a 

a 

CO 

D 
S3 

S 
D 

O 


QUEEN  ISABELLA'S  DECISION. 


109 


the  fallacies  and  absurdities  involved  in  such  statements,  and  to 
wonder  at  the  ignorance  that  could  believe  in  them ;  others  there 
were  ready  with  facts  of  navigation  and  geography,  few  as  they  were 
in  that  age,  to  show  that,  whether  Columbus  were  right  or  wrong, 
such  objections  to  his  theories  were  more  baseless  than  his  wildest 
dreams.  And  there  were  some,  perhaps,  who  thought,  if  they  did  not 
say  so,  that  the  laws  of  the  universe 
could  not  be  limited  to  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture, or  assertions  sanctified  by  noth- 
ing but  priestly  authority.  It  was  a 
gain,  nevertheless,  to  get  the  subject 
before  so  august  a  body  as  this  Coun- 
cil of  Salamanca,  and  the  eloquence 
which  Columbus  brought  to  its  dis- 
cussion, the  special  scientific  facts  of 
which  he  showed  himself  the  master, 
the  skill  with  which  he  parried  at- 
tack, and  the  sagacity  with  which  he 
avoided  the  pitfalls  and  ambushes 
with  which  the  wily  monks  beset  his 
path,  made  him  new  friends  and 
strengthened  his  old  ones. 

Doubtful  of  success  in  Spain,  he  at  one  time  sent  his  brother  Bar- 
tholomew to  England  to  open  negotiations,  if  possible,  with  Henry 
VII.  ;  at  another  time  he  entered  into  correspondence  with  Louis  XI. 
of  France.  From  Ferdinand  and  his  counsellors  he  could  get 

i  •  i  •     i  ,     i  i         -,i  Application 

only  evasive  answers,  and  wearied  out  at  length  with  pro-  to  England 
crastination,  and  negotiations  that  came  to  nothing,  he  bade 
farewell  to  his  friends  and  started   for  France  and  England.      But 
among   those   who  sincerely  believed   in   him  and   his    project  was 
Luis  de  Santangel,  receiver  of  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  of  Aragon, 
who,  on  hearing  that  Columbus  had  actually  started  to  leave  the  coun- 
try, hastened  to  the  queen  and  begged  her  to  recall  him.     His  entrea- 
ties and  representations,  seconded  by  those  of  Alonzo  de  Quintanilla, 
the  Minister  of  Finance,  who  happened  to  be  present,  prevailed  with 
Isabella.     They  convinced  her  that  the  loss  and  the  shame  to  Spain 
would  be  great  and  irreparable  if  such  an  opportunity  to  add  to  her 
dominion  and  wealth,  by  the  discovery   of   a  short  passage  to  India, 
should  fall   into  the  hands  of    any  other  power.     A  messenger  was 
immediately  dispatched  to  bring  Columbus  back,  the  queen  Queen  Ifa. 
declaring  that  the  enterprise  should  now  be  her  own,  and  ^"he*0"168 
that  she  would  pawn  the  royal  jewels  to  defray  its  expenses.  ent«rPrise- 
This   generous  sacrifice  on  her  part,  however,  was  rendered  unneces- 


Isabella,   Queen  of  Castile. 


110 


INDIA  — THE  EL   DORADO   OF  COLUMBUS.       [CHAP.  V. 


sary  by  Santangel,  who  took  it  upon  himself  to  advance  the  requisite 
sum.  On  the  arrival  of  Columbus,  negotiation  was  resumed,  and  an 
agreement  was  at  length  drawn  up  between  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
and  himself  by  which  he  was  made  admiral  and  viceroy  of  all  the  seas 
and  lands  he  should  discover  ;  a  tenth  part  of  all  the  revenues  to  be 
derived  from  them  was  to  be  his  ;  and  he  was  to  provide  an  eighth 
pai-t  of  the  expenses.  Armed  with  such  authority,  he  repaired  to 
Palos  to  make  arrangements  for  the  voyage. 

The  agreement  was  signed  in  April  or  May,  1492,  and  on  the  third 
of  the  following  August  he  sailed  from  Palos  in  command 
of  an  expedition  consisting  of  three  vessels  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty  men.     The  largest  ship,  the  Santa  Maria,  on 
which  flew  the  admiral's  pennant,  was  probably  not  more  than  one 

hundred  tons'  burden  ;  the 
other  two,  the  Pinta  and  the 
Nina,  commanded  respective- 
ly by  his  friends  Martin 
Alonzo  Pinzon  and  Vincente 
Yanez  Pinzon,  of  Palos,  were 
still  smaller  vessels,  called 
caravels,  with  no  decks  amid- 
ships, but  built  high  out  of 
the  water  at  the  stem  and 
stern. 

But  not  only  were  his  ves- 
sels small  ;  they  were  hardly 
seaworthy,  and  one  of  them, 
the  Pinta,  unshipped  her 
rudder  before  they  reached 
the  Canaries.  It  is  conjec- 
tured, indeed,  that  this  was 
not  accidental,  but  was  con- 
trived by  the  owners  of  the  vessel  before  she  left  port,  they  not  liking 
the  adventure  on  which  they  were  compelled  to  send  her.  The  ad- 
miral, however,  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  any  vessels  at  all, 
so  intense  was  the  feeling  in  Palos  against  the  enterprise.  The  royal 
mandate  ;  the  promise  of  immunity  from  civil  or  criminal  process 
against  any  person  who  would  enlist  in  it  ;  the  example  of  the  Pin- 
zons,  the  most  respectable  and  experienced  mariners  of  the  port  ;  and 
the  priestly  influence  of  Juan  Perez,  the  prior  of  Rabida,  were  means 
and  influences  all  needed  and  all  used  to  procure  crews.  When  the 
expedition  sailed,  it  was  followed  by  prayers  and  tears  and  lamenta- 
tions for  men  most  of  whom  were  constrained  by  authority  or  ne- 


The  Fleet  of  Columbus. 


THE  FIRST  EXPEDITION.  Ill 

cessity  to  enter  upon  an  adventure  which  seemed  desperate  to  the  last 
degree. 

•The  sum  advanced  from  the  treasury  of  Aragon  by  Santangel  was 
one  million   one   hundred   and   forty  thousand   maravedis, 

,.  ,  i         i  n  i  i         i  r  Expense  of 

"being  the  sum  he  lent,  says  the  account-book,  "for  pay-  theexpedi- 
ing  the  caravels  which  their  highnesses  ordered  to  go  as  the 
armada  to  the  Indies,  and  for  paying  Christopher  Columbus,  who  goes 
in  the  said  armada."  1  If  to  this  be  added  the  one  eighth  share  of  the 
expenses  which  it  was  stipulated  Columbus  himself  should  provide, 
the  whole  cost  of  the  expedition  was  one  million  two  hundred  and 
eighty-two  thousand  and  five  hundred  maravedis,  a  sum  hardly  equal 
in  its  purchasing  power  to  fifty  thousand  dollars  of  the  money  of  our 
time.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  expense  of  the  expedition  must 
always  have  been  a  secondary  consideration  with  the  sovereigns  from 
whom  Columbus  had  sought  assistance.  The  real  difficulty  was  not 
money,  but  the  serious  doubts  as  to  the  soundness  of  his  theory  of 
the  possibility  of  a  western  voyage  to  India.  It  was  those  doubts, 
intensified  into  absolute  terror,  that  filled  Palos  with  wailing  and 
consternation  when  he  succeeded,  at  last,  in  making  good  his  de- 
parture. 

Seven  months  later  he  entered  the  same  port  with  the  halo  of  the 
most  brilliant  success  about  him,  and  prepared  to  proceed  to  court 
surrounded  with  the  barbaric  pomp  of  painted  savages  decked  out 
with  ornaments  of  gold,  and  crowned  with  coronets  of  brilliant  feath- 
ers, attendants  carrying  in  their  hands  birds  of  the  gayest  plumage, 
the  stuffed  skins  of  strange  beasts,  and  specimens  of  trees  and  plants 
supposed  to  bear  the  most  precious  spices.  No  wonder  that  then  the 
revulsion  of  feeling  was  tremendous,  and  he  was  hailed  as  the  greatest 
and  most  fortunate  of  men.  It  was  a  short-lived  triumph,  however, 
never  to  be  repeated  on  his  return  from  either  of  his  three  subsequent 
voyages,  for  his  was  a  success  that  had  not  succeeded. 

The  glory  of  the  discovery  he   actually  made  has  to  a  remai'kable 
degree  obscured  the  fact  that  in  the  long  discussion  before 
kings  and  councils  of  the  discovery  he  proposed  to  make,  it  of  the  great 
was  Columbus  who  was  in  the  wrong,  and  his  opponents  who 
were  in  the  right,  on  the  main  question  —  a  short  western  route  to 
India.     The  ignorance,  the  obstinacy,  the  stupidity,  with  which  he  so 
long  contended,  were  indeed  obstacles  in  the  way  of  an  event  so  im- 
portant to  all  civilized  races  as  the  possession  of  half  the  globe ;  but 
that  event  was   no   more   proposed   or  foreseen   by    Columbus  than 
it  was  opposed  by  those  who  withstood  him  the  most  persistently, 
or  ridiculed  him  the  most  unmercifully.     The  very  splendor  of  his 

1  Helps'  Life  of  Columbus,  p.  80. 


112  INDIA  — THE  EL  DORADO  OF  COLUMBUS.      [CHAP.  V. 

promises  may  have  made  men  incredulous  of  their  fulfilment  who 
would,  perhaps,  have  listened  to  an  argument  in  favor  merely  of 
the  possibility  of  sailing  westward  and  of  reaching  unknown  counti'ies, 
within  a  moderate  distance,  which  might  be  worth  exploring  and 
worth  possessing.  But  Columbus  had  no  such  argument  to  offer. 
Neither  in  his  mind  nor  in  theirs  was  there  any  thought  of  a  great 
continent  lying  between  two  great  oceans,  extending  almost  from 
pole  to  pole,  and  separating  the  western  coast  of  Europe  from  the 
eastern  coast  of  Asia  by  an  area  of  land  and  sea  that  covered  half 
the  globe.  It  was  that  distant  Asia  itself  that  he  declared  he  could 
reach  in  less  than  forty  days  ;  and  that  they  rightly  said  was  im- 
possible. 

But  at  last,  as  he  believed,  and  as  they  were  forced  to  confess,  by 
an  event  which  all  misapprehended,  he  was  justified.  The  enthu- 
siasm, the  strength  of  faith,  the  tenacity  of  purpose,  which  through 
so  many  years  had  never  faltered,  had  at  length  triumphed  —  tri- 
umphed even  in  the  final  struggle  with  the  superstition  and  despera- 
tion of  men  who  would  have  gladly  sacrificed  him  to  their  fears. 
They  had  crossed  the  ocean  hitherto  believed  to  be  guarded  by  strange 

and  horrid  monsters  and  shrouded  in  frightful  darkness  ;  but 
the  New  as  they  approached  the  land  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  a 

new  terror  seized  them.  They  fancied  themselves  lured  by 
the  powers  of  magic  to  certain  destruction,  gliding  over  smooth 
waters,  favored  by  gentle  breezes,  beguiled  by  birds  of  gay  plumage 
whose  song  was  of  the  woods ;  by  fishes  of  flashing  hues  whose 
natural  haunts  were  the  dark  and  still  crevices  of  rocky  shores ;  by 
fantastic  clouds  that  took  the  semblance  of  distant  mountains  or  of 
low  beaches,  making  a  dim  line  upon  the  edge  of  sky  and  sea,  but 
fading  into  nothingness  as  they  were  approached  ;  by  the  exquisite 
perfume  of  tropical  vegetation,  enwrapping  all  the  senses,  while 
around  them  were  to  be  seen  only  the  desolate  waters,  above  them 
only  the  cruel  sky.  But  the  presence  of  the  man  of  faith  was  stronger 
than  the  dread  of  the  supernatural.  He  never  faltered  for  a  single 
instant ;  not  one  passing  mist  of  doubt  ever  clouded  his  mind.  He 
knew  that  God  had  led  him  to  the  threshold  of  the  dominions  of 
Kublai  Khan ;  and  when  at  daybreak  on  the  12th  of  October  the 
morning  light  revealed  the  beautiful  earth,  never  so  hailed  since  the 
top  of  Ararat  pierced  the  waters  of  a  drowned  world,  —  at  that  su- 
preme moment  he  in  his  sublime  faith  saw  the  realization  of  the 
visions  of  a  life-time.  Before  him  rose  all  the  splendor  and  opulence 
of  the  thousands  of  cities  and  palaces,  the  fleets  of  unnumbered  ships 
laden  with  richest  merchandise,  the  mountains  of  precious  stones,  the 
lakes  of  pearls,  the  rivers  of  gold,  of  the  kingdoms  of  Mangi  and 


MISTAKE   OF  THE    GREAT  NAVIGATOR.  113 

Cathay ;  these  for  his  temporal  sovereigns,  the  King  and  Queen  of 
Spain  :  and  before  him  gathered  millions  of  his  fellow-creatures,  to 
whose  perishing  souls  he,  the  "  Christ-bearer,"  came  as  the  messenger 
of  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation,  to  lead  them  to  the  feet  of  his  spiritual 
lord,  the  Holy  Father  at  Rome. 

And  from  that  moment  to  the  day  of  his  death  hardly  a  doubt 
seems  ever  to  have  cast  a  shadow  over  his  belief.  When  he  asked  of 
the  natives  of  Guanahani —  the  island  he  first  saw,  and 
appropriately  named  Salvador,  or  the  Saviour  —  for  Cipango, 
or  Japan,  they,  supposing  him  to  mean  those  mountains  of  A81a- 
Haiti  called  Cibao,  pointed  southward ;  and  no  suspicion  crossed  the 
mind  of  Columbus  that  there  could  be  any  misunderstanding  either 
on  his  part  or  on  theirs.  From  the  ears  and  noses  of  these  savages 
were  suspended  rude  ornaments  of  gold  ;  on  these  he  fancied  he  could 
distinguish  engraved  characters,  and  that  they  were  the  coin  of  India. 
As  he  continued  his  voyage  among  other  islands,  the  answer  to  the 
constant  inquiry  for  gold  was  always  the  same  ;  the  Indians  pointed  to 
the  south,  and  the  fervid  imagination  of  the  Admiral  led  him  to 
interpret  their  gestures  as  meaning  that  south  ward  were  kingdoms 
populous,  powerful,  rich  in  all  precious  things — the  marvellous  country 
of  Marco  Polo's  narrative.  When  he  reached  the  coast  of  Cuba,  the 
Indians,  pointing  to  the  interior,  contrived  to  impart  the  information 
that  at  a  distance  of  four  days'  journey  only  was  Cubanacan,  where 
gold  abounded ;  he  recognized  in  that  word  —  Cubanacan  —  a  corrup- 
tion of  the  name  of  that  magnificent  monarch  of  whom  he  was  in 
search,  Kublai  Khan  ;  and  supposing  he  had  reached  the  island  of 
Cipango,  he  dispatched  two  messengers  overland,  to  deliver  to  him 
the  letter  of  which  he  .was  the  bearer  as  ambassador  from  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella. 

So  of  all  his  voyages.  Wherever  he  went,  whatever  he  saw  or 
heard,  it  only  served  to  deepen  this  delusion.  When  he  sailed  west 
from  Jamaica,  he  thought  he  had  accomplished  so  much  of  The  delusion 
the  compass  of  the  earth  that  he  must  needs  be  near  the  confirmed- 
Aurea  Chersonesus  of  ancient  India.  Hispaniola  he  was  sure  was 
Ophir,  and  in  deep  pits  in  the  mountains  he  saw  evidences  of  the 
ancient  mines  whence  Solomon  derived  his  gold.  The  extremity  of 
Cuba  he  assumed  to  be  the  extremity  of  Asia,  by  doubling  which  he 
could  sail  along  the  known  coasts  of  India,  and  reach  at  length  the 
Red  Sea,  whei'e,  if  he  pleased,  he  could  leave  his  own  ships,  cross  the 
continent  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  return  to  Spain,  having  circum- 
navigated the  world.  But  there  was  method  in  this  madness,  for 
yielding  on  that  occasion  to  the  representations  of  his  companions,  that 
the  condition  of  his  ships  would  not  admit  of  so  extended  a  voyage,  he 

VOL.    I.  8 


114  INDIA  — THE   EL   DORADO   OF   COLUMBUS.      [CHAP.  V. 

required  an  affidavit  from  all  persons  on  board  his  fleet  that  they  be- 
lieved the  coast  of  Cuba,  along  which  they  had  sailed,  was  the  coast  of 
Asia.  His  own  belief  needed  no  confirmation,  but  he  was  gratified  to 
hear  that  a  neighboring  province  was  called  Mangon,  and  that  its 
people  had  tails ;  for  he  remembered  that  Sir  John  Mandeville  had 
described  a  tribe  of  men  of  that  kind  in  the  East,  and  he  was  quite 
certain,  therefore,  that  he  was  within  a  few  days'  travel  of  the  king- 
dom of  Mangi. 

He  changed  his  mind  in  regard  to  places  as  he  visited  different 
regions,  but  he  never  ceased  to  affirm  his  conviction  that  he  was  on 
the  veiy  eve  of  the  fulfilment  of  all  his  hopes.  Ten  years  of  observa- 
tion and  reflection  upon  the  character  of  his  discoveries  moved  him 
not  in  the  least  to  any  correction  of  this  singular  credulity.  Even  on 
his  fourth  and  last  voyage  he  wrote  to  the  king  and  queen  that  on  the 
coast  of  Veragua  he  had  reached  Mangi,  "  contiguous  to  Cathay  ;  " 
nineteen  days  of  land  travel,  he  is  confident,  would  take  him  to  the 
river  Ganges  ;  the  mines  of  Aurea,  whence,  according  to  Josephus,  he 
reminds  them,  came  the  vast  wealth  of  David  and  of  Solomon,  spoken 
of  in  Chronicles  and  the  Book  of  Kings,  were,  he  was  now  sure,  iden- 
tical with  the  mines  of  Veragua  ;  "  in  the  name  of  God  "  he  pledged 
himself  in  the  same  letter  to  conduct  any  one,  who  would  undertake 
the  mission,  to  the  Emperor  of  Cathay,  to  instruct  him  in  the  faith  of 
Christ,  as  the  Abbe  Joaquim  said  would  be  done  by  some  one  who 
came  from  Spain.1  And  finally  from  his  death-bed  he  wrote  to  the 
new  sovereigns,  Philip  and  Juana,  that  he  would  yet  do  them 

The  last  .  fo      '  i  •   i     i      j  j   •      i- 

letter  of        services  the  like  or  which  had  never  been  seen;  and  in  his 

last  solemn  will  and  testament  he  said,  "  In  the  name  of  the 

Most  Holy  Trinity,  who  inspired  me  with  the  idea,  and  afterwards 

made  it  perfectly  clear  to  me  that  I   could  navigate  and  go  to  the 

Indies  from  Spain,  by  traversing  the  ocean  westwardlv And  it 

pleased  the  Lord  Almighty,  that  in  the  year  one  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  ninety-two  I  should  discover  the  continent  of  the  Indies  and 
many  islands,  among  them  Hispaniola,  which  the  Indians  call  Ayte, 
and  the  Monicongos,  Cipango." 

When  the  successful  discoverer  returned  to  Spain  from  his  first  voy- 
age, his  reception  was  a  triumph  such  as  never  waited  upon  any  con- 
queror.    The  people  from  citv  and  town,  from  village  and 

His  trium-  r  " 

phai  return    country-side,  crowded  streets  and  highways  as  he  travelled 

from  Palos  to  Barcelona,  to  do  homage  to  the  man  who  had 

given  India  to  Spain.     At  Barcelona  the  king  and  queen  received  him 

sitting  on  their  thrones  under  a  canopy  in  the  open  air,  and  hesitated 

1  Letter  on  the  Fourth  Voyage,  in  Select  Letters  of  Columbus,  edited  by  K.  H.  Major 
Hakluyt  Soc.  Pub. 


TRIUMPHAL  RETURN  TO  SPAIN. 


115 


when  he  approached  to  accept  the  customary  mark  of  homage  due 
from  a  subject  to  a  sovereign.  In  Portugal,  where  befoi-e  this  arrival 
in  Spain  he  was  compelled  by  stress  of  weather  to  seek  a  haven,  he 
was  met  with  the  most  bitter  exasperation  that  he  should  have  suc- 


Reception  by   Sovereigns. 

ceeded  in  snatching  from  that  kingdom  the  glory  and  power  and  riches 
her  kings  and  princes  had  so  long  sought  in  the  possession  of  that  East 
which  he  by  the  boldness  of  his  genius  had  found  by  a  few  days' 
westward  sailing.  Some  of  the  ndvisers  of  John  II.  even  counselled 
his  assassination,  in  the  hope  that  the  way  to  his  discovery  would 
perish  with  him. 


116  INDIA  — THE  EL   DORADO   OF  COLUMBUS.       [CHAP.  V. 

But  the  rage  of  the  Portuguese  and  the  admiration  of  the  Spaniards 
were  alike  blind.  Had  it  been  known  that  the  tidings  he  brought 
were  of  an  unknown  world,  peopled,  apparently,  by  naked  savages 
only  ;  that  his  theory  as  to  the  dimensions  and  divisions  of  the  earth 
was  proved  to  be  a  mistake  ;  that  the  only  feasible  road  to  India  was 
that  which  the  Portuguese  had  so  long  sought,  round  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  ;  then  he  might  indeed  have  aroused  some  languid  curios- 
ity for  what  he  had  done,  but,  still  more,  bitter  ridicule  and  disap- 
pointment for  his  failure  to  fulfil  the  magnificent  promise  with  which 
for  nearly  twenty  years  he  had  wearied  almost  every  court  in  Europe 
that  could  command  a  ship.  The  Bahama  Islands  and  The  Great 
Antilles,  whatever  their  discovery  might  lead  to  in  the  time  to  come, 
were  a  poor  recompense  for  Mangi  and  Cathay.  But  he  returned  the 
herald,  as  it  was  supposed,  of  a  splendor  and  prosperity  to  Spain  un- 
paralleled in  history  ;  of  new  power  and  dominion  to  the  Holy  See, 
and  with  offers  of  sudden  riches  to  whomsoever  would  follow  him  to 
the  empire  of  the  "  King  of  Kings."  The  half-crazy  enthusiast  had 
become  a  signal  benefactor  and  hero  ;  the  utmost  exaltation  of  his 
imagination  had  held  out  no  promise  that  was  not  about  to  be  ful- 
filled, and  the  nation  fell  at  his  feet. 

Though  Columbus  himself  never  knew,  or  never  acknowledged,  that 
he  had  made  a  mistake  ;  though  never  by  a  single  word,  so  far  as 
there  is  any  record,  did  he  anticipate  the  true  cause  of  the  undying 
fame  that  should  wait  upon  his  name,  others  saw  when  he  returned 
from  his  second  voyage  only  the  dispelling  of  a  gorgeous  vision.  The 
hidalgos  who  had  thronged  about  him  for  that  expedition,  clamor- 
ing to  be  led  to  the  possession  of  the  East,  found,  not  an  empire 
filled  with  magnificent  cities,  their  ports  crowded  with  ships  by  thou- 
sands busy  with  the  commerce  of  a  third  of  the  world  ;  not  temples 
roofed  with  gold,  resting  on  golden  pillars,  cunningly  wrought  and 
colored  ;  not  a  people  clothed  in  silks  and  costly  furs,  decked  with 
precious  stones,  leading  lives  of  a  magnificent  luxury  and  ease,  in  cit- 
ies of  palaces  such  as  Europe  never  knew ;  but  only  an  unreclaimed 
wilderness  peopled  by  naked  savages,  where  he  who  would  not  work 
must  starve,  and  where  what  gold  they  heard  of  was  to  be  dug  with 
weary  toil  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  The  "  pauper  pilot,"  as 
he  was  called  in  the  days  when  he  hung  about  the  court  a  threadbare 
petitioner,  had  indeed  discovered  sortie  islands  in  a  distant  ocean  ;  but 
his  promises  were  idle  tales,  his  hopes  the  delusions  of  a  morbid  imag- 
ination, his  India  a  figment ;  and  he  himself  now  proved  to  be  a  rank 
impostor,  a  foreign  adventurer  who  had  thrust  himself  into  the  ranks 
of  the  proudest  nobility  in  Europe,  and  abused  a  nation  with  mon- 
strous lies. 


RESENTMENT   OF   THE    SPANIARDS.  117 

Such  of  these  disappointed  men  as  lived  to  return  filled  the  kingdom 
with  their  clamors.  Seating  themselves  in  the  very  courts  of  the  Al- 
hambra,  holding  up  the  grapes  of  which  they  eat,  and  displaying  the 
rags  which  hardly  covered  them,  they  would  declare  that  they  were 
reduced  to  this  poor  condition  by  their  misfortunes.  They  had  lis- 
tened to  fables  and  been  deceived  by  lies.  When  the  king  came  forth 
they  surrounded  him,  reproaching  him  and  the  admiral  as  the  cause 
of  their  wretched  state,  and  cried  out,  "  Pay  !  pay  !  "  And  if  the  sons 
of  Columbus,  who  were  pages  to  the  queen,  passed  that  way,  "  They 
shouted  to  the  very  heavens,  saying,  '  Look  at  the  sons  of  the  Admiral 
of  Mosquitoland,  of  that  man  who  has  discovered  the  lands  of  deceit 
and  disappointment,  a  place  of  sepulchre  and  wretchedness  to  Spanish 
hidalgos.'  "  1 

This  reaction  in  feeling  and  opinion  made  it  possible  to  send  him 
home  in  chains  from  his  third  expedition.  The  popular  in-  mg  failure 
difference  to  the  injustice  and  cruelty  which  pursued  him  to  anddls8race- 
the  end  of  his  days,  and  the  bitter  hostility  of  his  many  enemies,  are 
explicable  only  by  the  disappointment  of  those  magnificent  hopes  ex- 
cited by  his  first  discovery,  and  which  he  still  held  out  in  spite  of  the 
stern  facts  which  had  opened  the  eyes  of  everybody  else.  Small  defer- 
ence was  paid  to  the  authority  of  one  who  was  looked  upon,  at  best,  as 
a  half-crazed  enthusiast,  and  the  haughty  Spaniards  resented  it  as  an 
insult  that  any  power  should  still  rest  in  the  hands,  or  any  confidence 
be  placed  in  the  word,  of  one  whom  they  thought  rather  deserving  of 
punishment  as  an  impostor  than  of  reward  as  a  benefactor.  He  had 
promised  power,  dominion,  riches  ;  a  short  passage  to  Cathay ;  the  con- 
quest of  the  East :  a  savage  island  or  two  in  the  Western  seas  was  as 
yet  the  only  fulfilment  of  that  promise.  What  else  it  was  to  be  he 
never  knew.  Not  till  he  was  dead  did  the  world  begin  to  understand 

that  he  had  found  a  New  World. 

-. 

i  The  History  of  the  Life  and  Actions  of  Admiral  Christopher  Colon,  etc.     By  his  son. 
Don  Ferdinand  Colon. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

COLUMBUS,    VESPUCCI,    AND   THE   CABOTS. 

THIRD  VOYAGE  OF  COLUMBUS.  —  His  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MAIN  LAND.  —  THE  VOT. 
AGE  OF  AMERIGO  VESPUCCI.  —  FIRST  PRINTED  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD.  — 
PUBLICATIONS  OF  ST.  DIE  COLLEGE.  —  THE  PRINTER-MONKS,  WAI.DSEEMCLI.ER 
AND  RlNGMANN.  —  EXPEDITION  OF  THE  CABOTS  FROM  ENGLAND.  —  NORTH  AMER- 

ICA    DISCOVERED  --  MAP    OF    SEBASTIAN     CABOT.  —  JOHN    CABOT*8    PATENTS    FROM 

HENRY  VII.  —  FIRST  ENGLISH  COLONY   SENT   TO  THE  NEW  WORLD.  —  SEBASTIAN 
CABOT  SAILS  DOWN  THE  AMERICAN  COAST. 

ON  the  30th  of  May,  1498,  Columbus  sailed  from  the  port  of  San 
Lucar,  in  Spain,  on  his  third  voyage.  His  special  purpose  this  time 
was  to  search  for  a  country  which  he  believed  lay  south  of  those  lands 
he  had  previously  discovered.  On  the  31st  of  July  following,  when 
he  was  about  to  abandon  his  southerly  course  in  despair  and  turn 
northward  for  the  Carribee  Islands,  one  of  his  sailors  saw  from  the 
masthead  a  range  of  three  mountains.  Giving  many  thanks  to  God 
for  his  mercy,  for  the  supply  of  water  was  failing,  the  provision  of  corn 
and  wine  and  meat  was  well-nigh  exhausted,  and  the  crews  of  the 
three  vessels  were  in  sore  distress  from  exposure  to  the  heat  of  the 
tropics,  the  admiral  made  for  the  land,  which  proved  to  be  an  island. 
To  this  he  gave  the  name  it  still  bears  of  Trinidad,  in  honor  of  the 
Holy  Trinity,  and  also,  perhaps,  because  of  the  three  mountains  which 
were  first  seen. 

Running  along  the  coast,  he  soon  saw,  as  he  supposed,  another 
island,  at  the  south,  but  which  was  the  low  land  of  the  delta 
of  the  great  River  Orinoco.  Entering  the  Gulf  of  Paria,  he 
sailed  along  for  days  with  Trinidad  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
coast  of  the  continent  on  the  other,  delighted  with  the 
beauty  and  verdure  of  the  country  and  with  the  blandness  of  the  cli- 
mate, and  astonished  at  the  freshness  and  volume  of  the  water  which, 
with  an  "  awful  roaring,"  met  and  struggled  with  the  sea.  The  in- 
nermost part  of  the  gulf,  to  which  he  penetrated,  he  called  the  Gulf 
of  Pearls,  and  into  this  poured  the  rivers  whose  waters,  he  believed, 
came  from  the  earthly  Paradise.1 

1  Letters  of  Columbus,  translated  by  R.  H.  Major,  and  published  by  the  Hakluyt  Society 
Third  Voyage. 


coiumbu« 


1498- 


1498.]  THIRD  VOYAGE  OF  COLUMBUS.  119 

For,  according  to  his  theory  of  the  globe,  the  two  hemispheres  were 
not  round  alike,  but  the  Eastern  was  shaped  like  the  breast  The  pa,.,^. 
of  a  woman,  or  the  half  of  a  round  pear  with  a  raised  pro-  Parad1se 
jection  at  its  stalk  ;  and  on  this  prominence,  the  spot  highest  and 
nearest  the  sky  and  under  the  equinoctial  line,  was  the  garden 
wherein  God  had  planted  Adam.  He  did  not  suppose  it  possible  that 
mortal  man  could  ever  reach  that  blessed  region ;  but  as  he  had  sailed 
westward,  after  passing  a  meridian  line  a  hundred  miles  west  of  the 
Azores,  he  had  noted  that  the  North  Star  rose  gradually  higher  in  the 
heavens,  the  needle  shifted  from  northeast  to  northwest,  the  heat, 
hitherto  so  intolerable  that  he  thought  they  "  should  have  been 


Columbus  entering  the  Orinoco. 

burnt,"  became  more  and  more  moderate,  the  air  daily  more  refresh- 
ing and  delightful,  and  he  was  persuaded  that  he  was  approaching  the 
highest  part  of  the  globe.  As  lie  sailed  westward  his  ships  "  had 
risen  smoothly  toward  the  sky,"  till  lie  had  come,  at  length,  to  this 
pleasant  land  "  as  fresh  and  green  and  beautiful  as  the  gardens  of  Va- 
lencia in  April,"  —  to  this  mighty  rush  of  sweet  waters  that  filled  the 
Gulf  of  Pearls  and  flowed  far  out  to  sea,  coming  as  "  on  his  soul  "  he 
believed  from  the  Garden  of  Eden.1 

. 

1  Irviug  (Life  of  Columbus,  book  x.,  chap,  iii.)  says  that  Columbus  still  supposed  Paria 
to  he  an  island,  even  after  he  had  left  the  gulf  and  sailed  westward  along  the  outer  coast 
But  Columbus  himself,  in  his  letter  to  the  King  and  Queeu,  makes  a  distinction  between 
the  main  land  and  Trinidad,  in  speaking  of  the  one  as  an  island  aud  the  other  as  the  land 
of  Gracia.  Nor  is  it  probable  that  he  supposed  the  earthly  paradise  to  be  on  an  island,  or 
that  such  a  volume  of  water  — of  which  he  doubted  if  "there  is  any  river  in  the  world  so 
large  and  so  deep ''  —  could  have  its  course  from  the  "  nipple  "  of  the  globe  except  over  a 
continent.  Charlevoix  (History  of  Xeio  France,  Shea's  translation,  vol.  i.,  p.  21)  says: 


120 


COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND   THE   CABOTS.     [CHAP.  VI. 


It  was  hard  no  doubt,  to  turn  away  from  this  celestial  land,  even 
to  go  back  to  Spain  and  relate  in  person  to  his  sovereigns  the  mar- 
vellous things  he  had  discovered,  and  the  approach  he  had  made  to 
the  topmost  pinnacle  of  the  globe ;  harder  still  to  thrust  away  from 
him  considerations  so  sublime  and  so  congenial  to  his  pro- 
mt utos*ui-  foundly  religious  nature,  to  attend  to  the  vulgar  affairs  of  a 
turbulent  colony,  where,  as  he  afterward  wrote,  "  there  were 
few  men  who  were  not  vagabonds,  and  there  were  none  who  had 
either  wife  or  children."  1 

But  in  his  absence  rebellion  and  anarchy  in  Hispaniola  had  reached 
a  point  beyond  his  control,  and  when  he  appealed  to  his  sovereigns  for 


Columbus  in   Chains. 

a  judge  to  decide  between  him  and  these  turbulent  Spaniards,  who  set 
all  law,  whether  human  or  divine,  at  defiance,  the  court  sent,  not  a 
judge,  but  an  executioner.  His  enemies  had  at  length  so  far  pre- 
vailed against  him  that  Bobadilla,  who  came  professedly  to  look  into 

these  troubles,  dared  to  usurp  the  government  of  the  colony, 
duet  of  to  take  up  his  residence  in  the  house  of  Columbus,  seizing  all 

it  contained,  both  of  public  and  private  property  and  public 
and  private  papers,  and  the  moment  the  admiral  came  within  his 
reach,  to  arrest  and  send  him  in  chains  on  board  ship  for  transporta- 
tion to  Spain  as  a  felon.  When  Andreas  Martin,  the  master  of  the 
caravel,  moved  to  pity  at  the  sight  of  so  monstrous  and  cruel  an  in- 

"  On  the  1 1th  he  had  seen  another  land  which  also  he,  at  first,  took  to  be  an  island  and 
styled  Isla  Santa,  but  he  soon  found  it  to  be  the  continent." 

1  "  Letter  of  Columbus  to  Dona  Juana  de  la  Torres,"  in  Select  Letters,  edited  by  R.  IL 
Major. 


1499.]  VOYAGE  OF  ALONZO  DE   OJEDA.  121 

dignity,  offered  to  strike  these  fetters  from  the  limbs  of  his  distin- 
guished prisoner,  Columbus  refused,  with  the  words,  says  his  son 
Ferdinand,  "  that  since  their  Catholic  Majesties,  by  their  letter  di- 
rected him  to  perform  whatsoever  Bobadilla  did  in  their  name  com- 
mand him  to  do,  in  virtue  of  which  authority  and  commission  he  had 
put  him  in  irons,  he  would  have  none  but  their  Highnesses  them- 
selves do  their  pleasure  herein  ;  and  he  was  resolved  to  keep  those 
fetters  as  relics,  and  a  memorial  of  the  reward  of  his  many  services."  l 
Some  atonement  was  attempted  for  this  outrage  in  the  reception  given 
him  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  He  nevertheless  hung  up  the  chains 
on  the  wall  of  his  chamber,  only  to  be  taken  down  when,  six  years 
later,  they  were  laid  with  him  in  his  coffin. 

Some  months  before  his  return  to  Spain  he  had  sent  home  a  report 
of  the  results  of  his  voyage,  the  continent  he  had  found,  which  he  sup- 
posed to  be  the  extremity  of  the  Indies,  its  wonderful  climate,  its 
great  rivers,  and  its  strange  and  attractive  people.  The  excitement 
which  such  news  must  have  aroused  in  every  port  of  Spain  was,  no 
doubt,  intense,  and  landsmen,  as  well  as  sailors,  burned  to  be  off  to 
this  land  where  the  natives  hung  breastplates  of  gold  upon  their  naked 
bodies  and  wound  great  strings  of  pearls  about  their  heads  and  necks. 
"  Now  there  is  not  a  man,"  says  Columbus,  in  one  of  his  letters,  — 
reminding  his  sovereigns  that  he  waited  seven  years  at  the  royal  court 
and  was  only  treated  with  ridicule,  —  "  Now  there  is  not  a  man,  down 
to  the  very  tailors,  who  does  not  beg  to  be  allowed  to  become  a  dis- 


coverer." 


At  Seville  an  intrepid  and  experienced  navigator,  Alonzo  de  Ojeda, 
who  was  with  Columbus   on  his  first  voyage,  and  knew,   voyage  of 
therefore,  the  way  to  the  Indies  of  the  West,  proposed  at  o]^a 
once  a  private  expedition.     Some  merchants  of  Seville  sup-  20>  1499- 
plied  the  means,  and  his  patron,  the  Bishop  of  Fonseca,  superintendent 
of  Indian  affairs,  and  the  most  bitter  and  persistent  enemy  of  Colum- 
bus, gave  him  license  for  the  voyage,  and  treacherously  procured  for 
him  the  charts  which  the  great  navigator  had   sent  home,  notwith- 
standing the  royal  order  that   none   should  go  without  permission 
within  fifty  leagues  of   the  lands  he  had  last  discovered.2      Ojeda 
sailed  from  Port  St.  Mary  on  the  20th  of  May,  1499,  and  with  him 
went  Amerigo  Vespucci,  a  native  of  Florence,  but  then  re-  Amerigo 
siding  in  Seville  as  the  agent  of  a  commercial  house.     This 
Vespucci  had  assisted  in  the  fitting  out  of  other  expeditions ;  he  knew 

1  The  Life  of  the  Admiral,  by  his  son,  Don  Ferdinand  Colon.      Pinkerton's   Voyages, 
vol.  xii.,  p.  121. 

2  History  of  the  New  World.     Girolamo  Benzoui.     Published  by  the  Hakluyt  Society, 
p.  37.     Ilerrera,  Decade  I.,  book  iv.,  chap.  i. 


122 


COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND   THE   CABOTS.     [CHAP.  VL 


Portrait  of  Vespucci. 


Columbus  and  had  doubtless  talked  with  him  of  the  Sphere  and  the 
Antipodes,  of  the  New  Indies  and  the  Far  Cathay,  of  the  natives 

sometimes  tractable  as  chil- 
dren, sometimes  fierce  as 
tigers ;  of  the  abundant 
gold  and  precious  stones; 
of  the  odorous  spices ;  of 
the  gorgeous  silks  and  oth- 
er rich  merchandises  to  be 
brought  by  this  new  route 
from  that  wonderful  land. 
He  was  familiar  with  all 
the  strange  and  stirring  in- 
cidents of  voyages  which 
for  the  previous  six  years 
had  been  filling  the  ears  of 
men  with  tales  more  allur- 
ing and  more  wonderful 
than  were  ever  told  by  the 
boldest  inventors  of  East- 
ern fable,  and  he  longed  to  have  a  share  in  the  profit  and  the  glory  of 
these  great  enterprises.  In  Ojeda's  fleet  he  had  command,  if  we  may 
believe  his  own  statement,  of  two  caravels ;  the  expedition,  first 
touching  the  coast  about  two  hundred  leagues  south  of  the  Gulf  of 
Paria,  sailed  thence  leisurely  along  from  point  to  point  till  it  reached 
the  Cape  de  la  Veda,  meeting,  during  the  months  of  its  progress,  with 
various  adventures,  and  the  usual  fortune  which  waited  upon  the 
first  invaders,  received  sometimes  by  the  simple  and  confiding  natives 
as  supernatural  visitants,  sometimes  with  desperate  but  generally 
futile  resistance  when  their  lust  for  slaves,  for  women,  and  for  gold 
had  come  to  be  better  understood. 

This  was,  probably,  the  first  voyage  of  Vespucci  and  his  first  sight 
Vespucci-?  °*  a  continent  which,  partly  by  accident  and  partly  through  a 
theVonti- °f  reckless  disregard  of  truth,  came  afterward  to  bear  his  name, 
nent.  1499.  jf  ft  was  j^  flj.^  voyage,  he  was  entitled  to  no  special  credit, 
for  he  was  a  subordinate  in  a  fleet  commanded  by  another,  who  guided 
the  expedition  by  the  charts  which  Columbus  had  drawn  of  the  course 
to  Trinidad  and  the  coast  of  Paria  eleven  months  before. 

In  1501,  Vespucci  left  Spain  at  the  invitation  of  the  King  of  Por- 
tugal, and  made  another,  his  second,  voyage  to  the  West, 

Second  Toy-  ?.....  .  .  ,  .  TT 

ago  of  ves-     sailing  this  time  in  the  service  of  that  king.     He  visited  the 
coast  of  Brazil,  of  which,  however,  he  was  not  the  first  dis- 
coverer, for  in  the  course  of  the  previous  year — 1500  —  three  dif- 


1501.] 


SECOND  VOYAGE  OF  VESPUCCI. 


123 


f event  expeditions  under  the  guidance  respectively  of  Vicente  Yanez 
Pinzon,  Diego  de  Lepe,  and  Rodrigo  de  Bastidas  had  sailed  from 
Spain  and  made  extensive  explorations  and  important  discoveries 
along  that  coast ;  and  a  Portuguese  fleet,  under  Pedro  Alvarez  de 
Cabral,  on  its  way  to  India  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  stretched 
so  far  to  the  west  to  avoid  the  calms  of  the  coast  of  Africa  as  to  come 
by  that  chance  in  sight  of  the  opposite  land,  where,  believing  it  to  be 
a  part  of  a  continent,  De  Cabral  landed  and  took  possession  in  the 
name  of  Portugal. 


Vespucci  at  the  Continent.    [From  De  Bry.] 

The  expedition  of  Vespucci,  nevertheless,  was  a  bold  one,  and  made 
important  additions  to  astronomical  science  in  his  observations  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  of  the  Southern  firmament,  especially  of  the  "  South- 
ern Cross,"  and  to  the  knowledge  of  geography  in  his  exploration 
of  the  Southern  continent  and  sea  of  the  Western  Hemisphere. 
After  leaving  Cape  Verde,  he  was  sixty-seven  days  at  sea  before  he 
made  land  again  at  5°  south,  off  Cape  St.  Roque,  on  the  17th  of  Au- 
gust. Thence  he  sailed  down  the  coast,  spending  the  whole  winter  in 
its  exploration,  till  in  the  following  April  he  was  as  far  south  as  the 


124  COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND  THE  CABOTS.     [CHAP.  VI. 

fifty-fourth  parallel,  farther  than  any  navigator  had  been  before. 
The  nights  were  fifteen  hours  long ;  the  weather  tempestuous  and 
foggy  and  very  cold.  The  last  land  he  saw  is  supposed  to  be  the 
island  of  Georgia,  where,  finding  no  harbors,  and  seeing  no  people 
along  its  rugged  shores,  the  little  fleet  turned  to  escape  from  these 
savage  seas,  where  perpetual  winter  and  almost  perpetual  darkness 
seemed  to  reign.  They  reached  Lisbon  again  in  1502. 

Vespucci  wrote  an  account  of  this  voyage  in  a  letter  to  Lorenzo  de 

Pier  Francisco  de  Medici  of  Florence,  which  was  published 

narrative  of   at  Augsburg  in  1504.     No  wonder  that,  as  it  was  probably 

discovery  of  ....  \ 

the  main  the  first  printed  narrative  of  any  discovery  of  the  main  land 
of  the  new  continent,  it  should  excite  unusual  attention. 
Several  editions  appeared,  in  the  course  of  the  next  four  years,  in 
Latin  and  Italian,  and  among  them  one  at  Strasbourg  in  1505  under 
the  editorship  of  one  Mathias  Ringmann,  a  native  of  Schlestadt,  a 
town  in  the  lower  department  of  the  Rhine,  twenty-five  miles  from 
Strasbourg.  So  earnest  an  admirer  of  Vespucci  was  this  young  stu- 
dent, that  he  appended  to  the  narrative  of  the  voyage  a  letter  and 
some  verses  of  his  own  in  praise  of  the  navigator,  and  he  gave  to  the 
book  the  title  of  "  Americus  Vesputius :  De  Ora  Antarctica  per  Re- 
gem  Portugallice  pridem  inventa"  (Americus  Vespuccius :  concern- 
ing a  southern  region  recently  discovered  under  the  King  of  Portu- 
gal). Here  was  the  suggestion  of  a  new  southern  continent  as  distinct 
from  the  northern  continent  of  Asia,  to  which  the  discoveries  hitherto 
mainly  north  of  the  equator  were  supposed  to  belong.1  And  this 
supposition  of  such  a  new  quarter  of  the  globe  gave  rise,  two  years 
afterward,  to  a  name,  all  growing  naturally  enough  out  of  the  enthu- 
siasm of  this  Ringmann  for  Vespucci,  and  communicated  by  him  to 
others. 

In  the  city  of  St.  Die,  not  far  from  Strasbourg,  in  the  province  of 
Lorraine,  was  a  gymnasium  or  college  established  by  Walter  Lud,  the 
secretary  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine.  In  this  college  was  set  up  one  of 
Coll  those  newly-invented  and  marvellous  machines,  a  printing- 

p£°"°f'  press ;  and  Ringmann  was  appointed  not  merely  the  col- 
§t.  Die.  legiate  professor  of  Latin,  but  to  the  important  post  of 
proof-reader.  In  1507,  Lud,  the  Duke's  secretary,  and  the  head,  ap- 
parently, of  this  little  seminary  of  learning,  published  from  the  college 
printing-press  a  pamphlet  of  only  four  leaves  relating  to  a  narrative 
of  four  voyages  to  the  New  World  by  Amerigo  Vespucci ;  this,  it  is 

1  The  term  "  New  World  "  was  often  used  by  the  early  writers,  even  by  Columbus  him- 
self, iu  a  vagne  way  and  not  at  all  in  the  sense  afterward  attached  to  it  of  a  new  quartei 
of  the  globe ;  nor  was  there  till  long  after  the  deaths  of  Columbus  and  Vespucci  any  defi- 
nite determination  that  these  newly  found  lands  were  not  a  part  of  Asia. 


1507.] 


THE  PRINTING-PRESS  OF  ST.  DIE. 


125 


said  by  the  writer,  was  sent  to  the  Duke,  and  he  —  Lud  —  had  caused 
it  to  be  translated  from  the  French,  in  which  it  was  written,  into 
Latin  ;  and,  as  if  in  recognition  of  the  influence  which  Ringmann  had 
exercised  upon  the  subject  among  his  fellows  of  St.  Die",  Lud  imme- 
diately adds :  "  And  the  booksellers  carry  about  a  certain  epigram 
of  our  Philesius  (Ringmann)  in  a  little  book  of  Vespucci's  translated 
from  Italian  into  Latin  by  Giocondi  of  Verona,  the  architect  from 
Venice."  This  refers  to  the  Strasbourg  edition  of  Vespucci's  second 
voyage,  edited  by  Ringmann  two  years  before,  and  to  which  he  at- 
tached his  laudatory  verses.  This  little  book  of  Lud's,  "  Speculi 


Printing  of  Vespucci's  Book. 

orbis   Declaratio,"  etc.,  also  contains  some  Latin  verses,  —  versiculi 
de  incognita  terra,  —  the  last  lines  of  which  are  thus  translated :  — 

"  But  hold,  enough  !     Of  the  American  race, 
New  found,  the  home,  the  manners  here  you  trace 
By  our  small  book  set  forth  in  little  space." l 

The  narrative  itself,  of  Vespucci's  four  voyages,  thus  referred  to 

1  The  original  is  :  — 

"Sett  $1  plura:  situ,  jjrntis  morrscp  reft? 
Slinrvfn"  patua  mole  Ubellus  tiabct." 

Ihirrisse's  Bibliotheca  Americana  Vetustissima,  p.  100,  gives  and  translates  the  lines.     The 


126  COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND  THE   CABOTS.     [CHAP.  VX 

by  Lud,  was  published  the  same  year,  1507,  in  a  book  called  "  Cos- 
mographiae  Introductio,"  of  which  it  made  about  one  half. 
mozraphioi  This  was  the  work  of  Martin  Waldseemiiller,  and  published 
of  wauuee-  under  his  Greco-latinized  name  of  "  Hylacomylus."  He  also 
'  belonged  to  the  St.  Die  college,  where  he  was  a  teacher  of 
geography,  and  his  "  Introductio"  was  printed  on  the  college  printing- 
press.  Whether  the  letter  was  sent  to  St.  Die*  addressed  to  the  Duke 
of  Lorraine  by  Vespucci ;  or  whether  it  was  procured  through  the 
zeal  of  Ringmann  and  its  address  altered  without  the  knowledge  of 
Vespucci,  are  interesting  questions.  Interesting,  because  the  letter 
falling  by  some  means  into  the  hands  of  Lud  and  Waldseemiiller  — 
Hylacomylus — the  name  of  its  author  came  to  be  imposed  upon  the 
whole  Western  Hemisphere. 

The  same  letter  subsequently  appeared  in  Italian,  addressed  to  an 
TheSoderiiii  eminent  citizen  of  Venice,  named  Soderini,  who  is  known 
letter.  to  have  been  an  early  companion  and  school-fellow  of  Ves- 

pucci. That  it  was  written  originally  to  Soderini,  is  evident  from 
certain  allusions  in  it  to  youthful  days  and  associations  which  could 
not  refer  to  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  but  were  proper  enough  when  ap- 
plied to  the  Venetian  citizen.  If  Vespucci  himself  had  the  letter 
translated  into  French,  altered  its  address,  and  then  sent  the  copy  to 
Ringmann,  or  Lud,  or  Waldseemiiller,  a  suspicion  is  aroused  that  he 
was  in  collusion  with  them,  either  directly  or  suggestively,  in  the  be- 
stowal upon  him  of  an  honor  that  was  not  rightfully  his.  Such  a 
suspicion  may  be  altogether  unjust ;  Vespucci  may  neither  have  sent 
the  letter  to  the  Duke  nor  have  made  any  suggestion  in  regai-d  to  it ; 
and  perhaps  no  accusation  would  have  ever  been  brought  against  him 
were  there  not  serious  doubts  as  to  the  number  of  voyages  he  assumes 
to  have  made,  whether  they  were  three  or  four ;  as  to  the  year,  1497, 
in  which  he  declares  h  >  went  upon  the  first  one ;  and  by  a  certain  con- 
fusion in  the  letter  which  might  have  been  intended  to  mislead,  and 
certainly  did  mislead,  whether  intentional  or  not. 

We  do  not  propose  to  enter  into  any  examination  of  a  question 
\vhich  is  one  of  circumstantial  rather  than  positive  evidence,  and  which 
probably  will  never  be  definitively  settled.  Giving  to  Vespucci  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt,  there  is  much  in  the  fortuitous  circumstances  of 
The  men  the  case  to  explain  this  naming  of  a  newly-discovered  country 
Amer^r  by  men  wno»  perhaps,  had  never  looked  upon  the  sea,  and 
it*  name.  wno  may  ]iave  known  little,  except  in  a  general  way,  of  the 
different  expeditions  of  the  navigators  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  still 
less  of  the  personal  interest  attached  to  their  fortunes  and  their  deeds. 
The  Duke  of  Lorraine  was  a  patron  of  learning ;  the  young  profes- 

little  four-leaved  book,  Speculi  orbis,  etc.,  from  which  they  are  taken,  is  iu  the  British 
Museum.  See  al*o  Major's  Henry  the  Navigator,  p.  383. 


1507.]  THE   NAMING   OF   AMERICA.  127 

sors  of  the  college  under  his  protection  were  ambitious  of  literary  fame 
and  proud  of  their  literary  labors ;  it  would  bring,  no  doubt,  great 
credit  to  St.  Di6  if,  in  a  work  from  its  printing-press,  the  world  should 
be  taught  that  these  wonderful  discoveries  of  the  ten  preceding  years 
were  not,  as  had  been  ignorantly  supposed,  the  outlying  islands  and 
coasts  of  India,  but  of  a  new  and  unknown  continent  which  separated 
Europe  from  Asia.  The  conclusion,  very  likely,  was  jumped  at  —  a 
lucky  guess  of  over-confident  youth,  rather  than  any  superiority  of 
judgment.  Had  these  young  book-makers  lived  in  Cadiz  or  Lisbon, 
instead  of  the  Vosges  mountains,  they  might  have  hesitated  to  pro- 
nounce upon  a  question  which  had  as  yet  hardly  been  raised,  if  it  had 
been  raised  at  all,  among  the  older  cosmographers  and  navigators. 
They  rushed  in  where  even  Columbus  had  not  thought  to  tread,  and 
not  only  announced  the  discovery  of  a  new  continent  but  proposed 
to  name  it. 

The  narrative  which  Ringmann  had  edited  two  years  before,  "  De 
Ora  Antarctica,"  related  only  to  the  second  expedition  of  Vespucci  — 
the  third,  as  he  called  it  —  of  1501.  But,  from  the  letter  now  before 
Lud  and  Waldseem tiller,  they  learn  much  more  of  the  achievements 
of  the  greatest  of  navigators,  as  they  supposed  him  to  be  ;  for  they 
are  told  that  it  was  at  a  much  earlier  period  he  made  the  first  dis- 
covery of  these  new  countries ;  that  he  had  subsequently  explored 
them  more  extensively  ;  and  Waldseemuller  concludes  that  they  must 
be  a  fourth  part  of  the  world.  "  We  departed,"  says  Vespucci,  "  from 
the  port  of  Cadiz,  May  10th,  1497,  taking  our  course  on  the  great 
gulf  of  ocean,  in  which  we  employed  eighteen  months,  discovering 
many  lands  and  innumerable  islands,  chiefly  inhabited,  of  which  our 
ancestors  make  no  mention." 

Waldseemuller  (Hylacomylus)  assuming  this  date  of  1497  to  be  cor- 
rect—  if  it  was  so  given  in  the  letter  Lud  declared  the  Duke  had  re- 
ceived from  Vespucci  —  says  in  his  geographical  work,  the  "  Cosmo- 
graphia?  Introductio  "  :  "  And  the  fourth  part  of  the  world 
having  been  discovered  by  Americus  may  well  be  called 
Amerige,  which  is  as  much  as  to  say,  the  land  of  Americus 
or  America."  Again  he  says :  "  But  now  these  parts  are  T°>a* 
more  extensively  explored,  and,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  letters, 
another  fourth  has  been  discovered  by  Americus  Vespuccius,  which  I 
see  no  reason  why  any  one  should  forbid  to  be  named  Amerige,  which 
is  as  much  as  to  say  the  land  of  Americus  or  America,  from  its  dis- 
coverer, Americus.  who  is  a  man  of  shrewd  intellect ;  for  Europe  and 
Asia  have  both  of  them  a  feminine  form  of  name  from  the  names  of 


women." 


Now  in  1497  Vespucci  was  still  residing  at  Seville  engaged  as  factor 


128  COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND  THE   CABOTS.    [CHAP.  VI 

or  partner  in  a  commercial  house.  In  May  of  the  following  year, 
1498,  Columbus  sailed  on  his  third  voyage,  and  for  several  months 
previous  Vespucci  was  busily  occupied  in  fitting  out  the 
claim  to  ships  f or  that  expedition.1  It  is  impossible,  therefore,  that  he 
coverv  un-  can  have  gone  to  sea  in -May,  1497,  to  be  absent  eighteen 

founded.  ,  £,.  J.       .. '  ' 

months.  I  here  is  no  pretence  in  his  letters,  nor  anywhere 
else,  that  he  made  a  voyage  earlier  than  1497 ;  he  was  in  Seville  in 
1498 ;  and  he  certainly  was  a  pilot  in  Ojeda's  fleet  when  that  nav 
igator,  in  1499,  followed  Columbus  to  the  coast  of  Paria.  That  Ves 
pucci  was  the  first  discoverer  of  the  Western  continent  is,  therefore, 
clearly  untrue,  although  it  is  true  that  his  account  of  such  a  conti- 
nental land  in  the  west  was  the  one  first  published,  and  by  his  zealous 
friends  at  St.  Die",  who  attached  his  name  to  it.  In  the  suit  between 
Don  Diego  Columbus  and  the  crown  of  Spain,  lasting  from  1508  to 
1513,  the  plaintiff  demanded  certain  revenues  by  right  of  prior  dis- 
covery by  his  father,  the  defence  of  the  crown  being  that  Columbus 
had  no  such  priority.  In  the  voluminous  testimony  on  that  trial  Ves- 
pucci was  not  named  as  one  for  whom  precedence  could  be  claimed,2 
while  Ojeda,  under  whom  Vespucci  went  on  his  first  voyage,  distinctly 
asserts  that  the  main  land  was  discovered  by  Columbus.3 

It  is,  nevertheless,  probably  true  that  Vespucci  explored  along  the 
American  coast  in  his  several  voyages  further  than  any  navigator  of 
his  time,  as  he  sailed  from  about  the  fifty-fourth  degree  of  south  lati- 
tude to  the  peninsula  of  Florida,  and  possibly  to  Chesapeake  Bay  at 
the  north.  Whether  the  St.  Die*  editors  i-eally  believed,  or  whether 
the  dates  of  his  voyages  were,  in  some  way,  so  changed  as  to  make 
it  appear,  that  he  was  also  the  first  discoverer  of  a  western  continent, 
are  questions  which  may  never  be  answered.  But  the  use  they 
made  of  his  name  was  adopted  in  various  works  within  the  next  few 
years,  and  thus  in  the  course  of  time  America  became  the  designa- 
tion of  the  whole  Western  Hemisphere.4 

, 

1  1 1  ami  n>]c  It,  Examen  Critique,  Tome  v.,  p.  180. 

2  Vespucci  and  his  Voyages,  Santarem  ;  Irving's  Life  of  Columbus,  Appendix. 

3  Irving  (Life  of  Columbus,  vol.  iii.,  Appendix  No.  X.)  examines  carefully  all  the  evidence 
known  at  the  time  he  wrote  on  this  question,  and  Major  (Life  of  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator, 
chap,  xix.)  gives  some  later  facts,  particularly  those  relating  to  the  conscious  or  unconscious 
fraud  of  the  priests  of  St.  Die.     The  subject  is  discussed  at  great  length  by  Humholdt 
(Examen  Critique),  who  believes  that  the  fault  was  not  in  the  statements  of  Vespucci,  but 
in  the  erroneous  printing  of  dates.     Vespucci,  however,  in  more  than  one  place  speaks  of 
his  "  fourth  voyage  "  without  reference  to  dates,  and  it  is  difficult  to  understand  his  relation 
of  the  voyage  of  1497  as  nnythin<r  else  than  a  repetition  of  the  incidents  related  by  Ojeda 
as  attending  his  expedition  of  1499,  on  which  Vespucci  went  with  him.     Harrisse,  in  his 
Bibliotheca  Americana  Vetustissima,  gives  a  careful  account  of  the  books  of  Lud  and  Hyla- 
comylus. 

4  Humboldt  suggests  (E.ramen Critique,  Tome  iv.,  p.  52)  that  Hylacomylus,  a  native  of  Ger- 
many, must  have  known  that  in  inventing  the  word  America  to  distinguish  the  new  conti 


1497.J  VOYAGE   OF   THE   CABOTS.  129 

But  even  if  it  were  possible  to  reconcile  beyond  all  cavil  the  rival 
claims  of  the  two  navigators,  and  give  the  honor  where,  as  voyage  of 
between  them,  it  undoubtedly  belongs,  to  Columbus,  there  is  theCaboto- 
a  third  who  takes  precedence  of  both  as  the  first  great  captain  who 
pushed  far  enough  into  the  unknown  seas  to  touch  the  main  land  of 
the  new  continent.  It  is  conceded  that  a  voyage  was  made  as  early 
as  1497  by  John  Cabot,  accompanied  by  his  son  Sebastian,  from  Bris- 
tol, England,  to  find  the  shorter  path  to  India  westward.  In  a  little 
vessel  called  The  Matthew  he  made  his  first  land-fall  on  this  side 
the  Atlantic  on  the  24th  of  June  of  that  year.  Whether  the  land 
first  seen  —  the  Terra  primum  visa  of  the  old  maps  —  was  Cape 
Breton,  Newfoundland,  or  the  coast  of  Labrador,  is  still  an  open  ques- 
tion, though  the  latter  is  held  to  be  the  most  probable  by  some  of 
those  who  have  given  the  subject  most  careful  consideration.1  But  if 
the  ship  held  its  course  of  north  by  west  from  Bristol,  it  could  hardly 
nave  been  anything  else.  At  any  rate,  they  sailed  along  the  coast  for 
three  hundred  leagues,  and  that  could  only  have  been  the  shore  of  the 
main  land.  These  Cabots,  then,  were  the  first  discoverers  of  the  con- 
tinent, about  a  year  before  Columbus  entered  the  Gulf  of  Paria,  and 
two  years  before  Ojeda's  fleet,  in  which  Vespucci  sailed,  touched  the 
coast  of  South  America  two  hundred  leagues  farther  south. 

But  which  Cabot  commanded  this  expedition  ?  Here  again  a  doubt 
is  started,  and  the  father  and  the  son  has  each  his  advo-  Which 
cates.  John  Cabot  was  probably  a  native  of  Genoa,  but  J^^Sl; 
he  had  lived  for  many  years  in  Venice,  whence  he  removed  C3tPeditlon  ? 
to  London  with  his  family  "  to  follow  the  trade  of  merchandise."  It 
is  not  known  when  he  was  born,  in  what  year  he  emigrated  to  Eng- 
land, or  how  soon  he  removed  from  London  to  Bristol.  He  was,  it  is 
asserted,  learned  in  cosmography  and  an  accomplished  navigator,  had 

nent,  he  was  giving  it  a  name  of  Germanic  origin.  He  quotes  his  learned  friend  Von  der 
Hagen  to  prove  this,  who  says  that  the  Italian  name  Amerigo  is  found  in  the  Ancient  high. 
German  under  the  form  of  Amalrich  or  Amelrich,  which  in  the  Gothic  is  Amalricks.  The 
incursions  and  conquests  of  the  northern  people,  and  those  of  the  Goths  and  Lombards 
spread  this  name  Amalrich,  from  which  Amerigo  comes,  among  the  Romance-speaking  peo- 
ples. It  was  borne  by  many  illustrious  men. 

An  attempt  has  recently  been  made  (Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1875)  to  show  that  the  word 
America  was  derived  from  a  chain  of  mountains  in  Veragua  called  Amcrique,  heard  of  by 
the  sailors  of  Columbus  on  his  fourth  voyage,  and  reported  by  them  in  Spain.  If  there 
were  any  mountains  so  called,  and  the  Spaniards  ever  heard  of  them,  they  are  not  men- 
tioned by  any  of  the  early  writers,  and  the  theory,  however  ingenious,  cannot  stand  a 
moment  in  the  light  of  the  evidence  in  regard  to  the  derivation  of  the  word  from  Amerigo 
by  Lud  and  Hylacomylus. 

1  Humboldt,  Examen  Critique ;  Biddle,  Memoir  of  Sebastian  Cabot ;  J.  G.  Kohl,  Coll.  of 
Maine  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  i..  Second  Series.  Stevens  in  his  monograph,  The  Cabotf,  p.  17,  thinks 
that  their  landfall  was  Cape  Breton.  Brevoort,  Journal  of  the  Am.  Geog.  Soc.,  vol.  iv.,  p. 
214,  agrees  with  Stevens. 

VOL.  I.  9 


130  COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND   THE    CABOTS.     [CiiAP.  VI. 

travelled  by  land  in  the  East,  and  had  heard  from  men  in  the  cara- 
vans of  Arabia  those  strange  and  captivating  tales  of  the  boundless 
wealth  and  magnificence  of  "farthest  Ind." 1  He  disappears  from 
history  in  1498  as  suddenly  as  he  appeared  two  years  before,  and  it  is 
supposed  that  he  died  about  that  time.  But  whether  it  was  as  an 
old  man  whose  work  was  happily  finished,  or  as  one  cut  off  in  the 
prime  of  his  vigor  and  his  days,  there  is  no  record. 

The  son,  Sebastian,  is  said  to  have  been  only  twenty  years  of  age 
in  1497.  He  was  undoubtedly  a  young  man,  but  some  sup- 
HMtha  pose  —  a  supposition  necessary,  indeed,  to  their  theory  in 
regard  to  him  and  his  voyages  —  that  he  was  not  less  than 
twenty-five  years  of  age  when  he  sailed  on  this  voyage  witli  his 
father.  And  his  birth-place  is  as  uncertain  as  the  time  of  his  bii-th. 
He  may  have  been  born  in  Venice ;  perhaps  he  was  born  in  Bristol. 
In  one  account  he  is  represented  as  saying :  "  When  my  father  de- 
parted from  Venice  many  yeeres  since  to  dwell  in  England,  to  follow 
the  trade  of  merchandises,  hee  tooke  mee  with  him  to  the  citie  of 
London,  while  I  was  yet  very  yong,  yet  having  neverthelesse  some 
knowledge  of  letters  of  humanitie,  and  of  the  sphere."2  But  his 
friend  Eden's  testimony  is :  "  Sebastian  Cabot  tould  me  that  he  was 
borne  in  Brystowe,  and  that  at  iiij  yeare  ould  he  was  carried  with 
his  father  to  Venice,  and  so  returned  agayne  to  England  with  his 
father  after  certayne  years,  whereby  he  was  thought  to  have  been 
born  in  Venice."8 

Both  passages  are  relied  upon  as  sufficient  answer  to  the  objection 
of  Sebastian's  youth  for  the  command  of  so  important  an  expedition ; 
yet  neither  is  conclusive,  inasmuch  as  neither  gives  the  date  of  the 
father's  emigration  to  England,  while  the  first  proves  altogether  too 
much,  as  it  goes  on  to  say :  "  And  when  my  father  died  in 
st-bwtum  °  that  time  when  riewes  were  brought  that  Don  Christopher 
Colonus  Genoese  had  discovered  the  coasts  of  India,  whereof 
was  great  talke  in  all  the  court  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  who  then 
reigned,  insomuch  that  all  men  with  great  admiration  affirmed  it  to 
be  a  thing  more  divine  than  humane,  to  saile  by  the  West  into  the 
East,  where  spices  growe,  by  a  way  that  was  neuer  knowen  before,  by 
this  fame  and  report  there  increased  in  my  heart  a  great  flame  of 
desire  to  attempt  some  notable  tiling." 

That  John  Cabot  was  not  dead  at  the  period  referred  to  is  just  as 
certain  as  that  either  he  or  his  son,  or  both,  sailed  in  search  of  a  north- 

1  Letter  of  M.  d'Avez«-ic  to  Dr.  Woods,  Maine  Hist.  CM.,  vol.  i.,  Second  Series. 

2  Report  of  a  conversation  with  Sebastian  Cabot  by  Galcacius  Butrigarius,  the  Pope's 
Legate  in  Spain,  first  published  in  Kumusio's  Collection  of  Voyages,  copied  by  Hakluyt  and 
mam  succeeding  authors. 

8  Richard  Eden's  Decades  of  the  New  World. 


1497.]  MAP   OF   SEBASTIAN   CABOT.  131 

west  passage.  But  this  "  discourse  of  Sebastian  Cabot,"  as  it  is  called, 
though  interesting  for  the  main  facts  to  which  it  testifies,  is  entitled 
to  no  credit  as  strictly  accurate  evidence  as  to  details,  inasmuch  as  the 
narrative  was  not  repeated  by  him  —  the  Pope's  Legate  in  Spain  — 
who  had  it  from  Cabot,  till  years  had  passed  away,  and  then  some 
months  elapsed  before  it  was  put  in  writing  by  the  author  —  Ramusio 
—  who  first  published  it,  and  who  cautioned  his  readers  that  he  only 
presumed  "  to  sketch  out  briefly,  as  it  were,  the  heads  of  what  I  re- 
member of  it."  No  reliance,  of  course,  can  be  put  upon  such  a  docu- 
ment on  any  disputed  point. 

Other  old  chroniclers,  however,  notably  Fabian,  Stow,  and  Gomara, 
speak  of  Sebastian  Caboto  as  the  navigator  "  very  expert  and  cunning 
in  knowledge  of  the  circuit  of  the  world,  and  islands  of  the  same  as 
by  a  sea  card,"  who  demonstrated  to  King  Henry  VII.  the  feasibility 
of  a  northwest  passage  to  the  Indies,  and  who  was  sent  to  find  it ; 
and  on  these  writers  Hakluyt l  relied  for  his  account  of  the  voyage. 
But  Hakluyt  substituted  the  name  of  John,  the  father,  for  that  of 
Sebastian  the  son,2  and  subsequent  authors  have,  for  the  most  part, 
accepted  his  correction. 

Then  the  question  of  late  is  still  further  complicated  by  a  MS.  of 
Hakluyt's   recently  brought   to  light.3      In  this   the   great  iukluyt-,, 
chronicler  asserts  not  only  that  the  first  expedition  was  com-  ^e°c°»x)tf 
manded  by  Sebastian  Cabot,  but  that  the  voyage  itself  was   voyage- 
made  in  1496.     His  words  are:  "A  great  part  of  the  continent,  as 
well  as  of  the  islands,  was  first  discovered  for  the  King  of  England 
by  Sebastian  Gabote,  an  Englishman,  born  in  Bristow,  son  of  John 
Gabote,  in  1496."     And  again :  "  Nay,  more,  Gabote  discovered  this 
large  tract  of  firme  land  two   years  before  Columbus  ever  saw  any 

part  of  the  continent Columbus  first  saw  the  firme  lande 

August  1,  1498,  but  Gabote  made  his  great  discovery  in  1496." 4 
There  is  certainly  no  trustworthy  evidence,  and  little  of  any  sort,  of  a 
voyage  by  either  the  father  or  the  son  in  that  year,  and  the  main 
difficulty  here  is  to  reconcile  Hakluyt  to  himself. 

It  is  less  easy  to  dispose  of  a  map  discovered  about  twenty  years 
ago  in  Germany,  and  which  is  in  conflict  with  all  the  statements  upon 
this  point  hitherto  relied  upon.  The  map,5  which  is  now  in  the  im- 
perial library  at  Paris,  covers  the  whole  world ;  in  its  delineations  of 

1  Voyages,  Navigations,  etc.,  by  Richard  Hackluyt,  vol.  iii.,  p.  89. 

2  Memoir  of  Seliastian  Cabot,  Biddle,  chap,  v.;  Life  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  by  J.  F.  Nichols, 
City  Librarian,  Bristol,  England,  p.  46. 

8  Rev.  Dr.  Wood  in  vol.  i.,  Second  Series,  Maine  Hist.  Soc.  Coll. 
*  Maine  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  i.,  Second  Series. 

6  For  detailed  description  and  discussion  see  J.  G.  Kohl ;  also  letter  of  M.  d'Avezac  to 
Rev.  Dr.  Woods.     Maine  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  i.,  Second  Series. 


132 


COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND  THE   CABOTS.    [CHAP.  VL 


some  countries  it  is  tolerably  correct,  in  others  it  is  full  of  errors  and 
remarkable  for  inexplicable  omissions ;  but  it  assumes,  in  one  of  its  in- 
Testimon  scriptions,  to  have  this  authority :  "  Sebastian  Cabot,  Cap- 
of  the  Map.  tain  and  Pilot-major  of  his  Sacred  Imperial  Majesty  the 
Emperor,  Don  Carlos,  the  fifth  of  his  name,  and  king,  our  lord,  made 
this  figure  extended  in  plane,  in  the  year  of .  the  birth  of  our  Savior 
Jesus  Christ,  MDXLIIII."  (1544.)  With  reference  to  Newfoundland 
thei'e  is  this  descriptive  legend  in  Latin  and  Italian :  "  This  land  was 
discovered  by  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian,  and  Sebastian  Cabot  his  son, 


Sebastian  Cabot's  Map,   IS44. 

in  the  year  of  the  birth  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  M.CCCC.XCIIII 
(1494),  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  June  (at  5  o'clock)  in  the  morning ; 
to  which  land  has  been  given  the  name  of  The  Land  First  Seen  (ter- 
rain primum  visam) ;  and  to  a  great  island,  which  is  very  near  the 
said  land,  the  name  of  St.  John  has  been  given,  on  account  of  its 
having  been  discovered  the  same  day." 

If  this  legend  be  correct,  it  overthrows  all  previous  theo- 
ries, and  puts  aside  all  previous  assertions.     If  the  first  voy- 
age  of  the  Cabots  was  made   in    1494,  the  mistake  as  to 
the  age  of  Sebastian  has  been  general,  for  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that 


Date  of  the 

voyage 

disputed. 


1497.]  DATE   OF  THE   CABOT   VOYAGE.  133 

any  share  in  the  responsibility  in  an  expedition  so  hazardous  and 
uncertain  would  have  been  attributed  to  a  lad  of  seventeen,  and  it 
conflicts  with  all  we  know  of  his  character  to  suppose  that  he  would 
snatch  at  honors  that  were  not  rightfully  his.  The  question  thus 
opened  anew  has  given  rise  to  much  learned  and  labored  discussion 
both  in  favor  of  this  new  supposition  and  against  it,  but  the  most 
obvious  explanation,  it  seems  to  us,  in  view  of  what  was  previously 
known,  and  from  documents  which  have  more  recently  come  to  light, 
is  that  the  date  of  M.CCCC.XCIIII  on  the  map  is  either  a  misprint 
or  a  blunder. 

There  is  no  violent  improbability  in  the  supposition  that  the  nu- 
merals VII  were  changed  by  the  printer  or  the  copyist  into  IIII,  and 
it  was  much  more  likely  to  happen  than  that  the  inscription  itself, 
while  announcing  a  fact  hitherto  unheard  of,  should  be  in  its  terms 
almost  a  literal  transcript  otherwise  of  a  record  hitherto  universally 
accepted  as  true,  which  agreed  with  all  the  contemporaneous  author- 
ities upon  the  subject,  and  which,  if  it  was  an  error,  would  probably 
have  been  detected  and  exposed,  as  it  was  within  half  a  century  of 
the  time  when  the  alleged  voyage  was  said  to  have  been  made.  This 
record  is  the  "  extract  taken  out  of  the  map  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  cut 
by  Clement  Adams,"  "  hung  up  in  the  privy  gallery  at  Whitehall," 
and  the  Latin  text  of  which  is  thus  translated  by  Hakluyt :  Inrepi  tton 
"  In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1497,  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian,  °"^.M*P 
and  his  son  Sebastian,  (with  an  English  fleet  set  out  from  h*11- 
Bristol)  discovered  that  land  which  no  man  before  that  time  had  at- 
tempted, on  the  24th  of  June,  about  five  of  the  clocke,  early  in  the 
morning.  This  land  he  called  Prima  Vista,  that  is  to  say,  First  Scene; 
because,  as  I  suppose,  it  was  that  part  whereof  they  had  the  first  sight 
from  sea.  That  island  which  lieth  out  before  the  land,  he  called  the 
island  of  St.  John,  upon  this  occasion,  as  I  thinke,  because  it  was  dis- 
covered upon  the  day  of  John  the  Baptist." l  The  essential  identity,  in 
everything  but  the  date  of  the  year,  of  the  inscriptions  upon  the  two 
maps,  the  same  day  of  the  month,  the  same  hour  of  the  day,  the  same 
naming  of  the  land  first  seen,  and  the  same  name  given  to  the  neigh- 
boring island,  all  indicate  that  both  referred  to  the  same  expedition, 
and  that  one  was  copied  from  the  other.  In  the  transfer,  what  more 
easy  and  probable  that  the  VII  should  be  changed  to  IIII,  or  that 
IIII  should  be  changed  to  VII?  That  such  a  mistake  —  if  this  ob- 
vious explanation  of  the  difficulty  be  accepted  —  was  not  made  by 
Clement  Adams,  whose  map  was  hung  up  in  Whitehall,  and  was  well 
known  in  the  sixteenth  century  to  Sebastian  Cabot's  contemporaries, 
but  that  it  was  made  by  whoever  printed  or  delineated  the  map  of 

1  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  vol.  iii.,  p.  6. 


134  COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND  THE   CABOTS.    [CHAP.  VL 

1544,  unheard  of  till  twenty  years  ago,  there  seems  to  be  ample  evi- 
dence. 

This  evidence  comes  from  recent  researches  made  on  behalf  of  the 
British  government  for  historical  information  among  Italian  and  Span- 
ish archives.  It  is  found  that  the  Venetian  ambassador  in  England 
wrote  home  on  the  24th  of  August,  1497,  thus :  — 

"  Also  some  months  ago  his  majesty,  Henry  VII.,  sent  out  a  Vene- 
Extracts  tian,  who  is  a  very  good  mariner,  and  has  good  skill  in  dis- 
[Jh™ndPi"ai-  covering  new  islands,  and  he  has  returned  safe,  and  has 
ian archives.  foun(j  two  very  large  and  fertile  new  islands  ;  having  like- 
wise discovered  the  seven  cities,  four  hundred  leagues  from  England, 
on  the  western  passage.  The  next  spring  his  majesty  means  to  send 
him  with  fifteen  or  twenty  ships."  l  And  in  the  archives  of  Venice 
is  also  a  letter  dated  August  23,  1497,  from  one  Lorenzo  Pasqualigo, 
a  Venetian  living  in  London,  to  his  brother,  in  which  he  writes :  — 

"  The  Venetian,  our  countryman,  who  went  with  a  ship  from  Bris- 
tol in  quest  of  new  islands,  is  returned,  and  says  that  seven  hundred 
leagues  hence  he  discovered  land,  the  territory  of  the  Grand  Cham  ; 
he  coasted  for  three  hundred  leagues  and  landed ;  saw  no  human 
beings,  but  he  has  brought  hither  to  the  king  certain  snares  which  had 
been  set  to  catch  game,  and  a  needle  for  making  nets ;  he  also  found 
some  felled  trees,  wherefore  he  supposed  there  were  inhabitants,  and 
returned  to  his  ship  in  alarm. 

"  He  was  three  months  on  the  voyage,  and  on  his  return  he  saw  two 
islands  to  starboard,  but  would  not  land,  time  being  precious,  as  he 

was  short  of  provisions The  king  has  also  given  him 

money  wherewith  to  amuse  himself  till  then  (the  next  spring),  and 
he  is  now  at  Bristol  with  his  wife,  who  is  also  a  Venetian,  and  with 
his  sons.  His  name  is  Zuan  Cabot,  and  he  is  styled  the  Great  Ad- 
miral ;  vast  honor  is  paid  him  ;  he  dresses  in  silk,  and  these  English 
run  after  him  like  mad  people,  so  that  he  can  enlist  as  many  of  them 
as  he  pleases,  and  a  number  of  our  own."2 

A  similar  letter,  written  about  the  same  time  from  the  Spanish  am- 
bassador in  England,  and  dealing  with  the  same  incident  —  the  return 
of  this  Genoese  of  Bristol  from  a  voyage  of  discovery — is  found  in 
the  Spanish  archives  at  Seville.  And  unless  other  contemporary  tes- 
timony, equally  direct,  respectable,  and  impartial,  shall  be  found  to 
offset  these  statements,  they  may  be  accepted  as  settling  two  points : 
First,  that  the  first  voyage  of  the  Cabots,  on  which  the  western  conti- 
nent was  discovered,  was  made  in  the  summer  of  1497  ;  and  second, 
that  the  leader  of  the  enterprise  was  John  (Zuan)  Cabot. 

1  Papers  on  English  Affairs;  extracted  from  the  Venetian  Calendar,  by  Rawdon  Brown, 
p.  260. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  262. 


1497.] 


JOHN   CABOT  IN  ENGLAND. 


135 


Of  him  this  is  the  one  fair  glimpse  that  history  gives  us.  When  or 
where  he  was  born,  when  or  where  he  died  and  was  buried,  can  only 
be  guessed  at  with  more  or  less  of  probability  ;  and  of  all  the  John  CAbot 
events  of  a  life  that  certainly  was  not  a  short  one  this  inci-  in  London- 
dent  alone  stands  out  distinct  and  clear,  as  he  walks  through  White- 
hall and  the  Strand,  from  palace  to  counting-house,  clothed  in  the 
costliest  garments  of  the  day,  telling  courtier  and  merchant  and  mari- 
ner how  only  a  month's  sail  away  he  had  found  the  Eastern  Continent 
of  which  Columbus  had  hitherto  discovered  only  some  outlying  islands. 
And  it  is  no  marvel  that  these  English  should  have  "  run  after  him 
like  mad,"  should  have  watched  for  his  coining,  and  have  given  him 


John  Cabot  in   London. 

good  hearty  English  cheers  whenever  he  appeared,  for  his  brave  ex- 
ploit was  to  the  honor  of  the  English  name,  as  well  as  to  his  own. 

If  other  proof  were  wanting  that  this  was  the  first  voyage,  a  curious 
bit  of  evidence  comes  in  to  corroborate  the  story  of  the  return  of  the 
successful  navigator  and  the  reception  that  was  given  him.  In  the 
account  of  the  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of  King  Henry  is  this 
entry  :  "  10th  August,  1497.  To  hym  that  found  the  New 
Isle,  10J." l  That  this  refers  to  Cabot  seems  improbable ;  Auieric*- 
but  it  is  quite  likely  that  the  king  should  have  sent,  or  given  with  his 
own  hand,  such  a  reward  to  the  sailor  who  from  his  faithful  watch 
at  the  mast-head  was  the  first  to  cry  "Land  ho!"  on  the  coast  of 
North  America. 

1  Nicolas,  Excerpta  Historica,  quoted  by  Biddle  and  by  Nicholls. 


foi 


136  COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND  THE   CABOTS.    [CHAP.  VI. 

The  voyage  was  made  under  a  patent  granted  by  the  king  on  the 
5th  of  March,  1496,  authorizing  John  Cabot  and  his  three  sons,  Lewis, 
Patents  of  Sebastian,  and  Sancius,  to  "  sail  to  all  parts,  countries,  and 
John  cabot.  geag  Of  the  East,  Q£  tne  west;,  and  of  the  North,  under  our 

banners  and  ensigns,  with  five  ships  of  what  burthen  or  quantity 
soever  they  be,  and  so  many  mariners  or  men  as  they  will  have  with 
them  in  the  said  ships,  upon  their  own  proper  costs  and  charges,  to 
seek  out,  discover,  and  find  whatsoever  isles,  countries,  regions,  or 
provinces  of  the  heathen  and  infidels,  whatsoever  they  be,  and  in  what 
part  of  the  world  soever  they  be,  which  before  this  time  have  been 
unknown  to  all  Christians."  The  patent  was  in  entire  disregard  of 
the  bull  of  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  of  May,  1498,  by  which  the  heathen 
world  was  divided  from  pole  to  pole  between  Spain  and  Portugal ;  but 
the  south  was  probably  excluded  from  the  sailing  directions  in  defer- 
ence to  actual  possession  by  either  of  those  nations.  The  king  was 
cautious;  he  did  not  mean  to  run  any  risk  of  involving  himself  in 
trouble  with  either  of  those  powers  ;  he  carefully  stipulated  that  one 
fifth  of  all  the  profits  of  the  adventure  should  be  his,  and  all  the  cost 
he  threw  upon  the  Cabots.  Though  a  year  passed  away  before  the 
expedition  set  out,  it  is  doubtful  if  it  included  more  than  the  single 
ship  of  the  admiral  —  The  Matthew  of  Bristol.  At  all  events  that 
ship,  The  Matthew,  Captain  John  Cabot,  cleared  out  at  the  Bristol 
custom-house  for  the  territories  of  the  Grand  Khan  and  a  market  in 
May,  1497,  and  returned  again  to  port  in  about  three  months,  having 
sailed  meanwhile  three  hundred  leagues  along  the  coast  of  North 
America. 

In  the  Italian  archives,  from  which  we  just  now  quoted,  it  is  said 
Sebastian  that  another  expedition  was  to  follow  up  this  great  discovery 
*n  ^ne  8Pr'ng-  "  The  king,"  writes  Pasqualigo,  "  has  prom- 
jgej  £naj.  jn  t]ie  8pring  our  countryman  shall  have  ten  ships, 
armed  to  his  order,  and  at  his  request  has  conceded  him  all  the  pris- 
oners, except  such  as  are  confined  for  high  treason,  to  man  his  fleet." 
On  the  3d  of  February,  1498,  accordingly,  a  second  patent,  or  rather 
license  was  issued  by  which  John  Kabotto  was  authorized  to  impress 
six  English  ships,  "and  them  convey  and  lede  to  the  Londe  and  Isles 
of  late  founde  by  the  said  John  in  oure  name  and  by  our  commande- 
mente."  The  expedition  consisted,  however,  of  only  two  ships ;  on 
board  of  them  went  three  hundred  passengers,  whether  volunteers  or 
convicts  from  the  jails,  and  its  evident  purpose  was  colonization.  It 
sailed  from  Bristol  in  the  spring  —  probably  in  May  —  under  the 
command  —  so  all  the  old  narratives  concur  in  saying  —  of  the  young 
Sebastian.  John  disappears  with  this  grant  to  him  to  settle  the  lands 
he  had  discovered  ;  is  dead  —  at  least  to  history. 


1498.]  SEBASTIAN   CABOT   EXPLORES   THE   COAST.  137 

But  the  voyage  was  barren  of  any  results  of  value,  except  that 
Sebastian  noted  that  "  in  the  seas  thereabout  were  multitudes  of  big 
fishes  that  they  call  tunnies,  which  the  inhabitants  call  Baccalaos, 
that  they  sometimes  stopped  his  ship."  And  he  therefore  "  named 
this  land  Baccalaos."  l  Probably  he  left  his  three  hundred  emigrants 
somewhere  on  this  inhospitable  coast  to  make  such  settlement  as  they 
could,  while  he  explored  still  farther  northward.  He  reached  the 
latitude  of  67^°,  fighting  his  way  through  seas  of  ice,  and  looking 
anxiously  for  the  gulf  that  should  lead  him  to  the  Indies.  "  To  his 
great  displeasure"  he  found  the  coast,  at  length,  trending  eastward, 
probably  on  the  peninsula  of  Cumberland  ;  his  crews,  perhaps  reduced 
in  numbers  by  the  hardships  of  such  navigation,  perhaps  in  despair 
and  alarm  at  penetrating  farther  into  a  region  where  in  July  the  cold 
was  increasing  and  "  the  dayes  very  long  in  maner  without  any 
night,"  grew  insubordinate  and  mutinous,  and  clamored  to  return. 
Turning  southward,  he  picked  up  his  three  hundred  colonists,  or  what 
was  left  of  them,  and  sailed  into  pleasanter  seas. 

"  Ever  intent  to  find  that  passage  to  India,"  and  baffled  in  the 
search  for  it  at  the  north,  he  hoped  to  discover  it  by  run-  Fjn)t  coagt 
ning  down  the  coast.     Into  what  bays  and  estuaries  he  may  0^°™^° 
have  penetrated  ;  how  anxiously  he  scanned  the  headlands ;   tinent 
how  diligently  sounded  for  depth  of  water,  and  marked  the  set  of  cur- 
rents that  he  might  miss  no  indication  of  an  opening  to  the  west ;  or 
how  long  he  was  in  making  this  first  coast-survey  of  the  Continent, 
there  is  no  record.2     But  doubtless  he  did  his  work   faithfully  and 
well,  keeping  along  the  shore  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  missing  no 
landmarks,  doubling  Cape  Cod,  perhaps  rounding  Nantucket  and  run- 
ning into  Buzzard's  Bay  and  Long  Island  Sound,  and  approaching 
the  harbor  of  New  York  ;  for  he  sometimes  landed,  found  "  on  most 

1  Peter  Martyr,  De  Orbe  Novo.     But  Dr.  Kohl  doubts  this.     The  cod-fisherv,  he  says, 
had  long  existed  on  the  northern  coasts  of  Europe,  and  the  fish  were  called  bv  the  Ger- 
manic nations  "  Cabliauwe,"  or  "  Kabbeljouwe,"  or  still  farther  transposed,  "  Backljau." 
The  Portuguese  changed  it  to  Bacalhao.     The  root  of  the  word  is  the  Germanic  "  boldi," 
meaning  fish.     The  name,  therefore,  could  not  have  had  an  Indian  origin.     Mnim  Il'ixt. 
Coll.,  vol.  i.,  Second  Series.     Brevoort,  on  the  other  hand  (Journal  of  the  Am.   Gfog.  So- 
ciety, p.  205),  says  it  is  simply  "an  old  Mediterranean  or  Romance  name,  given  to  the  pre- 
served codfish,  when  it  has  been  dried  and  kept  open  and  extended  by  the  help  of  a  small 
stick.     This  was  the  stockfish  of  the  North,  and  from  the  word  Baculum,  it  became  the  Bac- 
alao  and  Baccalieu  of  the  South  of  Europe." 

2  Brevoort  and  Stevens  doubt  if  Cabot  ever  sailed  south  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 
Peter  Martyr  —  who  says,  "  Cabot  is  my  very  friend  whom  I  use  familiarly  and  delight  to 
have  him  sometimes  keepe  me  company  in   mine  own   house "  —  asserts  "  that  he  was 
thereby  brought  so  far  into  the  South  by  reason  of  the  land  bending  so  much  southwards, 
that  it  was  there  almost  equal  in  latitude  with  the  sea  Fretum  Herculeum  ("Straits  of  Gib- 
raltar) having  the  north  pole  elevate  in  the  same  degree."     Gomara  says  that  Cabot  sailed 
so  far  north  that  "  the  days  were  very  long,  as  it  were  without  night ; "  and  that  he  fol- 
lowed the  coast  southward  to  the  38°,  whence  he  returned  home. 


138 


COLUMBUS,  VESPUCCI,  AND   THE   CABOTS.     [CHAP.  VI. 


of  the  places,  copper  or  brass  among  the  aborigines,"  and  captured 
some  of  the  natives  and  brought  them  home  to  England.  But  when 
he  had  reached  38°  north,  that  is,  about  Cape  Hatteras,  his  provisions 
failing,  lie  changed  his  course  for  Bristol. 

Whether  Sebastian  Cabot  was  satisfied  that  no  passage  to 
of  Sebastian   Cathay  was  to  be  found  between  67  J°  and  38°,  north  lati- 
tude, there  is  nowhere  any  positive  assurance.   He  lived,  how- 
ever, to  be  eighty  years  of  age ;  in  the  course  of  that  long  life  he  held 

the  honorable  and  influential  position  of 
Pilot-major  both  in  Spain  and  England  ; 
he  led,  in  the  service  of  Spain,  an  event- 
ful expedition  to  the  Rio  de  la  Plata ;  in 
the  service  of  England  he  sent  another 
to  Russia,  and  established  commercial  in- 
tercourse between  the  two  nations ;  but, 
unless  he  made  a  third  voyage  to  North 
America  in  1516,  which  was  cei'tainly 
projected,  though  its  accomplishment  is 
questioned,  he  abandoned,  after  his  re- 
turn in  1498,  all  farther  attempts  at 
discovery  or  settlement  on  the  coast  of 
North  America.  The  honor  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  mainland  of  the  continent 
was  his ;  but  seventy  years  passed  away 

before  the  first  permanent  colony  was  planted  north  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico. 


Sebastian  Cabot. 


Fac-simile  of  Signature  of  Amerigo  Vespucci 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SPANISH  DISCOVERIES   AND  EXPLORATIONS. 

DESIGNS  FOR  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  A  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  TO  INDIA.  —  THE  COR- 
TEREAL  VOYAGES.  —  VASCO  NUNEZ  DE  BALBOA  REACHES  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN. — 
SEARCH  FOR  THE  FOUNTAIN  OF  YOUTH. — FLORIDA  DISCOVERED.  —  GULF  OF  MEX- 
ICO SAILED  OVER. EXPLORATIONS  ON  THE  ATLANTIC  SEA-COAST. E8TAVAN  GOMEZ 

ON  THE  BORDERS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  EXPEDITION  OF  PAMPHILO  DE  NAR- 
VAEZ  TO  FLORIDA. — ADVENTURES  OF  CABEC.A  DE  VACA.  —  THE  ENTERPRISE  OF 
HERNANDO  DE  SOTO.  —  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  RIVER.  —  DEATH  AND 
DRAMATIC  BURIAL  OF  DE  SOTO. —  RETURN  OF  THE  TROOPS  OF  DE  SOTO.  —  TRIS- 
TAN DE  LUNA'S  ATTEMPT  TO  FOUND  A  COLONY. 

THAT  the  Cabots  were  the  first  modern  discoverers  of  the  Western 
Continent,  or,  indeed,  that  Columbus  was  the  first  European  who,  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  visited  the  New  World,  is  not  undisputed.  John 
Skolnus,  or  John  of  Kolno,  a  Pole,  is  said  to  have  been  on  the  coast  of 
Labrador  in  1477  ;  it  is  claimed  by  some  French  writers  that  in  1488 
one  Cousin,  a  Frenchman  of  Dieppe,  was  driven  across  the  Atlantic 
and  made  land  on  the  other  side  at  the  mouth  of  a  wide  river  ;  that 
with  him  was  one  of  that  family  of  Pinzons  of  Palos  which  gave,  fouv 
years  later,  captains  —  one  of  them  perhaps  this  very  captain  —  to  two 
of  the  three  ships  of  Columbus.  The  evidence  of  such  an  expedition  is 
so  slight,  that  constructive  arguments  have  only  more  or  less  weight 
as  they  are  more  or  less  ingenious. 

When,  however,  the  path  to  the  new  Indies  was  fairly  opened,  in 
the  last  decade  of  the  fifteenth  century,  fresh  voyages  fol- 
lowed in  rapid  succession,  and  not  navigators  only,  but  sov-  Spain"8' 
ereigns  vied  with  each  other  to  share  with  Spain  the  glory  European  el 
and  the  riches  of  the  new  discoveries.     Henry  VII.  of  Eng-  ' 
land,  when  he  gave  a  patent  to  the  Cabots,  no  doubt  reflected  that 
Columbus  might  have  been  an  English,  rather  than  a  Spanish  admiral. 
The  king  of  Portugal  did  not  attempt  to  conceal  his  chagrin  that  the 
dominion  and  power  which  had  fallen,  or  inevitably  would  fall,  into 
the  hands  of  Spain,  he  had  rejected.     But  though  Spain  could  not  be 
interfered  with  at  the  south,  it  was  still  possible  to  find  the  yet  undis- 
covered way  to  India  by  a  northern  passage  ;  there  might  still  be 
unknown  islands,  or  even  continents,  full  of  gold  and  heathen  men,  in 
northern  seas. 


140         SPANISH   DISCOVERIES   AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII. 

In  1500,  accordingly,  two  caravels  were  dispatched  from  Portugal 
fia»  ar  cor-  un(3er  the  command  of  Gaspar  Cortereal,  in  search  of  a  pas- 
tercai  seeks  ga~e  to  jn(jia  jn  northern  latitudes.  He  made  no  settlement, 

a  northwest 

passage.  jjut  explored  the  coast,  either  on  that  or  a  second  voyage 
made  the  next  year,  for  six  or  seven  hundred  miles,  as  far  north  as 
the  fiftieth  parallel,  where  his  further  progress  was  stopped  by  the  ice. 
The  country  he  called  Terra  de  Labrador  —  the  land  of  laborers  — 
though  that  name  was  afterwards  transferred  to  a  region  farther  north. 


Cortereal  at  Labrador. 

The  people  were  like  Gypsies  in  color,  well  made,  intelligent,  and 
modest ;  they  lived  in  wooden  houses,  clothed  themselves  in  skins  and 
furs,  used  "  swords  made  of  a  kind  of  stones,  and  pointed  their  arrows 
with  the  same  material."  The  country  abounded  with  timber,  espe- 
cially pine ;  the  seas  were  full  of  fish  of  various  kinds ;  and,  with  such 
natural  advantages,  added  to  its  populousness,  it  was  thought  that  its 
acquisition  might  prove  valuable  to  Portugal.  If  Cortereal  did  not 
open  a  way  to  India,  or  find  mines  of  gold  to  rival  those  of  Hispaniola, 
at  least  he  had  discovered,  as  he  hoped,  a  new  Slave  Coast,  and  he 
enticed  or  forced  on  board  his  caravels  fifty-seven  of  the  natives  whom 
he  meant  to  sell  as  slaves.  These  were  pronounced  as  "  admirably 
calculated  for  labor,  and  the  best  slaves  ever  seen." l 

1  The  Cortereal  voyages  are  not  free  from  the  confusion  which  surrounds  so  many  of  the 
early  narratives.  Several  writers  (see  Barrow's  Chronological  History  of  Voyages ;  Lard- 
ner's  Cyclopedia ;  Edinburgh  Cabinet  Library)  following  Cordeiro's  Historia  Insularia,  assert 
that  Newfoundland  was  first  discovered  by  John  Vaz  Costa  Cortereal  in  1463  or  1464  ;  but 
Biddle  (Memoir  of  Cabot,  book  ii.,  chapter  11)  shows  that  there  is  no  good  authority  for 
any  such  voyage.  A  passage  in  the  life  of  his  father  by  Ferdinand  Colon,  however,  seems 
to  have  been  overlooked  by  all  these  writers.  He  says  that  Vincent  Dear,  a  Portuguese, 


1502.J  THE   CORTEREAL  VOYAGES.  141 

Cortereal  made  two  voyages,  but  from  the  second  he  never  came 
back.  It  is  uncertain  what  his  fate  was.  He  may  have  been  Fate  of  the 
lost  at  sea  ;  or,  as  it  has  been  conjectured,  he  may  have  been  Cortercal(i- 
killed  by  the  natives  in  an  attempt  to  kidnap  another  cargo  of  slaves, 
or  in  revenge  for  the  capture  of  those  stolen  on  the  previous  voyage. 
But  this,  of  course,  involves  the  presumption  that  the  kidnapping  was 
on  his  first  expedition,  and  that  the  retribution  fell  upon  him  on  his 
return  to  the  coast.  But  the  latest  and  most  reasonable  suggestion  is 
that  it  was  on  his  second  voyage  that  he  committed  this  outrage  upon 
the  Indians,  and  that  he  and  his  fifty  captives  perished  together  at 
sea.  And  this  is  the  more  probable  conjecture  since  we  know  that 
Miguel  Cortereal,  a  younger  brother,  sailed  from  Lisbon,  on  the  10th 
of  May,  1502,  with  two  vessels,  in  search  of  Gaspar,  eight  months 
after  the  report  of  the  arrival  of  one  of  Caspar's  caravels.  The 
Indians  may  have  punished  him  also  for  his  brother's  cruelty  to  their 
kindred,  for  he  did  not  return.  The  next  year  the  king  sent  out  an 
expedition  in  quest  of  both,  but  that  came  back  without  tidings  of 

returning  from  Guinea  to  Terceira,  saw,  or  thought  he  saw,  an  island,  and  told  this  to  one 
Luke  de  Gazzana,  a  wealthy  Genoese  merchant.  Gazzana  sent  out  a  vessel,  and  "  the  pilot 
went  out  three  or  four  times  to  seek  the  said  island,  sailing  from  one  hundred  and  twenty 
or  one  hundred  and  thirty  leagues,  but  all  in  vain,  for  he  found  no  land.  Yet  for  all  this, 
neither  he  (Gazzana)  nor  his  partner  gave  over  the  enterprise  till  death,  always  hoping  to 
find  it."  Ferdinand  Colon  adds  that  a  brother  of  Gazzana  also  told  him  that  he  knew  the 
sons  of  "  the  captain  who  discovered  Terceira,"  Gaspar  and  Michael  Cortereal,  "  who  went 
several  times  to  discover  that  land  ;  and  it  is  plain  from  the  context  that  Ferdinand  Colon 
means  to  refer  to  distinct  expeditions  to  the  West  —  those  before  his  father's  first  voyage  by 
Gazzana's  direction,  when  John  Vaz  Costa  Cortereal  was  governor  of  Terceira;  and  these 
by  the  younger  Cortereals  in  1500.  It  was  natural  enough  that  these  expeditious  should 
be  confounded  with  each  other,  and  this  confusion  was  not  cleared  up  even  when  Hakluyt 
published  the  first  edition  of  his  voyages  in  1582,  who  says :  "  An  excellent  learned  man  of 
Portugal,  of  singular  gravety,  authortie,  and  experience,  tolde  me  very  lately  that  one 
Gouus  Cortereal,  captayne  of  the  vie  of  Terceira,  about  the  yeare  1 574,  which  is  not  above 
eight  years  past,  sent  a  ship  to  discover  the  North  West  Passage."  Here  is  an  obvious 
mistake  of  about  a  century. 

In  regard  to  the  actual  expedition  of  Gaspar  Cortereal,  the  principal  original  source  of 
information  hitherto  relied  upon,  is  the  letter  of  Pietro  Pa.*qualigo,  Venetian  Ambassador 
to  Portugal,  to  his  brother,  October  19,  1501.  This  was  first  published  in  a  volume  of  voy- 
ages printed  in  Venice  in  1507,  under  the  title  Paesi  Novamente  rttrovati  vt  \ovo  Mmido. 
But  Dr.  Kohl  (Collections  of  Maine  Hist.  Society,  1869),  rely  ing  upon  some  recent  researches 
in  the  Portuguese  archives  by  M.  Kuntsmaun  (Die  Entdeckuny  America's),  assumes  that 
Pasqualigo's  letter  refers  to  the  second  voyage  of  Cortereal,  and  that  the  caravel,  on  board 
which  he  was  with  fifty  of  the  Indians,  never  arrived.  The  letter  says  :  "  On  the  8th  of  the 
present  month  one  of  the  two  caravels  which  his  most  serene  majesty  dispatched  last  year 
on  a  voyage  of  discovery  to  the  North,  under  the  command  of  Gaspar  Corterat,  arrived 

here They  have  brought  hither  of  the  inhabitants,  seven  in  all,  men,  women, 

and  children,  and  in  the  other  caravel,  which  is  looked  for  every  hour,  there  are  fifty 
more."  If  this  was  the  first  voyage,  the  other  caravel  subsequently  arrived  with  the  fifty 
Indians,  as  Cortereal  certainly  made  a  second  expedition.  The  date  alone  of  the  letter 
(October,  1501)  —  if  Cortereal  sailed  in  1500 — suggests  that  Pasqualigo  confounded  the 
two  voyages,  and  that  he  refers  to  the  second,  from  which  Cortereal  did  not  return. 


142         SPANISH   DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII. 

either.  Then  the  eldest  brother,  Vasqueanes  Cortereal,  the  governor 
of  Terceira,  one  of  the  Azores,  begged  permission  to  continue  the 
search,  but  the  king  forbade  it,  and  the  Portuguese,  discouraged  by 
such  a  succession  of  disasters,  abandoned  all  farther  attempts  at  dis- 
covery in  the  northern  seas. 

These  explorations  in  high  northern  latitudes  the  Spanish  left  for 
the  most  part  to  other  nations.  Not  that  they  were  less  eager  to  find 
a  passage  to  India,  but  they  believed  that  they  alone  were  seeking  it 
in  the  right  direction.  The  conviction  was  of  slow  growth  that 
another  continent,  hitherto  unknown,  lay  between  Europe  and  Asia, 
and  that  this  must  be  passed  before  the  coveted  spice  islands  of  the 
East  could  be  reached  by  sailing  westward.  Even  Columbus  himself 
must  have  had  some  misgivings,  for  while  he  professed  to  believe 
that  on  his  third  and  fourth  voyages  he  had  reached  the  continent  of 
Asia,  he  was  none  the  less  persistent  in  seeking  from  Venezuela  to 
Hondui-as  for  a  strait  that  should  lead  him  to  a  South  Sea  and  to 
search  of  India.  It  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  his  avowed  theoretical  con- 
fora"ve8t'-  Dictions  with  his  practical  conduct ;  but  it  is  remarkable 
em  passage.  j.jiat  conjecture  or  reasoning  should  have  led  him  to  seek  for 
such  a  channel  where,  if  it  existed  at  all  anywhere  between  Terra 
del  Fuego  and  the  Arctic  Sea,  it  was  most  likely  to  be  found.  In  his 
fourth  and  last  voyage,  crowded  with  misfortunes  more  romantic  than 
the  boldest  imagination  would  have  ventured  to  put  forth  as  fiction, 
he  groped  his  way  along  the  coast  of  Central  America  in  search  of  an 
eastern  passage.  The  problem  of  an  easy  and  rapid  communication 
by  sea  with  the  far  East,  has  to-day  no  other  solution  than  a  possible 
artificial  channel  where  the  great  navigator  hoped  to  find  one  hollowed 
out  by  the  waters  of  two  meeting  seas. 

To  the  genius  of  Columbus  this  homage  was  paid  by  all  his  con- 
temporaries—  whither  he  led  there  they  followed.  As  Ojeda 
ditions  from  and  Vespucci,  after  his  discovery  of  the  Southern  Continent, 
on  his  third  voyage,  went  to  Paria  and  explored  the  coast 
north  and  south  of  that  gulf,  so  Solis  and  Pinzon,  moved  by  his  ex- 
ample, sailed  into  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  along  its  shores  where 
Columbus,  on  his  fourth  voyage,  had  led  the  way.  Within  four  or 
five  years  of  his  death,  in  1506,  the  whole  coast  from  Carthagena  to 
Yucatan  had  been  visited  by  many  adventurers,  dividing  the  country 
amongst  them,  fighting  with  each  other  as  occasion  offered,  slaughter- 
ing, mutilating,  or  enslaving  the  Indians,  as  best  served  their  purpose 
in  the  gathering  of  gold. 

vascoxunez  Among  these  freebooters  was  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa,  an 
ie  Baiboa.  excellent  specimen  of  that  class  of  Spanish  discoverers  who 
overran  the  southern  half  of  the  New  World,  and  of  which  Pizarro 


1506.J 


VASCO   XCNEZ   DE  BALBOA. 


143 


and  Cortez  —  who  were  fitted  for  their  future  careers  at  the  same 
time  and  in  the  same  school  and  region  with  Vasco  Nunez  —  were  still 
more  brilliant  instances. 

This  Nunez  was  eminent  in  that  bravery  which  belonged  to  men 
who,  clad  in  steel,  armed  with  an  arquebuse  or  cross-bow,  and  a  sword, 
mounted,  perhaps,  on  horseback,  were  ready  to  meet  any  number  of 
naked  savages  with  only  bows  and  arrows ;  he  was  vigorous  and  capa- 
ble of  great  endurance,  as  well  as  bold;  and  he  was  pitilessly  cruel, 
unscrupulous,  and  dissolute,  but  at  the  same  time  zealous  for  th« 
Church. 


Vasco  Nunez   on   Shipboard. 

To  escape  from  his  creditoi-s  in  Hispaniola  he  concealed  himself  in 
a  cask,  on  board  a  vessel  about  to  sail  for  the  Caribbean  Sea.1  When 
far  from  land  he  crept  from  his  hiding-place  and  prevailed  by  prayers 
and  tears  upon  Enciso,  the  commander  of  the  expedition,  not  to  put  him 
ashore  and  leave  him.  as  he  threatened,  to  starve  on  a  barren  island. 
Afterward,  when  the  vessel  was  wrecked,  Nunez,  who  had  been  on  the 

1  Herrcra,  Decade  I.,  l>ook  viii.,  chap.  2. 


144         SPANISH  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CuAi-.  VII. 

coast  before  and  remembered  an  Indian  village  on  the  river  Darien, 
led  the  crew,  harassed  by  the  natives  and  reduced  almost  to  starvation, 
to  that  place.  By  force  of  character  and  skilful  management  he  soon 
became  the  head  of  a  party,  helped  to  depose  Enciso,  to  whom  he  owed 
his  life,  got  rid  of  others  who  had  some  title  to  the  government  of  the 
province,  and  raised  himself  to  supreme  command. 

From  the  son  of  an  Indian  chief  he  learned,  on  one  of  his  maraud- 
ing expeditions  into  the  interior,  that  six  days'  iourney  fur- 

Rumor*  of  a         e  -   ,  J       J  ,J 

Land  oi  ther  on  was  another  sea,  and  beyond  it  a  country  so  abound- 
ing in  gold  that  the  people  ate  and  drank  out  of  dishes  made 
of  it.  In  September,  1513,  he  started  from  Darien  to  find  that  sea. 
He  fought  his  way  through  tribes  of  hostile  Indians,  whom  he  sub- 
dued by  killing  many,  "  hewing  them  in  pieces  as  the  Butchers  doe 
fleshe  in  the  shambles,  from  one  an  arme,  from  another  a  legge, 


from  him  a  buttocke,  from 
another  a  shoulder,  and  from 
some  the  necke  from  the  bodie 
at  one  stroke  ; "  and  some  the 
dogs  brought  down  and  tore 
limb  from  limb  "  as  if  they 
were  wild  bores  or  Hartes."  1 

At    length    the     invaders  The  South  sea. 

reached  a  high  mountain  from  the  top  of  which,  said  the  Indian 
guides,  the  southern  sea  was  in  sight.  Nunez  ordered  his  men  to  halt 
while  he  climbed  up  alone.  Far  beneath  him,  on  the  other  side, 

i  Peter  Martyr's  Third  Decade,  trans,  by  Lok.     Hakluyt,  vol.  v.,  edition  of  1812 


1513.] 


DISCOVERY   OF   THE  PACIFIC. 


145 


lay  the  blue  ocean,  sparkling  and  glorious  in  the  sunlight,  stretching 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  North,  South,  West,  to  where  DigcoTery  Of 
sky  and  water  seemed  to  meet.  It  was  for  this  that  all  the  o*^Ts«pt 
great  navigators  of  the  world  had  been  seeking  for  nearly  1513- 
twenty  years,  and  when  the  sight  of  it  broke  upon  Vasco  Nufiez  he  fell 
prone  upon  the  ground.  Raising  himself  presently  upon  his  knees,  he 
gave  thanks  to  God  that  it  had  "pleased  his  diuine  maiestie  to  reserue 
vnto  that  day  the  victorie  and  prayse  of  so  great  a  thing  vnto  him." 
An  ecstacy  of  delight,  of  triumph  and  devotion  possessed  him.  With 
one  hand  he  beckoned  his  followers  to  come  to  him  ;  with  the  other 
he  pointed  wildly  seaward,  "  shewing  them  the  great  maine  sea  here- 
tofore vnknowne  to  the  inhabitants  of  Europe,  Aphrike,  and  Asia.' 


First  Embarkation  on  the  South  Sea. 

Again  he  fell  upon  his  knees,  and  to  his  prayers,  "  desiring  Almighty 
God  and  the  blessed  Virgin  to  fauor  his  beginnings,  and  to  give  him 
good  successe  to  subdue  those  landes,  to  the  glory  of  his  holy  name, 
and  increase  of  his  holy  religion."  His  companions  joined  him  and 
"  praysed  God  with  loude  voyces  for  ioy,"  for  he  "  exhorted  them  to 
lyft  up  their  hearts  and  beholde  the  lande  euen  now  vnder  their  feete, 
and  the  sea  before  their  eyes  which  shoulde  bee  vnto  them  a  full  and 
lust  rewarde  of  their  great  laboures  and  trauayles  now  ouerpassed." 
He  ordered  heaps  of  stone  to  be  piled  up  in  token  that  he  took  pos- 
session of  the  country  for  his  sovereign,  and  the  name  of  Ferdinand 


VOL.    I. 


10 


146         SPANISH   DISCOVERIES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII. 

of  Castile  he  carved  upon  many  trees  as  he  went  down  the  Pacific 
slope. 

The  men,  marshalled  in  battle  array,  were  ordered  by  this  pious 
captain  to  assail  the  natives  and  "  to  esteeme  them  no  better  than 
dogges  meate,  as  they  shoulde  be  shortly."  1  From  that  fate,  how- 
ever, gold  could  always  save  them.  Twelve  men,  among  whom  was 
Pizarro,  the  future  conqueror  of  Peru,2  were  sent  in  advance  to  find 
the  safest  and  shortest  path  to  the  shore.  At  the  spot  where  they 
approached  it  two  canoes  were  stranded  upon  the  beach.  As  the 
flood-tide  floated  them  Alonso  Martin  stepped  into  one,  and  Blaze  de 
Atienza  followed  in  the  other,  and  they  called  to  their  companions  to 
witness  that  they  were  the  first  Spaniards  —  Martin  first,  and  Atienza 
second  —  who  embarked  upon  the  South  Sea.  When,  a  few  days 
later,  Vasco  Nunez  arrived  with  his  whole  company,  he  marched  into 
the  water  up  to  his  thighs,  with  his  sword  and  target,  and  solemnly 
pronounced  that  ocean  and  all  that  pertained  to  it  as  the  possession  of 
the  sovereigns  of  Castile  and  Leon,  which  he  would  defend  against 
all  comers.3 

Thenceforward  the  exploration  and  occupation  of  the  western  coast, 
both  north  and  south,  went  forward  with  little  interruption.  But 
Fate  of  the  man  whose  energy  and  perseverance  led  the  way,  Vasco 
aeTde  Bai-  Nunez  de  Balboa,  fell  a  victim,  five  years  later,  to  the  jealousy 
boa<  and  fears  of  the  Governor  of  Darien,  Peter  Anias,  who 

ordered  him,  after  the  mockery  of  a  trial,  to  be  beheaded.  Such 
atrocities  were  so  common  among  the  Spaniards  that  this  one,  though 
perpetrated  against  a  man  whose  eminent  services  had  been  recog- 
nized by  an  appointment  as  Adelantado  over  the  sea  he  had  discov- 
ered, seems  to  have  gone  unpunished  and  almost  unnoticed  by  the 
government  at  home. 

While  the  course  of  Spanish  adventure  was  thus,  in  the  earlier 
years  of  the  sixteenth  century,  directed  towards  Central  America, 
leading,  in  due  season,  to  such  events  as  the  discovery  of  the  Pacific, 
the  conquests  of  Peru  and  Mexico,  and  the  exploration  of  the  western 
coast  of  the  present  United  States,  it  was  not  forgotten  that  there 
might  be  other  regions  further  north  on  the  Atlantic  coast  worth  pos- 
sessing. Juan  Ponce  de  Leon,  who  had  enriched  himself  by  the  sub- 
jugation of  Porto  Rico,  resolved,  when  deprived  of  the  governorship 
of  that  island,  to  increase  his  fame  and  his  riches  by  some  new  enter- 
prise. He  had  heard  that  there  were  lands  at  the  north,  of  which 
marvellous  tales  were  told,  not  only  of  great  wealth  of  gold  and  prec- 
ious stones,  but  that  hidden  away  somewhere  in  the.  deep  recesses  of 

i  Peter  Martyr.  2  Life  of  Pizarro,  by  Arthur  Helps,  p.  55. 

8  Ilerrera,  Decade  I.,  book  x.,  chap.  1. 


SEARCH   FOR   THE   FOUNTAIN   OF   YOUTH. 


1512.] 


PONCE  DE  LEON   DISCOVERS   FLORIDA. 


147 


its  forests  bubbled  up  a  fountain  of  which  whosoever  drank  should 
receive  the  priceless  gift  of  perpetual  youth.     The  rumor  of  Legend  of 

11  i  ri-i'i»  i  i  the  Fountain 

gold  was  enough  to  tempt  Spanish  cupidity  ;  but  that  was  of  Youth, 
as  nothing  to  Ponce  de  Leon,  already  rich  but  already  old,  to  the 
promise  of  being  young  again. 

To  find  this  new  marvel  of  the  New  World,  Juan  Ponce  de  Leor. 
started  from  Porto  Rico  with  three  ships,  in  March,  1512.1  As 
fitting  in  a  quest  for  a  fountain  of 
immortality,  the  adventurers  floated 
over  that  summer  sea  as  men  intent 
on  pleasure,  to  whom  time  was  long 
and  burdened  with  no  serious  du- 
ties ;  they  sailed  from  island  to 
island,  touching  here  and  there  as 
fancy  led  them,  seeking  the  safest 
and  pleasantest  coves,  where  the 
shades  were  deepest  in  the  noon- 
day sun  and  the  waters  coolest, 
where  the  fruits  were  sweetest,  the 
Indians  most  friendlv  and  their 

if 

women  loveliest.  After  a  month 
of  such  idle  dalliance  they  crossed 
the  Bahama  Channel,  and,  on  the 
27th  of  March,  which  happened  to  be  Easter  Sunday  and  which  the 
Spaniards  call  Pascua  de  Flores,2  they  saw  and  passed  an  island  on 
the  opposite  coast.  Two  or  three  days  later  Ponce  de  Leon 
landed  on  the  main,  near  the  point  now  called  Fernandina.3 
Taking  possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  Spain  he  named  it  1512- 
Florida,  because  the  land  was  first  seen  on  the  Pascua  de  Flares,  and 
because  it  was  fair  to  look  upon,  covered  with  pleasant  groves  and 
carpeted  with  flowers. 

For  more  than  thirty  days  they  sailed  along  the  coast  on  both  sides 
of  the  Peninsula,  and  among  the  Bahama  Islands,  sometimes  traffick- 
ing, more  often  fighting  with  the  Indians,  who  were  bold  and  fierce,  but 
seeking  always  for  the  wonderful  fountain.  Whether  it  was  on  the 
mainland,  or,  as  some  of  the  Indians  said,  on  the  Island  of  Bimini,  of 

1  Dr.  J.  G.  Kohl  (Maine  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  i.,  Second  Series,  p.  240)  says  March  3, 1513 
and  that  Peschel,  in  his  Geschiclite  des  Zeitalters  der  Entdeckungen,  has  proved  that  the  year 
1512,  to  which  this  voyage  of  De  Leon  is  usually  assigned,  is  incorrect.    March  3,  1512,  old 
style,  would  be  1513,  new  style,  and  Bancroft  accordingly  gives  the  date  15^$.    Dr.  Kohl 
leaves  it  doubtful  whether  he  means  15^$,  or  15^|. 

2  Herrera,  Hildreth,  Irving,  and  some  other  writers,  erroneously  state  that  Pascua  de 
Flores  is  Palm  Sunday.     La  Pascua  de  las  Flores  is  La  Pascua  de  la  Resurrection,  or 
Easter  Sunday. 

*  Peter  Martyr  says  (Decade  V.,  chap.  1)  "that  parte  of  the  lande  which  Johannes  Pon- 
tius lirst  touched,  from  the  north  side  of  the  Fernandina." 


Juan  Ponce  de   Leon. 


148         SPANISH  DISCOVERIES   AND  EXPLORATIONS.    [CHAP.  VII. 

the  Bahama  group,1  the  restoring  waters  were  never  found  ;  though 
those  who  sought  them  drank  of  every  spring  and  bathed  in  every 
stream  their  eager  and  hungry  eyes  could  spy  in  the  deep  shadows  of 
the  woods. 

Leon  claimed,  nevertheless,  great  merit  with  the  king  for  finding 
a  land  so  fair  and  promising,  and  he  was  made  its  Adelantado,  on 
condition  that  he  would  colonize  it.  In  1521,  this  first  governor  of 
territory  within  the  limits  of  the  present  United  States,  returned  to 
the  province  assigned  to  him,  but,  in  a  fight  with  Indians  who  opposed 
his  landing,  he  received  from  an  arrow  a  wound  from  which  no  heal- 
ing waters  could  wash  the  poison.  He  retired  then  to  Cuba,  thankful, 
perhaps,  at  last,  that  "  eloquent,  just,  and  mightie  death  " 
juan  Ponce  could  release  him  from  the  burden  of  old  age,  doubly 

de  Leon  ~ 

weighted  now  by  the  calamity  of  poverty,  for  the  remnant 
of  his  riches  was  spent  in  his  last  expedition.2  Other  Spanish  naviga- 
tors followed  this  gay  old  cavalier,  but  the  object  of  their  search  was 
gold,  not  youth.  Don  Diego  Velasquez,  one  of  the  earlier  adventurers 
in  Hispaniola,  who  had  conquered  Cuba,  and  become  its  governor, 
ambitious,  energetic,  and  intelligent,  sent  several  expeditions  into  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  wisely,  for  his  purpose,  directing  them  to  its  southern 
rather  than  to  its  northern  coasts.  It  was  the  road  to  Mexico,  which 
Cortez  soon  found  ;  but  that  Florida  was  visited  by  two  of  the  other 
captains  of  Velasquez  was  almost  by  accident  rather  than  by  design. 

Hernandez  de  Cordova  touched  there  on  his  return  from  a 

\ ovages  in 

the  ouif  of    cruise  along  the  coast  of  Yucatan,  in  1517,  and  John  de  Gri- 

Mexico. 

jalva  did  the  same  thing  the  next  year.  In  1516,  Diego 
Miruelo  is  said  to  have  made  a  voyage  on  his  own  account  to  Florida, 
and  to  have  brought  back  some  gold.  In  1518,  also,  Francis  Garay, 
the  governor  of  Jamaica,  landed  on  that  shore,  was  attacked  by  the 
natives,  and  lost  most  of  his  men.3  But  he  returned  the  next  year, 

1  In  Peter  Martyr's  Map  of  1511,  Florida  is  laid  down  as  Isla  de  Beimeni. 

2  "  Whether  the  old  fable  of  the  Fountain  of  youth  was  derived  by  the  Indians  from  the 
Spaniards,  or  was  of  indigenous  growth,  it  is  impossible  to  decide.   It  was  undoubtedly  firmly 
believed  in  among  the  other  marvels  of  the  New  World.    "  The  Dene,  Aiglianus  the  Senator, 
and  Licentiatus  Figuera,  sent  to  Hispaniola  to  be  President  of  the  Senate,  ....  these  three 
agree,"  says  Peter  Martyr,  "  that  they  had  heard  of  the  fonntaine  restoringe  strength,  and 
that  they  partly  belieued  the  reportes  ;  but  they  sawe  it  not,  nor  proued  it  by  experience, 
because  the  inhabitants  of  that  Terra  Florida  haue  sharpe  nayles,  and  are  eager  defenders 
of  their  rights."     But  the  Dene  related  that  an  Indian,  "grieuously  oppressed  with  old 
age,  moued  with  the  fame  of  that  fonntaine,  and  allured  through  the  lone  longer  of  lyfe. 
went  from  his  natiue  ilande  neere  vnto  the  country  of  Florida  to  drinke  of  the  desired  foun- 
taine,  ....  and  hauinge  well  drunke  and  washed  himselfe  for  many  flayes  with  the  ap- 
pointed remedies,  by  them  who  kept  the  bath,  hee  is  reported  to  haue  brought  home  a  manly 
strength,  and  to  haue  vsed  nil  manly  exercises,  and  that  hee  married  againe,  and  begatt  chil 
dren."    Aiglianus  is  De  Ayllon,  who  visited  Florida  after  De  Leon. 

8  Peter  Martyr,  Decade  V.,  chap.  1. 


1520.]  KIDNAPPING  INDIANS.  140 

and  was  the  first  thorough  explorer  of  the  Gulf  coast  of  the  United 
States.  He  made  its  entire  circuit,  and  drew  a  chart  by  which  lie 
showed  that  "  it  bendeth  like  a  bow,"  and  that  a  line  stretched  from 
the  shore  of  Yucatan  to  the  point  at  which  Ponce  de  Leon  first  touched, 
would  "  make  the  string  of  the  bow."  Florida,  he  found,  was  not  an 
island,  as  De  Leon  had  supposed,  "  but  by  huge,  crooked  windings  and 
turninges  to  bee  joyned  to  this  maine  continent  of  Tenustitan"  (Yu- 
catan). He  came,  also,  "  vpon  a  riuer,  flowing  into  the  Ocan  with  a 
broade  mouth ;  and  from  his  ships  discryed  many  villages  couered  with 
reedes  ;  "  and  this  was  the  first  discovery  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Rio 
del  Espirito  Santo,  the  River  of  the  Holy  Ghost.1  But  he  thought 
the  coast,  which  he  spent  about  eight  months  in  exploring,  "  to  be  very 
litle  hospitable,  because  he  sawe  tokens  and  signes  of  small  store  of 
golde,  and  that  not  pure."  2 

Fernandina   was   as  yet   the   northernmost  point  touched   by  the 
Spaniards  on  the  Atlantic  coast.     But  northward  from  that 
place  was   a   country   known   as   Chicora,    and   somewhere  up  the  AI- 

......  ,  ,,  ,.  CTI  lantic  coast. 

within  it  was  supposed  to  be  the  sacred  river  of  Jordan, 
whose  waters  possessed  a  healing  power  akin  to,  if  not  the  same,  as 
those  of  the  Fountain  of  Youth.3  To  this  land  of  Chicora  Lucas  Vas- 
quez  de  Ay  lion  either  sent  or  led  an  expedition  of  two  ships  in  1520 
from  Hispaniola,  and  the  river  now  known  as  the  Combahee,  in  South 
Carolina,4  he  named  the  Jordan.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  went 
anywhere  else  than  to  the  mouth  of  this  river,  though  he  was  sent  in 
search  of  a  passage  that  would  lead  to  India.  But  the  real  purpose 
was  slaves.  The  people  of  the  Jordan,  unlike  those  farther  south, 
gave  the  strangers  a  kindly  welcome.  They  crowded  aboard  the 
ships,  the  like  of  which  they  had  never  seen  before,  as  eager,  as  cu- 
rious, and  as  confiding  as  children.  The  very  ease  of  kid- 
napping these  simple  and  unsuspicious  savages  might  have  Indians  'for 
suggested  it.  The  hoisting  of  the  sails,  the  weighing  of  the 
anchors,  gave  them  no  alarm  ;  imperceptibly  to  them  the  vessels  stole 
away,  on  an  even  keel,  without  apparent  motion,  and  not  till  they 
were  so  far  from  the  shore  that  to  return  was  impossible,  did  the  poor 
creatures  understand  the  cruel  treachery  of  which  they  were  the  vic- 
tims. They  were  to  be  sold  as  slaves  for  the  gold  mines  and  planta- 
tions of  the  Islands.  But  of  the  two  vessels  one  foundered  at  sea,  and 
all  on  board  perished  ;  on  the  other,  but  few  lived  to  reach  Hispaniola, 

1  Shea's  Discovery  and  Exploration  of  the  Mississippi,  p.  viii. 

2  Peter  Martyr. 

8  Compare,  however,  Herrera,  Decade  I.,  lib.  ix.,  chap.  5 ;  Narrative  of  Fontanedo  in  Ter- 
naux-Compans,  and  note  by  the  editor,  and  J.  G.  Kohl,  in  Maine  Hist.  Socy.  Coll.,  p.  248 
Dr.  Kohl  says  that  the  river  was  named  Jordan  for  the  captain  of  one  of  Ay  lion's  ships. 

<  Bancroft,  Hist.  U.  S.,  vol.  1 . 


150         SPANISH  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII 


.- 


for  this  virtue  has  always  belonged  to  the  North  American  Indian  — 
he  prefers  death  to  slavery,  and  has  often  pined  away  and  speedily 
died,  like  other  wild  creatures,  when  deprived  of  freedom. 

Four  or  five  years  later,  another  expedition  sailed  from  Hispaniola, 
Expedition  which  Ayllon  certainly  commanded  in  person,  and  from 
vwque«  which  he  never  returned.  It  consisted  of  several  ships,  car- 
de  Ayuon.  rying  five  hundred  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  a  few  women.1 
Taking  the  Jordan  as  the  starting  point,  the  coast  was  explored  as  far 
north  as  Maryland,  and  some  expeditions  were  made  inland.2  Many 
were  killed  by  the  Indians  ;  many  more  died  from  sickness,  and  among 
them  Ayllon  himself,  till  only  one  hundred  and  fifty,  out  of  the 
original  company  of  six  hundred,  were  left  to  return  to  Hispaniola. 

But  the  most  that  any  of  these  adventurers  did  was  to  penetrate  the 
country  a  short  distance,  to  traffic  a  little  with  natives  when  they  hap- 


Straits  of  Magellan. 

pened  to  be  in  the  mood,  and  more  often  to  retire  before  them  when 

they  opposed  the  landing  or  the  stay  of  the  intruders.    Mean- 

cortez  in       while,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Gulf,  Cortez  had  penetrated 

into  Mexico,  and  the  spirit   of  adventure,  the   dreams  of 

boundless  wealth,  the  hopes  of  brilliant  conquest,  received  a  new  and 

intense  impulse  by  his  success.     "  To  the  South,  to  the  South,"  wrote 

Peter  Martyr,  "  For  the  great  and  exceeding  riches  of  the  JEquinoc- 

tiall,  they  that  seeke  riches  must  not  goe  vnto  the  cold  and  frozen 

North." 

1  The  earlier  authors  differ  as  to  whether  there  were  three  or  six  ships,  and  whether  they 
•ailed  in  1524,  1525,  or  1526. 

2  On  the  Portuguese  Map  of  Ribero,  1529,  the  Land  of  Ayllon  —  "  Tierra  de  Ayllon,"  — 
covers  the  present  States  of  Georgia,  the  Carolinas,  Virginia,  and  Maryland. 


1525.]  VOYAGE   OF    ESTAVAN   GOMEZ.  151 

And  the  hoped-for  passage  to  the  East  was  not  forgotten.  Rich 
as  was  the  booty  in  Mexico  and  Central  America,  it  was  as  nothing 
to  the  splendid  acquisition  of  India,  if  only  the  short  way  by  sea 
could  be  discovered.  Magellan  had  passed  by  the  Straits  to  which 
he  gave  his  name  into  the  Pacific  Ocean,  but  nothing  was  gained 
thereby  over  the  older  route  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  With 
that  great  navigator  had  sailed,  as  pilot  of  one  of  his  ships,  Stephen 
Gomez,  a  Portuguese  by  birth,  but  then  serving  in  Spain.  He  had 
deserted  Magellan  soon  after  entering  the  Straits,1  but  does  not  seem, 
therefore,  to  have  been  held  in  any  less  estimation  in  Spain,  as  he  was, 
with  Cabot,  the  pilot-major,  Ferdinand  Columbus,  and  other  eminent 
cosmographers,  one  of  the  Council  of  Badajos,  appointed  in  1524  to 
settle  the  conflicting  claims  of  Spain  and  Portugal  to  the  New  World. 

In  February,  1525,  Gomez  sailed  under  a  royal  commission  to  find 
a  passage  to  Cathay,  which  he  believed  was  somewhere  be-  Estavan  Q^ 
tween  Florida  and  the  Bacallaos,  or  Newfoundland.  As  he  ^t  of'0"* 
was  absent  about  ten  months,  he  had  ample  time  to  explore  c- s  -1625- 
the  whole  Atlantic  coast  of  the  present  United  States.  He  sailed 
from  North  to  South  to  about  the  latitude  of  New  York,  but  at  what 
point  he  first  touched  the  continent,  into  what  bays  and  rivers  he  may 
have  entered,  there  is  no  positive  record.2  He  brought  home  a  cargo 
of  the  natives  to  be  sold  as  slaves,  and  an  anecdote  in  relation  to  them, 
repeated  from  book  to  book  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  years,  has 
chiefly  preserved  the  memory  of  this  expedition.  So  great  was  the 
anxiety  to  be  assured  that  the  passage  to  India  had  been  discovered, 
that  one  inquirer,  carried  away  by  zeal  and  enthusiasm,  when  he 
learned  that  Gomez  had  returned  with  a  cargo  of  slaves  (esclavos), 
mistaking  the  word,  hurried  to  the  court  with  the  glorious  news  that 
the  ships  were  laden  with  cloves  (clavos),  and  must  therefore  have 
found  their  way  to  the  Spice  Islands  of  the  East.  "But  after 
the  court  vnderstoode,"  says  the  faithful  chronicler,  Peter  Gomez- 
Martyr,  "  that  the  tale  was  transformed  from  cloues  to  slaues 
(clavos  to  esclavos),  they  brake  foorth  into  a  great  laughter,  to  the 
shame  and  blushinge  of  the  fauorers  who  shouted  for  joy." 

A  more  formidable  and  more  disastrous  attempt  than  any  of  these 
to  take  possession  of  the  country  was  made  in  1528  by  Pam- 
philo  de  Narvaez.     He  sailed  from  Spain  in  1527  under  a  xtr^ei.0 
commission  from  the  Emperor,  Charles  V.,  with  five  ships 

1  That  the  Gomez  who  explored  the  coast  of  the  United  States  in   1525,  and  the  Gomez 
who  deserted  Magellan,  are  identical,  is  generally  accepted  as  without  question.    But  Piga- 
fetta,  in  his  relation  of  the  Magellan  voyage,  calls  the  Gomez  of  that  fleet,  not  Estevan 
but  Emanuel.     See  Pigafetta,  in  Pinkerton's  Voyages  and  Travels,  vol.  xi. 

2  On  the  Ribero  Map,  the  legend,  "  Tierra  de  Estevan  Gomez,"  is  written  across  that  re- 
gion now  occupied  by  the  Middle  and  Northern  Atlantic  States  of  the  Union. 


152          SPANISH   DISCOVERIES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII 

and  about  five  hundred  men  ;  but  delays  occurring  in  the  West  Indies, 
where  lie  passed  the  following  winter,  he  made  a  second  start  in  March, 


1528,  with  four  ships  and  a 
brigantine,  carrying  four  hun- 
dred men  and  eighty  horses. 
Two  days  before  Easter  he 
landed  in  or  near  Tampa  Bay,1 
and  prepared  at  once  to  ad- 
vance into  the  country.  In  a 
reconnoissance  along  the  coast 
they  came  upon  a  little  Indian  ciavos  and 

village,  where  they  found  some  bodies  in  a  sort  of  mummified  condi- 
tion, the  sacred  remains,  no  doubt,  of  the  ancestors  or  the  chiefs  of  the 
tribe.  The  officer  in  command  chose  to  assume  this  preservation  of  the 
dead  as  a  kind  of  idolatry,  and  ordered  them  to  be  burned,  and  the 
outrage  was  a  sufficient  warning  to  the  natives  of  the  treatment  they 
might  expect  from  such  invaders. 

Alvar  Nunez  Cabec,a  de  Vaca,  a  Spaniard  of  noble  birth,  was  the 
treasurer  of  the  expedition  and  its  voluntary  historian.2  He  protested 
earnestly  against  the  mad  project  of  Narvaez  to  leave  the  coast,  cer- 
tain, he  said,  that  were  that  done,  he  "  would  never  more  find  the 
ships,  nor  the  ships  him."  Nevertheless  he  determined  to  follow  his 
captain  rather  than  be  left  in  command  of  the  fleet,  lest  his  courage 

1  Bancroft  ;  compare  Buckingham  Smith  in  notes  to  Letters  of  DP.  Soto. 

2  The  Relation  of  Alvar  Nunez  Cabe^a  de  Vaca,  is  a  minute  narrative  of  this  expedition 
and  his  own  strange  personal  adventures.    An  admirable  translation  of  it  was  made  by  the 
iate  Buckingham  Smith. 


1528.]  DISASTROUS   EXPEDITION   OF   NARVAEZ.  153 

should  be  called  in  question.  The  marching  force  consisted  of  three 
hundred  men,  forty  of  whom  were  mounted.  Each  man  car- 
ried two  pounds  of  biscuit  and  half  a  pound  of  bacon,  and  Narvarzinto 
with  this  slender  store  of  provision  they  plunged  into  an  un- 
known wilderness,  where  their  first  act  had  already  been  one  sure  to 
provoke  hostilities  from  its  savage  people.  Their  rations,  with  such 
fruit  of  the  palmetto  as  they  could  pick  up  by  the  way,  supported  them 
for  the  first  fifteen  days,  and  then  the  fear  of  starvation  was  added  to 
the  other  difficulties  which  they  began  to  understand.  Toiling  on 
through  swamps  and  forests,  wading  the  lagoons,  crossing  rivers  by 
swimming  and  on  temporary  rafts,  harassed  continually  by  an  enemy 
with  whom  suddenness  and  secrecy  of  attack  were  the  first  arts  of 
war,  their  courage  and  their  hopes  were  only  sustained  by  some  vague 
reports  from  prisoners  of  gold  to  be  found  in  a  distant  district  called 
Apalachen.1 

They  had  started  on  the  1st  of  May  ;  on  the  25th  of  June  a  mis- 
erable village  was  reached  of  forty  houses,  in  the  middle  of  a  dense 
swamp,  from  which  the  Indians  had  fled  leaving  behind  only  the 
women  and  children.  This  was  Apalachen,  and  they  gave  thanks  to 
God,  believing  that  "  here  would  be  an  end  to  their  great  hardships." 
The  village  they  took  without  resistance,  and  in  it  found  maize  to 
satisfy  their  hunger  ;  the  woods  around  abounded  with  game,  had 
they  had  the  skill  to  take  it ;  and  gold,  they  believed,  was  plentiful. 
But  hardly  had  they  laid  off  the  heavy  armor  from  their  galled  and 
weary  backs,  when  the  Indians  attacked  them  and  burnt  the  wigwams 
in  which  they  had  taken  shelter,  provocation  being  first  given,  as 
usual,  by  the  Spaniards,  who  held  a  cacique  as  prisoner  who  had  come 
to  them  as  a  friend. 

Their  great  need  of  rest  and  the  time  required  to  examine  the 
country  round  about  for  gold,  detained  them  twenty-five  days  in  Apa- 
lachen. But  no  gold  was  to  be  found,  and  but  little  maize  ;  in  all 
that  district  this  miserable  village  of  forty  houses  was  the  largest ;  the 
people  were  not  numerous,  were  very  savage,  and  very  poor.  Steal- 
ing out  from  their  lurking-places  in  the  neighboring  swamps,  they  so 
harassed  the  Spaniards  that  one  could  not  venture  from  the  camp  so 
short  a  distance  as  to  lead  a  horse  to  water,  that  an  arrow  would  not 
whiz  through  the  bushes  from  an  unseen  foe.  Thus  sore  beset  with 
hunger,  disease,  and  danger,  all  their  hopes  of  sudden  wealth  de- 
stroyed, they  resolved  at  length  to  make  their  way  to  the  sea. 

In  a  march  of  twelve  or  fifteen  days  they  fought  their  way  to  the 

1  At  the  head-waters  of  the  Apalacha  River  are  the  Apalachian  Mountains  of  Georgia, 
to  which  probably  the  Indians  referred,  while  the  Spaniards  understood  them  to  mean  the 
village  near  its  mouth. 


154         SPANISH  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII. 

coast.  Well  nigh  worn  out  they  lay  down  upon  the  sands  in  sore 
perplexity  and  distress,  behind  them  a  country  they  could  not  live 
in,  before  them  a  sea  over  which  there  was  but  one  way  to  escape. 
Building  the  They  must  build  vessels ;  but  they  "  knew  not  how  to  con- 
yesseis.  struct,  nor  were  there  tools,  nor  iron,  nor  forge,  nor  tow,  nor 
resin,  nor  rigging ;  .  .  .  .  nor  any  man  who  had  a  knowledge 
of  their  manufacture  ;  and,  above  all,  there  was  nothing  to  eat  while 


Return  to  the   Beach 


building,  for  those  who  should  labor."  But  invention  is  sometimes 
born  of  despair.  A  soldier  undertook  to  make  a  pair  of  bellows  with 
pipes  of  hollow  wood  and  deerskins,  and  his  example  was  emulated 
by  others.  The  cross-bows,  the  stirrups,  the  spurs,  and  whatever  else 
they  had  of  iron,  were  beaten  into  nails,  into  axes,  saws,  and  other 
needful  tools.  With  these  they  contrived  to  build  five  boats,  each 
more  than  thirty  feet  in  length,  the  seams  of  which  they  caulked  with 
the  fibre  of  the  palmetto,  and  pitched  with  pine  rosin ;  cordage  was 
made  of  the  tails  and  manes  of  the  horses ;  the  sails  from  the  shirts 
of  the  men.  Every  three  days  a  horse  was  killed  for  food,  while  the 
boats  were  building,  the  skin  of  the  legs  taken  off  whole  to  be  used 
when  tanned  as  water-bottles.  Besides  the  horse-flesh  they  fed  upon 
shell-fish  and  such  maize  as,  through  hard  fighting,  they  could  get 
from  the  Indians. 

At  this  place  forty  of  the  men  died  of  disease  and  hunger,  besides 
suffering  of  those  who  had  been  killed  in  their  contests  with  the  savages, 
the  men.  £ft  j^  one  o{  ^he  horses  had  been  slaughtered  and  eaten, 
and  for  that  reason  they  called  the  spot  Bahia  de  Caballos,  or  the  Bay 


1528.]  CABECA  DE   VACA.  155 

of  the  Horses.1  On  the  22d  of  September,  almost  five  months  from 
the  time  of  their  departure  from  the  spot,  nearly  three  hundred  miles 
distant,  where  they  first  landed,  the  wretched  fugitives  embarked 
upon  their  frail  boats,  loading  them  down  almost  to  the  gunwales, 
and  pushed  out  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

They  crept  slowly  along  the  coast  for  weeks,  hoping  to  reach  the 
Spanish  colony  of  Panuco  on  the  western  shore  of  the  gulf.  Endur- 
ing always  the  extremity  of  suffering  from  cold,  and  wet,  and  hunger, 
they  were  buffetted  when  on  the  sea  by  storms,  and  repulsed  by  the 
Indians  when  they  attempted  a  landing.  At  length  the  boats  parted 
company.  First  the  governor  refused  to  throw  a  rope  to  the  men  of 
Cabe^a  de  Vaca,  of  whom  only  one  or  two  were  able  to  lift  an  oar, 
saying  the  time  had  come  when  each  man  must  take  care  of  himself. 
Then  a  storm  parted  the  others,  and  De  Vaca's  boat  was  driven  upon 
the  beach  of  an  island.2  To  get  off  again  the  next  day  the  men 
stripped  to  the  skin,  as  it  was  necessary  to  wade  into  the  water  to  dig 
the  boat  out  of  the  sand  and  once  more  set  her  afloat.  But  when  this 
was  done  and  they  had  jumped  aboard,  the  surf  again  upset  her  before 
they  had  time  to  resume  their  clothing.  Some  were  drowned  ;  those 


Upset  in  the   Surf. 

who  were  not  were  left  as  absolutely  naked  and  destitute  as  they  came 
into  the  world,  for  not  one  thing  in  the  boat  was  recovered.  For- 
tunately the  Indians  were  humane  and  pitiful,  making  fires  to  warm 

1  The  Bahia  de  Caballos  is  probably  the  present  harbor  of  St.  Marks. 

2  Cabeca  de  Vaca  called  this  island  Mathado  —  misfortune.     Its  locality  is  uncertain, 
but  it  may  have  been  the  island  of  Galveston.     Buckingham  Smith  is  entirely  at  a  loss  to 
identify  it.     Fairbanks  (History  of  Florida]  thinks  it  was  the  islaud  of  Santa  Rosa. 


156         SPANISH  DISCOVERIES   AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII. 

the  half  frozen  and  famished  bodies  of  the  strangers,  giving  them  food 
from  their  own  scanty  stores.  In  a  few  days  these  were  joined  by 
companions  from  another  boat,  who  had  also  been  wrecked  not  far 
distant.  The  company  now  numbered  eighty.  Exposure,  starvation, 
and  sickness,  soon  decided  the  fate  of  most  of  them,  though  some 
prolonged  their  lives  awhile  by  feeding  on  those  who  were  the  first 
to  die.  Before  the  winter  was  over,  only  fifteen  of  the  eighty  were 
left  alive.  The  governor  and  all  his  boat-load  had  been  driven  out 
to  sea,  and  perished  soon  after  he  had  refused  assistance  to  his  follow- 
ers in  distress. 

A  few  of  the  adventurers  in  the  other  boats  had  saved  themselves 
in  other  places,  but  one  after  another  they  all,  except  four,  had  died 
miserably,  some  killed  by  the  Indians,  who  had  mads  them  their 
slaves,  some  dying  of  starvation,  some  from  exposure  and  disease. 
The  four  survivors,  by  name  Cabeqa  de  Vaca,  Dorantes,  Cas- 
vaeaandhis  tello,  and  Estevanico,  the  last  a  negro,  wandered  from  tribe 
to  tribe  for  six  years,  held  sometimes  in  the  cruelest  slavery, 
and  sometimes  carrying  on  a  petty  traffic  with  the  natives,  in  combs, 
in  bows,  arrows,  and  fishing-nets  of  their  own  making.  Their  food 
was  chiefly  the  fruit  of  the  prickly  pear,  roots,  and  nuts ;  what  little 
venison  they  occasionally  received  from  the  Indians  they  ate  raw,  for 
only  thus  could  their  weakened  stomachs  digest  it.  They  always  went 
naked,  and  "  twice  a  year,"  says  Cabec,a  de  Vaca,  "  we  cast  our  skins 
like  a  serpent."  In  later  years  they  gained  influence  and  power  among 
the  Indians  by  acting  as  physicians,  working,  he  declares,  the  most 
marvellous  cures  simply  by  reciting  pater  nosters  and  by  making  the 
sign  of  the  cross,  till  they  came  to  be  held  in  great  reverence  and  fear. 

Thus  slowly  and  painfully  they  made  their  way,  wandering  to 
and  fro  through  forests  and  swamps,  over  prairies  and  deserts,  ex- 
posed to  the  summer's  heat  and  the  winter's  cold,  across  the  present 
State  of  Texas,  through  the  Mexican  province  of  Sonoi'a,  to  the  sea 
coast  of  the  other  side  of  the  continent  on  the  Gulf  of  California. 

There  they  found  and  were  succored  by  their  countrymen,  who 
had  already  invaded  that  country  in  search  of  emeralds,  of  gold, 
and  of  slaves,  and  speedily  returned  to  Spain,  heroes  of  an  adventure 
as  remarkable  and  as  romantic  as  any  recorded  in  the  Spanish  annals 
of  North  America. 

There  arrived  in  Spain  about  the  same  time  with  Cabeca  de  Vaca 
iiernando  one  wuo  ^ia<^  been  engaged  in  quite  a  different  sort  of  ser- 
iesoto.  vice.  This  was  Hernando  de  Soto,  who  had  followed  Pizarro 
to  Peru,  and  shared  with  him  his  dangers  and  his  success.  Leaving 
Spain  like  so  many  others  "  with  nothing  but  blade  and  buckler,"  he 
had  come  back  with  wealth  to  further  his  ambition  for  the  acquisition 


1538.] 


IIERXANDO  DE   SOTO. 


Io7 


of  some  new  country  where  he  should  be  the  leader  and  not  a  subaltern 
merely.  The  disastrous  result  of  every  expedition  to  Florida  thus  far 
had  not  shaken  the  belief  among  the  adventurous  Spaniards  in  the 
value  of  the  country,  and  that  somewhere  in  the  interior  were  riches 
such  as  had  been  gathered  in  marvellous  abundance  in  other  parts 
of  the  New  World.  De  Soto  appeared  at  court  with  a  numerous 
baud  of  followers  in  gorgeous  apparel  and  other  lavish  display  of  the 
wealth  he  had  acquired  in  Peru,  and  asked  that  authority  to  take  pos- 
session of  Florida,  with  a  commission  as  Adelantado,  be 
given  him.  The  announcement  of  his  intentions  was  re- 
ceived  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm.  Gentlemen  of  birth  Flori(U- 
and  position  flocked  from  all  parts  of  Spain  to  his  standard,  eager 
to  serve  under  so  gallant  and  re- 
nowned a  leader,  and  in  an  adven- 
ture which  he  thought  so  hopeful  as 
to  be  willing  to  risk  in  it  his  fortune, 
his  fame,  and  his  life.  Some  came 
even  from  Portugal,  and  they  seemed 
better  to  understand  the  character 
of  the  enterprise.  For  when  De 
Soto  mustered  his  men  at  San  Lucar 
the  Spaniards  appeared  "  in  doublets 
and  cassocks  of  silk,  pinckt  and  em- 
broidered," as  if  about  to  start  on 
a  holiday  excursion,  while  "  the 
Portuguese  were  in  the  equipage  of 
soldiers  in  neat  armor." l  But  so 
strong  was  the  desire  to  go  with  him  that  men  parted  with  their 
estates  to  buy  an  interest  and  an  outfit  in  this  new  expedition  ;  and 
the  excitement  was  not  a  little  increased  by  the  story  of  Cabe9a  de 
Vaca,  who  on  his  return  had  also  asked  to  be  made  Adelantado  of 
Florida.  It  was  thought  he  could  tell,  if  he  would,  wonderful  tales  of 
the  richness,  in  many  pi-ecious  things,  of  the  region  where  he  had  en- 
dured so  much,  and  out  of  which  he  had  come  literally  as  naked  as 
he  came  into  the  world. 

De  Soto  went  prepared  for  conquest  and  colonization.     His  force 
was  between  six  and  seven  hundred  men — some  say  a  thousand  — 

1  A  Relation  of  the  Invasion  and  Conquest  of  Florida  ly  the  Spaniards,  nnder  the  Command 
of  Fernando  de  Soto.      Written  in  Portuguese  by  a  Gentleman  of  the  Town  of  the  Elvas.     This 
is  the  original  and  the  fullest  and  most  trustworthy  narrative  of  the  expedition  of  De  Soto 
There   have  been  several  translations,  the  first  by   Hakluyt  (vol.    iii.),  and  the  last  by 
Buckingham   Smith,  published  by  the   Bradford  Club.     We  rely  mainly  on   the  Relation 
but  comparing  Garcilaso  de  Vega,  Biedma,  and  Herrera. 


De   Soto. 


158        SPANISH  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.    [CHAP.  VII. 

with,  perhaps,  a  few  women  ;  among  them  were  a  number  of  priests 
Preparations  w^h  all  the  paraphernalia  of  their  office,  and  mechanics  with 
""  tne  instruments  of  their  trades.1  The  fleet  consisted  of  nine 
vessels,  ships,  caravels,  and  pinnaces  ;  and  besides  their 
human  freight  they  carried  between  two  and  three  hundred  horses. 


Florida. 


»4H 


stujViiH 


»    1  i 

i,  -  -  • 

vtx, 

M 

i  f  *. 

Ss^-f   ._--      ^^-~^^^=r       , 

m'^^^i 

/i  r 

The  ad- 


The  Muster  at   San   Lucar. 

a  large  herd  of  swine,  and  a  number  of  bloodhounds,  the  most  efficient 
ally  of  the  Spaniards  in  the  conquest  of  the  New  World.  The  em- 
peror appointed  De  Soto  governor  of  Cuba,  that  he  might  easily  ob- 
tain supplies  for  the  new  colony,  and  every  possible  facility  thus  be 
given  to  the  enterprise.  After  a  year's  preparation  in 
Spain  and  the  West  Indies  the  expedition  sailed  at  last 
frOQp  Havana  on  the  18th  of  May,  1539,  and  on  the  30th 
the  troops  were  landed  at  Tampa  Bay. 

From  Tampa  Bay  the  adventurers  inarched  into  the  interior,  pur- 
suing substantially  the  same  route  as  Narvaez  about  eleven  years 
before.  Within  the  first  few  days  De  Soto  had  the  good  fortune  to 
meet  with  a  Spaniard  who  had  been  captured  from  one  of  the  ships 
of  that  earlier  expedition  by  the  Indians,  and  in  his  long  captivity 
had  become  familiar  with  their  language.  The  romantic  story  of 
storv  of  John  Smith  and  Pocahontas  was  in  part  anticipated  in  the 
juan  Ortiz,  experience  of  this  man,  Juan  Ortiz.  When  first  captured 
by  a  band  whose  chief  was  named  Ucita,2  he  was  bound  hand  and 

1  De  Biedma's  narrative.     Herrcra  says,  nine  hundred  beside  the  sailors,  three  hundred 
and  thirty  horses  and  three  hundred  hogs. 

2  Portwjni'ai'  Relation.     Herrera  calls  him  Harrihiagua,  the  name  of  his  village. 


1539.] 


ADVENTURES   OF  JUAN  ORTIZ. 


159 


foot  to  stakes,  stretched  at  length  upon  a  scaffolding  beneath  which 
a  fire  was  kindled.  The  smoke  had  enwreathed  the  victim  and  the 
forked  flames  were  leaping  to  seize  the  naked  flesh,  when  the  intended 
holocaust  was  suddenly  interrupted  by  the  prayers  of  a  daughter  of 
the  chief.  She  besought  her  father  to  spare  the  life  of  the  Christian  ; 
one  such,  she  urged,  if  he  could  do  no  good  at  least  could  do  no  harm  ; 
and  she  made  a  cunning  appeal  to  the  vanity  of  the  chief  by  suggesting 
how  great  a  distinction  it  would  be  to  hold  a  white  man  as  a  captive. 
Her  prayers  were  listened  to ;  Ortiz  was  lifted  from  the  scaffold  and 
unbound,  to  serve  thenceforth  as  a  slave.  What  the  feeling  was  which 
the  sight  of  the  pale  stranger  had  aroused  in  the  bosom  of  the  dusky 
maiden,  or  what  the  relation  which  may  have  afterward  existed  be- 
tween them,  we  are  not  told ;  but  whether  it  was  on  her  part  mere 
pity  for  a  stranger,  or  a  tenderer  and  deeper  sentiment,  it  was  not 
forgotten.  Three  years  later  Ucita  was  defeated  in  a  petty  war  with 


Sacrifice  of  Juan  Ortiz. 

another  chieftain,  and  there  was  danger  that  Ortiz  would  be  sacrificed 
to  propitiate  the  devil  whose  anger,  Ucita  believed,  had  brought  this 
misfortune  upon  him  and  his  people.  Then  the  princess  came  again 
to  the  rescue  of  the  stranger  and  saved  him  from  probable  death. 
Warning  him  of  his  danger,  and  leading  him  secretly  and  alone  in 
the  night-time  beyond  the  boundaries  of  her  father's  village,  she  put 
him  in  the  way  to  find  the  camp  of  the  victorious  chieftain  who  had 
just  triumphed  over  her  father  and  would  protect,  she  knew,  the 
Christian  slave. 


160         SPANISH   DISCOVERIES   AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII. 

Ortiz,  when  years  afterwards  he  heard  that  his  countrymen  had 
arrived  in  Florida,  was  glad  enough  to  welcome  them,  while  he  did  not 
forget  that  he  had  some  cause  of  gratitude  to  his  Indian  friends.  As 
a  horseman  i-ode  at  him,  not  distinguishing  him  from  the  savages,  lie 
cried  out  :  "  Do  not  kill  me,  cavalier  ;  I  am  a  Christian  !  Do  not 
slay  these  people  ;  they  have  given  me  my  life  !  "  Fortunately  his 
appeal  was  heard  in  time,  and  to  him  the  expedition  was  more  in- 
debted than  to  any  other  man,  next  to  De  Soto  himself  ;  for  through 
him  alone  was  it  possible  to  hold  any  intelligent  communication  with 
the  Indians,  whether  for  peace  or  war.  His  death,  which  occurred 
not  long  before  that  of  the  governor,  was  a  source  of  deep  perplexity 
and  "  a  great  cross  to  his  designs." 

When  De  Soto  turned  his  face  inward  he  sent  his  ships  back  to 
The  march  Cuba  for  provisions  to  return  at  an  appointed  time.  The 
inland.  army  toiled  painfully  through  the  woods  and  swamps  of 
Florida  from  spring  till  autumn.  The  provisions  they  brought  with 
them  were  soon  exhausted,  and  the  country  afforded  them  but  little 
support.  They  heard,  as  Narvaez  did  before  them,  of  Apalachen 
where  gold  abounded  ;  and  when  they  reached  the  spot  where,  ap- 
palled by  the  difficulties  before  him  and  the  poverty  of  the  country 
round  about,  he  had  turned  to  the  sea  for  refuge,  so  also  the  courage 
of  De  Soto's  men  gave  way  and  they  entreated  him  to  return.  But 
the  governor  declared  he  would  never  go  back  till  he  had  seen  with 
his  own  eyes  the  dangers  in  store  for  them  if  any  there  were. 

The  first  winter  was  passed  in  the  neighborhood  of  Apalachen 
Bay,  and  the  point  where  Narvaez  had  built  his  boats  and  whence  he 
started  on  his  fatal  voyage.  Communication  was  held  with  Cuba  ; 
arrangements  were  made  for  a  future  supply  of  provisions,  and 
twenty  Indian  women  were  sent  as  slaves  to  Dona  Isabella,  De 
Soto's  wife,  as  an  earnest  of  good  things  to  come. 

In  the  spring  they  pushed  northward,  and  in  April  they  were  still 
only  about  three  hundred  miles  from  Tampa  Bay.  To  the 
th  unhappy  natives  their  march  was  as  the  march  of  a  pesti- 
lence. The  news  of  their  coming  was  the  signal  for  war. 
The  cacique  of  every  tribe  they  met  was  compelled  to  pay  tribute  in 
maize  ;  to  supply  them  with  as  many  men  as  were  needed  for  per- 
sonal attendants  and  as  carriers  of  burdens  from  the  boundaries  of 
one  tribe  to  those  of  another  ;  and  that  the  service  might  be  faithfully 
done,  these  slaves  were  chained  in  couples,  neck  to  neck.  The  women 
they  took  both  for  servants  and  mistresses,  following  therein  the  ex- 
ample of  the  governor,  who  consoled  himself  for  the  absence  of  the 
Dofia  Isabella  by  the  possession  of  not  less  than  two  of  the  comely 
Indian  girls,  the  daughters  of  caciques  or  others,  as  best  suited  his 


t™ 


1540.]  DE   SOTO   IN  FLORIDA.  161 

inclination.  What  was  not  granted  through  fear  or  good-will  was 
taken  by  the  strong  hand  ;  and  in  either  case  the  result  was  the 
same  —  subjection  and  cruelty.  A  messenger  whose  message  was  not 
pleasing  carried  back  for  answer  to  his  master  the  bloody  stumps  of 
his  severed  hands  ;  amusement  was  combined  with  punishment  by 
setting  up  prisoners  as  targets  to  be  shot  at  with  arrows. 

Maize  they  now  often  found  in  abundance  in  the  fields  and  gran- 
aries of  the  Indians.  They  took  it,  or  it  was  given  to  them  Want  of 
—  it  mattered  little  which.  But  they  suffered,  especially  food- 
the  sick,  for  the  need  of  salt  and  meat,  though  game,  in  the  season, 
was  plenty  and  the  natives  never  wanted  for  it.  The  woods  were 
alive  with  deer,  with  wild  turkeys,  and  partridges  ;  ducks  covered  the 
ponds ;  the  rivers  were  full  of  fish  ;  but  the  Spaniards  lacked  the 
skill  either  to  entrap  or  to  kill  any  wild  thing  except  an  Indian. 
When  in  extremity,  the  adventurers  fed  upon  the  hogs  which  had 
been  produced  in  great  numbers  from  the  drove  brought  from  Cuba, 
and  which  had  thriven  on  the  plentiful  mast  of  the  forest ;  nor  did 
the  hungry  soldiers  disdain  to  eat  the  native  dogs  whenever  they 
could  get  them.  But  it  was  always  war,  and  always  a  struggle  for 
existence,  while  the  gold  they  were  searching  for  they  only  heard  of 
and  always  in  some  province  yet  to  be  reached.  Their  hopes  were 
fed,  however,  by  the  possession  of  great  quantities  of  pearls  —  fed, 
though  not  satisfied. 

In  April  of  the  second  spring  there  came  to  meet  the  governor  an 
Indian  queen,  or  cacica,  who  was  brought  to  the  bank  of  a 

•     i    •  i-^       V       t  C-L.  •       •       l         V--  A      DeSotoand 

river,  carried  in  a  litter  by  four  of  her  principal  subjects.  A  the  Indian 
barge,  over  whose  stern  was  a  canopy  supported  by  a  lance, 
and  beneath  which  was  spread  a  carpet  and  cushions,  awaited  her. 
On  meeting  the  governor  she  took  from  her  own  neck  a  heavy 
string  of  pearls  and  threw  it  over  his,  presenting  him  beside  with 
mantles  of  feathers  and  thread  made  from  the  bark  of  trees.  Offering 
these,  with  many  protestations  of  welcome  and  good  will,  and  observ- 
ing the  eagerness  with  which  the  Spaniards  received  the  pearls,  and 
how  great  a  value  they  put  upon  them,  she  told  them  they  could  be 
found  in  large  quantities  in  the  graves  of  the  villages.  These  were 
speedily  rifled,  and  though  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  weight 
were  gathered  at  one  time,  they  proved  of  little  value,  as  they  had 
been  bored  by  some  heated  implement,  and  had  lost  their  lustre.  Nev- 
ertheless they  were  pearls,  and  the  hopes  and  the  cupidity  of  the  Span- 
iards were  excited  accordingly. 

In  the  province  of  this  cacica  many  of  the  people  would  have  been 
glad  to  remain  and  found  a  colony.  But  De  Soto,  who  was  an  u  in- 
flexible man  and  dry  of  word.*'  willing  enough  to  listen  to  advice  but 

VOL.    I.  11 


162         SPANISH   DISCOVERIES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  Vll 


seldom  taking  it,  determined  to  push  on  ;  and  there  were  never  want- 
ing those  among  the  Indians  who  were  ready  to  answer  his  eager 

inquiries  for  gold  with  most  satisfactory  state- 
ments, anxious  to  see  him  depart  in  further 
search.  To  the  cacica,  who  gave  him  not  only 
pearls  and  mantles,  but  much  provision,  he 
made  a  return  not  unusual  with  him  for  gen- 
erosity and  kindness.  He  retained  her  as  a 
captive,  and  made  slaves  and  beasts  of  burden 
of  her  subjects  ;  but  she  was  wary  enough  to 

evade  the  vigi- 
lance  of  her 
guards  Egcape  of 
and  es-  tneca<tic»- 
cape  into  the 
woods,  taking 
with  her  a  box 
full  of  pearls 
which  were  said 
to  be  of  great 
value.  Her  peo- 
ple  were  the 
most  civilized  of 
any  of  the  Flo- 
ridians  that  De 
Soto  met  with  in 
his  three  years' 
march,  for  they 

wore  shoes  and  clothing  made  from  skins  which  they  dressed  and 
colored  with  great  skill,  and  adorned  themselves  with  mantles,  made 
of  feathers,  or  in  a  textile  fabric  of  some  woody  fibre.  The  cacica's 
village  was  only  two  days'  journey  from  the  sea  —  the  Atlantic  coast 
—  at  the  point  where  Ayllon  had  landed  nearly  twenty  years  before. 
The  Indians  cherished  a  dagger  and  some  beads,  perhaps  a  rosary, 
which  they  said  came  from  some  of  Ayllon's  men. 

From  the  province  of  the  cacica  the  invaders  marched  northwest, 
and,  in  the  course  of  the  summer,  reached  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Appalachian  chain.  They  had  seen  among  the  Indians  some  little 
tlxes  °f  copper  which  were  supposed  to  contain  a  mixture  of 
g0y  .  ancj  tne  process  Of  smeltirg  ores,  as  practised  among 
the  people  where  they  were  mined,  was  described  with  great  accuracy. 
Had  the  Spaniards  pushed  forward  at  the  point  they  had  now  reached 
they  would  have  found  what  they  were  in  search  of,  though  not  in 


The   Indian   Queen. 


indications 
of  gold. 


1540.J 


DE    SOTO   AT   MAVILLA. 


163 


large  quantities.  But  an  exploring  party  pronounced  the  mountains 
impassable,  and  fortunately  for  the  natives,  whose  fate,  in  case  of  dis- 
covery would  have  been  to  gather  gold  as  slaves,  or  resistance  to 
death,  the  Spaniards  lacked  either  the  skill  or  the  diligence  to  trace 
the  evidences  of  the  existence  of  metals.  De  Soto  therefore  turned 
south  again  with  his  little  army  of  marauders,  and  wandered  the  rest 
of  the  summer  in  the  valleys  of  the  streams  emptying  into  Mobile 
Bay. 

In  October  they  reached  Mavilla,  a  village  which  has  given  its 
name  to  the  river  and  city  of  Mobile.  The  country  round  about,  as 
well  as  that  through  which  they  had  been  wandering  for  weeks,  was 
populous,  and  they 
had  done  nothing 
to  conciliate,  every 
thing  to  exasperate 
the  natives.  Ma- 
villa  was  a  place  of 
importance,  con- 
taining many 
houses,  and  sur- 
rounded with  pal- 
isades ;  it  was  soon 
evident  that  its 
possession  was  not 
to  be  yielded  with- 
out a  Struggle.  Palisaded  Town.  [From  De  Bry.) 

The  governor  and  a  few  attendants  entered ;  the  cacique,  who  was 
with  him,  took  refuge  in  a  house,  and,  deaf  both  to  entreaties  and 
threats,  defied  him.  It  was  easy  enough  to  provoke  an  outbreak. 
A  Spaniard  replied  to  some  haughty  words  from  a  chief  by  laying  his 
back  open  with  a  cutlass,  and  all  the  Indians  sprung  to  their  ^Me  with 
bows  and  arrows.  Every  house  was  an  ambuscade,  and  be-  the  natITes- 
fore  the  Christians  could  fly  to  the  fields  five  of  them  were  slain. 
Among  those  who  escaped  was  De  Soto,  who,  forming  his  troops, 
at  once  invested  the  town,  and  led  the  assault,  the  soldiers  carrying 
their  arms  in  one  hand  and  a  torch  in  the  other.  The  defence  was 
brave,  desperate,  and  useless.  A  contest  between  naked  savages  and 
men,  many  of  whom  were  mounted,  and  all  were  in  armor,  was 
rather  a  hunting-chase  than  a  battle.  Twenty-five  hundred  of  the 
Indians  were  speedily  put  to  the  sword,  or  were  driven  to  torture 
and  death  by  suffocation  in  the  smoke  and  flames  of  their  own 
houses  ;  of  the  Spaniards,  eighteen  only  were  killed,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  received  arrow  wounds  from  which  they  quickly  recov- 


164  SPANISH   DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.   [CHAP.  VII. 

ered.1  Their  most  serious  loss  was  of  the  propei'ty  destroyed  by  the 
fire,  for  at  the  first  desperate  onset,  before  the  Spaniards  had  time  to 
rally,  the  chains  of  the  captives  were  stricken  off  and  their  burdens 
taken  within  the  palisades. 

De  Soto  was  now,  as  he  learned  from  the  Indians,  within  six  days  of 
Pensacola  (Ochuse),  where  some  of  his  ships  awaited  news  of  him. 
But  he  concealed  the  fact  from  his  own  men,  lest  they  should  desert 
him,  and  held  no  communication  with  the  ships,  for  he  preferred  that 
as  yet  there  should  be  no  tidings  sent  to  Cuba  of  the  expedition.  His 
pearls,  the  only  thing  of  value  he  had  found,  were  all  lost ;  he  had 
little  else  to  report  than  continued  misfortune,  and  that  in  his  two 
years'  wanderings  he  had  lost  more  than  a  hundred  men.  After  a 
month's  stay  at  Mavilla,  he  again  moved  farther  into  the  interior  till 
he  reached  the  upper  part  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  where  he  went 
The  span-  "ltiO  winter  quarters  on  the  banks  of  the  Yazoo  River.  The 
wii'rte?0 int°  country  was  populous,  and  the  maize  was  plentiful;  there 
quarters.  was^  therefore,  no  lack  of  food.  But  the  cold  was  severe, 
the  snow  covered  the  ground,  and  whether  on  the  march  or  in  camp 
hostilities  with  the  Indians  never  ceased.  There  was  constant  aggres- 
sion on  one  side ;  constant  retaliation  on  the  other.  In  March  a  night 
attack  was  made  upon  the  camp  of  the  Spaniards  which  was  more 
disastrous  to  them  than  the  fight  at  Mavilla.  All  that  was  saved 
from  the  burning  at  that  place  was  lost  in  this.  Twelve  Spaniards 
were  killed ,  fifty  horses  and  four  hundred  hogs  perished  in  the  flames ; 
while  on  the  other  side  the  loss  was  only  one  man  and  one  woman. 
In  the  confusion  and  suddenness  of  the  attack  and  the  fire,  the  soldiers 
lost  nearly  all  their  clothing,  as  well  as  their  arms,  saddles,  and  other 
property,  leaving  them  for  some  days  so  destitute  and  miserable,  that, 
"  had  the  Indians,"  says  the  narrative,  "  returned  the  second  night, 
they  might,  with  little  effort,  have  overpowered  us." 2  The  losses, 
however,  were  in  a  few  days  repaired,  so  far  as  was  possible,  by  the 
forging  of  new  swords  and  the  making  of  new  spears  and  saddles. 
Skins  had  to  be  substituted  for  clothing,  and  mats  of  dried  grass  for 
blankets. 

In  the  course  of  the  spring  and  summer  the  army  crossed  the  State 
of  Mississippi  diagonally  from  the  southeast  to  the  northwest  corner 
till  they  reached  the  great  river  —  the  Mississippi,  which  the  Span- 
iards called  the  Rio  Grande  —  at  about  the  thirty-fifth  degree  of  lat- 
itude, or  the  boundary  line  between  the  States  of  Mississippi  and  Ten- 

1  Portuguese  Relation.  Herrera  says  (Decade  IV.,  book  vii.,  chap.  4)  that  the  Spanish 
loss  was  eighty-three  men,  and  that  of  the  Indians  eleven  thousand,  four  thousand  of  whom 
were  burnt  to  death. 

a  Portuguese  Relation. 


1541.] 


DISCOVERY  OF   THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


165 


0 


nessee.  "  This  river  in  that  place  was  half  a  league  over,  so  that  a 
man  could  not  be  distinguished  from  one  side  to  the  other  ; 
it  was  very  deep  and  very  rapid,  and  being  always  full  of 
trees  and  timber  that  was  carried  down  by  the  force  of  the 
stream,  the  water  was  thick  and  very  muddy.  It  abounded  with 
fish,  most  of  which  differed  much  from  those  that  are  taken  in  the 
rivers  of  Spain."  Boats  were  necessary  to  cross,  and  it  took  a  month 
to  build  them. 

A  great  cacique,  Aquixo,  was  lord  of  the  country  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  in  a  day  or  two  he  approached  to  meet  Vi<it  of  the 
the  strangers.    He  name  with  an  imposing  array  of  two  hun-  cac"»ue- 
dred  canoes,  filled  with  armed  men,  a  part  of   whom  stood  up  to  pro- 
tect the  rowers  with  feathered  shields,  but  all  with  their  bodies  and 
faces  painted,  their  heads  adorned  with  plumes  of  many  colors.     The 


cacique  and  other  chiefs  were  sheltered 

under    awnings.     "  The    canoes    were 

most  neatly  made  and  very  large,  and, 

with  their  pavilions,  feathers,  shields, 

and  standards,  looked  like  a  fleet  of 

galleys."     They   brought   presents  of 

fish  and  fruit  and  bread,  and  came,  they  said,  to  welcome  and  do 

homage  to  the  strangers.     But  the  strangers  chose  to  believe  that 

they  had  a  hostile  purpose  ;  when  they  hesitated  to  land  the  Span- 


Fleet  of  the  Cacique. 


166         SPANISH  DISCOVERIES   AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VIL 

iards  killed  five  or  six  of  them  for  such  a  want  of  confidence,  and 
others  who  attempted  to  make  a  landing  they  fell  upon  as  coming 
with  evil  intent. 

When  the  boats  were  finished  the  army  crossed  without  opposition. 
For  a  few  days  they  kept  along  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  making 
their  way  with  difficulty  through  the  forest  and  wet  bottom  lands,  and 
harassed  by  constant  attacks  from  the  Indians.  But  they  reached,  ere 
long,  a  higher  and  dryer  country,  where  they  remained  for  more  than 
a  month,  and  where  they  found  artificial  hills,  on  which  the  caciques 
piety  of  the  sometimes  put  their  houses.1  On  one  of  these  De  Soto  set 
Spaniards.  Up  a  cross  wnen  two  blind  men  were  brought  to  him  to  be 
cured,  and  instead  of  healing  he  gave  a  homily  to  the  assembled 
heathen  on  the  mystery  of  the  atonement.  The  simple  natives  knelt 
in  imitation  of  the  Spaniards  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  De  Soto 
admonished  them  "to  honor  and  adore  it,  and  demand  of  the  Lord 
who  was  in  Heaven  all  that  they  might  stand  in  need  of."  Not  long 
after  De  Soto  accepted  as  a  present  from  a  chief  his  two  sisters,  "  both 
handsome  and  well-shaped,"  with  a  request  that  the  governor  would 
make  them  his  wives.  But  women  with  that  tribe  were  as  cheap  as 
morality  was  with  the  Spaniards  ;  they  were  purchased  for  a  shirt  a 
piece. 

It  is  not  clear  how  far  north  and  west  the  expedition  marched  dur- 
ing this  summer,  as  the  narratives  are  obscure  and  sometimes  con- 
flicting. While  the  larger  part  of  the  force  remained  through  a  por- 
tion of  June  and  all  of  July  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Mississippi, 
a  reconnoitering  party  was  sent  into  the  interior,  which  when 
limit  of  the  it  returned  almost  in  a  starving  condition,  reported  that  the 
country  was  poor  and  barren.  They  learned  that  further 
north  there  were  very  few  people,  but  many  cattle  —  bisons.  The 
robes  of  these  animals  they  procured  at  different  times  from  the 
Indians,  "  which  were  very  convenient  against  the  cold  of  that  country 
because  they  made  a  good  furr,  the  hair  of  them  being  as  soft  as 
sheep's  wool."  But  the  progress  of  the  main  body  seems  to  have  been 
generally  south  west  ward,  crossing  the  St.  Francis  and  the  White 
rivers,  marching  through  a  country  fertile,  well-watered,  and  thickly 
inhabited,  as  far  as  the  present  site  of  Little  Rock,  in  Arkansas. 
They  found  and  used  the  saline  springs  of  that  State,  and  finally  went 
into  winter  quarters  on  the  banks  of  a  river  which  may  have  been 

1  "  The  caciques  of  this  country  make  a  custom  of  raising,  near  their  dwellings,  very  high 
hills,  on  which  they  sometimes  build  their  huts.  On  one  of  these  we  planted  the  cross,  and 
went  with  much  devotion  on  our  knees  to  kiss  the  foot  of  it."  A  Narrative  of  the  Expedi- 
tion of  Hernando  de  Soto.  By  Luis  Hernandez  de  Biedma.  Historical  Collections  of  Loui» 
tana.  By  B.  F.  French,  1850,  p.  105.  These  hills  were  no  doubt  the  "mounds"  of  the 
earlier  people,  but  which  the  Spaniards  naturally  supposed  were  raised  by  the  Indians. 


1542.]  DEATH   OF   DE   SOTO.  167 

either  the  White  or  the  Arkansas.  Near  by,  the  Indians  had  re- 
ported, was  a  great  lake  which,  it  was  supposed,  might  be  an  arm  of 
the  sea ;  and  De  Soto  hoped  to  reopen  communication  in  the  spring 
with  Cuba,  and  procure  reinforcements,  of  which  he  was  in  great  need. 
He  had  lost  in  his  three  years'  wanderings  two  hundred  and  fifty  men 
and  one  hundred  and  fifty  horses  ;  and  since  his  first  winter  at  Ap- 
palachee  Bay  no  tidings  had  been  sent  to  the  Dona  Isabella  whether 
he  were  alive  or  dead. 

That  he  was  dead  was  to  be  her  next  news  of  him.  With  the 
spring  the  march  was  resumed,  and  its  sole  object  now  was  to  reach 
the  sea.  Communication  with  the  Indians  had  become  more  difficult, 
for  Ortiz  had  died  in  the  course  of  the  winter.  The  Indians,  obser- 
ving the  weakness  and  perplexities  of  the  Spaniards,  were  more  defiant 
than  any  of  their  tribes  had  hitherto  been.  A  haughty  cacique  sent 
word  to  De  Soto  that  his  boast  of  being  the  son  of  the  Sun  would  be 
accepted  when  he  was  seen  to  dry  up  the  great  river ;  that  meanwhile 
it  was  not  the  custom  of  him  who  sent  this  message  to  visit  inferiors  ; 
if  the  stranger  wished  to  see  him  he  was  always  at  home  ;  if  he  came 
in  peace  he  would  find  a  welcome  ;  if  with  hostile  intentions  the  chief 
was  equally  ready  for  him.  De  Soto  was  in  no  condition  to  punish  or 
resent  this  defiance.  An  expedition  that  was  sent  down  the  river  t<» 
find  the  sea,  returned  and  reported  that  in  eight  days  journey  they 
could  make  but  little  progress,  for  the  country  was  full  of  swamps  and 
dense  forests,  and  that  the  river  with  many  bends  ran  far  up  into  the 
land. 

Worn  down  with  hardships,  anxiety,  disappointment,  and  despair, 
De  Soto  sank  under  this  accumulation  of  misfortunes.  Con-  p^^  o{ 
scious  of  approaching  death,  he  called  the  principal  officers  ^ Soto- 
of  the  expedition  about  him.  He  told  them  he  was  dying;  he  thanked 
them  for  the  fidelity  and  affection  they  had  always  shown  him,  and 
regretted  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  reward  them  as  he  had  always 
hoped  to  do,  and  according  to  their  deserts  ;  he  asked  pardon  of  all 
who  believed  they  had  cause  of  offence  against  him,  and  as  a  last 
favor  he  begged  they  would  in  his  presence  choose  a  leader  to  take  his 
place,  that  he  might  leave  them  without  fear  of  dissensions  to  arise 
after  he  was  gone.  They  asked  him  to  appoint  his  own  successor, 
and  he  named  Luis  Moscoso  de  Alvarado,  whom  they  all  swore  to 
obey.  The  next  day,  the  21st  of  May,  1542,  he  died. 

It  was  thought  wise  to  conceal  his  death  from  the  Indians,  for  he 
had  assured  them  not  only  that  he  was  the  son  of  the  Sun, 
but  that  Christians  could  not  die.    The  new  governor  ordered  iu  the  Great 

River 

him  to  be  buried  secretly  in  die  gateway  of  the  camp.     But 

the  suspicions  of  the  natives,  who  had  seen  him  sick,  were  aroused 


168        SPANISH  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.    [CHAP.  V1L 

He  was  no  longer  visible,  but  they  saw  a  new-made  grave,  and  gath- 
ering about  it  looked  down  with  curious  eyes  and  in  solemn,  whis- 
pered consultation  upon  the  mysterious  heap  of  earth.  Then  Moscoso 
ordered  the  body  to  be  disinterred  with  great  precaution  in  the  dead 
of  night,  and,  the  mantles  in  which  it  was  wrapped  being  made  heavy 
with  sand,  it  was  dropped  silently  and  in  the  darkness  in  the  middle 
of  the  deep  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  And  when  the  cacique  of 


Burial  of  De   Soto. 


Guachoya  came  to  Moscoso  and  said :  "  What  has  been  done  with  my 
brother  and  lord,  the  Governor  ?  "  The  answer  was,  "  He  has  ascended 
into  the  skies  for  a  little  while  and  will  soon  be  back." l 

Either  De  Soto  misunderstood  this  Luis  de  Moscoso  or  history  has 
Luis  de  belied  him.  It  is  said  that  he  loved  a  life  of  ease  and  gayety 
MOSCOSO.  jn  a  Christian  land,  rather  than  one  of  toil  and  hardship 
and  self-denial  in  the  discovery  and  subjection  of  strange  countries. 
But  whether  he  believed  that  longer  persistence  in  an  enterprise, 
now  in  its  fourth  year,  whose  sole  fruits  had  been  death  and  disaster, 
was  foolhardiness,  or  whether  he  wanted  the  enei'gy  and  boldness  to 
pursue  it  and  achieve  success,  he  decided  at  once  to  lead  his  com- 
panions back  to  Cuba  if  he  could  find  the  way.  When  this  was 
announced  and  council  called  to  consult  as  to  the  best  direction  to 
pursue,  there  were  many  who  were  glad  that  De  Soto  was  quiet  in  his 
loaded  mantles  at  the  bottom  of  the  great  river.  With  him  the  enter- 
prise could  have  ended  only  with  his  and  their  lives,  and  they  rejoiced 
that  he  was  taken  and  they  left. 

l  Herrera  says  that  the  body  was  inclosed  in  the  trunk  of  an  oak  hollowed  out  for  the 
purpose,  and  sunk  "  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  where  it  was  a  quarter  of  a  league  over 
and  nineteen  fathoms  deep." 


1542.]  RETREAT   OF  DE  SOTO'S  MEN.  169 

The  determination  was  to  seek  their  countrymen,  as  Cabega  de 
Vaca  had  done,  on  the  Pacific  coast.  Through  the  summer  and  au- 
tumn they  straggled  west  and  south,  east  and  north,  as  they  The  gpan. 
were  led  by  some  vague  rumor  or  vaguer  hope.  Every-  j^Sl^uJ'  "* 
where  they  inquired  the  way  to  the  sea  ;  but  they  met  with  Cuba- 
no  Indians  who  had  ever  seen  it.  Everywhere  they  asked  if  Chris- 
tians had  not  visited  that  region  ;  and  when  the  Indians  answered,  No, 
they  sometimes  put  them  to  the  torture  and  extorted  false  confessions, 
which  only  misled  the  Spaniards  with  some  new  delusion.  Enemies 
waylaid  them  with  that  stealthiness  which  only  Indians  are  capable 
of  ;  guides  misled  them  with  that  cunning  which  the  Indian  counts 
as  one  of  his  chief  virtues  ;  hunger,  sickness,  insubordination,  con- 
fusion well  nigh  bordering  on  despair,  so  beset  them,  that  it  seemed 
they  could  never  escape  unless  God  should  be  pleased  to  work  mira- 
cles on  their  behalf.  Once  more,  in  the  early  winter,  they  turned 
back  to  the  great  river  for  a  last  effort  to  save  themselves. 

A  few  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  where  the  timber 
was  the  largest  they  had  seen,  they  built,  in  the  course  of  Building  the 
the  next  six  months,  seven  brigantines.  The  maize  which  briKautines- 
the  Indians  had  stored  in  two  neighboring  villages  the  Spaniards 
seized  for  their  own  support  meanwhile.  From  the  chains  struck  from 
the  slaves,  from  shot,  from  their  stirrups,  and  whatever  else  of  iron 
the  camp  afforded,  they  forged  the  requisite  nails  and  spikes.  The 
bark  of  the  mulberry  tree  was  twisted  into  cordage,  and  from  the  fibre 
of  a  plant  like  hemp  they  made  oakum.  The  natives  supplied  them 
with  mantles  of  matting  for  sails,  and  this  was  held  as  a  special  inter- 
position of  Divine  Providence,  "  disposing  the  Indians  to  bring  the  gar- 
ments ;  otherwise  there  had  been  no  way  but  to  go  and  fetch  them." 
They  did  not,  however,  trust  to  Providence  alone ,  for  when  the  Chris- 
tians had,  or  thought  they  had,  reason  to  suspect  that  the  Indians  were 
coming  with  a  hostile  purpose,  under  a  pretence  of  bringing  presents, 
they  killed  some  of  the  messengers,  cut  off  the  noses  and  the  hands 
of  others  and  sent  them  back  to  the  caciques.  This  conciliatory 
measure  had  the  desired  effect,  and  the  Indians  brought  and  offered 
with  great  eagerness  everything  in  their  possession  that  would  hasten 
the  departure  of  such  guests.  The  maize  of  which  they  had  been- 
robbed  was  the  chief  food  of  these  poor  creatures,  and  for  want  of  it 
they  would  often  fall  dead  "  of  clear  hunger  and  debility  "  about  the 
camp  where  they  came  to  beg.  The  governor  ordered,  under  heavy 
penalties,  that  nothing  should  be  given  them  to  appease  their  hunger ; 
but  to  the  credit  of  his  men  the  orders  were  not  1'igidly  obeyed,  for 
"  the  Christians,  seeing  that  even  the  hogs  had  their  bellies  full,  and 
that  these  poor  Indians  came  and  took  so  much  pains  to  serve  themr 


170         SPANISH  DISCOVERIES   AND  EXPLORATIONS.     [CHAP.  VII. 

and  whose  extreme  misery  they  could  not  but  pity,  charitably  gave 
them  of  the  maes  they  had,  " —  a  weakness  they  reproached  themselves 
for  afterward,  when  they  loaded  their  vessels  with  stores  for  the 
voyage  and  had  room  for  more. 

These  boats  were  finished  in  June.     Most  of  the  horses  and  all  the 
hogs  were  killed  for  provisions,  and  on  the  2d  of  July,  1543, 

down  the  the  expedition,  reduced  now  to  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
Mississippi. 

two  persons,  embarked  for  the  voyage  down  the  Mississippi. 
They  were  seventeen  days  in  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  river,  fighting 


Departure  of  the  Spaniards. 

their  way  on  the  water  as  they  had  always  done  on  the  land,  for  the 
Indians  grew  the  more  aggressive  with  the  hope  that  they  were  seeing 
the  last  of  the  hated  white  men.  Sailing  out  into  the  Gulf,  pursued 
to  the  last  moment  by  the  natives,  they  cruised  for  fifty  days  along 
the  coast  of  Louisiana  and  Texas,  till  the}-  reached  the  Spanish  colony 
of  Panuco.  Haggard,  gaunt,  half-naked,  having  only  a  scanty  cover- 
ing of  skins,  looking  more  like  wild  beasts  than  men,  they  kissed  the 
ground  when  they  landed  among  their  countrymen,  and  "•  on  bended 
knees,  with  hands  raised  above  them,  and  their  eyes  to  heaven  re- 
mained untiring  in  giving  thanks  to  God." 

But  the  relation  of  such  hardships  as  these  men  endm-ed,  fol- 
lowing upon  the  almost  complete  extermination  that  befell  the  Nar- 
vaez  expedition,  could  not  deter  their  countrymen  from  further  ex- 
plorations in  the  same  direction.  It  could  not  be  forgotten  that  a 


1559.1  DON   TRISTAN   DE  LUNA.  171 

great  country,  still  in  the  possession  of  savage  heathens,  stretched  from 
the  Atlantic  coast,  along  which  Gomez,  Lucas  Vasquez  de  Ayllon, 
and  Ponce  de  Leon  had  sailed,  to  that  Western  —  or  as  it  was  then 
called,  Southern  —  Ocean,  reached  by  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  and  his  three 
companions,  after  six  years'  wanderings.  De  Soto  slept  quietly,  after 
three  years  of  travel,  at  the  bottom  of  a  river,  broad  and  deep,  hun- 
dreds of  miles  from  its  mouth,  and  no  man  could  tell  how  far  the  land 
watered  by  it  and  its  tributaries  extended. 

So  vast  a  field  for  enterprise,  and  so  full  of  magnificent  promise, 
notwithstanding  the  fate  of  all  who  had  hitherto  entered  it,  could  not 
long  remain  neglected.  Yet  in  spite  of  its  inviting  name,  The  Land  of 
Flowers  continued  most  inhospitable  to  all  attempts  on  the  part  of  the 
Spaniards  to  gain  a  foothold  there.  An  expedition,  led  by  some  zeal- 
ous friars,  eager  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  landed  on  its  shores* 
and  were  massacred  as  soon  as  they  set  foot  thereon.  Twice  within 
the  ten  years  following  De  Soto's  expedition,  a  fleet  of  ships,  crowded 
with  adventurers,  and  richly  laden  with  treasure  from  Mexico,  were 
wrecked  on  its  coast,  and  those  on  board  who  escaped  the  perils  of 
the  sea  were  slaughtered  by  the  natives,  leaving  barely  enough  alive  to 
tell  the  story  of  their  disaster.  Occasionally  a  solitary  survivor  of  one 
of  these  ill-fated  enterprises  returned  to  the  Spanish  settlements  in 
Mexico,  or  the  West  Indies,  to  recount  his  romantic  adventures. 
Hardly  an  expedition,  after  that  of  Ponce  de  Leon  had  first  landed 
at  Florida,  failed  to  meet  somewhere  among  the  Indians,  a  white  cap- 
tive of  their  own  race  who  had  belonged  to  some  previous  company  of 
explorers,  and  who,  taken  captive  by  the  Indians,  had  been  spared  to 
slavery,  after  his  companions  were  slain.  Their  story  would  be  no 
less  romantic  than  that  of  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  or  of  Juan  Ortiz,  if,  like 
them,  it  had  gained  a  chronicler. 

It  was  exactly  twenty  years  after  the  imposing  departure  of  De  Soto 
from  San  Lucar,  that  a  fleet  of  still  larger  size,  and  no  less 
magnificence  than  his,  was  fitted  up  at  Vera  Cruz,  in  Mexico,  of  DonTris- 
for  the  conquest  and  settlement  of  Florida.  It  was  com- 
manded by  Don  Tristan  de  Luna,  a  scion  of  a  noble  family  in  Arragon, 
whose  father  was  for  several  years  a  governor  of  Yucatan.  He  sailed 
from  Vera  Cruz  on  the  14th  of  August,  1559,  with  an  army  of  1500 
men,  besides  many  friars  zealous  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians, 
and  a  number  of  women  and  children,  the  families  of  the  soldiers  who 
were  to  colonize  Florida.  They  had  a  prosperous  voyage  to  a  good 
harbor,  which  they  named  the  Santa  Maria.1  Here  they  anchored 
the  ships,  and  Don  Tristan  prepared  to  send  news  of  his  arrival  back 

1  Hist.  qfFlorida,by  G.  R.  Fairbanks,  says  this  was  Peusacola  Bay,  as  the  old    Spanish 
maps  gave  the  Bay  as  the  Santa  Maria 


172         SPANISH   DISCOVERIES   AND    EXPLORATIONS.      [CHAP.  VII. 

to  the  viceroy.  But  the  accustomed  ill- fortune  of  Spanish  adventurers 
in  these  parts  attended  him.  On  the  sixth  day  after  his  arrival, 
a  great  storm  arose,  and  all  his  ships  were  driven  on  shore  and  de- 
stroyed. Left  on  the  land  with  his  great  army  with  no  means  of  return- 
ing to  Mexico,  he  at  once  sent  out  a  detachment  of  soldiers,  under  his 
sergeant-major,  to  explore  the  country,  and  seek  for  the  rich  provinces 
of  which  they  had  heard,  while  he  remained  at  the  port  with  the  rest 
of  his  people. 

The  detachment,  after  a  march  of  forty  days  through  a  country 
empty  of  people  and  barren  of  provisions,  reached  an  Indian 

Exploration  i-iii  1-1  -,  \ 

of  the  couu-  town,  which,  although  deserted,  contained  a  quantity  of  corn, 
beans,  and  other  vegetables.  Most  of  the  natives  had  run 
away  on  their  approach,  but  they  found  a  few  bolder  ones  still  lurking 
about  the  village,  and  conciliated  them  with  presents  of  beads  and  rib- 
bons. From  these  they  learned  that  the  town  had  been  very  large  and 
well  peopled,  but  had  been  attacked  by  men  like  themselves,  who  had 
destroyed  and  driven  away  the  inhabitants.  These  same  strange  inva- 
ders had  caused  the  general  desolation  of  the  country,  and  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  villages  which  they  had  seen  on  the  march.  Refreshing 
himself  and  his  men  on  the  provisions,  which  seemed  abundant,  the 
sergeant-major  sent  back  a  party  of  sixteen  to  report  to  De  Luna.  In 
their  absence,  De  Luna,  who  had  lost  a  large  part  of  his  provisions  in 
the  shipwreck,  was  greatly  distressed  for  want  of  food,  and  anxious  for 
the  safety  of  the  sergeant-major.  He  was  preparing  to  set  out  in  search 
of  him,  when  his  messengers  arrived,  and  he  at  once  started  to  join 
the  advance  with  his  train  of  a  thousand  men,  women,  and  children. 
Guided  by  the  sixteen  soldiers,  they  reached  the  Indian  town,  and  for 
a  short  time  feasted  on  the  food  they  found  there.  But  the  supplies, 
which  had  seemed  so  inexhaustible  to  the  first-comers,  were  soon  con- 
sumed by  the  great  numbers.  The  suffering  that  ensued  was  most 
severe.  They  were  forced  to  eat  bitter  acorns,  and  even  the  bark  and 
leaves  of  the  young  trees.  A  party  was  sent  out  again  to  find  if  they 
could  discover  any  relief,  or  see  anything  of  the  rich  town  of  Coqa, 
of  which  the  Indians  told  them.  These  were  forced  on  their  inarch 
to  eat  their  pack-mules,  and  then  the  leather  of  their  straps,  and 
their  gun-covers.  Their  lives  were  preserved  by  their  entrance  into 
a  wood  of  chestnut  and  walnut  trees,  where  they  surfeited  themselves 
on  the  abundant  fruit. 

De  Luna  awaited  their  return,  till  the  sight  of  his  people  dying  of 
hunger  made  him  resolve  to  return  to  the  port  of  Santa  Maria.  He 
reached  there  after  much  suffering,  and  was  soon  followed  by  the  ex- 
ploring party,  who  brought  back  still  more  unfavorable  reports  of  the 
sterility  and  poverty  of  the  country.  They  had  found  none  of  the 


15G1.]  SPANISH   FAILURES   IN   NORTH   AMERICA.  173 

noble  cities,  rich  in  gold  and  silver,  with  people  clothed  in  garments 
of  silk  and  cloth  of  the  Indies,  of  which  they  had  heard  reports. 
Instead,  they  saw  only  desolate  lands,  and  villages  deserted  even  by 
the  savage  inhabitants,  who  had  learned  to  flee  on  the  approach  of 
the  white  man. 

At  the  port  De  Luna  procured  two  small  vessels,  either  built  from 
the  remains  of  the  wreck,  or  else  preserved  from  the  storm 
which  had  destroyed  the  larger  ships.     These  he  sent  back  Luna's  en- 
to  the  viceroy,  with  appeal  for  succor.     Relief  came  in  the 
shape  of  two  ships,  well  provisioned,  prepared  to  take  away  the  un- 
happy colony,  now  distracted  with  misery,  discontent,  and  anarchy. 
Tristan  de  Luna  at  first  refused  to  abandon  his  enterprise,  and  in- 
sisted on  being  left  behind  with  a  few  followers.     But  he  was  recalled 
by  the  Viceroy,  and  at  last  returned  to  Mexico  in  1561,  about  two 
years  from  the  time  of  his  first  setting  out.    Thus  ended  the  most  care, 
fully  prepared   and  most   promising  attempt  ever  made  to  colonize 
Florida  by  the  Spaniards.     Fortunately  for  the  progress  of  the  human 
race,  and  the  future  history  of  North  America,  all  their  efforts  to  gain 
a  permanent  foothold  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  were  in  the  main 
unsuccessful. 


Fishing  Fleet  at  Newfoundland. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


FRENCH   DISCOVERIES   AND   ATTEMPTS   AT   COLONIZATION. 

BRETON  FISHERMEN  ON  NEWFOUNDLAND  BANKS. —  GIOVANNI  DA  VERRAZANO  FIRST 
ENTERS  NEW  YORK  HARBOR.  —  JACQUES  CARTIER  SENT  ON  AN  AMERICAN  EXPE- 
DITION.—  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE  KIVER.  —  CARTIER'S  VISIT  TO 
THE  INDIAN  TOWN  OF  HOCHELAGA. —  VOYAGE  OF  FRANCIS  DE  LA  KOQUE,  LORD 

OF  ROBERVAL.  THE    HUGUENOTS    SEEK   AN   ASYLUM    IN  AMERICA. THE   COL- 

ONY  OF  ADMIRAL  COLIGNY. — JOHN  RIBAULT  GOES  TO  FLORIDA.  —  SETTING  UP 
THE  ARMS  OF  FRANCE.  —  LAUDONNIERE  COMMANDS  A  SECOND  ENTERPRISE.  — 
BUILDING  OF  FORT  CAROLINE.  —  PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLONY. 

As  early  as  1504,  the  hardy  fishermen  of  various  nations  had  fol- 
lowed the  Cabots  and  Cortereals  across  the  Atlantic,  and  were  tossing 
all  the  summer  through  in  their  little  vessels  on  the  Grand  Banks, 
and  along  the  coasts  of  Newfoundland  and  Nova  Scotia.  It  was  only 
to  sail  a  few  degrees  more  to  the  westward  than  their  fathers  had  done, 
for  it  is  certain  that  the  mariners  of  England,  of  Brittany,  Nor- 
mandy, and  the  Bay  of  Biscay  had  approached,  if  they  had  not  seen, 
the  Western  continent,  long  before  its  discovery  by  either  Columbus 
or  Cabot.  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  they  may  have  explored  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  harbors,  rivers,  and  islands  along  the  shores  of 
New  England,  whose  discovery  has  been  the  subject  of  controversy 
on  behalf  of  this  or  that  early  navigator  of  distinction,  for  nearly  three 
hundred  years.  But  of  what  they  did  there  is  no  record  ;  content 
with  finding  good  fishing  ground,  any  other  knowledge  they  may 


1523.]  FRENCH  FISHERMEN.  175 

have  gained  excited  little  interest  beyond  their  own  limited  circle  of 
humble  people,  too  ignorant  and  too  busy  to  trouble  themselves  or 
others  with  geographical  conjectures.  The  practical  question  of  lib- 
erty to  fish  in  the  newly-discovered  seas,  was  all  they  cared  for,  and 
that  they  settled  among  themselves. 

Some  of  these  Breton  fishermen  gave  a  name  —  Cape  Breton  —  to 
an  island  ;  in  1506,  John  Denys,  of  HonnVur,  explored  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  ;  two  years  afterward,  Thomas  Aubert, 


a  pilot  of  Dieppe,  visited,  it  is  supposed,  Cape  Breton  Island, 
and  carried  some  of  the  natives  thence  to  France  ;  1  and  in  1518,  the 
Baron  de  Leri  proposed  to  settle  a  colony  on  Sable  Island,2  but  only 
landed  some  cattle,  whose  progeny,  eighty  years  later,  served  to  feed 
some  miserable  Frenchmen  left  there  by  the  Marquis  de  la  Roche. 
But  all  these,  like  the  fishing  voyages,  were  private  enterprises. 

Spain,  notwithstanding  the  marvellous  splendor  of  her  conquests 
farther  south,  had  persisted  for  nearly  twenty  years,  at  great  sacrifice 
of  human  life  and  of  treasure,  in  the  attempt  to  lay  open  the  secret 
which  she  believed  was  hidden  in  the  region  north  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  England  and  Portugal  had  both  shown  that  they  were  not 
disposed  to  yield  the  possession  of  the  continent  unquestioned  to  Spain. 
France  alone  of  the  great  maritime  powers  of  Europe,  seemed  indif- 
ferent ;  for  though  no  fishermen  on  the  American  coast  were  more  en- 
terprising and  more  fearless  than  hers,  they  claimed  no  rights  except 
upon  the  sea.  In  1522,  a  single  ship  of  the  Magellan  expedition  re- 
turned to  Portugal,  having  circumnavigated  the  globe  and  solved  the 
problem  that  by  sailing  westward  the  East  could  be  reached.  A  new 
impulse  was  given  to  the  desire  for  a  shorter  northern  pas-  Interegt  felt 
sage  to  India,  and  Francis  I.  of  France,  aroused  to  the  great  [^  IS£riJ.ln' 
event  of  his  time,  is  said  to  have  declared  :  "  Why,  these  dlscoveri'- 
princes  coolly  divide  the  New  World  between  them  !  I  should  like  to 
see  that  article  of  Adam's  will  which  gives  them  America  !  "  In  1528 
he  proposed  to  compete  with  other  powers,  both  for  a  share  in  that 
New  World,  and  to  find  for  France  a  shorter  route  to  Cathay. 

With  this  intent  an  expedition  put  to  sea  from  some  port  in  Brit- 
tany, in  the  autumn  of  1523.     It  consisted  originally  of  four  voyage  of 
vessels,  but  before  much  progress  was  made,  two  of  these  VerrM»no- 
were  first   disabled  or   lost,  and   afterward  a   third,  leaving   only  a 
single  ship,  called  the  Danphine  —  Dalfina.3     The  commander  was 


1  Charlevoix,  History  of  Xew  France,  vol.  i.,  p.  106. 

'•2  Lescarbot,  Histoire  de  Nmn-tlle  France,  p.  21.  De  Leri's  full  title  was  Le  Sieur,  Baron 
de  Leri  et  de  Saint  Just,  Vicomte  de  Gueu,  This  has  been  erroneously  supposed  to  refer  to 
two  men. 

8  In  the  many  accounts  of  this  voyage,  Dalfiua  is  usually  translated  Dolphin,  but  by 
later  writers,  Dauphine.  The  latter,  undoubtedly,  is  correct,  as  to  the  name  of  this 


176 


FRENCH  DISCOVERIES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


Giovanni  da  Verrazano,  a  native  of  Florence  —  Italian  by  birth,  as 
Columbus  and  Cabot  were,  —  who,  according  to  the  historians  of 
Dieppe,  was  a  captain  of  one  of  Thomas  Aubert's  ships  ten  years 
before.1  He  saw  and  did,  for  aught  that  can  be  known  now,  no  more 

than  Cabot  and  Cortereal 
had  seen  and  done  about  a 
quarter  of  a  century  before. 
But  he  has  left  behind  him 
in  a  letter  to  the  king,  a 
narrative  of  his  adventm-es, 
and  for  the  first  time  we  get 
a  dim  and  passing  glimpse 
by  actual  description,  of 
much  of  the  long  stretch  of 
the  Atlantic  coast  of  North 
America  now  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  United 
States.  So  vague,  indeed, 
and  sometimes  so  incorrect 
is  this  narrative,  that  the 
question  has  been  raised 
whether  it  was  not  alto- 
gether destitute  of  truth.2 
But  the  argument  of  its  want  of  accuracy,  based  on  internal  evi- 
dence, may  be  brought  with  equal  force  against  many  of  the  accounts 
of  early  expeditions  which  certainly  were  made.3 

It  has  been  supposed  by  some  writers  that  Verrazano  may  have 
made  a  voyage  in  1523  with  his  four  ships  across  the  Atlantic,  and 
that  the  allusion  in  his  letter  to  a  disaster  which  overtook  two  of  them, 
on  "  Northern  coasts,"  refers  to  such  an  expedition.  But  the  letter 
is  otherwise  taken  up  with  the  single  voyage  of  the  Dauphine,  in 

ship.  Verrazano  alludes  to  it  as  "  the  glorious  and  fortunate  name  of  our  good  ship,"  —  del 
glarioso  name  efortunato.  "  Glorious  "  would  be  held  to  be  proper  as  applied  to  the  Dau- 
phine, but  is  not  at  all  fitting  as  descriptive  of  a  dolphin. 

1  Note  by  J.  G.  Shea,  in  Charlevoix,  vol.  i.,p.  106. 

2  See  An  Inquiry  into  the  Authenticity  of  Documents  concerning  a  Discovery  in  North  Amer- 
ica, claimed  to  have  been  made  by  Verrazzano.     Read  before  the  New  York  Historical  Soci- 
ety, October,  1864.    By  Buckingham  Smith. 

8  The  letter  of  Verrazano  to  Francis  I.  was  first  published  by  Ramusio,  within  about 
thirty -two  years  of  its  date,  and  was  copied  from  him  by  Hakluyt.  It  has  been  held  to  be 
authentic  for  three  centuries,  and  is  not  now  to  be  easily  set  aside.  The  discovery,  a  few 
years  since,  of  a  map,  by  Hieronimus  da  Verrazano,  in  a  public  library  in  Rome,  dating 
about  1529,  offsets,  it  is  claimed,  any  possible  constructive  argument  against  his  vovage 
from  negative  evidence.  For  description  of  this  map  and  the  newest  theory  as  to  the 
course  of  Verrazauo,  see  an  article  by  James  Carson  Brevoort,  in  Journal  of  American 
Geographical  Society,  of  New  York,  vol.  iv. 


Giovanni  da  Verrazano. 


1524.] 


VOYAGE   OF  VERRAZANO. 


177 


which  he  finally  set  sail  from  the  Madeiras  in  January,  1524.  In 
forty-nine  days  he  "  reached  a  new  country  which,"  he  writes,  Hig  arriTal 
"  had  never  before  been  seen  by  any  one,"  and  which  by  fires  |)(^nh*(^™er" 
along  the  shore,  he  knew  to  be  inhabited.  His  land-fall,  he  SIarch  152* 
says,  was  on  the  thirty-fourth  parallel,  or  about  the  latitude  of  Cape 
Fear,  as  his  course  after  leaving  the  Madeiras  was  "  towards  the  west, 
with  a  little  northwardly."  Thence  he  ran  southward  for  fifty 
leagues,  but  finding  no  harbors  he  reversed  his  course.  Cruising 
leisurely  along  the  coast  for  two  hundred  leagues,  he  first  notes  that 
the  shore  was  covered  with  fine  sand,  rising  into  little  hills  about 
fifty  paces  broad  ;  then  that  arms  of  the  sea  flowed  in  through  inlets, 
making  an  inner  and  an  outer  beach  ;  but  beyond  the  coast-line  he 
saw  a  country  rising  into  beautiful  fields,  and  broad  plains  covered 
with  immense  forests  more  or  less  dense,  various  in  foliage  and  color, 
and  festooned  with  vines.  This  verdant  land  was  fragrant  with  wild 
roses,  violets,  lilies,  and  many  other  flowers,  watered  with  many  lakes 
and  streams.  Beasts  of  the  chase,  and  birds  of  gay  plumage  and 
pleasant  song,  were  plentiful.  The  balmy  air  of  a  delicious  summer 
blew  gently  over  a  smooth  sea,  and  on  the  long  stretch  of  coast,  the 
water  was  deep,  and  there  were  no  rocks  or  hidden  dangers  to  vex  the 
mariner. 

The  natives  thronged  upon  the  sands  to  watch  this  strange  ship,  and 
the  strange  white  men  on  board  of  her.  They  beckoned  them  to 
land,  and  when  a  sailor,  attempting  to  swim  ashore,  was 

,     ,,    ,  ,  ,  ,       ,  Hospitality 

thrown,  half-drowned  by  the  surf,  upon  the  beach,  they  res-  of  the  n»- 
cued  him,  built  fires  to  warm  him  and  to  dry  his  clothing  — 
his  comrades  on  the  ship  looking  on  meanwhile,  dreading  to  see  him 
presently  sacrificed  and 
spitted  for  a  savage 
feast.  But  when  his 
strength  was  restored, 
the  natives  dismissed 
him  with  many  demon- 
strations of  tenderness 
and  respect.  A  few 
days  later  the  French- 
men made  a  cruel  re- 
turn for  this  kindness 
and  hospitality,  by  cap- 
turing and  carrying  off 
an  Indian  boy  they 
met  near  the  shore,  lndians  making  a  Canoe'  [De  Bry-] 

and  would  have  taken  also  the  comely  mother,  who  had  only  known 


VOL.    I. 


12 


178  FRENCH   DISCOVERIES.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

eighteen  Indian  summers,  but  for  her  outcries  and  vigorous  resistance. 
All  these  people  were  dark  in  color,  well-made,  naked,  except  some 
scantv  covering  of  furs,  or  dressed  deer-skins  and  ornamental  feath- 
ers ;  their  canoes  were  trunks  of  trees  hollowed  out  by  fire  and  with 
stone  hatchets  ;  and  their  ai'ms  were  bows  and  arrows. 

The  Dauphine  anchored  at  length  where  a  deep  river  flowed  into 
the  sea  from  among  steep  hills  ;  a  boat  put  off  inland  for  a 
short  distance,  and  found  that  this  river  widened  into  a  lake 


some  leagues  in  circuit.  The  ship  had  probably  entered  the 
outer  Bay  of  New  York  ;  the  Narrows,  between  the  beautiful  hills 
of  Staten  Island  and  the  bluffs  of  Long  Island  opposite,  was  the  sup- 
posed mouth  of  a  river  ;  the  magnificent  sweep  of  the  inner  harbor 
looked,  as  it  does  to-day  to  a  stranger,  like  a  lake  ;  the  Indians  plied 
their  canoes  in  large  numbers  from  shore  to  shore,  and  at  night  their 
watch-fires  blazed  in  the  same  unbroken  circle  of  twenty  miles  that 
now  shows  the  continuous  twinkling  line  of  the  gaslights  of  a  million 
of  people.1  But  winds  which  brought  peril  to  the  ship  in  the  outer 
harbor  soon  compelled  them  to  put  to  sea  again,  and  they  left  with 
regret  "a  region  that  seemed  so  commodious  and  delightful,"  and 
where  they  deluded  themselves  with  the  notion  that  the  hills  showed 
indications  of  great  wealth  in  mineral  deposits. 

Sailing  east  for  fifty  leagues  they  passed  an  island  of  triangular  form, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  Block  Island,  and  a  few  leagues  farther  entered 
a  spacious  haven,  where  they  remained  fifteen  days.  The  entrance, 
Narra  nsett  w^h  a  rock  in  mid-channel  suitable  for  a  fortification,  was 
*•>'•  a  mile  or  two  wide  and  looking  toward  the  south  ;  but  within 

it  was  a  large  bay  of  many  leagues,  containing  five  small  islands  of 
great  beauty,  and  covered  with  trees.  The  latitude,  says  Verrazano, 
was  41°  40',  which  is  about  that  of  Narragansett  Bay,  and  he  describes 
the  country  4>  as  pleasant  as  it  is  possible  to  conceive,"  abounding  in 
fruit  trees  —  of  which  he  could  have  only  seen  the  blossoms,  as  he 
was  there  in  May  —  well  watered,  with  open  plains,  as  well  as  forests 
of  stately  trees,  and  having  many  animals  of  various  kinds.  If  this 
was  the  Vinland  of  the  Northmen,  the  stone  tower  of  Newport  was 
not  there  when  the  Frenchmen  spent  a  fortnight  in  that  harbor,  and 
became  familiar  with  its  shores.  Verrazano  describes  the  houses  of 
the  natives  as  built  of  split  logs,  and  nicely  thatched  with  straw,  and 
he  could  hardlv  have  failed  to  see  and  describe  so  remarkable  a  struc- 

•I 

ture  as  the  tower  if  it  was  in  existence,  and  he  was  ever  in  Newport 
harbor. 

Here  was   their  only  resting-place  for  any  length  of    time.     When 

1  There  are  almost  as  many  theories  as  there  are  writers  on  Vetrazano's  voyage,  but 
that  most  geni-rallv  received  and  wtiich  oeems  the  most  rational,  is  the  explanation  which 
we  have  here  adopted. 


1524.] 


VOYAGE   OF   VERRAZAXO. 


179 


the  voyage  was  resumed  it  was  to  cruise  along  the  shores  of  New 
England,  seeing  in  the  distance  as  they  passed  the  White  Mountains 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  sailing  among  the  pleasant  islands  on  the 
coast  of  Maine.  The  Indians  of  this  northern  region  they  found 
fiercer  and  less  trustful  than  those  with  whom  they  had  trafficked  and 
held  friendly  intercourse  farther  south,  for  these  knew  something  of 

= ^ white  men  in  the  fish- 

r      .^^<£<3iMi&iiS*&m&^     ing   vessels   of    Baeca- 

O 

laos,  and   had  profited 
by  the  knowledge. 

Little  else  is  known 
of    Verrazano  than    is 


given  in  this  narrative  of 
his  voyage  in  the  Dau- 
phine.  It  is  conjectured 
that  this  was  not  his  only 
expedition  to  the  New 

World,         and          Hakluyt  Verrszano  in  Newport  Harbor. 

says  :     "  he     had     been 

thrice  on  that  coast."  l  But  whether  his  voyages  were  one  or  three, 
he  profited  by  his  observations.  His  intention  was  to  find  a  passage 
to  Cathay.  The  opinions  of  the  ancients  that  "•  our  ocean  was  one  and 
the  same  as  the  eastern  one  of  Asia,''  the  discovery  of  the  new  land 
had  disproved.  It  was  possible,  he  thought,  that  this  new  land  might 
be  penetrated,  but  he  wits  convinced  after  the  cruise  of  the  Dauphine, 

1  Since  this  chapter  was  put  in  tyj>e  a  volume  of  nearly  two  hundred  pages,  by  Henry 
C.  Murphy,  on  the  voyage  of  Verrazauo,  lias  been  published.  Mr.  Murphy's  aim  is  to  show 
that  the  claims  of  discovery  made  in  Verrazano's  name  have  no  real  foundation.  The  work 
is  learned,  laborious,  dud  exhaustive,  aud  seems  to  leave  nothing  more  to  be  said  on  that 
side  of  the  question. 


180 


FRENCH  DISCOVERIES. 


[CHAP.  VIII.. 


that  it  was  "  another  world,"  appearing  "  really  to  show  itself  to  be 
larger  than  our  Europe,  Africa,  or  even  Asia."  That  any 
short  route  to  Cathay  could  be  found  was  clearly  impos- 
continent.  sible.  His  conclusion  was  that  the  globe  was  evidently  larger 
than  the  ancients  supposed  ;  it  was  proved  that  the  sea  was  wider ; 
this  western  land,  as  the  voyages  of  the  Spaniards,  the  Portuguese, 
and  that  of  the  Dauphine  combined  had  shown,  stretched  from  the 
Strait  of  Magellan  to  the  fiftieth  degree  of  northern  latitude,  a  length 

greater  than  that  from  the  northern- 
most point  of  Europe  to  the  most 
southern  of  Africa ;  if  its  breadth 
was  in  accordance  with  its  length, 
then  a  new  continent  larger  than 
Asia  lay  between  Europe  and  In- 
dia. He  may  have  thought,  there- 
fore, that  there  was  little  to  be 
gained  by  a  western  passage  to  In- 
dia, even  if  one  existed  ;  and  that 
it  certainly  could  not  be  a  short  one. 
The  credit  belongs  to  him,  not  only 
of  having  first  explored  with  some 
care  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United 
States,  but  of  first  promulgating  the 
true  theory  of  the  size  of  the  globe 
in  contradistinction  to  that  of  the  old  cosmographers,  which  Columbus 
had  adopted  and  believed  in  to  the  day  of  his  death. 

The  subsequent  fate  of  this  navigator  is  unknown.  Some  writers 
maintain  that  he  is  identical  with  a  noted  corsair,  Juan  Florin  or 
Florentin,  who  preyed  upon  the  Spanish  treasure-ships,  but 
was  captured  at  last  by  the  Spaniards  and  hanged.1  But 
Ramusio,  who  first  published  his  letter,  says  that  in  a  sub- 
sequent voyage  Verrazano  having  gone  ashore  with  some  companions, 
was  killed  by  the  natives,  roasted,  and  eaten  in  the  sight  of  those 
who  remained  on  board  the  ship.2  It  is  also  conjectured,  from  an 
Italian  letter  written  in  1537,  that  he  was  then  still  living  in  Rome.3 
Ten  years  elapsed  before  France  sent  out  another  expedition,  when 
Philip  Chabot,  Admiral  of  France,  urged  the  King  to  establish  a 
colony  somewhere  in  the  northwest.  The  enterprise  was  entrusted 

1  This  story  seems  to  have  been  first  published  by  De  Barcia  (Ensayo  Cronologico,  p.  8| 
in  1723. 

2  Biddle  (Mtmoir  of  Cabot,  chap,  ix.)  assumes  that  this  ship  must  have  been  the  Mary  of 
•  Guilford,  which  sailed  from  England  in  1527,  and  that  Verrazano  was  her  pilot. 

8  Letter  of  Annibal  Caro,  cited  from  Tiraboschi's  Italian  Literature,  by  Smith,  Murphy, 
and  others. 


Jacques  Cartier. 


fate  of 


1535]  VOYAGE   OF  JACQUES   CARTIER.  181 


to   Jacques  Cartier,  an  experienced  navigator  of  St.  Malo,  and  he 
sailed  from  that  port  in  April,  1534,  with  two  ships  of  only  Jacque8Car_ 
sixty  tons  each,  and  carrying  each  sixty-one  men.    In  twenty  gf 'jajjio from 
days  the  fleet  reached  Bona  Vista  Bay,  on  the  east  coast  of  Apri1' 1534 
Newfoundland,  whence,  after  some  delay  from  the  ice,  they  steered 
northward  and  passed  through  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle  into  the  Gulf, 
afterwards  named  the  St.  Lawrence.     Cartier  coasted  along  the  west- 
ern  shores  of  Newfoundland,  finding  the  country  so  inhospitable,  so 
filled  with  stones  and  wild  crags,  with  not  a  cart-load  of  good  earth 
anywhere,  that  he  believed  it  to  be  "•  the  land  God  allotted  to  Cain." 
The  natives  were  uncouth  and  savage,  "  dressed  in  beasts'  skins,  their 
hair  tied  on  top  like  a  wreath  of  hay,  a  wooden  pin  run  through 
it,"  and  ornamented  with  feathers.     Crossing  the  gulf  he  en-  Higdeficrip. 
tered  a  bay,  which  because  of  the  heat  he  named  the  Bay  J^J'/of* 
of  Chaleur,  where  the  natives,  he  thought,  were  "  the  poor-  Canada- 
est  in  the  world,"  without  clothing,  eating  fish  and  flesh  almost  raw, 
and  with  no  houses  but  their  upturned  canoes.     But  the  country  was 
inviting,  and  he  took  possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  the   King  of 
France,   setting  up  a  cross  thirty  feet  high,  with  three  fleur-de-lys, 
and  the  inscription  Vive  le  Hoi  de  France  carved  at  its  top.1     Poor 
and  savage  as  the  natives  were  they  knew  enough  to  object  to  his  pro- 
ceeding, and  their  chief,  protesting  by  signs  that  this  was  his  country, 
said  that  he  wanted  no  crosses  set  up  in  it.     But  Cartier  enticed  him 
and  some  others  on  board  his  ship,  and  conciliating  him  with  some 
trifling  presents,  obtained  his  consent  to  take  his  two  sons  to  France. 
They  sailed  soon  after  on  the  homeward  voyage,  and  arrived  at  St. 
Malo  in  September,  after  an  absence  of  a  little  more  than  four  months. 
The  report   of   these    discoveries  was   so   favorably  received   that 
another  expedition  was  determined  upon,  and  Cartier  was  ^.mA 
dispatched  the   next   spring  —  in  May,   1 535  —  with  three  carter  °f 
ships,  the  largest,  however,  only  one  hundred  and  twenty  May>  1535' 
tons.     Among   his  followers  were  some  young  men  of  family  and 
fortune,  enthusiastic  for  adventure.     The  embarkation  was  a  solemn 
and  eventful  day  in  St.  Malo ;  the  ships'  companies  making  confession, 
hearing  high  mass  in  the  cathedral,  and  departing  with  the  blessing 
of  the  bishop.     They  were  going,  not  only  to  find  the  way  to  Cathay, 
and  plant  French  colonies  in  new  lands,  but  whole  nations  were  to  be 
brought  within  the  pale  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church. 

1  There  is  an  old  tradition,  says  Charlevoix,  that  the  Spaniards  had  visited  this  country 
before  Cartier,  but  finding  no  mines,  said  of  it  aca-nada  —  nothing  there.  These  words  the 
Indians  remembered  and  repeated,  and  hence  the  name  Canada.  Others  derive  the  name, 
says  Charlevoix,  from  the  Indian  word  Kannata,  meaning  a  collection  of  cabins.  Shea 
adds  in  a  note  that  the  Spanish  derivation  is  fictitious.  —  History  of  New  France,  vol.  ii.,  p. 
118. 


182 


FRENCH  DISCOVERIES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


the  St. 
Lawrence. 


On  the  10th  of  August  the  fleet  was  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Law- 
Entering       rence,  and  this  name  which  Cartier  first  gave  to  the  strait  be- 
tween   the   island   of   Anticosti  —  he   called  it  Assumption 

Island  —  and  the  north  coast 
became  in  time  the  name  of  the 
whole  gulf  and  the  great  river.1 
The  two  Indians,  Taignoagny 
and  Domagaia,  whom  he  had 
taken  home  with  him  the  vear 

«/ 

before,  told  him  that  this  river 
was  the  Hochelaga,  and  that  it 
came  from  so  far  that  no 
man    had    ever    seen    the 
head    of     it.       From    the 
t         great  width  of  its  mouth, 
and  the  depth  and  volume 
of    its   waters,    he    might 
well  suppose  it   to  be  an 
arm  of  the  sea,  and   that 
he   was   at    length  at 
the   opening   of   the 


-  f  j-;  ?  .,- 

Setting  up  the  Arms  of  France 


strait,  so  long  sought  for,  that  would  lead  him  to  the  Indian  Ocean  ; 
but  his  guides  said  that  it  narrowed  as  it  ascended,  and  that  its  waters 
were  fresh.  He  made  no  haste,  therefore,  to  push  forward,  leisurely 

1  Charlevoix,  History  of  New  France,  vol.  ii.,  p.  115. 


1535.]  EXPLORATION   OF   THE   ST.   LAWRENCE.  183 

exploring  the  coasts,  examining  the  country,  and  looking  for  a  con- 
venient harbor  for  winter  quarters. 

On  the  first  of  September  he  met  the  dark  waters  of  the  Saguenay 
pouring  into  the  St.  Lawrence ;  fifteen  leagues  further  on  he  anchored 
in  the  shadow  of  a  pleasant  island,  which,  because  it  was  covered  with 
hazels,  he  called  Isle  aux  Coudres  ;  eight  leagues  further  he  Expioring 
found  another  island  still  pleasanter  and  larger,  and  so  themer 
abounding  in  grapes  that  he  named  it  Bacchus  Island  —  now  known 
as  the  Isle  d'Orleans.  A  fleet  of  canoes  put  out  from  the  beach  to 
look  at  these  strange  visitors,  but  the  natives  wei-e  too  much  alarmed 
to  venture  within  their  reach,  till  Taignoagny  and  Domagaia,  whom 
they  recognized  as  of  their  own  race,  assured  them  that  the  strangers 
were  friends.  Then  they  flocked  aboard  the  vessels,  listened  to  the 
wonderful  story  of  all  that  had  befallen  the  two  youths  on  their  visit 
to  France,  and  of  the  kindness  and  benefits  that  had  been  bestowed 
upon  them.  Donnacona,  the  "  lord  "  of  Saguenay,  had  come  with  the 
rest,  and  he  addressed  to  Cartier  a  long  oration,  took  his  arm,  and, 
kissing  it,  twined  it  about  his  own  neck  in  token  of  amity  and  grati- 
tude that  these  two  young  men,  his  countrymen,  had  received  such 
favors  at  the  hands  of  the  French. 

A  few  leagues  farther  on,  at  the  mouth  of  a  stream  which  Cartier 
named  the  St.  Croix,  - —  now  the  St.  Charles  —  was  the  village  of 
Stadacona,  the  home  of  the  chieftain  Donnacona.1  In  the  waters 
which  washed  its  shores,  beneath  the  cliffs  where  now  stands  the  city 
of  Quebec  upon  the  site  of  this  Indian  village,  was  safe 

r  i  i  •  i  ...  ,  ,    Anchorage 

anchorage  for  the  ships,  and  protection  from  the  storms  of  on  the  -it,. 
the  coming  winter.  But  Cartier  heard  from  the  natives  of 
another  and  a  larger  town,  the  seat  of  a  rival  and  more  powerful  chief 
than  Donnacona,  from  which  the  river  took  its  name  —  Hochelaga. 
This  he  resolved  to  visit.  The  way  to  it,  Donnacona  said,  was  long 
and  beset  with  perils,  for  he  was  jealous  that  any  of  the  wealth  of 
knives  and  copper  basins,  of  little  looking-glasses  and  brilliant  colored 
beads,  which  the  strangers  brought,  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
rival  chieftain  and  his  people.  To  his  persuasions  he  added  gifts,  pre- 
senting to  Cartier  two  boys,  one  of  whom  was  his  own  brother,  and  a 
little  girl  of  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age  who  was  his  sister's  child. 

The  Frenchman  laughed  at  danger,  and  was  deaf  to  entreaty  ;  and 
then  the  cunning  savage  tried  intimidation.     Three  devils —  cunning  of 
Indian  devils  —  came  out  to  the  ships,  "  wrapped  in  hogges  theeava«ee 
skins  white  and  blacke,  their  faces  besmeered  as  blacke  as  any  coales, 

1  Charlevoix  ( History  of  New  France),  asserts  that  the  St.  Croix  and  the  St.  Charles 
are  uot  the  s-ame.  For  the  evidence  and  authorities  that  they  are  identical,  see  Shea's 
notes  to  Churlevoix,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  116,  117,  and  Parkman's  Pioneers  of  New  France,  p.  185. 


184 


FRENCH  DISCOVERIES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


with  homes  on  their  heads  more  than  a  yard  long."  l  A  crowd  of 
natives  followed  howling  and  shrieking,  and  then  with  a  hideous  up- 
roar retreating  to  the  woods.  Taignoagny  and  Domagaia,  in  real  or 
pretended  fright,  with  clasped,  uplifted  hands,  and  eyes  raised  to 
heaven,  cried  out,  "  Jesu  !  Jesu !  Jesu  Maria !  "  declaring  that  these 
devils  had  come  from  Hochelaga,  sent  by  the  god  of  that  people  to 
say  that  all  should  perish  in  the  ice  and  snow  who  ventured  thither. 
But  the  Christians  could  answer  prophecy  with  prophecy,  and  beat 


Donnacona's  Strategy. 


the  heathen  at  their  own  game.  The  devils 
they  only  mocked  at,  and  as  for  the  Indian 
god,  Cudruaigny,  he  was  declared  to  be  noth- 
ing "  but  a  fool  and  a  noddle."  His  messen- 
gers, they  said,  might  take  him  word  that 
Christ  would  defend  from  the  cold  all  who  be- 
lieved in  him,  and  though  the  French  captain 
had  not  himself  talked  with  Jesus  upon  this  subject,  the  priests  had, 
and  received  from  him  a  promise  of  fair  weather.  There  was  nothing 
cartier  pro-  niore  to  be  said.  The  devils  were  ignominiously  defeated ; 
<«ed^up  the  |.ne  worshippers  of  Cudruaigny  gave  three  great  shrieks  in 
renc*-  token  of  their  acceptance  of  his  discomfiture,  and  fell  to  sing- 
ing and  dancing  on  the  beach  after  their  usual  mad  fashion.  Cartier, 

1  Narration  of  Cartier's  Voyages,  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii. 


1535.]  CARTIER  AT  HOCHELAGA.  185 

with  the  smallest  of  his  vessels,  a  pinnace,  and  two  boats,  started  the 
next  day  for  Hochelaga. 

For  thirteen  days  they  sailed  leisurely  along  the  pleasant  banks  of 
the  river,  noting  and  admiring  the  fruitfulness  of  the  land,  the  beauty 
of  the  forests,  and  the  many  kinds  of  game,  both  beasts  and  birds, 
they  sheltered;    the  abundance  of  wild  fruit,  especially  of  grapes. 
Everywhere  on  the  way  the  natives  received  them  with  joy  and  won- 
der, and  when,  on  the  second  of  October,  they  landed  about 
eleven  miles  from  Hochelaga,  below  the  rapids  of  St.  Mary,1  the  to»n  of 
a  thousand  Indians,  men,  women,  and  children,  came  down 
to  the  strand  to  welcome  them.     With  great  pomp  and  circumstance, 
Cartier,  "  very  gorgeously  attired,"  marched  with  his  companions  to 
this  royal  residence.     It  was  a  village  of  about  fifty  huts,  surrounded 
with  a  triple  row  of  palisades,  in  the  midst  of  wide  fields  where  the 
brown  dried  leaves  of  the  Indian  corn  waved  and  rustled  in  the  autumn 
winds.     On  this  spot  now  stands  Montreal,  and  a  hill  near  by  which 
Cartier  called  Mont  Royal,  gave  a  name  to  the  future  city. 

In  the  centre  of  Hochelaga  was  a  public  square  where  all  the  people 
gathered.  The  women  and  the  maidens  came  with  their  Cartierbe_ 
arms  full  of  children,  begging  that  they  might  even  so  much  J,«fthe° 
as  be  touched  by  these  wonderful  white  men  from  some  8ick 
far-off  country.  The  "  lord  and  king,"  Agouhanna,  a  man  of  fifty 
years,  helpless  from  palsy,  was  brought  in  by  his  attendants  stretched 
upon  a  deer-skin.  Upon  his  head  instead  of  a  crown  he  wore  "  a  cer- 
tain thing  made  of  the  skinnes  of  hedge-hogs  like  a  red  wreath,"  but 
otherwise  his  apparel  did  not  distinguish  him  from  his  subjects.  He 
prayed  that  relief  might  be  given  him  from  the  disease  with  which  he 
was  afflicted.  Cartier  with  his  own  hands  rubbed  the  shrunken  limbs 
of  the  royal  sufferer,  who  bestowed  upon  him  in  return  his  crown  of 
colored  porcupine  quills.  It  seemed  to  these  poor  heathen  "  that  God 
was  descended  and  come  downe  from  heaven  to  heale  them,"  and  the 
halt,  the  lame,  the  blind,  the  impotent  from  age  —  so  old,  some  of 
them,  "  that  the  hair  of  their  eyelids  came  downe  and  covered  their 
cheekes  "  —  were  brought  forward  to  be  healed.  The  best  the  good 
captain  could  do  was  to  pray ;  he  read  the  first  chapter  of  the  Gos- 
pel of  St."  John  and  the  passion  of  Christ,  from  his  service-book,  and 
besought  the  heavenly  Father  that  He  would  have  mercy  upon  these 
benighted  savages,  and  bring  them  to  a  knowledge  of  His  holy  Word. 
The  Indians  were  "  marvellously  attentive,"  looking  to  heaven  as 
the  Christians  did,  and  imitating  all  the  gestures  of  devotion ;  but 
they  better  understood,  and  were  overwhelmed  with  joy  when,  the 
prayers  being  finished,  the  distribution  of  hatchets,  knives,  beads, 
rings,  brooches  of  tin,  and  other  trifles  was  begun. 

1  The  Conquest  of  Canada,  by  the  author  of  Hochelaga,  vol.  ii.,  p.  55 


186 


FRENCH  DISCOVERIES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


Cartier  and  his  companions  soon  returned  to  their  winter-quarters 
at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Charles,-  where  those  they  had  left  behind  had 
meanwhile  built  a  rough  fort.  The  river  within  a  few  weeks  was 
covered  with  solid  ice,  and  the  ships  were  buried  in  four  feet  of  snow. 
With  the  increasing  cold,  one  of  those  pestilences  so  common 
among  the  Indians  broke  out,  and,  whether  it  was  contagious, 
or  whether  it  was  superinduced  by  exposure  to  the  severity 
of  the  climate,  it  soon  attacked  the  French.  Twenty-four  of  the  com- 


Pestilence 

among  the 


Cartier  at   Hochelaga. 

pany  died,  and  the  rest  were  so  enfeebled  that  only  three  were  capable 
of  any  exertion.  To  the  fear  of  death  from  sickness  was  added  sus- 
picion of  the  Indians,  who,  they  were  afraid,  would  take  advantage  of 
the  weakness  of  the  strangers  and  exterminate  those  whom  the  pesti- 
lence spared.  The  natives  were  ordered  to  keep  away  from  the  fort 
and  the  ships  under  pretence  of  precaution  against  infection ;  and, 
when  any  of  them  approached,  Cartier  ordered  his  sick  men  to  beat 
with  hammers  and  sticks  against  the  side  of  their  berths  that  the  noise 
might  be  mistaken  for  sounds  of  busy  industry. 

But  where  they  looked  for  danger  came  succor.     From  the  Indians) 
they  learned  that  a  decoction  of  the  leaves  and  bark  of  a  certain  tree 

•/ 

was  a  specific  for  that  malady  under  which  they  were  fast  perishing. 
The  squaws  brought  branches  of  the  tree,  and  taught  them  how  to  pre- 


1540.]  EXPEDITION   OF   ROBERVAL.  187 

pare  and  use  this  sovereign  medicine,  which,  in  a  few  days,  not  only  did 
all  that  was  promised  for  it,  but  also  cured  the  sick  of  some  old  chronic 
difficulties.1 

Their  suspicions  of   the  Indians,  nevertheless,  continued.     When 
Donnacona  had  gone  on  a  hunting  expedition  the  French 
had  feared  it  was  to  gather  a  force  sufficient  for  an  attack 


upon  the  fort  and  ships.  A  certain  shyness  the  Indians 
showed  on  their  return,  and  an  unwillingness  to  part,  except  at  a  high 
price,  with  provision  they  needed  for  their  own  support,  confirmed  the 
apprehensions.  Suspicion  on  the  one  side  undoubtedly  begot  it  on 
the  other  ;  but  that  the  natives  had  the  most  ground  for  it  was  shown 
in  the  end.  When  Cartier,  in  the  spring,  was  ready  to  sail,  he  enticed 
Donnacona,  with  nine  others,  on  boai'd  his  ships,  seized  and  confined 
them,  and,  heedless  of  the  cries  and  entreaties  of  their  countrymen,  car- 
ried them  to  France.  In  July,  1536,  the  fleet  arrived  at  St.  Malo;  and, 
when  four  years  later,  another  expedition  returned  to  Canada,  Donna- 
cona and  his  companions,  excepting  one  little  girl,  were  all  dead.  They 
had  been  baptized  and  received  into  the  bosom  of  the  Church,  however, 
before  they  died  —  compensation  enough,  it  was  thought,  for  enforced 
loss  of  liberty,  country,  and  friends. 

Cartier  made  to  King  Francis  a  report  of  the  fruitfulness  of  Canada. 
its  wealth  in  copper,  gold,  and  precious  stones,  which  he  had  heard  of, 
but  not  seen  ;  of  the  wonders  of  the  land,  the  deer  with  only  two  feet, 
the  men  with  only  one,  others  who  never  eat,  and  others  still,  mere 
pigmies  in  stature  ;  but  the  interest  excited  was  not  enough  to  lead  to 
any  renewal  of  the  attempt  at  colonization  till  1540.     In  that  year 
Jean  Francois  de  la  Roque,  Seigneur  de  Roberval  of  Picardv,  asked  a 
commission  for  farther  exploration  and  experiment,  and  let-  CommisSjon 
ters  patent  were  issued,  in  which  the  titles  were  conferred  j^J^j1* 
upon  him  of  Lord  of  Norimbegua,  Viceroy  and  Lieutenant-  15*°- 
general  in  Canada,  Hochelaga,  Saguenay,  Newfoundland,  Belle   Isle, 
Carpont,  Labrador,  Great  Bay,  and  Baccalaos.    A  Spanish  spy  alarmed 
his  government  with  a  report  that  colonization  was  now  to  be  under- 
taken by  the  French  on  a  grand  scale  ;  that  thirteen  ships  were  to 

1  The  tree  was  called  Ameda,  or  Hanneda,  by  the  Indians,  and  was  thought,  says  the  old 
chronicle,  to  be  the  Sassafras.  But  the  same  narrative  (Hakluyt,  vol.  iii.)  says,  that  the 
leaves  were  taken  at  the  time  from  the  tree,  which,  of  course,  could  not  have  been  possible 
of  the  sassafras  in  winter.  '•  A  tree  as  big  as  any  Oake  in  France,"  it  relates,  "  was  sjxiiled 
and  lopped  bare,  and  occupied  all  in  five  or  sixe  daies,  and  it  wrought  so  well  that  if  all  the 
phisicians  of  Mmintpelier  and  Louaine  had  beue  there  with  all  the  drugs  of  Alexandria,  they 
would  not  have  done  so  much  in  one  yere  as  that  tree  did  in  sixe  dares  ;  for  it  did  so  pre- 
vaile,  that  as  many  as  used  of  it,  by  the  grace  of  God,  recovered  their  health."  In  the  ac- 
count of  the  next  voyage  of  Cartier  the  Hauneda  is  spoken  of  as  a  tree  "  which  hath  the 
most  excellent  virtue  of  all  the  trees  in  the  world,"  and  as  measuring  "  about  three  fath- 
oms about."  It  was  probably  the  spruce. 


188 


FRENCH   DISCOVERIES. 


[CHAP. 


take  out  twenty-five  hundred  men,  and  two  years'  provisions.  "  Let 
them  go,"  said  the  Portuguese,  "they  can  do  no  harm  in  Baccalaos."1 
But  in  May,  1541,  Cartier,  who  was  the  pilot  general,  got  away  with 
five  vessels  only,  leaving  Roberval  to  follow,  after  further  prepara- 
tions, the  next  year. 


Cartier's    Departure    from    St.    Malo. 

The  expedition,  like  those  preceding  it,  was  barren  of  any  perma- 
nent results.  A  new  fort  was  begun  a  few  miles  above  the  site  of  the 
old  one,  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix  River ;  some  little  land  was 
sowed  ;  something  which  they  took  to  be  gold  was  gathered ;  something 
else,  probably  crystals  of  quartz,  they  supposed  were  diamonds  —  for 
they  were  so  "  faire,  polished,  and  excellently  cut,"  that  in  the  sunlight 
they  "  glister  as  it  were  sparkles  of  fire."  Two  ships  were  sent  home 
in  the  autumn  with  tidings  of  good  progress.  It  was  determined, 
nevertheless,  to  abandon  the  adventure.  The  Indians  soon  became 
troublesome,  for  probably  they  were  not  in  the  least  imposed  upon  by 
the  story  of  Jacques  Cartier,  that  their  kidnapped  countrymen  —  ex- 
cept Donnacona,  who,  it  was  acknowledged,  was  dead — were  all  mar- 
ried in  France,  and  living  there  as  "  lords."  And  the  next  summer 
Roberval,  on  his  way  out  with  an  addition  to  the  colony,  of  two 
hundred  men  and  women,  met  Cartier  in  the  harbor  of  St.  John, 
Newfoundland,  with  his  three  remaining  vessels  bound  homeward. 
Roberval  indignantly  ordered  him  to  return  to  the  St.  Law- 
rence. In  the  morning  his  lieutenant  was  far  out  to  sea  on 
his  way  to  France,  having  quietly  slipped  off  in  the  darkness 
of  the  night.  Perhaps  it  was  not  fear  of  the  Indians,  nor  the  hope- 

1  See  Buckingham  Smith's  Collection  de  raros  Documentos,  p.  107,  et  seq. 


Cartier 
deserts 
Roberval. 


1555.] 


THE   HUGUENOTS  IN  AMERICA. 


189 


lessness  of  a  longer  struggle  with  the  difficulties  and  hardships  of 
settling  a  new  country,  that  alone  influenced  Cartier  and  his  com- 
panions. For,  says  the  old  narrative,  they  were  "  moved,  as  it  seem- 
eth,  with  ambition,  because  they  would  have  all  the  glory  of  the  dis- 
covery of  those  parts  themselves." 

Roberval  continued  his  voyage,  weakened  but  not  dismayed  by  the 
desertion  of  his  lieutenant.     Of  the  colony  he  planted  little 
is  known  except  its  failure,  after  at  least  one  winter's  ex-  Roiwrvai 
perience  of  the  hardships  of  the  wilderness.     According  to  of  attempt 
one  account,  Cartier  was  sent  to  bring  the  survivors  home.1 
At  any  rate  they  returned.    Roberval,  it  is  said,  undertook  another  ex- 
pedition with  a  brother  in  1549,  which  was  lost  at  sea ;  but  it  is  also 
asserted  that  this  could  not  be,  as  he  was  killed  in  Paris.    Cartier  died 
about  1555.     It  was  not  till  the  end  of  the  century  that  other  French- 
men followed  these  first  adventurers  for  the  settlement  of  the  northern 
portion  of  that  immense  country  in  North  America  which  France 
claimed  as  her  own. 

The  foothold  she  next  strove  for  was  much  farther  south,  where  it 
was  hoped  a  handful  of  Huguenots  might  find  an  asylum  Hu  uenot 
from  religious  persecution.     In  1555  a  colony  went  out  to  ^'u"hy^nier. 
the  Rio  de  Janeiro,  but  it  soon  came  to  a  dismal  end.     They  ica- 
were  Protestants,  seeking  to  escape  in  the  wilderness  the  scaffold  and 
the     fagot    to    which 
their  religious  belief  at 
home  exposed  them ; 
but  bitter  dissensions 
soon  arose  among  them 
upon  such  questions  as 
whether    water  could 
be    rightfully    mixed 
with  the  wine  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  or  its 
bread     be     properly 
made  of  Indian  meal. 
Villagagnon,  the  lead- 
er,  repenting    of    his 
Protestant  heresies,  if 
he  ever  seriously  en- 
tertained them,  returned  to  the  bosom  of  the  indulgent  mother  church, 
and  abandoned  his  command.     A  little  remnant  of  the  colony  was 
attacked  by  the  Portuguese,  and  if  any  escaped  alive  it  was  only  by 
throwing  themselves  upon  the  more  tender  mercy  of  the  savages. 

1  Lescarbot,  ffistoire  de  Colonie  Francaise  en  Canada. 


French    Costumes  (16th  Century). 


190  FRENCH   DISCOVERIES.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

Meanwhile  the  Reformation  took  deeper  root  in  France,  —  a  struggle 
for  political  power  as  well  as  for  the  rights  of  conscience.  There  were 
many  anxious  to  escape  from  present  wrong  and  suffering,  and  from 
the  uncertainties  of  the  future,  strong  as  the  Protestant  party  had 
Admiral  Co-  grown  both  among  the  people  and  at  Court.  Coligny,  the  lord 
admiral,  and  leader  of  the  Huguenots,  with  a  view  to  the 
glolT  °^  France,  and  to  the  protection  also  of  his  oppressed 
countrymen,  proposed  to  renew  the  attempt  at  colonization 
in  the  New  World.  In  February,  1562,  he  sent  from  Havre,  in  the 
name  of  the  king,  two  ships  under  the  command  of  Captain  John 
Ribault,  "  to  discover,  and  view  a  certaine  long  coast  of  the  West  In- 
dia ....  called  La  Florida," — a  coast  so  long,  indeed,  that  it  included 
the  whole  of  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  United  States  from  the  Rio 
Grande  to  the  Canadian  line.  Ribault  had  under  his  command,  beside 
the  seamen,  a  band  of  soldiers,  and  with  him  went  a  number  of  gen- 
tlemen who  were  rather  his  companions  than  his  subordinates.  He 
was  a  man  of  experience,  of  character,  of  tried  courage,  of  good  sense 
and  confirmed  faith  ;  and  "  a  man  in  truth,"  says  the  old  chronicle, 
"expert  in  sea  causes."1  His  followers,  it  was  hoped,  wei-e  worthy 
of  such  a  leader.  They  meant  to  build  up  the  Reformed  Protestant 
Church  in  the  wilderness  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  salvation  of  a 
"  brutishe  people ; "  but  they  also  looked  "  to  trafficke  in  riche  and 
inestimable  commodities,"  in  gold,  and  silver,  and  pi'ecious  stones. 
They  were  determined  to  be  rich,  and  they  proposed  also  to  be  good. 
The  voyage  was  tempestuous  and  long,  for  winds  from  the  west 
and  southwest  drove  them  back,  compelling  them  to  put  into 

Thev  reach 

the  coast  of  Brest  to  land  their  sick,  and  "  suffer  the  tempest  to  passe." 
Taking  thence  a  new  departure  on  the  27th  of  February,  they 
held  a  direct  course  across  the  Atlantic  till  the  30th  of  April,  when  they 
approached  "  a  fayre  coast,  stretchying  of  a  great  length,  covered  with 
an  infinite  number  of  high  and  fayre  trees,  without  anye  shewe  of  hills." 
It  was  the  coast  of  Florida,  in  about  the  latitude  of  twenty-nine  and 
a  half.  Casting  anchor  some  leagues  from  the  land,  off  a  cape  which 
they  named  Cape  Francois,  and  which  is  supposed  to  be  a  headland  of 
Matanzas  Inlet,  the  boats  were  sent  to  seek  for  a  harbor.  On  their  re- 
turn in  the  afternoon,  with  a  favorable  report,  they  weighed  anchor  and 
sailed  along  the  coast  northward,  observing  it  "  with  unspeakable 
pleasure,  of  the  odorous  smell  and  beautie  of  the  same,"  till  the}-  came 
to  "  a  goodly  and  great  river."  Entering  this  the  next  morning  they 
found  it  "  to  increase  still  in  depth  and  largenesse,  boyling  and  roar- 
ing through  the  multitude  of  all  kind  of  fish."  It  was  a  safe  and  pleas- 
ant harbor.  The  Indians  running  along  the  sands  welcomed  them 
1  Laudoiiuiere's  Notable  Historic,  in  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii. 


1562.] 


RIBAULT    AT   THE   ST.  JOHN   RIVER. 


191 


with  wondering  but  friendly  gestures,  showing  "  all  gentlenesse  and 
amitie,"  and  pointing  out  the  easiest  landing-place  ;  trinkets,  "  some 
looking-glasse,  and  other  prettie  things  of  small  value,"  were  exchanged 
for  skins  and  girdles  of  leather  "  as  well  courerd  and  coloured  as  was 
possible  ; "  the  chief,  or  king,  made  an  oration,  eloquent  but  unintelli- 
gible ;  and  the  French  fell  upon  their  knees  upon  the  beach,  "  to  give 
thanks  to  God  for  that  of  His  grace  He  had  conducted  them  to  these 
strange  places,  and  to  beseech  Him  to  bring  to  the  knowledge  of  our 
Saviour,  Christ,  this  poore  people."  The  river  they  called,  from  the 
day  on  which  they  entered  it,  the  River  of  May.  It  is  now  known  as 
the  St.  John. 


Entering    the    St.  John    River. 

There  were  no  bounds  to  the  delight  and  enthusiasm  with  which 
the  impressible  Frenchmen  entered  upon  their  new  possession ;  and  in 
token  of  its  being  theirs  they  set  up,  on  the  second  day,  a 
stone  column,  on  which  were  engraved  the  arms  of  France, 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  river,  "  upon  a  little  hill  compassed  Frauc«- 
with  Cypres,  Bayes,  Paulmes,  and  other  trees,  with  sweete  smelling 
and  pleasant  shrubbes."  This  was  the  first  boundary  on  the  south  of 
his  Majesty's  dominion  in  the  New  World.  It  was  erected  in  the  early 
morning,  before  the  Indians  were  assembled,  perhaps  because  these 
Frenchmen  were  conscious  that  they  had  no  more  rightful  title  to  the 
land  than  the  red  men  had  to  the  streets  of  Paris.  But  there  was  no 


192  FRENCH  DISCOVERIES.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

cause  for  anxiety ;  the  natives  looked  at  the  pillar  with  mute  surprise, 
evidently  regarding  it  as  only  one  puzzle  the  more  about  these  strange 
visitors.  They  had  yet  to  learn  that  as  heathens  they  were  the  rightful 
spoil  of  all  good  Christians.  The  strangers  chose  to  take  this  country 
as  their  own,  for  to  them  it  seemed  "  the  fairest,  fruitfulest, 

of  the  new      and  pleasantest  of  all  the  world."    Its  trees  were  "  of  wonder- 
country.  -    -  i    i     •    i      »»          t      r  •          f       i 

till  greatnesse  and  height,  and  ot  every  variety  for  beauty 
and  value  ;  to  the  tops  the  wild  vines  grew  "  with  grapes  according ;  " 
the  caterpillars  on  the  mulberries  they  supposed  were  silkworms  ;  in 
these  pleasant  woods  roamed  deer,  wild  swine,  bears,  lynxes,  leopards, 
conies,  and  many  other  beasts  unknown,  all  valuable  for  food  or  for 
their  skins  and  furs  ;  among  the  many  birds  were  turkeys,  partridges  of 
two  kinds,  and  woodcocks ;  eyrets,  herons,  bitterns,  curlews  screamed, 
or  swam,  or  waded  about  the  waters  of  the  bay ;  in  the  river  was 
"  marvellous  store  "  of  trout,  millet,  plaice,  turbot,  and  other  fishes ; 
so  that  they  concluded,  "it  is  a  thing  unspeakable  to  consider  the 
thinges  that  bee  seene  there,  and  shall  bee  founde  more  and  more  in 
this  incomparable  lande,  which  never  yet  broken  with  plough  yrons 
bringeth  forth  al  things  according  to  his  first  nature,  wherewith  the 
eternall  God  indued  it." 

Not  less  attractive  were  the  mild-mannered  and  courteous  though 
naked  savages.  The  men  were  well-shaped,  of  goodly  stature,  digni- 
Manners  of  ^ec^'  self-possessed,  and  of  pleasant  countenance  ;  the  women 
the  natives.  wen  favored,  modest,  suffering  no  one  "dishonestly  to  ap- 
proch  too  neare  them  ; "  and  both  were  so  beautifully  painted  that 
"  the  best  Painter  of  Europe  could  not  amende  it."  But  better  and 
more  promising  than  all,  some  of  these  Indians  wore  ornaments  of 
gold,  silver,  copper,  pearls,  and  turquoises ;  from  a  collar  of  gold  and 
silver  about  the  neck  of  one  of  them,  hung  a  pearl  as  big  as  an  acorn, 
which  the  owner  was  willing  enough  to  part  with  for  a  looking-glass 
or  a  knife.  Pearls  were  found  there  as  fair  as  in  any  country  of  the 
woi'lcl,  taken  from  oysters  along  the  river  side,  among  the  reeds  and  in 
the  marshes,  in  "  so  merveylous  aboundance  as  is  skant  probable." 
Even  Cibola  could  be  reached  in  boats  by  way  of  rivers  in  twenty 
days  —  Cibola,  two  thousand  miles  off  on  the  Pacific,  which  the  Span- 
ish friar,  Marco  de  Ni£a,  visited  in  the  year  1539,  and  reported  that 
within  it  were  seven  great  cities,  the  houses  whereof  were  built  of 
lime  and  stone,  two,  three,  sometimes  five  stories  in  height,  ascended 
on  the  outside  by  ladders ;  whose  inhabitants  clothed  themselves  in 
gowns  of  cotton,  in  woollen  cloth,  and  in  garments  of  leather,  wearing 
girdles  of  turquoises  around  their  waists,  emeralds  in  their  ears  and 
noses;  whose  common  household  vessels  were  of  gold  and  silver; 
and  where  gold  was  more  abundant  than  in  Peru,  the  walls  of  the 


1562.]  COLONY   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  193 

temples  being  covered  with  plates  of  that  precious  metal.  This  was 
the  captivating  perspective  seen  by  the  new  comers  through  the 
everglades,  and  festooned,  perfumed  forests  of  Florida  in  May  —  the 
seductive  vision  of  a  life  of  opulence  and  ease  which  awaited  them  in 
place  of  the  civil  strife  and  religious  persecution  which  they  had  left  at 
home. 

From  the  St.  John  —  River  of  May  —  they  sailed  northward  along 
the  coast,  naming  the  streams  for  well-known  rivers  of  France. 
Everywhere  the  natives  gave  them  the  same  kind  welcome  ; 

i  •  «•  i       i  i  -PI  •         They  sail  up 

everywhere  thev  found  the  country  beautiful  and  promis-  the  coast 

..."  .  ,     ,    .         ,      „  „  .         northward. 

ing  —  "lull  of   havens,  rivers,  and  islands,      says   Captain 
Ribault,  "of  such  fruitfulnes  as  cannot  with  tongue  be  expressed  ;  in 
fertilitie  apt  and  commodious  throughout  to  beare  and    bring  forth 
plentifully  all  that  men  would  plant  or  sowe  upon  it.*'    On  the  27th 
they  entered  the  harbor  of  Port  Royal.     Here  a  navy  might 

.,.,  .,  .  PI         Entrance  to 

ride  in  safety  —  as  navies  have  since  done  —  "  one  ot    the   t>i,rt  Koyai 
fayrest   and   greatest   havens    in    the  worlde,"   into   which 
flowed  "  many  rivers  of  meane  bignesse  and  large,"  watering  "  one  of 
the  goodliest,  best,  and  frutefullest  countreys  that  ever  was  seene,  and 
where  nothing  lacketh,  and  also  where  as  good  and  likely  commodities 
bee  founde  as  in   other  places   thereby."     Here   it   was   proposed  to 
plant  a  colony. 

Ribault  called  his  company  together  and  made  them  an  address, 
which  he  modestly  omits  in  his  own  relation,1  but  which  is  faith- 
fully reported  in  another.2  He  reminded  them  of  the  great  im- 
portance of  the  enterprise  in  which  they  were  engaged,  and  of  the 
"  eternal  memorie  "  which  should  of  right  belong  to  those,  who,  for- 
getting their  parents  and  their  country,  should  have  the 
"  goode  happe  to  make  tryall  of  the  benefits  and  commodities  »H»UU  to 
of  this  new  land."  Their  humble  birth  and  condition,  he 
told  them,  should  be  no  discouragement,  for  many,  it  should  be  re- 
membered, among  the  Romans,  "  for  their  so  valiant  enterprises,  not 
for  the  greatnesse  of  their  parentage,  haue  obtained  the  honour  to 
tryumph ;  "  and  not  among  the  Romans  only  were  there  many  notable 
examples  of  men  of  low  origin  rising  to  places  of  dignity  and  power. 
And  his  promise  to  those  who  should  permit  themselves  to  be  "  regis- 
tred  forever  as  the  first  that  inhabited  this  strang  countrey,"  was  "  I 
will  so  imprint  your  names  in  the  king's  eares,  and  the  other  princes, 

1  The  True  and  Last  Discouerie  of  Florida,  made  by  Captain  John  Ribault  in  the  yerre  1562. 
Dedicated  to  a  great  noble  man  of  France,  and  translated  into  Englishe  by  one  Thomas  Hackit. 
Hakluyt's  Divers  Voyages. 

2  A  Notable  Historic  containing  Foiire   Voyages  made  by   Certaint  French   Captames  into 
Florida,  etc.,  etc.,  by  Monsieur  Laudonniere.     Hakluyt's  Voyages,  vol.  iii. 

VOL.  i.  13 


194  FRENCH  DISCOVERIES.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

that  your  renowne  shall  hereafter  shine  vnquenchable  through  our 
Realme  of  France." 

Whether  moved  by  his  eloquence,  or  carried  away  by  the  en- 
thusiasm which  the  events  and  scenes  of  the  last  few  days  inspired, 
there  were  so  many  anxious  to  be  left  behind,  that  Ribault  "  had 
much  to  do  to  stay  their  importunitie."  Thirty,  however,  were  all  he 
Beginning  could  spare,  and  a  soldier  of  long  experience,  Albert  de  la 
French  set-  Pierria,  who  was  the  first  among  them  all  to  offer  to  remain, 
tiement.  AV;IS  appointed  captain.  With  a  good  will  all  hands  then 
went  to  work  to  put  up  a  fort  for  the  protection  of  the  colonists.  It 
was  called  Charles  Fort,  and  was  built  on  a  little  island  in  a  stream 
they  called  Chenonceau,  now  known  as  Archer's  Creek,  about  six 
miles  from  Beaufort,  South  Carolina.1  This  done,  Ribault  set  sail 
with  his  two  vessels  on  the  llth  of  June,  to  return  to  France,  leaving 
with  the  colonists  a  store  of  victuals  and  ammunition,  and  this  part- 
ing exhortation:  that  they  be  obedient  to  their  captain,  and  live  as 
brethren,  one  with  another. 

The  first  care  of  the  colonists  was  to  finish  the  fort,  never  resting 
night  or  day  till  this  was  done,  that  there  might  the  sooner  be  leisure 
for  exploration  into  the  interior.  But  here  all  real  work  began  and 
ended.  A  place  to  fight  in,  if  need  be,  first ;  then  to  spy  out  and 
gather  the  riches  of  the  land  in  gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones, 
was  their  notion  of  colonization.  No  provision  was  made  for  the 
future ;  they  relied  on  Ribault's  promise  to  send  them  speedy  succor, 
as  if  it  were  a  narrow  stream  and  not  three  thousand  miles  of  ocean 
that  separated  them  from  France.  The  "  fat  ground,"  so  "  won- 
derfull  fertill  that  it  will  bring  forthe  the  wheate  and  all  other  come 
twice  a  yeere,"  they  suffered  to  remain  as  they  found  it,  '"  unbroken 
with  plough-irons,"  and  ere  long  they  were  suffering  for  want  of 
food.  The  game  with  which  in  their  season  the  woods  were 
ami  idleness  filled,  the  fish  with  which  the  waters  were  alive,  they  were 
*'  too  unskillful  or  too  idle  to  take.  Indolent  and  improvident, 
they  soon  became  dependent  upon  the  bounty  of  the  savages.  They 
cultivated  the  friendship  of  all  the  tribes  within  their  reach,  and 
though  the  Indians  soon  learned  to  look  upon  them  with  contempt  for 
their  idleness  and  imbecility,  they  seem  to  have  felt  for  them  none 
of  that  hatred  and  fear  which  the  Spaniards  always  aroused  by  their 
licentiousness  and  cruelty. 

No  aid  came  from  France.  The  Indians,  who  lived  as  their  race 
lives  always,  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  in  their  natural  state  were  ac- 
customed to  look  starvation  in  the  face  at  least  once  a  year  between 
seed-time  and  harvest,  had  little  to  spare.  Of  this,  however,  they 

1  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  Nttc  World,  by  Frauds  Parkmau. 


15C2.] 


THE    COLONY   ABANDONED. 


195 


gave  generously,  and  when  at  one  time  the  store-house  at  Charles 
Fort,  filled  by  the  charity  of  a  distant  chief,  was,  the  next  night,  de- 
stroyed with  all  it  contained,  by  fire,  their  savage  benefactors  built, 
within  twelve  days,  a  new  house,  and  refilled  it.  With  hunger  and 
destitution  the  colonists  grew  discontented,  desperate,  and  insubordi- 
nate. Captain  Albert,  either  from  an  ill-judged  attempt  to  enforce 
rigid  discipline  among  these  starving  wretches,  or  else  in  the  mere 
wantonness  of  power,  hanged  a  drummer,  named  Guernache,  for 
some  trifling  fault,  and  banished  a  soldier,  La  Chere,  to  a  desolate 
island,  where  he  was  afterward  found  half  dead  from  him-  Mutinvan(i 
ger.  Thereupon  followed  defiance  and  mutiny  from  others  blood(<hed 
who  were  threatened  with  the  like  punishments,  and  these  only  ended 
in  the  murder  of  the  captain.  Then  Nicolas  Barre  was  chosen  gov- 
ernor, "  a  man  worthy  of  commendation,  and  one  which  knewe  so 
well  to  quit  himselfe  of  his  charge  that  all  rancour  and  dissention 
ceased  among  them."  There  was  at  last  peace. 

But  they  were  as  hungry  as  before,  and  the  question  now  was,  how 
to  get  back  to  France.  So  desperate  was  their  condition  that,  although 
there  were  no  mechanics  among  them,  they  determined  to  build  a 


Building  the   Pinnace. 


small  pinnace.     For  cordage  they  took  such  rope  as  the  Indians  could 
make  for  them ;  for  sails,  what  they  had  left  of  their  own  sheets  and 
shirts ;  for  provisions,  as  much  corn  as  the  natives  chose  to  give ;  and  so, 
"drunken  with  excessive  joy"  at  the  hope  of  seeing  France  Buildingof 
again,  but  as  always,  without  "  foresight  and  consideration,"  »vessel-»»a 


embarkation 
for  Frauce. 


and  with  '•  slender  victual,"  they  put  to  sea.     Xo  madder 

voyage,  perhaps,  was  ever  undertaken.     Only  one  third  of  it  was 


196  FRENCH  DISCOVERIES.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

made  when  the  wind  failed  them.  For  the  next  three  weeks  they 
sailed  only  twenty-five  leagues,  and  then  provision  became  so  short 
that  twelve  kernels  of  corn  a  day  was  each  man's  allowance.  Even 
this  was  soon  exhausted,  and  there  was  nothing  left  to  eat  but  their 
shoes  and  leather  jackets.  A  part  died  of  hunger.  Water  there  was 
none,  except  the  salt  sea  that  poured  in  at  every  seam  of  their  crazy 
craft.  A  storm  overtook  them,  and  for  three  days  they  lay  helpless  and 
Misery  on  m  despair  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  which  drifted  whither- 
Bhipboard.  soever  it  would.  Hope  revived  at  the  proposition  that  one 
should  die  to  save  the  rest,  and  the  lot  fell  upon  that  La  Chere  whom 
Captain  Albert  had  banished  from  the  colony  to  starve  alone  upon 
an  island  at  Port  Royal.  "  Now  his  flesh  was  divided  equally  among 
his  fellowes :  a  thing  so  pitiful  to  recite,"  says  Laudonnie're,  "  that  my 
pen  is  loth  to  write  it."  But  it  saved  the  rest ;  they  soon  after  fell  in 
with  an  English  vessel,  on  board  of  which  was  one  of  their  com- 
panions who  had  gone  home  with  Ribault,  and  they  were  taken, 
the  most  feeble  to  France,  the  others  as  prisoners  to  England. 

It  was  by  no  neglect  of  Ribault's  that  the  thirty  men  left  at  Charles 
Fort  had  watched  in  vain  for  his  promised  return  till  they  were  ready 
Affairs  in  *°  resort  to  any  desperate  measure.  Civil  war  had  broken 
France.  ouf.  when  he  reached  France  ;  and  Coligny,  the  lord  admiral, 
had  no  leisure  to  think,  even  in  the  interest  of  the  reformed  religion, 
of  a  feeble  colony  planted  in  the  wilderness  on  the  other  side  of  the 
sea.  So  long  as  the  country  at  home  was  distracted  by  the  war,  and 
so  long  as  any  doubt  remained  of  his  own  party  attaining  to  supreme 
power  in  the  state,  it  was  vain  to  ask  for  aid.  A  few  months  after 
Ribault's  return,  the  Duke  of  Guise,  the  head  of  the  Catholic  faction, 
was  assassinated,  and  in  the  confusion  that  followed,  Coligny  had 
enough  to  do  to  defend  himself  against  the  charge  of  being  the  insti- 
gator of  that  act.  True,  it  ultimately  led  to  a  short  peace,  but  it  was 
long  before  there  was  even  the  semblance  of  a  reconciliation  between 
parties  hating  each  other  with  both  religious  and  political  rancor  ; 
long  before  there  was  any  real  relief  to  a  country  whose  business  and 
agriculture  were  wellnigh  ruined,  whose  discharged  soldiers  lived  by 
robbery,  whose  people  were  generally  suffering  for  want  of  food,  and 
from  whose  borders  a  foreign  foe  had  still  to  be  expelled. 

But  in  1564,  Coligny  represented  to  the  king  that  no  news  had 
been  heard  from  the  men  sent  to  Florida,  and  that  it  was  a  pity  they 
Coligny -8  should  be  left  to  perish.  A  new  expedition  was  determined 
ture  under"  on»  ^ut  ^  *s  no*  ceftam  that  the  survivors  taken  from  the 
etonniere1*11"  pinnace  did  not  arrive  in  France  before  it  sailed.  If  so,  the 
166*-  attempt  at  colonization,  at  any  rate,  was  to  be  persevered 

in,  and  three  ships  sailed  in  April  under  the  command  of  Captain 
Rend  de  Laudonnidre,  who  was  with  Ribault  on  the  first  voyage. 


1564.]  COLIGNY'S   SECOND  COLONY.  197 

In  June  the  fleet  of  three  ships  arrived  in  the  River  of  May.  On 
landing,  the  Frenchmen  were  greeted  with  shouts  of  welcome  by  a 
crowd  of  Indians,  men  and  women,  who  cried  out,  "  Ami !  Ami !  " 
(Friend  !  Friend  I)  the  one  French  word  they  had  learned  from  their" 
former  visitors,  and  remembered.  Their  Paracoussy,  or  chief,  whose 
name  was  Satouriona,  led  the  Frenchmen  to  the  pillar  of 
stone  which  Ribault  had  set  up  two  years  before,  "and  wee  piiur  adored 
found  the  same,"  says  Laudonniere,  "  crowned  with  crownes 
of  Bay  and  at  the  foote  thereof  many  little  baskets  full  of  mill 
(corn),  which  they  call  in  their  language,  Tapaga  Tapola.  Then, 
when  they  came  thither,  they  kissed  the  same  with  great  reuerence, 
and  besought  vs  to  do  the  like,  which  we  would  not  denie  them,  to 
the  ende  we  might  drawe  them  to  be  more  in  friendship  with  vs." 
The  next  day  the  chief  received  the  captain  and  his  suite  in  state, 
"  vnder  the  shadow  of  an  arbour,  apparalled  with  a  great  Harts  skinne 
dressed  like  chamois,  and  painted  with  detiices  of  strange  and  diners 
colours,  but  of  so  liuely  a  portrature,  and  representing  antiquity,  with 
rules  so  iustly  compassed,  that  there  is  no  Painter  so  exquisite  that 
could  finde  fault  therewith." 

Among  the  first  gifts  from  the  Indians  was  a  wedge  of  silver,  given 
to  Laudonniere  by  a  son  of  Satouriona.      When  inquiry  was 

<•  i    "  Giftofcilrer 

afterward  made  as  to  where  tins  silver  came  from,  the  cun-  from  the  u» 
ning  Indian,  who  understood  the  eagerness  of  the  French- 
men to  find  mines  of  the  precious  metals,  and  meant  to  turn  that 
passion  to  his  own  account,  asserted  that  the  wedge  was  taken  from  a 
tribe,  some  days'  journey  in  the  interior,  called  the  Thimogoa ;  that 
they  were  his  natural  and  deadly  enemies,  and  if  the  strangers  w^uld 
join  him  in  fighting  them,  enough  of  gold  and  silver  could  be  got  to 
satisfy  all  their  desires. 

But  the  enthusiasm  and  delight  of  Laudonniere  and  his  companions 
were  —  as  the  case  had  been  with  Ribault  and  his  company,  and  as 
was  entirely  characteristic  of  them  all  as  Frenchmen — extravagant 
and  beyond  all  reason.  The  soil  of  this  incomparable  country  was 
so  rich ;  the  trees  festooned  with  vines  and  hanging  moss,  and  "  of  so 
souereign  odour  that  Baulme  smelleth  nothing  in  com- 
parison,"  were  so  grand  and  beautiful ;  the  waters  of  the 
lakes  and  rivers  were  so  sweet  and  placid;  the  meadows  were  °<KTe' 
so  inviting,  divided  asunder  into  "  little  iles  and  islets ; "  the  flowers 
of  such  delightful  hue  and  fragrance,  that  it  seemed  that  life  there 
must  be  passed  in  uninterrupted  happiness  and  pleasure.  And  the 
people,  apparently,  were  worthy  of  so  pleasant  a  land,  being  "  of  a 
natural  disposition  perfect  and  well  guided."  Athore,  the  eldest  son 
of  Satouriona,  was  "  gentle  and  tractable ;  perfect  in  beautie,  wise- 


198 


FRENCH   DISCOVERIES. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


Building  of 
Fort  Caro- 
line 


dome,  honest  sobrietie,  and  modest  grauitie."  The  chief  of  a  neigh- 
boring tribe  was  "  gratious  and  courteous,"  and  "  one  of  the  tallest 
men  and  best  proportioned  that  may  bee  founde ; "  his  wife  a  model  as 
a  princess,  a  woman,  and  a  mother,  endowed  with  great  beauty,  u  of 
virtuous  countenance  and  modest  gravity,"  having  in  her  train  five 
graceful  daughters,  well  brought  up,  "  taught  well  and  straightly." 
That  they  none  of  them  wore  much  if  any  clothing  perhaps  added  to 
rather  than  took  from  the  glamour  of  this  arcadian  picture.  Life,  too, 
as  seemed  fitting,  was  prolonged  in  this  land  where  the  men  were 
noble  and  brave,  the  women  beautiful,  and  all  nature  bountiful.  The 
father  of  a  chief  was  found  whose  descendants  were  counted  to  the 
fifth  generation.  How  old  the  sire  was  is  not  stated ;  but  his  vener- 
able son  numbered  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  both  expected, 
unless  cut  off  by  a  violent  death,  to  live  thirty  or  forty  years  longer. 

Laudonniere,  after  sailing  a  few  leagues  along  the  coast,  returned 
to  the  River  of  May  without  going  to  Port  Royal,  having  heard,  no 
doubt,  either  from  the  Indians  or  before  leaving  France,  of  the  aban- 
donment of  Charles  Fort.  He  determined  to  settle  on  the 
May,  rather  than  at  Port  Roval.  as  "  it  was  much  more  need- 

«/  *  «/ 

full  to  plant  in  places  plentifull  of  victual,  than  in  goodly 
havens,  faire,  deepe,  and  pleasant  to  the  view."     The  spot  chosen  was 

just  above  what  is 
now  known  as  St. 
John's  Bluff,  on  the 
bank  of  the  river.1 
At  break  of  day, 
the  trumpet  sound- 
ed to  assemble  the 
people  ;  a  Psalm 
of  thanksgiving  was 
sung  ;  the  blessing 
of  God  was  asked 
upon  their  enter- 
prise, and  then  all 
fell  to  work  with 
shovels,  cutting  - 
hooks  and  hatchets. 
The  fort  was  in  the  shape  of  a  triangle,  fronting  the  river,  with  the 
bluff  on  one  side,  a  marsh  on  the  other,  and  the  woods  in  the  rear. 
It  was  finished  in  a  few  days,  with  the  aid  of  Satouriona's  people, 
and  was  uumed  Fort  Caroline,  in  honor  of  the  king,  Charles  IX.  of 
France. 

1  Parkiuan's  Pioneers  of  Neto  France.     Fairbanks'  History  of  St.  Auyustine. 


Fort    Caroline       [De   Bry  ] 


1564.]  CUPIDITY   OF   THE  FRENCHMEN.  199 

They  could  handle  the  shovel  to  build  fortifications,  but  not  to  till 
the  ground.  As  in  the  first  colony,  no  seed  was  planted  ;  the  only 
harvest  thought  of  was  gold  and  silver.  The  experience  of  the  un- 
fortunate Port  Royalists  profited  them  nothing ;  if  they  considered  at 
all  the  advantage  which  numbers  gave  them,  it  was  only;  that  they 
would  be  able  to  explore  the  farther,  and  use  them,  if  need  be,  in  the 
subjection  of  the  Indians,  in  acquiring  the  wealth  they  hoped  to  find. 
Expeditions  were  sent  from  time  to  time  into  the  interior,  always 
with  the  same  purpose.  Everywhere  gold  and  silver  were 
asked  for;  everywhere  was  the  same  answer:  it  was  some  for  gold  and 

silver. 

chief  beyond  who  had  them  in  plenty,  and  against  that  par- 
ticular chief  the  informant  was  always  anxious  to  commence  hostil- 
ities with  the  aid  of  the  Frenchmen.  There  was  no  fable  telling  of  gold 
that  they  were  not  eager  to  swallow.  It  was  "  good  newes  "  at  Fort 
Caroline  that  there  were  certain  Indians  who  covered  "  their  brests, 
armes,  thighes,  legs,  and  foreheads,  with  large  plates  of  gold  and  silver," 
as  protective  armor,  and  that  "  the  height  of  two  foot  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver," would  be  the  booty  that  might  be  taken  from  the  least  of  the 
petty  chiefs  of  that  people.  Two  Spaniards  were  brought  to  the  Fort 
from  the  Gulf  coast,  where  they  had  been  shipwrecked  fifteen  years 
before  ;  they  i-eported  that  the  king  of  that  country  "  had  great  store 
of  gold  and  silver,  so  farre  forth  that  in  a  certaine  village  he  had  a 
pit  full  thereof,  which  was  at  the  least  as  high  as  a  man,  and  as  large 
as  a  tunne  ;  "  that  "  the  common  people  of  the  countrey  also  had  great 
store  thereof  ;  "  that  "  the  women  going  to  dance,  did  weare  about 
their  girdles  plates  of  gold  as  broad  as  a  sawcer,  and  in  such  number 
that  the  weight  did  hinder  them  to  dance  at  their  ease  ;  and  that  the 
men  ware  the  like  also."  While  the  cupidity  of  the  Frenchmen  was 
inflamed  with  such  stories,  there  could  be  no  useful  industry  and  no 
steady  discipline.  Promises  to  the  chiefs  of  rendering  aid  in  their 
attacks  upon  their  neighboi-s,  were  kept  or  broken,  as  either  course 
seemed  most  likely  to  further  the  search  for  treasure.  It  was  a  trial 
of  cunning  with  the  native  chiefs,  in  which,  on  the  whole,  the  savages 
came  off  the  best ;  for  they  were  sometimes  enabled,  by  the  help  of 
the  Christians,  to  add  to  their  store  of  scalps,  while  the  promised 
riches  which  the  Christians  coveted,  wore  still  to  be  got  by  some  new 
expedition.  "  The  mountaine  of  Apaliohi,"  which  they  soon  learned 
to  believe  was  the  source  of  the  precious  metals  they  were  in  search 
of,  seemed  after  every  fight  to  be  as  distant  as  ever. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


FRENCH   AND   SPANISH   COLONISTS   IN   FLORIDA. 


PLOTS  AGAINST  THE  FRENCH  GOVERNOR  LAUDONNIERE. —  OPEN  MUTINY  IN  HIS 
COLONY.  —  FIGHT  WITH  INDIANS.  —  VISIT  OF  AN  ENGLISH  FLEET  TO  PORT  ROYAL. 
—  ARRIVAL  OF  RIBAULT  WITH  A  FLEET  OF  SEVEN  SHIPS.  —  CRUSADE  OF  PEDRO 
MENENDEZ  AGAINST  HERETICS.  —  His  ATTACK  ON  FORT  CAROLINE.  —  SLAUGHTER 

OF  HlBAULT  AND  HIS  MEN  BY  THE  SPANIARDS.  —  FOUNDING  OF  THE  FlRST  PER- 
MANENT SETTLEMENT  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  INDIGNATION  OF  THE  FRENCH  AT 
THE  SPANISH  ATROCITIES.  —  DOMINIQUE  DE  GOURGUES  GOES  TO  FLORIDA.  —  HE 
MAKES  ALLIES  OF  THE  SAVAGES.  —  ATTACK  ON  THE  SPANISH  FORT.  —  THE 
BLOODY  RETALIATION.  —  A  SPANISH  MISSION  ON  THE  RAPPAHANNOCK. 

DISAPPOINTMENT  in  these  extravagant  hopes  and  ill-directed 
efforts  soon  led  to  the  inevitable  results.  Discontent  and  insubordina- 
tion showed  themselves  in  the  fort ;  Laudonniere  was  blamed 
tjon  in  Fort  for  want  of  energy  and  enterprise,  and  a  plot  was  formed  to 
depose  him  and  even  to  take  his  life.  One  La  Roquette  pre- 
tended to  have  discovered  by  magic  a  mine  of  gold  and  silver,  far  up 
the  river,  which  he  promised  should  yield  ten  thousand  crowns  each 
to  the  soldiers  who  should  take  it,  besides  a  reserve  of  fifteen  hundred 
thousand  for  the  king.  Genre,  a  trusted  friend  of  Laudonnidre,  was, 
with  Roquette,  the  head  of  this  conspiracy,  and  many  of  the  soldiers 
were  fascinated  with  the  old  delusion  in  fresher  and  more  captivating 
colors  than  ever.  But  to  reach  this  wonderful  mine  it  was  necessary 
first  to  dispose  of  the  captain  ;  for  he  held  the  key  of  the  store-house, 
was  rigidly  economical  of  provision,  was  obeyed  and  trusted  by  many 
of  the  soldiers,  and  was  an  obstacle  generally  in  the  way  of  any  plan 
whereby  every  man  in  the  colony  was  to  do  just  as  he  pleased  with- 
out regard  to  anybody  else.  It  was  proposed  to  the  apothecary  to 
give  him  enough  arsenic  or  quicksilver  "  to  make  mee,"  says  Laudon- 
niere himself,  "  pitch  ouer  the  pearch  ;  "  the  master  of  the  fire-works 
was  asked  to  put  a  keg  of  gunpowder  under  his  bed.  But  neither 
proposition  found  favor  in  the  eyes  of  those  scrupulous  officers ;  ex- 
posure speedily  followed,  and  the  conspirators  were  punished  on  the 
spot  or  sent  back  to  France. 

But  the  fire  was  only  smothered,  not  extinguished.     Other  mal- 


1564.] 


A    PIRATICAL   VOYAGE. 


201 


contents  soon  after  stole  two  small  vessels,  the  only  ones  the  colony 

possessed  for  excursions  into  the  interior,  and  made  off  to 

the  West  India  Islands  for  a  piratical  voyage  on  their  own   necmwize 

J      ,      .,  the  ships. 

account.  Two  other  and  larger  vessels  were  built  as  soon  as 
possible,  but  were  no  sooner  ready  for  sea  than  they  also  were  seized, 
the  mutineers,  this  time,  being  strong  enough  to  imprison  Laudon- 
niere  and  compel  him  to  sign  a  roving  commission  authorizing  them 
to  make  a  cruise  among  the  Spanish  colonies.  By  robbing  churches 
and  seizing  treasure-ships  they  hoped  to  so  enrich  themselves  as  to  be 
independent  even  of  government  at  home,  if  their  acts  should  be  re- 
pudiated. But  the  fate  which  so  often  followed  buccaneers  attended 
them.  They  soon  quarrelled  over  the  booty  they  easily  acquired ; 


Arrest  of  the  Pirates. 


three  of  the  vessels  finally  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards  ;  the 
fourth,  steered  by  a  pilot  who,  with  some  of  the  sailors,  had  been  com- 
pelled against  his  will  to  go  in  her,  was  brought  back  by  his  skillful 
management  to  Fort  Caroline,  when  Laudonniere  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seizing  the  ringleaders  and  punishing  them  with  death. 

In  the  spring  a  new  enemy  beset  them,  whose  coming  should  have 
been  foreseen  —  "  ignominious  hunger."    The  provisions  they  brought 


202  FRENCH   AND   SPANISH  IN   FLORIDA.  [CuAP.  IX. 

with  them  were  exhausted,  and  they  could  no   longer  rely  upon   the 
stock  of  corn  and  beans  which  the  Indians  had  laid  up  for 

Famine  at-  .  .  ..  ,  .   ,  .  , 

tacks  the  winter  use,  as  they  parted  unwillingly  with  any  portion  of 
their  small  remainder.  Ti'inkets  and  clothing,  with  which 
they  had  become  familiar,  diminished  in  value  in  the  eyes  of  the 
savages,  and  they  knew  from  experience  how  to  measure  with  accu- 
racy the  wasting  corn-heaps  by  the  months  still  to  elapse  before  the 
ripening  of  the  new  corn.  Less  thoughtful  than  the  Indians,  the  col- 
onists had  provided  for  no  scarcity,  and  looked  forward  to  no  harvest, 
depending  alone  upon  succor  from  France,  as  their  unfortunate  coun- 
trymen had  done  before  them.  Day  by  day,  they  climbed  the  hill 
and  scanned  the  horizon  in  vain  for  a  sight  of  the  returning  ships ;  and 
dav  by  day  their  flesh  wasted  away,  their  bones  pierced  the  skin,  and 
hardly  strength  was  left  them  to  gather  sorrel  and  dig  the  few  edible 
roots  they  could  find  in  the  woods  wherewith  to  keep  the  life  in  their 
miserable  bodies.  Driven  to  this  extremity  they  clamored  to  be  led 
back  to  France,  though  not  one  of  their  two  or  three  small  vessels  was 
large  enough  to  carry  the  whole  company,  or  fit  to  encounter  the 
perils  of  such  a  voyage. 

It  was  the  time  of  planting,  and  they  could  as  easily  have  waited 
for  the  ripening  of  fruit  and  grain  and  have  thus  made  themselves 
self-sustaining  and  independent  of  all  outside  aid  for  the  future,  as  pro- 
vide for  the  three  months  it  would  take  to  build  another  ship.  But 
they  thought  of  nothing,  cared  for  nothing,  but  to  get  away.  A  new 
ship,  therefore,  must  be  built,  and  they  devoted  such  strength  as  they 
had  left  to  that  work.  Meantime,  they  were  in  want  of  food.  For- 
aging expeditions  among  the  Indians  only  ended  in  disappointment ; 
the  hungry  crowd  surrounded  Laudonniere,  demanding  that  he  should 
seize  one  of  the  neighboring  chiefs  and  hold  him  to  be  ransomed  in 
corn  and  other  provision.  "  Shall  it  not  be  lawful  for  vs,"  they  said, 
"  to  punish  them  for  the  wrong  they  doe  unto  vs,  beside  that  we  know 
apparently  how  little  they  respect  vs."  The  wrongs  were  that  the 
Indians  were  too  prudent  to  part  with  the  stores  which  were  hardly 
sufficient  for  their  own  support  till  the  new  corn  was  fit  to  gather  ;  the 
want  of  respect  was  the  unconcealed  contempt  they  felt  for  these 
civilized  paupers  who  permitted  themselves  to  be  reduced  to  this 
pitiful  extremity. 

The  remedy  proposed  did  not  commend  itself  to  Laudonniere's 
judgment,  but  he  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  clamor  around  him. 
in'upticeto  Outina,  one  of  their  kings,  was  seized  amid  the  lamentations 
the  Indians.  of  £]ie  Women  and  the  cries  for  vengeance  from  the  men  of 
his  tribe.  The  treacherous  act,  as  Laudonniere  expected,  failed  to 
arouse  either  the  fears  or  the  generosity  of  the  Indians  ;  but  it  in- 


1565.J 


ARRIVAL    OF   AN   ENGLISH    FLEET. 


203 


flamed  to  the  last  degree  their  cunning  and  ferocity.  Under  pretence 
of  providing  for  the  ransom  of  their  chief,  they  led  the  Frenchmen 
into  an  ambuscade,  out  of  which  they  escaped,  after  a  hard  day's  fight, 
with  only  two  bags  of  corn,  while  two  of  their  men  were  killed  and 
twenty-two  wounded.  Incapable  of  the  industry  and  wanting  in  the 


-V^%^'  •'•">--•-<•  5  -  '^ 

^•--^-.^W^-l^t*— Tl  -*  •>        ^         .  /**  * — 


^^jSpssfc' 

^-w^^'j&at 


Fight  with    Indians. 

forethought  indispensable  to  the  successful  colonist,  they  could  still 
acquit  themselves,  weak  as  they  were,  with  honor  as  soldiers. 

As  the  season  advanced  food  became  more  plentiful,  and  grain  was 
gathered  for  the  homeward  voyage  in  August,  1565.  On  the  third 
day  of  that  month,  however,  Laudonniere,  ever  on  the  watch  for  aid 
from  home,  saw  from  the  look-out  on  the  bluff  a  fleet  ap- 

,  .  ic  i  iici  Visit  of  an 

proachmg.     At  the  fort  "  they  were  so  glad  of  those  newes,   English  fleet 
that  one  would  haue  thought  them  to  bee  out  of  their  wittes  John  Haw- 
to  see  them  laugh  and  leape  for  joy."     Their  joy  was  so  far 
premature,  that  the  ships  were  English,  not  French,  though  otherwise, 
as  the  event  proved,  they  had  equal  cause  for  thankfulness. 

The  fleet  was  commanded  by  Sir  John  Hawkins,  now  returning 
from  a  second  and  profitable  voyage  to  the  coast  of  Guinea,  where  he 
had  learned  three  years  before  that  "  store  of  Negros  might  be  had," 


204  FRENCH   AND   SPANISH  IN   FLORIDA.          [CHAP.  IX. 

and  that  they  "  were  very  good  marchandise  in  Hispaniola."  l  He 
was  not  deaf  or  blind  to  the  claims  of  humanity  in  white  men,  and 
took  pity  on  the  sore  distress  of  the  French  colony,  relieving  not  only 
their  present  wants,  but  offering  to  transport  them  to  France.  There 
was  great  "•  bruite  and  mutiny  "  when  Laudonniere  declined  the  offer, 
and  the  soldiers  threatened  that  they  would  go  without  him.  A  com- 
promise at  last  was  made,  and  one  of  the  English  vessels  was  pur- 
chased, with  sufficient  provision  for  the  voyage.  Hawkins  made  some 
generous  additions  by  gift,  and  then  left  them  with  renewed  life  and 
hope  at  this  unexpected  and  timely  relief,  having  won  among  them, 
says  Laudonniere,  "  the  reputation  of  a  good  and  charitable  man 
deseruing  to  be  esteemed  as  much  of  vs  all  as  if  he  saued  all  our 
lines." 

In  a  few  days  they  were  ready  to  sail,  and  waited  only  a  fair  wind, 
when,  on  the  28th  of  August,  another  fleet  was  seen  approaching. 
The  long-expected  aid  had  come  at  last  from  France.    Seven 
ships  anchored  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  with  three  hun- 


dred men  on  board,  under  the  command  of  Ribault  himself. 
Amid  the  salutes  of  cannon,  the  greetings  of  old  friends  and  com- 
panions, the  welcome  to  fellow-countrymen  who  were  looked  on  as 
deliverers,  there  was  one  man  who  was  crushed  by  this  arrival  with  a 
sense  of  new  misfortune,  and,  the  hardest  of  all  things  to  bear,  of 
cruel  injustice  in  return  for  a  self-sacrificing  and  faithful  discharge  of 
duty. 

This  was  Laudonniere,  who  soon  learned  that  the  discontented  and 
insubordinate  persons,  whom  he  had  sent  back  to  France  the  year 
before,  had  brought  accusations  against  him  of  an  unwarrantable  as- 
sumption of  power  and  tyrannical  behavior  in  the  colony,  and  that 
these  had  been  listened  to  by  Admiral  Coligny.  Ribault  was  sent  to 
take  command  in  his  place,  and  he  was  recalled  to  answer  for  his  con- 
duct. When  we  remember  the  many  difficulties  he  had  had  to  en- 
counter ;  the  extravagant  expectations  of  sudden  wealth  which  had 
possessed  his  followers  and  the  consequent  disappointment  and  discon- 
tent ;  the  mutinies  he  had  been  compelled  to  submit  to  or  to  quell  ; 
the  calamity  of  famine  he  had  been  called  upon  to  relieve  ;  the  war 
with  the  Indians  into  which  he  was  forced  against  his  better  judg- 
ment ;  and  that  through  all  he  had  held  the  colony  together  and  saved 

it  from  absolute  destruction,  it  is  much  easier  to  believe  that 
Lau-  ne  was  unfortunate  than   in  fault.     But  his  disgrace  over- 

whelmed  him,  and  he  makes  a  touching,  though  unconscious 
appeal  to  all  human  sympathy,  in  the  record  of  his  state  at  this 

1  See  Voi/ayes  of  the  riy'it  ivorshij>ful  and  valiant  Kniyht  Sir  John  Hawkins.     Hakluyt's 
Voyages,  vol.  iii. 


1565.]  EXPEDITION   OF  PEDRO  MENENDEZ.  205 

point  of  his  sad  story,  that  "  weakened  with  my  former  trauaile,  and 
fallen  into  a  melancholy  vpon  the  false  reports  that  had  bene  made  of 
niee,  I  fell  into  a  great  continuall  feuer."  It  was  doubtless  a  satis- 
faction to  him  to  be  assured  that  his  friends  among  the  new-comers 
were'at  once  satisfied  that  the  accusations  against  him  were  malicious, 
and  had  no  foundation  in  truth  ;  that  Ribault  begged  him  not  to  leave 
the  colony,  and  generously  offered  to  build  another  fortress  for  his 
own  company,  and  to  leave  him  unmolested  in  command  of  Fort 
Caroline.  But  Laudonniere  felt  too  keenly  the  impeachment  of  his 
honor  and  character,  to  accede  to  any  proposition  but  implicit  obe- 
dience to  the  orders  from  home,  and  an  immediate  return  to  France 
to  meet  his  accusers  face  to  face.  But  misfortune  had  not  yet  done 
with  him.  Calamities  yet  to  come  wei-e  to  sweep  away  all  question, 
for  a  time  all  memory,  of  his  past  administration  of  affairs. 

Only  a  week  had  passed,  when  a  third  fleet  appeared,  silently  and 
suddenly  in  the  night-time  at  the  mouth  of  the  River  of  May. 
When  hailed  as  to  who  they  were  and  what  they  wanted,  oi  Pedro 
the  answer  was  that  they  were  from  Spain  ;  that  Pedro  Me- 
nendez  was  in  command  ;  and  that  he  had  come  in  obedience  to  the 
king  to  burn  and  destroy  such  Lutheran  French  as  should  be  found  in 
his  dominions.1     An  attack  was  to 
have  been  made  in   the  morning. 
Three  of  Ribault's  ships  had  gone 
up  the  river  to  Fort  Caroline ;  the 
other  four  were  no  match  for  the 
Spaniards,  and  had  no  alternative 
but  to  slip  their  cables  and  stand 
out  to  sea.   They  not  only  outsailed 
the  Spanish  vessels,  but  turned  and 
followed  them,  when  the  chase  was 
relinquished,  and  watched  their  en- 
trance into  the  River  of  Dolphins, 
a  few  leagues  southward,  and  the 
landing    of   men,    provisions,    ord- 
nance, and  ammunition.  Pedro 

This  expedition   of  Menendez  was  esteemed  in  Spain  as  almost  a 
new  crusade.     There  was  no  lack  of  either  men  or  means  in 
so  holy  an  undertaking  as  the  extermination  of  heretics,  wirar-*i*wi 

•  ,i     ,1  ....  ...  heretics. 

with  their  pernicious  doctrines,  were  sure  to  vitiate  the  pure 
minds  of  the  Indians  of  the  New  World,  stain  their  white  souls  with 
ineffaceable  evil,  and  lead  them  to  perdition.     This  fervent  religious 
zeal,  coupled  with  the  execution  and  approval  of  the  most  frightful 

1  MS.  Letter  of  Meiieiidez  to  the  King  ;  Turkman's  Pioneers,  etc.,  p.  100. 


206  FRENCH   AND   SPANISH  IN   FLORIDA.  [CHAP.  IX. 

atrocities,  was  perfectly  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  times; 
but  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  determination  of  the  Spaniai-ds  to 
destroy,  in  the  name  of  God,  a  handful  of  people  in  the  wilderness, 
because  they  were  heretics,  may  have  been  inflamed  by  the  piracies 
which  the  mutineers,  who  stole  Laudonniere's  ships,  had  committed  in 
the  West  Indies.  Menendez  himself,  however,  was  a  bigot,  who 
could  conceive  of  no  better  manifestation  of  love  to  God  than  cruelty 
to  man,  when  man  was  heretical ;  whose  scent  for  blood  was  unerring 
as  that  of  the  most  ferocious  wild  beast ;  whose  ti-eacherous  cunning 
character  of  ul  approsiching  and  seizing  his  prey,  was  the  keenest  animal 
sienendez.  instinct,  sharpened  to  the  utmost  degree  by  human  intel- 
ligence. He  undoubtedly  looked  upon  his  enterprise  as  a  sacred  mis- 
sion, and,  when  on  his  outward  voyage  his  fleet  had  been  scattered  by 
a  storm,  he  insisted  upon  proceeding  with  only  a  part  of  his  force,  de- 
•claring  that  it  was  evidently  God's  will  that  the  victory  he  was  to 
achieve  should  be  due,  not  to  numbers,  but  to  the  Divine  assistance. 
But  the  most  intense  religious  bigotry  condescends  to  worldly  wis- 
dom, and  there  is  little  doubt  that  information  had  been  sent  to  Spain 
by  some  of  the  Catholics  of  the  French  court  that  reinforcements  were 
about  to  go  to  Fort  Caroline  under  Ribault,  and  that  the  zeal  of 
Menendez  was  quickened  by  that  intelligence  to  fall  upon  the  here- 
tics before  this  assistance  could  reach  them. 

When  the  report  was  taken  back  to  Fort  Caroline,  that  the  Span- 
Ribauit  de-  ial'ds  had  left  their  ships,  Ribault  proposed  at  once  to  fall 
'iwtiic  f°'~  uPon  them  with  all  his  force  before  they  had  time  to  fortify 
Spaniards,  themselves  on  shore,  and  overcome  them  while  in  a  defence- 
less condition.  Laudonniere,  on  the  other  hand,  urged  that  there  Avas 
great  danger  of  sudden  storms  at  that  season  on  that  coast,  which 
might  defeat  such  an  expedition  by  disabling  the  ships,  or  driving 
them  to  sea,  while  a  prolonged  absence  of  the  soldiers  would  leave 
Fort  Caroline  defenceless,  and  exposed  to  attack  by  the  Spaniards. 
His  counsel,  as  the  event  proved,  was  wise,  but  it  was  unheeded. 
Ribault  sailed  with  all  the  larger  vessels  and  neai'ly  all  the  effective 
men  at  his  command.  He  left  behind  him  at  Fort  Caroline  about  two 
hundred  and  forty  persons,  including  the  sick,  the  women,  and  the 
children,  but  among  them  all  a  very  few  only  were  able  to  bear 
arms.1 

As  Laudonniere  feared,  Ribault  and  his  ships  were  scattered  by  a 
sudden  and  violent  tempest  just  as  they  were  about  to  attack  the 
enemy  at  the  mouth  of  the  River  of  Dolphins  —  an  event  which  was 

1  Challeux's  Disconra  de  VHistoire  de  la  Floride  —  better  known  as  "  the  carpenter's  nar- 
rative," gives  two  hundred  and  forty  as  the  number  of  persons  left  iu  the  fort,  but  Laudon- 
Jiiere's  estimate  is  much  smaller. 


1565.]         BLOODTHIRSTY   ATTACK   ON   FO11T   CAROLINE.  207 

hailed  by  the  Spaniards  as  another  providential  interposition  in  their 
favor.  This  miscarriage  of  Ribault  was  the  opportunity  of  Planof 
Menendez,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  availing  himself  of  it.  Mcnendez- 
From  the  Indians  he  learned  that  many  of  the  men  had  embarked 
upon  the  French  vessels,  and  he  proposed  to  proceed  at  once  overland 
to  the  attack  of  Fort  Caroline,  trusting  to  reach  it  before  the  fleet 
could  return.  To  many  of  his  companions  it  seemed  a  foolhardy 
enterprise  to  march  through  unknown  forests  and  swamps,  to  attack  a 
fortress  of  whose  strength  and  the  number  of  whose  defenders  they 
were  ignorant,  and  when  defeat  would  probably  be  fatal  alike  to  those 
who  went  upon  the  expedition  and  those  who  were  left  behind.  But 
Menendez,  confident  in  his  judgment,  invincible  in  his  fanaticism,  was 
firm  in  his  purpose.  Fort  Caroline,  he  was  sure,  was  almost  defence- 
less ;  it  would  be  easy  to  find  the  way  through  the  woods  by  the  com- 
pass ;  by  making  an  attack  when  least  expected,  success  was  certain ; 
and  finally,  he  said,  "  we  shall  the  more  speedily  do  a  service  to  our 
God  and  our  king,  and  comply  with  our  conscience  and  our  duty." 

On  the  morning  of  September  the  17th  five  hundred  men  were 
drawn  out  upon  the  beach,  a  mass  was  said,  and  the  march  began.  At 
the  moment  of  starting  two  Indians,  who  had  recently  come 

_  ,  J       .  ,          March  on 

from  Fort  Caroline^  appeared,  and  were  secured  as  guides  Fortcaro- 
across  the  country,  and  a  French  deserter  was  to  show  them 
where  the  fortress  could  be  most  easily  approached  and  most  success- 
fully assaulted.  For  two  days  they  struggled  through  the  woods  and 
morasses,  exposed  to  heavy  rains,  sometimes  wading  to  their  waists, 
in  danger  Of  losing  the  ammunition  and  provision  which  each  man 
carried  on  his  back,  —  a  cold,  wet,  hungry,  disconsolate,  and  grumb- 
ling throng  of  stragglers  held  to  any  military  duty  or  purpose  only 
by  the  iron  will  of  one  man.  They  reached  the  fort  in  the  night  of 
the  second  day,  and  halting  in  water  up  to  their  knees,  the  pitiless 
storm  beating  upon  their  heads,  they  waited  for  daylight. 

The  cold  and  drenching  rain  had  driven  the  sentinels  of  the  feeble 
garrison  to  shelter.  One  man  only  was  found  at  his  post,  and  he  was 
seized  and  speedily  put  to  death  by  a  reconnoitring  party  that  ad- 
vanced with  the  first  glimmer  of  daylight.  Then  the  Spaniards  poured 
through  breaches  in  the  palisades  with  cries  of  "  Santiago  !  Victory  ! 
God  is  with  us  ! "  There  was  little  fighting  ;  only  slaughter. 
The  panic-stricken  Frenchmen,  aroused  from  sleep  by  the  attack  otThe 
Spanish  war-cry,  confused  by  the  darkness  and  by  the  sud- 
denness of  the  attack,  sought  only,  each  for  himself,  to  escape  and  find 
shelter  in  the  woods  and  swamps.  Neither  sex  nor  age  was  spared, 
according  to  the  French  accounts ;  but  the  Spanish  relations  declare 
that  quarter  was  given  to  the  women,  and  children  under  fifteen  years 


208 


FRENCH   AND   SPANISH   IN   FLORIDA.          [CHAP.  IX. 


of  age.  Some  were  taken  prisoners,  apparently  only  from  a  refinement 
of  cruelty,  for  they  were  all  hanged  a  few  hours  later.  Over  their 
heads  Menendez  put  this  inscription,  "I  do  this,  not  as  to  Frenchmen, 
but  as  to  Lutherans." 

The  whole  number  thus  massacred  in  the  name  of  religion  was  one 
hundred  and  forty-two.     Those  who  escaped  made  their  way 
through  the  marshes  to  the  two  vessels  that  Ribault  had  left 
behind   him.      Among   these   was    Laudonniere,    who    was 
found  the  morning  after  the  attack,  held  up  by  a  soldier,  in  water  to 


Survivors 
of  the 
slaughter. 


Rescue    of    Laudonniire. 


the  arm-pits,  where  they  had  passed  the  night.  When  this  wretched 
remnant  of  the  colony  was  rescued,  the  vessels,  which  a  nephew  of  Ri- 
bault commanded,  sailed  for  France  without  waiting  for  tidings  of  the 
expedition  to  the  River  of  Dolphins. 


1565.]  FATE   OF   THE   WRECKED  FRENCHMEN.  209 

Thus  far  Menendez  was  crowned  with  complete  success.  "  We  owe," 
he  said,  "  to  God  and  His  mother,  more  than  to  human  strength,  this 
victory  over  the  adversaries  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Religion."1  Not  a 
heretic  Frenchman  was  left  alive  on  the  River  of  May,  and  that  even 
the  memory  of  them  might  be  wiped  out,  the  names  of  the  river  and 
the  fort  were  changed  to  San  Mateo  by  these  devout  Spaniards,  the 
nearest  saint-day,  that  of  St.  Matthew,  being  on  the  21st  day  of  Sep- 
tember. Taking  fifty  soldiers  with  him  Menendez  returned  to  his 
encampment  at  the  mouth  of  the  River  of  Dolphins.  A  messenger  had 
been  sent  forward  to  announce  his  success  and  his  coming,  and  the 
whole  camp  turned  out  to  meet  him  in  procession  with  priests  at  their 
head  in  full  canonicals,  chanting  a  Te  Deum,  and  bearing  a  crucifix. 
The  Adelantado  and  his  followers  knelt  before  and  kissed  the  cross, 
giving  thanks  to  God  that  He  had  enabled  them  to  extirpate  his  ene- 
mies and  theirs.  , 

The  next  anxiety  of  Menendez  was  to  know  what  had  become  of  the 
other  heretics  on  board  of  Ribault's  ships.  Nor  had  he  long  to  wait. 
Intelligence  was  soon  brought  in  by  the  Indians  that  the  Frenchmen 
were  wrecked  on  .Anastasia  Island,  a  little  to  the  southward.  Pro- 
ceeding thither  with  fifty  soldiers,  Menendez  found  a  party 

r*f  ITT  i  The  fate  of 

of  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  men,  to  whom  the  wrecked 
he  made  himself  known.  Thrown  by  the  storm  upon  this 
desolate  beach,  exhausted  from  want  of  food  and  rest,  with  no  means 
of  escape  or  of  subsistence,  they  appealed  to  his  humanity  to  aid  them 
in  reaching  a  place  of  refuge  at  their  fort,  Caroline.  Were  they  Cath- 
olics or  Lutherans  ?  he  asked.  They  replied  that  they  were  all  of 
the  Reformed  Religion.  Then  he  told  them  that  their  fort  was  de- 
stroyed, and  all  ifs  men  were  put  to  the  sword.  As  to  themselves,  he 
said,  that  being  of  the  new  faith  "  he  held  them  for  enemies,  and  would 
wage  war  upon  them  even  to  blood  and  to  fire,  would  pursue  them  with 
all  cruelty  wherever  he  should  encounter  them  in  whatever  sea  or  land." 
They  begged  that  he  would  give  them  shelter  till  succor  could  be  sent 
them  from  France,  which  was  at  peace  with  Spain.  His  answer  was: 
"  They  could  give  up  their  arms  and  place  themselves  under  my  mercy, 
—  that  I  should  do  with  them  what  our  Lord  should  order  ;  and  from 
that  I  did  not  depart,  nor  would  I,  unless  God  our  Lord  should  other- 
wise inspire."2  Then  they  offered  him  fifty  thousand  ducats  to  spare 
their  lives  ;  but  he  was  inexorable,  and  they,  not  knowing  how  small 
his  force  was,  —  perhaps  misled  by  the  courtesy  with  which  he  treated 
their  messengers, — accepted  the  only  alternative  that  seemed  left  to 

1  MS.  Letter  from  Menendez  to  the  King,  iu  Parkmaii's  Pioneers  of  France. 

2  Ibid. 

VOL.    I.  14 


210  THE  FRENCH   AND  SPANISH  IN  FLORIDA.      [CHAP.  IX. 

them,  and  surrendered  unconditionally,  giving  up  their  arms  and  stand- 
ards. 

An  inlet  divided  the  two  parties,  and  the  treacherous  Spaniard  or- 

dered that  the  Frenchmen  should  be  brought  over  in  companies  of  ten. 

As  each  squad  arrived  they  were  told  that  as  they  were 

Themur-  ,   *,      .  ,  J 

many,  and  their  captors  were  tew,  it  would  be  necessary,  as 


a  prudent  and  rational  precaution,  that  the  prisoners  should 
be  bound  before  they  were  marched  together  to  the  Spanish  encamp- 
ment. They  were  led  then  behind  a  sand-hill,  out  of  sight  of  their 
fellows  on  the  other  shore,  and  their  hands  securely  tied  behind  their 
backs  with  bow-strings.  When  toward  night-fall  all  were  gath- 
ered together,  they  were  marched  a  short  distance  to  a  spot  which  the 
adelantado  himself  had  chosen  and  marked  upon  the  sand  with  a  spear. 
Once  more  the  fatal  question  was  asked  :  Were  they  all  Lutherans  ? 
A  dozen,  who  professed  to  be  Catholics,  and  four  others,  who  were  calk- 
ers  and  carpenters,  and  whose  services  were  needed,  were  led  aside.  A 
few  moments  later,  of  all  the  rest,  —  all  bound,  not  able  even  to  raise 
an  unarmed  hand  to  ward  off  a  blow,  —  not  one  was  left  alive. 

A  cruel  and  inexorable  fate  seemed  to  pursue  the  wretched  French- 
men. The  sand  could  hardly  have  soaked  up  the  blood  of  the  men  so 
treacherously  murdered,  or  the  murderers  have  reached  their  camp  a 
few  miles  distant,  when  Ribault  himself,  with  the  rest  of  his  followers, 
arrived  at  the  spot  whence  the  others  had,  only  a  few  hours  before, 
been  betrayed  to  their  death.  Menendez  heard  of  it  the 

Ribault  cap-  .  e          i  •  11-111  •  •    "  I.    i 

turedby        morning  alter  his  return,  and  hurried  back  again  to  the  inlet. 

Menendez.  ,      ,  ,  IT  •    •  • 

As  before  he  made  sucli  disposition  of  his  men  as  to  com- 
pletelv  deceive  the  French,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  movements  of 
the  Spanish  soldiers  since  their  landing  ;  as  before,  when  aid  was 
asked  to  enable  the  shipwrecked  men  to  reach  Fort  Caroline,  the 
answer  was  that  the  fort  had  been  taken  and  its  people  put  to  the 
sword  ;  and  to  convince  Ribault  that  he  was  completely  at  the  mercy 
of  his  enemy,  he  was  led  aside  and  shown  the  pile  of  the  unburied 
corpses  of  his  murdered  countrymen.  Nevertheless,  the  Frenchmen 
apparently  would  not  believe  that  Menendez  was  absolutely  want- 
ing in  all  humane  instincts,  and  when  a  ransom  of  a  hundred  thou- 
sand ducats  was  offered  for  their  lives,  they  had,  or  thought  they  had, 
a  pledge  for  their  safety.  The  Spanish  narratives  assert  that  no  such 
pledge  was  given,  while  the  French  declare  that  he  bound  himself  by 
an  oath  to  spai'e  their  lives  ;  but  at  best,  the  answers  of  Menendez 
were  only  equivocal,  and  meant  to  betray.  Of  the  three  hundred 
and  fifty  Frenchmen,  however,  only  one  hundred  and  fifty,  with 
Ribault  at  their  head,  offered  to  surrender;  the  rest  refused,  and 
marched  southward. 


1565.] 


DEATH   OF   RIBAULT. 


211 


The  stratagems  of  the  day  before  were  again  resorted  to.  In 
squads  of  ten,  the  Frenchmen  were  brought  across  the  inlet ;  these 
detachments,  on  landing,  were  taken  out  of  sight  of  those  yet  to  comer 
and  their  hands  bound  behind  their  backs  as  a  pretended  precaution 
for  a  coming  march  ;  when  all  were  thus  secured,  they  were  led  to  the 
spot  where  lay  the  bodies  of  their  countrymen  on  the  blood- red  sand. 
If  there  was  still  any  lingering  doubt  or  hope  in  the  minds  of  the 
wretched  and  betrayed  men,  it  was  dispelled  by  the  questions,  which, 
to  Menendez,  had  but  one  significance  —  were  they  Catholics  or  Lu- 
therans ?  and  were  there  any  among  them  who  wished  to  make  confes- 
sion ?  Ribault  answered  that  they  were  all  of  the  Reformed  ^^  of 
Faith.  Then,  after  repeating  the  Psalm,  Domine  memento  Rlbault- 
mei,  he  said,  "  that  from  dust  they  came  and  to  dust  they  must  return ; 


Massacre  of  Ribault. 

twenty  years  more  or  less  could  matter  but  little  ;  and  that  the  ade- 
lautado  could  do  with  them  as  he  chose."  Two  youths  of  eighteen 
years  of  age,  and  the  fifers,  trumpeters,  and  drummers  were  spared. 
The  rest  were  "put  to  the  sword,  judging  this,"  says  Menendez,  in 
his  letter  to  the  king,  "  to  be  expedient  for  the  sei'vice  of  God  our 
Lord,  and  of  your  majesty." 

That  God  would  be  pleased,  he  takes  for  granted  ;  why  the  king 


212  FRENCH  AND   SPANISH  IN  FLORIDA.          [CHAP.  IX. 

should  be,  he  gives  a  reason  ;  for  he  adds  :  "  I  consider  it  great  good 
fortune  that  he  (Ribault)  should  be  dead,  for  the  King  of  France 
could  effect  more  with  him  and  five  hundred  ducats  than  with  other 
men  and  five  thousand,  and  he  would  do  more  in  one  year  than 
another  in  ten,  for  he  was  the  most  experienced  sailor  and  naval 
commander  known,  and  of  great  skill  in  this  navigation  of  the  Indies 
and  the  coast  of  Florida.  He  was,  besides,  greatly  liked  in  England, 
in  which  kingdom  his  reputation  was  such  that  he  was  appointed 
Captain-General  of  all  the  English  fleet,  against  the  French  Cath- 
olics in  the  war  between  England  and  France,  some  years  ago." 
Even  the  savage  has  magnanimity  enough  to  honor  the  dead  in  whose 
living  presence  he  may  have  ti'embled  ;  but  that  his  enemy  was  to 
be  feared  in  life,  was  with  Menendez,  a  reason  for  treating  his  dead 
body  with  indignity.  The  flowing  beard  of  Ribault,  which  had 
excited  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  the  Indians,  was  cut  off  and 
sent  to  Spain  as  a  trophy  ;  and  his  head,  divided  into  four  quarters, 
was  stuck  up  on  lances  at  the  four  corners  of  the  fort  at  the  River  of 
Dolphins.1  The  place  of  the  cruel  and  treacherous  massacre  is  known, 
to  this  day,  as  "  the  bloody  river  of  Matanzas."  2 

There  were  two  hundred  men  still  at  large  somewhere  in  Florida. 
These  were  soon   after  heard  of  at  a  point  farther  down   the  coast. 
They  had  entrenched  themselves  behind  some  temporary  defences,  and 
from  the  materials  of  a  wrecked  vessel  were  building  an- 
of  in-     other  in  which  to  return  to  France.    The  adelantado  marched 


made  prison-  thither  and  attacked  them  ;  the  fort  was  destroyed,  and  the 
unfinished  ship  burnt.  Most  of  the  men  surrendered  under 
a  promise  that  their  lives  should  be  spared  ;  but  a  score  of  them,  with 
the  captain,  escaped  to  the  woods,  declaring  that  they  would  take  the 
chance  of  being  eaten  by  savages  rather  than  trust  themselves  to  any 
pledge  of  Spanish  faith.  Menendez  evidently  did  not  think  the  im- 
molation of  the  heretics  who  now  surrendered,  necessary  to  the  glory 
of  God  and  his  mother  ;  nor  was  their  number  sufficient  to  excite  any 
fears  for  the  safety  of  his  colony.  These  prisoners,  therefore,  he  held 
to  the  order  of  the  king,  instead  of  assassinating  them  the  moment 
they  were  in  his  power.  And  the  king  wrote  in  reply  :  "  As  to  those 
he  (the  adelantado)  has  killed,  he  has  done  well,  and  as  to  those  he 
has  saved,  they  shall  be  sent  to  the  galleys."  3 

The  heretics  all,  or  nearly  all,  dead  or  held  as  prisoners,  Menendez 

'  See  original  documents  reprinted  in  French's  Hist.  Coll.  of  La.,  New  Series,  2  vols.,  and 
Charlevoix's  History,  Shea's  edition,  for  a  comparison  of  all  the  accounts  of  these  incidents. 

2  History  and  Antiquities  of  St.  Augustine,  Florida.     By  George  H.  Fairbanks,  New  York, 
1858. 

3  MS.  Letter  of  Menendez.     Parkman'a  Pioneers. 


1565.] 


FOUNDING   OF   ST.   AUGUSTINE. 


213 


then  had  leisure  to  look  after  the  other  interests  of  his  colony,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  River  of  Dolphins.  He  had  landed  at  this  gt  Au_ug. 
spot  on  the  8th  of  September,  after  his  unsuccessful  chase  tinebuilt- 
of  the  French  ships  from  the  River  of  May.  It  was  here  that  Ribault 
had  followed  to  attack  him,  when  his  fleet  was  scattered  by  the  tem- 
pest, and  finally  shipwrecked.  Menendez  had  gone  on  shore  and  taken 
formal  possession  of  the  country  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Spain, 
with  military  pomp  and  religious  solemnity ;  a  priest  meeting  him  at 
the  water's  edge,  chanting  a  Te  Deum,  and  bearing  a  crucifix,  which 
the  soldiers  knelt  before  and  kissed  with  devout  thankfulness.  The 
Indians  watched  these  mysterious  proceedings  with  simple  wonder ; 
but  they  received  the  strangers  with  great  kindness,  and  gave  them 


Laying  out  of   St.  Augustine. 

the  house  of  a  chief,  called  Selooe,  for  immediate  shelter.  This  was 
made  the  nucleus  of  a  fort ;  a  ditch  was  at  once  dug  around  it,  and  a 
rampart  of  earth  and  fascines  raised.  It  was  the  first  permanent 
European  settlement  within  the  present  boundaries  of  the  United 
States,  and  called  by  Menendez.  St.  Augustine,  because  on  the  festival 
day  of  that  saint  —  the  28th  of  August  —  the  Spanish  fleet  had  come 
in  sight  of  the  coast  of  Florida,  and  run.  into  the  mouth  of  this  river. 


214  FRENCH   AND    SPANISH   IN   FLORIDA.  [CHAP.  IX. 

From  this  point,  a  few  days  later,  he  had  marched  upon  Fort  Caro- 
line, and  then  to  the  massacres  at  Matanzas  Inlet  ;  and  here  he  had 
returned  with  a  sense  of  security  thus  frightfully  purchased,  to  found 
a  state. 

Not  a  month  had  elapsed  since  the  fleet  of  Ribault  sailed  into  the 
River  of  May,  with  streaming  banners,  amid  the  firing  of  guns,  great 
and  small,  the  hearty  cheers  for  a  voyage  happily  finished, 
the  shouts  of  joy  at  an  unexpected  deliverance  from  danger 
and  distress.  Of  the  ships,  two  only  were  now  afloat  — 
those  carrying  Laudonniere  and  his  companions  on  their  painful  and 
perilous  voyage  back  to  France  —  of  the  people,  the  few  others  who 
were  alive  were  fugitives  in  the  woods  of  Florida,  or  prisoners  in  the 
hands  of  a  relentless  bigot,  whose  mercy,  when  he  showed  any,  was 
only  some  method  of  cruelty  just  short  of  death.  Eight  hundred 
Frenchmen  1  had  perished,  most  of  them  stabbed  to  death  while  their 
hands  were  in  bonds,  behind  their  backs. 

But  there  was  yet  to  come  another  act  in  the  bloody  baptism  of  the 
first  permanent  colony  planted  in  the  New  World,  north  of  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  The  news  of  the  atrocities  committed  by  Menendez  was 
long  in  reaching  Europe,  and  any  intelligence  of  the  details  was  de- 
layed till  they  were  gathered  chiefly  from  the  relations  sent  home  by 
the  Spaniards  themselves,  pieced  out  from  the  fragmentary  stories 
of  the  few  fortunate  Frenchmen  who  escaped.  The  horror 
in  t'STnoeTt  an(^  indignation  which  these  tales  excited  were  not  confined 
cruelties!8*1  *°  the  friends  and  families  of  those  who  had  fallen  victims 
to  treachery  and  cruelty,  or  to  those  who  shared  their  sor- 
row from  religious  sympathy.  But  the  Catholic  King  of  France,  and 
his  infamous  mother,  took  no  steps  to  assert  the  honor  of  the  crown 
and  the  rights  of  the  people,  either  by  punishing  the  perpetrators  of 
so  horrible  an  atrocity,  or  by  calling  upon  Spain  to  bring  them  to  jus- 
tice. The  declaration  of  Menendez  that  he  executed  his  prisoners  at 
Fort  Caroline  not  as  Frenchmen,  but  as  Lutherans,  was  clearly  held  to 
be,  if  not  a  justification,  at  least  so  far  a  palliation  of  his  crime,  that  it 
called  for  no  redress  from  a  Catholic  monarch.  If  vengeance  or  honor 
demanded  retaliation  it  was  left  to  whomsoever  might  take  it  upon 
himself  to  inflict  it. 

Nearly  three  years  passed  away,  and  the  Spaniards  of  Florida  had 
probably  dismissed  all  fear  of  any  retribution  for  the  treach- 
ery  and  cruelty  of  their  leader.     In  the  spring  of  1568  three 
'of  small  vessels  appeared  off  the  mouth  of  the  River  of  May, 


—  its   name   changed,   as   we   have   said,   to   San   Mateo,  — 
and  the  garrisons  of  two  forts  built  there  after  the  capture  of  Fort 

1  Charlevoix's  Nfio  France,  vol.  ii.,  p.  211. 


1567.]  DOMINIQUE    DE   GOURGES.  215 

Caroline  saluted  the  strangers  as  they  passed,  supposing  them  to  be 
Spanish.  The  salute  was  returned  gun  for  gun,  but  the  ships  were 
French  not  Spanish,  and  under  the  command  of  Dominique  de  Gour- 
gues,  a  soldier  of  the  highest  reputation. 

De  Gourgues,  returning  from  foreign  service,  had  heard  of  the 
massacre  of  his  countrymen  in  Florida,  and  that  the  deed  had  gone  un- 
punished for  two  years.  It  is  not  certain  whether  he  was  a  Catholic 
or  a  heretic ;  but  he  was,  at  any  rate,  a  Frenchman,  and  the  soldier 
blazed  into  rage  and  shame  that  Frenchmen  should  have  been  so  be- 
trayed to  death,  and  that  no  hand  had  been  lifted  to  smite  their 
murderers.  With  his  passion  mingled,  doubtless,  something  of  per- 
sonal resentment,  for  he  had  himself  once  been  made  a  prisoner  by  the 
Spaniards  and,  contrary  to  the  rules  of  honorable  warfare,  condemned 
to  the  galleys.  However,  without  making  his  purpose  public,  he  now 
sold  his  estates,  and  borrowed  money  from  his  friends  to  fit  out  an  ex- 
pedition, ostensibly  for  the  coast  of  Africa. 

Sailing  in  August,  1567,  he  went  to  that  coast,  and  thence  to  the 
West  Indies.  His  cruise  had  lasted  all  winter,  and  perhaps  its  ex- 
penses were  defrayed  by  a  trade  in  negroes,  seized  in  fights,  which  he 
is  known  to  have  had  with  some  African  princes  near  Cape  Blanco. 
The  spring  found  him  in  harbor  at  the  western  extremity  of  Cuba, 
when,  for  the  first  time,  he  disclosed  to  his  men  the  real  ob- 

.  f   i  •  i"    •  ^    1 1  •  i  i  i     Object  of  De 

ject  of  his  expedition.     Calling  them  together  lie  repeated  oourRues' 

i  ,.111  111  .     Vr  expedition. 

the  story  of  the  slaughter  at  the  "  bloody  river  of  Matan- 
zas  ; "  he  asked  them  to  follow  him,  avenge  this  monstrous  cruelty, 
and  wipe  off  the  stain  upon  the  honor  of  France.  Open  ears  and 
quick  sympathies  received  his  speech  ;  it  was  even  easier  to  arouse 
the  indignation  than  to  restrain  the  impetuosity  of  his  men,  and 
they  were  hardly  willing  to  wait  for  favorable  weather  to  put  to 
sea.  Wherever  he  would  lead  they  would  follow,  and  every  marx 
of  them  felt  that  the  honor  of  his  country  was  in  his  special  keep- 
ing, and  vengeance  for  the  murder  of  his  countrymen  his  sacred 
duty. 

De  Gourgues  stood  out  to  sea,  after  passing  the  forts  at  the  mouth 
of  the  May,  that  he  might  the  better  conceal  his  destination  from  the 
Spaniards  ;  returning  to  the  coast  again,  when  a  few  leagues  north- 
ward, he  entered  the  mouth  of  a  small  river,  probably  the  present  St. 
Ilia.1  The  Indians,  who  also  supposed  the  strangers  to  be  Spanish, 

1  The  Reprinse  de  la  Floridf,  and  Laudonniere's  narrative,  call  the  river  the  Tacatacourou, 
named  the  Seine  by  the  French,  now  the  St.  Ilia.  Fairbanks'  History  of  St.  Augustine  says 
it  was  the  Somme,  now  the  St.  Mary's,  that  De  Gourgues  entered ;  Parkman  (Pioneers),  con- 
jectures that  it  may  have  been  either  the  St.  Ilia  or  St.  Mary's.  As  the  earliest  narratives 
distinctly  state  that  the  river  entered  was  the  Seine  —  the  Tacatacourou ;  and  as  Laudon- 
niere  says  that  the  place  of  rendezvous  afterward  was  beyond  the  Somme  — the  St.  Mary's 
—  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  for  not  accepting  those  narratives. 


216  FRENCH   AND   SPANISH  IN   FLORIDA.  [CHAP.  IX. 

crowded  to  the  shore  prepared  to  oppose  their  landing,  for  Menendez 
Reception  of  an(l    n's   companions   had    made  themselves  so   thoroughly 


hateful  to  the  natives  that  they  were  determined  to  hinder 
natives.  any  more  of  a  race  they  feared  and  detested  from  entering 
the  country.  But  when  they  discovered  that  the  new-comers  were 
their  old  friends,  the  French,  they  received  them  with  every  possible 
sign  of  satisfaction  and  welcome,  followed  by  the  wildest  delight  when 
they  learned  that  the  expedition  was  a  hostile  one  against  the  Spanish 
settlements. 

Satouriona,  who  had  been  the  friend  of  the  French,  after  the  Indian 
fashion,  when  they  were  at  Port  Royal  and  on  the  May,  was 
liancewith  the  chief  who  received  De  Gourgues.  Between  them  an  alli- 
ance was  entered  into  with  the  most  binding  Indian  solemni- 
ties, a  son  of  the  chief  and  his  wife  being  given  as  hostages  for  the 
safety  of  a  reconnoitring  party  sent  to  examine  the  position  of  the  forts 
on  the  May.  Satouriona  called  in  all  the  warriors  from  the  country 
round  about.  A  rendezvous  was  appointed  further  down  the  coast,  to 
which  the  Indians  went  by  land,  the  French  by  water.  Thence  they 
pushed  forward,  wading  through  marshes  and  streams,  their  feet  torn 
and  bleeding  with  the  stones  and  sharp  shells  that  lie  in  their  beds, 
forcing  their  way  through  the  tangled  forests,  at  their  head  marching 
De  Gourgues  and  Olotocara,1  a  nephew  of  Satouriona. 

At  dawn  they  were  in  front  of  the  Spanish  fort  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  May,  and,  as  at  Fort  Caroline  when  Menendez  sur- 
the  spanun  prised  it  at  the  same  hour  of  the  day,  a  single  sentinel  only 
was  at  his  post  to  give  the  alarm.  Shouting  that  the  French 
were  upon  them,  he  coolly  plied  a  gun  he  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
advancing  enemy,  till  Olotocara,  springing  upon  the  platform,  ran  him 
through  with  a  pike.  The  affrighted  garrison  rushed  from  their 
quarters  in  a  vain  attempt  to  escape,  while  French  and  Indians,  in 
hot  fury  and  savage  hate,  poured  over  the  defences.  In  a  few  mo- 
ments, of  the  Spaniards  fifteen  only,  who  were  seized  and  bound,  were 
left  alive. 

The  attack  was  as  sudden,  the  onslaught  as  furious  and  as  irresisti- 
ble, the  destruction  more  complete  than  when  Menendez,  nearly  three 
yeai's  before,  had  fallen  in  the  light  of  the  early  morning,  amid  the 
roar  of  the  storm,  the  cries  of  men,  and  the  shrieks  of  women  and  chil- 
dren, upon  the  feeble  garrison  of  Fort  Caroline.  But  the  work  was  as 
yet  but  just  begun,  and  the  completeness  of  French  vengeance  was  to 
be  made  still  more  significant. 

The  soldiers  of  the  fort  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river  were  at  no 

1  The  name  i.s  spelled  Olotocara,  Olotacara,  Olatocara,  Olocotora,  and  Olotoraca,  by  dif- 
ferent authors. 


1568.] 


ATTACK   ON   THE   SPANISH   FORT. 


217 


loss  to  understand  what  was  befalling  their  comrades  on  the  other 
side.  The  woods  were  alive  with  Indians  ;  the  air  was  filled  with 
their  frightful  yells  of  anger  and  defiance  ;  to  the  Spaniards  it  was 
clear  from  their  boldness  that  something  more  than  usual  had  given 


Death   of   the    Sentinel. 

them  confidence  and  courage,  and  certainly  it  could  be  no  savage  hand 
that  trained  the  guns  of  the  captured  fort  so  promptly  and  truly  as  to 
silence  those  that  had  been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  attacking  party. 
The  murderers  of  Ribault  and  his  men  did  not  need  to  be  told  that 
the  white  men  they  saw  among  the  Indians  must  be  French. 

As  speedily  as  possible  De  Gourgues  embarked  his  men  upon  a  ves- 
sel he  had  taken  the  precaution  to  have  near  at  hand,  to  cross  the  river, 


218  FRENCH   AXD   SPANISH  IN   FLORIDA.  [CHAP.  IX. 

and  the  Indians,  too  impatient  to  await  its  return  for  them,  plunged 
into  the  stream  and  swam  over.  The  Spaniards,  appalled 
the  span-  and  bewildered  by  the  impetuosity  of  an  onslaught  trans- 
ferred to  their  side  of  the  river,  which  had  evidently  swept 
everything  before  it  on  the  other,  made  only  a  feeble  attempt  to 
defend  their  works,  and  fled  for  their  lives.  The  avenging  French 
were  behind  them  as  they  abandoned  their  fortifications  ;  in  the  forest 
the  Indians  met  and  fell  upon  them  as  they  sought,  like  hunted  beasts, 
concealment  beneath  the  deep  shadows  and  in  the  tangled  under- 
brush of  the  woods.  In  this,  as  in  the  other  fort,  there  were  sixty 
men ;  in  this,  as  in  the  other,  fifteen  were  seized  to  be  held  a  little 
while  as  captives  ;  in  this,  as  in  the  other,  all  the  rest  were  killed. 

San  Mateo,  with  a  force  of  nearly  three  hundred  men,  was  yet  to 
be  taken.  The  alarm  at  that  post  was  intense,  for  it  was  only  known 
that  both  the  forts  below  were  overcome  in  a  few  hours  and  not  a  man 
escaped.  The  commander  sent  out  a  soldier,  disguised  as  an  Indian, 
to  learn  the  strength  and  designs  of  the  invaders  ;  but  the  quick  eyes 
Fort  Matco  °^  Olotocara  detected  the  cheat ;  the  spy  was  secured,  and 
besieged.  ^he  garrison  remained  in  the  belief  that  San  Mateo  was 
about  to  be  surrounded  by  two  thousand  Frenchmen.  De  Gourgues 
rested  two  days,  and  then  appeared  in  the  woods  behind  the  fort.  The 
enemy  opened  fire,  which  only  sent  the  Frenchmen  to  the  protection  of 
the  trees.  Not  knowing  that  De  Gourgues'  force  was  little  more  than 
a  hundred  men,  the  Spaniards  probably  supposed  this  to  be  only  a 
detachment  sent  in  advance,  and  a  sortie  was  made  to  meet  and  dis- 
perse it.  But  the  Spanish  soldiers  ventured  too  far  ;  De  Gourgues 
threw  a  body  of  men  between  them  and  the  fort ;  a  deadly  fire,  close 
at  hand,  met  them  in  the  face  ;  in  front,  in  flank,  in  the  rear,  the 
Frenchmen  fell  upon  them  sword  in  hand ;  not  one  was  spared. 

From  within  the  palisades  the  Spaniards  watched  for  the  success 

and  saw  the  slaughter  of  their  comrades.     They  thought  no  longer  of 

defence,  but  only  of  escape.     Rushing  in  a  mob  to  the  op- 

The  panic-  •  ••>,•,, 

stricken  posite  side  of  the  fort,  they  threw  themselves  into  the  woods 
and  fled,  mad  with  fear,  for  their  lives.  They  were  met 
with  the  exultant  war-whoop  of  hundreds  of  savage  warriors  eager 
for  revenge,  who  sprang  upon  them  from  their  ambushes,  pierced  them 
with  deadly  arrows,  brought  them  down  with  crushing  blows  from 
tomahawks,  tearing  the  bloody  scalps  from  heads  whose  brains  had  not 
ceased  to  throb.  Some  few,  perhaps,  were  fortunate  enough,  or  brave 
enough,  to  fight  their  way  through  this  storm  of  merciless  slaughter  ; 
some  turned  and  fled  back  again,  hoping  for  quarter  from  Christian 
enemies.  But  few,  if  any,  escaped  from  sudden  death. 

But  the  massacre  of  Fort  Caroline  was  not  even  yet  atoned  for. 


1568.]  THE  MASSACRE   REVENGED.  219 

The  flag  of  France  once  more  floated  over  its  ramparts  of  earth  ;  the 
bodies  of  nearly  four  hundred  Spaniards  lay  unburied  on  the  Thc  lagt  ^ 
shores  of  the  River  of  May  ;  but  there  were  prisoners  still  t"1"*'"011- 
alive.  De  Gourgues  ordered  them  to  be  brought  before  him,  in  the 
presence  of  his  own  men  and  his  Indian  allies.  He  was  there,  he 
told  them,  to  avenge  acts  which  were  as  heinous  an  insult  to  France 
as  they  were  atrocious  crimes  against  humanity;  although  such  deeds 
could  not  be  punished  as  they  deserved,  the  perpetrators  should,  at 
least,  be  made  to  suffer  all  the  retaliation  that  could  be  inflicted  by  an 
honorable  enemy.  Near  by  were  still  standing  the  trees  on  which 
Menendez  had  hanged  his  prisoners,  beneath  the  inscription :  "  I  do 
this  not  as  to  Frenchmen,  but  as  to  Lutherans."  To  the  same  trees 
the  Frencli  captain  ordered  the  Spaniards  to  be  led  for  execution,  and 
over  their  heads  were  the  words  —  burned  into  a  plank  with  a  hot 
iron,  —  "  I  do  not  this  as  unto  Spaniards,  nor  as  unto  Maranes ; l  but 
as  unto  traitors,  robbers,  and  murderers." 

The  whole  force  which  De  Gourgues  commanded,  including  soldiers 
and  sailors,  was  less  than  three  hundred  men.  It  was  not  sufficient  to 
justify  him  in  an  attack  upon  St.  Augustine,  or  even  to  await  a  pur- 
suit in  formidable  numbers  from  that  point,  which  would  be  sure  to 
follow  if  he  remained  upon  the  coast.  He  had  done  all  he  could  do 
to  satisfy  the  wounded  honor  of  his  country,  to  avenge  the  perfidy 
and  cruelty  which  betrayed  so  many  of  his  countrymen  to  death.  But 
to  give  completeness  to  his  work  he  demolished  the  three  forts  whose 
garrisons  he  had  exterminated  ;  this  done,  he  took  leave  of  his  Indian 
allies  with  mutual  protestations  of  good-will,  with  inter-  ^  rtureof 
change  of  presents,  with  regrets  on  one  side  at  the  departure  ^m0^1*"6* 
of  such  cherished  friends,  on  the  other  with  assurance  of  a  ida- 
speedy  return.  "  I  am  willing  now  to  live  longer,"  said  an  aged 
squaw,  in  the  spirit  of  heathen  philosophy,  "  for  I  have  seen  the 
French  return  and  the  Spaniards  killed."  And  that,  no  doubt,  was 
the  feeling  of  all  her  people.  There  was  some  good-will  toward  the 
French,  of  whom  they  had  little  fear.  But  the  Spaniards  they  both 
feared  and  hated. 

The  intelligence  of  what  De  Gourgues  had  done  reached  Spain  in 
time  for  the  king  to  send  a  fleet  of  small  vessels  to  intercept  him  on 
the  coast.  It  was  not  far  behind  him  in  pursuit  at  Rochelle,  where  he 
first  arrived,  and  followed  him  to  other  ports,  but  he  fortunately 
evaded  capture.  The  French  king  would  not  have  regretted  it  had 
the  Spaniards  overtaken  him  ;  for  much  as  his  deeds  in  Florida  were 
generally  applauded,  and  especially  by  the  Huguenots,  he  was  looked 

i  Marane  was  an  opprobrious  term   applied  to  Spaniards,  meaning  originally,  suggest* 
Parkmau  (Pioneers  of  New  France),  9  Moor. 


220  FRENCH   AND   SPANISH   IX   FLORIDA.  [CHAI>.  IX. 

upon  coldly  at  the  Catholic  court ;  and  he  found  it  prudent,  when  the 
king  of  Spain  offered  a  reward  for  his  head,  to  go  into  retirement,  if 
not  into  actual  concealment.  For  several  years  he  lived  in  obscurity, 
and  died  when  about  to  take  up  arms  once  more  against  his  old 
Deaths  of  enemies,  as  commander  of  the  Portuguese  fleet  in  the  service 
of  Don  Alphonso,  then  at  war  with  Philip  II.  of  Spain. 
Mcneiidcz  had  died  five  years  before  (in  1574)  when  about 
to  sail  as  admiral  of  the  Spanish  armada  against  Elizabeth  of  Eng- 
land. 

The  extirpation  of  error  in  the  slaughter  of  heretics  by  Menendez 
had  been  fearfully  avenged  ;  in  the  propagation  of  the  faith  the  bloody 
apostle  was  even  less  successful.  He  was,  to  do  him  justice,  as  zealous 
in  the  one  cause  as  in  the  other,  but  the  Indians  steadily  refused  to 
listen  to  the  teachings  of  the  priests  who,  alone  of  all  the  Spaniards, 
were  not  more  merciless  and  cruel  than  the  savages  themselves.  And 
they  learned  moreover,  from  the  success  of  De  Gourgues'  expedition, 
that  Spaniards  were  not  invincible,  and  they  were  not  slow  to  profit 
by  that  lesson  whenever  the  opportunity  offered. 

But  Menendez  did  not  confine  his  efforts,  either  for  colonization  or 
the  conversion  of  the  Indians,  to  the  region  about  St.  Augus- 
fortsoiMen-  tine.  By  the  way  of  the  Bay  of  St.  Mary,  as  Gomez  and 
other  early  navigators  called  Chesapeake  Bay,  Menendez  be- 
lieved that  the  passage  to  India  would  be  found,  and  in  1566  he  sent 
a  vessel  carrying  soldiers  and  priests  to  establish  a  post  somewhere 
on  the  shores  of  the  Bay  or  one  of  its  tributary  rivers.  The  party  was 
guided  by  an  Indian  convert,  a  brother  of  the  cacique  of  the  Axacan 
or  lacan  country,  as  a  portion  of  Virginia  was  called,  whence  he  had 
been  taken  some  years  before  to  Mexico,  and  christened  by  the  name 
of  the  viceroy,  Don  Luis  de  Velasco.  This  expedition  was  unsuccess- 
ful. But  Menendez  continued  to  urge  his  project,  and  four  years  later 
induced  the  general  of  the  order  of  Jesuits  to  direct  the  establishment 
of  a  missionary  station  at  Axacan. 

The  Indian  convert,  Don  Luis,  was  then  in  Spain,  and  gladly 
availed  himself  of  such  an  opportunity  to  return  to  his  own  country, 
promising  to  use  his  influence,  with  his  brother  and  his  people  on  be- 
half of  the  missionaries.  With  him  went  a  priest  and  two  religious 
from  Spain,  and  at  Port  Royal  they  were  joined  by  the  father  John 
Baptist  Segura,  the  head  of  the  Jesuit  Mission  of  Florida,  another 
priest,  and  four  Indian  boys,  novices  from  the  mission  school  at 
Havana. 

In  September,  1570,  this  little  party  of  devout  and  courageous  mis- 
sionaries were  landed  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  —  which  the  early 
Spanish  navigators  called  the  Espiritu  Santo,  where  the  vessel  left 


1570.]  THE    SPANISH   MISSIONARIES.  221 

them,  with  a  few  stores,  alone  in  the  wilderness.    Travelling  six  miles 
on  foot  across  the  country  to  the  Rappahannock,  they  pushed 

J         ,.  ,  /     f      ,  Missionarien 

into  the  interior  for  some  distance  along  the  coast  or  that  ontheKap- 

•  11      i  T  -11  TT  i  pahannock. 

river,  till  they  reached  an  Indian  village.    Here  they  put  up 
a  rude  log  cabin  for  their  own  shelter  and  as  a  chapel,  which  they 
named  "La  Madre  de  Dios  de  lacan  "  —  "the  chapel  of  the  mother 
of  God  at  lacan, "or  Axacan. 

Their  provisions  were  scanty,  and  they  were  soon  called  upon  to 
endure  the  hardships  of  winter.  The  Indians  were  even  poorer  than 
usual,  for  there  had  been  a  long  period  of  scarcity,  and  they  could 
give  at  best  but  little  aid  to  the  strangers,  though  they  received  them 
with  kindness.  The  helpless  missionaries  could  neither  hunt  nor  fish, 
and  were  almost  entirely  dependent  upon  the  good-will  and  good 
offices  of  Don  Luis,  through  whom  alone  could  they  hold  much  intelli- 
gent communication  with  the  people  of  his  tribe.  But  Don  Luis  soon 
forgot  that  he  was  a  Christian  ;  the  instinct,  of  Indian  blood 

Desertion  of 

and  the  force  of  early  habits  were  stronger  than  the  rite  of  their  Indian 

"*  ally. 

baptism  and  the  pious  promises  of  the  neophyte ;  lie  soon 
abandoned  the  brethren  and  resumed  the  companionship  of  his  youth 
and  the  free  and  savage  life  of  the  woods.  In  ceasing  to  be  the  friend 
of  the  Christians  he  became  their  most  dangerous  enemy,  constrained 
in  the  nature  of  the  case  to  prove  thus  the  sincerity  of  his  conduct  to 
those  whom  he  had  once  abandoned  for  civilized  life  and  the  religion 
of  the  white  man. 

Again  and  again  messengers  were  sent  to  the  renegade  to  recall 
him  to  the  duties  he  had  so  solemnly  assumed,  but  they  were  answered 
only  with  frivolous  excuses.  Late  in  January  father  Quiros,  taking 
with  him  two  of  the  Indian  boys  belonging  to  the  mission,  went  to  try 
the  effect  of  personal  and  spiritual  authority  with  the  man  upon  whose 
friendship  now  even  their  lives  depended.  But  his  expostulations  and 
entreaties  were  met  with  evasions  by  Don  Luis,  who  was  unable,  nev- 
ertheless, while  standing  face  to  face  with  the  good  father  and  listen- 
ing to  the  solemn  and  tender  admonitions  of  the  priest,  to  avow  the 
full  extent  of  his  own  hypocrisy  and  treachery.  But  no  sooner  had 
Quiros  and  his  two  companions  turned  disappointed  and  sorrowful 
to  retrace  their  foot-steps  than  they  were  brought  to  the  ground  by  a 
volley  of  arrows  from  the  lurking  savages. 

The  father  Segura  and  his  little  company  spent  the  time  meanwhile 
in  prayer  in  the  chapel  as  day  after  day  passed  and  there  Massacre  Of 
were  no  tidings  of  Quiros.     On  the  fourth  day  the  war-  the  prie8t8- 
whoop  rung  through  the  woods ;  a  band  of  painted  savages  surrounded 
the  chapel,  Don  Luis  at  their  head  dressed  in  the  cassock  of  the  mur- 
dered priest.     Segura  and  his  companions  were  no  longer  in  doubt  as 


222  FRENCH    AND   SPANISH  IN   FLORIDA.  [CHAP.  IX. 

to  the  fate  of  Qniros  ;  they  guessed,  no  doubt,  what  was  speedily  to  be 
their  own.  Don  Luis  demanded  their  knives  and  hatchets,  which  were 
meekly  surrendered.  At  a  signal  from  the  apostate  the  savages  rushed 
upon  the  defenceless  missionaries,  and  all  except  one  of  the  Indian 
boys,  saved  by  a  brother  of  Don  Luis,  were  instantly  slaughtered. 

In  the  spring  a  vessel  arrived  from  Port  Royal  with  supplies.  A 
crowd  of  Indians  thronged  the  banks  of  the  river  as  it  approached  ; 
at  a  distance  men  were  visible,  clothed  in  the  garments  of  the  dead 
priests.  The  savages  shouted,  —  "•  See  the  fathers  who  came  to  us. 
We  have  treated  them  well  ;  come  and  see  them,  and  we  will  treat 
you  likewise."  The  sailors  were  not  deceived  by  this  shallow  artifice, 
and  returned  at  once  to  Port  Royal  to  report  the  evident  fate  of  the 
mission. 

Menendez,  in  the  course  of  the  year,  returned  from  Spain,  and 
resolved,  on  hearing  the  story,  to  punish  the  Indians  for  killing  his 
friends.  Taking  a  small  and  fast  vessel  he  sailed  up  the  Potomac, 
landed  a  small  force  and  marched  in  pursuit  of  Don  Luis  and  his 
brother  the  cacique.  He  failed  to  overtake  them,  but  othei's  were 
captured,  and  confessed  ;  the  boy,  Alphonsus,  was  brought  to  him, 
who  related  the  particulars  of  the  massacre,  pointing  out  eight  of 
those  among  the  prisoners  who  were  concerned  in  it.  These  the  ade- 
lantado  hanged  at  the  yard-arm  of  his  vessel,  first  having  them  bap- 
tized, more  perhaps,  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  own  conscience  than  to 
their  edification.  This  done  he  returned  to  St.  Augustine.  For 
more  than  thirty  years  longer  that  remained  the  sole  European  colony 
within  the  limits  of  the  present  United  States.  The  unknown  site 
somewhere  on  the  banks  of  the  Rappahannock,  of  the  chapel  of  Our 
Lady  of  Axacan,  marked  the  only  important  attempt  of  Spanish  colo- 
nization north  of  Florida.1 

In  1586,  Sir  Francis  Drake,  on  his  way  home  from  an  expedition  to 
South  America,  in  cruising  along  the  coast  of  Florida  in  search  of  the 
first  English  colony  on  the  island  of  Roanoke,  saw  an  outlook  on 
Anastasia  Island.  Entering  the  River  of  Dolphins  he  found  the  Span- 
ish settlement,  then  under  the  command  of  Pedro  Menendez,  a  nephew 
of  the  founder.  In  the  fort  was  a  treasure-chest,  containing  .£2,000, 
sir  Francis  wnich  Drake  did  not  leave  behind  him;  the  town  was  a 
duster  of  wooden  houses,  and  these  he  burnt.2  As  he  ap- 
proached  the  fort,  from  which  the  Spaniards  had  fled,  "  forth- 
with came  a  Frenchman  being  a  Phipher  (who  had  bene  prisoner  with 

1  Sec  original  MS.  by  John  Gilmary  Shea,  in  New  York  Historical  Library;  and  "The 
Log  Chapel  on  the  Rappahaunock,"  by  the  same  author,  in  Catholic  World  for  March, 
1875. 

2  Barcia. 


1586.] 


CAPTURE   OF    ST.   AUGUSTINE. 


223 


them)  in  a  little  bonte,  playing  on  his  Phiph  the  time  of  the  Prince  of 
Orenge  his  song."1     Of  the  companions  of  Ribault  whom  Menendez 


The  French   Flfer. 


spared  from  the  second  massacre  at  Matanzas  Inlet,  because  he  had 
need  of  them,  one  was  a  fifer,  and  he  it  was,  probably,  who  gave  this 
shrill  welcome  to  the  English  invader. 

1  Sir  Francis  Drake's  West  Indian  Voyage  of  1585.     Hakluyt,  vol.  iii.,  1600 


CHAPTER   X. 


ENGLISH  VOYAGES   AND   ATTEMPTS   AT   SETTLEMENT. 

FIRST    IMPULSE  IN    ENGLAND    TOWARD    AMERICAN    COLONIZATION.  —  UNSUCCESSFUL 
VOYAGES.  —  THEORIES  OF  A  NORTHEAST  PASSAGE.  —  VOYAGE  OF  SIR  HUGH  Wn.- 

LOUUIlliY  AND  RlCHARD  CHANCELLOR.  —  FltOBISHER  AND  DAVIS  IN  THE  NORTHWEST. 

—  SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT'S  PLAN  FOR  AMERICAN  SETTLEMENTS.  —  His  DEPARTURE 
FROM  ENGLAND  AND  ARRIVAL  AT  NEWFOUNDLAND.  —  Loss  OF  SIR  HUMPHREY  ON 
HIS  RETURN. —  WALTER  RALEIGH  SENDS  TWO  SHIPS  TO  EXPLORE  IN  AMERICA. — 
His  FIRST  COLONY  REACHES  THE  COAST  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA.  —  TOBACCO  INTRO- 
DUCED INTO  ENGLAND.  —  NEW  PLANTATION  BEGUN  UNDER  GOVERNOR  JOHN  WHITE. 

—  MYSTERIOUS  DISAPPEARANCE  OF  THE  SETTLERS. —  UNSUCCESSFUL  SEARCH  FOR 
THE  LOST  COLONY.  —  RALEIGH'S  ATTEMPT  AT  COLONIZATION  ENDED  BY  IMPRISON- 
MENT. 

IT  is  not  always  unprofitable,  and  it  is  often  interesting,  to  reflect 
what  might  have  been  the  course  of  human  events  but  for  the  inter- 
vention of  some  slight  action,  seeming  at  the  moment  to  be  of  trifling 
importance.  Had  Columbus,  for  example,  refused  to  deviate  on  his  first 
voyage  from  that  directly  westward  course  which  he  had  laid  down  as 
the  only  true  one,  his  first  land-fall  would  probably  have  been  the  coast 
of  Florida.  The  history  of  the  world  would  have  flowed  in  another 
channel,  and  the  progress  of  the  human  race  been  arrested  for  centuries 
if  the  order  had  not  been  given  on  board  the  Santa  Maria  to  put  the 
helm  up  and  stand  southwest  for  a  night,  in  pursuit  of  a  cloud-bank 
which  one  of  the  Pinzons  mistook  for  land.  We  may  venture  upon 
almost  any  latitude  of  conjecture  as  to  what  might  have  been,  had  the 
Spanish  march  of  conquest  and  possession  been  directed  to  the  terri- 
tory now  occupied  by  the  United  States  rather  than  to  that  of  the  rich 
and  semi-civilized  peoples  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  In  the  providence  of 
God  it  was  not  to  be. 

Besides,  the  disasters  and  disappointments  attending  all  the  expedi- 
tions of  the  Spanish,  the  Portuguese,  and  the  French  in  North  Amer- 
ica, in  the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century,  were  alleviated  and  atoned 
for  by  none  of  that  dazzling  acquisition  of  wealth  that  came  from  the 
spoiling  of  the  semi-civilized  nations  of  the  South.  The  North  Amer- 
ican Indians,  unlike  the  natives  of  softer  climates  whom  the  Spanish 
subdued  so  easily,  would  fight  to  the  death  with  the  fierceness  of 
wild  beasts  rather  than  quietly  submit  to  the  white  men,  or  if  re- 


1527.]  AWAKING   OF    ENGLISH   INTEREST.  22.S 

duced  to  slavery  would  die  in  obstinate  despair.  There  were  no  slaves 
and  no  gold  in  this  inhospitable  region  ;  people  and  country  were 
proved  to  be  alike  valueless  in  the  estimate  of  the  Spanish  conquerors, 
the  one  feeble  colony  at  St.  Augustine  alone  being  an  exception,  and 
that  owed  its  origin  to  a  cruel  fanaticism  and  was  held  together  by 
the  spirit  of  religious  propagandism.  It  was  happy  for  the  world  that 
it  was  so.  If  the  history  of  South  America  had  been  repeated  in  the 
north  it  would  have  been  better  that  the  Atlantic  had  still  been  held 
to  be  a  sea  of  darkness  into  which  no  ship  manned  by  mortals  could 
penetrate  and  live.  At  length  it  was  plain  that  not  the  Spanish  but 
a  people  of  another  blood,  another  faith,  and  another  destiny  were  to 
possess  the  land,  though  more  than  a  century  passed  from  the  time 
that  the  Cabots  looked  upon  their  terram  primiim  visam  of  the  New 
World  before  an  English  colony  was  planted  upon  its  shores. 

The  idea  of  the  real  value  the  new-found  regions  were  to  be  to 
the  English  people,  was  of  slow  growth  in  the  English  mind.  A 
short  way  to  India  was  the  main  purpose  of  the  voyages  of  the  Cabots. 
If  other  voyages  were  projected  or  made  under  commissions  from 
Henry  VII.  early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  as  was  probably  the  case, 
they  had  no  other  object.  Robert  Thorne,  an  eminent  merchant  of 
London,  whose  father  is  supposed  to  have  been  upon  a  voy-  Awakingof 
age  to  Newfoundland,  urged  Henry  VIII.  in  1527,  to  send  Ktnin' 
out  fresh  expeditions  to  discover  new  lands  and  kingdoms  Amenca 
whereby  the  king  would  win  perpetual  glory,  and  his  subjects  in- 
finite profit.  "  To  which  places,"  he  said,  "  there  is  left  one  way  to 
discover,  which  is  into  the  north,  for  that  of  the  foure  partes  of  the 
worlde,  it  seemeth  three  partes  are  discovered  by  other  princes.  For 
out  of  Spaine  they  have  discovered  all  the  Indies  and  Seas  Occidentall, 
and  out  of  Portingall  all  the  Indies  and  Seas  Oriental! ;  so  that  by 
this  part  of  the  Orient  and  Occident  they  have  compassed  the  world. 
....  So  that  now  rest  to  be  discovered  the  sayd  nortlie  parts,  the 
which  it  seemeth  to  mee,  is  onely  your  charge  and  duety.  Because 
the  situation  of  this  your  Realme  is  thereunto  neerest  and  aptist  of  all 
others."  l  And  in  another  letter  on  the  same  subject  and  written 
with  the  same  purpose,  he  says:  "  It  appeareth  plainely  that  the  New- 
foundland that  we  discovered,  is  all  a  maine  land  with  the  Indies 
Occidentall,  from  whence  the  Emperor  hath  all  the  gold  and  pearles : 

and  so  continueth  of  coast  more  than  5000  leagues  of  length 

So  that  to  the  Indies  it  would  seem  we  have  some  title Now 

then  if  from  the  sayd  New  found  lands  the  Sea  be  navigable,  there  is 
no  doubt  but  sayling  northward  and  passing  the  Pole,  descending  to 
the  Equinoctial  line,  we  shall  hit  these  Islands  [of  India,]  and  it  should 

1  Letter  of  Kobert  Thorne  to  Henry  VIII.,  Hakluyt,  vol.  i.,  p.  212. 
VOL.  i.  15 


ENGLISH   ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.    .     [CHAP.  X. 

be   a    much    shorter  way  than    either   the    Spaniards   or   Portingals 
have."  i 

The  same  year  two  ships,  the  Mary  of  G-uilford  and  the  Samson, 
Early  TOY-  sailed  from  London,  possibly  in  compliance  with  these  ex- 
Engfau'd,  hortations  of  Thome's.2  At  any  rate  the  expedition  was 

undertaken  at  the  king's  command ;  it  went,  wrote  John  Rut, 
the  captain  of  the  Mary  of  Guilford,  as  far  north  as  the  fifty-second 
parallel ;  was  prevented  by  the.  ice  from  venturing  further  ;  and  the 
ship  then  returned  to  England,  without  reporting  any  more  interesting 
fact  than  that  John  Rut  counted  "  eleven  saile  of  Normans,  and  one 
Brittaine,  and  two  Portugall  Barkes,  and  all  a  fishing,"  in  the  harbor 
of  St.  John.3  The  Samson  parted  company  with  the  other  ship  be- 
fore she  reached  St.  John  and  was  probably  lost.  In  this  expedition 
Cardinal  Wolsey  seems  to  have  had  some  pecuniary  interest. 

In  1536  an  enterprise  equally  discouraging  and  certainly  tragic  was 

undertaken  by  one  Master  Hore,  of  London,  "  assisted  by 

Voyage  of  .  J  J 

Masteriiore,  the  king's  favor  and  good  countenance,"  Hore  persuading 
many  gentlemen  of  Inns  of  Court  and  of  Chancery  and 
some  country  gentlemen  of  good  estate  to  go  with  him.  Altogether 
there  were  one  hundred  and  ten  persons  who  sailed  from  Gravesend 
in  April  of  that  year  in  the  ships  Trinitie  and  Minion,  the  former  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  tons  burden.  They  arrived  in  Newfoundland 
after  a  stormy  passage  of  two  months,  where  they  went  ashore  and  re- 
mained for  the  summer.  What  good  result  was  expected  from  such 
an  expedition  it  is  not  easy  to  understand,  for  it  was  so  ill  provided  that 
the  men  were  soon  in  a  starving  condition,  and  forced  to  seek  susten- 
ance in  such  wild  roots  as  they  could  gather.  And  to  such  extremity 
were  they  reduced  that  they  soon  murdered  each  other  secretly  and  fed 
upon  the  flesh  of  the  victims. 

The  captain,  who  had  supposed  that  the  loss  of  his  men  was  due 
to  wild  beasts  and  Indians,  had  no  other  remedy,  when  the  shocking 
truth  became  known  to  him,  than  to  make  a  "  notable  Oration,"  in 
which  he  set  forth  their  sin  in  the  strongest  terms  as  offensive  to  God, 
exhorting  them  to  repentance  and  prayer.  The  murders  probably 
ceased,  but  the  famine  continued,  and  it  was  not  long  before  hunger 
drove  them  to  cast  lots  for  the  choice  of  one  who  should  die  to  save 
the  rest.  But  such  was  the  mercy  of  God,  says  the  narrative,  that 
a  French  ship  well  provisioned  arrived  that  same  night.  Of  this  the 

1  Thome  to  the  English  Ambassador  in  Spain.  —  Hakluyt,  vol.  i. 

2  Biddle  (Memoir  of  Cabot,  p.  279)  suggests  that  it  was  on  board  the  Mary  of  Guilford 
that  Verrazano  was  pilot  when  he  was  captured  and  eaten  by  the  savages.     Her  captain 
would  hardly  have  omitted  to  mention  such  an  incident  had  it  occurred  on  board  his  vessel. 

8  Purchas's  Pilgrims,  John  Rut's  letter  to  Henry  VIII.,  vol.  Hi.,  p.  809.     Hakluyt  refers 
to  the  sailing  of  one  ship  in  1527,  and  calls  her  the  Dominus  Vobiscvm,  voL  iii.,  p.  129. 


1553.]  VOYAGE   OF   SIR   HUGH    WILLOUGHBY.  -'-' 

Englishmen,  either  by  force  or  by  fraud,  possessed  themselves  and  put 
to  sea,  leaving  the  Frenchmen  their  empty  vessel,  and  to  starve  in  their 
stead.  The  Frenchmen,  afterward,  however,  found  their  way  to  Eng- 
land, and  were  recompensed  by  the  king  for  their  losses,  though  the 
pirates  who  had  overpowered  them  were  not  punished,  as  they  should 
have  been,  in  consideration  of  the  dire  distress  which  incited  them  to 
so  base  a  crime.1 

The  want  of  success  in  these  adventures  had  undoubtedly  a  dis- 
couraging influence.  The  belief,  handed  down  even  to  a  recent 
period  as  a  kind  of  national  heirloom,  that  British  courage  and  perse- 
verance would  find  somewhere  a  northwest  passage  to  India,  was,  if  not 
abandoned,  at  least  forgotten  for  nearly  forty  years  in  the  middle  period 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  place  of  it  a  conviction  gained  ground  that 
the  true  road  to  Cathay  was  by  the  northeast.  Sebastian  Cabot  was  at 
that  time  in  England,  and  he  had  "  long  had  this  secret  in  his  mind;" 
originating,  perhaps,  in  his  own  experience  of  half  a  century  before, 
and  his  familiar  knowledge,  gained  as  pilot-major  of  Spain  and  Eng- 
land, of  the  abortive  attempts  of  Spanish,  Portuguese,  French,  and 
English  to  go,  as  Thome  said  in  his  letter  to  Henry  VIII.,  by  way  of 
the  north  into  the  back  side  of  the  New  found  land. 

There  was  at  this  period  great  depression  in  the  trade  of  England, 
and  the  growth  of  commercial  enterprise  was  seeking  untried  channels. 
The  merchants  of  London  were  looking  for  new  and  better  markets  for 
their  "  commodities  and  wares  "  than  could  be  found  near  home,  and 
they  sought  counsel  of  Cabot.  Trade  and  science  struck  hands  at  once. 
In  1553  Sebastian  Cabot  appears  as  first  governor  of  "  the 
mysterie  and  companie  of  the  merchants  adventurers  for 
the  discovrie  of  Regions,  Dominions,  Islands,  and  places  un- 
known,"  and  is  preparing  "  ordinances,  instructions  and  ad-  ch»nto 
vertisements  of  and  for  the  direction  of  the  intended  voyage  for 
Cathay." 

In  May  of  that  year  three  ships  sailed  from  London  under  the  com- 
mand of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby  as  captain-general  of  the  fleet.  &T  Uugh 
Evidently  great  things  were  expected.  Willoughby  was  "  a  wmoushb>' 
most  valiant  gentleman  and  well  born,"  chosen  as  the  admiral  above 
all  others  because  he  was  '*  of  goodly  personage  and  singular  skill  in 
the  service  of  warre;  "  Richard  Chancellor,  captain  of  one  of  the  ships 
and  pilot-major  of  the  fleet,  was  of  the  household  of  Henry  Sidney  — 
afterward  the  father  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  —  who,  in  a  public  speech, 
assured  the  merchants,  not  only  of  the  value  of  his  friend,  but  that  he 
hoped  "  this  present  godly  and  virtuous  intention  would  prove  profita- 
ble to  this  nation  and  honourable  to  this  our  land  ; "  an  intention 

1  Hakluj-t,  vol.  Hi.,  p.  129. 


228 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS   AT   SETTLEMENT.          [CHAP.  X. 


which  the  nobility  were  ready  to  help  and  further.  Even  the  names 
of  the  ships  indicate  the  sanguine  hopes  of  the  expedition,  for  they 
were  called  the  Bona  Esperanza,  the  Edward  (for  the  king)  Bona- 
venture,  and  the  Bona  Confidential.  They  were  well  built  and  well 
provided  ;  and  one  of  them,  says  Clement  Adams,1  "  was  made  stanch 
and  firme  by  an  excellent  invention  :  "  they  covered  a  piece  of  the 
keel  of  the  ship  with  thin  sheets  of  lead  to  protect  it  from  the 
worms,  —  the  first  time  apparently  that  sheathing  was  used  in  Eng- 
land. 

On  the  20th  of  May  the  fleet  dropped  down  to  Greenwich.     The 
court  was  at  that  place,  and  the  courtiers  came  running  out 
to  see  the  vessels  ;  the  privy  council  looked    out  from  the 
windows  and  from  the  tops  of  the  towers  ;  the  people  crowded 
down  to  the  shore  ;  upon  the  ships  the  sailors  clustered  like  bees  in 


Willoughby's  Ships  in  Arctic  Seas. 


the  tops,  upon  the  yards  and  shrouds,  and  while  hills  and  valleys  rever- 
berated with  salute  after  salute,  these  mariners  "  all  apparelled  in 
watchet  or  skie-coloured  cloth,"  ....  "shouted  in  such  sort  that 
the  skie  rang  againe  with  the  noyses  thereof."  It  was  a  gala-day  on 
the  Thames,  "  a  very  triumph  in  all  respects  to  the  beholders." 

In  the  north  seas  the  ships,  not  many  days  after,  parted  company 
in  a  storm.  Two  of  them  kept  together,  and  were  found  two  years 
later  by  some  Russian  fishermen  in  a  Lapland  harbor.  They  were 
the  Bona  Experanza  and  the  Bona  Confidentia.  In  the  cabin  of  the 
Esperanza  sat  the  body  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  a  pen  between  his 

1  See  his  narrative  in  Hakluyt,  vol.  i.,  p.  243,  et  set/. 


1570.]  SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT'S   DISCOURSE.  229 

frozen  fingers,  his  journal  open  on  the  table  before  him.  Scattered 
about  both  ships  lay  the  bodies  of  the  frozen  crews  ;  every  man  on 
board  had  perished  with  the  cold.  When  afterward  an  attempt  was 
made  to  take  the  ships  back  to  England  with  their  frozen  companies, 
they  were  buried  as  they  had  died,  together,  for  both  the  vessels 
foundered  at  sea. 

In  all  the  tragedies  of  Arctic  explorations  none  is  more  pathetic  than 
this  ;  unlike   many   others,  however,  it   was  not  a   useless   sacrifice. 
Chancellor  in  the  other  ship  reached  Archangel,  and  travelled  thence 
overland  to  Moscow.     A  new  channel  of  trade  was  opened  ; 
such   civilization   as   Western    Europe   then  possessed   was  opened  be- 
brought  to  the  knowledge  and  observation  of  less  cultivated  land  and 

Russia 

peoples ;  the  Muscovy  Company  became  powerful  and  rich, 
and  largely  added  to  that  commercial  prosperity  and  greatness  which 
were  to  be  the  pride  and  strength  of  England.     Satisfied  that  a  north- 
east passage  to  Cathay  was  doubtful  if  not  impossible,  the  English  were 
content  with  the  fruits  which  this  search  for  it  had  brought  them. 

A  few  years  later  the  old  idea  revived.  In  1570  an  ingenious  essay 
full  of  the  cosmographical  learning  of  the  time,  written  by  Sir  Hum- 
phrey Gilbert,  renewed  the  interest  if  not  the  belief  in  the  northwest 
passage.1  America,  he  thought,  was  the  Atlantis  of  Plato,  Aristotle, 
and  other  ancient  philosophers.  Partially  submerged  and  Humphrey 
divided  by  floods,  all  knowledge  of  it  was  lost  for  many 
centuries  ;  but  since  it  had  been  recently  rediscovered,  mod- 
ern  geographers  had  come  to  the  conclusion  of  the  ancients, 
that  it  was  an  island.  If  an  island  it  could  be  circumnavigated,  and 
it  would  be  possible  by  sailing  on  the  north  side  of  America  to  go  to 
"  Cataia,  China  and  East  India."  Not  only  was  it  theoretically  pos- 
sible, but  it  had  actually  been  done.  According  to  several  writers, 
there  had  been,  both  before  the  Christian  era,  and  also  in  the  eleventh 
century,  certain  Indians  cast  upon  the  shores  of  Germany.  They 
could  not,  argued  Gilbert,  have  come  by  the  southwest  through  the 
Strait  of  Magellan,  nor  by  the  southeast  around  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  because  of  the  distance  and  because  of  the  winds  and  cur- 
rents ;  nor  by  the  northeast,  even  if  there  were  any  passage  that  way, 
which  he  doubted,  because  of  the  shallowness  of  the  sea,  and  its 
being  therefore  perpetually  frozen.  Their  only  probable  route,  there- 
fore, was  by  the  northwest.  But  it  was  not  a  question  of  probabili- 
ties. One  of  the  old  writers  had  declared  that  three  brothel's  had 
sailed  from  Europe  through  this  passage,  and  hence  it  was  called  Fre- 
tum  Trium  Fratrum  —  the  Strait  of  the  Three  Brothers.  He,  Sir 
Humphrey,  had  with  his  own  ears  heard  a  certain  Spaniard  assure  Sir 

1  "Discourse  written  by  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  Knight,"  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii.,  p.  11. 


230 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS   AT   SETTLEMENT.          [CHAP.  X. 


Henry  Sidney  l  that  he  knew  a  friar,  a  man  famous  for  his  many 
voyages,  who  had  sailed  through  and  made  a  map  of  this  strait ;  that 
he  told  the  King  of  Portugal  of  it,  who  "  most  earnestly  desired  him 
not  in  anywise  to  disclose  or  make  the  passage  knowen  to  any  nation  : 
'  for  that  (said  the  king)  if  England  had  knowledge  and  experience 
thereof,  it  would  both  greatly  hinder  the  King  of  Spaine  and  me.'  " 

This  ingenious  essay  its  author 
showed  to  George  Gascoigne,  the 
poet,  who  was  first  interested  in 
it  as  a  literary  work.  But  it  had 
also  another  value,  and  for  that  he 


borrowed  it.  Martin  Fro- 
bisher,  or  Forboiser,  was  a 
kinsman  of  Gascoigne,  and 
was  then  proposing  if  not 
actually  preparing  for  a 

northwestern  expedition.    To  Frobisher's  Departure. 

him,  doubtless,  Gascoigne  showed  the  paper  ;  perhaps  it  was  by  his 
counsel  that  it  was  soon  after  published  ;  2  at  any  rate  it  can  hardly 
have  failed  to  influence  opinion,  and  so  have  forwarded  Fro- 
bisher's  purposes.  Two  months  later  —  in  June,  1576  —  he 
sailed  with  three  small  vessels,  one  of  them  a  pinnace  of  only 
ten  tons.  As  they  passed  Greenwich  on  their  way  down  the 
river,  the  queen,  Mary,  watched  them  from  the  windows,  and  conde- 


' 


1  Sir  Henry  Sidney,  who  nearly  twenty  years  before  took  so  lively  an  interest  in  the 
discovery  of  the  northeast  passage,  and  made  a  speech  at  a  Merchants'  meeting  just  before 
the  sailing  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby. 

2  Memoir  of  Cabot,  p.  290.    Biddle  quotes  from  the  original  publication,  now  iu  the  British 
Museum,  of   Gilbert's  essay  with  an   introduction  by  Gascoigne.     This   introduction  Hak- 
luyt  omits. 


1587.]  FROBISHER'S  VOYAGES.  231 

scended  to  wave  her  hands  in  token  of  farewell.  She  afterwards  sent 
messengers  on  board  to  express  her  "good  liking"  to  the  expedition  — 
an  evidence  of  the  importance  attached  to  it. 

Frobisher  made  two  other  voyages  in  the  two  following  years.     On 
all  of  them  he  saw  the  land  of  Frisland  "  rising  like  pinna-  Frobisher-s 
cles  of  steeples,"  in  about  latitude  61°,  from  twelve  to  fif-  JS^™* 
teen  days  sail  west  from  the  Shetland  Islands.     All  along  its  ages 
coast  were  high  mountains  covered  with  snow,  except   where  their 
sides  were  too  precipitous.     Nowhere  could  he  find  a  landing-place 
or  a  harbor,  nor  were  there  any  signs  of  habitation.     Either  this  was 
Greenland,  or  Frisland  has  since  disappeared,  for  no  navigator  since 
Frobisher  has  ever  seen  it. 

Thence  Frobisher  steered  westward,  pursuing  on  each  voyage 
nearly  the  same  course.  The  strait,  which  to  this  day  bears  his 
name,  he  thought  was  a  passage  to  the  sea  of  Suez,  and  the  island 
of  Cumberland  he  supposed  to  be  a  part  of  the  coast  of  Asia.  On 
the  first  voyage  he  picked  up  some  black  stones,  and  one  of  these, 
on  his  return,  was  given  as  a  curiosity  to  the  wife  of  one  of  the 
adventurers.  She  threw  it  into  the  fire,  and  after  long  exposure  to 
the  heat  without  being  consumed,  it  glistened  like  gold,  and  was  pro- 
nounced to  be  such  by  the  refiners.  A  new  impulse  and  a  new  pur- 
pose were  given  to  the  subsequent  expeditions,  and  on  the  last  Fro- 
bisher went  out  in  command  of  fifteen  ships.  They  were  to  come 
back  laden  with  ore,  and,  said  the  commander  of  the  fleet,  "  if  it  had 
not  beene  for  the  charge  and  care  we  had  of  the  fleete  and  freighted 
ships,  we  both  would  and  could  have  gone  through  to  the  South  Sea, 
called  Mar  del  Sur,  and  dissolved  the  long  doubt  of  the  passage  which 
we  seeke  to  finde  to  the  rich  countrey  of  Cataya."  1  But  the  hundreds 
of  tons  of  supposed  ore  which  they  brought  back  to  England  proved 
no  less  a  delusion  than  the  passage  to  the  East,  for  they  held  no 
gold. 

The  cost  of  these  shiploads  of  black  stones  was  forgotten  in  the 
course  of  the  next  four  or  five  years,  and  only  Frobisher's  assurance 
remembered  —  that,  but  for  the  care  of  those  useless  cargoes  he  would 
have  sailed  direct  to  Cathay.  Another  northern  expedition  remains 
to  be  noticed  before  we  turn  to  the  more  important  events  of  the  same 
period  under  the  guidance  of  statesmen  who  were  wise  enough  to 
see  that  the  power  and  opulence  of  England  were  to  be  increased 
by  founding  an  empire  in  the  New  World  rather  than  by  John 
seeking  a  passage  to  the  rich  kingdoms  of  other  peoples.  }L 
Three  times  in  the  course  of  the  years  1585-86  and  1587, 
John  Davis  heroically  pushed  his  way  through  those  frozen  northern 

1  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii.,  p.  80. 


232 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.         [CHAP.  X. 


seas.  On  the  third  of  these  voyages,  in  1587,  he  left  his  two  small 
vessels  on  the  coast  of  Cumberland  Island  to  fish,  while  he  went  north- 
ward in  a  pinnace.  For  about  six  weeks  he  pushed  his  way  among  the 
icebergs  and  fields  of  ice,  sometimes  along  the  western  coast  of  Deso- 
lation, as  he  called  Greenland,  sometimes  on  the  opposite  coast,  and 
penetrating  Baffin's  Bay  as  far  as  the  seventy-third  parallel.  In  the 
Strait,  which  ever  since  has  borne  his  name,  he  saw  the  land  on  both 
sides  of  him  ;  but  beyond  was  "  a  great  sea,  free,  large,  very  salt  and 
blew,  and  of  an  unsearchable  depth."  Davis  was  persuaded  that 
nothing  but  ice  and  bad  weather  prevented  his  sailing  direct  to  India 
along  the  northern  coast  of  America  ;  but  these  did  stay  his  further 
progress  in  any  direction  and  he  returned  to  where  he  had  left  his 
ships.  These,  meanwhile,  satisfied  with  their  "  catch  "  of  cod,  had 
ruthlessly  abandoned  their  commander  and  gone  home  to  save  their 
fish.  The  pinnace,  however,  reached  England  in  safety.  The  death  of 
Secretary  Walsingham,  who  was  Davis's  chief  patron,  and  the  prepar- 
ations to  meet  the  Spanish  Armada,  prevented  any  further  prosecution 
of  his  discoveries. 

The  familiar  names  of  two  straits  upon  the  map  of  North  America 
sir  Humph-  keep  alive  the  memory  of  these  intrepid  navigators,  Frobisher 
and  Davis.  The  voyages  of  both,  if  not  directly  due  to  the 
tt  Discourse  "  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  which  George  Gas- 
coigne  published,  received  from  it,  doubtless,  an  important  impulse. 

But  Gilbert  himself  meanwhile 
had  wider  views  than  the  possi- 
bility of  navigation  around  the 
northern  coast  of  North  Amer- 
ica, though  no  strait  or  head- 
land upon  the  continent  bears 
the  name  of  the  first  English- 
man who  sought  it  with  the 
single  purpose  of  colonizing 
and  making  it  a  part  of  the 
British  Empire.  "  Many  voy- 
ages," says  Captain  Edward 
Hayes,  "  have  bene  pretended, 
yet  hitherto  never  any  thor- 
oughly accomplished  by  our 
nation  of  exact  discovery  into 
the  bowels  of  those  maine, 
ample  and  vast  countreys,  ex- 
tended infinitely  into  the  north  from  30  degrees,  or  rather  from  25 
degrees,  of  septentrionall  latitude,  neither  hath  a  right  way  bene  taken 


Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert. 


1587.] 


SIR  HUMPHREY   GILBERT. 


233 


of  planting  a  Christian  habitation  and  regiment  upon  the  same."  1  It 
is  not,  indeed,  quite  true  that,  as  the  narrative  goes  on  to  say,  that 
"  worthy  gentleman  our  countryman,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  Knight, 
was  the  first  of  our  nation  that  caried  people  to  erect  an  habitation 
and  government  in  those  northerly  countreys  of  America;  "  for  Cabot 
had  taken  colonists  to  Baccalaos  eighty  years  before.  It  nevertheless 
is  true  that  in  the  active  brain  of  Gilbert  was  first  conceived  the  proj- 
ect which  was  the  germ  of  the  future  power  of  England  in  the  New 
World,  the  seed  whence  grew  the  present  United  States. 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  was  one  of  three  brothers,  all  of  whom  were 
men  of  character  and  distinction,  and  all  engaged  in  schemes  of  Ameri- 


View  on  Coast  near  Torquay. 

can  colonization.     The  family  was  one  of  consideration  and  wealth  in 
the  County  of  Devon,  then  of  the  first  importance  in  the  country  for 
its  commerce  and  sea-ports.     The  family  seat  was  not  far  from  the 
port  of  Torquay,  looking  out  upon  the  English  channel.2     The  father 
was  Otho  Gilbert,  whose  name  is  remembered  because  he  was  the 
father  of  such  sons  and  the  husband  of  their  mother.     Humphrey,  the 
second  son,  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Oxford,  and  was  des-  Familv  of 
tined  for  the  law.    But  Devon  influences  were  stronger  than  ^""0*11- 
those  of  school  and  college.     Let  him  ride  where  he  would  bert- 
from  his  father's  castle,  within  a  circuit  of  not  many  miles,  he  would 

1  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii.,  p.  143,  ft  seq. 

"  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  by  Edward  Edwards,  vol.  i.,  p.  76. 


234 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.         [CHAP.  X. 


come  upon  Torquay,  Dartmouth,  Brixham,  Teignmouth,  Exeter,  their 
ports  filled  with  vessels  of  all  kinds,  from  the  tall  ship  that  sailed 
southward  in  pursuit  of  Spanish  galleons,  to  the  little  craft  that  ven- 
tured into  northern  seas  to  load  with  cod  upon  the  coast  of  Bacca- 


laos.  About  the  quays  of  the 
busy  sea-ports  loitered  mari- 
ners and  soldiers,  come  home 
from  foreign  voyages  or  for- 
eign service,  with  tales  of 


Dartmouth   Harbor. 


travel  in  strange  lands  and  of  deeds  of  war  ;  and  to  a  young  man  of 
courage  and  imagination  these  would  have  an  irresistible  charm  in  an 
age  when  the  lure  to  ambition  was  romantic  adventure. 

On  the  maternal  as  well  as  paternal  side  Gilbert  was  of  good  blood, 
for  his  mother,  who  was  the  mother  also,  by  a  second  marriage,  of  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  was  of  a  family  distinguished  at  various  periods  of 
English  history,  — the  Champernouns.  She  was,  says  John  Fox,  the 
martyrologist,  "  a  woman  of  noble  wit  and  of  good  and  godly  opin- 
ions." Not  much  is  known  of  her,  but  it  is  enough  to  know  that  she 
was  the  mother  of  the  Gilberts  and  of  Raleigh,  —  a  woman  to  be  held 
in  reverential  remembrance  in  a  land  where  her  sons  were  the  first 
to  plant  the  seed  that  should  bear  good  fruit  in  the  New  World. 
Humphrey  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  was  first  a  soldier,  serving  in  the 
vj^fasl9**"  wars  of  France,  of  Ireland,  and  of  the  Netherlands.  That 
soldier.  |ie  c|^  good  service  there  is  ample  testimony.  In  the  Neth- 
erlands he  led  a  regiment  for  the  Prince  of  Orange,  fighting  for  the 


1583.]  SIR  HUMPHREY   GILBERT'S   EXPEDITION.  235 

Huguenots  and  the  new  faith.  In  Ireland  he  was  made  Governor  of 
Munster.  "  For  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,"  wrote  Sir  Henry  Sidney, 
'•  I  cannot  say  enough  ....  for  the  estimation  that  he  hath  won  to 
the  name  of  Englishman  there  [in  Ireland]  before  almost  not  known, 
exceedeth  all  the  rest."  "  I  never  hard,"  wrote  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
"  nor  rede  of  any  man  more  fered  than  he  is  among  the  Irishe  na- 


con." 


In  1578  Gilbert  received  an  ample  charter  giving  him  power  for  the 
next  six  years  to  discover  "  such  remote  heathen  and  barbar-  nig  charter 
ous  lands,  not  actually  possessed  by  any  Christian  prince  or  : 
people,"  and  have  them  for  his  own  both  by  sea  and  land  as  absolute 
proprietor.  Though  that  portion  of  America  near  the  river  of  Canada 
was  the  best  known,  the  more  southern  region  was  —  Gilbert  and  those 
engaged  with  him  believed  —  the  more  valuable.  Florida,  it  was  said, 
was  by  divine  limitation  the  impassable  boundary  of  Spanish  domin- 
ion in  the  New  World,  and  "  that  the  countreys  lying  Xorth  of  Florida 
God  hath  reserved  the  same  to  be  reduced  into  Christian  civility  by 
the  English  nation."  2 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh  was  chief  among  those  who  entered  into  this 
scheme  of  his  half-brother,  and  who  contributed  money,  influence,  and 
personal  effort  for  its  success.  When,  the  year  after  Gilbert  received 
the  charter,  he  made  the  first  attempt  to  avail  himself  of  the  privileges 
it  bestowed,  Raleigh,  it  is  said,  sailed  with  him.  The  expedition,  how- 
ever, returned  within  a  few  days  crippled,  and  with  the  loss  of  one  ship 
probably  captured  in  a  fight  with  the  Spaniards  at  sea.  But  it  encoun- 
tered many  difficulties  even  before  starting.  Dissensions  had  arisen 
among  those  who-  had  engaged  in  it,  followed  by  withdrawals  ;  theu 
Orders  of  Council  came,  first  that  Gilbert  should  only  put  to  sea  under 
sureties  of  good  behavior  ;  then  that  he  should  abandon  the  enterprise 
altogether  under  pain  of  the  queen's  displeasure.  For  the  watchful 
Spaniards,  jealous  of  every  English  vessel  that  turned  her  head  west- 
ward, complained  of  depredations  made  or  to  be  made  upon  Spanish 
commerce  —  complaints  likely  enough  to  be  well  founded,  for  he  was 
no  true  British  sailor  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  who  did  not  hate  the 
Spaniard  as  he  hated  the  enemy  of  mankind,  and  did  not  hold  him  to 
be  the  lawful  prey  of  all  Christian  men. 

But  in  1583  the  start  was  more  successful.  Raleigh's  influence 
with  Elizabeth  removed  all  obstacles  that  the  Lords  of  Council  could 
put  in  the  way,  if  they  were  still  disposed  to  listen  to  Spanish  com- 
plaints, or  the  Spaniards  to  offer  them.  The  queen  wished  Gil- 
bert "  as  great  goodhap  and  safety  to  his  ship  as  if  herself  were  there 

1  Edwards'  Life  of  Raleigh,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  2-12. 

2  Report  oftJie  Voyages,  etc.,  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  by  Edward  Haies.    Hakluyt,  vol.  iii., 
p    143. 


286  ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT  SETTLEMENT.          [CHAP.  X. 

in  person,"  and  desired  him  to  send  her  his  picture  as  a  keepsake. 
His  charter,  moreover,  expired  in  a  year,  and  he  could  afford  to  delay 
Gilbert  s«iis  no  longer.  He  sailed  in  June  in  command  of  five  ships,  the 
offlVe  ThTps.  largest  of  which,  the  Raleigh,  was  fitted  out  by  Sir  Walter 
1583.  himself  at  an  expense  of  .£2,000,  and  was  two  hundred  tons 

burden.  The  smallest,  the  Squirrel,  was  only  ten  tons  burden  ;  of  the 
other  three,  the  Golden  Hind  and  the  Swallow  measured  forty  tons 
each,  and  the  admiral's  ship,  the  Delight,  was  one  hundred  and  twenty 
tons.  The  Raleigh  deserted  them  in  a  few  days  and  returned  to  port, 
pestilence  having  broken  out,  it  was  said,  among  her  crew ;  but  some- 
thing else  was  the  matter,  for,  says  Captain  Edward  Hayes,  the  owner 
and  captain  of  the  Golden  Hind,  as  well  as  historian  of  the  expedition, 

"  the  reason  I  could  never  understand Therefore  I  leave  it  unto 

God." l  And  Gilbert  himself  wrote  to  Sir  George  Peckham,2  "  the 
Ark  Raleigh  ran  from  me  in  fair  and  clear  weather,  having  a  large 
wind.  I  pray  you,  solicit  my  brother  Raleigh  to  make  them  an  ex- 
ample to  all  knaves."  3 

In  all  there  was  a  company  of  about  two  hundred  and  sixty  men, 
among  them  mechanics  of  all  trades  fitted  for  a  new  settlement,  as 
well  as  mineral  men  and  refiners.  On  the  admiral's  ship  was  a 
band  of  music  "  for  solace  of  their  own  people,"  and  they  carried 
such  "  toyes  as  morris-dancers,  hobbie-horses  and  May-like  conceits  to 
delight  the  savage  people,  as  well  as  petty  haberdashrie  wares  "  for 
barter  with  them. 

The  vessels  all  arrived  in  due  season  at  the  appointed  place  of  meet- 
i°g' — St.  John's,  Newfoundland.  Here  Sir  Humphrey  read 
to  the  tradesmen  and  fishermen  of  all  nations,  who,  as  had 
territory.  come  to  be  the  settled  custom,  had  gathered  there  for  the 
summer,  his  commission  from  the  queen.  He  took  possession  of  the 
place  and  the  neighboring  country,  for  two  hundred  leagues  in  every 
direction,  with  proper  solemnities,  receiving  a  sod  and  a  twig  in  token 
thereof,  and  setting  up  a  pillar  with  the  arms  of  England  carved  upon 
it.  He  had  gone  there,  however,  only  as  a  convenient  stopping-place 
for  repairs  and  provisions,  on  his  way  to  that  more  southern  country, 
which  was  the  real  object  of  the  expedition.  It  was  a  disastrous 
delay.  Many  of  his  men  deserted ;  many  were  disabled  by  sickness 
from  further  service ;  and  some  died.  Altogether  they  were  a  rough 
and  worthless  set,  some  of  whom  had  been  pirates,  and  were  impressed 

1  Hayes'  Narrative,  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii. 

2  Letter  to  Sir  George  Peckham,  Purchas  Pile/rims,  vol.  iii. 

8  Oldys,  in  his  Life  and  Works  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  vol.  i.,  says,  and  others  have  repeated 
it  on  his  authority,  that  Raleigh  was  in  command  of  his  own  ship.  Gilbert's  letter  is  the 
most  conclusive  evidence  that  that  could  not  have  been  the  case.  He  would  not  have  as- 
serted that  a  ship  which  Raleigh  commanded  deserted  in  fair  and  clear  weather,  nor  have 
asked  him  to  punish  as  knaves  the  men  who  were  under  his  orders. 


1583.] 


SIR  HUMPHREY   GILBERT'S   EXPEDITION. 


237 


against  their  will  for  the  voyage.  On  the  passage  out,  the  crew  of 
the  Sivallow  had  overhauled  a  French  fishing  vessel,  stripped  her  of 
sails  and  rigging,  and  robbed  the  men  of  provisions  and  clothing, 
leaving  them  to  perish  seven  hundred  leagues  from  land.  At  St. 
John's,  a  conspiracy  was  detected  to  seize  the  vessels  while  the  admiral 
and  the  captains  were  on  shore.  Defeated  in  this,  some  of  the  men 
boarded  a  fishing  vessel,  put  the  crew  ashore,  and  stole  out  to  sea. 
This  accumulation  of  mishaps  made  it  expedient  to  send  the  Swallow 
home  with  the  sick  and  as  many  of  the  discontented  and  the  insub- 


Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  reading  his  Commission. 

ordinate  as  could  be  spared,  leaving  Sir  Humphrey  with  only  three 
vessels  and  a  diminished  company. 

At  length  they  resumed  the  voyage.     Doubling  Cape  Race,  they 
sailed  along  the  west  coast  of  Newfoundland,  as  far  as  Pla-  rxM,g0f  ^e 
centia  Bay,  then  headed  for  Cape  Breton  and  Sable  Island,   Deltsht- 
meaning  to  land  upon  the  latter,  where  they  had  heard  were  great 
store  of  cattle  and  swine,  the  progeny  of  some  left  there  about  thirty 
years  before.     For  a  week  they  struggled  with  contrary  winds,  mak- 
ing only  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  leagues.     In  thick  weather 
and  a  gale  of  wind  they  suddenly  found   themselves,  in   the   early 
morning,  among  breakers  and  on  a  lee  shore,  as  so  many  have  done 


238 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.        [CHAP.  X. 


since  on  the  dangerous  coasts  of  Nova  Scotia.  Presently  the  Delight, 
the  largest  ship,  struck  and  in  a  few  moments  went  to  pieces.  Seven- 
teen of  her  crew  jumped  into  the  long-boat,  and  after  seven  days  of 
exposure,  without  food  or  water,  fifteen  of  them  reached  Newfound- 
land ;  the  rest  were  drowned ;  among  them  the  captain,  Maurice 
Browne,  who  refused  to  leave  his  ship,  but  "  mounting  upon  the  high- 
est deck  he  attended  imminent  death  and  unavoidable."  These  were 
the  men  who  had  belonged  to  the  Swalloiv,  and  had  robbed  and  left 
to  "  imminent  death  "  the  crew  of  the  French  fisherman  on  the  out- 


Wreck  of  the  "  Delight." 


ward  passage,  and  that  deed  "justified  to  the  mind,"  said  Captain 
Hayes,  "  God's  judgments  inflicted  upon  them  "  in  this  sudden  ship- 
wreck. The  Golden  Hind  and  the  Squirrel,  warned  in  time  by  the 
fate  of  their  fellow,  hauled  off  and  stood  out  to  sea. 

The  weather  continued  tempestuous  and  cold,  for  winter  was  ap- 
proaching ;  the  land  they  sought  they  could  not  fall  in  with 
after  beating  about  for  many  days ;  provisions  were  failing, 
and  hunger  pushing  them  sore  ;  and  it  was  resolved  to  re- 
turn to  England.     Notwithstanding  the  disasters  that  had  attended 


Gilbert  re- 
Bolves  to  r 
turn  to  Km 
land. 


1583.]  SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT'S  EXPEDITION.  239 

the  expedition,  Sir  Humphrey  was  content.  At  St.  John's  one  of  his 
assayers  had  brought  him  an  ore,  which  he  solemnly  affirmed  was  of 
silver,  and  so  persuaded  of  this  was  Gilbert  that  he  believed  he  had 
but  to  return  in  the  spring  to  gather  great  wealth.  This  vision  took 
possession  of  him  and  was  a  great  comfort  in  all  his  trials,  though  it 
did  not  make  him  forget  his  wise  purpose  of  colonization  on  the  con- 
tinent farther  south.  The  specimens  of  the  ore  had  been  left  on  board 
the  Delight,  by  mistake  of  his  servant,  and  the  assayer,  who  knew 
most  about  them,  was  lost  in  that  vessel. 

But  Sir  Humphrey  knew  where  to  find  the  mine.  Hitherto  he  had 
said  little  about  it,  and  had  enjoined  silence  upon  others ;  but  now 
that  he  was  far  out  at  sea  and  returning  to  England  after  so  many 
misfortunes,  he  talked  not  a  little  about  the  great  store  of  silver  in 
his  new  possessions.  The  thing  he  seemed  most  to  regret,  next  to  the 
loss  of  his  men,  was  the  loss  of  the  lumps  of  ore ;  and  when  long  after, 
on  visiting  the  Golden  Hind  at  sea,  he  met  the  boy  whose  fault  it  was 
that  these  precious  minerals  were  left  on  the  Delight,  he  fell  upon  and 
beat  him  "  in  great  rage."  Good  and  pious  and  wise  man  as  he  was 
known  to  be,  he  was  of  a  choleric  and  unforgiving  disposition.  Years 
before,  when  he  was  putting  down  the  rebellion  in  Ireland,  the  castle 
or  fort  that  did  not  surrender  at  his  first  summons,  he  "  would  not 
afterwards,"  he  said,  "  take  it  of  their  gift,  but  won  it  perforce  —  how 
many  lives  so  ever  it  cost ;  putting  man,  woman,  and  child  of  them  to 
the  sword."  There  was  good  reason  why  he  should  be  more  feared 
than  any  other  man  by  the  Irish,  as  Raleigh  said  he  was.  Among  sail- 
ors who  were  pirates  if  they  had  the  opportunity,  and  among  Irish 
outlaws  who  were  no  better  than  half  savages,  he  showed  little  of  the 
quality  of  mercy. 

So  much  did  he  rely  upon  his  mine  of  silver,  that  he  was  sure  the 
queen,  upon  report  thereof,  would  readily  advance  £  10, 000,  where- 
with he  would  equip  two  fleets  in  the  spring,  one  to  bring  home  the 
ore,  the  other  for  a  new  venture  to  the  south  to  plant  colonies.  "  I 
will  set  you  forth  royally  next  spring,"  he  said  to  his  companions,  "  if 
God  send  us  safe  home."  That  hope  was  not  ill-founded  ;  the  prom- 
ise of  sudden  wealth  in  the  New  World  was  never  made  to  dull  ears. 
But  it  would  only  have  been  one  more  idle  tale  to  be  confuted,  for 
there  was  no  mine ;  the  colonies,  other  hands  than  his  were  to  plant. 

The  vessel  Gilbert  had  last  embarked  upon  was  the  Squirrel,  the 
smallest  of  the  fleet,  of  only  ten  tons  burden.     He  was  be-  The  ginking 
sought  to  leave  her  and  find  greater  safety  on  board  the  Golden 
Hind ;  but  his  answer  was  always :  "  I  will  not  forsake  my 
little  company  going  homeward,  with  whom  I  have  passed  so  death- 
many  storms  and  perils."     Severe  as  he  was  he  would  ask  no  man 


240 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.         [CHAP.  X. 


to  do  that  which  he  was  himself  afraid  to  do.  So  small  a  craft  was 
a  poor  thing  in  which  to  cross  the  Atlantic  in  September.  The 
weather  was  foul,  the  waves  ''terrible,  breaking  short  and  high  like 

pyramids Never  men  saw  more  outrageous  seas."     On  the 

9th  of  the  month  the  Squirrel  came  near  foundering,  but  rode  out 
the  storm.  The  Golden  Hind  approached  and  hailed  her,  and  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert,  sitting  quietly  in  the  stern  of  the  boat  with  a 
book  in  his  hand,  answered  cheerfully,  "  we  are  as  near  to  heaven  by 
sea  as  by  land."  In  the  darkness  of  the  night  that  followed  they 
anxiously  watched  on  board  the  Hind  for  the  Squirrel's  lights ;  sud- 
denly at  midnight,  "  as  it  were  in  a  moment,"  they  disappeared.  The 
little  vessel  "  was  devoured  and  swallowed  up  of  the  sea." 

The  County  of  Devon  bred  great  men  for  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
sir  waiter  an(^  the  greatest  of  them  all  was  Walter  Raleigh.  Whatever 
Raleigh.  foe  ioca|  influence  of  its  maritime  position,  the  contagion  of 
example,  or  the  stimulus  of  noble  emulation  in  families,  did  to  form 

the  characters  of  its  sons,  was  done  in 
larger  share  for  Walter  Raleigh  than 
for  all  the  rest.  His  half  brother, 
Humphrey  Gilbert,  was  a  dozen  years 
his  senior  ;  but  that  difference  did  not 
forbid  close  affection  and  companion- 
ship between  them,  while  it  gave  the 
weight  of  years  to  example  and  pre- 
cept. Walter,  like  Humphrey,  went 
with  the  gallant  band  of  young  Eng- 
lishmen, to  fight  on  the  continent  for 
the  new  faith,  and  against  the  Pope  ; 
like  him  he  served  in  Ireland,  to  sub- 
due the  half  savage  rebels  of  —  as  he 
called  it  —  "that  commonwelthe  or 
rather  common  woo ; "  like  him  he 
hated  the  Spaniard,  and  longed  for 
adventure  and  discovery ;  and  he  saw,  as  Gilbert  saw,  that  the  way 
to  check  the  growth  and  power  of  Spain  in  the  New  World,  was  to 
take  possession  of  the  thousand  miles  of  sea-coast,  north  of  Florida, 
which  the  curse  of  Spanish  invasion  had  not  yet  blighted,  —  that 
therein  was  to  be  found  the  true  glory  of  England,  and  the  best 
service  to  her  queen.  They  were  true  brothers  in  spirit,  in  character, 
and  in  determined  purpose,  even  more  than  in  blood. 

Raleigh's  loss  was  not  a  slight  one  in  the  desertion,  at  the  outset,  of 
the  ship  —  the  Raleigh  —  which  he  had  built  and  fitted  out  at  his  own 
charges ;  but  that  was  as  nothing  to  the  loss  of  his  friend  and  brother, 


Sir  Walter    Raleigh. 


1584.]  RALEIGH'S   FIRST   EXPEDITION.  241 

whose  heroic  death  the  Golden  Hind  reported  within  a  few  days  in 
England.  Neither  discouraged  him,  and  he  seems  to  have  accepted  the 
last  as  imposing  upon  him  the  new  duty  of  carrying  out  alone  the 
projects  in  which  hitherto  he  had  been  content  to  second  his  half 
brother.  Gilbert's  patent  was  so  near  the  time  of  its  ex- 
piration  as  to  be  useless  for  any  fresh  enterprise  ;  and  as  all 
knowledge  of  the  supposed  silver  mine  was  lost  with  him,  ullbert- 
Raleigh  had  no  special  motive  for  planting  a  colony  so  far  north  as 
Newfoundland.  With  the  promptitude  and  energy  so  characteristic  of 
the  man,  he  at  once  set  himself  to  work,  and  in  March,  1584,  had 
secured  from  the  queen  a  new  patent  with  enlarged  powers  and  priv- 
ileges. A  month  later  two  ships,  well  manned  and  victualed,  sailed 
down  the  Thames  and  put  to  sea,  under  the  command  of  Captain 
Philip  Amadas  and  Arthur  Barlow. 

This  evidently  was  only  a  voyage  of  exploration,  to  find  the  place 
best  adapted  for  the  future  colony.     They  sailed  by  way  of 
the  Canaries  and  the  West  Indies,  for  navigators  had  not  pediti"n.eJt 
yet  learned  to  venture  out  of  the  course  laid  down  by  Co- 
lumbus a  century  before,  except  when  seeking  those  northern  parts 
about  the  great  river  of  Canada.     It  was  sixty-six  days  befoi'e  the 
smell  of  the  land,  "  so  sweet  and  so  strong  a  smell,  as  if  wee  had  been 
in  the  midst  of  some  delicate  garden  abounding  with  all  kinds  of  odo- 
riferous flowers,"  warned  them  of  their  near  approach  to  the  Western 
Continent,  and  two  days  more  —  July  4th  —  before  they  saw  the  low, 
sandy  shore  of  North  Carolina. 

Presuming  this  to  be  the  main  land,  they  kept  along  the  coast 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  seeking  for  a  good  harbor,  and  then 
entered  an  inlet,  supposing  it  to  be  the  mouth  of  a  river.  After  their 
long  and  weary  voyage,  worn  out  with  the  heat,  and  suffering  from  the 
malaria  of  the  tropics,  they  were  enraptured  with  the  region  upon 
which  they  had  fallen,  more  by  chance  than  design.  The  cool  sea- 
breeze  tempered  the  heats  of  July;  the  waves  rippled  gently  upon 
the  white  sands  of  the  beach,  lifting  in  their  ebb  and  flow  the  grace- 
ful branches  and  clustering  fruit  of  the  vine  which  climbed  every  tree 
and  bush  down  to  the  water's  edge.  The  land  rose  gradually  into  low 
hills,  crowned  with  cedars  more  stately  and  more  beautiful  than  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon. 

Mounting  one  of  these  hills  they  saw  that  they  were  upon  an  isl- 
and about  sixteen  mile*  in  length,  the  sea  stretching  on  both 
sides  further  north  and  south  than  the  eye  could  reach.     The 


main  land  was  still  distant.     As  they  afterward  discovered, 

and    as  Verazzano  had  observed  sixty  years  before,  there  ran  along 

this  coast  for  many  miles  a  chain  of  long  and  narrow  islands  washed 

VOL.  I.  16 


242 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.         [CHAP.  X. 


on  one  side  by  the  ocean  and  on  the  other  by  an  inner  sea  from  twenty 
to  fifty  miles  in  breadth.  In  one  of  the  connecting  inlets  Amadas  and 
Barlow  had  found  a  harbor  and  had  anchored  their  vessels  in  Painlico 
Sound. 

The  island  on  which  they  landed  has  been  generally  supposed  to  be 
Wocokon,  identical  with  that  now  known  as  Ocracoke,  lying  between 
Hatteras  and  Ocracoke  inlets.1  But  on  the  map  accompanying  Hari- 
ot's  "  Briefe  and  True  Relation  of  the  New  found  Land  of  Virginia," 
published  by  De  Bry  in  1590,  the  island  beginning  next  south  of  Cape 


Landing  on  the  Island. 

Hatteras,  is  called  Croatoan,  and  the  second  island  south  of  that  is 
Wocokon.  Ocracoke,  therefore,  is  that  which  was  then  called  Croa- 
toan, while  that  then  known  as  Wocokon,  is  now,  probably,  Ports- 
mouth Island.2  The  first  footprints  of  the  coming  nation  of  Eng- 

1  See   Stith's    Virginia;    Holmes'  Annals ;  Belknap's    American  Biography;  Bancroft's 
History  of  the  United  States  ;  Hildreth's  History,  and  others. 

2  In  the  original  narrative,  the  source  of  all  that  is  known  of  this  voyage,  written  by  Cap- 
tain Barlow,1  no  name  is  given  to  the  island  on  which  the  expedition  first  landed.     But  in 
describing  the  boundaries  of  the  territory  under  the  separate  rule  of  different  Indian  chiefs, 
the  southernmost  town  of  one  of  them  is  placed  on  what  is  now  known  as  Pamlico  River) 
and  Wocokon  is  referred  to  as  not  far  distant.    The  unnamed  island  where  they  first  went 
ashore,  was,  says  Captain  Barlow's  narrative,  about  twenty  miles  from  Roanoke  Island ; 
and  from  the  Occam  —  Albemarle  Sound— at  the  entrance  of  which  lay  Roanoke,  to  the 

1  In  Ilakluyt,  vol.iii.,p.  246 


1584.] 


RALEIGH'S  FIRST  EXPEDITION. 


243 


lish  blood  on  the  shores  of  the  New  World  were  made  not  at  Ocracoke 
but  on  the  low  sandy  beach  of  Chickconocomack  Bank,  still  EMlct  ^^ 
often  called  by  the  people  of   the   neighborhood   Hatteras,  o£  Undin8- 
Cape  Hatteras,  or  Hatteras  Bank.     And  as  the  inlet,  through  which 
the  ships  of  Amadas  and  Barlow  entered  Pamlico  Sound,  was  twenty 
miles  from  Roanoke  Island,  that  channel  must  in  the  course  of  time 
have  been  filled  by  the  shifting  sands,  while  New  Inlet,  which  is  only 


Map  in  Harlot's  "  Relation."     [Fac-simile.] 

twelve  and  a  half  miles  from  Roanoke,  has  been  formed  —  as  its  name 
implies  —  since  the  settlement  of  the  country. 

The  ships  had  not  long  to  wait  for  a  visit  from  the  natives.     On 
the  third  day  came  three  Indians  across  the  sound  in  canoes,  Vlsite  from 
one  of  whom  ventured  boldly  among  the  strangers,  was  shown  the  natives- 
about  the  ships,  entertained  with  wine  and  food,  and  made  happy  by 
presents  of  a  shirt  and  some  other  trifles.     In  return  he  loaded  his 

Indian  town  near  Wocokon,  was  four  days'  journey.  Then  Strachey,  who  was  the  first 
secretary  of  the  first  permanent  Virginia  colony,  founded  twenty-three  years  afterward,  and 
who  was  probably  familiar  with  the  whole  region,  says  of  Amadas  and  Barlow,  —  "  thev 
arrived  upon  the  coast  in  a  harborow  called  Hatorask ; "  and  he  subsequently  confirms,  while 
he  follows  the  original  narrative  by  adding,  "to  the  so-ward  four  dales  journey,  they  discov- 
ered Socoto  the  last  town  southwardly  of  Wincandacoa"  "neare  unto  which"  was  Woco- 
kon, an  "  out  island." 1  On  the  map  of  1590  in  Hariot's  Relation,  "  Hatoras"  is  laid  down 
as  at  the  first  inlet  north  of  the  point  now  called  Cape  Hatteras. 

1  The  Historie  of  Traraile  into  Virginia  Britannia,  etc.,  by  William  Strachey,  Gent.     First  published  in 
1849,  by  the  Hakluyt  Society,  London,  pp.  1«2, 143. 


244 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT         [CHAP.  X. 


canoe  with  fish,  fresh  caught  in  the  sound,  and  piling  them  up  in  two 
heaps  upon  the  sand  signified  by  signs  that  one  was  for  each  ship. 
The  next  day  there  came  many  boats  bringing  forty  or  fifty  men,  led 
by  Granganameo,  the  brother  of  the  king  of  that  country.  From  him 
the  Englishmen  learned  that  the  region  round  about  was  called  Win- 
gandacoa,  whereof  Wingina,  then  ill  at  home  from  a  wound  received 
in  battle,  was  the  king.  Thesy  visitors  were  a  "  handsome  and  goodly 
people,  and  in  their  behaviour  as  mannerly  and  civil  as  any  in 
Europe." 

Afterward  they  came  in  greater  numbers  and  in  entire  confidence 
and  cordialty,  bringing  food  and  skins,  and  accepting  in  return  what- 
ever the  strange  white  men  —  at  whose  whiteness  they  "  wondered 
marvellously"  —  chose  to  give.  They  soon  brought  with  them  their 
wives  and  children,  and  among  them  was  the  wife  of  Granganameo,  a 
"  woman  very  well  favoured,  of  meane  (medium)  stature  and  very  bash- 
ful ;  she  had  on  her  backe  a  long  cloake  of  leather,  with  the  furre  side 
next  to  her  body,  and  before  her  a  piece  of  the  same  :  about  her  forehead 
she  had  a  bande  of  wite  Corall,  and  so  had  her  husband  many  times  : 
in  her  eares  she  had  bracelets  of  pearles  hanging  downe  to  her  mid- 
dle, and  those  were  of  the  bignes  of  good  pease."  Such  was  a  Vir- 
ginia princess  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

A  few  days  later  Captain  Barlow,  with  seven  men,  went  up  the 
Occam  —  Albemarle  Sound  —  for  twenty  miles,  and  on  re- 
turning  landed  on  the  north  end  of  Raonoak  (Roanoke)  isl- 
and.   Here  in  a  palisaded  village  of  nine  houses,  built  of  cedar,  was  the 

residence  of  the  chief  Granganameo  ; 
and  here  this  modest  wife  —  he  being 
absent  —  received  and  entertained  their 
new  friends  with  a  boundless  and  grace- 
ful hospitality.  Her  house  of  five 
rooms  she  put  at  their  disposal  ;  she 
and  her  women  fed  them  with  the 
best  that  field,  forest,  and  rivers,  and 
Indian  skill  could  provide  ;  washed  and 
dried  their  clothing  ;  bathed  their  feet 
in  warm  water.  And  she  disarmed 
her  men  that  the  confidence  of  her 
guests  might  remain  undisturbed,  and 
sent  guards  to  watch  by  the  river  bank 

Lord  and   Lady  of  Secotan.     [From  De  Bry.]  « 

that  no  danger  should  approach  while 

they  slept  in  peace  in  their  boat,  covered  by  the  dressed  skins  she 
gave  them. 

The  adventurers  were  back  again  in  England  by  the  middle  of  Sep- 


Indian  hos- 


1584.] 


RALEIGH'S   FIRST   EXPEDITION. 


245 


tember,  having  spent,  perhaps,  six  weeks  among  a  people  so  attractive 
and  so  simple,  amid  scenes  so  novel.  Of  the  country  they  said  "  the 
soile  is  the  most  plentifull,  sweete,  fruitfull  and  wholesome  of  all  the 
worlde  ;  "  of  trees  they  found  fourteen  "  of  sweet  smelling  EnthuRiagtic 
timber  ; "  the  oaks  were  of  as  many  kinds  as  in  England,  {£e°adven- 
but  "  far  greater  and  better ; "  the  fruits  were  "  of  divers  turers- 
kinds,  and  very  excellent  good,"  such  as  "  melons,  walnuts,  cucumbers, 
gourdes,  pease,"  and  "  grapes  in  all  the  world  the  like  abundance  is 
not  to  be  found ; "  the 
corn  of  the  country 
[maize]  was  very  white, 
fair  and  well  tasted,  and 
there  were  three  crops 
from  May  to  Septem- 
ber ;  the  fish  were  the 
best  in  the  world  and 
in  greatest  abundance  ; 
of  "  divers  beasts  "  they 
name  fat  bucks,  conies, 
and  hares  ;  and  for 
the  people,  —  they  were 
"  most  gentle,  loving 
and  faithful,  void  of  all 
guile  and  treason,  and 
such  as  live  after  the 
maner  of  the  golden 
age."  l  As  witnesses  to 
the  truthfulness  of  this 
pleasing  picture  of  the 
new  found  land,  they 
carried  back  with  them 
to  England  two  of  the 
natives  named  Manteo 
and  Wanchese  ;  some  of  its  products,  "  as  chamois,  buffalo  and  deer 
skins,"  and  "  a  bracelet  of  pearls  as  big  as  peas  "  for  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh. 

The  effect  of  such  a  report  was  very  marked  in  England.     In  the 
name  of  a  virgin  queen  Raleigh  was  permitted  to  call  the 
new  country  Virginia  ;  as  a  reward  for  his  part  in  its  dis-  named  vir- 
covery  the  honor  of  knighthood  was  bestowed  upon  him  ;  to 
his  arms  was  added  the  legend,  Propria  insignia  Walteri  Ralegh,  mili- 
tis,  Domini,  et  Grubernatoris  Virginice  ;2  and  perhaps  that  he  might 

1  Captain  Barlow's  "  Narrative  "  in  Hakluyt. 

2  Edwards'  Life  of  Raleigh,  vol.  i.,  p.  87. 


Queen   Elizabeth. 


246 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.        [CHAP.  X. 


have  the  means  to  persevere  in  this  enterprise  he  was  enriched  with  a 
monopoly  in  the  granting  licenses  for  the  sale  of  certain  wines.  Al- 
ready a  favorite  with  Elizabeth,  he  entered  now  more  actively  into 
public  affairs  as  member  of  parliament  for  the  County  of  Devon,  and 
procured  from  that  body  a  confirmation  of  the  royal  patent  for  the 
possession  and  colonization  of  foreign  lands. 

In  the  spring  a  larger  expedition  and  with  a  more  definite  purpose 
was  fitted  out.  On  the  9th  of  April,  1585,  a  fleet  of  seven 
ships,  under  command  of  Sir  Richard  Grenville,  sailed  from 


Raleigh  'g 
colony  un- 
der Sir  Rich- 
ard cren-      Plymouth.     On  board  were  about   one   hundred   men  who 

Of  this  Ralph  Lane  was 


ville.  1585. 


were  to  form  the  future  colony.  Of  this  Ralph 
to  be  the  governor  ;  Philip  Amadas,  who  in  this  as  in  the  expedition 
of  the  previous  year,  commanded  a  ship,  was  his  deputy ;  of  another 
ship  Sir  Thomas  Cavendish,  a  young  gentleman  just  come  of  age  and 
into  his  inheritance  by  the  death  of  his  father,  was  owner  and  cap- 
tain ;  Thomas  Hariot,  the  mathematician  and  astronomer,  went  as 
the  scientific  man  of  the  expedition.  One  John  White  was  the  artist, 
and  his  sketches  are  among  the  earliest,  the  most  authentic,  and 
the  most  valuable  of  the  habits  and  appearance  —  though  no  doubt 
somewhat  idealized  —  of  the  natives  of  Virginia  as  the  Englishmen 
found  them. 

Altogether  it  was  a  notable  company.  Lane  was  already  a  sol- 
dier of  reputation  and  was  after- 
wards knighted  by  the  queen. 
Cavendish,  just  out  of  boyhood, 
made,  a  year  later,  the  most  fa- 
mous voyage  of  the  time  around 
signature  of  Ralph  Lane.  ^g  WOrld,  in  which  he  gave  some 

valuable  contributions  to  geographical  knowledge ;  and  he  specially 
commended  himself  to  the  affectionate  respect  of  his  country- 
men and  the  approbation  of  the  queen,  for  he  wrote  on  his 
return,  "  I  burnt  and  sunk  nineteen  sail  of  ships,  small  and 
great ;  and  all  the  villages  and  towns  that  ever  I  landed  at  I  burned 
and  spoiled,"  —  ships,  towns,  and  villages  being  all  Spanish.  Hariot 
was  Raleigh's  friend  to  the  end  of  his  career ;  aided  him  in  that  "  His- 
tory of  the  World"  which  he  wrote  in  the  Tower;  and  because  of  this 
friendship,  was  thought  worthy  to  be  called  from  the  bench  a  "devil" 
by  Chief  Justice  Popham.  Of  him  it  is  questioned  whether  he  or 
Des  Cartes  invented  the  system  of  algebraic  notation  ;  whether  he  or 
Galileo  was  the  first  observer  of  spots  upon  the  sun,  and  of  the  satel- 
lites of  Jupiter,  —  the  testimony  in  Hariot 's  favor  being  not  trivial. 
Grenville,  the  admiral,  was  Raleigh's  kinsman  and  his  dear  friend. 
Five  years  later,  off  the  Azores,  he  in  hia  single  ship  fought  fifteen 


Notable 
men  in  the 
colony. 


1585.]  THE   RALEIGH-GRENVILLE   COLONY.  247 

great  Spanish  galleons  for  fifteen  hours,  and  when  at  last  mortally 
wounded,  said  with  his  last  breath  in  the  heat  and  smoke  of  battle, 
"  Here  die  I,  Richard  Grenville,  with  a  joyful  and  quiet  mind,  for 
that  I  have  ended  my  life,  as  a  true  soldier  ought  to  do,  fighting  for 
his  country,  queen,  religion  and  honour." 

It  was  men  of  this  stamp  who  entered  iwto  the  projects  of  Raleigh 
to  plant  English  people,  with  English  law  and  English  civilization,  in 
the  New  World.  English  hatred  of  the  Spaniard  took  that  direction 
—  that  the  growth  of  Spanish  power  and  dominion  and  wealth  should 
be  checked  beyond  the  sea  as  well  as  on  it.  Nor  was  Raleigh's  policy 
confined  to  North  America.  But  here  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  his 
romantic  expeditions  to  Guiana,  the  last  one  a  brief  and  sad  interval 
between  his  release  from  twelve  years'  imprisonment  in  the  Tower 
and  his  mounting  the  scaffold  at  Westminster  Gate  House.  There, 
feeling  with  his  finger  the  edge  of  the  axe,  he  said,  "  It  is  a  sharp 
and  fair  medicine  to  cure  me  of  all  my  diseases ; "  and  to  a  hesitat- 
ing executioner,  he  added,  "  What  dost  thou  fear?  Strike  man, 
strike !  "  That  which  was  glory  under  Elizabeth  was  treason  under 
James. 

Every  man  who  went  with  Grenville  hated  Spain  as  Raleigh  hated 
her.  The  fleet  sailed  by  way  of  the  Canaries  and  the  West  Indies, 
spoiling  the  Spaniards  wherever  the  opportunity  offered,  taking  two 
of  their  frigates,  one  of  which  "  had  a  good  and  rich  fraight  and  divers 
Spaniards  of  account  in  her  which  afterwards  were  ransomed  for  good 
round  summes."  On  his  return  voyage  in  August,  the  admiral  fell 
in  with  another  richly  laden  Spaniard  which  he  took,  he  and  his  men 
boarding  her  in  a  boat,  made  on  the  instant  and  so  hastily  knocked 
together  that  it  fell  to  pieces  as  they  sprang  from  it  to  the  deck  of  the 
enemy. 

It  was  nearly  three  months  from  the  time  they  left  Plymouth  be- 
fore they  had  their  first  sight  of  the  American  coast  south  of  1^^  at 
Cape   Fear.     Standing    northward    they  narrowly  escaped   Wocok011 
shipwreck  at  that  stormy  point,  and   three  days  afterward   landed 
as  the  original  narrative  distinctly  says,  at  Wocokon. 

Word  was  sent  to  Roanoke  Island,  by  the  Indian  Manteo,  of  the 
return  of  the  English.  But  the  pleasant  relations  with  the  natives, 
established  the  year  before,  were  soon  disturbed.  Grenville  with  his 
captains  and  other  principal  men  of  his  fleet  started  almost  imme- 
diately for  an  excursion  of  eight  days  further  inland.  Crossing  Pam- 
lico  Sound  they  visited  several  Indian  villages  along  the  coast  of  the 
present  Hyde  County,  North  Carolina,  and  the  lake  which  the  sav- 
ages called  Paquipo,  now  named  Mattamuskeet  Lake.  In  one  of 
these  villages  a  silver  cup  was  stolen  by  an  Indian,  and  not  being 


248 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.        [CHAP.  X. 


speedily  returned,  they  burnt  and  spoiled  their  corn  and  town,  says 
the  narrative,  all  the  people  being  fled.  Grenville  soon  returned  to 
England  with  a  portion  of  the  fleet ;  but  Lane,  who  remained  as  gov- 
ernor, followed,  in  the  subsequent  intercourse  with  the  Indians,  the 
evil  example  thus  set  him, —  found  it,  perhaps,  difficult  to  do  any- 
thing else  when  the  fears  and  the  passions  of  the  savages  were  once 


An  Indian  Village.     [From  Harlot's  "  Relation  "     Fac-simile  ] 

aroused  by  such  an  act  of  cruel  injustice.  Peace  for  a  time  was  kept 
by  Granganameo,  and  his  father  Ensenore,  an  old  and  venerable  man  ; 
but  they  both  died  in  the  course  of  the  winter  and  spring,  and  with 
them  all  memory  of  the  kindly  intercourse  of  the  year  before  was 
lost. 

Wingina,  —  who  called  himself  Pemissapan  after  the  death  of  his 
brother,  Granganameo,  —  the  chief  of  the  country  round  about  Roan- 
oke  Island,  threw  off  at  length  all  pretences  of  friendship.  He 


> 


1585.]  THE   RALEIGH-GREXVILLE  COLONY.  249 

and  his  subjects  alone  had  been  under  the  kindly  influences  of  the 
visitors  of  the  year  before,  while  tribes  farther  off  had  not  come  in 
contact  with  Amadas  and  Barlow.  This  second  expedition  had  begun 
with  burning  a  village  on  Pamlico  River  ;  some  of  the  men  made  their 
way  almost  as  far  north  as  Chesapeake  Bay  ;  Lane  with  two  boats 
penetrated  the  interior  far  up  the  Chowan  and  the  Roanoke  rivers  ; 
and  wherever  the  strangers  went  it  was  with  such  evident  purpose 
and  spirit  as  to  excite  throughout  all  this  region  at  first  secret  mis- 
trust and  dread,  and  then  open  warfare.  The  son  of  one  powerful 
chief  Lane  carried  about  with  him  as  a  prisoner,  sometimes  putting 
him  in  "  the  bilboes  "  and  threatening  to  cut  off  his  head.  The  sim- 
ple, trustful,  and  kindly  natives  whom  Barlow  had  found  only  a  year 
before  living,  as  he  said,  after  the  manner  of  those  of  the  Golden  Age, 
were  suddenly  transformed  into  wily  savages.  They  hated  and  feared 
the  Englishmen  who,  they  believed,  had  brought  pestilence  Change  in 
among  them,  and  who  could  kill  them  with  invisible  bullets,  of'th^n1^ 
though  they  fled  far  out  of  sight  into  the  most  secret  recesses  tiTes- 
of  the  forest.  To  submit  to  the  presence  of  the  strangers  was,  they 
feared,  to  consent  to  their  own  final  extermination,  and  they  acted  ac- 
cordingly. Pemissapan  proposed  to  starve  out  the  colony  on  Roan- 
oake  Island  by  planting  no  maize,  hoping  that  the  men  would  separate 
themselves  into  small  companies  to  seek  for  subsistence,  and  could 
then  be  cut  off  in  detail.  Ensemore,  Pemissapan's  father,  persuaded 
him  to  forego  this  project,  and  fortunately  the  seed  was  sown  before 
the  old  man  died  in  April.  Then  the  chief  entered  into  conspiracies 
with  the  heads  of  other  tribes,  ventured  at  last  upon  an  attack  on  the 
colony,  and  lost  his  life. 

But  Lane,  meanwhile,  had  pushed  up  the  Roanoke  River,  beguiled 
by  a  tale  of  the  abundance  of  pearls,  of  a  rich  mine  of  copper,  Governor 
and  that  the  head  waters  of  the  river  were  so  near  a  sea  that  J^Ji^the 
the  waves   thereof  would  break  into  it  in  stormy  weather.   Roanoke 
The  mine  they  may  have  thought  was  gold,  as  probably  it  was  ;  the 
Spaniards  before  them  had  heard  of  the  smelting  of  gold  in  North 
Carolina.     Lane  and  his  men  did  not  go  far  enough  to  find  either  the 
gold  or  the  passage  to  the  South  Sea ;   but  the  Indians  kept  them 
ever  on  the  watch  with  their  frightful  war-whoops ;   starvation  was 
so  imminent  that  they  were  reduced  to  a  pottage  of  sassafras  leaves 
and  a  porridge  of  dogs'-meat ;  and  the  captain  concluded  that  noth- 
ing else  but  a  good  mine,  or  a  passage  to  the  South  Sea,  could  bring 
the  country  "  into  request  to  be  inhabited  by  our  nation,"  notwith- 
standing the  fatness  of  the  soil  and  "  its  most  swete  and  beautifullest 
climate." 

Soon  after  Lane's  return  from  this  expedition  and  when  the  enmity 


250 


ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT  SETTLEMENT.        [CHAP.  X. 


visit  of 


among  the  Indians  about  Roanoke  Island  had  broken  out  into  open 
hostilities,  a  fleet  of  twenty-three  ships,  commanded  by  Sir 
th«  Francis  Drake,  appeared  off  the  coast.  They  were  fresh  from 

colony.  1686.  tne  sac^  o{  gt  Augustine,  and  called  to  get  tidings  of  the 

progress  of  the  Virginian  colony,  and  give  it  help  if  needed.  Drake 

loaded  a  well  -manned  ship  with 
provisions  to  leave  with  Lane, 
but  a  storm  soon  after  dispersed 
his  fleet,  and  this  ship  with 
others  was  driven  out  to  sea  and 
returned  to  England.  Another 
vessel  was  put  at  the  governor's 
disposal  and  the  question  sub- 
mitted by  him  to  the  colonists 
whether  they  would  remain  or 
return  home.  They  had  given 
up  all  hope  of  the  succor  which 
Grenville  had  promised  to  send 
them  ;  a  year's  trial  of  the  hard- 
ships of  the  wilderness  and  the 
disappointment  about  the  mine 
had  so  completely  disheartened 
them  that  they  clamored  to  leave 
the  country.  They  cai'ried  to- 
bacco with  them,  which  was 
then,  it  is  supposed,  introduced 
for  the  first  time  into  England.1 
In  such  haste  did  they  take  their  departure  2  that  "  they  left,"  says 

a  narrator,  "  all  things  confusedly,  as  if  they  had  been  chased  thence 

1  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  made  the  smoking  of  tobacco  fashionable  among  the  courtiers,  aud 
even  Elizabeth  and  the  ladies  of  the  court  are  said  to  have  followed  his  example.    Its  culti- 
vation and  use  seem  to  have  been  universal  among  the  North  American   Indians.      The 
Portuguese  introduced  it  into  Europe.     Lord  Nicot,  French  Ambassador  to  Portugal,  in 
1559,  1560,and  1561,  sent  the  seeds  to  France,  and  from  himitwas  named  Nicotiana.  It  was 
held  as  a  sovereign  remedy  for  some  diseases,  especially  ulcers.     (  Maison  Rustique,  or  the 
Cauntrie  Farm.     Translated  into  English  by  Robeii  Surflet  Practitioner  in  Physicke.     London, 
1600.)     Hariot,  in  his  Briefe  and  True  Rejtort  of  the  New  found  land  of  Virginia,  and  its  Com- 
modities, says  the  Indians  called  tobacco  Uppowoc,  and  that  "  the  leaves  thereof  being  dried 
and  brought  into  powder  they  use  to  take  the  fume  or  smoke  thereof,  by  sucking  it  thorew 
pipes  mad:  of  clay,  into  their  stomacke  and  head  ;    from  whence  it  purgeth  superfluous 
fleame  and  other  grosse  humours,  and  openeth  all  the  pores  and  passages  of  the  body  ;  by 
which  meanes  the  use  thereof  not  only  preserveth  the  body  from  obstructions,  but  also  (if 
any  be,  so  that  they  have  not  been  of  too  long  continuance)  in  short  time  breaketh  them  : 
whereof  their  bodies  are  notably  preserved  in  health,  and  know  not  many  grievous  diseases, 
wherewithal  wee  in  England  are  oftentimes  afflicted."     The  Carribbees  called  their  pipes 
Tolxicco,  aud  the  Spaniards  transferred  the  word  to  the  herb  itself. 

2  Hakluyt,  vol.  Hi.,  p.  265. 


Tobacco  Plant. 


1587.]  THE    CITY  OF  RALEIGH.  251 

by  a  mighty  army,  and  no  doubt  so  they  were  ;  for  the  hand  of  God 
came  upon  them  for  the  cruelty  and  outrages  committed  by  some  of 
them  against  the  native  inhabitants  of  that  countrey."  But  Raleigh 
had  not  forgotten  them.  Drake's  fleet  had  not  been  long  at  sea  be- 
fore a  ship  arrived  at  Hatorask  well  freighted  with  all  things  needful 
for  their  relief.  Finding  Roanoke  Island  deserted,  they  set  sail  again  for 
England,  and  had  been  gone  only  a  fortnight  when  Sir  Rich- 
ard Grenville  himself  arrived  with  three  ships  well  provided  turn*  to 

Virginia. 

with  supplies  for  the  colony.     As  there  was  no  colony  to  re- 
lieve he  landed  fifteen1  men  to  hold  possession,  consoling  himself  for' 
his  fruitless  errand  by  spoiling  some  towns  in  the  Azores  and  taking 
some  Spaniards  on  his  homeward  passage. 

Raleigh  was  not  discouraged  by  these  repeated  reverses,  but  the  next 
summer  (1587)  sent  a  new  colony  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
men.  He  gave  it  a  charter,  and  incorporated  it  under  the 
name  of  the  Governor  and  Assistants  of  the  City  of  Raleigh,  158r" 
Virginia.  The  company  included  women  as  well  as  men.  The 
ernor  was  John  White,  and  Simon  Ferdinaudo,  who  had  been  a  captain 
of  one  of  Grenville's  ships  two  years  before,  was  admiral.  There  was 
utter  want  of  harmony  and  cooperation  between  these  two  men  from 
the  hour  of  sailing  to  the  end  of  the  voyage,  —  au  element  in  the  ex- 
pedition necessarily  fatal  to  its  success.  What  Ferdinando  thought 
of  White  we  do  not  know  ;  but  White's  opinion  of  Ferdinando  he  has 
left  on  record.  The  Admiral  was  passionate,  wilful,  given  to  much 
swearing  —  "  tearing  God  to  pieces ,"  says  White  —  and  clearly  had 
his  own  way  always.  That  way  was,  if  we  may  believe  White,  an 
intention  to  ruin  as  well  as  rule.  One  of  the  vessels  he  is  accused 
of  leaving  at  a  port  in  the  West  Indies,  stealing  away  in  the  night 
in  his  own  ship,  hoping  that  her  captain  would  never,  for  want 
of  knowledge,  reach  Virginia,  or  that  he  would  be  taken  by  the 
Spaniards.  It  was  White's  intention  to  go  up  the  Chesapeake  Bay, 
in  accordance  with  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  orders,  to  find  a  seat  for  his 
colony,  after  looking  on  Roanoke  Island  for  the  fifteen  men  whom 
Grenville  had  left  there  the  year  before.  But  when  Ferdinando  had 
got  forty  of  the  colonists  on  board  the  pinnace  at  Hatorask  to  go 
to  the  island,  he  ordered  the  sailors  not  to  bring  them  back  again, 
declaring  that  the  summer  was  too  far  gone  to  admit  of  time  being 
spent  in  seeking  for  the  best  spot  for  a  settlement.  The  two  men 
were  governed  by  different  motives :  one  was  for  delay  ;  the  other 
for  speed ;  the  governor  wanted  time  to  move  with  caution  and  con- 
sider consequences  ;  the  sailor  wanted  to  reach  his  port  and  discharge 

1  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii.,  p.  265,  also  Strachey,  p.  150.     Smith,  Stith,  and  others  who  follow 
them  say  erroneously  fifty  men  were  left  by  Greiiville. 


252  ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.         [CHAP.  X. 

his  cargo,   looking  forward  to  some   new  venture,  —  probably  some 
homeward-bound  Spaniard  laden  with  treasure. 

The  fifteen  men  whom  Grenville  had  left  at  Roanoke  were  not  to 
be  found.  The  fort  was  razed  to  the  ground  ;  the  huts  were 

Governor  .   ,  ,  . 

white  and     standing,  but  they  were  overgrown  with  melon-vines,  and  the 

hi*  colony         ,  J  b   .. 

on  Roanoke    deer  roamed  through  them  undisturbed  by  any  fear  of  human 

Icland  °          .  I'.'-* 

presence.  Ihe  whitening  bones  of  one  man  were  the  only 
sign  of  recent  habitation.  All  that  White  could  learn  of  the  fate  of 
his  countrymen  was  that  they  had  been  attacked  by  the  Indians,  two 
of  them  killed  and  the  rest  driven  to  a  little  island  in  the  harbor  of 
Hatorask.  They  could  be  traced  no  farther. 

The  fleet  remained  a  little  more  than  a  month,  but  before  it  sailed 
the  enmity  between  the  Englishmen  and  the  Indians  was  renewed 
with  fresh  fury.  One  of  the  assistants,  Mr.  Howe,  while  searching 
alone  for  shell-fish  along  the  beach  of  Roanoke  Island,  was  killed  by 
some  of  the  tribe  of  which  Pemissippan  had  been  chief.  To  revenge 
his  death  an  attack  was  made  before  daylight  upon  an  encampment 
of  Indians,  who,  after  one  of  them  was  killed,  were  found  to  be 
friends  from  Croatan  where  Manteo's  people  lived.  The  effect  upon 
the  Croatans  of  this  unhappy  blunder  was  probably  not  favorable  to 
their  continued  friendship,  though  they  may  have  been  appeased  for 
the  moment  by  the  subsequent  christening  of  Manteo  who,  by  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh's  order,  was,  in  reward  of  his  faithfulness  to  the 
English,  baptized  with  due  ceremony  under  the  name  of  Lord  of 
Roanoke  and  Dasamonquepeuk.  Before  the  fleet  sailed,  also,  the 
daughter  of  White,  the  wife  of  Ananias  Dare,  one  of  the  assistants, 
gave  birth,  August  18,  to  a  daughter,  who  was  christened  Virginia  — 
the  first  child  of  English  parentage  born  upon  the  territory  of  the 
present  United  States. 

White  returned  to  England  to  ask  for  further  assistance.  He  says 
he  went  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  all  the  colonists ;  but 

White  goes       .  .  ..  . 

back  to  it  seems  unlikely  that  a  necessity  for  sending  the  governor 
on  such  an  errand  could  have  arisen  within  a  month  of  their 
arrival.  The  anxious  desire,  so  evident  in  his  narrative,  to  justify 
his  going,  indicates  that  it  was  his  own  wish  rather  than  the  wish  of 
those  he  left  behind  him,  to  get  back  to  England.  He  never  suc- 
ceeded in  anything  he  undertook  for  the  colony,  and  never  failed  in 
ingeniously  finding  reasons  for  the  failure  in  the  conduct  of  other 
people.  ' 

Only  one  single  word  was  ever  again  heard  directly  from  the  colony. 
White  sailed  from  Roanoke  on  the  27th  of  August,  1587  ;  it  was  the 
9th  of  the  same  month,  three  years  later,  — 1590  —  before  he  again 
set  foot  in  Virginia.  There  was  no  help  at  first  for  this  delay.  When 


1590.]  WHITE'S   LAST  VOYAGE.  253 

White  reached  home  England  was  busy  from  one  end  to  the  other  in 
raising  recruits  for  the  army  to  resist  the  threatened  Spanish  invasion ; 
every  ship  in  her  ports  was  pressed  into  the  naval  service  in  one  ca- 
pacity or  another.  Sir  Francis  Drake,  who,  that  year,  cruising  along 
the  coasts  of  Spain  destroyed  a  hundred  of  her  ships,  wrote  to  Lord 
Burleigh  :  "  Assuredly  there  never  was  beard  of  or  known  so  great 
preparations  as  the  king  of  Spain  hath  and  daily  maketh  ready  for  the 
invasion  of  England."  In  the  summer  of  1588  the  Armada  of  one 
hundred  and  forty  ships  was  in  the  Channel ;  Raleigh,  as  he  Warbe. 
had  been  among  the  foremost  to  arouse,  arm,  and  drill  the  Sa^dng" 
people  to  repel  the  invaders,  so  now  he  was  on  board  the  fleet  Spaln' 
that  went  to  meet  them  on  the  sea.  The  "  Invincible  Armada  "  soon 
ceased  to  terrify  England,  and  though  Philip  of  Spain,  when  he  learned 
of  its  dispersion  and  partial  destruction,  swore  he  would  waste  his 
crown  to  the  value  of  a  wax  candle  but  he  would  drive  Elizabeth  from 
the  throne  he  claimed  as  his  own,1  Drake  was  heard  of  ere  the  year 
was  over  harrying  the  Spaniards  again  on  their  own  coasts.  White, 
meanwhile,  succeeded  in  getting  off  in  April,  1588,  to  the  relief  of  the 
colony  with  two  vessels  and  fifteen  new  planters.  But  they  went  no 
further  than  a  few  leagues  north  of  the  Madeira  Islands,  where,  in  an 
encounter  with  the  Spaniards,  so  many  of  the  men  were  wounded  and 
the  pinnaces  so  disabled  that  they  were  compelled  to  return  to  Eng- 
land.2 It  had  been  first  proposed  to  send  a  larger  expedition  under 
Sir  Richard  Grenville,  but  the  ship  was  stopped  by  Order  of  Council, 
and  Grenville  himself  ordered  for  service  against  the  Armada.  It  was 
only  by  importunity  that  White  was  allowed  to  sail  with  these  two 
small  pinnaces,  and  it  was  not  till  1590  that  he  was  permitted  to  make 
another  attempt  to  get  back  to  his  colony. 

In  February  of  that  year,  hearing  that  three  ships  belonging  to  a 
London  merchant  were  ready  for  sea  on  a  voyage  to  the  West 
Indies,  but  detained  by  general  Order  of  Council,  he  procured  o° 
their  release  through  the  influence  of  Raleigh.  The  condi-  ony-  1590- 
tion  was  that  they  should  carry  a  reasonable  number  of  passengers 
and  land  them  in  Virginia ;  but  this  was  fulfilled  only  so  far  as  to  take 
White  alone.  They  sailed  in  March  ;  spent  four  months  in  a  cruise 
against  the  Spaniards  among  the  West  India  Islands,  capturing  some 
prizes,  and  arrived  at  Wocokon  on  the  9th  of  August. 

Six  days  later  the  ships  anchored  in  Hatorask  harbor,  having  spent 
one  night  on  the  way  off  the  Island  of  Croatoan.  At  Hatorask  White 
was  cheered  with  the  sight  of  a  great  smoke  rising  in  the  direction  of 

1  Rapin's  History  of  England,  vol.  ix. 

2  See  the  first  edition  of  Hnkluyt,  of  1589,  p.  771.     The  voyage  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
second  edition  of  1600,  which  contains  White's  narrative  of  his  visit  to  Koanoke  in  1590. 


254  ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.         [CHAP.  X. 

Roanoke  Island,  and  the  next  morning  salutes  were  fired  at  proper  in- 
tervals to  let  the  colonists  know  of  the  arrival  of  their  countrymen. 
Boats  put  off  for  the  island,  but  before  they  reached  it  another  column 
of  smoke  in  another  direction  raised  fresh  hopes.  This  they  steered 
for,  but  having  consumed  the  day  in  reaching  the  place  where  it  seemed 
to  rise  it  proved  a  delusion.  Neither  men  nor  signs  of  any  habitation 
were  found. 

A  disaster  the  next  day  well  nigh  put  an  end  to  all  further  attempts 
to  reach  Roanoke.  The  boats  were  sent  ashore  at  Hatorask  for  water ; 
the  surf  was  heavy  in  the  inlet,  one  of  the  boats  was  upset,  and  two 
of  the  captains  of  the  ships  and  five  others  were  drowned.  So  dis- 
heartened were  the  sailors  at  this  mishap  that  they  refused  at  first  to 
go  on,  and  this  determination  was  with  difficulty  overcome  by  the  will 
and  authority  of  White  and  the  remaining  captain.  It  was  night  be- 
fore they  reached  Roanoke  and  approached  the  spot  where  White  ex- 
pected to  find  his  friends.  Glimmering  through  the  trees  they  saw 
the  light  of  a  fire,  and  for  a  moment  their  hopes  were  kindled 

Search  for       .  '  .  .  r 

white's  coi-  into  enthusiasm.  Approaching  it  along  the  shore  the  notes 
of  a  trumpet-call  from  the  boats  rang  clear  and  shrill  through 
the  silent  woods  ;  the  sailors  sung  out  in  cheering  tones  the  familiar 
words  of  English  songs  which  would  have  so  stirred  the  blood  of  any 
listening  Englishmen  long  exiled  from  home.  But  there  was  no 
answer.  The  light  of  the  distant  fire  still  flickered  above  the  dim  line 
of  the  forest ;  but  out  of  the  darkness  came  no  friendly  shout  of  men, 
no  woman's  glad  cry  of  joy  and  welcome. 

They  landed  at  day-break  ;  the  fire  they  had  seen  was  from  burn- 
ing grass  and  rotting  trees,  kindled,  no  doubt,  by  the  Indians  whose 
fresh  foot-prints  were  found  in  the  sand.  Pushing  through  the  woods 
toward  the  spot  where  White  had  left  his  colony  three  years  before, 
they  saw  the  letters  C  R  O,  carved  upon  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  upon  the 
brow  of  a  hill.  Pausing  to  consider  what  this  might  mean,  White 
remembered  that  when  he  left  the  colony  it  was  proposed  that  the 
people  should  remove  to  the  main  land,  and  that  wherever  they  went 
the  name  of  the  place  should  be  left  behind  them  here  upon  trees  or 
door-posts.  It  was  further  understood  that  should  any  misfortune  have 
overtaken  them,  they  should  carve  beneath  the  name  a  cross.  Here 
then  was  the  guide,  if  CRO  meant  Croatoan,  to  the  place  whither  the 
colony  had  removed,  though  it  was  to  an  outer  island  rather  than  to 
the  main.  But  to  the  anxious  father  and  governor  there  was  this  en- 
couragement, —  the  sign  of  the  cross  was  wanting. 

Again  they  pushed  on  after  a  brief  consultation  upon  the  "  faire 
Romane  letters  curiously  carved,"  which  White  had  thus  explained.  It 
was  not  far  to  the  deserted  post,  still  surrounded  with  its  palisades. 


1590.]  THE   LOST   COLONY.  255 

Here  all  doubts  were  removed :  at  the  entrance,  upon  one  of  the  largest 
of  the  trees  from  which  the  bark  had  been  stripped,  was  The  deserted 
carved  in  capital  letters,  the  word  CROATOAN  in  full,  and  *ort 
still  without  the  cross.  Within  the  palisades  the  houses  were  gone, 
but  scattered  about  were  bars  of  iron  and  pigs  of  lead,  some  large  guns 
with  their  balls  —  "  fowlers  "  and  "  sacker  shot,"  they  were  called,  — 
and  other  tilings  too  heavy  for  a  hasty  removal,  all  overgrown  with 
grass  and  weeds.  In  a  trench  not  far  off  were  found  some  chests 
where  they  had  been  buried  by  the  colonists  and  dug  up  afterward 
by  the  Indians  ;  among  these  were  three  belonging  to  White,  but  all 
had  been  rifled  ;  books  were  torn  out  of  their  covers,  the  frames  of  pic- 
tures and  of  maps  were  rotten  with  dampness,  and  a  suit  of  armor  was 
almost  eaten  up  with  rust.  "  Although  it  much  grieved  me,"  says 
White,  "  to  see  such  spoyle  of  my  goods,  yet  on  the  other  side  I  greatly 
joyed  that  I  had  safely  found  a  certaine  token  of  their  [the  colonists] 
safe  being  at  Croatoan,  which  is  the  place  where  Manteo  was  borne, 
and  the  Savages  of  the  Island  our  friends." 

It  was  his  only  consolation  —  if  he  really  believed  that  his  friends, 
among  whom  was  his  daughter,  had  found  any  such  refuge. 
The  boats  had  hardly  regained  the  ships  at  Hatorask  when   white's 

.  i  •  i    •  •  oearch  for 

a  gale  of  wind  with  a  heavy  sea  set  in,  and  in  attempting  to  the  missing 
get  under  way  one  of  the  ships  lost  her  anchors  and  was  near 
going  ashore.  The  water  casks,  which  had  been  taken  to  the  land  to 
be  filled,  could  not  be  brought  off  ;  provisions  were  short,  the  sailors 
were  despondent  and  impatient,  and  it  was  determined  to  abandon  all 
attempts  to  go  to  Croatoan  in  further  search  of  the  colony,  but  to  sail 
at  once  to  the  West  Indies  and  recruit.  White  was  only  a  passenger, 
and  could  probably  do  nothing  to  change  this  determination,  though 
his  friends,  if  still  alive,  were  not  many  miles  distant.  He  may, 
indeed,  have  been  doubtful  if  they  were  still  alive,  for  the  ships  on 
their  arrival  on  the  coast  had  stopped  at  Wocokon,  had  sailed  along 
the  shores  of  Croatoan,  and  anchored  for  a  night  off  the  north  end  of 
the  island.  Had  there  been  anv  survivors  of  the  colonists  there,  tliev 

•/  •> 

could  hardly  have  failed,  on  the  look-out  as  they  would  always  have 
been  for  succor,  to  see  the  passing  vessels  and  have  made  their  presence 
known  by  signals  of  some  sort.  But  no  signs  had  been  seen  of  living 
men  ;  no  columns  of  smoke  curled  up  above  the  trees  ;  no  flags  of 
distress  were  descried  ;  no  friendly  Indians  beckoned  them  to  land  ; 
no  sound  of  gun  or  shout  broke  the  silence  of  the  wilderness.  At 
Roanoke  alone,  in  the  one  word  Croatoan  carved  upon  the  trees, 
and  in  the  crumbling  vestiges  of  the  colony,  half  buried  in  the  rank 
growth  of  two  or  three  summers,  were  there  any  evidences  that  Eng- 
lishmen had  ever  been  there  —  tokens,  also,  that  they  had  perished. 


256  ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS   AT  SETTLEMENT.       [CHAP.  X. 

That  such  was  White's  conviction  —  that  he  believed  his  daughter 
and  her  children,  and  all  the  rest  whom  he  had  led  to  this  distant  land, 
had  fallen  victims  to  the  vengeance  of  the  natives — is  the  most  char- 
itable way  of  accounting  for  the  readiness  with  which  he  seems  to 
have  acceded  to  the  proposal  to  sail  for  the  West  Indies.  It  was, 
indeed,  suggested  that  they  should  return  to  Virginia,  after  taking  on 
board  a  fresh  stock  of  water  and  provisions  ;  but  that  could  only  have 
been  a  pretext,  for  as  Croatoan  was  directly  in  their  course  a  delay  of 
half  a  day  would  have  sufficed  to  ascertain  whether  there  were  any 
Englishmen  alive  upon  the  island.  "I  leave  off," — said  White,  in  a 
letter  to  Hakluyt,  narrating  the  details  of  this  voyage,  —  "I  leave  off 
from  prosecuting  that  whereunto  I  would  to  God  my  wealth  were  an- 
swerable to  my  will."  Others  did  not  leave  off,  no  doubt  sincerely  be- 
lieving what  with  White  may  have  been  only  a  desperate  hope,  that 
the  unhappy  planters  were  not  all  exterminated.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
seems  never  to  have  neglected  any  chance  of  finding  his  lost  colony, 
but  excuses  wei'e  never  wanting  for  not  making  a  thorough  search  on 
the  part  of  those  whom  he  engaged  to  undertake  it. 

In  1602,  that  no  divided  interest  should  interfere  with  a  thorough 
prosecution  of  the  object  of  the  voyage,  he  bought  a  vessel  and  hired  a 
Raleigh  crew  for  this  one  purpose.  The  ship  was  commanded  by 
ueTMaceVo  Samuel  Mace,  who  twice  before  had  been  in  Virginia,  "  a 
croatoan.  sufficient  mariner,  and  an  honest,  sober  man."  But  he,  like 
the  rest,  found  something  else  to  do  than  to  search  for  his  countrymen. 
Did  he  think  it  a  fool's  errand  ?  The  honest  man  and  sufficient  mari- 
ner spent  a  month  on  the  coast,  forty  leagues  southwest  of  Hatteras, 
perhaps  at  the  mouth  of  Cape  Fear  River,  trafficking  with  the  Indians, 
making  no  attempt  to  reach  Croatoan,  on  the  standing  pretext  of  stress 
of  weather  and  loss  of  ground  tackle.1  There  was  an  evident  unwil- 
lingness in  England  to  acknowledge  publicly  that  so  cruel  a  calamity 
as  the  total  destruction  of  so  manv  men  and  women  could  have  be- 

\j 

fallen  an  attempt  to  colonize  Virginia  ;  Raleigh  himself  was  reluctant 
to  give  up  —  if  he'  ever  gave  up  —  his  firm  pel-suasion  that  they  had 
not  all  perished  ;  but  as  those  who  were  sent  to  their  relief  made  little 
or  no  effort  to  find  them,  it  is  charitable  to  suppose  that  though  they 
accepted  his  service  they  had  no  faith  in  his  opinion. 

That  the  colonists  were  all  massacred  soon  after  White  left  them, 
nas  been  the  common  belief  in  later  times  ;  but  there  is 
good  reason  for  doubting  if  that  were  the  fact.  There  was 
colony.  clearly  a  conviction  prevalent  in  the  colony  at  Jamestown, 
twenty  years  afterward,  that  some  of  the  Roanoke  people  had  es- 

1  Purchas,  vol.  iv. ;  Strachey's  Historic  ofTravaUe  into  Virginia,  p.  134.  The  statement 
in  Purchas  is  that  Raleigh  had  sent  succor  to  those  left  in  Virginia  in  1587,  "five  sev- 
eral times  at  his  pwn  charges,"  before  he  sent  Mace. 


1602.]  THE   LOST   COLONY.  257 

caped  destruction,  and  might  be  even  then  surviving.1  Strachey 
refers  to  them  again  and  again,  and  in  a  way  that  conveys  the  impres- 
sion he  is  speaking  of  a  fact  he  knows  will  not  be  questioned.  In 
describing  the  country  of  the  Upper  Potomac,  he  says  that  in  the  high 
land  "  to  the  so'ward  "  the  people  of  Peccarecamek  and  Ochanahoen 
have,  according  to  the  report  of  an  Indian,  houses  of  stone,  which 
they  were  taught  to  build  "  by  those  Englishe  whoe  escaped  the 
slaughter  at  Roanoak,"  and  that  a  certain  chief  had  "  preserved  seven 
of  the  English  alive  —  fower  men,  two  boyes,  and  one  yonge  mayde, 
who  escaped  and  fled  up  the  river  Chanoke,  [probably  the  Chowan,] 
to  beat  his  copper."  Of  White's  last  visit  to  Roanoke,  when  he  found 
the  indication  that  should  have  led  him  to  Croatoan,  he  also  says : 
"  Howbeit,  Captaine  White  sought  them  no  further,  but  missing  them 
there,  and  his  company  havinge  other  practises,  and  which  those  tymes 
afforded,  they  returned  covetous  of  some  good  successe  upon  the  Span- 
ish fleete  to  returne  that  yeare  from  Mexico  and  the  Indies,  —  neglect- 
ing thus  these  unfortunate  and  betrayed  people,  of  whose  end  you 
shall  yet  hereafter  read  in  due  place  in  this  decade." 

But  this  story,  if  he  ever  wrote  it,  has  not  yet  been  recovered. 
What  it  may  have  been  we  can  only  infer  from  expressions  like  these 
scattered  through  "  The  Historic  of  Travaille."  "  He  [Powhatan] 
doth  often  send  unto  us  to  temporise  with  us,  awayting  perhapps  a  fit 
opportunity  (inflamed  by  his  furious  and  bloudy  priests)  to  offer  us  a 
tast  of  the  same  cuppe  which  he  made  our  poore  countrymen  drinck  of 
at  Roanoak."  The  King  of  England,  it  is  said  elsewhere,  "  hath  bene 
acquainted  that  the  men,  women,  and  childrene  of  the  first  plantation 
at  Roanoak  were  by  practise  and  comandement  of  Powhatan  (he  him- 
self perswaded  therunto  by  his  priests,)  miserably  slaughtered  with- 
out any  offence  given  him,  either  by  the  first  planted  (who  twenty 
and  od  yeares  had  peaceably  lyved  intermixt  with  those  salvages,  and 
were  out  of  his  territory,)  or  by  those  who  now  are  come."  And 
again :  "  Powhatan  hath  slaughtered  so  many  of  our  nation  without 
offence  given,  and  such  as  were  seated  far  from  him,  and  in  the  terri- 
tory of  those  weroance  [chiefs]  which  did  in  no  sort  depend  on  him 
or  acknowledge  him." 

Assuming  that  Strachey  was  a  trustworthy  reporter  —  and  of  that 
there  is  no  question  —  of  what  he  saw  and  heard  in  Virginia,  we  con- 
clude it  was  the  belief  at  Jamestown  that  there  were  some  survivoi's 

1  The  Historie  of  Travaile  into  Virginia  Britannia,  by  William  Strachey,  the  first  secre- 
tary of  the  colony  at  Jamestown,  though  written  at  an  early  period  of  the  settlement,  was 
not  published  till  1849,  and  the  new  light  he  sheds  upon  this  subject  is  so  recent  that  it  has 
not,  we  believe,  been  noticed  anywhere  except  by  the  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale,  in  vol.  iv.  of  the 
Collections  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 

VOL.  I.  17 


258  ENGLISH  ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.        [CHAP.  X. 

of  White's  colony,  and  that   these  Powhatan,  or  rather  his   priests, 

caused  to  be  put  to  death  after  the  settlement  of  the  English  at  that 

place.     Understanding  this,  we  are  better  able  to  comprehend  some 

allusions   in  the    Smith  histories  which,  without   the  light 

Allusions  in.  ir«  i  111-1  i     •  1-111 

Smith's  his-    given  by  btrachey,  have  seemed  blind  and  inexplicable,  but 

tones  to  ii  •          •   « 

these  coio-  are  clearly  a  continuation  ot  otracney  s  story  that  there  were 
some  survivors,  in  1606,  of  the  Roanoke  people.  Thus,  in 
"  The  True  Relation,"  l  the  first  book  by  Captain  Smith  on  Virginia, 
he  says,  in  relating  an  interview  with  the  Emperor  Powhatan :  "  What 
he  knew  of  the  dominions  he  spared  not  to  acquaint  me  with,  as 
of  certain e  men  cloathed  at  a  place  called  Ocanahonan.  cloathed  like 
me."  And  again  he  says  :  "  The  people  clothed  at  Ocamahowan,  he 
[Powhatan]  alsoe  confirmed."2  The  allusion  in  both  cases  can  only 
be  to  the  lost  colonists.  And  in  the  work  known  as  his  "  Generall  His- 
torie,"  published  fifteen  years  afterward,  is  this  passage:  "How  or  why 
Captaine  Newport  obtained  such  private  commission  as  not  to  return 
without  a  lumpe  of  gold,  a  certaintie  of  the  South  Sea,  or  one  of  the 
lost  company  sent  out  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  I  know  not." 3  That 
one  of  the  objects  of  an  expedition  into  the  interior  was  to  succor  some 
of  the  survivors  of  the  Roanoke  colony,  and  because  some  of  those 
unhappy  men  and  women  lived  to  so  late  a  period  without  being  re- 
leased by  their  friends  in  England,  is  why,  probably,  Strachey  speaks 
of  them  as  being  betrayed. 

Raleigh's  patent  of  1584  was  renewed  from  time  to  time,  though  as 
early  as  1589  he  hoped  that  he  had  induced  others  to  carry  on  the  work 
which  he  had  begun.  In  those  first  years  of  enthusiasm,  he  had  ex- 
pended it  is  said,  forty  thousand  pounds  sterling  in  his  several  expedi- 
tions,4 and  he  then  enlarged  on  behalf  of  Thomas  Smith  and  others, 
merchants  of  London,  the  chailer  of  "  The  City  of  Raleigh  "  under 
which  White  and  his  associates  were  incorporated.5  But  this  new 
company  did  nothing,  and  Raleigh's  efforts  were  limited  to  the 

Raleigh 'gin-  r       J  &  & 

terest  in  his   attempt  to  convev  help  to  those  colonists  in  whose  total  de- 

colony 

struction  he  persistently  refused  to  believe,  down  to  the  time 
when  he  sent  Mace,  in  1602.     Of  that  voyage  we  have  some  further 

1  A  True  Relation  of  Virginia.     By  Captain   John    Smith.     Edited  by  Charles   Dcane, 
Boston,  1866,  p.  28. 

2  Ibid.  p.  37.     We  follow  the  punctuation  of  the  passage  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Denne's 
suggestion,  by  which  alone  can  it  have  any  meaning. 

8  The  Voyages  and  Discoveries  of  Captain  John  Smith,  vol.  i.,  p.  120.     Richmond  edition. 

4  Oldys,  in  his  Life  of  Raleigh,  vol.  i.,  p.  117,  makes  this  statement  on  the  authority  of  a 
scarce  pamphlet  which  he  describes  as  "  a  brief  relation  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  troubles." 
The  sum  named  is  probably  exaggerated. 

6  The  indenture  between  Raleigh  and  Smith  has  sometimes  been  supposed  to  be  a  con 
veyance  of  the  patent  of  1584,  from  Raleigh  to  Smith  and  others.  It  was  only  to  include 
them,  with  enlarged  privileges,  in  "  the  City  of  Raleigh  "  charter. 


1602.]  THE   LOST   COLONY.  259 

account  in  a  letter  from  Raleigh,  to  Secretary  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  written 
in  August  of  that  year.  "  I  wrote  unto  you,"  he  says,  "  in  my  last 
that  I  was  gonn  to  Weymouth  to  speake  with  a  pinnes  of  myne  arived 
from  Virginia."  Mace  was  from  Weymouth,  had  sailed  in  March  of 
that  year  for  Virginia,  and  as  he  had  spent  a  month  on  the  coast  to 
trade  with  the  Indians,  and  to  load  his  vessel  with  sassafras,  he 
would  be  back  in  Weymouth  in  three  or  four  months.  His  landfall 
was  "  forty  leagues  to  the  southwestward  of  Hatteras."  l 

Raleigh's  pinnace  was  also  loaded,  he  says,  with  u  sarsephraze,"  and 
her  landfall  was  "  forty  leagues  to  the  west  of  it,"  —  i.  e.  Virginia,  — 
and  it  was  for  that  reason  that  the  captain  did  not  "  spake  with  the 
peopell  "  — the  colonists  at  Croatoan.  This  letter  was  written  to  Ce- 
cil to  ask  him  to  intercede  with  the  Lord  Admiral  for  the  seizure  of 
sassafras  brought  home  at  the  same  time  by  a  Captain  Gilbert,  who 
also  had  been  on  the  American  coast,  forty  leagues  to  the  east  of 
Roanoke,  because,  says  Raleigh,  "  I  have  a  patent  that  all  shipps  and 
goods  are  confiscate  that  shall  trade  ther  without  my  leve."  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  pinnace  here  referred  to  was  the  one  com- 
manded by  Mace. 

Captain  Gilbert  was  himself  the  bearer  of  this  letter.      He,  said 
Raleigh,  commending  him  to  the  good  offices  of  the  secretary,    ^M  h.g 
*'  is   my   Lord  Cobham's   man It  is  he  —  by  a  good    ie"*»on 

*  •>  American 

token  —  that  had  the  great  diamonde."  The  allusion  re-  busies, 
called  no  doubt  to  Cecil's  mind  some  stirring  adventure,  perhaps  some 
piece  of  rare  good  luck  in  a  fight  with  the  Spaniard,  in  which  Gilbert 
had  been  conspicuous.  But  although  he  was  Lord  Cobham's  man, 
he  was  also,  we  suppose,  a  nephew  of  Raleigh's  and  in  friendly 
relations  with  him,  notwithstanding  this  proposed  seizure  of  his  sassa- 
fras. That,  indeed,  seems  only  to  have  been  what  is  now  called  a  busi- 
ness arrangement,  Gilbert  assenting  to  this  method  of  taking  one  of 
the  cargoes  out  of  the  market  that  the  other  might  command  a  higher 
price.  He  also,  no  doubt,  was  the  Bartholomew  Gilbert  who  had  sailed 
in  April  with  Bartholomew  Gosnold  for  the  coast  of  New  England, 
arriving  home  again  the  latter  part  of  July,  not  long  before  the  date 
of  this  letter. 

"  I  do  sende  both  the  barks  away  againe,"  writes  Raleigh.  Of 
Mace  we  hear  no  more  ;  but  Bartholomew  Gilbert,  it  is  known,  sailed 
for  Virginia,  the  following  spring.2  It  was  partly  a  trading  voyage  to 
the  West  Indies,  but  had  also  another  object  in  which  Raleigh's  will  is 
seen  even  if  we  had  not  his  own  assertion  that  Gilbert  was  to  go 

i  Tracts  appended  to  Bremon.     Miss.  Hist.  Coll. 
-  Purehas,  vol.  iv.,  p.  1556. 


260 


ENGLISH   ATTEMPTS  AT   SETTLEMENT.         TCiiAr.  X. 


again,  this  time  with  bis  sanction.  The  vessel  took  in  a  cargo  in 
the  West  Indies,  and  on  her  way  homeward  went  up  the  Chesepian 
(Chesapeake)  Bay  to  look  for  the  lost  colony.  The  search  was 
brief  ;  heavy  weather  for  some  days  prevented  a  landing,  till  at  length 
Gilbert  ventured  to  go  on  shore  with  a  boat.  Leaving  this  in  charge 
of  two  boys,  he  with  his  men  started  on  an  expedition  inland.  They 
were  still  in  sight  of  the  lads  thev  had  left  behind  when 

"  ,,  111 

a  band  of   Indians  started  from  an  ambush  and  attacked 
them   furiously.      Several  men  were  seen  to  fall,  wounded 

by   arrows  :    the   affrighted   boys   put 

off  hurriedly  to  the  ship,  leaving  the 

captain    and    his   companions    at    the 

mercy  of  the  savages.     Nothing  more 


Fate  of  Bar- 


Bartholomew  Gilbert's   Death. 


was  heard  of  them,  and  the  ship,  her  crew  reduced  in  numbers, 
the  captain  and  other  officers  gone,  soon  set  sail  and  returned  to 
England. 

With  this  tragic  event  —  the  death  of  another  Gilbert  in  the  cause 
of  American  colonization — ends  Raleigh's  connection  with  that  couii' 
try  to  which,  as  he  said  the  year  before,  he  still  held  the  title,  and  of 
which  he  speaks  in  this  letter  to  Cecil  in  these  memorable  words : 
"  I  shall  yet  live  to  see  it  an  Inglishe  nation."  1 

In  this  same  summer,  when  his  nephew  lay  dead  on  the  beach  of 
Chesapeake  Bay,  the  final  sacrifice  of  Raleigh  on  behalf  of  that 
new  English  nation,  his  patent  expired  by  his  attainder.  On  the 

1  Edwards'  Life  of  Ralci;/h,  London,  18G8,  vol.  ii.     Letter  o.\.     From  the  original  Cecil 
Papers. 


1603.] 


ATTAINDER   OF   RALEIGH. 


261 


charge  of  high  treason,  James  I.  found  in  Sir  John  Popham  —  re- 
membered now  chiefly  for  the  part  he  took  in  the  trial  of  End  of  Ra. 
Raleigh,  and   for   following   his  example  in   attempting  to  '^er;scan 
found  a  colony  on  the  North  American  coast  —  a  chief  jus-  entcrPrisc» 
tice  base  enough  to  bend  the  law  to  the  will  of  a  tyrannical  master. 


Signature  of  Qjeen  Snzabeth. 


Signature  of  Sir  Walter 


Entrance  to  Chesapeake   Bay 


CHAPTER   XI. 


FIRST    ENGLISH    SETTLEMENT    IN    AMERICA. 


GOSNOI.D'S  EXPEDITION. — PATENT  GRANTED  TO  LONDON  AND  PLYMOUTH  COMPANIES. 
—  A  COLONY  SETS  OUT  FOR  VIRGINIA.  —  DISCORD  ox  SHIPBOARD.  —  THE  BUILDING 
OF  JAMESTOWN.  —  NEWPORT'S  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  RIVER.  —  GOVERNORSHIP  OF 
EDWARD  WINGFIELD.  —  DISCONTENT  AND  SUFFERING  AMONG  THE  COLONISTS. — 
THE  INDIAN  CHIEF  POWHATAN.  —  ACCOUNTS  OF  SMITH'S  CAPTURE  BY  THE  SAV- 
AGES.—  DISCREPANCIES  IN  SMITH'S  OWN  STORY. —  RETURN  OF  NEWPORT  FROM 
ENGLAND.  —  CORONATION  OF  POWHATAN.  —  SERVICES  OF  SMITH  TO  THE  COLONY.  — 
THE  NEW  CHARTER.  —  EXPEDITION  OF  GATES  AND  SOMERS. —  THE  TEMPEST  AND 
THE  SHIPWRECK.  — OPPORTUNE  COMING  OF  LORD  DE  LA  WARRE.  —  CODE  OF  LAWS 
FOR  THE  COLONY. — ADMINISTRATION  OF  GATES  AND  DALE.  —  CULTIVATION  OF 
TOIIACCO.  —  MARRIAGE  OF  POCAHONTAS.  —  SANDYS  AND  YEARDLEY.  —  THE  COLONY 
FIRMLY  ESTABLISHED.  —  WHITE  AND  BLACK  SLAVERY.  —  THE  FlRST  AMERICAN 
LEGISLATURE. 

BARTHOLOMEW  GOSNOLD  sailed  from  Falmouth,  England,  on  the 
2oth  of  March,  1602,  in  a  small  vessel  called  the  Concord — Bartholo- 
mew Gilbert  being  his  second  in  command  —  sent,  not  by  Raleigh,  nor 
going  with  Raleigh's  consent,  but  by  the  Earl  of  Southampton.1  He 

1  The  letter  from  Raleigh  to  Cecil,  referred  to  in  the  previous  chapter,  shows  that  the 
presumption  that  this  vovnge  wns  made  with  his  consent  (see  Bancroft,  Pnlfi'fi/,  and  others), 
is  erroneous.  He  asks  that  Gilhcrt's  '•  sarsephrase  "  l>e  seized,  "  been  use  I  have  a  piitint 
that  all  shipps  and  goods  are  confiscate  that  shall  trade  ther  without  my  leve."  That 
he  had  given  such  leave,  has  hitherto  been  assumed,  because  Breretou  (see  Purrlms's  Pit- 
ifrims  and  Mass.  Hist.  Co.'/.,  vol.  viii.,  Third  Series),  addresses  his  narrative  of  the  voyage  to 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  Brereton's  own  words,  however,  make  it  plain  that  he  did  so  only  as  a 
matter  of  courtesv. 


1G02.] 


GOSNOLD'S   EXPEDITION. 


263 


took  with  him   thirty-two  persons,  of  whom  twenty  were  to  remain 
and  found  a  colony  somewhere  on  the  northern  coast  of  Vir-   vo.vageot 
ginia,  as  the  whole  country  was  then  called,  from  the  thirty-   ""'.''i"^. 
fourth  to  the  forty-fifth  parallel  of  latitude.    His  purpose  was   "°'d-  1602' 
to  go  by  a  direct  northwest  course,  avoiding  the  usual  circuitous  route 
by  the   Canaries  and   the   West   India  Islands  ;  but  contrary   winds 
drove  him  southward  to  one  of  the  Azores,  whence  he  steered  nearly 
due  west,   arriving   on   the  coast   of    New   England  at   about  40°  of 
latitude,  on  the  14th  of  May. 

At  a  point  which  he  called  Savage  Rock,  not  far,  probably,  from 
Cape  Ann,  if  not  the  Cape  itself,  the  Concord  was  boarded  by  a  party 
of  Indians  in  a  Biscay  shallop,  carrying  both  sails  and  oars  ;  their  lead- 
er, and  one  or  two  others,  were  partially  clothed  in  European  garments, 
which,  as  well  as  the  boat,  they  had  obtained  from  Biscay  fishermen  ; 
nor  was  this  the  only  evidence  of  frequent  intei'course  with  such  visit- 
ors, for  it  is  said,  "  they  spoke  divers  Christian  words,  and  seemed  to 
understand  more  than  we,  for  want  of  language,  could  comprehend."  l 
Finding  at  this  place  no  good  harbor,  they  stood  southward,  crossed 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  next  morning  dropped  anchor,  within  a 
league  from  the  shore,  under  the  lea  of  a  great  promontory. 


Provincetown. 


On  this  breezy  point,  jutting  out  into  the  Atlantic,  which  a  voyager 
along  the  coast  of  the  United  States  can  hardly  escape  hitting,  either 
in  fair  weather  or  foul,  stands  to-day  the  picturesque  village  of  Prov- 
incetown, half  buried  always  in  sand,  and  at  the  proper  season  oom- 

1  The  Relation  of  Captain  Gosnold's  Voyaye,  liy  Gabriel  Archer,  in  Purchas,  vol.  iv. 


264 


FIRST  ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT   IN   AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 


pletely  covered  over  with  drying  cod-fish.  Gosnold  and  his  people  at 
first  called  this  promontory  Shoal  Hope,  but  presently  changed  the 
name  to  Cape  Cod.  Champlain  called  it  Cap  Blanc  (Cape  White), 
four  years  later,  because  of  the  aspect  which  its  sands  gave  it ; l  and 
in  1614  Captain  John  Smith  named  it  Cape  James ;  but  the  name 
Cape  Cod  it  has  never  lost.  The  captain  and  some  of  his  companions 
landed,  and  found  pease,  strawberries,  and  whortleberries,  as  yet  un- 
ripe ;  the  woods  were  cypress,  birch,  witch-hazel,  and  beech  —  products 
which  the  visitor  to  the  extremity  of  Cape  Cod  will  now  hardly  find, 
by  the  most  diligent  search. 

Doubling  the  headland,  they  sailed  for  six  days  along  the  outer  coast 

of  the  cape,  —  "  the  back  side  "  as  it  is  now  called,  —  which 

past  cape      the  Northmen,  it  is  supposed,  had  discovered  six  hundred 

years  before,  and  named  Wonder-strands.   Certain  points  now 

known  as  dangerous  shoals,  but  which  were  then  peninsulas  of  firm 

land,  the  Concord's  crew 
called  Tucker's  Terror  and 
Gilbert's  Point,  from  two 
of  their  officers.  The  fish- 
ing was  so  good,  —  better, 
they  thought,  than  off  the 
banks  of  Newfoundland,  — 
that  they  "  pestered  "  their 
ship  with  the  quantity  of 
cod  they  took  each  day ;  in- 
land the  country  seemed 
covered  with  grass  and  well 
wooded,  and  to  be  very 
populous.  A  few  of  the 
natives  came  alongside  in 
their  birch  canoes,  others 
ran  along  the  beaches  "  ad- 
miring" the  strangers;  the 
pipes  of  those  who  boarded 
the  ship,  it  was  observed, 
were  "  steeled  with  copper," 
and  one  of  these  Indians 

Map  of  Cape  Cod.  ^^   &    breastplate    of    that 

metal  a  foot  in  length  and  half  a  foot  in  breadth. 

Crossing  the  Vineyard  Sound,  they  came  "  amongst  many  fair 
islands,"  on  one  of  which  they  landed.  It  was  full  of  woods  and 
fruit-bearing  bushes,  with  such  an  incredible  store  of  vines  running 

1    Voywjes  du  Sieur  tie  Clianiplain. 


- 


u 

ft 

O 

ft 

f 

a 
3 

o 

2 

H 

O 


a 


1002.]  GOSXOLD'S   EXPEDITION.  265 

upon   every   tree,   that  they   could   not   go    for  treading  upon    them. 
It  is  the  Northmen's  story  over  again.     "  We  will   call  it  Vinland," 
said  Leif  the  Lucky,  of  the  country  lie  found,  probably  in  these  same 
waters.     To  the  island  on  which  they  first  landed,  Gosnold  and  his 
people  gave  the  name  of  Martha's  Vineyard.1     This,  there  is  little 
doubt,  is  now  known  as  No  Man's  Land,  the  name  of  Martha's  Vine- 
yard being  afterward  transferred  to  the  larger  island  north  of  it.    Here 
they  did  not  go  ashore,  but  doubling  its  southwest  extremity,  calling 
it  Dover  Cliff  as  they  passed,  sailed  into  Buzzard's  Hay.     It  seemed 
to  them  one  of  the  "stateliest"  of  Sounds,  and  worth}'  to  r)e<.i,lHSto 
be  called  Gosnold's  Hope.     On  an  island  now  known  by  its   ^"JL^h •» 
Indian  name  of  Cuttyhunk,2  but  which  Gosnold  called  Eliz-  Mand- 
abeth, —  the  designation  now  of  that  whole  group  of   which  Cuttv- 
luink  is  the  outermost, — it  was  determined  to  plant  the  colony. 

The  soil  was  "  fat  and  lusty."  The  seed  of  various  grains,  planted 
as  an  experiment,  sprung  up  in  fourteen  days  to  a  height  of  from 
six  to  nine  inches.  Indeed,  on  all  the  coast,  no  more  enticing  place 
could  be  found  than  this  lovely  island,  with  its  southern  side  to  the 
sea,  the  Gulf  Stream  winding  in  near  enough  to  warm  the  tides  that 
washed  its  shores.  In  a  lake  two  or  three  miles  in  circuit,  one  end  of 
it  only  a  few  yards  from  the  outer  beach,  was  a  rocky  islet  —  an  island 
within  an  island  —  and  on  this  they  determined  to  build  a  fort.  The 
larger  part  of  the  company  at  once  set  to  work,  and  for  the  next  three 
weeks  were  busy  on  a  place  of  habitation  and  defence,  while  a  few, 
"  and  those  but  easy  laborers,"  employed  themselves  in  gathering 
sassafras  —  few,  because,  adds  Captain  Gosnold,  in  a  letter  to  his 
father,3  "  We  were  informed  before  our  going  forth,  that  a  ton  (of 
sassafras)  was  enough  to  cloy  England."  What  became  of  this  cargo, 
we  learn  from  Raleigh's  letter  to  Secretary  Cecil. 

The  Indians  were  frequent  visitors,  bringing  furs,  wampum,  to- 
bacco—  "which  they  drink  (smoke)  green,  but  dried  into  powder, 
very  strong  and  pleasant"  —  and  such  provision  as  they  had  for 
traffic.  Among  them,  as  among  the  natives  of  the  Cape,  copper  was 
in  common  use  as  an  ornament,  and  by  signs  they  made  known  that 
they  dug  it  out  of  the  ground,  which  gave  great  hope  to  the  English 
of  mines  not  far  distant.  Gosnold,  with  some  of  his  companions, 

1  Or  Martin's  Vineyard,  as  it  is  often  written  by  early  writers.  Captain  Pring,  who 
made  essentially  the  same  voyage  the  next  year,  was  on  hoard  the  Concord.  His  name  was 
Martin,  and  it  m«y  have  been  given  to  the  island  in  his  honor,  suggests  Belknap.  as  the 
ii:>ines  of  others  of  this  ship's  company  were  used  to  designate  other  places  —  as  Tucker's 
Terror,  Gilbert's  Point,  Gosnold's  Hope,  Hill's  Hap. 

3  "  A  contraction  of  Poo-cut-oli-hiink-un-nok,  which  signifies  a  thing  that  lies  out  of  the 
water." — Be.lknnft's  American  Ltioirajihy,  vol  ii.,  p.  114. 

:i  Master  Bartholomew  Gosnold's  letter  to  his  lather,  touching  his  tirst  voyage  to  Vir- 
ginia. See  Purchas  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 


266  FIRST  ENGLISH  SETTLEMENT   IN  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XI. 

visited  other  islands  of  the  group,  and  explored  the  main  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  New  Bedford,  and  found  it 
to  be  "  the  goodliest  continent  that  ever  we  saw,  promising  more  by 
far  than  we  did  expect ;  for  it  is  replenished  with  fair  fields,  and  in 
them  fragrant  flowers,  also  meadows,  and  hedged  in  with  stately 
groves,  being  furnished  also  with  pleasant  brooks,  and  beautified  with 
two  main  rivers."1  The  natives  were,  on  the  whole,  not  unfriendly  ; 
and  in  a  place  so  pleasant,  with  so  much  that  was  encouraging,  this 
might  have  been  the  first  English  colony  on  the  American  coast,  had 
the  Concord  been  better  provided. 

But  when   the  time  came  for  her  return,  it  was  found  that  only 

enough  stores  could  be  spared  to  sustain  for  six  weeks  at  most  those  who 

should  remain.     There  was  little  reason  to  hope  that  they 

Abandon-  ....  .  1111  i  •• 

ment  of  the  might  live  upon  the  country,  and  they  had  made  no  provision 
for  a  crop  by  planting.  The  uncertainty  as  to  how  soon 
succor  might  reach  them  from  home,  and  the  doubt  whether  the 
Indians  would  leave  them  unmolested,  counselled  prudence,  and  they 
wisely  resolved  that  none  should  be  left  behind.  On  the  18th  of 
June  they  sailed  for  England,  and  on  the  23d  of  July  arrived  off 
Exmouth.  When  four  days  afterward  they  anchored  in  Portsmouth 
Harbor,  "  we  had  not,"  said  Gosnold,  in  the  letter  to  his  father,  "  one 
cake  of  bread,  nor  any  drink  but  a  little  vinegar,  left." 

Indirectly  this  voyage  of  Gosnold's  was  not  without  important  re- 
sults, though  a  failure  in  its  immediate  purpose.  New  England  thus 
just  missed  of  being  the  site  of  the  first  settled  colony,  but  attention 
was  turned  to  these  Northern  coasts,  never  to  be  again  relaxed  for  any 
long  period.  The  immediate  interest  aroused  was  enough  to  send  out 
in  the  course  of  the  next  two  or  three  years,  several  expeditions  for 
trade  with  the  Indians. 

Martin  Pring,  who  was  with  Gosnold  in  the  Concord,  was  fitted  out 
by  some  Bristol  merchants  in  the  spring  of  1603,  with  two 
pring  s  voy-  vessels,  one  of  fifty  tons,  the  other  of  twenty-six  only,  with 
which  he  ran  along  the  coast  of  Maine,  stopping  long  enough 
in  Casco  Bay  to  find  the  fishing  better  than  off  Newfoundland  ;  look- 
ing into  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebunk,  the  York,  and  the  Piscataqua 
rivers,  cruising  with  delight  among  the  many  islands  along  that  shore. 
Then  following  Gosnold's  track  from  "  Savage  Rock  "  to  Buzzard's 
Bay,  trading  with  Indians  wherever  he  could  find  them,  he  was  back 
again  in  England,  his  two  vessels  well  laden,  within  six  months.  Wey- 
mouth,  whom  the  Earl  of  Southampton  and  Lord  Arundel  sent  out 
two  years  later,  was  bent  rather  upon  discovery  than  trade.  But 
these  voyages  were  the  direct  consequence  of  that  of  Gosnold  ;  the 

1  Archer's  Relation. 


1606.]  PATENT   TO   THE  VIRGINIA  COMPANIES.  267 

shorter  route  he  opened  by  steering  directly  westward  instead  of  the 
circuitous  course  followed  by  vessels  going  to  Virginia  for  the  previous 
twenty  years,  and  the  report  of  a  rich  and  productive  country,  and  a 
salubrious  climate,  at  least  in  the  summer  months,  on  the  Northern 
coast,  promised  a  new  field  for  English  enterprise. 

Gosnold  himself  was  full  of  zeal  and  energy.  The  failure  to 
plant  a  colony  on  Elizabeth  Island  did  not  in  the  least  discourage 
him,  and  the  few  weeks  spent  in  that  region  assured  him  of  the  possi- 
bility of  successful  colonization  anywhere  along  the  coast  under  better 
auspices.  He  inspired  men  of  influence  and  wealth  with  something 
of  his  own  enthusiasm.  The  merchants  of  London,  Bristol,  and  Plym- 
outh considered  the  subject  in  its  commercial  aspect,  and  that  seemed 
full  of  promise  ;  but  there  were  many  others  who  saw  it  in  a  more 
comprehensive  light.  Chief  among  these  was  Richard  Hakluyt,  a 
London  clergyman,  whose  diligence  as  an  author  bore  witness  to  the 
deep  interest  he  felt  in  discovery  in  the  New  World,  and  the  import- 
ance he  believed  the  possession  of  its  Northern  portion  to  be  to  Eng- 
land. The  result  of  the  labors  of  such  men  was  the  formation  of  an 
association  composed  of  some  of  the  most  influential  and  respectable 
persons  in  the  kingdom,  and  which  determined  beyond  a  doubt  the 
future  of  North  America. 

Letters-patent  were  issued  in  April,  1606,  to  Sir  George  Somers, 
Richard  Hakluyt,  Edward  Maria  Wingfield,  and  others  who  Patent 
should  be  joined  to  them,  by  which  was  granted  all  the 
territority  on  the  American  coast,  between  34°  and  4oc,  ] 
and  the  islands  within  a  hundred  miles.  It  was  required  that  two 
companies  be  formed,  one  to  be  called  the  first,  or  Southern  Colony  ; 
the  other,  the  second,  or  Northern  Colony.  The  jurisdiction  of 
the  Southern  colony,  whose  council  was  chiefly  composed  of  resi- 
dents of  London  and  came  therefore  to  be  known  as  the  London 
Company,  extended  from  Cape  Fear  to  the  eastern  end  of  Long 
Island,  from  34°  to  41°  ;  the  other  was  called  the  Plymouth  Com- 
pany, as  its  council  was  appointed  from  Plymouth  and  its  vicinity  ;  its 
limits  overlapped  those  of  the  other,  extending  from  38°  to  45°,  or 
from  about  the  latitude  of  Delaware  Bay  to  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia. 

Each  colony  was  to  be  governed  by  a  resident  council  of  thirteen,  to 
be  appointed  by  the  king,  with  power  to  choose  a  president,  Government 
who  should  not  be  a  clergyman,  from  -their  own  body,  and  [uheV^tne 
to  fill  any  vacancies  that  should  occur  among  themselves  New  World- 
from  death  or  resignation.  The  laws  enacted  by  them  were  subject 
to  revision  either  by  the  king  or  the  council  in  England.  No  part 
whatever  in  the  government  was  given  to  the  people;  even  trial  by  jury 
was  allowed  only  in  cases  of  capital  crimes,  which  were  "  tumults,  re- 


to 


268 


FIRST   ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT   IN   AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 


bellion,  conspiracy,  meetings  and  sedition,  together  with  murder,  man- 
slaughter, incest,  rapes,  and  adultery  ;  "  lesser  crimes  and  misdemean- 
ors were  to  be  tried  before  the  president  and  council,  and  punished 
according  to  their  will.  Real  estate  was  to  be  held  as  under  the  laws 
of  England,  but  for  the  first  five  years  all  personal  property  and  the 
fruits  of  the  labors  of  the  colonists  were  to  be  held  as  a  common 
stock,  and  each  member  of  the  community  was  to  be  supported 
from  the  general  store.  Religion  was  to  be  established  in  accord- 
ance witli  the  rites  and  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  the 

people  were  enjoined  by  virtue  of  such 
penalties  as  the  president  and  council 
should  choose  to  inflict,  to  "kindly 
treat  the  savage  and  heathen  people 
in  those  parts,  and  use  all  proper 
means  to  draw  them  to  the  true  service 
and  knowledge  of  God,"  and  also  to 
lead  them  to  "  good  and  sociable  traf- 
fic." Such  were  the  essential  features 
of  the  first  constitution  of  government 
established  within  the  limits  of  the 
present  United  States.  It  was  espec- 
ially the  work  of  that  pedantic  despot, 
James  I.,  who  afterward  amused  him- 
self with  drawing  up  a  code  of  laws 
for  the  administration  of  a  government 
where,  in  the  last  resort,  all  political  power  rested  in  his  hands,  and 
the  hands  of  those  of  his  appointment. 

In  the  summer  of  1606,  two  ships  sailed  for  New  England  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Plymouth  Company, — one  in  May  commanded  by 
Captain  Pring  ;  the  other  in  August,  of  which  Henry  Chalong  was 
Captain.1  Chalong  was  taken  by  the  Spaniards,  but  Pring  sailed 
along  the  coast  of  Maine  and  made,  on  his  return,  so  favorable  a  report 
of  the  country  that  Chief  Justice  Popham,  of  the  Plymouth  Company, 
determined,  the  next  year,  to  send  his  brother  George  Popham  and 
Raleigh  Gilbert,  a  son  of  Sir  Humphrey,2  to  settle  a  colony  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Sagadahoc.  As  this  colony,  however,  returned  to  Eng- 
land in  a  few  months  the  first  permanent  settlement  was  that  made  by 
the  London  Company  in  Virginia. 

1  Some  confusion  has  arisen  in  regard  to  these  voyages.     In  the  ship  with  Pring  went 
Captain  Hanam,  or  Hanham,  some  authors  say  as  master,  others  as  captain.     Strachey 
speaks  of  a  voyage  by  Captain  Haines,  which  is  probably  a  mistake  for  Hanam,  and  has 
led  some  writers  to  suppose  there  were  three  expeditions  sent  in  1606  by  the  Plymouth 
Company. 

2  See  Prince's  Worthies  of  Devon. 


James  I. 


1606.] 


THE   COLONY   SETS   OUT   FOR  VIRGINIA. 


269 


John   Smith. 


The  colony  numbered  one  hundred  and  five  men  —  men  only,  for 
there  were  no  women.     Of  these  only  about  twenty  were  mechanics  ; 
of  the  rest,  some  were   soldiers,  some  were  servants,   and  Memberg  of 
nearly  half  of  the  whole  number  were  "gentlemen,"  with  thcfoK>"> 
whom  it  was   not  of  so  much  consequence  that  they  were  unaccus- 
tomed to  labor, —  for  the  better  bred  and  better  educated  a  man  is, 
the  better  able  is  he  for  any  work  — 
but  that  they  looked  upon  labor  as  a 
degradation.     Among  its  most  nota- 
ble persons  were  Bartholomew  Gos- 
nold  and  Gabriel  Archer,  Gosnold's 
companion  in  the  Concord  and  his- 
torian of  that  expedition  ;    Edward 
Maria  Wingfield,  afterward  the  first 
governor;  the  Rev.  Robert  Hunt,  the 
chaplain,  a  good  man,  who  soon  had 
enough  to  do  to  keep  the   hands  of 
his  charge  from  each  others'  throats; 
George  Percy,  a  brother  of  the  Earl 
of    Northumberland,    who    did    eifi- 
cient  service  in  the  early  struggles 
of    the    colony ;    and    John    Smith, 
already  distinguished  for  a   romantic  career  as  a  soldier  in   a  war 
against  the  Turks. 

They  sailed  from  Blackwall,  England,  on  the  19th  of  December, 
1606,  in  three  vessels:  the  largest,  the  Sarah  Constant,  of  one  They  sail  for 
hundred  tons  burden,  the  second,  the  God- Speed,  of  forty,  ]^^f\^ 
the  third,  the  Discovery,  a  pinnace  of  twenty  tons  ; l  and  of 
this  little  fleet,  Captain  Christopher  Newport,  an  able  and  experienced 
sailor,  was  commander.  Contrary  winds  kept  them  hanging  about  the 
coast  for  five  weeks ;  when  fairly  started  on  their  western  course,  they 
went — though  Gosnold  and  Archer  could  have  taught  them  better  — 
by  the  old  route  of  the  West  Indies,  trading  with  the  Spaniards  and 
dallying  in  pleasant  places,  so  that  four  months  passed  before  they  saw 
the  coast  of  Virginia.2  The  delay  was  not  only  at  great  cost  of  pro- 
visions, which  they  soon  came  to  sorely  need,  but  so  long  a  voyage 
was  in  itself  enough  to  breed  discontent  among  men  who  must  have 
been  impatient  to  reach  their  destination.  Discontent  bred  insubor- 
dination, and  this  was  aggravated  by  the  ignorance  as  to  who  among 
them  was  to  be  in  authority  in  the  future  colony,  and  might,  therefore, 

1  Purchas,  vol.  iv. 

2  Smith's  History  of  Vinjiniu,  book  Hi.,  chap.  2,  says  five  months,  bur  this  is  an  obvious 
blunder. 


270  FIRST  ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT   IN   AMERICA.      [Cnxp.  XL 

command  beforehand  obedience  and  respect ;  for  the  London  Council 
had  unwisely  ordered  that  the  seals  of  their  letters  of  instruction  and 
appointment  should  not  be  broken  till  the  colonists  had  landed  upon 
the  shores  of  Virginia.  Among  these  malcontents  John  Smith  made 
himself  peculiarly  obnoxious.  His  offence  may  have  been  in  reality 
nothing  more  serious  than  to  complain  loudly  of  a  delay,  which,  to  one 
of  his  active  and  impatient  temper,  must  needs  have  been  exceedingly 
irksome ;  but  perhaps  his  example  was  contagious,  and  it  was  there- 
fore thought  necessary  to  put  him  under  restraint.  He  was  accused 
(if  we  may  accept  his  own  statement)  of  an  intention  to  usurp  the 
government,  to  murder  the  council,  and  make  himself  king ; x  whether 
charges  so  serious  were  really  believed  to  be  true,  or  were  only  meant 
to  curb  a  turbulent  disposition,  he  was  still  considered  as  under  arrest 
for  several  weeks  after  the  arrival  in  Virginia. 

The  intention,  it  is  supposed  —  though  on  insufficient  authority  — 
was  to  follow  the  Raleigh  colonies  and  go  to  Roanoke  Island  ;  the 
reckoning,  however,  was  in  fault,  if  that  was  their  purpose,  for  they 
overshot  it.  But  there  was,  probably,  no  such  intention.  The  in- 
structions of  the  Council  were  that  the  ships  should  seek  for  a  safe 
port  at  the  entrance  of  some  navigable  river,  and  if  more  than  one 
was  discovered  that  should  be  preferred,  if  there  were  any  such,  which 
had  two  branches.  Should  either  of  these  branches  come  from  the 
northwest  then  that  one  was  to  be  entered,  as  it  might  be  the  passage 
to  the  South  Sea.2  The  hope  of  finding  this  passage  the  London 
Council  never  relinquished  so  long  as  the  Company  remained  in  exist- 
ence. 

Only  three  days  were  consumed  in  search  of  such  a  harbor,  and  on 

*  *> 

Arrival  in  *ne  26 th  of  April,  1607,  they  sailed  into  Chesseian  (Chesa- 
peake) Bay.  Its  southern  point  —  where  some  of  the  peo- 
1607.  pje^  on  landing^  Were  attacked  by  the  Indians,  and  Gabriel 
Archer  and  a  sailor  wounded — they  called  Cape  Henry  ;  its  northern, 
Cape  Charles,  in  honor  of  the  sons  of  the  king.  They  would,  doubt- 
less, have  welcomed  the  sight  of  a  much  less  inviting  land  than  this 
after  the  long  delay ;  but  the}7  sailed  up  this  noble  bay  with  irrepres- 
sible delight,  eager  to  begin  their  work. 

Their  first  business  was  to  ascertain  who  among  them  were  to  have 
the  management  of  affairs.  On  the  night  of  their  arrival  at  Cape 
Henry  the  sealed  box  was  opened  and  it  was  ascertained  that  the 
council  was  to  consist  of  Bartholomew  Gosnold,  John  Smith,  Edward 
Wingfield,  Christopher  Newport,  John  Ratcliffe,  John  Martin,  and 
George  Kendall.  The  next  seventeen  days  were  spent  in  looking  for 

1  Smith's  General  History. 

2  See  instructions  in  full  iu  Xeill's  History  of  the  Viryinia  Comjmny  in  London. 


1607.] 


THE   BUILDING   OF   JAMESTOWN. 


271 


a  suitable  place  to  plant  the  colony,  about  which  there  was  much  dis- 
agreement, and  on  the  loth  of  May  they  fixed  on  the  present  site 
of  Jamestown  —  so  named  in  honor  of  the  king  —  on  a  pe- 
ninsula about  forty  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  Pow- 
hatan,  which,  also  in  honor  of  James,  they  called  the  King's, 
and  afterward  James  River.  This  was  to  be  their  permanent  home  ; 
the  council,  excepting  Smith,  were  sworn  into  office,  and  Wingfield 
chosen  president. 

Then  "  falleth  every  man  to  worke  ;    the  Councell  contrive  the 
Fort,  the  rest  cut  downe  trees  to  make  place  to  pitch 
their  Tents  ;   some  provide  clapboard  to  relade   the 
ships,  some  make  gardens, 
some  nets,  etc."  l     It  was 


Newport's   Embarkation. 

the  laying  of  the  first  solid  foundation  of  that  English  nation,  which 
Raleigh  had  said  five  years  before  he  should  vet  live  to  see. 

O  V  V 

In  the  instructions  of  the  Council  the  emigrants  were  commanded  to 
discover  the  communication  which  was  supposed  to  exist  by  some  river 
or  lake  between  Virginia  and  the  South  Sea.  This  they  evidently 
looked  upon  as  one  of  their  first  duties,  and  accordingly  within  a  week 
Captain  Newport  "  fitted  out  a  shallop  with  provision  and  all  neces- 
saryes  belonging  to  a  discovery  "  — they  believed  they  had  not  far  to 
seek  —  and  proceeded  with  "  five  gentlemen,  four  maryners,  and 
fourteen  saviors,  with  a  perfect  resolutyon  not  to  returne,  but  either  to 
finde  the  head  of  this  ryver,  the  laake  mentyoned  by  others  hereto- 


Smith's  History,  book  i.,  chap.  1. 


272  FIRST    ENGLISH    SETTLEMENT    IN    AMERICA.      [CuAP.  XI. 

fore,  the  sea  againe,  the  niountaynes  Apalatai  [Appalachian]  or  some 
issue."  l  The  issue  was  that  they  returned  within  the  week  without 
having  discovered  either  the  head  of  the  river,  the  lake,  the  South 
Sea,  or  the  mountains. 

They  made,  however,  a  fair  survey  of  James  River  for  a  hundred 
!U1<1  fifty  inilesi  visiting  several  Indian  kings,  or  weroances, 
as  tney  were  called  in  the  native  tongue.  By  these  they  were 
received  with  great  kindness,  and  made  welcome  with  venison, 
turkeys,  maize,  strawberries,  mulberries,  raspberries,  pompions  (pump- 
kins), dried  nuts,  and  tobacco.  In  return  they  gave  their  hosts  the 
usual  gifts  of  beads  and  other  trifles,  inviting  the  chiefs  sometimes 
to  share  their  English  food,  and  drink  of  their  strong  drinks  to  that 
degree  as  to  make  the  simple  savage  both  sick  and  sullen.  One 
tribe  was  governed  by  a  "queen,"  —  Queen  Ahumatec  —  "a  fatt, 
lustie,  manly  woman,"  dressed  in  a  copper  "  crownet,"  a  copper  neck- 
lace, a  deer-skin  girdle,  and  "  ells  (else)  all  naked."  She  affected  great 
state  and  was  haughty  in  demeanor,  but  "  cheered  somewhat  her 
countenance "  when  presented  liberally  with  gifts.  It  was  also  ob- 
served of  her,  that  she  was  much  less  affrighted  at  the  discharge  of  a 
gun  than  the  men.2 

Their  further  progress  up  the  river  was  stayed  at  that  point  where 
the  citv  of  Richmond  now  stands,  and  where  the  water  fell  down 

tf 

"  through  great  mayne  rocks  from  ledges  of  rocks  above  two  fadome 
high."  Just  below  was  the  village  of  a  king  Pawatah  (Powhatan), — 
a  brother  or  son,  probably,  of  that  Powhatan  afterwards  known  as  the 
Emperor,  —  which  Newport  named  Pawatah 's  Tower,  placed  upon  a 
hill  on  the  north  bank,  or  Popham  side  of  the  river;  the  south  bank 
they  called  the  Salisbury  side.  At  this  point  it  was  proposed  to 
proceed  by  land  and  reach  the  Quirauk  (Blue  Ridge)  Mountains; 
but  they  were  dissuaded  by  the  Indians,  who  represented  the  way  as 
tedious,  and  the  people  of  that  region  as  the  enemies  of  Powhatan. 
Hei'e,  therefore,  ended  their  discoveries,  which,  though  they  did  not 
find  the  entrance  to  the  South  Sea,  they  hoped  would  '•  tend  to  the 
glory  of  God,  his  majeste's  renowne,  our  countrye's  profytt,  our 
owne  advancing,  and  fame  to  all  posterity."3 

As  they  went  down  the  river,  they  observed  a  change  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  Indians  which  excited  their  apprehensions  ;  and  these  were 
well  founded,  for  on  reaching  Jamestown  they  learned  that  the  camp 
had  been  attacked  during  their  absence.  Several  of  the  men  were 

1   Ca/>tain  Ntv/iort's  Discoveries  in  Virginia.  First  published,  from  MS.  found  ill  the  Eng- 
lish State  Paper  Office,  in  vol.  iv.  of  Collections  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  1860. 
-   Ibid. 
3  Ibid. 


1607.]  NEWPORT'S  EXPEDITION.  273 

wounded,  one  boy  was  killed,  and  the  President,  Wingfield,  had  nai-- 
rowly  escaped,  an  arrow  having  passed  through  his  beard. 

George  Percy  and  Gabriel  Archer,  both  men  of  note,  went  with 
Newport  on  this  expedition,  and  were  probably  not  without  some 
share  in  its  responsibilities  and  success,  such  as  they  were.  Xewport-s 
The  coupling  of  Smith's  name  alone  with  Newport's,  in  -"S 
Smith's  "  History,"  is  an  assertion  of  a  prominence  belong-  dlti"n 
ing  quite  as  much  to  others  as  to  him.  Courageous,  enterprising,  and 
energetic  as  he  unquestionably  was,  he  was  inclined  to  make  himself, 
or  at  least  sanctioned  others  in  making  him,  more  the  hero  of  the 
early  history  of  Virginia  than  the  facts  seem  always  to  warrant.  His 
own  "  History  "  is  apparently  the  only  authority  for  the  assertion  that 
he  was  arrested  in  the  West  Indies ;  and  such  an  arrest  must  have 
been  made,  if  made  at  all,  by  Newport's  orders.1  It  may  be  that  the 
difference  between  Smith  and  Wingfield,  which  afterward  led  to  such 
serious  results,  showed  itself  thus  early,  and  that  Newport  saw  the 
necessity  of  putting  a  restraint  upon  one  of  a  turbulent  and  daring 
character.  If  this  were  so,  it  is  more  probable  that  he  kept  Smith 
with  him  that  he  might  be  under  his  own  control,  and  prevented 
from  interfering  in  the  organization  of  affairs  at  the  fort,  rather  than 
that  he  divided  with  him  the  responsibility  and  honor  of  the  first 
expedition  into  the  interior. 

Newport  remained  at  the  fort  about  three  weeks  before  sailing  for 
England,  and  assisted  with  his  sailors  in  putting  it  in  a  better  state 
of  defence.  u  We  labored,"  —  says  the  narrative  of  his  expedition, 
under  date  of  May  28th,  the  day  after  his  return  — "  pallaz-  Buildingthe 
doing  (palisading)  our  forte."  The  colony  had  been  on  shore  fort- 
a  fortnight,  and  had  protected  the  encampment  only  with  boughs  of 
trees.  The  attack  from  the  Indians  showed  that  more  efficient  de- 
fence, for  which  the  branches  were  only  a  temporary  substitute  and 
all  that  as  yet  there  had  been  time  to  put  up,  must  be  at  once  made, 
But  in  Smith's  "History,"  we  are  told  that  "the  president's  overween- 
ing jealousy  would  admit  no  exercise  at  arms,  or  fortification,  but  the 
boughs  of  trees  cast  together  in  the  form  of  a  half  moon  by  the  extra- 
ordinary pains,  and  diligence  of  Captain  Kendall."  This  seems  to  be 
pure  detraction,  for  there  is  nowhere  else  any  intimation  that  Wing- 
field  was  wanting  in  diligence  and  energy,  and  the  Newport  narrative 
declares  that  at  the  first  attack  from  the  savages  he  "  shewed  himself 
a  valiant  gentleman,"  the  proof  whereof,  was  the  arrow  shot  through 
his  beard  when  with  four  others  of  the  council  he  took  the  post  of 
danger  in  the  front. 

1  We  find  no  mention  of  it  in  the  abridgment  in  Purchas  of  Percy's  Narrative,  in  the  re- 
port of  Newport's  expedition  up  the  James  River,  nor  in  Wingficld's  Discourse  of  Virginia. 
VOL.  L  18 


274  FIRST   ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT   IN,   AMERICA.       [CHAP.  XI. 

There  was  evidently  trouble  brewing  which  Newport  tried  to  avert 
before  he  sailed  on  the  21st  of  June.     Where  the  fault  lay 

Trouble  .111  XT  • 

brewing  in     is  not  clear,  but  there  was,  savs  the   Newport  narrative, 

the  colony.  i      11     i 

"  among  the  gentlemen,  and  all  the  company,  a  murmur  and 
grudg  against  certayne  preposterous  proceedings,  and  inconvenyent 
courses."  A  petition  was  sent  in  to  the  council,  in  relation  to  these 
difficulties,  whatever  they  were,  and  Newport  by  "  fervent  persway- 
son  "  won  a  "  uniformity  of  consent  "  among  them,  so  that,  continues 
the  narrator,  "  we  confirmed  a  faythfull  love  one  to  another ;  and  in 
our  heartes  subscribed  an  obedyence  to  our  superyors  this  day.  Cap- 
tain Smyth  was  this  day  sworne  one  of  the  Counsell,  who  was  elected 
in  England." 

A  compromise  was  thus  apparently  effected,  and  harmony  restored 
by  this  admission  of  Smith  to  the  board  of  councillors.  But  in 
Smith's  "  History"  there  is  a  material  difference  in  the  account  of  this 
transaction.1  Referring  to  his  arrest  in  the  West  Indies,  from  which 
he  was  not  released,  according  to  that  authority,  till  he  was  admitted 
to  the  council,  it  is  asserted  that  it  was  proposed  to  send  him  to  Eng- 
land for  trial.  "  But  he  so  much  scorned  their  charitie,"  says  the  nar- 
rative, u  and  publikely  defied  the  vttermost  of  their  crueltie,  he  wisely 
prevented  their  policies,  though  he  could  not  suppresse  their  envies. 
.  .  Many  vntruthes  were  alledged  against  him  ;  but  being  so 
apparently  disproved,  begat  a  generall  hatred  in  the  hearts  of  the 
company  against  such  vniust  Commanders,  that  the  President  was  ad- 
iudged  to  give  him  200J,  so  that  all  he  had  was  seized  vpon,  in  part 
of  satisfaction,  which  Smith  presently  returned  to  the  Store  for  the 
generall  vse  of  the  Colonv."  Whether  there  was  anv  such  arrest  or 

*/  */ 

not,  there  is  good  reason  for  doubting  that  there  was  any  such  trial,  for 
it  is  not  mentioned  in  other  relations  of  the  troubles  of  that  period. 
Two  months  later,  however,  Wingfield,  who  had  then  been  deposed 
from  the  presidency,  was  called  before  the  council  to  answer  to  an 
action  of  slander  brought  by  Smith,  who,  he  said,  had  concealed  an 
intended  mutiny;  in  this  suit  Wingfield  was  adjudged  to  pay  a  fine 
of  £200  damages.2 

As  this  is  Wingfield's  own  acknowledgment,  there  can  be  no  reason- 
able doubt  of  its  truth,  since  he  could  have  no  motive  for  misrepresen- 
tation ;  while  if  the  statement  of  Smith's  "  History  "  —  hitherto  ac- 

1  Smith's  Central!  Historie,  which  is  a  compilation  of  the  narratives  of  various  persous 
published  under  his  mime,  has  hitherto  heeu  the  main  reliance  of  writers  upon  this  period 
of  the  history  of  Virginia.     See  Stith,  Buck,  and  others  who  had  access  only  to  one  side 
of  the  story. 

2  A  Discourse  of  Virginia.      By  Ediourd  Maria   \\'!n<ifieliL     Now  first  printed  from   the 
original  ntunuscri/>t  in  the   Lambeth   Library.   'Collections  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Soci- 
ety, 1860. 


1607.]  GOVERNORSHIP   OF   WIXGFIELD.  275 

cepted  in  the  absence  of  any  other  —  be  also  true,  then  we  are  to  be- 
lieve that  Wingfield  was  twice  condemned  that  summer,  to  pay  Smith 
£200,  which  is  not  at  all  likely,  and  is  nowhere  asserted,  and  to  ac- 
cept also  the  occurrence  of  so  curious  a  legal  proceeding  as  the  trial  of 
one  man  —  Smith  —  for  treason,  whose  acquittal  involved  the  punish- 
ment of  another  man  —  Wingfield  —  who  was  not  on  trial  at  all.    But 
if  the  account  in  Smith's  "  History  "  of  the  circumstances  attending 
his  admission  to  the  council  be  rejected  in  so  important  a 
circumstance  on  the   testimony,  recently  published,  of  the  wingfiews 
Newport  narrative  and  Wingfield's  "Discourse,"  it  is  im- 
possible not  to  question  its  truth  in  other  particulars,  and  to  doubt  not 
only  that  there  was  a  trial  at  that  time  for  treason,  but  that  there 
was  any  arrest. 

A  few  days  before  his  departure,  and  a  week  after  "  the  faithful 
love  one  to  another''  was  confirmed  by  his  fervent  persuasions, 
Newport  asked  of  Wingfield  how  he  thought  himself  settled  in  the 
government.  Wingfield's  answer  was :  "  that  no  disturbance  could 
endanger  him  or  the  colony,  but  it  must  be  wrought  either  by  Captain 
Gosnold  or  Mr.  Archer  ;  for  the  one  was  strong  with  friends  and  fol- 
lowers, and  could  if  he  would  ;  and  the  other  was  troubled  with  an 
ambitious  spirit,  and  would  if  he  could."  l  This  epigrammatic  presen- 
tation of  the  condition  of  affairs,  Newport  reported  to  both  Gosnold 
and  Archer,  and  urged  them,  with  many  entreaties,  to  be  mindful  of 
their  duties  to  the  king  and  the  colony.  The  internal  dissensions 
were  plain  enough  to  him  ;  perhaps  he  also  foresaw  how  they  might  be 
inflamed  by  the  sufferings  the  colonists  were  to  endure  for  want  of 
those  stores  consumed  on  the  long  voyage  from  England  which  should 
have  been  their  present  support. 

It  was  a  summer  of  great  hardship.     Early  in  July  disease  broke 
out  anrong  them,  partly  the  effect  of  climate,  but  more  often 
caused  and  aggravated  by  the  want  of  food  and  proper  shelter.   rfQ* 
"  For  the  most  part,"  says  Percy,  "  they  died  of  mere  fam- 
ine."    By  September  nearly  one  half  were  dead,  and  among  them 
Gosnold.      Wingfield  hail  found  no  reason  to  fear  the  influence  which 
lie  told  Newport,    "  that  worthy  and   religious  gent,"  had  over  the 
colonists.     Upon  Gosnold's  good-will,  the  president  said,  when  speak- 
ing of  his  death,  depended  the  success  of  his  own  administration  of 
affairs  and  of  the  colony  ;  and  so  much  did  he  rely  upon  his  counte- 
nance and  counsel  in  the  differences  between  himself  and  the  other 
councillors,   that  he  "  did  easily  foretel  his  owne   deposing  from  his 
command, "    when   his  friend   was    taken   ill.      This  good  opinion  of 
Wingfield's  is  confirmed  by  all  we  know  of  Gosnold,  who  seems,  in  the 

1  Wingfield's  OMOtMTM  of  I7/v/i«i«. 


276  FIRST   ENGLISH    SETTLEMENT   IN   AMERICA.      [CiiAP.  XI. 

glimpses  we  have  of  him  here  and  elsewhere,  to  have  been  a  man  of 
thoughtful  mind,  calm  judgment,  and  self  reliant  temper.  He  deserves 
to  be  remembered  next  to  Raleigh  among  the  direct  founders  of  the 
American  colonies. 

But  for  the  scarcity  of  food  harmony  might  have  been  maintained 
among  the  leaders,  for  that  was  clearly  the  ostensible  and  a  bitter  cause 
of  quarrel,  whatever  ambitions  and  jealousies  may  have  lain  hidden 
beneath  the  surface.  They  might,  say  Smith's  partisans,  have  all  been 
canonized  as  saints  had  they  been  as  free  from  all  other  sins  as  from 
the  sins  of  gluttony  and  drunkenness  ;  for  a  half  pint  of  boiled  wheat 
and  another  of  barley,  infested  with  worms,  was  each  man's  daily 
allowance.1  The  president,  it  is  said,  exempted  only  himself  from  this 
Accusations  penurious  and  fatal  diet,  keeping  for  his  own  use  all  the  good 
winpfieid.  things  in  store,  and  denying  them  even  to  the  sick.  On  the 
His  defence.  other  hand  Wingfield  says  in  his  defence  :  "  As  I  understand 
by  a  report  I  am  much  charged  with  staruing  the  colony.  I  did 

alwaies  giue  every  man  his  allowance  faithfully It  is 

further  said  I  did  much  banquet  and  ryot.  I  never  had  but  one  squir- 
ell  roasted,  whereof  I  gave  part  to  Mr.  Ratcliff,  then  sick,  yet  was  that 
squirell  given  me.  I  did  never  heate  a  flesh  pott  but  when  the  com- 
mon pot  was  so  likewise."  When  the  store  of  oil,  vinegar,  sack,  and 
aquavitee  was  all  spent,  saving  two  gallons  of  each,  he  ordered  the 
vessels  containing  them  to  be  "  boonged  vpp,"  reserving  the  sack  for 
the  communion  table,  the  other  articles  for  emergencies  of  extreme 
sickness.  Gosnold,  whom  he  consulted,  approved  of  this  pious  and 
prudent  action  ;  but  when  he  was  dead  and  the  president  told  the  rest 
of  the  council  of  this  little  reserve  of  precious  stores,  he  exclaims : 
"  Lord,  how  they  then  longed  for  to  supp  up  that  little  remnant !  for 
they  had  nowe  emptied  all  their  own  bottles  and  all  other  that  they 
could  smell  out."  And  this  small  reserve,  when  they  afterward  came 
into  possession  of  it,  they  "  poored  into  their  own  bellyes."  Again  and 
again,  the  council  demanded  of  him,  he  declares,  larger  allowances  for 
themselves  and  their  favorites  who  were  sick.  The  president,  protest- 
ing he  would  not  be  partial,  refused  unless  his  associates  would  take  the 
responsibility  by  official  action  ;  for  had  he  at  that  time  enlarged  the 
proportions  of  food  allowed  to  each  man  it  would  have  been,  he  de- 
clares, to  have  starved  the  whole  colony,  and  he  would  not  join 
with  them,  therefore,  in  such  ignorant  murder  without  their  own 
warrant. 

Early  in  September,  Wingfield  says  the  three  other  members  of  the 

1  "  Our  food  was  but  a  small  can  of  barley  sod  in  water,  to  five  men  a  day  ;  our  drinke, 
cold  water  taken  out  of  the  river,  which  was  at  flood  very  salt,  at  a  low  tide  full  of  slime 
and  filth  ;  which  was  the  destruction  of  many  of  our  men."  Percy  in  Purchas 


1607.] 


DISCONTENT  AND   SUFFERING. 


277 


council,  Ratcliffe,  Smith,  and  Martin,  waited  upon  him  and  by  war- 
rant  deposed  him  from  both  the  council  and  the  presidency.   H-ingfieia 
He  declined  at  first  to  be  thus  summarily  dealt  with  ;  more  deP°W!d- 
than  once  he  reminded  them  he  had  offered  his  resignation,  which  the 
council  had  refused  to  accept,  and  now  they  could  not  legally  remove 
him,  as,  according  to  the  charter,  that  must  be  done  by  a  majority  of  a 
full  council  of  thirteen.     But  finally,  he  gave  up  the  contest,  saying, 
"  I  ame  at  your  pleasure  ;  dispose  of  me  as  you  will,  without   further 
gavboiles." 

The  next  day  he  was  called  before  the  council,  and  the  change  in 
the  government 
was  made  known 
and  discussed  at  a 
public  meeting  of 
the  colonists.  The 
three  councillors 
gave  the  reasons 
for  their  action, 
and  with  two  of 
them  hunger  evi- 
dently was  at  the 
bottom  of  their 
discontent.  Rat- 
cliffe, the  new 
president,  com- 
plained that  he 
had  been  denied 
"  a  penny  whitle, 
(a  small  pocket- 
knife  probably 
wanted  for  trade 
with  the  Indians), 
a  chickyn,  a  spoon- 
ful of  beere,  and 
served  with  foule 
corne ; "  Martin  declared  that  Wingfield  had  neglected  his  duties 
to  the  colony,  "did  nothing  but  tend  his  pott,  spitt  and  oven;" 
and  had,  moreover,  starved  his  son  and  denied  him  "  a  spoonefull  of 
beere."  All  this  would  seem  frivolous  enough  if  we  did  not  remem- 
ber that  these  poor  people  were  in  the  extremity  of  hunger,  against 
which  no  dignity  is  proof.  But  Smith  showed  a  nobler  passion.  He 
repelled  an  accusation  of  lying  ;  he  resented  the  scorn  with  which 
he  had  been  treated  by  Wingfield,  who  said  that  though  they  were 


Deposition  of  Wingfield 


278  FIRST   ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT  IN   AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI 

equals  here,  in  England  Smith  would  not  be  a  fit  companion  for  his  — 
Wingfield's  —  servant.  Archer,  who  was  now  made  recorder,  and  sub- 
sequently a  member  of  the  council,  followed  with  other  charges  in 
writing,  too  slight  to  be  remembered,  though  the  accuser,  says  Wing- 
fieid,  "  glorieth  much  in  his  penn  worke." 

Kendall  was  deposed  from  the  council  earlier  than  Wingfield,  and 
Kendaii shot  seems  to  have  belonged  to  neither  party,  or,  perhaps,  to  each 
for  mutiny,  by  turns.  He  was  confined  for  a  time  with  the  ex-president 
on  board  the  pinnace,  and  was  subsequently  tried  for  mutiny,  and  shot. 
In  arrest  of  judgment  the  poor  man  objected  that  the  new  president's 
name  was  not  Ratcliffe  but  Sicklemore,  and  the  plea  was  allowed  ; 
but  judgment,  nevertheless,  was  pronounced  by  Martin.  Afterward, 
according  to  the  sequence  of  the  narrative  —  though  neither  the  dato 
of  Kendall's  execution  nor  of  this  incident  is  given  —  Wingfield  was 
summoned  to  appear  before  the  council,  which  he  refused  to  do  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  not  legally  deposed,  but  suggested,  instead,  a  con- 
ference in  the  presence  of  ten  of  the  most  trustworthy  gentlemen  of 
the  colony.  This  being  granted,  he  proposed,  inasmuch  '•  as  he  had 
no  joy  "  to  live  longer  under  the  laws  and  government  of  the  present 
rulers  and  "much  misliking  their  triumvirate,"  to  return  to  England 
and  report  to  the  London  Council  the  sad  condition  of  their  charge 
in  Virginia ;  not  that  he  was  anxious  to  leave  the  colony,  for  he  was 
quite  willing  to  remain  if  either  Ratcliffe  or  Archer  would  undertake 
this  errand  ;  but  if  it  were  thought  better  that  the  enterprise  should 
be  altogether  abandoned  he  would  give  a  hundred  pounds  toward  de- 
fraying the  expenses  of  taking  the  whole  company  home.  These 
propositions  were  all  rejected  ;  even  the  making  them  was  considered 
a  defiance  of  the  council,  and  the  fort  opened  fire  upon  the  pinnace 
apparently  to  prevent  Wingfield's  departure.  If  he  really  intended 
to  abandon  his  companions  without  regard  to  their  wishes,  this  hostile 
measure  answered  its  purpose. 

Meanwhile  the  distress  of  the  colonists  would  have  been  more  dis- 
services  of  astrous  than  it  was  but  for  the  kindness  of  the  Indians,  who, 
t(?theScol-h  when  Affairs  were  at  the  worst,  brought  them  maize  and 
other  provisions.  The  energy  of  Smith  was  at  the  same 
time  of  the  greatest  service.  Taking  a  few  men  with  him  in  a  boat 
he  traded  up  and  down  the  rivers  gathering  supplies.  When  the 
savages  were  insolent  and  refused  to  trade,  he  brought  them  to  terms 
by  force  of  arms.  But  returning  from  one  of  these  excursions  he  found 
—  according  to  the  •'  General  History  "  — that  Wingfield  and  Kendall, 
then  living  in  disgrace  on  board  the  pinnace,  seeing  all  things  at  ran- 
dom in  the  absence  of  Smith,  were  attempting  to  regain  their  lost 
authority,  or  to  take  the  pinnace  and  sail  for  England.  This  plot  was 


1607.]  DISSATISFACTION   IN   THE   COLONY.  279 

discovered  to  Smith  on  his  unexpected  return,  "  and  much  trouble  he 
had,"  continues  the  account,  "  to  prevent  it,  till  with  store  of  sakre 
and  musket  shot  he  forced  them  stay  or  sinke  in  the  river,  which  action 
cost  the  life  of  Captaine  Kendall."  Wingfield's  proposition,  that  either 
he,  or  Ratcliffe,  or  Archer  should  go  to  England,  was  construed  into  a 
mutiny,  as  we  know  from  Wingfield's  own  representation,  and  both 
these  relations  undoubtedly  refer  to  the  same  incident ;  but  that  Ken- 
dall's death  was  the  result  in  any  sense  of  that  attack  upon  the  pin- 
nace cannot  be  true  if  Wingfield's  statement  be  correct  that  he  was 
previously  tried  and  executed. 

It  is  difficult  to  reconcile  such  discrepancies  in  any  other  way  than 
to  suppose  a  determination  on  the  part  of  the  writer  in  Smith's  "  His- 
tory "  to  justify  Smith  and  to  magnify  his  services.  That  Wingfield 
and  Kendall  took  advantage  of  his  absence  to  carry  out  their  treason- 
able purposes,  and  that  it  was  only  his  opportune  return,  and  his 
prompt  and  energetic  action,  ending  in  the  death  of  one  of  the  ring- 
leaders in  the  mutiny,  that  averted  a  serious  disaster,  is  a  heroic  view 
of  affairs  with  Smith  as  the  principal  figure,  greatly  redounding  to 
his  credit.  But  in  conflict  with  it  is  Wingfield's  essentially  probable 
and  apparently  truthful  narrative  of  the  struggle  between  him  and 
the  council,  and  between  the  council  and  others;  of  the  criminations 
and  recriminations,  of  the  orders  and  disobedience,  the  conferences,  the 
resistance  and  violent  remedies  which  followed  in  turn,  and  in  all  of 
which  many  of  the  colonists,  as  was  natural,  were  warmly  enlisted. 
It  is  a  representation  of  events  differing  from  the  history  of  the  period 
hitherto  accepted,  and  in  it  Smith's  part  seems  neither  so  important 
nor  so  praiseworthy  as  it  has  usually  been  made  to  appear. 

Whatever  was  the  weakness  of  Wingfield's  administration,  Smith 
and  his  friends  were  as  little  satisfied  with  that  of  Ratcliffe 
and  Martin.  It  was  because  "  of  the  companies  dislike  of 
their  president's  weaknes,  and  their  small  love  to  Martin's 
never  mending  sicklies,"  that  Smith  found  ••  all  things  at  randome  " 
on  the  occasion  just  referred  to.  According  to  the  same  authority, 
soon  after  bringing  Wingfield  to  obedience  and  Kendall  to  punish- 
ment, he  was  called  upon  to  deal  with  other  offenders.  Ratcliffe  and 
Archer  next  proposed  to  abandon  the  colony  to  its  fate,  "  which  proj- 
ect also  was  curbed  and  suppressed  by  Smith."  As  the  winter  ap- 
proached, however,  tranquillity  was  restored,  when,  as  the  harvests  were 
gathered,  game  became  plentiful,  and  there  was  enough  to  eat ;  then 
no  more  of  the  "Tuftaffaty  humorists  desired  to  goe  for  England."1 

Smith   had   now  leisure  for  further  exploration    into  the  interior. 
Wingfield  says  that  he  started  on  the  10th  of  December  to  go  up  the 

1   Smith's  General  History. 


Dissatisfac- 
tion with 
the  i 
tratioti. 


28(1 


FIRST  ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT  IN  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 


Chickahominy  to  trade  for  corn,  and  to  find  the  head  of  that  river. 
On  its  upper  waters  two  of  his  men,  who  were  left  with  a  canoe,  were 
slain  by  the  Indians,  Pamunkey's  men,  and  Smith  himself,  who  was 
on  shore  at  some  distance,  was  taken  prisoner,  his  life  being  saved 
"  by  the  means  of  his  guide,"  who  was  an  Indian.  He  was  taken  to 
several  of  the  neighboring  chiefs  to  see  if  he  could  be  recognized  as 
one  of  a  party  who,  two  or  three  years  before,  had  kidnapped  some 
Indians ; l  he  was  taken  at  last  to  the  great  Powhatan,  who  sent  him 
back  to  Jamestown  on  the  8th  of  January.  He  had  been  absent  just 
four  weeks. 

Smith's  life  was  saved,  says  Wingfield,  by  means  of  his  guide.  The 
smith  i»  taken  st°rv  as  usually  told  is  that  Smith  tied  the  Indian  to  himself 
prisoner.  \vith  his  garters,  and  held  him  as  a  shield  against  the  arrows 
of  his  assailants.  Making  his  way  toward  the  boat,  which  he  had  left 
in  charge  of  two  of  his  men,  he  and  the  guide  slipped  together  into 


ntlfth  ajiilunae  tohis  armt 
'Fninauiifce c  «nrf 


From  Smith's  "  General  History."     [Fac-simile.] 

. 

an  "  oasie  creek,"  from  which  it  was  impossible  to  extricate  them- 
selves. Half  dead  with  cold,  he  at  length  threw  away  his  arms  and 
surrendered,  and  was  taken  before  Opechankanough,  King  of  Pa- 
munkey.  He  sought  to  propitiate  the  chief  by  presenting  him  with 
"  a  round  Ivory  double  compass  Dyall."  The  savages  marvelled  much 
at  the  playing  of  the  needle  which  they  could  see,  but,  for  the  glass 
over  it,  could  not  touch.  With  this  "globe  like  jewel,"  Smith  ex- 
plained to  the  king  and  his  people  the  movements  of  the  sun,  moon, 

1  There  is  no  record  of  any  voyage  to  Virginia  within  two  or  three  years  previous  to  the 
settlement  of  Jamestown  when  any  Indians  were  kidnapped,  and  if  this  refers  to  those 
taken  bv  Weymouth  and  carried  to  England  in  1605,  it  shows  a  more  intimate  relation  be- 
tween tiie  tribes  of  New  England  and  those  of  Virginia  than  has  been  supposed  to  exist. 


1607.]  SMITH  TAKEN   PRISONER  BY   THE   INDIANS.  281 

and  stars,  the  shape  of  the  earth,  the  extent  of  land  and  sea,  the  dif- 
ference in  the  races  of  men,  and  "many  other  suchlike  matters,''  at 
which,  it  was  hardly  necessary  to  add,  the  savages  "  all  stood  as 
amazed  with  admiration."  They  nevertheless  tied  the  lecturer  to  a 
tree,  and  were  about  to  shoot  him  to  death  with  arrows,  when  Ope- 
chankanough,  who  seemed  to  have  a  better  appreciation  than  his  fol- 
lowers had  of  the  sciences  of  astronomy  and  cosmography,  holding  up 
the  wonderful  compass,  stayed  the  execution.  They  then  released 
the  prisoner,  fed  him,  and  used  him  well. 

So  well,  indeed,  did  they  feed  him,  that  he  thought  they  meant  to 
fatten  him  for  a  feast  ;  and  they  received  him  otherwise  with  so  much 
honor,  that  they  dressed  themselves  in  their  brightest  paints,  the  plum- 
age of  the  most  brilliant  birds,  the  choicest  rattle-snake  tails,  and 
"  such  toys,"  —  adding,  perhaps,  as  Strachey  says  the  Indians  some- 
times did,  "a  dead  ratt  tyed  by  the  tail,  and  such  like  conundrums," 
—  and  so  attired  danced  before  him  and  the  king,  "singing  and  yell- 
ing out  with  hellish  notes  and  screeches."  They  promised  him,  more- 
over, life  and  liberty,  land  and  women,  if  he  would  aid  them  by  his 
advice  in  an  attack  upon  Jamestown  ;  but  from  this  he  dissuaded  them 
by  representations  of  the  mines,  great  guns,  and  other  engines  with 
which  such  an  attack  would  be  repulsed.  When  he  persuaded  them 
to  send  a  letter  to  the  fort,  and  the  messenger's  brought,  as  he  prom- 
ised they  should,  such  things  as  he  asked  for,  the  savages  were  amazed 
anew,  that  either  the  paper  itself  spoke  to  those  who  received  it,  or 
that  Smith  had  the  power  of  divination. 

This  clothed  and  bearded  white  man  was  a  strange  spectacle  to  the 
Indians,  and  men,  women,  and  children  crowded  to  see  him,  as  he  was 
led  from  tribe  to  tribe.  At  length  he  was  taken  before  the 
great  king  of  all,  Powhatan,  at  a  place  called  Werowoco- 


moco,  which  signifies  king's  house,  on  the  north  side  of  the 
York  River,  and  only  fourteen  or  fifteen  miles  from  Jamestown. 
When  Smith  was  led  into  his  presence,  the  emperor  received  him  in 
state,  seated  on  a  throne  which  was  much  like  a  bedstead,  clothed  in  a 
robe  of  raccoon  skins.  On  each  side  of  him  sat  a  young  girl  of  six- 
teen or  eighteen  years,  and  beyond  them  a  double  row  of  men  and 
women,  their  heads  and  shoulders  painted  red  and  adorned  with 
feathers.  A  queen  served  the  prisoner  with  water  to  wash  his  hands, 
and  a  bunch  of  feathers  on  which  to  dry  them  ;  a  feast  was  spread 
before  him  as  if  he  were  an  honored  friend  and  welcome  guest,  for 
such  was  the  Indian  treatment  of  those  who  presently  were  to  be  led 
out  to  die. 

This  ceremonious  and  hospitable  reception  was  followed  by  a  brief 
consultation  between  the  king  and  his  chief  men.     T\vo  great  stones 


282 


FIRST  ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT  IN  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XI. 


were  then  brought  in,  to  which  Smith  was  dragged,  and  his  head  laid 
upon  them.  The  executioners  stood  ready  to  beat  out  his 

to  MM  to  brains  with  their  clubs,  but  at  this  critical  moment,  "  Poca- 
hontas,  the  King's  dearest  daughter,  when  no  in  treaty  could 

prevaile,  got  his  head  in  her  arms,  and  laid  her  owne  vpon  his  to  saue 


fjffiy  Fo whatan.  coniaiiJt  C:Smith  t  o 

hisUJ(  his  1  hail  kfu  llnr/S 
w  Jir  Subiecltf/  Zf)  aftJitir  kinfS  readf.ji  nifkny 


From  Smith's  "General  History  "     [Fac-simile.] 

him   from  death :    whereat  the  E nip-arum-   \vas  contented  he  should 
line  to  make  him  hatchets,  and  her  bells,  beads,  and  copper." 

The  authority  for  this  romantic  story  is  Smith's  "  General  History.'' 

With  other  things,  it  has  come  to  be  considered  an  estab- 

cies  in  the      lished  historical  fact  because  that  work  was  long  accepted 

twoaccounts  i         i  •      •         i        j?    11 

of  his  cap-  as  the  best,  as  it  is  the  tullest,  of  the  contemporary  narra- 
tives of  the  adventures  of  the  Jamestown  colonists  for  the 
first  two  years.     Obscurer  authors  were  either  not  consulted  or  were 
unknown  by  those  who  gave  currency  to  these  relations.     But  Wing- 


1608.]  INCONSISTENCIES  IN   SMITH'S   STORY.  283 

field,  who  records  with  such  accuracy  all  the  essential  facts  of  Smith's 
capture,  and  his  return  to  the  fort  by  Powhatan,  says  nothing  of  Poca- 
liontas;  Strachey,  to  whom  this  young  girl  was  evidently  an  object  of 
interest,  and  who  speaks  in  terms  of  praise  of  Smith's  services  and 
hazai'ds  on  behalf  of  the  colony,  and  of  his  great  experience  among 
the  Indians,  makes  no  allusion  to  this  romance  in  the  life  of  both  ; 
Hamor,  who  was  also  at  one  time  secretary  of  the  colony,  and  whose 
tract1  is  largely  a  biography  of  Pocahontas  and  of  her  interesting 
relations  to  the  English,  is  silent  on  this  first  important  service  ren- 
dered by  her  to  one  of  the  principal  men  of  the  colony. 

And  even  Smith  differs  with  himself  in  different  publications,  as  to 
the  treatment  he  met  with  from  Powhatan.  In  his  first  book,  the 
"  True  Relation,"  published  in  1608,  he  says  that  the  emperor  "  kindly 
received  me  with  good  words,  and  great  platters  of  sundry  victuals ; 
assuring  me  of  his  friendship,  and  my  liberty  in  four  days."  After 
much  kindly  conversation  between  them,  Powhatan  "  thus  having, 
with  all  the  kindness  he  could  devise,  sought  to  content  me,  he  sent 
me  home  with  four  men  —  one  that  usually  carried  my  gown  InconKigt. 
and  knapsack  after  me,  two  others  loaded  with  bread,  and  filth's11 
one  to  accompany  me."  Such  treatment  is  altogether  incon-  stor>' 
sistent  with  a  design  upon  his  life,  nor  is  there  any  hint  of  such  an  in- 
tention in  the  savage  chief,  or  of  the  interference  of  his  little  daughter 
to  avert  it.  It  is  only  in  the  "  General  History,"  first  published  in 
1624,  that  the  narrative  of  Smith's  captivity  asserts  that  the  prisoner 
was  sentenced  to  death  by  Powhatan,  and  his  life  saved  by  Pocahon- 
tas.2 Then  we  are  told  that  he  was  sent  back  in  a  few  days  to  James- 
town, not  with  four  friendly  guides  only,  who  carried  his  clothing  or 
were  laden  with  provisions,  but  with  twelve  savages,  with  whom  he 
did  not  feel  that  his  life  was  safe  till  within  the  palisades  and  under 
the  protecting  guns  of  the  fort.  Meanwhile  between  the  publication  of 
the  "  True  Relation  "  of  1608,  and  that  of  the  "  General  History  "  of 
1624,  the  princess  had  become  famous  as  the  "  Lady  Rebecca ; "  by  her 
services  to  the  colony  ;  by  her  marriage  with  an  Englishman,  Rolfe  ; 
by  her  visit  to  England,  presentation  at  court,  and  her  baptism  into 
the  Christian  Church  ;  and  by  her  death  on  the  eve  of  her  return  to 
her  own  country. 

This  Powhatan,  who  was  called  an  emperor  by  the  earlier  writers, 
was  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  Indian  chiefs  of  Virginia,  The  great 
and  became  an  important  person  in  the  history  of  the  colony,   hatan.  ° 
Smith  was  the  first  to  meet  with  him ;  the  Pawatah  who  had  enter- 

1  A  Trite  Discourse  nf  the  Present  Estate  of  \~ryinia  until  IStlt  nf.Tunc,  1614.     By  Ralph 
Hamor,  Jr. 

2  See  comments  on  this  subject  by  Charles  Deane  in  his  edition  of  Smith's  True  Relation. 


284 


FIRST   ENGLISH    SETTLEMENT   IN   AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 


tained  Newport  and  his  companions,  some  months  before,  at  the 
falls  of  James  River,  being  another  and  less  powerful  chief,  perhaps 
a  son  of  Powhatan.  For  Powhatan  was  a  native  of  the  country  just 
above  the  falls  of  the  James,  and  it  was  from  it  that  he  took  his  name. 
Among  his  own  people  he  was  known  as  Ottaniack,  or  as  Mamanato- 
wick,  the  latter  meaning  great  king  ;  but  his  true  name,  and  that 
by  which  he  was  saluted  by  his  subjects,  was  Wahunsenacawh.1  He 
is  described  as  a  goodly  old  man,  "  well  beaten  with  many  cold  and 
stormye  winters,"  being  somewhere  about  eighty  years  of  age.  He 
was  tall  in  stature,  stalwart  and  well  shaped  of  limb,  sad  of  coun- 
tenance though  his  face  was  round  and  fat,  and  his  thin  gray  hairs 
hung  down  npon  his  broad  shoulders.  As  in  his  younger  years  he 
had  been  strong  and  able,  so  also  had  he  been  a  cruel  savage,  "dar- 
ing, vigilante,  ambitious,  subtile  to  enlarge  his  dominions,"  striking 
terror  and  awe  into  neighboring  chiefs.  Though  in  his  old  age  he 

delighted  in  security  and 
pleasure,  and  lived  in  peace 
with  all  about  him,  he  was 
from  the  first  watchful  and 
jealous  of  these  white-faced 
strangers  who  were  pene- 
trating his  rivers,  devour- 
ing his  corn,  and  building 
houses  within  his  dominions. 
With  that  Indian  subtlety 
of  which  he  was  peculiarly 
a  master,  he  sought  their 
friendship,  when  that  would 
best  serve  his  purpose,  but 
never  letting  an  opportunity 
pass  to  cut  them  off  when  it 
could  be  done  with  little  or 
no  loss  to  himself  and  his 
people.2 

He  had,  it  was  said,  many 
more  than  a  hundred  wives, 
of  whom  about  a  dozen,  all 
young  women,  were  special 
favorites.  When  in  bed 
one  sat  at  his  head,  and  another  at  his  feet ;  when  at  meat  one  was 
at  his  right  hand,  another  at  his  left.  Of  his  living  children,  when 
he  first  became  known  to  the  English,  twenty  were  sons  and  twelve 

1  Strachey's  Historie  of  Travails  into  Virginia,  p.  48.  2  Strachey,  pp.  49,  54. 


POWHATAN 

jtfelit  thisjtatf  &LJfy7uon  -tvfit/i  Copt  Smith 
s-was  tbtiuavd^io  Ai'mjiri/onfr 
iffoy 

From  Smith's  "General  History."     [Fac-»imile.] 


1608.]  SMITH'S   RETURN   FROM   CAPTIVITY.  285 

were  daughters,  and  among  these  last  was  one  "  whome  he  loved 
well,  Pochahuntas,  which  may  signifie  little  wanton  ;  howbeyt  she 
was  rightly  called  Amonate  at  more  ripe  yeares,"  in  accordance 
with  an  Indian  custom  in  the  naming  of  their  children.  She 
was  well  known  at  Jamestown  at  an  early  period.  The  In- 
dian girls  wore  no  clothing  till  the  age  of  eleven  or  twelve  years,  nor 
were  "  they  much  ashamed  thereof,  and  therefor,"  continues  Strachey, 
"would  Pochahuntas,  a  well-featured  but  wanton  young  girle,  Pow- 
hatan's  daughter,  sometymes  resorting  to  our  fort,  of  the  age  then  of 
eleven  or  twelve  yeares,  get  the  boys  forth  with  her  into  the  markett 
place,  and  make  them  wheele,  falling  on  their  hands,  turning  up  their 
heeles  upwards,  whome  she  would  followe  and  wheele  so  herself,  naked 
as  she  was,  all  the  fort  over."  As  Strachey  did  not  go  to  Virginia 
till  1610,  and  if  he  saw  this  young  princess  in  that  year,  then  eleven 
or  twelve  years  of  age,  "  turning  cart-wheels "  among  the  boys  of 
Jamestown,  she  could  have  been  only  eight  or  nine  years  old  at  the 
time  Smith  was  taken  prisoner  by  her  father.  Elsewhere  speaking 
of  her  as  "  using  sometyme  to  •our  fort  in  t}7mes  past,"  he  adds, 
"  nowe  married  to  a  private  captaine,  called  Kocoum,  some  two  yeares 


since."  l 


Again,  we  hear  that  Smith,  on  his  return,  found  the  colony  "  all 
in  combustion  ;  "  that  some  of  the  leaders  were,  as  usual,  engaged  in 
that  inexplicable  preparation  to  run  away  with  the  pinnace,  which 
never  came  to  anything  ;  and  once  more  that  Smith,  for  the  third 
time,  and,  at  "the  hazard  of  his  life,  with  sakre,  falcon  and  musket 
shot,  forced  them  to  stay  or  sink." 

It  is  remarkable  with  what  ingratitude  these  repeated  services,  if 
they  were  rendered,  were  received  by  a  people  among  whom   there 
seems  to  have  been  little  law  but  the  law  of  the  strongest ;  for  on  this 
very  day  of  Smith's  return,  and  while  he  was  compelling  obedience  on 
board  the  pinnace  with  the  guns  of  the  fort,  the  council,  through  the 
influence   of  Archer,  were  trying  him  by  the   Levitical  law,  for  the 
death  of  the  two  men  who  were  killed,  while  under  his  command,  by 
the  savages.     He  was  adjudged  guilt}7,  and  to  be  put  to  death  the 
next  day  ;   "  but,"  says  the  "  General  History,"  "  he  quickly  tooke 
such  order  with  such  Lawyers,  that  he  layd  them  by  the  heeles  till 
he  sent  some  of  them  prisoners  to  England."     Wingfield  agrees  that 
Smith  was  tried  on  the  day  of  his  return,  and  condemned  to  opportune 
be  hanged  either  that  or  the  next  day,  but  that  his  life  was  ^puln01 
saved  by  the  opportune  arrival  of  Newport.     Of  an   attack  XewP°rt- 
on  the  pinnace  at  the  same  time  by  Smith,  he  says  nothing.     In  the 

1  Major,  the  editor  of  Strachey's  Historic  of  Travaile  into  Virginia,  supposes  it  must  have 
been  written  between  1612  and  1616. 


286  FIRST  ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT  IN   AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 

"  True  Relation,"  Smith  says  that  he  was  welcomed  back  with  truest 
signs  of  joy,  by  all  except  Archer  and  two  or  three  others,  and  that 
these  laid  "great  blame  and  imputation"  upon  him  for  the  loss  of  the 
two  men,  slain  by  the  Indians.  "  In  the  midst  of  my  miseries,"  he 
adds,  "  it  pleased  God  to  send  Captaine  Nuport  the  same  night, 
.  .  .  .  and  for  a  while  those  plots  against  me  were  deferred." 
There  is  no  boastful  assertion  of  laying  his  enemies  by  the  heels, 
nor  of  his  bringing  mutineers  to  order  on  board  the  pinnace.  The 
narrative  simply  and  naturally  recognizes  his  own  troubles,  and  is 
thankful  for  the  arrival  of  one  more  powerful  than  any  of  the  fac- 
tious leaders,  to  bring  security  and  peace. 

On  every  account,  Newport's  arrival  was  opportune.  In  less  than 
nine  months  the  colony  had  become  reduced  to  about  forty  persons, 
and  his  ship  brought  to  a  starving  and  despairing  people  an  addition 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  men,  besides  a  stock  of  provisions,  of  im- 
plements of  husbandry,  and  of  seeds.  About  the  time  of  his  arrival 
a  fire  which  nearly  destroyed  the  fort,  consumed  the  entire  stock  of 
stores  procured  from  the  Indians,  reducing  the  colonists  to  complete 
dependence  upon  the  supplies  brought  by  Newport.  Unfortunately, 
however,  Newport  and  his  crew  remained  for  fourteen  weeks  at  James- 
town, and  helped  in  the  consumption  of  these  provisions.  Near  the 
fort  a  deposit  of  yellow  mica  was  found,  which  was  mistaken  for  gold. 
The  colonists  were  quite  ready  to  take  the  risk  of  starvation,  that  the 
ship  might  be  laden  with  this  useless  dirt.  That  it  was  useless,  some 
of  the  more  judicious,  and  Smith  among  them,  were  convinced,  for 
there  could  be  no  hope  of  productive  industry  till  this  dream  of  sud- 
den wealth  was  dispelled.  Happily  it  did  not  last  long,  for  in  the 
spring  when  the  second  vessel,  which  had  sailed  with  Captain  New- 
port from  England  but  had  been  detained  in  the  West  Indies  by  bad 
weather,  arrived,  she  was  sent  home  with  a  cargo  of  cedar.  Wingfield 
and  Archer  returned  home  in  one  of  these  vessels,  and  Martin  in  the 
other,  leaving  Smith  the  principal  person  of  the  colony,  and  without 
rivals. 

Newport  spent  a  portion  of  the  time  of  his  stay  in  a  visit  to  Pow- 
hatan,  whose  friendship  he  evidently  deemed  of  great  im- 
vi!itptor  '  portance  to  the  colony.  The  emperor  received  him  with 
great  courtesy,  seated,  as  when  Smith  was  led  into  his  pres- 
ence not  long  before  as  a  prisoner,  upon  his  bedstead  throne,  and 
surrounded  by  his  warriors  and  women.  He  had  received  from  Smith 
—  who  had  entertained  him  on  that  occasion  with  a  number  of  re- 
markable stories,  all  lies,  as  to  the  motives  which  had  led  the  English 
to  that  country  —  an  exalted  notion  of  the  power  of  Newport.  No 
doubt  to  prove  that  he  was  as  generous  as  he  was  great,  Newport  per- 


1608.]  SURVEY   OF   CHESAPEAKE  BAY.  287 

mitted  Powhatan  to  name  his  own  price  in  corn  for  the  copper  kettles 
and  trinkets  which  he  offered  in  exchange.  The  result  was,  that  the 
confiding  Englishman  got  much  the  worst  of  the  bargain.  But  Smith, 
who  much  better  understood  the  nature  of  the  wily  but  simple  savage, 
presently  restored  the  balance  of  trade  by  displaying  in  the  eyes  of 
the  king  some  blue  beads,  on  which  a  high  price  was  put,  as  precious 
ornaments  worn  only  by  royal  personages.  Corn  fell  to  a  few  beads 
the  bushel,  and  the  visit  was  made  on  the  whole  a  profitable  one  in 
provisions,  and  in  the  establishment,  for  the  present,  of  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  powerful  chief. 

Smith  passed  the  summer  of  1608  in  two  expeditions  upon  the 
waters  of  Virginia,  making  an  extended  survey  of  Chesa-  smith  makes 
peake  Bay  and  its  tributary  rivers,  of  which  he  drew  a  map  * 
of  remarkable  correctness.  In  the  Potomac  he  was  beset  by  B;IJ- 
a  band  of  Indians,  who,  if  their  story  could  be  believed,  were  instigated 
through  Powhatan,  by  some  persons  in  Jamestown,  to  cut  off  Smith 
and  his  party.  A  more  dangerous  mishap  befell  him  in  the  same 
river,  where  he  was  stung  by  a  fish  he  calls  a  stingray ;  he  was  thought 
to  be  so  near  death  that  a  grave  was  dug  for  his  burial  on  an  island 
near  by  ;  but  he  recovered  in  time  to  eat  of  the  fish  that  struck  him. 
On  the  second  expedition  the  party  ventured  as  far  as  Sassafras  River, 
not  far  below  the  mouth  of  the  Susquehanna,  where  the  Indians  are 
said  to  have  known  little  of  Powliatan,  except  by  name,  but  who  held 
intercourse  with  the  French  of  Canada  at  a  much  greater  distance. 
These  were  remarkable  voyages  to  be  made  in  open  boats,  into  an  un- 
known country,  constantly  exposed  to  the  inclemencies  of  weather,  the 
possibility  of  an  entire  failure  of  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  the 
attacks  of  hostile  savages.  But  it  is  characteristic  of  the  exaggera- 
tion which  distinguishes  the  Smith  narratives  that  he  is  said  to  have 
sailed  a  distance  of  about  three  thousand  miles  while  absent  from 
Jamestown  only  three  months. 

On  the  return  from  the  last  expedition  early  in  September,  Cap- 
tain Smith  was  made  president  of  the  colony.     Newport  arrived  soon 
after  with  a  second  reinforcement  of  men  and  supplies,  and 
with  him  came  the  two  first  women  of  the  colony,  Mistress  join  the™o" 
Forrest  and  her  maid  Ann  Burras.     The  latter  did  not  wait 
long  for  a  husband,  for  her  marriage  to  John  Laydon  is  announced  a, 
few  weeks  later. 

Newport  came  with  orders  from  the  London  Council  to  bring  home 
a  lump  of  gold,  to  discover  the  passage  to  the  South  Sea,  and 
to  find  the  survivors  of  the  Roanoke  Colony.      He  brought  of  i>0»- 
with  him  also  some  "  costly  novelties,"  as  a  basin,  a  ewer, 
a  bed  and  some  clothes  for  Powhatan,  with  directions  to  bestow  the 


FIRST  ENGLISH  SETTLEMENT   IN   AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 

ceremony  of  a  coronation  upon  that  naked  monarch.  He  found  neither 
the  lump  of  gold,  the  passage  to  the  Pacific,  nor  any  of  the  survivors 
of  the  Koanoke  massacre  ;  but  he  crowned  the  savage  who  had,  per- 
haps, procured  the  deaths  of  those  unhappy  persons. 

Powhatan,  reminded  of  his  royal  state,  declined  to  go  to  Jamestown 
to  receive  the  presents  when  summoned  thither  by  Smith  as  a  special 
ambassador.  "  I  also  am  a  king,"  he  said ;  and  if  the  King  of  Eng- 
land had  sent  him  gifts,  they  should  be  brought  to  him  ;  he  should  not 
go  to  receive  them.  Newport  went,  and  the  gifts  were  accepted  ;  but 


Coronation  of  Powhatan. 

the  coronation  was  a  more  difficult  matter.  No  persuasions  could  in- 
duce the  chief  to  kneel,  and  it  was  only  by  bearing  heavily  upon  his 
shoulders  that  he  could  be  made  to  stoop  so  low  as  to  admit  of  the 
assumption  that  his  posture  was  the  proper  one  for  the  placing  of  a 
crown  upon  his  head.  The  firing  of  a  pistol  as  a  signal  for  a  volley 
from  the  boats  in  honor  of  the  event  startled  him  into  an  attitude  of 
defence  with  the  suspicion  that  he  was  the  victim  of  some  treachery ; 
but  being  presently  reassured  of  the  entire  sincerity  of  these  proceed- 
ings, he  accepted  them  as  an  acknowledgment  of  his  regal  state,  and 
gave  his  old  moccasins,  the  deer-skin  he  used  for  a  blanket,  and  seven 
or  eight  bushels  of  corn  in  the  ear,  to  the  representatives  of  his  royal 
brother  of  England. 


1608.]  SERVICES   OF   SMITH.  289 

If  Captain  Newport  committed  any  errors  they  were  errors  of  judg- 
ment, or  acts  done  in  obedience  to  orders  from  the  Council  at 
home,  who  held  him  in  deserved  respect  and  confidence.     It  ici*m  on 

\t'\\  in  irf 

was,  perhaps,  because  of  that  estimation  that  the  jealousy  of 
Smith  was  aroused  against  him.  Newport  is  abused  in  the  "  General 
History,"  after  the  second  visit,  with  almost  as  much  vehemence  and 
rancor  as  Wingfield  and  others  were  before  him.  Smith,  no  doubt, 
understood  better  than  any  of  his  companions,  the  character  of  the  In- 
dians ;  to  him  this  coronation  of  Powhatan  was  an  absurdity,  believ- 
ing their  ends  would  be  more  easily  gained  with  the  chief  by  dealing 
with  him  as  a  wily  but  ignorant  savage  rather  than  as  a  powerful  king. 
A  display  of  strength  wisely  used,  he  thought,  was  more  likely  to 
establish  peaceful  relations  with  the  Indians  than  deprecatory  meas- 
ures and  a  show  of  pretended  respect,  which  the  natives  would  only 
construe  into  an  acknowledgment  of  weakness.  But  he  was  not  con- 
tent with  merely  following  his  own  wiser  conclusions,  both  with  regard 
to  the  Indians  and  the  management  of  his  own  people  ;  he  would  see 
neither  good  intentions  nor  good  results  in  the  actions  of  others.  Had 
he  shown  in  his  own  acts  something  more  of  the  spirit  of  conciliation, 
and  had  he  been  less  severe  to  subordinates  and  less  jealous  of  his 
companions,  his  services,  undoubtedly  great,  would  have  done  much 
more  to  promote  the  secure  establishment  and  welfare  of  the  colony. 

The  chief  merit  of  his  administration  was,  that  he  kept  the  colony 
from  starvation.  It  depended  for  food  mainly  upon  the  In-  Merits  0{ 
dians,  for  the  colonists  were  neither  provident  enough,  nor  mTnistra*d 
industrious  enough  to  protect  the  stores  brought  from  Eng-  tion 
land,  from  destruction  by  decay,  or  by  the  rats  which  came  in  the  ships 
and  had  also  founded  a  colony.  In  cunning  and  courage  the  Indians 
were  no  match  for  Smith.  He  could  always  persuade  them  to  sell  or 
constrain  them  to  give  him  provisions,  and  there  was  need  enough  for 
all  that  he  could  gather.  He  attempted  to  compel  the  people  to  steady 
labor,  but,  except  when  Newport's  vessels  were  to  be  loaded  for  the  re- 
turn voyage,  without  much  success.  They  would  all  rather  beg  or  buy 
of  the  Indians,  than  plant,  or  fish,  or  hunt,  and  in  spite  of  the  severe 
laws  of  the  president,  would  abandon  the  tasks  to  which  they  were 
put.  .  Then  a  large  proportion  of  the  colonists  were  considered,  by 
right  of  their  being  "  gentlemen,"  exempt  from  labor.  Two  of  them, 
indeed,  did  go  heartily  to  work  in  felling  trees,  and  were  so  efficient 
that,  it  was  said,  forty  like  them  would  be  worth  a  hundred  common 
laborers.  But  their  example  does  not  seem  to  have  been  followed  by 
others  of  their  class,  who  may  have  been  deterred  partly  by  the  sever- 
ity of  a  regulation  of  the  president's,  that  a  record  should  be  kept  of 
every  oath  uttered  by  men  at  work,  and  for  each  oath  a  can  of  water 

VOL   1.  *1» 


290 


FIRST   ENGLISH  SETTLEMENT  IN   AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 


be  poured  down  the  sleeve  of  the  offender  when  the  day's  work  was 
over. 

Indolence  and  hunger  were  not  the  only  troubles.     Jamestown  was 
in  an  unwholesome  region,  and  deaths  from   the  malaria  of  the  sur- 


f_  C.SmitntaKetnlfit  Eny,</  Famavnlsge  prifontr,  -Iff 08.. 


From  Smith's  "General  History."     [Fac-simile.] 


rounding  swamps  were  frequent.  Among  those  who  died  was  Captain 
Wynne,  a  member  of  the  council.  Scrivener,  another  of  the  coun- 
cil, Captain  Waldo,  the  commander  of  the  fort  in  Smith's  absence, 
Anthony  Gosnold,  a  brother  of  Bartholomew,  with  eight  others,  were 
drowned  by  the  upsetting  of  a  boat.  The  council  was  thus  reduced 


1609.]  THE  NEW    CHARTER.  291 

to  Smith  alone,  and  the  colony,  if  not  altogether  dependent  upon  him, 
was,  at  least,  under  his  sole  direction.  He  was,  if  we  may  believe 
the  narratives  written  in  his  interest,  quite  equal  to  this  enlarged  re- 
sponsibility. The  Indians  were  as  children  in  his  hands,  whether  in 
negotiation  or  conflict.  One  stalwart  chief  he  seized  by  his  long  hair 
in  the  presence  of  his  tribe  drawn  up  in  battle  array,  with  a  pistol  at 
his  breast  compelled  him  to  submission,  and  led  him  trembling  with 
fear  among  his  people  who  threw  down  their  arms  in  dismay.  On 
another  occasion  he  closed  in  fight  with  the  King  of  Paspahey,  a  giant 
in  strength  and  stature,  who  took  him  up,  and  bore  him  to  the  river 
to  drown  him  ;  but  in  the  struggle  in  the  stream,  Smith  —  who  was  a 
small  man  —  at  length  got  such  a  hold  upon  the  throat  of  the  savage 
as  to  nearly  strangle  him,  and  led  him  off  at  last  a  prisoner  to  the  fort. 

His  own  people,  the  president  ruled  with  a  relentless  will,  punishing 
the  idle  and  insubordinate,  threatening  to  hang  the  mutinous,  if  they 
did  not  give  over  their  attempts  to  abandon  the  colony.  Two  or  three 
Dutchmen,  nevertheless,  revolted  from  his  authority,  fled  to  the  In- 
dians, and  entered  into  a  conspiracy  with  Powhatan  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jamestown.  But  Smith  knew  their  plans,  defeated  them, 
and  brought  the  great  chief  himself  into  submission.  In  the  course 
of  these  events  he  was  aided  by  the  little  girl  Pocahontas,  who  some- 
times gave  him  timely  information  of  attempts  to  be  made  upon  his 
life,  and  often  supplied  the  starving  colonists  with  the  needed  sup- 
plies. 

But  the  energy  and  services  of  Smith,  whatever  they  really  were, 
could  only  keep  a  feeble  life  in  the  colony.  With  the  mate-  t  new  chap. 
rial  of  which  it  was  composed,  it  was  not  possible  to  do  more,  v£#nue 
The  cost  had  been  great,  and  the  return  almost  nothing  to  J^f^'y 
the  adventurers  in  England,  and  a  new  charter  with  larger  ieo9 
powers  and  privileges  was  asked  for.  It  was  granted  by  James,  and 
dated  the  23d  of  May,  1609.  The  number  of  corporators  was  very 
large,  and  included  the  most  exalted  among  the  nobility,  the  highest 
among  the  clergy,  the  most  distinguished  among  navigators,  the 
wealthiest  among  the  merchants  in  the  kingdom,  as  well  as  all  of  the 
most  influential  guilds  of  London  in  their  corporate  capacity.  The 
boundaries  of  the  land  it  bestowed  upon  the  company,  were  from  two 
hundred  miles  north  to  the  same  distance  south  of  Cape  Comfort,  in- 
cluding all  the  country  between  those  extreme  points,  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  the  islands  within  a  hundred  miles  of  both 
coasts.  A  council,  to  sit  always  in  London,  was  nominated  in  the- 
charter,  future  vacancies  in  which  were  to  be  filled  by  the  corporators. 
The  appointment  of  officers  and  enactment  of  laws  for  the  colony 
were  to  be  made  by  this  body,  and  "  for  divers  reasons  and  consider*- 


292 


• 


FIRST   ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT   IN  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 


1609. 


Signature  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates. 


tions  "  this  provision  of  the  charter  was  to  take  immediate  effect  on 
the  arrival  in  Virginia  of  a  new  governor.  Smith's  administration 
was  clearly  not  approved  of,  which  cannot  be  wondered  at  when  we 
remember  how  many  of  the  men  whom  he  had  quarrelled  with,  de- 
nounced, and  superseded  had  returned  to  England. 

So  extended  were  the  interests  engaged  in  the  naming  of  the  cor- 
porators under  this  new  charter  that  the  contributions  were  large  to 
carry  on  the  enterprise.  A  fleet  of  nine  ships,  carrying  five 
the  «eet  hundred  people,  was  dispatched  the  latter  part  of  May,  the 
s.  lieutenant-general,  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  the  admiral,  Sir  George 
Somers,  and  the  vice-admiral,  Captain  Newport,  taking  pas- 
sage together  in  one  of  them,  the  Sea  Adventure.  Lord  De  la  Warre 
was  appointed  captain-general,  but  as  he  remained  in  England,  Sir 

Thomas  Gates  was  to  assume  supreme  com- 
mand on  his  arrival  at  Jamestown.  Among 
the  captains  of  the  fleet  were  Ratcliffe, 
Martin,  and  Archer,  whose  return  to  the 
colony  by  order  of  the  new  Council  Smith 
might  well  consider  a  reflection  upon  his  administration,  and  an 
answer  to  the  complaints  and  charges  he  had  sent  home.  Among 
the  vessels  was  the  Virginia,  the  first  American  ship,  built  by  the 
people  who  were  sent  out  under  George  Popham  by  the  Council  of 
the  Second  or  Northern  Colony,  two  years  before,  to  make  a  set- 
tlement at  the  mouth  of  the  Sagadahoc  —  the  Kennebec  River  in 
Maine. 

The  fleet  was  dispersed  by  a  storm  soon  after  sailing.  Seven  of 
them  reached  the  Chesapeake  in  August,  in  a  more  or  less  shattered 
condition  ;  of  the  two  that  were  missing,  one  was  a  pinnace,  which 
had  foundered  at  sea,  the  other  the  admiral's  ship,  the  Sea  Adven- 
ture, on  board  which  were  Gates,  Somers,  Newport,  and  William 
Strachey.  She  also  was  supposed  to  be  lost,  for  nothing  was  heard  of 
her  till  the  next  spring. 

Off  the  Bermuda  group — "the  still  vexed  Bermoothes  "  of  Shake- 
speare —  a  storm  had  assailed  the  Sea  Adventure  and  wrecked  her  on 

one  of  those  islands.  It  was  such  a  storm 
as  Shakespeare  describes  in  the  first  act  of 
"  The  Tempest,"  and  to  Strachey's  account 
of  it,  it  is  thought  the  dramatist  was  in- 
debted for  his  inspiration.1  Storm  after  storm,  with  fury  added  to 
fury,  each  more  outrageous  than  that  which  went  before,  battered  the 

V. 

1  A  True  Reportory  of  the  Wracke,  and  redemption  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates  ;  upon  and  from 
the  Hands  of  the  Bermudas,  etc..  etc.  Written  by  William  Strachey,  Esquire.  Purchas, 
vol.  iv.,  lib.  ix.,  chap.  vi. 


Signature  of  William    Strachey. 


1609.] 


TEMPEST  AND   SHIPWRECK. 


293 


doomed  ship,  and  made  her  miserable  people,  says  Strachey,  "  looke 
one  vpon  the  other  with  troubled  hearts,  and  panting  bosoms :   gtntchey> 
our  clamors  dround  in  the  windes,  and  the  windes  in  thunder."   the°8h"£-°f 
There  was  "  nothing  heard  that  could  give  comfort,  nothing  wreclc 
seene  that  might  incourage  hope.     Such  was  the  tumult  of  the  ele- 
ments that  the  Sea  swelled  above  the  Clouds,  and  gave  battell  vnto 
Heaven.       It    could 
not  be  said  to  raine, 
the  waters  like  whole 
Riuers  did   flood   in 

the    ayre 

Windes  and  Seas 
were  as  mad  as  fury 
and  rage  could  make 
them."  The  ship 
sprung  a  leak,  or 
many  leaks  from 
every  joint  almost, 
"  having  spued  out 
her  Oakum,"  and 
this  fresh  calamity, 
the  news  of  which, 
"imparting  no  lesse 
terrour  than  danger, 
ranne  through  the 
whole  Ship  with 
much  fright  and 
amazement,"  seemed 
"  as  a  wound  giuen 
to  men  that  were  be- 
fore dead . "  Yet  they 
fought  bravely  for 
their  lives,  passen- 
gers as  well  as  seamen.  "  The  common  sort  stripped  naked,  as  men 
in  Gallies,  the  easier  both  to  hold  out,  and  to  shrinke  from  vnder  the 
salt  water,  which  continually  leapt  in  among  them,  kept  their  eyes 
waking,  and  their  thoughts  and  hands  working,  with  tyred  bodies, 
and  wasted  spirits,  three  dayes  and  foure  nights  destitute  of  outward 
comfort,  and  desperate  of  any  deliuerance,  testifying  how  mutually 
willing  they  were,  yet  by  labour  to  keepe  each  other  from  drowning  ; 
albeit  each  one  drowned  while  he  laboured."  The  heavens  looked  so 
black  upon  them  during  all  this  time,  that  not  a  star  was  seen  by 
night,  nor  the  sun  by  day  ;  but  on  the  last  night  of  their  terrible 


Shipwreck  of  the  "  Sea  Adventure." 


294  FIKST  ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT   IN   AMERICA.      [CiiAi-.  XI. 

struggle  with  the  winds  and  waves,  Sir  George  Somers  saw,  and  called 
others  to  see,  "  an  apparation  of  a  little  round  light,  like  a  faint  Starre, 
trembling  and  streaming  along  with  a  sparkling  blaze,  halfe  the 
height  vpon  the  Maine  Mast,  and  shooting  sometimes  from  Shroud  to 
Shroud,  tempting  to  settle  as  it  were  vpon  any  of  the  foure  Shrouds  : 
and  for  three  or  four  houres  together,  or  rather  more,  halfe  the  night 
it  kept  with  vs,  running  sometimes  along  the  Maine  yard  to  the  very 
end,  and  then  returning  .....  but  vpon  a  sodaine,  towards 
the  morning  watch  they  lost  of  it,  and  knew  not  what  way  it  made." 
So  the  boatswain  in  Shakespeare's  "  Tempest  "  heard  the  howlings 
from  within  the  ship,  louder  than  the  weather  ;  so  Miranda 
besought  her  wizard  father  to  allay  the  war  of  the  wild  waters, 


Tempest  ': 

when  the  sea  mounted  to  the  sky  and  dashed  the  fire  out,  as 
she  saw  the  brave  ship  dashed  all  to  pieces  ;  so  Ariel  flamed  amaze- 
ment, burning  in  many  places,  on  the  topmast,  the  yards,  the  bowsprit, 
and  then  in  a  deep  nook  safely  harbored  the  king's  ship,  as,  on  the 
morning  of  the  fifth  day,  the  Sea  Adventure  lay  firmly  fixed  and  quiet, 
between  two  rocks  in  still  waters,  under  the  lea  of  the  island. 

On  these  islands  —  henceforth  known  as  the  Somers  Islands  as  well 
as  the  Bermudas,  from  Sir  George  Somers,  and  corrupted  later  into 
Summer  Islands  —  there  was  abundance  of  food,  especially  of  wild 
hogs,  for  the  support  of  Gates  and  his  one  hundred  and  fifty  com- 
panions, men,  women,  and  children.  There  was  no  hardship  in  a  win- 
ter in  that  lovely  climate,  and  the  people  were  for  the  most  part  con- 
tentedly employed  in  hunting  and  fishing,  and  in  building  two 
pinnaces  in  which  to  continue  their  voyage.  There  were  deaths,  and 
births,  and  even  marriage  among  them  ;  the  wife  of  "  one  John  Rolfe" 
gave  birth  to  a  daughter  which  was  christened  Bermuda,  and  a  boy 
born  to  another  couple  was  called  Bermudas.  Nor  was  crime  wanting 
in  private  murders  and  public  mutinies,  for  which  there  was  due  pun- 
ishment ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  winter  passed  pleasantly,  and  in  May 
they  all  embarked  save  two  deserters  and  a  few  who  were  sent  off 
earlier  in  the  long-boat,  and  who,  it  was  afterward  supposed,  reached 
Chesapeake  Bay,  but  were  murdered  when  they  landed  by  some  of 
Powhatan's  people. 

Meanwhile  affairs  at  Jamestown  were  not  prospering.  In  the  ab- 
sence of  the  captain-general,  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Smith  continued 

president,  for  there  was  no  authority  to  supersede  him.  The 
contrition  of  colony  was,  as  usual,  in  a  distracted  condition,  hungry  and 

dependent  for  food  upon  the  Indians.  Martin  was  sent  to 
make  a  settlement  at  Nansemond  ;  Captain  West  went  to  the  falls  of 
James  River,  and  Ratcliffe  to  Point  Comfort,  for  the  same  purpose. 
West  bought  of  Powhatan,  for  a  small  quantity  of  copper,  the  country 


1610.]  "THE   STARVING  TIME."  29o 

he  proposed  to  occupy  —  the  region  about  Richmond  —  but  the  good- 
will of  the  Indians  was  secured  neither  by  kindness  nor  by  abstaining 
from  bad  treatment.  The  attempts  to  settle  at  these  new  points  were 
unsuccessful ;  half  the  men  were  killed,  and  among  them  Captain 
Ratcliffe.  While  West  was  at  the  falls,  Smith  went  to  his  assistance, 
and  met  with  an  accident  which  put  an  end  to  his  career  in  Virginia. 
By  an  explosion  of  gunpowder  in  his  boat,  he  was  so  burned  and 
maimed  that  it  was  necessary  he  should  go  to  England  for  surgical  aid, 
and  he  sailed  soon  after  with  the  returning  fleet.1 

Percy  succeeded  him  in  the  presidency,  but  he  was  capable  neither 
of  maintaining  harmony  among  the  leading  men,  nor  even  G^^  Per. 
that  degree  of  limited  prosperity  among  the  people,  which 
existed  under  Smith.  The  late  president  had  been  so  far  dencv- 
able  to  compel  the  colonists  to  labor  during  the  past  summer,  that  the 
autumn  brought  them  a  considerable  harvest ;  the  swine  and  other 
animals  had  increased  in  num- 
bers,  and  the  people  generally 
were  in  good  health.  Whatever  /j 

may  have  been  the  severity  of  his  v 

,        .,  -  ,  ,  ,  Signature  of  George  Percy. 

rule,  it  produced  good  results,  and 

was  probably  no  harsher  than  was  necessary  among  men  described  as 
a  "  lewd  company,  wherein  were  many  unruly  gallants  packed  thither 
by  their  friends  to  escape  ill  destinies,"  and  as  "men  of  such  distem- 
pered bodies  and  infected  minds,  whom  no  examples  daily  before  their 
eyes,  either  of  goodnesse  or  punishment  can  deter  from  their  habitual 
impieties,  or  terrify  from  a  shameful  death."  Before  the  return  of 
spring,  improvidence,  idleness,  and  debauchery  had  done  their  work. 
The  store  of  provisions  which  Smith  had  gathered  from  the  harvest 
and  from  the  Indians,  the  domestic  animals,  which  had  been  carefully 
preserved  for  their  natural  increase,  were  all  speedily  consumed ; 
hunger,  despair,  and  death  followed,  and  the  winter  was  recorded  in 
the  annals  of  the  colony,  as  "  the  starving  time."  When  Gates  arrived 
in  May,  of  the  five  hundred  whom  Smith  had  left  at  Jamestown  six 
months  before,  only  sixty  were  alive. 

1  It  is  said  in  the  Relation  of  Virginia,  by  Henry  Spellman,  1609  —  recently  recovered 
and  published  in  London  (1872)  — that  Captain  Smith  sold  Spellmau  to  Powhatau  for  this 
land  on  the  James,  and  required  West  to  settle  upon  it.  But  that  Captain  West,  "having 
bestowed  cost  to  begine  a  touue  in  another  place  misliked  it."  That  thereupon  unkindness 
arose  between  them ;  Captain  Smith  saying  little  at  the  time,  but  afterwards  conspiring 
with  Powhatan  to  kill  Captain  West.  "  Which  plotte,"  adds  Spellmau,  "  tooke  hut  smale 
effect,  for  in  the  meane  time  Capt.  Smith  was  Aprehended  and  sent  abord  for  England." 
This  Spellman  is  well  known  to  have  been  a  captive  for  some  years  among  the  Indians. 

John  Redclyffe  also  wrote,  October  4,  1609,  to  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  that  Smith  was  sent 
home  to  answer  to  some  misdemeanors.  Sainsbury  State  Papers,  quoted  in  Neill's  History 
of  the  Virginia  Company. 


296 


FIRST  ENGLISH  SETTLEMENT  IN  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XL 


When  Gates  landed,  he  entered  the  church  and  ordered  the  bell 
to  be  rung  as  a  summons  to  the  people,  and  as  many  as 
Ga°es,nthe  could  of  the  sixty  miserable  survivors  crawled  out  to  wel- 
generai°r  come  him.  Service  was  first  held  in  "  zealous  and  sorrowful 
prayer,"  and  then  Percy  delivered  up  to  him  the  old  patent, 
his  own  commission,  and  the  seal  of  the  council.  Gates  went  out  to 
look  at  the  seat  of  his  new  government.  It  was  a  scene  of  desolation. 
The  palisades  were  torn  down  ;  tfie  ports  stood  wide  open  ;  the  gates 
were  broken  from  their  hinges  ;  the  empty  houses  of  the  dead  had  been 
dismantled  for  fire-wood,  —  those  who  were  alive  being  too  weak  or 
too  indolent  to  go  to  the  forest  near  by  for  fuel,  or  too  much  afraid  to 
venture  far  from  the  Block  House,  not  knowing  when  or  where  to  look 
for  the  arrows  or  the  tomahawks  of  Indians  lurking  in  the  woods. 

The  governor  was  satisfied  in  the  course  of  a  week,  that  the  one 
wise  thing  to  do  was  to  abandon  Jamestown  with  all  possible  speed, 
and  get  to  some  place  where  they  might  hope  to  be  saved  from  starva- 
tion. From  the  Indians  nothing  could  be  looked  for  but  the  most 
determined  hostility  ;  the  store  of  provisions  brought  from  the  Ber- 
mudas could  be  made  to  last  only  a  few  days  longer,  and  it  was  de- 
termined, therefore,  to  sail  for  Newfoundland,  where  there  would  be 
English  vessels  from  which  assistance  could  be  obtained.  Accord- 
ingly, on  the  7th  of  June,  just  a  fortnight  after  the  arrival  of  Gates, 
the  whole  company  embarked  on  two  vessels  he  found  in  port  and  the 
two  built  in  Bermuda,  the  president  himself  being  the  last  to  go  on 
board,  that  he  might  save  the  fort  and  houses  from  destruction,  as 
some  of  the  more  desperate  had  determined  to  celebrate  their  depar- 
ture by  a  conflagration. 

It  was  fortunate  that  he  took  this  precaution.     As  the  ships  lay  at 
anchor  the  next  day  in  the  lower  part  of  the  river,  waiting 
for  the  ebb  tide,  the  governor's  vessel  was  boarded  by  a 
boat  from  seaward.     It  was  one  sent  in  advance  by  Lord  De 
,  leio.     la  Warre,  who  had  arrived  at  Point  Comfort,  where  he  had 
heard  of  Gates'  decision,  and  hastened  to  send  orders  to  intercept  him. 

The  news  was  received  gladly  by 
Gates  ;  the  tide  which  had  prevented 
the  vessels  getting  out  to  sea  was 
taken  advantage  of  to  return  to 
Jamestown,  and  that  night  the  col- 
onists were  back  again  under  the 
shelter  of  their  old  quarters,  which 

frQm    destruction. 


Lord  De  la 
Warre's  fleet 
arrives  off 
Point  Com- 
fort. 


Signature  of  Lord  Delaware  (Tho    La  Warre). 

Two  days  later  De  la  Warre  also  brought  his  three  ships  to  anchor 
opposite  the  fort  and  went  ashore. 


1610.]  OPPORTUNE   COMING   OF  DE  LA  WARRE.  297 

As  he  landed  he  fell  upon  his  knees  and  engaged  in  silent  prayer. 
A  procession,  dignified  but  ragged,  ceremonies  more  imposing  in  in- 
tention than  in  fact,  awaited  him,  as  he  arose ;  in  prayer  and  in  ser- 
mon, his  coming  was  welcomed  ;  his  commission  as  captain-general  was 
read,  and  with  parchments  and  seal,  Sir  Thomas  Gates  surrendered 
into  his  hands  the  colony  which  he  had  governed  a  fortnight.  Then 
in  a  timely  speech,  De  la  Warre  rebuked  the  idleness  and 
other  shortcomings  of  the  past,  warning  his  hearers  that  he  n&w™  of 
held  the  sword  of  justice  in  his  hands,  which  would  certainly 
be  drawn  if  occasion  called  for  it,  but  encouraging  them  also  with  as- 
surances of  the  good  store  of  provisions  with  which  his  ships  were 
laden. 

There  was  food  enough  on  hand  to  last  for  a  year,  but  De  la  Warre 


Arrival  of  Oe  la  Warre. 

was  mindful  of  the  future. 
He  immediately  dispatched 
Sir  George  Somers  and  Captain  Argall 
to  the  Bermudas,  to  bring  off  some  of 
the  wild  swine  with  which  those  islands  abounded,  to  replace  the  stock 
which  the  colonists  had  eaten  up  the  previous  winter.  Both  these  ves- 
sels were  driven  northward  by  stress  of  weather,  and  Argall  returned 
to  Virginia ;  Somers  reached  the  Bermudas,  but  soon  after  died  there, 
and  his  nephew,  who  succeeded  to  the  command  of  his  vessel,  returned 
to  England.  In  Virginia,  De  la  Warre  was  more  fortunate.  Argall 
was  successfully  employed  in  trading  with  the  natives  for  corn  ;  two 
forts  were  built  near  the  mouth  of  the  James,  and  another  at  the  falls  ; 
the  Indians  were  brought  into  more  peaceful,  if  not  more  friendly 


298  FIRST   ENGLISH    SETTLEMENT  IN  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 

relations,  by  force  of  arms,  however,  rather  than  by  conciliatory  meas- 
ures ;  and  something  like  order  and  industry  was  enforced  among  the 
colonists.  On  the  whole,  the  administration  of  De  la  Warre  was  more 
successful  than  that  of  his  predecessors  ;  but  it  lasted  only  a  year,  when 
failing  health  compelled  him  to  return  to  England,  leaving  Percy 
again  governor. 

Four  years  had  passed  away  since  Newport  first  sailed  up  the  Pow- 
New  im-  hatan  and  landed  the  first  comers,  and  public  enthusiasm  in 
?oionizl°  the  "  action,"  —  as  these  attempts  at  colonization  were  called 
in  the  language  of  the  time,  as  in  ours  we  say  "  an  enter- 
prise,"—  needed  new  impulses.  Zealous  divines  preached  eloquent 
sermons  in  the  pulpits  of  London,  and  the  Council  plied  the  public 
with  pamphlets.  Gold  mines  and  the  South  Sea,  were  still  occasion- 
ally held  out  as  possible  discoveries  ;  but  the  true  value  of  Virginia,  the 
mildness  of  its  climate,  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  the  magnificence  of  its 
rivers,  the  value  of  its  timber  and  other  natural  products,  its  fitness 
generally  for  the  home  of  civilized  men,  were  coming  to  be  better 
understood,  and  the  dream  of  a  repetition  of  Spanish  experience  farther 
south  faded  into  dimness.  The  Council  had  to  contend  with  doubt  and 
indifference,  the  natural  result  of  the  mistakes  and  disasters  of  these 
first  four  years.  The  return  of  De  la  Warre  was  depressing,  —  for 
much  depended  upon  his  success,  —  until  he  could  publicly  explain 
the  details  of  the  sickness  that  made  it  necessary  ;  how  ague  seized 
him  followed  by  dysentery,  to  that  succeeding  cramps,  to  them  the 
gout,  and  to  the  gout  scurvy,  till  one  wonders  that  he  escaped  at  all, 
and  can  better  understand  the  malarial  influences  with  which  these 
first  settlers  contended,  and  which  carried  them  off  so  rapidly. 

But  fortunately  before  his  arrival  two  fresh  expeditions  had  sailed 
for  Virginia,  one  under  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  —  whom  De  la  Warre  had 
sent  home  for  assistance,  —  the  other  under  Sir  Thomas  Dale.  Both 
were  amply  provided  with  men,  with  supplies,  and  with  domestic  ani- 
mals. The  lessons  of  four  years  of  experience  had  not  been  lost,  and 
the  colony  began  at  last  to  achieve  some  degree  of  prosperity. 

Dale  arrived  in  May,  1611.  He  was  wise  as  well  as  energetic,  and 
set  himself  to  cure,  by  something  better  than  threats  and  ex- 
bale  com-  hortations,  the  idleness  of  a  people  whom  he  found  relapsing 
vireinii,n  again  into  want  and  suffering,  while  they  amused  themselves 
with  playing  bowls  in  the  streets  of  Jamestown.  He  gave 
to  each  man  three  acres  of  cleared  ground  to  cultivate  for  his  own  sup- 
port and  took  away  from  him  the  dependence  upon  the  public  store 
for  food.  The  result  justified  his  expectations,  and  three  men  did 
more  work  under  the  new  rule  than  thirty  did  under  the  old.  There 
was  an  incentive  to  labor  in  the  appeal  to  self-interest,  for  he  who 


1611. J 


ADMINISTRATION    OF   GATES    AND    DALE. 


299 


was  idle  was  very  likely  to  starve.  Tracts  of  corn-land,  surrounded 
by  palisades  and  protected  by  a  block-house,  appeared  in  various 
places  ;  a  beginning  was  really  made  in  the  settlement  of  the  country 
under  the  influence  of  steady  industry. 

Gates  followed  Dale  in  August,  and  superseded  him  for  the  time 
being,  in  the  government  of  the  colony,  but  seconded  his  wise  efforts 
to  bring  about  a  reform  in  the  habits  of  the  people.     A  new  New  ^^g. 
settlement  was  made,  and  a  town  called  Henrico  in  honor  of  ments- 
Prince  Henry,  was  built  a  few  miles  below  the  falls  of  the  James, 


The  Idle  Colonists. 


on  the  extreme  end  of  what  is  now  known  as  Farrar's  Island ;  and  a  few 
months  later,  another  town  was  begun  at  the  mouth  of  the  Appomattox, 
and  named  Bermuda  City.  Both  sites  were  elevated  and  healthful ; 
the  clearing  and  inclosing  of  lands  for  plantations,  the  laj'ing  out  of 
streets,  the  building  of  houses,  gave  employment  to  idle  hands.  Hope 
and  energy  were  aroused  in  men  who  would  gradually  become  good 
and  self-sustaining  citizens  in  the  prospect  of  homes  of  their  own,  and 
in  ceasing  to  be  paupers  dependent  for  subsistence  upon  public  stores 
brought  from  England,  and  upon  corn  bought  at  the  public  expense  or 
stolen  from  the  Indians.  The  foundation  of  the  future  state  was  at  last 
firmly  laid  in  the  idea  of  the  welfare  of  each  individual  member  of  the 
community.  Not  that  the  change  was  immediate  ;  it  was  not  easy  to 
alter  a  condition  of  things  which  had  continued  for  several  years,  and 


300  FIRST  ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT  IN  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XL 

the  old  system  of  support  from  the  public  store  was  still  adhered  to 
with  regard  to  new  comers  for  a  certain  period  after  their  arrival.  It 
was,  nevertheless,  the  beginning  of  a  new  state  of  affairs,  and  the  be- 
ginning of  anything  like  a  hopeful  prosperity. 

It  was  not  easy,  however,  for  the  Council  in  London  to  look  upon 

these  emigrants  as  a  body  of  Englishmen  capable  of  being  governed  by 

the  same  laws   and  influenced    by  the   same  motives    and 

Code  of  laws  ••  ••      i  i 

for  the         habits  to  which  they  were  accustomed  at  home.     A  code  ot 

colony.  _  ,  •   . 

pains  and  penalties  for  crime  was  sent  out,  under  which  they 
were  to  live,  drawn  not  from  the  common  law  and  statutes  of  England 
but  taken  from  the  martial  laws  of  the  Low  Countries.1  The  penalty 
was  death  for  blaspheming  God ;  for  speaking  "  impiously  or  mali- 
ciously "  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  collectively  or  individually  ;  for  any 
word  or  act  in  derision  or  in  despite  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  for 
traitorous  words  against  the  king  ;  for  murder,  for  adultery,  for  rape, 
whether  of  white  or  Indian ;  for  perjury,  or  bearing  false  witness  ; 
for  trading  with  the  Indians  without  a  license  ;  for  embezzlement  of 
the  public  goods  ;  for  desertion  of  the  colony,  for  treason  or  misprision 
of  treason  against  it  or  its  rulers ;  for  ordinary  theft ;  for  robbing  a 
garden,  wilfully  pulling  up  a  flower,  a  root,  or  herb  when  set  to  weed- 
ing ;  for  gathering  grapes,  or  plucking  ears  of  corn,  whether  belonging 
to  a  private  person  or  the  public.  He  who  used  profane  swearing,  tak- 
ing the  name  of  God  in  vain  or  by  other  oaths,  had  a  bodkin  thrust 
through  his  tongue  for  the  second  time  offending,  and  the  third  time  suf- 
fered death ;  the  penalty  for  absence  from  public  worship,  or  violating 
the  Sabbath,  was  deprivation  of  a  week's  allowance,  public  whipping, 
and  if  three  times  repeated,  death ;  slander  of  the  councillors  or  other 
principal  officers  of  the  colony,  evil  speaking  of  the  colony  itself,  or  of 
books  written  on  its  behalf,  were  punished  by  whipping,  and  by  the 
galleys  for  three  years,  and  by  death  for  the  third  offence  ;  disobedi- 
ence of  the  magistrates  carried  the  same  penalties,  and  he  who  un- 
worthily demeaned  himself  to  any  minister  or  preacher  was  publicly 
whipped  three  times,  and  compelled  to  ask  forgiveness  of  the  congre- 
gation for  three  successive  Sundays  ;  to  kill  any  domestic  animal,  any 
poultry,  or  even  a  dog,  though  they  might  be  one's  own,  without  per- 
mission, was  punished  as  a  capital  crime  in  the  principal,  and  he  who 
assisted  him  was  to  lose  his  ears  and  be  branded  in  the  hand ;  those 
who  failed  to  keep  their  houses  neat  and  clean,  whose  bedsteads  were 
not  three  feet  from  the  ground,  and  who  threw  foul  water  into  the 
streets,  were  subject  to  trial  by  court-martial ;  a  tradesman  who 
neglected  his  business  was  sent  to  the  galleys  for  four  years  if  he  per- 
sisted in  the  offense ;  if  he  or  any  soldier  failed  to  appear  at  his  ap- 

1  Stith's  History  of  Virginia,  p.  122. 


1611.]  TOBACCO.  301 

pointed  work  at  beat  of  drum,  morning  and  afternoon,  or  left  his 
work  before  the  hour  appointed,  he  was  laid  "  head  and  heels  to- 
gether "  all  night  upon  the  guard,  for  the  first  offence,  for  the  second 
whipped,  for  the  third  sent  to  the  galleys  ;  whoever  failed  to  render  to 
the  minister  an  account  of  his  faith,  or  refused  to  take  advice  from  him 
touching  matters  of  religion,  was  whipped  daily  till  he  repented  of  his 
obduracy  ;  public  "  launderer  or  launderesses,"  bakers,  cooks,  and 
fishermen  were  kept  to  a  faithful  discharge  of  their  duties  by  similar 
penalties,  and  the  minister  or  preacher  who  neglected  to  read  publicly 
on  every  Sabbath  day  the  laws  and  ordinances,  of  whi^b  we  give  this 
brief  abstract,  was  deprived  for  a  week  of  his  allowance  from  the  public 
store.  But  this  was  only  the  civil  code.  To  the  martial  law,  the 
pains  and  penalties  of  which  were  much  more  severe,  and  the  possi- 
ble offences  more  minute  and  varied,  the  citizens  were  also  amenable. 

If  there  was  want  of  good  order  and  good  government,  it  was  not 
for  lack  of  authority  in  the  hand  of  the  magistrates.  The  increasing 
prosperity  of  the  colony,  however,  in  the  administration  of  affairs  by 
Gates  and  by  Dale,  owed  little  to  the  severity  of  the  laws.  The  al- 
lotments of  lands,  first  made  by  Dale,  were  increased  after  the  expira- 
tion by  limitation  of  the  system  of  a  common  support  and  a  common 
interest  in  the  colony.  There  gradually  grew  up  along  the  James  and 
some  of  its  tributaries  a  settled,  though  scattered  community  of  plant- 
ers, dependent  on  their  own  industry  for  their  support,  free  from 
the  evil  associations  and  habits  engendered  in  the  earli^f-  days  of 
Jamestown. 

From  gaining  a  subsistence  it  was  an  easy  step  to  the  accumu- 
lation of  a  surplus ;  before  the  expiration  of  the  first  decade  of  the 
colony,  the  London  Council  began  the  granting  of  patents  of  large 
tracts  of  land  to  individuals,  and  such  tracts  were  also  given  to  colonists 
for  meritorious  services.  The  planting  of  tobacco  was  soon 

~  Culture  and 

found  to  yield  a  far  more  profitable  harvest  than  the  sowing  of  export  of 

*  tobacco. 

corn,  so  profitable,  indeed,  that  it  was  necessary  ere  long  to 
regulate  by  law  the  proportion  of  ground  sowed  for  profit,  and  for  food. 
From  a  fashion  of  the  court,  introduced  by  Raleigh,  the  use  of  tobacco 
had  become  so  common  in  England,  that  the  cheaper  staple  of  Virginia 
found  a  market  where  there  was  no  demand  for  the  dearer  product  of 
the  Spanish  colonies.  In  1614  a  member  of  Parliament  said  in  a 
speech  in  the  House :  "  Many  of  the  divines  now  smell  of  tobacco  ; 
and  poor  men  spend  4d.  of  their  day's  wages  at  night  in  smoke."1 
The  increasing  consumption  greatly  alarmed  the  king  for  the  morals 
of  his  subjects,  who  were  deaf  equally  to  his  arguments  and  his 
remonstrances ;  but  his  fears  for  morality  gave  way  to  apprehensions 

1  Neill's  History  of  the  Virginia  Company. 


302  FIRST   ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT  IN   AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 

in  later  years  of  loss  to  the  revenue.  Taxes  and  restrictions  upon 
sales  which  the  charter  did  not  warrant,  impelled  the  planters  to  look 
for  a  market  in  Holland.  But  a  prerogative  of  the  crown  was  not 
to  be  sacrificed  to  the  prosperity  of  the  colony,  and  this  first  dispute 
between  it  and  the  king  was  only  settled  by  a  compromise  which  sent 
all  Virginia  tobacco  to  England  for  exportation,  but  gave  a  monopoly 
of  the  trade  to  the  Company. 

This  settlement,  however,  of  the  various  questions  to  which  this 
important  trade  gave  rise  was  not  reached  till  after  discussions  and 
difficulties  protracted  for  a  period  of  years,  during  which  the  colony 
was  gradually  growing  to  wealth  and  power.  At  the  outset  the  cul- 
tivation of  tobacco  was  so  lucrative  that  those  who  had  no  land  planted 
in  the  streets  of  Jamestown,  and  those  who  had  were  necessarily  re- 
strained by  law,  from  running  the  risk  of  starvation  by  planting  it  all 
in  tobacco,  and  none  in  corn.  This  profitableness  of  the  crop,  as  it 
was  found  to  continue,  made  the  larger  tracts  of  land  desirable,  but 
the  land  was  useless  without  laborers. 

The  future  of  Virginia  —  and  with  hers,  that  of  all  that  portion  of 
supply  of  the  country  where  one  or  two  great  staples  could  be  produced 
a*  an  enormous  profit  —  was  determined  by  these  considera- 
slaves.  ^jons  ]yjen  ne]^  £O  service  for  a  term  of  years  were  brought 

over  from  England  by  ship-loads.  These  were  often  convicted  felons, 
often  paupers  who  sold  themselves  in  the  extremity  of  want,  or  were 
sold  to  be  got  rid  of,  and  were  often  unfortunate  wretches  kidnapped 
without  regard  to  their  condition,  and  in  defiance  of  the  law.  On 
each  laborer  brought  into  the  colony  there  was  a  bounty  in  land,  and 
to  his  owner  he  represented  also  a  certain  profit  in  tobacco.  So  far  as 
these  people  themselves  were  concerned  they  were,  from  training  and 
habit,  the  least  desirable  population  of  a  new  country,  in  which  they 
were  to  be,  after  a  term  of  service  as  slaves,  the  free  citizens  ;  but  a 
worse  result  followed,  for  the  circumstances  that  made  their  servitude 
profitable,  made  it  also  the  forerunner  of  a  system  still  more  perni- 
cious, and  of  the  evils  of  which  there  was  no  possible  mitigation. 
When,  in  1619,  a  Dutch  ship  arrived  at  Jamestown  with  a  cargo  of 
negroes  from  the  coast  of  Guinea,  they  were  eagerly  welcomed  at  good 
prices  by  the  planters.  For  many  years  these  two  systems  of  slavery 
existed  side  by  side,  till  the  obvious  truth  became  firmly  established 
that  it  was  more  desirable  to  own  a  black  man  in  fee  simple  than  a 
white  man  for  a  limited  period. 

Before  the  colony,  however,  became  the  object  of  earnest  attention 
as  a  source  of  wealth  in  the  production  of  one  great  staple,  the  inter- 
est in  it  was  kept  alive  by  other  events.  A  third  charter  was  granted 
in  March,  1611-12,  which  included  the  Bermudas  within  the  territory 


1616.] 


MARRIAGE   OF   POCAHOXTAS. 


303 


of  the  Company  —  sold  soon  after  to  another  corporation  ;  the  privilege 

of  establishing  a  lottery  was  also  given.     Before  this   was  revoked 

three  years  afterward  by  Parlia- 

ment, as  unconstitutional  and  in- 

jurious to  public   morals,  it  had 

added     nearly    thirty     thousand 

pounds   to    the    treasury   of   the 

Council.      In  1616,  public   curi- 

osity was  aroused  by  the  appear- 

ance in  London,  of  the  Princess 

Pocahontas   as   the  wife   of   Mr. 

John  Rolfe,  who  was  also  distin- 

guished as  the  first  cultivator  of 

tobacco  in  Virginia.1 

Rolfe,  it  seems,  was  a  widower,2 
who  was  one  of  the  company  of 
Sir  Thomas  Gates,  and  was  the 
father  of  the  child  born  in  the  Ber- 
mudas, at  the  time  of  the  wreck 
of  the  Sea  Adventure,  and  chris- 
tened Bermuda.  In  an  expedition 
up  the  Potomac,  in  search  of  corn, 
Captain  Argall  had  engaged  an  Indian  to  entice  Pocahontas  on  board 
his  vessel,  whom  he  took  with  him  to  Jamestown,  and  detained  in  the 
expectation  of  compelling  Powhatan  to  exchange  her  for 
corn  and  for  certain  Englishmen  and  English  arms,  held  by 
that  chief.  While  held  as  a  prisoner,  under  the  care  of  Sir  hontas- 
Thomas  Dale,  she  became  a  Christian,  and  was  received  into  the 
church  under  the  baptismal  name  of  the  Lady  Rebecca.  Whether 
the  acquaintance  between  Rolfe  and  the  princess  commenced  at  that 
time,  is  not  certain  ;  but  they  were  married  soon  after.  Dale  was  so 
much  interested  in  this  comely  daughter  of  Powhatan  that  he  pro- 
posed to  the  king  to  send  him  a  younger  sister,  of  whose  attractions  he 
had  heard,  proposing  to  make  her,  said  the  messenger,  "  his  nearest 
companion,  wife,  and  bed-fellow."  The  offer  could  only  have  been 
made  to  get  possession  of  the  girl  ;  wife  she  could  not  be,  as  there  was 
already  a  Lady  Dale  in  England.  The  king  may  have  seen  through 
the  design  ;  at  any  rate  he  good-naturedly  declined  the  proposed  honor 
of  surrendering  his  daughter  to  be  the  mistress  of  even  a  white 
governor. 

1  Harmor's  True  Discourse  of  th*  Present  State  of  Virt/inia. 

3  Pocahontas  was  also  a  widow  if  Strachey's  statement  was  correct  that  she  had  married 
a  "  private  captain  called  Kocoum." 


304 


FIRST   ENGLISH  SETTLEMENT   IN  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 


Dale  took  Rolfe  and  his  wife  to  England,  and  with  them  went  sev- 
eral other  young  Indians,  men  and  women,  and  one  Tamocomo,  the 
husband  of  another  of  Powhatan's  daughters.  The  young  people  were 
under  the  guardianship  of  the  Council,  and  to  be  educated  as  Chris- 
tians ;  but  Tamocomo  was  an  emissary  of  his  father-in-law,  under  or- 
ders to  gather  information  in  regard  to  the  English  people.  His  ob- 
servations may  have  been  valuable,  but  he  soon  gave  over  an  attempt 

- 


Presentation  of  Pocahontas  at  Court. 


to  take  a  census  of  the  population  by  notches  on  a  stick.  The  whole 
Pocahontas  Party  excited  the  liveliest  curiosity.  The  Lady  Rebecca  was 
m  England.  receive(j  at  court  with  great  favor,  though  grave  doubts  were 
entertained,  suggested  it  was  supposed  by  James,  who  was  never  un- 
mindful of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  whether  Rolfe  had  not  been  guilty 
of  treason  in  presuming  to  make  an  alliance  with  a  royal  family.  The 
princess  appeared  at  the  theatres  and  other  public  places,  everywhere 
attracting  great  attraction  as  the  daughter  of  the  Virginian  emperor, 
and  as  one  to  whom  the  colonists  had  sometimes  been  indebted  for 


1619.]  SANDYS   AND   YEARDLEY.  305 

signal  services  ;  and  everywhere  exciting  admiration  for  her  personal 
graces,  and  the  propriety  and  good  sense  witli  which  she  always  con- 
ducted herself.  She  remained  in  England  for  nearly  a  year,  and  died 
as  she  was  about  to  sail  for  her  native  country.  Her  only  child,  a 
son,  is  claimed  as  the  ancestor  of  some  of  the  most  respectable  families 
of  Virginia. 

Alliances  by  marriage  between  the  whites  and  Indians  were  encour- 
aged and  were  not  infrequent,  as  it  was  hoped  to  establish  by  such  con- 
nections more  friendly  relations  with  the  savages.  They  had,  no 
doubt,  some  influence,  the  marriage  of  Pocahontas  especially  leading  to 
a  treaty  with  Powhatan  which  he  faithfully  observed  so  long  as  he 
lived,  and  which  was  renewed  after  his  death,  in  1618,  by  his  successor. 
Meanwhile  Dale  was  succeeded  in  the  government  of  the  colony,  first 
by  George  Yeardley,  then  by  Captain  Argall,  and  again  by  Yeardley. 
During  Dale's  administration,  Argall,  who  was  of  an  adventurous  and 
unscrupulous  disposition,  had  won  notoriety,  if  not  distinc- 
tion, by  the  destruction  of  a  little  colony  of  French  at  Port 
Royal  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  As  governor  he  was  more 
diligent  in  the  pursuit  of  his  own  interests,  than  in  any  care  for  the 
welfare  of  the  colony.  The  complaints  against  him  were  so  loud  and 
bitter  as  to  demand  reparation  at  the  hands  of  the  Council  in  London, 
while  he  was  also  called  to  account  for  the  neglect  and  ruin  which  had 
fallen  upon  those  plantations  which  it  was  his  duty  to  have  worked  on 
behalf  of  the  Company.  Lord  De  la  Warre  was  sent  out  to  displace 
him  and  correct  these  abuses,  but  died  on  the  way,  somewhere,  it  is 
supposed,  near  the  mouth  of  the  bay  since  known  as  the  Delaware. 
Yeardley,  who  meanwhile  had  returned  to  England,  was  made  cap- 
tain-general and  ordered  to  Virginia. 

The  appointment  in  1619  of  Sir  George  Yeardley  —  forxhe  was  now 
knighted  —  as  president,  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  Virginia.     Others  had  been  as  honest,  ener- 


min 


getic,  and  clear-sighted  as  he,  and  as  earnest  in  their  efforts  'reor. 


on  behalf  of  the  "  action."  But  he  reaped  the  benefit  of  all 
that  they  had  done  and  had,  besides,  the  advantage,  which 
they  often  wanted,  of  being  sustained  by  a  wise  conduct  of  affairs  in 
England.  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  who  from  the  beginning  had  been  the 
treasurer  of  the  company  in  London  with  almost  plenary  powers,  re- 
tired from  office  this  same  year,  and  his  place  was  supplied  by  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys.  Smith  had  been  accused  of  mismanagement,  and  his 
accounts  were  in  some  disorder,  but  his  reputation  at  the  time  evi- 
dently suffered  no  serious  injury,  as  on  his  retiring,  a  grant  of  two- 
thousand  acres  of  land  in  Virginia  was  made  him  by  the  London 
Council.  He  had  had  many  obstacles  to  encounter  in  the  raising  and 

VOL.  i.  20 


306  FIRST  ENGLISH   SETTLEMENT -IN  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XI. 

disbursements  of  means  to  found  a  distant  colony  in  an  unknown  re- 
gion, and  had  done,  perhaps,  all  that  could  be  done  in  the  first  twelve 
years.  The  earlier  difficulties  were  overcome  when  affairs  came  into 
the  hands  of  Sandys  and  Yeardley,  and  to  achieve  success  was  a  much 
easier  task. 

When  Yeardley  arrived  in  Virginia  the  colony  numbered  about  six 
hundred  persons.  They  had  become  discouraged  and  discontented 
under  the  arbitrary  and  dishonest  rule  of  Argall,  were  suffering  from 
a  scarcity  of  food,  having  neglected  the  cultivation  of  maize,  that  they 
might  raise  the  more  tobacco  and  acquire  the  means  to  return  to  Eng- 
land. To  induce  and  even  to  compel  them  to  raise  more  to  eat  and 
less  to  sell,  was  the  governor's  first  object,  and  he  observed  his  own 
laws  by  planting  corn  on  the  Company's  lands,  and  writing  the  treas- 
urer in  London  that  he  must  not  expect  remittances  in  tobacco  for  at 
least  a  year.  To  restore  confidence  among  the  colonists  and  to  assure 
them  of  a  guaranty  for  the  future,  he  gave  to  them  the  power  of  self- 
government,  to  a  certain  extent,  by  calling  upon  them  to  send  repre- 
sentatives from  each  of  the  towns,  hundreds,  or  plantations  to  meet 
with  the  governor  and  council  and  decide  upon  all  matters  relating  to 
the  colony.  The  governor  was  to  have  a  veto  upon  their  legislation, 
and  no  laws  were  valid  till  approved  by  the  Company  at  home.  With 
this  power  of  government  came  the  sense  of  possession  and  perma- 
nency, undoubtedly  exercising  a  strong  influence  over  the  minds  of  the 
colonists.  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  proposed  to  create  a  more  complicated 
form  of  government,  but  this  germ  of  the  future  commonwealth,  in  a 
house  of  representative  burgesses,  was  left  for  a  time  to  a  natural 
growth.  The  first  legislative  assembly  met  in  the  church  at  James- 
town, on  the  30th  of  July,  1619,  and  consisted  of  twenty-two  repre- 
sentatives and  the  governor  and  council.  One  of  the  acts  passed  at 
this  meeting  was  for  the  punishment  of  drunkenness. 

In  this  first  year  of  Yeardley 's  administration,  the  loss  by  death  to 
Progress  of  tne  colony  was  three  hundred.  By  the  special  order  of  the 
the  colony,  fcing^  its  number  was  increased  by  the  transportation  of  one 
hundred  felons  gathered  from  the  jails  of  England.  These  misfortunes 
were  offset  by  the  wisdom  of  Sandys.  Ten  thousand  acres  of  land 
were  set  apart  at  Henrico,  for  the  foundation  of  a  university,  where 
both  Indians  and  whites  were  to  be  educated,  and  within  two  years  a 
hundred  men  were  settled  upon  these  lands,  to  cultivate  them  on  half 
shares.  A  measure  of  more  immediate  benefit,  was  the  transportation, 
with  their  own  consent,  of  a  hundred  "  maids,  young  and  uncorrupt," 
as  wives  for  young  men,  who,  from  being  only  temporary  settlers, 
would  thus  be  made,  by  domestic  ties,  permanent  inhabitants  and  good 
citizens.  The  young  women  met  with  the  heartiest  welcome,  and  none 


1619.]  PROGRESS   OF   THE   COLONY.  307 

remained  long  without  a  husband,  though  the  price  of  a  wife  was  the 
cost  of  her  transportation,  payable  in  tobacco,  except  to  those  who 
were  tenants  of  the  Company's  lands.  Many  poor  children,  both  boys 
and  girls,  were  sent  out  as  apprentices.  The  system  was  sometimes 
taken  advantage  of  by  private  persons,  and  young  women  and  children 
kidnapped  and  sold  as  slaves  to  the  planters ;  but  the  purpose  of  the 
Council  was  benevolent  and  its  results  beneficial  to  the  colony.  Pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  religious  instruction  of  the  people ;  the  prin- 
cipal seats  of  the  colony  were  more  securely  fortified ;  a  lasting  peace 
with  the  Indians  was  thought  to  be  secured  by  treaties.  Within  a 
twelvemonth  eight  ships  were  sent  out  to  the  colony  by  the  treasurer. 
Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  and  four  more  by  private  adventurers,  carrying  an 
aggregate  of  twelve  hundred  and  sixty-one  persons,  to  be  about 
equally  divided  between  the  plantations  of  the  Company  and  those 
belonging  to  individuals.  The  new  English  nation  had  at  length 
taken  firm  root  on  the  shores  of  America. 


Signature  of  James  I. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


COLONIZATION    UNDER   THE   NORTHERN   COMPANY. 

THE  SEA-COAST  OF  MAINE. — THE  EARLY  FISHERMEN.  —  FRENCH  TRADERS.  —  FONT- 
GRAVE  AND   POUTRINCOURT.  —  GEORGE  WEYMOUTH'S  VOYAGE.  —  COLONY   OF    CHIEF 

JUSTICE  POPHAM. —  SAMUEL  CHAMPLAIN  IN  NEW  YORK.  —  SETTLEMENT  ON  MT. 
DESERT.  —  ARGALL'S  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  FRENCH  COLONY.  —  JOHN  SMITH  IN 
NEW  ENGLAND.  —  EXPEDITIONS  OF  FERDINANDO  GORGES. —  SECOND  CHARTER  OF 
THE  PLYMOUTH  COMPANY.  —  NOVA  SCOTIA  GIVEN  TO  SIR  WILLIAM  ALEXANDER. — 
GRANT  OF  THE  PLYMOUTH  COMPANY  TO  GORGES.  —  FIRST  TOWNS  IN  NEW  HAMP- 
SHIRE AND  MAINE.  —  THE  BREAKING  UP  OF  THE  PLYMOUTH  COMPANY.  —  CHAR- 
ACTER OF  GORGES. 


ON  a  map  of  the 
State  of  Maine,  its 
rivers  and  lakes  appear  to  be  the 
result  of  an  accidental  slopping 
over  of  water,  just  as  when  it 
curdles  on  a  polished  table  into 
pools,  and  struggles  without  pur- 
pose to  and  fro.  But  no  systematic 
engineering  could  improve  this 
order  of  nature,  or  dis- 

,.  i  Maine.     Its 

pose   the  waters    better  inland  com- 

e         .1  .11  munication 

for  that  inland  commu- 
nication which  the  savages  main- 

^. tained  and  the  white  man  learned 

Indian,  at  a  Portage.  of  them.     Broad  and  deep  rivers, 

fed  by  lakes  that  are  strung  upon  rivulets,  with  branches  to  explore 
and  drain  every  nook  of  the  land,  were  highways  which   the  birch 


1605.]  THE   SEA-COAST   OF  MAINE.  309 

canoe  was  expressly  framed  to  travel ;  it  was  no  burden  when  the 
voyager  came  to  carrying-places  around  falls  and  rapids.  The  Kenne- 
bec  was  called  the  shortest  route  to  the  great  river  of  the  North,  the 
St.  Lawrence,  which  could  also  be  reached  by  the  Penobscot,  though 
in  a  more  difficult  and  tortuous  way.  By  water  portages  and  a  few 
day's  marches,  the  Indian  could  strike  the  Chaudiere  and  drop  down 
to  the  neighborhood  of  Quebec,  or  visit  the  ancient  town  of  Hochelaga, 
which  gave  the  St.  Lawrence  its  first  name. 

No  less  remarkable  is  the  coast,  which  hangs  like  a  tattered  fringe 
to  seaward,. broken  into  numerous  coves  and  inlets  with  their  Itg  ^ 
long  protecting  line  of  islands  and  picturesque  bluffs  wooded  C0a8t- 
with  the  birch  and  pine.  The  tide  runs  up  deep  bays  and  fills  the 
quiet  reaches  between  the  mainland  and  the  outer  sea,  inviting  crafts  of 
every  tonnage,  from  a  shallop  to  a  ship,  to  lie  in  shelter  or  to  slip  along 
to  harbors.  Here  the  early  navigators  moored  in  safety  under  the  lee 
of  islands,  and  explored  in  their  boats  the  intricate  waters  of  the  coast, 
to  fill  their  casks,  to  exchange  trinkets  for  peltry  with  the  natives,  or 
to  pitch  upon  a  spot  for  permanent  occupancy.  They  tell  how  the 
contrasts  of  foliage,  the  singing  of  birds,  the  stretches  of  green 
meadow,  and  all  the  scents  of  summer  mixed  with  the  tonic  air,  de- 
lighted them  as  they  rowed  along  the  streams  or  penetrated  into  the 
woods.  Rosier,  who  accompanied  Capt.  George  Weymouth  in  1605 
upon  his  voyage  of  discovery,  and  was  the  chronicler  of  what  they 
saw,  writes  with  great  enthusiasm  of  the  "  excellent  depth  of  water 
for  ships  of  any  burthen,"  of  the  good  holding  ground,  of  the  planted 
peas  and  barley  which  grew  half  an  inch  a  day,  of  the  gallant  coves 
with  sandy  beaches  where  ships  might  be  careened,  secure  from  all 
winds,  and  the  "plane  plots  "  of  thirty  and  forty  acres  of  clear  grass, 
"  the  goodness  and  beauty  whereof  I  cannot  by  relation  sufficiently 
demonstrate."  It  is  easy  to  conceive  the  surprise  and  pleasure  of 
a  ship's  crew  let  loose  upon  this  balmy  and  picturesque  coast  in  some 
month  of  summer,  as  Weymouth's  were  in  early  June,  after  a  tedious 
voyage  made  in  cramped  quarters,  shared  in  later  times  with  horses, 
goats,  and  cows  for  the  use  of  colonists.  These  men  tasted  the  first 
rapture  which  a  virgin  land,  whose  charms  had  never  been  once  sus- 
pected, could  bestow.  There  grew,  close  to  launching  places,  spars 
of  various  woods,  and  trees  for  building  pinnaces  and  vessels ;  brooks 
of  sweet  water  came  trickling  down  in  all  directions,  fringed  with 
grass  or  berries  of  the  wood,  the  soil  invited  tillage,  the  woods  were 
stocked  with  game,  colonies  of  beavers  were  established  near  to  falls, 
and  the  sea  swarmed  with  fish  of  many  kinds  —  salmon,  haddock, 
pollock,  and  cod.  The  first  attempts  at  colonizing,  upon  Newfound- 
land and  "  the  Maine,"  turned  upon  the  value  of  this  fishery,  and 


310       COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

were  stimulated  by  it.  There  is  no  doubt  that  many  gangs  of  fish- 
ermen wintered  upon  the  northeastern  coast,  and  upon  islands  off 
the  coast  of  Maine,  many  years  before  there  was  thought  of  char- 
tering a  colony.  So  the  fisherman  pursued  and  worked  a  vein  of 
wealth  wherever  the  cod  ran  along  the  shores  of  the  New 
on  coast'™8  World ;  and  the  mute  fish  piloted  History  to  the  scenes  of 
her  most  speaking  achievements.  She  stepped  from  the 
deck  of  a  fishing  smack,  and  began  the  work  of  founding  a  republic 
by  tending  the  rude  stages  where  the  fish  were  dried.- 

Norumbega,  the  name  by  which  Maine  was  earliest  known  in  Eng- 
land, although  its  boundaries  were  vague  and  shifting,  is  first 
rations"?0  designated  in  an  account  of  French  voyages  in  Ramusio's 
collection  of  travels.  Norumbega  was  derived  by  European 
pronunciation  from  an  Indian  word  belonging  to  the  tribes  between 
the  Kennebec  and  Penobscot.  It  was  applied  by  them  to  an  aborig- 
inal kingdom  whose  seat  of  power  was  in  a  half-mythical  town  near 
Penobscot  Bay,  and  upon  the  eastern  side  of  it.  But  the  early  geog- 
raphers sometimes  applied  the  name  to  the  whole  region  between  Cape 
Sable  and  Cape  Cod,  and  occasionally  even  as  far  south  as  Florida. 
It  properly  belonged,  however,  only  to  that  region  near  the  Penob- 
scot whose  people  referred  to  a  mysterious  site  of  aboriginal  rule  in 
the  interior.  At  a  later  period,  this  great  lord  of  the  Penobscot  coun- 
try was  called  the  Bashaba ;  but  although  a  good  many  names  of  local 
sagamores  of  distinction  are  mentioned  in  the  early  annals,  nobody 
ever  had  an  interview  with  the  veritable  Bashaba,  nor  entered  the 
traditional  city  of  Norumbega.  It  is  probable  that  the  term  bashaba 
merely  indicated  the  sagamore  who  happened  at  different  times  to 
enjoy  the  ascendency  among  the  Penobscot  tribes. 

It  is  said  that  an  English  ship,  sent  out  in  1527,  sailed  along  the 
coasts  of  Arambec,  a  corruption  plainly  of  Norumbega,  and  that  her 
men  frequently  went  on  shore,  to  explore  these  unknown  lands.1 

Among  other  voyagers  to  the  coast  of  Maine,  at  this  period,  was 
Andre*  Thevet,  the  French  traveller  and  cosmographer,  who  had  been 
a  member  of  Villegagnon's  Huguenot  colony  in  South  America.  He 
relates  that  in  1536  he  visited  the  Grand  River  (Penobscot),  and 
gives  a  circumstantial  narrative  of  his  intercourse  with  the  natives. 
The  behavior  of  his  Indians  was  so  effusively  affectionate,  that  one 
is  disposed,  at  first,  to  question  his  truthfulness.  But,  in  fact,  the 
Abnakis  and  Micmacs,  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Maine,  were 

i  Hakluyt,  iii.  129.  Biddle  (Memoir  of  Selxistian  Cabot),  believes  the  English  voyage  re- 
ferred to,  to  be  identical  with  that  of  John  Hut,  in  the  same  year  (mentioned  in  Purchas, 
vol.  iii.  p.  809),  and  Kohl  (Maine  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  i.,  Second  Series),  seems  to  share  his 
opinion,  and  says  :  "  This  voyage  was  the  first  instance  in  which  Englishmen  are  certainly 
known  to  have  put  their  foot  on  these  shores." 


•    •. 


1605.]  THE  FRENCH  AND  THE  INDIANS.  311 

more  amiable,  and  indulged  in  more  social  habits  than  were  known 
among  other  Indians  of  New  England.  Their  temper  was  not  uni- 
form, however ;  at  the  least  hint  they  would  fly  to  suspicions,  and 
take  up  arms.  But  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  they  were  dis- 
posed to  welcome  the  English,  until  the  hostile  policy  of  the  French 
began  to  exert  its  influence. 

The  Abnakis,  who  inhabited  the  territory  from  the  Penobscot, 
north  to  Canada,  and  through  New  Hampshii'e,  loved  to  col-  Aborigine8 
lect  in  permanent  villages,  of  which  there  were  five,  two  in  of  Maine 
Canada,  and  one  on  each  river,  the  Kennebec,  the  Androscoggin,  and 
the  Saco.  These  are  described  by  French  missionaries  as  having  been 
enclosed  by  stout  and  high  palisades.  The  wigwams  were  built  of 
bended  poles,  and  covered  with  bark.  The  dress  of  the  natives  was 
"  ornamented  with  a  great  variety  of  rings,  necklaces,  bracelets,  belts, 
etc.,  made  out  of  shells  and  stones,  worked  with  great  skill.  They 
practised  also  agriculture.  Their  fields  of  skamgnar  (corn)  were 
very  luxuriant.  As  soon  as  the  snows  had  disappeared,  they  prepared 
the  land  with  great  care,  and  at  the  commencement  of  June  they 
planted  the  corn,  by  making  holes  with  the  fingers,  or  with  a  stick, 
and  having  dropped  eight  or  nine  grains  of  corn,  they  covered  them 
with  earth.  Their  harvest  was  at  the  end  of  August."  l 

They  were  very  brave,  tenacious  of  purpose,  faithful  to  engage- 
ments, uncompromising  in  war,  hospitable,  "  and  their  attachment  to 
the  family  was,"  says  one  of  their  historians,  "  such  as  we  do  not 
read  of  in  other  tribes  of  the  Algic  people." 

The  French  knew  how  to  attach  these  Indians  permanently  to 
themselves,  and  keep  them  firmly  hostile  to  the  English.  They  soon 
came  under  the  influence  of  the  French  missionaries,  and  of  the  sol- 
diers and  traders,  who  showed  the  tact  and  adaptability  which  distin- 
guish that  nation.  Even  in  giving  names  to  places,  a  significant  dif- 
ference between  the  French  and  English  policy  showed  itself.  The 
French  flattered  the  Indians  by  trying  to  pronounce  all  their  local 
names,  and  by  perpetuating  them.  The  Englishman  made  English 
words  migrate  and  settle  upon  the  new  sites,  ignoring  the  native 
nomenclature.  He  loved  thus  to  recall  his  Portsmouth,  Rye,  Appledore, 
his  York,  Falmouth,  and  Portland.  Either  the  place  of  his  birth,  or 
the  port  from  which  he  started,  provided  names  for  the  new  places. 
The  French  studied  in  every  way  to  appropriate  the  habits  of  the 
Indians,  to  hunt,  travel,  eat,  sleep,  and  dress  in  the  native  fashion. 
They  were  apt  learners  of  the  different  dialects ;  the  lists  of  words 
and  the  dictionaries  compiled  by  their  missionaries  can  be  relied  upon. 
And  these  devoted  men  drew  savage  admiration  by  their  constancy, 

1  Collections  of  Maine  Hist.  Soc.,  vi.  218-19. 


312       COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN    COMPANY.     [CuAP.  XII. 


French 


France. 


calmness  in  perils,  assiduous  efforts  to  teach  and  civilize,  and  their 
skill  in  healing,  as  well  as  by  the  impressive  solemnity  of  those  novel 
services  of  religion,  with  cross,  cup,  bell,  and  candle,  under  the 
groined  arches  of  the  primitive  cathedral.  But  the  English  possessed 
over  the  French  one  great  advantage  ;  and  that  has  since  been  styled 
"  manifest  destiny."  For  the  current  of  history  undermines  and  car- 
ries away  the  adroitest  policies  and  the  nicest  arts  of  accommodation. 
The  French  claimed  the  region  which  included  Maine,  under  the 
t^le  of  Nouvelle  France,  although  from  the  time  of  Jacques 
Cartier  and  De  la  Roque,  until  nearly  into  the  beginning  of 
^e  seventeenth  century,  they  made  no  definite  attempt  to 
settle  there.  In  the  last  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  new  in- 
terest was  awakened,  especially  fn  Brittany  and  Normandy,  whose 
fishers  continued  in  constant  intercourse  with  the  new-found  lands. 
In  1598,  the  Marquis  de  la  Roche  obtained  a  patent  from  Henry  IV., 
and  made  a  futile  attempt  at  settlement.  He  landed  a  colony  of 
wretches  drawn  from  the  galleys  and  the  prisons  of  France,  on  the 
barren  shores  of  Sable  Island,  and  left  them  to  drag  out  a  miserable 
existence,  subsisting  on  som^  cattle  which  had  bred  from  a  number 
left  there  by  the  ships  of  the  Baron  de  Leri,  eighty  years  before. 

The  year  following,  Pontgravd,  a  merchant  of  St.  Malo, 

of  Pont-        who  had  been  for  furs  as  far  as  Tadoussac  on  the  St.  Law- 

champiain.    rencc,  formed  the  design  of  establishing  a  fur-trading  port  in 

Canada.     He   enlisted  with  him   De   Chauvin,  an  experi- 

enced sea  officer,  who  had    sufficient  influence  at  court  to  obtain  a 

commission  similar  to  that  grant- 
ed De  la  Roche.  Chauvin  went 
on  two  voyages,  but  whatever 
results  they  might  have  produced 
were  checked  by  his  sudden 
death,  as  he  prepared  to  go  upon 
a  third.  In  1603  Pontgrave' 
went  himself  on  a  voyage,  taking 
with  him  Samuel  de  Champlain, 
an  officer  of  repute  in  the  French 
navy,  a  man  in  good  favor  at 
court,  and  an  ardent  Catholic. 

Together  with  Pontgrave", 
Champlain  explored  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  carried  back  to 
France  maps  and  observations 
made  upon  the  banks  of  that 
noble  river.  In  the  following  year,  another  and  more  important 


Samuel  de  Champlain. 


1604.]  DE  MONTS  IN  ACADIA.  313 

expedition  was  undertaken,  which  came  very  near  establishing  a  per- 
manent French  colony  within  the  present  limits  of  Maine.    This  new 
expedition  was  led  by  Pierre  du  Guast, 
Sieur  de  Monts,  the  governor  of  Pons 
in   the   province  of   Saintonge.      He 

had  been  on  one  of  the  voyages  of  ^  Signature  of  Chimplain 
Pontgrave*,  and  -dn  the  death  of  Du 
Chaste,  the  governor  of  Dieppe,  who  had  succeeded  to  Chauvin's 
commission  for  discovery  and  colonization  in  America,  De  Monts  ob- 
tained it. 

De  Monts  was  a  Huguenot,  but  he  had   rendered  such  important 
services  to  Henry  IV.  during  the   troubles  of  the  League,  that  the 
king,  though  he  changed  his  faith,  did  not  lose  confidence  in  Acadia 
his  servant.     Eager  for  maritime  adventure  and  discovery,  fjf"^^ 
De  Monts  procured  an  edict  which  created  him  lieutenant-  ] 
general  of  Acadia,  as  the  country  was  called  from  the  40th  to  the  46th 
degree  of  north  latitude.1     Free  exercise  of  his  own  religion  was  per- 
mitted to  him,  in  return  for  which  he  engaged  to  have  the  savages 
converted  to  Catholicism.     A  company  was  formed  by  merchants  of 
Rouen  and  Rochelle,  to  whom  the  king  granted  by  letters-patent  the 
exclusive  trade  in  furs  and  fish  between  the  40th,  and  54th,  degrees 
of  north  latitude. 

De  Monts  sailed  from  Havre  de  Grace  on  the  7th  of  March,  1604. 
He  took  with  him  his  friend  Jean  de  Biencourt,  the  Baron  de  Pou- 
trincourt,  and  Champlain,  whose  experience  in  previous  voyages  he 
thought  would  be  of  service  in  this  new  enterprise.  Poutrincourt 
wished  to  find  a  place  to  which  he  might  transfer  his  family,  and 
forget  the  turbulent  politics  of  Europe  in  the  permanent  occupancy 
of  a  land  unvexed  by  parties  and  religious  strife. 

De  Monts  reached  in  about  two  months  a  harbor  on  the  eastern 
side  of  Nova  Scotia,  where  he  found  a  vessel  engaged  in  fishing  and 
an  illicit  fur-trade.  It  was  commanded  by  a  Captain  Rossignol,  whose 
only  consolation  for  the  confiscation  of  his  cargo  was  the  transference  of 
his  name  to  the  harbor.  The  place  is  now  called  Liverpool,  and  Rosig- 
nol's  name  is  perpetuated  in  a  lake  not  far  distant,  the  largest  in  Nova 

1  The  word  is  usually  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  French  or  Latin,  but  comes,  says 
one  authority,  from  the  Indian  word  Aquoddie,  a  pollock.  It  was  corrupted  by  the  French 
into  Acadie,  Acadia,  Cadia,  Cadie.  The  original  is  preserved  in  the  name  of  Passama- 
quoddy  Bay,  which  is  derived  from  Pos  (great),  ayuam  (water),  aqiioddie  (pollock) ;  mean- 
ing great  water  for  pollock.  Historical  Magazine,  vol.  i.,  p.  84.  Another  authority  (see 
Collections  of  Maine  Historical  Society,  vol.  i.,  p.  27,  note)  says  that  the  Acadi  is  a  pure 
Micmac  word  meaning  place,  and  was  used  by  the  Indians  in  combination  with  some  other 
word,  as  Suga-bun-acadi,  the  place  of  ground  nuts,  and  Passam-acadi  ( Passamaquoddy ),  the 
place  of  fish. 


314        COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN   COMPANY.    [CHAP.  XII. 

Scotia.  The  present  Port  Mouton,  on  the  next  bay,  is  probably  the 
Port  au  Mouton  of  De  Monts,  —  which  he  so  named  because  he  there 
lost  a  sheep  overboard,  —  and  where  he  spent  a  month  on  shore  while 
Champlain  explored  southward  for  a  place  that  would  better  suit  them 
for  a  permanent  settlement. 

Champlain  doubled  Cape  Sable  and  returned  to  show  the  expedition 
the  way  to  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  This  De  Monts  named  Baye  Fran- 
caise  ;  the  harbor  now  known  as  Annapolis,  Champlain  called  Port 
Royal.  After  sailing  up  Minas  Bay,  they  crossed  the  Bay  of  Fundy, 
entered  Passamaquody  Bay,  and  on  a  little  island  which  they  named 
St.  Croix,  in  the  river  now  known  as  the  St.  Croix,  the 
Passamaquody,  or  the  Schoodic,  they  determined  to  settle. 


It  was  an  unfortunate  choice  ;  timber  was  scarce  ;  the  water 
had  to  be  brought  from  the  main  land;  before  the  winter  was  over 
they  were  reduced  to  salt  meat  and  snow  water,  and  the  scurvy  broke 
out  among  them.  The  island  is  now  known  as  Neutral  Island,  and 
is  on  the  border  line  between  Maine  and  New  Brunswick. 

Champlain,  always  restless  and  bent  on  new  discoveries,  sailed  dur- 

ing the  winter  as  far  south  as  Cape  Cod,  which  Gosnold  had 
explores  already  visited  and  named.  The  Frenchman  called  it  Cap 

southward.          .  .  .  ..  .  , 

Blanc,  from  the  white  sands  ot  its  long  beaches  ;  he  nar- 
rowly escaped  shipwreck  somewhere  along  that  dangerous  coast,  at 
a  place  he  named  Cape  Mallebarre,  perhaps  Gosnold's  Point  Care, 
the  extremity  of  Isle  Nawset.  In  the  spring  he  again  sailed  south- 
ward with  De  Monts,  who  was  determined  to  find  a  better  spot  than 
St.  Croix  on  which  to  plant  his  colony.  They  entered  the  mouths 
of  those  noble  rivers  of  Maine,  the  Penobscot,  the  Kennebec,  the 
De  Monts  Casco,  the  Saco  ;  visited  Mount  Desert,  sailed  up  Portland 
least  of6  Harbor,  which  De  Monts  named  Marchin,  from  the  Indian 
Maine.  chief  with  whom  they  had  some  trade.  There  was  many  a 
pleasant  spot  in  the  deep  bays  they  penetrated  where  they  could  have 
sat  down  contented  to  fish  and  trade  and  thrive,  far  away  from  the 
turmoils  and  contentions  of  the  Old  World  which  Poutrincourt  hoped 
to  escape.  But  the  natives  showed  none  of  the  kindly  traits  which 
Thevet  had  described  ;  they  menaced  and  repulsed  the  strangers,  who 
returned  to  St.  Croix. 

The  condition  of  the  colony  was  more  miserable  than  ever,  and 
hardly  any  change  could  be  for  the  worse.  The  next  move  was  to 
Removal  of  a  harbor  in  Acadia,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy, 
toeport°ny  to  which  Champlain  had  given,  the  year  before,  the  name 
Royai-  of  Port  Royal,  now  Annapolis.  •  Here  for  several  years 
the  colony  maintained  a  feeble  existence. 

But  the  English  were  not  idle  while  the  French  were  thus  busy  in 


1605.] 


GEORGE  WEYMOUTH'S  VOYAGE. 


315 


attempts  to  gain  a  foothold  in  the  new  country.     Foremost   among 
those   who   saw  the   importance   of   colonization  were   the  earls   of 
Arundel  and  Southampton  ;  the  former,  one  of  those  steadfast  friends 
of  Sir   Walter  Raleigh  who  did  not  desert   him  even  when  led  to 
the  scaffold ;  the  other,  that  friend  and  patron  of  Shakespeare  who 
gave  him  £1,000  and  was  distinguished  for  the  dedication  Voyageof 
the  poet  made  to  him  of   his  earliest   poems.     These  two  mtJj'tfa."'5 
noblemen  united  in  sending  out  a  ship  under  George  Wey-  1606- 
mouth,  who  was  instructed  to  explore  that  part  of    North  Virginia 
to  be  known  a  few  years  later  as  New  England. 

Weymouth  sailed  in  the  Archangel,  March  5,  1605.    On  May  17  he 


The   Mouth  of  the   Kennebec. 

came  to  anchor  near  the  island  of  Monhegan,  twelve  miles  southeast 
of  Pemaquid,  an  Indian  word  signifying  "  that  runs  into  the  water." 
The  cape  jutting  southward  forms  the  most  eastern  headland  of 
Lincoln  County.  The  delight  of  Weymouth  and  his  sailors  was  un- 
bounded at  beholding  the  beauty  of  this  island  where  they  first  landed. 
Gooseberries,  strawberries,  wild  peas,  and  rosebushes  grew  to  its 
very  verge,  and  rills  of  sweet  water  trickled  through  cleft  rocks,  and 
ran  into  the  salt  sea.  With  delicious  draughts  from  these  rivulets  the 
men  eagerly  cooled  their  sea-parched  mouths,  while  they  refreshed 
their  eyes  with  the  spring  greenness  of  the  landscape  ;  from  the  sea 
they  took  a  store  of  cod,  a  welcome  change  from  their  sea-rations,  which 
gave  them  a  foretaste  of  the  great  plenty  of  fish  they  found  there 
afterwards. 

The  authorities  differ  as  to  the  next  movement  of  Weymouth.    One 
theory  takes  him  up  the  Penobscot  to  the  neighborhood  of  Belfast ; 


316        COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

a  second,  toward  the  islands  outside  of  Boothbay  Harbor,  and  into 
the  Sagadahoc  ;  and  a  third,  up  St.  George's  River,  which  is 

ed  by  wey-  iust  west  of  Penobscot  Bav,  and  runs  up  toward  the  Cam- 
mouth.  J  .  . 

den  Hills.     He  saw  mountains  far  inland ;  these  are  claimed 

by  some  to  have  been  the  White  Mountains,  and  by  others  the 
Camden  Hills,  because  he  tried  to  reach  them  and  came  so  near  that 
his  men  thought  themselves  "  to  have  been  within  a  league  of  them."  l 
It  hardly  seems  possible  that  they  could  have  made  such  an  estimate 
respecting  the  White  Mountains,  which  can  be  seen  in  clear  weather 
from  several  points  off  the  coast  over  low  land.  On  the  whole,  the 
evidence  seems  to  be  in  favor  of  their  landing  at  Pemaquid,  and  visit- 
ing the  region  between  the  St.  George  and  the  Kennebec  River. 

If  they  were  delighted  with  the  little  island  where  they  had  first 
touched  land,  they  were  no  less  enchanted  with  the  main- 
with  the  in-  land.  The  narrative  praises  the  richness  of  the  soil  and 
the  number  of  native  products  found  there,  from  the  good 
clay  for  brick-making  to  the  finest  and  tallest  trees  they  had  ever 
seen  ;  the  very  shells  on  the  beach  yielded  pearls,  and  the  bark  of 
the  trees  oozed  gum  which  smelled  like  frankincense.  As  usual,  the 
Indians  received  them  at  first  with  hospitality,  gave  them  good  bar- 
gains in  peltries,  feasted  them  in  their  best  fashion,  and  offered  them 
tobacco.  But  the  savages  soon  showed  mistrust  of  the  whites,  and 
the  whites  suspected  treachery  among  the  savages.  The  hostile  feel- 
ing growing  out  of  these  suspicions  decided  Weymouth  to  keep  no 
faith  with  the  natives.  Five  of  them,  who  trusted  him  sufficiently  to 
come  on  board  his  vessel,  he  detained  and  took  with  him  to  England. 
Arriving  at  the  port  of  Plymouth  he  gave  three  of  them  to  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  who  was  the  governor  of  the  fort  there,  a  lead- 
ing member  of  the  Plymouth  Council  and  warmly  interested  in  all 
things  concerning  America.  The  other  two  captives  he  sent  up  to 
London  to  Sir  John  Popham.  The  kidnapped  Indians  were  the  ob- 
jects of  curious  wonder.  Such  gaping  crowds  followed  them  in  the  city 
streets  as  Shakespeare  alluded  to,  when  in  "  The  Tempest "  he  made 
Trinculo  long  to  have  Caliban  on  exhibition  in  England :  "  Not  a 
holiday  fool  there  but  would  give  a  piece  of  silver  ;  there  would  this 
monster  make  a  man  ;  any  strange  beast  there  makes  a  man  ;  when 
they  will  not  give  a  doit  to  relieve  a  lame  beggar,  they  will  lay 
out  ten  to  see  a  dead  Indian." 

Sir  John  Popham,  the  chief  justice,  and  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges, 
to  whose  care  these  Indians  were  given,  had  both  been  largely  instru- 
mental in  getting  from  the  king  the  patent  for  the  North  Virginia 
Company,  and  their  zeal  received  a  new  impulse  from  the  informa- 

1  James  Rosier's  Narration  of  the  Expedition,  in  Purchas. 


1607.] 


THE   POPHAM   COLONY. 


317 


tion  gained  from  these  captive  natives.  A  ship  was  soon  despatched 
under  Captain  Henry  Chalong  to  make  further  discoveries, 
and  two  of  the  Indians  were  sent  back  in  her.  But  she  unfor- 
tunately  was  captured  by  the  Spaniards.  Another  vessel  was  Gorses- 
sent  soon  after  with  Thomas  Hanham  and  Martin  Pring  as  master 
and  captain,  who  took  with  them  the  Indian,  Nahanada,  to  his  tribe 
at  Pemaquid.  And  these  expeditions  were  followed  up  by  another, 
which  but  for  a  series  of  untoward  events,  would  have  made  the 


Indians  in  London. 


permanent  settlement  of  New  England  only  a  few  months  behind  that 
of  Virginia. 

On  May  31, 1607,  The  Gift  of  God,  of  which  Sir  George  Popham, 
the  brother  of  the  chief  iustice,  was  captain,  and  The  Mary 

-r  -i     i    i        r»    i    .          .01  f    T116  Popham 

and  John,  commanded  by  Raleigh  Gilbert,  a  younger  son  of  colony. 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  set  sail  from  Plymouth.     One  hun- 
dred and  twenty  persons  were  on  board,  many  of  them  well  adapted 
for  the  founding  of   a  colony.     There  is   no  evidence  of   the  truth 
of  the  assertion  sometimes  made,  that  the  chief  justice  depleted  the 
prisons  of  England  to  furnish  forth  this  company  ;  in  fact,  his  powers 
could  not  stretch  to  that  extent,  though  James  I.,  a  few  years  later, 
gave  to  persons  who  had  been  prosecuted  for  grave  crimes  the  alterna- 
tive of  a  colony  or  a  prison. 


318       COLONIZATION   UNDER  NORTHERN   COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

On  board  one  of  the  ships  was  Skitwarroes,1  one  of  the  five  Indians 
Arrival  of      captured  by  Weyrnouth,  to  serve  as  a  guide  and  interpreter. 

the  colony.      rr>\  i    •         e  ,i  -,•    • 

Ihe  chaplain  of  the  expedition  was  Richard  Seymour,  a  gen- 
tleman of  the  highest  culture,  who  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  kins- 
man of  Sir  Edward  Seymour,  Lord  Protector  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
VI.  He  lived  in  the  neighborhood,  and  was  probably  related  to 
the  families  of  Raleigh,  Gilbert,  Gorges,  and  Popham,  all  of  whom 
were  allied  by  intermarriage.  Among  the  colonists  were  various  arti- 
sans, carpenters,  sawyers,  laborers,  a  smith, 
and  a  master  ship-builder.  They  came  to 
'^  anchor  to  the  north  of  Monhegan  on  the 
31st  of  July,  and  were  soon  boarded  by 
some  natives,  who  seemed  perfectly  familiar 
with  European  trading  habits.  A  week 
was  spent  in  boat  expeditions  among  the 

" 


Meeting  of   Nahanada  and  Skitwarroes. 

islands,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  oth  of  August  they  found  on  one 
of  these  a  cross,  which  Weymouth  had  set  up  two  years  before.  Cap- 
tain Gilbert  sent  a  boat  up  the  river  to  the  mainland,  piloted  by  the 
Indian  Skitwarroes,  to  a  village  of  the  natives  situated  in  Pemaquid. 
At  the  first  appearance  of  the  boat  the  Indians  took  to  their  arms; 
but  when  their  chief  recognized  Skitwarroes,  and  saw  that  those  with 
him  were  Englishmen,  he  commanded  his  party  to  lay  aside  their  bows 
and  arrows,  kissed  and  embraced  the  strangers,  and  entertained  them 
for  hours  with  a  kindly  and  cheerful  welcome.  The  chief  who  met 
them  in  this  friendly  way  was  Nahanada,1  who  had  been  returned  to 
his  home  the  year  before  by  Captain  Hanham. 

1  The  original  accounts  differ  from  each  other,  and  in  themselves,  in  the  spelling  of  these 
Indian  names. 


1607.]  THE  POPHAM   COLONY.  319 

On  August  9,  which  was  Sunday,  they  landed  upon  an  island  to 
which  they  gave  the  name  of  St.  George,  where  the  service  of  the 
Church  of  England  was  read  and  a  sermon  preached  by  the  chaplain, 
many  natives  attending  with  great  sobriety  of  demeanor.     On  August 
15,  the   Gift  of  God  entered  the   Sagadahoc,  which  was   the  name 
of  the  broad  channel  below   the   junction  of  the  Androscoggin  and 
Kennebec ;  its  Indian  meaning  is  "  the  end  of  it,"  as  if  it  had  been 
named  by  natives  exploring  from  above.     The  Sheepscot  River  comes 
down  to  the  east,  directly  north  of  George's  Island.1    On  August  17th, 
they  sailed  up  the  Sagadahoc  in  the  pinnace  and  long  boat,  TheM,ttle. 
and  noticed  all   its  advantages   of    islands  and  fresh  water  ment 
streams  ;  and  on  the  next  day  they  made  choice  of  a  peninsula  upon 
the  western  side  which  the  Indians  called,  after  a  native  chief,  Sabino.- 
All  landed  here  on  the  19th,  another  sermon  was  preached,  the  presi- 
dent's commission  was  read,  and  the  first  act  of  the  first  English  colony 
of  New  England  was  complete.    A  fort  was  built,  mounting  twelve 
guns,  to  defend  the  little  town  of  forty  or  fifty  houses  which  quickly 
sprung  up.     The  master  shipwright  of  the  expedition,  Thomas  Digby, 
had  the  timber  cut  down,  shaped,  and  left  to  season  during 
the  autumn,  for  building  a  small  vessel  of  thirty  tons,  which  huiit'iu* 
when  done  was  called  the  Virginia.    This  was  the  first  vessel 
built  by  Englishmen  in  American  waters ;  and  the  first  use  she  was 
put  to  was  to  take  back  to  England,  before  the  winter  was  over,  nearly 
two  thirds  of  the  colonists,  thus  early  discouraged  by  the  rigor  of  the 
climate. 

The  Indians  did  not  relish  this  cool  annexation  of  their  favorite 
peninsula,  in  which  they  were  not  consulted,  not  even  asked  to  sell, 
still  less  to  accept  an  equivalent.  But  it  was  characteristic  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  method.  They  soon  began  to  be  troublesome :  they 
intruded  within  the  enclosures,  and  some  of  the  more  reckless  colo- 
nists set  the  dogs  upon  them,  and  used  their  sticks  too  freely.  Cap- 
tain Gilbert  went  exploring  up  the  river,  and  came  into  the  district 
of  a  chief  less"  disposed  than  Nahanada  was  to  keep  the  peace  with 
these  intruders.  They  endeavored  to  get  possession  of  Gilbert  and 
his  crew,  and  he  ran  the  gauntlet  of  menaces  all  the  way. 

1  Its  Indian  name  was  Sipsa-couta,  "  flocking  of  birds."     We  surmise  that  the  English 
language  gained  the  word  coot  from  this  river ;  just  as  skunk  is  a  fragrant  legacy  from  the 
native   sagankou.     Moose  is   derived  from  muu&souk,    muskrat,  properly   musquash,  from 
mouskouessou,  and  the  honk,  or  cry  of  the  goose,  from  sf.hunk.     So  our  favorite  American- 
ism, scoot,  came  from  the  native  word  si:h<>ot.  "to  go  with  a  rush;'1  and  when,  in  later 
times,  a  new  kind  of  vessel  was  launched  at  Newburyport,  a  bystander,  using  the  same 
native  word,  cried,  "  How  she  schoous  ! "  aiid  schooner  she  was  from  that  day. 

2  Perhaps  Sebenoa  Anglicized.     This  peninsula  was  a  favorite  resort  of  the  natives,  and 
numerous  relics  of  stone  axes,  hammers,  arrow-heads,  and  chippings  of  stone-work,  indicate 
that  it  was  a  place  for  the  manufacture  of  savage  weapons. 


320       COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN   COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII 


On  the  5th  of  February,  Popham,  who  was  the  president  of  the 

colony,  died,  and  Captain  Gilbert  succeeded  to  the  office.     The  ship 

Mary  and  John   had   been   sent   back   to   London  in  the  preceding 

December,  to  procure  supplies.     It  returned  to  find  the  colony  in  a 

deplorable  condition.     The  winter  had  been  of  exceptional 

of  the  coi-     severity ;  fighting  had  broken  out  between  the  men  and  the 

natives ;  the  storehouse  with  all  its  contents  had  been  burned  ; 

the  natives  were  in  possession  of  the  fort  for  awhile,  and  the  explosion 

of  a  barrel  of  gunpowder,  through  their  own  carelessness,  they  believed 

to  be  done  by  the  art  of  the  whites. 
This  incident  probably  was  the  germ 
of  a  story  which  obtained  circulation 
at  a  later  period,  that  the  colonists 
induced  a  number  of  natives  to  drag 


Setting  Dogs  on  the  Indians. 


along  one  of  the  guns  by  the  ropes,  running  with  them  in  front  of  the 
muzzle,  and  that  when  they  were  well  in  line  with  it  the  gun  was  dis- 
charged. But  when  the  Indians  were  recounting  to  the  Jesuits  the 
injuries  which  they  had  sustained  from  the  English,  this  incredible 
incident  was  not  mentioned.  If  it  had  been,  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
would  not  have  failed  to  record  it. 

In  the  spring  came  the  news  of  the  death,  first,  of  Chief  Justice 
Breaking-  Popham,  then  of  Sir  John  Gilbert,  the  elder  brother  of  the 
pophanT  new  governor.  The  last  compelled  the  return  of  Raleigh 
colony.  Gilbert  to  England,  for  he  was  his  brother's  heir.  The  loss 
of  two  governors,  of  the  principal  mover  and  proprietor  of  the  colony, 
within  so  short  a  time,  and  the  desertion  of  so  many  of  their  com- 
panions were  discouragements  so  serious  that  the  remaining  forty-five 
determined  to  return  home  with  Gilbert. 


. 


s 

< 

X 

o 


1608.]  CHAMPLAIN'S  DISCOVERIES.  321 

Sir  Francis  Popham,  the  son  of  the  chief  justice,  continued  for 
years  to  send  expeditions  to  the  coast  of  Maine,  at  his  private  cost ; 
but  no  permanent  settlement  was  made,  though  the  crews  of  these 
vessels  may  have  wintered  sometimes  at  Monhegan,  and  sometimes  at 
Pemaquid.  The  Northern  Virginia  Company  was  inactive,  content, 
apparently,  to  watch  and  wait  for  the  results  of  the  efforts  of  the  sister 
company  farther  south.  The  French,  on  the  other  hand,  though  the 
tenacious  preference  of  the  English  for  the  Atlantic  coast  may  have 
served  to  turn  their  attention  to  the  bays  and  rivers  farther  east  and 
north,  persisted  in  the  attempt  to  gain  possession  of  the  land.  In 
1608,  Champlain  penetrated  in  a  new  direction  within  the  territory  of 
the  present  United  States. 

On  the  3d  of  July,  1608,  he  reached  Stadacona — Quebec  —  and 
began,  the  next  day,  to  build  a  fort  near  the  spot  where  Jacques 
Cartier  had  passed,  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  century  before,  the 
winter  of  1535-36.  Champlain's  adventurous  spirit  did  not  permit 
him  to  remain  long  at  rest,  and  in  the  intervals  of  his  fre- 

Champlain 

quent  voyages  to  and  from  trance,  he  was  busy  with  new  founds  QUe- 
discoveries,  making  charts  of  sea-coasts  and  river-courses, 
taking  minute  notes  of  climate  and  the  natural  products  of  the  country, 
and  writing  narratives  of  all  that  befell  him  on  land  and  sea.  When 
in  the  spring  his  fort  at  Stadacona  was  finished,  the  little  colony 
well  established,  their  garden-plots  laid  out  and  carefully  planted,  he 
had  time  to  think  of  new  adventures.  With  a  few  companions  he 
sailed  up  the  great  river,  visiting  its  islands,  entering  the  mouths  of 
its  tributary  streams,  giving  them  names  by  which  many  of  them  are 
known  to  this  day.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Iroquois.  now  the  Richelieu, 
he  met  by  appointment  a  party  of  natives  on  the  war-path  against 
their  enemies,  the  Iroquois.  The  river,  he  learned,  came  from  a  beau- 
tiful lake,  which  his  shallop  could  reach  without  difficulty.  The 
latter  statement  he  soon  found  was  not  true,  the  Indians  deceiving 
him  that  they  might  lure  him  on  to  take  part  in  their  expected  battle. 
Disappointed  but  not  discouraged,  he  persuaded  two  of  his  men  to  go 
on  with  him,  and  sent  the  rest  back  to  Quebec  with  the  vessel. 

They  made  the  somewhat  perilous  passage  safely,  without  losing 
a   single  canoe,  landing  where  the  falls  were  highest   and  carrying 
their  frail  boats  on  their  backs,  till  they  came  to  smoother  Diflcovery 
water.     It  was  early  in  July  when  they  entered  the  lake  "4a^plain. 
dotted  with  many  beautiful    islands   and   surrounded  with  1609- 
noble  trees,  many  of  them,  Champlain  observed,  like  those  of  his  native 
France,  on  which  hung  vines  as  luxuriant  as  he  had  ever  seen  any- 
where.    Coasting  the  lake  he  saw  to  the  east  some  lofty  mountain 
peaks,  still  snow-covered  under  the  July  sun.     In  the  secluded  valleys 

VOL.    I.  21 


322        COLONIZATION   UNDER  NORTHERN  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

among  these  mountains  lived  the  fierce  Iroquois,  who  had  fertile  plains 
rich  in  corn  and  other  natural  products.  After  a  sail  about  the  lake 
Cham  plain  gave  it  his  own  name,  —  the  only  instance,  he  records,  in 
which  he  had  thus  arrogated  to  himself  the  honor  of  his  discoveries. 

Several  days  passed  before  their  foes,  the  Iroquois,  made  their  ap- 
pearance. It  was  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening  when  they  came  to  the 
banks  of  the  lake,  and  all  night  the  two  parties  taunted  and  defied 
each  other  for  the  fight  which  was  to  take  place  when  the  next  day's 
sun  should  rise.  But  the  party  of  savages  who  counted  on  the  assist- 
Fightot  ance  of  Champlain  and  his  companions,  kept  their  white 
the  Indians.  .(l\\\es  carefully  concealed.  Next  day  they  formed  in  ranks 
and  approached  to  within  about  two  hundred  feet  of  the  Iroquois,  who 
awaited  them  firmly.  At  that  point  they  opened  their  ranks  to  give 
passage  to  Champlain,  who  advanced  to  the  front  and  discharged  his 
harquebus,  wounding  two  of  the  enemy,  who,  astonished  at  such  an 
appearance  and  its  effect,  fled  in  fright  and  disorder  to  the  woods, 
pursued  by  the  delighted  victors. 

After  this  battle  Champlain  returned  to  Quebec,  where  he  con- 
tinued governor  until  its  surrender  to  the  English  admiral  Kertk  in 
1629.  He  was  reinstated  in  the  office  when  it  again  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  French,  and  from  that  time  continued  to  command  there 
till  his  death  in  1635. 

Meanwhile  a  second  attempt  was  made  by  the  French  to  obtain  a 

settlement  on  the  coast  of  Maine.     In  the  autumn  of  1605,  De  Monts 

sailed  for  France,  promising  to  send  out  supplies  to  the  Port 

tempts  of      Royal  Colony.     But  during  his  absence  prejudice  had  been 

De  Monts.  -         ,  .  TT-  i        •  •     -i 

aroused  against  him  as  a  Huguenot.  His  exclusive  privilege 
of  fishing  the  king  had  revoked,  and  the  merchants  did  not  care  to 
invest  in  a  venture  which  promised  small  returns.  After  many  dif- 
ficulties, however,  he  procured  an  outfit,  and  set  sail  on  May  13,  1G06, 
not  arriving  at  Port  Royal  till  July  27,  but  just  in  time  to  prevent 
the  worn-out  settlers  from  returning  to  France.  Still  desiring  to  find 
a  more  southerly  place  for  his  colony,  he  despatched  Pontrincourt  on 
the  old  route  along  the  New  England  coast,  and  returned  to  France. 
Off  Cape  Cod  Poutrincourt's  vessel  was  stranded  upon  a  shoal,  and 
three  of  his  men  were  killed  by  the  natives,  who  manifested  great 
hostility.  The  weather  also  proving  unfavorable  he  put  back,  and 
reached  Port  Royal  about  the  middle  of  November.  Champlaiu 
and  the  other  gentlemen  received  him  with  great  joy,  and  a  butt  of 
the  best  Burgundy  4%  made  their  caps  spin  round." 

In  the  midst  of  their  spring  planting  a  vessel  arrived  with  the  un- 
welcome news  that  no  more  men  nor  supplies  could  be  furnished,  and 
that  the  colony  must  be  disbanded.  Port  Royal  was  left  uninhabited 


1613.] 


THE  FRENCHMEN  AT  MT.  DESERT. 


323 


till  1610,  when  Poutrincourt  returned  at  the  instance  of  the  king  to 
make  the  new  settlement  a  central  station  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Indians, — a  work  which  made  some  Jesuit  missionaries  prominent  in 
the  history  of  the  New  World.  His  son  followed  in  1611,  with  Fathers 
Pierre  Biard,  and  Enemoud  Masse.  Madame  la  Marquise  de  Guer- 
cheville,  a  pious  Catholic,  to  whom  De  Monts  had  ceded  his  title  to 
Acadia,  and  to  whom  afterwards  the  French  king  granted  the  whole 
territory  now  covered  by  the  United  States,  was  the  chief  patroness  of 
these  voyages.  Desir- 
ing to  make  another 
settlement,  she  des- 
patched a  vessel  in 
1613,  with  two  more 
Jesuits,  Father  Quen- 
tin  and  Gilbert  du 
Thet,  and  forty-eight 
men  under  La  Saus- 
saye,  who  intended  to 
reach  a  place  called 
Kadesquit  (Bangor) 
on  the  Penobscot. 
This  spot  had  been 
selected  by  Father 
Biard  on  a  trip  which 
he  made  from  Port 
Roval  to  the  Penob- 

tt 

scot.  They  reached 
Port  Royal  on  May 
16,  and  taking  Fa- 
thers Biard  and  Masse 
on  board  sailed  for 
their  destination. 

But  such  a  fog  en- 
veloped them  oft'  Me- 
nans  (Grand  Manan) 
that  they  had  to  lie  to  for  two  davs ;  when  the  weather  cleared  up 
they  saw  the  island  which   Champlain   named  Monts   De-   Mount  D^. 
serts,  and  which  the  Indians  called  Pemetig,   which  means  ert- 
"  at  the  head,"  from  its  commanding  position.     The  lifting  fog  dis- 
closed Great  Head,  rising  sheer  from  the  ocean  to  buttress  the  forests 
of  Green  and  Newport  mountains.     On  their  right  was  the  broad  sheet 
of  water,  since  called  Frenchman's  Bay,  extending  far  into  the  land. 
Into  this  they  gladly  sailed,  and  dropping  anchor  inside  of  Porcupine 


Great  Head. 


. 


324        COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN"  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

Island,  effected  a  landing  not  far  from  the  bar  which  gives  its  name  to 
a  little  harbor.  There  the  broad  flank  of  Green  Mount,  with  New- 
port just  alongside  to  make  a  deep  and  still  ravine,  greeted  the  eyes 
which  sea-spray  and  the  fog  had  filled.  Eagle  Lake  lay  buried  in  the 
forest  in  front  of  them,  and  the  wooded  slopes  stretched  along  to  the 
right  as  far  as  they  could  see.  The  islands  with  bronzed  cliffs  to  sea- 
ward, and  bases  honeycombed  by  the  tide,  wore  sharp  crests  of  fir  and 
pine.  The  American  coast  does  not  supply  another  combination  so 
striking  as  this,  of  mountains  with  their  feet  in  deep  ocean  on  every 
side,  lifting  two  thousand  feet  of  greenery  to  vie  with  the  green  of 
waves  ;  of  inland  recesses  where  brooks  run  past  brown  rocks,  and 
birds  sing  woodland  songs  as  if  their  nests  swung  in  a  country  remote 


Bar  Harbor. 

from  sea-breezes.  Delicate  ferns  fill  the  moist  places  of  the  wood, 
and  the  sea-anemones  open  in  the  little  caverns  where  the  tide  leaves 
a  pool  for  them.  Nature  has  scattered  the  needled  pines,  of  shape  so 
perfect,  from  those  of  an  inch  high  to  the  finished  tree,  artfully  dis- 
tributed in  the  open  spaces.  The  Frenchmen  hailed  this  picturesque 
conclusion  to  their  voyage,  and  named  the  place  and  harbor  St.  Sau- 
veur. 

Several  Indian  villages  were  on  the  island.  A  smoke  rose  as  a  sig- 
nal that  the  men  were  observed ;  they  signalled  with  another  smoke, 
and  the  natives  came  to  see  them.  Father  Biard  had  met  some  of 
them  on  the  Penobscot.  and  now  inquired  the  way  to  Kadesquit. 
They  answered  that  their  place  was  better,  and  so  wholesome  that 
sick  natives  in  the  neighboring  parts  were  bi-ought  thither  to  be 
cured.  But  when  Father  Biard  could  not  be  persuaded,  they  belied 


1613.] 


THE   SETTLEMENT   AT    ST    SAUVEUR. 


325 


their  own  sanitary  praises,  and  begged  the  good  father  to  come  and 
see  their  sagamore,  Asticon,  who  was  very  sick,  and  like  to  die  with- 
out the  sacrament.  This  wily  stroke  prevailed  :  they  took  him  round 
to  the  eastern  shore  of  a  bay,  which  is  now  called  Somes's  Sound,  from 
a  Gloucester  man  who  settled  there  in  1760.  Great  shell  heaps  still 
indicate  the  site  of  Asticon's  village.  He  only  had  an  attack  of 
rheumatism  ;  so  the  father  asked  the  natives  to  show  him  the  place 
which  they  esteemed  to  be  so  much  better  than  Kadesquit.  They 
took  him  around  the  head  of  the  Sound,  to  a  grassy  slope  of  twenty 
or  thirty  acres,  with  a  stream  on  each  side,  running  down  to  the  tide. 
The  bay  was  as  still  as  a  lake  ;  "•  the  black  soil  fat  and  fertile,  the 
pretty  hill  abutting  softly  on  the  sea,  and  bathed  on  its  sides  by  two 
streams,  the  little  islands  which  break  the  force  of  waves  and  wind."1 


Somes's  Sound. 

These  islands  are  the  Great  and  Little  Cranberry,  and  Lancaster's. 
The  cliffs  rise  to  a  great  height,  and  the  water  at  their  base  is  deep 
enough  for  any  ship  to  ride  a  cable's  length  from  the  shore.  Xo  won- 
der that  Father  Biard  thought  no  more  of  Kadesquit.  They  planted 
the  cross,  threw  up  a  slight  entrenchment,  and  La  Saussaye  began  to 
plant,  for  the  time  was  early  in  June. 

But,  unfortunately,  the  English  in  Virginia  were  used  to  cruise  along 
the  coast  as  far  as  Pemaquid  annually  to  catch  fish.     This 
year  Samuel  Argall  sailed  on  such  a  fishing  voyage,  some  tact  on  the 
accounts  adding  that  he  was  sent  by  Dale,  the  governor,  to 
drive  the  French  out  of  Acadia.    Champlain  says  he  had  fourteen  pieces 
of  artillery.     When  he  reached  Pemaquid,  the  savages,  not  intending 

1  Father  Biard's  Rtlation. 


326       COLONIZATION    UNDER   NORTHERN    COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 


any  harm,  as  the  French  and  English  were  then  at  peace,  gave  him 
to  understand  that  Frenchmen  had  arrived  at  Mount  Desert.  They 
attributed  the  excitement  of  Argall  and  his  men  to  a  pleased  anticipa- 
tion of  meeting  the  French,  and  procuring  some  needed  stores.  So  an 
Indian  volunteered  to  guide  Argall  to  the  French  vessel.  He,  without  a 
challenge,  summons,  or  word  of  explanation,  bore  directly  down,  "swift 
as  an  arrow,"  says  Biard,  upon  the  French  vessel,  on  the  plea  that  it 
was  in  waters  covered  by  the  patent  of  the  Virginia  Company,  and 
opened  fire.  Only  ten  men  were  on  board  the  vessel,  the  rest  being  scat- 
tered on  shore.  The  sails  had  been 

*^   . 

converted  into  deck-awnings,  and  the 
anchor  was  fast  on  the  bottom,  so  that 
by  no  sea  manoeuvre  could  they  evade 
the  attacking  vessel.     No  gun- 
ners were  on  board  ;   Du  Thet 
undertook  to  serve  one  of  the 
guns,  and   fired    once   wildly, 
when  he  was  mortally  wounded 


., 

- 
-•:" 

' 


Argall's  Attack  on  the  French 


by  a  musket  shot.  The  vessel  surrendered,  the  Englishmen  landed 
and  began  to  search  the  tents.  Argall,  finding  La  Saussaye's  desk, 
broke  it  open  and  took  out  his  royal  commission,  then  locked  the 
desk,  and  when  he  returned  coolly  asked  him  for  his  papers.  Of 
course  they  were  missing ;  then  Argall,  pretending  that  he  was  an 
impostor,  with  no  title  to  fish,  trade,  or  settle,  gave  his  soldiers  license 
to  plunder,  which  they  did  thoroughly  in  a  couple  of  days.  After 
the  death  of  Du  Thet,  who  lingered  for  a  day,  the  other  Jesuits 
remonstrated  with  Argall,  and  declared  that  they  were  on  a  genuine 
mission,  approved  by  their  king.  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  it  is  a  great  pity 
that  you  have  lost  your  papers." 

La  Saussaye,  Father  Masse,  and  a  dozen  men  were  turned  loose  in 


1G14.]  DESTRUCTION    OF   FRENCH    SETTLEMENTS.  327 

a  boat  to  find  their  way  to  Port  Royal.  Near  the  coast  they  were 
met  by  two  fishing  vessels  which  carried  them  to  France.  Father 
Biard  and  the  rest  of  the  company  were  carried  to  Virginia  ;  and  as 
Argall  began  by  representing  that  they  had  sailed  without  a  commis- 
sion, they  were  lodged  in  jail,  where  they  were  so  badly  treated,  and 
threatened  with  death,  that  Argall  became  frightened,  and  told  Sir 
Thomas  Dale,  the  Governor,  that  he  had  taken  La  Saussaye's  commis- 
sion :  they  were  then  released. 

Argall's  conduct  was  approved  at  Jamestown.  The  governor 
sent  him  back,  with  his  own  vessel  and  the  French  prize,  to 
destroy  all  the  settlements  in  Acadia.  He  landed  again  at  of  Vrench°n 
Somes's  Sound,  cut  down  the  French  cross,  set  up  another 
with  the  English  arms,  and  obliterated  every  trace  of  the  settlement. 
Then  sailing  to  the  island  of  St.  Croix,  he  burned  all  the  vacated 
buildings  there  and  carried  off  a  stock  of  salt.  His  next  point  was 
Port  Royal,  where  Biencourt,  Poutrincourt's  son,  who  was  incapable  of 
making  any  effective  resistance,  tried  to  buy  Argall  off  by  proposing 
to  divide  the  trade  with  him.  But  Argall  executed  his  commission. 
He  "destroyed  the  fort  and  all  monuments  and  marks  of  French  power 
at  Port  Royal.  He  even  caused  the  names  of  De  Monts  and  other 
captains,  and  the  fleurs-de-lys,  to  be  effaced  with  pick  and  chisel  from 
a  massive  stone  on  which  they  had  been  engraved."  1  In  one  of  his  ves- 
sels were  the  three  Jesuits  who  had  been  taken  to  Virginia.  On  their 
return,  the  vessel  in  which  they  sailed  became  separated  from  Argall's 
in  a  storm,  and  driven  to  the  Azores,  whence  they  found  their  way  to 
England,  and  then  to  France.  Thus  not  a  Frenchman  was  left  upon  the 
coast  of  Maine,  nor  a  single  cross  to  signify  priority  of  possession. 

After  this  expedition  of  Argall  and  his  ruthless  work  of  destruction 
at  Mount  Desert,  the  next  English  navigator  of  any  note  who  visited 
Maine  was  Captain  John  Smith,  who  in  1614  came  thither 
with  two  ships  fitted  out  by  some  London  merchants.  As  in  xe»  t-.ng- 
usual,  a  search  after  rich  mines  was  announced  as  one  of  the 
chief  objects  of  the  adventure,  but  it  easily  and  naturally  turned  to  a 
fishing  and  fur-trading  voyage.  Several  ships  were  drying  and  pre- 
paring their  fish  upon  the  coasts  when  Smith  arrived  among  them,  and 
his  own  sailors,  expert  in  this  sort  of  work,  readily  took  in  a  cargo. 
"  Is  it  not  pretty  sport,"  writes  Smith,  in  his  narrative  of  the  voyage, 
"  to  pull  up  two  pence,  six  pence,  and  twelve  pence  as  fast  as  you  can 
haul  and  veere  a  line." 

Smith  did  not  spend  all  his  time  in  trading  and  fishing,  but  leaving 
most  of  his  crew  thus  employed,  he  cruised  along  shore  in  a  little  boat, 
drawing  a  map  as  he  went  from  isle  to  isle,  from  harbor  to  harbor, 

1  Beamish's  History  of  Nova  Scotia,  vol.  i.,  p.  58. 


328        COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

marking  all  soundings,  rocks,  and  landmarks.  This  map  he  took 
home,  and  submitted  to  the  prince,  —  afterwards  Charles  I.,  —  who 
gave  to  the  country,  at  Smith's  suggestion,  the  name  of  New  England. 
Smith  had  sailed  with  two  ships,  and  on  his  return  left  one  behind 
Indians  kid-  to  finish  lading.  They  took  a  good  cargo  of  fish,  but  not 
satisfied  with  that,  the  ship-master,  Thomas  Hunt,  seized 
twenty-seven1  of  the  savages,  it  is  supposed  in  Plymouth 
Bay,  and  carried  them  captive  to  Spain,  whither  he  went  to  dispose 
of  his  cargo.  There  he  sold  his  fish  at  an  excellent  profit,  and  sold 
also  his  Indian  prisoners  as  slaves.  Through  the  benevolent  efforts 


napped  by 

Captain 

Hunt. 


Cod-fishine. 


of  a  brotherhood  of  Spanish  friars,  some  of  the  savages  were  rescued 
and  sent  to  London,  and  thence  to  their  native  country. 

Smith's  characteristic  enthusiasm  was  greatly  excited  by  the  value 

of  the  fishery  on  the  coast  he  had  visited.     He  commended  that  staple 

to  the  consideration  of  English  merchants,  and  argued  that 

forced-        fish,  although  it  might  seem  a  "  mean  and  base  commodity," 

had  yet  made  the  fortunes  of  so  thriving  a  state  as  Holland. 

He  also  made  an  able  plea  for  colonisation  in  New  England,  declaring 

that  those  who  undertook  the  matter  could,  with  sense,  discretion,  and 

perseverance,  get  rich.     "  For  I  am  not  so  simple,"  he  says,  "  as  to 

think  any  other  motive  than  wealth  will  ever  erect  a  commonwealth, 

or  draw  company  from  their  ease  and  humors  at  home,  to  stay  in  New 

1  Accounts  differ  as  to  the  number  of  the  kidnapped  Indians,  but  Smith's  Description  oj 
New  England  says  twenty-seven. 


1617.]  RICHARD  VINES  AT   WINTER  HARBOR.  329 

England,  to  effect  my  purposes."  And  he  therefore  urged  earnestly 
the  great  commercial  value  of  fur  and  fish,  so  abundant  there.  In  a 
letter  written  to  Lord  Bacon,  in  1618,  to  commend  the  fisheries  to  his 
care,  he  says  that  he  had  made  a  fishing  voyage  two  years  previous 
with  only  forty -five  men,1  and  had  cleared  .£1,500  in  less  than  three 
months  on  a  cargo  of  dried  fish  and  beaver  skins-  This  would  be  a 
good  catch  even*  for  a  fisherman  of  the  present  day,  for  a  pound  ster- 
ling in  Lord  Bacon's  time  had  more  value  than  twenty-five  dollars  of 
our  money  of  the  present  day,  so  that  John  Smith's  three  months'  ven- 
ture brought  in  an  amount  nearly  equal  to  §40,000. 

He  made  an  attempt  to  go  again  to  New  England  in  1615,  but  was 
driven  back  to  port  by  storms ;  on  starting  out  a  second  time  he  was 
captured  by  French  pirates,  and  only  reached  England  after  much  de- 
lay and  ill  fortune.  His  energy  in  fighting  against  adverse  circum- 
stances seems  for  the  first  time  to  have  deserted  him,  for  we  hear  no 
more  of  any  attempt  at  new  adventures,  though  he  never  lost  his  in- 
terest in  the  New  World.l?  In  the  same  year  of  this  second  attempt  of 
Smith's,  Richard  Hawkins,  who  was  made  president  of  the  voyage  of 
Plymouth  Company,  sailed  to  the  coast  of  New  England,  but  Richard 


Hawkins. 
1615. 


found  so  serious  a  war  raging  among  the  savages  that  he  left 

those  parts,  going  south  to  Virginia,  and  afterwards  to  Spain,  where 

he  sold  his  cargo,  and  thence  returned  to  England. 

Finding  himself  not  seconded  by  any  other  of  the  Company,  Gorges 
sent  out,  at  his  own  expense,  Richard  Vines  to  make  a  set-  Richard 
tlement.  This  heroic  man  spent  the  winter  of  1616  and  Vtoe8- 
1617  in  Saco  Bay,  at  a  place  called  Winter  Harbor.  A  pestilence 
which  depopulated  all  the  Indian  tribes  between  the  Penobscots  and 
the  Narragansetts  had  broken  out.  Vines,  who  was  a  physician,  had 
no  thought  of  deserting  his  post,  though  his  vessels  offered  an  easy 
escape  ;  he  tended  the  Indians  with  assiduous  kindness,  and  after- 
wards, when  he  ventured  into  the  interior,  the  savage  gratitude  pre- 
ceded him,  and  he  was  everywhere  received  with  hospitality  and  rever- 
ence. Through  all  the  raging  of  this  disease  among  the  Indians,  he 
and  his  men  often  lying  in  the  cabins  with  sick  and  dying,  not  one 
of  them,  it  is  narrated,  ever  felt  so  much  as  a  headache,  but  retained 
uninterrupted  health. 

Vines  was   absorbed   in    trade,  discover)',   and   the   cultivation   of 
friendly  relations   with    the    Indians.     The   dismal  winter, 
which  devastated  so  many  native  wigwams,   was  used   by  vines  m  the 
him  to  make  the  whole  coast  better  known  to  the  English. 

1  This  was  very  likely  the  voyage  of  1614,  as  the  date  of  the  letter  probably  referred  to 
its  publication,  and  there  is  no  record  of  any  voyage  accomplished  by  Smith  after  1614, 
This  was  a  very  profitable  cargo,  as  he  says  Hunt  sold  his  fish  "  at  forty  reals  a  quintal, 
each  hundred  weighing  two  and  a  half  quintals." 


330        COLONIZATION    UNDER  NORTHERN  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

He  had  no  fear  of  the  savages,  for  he  ventured  in  a  canoe  up  the 
valley  of  the  Saco  River  to  its  source,  that  trickles  through  that  nar- 
row gap,  or  Crawford's  Notch,  the  sad  gate  by  which  so  many  white 
people  were  subsequently  taken  into  Canadian  captivity.  He  was 

the  first  to  describe  the 
White  Mountains,  if 
not  tlie  first  to  reach 
them.  To  him  also 
belongs  the  honor  of 
restraining  traders 
from  debauching  the 
Indians  with  r  u  m . 
Thus  he  favored  a 
kind  of  Maine  Law  be- 
fore Maine  existed. 
The  E nglish  m  i  g  h  t 
have  traced  to  rum  the 
gradual  deterioration 
of  the  native  temper 
of  the  Abnakis,  from 
which  they  were  the 
first  to  suffer  in  the 
frontier  raids  ;  it  ex- 
asperated courage  to 
ferocity,  and  embit- 
tered every  pi-aetice  of 
savage  warfare.  Rum 
never  made  the  In- 
dian good-natured. 
He  became  something 
appalling,  a  concentration  of  the  cruel  and  mocking  rage  of  many 
men,  as  soon  as  liquor  filled  his  veins. 

The  post  of  Gorges,  as  governor  of  Plymouth,  seems  to  have  been 
especially  favorable  to  catch  all  the  news,  and  receive  all  the  wonders 
which  the  line  of  returning  ships  brought  to  England  from  her  pos- 
sessions in  the  New  World.  The  governor  had  begun  by 
questioning  the  first  Indian  captives  whom  Wey mouth  had 
brought  him,  about  the  country  from  whence  they  came, 
and  he  seems  to  have  regarded  them  as  most  useful  allies  in  discovery. 
Thus  it  happened  again  that  some  of  the  natives  who  were  kidnapped 
were  sent  to  him  to  dispose  of,  either  to  be  retained  in  his  keeping 
or  returned  on  the  ships  that  he  fitted  out  for  America.  One  of  these 
Indians,  named  Epenovv,  a  savage  of  "  goodly  and  brave  aspect,"  who 


Richard  Vines    at  Crawford   Notch. 


The  Indian 
captives  of 
Uorgea. 


1619.]  EXPEDITIONS  OF   FERDINAXDO  GORGES.  331 

had  been  exhibited  in  London  as  a  curiosity,  came  into  Gorges'  hands, 
and  was  sent  by  him  as  guide  and  interpreter  in  an  expedition  sent 
in  1614,  fitted  out  by  himself  and  the  Earl  of  Southampton. 

But  the  wily  Epenow  was  restless  in  captivity.     He  quietly  bided 
his  time,  and  no  sooner  was  he  in  his  native  land  than  he  EpenoW)_ 
planned  with   his  savage   kinsfolk,  who  came  out  in  their  ^mThe1** 
canoes  to  visit  the  ship,  to  make  his  escape.    Though  strictly  Eu8l1811 
watched,  and  clad  in  long  coats,  to  be  easily  laid  hold  of  if  he  should 
attempt  to  escape,  he  suddenly  leaped  off  the  ship,  one  day,  when 
standing  between  two  men  who  were  acting  as  his  guards,  and  once  in 
the  water  easily  reached  the  shore. 

Another  of  these  savages,  named  Tisquantum,  or  Squanto,  one  of 
those  whom  Thomas  Hunt  had  sold  in  Spain,  was  shipped 
to  Newfoundland,  where  Captain  John  Mason  was  governor 
of  an  English  plantation.     Here,  in  1618,  Squanto  met  with  a  Captain 
Dermer,  who  had  sailed  with  Smith  in  one  of  his  vo}rages.     Dermer 
wrote  to  Gorges  that  if  he  would  send  him   a   commission  in  New 
England,   he  would   go   there   from    Newfoundland,   taking   Squanto 
with  him.     Gorges  responded  by  sending  out  Captain  Rocroft,  who 
had  before  been  in  Virginia. 

Rocroft  was  ordered  to  go  to  New  England  only,  but  he  had  barely 
reached  the  coast  when  he  overhauled  a  bark,  commanded 
by  a  Frenchman,  from  Dieppe,  and  enriching  himself  witli   croft  in  vir- 
what  lie  found  on  board,  sailed  for  Virginia.     Here  he  fell  ' 
in  with  some  boon  companions,  quarrelled  with  them,  and  was  killed. 
His  vessel,   left  to  drift  without  a  captain,  was  lost,  and  although 
some  of  the  cargo  was  saved,  no  part  of  this  venture  ever  came  back 
to  Gorges. 

In  the  mean  time,  Dermer,  disappointed  in  his  hopes  of  getting 
a  ship  in  Newfoundland,  returned  to  Plymouth  to  confer  0aptlljnDer. 
with  the  governor  and  get  his  commission.  Gorges  hurried  ^thv'nor- 
him  back  in  a  ship  of  his  own  which  happened  to  be  in  port.  ***•  1 
Dermer  left  his  ship  at  the  island  of  Monhegan,  and  in  an  open  pin- 
nace explored  the  coast  in  1619  from  Maine  to  Virginia.  At  Mar- 
tha's Vineyard  he  met  Epenow,  who  told  the  story  of  his  escape  with 
much  merriment.  Thence  Dermer  sailed  through  Long  Island  Sound, 
—  the  first  Englishman  who  discovered  that  inland  passage,  —  lost  an 
anchor  in  the  rapids  of  Hell  Gate  ;  acquired,  as  lie  believed,  certain 
knowledge  from  the  Indians  of  a  passage  to  the  South  Sea  ;  and  went 
out  to  sea  again  through  the  Narrows.  He  may  have  thought  the 
Hudson  river  to  be  the  channel  which  the  Indians  assured  him  they 
knew.  If  so,  when  he  returned  the  next  season  in  search  of  it,  he 
was,  very  likely,  better  instructed  by  the  Dutch  whom  he  found  on 


332       COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN   COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

Manhattan  Island.  He  seems,  at  any  rate,  to  have  said  nothing  more 
about  the  South  Sea,  to  have  gone  again  to  Virginia,  and  to  have  died 
there  soon  after. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Northern  Company,  of  which  Gorges  was  the 
charter  of     most  active  member,   had  never  been  satisfied  with    their 
rights  under  the   charter  which   connected  them  with    the 
y.  1620.  gouth  Virginia  Company,  and  in  1620  urged  their  claims 
to  a  new  patent  so  strongly  that  it  was  granted  them  by  the  king. 

This  defined  their  territory  as  that  land 
from  the  40th  to  the  48th  degree 
of  latitude.  Against  this  charter 
the  Virginia  Company  loudly  remon- 
strated, because,  according  to  Gorges's 

Signature  of  Ferdinando  Gorges.  .  ,    .  ,   ,,        . 

account,  "  they  were  debarred  the  inter- 
meddling within  our  limits  who  had  formerly  excluded  us  from  having 
to  do  with  theirs."  l  The  dispute  was  referred  to  a  committee  of 
Parliament,  before  whom  Gorges  appeared  three  times  to  argue  the 
rights  of  the  Plymouth  Company,  and,  on  the  third  hearing,  being 
called  to  state  the  case,  he  made  a  speech  so  sensible  and  so  eloquent, 
urging  the  value  of  the  fishing  trade,  which,  even  while  they  were 
disputing  on  boundaries,  might  be  monopolized  by  French  or  Hol- 
landers, that  most  who  heard  him  were  satisfied  with  his  representa- 
tion, and  in  spite  of  the  strong  influence  held  by  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany, the  king  could  not  be  induced  to  revoke  his  patent. 

Their  charter  being  thus  confirmed,  the  Plymouth  Company  felt 
Grant  to  themselves  on  a  sure  basis,  and  more  than  ever  Gorges  was 
AieMndiT™  inclined  to  redouble  his  attempts  at  settlement  in  the  new 
1621  lands.  The  company  in  1621  made  a  grant  to  one  of  the 

Scotch  favorites  of  James  I.,  Sir  William  Alexander,  afterwards 
made  Earl  of  Stirling,  a  man  of  some  literary  fame  both  as  a  drama- 
tist and  a  writer  of  sonnets.  This  grant  was  called  Nova  Scotia, 
and  extended  from  Cape  Sable  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  including  Cape 
Breton,  and  all  the  islands  within  six  leagues.  It  will  be  seen  that 
this  grant  encroached  on  the  French  dominion  of  Acadia,  which  still 
stretched  its  indefinite  boundaries  about  that  region.  The  French 
then  and  thenceforth,  until  the  final  settlement  between  France  and 
England,  claimed,  and  largely  maintained  their  claim,  to  all  the 
territory  east  of  the  Penobscot  and  north  to  the  St.  Lawrence  ;  the 
English  held  their  right  to  all  west  of  the  Kennebec.  The  land 
lying  between  was  disputed  territory,  which  neither  was  fully  able 
to  hold.  Alexander's  design  was  to  people  all  his  territory  with  his 
own  countrymen,  who  should  present  a  firm  barrier  of  Scotch  Presby- 
1  Gorges's  Narrations,  Maine  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  ii. 


1623.]  THE   LACONIA    GRANT.  333 

terianism  to  the  Catholicism  which  the  French  settlers  had  brought 
thither. 

But  the  territory,  including  all  the  sea-coast  of  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Massachusetts,  between  the  lands  of  Alexander  and  the 
little  Pilgrim  colony  just  fastened  on  that  rocky  shore  at  Plymouth,  was 
still  unoccupied.  Ships,  laden  with  fish,  furs,  and  timber,  constantly 
plied  between  England  and  its  namesake  in  the  New  World.  In  one 
year  fifty  ships  came  into  English  ports  from  these  parts  with  profit- 
able cargoes  of  these  homely  exports,  and  the  value  of  their  American 
possession  began  to  be  clearly  recognized  by  the  Company,  even  though 
no  mines  like  those  of  Mexico  and  Peru  were  found  there.  Early  in 
1622,  Gorges  for  the  first  time  got  a  special  grant  for  himself  from  the 
Company  of  which  he  was  so  indefatigable  a  member.  He  joined  with 
him  John  Mason,  also  a  member  of  Plymouth  Company,  who  had 
been,  says  Gorges,  governor  of  a  plantation  in  Newfound-  The  ^^.^^ 
land,  and  was  a  man  of  action  and  experience.  This  grant  Grant-  1623- 
the  two  owners  named  Laconia ;  it  embraced  the  region  between 
the  Merrimack  and  Kennebec,  stretching  back  to  Canada  and  the 
great  lakes.  The  year  their  grant  was  confirmed,  1623,  they  sent 
over  a  ship-load  of  settlers,-  half  fishermen  and  half  planters,  with 
all  necessary  tools  and  provisions,  to  make  a  permanent  <^ttlement 
settlement.  They  sailed  in  the  spring,  and  debarked  at  ^^"Jn,, 
the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua.  There  they  divided  into  two  1623 
parties.  One  of  these  stopped  at  a  pleasant  place,  which  was  named 
"  Strawberry  Bank,"  where  the  white  blossoms  of  the  wild  straw- 
berry spreading  over  the  land  gave  promise  of  fruitful  farms,  and 
the  close  proximity  of  the  sea  made  it  easy  for  the  fishermen  at  any 
time  to  take  to  their  boats.  There  they  built  a  rude  house  for  gen- 
eral occupation,  and  went  to  work  at  once  to  furnish  means  for  cur- 
ing the  fish,  which  was  to  be  their  staple  product,  by  erecting  salt- 
works. This  was  the  site  of  the  old  town  of  Portsmouth,  New  Hamp- 
shire. The  other  party  went  up  the  river  a  few  miles,  and  began  the 
plantation  of  Dover.  These  two  towns  were  the  first  decided  fruits  of 
Gorges's  work  of  colonization. 

Almost  simultaneously   with   the   beginning   of   these  settlements 
another  enterprise  was  begun  by  the  Plymouth  Company. 

rr,,  ,       J  J       .         .  ,     .       /       Governor- 

Inere  was  as  yet  no  general  government  instituted  in  its   general  of 

j    .  ,          ,  T      .  .  the  Plym- 

terntories,  and  it  was  therefore  decided  to  appoint  a  gov-  outacom- 
ernoi'-general  over  their  whole  domain,  who  should  go  in 
person  to  America,  and  establish  such  laws  and  government  as  should 
be  in  conformity  to  those  of  England.     Robert  Gorges,  a  son  of  Fer- 
dinando,  was  thus  appointed  in  1623,  and  a  large  grant  of  land  on 
Massachusetts  Bay,  of  three  hundred  square  miles,  was  given  him  by 


Robert 
Gorges. 


334        COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

the  Company  of  Plymouth.  He  had  for  his  assistants  Captain  West 
and  Captain  Christopher  Levett,  both  of  whom  had  been  in  New 
England,  and  also  the  governor  of  the  New  Plymouth  Colony  already 
established  on  lands  near  his  own  grant.  Gorges  went  first 
to  New  Plymouth  to  confer  with  its  governor,  and  was  hos- 
pitably received.  The  wife  of  Robert  Gorges  was  a  daughter  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  who  felt  so  much  interest  in  Puritan  emigration, 
and  Gorges,  probably,  had  no  special  hostility  to  the  religious  senti- 
ments of  the  New  Plymouth  colony,  and  held  most  amicable  rela- 
tions with  the  Pilgrim  fathers.  But  he  did  not  like  the  country,  and 
only  remained  there  till  the  spring  of  1624,  when  he  took  ship  and 
went  up  the  coast  to  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua,  where  he  was  to 
meet  Captain  Levett.  He  soon  after  went  back  to  England  and  never 


View  at  the   Mouth  of  the   Piscataqua. 

returned  to  America.  His  brother,  John  Gorges,  succeeded  him  in  his 
rights  there,  and  in  his  turn  made  over  this  grant  to  William  Brere- 
ton,  who  established  several  families  in  the  lands  originally  given  to 
Robert  Gorges. 

Captain  Levett,  now  one  of  the  assistants  of  the  newly  appointed 
governor-general,  had  shortly  followed  his  chief  from  England,  and 
met  him  at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua.  Here  Mr.  David  Thomp- 
son, one  of  the  planters  who  had  settled  in  Portsmouth  the  year  be- 
fore, already  had  a  successful  plantation  ;  both  Gorges  and  Levett 
were  his  guests.  Captain  Levett  made  an  interesting  exploration  of 
Levetfs  Maine  in  the  region  of  the  Sagadahoc,  looking  for  a  place  for 
ages.  1623.  permanent  settlement.  He  had  the  true  spirit  of  an  adven- 
turer, and  relates  cheerfully,  that  after  sleeping  night  after  night  on 


1G30.]  SETTLEMENTS  IN  MAINE.  335 

the  wet  ground,  he  was  filled  with  content  at  getting  dried  grass 
for  his  bed  ;  and  recounts  with  much  merriment  the  story  of  the 
beggar,  who  said  if  he  were  rich  he  would  have  every  day"  a  breast  of 
mutton  with  a  pudding  in  it,  and  sleep  up  to  his  neck  in  dry  straw. 

Levett  finally  built  a  house  at  a  place  he  called  York,  somewhere 
near  the  present  site  of  that  town,  in  Maine,  and  then  returned  to 
England,  where  he  printed  an  account  of  all  that  he  had  seen  and 
done,  and  specially  commended  to  the  attention  of  merchants  the  rich 
products  of  the  country  and  sea-coasts,  in  timber,  furs,  and  codfish, 
ending  with  the  wholesome  advice  that  no  man  go  to  the  country 
unless  he  was  willing  to  work.  He  declares  that  a  man  with  a  family 
who  were  unfit  to  labor  would  do  better  to  stay  at  home  with  them  ; 
but  he  that  could  work  and  had  not  too  many  hostages  to  fortune  in 
the  shape  of  wife  and  children,  if  he  went  out  properly  equipped  with 
tools,  and  enough  provisions  to  last  till  he  was  prosperously  estab- 
lished, was  certain  to  get  rich  in  New  England. 

In  all  these  attempts  no  permanent  plantation  which  could  fairly 
be  called  a  settlement  had  been  made  on  the  coast  of  Maine. 
Although  a  large  part  of  the  Laconia  grant  was  within  fniimuT^f 
the  present  limits  of  that  State,  yet  the  first  expedition  sent 
by  Mason  and  Gorges  had  established  itself  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  which  was  to  form  the  boundary  of  New  Hampshire.  As  Lev- 
ett explored  the  coast,  although  he  found  many  fishing  stations,  and 
mentions  several  large  tracts  that  had  been  granted  to  English 
owners,  he  speaks  of  no  settlements  west  of  the  Piscataqua  after  he 
left  the  hospitality  of  Mr.  Thompson's  plantation.  There  were  some 
scattered  beginnings  on  Monhegan  Island,  and  several  fishing  stages 
for  the  cure  of  the  fish,  some  of  which  afterward  formed  the  nucleus 
of  a  town  ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  solitary  plantations  may  have 
been  begun,  of  which  we  have  no  record,  along  that  coast  which 
furnished  resting  places  and  harbors  for  so  many  fishing  vessels,  and 
from  whence  so  much  tall  timber  had  already  been  carried  away.  In 
1625,  two  wealthy  merchants  of  Bristol,  Robert  Aldworth  and  Giles 
Eldridge,  bought  Monhegan  Island,  and  sent  over  an  agent  to  settle 
there  ;  a  year  later  they  bought  the  point  of  Pemaquid,  which  had 
already  been  sold  by  Samoset,  the  friend  of  the  New  Plymouth  colo- 
nists, to  an  English  purchaser,  and  there  thev  established  a  flourishing 
colony,  which  in  1630  numbered  eighty-four  families. 

In    this   same   year  1630,   the    Plymouth   Council    gave    Richard 
Vines  and  John  Oldham,  each   a  tract  of  land  on  the  Saco  settlements 
River,  four   miles  broad  on  the  sea,  and   extending   eight  ^d°vSn^u,1 
miles  up  into  the  land.     Oldham  had  been  six  years  in  the  on  the!*co 
country,  and  Vines's  coming  must  certainly  date  thirteen  or  fourteen 


336        COLONIZATION  UNDER  NORTHERN  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

years  earlier.1  These  two  men  founded  the  towns  of  Biddeford 
and  Saco,  on  their  tract,  which  faced  each  other  on  opposite  sides  of 
the  river.  These  were  the  most  decided  beginnings  of  settlements  in 
Maine.  No  such  well-defined  towns  were  built  in  this  as  in  the  other 
colonies,  and  to  this  want  of  centralization  and  concentration  Maine 
owed  in  part  its  relation  afterwards  as  a  dependency  of  Massachusetts. 
Its  scattered  settlements  were  unable  to  preserve  for  it  a  separate  ex- 
istence when  its  stronger  neighbor  prepared  to  include  it  in  her  more 
powerful  organization. 

In  1629,  when  the  settlements  in  Laconia  on  the  Piscataqua  were 
Gorges  and  S1X  years  old*  Mason  and  Gorges  divided  their  grants  into 
vldTtheir  two  P^'ts,  the  former  taking  all  west  of  the  Piscataqua,  and 
grant-  naming  it  New  Hampshire,  —  Mason  being  then  governor  of 

the  County  of  Hampshire,  England,  —  and  the  latter  all  east  of  that 
stream,  to  the  River  Sagadahoc,  the  eastern  boundary  of  Laconia. 
Gorges  named  his  part  of  the  territory  New  Somersetshire,  from  the 
county  which  had  been  his  early  home.  For  this  new  tract,  now 
solely  his,  he  sent  his  nephew  William  Gorges  and  othei-s.  "  with 
craftsmen,  for  the  building  of  houses,  and  erecting  of  saw-mills,"  also 
cattle,  laborers,  and  servants,  and  the  foundation  of  a  plantation  was 
laid.  This  was  the  town  of  York,  on  which  a  planter  named  Edward 
Godfrey  was  the  first  settler.  On  this,  Gorges  had  set  aside  an  in- 
heritance for  his  grandson  Ferdinando,  of  12,000  acres,  and  it  seems 
to  have  been  his  favorite  point  for  the  establishment  of  a  proprietary 
interest  for  his  family  in  New  England. 

But  already  bitter  complaints  were  made  in  England,  that  discon- 
tented  spirits  full  of  disaffection  to  the  king,  and  hostile  to 


pany  resign  the  government  of  the  established  church,  were  settling  on 
I635rp*  the  grants  made  by  the  Plymouth  Company.  Gorges,  in 
New  England,  was  looked  upon  with  jealous}'  and  dislike  by  many  of 
the  Puritans,  because  of  his  large  territorial  claims  in  their  vicinity,  as 
well  as  on  account  of  his  opinions  as  a  loyalist  and  member  of  the 
English  Church  ;  on  the  other  hand  he  was  attacked  in  England  as  an 
upholder  and  author  of  the  reputed  license  of  laws  and  opinions 
among  the  new  colonies  in  Massachusetts.  He  seems  to  have  been 
deeply  hurt  at  this,  after  his  long  and  arduous  work  in  forwarding  the 
plantation  of  English  colonies  in  New  England,  and  he  "  therefore 
was  moved  to  desire  the  rest  of  the  lords,  that  were  the  principal 
actors  in  this  business,  that  we  should  resign  our  grand  patent  to  the 
king,  and  pass  particular  patents  to  ourselves,  of  such  parts  of  the 

1  There  is  a  doubt  about  the  exact  time  of  Vines's  first  coming.  Prince,  in  his  Chronol- 
ogy, says  it  was  the  winter  of  1616-17,  but  Gorges,  in  his  narrative,  puts  it  after  the  attempt 
at  settlement  by  the  Pophain  Colony,  and  just  before  one  of  the  voyages  of  1614. 


1635]  DIVISION   OF  THE    COMPANY'S   LANDS.  337 

country  about  the  sea-coast  as  might  be  sufficient  to  our  own  uses,  and 
such  of  our  private  friends  as  had  affections  to  works  of  that  nature."  J 
This  was  done  in  1635,  and  the  lands  of  the  Company,  lying  between 
the  forty-eighth  and  thirty-sixth  degree  of  latitude,  were  parcelled  out 
among  its  members.2 

This  new  division  confirmed  the  right  of  Gorges  to  the  tract  lying 
between  the  Piscataqua  and  the  Kennebec,  with  a  sea-coast 

The  terri- 

of  sixty  miles,  and  an  extent  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  ton-  of 
miles  inland.  And  now  for  the  first  time,  he  called  this  his 
province  of  Maine,3  and  he  drew  up  for  it  a  code  of  laws,  dividing  the 
land  first  into  counties,  subdividing  these  into  hundreds,  and  again 
into  parishes  or  tithings,  as  fast  as  population  flu  wed  in  to  fill  up  the 
vacant  places.  He  offered  also  to  transport  planters  to  his  domain, 
promising  to  assign  them  a  certain  portion  of  land  at  the  low  rate  of 
two  or  three  shillings  for  a  hundred  acres,  and  if  any  would  found 
a  town  or  city,  he  would  endow  it  with  such  liberties  and  immun- 
ties  as  they  would  have  in  England.  Others  of  poorer  condition, 
who  would  go  as  laborers,  should  have  as  much  land  as  they  could 
till,  at  the  rent  of  four  or  six  pence  an  acre,  according  to  the  situ- 
ation. 

The  laws  and  government  were  a  return  to  Saxon  simplicit)', 
the  lord  proprietary  retaining  ownership  of  the  soil.  In  1637,  the 
king  gave  Gorges  a  commission  as  governor  of  New  England,  to  com- 
pensate him  for  his  strenuous  efforts  in  colonization,  and  the  many 
losses  he  had  suffered  in  these  endeavors.  He  made  preparations  to 
go  to  Maine,  to  assume  the  duties  of  this  office,  and  see  a  country 
in  which  he  had  so  great  an  interest,  but  some  accident  prevented  his 
departure,  and  he  never  came  to  America.  Three  years  later,  he  sent 

1  Gorges's  "  Brief  Narration,"  Maine  Hist.  CM.,  vol.  ii ,  part  2,  pp.  5,  7. 

2  The  divisions  were  :  (1.)  Between  the  St.  Croix  and  Pemaquid,  to  William  Alexander. 
(2.)  From  Pemaquid  to  Sagadahoc,  in  part  to  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton.     (3.)  Between  the 
Kennebec  and  Androscoggiu ;  and  (4.)  From  Sngadahoc  to  Piscataqua,  to  Sir  F.  Gorges. 
(5.)  From  Piscataqua  to  the  Naumkeag,  to  Mason.     (6.)  From  the  Naumkeag  round  the 
sea-const,  by  Cape  Cod  to  Narragansett,  to  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton.     (7.)  From  Narra- 
gausett  to  the  half-way  bound,  between  that  and  the  Connecticut  River,  and  fifty  miles  up 
into  the  country,  to  Lord  Edward  Gorges.    (8.)  From  this  midway  point  to  the  Connecticut 
River,  to  Earl  of  Carlisle.     (9  and  10.)  From  the  Connecticut  to  the  Hudson,  to  Duke  of 
Lennox.     (11  and  12.)  From  the  Hudson  to  the  limits  of  the  Plymouth  Company's  terri- 
tory, to  Lord  Mulgrave.  —  See  Huhbard's  Hist.  N.  E.,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  Series  2,  vol.  v., 
p.  228.    Williamson's  Hist.  Maine,  vol.  i.,  p.  256.     Gorges's  "  Brief  Narration,"  Maine  Hist. 
Coll.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  54. 

8  Sullivan  in  Hist,  of  Maine,  and  others,  say  that  the  territory  was  called  the  Province  of 
Maine,  in  compliment  to  Queen  Henrietta,  who  hail  that  province  in  France  for  dowry. 
But  Folsom,  "  Discourse  on  Maine,"  Maine  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  38,  says  that  that  province 
in  France  did  not  belong  to  Henrietta.  Maine,  like  all  the  rest  of  the  coast,  was  known  as 
the  "  Maine,"  the  mainland,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  word  so  much  used  by  the  early 
fishers  on  the  coast,  may  thus  have  been  permanently  given  to  this  part  of  it. 
VOL..  i.  22 


338        COLONIZATION   UNDER  NORTHERN  COMPANY.     [CHAP.  XII. 

over  his  kinsman  Thomas  Gorges,  who  came  first  to  Boston,  and  after 
a  courteous  reception  by  the  governor  there,  went  to  take  up  his 
abode  at  Agamenticus. 

To  Ferdinando  Gorges  more  credit  is  due  than  has  been  always 
The  services  acknowledged,  for  his  persistent  efforts  to  settle  New  Eng- 
terdof llttrac  lan(l,  and  for  his  unswerving  belief  in  the  value  of  such  a 
Gorges.  colony  to  the  mother  country.  In  the  conflict  of  patents 
and  titles  between  him  and  the  Virginia  Company,  and  between 
him  and  the  colonists  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  his  real  and  essential 
services  as  the  friend  of  colonization  have  been  in  some  degree 
lost  sight  of.  As  a  staunch  adherent  to  the  Established  Church, 
he  undoubtedly  wished  that  those  who  should  find  homes  in  the 
lands  under  his  jurisdiction  in  the  New  World  should  be  of  the 
faith  of  that  Church  in  which  he  believed.  But  the  jealousy  with 
which,  for  this  reason,  he  was  regarded,  seems  to  have  had  no  suffi- 
cient ground  ;  for  no  sectarian  narrowness  prevented  his  being  the 
earnest  friend  of  the  Puritans  of  New  Plymouth,  and  always  desirous 
of  their  success  and  welfare.  If,  indeed,  the  fear  of  him  as  a  zealous 
Churchman  was  quite  sincere,  it  was,  at  least,  no  doubt  increased  by 
a  covetous  jealousy  of  him  as  a  patentee.  As  so  often  happens,  the 
contemporary  estimate  of  his  character,  taking  its  form  from  the  con- 
victions and  interests  of  those  who  made  it,  has  survived,  and  is  often 
accepted  as  just  by  those  who  do  not  in  the  least  sympathize  with  the 
partial  and  narrow  views  which  led  to  that  judgment.  Losing  sight 
of  these,  or  taking  them  at  their  real  value  as  the  result  of  local  and 
temporary  influences,  the  true  place  of  Gorges  is  found  among  those 
Englishmen  whose  far-sighted  wisdom,  zeal,  and  energies  were  de- 
voted earnestly  and  unselfishly  to  the  permanent  settlement  of  his 
countrymen  upon  this  continent.  He  builded,  perhaps,  better  than 
he  knew  ;  but,  so  far  as  he  did  know,  he  built  with  no  narrow  pur- 
pose. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

. 

DUTCH   EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH   AMERICA.  —  SETTLEMENT   OF    NEW 

AMSTERDAM. 

COMMERCIAL  ENTERPRISE  AND  PROSPERITY  OF  THE  DUTCH.  —  THEIR  INTEREST  IN  A 
SHORT  ROUTE  TO  INDIA.  —  EARLY  NORTHEAST  VOYAGES.  —  HENRY  HUDSON  EM- 
PLOYED BY  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY.  —  His  FIRST  VOYAGE  TO  AMERICA. —  ENTRANCE 
INTO  NEW  YORK  BAY  AND  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  HUDSON  KIVER. —  His  RETURN  TO 
ENGLAND. —  VOYAGE  TO  HUDSON'S  BAY. — THE  DUTCH  ESTABLISH  TRADING-POSTS 
AT  MANHATTAN  ISLAND.  —  DUTCH  WEST  INDIA  COMPANY  CHARTERED.  —  EMIGRA- 
TION OF  WALLOONS.  —  SETTLEMENTS  ON  SITES  OF  ALBANY  AND  NEW  YORK  CITY. 

ALONG  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America,  there  were,  in 
the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  only  three  feeble  Euro- 
pean colonies  established,  —  that  of  the  Spanish  at  St.  Augustine,  of 
the  English  on  the  James  River,  and  of  the  French  in  Acadia  on  the 
shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  Yet  more  than  a  hundred  years  had 
passed  away  since  it  was  claimed  that  Cabot  had  run  along  this  coast 
for  a  thousand  miles  in  an  English  ship  ;  and  that  only  a  few  years 
later  Verrazano  for  the  French,  and  Gomez  for  the  Spanish,  had  visited 
and  named  some  of  the  most  distinctive  of  its  rivers,  bays,  and  capes. 
Of  all  the  states  of  Europe,  Spain  alone  had  increased  in  wealth  and 
power  from  the  discovery  of  the  New  World.  Into  her  coffers,  both 
public  and  private,  gold  had  poured  in  such  enormous  quantities  from 
the  ravishment  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  as  to  affect  the  relative  value  of 
everything  that  was  bought  and  sold  among  civilized  people  ;  but 
otherwise  no  other  nation  shared  in  this  sudden  wealth  except  as 
their  ships  could  spoil  the  Spaniards  on  the  high  seas.  The  Em- 
peror Charles  V.  stamped  upon  his  gold  coin  the  device  of  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules  and  the  legend  Plus  Ultra  ;  but  other  powers  saw  as  yet 
little  reason  to  boast  that  there  was  much  for  them  beyond  the  west- 
ern boundary  of  Europe. 

That  Spain  had  gained  so  much  and  other  nations  seemingly  so 
little,  was  owing  partly  to  the  poverty  in  gold  and  silver  of  the  north- 
ern regions  ;  partly  to  the  failure  to  find  the  northwest  passage  to 
the  South  Sea ;  and  partly  to  the  absorbing  interest  of  great  political 
and  religious  complications  which  agitated  all  Europe  during  much  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  But  there  were  secondary  results  of  American 


340        DUTCH   EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XIII. 

discovery  in  the  growth  of  commerce  and  navigation,  the  closer  rela- 
tions, whether  hostile  or  friendly,  between  nations,  the  significance 
of  which  was  to  be  developed  in  the  coming  years  of  another  era. 
These,  as  they  led  the  way  in  a  certain  degree  to  juster  views  of  the 
importance  of  the  New  World  to  the  Old,  so  also,  they  brought  an- 
other power  into  competition  with  the  other  maritime  states  of  Europe 
for  a  share  in  the  acquisition  of  a  hemisphere. 

When  Charles  V.  resigned  his  Spanish  possessions  to  his  son,  with 
certain  outlying  kingdoms  in  Europe  and  that  great  and  vague  Plus 
Ultra,  a  portion  of  them  included  a  country  small  in  extent,  but  al- 
ready of  extraordinary  wealth  and  energy,  —  a  country  of  which  the 


Medal.     Time  of  Charles  V 


favorite  phrase  of  historians  has  always  been  that  it  had  "  wrested 
its  territory  from  the  sea."     This  was  the  region  occupied 

The  Nether-  * 


by  the  seventeen  provinces  of  the  Netherlands.  Its  people 
had  been  busy  for  centuries  in  redeeming  foot  after  foot  of 
swamp,  and  marsh,  and  submerged  land,  and  surrounding  the  fertile 
territory  thus  gained  with  dikes  and  defences  against  the  ocean  ;  in 
developing  an  agriculture  which  was  amazing  considering  the  re- 
sources at  command  ;  in  establishing  trades  which  even  at  this  time 
produced  the  highest  results  of  any  in  Europe  ;  and  in  training,  as 
such  means  inevitably  must,  a  race  of  prosperous,  vigorous,  and  intel- 
ligent citizens.  It  is  easy  to  admit,  without  being  carried  away  by  any 
enthusiastic  admiration,  that  the  material  advancement  of  the  country 
at  the  time  of  Charles's  abdication  denoted  the  highest  degree  of 
prosperity.  The  emperor  is  said,  and  probably  without  exaggeration, 
to  have  derived  two  of  the  five  millions  of  gold  which  formed  his 
annual  revenue,  from  these  little  provinces  alone.1  They  had  become 
leaders  in  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  had  gained  much  of  the 
trade  that  had  been  a  great  source  of  wealth  to  the  southern  nations 
of  Europe  ;  they  had  shown  themselves  powerful  in  war  as  well  as  in 
1  Suriano  MS.,  quoted  by  Motley,  Rise  of  the  Dutch  RfpuMic,  chap.  i. 


1581.]  WAR  OF  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  341 

peace  ;  and  their  political  institutions,  in  all  those  things  where  they 
themselves  controlled  them,  were  liberal  and  enlightened  not  only  for 
the  time,  but  might  have  been  held  so  in  a  much  later  period. 

It  was  dangerous  to  attempt  to  oppress  or  repress  provinces  like 
these  ;  but  Charles  and  Philip  were  among  the  most  short-  Policy  of 
sighted  of  their  class  of  rulers.  Charles  had  treated  the  f^1"^  the 
Netherlands  with  cruelty  of  every  kind;  he  had  extorted  Netherlani18- 
from  them  enormous  sums  for  schemes  of  personal  ambition,  besides 
constantly  drawing  from  them  a  revenue  utterly  disproportionate  to 
their  place  among  his  possessions ;  he  had  interfered  with  their  polit- 
ical liberties  and  charters  in  every  possible  way  ;  repressed  every  at- 
tempt to  make  their  institutions  as  liberal  as  the  intelligence  of  their 
citizens  required  ;  issued  edicts  disposing  of  their  people  as  if  they  had 
been  born  serfs  ;  and  finally  had  established  the  Inquisition,  where 
Protestantism  was  rapidly  becoming  the  prevalent  faith.  But  it  was 
reserved  for  Philip  to  attempt  to  carry  out  his  father's  policy  with  a 
still  more  terrible  thoroughness,  and  with  a  bigotry  which  even 
Charles  did  not  bring  into  the  work.  He  established  a  still  more 
elaborate  tyranny  in  the  provinces  ;  sent  them  governors  each  one  of 
whom  was  worse  than  his  predecessor  ;  and  finally,  by  setting  over 
them  the  brutal  Alva,  he  roused  the  Netherlands  into  open  war. 

This  war  continued  through  the  century,  and  soon  assumed  its  true 
character  —  that  of  a  war  of  independence.  What  was  already  the 
wealthiest  and  strongest  of  the  regions  subject  to  Spain,  became 
through  it  one  of  the  first  of  the  self-sustained  nations  of  Europe. 
Bound  together  by  the  Union  of  Utrecht  in  1579,  and  declaring  their 
entire  independence  in  the  memorable  declaration  issued  at  Waro{  the 
the  Hague  on  the  26th  of  July,  1581,  the  seven  provinces  y"^. 
of  Gelderland  and  Zutphen,  Holland,  Zealand,  Utrecht,  lands- 
Friesland,  Overyseel,  and  Groningen,  states  which  had,  at  length,  de- 
termined to  throw  off  all  foreign  rule,  established  the  Republic  of  the 
United  Netherlands,  and  carried  on  the  conflict  against  Spain  not  as  a 
rebellion,  but  as  an  independent  power.  It  was  apparently  as  unequal 
a  struggle  as  any  recorded  in  history  ;  but  the  heroic  pertinacity  with 
which  it  was  continued  was  greater  than  the  inequality  of  the  combat- 
ants. The  little  republic  steadily  gained  ground  through  all  discour- 
agements. The  murder  of  William  of  Orange,  the  great  leader  of  his 
people,  only  "  hardened  their  stomachs,"  as  Walsingham  wrote,  "to 
hold  out  as  long  as  they  should  have  any  means  of  defence."  This 
spirit  brought  about  its  inevitable  results.  Spain  was  slowly  but  very 
surely  taught  the  strength  of  it ;  and  more  than  forty  years  after  the 
time  when  Philip  had  sent  Alva  into  his  provinces,  the  independence 
of  the  United  Netherlands  was  acknowledged  in  a  treaty  which  estab- 


342 


DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.      [CiiAP.  XIII. 


lished  a  twelve  years'  truce,  conceded  virtual  freedom  of  worship,  and 
practically  granted  to  the  Dutch  great  material  advantages  which  had 
long  been  in  dispute.  The  seven  provinces  which  had  maintained  the 
long  and  unequal  war,  took  their  place  as  a  united  independent  re- 
public. 

The  new  nation  had  not,  however,  won  its  independent  existence 

only  by  an  ordinary  struggle  with  arms  ;  it  had  used  means  which 

were  perhaps  as  important  to  the  world  at  large  as  the  ends  which 

they  gained.      It   had   defeated    Spain   almost   literally  by 

Commercial         .    ' J  .    .  .  .  *  .  „         'I        J 

prosperity  of  virtue  ot  its  wonderful  commercial  prosperity.     .Provinces 
that  had  been,  fifty  years  before,  a  most  thriving  and  im- 
portant source  of  the  riches  of  the   state,  had  attained  during  the 


Dutch  Shipping.     [16th  Century.] 

struggle  to  the  commercial  leader- 
ship of  the  world.  "  In  every  branch 
of  human  industry,"  says  Motley.  "  these  republicans  took  the  lead. 
.  .  .  .  But  the  foundation  of  the  national  wealth,  the  source  of  the 
apparently  fabulous  power  by  which  the  republic  had  at  last  over- 
thrown her  gigantic  antagonist,  was  the  ocean."  1  He  cites  author- 
ities to  show  that  at  this  time  the  United  Netherlands  had  nearly  one 
hundred  thousand  sailors  in  her  service,  and  possessed  three  thousand 
ships  in  her  commercial  and  war  fleets. 

While  its  commerce  in  Europe  was  of  very  great  importance,  the 
real  golden  prize  which  the  new  nation  in  the   long  conflict 
trade.    jia(j  almost  completely  taken  away  from  Spain,  was  the  India 
trade.     So  humiliating  and  disastrous  was  this  loss  to  the  Spaniards, 

1  Motley,  the  United  Ndlurlands,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  552,  553. 


The  East 


1594.]  NORTHEAST  VOYAGES.  348 

that  when  by  the  treaty  they  were  compelled  practically  to  concede 
the  right  of  Eastern  commerce  to  the  Dutch,  they  did  so  in  a  secret 
article,  and  in  language  that  vainly  sought  to  conceal  the  fact  by  inge- 
nious circumlocution.  For  twenty  years  this  trade  had  so  increased, 
and  capital  had  flowed  into  it  in  such  abundance,  that  it  had  returned 
threefold  to  its  owners.  In  1602,  seven  years  before  the  truce,  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company,  the  first  of  great  trading-monopolies,  was 
formed  by  the  consolidation  of  several  small  corporations,  its  charter 
granting  it  sole  permission  to  trade  for  twenty-one  years  to  the  east 
of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  to  sail  through  the  Straits  of  Mag- 
ellan ;  four  years  afterward  it  declared  a  dividend  of  seventy-five  per 
cent.  The  establishment  of  a  similar  company  for  trade  to  the  West 
Indies  had  been  suggested  some  time  before  this,  and  small  associations 
for  that  purpose  had  even  been  formed ;  but  a  renewed  attempt  in 
1607  was  put  aside,  for  the  time  at  least,  by  the  States  General.1 
With  such  interests  as  they  had  at  stake  in  the  East,  it  would  have 

•/ 

been  extraordinary  if  the  government  and  merchants  of  the  Nether- 
lands had  not  been  drawn  sooner  or  later  into  the  search  for 
the  supposed  short  passage  to  India.     They  had  not  been  pa*»xe  to 
idle  in  the  matter :  and  their  first  efforts,  like  all  others,  had 
been   confidently  directed  to  the  Arctic  Seas.     They  had   carefully 
watched  the  English  expeditions  in  both  hemispheres  ;  but  Linschoten, 
perhaps  their  chief  practical  geographer,  the  study  of  whose  life  had 
been  paths  of  ocean  navigation,  and  Plantius,  another  learned  scholar 
of  the  time,  and  many  more,  were  firm  believers  in  the  theory  that 
the  long-sought  way  lay  to  the  northeast,  through  ice-bound  regions, 
about  which  the  common  people  held  as  many  wild  superstitions  as 
ever  the  ancients  had  held  about  the  ultimate  bounds  of  their  narrower 
world.2 

In  June,  1594,  Willem   Barentz,  a  pilot  of  Amsterdam,  with   four 
vessels  provided  by  the  provincial  and  several  city  govern- 
ments, —  the  whole  expedition   being  advised  and  furthered  ™.vage«  by 
by  the  geographers  just  named,  and  by  others,  —  sailed  for 
the  Arctic  region  to   the   northeast.      Barentz,  separated  from    the 

1  In  1591,  according  to  the  Dutch   historians,  William  Usselincx   of  Antwerp  had  sug- 
gested such  a  company.    In  1597  Leyen  of  Enckhuysen  and  Peterszoou  of  Amsterdam,  two 
merchants,  had  formed  small  societies  for  West  India  trade.     In  1607,  the  consideration  of 
renewed   proposals  of  Usselincx  was  postponed  by  the  States,  lest  the  granting  of  another 
large  charter  should  prejudice  the  approaching  negotiations  with  Spain.     Compare  Motley, 
United  Netherlands,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  298,  299,  300.     Brodhead's  History  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
vol.  i.,  pp.  21,  22,  Dutch  authorities  cited. 

2  Many  of  these  fantastic  notions  of  the  north  are  detailed  by  Motley,  United  Netherlands, 
vol.  iii.,  pp.  553,  554,  where  they  are  repeated  from  several  Dutch  sources.    Some  believed  a 
region  to  exist  there  where  perpetual  summer  reigned,  and  a  cultured  and  happy  race  lived 
in  great  comfort  and  order  ;  others  peopled  the  Arctic  lands  with  races  of  savages,  half  men 
and  half  beasts,  and  with  various  terrible  monsters. 


344          DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XIII. 

rest,  reached  and  explored  Nova  Zembla ;  while  the  others  sailed  into 
the  straits  called  the  Waigats.  They  all  returned  before  the  winter. 
Linschoten,  the  geographer,  who  had  accompanied  one  of  the  ships, 
was  still  sanguine  that  the  northeast  passage  to  India  was  possible ; 
the  hopes  of  the  rest  were  somewhat  dampened.  Nevertheless  the 
enterprise  was  tried  a  second  and  a  third  time :  the  second  expedi- 
tion, in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1595,  proceeded  by  way  of  the 
Waigats,  but  was  an  utter  failure,  returning  without  result  of  any 
kind ;  while  the  third,  in  1596,  under  Barentz,  Heemskerk,  and  Van 
der  Kyp,  penetrated  beyond 
the  eightieth  parallel,  and  dis- 
covered and  landed  upon  Spitz- 
bergen.  Barentz  and  Heems- 
kerk, separating  from  the 


Barentz  at  Nova  Zembla. 


other  vessel,  rounded  Nova  Zembla,  and  became  imprisoned  by  the 
ice  near  Ice  Havenga  Bay,  to  which  Barentz  had  given  the  name. 
They  were  kept  here,  enduring  the  greatest  suffering,  until  the  next 
year  ;  and  it  was  in  endeavoring  to  escape  from  their  imprisonment, 
that  Barentz  finally  yielded  to  the  rigor  of  the  climate  and  to  priva- 
tion, dying  in  his  boat  in  June,  1597.  His  companions  finally  effected 
their  return  ;  but  with  this  last  failure  much  of  the  enthusiasm  about 
a  northeastern  passage  died  away. 

These  attempts  show  how  fully  prepared  the  Netherlander  had 
become,  when  their  independence  was  finally  acknowledged,  and  their 
commercial  prosperity  had  reached  so  great  a  height,  to  turn  their 
attention  to  a  new  region  of  the  earth.  The  old  pathways  to  India 
were  all  their  own  ;  they  had  thus  far  found  the  way  effectually 
barred  to  the  northeast  ;  and,  commercially  at  least,  they  might 


1607.]  HENRY  HUDSON.  345 

naturally  look  for  new  worlds  to  conquer.  The  English  voyages  to 
the  west  had  been  followed,  as  were  all  English  undertakings,  with 
watchful  and  jealous  eyes  ;  but  the  old  delusion  was  still  powerful  : 
it  was  only  India  upon  which  minds  were  fixed  ;  and  we  shall  see  how 
it  was  only  the  action  of  one  navigator  that  turned  Dutch  enterprise 
toward  the  west  at  all. 

Among  the  persons  in  intimate  relations  with  the  Muscovy  Com- 
pany of  England,  of  which  Sebastian  Cabot  was  the  governor,  and 
which  had  sent  the  expedition  of  Willoughby  in  search  of  a  northeast 
passage  to  India,  was  an  experienced  navigator,  Henry  Hudson.  It 
is  quite  likely  that  he  was  the  lineal  descendant  of  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  that  corporation,1  and  may,  for  that  reason,  have  been  held  in 
high  esteem  and  trust  by  its  members,  and  employed  on  other  impor- 
tant voyages  before  he  went  upon  those  by  which  he  is  best  known. 
He  was  probably  a  native,  as  he  was  a  citizen,  of  London  ;  he  was  a 
friend  of  Captain  John  Smith,  and  intimate  with  other  adventurous 
navigators  of  the  time  ;  and  no  doubt  from  training  and  associations, 
the  aim  of  his  life,  as  it  was  that  of  so  many  of  his  contemporaries, 
was  the  discovery  of  a  passage  to  the  East,  either  by  a  northeastern 
or  northwestern  passage. 

The  last  expedition,  under  the  direction  of  the  Muscovy  Company, 
was  commanded  by  Hudson.  Sailing  from  Gravesend  on  IIenry  Hud. 
the  first  of  May,  1607,  he  was  instructed  to  proceed  directly  ^h/north? 
across  the  pole.  He  steered  northwest,  and  along  the  Green-  east-  160;- 
land  coast  to  about  the  eightieth  parallel,  but  could  penetrate  no  far- 
ther because  of  the  ice,  along  the  unbroken  barrier  of  which  he  sailed 
to  the  eastward,  to  the  region  of  Spitzbergen.  But  he  could  nowhere 
find  an  opening  in  the  almost  solid  wall  ;  and  late  in  the  same  year 
he  returned  to  England  after  a  practically  fruitless  voyage.  In  the 
early  part  of  the  next  season  he  made  another  attempt,  this  time  to 
the  northeast ;  but  the  ice  again  stopped  him  near  Nova  Zeinbla,  and 
he  made  his  way  back  with  another  report  of  ill  success. 

The  Muscovy  Company  now  abandoned  for  the  time   all  further 
effort.    But  the  report  of  these  two  voyages  had  excited  wide  Hllllson  in. 
attention  ;  it  was  of  just  the  nature  to  stimulate  the  enter-  ^er-0  the 
prise  of  the  Dutch  rivals  of  the  English  traders  ;  and  the  lands 
navigator,  who  had  proved  himself,  even  in  his  failures,  to  be  skilful, 
brave,  and  of  great  energy  and    perseverance,  had    barely  returned 
from  his  second  expedition  when  he  received  a  new  commission.      The 
Dutch  East  India  Company's  directors  sent  for  him  to  come  to  Am- 
sterdam. 

1  See  Historical  Inquiry  concerning  Henri/  Hudson,  his  Relations  and  Early  Life,  Itis  Connec 
tion  with  the  Muscovy  Company,  etc.     By  John  Meredith  Read. 


346          DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XIII. 

The  directors  resident  at  Amsterdam  decided  that  before  positively 
engaging  Hudson  they  must  wait  for  the  meeting  of  the  Company's 
Council  of  Seventeen,  in  the  following  year.  But  the  repeated  ex- 
plorations undertaken  by  the  Muscovy  Company  had  aroused  others 
beside  the  East  India  Company.  As  soon  as  this  delay  was  an- 
nounced, Hudson  was  approached  by  a  former  officer  of  the  corpora- 
tion, who  had  now,  however,  left  it  and  become  a  keen  opponent  of  its 
plans,  —  one  Le  Maire,  a  French  merchant  in  the  Dutch  city,  —  who 
at  once  sought  to  secure  him  for  the  service  of  France,  and  was  aided 
in  this  design  by  President  Jeannin,  French  ambassador  at  the 
ms  contract  Hague.1  This  attempt  was  all  that  was  needed  to  spur  the 
Els'?  India  East  India  directors  into  immediate  decisive  action,  and  they 
company.  signed  a  contract  with  him  on  January  8,  1609.  This  paper 
specified  that  the  directors  should  furnish  a  small  vessel  to  Hudson, 
with  the  needed  outfit,  in  which  he  was  to  sail  as  soon  as  the  favor- 
able season  opened  in  April.  He  was  to  have  a  sum  equivalent  to 
about  three  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  of  our  gold  for  his  expenses, 
and  the  support  of  his  family  during  his  absence  ;  and,  should  he  not 
return,  his  widow  was  to  receive  eighty  dollars  as  an  indemnity  for 
his  loss.  Should  he  find  a  practicable  passage,  he  was  to  receive  a 
suitable  reward,  —  the  clause  promising  this  being  only  generally 
expressed.2 

The  old  theory  of  the  passage  was  rigidly  adhered  to,  both  in  the 
contract  and  in  Hudson's  detailed  instructions.  He  was  to  search  for 
a  passage  "  around  by  the  North  side  of  Nova  Zembla,"  and  he  was 
"  to  think  of  discovering  no  other  routes  or  passages,  except  the  route 
around  by  the  north  and  northeast  above  Nova  Zembla."  3 

Armed  with  memoranda  of  sailing  instructions  which  had  been 
made  by  Barentz  on  his°first  voyage,  and  with  an  ancient  document 
by  a  Greenland  navigator,4  Hudson  made  himself  master  of  the  whole 

1  Nel/ociation  du  Pres.  Jeannin,  cited  by  Read,  Hist.  Ing.,  p.  140,  and  by  Henry  C.  Miir- 
phy,  Hudson  in  Holland. 

2  Mr.  Henry  C.  Murphy,  the  most  successful  of  inquirers  into  the  history  of  Hudson's 
voyage  and  matters  connected  with  it,  discovered  a  copy  of  this  contract  between  Hudson 
and  the  Chamber  of  Amsterdam,  in  the  royal  archives  at  the  Hague.    It  is  given,  with  the 
full  details  of  these  negotiations,  etc.,  in  his  Henry  Hudson  in  Holland^ 

8  Murphy's  Hudson,  p.  39,  seq. 

*  This  singular  document  had,  in  the  translation  used  by  Hudson,  the  following  title:  "A 
Treatise  oflvER  BOTY,  a  Gronlnnder,  translated  out  of  the  Norsh  Language  into  High  Dutch 
in  the  yeere  1560.  And  after,  out  of  Hiah  Dutch,  into  Low  Dutch,  by  WILLIAM  BARENT- 
SON  of  Amsterdam,  who  toas  chiefs  Pilot  aforesaid.  The  same  Copie  in  Hiah  Dutch  is  in  the 
hands  of  IODOCVS  HONDIVS,  which  I  have  seene.  And  this  was  translated  out  of  Low  Dutch 
by  Master  WILLIAM  STERE,  Marchant,  in  the  yeere  1608,  for  the  use  of  one  HENRI  E  HUDSON. 
WILLIAM  BAKENTSON'S  Booke  is  in  the  hands  of  Master  PETER  PLANTIVS,  who  lent  the 
same  to  mf."  The  treatise  contains  a  variety  of  quaint  sailing  directions  and  information 
concerning  the  northern  seas  as  known  to  Norse  voyagers  in  the  time  before  Columbus ;  and 


1609.]  HUDSON'S  FIRST  VOYAGE.  347 

plan  he  was  to  carry  out ;  yet  there  are  indications  that  even  before 
his  departure  probabilities  in  a  very  different  direction  had  occurred 
to  him.  In  his  long  consultations  with  Plantius,  the  geographer,  and 
others,  rude  maps  of  regions  far  to  the  west  were  studied,  and  discus- 
sions took  place,  in  which  the  fixed  belief  of  Plantius  as  to  a  north- 
eastern route  appears  to  have  been  called  in  question  by  Hudson.1 

On  Saturday,  the  fourth  of  April,  1609,  Hudson  sailed  from  Am- 
sterdam  in  a  yacht  or  Vlie-boat2  named  the  Half  Moon, 
with  a  crew  of  Dutch  and  English  sailors,  numbering,  ac-  of  Hudson. 

,.~  .    .  .  .  April  4,1609. 

cording  to  different  authorities,  sixteen,  eighteen,  or  twenty 
men,  the  smallest  number  probably  being  the  true  one.  The  vessel 
was  of  eighty  tons  burden  — forty  lasts  by  Dutch  measurement  —  and 
had  been  most  carefully  equipped.  By  noon  of  Monday  she  was  off 
the  Texel,  and  the  voyage  was  fairly  begun.  She  steered  away  to  the 
north,  making  up  the  Norway  coast  toward  the  North  Cape,  in  literal 
accordance  with  instructions  to  Hudson,  and  soon  gained  the  regions 
with  which  his  previous  explorations  had  made  him  more  or  less 
familiar.3  On  the  fifth  of  May  he  passed  the  northern  extremity  of 
the  main  land,  and  sailed  directly  toward  Nova  Zembla  ;  but  the  sea 
was  filled  with  ice  as  it  had  been  before,  and  he  was  not  long  in  find- 
ing his  progress  as  effectually  barred  in  this  direction  as  it  had  been 
in  preceding  voyages.  His  crew  were  discontented  and  insubordinate  ; 
it  is  said  that  some  of  them,  used  only  to  warmer  climates,  were  un- 
able to  bear  the  cold  of  these  high  latitudes ;  and  besides,  they  were 
of  two  nationalities,  and  seem  to  have  quarrelled  continually. 

The  obstacles  thus  put  in  Hudson's  way  to  the  northeast,  seemingly 

it  further  gives  an  accouut,  conceded  by  northern  antiquaries  to  he  substantially  correct,  of 
the  Icelandic  colonies  in  Greenland.  It  has  an  interest  of  its  own  apart  from  its  connection 
with  these  voyages;  for  its  antiquity  is  undoubtedly  very  great,  and  it  throws  no  little 
light  on  the  state  of  Greenland  in  the  days  of  its  settled  condition.  The  Treatise  of  Boty 
(or  Bardsem,  as  he  is  generally  called),  has  l»een  published  with  an  introduction  and  notes, 
by  the  Rev.  B.  F.  De  Costa,  under  the  title  of  Sailing  Directions  of  Henry  Hudson,  etc. 

1  Van  Meteren,  Historie  der  Nederlanden,  quoted  by  Re.-id,  Historical  Inquiry,  p.  155,  says 
that  Hudson  showed  Plantius  a  letter  and  maps  of  his  friend  Captain  John  Smith,  in  which 
the  latter  explained  that  there  was  a  sea  leading  into  the  Western  Ocean  nortli  of  the  Eng- 
lish colony. 

2  From  the  river  Vlie,  where  such  boats  were  used.     The  name  passed  into  the  English 
fly-boat. 

8  Of  this  voyage  we  have  several  accounts,  differing  in  no  essential  particular,  but  supple- 
menting each  other  iu  many  ways.  John  de  Laet,  who  published  the  Nleuwe  Wertlt  in 
1625,  made  use  in  writing  it  of  Hudson's  own  journal,  which  unfortunately  has  not  been 
preserved.  Van  Meteren's  Historie  der  Nederlanden,  published  in  1614,  contains  mate- 
rials which  came  to  its  author  at  first  hand.  But  the  most  minute  record  of  the  voyage  is 
that  made  by  Robert  Juet,  Hudson's  former  mate,  who  acted  on  this  expedition  as  a  cap- 
tain's clerk,  or  kind  of  purser,  and  kept  a  precise  and  probably  exceedingly  accurate  diary 
of  every  matter  of  interest  during  the  whole  duration  of  the  exploration.  His  account 
appears  in  full  iu  Purchas,  vol.  iii. 


348          DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XIII. 

impassable  bars  to  further  discovery,  confirmed  his  doubts  of  the  im- 
possibility of  a  northeastern  passage,  and  led  him  to  take  a  most 
lie  changes  important  step.  In  direct  violation  of  his  instructions,  he 
his  course,  offered  his  crew  a  choice  between  two  courses.  One  was  to 
sail  westward,  and,  making  the  American  coast,  to  search  for  a  pas- 
sage where  Captain  John  Smith  had  indicated  the  probability  of  one, 
somewhere  north  of  the  English  colony ;  and  the  other  was  to  keep 
nearer  the  latitude  they  were  in,  and  sailing  directly  to  the  west,  to 
try  again  at  Davis's  Straits.  The  first  proposal  was  adopted,  and  on 
May  14,  nine  days  after  rounding  the  North  Cape,  the  Half  Moon 
was  put  about,  and  headed  west  by  south.  In  two  weeks  she  was 
taking  fresh  water  at  the  Faroe  Islands,  and  in  six  she  lay  safely  off 
the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  the  little  vessel  much  the  worse  for  her 
encounters  with  those  northern  seas. 

Hudson  avoided  a  fleet  of  fishermen  which  lay  off  the  bank  ;  and  at 
once  made  his  way  farther  south  and  west.     On  July  12  he 

Visit  to  the  J  .  •' 

coast  of  sighted  the  coast  of  the  continent,  and  six  days  later  an- 
chored in  one  of  the  large  bays  on  the  coast  of  what  is  now 
the  State  of  Maine  —  almost  without  doubt  Penobscot  Bay  —  where 
his  crew  were  set  to  work  upon  repairs  to  the  vessel.  A  new  fore- 
mast was  brought  from  shore  to  replace  the  one  the  vessel  had  lost  at 
sea,  and  she  was  put  into  thorough  order.  But  Hudson's  stay  here 
was  cut  short  by  an  incident  which,  with  many  other  things  in  this 
expedition,  shows  the  lawless  and  buccaneering  spirit  of  his  crew. 
As  the  Half  Moon  lay  in  the  bay,  two  shallops  filled  with  Indians  ap- 
proached her,  their  crews  looking  for  peaceful  trade  with  the  stran- 
gers, and  such  friendly  intercourse  as  the  French  had  everywhere 
encouraged.  But  Hudson's  men  met  them  in  another  temper.  Man- 
ning a  boat,  they  captured  and  carried  off  one  shallop ;  and  then,  in 
pure  wantonness,  they  armed  two  skiffs  of  their  own  with  pieces 
which  deserved  their  name  of  "  murderers,"  and  attacked  and  plun- 
dered the  Indian  village  on  the  shore.  The  outrage  fully  warranted 
a  quick  revenge  ;  and  Hudson  feared  it,  —  for  on  the  same  afternoon 
the  ship  was  dropped  down  to  the  entrance  of  the  bay,  and  on  the 
next  day  (July  26),  she  was  again  under  sail  to  the  southwest. 

Though  within  a  week  she  went  aground  on  what  are  now  known 
as  St.  George's  Shoals,  it  was  ten  days  before  her  crew  sighted  land 
again  ;  this  time  at  the  north  end  of  the  headland  of  Cape  Cod, 
which  Hudson,  before  he  knew  it  to  be  Gosnold's  Cape,  promptly 
named  "  New  Holland."  Some  of  the  men  landed  here,  for  they 
fancied  they  heard  people  calling  from  the  shore,  and  that  the  voices 
sounded  like  those  of  "  Christians ; "  but  they  came  back  after  see- 
ing none  but  savages,  and  the  yacht  again  bore  away  to  sea,  passing 


1609.] 


HUDSON'S  FIRST  VOYAGE. 


349 


Nantucket  and  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  once  more  making  a  straight 
course  to  the  southwest. 

When  Hudson  made  land  again  he  was  close  by  the  entrance  of 
Chesapeake  Bay.  Just  within  it  he  might  have  found  his 
countrymen  on  the  banks  of  the  James,  and  have  consulted 
his  friend  Smith  about  that  "  sea  leading  into  the  western 
ocean,"  of  which  the  Virginian  captain  had  written  in  the  letter  shown 
to  Plantius.  Perhaps  because  they  were  his  countrymen,  while  he  was 
in  foreign  service,  he  made  no  attempt  to  reach  them,  but  sailed 
away  to  the  northward,  following  the  trend  of  the  coast,  until  he 


Hudson's  Attack  on  the  Indian  Village. 

came  to  the  capes  of  the  great  bay  which  a  few  years  later  was 
named  the  Delaware.  He  tried  to  enter  it,  but  unsuccessfully,  for 
the  Half  Moon  drew  too  much  water  for  its  shallow  bars  ;  so  the 
vessel  again  took  up  her  northward  course,  and  passed  along  a  coast 
that  looked  like  "  broken  islands "  —  the  now  familiar  sand-banks 
of  New  Jersey  —  until,  in  the  evening  of  the  second  of  September, 
the  high  hills  of  Navesinck  were  made  to  the  northward,  and  the 
vessel  came  to  anchor  near  a  shore  that  was  "  a  pleasant  land  to  see." 
The  night  was  fair,  with  little  wind  ;  as  morning  came  a  thick 
mist  settled  about  them,  and  hid  the  pleasant  coast  from  the  explorers; 


350 


DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.      [CHAP.  XIII. 


KntiT.-  the 
lower  hnr- 
bor  of  New 
York. 


but  when  it  bad  lifted,  toward  noon  of  the  3d  of  September,  and  they 
had  made  their  way  along  the  lung,  curving  sand-spit  that 
extended  just  beyond  the  hills  near  which  they  had  lain, 
they  saw  before  them  what  they  thought  were  three  great 
rivers.  The  northernmost  seemed  to  them  the  broadest,  but  they 
could  not  enter  it  because  of  the  bar  across  its  mouth  ;  and  coin- 
ing back  to  the  deeper  one  —  the  passage  through  which  Verrazano's 
boats,  it  is  supposed,  had  passed  nearly  a  century  before  into  the 
"  most  beautiful  bay  "  —  the  Half  Moon  floated  slowly  past  the  sandy 
cape,  and  cast  anchor,  at  nightfall,  just  within  its  shelter. 


The  Approach  to  the  Narrows. 

When  the  next  morning  dawned,  the  whole  broad  bay  lay  in  view ; 
and  the  explorers,  little  dreaming  how  their  judgment  was  to  be  con- 
firmed in  centuries  to  come,  decided,  as  they  shifted  their  anchorage 
to  the  greater  security  of  the  "  Horseshoe  "  further  inside  Sandy 
Hook,  that  it  was  "  a  very  good  harbour."'  Across  it,  to  the  north, 
they  could  see  an  island  with  low  hills,  beside  which  another  great 
river  ran  out  from  the  land  ;  on  the  east  the  coast  trended  awav  in  a 

f 

long  ridge  ;  and  on  the  west  a  vast  curve  of  low,  wooded  shore  ex- 
tended from  where  the  Half  Moon  lay  to  the  mouth  of  a  third  river, 
barely  in  sight  in  the  northwest.  The  wondering  Indians  crowded 
the  beach  near  by ;  and  though  their  own  traditions  represent  them 
as  alarmed  and  troubled  at  the  strangers'  coming,  they  put  off  in  their 
canoes  to  the  vessel,  and  seemed  to  the  crew  to  welcome  them  with 
delight. 


1609.]  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  HUDSON  RTVER.  351 

The  boats,  while  the  vessel  lay  at  anchor,  were  busy  in  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  bay.  On  the  4th,  a  boat's  crew  put  out  to  fish  ; 
and,  according  to  an  Indian  tradition,  landed  on  the  long  beach  of 
Congu,  or  Coney  Island,  the  first  Europeans  who  trod  the  shore  of 
the  great  New  Netherland  harbor.  On  the  6th,  another  crew  rowed 
across  the  broad  expanse  between  the  vessel  and  the  more  distant 
island  ;  and  passing  through  the  "  river  "  which  we  now  call  the  Nar- 
rows, explored  the  strait  on  the  west  side  of  the  harbor,  running  be- 
tween the  island  and  the  main,  the  "  Kills  "  of  later  times.  But 
as  they  came  back  through  these,  past  shores  which  were  The  Half 
"  as  pleasant  with  grass  and  flowers,  and  goodly  trees,  as  ever  ^£££1 
they  had  seen,"  they  were  set  upon  by  two  canoe-crews  of  Indiau8 
Indians,  who  shot  a  flight  of  arrows  at  them,  and  then  made  off 
under  cover  of  the  darkness  of  an  approaching  stormy  night,  leav- 
ing an  Englishman,  John  Colman,  dead  in  the  boat,  and  two  others 
wounded. 

Losing  their  way  in  the  night  and  storm,  the  diminished  crew  only 
regained  the  vessel  late  in  the  morning  of  the  next  day.  At  noon 
they  buried  the  dead  man  in  the  sand  on  the  beach,  and  gave  to 
Sandy  Hook,  in  memory  of  him,  the  name  of  Colman's  Point,  —  a 
title  it  did  not  long  retain.  The  yacht  was  put  in  a  condition  of 
defence,  for  no  one  knew  whether  the  attack  upon  the  boat  was  not 
the  prelude  to  general  hostilities ;  but  though  the  Indians,  during  the 
next  few  days,  made  some  demonstrations  that  were  interpreted  by 
the  crew  as  hostile,  nothing  more  serious  happened.  Two  Indian  cap- 
tives were  kept  on  the  vessel,  the  men  putting  red  coats  upon  them 
and  holding  them  as  hostages  ;  but  there  was  no  attack. 

The  Half  Moon  had  spent  a  week  in  the  lower  bay,  her  crew  thus 
exploring  the  shores  and  trading  with  the  people,  when  Hudson,  after 
several  times  changing  his  anchorage,  and  drawing  nearer  the  mouth 
of  the  Narrows,  decided  to  push  on  into  the  great  river. 

On  the  twelfth  of  September,  an  afternoon  when  it  was  very  "  faire 
and  hot "  along  the  shores  of  the  wooded  islands  that  lay  on  either 
side  of  the  broad  passage,  his  little  vessel  floated  up  with  the  floodtide, 
through  the  quiet  strait  which  her  discovery  was  to  make  a  thorough- 
fare for  the  world.  The  hills  of  Staten  Island  were  covered 

.,  -          .,  .        ,,  -  ,  The  Kills  of 

with  "  great  and  tall  oaks,    and  "  very  sweet  smells  came  staten  1*1- 
from  them ; "  and  the  high  terminal  ridge  of  Long  Island  was 
wooded  to  the  water's  edge.     The  channel  probably  seemed  broader 
than  we  see  it,  for  its  surface  and  shores  were  unbroken,  and  the  inner 
bay  that  lay  before  the  explorers  widened  more  gradually  from  the 
strait  than  now.     At  the  mouth  of  the  Kills  lay  projecting  rocks, 
the  present  name  of  which  is  a  corruption  of  the  old  title  "  Robyn's 


352 


DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XIII. 


Robyn's  Rift. 


Rift," *  that  marked  them  as  the  favorite  haunt  of  seals.  The  main- 
land on  the  west  was  bordered  by  a  broad  marsh,  as  now  ;  but  every- 
where else  the  shore  was 
covered  with  trees,  even  at 
the  northern  limit  of  the 
view,  where  a  few  little 
islands  dotted  the  surface 
near  a  rounded  point,  be- 
side which  opened  still 
further  reaches  of  the 
great  river.  The  stran- 
ger sailed  across  the 
great  and  beautiful  bay, 
going  up  slowly  with  the 
tide  and  anchoring  at 
night ;  the  people  crowded 
about  her  in  canoes,  and 
brought  corn  and  tobacco,  "  making  show  of  love." 

As  the  yacht  entered  the  broad  mouth  of  the  river  that  stretched 

away  to  the  north  in  long  still  reaches  over  which  "  no  Christian  "  had 

ever  sailed  before,  it  is  not  strange  that  her  crew  were  amazed 

Sail  up  the  °  . 

Hudson  at  the  strong  current,  and  began  its  exploration  with  intense 
curiosity  as  to  where  so  vast  a  stream  might  lead  them. 
Their  progress  was  slow.  They  floated  with  a  light  wind  past  the 
long  shore  of  Manhattan  Island,  then  more  wild  and  rugged  than 
any  of  the  scenery  that  lay  about  it,  its  stony  hills  scantily  wooded, 
and  its  rough  beach  broken  by  rocky  inlets.  Beyond  it  the  eastern 
bank  grew  higher,  and  gentle  in  its  slope  ;  but  on  the  other  side  of 
the  stream  the  rocky  palisades  began,  overlooking  the  lonely  river  and 
towering  above  the  solitary  ship  as  though  they  shut  out  some  still 
stranger  region  of  the  silent  country  into  which  the  discoverers  were 
following  an  unknown  way. 

When  the  river  broadened  into  the  great  bays  above  —  the  "  Tap- 
paan  Zee  "   and    "  Haverstroo  "  of   later   New  Netherland 
Mnnn  at  the  topography  —  the  voyagers  sailed  more  fearlessly  and  rap- 
idly ;  the  long  cape  or  hook  was  passed  which  later  Dutch 
sailors  called  Verdrietig  (tedious),  because  it  remained  so  long  in 
sight ;  but  with  the  quickly  narrowing  current  beyond,  the  land  sud- 
denly grew  high  and  mountainous  in  what  seemed  the  very  path 
of  the  vessel,  and  the  scenery  about  her  became  darker  and  wilder. 
As  she  passed,  just  before  nightfall,  through  the  narrow  gap  in  the 
mountains  that  had  seemed  to  stand  unbroken  in  her  way,  the  lonely 
i  Robyn's  Rift  —  i.  e.  Seal  Reef  —  now  called  Robin's  Reef. 


1609.] 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  HUDSON  RIVER. 


353 


Verdrietig  Hoeck. 


ship   came   into   the   heavy  shadow  of    the   great   Donderberg,  and 

into  the  stillness  which  always  lies,  even  now,  over  the  long,  dark 

reach  between  the  Hudson  Highlands.     As  it  grew  dark,  the  explorers 

anchored  near  where  the  high  promontory  of  West  Point  extends  into 

the    stream,  the 

densely     wooded 

mountains  about 

it      making      an 

amphitheatre 

through       which 

the  river  runs  in 

the  deep  shadows 

of  its  sides.  They 

were  in  the  midst 

of    an    unbroken 

wilderness     such 

as  they  had  never 

seen  before  ;  and 

the   little   yacht, 

anchored  at  night, 

with    her    lights 

marking  the  one  gleam  of  life  in  the  silent  expanse  of  river  and 

forest,  might  well  have  seemed  to  her  crew  to  be  strangely  lost  and 

isolated  in  the  darkness  and  stillness  of  a  region  unknown  to  civilized 

men. 

The  morning  following  this  first  night  in  the  Highlands  was  misty 
and  still  ;  and  while  the  fog  hid  the  river  from  view  Hudson's  two 
Indian  hostages  slipped  out  of  a  port  and  swam  quietly  away ;  but 
when  the  weather  cleared,  and  the  Half  Moon  got  under  way,  they 
were  seen  on  the  shore,  calling  to  the  crew  "  in  scorn."  The  yacht 
passed  on  with  a  fair  wind  among  the  hills  ;  all  day,  indeed,  she  had 
mountains  in  sight ;  and  at  night  anchored  where  the  higher  Catskills 
lie  a  little  back  from  the  river  side.  Here  the  crew  found  "  very  lov- 
ing people,  and  very  old  men  ;  "  and  lay  for  a  day  at  anchor,  filling 
their  casks  with  water,  and  bartering  with  the  Indians  for  their  corn, 
pompions  (pumpkins),  and  tobacco. 

At  this  point  the  river  navigation  changed,  the  stream  growing 
shallower  and  more  difficult,  so  that  in  the  run  of  the  next  few  days 
the  vessel  sometimes  grounded,  but  without  injury,  upon  the  soft* 
"  ozie  "  shoals.  The  scenery  changed  as  the  banks  grew  lower,  and 
fertile  plains  bordered  the  stream.  On  the  eighteenth  Hudson  himself 
went  ashore,  near  where  the  town  that  bears  his  name  now  stands ; 
and  visited  an  old  chief  who  seemed  to  be  a  governor  of  the  country, 


VOL.    I. 


23 


354 


DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XIII. 


and  who  showed  him  how  great  store  of  maize  and  other  provision  lay 
in  his  village,  and  how  the  young  men  of  his  tribe  could  "  make  good 

cheer  "  for  their  guest,  killing  game  and  feasting  him  roy- 
t«>rtained  by  ally.  When  the  captain  insisted  upon  returning  to  his  ship 

toward  the  close  of  the  day,  they  fancied  it  was  from  fear, 
and  to  show  him  that  he  had  no  cause  for  it,  they  took  their  arrows, 
broke  them  in  pieces  and  threw  them  into  the  fire.  But  he  refused 
to  stay  longer  and  returned  on  board  the  yacht. 

With  the  run  of   the  next  dav  the  vessel  reached  the  limit  of 

•/ 

her  voyage.     She  lay  near  the  present  site  of  Albany  ;  the 

End  of    the  c        ,          ,  ,      „ 

nver naviga-  water  was  fresh,  the  stream  constantly  growing   shallower 
and  narrower.     If,  when  he  entered  it,  Hudson  had  enter- 
tained a  notion  that  this  might  be  a  passage  to  the  South  Sea,  he 

must  now  have  been  persuaded  that  it  was 
only  a  river  flowing  from  far  to  the  north. 
Lying  for  four  days  at  his  anchorage,  he 
sent  out  boats  to  sound  the  stream  above, — 
the  twentieth  as  far  as  the  shoals  near 


Limit  of  Hudson's  Voyage. 


where  Troy  stands,  and  on  the  twenty -second  to  a  little  distance  be- 
yond Waterford,  a  place  where  the  village  of  Half-Moon  still  com- 
memorates the  farthest  point  of  his  exploration.  Both  boats  returned 
with  the  same  report,  —  a  narrowing  shallow  river,  flowing  between  low 
banks,  over  shoals  impassable  for  the  yacht ;  and  dwindling  as  they 
passed  up  it,  so  that  there  seemed  to  be  no  hope  of  greater  depth  beyond.1 

1  The  precise  point  reached  by  Hudson  has  always  been  a  matter  of  some  dispute,  for  a 
very  little  study  shows  that  the  measurements  of  "  leagues  "  given  in  Juet's  Journal  are  not 
to  be  relied  upon.  De  Laet  says  Hudson  reached  lat.  43°,  which  would  be  about  twenty- 
five  miles  above  Albany,  and  fifteen  above  Waterford.  A  Collection  of  Dutch  East  India 
Voyages,  a  work  cited  by  Moulton  in  Yates'  and  Moulton's  History  of  New  York,  vol.  i.,  part 


1609.]  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  HUDSON  RIVER.  355 

The  captain,  who  had  not  been  idle  while  his  boats  were  thus  en- 
gaged, now  put  his  vessel  about,  and  prepared  for  the  return  to  the 
river's  mouth.  While  he  lay  in  the  stream,  his  men  putting  the 
spars  in  order,  or  trading  as  before  with  the  always  friendly  natives 
for  otter  skins  and  fruits,  he  had  entertained  the  chief  men  of  the 
country  at  a  feast,  the  story  of  which  lingered  for  two  hundred  years 
in  their  traditions.1 

It  was  here,  where  Hudson  gave  the  chiefs  "  much  wine  and  aqua 
vitce"  that  the  northern  Indians  first  saw  a  drunken  man  ;  and  A  drunken 
"  they  did  not  know  how  to  take  it,"  thinking  him  bewitched,  lndum- 
and  bringing  charms  ("stripes  of  beads  "),  to  save  him  from  the  stran- 
gers' arts.  But  when  the  old  chief  promptly  recovered  on  the  next 
day,  after  "  sleeping  all  night  quietly,"  and  professed  himself  much  de- 
lighted with  the  experience,  they  held  the  whites  in  high  honor,  and 
made  Hudson  "  an  oration  ;  "  and  as  the  Half  Moon  sailed  away  down 
the  river,  between  the  pleasant  banks  of  the  reach  below,  they  fol- 
lowed with  friendly  farewells,  and  hearty  regrets  at  their  guests'  de- 
parture. 

For  two  days  of  her  downward  voyage,  the  yacht  made  such  slow 
progress  as  the  troublesome  navigation  and  frequent  shoals 
permitted  ;  but  on  the  third,  a  stiff  gale  blew  from  the  south,  down  the 
and  for  two  days  more  she  lay  at  anchor,  while  the  crew 
brought  wood,  nuts,  and  fruit  from  the  shore.     They  were  but  a  few 
miles  from  the  place  where  they  *'  had  first  found  loving  people  "  ; 
and  canoes  came  up  from  the  friendly  village,  bringing  the  old  chief 
who  had  so  amazed  his  companions  at  the  revel  a  few  days   before, 

1,  p.  248,  note,  says  he  went  to  42°  40',  but  gives  no  indication  as  to  whether  it  means  that  the 
Half  Moon  reached  this  point,  or  only  the  boat.  Lambrechtsen  (Beschryviny,  etc.,  quoted 
by  Moulton  and  others)  agrees  with  De  Laet.  Mr.  George  Folsom,  in  editing  Juet's  Jour- 
nal (extracts)  in  the  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  i.,  says :  "  the  boat  probably  reached  Castle 
Island  (now  called  Patroon's  Island,  just  below  Albany) ; "  and  he  does  not  believe  the  ship 
approached  Albany  at  all.  Brodhead  (Hist.  State  N.  Y.,  vol.  i.,  p.  31 )  thinks  the  l>ont  went 
"  probably  to  some  distance  above  Waterford,"  on  the  22d.  In  the  text,  we  have  adopted, 
after  a  careful  comparison,  the  theory  of  Yates  and  Moulton.  Their  account  nearly  agrees 
with  De  Laet,  who  had  Hudson's  journal  before  him,  with  Lambrechtsen,  and  with  Juet's 
descriptions. 

1  A  tradition  of  the  first  coming  of  the  whites,  in  which  this  scene  had  special  prominence, 
existed  among  the  Iroquois  or  Six  Nations,  nearly  two  centuries  afterward.  A  similar 
tradition  current  among  the  Delawares  (especially  the  Mohican  branch)  was  carefully  re- 
corded about  1760  by  the  Keverend  John  Heckewelder,  a  Moravian  missionary  among  the 
Pennsylvania  Indians.  In  1801  he  gave  his  account  of  it  to  Dr.  Miller,  who  placed  the  MS. 
in  the  library  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society.  This  paper,  which  purports  to  give  the 
tradition  verbatim  as  it  came  from  the  lips  of  "  aged  and  respected  Delawares,  Mouseys,  and 
Mahicanni,"  is  quoted  at  length  by  Brodhead,  in  note  A  of  his  appendix  to  Hist.  State  of 
N.  Y.,  vol.  i. ;  also  by  Yates  and  Monlton,  i.  1,  p.  252.  See  also  Dr.  Miller's  address  in 
N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  i.,  p.  35  ;  and  pp.  71,  73;  Hist,  and  Lit.  Transactions  of  the  Am. 
Philo.  Soc.,  vol.  i.  (Philadelphia,  1819).  Singularly  enough  it  places  the  scene  of  the  revel 
on  Manhattan  Island. 


356  DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XIII. 

and  who  again  received  Hudson's  hospitality,  though  it  is  not  recorded 
that  he  repeated  his  experience  of  aqua  vitce.  He  brought  a  friend 
with  him,  and  women,  who  behaved  themselves  with  modesty  ;  and 
as  he  went  away  he  made  signs  that  the  crew  should  come  to  his  vil- 
lage, to  be  feasted  in  their  turn.  But  with  the  next  morning  a  fair 
wind  came  ;  and  leaving  the  old  man  "  very  sorrowful,"  the  Half 
Moon  sailed  away  down  the  stream,  only  delaying  awhile  in  the  bay 
now  overlooked  by  Newburg,  before  she  again  made  her  way  among 
the  points  and  eddy  winds  of  the  Highlands. 

The  old  man's  regrets  at  his  white  friends'  departure  would  prob- 
ably have  been  less  keen,  if  he  could  have  foreseen  that  before  many 
days  were  over,  they  were  to  commit  an  act  of  very  foolish  and  wanton 
cruelty  against  some  of  his  fellow-Indians.  As  the  vessel  anchored  at 
the  mouth  of  Haverstraw  Bay,  at  noon  of  the  first  of  October,  the 
A  thievish  ^a)'  °^  her  passage  through  the  kills,  the  "  people  of  the 
Indian.  mountains  "  came  flocking  aboard  her  as  before.  But  among 
them,  wondering  at  the  ship  and  weapons,  was  one  savage  of  thievish 
propensities,  who  took  the  opportunity  to  climb  by  the  rudder  into 
a  cabin  window,  and  steal  therefrom  "  a  pillow,  and  two  shirts,  and 
two  bandeleers."  1  As  he  was  making  off  with  this  trifling  booty, 
he  was  seen  by  the  mate,  who  forthwith  shot  him  in  the  breast  and 
killed  him ;  and  then,  all  the  rough  brutality  of  the  crew  being 
aroused,  the  boats  were  manned,  a  general  pursuit  began,  and  another 
Indian,  who  tried  to  seize  one  of  the  boats  as  he  swam,  shared  the  fate 
of  his  fellow. 

This  was  the  first  interruption  of  the  harmony  between  the  Indians 
and  whites  since  the  death  of  Colman  ;  but  it  was  to  be  followed  by 
more  serious  trouble.  The  next  day,  as  the  yacht  reached  Manhattan, 
one  of  the  two  savages  who  had  been  prisoners  on  her  and  escaped, 
appeared  with  many  followers,  approaching  with  evidently  hostile 
Affmvwith  intent.  When  they  were  not  suffered  to  come  alongside, 
the  savages,  they  called  to  their  aid  two  canoes  filled  with  armed  men, 
who  ran  under  the  stern  of  the  vessel  and  shot  a  flight  of  arrows 
at  her,  but  without  doing  harm.  The  crew  replied  by  a  half  dozen 
musket-shots,  two  or  three  of  which  took  effect,  and  drove  the  savages 
to  shore.  But  more  than  a  hundred  now  gathered  near  the  upper  end 
of  Manhattan  Island,  where,  when  scattered  by  shot  from  a  falcon  on 
the  yacht,  some  of  them  manned  still  another  canoe,  and  were  only 
driven  off  after  severe  execution  had  been  done  among  them.  The 
Half  Moon  withdrew  across  the  river,  and  anchored  under  the  high 
bank  at  Hoboken,  passing  a  stormy  night  and  day  under  its  shelter, 
but  receiving  no  further  attack.  She  had  again  reached  the  mouth 

1  A  bandoleer,  meauing  a  short  sword  or  cutlass. 


1609.]  HUDSON'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  357 

of  the  great  river  which  she  had  been  the  first  vessel  to  ascend  ;  her 
disorderly  crew  were  little  inclined  for  any  fresh  adventures ;  and 
disputes,  which  continued  even  after  she  set  sail,  had  begun,  as  to  her 
next  destination.  As  she  again  weighed  anchor  and  sailed  across  the 
upper  bay,  whose  shores  may  have  begun  already  to  show  the  bright 
colors  of  autumn  foliage,  officers  and  crew  wrangled  over  their  plans 
for  the  future.  The  Dutch  mate  desired  to  winter  in  Newfoundland, 
and  explore  Davis'  Straits  during  the  next  spring ;  the  crew  "  threat- 
ened savagely  "  if  they  were  not  taken  back  to  Europe  ;  and  nud80n -9 
Hudson  feared  their  violence,  and  wished  besides  to  carry  the  "o^mber, 
news  of  his  discoveries  at  once  to  Holland.  It  was  not  until  1609- 
the  yacht  had  passed  through  the  Kills  on  her  outward  route,  and  had 
dropped  below  Sandy  Hook,  that  a  compromise  was  at  last  effected. 
It  was  decided  to  make  first  of  all  for  the  British  Islands,  and  two  days 
later  they  were  well  out  at  sea  upon  an  eastern  course.  The  voyage 
was  prosperous ;  and  on  the  seventh  of  November  the  ship  lay  safely 
in  Dartmouth  Harbor,  her  turbulent  sailors  contented  for  the  time, 
and  her  master  sending  his  report  to  the  Amsterdam  directors  of  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company. 

Hudson  had  of  course  intended  to  go  in  person  to  his  employers, 
as  soon  as  he  should  reach  a  European  port ;  but  he  was  not  per- 
mitted to  do  so.  In  spite  of  the  frequency  with  which,  at  that  period, 
men  entered  foreign  service,  the  obligations  of  nationality  were  arbi- 
trarily enforced  when  any  advantage  was  to  be  gained  there- 

1      i        -i-i       i  •   i  11,1  His  deten- 

by  ;  and  the  English  government  saw  that  they  had  let  a  tion  in  Eng- 
man  of  too  great  ability  enter  the  employ  of  their  energetic 
neighbors.  When  the  news  of  the  Half  Moon's  arrival  was  received  in 
London  an  order  was  issued  forbidding  her  captain  to  leave  the  coun- 
try, and  reminding  him  and  the  Englishmen  on  his  vessel  that  they 
owed  their  services  to  their  own  nation.  Hudson  entered  again  the 
employ  of  the  Muscovy  Company,  to  whose  efforts  his  success  seems 
to  have  given  new  energy  ;  and  in  the  spring  of  1610  he  sailed  on  his 
last  and  fatal  voyage  to  the  northwest,  to  be  abandoned  by  his  brutal 
crew  among  the  ice-fields  of  the  great  and  desolate  bay  which  bears 
his  name  and  was  the  last  of  his  discoveries.  The  Half  Moon  was 
detained  for  months  at  Dartmouth,  and  was  only  permitted  to  return 
to  Amsterdam  in  July  of  the  year  of  her  captain's  departure. 

Hudson's  discovery  was  received  in  the  Netherlands  in  a  way  char- 
acteristic of  the  people.  It  had  opened  to  the  government 

£ic<j_  /~,  11  T  ii-.i  •  11     Indifference 

of  the  htates  (jreneral  a  broad  and  tertile  territory,  untouched  of  the  Dutch 
before  by  any  European  nation,  and  undoubtedly  their  own  American 

•ten  •  i  •  1*1  i        discoveries. 

by  right  ot  nrst  occupation  ;  yet  this  seems  to  have  been  onlv 

a  secondary  consideration  in  their  minds.     Territorial  increase  seemed 


358  DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.    [CHAP.  XIII. 

at  first  sight  a  comparatively  unimportant  matter ;  the  first  thought 
of  government  and  people  was  the  commercial  value  of  the  new  region. 
For  several  years  the  States  did  little  in  the  matter  but  to  give  official 
information  about  the  situation  of  the  new  river  and  the  course  nec- 
essary to  reach  it,  formal  inquiries  on  these  subjects  having  reached 
them  from  the  cities  of  Amsterdam,  Rotterdam,  Enckhuysen,  and 
Hoorn.  They  did  not  in  set  terms  affirm  their  right  to  the  discovered 
territory,  extend  its  boundaries  indefinitely,  as  England,  France,  and 
Spain  had  done  in  similar  cases,  or  make  grants  to  encourage  coloni- 
zation —  an  idea  which  does  not  seem  even  to  have  occurred  to  them 
until  very  much  later.  This  was  not  the  course  of  the  government 
alone ;  the  East  India  Company  itself  did  nothing  farther  with  regard 
to  the  west.  The  short  passage  to  Cathay  was  still  the  absorbing 
scheme  with  its  directors ;  another  unsuccessful  expedition  was  soon 
to  be  sent  to  the  northeast,  urged  by  the  indefatigable  Plan ti  us.  The 
discovery  of  the  "  Great  River  of  the  Mountains  "  by  Hudson  did 
not  seem  to  them  a  compensation  for  his  failure  to  find  a  Northeast 
passage. 

While  these  stood  aloof,  however,  private  enterprise,  as  so  often  be- 
fore in  Holland,  stepped  in  to  seize  the  advantages  of  the 
the  fur         new  region.     No  sooner  had  the  Half  Moon  come  back  to 

trade. 

Amsterdam,  than  a  few  shrewd  merchants  of  the  city,  who 
saw  the  advantage  of  buying  costly  furs  for  trifles  from  ignorant  and 
friendly  savages,  engaged  a  part  of  her  crew  to  guide  a  vessel  of  their 
own  to  the  great  bay  and  river,  and  bring  her  back  laden  with  good 
peltries.  The  venture  was  highly  successful ;  and  a  trade  quickly 
sprang  up,  that  constantly  attracted  new  vessels  and  fresh  competi- 
tion, and  grew  quietly  but  steadily  till  it  held  a  high  place  in  Nether- 
land  commerce,  and  furnished  a  new  channel  for  the  private  capital 
now  set  free  from  the  dangers  and  disturbances  of  the  long  Spanish 
Avar. 

Thus  the  three  years  following  the  return  of  Hudson's  expedition  saw 
the  lonely  "  River  of  the  Mountains  "  traversed  by  the  little 

Dutch  trad-  J  .  .  J 

ing  boats  in    round-prowed  vessels  of  the  Dutch,  with  their  crews  of  eager 

the  Hudson.  .  ,  e 

traders,  making  their  slow  way  up  or  down  the  stream  trom 
one  Indian  village  to  another  ;  or  lying  at  anchor  in  the  sheltered  bays, 
while  canoes  laden  with  skins  thronged  about  them,  and  the  savages 
flocked  aboard  for  the  beads  and  knives  and  hatchets  which  they 
took  in  payment.  Manhattan  Island,  though  only  a  fort  and  one  or 
two  small  buildings  had  been  erected  upon  it  —  perhaps  not  even 
these  till  1613 — had  become  the  chief  station  for  the  collection  of  the 
peltries  and  their  shipment  to  home  ports ;  and  an  unsuccessful  at- 
tempt even  had  been  made  to  keep  European  goats  and  rabbits  there 


1614.] 


EXPEDITIONS  OF  ADRIAEN  BLOCK. 


359 


for  the  traders'  use. l  The  river  began  to  be  called  Mauritius,  after 
the  Stadtholder  Maurice  of  Orange.  Not  only  its  waters,  but  the 
bays  of  the  present  New  Jersey,  and  the  coast  as  far  south  as  Dela- 
ware Bay,  were  embraced  in  the  territory  of  the  Dutch  fur-trade  ; 
and  the  energetic  Netherland  seamen  began  to  push  out  right  and  left 
from  their  new  station,  and  to  add  fresh  discoveries  to  their  scanty 
knowledge  of  the  neighboring  shores. 

Foremost  in  these  enterprises  were  Hendrick  Christaensen,  Adriaen 
Block,  and   Cornelis  Jacobsen  May,  three  Dutch  captains,  Fir8ttniding 
who,  by  the  end  of  the  four  years  following  Hudson's  voy-  P084  buUt- 
age,  had  grown  most  familiar  with  the  new  region,  and  had  engaged 
their  ships  most  successfully  in  its  trade.     Christaensen,  who  by  that 
time  had  made  ten  voyages  to  the  river,  built  the  first  great  trading 
post  upon  it,  in  1614.  —  Fort  Nassau,  on  Castle  Island,  close  by  Al- 
bany, —  and  was  appointed  its  commander.     Block  spent  the  winter 
of  1613-14  on  Manhattan  Island,  in  building  a  yacht  of  six-  Expioring 
teen  tons,  the   Onrust  (Meatless),  to  take  the  place  of  his  Adyri£L°f 
ship,  the  Tiger^  which  had  accidentally  been   burned.     In  Block- 
the  spring  he  sailed  eastward,  passing  through  the  rapids  of  Hell-Gate 
in  the  East  River, 
explored       Long 
Island    Sound 
from  end  to  end, 
discovered       and 
entered  the  Quo- 
nehtacut,  or  Con- 
necticut     River, 
and  made  his  way 
up  the  New  Eng- 
land coast  as  far 
as  what  he  called 
Pye  Bay,  —  now 
the   bay  of    Na- 
hant,  — which  he 
called  "  the  limit 
of    New  Nether- 
land."  He  visited 
the  shores  of  Nar- 

ragansett  Bay,  and  saw  within  it  that  "  Roode "  or  "  Red  "  island 
from  which  the  modern  State  of  Rhode  Island  derives  its  name. 

1  Wassenaar's  Historfscfie  Verhael,  vol.  ix.,  p.  44,  quoted  hy  Brodhead,  vol.  i.,  p.  47.  Cap- 
tain Argall  is  said,  on  doubtful  authority,  to  have  visited  Manhattan  Island,  on  his  return 
from  Port  Royal,  and  to  have  found  four  or  five  houses  there. 


Nahant. 


360 


DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XIII. 


Block  Island. 


Martha's  Vineyard  and  Nantucket  the  Dutch  named  Texel  and  Vie- 
land  ;  the  waters  surrounding  them  the  Zuyder  Zee  ;  the  island  which 
still  bears  Block's  name,  northeast  of  Montauk  Point,  they  called 
"  Visscher's  Hoeck."  Meeting  Hendrick  Christaensen's  ship,  the  For- 
tune',  which  had  been  sent 
to  Cape  Cod  Bay  perhaps 
to  take  him  on  board, 
Block  transferred  the 
Restless  to  another  skip- 
per, Cornelis  Hendricksen, 
and  sailed  in  the  other  ves- 
sel to  Holland,  adding  his 
report  to  the  list  of  explo- 
rations which  revealed  the 
extent  and  wealth  of  the 
new  country. 

May  had  seen  "  Vis- 
scher's Hoeck"  even  be- 
fore Block,  and  had  vis- 
ited the  coast  of  Martha's  Vineyard.  But  his  name  is  perpetuated 
farther  south,  in  the  Cape  May  of  Southern  New  Jersey  ;  though 
New  York  bay  was  for  many  years  called,  in  his  honor,  Port  Ma\. 

It  was  now  four  years  since  Henry  Hudson's  crew  had  returned  to 
Amsterdam,  and  the  trade  with  the  Mauritius  River  had  aroused  so 
brisk  a  competition  as  to  alarm  the  few  merchants  who  had  been  the 
first  to  engage  in  it.  With  the  spirit  of  an  age  when  the  right  of 
monopoly  was  firmly  believed  in  and  looked  upon  as  the  protection  of 
commerce,  they  had  already  urged  upon  the  States  General  the  pas- 
sage of  an  ordinance  to  protect  them  from  those  who  were  interfer- 
ing with  a  traffic  which,  as  they  believed,  belonged  only  to  them. 
They  had  succeeded  so  far  as  to  secure  (March  20,  1614)  a  decree  in 
general  terms,  by  which  any  discoverers  of  "  new  passages,  havens, 
lands,  or  places,"  should  have  "  the  exclusive  right  of  navigating  to 
the  same  for  four  voyages,"  provided  they  reported  their  discoveries 
within  fourteen  days  after  their  return  to  Holland.  But  the  pas- 
sage of  this  act  was  only  a  preliminary  step.  With  Block's  return 
in  September  they  began  to  press  for  a  special  charter  ;  and  pro- 
vided with  a  carefully-drawn  "  figurative  map  "  of  the  new  country, 
they  appeared  before  the  assembly  of  the  States,  detailed  to  that 
body  the  merits  of  their  work,  the  great  risk,  expense,  and  effort  to 
which  they  had  been  put,  and  asked  to  be  protected.  Under  the 
conditions  of  the  ordinance  of  March,  with  the  terms  of  which  they 
had  complied,  and  which  had,  indeed,  been  the  spur  of  Block  and 


1614.]  THE  NEW  NETHERLAXD  COMPANY.  361 

the  rest  in  their  discoveries,  there  could  be  no  hesitation ;  and  their 
charter  was  granted  on  the  llth  of  October, — a  charter  in  which 
the  name  "  New  Netherland"  was  first  officially  applied  to  xewxether- 
the  American  region  "  between  New  France  and  Virginia. 
being  the  seacoasts  between  40°  and  45°."  The  New  Neth- 
erland  Company  were  given  the  monopoly  of  the  trade  : 
for  three  years  from  January  1,  1615,  and  no  other  Dutch  citizens 
were  to  be  permitted  to  "  frequent  or  navigate  "  those  "  newly-dis- 
covered lands,  havens,  or  places,"  "  on  penalty  of  the  confiscation  of 
the  vessel  and  cargo,  besides  a  fine  of  fifty  thousand  Netherlands 
ducats." 

The  prescribed  three  years  passed  quietly  and  prosperously  away, 
every  trading  voyage  of  the  company  bringing  in  enormous  profits 
to  the  Amsterdam  proprietors  ;  while  in  the  great  region  now  laid 
open  to  their  enterprise,  new  explorations  were  undertaken 

i  i-r-il  rt  AimS  and  ac" 

and  new  resources  opened.     It  was  a  development  of  trade,  compiish- 

,         ,  1  f  XT  TkT  ment  °f  th* 

rather  than  of  the  country,  however ;  for  the  New  Nether-  Netherland 
land  Company  had  no  interest  in  the  future  of  a  territory  in 
which  they  held  so  short-lived  a  title ;  they  had  no  motive  to  colonize 
it  or  test  its  agricultural  capacities  ;  their  aim  was  naturally  to  get 
from  it  all  the  gain  they  could  in  the  little  time  given  them,  and  leave 
to  others  the  uncertain  experiments  which  might  come  after.  If  this 
system  had  its  evils,  it  had  also  its  benefits.  It  led  to  constant  search 
for  new  trading  grounds,  and  thus  brought  about  a  more  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  geography  of  the  neighboring  region  than  settled 
colonists  might  have  gained  in  many  years.  It  kept  up  constant  com- 
munication with  Europe,  so  important  to  a  distant  settlement.  Best 
of  all,  it  established  friendly  relations  with  the  Indians  wherever  the 
traders  met  them  ;  and  these,  though  often  one-sided,  were  founded 
on  mutual  interest,  and  differed  entirely  from  the  enmity  and  fear 
which  were  usually  the  immediate  result  of  any  intercourse,  however 
brief,  between  Europeans  and  Indians. 

Even  the  murder  of  Hendrick  Christaensen,  by  one  of  two  Indians 
whom  he  had  long  before  taken  on  a  voyage  to  Holland,  but  had 
restored  safely  to  their  homes,  did  not  change  the  friendly  attitude 
of  the  whites,  though  they  promptly  punished  the  murderer.  Thecom- 
Just  before  Christaensen's  death  he  had  finished  the  trading-  fSS^in  Net?" 
house  and  defences  at  Fort  Nassau,  and  in  the  directorship  of  Xetherlands- 
this  he  was  succeeded  by  Jacob  Eelkens,  who  had  been  a  clerk  in  Am- 
sterdam, and  who,  though  wanting  the  adventurous  spirit  of  his  pre- 
decessor, was  an  excellent  commercial  agent.  As  the  three  years  of 
the  company's  monopoly  went  on,  he  sent  constantly  increasing  stores 
of  furs  down  the  great  river  to  Manhattan  ;  his  scouts  made  long  ex- 


362 


DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.    [CHAP.  XIII. 


peditions  into  the  vast  forests  to  the  westward,  to  barter  with  new 
tribes,  and  find  new  kinds  of  skins  ;  and  unknown  regions  were 
roughly  mapped  out  for  the  guidance  of  future  traders. 

In  one  of  these  expeditions,  a  party  of  three  scouts,  who  had  pene- 
trated farther  into  the  interior  than  any  before  them,  seem 
to  have  reached  the  upper  waters  of  the  Delaware,  and  to 
have  descended  the  stream  to  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill. 
Here  they  were  seized  by  the  Indian  tribes  of  that  neighborhood,  and 
held  as  prisoners,  though  without  suffering  any  .harm  at  the  hands  of 


Upper  Waters  of  the   Delaware. 


their  captors.  Their  situation  gave  rise,  in  turn,  to  new  explorations, 
which  it  would  have  seemed  natural  to  undertake  long  before,  but 
which  had  been  neglected.  For  when  the  traders  at  Manhattan  heard 
of  the  detention  of  three  of  their  fellows,  and  studied  out  the  probable 
position  of  those  who  had  taken  them,  they  at  once  despatched  Cor-" 
nelis  Heudricksen  in  the  yacht  Restless  along  the  coast  to  the  south- 
ward, that  he  might  go  up  the  rivers  from  the  great  bay  into  which 
they  were  supposed  to  flow,  and  ransom  the  prisoners. 

Hendricksen  thoroughly  explored  the  shores  of  Delaware  Bay  and 

river,  and  brought  back,  besides  the  three  scouts,  the  most 
piore  Deia-  glowing  acounts  of  the  river  banks  covered  with  grape-vines 

and  abounding  in  game  ;  and  of  the  trade  for  seal-skins, 
which  he  had  opened  with  the  natives.  His  explorations  completed 
the  survey  of  the  whole  coast  that  nominally  belonged  to  New  Neth- 


1618.] 


EXPIRATION   OF   THE  FIRST    CHARTER. 


363 


erland  ;  for  he  had  been  as  far  south  as  the  cape  he  named  Hinlopen, 
or  Inloopen,  either  after  a  worthy  Amsterdam  merchant,  or,  as  some 
contend,  because  it  seemed  to  vanish  as  the  ship  drew  near.  The 
Amsterdam  directors  even  founded,  upon  the  discovery  of  these  new 
"  havens,  lands,  and  places,"  a  claim  for  a  new  special  charter  ;  but 
the  States  General  feared  to  encroach  upon  the  boundaries  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  refused  the  petition,  though  Hendricksen  had  been  sent 
home  to  aid  it  by  plans  and  arguments. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1617,  Jacob  Eelkens  removed  the  Com- 
pany's trading-post  from  Castle  Island,  where  it  was  exposed  to  disas- 
trous freshets  every  spring,  to  the  west  bank  of  the  river  at  the  mouth  of 
the  little  stream  called  Tawasentha  by  the  natives ;  and  here,  a  little 
later,  he  concluded  the  first  formal  treaty  of  friendship  with 

ITT  T>  •  Expiration 

the  Indians.     But  besides  these  two  events,  nothing   note-  of  the  first 

New  Xether- 
WOrthy  marked  the  last  year  and  a  half  of  the  prosperous  land  charter 

New  Netherland  monopoly  ;  on  the  first  of  January,  1618, 
its  charter  expired  by  its  own  limitation,  and  all  petitions  for  a  re- 
newal   were    refused. 
Those  who   had  held 
privileges  under  it,  still 
continued  for   several 
years  to  enjoy  their  ad- 
vantages almost  with- 
out much  trouble  from 
competition  ;   but   be- 
fore the  law  their  ex- 
clusive     rights      had 
ended.     A  more  pow- 
erful   company    than 
they  had  ever  proposed 
was  soon  to  succeed  to 
all  their  privileges,  and  to  add  to  them  the  functions  of  the  founders 
and  virtual  rulers  of  a  new  state,  where  the  Amsterdam  merchants 
had  only  sought  the  immediate  profits  of  a  trade. 

The  greatness  of  the  new  country's  resources  had  made  itself  felt  in 
Holland  ;  and  the  need  of  some  more  comprehensive  and  direct  action, 
such  as  other  nations  were  taking  in  regard  to  their  American  terri- 
tories, was  now  appreciated.  In  the  characteristic  spirit  of  the  Neth- 
erlands, this  action  took  a  commercial  direction  almost  as  a  matter  of 
course.  The  requests  of  small  bodies  of  merchants  were  refused,  it  is 
true  ;  the  owners  of  a  new  ship  (which,  under  May's  command,  had 
gone  as  far  south  as  Chesapeake  Bay),  fared  as  ill,  when  they  peti- 
tioned for  a  charter,  as  the  Netherland  Company  had  before  them. 


Trading  Scouts. 


364  DUTCH   EXPEDITIONS   TO  NORTH  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XIII. 

But  it  was  on  commercial  grounds,  nevertheless,  that  the  American 
possessions  were  to  be  dealt  with  ;  and  whatever  power  and  riches 
they  were  to  bring  to  the  state  were  to  come  by  the  hands  of  a  great 
trading  corporation. 

In  1621,  the  year  in  which  the  twelve  years'  truce  with  Spain  ex- 
India  p^'ed,  the  great  West  India  Company,  so  often  suggested  be- 
d"  f°re'  and  so  l°ng  debated  and  postponed,  was  chartered  by 
the  States  General  of  the  Netherlands,  with  powers  scarcely 
less  than  those  of  its  fellow  monopoly  in  the  East.  Its  patent,  with 
that  assumption  of  authority  which  belonged  to  the  great  monopolies 
of  the  time,  forbade  any  and  all  inhabitants  of  the  United  Netherlands, 
for  twenty-two  years  after  the  first  of  July,  1621,  to  sail  to  the  coasts 
of  Africa  between  the  tropic  of  Cancer  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
or  to  those  of  America  between  the  banks  of  Newfoundland  and  the 
Straits  of  Magellan  except  in  the  service  of  the  West  India  Company. 
In  the  Dutch  territory  in  America  its  power  was  practically  absolute. 
It  could  make  treaties,  appoint  governing  officers  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest ;  build  and  garrison  forts  ;  administer  justice ;  exercise,  in 
fact,  all  the  functions  of  a  government,  and  was  only  responsible  to 
the  States  General  for  its  acts  as  shown  through  its  own  reports.  Its 
central  board  of  nineteen  delegates,  drawn  from  its  five  chambers  of 
directors  in  Amsterdam,  Middleburg,  Dordrecht,  North  Holland, 
Friesland  and  Groningen,  together  with  a  representative  of  the  States 
General,  sat  at  their  council-board  at  home,  and  ruled  a  territory  im- 
measurably greater  than  their  little  state  built  upon  the  marshes  ; 
a  small  army  of  officials  and  a  considerable  merchant  fleet  carried 
out  their  orders  ;  thirty-two  vessels  of  war  and  eighteen  armed  yachts 
were  at  their  service  in  case  they  needed  defence.1 

It  was  to  the  Amsterdam  chamber  of   this   powerful  corporation, 

that  the  affairs  of  all  the  region  of  New  Netherland  were  given  in 

charge  ;    and,  by  the   authority  of   their   patent,  the  West 

pany  tX9     India  Company  formally  "  took  possession  "  of  the  country 

possession  of  ,  .  ,     ../.m    '      rm  t  i 

it*  domains,  in  the  spring  of  1622.  Ihe  enterprise  of  private  traders 
had  not  been  discontinued  in  the  mean  time ;  for  the  fur 
trade  had  been  so  vigorously  prosecuted  along  the  coasts  to  the  south 
and  east  of  Manhattan,  and  even  in  the  bays  near  which  the  new 
English  colony  of  Plymouth  had  been  founded,  that  Sir  Dudley 
Carleton,  King  James's  Ambassador  at  the  Hague,  had  entered  a  pro- 
test against  the  encroachment.  But  this  remonstrance  went  through 
a  process  which  would  now  be  called  "  stifled  in  committee  "  ;  for  it 

1  Sixteen  war  vessels  and  four  yachts  provided  by  the  States  General  under  the  terms  of 
the  charter  ;  sixteen  vessels,  and  fourteen  yachts  by  themselves.  For  the  charter  in  full  see 
O'Callaghan,  vol.  i.,  Appendix  A. 


1623.]  THE   WALLOONS.  365 

was  referred  first  to  one  branch  of  the  Netherland  government  and 
then  to  another,  each  professing  ignorance  of  any  actual  Dutch  estab- 
lishment in  America,  until  at  last  the  subject  was  fairly  forgotten. 
At  all  events,  it  was  not  permitted  to  interfere  with  the  West  India 
Company's  plans ;  these  went  steadily  on,  and  now  took  such  shape  as 
for  the  first  time  promised  the  new  territory  a  permanent  population, 
and  began  to  change  it  from  being  the  resort  of  transient  traders  to 
the  site  of  settled  and  lasting  colonies. 

In  the  spring  of  1623,  when  the  Company  had  at  last  completed  all 
their  arrangements,  closed  their  subscription  books,  and  fully  organ- 
ized their  official  staff,  that  clause  of  their  charter  which  prescribed 
that  "  they  must  advance  the  peopling  of  those  fruitful  and  unsettled 
parts,"  received  its  first  practical  attention.  Early  in  March  the  ship 
New  Netherland  sailed  from  Holland,  and  carried  as  her  Emigra. 
passengers,  not  only  many  of  the  company's  officers  and  ser-  M™^,^6 
vants,  but  also  the  first  colonists,  in  the  true  meaning  of  the  1623' 
word,  who  were  to  make  their  homes  in  the  new  country,  and  be 
the  earliest  tillers  of  its  soil.  Like  the  first  settlers  of  New  England, 
these  "  Walloons  "  had  been  driven  from  their  homes  by  religious 
persecution,  but  it  had  been  of  a  fiercer  and  more  relentless  kind 
than  any  that  the  English  Puritans  had  been  made  to  feel.  Their 
name,  in  which  the  root  of  the  old  Dutch  "  Waalsche "  and  the 
German  "  Welschen "  appears,  indicated  their  French  origin  ;  but 
they  had  lived  for  generations  in  those  southern  Netherland  prov- 
inces which  had  not  joined  the  great  revolt  against  Spain,  and  whose 
population  was  chiefly  Roman  Catholic.  In  Hainault  and  Luxem- 
bourg, Namur  and  Limburg,  they  had  formed  a  class  sharply  distinct 
from  the  mass  of  the  people.  Speaking  French  that  was  even  then 
quaint  and  old  in  its  forms,  and  professing  the  reformed  religion,  they 
were  a  marked  race,  out  of  place  among  the  Flemish  subjects  of 
Philip  ;  and  the  savage  persecution  of  the  Spaniards  had  been  ex- 
ercised against  them  with  a  force  that  was  driving  great  numbers  of 
them  into  the  freer  Netherlands.  Here  they  generally  settled,  seek- 
ing, by  industry  and  their  remarkable  skill  as  mechanics,  to  replace 
the  property  they  had  lost ;  but  many  of  them  longed  for  a  county 
they  could  call  their  own,  and  the  sense  of  permanence  and  security 
which  that  alone  could  give. 

It  was  a  company  of  these  thrifty  people  who  now  ventured  to  the 
New  World.  They  had  already  applied  through  Sir  Dudley  Carle- 
ton  to  King  James  and  the  Virginia  Company  for  permission  to  emi- 
grate to  Virginia  ;  but  only  unsatisfactory  conditions  were  offered 
them.  The  West  India  dii-ectors,  hearing  of  their  application, 
wisely  seized  upon  the  opportunity,  and  made  them  tempting  offers, 


366 


DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS   TO  .NORTH  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XIII. 


First   Settlement  at  Albany. 


which  they  accepted.  Thus  they  sailed  on  the  New  Netherlands  under 
They  settle  ^ie  command  of  the  Company's  first  regularly  appointed 
site'ot  director,  the  old  Captain  Cornelis  Jacobsen  May  ;  and,  the 

Albany.  gjjjp  passing  Up  the  Mauritius  or  North  river  as  far  as  where 
the  fort  had  been  on  Castle  Island,  they  were  landed  there  on  the 

west  bank,  and  set 
to  work  with  all  the 
industry  of  men  whose 
welfare  depended  on 
their  own  hands. 
When  the  yacht 
Mackarels  which  had 
been  sent  out  the  year 
before  to  take  posses- 
sion, returned  to  Hol- 
land, she  reported  that 
the  colonists'  corn  was 
*'  nearly  as  high  as  a 
man  " ;  and  around  the 
large  and  strong  "Fort  Orange,"  which  they  had  thrown  up  on  their 
first  arrival,  a  village  of  huts  of  bark  was  already  clustered,  where  the 
sturdy  Walloon  families  were  living,  and  already  carrying  on  a  brisk 
traffic  with  the  Indians,  whom  they  described  as  "  quiet  as  lambs."  J 

Not  all  the  Walloons,  however,  and  by  no  means  all  of  the  New 
Netherlands  passengers,  established  themselves  at  Fort  Orange. 
About  eighteen  families  settled  there  ;  but  several  others  had,  on  the 
way,  been  sent  from  Manhattan  to  the  South  (Delaware)  River,  and 
still  others  to  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  or  Fresh  River,  and  to  the 
western  end  of  Long  Island  at  Waal-bogt,  or  Walloon's  Bay  —  now 
known  by  the  English  corruption,  Wallabout.  Eight  men, 
Manhattan"1  too,  were  left  at  Manhattan  Island,  to  form  a  trading  es- 
tablishment for  the  Company.  On  the  South  River,  the 
settlers  built  a  fort,  which  was  finished  a  year  after  their  arrival ;  and 
from  its  site,  northward  and  eastward,  all  along  the  coast  to  Narragan- 
sett  Bay,  the  Dutch  now  traded  peacefully,  their  settlements  growing 
in  prosperity  and  their  traffic  in  profits  ;  so  that  Adriaen  Joris,  who 
had  come  out  as  second  in  command  of  the  New  Netherlands  was  able  to 
report,  when  he  returned  home  in  December,  1624,  that  everything 
was  going  on  favorably  wherever  the  colonists  had  founded  their 
homes. 

i  D.  D.  Barnard  (Address  before  Albany  Institute,  1839),  says  the  site  of  the  settlement 
is  now  occupied  by  the  business  part  of  Albany.  At  the  time  of  the  address  the  "  Fort 
Orange  Hotel,"  an  old  mansion-house,  afterward  destroyed  by  fire  in  1847,  stood  on  the 
ground  once  occupied  by  the  fort.  Compare  B  rod  head,  vol.  i.,  p.  152,  note. 


1C26.]  THE  COLONY  AT  MANHATTAN.  367 

Three  governors  in  turn  administered  the  affairs  of  the  growing 
colony  during  this  early  period  of  quiet  prosperity  :  May,  as  has  been 
said,  during   1624  ;    William   Verhult  in  1625  ;    and  Peter 
Minuit  after  the  fourth  of  May,  1626.     But  it  was  only  with  nors  of  New 

J  .  "  Netherland. 

the  arrival  of  the  last  that  the  different  settlements  were 
properly  united  under  a  single  government.  It  was  Minuit  who  first 
made  Manhattan  politically  what  in  spite  of  neglect  it  had  long  been 
naturally,  the  chief  place  of  New  Netherland.  Acquiring  a  firmer 
title  than  that  of  discovery,  by  buying  the  whole  island  from  the  In- 
dians for  "  the  value  of  sixty  guilders,"  1  he  established  himself  there 
with  his  "Schout"  or  high  sheriff,  his  "Opper  Koopman"  or  secretary 
and  commissary,  and  his  council  of  five  members,  and  began  to  rule  with 
a  wisely  directed  energy. 

His  plans  with  regard  to  Manhattan  were  soon  aided,  though  at  the 
temporary  cost  of  the  other  settlement  at  Fort  Orange,  by  an  act  of 
the  greatest  folly  on  the  part  of  Krieckebeeck,  a  commissioner  who 
now  commanded  at  the  latter  place,  Eelkens  having  long  before  been 
superseded  for  misconduct  toward  the  Indians,  and  Barentsen,  his  suc- 
cessor in  the  fur  trade,  only  acting  as  second  in  actual  control  of  the 
fort.  Krieckebeeck  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  by  the  Mohican 
Indians  to  act  as  their  allies  against  the  Mohawks  ;  and  going  out  with 
them  upon  the  war-path,  was  killed,  with  several  of  his  people,  in  a 
sudden  attack  made  by  the  enemy.  Any  farther  bad  results  of  his 
action  were,  it  is  true,  prevented  by  his  deputy,  Barentsen,  who  was  a 
favorite  with  the  Indians  everywhere  ;  but  nevertheless  Min- 
uit thought  it  best  to  withdraw  the  colonists  from  Fort  the  colony  to 
Orange  to  Manhattan,  leaving  only  a  small  garrison.  About 
the  same  time,  the  settlers  on  the  South  River  left  it  and  joined  the 
main  colony ;  so  that  from  this  time  all  the  chief  interests  of  New 
Netherland  were  permanently  centred  in  that  spot. 

In  material  improvements  the  island  had  for  several  years  little  to 
boast  of.  Rude  dwellings  of  wood  and  bark,  clustered  along  the  bank 
of  the  North  River  near  the  southern  extremity  of  the  land,  furnished 
temporary  homes  for  the  colonists.  A  thatched  stone  build- 
ing, more  lasting  and  pretentious,  formed  the  Company's  bus-  ort 
iness  quarters ;  while  on  the  point  itself  a  large  quadrang- 
ular stone  fort,  Fort  Amsterdam,  was  begun,  within  whose  shelter 
permanent  houses  were  to  be  built  later. 

But  these  beginnings,  though  rude,  were  vigorously  pushed  forward 
by  the  busy  settlers ;  while  from  the  headquarters  thus  at  last  estab- 
lished where  nature  seemed  to  have  made  a  perfect  site,  the  West 
India  Company's  yachts  carried  their  rich  cargoes  back  to  Holland,  or 

1  About  twenty-four  dollars,  gold. 


368 


DUTCH  EXPEDITIONS  TO  NORTH  AMERICA.     [CHAP.  XIII. 


followed  their  fast  increasing  trade  along  the  coast  to  the  south,  or  to 
the  east  as  far  as  Buzzard's  Bay.     A  friendly  letter  was 

Increase  of  .  •  ^ 

New  Nether-  written  to  the  English  colony  at  Plymouth  ;  and  the  New 

land  trade.  J  ,  "  .        ,.    , 

Netherland  government  made  its  first  essay  in  diplomacy  in 
sending  its  secretary  as  a  formal  ambassador  to  the  Puritan  Governor 
Bradford,  with  whom  he  exchanged  congratulations,  though  the  New 
Englander  stood  somewhat  stiffly  upon  his  rights  under  the  patent  of 
King  James,  and  argued,  though  courteously,  that  the  Dutch  had 
no  right  to  the  land  which  they  occupied.  Later,  the  matter  even 
threatened  to  take  the  form  of  a  more  serious  dispute  ;  but  the  powers 
at  home  were  still  too  closely  allied  to  have  their  colonies  at  war,  and 
instead  of  conflict,  trade  was  promoted  between  Manhattan  and  Plym- 


Earliest  Picture  of  New  Amsterdam. 


outh,  whereby  the  latter  obtained  "linen  and  stuffs"  and  excellent 
wampum,  which  was  used  again  in  buying  from  the  Indians. 

In  1628  the  Island  of  Manhattan  had  a  population  of  two  hundred 
Manhattan  an(i  seventy  colonists.  The  profits  of  the  West  India  Corn- 
in  1628.  pany's  fur  trade  had  more  than  doubled  since  the  establish- 
ment of  the  settlement ;  but  the  agriculture  of  the  new  region  was 
not  yet  far  enough  advanced  to  support  the  people  unaided,  and  sup- 
plies were  still  sent  out  from  Holland  by  every  vessel.  Mills  were 
built,  and  there  were  manufactories  of  brick  and  lime,  so  that  the 
completion  of  Fort  Amsterdam,  with  its  stone  facing,  was  greatly 
hastened,  and  better  houses  began  to  appear  about  it ;  but  the  great 
trouble  in  the  way  of  the  colony's  further  advance  seemed  to  be  a 
lack  of  organized  labor.  Private  effort  had  done  its  utmost  when 
it  provided  shelter  and  food  enough  to  eke  out  the  stores  the  Com- 
pany furnished  ;  and  for  a  little  time  there  seemed  danger  that  the 


1628.]  A  CRISIS  IN  THE  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  COLONY.  369 

New  Netherland  experiment  would  come  to  an  end  for  want  of  a  class 
with  large  interests,  apart  from  trade,  in  the  soil  itself,  and  the  sys- 
tematized and  disciplined  labor  that  such  a  class  would  be  sure  to 
foster.  Though  not  a  violent  or  sudden  one,  it  was  nevertheless  in 
some  sense  a  crisis  in  the  colony's  affairs  ;  and  it  was  met  by  the 
vigilant  directors  with  a  measure  of  relief  which  was  perhaps  illiberal 
and  certainly  short-sighted,  but  which  at  first  appeared  to  attain  its 
end,  while  it  was  far  from  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  time  in 
which  it  was  adopted. 


VOL.   I. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


THE  FATHERS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


THE  PURITANS  UNDER  JAMES  I.  —  SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  ENGLISH  AT  THE  BEGIN- 
NING OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  —  THE  SEPARATISTS  OF  NORTH  NOTTINGHAM- 
SHIRE.—  BREWSTER  AND  THE  EPISCOPAL  RESIDENCE  AT  SCROOBY.  —  PERSECUTION 
OF  THE  PURITANS. —  THEIR  ATTEMPTS  TO  ESCAPE  FROM  ENGLAND.  —  LONG  EXILE 
IN  HOLLAND.  —  MOTIVES  FOR  A  PROPOSED  REMOVAL  TO  AMERICA.  —  PETITION  TO 
KING  JAMES.  —  NEGOTIATIONS  WITH  THE  DUTCH.  —  EMBARKATION  OF  THE  PILGRIMS 
AT  DELFT-HAVEN. — FINAL  DEPARTURE  OF  THE  "MAY  FLOWER"  FROM  ENGLAND. 
—  ARRIVAL  AT  CAPE  COD.  —  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT  ADOPTED.  —  EXPLORATIONS 
ALONG  THE  COAST.  —  SlTE  FOR  A  COLONY  SELECTED.  —  CONFUSION  OF  FACTS  AND 
DATES  AS  TO  THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH. — THE  FIRST  WINTER.  —  SUFFERINGS 
AND  DEATHS. 

THE  moral,  political,  and,  in  some  sense,  tne  material  training 
The  lemons  which  the  colonists  on  the  James  River,  in  Virginia,  were 
of  exile.  twelve  years  in  acquiring,  as  a  necessary  preparation  for 
future  success,  the  Pilgrims  were,  during  the  same  period,  subjected  to 

in  Holland.  "  We  are  well  weaned," 
said  the  pastor,  Robinson,  after  nine 
years  of  exile,  "  from  the  delicate 
milk  of  our  mother  countrie,  and 
enured  to  the  difficulties  of  a  strange 
and  hard  land."  Poverty  in  Am- 
sterdam and  Leyden  was  not,  in- 
deed, quite  so  irremediable  as  in  the 
American  wilderness,  but  the  lesson 
it  taught  did  not  greatly  differ  in 
either  place.  As  exiles  in  strange 
lands  with  no  dependence  but  upon 
Fi«t  Seal  of  Plymouth  Colony.  themselves,  the  necessity  of  self-de- 

nial and  self-reliance  for  the  sake  of  self-preservation  would  grow  alike 
in  both  places ;  in  the  circumstances  of  both  was  the  same  stimulus  to 
the  most  active  use  of  all  the  powers  of  mind  and  body;  isolation, 
whether  from  absolute  solitude,  or  from  being  surrounded  by  an  alien 
people,  would  produce  the  same  sense  of  mutual  interest,  of  the  neces- 
sity of  mutual  help,  and  of  a  mutual  regard  for  each  other's  rights, 
which  is  the  only  sure  foundation  for  political  self-government. 


1603.]  THE  PURITANS  UNDER  JAMES  I.  371 

While,  however,  this  preparatory  education  of  events  was  thus,  in 
some  measure,  the  same  for  the  founders  of  the  first  two  English 
colonies  on  the  American  coast,  the  Pilgrims  had  this  great  advan- 
tage over  their  countrymen  in  Virginia,  —  that  a  bond  of  unity  in 
deep-seated  religious  convictions  was  strengthened  b}T  a  brotherhood 
of  social  relations  growing  out  of  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  their 
flight  from  their  native  land. 

The  accession  of  James  I.  to  the  throne  of  England  did  not  bring, 
as  thej'  hoped  it  would,  relief  to  those  devout  and  devoted  believers, 
who,  through  the  preceding  reign,  had  contended  for  religious  free- 
dom. From  the  time  of  Mary,  "  the  one  side  laboured,"  says  Brad- 
ford, "to  have  the  right  worship  of  God  and  discipline  of  Christ 
established  in  the  Church,  according  to  the  simplicitie  of  the  Gospell, 
without  the  admixture  of  men's  inventions,  and  to  have,  and  to  be 
ruled  by,  the  laws  of  God's  word  dispensed  in  those  offices,  and  by 
those  officers  of  Pastors,  Teachers,  and  Elders,  etc.,  accord- 
ing to  the  Scripturs.  The  other  partie,  though  under  many  between  the 

i  J  J  ^       1.  ^  •  11    j-          Church  and 

colours  and  pretences,  endevored  to  have  the  episcopall  dig.  the  sepa»- 
nitie  (after  the  popish  maner)  with  their  large  power  and 
jurisdiction  still  retained ;  with  all  those  courts,  cannons,  and  cere- 
monies, together  with  all  such  livings,  revenues,  and  subordinate 
officers,  with  other  such  means  as  formerly  upheld  their  antichristian 
greatnes,  and  enabled  them  with  lordly  and  tyranous  power  to  perse- 
cute the  poore  servants  of  God."  l  In  this  succinct  statement  is  the 
very  pith  of  the  matter  in  that  religious  controversy  which  followed 
the  Reformation  ;  and  one  of  its  important  results,  hardly  noticed, 
and  almost  unknown  at  the  time,  was,  that  it  banished,  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  a  ship-load  of  yeomen  from  England. 

At  a  conference  held  in  1603,  to  consider  the  grievances  of  this 
class  of  his  subjects,  James  I.  boasted,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  Scot- 
land, that  he  had  "  kept  such  a  revel  with  the  Puritans  these  two 
days,  as  was  never  heard  the  like  ;  where  I  have  peppered  them  so 
soundly  as  ye  have  done  the  Papists."2  There  was  nothing  to  be 
hoped  from  this  son  of  a  mother  who  had  been  led  to  the  block  for 
her  adherence  to  the  ancient  faith,  as  well  as  for  her  crimes  against 
the  state.  It  was  equally  amusing  to  James  to  "  pepper "  Puritans 
in  public  debate,  and  to  remember  that  Catholics  had  lost  their  heads 
for  their  devotion  to  the  religion  in  which  the}'  believed. 

There  were  many  of   these  persecuted  dissenters  throughout  the 

1  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  by  William  Bradford,  the  Second  Governor  of  The 
Colony. 

a  Strype's  Life  of  Whitgijl,  App.  No.  46.  Quoted  in  Palfrey's  History  of  New  England, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  130. 


372 


THE  FATHERS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    [CHAP.  XIV. 


Kingdom,  sometimes  gathered  into  societies  of  their  own,  especially 
in  London ;  sometimes  bearing  alone  a  silent  but  painful  testimony 
against  the  undoubted  immoralities  connived  at  in  the  church,  and  the 
vain  ordinances  —  as  they  deemed  them  —  which  they  were  called 
upon  to  share  in  and  to  sanction.  But  in  no  rural  district  were  they 
so  numerous  or  so  well  organized  as  in  that  part  of  England  where 
the  borders  of  Nottinghamshire,  Lincolnshire,  and  Yorkshire  met. 
More  than  one  earnest  preacher  in  that  neighborhood  had  called  and 
held  together  by  his  eloquence  and  zeal  a  little  knot  of  followers  as 
firm  in  the  faith  as  he,  and  ready  to  follow  whithersoever  his  higher 
light  should  lead. 


View  of  Scrooby  Village. 


In  North  Nottinghamshire,  in  the  Hundred  of  Basset-Lawe,  is 
The  village  tue  village  of  Scrooby.  Though  little  more  than  a  hamlet, 
fn  NottTng-'  it  was  °f  some  importance  three  hundred  years  ago,  as  a 
hamshire.  post-town  on  the  great  road  from  London  to  Scotland,  and 
as  containing  a  manor  place  belonging  to  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
then  the  Archbishop  Sandys,  one  of  whose  sons  was  that  Edwin  San- 
dys who,  in  1618,  was  made  Treasurer  of  the  Virginia  Company  in 
London.  There  were  historical  associations  connected  with  the  arch- 
bishop's residence  at  Scrooby  other  than  those  for  which  Che  descend- 
ants of  the  "  Pilgrim  Fathers  "  may  cherish  its  memory,  arid  which 
even  now  are  not  without  some  interest.  Here  Margaret,  Queen  of 
Scotland,  daughter  of  Henry  VII.,  slept  for  a  night,  on  the  way  to 
her  own  kingdom,  in  1503  ;  here,  also,  Henry  VIII.  passed  a  night 
on  a  northern  progress  in  1541  ;  and  in  this  manor-house  Cardinal 
Wolsey  lived  some  weeks  after  his  fall,  ministering  to  the  poor  in 


1600.]        THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.       373 

deeds  of  charity,  saying  mass  on  Sundays,  and  distributing  alms  in 
meat,  and  drink,  and  money.1 

This  house  of  the  archbishop  was  the  one  great  house  of  Scrooby, 
for  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  were,  for  the  most  part,  plain  yeo- 
men, who  followed  what  Bradford,  the  Plymouth  Governor,  called 
the  innocent  trade  of  husbandry.  In  the  method  and  manners  of 
their  lives  there  was  no  very  essential  difference,  except  that  they 
had  enough  to  eat  and  wear,  from  that  way  of  life  which  fell  to  the 
lot  of  some  of  them  in  an  American  wilderness. 

For  the  habits  of  the  common  people  of  England  at  that  period 
were  exceedingly  simple,  and  in  some  respects  almost  prim-  Sociai, 
itive.     Only  where  wood  was  plentiful  were  their  houses 
well  and  solidly  built  of  timber ;  elsewhere  they  were  mere 
frames  filled  in  with  clay.     The  walls  of  the  rich  only,  who  th»' period- 
could  afford  such  a  luxury,  were  covered  with  hangings  to  keep  out 
the  dampness,  and  even  plastered  walls  were  uncommon.     The  floors 
of  these  houses  were  of  clay,  and  cov-  .,  f 

ered,  if  covered  at  all,  with  rushes. 
Chimneys  had  come  into  use  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  though  it  was  com- 
mon long  after  to  have  a  hole  in  the 
roof  for  the  escape  of  smoke,  as  is  done 
in  Indian  wigwams.  The  windows  were 
not  glazed,  for  that  was  a  luxury  so 
costly  that  even  noblemen  when  they 
left  their  country-houses  to  go  to  Court, 
had  their  glass-windows  packed  away  i^e-piace  1*  icth  century. 

with  other  precious  furniture  for  safe-keeping.  In  the  houses  of 
the  common  people  there  was  no  better  protection  from  the  weather 
than  panes  of  oiled  paper.2  A  pallet  of  straw,  with  a  rough  mat  for 
covering,  and  a  log  for  a  pillow,  was  deemed  a  good  bed.  The  food 
of  the  people  was  chiefly  flesh,  for  gardening  was  an  art  confined  to 
the  very  rich,  for  ornamental  purposes,  and  few  vegetables  were  cul- 
tivated. Even  agriculture  was  in  a  rude  state  ;  the  draining  of  land 
was  almost  unknown,  and  fever  and  ague  consequently  the  common 
disease.  A  clumsy  wooden  plough,  a  wooden  fork,  a  spade,  hoe, 
and  flail  were  the  only  agricultural  implements.  The  bread  was  the 
coarser  kind  of  black  bread  made  of  the  unbolted  flour  of  oats,  bar- 
ley, or  rye,  and  in  times  of  scarcity  this  was  mixed  with  ground 

1  See  The  Founders  of  New  Plymouth,  by  Rev.  Joseph  Hunter.  London,  1854.  Also 
Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation. 

2  Winslow  wrote  home  from  Plymouth,  in  the  early  days  of  the  colony,  to  those  about  to 
emigrate  :  ."  Bring  paper  and  linseed  oil  for  your  windows." 


374 


THE   FATHERS   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.          [CHAP.  XIV 


gation  at 


acorns.  Table-forks  were  unknown  ;  the  spoons  and  platters,  where 
there  were  any,  were  of  wood ;  with  the  use  of  a  knife,  the  fingers, 
and  a  common  dish,  the  civilities  of  the  table  were  generally  dis- 
pensed with. 

The  yeomen,  who  lived  in  this  rude  fashion,  were  not  called  Sir  or 
The  English  Master,  as  gentlemen  and  knights  were,  but  plain  John  or 
vfoman.  Thomas.  Yet  they  were  the  "  settled  or  staid  men  "  — 
from  the  Saxon  Zeoman  —  the  great  middle  class  of  England, 
the  firm  foundation  on  which  the  state  rested  ;  and  in  "  foughten 
fields  "  the  king  remained  among  his  yeomanry,  or  footmen,  for  on 
them  he  relied  as  his  chief  strength.  The  land  they  lived  upon  and 
cultivated  was  sometimes  their  own,  and  they  often  acquired  wealth. 
Their  sons  were  sent  to  the  universities  and  the  inns  of  court,  and 
from  the  ranks  of  the  yeomen  great  men  and  great  names  were  given 
to  England ;  to  the  class  of  gentry  came  recruits  of  fresh,  healthy 
blood,  quickened  by  new  ambitions,  strong  in  great  purposes.  It  was 
good  stock  from  which  to  settle  a  new  country. 

There  was  at  Scrooby  a  congregation  of  Separatists,  made  up,  for 
the  most  part,  of  people  of  this  class  ;  educated  and  enlight- 
ened enough  to  come  to  conclusions  of  their  own  upon  ques- 
tions of  religious  reformation  ;  so  stable  in  character  as  to 
hold  firmly  to  convictions  conscientiously  formed ;  and  endowed  with 
enough  of  this  world's  goods  to  maintain  their  freedom  of  thought, 

even  to  banish- 
ment, if  need  be, 
from  their  native 
land.  A  body  of 
their  faith  pre- 
ceded them  by 
some  years,  in  em- 
igrating to  Hol- 
land, and,  after 
their  departure, 
the  Scrooby  peo- 
ple had  no  separ- 
ate building  in 
which  to  congre- 
gate for  religious 
worship.  Their 
usual  place  of 

meeting  was  the  manor-house,  belonging  to  the  Archbishop  of  York. 
The  leading  man  among  them  was  William  Brewster,  who  after- 


site  of  Scrooby  Manor. 


1587.]  BREWSTER'S   EARLY   LIFE.  375 

wards  became  the  ruling  elder  of  the  little  church.1  Brewster  held 
the  office  of  postmaster — or  post  as  it  was  then  called  —  of  Scrooby, 
a  position  of  a  good  deal  of  importance,  as  it  enjoined  not  only  the 
charge  of  the  mails  and  the  dispatch  of  letters,  but  the  entertainment 
and  conveyance  of  travellers,  in  whatever  direction  they  wished  to  go. 
The  postmaster  was,  in  one  sense,  an  innkeeper ;  but  an  innkeeper  for 
certain  duties,  by  official  appointment.2  As  the  incumbent  of  such 
an  office,  Brewster  occupied  the  largest  and  most  important  house  in 
Scrooby,  —  that  belonging  to  the  archbishop.  And  this,  notwithstand- 
ing his  official  relation  to  the  state,  and  its  dignity  as  an  episcopal 
residence,  he  threw  open,  once  a  week,  to  those  with  whose  opposition 
to  the  state  and  church  he  was  in  fullest  sympathy. 

But  Brewster  was  otherwise  a  man  of  some  mark.  In  his  youth  he 
had  spent  some  time  at  the  University  of  Cambridge,  where  Winiam 
he  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek.  He  Brewster- 
afterward  went  to  court,  and  entered  the  service  of  a  noted  statesman 
of  the  time,  William  Davison  ;  was  with 
him  when  he  was  sent  ambassador  from 
Elizabeth  to  the  Low  Countries  to  perfect 
a  league  with  the  United  Provinces  that  signature  of  wiiiiam 
should  enable  them  to  maintain  their  independence  of  Spain  ;  was 
still  the  faithful  friend  and  follower  of  his  master  when  Davison  was 
ruined  for  having  issued,  as  Secretary  of  State,  —  possibly  against  the 
orders,  but  certainly  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  Elizabeth,  —  the 
royal  writ  for  the  execution  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  Davison's  fall 
ended  Brewster's  career  as  a  courtier ;  but  he  still  possessed  influence 
enough  to  secure  the  appointment  of  post  at  Scrooby.  Davison  was 
a  Puritan.  Bradford  says  of  him  that  he  was  a  "  religious  and  godly 
gentleman,"  and  that  he  esteemed  Brewster  "  rather  as  a  son  than  a 
servant,  and  for  his  wisdom  and  godliness  in  private,  he  would  con- 
verse with  him  more  like  a  familiar  than  a  master."  3  Such  influence 
must  have  confirmed,  if  it  did  not  instill,  in  Brewster's  mind  the  prin- 
ciples which  governed  his  subsequent  life. 

A  society  of  Separatists,  holding  weekly  meetings  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, in  the  house  occupied  by  an  officer  of  the  government, 
and  belonp3ing  to  a  dignitary  of  the  established  Church,  would  be 
quite  likely  to  attract  more  than  usual  attention  ;  their  boldness  may 

1  The  office  of  the  ruling  elder  in  the  early  Puritan  churches  was  to  assist  the  teaching 
elder,  or  pastor,  in  overseeing  and  ruling  the  church,  and  to  teach  occasionally  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  pastor.     See  Young's  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrims,  p.  455,  note,  for  authorities 
on  this  point. 

2  See  Hunter's  Founders  of  New  Plymouth,  where  the  social  and  official  position  of  Elder 
Brewster,  at  Scrooby,  was  first  made  clear. 

3  Bradford's  Memoir  of  Elder  William  Brewster,  in  Young's  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrims. 


376          THE  FATHERS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    [CHAP.  XIV. 

have  even  been  construed  into  a  defiance  of  the  law.  These  people 
had  already  been  called  upon  to  suffer  afflictions,  when  some  of  them 
were  members  of  the  church  at  Gainsborough  under  the  care  of  John 
Smith,  who,  with  many  of  his  people,  had  taken  refuge  in  Holland 
some  years  before  ;  and  also,  no  doubt,  when  upholding  Richard  Clif- 
ton, a  clergyman  at  Babworth  in  the  County  of  Nottingham, 
of  the  sepa-  who  had  been  deposed  for  non-conformity.  But  those  were 
as  "  flea-bitings,"  it  was  said,1  to  the  sufferings  they  were 
called  upon  to  undergo  soon  after  they  had  gathered  into  a  distinct 
body  at  Scrooby.  They  were  hunted  and  persecuted  on  every  side ; 
some  were  imprisoned ;  the  houses  of  others  were  beset  and  watched 
till  they  were  fain  to  fly,  leaving  homes  and  means  of  livelihood,  to 
preserve  their  liberty. 

Brewster  soon  ceased  to  be  postmaster,  —  no  doubt  dismissed  from 
the  office  he  had  held  more  than  a  dozen  years.  And  he  was  to  have 
been  otherwise  punished.  He  and  two  others  of  the  principal  mem- 
bers of  the  society,  Richard  Jackson  and  Robert  Rochester,  were  sum- 
moned as  Separatists  before  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission  for  the 
province  of  York  to  pay  a  fine  of  £20  each  ;  and  for  not  obeying  that 
summons,  a  further  fine  of  an  equal  amount  was  subsequently  recorded 
against  them,  —  recorded,  but  not  paid,  for  the  recusants  had  fled  be- 
fore the  commissioners  had  time  to  enforce  the  penalties.2 

From  the  persecutions  which  these  people  suffered  there  was  no 
escape  but  by  exile,  and  they  resolved,  therefore,  to  go  to  the  Low 
Countries,  where  they  understood  there  was  freedom  of  religion  for 
all  men.  Though  we  learn  only  in  general  terms  the  character  of  the 
pains  and  penalties  which  they  were  called  upon  to  endure,  these  were 
certainly  of  no  light  nature,  —  if  persecution  for  religion's  sake  is  ever 
light,  —  for  they  clearly  understood  the  difficulties  that  beset  the  path 
on  which  they  were  about  to  enter,  and  which  they  chose  as  the  least 
painful  alternative.  "  Their  desires  were  sett  on  the  ways  of  God  and 
to  injoy  his  ordinances,"  and  for  these  they  were  ready  to  leave  their 
native  soil,  their  lands  and  livings,  their  friends  and  familiar  acquaint- 
ance, to  go  to  a  country  of  which  they  knew  nothing  except  by  hear- 
say, to  learn  a  new  language,  to  get  their  livings  they  knew  not  how. 
Nor  was  this  all.  They  could  not  stay ;  neither  were  they  permitted 
to  go,  without  hindrance,  for  the  ports  were  shut  against  them.  They 
were  oftentimes  betrayed,  their  goods  taken  from  them  to  their  great 
trouble  and  expense,  and  their  intentions  defeated.3 

It  was  impossible  that  two  or  three  hundred  people  could  dispose  in 

1  Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation. 

2  Hunter's  Founders  of  New  Plymouth. 

3  Bradford. 


1606.] 


ATTEMPTS   TO  LEAVE  ENGLAND. 


377 


secret  of  lands  and  houses  and  other  property,  make  the  other  needful 
preparations  to  emigrate  in  a  body  from  a  rural  neighborhood,  and  do 
all  this  unobserved.  They  hoped  to  get  away  in  small  detachments, 
but  even  this  was  impossible,  without  encountering  dangers  Cruel 
and  oftentimes  defeat.  At  one  time,  at  Boston,  in  Lincoln-  ™ 
shire,  a  large  party  of  them  got  safely  at  night  on  board  8hire> 
ship.  But  the  master  was  treacherous,  and  handed  them  over  to  the 
officers  with  whom  he  was  in  complicity ;  their  goods  were  rifled  and 
ransacked  ;  the  men  were  searched  to  their  shirts  for  money ;  even  the 
women  were  compelled  to  submit  to  like  indignities  "  further  than  be- 
came modesty ; "  and  thus  outraged,  insulted,  and  robbed,  they  were 
led  back  to  the  town,  a  spectacle  and  wonder  to  the  gaping  crowd  that 
flocked  from  all  sides  to  see  and  jeer  at  their  sad  condition.  The  mag- 


Attempted  Flight  of  Puritans. 

istrates  were  kinder  than  the  people,  and  showed  them  such  favor  as 
they  could ;  but  the  whole  company  were  imprisoned  for  a  month, 
when  they  were  dismissed  to  go  where  they  would,  excepting  seven 
of  the  chief  among  them,  who  were  detained  for  trial. 

These,  and  others  with  them,  made  a  more  disastrous  attempt  to 
escape  some  months  later.  A  Dutch  ship  was  engaged  to  take  them 
on  board  at  a  lonely  place  between  Hull  and  Grimsby,  and  thither 


378  THE   FATHERS   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XIV. 

the  women  and  children  were  sent  in  a  small  vessel ;  the  men  were 
to  go  by  land.  All  arrived  in  due  season.  The  ship  rode  at  an- 
Attempted  c^101'  som«  distance  from  the  shore  ;  the  smaller  vessel,  with 
uuiurug-  the  women  and  children,  lay  aground  where  the  ebb-tide 
tratcd.  jla(j  jef£  jjer>  ^  single  boat-load  of  men  had  been  taken  off 
to  the  ship  as  the  first  preparation  for  departure,  when  suddenly  a 
mob  of  country  people,  some  on  foot  and  some  mounted,  armed  with 
bills  and  guns  and  other  weapons,  rushed  down  upon  the  beach.  The 
frightened  Dutchman  "  swore  his  country's  oath,  Sawamente,"  weighed 
anchor,  hoisted  sails,  and  with  a  fair  wind  was  soon  out  at  sea.  His 
wretched  passengers,  though  destitute  of  everything  but  the  clothes 
they  wore,  gave  no  thought  to  their  own  condition  as  they  looked 
back  to  their  helpless  wives  and  children  thus  abandoned  to  dangers 
which  they  could  neither  defend  them  from  nor  share.  On  shore, 
some  of  the  men  evaded  the  mob  of  assailants  and  dispersed  ;  others, 
who  remained  with  their  own  families,  or  to  give  such  little  protection 
as  they  could  to  the  families  of  their  friends  carried  away  by  the 
Dutchman,  were  taken  into  custody,  with  those  who,  either  from  age, 
or  youth,  or  sex,  were  unable  to  escape.  The  unhappy  company  was 
at  the  mercy  of  the  mob,  always  more  cruel  than  the  law.  They  were 
hurried  from  place  to  place,  from  one  magistrate  to  another  ;  denied 
even  the  friendly  shelter  of  a  jail ;  for  the  women  and  children,  as 
they  mostly  were,  had  been  guilty  of,  at  worst,  a  venial  crime  in  seek- 
ing to  go  with  their  husbands  and  fathers  even  to  a  foreign  land. 
Now  they  had  no  homes  to  which  they  could  be  sent,  for  those  they 
had  recently  left  had  passed  into  other  hands  ;  their  present  means  of 
support  must  needs  have  been  very  limited  and  soon  exhausted  ;  what 
should  be  done  with  them  then  was  a  puzzling  problem  which  each 
bench  of  magistrates  tried  to  throw  upon  its  fellow  of  the  next  town 
or  parish,  and  which  none  of  them  thanked  the  over-zealous  populace 
for  thrusting  upon  them  for  solution. 

So  pitiable  a  case  could  hardly  fail  to  excite  compassion  in  any  civil- 
ized community  of  even  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  help 
came  no  doubt,  at  last,  to  these  poor  people,  from  many  persons  as 
liberal  in  mind  as  in  purse.  For  we  learn  from  the  narrative  of  these 
trials  and  misfortunes,1  that  "  by  these  so  public  troubles,  in  so  many 
eminent  places,  their  cause  became  famous,  and  occasioned  many  to 
look  into  the  same ;  and  their  godly  carriage  and  Christian  behavior 
was  such  as  left  a  deep  impression  upon  the  minds  of  many."  The 
scattered  families  and  friends  at  length  united  in  Holland, 
of  Puritans  where  the  Dutch  ship  arrived  after  a  tempestuous  and  dan- 
gerous voyage.  In  the  course  of  the  winter  of  1607-8,  and 
the  following  spring,  the  Puritan  Church  of  Scrooby  came  together 

1  Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation. 


1608.]  ARRIVAL  IN   HOLLAND.  379 

again  in  Amsterdam,  its  members  arriving  in  several  parties,  and  at 
different  times,  after  many  perils  and  hardships. 

These  simple  yeomen  of  Nottinghamshire,  whose  travels,  till  that 
winter,  had  seldom,  if  ever,  probably,  extended  beyond  the  nearest 
market  town,  had  come,  as  it  were,  into  a  new  world.  Instead  of  the 
green  fields  and  pleasant  hamlets  of  England,  they  saw  a  city  risen 
out  of  the  sea,  its  long,  sluggish  canals  crowded  with  ships  and  spanned 
by  hundreds  of  bridges.  They  wandered  about  streets  of  a  new  and 
strange  aspect,  filled  with  people  speaking  a  strange  and  uncouth  lan- 
guage, and  clothed  in  strange  costumes.  Accustomed  to  the  monot- 
ony of  simple,  rural  ways  and  the  rigid  economies  of  country  life,  they 
were  brought  suddenly  into  places  where  wealth  and  luxury  abounded, 
and  where  the  sights  and  sounds  of  a  vast  and  busy  commerce  met 
them  on  every  side.  But  there  were  other  realities  before  them  of  a 
sterner  kind  which  gave  them  little  time  to  observe  or  think  of  these 
new  surroundings.  The  grim  face  of  poverty  confronted  them,  and  all 
their  energies  were  needed  in  the  struggle  for  a  bare  subsistence. 

There  were  already  two  English  Puritan  churches  in  Amsterdam. 
Strife  had  arisen  among  the  members,  stirred  up  chiefly  by 
John  Smith,  the  pastor  of  the  church  from  Gainsborough  in  churches  in 
Lincolnshire,  a  man  of  too  restless  and  contentious  a  dispo- 
sition to  remain  long  at  rest  in  any  one  place  or  in  one  belief.  The 
Scrooby  people  had  suffered  enough  to  value  tranquillity ;  and  indeed 
all  their  history  shows  them  to  have  been  at  all  times  a  people  who, 
next  to  purity,  sought  for  peace.  As  they  had  abandoned  the  homes 
they  loved  so  much,  that  they  might  live  in  the  quiet  enjoyment  of 
their  own  religious  faith,  so  now,  rather  than  be  drawn  into  these 
disputes  and  difficulties  among  the  brethren  of  Amsterdam,  they  re- 
moved, about  a  year  after  their  arrival,  to  Leyden. 

This  city  was,  for  the  next  twelve  years,  their  home,  where  they 
gained  a  sufficient  livelihood  by  hard  labor,  but  especially  Thelifein 
"  enjoying  much'  sweet  and  delightful  society  and  spiritual  Uolland- 
comfort  together  in  the  ways  of  God,  under  the  able  ministry  and 
prudent  government  of  Mr.  John  Robinson  and  Mr.  William  Brews- 
ter." l  Brewster,  in  those  years,  turned  his  early  education  to  account 
by  teaching,  and  carried  on  also  the  business  of  printing,  sometimes 
publishing  religious  works  which  were  prohibited  in  England.  Brad- 
ford, who  was  not  more  than  twenty  years  of  age  when  he  left  Not- 
tinghamshire, learned  the  trade  of  silk-weaving,  but  devoted  himself 
also  to  study,  being  particularly  anxious  to  read  God's  Word  in  the 
original  Hebrew,  and  became  a  leading  member  of  the  church.  Other 
principal  men  among  them  were  Carver,  Cushman,  and  Winslow,  — 

1  Bradford's  History. 


380 


THE   FATHERS    OF   NEW    ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XIV. 


Diasatisfac- 


the  latter,  a  young  man  of  higher  social  position  than  any  of  the  rest, 
who,  visiting  Ley  den  while  on  his  travels,  became  acquainted  with  the 
Puritans,  and  embraced  their  faith  about  three  years  before  their  de- 
parture from  this  city  of  refuge. 

As  the  old  grew  older,  and  the  young  attained  to  manhood,  a  serious 
consideration  of  the  future  pressed  upon  them.  Though  none  were 
very  poor,  there  were  none  who  were  very  prosperous  ;  and 
their  circumstances  were  not  such  as  to  attract  any  large 
addition  to  their  number,  or  to  increase  their  material  wel- 
fare. They  remained  strangers  in  a  strange  land,  still  cher- 
ishing next  to  religious  purity  their  birthright  as  Englishmen.  Some 
of  the  younger  members,  who  had  little  or  no  recollection  of  their  Eng- 
lish homes,  were  already  yielding  to 
the  influences  and  temptations  of 
foreign  habits  and  manners  ;  and  the 
elders  feared  that  as  they  passed 
away,  not  only  would  the  Church 
be  scattered,  and  the  good  seed  of 
the  Gospel  perish,  but  all  the  ties 
and  associations  of  a  precious  inher- 
itance be  lost  and  forgotten  among 
their  children. 

Whither  should  they  go  that  their 
faith  and  their  birthright  might 
both  be  handed  down  to  their  pos- 
terity sacred  and  inviolate?  The 
power  of  the  hierarchy  that  had  driven  them  from  their  homes,  hunted 
them  from  port  to  port,  robbed  them  of  almost  everything  but  liberty 
and  the  right  of  obedience  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences,  for- 
bade that  they  should  go  back  to  England.  Where,  then,  should  they 
seek  a  new  resting-place  ? 

There  were  divided  opinions.  The  anxious  discussion  of  the  subject 
began  a  year  or  more  before  Raleigh  returned,  to  lose  his  head,  from 
that  fatal  expedition  to  Guinea  where  he  had  lost  his  son.  El  Dorado 
was  still  believed  in  ;  there  were  some  among  the  Puritans  of  Leyden 
bold  enough  and  imaginative  enough  to  urge  a  removal  to  a  land  where 
in  perpetual  summer,  upon  a  soil  that  should  yield  them  the  fruits  of 
the  earth  almost  without  labor,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  wealth  that, 
from  the  abundance  of  gold,  need  have  no  limit,  they  hoped  to  forget 
the  perils,  the  hardships,  and  the  poverty  of  the  past. 

Some  were  opposed  to  any  change.  They  dreaded  to  expose  their 
women  and  the  aged  to  the  perils  and  privations  of  a  long  voyage,  1*>  a 
change  of  climate,  and  to  the  dangers  to  be  encountered  from  a  savage 


Church  at  Austerfield,  Bradford's  Birthplace. 


1617.]  PROPOSED   REMOVAL   TO    AMERICA.  381 

people,  stories  of  whose  ferocity  and  cruelty  "  moved  the  very  bowels 

of  men  to  grate  within   them,  and   made  the   weak   to   quake   and 

tremble."     But  the  more  sober-minded,  putting  aside  both  delusive 

hopes  and  vain  fears,  turned  their  eyes  to  Virginia,  though 

not  to  the  colony  on  James  River,  where,  it  was  thought,  they   remove  to 

would  be  subjected  to  religious  persecution  quite  as  much  as 

in  England.     Somewhere,  however,  within  the  wide  domain  of   the 

Virginia  Company  they  proposed  to  establish  themselves  as  a  separate 

and  independent  colony,  trusting  they  might  obtain  from  James  the 

assurance  that  they  should  be  left  in  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of 

their  religious  convictions. 

They  relied  much  on  the  good  offices  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  then  a 
member  of  the  Council  of  the  Virginia  Company,  and  under  whose 
wise  management  the  colony  on  the  James  was  soon  to  give  its  first 
real  promise  of  permanence  and  prosperity.  Sandys  and  Brewster  had 
served  together  under  William  Davison  thirty  years  before,  and  had 
probably  continued  in  friendly  relations ;  the  former  can  hardly  have 
failed  to  be  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  Scrooby  Puritans  who  had 
met  in  the  house  that  Brewster  leased,  but  which  belonged  to  the 
Sandys  family ; 1  he  was  known,  moreover,  to  share,  in  some  degree, 
the  opinions  of  the  Puritans  upon  religious  subjects,  and  to  sympathize 
with  them  in  the  trials  to  which  those  opinions  had  led.  None  knew 
better  than  he  the  peculiar  fitness  of  such  a  community  to  found  a 
colony  —  men  and  women  of  blameless  lives,  of  tenacious  morality,  of 
habits  of  persistent  industry,  inured  to  the  evils  of  poverty,  accustomed 
by  years  of  exile  to  the  shifts  and  devices  with  which  new  settlers  must 
make  themselves  content  and  prosperous ;  for  it  was  not  with  them  as 
with  other  men,  wrote  Robinson  and  Brewster  to  Sandys,  "  whom 
small  things  can  discourage,  or  small  discontentments  cause  to  wish 
themselves  at  home  again." 

Robert  Cushman  and  John  Carver  were  sent  in  1617  to  England  as 
a  deputation  from  the  Church  to  obtain,  if  possible,  a  patent  Cushman 
from  the  king  which  should  give  them  lands  in  North  Vir-  ^nt^EiIg- 
ginia  with  the  assurance  under  the  royal  seal,  of  religious  1*nd- 
liberty.  On  their  part  it  was  promised  that  "  they  would  endeavour 
the  advancement  of  his  majesty's  dominions  and  the  enlargement  of 
the  Gospel  by  all  due  means."  "  It  was,"  James  said,  "  a  good  and 
honest  motion  ;  but  what  profits,"  he  asked,  "  would  come  from  such  a 
movement  ?  "  They  answered :  "  Fishing."  "  So  God  have  my  soul," 
was  the  king's  reply,  "  'tis  an  honest  trade  :  'twas  the  Apostles'  own 
calling."  2  Nevertheless,  the  negotiations,  which  were  «ontinued  for 

1  See  Founders  of  New  Plymouth  for  an  account  of  the  division  of  the  lands  of  the  See 
amonjr  his  sons  by  Archbishop  Sandys. 

2  Winslow's  Briff  Relation. 


382          THE  FATHERS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    [CHAP.  XIV. 

about  a  year  and  seconded  by  men  of  influence,  came  to  nought. 
The  king  was  unwilling  to  recognize  such  a  colony  by  any  public 
act,  and  it  would  have  been  inconsistent  with  his  orders  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  South  Virginia  colony,  given  years  before,  when  he 
had  commanded  that  "  the  word  and  service  of  God  should  be  preached 
and  used  according  to  the  rites  and  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land." * 

James,  however,  was  made  to  understand  that  these  people  who  be- 
sought his  favor  were  not  such  rigid  Separatists  as  their  enemies  repre- 
sented them  to  be,  and  did  not  assume  that  the  Christian  religion  was 
committed  exclusively  to  their  keeping.  For  they  held  communion 
with  the  Reformed  Dutch  and  French  churches,  and  acknowledged 
those  of  Scotland  as  Churches  of  Christ ;  they  assented  to  the  confes- 
sion of  Faith  of  the  English  Church,  and  were  ready  always  to  receive 
into  fellowship  its  devout  members,  though  they  did  not  accept  its 
Liturgy,  its  stated  and  formal  prayers,  and  its  constitution  as  a  national 
church.2  The  King  they  acknowledged  as  supreme  head  of  the  State  ; 
in  him  was  the  lawful  power  to  appoint  bishops,  as  well  as  civil  officers, 
whose  authority,  therefore,  they  honored  as  a  part  of  the  civil  govern- 
ment ;  and  they  denied  all  power  or  authority  in  any  ecclesiastical 
body  that  was  not  derived  from  the  king.3  James  understood  clearly 
enough,  no  doubt,  the  distinction  the  Puritans  always  kept 
•Attig  in  mind  between  civil  and  spiritual  conformity.  But  he  also 
understood  that  they  were  a  harmless  and  godly  people  who 
used  their  religious  freedom  for  the  guidance  of  their  own  lives,  and  not 
for  the  government  of  others.  He  gave  their  friends  in  England  the 
assurance  that  he  would  connive  at  their  settlement  in  America,  and 
should  not  molest  them  so  long  as  they  conducted  themselves  peace- 
ably though  he  could  not  extend  to  them  his  royal  permission  and  pub- 
lic recognition.  Some  of  the  Puritans,  understanding  the  character 
of  the  king,  were  disposed  to  think  that  they  had  gained  in  this  con- 
cession all  that  they  could  reasonably  hope  for.  James,  they  said, 
"  had  he  given  them  a  seal  as  broad  as  the  house  floor,"  *  would 
have  evaded  or  recalled  it,  if  at  any  future  time  he  should  be  disposed 
to  do  so. 

But  better  warrant  than  the  mere  word  of  the  king  was  wanted  to 

1  Stith's  History  of  Virginia. 

2  There  is  a  gleam  of  humor,  though  he  may  not  have  meant  it  as  such,  in  Robinson's  as- 
sertion that,  "  Our  faith  is  founded  upon  the  writings  of  the  Prophets  and  Apostles  in  which 
no  mention  of  the  Church  of  England  is  made." 

8  Compare  the  Seven  Articles  sent  by  the  Church  at  Leyden  to  the  Council  in  England 
and  signed  by  Robinson  and  Brewster.  New  York  Historical  Collections,  Second  Series,  vol. 
iii.,  Part  I.  Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation  ;  Winslow's  Brief  Relation,  in 
Young's  Chronicles. 

*  Bradford's  Plymouth  Plantation. 


1619.]  NEGOTIATIONS   WITH   THE   DUTCH.  383 

justify  them  in  giving  up,  without  any  certainty  for  the  future,  the 
security  and  peace  they  possessed  in  Holland.  Negotiations  were 
continued  in  England,  Brewster  going  over  to  the  assistance  of  Car- 
ver and  Cushman.  After  much  trouble  and  delay,  a  patent  was 
procured  from  the  Virginia  Company,  issued  in  the  name  of  Mr. 
John  Wincob,  on  the  9th  of  June,  1619.1  Of  this  patent  nothing 
further  is  known,  and  it  was  never  used.2  It  is  supposed  to  have 
made  a  grant  of  land  somewhere  near  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson 
River.  Perhaps  the  patent  was  not  thought  sufficient  because  it 
promised  to  give  title  to  lands  in  that  region.  The  Puritans  were 
wary  and  prudent,  and  evidently  the  first  condition,  in  their  minds, 
of  the  proposed  movement  was  that  wherever  they  went  they  should 
carry  with  them  a  sense  of  absolute  security  and  protection.  The 
Dutch  already  had  their  trading  posts  on  Manhattan  Island  and  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Hudson  ;  and  though  they  had  as  yet  made  no 
agricultural  settlements,  they  clearly  had  the  best  right  to  that  re- 
gion of  country,  both  by  virtue  of  discovery  and  of  possession.  The 
most  obvious  course,  therefore,  for  the  Puritans  was  to  obtain  from  the 
Dutch  some  confirmation  of  title,  before  they  moved  under  a  patent 
from  an  English  company  to  lands  which  the  Dutch  occu- 
pied. This,  at  any  rate,  is  what  they  attempted  to  do,  what-  propose  to 
ever  may  have  been  /die  motive.  The  pastor,  John  Robinson,  New  Nether- 
proposed,  on  behalf  of  the  Church,  to  the  Amsterdam  Com- 
pany, that  he  and  his  people  should  go  to  New  Netherland,  provided 
the  Company  could  assure  them  of  protection,  and  establish  a  colony 
there  subject  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  the  States  General.  Four 
hundred  families,  to  go  from  Holland  and  from  England,  Robinson 
said,  would  constitute  the  colony. 

The  proposal  seems  to  have  been  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the 
Amsterdam  merchants,  who  well  knew  the  value  of  such  material  for 
the  settlement  of  a  new  country.  Their  reply  was  an  offer  of  free 
transportation,  cattle  for  every  family,  and  other  inducements  ; 3  but 
on  the  question  of  the  indispensable  guaranty  of  safety,  they  could 
only  refer  the  memorial  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  with  a  prayer  of 
their  own  that  protection  be  granted.  The  stadtholder  re-  Their  propo_ 
ferred  the  subject,  in  his  turn,  to  the  States  General.  After  by'thes^t"* 
much  deliberation  and  discussion,  the  petition  of  the  Am-  General- 
sterdam  Company,  in  favor  of  Robinson's  proposal,  was  rejected. 
This  decision  may  have  been  influenced  by  the  proposed  establish- 

1  The  date  is  fixed  by  the  journal  of  the  London  Council  in  Xeill's  History  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Com/iany,  where  the  name  of  the  patentee  is  spelt  Wencop,  Wincopp,  and  Whincop. 
Bradford  says  Wincob. 

*  Bradford's  Plymouth  Plantation. 

3  \Viuslow  in  Young's  Chronicles;  Bradford's  History. 


384 


THE  FATHERS   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XIV. 


merit  of  the  great  West  India  Company,  to  which  would  properly 
belong  the  settlement  of  all  Dutch  possessions  in  the  New  World, 
and  by  the  possible  international  complications  that  might  arise  from 
colonizing  a  body  of  Englishmen  under  the  protection  of  the  States- 
General.1 

Nearly  three  years  had  now  elapsed  since  negotiations  were  begun, 
and  none  of  them  had  led  to  any  practical  result.  Many  were  discour- 
aged by  these  difficulties,  and  some  in  England,  who  had  at  first  pro- 
posed to  join  in  the  enterprise,  and  others  in  Holland,  declined  to  have 
anything  more  to  do  with  it.  The  more  zealous  and  persistent,  who 
were  not  to  be  deterred  by  any  obstacles,  were  convinced  that  the  time 
had  come  to  resort  to  positive  measures  and  to  take  risks.  The  reso- 


.     . 

Leyden. 

lution  shaped  itself  into  "  a  solemn  meeting  and  day  of  humiliation 
to  seeke  the  Lord  for  his  direction,"  and  the  conclusion  was  that  such 
as  were  disposed  and  could  make  the  needful  preparation  should  go, 
with  Elder  Brewster  at  their  head  ;  the  rest,  and  the  larger  number, 
remaining  with  Mr.  Robinson  in  Leyden.  Those  who  were  left  be- 
hind, it  was  agreed,  should  follow  when  means  and  opportunity  offered. 
Among  those  in  London  who  had  interested  themselves  in  the  nego- 
tiations for  a  patent  was  one  Thomas  Weston,  a  merchant.  He  was 
in  Leyden  some  time  in  1620,  while  these  delays  and  doubts  and  dis- 

1  Holland  Documents,  cited  in  Brodhead's  History  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


1620.]  PREPARATIONS   TO   EMIGRATE.  885 

appointments  were  gradually  bringing  a  portion  of  the  Church  to  a 
determination  to  emigrate  at  all  hazards.  Weston's  counsel  was  in 
harmony  with  this  feeling  ;  he  advised  them  to  rely  neither  upon  the 
Dutch  nor  the  Virginia  Company ;  he  and  others,  he  assured  them, 
were  ready  to  supply  ships  and  money  for  such  an  enterprise  ;  and  he 
reminded  them  that  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and  others  were  moving 
for  a  new  patent  in  Northern  Virginia.  "  Unto  which,"  adds  Brad- 
ford, "  Mr.  Weston,  and  the  cheefe  of  them,  began  to  incline 
it  was  best  for  them  to  goe."  Thereupon  a  joint-stock  com-  company01 
pany  was  formed,  to  continue  for  seven  years ;  when  all  the 
profits  of  the  adventure  in  trading,  fishing,  planting,  or  anything  else, 
were  to  go  for  that  period  into  a  common  stock,  and  at  the  end  of  it 
were  to  be  equally  divided  between  the  adventurers  and  planters,  — 
that  is,  those  who  had  contributed  money  only  to  the  enterprise,  and 
those  who  had  engaged  in  it  personally.  Every  pel-son  over  sixteen 
years  of  age  who  went  was  rated  at  ten  pounds,  or  a  single  share  ;  and 
if  he  provided  his  own  outfit,  to  the  amount  of  ten  pounds,  he  was  en- 
titled to  two  shares.  All  the  members  of  the  colony  were  to  be  sup- 
ported out  of  the  common  stock.  These  were  the  essential  articles  of 
agreement  made  between  the  London  adventurers,  who  were  chiefly  to 
supply  the  means  of  going,  and  the  members  of  the  Leyden  Church 
who  were  to  go.1 

The  conflicting  rights  and  interests  of  adventurers  and  planters  in 
this  joint-stock  company  were  not  adjusted  without  a  good  deal  of 
controversy  and  delay,  the  planters  being  especially  dissatisfied  that 
the  value  of  the  homes  which  they  should  make  for  themselves  in  the 
colony  should,  at  the  end  of  the  seven  years,  be  equally  divided  among 
all  the  stockholders  ;  and  that,  during  that  period,  there  should  not 
be  two  or  three  days  in  each  week  reserved  to  the  colonists  in  which  to 
labor  on  their  own  account.  But,  at  length,  all  the  arrangements  for 
their  departure  were  completed.  The  Speedwell,  a  vessel  of  sixty  tons, 
was  bought  and  fitted  in  Holland,  and  another,  the  Mayfloiver,  was 
chartered  in  London,  and  was  to  receive  them  at  Southampton. 

On  or  about  the  21st  of  July,  1620,2  the  church  at  Leyden  held  a 
day  of  humiliation  and  prayer,  the  pastor,  Mr.  Robinson,  preaching  a 
sermon  "  upon  which,"  saj7s  Bradford,  "  he  spente  a  good  The  Pil. 
parte  of  the  day  very  profitably,  and  suitable  to  their  pres-  ?£""_*' 
ente  occasion."     Those  that  were  to  stay  behind  "  feasted  "   IUT6Q 
those  that  were  to  go,  "  refreshing  "  them  afterward  with  the  singing 
of  psalms,  making  joyful  melody,  for  many  were  expert  in  music.3 

1  Bradford's  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  45,  where  the  articles  of  agreement  are  given. 

2  Prince's  Chronological  History  of  New  England. 
8  Winslow  in  Young's  Chronicles. 

VOL.  i.  ?5 


386 


THE   FATHERS   OF    NEW  ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XIV. 


The  next  day  —  leaving  "  the  goodly  and  pleasante  citie,"  continues 
Bradford,  "  which  had  been  their  resting-place  near  twelve  years ;  but 
they  knew  they  were  pilgrims  and  looked  not  much  on  those  things, 
but  lift  up  their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  their  dearest  cuntrie,  and  quieted 
their  spirits  "  —  they  went  to  the  port  of  Delft-Haven. 

Here  the  night  was  spent,  not  in  sleep,  but  in  friendly  entertain- 
ment, and  Christian  discourse.  On  the  morrow  they  parted  with 
their  friends,  and  "  truly  dolfull,"  he  adds,  "  was  the  sight  of  that 
sade  and  mournfull  parting ;  to  see  what  sighs  and  sobbs,  and  praires 
did  sound  amongst  them,  what  tears  did  gush  from  every  eye,  and 

pithy  speeches  pierst  each  harte But  the  tide  (which  waits 

for  no  man)  calling 
them  away,  that  were 
thus  loath  to  departe, 
their  Reverend  pastor, 
falling  downe  on  his 
knees,  (and  they  all 
with  him,)  with  watrie 
cheekes  comended  them 
with  most  fervente 
praiers  to  the  Lord 
and  his  blessing.  And 
then  with  mutuall  im- 
braces,  and  many  tears 
they  tooke  their  leaves  one  of  an  other  which  proved  to  be  the  last 
leave  of  many  of  them."1  Then  they  went  forth  to  help  lay,  in  the 
wilderness  across  the  sea,  the  foundations  of  a  Nation. 

On  the  5th  of  August,  the  two  ships  sailed  from  Southampton  with 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  passengers.  In  a  week  they  were 
back  again,  putting  in  at  Dartmouth,  the  Speedwell  having 
sprung  a  leak.  In  a  few  days  they  again  put  to  sea,  but  only 
to  run  back  to  Plymouth,  after  sailing  a  hundred  leagues, 
for  the  Speedwell  proved  altogether  unseaworthy.  A  mouth 
was  thus  wasted  in  attempts  to  get  away,  and  it  was  not  till 
the  6th  of  September  that  the  Mayflower  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing a  successful  departure  alone,  carrying,  beside  her  crew,  one  hun- 
dred and  two  persons  for  the  new  colony.2 

It  was  sixty-five  days  before  thev  saw  land  again.     The  voyage 

' 

1  In  bidding  farewell  to  their  friends,  "  \ve  pave  them,"  says  Winslow,  "  a  volley  of 
small  shot  and  three  pieces  of  ordnance  ;  and  so  lifting    up  our  hands  to  each  other,  and 
our  hearts  for  each  other  to  the  Lord  our  God,  we  departed." 

2  This  was  the  exact  number  that  sailed  from  Plymouth,  ami  arrived  at  Cape  Cod,  there 
having  been  one  birth  and  one  death  on  the  passage. 


Delft-Haven. 


The  depar- 
ture of  the 
Mayflower, 
6th  of  Sep- 
tember, 
1620,  Old 
Style,  16th 
September, 
New  Stvle. 


1620.] 


THE  VOYAGE   OF  THE  MAYFLOWER. 


387 


was  tempestuous ;  the  ship  was  too  weak  to  bear  much  canvas  ;  and 
it  was  a  question,  when  they  were  half  across  the  ocean,  whether  they 
should  not  return.  On  the  9th  of  November,  they  hailed  with  delight, 
as  so  many  storm-tossed  mariners  had  done  before  them,  the  low  coast 
of  Cape  Cod.  Their  purpose  was  to  find  a  place  farther  south,  or  in- 
definitely somewhere  about  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  River,  for  their 
proposed  settlement,  and  for  half  a  day,  after  making  land,  they  stood 


Plymouth    Harbor,    England. 


to  the  southward.  But  they  fell  presently  among  dangerous  shoals. 
Gosnold's  Point  Care  and  Tucker's  Terror,  Champlain's  Cape  Male- 
barre,  stretched  out  into  the  sea  and  turned  them  back.  The 
next  day  they  ran  along  the  outer  coast  of  the  cape,  sailed 
round  its  extremity,  and  on  the  llth  :  cast  anchor  in  Cape  Cod 
Harbor,  now  the  Harbor  of  Provincetown,  the  only  windward  port 
within  two  hundred  miles  where  the  ship  could  have  lain  at  anchor 
for  the  next  month,  un  vexed  by  the  storms  which  usher  in  a  New 
England  winter. 

Their  first  act  on  landing,  was  to  fall  upon  their  knees  and  bless  God 
"  who  had  brought  them  over  the  vast  and  furious  ocean,  and  delivered 
them  from  all  the  perils  and  miseries  thereof,  againe  to  set 
their  feete  on  the  firme  and  stable  earth,  their  proper  ele-   landing. 

llth  Xnvem- 

mente."  2     But  however  much  cause  there  was  for  thankful-  *>«r.  ieao, 

0.  S.   21st 

ness,  they  were  not  unmindful  of  the  serious  difficulties  with   November, 
which  they  stood  face  to  face.    Among  them  were  some  per- 
sons not  of  the  Leyden  Church,  but  who  had  been  taken  on  board, 
perhaps,  in  England,  as  servants  of  the  leading  and  wealthier  members 

1  The  llth  of  November,  Old  Style  ;  the  21st  of  November,  New  Style. 

2  Bradford. 


883 


THE   FATHERS    OF   NEW  ENGLAND.          [CHAP.  XIV- 


of  the  Company.  These  men  had  given,  the  day  before  the  harbor 
was  reached,  and  when  the  ship  had  been  turned  back  from  her  south- 
ward course,  some  evidences  of  a  discontented  and  mutinous  spirit. 
If  the  patent  from  the  Southern  Virginia  Company  was  not  used,  and 
a  settlement  was  made  without  the  jurisdiction  of  that  Company,  then 
these  malcontents  intimated  they  would  be  under  no  restraint  of  legal 
compact  authority,  and  at  liberty  to  do  as  should  seem  to  them  best. 
It  was  determined,  therefore,  to  enter  into  a  compact  of  gov- 
ernment which  should  not  only  have  the  binding  force  of  law 
over  all  persons  disposed  to  be  insubordinate,  but  which  would  be,  it 
was  thought,  of  as  much  virtue  under  the  circumstances  in  which 
they  were  placed  as  any  patent.  On  the  day  they  entered  Cape  Cod 


i  on 
board  the 


Harbor  of  Provincetown. 

harbor,  therefore,  all  the  men,  excepting  seven  of  the  servants,  entered 
into  and  signed  this  agreement : l  — 

"  In  ye  name  of  God,  Amen.  We  whose  names  are  underwrite!!, 
the  loyall  subjects  of  our  dread  soveraigne  Lord,  King  James,  by 
ye  grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britaine,  Franc  &  Ireland  king,  defender 
of  ye  faith,  &c.,  haveing  undertaken,  for  ye  glorie  of  God,  and  ad- 
vancemente  of  ye  Christian  faith,  and  honour  of  our  king  &  countrie, 
a  voyage  to  plant  ye  first  colonie  in  ye  Northerne  part  of  Virginia,  doe 
by  these  presents  solemnly  &  mutualy  in  ye  presence  of  God,  and  one  of 
another,  covenant  &  combine  our  selves  togeather  into  a  civill  body 
politick,  for  our  better  ordering  &  preservation  &  furtherance  of  ye  ends 
aforesaid  ;  and  by  vertue  hearof  to  enacte,  constitute,  and  frame  such 
just  &  equall  lawes,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions  &  offices,  from  time 

i  We  follow  literally  the  copy  in  Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  recovered 
in  full  only  twenty  years  ago,  and  published  under  the  editorship  of  Charles  Deane.  This 
document  is  given  in  Mourt's  Relation,  and  Morton's  Memorial,  with  some  slight  and  un- 
important changes  of  phraseology. 


1620.]  A   CONSTITUTION   OF   GOVERNMENT.  389 

to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meete  &  convenient  for  ye  generall 
good  of  y*  Colonie,  unto  which  we  promise  all  due  submission  and 
obedience.  In  witnes  wherof  we  have  hereunder  subscribed  our 
names  at  Cap-Codd  ye  11  of  November,  in  y*  year  of  ye  raigne  of  our 
soveraigne  lord,  King  James,  of  England,  France  &  Ireland  ye  eight- 
eenth, and  of  Scotland  ye  fiftie  fourth  An0  :  Dom.  1620." 

The  promptitude  and  unanimity  —  saving  only  of  the  seven  servants, 
who  were  the  only  members  of  the  company  it  was  necessary  to  reduce 
to  obedience  by  creating  a  government  —  with  which  this  compact  was 
made  and  adopted,  almost  compel  the  belief  that  the  colonists  were 
quite  content  to  find  themselves  without  the  jurisdiction  of  either 
the  Dutch,  or  the  Virginia  Company.  The  shoals  of  Point  Care  and 
Tucker's  Terror  may  have  been  rather  a  pretext  than  a  cause  for 
making  no  farther  attempt  to  reach  a  port  more  to  the  southward. 
Nor  does  there  seem  to  be  any  sufficient  reason  for  believing  the  story, 
that  the  captain  of  the  Mayflower  was  bribed  not  to  take  his  passen- 
gers to  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  River.1  The  negotiations  before 
they  left  Holland,  show  that  while  the  States  General  declined  to 
grant  them  protection,  apparently  for  political  reasons,  the  New 
Netherland  Company  were  anxious  to  induce  them  to  settle  in  the 
region  of  country  they  claimed  as  theirs.  It  was  the  Puritans  who 
objected  to  going  without  this  guaranty  of  safety  ;  not  the  Dutch  who 
objected  to  receiving  them.  Weston,  who  represented  the  London  ad- 
venturers on  whom  the  church  members  at  Leyden  were  to  depend  so 
largely  for  the  means  of  removal,  urged  them,  as  we  have  already 
stated,  not  to  rely  upon  either  the  Dutch  or  the  Virginia  Company, 
enforcing  his  counsel  with  the  fact  that  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and 
others,  had  obtained  from  the  king  a  patent  for  that  part  of  America 
called  New  England.  The  Virginia  Company  opposed  this  patent ; 
the  questions  raised  in  regard  to  it  were  carried  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  it  was  not  till  the  next  year  that  they  were  definitively  dis- 
posed of.  It  may  have  been  for  this  that  the  Puritans  did  not  seek, 
before  their  departure,  for  a  patent  from  the  New  England  Company  ; 
but  they  sent  for  and  obtained  it,  when  the  Mayfloicer  returned  to 
England  in  the  spring.2  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 

1  Morton  in  his  New  England's  Memorial,  published  in  1669,  says:  "Of  this  Plot  be- 
twixt the  Dutch  and  Mr.  Jones,  (the  master  of  the  Mayflower,}  I  have  had  late  and  certain 
Intelligence."     He  does  not  say  what  or  whence  the  intelligence  was,  and  it  is  more  likely 
the  story  was  born  of  the  feeling  that  grew  up  against  the  Dutch  in  later  years,  than  that 
it  had  any  real  foundation.     There  is  no  hint  of  any  dissatisfaction  with,  or  suspicion  of 
Captain  Jones  in  the  narratives  of  the  emigrants  themselves.     It  has  been  said,  also,  that 
the  Mayflower  had  run  north  of  her  intended  course,  because  the  compass  was  influenced 
by  an  axe,  concealed  purposely,  or  by  chance,  near  the  binnacle.    One  tale  is  hardly  more 
improbable  than  the  other. 

2  This  was  the  patent  to  John  Peirce.     See  the  "  Brief  Narration  "  of  Sir  Ferdiuando 


390 


THE  FATHERS   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XIV. 


were  content  to  make  their  land-fall  within  the  boundaries  of  New 
England  rather  than  within  those  of  the  Virginia  Company.  The 
impatience  of  the  captain  of  the  Mayfloiver  to  land  his  passengers 
and  return  to  England  may  have  found  a  ready  response  in  men  who 
were  not  sorry  that  chance  had  thrown  them  where  they  had  nothing 
to  fear  from  the  interference  of  others,  whatever  other  trials  there 
might  be  in  store  for  them. 

The  extremity  of  Cape  Cod^  now  is  quite  a  different  place  from  that 
on  which  the  passengers  of  the  Mayflower  landed,  glad  to  get  ashore 


The  Landing  on  Cape  Cod. 

anywhere  after  their  long  and  anxious  voyage.  Where  they  found 
pleasant  woods  of  oak  and  pine,  of  ash  and  walnut,  and  other  fine 
trees,  "  open  &  without  underwood,  fit  either  to  goe  or  ride  in,"1  are 
now  only  a  few  starved  and  scattered  shrubs.  The  soil  of  "  ex- 
cellent black  earth,  a  spit's  depth,"  has  disappeared,  except  here  and 
there  in  swamps,  and  in  its  place  are  the  shifting  hills  of  yellow  sand, 
drifting  from  year  to  year  like  snow  before  a  driving  storm,  the  Cape 
only  saved  from  being  blown  away  altogether,  by  the  long  beach- 
Gorges,  in  Maine  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  ii.  Davis's  notes  to  Morton's  Memorial.  Young's 
Chronicles.  Deane's  notes  to  Bradford's  History. 
1  Mourt's  Relation.  Bradford  gives  essentially  the  same  account. 


1620.]  THE   COAST  EXPLORED.  391 

grass  which  ties  it  down.1  But  then,  as  now,  the  waters  of  the  bay 
were  shallow,  and  the  people  waded  ashore  ;  the  men  to  explore  the 
•country,  the  women  to  wash  the  clothes  after  the  long  sea  voyage ; 
though  where  fresh  water  was  found  for  this  purpose,  can  only  now 
be  guessed  by  the  curious  antiquary,  who  finds  traces  of  a  pond,  ob- 
literated long  ago  by  the  encroaching  waters  of  the  sea  and  the  ever 
shifting  sands.2  But  there  was  no  water  fit  for  drinking ;  for,  some 
days  later,  the  men  drank  their  "first  New  England  water"  from 
springs  found  ten  miles  distant  from  the  beach  where  the  Mayflower 
lay  at  anchor. 

A  company  of  sixteen  men  under  Captain  Miles  Standish,  made  this 
first  reconnoissance  of  the  land,  marching  through  boughs 
and  bushes  which  tore  their  armor  in  pieces  ;  seeing  Indians, 
for  the  first  time,  at  a  distance  ;  crossing  fields  of   stubble   StandiRh- 
where  they  had  grown  their  maize ;  finding  the  winter's  store  of  the 
grain  itself    which  the  natives  had 
buried  in  the  sand,  and  filling  with 
this  a  kettle  —  left  by  some  former 
visitors,  or  taken  perhaps,  from  some 
wrecked   vessel  —  they  returned  to 
the  ship  like  the  men  from  Eshcol,  signature  of  Mi,es  st.ndi.h. 

with  the  fruits  of  the  land,  at  which  their  brethren  were  "  marvelusly 
glad  &  their  harts  encouraged." 

When  the  shallop,  which  the  ship  had  brought,  had  received  the 
repairs  she  needed,  more  extended  explorations  were  made  along  the 
shores  of  the  bay.  These  unfortunate  people  could  not  have  come  at 
a  worse  season,  and  could  hardly  have  found  a  less  fitting  place  along 
the  whole  coast,  on  which  to  plant  a  colony.  More  than  a  month  was 
consumed  in  the  search  for  a  spot,  which  they  could  venture  to  believe 
might  answer,  —  a  longer  time  than  it  would  have  taken  to  go  hun- 
dreds of  miles  farther  south,  had  they  wished,  or  had  they  been  will- 
ing to  put  themselves  within  the  jurisdiction  of  either  the  Virginia 
Company  or  the  Dutch.  There  was  nothing  to  invite,  and  every- 
thing to  discourage  them  in  the  aspect  and  condition  of  the  country. 
They  were  very  thankful  to  have  found  corn  enough  in  the  Indian 
stores  to  answer  their  own  needs  in  the  coming  spring  for  seed-corn, 
which  they  honestly  paid  for,  when,  six  months  later,  they  met  with 
the  owners ;  and  they  had  good  reason  to  congratulate  themselves, 
that  the  natives  of  the  country  seemed  to  be  but  few  ;  these  were  the 
only  special  blessings,  but  they  were  duly  grateful.  The  weather  was 

1  So  serious  is  the  danger  of  the  destruction  of  the  end  of  Cape  Cod,  as  to  call  for  re- 
medial measures  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  Government,  within  a  few  years. 

2  See  Thoreau's  Cape  Cod,  and  Dexter's  notes  to  Mourt's  delation. 


THE   FATHERS   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XIV. 

so  cold  that  the  sea-spray,  as  it  fell  upon  those  exposed  in  the  open 
shallop,  encased  them,  as  it  were,  in  armor  of  ice ;  the  ground  was 
frozen  hard,  and  during  much  of  the  first  month  covered  with  snow ; 
they  rather  hoped  than  knew  that  fish,  which  was  to  be  their  chief 
dependence,  were  plentiful,  for  at  that  season  they  could  catch  but 
few  ;  and  they  sought  painfully  along  the  shallow  shores  for  a  harbor 
with  water  enough  to  float  their  ship,  whose  passengers  pined  to  ex- 
change their  narrow  cabins  for  even  the  lonely  wilderness  and  the 
leafless  woods,  through  which  the  winter  storms  swept  dismally,  bring- 
ing with  them  the  roar,  the  smell,  and  the  dreariness  of  the  sea. 

The  ship  herself  was  safe  on  good  anchorage-ground,  and  in  a  land- 
locked port ;  but  for  her  people  to  remain  longer  than  was  absolutely 
necessary,  at  a  place  where  there  was  no  fresh  water  to  drink,  and 
where  the  shore  could  only  be  reached  by  wading,  except  at  the 
full  flood  of  the  tide,  was  out  of  the  question.  No  pretermission  of 
diligence,  therefore,  in  seeking  for  a  better  spot  was  permitted,  and  at 
last  the  search  was  successful.  On  Wednesday,  the  6th  of  December 
(Old  Style),  a  party  put  off  for  a  more  extended  search  than  had  yet 
been  made.  Robert  Coppin,  the  gunner  of  the  Mayflower,  was  of  this 
company,  and  he  knew,  he  said  —  for  he  had  been  upon  this  coast  be- 
fore —  of  a  good  harbor,  and  a  great  navigable  river  in  the  other  head- 
land of  the  bay.  On  Wednesday  and  Thursday  they  cruised  along 
the  shore,  on  the  west  side  of  the  cape,  from  Provincetown  to  Truro, 
from  Truro  to  Wellfleet,  from  Wellfleet  to  Eastham  — as  the  region  is 
now  divided.  A  sudden  attack  was  made  upon  them,  on  Friday  morn- 
ing, by  the  natives,  as  they  were  getting  ready  to  leave  the  night's 
camping-ground,  and  arquebus-shot  and  arrow  flights  were  exchanged 
without  harm  to  either  party. 

From  this  point  they  sailed  along  the  coast  for  fifteen  leagues,  on 
Friday,  and,  seeing  no  good  harbor,  stood  on  in  search  of  that  which 
Coppin  said  he  knew.  The  day  was  stormy  ;  in  the  course  of  it  the 
rudder  of  the  boat  was  unshipped,  and,  before  they  made  land  on  the 
other  side  of  the  bay,  she  carried  away  her  mast,  split  her  sail,  and 
was  near  being  lost  altogether.  At  nightfall  they  reached  and  landed 
upon  an  island,  since  known  as  Clark's  Island,  because  Clark,  the 
Mayflower's  chief  mate,  was  the  first  to  step  ashore.  The  next  day, 
the  9th,  they  explored  the  island,  and  on  Sunday,  the  10th,  they 
rested,  as  men  would  be  sure  to  rest  who,  on  week-days,  never  forgot, 
under  any  circumstances,  to  ask  in  outspoken  prayer  the  blessing  of 
God  upon  their  labors. 

On  Monday,  December  llth,1  they  crossed  the  harbor,  sounding  it 

1  Dec-ember  11,  Old  Style  :  December  21,  New  Style.     In  1769  the  "landing  of  the  'Pil. 
grim  Fathers '  "  was  first  commemorated  at  Plymouth,  and  the  date  in  New  Style  was  errone- 


CO 

£/-. 


7. 

c 


1620.]  DISCOVERY   OF  PLYMOUTH.  393 

as  they  went,  and  finding  it  of  good  depth  for  small  vessels.     Along 
the  shore  of  the  mainland  they  found  several  brooks  of  plen-   The  explor. 
tiful  waters  pouring  into  the  bay,  and  here  and  there  were 
cleared  fields,  where  the  Indians  had  planted  maize,  ready 
for  the  use  of  new  comers.     If  not  the  best  of  places,  it  was, 
says  Bradford,  who  was  of  the  party,  "at  least  the  best  they  N'S- 
could  find,  and  the  season  and  their  present  necessity  made  them  glad 
to  accept  it." 

The  incident  in  itself  is  commonplace  enough.  Seventeen  rough 
men,1  who,  for  the  five  previous  days  had  been  in  an  open  boat,  sleep- 
ing by  night  upon  the  bare  ground,  sometimes  drenched  with  rain, 
sometimes  half  frozen  with  the  cold,  landed,  as  they  had  often  done 
before,  from  their  boat  to  seek  anew  a  spot  that  would  answer  their 
purpose.  History,  nevertheless,  has  marked  the  act  as  an  epoch.  Nor 
is  its  significance  likely  to  be  forgotten,  although  confusion  and  mis- 
understanding have  gathered  about  it  and  obscured  its  exact  details. 
Its  importance  and  interest  are  none  the  less  because  it  happens  to 
be  commemorated  by  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims,  wherever  they 
are  found,  on  the  anniversary  of  a  day  when  the  event  did  not  occur, 
and  with  the  general  supposition  that  on  that  day  the  people  of  the 
Mayflower  landed  from  the  ship  upon  the  rock  of  Plymouth  —  which 
they  certainly  did  not  do  till  a  fortnight  later. 

Nor  is  there  any  reason,  except  in  the  confounding  of  fact  and  tra- 
dition, for  the  supposition  that  this  boat-load  of  explorers  visited  the 
spot  where  the  Pilgrims  afterward  made  their  home.  That  is  three 
miles  from  Clark's  Island,  while  the  shore  of  the  mainland  —  toward 
which  these  men  would  naturally  steer  their  boat  at  the  nearest  point 
—  stretches  along  opposite  the  island  within  a  much  shorter  distance. 
Though  they  "marched  into  the  land,  and  found  divers  corn-fields 

ously  niade  the  22d,  instead  of  the  21st.  The  error,  which  has  been  perpetuated  ever  since 
in  the  celebration  of  the  day,  arose,  it  has  been  supposed,  from  the  addition  of  eleven  days, 
instead  of  ten,  to  mark  the  difference  between  Old  Style  and  New.  The  explanation  is 
unsatisfactory,  as  such  a  blunder  seems  hardly  likely  to  have  occurred.  The  error  more 
probably  came  from  a  mistake  in  punctuation,  in  Mourt's  Relation,  where  the  statement 
is :  "  And  here  we  made  our  rendezvous  all  that  day,  being  Saturday,  10  of  Deceml>er 
on  the  Sabbath  day  we  rested,  and  on  Monday  we  sounded  the  liarl>or,"  etc.  There 
should  be  a  period  after  "  Saturday,"  when  it  would  read :  '•  And  here  we  made  our 
rendezvous  all  that  day,  being  Saturday.  10  of  December,  on  the  Sabbath  day,  we  rested  ; 
and  on  Monday,"  etc.  Saturday  was  certainly  the  9th,  not  the  10th  ;  but  when,  in  1769, 
in  Plymouth,  they  turned  to  Mourt's  Relation,  to  fix  the  date  of  this  incident,  and  read  the 
record  with  its  erroneous  punctuation,  they  of  course  called  Monday  the  12th,  and,  adding 
ten  days  for  difference  of  styles,  made  "  Forefathers'  Day  "  the  22d. 

1  They  were  Miles  Standish,  John  Carver,  William  Bradford,  Edward  Winslow,  John 
Tilley,  Edward  Tilley,  John  Rowland,  Hichard  Warren,  Steven  Hopkins  Edward  Doty; 
two  seamen,  John  Allerton  and  Thomas  English,  hired  by  the  colonists ;  of  the  ship's 
company,  Clark,  the  first  mate,  Coppin,  the  master-gunner,  and  three  unnamed  sailors. 


394 


THE  FATHERS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XlV. 


and  litle  runing  brooks,"  they  decided  upon  no  particular  site  for  the 
colony,  for  they  "  afterwards,"  says  Bradford,  "  took  better  view  of 
the  place,  and  resolved  where  to  pitch  their  dwelling."  Nor  could 
they  have  spent  much  time  in  a  survey  of  the  shores  of  the  harbor, 
for  they  returned  that  day  to  their  companions,  at  the  end  of  Cape 
Cod,  to  report  the  success  of  the  expedition  —  a  return  saddened  by 
the  news  of  the  death  of  William  Bradford's  wife,  who,  during  his 
absence,  had  fallen  overboard  and  was  drowned.  With  this  voyage 
of  the  shallop  no  tradition  seems  to  be  connected.  We  have  only 


Map  of  Plymouth   Harbor. 


the  cold,  bare  records  of  ordinary  facts ;  the  rough  pioneer  work  of 
men  engaged  in  an  arduous  duty,  to  be  done  at  any  risk  of  hardship, 
and  to  be  done  quickly.  All  the  romantic  interest  that  tradition  lends 
to  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  came  later  with  the  disembarkation  of 
the  passengers  of  the  Mayflower,  upon  the  rock  at  Plymouth. 

On  the  15th  of  December  the  Mayflower  left  her  harbor  at  Cape 
Cod ;  the  next  day,  Saturday,  the  16th,  she  dropped  her  anchor  about 
half-way  between  Plymouth  and  Clark's  Island.  On  Monday  and 
Tuesday,  the  18th  and  19th,  exploring  parties,  some  in  the  shallop, 
and  some  on  foot,  cruised  along  the  shore  or  roamed  through  the  woods 


1621.]  THE   LANDING  ON  JANUARY  4,  1621.  395 

for  several  miles.     But  it  was  not  till  Wednesday  that  a  choice  was 

made  between  two  places,  and  it  was  decided  that  the  fittest  The 

for  a  settlement  was  where  a  hill,  overlooking  the  bay  and 

the  surrounding  country,  offered  the  best  site  for  a  fort  and 

houses,  and  near  which  were  fields  cleared  by  the  Indians  for  Dec •26>x-s 

their  own  planting,  and  a  plentiful  stream  of  sweet  water.    Here  some 

of  them  at  once  established  themselves.     But  communication  with  the 

ship  was,  for  the  next  two  days,  interrupted  by  bad  weather,  which 

permitted  only  of  the  putting 

off  of  a  boat   occasionally  in 

the   intervals   of    the    storm. 

On    Saturday  those  on  shore 

felled  some  timber.     But  not 

till  Monday,  the  25th,  did  the 

passengers  generally  go  "  on 

shore,    some  to    fell    timber, 

some  to  saw,  some  to  rive,  and 

some   to    carry,    so    no   man 

rested    all    that   day."     The 

actual     beginning     Of    the     Set-    Relics  from  the  'Mayflower.'  —  John  Alden's  Bible  ;  William 
,1  j  Clark's  Mug  and  Wallet,  etc. 

tlement    was    then    made,  — 

"  to  erect  the  first  house  for  common  use  to  receive  them  and  their 

goods."  1 

This  was  on  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Plymouth,  and  at  the 
head  of  one  of  its  wharves,  almost  buried  in  the  roadway,  is  The  land. 
the  memorial  rock,  or  rather  what  there  is  left  of  it.2    Trust- 
worthy  tradition  verifies  it  as  that  on  which  the  passengers 
of  the  Mayflower  landed  when,  for  the  first  time,  —  Monday,  1621-N-S- 
December  25th, —  they  left  the  ship  with  a  distinct  purpose  of  taking 
possession  of  a  new  home. 

Only  on  Tuesday  of  the  previous  week  was  this  spot  fixed  upon  ; 
the  ship  was  a  mile  and  a  half  away ;  in  the  interval  of  nearly  a  week 
the  stormy  weather  had  made  it  difficult  for  the  shallop  to  take  even 
the  needed  provisions  to  the  few  men  on  shore.  Not  till  Monday,  the 
25th,  was  the  actual  work  of  putting  up  a  shelter  on  this  chosen  spot 
begun  ;  and  then  it  seems  probable  and  natural  —  indeed  only  till 
then  does  it  seem  possible  —  that  a  visit  was  made  by  the  company 
generally,  men,  women,  and  children,  to  their  future  home. 

And  it  was  made,  no  doubt,  with  recognition  of  the  occasion  as  some- 
thing more  than  an  ordinary  occurrence  ;  with  emotions  of  mingled 

1  Bradford's  History.     Mourt's  Relation. 

2  The  upper  portion  of  it  was  removed,  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  nearer  to  the  centre 
of  the  town. 


396 


THE   FATHERS   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XIV. 


gladness  and  sorrow ;  with  sad  and  tender  memories  of  that  past  life, 
ending  now  as  they  were  preparing  to  leave  the  ship  that  brought 
them  from  the  homes  they  should  never  see  again ;  but  with  sanguine 
hope  also  in  the  new  and  free  life  on  which  they  were  about  to 
enter,  though  beginning  in  hardship  and  suffering, — visibly  begin- 
ning, with  almost  all  the  calamities  from  which  they  might  have  asked 
to  be  delivered  in  no  more  definite  and  forcible  prayer  than  that 
of  the  Litany  against  which  they  protested,  —  "  from  lightning  and 


Landing  of  John  Alden  and  Mary  Chilton. 


tempest ;  from  plague,  pestilence,  and  famine  ;  from  battle  and  mur- 
der, and  from  sudden  death." 

Still   another    tradition    connects  this  rock  with  the  general  land- 
ing of  the  Mayflower's  passengers.1     The  honor  of  being  the  first  to 

1  "  There  is  a  tradition,  as  to  the  person  who  first  leaped  upon  this  rook,  when  the  fami- 
lies came  on  shore,  December  11,  1620."  Coll.  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  vol.  iii.,  Second  Series, 
p.  174.  It  is  such  careless  statements  as  this  that  have  led  to  confusion  on  this  subject* 
"  The  families"  were  on  board  the  Mayflower  in  Provincetown  harbor,  twenty -five  miles 
from  Plymouth,  on  the  llth  of  December,  1620.  The  advance  party  of  explorers  only 
landed  that  day  somewhere  on  the  Plymouth  shore. 


1621.] 


THE  FIRST  WINTER. 


397 


step  upon  the  rock  is  divided  between  John  Alden  and  Mary  Chil- 
ton.1    Neither  of  these  persons  is  named  in  the  list,  which 
professes  to  be  a  full  one,  of  those  who  in  the  shallop,  on  and  Mary 
the  llth  of   December,  discovered   the  bay  of   Plymouth  ; 
and  certainly  no  woman  could  have  been  upon  such  an  expedition. 
Nor  is  it  likely  that  any  woman  went  on  shore  in  the  stormy  weather, 
after  the   arrival  of   the   May- 
flower  in   the    harbor    on    the 
16th,  till  the   general  visit  was 
made  on  the  25th  to  the  selected 
spot.     Whoever   then   was  the 
first   to   spring  to  the  rock,  — 
about    which    there    may   have 
been,  on  such  an  occasion,  some 
pleasant  rivalry, — whether  the 
young  man  or  the  young  maiden, 
the  leap  was  made,  no  doubt, 
from   the   first    boat    from   the 
Mayflower,  on  the  25th  of  De- 
cember—  Jan.  4th  1621,  N.  S. 
But  even  yet  there   was  no 
final  transfer  of  the  colonists  to 

.          ,  , ,,,  ...  , ...      .  i  Stone  Canopy  over    Plymouth   Rock. 

land.     The   ship  was   still   the 

home  of  the  larger  number,  and  probably  of  all  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, those  only  remaining  on  shore  who  were  engaged  in  building 
or  in  guarding  the  accumulating  property.  On  the  10th  of  January 
the  common  house  of  about  twenty  feet  square  was  nearly  finished ; 
it  was  only  then  that  a  town  of  a  single  street  was  laid  out,  and  it 
was  agreed  that  each  head  of  a  family  should  build  his  own  house  on 
the  lot  assigned  him.  The  building  went  on  slowly,  for  the  inclem- 
ency of  the  weather  permitted  of  out-door  work  for  only  half  the 
time.  Some  of  the  private  houses  were  finished  in  the  course  of  the 
winter,  but  it  was  not  till  the  21st  of  March  that  all  the  company 
went  finally  on  shore. 

Much  less  room  was  needed  now,  if  that  were  one  of  the  reasons  for 
delay  in  removing  from  the  ship.     For  the  first  two  months  those  on 
shore  were  exposed,  with  little  or  no  shelter,  to  the  rigors  of 
a  New  England  winter,  though  that  of  1620-21  was  plainly  the  winter 

of  1620—21 

one  of  unusual  mildness;  those  in  the  ship  were  crowded 

into  close  and  unwholesome  quarters ;  provision  was  scanty  and  poor ; 

the  scurvy  appeared  and  spread  rapidly ;  other  diseases,  engendered 

1  Notes  on  Plymouth,  Mass.,  vol.  iii.,  Second  Series,  and  Notes  on  Duxbury,  vol.  x.,  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll. 


398 


THE  FATHERS   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.         [CHAP.  XIV. 


in  want  and  exposure,  became  equally  prevalent ;  and  when  the  spring 
opened  about  one  half  the  company  were  dead. 

Some  of  the  most  eminent  in  character  and  station  ;  many  in  the 
prime  of  their  days  and  their  strength,  whose  loss  to  the  colony  was 
most  serious  ;  wives,  mothers,  children,  servants  were  swept  away, 
leaving  those  who  survived  enfeebled  by  sickness  and  overwhelmed 
with  grief,  when  they  were  most  in  need  of  all  their  physical  and 
mental  energies.  Carver,  the  governor,  died  in  April,  and  his  wife 
soon  followed  him ;  the  wife  of  William  Bradford,  who  was  Carver's 
successor,  was  drowned  — as  we  have  already  said  —  before  the  May- 
flower left  Cape  Cod  harbor  ;  Edward  Winslow,  Miles  Standish,  Isaac 
Allerton,  were  soon  made  widowers ;  Edward  Tillie  and  John  Tillie, 
who  were  of  the  crew  of  the  shallop  that  discovered  Plymouth  Bay, 


First  Burial  Place  near  the  Landing. 


lost  their  wives,  and  both  died  not  long  after;  John  Allerton  and 
Thomas  English,  of  the  same  company,  soon  filled  graves  on  the  shore 
they  had  helped  to  find  ;  Mary  Chilton,  one  of  the  first,  no  doubt,  if 
not  the  very  first,  to  spring  to  the  landing-place  in  glad  expectation 
of  a  happy  future  in  a  new  home,  was  soon  alone,  both  father  and 
mother  dead ;  others,  like  hei',  were  left  orphans  ;  parents  were  left 
childless  ;  in  some  cases  whole  families  were  carried  off  ;  in  others 
there  was  only  a  single  survivor.  Hardly  a  day  passed  for  four  months 
that  they  did  not  bring  out  their  dead. 

So  the  winter  passed.  Little  happened  to  break  the  sad  monotony 
of  intervals  of  work  on  houses  which  they  might  not  live  to  occupy, 
and  nursing  the  sick  till  most  of  them  were  taken  to  those  narrow 
houses  which  they  would  never  leave.  Twice  the  wretched  commu- 


1621.] 


THE   FIRST  WINTER  AT   PLYMOUTH. 


399 


nity  were  in  danger  of  being  burnt  out  of  their  poor  shelters  on  shore, 
the  thatched  roofs  of  their  two  buildings,  one  for  the  well,  the  other 
for  the  sick,  taking  fire  by  accident  and  being  consumed.  Lurking 
savages  were  sometimes  seen  in  the  neighborhood,  but  they  made  no 
attempt  to  molest  the  new  comers.  Precautions,  however,  were  taken 
against  any  attack  from  them,  and  Miles  Standish,  who  had  been  a 
soldier  in  the  Low  Countries,  was  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of  mili- 
tary affairs,  as  he  was  generally  with  the  command  of  all  expeditions. 


Governor  Carver's  Cheir 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  PILGRIMS  AT  PLYMOUTH. 


THE  COMING  OF  FRIENDLY  INDIANS.  —  SAMOSET  AND  SQUANTO. —  CAPTAIN  DEKMER'S 
PREVIOUS  VISIT  TO  PLYMOUTH. — STAN-DISH'S  VISIT  TO  BOSTON  HARHOR.  —  REIN- 
FORCEMENTS FROM  ENGLAND.  —  THE  FIRST  CHRISTMAS  AT  PLYMOUTH.  —  HOSTILE 
MESSAGE  FROM  THE  NARHAGANSETTS.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  WESTON'S  COLONISTS.  —  THEIR 
SETTLEMENT  AT  WESSAGUSSET. — AN  INDIAN  CONSPIRACY.  —  STANDISH'S  EXPEDI- 
TION AND  THE  PLOT  DEFEATED.  —  THE  GRIEF  OF  PASTOR  ROBINSON.  —  ARHIVAL  OF 

ROBERT  GORGES.  —  FIRST  ALLOTMENT  OF  LAND  IN  PLYMOUTH.  —  JOHN  PEIRCE'S 
PATENT.  —  THE  LYFORD  AND  OLDHAM  CONSPIRACY.  —  THEIR  BANISHMENT. — 
BREAKING-UP  OF  THE  LONDON  COMPANY.  —  THE  PILGRIMS  THROWN  ON  THEIR  OWN 
RESOURCES. — THE  FISHING  STATION  AT  CAPE  ANN.  —  ENCOUNTER  BETWEEN  CAP- 
TAIN STANDISH  AND  MR.  HEWES.  —  THE  DORCHESTER  SETTLEMENT  AT  CAPE  ANN. — 
CONANT'S  CHARGE  OF  IT,  AND  HIS  REMOVAL  TO  NAUMKEAG.  —  SETTLEMENTS 
ABOUT  BOSTON  HARBOR.  —  MORTON  OF  MERRY-MOUNT. —  STANDISH'S  ARREST  OF 
MORTON. 

NEW  events  came  with  the  spring  to  the  colony  at  Plymouth,  as 
well  as  health  and  hope.      In  March  a  naked  Indian  stalked  boldly  in 


Visit  of  Samoset  to  the  Colony. 


among  them,  and  greeted  them  in  a  few  English  words,  which  he  had 
learned  from  the  fishermen  and  other  voyagers  on  the  coast  of  Maine, 


1621.]  FIRST  INTERCOURSE  WITH  INDIANS.  401 

his  home  being  on  the  Pemaquid.     This  man's  name  was  Samoset, 
but  why  he  was  so  far  from  home  is  not  clear.     He  may  The  ^git  of 
have  been  brought  and  left  in  the  neighborhood  by  Captain  inf^d!:[ 
Dermer,  who  had  twice  been  upon  this  coast,  making  his  Samo8et 
second  voyage  only  the  previous  summer.     On   his   first  voyage  he 
visited  the  place,  "  which,"  he  said,  "  in  Captain  Smith's  map  is  called 
Plimouth.     And,"  he  adds,  "  I  would  that  the  first  Plantation  might 
here  be  seated,  if  there  come  to  the  number  of  Fifty  persons,  or  up- 
wards." 1 

From  this  Samoset  they  learned  that  the  Indian  name  of  the  place 
they  had  settled  upon  was  Patuxet,  and  that  about  four  years  before 
all  the  inhabitants  had  been  swept  off  by  a  plague.2  He  told  them 
who  were  their  nearest  Indian  neighbors  —  Massasoit's  people,  the 
Wampanoags,  and  the  Nausets  on  Cape  Cod.  It  was  these  Nausets 
with  whom  the  Pilgrims  had  their  harmless  fight  soon  after  landing, 
and  who  were  most  inimical  to  the  English  because  seven  of  their  tribe 
were  kidnapped  by  Hunt  in  1614,  the  other  twenty  being  taken  from 
Patuxet —  Plymouth. 

Samoset  brought  to  the  settlement  some  of  the  friendly  Indians,  and 
among  them  Tisquantum  or  Squanto,  one    of   those  whom 
Weymouth  took  to  England,  fifteen  years  before,  and  gave  t<«n  or 
to  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges.     It  had  been  this  man's  fortune 
to  be  again  kidnapped,  this  time  by  Hunt,  and  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  Dermer,  who  brought  him  home  to  Patuxet,  —  "  my  savage's  native 
country."  Dermer  writes,  where   he   found   "  all   dead,"  nearly  two 
years   before.      It  was  fortunate  for  the  new-comers  that  their  first 
intercourse  with  the  Indians  was  through  these  two  men,  who  were 
friendly  to  the  English  and  could  speak  their  tongue.     One  immediate 

1  Bradford  says  of  this  letter  that  it  is  "  a  relation  written  by  him  [Dermer],  and  given 
me  by  a  friend,   bearing  date  June  30  Ano  1620 In  which  relation  to  his  hon- 
ored friend  he  hath  these  passages  of  this  very  place."     Morton  in  the  Memorial,  copies  ver- 
batim from  Bradford.     "  I  will  first  begin  [says  the  letter]  with  that  place  from  whence 
Squanto  or  Tisquantum  was  taken  away,  which  in  Captain  Smith's  map  is  called  Plimouth  : 
and  I  would  that  Plimouth  had  the  same  commodities.     I  would  that  the  first  Plantation 
might  here  be  seated  if  there  come  to  the  number  of  50  persons  or  upward."     Morton  evi- 
dently mistakes  in  supposing  this  letter  of  June  30,  1620,  referred  to  the  visit  of  that  spring. 
It  was  in  the  summer  of  1619  that  Dermer  was  at  Plymouth. 

2  There  can  be  no  doubt  from  the  concurring  testimony  of  several  of  the  writers  of  that 
period,  that  such  a  pestilence  prevailed  throughout  New  England  a  few  years  before  the 
settlement  of  Plymouth.    The  story  was  that  a  party  of  Frenchmen,  trading  on  the  coast  of 
Massachusetts,  aroused  the  enmity  of  the  natives,  who  fell  upon  and  killed  all  but  five  whom 
they  kept  as  servants.     None  of  them  lived  long,  and  the  last  survivor  predicted  to  the 
Indians,  just  before  his  death,  that  God  was  so  angry  with  them  for  their  bloody  and  cruel 
deed  that  He  would  destroy  them  all.     The  Indians  answered  that  they  were  so  many  God 
could  not  kill  them.     The  prediction,  nevertheless,  was  fulfilled,  and  the  more  pious  of  the 
early  settlers  believed  that  the  pestilence  was  sent  as  a  special  providence  to  rid  the  country 
of  the  heathen  and  make  room  for  the  coining  of  a  Christian  people. 

VOL.  i.  20 


402  THE  PILGRIMS  AT  PLYMOUTH.  [CHAP.  XV. 

good  result  followed,  for  the  natives  brought,  within  a  few  days,  the 
most  powerful  Sagamore  of  that  region,  Massasoit,  with  whom  the 
colonists  made  a  treaty  both  offensive  and  defensive.  They  were  not 
much  impressed  with  the  dignity  of  this  first  Indian  king  whom  they 
met,  for  he  was  distinguished  from  his  followers  only  by  a  string  of 
white  bone  beads  about  his  neck  ;  his  face  was  painted  of  a  sad  red, 
and  both  face  and  head  were  well  oiled  so  that  he  "  looked  greasily." 

Squanto  became  at  once  an  intimate  and  valued  friend.  He  taught 
them  how  to  plant  maize,  and  to  manure  it  -with  the  alewives  which 
in  April  came  up  the  brook  in  great  numbers  to  spawn  ;  and  these  he 
showed  them  how  to  take.  It  was  a  service  of  no  slight  value,  for  the 
wheat  and  peas,  and  other  English  seed  the  colonists  sowed,  proved 
almost  worthless,  either  from  defect  in  cultivation,  or  from  delay  in 
visit  to  planting.  Later  in  the  season  the  Indian  guided  two  am- 
fnd'other1  bassadors,  Winslow  and  Hopkins,  across  the  country  to  Mas- 
places,  sasoit's  chief  village,  Pokanoket,  now  Warren,  Rhode  Island, 
to  confirm  the  treaty  of  peace  and  friendship  made  with  him  at  Plym- 
outh. The  pleasant  weather  between  seed-time  and  harvest  was 
wisely  used  in  learning  the  character  of  the  surrounding  region,  in 
making  the  acquaintance  of  the  nearest  native  tribes,  and  in  acquir- 
ing an  influence  over  them. 

The  cape  was  explored  ;  Boston  Harbor  was  visited,  and  the  sight 
of  its  islands,  then  covered  with  woods,  its  sheltered  coves,  and  its 
navigable  streams,  into  which  fish  of  every  kind  known  on  that  coast 
swarmed  in  their  season,  excited  keen  regret  that  their  lines  had  not 
fallen  in  such  pleasant  places.  The  health  of  the  colonists  was  now 
so  completely  established  that  ten  men  could  be  spared  to  go  off  upon 
some  of  these  excursions  —  half,  at  least,  of  their  effective  force,  for 
the  whole  colony,  including  women  and  children,  was  reduced  to  about 
fifty  persons,  and  seven  small  houses  held  them  all.  Those  left  at 
home  were  employed  in  fishing  and  tending  the  few  acres  of  the  ex- 
pected harvest.  Of  food  there  was  abundance ;  game  was  plentiful, 
especially  wild  turkeys,  which  long  since  disappeared  from  the  At- 
lantic sea-coast,  and  deer,  which  to  this  day  roam  in  the  woods  from 
Plymouth  to  Cape  Cod.1 

In  November  came  the  first  reinforcement  of  thirty-five  persons  in 
the  ship  Fortune.  She  brought  also  a  new  patent,  issued  to  John 

1  In  the  autumn  of  this  year  the  Governor  (says  Winslow,  in  Mourt's  Relation)  "sent 
four  men  on  fowling,  that  so  we  might  after  a  more  speciall  manner  rejoice  together  after 
we  had  gathered  the  fruit  of  our  labours."  This  is  thought  to  be  the  origin  of  the  New 
England  festival  of  Thanksgiving.  But  special  reference  to  such  a  day  by  name  come?  the 
next  year,  at  the  same  season,  for  a  fruitful  harvest,  when,  says  Morton  in  his  Memorial. 
"  for  which  mercy,  in  time  convenient,  they  also  solemnized  a  Day  of  Thanksgiving  unto 
the  Lord." 


1621.] 


A  PATENT   FROM  THE  PLYMOUTH  COMPANY. 


403 


Peirce  and  associates  by  the  Plymouth  Company,  which  had  received 
its  charter  the  November  previous,  and  had  given  to  the  New 


Patent 


Plymouth  Puritans  the  first  patent  it  granted.  It  was  the  granted  to 
first  time  the  exiles  had  heard  from  England,  and  the  letters 
were  filled  with  complaints  from  the  London  adventurers  that  the 
Mayflower,  which  had  returned  in  the  spring,  had  come  without  a 
cargo.  To  such  ungenerous  reproaches  Bradford  —  who  was  now 
governor  —  replied  in  terms  as  pathetic  as  they  were  dignified,  that 
"  it  pleased  God  to  vissite  us  with  death  daily,  and  with  so  generall 
a  disease,  that  the  living  were  scarce  able  to  burie  the  dead  ;  and  the 
well  not  in  any  measure  sufficiente  to  tend  the  sick."  This  second 
ship,  however,  was  laden  with  lumber  and  some  peltries,  but  unfor- 
tunately only  a  small  part  of  her  cargo  ever  reached  England,  as  she 
was  taken  by  the  French  on  the  homeward  passage. 

The  second  winter  passed  without  unusual  hardship  or  sickness ; 


/  Kll  tUtttl  t S3  whereof  the  said  President  &  Counsell  haue 
to  the  one  pt  of  this  pnte  Indenture  sett  their  scales  And  to 
th'utner  pt  hereof  the  said  John  Peirce  in  the  name  of  himself 
and  his  said  Associate  haue  sett  to  his  seale  geven  the  day  and 
yeeres  first  aboue  written/ 


Signatures    to    Plymouth   Patent.1 

1  This  patent  is  preserved  sit  Plymouth,  MHSS.,  and  is  the  oldest  document  now  in  exist- 
ence relating  to  her  history,  as  well  as  the  first  known  grant  made  by  the  Plymouth  Com- 
pany. It  is  puhlished  in  full  in  vol.  ii.,  Fourth  Series,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  from  which  we 
copy  the  fac-similes  of  the  signatures  of  the  President  and  Council  who  signed  it,  namely,  the 
Duke  of  Lenox,  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  Lord  Sheffield,  and  Sir 
Ferdiuando  Gorges. 


404 


THE  PILGRIMS  AT  PLYMOUTH. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


there  was  enough  to  eat ;  order,  security,  and  sobriety  were  maintained 
by  strict  discipline,  the  discipline,  however,  of  a  mixed  civil  and  mili- 
tary rule  and  not  exclusively  of  a  rigid  religious  conformity.  The 
better  and  the  larger  number  were  heedful  of  their  own  religious  walk 
and  conversation,  as  became  a  people  who  for  the  sake  of  their  faith 
had  submitted  to  so  many  years  of  exile,  and  who  had  taken  refuge, 
at  last,  in  the  wilderness  that  they  might  preserve  their  allegiance  to 


their  convictions  as  well  as  to  their 
country.  Civil  order  they  valued 
for  its  own  sake,  and  with  that  sound 
common  sense,  which  on  a  larger  field  Christmas  Rev«iier». 

would  be  called  statesmanship,  se- 
cured it  by  enforcing  it.  But  that  they  did  not  deny  to  others  the 

freedom  of  conscience  which  they  claimed  for  themselves,  is 
Bradford  evident  from  a  little  incident  with  the  relation  of  which 
Christmas  Bradford  closes  his  record  of  the  year,  and  which  he  calls  a 

"  passage  rather  of  mirth  than  of  waight."  On  "  the  day 
called  Christmas  day,"  as  he  and  others  of  the  Leyden  congregation 
went  out  to  their  usual  labor,  some  of  those  who  had  recently  arrived 
in  the  Fortune  excused  themselves,  as  it  was,  they  said,  against  their 
consciences  to  work  on  that  day.  If  it  was  a  matter  of  conscience,  the 


1622.]  THE  NARRAGANSETT  INDIANS.  405 

governor  assented,  then  they  should  be  excused  till  better  informed. 
But  when  on  returning  at  noon  from  work  these  people  were  found 
playing  at  ball,  pitching  the  bar,  and  at  other  games  in  the  street,  the 
governor,  with  more  of  humor  than  of  that  grim  intolerance  which  is 
often  supposed  to  be  the  ground-work  of  the  Puritan  character,  sent 
them  to  their  houses  and  their  devotions,  if  they  had  any  to  pay,  with 
the  reasonable  injunction  that  it  was  against  his  conscience  they  should 
play  while  others  worked. 

The  courage  and  firmness  which  secured  order  at  home,  was  no  less 
sturdy  in  maintaining  peace  abroad.     The  Narragansett  Indians  sent 
to  Plymouth,  in  token  of  enmity  and  of  hostile  intentions,  a 
bundle  of   arrows  tied  together  with  the   skin  of   a  rattle- 


snake.  This  was  the  most  numerous  and  most  warlike  tribe  ' 
in  New  England,  numbering,  it  is  supposed,  thirty  thousand,  of  whom 
five  thousand  were  warriors.  The  little  colony,  in  which  there  were 
not  more  than  fifty  men  capable  of  bearing  arms,  may  not  have  known 
the  full  strength  of  these  Narragansetts,  but  they  knew,  at  least,  that 
so  numerous  a  people  would  be  formidable  enemies.  So  soon,  never- 
theless, as  they  understood  from  Squanto  the  purport  of  this  symbolic 
message,  the  skin  of  the  rattlesnake  was  stuffed  with  powder  and  ball 
and  returned.  The  Indians  were  at  no  loss  to  comprehend  both  the 
meaning  of  the  answer  and  the  spirit  that  prompted  it,  and  the  Pil- 
grims were  unmolested. 

The  town,  of  seven  dwellings  and  two  public  buildings,  was,  how- 
ever, surrounded  with  palisades,  as  a  measure  of  precaution  ;  the 
order  of  a  military  garrison,  both  for  peace  within  and  without,  was 
established  ;  all  the  men  were  enrolled  in  four  companies,  with  time 
and  place  appointed  for  mounting  guard,  for  drill,  and  for  general 
muster  ;  and  when,  in  the  spring  of  1622,  the  news  came  of  the  mas- 
sacre in  Virginia,  the  building  of  a  fort  was  begun  within  the  pal- 
isades, on  what  is  now  known  as  "  the  burial-hill  "  of  Plymouth. 
There  were  occasional  alarms  from  the  Indians  ;  but  that  at  first, 
seemingly  the  most  serious,  was  a  false  report  raised  by  Squanto,  who, 
coming  to  entertain  a  mistaken  notion  of  his  own  importance,  at- 
tempted to  enhance  it  by  arousing  the  fears  and  jealousies  of  his 
own  people  and  the  English,  which  he  alone  was  to  pacify.  He 
learned  better  behavior  for  the  future,  however,  when  Massasoit 
demanded  his  head,  and  his  Plymouth  friends  pardoned  and  saved 
him. 

The  first  difficulty  that  had  any  lasting  result  came  through  the 
conduct  of  their  own  countrymen.  There  was,  indeed,  a  scarcity  of 
food,  in  the  summer  of  1622,  but  that  was  relieved  partly  by  supplies 
which  Winslow  obtained  among  the  English  fishermen  on  the  coast  of 


406 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT  PLYMOUTH. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


Maine,  and  partly  from  several  English  vessels  which,  in  the  course  of 
the  season,  visited  Plymouth.  Among  these  arrivals  were  two  sent 
out  by  that  Mr.  Weston,  of  London,  who  hitherto  had  been  an  active 
and  influential  friend  of  their  company,  but  had  now  retired  from  it 
and  proposed  to  plant  a  colony  of  his  own. 

The  people  whom  Weston  sent  out  were  not  Puritans.     Rude  and 
profane  fellows,  he  himself    acknowledged,    many    of  them 
were ;  and  Mr.  Peirce,  in  whose  name  the  new  charter  was 
"*"•  taken  out,  wrote :  "  As  for  Mr.  Weston's  company,  they  are 

so  base  in  condition,  for  the  most  part,  as,  in  all  appearance,  not  fit 
for  an  honest  man's  company."  Such  as  they  were,  they  were  landed 


Burial   Hill. 


at  Plymouth,  where  they  remained  for  some  time,  helping  to  consume 
the  stores  to  which  they  had  added  nothing  when  they  came,  and  did 
nothing  to  increase  while  they  stayed.  To  support  them  was  a  burden  ; 
to  be  compelled  to  tolerate  their  idleness  and  evil  example  was  a  mis- 
fortune. Plymouth  was  happily  rid  of  their  presence  when  they  de- 
termined to  establish  a  separate  colony  at  Wichaguscusset,  —  or  Wes- 
sagusset,  —  now  Wey mouth,  where  a  broad  but  shallow  stream  empties 
into  the  harbor,  eight  or  nine  miles  south  of  Boston. 

Little  good  was  to  be  expected  from  such  a  company  ;  and  there 
came  nothing  but  evil.  It  was  not  long  before  the  complaints  of  the 
Indians  were  loud  and  bitter  against  them.  Improvident  and  idle,  or 
diligent  only  in  stealing,  they  soon  reached  the  extremity  of  want 
and  suffering.  Some  died  of  hunger.  Some  sold  their  clothes  and 
blankets  to  the  natives  for  food  ;  others  rendered  them  the  most  men- 
ial services  to  keep  off  starvation.  Many  dispersed  themselves  about 
the  woods  and  along  the  shore  seeking  to  subsist  on  ground  nuts  and 
shell-fish.  To  the  Indians  they  soon  became  objects  of  contempt  for 
their  weakness,  and  of  resentment  for  their  thefts  and,  perhaps,  for 
graver  wrongs ;  for  their  leader  was  accused — and  he  would  not  be 
likely,  if  the  charge  were  true,  to  be  the  only  offender  —  of  making 


1622.]  WESTON'S   COLONY.  407 

mistresses  of  the  Indian  women.  But  the  natives  must  have  come  at 
length  to  despise  much  more  than  they  feared  them,  for  they  would 
snatch  from  between  their  hands  the  food  the  whites  had  prepared 
for  themselves,  and  take  from  under  them  the  blankets  in  which  they 
had  wrapped  themselves  for  sleep.  So  far  from  resenting  and  assum- 
ing to  punish  these  aggressions  of  the  natives,  they  attempted  to  ap- 
pease their  anger  by  hanging  one  of  the  colonists  for  stealing  corn. 

The  culprit,  it  is  related,  was  one  of  the  stoutest  among  them  — 
so  stout,  and  strong,  and  courageous,  that  his  fellows  did  not  Hanging  of 
venture  to  arrest  him  openly,  but  secured  him  by  some  strat-  a  colonUt- 
agem,  and  hanged  him  thus  bound.  According  to  the  same  narra- 
tive it  was  proposed  and  seriously  considered,  whether  it  would  not 
be  better  to  spare  this  real  criminal,  who  was  young  and  vigorous, 
and  might  yet  be  of  great  service,  and  substitute  for  him  on  the  gal- 
lows one  who  was  old,  and  impotent,  and  sickly.  The  project  was 
overruled,  however,  not  so  much,  apparently,  from  any  recognition 
of  the  essential  wrong  which  it  was  proposed  to  inflict  upon  the  old 
man,  as  from  the  evident  inexpediency  of  resorting  to  an  artifice 
which  would  exasperate  but  not  deceive  the  Indians.1 

This  pestilent   colony,  the   Massachusetts   Indians,  in  conjunction 
with   others,  resolved,  at   length,  to   exterminate  ;   and   as 

Discovery  of 

they   naturally   supposed   such   an   act    would   be   avenged  an  Indian 

r  t\r  i  T-»I  i        conspiracy. 

by  the  countrymen  of  the  Wessagusset  people,  at  .Plymouth, 
they  also  were  to  be  fallen  upon  at  the  same  time,  and  the  country 
to  be  thus  rid  altogether  of  the  English.  But  before  the  savages 
were  ready  to  put  this  plan  in  execution,  it  happened  that  news  came 
to  Plymouth  of  the  serious  illness  of  Massasoit.  Edward  Winslow 
and  John  Hamden,2  were  at  once  sent  to  Pokanoket  to  express  sym- 

1  The  story  rests  on  the  authority  of  Thomas  Morton  {New  English  Canaan,  Third 
Book,  chap,  iv.),  who,  however  much  he  may  have  hated  and  misrepresented  the  people  of 
Plymouth,  does  not  appear  to  have  borne  any  ill-v.Ul  towards  those  of  Wessagusset,  and 
may,  indeed,  have  been  one  of  that  company.  His  circumstantial  statement  does  not  look 
like  an  invention.  Butler,  in  Hudibras,  makes  use  of  the  story  to  throw  ridicule  upon  the 
Puritans,  who  of  course  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  incident,  if  it  ever  occurred.  He  rep- 
resents the  culprit  us  a  shoemaker  who  had  slain  an  Indian  because  he  was  an  infidel,  and 
then  adds,  — 

"  But  they  maturely  having  weighed, 

They  had  no  more  but  him  of  the  trade, 

A  man  that  served  them  in  a  double 

Capacity,  to  teach  and  cobble, 

Resolved  to  spare  him  ;  yet  to  do 

The  Indian  Hoghgan  Moghgan,  too, 

Impartial  justice,  in  his  stead  did 

Hang  an  old  weaver  that  was  bed-rid." 

1  Similarity  of  name  has  sometimes  suggested  that  this  was  John  Hampden,  the  Eng- 
lish patriot,  but  the  conjecture  has  no  other  foundation,  and  other  reasons  make  it  alto- 
gether improbable. 


408 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT  PLYMOUTH. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


Sword  of  Miles  Standiih. 


pathy,  and  if  possible,  render  aid  to  one  who  had  shown  himself  a 
firm  friend  and  ally  of  the  colonists.  The  chief  was  apparently  in  a 
dying  condition,  but  Winslow  by  timely  remedies  and  careful  nursing, 
restored  him  in  a  few  days  to  health,  to  the  amazement  of  his  friends 
and  followers,  who  looked  upon  his  cure  as  a  miracle.  The  gratitude 
of  Massasoit  was  unbounded,  and  he  showed  it  by  revealing  to  Hob- 
bamock,  Winslow's  Indian  guide,  the  plot  against  the  colonies,  in 
which  he  had  been  urged  to  take  part. 

An  example  had  been  given  within  a  year  in  Virginia,  of  how  sud- 
den, stealthy,  and  complete,  a  massacre  by  Indians  might  be.  The 
information  given  by  Massasoit  was  discussed  in  the  "  yearly  court- 
day,"  or  town-meeting  on  the  day  of  the  election  in  March,1  and 
it  was  determined  that  an  expedition  be  sent  to  Wessagusset.  This 

consisted  of  only  eight  men, 
commanded  by  Captain  Stan- 
dish,  who  thought  proper  to 
take  no  more,  lest  the  sus- 
picions of  the  Indians  should 
be  aroused  by  the  appearance 
of  a  greater  number.  Standish  found  the  colony  in  a  condition  quite 
as  forlorn  and  wretched  as  had  been  represented,  so  scattered,  heed- 
less, imbecile,  and  unsuspicious,  that  they  would  be  an  easy  prey  to 
the  savages  when  these  were  ready  to  strike  the  blow.  Only  a  few 
of  the  leading  men  among  them,  when  told  of  the  designs  of  the 
Indians,  could  believe  in  the  report,  and  to  those  few  it  was  confirmed 
by  some  circumstances  which  they  had  themselves  observed. 

Some  conference  was  had  with  the  Indians,  who  suspected  the  de- 
sign of  Standish,  laughed  at,  and  defied  him.     They  were 

Standiuh  at  i  i  •  i  , 

weiwagus-  too  cautious  to  expose  themselves  in  any  large  number  to- 
gether, and  Standish  seems  to  have  recalled  the  advice  of 
Massasoit,  to  cut  off  the  chiefs.  Getting  two  of  them,  Pecksuot  and 
Wituwamat,  with  a  brother  of  the  latter  in  a  room  by  themselves, 
the  Captain  ordered  the  door  to  be  closed,  and  then  with  two  or  three 
of  his  own  men,  attacked  the  Indians.  The  fight  was  hand  to  hand 
and  desperate,  but  after  a  long  struggle  the  two  chiefs  were  killed,  and 
the  other  secured,  who  was  afterwards  hanged.  Some  others  were 
killed  at  the  same  time  at  other  places  ;  so,  also,  when  the  alarm  was 
spread,  were  several  of  the  English,  who  had  wandered  from  home. 
A  more  general  battle,  or  rather  skirmish,  afterward  occurred  in  an 

- 

1  The  annual  Town-meeting  —  or  "March-meeting  day"  as  it  was  called — for  the 
choosing  of  public  officers  and  attending  to  the  public  business  of  the  town,  continued  to 
be  held,  till  within  a  few  years,  in  March  in  Massachusetts.  It  probably  originated  in 
the  "  Court-day  "  of  the  Pilgrims. 


1623.]  STANDISH   AND   THE  INDIAN  CONSPIRATORS.  409 

open  field,  when  the  Indians  fled  without  loss  on  either  side.  The 
head  of  Wituwamat  was  taken  to  Plymouth,  and  exposed  as  a 
warning  to  the  natives.  Thither  Standish  returned,  taking  a  portion 
of  the  Wessagusset  men  with  him  ;  others  going  in  their  own  pinnace 
to  Monhegan,  on  the  coast  of  Maine.  The  colony  was  thus  entirely 
broken  up. 

This  was  the  first  Indian  blood  shed  by  the  Pilgrims,  driven 
thereto  in  self-defence  by  the  misconduct  of  others.  The  im-  ThefirRt  In. 
mediate  result  was  beneficial,  whatever  may  have  been  the  dlankilled- 
consequences  in  later  times  in  the  enmity  planted  in  the  minds  of  a 
people  who  never  forget  and  never  forgive  an  injury.  For  the  time 
being,  however,  the  energetic  conduct  of  Standish  spread  terror,  not 
only  among  the  Massachusetts  Indians,  but  those  of  other  tribes  en- 
gaged with  them  in  the  plot  against  the  English.  They  dispersed 
themselves  in  the  woods  and  swamps,  to  avoid  the  punishment  which 
they  feared  would  fall  next  upon  them  ;  their  planting  was  neglected, 
and  in  the  destitution  of  food  that  followed  in  a  few  months,  many 
perished.1 

When  the  news  of  this  affair  reached  Holland,  Mr.  Robinson,  the 
pastor,  wrote :    "  Concerning  the  killing  of  those  poor  In- 

Mr.  Robin- 
dial  is  of  which  we  heard  at  first  by  reporte,  &  since  by  more  son's  re- 

certaine  relation,  oh  !  how  happy  a  thing  had  it  been,  if  you 
had  converted  some  before  you  had  killed  any  ;  besids,  wher  bloud  is 
one  begune  to  be  shed,  it  is  seldome  stanched  of  a  long  time  after." 
It  was  certainly  a  humane  and  prophetic  judgment,  befitting  the  man 
and  his  profession,  but  not  quite  so  discriminating  as  it  might  have 
been  as  to  the  part  his  own  people  were  constrained  to  take  in  their 
own  defence.  The  experience  of  two  centuries  and  a  half  has  since 
shown  how  easy  it  is  to  kill,  and  how  hard  to  convert  an  Indian  ;  and 
however  deplorable  the  fact  may  be,  it  is  unquestionably  true  that 
occasions  have  arisen  —  and  this  was  one  of  them  —  where  the  choice 
of  killing  or  converting  was  not  presented.  Still  less  just  was  the 
excellent  pastor  to  Captain  Standish  in  the  same  letter.  "  Let  me  be 
bould,"  he  adds,  "  to  exhorte  you  seriously  to  consider  of  the  disposi- 
tion of  your  Captaine,  whom  I  love,  and  am  persuaded  the  Lord  in 
great  mercie  &  for  much  good  hath  sent  you  him,  if  you  use  him 

aright Ther   is  cause  to  fear  that   by  occasion,  espetially  of 

provocation,  ther  may  be  wanting  that  tendernes  of  the  life  of  man 
(made  after  God's  image)  which  is  meete."  The  brethren  at  Plym- 
outh might  have  answered  that  the  good  pastor  at  Leyden,  who  knew 
nothing  of  the  North  American  Indians,  could  hardly  judge  as  to  the 
proper  line  of  duty  for  Captain  Standish,  shut  up  in  a  room  with  a 

*  Wiuslow's  "  Relation  "  iii  Young's  Chronicles  of  the  Piigri'ns. 


410  THE   PILGRIMS   AT  PLYMOUTH.  [CHAP.  XV. 

naked  savage,  bent  upon  taking  his  life,  and  armed  with  a  long,  keen, 
doubled-edged  knife  ground  to  a  fine  point. 

Weston  arrived  not  long  after  the  dispersion  of  his  colony.     When 

a  few  months  later  Captain  Robert  Gorges,  the  recently  ap- 

captain         pointed  governor  of  all  New  England,  came  to  Plymouth, 

he  proposed  to  arrest  Weston  and  put  him  upon  trial  to  an- 

swer, among  other  things,  for  the  ill  conduct  of  his  men  at  Wessagus- 

set,  whereby  the  peace  of  the  whole  country  had  been   endangered. 

Weston's    sufficient    defence 


?//*  d        +^-   was'  *na^  ne 

ra  O/o  TOT  font.          held  responsible  for  acts  done 

signature  of  w.iiiam  Bradford.  by    others    in    his    absence. 

Other  charges,  brought  then 

and  later,  he  could  not  so  easily  answer.  But  Governor  Bradford  and 
others  of  the  leading  men  at  Plymouth  could  not  forget  their  former 
relations  with  Weston,  and  the  services  he  had  rendered  in  the  outset 
of  their  enterprise.  Partly  at  their  intercession,  and  partly  because 
Gorges  was  at  length  convinced  that  nothing  could  be  gained  by  a 
continued  pursuit  of  a  man  bankrupt  alike  in  fortune  and  character, 
Plymouth  and  New  England  became  happily  rid  of  that  unfortunate 
adventurer  in  the  course  of  the  next  winter. 

The  patent  Robert  Gorges  brought  with  him  gave  him  a  vague  title 
to  all  the  mainland  in  New  England  known  as  Massachusetts, 
on  the  northeast  side  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  with  all  the  coast 
for  ten  miles  in  a  straight  line  toward  the  northeast,  and 
thirty  miles  into  the  interior  for  that  breadth.  He,  never- 
theless, assumed  Wessagusset  —  on  the  South  shore  —  to  be  within 
the  limits  assigned  him,  and  landed  his  stores  and  built  warehouses  on 
the  site  that  Weston  had  chosen.  Gorges  himself,  however,  soon  re- 
turned to  England  ;  his  people  dispersed,  in  the  course  of  the  year, 
some  going  home,  some  to  Virginia,  except  a  few  who  preferred  to 
remain  at  Wessagusset. 

The  year  1623  was  otherwise  memorable  in  the  annals  of  the 
Pilgrims.  The  laboring  in  common  and  on  joint  account,  to  which 
they  were  bound  by  their  articles  of  agreement  with  the  London 
adventurers,  was  a  source  of  so  much  injustice,  discontent,  and  con- 
fusion, and  so  evident  a  hindrance  to  their  prosperity  —  almost  to 
their  continued  existence  —  that  the  necessity  of  some  modification 
of  that  arrangement  was  forced  upon  them.  The  most  obvious  evil 
was  the  radical  one  ;  there  could  be  no  true  prosperity  for  the  whole 
so  long  as  there  was  no  just  proportion  between  the  labor  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  welfare  it  secured  to  him.  It  was  proposed,  therefore, 
as  an  experiment,  to  make  allotments  of  lands,  for  one  year,  to  each 


1623.] 


SCARCITY   OF   FOOD. 


411 


colonist  to  cultivate  on  his  own  account.     That  there  was  any  hesita- 
tion in  resorting  to  so  imperative  a  measure  was  partly  be- 

...  ,        .    .  ,  Allotment* 

cause  it  was  an  infringement  upon  the  jointstock  agreement,  of  land  to 
and  partly  because  it  was  the  persuasion  of  the  time  that 
a  colony  in  a  new  country  could  only  exist  as  the  dependency  of  a 
corporation,  with  a  community  of  goods  in  anything  it  produced. 

In  Plymouth,  as  in  Virginia,  the  change  once  made  became  per- 
petual,   and  from   it  dates  the  beginning  of  true  prosperity.     The 
right    of  every   man,   thencefor- 
ward,  to    ownership   in   the 
land   and    to     the    fruits   of 
his    own    labor     was    estab- 
lished.    The    "  partic- 
ular    planting  "  —  or 
each  man  for    himself 
—  was  at  once  proved 
to  be  so  advantageous, 
that     "  any    generall 
want  or  famine,"   says 
Bradford,  writing  more 
than  twenty  years  af- 
terward,    "  hath     not 
been     amongst     them 
since  to  this  day." 

And  there  was  need 
enough  that  some  way 
should   be   devised    to 
escape  from  that  condition  of  almost  extreme  want  under  which,  for  the 
first  three  years,  the  colony  generally  suffered.     Above  all  people  of 
the  world,  as  one  of  them  said,  they  had  reason  to  pray  for 
their  daily  bread,  it  so  often  happened  that  none  knew  at  ocamty  of 
night  where  the  next  day's  food  was  to  come  from.     To  get  first  few 
enough  from  day  to  day  to  keep  soul  and  body  together  was 
their  constant  anxiety,  and  the  stimulus  to  unceasing  labor.     Their 
chief  sustenance  in  the  summer-time  was  fish  and  clams,  with  some- 
times a  little  venison — very  little  it  must  have  been,  for  stalking  deer 
with  the  clumsy  musket  of  the  period,  could  but  be  wearisome  and 
unprofitable  hunting.     Those  who  went  out  by  turns  in  their  single 
boat  to  fish,  would  stay  away  five  or  six  days  rather  than  return 
empty-handed  to  be  received   with   gloom   and   disappointment    by 
their  hungry  fellows.     The  treasured  stores  were  eked  out  in  winter 
with  ground  nuts  and  such  wild  fowl  as  they  could  kill.     When  a  ship 
came  in  with  additions  to  their  number  the  scant  and  sorry  feast  of 


Site  of  First  Church  and  Governor  Bradford's  House 


412  THE  PILGRIMS  AT  PLYMOUTH.  [CHAP.  XV. 

welcome  they  spread  before  their  friends  was  a  lobster,  or  a  bit  of  fish 
without  bread,  and  a  cup  of  water.  To  deprive  an  Englishman  of 
that  period,  when  tea  and  coffee  were  unknown  in  Europe,  of  his  beer, 
was  to  reduce  him  to  a  condition  next  to  starvation  ;  but  the  want  of 
"  a  spoonful  of  beer,"  even  for  the  sick,  is  recorded  as  among  the 
deprivations  most  sorely  felt  in  the  first  year's  sufferings,  both  of 
Plymouth  and  Jamestown.  "  It  is  worthy  to  be  observed,"  wrote 
Bradford,  twenty  years  afterward,  in  allusion  to  the  sufferings  of 
the  early  times,  "  how  the  Lord  doth  chaing  times  and  things  ;  for 
what  is  now  more  plentiful  than  wine."  It  was  not  counted  as 
among  the  least  of  the  trials  which  these  first  colonists  had  to  endure, 
that  a  cup  of  fair  water  was  the  only  drink.  When  the  search  was 
made  along  the  shores  of  Plymouth  Bay  for  a  fitting  place  for  a  set- 
tlement, the  reason  given,  in  addition  to  the  lateness  of  the  season, 
for  the  hasty  decision  was  that:  "We  could  not  now  take  time  for 
further  search  or  consideration,  our  victuals  being  much  spent,  espe- 
cially our  beer."  l  And  when,  a  few  years  later,  a  colony  came  over 
to  settle  at  Salem,  and  provisions  soon  became  scarce,  "  most  began 
to  repent  when  their  strong  Beere  and  full  cups  ran  as  small  as  water 
in  a  large  Land."2 

There  are  indications  of  other  troubles  in  these  early  years,  the 
cause  and  sometimes  the  character  of  which  are  not  always  clear. 
The  root  of  them  all,  however,  was  probabty  in  the  determination  on 
the  part  of  some  of  the  London  adventurers  to  use  the  colony  for  their 
own  selfish  purposes.  Thus  when  John  Peirce,  in  whose  name, 
second  pa-  but  on  behalf  of  the  colony,  the  first  patent  from  the  Plym- 
outh Company  was  taken  out  in  1621,  saw  that  the  enter- 
prise promised  within  two  years  to  be  successful,  he  procured,  in 
1623,  another  patent  on  his  own  account,  under  which  the  Plymouth 
people  were  to  be  merely  his  tenants.  Fortunately  for  them  Peirce 
met  with  such  losses  in  sending  a  ship  to  America  that  he  was  willing 
to  part  with  this  grant ;  but  for  what  had  cost  him  only  .£50,  he  com- 
pelled the  company  to  pay  him  £500.  Nor  was  the  conflict  of  ma- 
terial interests  the  only  or  the  most  serious  one.  Among  the  ad- 
venturers in  London  some  were  Church  people,  and  the  jealousy  of 
sect,  while  harder  to  reconcile  than  merely  pecuniary  interests,  em- 
bittered and  intensified  all  other  differences.  That  the  pastor,  Rob- 
inson, and  more  of  their  friends  from  the  Church  at  Leyden  did  not 
join  them  seems  to  have  been  because  there  was  a  determination 
among  some  of  the  managers  in  London  to  prevent  it.  There  was 
clearly  a  purpose  to  get  another  class  of  persons  than  Puritans  settled 

1  Mourt's  Relation. 

1  Johnson's  Wonder  Working  Providence. 


1623.]  LYFORD  AND   OLDHAM.  413 

at  Plymouth ;  and  while  it  seems  plain  that  those  of  the  Puritan  faith 
were  quite  ready,  so  far  as  it  was  possible  among  a  people  of  such 
strong  convictions  and  rigid  lives,  to  tolerate  those  who  did  not  agree 
with  them,  there  are  indications  at  least  on  the  other  side,  of  a  purpose 
to  diminish  and  overcome  the  puritanic  element  of  the  colony,  and  to 
put  the  management  of  its  affairs  into  the  hands  of  those  who  had 
no  sympathy  with  it.  But  the  Puritans  were  strong  in  the  leader- 
ship of  such  men  as  Bradford,  Brewster,  and  Winslow,  who  were  as 
eminently  endowed  with  common  sense,  worldly  wisdom,  and  the  gov- 
erning faculty,  as  they  were  deservedly  esteemed  among  the  brethren 
for  their  soundness  in  the  faith. 

Winslow  was  sent  to  England  on  the  business  of  the  colony  in  the 
autumn  of  1623,  and  brought,  on  his  return  in  the  spring,  a  report  of 
these  differences.     There  came  with  him  one  John  Lyford,  a  clergy- 
man, who,  as  it  afterwai'ds  appeared,  was  an  emissary  of  Arrivalof 
the  discontented  faction  in  the  London  Council,  a  veritable  jjjjjjj  Em£rd 
wolf  in  sheep's  clothing  among  the  Plymouth  flock,  a  dis-  1*nd 
sembler,  mischief-maker,  and  spyt     "  The  preacher  we  have  sent," 
wrote  Robert  Cushman,  "  is  (we  hope)  an  honest,  plain  man,  though 

none  of  the  most  eminente  and  rare Mr.  Winslow  and  my  selfe 

gave  way  to  his  going,  to  give 
continte  to  some  hear,  and  we  ___—/-  ( 

see  no  hurt,  but  only  his  great  '£^~^*3: 

charge     of     children."      The     /^/^'  signature  of  Edward 
charge    of    his   family,    which     L«X 

had  to  be  supported  from  the  public  store,  was  the  lightest  burden  he 
brought  them,  as  the  event  showed.  Full  of  protestations  of  humil- 
ity, of  admiration  for  the  Pilgrims,  of  being  a  devout  and  zealous 
convert  to  their  way  of  thinking  on  religious  subjects,  he  so  ingra- 
tiated himself  among  them,  that  he  was  soon  admitted  to  the  church, 
and  taken  by  the  governor  into  unreserved  confidence. 

There  was  in  the  colony  one  John  Oldham,  who  also  had  won  much 
good  repute  before  the  coming  of  Lyford  and  was  held  in  like  esteem. 
These  two  men  soon  drew  together  and  gathered  about  them  all  the 
discontented   spirits  of   the  colony,  proposing  apparently  to  subvert 
both  church  and  state.     A  movement  of  this  sort  could  not  be  carried 
on  long  in  a  community  of  less  than  two  hundred  persons, 
without  being  suspected.     Lyford  and  Oldham  were  watched,   i-yford  and 
and  when  it  was  found  among  other  things  that  Lyford  had 
prepared  more  letters  to  send  to  England  by  the  ship  in  which  he 
came  out  than  any  honest  purpose  would  seem  to  warrant,  Bradford 
felt  that  it  was  his  duty  as  chief  magistrate  and  to  avert  the  ruin 
that  such  a  conspiracy  threatened,  to  intercept  these  letters.     They 


414  THE   PILGRIMS  AT  PLYMOUTH.  [CHAP.  XV. 

were  found  to  contain  ample  evidence  against  both  the  suspected 
men. 

Lyford,  however,  was  not  arrested  till  he  openly  held  a  meeting  for 
public  worship  in  accordance  with  the  forms  and  rites  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church.  It  was  impossible  that  the  Pilgrims  should  see  the 
introduction  of  any  other  form  of  religious  observance  than  their  own 
among  them  without  a  good  deal  of  feeling,  and  that  alone  might,  in 
some  degree,  warp  their  judgment.  But  the  offence  of  Lyford  was 
evidently  not  so  much  that  he  had  held  such  a  meeting,  as  that  he 
should  have  done  so  without  consultation  with  the  brethren,  while  he 
had  all  the  while  professed  to  have  abandoned  the  Episcopal  Church, 
and  to  be  in  full  accord  with  a  people  who,  as  Bradford  said,  "  all  the 
world  knew  came  hither  to  enjoy  the  liberty  of  their  conscience  and 
the  free  use  of  God's  ordinances ;  and  for  that  end  had  ventured  their 
lives  and  passed  through  so  much  hardship  hitherto,  and  they  and 
their  friends  had  borne  the  charge  of  those  beginnings,  which  was  not 
small."  But  there  were  other  grievances,  though  this  may  have  been 
the  head  and  front  of  his  offending,  that  justified  the  course  pursued 
with  him  as  a  dangerous  member  of  society. 

Oldham  was  at  the  same  time  brought  to  trial,  but  not  till  he  had 
openly  disobeyed  and  defied  the  Captain  when  ordered  out  on  guard  ; 
had  called  him  a  "  beggarly  raskell,"  and  had  threatened  him  with  a 
knife.  When  arraigned  before  the  public  meeting  with  Lyford  to 
answer  for  his  conduct,  he  loudly  called,  though  he  called  in  vain, 
upon  all  who  were  discontented  and  on  whom  they  both  thought  they 
could  rely,  to  rally  around  him  in  open  mutiny.  The  result  of  the 
trial,  however,  was  that  Lyford  publicly  and  humbly  confessed  in  the 
church,  with  many  tears,  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  grievous  wrong, 
had  slandered  the  brethren,  and  plotted  against  their  rule  in  the 
colony,  and  that  in  his  pride,  vain-glory,  and  self-love,  he  had  hoped 
to  carry  all  against  them  by  violence  and  the  strong  hand. 

A  sentence  of  banishment  was  pronounced  upon  both,  to  take  place 
some  months  later.     This  clemency  was  misplaced,  for  Ly- 
and'co"-a      ford  wrote  again  secretly  to  England,  soon  after,  repeating  and 
maintaining  the  truth  of  all  the  charges  he  had  before  made, 
which  were  chiefly  intolerance  among  the  Pilgrims  of  all  religious 
opinions  and  forms  of  worship  but  their  own  ;  abuse  by  the  mag- 
istrates of  the  civil  power  to  the  injury  of  all  who  were  not  of  their 
way  of  thinking;  injustice  to  those  later  emigrants  who  had  no  in- 
terest in  the  joint-stock  company;  and  waste  of  the  public  property  — 
charges  which  were  all  categorically  met  and  denied. 

His  case  came  at  length,  on  this  second  letter,  before  a  public 
meeting  of  the  adventurers  in  London  for  consideration  and  decision, 


1623.J 


LYFORD  AND   OLDHAM. 


415 


where  Winslow,  who  meantime  was  on  another  visit  to  England,  not 
only  met  the  accusations  made  against  the  good  name  and  peace  of 
the  colony,  but  proved  by  trustworthy  witnesses  there  present,  that 
Lyford,  while  a  clergyman  in  Ireland,  had  been  guilty  of  seduction 
under  circumstances  of  unusual  baseness.  About  the  same  time  his 
wife  in  Plymouth,  "a  grave  matron  and  of  good  cariage,"  when  the 
sentence  of  banishment  was  about  to  be  enforced  against  her  hus- 
band, "  was  so  affected  with  his  doings  as  she  could  no  longer  con- 
ceaill  her  greefe  and  sorrow  of  minde."  She  laid  her  bur- 

.  Acknowledg- 

den  before  a  deacon  of   the  church  and   other  mends,  ac-  ment  of  L>-. 
knowledging  that  this  reverend  hypocrite  had  been  a  for- 
nicator  before  their  marriage  and  an  adulterer  since.     Such  develop- 
ments were  the  best  evidence  of  the  true  character  of  the  man,  and 


Expulsion  of  Oldham. 

that  the  prosecution  of  him  by  the  Puritans  was  on  behalf  of  social 
morality,  good  order,  and  peace  in  the  colony,  and  did  not  proceed 
from  religious  bigotry. 

The  case  of  Oldham  was  less  complicated,  and  was  dealt  with  in  a 
more  summary  manner.     He  had  the  hardihood  to  return  again  to 
Plymouth  a  few  months  after  his  banishment.     A  coarse  owham 
and  open  brawler,  he  made  himself  so  offensive  to  all  good  ofCpi?m-ut 
citizens  and  so  abused  the  forbearance  of  the  magistrates  outh- 
by  his  open  denunciations  and  loud-mouthed  defiance,  that  even  the 


416  THE   PILGRIMS   AT  PLYMOUTH.  [CHAP.  XV. 

limit  of  their  patience  was  at  length  reached.  "They  committed 
him,"  says  Bradford,  "till  he  was  tamer,  and  then  apointed  a  gard  of 
musketers  which  he  was  to  pass  throw  and  every  one  was  ordered  to 
give  him  a  thump  on  the  brich,  with  the  but  end  of  his  musket,  and 
then  was  conveied  to  the  Avater  side,  wher  a  boat  was  ready  to  cary 
him  away.  Then  they  bid  him  goe  and  mende  his  maners." 

There  is  not  much  in  the  characters  or  the  acts  of  these  men  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  the  ordinary  and  trivial  incidents  which  necessa- 
rily mark  the  history  of  a  handful  of  people  struggling  in  the  wilder- 
ness to  retain  their  grasp  upon  existence,  while  laying  the  foundations 
of  what  may  become  a  commonwealth,  or  may  only  be  a  village.  But 
their  conduct  had  results  more  serious  than  were  involved  in  the  pun- 
ishment of  two  bad  men,  or  than  the  anxiety  they  gave  to  the  rulers 
of  the  colony,  or  the  scandal  they  brought  upon  it.  The  bringing 
of  Lyford's  case  before  the  London  meeting  was  the  culmination  of 
the  differences  and  difficulties  which  had  long  divided  the  company; 
differences  and  difficulties  which  had  prevented  Mr.  Robinson  and 
the  rest  of  his  flock  in  Leyden,  from  joining  those  in  America ;  had 
kept  alive  that  spirit  of  persecution  which  the  Puritans  hoped  to 
escape  by  voluntary  exile ;  and  had  so  seriously  interfered  with  the 
progress  and  prosperity  of  the  colony. 

That  Lyford  was  really  an  emissary  of  a  faction  whose  purpose  was 
to  take  the  colony  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Puritans  and  reduce  them 
Breaking  up  *°  the  condition  of  sufferance  —  if  even  that  should  be 
ptnyein°m  granted  them  —  seemed  no  longer  doubtful.  His  conviction 
London.  before  the  world  as  a  man  of  detestable  character  who  had 
attempted  by  the  most  treacherous  means  to  carry  out  a  hostile  pur- 
pose, led  the  majority  of  the  London  adventurers,  not  to  drop  him,  but 
to  drop  the  colony.  They  virtually  made  common  cause  with  the  cul- 
prit, and  accepted  his  exposure  and  defeat  as  their  own.  The  Com- 
pany from  that  moment  came  to  an  end,  and  the  Plymouth  people 
were  left,  with  a  few  friends  in  England,  to  work  out  for  themselves 
their  own  success  or  their  own  failure  as  the  case  might  be. 

It  was  really  the  beginning  of  their  success.  Thrown  upon  their 
own  resources,  they  developed  new  energies.  Assuming  in  the  course 
of  the  next  year  the  entire  debts  and  responsibilities  of  the 
*nce  of  the  Company,  lands,  houses,  cattle  and  other  domestic  animals 
were  equitably  divided,  and  the  people  from  dependent  colo- 
nists became  independent  citizens,  living  in  the  enjoyment  of  the 
fruits  of  their  own  labor,  and  under  laws  of  their  own  making.  The 
whole  trade  of  the  colony  was  put  for  a  limited  pei-iod  under  the 
sole  management  of  eight  of  the  principal  men,  who  undertook  in  re- 
turn —  and  in  due  time  discharged  the  obligation  —  to  liquidate  all 


16^24.]  FISHING  STATION  AT  CAPE  ANN.  417 

debts,  including  that  to  the  old  Company  which  was  the  price  of  their 
freedom.  Their  friends  at  Leyden  were  enabled  in  time  to  join  them, 
though  the  Pastor  Robinson,  who  died  in  March,  1625,  was  never 
permitted  to  see  the  promised  land.  From  that  time  they  had  none 
to  rely  upon  but  themselves. 

When  Winslow  returned  from  England  in  the  spring  of  1624,  he 
brought  with  him  a  grant,  made  to  himself  and  Robert  Cushman  by 
Edward  Lord  Sheffield,  of  500  acres  of  land,  together  with 
30  acres  in  addition  for  each  actual  settler  for  a  mile  and  a  Ann  iv 
half  along  the  shore  of  Cape  Ann  Bay,  now  Gloucester. 
"  In  my  discovery  of  Virginia,"  says  Captain  John  Smith  with  char- 
acteristic audacity,  in  the  dedication  to  Prince  Charles  of  his  descrip- 
tion of  New  England  — "  in  my  discovery  of  Virginia,  I  presumed 
to  call  two  nameless  Headlands  after  my  Soveraign's  heirs,  Cape 
Henry  and  Cape  Charles."  He  neither  discovered  Virginia  nor 
named  its  capes,  but  to  Cape  Ann  he  did  give  a  name  which,  however, 
it  did  not  long  retain  —  calling  it  Cape  Tragabigzanda,  in  honor  of 
that  noble  Turkish  gentlewoman,  Charatza  Tragabigzanda,  whose  slave 
he  once  was,  by  right  of  purchase,  and  who  he  tells  us,  pined  for  love 
of  him.  But  Prince  Charles  ruthlessly  took  from  New  England  the 
perpetuation  of  the  memory  of  this  tender  romance  by  changing  the 
name  to  Cape  Ann  in  honor  of  his  mother,  Anne  of  Denmark.  Lord 
Sheffield's  right  to  that  portion  of  the  country  was  derived  partly  from 
purchase  and  partly  from  a  division  of  New  England  among  the  paten- 
tees of  the  Plymouth  Company,  which  division,  however,  was  never 
approved  by  the  king,  and  was  therefore  null  and  void.1 

Thither  the  ship  in  which  Winslow  came,  was  sent  to  establish  a 
fishing  station,  after  discharging  her  cargo,  an  important  part 
of  which  was  three  heifers  and  a  bull,  the  first  cattle  taken  cattle  at 
to  Plymouth.     But  they  made  a  poor  voyage,  says  Bradford, 
—  who  always  thought  that  fishing  was  a  "  thing  fatal  "  to  the  col- 
ony—  partly  because  of  the  lateness  of  the  season,  and  partly  because 
the  master  of  the  ship  was  "a  drunken  beast,  and  did  nothing  (in  a 
maner)  but  drink  and  gusle,  and  consume  away   the  time  and   his 
victails." 

The  undertaking  was  on  the  whole,  disastrous,  though  something 
was  made  by  trade  in  peltries.  The  beaver  was  to  these  first  people  of 
Massachusetts  a  better  friend  than  the  cod,  though  the  cod  hangs  to 
this  day  in  the  State  House  at  Boston  as  the  emblem  of  its  prosperity, 
while  only  here  and  there  in  the  country  lingers  some  dim  tradition 
of  the  beaver,  where  an  embankment  across  some  secluded  meadow 
suggests  that  a  dam  may  once  have  been  there.  The  Pilgrims,  how- 

1  Smith's  General  Historic  ;  The  Landing  at  Cape  Anne,  by  J.  Wingate  Thornton. 
VOL.  i.  27 


418 


THE   PILGRIMS  AT   PLYMOUTH. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


ever,  built  a  large  frame  house  and  put  up  a  stage  for  drying  fish  as 
the  nucleus  of  a  settlement.  But  here  the  Lyford  trouble  was  to 
break  out  again  and  plague  them. 

The  first  result  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Company  in  London  which 
followed  his  exposure  was  the  sending  out  of  a  ship  by  some 
of  the  adventurers  who  had  upheld  Lyford,  upon  a  voyage 
which  could  hardly  fail  to  come  into  competition  with  their 
late  associates.  The  vessel,  under  the  command  of  one  Hewes,  arrived 
early  in  the  season  and  finding  this  place  at  Cape  Ann  unoccupied,  he 


The  fishing 
station  at 
Cape  Ann. 


took  possession  of  the 
building  and  fishing-stage 
which  the  Plymouth  peo- 
ple had  built  for  their  own 
convenience.  The  news 
of  this  proceeding  soon 
reached  Plymouth,  and 
Captain  Standish  was  sent 
with  a  company  to  expel 
the  intruders.  A  surrender  was  demanded ;  Hewes  piled  up  a  barri- 
cade of  hogsheads  at  the  stage-head,  and  secure  behind  these  with  his 
ship  in  the  rear,  as  his  base  of  operations,  defied  the  Captain.  High 
words  passed  and  might  have  ended  in  bloodshed,  for  as  "a  little 
chimney  is  soon  fired,  so  was  the  Plymouth  captain,  a  man  of  very 
little  stature,  yet  of  a  very  hot  and  angry  temper."  l  But  the  fortifi- 

1  Hubbard's  History  of  New  England. 


Barricade  at  Cape  Ann. 


1624.]  THE   CAPE   ANN  COLONY.  419 

cation  was  one  not  to  be  easily  carried,  and  an  attack  from  the  open 
country  could  only  be  made  at  the  greatest  disadvantage. 

There  happened  to  be  present,  however,  Captain  William  Peirce  in 
a  ship  from  Plymouth,  and  one  Roger  Conant  of  Nantasket,  and  at 
their  intercession  the  anger  of  Standish  was  appeased.  He  was,  more- 
over, too  good  a  soldier  not  to  see  that  an  assault  would  be  hopeless  ; 
so  a  compromise  was  made,  the  6shermen  promising  to  help  the  Plym- 
outh people  in  building  another  stage.  The  house  seems  to  have  re- 
mained in  possession  of  its  rightful  owners,  for  a  salt-maker  was  sent 
from  Plymouth  to  put  up  pans  for  salt-boiling.  But  by  his  careless- 
ness, in  the  course  of  the  summer,  house  and  pans  were  destroyed  by 
fire,  "and  this,"  says  Governor  Bradford,  "was  the  end  of  that 
chargable  bussines." 

This  Roger  Conant,  who  helped  to  assuage  the  hot  and  angry  temper 
of  the  Plymouth  captain,  was  an  early  member  of  that  colony  ;  but 
being  a  churchman,  the  rigid  life  of  the  Separatists  was 
probably  distasteful  to  him,  and  he  removed  to  Nantasket. 


At  Nantasket  —  now  the  little  hamlet  of  Hull,  though  the 

old  Indian  name  happily  still  clings  to  it,  snugly  nestling  just  within 

Boston  harbor,  in  a  valley  between  two  great  round  hills,  out  of  sight, 

though  not  out  of  sound  of-  the  surf  which  the  Atlantic  rolls  up  upon 

the   long    stretch   of   Nan- 

tasket   beach    and    dashes 

against   the   ledges  of  Co- 

hasset  —  in    or    near   this 

lovely  nook,    Standish,  on 

his  first  visit  to  Boston  har- 

bor, had  put  up  a  house.1 

Of  this,  probably  a  year  or  Standish,s  ..  Pot  and  p|atter  „ 

two  later,  Conant  took  pos- 

session, and  there  he,  Lyford,  and  Oldham   found  refuge  when  the 

Puritans  would  no  longer  tolerate  the  latter. 

It  is  not  quite  certain  whether  Conant  was  at  this  time  residing  at 
Cape  Ann,  or  whether  he  was  there  only  to  be  present  at 
the  apprehended  struggle  between  the  Plymouth  men  and  c»pexnn 
the  crew  of  Hewes's  vessel,  a  report  of  which  might  easily 
have  reached  him  at  Nantasket,  only  a  few  miles  distant.     At  Cape 
Ann,   at  any  rate,  was   already  planted  that  first  colony  of  which 
Conant  was  sometime  in  charge,  and  which  was  the  seed  from  which 
sprung  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

The  merchants  of  the  west  of  England  had  for  several  years  sent 

1  "  Something  like  a  habitation  was  put  up  at  Nantasket,"  says  Hubbard  (General  His- 
tory of  New  England),  with  reference  to  future  traffic  with  Indians. 


420  THE   PILGRIMS   AT  PLYMOUTH.  [CHAP.  XV. 

vessels  to  fish  along  the  coast  of  New  England,1  and  in  1623  it  was 
proposed,  as  a  saving  of  time  and  expense,  that  colonizing  and  fishing 
should  be  united.  The  extra  men  whom  it  was  necessary  to  take  on 
these  voyages  to  catch  and  to  cure  the  fish,  were  to  be  left  somewhere 
on  the  coast  when  the  fishing  season  was  over  and  the  vessel  ready  to 
go  home,  to  employ  themselves  in  building,  planting,  and  hunting,  for 
the  rest  of  the  year  till  they  were  needed  again  as  fishermen.  The 
plan,  indeed,  did  not  answer,  for,  —  as  Bradford  saw  so  plainly  and  as 
the  west  country  merchants  proved  to  their  great  loss,  —  the  prelimi- 
nary and  continuous  work  necessary  in  the  planting  of  a  colony  was 
incompatible  with  the  business  of  fishing.  It  was  not  till  a  later 
period  that  so  many  of  the  thrifty  people  of  Massachusetts,  small 
farmers,  or  shoemakers,  or  other  handi-craftsmen,  in  the  autumn  and 
winter,  found  that  they  could  profitably  and  healthfully  spend  the 
spring  and  summer  months  in  fishing  on  the  Grand  Banks,  or  along 
the  coast  for  cod  and  mackerel,  and  never  go  to  sea  at  any  other 
time,  or  for  any  other  purpose. 

A  company,  however,  was  formed  in  1623  at  Dorchester,  England, 
The  Dor-  °^  wnic^  tne  ^ev-  John 'White,  the  minister  of  that  place, 
chestercom-  was  ^he  moving  spirit,  to  combine  planting  with  fishing. 
One  vessel  was  sent  out  that  year  on  such  a  voyage,  and, 
when  she  was  ready  to  return,  fourteen  of  her  crew  were  left,  with 
provisions  for  their  support,  at  Cape  Ann  to  begin  a  colony.  The 
next  spring  two  ships  with  more  men  were  sent ;  the  year  after,  three. 
To  the  people  were  added  cattle  in  1625  ;  but  the  experiment,  never- 
theless, was  unsuccessful.  The  fishing  proved  unprofitable  from  sev- 
eral causes  ;  the  landsmen  were  ill-chosen  and  ill-governed  ;  the  colony 
fell  into  disorder,  and  most  of  the  people  were  sent  back  to  England, 
probably  in  1626.2  A  few  men  remained  in  charge  of  cattle  sent  out 
the  year  before.  Of  these,  Conant  was  chief,  having  been  previously 
appointed  —  Hubbard  says  —  the  overseer  or  governor.3 

1  In  1620  there  were  seven  or  eight  fishing-vessels  sent  out  from  that  part  of  England 
anil  four  years  later  their  number  was  increased  to  fifty. 

2  The  Planters'  Plea.     By  Rev.  John  White      Hubbard's  General  History  of  New  Eng- 
land. 

8  There  is  much  incertitude  about  the  history  of  this  Cape  Ann  Colony,  under  the  Dor- 
chester Company.  White,  in  The  Planters'  Plea,  gives  the  date  of  its  settlement  as  1623  ; 
Hubbard  in  the  General  History  says,  ''  about  1624."  White  does  not  mention  Conniit,  but 
Hubbard  says  that  John  Tylly  and  Thomas  Gnrdner,  were  overseers  "  at  least  for  one 
year's  time,  at  the  end  of  which,"  White  and  his  associates  "  pitched  upon  him,  the  said 
Conant,  for  the  managing  and  government  of  all  their  affairs  at  Cape  Ann."  This  would 
be  in  1625,  when  according  to  White,  after  a  "  two  years  and  a  half"  experiment,  the  Com- 
pany abandoned  the  attempt,  and  a  few  only  of  the  most  honest  and  industrious  remained 
to  take  charge  of  the  cattle.  But  Hubbard  also  says,  that  "  together  with  him,"  — Conant 
—  the  Company  invited  Lyford,  "  to  be  the  minister  of  the  place,"  and  Oldham,  "  to  trade 
for  them  with  the  Indians,"  —  which  invitation  Lyford  accepted,  but  Oldham  declined  — 


1626.]  ENDICOTT   AT   NAUMKEAG.  421 

The  same  year,  Conant,  not  liking  the  place  at  Cape  Ann,  moved 
to  Naumkeag,  or  Nahumkeik,  —  now  Salem.1  Mr.  White  Removal  to 
and  some  of  his  associates,  encouraged  by  the  fact  that  this  Naumkeas 
little  remainder  of  their  colony  still  clung  together,  sent  out  more 
cattle,  and  moved  anew  in  England  to  engage  others  in  their  enter- 
prise. Some  gentlemen  in  London  added  to  these  cattle,  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  emigrants  also  went  out  in  the  course  of  the 
year,  to  join  Conant  and  his  few  companions. 

The  "  action  "  had  fallen,  at  last,  into  good  hands.     Some  gentle- 
men of  London  took  hold  of  it  with  great  energy,  moved  thereto  by 

all  three  at  that  time  residing  at  Nantasket ;  and  elsewhere  he  says,  that  these  men,  after 
leaving  Plymouth,  found  refuge  at  Nantasket  for  the  nisei  vcs  and  their  families,  "for  the 

space  of  a  year  and  a  few  months,  till  a  door  was  opened  for  them  at  Cape  Ann 

about  the  year  1625."  But  Lyford  and  Oldham  were  not  tried  at  Plymouth  till  the  sum- 
mer of  1624;  Lyford's  banishment  was  not  to  take  place  till  six  months  afterward,  and 
Oldham's  family  had  permission  to  remain  in  Plymouth  the  ensuing  winter.  Neither  Ly- 
ford nor  Oldham's  family,  therefore,  went  to  Nantasket  till  1625,  and  if  they  remained  there 
a  year  and  some  months,  could  not  have  gone  to  Cape  Ann  till  1626.  Bradford,  moreover, 
though  he  does  not  mention  Conant,  says  that  Lyford  went  from  Nautasket  to  Naumkeag, 
—  Salem.  The  difficulty  is,  to  reconcile  Hubbard  with  himself;  with  the  fixed  date  of  the 
Lyford  trouble  at  Plymouth ;  and  with  White's  statement  as  to  the  beginning  and  duration 
of  the  colony.  This  difficulty  is  further  complicated  by  Captain  Smith,  in  his  General  His- 
tory, published  in  1624,  where  he  says,  "  and  by  Cape  Ann  there  is  a  plantation,  a  begin- 
ning by  the  Dorchester  men,  which  they  hold  of  those  of  New  Plymouth,  who  also  by  them 
have  set  up  a  fishing  worke."  If  the  Dorchester  men  held  of  New  Plymouth,  it  must  have 
been  under  the  Sheffield  patent,  and  such  "  beginning"  of  their  plantation  would  necessa- 
rily be  in  1624,  and  not  in  1623;  for  the  Sheffield  patent  is  dated  January  1st,  1624,  N.  S. — 
1623,  O.  S.  —  and  the  Plymouth  "  fishing  work  "  we  know  was  set  up  in  the  spring  of  1624. 
Hubbard  is  supposed  to  have  received  his  information  directlv  from  Conant,  who  lived  in 
Salem  till  1680,  but  as  his  statement  about  Lyford  is  manifestly  incorrect,  he  is  quite  likclv 
to  be  so  in  other  particulars  as  to  dates.  Smith  could  have  had  onlv  hearsay  information  ; 
the  assertions  of  both,  therefore,  cannot  weigh  against  the  peculiarly  clear  account  of 
White,  in  the  Planters'  Pita.  If  Conant  left  Plymouth,  as  Hubbard  says,  with  Lyford  — 
and  Conant's  memory  on  such  a  point  would  probably  be  accurate  ;  —  if  they  went  first  to 
Nantasket,  and  lived  there  even  a  much  shorter  time  than  a  year  and  a  few  months,  they 
may  not  have  gone  to  Cape  Ann  till  late  in  1625,  Conant's  "governorship  "  beginning  the 
next  spring,  or  the  winter  of  1625-26,  when  the  colony  was  abandoned  by  all  but  himself 
and  a  few  companions,  and  he  took  charge  of  the  cattle.  It  seems,  indeed,  most  likely  that 
this  act  of  Conant's  first  commended  him  to  the  favorable  attention  of  Mr.  White,  who 
was  glad  to  hear  of  so  trustworthy  a  man  on  the  spot,  and,  not  being  willinq:  to  give  up  the 
project,  sent  more  cattle  to  his  care.  Meanwhile,  Conant  had  removed  to  Naumkeag.  He 
could  hardly  be  called  a  governor,  even  as  governors  went  in  those  times.  The  only 
authority  for  it  is  Hubbard,  who  evidently  used  the  term  indifferently  and  interchange- 
ably with  overseer  or  agent. 

1  "  Of  which  place  I  have  somewhere  met  with  an  odd  observation,  that  the  name  of  it 
was  rather  Hebrew,  than  Indian  ;  for  21H3.  Nahum,  signifies  comfort,  &  "in.  signifies  an 
haven  ;  &  our  English  not  only  found  it  an  Haven  of  Comfort,  but  happened  also  to  put  an 
Hebrew  name  upon  it,  for  they  called  it  Salem,  for  the  pmcf  which  they  had  &  hoped  in 
it;  &  so  it  is  ctillnl  unto  tin's  duy."  Mather's  Magnalia,  vol.  i.,  chap.  iv. 

"It  fals  out  that  the  name  of  the  place,  which  our  late  Colony  hath  chosen  for  their  seat, 
proves  to  be  perfect  Hebrew  being  called  Nahum  Keike,  by  interpretation,  The  bosome  of 
consolation."  White's  Planters'  Plea,  chap.  ii. 


422 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT   PLYMOUTH. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


the  promise  of  pecuniary  success  and  the  hope  of  making  an  asylum 
for  those  who,  though  not  such  rigid  Separatists  as  the  New  Plym- 
outh people,  were  nevertheless  Non-conformists,  anxious  to  escape  the 
tyranny  of  the  prelates  and  from  a  church  which  they  believed  was  on 
the  high  road  to  Rome.  Fit  men  for  the  enterprise  were  sought  for, 
and  "  among  others  they  lighted  at  last  on  master  Endicott,  a  man 
well  knowne  to  divers  persons  of  good  note."  In  March,  a  patent1 
was  procured  from  the  New  England  Company  ;  it  granted  all  that 
tract  of  country  from  three  miles  south  of  the  Charles  River,  to  three 
miles  north  of  the  Merrimack,  and  under  this  Endicott  was  sent  out 
as  governor  with  a  few  colonists,  who  arrived  at  Naumkeag  in  Sep- 
tember, 1628. 

Endicott's  people  and  those  already  at  Naumkeag,  numbered  alto- 
gether  on  his  arrival,  fifty  or  sixty  only.  A  year  later, 
when  the  Rev.  Francis  Higginson  joined  them  with  two 
hundred  more,  he  found  there  one  hundred.  How  in  the  mean  time 
had  the  number  doubled  ?  History  prides  itself  on  exactness,  and 
undertakes  to  say  precisely  when  and  how  events  occurred,  how  many 
men  were  at  a  given  time  in  a  given  place,  and  what  they  did.  But 
much  is,  and  must  be  taken  upon  conjecture  and  upon  trust,  in  this 
case,  and  the  reality  may,  after  all,  have  differed  much  from  the 
guesses  transmitted  from  book  to  book,  and  from  century  to  century. 
How  many  men  may  have  scattered  themselves  along  the  shores  of 

Massachusetts  Bay  —  indeed  all  along 
the  whole  coast  of  New  England  — from 
1620  to  1630,  is  altogether  uncertain. 
There  were  isolated  "  squatters,"  no 
doubt,  in  various  places  —  temporary 
settlements  soon  forgotten  and  soon 
abandoned,  or  absorbed  in  permanent 
colonies  afterward,  established  with  set- 
tled forms  of  government.  Some  vaga- 
bonds came  then,  as  so  many  have  come 
since,  to  the  New  World,  to  mingle  with 
and  add  to  the  more  staid  and  sober 
population.  There  was  more  than  one 
place  along  the  shores  of  the  Bay,  whence  men  may  have  gone  to 
Endicott's  colony  and  submitted  to  law  and  the  restraints  of  civil 
society,  for  the  sake  of  its  advantages ;  men  who  gladly  surrendered 
the  attractions  and  the  freedom  of  a  half  savage  life,  to  be  again 
among  houses  where  women  in  civilized  garments  were  busy  about 

1  The  patentees  were  Sir  Henry  Roswell,  Sir  John  Young,  Thomas  Southcote,  John 
Humphrey,  John  Eiidicott,  and  Simon  Whitcomb. 


Spinning  Wheel. 


1628.]  MORTON  OF  MERRY  MOUNT.  423 

their  household  duties,  where  the  pleasant  whir  of  the  spinning-wheel 
filled  the  air,  where  busy  farmers  sowed  or  reaped,  where  horses  were 
driven  a-field,  and  kine  gathered  into  barn-yards.  The  sights  and 
sounds  of  rural  and  domestic  life,  appealing  to  so  many  memories  of 
early  homes  across  the  sea,  in  green  and  merry  England,  which  they 
would  never  see  again,  must  needs  have  been  an  irresistible  attraction 
to  many  of  these  solitary  adventurers,  weary,  at  last,  of  the  silence  of 
the  wilderness  and  the  companionship  of  savages.  Little  neighbor- 
hoods that  had  been  drawn  together  for  mutual  support  and  defence, 
would  often  melt  away  into  large  companies  which  came  with  the  ad- 
vantages of  numbers  and  of  wealth.  For  of  these  smaller  plantations, 
it  was  said,  "  they  were  like  the  habitations  of  the  foolish,  as  it  is  in 
Job,  cursed  before  they  had  taken  root." 

Nantasket  was  a  place  of  refuge  for  Conant,  Lyford,  and  Oldham. 
The  rough  house  which  Standish  put  up  there  before  Plym-  Scatteped 
outh  was  a  year  old,  was  open  to  all  comers,  —  like  the 
"  Humane  Houses  "  of  the  present  day  scattered  along  the 
coast,  places  of  entertainment  for  shipwrecked  men  —  and  perhaps  had 
often  sheltered  some  outcasts  whom  the  rigid  righteousness  of  the 
Puritans  would  not  tolerate.  Thompson's  Island,  in  Boston  Harbor, 
so  called  to  this  day,  was  granted  early  to  David  Thompson,  whom 
we  know  of  as  living  at  one  time  at  Piscataway  ;  and  there  are  trust- 
worthy intimations  that  he  and  others  were  living  on  the  island  at 
one  time  and  another.  When  Gorges's  colony  was  broken  up  at 
Wessagusset,  some  few  remained  behind,  and  either  they  or  others 
were  still  on  that  river  some  years  later.  William  Blaxton  lived 
where  Boston  now  stands.  Maverick  was  on  Noddle's  Island  in  Bos- 
ton Harbor.  At  Mount  Wollaston,  a  colony  was  planted  in  1625, 
which  may  have  become  so  attractive  to  all  indolent  and  shiftless 
vagrants,  as  to  be  a  nursery  of  vagabonds,  and  an  asylum  to  discon- 
tented fishermen  and  sailors  who  ran  away  from  their  ships. 

Mount  Wollaston  —  still  bearing  the  same  name  —  is  in  the  present 
town  of  Quincy,  about  five  miles  south  of  Boston,  and  was  Mount  Wol. 
so  named  from  one  Captain  Wollaston,  who  came  out  from  ll>ftaa  and 


coast- 


Thomas 
Morton. 


England  in  1625,  with  thirty  others,  the  larger  part-  of 
whom  were  persons  bound  to  service.  These  were  not  profitable  emi- 
grants to  take  to  New  England,  and  Captain  Wollaston  soon  carried 
some  of  his  servants  to  a  better  market  in  Virginia.  Having  sold  the 
first  importation,  he  wrote  to  his  partner  to  come  on  with  more,  and 
to  leave  a  Mr.  Fitchter  in  charge  of  the  colony  at  Mount  Wollaston  till 
further  orders.  Among  the  colonists  was  one  Thomas  Morton,  by 
profession  a  lawyer,  but  by  choice  a  roving  and  reckless  adventurer, 
impatient  of  any  steady  labor  and  of  all  serious  duties,  given  to  much 


424  THE  PILGRIMS   AT  PLYMOUTH.  [CnAp.  XV. 

drinking,  fond  of  public  sports,  deriding  always  the  sobriety  of  the 
Puritans  and  the  severity  of  their  lives  —  just  the  jolly  vagabond  to 
lead  other  vagabonds  into  any  mischief.  "  In  the  month  of  June, 
Anno  Salutis,  1622,"  he  says,  "  it  was  my  good  chance  to  arrive  in 
the  parts  of  New  England."  He  must,  in  that  case,  have  been  at 
Plymouth,  where  he  could  have  found  no  more  congenial  companions 

—  for  he,  too,  professed  to  be  a  good  church-man  —  than  among  those 
whose  scrupulous  consciences  forbade  them  to  chop  wood  on  Christmas 
day,  but  permitted  them  to  play  at  bowls  ;  and  he  may  have  gone  to 
Wessagusset  that  year  with  Weston's  people,  for  no  brain  of  that 
company  would  have  been  more  likely  to  conceive  that  remarkable 
"  Embrion  "  —  his  own  narrative  is  the  sole  authority  for  its  birth  — 
which  suggested  the  vicarious  hanging  of  an  old,  sickly,  and  useless 
member  of  the  community,  in  place  of  a  young  and  lusty  culprit. 

At  any  rate,  this  troublesome  adventurer  was  at  Mount  Wollaston  ; 
Mare  Mount  he  named  it,  which  the  Puritans,  ignorantly  or  iron- 
ically, changed  to  Merry  Mount,  and  Endicott  altered  again  to  Mount 
Dagon.  And  here,  when  Fitchter  was  left  in  command,  he  made  a 
characteristic  proposal,  when  his  commander  happened  to  be  out  of  the 
way.  He  told  his  companions  that  as  some  of  their  company  had 
already  been  taken  to  Virginia  and  sold  for  their  terms  of  service,  so 
would  the  rest  be  when  Wollaston  was  next  heard  from.  But  if  they 
chose,  he  said,  to  depose  Fitchter  and  banish  him  from  the  colony,  he 

—  Morton  —  and  they  would  henceforth  live  together  as  copartners 
and  equals,  and  they  be  released  from  service  altogether.     He  hardly 
needed  to  have  made  the  crew  about  him  drunk  —  as  it  is  intimated 
he  did  —  to  secure  the  acceptance  of  this  tempting  proposal.     Fitchter 
was  deposed  and  driven  forth,  and  thenceforward  not  liberty  only,  but 
license  held  high  revel  at  Mount  Wollaston. 

Upon  the  top  of  the  hill  was  set  up,  on  May-day,  a  May-pole,  eighty 


The  May-  i  visible  for  miles  around,  "  a  faire  sea-marke  for 

MMTV'  directions,"  says  Morton,  "  how  to  finde  out  the  way  to  mine 
Mount.  Host  of  Ma-re  Mount."  A  pair  of  buck-horns  adorned  the 
top  ;  a  poem  of  Morton's  own  composing  was  nailed  at  a  convenient 
height  to  be  read  of  all  comers,  few  of  whom  could  read  and  fewer 
still  could  understand  any  more  of  its  labored  enigma  than  that  Cith- 
area  pointed  to  land  at  last  :  — 

"  With  proclamation  that  the  first  of  May, 
At  Ma-re  Mount  shall  be  kept  hollyday." 

A  barrel  of  beer  was  broached  upon  the  green,  and  bottles  of  stronger 
drink  provided  for  those  who  wanted  it  ;  all  the  drums,  guns,  and  pis- 
tols that  the  settlement  possessed  were  called  into  use  for  the  noise 


1625.] 


MORTON   OF  MERRY  MOUNT. 


425 


indispensable  to  a  public  rejoicing ;  roaring  a  song  of  Morton's  in 
praise  of  drink  and  "  Indian  lasses  in  beaver  coats,"  the  hilarious  crew 
danced  about  the  May-pole,  with  Indian  women  for  partners  in  the 
absence  of  ladies  with  more  clothes  on.  < 

The  sober  Puritans  would  have  been  shocked  by  such  festivities, 

even  had  they  been  free  from  the 
immoralities  of  excessive  drinking, 
of  the  evil  example  and  opportu- 
nity thus  given  to  the  Indians,  and 
of  the  debauching  of  their  women. 
But  a  stronger  feeling  than  disgust 
and  disapprobation  was  aroused 
when  Morton's  people,  in  their  trade 
for  beaver  skins,  —  on  which  they 
mainly  depended  for  their  subsist- 
ence,—  sold  arms  and  ammunition 
to  the  Indians,  taught  them  their 
use,  and  employed  them  as  hunters. 
The  safety  of  every  present  and 


Festivities  at   Merry   Mount 


future  colony  was  put  in  jeopardy  if  the  savages  were  to  have  such 
means  of  mischief.  There  could  no  longer  be  a  silent  submission  to 
these  dangerous  proceedings  at  Mount  Wollaston.  Morton  was  deaf 
to  remonstrance,  and  other  remedies  had  to  be  resorted  to  by  the  com- 


426  THE   PILGRIMS   AT  PLYMOUTH.  [CHAP.  XV. 

mon  consent  of  those  at  Plymouth  and  others  living  at  different  places 
about  the  bay  and  on  the  Piscataqua  River.  Captain  Standisb — 
Captain  Shrimp,  Morton  calls  him  in  his  "  New  Canaan,"  where  he 
gives  ludicrous  names  to  all  who  condemned  his  conduct — was  sure  to 
come  to  the  front  in  such  an  emergency,  and  he,  in  command  of  a  few 
men,  was  accordingly  sent  to  Mount  Wollaston,  by  common  consent, 
to  arrest  the  offender.  Morton  says  they  found  him  at  Wessagusset, 
where,  it  seems,  there  still  remained  a  small  colony.  They  took  him, 
he  declares,  by  surprise  ;  but  he  warily  permitted  them  to  eat  and 
drink  to  satiety  while  he  was  carefully  abstemious ;  when  they,  over- 
come by  their  indulgence,  slept,  he,  vigilant  and  wide-awake,  escaped 
by  night  to  his  own  stronghold  three  miles  distant. 

Thither  Standish  and  his  men  followed  him.  Bradford  in  his  "  His- 
t°ry»"  says  nothing  of  Wessagusset,  but  his  and  Morton's  nar- 
rative  agree  that  at  Mount  Wollaston  Morton  closed  his 
Morton.  doors  and  prepared  to  receive  the  assailants.  Means  for  de- 
fence were  ample.  There  were  four  men  in  a  sort  of  log  fortress  with 
loop-holes ;  on  a  table  they  laid  out  three  pounds  of  well-dried  pow- 
der, four  guns,  and  three  hundred  bullets,  and  then  they  fortified 
themselves  with  "  good  aqua  solis."  The  enemy  were  only  nine  strong, 
and  the  approach  to  the  building  was  without  cover.  Standish  and 
his  men  advanced  steadily  and  in  good  order,  "  coming  within  danger," 
says  Morton,  "  like  a  flocke  of  wild  geese,  as  if  they  had  bin  tayled 
one  to  another  as  colts  to  be  sold  at  a  faire,"  and  much  blood  would 
have  flowed  "  if  mine  Host  (Morton)  should  have  played  upon  them 
out  at  his  ports  holes."  But  he  chose  not  to  play  upon  them.  The 
"  sonne  of  a  souldier "  contented  himself  with  boasting  that  had  he 
only  had  more  men  he  "  would  have  given  Captaine  Shrimpe  (a  quon- 
dam Drummer)  such  a  wellcome,  as  would  have  made  him  wish  for  a 
Drume  as  bigg  as  Diogenes'  tubb  that  he  might  have  crept  into  it  out 
of  sight."  He  nevertheless  surrendered  without  firing  a  shot.  The 
only  blood  shed  was  from  the  nose  of  one  of  the  defenders,  who,  from 
too  much  "•  aqua  solis,"  stumbled  against  the  sword  of  one  of  Stan- 
dish's  men.  The  son  of  a  soldier  seems  to  have  been  a  coward  as  well 
as  a  braggart. 

After  this  almost  bloodless  victory,  Morton  was  taken  to  Plymouth 
Morton  sent  and  sent  thence  to  England  in  the  custody  of  John  Oldham, 
to  England.  wnOi  repenting  of  his  former  misdeeds,  had  been  taken  again 
into  favor.  For  the  time  Morton  escaped  further  punishment,  and 
was  permitted  to  return  again  to  New  England  to  plague  the  Puritans 
for  years  to  come.  He  afterward  fell  into  the  hands,  however,  of 
Endicott — whom  he  nicknamed  Captain  Littleworth  —  who  not  only 
sent  him  a  second  time  to  England,  but,  before  he  went,  set  him  in 


1630.]  CHARTER  OF   1630.  427 

the  stocks,  and  confiscated  his  goods  at  Mount  Wollaston.     He  had 
previously  burnt  his  house,  and  cut  down  the  Maypole.1 

Meanwhile,  during  all  these  later  years  of  the  first  decade  of  the 
Plymouth  Colony,  "  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  give  the  plantation  peace 
and  health  and  contented  minds."  The  Dutch  of  New  Netherland 
sent  pompous  letters  addressed  "  to  the  noble,  worshipful,  wise,  and 
prudent  Lords,  the  Governor  and  Councillors  residing  in  New  Plym- 
outh "  —  "  over  high  titles,"  said  Bradford  in  his  reply,  "  more  than 
belongs  to  us,  or  is  meete  for  us  to  receive  ; "  and  an  ambassador  was 
sent  —  the  secretary  Rasierres —  "  with  a  noyse  of  trumpeters  and  some 
other  attendants."  But  good  fellowship  was  thereby  estab- 
lished between  the  two  colonies,  and  this  was  followed  by  trade  ami  ° 
profitable  trade,  especially  in  wampum.  This  native  cur- 
rency the  Indians  of  the  East  soon  learned  to  value,  though,  as  its 
manufacture  by  the  tribes  of  Long  Island  from  the  shells  of  the  qua- 
haug  and  the  periwinkle  was  practically  unlimited,  it  soon  produced 
such  an  inflation  of  values  that,  from  being  rated  at  first  by  the  penny 
worth,  it  came  at  last  to  be  sold  by  the  fathom,  and  then  to  be  pro- 
hibited altogether  by  colonial  law. 

But  as  the  Pilgrims  increased  their  trade,  and  grew  in  prosperity, 
they  enlarged  their  borders.  In  1628  they  procured  from  the  Plym- 
outh Company  a  patent  for  lands  on  the  Kennebec,  and  a  settlement 
near  the  present  town  of  Augusta,  Maine,  became  a  val-  Charter0f 
uable  dependency.  In  1630  a  new  patent  was  granted  to  163°- 
William  Bradford  and  his  associates,  which,  for  the  first  time,  defined 
the  limits  of  the  New  Plymouth  Colony,  making  its  eastern  boun- 
dary the  ocean,  -from  Cohasset  River  to  Narragansett  River ;  its 
western,  a  line  drawn  from  the  mouths  of  these  rivers  and  meeting 
at  the  extreme  western  border  of  the  Indian  country,  known  as  the 
Pokanoket  country,  which  was  the  southeastern  portion  of  the  State 
of  Massachusetts.  And  this  patent  also  approved  the  grant  on  the 
Kennebec,  defining  it  to  be  fifteen  miles  on  each  bank  of  that  river. 

The  colony,  however,  never  procured  the  royal  signature  to  this  char- 
ter from  the  Plymouth  Company.  Their  powers  of  government  were 
derived  from  the  compact  signed  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayfloiuer,  the 
day  after  her  arrival  in  Cape  Cod  Harbor,  and  from  the  discipline  of 
the  church.  In  the  censure  of  the  brethren,  and  the  authority  drawn 
from  the  general  assembly  of  the  people,  the  law  found  sufficient  and 

i  Morton  was  accused  of  cruelty  to  the  Indians  and  other  crimes,  and  was  arrested  by 
Endicott  on  a  writ  from  England.  He  continued  his  active  hostility  to  the  Puritans  till  his 
death  in  1645  or  1646,  having  meanwhile  been  punished  with  a  year's  imprisonment  in  Bos- 
ton for  his  libellous  book,  The  New  English  Canaan,  in  which  he  had  attacked,  with  a  good 
deal  of  scurrilous  humor,  all  the  principal  meu  of  the  colonies. 


428 


THE   PILGRIMS   AT  PLYMOUTH. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


unquestioned  authority.1  The  exigencies  of  their  own  condition,  the 
maintenance  of  social  order  and  of  mutual  rights,  the  suggestions 
of  common  sense,  and  the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences,  made  the 

body  of  the  law.  Not  till  the  first  serious  crime  was  com- 
of  John  mitted  among  them  —  the  murder  of  a  fellow-colonist  by  one 

John  Billington  —  was  it  thought  necessary  to  seek  for  coun- 
sel, for  precedent  and  sanction  in  English  law.  The  advice  of  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop  and  other  leading  men  of  Massachusetts  Bay  was 
asked,  as  to  what  should  be  done  under  such  novel  and  distressing  cir- 
cumstances, and  the  conclusion  of  the  united  council  was  that  the 
man  should  die,  and  the  land  be  purged  of  blood. 

1  See  Historical  Memoir  of  the   County  of  New  Plymouth,  pp.  227,  228,  by  Francis  Bay- 
lies. 


Fragment  of  the  Rock  at  Pilgrim  Hall,  Plymouth. 


Amsterdam 


CHAPTER   XVI. 


PROGRESS   OF   DUTCH   COLONIZATION. 


THE  ORDER  OF  PATROONS  ESTABLISHED  IN  NEW  NETHERLAND. —  DIVISION*  AND 
MONOPOLY  OF  LANDS.  —  THE  COMPANY  OVERREACHED  BY  THE  PATROONS.  —  MAS- 
SACRE OF  THE  COLONISTS  OF  SWAANENDAEL. —  WOCTER  VAN  TWILLER  APPOINTED 
GOVERNOR.  —  WEAKNESS  AND  ABSURDITIES  OF  HIS  ADMINISTRATION. —  SCPER- 
SEDED  BY  WILLIAM  KIEFT.  —  POPULAR  MEASURES  OF  THE  COUNCIL  AT  AMSTER- 
DAM.—  PURCHASE  OF  LANDS  FROM  PATROONS. —  INCREASE  OF  IMMIGRATION. — 
PROMISE  OF  PROSPERITY  TO  THE  COLONY.  —  PORTENTS  OF  COMING  CALAMITIES. — 
A  COUNCIL  OF  TWELVE  APPOINTED. 

WITH  the  short-sighted  selfishness  that  belongs  to  every  great  mo- 
nopoly, the  West  India  Company  attempted  to  assure  the  growth  and 
prosperity  of  their  colony  by  means  the  least  likely  to  secure 
that  end.     In  the  Netherlands  the  feudal  system  had  grad-  westyindui 
ually  given  way,  as  everywhere  else  in  Europe,  with  the  in- 
creasing intelligence  of  the  people.      Titles  of   nobility  still  existed, 
but  they  had  come  to  be  held  in  little  esteem  ;  and  wherever  great 
manorial  privileges  were  still  tolerated,  it  was  rather  as  the  right  of 
landlords  than  of  chiefs.     But  this  system  a  great  Netherland  com- 
mercial  company  now  proposed  to  reestablish  upon  the  virgin  soil 


430 


PROGRESS   OF   DUTCH   COLOXJZATIOX.       [CHAP.    XVI. 


Seal  of  New  Netherland. 


of  a  new  continent,  where  that  pretence  of  right,  which  centuries 
of  endurance  were  supposed  to  give  it  in  the  Old  World,  had  no 
existence. 

The  plan  of  the  directors  at  Amsterdam  was  to  establish  seigniories 

in  the  hands  of  a  few  great  proprietors,  whose 
wealth  and  ambition  would  make  them  lords 
of  people  as  well  as  of  lands.  To  the  Com- 
pany, would  be  saved  by  this  course,  they 
argued,  all  the  enormous  cost  and  care  of 
emigration,  the  necessity  of  supporting  a 
small  army  of  officers,  and  much  of  the  ex- 
pense of  carrying  on  a  government.  The 
colony  would  increase  in  wealth  and  num- 
bers through  the  labors  of  the  great  proprie- 
tors, while  the  chief  function  of  the  Company  would  be  to  absorb 
the  growing  trade  and  commerce,  and  to  wax  fat  in  opulence  and 
power. 

The  "  Charter  of  Privileges  and  Exemptions,"  issued  by  the  West 
India  Company's  College  of  Nineteen  on  June  7,  1629,  provided 
that  any  person,  a  member  of  this  Company  (for  to  this  restriction  the 
College  adhered  even  in  their  new  measure),  who  should  purchase  of 
the  Indians  and  found  in  any  part  of  New  Netherland  except  Manhat- 
tan, a  colony  of  fifty  persons  over  fifteen  years  of  age,  should  be  in  all 
respects  the  feudal  lord  or  patroon  of  the  territory  of  which  he  should 
•thus  take  possession.  Not  only  should  he  have  a  full  and  inheritable 
title  and  proprietorship,  but  the  power  to  establish  officers  and  magis- 
Proprietary  trates  in  all  towns  and  cities  on  his  lands  ;  to  hold  manorial 
privileges.  COurts,  from  which  in  higher  cases  the  only  appeal  was  to  the 
director-general  of  New  Netherland  ;  to  possess  the  "  lower  jurisdic- 
tions, fishing,  fowling  and  grinding,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others  ; " 
to  make  use  of  all  "  lands,  rivers,  and  woods,  lying  contiguous  to  his 
own  ;  "  in  short,  to  hold  and  govern  his  great  manors  with  as  absolute 
rule  as  any  baron  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with  the  added  advantage  of 
distance  from  all  other  constituted  authority  except  that  of  the  corpo- 
ration of  which  he  was  himself  a  member.  The  lands  which  such 
proprietors  could  take  under  these  conditions  might  have  a  frontage 
of  sixteen  miles  on  one  bank,  or  eight  miles  on  each  bank,  of  any 
navigable  river ;  with  the  privilege  of  extending  the  estates  "  so  far 
into  the  country  as  the  situation  of  the  occupiers  would  permit." 
The  patroons  could  trade  along  the  American  coast  within  the  Com- 
pany's nominal  jurisdiction,  if  they  brought  the  goods  obtained  to 
the  headquarters  at  Manhattan  and  paid  a  tariff  of  five  per  cent. ; 
they  could  engage  in  the  fur  trade  where  the  Company  itself  had 


1629.] 


A  MONOPOLY  WITHIN  A  MONOPOLY. 


431 


no  factories,  on  much  the  same  conditions ;  and  avail  themselves 
of  the  sea-fisheries  on  paying  three  guilders  a  ton  for  what  they 
caught.  Their  power  over  their  people  was  almost  unlimited  ;  for 
no  "  man  or  woman,  son  or  daughter,  man-servant  or  maid- 

,  „  ,  T     i  ,  ,       .  ,  Condition  of 

servant      could  leave  a  patroon  s  service   during  the  time  laborers  and 

,  ,  7  i        i  •  •  tenants  un- 

they  had  agreed  to  remain,  except  by  his  written  consent;  dertnechar- 
and  this  rule  held  in  spite  of  any  and  all  abuses  or 
breaches  of  contract  on  the  patroon's  part.  The  Company  prom- 
ised to  protect  and  defend  the  proprietors  in  the  exercise  of  all 
these  privileges,  requiring  in  return  only  that  each  should  make  an 
annual  report  of  the  condition  of  his  colony.  The  only  privilege 
that  attached  to  tenants  under  the  patroons  was  their  exemption 
for  ten  years  from  a.11  taxation  ;  though  a  certain  temporaiy  aid  was 
granted  to  them  by  the  Company's  promise  to  furnish  for  their 
assistance  "  as  many 
blacks  (slaves)  as  they 
conveniently  could." 
The  patroons  could 
bring  over  their  goods 
on  the  payment  of  five 
per  cent,  to  the  Com- 
pany ;  cattle  and  agri- 
cultural  implements 
came  without  cost; 
but  they  must  pay  the 
passage  of  "  their  peo- 
ple." Certain  minor 
rules  with  regard  to 
the  continued  impor- 
tation of  provisions  in 

the  Company's  ships  were  also  inserted  in  the  charter,  but  they  were 
in  every  way  favorable  to  the  great  proprietors. 

This  creation  of  a  monopoly  within  a  monopoly,  had  some  im- 
mediate results  that  might  have  been  foreseen.  The  same  principle 
which  the  Company  was  carrving  out  against  the  rest  of 

•  -ii  i  i  f  •  Results  of 

the  world,  its  richer  and  shrewder  members  enforced  against   themonop- 
their  less  fortunate  fellow-shareholders.     Before  the  charter 
was  published  some  of  the  directors  in  the  Amsterdam  Council  had 
their  preparations  fully  made  to  seize  upon  the  benefits  they  knew 
to  be  in   prospect.      No   sooner  were    the  "  privileges   and    exemp- 
tions "  actually  made  law,  than  Samuel  Godyn,  a  director,   Thefirn 
informed    his   colleagues  that   he   and   his    fellow -director,  P"11001"- 
Samuel  Blommaert,  had  already  perfected  their  arrangements  to  oo 


Dutch  Costumet. 


432  PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION.        [CHAP.  XVI. 

cupy  "  the  Bay  of  the  South  River,"  and  had  secured  their  title  and 
privileges  as  patroons  by  purchase  of  that  region,  and  by  due  notice 
to  Minuit,  at  Manhattan.  So  prompt  had  been  their  action  that  the 
purchase  had  been  made  two  days  before  even  the  first  passage  of 
the  charter  ;  but  of  course  it  was  decided  to  come  within  its  rules, 
and  the  first  patroon's  patent  was  duly  delivered  during  the  next 
year.1 

Other  Amsterdam  directors  had  also  availed  themselves  of  their 
position  to  forestall  the  ordinary  stockholders,  and  were  but  little 
behind  Godyn  and  Blommaert.  In  the  spring  of  1630,  Kiliaen  van 
Rensselaer,  a  wealthy  dealer  and  worker  in  precious  stones,  bought 
from  the  Indians,  through  Krol,  the  Company's  commissary  at  Fort 
Orange,  an  immense  tract  of  land  on  the  west  side  of  the  North 
River.  It  extended  from  Barren  (originally  Beeren,  or  Bear's)  Island, 
about  twelve  miles  below  Albany,  to  Smack's  Island,  and  two  days' 
journey  inland  ;  and  to  this  he  added  later  in  the  year,  and  after  be- 
ginning its  colonization,  another  territory  to  the  northward,  carrying 
his  boundaries  nearly  to  the  confluence  of  the  Mohawk.  On 
quired  by  the  east  side  of  the  river  he  bought,  in  August,  a  third  tract 
with  a  river  front  extending  from  Castle  Island  to  Fort 
Orange,  and  from  "  Poetanock,  the  Mill  Creek,  northwards  to  Nega- 
gonce."  Michael  Pauw,  another  director,  had  meanwhile  acquired 
the  territory  opposite  Manhattan  Island,  on  the  west  bank,  which 
still  bears,  in  the  name  Hoboken,  a  part  of  its  old  title  "  Hobokan- 
Hacking;"  he  soon  after  secured  the  whole  of  Staten  (then  Staa- 
ten)  Island  ;  and  later  still  the  region  where  Jersey  City  now  stands, 
and  all  its  neighborhood.  While  Van  Rensselaer  called  his  estate 
simply  Rensselaerswyck  (or  Manor),  Pauw  bestowed  upon  his  the 
more  sonorous  latinized  title  of  "  Pavonia."  Fort  Orange,  reserved 
for  the  Company  in  the  north,  stood  isolated  in  the  midst  of  Van 
Rensselaer's  vast  domain,  while  the  post  at  Manhattan  lay  oppo- 
site the  long  river-front  of  Pauw's  possessions.  The  land  of  both 
patroons  far  exceeded  the  terms  of  even  the  liberal  charter,  absorb- 
ing some  of  the  Company's  most  profitable  trading- regions.  Van 
Rensselaer's  purchases  were  ratified  at  Fort  Amsterdam  on  the  very 
day  on  which  the  charter  was  first  officially  proclaimed  there  ;  and 
Pauw's  final  purchase  but  three  months  after. 

When  the  action  of  these  enterprising  capitalists  was  revealed  to 

1  July  15,  1630.  "It  was  the  first  European  title,  by  purchase  from  the  aborigines, 
within  the  limits  of  the  present  State  of  Delaware ;  and  it  bears  date  two  years  before  the* 
charter  of  Maryland,  granted  to  Lord  Baltimore  by  Charles  I."  —  Brodhead,  vol.  i.,  p.  200. 
Mr.  Brodhead  found  the  original  patent  at  Amsterdam,  in  1841.  It  has  the  names  of  both 
proprietors,  but  the  English  version  among  old  Delaware  documents,  has  only  Godyn'a 
Compare  O'Callaghan,  vol.  i.,  p.  122,  note  ;  and  Moulton. 


1630.]  THE   PATROOXS.  433 

their  fellow-members  in  the  Netherlands,  they  were  indignantly  de- 
nounced as  having  used  "  the  cunning  tricks  of  merchants."  So  strong 
was  the  feeling  against  Van  Rensselaer  and  the  rest,  that  they  were 
required  by  the  College  of  Nineteen  to  take  several  partners  into  the 
different  proprietorships.  But  they  easily  evaded  the  purpose  of  that 
order,  for  Van  Rensselaer  took  Godyn  and  Blommaert  into  his  part- 
nership, with  John  de  Laet,  Bissels,  and  Moussart,  other  Amsterdam 
directors,  and  kept  for  himself  two  of  the  fifths  into  which  lie  divided 
the  estate.  Godyn  and  Blommaert,  in  turn  took  Van  Rensselaer  and 
de  Laet  into  association  with  them,  with  Captain  de  Vries,  and  several 
others,  also  directors.  By  this  convenient  arrangement  the  new  part- 
ners gained  little,  and  the  first  holders  merely  exchanged  one  property 
for  another. 

The  occupation  of  the  new  estates  was  nearly  as  speedy  as  their 
purchase.  Van  Rensselaer  had  begun  the  colonization  of  his  lands 
almost  as  soon  as  he  had  acquired  the  first  great  tract,  sending  out 
settlers,  cattle,  and  farming  tools  in  his  ship  the  Eendragt 
(Unity),  to  a  point  near  Fort  Orange.  Godyn  and  Blom-  oi 
maert,  with  their  new  partners,  hastened  to  follow  his  ex- 
ample with  their  lands  at  the  South  River  ;  and  Pieter  Heyes,  acting 
in  the  service  of  Captain  de  Vries,  took  out  in  the  Walvis  (Whale), 
some  thirty  emigrants  to  the  bay  now  called  Delaware,  and  early  in 
1G31  founded  the  colony  of  Swaanendael,  the  Valley  of  Swans,  on 
the  shore  of  the  Horekill,  a  stream  near  the  present  town  of  Lewis- 
ton,  Delaware.  At  the  same  time  Heyes  crossed  over  to  Cape  May, 
and  bought  from  the  Indians  for  his  employers,  another  great  tract  of 
land,  stretching  twelve  miles  northward  along  the  coast,  and  twelve 
miles  inland.  Then  running  up  to  Manhattan,  without  stopping  to 
try  the  profitable  whale-fishery  which  was  said  to  exist  near  the  South 
River,  and  had  formed  one  great  hope  of  profit  with  Godyn,  he  applied 
to  Minuit  to  register  his  purchases. 

In  spite  of  the  jealousy  which  the  "  cunning  tricks  "  of  these  ear- 
liest patroons  had  excited  among  the  members  of  the  West  India 
Company  at  home,  it  is  probable  that  the  animosity  would  have  died 
away,  and  no  open  quarrel  have  arisen,  had  the  new  proprietors  kept 
quietly  to  the  management  of  colonies  which  soon  grew  to  be  pros- 
perous. But  they  were  not  content  to  confine  themselves  to  agricul- 
ture. The  lands  of  which  they  had  taken  possession  covered  some 
of  the  most  profitable  trading  ground  that  had  sent  its  wealth  of 
costly  furs  to  the  Company's  Manhattan  warehouses.  All  along  the 
river  the  Indians  had  brought  their  peltries  to  the  shore,  to  meet 
the  little  fleet  of  trading -yachts  which  now  sailed  up  and  down 
through  the  region  that  Hudson  had  opened  ;  and  the  exports  to 

VOL.  i.  28 


434 


PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION.      [CHAP.  XVI. 


Holland,  which  in  1626  had  been  valued  at  forty-six  thousand  guild- 
Thepatroons  ersi  na(l  vapidly  increased,  within  the  few  years  following, 
nopoiize "the  to  more  than  three  times  that  amount.  It  was  hardly  to 
fur  trade.  j^e  expectet|  that  the  enormous  power  now  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  patroons  should  not  be  used  to  acquire  a  part  of  this 
profitable  traffic.  With  so  loose  a  regulation  as  that  imposed  upon 
them  by  the  clause  in  the  "  Privileges,"  which  permitted  them  to 
trade  "where  the  Company  had  no  factories,"  it  was  easy  for  them 
to  take  an  ell  instead  of  the  inch  it  had  been  meant  to  grant ;  to 
regard  only  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  Fort  Orange  and 
Manhattan  as  covered  by 


those  posts,  and  to  quietly  absorb  the  traffic  of  the  great  intermediate 
region. 

This  infringement  upon  the  rights  of  the  Company,  however,  proved 

a  little  more  than  the  directors  in  the  Netherlands  would  bear,  and 

the  first  attempts  at  it  provoked  a  storm.     The  Company's  monopoly 

was  attacked  at  its  strongest  point,  and  its  authorities  rose 

Energetic          .  .       to  . 

protestor  m  a  protest  so  energetic  that  it  might  have  put  an  end  to 
India  com-  the  patroons'  power  altogether,  had  this  not  already  been 
suffered  to  grow  so  formidable.  The  directors  drew  up  an 
order  forbidding  all  private  persons,  patroons  or  otherwise,  from  deal- 
ing in  peltries,  maize,  or  wampum,  and  sent  out  officers  to  see  to  its 
enforcement.  The  angry  complaints  of  the  proprietors  were  overruled, 
but  the  great  corporation  saw  too  late  the  folly  of  which  it  had  been 
guilty.  Violent  disputes  occurred  before  it  gained  even  a  partial  sue- 


1631.]  END  OF  THE  COLONY  AT  SWAANENDAEL.  435 

cess,  and  the  difficulties  thus  begun  not  only  seriously  hindered  its  own 
plans,  but  for  several  years  stood  in  the  way  of  the  whole  progress 
of  New  Netherland,  its  colonization,  agriculture,  and  every  condition 
of  its  growth. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  summer  of  1631,  the  ship  Eendrayt  arrived 
at  Fort  Amsterdam,  bringing  letters  ordering  the  recall  of  PeterMinuit 
Minuit,  who  was  held  to  have  been  far  too  complaisant  in  ^"^,.by 
confirming  the  purchases  and  privileges  of  the  patroons.  An  pany-  1631 
officer  of  the  Company,  one  Conrad  Notelman,  brought  out  the  order, 
at  the  same  time  that  he  was  instructed  to  supersede  Minuit's  Sellout, 
Lampo,  in  his  office ;  and  in  the  spring  of  1632  the  discomfited  di- 
rector-general resigned  his  authority  to  the  council,  with  the  secretary, 
Van  Remund,  at  its  head,  and  sailed  for  home  in  the  vessel  that  had 
brought  the  order  of  his  recall.  His  voyage  was  an  eventful  one,  for 
bad  weather  compelling  the  Eendrayt  to  seek  refuge  in  the  English 
harbor  of  Plymouth,  she  was  seized  there  on  the  ground  that  she 
had  traded  within  the  limits  of  the  English  possessions,  and  thus  a 
new  discussion  arose  as  to  the  Dutch  right  to  their  territory  in  New 
Netherland.  Like  the  former  disputes,  it  ended  in  nothing  definite. 
Both  England  and  the  Netherlands  renewed  their  declarations  of  own- 
ership more  positively  than  before,  but  after  a  long  correspondence 
with  the  Dutch  ambassadors  the  English  government  let  the  Eendragt 
pursue  her  voyage  in  peace. 

While  the  colonies  on  the  Hudson  were  suffering  from  these  dis- 
putes and  intrigues,  a  much  more  terrible  calamity  suddenly  Endof  the 
ended  the  existence  of  the  settlement  at  Swaanendael.  It  ™v££nen- 
arose  from  one  of  those  arbitrary  acts  common  enough  in  the  Uael- 
intercourse  of  civilized  with  savage  peoples,  —  acts  which  the  Dutch, 
however,  had  hitherto  been  wise  enough  to  avoid.  Heyes,  when  he 
had  founded  the  Swaanendael  colony  for  De  Vries,  had  set  up  a  pillar 
bearing  the  arms  of  Holland,  in  token  of  possession  ;  but  an  Indian 
chief,  attracted  by  the  glitter  of  the  tin  plate  on  which  the  arms  were 
engraved,  and  not  in  the  least  understanding  the  importance  which 
the  whites  attached  to  the  symbol  of  sovereignty,  had  taken  off  the 
metal  and  made  it  into  shining  tobacco  pipes,  which  he  carried  away 
in  great  delight.  Gillis  Hossett,  the  Dutch  officer  left  in  charge  of 
the  new  post,  was  indignant  at  this  irreverent  treatment  of  the  Hol- 
kmd  escutcheon,  and  expressed  himself  so  angrily  that  the  comrades 
of  the  erring  chief,  thinking  to  conciliate  the  Dutch,  put  their  fel- 
low to  death,  and  came  triumphantly  to  report  the  fact  to  the  white 
commander.  He  explained  too  late  that  he  only  desired  to  repri- 
mand the  culprit.  The  Indians  were  enraged  to  find  that  their  costly 
sacrifice  had  been  a  useless  one,  and  soon  after  a  band  of  them  ap- 


its  his  es- 
tates in 
America . 


PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION.       [CHAP.  XVI. 

preached  the  settlement  under  the  guise  of  friendship,  fell  upon  and 
murdered  every  person  at  the  post,  destroyed  the  fort,  and  left  only 
the  ruins  of  the  burned  houses  of  the  whites  to  mark  the  site  of 
Heyes's  colony. 

De  Vries  was  about  to  leave  Amsterdam  to  assume  the  place  of 
vries  vis-  patroon  at  the  new  settlement,  when  Minuit  brought  to 
Europe  the  news  of  this  massacre.  He  did  not  abandon  his 
voyage,  but  on  arriving  at  the  place  where  his  countrymen 
were  murdered  he  thought  it  wiser  to  make  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the 
Indians  than  to  attempt  to  avenge  the  murder.  Going  on  up  the 

South  River  to  the  long-deserted 
site  of  Fort  Nassau,  he  spent  some 
time  in  its  neighborhood,  making 
still  another  treaty  there.  After- 
wards he  dropped  down  the  coast, 
and  visited  the  English  settlement 
at  Jamestown  in  Virginia,  by 
whose  governor,  Sir  John  Harvey, 
he  was  received  most  hospitably  ; 


Indian  taking  down  the  Arms  of  Holland 


and  the  neighborhood  of  the  two  colonies  was  amicably  discussed  with- 
out any  serious  dispute  as  to  the  rival  rights  of  Dutch  and  English. 

It  was  now  the  spring  of  1633  ;  and  while  De  Vries  was  cruising 
to  the  southward,  the  Company's  ship  Soutberg  was  on  its  way  from 
Amsterdam,  bringing  out  a  fourth  director  -  general  for 
New  Netherland.  For  a  year  after  Minuit's  departure,  at 
a  ^\mQ  when  it  most  needed  the  guidance  of  a  strong  and 
steady  hand,  the  colony  had  been  left  without  a  ruler  ;  and  the  new 
officer  who  now  arrived  was  anything  but  fitted  for  his  post.  Bred  in 
the  service  of  the  Company  at  Amsterdam,  Wouter  Van  Twiller 
was  little  more  than  a  clerk  at  the  time  of  his  appointment,  with 


1633.]  VAN  TWILLER   AND  THE  ENGLISH  CAPTAIN.  437 

only  the  narrow  experience  of  the  Company's  routine  business  at  home, 
and  apparently  without  a  single  quality  to  fit  him  for  great  responsi- 
bilities. But  he  had  married  a  niece  of  Van  Rensselaer,  the  chief  of 
the  patroons,  and  the  very  influence  there  was  most  cause  to  dread, 
seems  to  have  thrust  him  into  the  place  which  a  strong  man  might 
have  made  respectable,  but  which  he  could  only  belittle. 

He  had  barely  arrived  at  Fort  Amsterdam,  in  April,  when  he  was 
overwhelmed  by  difficulties  which  soon  showed  the  weakness  AD  English 
of  his  administration.     On  the  18th  of  the  month  an  English  harbor  of 
vessel,  the  William,  entered  the  harbor,   whose  supercargo  dam. 
was   Jacob    Eelkens,    the   Company's   former   commandant   at    Fort 
Orange.      He    had    entered     the 
English   service    when    dismissed 
from  that  of  his  own  countrymen, 
and,  either  through  pure  malice 
or  from  hope  of  gain,  now  guided 
his  new  masters  into  the  richest 
possessions  of  the  old.     The  Wil- 
liam anchored  for  a  few  days  in 
the  bay,  and  Van  Twiller,  with 
De  Vries,  who  had  arrived  from 
Virginia  a  short  time  before,  dined 
with  the  English  captain.    But  the 
mask  of  frienship  was  soon  thrown 
off,  and  Eelkens  boldly  declared 
his  intention  to  go  up  the  river, 
the  Englishman  proposing  to  trade 
with  the  Indians  on  his  own  account  and  to  see  for  himself  the  land 
that  "belonged  to  the  English,"  having  been  discovered  by  "  Hudson, 
-who  was  an  Englishman."  J 

Van  Twiller  caused  the  flag  of  Orange  to  be  raised  over  the  fort 
and  saluted  with  three  guns,  the  doughtiest  defiance  of  the  stranger's 
purpose  which  seemed  to  occur  to  him  ;  Eelkens  and  his  captain  as 
promptly  ran  up  the  English  flag  on  board  the  William  with  a  like 
ceremony.  The  director  strode  furiously  up  and  down  his 
ramparts  ;  but  when  the  Englishman  actually  weighed  his  Engu°h 
anchor,  and  sailed  away  up  the  stream  without  the  fear  of  the  caPtain 
Company  or  the  Prince  of  Orange  before  his  eyes,  Van  Twiller  was 
beside  himself  at  such  audacity.  He  "collected  all  his  people  in 
the  fort  before  his  door,"  and  ordering  a  barrel  of  wine  to  be  brought 
and  opened,  stoutly  drank  bumper  after  bumper  and  cried,  "  Those 
who  love  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  me,  emulate  me  in  this,  and  assist 
1  Voyages  of  De  Vries,  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  New  Series,  vol.  i.,  p.  255. 


De  Vries. 


con. 
the 


438 


PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION.       [CHAP.  XVI. 


me  in  repelling  the  violence  committed  by  that  Englishman  !  "  Then 
he  retired  to  his  quarters,  and  the  William  quietly  sailed  out  of  sight 
and  proceeded  to  Fort  Orange  without  hindrance.  "  This  commander 
Van  Twiller."says  the  downright  De  Vries,  who  was  greatly  disgusted 
at  such  cowardly  conduct  —  "  this  commander  Van  T wilier,  who  came 
to  his  office  from  a  clerkship  —  an  amusing  case  !  "  Later  in  the  day 
De  Vries  dined  with  the  director,  and  gave  him  his  opinion  very  freely. 
"  I  spoke  then  as  if  it  had  been  my  own  case,  and  told  him  that  I 
would  have  made  him  go  from  the  fort  by  the  persuasion  of  some 
iron  beans  sent  him  by  our  guns,  and  would  not  have  allowed  him  to 
go  up  the  river.  I  told  him  that  we  did  not  put  up  with  those  things 
in  the  East  Indies.  There  we  taught  them  how  to  behave."  l 


^'r;r;>'-fc^#%/^ 


Van  Twiller's  Defiance. 


After  several  days 
of   hesitation  two  or 
three  small  craft,  with  a 
force  of  soldiers  from  the 
fort,   were    sent   to    Fort 
Orange  in  pursuit  of  Eel- 
kens.     They  succeeded  in 
compelling  him  to  return, 

and  the  William  was  then  ordered  to  leave  the  harbor ;  but  this  tardy 
triumph  came  much  too  late  to  help  the  governor's  reputation.     What 
little  was  left  he  lost  in  a  quarrel  with  De  Vries  a  short  time  after, 
when  the  patroon  sent  his  yacht  The  Squirrel  through  Hellgate,  in 
spite  of  Van  Twiller's  prohibition.     The  latter  threatened  in  this  case 
to  take  more  energetic  measures  than  before,  for  he  pointed 
with  DC        the  guns  in  an  angle  of  the  fort  at  De  Vries'  vessel,  and  de- 
clared that  he  would  fire.     But  as  he  stood  with  some  of  lu's 
council  on  the  rampart  deliberating  when  he  should  have  been  acting, 

1  De  Vries'  Voyages. 


1633.] 


VAN  TWILLER  AND  DE  VRIES. 


439 


De  Vries  himself  scornfully  approached  the  group,  and  rated  them  in  his 
usual  plain-spoken  fashion  :  "  It  seems  that  the  country  is  full  of  fools," 
he  said.  "  If  they  must  needs  fire  at  something  why  did  they  not,"  he 
asked,  "  fire  at  the  Englishman  who  violated  the  rights  of  the  river  ?  " 
This  taunt,  it  is  recorded,  "made  them  desist  from  firing;"  and  they 
contented  themselves,  as  the  patroon's  vessel  sailed  away  on  her  trad- 
ing voyage  along  the  eastern  and  northeastern  coast,  with  sending  a 

yacht  to  watch  her  movements.  On 
her  return  soon  after,  De  Vries  again 
and  as  coolly  disobeyed  the  govern- 
or's orders  by  going  on  board  before 
she  had  been  searched.  Secretary 
Van  llemund  and  Notelman,  the 


De  Vries  in  East  River. 

schout  or  sheriff,  were  sent  to  the  vessel  to  demand  that  her  furs  should 
be  entered  at  the  fort ;  but  Notelman,  who  was  "  somewhat  of  a  bouser" 
devoted  his  visit  to  a  continual  clamor  for  wine,  caring  little  for  the 
business  in  hand,  and  only  protesting  that  "  he  was  dry,  and  would  go 
to  the  cabin  ; "  as  for  the  secretary,  the  patroon  openly  defied  him. 
Both  officials  were  finally  sent  ashore  with  the  assurance  from  De 
Vries  that  he  was  •'  astonished  that  the  West  India  Company  should 
send  such  fools  to  the  colonies,  who  knew  nothing  but  how  to  drink 
themselves  drunk." 

Such  was  the  character  of  ^an  Twiller's  government  at  home. 
Abroad,  where  events  were  independent  of  his  personal  interference, 
results  were  not  always  ridiculous  though  generally  weak.  By  the  di- 


440  PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION.      [CHAP.  XVI. 

rection  of  the  Company,  Arendt  Corssen,  a  commissai'y,  bought  from 
the  Indians,  during  the  summer  of  1633,  a  tract  of  land  on  the 

Schuylkill,  within  the  limits  of  the  present  State  of  Penn- 
landsonthe  sylvania.  Here  he  established  a  trading  post,  as  some 

compensation  for  the  abandonment  of  the  posts  on  and  near 
the  South  River.  But  by  far  the  most  important  measure  of  the 
year  was  the  first  formal  attempt  made  by  New  Netherland  to  extend 
its  possessions  to  the  eastward.  In  the  valley  of  the  Fresh  or  Con- 
necticut River  were  now  living  a  great  number  of  the  former  neigh- 
bors of  the  Dutch,  the  Mohicans,  who  a  few  years  back  had  occupied 
the  region  opposite  Fort  Orange.  Conquered  by  the  Mohawks,  and 
driven  away  from  their  old  home  in  1628,  they  had  settled  in  the 
pleasant  country  to  the  east,  where  they  were  again  defeated  by  the 
Pequods,  and  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  tributary  tribe.  Though 
beaten,  they  were  restless  under  the  yoke,  and  at  different  times  had 
The  Dutch  sought  the  aid  of  the  whites  to  restore  their  old  power ; 
on  the  .£  neither  the  Dutch  to  the  westward,  nor  the  English  on 


Connecticut 
River. 


Massachusetts  Bay,  would  interfere  in  their  dispute.  At  this 
early  day  little  attention  had  been  paid  to  their  country  as  desirable  for 
colonization  ;  but  the  Dutch  had  pushed  into  it  in  search  of  peltries,  and 
had  found  the  valley  rich  trading  ground.  The  traders  had  already 
bought  lands  on  both  sides  of  the  river ;  and  the  arms  of  the  States 
General  had  been  affixed  to  a  tree  on  Kievit's  Hoeck  (Saybrook 
Point),  at  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  in  1632. 

Commissary  Van  Curler  was  sent  to  the  Connecticut  with  direc- 
tions to  make  a  further  purchase  and  establishment  on  account  of  the 
Company.  Sailing  up  the  stream  to  the  mouth  of  Little  River  (the 
site  of  Hartford),  he  bought  tracts  there  on  both  sides  of  the  broad 
channel,  and  set  about  founding  a  post  to  be  called  Het  Huys  de 
Hoop  —  "  the  House  of  Hope,"  or  Fort  Good  Hope.  It  was  finished, 
in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  nearest  English  colony  that  it  was  in 
violation  of  their  rights.  The  Plymouth  people  came  to  build  a 
trading-house  a  mile  and  a  half  above,  and  found  this  rival  post, 
which  was  to  be  the  cause  of  long  and  tedious  disputes,  in  full  posses- 
sion of  the  Dutch.  The  fields  about  it  were  under  tillage  ;  but  there 
was  little  or  no  attempt  to  settle  the  larger  tracts  Van  Curler  had 
purchased.  The  questions  which  the  occupation  of  this  outpost  raised, 
gave  to  Van  T wilier  ample  opportunity  for  protests  and  diplomatic 
correspondence ;  but  as  there  was  no  more  forcible  assertion  of  the 
assumed  rights  of  the  Dutch,  there  was  little  to  retard  the  inevitable 
fate  of  "  The  House  of  Hope." 

Indeed,  the  frontiers  of  New  Netherland  seemed  beset,  at  this  mo- 
ment, with  difficulties  brought  about  by  the  English.  Within  two 


1633.]  THE   SETTLEMENT  AT  MANHATTAN.  441 

years  of  this  settlement  at  Hartford,  the  Netherland  territory  seemed 
likely  to  suffer  indirectly  from  the  dispute  between  the  English  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia.  Harvey  had  just  been  deposed  in  Virginia; 
and  the  friends  of  Maryland's  old  enemy,  Clayborne,  finding  them- 
selves in  power,  which  they  had  little  hope  of  retaining  long,  conceived 
the  idea  of  establishing  a  post  on  the  Delaware  to  make  up  for  their 
loss  of  trading  privileges  through  the  Maryland  charter.  They  knew, 
through  De  Vries'  visit  to  Harvey,  of  the  Dutch  Fort  Nassau  ;  and 
acting  Governor  West  sent  out  a  party  of  men  under  a  Virginian, 
George  Holmes,  to  take  possession  of  the  now  abandoned  post.  For 
once,  however,  Van  Twiller,  to  whom  an  English  deserter  carried  news 
of  the  attempt,  was  induced  to  act  promptly.  A  force  was  sent  to  the 
Delaware,  and  the  English  invaders  were  captured,  brought  to  Man- 
hattan^ and  finally  returned  to  Virginia  by  De  Vries'  vessel. 

It  is  probable  that  some  of  the  difficulties  with  the  English  might 
have  been  avoided,  or  at  least  their  recurrence  prevented, 

/~.  The  disputes 

had  an  excellent  suggestion  made  by  the  Company  to  the  referred  to 
States  General  been  heeded.  The  William,  the  English  tiovem- 
vessel  under  Eelkens's  charge,  had  made  complaint  and  de- 
mand for  damages,  on  its  return  to  England,  the  object  of  its  voyage 
having  been  defeated  by  the  action  of  the  Dutch.  The  application 
was  denied,  the  Company  claiming  that  damages  should  rather  be  paid 
to  them  for  Eelkens's  serious  interference  with  their  Indian  trade. 
The  controversy,  however,  necessarily  raised  the  question  of  the  Dutch 
title  to  New  Netherland,  and  it  was  proposed  by  the  Company  to  submit 
the  whole  question  to  the  arbitration  of  Boswell,  the  English  ambas- 
sador at  the  Hague,  and  Joachimi,  one  of  the  Dutch  ambassadors  in 
England,  who  should  establish  a  boundary  line  between  the' English 
and  Dutch  possessions  in  America.  Had  this  suggestion  been  acted 
upon,  New  Netherland  would  have  had  a  different  history  ;  but  like 
former  questions  with  England,  this  was  suffered  to  slip  out  of  sight, 
and  in  a  few  months  the  matter  had  been  practically  dismissed  by 
both  governments. 

While  all  these  things  were  passing,  the  settlement  at  Manhattan, 
though  twenty  years  had  passed  since  it  was  begun,  was  still  little 
else  than  a  mere  trading-post.  It  very  slowly  acquired  any  of  the 
features  of  a  colonial  village,  in  which  industries  wei-e  springing  up, 
new  settlers  constantly  acquiring  fresh  interests,  the  customs  and  life 
of  a  little  town  growing  into  form.  Its  people  were  the  Company's 
people,  with  the  occasional  addition  of  small  bodies  of  emigrants  from 
Holland  ;  and  as  yet  it  had  hardly  grown  to  have  an  interest  of  its 
own.  Its  history  thus  far  had  been  only  the  monotonous  record  of 
the  Company's  trade,  except  for  these  difficulties  with  the  English, 


442 


PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION.      [CHAP.  XVI. 


Dutch   Windmill. 


and  the  measures  connected  with  them,  which  kept  the  little  band  of 

officials  in  continual  perplexity.      The  place  had,  however, 

New  Am-       prospered  and  increased  in  some  degree.     New  houses  had 

been  built  of  good  quality,  some  of  them  of  brick.  The  , 
governor  had  erected  three  wind-mills,  and  quarters  had  been  ar- 
ranged for  about  one  hundred  soldiers 
which  Van  Twiller  had  bi'ought  over 
with  him.  A  church  had  taken  the 
place  of  the  rough  loft  in  which  the  few 
early  settlers  had  worshipped ;  and  here 
Domine  Everardus  Bogardus,  who  had 
succeeded  Jonas  Michaelius  (the  first 
minister  sent  out  in  1628),  preached  on 
Sundays  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformed 
religion.  The  trading  vessels  of  the  Com- 
pany passed  and  repassed  the  fort,  or  lay 
at  anchor  in  the  upper  bay  ;  the  smith, 
the  cooper,  brewer,  and  joiner,  had  estab- 
lished rough  shops  near  the  fort ;  and  on 
the  north  side  of  this  a  farm  or  bouwerie 
had  been  laid  out  for  the  Company's  use,  and  was  industriously  cul- 
tivated. The  "staple  right,"  or  right  to  impose  duties  on  passing 
vessels,  had  been  granted  to  the  settlement,  and  added  to  its  impor- 
tance, and  every  ship  entering  the  river  was  stopped  before  Fort  Am- 
sterdam, and  made  to  pay  the  impost,  or  land  its  cargo.  Across  the 
river,  opposite  Manhattan,  Patroon  Pauw's  commander  or  superin- 
tendent, Van  Voorst,  had  built  his  house  ;  and  the  eai'ly  colonists 
of  Pavonia  had  already  begun 
to  gather  about  it,  when  the 
Company  succeeded  in  buying 
back  both  that  region  and 
Staten  Island  from  their  owner, 
in  the  summer  of  16o7.  Nearly 
two  years  before,  they  had  re- 
gained, by  a  similar  purchase, 
the  territory  of  Swaanendael ; 
but  to  compensate  for  this  re- 
turn of  property  into  the  cor- 
poration's hands,  Van  Rensse- 

laer  had  added  still  further  to  his  already  enormous  estates,  which 
were  prospering  and  growing  valuable  under  his  able  manager,  Ar- 
endt  Van  Curler  ;  while  numerous  less  important  proprietors,  among 
them  Van  Twiller  himself  and  other  official  persons,  who  did  not  fail 


Governor's   House  and  Church. 


1637.] 


VAN  TWILLER'S   UNPOPULARITY. 


443 


to  take  good  care  of  their  own  interests,  had  acquired  lands  about 
Manhattan,  and  on  the  western  end  of  Long  Island. 

Thus  affairs  stood  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  year  of  Van  Twiller's 
administration.     The  incompetent  governor  had  grown  more   Unp0plliar. 
and  more  imbecile  in  his  conduct  of  home  affairs,  and  he  was  Ityof  Hou" 


ter  van 


regarded  only  with  contempt  by  the  few  sensible  men  about  ' 
him.  Irritable  and  consequential  as  he  was  weak,  he  was  constantly 
involved  in  petty  quarrels  with  his  associates.  Domine  Bogardus,  who 
does  not  seem  to  have  had  all  that  forbearance  and  gentleness  which 
usually  belong  to  clergymen,  is  known  to  have  called  him,  on  one 
occasion,  "  a  child  of  the  devil,"  and  to  have  declared  that  he  would 
give  him  "such  a  shake  from  the  pulpit,  on  the  next  Sunday,  as 


The  Obstinate  Trumpeter. 

would  make  him  shudder."  No  doubt  the  governor  deserved  it,  for 
he  often  brought  disgrace  upon  himself  and  his  office  by  brawling  over 
his  wine  with  the  drunken  superintendents  or  captains  among  whom 
he  found  congenial  companionship.  With  such  a  head,  the  discipline 
among  minor  officers  was  naturally  lax  enough  ;  and  the  gravity  of 
the  few  records  of  the  time  is  occasionally  enlivened  by  narratives 
which  might  almost  seem  exaggerations  in  the  pages  of  Diedrich 
Knickerbocker.  Such  was  a  quarrel  between  certain  officers  of  the 
fort  and  the  fort's  trumpeter,  Corlaer,  because  the  latter  persisted  in 
trumpeting  in  the  midst  of  a  leisurely  banquet  which  the  others  were 
enjoying  with  their  friends  at  a  corner  of  the  ramparts.  The  sturdy 
musician  had  the  best  of  it,  in  spite  of  the  number  against  him,  for 
having  given  each  of  the  company  a  "  drubbing,"  he  retired  in  good 


444  PROGRESS   OF   DUTCH  COLONIZATION.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

order.  Nor  did  their  going  for  their  swords,  and  venting  their  wrath 
in  vows  to  "eat"  the  trumpeter,  have  any  disastrous  result,1  for,  says 
the  faithful  chronicler,  when  in  the  morning  the  wine  was  evaporated, 
"  their  courage  was  somewhat  lowered  and  they  did  not  endeavor  much 
to  find  the  trumpeter." 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  an  administration  conducted  in 
Recall  of  so  slipshod  and  absurd  a  fashion  should  receive  the  sharp 
\an  Twiiier.  censure  of  tjie  few  capable  men  about  the  governor  ;  and 
it  was  through  Van  Twiller's  treatment  of  one  of  these,  Van  Dinck- 
lagen,  the  sellout  who  now  occupied  Notelman's  place,  that  the 
government  was  suddenly  checked  in  the  midst  of  its  abuses.  For 
Van  Dincklagen,  having  ventured  to  express  his  contempt  too  openly, 
was  sent  back  to  Holland  with  large  arrears  of  salary  unpaid,  and  in 
a  condition  giving  him  a  decided  right  to  complain,  which  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  do.  To  such  purpose  did  he  represent  the  governor's  con- 
duct before  the  board  of  Amsterdam  directors,  that  they  determined  at 
once  upon  Van  Twiller's  recall,  especially  as  the  sellout's  account  was 
almost  immediately  confirmed  on  the  return  of  De  Vries  from  one  of 
his  frequent  voyages.  In  the  summer  of  1637,  the  indignant  Van 
T wilier  received  notice  of  his  removal.  If  his  official  career,  however, 
had  brought  him  nothing  else,  it  had  brought  him  wealth.  He  was 
now  one  of  the  richest  among  the  private  citizens  of  the  colony,  own- 
ing, with  other  large  tracts  of  land,  several  islands  in  the  East  River, 
one  of  which  was  Nutten  —  now  Governor's  —  Island,  at  its  mouth. 
William  Kieft  of  Amsterdam,  the  fifth  director-general  or  governor 
°f  New  Netherland,  was  almost  as  singular  a  selection  on  the 
part  of  the  directors  as  his  predecessor.  His  record,  in  so 
far  as  it  has  been  preserved,  did  not  show  a  mere  routine  ex- 
perience, like  that  of  Van  Twiller,  but  it  had  worse  elements  in  an- 
other way.  He  had  been  an  unsuccessful  merchant,  his  business  career 
ending  in  bankruptcy,  for  which  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the 
time  and  place,  his  portrait  was  nailed  to  the  gibbet.  A  still  worse 
crime  was  laid  to  his  charge  ;  for  he  was  accused  of  having  left  in  cap- 
tivity in  Turkey  some  unhappy  prisoners  he  was  sent  to  ransom,  while 
he  embezzled  the  money  their  friends  had  provided  for  their  release.2 
But  he  had  been  strongly  recommended  to  the  Company's  College  of 
Nineteen,  and  his  appointment  was  secured  by  friends  at  Amsterdam. 
On  the  28th  of  March,  1638,  he  i-eached  his  post  at  Manhattan  ;  and 
while  Van  Twiller  retired  to  enjoy  the  comfortable  prosperity  which 
he  had  secured  by  the  thrifty  use  of  his  official  opportunities,3  his  suc- 

1  De  Vries,  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  New  Series,  vol.  i.,  p.  259. 

2  De  Vries;  and  authorities  in  Brodhead,  vol.  i.,  p.  274. 

8  There  is  a  partial  inventory  of  the  large  property  Van  Twiller  accumulated  in  the 
Albany  Records,  vol.  i.,  pp.  89,  91,  101.     O'Callaghan,  vol.  i ,  p.  183. 


1638.]  ADMINISTRATION  OF  WILLIAM  KIEFT.  445 

cessor  entered  upon  his  duties  with  a  vigor  that  at  least  promised  well. 
Kieft's  tendencies  were  decidedly  despotic  ;  he  organized  a  council 
with  a  single  member,  besides  himself,  who  had  but  one  vote  to  the 
governor's  two.  Furthermore,  he  immediately  issued  various  decrees 
which  restricted  all  the  powers  of  the  post  to  a  few  officers  who  were 
little  more  than  his  tools  ;  but  in  spite  of  this  his  early  measures  were 
generally  wise  and  beneficial. 

It  was  indeed  a  wretched  condition  of  affairs  that  greeted  him  on 
his  arrival ;  and  his  first  act  was  to  have  a  formal  affidavit  Condition  of 
made  by  certain  officers  and  men  as  to  the  state  of  the  ^KM** 
Company's  property  at  Manhattan  ;  and  to  embody  this  in  arrival 
a  report  to  Holland.  Van  Twiller's  zeal  for  improvements  and  build- 
ing had  completely  died  away  during  the  last  part  of  his  rule  ;  and 
all  the  repairs  and  new  houses  upon  which  he  at  first  lavished  the 
Company's  money,  had  been  suffered  to  fall  into  decay.  The  walls  of 
the  fort  had  fallen  on  all  sides ;  the  guns  were  without  carriages  ; 
the  houses,  the  mills,  the  work-shops,  both  within  and  without  the 
fort,  were  in  a  dilapidated  condition ;  none  of  the  vessels,  except  the 
yacht  Prince  William,  was  fit  to  be  put  under  sail  ;  it  was  difficult 
even  to  find  the  site  where  the  magazine  or  public  store  once  stood  ; 
the  Company's  farms  were  without  tenants,  and  the  land  turned  into 
common.1  It  was  not  only  matters  of  property  that  were  in  disorder ; 
the  moral  condition  of  the  post  and  its  discipline  in  regard  to  trade 
were  equally  out  of  joint.  The  crews  that  visited  the  port  and  the 
traders  who  made  it  their  headquarters  were  a  rough  and  lawless  set, 
and  small  and  poor  as  the  Manhattan  settlement  was  at  this  time,  most 
of  the  elaborate  forms  of  smuggling,  cheating,  and  adulteration  of  goods 
appear  from  Kieft's  documents  to  have  flourished  among  its  people. 

He  took  these  abuses  in  hand  at  once,  and  a  series  of  arbitrary 
but  needed  measures,  port  regulations,  excise  laws,  and  dis- 
ciplinary rules  extending  to  the  smallest  details,  marked  the  m^SJIfof 
beginning  of  his  administration.  The  attempts  to  enforce 
them  were  not  always  successful,  nor  could  they  put  a  stop  to  the 
constant  petty  thefts  of  the  Company's  goods  by  its  minor  officers, 
or  the  abuse  of  their  official  opportunities  by  which  they  were  fast 
growing  rich.  In  spite  of  Kieft's  energy,  the  change  of  Manhattan 
Island  from  a  disorderly  trading-post  to  anything  like  a  peaceful  and 
prosperous  colony,  was  only  to  be  brought  about  by  influences  quite 
outside  of  his  control ;  and  it  was  most  fortunate  for  all  New  Nether- 
land  that  such  influences  were  at  last  to  make  themselves  felt,  even 
about  the  council-board  of  the  selfish  and  short-sighted  directors  at 
Amsterdam. 

1  The  deposition  in  full  is  in  N.  Y,  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  New  Series,  vol.  i.,  p.  279. 


446  PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

The  patroon  difficulties  had  been  partly  settled  —  or  at  least  so  the 
New  de-  directors  hoped  —  by  the  Company's  buying  back  Pavonia 
pwer/rom  all(^  Swaanendael,  thus  opening  new  fields  for  their  trade. 
thepatroons.  j}uj.  though  the  Company  was  rid  of  a  few  competitors  by 
this  means,  Van  Kensselaer  and  his  fellows,  among  whom  were  some 
new  proprietors,  had  been  growing  stronger  and  more  prosperous 
while  the  affairs  of  the  corporation  were  mismanaged.  Taking  ad- 
vantage of  their  own  strength  and  the  Company's  weakness,  they 
proposed  a  remedy  of  their  own  for  the  troubles  and  abuses  which 
the  directors  were  striving  to  cure.  This  was  that  their  already 
enormous  privileges  should  be  largely  increased,  and  their  irrespon- 
sible jurisdiction  be  still  more  extended. 

This  extraordinary  request  was  promptly  refused  ;  but  it  was  evi- 
dent that  something  must  be  done,  if  the  Company  would 

Actionofthe  .        .,     ,  . °       .  ,  i  j      vi 

west  India  save  itselr  from  the  horns  of  a  very  awkward  dilemma. 
It  had  not  power  enough  to  assume  a  high  tone  with  the 
patroons  unless  the  States  aided  it ;  and  they  on  the  other  hand 
would  not  aid  it  unless  it  showed  itself  capable  of  the  better  govern- 
ment of  its  colony.  In  this  crisis  the  chamber  at  Amsterdam,  with 
the  assent  of  the  Council  of  Nineteen,  adopted  a  measure  which  in 
some  degree  redeemed  its  former  folly,  and  solved  the  question,  so 
far  as  could  be  done  by  half  measures.  It  resolved  to  do  what  should 
have  been  done  long  before,  and  in  a  proclamation,  in  the  fall  of  1638, 
it  opened  the  New  Netherland  trade  to  virtually  free  competition. 
People  of  the  United  Provinces,  and  their  "  allies  and  friends  "  of 
whatever  nation,  might  convey  any  cattle,  merchandise,  or  goods  to 
New  Netherland  in  the  Company's  ships,  and  receive  "whatever  re- 
turns they  or  their  agents  might  be  able  to  obtain  in  those  quarters 
therefor,"  subject  to  a  duty  of  ten  per  cent,  on  imports  and  fifteen  per 
cent,  on  exports.  "  And  whereas,"  said  the  proclamation  further,  "  it 
is  the  intention  of  the  Company  to  people  the  lands  there  more  and 
more,  and  to  bring  them  into  a  proper  state  of  cultivation,  the  director 
and  council  there  shall  be  instructed  to  accommodate  every  one,  accord- 
ing to  his  condition  and  means,  with  as  much  land  as  he,  by  him  and 
his  family,  can  properly  cultivate  ;  "  such  lands  to  become  the  abso- 
lute property  of  the  possessor,  on  payment  of  a  quit-rent  of  one  tenth 
of  the  produce  to  the  Company.  Any  colonist  taking  advantage  of 
this  provision  had  only  to  promise  to  submit  to  the  laws  in  force  in 
New  Netherland  ;  and  even  further  privileges,  such  as  free  passages, 
and  aid  in  bringing  over  stock  for  their  prospective  farms,  were  granted 
by  the  Amsterdam  directors  to  desirable  emigrants. 

This  wise  and  timely  act  placed  New  Netherland  where  it  had 
never  been  before  —  on  an  equality,  so  far,  with  the  English  colonies 


1640.] 


BETTER  TIMES  IN  NEW  NETHERLAND. 


447 


about  it.     The  change  the  measure  wrought  in  its  condition  was  great 
and  immediate.    Emigration  from  Holland  began  in  the  very  increaged 
autumn  after  the  issue  of  the  proclamation,  De  Vries,  who  *™miLo™ 
had  bought  land  on  Staten  Island,  being  one  of  the  first  1*nd> 
to  carry  out  colonists  to  the  plantation.     During  the  next  summer 
ship  after  ship  brought  emigrants,  people  of  all  conditions,  from  sub- 
stantial burghers  to  the  laborers  whom  they  had  employed  at  home. 
From  an  unprofitable  trading-post  New  Netherland  suddenly  became, 
in  the  eyes  of  Hollanders,  a  very  land  of  promise.     Those  who  emi- 
grated to  it  wrote  to  their  friends  at  home  of  the  prosperity  which 


Landing  of  Dutch  Colony  on  Staten  Island. 

began  to  spring  up  about  them  ;  rich  men,  like  Melyn  of  Antwerp, 
who  came  "  to  see  the  country,"  sent  back  for  their  families  and  ser- 
vants to  join  them.  Nor  was  the  immigration  from  the  Netherlands 
only ;  men  who  had  long  been  restless  under  the  severity  of  Puritan 
rule  began  to  seek  new  homes  among  the  tolerant  Dutch  ;  "  whole 
settlements,"  says  the  record,  removed  to  Dutch  territory  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  new  freedom  offered  there,  and  "  to  escape  from  the 
insupportable  government  of  New  England."1  Many  came  from  Vir- 
ginia also,  who  had  been  bound  to  masters  there,  and  had  served  out 
their  time. 

1  The  phrase  of  the  Journael  Van  Nieuto  Nederlant,  1647.     See,  also,  O'Callaghan,  vol.  i., 
p.  20S. 


448  PROGRESS  OF  DUTCH  COLONIZATION.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

The  main  current  of  this  sudden  immigration  set  toward   Man- 
hattan Island  and  the  region  about  it,  though  the  colonies 

The  town  of,.  ,  .  -in  T-I-III  />       -i    i 

New  Am-  farther  up  the  river  and  on  btaten  Island  also  benefited  by 
it.  On  Manhattan  itself,  where  the  "  town  of  New  Amster- 
dam "  was  now  first  becoming  worthy  of  such  a  name,  thirty  well- 
stocked  bouweries  [farms]  had  taken  the  place,  in'the  summer  of  1639, 
of  the  few  neglected  ones  noticed  in  Kieft's  first  report,  and  there 
were  applications  for  grants  of  land  for  a  hundred  more.  Kieft  had 
bought  from  the  Indians,  in  view  of  the  growing  demand,  nearly  all 
the  land  that  now  forms  Queen's  County,  and  part  of  that  in  southern 
Westchester,  and  this  began  to  be  peopled.  A  part  of  the  shore  of  the 
bay,  north  of  the  entrance  to  the  Kill  van  Kull,  was  also  purchased, 
besides  private  tracts  in  different  places.  Prosperity  seemed  to  follow 
every  enterprise  of  the  new  comers,  and  many  of  the  old  abuses  van- 
ished with  the  coming  of  a  better  class  of  people.  The  Virginians 
brought  cherry  and  peach  trees,  which  were  soon  abundant  in  the 
island  bouweries ;  and  they  introduced  from  the  south  their  better 
method  of  tobacco- culture.  Far  up  the  river,  close  by  Fort  Orange, 
the  little  village  of  Beverswyck,  which  had  grown  up  on  the  lands 
of  Van  Rensselaer  and  was  the  central  point  of  his  manor,  shared 
in  the  new  immigration.  The  only  one  of  the  original  patroon- 
ships  that  had  succeeded,  its  prosperity  well  maintained  under  the 
capable  Van  Curler,  attracted  many,  and  the  persistent  efforts  of  its 
owner  sent  still  more.  Its  fertile  farms  and  excellent  houses  gave 
the  appearance  of  more  rapid  growth  than  was  visible  at  Manhattan, 
but  its  feudal  restrictions  nevertheless  were  a  serious  drawback  to 
its  progress,  which  was  less  real  than  that  at  the  river's  mouth.  In 
1640  the  restless  De  Vries  made  a  voyage  up  the  Hudson, 
DeVnesup  of  which  he  gives  an  elaborate  account  in  his  journal;  and 
though  he  appreciated  all  the  material  prosperity  of  Rensse- 
laerswyck,  his  quick  eye  did  not  fail  to  note  that  the  patroons  had 
"  very  much  embellished "  their  property,  at  the  cost  of  the  Com- 
pany, "and  that  they  had  well  known  how  to  turn  things  to  their 
own  advantage."  Their  policy,  like  the  earlier  policy  of  the  Company 
itself,  was  too  selfish  for  the  permanent  success  of  their  colonies  in 
any  large  and  popular  sense. 

In  this  same  year,  1640,  the  College  of  Nineteen  passed  an  ordi- 
nance materially  changing  the  charter  of  Privileges  and  Exemptions, 
and  limiting  the  lands  of  future  patroons  to  a  water  front  of  one  mile, 
and  a  depth  of  two  miles  ;  it  left  them  their  feudal  privileges,  but  put 
disputes  between  them  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  governor  of  Man- 
hattan. Furthermore,  it  recognized  any  one,  who  should  take  five 
settlers  to  the  colony,  as  a  "  master,"  entitled  to  two  hundred  acres  of 


1640.]  NEW  DIFFICULTIES  AND  DANGERS.  449 

land,  and  such  "  masters  or  colonists  "  might  form  themselves  into 
towns  or  villages  with  municipal  privileges  ;  it  established  a  second 
class  of  patroons,  restricting  them  to  one  mile  of  water-front,  and 
whoever  chose  might  trade  at  New  Netherland  in  the  Company's 
ships,  by  the  payment  of  certain  imposts.  It  was  a  great  improve- 
ment upon  the  old  charter,  curtailed  the  powers  of  the  old  patroons 
and  extended  their  privileges  to  the  people  at  large. 

This  removal  of  the  restrictions  upon  free  emigration,  upon  the 
possession  of  land,  and  upon  the  freedom  of  trade,  increased  Progregg  of 
at  once  and  largely  the  prosperity  of  the  colony.     The  emi-   the  colony- 
grant  naturally  preferred  to  hold  his  lands  directly  from  the  Company, 
rather  than  from  a  manorial  proprietor  and  master,  and  the  possi- 
bility of  doing  so  was  an  inducement  to  remove  to  a  new  country. 
He  was  a  free  man,  not  a  serf.     This  fundamental  change  in  the  colo- 
nial policy  made  all  the  difference  between  a  community  possessing 
the  elements  of  success,  and  one  so  bound  and  crippled  by  its  laws, 
that  to  escape  from,  not  to  seek  it,  was  an  instinctive  impulse. 

A  healthy  and  rapid  progress  might  now  be  looked  for,  but  there 
were  dangers  and  difficulties  to  be  encountered  from  with- 
out.    On  the  one  hand  were  the  encroachments  of  the  Eng- 


lish  upon  territory  claimed  by  the  Dutch  which  had  to  be 

met  ;  on  the  other  the  more  serious  and  more  alarming  peril  of  Indian 

hostilities. 

VOL.  I.  25) 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


WAR  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  THE  SWEDES   ON  THE  DELAWARE. 

CHANGE  OF  POLICY  TOWARD  THE  INDIANS.  —  KIEFT'S  CRUEL  AND  STUPID  OBSTI- 
NACY.—  MASSACRE  OF  INDIANS  BY  THE  DUTCH  AT  PAVONIA. —  RETALIATIONS  BY 
THE  NATIVES.  —  MURDER  OF  THE  HUTCHINSON  FAMILY  AT  ANNIE'S  HOECK. — DIS- 
ASTROUS CONDITION  OF  THE  COLONY.  —  APPEAL  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  NEW  AMSTER- 
DAM TO  THE  STATES  GENERAL.  —  END  OF  THE  WAR.  —  KIEFT  REMOVED  FROM  OF- 
FICE.—  TERRITORIAL  ENCROACHMENTS  OF  RIVAL  COLONIES.  —  THE  ENGLISH  AT  THE 
EAST.  —  A  SWEDISH  SETTLEMENT  ON  THE  DELAWARE.  —  FORT  CHRISTINA.  —  THE 
SWEDISH  GOVERNOR,  JOHN  PRINTZ. 

THE  wisdom  and  justice  which  the  Dutch  had  hitherto  shown  in 
their  treatment  of  the  savages  gradually  disappeared  under  Kieft's 
administration.  The  agents  of  the  Company,  in  their  intercourse 
with  the  Indians,  had  been  governed  by  a  uniform  practice ;  but  when 


Selling  Arms  to  the   Indian*. 


trade  was  made  free  and  competition  grew  with  its  increase,  fraud  and 
oppression  followed  among  Indian  traders,  who  had  little  regard  — 
then  as  now  —  for  any  rules  but  the  rules  of  addition  and  multiplica- 
tion. This  reckless  love  of  gain  sowed  the  seeds  of  future  trouble  in 


1641.]  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES.  451 

supplying  to  the  savages  those  arms  which  could  alone  make  them 
very  formidable  enemies,  by  putting  into  their  hands  the  means  of 
avenging  the  wrongs  which  they  both  suffered  and  imagined.  In 
spite  of  all  laws  and  all  the  dictates  of  common  prudence,  guns  and 
ammunition  were  sold  to  the  Indians  at  enormous  prices  by  the  selfish 
traders  along  the  Upper  Hudson,  and  even  at  Manhattan  whenever 
the  police  could  be  evaded.  The  Mohawks  bought  enough  to  arm 
four  hundred  men,  not  only  rendering  them  formidable  to  the  Dutch, 
but  arousing  the  enmity  of  other  tribes  along  the  river,  who  bitterly 
complained  of  the  superiority  thus  given  to  their  enemies.  Kieft, 
though  he  tried  to  put  a  stop  to  this  traffic,  added  fuel  to  the  flame  of 
hatred  now  rapidly  rising  about  the  settlements,  by  a  series  of  ill- 
judged  measures.  (An  attempt  in  1640,  to  exact  tribute  of  corn,  wam- 
pum, and  furs  from  the  Indians  near  Manhattan,  raised  the  anger  of 
the  savages  to  the  highest  pitch,  and  an  attack  made  by  his  orders  on 
the  Raritans,  in  revenge  for  an  alleged  theft  on  Staten  Island  —  an  act 
really  committed  by  some  white  traders,  —  was  enough  to  bring  about 
an  open  war. 

For  two  years  the  evils  that  resulted  from  these  acts  hung  over 
New  Netherland.  When  the  Raritans,  in  the  spring  of  1641,  Indian 
attacked  and  destroyed  the  settlement  De  Vries  had  made  hostllltie8- 
on  Staten  Island,  Kieft  in  retaliation  offered  a  bounty  for  every 
head  of  a  Raritan  Indian  that  should  be  brought  to  him.  Later  in 
the  year  a  young  Weckquasgeek,  whose  uncle  had  been  murdered 
by  a  white  man,  years  before  when  Fort  Amsterdam  was  building, 
fell  upon  and  killed,  in  mere  desire  of  blood  for  blood,  a  quiet  settler, 
one  Smits,  who  lived  by  the  East  River ;  and  when  Kieft  demanded 
the  murderer,  his  tribe  refused  to  give  him  up.  Popular  opinion  at 
New  Amsterdam,  which  had  been  from  the  first  openly  hostile  to  the 
director's  arbitrary  treatment  of  the  Indians,  compelled  him  to  delay 
till  the  next  spring  any  attempt  to  punish  them  ;  and  even  then  the 
expedition  which  he  sent  against  them  lost  its  way  in  the  forest,  and 
came  back  unsuccessful.  The  Weckquasgeeks  were  sufficiently  alarmed 
to  make  a  treaty  promising  that  the  murderer  should  be  surrendered  ; 
but  it  was  never  done.  In  the  winter  of  1642-43  another  Indian,  mad- 
dened by  drink  and  by  the  hostility  that  had  now  been  awakened 
everywhere  among  his  race,  killed  an  innocent  white  man  at  a  new 
colony  at  Hackensack  ;  and  again  the  tribe  refused  to  give  him  up, 
but  sought  to  compromise  by  paying  an  indemnity  of  wampum. 
About  the  same  time  the  Indians  of  Connecticut  were  aroused  against 
English  and  Dutch  alike.  There  was  enmity  on  every  hand.  The 
New  Netherland  people  shared  with  their  English  neighbors  the  dread 
of  a  general  Indian  war. 


452  WAR   WITH  THE  INDIANS.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

All  the  worst  traits  of  Kieft's  nature  seem  to  have  been  called  out 
by  these  difficulties  with  the  savages.  But  though  he  raged  against 
the  Indians,  and  talked  of  some  general  and  bloody  punishment,  the 
community  at  large  were  not  in  the  least  disposed  to  second  his  des- 
perate purposes.  He  was  openly  accused,  even,  of  a  want  of  sincer- 
ity ;  his  object  was  said  to  be,  not  so  much  to  punish  the  Indians  as 
to  swell  the  sum  total  of  his  balance-sheet  in  his  accounts  with  the 
Company ;  and  it  was  declared  that  he  was  too  ready  to  send  others 
into  dangers  where  he  did  not  dare  to  lead.  When  he  proposed  to 
send  out  an  expedition  against  the  Weckquaesgeeks  to  revenge  the 
murder  of  Smits,  the  popular  feeling  against  the  measure  was  so 
strong  that  he  was  constrained  to  call  a  public  meeting  for  its  consid- 
eration. The  result  was  the  appointment  of  "  Twelve  Select  Men  " 
who  should  aid  him  in  coming  to  a  wise  decision.  The  Twelve  were 
cautious  in  giving  advice.  The  murderer,  they  thought,  should  be 
punished,  but  his  surrender  was  to  be  again  and  again  demanded,  and 
any  general  difficulty  with  his  tribe  was  to  be  avoided  as  long  as  pos- 
sible. And  they  were  very  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  inasmuch  as 
the  "  Honorable  Director  is  as  well  the  ruler  as  he  is  the  commander 
of  the  soldiery,"  he  ought,  "  to  prevent  confusion,  to  lead  the  van," 
their  place  being  "  to  follow  his  steps  and  obey  his  commands."  The 
Honorable  Director  no  doubt  recognized  the  grim  humor  of  these 
solemn  burghers.  He  sometime  afterward  issued  a  proclamation  in 
which  he  thanked  them  for  their  advice,  but  forbade  any  further  call- 
ing of  popular  meetings,  as  they  tended  to  dangerous  consequences, 
and  to  the  injury  of  the  country  and  his  own  authority. 

Meanwhile  events  were  stronger  than  either  director  or  council, 
and  all  that  either  could  do  was  to  turn  them  to  a  wise  or  unwise  ac- 
count, as  the  case  might  be.  The  unhappy  tribes  on  the  lower  reaches 
of  the  river  were  a  prey  to  others  beside  their  white  neighbors  ;  and 
war  among  ^n  *ne  middle  of  the  winter,  when  the  river  was  full  of  ice 
the  savages.  an(j  fae  savages  were  collected  in  their  winter  camps,  a  war- 
party  from  the  powerful  Mohawks  at  the  north  came  sweeping  down 
upon  them,  armed  with  the  guns  the  Dutch  had  furnished,  and  driv- 
ing before  them  far  greater  numbers  —  whole  settlements,  indeed  — 
of  the  Algonquins.  Without  making  a  stand  against  their  formida- 
ble and  always  dreaded  enemies,  the  southern  Indians,  the  Weckquas- 
geeks,  the  Tappans,  and  others  from  the  rivers'  banks,  fled  through 
the  woods.  Many  sought  refuge  with  the  white  men  towards  whom 
they  had  just  before  been  so  hostile ;  and  they  were  received  with 
kindness,  some  at  Manhattan  itself,  some  at  a  colony  which  De  Vries, 
always  the  friend  of  the  savages,  had  begun  by  the  Tappan  Sea,  and 
called  Vriesendael.  At  the  latter  place,  indeed,  the  refugees  were  so 


••• 


1643.] 


KIEFT'S  POLICY  TOWARD  THE   INDIANS. 


453 


many  that  the  patroon  was  anxious  about  the  safety  of  his  goods,  and 
paddled  a  canoe  down  to  Manhattan  to  ask  that  a  guard  might  be 
sent  him  from  the  fort. 

He  was  full  of  friendship  and  sympathy  for  the  persecuted  river 
tribes,  though  he  could  not  interfere  for  their  protection  against  the 
Mohawks  ;  and  when  he  had  brought  his  canoe  safely  through  the  ice 
floes  and  landed  at  New  Amsterdam,  his  presence  was  a  great  gain  to 
the  strong  party  there,  who  were  urging  upon  the  governor  that  the 


De  Vriei  in  the  Ice. 

time  had  come  when  all  the  old  hostility  might  be  removed  by  a  little 
kindly  treatment  of  the  savages  in  their  distress.     Policy  policy 
and  humanity  alike  suggested  that  they  should  be  at  least  towaniuhe 
suffered  to  find  a  temporary  asylum  with  the  whites.     But  Indians 
there  were  a  few  in  the  settlement  who  were  ready  to  aid  the  di- 
rector in  his  plans,  and  while  the  rest  debated,  these  resorted  to  a 
device  worthy  of  politicians  of  a  later  period.     The  Twelve  Men  had 
been  disbanded  some  time  before  ;  but  two  or  three  who  had  belonged 
to  their  number  now  reassumed  their  power  as  popular  representa- 
tives, and  authorized  an  act  which  the  whole  body  would  have  rejected 
in  an  instant.     At  a  dinner  at  the  house  of  Jansen  Dam,  one  of  the 
Twelve,  he  and  two  others,  by  previous  arrangement,  presented  to  the 
director  a  petition  purporting  to  come  from  the  community  at  large, 
in  which  they  asked  that  active  hostilities  should  be  begun  against  the 
natives.     "  Let  us  attack  them,"  said  they  ;  and  the  defenceless  coil- 


454 


WAR    WITH   THE  INDIANS. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


dition  of  the  Indians  was  urged  as  an  argument  for  a  sudden  and 
merciless  onslaught. 

Kieft  acted  at  once  on  this  pretended  popular  approval  of  his  own 
determination.  In  vain  did  De  Vries,  dining  with  him  two  days 
after,  point  out  the  folly  of  such  a  cburse.  "  Consider,  sir,"  he  said, 
"  what  good  it  will  do — knowing  that  we  lost  our  settlements  by  mere 
counsel  of  jang^ng  with  the  Indians  at  Swaanendael  in  the  Hoeren 
nes-  Creek,  in  1630,  when  thirty-two  of  our  men  were  murdered  ; 
and  now  lately,  in  1640,  at  Staaten  Island,  where  my  people  were 
murdered,  occasioned  by  your  petty  contrivances  of  killing  the  Indians 


Dinner  at  Van  Dam's. 


of  Raritan,  and  mangling  the  body  of  their* chief  for  mere  bagatelle."1 
But  the  director  had  determined,  as  he  said,  "  to  make  these  savages 
wipe  their  chops."  He  knew  as  well  as  De  Vries  —  who  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Twelve,  when  it  had  any  legal  existence,  —  that 
the  action  at  Darn's  house  was  a  transparent  fraud  which  could  deceive 
nobody  short  of  Holland.  He  was  not  influenced  in  the  least  by  the 
wise  counsel  of  De  Vries. 

Night  attack       Across  the  river,  at  Pavonia,  the  frightened  Indians  had 
made  their  chief  camp,  many  hundreds  of  them  collecting 
there  with  the  Hackensacks,  who  numbered  perhaps  a  thou- 
sand.   Upon  this  encampment  Kieft  had  resolved  to  make  his  first 
i  De  Vries,  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soe.  Coll.,  New  Series,  vol.  i.,  pp.  268,  899. 


1643.] 


MASSACRE  OF  INDIANS  AND  ITS  RESULTS. 


455 


attack,  and  on  the  afternoon  of  the  day  of  De  Vries'  remonstrance,  the 
soldiers  were  collected  near  the  fort  to  prepare  for  the  crossing,  which 
was  to  happen  on  the  following  day.  De  Vries  again  protested,  as  he 
saw  the  troops.  "  You  will  go,"  he  said,  "to  break  the  Indians'  heads ; 
but  it  is  our  nation  that  you  are  going  to  murder.  Nobody  in  the 
country  knows  anything  of  it.  My  family  will  be  murdered  again, 
and  everything  destroyed."  The  remonstrance  was,  of  coui-se,  useless, 
though  Domine  Bogardus  and  other  men  of  influence  joined  in  it. 
The  night  was  occupied  in  preparation  ;  and  at  evening  of  the  next 


Indian   Fugitives  from   Pavonia. 

day  the  soldiers  under  Sergeant  Rodolf,  going  out,  as  Kieft  falsely 
said,  "  in  the  name  of  the  Commonalty,"  were  carried  across  the  river 
to  Pavonia. 

De  Vries  sat  that  night  in  the  great  kitchen  at  the  director's,  by 
the  fire.  Just  at  midnight,  the  winter's  night  being  cold  and  still, 
he  heard  loud  shrieks  from  beyond  the  river.  Hurrying  Ma8Nlcreof 
out  to  the  ramparts  of  the  fort,  he  looked  in  the  direction  the  lndian8 
of  Pavonia.  "  I  saw  nothing,"  he  says  in  his  brief  journal,  "  but  the 
flash  of  the  guns,  and  heard  nothing  more  of  the  yells  and  clamour  of 
the  Indians,  who  were  butchered  during  their  sleep."  As  he  sat  down 
again  by  the  fire,  thinking  of  the  bloody  work  going  on  so  near  him, 


456  WAR   WITH  THE   INDIANS.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

there  came  in  an  Indian  man  and  woman  whom  he  knew,  fleeing  for 
their  lives  from  the  Pavonia  camp  ;  saying  "  that  the  Indians  of  Fort 
Orange  had  surprised  them,  and  that  they  came  there  for  shelter." 
De  Vries  gave  them  their  first  knowledge  of  the  truth  —  that  the  fort 
was  the  worst  refuge  to  which  they  could  come,  "  and  that  it  was  not 
the  savages  of  Fort  Orange  who  were  murdering  those  of  Pavonia, 
but  it  was  the  Swannekins,  the  Dutch  themselves."  And  with  this 
warning  the  good  patroon  took  the  pair  to  a  side  gate  of  the  fort 
where  "  no  sentry  stood,"  and  aided  them  to  hide  themselves  again  in 
the  darkness.  Eighty  Indians  were  killed  at  Pavonia,  and  forty  at 
Corlaer's  Hook  that  night,  with  horrible  barbarities  that  might  have 
given  the  savages  themselves  a  lesson  in  the  art  of  torture,  '^nd  this 
was  the  feat  worthy  of  the  heroes  of  old  Rome!)"  —  says  De  Tries,  in 
bitter  allusion  to  a  grandiloquent  boast  thatTCieft  had  made; — "to 
massacre  a  parcel  of  Indians  in  their  sleep,  to  take  the  children  from 
the  breasts  of  their  mothers,  and  to  butcher  them  in  the  presence  of 
their  parents,  and  throw  their  mangled  limbs  into  the  fire  or  water  ! 
Other  sucklings  had  been  fastened  to  little  boards,  and  in  this  posi- 
tion they  were  cut  in  pieces !  Some  were  thrown  into  the  river,  and 
when  the  parents  rushed  in  to  save  them,  the  soldiers  prevented  their 
landing,  and  let  parents  and  children  drown.  Children  of  five  and  six 
years  old  were  murdered,  and  some  aged  decrepit  men  cut  to  pieces. 
Those  who  had  escaped  these  horrors,  and  found  shelter  in  bushes  and 
reeds,  making  in  the  morning  their  appearance  to  beg  some  food  or 
warm  themselves,  were  killed  in  cold  blood,  or  thrown  into  the  fire  or 
water."  "  Some,"  he  adds,  "  came  running  to  them  in  the  country," 
mangled  and  mutilated  too  terribly  to  be  described  ;  "  and  these  mis- 
erable wretches,  as  well  as  some  of  our  people,  did  not  know  but  they 
had  been  attacked  by  the  Maquas  of  Fort  Orange."  The  troops  came 
back  to  the  fort  in  the  morning  with  prisoners  and  various  bloody 
tokens  of  their  "  victory  ; "  and  Director  Kieft  welcomed  them  ex- 
ultantly, as  men  who  had  done  a  noble  deed  of  arms  in  behalf  of  the 
colony  and  of  their  homes.  fThey  had  simply  thrown  away  the  chief 
advantage  that  the  Dutch  colony  had  hitherto  held  over  its  energetic 
and  more  restless  rivals.  The  chief  guaranty  of  safety  and  prosperity 
was  lost  to  a  people  who  had  little  of  the  military  prowess  of  their 
neighbors  to  stand  them  in  stead. 

When  the  facts  of  the  Pavonia  and  Corlaer's  Hook  massacres  became 
known,  the  results  were  more  terrible  than  even  De  Vries,  with  all 
Terrible  re-  ms  foresight,  had  looked  for.  All  about  the  lower  river  and 
Kieft'«fpoi-  the  bay,  and  on  Long  Island  (where  petty  plundering  ex- 
icy-  peditions,  soon  after  the  more  important  events,  drove  the 

tribes  into  common  cause  with  their  mainland  neighbors),  the  Al- 


1643.] 


WAR  WITH  THE  INDIANS. 


457 


gonquin  people  rose  furiously  against  the  whites.  The  terrors  of  an 
Indian  war  broke  forth  with  a  suddenness  which  appalled  the  colo- 
nists ;  and  every  swamp  and  wood  from  the  country  of  the  Hacken- 
sacks  to  the  Connecticut,  seemed  all  at  once  to  swarm  with  hostile 
savages.  The  outlying  bouweries  and  plantations  were  laid  waste, 
their  men  killed,  and  their  women  and  children  made  prisoners  ;  peo- 
ple from  the  farms  crowded  to  Fort  Amsterdam ;  even  Vriesendael 
was  besieged,  and  only  relieved  at  the  intercession  of  the  Indian  who 
had  come  to  De  Vries  by  the  director's  fire  on  the  night  of  the  great 
massacre,  and  whom  he  now  pointed  out  as  "  the  good  Swannekin 
chief."  A  hollow  and  but  half-satisfactory  peace  with  some  of  the 

tribes,  which  was  only  brought  about  by 
De  Vries's  urgent  intercession, 
and  hardly  kept  by  the  efforts 
of  a  few  old  chiefs, 
gave    a    partial 


Massacre  of    Ann    Hutchinson. 


respite,  from  March  until  midsummer.  But  the  war  broke  out  again 
in  August,  with  renewed  fierceness,  among  the  tribes  above  the  Hud- 
son Highlands.  Early  in  the  month  they  attacked  and  plundered 
trading-boats  upon  the  river,  murdering  many  of  the  crews.  By  Sep- 
tember the  conflict  was  raging  with  full  force.  In  the  south  a  band  of 
savages  fell  upon  the  quiet  home  of  Ann  Hutchinson,  at  "  Annie's 
Hoeck,"  now  known  as  Pelham  Neck,  near  New  Rochelle,  and  she  and 
her  family,  excepting  one  granddaughter  who  was  carried  away  captive, 
were  murdered.  Other  plantations  near  at  hand  and  on  Long  Island 
shared  this  fate  ;  the  Hackensacks  and  Navesincks  fell  upon  the  settle- 


458  WAR   WITH  THE  INDIANS.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

merits  to  the  westward  of  Manhattan  ;  even  at  the  outposts  of  Fort 
Amsterdam  men  were  wounded  by  the  shots  of  the  lurking  savages, 
who  might,  had  they  known  their  own  power,  have  exterminated 
the  whites,  who,  in  the  universal  terror,  were  almost  incapable  of 
resistance. 

It  may  be  imagined  that  during  all  this  terrible  retribution  Kieft's 
vindictive  rashness  had  brought  upon  the  wretched  colony,  his  life 
was  not  a  pleasant  one.  The  terror-stricken  people,  who  crowded  with 
unpopular-  their  families  within  the  dilapidated  and  insufficient  ram- 
ity  of  Kieft  par^s  of  tne  for^  thronged  about  him  with  imprecations  and 
threats.  He  tried  in  vain  to  shift  the  responsibility  to  the  shoulders 
of  the  Twelve  Men.  "  You  would  not  let  them  meet,"  was  angrily 
answered  ;  "  how  then  could  they  have  done  this  ?  "  Even  the  three 
who  had  presented  him  the  pretended  petition  at  Dam's  house  deserted 
him,  and  attempted  to  repudiate  their  share  of  responsibility  for  the 
calamity  they  had  helped  to  bring  upon  the  colony.  One  of  them  — 
Adriaensen  —  stalked  into  Kieft's  presence  and  threatened  to  take  his 
life  if  he  did  not  stop  his  "  devilish  lies."  Indeed,  his  servant  at- 
tempted it,  and  fired  at  the  director,  but  he  was  instantly  shot  down 
by  a  sentinel,  and  his  head  was  afterwards  exposed  upon  the  gibbet. 
Adriaensen  was  arrested  and  sent  to  Holland  for  trial ;  but  the  feeling 
of  the  people  remained  unchanged,  nor  did  the  proclamation  of  a  sol- 
emn fast,  and  the  remorseful  acknowledgment  that  these  things  were 
"  doubtless  owing  to  their  sins,"  persuade  anybody  that  it  was  the 
Almighty  and  not  the  director  who  was  the  author  of  all  their 
woes. 

Kieft  again  called  the  people  together  in  September,  1643,  just 
after  the  attack  upon  the  trading-boats  had  shown  the  gen- 
assembiy  of  eral  and  vindictive  nature  of  the  war,  and  begged  them  to 
choose  a  new  council  from  among  themselves,  to  consult  as 
the  former  one  had  done,  on  the  terrible  crisis  that  was  upon  them. 
Eight  citizens  were  selected,  who  seized  the  reins  of  government 
much  more  firmly  and  confidently  than  their  predecessors  had  done. 
New  provisions  were  made,  which  the  exigency  of  the  times  demanded, 
among  them  especially  the  equipment  of  a  large  force  of  soldiers,  of 
whom  fifty  were  English  settlers  under  John  Underbill,  lately  a 
Massachusetts  captain  who  had  fought  against  the  Pequods.  Confi- 
dence was  in  some  measure  restored  to  the  terrified  town  ;  and  the  re- 
fusal of  an  application  to  New  Haven  for  aid  —  the  New  England  col- 
onies being  pledged  to  each  other  not  to  enter  separately  into  war,  and 
New  Haven,  moreover,  doubting  whether  the  Dutch  could  be  justified 
in  the  course  they  had  pursued  towards  the  Indians  —  aroused  the  en- 
ergies of  the  New  Netherlander,  who  saw  that  they  must  save  them- 
selves or  perish. 


1643.] 


COUNCIL  OF  EIGHT  MEN. 


The  Eight  Men,  however,  did  something  more  than  use  the  scanty 
resources  at  their   command  within   the   colony.     On   the  A  council  of 
twenty-fourth  of  October  they  addressed  to  the  College  of  eight  men- 
Nineteen  at  Amsterdam,  and  on  the  third  of  November  to  the  States 
General  themselves, 
then  in  session  in  the 
Binnenhof 1    at     the 
Hague,  the  first  docu- 
ments ever  sent   from 
the    people    of     New 
Netherland     to     their 
government   at  home. 
Two  letters  of  direct 
appeal  were  sent  from 
the  suffering  citizens, 
couched    in     simple 
terms   to  which   their 
hard  condition  lent 
convincing  eloquence. 

They  set  forth  how 
"  Almighty  God  had 
finally,  through  his 
righteous  judgment, 
kindled  the  fire  of 
war  "  around  the  "  poor 
inhabitants  of  New  Netherland; "  and  they  painted  a  pitiable  picture  of 
their  woes,  their  women  and  children  starving,  their  homes  destroyed, 
"  matters,  in  fine,  in  such  a  state,  that  it  will  be  with  us  according  to 
the  words  of  the  prophet :  '  Who  draws  the  sword  shall  perish  of 
hunger  and  cold."  To  the  States  General  they  wrote  that  the 
"wretched  people  must  skulk,  with  wives  and  little  ones  that  still  are 
left,  by  and  around  the  fort  on  the  Manhattes,  where  we  are  not  one 
hour  safe."  They  humbly  prayed  for  such  assistance  "  as  their  High 
Mightinesses  should  deem  most  proper,  that  they  might  not  be  left  a 
prey  "  to  these  cruel  heathens." 

A  terrible  winter,  and  one  full  of  sad  forebodings,  followed  the 
sending  out  of  these  earnest  letters  of  appeal.  The  suffering  people, 
crowded  at  the  southern  end  of  the  beleaguered  island,  and 
dreading  the  Indian  arrows  even  at  the  doors  of  the  little 
huts  that  clustered  about  Fort  Amsterdam,  could  see  no  1643- 
hope  of  better  days  in  the  future  ;  and  the  many  who  could  find  pas- 

1  Then  the  meeting-place  of  the  States  General ;  now  used  as  the  repository  of  the  ar- 
chives of  the  Netherlands. 


The  Binnenhof. 


460  WAR   WITH   THE   INDIANS.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

sage  in  the  vessels  going  to  Holland  in  the  autumn,  felt  that  they 
were  leaving  a  colony  that  could  never  rise  again.  In  this  anxious 
and  forlorn  crowd  was  Roger  Williams,  who  was  at  Manhattan  to  take 
ship  for  Europe,  the  Boston  Puritans  not  tolerating  his  presence  among 
them  long  enough  for  him  to  get  a  fair  wind  and  go  to  sea.  "  Their 
townes,"  he  says,  "  were  in  flames  ....  mine  eyes  saw  the  flames  at 
their  towns,  and  their  flights  and  hurries  of  men,  women,  and  children, 
the  present  removal  of  all  that  could  for  Holland."  l  It  was  only  with 
the  really  desperate  straits  of  midwinter,  when  all  attempts  to  gain 
aid  from  their  English  neighbors  had  failed,  that  the  spirit  of  the  Eight 
Men  and  of  the  people  rose,  as  man's  courage  does  in  extremities,  to 
energetic  measures  against  the  enemy  ;  and  even  then,  the  first  at- 
tempts at  offensive  warfare  had  but  little  result.  An  expedition  sent 
to  Staten  Island  in  December  accomplished  nothing  but  the  capture 
of  some  grain,  the  Indians  pursuing  their  usual  tactics  of  keeping  away 
from  a  large  body  of  organized  troops.  Another  sally  towards  Green- 
wich and  Stamford,  called  thither  by  a  petty  skirmish,  surprised  a  little 
Indian  village,  and  killed  its  warriors,  embittering,  rather  than  aiding 
to  end,  the  general  conflict. 

It  was  only  with  the  beginning  of  1644  that  any  real  success  came 
to  the  colonial  arms.  Certain  English  families,  who  had 
indiau  '  removed  from  Stamford  to  Heemstede  [Hempstead]  on 
Long  Island,  called  the  attention  of  Kieft  to  the  dangers  to 
which  they  were  exposed  from  the  Canarsees,  the  tribe  nearest  them  ; 
and  begged  that  an  expedition  should  be  sent  to  protect  them  from 
attack.  The  director  and  the  Eight  Men  sent  a  hundred  and  twenty 
men  in  answer  to  this  appeal.  Two  Indian  villages  were  surprised 
and  sacked  ;  more  than  a  hundred  warriors  were  killed ;  and  two  were 
brought  back  to  Manhattan,  where  they  were  put  to  death  before  the 
governor  with  such  atrocious  tortures  that  Indian  women  standing  by 
cried  "  shame,"  and  declared  that  the  Dutch  had  shown  them  new 
methods  of  torture. 

This  success  was  soon  followed  by  another  and  a  greater.  For  Un- 
underhiirs  derhill  and  his  force  of  Dutch  and  English,  having  carefully 
expedition,  examined  the  main  position  of  the  Connecticut  Indians  near 
Greenwich  and  Stamford,  undertook  an  expedition  of  a  more  decisive 
character  against  their  principal  village.  A  night  march  through  the 
February  snows  brought  the  little  army  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  men  to 
the  outskirts  of  the  Indian  town,  which  they  had  hoped  to  find  unpre- 
pared for  their  approach,  though  the  moonlight  was  so  clear  and  strong 
that  "  many  winter's  days  were  not  brighter."  But  the  savages  were 
warned,  and  stood  upon  their  guard,  nearly  seven  hundred  strong, 

»  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Coil.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  155. 


1644.] 


APPEAL  TO  THE   STATES   GENERAL. 


461 


and  having  their  rude  fortifications  to  protect  them.  The  Dutch  line 
advanced  steadily,  unbroken  by  the  arrows  or  attempted  sorties  of 
the  Indians,  and  nearly  two  hundred  of  the  besieged  warriors  fell  in 
the  endeavor  to  drive  it  back.  Underbill  succeeded  at  last  in  firing 
the  village  ;  and  the  flame  and  the  moonlight  lit  up  a  slaughter  beside 
which  the  massacre  at  Pavonia  seemed  insignificant.  Eight  only  of 
the  savages  escaped.  The  Dutch,  with  fifteen  wounded,  made  their 
way  back  to  Stamford  ;  and  a  few  days  afterward  a  thanksgiving  was 


March  against  the  Indians  in  Connecticut. 

celebrated  on  their  arrival  at  Manhattan,  after  a  victory  which  effect- 
ually humbled  the  eastern  tribes. 

It  was  only  about  Manhattan  and  on  the  river  that  many  of  the 
tribes  continued  hostile  after  this  decisive  blow  ;  and  the  Eight  Men 
counselled  that  vigorous  measures  should  now  be  taken  against  these 
nearer  and  more  dangerous  neighbors ;  more  especially  as  the  arrival  of 
a  vessel  from  the  Company's  colony  at  Cura^oa  had  supplied  New 
Netherland  with  a  fresh  force  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  soldiers,  whom 
Peter  Stuyvesant,  the  Curac.oa  governor,  had  sent  away  because  he 


462  WAR   WITH   THE   INDIANS.  [CHAP  XVII. 

bad  no  use  for  them.  It  was  an  addition  of  military  strength  to  Man- 
hattan which  it  was  sorely  in  need  of,  and  warmly  welcomed,  though 
how  the  soldiers  were  to  be  fed  and  clothed  it  was  not  easy  to  see.  The 
treasury  was  empty  ?  Kieft's  last  bill  of  exchange  had  come  back 
from  Amsterdam  protested,  for  the  Company  was  bankrupt.  His 
only  resource  was  taxation.  The  best,  the  most  obvious  thing  to 
tax  was  beer.  But  a  tax  on  his  beer  was  precisely  that  to  which  a 
Dutchman  would  not  submit.  So  the  director  blundered  through  the 
summer  of  1644,  without  one  wise  or  energetic  measure.  He  was  as 
inert  and  imbecile  now  as  he  had  before  been  violent.  He  wasted  his 
time  in  petty  disputes  and  jealousies  over  petty  measures.  Still  more 
of  the  men  on  whom  the  colony  depended  for  protection,  experienced 
soldiers  and  energetic  settlers,  returned  to  Holland.  In  spite  of  a  pali- 
sade built  across  the  island  nearly  on  a  line  with  the  present  Wall 
Street,  the  Indians  continued  to  skulk  almost  under  the  walls  of  the 
fort,  and  to  kill  and  plunder  almost  without  the  show  of  resistance. 
All  through  the  summer  the  Eight  Men  bore  with  this  condition  of 

affairs,  but  in  October  they  wrote  again  to  the  College  of 
agamst  Nineteen,  and  this  time  with  a  bold  and  definite  statement 

of  the  reforms  they  believed  to  be  needed,  and  the  changes 
they  demanded.  They  again  detailed  the  terrible  state  in  which  the 
unhappy  colonists  found  themselves,  and  pointed  to  Kieft's  acts  as  the 
source  of  all  their  troubles  ;  they  complained  of  his  arrogance,  and  his 
neglect  of  all  measures  for  public  good,  while  he  cared  only  for  his  own 
arbitrary  power.  It  was  impossible,  they  said,  to  settle  the  affairs  of 
the  country  without  a  different  and  more  popular  form  of  government ; 
and  they  asked  permission  for  the  people  to  elect  local  officers  who 
in  turn  might  send  deputies  to  confer  with  the  governor  and  council. 
If  their  High  Mightinesses  would  send  them  a  ruler  empowered  to 
encourage  such  a  system,  —  "  a  governor  with  a  beloved  peace,"  —  .all, 
they  believed,  would  yet  be  well. 

This  second  appeal  from  New  Netherland  reached  the  College  of 
Nineteen,  while  they  were  in  the  midst  of  the  discussion  of  the 
former  one,  and  of  a  great  number  of  complaints  received  from  other 
sources  with  regard  to  the  suffering  and  unprofitable  colony.  The 
States  General,  when  they  had  received  the  letter  of  1643,  had  per- 
emptorily ordered  that  the  Company  should  take  measures  to  relieve 
their  psople  beyond  the  sea  ;  but  the  bankrupt  and  powerless  corpora- 
tion, now  seeking  to  merge  itself  in  its  great  and  successful  fellow  com- 

panv  of  the  East,  could  do  little  toward  obeying  the  order. 

Kieft's  re-         *         "  *. 

caiitouoi-    As  usual,  however,  a  definite  demand  had  far  more  influ- 
ence than  a  general  complaint,  however  eloquent,  as  it  sug- 
gested something  that  could  be  done  at  once.     The  immediate  pur- 


1645.] 


END   OF   THE  INDIAN   WAR. 


463 


pose  of  the  Eight  Men  was  gained:  Kieft's  recall  was  determined 
upon,  and  decreed  on  the  tenth  of  December.  A  provisional  appoint- 
ment of  Van  Dincklagen, 
the  former  sheriff,  as  his 
successor,  was  revoked  in 
May,  in  favor  of  Peter 
Stuyvesant,  the  comman- 
der at  Curac,oa,  who  had 
come  home  for  surgical 
treatment,  having  lost  a 
leg  in  an  attack  on  the 
Portuguese  at  their  Island 
of  St.  Martin.  The  Cham- 
ber of  Accounts,  to  whom 
the  matter  was  referred, 
reported  in  favor  of  the 
political  changes  recom- 
mended by  the  Eight 
Men,  and  against  Kieft's 
conduct  of  the  Indian 
war,  and  his  earlier  ad- 
vice that  the  savages  be 
exterminated.  They  sug- 
gested a  great  number  of  advantageous  changes  in  the  administration 
of  New  Netherland,  and  for  the  first  time,  taught  by  hard  experience, 
admitted  that  a  colony  could  not  be  made  successful  if  managed  solely 
for  the  immediate  and  selfish  ends  which  had  hitherto  been  sought  by 
the  Company  in  America,  without  regard  to  permanence  or  to  the 
popular  good. 

There  was  a  delay,  nevertheless,  of  a  year  between  determination 
and  execution  ;  but  in  the  mean  time  the  assurance  of  what  was  in- 
tended was  enough  greatly  to  encourage  the  anxious  colonists  at  Man- 
hattan. Kieft  had  a  hard  life  now  that  it  was  known  how  soon  he 
Avould  be  powerless  to  trouble  them  ;  and  he  only  aroused  more  bitter 
opposition  by  attempting  to  repress  by  summary  trials  the  boldness 
of  those  who  now  denounced  him  openly.  A  happier  event,  however, 
than  even  the  recall  of  the  hated  director,  soon  rejoiced  the  colony, 
and  gave  promise  of  the  better  days  that  were  believed  to  be  in 
store. 

With  the  spring  of  1645,  the  Indians  themselves  began  to  show  a 
wish  for  peace,  and  as  early  as  April  the  colonists  were  glad  Treatieswjth 
to  conclude  a  treaty  with  some  of  the  tribes  about  them,  the  lndian8- 
Kieft  willingly  consenting,  in  the  hope,  perhaps,  of  still  retrieving  his 


Hall  of  the  States  General. 


464 


WAR   WITH   THE  INDIANS. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


reputation  with  the  Amsterdam  directors.  One  treaty  followed  an- 
other. In  May  the  mediation  of  an  Indian  ally  secured  a  lasting  peace 
with  the  tribes  along  Long  Island  Sound  ;  and  in  July,  Kieft,  aided 
by  the  patroon's  men  at  Fort  Orange  and  Rensselaerswyck,  brought 
about  a  similar  agreement  with  the  Mohawks  and  their  neighbors  on 
the  upper  river.  Only  the  tribes  immediately  about  Manhattan  re- 
mained, and  with  these,  who  also  wanted  quiet  that  they  might  go 
back  to  planting  and  trading,  and  escape  the  vengeance  which  Un- 
derbill's victory  showed  was  in  store  for  them  sooner  or  later,  nego- 
tiations were  equally  successful.  On  the  30th  of  August,  1645,  the 

citizens  of  New  Amsterdam  assembled 
at  the  end  of  the  island,  on  the  ground 

still    known    as 
the  Battery,  and 


Smoking  the  Pipe  of  Peace. 


witnessed  the  smoking  of  the  pipe  of  peace,  and  the  conclusion  of  a 
general  treaty  with  all  the  hostile  tribes.  On  the  6th  of  September 
New  Netherland  held  a  day  of  thanksgiving  for  the  ending  of  the 
long  and  terrible  Indian  war.  Throughout  the  desolated  colonies 
about  Manhattan,  proprietors  and  laborers  began  to  rebuild  and  to 
cultivate  again  with  renewed  courage ;  but  the  country  had  received 
a  check  from  which  it  revived  but  slowly. 

Sixteen  hundred  of  the  savages,  indeed,  had  been  killed  ;  but  there 
was  not  a  single  Dutch  settlement,  except  that  at  Rensselaerswyck 
and  the  military  post  on  South  River,  that  had  not  been  attacked  and 
generally  destroyed.  Besides  a  few  traders  there  were  left  upon  Man- 
hattan Island  scarcely  a  hundred  people,  and  throughout  the  whole 
province  not  more  than  three  hundred  men  capable  of  bearing  arms 
could  have  been  mustered. 


1637.]  AFFAIRS   OX  THE  FRONTIERS.  465 

The  year  and  more  which  yet  remained  of  Kieft's  administration, 
was  a  time  of  petty  quarrels  between  him  and  his  officers  and  the 
popular  representatives.  The  Domine  Bogardus  denounced  the  gov- 
ernor from  the  pulpit,  —  as  he  had  done  his  predecessor,  —  as  a  vessel 
of  wrath  and  a  fountain  of  woe  and  trouble.  Kieft  retorted  by  hav- 
ing cannon  fired,  drums  beaten,  and  all  kinds  of  noisy  games  carried 
on  about  the  church  on  Sunday.  His  officers  and  soldiers  were  by 
no  means  reluctant  to  give  implicit  obedience  in  a  warfare  of  this 
sort,  and  for  a  time  the  town  was  kept,  between  the  domine  and  the 
governor,  in  a  state  of  unusual  liveliness.  Military  disaster  and  civil 
misrule  had  brought  affairs  to  such  a  pass  that  in  the  order  of  nature 
a  change  must  come,  either  of  reconstruction  or  absolute  dissolution. 
The  "  beloved  peace "  which  the  new  governor  was  to  bring  must 
have  wings  broad  enough  to  stretch  over  army,  state,  and  church. 

Meanwhile  affairs  on  the  frontiers  of  New  Netherland  were  in 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  bad  a  state  as  on  the  island  of  Manhattan. 
The  steady  aggression  of  the  New  Englanders  had  left  the  Dutch  but 
the  merest  nominal  foothold  in  Connecticut  and  eastern  Long  Island  ; 
and  the  serious  attempt  that  had  been  made  in  1641-1642,  to  settle 
the  question  of  rights  and  boundaries,  had  resulted  only  in  the  usual 
empty  talk  about  an  arbitration  which  never  came.  The  Dutch  set- 
tlement at  little  Fort  Good  Hope  was  more  a  source  of  amusement  than 
apprehension  to  the  authorities  of  the  thriving  town  of  Hartford,  the 
Dutchmen  listening  sometimes  to  remonstrances  and  reproaches,  and 
sometimes  submitting  to  outrages  they  could  not  resist.  Dutch  control 
in  the  Connecticut  Valley  was  gone.  On  the  southern  borders  of  their 
possessions,  however,  events  of  a  more  positive  character  had  occupied 
the  years  of  Kieft's  unhappy  rule.  Fort  Nassau,  reoccupied  a  few 
years  before,  held  undisputed  control  of  the  beautiful  region  of  the 
South  River  ;  the  old  importance  of  the  district  as  an  Indian  trading- 
ground  had  been  reestablished,  and  the  English  had  ceased  to  molest 
the  Dutch  in  this  part  of  their  territory,  when  about  the  time  of 
Kieft's  arrival  at  Manhattan  a  new  nation  appeared  on  that  river. 
These  colonies  were  to  have  a  brief  life,  but  to  leave  a  lasting  impress 
upon  the  region  where  they  were  established. 

William  Usselincx,  of  Antwerp,  who  had  first  proposed  and  had 
succeeded  in  establishing  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  visited 
Sweden,  in  1624,  and  urged  upon  the  king  the  great  value  which  the 
founding  of  colonies  in  America,  and  the  trade  that  would  spring  from 
them,  must  certainly  be  to  his  kingdom  and  people.  The  wise  and  lib- 
eral Gustavus  Adolphus  was  fully  capable  of  comprehending  the  broad 
views  of  the  Holland  merchant,  and  entertained  them  warmly.  Us- 
selincx set  forth  the  advantages  of  his  plan  in  a  religious,  political,  and 

VOL.  i.  30 


466  THE    SWEDES  ON   THE   DELAWARE.      [CHAP.  XVII. 

commercial  aspect.  He  showed  that  the  establishment  of  a  Swedish 
A  Swedish  West  India  Company  would  benefit  the  state,  in  the  spread 
the  Christian  religion  ;  in  adding  to  the  power  and  splen- 
o£  fae  sovereign  ;  and  in  the  decrease  of  taxes,  while  it 
augmented  the  general  commercial  prosperity  of  the  people.  Reward 
would  surely  come  to  a  state  aiding  the  cause  of  Christ ;  the  state 
itself  would  have  "  another  eye  ;  "  by  reason  of  the  increased  rev- 
enue "every  industrious  man  would  thrive;"  and  it  would  greatly 
tend,  said  Usselincx,  in  conclusion,  "  to  the  honor  of  God,  to  man's 
eternal  welfare,  to  his  majesty's  service,  and  to  the  good  of  the  king- 
dom." The  project  was  accepted  by  the  king  and  the  Diet,  and  ac- 
companied with  the  most  favorable  conditions  for  Usselincx  himself, 
who  was  to  share  largely  in  the  profits. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  fell  at  Liitzen,  in  1632,  before  the  absorbing 
importance  of  his  great  campaigns  had  permitted  him  to  take  any 
practical  steps  toward  the  carrying  out  of  the  plan  ;  but  he  had  it 
constantly  at  heart,  and  just  before  his  death  had  drawn  up  a  procla- 
mation in  which  he  called  the  project  "  the  jewel  of  his  kingdom." 
Fortunately,  it  was  left  in  worthy  hands.  The  chancellor  Oxenstiern,. 
who  appreciated  its  importance  as  fully  as  the  king,  published  the 
proclamation,  urged  on  the  undertaking  with  energy  and  wisdom,  and 
in  December,  1634,  secured  the  passage  of  a  full  and  definite  charter 
for  the  Swedish  West  India  Company.  But,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
similar  Company  in  the  Netherlands,  it  was  several  years  before  the 
corporation  was  ready  to  act. 

The  hope  of  profitable  employment  from  this  Company  led  to  Sweden 
Swedish  coi-  *ne  discharged  director  of  the  New  Netherland  colony,  Peter 
peter>Miinr-  Minuit.  He  pointed  out  to  Oxenstiern  how  useful  his  ex- 
uit.  1637.  perience  might  be  to  the  Swedes.  When  the  Company  was 
fully  organized  he  was  put  in  command  of  its  first  expedition. 

In  the  autumn  of  1637,  Minuit  set  sail  from  Gottenburg  in  the 
Key  of  Calmar,  accompanied  by  a  tender  called  the  Griffin,  with  about 
fifty  emigrants.  The  neighborhood  of  the  South  River  was  the  region 
upon  which  he  had  fixed  for  his  settlement.  The  two  vessels  entered 
Delaware  Bay  in  April,  1638,  and  sailed  up  the  river  as  far  as  the 
"  Minqua's  Kill,"  as  it  was  then  called  by  the  Dutch.  To  this  stream 
the  Swedes  gave  the  name  of  their  queen,  Christina,  —  since  corrupted 
into  Christiana,  —  and  here  Minuit  made  a  treaty  with  the  Indian 
sachem  of  the  region,  buying,  for  a  kettle  and  some  trifling  wares,  all 
the  land  on  the  west  side  of  the  South  River,  from  Cape  Henlopen  to 
the  falls  near  Santickan  (now  Trenton),  and  "  as  much  inwards  from 
it  in  breadth  as  they  might  want." l  The  spot  they  chose  for  their 

1  Acrelins'  Hist,  of  Neio  Sweden,  translated  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Col!.,  New  Series,  vol.  i., 
p.  409  ;  Hudde's  Report  on  the  Swedish  Colony,  ih.,  439. 


• 


o 

— 

w 
t/> 

5 

a 
c- 


en 

W 


w 

? 

in 


- 
o 


1638.] 


THE   SETTLEMENT  AT  FORT   CHRISTINA. 


467 


trading-house  and  fort  —  Fort  Christina  —  was  about  two  miles  from 
the  mouth  of  the  creek,  and  near  the  site  of  the  present  town  of 
Wilmington,  Delaware. 

The  Swedes,  leaving  the  winter  bleakness  of  their  own  country,  and 
coming  to  the  beautiful  banks  of  the  South  River  in  the 
freshness  of  the  warm  spring,  found  in  the  new  land  even  vai  in  the 
more  than  the  fulfillment  of  their  hopes ;  yet  these  had  been 
raised  by  the  most  glowing  descriptions  at  home.1  A  point  just  above 
Cape  Henlopen  they  named  as  they  passed  "  Paradise  Point,"  and  as 
they  lay  at  anchor  in  the  broad  stream  by  their  newly-purchased  terri- 
tory, they  were  eager 
to  begin  a  "  planta- 
tion." Fort  Nassau 
was  only  fifteen  miles 
above,  and  it  needed 
but  little  time  for  ru- 
mors to  reach  the 
Dutch  garrison  there. 
of  the  arrival  of  two 
foreign  ships  within 
the  limits  of  New 
Netherland,  and  the 
mysterious  move- 
ments of  their  passen- 
gers upon  the  shore.  Messengers  were  dispatched  to  Minuit  to  ascer- 
tain his  intentions ;  he  had  only  come,  he  said,  for  wood  and  water, 
and  would  soon  pursue  his  voyage  to  the  West  Indies.  The  story 
was  distrusted  from  the  first,  and  when  the  Swedes  began  to  make  **  a 
small  garden"  near  the  bank  —  an  operation  which  was  clearly  not 
a  part  of  a  West  India  voyage  —  their  commander  was  compelled 
gradually  to  disclose  his  true  purpose.  The  Griffin  even  made  a 
trading  voyage  as  far  as  Fort  Nassau,  where,  though  forced  to  put 
about,  her  captain  refused  to  show  his  commission  at  the  demand  of 
the  Dutch.  But  he  announced  that  the  Swedes  meant  also  to  build  a 
fort  on  the  river,  and  that  their  right  to  do  so  was  quite  as  good  as 
that  of  the  Dutch  Company. 

The  people  at  Fort  Nassau  sent  intelligence  of  the  matter  to  Kieft 
at  Manhattan.    The  director,  with  great  promptness,  brought  Digmay  ot 
to  bear  upon  the  Swedes  a  sounding  proclamation,  asserting 
the  right  of  the  West  India  Company  to  the  banks  of  the 
South   River,  and  warning   Minuit,   in   most   solemn  and 
weighty  terms,  not  to  attempt  intrusion,  assuring  him  that  the  Nether- 

1  See  the  Argonautica  Gustaviana,  quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.,  p.  284. 


Costume  of  Swedes. 


468  THE   SWEDES   ON  THE   DELAWARE.       [CHAP.  XVII. 

lands  would  protect  their  rights  "  in  a  manner  that  should  appear  most 
advisable."  l 

Minuit,  himself  a  Dutchman,  and  late  the  director  of  the  Company 
at  New  Amsterdam,  knew  the  exact  weight  of  metal  which 

Building  of 

the  Swedish  this  sort  of  ordnance  carried.  He  went  on  with  the  building 
of  a  fort  and  trading-house,  and  when  he  had  finished  them 
and  had  seen  trade  with  the  Indians  fairly  established,  he  placed  a 
garrison  of  twenty-four  men  in  possession,  well  supplied  and  armed, 
.  and  then,  without  the  least  regard  to  the  continued  protests  of  the 
Dutch,  sent  the  vessels  home  well  laden,  to  return  with  farther 
additions  to  the  little  colony.2  The  valor  and  firmness  displayed  by 
Kieft  in  proclamation  and  letter  were  admirable,  but  he  was  careful 
not  to  send  anybody  to  disturb  the  well-fortified  Swedes.  Nor  was 
he  less  loud  in  his  complaints  to  the  Directors  in  Holland  ;  but  these 
passed  almost  unheeded,  for  any  design  of  Sweden  at  home  or  abroad 
was  not  to  be  lightly  meddled  with.  For  more  than  a  year  all  went 
well  with  the  colony  at  Fort  Christina ;  its  trade  prospered  so  that 
it  did  "thirty  thousand  florins  injury"  to  that  of  New  Netherland,3 
and  the  little  plantation  about  the  fort  began  to  have  the  appear- 
ance of  prosperity  and  permanence.  It  was  only  with  the  winter  of 
1639-40,  when  supplies  had  begun  to  run  low,  and  no  aid  had  been 
sent  from  home,  that  their  first  trials  came  upon  the  Swedish  settlers. 
To  such  straits  were  they  brought,  that  they  at  one  time  determined 
to  give  up  their  enterprise,  and  go  to  the  Dutch  at  Manhattan  to  seek 
homes  or  a  passage  to  their  fatherland.  But  the  spring  brought  help. 
This  came  not  only  from  their  own  people,  but  from  the  Nether- 
lands also.  Those  who  had  returned  in  the  vessels  had 
toCthe8n°elw  spread  far  and  wide  the  praises  of  the  beautiful  region  they 
had  visited,  its  fitness  for  colonization,  and  the  promise  for 
the  future  to  those  who  should  be  its  first  possessors.  Recruits  came 
with  the  summer  of  1639,  from  different  parts  of  Sweden  and  Finland  ; 
several  shrewd  Netherlander^,  to  whom  the  confused  s£ate  of  the  col- 
ony at  Manhattan  was  anything  but  attractive,  gained  permission  to 
take  out  parties  to  the  South  River  under  Swedish  protection.  The 
opening  of  New  Netherland,  just  at  this  time,  to  greater  freedom  of 
trade,  caused  some  of  these  to  change  their  minds,  but  enough  per- 
severed to  make  a  small  Dutch  colony,  which  the  Swedish  govern- 
ment decreed  must  be  at  least  four  or  five  German  miles  from  Fort 
Christina. 

1  Acrelius,  as  cited,  p.  409  ;  O'Callaghan,  vol.  i.,  p.  191. 

2  An  ambiguous  passage  in  a  letter  of  Kieft,  dated  in  July  of  this  year,  has  led  some 
writers  to  believe  that  Minuit  himself  went  back  at  this  time,  but  it  is  clear  that  he  did  not. 
Compare  Acrelius,  as  cited,  p.  410. 

»  Brodhead,  vol.  i.,  p.  319. 


1641.] 


PROSPERITY  AT  FORT   CHRISTINA. 


469 


The  new  emigrants  —  the  Dutch  being  under  the  command  of  one 
Joost  de  Bogaerdt,  who  drew  a  salary  from  the  Swedish  government — 
sailed  for  America  late  in  the  winter.     Their  arrival  was  hailed  with 
delight.     Abundant  supplies,  a  great  addition  to  their  numbers,  and 
news  from  home,  where  they  had  almost  believed  their  undertaking 
had  fallen  into  complete  neglect,  dispelled  in  a  moment  the  despair 
of   the  colonists   at    Fort   Christina.      Everything  took  on 
the  appearance  of  prosperity;  the  Dutch  settlers,  establish-  at  Fort 
ing  themselves  a  little  to  the  south  of  the  Swedes,  began  to 
build  dwellings  and  plant  their  crops  in  the  pleasant  valley,  a  happier 
contrast  than  they  knew  to  their  countrymen  at  Manhattan,  whose 
mistaken  government  was  at  this  moment  bringing  upon  them  a  des- 
olating war.     The  summer  passed  away  without  a  check  to  their  pro- 
gress ;  the  Indian  trade  on  the  South  River  passed  almost  entirely 
into  their  hands  ;  their  crops  were  good,  and  the  fort  was  not  mo- 
lested by  the  New  Netherlander,  Kieft    having  concluded  to  raise 
the  siege  of  proclamations  and  treat  them  with  neighborly  civility. 
In  the  autumn  a  new  band  of  colonists  arrived  at  the  fort  with  further 
supplies,  tools,  and  conveniences,  under  the  charge  of  Peter  Hollaen- 
dare.     Later  still  in  the  season  came  two  or  three  more  vessels,  each 
crowded     with     passen- 
gers ;   while    many   who 
wished  to  leave  Sweden 
had  been  unable  to  come 
for   want   of   room,  and 
were  waiting    for   other 
ships  to  sail.     The  third 
winter  at   the   new  col- 
ony passed   away  with- 
out bringing  the  suffer- 
ing  that  had   been   felt 
in  those  before  it  ;  with 
the  next  spring  and  sum- 
mer   emigrants    contin- 
ued to   join  the  growing  settlement.     During  this  summer  (1641) 
Minuit  died  at  the  fort  he  had  founded,  regretted  by  the  Swedes, 
whom  he  had  served  most  faithfully,   and  whose  enterprise  he  had 
made  successful  where  one  of   less  experience  would  probably  have 
failed.     Hollaendare,  a  Swede,  succeeded  him  in  the  governorship. 

Even  the  presence  of  two  claimants  in  the  valley  of  the  South 
River  could  not  protect  it  long  from  the  interference  of  the  English, 
who,  De  Vries  said  long  before,  "  thought  everything  belonged  to 
them."  As  early  as  1640  a  New  England  captain  is  reported  to  have 


Early  Swedish  Church. 


470  THE    SWEDES   ON  THE   DELAWARE.       [CHAP.  XVII. 

bought  some  land  on  the  South  River  from  the  Indians,  who  were  often 
ready  to  sell  the  same  lands  to  as  many  people  as  possi- 

The  Gntrlish 

<m  the  south  ble.1  Early  the  next  spring  a  number  of  New  England  colo- 
nists, under  the  command  of  Robert  Cogswell,  sailed  from 
Connecticut  for  the  South  River,  seeking  a  less  rigorous  climate  and 
more  fertile  soil,  in  a  region  of  whose  beauties  they  had  heard  so  much. 
At  Manhattan,  where  they  lay  for  a  few  days  on  their  way,  one  of 
Kieft's  proclamations  was  aimed  point-blank  at  them,  warning  them 
against  encroaching  upon  New  Netherland  territory.  With  a  vague 
assurance  that  he  meant  only  to  settle  upon  unclaimed  lands,  the 
New  Englander  sailed  on,  and  had  no  trouble  in  finding  Indians 
ready  to  sell  him  land.  The  English  made  quick  work  with  this,  as 
with  other  settlements  within  Dutch  limits ;  and  before  the  end  of 
the  summer  they  had  planted  corn  and  built  trading-posts  on  Varck- 
en's  Kill  (now  Salem  Creek,  in  New  Jersey),  and  on  the  Schuylkill, 
near  its  mouth.  Both  posts  prospered,  and  New  Haven  took  them 
under  special  protection,  as  colonies  connected  with  the  town.  By 
the  time  Kieft  fully  realized  what  had  been  done,  it  was  too  late  in 
the  year  for  action. 

The  coming  of  the  English  was  not  less  disagreeable  to  the  Swedes 
The  English  than  to  the  Dutch  ;  and  when,  in  the  spring  of  1642,  Kieft 
?"eTsouthm  instructed  Jansen,  the  commissary  at  Fort  Nassau,  to  expel 
Biver-  the  intruders,  and  to  maintain  on  the  South  River  "  the  rep- 

utation of  their  High  Mightinesses,"  the  people  at  Fort  Christina  gave 
them  their  energetic  aid.  The  English  for  once  yielded  without  re- 
sistance, were  taken  as  prisoners  to  Manhattan,  and  thence  despatched 
to  their  homes.  Their  appeals  for  damages,  and  their  request  that 
the  New  Haven  authorities  should  retaliate,  were  alike  disregarded. 

During  the  spring  of  1648,  there  arrived  at  Fort  Christina  an 
Arrival  of  officer  who  was  to  play  a  distinguished  part  in  the  Swedish 
prine™a°trFort  colony.  Hollacndare  had  retired  from  his  post  as  governor, 
Christina.  an(j  jo]m  prjntz,  a  cavalry  lieutenant  in  the  Swedish  ser- 
vice, was  sent  out  to  succeed  him.  De  Vries  gives  a  concise  descrip- 
tion of  this  burly  officer,  by  saying  that  he  was  a  man  "  of  brave 
size,"  weighing  somewhat  more  than  four  hundred  pounds,  and  he 
"doubted  not"  that  the  Swede  drank  three  drinks  at  every  meal.2 

He  was  evidently  looked  upon  as  a  somewhat  formidable  person, 
and  was  endowed  with  a  violence  of  temper  quite  in  keeping  with 
his  physical  proportions  and  his  free  mode  of  living.  Two  Swedish 
war-vessels,  the  Swan  and  the  Charitas,  and  a  merchant  ship,  the 

1  Brodhead,  vol.  i.,  p.  321,  cites  authorities  for  this  report;  its  truth  is  by  no  means  cer- 
tain.     See  O'Callaghan,  vol.  i.,  p.  232. 

2  De  Vries,  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  New  Series,  vol.  i.,  p.  273. 


1643.]  ADMINISTRATION   OF   GOVERNOR   PRINTZ.  471 

Fama,  accompanied  him  to  New  Sweden,  as  the  colony  was  now 
called ;  they  brought  out  a  large  number  of  colonists  ;  and  the  new 
administration  began  with  something  of  the  dignity  and  ceremony  of 
an  older  government.  Printz  established  himself  at  the  island  of 
Tenacong  (the  present  Tinicum,  about  twelve  miles  below  Philadel- 
phia), built  a  fort  there  —  the  "  New  Gottenburg  "  —  and  a  house  of 
no  mean  pretensions  for  the  time  and  place,  which  he  called  "  Printz 
Hall."  A  part  of  the  colonists  remained  at  Fort  Christina  ;  the  rest 
clustered  about  the  new  fort  and  the  governor's  mansion  ;  and  at 
both  points  prosperous  farms  and  orchards  were  soon  in  flourishing 
condition.  According  to  the  instructions  to  Printz,  amicable  relations 
were,  if  possible,  to  be  kept  up  with  the  Dutch,  both  at  Fort  Nassau 
and  elsewhere ;  but  he  was  to  monopolize  the  Indian  trade  of  the 
river  as  far  as  he  could,  and  his  fort  was  to  be  so  built  as  to  com- 
mand the  stream,  and  be  able  to  stop  all  passing  vessels. 

The  home  government  had  made  a  very  large  appropriation  (about 
two  million  rix  dollars  annually)  for  the  support  of  the  col- 

J '      .  ~*  .  AdminiRtra- 

ony,  and  agreed  to  furnish  it  with  soldiers  for  protection ; 1  tkm  of 
the  settlers  had  ample  resources  and  were  energetic  and 
industrious ;  and  they  had  chosen  one  of  the  best  positions  on  the 
coast.  The  material  prosperity  of  the  people  was  unquestionable  and 
for  a  pioneer  colony  exceptional.  Their  neighbors,  however,  found 
some  fault  with  its  moral  condition,  for  De  Vries  records  that  "  neither 
there  nor  in  Virginia  was  intoxication  or  incontinence  punished  with 
whipping ; "  but  this  lenity  does  not  seem  to  have  led  to  any  grave 
disorders,  and  probably  the  motley  population  of  Manhattan  would 
not  have  appeared  to  advantage  in  a  comparison  with  the  peaceful 
Swedes.  Swedish  interests  on  the  river  were  at  any  rate  cared  for  in 
a  way  that  must  have  fully  satisfied  Printz's  superiors.  His  fort  at 
Tinicum  compelled  every  vessel,  of  whatever  nationality,  to  strike  her 
colors  as  she  passed,  and  no  trade  was  permitted  that  did  not  pay  due 
tribute. 

Notwithstanding  affairs  were  conducted  in  this  high-handed  way 
by  the  new  coiners,  the  Dutch  hesitated  to  oppose  them  except  by 
the  usual  protests  and  empty  threats.     Printz  was  not  a  man  likely 
to  be  daunted  by  these.     When  George  Lamberton,  the    New  Ha- 
ven Englishman  who  had  sent  out  Cogswell's  unsuccessful  expedition 
to  the  South  River,  persisted  in  trading  there,  the  Swedish 
governor  induced  him  to  come  ashore  at  Tinicum,  and  im-   met^fraof 
prisoned  him  and  two  of  his  crew.     He  tried  to  persuade  or 
bribe  one  of  the  sailors  to  accuse  the  captain  of  inciting  the  Indians 
to  attack  the    Swedes.       When  the  sailor  refused,  Printz  put  him  in 

1  Hazard,  Annul.  Penn.,  apud  Brodhead,  vol.  i.,  p.  379. 


472 


THE    SWEDES   ON   THE   DELAWARE.         [CHAP.  XVII. 


irons,  and  stamped  up  and  down  the  fort,  "  a  man  very  furious  and 
passionate,  cursing  and  swearing,  and  also  reviling  the  English  of  New 
Haven  as  runagates."  1  When  called  upon  by  the  New  Englanders, 
after  Lamberton's  release, to  give  satisfaction  for  these  "foul  injuries  " 
and  "  damages,"  he  sent  a  letter  to  Massachusetts  denying  the  whole 
story.  This  was  in  the  autumn  of  1643.  When  another  New  Eng- 
land vessel  (a  pinnace  sent  out  from  Boston),  came  to  the  Delaware 
in  the  spring  of  the  next  year,  the  Swedes  and  the  Dutch  at  Fort 
Nassau  united  in  refusing  to  permit  her  to  trade  in  the  river,  and  sent 
each  a  boat  to  prevent  it.  The  English  soon  learned  that  it  was  not 


"=    -     -  - 


Printz  and  the   Sailor. 


so  easy  to  have 
their  own  way  on 
the  Delaware  as  it 
had  been  on  the 
of  the  Connecticut. 
Printz  nevertheless  was 
kindly  and  good  natured 
when  trade  was  not  in 
question,  for  in  October  he  res- 
cued two  Boston  men  from  the 
Indians,  who  had  treacherously 
boarded  an  English  vessel  that  entered  the  bay  and  killed  or  captured 
all  her  crew.  The  rescued  men  he  sent  to  New  Haven. 
.*-  In  1645,  Jan  Jansen,  long  the  commissary  at  the  Dutch  Fort  Nas- 
sau, was  peremptorily  removed  by  Kieft,  because  of  well-sustained 
accusations  of  dishonesty  and  incompetence,  and  one  Andreas  Hudde 
was  appointed  in  his  place.  It  is  very  possible  that  a  part  of  Jansen's 
neglect  of  duty  lay  in  his  easy  submission  to  the  Swedes ;  at  all  events, 
his  successor  seems  to  have  understood  his  obligations  to  protect  the 
river-trade,  as  binding  him  to  take  a  different  course.  An  opportu- 
nity to  make  issue  with  the  rival  governor  was  not  long  wanting. 

1  Winthrop,  vol.  ii.,  p.  130,  sqq. 


1646.]         DIFFICULTIES  BETWEEN  DUTCH  AND   SWEDES.  473 

In  the  summer  of  1646,  a  New  Amsterdam  trading  vessel,  approaching 
the  right  bank  of  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill,  was  sharply  Usfuteg  ^ 
ordered  off  by  the  Swedish  officer  of  the  post  near  by,  and  *£%£*  and 
was  forced  to  obey.  The  captain  of  the  vessel  appealed  to  Dutch- 
Hudde ;  but  when  that  officer  came  in  person  to  investigate  the  com- 
plaint, he  was  commanded  to  "  leave  the  territory  of  the  queen  "  with 
as  little  ceremony  as  had  been  used  in  the  first  case.  He  retired  to 
Fort  Nassau  in  great  indignation,  and  an  angry  interchange  of  messages 
and  letters  followed,  during  which  Printz  requested  Hudde  to  define 
precisely  the  rights  which  the  Dutch  believed  they  had  in  the  neigh- 
boring region.  Hudde  replied  rather  vaguely  to  the  Swedish  messen- 
gers ;  and  Printz,  who  had  none  of  the  patience  of  a  diplomat,  wrote 
decisively  to  the  captain  of  the  Manhattan  vessel  that  he  must  leave 
the  river  or  lose  ship  and  cargo,  conveying  his  threat,  however,  in 
courteous  language,  and  laying  all  the  blame  on  the  Fort  Nassau  com- 
missary.1 The  captain  wisely  obeyed,  and  sailed  away. 

This  dispute,  however,  was  only  the  prelude  to  further  difficulties. 
Later  in  the  summer  Hudde  found  himself  prevented  from  Further  dif. 
going  to  the  falls  at  Sankikan  (Trenton),  whither  he  had  ficultie«- 
been  ordered  by  Kieft  on  an  exploring  expedition.  Printz  had  per- 
suaded the  Indians  to  stop  him,  making  them  believe  that  the  Dutch 
designed  to  attack  the  tribes  of  that  region,  and  build  a  fort  upon  their 
land.  The  Dutch  commissary  was  furious  but  discreet,  and  gave  up 
his  expedition.  Nor  did  the  interference  of  Printz  cease  here.  When 
Hudde,  at  Kieft's  command,  attempted  to  begin  a  new  settlement  on 
some  land  he  had  bought  near  the  present  site  of  Philadelphia,  a 
Dutch  mile  or  more  to  the  north  of  Fort  Nassau,  on  the  west  shore 
of  the  river,  Printz  sent  a  deputy  to  prevent  it ;  the  officer  tore  down 
the  Dutch  arms,  and  used  "  in  an  insolent  and  hostile  manner 
these  threatening  words  :  '  that  although  it  had  been  the  colors  of 
the  Prince  of  Orange  that  were  hoisted  there,  he  would  have  thrown 
these  too  under  his  feet ; '  besides  many  bloody  menaces."  2  This 
was  followed  up  by  a  formal  letter  from  Printz,  demanding  that 
Hudde  should  at  once  "  discontinue  the  injuries  of  which  he  had  been 
guilty  against  the  Royal  Majesty  in  Sweden  "  —  injuries  which  he  had 
committed  "without  showing  the  least  respect  to  Her  Royal  Majesty's 
magnificence,  reputation,  and  highness  ; "  and  the  document  so  bela- 
bored the  commissary  with  protests  against  his  "  gross  violence  "  and 
"gross  conduct,"  that  it  is  plain  to  see  the  choleric  Swede  believed 
himself  to  be  a  most  patient,  innocent,  and  abused  governor. 

Hudde  was  naturally  enough  astonished  at  the  tone  of  this  despatch. 

1  Hudde 's  report,  ill  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  New  Series,  vol.  ii.,  p.  431. 

2  Hudde's  report. 


474  THE   SWEDES   ON   THE   DELAWARE.        [CHAP.  XV1L 

He  returned  an  answer  in  the  most  exaggerated  form  of  Dutch  cour- 
tesy, to  "  the  Noble  Governor  De  Heer  John  Printz,"  addressing  him 
as  "  Sir  Governor."  Yet  the  letter  was  not  without  firmness,  and 
contained  a  great  deal  of  excellent  counsel.  After  protesting  that  he 
had  done  everything  in  his  power  to  promote  "  a  good  correspondence 
and  mutual  harmony,"  he  appealed  to  the  Swede  to  do  likewise.  "  I 
confide  that  it  is  your  Honour's  intention  to  act  in  the  same  manner — 
at  least  from  the  consideration  that  we  who  are  Christians  will  not 
place  ourselves  as  a  stumbling-block  or  laughing-stock  to  those  savage 
heathens." 

The  good  sense  and  moderation  of  this  answer  were  of  no  avail. 
When  the  sergeant  by  whom  Hudde  sent  it  approached  the  Swedish 
governor,  who  stood  before  the  door  of  "  Printz  Hall,"  with  several 
servants  and  others  about  him,  the  burly  officer  paid  no  heed  to 
the  messenger's  courteous  "  good  morning,"  but  took  Hudde's  de- 
spatch from  his  hand  without  ceremony,  and  threw  it  unopened  toward 
one  of  his  attendants,  telling  him.  to  "take  care  of  it."  Turning 
away  he  went  to  meet  some  Englishmen  just  arrived  from  New  Eng- 
land, paying  no  further  attention  to  the  sergeant  or  his  letter.  The 
Dutch  soldier  waited  patiently  for  a  considerable  time,  and  then  hum- 
bly asked  for  an  answer ;  whereupon  the  governor  became  furiously 
angry,  and  seizing  the  unfortunate  sergeant  with  all  the  strength 
of  his  huge  frame,  threw  him  violently  out  of  doors,  afterward 
"  taking  a  gun  in  his  hand  from  the  wall,  to  shoot  him,  as  he  imag- 
ined." 

After  this  positive  breach  of  friendly  relations,  nothing  but  hostility 
could  exist  between  the  Dutch  and  Swedes  on  the  South  River.  Dur- 
ing the  short  time  that  was  left  of  Kieft's  administration  at  Manhat- 
tan, petty  acts  of  enmity  and  retaliation  marked  all  the  intercourse 
between  the  settlements  of  the  two  nations.  "John  Printz  leaves 
nothing  untried  to  render  us  suspected,"  wrote  Hudde  a  little  later, 
"  as  well  among  the  savages  as  among  the  Christians  —  yea,  often  is 
conniving  when  the  subjects  of  the  Company,  as  well  freemen  as 
servants,  when  arriving  at  the  place  where  he  resides,  are  in  most 
unreasonable  manner  abused,  so  that  they  are  often,  on  returning 
home,  bloody  and  bruised."  The  Dutch  trade  with  the  Indians  had 
passed  almost  entirely  out  of  their  control ;  the  English  were  kept 
away  with  an  energy  they  would  never  have  experienced  at  the  hands 
of  the  Fort  Nassau  garrison.  At  the  moment  when  Kieft 
ofNewSwe-  gave  up  his  misused  power  into  the  hands  of  his  successor  at 
Manhattan,  the  Swedes  were  in  all  respects  the  lords  of  the 
South  River  valley  ;  and  as  the  power  of  their  rivals  declined,  they 
prospered  and  grew  strong.  Large  reinforcements  of  settlers  and  sol- 


1635]  PROSPERITY   OF  NEW   SWEDEN.  475 

diets  came  out  to  them ;  convicts  and  malefactors,  some  of  whom  had 
at  first  been  sent  out  as  servants  to  the  colonists,  gave  way  to  the  bet- 
ter class,  under  whose  control  they  did  good  work  on  farms  and  build- 
ings ; l  the  little  town  at  Tinicum,  with  its  manor-house  and  its  church 
where  the  Reverend  John  Campanius  preached  on  Sundays,  had  an 
appearance  very  different  from  that  of  the  now  desolated  and  unfortu- 
nate New  Amsterdam.  When  New  Netherland  was  at  its  lowest  point 
of  misfortune  and  mismanagement,  New  Sweden  had  reached  a  height 
of  prosperity  which  was,  however,  to  disappear  in  its  turn  in  the  ad- 
vance of  a  stronger  race. 

i  Thomas  Campanius  Holm's  Short  Description,  already  cited,  p.  73.  The  statement 
made  in  the  same  place  about  the  sending  back  of  subsequent  bands  of  convicts  is,  like  many 
of  this  author's  statements,  very  improbable.  His  translator  admits  a  considerable  mingling 
of  fable  in  Holm's  work,  and  his  account  is  only  trustworthy  where  confirmed  by  others. 


CHAPTER  XVIIT. 


VIRGINIA    AND   MARYLAND. 


JEALOUSY  OF  JAMES  I.  OF  THE  VIRGINIA  COMPANY.  —  EARL  OF  SOUTHAMPTON 
ELECTED  TREASURER. — PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLONY.  —  MASSACRE  OF  1622. — DIS- 
SENSIONS IN  THE  LONDON  COUNCIL.  —  CHARTER  OF  THE  COMPANY  TAKEN  AWAY. 
—  RAPID  SUCCESSION  OF  GOVERNORS  OK  THE  COLONY.  —  LORD  BALTIMORE,  AND 
HIS  VISIT  TO  VIRGINIA.  —  CHARTER  OF  MARYLAND. — CECIL  CALVEKT'S  COL- 
ONY.—  ITS  LANDING  IN  MARYLAND.  —  THE  FIRST  TOWN.  —  ST.  MARY'S  BLUFF. — 
PURCHASE  FROM  THE  INDIANS.  —  THE  FIRST  CATHOLIC  CHAPEL.  —  FRIENDLY  RE- 
LATIONS WITH  THE  INDIANS. 

• 

WHEN  the  regular  meeting  for  the  election  of  officers  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Company  was  held  in  1620,  a  message  was  received  from  the 
king  naming  four  persons,  one  of  whom  he  wished  to  be  chosen  its  treas- 
urer for  the  ensuing  year.  It  was  a  despotic  act,  not  easy  to  enforce, 
on  the  one  hand ;  hard  to  obey,  and  difficult  to  evade  on  the  other. 
Its  own  charter,  not  the  royal  wish,  was  the  law  for  the  Company. 
But  James  sincerely  believed  that  the  Council  of  the  Virginia 

.James  Land  •  .  .  ' 

the  Virginia   adventurers  was  a  nursery  of  sedition,  and,  in  a  measure,  he 

Company.  .        * 

was  unquestionably  right.  Among  the  many  persons  who 
were  busy  with  schemes  for  peopling  the  new  country,  the  larger 
number  were  moved,  some  by  selfish  motives,  others  by  broad  com- 
mercial and  patriotic  purposes.  But  besides  these,  the  thinking 
men  of  the  time,  —  those  who  valued  religious  and  civil  freedom  ;  who 
contended  and  meant  to  contend  against  tyranny  at  home,  so  long  as 
the  struggle  was  of  any  avail ;  who  looked  to  the  future  of  England 
with  apprehension,  and  were  sustained  by  the  hope  that  a  new  Eng- 
land might  arise  across  the  sea  —  all  these  by  a  common  impulse  en- 
gaged in  some  scheme  of  American  colonization.  The  conviction  of 
the  king  was  neither  a  prejudice  nor  a  mistake,  but  an  instinct. 
However  much  it  might  please  him  to  be  busy  about  the  govern- 
ment of  a  colony,  he  watched  with  jealous  eyes  any  bod}'  of  men  ac- 
customed to  congregate  together,  lest  treason  against  the  royal  prerog- 
ative should  be  hatched  among  them.  The  Council  of  the  Virginia 
Company  attended  to  its  own  affairs ;  but  there  were  men  at  that 
board  whose  influence,  in  Parliament  and  out  of  it,  James  dreaded,  not 
without  reason.  The  nominations  he  now  made  were  only  the  begin- 
ning of  more  serious  aggressions. 


treasurir 


1621.]  CONDITION   OF  THE   COLONY.  477 

The  Company  was  happy  to  effect  a  compromise.  The  king  con- 
sented not  to  insist  upon  the  election  of  one  of  liis  own  candidates  ; 
the  Company  so  far  gratified  his  wish  as  to  quietly  drop  the  man  whom 
he  held  to  be  the  most  obnoxious.  "  Choose  the  devil  if  you  will," 
said  James,  "  but  not  Sir  Edwin  Sandys."  x  The  treasurer  TheElu.iof 
elected  was  the  Earl  of  Southampton  —  a  choice  hardly 
more  acceptable  to  James  than  that  of  Sandys  himself,  but 
quite  as  advantageous  to  the  interests  of  the  Company.  For  the  pol- 
icy which  for  the  two  previous  years  had  been  so  successfully  pursued, 
Southampton  continued  ;  nor  was  the  active  management  of  the  affairs 
of  the  colony  by  Sandys  lost  to  it  ;  he  still  remained  a  member  of 
the  Council,  and  frequently  acted  as  treasurer  —  always  virtually  the 
governor  —  by  Southampton's  appointment. 

So  vigorous  was  that  management  that  the  number  of  colonists  sent 
to  Virginia  during  the  years  1619,  1620,  and  1621,  was  three  thou- 
sand five  hundred  and  seventy,  more  than  half  of  the  whole  num- 
ber se'nt  by  the  Council  to  the  colony  since  Newport  landed  the  first 
company  at  Jamestown  in  1607.  During  the  same  period  fifty 
patents  were  granted  to  individuals  for  private  plantations,  and  these 
transported  at  their  own  charges  and  for  their  own  use  many  servants 
and  cattle  in  addition  to  those  sent  on  the  company's  account.  It  was 
not  the  fault  of  the  London  Council  that  the  establishment  of  a  more 
prosperous  community  did  not  follow  their  large  expenditure  of  labor. 
of  cai-e,  and  of  money.  Had  there  been  nothing  in  the  character  of 
the  emigrants,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  were  persons  whose  expul- 
sion from  an  old  country  was  much  more  desirable  than  their  acquisi- 
tion in  a  new,  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  progress  and  prosperity  of 
the  colony,  there  was  reason  enough  in  the  want  of  any  diversity  of 
industry  and  the  enforced  labor  of  bound  servants  in  one  direction,  to 
check  any  healthy  and  vigorous  growth.  All  the  energies  of  the  peo- 
ple continued  to  be  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  one  great  staple. 
tobacco,  and  neither  the  constant  and  earn'est  remonstrance  of  the 
Council  in  London,  nor  the  evidence  of  their  own  short-sightedness  in 
the  constant  threat  of  scarcity  of  food,  and  often  of  famine,  could  in- 
duce the  colonists  to  adopt  a  wiser  system.  The  colony  was  fourteen 
years  old  when  the  governor  wrote  to  the  Council  in  London  —  k%  as 
to  barley,  oats  and  the  best  peas  there  is  either  none,  or  a  very  small 
quantity  of  any  of  them  in  the  country." 

So  long  as  the  colony  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Council  their  efforts  to 
check  this  evil  were  never  pretermitted,  but  were  never  com-  rultiTation 
pletely  successful.     The  law  to  regulate  the  planting  of  to-  oftobacco 
bacco  was  made  more  stringent,  but  seems  to  have  continued,  for  the 

1  Ncill's  History  of  the  Virginia  CoiiijMny^ote  p.  185. 


478  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

most  part,  a  dead  letter,  if  even  there  were  any  attempt  to  enforce  it. 
Provision  was  made  for  the  introduction  of  other  industries,  but  their 
growth,  if  they  had  any  at  all,  was  feeble.  The  soil  of  Virginia,  it 
was  thought,  was  peculiarly  suited  to  the  vine  ;  cuttings,  accordingly, 
were  procured  from  time  to  time  in  large  quantities  from  France,  and 
sent  over  with  French  vine-dressers,  to  attend  to  their  cultivation. 
Wine,  it  was  hoped,  might  be  manufactured  in  large  quantities  ;  it 
was  certainly  begun,  for  in  the  minutes  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
Council  in  London,  a  single  pipe  is  spoken  of  as  having  been  sent  over, 
but  which,  unfortunately,  soured  on  the  passage.  Mulberry 

Other  indus-  -      .  .  ,  .         r,  ,  .  J 

tries  encour-  trees  and  silk-worms  were  introduced,  and  everything  done 
to  encourage  their  growth.  The  Council  were  sanguine,  and 
one  of  their  letters  enjoined  the  colonial  government  to  tolerate  no 
costly  apparel  except  such  silks  as  should  be  of  their  own  manufac- 
ture. This  early  application  of  the  principle  of  protection  to  home 
industries  the  colonial  officers  rather  resented  as  an  insult  to  the  rags 
of  the  ordinary  colonial  wear.  The  silk  making  was  no  more  flour- 
ishing than  the  manufacture  of  wine.  Glass-works  also  were  estab- 
The  first  Hshed,  with  skilled  workmen  from  Italy.  Iron-works  were 
"""•  started.  Ship-building  and  salt-making  were  encouraged. 

Dutch  workmen  were  sent  out  to  put  up  saw-mills  ;  —  there  was  not 
even  a  grist-mill  in  the  colony  till  1622. 

But  neither  the  exhortations  of  the  Council,  the  diligence  of  the 
colonial  authorities,  nor  the  amount  of  capital  employed,  could  bring' 
the  culture  of  any  of  these  products  into  successful  competition  with 
the  growing  of  tobacco,  where  the  promise  of  speedy  wealth,  especially 
with  those  who  had  the  means  to  buy  the  cheap  labor  of  men  bound 
to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  was  so  much  greater.  Whatever  the 
prosperity  which  the  cultivation  of  this  single  staple  brought  to  the 
colony  in  after  times,  or  brought  rather  to  a  single  class,  it  is  evident 
that  its  earlier  struggles  were  greatly  prolonged  by  this  concentration 
of  its  energies  in  a  single  direction. 

Sir  George  Yeardley,  who,  with  Sandys,  had  given  to  the  colony,  in 
The  massa-  1619,  a  fresh  start  and  a  new  chance  of  success,  retired  from 
ere  of  1622.  fae  governorship  in  1622,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sir  Francis 
Wyat.  The  Earl  of  Southampton  was  reflected  treasurer  from  year 
to  year  till  the  Company  lost  its  charter.  With  such  officers  the  col- 
ony would  have  continued  slowly  to  improve,  notwithstanding  all 
drawbacks  and  mistakes,  but  for  a  sudden  calamity  which,  in  the 
spring  of  1622,  well-nigh  ruined  it. 

For  several  years  there  had  been  almost  unbroken  peace  with  the 
Indians.  So  little  fear  was  there  of  any  interruption  of  this  tran- 
quillity that  the  English  had  heedlessly  scattered  themselves  about  the 


1622.]  MASSACRE    OF    1622.  479 

country  upon  isolated  farms,  or  in  small  settlements,  as  interest  or  in- 
clination led  them,  neglecting  all  precautions  of  armed  security,  per- 
mitting the  natives  to  come  and  go  familiarly  among  them  without 
question  and  without  thought  of  danger.  It  proved  a  fatal  confidence 
in  a  people  who  reckon  dissimulation  as  among  the  virtues,  and  the 
infliction  of  vengeance  as  the  noblest  use  of  courage. 

Since  the  death  of  Powhatan,  his  younger  brother,  Opechancanough, 
had  become  the  most  powerful  chief  in  Virginia.  His  hatred  of  the 
English  had  never  slept,  though  carefully  hidden  under  the  guise  of 
friendship  and  submission.  It  was  enough  to  keep  alive  his  anger 
and  his  desire  for  vengeance  that  these  stranger  people  still  remained 
in  a  country  to  which  he  considered  his  race  had  an  exclusive  right. 
But  he  had  other  provocations  in  the  memory  of  past  wrongs,  which 
the  English  had  forgotten,  or  which  they  believed  to  be  condoned 
for  in  treaties,  in  the  interchange  of  many  acts  of  good  fellowship, 
and  the  long  maintenance  of  kindly  and  familiar  relations.  His 
proposal  and  attempt  to  massacre  the  whole  colony  was,  indeed,  pre- 
ceded by  the  recent  killing  of  a  chief  by  two  boys  whose  master  he 
had  murdered  ;  but  as  this  brave  was  well  known  not  to  be  a  favorite 
of  Opechancanough,  though  popular  with  the  tribe,  his  death  was  the 
pretext  rather  than  the  cause  of  the  fearful  vengeance  which  fell  upon 
the  whites  on  the  22d  of  March,  1622. 

There  was  no  intimation  and  no  suspicion  of  the  intentions  of  the 
savages.  Not  one  of  the  thousands  who  dispersed  themselves  about 
the  country  to  visit  the  unsuspecting  English  with  sudden  death,  was 
moved  by  any  grateful  remembrance  of  favors  or  of  friendship  to 
warn  any  of  the  intended  victims  of  the  swift  calamity  which  was 
about  to  overtake  them.  On  the  appointed  morning,  everywhere,  in 
places  wide  apart,  the  savages,  sometimes  idly  loitering,  seemingly 
in  friendly  mood,  into  the  houses  of  the  whites,  sometimes 
creeping  stealthily  unseen  and  unheard  into  fields  where  men  new  and 
were  busily  at  work,  fell  upon  them  with  a  suddenness  and 
a  vigor  that  gave  no  time  for  defence,  or  prayer,  or  warning.  They 
spared  neither  age  nor  sex,  but  slaughtered  indiscriminately  men  and 
women,  parents  and  children,  in  a  riot  of  atrocity  and  cruelty  to  which 
the  North  American  Indian  never  so  completely  abandons  himself,  and 
never  so  fully  delights  in,  as  when  his  victim  is  utterly  defenceless 
and  entirely  at  his  mercy.  It  was  not  enough  merely  to  take  life, 
sometimes  even  at  the  table  where  bread  had  just  been  given  them  to 
eat.  With  a  horrid  pleasure  they  mutilated  and  disfigured  the  bodies 
they  had  already  put  beyond  help  or  harm,  —  wreaking  their  unspent 
rage  upon  the  dead  as  a  wild  beast  cries  over  and  tears  the  creature 
he  has  just  killed  and  seeks  to  find  life  in  it  that  he  may  kill  again. 


480 


VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


When  this  cruel  work  was  finished,  the  savages  turned  to  the  posses- 
sions of  those  they  had  murdered.  Horses,  cattle,  and  swine  were 
destroyed  ;  houses  and  barns  set  on  fire.  Hatred  and  the  love  of  ven- 
geance made  them  prodigal  of  things  which  at  any  other  time  would 
have  been  most  precious  possessions.  They  left  nothing  pertaining  to 
the  whites  that  was  capable  of  destruction. 

The  attack  was  chiefly  upon  those  who  were  at  a  distance  from 
Jamestown  ;  but  there,  fortunately,  the  people  were  put  upon  their 
guard.  The  night  before  the  massacre  a  converted  Indian  was  told 
by  his  brother  of  the  proposed  extermination  of  the  English, 
and  was  urged  to  do  his  part  toward  it  by  the  murder  of  his 
master.  It  was  the  single  instance  so  far  as  there  is  any 
distinct  record  in  which  the  tie  of  blood  was  forgotten,  and  the  obli- 


The  co:o- 

ntsts 

warned. 


Taking  Warning  to  Jamestown. 

gation  of  kindly  relations  from  benefits  received  remembered.  The 
Indian  revealed  to  his  master  what  was  to  happen  on  this  morning. 
The  planter,  whose  place  was  opposite  Jamestown,  hurried  across  the 
river  before  daylight,  and  gave  warning  to  the  authorities  of  the  town. 
The,  people  were  put  under  arms  ;  word  was  sent  to  all  the  planta- 
tions within  timely  reach  ;  and  the  larger  part  of  the  colonists  were 
thereby  saved,  for  the  Indians  made  no  attack  where  they  found  they 
were  to  encounter  an  armed  resistance.  Where  they  did  strike,  how- 
ever, the  blow  was  effectual.  The  number  killed,  probably  within  an 
hour,  was  about  three  hundred  and  fifty. 


H 


1C22.]  RESULTS   OF   THE  MASSACRE.  481 

In  the  inevitable  hostilities  which  followed,  the  people  were  com- 
pelled to  gather  into  the  larger  towns  for  mutual  defence.  The 
smaller  places,  like  Henrico  and  Charles  City,  were  abandoned  ;  the 
scattered  plantations  were  deserted  ;  the  iron-works  and  the  glass- 
works, where  the  men  had  been  killed,  were  given  up ;  vineyards  were 
destroyed  ;  cultivation  of  land  or  industry  of  any  sort  was  out  of  the 
question,  except  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  larger  bodies  of  pop- 
ulation, where  there  were  enough  for  constant  vigilance  and  armed 
defence.  Discouragement  and  almost  despair,  for  a  time,  paralysed 
the  unfortunate  colony. 

There  was  the  more  leisure  for  retaliation.  "  We  must  advise  you, 
wrote  the  Council  from  London,  "to  root  out  from  being  any  Extermin)l. 
longer  a  people  so  cursed,  a  nation  ungrateful  to  all  bene-  jeans'118 
fits,  and  uncapable  of  all  goodness."  "  A  sharp  revenge,"  urged- 
they  said  in  another  letter,  "  upon  the  bloody  miscreants,  even  to  the 
measure  that  they  intended  against  us,  the  rooting  them  out  for  being 
longer  a  people  upon  the  face  of  the  earth."  The  advice  was  not 
needed.  "  We  have  anticipated  your  desires,"  answered  the  governor 
and  council  of  Virginia,  "  by  setting  upon  the  Indians  in  all  places." 
To  the  Council's  reproaches  that  they  may  have  brought  this  calamity 
upon  themselves,  in  some  measure,  by  their  want  of  watchfulness, 
and  too  much  trust  in  the  savages,  they  pointedly  replied  by  remind- 
ing them  in  London  how,  from  the  beginning,  they  had  been  exhorted 
to  be  tender  with  the  Indians,  to  win  their  good-will  by  familiar  in- 
tercourse, to  entertain  them  kindly  in  their  homes,  and  induce  them 
to  become  members  of  their  families.  They  bettered,  if  that  were 
possible,  the  new  instruction.  They  destroyed  the  towns,  the  crops, 
the  fishing- weirs  of  the  natives  ;  shot  them,  as  they  would  shoot  wild 
beasts,  wherever  they  were  found  ;  tracked  them  with  bloodhounds  to 
their  hiding-places  in  the  forests,  and  trained  their  mastiffs  to  tear 
them  to  pieces.1 

The  Company  in  England  was  in  no  condition  to  bear  the  panic 
which  the  news  of  the  massacre  produced.  Its  differences 

•    iii-  11  11  i  ...  i     ,     Dissensions 

with  the  king,  and  the  struggle  between  the  two  factions,  led   in  the  Lon- 
on  the  one  side  by  Southampton  and  Sandys,  on  the  other 
by  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and  the  friends  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  the 
former  treasurer  of  the  Company,  were  pressing  hard  upon  it.     The 
king's  jealousy  of  those  members  of  the  "  country  party  "  who  be- 
longed to  the  Council  —  a  jealousy  nursed  by  Gondomar,  the  Spanish 
ambassador,  whose  influence  over  James  was  so  important  an  element 
in  the  politics  of  the  times,  —  the  controversy  in  regard  to  the  im- 
portation of  tobacco,  in  which  was  involved  the  prosperity  of  the  col- 

1  See  minutes  of  the  Council,  in  Neill's  History  of  the  Virginia  Company. 
VOL.  i.  31 


482  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

ony,  the  revenue  of  the  crown,  and  the  good-will  of  Spain ;  the  still 
unsettled  accounts  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  and  the  peculations  of  which 
he  was  suspected;  the  steady  disregard  of  the  Company,  year  after 
year,  of  the  wishes  of  the  king  in  the  choice  of  its  officers ;  the  appeals 
of  the  Council  to  Parliament  for  protection,  the  only  result  of  which 
was  to  enrage  James,  and  to  prompt  him  to  new  and  more  arbitrary 
measures  ;  —  all  these  for  the  next  two  years  threatened  the  existence 
of  the  Company,  and  at  length  destroyed  it. 

One  of  the  measures  to  which  the  Smith  faction  resorted  to  get  pos- 
session of  power,  was  to  procure  the  sending  of  a  commission 
of  tL  coi-  by  the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council  to  Virginia  to  look  into 
the  affairs  of  the  colony.  The  attempt  was  altogether  a 
failure,  for  the  colonists  both  privately  and  through  their  General  As- 
sembly vigorously  protested,  and  supported  their  protest  with  weighty 
facts,  against  putting  affairs  back  again  into  the  hands  from  which 
they  had  been  happily  rescued  when  Sir  Thomas  Smith  was  deposed 
from  the  treasuryship.  The  king  was  only  the  more  exasperated 
that  he,  and  those  who  were  acting  in  accordance  with  his  wishes, 
should  be  thus  baffled. 

If  possession  of  the  Company  could  not  be  gained,  at  least  the  Com- 
Pany  itself  could  be  destroyed.     A  movement  was  made  to 
procure  a  voluntary  surrender  of  its  charter,  but  this  was 
pany'  successfully  resisted.     The  Privy  Council,  by  order  of  the 

king,  again  interfered,  and  the  officers  of  the  Company  appealed  to 
Parliament  for  protection.  The  matter,  James  said,  was  already  in 
the  hands  of  his  Council ;  the  House  was  warned  to  let  it  alone.  The 
case  was  taken  to  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  and  on  the  16th  of 
June,  1624,  the  patent  was  declared  by  the  chief  justice  to  be  null 
and  void.  The  government  of  the  colony  was  put  into  the  hands  of  a 
commission,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Sir  Thomas  Smith.  Whether 
there  was  any  real  obscurity  or  not  about  his  long  unsettled  accounts, 
the}'  were  liquidated,  probably,  on  whichever  side  the  balance  was, 
by  his  return  to  power. 

The  decision  of  the  court l  was,  of  course,  perfectly  arbitrary,  and 
no  better  law  or  reason  for  it  could  be  given  than  would  have  been 
equally  applicable  to  the  Plymouth  Company,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
the  Earl  of  Warwick.  But  it  suited  the  king  to  take  from  South- 
ampton and  Sandys  a  power  which  he  was  willing  to  leave  in  the  hands 
of  Warwick  and  Gorges.  There  was,  however,  no  such  complication 

1  For  authorities  as  to  this  final  disposition  of  the  Charter  of  the  Virginia  Company  — 
which  differs  from  Stith's  account  of  it — see  Neill's  History  of  the  Virginia  Company  in 
London.  Also  notes  to  The  AspinwaU  Papers,  vol.  iv.,  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Col.,  Fourth  Series, 
p.  71. 


1624.]  SLOW   RECOVERY   OF  VIRGINIA    COLONY.  483 

of  interests  —  as  of  the  tobacco  question  ;  the  accounts  of  Smith  ;  the 
uuadjudicated  charges  against  Argall — in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other, 
and  happily  James  I.  was  dead  before  the  colony  of  Puritans  at  New 
Plymouth  was  thought  worthy  of  much  notice,  or  that  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  had  an  existence. 

Meanwhile  the  colony  in  Virginia  recovered,  in  a  measure,  but  very 
slowly,  from  the  calamities  which  followed  the  massacre,  the 

m         •  •  i  •  T  rr>     •  Slow  Teco'T- 

famine  consequent  upon  the  inability  to  produce  a  sufficient  «•>•  of  the 
crop  in  the  summer  of  1622,  and  the  sickness  and  mortality   its  mwfor- 
which  attended  the  crowding  of  so  many  people  into  narrow 
quarters.     They  counted  it  as  chief  among  the  blessings  of  this  period 
that  the  Lord  delivered  into  their  hands  a  great  number  of  the  In- 


Deserted  Settlement. 

dians  ;  that  they  were  able  to  destroy  many  of  their  villages  and  their 
crops  ;  to  take  from  them  large  quantities  of  corn  which  not  only 
served  to  satisfy  their  own  necessities,  but  the  want  of  it  starved  their 
savage  enemies.  These  hostilities  continued  almost  without  intermis- 
sion, and  the  whole  community  lived  for  years  in  a  state  of  perpetual 
panic. 

The  reestablishment  of  industry  and  security,  therefore,  was  of 
slow  growth,  and  it  was  long  before  the  colonists  ventured  to  return 
to  their  plantations,  or  ceased  to  rely  solely  for  safety  upon  the  pres- 
ence of  numbers.  In  the  progress  of  this  gradual  recovery  from  mis- 
fortune it  was  of  little  moment  to  them  which  faction  was  in  the  as- 


484  VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

cendancy  in  the  London  Council.  They  worked  out  as  well  as  they 
could  their  own  salvation,  and  it  was  years  before  the  transfer  of  the 
colony  from  the  control  of  a  corporation  to  that  of  the  king,  made 
much  change  in  their  condition. 

James  died  in  March,  1625,  and  his  son  had  little  leisure,  and  per- 
Death  of  naPs  litt;le  inclination  at  the  outset  of  his  reign,  to  think  of 
James  i.  a  ^istant  colony  whicli  had  for  him  none  of  that  absorbing 
interest  it  had  possessed  in  many  respects  for  his  father.  Wyat  still 
remained  as  governor  for  a  year  or  more  after  the  abrogation  of  the 
charter,  and  then  retiring,  at  his  own  request,  was  succeeded  by  Yeard- 
ley,  whose  fitness  for  the  post  had  been  proved  in  former  years  The 
colony  during  this  period  seems  to  have  been  left  almost  entirely  un- 
der the  control  of  its  own  council  and  general  assembly,  and  when  in 
1627  Yeardley  died,  the  former  body  elected  Francis  West,  one  of 
their  own  number  and  a  brother  of  Lord  Delaware,  to  succeed  him. 
He  probably  retired  in  the  course  of  the  year,  and  Dr.  John  Potts,  who 
was  in  the  hardly  less  important  post  of  physician  to  the  colony,  was 
chosen  its  chief  magistrate  in  West's  place.1  The  administration  of 
Potts  was  put  an  end  to,  the  year  after  his  election,  by  the 

The  first  r  J  J 

royai  gov-  arrival  of  the  first  royal  governor,  Sir  John  Harvey,  who, 
though  a  resident  of  Virginia,  seems  to  have  been  prevented 
by  absence  in  England  from  assuming  the  office  earlier.  He  entered 
upon  its  duties  under  a  load  of  unpopularity,  acquired  as  one  of 
James's  commissioners  in  1624,  which,  so  long  as  his  administration 
lasted,  he  did  nothing  to  diminish. 

Potts's  term,  however,  had  not  expired  when  Lord  Baltimore  ar- 
rived at  Jamestown  from  Newfoundland,  where  he  had  a 
Baltimore  to  colony  called  Ferryland.  His  coming  opened  a  new  chapter 
in  Virginia  history.  The  governor  and  council  inquired  — 
not,  apparently,  in  any  inhospitable  mood,  but  with  an  entirely  nat- 
ural desire  to  learn  —  the  intention  of  so  distinguished  a  visitor,  who, 
they  probably  knew,  had  not  come  to  Virginia  from  mere  idle  curiosity. 
Baltimore's  plan  was  to  found  a  colony,  having  already  petitioned  the 
king  to  make  a  grant  of  lands  to  him  somewhere  in  Virginia.  But 
as  he  seems  to  have  been  disposed  to  remain  for  a  time  at  Jamestown 
with  his  family,  the  government  tendered  to  him  the  usual  oath  of 
supremacy  and  allegiance.  They  knew,  no  doubt,  he  was  a  Catho- 
lic ;  they  felt  that,  in  all  their  tribulations  and  misfortunes,  in  one 
thing,  at  least,  they  had  been  happy  —  to  use  their  own  words  —  "  in 
the  freedom  of  our  religion  which  we  have  enjoyed,  and  that  no  Pa- 
pists have  been  suffered  to  settle  their  abode  amongst  us."2  They  did 

-. 

1  Burk's  History  of  Virginia,  vol.  ii.,  p.  23. 

'  See  Memorial   to  the  Lords  of   the  Privy  Council,  iu  Neill's  English  Colonization  of 
America,  from  Sainslmry's  Collection  of  State  Papers. 


GEORGE   CALVERT,  LORD   BALTIMORE. 
(from  a  copy  of'  (he  original  jxtrtruit  by  Haiiitl  Myttnt>.) 


1629.]  LORD   BALTIMORE   IN   VIRGINIA.  485 

not  mean  to  forego,  if  they  could  help  it,  so  great  a  blessing.  If  this 
distinguished  Catholic  nobleman  —  who,  should  he  settle  among  them, 
would  bring  other  papists  with  him  —  objected  to  taking  the  oath, 
then,  they  may  have  reflected,  they  would  be  happily  rid  of  Baltjm0re 
him.  Their  oath  he  declined  to  take,  though  not  unwilling 
to  subscribe  to  one  of  his  own  composing,  which  he  thought 
would  answer  the  purpose  quite  as  well.  Their  answer  was 
a  request  that  he  would  take  shipping  for  England  by  the  earliest 
opportunity.  He  complied  so  far  as  to  quit  the  colony,  but  before  re- 
turning to  England  he  made  a  voyage  of  observation  to  Chesapeake 


Scenery  in  the  Chesapeake. 

Bay,  where  Lady  Baltimore  had  made  a  visit  the  year  before.1  His 
family  he  left  behind  him  at  Jamestown  ;  and  that  he  returned  there 
afterward  from  England  to  take  them  away  there  is  this  interesting 
bit  of  evidence  in  the  colonial  records  of  Virginia :  "  Thomas  Tindall 
to  be  pilloried  two  hours  for  giving  my  Lord  Baltimore  the  lie  and 
threatening  to  knock  him  down."  2 

George  Calvert,  created  baron  of  Baltimore  a  few  weeks  only  be- 
fore the  death  of  James  I.,  was  not  a  stranger  to  the  Virginia  Colony. 
He  had  been  a  member  of  the  London  Council ;  through  him,  as  sec- 
retary of  state,  the  wishes  of  the  king  were  conveyed  when  he  sent 
to  that  body  a  list  of  persons,  one  of  whom  he  desired  should  be 
chosen  treasurer  in  place  of  Sandys.  As  a  devoted  servant  of  his 

1  Note  to  The  Aspintrall  Papers.     Bozman's  History  of  Maryland.     McSherry's  History 
of  Maryland.     Neill,  in  his  English  Colonization,  says,  that  this  lady  was  not  Lord  Balti- 
more's wife,  but  gives  no  authority  for  the  assertion. 

2  Hening's  Statutes,  cited  by  Neill. 


486  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

royal  master,  he  probably  upheld  with  a  hearty  good  will  all  the 
measures  of  the  party  hostile  to  the  management  of  Southampton  and 
Sandys.  When  in  1624  the  charter  was  taken  away  from  the  Com- 
pany, Calvert  was  one  of  the  commissioners  appointed  to  take  charge 
of  the  affairs  of  the  colony.  It  is  not  improbable  that  these  facts 
were  remembered  against  him  when  he  appeared  in  Jamestown,  and 
Governor  Potts  tendered  to  him  and  his  companions  the  oath  of 
allegiance  and  supremacy.  A  man  who  had  been  the  principal  secre- 
tary of  state  to  James  for  the  last  five  or  six  years  of  his  life  ;  who 
had  done  all  he  could  to  further  the  most  despotic  acts  of  the  king  ; 
who  was  rightfully  supposed  to  have  been  active  in  the  efforts  to 
bring  about  the  marriage  of  Prince  Charles  with  the  Spanish  infanta  ; 
who  had  become  a  Catholic,  and  who  now  proposed  to  plant  a  Cath- 
olic colony  in  Virginia,  was  not  likely  to  be  popular  with  the  colo- 
nists. 

His  interest  in  American  colonization,  however,  was  older  than  his 
conversion  to  the  religious  faith  to  which  he  was  now  attached.  That 
dated  from  the  first  settlement  of  Virginia.  Some  years 

ln  New-  before  the  death  of  James,  Calvert  had  obtained  a  grant  of 
]an(js  [n  the  southeastern  part  of  Newfoundland,  to  which 
he  gave  the  name  of  Avalon.  The  colony  he  there  established  and 
called  Ferryland,  was  about  twenty-five  miles  north  of  Cape  Race. 
It  was  a  Protestant  colony,  its  people  sent  out  by  Calvert,  till  he, 
in  1627,  as  the  Catholic  Lord  Baltimore,  whose  political  career  in 
England  was  ended,  conceived  the  idea  of  making  it  an  asylum 
for  himself  and  others  of  his  religious  faith.  He  visited  Ferryland 
that  and  the  following  year,  taking  with  him,  on  his  second  voyage, 
his  own  family  and  forty  other  papists.  The  country  did  not  answer 
his  expectations.  Discouraged,  in  a  few  months'  residence,  by  the 
severity  of  the  climate,  the  barrenness  of  the  soil,  and  the  sickness 
which  carried  off  about  one  fifth  of  his  company,  he  sailed  for  Vir- 
ginia, probably  in  the  spring  of  1629.1 

He  had  already  written  to  the  king  to  ask  for  a  grant  of  land  in 
that  region.  This  request  he  continued  to  urge  on  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, only  with  a  more  definite  purpose.  His  visit  to  Chesapeake  Bay 
had  revealed  to  him  a  country  in  wonderful  and  charming  contrast 
with  the  bleak  shores  of  Avalon,  and  he  asked  of  the  king,  —  who 
was  undoubtedly  friendly  to  him,  although  he  discouraged  him  from 
engaging  in  enterprises  which  involved  a  necessity  of  much  labor  and 
an  exposure  to  hardship  which  the  condition  of  Lord  Baltimore's 
health  did  not  justify, —a  patent  which  should  include  all  that  region. 

1  Authorities  differ  on  this  point,  but  a  comparison  of  events  renders  it  most  probable 
that  the  spring  of  1629  was  the  time  when  Lord  Baltimore  first  visited  Virgiuia. 


1632.]  CHARTER  OF  MARYLAND.  487 

His  suit  was  successful,  though  he  did  not  live  to  take  advantage 
of  it. 

Lord  Baltimore  died  in  April.  1632,  but  so  far  matured  were  all 
his  plans,  that  the  patent  was  issued  in 
June  to  his  son  Cecilius.  The  father 
had,  indeed,  secured  a  grant  more  than 
a  year  before  of  lands  lying  south  of 
James  River,  but  the  opposition  to  this 
from  some  of  the  old  Virginians  was  so 
great  that  it  was  abandoned.1  He  then 
asked  that  the  country  northward  might 
be  given  him  ;  here,  he  thought,  he  and 
his  Catholic  brethren  might  plant  them- 
selves and  live  in  peace,  unmolested  by 

their  neighbors  on  the  James.     He  pro-  Henrietta  Man. 

posed  to  Charles  to  call  the  colony  Cres- 

centia,  assuring  the  king  that  he  should  have  been  glad  to  have  given 
his  name  to  it,  but  that  another  province  was  already  known  as  Caro- 
lana.  The  king  proposed  Mariana,  in  honor  of  the  queen.  But  this 
was  objected  to  as  the  name  of  a  Spanish  historian.  Then,  said 
Charles,  let  it  be  Terra  Marice.  And  Maryland  —  the  Land  of  Mary 
—  it  was  henceforth  called.2 

The  Charter  of  Maryland  gave  to  Cecilius,  Baron  of  Baltimore,  his 
heirs  and  assigns,  as  its  "  true  and  absolute  lords  and  proprie- 

...  .  Thp   charter 

taries,"  all  the  country  lying  in  the  irregular  triangle  formed  of  Mary- 
by  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude,  the  Potomac  River,  and 
Chesapeake  Bay ;  as  well  as  "  all  that  part  of  the  peninsula  or  Cher- 
sonese lying  ....  between  the  ocean  on  the  east  and  the  bay  of 
Chesapeake  on  the  west,  divided  from  the  residue  thereof  by  a  right 
line  drawn  from  the  promontory  or  headland  called  Watkins's  Point." 
Briefly,  the  limits  of  the  Province  were  like  those  of  the  State  to-day, 
save  that  they  included  the  territory  afterward  set  apart  as  Dela- 
ware, and  extended  a  third  of  a  degree  farther  to  the  north  than  now. 
Thus  the  region  which  the  patent  conferred  was  taken  entirely  from 
what  was  then  known  as  Virginia  ;  but  the  conditions  and  privileges 
which  the  Maryland  grant  went  on  to  enumerate  differed  from  any 
that  had  been  given  in  the  case  of  any  previous  American  colony. 

1  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  had  proposed  a  settlement  on  the  south  hanks  of  James  River  in 
1629,  —  possibly  the  very  lands  granted  to  Baltimore  two  years  later,  —  and  the  colonial 
assembly  decreed  that  a  county  should  be  named  for  him.  The  same  year  the  patent  to  Sir 
Robert  Heath,  which  included  the  whole  coast  from  Alhemarle  Sound  to  St.  Augustine, 
was  granted  under  the  name  of  the  Province  of  Carolana,  in  honor  of  Charles.  Neill's 
English  Colonization,  pp.  213,  214. 

8  Neill. 


488  VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

The  Lords  Baltimore  then  and  in  future  were  to  be  absolute  lords 
of  their  province,  in  as  full  a  sense  as  such  power  could  ever 
thf  lord-pro-  be  conferred ;  that  is,  "  saving  always  the  faith  and  alle- 
giance and  sovereign  dominion  "  due  to  the  king.  They  held 
their  rights  by  fealty  only,  —  the  annual  payment  of  "two  Indian 
arrows  of  those  parts,"  and  the  requirement  that  they  should  deliver  a 
fifth  of  any  gold  or  silver  that  might  be  found,  being  prescribed  as 
formal  considerations  of  their  tenure.  No  article  of  the  grant  required 
them  to  render  account  of  their  administration  to  the  king  ;  none  pro- 
vided for  the  interference  of  the  crown  with  the  colonial  government, 
or  defined  occasions  for  it ;  none  even  prescribed  means  for  the  inves- 
tigation of  abuse  of  the  powers  conferred.  It  was  especially  stated 
that  the  new  province  should  not  thenceforth  be  a  part  of  the  hind  of 
Virginia,  or  of  any  other  colony,  but  should  enjoy  entire  independence. 

But  the  charter  was  still  more  noteworthy  in  the  rights  which  it 
Political  secured  to  the  colonists  —  the  people.  It  provided  that  the 
randtTtba  freemen  of  the  province  should  be  called  together  to  take 
colonists.  part  in  framing  the  laws  which  were  to  govern  them  ;  but  in 
cases  of  emergency,  when  it  should  not  be  convenient  to  call  together 
such  an  assembly  of  the  people,  the  legislative  power  was  given  to 
Lord  Baltimore  and  the  magistrates,  provided  that  such  laws  as  they 
might  enact  did  not  infringe  upon  the  rights  of  the  citizens,  "  in  mem- 
ber, life,  freehold,  goods  or  chattels."  Further,  the  liberties  thus 
strongly  secured  in  Maryland  were  open  to  all  subjects  of  the  English 
crown  ;  no  restrictions  were  placed  on  emigration  to  the  province  ; 
and  all  colonists  and  their  descendants  were  placed  on  the  footing  of 
native  Englishmen.  Last,  but  by  no  means  least  as  an  attraction  to 
free  settlers,  —  even  though  it  was  granted  rather  as  a  gift  to  the  pro- 
prietaries than  as  a  direct  privilege  to  the  people,  —  the  charter  added 
oerpetual  exemption  from  all  taxation  by  the  crown.  The  proprie- 
taries and  the  provincial  assemblies  could  regulate  their  own  taxation, 
but  the  charter  left  this  to  them  alone. 

There  was  only  one  article  in  the  charter  even  distantly  relating  to 
riau*e  in  religious  matters  —  that  which  gave  to  the  proprietaries  the 
refatinartor  patronages  and  advowsons  of  all  churches  which  should  be 
religion.  built  and  whiSh  must  be  dedicated  and  consecrated  according 
to  the  ecclesiastical  laws  of  England.  There  was  no  discrimination  in 
favor  of  or  against  any  sect  within  the  limits  of  Christianity.  With- 
out trace,  of  bigotry,  with  unprecedented  guaranties  of  liberty  to  the 
settler,  with  the  promise  of  freedom  from  financial  burdens,  the  charter 
of  Maryland  might  in  very  truth  be  said,  as  one  of  its  paragraphs 
affirmed,  to  "  eminently  distinguish "  the  new  province  "  above  all 
other  regions  of  that  territory,"  and  to  so  provide  that  the  new  colony 


1633] 


CECIL   CALVERTS   COLONY. 


489 


might  "happily  increase  by  a  multitude  of  people  resorting  thither.'1 
and  that  English  subjects  might  undertake  the  emigration  to  it  ••  with 
a  ready  and  a  cheerful  mind." 

Cecilius  Calvert,  now  Lord  Baltimore,  intended  to  go  himself  as 
leader  of  the  first  expedition,  but  being,  for  some  reason,  detained  in 
England,  he  delegated  the  com- 
mand to  his  younger  brother 
Leonard  ;  Jerome  Haw-ley  and 
Thomas  Cornvvallis,  "  two 
worthy  and  able  gentlemen," 
being  appointed  his  councillors 
or  assistants. 

It  has  been  a  disputed  ques- 
tion, whether  the  majority  of 
those  taking  part  in  this  first 
voyage  to  Maryland  were  '•  gen- 
tlemen "'  or  laborers,  but  the 
larger  portion  of  the  emigrants 
undoubtedly  belonged  to  the 
latter  class.  The  expedition, 
moreover,  was  in  every  sense 
under  Roman  Catholic  leader- 
ship. Maryland  was  to  be  an  Cecil 
asylum  for  the  then  persecuted 

Romanists,  and  of  those  who  came  to  share  in  the  new  venture  the 
leading  men  were  some  twenty  gentlemen  "  of  very  good  fashion," 
men  of  influence  and  often  of  wealth,  who  hoped  to  find  a 

.       Character  of 

quiet  resort  beyond  the  sea.    Among  these  adventurers,  their  the  colon- 
presence  and  leadership  lending  to  the  voyage  something  of 
the  aspect  and  fervor  of  a  religious  pilgrimage,  were  the  Jesuit  priests 
Father  Andrew   White  and  Father  John   Altham,  two  men  whose 
earnestness,   self-sacrifice,   and    simple    piety,   have  compelled  kindly 
recognition  from  historians  of  every  sect  and  opinion.     Father  White 
became  the  annalist  of  the  expedition,  and  from  his  quaint  and  pic- 
turesque '•  Narrative,"  written  in  Latin  and  having  its  description  in- 
terspersed with  many  pious  reflections  and  devout  thanksgivings,  the 
most  vivid  idea  of  the  voyage  and  settlement  is  gained.1 

1  Relatio  Itineris  in  Mni-ylandlam  (Narrative  of  a  Voyage  to  Maryland).  The  manu- 
script of  this  valuable  narrative  was  discovered  among  the  archives  of  the  "  Donucs  pro- 
fessa"  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  Rome,  by  the  Rev.  William  McSherry,  of  that  order, 
about  1832.  Father  McSherry  at  once  copied  it  carefully,  and  deposited  the  copy  iii  the 
library  of  the  Roman  Catholic  College  at  Georgetown,  whence  it  was  afterward  removed 
to  that  of  Loyoft  College  at  Baltimore.  It  has  been  twice  translated,  —  first  in  1847  by 
Dr.  N.  C.  Brooks  (the  translation  which  appears  in  Force's  Hist.  Tracts,  vol.  iv.).  Our 


490 


VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  XVID. 


The  whole  number  of  assembled  emigrants,  including  servants  and 
Departure  of  laborers,  was  nearly  or  quite  three  hundred.  On  Friday, 
undMcoriony.  November  22,  1633,  they  sailed  from  Cowes,  in  the  Isle  of 
1633-  Wight,  in  a  ship,  The  Ark,  accompanied  by  a  pinnace, 

The  Dove,  and,  "  and  after  committing  the  principal  parts  of  the 
ship  to  the  protection  of  God  especially,  and  of  His  most  Holy 
Mother,  and  St.  Ignatius,  and  all  the  guardian  angels  of  Maryland, 
they  put  to  sea,  "  with  a  gentle  east  wind  blowing." 


Cowes  in  the   Isle  of  Wight. 

The  voyage  was  long,  for  the  vessels  followed  the  circuitous  south- 
ern course  by  the  Azores  and  the  West  Indies  ;  and  at  St. 
Christopher's  and  Barbadoes  they  made  a  considerable  stay. 
The  first  part  of  the  passage  was  full  of  danger  ;  a  terrible  tempest  on 
the  25th  of  November,  separated  the  pinnace  from  the  ship,  nor  did 
the  smaller  vessel  reappear  till  six  weeks  later,  when  she  overtook  The 
Ark  far  on  in  her  course,  and  the  devout  emigrants  offered  up  a  hearty 
thanksgiving  for  their  reunion  with  the  friends  they  had  long  given 
up  for  lost.  Fears  of  pirates  haunted  them  throughout  the  voyage ; 
they  narrowly  escaped  falling  into  the  hands  of  a  Spanish  fleet  which 
lay  along  the  Cape  de  Verd  islands  ;  and  only  the  timely  discovery  of 
a  plot  among  the  slaves  at  Barbadoes,  prevented  their  finding  that 
island  given  up  to  anarchy  and  massacre,  amid  which  they  would  have 

quotations  are  made  from  the  later  and  more  accurate  translation,  edited  for  the  Maryland 
Historical  Society  in  1874,  by  the  Rev.  E.  A.  Dalrymple  of  Baltimore,  and  accompanied  by 
the  Latin  text. 


1634.]  CECIL   CALVERT'S  COLONY.  491 

run  some  risk  of  being  murdered  for  the  sake  of  their  ship  and  cargo. 
Storms  were  frequent,  nor  were  they  always  saved  from  danger  by 
monitory  '*  sun-fish  swimming  with  great  efforts  against  the  course  of 
the  sun,"  which  Father  White  believed  to  be  "  a  very  sure  sign  of  a 
terrible  storm,"  and  which  once,  at  least,  led  them  to  take  prompt  pre- 
cautions. Beset  with  perils  as  they  were,  the  emigrants  nevertheless 
made  their  voyage  in  safety,  and  at  last,  on  February  24,  1634,  they 
sighted  Point  Comfort,  in  Virginia. 

Glad  as  they  were  to  be  so  near  the  end  of  their  tedious  voyage,  the 
new-comers  had  some  cause  to  fear  for  their  reception  among  Their 
the  colonists  along  the  James,  where  the  hostility  excited  vh^n 
by  the  granting  of  Lord  Baltimore's  patent  was  now  at  its  s°Ternor- 
height.  But  Governor  Harvey,  anxious  to  gain  favor  with  the  king, 
and  personally  friendly  to  Baltimore's  purposes,  was  able  to  prevent 
any  disagreeable  manifestation  of  the  popular  feeling.  He  met  the 
settlers,  fortified  as  they  were  with  royal  letters  to  him,  most  hospit- 
ably, and  treated  them  kindly  during  their  stay  of  more  than  a  week. 
On  the  third  of  March  they  again  set  sail,  and  were  soon  within  those 
boundaries,  on  the  shore  of  the  beautiful  bay,  which  were  to  mark 
their  future  home.  Right  gladly  did  they  see  the  pleasant  region  that 
awaited  them,  for  few  emigrants  to  North  America  had  been  greeted 
by  a  more  genial  climate  or  more  beautiful  lands  than  these ;  and  in 
the  pride  of  possession  they  "  began  to  give  names  to  places," 1  calling 
the  southern  point  at  the  Potomac's  mouth,  now  Smith  Point,  by 
the  name  of  St.  Gregory,  and  the  northern  one  St.  Michael's,  now 
Point  Lookout. 

The  entrance  to  the  great  river,  as  Father  White  described  it 
with  enthusiastic  admiration,  presented  nearly  the  same  appearance 
as  in  our  own  day.  "  It  is  not,"  he  remarked,  "  disfigured  with  any 
swamps,  but  has  firm  land  on  each  side.  Fine  groves  of  trees  appear, 
not  choked  with  briers  or  bushes  and  undergrowth,  but  growing  at 
intervals  as  if  planted  by  the  hand  of  man,  so  that  you  can  drive  a 
four-horse  carriage  wherever  you  chose  among  the  trees."  To  the 
right  and  left  opened  the  mouths  of  broad  estuaries,  —  tributary 
streams  with  low  shores,  behind  which  rose  gentle  hills,  covered  with 
plentiful,  yet  not  dense  forests.  "  Never  have  I  beheld  a  larger  or 
more  beautiful  river,"  wrote  the  priest ;  "  the  Thames  seems  a  mere 
rivulet  in  comparison  with  it."  The  Ark  and  the  Dove  sailed  up  the 
broad  stream,  while  the  shores  at  night  blazed  with  the  camp-fires  of 
the  Indians  ;  and  the  daylight  revealed  to  the  emigrants  armed  bands 

1  A  Relation  of  Maryland,  together  with  a  Map  of  the  Country,  etc.,  London,  1635.  Sabin's 
reprint,  edited  by  Hawks,  New  York,  1865.  This  contemporary  record  is  second  to  Father 
White's  in  value  as  regards  details.  Its  author  is  unknown. 


492 


VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


hurrying  to  and  fro,  the  tribes  they  believed  mustering  to  resist  their 
landing. 

Somewhat  more  than  thirty  miles  from  the  river's  mouth  lay  a 
group  of  islands,  called  the  Herons'  Islands,  from  the  great  number 
of  those  birds  that  flocked  about  them.  They  are  known  now  as  the 
Blackstone  Islands,  and  in  the  two  centuries  that  have  elapsed,  almost 
all  of  them  have  been  washed  away,  a  few  only  rising  above  the  level 


Landing  of  the  Colony. 

of  flood  tide.  The  first  of  these, 
long  since  reduced  to  a  long,  low 
sandspit,  hardly  discernible  above  the 
water,  the  voyagers  named  St.  Clements, 
and  chose  as  their  first  landing-place  on 
Maryland  soil.  It  had  then  a  sloping 
shore,  and  cedars,  nut  trees,  sassafras,  with 
flowers  and  herbs,  covered  the  four  hundred  acres  of  dry  land  which 
have  now  so  nearly  disappeared.  On  March  25,  the  "  day  of  the  An- 
nunciation of  the  Most  Holy  Virgin  Mary,"  —  an  omen  which  the 
ceremonies  pious  emigrants  did  not  fail  to  note,  —  they  took  possession  of 
on  landing.  tne  country  with  solemn  ceremonies.  After  celebrating  mass 
upon  the  beach,1  they  followed  their  governor  in  reverent  procession 
to  the  highest  part  of  the  island,  where  they  planted  a  great  cross  of 

i  After  speaking  of  the  celebration  of  mass,  Father  White  adds,  "  this  had  never  been 
done  before  in  this  part  of  the  world."  He  was  not  aware  of  the  Jesuit  mission  on  the  banks- 
of  the  Rappahanock,  sixty  years  earlier.  See  p.  221  of  this  volume. 


1634.] 


CECIL   CALVERT  S   COLONY. 


493 


wood  and  knelt  around  it,  while  the  litany  was  read.  Then  Leonard 
Calvert  solemnly  proclaimed  their  right  to  the  beautiful  region  about 
them,  and  took  possession  of  it  "  for  our  Saviour  and  for  our  Sover- 
aigne  Lord  the  King  of  England." 

Two  days  were  spent  in  explorations  by  the  governor,  who  went  up 
the  river  in  the  Dove,  taking  with  him  another  pinnace  brought  from 
Virginia  ;  the  greater  part  of  the  colonists  remaining  on  board  the 
Ark  meanwhile,  as  she  lay  at  anchor  in  the  river  at  St.  Clement's, 
watched  by  a  crowd  of  curious  Indians  upon  the  shore.  The 

•^  .  •   i        ,         Calvert* 

chief  obiect  of  Calvert  s  excursions  was  to  treat  with  the  journey  up 

,,,...  ,  ,  .  i-i-          thePotomac. 

leaders  of  the  tribes,  and  seek  to  do  away  with  any  hostility 
with  which  they  might  look  upon  the  new  settlement.    The  people  left 

behind  in  the  Ark,  by  signs  of  friend- 
s>  ^\x       ship  to  the  savages  about  them,  grad- 
lj  ;  •   •       ually   made   acquaintance  with    them 
as   they  ventured    out   to  the  island 
and  watched  the  English  putting  to 


Governor  Calvert  and  the  Indian  Chief 


gether  a  little  vessel,  the  parts  of  which  they  had  brought  with  them. 
They  wondered  where  a  tree  could  have  grown  large  enough  to  be  hol- 
lowed for  the  hull  of  the  Ark;  and  were  amazed  at  all  the  tools  and 
arms  of  the  English.  Little  by  little  they  became  convinced  of  the 
perfect  friendliness  of  the  strangers  ;  nor  was  Calvert  less  successful  in 
establishing  good  relations  with  the  chiefs.  At  an  Indian  town  near 
the  mouth  of  Acquia  Creek,  where  the  werowance,  or  chief,  was  a 


494  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

child,  and  his  uncle  Archihau  held  the  regency,  the  English  were 
gladly  welcomed,  and  established  a  lasting  friendship  ;  and  still  fur- 
ther up  the  Potomac,  at  Piscataway,  they  had  a  somewhat  similar, 
though  more  cautious  reception.  Here  they  found  a  Captain  Henry 
Fleet,  who  had  traded  for  some  time  among  these  Indians  for  furs, 
and  used  his  influence  over  the  chief  to  induce  him  to  go  on  board  the 
pinnace  for  an  interview  with  Calvert.  The  friendliness  of  his  bear- 
ing soon  banished  the  suspicions  of  the  chief  and  his  followers,  who 
had  gathered  on  the  shore  fearing  treachery  ;  and  the  parley  was 
highly  successful.  The  definite  question  was  put  by  the  Governor, 
whether  the  chief  "  would  be  content  that  he  and  his  people  should 
set  down  in  his  country,  in  case  he  should  find  a  place  convenient  for 
him  ;  "  the  werowance  gave  the  cautious  but  friendly  answer  that  he 
"  would  not  bid  him  go,  neither  would  he  bid  him  stay,  but  that  he 
might  use  his  own  discretion." 

This  Captain  Fleet  was  familiar  with  the  Potomac  and  the  neighbor- 
ing country,  where  he  had  long  carried  on  a  profitable  trade  in  peltries. 
He  had,  at  one  time,  been  held  as  a  prisoner  for  several  years  among 
The  Anacos-  *ne  Nacostines  or  Anacostans,  a  tribe  whose  principal  vil- 
tan  Indians.  jage  wag  on  fae  s^e  of  ^ne  present  city  of  Washington,  where 

their  name  is  still  preserved  in  a  corrupted  form  in  the  island  Analos- 
tan  in  the  Potomac,  and  in  a  little  post-office  station,  Anacostia,  near 
the  city  limits.  His  relations  with  the  neighboring  Indians  at  the  time 
of  Calvert's  arrival  were  friendly,  and  he  was,  at  least,  in  no  fear  from 
his  old  enemies.  He  was  a  roving  adventurer,  sailing  to  New  England, 
or  to  Jamestown,  or  returning  to  England,  wherever  a  trade  in  corn 
or  beaver  offered  the  most  inducement ;  but  his  long  imprisonment 
among  the  Anacostans  had  made  him  most  familiar  with  the  resources 
along  almost  the  whole  course  of  the  Potomac.  He  was  not  permitted, 
however,  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  this  trade  undisputed.  To  con- 
ceal its  source  was  impossible ;  others  followed  him  from  Jamestown, 
and  he  was  at  length  arrested  by  order  of  the  authorities  there  for 
trading  without  a  license.  Two  years  before  he  had  been  taken  to 
Jamestown  and  put  upon  trial,  but  the  difficulty  seems  to  have  been 
compounded  by  his  admitting  others  to  a  share  in  his  ventures,  the 
profits  probably  being  increased  by  the  employment  of  larger  cap- 
ital. 

Fleet  was  no  doubt  aware  that  a  charter  had  been  granted  to  Lord 
Baltimore,  and  may  have  seen  something  of  the  excitement  caused  at 
Jamestown  when  the  news  was  received  that  a  Catholic  colony  would 
soon  be  planted  in  such  disagreeable  proximity,  and  in  a  country 
which  the  Virginians  believed  was  rightfully  theirs.  He  either  did 
not  share  the  religious  prejudices  of  the  colonists,  or  was  ready  for 


1634.J  CECIL   CALVERT'S  COLONY.  495 

other  reasons  to  welcome  the  new-comers.  Welcome  them,  at  any 
rate,  he  did  ;  became  afterward  one  of  their  number  as  a  man  of  some 
mark  and  influence,  and  when  finally  the  colony  was  established,  was 
a  member  of  its  General  Assembly.1 

Under  the  guidance  of  the  man  thus  fortunately  met  with,  the  Ark 
and  the  pinnace  now  dropped  down  the  river  to  the  mouth  of  a  stream 


St.   George's    Island. 

flowing  into  the  Potomac,  Calvert  deciding  not  to  make  his  first  settle- 
ment so  far  from  the  sea.  This  stream  they  named  the  St.  George ; 
one  of  the  "  two  harbors  "  formed  at  its  mouth  2  received  the  name 
St.  Mary's,  which  has  become  the  modern  name  of  the  whole  river, 
though  a  wooded  island  near  at  hand  still  preserves  the  older  title. 
Sandy  points,  doubtless  higher  then  than  now,  and  different  in  form  from 
those  left  by  the  wearing  tides  of  two  centuries,  marked  the  entrance 
through  which  Fleet  guided  them  toward  his  favorite  village  of  Yao- 
comico  ; 3  but  a  little  way  back  from  the  banks,  the  land  rose  in 
gentle  undulations,  and  in  the  further  distance  into  hills  of  moderate 
height. 

The  river  itself  was  rather  a  series  of  broad  bays  or  lakes  than  a 
stream  of  regular  width  and  rapid  current.  Passing  up  through 
several  of  these,  to  one  which  they  named  "  the  bay  of  St.  Ignatius," 
the  settlers  anchored  and  prepared  to  land.  At  the  end  of  the  broad 
harbor  a  low  promontory  extended  from  the  eastern  shore,  ending 
in  a  sandy  beach,  the  present  Chancellor's  Point ;  and  on  this,  as 
we  understand  Father  White's  description,  the  Maryland  colonists 

1  A  narrative  of  Fleet's  voyages  to  the  Potomac  was  first  published  in  Neill's  English 
Colonization. 

2  Concerning  the  probable  condition  of  these  bays  and  their  shores,  and  their  difference 
from  their  present  form,  see  the  elaborate  note  K  to  White's  Narrative,  p.  107  of  Dr.  Dal- 
rymple's  edition. 

8  The  name  Yaocomico  is  now  given  to  a  village  on  the  Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac, 
nearly  opposite  St.  Mary's  River  ;  but  this  is  an  entirely  modern  transfer  of  the  title  from 
the  site  to  which  it  properly  belonged,  —  the  territory  of  King  Yaocomico,  on  the  St. 
Marv's. 


496 


VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  XVIU. 


first  set  foot.  Walking  on  through  the  woods  and  along  the  bank 
for  a  mile  or  more,  they  came  upon  a  region  whose  beauty  and  fitness 
satisfied  them  that  here  was  a  proper  site  for  their  future  town.  The 
river-bank  was  higher  here  than  it  was  farther  down  the  stream,  while 
behind  it,  at  a  distance  of  about  a  half  mile  from  the  water- 
side,  lay  a  gently  sloping  valley,  on  the  further  side  of  which, 
again,  was  higher  land  gradually  rising  to  the  inland  hills. 
In  this  valley  springs  were  then  as  now  abundant  ;  and  scattered 
through  it  were  groves  of  nut  trees  and  oaks.  Here  the  Indians  had 


for  their 


The   Bluff  at  St.   Mary's. 

their  village;  and  where  it  approached  the  water's  edge  the  bank  rose 
into  a  bold  bluff  between  two  broad  expanses  of  the  river,  similar  to 
those  below.  The  soil  was  fertile;  the  neighboring  woods,  Father 
White  declares,  were  free  from  dangerous  animals ;  the  place  seemed 
well-nigh  perfect  for  their  purpose. 

On  the  highest  part  of  the  bluff  stood  a  mulberry  tree,  large  enough 
even  then  to  throw  a  broad  shade  about  it,  and  to  be  visible  for  a  long 
distance  up  and  down  the  river.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years 
afterward  its  mass  of  foliage  still  crowned  the  promontoi-y  ;  and  its 
decayed  and  blackened  trunk,  lying  where  it  fell  but  a  few  years  ago, 
yet  marks  the  place  of  its  growth,  but  nearer  to  the  edge  of  the  bank 
than  it  was  when  the  settlers  first  stood  around  it,  for  the  river  has 
changed  and  reduced  the  sandy  cape.  Under  this  tree,  according  to 
well-authenticated  tradition,  Leonard  Calvert  made  a  treaty  with  the 

Indians  of  the  village.  For  a  certain  payment  in  cloth,  tools, 
chaw  of  the  and  trinkets  the  tribe  of  Yaocomico  consented  that  the 
lageand  strangers  should  share  their  town  with  them  through  the 

harvest,  and  then  should  purchase  all  the  site,  while  the 
easily-contented  savages  removed  their  dwelling  elsewhere.  The  fre- 


y. 

> 
as 


1634.] 


THE   FIRST   TOWN. 


497 


quent  raids  of  the  Susquehannahs  from  the  north  had  already  inclined 

them  to  this  step  ;  and  they  were  the  more  glad  if  by  so  doing  they 

could  win  the  powerful  alliance  of  the  Englishmen.    They  "  made  mu- 

tual promises  to  each 

other,  to  live  friend- 

ly and  peaceably  to- 

gether, and  if  any  in- 

jury   should    happen 

to  be  done  on  either 

part,    that     satisfac- 

tion should  be  made 

for  the   same."     On 

the  27th  of  March  the 

governor  took  posses- 

sion, and  named  the 

first  village  of  Mary- 

land   Saint    Mary's. 

The      colonists      set 

about     their     build- 

ing and  planting  at 

once  ;   and  the  com- 

pact   with    the    In- 

dians was  kept  with 

scrupulous      fidelity. 

Through   the   spring 

and  early  summer  the 

whites    and    savages 

worked  side  by  side, 

the  Indians  teaching 

the  English  to  make 

bread  and  "pone"  of  Indian   corn,  or  helping  them  in   the   hunt; 

the  settlers  giving  them  of  their  trinkets  and  tools  in  return. 

Naturally,  Father  White  and  his  fellow-priests  made  haste  to  fit  up 
a  temporary  chapel  in  the  Indian  cabin  falling  to  their  shai*e  ;  but 
it  was  not  long  before  they  established  themselves  in  a 
more  fitting  place  for  worship.  Even  before  the  Indians  had  the  catholic 
retired,  according  to  the  terms  of  their  agreement,  the  new 
houses  which  the  colonists  were  building  on  every  hand  were  ready 
for  occupation.  A  little  town  of  comparatively  comfortable  dwellings 
clustered  in  the  valley,  while  nearer  the  river  bank,  and  especially  on 
the  bluff,  preparations  were  made  for  what  were  to  be  the  public  build- 
ings of  the  colony.  On  the  gradual  slope  from  the  inland  hills  toward 
the  valley,  and  less  than  half  a  mile  to  the  eastward  of  the  promon- 


Return  from  a  Hunt. 


TOL.   I. 


32 


4yo 


VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.    XVIII. 


tory,  the  first  church  was  built  —  a  small  building,  as  is  shown  by  the 
still  visible  hollow  in  which  its  foundations  rested,  but  decorated  with 
all  the  skill  that  the  rough  tools  of  the  colonists  permitted.  Over  the 
altar  was  a  rudely-carved  representation  of  a  mass  of  clouds,  from 
which  rough  wooden  points  descending  represented  the  tongues  of 
flame  at  Pentecost.  In  the  Roman  Catholic  College  at  Georgetown 
two  fragments  of  this  rude  altar-piece  still  remain,  plainly  showing 
the  simplicity  and  roughness  of  the  whole. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

MARYLAND  UNDER  LEONARD  CALVERT. 

THE  COLONY  FIRMLY  PLANTED.  —  HOSTILITY  OF  THE  VIRGINIANS. — DISPUTE  WITH 
CLAYBORNE.  —  ENGAGEMENT  BETWEEN  CLAYBORNE  AND  CORNWALLIS.  —  GOVERNOR 
HARVEY  DEPOSED  AND  SENT  TO  ENGLAND.  —  MEETINGS  OF  THE  MARYLAND  ASSEM- 
BLY.—  TROUBLE  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  DISSENSIONS  BETWEEN  PAPISTS  AND  PURI- 
TANS.—  REVOLUTION  IN  ENGLAND.  -  A  PARLIAMENTARY  SHIP  SEIZED  IN  MARYLAND. 
—  CLAYBORNE'S  RECOVERY  OF  KENT  ISLAND.  —  His  RULE  IN  MARYLAND.  —  RESTO- 
RATION OF  BALTIMORE.  —  DEATH  OF  GOVERNOR  CALVERT.  —  MISTRESS  MARGARET 

BRENT. 

« 

BEFORE  the  winter  set  in  the  Maryland  colonists  were  all  comfort- 
ably sheltered  in  houses  gathered  close  about  the  chapel.  In  that  soft 
and  genial  climate  there  was  no 
hardship  in  living  out  of  doors 
during  the  summer,  and  their 
wise  treatment  of  the  natives 
hud  given  them  entire  freedom 
from  fear  of  the  hostilities  which 
they  had  most  dreaded.  Their 
first  trouble  came  from  their  own 
countrymen.  The  indignation 
with  which  the  Virginians  heard  of  the  new  colony  was  natural  enough, 
however  unreasonable.  It  was  not  a  question  of  room,  for  that  the 
country  was  large  enough  no  one  could  dispute  ;  but  how  many  it 
could  support  was  a  serious  consideration.  The  Virginians  were 
jealous  of  even  a  single  man  who  should  encroach  upon  the  trade  in 
peltries  ;  that  jealousy  grew  to  open  enmity  when  the  intrudei-s  were 
numerous  enough  to  absorb  completely  all  the  trade  with  Indians  in 
the  country  about  them.  The  advantages  that  must  follow  from  an 
increase  in  the  population  of  civilized  people,  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil,  the  growth  of  commerce,  were  less  immediate  and  obvious  than 
the  disadvantages  so  plainly  seen  and  felt  at  once  as  a  scarcity  of 
beaver  skins  and  corn,  and  higher  prices  for  these  Indian  staples. 
These  intruders  on  the  Potomac,  moreover,  though  coming  under  a 
royal  charter,  were  settling  within  the  domain  which  the  Virginians 
had  long  been  accustomed  to  consider  their  own,  and  to  the  loss  of 


Maryland  Shilling. 


500 


MARYLAND   UNDER  LEONARD  CALVERT.        [CHAP.  XIX. 


which,  by  the  abrogation  of  their  charter,  they  were  by  no  means 
reconciled.  • 

On  the  other  hand  the  Marylanders  were  quite  secure  in  their  rights 
under  the  patent  from  the  king,  and  resented,  no  doubt,  with  some 
bitterness,  the  feeling  they  knew  to  exist  against  them  in  Jamestown 
because  of  their  religion.  In  such  a  state  of  feeling,  any  encounter 
between  the  colonists  would  be  likely  to  lead  to  trouble. 

Among  others  who  had  traded  within  the  limits  of  Baltimore's 
patent  for  some  years  past  was  William  Clayborne,  the  secretary  of 
Virginia  under  Governor  Harvey,  and  a  member  of  the  Virginia 
Council.  He  had  done  more  than  trade,  —  which  he  did  undei-  royal 
licenses  of  different  dates  authorizing  him  to  explore  from  the  thirty- 
fourth  to  the  forty-first 
degree  of  latitude,  —  he 
had  established  on  Kent 
Island,  in  Chesapeake 
Bay,  and  within  the  limits 
of  the  Maryland  grant,  a 
small  trading  post,  with  a 
storehouse  and  a  few  per- 
manent settlers  whom  he 
employed  in  the  traffic 
with  the  Indians  of  that 
vicinity.  His  trade-per< 
mits  were  not  indeed 
grants  of  territory,  but  it 
may  fairly  be  questioned 
whether  actual  settlement  in  the  wilderness  of  America  was  not  as 
good  title  as  a  royal  patent.  At  any  rate,  Clayborne  put  forward  a 
claim  to  proprietorship,  refused  to  acknowledge  the  government  of  the 
Maryland  proprietary,  and  used  his  influence  so  vigorously  in  urging 
this  view  upon  the  Virginian  authorities  that  he  succeeded  in  gaining 
a  majority  of  the  council  to  the  support  of  his  pretensions. 

Just  before  the  setting  out  of  the  colonists  from  England,  in  1633, 
the  planters  of  Virginia  had  presented  a  remonstrance  to  the  king 
against  the  Maryland  patent ;  but  the  Privy  Council  had  only  advised 
an  amicable  settlement,  and  had  finally  decided  "  that  the  Lord  Balti- 
more should  be  left  to  his  patent,  and  the  other  parties  to  the  course 
of  law ; "  while  both  colonies  were  ordered  to  permit  entire  freedom 
of  trade  between  them,  to  harbor  no  fugitives  one  from  the  other,  and 
to  preserve  a  fitting  general  amity  in  all  their  relations.  This  reas- 
'serted  conclusively  the  rights  of  Maryland;  yet  so  far  from  ending 
the  pretensions  of  the  Virginian  trader,  it  was  followed  by  a  long 
course  of  resistance  to  the  new  jurisdiction. 


Clayborne's  Trading-post  on  Kent  Island. 


1635.]  DISPUTE  WITH   CLAYBORNE.  501 

His  bitter  hostility  to  the  new  colonists  had  shown  itself  from  the 
very  moment  of  their  landing  in  America.  He  had  met  Leonard  Cal- 
vert  and  his  emigrants  at  Jamestown,  seeking  to  discourage  them  at 
the  outset  by  stories  that  the  Indians  along  the  Potomac  were  arming 
to  resist  their  coming.  Their  actual  landing  and  settlement  excited 
him  to  measures  for  which  there  is  not  a  word  of  defence  in  any  view 
of  the  case.  He  attempted  to  turn  against  the  new-comers  the  friendly 
tribes  with  whom,  on  a  visit  soon  after  their  arrival,  Harvey  found 
them  peacefully  associated.  He  seems  to  have  had  influence  enough 
over  Fleet  at  one  time  to  induce  him  to  persuade  the  Indians  that  the 
Maryland  colonists  were  Spaniards,  enemies  of  the  Virginians,  who 
meant  to  drive  out  the  tribes  about  them  as  soon  as  they  should  be 
strong  enough  to  spoil  their  villages  and  take  their  lands.  So  well 
did  he  succeed,  that  even  in  the  tribe  with  whom  they  had  lived  at 
St.  Mary's,  jealousies  and  suspicious  conduct  had  begun  to  alarm  the 
colonists,  who  hastened  to  build  a  block  house  for  a  refuge  in  emer- 
gency. Yet  constant  and  unbroken  kindness  proved  stronger  than 
Clayborne's  efforts;  gradually,  the  savages  became  convinced  of  the 
sincerity  of  the  peaceful  settlers ;  harmony  was  restored,  and  when 
the  Indians  withdrew  from  the  village  according  to  their  promise,  they 
did  so  with  assurances  of  continued  friendship. 

But  Clayborne's  energy  and  persistency  in  behalf  of  his  claims 
made  him  a  truly  formidable  opponent.  Easily  evading  capture  by 
the  Marylanders,  whom  Lord  Baltimore  had  ordered  to  seize  him  if 
they  could,  he  spent  the  last  months  of  the  year  in  restlessly  urging 
his  plans  upon  the  influential  men  of  Virginia,  and  in  preparing  to 
carry  out  the  intention  which  he  had  announced,  of  maintaining  his 
alleged  rights  even  by  the  use  of  force.  The  majority  of  the  Virgin- 
ians sustained  him  ;  the  assembly  advised  Clayborne  that  they  knew 
no  reason  why  he  or  they  should  surrender  the  Isle  of  Kent  to  the 
new  province.  Governor  Harvey  alone  was  on  the  side  of  the  Mary- 
land people,  and  for  his  good  offices  Lord  Baltimore  subsequently  pro- 
cured him  a  letter  of  thanks  from  the  king.1 

In  the  early  spring  of  1635,  when  Clayborne  despatched  a  small 
vessel,  the  Long  Tail,  determined  to  carry  out  his  usual  trad- 
ing voyage  in  spite  of  resistance,  there  were  few  in  Virginia  tween  armed 
disposed  to  hinder  him.     But   the   Marvlanders  were   pre-  cuybonw 

j    ,        .  ,  .  .  and  the 

pared,  having  sent  out  two  armed  pinnaces  under  their  com-  Maryund 
missioner  or  councillor,  Cornwallis,  to  watch  for  any  illegal 
traders  within  the  charter  boundaries.     They  seized   the  Long   Tail 
on  the  23d  of  April ;  and  when  Clayborne  sent  an  armed  boat  under 
the  command  of   one  Ratcliff  Warren  to  recapture  her  or  seize  any 

1  Letter  to  Winde batik,  quoted  in  Neill's  English  Colonization  of  America,  p.  242. 


502 


MARYLAND   UNDER  LEONARD   CALVERT.        [CnAr.  XlXi 


Maryland  vessels  he  might  encounter,  Cornwallis  met  her  with  one  of 
his  pinnaces  in  the  harbor  of  Wighcomoco  on  May  10th,  and  took  her 
after  a  fight  in  which  Warren  and  two  men  of  the  Virginians  were 
killed,  with  one  of  Cornwallis's  own  crew.  The  chief  of  the  surviving 
Virginians  seem  to  have  been  held  by  the  Maryland  officers  for  trial ; 
the  captured  boat  to  have  been  carried  to  St.  Mary's. 

This  open  conflict  between  the  two  colonies  (for  Clayborne  was  so 
generally  sustained  as  to  give  it  virtually  that  importance),  caused  the 
most  intense  excitement,  especially  when  it  was  followed  by  a  demand 
on  the  part  of  Maryland.  The  first  Assembly  of  that  province  had 
been  convened  just  before  the  attack  upon  Clayborne,  and  though 
nearly  all  the  records  of  its 
proceedings  are  lost,  leaving 
us  in  almost  complete  igno- 
rance of  its  acts,  yet  we  know 
from  subsequc'iit  references,1 


Fight  between  Clayborne  and  Cornwallis. 


that  it  decreed  "  that  offenders,  in  all  murders  and  felonies,  shall 
suffer  the  same  pains  and  forfeitures  as  for  the  same  crimes  in  Eng- 
land." In  the  eyes  of  the  Maryland  authorities  Clayborne's  act  was 
a  felony  ;  and  they  sent  messengers  to  Governor  Harvey,  requiring 
that  he  should  deliver  up  to  them  the  man  who  according  to  their 
understanding  of  the  matter,  had  rebelled  against  the  terms  of  the 
king's  charter,  and  had  used  force  against  their  government.  Harvey, 
it  is  true,  did  not  venture  to  comply  with  this  demand,  but  he  in- 
sisted that  Clayborne  should  go  to  England  to  justify  himself  before 
the  home  government. 

The  Virginia  governor  had  from  various  causes  become  exceedingly 
1  Chalmers  Annals.     See  Bozmau,  vol.  ii.,  p.  34,  and  note. 


1035.] 


INTENSE   FEELING  IN   VIRGINIA. 


503 


unpopular,  and  this  support  on  his  part  of  the  Marylanders  led  to  ab- 
solute revolution.  The  news  of  the  seizure  of  Clayborne's 
vessel  and  the  killing  of  his  men  was  received  at  Jamestown 
with  the  utmost  indignation.  The  people  insisted  that  Har- 
vey should  at  once  demand  the  surrender  of  the  captured  pinnace,  the 
recognition  of  Clayborne's  claim  to  Kent's  Island,  and  that  he  should 
add  his  protest  to  that  of  the  colonists  generally  against  the  patent  of 
Baltimore  and  the  conduct  of  his  people.  Harvey  refused  with  a  firm- 
ness creditable  to  his  coui'age  if  not  to  his  judgment.  Affairs  came  at 
once  to  a  crisis  ;  a  public  meeting  was  called  to  meet  at  the  house  of 
William  Barrene,  the  speaker  of  the  Assembly.  There  was  GoT  j^rrey 
the  utmost  excitement,  but  the  utmost  unanimity.  Some  ^P08*1- 
months  before,  Harvey  had  written  to  England  that  the  feeling  against 


Maryland  was  so  intense 
in  Virginia  that  the  people  openly 
declared  they  would  rather  knock 

*/ 

their  cattle  on  the  head  than  sell 
them  to  that  colony ;  and  that 

among  the  malcontents  none  were  so  violent  as  Cap- 
tain Sam.  Mathews,  "who  scratching  his  head  and  in 
a  fury  stamping  cried  out,  'A pox  upon  Maryland!'' 
To  this  man  was  intrusted  the  delicate  business  of 
dealing  with  Harvey  in  this  emergency.  The  next 
day,  taking  forty  men  with  him,  he  marched  to  the 
governor's  house.  This  being  surrounded,  to  prevent  escape,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  council,  John  Uty,  entered  and  arrested  Harvey  on  a  charge 


504  MARYLAND  UNDER  LEONARD   CALVERT.      [CHAP.  XIX. 

of  treason.  A  few  days  later  the  General  Assembly  met  and  elected 
John  West  as  governor  and  sent  Harvey  to  England  for  trial.  Clay- 
borne  went  also  to  England  to  get  the  redress  which  Virginia,  however 
good  her  will  was,  was  powerless  to  give  him,  but  was  discouraged  by 
Charles  declaring  that  the  act  of  the  Virginians,  in  arresting  and  send- 
ing home  a  governor,  was  an  intolerable  assumption  of  sovereignty ; 
that  Harvey  should  go  back  though  it  were  only  for  a  day.1 

Some  years  of  peace  and  prosperity  followed  in  Maryland.  From 
time  to  time  the  colony  was  reinforced  by  the  accession  of  new  emi- 
igrants.  So  large  had  been  the  yield  from  their  corn,  even  during  the 
first  season's  planting,  that  they  had  sent  a  thousand  bushels  to  New 
England  "  to  provide  them  some  salt-fish,  and  other  commodities 
which  they  wanted  ;  "  their  cattle  and  poultry,  brought  from  Virginia, 
had  increased  "  to  a  great  stock,  sufficient  to  serve  the  colonie  very 
plentifully." 

The  settlement  had  assumed  much  more  of  the  aspect  of  a  town 
than  any  other  English  colony  had  gained  in  so  short  a  time  after  its 
foundation.  It  had  been  built  from  the  beginning  with  no  war  or 
disturbance  to  interrupt  its  progress,  or  to  make  its  people  fear  for  its 
permanence.  Bricks  and  other  materials  had  been  brought  from 
England  in  large  quantities,  and  substantial  dwellings  had  almost 
immediately  succeeded  to  the  Indian  cabins.  Private  buildings  of 
course  came  first ;  and  the  earlier  assemblies  of  the  province  seem  to 
st.  John's  have  met  at  a  manor  belonging  to  Governor  Calvert,  called 
m*nor  St.  John's,  and  situated  farther  inland.  But  the  command- 
ing bluff,  overlooking  all  the  neighborhood,  was  sure,  sooner  or  later, 
to  become  the  site  of  the  capitol  of  the  colony  ;  and  after  the  lapse 
of  several  years  a  government  building  or  state-house  was  erected 
there,  in  the  form  of  an  irregular  cross,  some  fifty  feet  in  length 
and  more  than  thirty  across  the  shorter  arms.2  It  stood  but  a  short 
distance  —  a  little  more  than  thirty  yards  —  in  the  rear  of  the  mul- 
berry tree,  and  the  rough  cruciform  hollow  where  its  foundations 
were  laid  may  still  be  seen,  filled  with  a  dense  undergrowth  of  weeds 
and  bushes,  that  spring  here  and  there  from  the  fragments  of  broken 
masomy.  On  the  mulberry  tree  before  it,  probably  then  the  only 
large  tree  upon  the  bluff,  were  nailed  the  proclamations  of  Calvert  and 
his  successors,  the  notices  of  punishments  and  fines,  the  inventories  of 

1  Neill. 

2  It  is  impossible  to  fix  with  certainty  the  exact  date  of  the  building  of  the  state-house, 
or  of  any  of  the  other  principal  buildings  ;  but  they  belonged,  at  all  events,  to  the  earliest 
part  of  the  history  of  the  settlement.     To  Dr.  Brome,  the  present  owner  of  St.  Mary's 
Manor,  a  large  estate  covering  the  site  and  whole  neighborhood  of  old  St.  Mary's,  who  has 
carefully  preserved  many  local  traditions,  we  are  indebted  for  many  interesting  facts  re- 
lating to  the  early  settlers. 


1635.]  PROGRESS  OF  THE    COLONY.  505 

debtors  whose  goods  were  to  be  sold,  and  all  notices  calling  for  the 
public  attention.  Even  of  late  years,  curious  relic-hunters  have  dug 
from  the  decaying  trunk  the  rude  nails  which  thus  held  the  forgotten 
state  papers  of  two  centuries  ago. 

The  top  of  the  bluff,  according  to  tradition,  must  once  have  formed 
a  broad  square  before  the  state-house  doors,  where  the  people  assem- 
bled, and  the  little  force  mustered  which  was  detailed  for  defence ; 
where  punishments  were  inflicted,  and  proclamations  read  before  being 
posted.  But  the  ceaseless  wear  of  the  river  has  crumbled  away  a 
great  part  of  the  point,  and  only  a  small  space  now  lies  between  the 
building-site  and  the  water.  A  church,  built  in  the  last  century, 
stands  a  little  farther  back,  and  the  churchyard  extends  over  all  that 
is  left  of  the  plateau ;  the  ground  where  the  Maryland  Pilgrims  were 
called  together,  is  occupied  by  the  graves  of  their  descendants. 

In  the  valley,  still  further  up  the  inland  slope  than  the  Jesuit 
fathers'  church,  stood  the  principal  private  house,1  owned  by  The  Govern- 
Calvert  or  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  colony,  a  well-built  struc-  or  8  Uouse' 
ture  indeed  for  a  new  settlement,  for  its  walls  were  partly  standing 
within  the  memory  of  men  now  living.  In  the  middle,  two  stout  chim- 
neys gave  outlet  for  vast  fire-places  in  the  large  rooms  which  formed 
the  ground  floor  and  basement,  the  latter  paved  with  square  red  tiles. 
The  house  was  of  red  brick,  ornamented  here  and  there  with  black ; 
its  general  shape  was  square  ;  and  about  it,  giving  a  fortress-like  look 
to  the  place,  rose  a  stout  brick  wall  with  but  few  openings.  Near  by 
was  a  sudden  hollow  in  the  level  of  the  field,  from  the  bottom  of  which 
a  spring  gave  the  settlement  its  purest  water.  Still  farther  inland 
lay  a  little  ravine,  where  the  first  burial-ground  of  the  colony  was 
made,  and  the  Jesuit  fathers  piously  planted  the  black  cross  at  the 
head  of  every  Christian  grave. 

It  was  not  only  at  St.  Mary's,  however,  that  the  rapidly  increasing 
colony  began  to  take  on  this  appearance  of  prosperity.  Up  and  down 
the  east  bank  of  the  river  were  farms  and  plantations  ;  and  even  the 
opposite  shore  began  to  be  taken  up.  In  1635,  Lord  Balti- 

.  Land  grant* 

more  seems  to  have  established  certain  terms  for  the  grant-  made  to  set- 
ing  of  land  to  settlers :  a  thousand  acres,  "  erected  into  a 
Manor,"  but  subject  to  a  quitrent  of  a  pound  a  year,  to  every  man 
who  should  transport  to  the  colony  five  able  men  properly  provided ; 
a  hundred  acres,  subject  to  a  quitrent  of  two  shillings,  for  every  man 
who  should  pay  his  own  transportation,  and  the  same  for  each  servant 

1  Local  traditions  agree  in  calling  this  site,  on  which  even  meu  of  middle  age  remem- 
ber the  ruins,  "the  Governor's  House"  It  is  not  improbable,  however,  that  it  may  have 
been  the  brick  house  built  by  Cornwallis  in  1640,  which  is  especially  noticed  in  the  records 
because  of  its  superiority  to  its  neighbors.  It  was  very  possibly  occupied  by  later  gover- 
nors on  this  account. 


506  MARYLAND  UNDER  LEONARD   CALVERT.        [CHAP.  XIX. 

he  should  bring,  if  their  number  were  less  than  five ;  for  every  married 
man  a  hundred  acres  each  for  himself  and  his  wife,  and  fifty  for  each 
child  —  all  subject  to  a  quitrent  of  a  shilling  for  every  fifty  acres.  In 
1636,  while  these  conditions  were  retained  for  all  future  emigrants, 
still  further  grants  were  made  to  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
original  voyage  in  1633,  and  even  slight  additions  to  the  lands  of  all 
who  had  settled  in  the  colony  before  the  end  of  1635;  so  that  the 
pioneers  of  the  province  became  a  favored  class,  especially  as  those 
who  held  manors  were  permitted  the  feudal  privileges  of  holding 
courts-leet  and  courts-baron.  The  conditions  differed,  however,  in 
one  very  essential  point,  from  the  feudal  element  introduced  by  the 
Dutch  into  New  Netherlands,  the  smaller  land-holders  having  as  abso- 
lute a  title  from  the  government  as  the  larger ;  the  estate  of  each  was 
held  in  fee  simple,  to  the  owner  and  his  heirs  forever ;  there  was  no 
opportunity  for  the  abuses  of  the  feudal  class  of  tenures. 

By  the  end  of  1637,  the  region  about  St.  Mary's  is  referred  to  in  doc- 
uments as  the  "  county  "  of  that  name ;  while  enough  colonists  had 
settled  over  on  the  west  bank  of  St.  George's  (St.  Mary's)  River  to  en- 
title them  to  form  one  of  the  "  hundreds  "  into  which  the  county  had 
been  divided.  Several  mills  had  been  built  both  at  St.  Mary's  and  on 
out-lying  farms ;  the  crops  had  been  successful  year  after  year,  and 
the  cattle  and  poultry  brought  from  Virginia  had  increased  so  as  to 
give  the  whole  colony  a  plentiful  supply. 

The  inhabitants  had  now  become  so  numerous  that  a  more  complete 
code  of  laws  was  necessary  for  their  government.  The  Assem- 

Differenoe  .        ° 

between  the    blv  of  1635  had  proposed  a  series  of  regulations  for  the  col- 

p«opleand  '•  4 

the  lord  ony,  but  they  were  not  acceptable  to  the  proprietary,  who 
refused  his  assent  to  them.  Two  years  later  Lord  Balti- 
more sent  out  suggestions  for  enactments  in  place  of  those  he  had  thus 
rejected  ;  and  to  consider  these  suggestions  the  second  Assembly  of  the 
province  was  summoned  to  meet  on  the  25th  of  January,  1638. 

The  freemen  duly  came  together  on  that  day,  some  appearing  in 
person,  nearly  as  many  by  proxy  ;  but  they  manifested  anything  but 
that  passive  acquiescence  which  had  been  expected  in  the  proposals  of 
their  ruler.  When  these  were  "  put  to  the  question,  whether  they 
should  be  received  as  laws  or  not,"  *  only  Leonard  Calvert  and  John 
Lewger,  with  the  twelve  proxies  they  held,  voted  for  them  ;  against 
them  there  were  "  thirty-seven  voices."  Lord  Baltimore's  proposals 
have  not  been  preserved,  but  it  is  probable  that  this  resistance  to  his 
will  was  rather  to  the  construction  of  the  charter  that  should  limit  to 
the  proprietary  the  right  of  initiating  laws,  than  a  dislike  for  any 

1  Transcription  from  the  original  record  of  Assembly  Proceedings,  1637-58,  in  Bo/man, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  55. 


1638.] 


THE   SECOND  ASSEMBLY. 


507 


special  provision.1  This  belief  seems  sustained  by  the  recorded  fact, 
that  when  the  Assembly  immediately  afterward  proposed  "  to  agree 
upon  some  laws  till  [they]  could  hear  from  England  again,"  the  Presi- 
dent (Calvert)  denied  "  any  such  power  to  be  in  the  house  ;  "  a  de- 
cision which  was  warmly  contested,  and  finally  overruled,  committees 
being  appointed  to  prepare  a  draft  to  be  submitted  to  Lord  Balti- 
more. 

Long  delays  followed,  and  several  adjournments  of  the  Assembly 

intervened  before  this  draft  of  "  twenty 

If  IM^!  itp  *tm  laws  "  was  finally  approved  and  signed 

™  by  the   members  on  March  24th,  the 

last  day  of  the  session  ;  but  in  the  mean 
time  the  body,  using  the  common  law 


Clayborne's  Petition. 

of  England  and  the  English  methods  of  procedure  in  default  of  a  code 
of  its  own,  busied  itself  with  matters  quite  as  pressing.  An  inquiry 
was  ordered  into  the  fight  between  the  pinnaces,  three  years  before  at 
Wighcomoco.  The  result  of  this  was  the  acquittal  of  all  the  Mary- 
landers,  the  formal  indictment  of  Clayborne,  and  a  bill  of  attainder 
passed  against  him  ;  while  Thomas  Smith,  next  in  rank  after  Ratcliff 

1  This  reasonable  belief  is  adopted  by  Grahame,  Bacon,  MacSherry,  Bozman,  Bancroft 
and  others ;  but  taken  in  conjunction  with  other  acts  and  circumstances  of  the  time,  need* 
no  authority  to  justify  it. 


508  MARYLAND  UNDER  LEONARD  CALVERT.       [CHAP.  XIX. 

Warren  on  the  Virginian  vessel,  was  brought  to  the  bar,  tried,  and 
sentenced  to  be  hanged,  without  benefit  of  clergy.1 

Clayborne  himself,  meanwhile,  busily  at  work  in  England,  had 
come  near  to  turning  the  tables  on  his  Maryland  antago- 
intrigu™ein  nists.  On  his  arrival  he  had  presented  to  the  king  a  peti- 
tion, setting  forth  his  "  wrongs  and  injuries,"  citing  the  li- 
censes under  which  he  had  acted  in  making  his  settlement  on  Kent 
Island,  and  pleading  his  cause  with  such  address,  that  he  very  nearly 
gained  not  only  the  end  he  had  first  sought,  but  an  enormous  grant 
besides.  The  king,  to  whom  he  had  held  out  hopes  of  a  direct  gain 
from  the  rents  he  would  pay  for  what  he  should  receive,  favored  him, 
though  not  in  any  very  definite  way ;  but  the  lords  commissioners  for 
plantations  finally  decided  sharply  against  him,  declaring  "  that  the 
ciaybome  lands  in  question  absolutely  belonged  to  Lord  Baltimore,  and 
defeated.  ^hat  no  plantation,  or  trade  with  the  Indians,  ought  to  be 
allowed  within  the  limits  of  his  patent,  without  his  permission.  And 
that  with  regard  to  violences  complained  of,  no  cause  for  any  relief 
appeared,  but  that  both  parties  should  be  left  to  the  ordinary  course 
of  justice."2  Clayborne  went  back  to  Virginia,  his  immediate  end  de- 
feated, but  his  purpose  as  positive  as  ever  ;  and  for  a  longer  time  than 
before,  though  he  struggled  against  the  restraints  upon  him,  he  was 
compelled  to  leave  his  enemies  in  peace. 

The  Maryland  Assembly  of  1638  was  not  more  fortunate  than  that 
of  three  years  before,  in  securing  the  assent  of  Lord  Bal- 
of  the  A?-P  timore  to  the  code  of  laws  which  it  proposed  ;  but  it  won 
a  much  greater  victory  in  gaining  at  least  a  qualified  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  principle  at  issue.  For  the  proprietary,  immedi- 
ately after  receiving  the  report  of  the  session  at  St.  Mary's,  wrote  a 
letter  to  his  brother  the  governor,  in  which,  while  reserving  his  right 
of  dissent,  he  virtually  yielded  to  the  freemen  the  right  for  which  they 
had  contended.  That  the  letter  was  thus  interpreted  is  evident,  from 
the  fact  that  the  next  Assembly  regarded  the  question  as  settled  in 
their  favor,  and  did  not  again  discuss  it. 

The  colony  was  ere  long  disturbed  by  the  enmity  of  the  Susquehan- 
nah  Indians,  who,  jealous,  perhaps,  of  the  favor  shown  to  other  tribes, 
attacked  scattered  parties  of  colonists,  and  the  outlying  plantations. 
These  hostilities,  however,  assumed  no  very  formidable  aspect,  until 
1642.  Bands  of  the  provincial  militia  were  then  carefully  organized, 

1  "  Then  did  the  prisoner  demand  his  clergy  ;  but  it  was  answered  by  the  President  that 
clergy  could  not  be  allowed  in  his  crime,  and  if  it  might,  yet  now  it  was  demanded  too  late 
after  judgment."     Assembly  Proceedings,  etc. 

2  Report  of  the  Lords  Commissioners,  etc.,  quoted  by  Hazard,   Collections,  i.  p.  130, 
by  Bozman,  ii.,  note  xi.,  p.  584  ;  by  MacSherry,  p.  46,  and  elsewhere,  with  slight  variations. 
Comments  by  Bozman,  ii.  587. 


1642-44.] 


TROUBLE  WITH  THE  INDIANS. 


509 


and  occasionally  sent  out  to  make  retaliation  ;  but  the  Assembly  of 
July,  in  the  year   just  named,  —  there   had  been  others  in   1640, 
1641,  and   March,  1642,  but  their  acts  were  of   little  mo-  Slightdig. 
ment,  —  was  the  first  which  appeared  actually  to  recognize  JroS'in- 
a  state  of    warfare    as   existing;   and    in    September,   the  dians> 
governor  formally  proclaimed  "  that  the  Susquihanowes,  Wicomeses 
and  Nanticoque  Indians  .are  enemies  of  this  province,  and  as  such 
are  to    be   reputed  and  proceeded  against  by  all  persons."     Even 
then  the  fighting  seems  to  have  differed  little  from  the  occasional 


Indian  Attack  on  an  Outlying  Plantation. 


attacks  and  expeditions  of 
the  years  before,  though 
they  were  called,  "  an  In- 
dian war."  They  contin- 
ued from  this  time  until 
1644,  when  binding  trea- 
ties were  made  with  the 
hostile  tribes.  All  that  the 
colonists  suffered  from  these  hostilities,  however,  was  the  annoyance 
and  danger  inevitable  anywhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  savages,  rather 
than  such  a  devastating  and  terrible  calamity  as  almost  always  at- 
tended a  war  with  the  Indians  in  most  of  the  colonies.  Even  at  the 
height  of  the  hostile  feeling,  no  such  universal  measures  of  defence  or 
of  retaliation  were  necessary,  as  had  been  called  for  in  the  early  days 
of  Virginia,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Netherland. 

The  first  really  serious  shock  to  the  tranquillity  of  Maryland  came 
from  within  the  State  itself.  The  earnest,  yet  unusually  tolerant  Ro- 
man Catholics,  under  whose  leadership  the  settlement  had  been  begun, 
no  longer  ruled,  when  it  was  a  few  years  old,  over  an  harmonious 


510  MARYLAND  UNDER  LEONARD   CALVERT.      [CHAP.  XIX. 

people  agreeing  alike  in  politics  and  in  religion.     As  Maryland  had 

grown  and  prospered,  the  privileges  of  its  generous  land-grants  and 

liberal  charter  had  been  shared  with  men  of  all  shades  of  conviction. 

There  had  been  Protestants  and  even  Puritans  in  the  colony  from 

its  very  foundation,  though  at  first  they  were  very  few.     The 

toleration  of  toleration  with  which  they  had  been  treated  and  the  pains 

the  colony.  .....  ,  i        i        • 

taken  to  protect  them  in  their  rights  were  from  the  begin- 
ning remarkable.  In  1638,  for  instance,  it  is  recorded  that  the  Cath- 
olic governor  and  council  severely  fined  an  overseer  for  speaking  abu- 
sively of  a  book  of  sermons  by  an  English  Puritan  ("the  silver- 
tongued  Smith,"  a  preacher  of  much  note),  which  certain  of  his 
subordinates  were  reading  ;  and  similar  examples  of  an  impartial  spirit 
appear  elsewhere  in  the  early  annals.  Protestants  had  been  mem- 
bers of  the  Assembly  and  members  of  the  council ;  nor  does  there  seem 
to  be  any  indication  of  disagreement,  in  the  first  few  years,  between 
them  and  their  fellows  on  public  questions.  But  as  time  went  on,  and 
its  advantages  were  better  understood,  Maryland  became  a  very  asy- 
lum for  the  persecuted  of  other  provinces.  Puritans  who  had  been 
harshly  treated  in  Virginia  removed  across  the  Maryland  line,  gladly 
accepting  so  near  a  refuge  ;  and  to  those  in  Massachusetts  who  should 
be  persecuted  for  any  independent  opinions,  Calvert  seiit  a  special  in- 
vitation to  make  their  homes  under  his  government.  The  self-in- 
terest of  the  proprietary,  and  a  desire  to  hurry  on  the  growth  of  the 
colony,  doubtless  had  much  to  do  with  this  ;  yet  it  is  impossible  not 
to  acknowledge  the  broad  spirit  of  such  a  course  ;  it  would  have  been 
wise  statesmanship  had  it  not  been  a  little  beyond  the  appreciation  of 
many  who  profited  by  it. 

Differences  between  the  two  parties  were  inevitable,  and  these  wi- 
dened into  an  impassable  breach  as  the  conflict  between  king  and  Par- 
liament grew  more  and  more  intense  in  England,  and  the  growing 
power  of  the  Parliament  at  home  stimulated  its  adherents  through  all 
the  colonies. 

The  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  England,  in  1642,  hastened  the  crisis 
of  these  discontents.  Lord  Baltimore  was  a  supporter  of  the 
king,  though  he  seems  to  have  tried,  and  at  first  with  more 
on  Mary-  success  than  many  others,  to  keep  on  fair  terms  with  the  Par- 
liament also ;  and  this  especially  in  matters  relating  to  his 
American  grant,  for  the  very  existence  of  which  he  had  cause  to  fear 
in  case  of  the  Parliament's  victory.  As  the  power  of  that  body  ap- 
peared more  formidable,  the  greatest  care  was  needed  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  province  itself,  lest  the  complaints  of  the  discontented 
Puritans  should  grow  loud  enough  to  attract  parliamentary  attention 
^o  the  colony's  affairs ;  —  attention  which  would  be  fatal  to  the  pro- 


1G43.]  CLAYBORXE'S   OPPORTUNITY,  oil 

prietor,  if  the  English  Commons  should  think  fit  to  interfere  in  favor 
of  their  Maryland  adherents,  and  support  them  in  an  attempt  to  gain 
control.  It  was  necessary  to  conciliate,  and  probably  for  this  purpose 
the  proprietary  wrote  particularly  in  1642,  that  "  no  ecclesiastic  in  the 
province  ought  to  expect,  nor  is  Lord  Baltimore,  nor  any  of  his  officers, 
although  they  are  Roman  Catholics,  obliged  in  conscience  to  allow  to 
such  ecclesiastics  any  more  or  other  privileges  ....  than  is  allowed 
by  his  majesty  or  officers  to  like  persons  in  England."  l  This  and  sim- 
ilar declarations  may  have  produced  an  effect  at  home ;  but  in  the 
province  itself  the  parties  were  too  strongly  divided  to  admit  of  con- 
cession or  compromise.  Puzzled  by  the  various  and  contradictory  de- 
mands of  the  time,  Leonard  Calvert  sailed  for  England  in  April,  1643, 
to  consult  in  person  with  his  brother,  leaving  Giles  Brent,  a  councillor, 
to  govern  as  his  deputy. 

While  affairs  were  thus  confused,  Clay  borne,  quiet  for  a  while,  and 
holding  a  life-appointment  as  treasurer  of  Virginia,  which  he  Clayborne-g 
had  obtained  by  favoring  the   king  when   hostilities   first  Jor^taifa'-7 
broke  out,  seized  his  opportunity  of  retaliation  against  Mary-  tlon 
land  by  stirring  up  the  parliamentary  faction  in  Maryland  to  a  rebel- 
lion against  the  government  of  Baltimore.     His  designs  were  aided  by 
an  unforeseen  event.      In   1643,  the  king,  then  at  Oxford,  commis- 
sioned Lord  Baltimore,  through  his  colonial  officers,  to  seize  any  ships 
from   London   or  belonging  to  the   parliament  party,   on  which  his 
people  might  be  able  to  lay  hands.     About  the  beginning  of  the  next 
year  such  a  seizure  was  actually  made  by  order  of  Calvert's 
deputy,  Brent,  the  vessel  of  one  Richard  Ingle  being  cap-  Pariument- 
tured  on  its  arrival  at  St.  Mary's,  though  its  commander  ***  * 
escaped  and  made  his  way  to  England.     Brent  issued  a  proclamation 
requiring  him  to  appear  and  answer  a  charge  of  treason  ;  and  endeav- 
ored to  exact  from  the  captured  crew  an  oath  against  Parliament,  and 
a  promise  to  take  the  ship  to  Bristol,  which  the  king  then  held. 

Amid  the  intense  excitement  which  followed  this  step,  Clayborne 
took  advantage  of  the  always  hostile  disposition  of  the  people  0isybOTne 
of  the  Isle  of  Kent.  He  seems  to  have  had  no  difficulty  in  S^™^' 
again  possessing  himself  of  that  disputed  region.  When  Kent  I8l»nd- 
Calvert  returned  in  1644  he  found  the  province  in  a  state  of  anarchy, 
the  factions  almost  at  open  war,  the  Puritan  party  in  unconcealed 
rebellion  against  his  government,  and  the  old  and  dreaded  enemy  of 
the  colony  in  possession  of  his  claims  within  her  borders.  Moreover, 
he  had  hardly  reached  Maryland  when  Ingle  arrived  from  England 
in  the  ship  Reformation,  commanded  by  him  under  a  letter  of  marque 
from  the  Parliament,  —  prepared  to  venture  again,  as  his  petition  to 

1  Neill's  Terra  Afariie,  p.  107. 


512 


MARYLAND   UNDER  LEONARD   CALVERT.       [CHAP.  XIX. 


that  body  declared  he  had  done  before,  "  his  life  and  fortune  in  .... 
assisting  the  well-affected  Protestants  against  the  tyrannical  govern- 
ment." All  the  parliament  party  in  the  province  rose  to  the  aid  of 
him  and  of  Clay  borne ;  and  the  governor  and  council,  with  the  chief 
of  their  supporters,  were  driven  from  the  colony  and  forced  to  take 
refuge  in  Virginia.  Captain  Edward  Hill,  a  Virginian,  was  made 
governor ;  but  the  control  of  the  conquered  province  was  virtually  in 
the  hands  of  the  two  leaders  of  the  insurrection. 

Their  position,  however,  was  not  strong  enough  to  be  a  comfortable 

one.     History  and  tradition  alike  speak  of  their  rule  as  turbulent, 

though  all  but  its  mere  outline  is  unrecorded.     The  Catho- 

Turbulent  . 

rule  in  the  hcs,  among  whom  their  bitterest  opponents  were  of  course 
peaceful  to  be  found,  still  formed  a  considerable  part  of  the  popu- 
lation ;  and  the  hope  which  they  doubtless  nourished  of  a 
speedy  restoration  of  the  proprietary,  was  fostered  by  the  oppressive 
acts  of  Clayborne's  government.  It  is  probable,  though  it  cannot 


Chancellor's  Point  from    St.  Inigoe's. 


be  fully  decided  by  the  scanty  evidence  tradition  furnishes,  that  the 
Catholic  priests,  long  so  powerful  a  class  at  St.  Mary's,  withdrew  at 
this  time  from  the  town,  and  established  the  Jesuit  mission  farther 
from  the  stormy  centre  of  affairs,  where  interference,  if  not  confisca- 
tion of  their  lands,  was  daily  to  be  feared. 

At  the  lower  end  of  the  bay  of  St.  Ignatius  (of  whose  name  St. 
Inigoe  is  an  old  and  once  common  corruption),  was  a  bluff  much  like 
that  at  St.  Mary's,  though  lower  and  less  picturesque.  From  it,  look- 
ing to  the  north  across  the  bay,  could  be  seen  the  point  of  first  landing 
(Chancellor's  Point)  ;  and  to  the  south  the  view  extended  to  the 
mouth  of  St.  Mary's  River.  It  was  a  commanding  site ;  and  on  it, 
though  whether  before  or  just  after  this  period  is  not  certain,  Governor 
Calvert  erected  a  fort  which  effectually  guarded  the  approach  to  the 
town  above.  Near  or  within  the  fort  stood  a  mill,  and  about  it  a  few 
scattered  buildings.  No  ruins  of  fort  or  houses  remain,  save  a  few 


1643.]  RESTORATION   OF   CALVERT.  513 

scattered  bricks  and  hewn  stones  ;  but  several  cannon,  perhaps  placed 
on  the  ramparts  in  the  time  of  Calvert  himself,  have  been  drawn 
from  the  river,  where  the  washing  away  of  the  sandy  bluff  had  left 
them. 

It  is  to  this  point  that  the  Jesuits  perhaps  removed  their  chief  sta- 
tion during  Clayborne's  usurpation.     They  are  found  there 
but  a  few  vears  later :  and  from  the  time  of  these  events  St.  mon  at  st. 

.      .       .         ,  Inigoe'8. 

Inigoe's  and  not  St.  Mary's  appears  as  their  headquarters. 
Here  they  built  a  chapel  on  a  site  still  pointed  out;  and  a  new 
churchyard,  to  which  the  Catholic  dead  of  the  colony  seem  to  have 
been  carried  after  this  change,  still  makes  green  a  broad  field  of  wheat 
near  by.  A  Jesuit  mission  is  still  kept  up  at  St.  Inigoe's,  and  the 
traditions  of  the  place  make  the  present  chapel  the  third  in  order 
from  that  of  the  early  settlers. 


Church  near  the  Site  of  the   First  Jesuit  Chapel. 

The  rule  of  Clayborne's  governor  and  his  supporters  was,  however, 
to  be  of  short  duration.  During  the  winter  following  his  flight,  Cal- 
vert collected  his  adherents  on  the  Virginia  border,  and  though  his 
force  was  small,  he  so  skilfully  surprised  St.  Mary's  in  April,  while 
Clayborne  was  at  Kent  Island  and  Ingle  probably  in  England,1  that 
he  captured  the  place  with  but  little  resistance  or  bloodshed,2  The  proprie. 
and  was  reinstated  in  the  governorship  as  suddenly  as  he  aentgreln™ 
had  been  displaced.  A  period  of  disorder  and  partial  an-  8tated 
archy  followed,  which  left  the  colony  at  Calvert's  return,  exhausted 
and  impoverished  ;  even  the  malcontents  doubtless  were  glad  to  be  again 
under  the  quieter  government  of  the  proprietary.  The  victorious 
governor's  first  care  seems  to  have  been  to  go  in  person  to  Kent 
Island,  attend  to  its  complete  subjection,  and  put  over  it  a  deputy  of 
his  own  appointment,  one  Robert  Vaughan,  a  Protestant.  Clayborne 

*  Neill,  Terra  Marice,  p.  112. 

8  It  is  evident  that  there  was  some  fighting,  at  least,  from  the  expressions  in  a  subsequent 
correspondence  between  Governor  Greene  and  Sir  Wm  Berkeley,  quoted  at  length  by  Boz- 
man,  vol.  ii.,  note  Mi.,  pp.  637,  899. 
VOL.  i.  33 


514  MARYLAND   UNDER  LEONARD   CALVERT.         [CiiAP.  XIX. 

appears  to  have  escaped  to  Virginia,  and  Ingle  to  have  remained  in 
England,  where  three  years  later  he  preferred  charges  before  the  Par- 
liament against  Lord  Baltimore's  administration  of  Maryland  affairs, 
but  without  any  definite  result.  All  but  these  two  and  their  immedi- 
ate followers  doubtless  acquiesced  quietly  enough  in  the  rule  of  the 
apparently  lenient  Calvert,  for  no  records  of  attempted  punishment 
appear  in  connection  with  the  governor's  return,  and  three  years  later 
an  act  of  general  amnesty  was  passed.  Only  one  person  connected 
with  the  matter  adopted  a  course  that  calls  for  special  mention.  Cap- 
tain Hill,  who  had  acted  as  governor  while  Calvert  was  deposed,  had 
the  audacity,  some  time  after  the  restoration  of  peace,  to  claim  a  salary 
and  other  compensation  for  his  services  in  the  office,  on  the  ground 
that  he  had  occupied  it  as  Calvert's  representative,  the  council  having 
power  to  nominate  such  a  one  in  case  of  the  governor's  absence.  In  a 
long  "petition"  he  contradicted  himself  by  calling  Calvert's  return 
an  "  invasion,"  represented  himself  as  still  entitled  to  his  office,  and  put 
together  a  strange  tissue  of  absurdities  which  were  promptly  rejected 
by  the  governor's  successor  ;  for  the  correspondence  did  not  take  place 
until  death  had  put  a  sudden  end  to  Calvert's  long  and  able  rule. 
The  governor  died  on  the  ninth  of  June,  1647,  after  an  illness  that 
seems  to  have  seized  him  on  his  return  from  the  Isle  of  Kent. 

Death  of 

Governor  "  Lying  upon  his  death-bed,  yet  in  perfect  memory,"  he  ap- 
pointed Thomas  Green,  one  of  his  council,  to  be  his  succes- 
sor, and  Mistress  Margaret  Brent,  an  unmarried  sister  of  that  Giles 
Brent  who  had  once  acted  as  his  deputy,  to  be  his  administratrix.1 
It  is  possible,  as  has  been  suggested  in  comments  on  this  appoint- 
ment,2 that  the  Brent  family  were  related  to  the  Calverts ;  at  all 
events,  they  stood  around  the  dying  governor's  bed  when  his  last 
wishes  were  expressed ;  and  Mistress  Brent  subsequently  proved  her- 
self worthy  of  the  trust  reposed  in  her,  if  not  by  her  judgment,  at 
least  by  her  remarkable  strength  of  will  and  almost  masculine  energy 
and  understanding  in  business. 

With  Calvert's  administration  ends  that  earliest  period  of  Mary- 
land's history,  which  the  loss  of  records  and  the  absence  of  personal 
narratives  render  somewhat  more  dim  and  vague  than  the  busy  begin- 
of  nings  of  its  sister  colonies.  The  great  outlines  of  its  growth 
r-  remain,  but  we  must  fill  them  out  by  inference  rather  than 
uies.  j.^  knowledge.  Nothing  of  that  abundance  of  picturesque 

detail,  of  quaintly  told  personal  experience,  of  description  of  the  every- 
day life  of  the  settlers,  which  gives  its   vividness  to  the  early  history 

1  Kilty's  Landholder's  Assistant,  p.   104,  in  Bozman,  vol.  ii.,  p.  315;  and  Neill's  Terra 
MnricK,  112,  and  113  note. 

*  Bozman,  vol.  ii.,  p.  307,  note. 


1647.]  DEATH   OF   GOVERNOR  CALVERT.  515 

of  Virginia  and  New  England,  had  come  down  to  us  from  the  quieter 
Catholic  province.     The  Jesuit  Father  White's  simple  and  beautiful 


Fac-simile  of  MS.  Records.1 

1  For  many  years  the  MS.  records  of  Maryland,  to  which  Bozman  and  others  writing  in 
the  early  part  of  this  century  appear  to  have  had  access,  have  been  lost.  In  December,  1 875, 
a  box  of  old  papers,  supposed  to  be  worthless,  was  to  be  sold  from  the  record  office  at  An- 
napolis, when,  on  a  careful  examination  of  its  contents,  a  portion  of  the  MS.  covering:  a 
considerable  period  subsequent  to  Calvert's  death  was  discovered,  in  an  almost  complete 
state  of  preservation.  Without  disclosing  any  new  facts  of  moment,  it  bears  witness  to  the 
correctness  of  Bozman's  transcripts.  In  the  text  4  fac-simile  is  given  of  a  part  of  the  page 
bearing  Clerk  Bretton's  record  of  Calvert's  death-bed  appointment  of  Green.  It  runs  as 
follows :  — 

Whereas  by  Commis0?  from  ye  R^  Honble  Cecill,  L"?  Propr  of  ye  Province  of  Mary  Land 
to  ye  late  Gouernor  Leonard  Caluart  Esqr*  bearing  date  ye  18th  Septemhr  1644  att  his  Lps 
[Lordship's]  Fort  att  S'.  Maries  in  ye  s"?  Province  Heeye  sd  Leon.  Calvert  was  authorized, 
in  case  hee  should  happen  to  dye,  or  be  absent  from  time  to  time,  out  of  ye  sd  Province  to 
nominate  elect  &  appoint  such  an  able  person  inhabiting  &  residing  \vthin  ye  sd  Province 
(as  he  on  his  discretion  should  make  choice  of,  &  thiuke  fitt)  to  be  Governor  of  y*  s"?  Prov- 
ince. These  are  therefore  to  publish  &  declare  to  all  those  whom  it  may  coucerne  y«  y*  sd 
Leon.  Calvert  did  by  word  of  mouth  on  the  Ninth  day  of  June  1647  (lying  uppon  his  death 
bed,  yett  in  perfect  memory)  nominate  &  appoint  Thomas  Greene  E.<qr  one  of  ye  Couusell  of 
this  Province,  to  be  Governor  of  ye  same,  wth  all  ye  same  authority  &  power  of  goverm'  as 
he  y«  sd  Leonard  Calvert  was  authorized  by  his  Lps  Commisn  to  confcrro  uppou  him.  As 
by  ye  oaths  of  Mrs  Margaret  &  Mary  Brent,  Francis  Aukesill  &  James  Liusey  (who  were 
all  then  present  wth  him  att  ye  same  time)  is  averred  to  be  true. 

Teste  me  Willm  Bretton,  Clk. 


516 


MARYLAND  UNDER  LEONARD   CALVERT.        [CHAP.  XIX. 


journal  throws  a  pleasant  light  upon  the  settlement's  earliest  days ; 
but  the  story  of  his  own  and  his  companions'  journeys  among  the 
Indians  along  the  Potomac,  of  their  pious  devotion  and  endurance, 
their  hardships  and  bloodless  victories,  hardly  belongs  to  the  annals  of 
the  State  itself,  but  rather  to  the  history  of  that  remarkable  priesthood 
whose  adventures  read  like  passages  of  a  romance. 

Enough  remains  of  the  annals  of  Lord  Baltimore's  colony,  however, 
to  show  most  plainly  those  distinctive  features  which  separated  its 
founders  sharply  from  all  the  other  strongly-marked  types  from  which 
the-  varying  races  of  the  future  nation  sprang.  Here  were  men 
trained  in  a  different  school  from  New  Englanders  or  Virginians; 
men  with  a  singular  mixture  of  religious  enthusiasm,  culture,  practical 
shrewdness,  and  liberal  statesmanship ;  far  enough  in  advance  of  their 
age  to  take  warning  from  the  errors  of  others,  and  while  they  founded 
a  province  in  which  were  mingled  feudal  and  popular,  despotic  and 
constitutional  institutions,  to  administer  it  with  such  prudence  that  it 
grew  strong  and  gained  permanence  more  quickly  and  tranquilly  than 
any  of  its  predecessors. 


Shawmut. 

CHAPTER   XX. 

MASSACHUSETTS   BAY. 

FRESH  EMIGRATION-  TO  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  A  NEW  CHARTER. — ARRIVAL  OF  HIG- 
GINSON  AND  SKELTON. — THE  FlRST  CHURCH  AT  SALEM. — THE  CASE  OF  JOHN 
AND  SAMUEL  BROWNE.  —  THEY  ARE  ORDERED  BACK  TO  ENGLAND  BY  EXDICOTT. 
—  THE  COUNCIL'S  REBUKE.  —  PROPOSED  TRANSFER  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE 
COLONY  TO  NEW  ENGLAND. — PROBABLE  MOTIVES  OF  THE  COUNCIL  IN  PROCURING 
THE  PATENT.  —  THE  CAMBRIDGE  CONFERENCE.  —  WINTHROP  CHOSEN  GOVERNOR. — 
DEPARTURE  FOR  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  His  FAREWELL  ADDRESS  TO  ENGLISH  CHURCH- 
MEN.—  OLDHAM  AND  BRERETON'S  PATENTS. —  SETTLEMENTS  IN  AND  ABOUT  BOS- 
TON.—  OLD  SETTLERS  ABOUT  THE  BAY.  —  THE  COMING  OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS. 

IN  June,  1629,  three  vessels  entered  the  harbor  of  Salem,  followed 
a  few  days  later  by  three   others.     They  carried,  besides  Arrivalof 
their  crews,  four  hundred  and  six  men,  women,  and  children,   "fJJgCatloga. 
one  hundred  and  forty  head  of  cattle,  forty  goats,  a  large  lem- 
stock  of  provisions,  of  tools,  of  arms,  of  all  things  necessary  to  plant  a 
a  colony.1     No  enterprise  so  well  appointed  as  this  at  the  start  had 
heretofore  been  sent  to  North  America. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Plymouth  people,  all  the  colonies  hitherto 
had  been  commercial  adventures,  managed  in  an  office  in  London.  In- 
deed, Plymouth  even  was  not  without  this  purely  trading  purpose, 

1  This  is  Prince's  statement — in  the  Chronology  —  on  the  authority  of  the  colonial  rec- 
ords, and  according  to  the  warrant  of  the  lord-treasurer,  for  the  transportation.  Dudley,  in 
his  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln  (vol.  ii.  Force's  Historical  Tracts  and  Young's  Chron- 
icles), says,  "  about  300  ]>eople  ;  "  Francis  Higginson,  in  his  New  Em/land's  Plantation,  says, 
"we  brought  with  us  about  two  hundred  passengers,"  but  he  refers  doubtless  to  the  first 
three  ships  only. 


518  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  [CHAP.  XX. 

•which,  however  necessary  to  its  making  a  beginning,  was  not  its  im- 
pelling motive,  while  the  shrewd  men  who  governed  there  soon  saw 
that  it  must  be  rendered  subsidiary  to  the  interests  of  the  colonists 
themselves,  who  were  men  and  not  machinery.  In  Virginia,  already 
for  twenty  years,  the  experiment  —  presently  to  be  repeated  in  Mary- 
land —  of  founding  a  commonwealth  upon  the  labor  of  bondsmen  and 
the  production  of  one  great  staple  of  trade,  had  proved  to  be  success- 
ful, so  far  as  it  was  successful  at  all,  only  in  spite  of  its  inherent 
viciousness.  New  Netherland  was  a  great  Dutch  trading-post,  where 
patroons  took  the  place  of  tobacco-planters  ;  Dutch  boors  served  in- 
stead of  servants  for  a  term  of  years,  sometimes  taken  from  the 
English  jails,  or  scraped  together  from  the  most  wretched  of  the  Eng- 
lish poor.  Just  so  far  as  this  trading  spirit  was  subordinated  to  some 
higher  purpose  ;  just  so  far  as  men  were  held  higher  than  merchandise 
and  the  poor  man's  chance  as  of  greater  value  than  the  rich  man's 
opportunity,  there  these  early  colonies  struck  deepest  root,  and  became 
the  soonest  strong  and  prosperous. 

Charles  I.  had  been  king  only  about  four  years,  but  there  were 

already  signs  in  England,  significant  enough  to  those  who  were  wise, 

of  coming  trouble.     Influences   and   events  were  gradually 

Character  .  J 

and  causes     preparing  men  for  a  stormy  future,  and  the  number  of  those 

of  the  new        r      r  •  .  . 

Puritan  \vtto  sought  to  escape  from  it  was  rapidly  increasing.  These 
persons  were  not  like  the  Pilgrims,  bound  together  as  with 
hooks  of  steel,  by  years  of  exile  and  poverty,  but  they,  nevertheless 
were  Puritans,  earnest  Protestants  against  the  corruptions  and  for- 
malities of  the  established  church  ;  some  even  Non-conformists  ;  and 
all  turning  their  faces  wistfully  toward  the  new  land,  where  perhaps 
distance  and  obscurity  might  secure  to  them  religious  and  political 
freedom  —  at  least  would  take  them  out  of  the  thick  of  the  evils 
which  they  knew  could  not  be  escaped  much  longer  at  home. 

The  movement,  begun  at  Dorchester  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  White,  with 
no  more  ambitious  purpose  than  to  plant  a  colony  of  fish- 
ermen  at  Cape  Ann  ;  growing  then  to  the  larger  project 


under  Endicott  with  a  grant  of  lands  from  the  Plymouth 
Company,  had  assumed  other  proportions  under  a  royal  patent.  The 
new  corporation  was  styled  "  The  Governor  and  Company  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England."1 

Of  this  company  Matthew  Cradock,2  a  London  merchant,  was  the 

1  By  Massachusetts  Bay  was  understood,  at  that  time,  what  is  now  called  Boston  Har- 
bor, from  Nahant  to  Poiiit  Alderton.  Winthrop's  History  of  New  England,  by  James 
Savage,  vol.  i.,  p.  27. 

a  Endicott's  wife  was  a  cousin  of  Cradock's.  The  exposure  and  hardships  of  the  first 
winter  were  a  sore  affliction  to  Endicott's  people,  and  among  those  who  died,  it  is  sup- 
posed, was  Mrs.  Endicott.  Dr.  Fuller,  the  physician  at  New  Plymouth,  was  sent  by  Gov- 


1629.] 


MAP    OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


519 


FAC-SIMILE      FROM   SMITH'S  GENERAL   HISTORY. 


520 


MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


governor  in  England.  These  six  ships  —  one  was  the  Mayflower, 
which,  nine  years  before,  had  carried  the  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth  — 
arriving  in  June,  at  Salem,  with  this  well-appointed  colony,  were 
sent  out  by  the  new  company.  The  grant  made  by  its  patent  was 
from  the  Merrimack  to  the  Charles  River.  Endicott  was  confirmed 
by  the  directors  in  London  as  the  governor  of  the  colony  already 
planted  at  Salem.  "  The  propagating  of  the  Gospel,"  he  was  told  in 
the  first  letter  of  instructions,  "  is  the  thing  we  do  profess 

JohnEndi-  .  .      _,.  & 

cottmade      above  all  to  be  our  aim  in  settling  this  Plantation.       Cer- 
tainly to  no  more  zealous  hands  than  Endicott's  could  such 
a  work  be  entrusted.     There  was  neither  weakness   nor   hesitation  in 

his  method  of  propagandism,  and 
none  who  stood  in  his  way  need  ex- 
pect mercy. 

He  was  to  be  aided,  his  instruc- 
tions told  him,  by  "  a  plentiful  pro- 
vision of  godly  ministers."  There 
were  four  in  the  fleet,  three  of 
whom  were  appointed  to  be  mem- 
bers of  the  Council.  The  fourth, 
the  Reverend  Ralph  Smith,  was 
rather  permitted  to  go  than  encour- 
aged, as  it  was  found  that  there  was 
a  "  difference  in  judgment  in  some 
things  "  between  him  and  the  other 
ministers.  What  that  difference  was  they  do  not  choose  to  say,  but 
it  was  only  that  Smith  was  a  pronounced  Separatist  in  England,  and 
the  others  were  not  till  they  were  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean. 
"  Unless  he  will  be  conformable  to  our  government,"  was  the  order  of 
the  letter  of  instructions,  "  suffer  him  not  to  remain  within  the  limits 
of  our  grant."  Mr.  Smith  was  clearly  not  needed,  and,  whether  sent 
thither  or  not,  we  next  hear  of  him  living  with  his  family,  in  destitu- 
tion apparently,  at  Nantasket.  Some  of  the  Plymouth  people  found 
him  there,  and  moved  with  pity,  took  him  home  with  them,  and  for 
several  years  he  was  their  minister.  If  there  was  any  fault  in  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Smith  it  was  probably  an  excess  of  stupidity,  for  in  zeal  he 
seems  to  have  made  himself  in  no  way  offensive.  He  is  not  heard 
of  again  for  several  years,  when  "  partly  by  his  own  willingness,  as 
thinking  it  too  heavy  a  burden,  and  partly  at  the  desire,  and  by  the 
persuasion  of  others,"  —  says  the  truthful  Bradford,  but  with  more 

ernor  Bradford  to  minister  to  the  Salem  people  in  their  distress.  The  scurrilous  Morton 
of  Merry  Mount,  who  spared  nobody,  calls  Fuller  "  Dr.  Noddy,"  who,  he  says,  "did  a  great 
cure  for  Captain  Littleworth  [Endicott].  He  cured  him  of  a  disease  called  a  wife." 


Endicott. 


1629.]  RELIGION   AND  POLITICS.  521 

of  euphemism  than  he  often  used,  —  he  resigned  his  place  of  min- 
ister. 

Apparently  it  was  not  Mr.  Smith's  doctrines,  but  his  acting  up  to 
them  by  separation,  that  made  the  London  Council  cautious.  And 
caution  was  no  doubt,  wise,  for  Archbishop  Laud  was  watchful,  and 
Charles  easily  offended.  There  was  no  hesitation,  however,  when 
once  the  colonists  were  in  their  new  home,  in  showing  how  they  con- 
strued the  Council's  advice  to  propagate  the  gospel.  The  State  was 
to  rest  on  the  Church,  and  the  church  they  chose  to  establish  was  not 
the  Church  of  England.  "  Touching  your  judgment  of  the  outward 
form  of  God's  worship,"  — 
Endicott  wrote  to  Governor 

Bradford,  a  month   before 

.,  .     ,    f  .,         •-, 

the  arrival  of  the  ministers,    ^_ 

who  were  to  be  of  his  coun-  ^/    f^  ^ 

oil,  and  with  whom  came  the  ^^/S) '  (°Aifl-L 

instructions    from    London  f         / 

—  "  it  is,  as  far  as  I  can  yet  ' 

gather,  no  other  than  is  war-  signature  of  Endicott 

ranted  by  the  evidence  of  truth,  and  the  same  which  I  have  professed 
and  maintained  ever  since  the  Lord  in  mercy  revealed  Himself  unto 
me."  l  When  the  ministers  arrived  he  and  they  acted  in  accordance 
with  this  avowal. 

Two  of  them,  Messrs.  Skelton  and  Higginson,  were  not  Separatists, 
but,  for  the  distinction  was  carefully  preserved,  Non-Conformists. 
The  third,  Mr.  Bright,  was  neither,  but  still  a  Conformist.  Before 
six  weeks  had  passed  the  religious  character  of  the  colony  was  deter- 
mined ;  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  held ;  Skelton  was  chosen 
pastor  and  Higginson  teacher ;  the  Plymouth  Church  was  invited 
to  send  delegates  to  the  installation,  and  Bradford  and  some  others 
"  gave  them  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  wishing  all  prosperity,  and 
a  blessed  success  to  such  good  beginnings."  A  Confession  of  ReUgionand 
Faith  and  Covenant,  according  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  —  one  {£" "^in 
article  of  which  was  upon  the  Duty  and  Power  of  Magistrates  colon>- 
in  matters  of  Religion  —  was  adopted ;  the  book  of  Common  Prayer 
was  discarded  ;  the  rite  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  were  admin- 
istered without  the  ceremonies  prescribed  in  the  ritual ;  admission  to 
the  church  was  regulated  in  accordance  with  the  judgment  of  the  elders, 
and  the  life  and  conversation  of  men  were  subjects  of  discipline.  They 
were  neither  Separatists  nor  Anabaptists,  they  said ;  it  was  not  the 
Church  of  England,  nor  its  ordinances  that  they  abandoned,  but  its 
corruptions  and  disorders ;  and  being  now  where  they  had  their  liberty » 

1  Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  265. 


522 


MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


The  Old   Planter's  House.1 


they  neither  could  nor  would  submit  to  them  because  "they  judged 
the  imposition  of  those  things  to  be  sinful  corruptions  in  the  word  of 
God."  i 

This  was  the  understanding  of  Endicott  and  his  friends  as  to  the 
best  and  true  method  of  "  propagating  the  Gospel  "  in  the  new  planta- 

tion. The  London  Council 
was  wary  and  slow  ;  the 
colonists  were  free,  and  the 
archbishop's  arm  was  not 
long  enough  to  reach  across 
the  Atlantic. 

To  these  proceedings  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Bright  gave  no 
countenance.  He  quietly 
withdrew  to  Charlestown  ; 
but  there  also  the  mother 
church  was  without  a  shel- 
ter, and  in  the  course  of 
the  year  he  returned  to  England.  This  silent  protest  seems  to  have 
satisfied  his  sense  of  duty.  But  there  were  others  of  a  more  aggres- 
sive, if  not  a  more  earnest  spirit. 

These  were  two  brothers,  John  and  Samuel  Browne,  the  first  a  law- 
yer, the  other  a  merchant,  "  men  of  estates  and  men  of  parts 
and  port,"  says  Morton.  Both  were  appointed  in  London 
to  be  members  of  the  council  of  thirteen  to  assist  Endicott 
in  the  government  of  the  colony,  and  both  were  commended 
to  his  consideration  and  confidence  by  Cradock.  They  belonged  to 
and  believed  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  would  have  nothing  to 
do  with  this  "  Reformed  Congregation,"  created  by  the  governor  and 
the  two  clergymen.  Nor  was  theirs  merely  a  negative  protest  ;  calling 
about  them  the  few  whose  views  and  feelings  were  in  sympathy 
with  their  own,  they  held  separate  meetings  and  worshipped  God 
according  to  the  ritual.  But  the  liberty  which  the  Salem  Noncon- 
formists loved  for  themselves  was  not  broad  enough  to  include  tol- 
eration for  others.  Endicott  summoned  the  Brownes  before  him. 
Their  course  was  a  "  disturbance  "  to  the  peace  of  the  colony,  and  they 
were  put  upon  their  defence. 

1  Morton's  Memorial,  where  the  fullest  account  is  given  of  the  incidents  attending  the 
formation  of  the  first  church  in  Salem. 

•  The  old  Planter's  House  was  originally  built  at  Cape  Ann  by  the  Dorchester  people. 
One  Richard  Brackenbury  testifies  in  1680  that  the  London  Company  having  bought  out 
the  Dorchester  Company,  sent  a  party  to  Cape  Ann  to  pull  down  the  house  and  remove 
it  to  Salem  for  Endicott's  use.  It  was  accordingly  removed  to  Salem.  In  1792  it  was 
altered,  but  the  above  cut  shows  it  as  originally  built. 


" 


1629.] 


JOHN  AND   SAMUEL  BROWNE. 


523 


Their  defence  was  an  accusation.  The  ministers,  they  said,  had 
departed  from  the  order  of  the  Church  of  England ;  they  could 
hardly  have  failed  to  remind  them  that  in  the  formation  of  the  Com- 
pany and  in  the  procuring  of  the  charter  from  the  king,  there  was  no 
open  assertion  —  whatever  secret  purpose  there  may  have  been  —  that 
there  was  to  be  such  departure  ;  much  less  that  those  should  be  pro- 
scribed who  still  held  to  the  rites  and  ordained  form  of  worship  of 
the  Established  Church.  The  logic  of  the  situation  was  on  their  side. 
Those  who  for  conscience'  sake  had  suffered  from  intolerance,  should 
have  too  much  conscience  to  be  intolerant  of  others.  Did  freedom  to 
worship  God  mean  that  those  who  fled  from  a  persecuting  church 
should  straightway  form  themselves  into  a  church  that  persecuted  ? 

The  ministers  answered  as  best  they  could.  They  met  rather  than 
made  accusations,  and  denied  that  they  were  Separatists  or  Anabap- 
tists ;  they  were  Non-conformists  only  because  the  prayer-book  and 
the  ceremonies  were  of  man  and  not  of  God,  and  covered  sinful  cor- 
ruption in  the  Church.  They  had  suffered  much  and  had  fled  from 
persecution ;  and  it  was 
plain  that  thereafter  they 
and  the  Church  could  not 
dwell  together.  That  the 
liberty  they  had  contended 
for  and  gained  was  a  lib- 
erty cherished  for  them- 
selves and  not  for  others 
was  clear  enough.  That 
evidently  was  their  limita- 
tion ;  the  gain  was  one  too 
precious  to  be  imperilled  by  being  shared.  They  only  remembered 
that  they  had  escaped  from  a  persecuting  church,  and  for  its  visible 
signs  among  them  they  had  no  toleration,  though  those  signs  were 
in  innocent  hands.  The  practical  dealing  with  the  ques- 

,,  .    .  r<     T  i  i  i        •         The  Browiies 

tion  they  left  to  Endicott,   who  was  stronger  than  logic,  sent  back  to 
He  told  the  Brownes  "  that  New  England    was   no   place 
for  such  as  they,"  J  and  sent  them  back  to  England  with  the  return- 
ing fleet. 

The  first  six  weeks  had  determined  the  policy  and  the  history  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  "  There  are  lately  arrived  here,"  wrote 
the  Company  to  the  ministers  in  October,  "being  sent  from  the  gov- 
ernor, Mr.  Endicott,  as  men  factious  and  evil  conditioned,  John  and 
Samuel  Browne,  being  brothers  ;  who,  since  their  arrival  have  raised 
rumors,  (as  we  hear)  of  divers  scandalous  and  intemperate  speeches 

1  Mortou's  Memorial. 


Endicott's  Sun  Dial  and  other  Colonial  Relics. 


524  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  [CHAP.  XX. 

passed  from  one  or  both  of  you  in  your  public  sermons  or  prayers  in 
New  England  as  also  of  some  innovations  attempted  by  you."  Ex- 
horting them,  then,  to  clear  themselves,  if  innocent,  of  these  charges, 
or  to  repent  if  otherwise,  as  the  Council  must  "  disallow  any  such  pas- 
sages," they  add  "  we  are  tender  of  the  least  aspersion,  which  either 
directly  or  obliquely,  may  be  cast  upon  the  state  here."  l  And  in  a 
letter  to  the  governor  they  are  still  more  cautious,  but  explicit.  "  Yet 
for  that  we  do  consider,"  they  write,  "  that  you  are  in  a  government 
newly  founded,  and  want  that  assistance  which  the  weight  of  such  a 
business  doth  require,  we  may  have  leave  to  think  that  it  is  possible 
some  undigested  counsels  have  too  suddenly  been  put  in  execution, 
which  may  have  ill  construction  with  the  State  here,  and  make  us  ob- 
noxious to  the  adversary.  Let  it  therefore  seem  good  unto  you  to  be 
very  sparing  in  introducing  any  laws  or  commands  which  may  render 
yourself  or  us  distasteful  to  the  State  here  to  which  (as  we  ought) 
we  must  and  will  have  an  obsequious  eye."  2  It  was  clearly  to  the  sud- 
denness and  rashness  of  the  thing,  and  the  influence  it  might  have 
upon  the  Company's  fortunes,  rather  than  to  the  thing  itself,  that  the 
Council  in  London  objected.  The  letters  were  signed  by  men, — 
Winthrop  and  others,  —  who  were  later  the  leading  men  in  Massa- 
chusetts. It  was  not  the  last  time  they  and  the  impetuous  Endicott 
disagreed.  With  him,  if  anything  was  to  be  done  it  was  well  to  do 
it  quickly. 

Of  the  Brownes  we  hear  little  more.  Their  case  was  referred  to  a 
committee,  —  and  slept  there.  "Though  they  breathed  out  threaten- 
ings,"  says  Morton,  "  both  against  the  Governor  and  the  ministers 
there,  yet  the  Lord  so  disposed  of  all  that  there  was  no  further  incon- 
venience followed  upon  it."  They  had  played  their  part  in  fixing  the 
character  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  There  was  no  remedy 
for  the  proceedings  of  Endicott  and  the  ministers. 

There  could  have  been  no  backward  step,  even  had  there  been  the 
disposition  ;  but  there  was  none.  Cautious  as  the  Company  were  not 
to  offend  the  state,  they  had  a  definite  aim  and  purpose,  and  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Brownes  was  directly  in  the  line  of  it.  They  meant 
that  the  controlvof  the  colony  should  be  transferred  from  England  to 
America  ;  that  it  should  be  governed,  not  by  a  council  in  London, 
under  the  watchful  and  jealous  eyes  of  the  church  and  the  court,  but 
by  its  own  members,  within  its  own  house.  In  the  same  month  that 
Endicott  and  the  ministers  were  gathering  the  people  together  under 
a  new  confession  of  faith  and  covenant,  into  a  visible  Reformed  Con- 

1  The  Company's  Letter  to  the  Ministers.    Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  287 
et  set). 

2  The  Company's  letter  to  Gov.  Endicott,  in  Young,  pp.  290,  291. 


1630.] 


TRANSFER  OF  THE   GOVERNMENT. 


525 


Seal    of  Massachusetts   Bay  Com- 
pany. 


gregation,  Mr.  Cradock  submitted  to  the  London  Council  a  proposi- 
tion for  this  transfer  of  government.  It  would  be,  it  was  Thegovem. 
said,  for  the  advantage  of  the  colony,  and  an  inducement  to  5^^°^ 
persons  of  worth  and  position  to  transport  themselves  and  colony- 
their  families  thither.1  When  first  proposed  in  July,  the  members 
were  asked  to  consider  the  matter  privately,  —  "  to  carry  this  business 
secretly,  that  the  same  be  not  divulged,"  — 
lest  the  design  should  be  interfered  with.  It 
was  a  serious  question  whether,  under  the 
patent,  any  such  removal  of  the  control  of 
the  Company  would  be  legal ;  but  there  was 
no  question  at  all  that  a  precarious  asylum 
only  was  opened  to  those  who  aimed  to  escape 
the  growing  despotism  at  home,  unless  that 
asylum  could  be  relieved  in  some  degree  from 
the  fear  of  interference. 

The  subject  was  carefully  considered  ;  emi- 
nent lawyers  were  consulted  upon  the  legality 
of  such  a  step,  who  pronounced  in  its  favor ; 
and  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  it  was  de- 
cided by  general  consent  that  the  change  be  made.  A  partial  con- 
trol in  regard  to  trade  was  to  remain  with  the  Council  in  London, 
but  the  exclusive  government  of  persons  was  to  go  with  those  who 
should  be  in  authority  in  the  colony  itself. 

That  a  company  should  thus  voluntarily  strip  itself  of  power  has 
sometimes  been  considered  as  difficult  of  explanation  ;  but  there  is 
nothing  remarkable  about  it  if  the  fact  was  that  they  only  possessed 
themselves  of  that  power  to  make  precisely  this  disposition  of  it. 
The  men  engaged  in  this  enterprise  were  men  who  had  a  common 
sympathy  in  their  way  of  thinking  upon  politics  and  religion,  and 
some  of  them  also  certain  personal  relations.  It  was  natural,  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  times,  that  they  should  be  drawn  together  by  a 
common  purpose,  to  secure  somewhere  an  asylum  for  those  who  could 
no  longer  submit  to  the  oppression  to  which  they  were  subjected  both 
in  church  and  state,  which  was  rapidly  growing  intolerable.  To  ob- 
tain a  patent  for  lands  in  America  on  any  such  plea  would,  of  course, 
have  been  impossible  ;  but  Jo  procure  such  a  grant  from  the  king  on 
the  usual  plea,  of  planting  colonies  and  opening  new  sources  of  trade, 
was  neither  a  suspicious  nor  a  difficult  thing  to  do.  Within  five 
months,  however,  of  the  time  of  securing  the  patent,  the  real  object 
seems  to  make  itself  manifest.  The  proposition  is  presented  to  the 

1  See  Records  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  Young's 
Chronicles. 


526  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  [CHAP.  XX. 

Council  to  put  the  essential  government  of  the  colony  in  the  hands  of 
the  colonists,  but  with  the  exhortation  to  its  members  to  keep  the 
matter  quiet.  When  the  action  of  Endicott  and  the  ministers  in  re- 
gard to  the  Brownes  was  known  in  London,  those  zealous  persons 
were  rebuked,  not  for  the  formation  of  a  reformed  church,  nor  for  the 
expulsion  of  those  who  were  obnoxious  to  the  new  establishment,  but 
for  want  of  prudence  lest  the  state  should  be  alarmed  and  offended. 

Meanwhile  the  plans  of  the  Council  were  pushed  to  a  conclusion, 
and  in  October  the  necessary  change  was  made  in  the  board  of  offi- 
cers which  invested  the  government  of  the  colony  in  its  i*esident  mem- 
bers. That  the  precedent  thus  established  was  in  after  years  followed 
even  with  the  royal  sanction,  and  without  raising  the  doubts  which 
had  troubled  the  Council  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  is  no  evidence  that 
their  apprehensions  then  of  being  interfered  with  were  not  well 
founded.  Happily  they  were  permitted  to  carry  out  their  plan  with- 
out molestation,  and  they  planted  the  seed  of  a  vigorous  republic 
instead  of  a  feeble  and  dependent  commercial  colony. 

A  reorganization  of  the  court  was  required  by  the  change  now  re- 

solved  upon,  and  accordingly  a  new  governor,  and  some  new 

throp  made    councillors  were  elected.    This  governor  was  John  Winthrop. 

governor.  ,  * 

It  is  noteworthy  that  two  days  after  Cradock  had  made  his 
proposition  to  the  Council  in  August,  a  meeting  of  twelve  gentlemen 
was  held  at  Cambridge,  all  of  whom  pledged  themselves  to  the  prose- 
cution of  this  work  of  a  plantation  in  New  England,  and  to  go  thither 
with  their  families,  within  six  months,  provided  that  before  another 
month  had  passed,  "  the  whole  government,  together  with  the  patent 
for  the  said  plantation,  be  first,  by  an  order  of  court,  legally  trans- 
ferred and  established  to  remain  with  us  and  others  which  shall  in- 
habit upon  the  said  plantation."  Six  of  the  men  who  signed  this 
agreement  already  belonged  to  the  Council,  and  were  re-chosen  upon 
the  new  board  ;  and  as  the  pledge  at  Cambridge  and  the  proposition 
at  London  were  made  within  two  days  of  each  other,  there  was,  with- 
out doubt,  a  common  understanding  in  Conference  and  Council.  An 
accession  was  gained  of  material  strength,  for  some  of  the  new  men 
were  men  of  wealth  and  position ;  the  moral  gain  was  still  greater, 
for  all  of  them  were  of  that  class  whose  discontent  with  the  condition 
of  affairs  in  England  was  so  great  that  they  preferred  exile  to  submis- 
sion. 

John  Winthrop,  now  in  his  forty-third  year,  was  a  man  of  good 
social  position,  by  profession  a  lawyer,  as  his  father  and  grandfather 
had  been  before  him,  with  a  yearly  income  of  £700,  which  in  the 
money  value  of  our  time  would  be  about  $18,000.  It  was  a  hard 
thing,  no  doubt,  for  a  man  of  his  gentle  culture  to  dispose  of  his 


1630.] 


JOHN  WINTHROP. 


527 


estate,  to  sacrifice  all  the  associations  clinging  to  an  English  home  of 

several  generations,  and  to  accept  in  exchange  the  rough  hardships 

of  pioneer  life  in  the  wilderness.     At  a  farewell  dinner  which  his 

friends  gave  him  on  the  eve 

of  his  departure,  he  essayed 

to  speak,  but  a  sudden  access 

of  tenderness  broke  down  his 

self-control,  and  tears  were  the 

last    tribute   he   paid   to   his 

country.     Not  that  the  fibre 

of  his  character  lacked  firm- 

ness, but  underneath  a  stern 

devotion  to  his  sense  of  duty 

was  the  tenderness  of  a  wo- 

man.    In  his  last  letter  to  his 

wife  he  reminded  her  of  every 

recurring  Monday  and  Friday, 

for  at  a  fixed  hour  on  those 

days    they   had    engaged    to 

commune   with   heaven,   and 

with  each  other  in  spirit,  in 

mutual  prayer. 

The  winter  of  1629-30  was  spent  in  active  preparation.  On  the 
30th  of  March,  four  ships  of  a  fleet  of  eleven  were  at  Yarmouth 
waiting  for  a  wind.  The  admiral  ship  of  the  fleet  was  the  Arbella,1 
on  board  which  was  Winthrop.  Here  he  and  some  of  his  asso- 
ciates drew  up  a  farewell  address,  which  they  called  "  The 
Humble  Request  of  His  Majesty's  Loyal  Subjects,  the  Gov- 
ernor  and  the  Company  late  gone  to  New  England  :  to 
the  Rest  of  the  Brethren  in  and  of  the  Church  of  England."  "  We 
beseech  you,"  said  the  address,  "  by  the  mercies  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
to  consider  us  as  your  brethren,  standing  in  very  great  need  of 
your  help  [that  is,  their  prayers  and  blessings],  and  earnestly  im- 
ploring it."  They  esteemed  it,  they  said,  "  our  honor  to  call  the 
Church  of  England,  from  whence  we  rise,  our  dear  mother  ;  and  can- 

1  The  ship's  name  was  the  Ecttjle,  but  was  changed  to  ArM/a,  in  compliment  to  Lady  Ar- 
bella  Johnson,  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  and  the  wife  of  Isaac  Johnson,  one  of  the 
Council.  Both  he  and  his  wife  were  on  board  the  vessel.  The  Lady  Arbella  died  a  few 
weeks  after  their  arrival  at  Salem,  and  her  husband  soon  after  followed  her.  Mather,  in 

the  Magnolia,  savs  :  — 

"  .....        He  try  M 
To  live  without  her,  lik'd  it  not,  and  dj'M." 

The  lines  have  since  been  n  favorite  epitaph  in  New  England  burial-grounds,  altered  to 
suit  circumstances,  in  the  case  of  bereaved  husbands  or  wives,  where  one  has  not  long  sur- 
vived the  death  of  the  other. 


528  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  [CHAP.  XX. 

not  part  from  our  native  country,  where  she  specially  resideth,  without 
much  sadness  of  heart  and  many  tears  in  our  eyes,  ever  acknowledg- 
ing that  such  hope  and  part  as  we  have  obtained  in  the  common  sal- 
vation, we  have  received  in  her  bosom  and  sucked  it  from  her  breasts. 
We  leave  it  not  therefore  as  loathing  that  milk  wherewith  we  were 
nourished  there,  but  blessing  God  for  the  parentage  and  education  as 
members  of  the  same  body,  shall  always  rejoice  in  her  good,  and  un- 
feignedly  grieve  for  any  sorrow  that  shall  ever  betide  her,  and  while 
we  have  breath  sincerely  desire  and  endeavour  the  continuance  and 
abundance  of  her  welfare,  with  the  enlargement  of  her  bounds  in  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  Jesus."  They  entreated  that  they  should  not  be 
forgotten  in  the  prayers  of  ministers  and  of  brethren,  even  of  those 
who  through  want  of  intelligence  of  their  course  could  not  so  well  con- 
ceive of  their  way  as  they  could  desire.  And  they  deprecated  any 
want  of  charity  toward  them  from  any  false  report  of  their  intentions, 
or  from  the  disaffection  or  indiscretion  of  some  who  were  of  them,  or 
rather  among  them  ;  l  —  an  allusion,  perhaps,  to  the  gathering  of  the 
Church,  the  year  before,  at  Salem,  and  the  summary  proceedings  of 
Eudicott  in  the  case  of  the  Brownes. 

No  doubt  they  were  sincere  in  these  protestations  of  their  love 
to  the  mother  church,  of  their  tender  memory  of  her  as  she  once  was, 
of  their  devotion  to  her  as  they  thought  she  ought  to  be  ;  but  they  were 
not  quite  frank,  if  in  the  allusion  to  "  disaffection  or  indiscretion  of 
some  of  us,  or  rather  among  us,"  they  referred  to  the  church  at  Salem, 
whose  example  they  were  about  to  follow  in  complete  unconformity  to 
the  Episcopal  ceremonial. 

Equally  sincere  was  Higginson  when,  hardly  a  year  before,  as  the 
shores  of  England  grew  dim  and  shadowy  upon  the  horizon, 
he  called  his  children  and  other  passengers  to  the  stern  of 


the  ship  to  take  their  last  look  of  the  land  of  their  birth, 
and  exclaimed  :  "  We  will  not  say  as  the  Separatists  were  wont  to 
say  at  their  leaving  of  England,  '  Farewell,  Babylon  !  Farewell, 
Rome  !  '  but  we  will  say,  Farewell,  dear  England  I  Farewell  the 
Church  of  God  in  England,  and  all  Christian  friends  there  !  We  do 
not  go  to  New  England  as  Separatists  from  the  Church  of  England  ; 
though  we  cannot  but  separate  from  the  corruptions  in  it,  but  we 
go  to  practise  the  positive  part  of  church  reformation  and  propagate 
the  gospel  in  America."  2  Yet  hardly  had  they  a  roof  over  their  heads 
in  Salem  ere  it  was  made  a  penal  offence  to  read  the  Episcopal  ser- 
vice in  public.  Every  league  of  the  Atlantic  gave  vigor  and  courage 

1  Mather's  Magnolia,  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  where  "  The  Request,"  is 
given  in  full. 

2  Mather's  Magnalia,  vol.  i.,  p.  362. 


1630.]  ARRIVAL   OF  WINTHROP  AND  HIS  PEOPLE.  529 

to  his  spiritual  mind  as  to  his  material  body.  He  soon  cast  off  the 
habits,  the  indulgences,  and  the  garments  of  an  invalid,  and  with 
equal  readiness  dropped  his  timid  non-conformity  and  his  weak  pro- 
testations, and  put  on  a  frank  and  manly  separatism.  "  A  sip  of  New 
England's  air,"  he  said,  "  is  better  than  a  whole  draught  of  Old  Eng- 
land's ale."  The  new  atmosphere  was  as  good  for  him  in  church 
matters  as  in  everything  else. 

Nor  was  it  otherwise  with  Winthrop  and  his  people.  Within  one 
or  two  years'  time,  writes  Mather,  there  were  seven  churches  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Boston,  all  of  them  "  golden  candlesticks ;  "  all  of 
them  mindful  of  what  "  the  spirit  in  the  Scripture  said  unto  them  ;  " 
thoroughly  weaned  from,  if  not  loathing  the  "  breasts  "  of  that  "  dear 
mother,"  the  English  Church  ;  caring  little  now  for  that  nice  distinc- 
tion between  the  Church  invisible  and  pure,  and  the  Church  visible 
and  corrupt. 

The  Arbella  arrived  at  Salem  on  the  12th  of  June,  1630.  The  con- 
dition of  things  was  not  encouraging.  During  the  winter  Arrival  of 
just  passed  eighty  people  had  died,  which  must  have  been 
nearly  a  fourth  of  the  whole  number.  Their  provisions  were 
nearly  exhausted,  and  but  for  this  reinforcement,  still  greater  1630>  0-  S- 
suffering  would  inevitably  have  followed.  It  seemed  impossible  for 
any  of  the  early  colonies  to  escape  these  initiative  disasters,  notwith- 
standing the  precautions  which  experience  taught  them.  No  better 
fortune  was  to  attend  these  new-comers.  In  the  course  of  the  summer 
seventeen  ships  arrived  —  among  them  the  faithful  Mayflower — bring- 
ing altogether  about  a  thousand  persons.  Some  of  them  had  made 
long  passages,  and  the  scurvy  broke  out  among  the  passengers.  Much 
sickness  prevailed  in  all  the  settlements  during  the  following  year, 
due  more  probably  to  want  of  proper  shelter  than  any  other  cause. 

These  settlements  were  to  be  made  at  different  places,  but  Charles- 
town  was  a  sort  of  starting-point  for  most  of  them,  that  being  the  one 
plantation  belonging  to  the  company  inside  of  the  Bay.  This 

L       '       •  j       XL  i     t  i i         ^i_  Settlement 

beginning  was  made  there  a  year  or  two  before  by  three  ofcharies- 
brothers  named  Sprague,  who  went  from  Salem.  One  of  the 
immediate  duties  urged  upon  Endicott,  after  the  Company  obtained 
its  charter,  was  the  speedy  occupation  of  some  point  within  the  bay 
between  Nahant  and  Point  Alderton.  The  patent  which  Captain 
Robert  Gorges  had  received  from  the  Plymouth  Company  had  de- 
scended to  his  brother  John,  and  he  had  sold  to  a  Sir  William  Brere- 
ton  and  John  Oldham  —  the  acquaintance  of  the  latter  we  have  al- 
ready made  at  Plymouth  —  all  the  country  from  Charles  River  to 
Nahant  and  twenty  miles  inland.  The  grant  made  by  the  Plymouth 
Company  to  the  Massachusetts  Company,  and  the  royal  patent  to  the 

VOL.  I.  34 


530 


MASSACHUSETTS   BAY. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


Massachusetts  Bay  Company,  included  all  this  region.  Neither  Brere- 
ton  nor  Oldham  were  disposed  to  yield  their  claims,  and  had  failed  to 
come  to  any  agreement  with  the  Council  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Company,  in  regard  to  them.  The  question  was  a  frequent  subject  at 
the  meetings  of  the  Council  in  London,  and  Cradock  —  who  spoke  of 
Oldham  as  a  man  obstinate  and  violent  in  his  opinions  —  wrote  to  Endi- 
cott  to  send  "  forty  or  fifty  persons  to  Massachusetts  Bay  to  inhabit 
there  ....  with  all  speed  ....  whereby  the  better  to  strengthen  our 
possession  there  against  all  or  any  that  shall  intrude  upon  us."  This 


Colonial   Furniture. 


was  aimed  at  the  rival  claimants,  Brereton  and  Oldham,  whose  title 
the  Company  believed,  would  not  hold  good  in  law  against  their  own, 
but  was  coupled  with  a  caution  not  to  molest  such  other  Englishmen 
as  had  there  planted,  and  who  were  willing  to  live  under  the  govern- 
ment of  the  new  Company. 

Some  of  these  we  have  spoken  of  in  a  previous  chapter  —  Maver- 
ick, on  Noddle's  Island,  now  East  Boston  ;  Thompson,  on  Thomp- 


1621.]  EARLY   SETTLERS   ABOUT  BOSTON  BAY.  531 

son's  Island  ;  Blaxton,  or  Blackstone,  living  at  this  time  near  the  foot 
of  what  is  now  Boston  Common,  but  who  removed  some  years 

.  .  Old  settlers 

later  to  the  banks  of  the  river  since  known  by  his  name  —  on  Boston 

Bay. 

the  Blackstone  —  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts.  There  was  one  man,  also,  Thomas  Walford,  a  black- 
smith, living  at  Charlestown,  then  called  Mishawau,  by  the  Indians, 
meaning  Great  Spring.  Thither,  where  the  Spragues  had  gone  be- 
fore, about  a  hundred  of  those  who  came  with  Higginson  in  1629, 
went  in  obedience  to  the  injunction  of  the  company  to  strengthen  their 
possession.  There  on  the  17th  of  June  stood  John  Winthrop,  the 
first  governor  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  hill  that  on  another  17th  of 
June,  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  later,  was  to  be  made  more  memor- 
able. 


Colonial   Relics. 


One  of  the  first  of  the  fleet  to  arrive  was  the  Mary  $•  John,  whose 
captain,  either  misunderstanding  his  instructions,  or  over-anxious  to 
return,  landed  his  one  hundred  and  forty  passengers  at  Nantasket. 
Among  these  were  John  Wareham,  and  John  Maverick,  clergymen  ; 
Roger  Ludlow,  and  Edward  Rossiter,  men  of  substance  and  posi- 
tion. As  they  could  not  remain  where  they  had  been  landed,  against 
their  will,  several  of  their  number,  with  an  old  planter  for  interpreter, 
took  a  boat,  and  loading  it  with  goods  went  in  search  of  a  place  that 
should  better  answer  their  purpose.  They  touched  first  at  Charles- 
town,  and  were  there  advised  to  proceed  up  the  river.  This  they  did 
till  the  water  shoaled  near  the  place  where  the  United  States  Arsenal 
at  Watertown  now  stands.  A  number  of  Indians  in  the  neigh- 
borhood alarmed  this  little  band,  but  when  the  old  planter  requested 
them  not  to  approach  the  camp  that  night,  they  considerately  ab- 
stained. On  the  next  day  they  sent  one  of  their  number  with  a  bass, 
as  token  of  amity  and  welcome.  The  English  sent  a  man  with  a  bis- 
cuit, and  in  this  economical  fashion  the  intercourse  began.  The  In- 


532  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  [CHAP.  XX. 

dians  "  supplied  us  with  bass,  exchanging  a  bass  for  a  bisket-cake,  and 
were  very  friendly  unto  us."  These  fish  no  longer  run  in  that  river, 
but  the  Charles  was  then  a  natural  fish-way  as  far  up  as  the  first 
rapids,  near  which  the  Indians  had  erected  a  basket-weir. 

Here  the  explorers  remained  but  a  few  days,  for  hearing  that  there 

was  at  Mattapan  a  neck  of  land  with  good  pasturage,  where  they 

might  fence  in  their  cattle,  the  whole  company  were  taken 

Settlement  3  .  .  ,     T^ 

atDorcnes-    to   that   place.      Ihey  gave  to  it  the  name  of   Dorchester, 

ter  Neck. 

perhaps  in  honor  of  the  Rev.  John  White,  of  Dorchester, 
England,  who  seems  to  have  had  a  special  interest  in  this  company. 
They  had  held  a  day  of  fasting  at  Plymouth  before  sailing,  and  Mr. 
White  was_there  with  them,  advising,  sympathising,  and  preaching. 
They  suffered  many  privations  through  the  first  winter  at  Dorchester, 
eking  out  their  scanty  stores  with  corn  bought  from  the  Indians, 
subsisting  sometimes  upon  shell-fish,  which  even  the  women  went  out 
to  dig  upon  the  mud-flats  off  the  neck.1 

The  Mary  and  John  arrived  in  May.  From  that  time  to  October 
the  ships  were  dropping  in,  one  after  another,  through  the  summer, 
their  passengers  scattering  about  Boston  Bay  at  various  points.  Some 
went  up  the  Mystic ;  some  up  the  Charles  ;  beginnings  of  towns  were 
made  at  Medford,  Watertown,  Cambridge,  Roxbury,  Lynn,  and  else<. 
where,  and  the  "  golden  candlesticks  "  were  gradually  lighted.  Some 
other  towns  moved  within  a  few  weeks  from  Charlestown  to  Shawmut 
b«gun.  Point,  the  first  party  being  one  of  young  people  —  a  ship's 
boat-load  —  who  landed  about  where  the  Charlestown  bridge  now 
crosses  the  river.  Boston  was  actually  begun  in  a  frolic.  Anne  Pol- 
lard, a  lively  young  girl,  was  the  first  person,  amid  some  pleasant  con- 
tention, to  spring  ashore  —  the  first  white  woman  who  ever  stepped 
upon  that  spot.2 

Shawmut  was  first  called  Trimountain,  not  because  of  the  three 
highest  hills  that  overtopped  the  peninsula,  but  because  of  three  emi- 
nences that  then  crowned  one  of  them,  Beacon  Hill,  where  the  State 
House  now  stands. 

The  water  at  Charlestown,  in  spite  of  its  name  —  Mishawan, 
Great  Spring  —  seems  not  to  have  been  good,  and  Blackstone  in- 
settiement  vited  Winthrop  and  his  people  to  pitch  their  tents  by 
at  Boston.  m's  fountain  of  sweet  waters,  which  welled  up  somewhere 
at  the  bottom  of  the  present  Common.3  The  settlement  was  fairly 
begun  before  the  first  of  September,  and  on  the  7th  of  that  month 

1  Memoir  of  Robert  Clap.     Young's  Chronicles,  chap,  xviii.     The  place  was  called  Dor- 
chester Neck,  till  early  in  the  present  century,  when  it  was  annexed  to  Boston,  and  has  ever 
since  been  called  South  Boston. 

2  Old  Landmarks  of  Boston,  by  S.  G.  Drake. 
8  Ibid. 


1631.]  ROGER  WILLIAMS.  533 

J 

it  was  ordered  at  a  court  held  at  Charlestown,  that  the  place  should 
be  called  Boston,  from  the  old  home  of  many  of  these  people  in 
Lincolnshire,  England. 

Blackstone  claimed  to  own  the  whole  peninsula,  as  he  was  the  first 
white  man  who  had  ever  occupied  it.    But  title  of  occupation  was  held 
not  to  be  good  against  title  by  grant  from  the  king  of  England.     The 
Company,    however,    was    not 
disposed   to  deal   ungenerously 
with  him,  and  before  he  pushed 
out  again  into  the  wilderness, 
annoyed  by  too  crowded  a  pop- 
ulation, they  allowed  him  about 
one  sixth  of  the  territory,  and 
afterward  bought  it  of  him  for 
thirty  pounds.     Blackstone  was 
an  Episcopalian  in  faith,  as  well 
as  a  man  "  of  a  particular  hu- 
mor."    He  would   not  accept 

.  *•  Old   Houses,    Boston,   England. 

fellowship  in  the  church  of  the 

Puritans,  frankly  saying  :  "  I  came  from  England  because  I  did  not 
like  the  lord-bishops ;  but  I  can't  join  with  you,  because  I  would  not 
be  under  the  lord-brethren."  l  Walford,  the  blacksmith,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Charles,  was  swept  away  in  a  more  summary  fashion  by 
the  advancing  wave  of  civilization.  In  less  than  a  year,  it  is  recorded 
that  he  was  fined  by  the  court,  and  banished  with  his  wife  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  patent.2  He  was  too  free  in  his  talk. 

In  February,  1631,  was  a  notable  arrival.     Sickness  and  want  were 
at  that  time  universal ;  even  the  governor's  stores  were  almost  ex- 
hausted ;   others  of  smaller  means  were  on  the  scantiest  allowance, 
and  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  —  the  fasting  an  easy  duty  —  was 
proclaimed.     But  before  the  day  arrived,  the  ship  Lion,  commanded 
by  the  good  Captain  William  Peirce,  who  so  often  appeared  at  pre- 
cisely the  right  moment  both  at  Plymouth  and  Boston,  was  reported 
at  Nantasket.     She  was  deeply  laden  with  provisions,  and  the  day  of 
humiliation  and  supplication  was  changed  to  one  of  thanksgiving  and 
praise,  for  the  people  felt  that,  like  the  children  of  Israel,  they  were 
the  chosen  of  the  Lord,  and  that  he  had  sent  them  succor. 
Possibly  the  fervor  of  the  thanksgiving  would  have  been  Roger  wu- 
moderated   could   they   have   foreseen   what  else   the   ship 
brought  them  in  the  person  of  Roger  Williams,  who,  with  his  newly 
married  wife,  was  a  passenger  on  board  the  Lion. 

1  Lyford's  Plain  Dealing.     Mather's  Magnolia. 

2  See  Young's  Chronicles,  note,  p.  374,  for  various  authorities. 


534 


MASSACHUSETTS   BAY. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


Winthrop  boarded  the  ship  in  the  lower  harbor,  anxious  about 
the  quality  and  quantity  of  her  cargo,  of  so  much  importance  to 
the  hungry  colonists.  The  interview  between  him  and  Williams 
was  probably  cordial,  although  the  latter,  while  travelling  the  same 
road  as  the  Puritans,  had  travelled  faster  and  further  ;  and  the 

course  he  had  taken  in  his 
short  career  —  he  was  not  much 
over  thirty  —  in  regard  to  the 
Established  Church,  was  a  re- 
buke to  the  cautious  prudence 
shown  by  Winthrop  and  his  as- 
sociates before  they  left  Eng- 
land. It  is  not  likely,  however, 
that  it  occurred  to  the  governor, 
when  they  first  met,  that  here 
in  New  England,  where  both 
were  alike  separated  from  the 
old  order  of  things,  any  differ- 
ence could  divide  them.  Among 
the  passengers  of  the  Lion,  the 
governor  says,  was  Mr.  Wil- 
liams, "a  godly  minister.' 


IMHB  tfnmn  ar»  in  Italia.  J  .4     f  ?  7  J 


Boston. 


But  they  were,  nevertheless,  speedily  and  completely  divided  in 
their  public  relations,  if  not  in  their  private  friendship.  Williams 
was  at  first  so  well  received 
in  Boston,  that  he  was  unani- 
mously elected,  according  to  his 
own  statement,  the  teacher  of 
the  church.  But  the  call  was  [Signature  of  Roger  wniiams] 

Controversy    refused   because,   he    says,    "  I    durst    not    officiate    to    an 
unseparated   people,  as   upon  examination   and   conference 
I  found  them  to  be."  l     That  a  controversy  arose  between 
him  and  the  church  at  Boston,  and  that  he  refused  to  join  it,  be- 
cause as  Winthrop  says,  "  they  would  not  make  a  public  declaration 
of  their  repentance  for  having  communion  with  the  churches  of  Eng- 

1  A  MS.  letter  of  Williams  to  the  younger  Cotton,  in  possession  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society,  and  quoted  by  Palfrey,  vol.  i.,  p.  406,  note,  is  the  authority  for  this 
statement.  The  assertion  of  the  writer  thatrhe  was  elected  teacher  of  the  Boston  church 
is  a  sufficient  and  clear  explanation  of  how  the  position  of  that  church  —  hitherto  unex- 
plained—  came  to  be  a  subject  of  controversy  between  it  and  Williams.  As  Dr.  Palfrey 
says,  it  is  hard  to  suppose  that  Williams's  memory  had  failed  him  when  he  wrote  the  let- 
ter, and  extraordinary  that  the  fact  is  not  mentioned  in  any  record  of  the  time.  But  as  the 
fact  of  the  controversy  is  given  without  any  clue  as  to  how  it  arose,  and  as  Williams's  state- 
ment supplies  a  rational  origin  for  that  controversy,  the  positive  evidence  of  his  correctness 
is  greater  than  the  negative  evidence  of  his  being  mistaken. 


1631.] 


WILLIAMS  AT   SALEM  AND  PLYMOUTH. 


535 


land,"  :  is  noticed  by  contemporary  writers.  But  this  was  not  the 
only  offence  of  the  recusant  minister.  He  declared  that  the  civil 
magistrate  had  no  right  to  punish  a  breach  of  the  Sabbath,  or  any 
offence  that  was  a  breach  of  the  first  four  commandments  of  the  deca- 
logue. The  difficulty  was  insuperable.  The  church  in  Boston  was 
clearly  no  place  for  a  man  avowing  such  doctrines,  whether  as  teacher 
or  member.  In  a  few  weeks  he  removed  to  Salem. 

Whether  it  was  the  church  in  Boston  that  refused  to  accept  Mr. 
Williams,  or  Mr.  Williams  who  refused  to  accept  the  church, 

.  i-i  Williams 

the   State  now  stepped  m  to  bring  the   young  clergyman  settled  at 
into  due  subjection.      The  Salem  church  called  him  as  its 
teacher,  Mr.  Higginson  having  died  about  six  months  before.     When 
Winthrop  heard  of    this, 
the   subject  was   brought 
up   in    a    court    held    at 
Boston,  and  Endicott  was 
written  to,  that "  they  mar- 
velled   they    [at    Salem] 
would    choose    him    with- 
out advising  with  the  coun- 
cil," and  requesting  that 
the  church  should  proceed 
no  further  till  there  had 
been     some     conference.2 
The  church  paid  no  heed 
to    this    admonition,    and 
Williams    was    settled    as 
the  minister.    It  was  only 
for   a   few   months,  how- 
ever ;  the  council  gave  no 
peace  to  the  church  till  the  offender  was  driven  out  from  among  them 
to  find  a  refuge  at  Plymouth,  where,  as  the  assistant  of  the  Rem0vaito 
Rev.  Mr.  Smith,  he  remained  for  the  next  two  years.  Plymouth. 

He  was  now  where  the  council  of  Massachusetts  Bay  could  not 
reach  him,  and  among  a  people  to  many  of  whom  his  doctrines  and 
ministrations  were  acceptable.  Independent  as  he  was  as  a  thinker, 
and  fearless  in  avowing  his  convictions  when  occasion  called  for  it,  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  entered  upon  his  career  in  New  England  by 
thrusting  forward  either  them  or  himself  offensively.  The  worst  doc- 
trine he  was  accused  of  promulgating  while  at  Plymouth  was  that  the 
country  on  which  the  English  had  intruded  belonged  to  those  they 
found  there,  and  that  the  pretended  title  of  James  I.  was  mere  usur- 

1  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  i.,  p.  53.  2  Savage's   Winthrop. 


First  Church  in   Salem. 


536  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  [CHAP.  XX. 

pation.  Some  novelties  of  doctrine  seem,  at  last,  to  have  shocked  the 
good  elder  Brewster,  but  Bradford  speaks  of  him  in  terms  of  high 
commendation.  But,  for  a  time,  his  ministrations  were  entirely  with- 
out offence.  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Wilson,  the  Boston  minister,  were  at 
Plymouth  in  the  course  of  the  next  year — walking  thither  from 
Weymouth  —  partook  of  the  sacrament  on  the  Lord's  day  with  Mr. 
Williams,  and  after  ward  discussed  some  question  propounded  by  him, 
according  to  the  custom  of  that  church  ;  —  an  amicable  and  godly  dis- 
cussion, apparently,  Mr.  Williams  refraining  from  using  the  opportu- 
nity to  advance  any  of  his  heretical  views,  either  civil  or  religious. 
For  a  while,  evidently,  he  ceased  to  be  a  troubler  in  Israel. 

Meanwhile  no  time  was  lost  in  bringing  the  settlers  in  their  several 
Enforce-  communities  under  the  regulation  of  both  civil  and  ecclesi- 
mentofiaw.  j^ical  polity.  Meetings  of  the  court  were  frequent,  and 
stringent  laws  were  passed  and  applied  with  rigor.  Thus,  one  man 
was  fined  ten  pounds,  in  September,  for  selling  a  gun  to  an  Indian,  and 
it  was  decreed  that  not  even  corn  should  be  sold  to  the  natives  without 
leave.  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  an  assistant,  and  a  man  of  mark,  was 
fined  for  whipping  two  persons  when  no  other  assistant  was  present, 
as  the  law  prescribed  in  such  cases.  An  irreverent  sportsman  was 
whipped  for  fowling  on  Sunday  ;  a  hungry  one  for  stealing  a  loaf  of 
bread.  The  first  quack  in  the  colony  was  fined  five  pounds  for  pretend- 
ing to  cure  the  scurvy  with  a  worthless  water,  for  which  he  charged  an 
exorbitant  price,  and  he  was  warned  against  any  such  practice  in 
future.1  This  austere  virtue  is  now  lost,  even  in  Massachusetts. 
Malicious  reflections  upon  the  government  and  the  church  at  Salem 
cost  an  offender  his  ears.  The  man  who  got  drunk  was  held  to  be  dis- 
orderly and  fined  for  a  breach  of  the  peace.  Adultery  was  punished 
with  death.  There  was  no  lack  of  watchfulness  over  the  morals  and 
the  manners,  as  well  as  the  safety  of  the  colonists.  Even  the  ex-gov- 
ernor, Endicott,  was  fined  forty  shillings  in  a  case  of  assault  and  bat- 
tery on  one  goodman  Dexter.  In  a  letter  to  Winthrop  he  acknowl- 
edged that  he  was  wrong  in  such  violence,  as  unbecoming  in  a  justice 
of  the  peace.  But  in  reply  to  Dexter's  threat  that,  if  he  could  not 
get  justice  he  would  "try  it  out  at  blows,"  Endicott  said,  that  if  that 
were  lawful  and  "  he,  Dexter,  were  a  fit  man  for  me  to  deal  with, 
you  should  not  hear  me  complain  ; "  then  adding  piously  and  peni- 
tently, though  the  natural  Adam  was  evidently  very  strong  within 
him,  "  I  hope  the  Lord  hath  brought  me  off  from  that  course." 

But  more  important  than  all  other  enactments  was  one  passed  at 
the  first  General  Court  for  elections  in  the  spring  of  1631,  by  which 
it  was  declared  that  no  man  should  be  admitted  to  the  body  politic 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  cited  in  Palfrey's  History  of  New  England,  vol.  i.,  pp.  321  et  seg. 


1631.]  CITIZENSHIP.  537 

who  was  not  a  member  of  some  church  within  its  limits.  Nothing 
could  so  clearly  show  the  character  of  the  people.  The  test  Condition  of 
of  citizenship  was  piety  ;  and  the  test  of  piety  was  member-  citlzeliship- 
ship  in  the  Reformed  Church.  No  surer  way  could  have  been  devised 
of  excluding  all  but  Puritans,  and  Puritans  of  a  certain  way  of  think- 
ing, from  any  share  in  the  government  of  the  colony.  But  these  peo- 
ple had  fled  from  ecclesiastical  tyranny  at  home,  and  they  believed 

.r  *  m/  * 

that  their  only  safety  lay  in  a  close  ecclesiastical  corporation  of  their 
own,  a  body  corporate  in  which  the  adversary  could  gain  no  foothold 
either  in  the  church  or  in  the  state.  Narrow  and  illiberal  as  the  pol- 
icy is,  when  tried  by  the  standard  of  later  times,  it  was  meant  to  be  a 
peaceful  solution  of  the  problem  of  that  age,  the  working  out  of  which 
soon  cost  England  a  revolution  and  the  king  his  head. 

These  men  had  come  into  the  wilderness  to  build  up  a  theocracy, 
and  made  no  pretensions  of  securing  liberty  for  anybody  but  them- 
selves. They  were  quite  as  intolerant  of  opinions  that  were  not  their 
own  as  the  most  inexorable  persecutor  that  ever  "'  peppered  "  a  Puri- 
tan. The  question  is  even  not  yet  quite  settled  in  all  minds  whether 
intolerance  is  more  lovely  and  safe  in  the  hands  of  men  who  only 
mean  to  use  it  to  the  glory  of  God,  than  in  the  hands  of  men  who 
plainly  persecute  the  righteous  for  unrighteous  ends.  The  line  where 
disinterested  devotion  fades  into  worldly  motives  and  the  indulgence 
of  the  most  selfish  passions,  is  so  exceedingly  fine  and  so  easily  passed, 
that  they  must  needs  be  much  more  than  common  men  who  can  be 
trusted  with  intolerance  onlv  as  a  divine  attribute. 


Gradual 
progress  of 
the  colony. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


NEW   ENGLAND   COLONIES. 


LAWS,  ECCLESIASTICAL  AND  POLITICAL.  —  JOHN  ELIOT'S  WORK  AMONG  THE  IN- 
DIANS.—  JOHN  COTTON  ARRIVES  IN  BOSTON.  —  THE  RED  CROSS  IN  THE  KING'S 
BANNER.  —  PERSECUTION  AND  BANISHMENT  OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS.  —  THE  FIRST 
SETTLEMENT  OF  RHODE  ISLAND.  —  SETTLERS  FROM  PLYMOUTH  ON  THE  CONNECTI-. 
CUT  RIVER. — JOHN  WINTHROP,  JR.,  FIRST  GOVERNOR  OF  CONNECTICUT.  —  HOOK- 
ER'S EMIGRATION  TO  HARTFORD. —  ANNE  HUTCHINSON  AND  HER  DOCTRINES. — 
MURDER  OF  JOHN  OLDHAJI.  —  BEGINNING  OF  THE  PEQUOD  WAR. 

THE  accounts  that  went  home  for  the  first  year  or  two  from  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  were  discouraging,  and  for  a  while  more  returned  to 
England  than  joined  the  colony.  Yet  the  progress  was  steady  in  spite 
of  all  discouragements  and  hardships ;  the  settlements  grew 
into  towns  ;  the  towns  grew  into  a  consolidated  common- 
wealth. Local  affairs  soon  came  to  be  entrusted  to  a  few 
select  men  from  a  community,  though  any  freeman  who  chose  could 
assist  at  their  deliberations.  The  system  —  which  for  convenience* 
sake,  as  numbers  increased,  took  the  place  of  a  meeting  of  all  the 
freemen,  when  any  question  arose,  such  as  the  making  of  roads,  or  the 
division  of  lands  —  begun  in  one  place  soon  extended  to  others,  till 
in  the  course  of  four  or  five  years  town-governments  were  recognized 
as  the  established  order.  The  next  step  was  natural  and  easy  ;  repre- 
sentatives were  sent  to  the  General  Court,  first  to  consult  with  the 
assistants,  and  to  regulate  taxation  ;  next  to  enact  laws,  and  to  take 
part  in  the  general  management  of  the  colony.  Step  by  step  the 
colony  grew  into  a  commonwealth  —  a  government  of  the  people. 

There  was  no  interference  with  them  from  the  home  government. 
Men  of  some  influence  who  had  been  in  the  country  and  left  it, 
voluntarily  or  involuntarily,  from  various  motives,  some- 
times good  and  sometimes  bad,  united  to  break  down  the 
colony.  They  were  so  far  listened  to  that  the  king  and 
the  Privy  Council  looked  into  the  matter,  but  found  nothing 
which  was  considered  worthy  of  reprehension.  It  was  considered, 
apparently,  that  there  was  nothing  dangerous  in  Puritanism  when  so 
far  away ;  and  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  Charles  felt  a  generous 
interest  in  the  first  colony  established  under  a  patent  signed  by  his 


Ineffectual 
attempt  in 
England  to 
injure  the 
colony. 


1632.]  CLERGYMEN  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  539 

own  hand,  and  in  a  country  to  which  he  had  given  a  name.  There 
was  controversy  between  them  and  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and  others 
about  patents  ;  the  Brownes  did  not  readily  forget  the  first  cause  of 
complaint  they  had  againat  Endicott,  and  the  church  at  Salem.  Mor- 
ton remembered  the  prostrate  May-pole  at  Merry  Mount,  and  the 
stocks  in  Boston  ,  a  mysterious  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner  —  who 
travelled  about  the  country  among  the  Indians,  having  with  him  a 
pretty  young  woman,  confessedly  not  his  wife,  and  who  was  suspected 
of  being  a  Catholic,  with  sinister  designs  on  the  Western  Hemisphere 
—  railed  at  the  tyranny  of  Winthrop,  who  had  dismissed  him  without 
ceremony  from  Massachusetts  ;  but  all  these  united,  with  any  others 
who  had,  or  thought  they  had  grievances,  availed  nothing  in  England 
to  provoke  interference.  The  colony  was  happily  left  to  its  own 
devices. 

There  the  most  potent  influence  Avas  the  clergy.  Though  ministers 
were  debarred  from  holding  civil  offices,  they  nevertheless,  Influenceof 
in  large  measui-e  through  the  church  controlled  the  State.  theclei*>'- 
The  franchise  of  citizenship  could  only  belong  to  the  church-member  ; 
but  church-membership  was  under  the  control  of  the  ministers.  This 
ecclesiastical  government  suited  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  and 
was  of  their  own  creation  ;  but  the  influence  of  the  bishops  in  Eng- 
land, though  exercised  in  a  different  way,  was  never  more  potent  than 
that  of  the  minister  of  the  parish  in  New  England,  who  continued  for 
a  century  and  a  half  to  be  looked  up  to  by  his  parishioners  with  almost 
as  much  reverence  as  is  rendered  to  the  Pope,  long  after  the  rule  of 
the  bishops  had  ceased  to  exist. 

Not  all  of  them,  however,  cared  for  political  influence,  or  were  most 
devoted  even   to  theological  questions.     Chief  among  those  who  had 
other  aims  was  the  Rev.  John  Eliot  of  Roxbury,  who  was  The  llApog. 
made  the  pastor  of  its  first  church,  in  1632.     His  life  was  tle  ' Eliot- 
largely  devoted  to  converting  the  Indians  to  Christianity,  and  to  that 
end  he  studied  their  language  with  great  assiduity.1    Some  years  later, 
when  he  had  mastered  their  difficult  tongue,  he  preached  his  first  ser- 
mon to  a  small  company  of  Indians,  in  a  wigwam  at  Nonantum  near 
Watertown.     The  presence  of  Waban,  an  Indian  chief,  suggested  the 
text,  which  was  from  Ezekiel  xxxvii.  9, 10 :  "  Then  said  he  unto  them, 
Prophesy  unto   the  wind  ;  "  —  Waban,    the   chief's  name,  The  p^y^g 
meaning  wind.     The  sermon  was  effectual,  and  Waban  be-  lndians 
came   a  Christian.      A  sect  grew  up,  among  whom  he  was  a  man 

1  Elliot's  Indian  Bible  —  a  few  copies  of  which  are  still  in  existence  and  sell  at  almost 
fabulous  sums,  though  in  a  now  unknown  tongue  —  was  published  in  1663.  The  Psalms 
in  Metre,  the  first  book  published  in  America  —  1C40  —  was  composed  partly  by  him  and 
partly  by  his  colleague,  Weld,  and  by  Richard  Mather. 


540  NEW  ENGLAND   COLONIES.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

of  influence,  called  the  "  Praying  Indians,"  and  who  became  so  obnox- 
ious to  the  unconverted  savage  that,  at  a  later  period  in  time  of  war, 
it  was  necessary  to  place  them  upon  an  island  in  the  harbor,  for  pro- 
tection, although  their  own  town,  Natick  —  "  the  place  of  hills  "  — 
was  well  fortified.1 

But  Eliot's  heroic  work  was  beset  with  monstrous  difficulties.  The 
Indian's  ethical  condition  was  derived  from  the  exigencies  of  the  wil- 
derness, and  seldom  rose  above  them  into  a  nobler  behavior.  This 
spiritual  condition  was  limited  to  a  vague  reference  to  an  overruling 
Manito,  a  decided  belief  in  Hobomock,  the  Evil  Spirit,  and  an  unfalter- 
ing trust  in  the  medicine-man.  Into  this  structure  of  natural  theology 
he  soon  learned  to  infuse  a  love  of  rum  so  strong  that  it  confused  his 
perception  of  the  white  man's  religion,  as  it  well  might  do.  When 
the  Bible  and  the  puncheon  came  over  to  him  in  the  same  ship,  the 
remark  of  one  of  their  chiefs  was  not  irrelevant :  "  Let  me  see  that 
your  religion  makes  you  better  than  us  and  then  we  may  try  it."  This 
keen  appreciation  of  the  difference  between  the  Englishman's  preach- 
ing  and  his  practice  ;  the  love  of  fighting  which  can  hardly  be  assuaged 
in  the  breast  of  an  Indian ;  the  thirst  for  the  new  liquors  ; 

Difficulties 

in  Eliot's       the  reluctance  to  form  settled  towns  and  to  labor,  were  for- 

wa  v 

midable  obstacles  in  Eliot's  way ;  while  the  lukewarmness  of 
the  colonists,  who  thought  the  converts  were  poor  for  Christians  and 
spoiled  for  Indians,  constantly  dogged  his  manly  and  courageous  steps 
as  he  went  to  and  fro  with  incessant  ministering  of  religious  truths  and 
inculcation  of  the  arts  of  civilization  to  the  people  whose  darkness  lie 
so  commiserated. 

There  were  other  clergymen  not  less  identified,  though  in  a  different 
waY>  with  the  infancy  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  1633  large 
additions  were  made  to  the  colony,  and  among  them  came 
stone.  John  Cotton,  Thomas  Hooker,  and  Samuel  Stone.  Hooker 
and  Stone  went  to  Newtown  as  pastor  and  teacher ;  Cotton  remained 
in  Boston  as  teacher  over  the  church  of  which  Wilson  was  pastor. 
The  Rev.  William  Phillips  of  Watertown  had  already  labored  to 
mould  the  churches  into  that  form  of  Congregationalism  which  after- 
^  ,  ,  wards  prevailed,  but  the  work  was  completed 

s-rlSrfti  Cw&n'/    by  Cotton.     He  had,  it  is  said,  "such  an  in- 
, — r  /       sinuating  and  melting  way  in  his  preaching, 

signature  of  John  Cotton.       that  he  would  usually  carry  his  very  adversary 
captive  after  the  triumphant  chariot  of  his  rhetoric ; "  and  such  was 

1  Some  of  the  converts  were  made  magistrates  and  constables  in  the  towns  of  Praying  In- 
dians. Here  is  a  warrant  addressed  to  a  constable  :  "  1 .  I,  HMondi.  2.  You,  Peter  Water- 
man. 3.  Jeremy  Wicket.  4.  Quick  you  take  him.  5.  Fast  you  hold  him.  6.  Straight 
you  bring  him.  7.  Before  me,  Hidondi.  "  The,  New  England  History,  by  Charles  W.  Elliot, 
vol.  i.,  p.  326. 


1633.] 


ROGER  WILLIAMS. 


541 


his  authority  "  that  whatever  he  delivered  in  the  pulpit  was  soon  put 
into  an  order  of  court,  if  of  a  civil,  or  set  up  as  a  practice  in  the 
church,  if  of  an  ecclesiastical 
concernment."1  He  was  an 
able  and  a  learned  man,  already 
distinguished  before  coming  to 
New  England,  as  rector  of  St. 
Botolph's  church  in  Boston,  Lin- 
colnshire, where  his  non-con- 
forming opinions  were  too 
boldly  and  ably  expressed  to 
escape  the  notice  of  the  au- 
thorities. The  hostile  atten- 
tion of  Laud,  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  was  directed  toward 
him,  and  he  was  suspected  of 
an  intention  to  emigrate  so  soon 
as  an  attempt  should  be  made 
to  deal  with  him  for  non-con- 
formity. He  and  Hooker  were 
closely  watched.  Cotton  lay 
concealed  in  London  for  some 
time,  and  they  only  got  out  of 
the  kingdom  by  the  feint  of  embarking  at  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  going 
on  board  in  the  Downs. 

Within  a  month  of  these  arrivals,  Roger  Williams  returned  fi'om 
Plymouth  to  Salem,  and  returned  not  to  peace  but  to  much   Roger  Wil. 
tribulation.     Some  controversy  had  at  length  arisen  between  i^g^" 
him  and  the  church  at  Plymouth,  his  views  savoring,  Elder  Salem- 
Brewster  thought,  of  Anabaptism ;  he  falling,  Bradford  said,  "  into 
strange  opinions,  and  from  opinions  to  practice."     Some  were  desirous 
of  retaining  him,  but  he  asked  a  dismission,  and  they  let  him  go  with 
a  warning  to  the  church  at  Salem,  some  of  the  Plymouth  people,  how- 
ever, going  with  him. 

But  the  church  at  Salem  would  heed  no  warning,  and  welcomed  him 
back.  For  months  he  exercised  his  gift  "  by  way  of  prophecy,"  —  a 
desultory  preacher  without  special  charge.  But  he  prophesied  so 
much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Salem  people,  that  when  Mr.  Skelton 
died  the  next  summer,  Williams  was  called  to  his  place.  He  was,  no 
doubt,  watched  narrowly,  even  before  his  settlement ;  but  for  a  while 
his  utterances  were  so  void  of  offence,  that  the  governor  and  as- 
sistants took  up  for  consideration  the  treatise  he  had  written  while  in 

1  Hubbard's  History,  pp.  175,  182. 


St.   Botolph's  Church,  Boston,   Eng. 


542  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

Plymouth  in  relation  to  the  Indian  title  to  the  country.  The  offender 
was  notified  to  appear  at  the  next  General  Court  for  cen- 
sure.1  He  appeared  accordingly,  and  made  due  submission, 


asserting  that  the  treatise  was  written  for  the  private  satis- 
faction of  the  governor  and  others  at  Plymouth,  and  that  there 
would  have  been  an  end  of  it  had  not  Mr.  Winthrop  sent  to  him  for  a 
copy.  The  anxiety  to  find  cause  of  complaint  against  him  must  have 
been  great,  when  a  private  manuscript  written  outside  of  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Massachusetts,  and  thus  obtained,  could  be  made  the  pretext 
of  an  accusation  against  the  writer.  Indeed  the  governor  and  council 
seem  to  have  become  a  little  ashamed  of  it,  for  they  were  gracious 
enough  subsequently  to  pass  the  matter  over,  after  consultation  with 
Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Cotton,  and  on  consideration  that  the  Indian 
essay  was  obscure  in  meaning,  that  Mr.  Williams  had  disavowed  any 
evil  intent  in  writing  it,  and  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance. 

But  offences  were  sure  to  come.     It  was  impossible  for  Mr.  Wil- 
liams to  keep  quiet  ;  equally  impossible,  for  the  Council  to 

Thcqxicstion     .    .    ,.  ,  A  ",  ,..  PI 

of  veils  at  let  him  alone.  As  a  sort  of  preliminary  of  what  was  to 
come  the  colony  was  presently  in  a  buzz,  for  he  had  per- 
suaded the  women  of  Salem  that  modesty  required  they  should  go 
veiled  in  public.  Here  was  heresy.  Cotton  hastened  to  Salem  to  re- 
fute it,  and  his  "  insinuating  and  melting  way  "  brought  down  every 
veil  in  the  parish  between  the  Sunday  services.  It  was  an  exhaustive 
discourse,  if  we  may  trust  Hubbard's  report  of  it,  and  proved  to  the 
women  of  Salem  that  the  Scriptural  reasons  were  not  applicable  in 
their  case  ;  for  many  wei'e  wives  and  not  virgins  ;  none  were  like 
Tamar  ;  and  none  needed  like  Ruth,  to  hold  up  her  veil  before  Boaz 
for  a  measure  of  barley.  Not  a  woman's  face  was  hidden  on  Sunday 
afternoon  after  this  morning's  discourse.  It  was  a  great  triumph  over 
Roger  Williams,  and  so  pleased  was  Mr.  Cotton  with  his  success,  that 
he  carried  the  subject  into  the  "  Boston  Lecture."  But  here  Endicott 
met  him  in  fierce  debate,  and  so  hot  did  it  grow  that  the  governor  in- 
terfered to  put  an  end  to  it.2 

Williams  had  no  more  devoted  follower  than  Endicott,  whose  zeal 
was  of  the  kind  that  out-runs  discretion.  At  home  and  abroad  he 
was,  for  a  time,  ready  to  uphold  his  pastor  at  any  cost,  and  would,  no 
doubt,  had  not  the  governor  stopped  him,  have  maintained  against 
Cotton,  rather  than  admit  that  there  was  any  defect  in  the  doctrine 

1  Savage's  Wintltrop,  vol.  i.,  p.  122. 

2  Such  sermons,  however,  were  not  uncommon.     Eliot  and  Chauncy,  President  of  Har- 
vard College,  preached  long  and  learned  discourses  on  Wigs.     Lift,  of  Williams,  Sparks's 
Biography,  vol.  xiv.     All  the  magistrates  in    1C49,  signed  a  solemn  protest  against  men 
wearing  long  hair,  and  commended  the  subject  to  the  attention  of  the  ministers.     Hutch- 
inson's  History. 


• 


z 

£ 

o 


c 
z 

tu 


1634.] 


ROGER  WILLIAMS. 


543 


in  regard  to  veils,  that  every  woman  in  Boston  was  like  Tamar  and 
should  hide  her  face.  The  Council  of  Massachusetts  were  far  more 
tender  of  him  than  of  the  minister,  though  he  did  not  always  escape 
punishment. 

His  zeal,  and  the  influence  of  his  pastor's  teaching  were  made  man- 
ifest in  an  act  of  more  moment  than  whether  the  women 
should  go  uncovered.  The  preaching  of  Williams  was  of  cut*  out  the 
the  searching  kind  and  the  application  of  his  principles  of 
undefiled  religion,  knew  no  limit.  There  was  in  him  no  fear  of  prin- 
cipalities or  powers ;  for  the  Church  of  England  he  had  only  abhor- 
rence ;  for  those  who  reverenced  her,  rebuke  if  not  denunciation.  He 
looked  everywhere  for  the  signs  of  anti-Christ,  and  at  any  relic  of  su- 
perstition he  pointed  an  unswerving  finger.  In  the  red  cross  of  St. 
George  he  saw  only  a  remnant  of  Popery,  not  an  ensign  of  victory. 
This  fervid  flame  of  pure  spiritual  doctrine  caught  up  Endicott  and  he 
blazed  into  fury.  When  next  the  flag  of  England  fluttered  over  him 
in  the  streets  of  Salem  he  seized  its  folds  and  cut  out  the  cross  in 
which  his  pastor  saw  an  emblem  of  submission  to  Rome.  Some  of  the 
soldiers  refused  to  follow  the  mutilated  colors  ;  the  grave  offence  de- 
manded the  attention  of  the  General  Court ;  he  was  rebuked  for  in- 
discretion, and  dismissed  for  a  time  from  his  seat  as  an  assistant  at 
the  Council.  It  was  only  because  all  were  persuaded  that  the  act  was 
done  out  of  tenderness  of  conscience  and  not  out  of  an  evil  mind  that 
he  was  visited  with  no  heavier  penalty1 ;  and,  besides,  there  were  a 
good  many  people  who  sympathized  with  the  act  itself. 

But  Williams  had  not  long  been  settled,  against  the  expostulations 
if  not  the  direct  order  of  the  Council,  when  the  people  of  Sa-  saiemaaks* 
lem  asked  that  a  tract  of  land  at  Marblehead  be   granted  gmi»ndu 
them.     The   court   refused.     So   palpable   and  flagrant   an  refused 
act  of  injustice   stirred  the   church   to  further  resistance  ;  the   other 
churches  where  the  magistrates  were  members,  were  written  to  and 
urged    to  admonish  them  for  this   gross   intolerance    toward   Salem. 
There  was  no  other  way  of  appealing  to  public  opinion,  and  public 
opinion  was  the  only  influence  that  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  magistrates.     The  appeal  was  useless ;   the  clergy  made   no  re- 
sponse, and  of  their  position,  no  doubt  the  magistrates  were  An,ppeaito 
quite  assured  beforehand.     The  protest  led  to  fresh  penal-  'birches 
ties ;  the  Salem  deputies  were  deprived  of  their  seats  in  the  Puni8hed- 
court ;   Endicott,  as  chief  and  of  the  most  importance,  was  imprisoned 
until  a  satisfactory  apology  was  made  for  such  a  spirit  of  insubordi- 
nation.    It  was  a  complete  establishment  of  the  civil  authority.    Wil- 
liams asked  his  people  to  separate  from  these  subservient  churches. 

i  Hubbard. 


544  NEW  ENGLAND   COLONIES.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

But  his  own  church  was  already  subdued,  and  the  request  was  refused. 
Salem  and  Endicott  submitted  at  last  to  a  power  inexorable  and  too 
strong  for  them,  and  the  pastor  was  left  helpless  and  at  the  mercy  of 
the  court. 

And  the  court  was  without  mercy,  as  Williams  was  without  any 
spirit  of  compromise.  He  was  summoned  to  Boston  to  answer  for 
his  dangerous  heresies,  and  he  appeared,  well  knowing  that  there  was 
hardly  a  magistrate  or  a  minister  in  the  little  commonwealth  that  had 
not  prejudged  him.  The  accusations  against  him  convey  an 


A  ll6  ~         ,  _  •  j»    i  •  rt*  i    •  i  • 

tions  against  inadequate  notion  of  how  serious  an  offence  his  doctrines  were 

Williams.  IT-»»  TT  i  i        •    i  ... 

among  the  ljuritans.  He  was  charged  with  maintaining  that 
the  magistrate  should  not  punish  a  breach  of  the  first  four  command- 
ments, except  where  the  result  was  a  breach  of  the  peace  ;  that  he 
should  not  tender  an  oath  to  an  unregenerate  man,  and  that  no  one 
should  pray  with  such  a  person,  though  he  be  one's  nearest  relative  ; 
and  that  thanks  should  not  be  given  either  after  meat  or  after  the  sacra- 
ment.1 But  out  of  these  propositions  he  deduced  the  plain  doctrine, 
that  the  magistrate  had  no  right  to  meddle  with  any  man's  conscience 
or  religious  opinions,  and  that  the  state  exceeded  its  just  power 
when  it  assumed  to  have  jurisdiction  over  any  other  relations  of  the 
citizen  than  those  of  person  and  property.  He  meant  this,  and  magis- 
trates and  ministers  understood  that  he  meant  it,  and  in  a  community 
where  no  man  was  a  citizen  except  he  was  a  church-member,  and  no 
man  was  a  church-member  except  with  the  minister's  permission,  such 
doctrine  was  dangerous  and  intolerable. 

But  he  was  not  to  be  moved.  Cotton  and  Hooker  went  to  Salem 
Mistrial  and  *o  labor  with  him,  and  he  withstood  them.  The  court  had 

sentence.  njm  Up  fQr  ^rjaj  -  na(J  |jjm  ^  fljat  ^  £or  ft  publ}c  polemical 

debate.  They  failed  to  convict  him  of  error,  as  he  failed  to  convict 
them  of  injustice.  He  was  sent  back  to  Salem  with  permission  to 
take  time  to  repent,  and  a  warning  to  prepare  for  sentence  at  the  next 
meeting  of  the  General  Court,  unless  ready  then  to  bring  forth  fruits 
meet  for  repentance. 

The  fruits  were  not  forthcoming.  He  was  stiff-necked  and  would 
not  bend,  and  sentence  of  banishment  was  pronounced  upon  him.  He 
*'  hath  broached  and  divulged  "  said  the  act,  "  divers  new  and  danger- 
ous opinions  against  the  authority  of  magistrates  ;  as  also  writ  letters 
of  defamation,  both  of  the  magistrates  and  churches  here  ;  "  and  there- 
fore he  was  ordered  to  depart  out  of  that  jurisdiction  within  six  weeks 
and  not  return  without  license  from  the  court.  To  this  sentence  there 
was  only  one  dissenting  voice.2 

1  Savage's  Winthrop.    Hubbard.    Mather's  Magnolia. 

2  Savage's  Winthrop. 


1635.]  BANISHMENT   OF   ROGER  WILLIAMS.  545 

There  was  more  than  one  dissenting  voice  however,  outside  of  the 
General  Court,  and  especially  in  Salem.  A  staunch  minority  stood  by 
the  persecuted  minister,  and  no  doubt  there  was  some  clamor  every- 
where. Perhaps  for  this  reason  notice  was  given  him  that  he  might 
remain  till  spring.  Williams  accepted  the  clemency  and  went  on 
preaching,  but  preached  precisely  as  he  had  done  before.  He  abated 
not  one  jot  of  his  dangerous  opinions  ;  gave  full  measure  of  his  doc- 
trines of  Christian  democracy.  When  the  church  was  closed  against 
him  by  the  timid  or  the  prudent,  he  called  together  in  his  own  house 
such  as  would  listen  to  him,  and  quietly  but  firmly  testified  to  the 
truth  as  it  was  in  him. 

The  magistrates  were  exasperated  and  summoned  him  again  before 
them.  They  had  heard  he  intended  to  plant  a  colony  on  Narragansett 
Bay,  "  from  whence,"  says 
Winthrop,  "  the  infection 
would  easily  spread  into 
these  churches,  the  people 
being  many  of  them  much 
taken  with  the  apprehension 
of  his  godliness."  He  re- 
fused to  appear  again  be- 
fore the  court,  but  alleged 
ill  health  as  a  reason.  It 
was,  no  doubt,  a  good  and 
sufficient  excuse,  but  he 
may,  perhaps,  have  felt  also  Roger  Willi'ms's  House  Salem- 

that  it  was  not  worth  while  to  be  tried  a  second  time  for  the  same 
offence.     At  any  rate  the  court  was  not  satisfied,  and  Captain  Under- 
bill was  sent  at  once  to  Salem  in  a  shallop  with  orders  to 
take  him  and  put  him  on  board  a  ship  about  to  sail  for  Eng-  arrJt  of 
land.     When  Underbill  arrived  he  was  gone  ;  some  kind 
friends  had  given  him  information  of  the  proposed  arrest,  and  he  fled 
alone  out  into  the  night  and  the  wilderness. 

Winthrop  was  not,  this  year,  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and 
may  have  felt  that  release  from  official  duty  permitted  the  indulgence 
of  a  feeling  of  personal  friendship  and  sympathy.  In  a  letter  written 
thirty-five  years  afterward,  Williams  says,  "  that  ever  honored  gover- 
nor, Mr.  Winthrop,  privately  wrote  to  me  to  steer  my  course  to  the 
Narragansett  Bay  and  Indians  for  many  high  and  heavenly  and  public 
ends,  encouraging  me  from  the  freeness  of  place  from  any  English 
claims  or  patents."  l  To  Narragansett  Bay,  accordingly,  he  steered 

1  Letter  from  Roger  Williams  to  Major  Mason,  ifass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  i.,  Fourth 
Series.    The  letters  of  Williams  to  Winthrop  during  the  years  immediately  succeeding  his 
VOL.  i.  36 


546 


NEW   ENGLAND   COLONIES. 


[CHAP.  XXL 


his  course,  "  though  in  winter  snow  which  I  feel  yet,"  he  adds,  paren- 
thetically, for  it  was  in  January. 

But  he  was  not  without  friends  in  the  wilderness  into  which  he 
threw  himself.  His  essay  on  the  rights  of  the  Indian  to  the  soil,  — 
which  had  been  construed  into  an  attack  upon  the  patent  and  upon 
The  night  of  the  king,  and  made  matter  of  accusation  against  him  —  was 
Williams.  no£  merely  an  idle,  abstract  argument  with  him,  but  a  living 
truth.  His  belief  in  their  rights  was  wider  and  more  earnest  than 
the  belief  of  those  about  him,  though  they  were  not  disposed  to  be 
unjust  to  the  natives.  But  to  him  they  were  a  people  to  be  tenderly 
used  and  gently  led  out  of  the  darkness  of  Heathenism,  and  the  in- 
tercourse he  had  had  with  them,  while  living  in  Plymouth,  was  in- 
fused with  this  feeling,  and  had  led  to  the  most  kindly  relations. 


Roger  Williams  building  his  House. 


Massasoit,  the  old  friend  of  the  Pilgrims,  was  his  friend  also,  and 
with  him  the  wanderer  at  last  found  rest  at  Mount  Hope. 

The  chief  gave  him  land  on  the  Seekonk  River,  and  there  in  the 

banishment  (see  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  i..  Appendix,  Muss.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  ii., 
Third  Series,  and  vol.  vi.,  Fourth  Series)  show  the  existence  of  cordial  and  even  affection- 
ate relations  between  them. 


1633.]  SETTLEMENTS   ON   THE   CONNECTICUT.  547 

early  spring  he  began  to  build  himself  a  house.1  Here  five  persons 
from  Salem  joined  him,  but  they  all  soon  removed  to  the  other  side 
of  the  river  by  the  advice  of  Governor  Winslow,  of  Plymouth.  He 
wrote  to  Williams  that  he  and  his  party  were  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Plymouth  grant,  and  it  was  best  to  avoid  all  possibility  of  dispute 
by  moving  a  few  miles  farther  west.  The  advice  was  wise  and  for- 
tunate. Dropping  down  the  Seekonk  River  in  a  canoe,  and  round 
into  the  broad  harbor  below,  they  landed  at  the  foot  of  a  hill 

11  -r       «•   11         •  i         Williams 

whose  seeming  advantages  attracted  them.     In  following  the  settles  at 

ProviJcucc 

advice  of  Winthrop  and  Winslow,  Williams  thought  he  was 
led  by  a  divine  guidance,  and  therefore,  and  —  to  use  his  own  words  — 
"  for  many  other  Providences  of  the  most  holy  and  only  wise,"  he 
called  the  place  Providence.     Here,  in  June,  1636,  the  exile  and  his 
five  companions  planted  the  seed  of  another  New  England  State. 

This,  however,  was  not  the  first  offshoot  from  the  parent  colonies 
that  had  taken  root  along  the  southern  shores  of  New  England.     As 
early  as  1631,  Wahginnacut,  a  Sagamore  from  "  the  river  Quonchta- 
cut,  which  lies  West  of  Naragancet,"  had  visited  Boston  and  offered 
the  Governor  inducements,  in  a  promised  tribute  of  corn  and  beaver- 
skins,  to  send  some  Englishmen  to  settle  in  his  country,  which  lie  said 
was   fruitful.     The   proposition    was   refused,    as   the   chief,   it   was 
thought,  only  wanted   English   aid   in   a  war   in   which  he  was  then 
engaged  with  the  Pequots ;    but  the  suggestion  did  not  fall   settlem(>ntg 
upon  deaf  ears.     The  Dutch  from  New  Netherland  had  al-  J5  Sec^!y 
ready  penetrated  the  Connecticut  valley,  and  had  purchased  necticut- 
lands  of  the  Indians  on  the  banks  of  the  river.      In  1633,  the  Com- 
missary, Van   Curler,  had   begun  to  build  the   Fort  Good  FortGood 
Hope,  —  now  Hartford  —  on  the  tract  thus  bought,  and  the  IIope  built- 
Dutch  West  India  Company  claimed  the  whole  valley  as  theirs,  by 
right  of  possession  and  purchase. 

Friendly  relations  had  been  established  between  the  Dutch  and  the 
Plymouth  people,  and  these  learned  from  the  former  something  of  the 
rich  trade  and  fertile  soil  they  had  found  on  the  Fresh  —  or  Connecti- 
cut —  River.  It  was  welcome  intelligence  to  the  Pilgrims,  whose 
trading-post  on  the  Penobscot  had  already  been  robbed  by  the  French, 
and  who,  probably,  had  little  hope  of  much  more  profitable  trade  in 
that  quarter.  Overtures  were  made  by  Bradford  and  Winslow  to 
Winthrop  to  anticipate  the  Dutch  in  their  proposed  occupation  at 
Fort  Good  Hope.  But  the  government  at  Boston  "  thought  not  fit  to 
meddle  with  it,"  as  the  neighborhood  of  a  large  body  of  Indians  and 

1  The  spot  is  now  known  as  "  Mnnton's  Cove,"  a  short  distance  above  a  bridge  in  a 
liend  of  the  river,  directly  eastward  of  Providence.  Gammdl's  Life  of  Roger  Williams,  in 
Sparks's  American  Biography. 


548 


NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES. 


[CHAP.  XXI. 


the  shallowness  of  the  river  made  it  a  poor  place  for  u  plantation. 
The  Plymouth  people  were  not  discouraged  by  this  refusal, 
but  in  the  autumn  of  1633  sent  William  Holmes  round  by 
sea  to  the  Connecticut,  having  on  board  his  vessel  the  frame 
of  a  house  already  prepared  for  building.  The  Dutch  threatened  to 
fire  upon  them  as  they  passed  by  Fort  Good  Hope,  but  Holmes  showed 
his  commission  from  the  Governor  of  Plymouth,  and  insisted  that  he 
must  obey  orders,  and  going  on,  put  up  his  house  upon  the  site  of  the 


The  New- 


Site  of  Fort  Good   Hope. 

present  town  of  Windsor,  about  six  miles  above  the  Dutch  fort.1 
Governor  Van  Twiller  the  next  year  sent  troops  from  New  Amster- 
dam —  who,  however,  Avere  not  employed  —  to  oust  the  intruders 
upon  the  territory  which,  he  claimed,  not  without  reason,  belonged  to 
the  West  India  Company.  But  the  sturdy  Pilgrims,  under  Holmes, 
held  their  own,  and  entered  into  successful  trade  with  the  Indians. 
This  firm  footing  on  the  Connecticut  was  made,  when  the  next 
spring  a  petition  was  presented  to  the  General  Assembly  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  from  the  people  of  Newtown,  asking  that 
they  might  be  permitted  "  to  look  out  either  for  enlargement 
or  removal."  The  ministers  Hooker  and  Stone  were  at  the 
head  of  this  movement,  but,  though  the  petition  was  at  first  granted, 
when  the  intention  was  avowed  of  going  to  the  Connecticut,  it  met  with 
warm  opposition.  In  the  autumn  the  subject  again  came  up  for  discus- 
sion in  the  General  Court,  when  it  was  urged,  that  so  large  an  emi- 
gration would  be  a  great  injui'y  to  the  colony  ;  the  emigrants  them- 
selves would  be  exposed  to  great  dangers  both  from  the  Indians  and 

1  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut. 


th™con-° 
necticut. 


1635.]  EMIGRATION  TO   CONNECTICUT.  549 

the  Dutch ;  it  was  doubtful  if  the  king  would  assent  to  a  company 
settling  upon  lands  to  which  they  had  no  patent,  and  there  was  no 
good  reason  for  removing  so  far,  when  there  was  ample  room  within 
the  limits  of  the  Company's  patent  which  they  might  occupy.  On  the 
main  question  a  majority  of  the  deputies  from  the  towns  were  in  favor 
of  granting  permission  to  the  petitioners  to  remove  to  the  Connecti- 
cut ;  but  a  majority  of  the  assistants  voted  against  it. 

Thereupon  arose  an  important  conflict  as  to  the  rights  of  these  two 
classes  of  representatives  —  whether  the  assistants  who  rep-  Conflict  of 
resented  the  magistracy,  though  smaller  in  number,  should  {£n^\n  th" 
not  outweigh  by  their  vote  the  lai-ger  number  of  deputies  Court- 
who  represented  the  people.  Neither  party  was  disposed  to  yield,  and 
a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  appointed  to  get  light  upon  the  sub- 
ject, aided  by  a  sermon  from  Mr.  John  Cotton.  The  result  was  at 
least  peace  for  the  present,  though  the  question  as  to  the  conflicting 
claim  of  assistants  and  representatives  remained  undetermined,  and 
the  ITewtown  people,  before  Mr.  Cotton's  sermon  was  preached,  con- 
sented to  accept  an  enlargement  of  their  borders. 

The  wish  to  remove  to  the  rich  lands  of  the  Connecticut  Valley 
was  not  confined  to  the  church  at  Newtown.  Others  of 
Watertown,  Dorchester,  and  Roxbury,  were  equally  uneasy,  tothecon- 
and  as  no  permission  could  be  obtained  to  go  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  Massachusetts  patent,  a  good  many  resolved  to  go  with- 
out. A  few  men  from  Watertown  began  the  settlement  of  Wethers- 
field  in  the  winter  of  1635,  and  more  of  their  townsmen  followed  them 
in  the  spring;  others  went  from  Dorchester  and  settled  themselves 
about  the  Plymouth  people  at  Windsor  in  the  summer  of  that  year. 
In  November,  a  still  larger  party,  gathered  probably  from  various 
places,  started  for  the  new  country.  It  was  composed  of  whole  fami- 
lies, men,  women,  and  children,  and  they  took  with  them  their  horses, 
cattle,  and  swine.  It  was  a  perilous  journey  through  the  woods 
at  that  season,  and  winter  was  upon  them  before  it  was  over.  The 
river  was  frozen  by  the  middle  of  the  month,  and  the  vessels  which 
were  bringing  their  household  goods  and  provisions  were  unable  to 
get  to  them.  Two  of  these  were  wrecked  on  the  way.  The  emi- 
grants were  put  to  almost  the  extreme  of  suffering,  and  seventy  of 
them,  going  down  the  river,  in  the  hope  of  meeting  with  their  own 
vessels,  were  happily  rescued  by  another,  and  carried  back  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, miserable  and  repentant.  Those  who  went  to  Windsor 
were  complained  of  by  the  Plymouth  people  for  intruding  on  their 
lands. 

These  irregular  attempts  at  settlement,  more  or  less  successful,  were 
followed  by  one  which  laid  the  foundation  of  a  stable  colony.     In  the 


5; 


NEW   ENGLAND   COLONIES. 


[CHAP.  XXI. 


autumn  of  this  year,  John  Winthrop,  a  son  of  Governor  Winthrop  of 
Massachusetts,  came  out  from  England,  bringing  with  him  a 
thronp,  the      commission  to  be  governor  of  Connecticut,  under  the  patent 
of  Lord  Say  and  Seal,  Lord  Brook  and  others,  -which  cov- 
ered that  region  of  country.     He  brought  -with  him  men,  ordnance, 

and  ammunition, 
and  had  orders  to 
erect  a  fort  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river. 
Hearing  that  the 

Signature  of  Lord  Say  and  Seal.  Dutch      had       deS- 

patched  a  vessel  on  the  same  errand,  he  immediately  sent  a  small  ves- 
sel from  Boston  with  twenty  men  to  take  possession,  and  when  the 
Dutchman  arrived  a  battery  of  two  cannon  confronted  him,  which 
was  enough  to  prevent  his  landing.  When  the  Dutch  purchased  the 
country  three  years  before,  of  the  Indians,  they  had  affixed  to  a  tree 


Tearing   down  the  Dutch  Arms. 

at  Kievit's  Hook  the  arms  of  the  State's  General  in  token  of  posses- 
sion. The  Englishmen  contemptuously  tore  down  this  shield,  and 
carved  a  grinning  face  in  its  stead.1  The  place  was  named  Saybrook, 
in  honor  of  the  Lords  Say  and  Brook,  the  patentees,  a  strong  fort  was 
soon  built,  and  the  only  evidence  left  in  the  valley  of  the  presence  of 
the  Dutch  was  the  feeble  post  of  Fort  Good  Hope. 

1  Brodhi-ad's  History  of  New  York. 


1636.] 


THE  HOOKER  EMIGRATION. 


551 


Between  the  English  settlers  at  Hartford,  "Wethersfield,  and  Windsor 
and  the  new  governor,  it  was  easy  to  come  to  an  amicable  The  Hooker 
arrangement.  And  others  soon  followed  from  Massachu- 
setts. The  Newtown  people,  notwithstanding  "  they  had  been  car- 
ried captive  after  the  triumphant  chariot  of  Mr.  Cotton's  rhetoric," 
and  had  accepted  the  offer  of 
more  lands  which  the  General 
Court  had  offered  them ;  and 
notwithstanding  the  painful  ex- 
perience of  some  of  those  who 
had  sought  there  new  homes, 
still  longed  for  the  fresh  fields 
and  green  meadows  of  the 
Connecticut.  "  Two  such  em- 
inent stars,  such  as  were  Mr. 
Cotton  and  Mr.  Hooker,"  says 
Hubbard,  "both  of  the  same 
magnitude,  though  of  differing 
influence,  could  not  well  con- 
tinue in  one  and  the  same  orb." 
It  is  not  impossible  that  there 
may  have  been  some  jealousy 
between  two  such  eminent  men 
in  a  small  communit)7,  where  there  was  no  influence  so  potent  as  that 
of  the  clergyman,  and  where  of  two  the  most  distinguished  only  one 
could  be  first.  Whether  Hooker  had  any  such  feeling  or  not,  the 
chief  reason  he  gave  for  desiring  a  removal  was  that  it  was  already 
too  crowded  in  Massachusetts,  and  that  the  policy  of  the  Company  in 
planting  settlements  so  near  each  other  was  a  mistake. 

The  accession  of  members  to  the  colony  during  the  year  1635,  no 
doubt  helped  to  strengthen  this  conviction,  for  there  came,  that  year, 
about  three  thousand  persons  from  England.  Some  must  go  farther 
into  the  interior,  and  the  Newtown  people  resumed  their  determina- 
tion. They  disposed  of  their  houses  and  lands  .to  a  body  of  new- 
comers, and  prepared  for  removal. 

In  June,  1636,  the  whole  church  of  Newtown,  numbering  about  a 
hundred,  with  Hooker  and  Stone,  the  ministers,  at  their  head,  started 
on  their  journey.  They  were  about  ten  days  in  the  woods,  travelling 
in  that  time  something  less  than  a  hundred  miles.  They  drove  before 
them  a  hundred  and  sixty  cattle ;  wagons  carried  the  old  and  feeble  ; 
these  and  tents  were  a  sufficient  shelter  at  night.  The  forest  was 
beautiful  with  the  abundant  flowers  of  June  and  with  the  tender  foliage 
of  the  young  summer  ;  the  woods  were  vocal  with  the  music  of  birds, 


John  Winthrop.  the  younger. 


552 


NEW  ENGLAND   COLONIES. 


[CHAP.  XXI. 


in  that  month  always  in  clearest  and  fullest  song ;  the  rains  of  spring 
had  passed  ;  the  heats  of  the  later  season  had  not  come ;  and  so,  with- 
out hardship,  almost  without  fatigue,  the  emigrants  traversed  the  wil- 
derness, as  happy,  in  their  ten  days'  journey,  as  a  modern  church-party 
that  picnics  for  a  day  in  a  suburban  grove. 
They  left  nothing  behind  them  to  regret ;  •^•£«fc&&*& 
before  them  the  future  was  rosy  with  hope. 
The  one  touch  of  sombre  color,  which,  how- 
ever, took  nothing  of  in- 
terest and  even  of  ro- 


Hooker's  Emigration  to  Connecticut. 

mance  from  the  scene,  was  the  figure  of  Mrs.   Hooker,  who,  feeble 
from  illness,  was  carried  in  a  litter. 

Hartford  was  the  end  of  this  pleasant  journey  ;  then  so  named  in 

honor  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stone,  who  was  a  native  of  Hartford  in  England. 

Wethersfield,  and  Windsor  also,  received  their  names  this 

named  in       summer,  as  sufficient  numbers  followed  in  the  path  of  the 

Connecticut.  i  •  •    i      i      • 

Newtown  people,  to  make  them  worthy  of  special  designa- 
tion ;  and  higher  up  the  river,  Pynchon,  one  of  the  earliest  of  the 
planters,  and  a  member  of  the  original  Council  in  London,  began 
a  settlement,  with  a  few  others,  which  soon  came  to  be  called  Spring- 
field. At  the  end  of  the  year  there  were  about  eight  hundred 
people  in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut,  which,  though  governed  at 
first  by  commissioners  from  Massachusetts,  was  soon  an  established 
autonomy. 

But  this  swarming  of  the  hive  was  by  no  means  the  most  agitating 
experience  of  Massachusetts  during  this  period.     A  theological  dis- 


1634.] 


MRS.   HUTCHINSON. 


553 


pensation  was  visited  upon  it  which  shook  its  very  soul,  and  it  is  not 
impossible  that  the  interest  raised  by  this  was  so  absorbing  that  the 
authorities  saw  with  indifference,  or  did  not  notice  at  all,  that  the 
people  were  leaving  the  colony  with  as  little  hesitation  as  if  no  per- 
mission had  ever  been  asked,  and  refused  of  the  General  Court. 

In  1634  there  arrived  a  Mrs.  Ann  Hutchinson  from  Atford,  near 
Boston,  England.     With   her  came  her  husband,  a  rather 
insignificant  person,  and  her  brother-in-law,  the  Rev.  John  MM.  uutch- 
Wheelwright.     John  Cotton,  who  came  over  the  year  be- 
fore, was  her  favorite  among  all  the  ministers  in  England,  and  she 
seems  to  have  followed  him  to  this  country,  for  she  declared  that  no 
church  in  England  suited  her.     She  was  a  woman  of  superior  intelli- 
gence, bright,  witty,  good  at  a  fencing  match  of  tongues,  versed  in 
Scripture  and  theological  literature,  never  so  happy  as  when  descanting 
on  her  views.     Her  temper  was  resolute  ;  she  ruled  her  weak  husband, 
and  had  a  taste  for  ruling  ;  to  be  an  influential  centre  of  opinion  was 
her  ambition,  which  she  took  no  trouble  to  conceal.    Moreover  she  was 
skilful  in  sickness,  and  knew  how  to  treat  the  travails  and 
troubles  of  her  sex.     She  soon  became  highly  popular,  only  inson-s  ad 


herents. 


Winthrop,  Wilson,  and  a  few  others  did  not  admire  her. 
John  Cotton,  of  course,  was  her  adherent.  So  also  was  Sir  Henry 
Vane,  who  was  governor  for  one  of  the  three  years  of  his  residence 
in  the  colony  and  during  the  contin- 
uance of  this  controversy ;  a  Puritan 
of  the  Puritans,  and  delighting  in 
theological  subtleties,  he  warmly  sup- 
ported Mrs.  Hutchinson.  The  views 
which  she  maintained  were  of  the 
kind  called  Antinomian ;  that  is,  the 
Law  was  not  a  school-master  to  bring 
men  to  Christ,  the  Person  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  dwells  in  a  justified  person  and 
becomes  his  justification  ;  no  sanctifi- 
cation  can  help  to  testify  to  a  man 
that  he  is  justified,  or  of  him,  because 
it  may  be  assumed.  The  clergy  ob- 
jected that  as  the  Holy  Ghost  was  the 
Third  Person  of  the  Trinity  he  could 
not  be  indwelling.  But  she  declared  that  made  no  difficulty.  They 
disliked  the  distinction  which  she  and  her  brother-in-law  strenuously 
maintained  between  a  covenant  of  grace  and  a  covenant  of  works,  and 
she  offended  by  rallying  them  for  their  austerity. 

It  was  her  custom  to  hold  lectures  twice  a  week,  to  which  the 


Henry    Vane. 


554 


NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES. 


[CHAP.  XXI. 


women  flocked,  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  attending  to  hear  her  re- 
peat from  memory  the  sermons  she  heard,  and  comment  upon 
lee-  them  with  piquancy.  She  had  Scripture  for  these  novel  gath- 
erings of  women,  for  Titus  says  that  the  aged  women  may 
teach  the  young  ones.  "  Coine  along  with  me,"  says  a  writer  of  the 
period,  "  I  '11  bring  you  to  a  woman  that  preaches  better  Gospell  than 
any  of  your  black-coats  that  have  been  at  the  Ninnyversity,  a  woman 
of  an  other  kind  of  spirit,  who  hath  had  many  revelations  of  things  to 
come,  and  for  my  part  I  had  rather  hear  such  a  one  that  speaks  from 
the  meere  motion  of  the  spirit,  without  any  study  at  all,  then  any  of 
your  learned  Scollers,  although  they  may  be  fuller  of  Scripture." 

Only  four  or  five  members  of  the  Boston  Church  held  out  against 
her  ;  the  country  churches  were  mainly  opposed  to  her  teachings. 
The  feeling  began  to  grow  bitter  when  Mrs.  Hutchinson  obtrusively 
Her  success  ^e^  *ne  niccting-house  whenever  Wilson  rose  to  speak. 
in  Boston.  Winthrop  and  Wilson  succeeded  with  difficulty  in  prevent- 
ing the  election  of  Wheelwright  to  an  associate  place  with  the  teacher 
and  pastor.  Their  success  was  provoking  and  increased  the  alienations 
among  old  friends  and  fellow-workers.  When  people  began  to  call 
each  other  hard  names,  to  brand  this  one  as  under  a  covenant  of  works, 
and  that  one  as  superior,  being  under  grace,  the  General  Court  took 
up  the  matter  as  becoming  dangerous  to  the  State.  Wheelwright  was 
pronounced  guilty  of  sedition  and  contempt  because  he  employed  the 
occasion  of  a  general  Fast  to  preach  a  discourse  in  which  he 
of  the  Gen-  called  persons  living  in  a  covenant  of  works  Anti-Christs  and 
stirred  up  the  people  against  them.  The  sentence  proved  so 
unpopular,  even  Winthrop  signing  a  petition  against  it,  that  the  court 
went  out  of  Boston  and  held  its  sittings  at  Newtown. 

In  May,  1637,  the  confusion  was  at  its  height.  At  the  General  Court 
a  quarrel  arose  upon  the  presentation  of  a  petition  from  Boston.  The 
Court  would  not  allow  it  to  be  read  till  after  the  usual  election  of 
magistrates.  Vane  resisted,  and  refused  with  his  supporters  to  take 
pai-t  ;  but  Winthrop,  who  was  deputy,  persisted  in  voting,  and  the  elec- 
tion resulted  in  restoring  Winthrop  and  Dudley  to  power  :  Endicott 
was  made  a  magisti'ate  for  life;  but  all  the  adherents  of  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son were  left  out.  The  excitement  in  Newtown  was  intense,  and 
people  came  into  violent  collision.  "  In  the  height  of  the  fray, 
Wilson  climbed  a  tree  and  made  a  speech,  the  meeting  being  held  in 
the  open  air."  J  Winthrop  was  coldly  received  in  Boston  and  subjected 
to  studied  insults. 

A  synod  of  ministers  and  magistrates  which  was  held  in  August  at 
Newtown,  and  condemned  the  opinions  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Wheel- 

1  Hutchinson. 


1634.] 


TRIAL   OF  MRS.   HUTCHINSON. 


555 


Hutch- 


wright  did  not  pacify  dissension.     The  two  parties  were  irreconcilable. 
Now  the  General  Court  began  to  deal  with  the  principal  offenders  : 
some  were  disfranchised,   Wheelwright  was  banished,  and 
eventually  went  to  the  Piscataqua.     Mrs.  Hutchinson  was 
brought  to  trial  for  not  discontinuing  her  meetings  at  the  brought  to 
order  of  the  late  synod.     It  is  probable  that  the  agitations  tnal- 
of  the  years  had  affected  her  temper  and  somewhat  impaired  her  judg- 


Trial  of  Mrs.    Hutchinson. 


ment.    She  was  intemperate  enough  to  claim  to  be  inspired,  and  that 
it  had  been  revealed  to  her  that  she  would  come  to  New  England  to  be 


556  NEW  ENGLAND   COLONIES.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

persecuted,  but  that  God  would  ruin  the  colony  for  her  sake.  She  nar- 
rowly escaped  procuring  the  verification  of  her  own  prediction,  for  her 
quarrel  of  opinion  rent  the  State  when  it  divided  the  churches.  So 
intense  was  the  feeling  aixmsed  against  her,  that  it  was  believed  the 
Almighty  testified  His  disapprobation  of  her  heresies  by  pi-oducing 
monstrous  births  among  women  who  had  accepted  her  teachings ;  and 
even  she  herself  was  suspected  of  having  been  the-  subject  of  such  a 
Her  banish-  dispensation.  The  Court  banished  her,  but  considerately  left 
ment.  ner  ^o  sj-av  ouj.  £ne  bitter  winter  at  a  private  house.  Powder 

and  arms  were  carried  out  of  Boston,  and  the  principal  disaffected 
persons,  to  the  number  of  seventy-six,  were  summoned  to  surrender 
their  arms,  which  they  did.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  then  removed  to  Rhode 
Island,  and  afterward  to  New  York,  where,  as  has  already  been  told 
in  a  previous  chapter,  she  was  killed  some  years  after  by  the  Indians.1 

One  of  the  reasons  which  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  had 
given  for  not  acceding  to  the  requests  for  permission  to  remove  to  the 
Connecticut  Valley  was  the  danger  from  the  Indians.  It  was  no 
doubt  sincere,  and  it  certainly  was  not  without  reason.  The  Indians 
were  far  more  numerous  in  that  part  of  the  country  than  along  the 
sea-coast,  where  the  epidemic  of  years  before  had  more  than  decimated 
them.  They  saw  with  jealousy  and  fear  the  whites  intruding  upon 
their  territory.  With  the  Dutch  hitherto  they  had  kept  upon  good 
terms,  for  the  Dutch  were  traders  only,  and  not  settlers  upon  the 
Connecticut.  But  the  English  were  evidently  coming  with  another 
purpose  than  mere  traffic,  and  the  Indians  were  alarmed  accordingly. 

Aggressions  were  begun,  continued,  and  grew  more  frequent.  What 
Indian  bos-  ^ne  Indians  did  we  know  ;  what  was  done  to  them  we  do  not 


know.  Sometimes  they  robbed  the  whites,  and  sometimes 
they  murdered  them  ;  plunder,  no  doubt,  was  often  their  object ; 
quite  as  often,  perhaps,  revenge.  When,  in  1634,  they  went  on  board 
the  schooner  of  a  Captain  Stone,  somewhere  near  Fort  Good  Hope, 
and  murdered  all  hands,  it  was  probably  because  there  was  much  they 
wanted  to  steal  on  board  the  vessel,  just  in  from  the  West  Indies. 
But  when,  two  years  later,  Captain  Oldham  met  the  same  fate  at  their 
hands,  it  is  not  in  the  least  improbable  that  there  may  have  been 
some  provocation  which  led  to  the  deed. 

John  Oldham  had  been  in  New  England  from  the  first  settlement 
of  Plymouth.     After  his  ignominious  expulsion  from  that  colony,  we 

hear  of  his  apparent  restoration  to  favor  among  that  people  ; 
john*oidr-°  of  his  attempts  to  found  colonies  of  his  own  in  Maine  and 

Boston  harbor,  so  far,  at  least,  as  to  procure  patents  to  that 
end;  of  his  trading  along  the  coast ;  of  his  disputing  with  the  Council 

i  Sec  p.  457. 


1636.] 


DEATH    OF    OLDHAM. 


557 


of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  their  title  to  the  lands  which 
they  held  under  the  hand  and  seal  of  the  king.  Restless,  energetic, 
always  engaged  in  some  enterprise,  he  certainly  was  ;  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  there  was  anything  more  amiss  in  him  than  belongs 
almost  inevitably  to  a  man  of  violent  temper,  removed  in  a  great  de- 
gree from  the  restraints  of  civilization,  leading  a  life  of  adventure, 
associating  and  trading  with  the  Indians  till  he  had  acquired,  perhaps, 
as  such  men  are  apt  to  do,  something  of  the  habits  and  almost  the 
nature  of  an  Indian. 

In  1636  he  was  trading  in  a  vessel  of  his  own,  along  the  Connecti- 
cut River.  What  encounter  there  may  have  been  between  him  and 
the  Indians,  that  led  to  the  final  catastrophe,  is  not  known  —  whether 
his  vessel  was  boarded  by  them  merely  for  plunder,  or  whether  some 
aggression  on  his  part  provoked  retaliation.  But  off  Block  Island,  a 
Massachusetts  fisherman,  John  Gallop,  descried  the  vessel  drifting 

>:    ''^^'^  - 


Recapture  of  Oldham's  Vessel. 

helplessly  out  to  sea,  crowded  with  Indians  who  could  handle  neither 
helm  nor  sail.  Gallop,  who  had  only  one  man  and  two  boys  with  him, 
without  hesitation  attacked  the  vessel  and  then  boarded  her,  assault- 
ing the  Indians  with  such  weapons  as  he  had  at  hand.  It  must  have 
been  a  gallant  naval  battle,  for  the  brave  fisherman  and  his  brave 


658  NEW  ENGLAND   COLONIES.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

companions  drove  the  Indians  before  them,  some  diving  into  the  hold 
for  safety,  some  throwing  themselves  into  the  sea,  till  none  were  left 
upon  the  vessel  but  the  dying  and  the  dead.  Upon  the  deck  lay  the 
body  of  Oldham,  still  bleeding  from  recent  wounds  where  he  had 
fallen  with  his  crew  in  defence  of  his  vessel. 

This  death  of  Oldham  was  the  signal  for  war.     The  government  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  the  people  who  had  already  come,  and 

Beginning  "  f      \  .  -    « 

of  the  nrst    the  people  who  were  coming  into  the  Connecticut  valley,  saw 

Indian  War.  r       r  .   .        .        —  , 

that  peace  with  the  requots  was  no  longer  to  be  purchased 
by  attempts  at  conciliation.  Immediate  measures  were  taken  to  punish 
this  outrage  ;  the  Indians  put  themselves  both  on  the  defensive  and 
the  offensive,  and  the  colonies  of  New  England  were  for  the  first  time 
engaged  in  serious  war. 


• 


TABLE  OF  DATES. 


499.  Chinese  claim  to  American  discovery. 

860.  Iceland  discovered  by  Naddod,  the  Northman. 

985.  America  seen  by  Bjarni  Herjulfson. 

1000.  Leif,  son  of  Eric  the  Red,  discovers  America. 

1002.  Thorvald  the  Northman;  voyage  to  America. 

1004.  Thorvald's  second  voyage. 

1005.  Voyage  of'Thorstein  of  Ericsfiord. 

1007.  Expedition  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefne;  sails  for  America. 

Birth  of  Snorri,  first  European  child  born  on  this  continent. 

1011.  Colony  of  Freydis,  daughter  of  Eric  the  Red. 

1170.  Alleged  discovery  of  America  by  the  Welsh. 

1380.  Voyage  of  Nicolo  Zeno,  a  Venetian. 

1467.  Christopher  Columbus  sails  to  Iceland. 

1477.  Reputed  voyage  of  John  of  Rolno. 

1483.  Columbus  leaves  Portugal  for  Genoa. 

1484.  Alleged  voyage  of  Alonzo  Sanchez. 
1488.  Alleged  voyage  of  Cousin  of  Dieppe. 

1492.  Fii  st.voyage  of  Columbus  ;  Discovery  of  West  Indies. 

1497.  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot  discover  North  America. 

1498.  Third  voyage  of  Columbus  ;  he.  discovers  the  continent  of  South  America. 
Second  voyage  of  Sebastian  Cabot. 

1499.  First  voyage  of  Amerigo  Vespucci. 

1500.  Gaspar  Cortereal  goes  to  Labrador. 

1501.  Second  voyage  of  Amerigo  Vespucci. 

1502.  Voyage  of  Miguel  Cortereal. 

1504.  Amerigo  Vespucci's  narrative  published. 

1506.  Death  of  Christopher  Columbus. 

John  Denys  of  Honfleur  explores  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 

1507.  America  named. 

1512.  Discovery  of  Florida  by  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon. 

1513.  Pacific  Ocean  discovered  by  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa. 

1516.  Voyage  of  Diego  Mirnelo  to  Florida. 

1517.  Hernando  de  Cordova  visits  Florida. 

1518.  John  de  Grijalva  goes  to  Florida. 
Colony  of  Baron  de  Leri  on  Sable  Island. 

1519.  Francis  de  Garay  explores  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

1520.  Lucas  Vasquez  De  Ayllon's  expedition  to  coasts  of  South  Carolina. 

1521.  Death  of  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon. 

1522.  A  ship  of  Magellan's  Expedition  sails  around  the  world. 

VOL.  J. 


560  TABLE   OF  DATES. 

-- 

1524.  Council  of  Badajos  held  to  settle  claims  of  Spain  and  Portugal  to  America, 
First  French  expedition  to  America  under  Giovanni  da  Verrazano. 

1525.  Stephen  Gomez  sails  along  the  Atlantic  coast. 

1527.  Expedition  of  John  Rut  sails  from  England. 

1528.  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez  lands  in  Florida. 

1534.     Jacques  Cartier  of  France  sails  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 

1 535.  Second  voyage  of  Jacques  Cartier. 

1536.  Voyage  from  London  commanded  by  Captain  Hore. 

1539.  Fernando  De  Soto  lands  in  Florida. 

1540.  Jean  Francois  de  la  Roque,  Seigneur  de  Roberval,   secures  a  patent  from 

Francis  I. 

1541.     Jacques  Cartier  sails  on  a  third  voyage. 
The  Mississippi  River  discovered. 

1542.  Death  of  Fernando  de  Soto. 
Voyage  of  Roberval. 

1543.  Return  of  De  Solo's  Expedition. 
1553.     Expedition  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby. 
1555.     Death  of  Jacques  Cartier. 

Huguenot  Colony  in  Brazil. 

1559.     Expedition  of  Don  Tristan  de  Luna. 
1562.     Admiral  Coligny's  first  colony  sent  to  Florida  under  John  Ribault. 

1564.     Second  Expedition  of  Coligny  under  Rene  de  Laudonniere. 

15C5.     Second  arrival  of  Ribault  in  Florida. 

Massacre  of  Ribault  and  his  companions  by  Pedro  Menendez. 
1565.     Founding  of  St.  Augustine. 

1568.     Attack  of  Dominique  de  Gourgues  on  the  Spanish  forts. 

1570.     Colony  of  Pedro  Menendez  landed  on  the  Potomac. 

1574.     Death  of  Pedro  Menendez. 

1576.  First  voyage  of  Martin  Frobisher  in  search  of  a  Northwest  passage;  dis- 

covers straits  since  called  by  his  name. 

1577.  Second  voyage  of  Martin  Frobisher. 
1578.     Third  voyage  of  Martin  Frobisher. 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  receives  his  first  charter  for  American  dis- 
covery. 

1579.     The  Union  of  Utrecht  formed. 

1581.     The  Republic  of  the  United  Netherlands  established. 
1583.     Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  sails  on  his  American  voyage. 
1584.     Sir  Walter  Raleigh  receives  his  first  patent. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  first  expedition  under  Amadas  and  Barlow. 

1585.  Raleigh's  second  expedition  under  Sir  Richard  Greenville. 
1585-6-7.     Voyages  of  John  Davis  in  search  of  a  Northwest  passage. 

1586.  Sir  Francis  Drake  attacks  St.  Augustine,  Florida. 

Sir  Francis  Drake  succors  Raleigh's  colonists  in  Virginia. 
1587.     Raleigh's  colony  under  Mr.  John  "White. 

Birth  of  Virginia  Dare. 
1590.     White's  second  arrival  in  Virginia. 
1594.     Willem  Barentz  explores  Nova  Zembla. 

1598.     Marquis  de  la  Roche  secures  a  patent  from  Henry  IV.  of  France. 
1602.     Voyage  of  Samuel  Mace  to  Virginia. 

Captain  Bartholomew  Gosnold  begins  a  settlement  on  Elizabeth 
[Cuttyhunk]  Island. 


TABLE   OF  DATES. 


561 


Dutch  East  India  Company  formed. 

1603.  First  voyage  of  Samuel  Champlain  to  America. 
Martin  Pring  explores  coast  of  Maine. 

Voyage  and  death  of  Bartholomew  Gilbert. 

1604.  French  patent  of  Acadia  granted  to  De  Monts. 

De  Monts  and  Champlain  establish  a  colony  in  the  present  limits 

of  Maine. 
1605.     Voyage  of  George  Weymouth  to  the  coasts  of  Maine. 

1606.  Patent  granted  to  the  Virginia  Companies. 

First  permanent  colony  of  English  set  sail  for  America. 

1607.  First  permanent  settlement  of  Virginia  at  Jamestown. 
Colony  sent  to  Maine  by  Chief  Justice  Fopham. 
Henry  Hudson  attempts  the  Northeast  passage. 

1608.  Founding  of  Quebec  by  Samuel  de  Champlain. 

1609.  Second  Charter  granted  to  the  Virginia  Company. 
The  Discovery  of  Lake  Champlain. 

Voyage   of  Henry  Hudson  to   America.      Discovery  of  the  river 
named  for  him. 

1610.  Arrival  of  Lord  de  la  Warre  in  Virginia. 

1611.  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  Governor  of  Virginia. 

1612.  Third  charter  granted  to  the  Virginia  Company. 

1613.  Settlement  of  Jesuits  on  Mount  Desert  Island. 

1613-14.     Captain  Samuel  Argall  breaks  up  the  French  settlements  in  Maine  and 

Acadia. 

1614.    The  New  Netherland  Company  receives  its  charter. 
Captain  John  Smith  explores  New  Englaud. 

Expedition  sent  by  Ferdinando  Gorges  and  Earl  of  Southampton. 
1615.     Adriaen  Block  explores  Long  Island  Sound. 

1618.  Expiration  of  the  first  New  Netherland  charter. 
Ferdinando  Gorges  sends  Captain  Rocroft  to  New  England. 

1619.  First  cargo  of  slaves  brought  to  Jamestown. 

First  legislative  assembly  of  Virginia  meets  in  Jamestown. 

1620.  The  Pilgrims  sail  from  Delft  Haven. 
New  charter  of  the  Plymouth  Company. 

1621.  The  Pilgrims  settle  at  Plymouth. 

Nova  Scotia  granted  to  Sir  William  Alexander. 
The  Dutch  West  India  Company  incorporated. 
John  Peirce's  first  patent  from  the  Plymouth  Company. 

1622.     The  Dutch  West  India  Company  takes  formal  possession  of  New  Nether- 
land. 

Weston's  colony  established  at  Wessagusset. 
The  Massacre  in  Virginia,  under  Opechancanough. 
1623.     The  Laconia  Grant  to  Gorges  and  Mason. 

Settlement  of  New  Hampshire  at  Portsmouth  and  Dover. 
Robert  Gorges  made  Governor-general  under  the  Plymouth  Company. 
John  Pierce's  second  patent. 
The  Lyford  and  Oldham  difficulty  at  Plymouth. 
1625.     Permanent  settlements  in  Maine  begun  under  Aid-worth   and  El- 

dridge. 
1629.    The  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  founded. 

Issue  of  the  Charter  of  Privileges  and  Exemptions  by  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company. 


562  TABLE   OF  DATES. 

Lord  Baltimore  visits  Jamestown. 
1630.     Settlement  of  Boston  and  neighboring  towns. 

John  Winthrop,  Governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

Oldham  and  Vines  found  Biddeford  and  Saco  in  Maine. 

Kiliaen  van  Rensselaer  buys  Rensselaerswyek. 

Godyn  and  Blommaert  buy  land  on  the  Delaware.     Pauw  buys  Pavonia. 
1631.     Gorges  and  Mason  divide  the  Laconia  grant. 

New  Hampshire  named  by  Mason. 

Arrival  of  Roger  Williams  at  Boston. 

Swaanendael  founded  by  Heyes  for  De  Vries. 
1632.     Maryland  granted  to  Lord  Baltimore. 

Dutch  traders  on  the  Connecticut. 

1633.     The   Dutch  buy  lands  on  the  Schuylkill   and  on  the   Connecticut.     Fort 
Good  Hope  founded. 

Plymouth  trading-house  on  the  Connecticut. 

1634.  Settlement  of  Maryland. 

Charter  granted  to  the  Swedish  West  India  Company. 

1635.  Permanent    settlement   of  Connecticut  by   emigrants  from  Massa- 

chusetts Bay. 

The  Plymouth  Company  resign  their  Patent. 
Hostilities  between  Maryland  and  Virginia. 

1636.  Providence  founded  by  Roger  Williams. 

1637.     Climax  of  the  dissensions  excited  at  Boston  by  Anne  Hutchinson. 

Swedish  colonists  sail  from  Gottenburg  for  America. 
1638.     New  Netherland  opened  to  general  trade  and  settlement. 

The  Swedes  settle  in  Delaware  at  Minqua's  Kill  (near  Wilmington). 
1639.     De  Vries  colonizes  Staten  Ishind. 

1641.  The  Raritan  Indians  destroy  De  Vries's  settlement  on  Staten  Island. 
Hollaendare,  Governor  of  the  Swedes. 

1642.  Hostilities  between  the  Maryland  settlers  and  the  Susquehannah  Indians. 

1643.  Massacre  of  Indians  at  Pavonia  by  the  Dutch.     Indian  war. 
Murder  of  Anne  Hutchinson  by  the  Indians. 

John  Printz,  Governor  of  the  Swedish  Colony. 

1644.  Underbill's  expedition,  in  the  service  of  the  Dutch,  against  the  Connecti- 

cut Indians. 

Clayborne  and  Ingle's  insurrection  in  Maryland. 
1647.     Death  of  Leonard  Calvert. 


i 


L  I  B  RARY 

OF  THE 

U  N  IVLRSITY 
OF    ILLI  NOIS 

PRLSLNTLD  BY 

Miss  Ethel  Ricker 

from  the 

Litrary  of  her  Father 
Nathan  Clifford  Ricker 
Head  of  the  Department  of 
Architecture,  1873-1911 


973 
B84p 


Y-£ 


- 


SCRIBNER'S 

POPULAR    HISTORY    OF 
THE   UNITED  STATES 


/ 

/ 


• 


- 


SCRIBNER'S 

POPULAR  HISTORY  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES 


FROM    THE    EARLIEST    DISCOVERIES    OF   THE    WESTERN 
HEMISPHERE  BY  THE  NORTHMEN  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


BY 

WILLIAM    CULLEN    BRYANT 

SIDNEY    HOWARD    GAY 

NOAH    BROOKS 


WITH    MORE    THAN    SIXTEEN    HUNDRED 
ILLUSTRATIONS   AND    MAPS 


VOLUME    II 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
1896 


COPYRIGHT,  1876,  BY 
SCRIBNER,   ARMSTRONG  &   CO. 


COPYRIGHT,  1881,  1896,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


RIGHT  OF  TRANSLATION  RESERVED 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


773 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

•• 

THE  PEQUOT   WAR. 

PAGE 

HOSTILITIES  BEFORE  THE  WAR. — ENDICOTT'S  EXPEDITION  TO  BLOCK  ISLAND. — 
ITS  SUCCESS.  —  INDIANS  OF  THE  MAIN  LAND  ATTACKED-  —  RETALIATION  ON 
THE  ENGLISH  PLANTATIONS. —  A  GENERAL  WAR  KESOLVED  ON.  —  MASON'S 
EXPEDITION.  —  REDUCTION  OF  THE  PEQUOT  FORT.  —  RESULTS  OF  THE  SUM- 
MER'S WORK.  —  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  PEQUOT  TRIBE.  —  CHARACTER  OF  THE 
INDIANS.  —  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF  AND  MORAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  QUALITIES. — 
INFLUENCE  OF  THE  PEQUOT  WAR  UPON  THE  GROWTH  AND  PROSPERITY  OF 
THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES.  1 


CHAPTER   II. 

SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND. 

THE  TOWNS  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT  RIVER.  —  PREPARATORY  GOVERNMENT. — 
THE  FIRST  CONSTITUTION  AND  THE  EARLIEST  GOVERNORS.  —  CIVIL  AND 
SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  FIRST  SETTLERS. —  NECESSITY  OF  STRINGENT 
RULE.  —  CHARACTER  OF  EARLY  LEGISLATION.  —  ANOTHER  EMIGRATION  FROM 
BOSTON.  —  NEW  HAVEN  AND  ITS  CHURCH  OF  SEVEN  PILLARS.  —  ESTABLISH- 
MKNT  OF  OTHER  TOWNS  AND  CHURCHES.  —  DUTCH  AND  ENGLISH  BOUNDARIES. 
—  DIFFERENCE  OF  PURPOSE  IN  THE  Two  CLASSES  OF  SETTLERS. — ENGLISH 
DIPLOMACY  AT  HOME.  —  ENGLISH  INTRUSION  UPON  LONG  ISLAND. — CHAR- 
ACTER OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  CONNECTICUT.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  RHODE  ISLAND. — 
ROGER  WILLIAMS 's  COLONY  AND  ITS  GOVERNMENT.  —  HEATED  CONTROVERSY  IN 
MASSACHUSETTS.  —  SEVERITY  OF  THE  RULING  PARTY.  —  TREATMENT  OF  THE 
ANTINOMIANS.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  RHODE  ISLAND  AT  ACQUIDNECK  (PORTS- 
MOUTH). —  CODDINGTON  CHOSEN  CHIEF  JUDGE.  —  DlSCORDS  IN  THE  NEW 

COLONY.  —  THE  HUTCHINSONS  AT  ACQUIDNECK.  —  HOSTILITY  OF  MASSACHU- 
SETTS TO  ACQUIDNECK.  —  CODDINGTON'S  PROPOSED  ALLIANCE  OF  THE  COL- 
ONIES.—  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  CONFEDERACY. —  AGAMENTICUS  AND  ACQUID- 
NECK EXCLUDED 22 

VOL.    II. 


vi  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  BOSTON   PURITANS. 

ROGER  WILLIAMS  AND  LIBERTY  OF  CONSCIENCE. —  BOSTON  PURITANISM. —  ITS 
BIGOTRY.  —  THE  BELIEF  IN  A  SPECIAL  DIVINE  PROTECTION.  —  SPECIAL  PROV- 
IDENCES. —  PURITAN  INTERPRETATION  OF  DISASTERS  AND  MISFORTUNES.  — 
POPULAR  APPREHENSION  OF  LIBERTY  OF  CONSCIENCE.  —  EARLY  LAWS  OF  THE 
PURITANS.  —  REGULATION  OF  DRESS  AND  CUSTOMS.  —  PATERNAL  CHARACTER 
OF  THE  GOVERNMENT. — RELATIONS  OF  THE  SEXES.  —  LAWS  AGAINST  LYING 
AND  BLASPHEMY. —  PUNISHMENTS.  —  PURITAN  SPIRIT  AND  ITS  RESULTS  IN 
PRACTICE.  —  SAMUEL  GOKTON.  —  His  ACTION  AT  BOSTON  AND  AT  PLYMOUTH, 
AND  HIS  BANISHMENT. — GORTON  AND  HIS  COMPANIONS  AT  ACQUIDNECK  AND 
PAWTUXET. —  THK  ATTEMPT  TO  SEIZE  WKSTON'S  CATTLE.  —  INTERFERENCE 
OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  ARBITRARY  COURSE  OF  THE  BOSTON  MAGISTRATES. — 
GORTON  AT  SHAWOMET. — His  LETTER .  ... 


51 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   SHAWOMET   PEOPLE  AND   THEIR   INDIAN   FRIENDS. 

PURCHASE  OF  LANDS  AT  SHAWOMET.  —  PROTEST  OF  TWO  INDIAN  CHIEFS,  PUM- 
HAM  AND  SACONONOCO.  —  SHAWOMET  PEOPLE  SUMMONED  TO  BOSTON.  —  COM- 
MISSIONERS APPOINTED  TO  VISIT  THEM.  —  THREATS  AND  PREPARATIONS  FOR 

RESISTANCE.  —  FLIGHT  OF  WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN.  —  THE  MEN  BF.SIEGED. — 
NEGOTIATIONS  FOR  PEACE.  —  A  HOLLOW  TRUCE.  —  THE  MEN  TAKEN  PRISON- 
ERS AND  CARRIED  TO  BOSTON.  —  THEIR  TRIAL  AND  PUNISHMENT. — THEIR 

RELEASE  AND  RETURN  TO  RHODE  ISLAND. — APPREHENDED  TROUBLE  WITH 
THE  INDIANS.  —  CHARGES  AGAINST  MIANTONOMO.  —  FEUD  BETWEEN  THE 
MOHICANS  AND  NARRAGANSETTS.  —  UNCAS  BEFRIENDED  BY  THE  COMMISSION- 
ERS OF  THE  UNITED  COLONIES.  —  CAPTURE  OF  MIANTONOMO  BY  UNCAS.  — 
His  ASSASSINATION  BY  DIRECTION  OF  THE  ENGLISH.  77 


CHAPTER   V. 

RHODE  ISLAND  AND   PROVIDENCE   PLANTATIONS. 

THE  SHAWOMET  CONTROVERSY  TAKEN  TO  ENGLAND.  —  DECIDED  IN  FAVOR  OF 
GORTON  AND  HIS  ASSOCIATES.  —  CHARTER  GRANTED  TO  PROVIDENCE  PLANTA- 
TIONS.—  CIVIL  LIBERTY  AND  RELIGIOUS  TOLERATION  PROVIDED  FOR. —  VISIT 
OF  CLARK,  HOLMES,  AND  CRANDALL  TO  BOSTON.  —  PUNISHED  FOR  HOLDING 
AND  PREACHING  HETERODOX  OPINIONS.  —  DISSENSIONS  IN  RHODE  ISLAND. — 
CODDINGTON  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR  FOR  LlFE.  —  THE  CHARTER  GRANTED  BY 
CHARLES  II.  —  ITS  CHARACTER  AND  HISTORICAL  INTEREST 97 


CHAPTER  VI. 

NEW  NETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER   STUYVESANT. 

STUYVESANT'S  ARRIVAL  AT  MANHATTAN.  —  HOPEFUL  RECEPTION  BY  THE  CITI- 
ZENS.—  HE  BEFRIENDS  EX-GOVERNOR  KlEFT. — ARREST  AND  TRIAL  OF  KUYTER 

AND  MELYN.  —  THEIR  BANISHMENT  AND  DEPARTURE  WITH  KIEFT.  —  WRECK 


CONTENTS.  vii 

OF  THE  PRINCESS.  —  DIFFICULTIES  WITH  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  SEIZURE  OF  THE 
ST.  BENINIO.  —  THE  CONSEQUENT  QUARREL  WITH  NEW  HAVEN. — CONTROVERSY 
WITH  THE  COMMISSARY  OF  RENNSELAEHSWVCK.  —  DISCONTENT  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 
—  APPEAL  OF  THE  CITIZENS  TO  HOLLAND.  —  MELYN'S  RETURN.  —  REVERSAL  OF 
HIS  SENTENCE.  —  THE  REMONSTRANCE  FORWARDED  TO  THE  STATES-GENERAL. — 
VAN  DEB  DONCK  AND  THE  DELEGATES  AT  THE  HAGUE.  —  STUYVESANT's  CON- 
TINUED ARROGANCE 115 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE  DUTCH  AND  THEIR   NEIGHBORS. 

THE  HABTFORD  BOUNDARY  TREATY  OF  1650.  —  ACTION  OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL 
ON  THE  NEW  NETHERLAND  REMONSTRANCE.  —  NEW  ENGLAND  TROUBLES. — 
STUYVESANT  ACCUSED  OF  CONSPIRING  WITH  THE  INDIANS  AGAINST  THE  ENG- 
LISH.—  JOHN  UNDERHILL  IN  THE  FIELD.  —  POPULAR  DISCONTENTS  AT  NEW 
AMSTERDAM  AND  ON  LONG  ISLAND.  —  CONVENTION  OF  THE  TOWNS.  —  A  RE- 
NEWED APPEAL  TO  HOLLAND. — ENGLISH  FEELING  ON  LONG  ISLAND.  —  HOSTILE 
PREPARATIONS  IN  CONNECTICUT.  —  NEW  ENGLAND  ASKS  AID  FROM  THE  PRO- 
TECTOR AGAINST  THE  DUTCH.  —  AN  APPROACHING  CONFLICT  PREVENTED  BY  THE 
TREATY  OF  PEACE  IN  EUROPE.  —  UNFAVORABLE  REPLY  TO  THE  CONVENTION'S 
APPEAL. — NEW  SWEDEN  ON  THE  DELAWARE.  —  CONTESTS  BETWEEN  THE  DUTCH 
AND  THE  SWEDES.  —  STUYVESANT  VISITS  THE  SOUTH  RIVER.  —  FORT  NASSAU 
ABANDONED  AND  FORT  C.VSIMIR  BUILT  BY  THE  DUTCH.  —  GOVERNOR  PfilNTZ 
BETIRES.  —  FORT  CASIMIR  TAKEN  BY  THE  SWEDES.  —  RETAKEN  BY  THE  DUTCH. 
—  DIVISION  OF  THE  COLONY  BETWEEN  THE  W.  I.  COMPANY  AND  THE  CITY  OF 
AMSTERDAM. — LIMITS  OF  NEW  AMSTEL. — DISASTERS  AND  DISSENSIONS  .  .  .  137 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

QUAKERISM   IN  NEW   ENGLAND. 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  FRIENDS  IN  ENGLAND.  —  GEORGE  Fox.  —  His  LIFE, 
CHARACTER,  AND  TEACHINGS.  —  BELIEFS  OF  THE  FRIENDS.  —  THEIR  MANNER 
OF  LIFE  AND  SPEECH.  —  THE  FRIENDS  AND  THE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH. — 
ORIGIN  OF  NAME  "  QUAKERS." — ARRIVAL  OF  THE  FIRST  FRIENDS  AT  BOSTON. — 
ACTION  OF  THE  BOSTON  MAGISTRATES.  —  THE  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  QUAKERS 
BEGUN. — ACCESSIONS  TO  THEIR  NUMBER.  —  THE  FlRST  GENERAL  LAWS  AGAINST 
THEM.  —  REFUSAL  OF  RHODE  ISLAND  TO  JOIN  IN  THIS  LEGISLATION.  —  MARY 
DYER.  —  BANISHED  FRIENDS  RETURN  TO  BOSTON.  —  INCREASED  STRINGENCY  OF 
THE  LAWS.  —  PROCEEDINGS  AT  NEW  HAVEN  AND  ELSEWHERE.  —  THE  DEATH 
PENALTY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  CASES  OF  PERSECUTION.  —  MARY  DYER  AND 
HER  COMPANIONS  AT  BOSTON. —  THEIR  TRIAL  AND  PUNISHMENT. —  OTHER 
TRIALS.  —  INTERFERENCE  OF  THE  KING.  —  END  OF  THE  PERSECUTIONS  .  165 


CHAPTER  IX. 

VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND   UNDER  THE   COMMONWEALTH. 

RETURN  OF  SIR  JOHN  HARVEY  TO  VIRGINIA.  —  His  NEW  ADMINISTRATION. — 
SUCCEEDED  BY  WYAT.  —  SIR  WILLIAM  BERKELEY  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR. — 
THE  PURITANS  AND  ROYALISTS  OF  VIRGINIA.  —  LAWS  AGAINST  THE  FORMER. — 


•  •  • 

via 


CONTENTS. 


INDIAN  INSURRECTION  IN  1643.  —  DEATH  OF  OPECHANCANOUGH. —  GROWTH  OF 
THE  COLONY.  —  EMIGRATION  OF  CAVALIERS  TO  AMERICA.  —  SURRENDER  OF 
VIRGINIA  TO  THE  PARLIAMENTARY  COMMISSIONERS.  —  REDUCTION  OF  MARY- 
LAND.—  CHARACTER  AND  CAREER  OF  WILLIAM  CLAYBORNE  —  ATTEMPTS  OF 
LORD  BALTIMORE  TO  RETAIN  MARYLAND.  —  GOVERNOR  STONE'S  PROCEEDINGS. 
—  FIGHT  ON  THE  SEVERN.  —  THE  CONTROVERSY  ENDED.  —  RESTORATION  OF 
BERKELEY  IN  VIRGINIA.  —  NEW  LAWS  UNDER  THE  ROYAL  GOVERNMENT. — 
SLAVERY.  — THE  TOBACCO  TRADE  AND  THE  NAVIGATION  ACT.  —  NORTHERN 
AND  SOUTHERN  INTERESTS .  200 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE   LATTER   YEARS    OF   NEW    NETHERLAND. 


NEW  AMSTERDAM   INVADED  BY   INDIANS.  —  DESTRUCTION   OF  PAVONIA.  —  MAS- 
SACRE AND  DEVASTATION  ELSEWHERE.  —  JUDICIOUS  POLICY  OF  THE  DIRECTOR. 

—  CONTRAST   IN   FRENCH   AND  DUTCH   TREATMENT   OF  THE   NATIVES.  —  THE 
RESULT.  —  THE  ESOPUS  WAR.  —  STUYVESANT'S  DETERMINATION  TO  ESTABLISH 
RELIGIOUS  UNIFORMITY.  —  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  LUTHERANS  AND  QUAKERS. — 
INDIFFERENCE  OF   THE  DUTCH   TO   RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY.  —  STUYVESANT 
REBUKED  BY  THE  AMSTERDAM  CHAMBER. CRUEL  PUNISHMENT  OF  A  QUAKER. 

—  BANISHMENT  OF  JOHN  BOWNE  AND  HIS  TRIUMPHANT  RETURN  FROM  HOL- 
LAND.— GROWTH  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND   .  .  229 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 


ENCROACHMENTS  OF  THE  ENGLISH.  —  THE  SOUTH  RIVER  COLONY.  —  LORD  BAL- 
TIMORE'S CLAIM,  AND  CONTROVERSY  WITH  MARYLAND.  —  A  NEW  PATENT 
GRANTED  TO  CONNECTICUT.  —  DISSATISFACTION  OF  NEW  HAVEN.  —  OTHER 
ENGLISH  TOWNS  ACCEPT  THE  PROTECTION  OF  CONNECTICUT. —  CONFEDERACY 
OF  LONG  ISLAND  TOWNS  UNDER  JOHN  SCOTT.  —  His  ATTEMPTS  TO  COERCE 
THE  DUTCH.  —  NEW  NETHERLAND  AND  PART  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  GRANTED  TO 
THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  —  THE  NICOLLS  COMMISSION. — NEW  NETHERLAND 
INVADED.  —  ITS  SURRENDER.  —  NICOLLS  PROCLAIMED  GOVERNOR.  —  CHANGE  OF 
NAMES.  —  NEW  AMSTEL  TAKEN  BY  THE  ENGLISH 247 


CHAPTER   XII. 


THE  CAROLJNAS. 


THE  CAROLINA  PATENTS  OP  1663  AND  1665.  —  THE  PATENTEES.  —  EARLIER 
GRANTS  AND  PROJECTED  SETTLEMENTS. —  FIRST  SETTLERS  ON  ALBEMARLE 
SOUND.  —  NEW  ENGLAND  MEN  AT  THE  MOUTH  OF  CAPE  FEAR  RIVER.  —  THE 
COLONY  UNDER  YEAMANS.  —  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  ALBEMARI.E  COLONY. — 
LOCKE'S  "FUNDAMENTAL  CONSTITUTIONS." — INDEPENDENT  LEGISLATION  AT 
ALBEMARLE.  —  GOVERNORS  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  CAPE  FEAR  SETTLEMENT. — 
JOSEPH  WEST.  —  DISSENSIONS  IN  THE  NORTH  UNDER  CARTERET  AND  MILLER. 
—  THE  PASQUOTANK  INSURRECTION. —  GOVERNOR  SOTHELL 268 


CONTENTS.  lx 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

VIRGINIA  UNDER  BERKELEY. 

CONDITION  OF  VIRGINIA  IN  1670.  —  ABUSES  AND  POPULAR  GRIEVANCES.  —  THE 
GRANT  TO  ARLINGTON  AND  CULPEPPER.  —  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES  AND  THEIR 
RESULTS.  —  INEFFICIENCY  OF  BERKELEY.  —  INDIGNATION  OF  THE  COLONISTS.— 
NATHANIEL  BACON  TAKES  THE  FIELD  IN  DEFIANCE  OF  THE  GOVERNOR.  —  His 
INDIAN  CAMPAIGN.  —  BERKELEY  PROCLAIMS  HIM  A  REBEL.  —  POPULAR  UPRIS- 
1NG.  —  CONCESSIONS  FORCED  FROM  THE  GOVERNOR.  —  BACON'S  ARREST,  SUBMIS- 
SION, AND  ESCAPE.  —  HE  CAPTURES  JAMESTOWN.  —  SECOND  INDIAN  CAMPAIGN.  — 
RENEWED  ATTEMPTS  OF  BERKELEY  TO  SUPPRESS  THE  POPULAR  MOVEMENT.  — 
BACON'S  RETURN.  —  HE  SEIZES  THE  GOVERNMENT.  —  FLIGHT  OF  BERKELEY.  — 
THE  CONVENTION.  —  AIMS  OF  THE  BACON  PARTY.  —  REVIVING  FORTUNES  OF 
THE  DEPOSED  GOVERNOR.  —  BACON  AGAIN  CAPTURES  AND  BURNS  THE  CAPITAL. 
—  ILLNESS  AND  DEATH  OF  BACON.  —  CLOSE  OF  THE  REBELLION.  —  PUNISHMENT 
OF  THE  REBELS.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  ENGLISH  COMMISSIONERS.  —  RECALL  AND 
DEATH  OF  BERKELEY  ......................  290 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

NEW   YORK. 

QUIET  BEGINNING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  RULE.  —  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OFNICOLLS.  — 
THE  NEW  JERSEY  GRANT.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  CARTERET.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW- 
ARK AND  ELIZABETH.  —  THE  CONNECTICUT  BOUNDARY.  —  THE  NAMES  AND 
DIVISIONS  OK  THE  PROVINCE.  —  THE  "DUKE'S  LAWS."  —  ENGLISH  OFFICIALS. 

—  THE  WAR  BETWEEN   ENGLAND  AND  THE   NETHERLANDS.  —  DISCONTENT   IN 
LONG  ISLAND.  —  NEW  YORK  AND  CANADA.  —  THE  FRENCH  AND  THE  MOHAWKS. 

—  THE  PEACE  OF  BREDA.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOVELACE.  —  PROGRESS  OF 
THE  PROVINCE.  —  THE  TOWN  OF  NEW  YORK.  —  RENEWED  WAR  IN  EUROPE.  — 
THE  RE-CONQUEST  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  —  COLVE'S  ADMINISTRATION.  —  NEW 
NETHERLAND  CEDED  TO  ENGLAND  BY  THE  PEACE  OF  WESTMINSTER    ....  319 


CHAPTER  XV. 

NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHARLESTON  FOUNDED.  —  WAR  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  GOVERNOR  MORETON. — 
JOSEPH  BLAKE.  —  LORD  CARDROSS'S  SETTLEMENT  AT  PORT  ROYAL. — PIRACY 
AND  SPANISH  HOSTILITY. —  CARDROSS'S  COLONY  DESTROYED. —  SOTHEL  DEPOSED 
AND  BANISHED  FROM  A  I.I'.KM  AKI.K. — HE  LEADS  A  REVOLUTION  IN  THE  SOUTH. 
—  His  CAREER. — THE  COLONIES  UNDER  ONE  GOVERNOR.  —  INTRODUCTION  OF 
RICE. — JOHN  ARCHDALE  GOVERNOR.  —  PROSPERITY  OF  THE  COLONIES  UNDER 
HIS  RULE  ...  .  355 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   POLITICAL   POLICY   OF   THE   PURITANS. 

THE  FIRST  MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER.  —  TEMPORIZING  POLICY  OF  THE  COLO- 
NIAL AUTHORITIES.  —  THE  GOVERNMENT  AT  HOME  BAFFLED.  —  REVOLUTION  IN 
ENGLAND.  —  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PURITANS. — 
APPEAL  TO  CROMWELL.  —  His  SCHEMES.  —  THE  REGICIDES.  —  CHARLES  IL 
AND  THE  CHARTER.  —  THE  ROYAL  COMMISSIONERS. — NEW  DANGERS  TO  MAS- 
SACHUSETTS.—  EDWARD  RANDOLPH.  —  THE  CHARTER  REVOKED.  —  GOVERNOR 
ANDROS'S  ARBITRARY  GOVERNMENT. — CONCEALMENT  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT 
CHARTER.  —  DEPOSITION  AND  ARREST  OF  ANDROS.  —  COURSE  OF  KING  WILLIAM. 
—  A  NEW  CHARTER.  —  GOVERNOR  PHIPS.  —  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  CANADA. — 
OPPOSITION  TO  PHIPS.  —  His  RECALL.  ...  .  373 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
PHILIP'S  WAR. 

OUTBREAK  OF  PHILIP'S  WAR.  —  ITS  CAUSES. —  PHILIP'S  EARLIER  RELATIONS 
WITH  THE  ENGLISH.  —  INDIAN  ATTACKS  AT  SWANSEA,  TAUNTON,  AND  ELSE- 
WHERE.—  WILLIAM  BLACKSTONE.  —  THE  FIGHTS  AT  BROOKFIELD  AND  HADLEY. 
—  THE  AMBUSH  AT  BLOODY  BROOK.  —  EXPEDITION  INTO  THE  NARRAGANSETT 
COUNTRY.  —  THE  SURPRISE  AT  TURNER'S  FALLS.  —  PHILIP  ATTACKED  AND 
KILLED  NEAR  MOUNT  HOPE 401 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 

CHARACTER  OF  THE  MAINE  AND  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  SETTLERS. —  KITTERY  — 
GORGEANA.  —  THE  NORTHERN  COLONIES  ABSORBED  BY  MASSACHUSETTS.  — 
EARLY  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  CHURCHES. —  THE  ISLES  OF  SHOALS.  —  HISTORY  OF 
MASON'S  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  GRANT.  —  THE  CLAIMS  OF  HIS  HEIRS  RESISTED. — 
NEW  HAMPSHIRE  GOVERNORS.  —  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES.  —  ATTACKS  AT  SACO, 
BERWICK,  AND  ELSEWHERE.  —  THE  TREATY  AT  CASCO.  —  WAR  RENEWED. — 
DOVER  ATTACKED.  —  MURDER  OF  WALDRON.  — CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR  ....  419 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   WITCHCRAFT   DELUSION. 

OUTBREAK  OF  THE  WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION.  —  ITS  EARLIER  HISTORY.  —  CAUSES 
OF  THE  EXCITEMENT  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  WITCHCRAFT  CASES  IN  SALEM. — 
SAMUEL  PARRIS.  —  THE  EARLIER  TRIALS.  —  RETURN  OF  PHIPS. — A  SPECIAL 
COURT  CREATED  FOR  WITCHCRAFT  CASES.  —  FURTHER  PROSECUTIONS.  —  EX- 
POSURE AND  END  OF  THB  DELUSION. WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

THE  BELIEF  FINDS    FEW  ADHERENTS   OUTSIDE   MASSACHUSETTS.  —  "STONE- 
THROWING  "  AT  GREAT  ISLAND.  —  THE  CASE  OF  STEPHEN  BURROUGHS  .     .    .  450 


CONTENTS.  xi 

CHAPTER  XX. 

COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS. 

PROGRESS  OF  NEW  JERSEY.  —  INSURRECTION  UNDER  JAMES  CARTERET.  —  CHANGES 
IN  THE  NEW  JERSEY  TITLES.  —  THE  "  QUINTIPARTITE  DEED."  —  DIVISION  INTO 
EAST  AND  WEST  JERSEY. — PROSPERITY  or  WEST  JERSEY  UNDER  QUAKER 
ROLE. —  CONFLICTS  OF  JURISDICTION. —  THE  QUAKERS  BUY  EAST  JERSEY. — 
EARLIEST  CONNECTION  OF  WILLIAM  PENN  WITH  AMERICAN  COLONIZATION.- — 
LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  PENN.  —  THE  GRANT  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  —  EARLY 
SETTLERS.  —  PENN  IN  AMERICA.  —  PHILADELPHIA  FOUNDED.  —  THE  TREATY  AT 
SHACKAMAXON.  —  PENN'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND. — PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLONY. — 
PENN  AGAIN  AT  PHILADELPHIA 472 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE   FRENCH   IN   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

THE  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  AND  THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  LOUISIANA. — 
FRENCH  MISSIONARIES  AND  HUNTERS.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  OHIO,  INDIANA,  AND 
OTHER  NORTHWESTERN  STATES.  —  THE  POLICY  OF  COLBERT  AND  TALON. — 
DISCOVERY  OF  THE  UPPER  LAKES. — CONGRESS  OF  NATIVE  TRIBES  AT  MACKI- 
NAC.  —  MARQUETTE  AND  JOLIET  SAIL  FOR  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MISSIS- 
SIPPI.—  FRENCH  COLONY  OF  1699.  —  D'!BERVILLE  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. — 
BILOXI  AND  POVERTY  POINT.  —  WAR  OF  SUCCESSION.  —  PENSACOLA.  —  MINES. 

—  CROZAT'S  GRANT  .    .  499 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE   MISSISSIPPI    SCHEME. 

JOHN  LAW.  —  THE  REGENT  ORLEANS.  —  LAW'S  BANK.  —  THE  WESTERN  COMPAHT. 

—  RENEWED  EMIGRATION. — THE  INDIAN  COMPANY.  —  SPANISH  WAR.  —  NEW 
ESTABLISHMENTS. — FAILURE   OF  LAW'S  PLANS.  —  RUIN  OF   SPECULATORS. — 
MISSIONS  IN  LOUISIANA.  —  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  —  ESTABLISHMENT  AT 
NATCHEZ.  —  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  NATCHEZ. — 
CHOPART'S  FOLLY.  — ITS  RESULTS.  — CAMPAIGNS  AGAINST  THE  NATCHEZ  AND 
CHICKASAWS.  —  BIENVILLE  RE-APPOINTED.  —  His  ILL-SUCCESS  AS  A  MILITARY 
LEADER.  —  VAUDREUIL  AND  KERLEREC .  527 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

• 

SPANISH    COLONIZATION. 

SPANISH  FOOTHOLD  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  SUCCESSIVE  ACQUISITIONS  BY 
THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  FORTUNES  OF  FLORIDA.  —  BORDER  WARS  WITH 
CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.  —  OGLETHORPE'S  EXPEDITIONS.  —  FLORIDA  CEDED  TO 
ENGLAND.  —  ITS  POPULATION.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  CALIFORNIA.  —  ORIGIN  OF  THE 
NAME.  —  ROMANCE  OF  ESPLANDIAN.  —  FATHER  N^A'S  PRETENDED  DISCOV- 
ERIES.—  CORONADO'S  EXPLORATION  IN  ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO.  —  DRAKE 
IN  CALIFORNIA.  —  His  RECEPTION  BY  THE  INDIANS.  —  LOCALITIES  OF  HIS 
DISCOVERIES .  553 


xii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

SPANISH    EXLOKATIONS   AND    COLONIZATION. 

FATHER  AUGUSTIN  lluvz.  —  Rio  DEL  NORTE.  —  CUNAMES.  —  ACOMA.  —  ZUNI  OK 
CIBOLA.—  JUAN  DE  ONATE. —  EL  PASO.  —  "EL  MORO." — INSCRIPTIONS.  —  Vis- 
CAINO.  —  EUSEBIO  FRANCISCO  KINO.  —  SALVATIERRA.  —  ARIZONA.  —  PABLO 
QUIHUE. — FATHER  AUGUSTIN  DE  CAMPOS. —  EXPULSION  OF  THE  JESUITS. — 
LA  SALLE.  — DE  LEON.  —  ST.  DENIS. —  DON  MARTIN  D'ALARCORNE.  —  TEXAS  . 


578 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS,  VOLUME  II. 


STEEL    PLATE. 
Title.  To  face 

PORTRAIT  OF  PETER  STUYVESANT Title 

From  the  original  painting  in  possession  of  Van  Jtensselaer  Stuyvesant,  Esq. 


FULL-PAGE    ENGRAVINGS. 


Title. 
THE  MURDER  OF  LA  SALLE 


Engraver. 

Hildibrand 


To  face 
page 

1 


Designer. 

.     .     .  E.  Bayard 
ATTACK  ON  THE  PEQUOT  FORT 12 

Foe-simile  of  a  drawing  in  Captain  Underhilfs  "  Newesfrom  New  England." 
THE  FIRST  SDNDAT  AT  NEW  HAVEN     .  A.  C.  Warren  .  Smithwick&  French  28 
VIEW  IN  NARRAGANSETT  BAT,  NEAR  THE 

ENTRANCE  OF  NEWPORT  HARBOR  .  .  W.  T.  Richards  .  John  Dalziel  .  .  100 
THE  CAPES  OF  THE  DELAWARE  .  .  .  F.  B.  Schell  .  .  A.V.  S.  Anthony  152 
THE  SURRENDER  OF  JAMESTOWN  .  .  .  A.  R.  Waud  .  .  A.V.  S.  Anthony  211 
THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  AMSTERDAM  .  A.  Fredericks  .  A.  Bobbett  .  .  266 
THE  LANDING  OF  CARTEHET  IN  NEW 

JERSEY E.  A.  Abbey      .  R.  Varley      .     .  321 

HILTON    HEAD,   AT  THE  ENTRANCE   TO 

PORT  ROYAL T.  Moran  .     .     .  J.  A.  Bogert  .     .  360 

THE  DEPOSITION  OF  ANDROS    .     .     .     .  C.  S.  Reinhart   .  A.  Bobbett    .     .  393 

THE  DEATH  OF  PHILIP J.  E.  Kelly    .     .  F.  Juengling      .  418 

THE  MURDER  OF  MAJOR  WALDRON  .     .  Walter  Shirlaw  .  J.  P.  Davis         .  445 


XIV 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver. 

PORTRAIT  OF  WILLIAM  PENN  AT  THE  AGE  OF  FIFTY-TWO 

From  the  National  Museum's  copy  by  Francis  Place. 
THE  FALLS  OF  NIAGARA Meeder  &  Chubb 

Foe-simile  from  the  old  print  in  "  Hennepin's  Voyages.'1'1 
JESUIT  MISSIONARIES  IN  CALIFORNIA  .  W.  M.  Gary  .     .  F.  Juengling   . 


To  face 
page 

.  486 


510 


588 


ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  TEXT. 


Title. 


Designer. 
Hosier    . 


Engraver. 
Varley     . 


Page. 

1 


A.  C.  Warren      .  Snrithwick  &  Fr. 


Anthony  . 


8 


Meeder  &  Chubb  .     10 


SITE  OF  THE  GREAT  PEQUOT  FORT 
From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 

GOVERNOR    ENDICOTT    LANDING    ON 

BLOCK  ISLAND A.  R.  Waud    .     .  Anthony  . 

NEW  LONDON "  .     .  McCracken 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 

THE  CAPTIVE  MAIDENS 

ROGER  WILLIAMS  GOING  TO  THE  SA- 
CHEM'S HOUSE A.  R.  Waud 

SITE    OF  THE    NARRAGANSETT   FORT 

AT  FORT  NECK T.  Moran  . 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 

PORTER'S  ROCKS "         ...  Bo»ert  11 

O 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 

ATTACK  ON  THE  PEQUOT  FORT     .     .  Sheppard   .     .     .  McCracken  ...     13 
SACHEM'S  HEAD T.  Moran   .     .     .  Anthony  ....     15 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 

SlGXATURF.    OF    JOHN    MASON 21 

From  an  autograph  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections. 
SIGNATURE  OF  JOHN  HAYNES 23 

From  the  signature  to  a  letter  in  the  "  Winthrop  Papers,1'  re- 
produced in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections. 
SIGNATURE  OF  EDWARD  HOPKINS 24 

Winlhrop  Papers. 
SIGNATURE  OF  LION  GARDINER 25 

Winthrop  Pafters. 

SUPPOSED   FIKST    CHURCH  IN   HART- 
FORD    Hosier  ....  Aikens     ....     25 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  DAVENPORT Varley     ....     28 

From  a  print  in  the  possession  of  the  Reo.  Dr.  J.  R.  Davenport. 
MOMAUGUIN'S  SIGNATURE 28 

From  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


xv 


Title.  Designer.  Enyraver.  Page. 

SITE  OF  NEWMAN'S   BARN     ....  Hosier  ....  Maurice   ....     29 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 
SIGNATURE  OF  THEOPHILUS  EATON 30 

Winthrop  Papers. 
OLD  HOUSE  IN  GUILFORD,  1639     .     .  Hosier .     .     .      .  Smitbwick  &  Fr.  .     31 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 
MOUTH  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT  .     .     .  T.  Morau    .    .    .  Aikens     ....    32 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 
GARDINER'S  ISLAND A.  R.  Waud   .     .  Anthony  ....     34 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 
MONTAUK  POINT "  .    .          "       ....     35 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 

HOOKER'S  HOUSE  AT  HARTFORD   .     .  Hosier    ....  Varley     ....     37 
COAST    OF    MASSACHUSETTS.  —  NAN- 

TASKET  BEACH Meeder  &  Chubb  .     38 

From  a  painting  by   W.  Allan  Gay,  in  the  possexsion  of 

Oliver  Fiske,  Esq. 
SIGNATURE  OF  MIANTONOMO 39 

From  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections. 
SIGNATURE  OF  CANONICUS 39 

From  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections. 
THE     COVE,     PORTSMOUTH,     RHODE 

ISLAND Hosier  ....  Juengling      ...     43 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  icork. 
PORTRAIT    OF    GOVERNOR    CODDING- 

TON Aikens      ....     44 

From  a  picture  at  Newport. 
ENTRANCE  TO  NEWPORT  HARBOR  .     .  Hosier  ....  Smithwick  &  Fr.   .     45 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  zcork. 
CODDINGTON'S  HOUSE,  NEWPORT   .     .       »       ....  Juengling     ...    46 

From  an  original  sketch  for  thii  work. 
SIGNATURE  OF  JOHN  DAVENPORT 50 

From  the  Winthrop  Papers. 
SLATE  ROCK Hosier   ....  Bookhout  Bros.     .    52 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  icork. 
RUINS  OF  THE    OLDEST   HOUSE  NOW 

STANDING  IN  BOSTON Andrew   ....    55 

From  a  photograph. 
HINGHAM    MEETING     HOUSE,     BUILT 

1681 Clement   ....     58 

From  a  Photograph. 

SIGNATURE     OF      REV.     NATHANIEL 

WARD 61 

Winthrop  Papers. 


xvi 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

COSTUMES    ABOUT    THE    MIDDLE    OF 

THE      SEVENTEENTH     CENTURY  — 

WOMEN Filmer     ....    62 

COSTUMES    ABOUT    THE    MIDDLE    OF 

THE      SEVENTEENTH     CENTURY  — 

MEN "  .     .     .     .     G3 

THE  PILLORY Smithwick  &  Fr.  .     65 

A  WANTON  GOSPELLER Fredericks      .     .  Bobbett    ....     67 

SIGNATURE  OF  SAMUEL  GORTON 69 

From  a  letter  in  the  possession  of  the  family  at  Providence. 
THE  CONFLICT  OVER  WESTON'S  CAT- 
TLE        C.  S.  Reinhart   .  Clement   ....     70 

SITE   OF    GORTON'S    SETTLEMENT   AT 

SHAWOMET,  NOW  WARWICK    .     .     .  Hosier  ....  Bobbett     ....     75 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 
RUINS  OF  GORTON'S  HOUSE  AT  SHA- 
WOMET (WARWICK,  R.  I.)  ....        "       ....  J.  P.  Davis  ...     76 

From  an  original  sketch  for  this  work. 
SIGNATURE  OF  PUMHAM 78 

From  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections. 

THE  GORTON  PARTY  ATTACKED  .  .  C.  S.  Reinbart  .  Clement  ....  81 
THE  GORTON  PARTY  BESIEGED  IN 

THE  BLOCK-HOUSE A.  R.  Waud   .     .  McCracken  ...     83 

WINTHROP  BLESSING  THE  SOLDIERS  .  C.  S.  Reinhart  .  Bobbett  ....  85 
GORTON'S  DISPUTE  WITH  COTTON  .  "  Smithwick  ...  88 
SIGNATURE  OF  PESSICUS 91 

From  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections. 
THE    MESSENGERS  AT    THE    TENT    OF 

CANONICUS C.  S.  Reinhart   .   Smithwick  &  Fr.   .     91 

THE  GRAVE  OF  MIANTONOMO     .     .     .  Hosier  ....  Varley     ....     95 
VIEW    OF    PROVIDENCE,  RHODE  ISL- 
AND      Vanderhoof    .     .  Wardell   ....     97 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  EDWARD  WINSI.OW  .     .  A.  Lawrie  .     .     .  T.  Cole   ....     98 

From  Family  Portraits  belonging  to  Mr.  Isaac  Winslow.  of 
Hinaham,  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's 
Room*. 

WILLIAMS'S  WELCOME A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Varley     .     .     .     .100 

FAC-SIMILE  OF  THE  SIGNATURES  AND 

CLOSING  SENTENCES   OF  THE   NAR- 

RAGANSETT  PATENT 102,  103 

THE  MEETING  AT  WITTKR'S    HOUSE  .  Fredericks     .     .  Bobbett    ....  107 

SIGNATURE  OF  JOHN  WILSON 108 

Winthrop  Papers. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.  Desiyntr.  Engraver.  Pnge. 

WHIPPING  OF  OBADIAH  HOLMES    .     .  C.  S.  Reinhart    .  Clement  .   .    .    .110 
PORTRAIT  OF  CHARLES  II A.  Lawrie  .    .     .  Langridge   .     .     .112 

From  a  print  after  the  painting  by  Lely. 

ROGER  WILLIAMS'  COMPASS 114 

STUYVESANT'S  RECEPTION      ....  Fredericks      .     .  Bobbett    .    .    .    .117 
SIGNATURE  OF  CORNELIS  MELYN 119 

From  afac-simile  in  0' Callaghan' s  "  New  Netherlands' 
VIEW  ON  THE  COAST  OF  WALES,  NEAU 

SWANSEA A.  R.  Waud   .     .  Bogert      .     .     .     .121 

CAPTURE  OF  THE  ST.  BENINIO  .     .     .  J.  O.  Davidson    .  Meeder  &  Chubb  .  126 
SIGNATURE   OF  JOHAN  VAN  RENSSEL- 

AF.R 128 

From  afac-simile  in  0' Callaghan' s  "  New  Netherland." 

STUYVESANT  AT  FORT  ORANGE      .     .  Fredericks      .    .  Bobbett    .    .    .      129 
SIGNATURE   OF    BRANDT  VAN  SLECH- 

TENHORST 130 

From  0' Callaghan' s  "  New  Netherland." 
SIGNATURE     OF     ADRIAN     VAN     DER 

DONCK 130 

From  0' Callaghan. 
THE  DELEGATES  BEFORE  THE  STATES 

GENERAL Beech    ....  Clement  ....  133 

SIGNATURE     OF     GOVERT     LOOCKER- 

MANS 134 

MELYN'S  MANOR  AT   STATEN   ISLAND  Warren      .    .    .  McCracken  .    .    .  135 
SIGNATURE  OF  THOMAS  WILLETT 137 

From  0' Callaghan. 

THE  OLD  STADT  HUYS  OF  NEW  AM- 
STERDAM      Hosier   ....  Aikens     ....  139 

THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  PALISADES     .  Warren      .     .     .  McCracken  .    .     .140 
PORTRAIT  OF  NINIGRET Anthony.     ...   141 

From  a  Print  in  Drake's  "  Book  of  the  Indians,"  from  the 

original  in  possession  of  Hon.  R.  C.  Winthrop,  Boston. 

UNDERBILL  AT  FORT  GOOD   HOPE      .  C.  S.  Reinhart     .  Clement  ....  144 
THE  GATHERING  AT  FAIRFIELD     .    .  Beech    ....  Fihner     ....  147 

THE  ARREST  OF  BAXTER C.  S.  Reinhart     .  Clement   ....  149 

MOUTH  OF  THE  SCHUYLKILL  .     .     .    .  A.  R.  Waud  .     .  McCracken  .     .     .151 
FORT  TRINITY ; .  156 

Fac-simile  from  Campanius's  "  New  Sweden." 
NEWCASTLE,  DELAWARE A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Aikens     .    .    .    .162 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 
ANIMALS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND Winham .     .    .    .164 

Fac-simile  from  a  plate  in  Van  der  Donck's  "  Vertoogh." 


XV111 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

VILLAGE      CHURCH     AT     DRAYTON, 

LEICESTEUSHIRK Beech    ....  Langridge    .     .     .166 

From  an  English  print. 

Fox  REPROVES  THE  WOMEN  .    .    .     .  C.  S.  Reinhart    .          "  .    .    „  169 

SWARTHMORE    HALL,   RESIDENCE    OF 

GEORGK  Fox Warren       .     .     .  Clement.     .     .     .173 

From  a  print  published  by  the  Friends'  Society,  Philadel- 
phia. 

Fox  ix  PRISOX C.  S.  Reinharc     .  Bobbett  .     .     .     .176 

MARY    FISHER    BEFORE    THE    SUL-  . 

TAX Fredericks.     .     .         "        ....  178 

UPSHALL'S  PROTEST Kappes  ....  Juengling    .     .     .  180 

DEPARTURE  OF  ANNE  BURDEN.     .    .   C.  S.  Reinhart    .  Bobbett  .     .     .     .184 

NORTON'S  PUNISHMENT Cary       ....  Smithwick  &  Fr.  .   188 

MARY  WRIGHT  IN  COURT Walter  Shirlaw  .  E.  Heinemann      .  191 

MARY  DYER  LED  TO  EXECUTION   .     .  C.  S.  Reinhart    .  Bobbett.      .     .     .  193 

SHATTOCK'S  COMMISSION "  .  Smithwick  &  Fr.  .   196 

FALLS  OF  THE  JAMES Schell    ....  Anthony      .     .     .  200 

From  n  photograph. 

SIGNATURE  OF  BERKELEY 201 

From  afac-simile  in  Haioks's  "  North  Carolina." 

BREAKING  UP  OF  A  PURITAN  MEET- 
ING       Kappes  ....  Juengling     .     .     .  203 

DEATH   OF  OPECHANCANOUGH     .     .     .  Cary       .     .     *     .  Bogert     ....  205 

CAPE  HATTERAS .  A.  R.  Waud    .     .  Gray 207 

From  a  sketch.    • 

THE  CAVALIERS  AT  WORMLY'S  HOUSE.  Fredericks      .    .  Bobbett  ....  209 

SUPPOSED    PORTRAIT     OF     WILLIAM 

CLAYBORNE Clement.     .     .     .212 

In  possession  of  the  Clayborne  family  of  Virginia. 

SIGNATURE  OF  WILLIAM    CLAYBORNE 213 

From  papers  in  the  State  Paper  Office,  London. 

PORTRAIT  OF  OLIVER  CROMWELL  .     .  A.  Lawrie  .     .     .  Nichols  ....  215 
From  an  old  print. 

STOXE  AT  PRESTON'S  HOUSE.     .     .     .  A.  R.  Waud   .     .  Wardell .     .     .     .217 

POSTING  THE  NOTICE  ON  THE  GOLDEN 

LION Cary       .     .     .     .  E.  Bookhout    .     .218 

THE  BATTLE  AT  THE  MOUTH  OF  THE 

SEVERN Kelly     ....  Juengling    .     .     .   220 

BERKELEY'S    ADDRESS    TO    THE    AS- 
SEMBLY    C.  S.  Reinhart     .  Clement ....   224 

TOBACCO  SHIPS  ix  THE  JAMES  .     .     .  A.  R.  Waud  .     .   Gray 227 

GOVERNOR'S    ISLAND    AND    THE  BAT- 
TERY    A.  C.  Warren      .  Langridge   .     .     .  229 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  six 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page, 

DESTRUCTION  OF  PAVONIA      ....  Gary      ....  Clement  ....  231 

PORTRAIT       AND      AUTOGRAPH      OF 

FATHER  JOGUES "          ....  Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  234 

From  Shea's  edition  ofJogues'  "  Novum  Belgium." 

TOTEM  OR  TRIBE-MARK  OF  THE  FIVE 

NATIONS 235 

From  La.  Hontan. 

NEW  AMSTERDAM  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF 

THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  236 

From  Vischer's  map  in  Asher's  "  New  Netherlands* 

QUAKER  WOMEN  PREACHING  IN  NEW 
AMSTERDAM A.  R.  Waud    .     .  Schoonmaker    .     .   239 

HODSHONE  "RETIRED  TO  THE  LORD."   Walter  Shirlaw  .  McCracken       .     .   241 

FRIENDS'  MEETING-HOUSE   IN  FLUSH- 
ING,  LONG   ISLAND Gary      ....  Bookhout  Bros     .     242 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work, 

BOWNE'S   HOUSE "         ....  Eastmead     .     .     .  244 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 

THE  MARYLAND  AND  NEW   NETHER- 
LAND   AMBASSADORS Kappes  ....  Juengling     .     .     .  251 

SWEDISH    SOLDIER    OF    THE    SEVEN- 
TEENTH  CENTURY Clement  ....  253 

From  a  photograph  of  the  figure  exhibited  at  the  Centennial 
Exhibition,  Philadelphia. 

THE  ENGLISH  AGITATORS  RE-NAMING 

THE    TOWNS Kappes       .     .     .  Juengling     .     .     .   256 

SCOTT   AT  BREUKELEN Fredericks      .     .   Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  259 

PORTRAIT  OF   THE   DUKE    OF  YORK, 

AFTERWARD   JAMES   II Lawrie   ....  Clement  ....  2CO 

From  Lodge's  "  Portraits." 

SIGNATURE  OF   RICHARD  NICOLLS 261 

From  the  Winthrop  Papers. 

STUYVESANT  AND  THE  ENGLISH  LET- 
TER      Fredericks      .     .  Bobbett    ....  263 

SIGNATURE  OF    SIR    GEORGE    CART- 
WRIGHT  266 

From  the  Winthrop  Papers. 

SIGNATURE  OF   SIR   ROBERT   CARR 267 

SEAL  OF   NEW   AMSTERDAM. Bookhout  Bros.     .  267 

PORTRAIT  OF    SHAFTESBURY Nichols   .     .     .     .269 

From  a  print. 

A  CAROLINA  SETTLEMENT.     .     .     .     .  A.  R.  Waud   .     .  Meeder  &  Chubb  .  271 

FINDING  THE   MESSAGE  OF  THE  NEW 
ENGLAND  SETTLERS   ...  .  Beech  .  Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  273 


XX 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Designer. 
T.  Moran 


Title. 

LANDING  OF  YEAMANS 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  LOCKE    

From  the  print  in  the  folio  edition  of  his  works. 
PORTRAIT  OF  GEORGE  MONK,  DUKE  OF 

ALBEMARI.E 

From  Lodge's  "  Portraits." 
CHARLESTON  HARBOR Sehell    .     .     . 

From  a  sketch. 

ARREST  OF  DURANT Kelly     .     .    . 

SEAL  OF  THE  CAROLINA  PROPRIETORS 

GATHERING  OF   THE  VIRGINIA    PLAN- 
TERS IN  1674 Beech     .     .     . 

THE  KILLING  OF  THE  CHIEFS  .     .     .  Gary .... 
BACON  QUARTER  BRANCH     ....  Sehell    .    .    . 

From  a  photograph  taken  for  this  volume. 
BACON'S  TROOPS  CROSSING  THE  CREEK.  Gary  .... 

BACON'S  SUBMISSION C.  S.  Reinhart 

BERKELEY  AND  THE  GLOUCESTER  MEN  Beech    .     .    . 
THE  CAPTURE  OF  ELAND'S  FLEET.     .  A.  R.  Waud  . 
BACON    AND    THE    JAMESTOWN    GEN- 
TLEWOMEN     C.  S.  Reinhart 

BURNING  OF  LAAVRENCE'S   HOUSE  AT 

JAMESTOWN Kelly.     .    .    . 

WEST  POINT,  VIRGINIA A.  R.  Waud  . 

From  a  sketch. 
DRUMMOND  BEFORE  BERKELEY  .     .     .  C.  S.  Reinhart 

BERKELEY'S  DEPARTURE White    .     .     . 

VIEW  IN  THE  KILLS A.  R.  Waud   . 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  wt/rk. 

SEAL  OF  THE  CARTERETS 

VIEW  OF  NEWARK,  NEW  JERSEY  .     .  A.  R.  Waud   . 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
MEETING  OF   THE    CONNECTICUT  AND 

NEW  YORK  COMMISSIONERS    .     .     .  White    .    .    . 
MOUTH  OF  MAMARONECK  CREEK  .     .  Vanderhoof    . 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
INAUGURATION  OF  THE  FIRST  ENGLISH 

MUNICIPAL    GOVERNMENT    AT    THE 

STADT  HUYS White    .    .    . 

ARREST  OF  CHAZY'S  MURDERER    .     .  C.  S.  Reinhart 
SUBMISSION  OF  THE   MOHAWKS.     .     .   Gary.     .     .     . 

DEPARTURE  OF  NICOLLS Beech    .     .    . 

OLD    HOUSE    IN    NEW    YORK,    BUILT 

1668 


Engraver.  Pagt.. 

Bogert 275 

Bross 276 


Nichols     .     .     .     .281 


Meeder  &  Chubb  .  283 


Juengling.     .     . 
Bookhout   Bros. 


Varley.     . 
McCracken 
Anthony  . 

Winham  . 
Anthony  . 
Wardell  . 
Anthony  . 

Clement  . 

Juengling. 
Varley.  . 


Juengling 
Karst  .  . 
Baker  . 


Bookhout  Bros. 
McCracken  . 


Clement  .    .    . 
Meeder  &  Chubb 


287 
289 

293 
295 
297 

299 
300 
305 
309 
' 
311 

312 
314 

315 
317 
319 

321 
323 


325 
326 


Karst 329 

Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  333 

Langridge  .  .  .  335 

Bogert 337 


339 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxi 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

VIEW  OF  WALL  STRKET Warren.     .    .    .  Winham  ....  340 

From  a  photograph. 
THK  BOWLING  GREEN "       ....  Winham  ....  342 

From  a  photograph. 
HELL  GATK 343 

From  an  old  Dutch  print. 

BURNING  THE  VOTES Kappes  ....  Juengling.    .    .    .  345 

THE  DUTCH  ULTIMATUM A.  R.  Waud   .     .  Speir 349 

OLD  HOUSE,  SOUTHOLD,  L.  I.     .     .     .  "  .     .  Richardson  .     .     .  353 

From  a  sketch. 

STUYVESANT'S  TOMB 354 

ABANDONMENT  OF  OLD  CHARLESTOWN  Kappes.    .     .    .  Hellaway.    .    .    .  356 
AN  INDIAN  SENT  INTO  SLAVERY     .     .  Gary     .    .     .     .  G.  A.  Bogert    .    .  357 

PIRATES  IN  CHARLESTON C.  S.  Reinhart     .  Henry  Marsh    .     .  361 

BURNING  OF  THE    SPANISH   GALLEY.     A.  R.  Waud  .     .  E.  Bookhout      .     .  363 

SOTHELL    AND    HIS    FOLLOWERS    SEIZING 

THE  SOUTH  CAROLINA  GOVERNMENT  Kappes  ....  Juengling     .    .    .  366 
ACQUITTAL  OF  THE  BUCCANEERS    .     .  Fredericks .     .     .  Bobbett   ....  368 

A  CAROLINA  RICE-FIELD A.  R.  Waud   .     .  J.  P.  Davis  .     .     .  369 

ARCHDALE'S  ADDRESS Fredericks.     .     .  Bobbett   ....  371 

SIGNATURE  OF   JOHN   ARCHDALE 372 

From  afac-simile  in  Hawks' s  "  North  Carolina." 
CAPE  ELIZABETH Andrew 374 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 
FAC-SIMILE     FROM     THE     MASSACHU- 
SETTS CHARTER 376,  377 

FAC-SIMILE  OF   THE    TITLE-PAGE    OF 

ELIOT'S  INDIAN  BIBLE 378 

From    the    copy  in    the  library  of  Harvard  University 
REGICIDE'S  CAVE,  NEAR  NEW  HAVEN Smithwick  &  Fr.   .  379 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SIMON  BRADSTREET  .     .  Runge   ....  Dalziel     ....  380 

From  a  print  in  the  collections  of  the  Mass.  Genealogical 

Society 
THE  CRADOCK    HOUSE   AT   MEDFORD, 

BUILT   ABOUT    1639 Andrew     ....  382 

PINE   TREE  COINS Karst  .     .     .     385,  386 

From  prints  in  the  collections  of  the  Mas.*.  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SIR  EDMUND  ANDROS Bross 388 

From  the  Andros  Tracts. 
VIEW  OF  THE  HARBOR  OF  CASTINE  .  Warren.     .    .     .  Gray 390 

From  a  photograph. 
SECURING  THE  CONNECTICUT  CHARTER.  A.  R.  Waud  .     .  Varley 391 


xxn 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.                                            Designer.                   Engraver.          Page. 
THE  CHARTKR  OAK 392 

From  a  painting  made  for  the  late  Isaac  W.  Stuart,  Hartford. 

GOVEKXOU       AXDROS'S      ATTEMPT       AT 

ESCAPK C.  S.  Reinhart     .  Smithwick  &  Fr.   .  394 

PORTRAIT  OF  INCREASE  MATHER   .     .  A.  Lawrie  .     .     .  Nichols     ....  396 
From  a  painting  in  the  same  collection. 

PmPS    RAISING    THE     SPANISH     TREAS- 
URE   A.  R.  Waud   .     .  Wurzbach     .     .     .397 

BOX    IN    WHICH     THE     CONNECTICUT 

CHARTKR  WAS  KEPT 400 

MOUNT  HOPK Warren ....  Meeder  &  Chubb  .  401 

From  a  photograph. 

GRAVE  OF  UNCAS Hosier   ....  Juengling.     .     .     .  403 

From  a  sketch. 

PHILIP'S  CHAIR 405 

Now  in  the  Museum  of  the  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  Mass. 

PHILIP'S  SEAT  AT  MOUNT  HOPE    .     .    A.  R.  Waud .     .  Bogert 406 

From  a  sketch. 

BLACKSTONE'S  STUDY  HILI -Hosier  ....  Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  407 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 

BLACKSTONE'S  GRAVE "       ....  "  .  408 

GOFFE  AT  HADLEY A.  R.  Waud    .     .  Anthony  .     .     .     .410 

THE  AMBUSH  AT  BLOODY  BROOK.     .  Cary.     ....  Baker       ....  411 

THE  MONUMENT  AT  BLOODY  BROOK Andrew   .     .     .    .  412 

From  a  photograph. 

ATTACK  ON  THC  NARRAGANSETT  FORT.  Cary Harley      ....  413 

TURNER'S  FALLS Andrew   ....  415 

SITE   OF  THE    SQUAW    SACHEM    MAG- 
NUS'S FORT Gibson  .    .    .     .  J.  P.  Davis   .    .     .  41G 

CHURCH'S  SWORD 417 

In  the  collection  of  the  Essex  Institute. 

RUINS  OF  CHURCH'S  HOUSE Andrew   .....  418 

From  a  photograph  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's 
Collection. 

PORTSMOUTH   HARBOR,  N.  H.     .     .     .  Hosier   ....  McCracken  .     .     .  419 
From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 

CHAMPERNOON'S  CAIKN "       ....  Andrew    ....  420 

From  a  photograph  made  for  this  volume. 

KITTERY,  N.  H Key "          ....  421 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 

EXETER,  N.  H " "          ....  422 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  rohnne. 

SIGNATURE    OF   REV.   JOHN   WHEEL- 
WRIGHT   423 

From  a  fac-simile  in  the  Collections  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxiii 

Title,  Desiyner.  Engraver.  Page. 

THE  SUNDAY  INSPECTION  OF  TAVERNS.  Kappes  ....  Hellaway ....  424 

THE  ISLES  OF   SHOALS Andrew    ....  425 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 

SIGNATURE  OF  ROBERT  [TUFTON]  MA- 
SOX 429 

From  letters  in  the  Massachusetts  Archives. 

THE  SHERIFF  RESISTED  .....  C.  S.  Reinhart     .   Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  430 

THE  ASSAULT  ON  MASON  AND  BARE- 
FOOT       Fredericks      .     .  Bobbett    ....  432 

SIGNATURE  OF  JOHN  USHER 433 

From  a  letter  in  the  Mass.  A  rchives* 

SIGNATURE  OF  WILLIAM  PARTRIDGE 433 

From  a  letter  in  the  Mass.  Archives. 

SIGNATURE  OF  SAMUEL  ALLEN 434 

From  a  letter  in  the  Mass.  A  rchires. 

SIGNATURE  OF  MAJOR  WALDRON 435 

From  a  letter  in  the  Mass.  Archives. 

VIEW  ON  LAKE  WINNIPISEOGEE     .    .  Key Andrew    ....  43C 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 

TUB  SAILORS'S  UPSETTING   SQUANDO'S 

CANOE A.  R.  Waud   .     .  McCracken  .     .     .  438 

WALDRON'S  SHAM  FIGHT' "  .     .  Langridge     .     .     .  440 

DOVER,  N.  H Key Andrew    ....  442 

SIGNATURE  OF  CHAMPERNOON 443 

ELIZABETH  HEARD  AND  THE  INDIAN-  .  Cary .....  Jnengling.     .     .     .  446 

RYK  BEACH,  LOOKING  WEST Andrew   ....  448 

From  a  photograph. 

WITCHES'    HILL Warren    .     .     .  Hellaway      .     .     .  450 

From  a  sketch  made  for  thi*  volume. 

GENERAL  VIKW  OF  SALEM,  MASS.    .     .         "         ...  Clement  ....  454 
From  a  photograph. 

PORTRAIT  OF  COTTON  MATHER  ...  A.  Lawrie  .     .     .  Anthony ....  456 
From  the  painting  in  the  Rooms  »f  the.  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society. 

TITUBA  AND  THE  CHILDREN     ....  Fredericks    .     .  Winliam  ....  457 

TRIAL  OF  GILES  COREY C.  S.  Reinliart  .  Smithwick  &  Fr.   .  459 

PORTRAIT  OF  SALTONSTALL Will     ....  Nichols    ....  460 

From  a  portrait  in  the  Mass.  Historical  Society's  Rooms. 

PORTRAIT  OF  LIEUT.-GOV.  STOUGHTON Andrew    .     .     .     .461 

From  the  painting  in  Memorial  Hall,  Harvard  University. 

SHERIFF'S  RETURN  OF  BRIDGET  BISH- 
OP'S EXECUTION Bookhout  Bros.     .  462 

Fac- simile  from  the  original  document  preserved  at  Salem. 

CAPTAIN  ALDEN  DENOUNCED     ....  Fredericks    .     .  Bobbett  .  463 


XXIV 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver.          Page. 

PORTRAIT  OF  CHIEF  JUSTICE  SEWALL.  Will     ....  Nichols     ....  465 

From  a  print  in  the  "  Mass.  Hist,  and  Genealogical  Register" 
SUSANNAH  TRIMMINGS  AND  GOODWIFE 

WALFORD C.  S.  Reinhart.  Smithwiek  &  Fr.    .  467 

BURROUGHS  AND  THE  SHERIFFS  .    .    .  A.  R.  Waud    .  Anthony  .    .    .     .470 
ENTRANCE  TO  BARNEGAT  INLET  ...  "  .  Gray 474 

From  a  sketch. 
SEAL  OF  EAST  JERSEY Runge.    .     .    .  Bookhout  Bros.      .  476 

From  Whitehead's  "  East  Jersey." 
BURLINGTON,  NEW  JERSEY Warren    .    .     .  Winham  .     .     .     .477 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 

ARREST  OF  CARTERET C.  S.  Reinhart .  Dalziel     .    .         .  479 

WANSTEAD,  ESSEX Cary    ....  Eastmead      .     .     .  482 

From  a  print  in  Sarlain's  Magazine. 

THE  TRIAL  OF  WILLIAM  PENN    .     .    .  A.  R.  Waud      .  Anthony  ....  485 
CHESTER,  PENNSYLVANIA "  .  Langridge     .     .     .  489 

From  a  sketch. 

PENN'S  ADDRESS  AT   NEWCASTLE     .     .  "  .   Hellaway      .     .     .  491 

LKTITIA  COTTAGE Vanderhoof .     .  Bookhout  Bros.      .  492 

From  a  Hcliotype  in  E King's  "  Independence  Hall." 
THE  TRF,ATY  GROUND,  WITH  THE  OLD 

ELM  STILL  STANDING Warren    .     .     .  Dalziel 493 

From  a  print  in  Sartain's  Magazine. 
THE  TREATY  MONUMENT  AT  KENSING- 
TON   A.  R.  Waud     .  Bookhout  Bros.      .  494 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  volume. 
OLD  PENN  MANSION,  PHILADELPHIA     .  Hosier.     .     .    .  Eastmead      .     .    .  496 

From  a  sketch. 
PKNN'S  WAMPUM "          ...  Eastmead.     .     .     .  498 

In  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society's  Collection  at  Phila- 
delphia. 
TOTEM  OF  THE  HURONS 499 

From  La  Honlan. 
ISLAND  OF  MACKINAC A.  R.  Waud  .  Varley      ....  500 

From  a  sketch. 
TOTEM  OF  THE  Sioux 501 

From  La  Hontan. 
TOTEM  OF  THE  FOXES 501 

From  La  Hontan. 
SIGNATURE  OF  JOHKT 502 

From  Shea's  "  Charlevoix." 
VIEW  ON  THE  Fox  RIVER Runge     .     .     .  E.  Bookhout     .     .  502 

From  a  photograph. 
THE  WILD  RICE  .  Warren   .          .  Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  503 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxv 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

MARQUETTE'S   RECEPTION  BY   THE  IL- 
LINOIS   E.  Bayard    .     .  Hildibrand  .     .     .  505 

TOTEM  OF  THE  ILLINOIS 506 

From  La  Hontan. 
MOUTH  OF  THK  OHIO A.  R.  Waud   .     Clement.     .     .     .  507 

From  a  sketch. 
Sioux  CHIEF "  ...  511 

From  Catlin. 
SIGNATURE  OF  TONTY 511 

From  Shea's  "  C/tarlevoix." 
SITE  OF  CHICAGO Clement.    .    .     .  512 

From  the  Illinois  Historical  Society's  print  from  an  old 

sketch. 
WISCONSIN  INDIANS  GATHERING  WILD 

RICE Warren  .     .     .     Smithwick  &  Fr. .  514 

After  Sclioolcrafl. 
PORTRAIT  OF  Louis  XIV Langridge  .    .    .  515 

From  Guizot's  History. 
LA  SALLE'S  LANDING  IN  TEXAS Meeder  &  Chubb.  518 

Reduced  fac-  simile  from  the  plate  in  Hennepin's  "Voyages." 
SIGNATURE  OF  BEAUJEU 519 

From  Shea's  "  Charlevoix." 
SIGNATURE  OF  CAVELIER 520 

From  Shea's  "  Charlecoix." 
SIGNATURE  OF  LE  MOYNE  D'  IBERVILLE 523 

From  Shea's  "  Charlevoix." 
PORTRAIT   AND   SIGNATURE  OF  BIEN- 

VILLE T.  Cole   ....  524 

From  the  print  in  Shea's  "  Charlevoix." 
INDIANS  IN  A  CANOE 526 

Fac-simile  from  La  Hontan. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  LAW Aikens      ....  527 

From  Guizot's  History. 
THE  REGENT  ORLEANS "  ....  528 

From  Guizot's  History. 
FAC-SIMILE  OF  A  BANK  NOTE  ISSUED 

BY  LAW 530 

From  Guizot. 
NEW  ORLEANS  IN  1719 Aikens  .     .     .     .531 

From  an  old  map  reprinted  in  Thomassy's  "  Gc'oloyie  de  la 

Louisiane." 
A  CARICATURE  OF  THE  TIME  OF  LAW'S 

MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME Runge     .     .     .     Langridge  .     .     .  534 

From   a   collection  of  contemporary  prints  in  the  Astor  Li- 
brary, New  York. 


XXVI 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.                                            Designer.  Engraver.         Page. 

ARMS  OF  THE  WESTERN  COMPANY Wardell.    .    .     .  535 

From  the  same  collection. 

VIEW  ON  THE  ARKANSAS  RIVER  .  .  A.  R.  Waud  .  Winham  .  .  .  537 
THE  ILEX  CASSINE  (YAUPAN)  .  .  .  Warren  .  .  .  Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  538 
THE  MISSISSIPPI  AT  NATCHEZ  .  .  .  A.  R.  Waud  .  Hitchcock  .  .  .  540 

From  a  sketch. 

CHOPART  AND  THE  INDIAN  ENVOYS  .  Gary  ....  Langridge  .  .  .  543 
COSTUMES  OF  FRENCH  SOLDIERY 

EARLY  IN  THE  18m  CENTURY.  .  .  A  R.  Waud.  .  Langridge  .  .  .  545 
BIKNVILLE'S  ARMY  ON  THE  RIVER  .  "  .  .  McCracken.  .  .  547 
PORTRAIT  OF  Louis  XV Aikens  ....  550 

From  Guizot. 
COINS  STRUCK    IN-   FRANCE    FOR  THE 

COLONIES Bookhout  Bros.     .  552 

From  Prime's  Coins. 
THE  OLD  FORT  AT  ST.  AUGUSTINE 553 

From  a  photograph. 
GENERAL  VIEW  OF    ST.  AUGUSTINE.  .     Schell   ....  Anthony     .     .     .  556 

From  a  photograph. 
PENSACOLA,  FLA Andrew ....  558 

From  a  photograph. 
OLD  GATE   AT   ST.   AUGUSTINE     .    .  Vanderhoof  .     .  Meeder  &  Chubb   .  5C3 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT   OF   COKTEZ Will Bross 565 

From  a  plate  by  Virtue  after  a  painting  by  Titian. 
A   PUEBLO Runge  .     .     .     .  G.  A.  Bogert     .     .  568 

From  Cozzens. 
PORTRAIT  OF   SIR   FRANCIS   DRAKE Nichols    ....  570 

From  Lodge's  portraits. 

DRAKE  AND  THE  INDIAN  KING  .  .  Gary  ....  Smithwick  &  Fr.  .  572 
CALIFORNIA  INDIANS  AND  THEIR  SUM- 

MKR   HUTS Beech  ....  Clement       .     .     .573 

From  Harriett's  "Personal  Narrative." 

DRAKE'S  DEPARTURE Gary      ....  Varley     ....  574 

SPANISH  COAT  OF  ARMS  ON  THE  ST. 

AUGUSTINE   FORT 577 

From  Fairbanks'  "  St.  Augustine." 
THE    ORGAN    MOUNTAINS,   NEAR   EL 

PASO Beech    ....  Varley     ....  579 

From  Bartlett's  "  Personal  Narrative." 
ACOMA T.  Moran  .     .     .  McCracken       .     .  581 

From  a  print. 
INSCRIPTION  ROCK G.  A.  Bogert    .    .  584 

From  the  sketch  in  Bartlett. 


LIST   OF  MAPS  AND  PLANS.  xxvii 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

ACAPULCO Warren      .     .     .  Bogert     ....  586 

From  a  print. 
PORTKAIT  OF  PHILIP  III.  OF  SPAIN  .     .  A.  Lawrie      .     .  Nichols     ....  587 

From  an  old  print. 

THE   MISSION   INDIANS T.  Moran  .    .    .  Gray  .    .    .    .    .  589 

INDIAN   COUNCIL Winham  ....  592 

From  La  Hontan. 

CALIFORNIA  INDIANS   CATCHING   SAL- 
MON   Varley     ....  593 

From  Bartlett. 

JUNCTION   OF  THE   GILA  AND    COLO- 
RADO  RIVERS Beech   ....  Wiuham  ....  594 

From  Barllctt. 
THE  MISSION  OF    SAN    XAVIER    DEL 

BAC Brightley      .     .     .595 

FroJn  a  print. 
PORTRAIT  OF  CHARLES  III.  OF  SPAIN  .  A.  Lawrie  .    .     .  Langridge    .     .    .  597 

From  a  print  after  the  painting  by  Velasquez. 
EL   PASO    .     • T.  Moran  .     .     .  Bogert      ....  599 

From  a  print. 
SAN   ANTONIO,    TEXAS Vanderlioof    .     .  Wardell  ....  600 

From  a  photograph. 
THE  YUCCA   TREE  OF   NEW  MEXICO Bookhout  Bros.     .  602 

From  Bartlelt. 


•*• 


LIST   OF  MAPS   AND   PLANS. 


To  face 


Title.                                                                                                              Page. 
MAP  OF   SOUTHERN    NEW   ENGLAND   AND   NEW   YORK   IN    THE    SEVEN- 
TEENTH CENTURY 35 

MAP  OF  THE  LOWER  DELAWARE 154 

Fac-si mile  from  Campanius. 
PLAN  OF  THE  SIEGE  OF  FORT  CHRISTINA 159 

From  Campanius. 
MAP  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND .  248 

From  the  Map  of  Van  der  Donck. 
MAP  OF  CAROLINA 285 

Fac-simile  from  the  copy  of  the  "  Description  of  Carolina  "  in  the  possession  of 

James  Lenox,  Esq.,  New  York. 
MARQUETTE'S  MAP  OF  THE  MICHIGAN  AND  WISCONSIN  REGION    ....  504 

Fac-simile  from  Thecenot's  copy. 
PLAN  OF  OGLETHORPE'S  ATTACK  ON  ST.  AUGUSTINE 561 

From    "An   Impartial   Account  of  the  Late  Expedition  to  St.  Augustine." 
London,  1742. 


. 


xxvin 


LIST   OF  MAPS   AND   PLANS. 


DRAKE'S  PORT  OF  NEW  ALBION 

MAP  OF  THE  COAST  OF  CALIFORNIA 

HONDIUS'  MAP  OF  DRAKE'S  BAY 

From  a  copy  in  the  possession  of  Charles  Deane,  Esq. 
MAP  OF  CALIFORNIA,  ARIZONA.  AND  NEW  MEXICO 


571 
576 
577 

582 


THE   MURDER   OF  LA    SALLE. 


• 


Site  of  the  Great   Pequot  Fort. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   PEQUOT  WAR. 

HOSTILITIES  BEFORE  THE  WAR.  —  ENDICOTT'S  EXPEDITION  TO  BLOCK  ISLAND.  —  ITS 
SUCCESS.  —  IVDIANS  OF  THE  MAIN  LAND  ATTACKED.  —  RETALIATION  OX  THE  ExG- 
Lisii  PLANTATIONS.  —  A  GENERAL  WAR  RESOLVED  ON.  —  MASON'S  EXPEDITION. — 
REDUCTION  OF  THE  PEQUOT  FORT. — RESULTS  OF  THE  SUMMER'S  WORK.  —  EXTINC- 
TION OF  THE  PEQUOT  TRIBE.  —  CHARACTER  OF  THE  INDIANS.  —  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF 
AND  MORAL  ANI>  INTELLKCTUAL  QUALITIES. — INFLUENCE  OF  THE  PEQUOT  WAR 
UPON  THE  GROWTH  AND  PROSPERITY  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES. 

THE  murder  of  Captain  Oldham  by  the  Indians  of   Block  Island 
aroused  the  most  serious  alarm  throughout  the  feeble  colo- 
nies of  New  England.     It  seemed  to  be,  in  the  light  of  other  the  Pe- 

,      .      .,  ,  ,       .  .  ,  ,    quot  War. 

acts  ot  similar  atrocity,  the  final  and  conclusive  evidence  of 
the  impossibility  of  any  peace  with  these  savages.  They  meant,  it 
seemed,  utterly  to  destroy  the  English.  There  was  in  the  minds  of 
most  of  them  hardly  the  glimmer  of  a  reason  for  this  deadly  enmity 
against  the  white  men  ;  but  instead  of  reason  was  the  love  of  blood  ; 
the  love  of  revenging  some  real  or  fancied  wrong ;  the  love  of  plun- 
der ;  the  love  of  the  clash  of  war  with  the  maddening  music  of  the 
groans  of  tortured  men,  the  shrieks  of  women,  and  the  cries  of  chil- 
dren. The  war-whoop,  as  it  rang  through  the  woods,  found  this  quick 
responsive  chord  in  every  savage  bosom.  But  the  more  thoughtful 

VOL.   II. 


2  THE  PEQUOT   WAR.  [CHAP.  L 

among  them  believed  their  race  stood  in  the  presence  of  a  terrible  di- 
lemma :  either  the  intruders  must  be  destroyed  or  driven  to  the  ships 
that  brought  them,  or  they  must  themselves  turn  their  backs  upon  the 
beloved  land  where  the  bones  of  their  ancestors  were  buried,  where 
to  every  hill  and  rock  and  river  clung  the  most  cherished  memories, 
tender  with  romantic  legend,  reverent  with  superstition,  or  fierce  with 
inherited  hate.  Their  deepest  religious  sense  was  in  the  love  of  the 
land  where  from  generation  to  generation  the  tribes  had  lived  and 
died,  where  the  children  never  forgot  to  add  day  by  day  a  stone  to  the 
simple  monuments  that  marked  the  graves  or  the  deeds  of  the  fathers. 
Who  were  these  pale-faced  strangers  that  they  should  give  up  their 
country  to  them  ?  should  look  their  last  upon  that  glorious  sea  out  of 
which  the  sun  came  to  light  up  and  warm  their  hunting-grounds? 
should  hide  themselves  in  the  deep  shadows  of  those  western  forests 
that  had  no  end  ? 

Colonial  statesmen  were  compelled  to  meet  face  to  face,  with  such 
wisdom  and  such  strength  as  they  could,  this  plain  and  well  defined 
Indian  question  —  not  yet  settled  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  two  cen- 
turies —  could  these  people  be  subjugated,  and  the  tribal  distinctions, 
•which  made  them  distinct  nationalities,  be  obliterated  ?  Affairs  wore 
too  stern  an  aspect  for  that  lamentation  to  be  remembered  which  the 
good  Robinson,  twelve  years  before,  had  addressed  to  his  Plymouth 
flock  :  _"  Oh  !  how  happy  a  thing  had  it  been  if  you  had  converted 
some  before  you  had  killed  any."  The  problem  was  simplified,  for  a 
time  at  least,  to  how  these  heathen  could  be  most  easily  and  most 
effectually  killed. 

But  milder  measures  were  first  exhausted.  The  murderers  of  Stone 
and  of  Oldham  were  demanded  of  the  Pequots  with  remuneration  for 
property  destroyed.  The  demands  were  met  with  evasions,  or  with 
promises  made  only  to  be  broken.  Savage  cunning  was  more  than  a 
match  for  the  diplomatic  arts  of  the  civilized  and  wiser  white  men. 
There  was  no  solution  left  but  force. 

In  August,  1636,  five  small  vessels,  carrying  about  a  hundred  men, 
sailed  from  Boston  to  Block  Island  ;  for  it  was  the  Indians 


toBu>ck0n     °f  tnat  island  who  had  murdered  Oldham  and  taken  his  ves- 


gej  J0hn  Endicott  of  Salem  was  in  command  of  the  expe- 
dition, and  his  orders  from  the  magistrates  of  Boston  were  that  he 
should  kill  all  the  men,  but  should  spare  the  women  and  children. 
The  hundred  men  had  four  captains  beside  the  commander-in-chief. 
"  I  would  not,"  writes  one  of  them  —  John  Underbill,  —  "  have  the 
world  wonder  at  the  great  number  of  commanders  to  so  few  men,  but 
know  that  the  Indians'  fight  far  differs  from  the  Christian  practice." 
And  he  explains  that  as  the  savages  divided  themselves  into  small 


1636.]          ENDICOTT'S  EXPEDITION   TO   BLOCK  ISLAND.  3 

bodies,  so  it  was  necessary  to  meet  them  with  like  detachments,  the 
honor  of  command  remaining  the  same  whether  given  to  captains  of 
tens  or  captains  of  thousands.  This  Underbill,  who  showed  himself 
at  other  times  a  braggart,  a  bigot,  a  libertine,  little  given  to  shame  or 
scruple  of  any  other  sort,  was  sensitive  on  a  point  of  rank  and  sol- 
dierly reputation. 

The  wind  blew  hard,  and  the  surf  rolled  in  heavily  on  the  rocky 
shores  of  Block  Island  as  the  expedition  approached  it.     A 
landing  was  made  in  spite  of  a  shower  of  arrows  with  which 
the  Indians  attempted  to  repel  the  invaders  —  a  futile  defence,  for 


Gov.    Endicott  landing  on   Block  Island 

only  one  Englishman  was  wounded.  Another  arrow  recoiled  harm- 
less from  the  helmet  of  Underbill,  and  would,  he  writes,  have  slain 
him,  "  if  God  in  his  Providence  had  not  moved  the  heart  of  my  wife 
to  persuade  me  to  carry  it  along  with  me,  which  I  was  unwilling  to 
do."  Whereupon  he  improves  the  occasion,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
time,  by  these  pious  and  timely  reflections :  "  First,  when  the  hour 
of  death  is  not  yet  come,  you  see  God  useth  weak  means  to  keep  his 
purpose  un  violated ;  secondly,  let  no  man  despise  advice  and  counsel 
of  his  wife,  though  she  be  a  woman."  Not  that  there  was  anything 
remarkable  in  this  evidence  of  how  precious  the  life  of  John  Under- 
bill was  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  how  important  to  the  success  of 
the  expedition  ;  but  it  was  marvellous  that  God  should  condescend  to 


4  THE  PEQUOT   WAR.  [CHAP.  I. 

an  instrument  to  do  his  will  so  humble  and  usually  so  useless  as  a 
woman.  Another  inference  the  captain  drew  even  more  distinctly. 
It  was  the  "clamor,"  he  asserts,  that  New  England  men  "usurped 
over  their  wives  ;  "  but  John  Underhill  had  been  saved  from  death 
because  a  woman's  voice  had  not  been  unheeded  ;  and  that  should 
make  an  end  of  this  public  calumny.1  The  calumny,  perhaps,  was 
of  Underbill's  own  invention  to  minister  to  his  own  vanity,  for  there 
is  no  evidence  of  the  existence  of  any  peculiar  hardship  in  the  condi- 
tion of  the  wives  of  the  Puritans. 

The  Indians  fled  into  the  interior  of  the  island  and  were  followed 
by  the  English.  Two  villages  were  found  containing  about 
sixty  wigwams,  some  of  which  seem  to  have  been  of  the  best 


class  of  Indian  habitations.  Two  hundred  acres  of  land 
were  under  cultivation,  and  the  maize,  already  partly  harvested,  was 
piled  in  heaps  to  be  stored  away  for  winter  use.  For  two  days  the  in- 
vaders sought  for  the  natives  without  success  ;  but  the  still  standing 
corn,  the  stacks,  the  wigwams  with  their  simple  furniture  of  mats  and 
baskets,  the  canoes,  they  burned  to  the  last  fragment.2  The  desolation 
was  complete  ;  the  Indians  whom  they  could  not  find  to  kill  they  left 
to  starve. 

The  Block  Islanders  were  severely  if  not  wisely  punished  for  the 
murder  of  Oldham.  The  Pequots  of  the  mainland  were  next 
to  be  dealt  witli  for  the  earlier  murder  of  Stone.  A  band  of 
three  hundred  of  this  tribe  Endicott  found  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pequot 
River  —  now  the  Thames.  He  asked  that  Sassacus,  the  Pequot  chief, 
should  be  brought  to  him.  Either  the  chief  would  not,  or  could  not 
come,  and  Endicott,  believing  that  the  Indians  were  trying  to  put  him 
off  with  excuses,  landed  his  men.  From  behind  rocks  and  trees  the 
savages  shot  harmless  arrows  to  hinder  their  advance  ;  bullets  on  the 
other  side  did  better  service,  for  a  few  of  the  Indians  were  killed  and 
wounded  as  they  slowly  retired  before  the  English.  The  villages  of 
wigwams,  which  stood  probably  about  where  New  London  now  stands, 
were  soon  reached  and  burned,  but  the  maize  was  here  too  green  to 
take  fire. 

The  expedition  was  finished  by  coasting  along  the  Narragansett 
shores,  burning  wigwams  and  destroying  crops  wherever  they  could 
be  found.  In  less  than  a  month  the  vessels  were  at  anchor  again  in 
Boston  harbor.  "  They  came  all  safe,"  writes  Winthrop,  u  which  was 

" 

1  Neu-es  From  America  ;  or  A  New  And  Experimental  Discooerie  of  New  England,  Sfc.  frc. 
By  Captaine  John  Underhill,  a  Commander  in  the  Warres  there.     Reprinted  in  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Co'L,  vol.  vi.,  Third  Series. 

2  Wiuthrop's   History  of  New  England,  Savage's  edition,  vol.  i.,  p.  231.      Underbill's 

rom  America,  p.  7 


1636.] 


PERILS   OF   THE   SAYBROOK   FORT. 


a  marvellous  providence  of  God,  that  not  a  hair  fell  from  the  head  of 
any  of  them,  nor  any  sick  or  feeble  persons  among  them."  What  the 
providence  of  God  did  for  the  two  or  three  hundred  Indians  left  on 
Block  Island  without  shelter,  or  food,  or  canoes  in  which  to  escape  a 
lingering  death  from  cold  and  hunger,  he  does  not  tell  us ;  but  these 
were  not  members  of  Mr.  Cotton's  church.  That  God,  however,  did 
not  permit  them  all  to  perish  miserably  we  are  assured  by  later  refer- 
ences in  contemporaneous  narratives  to  the  Indians  of  Block  Island. 

At  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut  a  fort  had  recently  been  built,  — 
at  that  point  since   known   as  Saybrook,  in   honor   of   the 
Lords  Say  and  Brook,  —  and  the  younger  Winthrop  had  put  fort  at  say- 
in  it  a  garrison  of  twenty  men,  under  the  command  of  Cap- 
tain Lion  Gardiner.      Gardiner  was  too  good  a  soldier  to  rush  rashly 


into  fighting,  and  when  Endicott  made 
the  fort  his  rendezvous,  on  his  return 
from  Block  Island,  he  was  no  welcome 
guest.  The  coming  of  the  force  was, 
writes  Gardiner,1  "to  my  great  grief,  for,  said  I,  you  come  hither  to 
raise  these  wasps  about  my  ears,  and  then  you  will  take  wing  and  flee 
away."  He  had  all  along  counselled  a  conciliatory  policy ;  he  and  his 
little  garrison  of  probably  less  than  a  hundred  persons,  including  the 
women  and  children,  had  all  they  could  do,  he  said,  to  fight  "  Cap- 
tain Hunger,"  and  the  loss  of  their  corn-field,  two  miles  from  the 
fort,  might  be  fatal.  "  You  will  keep  yourselves  safe,  as  you  think, 
in  the  Bay,"  he  wrote,  "  but  myself  with  these  few,  you  will  leave 
at  the  stake  to  be  roasted,  or  for  hunger  to  be  starved." 

He  was  right.    Winthrop  hailed  Endicott's  return  as  "a  marvellous 
Providence  of  God,"  but  it  was,  said  Gardiner,  the  beginning  of  war 
*  Gardiner's  Peguot   Warre*.  Mats.  Hi*.  Soc.  Coll.,  Third  Series,  vol.  iii. 


6  THE  PEQUOT  WAR.  [CHAP.  L 

to  the  isolated  garrison  at  his  fort,  and  the  feeble  colonies  on  the 
Connecticut.  The  Block  Islanders,  perhaps,  were  incapable  of  further 
mischief  for  a  time,  but  on  the  mainland  the  natives  were  aroused  to 
exasperation  and  revenge,  not  reduced  to  submission.  They  watched 
for  opportunities  to  waylay  the  English,  to  come  upon  them  at  unex- 
pected times  and  places,  resorting  to  all  the  stratagems  and  cunning 
so  well  understood  at  a  later  period  as  the  peculiar  characteristic  of 
the  North  American  Indian.  A  portion  of  Gardiner's  corn  only  was 
saved,  and  that  at  the  expense  of  the  lives  of  some  of  his  men ;  to  cut 
and  bring  in  the  hay  from  the  neighboring  meadows  cost  him  still 
more.  The  fort  was  beleaguered  by  a  foe  always  present,  and  always 
unseen,  till  he  made  himself  known  and  felt  by  some  sudden  attack  ; 
to  go  beyond  the  defences  for  work  or  for  sport,  to  bring  in  timber  or 
to  seek  for  game,  could  be  done  only  at  peril  of  life  or  limb.  Hos- 
tilities extended  to  all  the  settlements.  "  We  are  Pequits,"  said  the 
Indians,  in  their  usual  boastful  spirit,  "  and  have  killed  Englishmen, 
and  can  kill  them  as  mosquetoes,  and  we  will  go  to  Conectecott  and 
kill  men,  women,  and  children,  and  we  will  take  away  the  horses,  cows 
and  hogs."  a  They  were  as  good  as  their  word. 

Agawam  (Springfield),  where  William  Pynchon  had  planted  his 
colony,  was  threatened,  and  thought,  at  one  time,  to  be  de- 
of  thepiMi't?  stroyed.  Hartford  and  Windsor  were  in  constant  fear  of  at- 
tack. Cattle  were  killed  or  stolen ;  each  settlement  was  a 
camp ;  to  wander  far  from  home  was  at  the  risk  of  immediate  death, 
or  captivity  and  death  by  torture ;  labor  on  week-days  was,  for  the 
most  part,  suspended,  and  on  Sundays  the  men  sat  with  arms  in  their 
hands,  their  attention  divided  between  the  expounding  of  the  Word  by 
the  preacher  and  listening  for  the  war-whoop  of  an  approaching  enemy, 
wethersfleid  At  Wetliersfield  a  band  suddenly  fell  upon  a  party  of  work- 
attacked.  men  jn  the  f^id,^  killed  nine  of  them,  men,  women,  and 
children,  and  carried  away  two  girls  as  captives.  On  their  way  down 
the  river,  as  they  passed  the  fort  at  Saybrook,  the  Indians  raised  a 
mast  upon  the  canoe  which  carried  the  prisoners,  hoisting  in  derision 
as  sails  the  shirts  and  petticoats  of  the  men  and  women  they  had 
murdered.  A  chance  shot  from  the  fort  struck  the  canoe,  where  the 
captives  lay  weeping  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  but  fortunately  with 
little  damage.  The  girls  themselves  seem  not  to  have  been  badly 
treated  by  the  savages;  and  they  were  afterwards  redeemed  by  the 
Dutch,  who  enticed  some  Pequots  on  board  their  vessel  and  holding 
them  as  hostages  threatened  to  drop  them  into  the  open  sea  unless 
their  demand  for  the  surrender  of  the  prisoners  was  instantly  com- 
plied with.  But  it  was  a  case  of  special  mercy  ;  other  prisoners  were 
tortured  and  mutilated  in  the  most  cruel  manner. 

1  Gardiner's  Peijitot  Warns. 


1636.] 


ROGER  WILLIAMS  AND  THE   PEQUOTS. 


The  very  existence  of  the  Colonies  was,  no  doubt,  seriously  threat- 
ened. The  different  Indian  tribes  which  surrounded  them  could,  if 
they  would  act  in  harmony,  bring  into  the  field  many  more  warriors 
than  there  were  English  in  the  country,  and  it  was  by  no  means  im- 
possible that  they  might,  by  a  concerted  movement,  exterminate  the 
strangers.  Roger  Williams  was  quick  to  discern  this  danger, 
and  did  more  than  any  other  one  man  to  avert  it.  He 
was  so  well  known  to,  and  in  such  friendly  relations  with 
the  Indians,  that  he  exercised  much  influence  over  them.  They  may 


William:-'* 
services. 


The  Captive  Maidens. 

even  have  understood  that  one  cause  of  his  banishment  from  the  Bay 
of  Massachusetts  was  that  he  had  maintained  their  rightful  title  to 
the  country  as  against  all  comers,  to  keep  or  to  sell  it  as  they  pleased, 
and  this  would  specially  secure  for  him  their  love  and  reverence. 
Writing  many  years  afterwards  of  this  time,  he  said,  "  I  had  my 
share  of  service  to  the  whole  land  in  that  Pequod  business,  ....  the 
Lord  helped  me  immediately  to  put  my  life  into  my  hand,  and  scarce 
acquainting  my  wife,  to  ship  myself,  all  alone,  in  a  poor  canoe,  and  to 
cut  through  a  stormy  wind,  with  gi*eat  seas,  every  minute  in  hazard 
of  life,  to  the  sachem's  house.  Three  days  and  nights  my  business 
forced  me  to  lodge  and  mix  with  the  bloody  Pequod  ambassadors 


8 


THE   PEQUOT  WAR. 


[CHAP.  1. 


whose  hands  and  arms,  methought,  reeked  with  the  blood  of  my 
countrymen,  murdered  and  massacred  by  them  on  Connecticut  River, 
and  from  whom  I  could  not  but  nightly  look  for  their  bloody  knives 
at  my  own  throat  also."  1 

Of  the  progress  of  these  negotiations  Governor  Winthrop  and  his 
associates  were  kept  carefully  advised  ;  nor  did  they  disdain  to  accept 
aid  from  the  man  they  had  not  long  before  driven  out  from  among 
them  because  of  some  possibly  extravagant,  but  certainly  harmless, 
abstract  opinions.  But  amid  the  din  of  arms,  or  even  the  fear  of  it, 
bigotry  as  well  as  law  is  silent.  The  early  Puritans  were  never 


Roger   Williams   going  to  the    Sachem  s    House 

lacking  in  the  soundest  common  sense  when  common  sense  best  served 
their  purpose.  They  could  accept  in  time  of  danger  welcome  and 
invaluable  aid  from  one  whose  sentence  of  banishment  from  Massa- 
chusetts they  never,  through  his  long  and  useful  life,  had  the  mag' 
nanimity  to  revoke. 

It  was  these  efforts  of  Mr.  Williams  that,  more  than  anything  else, 
secured  those  friendly  relations  with  the  Narragansetts  which  at  this 
period  were  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  colonies.  This  tribe 
and  the  Pequots  were  already  enemies,  but  there  was  good  reason  for 
apprehending  that  a  common  peril  might  unite  them  against  a  com- 
mon enemy.  The  true  policy  of  the  English  was  to  widen  the  breach 

1  Letter  to  Major  Mason,  1670.   Mass.  Hitt.  Coll.,  First  Series,  vol.  i.  Publications  of  The 
Narragansett  Club,  vol.  ii. 


1637.] 


CAPTAIN  MASON'S  EXPEDITION.  9 


between  them  if  peace  could  not  be  secured  with  both.  The  Pe- 
quots  were  implacable  after  Endicott's  expedition  to  Block  Englilih 
Island  and  along  the  Narragansett  coast,  but  Williams  per-  pohcy- 
suaded  the  Narragansett  chiefs,  Canonicus,  an  old  man  equally  morose 
and  savage,  he  says — morosus  ceque  ac  barbarus  senez,  —  and  Mian- 
tonomo,  who  *'  kept  his  barbarous  court  lately  at  my  house,"  to  join 
their  forces  with  the  English  in  a  war  upon  their  rivals.  Of  a  prelim- 
inary expedition,  proposed  by  Miantonomo  to  destroy  the  crops  of 
the  Pequots,  Williams  wrote  to  Winthi-op  :  "  If  they  speed  it  will 
weaken  the  enemy  and  distress  them,  being  put  by  their  hopes :  as 
also  much  enrage  the  Pequots  forever  against  them,  a  thing  much 
desirable."  1 

The  Massachusetts  General  Court,  at  their  meeting  in  May,  decided 
to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  sorely  distressed  and  hai-assed  plantations 
of  Connecticut,  as  well  as  to  avert  a  danger  that  threatened  all  alike. 
It  was  a  common  peril,  and  the  Bay  called  upon  Plymouth  for  aid. 
But  Plymouth  held  back.  She  had  her  grievances  against  the  Massa- 
chusetts government,  who  had  refused  to  help  her  against  the  French 
when,  two  years  before,  they  had  captured  the  Plymouth  trading- 
house  on  the  Penobscot ;  who  had  encouraged  these  marauding  French- 
men, on  the  Kennebeck,  by  selling  them  guns  and  provisions  ;  and 
who  had  upheld  the  Dorchester  people  in  taking  possession  of  the 
lands  at  Windsor  which  Plymouth  claimed  as  hers  by  right  of  first 
settlement.2 

Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  could  take  time  for  debate  ;  no  enemy 
lay  concealed  in  the  long  grass  about  their  doorways,  or  watched  in 
the  edges  of  the  forest  for  the  scalps  of  fathers  and  sons  who  should 
venture  out  to  labor  in  the  fields.     But  the  plantations  on  the  Con- 
necticut stood  face  to  face  with  the  constant  terror  of  sud- 
den death.     In   May  a  force  of  ninety  men,  forty-two  from   Mason'-.°ex- 
Hartford,  thirty  from  Windsor,  and  eighteen  from  Wethers- 
field,  commanded  by  Captain  John  Mason,  an  experienced  and  able 
soldier,  sailed  from  Hartford  for  Saybrook  Fort.8 

A  body  of  Indians,  under  the  Mohegan  chief,  Uncas,  joined  them  at 
this  point,  but  the  English  were  not  quite  sure  that  they  would  not 
prove  treacherous.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Stone  of  Hartford  was  chaplain  of 
the  expedition,  and  he  spent  the  night  of  their  arrival  at  Gardiner's 
fort  in  prayer  for  their  success,  and  especially  that  God  would  vouch- 

1  Letter  to  Vane  or  Winthrop,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  vi.    Narrayansett  Club 
Publications,  vol.  vi. 

3  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  i.,  p.  260.     Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation  pp  352 
et  seq. 

*  Colonial  Reco,  ds  of  Connecticut.     Mason's  Brief  History  of  the  Pequot  War,  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.,  Second  Series,  vol.  viii. 


10 


THE  PEQUOT   WAR. 


[CHAP.  I. 


safe  to  give  them  some  token  of  the  fidelity  of  these  Indian  allies. 
But  their  fidelity  was  already  proved  in  a  fight  with  a  band  of  Peqtiots 
which  Gardiner  had  ordered  them  to  attack.  Underbill  had  over- 
heard the  pious  supplication  of  the  chaplain,  and  "  immediately,"  he 
says,  "  myself  stepping  up,  told  him  that  God  had  answered  his  de- 
sire, and  that  I  had  brought  him  this  news,  that  those  Indians  had 
brought  in  five  Pequots'  heads,  one  prisoner,  and  wounded  one  mor- 
tally ;  which  did  much  encourage  the  hearts  of  all  and  replenished 
them  exceedingly,  and  gave  them  all  occasion  to  rejoice  and  be 
thankful  to  God."  And,  indeed,  if  that  kind  of  answer  was  looked 


Site  of  the   Narragansett   Fort  at   Fort  Neck. 


for,  five  such  bloody  tokens  were  significant  enough.  Nor  is  it  much 
to  be  wondered  at  that  the  prisoner,  whose  head  unfortunately  was 
left  upon  his  shoulders,  was  lashed  to  a  post  and  torn  limb  from 
limb  with  ropes,  by  the  mere  brute  force  of  twenty  Englishmen.1  It 
was  a  deed  as  unwise  as  it  was  cruel,  if  only  meant  as  a  retaliation  of 
the  torture  of  English  prisoners,  but  defensible  as  the  punishment  of 
those  whom  God  had  declared  his  enemies.  Some  of  the  wisest  and 
best  among  the  New  England  Puritans  held  that  as  certainly  as  they 
were  the  special  care  of  Heaven,  so,  as  unquestionably,  the  Indians 
were  the  children  of  the  devil.  And  this  particular  Indian,  God  had 

1  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  i.,  p.  266.  Trumbull,  History  of  Connecticut,  says  that  this  In- 
dian suffered  torture  and  death  from  Uncas  and  his  men.  Vincent,  History  of  the  Pequot 
War,  agrees  with  Wiuthrop. 


1637.] 


CAPTAIN   MASON'S   EXPEDITION. 


11 


delivered  alive  into  their  hands  in  answer  to  prayer.    Was  it  not  that 
he  might  be  tortured  ? 

The  General  Court  at  Hartford  had  ordered  Mason  to  land  at  the 
mouth  of  Pequot  (the  Thames)  River,  and  invade  the  Pequot  country 
at  the  nearest  point  from  the  sea.     But  Mason  was  too  good  a  soldier 
to  attack  in  front,  where  he  knew  he  was  expected  and  Magon,g 
watched  for,  an  enemy  much  superior  in  numbers  to  his  own  strate»r- 
command.    Other  officers  hesitated  to  disobey  positive  orders,  and  this 
question   also  was  left   to  be   decided   by  an  answer  to  Mr.  Stone's 
prayers.    The  Lord, 
Mr.  Stone  believed, 
approved  of  the  plan 
proposed  by  Mason, 
as  decidedly  as  He 
had  pronounced   on 
the    point     of     the 
faithfulness    of    the 
Mohegans  and  Nar- 
ragansetts.          Em- 
barking    his     force 
again,  taking  twenty 
Massachusetts    men 
led  by  Underbill  in 
place  of  a  like  num- 
ber of  the  least  effi- 
cient he  had  brought 
from  Hartford,  Ma- 
son left  the  river  and 
bore  away  for  Nar- 
ragansett    Bay.     It 
looked  like  a  retreat. 
The     anxious     Pe- 
quots  along  the  coast 
watched   the  reced- 
ing     vessels,     and, 
when  they  were  no 
longer  in  sight,  re- 
tired, relieved  from  a  sense  of  danger,  to  their  villages,  to  exult  at  the 
cowardice  of  the  enemy  and  their  own  bravery  and  good  fortune. 

But  Mason  came  to  anchor  toward  evening  of  the  next  day  some- 
where at  the  entrance,  probably,  of  Narragansett  Bay.1    For  two  days 

1  Precisely  where  he  came  to  anchor  is  mere  conjecture.     Mason  and  Underbill  both  say 
tne.r  narratives  that  they  sailed  for  and  landed  iu  Narragaiwett  Bay.    A  heavy  sea,  coa- 


Porter's   Rocks. 


12 


THE   PEQUOT  WAR. 


[CHAP.  I. 


a  heavy  surf  prevented  a  landing,  but  on  the  second  evening  the 
He  lands  at  whole  force  went  ashore  and,  the  next  day,  marched  to  a  fort 
aieNaraffl^  °f  the  Narragansetts,  about  eighteen  or  twenty  miles  distant 
sett  B»y.  on  tne  peqnot  frontier.1 

Here  an  interview  was  had  with  Canonicus  and  Miantonomo,  who, 
while  they  renewed  their  promises  to  be  faithful  allies  to  the  Eng- 
lish, were  cold  and  distrustful,  doubting  if  so  small  a  body  seriously 
intended,  or  were  able,  to  cope  successfully  with  the  formidable  Pe- 
juots.  Mason,  on  the  other  hand,  had  so  little  faith  in  the  word  of 
the  savages  that  he  surrounded  their  fort  with  a  guard  during  the 
night,  lest  they  should  betray  his  approach  to  the  enemy. 

The  next  day  the  little  army,  followed  by  several  hundred  of  the 
March  into  Indians,  who  still  held  back  in  fear  and  doubt,  made  a  painful 
the  country  raarcn  through  the  woods,  exhausted  by  fatigue  and  thirst 
and  heat,  —  it  was  the  25th  of  May,  —  forded  the  Pawcatuck  River, 
and  encamped  at  night  at  a  spot  now  known  as  Porter's  Rocks,  at 
the  head  of  the  Mystic  River,  in  the  present  town  of  Stonington. 
The  principal  Pequot  fort,  which  was  rather  a  large  Indian  vilhige 
surrounded  with  palisades  than  a  fort,  was  two  miles  beyond  upon  a 
hill.  It  was  crowded  with  men,  women,  and  children;  and  till  late 
into  the  night  the  sentinels  could  hear  the  sound  of  song  and  laugh- 
ter, as,  unconscious  of  the  peril  that  lurked  so  near,  they  boasted  that 
the  English  had  fled  without  daring  to  strike  a  blow  even  to  revenge 
the  death  of  thirty  of  their  people  whose  scalps  hung  in  Pequot  wig- 
wams. 

At  break  of  day,  when  deep  sleep  had  covered  the  Indian  camp, 
Mason  aroused  his  men.  Guided  by  Uncas,  the  Mohegan 
the  Pequot  chief,  and  Wequash,  a  petty  Pequot  sachem  who  had  de- 
serted his  tribe,  they  were  led  within  a  rod  of  the  palisaded 
village.  Silently  and  cautiously  they  completely  surrounded  it,  the 
Indian  allies  forming  another  circle  in  the  rear.  So  profound  was  the 
sleep  of  the  garrison  that  the  first  warning  was  given  by  the  bark  of  a 
dog,  when  a  Pequot,  springing  to  his  feet,  shouted  "  Owanux !  Owa- 
nux  !  "  —  "  Englishmen  !  Englishmen  ! " 

There  were  two  entrances  to  the  village,  at  opposite  sides ;  Mason, 
followed  by  his  men,  sprang  in  at  one  over  a  barricade  of  brush 
heaps  ;  Underbill  made  his  way  in  at  the  other.  The  assault  was 
irresistible ;  the  possession  complete.  Women  and  children,  in  the 

tinuing  two  days,  indicates  that  the  place  mu>t  have  been  along  the  open  coast  outside  the 
bay. 

'This  fort  is  supposed  to  have  been  at  a  place  now  called  Fort  Neck.  (Rhode  Island 
Hist.  Coll.  vol.  iii.,  p.  24.)  Mason  says  in  his  narrative  lhat  it  was  twelve  miles  from 
Pitwcatuck  River.  A  fort  was  afterward  built  uu  this  hill,  the  ruins  of  which  still  re- 
main. 


X 

a 


S 

o 


w 

-5 


U 


a 


1637.] 


CAPTAIN  MASON'S   EXPEDITION. 


13 


extremity  of  terror,  sought  either  to  hide  themselves,  like  frightened 
wild  creatures,  beneath  anything  that  would  cover  them,  or  to  fly  to 
the  woods  ;  the  men  could  only  make  some  feeble  show  of  fight.  In 
the  dim  morning  twilight,  in  the  confusion  of  a  sudden  awakening, 
in  the  din  of  the  terrible  onslaught,  there  was  little  chance  of  either 
escape  or  resistance. 

But  even  guns  and  swords  could  not  do  the  work  fast  enough  for 
the  impatient   and   merciless   assailants.     "We  must  burn  them!" 

cried  Mason.  Snatching  a  brand 
from  some  smouldering  ashes  he 
thrust  it  into  the  dried  branches 
and  withered  leaves  of  the  wigwams 
and  the  mats  with  which  they  were 
covered;  others  were  quick  to  fol- 
low his  example ;  the  flames,  as  of  a 


Attack  on  the  Pequot   Fort. 

huge  bonfire,  sprung  into  the  air  and  lit  up  the  glow  of  the  coming 
morning.  "  The  Indians  ran,  as  Men  most  dreadfully  Amazed,"  says 
Mason.  "  Indeed  such  a  dreadful  Terror  did  the  Almighty  let  fall 
upon  their  Spirits,  that  they  would  fly  from  us  and  run  into  the  very 
Flames  where  many  of  them  perished."  That  the  weakeV, —  the  very 
young,  the  very  old,  and  the  women  —  should  escape,  was  impossible; 
the  stronger,  if  not  di'iven  back  to  suffocation  and  torture  in  the 
smoke  and  flames  of  their  own  homes,  could  only  throw  themselves 
desperately  upon  the  swords  of  the  unyielding  circle  of  steady  Eng- 


14 


THE    PEQUOT    WAR. 


[CHAP.  I. 


lishmen,  or  meet  beyond  a  still  more  impenetrable  circle  of  their  own 
countrymen  inexorable  as  death  and  more  cruel  than  fire. 

In  a  little  more  than  an  hour  from  the  first  moment  of  alarm  the 
rising  sun  shone  upon  the  smouldering  remnants  of  seventy  wigwams 
and  the  charred  and  bleeding  bodies  of  six  or  seven  hundred  Indians. 
Of  the  whole  village  only  seven  escaped  and  seven  were  taken  cap- 
tive.1 "  Thus,"  exclaims  the  exultant  captain,  "  did  the  Lord  judge 
among  the  Heathen ! "  Of  the  English  two  only  were  killed  and 
about  twenty  wounded. 

• 

Mason  and  his  men  were  worn  out  with  the  fatigue  of  a  long  march 
and  the  loss  of  sleep,  and  their  provision  and  ammunition  were  well- 
nigh  spent.  The  mouth  of  Pequot  River  was  the  appointed  rendezvous 
of  the  vessels,  and  the  men  had  yet  before  them  a  further  march  of  sev- 
eral miles.  At  no  great  distance  was  another  Indian  village,  whence 
a  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  men  had  been  sent  the  day  before  to 
reinforce  the  garrison  that  now  lay  dead  upon  the  hill-side  —  the 
hundred  and  fifty  dead  with  the  rest.  In  this  village,  however,  there 
were  still  three  hundred  and  fifty  warriors,  and  thither  the  few  who 
had  escaped  from  the  Mystic  fort  had  carried  the  news  of  the  massa- 
cre of  the  larger  portion  of  their  tribe. 

Howling  with  rage  and  grief  these  were  soon  upon  the  trail  of  the 
English,  whom  the  treacherous  Narragansetts,  fearing  this  very  result, 
had  already  deserted.  Uncas  and  the  Mohegans  still  re- 
to  rejoin  mained  faithful,  and  were  so  far  of  use  that  they  were  in- 
duced to  render  service  in  carrying  the  wounded.  At  least 
a  third  of  Mason's  men  were,  from  wounds  and  exhaustion,  a  mere 
burden  upon  the  rest ;  but  the  pursuit  was  successfully  repulsed,  with 
a  good  deal  of  loss  to  the  Indians.2  The  vessels  arrived  at  the  river's 
mouth  in  the  course  of  the  day.  with  a  reinforcement  of  forty  men 
from  Boston,  and  Mason  and  his  force,  before  the  night  closed  in, 
were  safe  from  further  attack  on  board. 

The  war,  however,  was  not  yet  quite  finished,  even  by  a  slaughter 
so  disastrous  as  this.  The  enmity  between  the  Pequots  and 
the  other  tribes  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  had  grown 
now  to  a  deadly  hatred,  and  there  could  be  no  peace  between  them. 
While  hostilities  continued  among  the  natives,  there  was  little  safety 
for  the  English  ;  and  they  had,  perhaps,  no  alternative  but  to  join 
with  one  party  in  the  subjugation  of  the  other.  At  any  rate,  to  hesi- 
tate at  such  a  crisis  would  be  ruin  to  the  infant  settlements,  and 

1  Thi>  is  Mason's  account.     Underbill  says  there  were  about  four  hundred  in  the  fort 
and  only  five  escaped. 

2  Underbill  says  that  he,  with  thirty  men,  killed  and  wounded  above  a  hundred  of  the 
enemy. 


The  war 
continued. 


1637.] 


EXTINCTION   OF   THE   PEQUOT   TRIBE. 


15 


Mason,  his  force  doubled  by  recruits  from  the  Bay  and  from  Plym- 
outh, under  Captain  Stoughton,  joined  with  the  Narragansetts  and 
Mohegans  in  an  active  pursuit  of  the  common  enemy. 

The  summer  was  spent  in  skirmishes  and  ambushes  as  the  Pequots 
were  driven  through  the  forests  from  one  hiding-place  to  another. 
It  was  the  Indians,  not  the  English,  who  now  gave  the  war  its  charaC' 
ter,  and  it  was  as  savage  and  merciless  as  Indian  wars  have  always 
been.  There  was  little  mercy  shown,  however,  to  prisoners,  whether 
the  Pequots  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English  or  of  their  own  coun- 
trymen. To  this  day  the  point  on-  Long  Island  Sound,  known  as 
Sachem's  Head  in  Guilford,  commemorates  the  beheading  of  two 


Pequot  sachems  who  were  spared 
a  little  while  from  a  batch  of  pris- 
oners in  the  hope  of  their  proving 
treacherous  to  their  own  people, 
but  were  executed  at  this  spot 
when  proved  to  be  faithful.  The 
women  and  children  indeed  were  not  killed,  but  they  were,  for  the 
most  part,  while  the  hostilities  continued,  sent  to  the  West  India 
Islands  and  sold  as  slaves. 

In  July  the  miserable  remnant  of  the  tribe  was  surrounded  in  a 
swamp  in  the  present  town  of  Fail-field.     The  men  fought  with  the 
courage  of  despair,  and  sixty  or  seventy  succeeded  in  forcing  their 
way  through  the  ranks  of  their  assailants;    but  about  two  hundred 
were   captured.      Henceforth    those    who-  were    free    were 
hunted   like   wild   beasts  by  the  other  Indians,  and    their  HonTthV 
heads  were  brought  almost  daily  into  Windsor  and  Hartford,   ' 
till  in  their  extremity  they  prayed  to  the  English   for  protection  to 


16 


THE   PEQUOT   WAR. 


[CHAP.  I. 


their  miserable  lives.  They  were  ready  for  the  last  humiliation, 
which,  next  to  absolute  extinction,  is  the  most  terrible  misfortune 
that  can  befall  an  Indian.  The  very  name  they  bore  was  to  be 
obliterated  ;  they  were  never  more  to  be  known  as  Pequots,  but  were 
to  be  thankful  if  permitted  to  live  as  a  part  of  those  tribes  which 
they  had  so  lately  reproached  as  cowards  and  derided  as  women. 

It  was  the  fate  of  war.  In  accordance  with  that  polity  universal 
among  the  North  American  savages,  by  which  prisoners,  whether  indi- 
viduals or  tribes,  were  adopted  into  the  families  and  nationalities  of 
their  conquerors,  rather  than  condemned  to  torture  and  death,  the 
surviving  Pequots  were  permitted  to  become  Mohegans  or  Narragan- 
setts.  Upon  the  English  devolved  the  duty  of  umpire  in  this  division 
of  new  subjects  ;  and  they  assigned,  beside  the  women  and  children, 
eighty  to  Uncas,  the  same  number  to  Miantonomo,  and  twenty  to 
Ninigret,  a  petty  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts.  To  the  savages  this 
last  act  in  the  destruction  of  their  tribal  existence  could  not  but  be 
humiliating  and  distressing  ;  even  to  the  most  careless  consideration 
it  is  not  wanting  in  dignity  and  pathos,  notwithstanding  we  are  told 
that  Ninigret  and  his  men  having  killed  Edward  Pomeroye's  mare, 
were  allowed  their  share  of  Pequots  only  on  condition  that  they  should 
give  satisfaction  for  the  death  of  that  animal. 

There  were  still  to  be  accounted  for  about  thirty  of  the  most  dreaded 
Pequot  warriors,  who  had  escaped  both  death  and  captivity, 
and  fled  to  the  Mohawks  in  the  valley  of  the  Hudson.  They 
were  treacherously  murdered  by  those  among  whom  they 
sought  refuge,  and  the  scalps  of  Sassacus,  his  brother,  and  five  other 
sachems,  were  sent  to  Governor  Winthrop,  in  token  of  Mohawk  fidel- 
ity and  friendship. 

Within  five  months  the  Pequot  war  was  begun  and  ended.  The 
English  army  had  at  no  time,  probably,  numbered  more  than 
war  and  Its  two  hundred  men,  or  not  one  fourth  of  a  modern  regiment. 
To  these  were  added,  perhaps,  three  times  as  many  Indians, 
all  active,  courageous,  and  cruel  when  the  enemy  was  no  longer  to  be 
dreaded  ;  but  most  of  them  treacherous  and  cowardly,  lurking  in  the 
rear  and  leaving  their  allies  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  battle  so  long  as 
success  was  doubtful.  To  the  sturdy  handful  of  Puritans  was  due  the 
conquest  of  a  tribe  which  sent  to  the  field  more  than  five  times  their 
number  of  warriors  to  fight  for  freedom  and  for  life.  But  the  char- 
acter of  the  war  is  to  be  measured  rather  by  its  results  than  its  dimen- 
sions, and  those  were  of  the  last  importance  to  the  settlement  and 
growth  of  New  England. 

Whether  the  native  population  and  the  intruders  upon  the  soil  could 
not  have  lived  long  together  in  peace  and  harmony,  is  not  so  much  the 


me  fate  of 


1637.]  CHARACTER   OF   THE  INDIAN.  17 

question  as  that  they  did  not.  The  wisest  among  the  Indians  looked 
from  the  first  with  the  gravest  apprehensions  upon  the  coining  of  the 
white  men,  and  doubted  if  there  was  room  in  the  same  land  for  their 
own  and  another  race  which  lived  by  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and 
the  arts  of  peace.  The  forest,  which  it  was  the  first  business  of  the 
white  man  to  destroy,  was  the  Indian's  home  and  his  most  precious 
possession.  Here  only  could  the  wild  animals  on  which  lie  subsisted 
live  and  flourish,  and  in  its  dark  recesses  and  fastnesses  only  could  he 
lie  in  ambush  for  the  enemy,  whose  bleeding  scalp  he  longed  to  hang 
at  his  girdle. 

He  was  a  beast  of  prey  with  some  powers  of  reflection  —  a  tiger  with 
the  gift  of  speech,  —  and  a  wilderness  was  necessary  to  his  Chaniicter  of 
existence.  War  was  his  pastime  ;  the  chase  his  only  serious  the  Induln- 
occupation.  He  cultivated  to  the  highest  degree  the  sense  of  sight  and 
of  hearing ;  he  aimed  to  surpass  all  other  creatures  in  swiftness  of  foot ; 
the  instinct  of  the  most  timid  animal  was  no  match  for  the  cunning 
with  which  the  savage  could  steal  silently  through  the  woods,  leaving 
no  footsteps  behind  him,  or  track  a  beast  to  his  lair,  or  an  enemy  to 
his  hiding-place,  if  either  had  left  the  most  trifling  or  the  dimmest 
evidence  of  the  path  he  had  followed.  To  acquire  these  qualities  he 
would  spare  no  pains  or  labor ;  for  these,  with  a  power  of  endurance 
that  shrunk  at  no  extremity  of  fatigue,  of  hunger,  or  of  suffering,  were 
his  virtues  and  his  pride.  All  work  that  required  only  mere  manual 
force,  and  called  for  the  exercise  of  neither  moral  nor  mental  power, 
was  beneath  him.  That  he  left  to  his  women.  They  raised  his  maize, 
cooked  his  food,  carried  his  burdens,  and  bore  the  sons  who  were  to 
grow  up  into  warriors  and  hunters.  He  was  literally  the  lord  of  the 
creation  about  him  ;  women  and  all  other  animals  were  made  to  be 
the  victims  and  the  slaves  of  his  wants  and  his  passions.  To  call  him- 
self a  man  was  his  proudest  boast  ;  no  sarcasm  was  so  keen,  no  re- 
proach so  humiliating  as  to  tell  his  enemy  or  the  coward  who  had  dis- 
graced his  tribe  that  he  was  only  a  woman. 

The  divinest  law  he  knew  was  the  survival  of  the  fittest ;  the  fittest 
was  he  who  was  the  most  swift  of  foot,  the  keenest  of  sight  and  hear- 
ing, the  most  cruel  and  unwearied  in  the  pursuit  of  his  enemy,  who 
could  hang  up  the  most  scalps  in  his  wigwam,  and  if  such  should  be 
the  fortune  of  war,  could  laugh  at  torture.  The  God  he  most  wor- 
shipped was  the  devil,  who  he  believed,  was  a  bigger  Indian  than  him- 
self, and  whose  only  trail  was  the  thunder  and  the  lightning,  the  tem- 
pest and  the  pestilence,  and  who|was  never  visible.  Of  a  God  of  love, 
of  mercy,  and  of  peace  he  had  little  conception,  for  he  recog-  nisreiigioM 
nized  material  force  as  the  highest  attribute,  and  the  purpose  conTictions- 
of  such  force,  as  he  understood  and  used  it,  was  evil  and  not  good. 

VOL.  ii.  2 


18  THE  PEQUOT  WAR.  [CHAP.  I. 

Nature,  indeed,  was  beneficent,  for  it  gave  him  the  forest  and  the 
streams,  the  summer's  heat  and  rains  to  grow  maize  and  tobacco,  the 
deer,  the  beaver,  the  women,  and  other  useful  and  pleasant  creatures. 
But  nature,  if  not  independent  of  a  cause,  if  it  was  not  simply  a 
growth  —  and  on  this  point  his  ideas  were  vague  and  mythical,  —  was 
not  necessarily  under  the  beneficent  government  of  a  supreme  being, 
all-wise  and  all-good  ;  while  a  power  evil,  omnipotent,  and  omnipres- 
ent, waged  a  perpetual  war  with  all  the  kindly  forces  of  nature,  per- 
verting and  thwarting  them,  withholding  and  destroying  the  fruits  of 
the  earth,  visiting  the  poor  Indian  with  starvation  and  pestilence,  sor- 
row and  death.  This  terrible  being  he  continually  tried  to  propitiate 
by  voluntary  sacrifice  of  whatever  was  most  precious  in  his  own  sight; 
for  he  hoped  that  there  might  be,  at  least,  some  pity  if  the  devil  was 
saved  the  trouble  of  helping  himself.  But  he  knew  he  could  never 
escape  from  the  dreadful  presence  that  ever  surrounded  and  threatened 
him  though  he  should  fly  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  Release 
could  only  come  when  after  death  he  should  be  welcomed,  according 
to  his  deserts  in  taking  scalps  and  killing  game  in  this  world,  to  a 
happier  land,  where  perpetual  summer  reigned,  where  the  hunting  was 
always  good,  where  the  maize  and  the  tobacco  crops  never  failed,  and 
where  the  devil  could  never  enter  with  flood,  or  fire,  or  pestilence,  to 
make  him  afraid. 

Not  that  the  Indian  was  altogether  wanting  in  qualities  which  are 
supposed  to  belong  more  to  civilized  than  savage  life.  Indeed  in  some 
of  these  he  rather  excelled  than  otherwise,  till  the  vices  of  civilization 
crowded  them  out  without  planting  in  their  stead  any  of  its  virtues. 
As  he  was  a  child  in  knowledge  and  in  judgment,  in  all  things  save 
HIS  moral  war  an^  hunting,  so  also  he  had  the  simplicity  and  truthful- 
quahties.  ness  which  naturally  belong  to  childhood.  Lying,  whether 
in  word  or  action,  was  a  stratagem  he  might  lawfully  use  to  deceive 
an  enemy,  but  never  to  mislead  a  friend  or  one  really  entitled  to  his 
friendship.  If  he  gave  his  word,  implicit  trust  might  be  placed  in  it, 
as  he  made  no  real  pretensions  to  a  friendliness  he  did  not  feel.  To  his 
foe  only  he  was  merciless,  and  he  scorned  to  conceal  his  hatred  except 
the  more  certainly  to  bring  about  its  gratification.  Hypocrisy  was 
not  among  his  vices,  and  he  was  never  anything  but  what  he  professed 
to  be.  When  he  circumvented  an  enemy,  which  he  would  do  if  he 
could,  it  was  as  an  enemy  and  not  as  a  friend.  He  respected  the 
rights  of  others  as  he  maintained  his  own  :  the  person  and  the  prop- 
erty of  his  neighbor  were  sacred.  His  love  for  his  wife  and  children 
was  tender  and  considerate,  though  the  relation  between  the  sexes  was 
almost  as  loose  as  that  of  animals.  In  the  endurance  of  pain  he  was 
impassable,  and  one  from  whom  the  extremest  torture  could  extort  a 


.- 


1637.]  INFLUENCE   OF   CHRISTIAN   TEACHING.  19 

sigh  or  a  tremor  was  mourned  for,  not  because  he  was  dead,  but  that 
he  had  ever  been  born. 

Feeble  as  the  Indians  generally  were  in  intellect,  there  were  among 
them  men  of  exceeding  shrewdness,  of  a  common  sense  that  Inteiiectuai 
was  almost  genius,  of  powers  of  imagination,  expression,  and  charact*r- 
pathos  that  make  the  poet  and  the  orator  ;  and  though  such  men  were 
the  exceptions,  they  were  voluntarily  accepted  by  their  fellows  as 
their  fitting  and  natural  chiefs.  The  higher  qualities  of  mind  and  of 
character  were  more  potent  among  them  than  even  the  arts  of  their 
priests  and  the  influence  of  superstition.  They  were  inclined  to  re- 
vere and  confide  in  those  whom  they  recognized  as  superiors  ;  and  as 
a  childish  vacancy  of  mind  and  simplicity  of  character  peculiarly  be- 
longed to  them,  so  much  the  more  easily  could  they  be  led  to  a  higher 
moral  and  intellectual  culture.  They  had  little  to  unlearn,  and  they 
received  instruction  implicitly  from  the  strangers  whom  at  first  they 
looked  upon  as  superior  beings  ;  but  they  were  much  more  susceptible 
to  example  than  to  precept. 

In  such  a  people  there  seems  to  have  been  good  soil  on  which  to 
sow  pure  Christian  seed.  It  was  sowed,  or  what  was  meant  for  it, 
diligently  and  devotedly,  but  with  small  success.  Eliot,  Gookin,  Wil- 
liams, Mayhew,  and  many  others,  both  clergymen  and  laymen,  were 
glad  to  devote  their  lives  to  the  salvation  of  these  heathen.  To  save 
them  was  held  up  as  one  of  the  most  potent  motives  for  colonization. 
Pious  people  in  England  early  formed  themselves  into  a  society  for  the 
conversion  of  so  benighted  a  race,  and  neither  prayers  nor  money  were 
spared  in  so  good  a  cause.  But  Christian  propagandism  was  never 
successful  among  them.  The  simplicity  of  the  gospel,  the  beauty  of 
a  virtuous  life,  forgiveness  of  injuries,  returning  good  for  evil,  the 
duty  and  wisdom  of  a  cheerful  submission  to  the  divine  will,  were 
doubtless  impressed  upon  them  by  some  of  those  who  strove  to  lead 
them  out  of  a  darkened  and  savage  life.  They  saw,  however,  the 
young  settlements  distracted  with  questions,  a  clear  understanding  of 
which  they  were  also  taught  was  vital  to  the  Christian  faith.  Their 
untutored  minds,  trained  rather  to  the  observation  of  things  than  the 
consideration  of  ideas,  could  not  easily  comprehend  the  mystery  of  the 
personal  union  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  enter  into  the  subtleties  of  the 
question,  —  over  which  all  Massachusetts  Bay  went  mad,  —  whether 
justification  came  from  a  covenant  of  works  or  a  covenant  of  grace. 

But  they  could  measure  the  morality  of  the  white  men  with  their 
own  ;  and  if  the  religion  of  the  white  men  made  them  no  bet- 
ter, why,  the  Indians  asked,  should  we  accept  it?     It  is  not          " 


strange  that  they  should  fail   to  make  a  distinction  between 
theology  and  religion,  which  the  Puritans  themselves  either  would  not 


20 


THE   PEQUOT   WAR. 


[CHAP.  I. 


or  could  not  always  recognize.  The  white  men  were  far  wiser  than 
they,  and  sanctification  and  justification  might  be  to  them  matters  of 
vast  moment ;  but  for  themselves  they  could  not  see  what  sxich  ques- 
tions 1.  1  to  do  with  their  being  more  truthful  in  speech  or  more  just 
and  SOL.V:!'  in  action  than  they  were  already.  They  may,  perhaps,  have 
even  doubted  whether  it  was  worthwhile  to  understand  these  nice  dis- 
tinctions which  led  to  the  cruel  persecution  of  men,  however  truthful 
or  good,  who  conscientiously  maintained  opinions  which  the  majority 
held  to  be  erroneous.  They  killed  their  enemies,  and  so  did  the  Eng- 
lish —  killed  them,  indeed,  in  much  greater  numbers  than  they  could 
do ;  but  they  never  betrayed  their  friends,  never  stole  from  them, 
never  cheated  them,  never  punished  them  except  for  actual  crime 
against  the  common  weal.  They  had  small  aptitude  for  polemics  ; 
they  could  not  even  conceive  that,  if  theological  controversy  was  the 
best  part  of  Christianity,  its  blessings  were  poured  upon  New  Eng- 
land in  overflowing  abundance.  But  they  never  could  get  beyond  the 
narrow  application  of  the  doctrine  of  the  sanctification  of  works,  that 
they  did  as  well  as  they  knew  how  ;  and  they  could  not  understand  the 
teaching  which  was  so  intent  upon  what  men  believed,  so  compara- 
tively careless  as  to  how  they  lived. 

Whether  the  fault  was  in  the  method  by  which  the  Puritans  sought 
to  bring  the  Indians  to  a  knowledge  of  the  true  faith,  or  whether 
these  people  are  by  nature  incapable  of  being  anything  but  savages, 
all  attempts  at  their  Christianization  and  civilization  were,  in  the 
main,  futile.  They  had  undoubtedly  fewer  vices  and  more  virtues 
when  the  country  was  first  occupied  by  Europeans  than  they  have 
ever  had  since  ;  but  after  fifty  years  of  labor  with  them  under  these 
most  favorable  circumstances,  of  all  the  thousands  of  the  New  Eng- 
land tribes,  less  than  fifteen  hundred,  with  their  wives  and  children, 
were  numbered  among  the  "  Praying  Indians."  J  Many  more  than 
that  number  had  meanwhile  been  destroyed  in  two  Indian  wars.  The 
work  of  killing  was  far  more  successful  than  that  of  converting,  and 
their  utter  extinction,  though  gradual,  was  certain. 

But  there  was  an  interval  of  forty  years  between  those  wars.  That 
with  the  Pequots  was  so  sharp  and  decisive  a  lesson  that  a 
effect  of*"  the  generation  passed  away,  and  there  were  none  left  to  bear  the 
pequo  ar.  pequofc  totem,  ere  tne  jealousy  of  the  English  overcame  the 
memory  of  their  prowess,  and  led  the  Indians  to  venture  upon  another 
attempt  at  extermination.  That  interval  of  repose  was  of  the  last 
importance  to  the  colonists.  Without  it,  the  history  of  the  permanent 
settlement  of  New  England  might  have  dated  some  scores  of  years 

1  Letters  of  Governor  Hinckley  (1685),  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  v.,  p.  132 
Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.,  p.  349. 


1637.]  EFFECT   OF   THE   PEQUOT  WAR.  21 

later.  Whether  Endicott's  expedition  to  Block  Island,  reckless  and 
inconsiderate,  as  most  of  the  acts  of  that  precipitate  and  hot-headed 
Puritan  usually  were,  was  justifiable  or  not,  when  considered  in  the 
light  of  its  possible,  and  even  probable,  immediate  consequences,  it 
had  only  a  happy  result.  It  provoked  a  war  at  a  time  when  the  In- 
dians, foolishly  divided  among  themselves,  were  easily  subdued  by  the 
destruction  of  the  most  powerful  and  dangerous  tribe  among  them, 
while  the  weaker,  who  had  blindly  helped  in  that  destruction,  could 
never  again  muster  the  courage  or  the  strength  to  attempt,  till  it  was 
too  late,  to  drive  the  invaders  back  to  the  sea  whence  they  came. 
That  the  result  should  be  recognized  as  a  signal  evidence  of  the  good- 
ness of  God  was  only  in  accordance  with  the  Puritan  faith  that  they 
were  peculiarly  under  the  divine  protection.  "  The  Lord  was  pleased," 
exclaims  Captain  Mason,  with  more  force  than  elegance,  at  the  close 
of  his  narrative  —  "  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  smite  our  Enemies  in 
the  hinder  Parts,  and  to  give  us  their  Land  for  an  Inheritance." 


Signature  of  John    Mason 


CHAPTER  II. 


SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND. 

THE  TOWNS  ON  THE  CONNECTICUT  RIVER.  —  PREPARATORY  GOVERNMENT.  —  TUB 
FIRST  CONSTITUTION  AND  THE  EARLIEST  GOVERNORS.  —  CIVIL  AND  SOCIAL  CON- 
DITION OF  THE  FIRST  SETTLERS.  —  NECESSITY  OF  STRINGENT  UULE.  —  CHARACTER 
OF  EARLY  LEGISLATION.  —  ANOTHER  EMIGRATION  FROM  BOSTON.  —  NEW  HAVEN 
AND  ITS  CHURCH  OF  SEVEN  PILLARS.  —  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  OTHER  TOWNS  AND 
CHURCHES.  —  DUTCH  AND  ENGLISH  BOUNDARIES.  —  DIFFERENCE  OF  PURPOSE  IN 
THE  Two  CLASSES  OF  SETTLERS.  —  ENGLISH  DIPLOMACY  AT  HOME.  —  ENGLISH  IN- 
TRUSIONS UPON  LONG  ISLAND.  —  CHARACTER  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  CONNECTICUT.  — 
SETTLEMENT  OF  RHODE  ISLAND.  —  ROGER  WILLIAMS'S  COLONY  AND  ITS  GOVERN- 
MENT. —  HEATED  CONTROVERSY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  SEVERITY  OF  THE  RULING 
PARTY.  —  TREATMENT  OF  THE  ANTINOMIANS.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  RHODE  ISLAND 
AT  ACQDIDNECK  (PORTSMOUTH).  —  CODDINGTON  CHOSEN  CHIEF  JUDGE.  —  DISCORDS 
IK  THE  NEW  COLONY.  —  THE  HUTCHINSONS  AT  ACQUIDNECK.  —  HOSTILITY  op 
MASSACHUSETTS  TO  ACQUIDNECK.  —  CODDINGTON'S  PROPOSED  ALLIANCE  OF  THE 
COLONIES.  —  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  CONFEDERACY.  —  AGAMENTICUS  AND  ACQUIDNECK 
EXCLUDED. 

THE  colonies  on  the  Connecticut  River,  though  that  region  was 
Connecticut  no^  within  the  bounds  of  the  Massachusetts  charter,  were 
dependent11"  ^or  *ne  ^rs^  year  under  the  government  of  commissioners 
colony.  selected  from  among  their  own  people,  but  appointed  by 
the  Massachusetts  General  Court.1  The  burden  of  the  war  had 
fallen  upon  them,  and  with  the  necessity  of  self-reliance  came  also,  no 
doubt,  the  sense  of  independence.  When  on  the  first  day  of  May, 
1637,  it  "  was  ordered  that  there  shall  be  an  offensive  war  against  the 
Pequot,"  it  was  done  by  a  General  Court,  convened  at  Hartford,  con- 
taining not  only  the  commissioners  appointed  by  Massachusetts,  whose 
term  of  office  had  just  expired,  but  nine  delegates  —  committees  they 
were  called  —  from  the  three  towns  of  Hartford,  Windsor,  and 
Wethersfield.2  The  war  brought  its  responsibilities  as  well  as  its 
advantages.  The  colony  was  oppressed  with  debt  ;  so  many  of  its 
effective  men  had  been  called  to  military  service  that  agriculture  had 
been  neglected  ;  there  was  want  of  food  and  want  of  sufficient  shelter 
for  many  families.  It  would  be  easy  to  go  to  ruin  if  there  were  any 
lack  of  vigorous  measures. 

1  These  were  Roger  Ludlow,  William  Pincheon,  John  Steele,  William  Swaine,  Henry 
Smith,  William  Phelps,  William  Westwood,  and  Andrew  Ward. 

8  The  Public  Ktcords  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut,  etc.,  etc.,  edited  by  J.  Hammond 
Trumbull. 


1639.]  THE   FIRST   CONNECTICUT   CONSTITUTION.  23 

The  General  Court  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  The  debt  was  pro- 
vided for  by  a  special  tax  of  six  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  ;  though 
corn  and  cattle  had  risen  largely  in  price,  they  were  gathered  from 
wherever  they  could  be  found,  and  the  people  were  fed  without  any 
serious  distress  till  the  season  of  another  harvest.  To  guard  against 
further  trouble  from  the  Indians  a  thorough  military  organization  of 
all  the  towns  was  established,  at  the  head  of  which  Captain  Mason  was 
placed  as  commander-in-chief.  The  young  colony  had  already  grown 
too  large  to  depend  longer  upon  its  older  sister  of  the  Bay  ;  the  war 
had  thrown  it  upon  its  own  resources  ;  within  eighteen  months  from 
the  end  of  it  the  new  government  took  a  more  positive  form  and 
adopted  a  constitution. 

"  Well  knowing,"  its  preamble  recited,  "  where  a  people  are  gathered 
togather  the  word  of  God  requires  that  to  mayntayne  the  A 

i          .  .  ,  1,1  iiii  11        tio 

peace  and  union  of  such  a  people  there  should  be  an  orderly  less. 
and  decent  Gouerment  established  according  to  God,  to  order  and 
dispose  of  the  affayres  of  the  people  at  all  seasons  as  occation  shall  re- 
quire ;  doe  therefore  assotiate  and  couioyne  our  selues  to  be  as  one 
Publike  State  or  Commomvelth."  It  recognized  no  allegiance  to  any 
other  power,  not  even  that  of  England  ;  it  instituted  a  popular  gov- 
ernment in  which  all  the  freemen  of  the  three  towns  were  equal  before 
the  law,  entering  "  into  Combination  &  Confederation  togather  to 
mayntayne  &  presearue  the  liberty  &  purity  of  the  gospell  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  which  we  now  professe,  as  also  the  disciplyne  of  the  Churches, 
which  according  to  the  truth  of  the  said  gospell  is  now  practised  among 
us ;  As  also  in  our  Ciuell  Affaires  to  be  guided  &  gouerned  according 
to  such  Lawes,  Rules,  Orders  &  decrees  as  shall  be  made,  ordered,  & 
decreed." 

The  colony  thus  founded  a  Christian  Commonwealth  and  a  purely 
democratic  republic  upon  the  first  written  constitution  of  any  State  in 
America,  if  not  indeed,  in  the  world.  And  this,  with  such  slight 
changes  in  its  practical  provisions  as  the  increase  of  population  de- 
manded, was  the  funda-  - 
mental  law  of  Connecticut  /^/  .  (^7  ^ 

for  nearly  two   centuries.     ^ "JC?\  *~f  l^fL/l/ If/lfa 

Its  first  governor,  chosen  /  ^^^^^  ________ -—      / 

in  April,  1639,  was  John  (^  / 

Haynes,  who  had  already  Signature  of  John  Haynes 

been  a  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts   Bay ;    its   second,    elected    the    next   year,    was    Edward 
Hopkins.1     The  constitution  provided  that  the  chief  magistrate  should 

1  Edward  Hopkins  came  to  Boston  with  the  New  Haven  company,  iii  the  spring  of  1637, 
and  was  the  son-in-law  of  Governor  Eaton,  of  that  colony.     He  returned  to  England  after 


24 


SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


Signature  of   Edward  Hopkins. 


be  chosen  for  a  single  year  only,  and  was  ineligible  for  the  year  next 

ensuing.  The  letter  of  the  law  was 
observed  while  its  spirit  was  not  lost. 
The  people  of  Connecticut  knew  when 
they  had  a  good  governor,  and  for  many 
years,  with  two  or  three  exceptions  at 
the  outset,  Haynes  and  Hopkins  were 
alternately  elected  to  that  office. 

The  rule  of  the  magistrate  in  the  young  Commonwealth  was  rigid. 
The  common  welfare  demanded  implicit  submission  to  a  compact  for 
mutual  protection.  The  virtuous  and  the  orderly  might  be,  as  they 
usually  are,  a  law  unto  themselves;  but  there  was  special  need  of 
watchfulness  and  restraint  of  the  idle,  the  vicious,  and  the  violent, 
who,  relieved  from  the  accustomed  rule  of  a  long  organized  society, 
would  riot  in  the  license  of  relaxed  law.  All  the  old  bonds  that  hold 
society  together,  and  kept  anarchy  at  arms-length,  were  loosened.  The 
habit  of  obedience  to  constituted  authority  needed  to  be  reestablished 
by  fresh  subjection  and  enforced  discipline.  In  this  respect  the  colo- 
nies were  all  alike.  Each  had  to  work  out  for  itself  with  such  wisdom 
and  such  vigor  as  it  could  command,  the  problem  of  self-government ; 
and  each  addressed  itself,  first  of  all,  to  the  question  of  self-preserva- 
tion. Large  considerations  of  the  science  of  government  concerned 
them  less  at  this  early  stage  of  their  existence  than  the  daily  conduct 
of  each  individual  citizen.  There  was  nothing  in  morals  or 

Character  of.  111  i-i-i-ii 

the  govern-  m  manners,  as  to  what  men  should  eat  and  drink,  and  where- 

ini-iit. 

withal  they  should  be  clothed ;  how  they  should  dispose  of 
their  time  and  their  industry ;  what  their  relations  should  be  to  each 
other,  to  the  state,  to  their  wives,  to  their  children  ;  —  in  all  the  affairs 
of  life,  whether  small  or  great,  there  was  nothing  of  which  the  law 
did  not  take  cognizance.  It  was  needful  to  the  preservation  and  good 
order  of  society  so  newly  organized  that  it  should  do  so  ;  and  if  some- 
times —  indeed  very  often  —  the  true  and  sole  function  of  perfected 
government,  protection  of  person  and  property,  was  overstepped,  and 
intellectual  freedom  encroached  upon  in  the  attempt  to  regulate  relig- 
ious belief  and  coerce  the  conscience,  such  exercise  of  power  is  to  be 
pai'doned  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times. 

There  were  not  probably  more  than  a  thousand  people  in  the  three 
Connecticut  towns  when  the  Pequot  war  was  finished  ;  the  first  English 
child  l  born  on  the  banks  of  that  river  was  at  that  time  only  eighteen 

a  residence  of  about  fourteen  years  in  Connecticut,  and  became  a  member  of  Cromwell's 
Parliament  of  1657,  and  a  commissioner  of  the  army  and  navy.  (See  note  in  Savages 
Winthrop,  vol.  i.,  p.  273.) 

1  David,  son  of  Captain  Lion   Gardiner,  born  at  Saybrook  Fort,  April,  1636.     Life  of 
Gardiner,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Third  Series,  vol.  x ,  p.  177. 


1639.] 


CHARACTER  OF  THE   GOVERNMENT. 


25 


^^ 


Signature  of  Lion  Gardiner. 


months  old.     It  was  not  difficult  for  the  watchful  eyes  of  the  magis- 
trates to  scan  carefully  the  life  and  conversation  of  each  man   and 
woman.    Nor  could  it  be  doubted  that  a  community  made  up,  in  some 
degree,    of     mere    adventurers, 
should  have  its  vicious  element, 
though  each  settlement  was  at 

first  a  church  led  in  a  body  by     J-KF"         ^/  u\Ji i?*'r"^3p  j 
its  pastor  from  three  Massachu-    •**^7xT*   *^*  ^^ 

setts  towns  —  Newton,    Water- 
town,  and  Dorchester.    Even  the 
godly  people  of  the  Dorchester 
church  were  led,  Governor  Brad- 
ford said,  by  a  "  hankering  mind  "  to  the  pleasant  Connecticut  meadows 
on  which  Holmes's  colony  from  Plymouth  had  already  settled  ;  and 
by  shear  weight  of  numbers  and  the  influence  of  the  stronger  gov- 
ernment behind  them,  they 
dispossessed  the  first  comers. 
When  such  were  the  saints 
what  might  not  be  looked 
for  from  the  sinners  ?     The 
devil  lurked  even  among  the 
churches    of    the    Puritans, 
and  if  he  could  not  be  got 
rid  of  altogether  at  least  he 
could  be  watched  with  un- 
ceasing vigilance. 

And    the    vigilance    was 
unceasing.     The  records  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court  that  chose   the 
first  chief  magistrate  of  the 
new    Commonwealth,    also 
show  that  by  the  decree  of 
that   fountain    of    law  one 
Edmunds  was  to  be  whip- 
ped at  a  cart's  tail  on  a  lecture  day  at  Hartford  ;  that  one  Williams 
was  to  stand  upon  the  pillory  from  the  ringing  of  the  first  bell  to  the 
end  of  the  lecture,  and  to  be  whipped  at  the  cart's  tail,  both  ^veTity  of 
in  Hartford  and  Windsor  ;  and  that  one  Starke  was  to  be  the  laws- 
punished  in  the  same  way,  to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  and  to  have  besides 
the  letter  R  branded    upon  his  cheek.     The  crime  of   each   and  all 
was  wrong  done  one  Mary  Holt,  —  such  wrong  that  Starke  was  also 


Supposed   First  Church  in   Hartford 


26 


SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


condemned  to  marry  her  ;  which,  however,  he  probably  never  did.  At 
the  next  General  Court,  four  months  afterwai'ds,  it  was  ordered  that 
Mary  Holt  herself  be  whipped  for  misconduct  with  a  fourth  paramour, 
and  be  banished  from  the  jurisdiction  ;  not  that  she  was  good  enough 
for  Boston,  but  that  Boston,  perhaps,  could  better  manage  her. 

But  offences  of  this  kind  —  of  the  frequency  and  often  most  revolt- 
ing character  of  which,  notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the  laws  of  the 
Puritans,  there  is  abundant  evidence  in  the  early  records  of  all  the 
colonies  —  were  by  no  means  the  only  ones  which  the  magistrates 
undertook  at  once  to  expose  and  to  punish.  Unseasonable  and  im- 
moderate drinking,  or  even  the  suspicion  of  it ;  any  violence  of  lan- 
guage or  of  conduct ;  reflections  upon  the  actions  of  the  General 
Court;  "the  sin  of  lying  which,''  says  the  record  (1640),  "begins  to 
be  practised  by  many  persons  in  this  Commonwealth ; "  extravagance 
in  the  fashion  of  apparel,  "  that  divers  persons  of  several  ranks  are 
observed  to  exceed  in  ; "  the  selling  of  goods  beyond  reasonable  prices ; 
"a  stubborn  or  rebellious  carriage  against  parents  or  governors  ;"  — 
these  and  other  offences  of  a  like  character,  which  in  older  societies 
are  usually  left  to  the  control  of  private  conscience,  or  judgment,  or 
influence,  were  subjects  of  legislation,  and  brought  upon  the  perpe- 
trators prompt  and  severe  penalties.1 

In  other  respects,  however,  the  welfare  of  the  community  was  as 
carefully  looked  after  as  it  was  in  these  guarded  against  real  or  fan- 
cied injuries.  The  rate  of  wages  and  the  length  of  a  working-day  — 
eleven  hours  in  summer-time  and  nine  in  winter  of  actual 
labor  —  were  soon  regulated  by  law,  that  no  advantage 
should  be  taken  of  the  necessities  of  new  settlers  or  of  the  scarcity  of 
laborers.  Any  possible  want  of  food  was  provided  for  by  making  it 
the  duty  of  magistrates  to  ascertain  the  probable  demand  and  to  meet 
it  with  a  sufficient  supply.  Idleness  was  made  inexcusable,  and  agri- 
culture encouraged  by  allotments  of  lands  and  their  compulsory  culti- 
vation ;  and  titles  were  made  unquestionable  by  a  register  which  the 
law  required  should  be  kept  in  every  town.  That  timber  should  not 
be  wasted,  none  could  be  cut  or  exported  except  by  special  license  from 
the  Court,  and  no  trees  were  permitted  to  be  felled  except  after  the 
fall  of  the  leaf.  In  1640  it  was  enacted  that  each  family  should  sow 
at  least  one  spoonful  of  English  hempseed  and  cultivate  it  "  in  hus- 
banly  manner"  for  a  supply  of  seed  the  next  year.  The  importation 
of  cotton,  which  they  could  not  raise,  was  provided  for  at  the  public 
expense  to  find  its  way  to  the  domestic  spinning-wheels  ;  but  the  cul- 
tivation of  tobacco,  which  it  was  soon  found  would  grow  so  well  in 
the  rich  bottom-lands  of  the  Connecticut,  was  encouraged  by  a  decree 

1  Colonial  Records  of  Connecticut. 


Beneficent 
legislation. 


1640.]  JOHN   DAVENPORT  AND   HIS   CHURCH.  27 

that  whoever  should  after  September,  1641,  "drinke  [smoke]  any  other 
tobacco  but  such  as  is,  or  shall  be,  planted  within  these  liberties," 
should  suffer  the  heavy  penalty  of  a  fine  of  five  shillings  for  every 
pound.  Such  laws  foreshadowed  some  of  the  important  industries  and 
future  wealth  of  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

The  supremacy  obtained  over  the  Indians  by  arms  was  confirmed 
by  law  over  those  who  survived  the  Pequot  war.  It  was  a  penal  act  to 
sell  them  arms,  or  even  to  mend  those  of  which  they  were  already 
in  possession.  Theft,  and  intimidation  for  the  sake  of  theft,  the  crimes 
to  which  the  savages  were  most  inclined,  were  severely  punished.  If 
they  could  not  be  made  good  citizens,  —  and  that  was  hardly  at- 
tempted, —  it  was  hoped,  at  least,  that  as  vagabonds  they  might  be 
rendered  harmless.  The  dealings  of  the  colonists  with  them  were  so 
far  just  that  they  paid  for  the  lands  they  wanted,  and  permitted 
the  Indians  to  retain  those  the  English  did  not  want,  provided  they 
were  peaceful  and  kept  within  their  own  bounds.  When  these  condi- 
tions were  not  observed  a  raid  upon  their  cornfields  and  wigwams  re- 
newed the  lesson  of  the  war.  Whoever  recognized  the  higher  duty 
of  attempting  to  lead  them  to  a  knowledge  of  Christianity  was  quite 
free  to  do  so  without  interference  from  the  State ;  but  their  most  effi- 
cient teachers  were  the  lives  the  Christians  led,  and  the  examples  they 
followed  were  naturally  those  which  were  most  evil. 

While  the  Pequot  war  was  in  progress  a  fresh  colony  from  England 
arrived  in  Boston  and  was  looking  for  a  place  of  settlement. 

_,,  ,,T1.  .  TT         ,.        i  .        Settlement 

Edward  Hopkins,  who  soon  after  went  to  Hartford,  was  in  of  xew 

,  .  T    i          TN  p  Ilaven 

this  company ;  John  Davenport,  a  clergyman  of  some  note 
from  London,  was  their  pastor,  and  the  leading  man  among  them 
was  Theophilus  Eaton,  a  merchant  of  reputation  and  of  affluence. 
It  was  a  company  of  wealth  and  respectability,  and  the  magistrates 
of  Massachusetts  would  have  gladly  retained  them  within  their  juris- 
diction. 

But  there  were  two  reasons,  imperative  with  the  new-comers,  for 
seeking  a  place  for  their  future  home  without  the  bounds  of  Massa- 
chusetts :  there  was  too  much  theological  controversy  and  not  suffi- 
cient harbor  accommodation  about  the  Bay.  The  banishment  of 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  not  the  extirpation  of  heresy,  and  Mr.  Daven- 
port, it  is  said,  was  fearful  lest  his  flock  should  be  led  astray  by  the 
fatal  doctrines  of  the  Antinomians.  Whatever  other  dangers  might 
lurk  in  the  wilderness,  the  Indians  would  not,  at  least,  unsettle  men's 
minds  as  to  sanctification  and  justification.  The  other  point  was 
equally  clear :  the  farming  lands  near  all  the  good  harbors  about  the 
Bay  were  already  occupied.  Agriculture  must,  of  course,  be  their  im- 
mediate reliance ;  but  they  hoped  to  found  a  commercial  colony,  and 


SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


John   Davenport- 


therefore  sought  for  a  commodious   port  where  trade  would  grow, 
while  lands  not  too  far  off  to  be  conveniently  cultivated  should  yield 

them  a  subsistence.  Anoth- 
er reason  given  was  that 
they  wished  to  put  them- 
selves beyond  the  reach  of 
a  general  governor,  should 
one  be  appointed  for  all  New 
England ;  but  as  this  had 
ceased  to  be  probable,  the 
alleged  fear  of  it  could  only 
have  been  a  thin  disguise 
for  a  more  substantial  pur- 
pose —  a  wish  to  escape  the 
jurisdiction  of  Massachu- 
setts and  have  an  independ- 
ent govern  ment  of  their  own . 
In  the  spring  of  1638,  the 
whole  company  sailed  from 
Boston  for  Quinnipiack,1  now  New  Haven,  purchased  the  preceding 
autumn  from  Momauguin,  the  Indian  sachem,  for  twelve  coats  of 
English  cloth,  twelve  alchemy  spoons,  twelve  hatchets,  twelve  hoes, 
two  dozen  knives,  twelve  porringers  and  four  cases  of  French  knives 
and  scissors.2  Several  of  their  number  had  held  possession  through 
the  winter,  but  the  first  solemn  and  formal  act  of  occupation  was  on 
the  18th  of  April,  the  Sunday  after  their  arrival.  Then  this  new 
band  of  Pilgrim  Fathers  assembled  beneath  the  spreading  branches 
of  a  giant  oak,  and  the  pastor,  Davenport,  preached  to  them  from  the 
text,  —  Matthew  iv.  1 :  "  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the 
gunday  at  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil." 
"•  He  had  a  good  day,"  he  said  afterwards ;  and  doubtless 
his  hearers,  who  all  looked  up  to 
him  with  great  reverence,  were  as 
much  edified  with  his  expounding 
of  the  temptations  that  were  to 
beset  them  in  the  wilderness,  as  he  was  satisfied  with  his  own  per- 
formance. 

Their  undertaking  was  sanctified  not  long  after  by  a  day  of  fasting 
and  prayer,  when  they  entered  into  a  covenant  that  in  all  things, 
whether  in  Church  or  in  State,  they  would  be  guided  by  the  rules 

1  "  Quinnepaca  or  Quinnepange  rather,"  Niles's  History  of  Indian  and  French   Wars, 
ifass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Third  series,  vol.  vi. 

2  2s'ew  Haven  liccords  in  Trumbuil's  History  of  Connecticut. 


Momauguin's  Signature. 


5 


w 
2; 


O) 

H 
cn 


W 

as 
E- 


1639.] 


SETTLEMENT   OF   NEW   HAVEN. 


Site  of  N°wman's  Barn. 


"  which  the  Scripture  held  forth  to  them."  The  temptations  of  the 
wilderness  could  not  have  been  many  or  great  to  a  community  which 
could  live  for  more  than  a  year  without  other  government  than  this 
simple  compact. 

But  in  June  of  the  next  year  preliminary  measures  were  taken  for 
a  permanent  political  organization.  These  were  of  a  remarkable 
character,  whether  looked  upon  as  an  instance  of  the  intense  earnest- 
ness of  the  religious  convictions  of  the  Puritans,  or  of  the  submissive 
deference  they  were 
accustomed  to  yield 
to  their  spiritual 
guides.  The  whole 
community  gath- 
ered together  in  a 
barn,1  —  for  want 
of  any  other  build- 
ing large  enough  to 
hold  them  —  and 
the  first  business  of 
the  assembly  was 
to  listen  to  a  ser- 
mon of  instruction 
and  exhortation  from  Mr.  Davenport.  His  text  was  from  Proverbs 
ix.  1 :  "  Wisdom  hath  builded  her  house,  she  hath  hewn  out  her  seven 
pillars."  Herein  he  found  warrant  and  direction  for  the  gathering  of 
a  Church  and  the  formation  of  a  State. 

The  Church  was  to  rest  upon  seven  pillars  and  the  foundation  of 
the  State  was  the  Church.  The  right  and  the  duty  to  gather 
the  one  and  create  the  other  were  inherent,  not  derivative.  Of  LveiTpu- 
There  was  no  recognition  of  either  hierarch  or  king.  The 
assembled  people  were  to  choose  from  among  themselves  twelve  men 
the  most  esteemed  for  their  virtue  and  their  wisdom,  and  these  twelve 
were  to  elect  seven  others  who  were  to  be  the  seven  pillars.  On  the 
pillars  the  Church  was  to  be  built ;  the  seven  men,  that  is,  were  to 
call  about  them  such  persons  as  they  deemed  fit  to  be  members  of  the 
Church,  and  these  members  were  to  form  the  state.  For  in  the  Scrip- 
tures was  to  be  found  a  perfect  rule  for  the  guidance  and  government 
of  men  in  all  human  affairs,  in  the  family,  in  the  commonwealth,  in 
the  church.  Church-membership  was  citizenship  ;  he  who  was  not  fit 
for  that,  was  unfit  for  this,  for  the  state  must  be  "  according  to  God." 

1  The  tradition  is  that  the  barn  belonged  to  Robert  Newman,  aiid  it  is  supposed  to  have 
stood  at  the  corner  of  Grove  and  Temple  Streets,  on  land  afterwards  occupied  by  the  h<m>e 
of  Noah  Webster,  the  lexicographer,  New  Havei).  —  Bacon's  Historical  Discourses. 


30  SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  II. 

Such  was  the  drift  of  Mr.  Davenport's  sermon,  and  it  was  accept- 
able to  his  hearers  saving  one  only,  and  he  it  is  supposed  was  a  brother 
clergyman.  The  assembly  elected  twelve  men  to  whom  should  be  en- 
trusted the  important  duty  of  raising  the  seven  pillars  on  which  was  to 
rest  a  temple  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  God,  but  to  be  also  a  house 
for  the  protection  of  man.  What  else  could  the  twelve  do  but  act  in 
conformity  with  the  judgment  of  the  whole  community?  Among 
these  twelve  most  worthy  the  most  worthy  seven  must  surely  be  found. 
From  their  own  number,  therefore,  they  selected  the  seven  pillars.1 
Around  these  the  church  was  gathered,  the  question  of  fitness  for  mem- 
bership resting,  in  the  first  instance,  with  them. 

Two  months  later  the  people  were  again  assembled  ;  again  they 
were  exhorted  and  counselled  by  Davenport,  with  the  Bible  between 
his  hands.  He  was  now,  however,  more  than  leader  by  weight  of 
character  and  respect  for  his  learning  ;  the  church  had  chosen  him  as 
the  pastor,  content  to  accept  him  as  consecrated  to  the  duties  of  his 
sacred  office  by  the  simple  laying  on  of  hands  of  two  of  their  own 
Formation  number,  indifferent  to  apostolic  succession  and  the  authority 
of  the  state.  o£  bisnOpS>  He  spoke,  therefore,  now  with  greater  authority 
than  ever ;  and  under  his  guidance  the  popular  church  proceeded  to 
the  organization  of  a  popular  government. 

Theophilus  Eaton  was  chosen  its  first  governor.  In  its  general  pro- 
visions —  as  to  the  hold- 
(~)  ing  of  General  Courts, 

-      C^GUtr~\rY\.        ^ie  num^er   and   choice 
"*  of    magistrates,    the   ex- 
ercise of  legislative  and 
judicial  power,  the  rights 
of  the  citizen,  and  his  re- 

Signature  of  Theophilus   Eaton.  .,  ...  ,         , 

sponsibihty  to  the  Jaw  — 

it  was  essentially  the  same  as  that  of  Connecticut  in  all  outward  form, 
as  in  its  purely  democratic  spirit.  But  after  all  it  was  democracy 
with  a  proviso  ;  the  right  of  self  government  in  holding  or  in  choosing 
to  office  was  restricted  to  those  who  were  members  of  that  church. 
Others,  who  also  assumed  to  call  themselves  Christians,  were  as  com- 
pletely shut  out  from  any  share  in  the  government  as  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  later  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  excluded  "  In- 
dians not  taxed  "  and  "  persons  held  to  service  or  labor." 

On  this  model  established  at  New  Haven  other  churches  were  soon 
gathered  in  other  places,  and  each  church  was  a  town.  Some  were 
within  the  boundaries  of  Connecticut,  and  sent  their  representatives 

1  These  were  Thoophilus  Katon,  John  Davenport,  Robert  Newman,  Matthew  Gilbert, 
Thomas  Fugill,  Johu  Puntleri-on,  ami  Jeremiah  Dixon. 


1639.] 


ESTABLISHMENT    OF   TOWNS   AND   CHURCHES. 


31 


to  the  General  Court  at  Hartford ;  others  were  for  some  years  entirely 
independent,  recognizing  no  civil  rule  outside  of  their  own  organiza- 
tion. Among  these  last  was  Saybrook,  to  which  a  colony  under 
George  Fenwick  was  sent  by  lords  Say  and  Brook,  and  which  was 
already  known  by  their  combined  names.  Places  like  Guilford,  Mil- 
ford,  Stratford,  per- 
petuating in  their 
names  the  tender 
memories  of  old 
English  homes,  were 
planted  on  commo- 
dious havens,  or  at 
the  mouths  of  navi- 
gable streams,  along 
the  inner  coast  of 
Long  Island  Sound. 
Thither  fresh  emi- 
grants flocked  from 
Connecticut,  from 
Massachusetts  Bay, 
sometimes  directly 
from  England.  The 
country,  as  it  was 
gradually  occupied,  was  fairly  purchased  from  the  natives  —  pur- 
chased at  insignificant  prices,  indeed,  but  large  enough  to  pro^^of 
create  a  title  in  fee-simple,  while  they  were  satisfactory  to  the  EnKllsh- 
the  original  owners,  who  set  small  value  upon  limited  tracts  of  that 
wide  wilderness  which  they  claimed  as  their  own.  It  was  the  avowed 
policy  of  the  State  to  deal  justly  with  the  savages,  that  offences  might 
be  avoided ;  and,  on  the  whole,  the  rule  was  no  doubt  carefully  ob- 
served, from  choice  as  well  as  from  necessity.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
the  savages  were  sometimes  insensible  to  kindness,  and  incapable  of 
understanding  principles  of  justice  incompatible  with  their  wild  no- 
tions of  individual  right,  the  lesson  of  the  late  war  was  not  lost  upon 
them.  If  not  always  peaceable,  and  if  often  annoying,  they  were 
rarely  at  this  period  dangerous  neighbors.  So  these  English  villages 
were  left  to  take  root  and  grow  in  strength  and  thrift  when  the  storm 
of  savage  warfare  swept  over  and  almost  desolated  the  settlements  of 
their  jealous  rivals,  the  Dutch,  throughout  the  boundaries  of  New 
Netherland. 

Nor  could  the  claim  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  to  the 
Fresh  River — the  Connecticut — by  right  of  prior  discovery  and  occu- 
pation, though  so  pertinaciously  urged,  seriously  hinder  the  steady 


Old   House  in  Guilford,   1639. 


32 


SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


Encroach- 


progress  of  the  English  along  the  shores  of  the  Sound  toward  the 
valley  of  the  Hudson.     From  the  time  of  the  first  settlement 

__"'  .  . 

at  Hartford  the  advanced  guard  or  the  more  energetic  race 
had  pushed  on,  in  spite  of  the  protests  and  threats,  the 
rage  —  furious  but  harmless  —  of  the  Dutch.     The  quiet  energy  and 
determination  of  the  English  were  stronger  than  the  loudest  and  most 
indignant  complaints  ;  for  success  lay  naturally  with  the  party  that 
acted  rather  than  with  the  one  that,  for  the  most  part,  only  talked. 
The  two  peoples  were  moved,  moreover,  by  totally  different  motives. 
The   Fresh  River,  and  all  the  region  it  watered,  the  Dutch 

The  Dutch        ..•;-',  . 

in  New         looked  upon  only  as  a  back  country,  rich  in  beaver  skins,  to 

England.  ,  J  J  . 

be  made  tributary  to  the  great  trading  station  at  New  Am- 
sterdam. It  best  served  their  purposes  while  it  remained  a  hunting- 
ground  for  the  Indians,  with  here  and  there  a  half-military,  half-trad- 


Mouth  of  the  Connecticut. 


ing  post,  to  regulate  the  traffic  in  the  peltries  which  the  Indians 
gathered.  When  the  Dutch  wanted  to  colonize,  if  they  went  out 
of  the  valley  of  the  Hudson,  or  beyond  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
their  chief  colony,  it  was  to  dispute  with  the  Swedes  the  possession  of 
the  beautiful  shores  that  extended  on  the  South  River  from  the  Capes 
of  the  Delaware  a  hundred  miles  into  the  interior  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Schuylkill.  They  had  no  such  designs  of  settlement  along  the  coast 
of  New  England,  however  much  they  coveted  the  possession  of  the 
country  for  the  sake  of  its  trade. 

But  the  English  were  moved  by  quite  another  spirit  ;  they  wanted 
homes.  They  laid  the  axe  at  the  root  of  the  forests  which  sheltered 
and  hid  the  Indian  and  his  game.  They  cleared  the  ground  for  their 
seed  corn  ;  built  their  log-houses  and  barns  ;  gathered  together  in 
churches,  and  founded  commonwealths.  The  rude  forts  and  mere 
trading-posts  of  the  Dutch  were  powerless  against  circumvallations 
made  with  English  ploughs ;  and  the  New  Netherland  garrisons  re- 


1642.]  DUTCH   AND  ENGLISH   BOUNDARIES. 

luctantly,  but  inevitably,  retired  before  a  host  armed  with  spades  and 
hoes,  musical  with  the  hum  of  women's  spinning  wheels  and  the 
voices  of  happy  children,  led  by  Puritan  generals  in  gown  and  bands, 
whose  orderly-book  was  the  Bible,  and  whose  word  of  command  was 
a  prayer  and  an  exhortation  —  a  host  seeking  to  make  the  wilderness 
blossom  into  homes,  which  laughed  at  threats  of  armed  resistance,  and 
scouted  claims  of  discovery  not  backed  up  by  more  permanent  signs 
of  possession  than  a  flag-staff  and  a  sentinel. 

There  could  be  little  doubt  as  to  the  result  of  such  a  conflict  between 
assumed  title  and  actual  possession  ;  nor  was  it  possible  to 
change  that  result  by  appeals  to  the  governments  in  Eng- 
land  and  at  the  Hague  to  adjust  the  boundaries  between  the  boundaries. 
rival  claimants.     The  representations  of  the  case  were  lis- 
tened to  with  impatience  or  indifference ;  on  the  one  side  was  want  of 
will,  on  the  other  want  of  power,  for  any  efficient  interference.     Sir 
William  Bos  well,  the  English  ambassador  at  the  Hague,  discloses  in 
his  official  correspondence  the  policy  of  his  government. 

It  would  be  well  enough,  he  thought,  that  an  act  or  declaration  of 
some  kind  should  be  passed  either  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  or 
by  the  Lower  House,  or,  failing  that,  by  a  Committee  of  that  House, 
to  show  that  "  these  businesses  "  relating  to  the  American  Colonies 
were  not  altogether  ignored  or  forgotten.  Such  act,  or  declaration,  or 
memorial,  with  its  official  sanction  of  some  sort,  it  mattered  very  little 
what,  could  then  be  sent  to  him  with  a  letter  from  the  Lords  of 
Council  with  some  vague  instructions.  Provided  with  such  a  docu- 
ment, he  would  present  it  when  and  how  it  should  seem  to  him  most 
expedient  —  when,  he  no  doubt  means,  it  was  no  longer  possible  to 
escape  a  pretence  of  doing  something  —  either  to  the  States  General, 
or  to  the  West  India  Company,  or  to  some  other  body  political  or  com- 
mercial, as  should  seem  to  him  best,  and  should  best  serve  his  purpose 
of  doing  nothing.  And  when  these  methods  of  diplomatic  procras- 
tination were  thoroughly  exhausted,  there  was  still  another  crowning 
act  of  dilatoriness  in  reserve  to  be  resorted  to  —  his  excellency  could, 
when  further  delay  was  no  longer  possible,  make  a  report,  which 
would  refer  the  question  back  again  to  his  government  for  further 
consideration,  to  be  ground  over  again  in  the  slow  mill  of  parliament- 
ary debate  and  subsequent  reference  to  a  parliamentary  committee. 

A  little  intimidation  also,  Sir  William  thought,  could  be  brought 
to  the  aid  of  this  skilful  diplomacy.  The  Dutch  ambassador  in  Lon- 
don, who  was  supposed,  meanwhile,  not  to  be  idle,  but  to  be  pressing 
the  question  of  colonial  boundaries  and  encroachments,  should,  he  ad- 
vised, be  quietly  approached  by  some  persons  of  authority  and  per- 
suaded of  the  certain  injury  and  inconvenience  that  would  befall  the 

VOL.    II.  3 


34 


SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


Dutch  West  India  Company  if  these  dissensions  and  difficulties  be- 
tween the  distant  and  quarrelsome  colonists  should  involve  their  re- 
spective governments  at  home. 

There  was  little  likelihood  of  any  adjudication  of  boundaries, 
whether  just  or  unjust,  while  the  English  government  carefully 
guarded  against  any  approach  to  its  serious  consideration.  It  was 
meant  that  it  should  be  otherwise  settled.  The  conclusion  of  Bos- 
well's  counsel  is  :  "  That  in  the  mean  tyme,  tlf  English  there  doe  not 
forbeare  to  put  forward  their  plantacons,  and  crowd  on,  crowding  the 
Dutch  out  of  those  places  where  they  have  [occupied]  but  without 
hostility  or  any  act  of  violence."  l 

Not  only  was  the  "  crowding  "  pushed  along  the  shores  of  the 
English  mainland,  but  it  crossed  the  Sound.  In  1639,  Lion  Gar- 
on'au'dm-'ir  diner  purchased  of  the  Indians  the  island  Manchonack  — 
Long  isianj.  since  known  as  Gardiner's  Island — near  Montauk  Point. 
Shelter  Island,  still  further  up  the  bay,  was  taken  possession  of  by 

James  Farrett,  who 
was  sent  out  by 
William,  Earl  of 
Stirling,  as  his 
jigent,  he  claiming 
the  whole  of  Long 
Island  under  a  deed 
from  the  Plymouth 

m 

Company,  made  be- 
fore its  dissolution 
by  order  of  the 
king.  Farrett  vis- 
ited Manhattan,  and  was  held  for  a  short  time  under  arrest  by  the 
Dutch  governor,  Kieft,  for  asserting  Lord  Stirling's  title. 

The  enterprising  New  Englanders,  however,  were  not  to  be  deterred 
by  such  measures.  In  1640  a  company  from  Lynn,  Massachusetts, 
appeared,  under  the  leadership  of  Captain  Daniel  How,  at  Cow  Neck, 
within  the  present  town  of  North  Hempstead,  Long  Island,  and  at- 
tempted a  settlement.  They  tore  down  the  arms  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  which  they  found  upon  a  tree,  and  carved  in  place  of  the 
shield  an  absurd  face,  as  their  countrymen  had  done  some  years  before 
at  Kievit's  Hook,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut.  The  insult  and 
intrusion  were  resented  by  Kieft  with  spirit,  and  How  and  his  com- 
panions were  compelled  to  retreat.  But  it  was  only  toward  the  other 
end  of  the  island,  where  they  settled  South  Hampton  and  East  Hamp- 
ton, at  the  eastern  extremity. 

l  Colonial  liecords  of  Connecticut,  Truinbull,  Appendix  I. 


Gardiner's    Island. 


1650.] 


DUTCH   AND   ENGLISH  BOUNDARIES. 


35 


The  same  year  some  New  Haven  people  took  possession  at  Southold 
on  the  Sound.     The  young  colonies  had  not  long  to  wait,  when  once 
a  firm  foothold  was  gained,  for  accessions  both  from  Old  and  New  Eng- 
land.   Nor  were  the  Dutch  unreasonable,  for  they  seemed  quite  willing 
to  share  the  island  with  the  English,  leaving  them  to  take  possession 
of  the  eastern  half  unmolested.     Ten  years  later  indeed,  in 
1650,  they  made  a  treaty  to  this  effect  with  the  New  Eng- 
land  colonies,  by  which  a  dividing  line  should  be  drawn  from 
the  west  side  of  Oyster  Bay  to  the  sea ;  but  in  the  mean  while,  they 
had   only  insisted 
that   the    English 
plantations  which 
in    the    course   of 
that    decade    had 
grown  up  west  of 
this  line,  should  be 


held  to  be  within 
the  jurisdiction  of 
the  West  India 
Company,  and 
should  acknowl- 
edge their  alle-  Montauk  Point 
giance  to  the 

States  General.  Hempstead,  Flushing,  Jamaica,  and  Newtown,  were, 
therefore,  Dutch  towns,  though  settled  by  the  English.  But  South 
Hampton,  East  Hampton,  Southold,  Brookhaven,  Huntington,  and 
Oyster  Bay,  were  united  at  different  periods,  to  Connecticut,  till  after 
the  surrender  of  New  Netherlands  to  the  English  in  16t>4,  when  the 
whole  island  came  under  the  government  of  the  Duke  of  York.1 

This  migration  of  the  English  from  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  coun- 
try of  the  Connecticut,  thence  westward  along  both  shores  of  the 
Sound,  crowding  in  one  direction  almost  as  far  as  Hell  Gate,  pushing, 
in  another,  almost  to  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  was  not  impelled  by 
any  imperative  necessity  of  outward  circumstance,  but  rather  by  an 
uncontrollable  restlessness,  a  fever  of  change  that  gave  them  no  quiet. 
Full  of  energy,  activity,  curiosity,  and  a  love  of  independence,  politi- 
cal and  religious,  they  demanded  above  all  things  space  enough  for  the 
gratification  of  ambitions  that  sought  to  found  thriving  colonies  and 
open  new  avenues  to  wealth. 

They  were  all  Puritans,  and  as  such  were  anxious  to  escape  from  a 
real  or  apprehended  thraldom  in  church  or  state.  But  there  were, 
perhaps,  in  these  offshoots  of  the  parent  stock  something  more  of  a 

1  A  Sketch  of  the  First  Settlement  of  the  Towns  of  Long  Island,  etc.     By  Silas  Wood. 


36 


SOUTHERN    NEW    ENGLAND. 


.  II. 


Character  of 
the  Connect- 
icut Puri- 
tans. 


worldly  disposition,  and  something  less  of  that  spirit  of  fanaticism 
which  led  the  Boston  brethren  to  welcome  above  all  things  a  plunge 
into  the  uproar  of  a  theological  controversy,  and  to  subordinate  all 
else  to  the  establishment  of  a  uniformity  of  faith.  That  Puritan  pru- 
dence, which  was  careful  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  the  heavy  hands  of 
the  Bishops  before  the  non-conformist  ventured  to  expand  into  the 
more  perfect  freedom  of  separatism,  seems  to  have  been  carried  into 
all  the  other  relations  of  life  by  these  people  who  chose  to  find. their 
abiding  places  without  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

They  would  not,  indeed,  have  been  Puritans  had  not  the  interests 
°f  religion  been  with  them  paramount  to  all  earthly  consid- 
erations;  but  they  were  not  therefore  disposed  to  look  upon 
all  merely  material  interests  with  comparative  indifference. 
It  was  not,  perhaps,  so  much  any  essential  radical  difference  of  char- 
acter between  them  and  other  New  England  emigrants  of  their  time 
and  class ;  but  there  was  at  least  that  fortunate  difference  of  circum- 
stance and  opportunity  which  came  with  their  escape  from  the 
fierce  polemics  of  Boston,  and  reluctance  to  live  under  magistrates 
who,  however  excellent  their  rule  in  many  respects,  never  willingly 
assented  to  the  admission  of  others  to  any  share  of  it,  while  insisting 
upon  implicit  obedience  in  all  things  which  they  decreed,  whether  re- 
lating to  this  world  or  the  next.  The  people  who  escaped  from  this 
domination  into  Connecticut,  if  it  were  only  that  the  ambitions  of 
leaders  might  have  fuller  play,  and  the  consent  of  followers  a  larger 
choice,  gained,  beside,  more  freedom  than  they  sought.  They  were 
led  to  take  a  wider  view  of  the  possibilities  of  the  new  country  they 
had  found  than  as  merely  an  arena  for  theological  discussion  where  the 
metes  and  bounds  of  religious  liberty,  however  much  enlarged  into 
the  wider  field  of  Puritanism,  were  just  as  arbitrary  and  as  fixed  as 
ever.  They  saw  that  they  might  be  prosperous  without  ceasing  to  be 
pious,  and  that  worldly  thrift  was  not  necessarily  incompatible  with  a 
due  regard  for  the  things  of  the  everlasting  life.  They  were  too  busy 
in  clearing  forests,  in  planting  crops,  in  building  towns  at  the  mouths 
of  all  the  rivers  that  seemed  most  promising  for  future  commerce,  to 
permit  themselves  to  be  absorbed  in  attempts  to  find  out  the  whole 
counsel  of  God  in  dim  and  subtile  distinctions  of  theological  contro- 
versy. 

Not  that  they  were  unmindful  of  those  things  which  made  so  large 
an  element  in  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  the  time  ;  but  that 
other  interests  were  with  them  of  equal  if  not  sometimes  of  greater 
consideration.  A  steady  compliance  with  the  suggestions  of  worldly 
wisdom,  a  prudent  attention  to  the  conditions  of  worldly  thrift,  not 
less  than  an  implicit  obedience  to  the  highest  sense  of  religious  duty, 


1637.] 


CONNECTICUT   AND  RHODE   ISLAND. 


37 


have  ever  characterized  this  branch  of  the  family  of  New  England 
Puritans.  Wherever  they  have  gone  they  have  carried  with  them 
this  profitable  mixture  of  puritanic  rectitude  and  wise  worldliness. 
However  stern  and  rigid  their  piety,  hand  in  hand  with  it  have  gone  in- 
dustry and  prosperity  ;  the  government  of  the  people  by  the  will  of  the 
majority ;  the  free  school ;  the  free  church  according  to  their  standard 
of  religious  freedom,  and  the  common  law  of  England.  Of  that  hardy 
race  of  pioneers  —  whose  indomitable  courage,  whose  irrepressible 
energy,  whose  restless  love  of  change,  neither  chains  of  mountains, 
nor  gigantic  rivers,  nor  lakes  that  are  inland  seas,  nor  arid  deserts 
could  hinder  in  their  march  to  the  shores  of  another  ocean  —  there  has 
been  no  more  fruitful  root  than  that  which  was  first  planted  in  the  rich 
soil  of  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut. 


Hooker's    House   at   Hartford, 


^  There  had  been  struggling  into  existence,  meanwhile,  another  New 
England  colony,  the  stern  and  hard  realities  of  whose  early  expe- 
riences were  touched  with  no  play  of  that  idyllic  light  and  shadow  that 
give  grace  and  romance  to  the  first  migrations  from  Massachusetts 
Hay  to  the  region  of  the  Connecticut.  Its  feeble  beginning  was  no 
pleasant  patriarchal  journey  like  that  of  Hooker  and  Stone  and 
their  followers  from  Newtown  to  Hartford.  With  these  went  flocks 
and  herds,  and  wagons  laden  with  household  stuff;  and  they  travelled 
leisurely  through  the  hundred  miles  of  forest  in  the  early  days;  of  June 
when  the  woods,  rich  in  the  tender  colors  of  the  young  foliage,  let 


SOUTHERN    NEW   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


the  warm  sunshine  through  upon  the  green,  fresh-grown  moss  and  the 
dead  leaves  of  past  summers,  flecked  all  over  with  flowers  in  blue 
and  white  and  gold  —  the  warm  sunshine  that  stirred,  at  the  same 
time,  into  unwonted  movement  the  hearts  of  the  young  Puritans, 
youths  and  maidens  and  hilarious  children,  in  whom  not  even  the 
watchful  care  and  sombre  presence  of  elder  and  deacons  could  sup- 
press the  quick  and  joyful  sense  of  sympathy  with  the  freedom,  and 
beauty,  and  delight,  that  filled  all  nature. 

So  Davenport  and  his  company  sailed  out  of  Boston  harbor  in  the 
bright  days  of  April,  —  sailed  on  even  keel  and  with  gentle  breezes 
past  the  long  beaches  of  the  Bay ;  past  the  white  strands  and  sand- 
hills of  Cape  Cod ;  past  the  islands  of  the  southern  coast  of  New 


\ 


Coast  of  Massachusetts.  —  Nantasket  Beach. 


England  where  the  warm  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream  with  a  westward 
sweep  tempers  the  waters  and  the  air  ;  and  so  at  length  they  came 
into  Long  Island  Sound.  The  pastor  meanwhile,  no  doubt  gathering 
the  elder  men  about  him  on  sunny  days  in  the  shadow  of  the  sails, 
held  wise  and  sweet  converse  upon  that  stately  temple  of  seven  pillars 
which  should  presently  rear  its  fair  proportions  in  the  primeval  soli- 
tude where  great  oaks  and  elms  cast  their  shadows  over  the  rich 
meadows  that  stretched  down  to  the  sea. 

All  these  went  forth  with  the  God-speeds  and  good  wishes  of  the 
brethren  of  Massachusetts ;  but  not  so  with  the  founders  of  Rhode 


1638.]  THE    COLONY   AT   PROVIDENCE.  39 

Island.     Roger  Williams  fled  out   into  the  night  and  the  winter's 
storm,  with  the  order  of  the  General  Court  behind  him,  the  officers  of 
the  law  in  hot  pursuit,  and  a  ship  waiting  in   the  offing  to  bear  him 
into  perpetual  banishment  across  the  sea.     The  shelter  which  Puritan 
intolerance  denied   him  he  sought  and  found  among  savage  friends. 
As  he,  the  next  spring,  with  only  five  companions,  paddled   Ijandill_  of 
his  canoe  along  the  shore  of  Providence  Bay,  their  thoughts   J}^raY'l~ 
were  less  of  hierarchies  and  of  commonwealths,  than  where  Provideuce 
the  sunniest  slope  could  be  found  for  a  field  of  maize,  the  most  shel- 
tered and  convenient  nook  for  huts. 

Mooshausick,  as  the  place  was  called  where  Williams  hoped  to  find 
rest  at  last  —  and  which  he  named  Providence,  because,  he  said,  "  of 
God's  merciful  providence  unto  me  in  my  distress  "  —  he  desired,  also, 
"  might  be  for  a  shelter  for  those  distressed  in  conscience."  It  was 
not  long  ere  such  asylums  were  needed.  Whether  the  exercise  then 
and  there  of  the  right  of  free  thought  and  free  speech  was  wise  or 
foolish,  whether  it  was  harmless  or  baneful  either  to  church  or  state, 
the  attempt  to  suppress  that  right  was  altogether  futile.1 

Roger  Williams  had  not  long  to  wait  for  companionship.  Within 
two  years  from  the  time  of  his  landing  upon  Slate  Rock  such  acces- 
sions were  made  to  his  colony  that  "the  lands  on  the 
two  fresh  rivers,  Wowasquatuckett  and  Mooshau- 
sick," granted  to  him  by  Canonicus  and  Mianto- 
nomo,  he  conveyed  to  twelve  associates  for  thirty  signature  of 
pounds.  These  incorporated  themselves  and  all  that  nonno- 

should  be  subsequently  admitted,  into  a  township,  promising  to  render 
"  an  active  or  passive  obedience   to  all  such  orders 
or  agreements  as  shall  be  made  for  public  good,"  by 
the  consent  of  the  majority.    But  the  submission  was 
to  be  "  only  in  civil  things."  2  Signature  of 

1  The  popular  defence  of  the  intolerance  of  the  early  Boston  Puritans — for  strange  to 
s-ay,  they  have  their  defenders  —  is  that  the  critical  circumstances  of  their  condition  as  an 
infant  colony  with  its  peculiar  relations  to  the  parent  state  made  it  imperative  that  a  uni- 
formity of  belief  should  he  enforced  for  the  sake  of  preserving  the  Puritan  ascendancy  both 
in  religions  and  civil  affairs.  And  it  is  triumphantly  asserted  as  the  result  that  the  character 
of  the  Massachusetts  of  later  times,  and  its  influence  upon  the  history  of  the  whole  country, 
are  due  to  the  stern  arid  wise  policy  of  the  early  fathers  in  their  suppression  of  a  liberty 
that  was  running  or  had  run  into  license.  Whereas,  the  truth  is  that  those  bigoted  elders 
and  magistrates,  though  they  sometimes  silenced  the  men,  never  suppressed  the  opinions 
whether  true  or  false.  They  only  tried,  and  the  more  they  tried  the  less  they  succeeded. 
Ihe  character  of  Massachusetts  and  the  potent  influence  she  has  exercised  upon  the  history 
of  the  United  States  are  due  to  the  fact  that  neither  bigots  nor  fanatics  have  ever,  from  the 
time  of  Roger  Williams  to  the  present  moment,  been  able  to  destroy  the  liberty  of  thought 
and  of  speech  within  her  borders.  Her  people  have  always  been  wise  enough  —  wiser  always 
than  the  Synod  and  the  General  Court  —  to  tolerate  freedom  of  opinion,  and,  in  the  long  run, 
to  reject  that  which  was  unwise  and  injurious  and  accept  that  which  was  true  and  good. 
The  twelve  men  to  whom  the  conveyance  was  made  were  :  Stukely  Westcoat,  Wil- 


40  SOUTHERN   XEW   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  II. 

This  was  the  corner-stone  of  the  Commonwealth  laid  by  the  banish- 
ment of  Roger  Williams  from  Massachusetts  Bav.     He  and 

Character  of  ° 

wiiimms -s     his  companions   wore   pronounced    dangerous    men    because 

Colonv.  . 

their  doctrines  were  assumed  to  be  subversive  of  the  state 
and  the  church.  Their  first  act,  so  soon  almost  as  there  were  enough 
of  them  gathered  together  to  make  an  agreement,  was  —  as  a  dozen  in- 
telligent Americans  would  do  to-day  if  thrown  together  under  similar 
circumstances  —  to  enter  into  a  compact  for  government  by  rule  of  the 
majority,  leaving  to  each  the  enjoyment  of  such  religious  belief  as  the 
intelligence  and  conscience  of  each  should  dictate.  Among  the  ear- 
liest recorded  actions  of  the  town  of  Providence  is  one  depriving 
Joshua  Verin  of  the  privilege  of  voting  because  he  had  committed  "  a 
breach  of  covenant  in  restraining  liberty  of  conscience,"  inasmuch  as 
he  had  prevented  his  wife  from  going  when  she  pleased  to  Mr.  Wil- 
liams's  meetings. 

To  those  whose  presence  in  Massachusetts  Bay  the  "  Lords  breth- 
He«te<i  con-  ren  "  would  not  tolerate,  or  who  could  not  submit  to  the 
Masswciiu"  despotic  rule  which  these  brethren  sought  to  establish,  the 
country  about  Narragansett  Bay  soon  came  to  be  as  a  land 
of  refuge.  There  gathered  there,  no  doubt,  in  the  first  few  years  a 
heterogeneous  and  remarkable  company ;  some  half  crazed  with  those 
teeming  maggots  of  the  brain  which  so  breed  in  times  of  exasperating 
religious  controversy  ;  others  possessed  by  harmless  vagaries  of  illogi- 
cal thought,  which  spring  up  in  such  seasons  in  some  minds,  and 
which,  if  they  have  a  meaning  to  those  who  cherish  them,  are  incom- 
prehensible to  everybody  else.  Indeed,  the  wonder  is,  in  our  soberer 
times,  not  that  there  were  so  many  of  these  unhappy  and  infatuated 
polemists,  but  that  any  clear  exercise  of  sound  judgment  remained  in 
a  community  where  the  weight  of  wisdom  and  of  character  convened 
as  in  the  Cambridge  Synod,  could  elaborate  out  of  the  controversy 
on  justification  and  sanctification  eighty-two  pestilent  heresies  worthy 
of  condign  punishment.  There  were  nevertheless  many  men,  possibly 
even  a  majority  of  the  church  in  Boston,  who  in  all  this  confusion  of 
tongues,  preserved  their  intellectual  balance  unmoved  and  kept  their 
eyes  firmly  fixed  on  the  everlasting  truth.  Many  among  them  were 
determined  to  preserve  the  one  thing  worth  pi'eserving — liberty  of 
thought  and  of  conscience  ;  never  losing  sight  of  its  supreme  value, 
sometimes,  perhaps,  abusing  it  themselves,  suffering  much  oftener 

liam  Arnold,  Thomas  James,  Robert  Cole,  John  Greene,  John  Throckmorton,  William 
Harris,  William  Carpenter,  Thomas  Olney,  Francis  Weston,  Richard  Waterman,  Ezekiel 
Holliman.  The  thirtv  pounds,  however,  seems  not  to  have  heen  paid  till  the  admission 
subsequently  of  some  new  members  into  the  body  politic,  when  a  new  and  fuller  deed  was 
made  by  Mr.  Williams  and  the  first  twelve  were  released  from  any  payment.  See  Baek- 
u»'s  Hutoty  <>f  the  American  Haptigts,  vol.  i.,  pp.  92.  9-3. 


1638.]  TREATMENT   OF   THE   ANTIXOMIANS.  41 

from  its  abuse  in  others,  but  dreading,  nevertheless,  the  danger  of  its 
suppression  far  more  than  any  evil  likely  to  arise  from  its  undue  ex- 

ercise. 

Of  these  men,  some  who  were  wise  and  some  who  were  foolish  in- 
stinctively turned  their  faces,  when  Massachusetts  would  tolerate  them 
no  longer,  to  that  shelter  which  Roger  Williams  had  provided  "  for 
persons  distressed  in  conscience."  The  eighty-two  heresies  which  the 
Cambridge  Svnod  saw  lurking  in  the  doctrine  that  a  covenant  of 
grace  was  the  only  way  to  salvation,  and  which  were  discovered  to  be 
equally  dangerous  to  church  and  state,  must  with  the  Lord's  help, 
be  scattered  to  the  winds  of  Heaven.  The  General  Court,  which  was 
essentially  the  synod  under  another  name,  had  little  mercy 

J  J  111,1  i  •     •  Attitude  of 

upon  the  persons  who  held  these  dangerous  opinions,  upon   the  General 

i  Court  to- 

those  who  were  assumed  to  hold  them,  or  upon  those  even 
who  questioned  the  justice  of  punishing  the  real  or  the  sup- 
posed offenders.  It  was  not  only  that  the  original  heresy  was  pro- 
nounced as  deserving  of  punishment,  but  they  were  held  no  less 
guilty  who  refused  to  acknowledge  as  legitimate  whatever  dangerous 
deductions  their  opponents  chose  to  draw  from  opinions  conscientiously 
and  innocently  believed  in.  And  no  less  was  it  an  offence  against  the 
Commonwealth  to  maintain  that  one's  carriage  and  behavior  were 
not  necessarily  dangerous  and  seditious  because  one's  abstract  faith 
was  pronounced  to  be  heretical  by  elders  and  magistrates.1 

The  party  which  Winthrop  led  in  the  General  Court,  both  officially 
and  personally,  and  Wilson  in  the  Synod,  was  content  with  no  half 
measures.  .  Vans  was  evidently  glad  enough,  at  last,  to  get  back  to 
England  on  any  .pretext  after  his  defeat  by  Winthrop  in  the  election 
for  governor  ;  2  Cotton,  whom  poor  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  followed  to 
New  England,  because  of  the  soundness  and  purity  of  his  faith,  seemed 

1  See  Callender's  Historical  Discourse  on  The  Civil  and  Religious  Affairs  of  the  Colony  of 
liltocle  Island  <$•  Providence  Plantations,  1739.     For  an   admirable   account  of  the   Antino- 
inian  Controversy,  see  also  Ellis's   Life  of  Anne  Iluicliiiuum  in  Sparks's  American  Bioynt- 
jiny,  vol.  vi.,  new  series. 

2  How  intense  the  party  feeliug  of  the  time  was  is  evident  in  some  significant  incidents 
related  by  Winthrop.     When  he  was  elected  to  succeed  Vane  in  1637,  the  two  sergeants, 
who?e  duty  it  was  to  precede  the  governor  on  all  public  occasions,  carrying  halberds,  re- 
Hiscd  to  perform  this  office  before  Wiuthrop.     One  of  the  men  was  a  son  of  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson.    Wiuthrop  invited  a  young  English  lord  —  Lord   Ley  —  on  a  visit  to  Boston,  to 
dinner,  asking  Vane,  among  others,  to  meet  him.     "  Mr.  Vane,"  says  Winthrop,  "  not 
only  refused  to  come  (alleging,  by  letter,  that  his  conscience  withheld  him),  but  also,  at 
the  same  hour,  he  went  over  to  Nettle's  Island  to  dine  with  Mr.  Maverick,  and  carried 
the  Lord  Ley  with  him."     One  is  not  surprised  to  read  that  when,  not  long  after,  Vane 
and  Ley  went  down  the  harbor  on  their  way  to  sea,  although  many  persons  were  present 
to  do  honor  to  the  departure  of  the  ex-governor,  and  salutes  were  fired  from  the  castle 
and  elsewhere,  the  governor  himself  "  was  not  come  from  the  court,  but  had  left  order  for 
their  honourable  dismission."     Such  were  the  amenities  that  attended  the  controversy  on 
sauetincatiou  and  justification. 


42  SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  II. 

to  fall  away  from  his  friends,  though,  perhaps,  he  only  saw  how  im- 
possible it  was  for  any  man,  in  the  full  possession  of  his  reason,  to  go 
the  whole  length  of  either  party.1  One  by  one  the  Antinomians  were 
deprived  of  their  strongest  leaders.  Wheelwright  wandered  away 
northward,  and  stopped  when  he  reached  what  seemed  a 

Trvatmcnt  .    .  .  *  »•"'.•  •  -n 

of  tht- Anti-  promising  spot  in  the  woods  for  a  plantation  — now  Exeter, 
New  Hampshire.  The  most  shocking  and  disgusting  cal- 
umnies were, —  as  we  have  already  related,2  —  visited  upon  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  and  were  enough  to  drive  her  out  into  any  wilderness, 
however  savage,  even  if  Massachusetts  had  not  decreed  her  banish- 
ment after  a  trial  which  only  needed  thumbscrews  and  the  rack  to  be 
complete  after  its  kind. 

In  Boston  and  its  vicinity  between  seventy  and  eighty,  most  of 
them  men  of  character  and  influence,  were  compelled  to  surrender 
their  arms,  —  with  the  added  humiliation  of  carrying  them  with  their 
own  hands  to  a  certain  place  of  deposit,  —  as  enemies  of  the  common- 
wealth. Many  shared  the  sentence  of  Mrs.  Hntchinson  and  her 
brother  and  were  banished  ;  others  preferred  voluntary  exile,  to  re- 
maining where  they  were  objects  of  constant  suspicion,  and  dreaded 
as  a  dangerous  and  wicked  faction.  Whether  there  was  any  reason  or 

«.' 

not  for  apprehending  that  the  defeated  party  would  resort  to  arms, 
there  was  good  reason  for  fearing  their  strength.  Though  the  min- 
isters, and  the  magistrates  who  joined  with  them,  were  able  to  rule 
with  a  high  hand,  the  minority  that  was  compelled  to  submit  was  a 
very  large  one. 

Many  of  these  were  driven  by  such  persecutions  to  seek  for  a  new 
home  outside  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts.  Nearly  all  of  them 
were  of  that  number  who  were  compelled  to  give  up  their  arms. 
k*  I  thought  it  not  strange,"  wrote  one  of  them  —  John  Clark  —  "  to 
see  men  differ  about  matters  of  Heaven,  for  I  expect  no  less  upon 
Earth :  But  to  see  that  they  were  not  able  so  to  bear  each  with  other 
in  their  different  understandings  and  consciences,  as  in  those  utmost 
parts  of  the  World  to  live  peaceably  together,  whereupon  I  moved  the 
latter  [his  own  friends],  for  as  much  as  the  land  was  before  us  and 
wide  enough,  with  the  profer  of  Abraham  to  Lot,  and  for  peace  sake, 

1  Eminent  and  good  as  John  Cotton  was,  his  course  in   this  controversy,  as  well  as  on 
other  occasions,  could  hardly  fail  to  give  him  the  reputation   of  a  man  so  candid  that  lie 
cared  nothing  for  consistencv,  or  else  so  vacillating  as  to  be  untriistworthv.    A  Mr.  Ward, 

•    '  » 

"once  lecturer  at  St.  Michael's,  in  Cornhill,  London," — probably  the  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Ward,  "  The  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agnwain," —  said  of  him  :  "  Here  is  our  reverend  elder, 
Mr.  Cotton,  who  ordinarily  preaclieth  that  publicly  one  year,  that  the  next  year  he  pub- 
licly repents  of,  and  shews  himself  very  sorrowful  for  it  to  the  congregation."  Siniplici- 
li<'s  Deft-nee  tiiiniimt  .Setew  lltadtd  Policy,  etc.,  etc.  Kepublication  in  /?.  /.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
vol.  ii.,  ]>.  1:22. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  p.  .">.">(>. 


1638.]  SETTLEMENT   AT    PORTSMOUTH,   R.   I.  43 

to  turn  aside  to  the  right  hand,  or  to  the  left."  l  Moved  by  a  purpose 
so  peaceful  and  sensible,  Wheelwright  was  first  visited  at  Exeter  ; 
then  Long  Island  and  the.  Capes  of  the  Delaware  were  proposed,  and 
on  the  way  southward  Williams  and  the  people  of  Plymouth,  —  tole- 
rant of  schismatics  and  who  knew  from  long  and  bitter  experience 
what  exile  for  conscience'  sake  meant  —  were  visited.  All  concurred 
in  advising  them  to  go  no  further,  but  to  take  possession  upon  the  isl- 
and of  Aquetnet,  or  Acquidneck  —  now  Rhode  Island.  Their  first 
choice  was  Sowames  —  a  neck  of  land  in  the  pi-esent  town  of  Barring- 
ton,  —  but  the  Plymouth  people  claimed  the  latter  as  belonging  to 
them,  holding  it,  they  said,  "to  be  the  garden  of  their  Patent,  and  the 
flour  in  the  garden,"  while  the  island  was  not  within  their  bounda- 
ries.2 On  this  latter  point,  however,  the  Plymouth  authorities  changed 


their    minds 
some     years 
afterward.      In    1650, 
when  Coddington,  the 
governor      of      Rhode 
Island,  petitioned  for  a 

patent,   Edward    Wills-  The  Cove.  Portsmouth,  Rhode  Island. 

low   appeared    on    be- 
half of  the  Plymouth  people  before  the  committee  of  the  admiralty  in 
London,  claiming  that  Acquidneck  belonged  to  them  under  the  grant 
of  1620.3 

The  island,  however,  was  purchased  from  Canon icus  and  Mian- 
tonomo,  for  "  forty  fathom  of  white  beads,"  for  Coddington  and  his 
associates.  It  was  done,  writes  Williams,  "  through  that  love  and 
favour  which  that  honoured  gentleman.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  and  myself, 
had  with  the  great  sachem,  Myantonomy,  about  the  league  which  I 

1  ///  Af icts  from  Nftc  Km/hind:  or  a   Nurrntii.-e  of  New  Emjlund's  Persecution,  etc.     By 
John  Clark,  Physician  of  Rode  Island  in  America.     1652.     Kepublished  in  Mass.  Hist. 
Hoc.  Coll.,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  ii. 

2  Clark's  Xurrative. 

8  (-\dendar  of  State  Papirs,  Colonial  Scries,  edited  l>y  W.  Noel  Salisbury,  j>.  338. 


44 


SOUTIIKRX    XE\V    ENGLAND. 


[Cirxp.  II. 


procured  between  the  Massachusetts  English   and   the  Narragansetts 
in  the  Pequod  war." 

The  purchase  was  made  on  the  24th  of  March,  1637-8.  The  new 
srttinnvnt  comers  pitched  tlieir  tents  at  the  northern  extremity  of 
mouth*  t^u>  island,  at  Poo  asset,  now  called  Portsmouth,  possibly 
a?.!!"  March  soni(i  days  before.  With  a  reverential  reliance  upon  the 

divine  support,  quite  out  of  keeping  with  the  supposition 
that  they  were  men  too  dangerous  to  society  to  be  trusted  with  deadly 
weapons,  they  had  entered,  on  the  7th  of  the  month,  into  a  compact 
rather  of  the  character  of  a  church  than  of  a  civil  body.  To  incorpo- 
rate themselves  into  a  body  politic  they  submitted  their  lives,  persons, 
and  estates  unto  the  "  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  King  of  Kings,  and 
Lord  of  Lords,  and  to  all  those  most  perfect  and  absolute  laws  of  his, 
given  unto  us  in  his  holy  word  of  truth,  to  be  guided  and  judged 
thereby."  l  Under  this  theocracy  they  proposed  to  live  ;  and  Mr. 

Coddington  was  at  once  chosen  chief   nidge,  with,  probably, 

Coddington  r.  e  .  .  7  J! 

chosen  chief   the  lunctions  or  an   equity  court,  but  without  the  power  or 

J 


,  .       ,     .  . 

enforcing  its  decisions. 

The  experiment  was  a  short  one.    "  The  perfect  and  absolute  law  " 

of  the  Scriptures  might  have  been 
quite  sufficient  for  the  original  asso- 
ciates alone,  but  their  numbers  were 
soon  added  to  with  such  a  result  as 
might  have  been  looked  for.  Some 
of  those  who  came  to  the  new  settle- 
ment were  probably  not  saints  ;  some 
of  those  who  were  may  possibly  have 
been  saints  of  a  very  pragmatical 
and  uncompliant  disposition.  Not  a 
year  had  passed  when  we  find  that 
three  persons  were  elected  as  elders 
to  assist  Mr.  Coddington,  and  two 
of  these  three  were  not  among  the 
original  associates.  Not  long  after 
Governor  Coddington.  a  constable  was  chosen  to  preserve 

the  peace  and  prevent  unlawful  meetings,  and  a  sergeant  elected  to 
keep  a  prison  for  the  custody  of  those  committed  to  his  charge.2 
About  the  same  time  William  Aspinwall,  one  of  the  most  respectable 

1  The  associates  were   William  C'oddinjjton,  John    Clark,   William   Hutchiiison,  John 
Coggeshall,   William   Aspinwall,   Samuel  Wilhore,  John   Porter,  John   Sanford,  Edward 
Hutehiuson,  Jun.,  Thomas  Savage,  William  Dyrc,  William  Frcehorne,  Phillip  Shearman, 
John  Walker,  Hichard  Carder,  William  Baulston,  Edward  Hutchiiison,  Sen.,  Henry  Bull. 
—  Callender's  Historical  Discourse.     Backus  adds  to  the  list  the  uame  of  liaudal  Holden. 

2  Wtode  Island  Colonial  Record*. 


DISSENSIONS   IN    THE   NEW   COLONY. 


and  most  conspicuous  of  those  who  had  been  banished  from  Massa- 
chusetts, was  proceeded  against  "as  a  suspected  person  for  sedition 
against  the  State."  There  are  no  surer  evidences  of  civil  government 
than  jails  and  constables. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  progress  of  events.    The  class  to  which,  un- 
der the  category  of  "  Persons  distressed  in  conscience,"  Roger  Williams 

suggested  that  a  shelter  might  be  found  about  Narntgansett 

'   .       .  ,  ,.  Hi    niffiouiti« 

Bay,  is  always  sure  to  include  some  very  disagreeable  and  of  the  new 

very  unreasonable,  though  unquestionably  most  upright  and 
worthy  people.  Some  of  this  kind,  probably,  whose  consciences  were 
very  tender,  as  well  as  some  who  had  no  consciences  at  all,  followed 
to  Rhode  Island  John  Clark  and  his  friends,  whose  earnest  desire  in 
going  was  that  they  might  be  permitted  "  to  live  peaceably  together." 
There  were  penalties  many  and  severe  yet  to  be  paid  before  liberty  and 
peace  could  dwell  together  undisturbed,  as  these  people  soon  made  man- 
ifest. 


is*^T^  '^- --^_  -  -•-'_  H>^^" 

Entrance  to    Newport   Harbor. 


It  was  thought  in  Boston,  or,  at 
least,  Governor  Winthrop  believed, 
that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  troubles  which  broke  out  in 
the  new  colony.  In  May,  1639,  the 
governor  writes :  "  At  Aquiday  the 
people  grew  very  tumultuous,  and  put 

out  Mr.  Coddington  and  the  other  three  magistrates,  and  chose  Mr. 
Hutchinson  only,  a  man  of  a  very  mild  temper  and  weak  parts,  and 
wholly  guided  by  his  wife,  who  had  been  the  beginner  of  all  the  former 
troubles  in  the  country,  and  still  continued  to  breed  disturbance."  l 

This  was,   no   doubt,  so   far  true   that   Mrs.   Hutchinson   was   not 
likely  to  have  been  a  silent  listener  to  any  discussions,  espe-   influence  of 
cially   upon    theological   questions,  and   these    could   hardly   «•«•  4' 
have  failed  to  arise  among  minds  cut  loose  from  all  settled  cortl1*" 
beliefs    by    the    Antinomian    controversy,  and    hot    and    eager    with 

1  See  Winthrop's  Ifi'alon/,  vol.  i.,  p.  356,  and  Savage's  note  on  this  passage.     Also,  Pal- 
fu-y's  ///sf.  of  New  Einjland,  vol.  i.,  pp.  512,  513. 


46 


SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.   II. 


novel  theories,  political  and  polemical.  And  out  of  such  discussions 
may  well  have  been  evolved  the  necessity  of  civil  rule  and  a  change 
of  rulers.  But  the  spirit,  nevertheless,  in  which  John  Clark  spoke 

influenced    man v 

j,.  •. 

,-_--  among  them,  remem- 

bering the  proffer  of 
Abraham  to  Lot,  and 
turning  one  to  the 
right  hand  and  the 
other  to  the  left. 
Coddington  and  his 
friends  removed 
within  two  years  to 
the  other  end  of  the 
island,  —  at  New- 
port, —  but  the  colo- 
nies were  soon  after 
united  under  one 
government,  with 
Coddington  at  its 
head,  and  Hutchin- 
son  as  one  of  his 
assistants.  s 

Newport  was  settled  by  nine  of  the  leading  men  of  Pocasset  —  or, 
as  it  was  this  year  named,  Portsmouth  —  including  all  its  magistrates.1 
Of  these,  the  first  who  built  a  house  was  Nicholas  Easton,  who,  with 
his  two  sons,  Peter  and  John,  arrived  in  a  boat  on  the  first  of  May, 
perhaps  a  little  in  advance  of  his  eight  associates.  He  and  his  sons, 
at  any  rate,  were  the  first  to  provide  themselves  with  a  permanent 
shelter.2  At  the  first  recorded  meeting  of  the  emigrants  on  the  16th 
of  May,  the  site  of  "  the  plantation  now  begun  at  this  southwest  end 
of  the  island  "  is  fixed  as  on  both  sides  of  the  spring,  "  by  the  seaside 
southward"  ;  this  spring  was  on  the  west  side  of  the  present  Spring 
Street  near  the  State  House,  its  stream  running  to  the  harbor.  The 
town  grew  rapidly,  and  in  five  months  numbered  one  hundred  and  one 
persons.  Winthrop  says  in  his  journal  of  that  mouth  :  "  They  [at 
Acquidneck]  also  gathered  a  church  in  a  very  disordered  way;  for  they 
took  some  excommunicated  persons,  and  others  who  were  members  of 

1  The  nine  were  William  Coddinyrton,  Nicholas  Kaston,  John  Cogjjeshall,  William  Bren- 
ton,  John  Clark,  Jeremy  Clark,  Thomas  Hazard,  Henry  Bull,  and  William  Dyre. 

-  The  house  was  on  the  west  side  of  Farewell  Street,  a  little  west  of  Friends'  meeting- 
house in  the  Newport  of  our  day.  Coddington's  house  was  on  the  north  side  of  Marlbor- 
ouyh  Street,  fronting  Duke  Street.  —  Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island. 


Coddington's   House,    Newport. 


1642.]  REMOVAL   OF  MRS.   HUTCHINSON.  47 

the  church  of  Boston  and  not  dismissed."  He  probably  refers  to  a 
gathering  at  Pocasset,  but  these  nine  founders  of  Newport  must  have 
been  its  chief  members,  and  were  not  likely  to  have  lost  their  Christian 
fellowship  by  their  removal.  The  "  disordered  way  "  was  ere  long 
the  Baptist  Church  of  Newport,  with  the  Rev.  John  Clark  as  pastor, 
—  to  the  Puritan  mind  "  a  confusion  worse  confounded." 

Hutchinson  died  in  1642.  Only  the  summer  before  a  son  and  a 
son-in-law  of  the  family  had  been  imprisoned  and  fined  on  a  visit  to 
Boston,1  and  it  is  far  more  probable  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  longing 
for  peace  and  tranquillity,  sought,  after  her  husband's  death,  Mrs  Hutch. 
to  escape  persecution  and  calumny  by  removing  to  New  ^."/^J^ 
Netherland,  out  of  the  reach  of  her  own  countrymen,  than  land- 
that  it  became  intolerable  to  her,  as  her  detractors  would  have  us 
believe,  to  live  in  any  peaceful  and  well-ordered  community.  "  She 
and  her  party,"  says  Winthrop,  "  would  have  no  magistracy."  But 
there  was  no  evil  he  was  not  willing  to  believe  of  that  unhappy  lady. 
He  even  suspected  her  of  witchcraft,  and  that  she  had  bewitched 
this  young  man  Collins,  who  married  her  daughter  ;  for  "  it  was  cer- 
tainly known,"  he  says,  with  the  utmost  solemnity,  that  her  "•  bosom 
friend,"  one  Hawkins's  wife,  "  had  much  familiarity  with  the  devil 
in  England." 

In  truth  these  Rhode  Island  people  grew,  from  the  beginning,  to  be 
more  and  more  intolerable  to  the  Boston  brethren.     It  was  Hostility  of 


bad  enough  that  they  should  obstinately  maintain  the  rights 
of  independent  thought  and  private  conscience  ;  it  was  un-  Awiui<ineck 
pardonable  that  they  should  assume  to  be  none  the  less  sincere  Chris- 
tians and  good  citizens,  and  should  succeed  in  establishing  a  govern- 
ment of  their  own  on  principles  which  the  Massachusetts  General 
Court  declared  were  criminal.  Even  in  a  common  peril  the  Massa- 
chusetts magistrates  could  recognize  no  tie  of  old  friendship  —  hardly, 
indeed,  of  human  sympathy  —  that  should  bind  them  to  such  men. 
Opportunities  for  showing  the  bitterness  and  intensity  of  this  feeling 
were  not  long  in  coming. 

The  necessity  still  existed  —  by  whose  fault  may,  perhaps,  be  ques- 
tioned, but,  at  any  rate,  existed  —  of  the  utmost  vigilance  lest  the 
hatred  of  the  Indians  should  be  again  provoked,  notwithstanding  the 
terrible  lesson  of  the  Pequot  war,  into  open  hostility.  An  alliance  of 

1  Collins,  the  son-iu-law,  was  fined  .£100,  and  Hutchinson  .£50,  not  with  any  expectation 
that  such  tines  could  ever  be  paid,  but  that  the  men  mijfht  be  detained  in  prison.  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop  frankly  acknowledges  this  and  <*ives  as  an  additional  reason  that  the  fam- 
ily had  thm-tofore  been  so  troublesome.  lu  Collins's  case  this  vicarious  punishment  was 
inHicted  upon  a  man  who  had  not  even  been  in  the  country  a  twelve  month.  When  the 
magistrates  were  satisfied  with  the  length  of  the  imprisonment  the  flues  were  remitted,  and 
the  youuj,'  men  returned  to  Rhode  Island. 


48 


SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


colonies 
agiiinst  the 
Indians. 


all  the  English  was,  as  that  war  had  proved,  the  wisest  precaution  and 
the  surest  defence.  These  later  settlements,  made  meanwhile  on  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay,  were  not  less  sensible  of  the  common  danger,  nor 
doubtful  as  to  how  it  could  best  be  met. 

Upon  this  subject  Governor  Coddington  wrote  in  1640,  by  order  of 
proposition  the  General  Court,  to  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts.  The 
Incr^'the  character  of  the  letter  we  only  know  from  Winthrop's  ac- 
count of  it.  Though  it  came  from  Newport  and  not  from 
Providence,  it  was  written  in  that  humane  spirit  which  Roger 
Williams  had  always  held  should  govern  the  treatment  of  the  natives; 
that  the  real  safety  of  the  English  lay  in  a  just  recognition  of  the  nat- 
ural rights  of  the  Indians.  "They  declared,"  says  Winthrop,  "  their 
dislike  of  such  as  would  have  the  Indians  rooted  out,  as  being  of  the 
cursed  race  of  Ham,  and  their  desire  of  our  mutual  accord  in  seeking 
to  gain  them  by  justice  and  kindness,  and  withal  to  watch  over  them 
to  prevent  any  danger  by  them." 

The  magistrates  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  united  with  those 
of  Acquidneck  in  this  reasonable  and  Christian  proposition. 

Refused  by       XT  ......  -~  ~ 

Massachu-  Mor  was  it  in  itselt  repugnant  to  the  General  Court  or  the 
Bay.  But  however  apprehensive  they  might  be  of  a  savage 
outbreak,  however  much  disposed  to  conciliate  the  Indians  by  justice 
and  kindness,  they,  in  Boston,  would  neither  bestow  nor  willingly 
receive  blessings  in  companionship  with  heretics.  The  resentment 
which  would  seize  such  an  occasion  for  its  gratification  seems  almost 
puerile.  "  We  returned  answer  of  our  consent  with  them  in  all  things 
propounded,"  writes  Winthrop,  "  only  we  refused  to  include  those  of 
Aquiday  in  our  answer,  or  to  have  any  treaty  with  them."  1  The 
official  record  is  even  more  explicit.  The  letter,  it  was  ordered,  "  shall 
be  thus  answered  by  the  governor ;  that  the  court  doth  assent  to  all 
the  propositions  laid  down  in  the  aforesaid  letter,  but  that  the  answer 
shall  be  directed  to  Mr.  Eaton,  Mr.  Hopkins,  and  Mr.  Hayues  [of 
New  Haven  and  of  Connecticut]  only,  excluding  Mr.  Coddington  and 
Mr.  Brenton  [of  Newport,]  as  men  not  to  be  capitulated  withal  by  us, 
either  for  themselves  or  the  people  of  the  Island  which  they  inhabit, 
as  their  case  standeth."  2 

Nor  was  this  an  outbreak  of  a  merely  temporary  feeling.  Here  was 
the  spirit  which  was  to  shape  the  future  relations  of  the  older  and  the 
younger  colony.  It  shut  out  all  considerations  of  a  common  interest, 
dulled  the  sense  of  a  common  danger,  stifled  the  sympathies  of  a  kin- 
dred blood.  The  "case"  of  these  m^ii  in  Narragansett  Bay  was  that 
they  had  been  banished  from  Massachusetts,  or  had  fled  of  their  own 

1  Savage's  Witftktvp,  vol.  ii.,  p.  24. 

2  Records  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.,  p.  305. 


1643.]  THE   NEW  ENGLAND  CONFEDERACY.  49 

accord  tli.it  they  might  enjoy  in  peace  the  right  of  thinking  for  them- 
selves. But  that  was  a  right  which  to  the  Puritans  of  Boston  was 
intolerable.  It  was  not  merely  —  as  is  so  often  pretended  on  their 
behalf  —  that  these  Puritans  sought  to  protect  the  house  of  refuge 
they  had  built  from  any  disturbing  influences ;  they  were  no  less  de- 
termined that  there  should  not  be,  if  they  could  prevent  it,  anywhere 
within  their  reach,  a  church  or  a  state  that  was  not  formed  upon  their 
model. 

This  proposition  from  the  people  of  Rhode  Island  was  only  the  re- 
newal of  an  already  familiar  discussion.  The  question  of  a  confed- 
eration of  the  colonies  had  been  annually  brought  up  for  consideration 
from  the  close  of  the  Pequot  war  to  the  spring  of  1643  among  the 
magistrates  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Plymouth.  From 
year  to  year  the  project  was  deferred,  the  two  smaller  colonies  fearing 
lest,  in  the  adjustment  of  the  terms  of  alliance,  too  much  power  should 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  stronger  colony  of  the  Bay.  One  point,  at 
least,  might  now  be  considered  as  settled  ;  however  willing  Connecti- 
cut and  New  Haven  might  be  that  Acquidneck  should  be  included  in 
such  a  league,  should  it  ever  be  formed,  the  assent  of  Massachusetts 
could  only  be  obtained  by  the  exclusion  of  that  colony. 

In  1648,  accordingly,  a  confederation  was  made  embracing  Massa- 
chusetts, New  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven. 

"  The  \ew 

The  same  end  and  aim,  the  preamble  recited,  had  brought  England 

...  PI-  i  i  confederacy. 

them  into  these  parts  ot  America,  "  to  advance  the  kingdom 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  gospel  in 
purity  with  peace."  Their  distance  from  each  other  was  incompatible 
with  a  single  government  for  all  these  plantations  ,  but  their  danger 
was  a  common  one  from  the  "•  people  of  several  nations  and  strange 
languages  "  by  whom  they  were  surrounded ;  they  could  not  look  for 
protection  from  the  home  government  because  of  "  the  sad  distractions 
in  England  ;  "  they  entered,  therefore,  under  the  name  of  the  United 
Colonies  of  New  England,  "  into  a  firm  and  perpetual  league  of  friend- 
ship and  amity,  for  offence  and  defence,  mutual  advice  and  succor  upon 
all  just  occasions,  both  for  preserving  and  propagating  the  truth  and 
liberties  of  the  gospel,  and  for  their  own  mutual  safety  and  welfare." 

The  purpose  of  this  federation  was  strictly  defined  and  limited,  and 
its  affairs  were  to  be  entrusted  to  a  body  of  eight  commissioners,  two 
troin  each  colony.  The  main  object  was  an  offensive  and  defensive 
league  in  case  of  war,  though  the  rendition  of  fugitive  servants  and 
criminals  was  also  provided  for.  In  all  things  else  each  colony  re- 
served to  itself  the  right  of  self  government.  Thus  simple  were  the 
terms  of  this  federal  union,  so  obviously  the  germ  of  the  union  of 
States  of  the  next  century. 

VOL.   II. 


50 


SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  II. 


For  six  years,  as  we  have  already  said,  this  question  of  confeder- 
ation was  a  topic  of  anxious  discussion.  Though  so  strictly 
theconfea-  defined  and  limited,  it  was  only  with  the  utmost  caution  that 
the  several  colonies  consented  to  surrender  the  rights  of  self- 
government  even  for  so  obvious  a  good  as  a  sure  protection  against 
their  enemies.  Perhaps  the  league  would  have  been  even  longer  de- 
layed had  not  other  than  Indian  wars  been  thought  possible.  The 
people  along  the  southern  coast  of  New  England  had  turned  their 
resolute  faces  and  longing  eyes  towards  New  Netherland.  The  peo- 
ple of  Massachusetts,  or,  at  least,  the  leaders  among  them,  never  lost 
sight  of  the  hope  of  absolute  independence  which  first  moved  them  to 
transfer  their  company,  with  its  charter,  quietly  and  secretly  from 
London  to  Massachusetts  Bay.  They  watched  with  absorbing  in- 
terest the  progress  of  the  Revolution  in  England,  cautious  of  any  rash 
precipitancy,  but  ready  for  any  emergency  by  which  they  might  be 
involved  in  that  great  struggle,  and  any  event  that  might  be  turned 
to  their  own  advantage.  That  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  which 
ratified  the  act  of  confederacy,  also  decreed  that  in  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance taken  by  the  Governor  and  magistrates  they  should  omit  "  for 
the  present  "  the  words  "  you  shall  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance  to 
our  Sovereign  Lord  King  Charles  ;  "  for  the  king,  they  said,  "  had 
violated  the  privileges  of  Parliament,  and  made  war  upon  them." 
But  from  this  first  New  England  confederacy  —  with  its  immediate 
purpose  of  defence  and  offence  against  the  Indians,  and  the 
possible  purposes  which  time  might  bring  forth  —  Gorges's 
colony  at  Agameiiticus  (York)  in  Maine,  and  the  planta- 
tions on  the  Narragansett,  were  rigidly  excluded.  The  Puritans 
dreaded  the  state  mid  the  church  from  which  they  had  fled,  and  which 
Gorges  represented  ;  they  hated  the  heretics  who  had  escaped  to 
Rhode  Island  from  the  persecutions  of  the  church  and  the  state  which 
they  sought  to  establish. 


excluded. 


Signature  of  John  Davenport. 


CHAPTER   Hi. 

THE  BOSTON   PURITANS. 

ROGER  WILLIAMS  AND  LIBERTY  OF  CONSCIENCE.  —  BOSTON  PURITANISM.  —  ITS  BIG- 
OTRY.—  THE  BELIEF  IN  A  SPECIAL  DIVINE  PROTECTION.  —  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCES. 
—  PURITAN  INTERPRETATION  OF  DISASTERS  AND  MISFORTUNES. — POPULAR  AP- 
PREHENSION OF  LIBERTY  OF  CONSCIENCE.  —  EARLY  LAWS  OF  THE  PURITANS. — 
REGULATION  OF  DRESS  AND  CUSTOMS. — PATERNAL  CHARACTER  OF  THE  GOVERN- 
MENT.—  RELATIONS  OF  THE  SEXES. — LAWS  AGAINST  LYING  AND  BLASPHEMY. — 
PUNISHMENTS.  —  PURITAN  SPIKIT  AND  ITS  RESULTS  IN  PRACTICE.  —  SAMUEL  GOR- 
TON.—  His  ACTION  AT  BOSTON  AND  AT  PLYMOUTH,  AND  HIS  BANISHMENT.  —  GOR- 
TON AND  HIS  COMPANIONS  AT  ACQUIDNECK  AND  PAWTUXET.  —  THE  ATTEMPT  TO 
SEIZE  WESTON'S  CATTLE.  —  INTERFERENCE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  ARBITRARY 
COURSE  OF  THE  BOSTON  MAGISTRATES.  —  GORTON  AT  SHAWOMET. —  His  LETTER. 

"  SLATE  ROCK,"  as  the  spot  is  still  called  where  Williams  first 
stepped  on  shore  in  search  of  a  new  home,  marks  a  memorable  event  in 
the  history  of  New  England.  The  wrongs  he  had  suffered  might 
have  passed  into  oblivion  as  evil  so  often  does,  had  not  their  memory 
been  kept  alive  by  the  good  which  followed  as  a  beneficent  if 
not  an  inevitable  consequence.  A  man  less  sturdy  in  cour-  5? 
age,  or  of  a  virtue  less  stern  would  have  been  crushed  into  8Cience- 
submission  or  frightened  into  retraction  by  the  persecution  with 
which  he  was  beset.  But  whether  the  assertion  of  the  liberty  of 
thought  and  of  freedom  of  conscience  did  or  did  not  lead  Roger  Wil- 
liams into  errors,  sometimes  of  thought  and  sometimes  of  action,  the 
right  of  private  judgment  and  the  sacredness  of  conscientious  convic- 
tion were  still  true  ;  and  to  him  was  given  the  strength  to  assert 
and  maintain,  through  much  tribulation,  the  great  principle,  then 
dimly  understood,  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  free  government 
and  of  all  intelligent  religious  belief. 

In  the  last  analysis  Puritanism  meant  freedom  of  thought  and  lib- 
erty of  conscience.  But  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Bogton  Puri. 
limited  it  to  that  measure  of  truth  —  by  no  means  small  in-  t*™m- 
deed  —  to  which  they  had  attained.  It  was,  they  believed,  obedience 
to  the  highest  law  of  the  human  soul  to  go  as  far  as  they  went ;  it 
was  heresy  to  go  beyond.  They  not  only  would  not  admit  that  free- 


THE   BOSTON    PURITANS. 


[CHAP.    III. 


doni  of  thought  and  of  conscience  could  legitimately  lead  to  any  other 
conclusions  than  those  they  had  reached  ;  but  they  would  not  admit 
that  such  freedom  should  go  further  and  test  the  justice  of  those  con- 
clusions. More  than  this,  —  they  insisted  that  any  conclusions  differ- 
ing from  their  own  were  full  of  dismay  and  disaster ;  and  they  denied 
the  possibility  of  coming  to  any  other  result  by  any  logical  process  of 
thought  whatever. 


Slate   Rock. 


Accordingly  they  believed  those  deserving  of  the  severest  condem- 
nation who  maintained  any  doctrine  which,  according  to  the  construc- 
tion they  chose  to  put  upon  it  and  the  deductions  they  chose  to  draw 
from  it,  was  mischievous,  however  vehemently  those  holding  that  doc- 
trine might  repudiate  such  a  construction  and  such  deductions.  They 
assumed,  therefore,  not  merely  to  punish  the  propagation  of  error 
evidently  or  confessed  as  of  evil  intent  ;  they  were  no  less  eager  to 
visit  with  severe  penalties  any  doctrine  which  others  might  hold  to  be 
truthful  and  beneficent,  but  from  which  they  by  some  ingenious  intel- 
lectual process  could  deduce  a  possible  civil  offence  or  a  religious 
heresy. 


1640.] 


BOSTON   PURITANISM.  53 


It  was  to  the  last  degree  narrow-minded,  and,  as  narrow-mindedness 
always  is,  absurd.  But  these  people  were  not  the  less  sincere  because 
they  were  intolerant.  Bigotry,  though  it  be  ever  so  cruel,  is  not  neces- 
sarily dishonest,  and  there  can  be  no  rational  doubt  that  these  Puritan 

«/ 

bigots  were  for  the  most  part  upright  and  conscientious.  They  had 
braved  the  pains  and  perils  of  exile  from  homes  and  country  most 
dearly  loved  to  secure  their  own  inalienable  rights,  and  they 

J  ,  Its  bigotry. 

felt  to  the  very  marrow  of  their  bones  the  persecution  troin 
which  they  had  fled.  That  which  was  gained  was  the  more  precious 
for  the  price  that  was  paid  for  it,  and  they  could  not  intermit  their 
vigilance  in  guarding  a  possession  that  had  cost  so  much.  If  the 
weakness  of  passion  sometimes  blunted  the  finer  sense  of  justice,  this 
is  only  to  say  that  these  men  were  human,  —  that  great  suffering  had 
not  taught  them  perfect  charity. 

But  either  they  would  not  or  could  not  recognize  the  fact  that  be- 
cause they  had  gone  so  far  and  opened  the  way,  others  would  inevita- 
bly insist  upon  going  further;  that  the  limit  to  thought  and  to  freedom 
iu  matters  civil  and  religious  which  they  set  up  would  not  be  accepted 
by  others  because  they  themselves  were  satisfied  that  only  danger  and 
darkness  lay  beyond.  There  was  reason  enough  in  their  own  circum- 
stances and  in  their  relations  to  the  mother  country  for  the  exercise  of 
the  utmost  care  lest  liberty  should  become  license  ;  but  it  behooved 
them  of  all  men  to  make  no  mistake  in  drawing  the  dividing  line  be- 
tween license  and  liberty.  If  they  feared  the  harvest  was  to  be  of 
thorns  they  should  have  remembered  it  was  of  the  tree  they  planted; 
and  remembering  this  they  should  have  doubted  of  such  thorns  ;  they 
should  have  reflected  that  if,  Avhen  the  fruit  be  gathered,  it  should  be 
found  not  sharp  and  bitter,  but  of  exceeding  sweetness  and  whole- 
someness,  what  madness  it  would  have  been  to  lay  the  axe  at  the 
root  of  the  tree  that  bore  it. 

No  faith  could  be  more  profound  —  none  indeed  more  logical,  if  rest- 
ing on  a  sure  foundation  —  than  that  of  these  Boston  Puritans  in  their 
own  righteousness.     They  believed  that  the  Almighty  Power   Belie{  in  a 
which  created  and  governed  the  universe,  unseen  elsewhere  ^"^ec- 
and  of  other  men,  manifested  itself  visibly  and  unmistakably  tion- 
for  their  protection   and  in  approbation  of   their  lives   and   actions. 
It  was,  perhaps,  only  the  elect  few  who  recognized  in  all  its  marvellous 
majesty  this  impendency  of  the  Divine  presence  ;  to  common  people 
yet  subject  to  temptation  and  liable  to  sin,  God  may  have  seemed,  as 
He  does  always  to  ordinary  mortals,  afar  off.     But  to  those  who  did 
see  it,  this  visible  imminence  of  the  Almighty,  manifested  in  incidents 
that  might  otherwise  seem  trivial  or  fortuitous,  as  well  as  in  great 
events,  had  an  awful  meaning,  and  exercised  over  their  existence  an 


54  THE   BOSTON  PURITANS.  [CHAP.    III. 

irresistible  and  commanding  influence.  Life  must  needs  have  been  a 
very  stern  and  sombre  thing  to  men  who  believed  themselves  to  be 
standing  face  to  face  with  God,  to  have  entered  into  his  counsels,  to 
be  joined  with  Him  in  the  same  work,  to  be  justified  in  all  they  did  by 
constant  revelations  of  His  will,  or  warned  by  significant  punishments 
of  His  displeasure.  They  felt  quite  as  intensely  and  devoutly  as  men 
generally  feel  that  the  will  and  the  law  of  the  Infinite  Creator  gov- 
erned everywhere  and  always  —  omniscient  in  a  universe  without 
bounds ;  omnipresent  in  an  eternity  without  beginning  and  without 
end.  But  to  them  there  was  a  sense  of  a  personal  Divine  presence 
which  had  another  and  even  more  overwhelming  meaning :  God  him- 
self was  always  and  personally  in  Boston. 

This  belief  in  an  immediate  Providential  government  of  the  affairs 
of  New  England,  so  often  avowed  by  Winthrop  and  others  of  the  lead- 
ing Puritans,  was  more  profound  than  any  ordinary  superstition  ;  it 
was  a  fundamental  religious  faith.  Incidents  in  themselves  trivial 
were  "  special  Providences ;  "  events  of  larger  moment  and  wider 
consequence  were  "judgments  of  God."  He  before  whom  Moses  hid 
his  face,  and  who  said  "  I  am  the  God  of  thy  father,  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham, the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,"  was  again  a  real  per- 
sonal presence  upon  the  earth,  had  again  revealed  himself  to  his  own 
peculiar  people.  Their  wisdom  was  his  wisdom  ;  their  purposes  were 
his  purposes  ;  their  enemies  were  his  enemies.  He  shielded  them  in 
a  thousand  ways  from  trouble.  If  the  wicked  were  visited  with  mis- 
fortunes, it  was  because  they  were  wicked  in  His  estimation  as  well  as 
in  theirs.  If  mishap  sometimes  befell  the  good  it  was  to  remind  them 
of  their  dependence  upon  God,  or  to  rebuke  them  for  a  proneness  to 
forget  that  He  was  the  source  of  all  blessings.  In  either  case  it  was 
to  testify  His  immediate  presence,  or  His  approval  of  all  that  they 
thought  and  did  believing  it  to  be  His  will.  Thus  there  was  vouch- 
safed to  them  a  constant  revelation,  and  by  the  wise  its  voice  could 
never  be  mistaken. 

To  incidents  trifling  in  themselves  there  might  be  a  tremendous  im- 
gpeciai  port.  Among  a  thousand  books  in  a  chamber  where  also 
Providences.  wag  a  s(;Ore  of  corn<  ]av  a  volume  in  which  were  bound  up 

together  a  Greek  Testament,  the  Psalms,  and  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  It  was  a  thing  "worthy  of  observation,"  to  the  pious  Win- 
throp, that  a  mouse  should  have  entered  the  garret,  eaten  the  Prayer 
Book,  "  every  leaf  of  it,"  and  left  the  rest  untouched.  Could  this  be 
accident?  Was  it  a  mouse's  discrimination  ?  It  was  so  obvious  as  to 
need  only  to  be  pointed  out  that  by  this  humble  instrument  God  had 
chosen  to  testify  his  abhorrence  of  the  stated  prayers  of  an  idolatrous 
church. 


16-10.] 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCES. 


55 


Could  the  Lord  tolerate  false  doctrine  ?  There  was  no  want  of  an- 
swers. God  followed  Mrs.  Hutchinson  —  a  "  woman  who  had  the 
chiefe  rule  of  all  the  roast,  being  very  bold  in  her  strange  Revelations 
and  misapplications  "  —  and  her  family  to  New  Netherland,  where, 
says  Johnson,1  the  Indians  "  cruelly  murthered  her,  taking  one  of  their 
daughters  away  with  them,  and  another  of  them  seeking  to  escape,  is 
caught,  as  she  was  getting  over  a  hedge,  and  they  drew  her  back 
againe  by  the  haire  of  the  head  to  the  stump  of  a  tree,  and  there  cut 
off  her  head  with  a  hatchet."  But  this  was  "  the  loud-speaking  hand 
of  God  against  them."  A  barber  was  overtaken  by  a  storm  on  Bos- 
ton Neck  —  the  road  still  so  called,  and  leading  to  the  suburban  towns 
of  Roxbury  and  Dorchester  —  and  perished.  It  was  remembered  of 
him  when  his  frozen 
body  was  recovered 
from  the  snow,  that 
he  was  one  who  "  hav- 
ing a  fit  opportunity, 
by  reason  of  his  trade, 
so  soone  as  any  were 
set  downe  in  his 
chaire,  he  would  com- 
monly be  cutting  of 
their  haire  and  the 
truth  together."  2  In 
the  Hutchinson  con- 
troversy this  unhap- 
py man  had  been  so 
carried  away  by  his 
mistaken  zeal,  that  his  name  is  found  among  those  whose  arms  were 
taken  from  them.4  That  he  should  freeze  to  death  was  a  testimony  from 
the  Lord  that  an  antinomian  and  contumacious  barber,  who  for  the 
propagation  of  error,  so  misused  his  opportunities,  was  not  fit  to  live. 

Governor  Winthrop  called  it  a  notable  "  judgment  of  God,"  that 
twenty-one  barrels  of  gunpowder  should  explode  on  board  an  English 
ship  in  the  harbor  of  Charlestown,  killing  the  captain,  nine  or  ten  of 
his  crew,  and  some  others  ;  for  they  were  "  profane  scoffers,"  says  the 

1  Wonder-working  Providence  in  New  England,  ti^Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  ii.,  et  set/. 

2  Johnson's  Wonder  Working  Providence. 

!  This  house,  of  which  an  account  is  given  in  the  Historical  Magazine,  second  series, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  169  (number  for  September,  1867),  stands  on  Miuot  Street,  iiear  Chicatawbut 
Street,  in  the  part  of  Dorchester  called  Neponset,  now  annexed  to  Boston.  It  is  called 
the  "  Minot  House,"  from  the  iiiime  of  its  first  owner ;  and  is  asserted  to  be  the  oldest 
\cooden  house  iu  the  United  States. 

*  His  name  was  William  Diuely,  and  his  infant  son,  born  ten  days  after  the  father's 
death,  was  baptized  Fathergone.  Savage's  Winthrop.  Note,  vol.  L,  p.  345. 


Ruins  of  the  Oldest   House  now  standing  in   Boston;  built  in  1633. * 


56 


THE   BOSTON   PURITANS. 


[CHAP.   III. 


Governor,  "  at  us,  and  at  the  ordinances  of  religion  here."  Not  that 
they  were  irreligious  or  wicked  men  in  any  other  sense,  for  the  captain 
had  said,  when  questioned  for  his  absence  from  a  fast-day  meeting  in 
the  town,  that  "  they  had  as  good  service  on  board  as  we  had  on  shore." 
It  was  a  fatal  assumption  on  behalf  of  the  English  Church  ;  only  two 
hours  later  God  made  the  difference  manifest  by  tearing  ship  and  peo- 
ple to  atoms  ;  and  it  was  the  more  significant  that  a  shower  of  rain 
and  some  other  hindrances  were  sent  to  detain  from  the  coming  catas- 
trophe some  of  the  leading  Puritans  of  Boston,  who  were  on  their  way 
to  the  vessel.  The  Lord  protected  His  own,  and  sent  his  "judgment 
upon  those  scorners  of  his  ordinances  and  the  ways  of  his  servants." 

So  at  home  and  abroad,  in  great  things  and  in  small  things,  in  the 
affairs  of  individuals,  and  in  the  affairs  of  the  church  and  of  the  state, 
the  interference  of  Divine  Providence  was  manifested,  and  always  for 
the  protection  of  these  His  peculiar  people,  for  the  justification  of  their 
wisdom  and  virtue  in  thought  and  deed,  and  for  the  punishment  of 
their  enemies.  It  was  "  a  special  providence,"  Mr.  Winthrop  thought, 
that  set  a  neighbor's  hens  to  cackling  in  the  night  time,  and  aroused 
their  owner  to  discover  that  the  house  of  good  Mr.  Pelham  at  Cam- 
bridge, was  on  fire.  No  foolish  fowls  or  crowing  cocks  could  so  mis- 
take the  light  of  a  conflagration  for  the  break  of  day,  except  it  were 
to  bring  safety  to  a  man  so  truly  good. 

But  see  a  protecting  care  in  larger  measure  to  save  the  State. 
DiTine  inter-  When  one  Captain  Mason  built  in  London  a  ship  which  was 
to  bring  over  the  dreaded  General  Governor  for  New  Eng- 
land,  it  was  the  Lord  who  "  disappointed  and  frustrated  all 
the  designs  "  of  its  enemies  by  breaking  the  ship's  back  before  she 
had  left  the  stocks.  Mason  himself,  as  a  further  evidence  of  the  divine 
displeasure,  "  soon  after  fell  sick  and  died,"  not  even  death-bed  repent- 
ance availing  him  when  he  promised  that  "  if  he  recovered  to  be  as 
great  a  friend  to  New  England  [to  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
that  is,]  as  he  had  formerly  been  an  enemy."  So  also  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges  "  never  prospered,"  for  he  "  also  had  sided  with  our  adversaries 
against  us,  but  underhand,  pretending  by  his  letters  and  speeches  to 
seek  our  welfare." 

Even  some  rash  men,  returning  to  England  against  all  advice  and 
bearing  thither  no  good  report  of  the  people  and  the  country,  were 
beset  with  disaster,  tossed  up  and  down  by  tempests,  reduced  to 
painful  suffering  for  want  of  food,  and  only  escaped  shipwreck  when 
they  "  humbled  themselves  before  the  Lord,  and  acknowledged  God's 
hand  to  be  justly  out  against  them,  for  speaking  evil  of  this  good 
land  and  the  Lord's  people  here."  Nor  was  disaster  by  sea  the  end 
of  their  troubles.  On  shore,  "  some  were  exposed  to  great  straits, 


political'11 


1640.]  DIVINE  INTERPOSITION.  57 

and  found  no  entertainment,  their  friends  forsaking  them ; "  the 
daughter  of  one  of  them  soon  went  mad,  and  a  worse  fate  befell 
two  of  her  sisters,  who  were  debauched  ;  a  schoolmaster,  the  worst  of 
these  slanderers  of  the  saints,  who  succeeded  in  gathering  a  school 
about  him,  was  ruined  by  the  plague  by  which  his  pupils  were  dis- 
persed and  two  of  his  own  children  taken  away  from  him. 

They  saw  the  hand  of  the  Lord  raised  over  them  in  special  protec- 
tion, or  in  special  rebuke  in  evidences  like  these  many  times,  from 
year  to  year,  in  many  places  in  the  old  world  and  the  new.  Only  a 
few  months  before  these  evil-minded  passengers  were  followed  across 
the  Atlantic  by  the  divine  wrath,  a  mail  carrier  was  overtaken  by  a 
freshet  on  his  way  to  Boston  from  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  where  a  ship 
had  just  arrived  from  England.  His  companion  was  lost  beneath  the 
ice,  but  he  was  permitted  to  escape,  for  "  he  had  about  him  all  the 
letters  from  England  which  were  brought  in  the  ship,  which  sure  were 
the  occasion  of  God's  preserving  him,  more  than  any  goodness  of  the 
man."  Again,  "  a  special  providence  of  God  appeared  "  in  the  case 
of  a  burning  house  in  Roxbury,  for  some  one  remembered  and  gave 
warning  in  season  that  there  was  a  store  of  gunpowder  within,  and 
though  the  explosion  was  like  an  earthquake,  and  burning  cinders 
were  carried  even  beyond  Boston  meeting-house,  yet  was  no  man  in- 
jured. But  the  loss  of  the  powder  was  the  more  observable,  inasmuch 
as  the  General  Court  had  neglected  to  pay  for  it,  and  had  refused  to 
lend  a  portion  of  it  both  to  Virginia  and  to  Plymouth,  when  those 
colonies  were  in  danger  of  an  attack  from  the  Indians,  and  were  with- 
out adequate  means  of  defence.  It  was  thus  that  Heaven  chose  to 
remind  its  servants  that  neither  commercial  contracts  nor  the  claims 
of  humanity  could  be  ignored  with  impunity  even  in  Boston. 

Puerile  as  such  incidents  may  seem  to  the  robuster  common  sense 
of  later  times,  and  easy  as  it  is  to  bring  to  their  interpretation  the  test 
of  reason,  they  had  a  tremendous  meaning  to  the  Boston  Puritans. 
Why,  for  example,  should  the  Lord  destroy  the  powder  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  at  one  time  because  it  was  not  sent  to  the  Virginians  to 
be  used  for  their  defence  against  the  Indians,  when  the  next  year  it 
was  the  divine  will  that  these  Virginians,  then  no  better  and  no  worse, 
should  be  destroyed  by  the  savages  ?  But  counsel  was  not  taken  of 
human  reason.  In  the  later  event  Governor  Winthrop  could  only  see 
in  the  desolation  of  Virginia,  that  "  it  was  very  observable  that  the 
massacre  came  upon  them  soon  after  they  had  driven  out  the  Puritan  in. 
godly  ministers  we  had  sent  to  them,  and  had  made  an  order  ^^^ 
that  all  such  as  would  not  conform  to  the  discipline  of  the  disasters- 
church  of  England  should  depart  the  country  by  a  certain  day,  .... 
and  many  were  forced  to  give  glory  to  God  in  acknowledging  that 


58 


THE   BOSTON  PURITANS. 


[CHAP.  III. 


this  evil  was  sent  upon  them  from  God  for  their  reviling  the  gospel 
and  those  faithful  ministers  he  had  sent  among  them."  The  essential 
thing  was,  not  whether  the  Virginians  had  or  had  not  gunpowder  ; 
whether  they  could  or  could  not  defend  themselves  against  the  In- 
dians ;  but  that  Boston  might  be  rebuked  or  justified  in  whatever 
happened  to  them  in  which  she  had  any  concern.  It  was  not  that 
God  cared  much  about  Virginia. 

The  sign  sought  for  in  any  coincidence  of  events  was  always  the 
divine  approval  of  the  gospel  according  to  the  Puritans,  and  all  that 
the  Puritans  did  to 
establish  that  gos- 
pel. Thus  it  was 
because  certain 
men  of  Hingham 
put  out  upon  the 
Bay  with  a  raft  of 
timber,  upon  a  fast 
day,  that  a  tem- 
pest descended  up- 
on them,  the  tim- 
ber was  nearly  all 
lost,  and  the  men 
came  near  drown- 
ing ;  for  they 
scoffed  at  a  fast 
appointed  by  the 
magistrates  in  Bos- 
ton, following  their 
pastor,  the  Rev. 

Peter    Hobart       "  a  Hingham  Meeting  House,  built  1681.* 

bold  man,  who  would  speak  his  mind,"  and  who 
had  notions  of  his  own,  on  things  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical. Winthrop  notes  this  incident  as  "  a 
special  providence  of  God,  pointing  out  his  dis- 
pleasure against  these  profane  persons." 

And  when  not  long  after,  intelligence  was  received  of  the  loss  by 
shipwreck,  on  the  coast  of  Wales,  of  Governor  Kieft  and  eighty 
other  persons  of  New  Netherland,  the  Massachusetts  governor  speaks 
of  it  as  "  an  observable  hand  of  God  against  the  Dutch  at  New  Neth- 
erlands, which  though  it  were  sadly  to  be  lamented  in  regard  of  the 
calamity,  yet  there  appeared  in  it  so  much  of  God  in  favor  of  his  poor 
people  here,  and  displeasure  towaixls  such  as  have  opposed  and  injured 

i  This  is  the  oldest  Meeting  House  now  standing  in  North  America. 


1640.]  CHARACTER  OF  PURITAN  INTOLERANCE.  50 

them  as  is  not  to  be  passed  by  without  due  observation  and  acknowl- 
edgment." Quite  as  observable  is  it  that  his  religious  faith  had  not 
overcome  the  natural  man  in  the  good  governor,  whose  kindness  of 
heart  speaks  out  in  spite  of  his  stern  theology. 

Men  who  had  this  abiding  faith  that  they  were  under  the  special 
protection  of  Providence  in  a  way  and  to  a  degree  that  was  not  ex- 
tended to  the  rest  of  God's  creatures  ;  —  faith  that  God  manifested,  in 
the  events  of  every-day  life,  his  approval  in  what  they  did  and  in  what 
they  refrained  from  doing;  —  faith  in  the  divine  sanction  of  all  they 
believed,  of  the  divine  condemnation  of  all  which  they  held  to  be 
error,  making  thus  their  limit  to  the  freedom  of  thought  God's  limit 
also ;  —  men  with  such  a  faith,  being  human  became  intolerant,  and 
being  intolerant,  became  persecutors.  It  was  not  merely,  as  they  held, 
that  no  further  discovery  was  possible  of  moral  or  religious  truth  ;  but 
that  the  truth  already  discovered  and  established  could  not  be  trusted 
to  compete  with  error.  They  recognized  the  direct  interposition  of  God 
in  arresting  false  doctrines  and  in  punishing  those  who  held  and  spread 
them;  what  else  could  they  do  but  follow  the  divine  example  ?  There 
was  a  singular  and  unquestioning  confidence  in  their  own  righteous- 
ness which  seems  inexplicable  except  by  their  unshaken  conviction 
that  they  were,  even  as  the  angels  of  heaven,  at  one  with  God,  and 
understood  His  will  as  it  was  given  to  no  others  to  understand  it. 

"  It  is  said,"  —  wrote  a  Puritan  writer,  whose  seriousness  and  piety 
were  none  the  less  because  of  his  wit,  and  his  authority  and  influence 
none  the  less  because  of  his  pedantry  and  his  affectation  of  popuiarap_ 
quaintness  —  "  It  is  said,  That  Men  ought  to  have  Liberty  of  £freiib"m°of 
their  Conscience,  and  that  it  is  Persecution  to  debar  them  of  conscience- 
it ;  I  can  rather  stand  amazed  than  reply  to  this  :  it  is  an  astonish- 
ment to  think  that  the  braines  of  men  should  be  parboyl'd  in  such 
impious  ignorance  :  Let  all  the  wits  under  the  Heavens  lay  their 
heads  together  and  find  an  Assertion  worse  than  this  (one  excepted) 
I  will  Petition  to  be  chosen  the  universal  Ideot  of  the  world."  1  Not 
a  Puritan  in  Massachusetts,  that  Massachusetts  could  tolerate,  but 
would  agree  with  this.  For  so  surely  as  it  was  divine  wisdom  that 
led  the  Puritan  out  of  the  Church  of  England,  so  it  was  not  liberty 
of  conscience  but  license  of  the  devil  that  would  lead  one  inch  beyond 
the  Church  of  Boston. 

1  The  Simple  Cobler  of  Agtjawam  in  America,  by  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward  of  Ipswich, 
Mass.  This  eminent  Puritan  clergyman  exhausts  the  peculiarity  of  style  which  distin- 
guishes him  when  writing  of  toleration.  "  How,"  he  says,  "  all  Religious  should  eiijov 
their  liberty,  Justice  its  due  regularity,  Civil  cohabitation  moral  honesty,  in  one  and  the 
same  Jurisdiction,  is  l>cyond  the  Artique  of  my  comprehension.  If  the  whole  conclave  of 
Hell  can  so  compromise,  exadverse,  and  diametrical  contradict  ions,  as  to  compolitize  such  a 
niultimonstrous  maufrey  of  hetcroclytes  and  quicquidlibets  quietly  ;  I  trust  I  may  sav  with 
all  humble  reverence,  they  can  do  more  than  the  Senate  of  Heaven." 


60 


THE   BOSTON   PURITANS. 


[CHAP.      III. 


"  We  have  been  reputed,"  writes  the  same  author,  "  a  Colluvies  of 
wild  Opinionists,  swarmed  into  a  remote  wilderness  to  find  elbow  room 
for  our  Phanatic  Doctrines  and  practises ;  I  trust  our  diligence  past 
and  constant  sedulity  against  such  persons  and  courses,  will  plead 
better  things  for  us.  I  dare  take  upon  me,  to  be  the  Herauld  of  New 
England  so  far,  as  to  proclaim  to  the  World,  in  the  name  of  our 
Colony,  that  all  Familists,  Anti-nomians,  Anabaptists,  and  other  En- 
thusiasts shall  have  free  Liberty  to  keep  away  from  us,  and  such  as 
will  come  to  be  gone  as  fast  as  they  can,  the  sooner  the  better." 

Nor  was  this  merely  an  expression  of  opinion  ;  it  was  the  avowal 
of  a  policy.  Non-conformists  in  Old  England  who  became 
p^iiry°of  the  Separatists  almost  before  they  were  off  soundings  on  their 
voyage  to  New  England,  could  hardly  escape  the  suspicion  of 
encouraging  the  utmost  latitudinarianism.  Men  who  had  secretly 
provided  that  the  royal  charter  should  go  with  them  to  their  new 
home,1  well  knew  that  their  purpose  of  self-government  was  very  likely 
to  be  construed  into  a  purpose  of  independent  government  and  free- 
dom of  religious  opinion.  There  was  suspicion  to  be  done  away  with, 
and  a  good  reputation  to  be  established  even  with  that  class  of  their 
countrymen  who  might  seek,  as  they  had  sought,  to  escape  from  the 
imminent  storm  in  England,  and  to  find  an  asylum  beyond  the  obser- 
vation, if  not  actually  beyond  the  reach,  of  king  and  bishops.  Thev 
could  not,  indeed,  choose  who  should  follow  them  to  that  place  of 
safety  ;  but  they  could  show  that  it  was  a  place  of  safety  only  to  those 
who,  like  themselves,  believed  neither  too  little  nor  too  much.  There 
was  no  doubt  in  their  minds  that  they  apprehended  the  will  of  God 
and  did  it ;  but  they  were  not  so  different  from  other  men  of  other 
times  that  their  religious  convictions  were  uninfluenced  by  mere  worldly 
considerations,  by  pride  of  opinion,  by  an  imperfect  compi'ehension  of 
avowed  principles,  by  an  impatient  intolerance  of  all  those  who  de- 
clined to  accept  that  measure  of  truth,  no  more  no  less,  which  they 
maintained  was  the  only  correct  measure. 

The  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  its  founders  meant  should  be  a 
virtuous,  a  happy,  and  a  prosperous  commonwealth  ;  but  it  was  to'  be 
so  strictly  in  accordance  with  their  own  notions  of  what  constituted 
virtue,  happiness,  and  prosperity,  and  there  was  no  welcome  and  no 
toleration  among  them  of  any  other  opinions  than  their  own.  The 
cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  they  maintained  as  they  understood 
it,  and  up  to  that  point  which  they  had  themselves  reached ;  and  they 
would  have  arrested  all  further  progress  at  that  point  if  they  could. 
But  man  only  proposes.  It  was  well  for  humanity,  civilization,  and 
religion,  that  they  were  as  good  as  they  were,  and  did  as  much  as 

1  See  vol.  i.,  p.  521,  at  seq. 


1641.]  EARLY    LAWS    OF   MASSACHUSETTS.  61 

they  did  ;  that  they  were  no  better  and  did  no  more  was  their  loss, 
not  the  world's.  Where  they  stopped,  others  went  forward. 

But  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  they  were  as  rigid  and  uncom- 
promising in  their  ideas  of  morality  as  in  their  religious  prin-  Puritan 
ciples.     If  they  aimed  to  measure  and  limit  thought  by  a  laws 
standard  which   they   believed   God   himself  had  prescribed,  so  they 
were  equally  sincere  and  unwearied  in  their  efforts  to  make  men's 
lives  conform  to  the  same  rule  of  absolute  right.    Their  whole  method 
of  government,  whatever  they  did  and  whatever  they  proposed  to  do, 
can  only  be  fairly  considered  in  the  light  of  their  own  understanding 
of  their  responsibility,  and  wisdom,  and  righteousness. 

The  first  code  of  laws  drawn  up  at  the  request  of  the  General  Court, 
by  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  was  taken  entirely  from  the  Old  Testament. 
It  was  not,  indeed,  accepted,  but  another  was  substituted  of  which  the 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward,  —  who 
knew    something    of    Roman 
as  well  as  Jewish  law— was 
the  author.1     He  was  lawyer 
enough    to  know  that   there 
were  necessities  of  society  in  Signature  of  Rev  Nathaniel  Ward 

the  17th  century  which  were  not  provided  for  in  the  laws  of  Moses. 
But  the  idea  of  government,  nevertheless,  was  largely  formed  from  a 
study  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  To  exercise  an  immediate  super- 
vision over  the  conduct  of  every  individual  in  the  community,  in  all 
his  private  as  well  as  public  acts  and  relations,  was  to  govern  men  in 
acccordance  with  the  will  of  God.  A  glance  at  some  of  their  laws 
shows  the  spirit  of  their  rule,  and  how  infallible  their  belief  was  that 
the  world  could  be  made  perfect  if  it  was  only  governed  enough,  and 
governed  in  absolute  accordance,  nothing  beyond  it  and  nothing  short 
of  it,  with  the  Puritanism  which  they  professed. 

1  The  code  drawn  up  by  Cotton  was  published  in  London  in  1641,  and  entitled,  "  An 
Abstract  of  the  Laws  of  New  England  as  they  are  now  established."  But  they  never  were 
the  established  laws  of  either  Massachusetts  or  New  England,  though  it  was  long  believed, 
as  that  publication  asserted,  that  they  were.  The  "  Body  of  Liberties,"  which  was  the  work 
of  Mr.  Ward,  and  adopted  in  1641,  was  in  reality  the  first  Constitution  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  foundation  of  subsequent  constitutions.  Mr.  Ward  preached  the  election  sermon 
that  year,  —  "a  moral  and  political  discourse,"  says  Winthrop,  "  grounding  his  proposi- 
tions much  upon  the  old  Roman  and  Grecian  governments,  which  sure  is  an  error."  Laws 
had  better,  the  governor  thought,  be  taken  from  the  Bible,  than  "  on  the  authority  of  the 
wisdom,  justice,  etc.,  of  those  heathen  commonwealths."  Mr.  Ward  thought  something 
could  be  learned  from  Justinian  as  well  as  Moses.  The  first  article  of  this  code  provided 
that  the  rights  of  person  and  property  in  the  citizen  should  l>c  inviolate  except  by  express 
law,  or  in  default  of  that  by  "  the  word  of  God."  What  might  be  just  and  requisite 
under  the  "  word "  was  to  be  decided  by  the  General  Court.  See  Savage's  \Vintliro/>. 
Hutehinson's  History,  and  especially  a  paper  on  the  "  Abstract  "  of  Cotton,  and  the  "  Body 
of  Liberties"  of  Ward,  by  F.  C.  Gray,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Third  Series,  vol.  via. 


THE    HOSTOX   PURITANS. 


[CHAP.    111. 


The  sale  of  everything  was  regulated  by  law,  with  such  minuteness 
Sumptuary  as  *°  reac^  the  cost  °f  a  meal  at  an  inn,  and  even  the  price 
regulations.  of  a  pOj.  o£  beer  between  meals.  The  law  fixed  tlie  price  of 
all  commodities,  of  all  labor,  and  of  all  servants'  wages.  The  use  of 
tobacco  was  early  forbidden  in  all  public  houses  and  places ;  and 
though  one  might  smoke  it  in  his  own  house,  it  was  unlawful  to  do  so 
before  strangers,  or  for  one  person  to  use  it  in  company  of  another. 
Fashion  in  dress  was  the  subject  of  much  anxious  and  stringent  legis- 
lation. In  the  early  days  of  the  colony,  all  apparel  which  any  man 
or  woman  should  make  or  buy  was  forfeited  by  law  if  it  had  upon  it 


Costumes  about  the   Middle  of  the  Seventeenth  Century. 

any  lace,  whether  of  gold,  silver,  silk,  or  thread  ;  the  same  penalty 
attached  to  any  garment  with  more  than  one  slash  in  each  sleeve,  and 
one  in  the  back  ;  to  all  "  cuttworks,  embroidered  or  needle-work 
capps,  bands  and  rayles  ; "  to  "  golde  or  silver  girdles,  hattbands, 
belts,  ruffs,  and  beaver  hats."  The  size  of  the  sleeve  in  any  dress 
for  women  was  limited  to  a  width  of  half  an  ell,  and  none  were  to  be 
made  "  with  short  sleeves  whereby  the  nakedness  of  the  arm  may  be 
discovered  in  the  wearing  thereof." 

But  to  enforce  laws  in  such  matters  was,  the  General  Court  at  last 
acknowledged,  exceedingly  difficult ;  "  in  regard,"  they  said,  "  of  the 
blindnes  of  mens  minds  and  the  stubbournnes  of  theire  wills."  So 
difficult,  indeed,  did  they  find  it,  that  in  1651  they  gave  it  up  so  far 


1G41.] 


SUMPTUARY    LAWS. 


63 


as  it  concerned  magistrates,  civil  and  military  officers,  persons  of  edu- 
cation and  employment  "  above  the  ordinary  degree,"  those  who  were 
worth  two  hundred  pounds,  and  those  whose  estates  had  been  consid- 
erable but  had  decayed  —  all  those,  in  a  word,  called  of  the  better 
class  —  were  exempted  from  these  sumptuary  laws.  But  the  Court  felt 
itself  called  upon  to  declare  the  more  emphatically  their  "  utter  detes- 
tation and  dislike  that  men  or  women  of  meane  condition,  educations, 
and  callinges,  should  take  vpon  them  the  garbe  of  gentlemen,  by  the 
wearinge  of  gold  or  siluer  lace,  or  buttons  or  poynts  at  theire  knees,  to 
walke  in  greate  bootes  ;  or  women  of  the  same  ranke  to  weare  silk  or 


Costumes  about  the   Middle  of   the   Seventeenth   Century. 

tiffany  hoodes  or  scarfes,  which,  though  allowable  to  persons  of  greater 
estates,  or  more  liberal  education,  yet  we  can  not  but  judge  it  intol- 
erable in  persons  of  such  like  condition."  Either  something  of  the  sim- 
plicity of  character  that  belonged  to  the  early  Puritans  was  lost  in 
the  first  quarter  of  a  century,  or  resistance  against  the  assertions  of 
rank  and  fashion  was  found  to  be  useless. 

Long  hair  in  men  was  early  prohibited,  as  "  uncomely  and  preju- 
dicial to  the  common  good,"  and  a  few  years  later  it  was  pronounced 
as  "  sinful."  The  governor,  deputy-governor,  and  magistrates  formed 
an  association  to  suppress  an  evil  so  "  contrary  to  the  rule  of  God's 
word  ; "  the  elders  were  exhorted  to  testify  against  it  from  the  pulpit, 
and  "  to  take  care  that  the  members  of  their  respective  churches  be 
not  defiled  therewith." 


64  THE  BOSTON  PURITANS.  [CHAP.   III. 

The  government  aimed  to  be  paternal.  The  selectmen  of  the  towns 
were  required  to  have  a  special  oversight  of  the  education,  behavior, 
and  occupations  of  the  children  within  their  jurisdiction.  This  power 
of  supervision  extended  to  all  families,  and  not  merely  to  those  who, 
Paternal  as  *n  a^  communities,  are  unworthy,  from  poverty,  or  indo- 
character  jence,  or  vicious  habits,  to  be  trusted  with  the  care  of  their 
government.  own  offspring.  The  magistrates  were  to  see  that  all  young 
people  were  not  only  taught  to  read,  to  understand  the  principles  of 
religion,  and  the  character  of  the  laws,  but  also  to  spin,  to  knit,  and  to 
weave  ;  for  a  fixed  quantity  of  "  lining,  cotten,  or  wooling  "  was  re- 
quired to  be  spun  by  each  family,  and  the  selectmen  regulated  the 
sowing  of  flax  and  the  raising  of  sheep.  These  officers  were  to  take 
care  that  boys  and  girls  were  not  "  suffered  to  converse  together  so  as 
may  occasion  any  wanton,  dishonest,  or  immodest  behaviour ; "  and  to 
further  regulate  the  relations  of  the  young  people,  it  was  provided  by 
law  that  "  no  person  shall  endeavour  directly  or  indirectly  to  draw 
away  the  affections  of  any  maid  ....  under  pi'etence  of  marriage,  be- 
fore he  hath  attained  liberty  and  allowance  from  her  parents  or  gov- 
ernors," or,  in  the  absence  of  these,  from  the  court  of  the  shire.  When 
this  last  was  obtained  the  courting  could  go  on  under  a  magistrate's 
warrant,  but  not  otherwise. 

This  latter  law  was  meant  to  correct  an  evil  the  prevalence  of 
which  is  the  more  remarkable  among  a  people  whose  piety  was  so 
fervid,  and  where  any  breach  of  morality  was  so  rigorously  visited. 
"  Marvilious  it  may  be,"  exclaims  Governor  Bradford,  "  to  see  and 
consider  how  some  kind  of  wickednes  did  grow  and  break  forth  here," 
notwithstanding  the  austerity  of  public  opinion  and  the  severity  of  the 
law,  both  exceeding  that  of  any  place  he  ever  knew  or  heard  of,  and 
the  latter  so  relentless  as  to  be  "  somewhat  censured  by  moderate  and 
good  men."  Of  these  wickednesses,  "  unclainnes  "  was  one.  No  pen- 
Relations  of  alty»  even  unto  death,  was  left  untried  to  keep  the  sexes 
the  sexes.  .  wjthin  decent  bounds  in  their  relations  to  each  other,  and  to 
restrain  men  from  the  most  unnatural  and  beastly  indulgence  of  pas- 
sion. So  common  were  such  sins  that  Bradford  suggests  as  one 
reason  for  their  frequency  that  "  the  Divell  may  carrie  a  greater  spite 
against  the  Churches  of  Christ  and  the  gospell  hear,"  and  that  "  Satane 
hath  more  power  in  these  Heathen  lands,  as  som  have  thought,  then 
in  more  Chi'istian  nations,  espetially  over  God's  servants  in  them." 
His  more  rational  explanation,  however,  is  that  the  very  strictness  of 
the  law  defeated  its  purpose,  and  was,  in  some  degree,  responsible  for 
unrestrained  outbreaks  of  lechery  ;  and  that  in  a  small  community 
it  was  the  more  difficult  for  crime  to  be  hidden.1  Among  other  laws 

1  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  pp.  385,  386. 


- 


1G41.] 


LAWS   AGAINST   VARIOUS   OFFENCES. 


65 


Th«   Pillory. 


relating  to  this  subject  was  one  forbidding  men  and  women,  whose 
wives  and  husbands  were  not  with  them,  to  remain  in  the  countiy, 
unless  to  prepare  for  new  homes,  or  for 
purposes  of  trade  for  a  brief  season. 

Lying,  whether  intended  to  injure  pri- 
vate persons,  or  to  deceive  the  public 
"by  false  newes  or  reports,"  was  pun- 
ished by  exposing  the  culprit  in  the 
stocks  or  by  public  whipping.1  License 
of  speech  was  never  tolerated,  though 
the  distinction  between  license  and  lib- 
erty was  not  always  recognized.  "  Re- 
viling speeches,"  "  uncomely  speeches 
and  obscean,"  were  often  punished.  Mr. 
Shorthose,  for  example,  it  is  recorded, 
was  sentenced  "  to  have  his  tongue  put 
into  a  cleft  stick  and  stand  so  by  the 
space  of  haulfe  an  houre,"  for  swearing 
by  "  the  blood  of  God  ;  "  and  the  un- 
ruly member  of  the  wife  of  Thomas 
Aplegate,  was  subjected  to  similar  dis- 
cipline for  "  swearing,  raileing,  and  revileing."  Later,  a  fixed  penalty 
was  adjudged  for  profane  swearing  "  either  by  the  holy  name  ^WSSLffLiMt 
of  God  or  any  other  oath."  To  make  this  law  more  effective  blMPhemy 
it  was  afterward  enacted  that  the  fine  should  be  doubled,  or  the  cul- 
prit whipped,  if  he  swore  more  than  one  oath  at  a  time. 

In  the  fundamental  law,  the  "  Body  of  Liberties,"  it  was  provided 
that  whoever  shall  blaspheme  the  name  of  God,  the  Father,  the  Son, 
or  the  Holy  Ghost,  should  be  put  to  death.  Profane  language,  there- 
fore, was  not  held  to  be  necessarily  blasphemous,  however  immoral. 
But  to  deny  that  any  one  of  the  books  of  the  Old  or  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost  and  contained  the  will  of  God, 
was  no  less  a  crime  than  blasphemy.  Whoever  committed  it,  whether 
on  sea  or  land,  was  to  be  fined  or  severely  whipt  for  the  first  offence, 
and  for  the  second,  put  to  death. 

Punishments  were,  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  colony,  largely  at  the 
discretion  of  the  magistrates  ;    nearly  twenty  years  passed  Puni8h. 
away  before  any  penalty  was  provided  by  statute  even  for  ments 

1  Such  a  law  may  not  have  been  without  reason,  if  one  who  wrote  of  the  manners  and 
character  of  the  people  of  New  England  as  late  as  1686,  was  not  himself  a  fair  subject  for 
its  penalties.  Speaking  of  a  friend  in  Boston,  he  says  :  "  And  this  was  a  noted  quality  in 
him,  that  he  would  always  tell  the  truth  ;  which  is  a  practice  so  uncommon  in  New  Eng- 
land, that  I  could  not  but  value  his  friendship."  Had  this  been  said  in  Boston  instead  of 
in  London,  the  writer  would  have  been  set  in  the  stocks.  —  John  Dunton's  Journal,  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Second  Series,  vol.  ii. 


n. 


THE   BOSTON   PURITANS. 


[ClIAP.       HI. 


the  crimes  of  burglary  or  violence  against  the  person.1  Subsequently 
the  punishment  for  burglary  was  branding  on  the  forehead.  Such 
marks,  indelible,  or  conspicuous  for  a  certain  period,  to  designate 
criminals,  to  hold  the  culprits  up  to  public  terror  and  expose  them  to 
public  humiliation,  may,  perhaps,  have  been  resorted  to  in  the  absence 
of  any  safe  place  of  confinement.  Boston  had  her  jail  at  an  early 
day,  and  so  possibly  had  one  or  two  others  of  the  larger  places  ;  but 
it  was  not  till  1655  that  houses  of  correction  were  provided  for  each 
county.  At  any  rate,  it  was  the  punishment  and  not  the  reformation 
of  criminals  which  the  magistrates  and  the  court  had  in  view  when 
they  affixed  upon  the  faces  or  the  clothing  of  offenders,  who  were 
allowed  to  be  at  large,  marks  of  ignominy  which  must  set  them  apart 
from  their  fellow-men. 

Thieves  and  drunkards  were  exposed  to  public  scorn  with  placards 
upon  their  breasts  inscribed  with  capital  letters  to  denote  their  of- 
fences. Dunton  saw  an  English  woman  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  who, 
for  having  admitted  an  Indian  to  some  "  unlawful  freedoms,"  was 
compelled  to  wear  upon  her  right  arm  the  figure  of  an  Indian  cut  in 
red  cloth.2  In  a  certain  case  where  the  general  court  and  the  jury  did 
not  agree  as  to  the  evidence  offered  where  the  crime  charged  was  blas- 
phemy, the  court  decided  that  the  accused  should  be  severely  whipped 
in  the  market-place,  then  burnt  in  the  forehead  with  the  letter  B, 
and  banished  from  the  colony.  The  cognate  offence  of  contempt  of 
the  "  word  preached,"  or  contemptuous  behavior  towards  the  preacher, 
thus  "  making  God's  wayes  contemptible  and  ridicules  "  was  punished 
in  a  manner  meant  to  eradicate  the  crime  by  exposing  the  criminal  to 
peculiar  ignominy.  If  the  offence  was  a  second  time  committed  the 
culprit  was  exhibited  for  "  two  houres  openly  upon  a  block  4  foote 
high,  on  a  lecture  day,  with  a  paper  fixed  on  his  breast  with  this,  A 
WANTON  GOSPELLER,  written  in  capital  letters."  In  1677  another 
law  was  passed,  intended  not  merely,  probably  not  chiefly,  for  the  vul- 
gar Sabbath-breaker,  but  for  the  more  contumacious  citizen,  the  dis- 
turber for  conscience  sake  of  public  worship  ;  he  was  to  be  taken  to 
Boston,  or  any  other  town  where  such  accommodation  was  provided, 
and  confined  in  a  cage  in  the  open  marketplace  till  such  time  as  the 

1  The  natural  inference  that  such  crimes  were  uncommon  is  not  necessarily  correct.     It 
is  no  proof  that  burglary  was  or  was  not  common,  but  it  is  an  incident  worth  noting  as 
indicating  a  rather  unusual  degree  of  lawlessness,  that  two  young  men  of  twenty  years  of 
age,  both  students  of  Harvard,  one  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward,  the  other  a  son  of 
an  equally  well-known  clergyman,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Welde,  of  Roxbury,  were  detected 
in  robbing  two  houses  at  different  times.     They  were  first  whipped  by  the  president  of  the 
college,  and  it  was  then  ordered  by  the  court  that  the  punishment  be  doubled,  or  the  young 
men  inipri>oneil.  —  Sticaye's   Wirtthrop.     Coffin's  History  of  Newbury. 

2  John  Dunton  s  Journal,  \>.  100. 


1641.] 


PURITAN   SPIRIT   AND    PRACTICE. 


67 


magistrates  should  find  it  convenient  to  give  him  a  trial.  Notwith- 
standing the  severity  of  such  laws,  however,  the  "  wanton  gospeller  " 
has  not  been  exterminated  in  Massachusetts  even  unto  this  day.1 

Such  was  the  spirit  of  the  religion  and  the  laws  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Puritans.     They  were  to  govern  in  the  name  of  God, 

,  .  .         ,  .  ,.  Puritan 

who  had  there  set  up  his  kingdom  in  a  peculiar  manner.  *piritand 

...  T     •  practice. 

As    they   themselves,  however,   were   not  divine,  but  were 
moved  by  human  passions  and  limited  by  human   weaknesses,  it  was 

a  natural,  if  not  an  in- 
evitable consequence 
that  they  should  be  in- 
tolerant of  opinions 
which  differed  from 
their  own,  and  should 
sometimes  prosecute 


those  whose  con- 
duct did  not  square 
with  their  idea  of 
what  obedience  to 
God  demanded  and 


A  Wanton  Gospeller 


the  good  order  of  society  required. 

When,  therefore,  it  turned  out  that  the  "•  wild  opinionists,"  with 
their  "phanatic  Doctrines  and  practises,"  their  "  multi-monstrous  mau- 
frey  of  heteroclytes  and  quicquidlibets,"  were  swarming  about  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay,  it  was  no  wonder  that  Governor  Winthrop  and  others 
should  believe  —  and  he  used  the  words  in  literal  faith  —  that  "  at 
Providence  the  devil  was  not  idle."  He  was  never  busier,  never  doing 
more  fatal  mischief,  it  was  believed,  than  when  he  was  exciting  the- 
ological controversy  to  its  whitest  heat. 

1  For  all  these  early  laws  see  Massachusetts  Records. 


THE   BOSTON   PURITANS. 


[CHAP.    111. 


Among  the  earlier  settlers  at  Portsmouth,  Rhode  Island,  was  one 
?amuei  GOT-  Samuel  Gorton,  who  soon  proved  himself  to  be  a  singularly 


lull. 


incomprehensible,  obstinate  disputant,  and  incorrigible  citi- 
zen ;  "  a  man,"  says  Hubbard,  "  of  an  haughty  spirit,  and  very  heret- 
ical principles,  a  prodigious  minter  of  exorbitant  novelties,  even  the 
very  dregs  of  Familism."  1  The  same  author  says  that  he  left  Boston 
soon  after  arriving  there  because  of  a  demand  for  an  unpaid  debt 
which  followed  him  from  England.  The  charge  would  be  hardly 
worthy  of  belief  even  on  better  authority  than  that  of  Hubbard  ;  for 
in  all  the  acrimonious  strife  in  which  Gorton  was  involved  for  so  many 
years,  and  in  all  the  persecution  with  which  he  was  pursued,  there  was 
no  question  of  his  integrity.  "  Whose  ox  or  whose  ass  have  I  taken," 
—  he  said  in  a  letter  of  defence  and  defiance,  written  in  1669  —  "  or 
when  or  where  have  I  lived  upon  other  men's  labours,  and  not  wrought 
with  my  own  hands,  for  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  men,  to  eat  my 
own  bread  ?  "  2  No  one  gainsaid  him,  as  some  one  of  his  opponents 
would  certainly  have  done  had  it  been  easy.  For  at  a  period  remark- 
able for  the  exceeding  ingenuity  developed  among  men  to  make  them- 
selves hateful  to  their  fellows,  Gorton  showed  himself  to  possess  pre- 
eminent ability;  and  his  reputation  for  morality  would  have  been  —  as 
it  was  for  righteousness  —  picked  clean  to  the  bone,  had  he  ever  laid 
himself  open  to  such  an  attack. 

From  Boston  he  went  to  Plymouth.  Antinomianism  was  not  neces- 
sai'ily  responsible  for  his  first  conflict  with  the  Plymouth  au- 
thorities,  as  its  occasion  was  his  public  defence  of  a  servant 
in  his  own  family,  who  having  permitted  herself,  unfortunately,  to  smile 
in  church,  was  declared  by  that  token  to  be  a  heretic  and  a  scoffer, 
and  unworthy  to  remain  in  a  Christian  community.3  But  he  began 
about  this  time  to  exercise  his  gift  of  preaching,  persuaded  that  he  had 
"  a  call  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ,  not  inferiour  to  any  minister  in 
this  countrey,  tho',"  as  he  afterward  said,  "  I  was  not  bred  up  in  the 
schools  of  humane  learning,  and  I  bless  God  that  I  never  was,  least 
I  had  been  drowned  in  pride  and  ignorance."  4  He  soon  preached 
himself  out  of  Plymouth.  The  Fathers  put  him  under  bonds  for  his 
Ha  banish-  g°Ofi  behavior,  punished  him  by  a  heavy  fine,  and  gave  him 
ment-  fourteen  days  to  depart  out  of  their  jurisdiction.5  Naturally 

he  turned  his  face  towards  Acquidneck,  where  he  soon  made  himself 
conspicuous. 

1  General  History  of  \ew  England. 

2  Letter  from  Samuel  Gorton  to  Nathaniel  Morton,  in  Ilutchiusou's  History  of  Massachu- 
setts, vol.  i.    Appendix.     /«'.  /.  Hist.  S»r..  Coll.,  vol.  ii. 

8  Life  of  Gorton,  iii  Sparks's  American  Bioyraj>/iy.     New  Series,  vol.  v.    Arnold's  History 
of  Rhode  Island. 
*  Let  tf-r  to  Morton. 
b  Morton's  AVio  Enylund's  Memorial,  p.  143.     IIutchiu.sou  says  he  was  whipped. 


Gortonat 


1641.]  SAMUEL   GORTON.  69 

Here  us  at  Plymouth  he  soon  got  into  trouble,  and,  as  it  appears,  on 

a  somewhat  like  occasion.  His  maid  assaulted  another  woman  in  a 

quarrel  about  the  pastur-  f-r\            /    . 

age  of  a  cow.    Gorton  ap-  B  u  *7  £3  i  '  IL 

peared  in  her  defence  and  &nc~  +0  /ye 
behaved  so  insolently  to 
the  court,  that  he  was  ar- 


j> 
of 

*J 


rested   and    imprisoned.1 


TI  A  •       •  A-  <    i 

The  grand  jury  indicted 

hill!  as  a  nuisance,  One  Of  Signature  of   Samuel  Gorton. 

the  counts  of  the  indictment  being  that  he  called  the  magistrates  Just 
usses  ;  another  that  he  alleged  in  open  court  that  they  were  lawyers.2 
In  the  affair  of  the  maid  servant  his  friends  Holden  and  Wickes  made 
so  much  disturbance  that  an  armed  guard  was  called  to  suppress  it,  and 
Wickes  was  put  in  the  stocks.  Gorton  fared  even  worse  at  his  trial. 
Winthrop  says  there  was  much  "  tumult  "  at  Acquidneck,  and  whether 
right  or  wrong,  Gorton  seems  to  have  been  in  the  thick  of  it.  "  These 
of  the  Island,"  says  a  contemporary  writer,  "have  a  pretended  civill 
government  of  their  owne  erection  without  the  King's  Patent.  There 
lately  they  whipt  one  master  Gorton,  a  grave  man,  for  denying  their 
power,  and  abusing  some  of  their  magistrates  with  uncivill  tearmes  ; 
the  Governour,  master  Coddington,  saying  in  Court,  You  that  are  for 
the  king,  lay  hold  on  Gorton  ;  and  he  againe,  on  the  other  side,  called 
forth,  All  you  that  are  for  the  king,  lay  hold  on  Coddington"  3  Cod- 
dington's  was  the  strongest  party,  and  Gorton  and  his  friends  sought 
an  asylum  in  Providence. 

Williams  received  them  kindly,  as  was  his  wont.     How  could  he, 
who  not  long  before  had  accepted  re-baptism  from  Ezekiel  IIe  leaveg 
Holliman  —  "  a  poor  man  late  of  Salem  "  —  the  founder  of  ^p^!* 
the  first  Baptist  Church    in  America,  refuse  a  welcome  to  dence- 
one  who  had  just  testified  to  the  truth,  as  he  believed  it,  by  suffer- 
ing an  ignominious  punishment  ? 

Gorton  bought  lands,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1641,  at  Paw- 
tuxet  —  now  Cranston  —  but  within  the  bounds  of  Providence,  and 
was  soon  involved  in  disputes  with  his  new  neighbors.  "  Those  of 
Providence,"  says  Winthrop,  were  all  Anabaptists  ;  "  some  were  only 
against  baptizing  of  infants  ;  others  denied  all  magistracy  and  churches, 
etc.,  of  which  Gorton  ....  was  their  instructor  and  captain."  Wil- 

Winslow's  Hypocrisie  nnmasked. 

*  Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island. 

a  Plain  Dealing  :  or  Newesfrom  New-England.  By  Thomas  Lechford,  of  Clement's  Inne, 
m  the  County  of  Middlesex,  Gent.,  London,  1642.  Republished  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
I  hint  Series,  vol.  iii.  See  also  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  ii.,  p.  69. 


THE   BOSTON   PURITANS. 


[ClIAP.      III. 


liams  kept  the  peace  among  them  for  a  little  while,  but  controversial- 
ists soon  became  combatants,  and  from  words  came  to  blows. 

Gorton  and  his  friends  were 
the  stronger  party.  An  attempt 
was  made  to  distrain  upon  the 
property  of  one  Francis  Western 
to  satisfy  a  decision  against  him 
in  relation,  probably,  to  real 
estate.  It  is  certain  that  one 
portion  of  this  community 
claimed  the  right  to  take  land 
from  the  public  do- 
main, which  the  oth- 
ers denied  ;  and 


The  Conflict  over  Weston's  Cattle. 


it  may  be  that  for  an  encroachment  of  this  kind  Weston  was  adjudged 
by  a  board  of  referees  —  which  was  the  method  adopted  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  —  to  make  a  payment  into  the  public  treasury. 
The  debt,  at  any  rate,  was  a  public  one,  and  Weston  refused  to  submit 
to  the  judgment  in  a  written  reply,  a  copy  of  which  he  nailed  to  a  tree 
in  the  village,  as  well  as  gave  to  the  authorities.  The  order  was 
given  to  levy  upon  his  cattle,  which  Gorton  and  others  resisted,  with  a 
"  tumultuous  hubbub,"  and  some  blood  was  shed.  A  second  attempt 
was  made,  when,  says  the  narrative,  "  Weston  came  furiously  running 


1641.]  THE   GORTON   PARTY   AT   PAWTUXET.  71 

with  a  flail  in  his  hand,  and  cried  out,  'Help  Sirs,  Help  Sirs,  they  are 


to  steal  mv  cattle,'  and  so  continued  crying  till  Randall 

,  .  party  resist 

Holden,  John  Greene,  and  some  others  came  running,  and   the  Provi- 

iiii-  i  •  mi  •  deuce  mag- 

made  a  great  outcry,  and  hallooing,  and  crying  '  Ihieves,  istrau-s. 
Thieves,  Stealing  cattle,  Stealing  cattle;'  and  so  the  whole  number 
of  their  desperate  company  came  riotously  running,  and  so  with  much 
striving  in  driving,  hurried  away  the  cattle,  and  then  presumptuously 
answered  they  had  made  a  rescue,  and  that  such  should  be  their  prac- 
tice, if  any  men,  at  any  time,  in  any  case,  attach  anything  that  is 
theirs."  * 

Benedict  Arnold,2  and  a  dozen  others  of  the  defeated  party,  ap- 
pealed at  once  to  Massachusetts  for  aid  and  counsel  against  these 
"  lewd  and  licentious  courses  "  of  persons  who,  they  declared,  had 
openly  proclaimed  that  they  would  "  have  no  manner  of  honest  order 
or  government  either  over  them  or  amongst  them  ;  "  and  who,  un- 
less brought  to  reason,  would  soon  come  "  boldly  to  maintain  licentious 
lust,  like  savage  brute  beasts,"  and  fail  to  recognize  any  "  manner  of 
difference  between  houses,  goods,  lands,  wives,  lives."  The  exaggera- 
tion of  such  a  statement  is  self-evident.  It  was  so  much  the  habit  of 
the  time  to  attribute  all  manner  of  immoralities,  as  a  necessary  con- 
sequence, to  any  difference  of  opinion,  that  nothing  was  easier  —  even 
to  those  who  had  been  sufferers  from  intolerance  in  others  —  in  a 
dispute  where  feeling  was  warmly  enlisted,  or  pecuniary  interest 
deeply  involved,  than  to  asseverate  that  he  who  maintained  one  side 
of  the  question  had,  therefore,  no  more  religion  than  an  Indian,  and 
that  he  who  maintained  another  must  be  bad  enough  to  covet  his 
neighbor's  goods,  and  was  generally  no  better  than  a  thief  and  a 
murderer.3 

1  Petition  of  some  of  Providence  Colony  to  the  Government  of  Massachusetts  ayainst  Gorton 
and  Others.     Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  3d  series,  voL  i.     Rhode,  'island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  ii. 

2  The  petition  was  in  Arnold's  handwriting. 

3  In  1  664-65  the  people  of  Warwick  —  as  Shawomet  had  come  to  he  called  —  petitioned 
the  King's  Commissioners  that  satisfaction  might  be  {riven  them  for  the  great  losses  they 
had  suffered  from  the  Massachusetts  government.     The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
cited  in  their  defence  the  petition  referred  to  in  the  text  from  the  Providence  people  against 
those  of  Shawomet.     As  nearly  twenty-five  years  had  elapsed  since  the  event  referred  to 
had  occurred.it  was  clear  enough  that  the  consequences  which  the  petition  predicted  — 
namely,  that  unless  the  Shawomet  people  were  checked  iu  their  evil  courses  they  would 
come  to  be  like  licentious,  savage,  brute  beasts,  holding  all  things,  even  their  wives  in  com- 
mon —  were  completely  falsified.     A  prophecy  proved  to  l>e  false  in  1665  would  be  a  poor 
justification  for  Massachusetts  to  offer  for  her  conduct  in  1641.     It  therefore  suited  the 
General  Court  to  quote  the  Providence  petition  as  stating  thsvt  Gorton  and  his  compan- 
ions were  already  the  vile  and  dangerous  men  which  the  petitioners  only  said  they  might 
become  in  a  certain  contingency.     In  other  words,  the  court  so  garbles  the  petition  as  to 
make  it  assert  as  an  existing  fact  that  which  was  only  put  as  a  possible  consequence.    How- 
ever heretical  it  may  seem,  it  is  difficult  to  escape  the  suspicion  that  the  Puritans  some- 


72 


THE  BOSTON   PURITANS. 


[CHAP.    III. 


chu  setts 


To  the  appeal  of  the  discomfited  party,  however,  the  magistrates 
in  Boston  returned  a  cautious,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  suggestive 
answer.  They  could  not,  they  said,  levy  war  without  the  action  of 
the  General  Court  ;  but  then  any  aggrieved  people  would  be  sure  of 
protection  if  they  subjected  themselves  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Massa- 
chusetts. As  all  these  people  at  Pawtuxet  knew  what  it  was  to  live 
under  the  government  of  Massachusetts  and  had  run  away  from  it, 
they  were  apparently  not  disposed  to  try  it  again  immediately. 

They  were  evidently  not  so  disposed,  for  they  did  not  "  subject  " 
themselves.  For  a  year  nothing  i%  heard  of  any  discord  among  them, 
and  when,  after  the  lapse  of  that  period  of  quiet  another  cry  came  to 
Boston  for  help,  it  was  not  from  the  people  of  Providence  at  large  ; 
not  even  from  the  thirteen  who  had  begged  for  interference  the  year 
before  ;  now  it  was  only  four  men  who  appealed  to  the  Masachusetts 
magistrates,  and  of  these  four  two  were  new  men.1 

These  "  four  of  Providence,"  writes  Governor  Winthrop,  "  who 

could  not  consort  with  Gorton  and  that  company,  and  there- 
interference  .,,..,  ,  ,  -iii 

fore  were  continually  imured  and  molested  by  them,  came 

and  offered  themselves  and  their  lands,  etc.,  to  us,  and  were 
accepted  under  our  government  and  protection."  This  was  done,  he 
says,  "  partly  to  rescue  these  men  from  unjust  violence,  and  partly  to 
draw  in  the  rest  in  those  parts,  either  under  ourselves  or  Plymouth, 
who  now  lived  under  no  government,  but  grew  very  offensive."  But 
there  was  still  another  reason  for  this  proposed  interference  with  his 
neighbors,  and  Winthrop  is  frank  enough  to  avow  it  ;  "  the  place," 
he  adds,  "  was  likely  to  be  of  use  to  us."  The  good  Governor,  who 
was  so  apt  with  Scriptural  illustration,  might  have  been  reminded  of 

times  showed  signs  of  human  weakness.     See  Memorial  to  the  King's  Commissioners,  re- 
published  from  Afass.  Records  in  Coll.  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  ii. 

1  The  four  were  William  Arnold  and  his  sou,  Benedict  Arnold,  William  Carpenter  and 
Kobert  Cole.  Benedict  Arnold  and  Carpenter  were  among  the  petitioners  of  the  year  be- 
fore. Cole,  during  the  ten  previous  years,  had  been  more  under  the  active  jurisdiction  of  the 
government,  whose  protection  he  now  asked  for,  than  most  men.  He  was  repeatedly  pun- 
ished for  drunkenness  and  other  misdemeanors,  as  the  Massachusetts  Records  show.  One 
of  these  records  is  :  "  Robte  Coles  is  ffincd  X'  &  enioyned  to  stand  wth  a  white  sheete  of 
pap  on  his  back,  wherein  a  drunkard  shalbe  written  in  greate  ires,  &  to  stand  therew*  soe 
longe  as  the  Court  thinks  meete,  for  abuseing  himselfe  shamefully  w*  drinke,  iutiseing 
John  Shotswell  wife  to  incontinency,  &  othr  misdemeanr."  Mass.  Records,  vol.  i.,  p.  107. 
And  again  :  "  It  is  ordered,  that  Robte  Coles,  for  drunkenes  by  him  cofnitted  att  Rocks- 
bury,  shalbe  disfranchized,  weare  aboute  his  necke  &  soe  to  hange  vpon  his  outward  garm', 
a  D,  made  of  redd  cloath,  &  sett  vpon  white  ;  to  contynue  this  for  a  yeare,  and  not  to  leave 
it  of  att  any  tyme  when  hee  comes  amongst  company,  vnder  the  penalty  of  xl"  for  the  first 
offence,  &  V  the  second.  &  after  to  be  punished  by  the  Court  as  they  thinke  meete  ;  also, 
hee  is  to  weare  the  D  outwards,  &  is  enjoyned  to  appeare  att  the  nexte  Genall  Court,  &  to 
contynue  there  till  the  Court  be  ended."  Ibid.  p.  112.  Even  the  austere  magistrates  in 
Boston  must  have  smiled  to  see  Robert  Coles  in  the  attitude  of  plaintiff,  and  asking  their 
intercession  for  the  establishment  of  an  orderly  and  quiet  government. 


1642.]  INTERFERENCE   OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  73 

that  narrative  in  which  it  is  related  how  "  Naboth,  the  Jezreelite, 
had  a  vineyard,  which  was  in  Jezreel,  hard  by  the  palace  of  Ahab 
king  of  Samaria.  And  Ahab  spake  unto  Naboth,  saying,  Give  me 
thy  vineyard,  that  I  may  have  it  for  a  garden  of  herbs,  because  it  is 
near  unto  my  house." 

The  grievance  actually  complained  of  related  to  the  division  of  wild 
lands,  a  question  on  which  it  was  absurd  to  assume  that  one  side  was 
necessarily  in  the  right,  and  the  other  as  necessarily  in  the  wrong. 
Massachusetts  had  not  the  shadow  of  authority  for  interference  on 
either  side.  But  she  wanted  a  pretext  and  found  it  in  the  petition  of 
the  Arnolds  and  their  two  companions.  It  was  natural  enough  to 
covet  the  garden  of  the  Narragansett  -,  it  was  not  less  natural  that  she 
should  wish  to  punish  over  again  those  whose  banishment  had  led  to 
so  pleasant  a  possession  and  not  to  pains  and  penalties.  In  addition 
to  these  carnal  motives,  there  was  the  desire  to  serve  God,  as  they 
proposed  to  do,  by  suppressing  heresy. 

Gorton  was  undoubtedly  a  pestilent  and  noisy  fanatic,  preaching 
doctrines  as  incomprehensible  as  they  were  captivating  to  himself  and 
his  illiterate  hearers.  But  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  a  bad  citi- 
zen, and  probably  would  have  been  harmless  enough  had  he  been  let 
alone.  But  "  a  wanton  gospeller  "  was  of  all  men  the  most  exasper- 
ating to  a  Boston  Puritan, — a  kind  of  human  vermin  which  he  felt 
bound  to  extirpate.  Williams  had  written  to  Winthrop  the  year  be- 
fore :  "  Master  Gorton,  having  foully  abused  high  and  low  at  Acquid- 
neck,  is  now  bewitching  and  bemadding  poor  Providence,  both  with 
his  unclean  and  foul  censures  of  all  the  ministers  of  this  country  (for 
which  myself  have  in  Christ's  name  withstood  him),  and  also  deny- 
ing all  visible  and  external  ordinances  in  depth  of  Familism,  against 
which  I  have  a  little  disputed  and  written,  and  shall  (the  Most  High 
assisting)  to  death."  l  But  the  short  and  sharp  punishment  which 
Coddington  adjudged  Gorton  drove  him  speedily  out  of  that  colony. 
It  is  probable  that  he  was  already  becoming  of  little  moment  to  the 
Providence  people,  inasmuch  as  two  only  of  the  thirteen  who  the 
year  before  asked  for  aid  against  him  now  joined  with  two  others  in 
this  second  complaint.  A  year's  experience  had  probably  convinced 
the  rest  that  the  man  was  a  harmless  enthusiast ;  but  whether  he  was 
or  not,  Williams,  however  much  he  might  disapprove  of  him,  would 
not  be  likely  to  ask  the  protection  of  that  government  the  character 
of  whose  mercy  he  so  well  knew. 

There  came  presently  a  formal  and  formidable  notice  from  the 
Massachusetts  magistrates,  that,  inasmuch  as  the  two  Arnolds,  Cole, 
and  Carpenter  had  put  themselves  under  their  protection,  they  should 

1  Winslow's  Hyjtocrisie  Unmasked. 


74  THE  BOSTON   PURITANS.  [CHAP.    HI. 

"  maintain  them  in  their  lawful  rights.  If,"  continued  this  remark- 
able document,  "  you  have  any  just  title  to  any  thing  they  possess. 
Arbitrary  [referring  to  the  lands  in  dispute]  you  may  proceed  against 
th" Bos'ton  them  in  our  court,  where  you  shall  have  equal  justice ; 
authorities.  ku£  jf  yQU  sjia][  proceed  to  any  violence,  you  must  not  blame 
us  if  we  shall  take  a  like  course  to  right  them."  l  That  course, 
indeed,  was  taken  at  once,  and  the  case  prejudged  in  favor  of  the  four 
complainants ;  for  these  were  immediately  appointed  "  to  keep  the 
peace  in  their  lands,"  which  only  meant  that  they  should  have  all 
requisite  force  to  crush  their  adversaries.  In  short  the  whole  proceed- 
ing was  an  act  of  sheer  usurpation  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts,  done 
on  the  flimsiest  pretext,  and  for  an  unavowed  purpose. 

Their  defence  of  it  was  that  it  was  their  right  and  duty  to  protect 
any  Indians  who  asked  for  protection ;  that  Plymouth  claimed  that 
the  lands  in  dispute  were  within  the  limits  of  the  Plymouth  patent, 
and  her  magistrates  assented  to  this  interference  on  the  part  of 
Massachusetts ;  and  that  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
justified  her  action  by  formal  vote.  But  the  real  question  at  issue 
was  whether  either  Massachusetts  or  Plymouth  had  any  such  rightful 
jurisdiction  over  these  lands  of  Pawtuxet.  The  conduct  of  Massa- 
chusetts, therefore,  could  not  be  justified  by  the  assumption  of  that 
right  while  it  was  still  doubtful,  nor  could  that  conduct,  if  wrong,  be 
made  right  by  the  approbation  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United 
Colonies.  The  plea  that  the  Indians  needed  any  protection  was  a 
pretext  and  not  a  reason. 

The  whole  Gorton  party  seems  to  have  been  only  about  a  dozen. 
So  far  from  assuming  to  be  defiant  or  dangerous,  except  in  words, 
they  immediately  abandoned  their  houses  and  lands  at  Pawtuxet,  — 
which  put  an  end,  of  course,  to  any  plausible  pretext  of  the  necessity 
of  interference  from  anybody  —  and  moved  away,  in  search  of  a  new 
home.  Whatever  they  may  have  done  at  other  times,  and  in  other 
places,  to  provoke  persecution,  they  were  anxious  now  to  get  out  of 
the  way  of  it.  Though  they  did  not  mean  to  forego  the  right  of 
maintaining  their  religious  convictions,  they  hoped,  at  least,  to  escape 
from  a  jurisdiction  where  to  those  convictions  was  attached  a  penalty. 
They  might  well  call  upon  the  woods  to  hide  them  from  a  government 
which  summoned  them  to  appear  as  plaintiffs  in  a  civil  suit,  that  it 
might  try  them  as  criminals,  whose  guilt  admitted  of  no  defence. 

The  place  chosen  for  their  new  settlement  was  Shawomet  —  after- 
Gorton  at  ward  called  Warwick,  —  about  a  dozen  miles  south  of  Provi- 
shawomet.  dence.  All  those  who  went,  being  of  one  mind,  probably 
hoped  to  escape  further  molestation  from  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  to 

1  A'.  /.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  53. 


1642.] 


GORTON   AT   SHAWOMET. 


be  beyond  the  reach  of  the  four  new  justices  of  the  peace  that  Massa- 
chusetts had  put  over  them.  So  far  as  the  land-titles  at  Pawtuxet 
were  concerned,  the  Arnolds  had  carried  the  day ;  but  the  magistrates 
at  the  Bay  were  greatly  mistaken  if  they  thought  that  any  assump- 
tion of  territorial  jurisdiction  on  their  part  could  silence  Gorton. 

Before  he  and  his  companions  fled  to  Shawomet  they  answered  the 
Boston  magistrates  in  a  letter  of  many  pages.  It  covered  Gorton-g  iet_ 
their  whole  body  of  theology  as  that  was  conceived  and  ter 
brought  forth,  full  grown,  from  the  brain  of  Samuel  Gorton  ;  it  touched 
upon  civil  things, 
but  only  as  they 
had  some  theologi- 
cal aspect ;  it  was 
replete  with  Scrip- 
tural illustrations  ; 
it  abounded  with 
references  to  He- 
brew history  ;  it 
was  illuminated 
with  copious  anno- 
tations ;  it  assumed 
to  be  exhaustive  as 
to  its  logic  ;  as  to 
its  inward  spiritual 
sense  its  depths  were 
unfathomable  ;  it 
was  red  and  hot  and 
angry  with  denunci- 
ation, and  had  only  the  briefest  and  most  perfunctory  allusion  to  the 
question  of  land  titles.  No  doubt  it  meant  a  great  deal  to  those  who 
wrote  it,  though  we  have  never  heard  of  anybody  since  that  time  who 
has  pretended  to  understand  it ;  and  it  is  creditable  to  the  intelli- 
gence or  the  ingenuity  of  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed  that  they 
could  find  in  it  "  twenty -six  particulars,  or  thereabouts,  which,  they 
said,  were  blasphemous,"  though  to  do  this  they  had,  the  writers  said, 
to  change  the  phrases,  to  alter  the  words  and  the  sense,  and  in  no 
case  take  the  true  intent  of  the  writing.1  So  taken,  however,  it  an- 
swered the  purpose  of  those  who  received  it ;  here  were  fresh  heresies 
and  blasphemies  to  denounce  from  the  pulpits ;  and  the  magistrates 
and  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  were  incited  to  new  watchfulness 
to  find  a  fresh  pretext  for  the  suppression  of  the  schismatics  whose  ex- 
istence troubled  the  Israel  of  New  England.2 

1  Gorton's  Simplicitie's  Defence,  iu  R.  I,  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ii. 

2  The  signers  to  the  letter  were  John  Wickes,  Randall  Houlden,  Jolm  Warner,  Robert 


Site  of  Gorton's  Settlement  at   Shawomet  (now  Warwick). 


76 


THE   BOSTON    PURITANS. 


[CHAP.  III. 


For  that  pretext  they  had  not  long  to  wait.  They  seized  it  and 
used  it  pertinaciously  and  remorselessly.  However  unworthy  it  was 
of  men  so  enlightened  and  so  good  as  they  unquestionably  were  ;  how- 
ever sincerely  they  may  have  believed  they  were  suppressing  evil, 
not  hindering  the  truth,  they  must  be  judged  by  their  acts,  rather 
than  their  motives,  —  by  that  abstract  rule  of  right  by  which  the 
deeds  of  all  men  are  to  be  measured.  In  no  event  of  that  period  do 
we  see  more  clearly  the  spirit  of  that  rule  which  the  Puritans  hoped 
to  establish,  or  a  more  marked  illustration  of  the  character  of  that 
struggle  for  civil  and  religious  freedom,  and  the  abuses  attending  it, 
which  belong  to  the  early  history  of  New  England. 

Potter,  Richard  Waterman,  William  Waddle,  Samuel  Gorton,  Richard  Carder,  John 
Greene,  Nicholas  Power,  Francis  Westou,  Sampsoii  Shotton.  These  twelve  men  were  the 
purchasers  of  Shawomet. 

' 


Ruins  of  Gorton's  House  at  Shawomet  (.Warwick,  R.  I.) 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   SHAWOMET   PEOPLE   AND   THEIR   INDIAN   FRIENDS. 

PURCHASE  OF  LANDS  AT   SHAWOMET. — PROTEST  OF  TWO  INDIAN  CHIEFS,  PUMHAM 
AND  SACONONOCO.  —  SHAWOMET  PEOPLE  SUMMONED  TO  BOSTON.  —  COMMISSIONERS 

APPOINTED    TO    yiSIT    THEM. THREATS   AND    PREPARATIONS   FOR  RESISTANCE. 

FLIGHT  OF  WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN-.  —  THE  MEN  BESIEGED.  —  NEGOTIATIONS  FOR 
PEACE.  —  A  HOLLOW  TRUCE.  —  THE  MEN  TAKEN  PRISONERS  AND  CARRIED  TO 
BOSTON. — THEIR  TRIAL  AND  PUNISHMENT.  —  THEIR  RELEASE  AND  RETURN  TO 
RHODE  ISLAND. — APPREHENDED  TROUBLE  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  CHARGES  AGAINST 
MlANTONOMO.  — FEUD  BETWEEN  THE  MOHICANS  AND  NARRAGANSETTS.  — UxCAS 

BEFRIENDED   BY  THE   COMMISSIONERS  OF   THE    UNITED  COLONIES. CAPTURE   OF 

MlANTONOMO  BY  UNCAS. —  HlS  ASSASSINATION  BY  DIRECTION  OF  THE  ENGLISH. 

THE  lands  at  Shawomet  upon  which  Gorton  and  his  eleven  com- 
panions hoped  they  might  live  unmolested,  were  bought  of  Miantono- 
ino.  He  gave  a  deed  as  chief  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts,  and  by 
it  conveyed  possession  "  with  the  free  and  joint  consent  of  the  pres- 
ent inhabitants,  being  natives,  as  it  appears  by  their  hands  hereunto 
[thereunto]  annexed."  Among  these  was  Pumham,  a  petty  sachem 
of  the  place.  The  twelve  men  with  their  wives  and  children  had  fled 
for  the  sake  of  peace  into  the  wilderness ;  for  their  lands  they  had 
paid  the  owners  in  sound  Indian  currency  of  wampumpeage,  —  one 
hundred  and  forty -four  fathoms,  twelve  fathoms  to  a  man;  —  and  as 
they  had  gone  where  they  could  do  no  harm  to  others,  they  only  asked 
that  no  harm  be  done  to  them. 

But  they  were  not  left  long  undisturbed.  Whether  it  was  that  the 
controversy  about  the  lands  at  Pawtuxet  had  aroused  in  Benedict 
Arnold  a  personal  animosity  so  bitter  that  nothing  would  satisfy  him 
but  the  ruin  of  his  opponents  ;  or  whether  he  was  only  anxious  to 
serve  those  with  whom  religious  rancor  was  quite  as  inexorable  as 
private  hate  could  be,  —  whatever  was  his  motive  he  again  appeared 
before  the  government  of  Massachusetts  as  a  complainant  against 
the  Shawomet  people. 

He  was  an  Indian  trader  and  interpreter,  and  as  such  possessed  a 
good  deal  of  influence  over  the  natives.     Soon  after  Mian-  An  Indian 
tonomo's  deed  was  given  Arnold  went  to  Boston,  and  with  against  the 
him    were   two    chiefs,    Pumham    and    Sacononoco.      They  pMn. 
claimed  that  they  were  independent  sachems  ;  that  one  of  them  — 


78         THE   SHAWOMET  PEOPLE  AND  THE  INDIANS.       [CHAP.  IV. 

Pumhani  —  had  been  compelled  by  Miantonomo  to  part  with  his 
lands  at  Shawomet,  and  affix  his  signature  to  the 
deed  conveying  them  to  the  Gorton  people,  for  which 
signature  of  he  declined  to  accept  any  remuneration;  and  both  now 
Pumham.  begged  that  they  might  be  taken  under  the  protection 

of  Massachusetts. 

It  is  far  more  likely  these  Indians  were  induced  by  Arnold  to 
come  forward  with  such  a  proposition,  that  a  plausible  pretext  might 
thereby  be  made  for  further  proceedings  against  the  Shawomet  people, 
than  that  the  Indians  should  ask  for  any  such  interference  between 
them  and  another  chief.  The  umpire  whose  good  offices  they  would 
have  naturally  sought,  in  case  of  any  real  grievance,  was  Williams. 
And  even  if  they  did  not  owe  allegiance  to  Miantonomo,  —  which,  as 
he  was  the  chief  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts,  they  probably  did,  —  the 
protection  of  one  Indian  against  another  did  not  necessarily  extend  the 
jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts  over  a  country  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
her  patent.  The  colonies,  great  or  small,  were  responsible  to  the  gov- 
ernment at  home,  and  not  to  Massachusetts.  The  plea,  nevertheless, 
answered  its  purpose.  Miantonomo  was  summoned  to  Boston,  and 
on  the  testimony  of  Arnold,  an  interested  witness,  and  Cutshamake, 
a  petty  sachem  of  Dorchester,  who  knew  little  about  the  matter, 
the  magistrates  decided  that  Pumham  and  Sacononoco  were  indepen- 
dent chiefs,  whose  lands  Miantonomo  had  no  right  to  sell.  Pumham 
and  Sacononoco  were  thereupon  told  that  they  would  be  received  "  not 
as  confederates,  but  as  subjects,"  to  which  they  replied  with  true  In- 
dian frankness  and  indifference,  that  they  knew  the  English  had  so 
little  respect  for  them  that  they  expected  nothing  better.1 

That  the  new  subjects  might  be  properly  protected  the  twelve  men 

i  The  two  chiefs  seem  to  have  been  but  little  impressed  with  the  gravity  of  changing 
their  nationality.  On  the  other  side  it  was  made  a  very  solemn  business,  and  the  Saga- 
mores were  put  through  a  rigid  course  of  catechizing.  Some  of  their  replies  were  curious 
and  characteristic.  They  should  wish,  they  said,  to  speak  with  reverence  of  the  English- 
man's God,  for  He  did  better  by  His  people  than  their  gods  did  by  them.  As  to  false 
swearing,  they  knew  nothing  about  it,  as  they  did  not  know  what  an  oath  was.  When 
asked  if  they  would  refrain  from  unnecessary  work  on  the  Lord's  day  while  in  the  towns, 
they  replied  that  it  was  easy  to  do  that,  for  they  had  very  little  to  do  at  any  time,  and 
could  forbear  from  work  on  thut  day  quite  as  well  as  any  other.  As  to  honoring  superiors 
—  so  much  was  it  their  habit  to  do  so,  they  said,  that  if  the  governor  told  them  they  lied 
they  should  not  resent  it.  Certain  crimes  which  they  were  asked  to  refrain  from,  they  said 
with  quiet  sarcasm  were  no  more  allowed,  though  they  were  committed  among  them,  than 
stealing  was  —  stealing  not  having  been  mentioned  by  their  catechizers.  They  would  like 
to  know,  they  said,  the  "  manners  "  of  the  English,  when  asked  the  comprehensive  question 
if  they  would  permit  their  children  to  read  God's  Word  that  they  might  have  a  knowledge 
of  the  true  God,  and  worship  Him  in  accordance  with  his  will.  In  short,  whether  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  they  were  guilty  of  literal  contempt  of  court  in  their  manner  of  treating 
very  serious  matters. 


1643.]  THE  MASSACHUSETTS   COMMISSIONERS.  79 

of  Shawomet  were  summoned  to  appear  before  the  General  Court  at 
Boston.1  They  answered  that  they  were  responsible  for  their  actions, 
not  to  Massachusetts  but  to  the  government  in  England  which  was 
over  both.  A  second  message  was  sent  a  few  days  later,  but  The  Gorton 
with  an  indictment  much  enlarged.  Wrong  had  been  done,  S^^tT" 
it  declared,  not  merely  to  th»  Indian  sachems  but  to  Eng- 
lish and  Indians  generally  within  the  newly  found  jurisdiction,  and 
more  than  this,  even  to  the  Massachusetts  government  itself.  The 
accused  were  notified  that  commissioners  would  at  once  proceed  to 
Shawomet  for  negotiation,  taking  with  them,  however,  a  sufficient 
guard  "for  their  safety  against  any  violence  or  injury."  But  this 
precaution  for  the  protection  of  the  commissioners  had  another  pur- 
pose ;  for  unless  their  demands  were  complied  with  "  we  must "  — 
adds  the  letter,  signed  by  the  secretaiy  of  the  General  Court  —  "  right 
ourselves  and  our  people  by  force  of  arms,"  2  —  the  "  force  "  of  a  pow- 
erful colony  against  twelve  men. 

The  handful  of  Shawomet  men  were  nevertheless  defiant.  "  If  you 
come  to  treat  with  us,"  they  wrote  to  the  commissioners,  "  in  ways  of 
equity  and  peace  (together  therewith  shaking  a  rod  over  our  heads, 
in  a  band  of  soldiers),  be  you  assured,  we  have  passed  our  childhood 
and  nonage  in  that  point ;  and  are  under  commission  of  the  great 
God,  not  to  be  children  in  understanding,  neither  in  courage,  but  to 
quit  ourselves  as  men.  We  straitly  charge  you,  therefore,  hereby, 
that  you  set  not  a  foot  upon  our  lands  in  any  hostile  way,  but  upon 
your  peril ;  and  that  if  any  blood  be  shed,  upon  your  own  heads  shall 
it  be."  But  the  peril  was  one  that  no  brave  words  could  avert. 

The  commissioners  had  with  them  a  minister  as  well  as  a  band  of 
soldiers,  "  certainly  persuading  ourselves,"  they  said,  "  that  we  shall 
be  able  through  the  Lord's  help,  to  convince  some  of  them  at  least  of 
the  evil  of  their  way,  and  cause  them  to  divert  their  course,  that  so 
doing  they  may  preserve  their  lives  and  liberties,  which  otherwise 

1  According  to  one  of  the  Gorton  letters,  addressed  "  To  the  great  and  honored  Idol 
General  now  set  up  in  the  Massachusetts,"  an  offence  that  was  neither  forgotten  nor  for- 
given, these  Indian  chiefs  had  some  reasons,  not  stated,  for  wishing  to  be  released  from 
responsibility  to  the  Shawomet  people.  They  were  both  thieves,  and  Pumham  having,  on 
one  occasion,  crept  down  a  chimney  and  rifled  a  house  in  the  absence  of  its  owner,  was 
captured  as  he  was  attempting  to  escape  by  the  same  outlet.  Perhaps  the  Massachusetts 
magistrates  were  not  insensible  of  the  ridicule  thrown  upon  them  by  the  relation  of  this 
incident  in  the  It-tier,  with  the  reflection,  "indeed  Pumham  is  au  aspiring  person,  as 
...  becomes  a  prince  of  his  profession." 

The  commissioners  were  George  Cooke,  Edward  Johnson,  and  Humphrey  Atherton. 
Johnson  was  the  author  of  The  Wonder-working  Providence  of  Sion's  Saviour  in  Xew 
En<//and,  published  in  London  in  1654.  In  that  book  he  speaks  of  Gorton  as  the  "ring- 
li-ader  of  the  rout,  full-gorged  with  dreadful  and  damnable  errors  " ;  as  he  who  "  vomits 
up  a  whole  paper  full  of  beastly  stuff";  as  "exceeding  the  Beast  himself  for  blasphemy." 


80          THE   SHAWOMET  PEOPLE   AND  THE  INDIANS.        [CHAP.  IV 

must  necessarily  lead  to  eternal  ruin  of  them  and  theirs ;  .  .  .  .  but 
if  there  be  no  way  of  turning  them,  we  then  shall  look  upon  them  as 
men  prepared  for  slaughter." 

There  was  little  opportunity,  had  there  been  any  serious  intention 
of  engaging  in  theological  disputation,  and  this  suggestion  of  persua- 
sion was  mere  pretence.  That  point  was  long  since  passed,  even  if 
Gorton  had  been  a  much  more  hopeful  subject.  The  presence  of  a 
clergyman  only  showed  that  the  suppression  of  heresy  was  the  true 
object  of  the  expedition,  as  it  was  of  all  the  preliminary  measures 
that  led  up  to  it ;  but  the  suppression  was  not  to  be  by  an  appeal  to 
reason. 

Though  Gorton  had  been  whipped  from  colony  to  colon}7,  and  he 
and  his  followers  must  have  been  quite  conscious  that  they  were  held 
to  be  a  very  obnoxious  and  even  dangerous  people,  this  answer  of  the 
commissioners  to  their  brave  words  seems  to  have  revealed  to  them, 
for  the  first  time,  that  they  really  were  in  danger  of  their  lives. 
Alarm  at  Alarm  spread  through  the  village.  The  women  gathered 
simwomet.  tneir  children  about  them  to  be  ready  for  flight  to  the  forest, 
where  they  hoped  to  find  refuge  among  the  savages.  The  men  pre- 
pared themselves,  few  as  they  were,  for  fight,  but  without  sufficient 
means  for  any  effectual  resistance,  if  their  own  story  be  true,  that  the 
magistrates  of  Massachusetts  had,  some  time  before,  included  them  in 
a  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  gunpowder  to  the  Indians. 

The  commissioners  were  not  far  behind  the  announcement  of  their 
determined  purpose.  The  band  of  soldiers  and  Indians  was  seen 
coming  through  the  woods,  and  the  alarm  was  hardly  given  before 
they  charged  into  the  village.  The  affrighted  women  and  children 
fled  before  them  as  the  brave  troops  of  the  Massachusetts  General 
Court  levelled  their  muskets  upon  women  great  with  child,  upon 
toddling  children  holding  to  their  mothers'  skirts.  Some  ran  to  the 
woods  for  shelter  ;  others  waded  into  the  river  to  reach  a  boat  where 
some  kindly  Providence  people,  whose  sympathies  had  brought  them 
to  the  place,  were  ready  to  give  them  a  helping  hand.  None  were 
killed  actually  upon  the  spot,  though  some  died  afterwards  in  prema- 
ture childbed,  and  others  from  the  sufferings  to  which  they  were  all 
exposed. 

The  men,  not  thinking,  probably,  that  they  were  leaving  their 
wives  and  little  ones  to  any  serious  peril,  had  fortified  them- 

Gorton's  ii-  ri-it  r* 

people  at-      selves  as  best  they  could,  in  one  of  their  log-houses.     Gorton 

tanked. 

Their  par-     was  the  last  to  enter  this  citadel,  having  delayed  that  he 

might  help  his  wife  —  it  should  have  been  the  wife  of  another 

man  if  he  deserved  his  reputation  —  to  a  place  of  safety.     When  the 

soldiers  had  dispersed  all  who  were  incapable  of  resistance  they  con- 


1643.] 


THE    GORTON   PARTY   BESIEGED. 


81 


sented  to  a  parley  with  those  who  could  fight.  It  was  only  by  the 
persuasions  of  the  Providence  people,  however,  who  hearing  of  the 
coming  of  the  commissioners  were  there  to  prevent  bloodshed  if 
they  could,  that  an  immediate  assault  upon  the  log-house  was  pre- 
vented. 

The  commissioners  demanded  an  instant  surrender.  "  They  pre- 
tended," says  the  Gorton  narrative,  "  we  had  done  some  wrong  unto 
certain  of  their  subjects,  as 
also  that  we  held  blasphe- 
mous errors  which  we  must 
either  repent  of,  or  go  down 

to  the  Massa-    , 

chusetts,tobe 
tried  at  their 


The  Gorton   Party  attacked. 

Courts,  or  else  they  had  commission  to  put  us  to  the  sword  and  to 
pay  themselves  out  of  our  goods  for  their  charges  in  coming  thither."  1 
Possibly  they  may  not  have  gone  to  the  extremity  of  threatening  in- 
stant death,  bat  the  statement  of  the  alleged  offences  for  which  sur- 
render was  demanded  is,  no  doubt,  correctly  given. 

The  besieged  refused.  They  denied  that  they  owed  any  allegiance 
to  Massachusetts,  for  they  were  not  within  her  jurisdiction.  They  de- 
clined to  accept  as  their  judges  those  who  were  their  avowed  enemies  ; 

1  Simplicitie's  Defence  ayainst  Seven  Headed  Policy,  p.  104,  vol.  ii.,  Coll.  R.  I.  Hist.  Society. 
VOL.  IT.  6 


82         THE  SHAWOMET   PEOPLE  AND  THE   INDIANS.       [CHAP.  IV 

but  they  were  quite  willing  that  the  differences  between  them  should 
be  submitted  to  the  government  at  home.  This  proposition  was  met 
with  a  peremptory  refusal. 

They  then  offered  to  submit  the  case  to  arbitration.  Impartial 
men,  they  proposed,  should  be  chosen  by  both  parties,  and  they  prom- 
ised to  bind  themselves  by  their  goods,  their  lands,  and  their  persons 
to  abide  by  any  decision  that  should  be  given  against  them.  This 
was  so  far  considered  that  a  truce  was  agreed  to  till  a  reply  to  the 
proposal  could  be  received  from  the  government  in  Boston. 

It  is  clear  enough  that  the  Gorton  people  were  only  anxious 'for 
peace ;  equally  clear  that  the  other  party  only  meant  that  they 
should  be  punished.  The  truce  on  one  side  was  a  hollow  pretence. 
Before  the  messenger  could  return  from  Boston,  the  houses  of  the  vil- 
lage were  broken  open  and  pillaged  ;  their  desks  were  rifled  and  their 
papers  stolen  ;  the  soldiers  helped  themselves  to  all  they  wanted, 
carrying  beds  and  bedding  to  the  trenches  for  their  own  comfort ;  the 
women  and  children  venturing  back  from  the  woods  to  see  the  hus- 
bands and  fathers  who  they  hoped  would  be  for  a  little  while  unmo- 
lested, were  assaulted,  and  even  fired  upon  as  they  approached.  No 
doubt  it  was  —  as  some  pitying  people  in  Providence  wrote  at  the 
time  to  Governor  Winthrop,  under  the  delusion  that  their  intercession 
and  testimony  might  abate  the  rigor  of  that  persecution  —  no  doubt 
it  was  "  a  mournful  spectacle,"  and  one  can  only  wish,  as  they  did, 
that  these  poor  creatures  so  likely  "  to  be  left  miserable,"  had  but 
been  "  able  to  write  their  own  grief."  1 

Affairs  were  still  worse  when  the  messenger  arrived  from  Boston. 
The  proposition  for  arbitration  was  rejected  at  once.  The  real  offence 
was  one  for  which  there  could  be  no  compromise,  and,  with  the  Puri- 
tans no  palliation.  "  Besides  the  title  of  land,"  wrote  Winthrop,  to 
the  compassionate  mediators  of  Providence,  they  "  have  subscribed 
their  names  to  horrible  and  detestable  blasphemies,  against  God, 
and  all  magistracy."  Above  all  things  was  "  the  vindication  of  God's 
honour,"  which  the  Boston  people  firmly  believed  was  intrusted  to 
their  keeping.  And,  moreover,  to  whom  could  all  the  questions  in 
the  case  be  referred  ?  Not  to  you  of  Providence,  said  the  Massachu- 
setts governor,  for  you  live  too  near  and  have  too  much  pity  for  these 
blasphemers,  to  be  trusted  ;  and  as  to  those  people  on  Rhode  Island 

1  However  much  the  people  of  Providence  may  have  l>een  vexed  at  the  extravagances 
of  Gorton  and  his  friends,  they  deprecated  and  protested  ngainst  the  cruel  treatment  which 
their  vagaries  brought  upon  them.  Even  had  they  of  Providence  cared  nothing  for  liberty 
of  conscience,  they  knew  how  little  reason  there  was  to  fear  that  any  harm  could  come  of 
the  preaching  of  an  apostle  who  had  gained,  even  with  the  rare  advantage  of  two  public 
whippings  and  expulsion  from  every  place  where  he  had  tried  to  find  a  home,  only  about  a 
dozen  disciples. 


1643.] 


THE   GORTON  PARTY  BESIEGED. 


83 


we  know  them  too  well !  No  !  There  could  be  even  no  further  nego- 
tiation, much  less  arbitration.  They  must  surrender  or  take  the  con- 
sequences. 

Gorton  and  his  men,  whatever  else  they  were,  were  not  cowards. 
A  discharge  of  musketry  announced  the  return  of  the  messenger,  and 
notice  was  given  that  the  truce,  —  which  had  been  no  truce,  —  was 
ended.  They  saw  their  goods  despoiled,  their  cattle  driven  gi 
off,  or  slaughtered  ;  their  women  and  children  were  in  they 
knew  not  how  great  extremity  ;  they  were  a  dozen  men  only  shut  up 
in  a  log  cabin  ;  the  enemy  was  nearly  four  times  their  number,  safely 


entrenched  in  ditches,  amply 
provided  with  arms,  with  am- 
munition, and  with  food,  of  all 
which  their  own  supply  was 
probably  not  abundant.  It  was 
not  easy  to  dislodge  the  be- 
leaguered men,  though  their 
resistance  was  rather  passive 
than  active.  For  several  days  they  withstood  the  siege,  but  without 
firing  a  shot,  for  they  would  shed  no  blood  if  they  could  avoid  it. 
The  soldiers  in  the  trenches  emptied  their  bandaliers  of  four  hun- 
dred bullets  into  the  logs  of  the  fortress ;  they  built  fires  in  the  night 
time  against  the  walls  ;  but  all  with  no  other  result  than  the  con- 


The  Gorton  Party  besieged  In  the  Block-house. 


84         THE   SHAWOMET  PEOPLE  AND  THE   INDIANS.       [CHAP.  IV. 

sumption  of  much  patience  and  powder.  It  was  a  special  providence, 
Mr.  Winthrop  thought,  that  nobody  was  hurt  —  nobody,  that  is,  on 
his  side  ;  the  ungodly  Gortonites  perhaps  thought  that  nobody  was 
killed  because  they  preferred  not  to  kill  the  enemy  on  the  outside, 
and  on  the  inside  kept  themselves  out  of  the  range  of  the  bullets. 
But  what  could  not  be  done  by  force  was  done  at  last  by  stratagem 

—  if  treachery  be  not  the  better  word.      Reinforcements  were  sent 
for  from  Boston,  and  it  was  evident  that  defence  much  longer  was 
hopeless.     It  was  agreed,  therefore,  that  hostilities  should  cease,  Gor- 
ton and  those  with  him  consenting  to  go  to  Massachusetts,  on  condi- 
tion, however,  that  they  should  go  not  as  prisoners,  but  as  "  free  men 

and  neighbors."     So  soon,  however,  as  the  soldiers  gained 

The  Gorton  &  '  fo 

party  taken    admittance  to  the  house,  the  men  were  seized  by  order  of 

prisoners.  ...  ,  .  ,      , 

the  captain,  their  arms  taken  from  them,  and  the  whole  com- 
pany marched  off  as  captives.  They  were  permitted  to  make  no  dis- 
position of  their  property,  which  was  left  as  a  spoil  to  the  Indians 
after  the  commissioners  and  the  soldiers  had  helped  themselves  to  all 
they  thought  worth  taking.  They  had  been,  it  is  plain,  too  thrifty 
and  industrious  a  community  to  have  been  very  bad  citizens,  for  their 
losses  were  fourscore  head  of  cattle,  besides  swine  and  goats,  corn 
and  other  provisions,  and  their  household  goods.  "  Our  countrymen," 

—  is  the  simple  but  emphatic   testimony,  a  few  months  afterward,  of 
some  of  the  most  respectable  people  of  Providence,  —  "  were  peacably 
possessed  of  a  plantation  at  Shawomet ;  "  they  were  "  assaulted  and 
besieged   by  Captain   Cooke  and  his  company  in  warlike  manner," 
.  .  .  .  "  their  goods,  cattle,  houses,  and  plantations  were  seized  upon 
by  the  foresaid  captain ;"....    they  themselves    "  were  carried 
captive  through  this  town  of  Providence  to  the  Bay  of  Massachu- 
setts ;"....  Their  "  wives  and   children  were  scattered  in  great 
extremities,  and  divers  since  have  died."  1 

No  glimmer  of  merciful  relenting,  no  ray  of  pitiful  compassion, 
soften  or  relieve  the  cruel  and  sombre  gloom  of  this  page  in  the 
history  of  Massachusetts.  Making  every  possible  allowance  for  the 
strength  of  religious  convictions,  and  for  the  sensitiveness  of  political 
relations  still  inchoate  and  experimental,  it  is  hard  to  find  any  other 
excuse  than  that  which  may  be  given  for  any  religious  bigotry  for  this 
persecution  of  a  handful  of  harmless  people,  whose  numbers  were  too 
few  to  be  dangerous,  and  whose  doctrines  were  too  abstruse,  if  not  ab- 
solutely too  unmeaning,  to  admit  of  that  number  being  ever  seriously 
increased.  But  it  was  enough  that  they  were  blasphemers  against 
God,  because  their  supposed  theological  notions  did  not  square  with 
those  preached  in  the  First  Church  of  Boston  ;  that  they  were  disbe- 

i  Coll.  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  117. 


1G43.] 


THE   CAPTIVES   AT  BOSTON. 


85 


lievers  in  all  human  governments,  because  they  questioned  the  author- 
ity of  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts. 

The  unhappy  prisoners  were  hurried  on  to  Boston.  Had  they  been 
malefactors  on  their  way  to  the  gallows,  —  malefactors  on  ^g  ^p^g 
whose  garments  the  mob  hope  to  see,  and  shudder  at  the  atBoston 
thought  of  seeing,  the  blood  of  the  victims  of  their  cupidity  or  their 
hate,  —  they  could  hardly  have  been  received  with  more  public  emotion. 
In  some  of  the  towns  they  passed  through  the  clergymen  called  the 
people  to  join  in  prayer,  in  the  open  streets,  in  recognition  of  the  good- 


Winthrop  blessing  the  Soldiers. 

ness  of  the  Lord  that  he  had  given  them  the  victory.  In  Dorchester 
was  a  great  gathering,  and  in  the  crowd  were  those  worshipful  minis- 
ters, Master  Cotton  and  Master  Mather,  whose  presence  gave  special 
solemnity  to  the  volleys  of  shot  that  were  fired  over  the  heads  of  the 
prisoners  in  token  of  the  triumph  of  the  expedition.  In  Boston  the 
public  rejoicings  were  made  even  more  significant.  The  troops  were 
drawn  up  in  double  file  in  front  of  Governor  Winthrop's  house,  and, 
at  intervals  of  five  or  six  soldiers,  were  placed  these  dreadful  enemies 


86          THE    SHAWOMET   PEOPLE  AND  THE  INDIANS.      [CHAP.  I\ 

of  the  quiet  of  the  Church,  and  the  peace  of  the  Commonwealth. 
The  commissioners  entered  the  house,  and  in  due  form  reported  their 
return ;  and  then  came  out  to  the  military  array  the  honored  gover- 
nor, who,  passing  between  the  lines,  lifted  up  his  hands  and  his  voice 
in  welcome  and  in  thanksgiving  £hat  God  had  permitted  their  safe 
deliverance  and  signal  victory.  And  he  took  from  each  soldier  his 
name,  that  the  General  Court  might  be  informed  of  their  pains  and 
good  carriage,  and  where  such  worthy  instruments  of  its  will  might 
be  found  when  occasion  should  again  arise  for  great  services.1  Then, 
after  a  brief  examination,  the  prisoners  were  committed  to  the  com- 
mon jail ;  the  governor  again  stepped  forth  to  receive  a  salute  of  three 
rounds  of  shot  from  the  military,  who  then  marched  to  the  nearest 
inn,  the  governor  at  their  head,  for  a  frugal  banquet,  before  disband- 
ing. There  was  peace  in  Massachusetts. 

Trial  and  punishment  came  in  due  order,  beginning  with  compul- 
sory attendance  upon  Mr.  Cotton's  ministrations  on  the  first  Lord's 
day  after  the  arrival  in  Boston,  —  a  penalty,  however,  not  without 
mitigation,  for  Gorton  took  up  the  sermon  of  the  learned  clergyman 
and  answered  it  on  the  spot,  point  by  point.  For  such  an  opportu- 
nity of  exhorting  he  and  his  followers  would  have  been  willing, 
doubtless,  to  listen  to  Mr.  Cotton  daily,  but  we  find  no  record  of  the 
repetition  of  this  particular  discipline.  It  was  clearly  more  prudent 
that  the  elders  should  conduct  these  theological  discussions  within  the 
jail,  rather  than  the  meeting-house,  lest  some  feeble  brothers  or  sis- 
ters, as  was  quite  possible,  should  be  deluded  by  the  Evil  One  into 
believing  that  Master  Cotton  or  Master  Wilson  had  the  worst  of  the 
argument.  There  was,  at  any  rate,  no  lack  of  controversy  till  the 
time  of  the  public  trial,  and  the  most  learned  elders,  and  those  most 
distinguished  for  godliness,  spent  themselves  in  vain  in  labors  with 
the  stiff-necked  heretics.2 

1  Gorton,  in  the  Simplicitie's  Defence,  and  Winthrop,  in  his  history,  are  perfectly  in  ac- 
cord as  to  the  details  of  this  singular  proceeding. 

2  To  grapple  with  a  knotty  theological  problem  was  the  delight  of  the  learned  and  de- 
vout Puritan,  and  it  is  easy  to  understand  the  complete  satisfaction  with  which  they  came 
to  the  encounter  with  so  tough  a  disputant  as  Gorton,  armed  and  equipped  with  such  weap- 
ons as  these,  —  we  quote  from  Winthrop  :     "Gorton  maintained  (in  a  dispute  in  the  prison 
with  one  of  the  elders)  that  the  image  of  God  wherein  Adam  was  created,  was  Christ ;  and 
so  the  loss  of  that  image  was  the  death  of  Christ,  and  the  restoring  of  it  in  regeneration 
was  Christ's  resurrection,  and  so  the  death  of  him  that  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  was 
but  a  manifestation  of  the  former."     The  devout  governor  discovered  flat  blasphemy  in 
all  this,  but  it  is  difficult  to  understand  that  such  a  thesis,  however  earnestly  defended, 
could  threaten  the  safety  of  either  Church  or  State. 

Gorton's  method  of  controversy  was  only  a  travesty  of  that  of  the  time.  That  profes- 
sedly minute  and  exhaustive  analysis  of  texts  of  Scripture,  in  search  of  some  profoundly 
occult  meaning,  overlooking  the  obvious  interpretation  as  puerile,  because  it  was  level  to 
the  vulgar  comprehension,  —  this  Gorton  imitated  and  reduced  to  a  fine  absurdity.  The 


1C43.J  THE  GORTON  TRIAL.  87 

They  were  brought  at  length  before  the  General  Court  and  put 
formally  upon  their  defence.     The  judicial  proceeding  was 
characteristic  of  all  that  had  gone  before.     The  offences,  for  Gorton 
which  the  accused  were  on  trial,  were  theological  rather  than   ' 
civil,  and  therefore  the  elders  were  called  to  sit  with  the  judges.     As 
to  the  claim  of  jurisdiction,  including  protection  for  the  vagabond  In- 
dian chiefs,  "  we   need  not,"  said   Winthrop,  "  question  them   [the 
Shawomet  people]  any  more  about  that ;  "  possession  was  gained,  and 
the  Massachusetts  "  title  appearing  good,"  he  said,  they  refusing  to 
prove  a  negative.     They  refused,  because  they  were  too  wary  to  be 
impaled  upon  the  horns  of  a  dilemma  by  appearing  as  defendants  be- 
fore a  court  whose  jurisdiction  they  denied,  where  the  question  to  be 
tried  was  whether  that  court  had  jurisdiction. 

"  They  were  all  illiterate  men,"  says  Winthrop ;  "  the  ablest  of 
them  could  not  write  true  English,  no,  not  common  words,  yet  they 
would  take  upon  them  the  interpretation  of  the  most  difficult  places 
of  Scripture,  and  wrest  them  any  way  to  serve  their  own  turns."  Pity 
might  have  waited  gracefully  upon  such  contempt  as  this,  and  the 
more,  that  these  ignorant  enthusiasts  would  not  acknowledge,  perhaps 
were  incapable  of  understanding,  that  the  doctrines  they  preached 
could  bear  any  such  interpretation  as  the  court  chose  to  put  upon  them. 
But  they  stood  before  judges  of  a  faith  too  inexorable  to  be  moved  by 
compassion,  and,  as  was  fit,  they  to  whose  care  that  faith  was  specially 
committed  were  the  most  unrelenting. 

The  trial  lasted  several  days.  A  single  incident  shows  the  manner 
in  which  it  was  conducted.  Four  questions  were  put  to  Gorton,  in 

difficulty  was  that  the  very  elect  were  taken  in  by  any  such  assumption  of  profound  relig- 
ious wisdom,  because  the  presentation  was  after  the  approved  method.  They  became  in- 
capable of  relying  upon  the  good  sense  of  the  people,  who,  when  no  appeal  was  made  to 
their  sympathies  by  the  persecution  of  obnoxious  persons,  would  easily  distinguish  the  false 
from  the  true.  To  give  an  instance  of  Gorton's  method  :  When  in  prison  in  Charlestown, 
he  wrote  to  the  minister  of  the  church,  and  proposed  that  he  might  have  "  liberty  to  speak 
and  express  the  word  of  the  Lord  "  in  public,  either  on  Sunday  or  at  the  weekly  lecture. 
The  Scripiure  he  proposed  "  to  open  and  declare  "  was  the  ninth  chapter  of  Revelations. 
The  first  verse  of  that  chapter  is  :  And  the  fifth  angel  sounded,  and  1  saw  a  star  fall- from 
heaven  unto  the  earth  ;  and  to  him  was  given  the  key  of  the  bottomless  pit.  On  this  text  the  peo- 
ple of  Charlestowu  were  to  be  taught  by  Gorton  — 

"  1 .  What  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  is.     2.  Who  the  Anjrel  is.     3.  Why  the  fifth. 

"  1.  What  the  star  is  that  falls  from  heaven  to  the  earth.  2.  What  the  fall  of  it  is.  3. 
How  it  falls  from  heaven  unto  the  earth. 

"  1.  What  the  key  of  the  bottomless  pit  is.  2.  To  whom  it  is  given.  3.  The  manner 
how  it  is  given.  4.  How  the  pit  is  opened.  5.  How  it  can  be  said  to  be  bottomless,  seeing 
nothing  can  be  without  banks  nml  bottom,  but  the  Lord  himself." 

He  goes  on  to  other  verses  of  the  chapter  with  the  same  drastic  diffusiveness  of  verbal 
criticism  ;  and  were  it  not  perfectly  certain  that  Gorton  was  in  most  deadly  earnest  it  might 
be  supposed  that  he  was  aiming  to  give  an  absurd  caricature  of  Puritan  preaching  and 
exegesis.  —  See  Simplicitie's  Defence.  Coll.  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  146. 


88 


THE    SHAWOMET   PEOPLE    AND  THE   INDIANS.      [CHAP.  IV 


which  he  was  called  upon  to  answer,  whether  the  Fathers  who  died 
before  Christ  was  born,  were  justified  and  saved  only  by  his  blood  ;  — 
whether  the  only  price  of  i-edemption  was  not  the  death  and  suffer- 
ings   of    Christ  ;  —  who 
that   God    is    whom,    he 
said,  they,  his   persecut- 
ors, served  ;  —  and,  final- 
ly, what  he  meant  when 
he    said,    "  We    worship 
the  star  of  our  God  Rem- 
phan,    Chion,    Molech." 
This    body    of    divinity 
he  was  at  first  required 


Gorton's   Dispute  with  Cotton. 


to  elucidate  in  writing,  at  peril  of  his  life,  in  fifteen  minutes ;  but 
the  time  was  afterward  extended  to  half  an  hour,  and  then  to  the 
next  morning.  In  the  answers,  no  flaw  could  be  found,  but  they  were 
none  the  more  satisfactory  on  that  account ;  on  the  contrary,  they 


i  sen- 
tence. 


1643.]  THE    SENTENCE.  89 

were  on  that  account  the  more  objectionable,  inasmuch  as  they  were 
not  what  was  expected,  and  did  not  agree,  the  court  decided,  with 
what  Gorton  had  written  in  his  answer  to  the  accusations  of  the 
magistrates.  There  could  be  little  of  the  spirit  of  justice  in  a  court 
that  arraigned  a  man  for  alleged  erroneous  opinions,  and  then  refused 
to  accept  his  defence  because  he  denied  that  these  opinions  which  his 
judges  accused  him  of  holding  were  his. 

The  elders  declared  that  the  offence  of  these  men  was  deserving  of 
death  ;  of  the  magistrates,  all  but  three  agreed  with  the  elders  ;  but 
the  larger  number  of  the  forty  delegates  to  the  General  Court  repre- 
senting the  body  of  the  people,  where  sound  judgment  and  The, 
love  of  justice  had  freer  play,  refused  to  sanction  such  a  sen- 
tence. But  it  was  decided  that  the  accused  should  be  dispersed  into 
several  towns,  where  each  should  be  kept  at  hard  labor,  with  irons 
upon  one  leg,  and  commanded  that  they  should  "  not,  by  word  or 
writing,  maintain  any  of  their  blasphemous  or  wicked  errors  upon 
pain  of  death."1 

The  imprisonment  lasted  through  the  whole  winter  of  1643-4,  and, 
as  not  unfrequently  happens,  the  purpose  of  the  punishment  was  de- 
feated by  its  severity.  The  poison  of  false  doctrine  was  spread,  not 
suppressed  ;  for  the  fear  of  death  with  such  men  was  as  nothing  com- 
pared to  the  fear  of  offending  their  own  consciences  by  base  and  sub- 
missive silence.  In  the  spring,  the  anxiety  was  as  great  to  get  rid  of 
them  as  it  was  in  the  autumn  to  bring  them  within  reach  of  the  heavy 
hand  of  Massachusetts  law.  "  The  court,"  Winthrop  frankly  con- 
fesses, "  finding  that  Gorton  and  his  company  did  harm  in  the  towns 
where  they  were  confined,  and  not  knowing  what  to  do  with  them,  at 
length  agreed  to  set  them  at  liberty,  and  gave  them  fourteen  days  to 
depart  out  of  our  jurisdiction  in  all  parts,  and  no  more  to  come  into 
it  upon  pain  of  death."  Gorton,  no  doubt,  was  willing  enough  to  be 
released,  but  he  parted  unwillingly  with  the  •'  iron  furniture "  about 
his  leg.  He  would  have  been  glad  to  drag  that  clanging  witness  at 
his  heels  about  the  streets  of  Boston,  as  he  boldly  cried  aloud  against 
the  injustice  of  her  magistrates,  and  proclaimed  anew  his  own  Gorton  ex_ 
heresies.  But  the  people  could  no  more  be  trusted  to  listen  M^ch™-m 
than  he  to  preach.  Within  three  days  of  the  order  of  re-  sette- 
lease,  which  gave  them  permission  to  remain  a  fortnight,  Gorton  and 

1  Winthrop' s  History,  Savage's  edition,  vol.  ii.,  p.  177.  Mass.  Records,  vol.  ii.,  p.  52. 
'  Aud  when  the  bolts  and  chains  were  made  ready,"  says  Gorton,  in  his  Simplicitie's  De- 
fence, "  they  put  them  upon  us  in  the  prison  of  Boston,  that  so  we  might  travel  in  them  to 
the  several  towns  to  which  we  were  confined,  some  of  us  having  fifteen  miles,  and  some 
thirty  to  go  from  Boston,  only  we  were  to  stay  till  Master  Cotton,  his  Lecture  day,  and  then 
were  all  brought  to  the  congregation,  in  that  our  iron  furniture  for  the  credit  of  the  sanc- 
tuary, which  had  set  the  sword  on  work  to  such  good  purpose."  Whatever  Governor  Win- 


90          THE   SHAWOMET  PEOPLE   AND  THE  INDIANS.      [CHAP.  IV. 

his  companions  were  commanded  "  to  depart  out  of  the  town  before 
noon  this  day,"  —  the  day  of  the  order. 

Persecution  in  their  case  had  clearly  not  been  successful  except 
to  inflict  upon  them  needless  suffering.  As  they  turned  their  faces 
back  toward  the  road  along  which  they  had  been  brought  as  prison- 
ers six  months  before,  they  evidently  felt  that  the  Lord  had  given 
them  the  victory.  "  Was  Captain  Cooke  a  good  captain  ?  "  asked 
some  of  them  of  an  Indian  chief  at  whose  wigwam  they  were  en- 
tertained on  their  journey.  "I  cannot  tell,"  he  answered,  "but  In- 
dians account  of  those  as  good  captains,  when  a  few  dare  stand  out 
against  many."  l  They  were  quite  willing  to  accept  this  tribute  to 
their  own  courage  and  this  estimate  of  good  soldiership. 

For  one  night  they  stopped  in  their  old  homes  at  Shawomet,  now 
subsequent  desolate  and  ruined.  And  it  must  have  been  in  no  slight 
degree  exasperating  to  the  magistrates  in  Boston,  when  a 
letter  came  from  there  asking  if  the  prohibition  to  settle 
upon  any  lands  of  Pumham  and  Sacononoco  was  meant  to  include 
Shawomet?  for  they  very  well  knew  —  and  knew  that  those  magis- 
trates knew  that  they  knew  —  that  the  only  lands  to  which  those 
sachems  had  ever  made  any  precise  claim  were  the  lands  of  Shawo- 
met. They  were  not  so  out  of  the  fashion  of  the  times  as  to  be  given 
to  unseemly  mirth  ;  but  possibly  they  may  have  indulged  in  a  quiet 
smile  when  Winthrop,  foolishly  provoked  into  answering  the  ques- 
tion, and  betrayed  by  its  impudence  into  unwonted  anger,  replied, 
that  not  "  upon  peril  of  their  lives,"  were  they  to  intrude  upon  the 
lands  of  those  chiefs,  "  be  the  place  called  Shawomet  or  otherwise." 
Surely  never  were  a  more  exasperating  people. 

Nevertheless,  Shawomet,  in  the  end,  again  became  their  home. 
They  found  refuge  for  two  or  three  years  in  Rhode  Island  until  they 
were  reinstated  upon  their  lands  by  an  order  from  the  government  in 
England.  For  Gorton  as  a  politician  was  by  no  means  wanting  in 
sagacity,  and  the  first  use  he  made  of  his  liberty  was  to  avail  himself 
of,  and  probably  encourage,  a  strong  feeling  of  enmity  existing  —  for 
a  reason  to  be  explained  presently  —  among  the  Narragansetts  against 
the  Massachusetts  colony. 

«/ 

These  Indians,  Gorton  says,  were  puzzled  to  understand  why  the 

Effect  of       magistrates  in  Boston,  having  had  these  Shawomet  people  — 

u£m  the'i^.  tne  violent  proceedings  against  whom  the  Indians  witnessed 

with  their  own  eyes  —  in  their  power,  should  have  permitted 

them  to  escape  with  their  lives  from  a  Massachusetts  prison.     They 

tbrop  may  have  thought  of  the  power  of  these  men  to  write  "  true  English,"  this  statement 
could  hardly  be  put  in  a  style  more  forcible  and  picturesque. 
1  Siuiftlicitie's  Defence. 


1644.] 


POLICY   OF  THE  NARRAGANSETTS. 


did  not  understand  why  an  enemy,  who  was  worth  the  trouble  of 
being  captured,  should  not  be  killed.  The  explanation  was  an  Indian 
explanation.  Rumors  of  a  great  war  in  England  had  reached  their 
ears.  There  must  then  be  in  England  two  kinds  of  people,  the  Wat- 
taconoges  —  as  they  called  the  English  generally  — 
and  the  Gortonoges;  and  the  Gortonoges  must  be  the 
stronger,  for  here  in  Massachusetts,  the  Wattaconoges 
were  afraid  to  kill  them.  The  policy  the  chiefs 

,  ,,         T     j.  ,.  .,  ,  ,  Signature  of  Pessicus. 

chose  was  the  Indian   policy ;   it  was  to  be  on  the 

strongest  side.     Pessicus,  Canonicus,  and   Mixan,  the   Narragansett 

sachems,  accordingly  submitted  themselves  and  their  people,  by  sol- 


The   Messengers  at  the  Tent  of  Canonicus. 

ernn  act  and  deed,  to  Charles  the  First,  who  at  that  moment  stood 
in  great  need  of  faithful  subjects. 

The  government  at  the  Bay  were  duly  advised  of  this  new  aspect 
of  affairs,  and  the  sachems  were  summoned  to  appear  before  the  Gen- 
eral Court.  They  declined  to  come ;  whereupon  messengers  were 
sent  them  with  instructions  to  ask  "  by  whose  advice  they  had  done  as 


92          THE   SHAWOMET  PEOPLE   AND  THE   INDIANS.      [CHAP.  IV. 

they  wrote,  and  why  they  would  countenance  and  take  counsel  from 
such  evil  men,  and  such  as  we  had  banished  from  us,  and  to  per- 
suade them  to  sit  still  and  to  have  more  regard  to  us  than  such  as 
Gorton."  But  Canonicus  sulked  in  his  tent ;  for  two  hours  he  kept 
the  messengers  waiting  in  the  rain  ;  and  when  he  admitted  them  to 
his  presence  entertained  them  only  with  "  a  few  froward  speeches." 
Pessicus  was  more  amenable.  The  conference  he  granted  to  the  mes- 
sengers lasted  through  the  night,  and  his  speeches,  though  not  "  fro- 
ward "  were  "  witty."  1  The  savage  chieftain  probably  could  not  be 
convinced  why,  if  it  were  right  that  Pumham  and  Sacononoco  should 
ask  the  protection  of  Massachusetts,  he/  and  Canonicus  and  Mixan 
should  not  declare  allegiance  to  King  Charles,  the  great  chief,  as  they 
considered,  of  the  Gortonoges.  Moreover  he  declared  that  the  Nar- 
ragansetts  would  presently  go  to  war  with  Uncas,  the  Mohegan  sa- 
chem. 

This  avowal  of  hostility  to  the  Mohegans  is  the  real  explanation  of 
Feud  be-  *^e  relation  in  which  the  Narragansetts  stood  to  all  parties. 
The  King  of  England,  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  or 
the  handful  of  fanatics  at  Shawomet,  were  of  little  moment 
its  causes.  j.Q  faem  except  so  far  as  they  might  hinder  or  help  their  de- 
signs of  revenge  upon  their  savage  enemies.  There  had  long  been  a 
deadly  feud  between  these  two  tribes,  and  the  Narragansetts  were  at 
this  time  in  mourning  for  the  death  of  their  chief  Miantonomo,  whom 
Uncas  had  caused  to  be  treacherously  murdered,  the  previous  year, 
with  the  connivance  or  rather  by  the  counsel,  of  the  United  Colonies 
of  New  England. 

For  several  years  before  this  act  of  useless  and  cruel  perfidy,  there 
had  been  suspicions  that  the  great  sachem  Miantonomo,  jealous  of  the 
growing  power  of  the  English,  and  alarmed  at  the  result  of  the  Pequot 
war,  —  was  seeking  secretly  to  unite  all  of  his  race  in  a  league  for  the 
utter  destruction  of  the  whites.  He  was  represented  as  travelling 
among  the  tribes  from  Massachusetts  to  Long  Island,  everywhere  ap- 
pealing to  their  patriotism,  buying  their  consent  with  presents  of 
wampum,  inciting  them  by  his  eloquence  to  protect  their  own  interests 
and  to  revenge  the  wrongs  they  had  suffered.  We,  he  is  reported  to 
have  said,  are  all  Indians  as  they  are  all  English,  "  so  must  we  be  one 
as  they  are,  otherwise  we  shall  be  all  gone  shortly.  For  you  know 
supposed  our  fathers  had  plenty  of  deer  and  skins ;  our  plains  were 
the'ewef  full  of  deer,  as  also  our  woods;  and  of  turkies;  and  our  coves 
MM,,  full  of  fish  and  fowl.  But  these  English  having  gotten  our 
land,  they  with  scythes  cut  down  the  grass,  and  with  axes  fell  the 
trees ;  their  cows  and  horses  eat  the  grass,  and  their  hogs  spoil  our 
1  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  ii.,  p.  203.  Wit  in  the  sense  of  wisdom. 


1643.]      MIANTONOMO  AND  THE   GORTON  CONTROVERSY.  93 

clam  banks,  and  we  shall  all  be  starved.  Therefore  it  is  best  for 
you  to  do  as  \ve,  for  we  are  all  the  sachems  from  east  to  west,  both 
Moquakues  and  Mohawks  joining  with  us,  and  we  are  all  resolved 
to  fall  upon  them  all  at  one  appointed  day  ....  and  when  you  see 
the  three  fires  that  will  be  made  forty  days  hence,  in  a  clear  night, 
then  do  as  we,  and  the  next  day  fall  on  and  kill  men,  women  and 
children ;  but  no  cows,  for  they  will  serve  to  eat  till  our  deer  be  in- 
creased again."  1 

This  bit  of  Indian  eloquence,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  proto- 
type of  many  Indian  speeches  since,  was  probably  never  made  by 
Miantonomo,  but  put  into  his  mouth  by  some  clever  savage  to  work 
him  harm.  Captain  Gardiner,  nevertheless,  believed  it  to  be  his,  and 
reported  an  intended  massacre  of  the  English  to  Mr.  Haynes  at  Hart- 
ford, and  Mr.  Eaton  at  New  Haven.  Massachusetts  was  appealed  to 
for  aid,  and  the  sachem  was  summoned  to  Boston  to  answer  the  ac- 
cusation. The  only  evidence  against  him  was  the  hearsay  testimony 
of  his  enemies. 

This  evidence,  .though  accepted  at  Hartford,  New  Haven,  and  Ptym- 
outh,  was  not  believed  by  the  Massachusetts  magistrates.  Twice  (in 
1640  and  1642)  Miantonomo  appeared  before  them,  and  by  his  digni- 
fied and  fearless  bearing,  his  evident  good  sense  and  frankness,  satisfied 
them  that,  as  Winthrop  said,  "  All  these  informations  might  arise 
from  a  false  ground,  and  out  of  the  enmity  which  was  between  the 
Narragansett  and  Monhigen."  2  The  plot  had  no  other  foundation 
than  the  purpose  of  Uncas  to  provoke  the  English  into  hostilities 
against  the  Narragansetts. 

But  the  Gorton  difficulty  favored  Uncas  in  an  unexpected  way, 
and  forced  Miantonomo  into  an  attitude  which  the  United  The  ^^ 
Colonies  assumed  to  be  hostile.  He  would  not,  with  Pum-  of  Uncas- 
ham  and  Sacononoco,  repudiate  the  sale  of  the  lands  of  Shawomet 
to  Gorton,  nor  ask,  as  they  did,  under  the  leadership  of  Benedict 
Arnold,  the  protection  of  Massachusetts.  During  the  progress  of  that 
controversy,  but  before  Gorton  and  his  companions  were  taken  pris- 
oners to  Boston,  Uncas  attacked  and  destroyed  a  Narragansett  vil- 
lage, and  killed  a  number  of  its  people.  Miantonomo  complained  of 
this  outrage  to  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and 
begged  them  not  to  be  offended  if  he  should  revenge  this  wrong  done 
to  his  relatives  and  friends.  Governor  Winthrop  replied:  "If  Onkus 
[Uncas]  had  done  him  or  his  friends  wrong,  and  would  not  give  sat- 
isfaction, we  should  leave  him  to  take  his  course."  3 

1  Gardiner's  Pequot  Warres.     We  follow  the  text  of  this  supposed  speech  verbatim,  but 
making  a  few  slight  changes  in  the  punctuation  where  the  sense  obviously  requires  it. 

2  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  ii.,  p.  100.  8  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  155. 


94          THE   SHAWOMET  PEOPLE   AND  THE   INDIANS.      |THAP.  TV. 

Confiding  in  this  assurance  of  neutrality  he  went  upon  the  war-path 

against  Uncas.    The  result  was  unfortunate,  for  he  was  taken  prisoner, 

the  weight  of  the  coat  of  armor,  which,  it  is  said,  Gorton  had  given 

him,  preventing  his  escape  by  flight.      That  disgrace,  no 

Miantonomo  r  *  i    i  •          <•         i        i 

taken  pris-  doubt,  overwhelmed  him,  for  he  begged  his  enemies  repeat- 
edly to  take  his  life,  taunting  them,  perhaps,  after  the  Indian 
fashion,  with  his  own  deeds  of  prowess  in  the  past,  and  how  they  had 
fled  like  women  before  him  at  the  sound  of  his  war-whoop.  But  Un- 
cas had  learned  to  refine  upon  the  crude  methods  of  Indian  revenge ; 
he  sent  the  great  chief  to  Hartford  to  be  lodged  in  the  common  jail. 

How  should  so  important  a  prisoner,  falling  thus  into  the  hands  of 
the  English,  be  disposed  of  ?  The  question  was  one,  it  seems,  not 
easily  answered.  The  governor  and  magistrates  at  Hartford  consented 
to  hold  him  in  custody,  but  declared  that  it  was  not  for  them  to  decide 
upon  his  final  disposition  ;  there  was  no  war,  they  said,  between  their 
colony  and  the  Narragansetts  to  justify  their  interference.  That 
decision,  they  thought,  belonged  to  the  commissioners  of  the  United 
Colonies.1 

A  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  at  which  Governor  Winthrop  pre- 
sided,  was  held  in  Boston  in  September,  and  the  subject  had 
their  most  serious  consideration.  They  well  knew,  they  said, 
£ne  ambitious  design  of  Miantonomo  "  to  make  himself  uni- 
versal Sagamore  or  Governor  of  all  these  parts,"  and  they  believed  he 
had  determined  to  exterminate  the  English  ;  but  this  knowledge  and 
belief,  tbey  declared  should  not  influence  their  judgment  in  this  case, 
which  was  simply  one  between  the  two  Indians.  Their  conclusion  was 
"  that  Uncas  cannot  be  safe  while  Myantonomo  lives,  but  that  either 
by  secret  treachery  or  open  force  his  life  will  be  still  in  danger. 
Wherefore  they  thinke  he  may  justly  put  such  a  false  and  blood- 
thirsty enemie  to  death,  but  in  his  owne  jurisdiccon  not  in  the  English 
plantacons  —  and  advising  that  in  the  manner  of  his  death  all  mercy 
and  moderacon  be  showed,  contrary  to  the  practise  of  the  Indians  who 
exercise  torture  and  cruelty." 

This  was  their  conclusion.  The  considerations  that  led  them  to  it 
were  :  That  Miantonomo  had  made  war  upon  Uncas  without  sub- 
mitting his  grievances  to  the  English  for  arbitration,  as  had  been  pro- 
vided by  treaty :  that  a  subject  of  Uncas  had  attempted  to  kill  him 
and  then  fled  for  protection  to  the  Narragansetts,  and  that  Mian- 
tonomo instead  of  surrendering  him  as  he  had  promised,  had  himself 
cut  off  the  culprit's  head,  "  that  he  might  tell  no  tales : "  that  Mian- 
tonomo had  attempted  to  destroy  Uncas  by  "  sorcery  " :  that  it  was 
Sequasson  and  not  Uncas  who  was  the  original  aggressor  in  the  quarrel 

i   Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut,  vol.  i.,  p.  131. 


1643.] 


EXECUTION  OF  MIANTONOMO. 


95 


that  led  to  the  conflict  between  Uncas  and  Miantonomo :  and,  finally, 
that  Miantonomo  had  "  suddainly  without  denouncing  war "  come 
upon  Uncas  with  superior  numbers  and  relying  upon  those  had  de- 
clined to  settle  their  feud  by  single  combat ;  that  the  Mohawks  were 
now  within  a  day's  journey  awaiting  the  issue  of  his  capture,  though 
what  they  might  do  "whether  against  the  English,  or  Uncas,  or 
both,"  the  commissioners  acknowledged,  "  is  doubtful."  1 

This  formidable  indictment,  nevertheless,  was  not  accepted,  at  once, 
as  conclusive.  Winthrop's  statement  of  the  conclusion  of  the  commis- 
sioners is,  that  they,  "  taking  into  consideration  what  was  safest  and 
best  to  be  done,  were  all  of  opinion  that  it  would  not  be  safe  to  set 
him  [Miantonomo]  at  liberty,  neither  had  we  sufficient  ground  for  us 
to  put  him  to  death." 

Here  then  was  a  dilemma.  Was  Miantonomo  to  be  punished  be- 
cause he  was  the  enemy  of  the  English  ?  He  was  believed  to  be  so 
in  Plymouth,  New  Haven,  and  Hartford,  but  hitherto  Massachusetts 


The  Grave  of  Miantonomo. 


had  not  believed  it ;  moreover,  the  delegates  from  those  colonies  de- 
clared that  was  not  the  question  now  at  issue.  Was  he  to  be  pun- 
ished because  he  had  disregarded  the  treaty,  as  the  commissioners 
said,  by  neglecting  to  notify  the  English  that  he  proposed  to  make 

1  Hazard's  State  Papers,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  8,  et  seq. 


96          THE   SHAWOMET  PEOPLE  AND  THE  INDIANS.       [CHAP.  IV 

war  upon  Uncas  ?  But  this  was  not  true,  according  to  Winthrop's 
own  testimony.  Miantonomo,  he  had  recorded  in  his  journal,  "  sent 
to  Mr.  Haynes  (at  Hartford)  to  complain  of  Onkus;"  and  Governor 
Haynes  had  replied,  "  that  the  English  had  no  hand  in  it,  nor  would 
encourage  them."  "  Miantonomo  gave  notice  hereof  also  to  our  gov- 
ernor"—  Winthrop  himself  —  continues  the  journal,  and  the  chief 
was  told  "  to  take  his  own  course."  Miantonomo  took  "  his  own 
course."  Was  it  a  crime  because  the  fortune  of  war  was  against  him  ? 
"  In  this  difficulty,"  says  Winthrop,  after  giving  the  decision  of  the 
commissioners  —  "  in  this  difficulty  we  called  in  five  of  the 

Thcquestion  .  .  .  ,  . 

settled  by      most -judicious  elders,  (it  being  the  time  of  the  general  as- 

five  elders.  i  i          <•       i  i  i  x  i 

sembly  ot  the  elders,)  and  propounding  the  case  to  them, 
they  all  agreed  that  he  ought  to  be  put  to  death." 

"  It  was  now  clearly  discovered  to  us,"  says  the  governor,  "  that 
there  was  a  general  conspiracy  among  the  Indians  to  cut  off  all  the 
English  and  that  Miantunnomoh  was  the  head  and  contriver  of  it." 
Apparently  it  was  the  judgment  of  the  elders  alone  that  revealed  the 
truth  of  what  hitherto  had  not  been  credited,  for  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  new  evidence. 

Miantonomo  was  to  die  then  by  the  sentence  of  the  English,  but 
Uncas  was  appointed  to  be  his  executioner.  The  Mohegan  chief  was 
by  no  means  reluctant  to  take  upon  himself  that  pleasant  office.  The 
prisoner  was  delivered  into  his  hands  and  marched  to  a  spot  near 
where  he  was  captured,  now  known  as  Sachem's  Plain,  in  Norwich, 
Connecticut.  It  was  ordered  by  the  commissioners  that  the  execution 
should  be  without  torture,  and  some  Englishmen  were  present  to  see 
that  the  order  was  obeyed.  If  the  method  chosen  was 
tion  of  MI-  savage,  it  was,  at  least,  merciful :  one  of  Uncas's  men  — 
said  to  be  his  brother  —  stealthily  approached  the  prisoner 
from  behind,  and  with  a  deadly  blow  buried  a  hatchet  in  his  brain. 
Uncas  sprang  upon  the  body  of  his  fallen  enemy,  and  cutting  a  large 
piece  of  flesh  from  the  shoulder  devoured  it  in  triumph,  exclaiming, 
"  it  was  the  sweetest  meat  he  ever  ate,  it  made  his  heart  strong."  1 

1  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut,  vol.  i.,  p.  135.  Drake's  Book  of  the  Indians,  p.  65. 
Winthrop  was  probably  wrong  as  to  the  place  of  this  tragedy,  notwithstanding  Savage 
(vol.  ii.,  p.  162),  in  a  note,  maintains  that  he  is  right.  Drake  doubts  if  Uncas  committed 
the  savage  act  attributed  to  him,  but  Trumbull  is  good  authority  for  the  tradition.  A 
monument  has  been  erected  to  the  memory  of  the  great  Sachem  on  Sachem's  Plain  in 
Norwich. 


View  of  Providence,   Rhode  Island. 


CHAPTER    V 


RHODE   ISLAND   AND   PROVIDENCE   PLANTATIONS. 

THE  SHAWOMET  CONTROVERSY  TAKEN  TO  ENGLAND.  —  DECIDED  IN  FAVOR  OF  GORTON 
AND  HIS  ASSOCIATES. — CHARTER  GRANTED  TO  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS. — CIVIL 
LIBERTY  AND  RELIGIOUS  TOLERATION  PROVIDED  FOR.  —  VISIT  OF  CLARK,  HOLMES, 
AND  CRANDALL  TO  BOSTON. —  PUNISHED  FOR  HOLDING  AND  PREACHING  HETERODOX 
OPINIONS.  —  DISSENSIONS  IN  RHODE  ISLAND.  —  CODDINGTON  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR 
FOR  LIFE  — THE  CHARTER  GRANTED  BY  CHARLES  II.  —  ITS  CHARACTER  AND  HIS- 
TORICAL INTEREST. 

DEEPLY  moved  with  grief  and  indignation  as  the  Narragansetts  were 
when  they  heard  of  the  treacherous  assassination  of  their  young  and 
beloved  sachem,  it  shows  how  little  real  fear  there  was  of  any  retalia- 
tion on  their  part,  that  a  small  guard  was  thought  sufficient  for  the 
protection  of  Uncas.  "  That  the  Indians  might  know,"  says  Win- 
throp,  "  that  the  English  did  approve  of  it,  they  sent  12  or  14  mus- 
keteers home  with  Onkus,  to  abide  a  time  with  him  for  his  defence,  if 
need  should  be."  There  was  no  need  ;  the  Narragansetts  understood. 

They  understood,  they  thought,  so  well  that  when  a  few  months 
later  Gorton  and  his  men  came  back  rejoicing  and  confident 
with  not  a  hair  the  less  upon  their  heads,  it  was,  the  Narra-  turn  to 
gansetts  believed,  because  the  others  were  afraid.     Gorton 
looked,  he  told  them,  to  the  king  for  justice  ;  it  was  no  hard  thing  to 
persuade  them  to  offer  their  allegiance  to  a  power  which,  though  so 
far  away,  was  feared  by  their  enemies.     If  such  subjects  were  of  no 

YOU  ii.  7 


98      RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.      [CHAP.  V. 

use  to  Charles,  and  such  a  king  no  protection  to  such  subjects,  the 
deed  of  submission  was,  at  least,  a  good  document  for  Gorton  to  have 
in  his  hand  when  he  appealed  to  the  government  at  home.  This  he 
did,  and  so  successfully  that  within  about  two  years,  Randall  Holden 
and  John  Greene — two  of  the  Shawomet  people  —  arrived  in  Bos- 
ton, with  an  order  from  the  Commissioners  of  Foreign  Plantations  in 
London,  that  they  and  Gorton  should  be  permitted  to  pass  unmo- 
•rhe  English  lasted  through  any  part  of  New  England,  from  which  they 
er^dediioii  ^af^  been  banished ;  and  ten  days  later  these  Commissioners 
m  his  favor.  jssue(j  an  order  that  all  those  evicted  from  Shawomet 
should  be  permitted  to  reenter  upon  and  enjoy  their  possessions  in 
that  place.  The  Earl  of  Warwick  was  the  president  of  that  Board  of 
Commissioners,  and  in  gratitude  to  him  the  place  was  thereafter  called 
Warwick. 

This  happy  result  to  their  troubles  was   not,  of   course,  brought 
about  without  a  struggle.     Edward  Winslow  was  sent  by  the  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts,  to  controvert  in  England  the  statements  of 
Gorton,  and  a  lively  controversy  ensued  between  them  before  the  Com- 
missioners and  a  committee  of  Par- 
liament,  and    in    published    letters 
and    pamphlets,   which  found    lis- 
teners, absorbing  as  the  interest  of 
the   English    people   was,    at   that 
time,  in    their  own  affairs.     Win- 
slow  was  faithful  to  his  trust,  and 
withstood  with  all  his  might  a  con- 
troversialist, who  thanking  God  that 
he  was  bred  in  no  "  schools  of  hu- 
man learning,"  must  have  been  the 
harder  to  grapple  with  ;  but  even 
Gorton  himself  testified  to  his  manly 
Edward  winsiow.  fairness.1 

But  Winslow  only  so  far  prevailed  that  a  year  later  the  order  re- 
storing their  lands  to  the  Shawomet  people  was  so  modified  and  ex- 
plained by  a  committee  of  both  houses  of  Parliament,  and  by  the 
Board  of  Commissioners  of  Foreign  Plantations  that  the  question  of 
jurisdiction  should  be  left  for  future  decision.  Winslow  claimed  that 

1  Edward  Winslow,  often  governor  of  Plymouth,  was  deservedly  one  of  the  most  hon- 
ored and  respected  of  the  early  New  Englauders.  No  one  went  so  often  as  lie  as  the 
agent  of  the  Colonies  to  England,  and  on  one  of  these  visits  he  was  sent  by  Cromwell  as 
commissioner  on  the  expedition  to  the  West  Indies,  in  1654.  He  died,  after  the  disgrace- 
ful repulse  at  Hispaniola  the  next  year,  of  fever;  A  Diary  in  the  Memorials  of  Admiral 
Sir  William  Penn  says :  "  Taking  conceit  (as  his  man  affirms)  at  the  disgrace  of  the  army 
on  Hispaniola,  to  whom  be  told,  it  bad  broken  his  heart." 


1644.]  THE   QUESTION   OF  JURISDICTION.  99 

the  lands  were  within  the  Plymouth  patent ;  but  however  the  colo- 
nists may  have  persuaded  themselves  on  this  point,  the  Commissioners 
still  insisted  that  Gorton,  Holden,  and  their  friends  should  be  per- 
mitted to  rest  on  the  lands  they  had  purchased  from  the  natives. 

For  years  the  question  continued  to  vex  the  colonies,  and  was  a  fre- 
quent subject  of  discussion,  and  even  of  altercation,  between  ^^  phaseg 
Plymouth  and  Massachusetts,  between  the  Commissioners  of  toVque't01" 
the  United  Colonies,  and  between  them  all  and  the  people  tion- 
of  Warwick.  As  a  reason  for  insisting  upon  the  exercise  of  the  right 
of  jurisdiction  over  them  the  latter  were  accused  of  wrongs  committed 
against  their  neighbors  both  English  and  Indian,  the  ready  rejoinder 
to  which  accusation  was  that  the  injuries  were  from  the  other  side 
and  were  only  withstood  in  self-defence.  There  seems  to  have  been 
little  peace  for  them  till  1658,  when  William  Arnold  and  William 
Carpenter,  two  of  the  four  original  instigators  of  the  troubles  of  the 
Shawomet  people,  petitioned  — with  others  of  Pawtuxet  —  that  Mas- 
sachusetts would  discharge  them  from  the  jurisdiction  of  that  colony. 
This  petition,  however,  is  to  be  understood  as  one  of  the  evidences  that 
Massachusetts  had  relinquished  her  claim  and  is  not  to  be  mistaken  as 
the  cause  of  that  change  of  policy. 

Years  before  this  Warwick   had  become  a  part  of  the   colony  of 
"  Providence  Plantations,"  under  a  charter  procured  by  Roger  Wil- 
liams in  March,  1644.1     This  was  granted  to  Providence,  Portsmouth, 
and  Newport,  Warwick  not  being  named  in  it ;  but  when   in  May, 
1647,  the  colony  was  organized,  that  plantation  was  admitted 
to  equal  privileges  with  the  rest.     Thereafter  any  attempted  charter, 
exercise  of  power  over  her  was  an  intrusion  upon  territory 
protected  by  patent  given  under  the  authority  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment. 

Williams  arrived  in  Boston  with  this  charter  in  September,  1644, 
and  was  allowed  to  land  there  on  his  way  to  Providence  by  virtue  of 
a  letter  from  "  divers  lords  and  others  of  the  parliament "  to  the 
governor  and  assistants  of  Massachusetts.  Not  that  there  was  any 
growing  disposition  to  tolerate  him  or  his  doctrines.2  The  letter 
alone  secured  him  a  safe  passage  through  Massachusetts  and  at  the 
same  time  informed  its  magistrates  that  he  was  the  bearer  of  this  char- 
ter granted  to  him  and  his  friends  by  both  houses  of  Parliament. 

1  There  has  been  some  controversy  as  to  the  date  of  this  charter,  the  question  being 
whether  it  was  March  14th  or  17th.     In  Hazard's  State  Pa/>ers  it  is  the  14th;  Savage  in 
Winthrojt's  Journal  maintained  that  this  was  correct,  while  Eltou  and  Staples  in  R.  I.  Hist. 
Coll.,  insist  that  it  should  be  the  17th.     But  Sainsbury's  Calendar  of  State  Papers  in  the 
State  Paper  Office,  London,  gives  the  14th  [0.  S.],  and  this,  therefore,  must  be  the  cor- 
rect date. 

2  Hubbard's  General  History  ofNtw  England,  chap,  xliii. 


100    RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.     [CHAP.  V. 

The  warmth  of  his  welcome  at  home  was  as  marked  as  the  coldness 
with  which  he  was  received  in  Boston.     It  was  a  little  less 

His  return.         .  .    .  .  ,       , 

than  eight  years  since  he  had  evaded  the  sentence  of  the 
law  of  Massachusetts  and  fled  into  the  forest  through  which  he  now 
again  found  his  way.  The  people  had  heard  of  his  coining  ;  at  See- 
konk  the  river  was  covered  with  canoes  ;  all  Providence  had  come  out 
to  hail  the  return  of  a  benefactor  and  a  friend.  Surrounded  by  a 
grateful  people  he  made  an  almost  triumphal  entry  into  the  colony 
he  had  planted. 

It  is  an  interesting  and  important  fact  that  there  was,  unknown 

to  Williams,  though  known 
probably  to  the  magistrates  of 
Massachusetts,  another  grant 


Williams's  Welcome. 


in  existence  at  that  moment. 
bearing  the  date  of  the  preced- 
ing December  —  December  10, 
1643  [O.  S.]  —  extending  the 

patent  of  that  colony  over  the  whole  of  the  present  State  of 

Existence  of     _-._—..._._.  111  i        • 

an  earlier      Khode  Island.     It  is  probable  that  the  instrument  had  not 

charter  to,,  .,„  •         i-»  n 

then  been  received,  for  some  reason,  in  Boston,  for  the  first 
allusion  to  it  is  found  in  the  records  of  the  7th  of  October, 
1045.  Mr.  Williams  is  then  notified  by  an  official  letter  to  refrain 
from  exercising  any  jurisdiction  over  the  lands  about  Narragansett 
Bay  and  the  tract  "  wherein  Providence  and  the  Island  of  Quidny 
are  included,"  the  charter  of  which  was  "  receaved  lately  out  of  Eng- 
land," 1  giving  that  country  to  Massachusetts. 

1  Records  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  iii.,  p.  49. 


Rhode 


1645.]  THE  NARRAGANSETT   PATENT   OF   1C43.  101 

Why  should  a  charter  which,  if  put  in  force,  would  settle  defini- 
tively so  much  that  was  vexatious  because  unsettled,  have  been  re- 
ceived only  "  lately "  in  October,  1645,  when  the  grant  was  made 
nearly  two  years  before,  in  December,  1643  ?  Why  also  Puziiing 

.-ill  1M  i  questions  in 

when  received,  though  so  tardily,  was  not  some  further  use  regard  to  u. 
made  of  it  other  than  in  this  single  instance  to  hold  it  up  as  a  menace 
to  the  Providence  Plantations  ?  That  is  the  sole  use  to  which  it  was 
ever  put  by  the  Massachusetts  government,  and  in  that  case  the  warn- 
ing was  not  thought  worth  heeding  by  those  to  whom  it  was  sent  or 
followed  up  by  those  who  gave  it. 

The  patent  was  a  month  old  when  Gorton  and  his  companions  were 
released  from  their  sentence  of  confinement  at  hard  labor  in  Massachu- 
setts and  dismissed  with  a  new  one  of  banishment  beyond  her  bor- 
ders. It  was  four  months  later  when  Governor  Winthrop  warned 
these  people  that  the  General  Court  did  not  intend  their  sentence  as  a 
"  scarecrow  "  —  that  it  would  be  found  real  and  effectual  should  it  be 
transgressed.  Did  he  know  at  that  very  moment  that  these  men  were 
still  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  proposing  to  set- 
tle on  Rhode  Island  were  as  much  disregarding  the  order  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  if  this  charter  were  valid,  as  they  would  have  done  by  re- 
maining in  Boston  ?  It  is  of  course,  possible,  though  not  probable,  that 
the  Massachusetts  agents  in  London,  the  Reverend  Thomas  Welde  and 
the  Reverend  Hugh  Peters,  had  not  informed  the  government  of  Massa- 
chusetts that  they  had  secured  so  important  an  addition  to  her  domain 
and  her  power.  But  even  if  this  were  true,  for  years  afterward,  when 
the  charter  was  certainly  in  Boston,  no  attempt  was  made  to  enforce  it, 
though  its  enforcement  as  a  matter  of  absolute  right  would  have  set- 
tled at  once  so  many  questions  over  which  discussion,  altercation,  and 
contention  lasted  through  all  those  years. 

Why  then  was  so  important  an  instrument  permitted  to  lie  in  abey- 
ance among  the  archives  of  Massachusetts  ?  Why  should  Winthrop, 
whose  journal  of  the  events  of  that  period  is  so  minute,  and  therefore 
so  much  more  valuable  than  any  other  contemporary  narrative,  be 
absolutely  silent — save  in  a  single  instance  where  it  is  alluded  to  by 
way  of  illustration  only — upon  this  Narragansett  patent? 

Positive  answers  there  are  none  to  these  questions,  but  many  con- 
jectures.1 By  some  writers  it  is  maintained  that  the  charter  Singuia 
was  fraudulent,  procured  in  an  irregular  and  illegal  way  by 
Welde,  and  sent  out  by  him  to  be  used  in  Massachusetts 
to  sustain  the  unfounded  claim  of  jurisdiction  over  Rhode  e°Ternment- 
Island,  assumed  in  the  outset  for  the  punishment  and  suppression  of  the 

1  See  a  very  thorough  discussion  of  the  subject  by  Mr.  Charles  Deane  and  Col.  Thomas 
Aspinwall  in  the  volume  of  Proceedings  of  Mass.  Hist.Soc..  1862-1863. 


102    RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.      [CHAP.  V. 


heretics  of  Shawomet.  Williams  in  a  letter  to  Major  Mason,  written 
in  1670,  says  that  when  Gorton  made  his  complaint,  in  London, 
against  the  action  of  Massachusetts,  "  the  Lord  High  Admiral,  Presi- 
dent, [Warwick]  said  openly  in  a  full  meeting  of  the  commissioners, 
that  he  knew  of  no  other  charter  for  these  parts  than  what  Mr.  Wil- 
liams had  obtained,  and  he  was  sure  that  charter,  which  the  Massa- 
chusetts Englishmen  pretended  had  never  past  the  table." 1  In  a 
petition  presented  by  John  Clarke  and  others  on  behalf  of  Rhode 
Island  and  Providence  Plantations  to  Lord  Clarendon  in  1665,  the 
charter  is  referred  to  as  "  that  which  Mr.  Wells  [Welde]  got  under- 
hand "  and  as  "  never  passed  at  Council  table  nor  registered."2  And 
in  1662  President  Brenton  told  Hutchinson,  the  Massachusetts  agent 
in  London,  that  the  Narragansett  patent  "  was  not  fairly  got ;  "  that 
"  there  was  no  such  thing  upon  record  in  any  court  of  England,  for 
he  had  sent  to  search  the  records ;  "  and  Hutchinson  in  a  letter  to 
Secretary  Rawson  of  Massachusetts,  says,  "  find  there  theirs,  but  not 


ours."  3 

On  the  other  hand,  Sainsbury  records  the  patent  as  in  volume  x. 
of  the  State  Paper  Office  in  London.4  But  this  record  rather  com- 
plicates still  further  than  clears  up  the  question,  for  added  to  it  are 
the  words —  "-  Copy,  attested  by  Edward  Rawson,  Secretary."  Raw- 
son  was  the  Colonial  Secretary  of  Massachusetts.  Did  he  send  back  to 
England  an  official  copy  of  a  charter  obtained  by  fraud,  that  it  might 

*  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  First  Series,   vol.  ii.     R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  iii. 
2  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Second  Series,  vol.  vii. 

8  Mass.  Archives,  cited  by  Aspinwall  in  the  discussion  with  Deane. 

*  Sainsbury's  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  p.  325. 


*^JJ*J 

*+*Jr&£ 


4& 


Reduced   Fac-simiie  of  the   Signatures  and  Closing 


1645.] 


THE  NARRAGANSETT  PATENT  OF  1643. 


103 


appeal",  for  sorne  ulterior  purpose,  of  record  in  the  State  Paper  Office  ? 
Or,  appearing  there  in  due  course,  were  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  John 
Clarke,  President  Brenton  of  Rhode  Island,  and  Edward  Hutchinson 
of  Massachusetts,  all  in  error  as  to  its  legality  ? 

It  is  neither  agreeable  nor  charitable  to  suppose  that  the  Massa- 
chusetts magistrates  would  avail  themselves  of  a  patent  Possible 
which  they  knew  to  be  obtained  by  trickery,  even  for  so  o^h™tion8 
pious  a  work  as  the  suppression  of  heresy.  They  recognize  pollcy- 
its  existence  just  often  enough  to  show  that  they  accepted  it  as  legal 
—  or  accepted  it  at  any  rate  —  while  they  refrained  so  completely 
from  maintaining  any  vested  right  under  it,  that  it  is  plain  they  pre- 
ferred, for  some  reason,  to  ignore  it.  Perhaps  the  most  common- 
place explanation  of  the  enigma  is  nearest  the  truth,  —  they  did  not 
use  the  charter  because  it  did  not  answer  their  purpose.  For  some 
reason,  which  probably  will  never  be  explained,  there  were  serious 
doubts  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  document ;  but  in  Boston,  let  ua 
hope  they  knew  it  was  legal,  and  nevertheless  they  put  it  aside  among 
the  archives  of  the  colony  because  it  was  of  little  practical  value  in 
carrying  out  their  policy  in  regard  to  Rhode  Island. 

For  the  jurisdiction  Massachusetts  wanted  in  that  region  of  country 
was  not  merely  jurisdiction  over  land,  but  over  people  ;  not  merely 
over  that  which  was  uninhabited,  except  by  Indians,  but  that  in  which 
dwelt  their  own  countrymen.  In  each  of  the  new  settlements  were 
men  already  obnoxious  to  the  laws  of  the  General  Court,  and  in  each 
could  men  still  more  obnoxious  find  an  asylum.  But  the  Narragansett 
patent  contained  a  reservation  of  all  lands  previously  granted,  "and  in 


4^«-2**»'ra 


Sentences  of  the  Narragansett  Patent. 


104  RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.      [CHAP.  V. 

present  possession  held  and  enjoyed  by  any  of  his  majesty's  Protes- 
tant subjects."  There  had,  indeed,  been  no  grants  of  lands  in  the  ter- 
ritory in  question,  but  there  was  "  present  possession  "  at  Providence, 
Portsmouth,  Newport,  and  Shawomet,  and  the  charter,  therefore,  con- 
ferred upon  Massachusetts  no  right  of  jurisdiction  over  these  or  their 
inhabitants.  Her  authority,  therefore,  in  that  country  would  have 
been  only  a  divided  authority,  and  would  have  failed  precisely  where 
she  most  wished  to  exercise  it.  Rather  than  accept  this  she  may 
have  preferred  to  await  the  decision  she  hoped  for  —  that  the  country 
was  embraced  within  the  Plymouth  patent,  inasmuch  as  Plymouth 
had  conveyed  her  right  of  jurisdiction  to  Massachusetts.1  But,  how- 
ever her  course  may  be  explained,  the  question  still  remains  unsolved, 
—  how  came  the  Commissioners  of  Plantations  to  confer  —  if  they 
did  confer  —  upon  the  Providence  Plantations,  in  March,  1644,  a 
patent  of  precisely  the  same  lands  which  three  months  before  they 
had  granted  to  Massachusetts  ? 

The  charter  which  Williams  brought  back  from  England  was  free 
and   absolute,  giving  to  the  people  of  Providence  Planta- 

Provisions  &    ,  \        r  .          , 

of  the  grant  tions  "  full  power  and  authority  to  govern  and  rule  them- 
selves and  such  others  as  shall  inhabit  within  any  part  of  the 
said  tract  of  land,  by  such  a  form  of  civil  government  as  by  voluntary 
consent  of  all  or  the  greatest  part  of  them  shall  be  found  most  service- 
able in  their  estates  and  conditions  ; "  and  to  that  end  it  empowered 
them  to  make  and  enforce  such  civil  laws  and  constitutions  as  should 
be  necessary,  provided  only  that  they  were  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  England.  And  even  this  condition  was  so  modified  as  to 
provide  that  this  conformity  to  the  laws  of  the  mother  country  need 
be  only  so  far  as  the  nature  and  constitution  of  the  colony  admitted. 
It  was  the  freest  colonial  charter  that  had  ever  been  given ;  naturally, 
for  it  was  obtained  at  the  solicitation  of  Roger  Williams,  through 
the  influence  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  and  from  a  parliamentary  com- 
mission. 

The  first  General  Assembly  which  met  under  it  at  Portsmouth, 
First  AS-  May  19,  1647,  adopted  a  code  of  laws,  in  the  preamble  of 
iawsbunder  which  it  was  declared :  "  sith  our  charter  gives  us  to  govern 
Serliams  ourselves,  and  such  other  as  come  among  us,  and  by  such 
1647  a  form  of  civil  government  as  by  the  voluntary  consent, 

etc.,  shall  be  found  most  suitable  to  our  state  and  condition.  It  is 
agreed  by  this  present  Assembly,  thus  incorporate,  and  by  this  present 
act  declared,  that  the  form  of  government  established  in  Providence 
Plantations  is  DEMOCRATICAL,  that  is  to  say,  a  government  held  by 
the  free  and  voluntary  consent  of  all,  or  the  greater  part  of  the  free 

1  See  Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island,  vol.  i.,  p.  119. 


1647.]  LIBERTY  AND  RELIGIOUS  TOLERATION.  105 

inhabitants."  The  personal  rights  of  the  citizen  were  guarded  by 
the  declaration  "  that  no  person  in  this  Colony  shall  be  taken  or  im- 
prisoned, or  be  disseised  of  his  lands  or  liberties,  or  be  exiled  or  any 
otherwise  molested  or  destroyed,  but  by  the  lawful  judgment  of  his 
peers,  or  by  some  known  law,  and  according  to  the  letter  of  it,"  rati- 
fied and  confirmed  by  the  General  Assembly.  And  that  absolute 
freedom  of  conscience  should  be  secured,  it  was  declared  that  "  all 
men  may  walk  as  their  consciences  persuade  them,  every  one  in  the 
name  of  his  God.  And  let  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  walk  in  this 
Colony  without  molestation  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  their  God  for 
ever  and  ever."  l 

Five  years  before  Portsmouth  and  Newport  had  declared  in  almost 
the.  same  words,  that  such  were  the  principles  by  which  they  meant  to 
be  governed.  Here  was  a  new  and  wider  union  under  the  authority 
of  a  charter.  It  laid  down  as  the  firm  foundation  of  the  State  that 
idea  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  which  every  wise  man  among  them, 
who  had  followed  Williams  to  an  asylum  for  those  distressed  in  con- 
science, maintained  to  be  its  only  true  foundation.  Whatever  vicis- 
situdes and  trials  they  were  called  upon  to  meet,  they  kept  carefully 
in  mind  the  great  principles  of  their  political  faith. 

There  were  dividing  interests  and  dissensions  in  the  several  towns, 
however,  which  the  union  under  this  charter  could  not  recon- 
cile. What  these  were  is  not,  and  cannot  now,  be  accu-  &>&££& 
rately  known,  but  they  were,  no  doubt,  increased  by  division  n1L7di^°n^ 
of  feeling  and  opinion  on  affairs  in  England.  Royalists  and 
parliament  men  no  more  loved  each  other  in  the  colonies  than  at 
home,  though  distance  from  the  scene  of  the  actual  struggle  softened 
the  political  rancor  enough  to  restrain  them  from  open  violence.  But 
whatever  other  differences  there  were,  this  one  intensified  them.  Cod- 
dington,  a  royalist,  was  the  leader  of  one  party,  and  one  strong  evi- 
dence of  the  difference  between  the  two  was  that  he,  with  others, 
asked  on  behalf  of  the  island  that  they  be  admitted  into  the  confeder- 
ation of  the  United  Colonies.  He  claimed  that  this  was  the  wish  of 
a  majority  of  the  people  of  Portsmouth  and  Newport,  and  he  may 
have  been  right,  for  the  island  towns  and  the  mainland  towns  seemed 
to  mark  the  division  of  parties. 

The  party  feeling  in  the  Rhode  Island  towns  must  have  been  in- 
tense that  could  make  any  of  them  so  forget  the  wrongs  they  had  suf- 
fered at  the  hands  of  Massachusetts,  as  to  ask  an  alliance  where  hers 
was  the  chief  influence.  The  request  of  the  petitioners  was  refused 
unless  they  would  acknowledge  that  the  territory  they  occupied  was 
within  the  Plymouth  patent.  To  accept  such  terms  would  have  been 

l  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  229. 


10(5    RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.     [CHAP.  V. 

to  forego  all  the  advantages  of  the  possession  of  their  own  charter, 
and  to  surrender  themselves  eventually  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Massa- 
chusetts. What  that  might  be  the  people  of  Providence  Plantations 
had  already  been  taught  by  some  efficient  lessons,  and  others  were  to 
come. 

In  the  summer  of  1651  the  Reverend  John   Clark,   who  was  not 

only  one  of  the  most  influential  and  most  respected  citizens 
missionato  of  Rhode  Island,  but  the  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  at 

Newport ;  the  Reverend  Obadiah  Holmes,  who  had  gathered 
a  church  of  the  same  denomination  at  Seekonk,  and  one  Crandall, 
went  together  to  Lynn,  in  Massachusetts,  to  visit  a  sick  brother  in 
the  chui-ch,  one  William  Witter.1  Clark  was  an  eminent  and  public 
offender  inasmuch  as  he  was  a  Baptist  clergyman,  and  the  leader  of 
that  band  of  exiles  who.  banished  from  Massachusetts,  found  a  home 
on  the  island  of  Acqnidneck  ;  Holmes  was  also  a  Baptist  clergyman, 
had  been  excommunicated  from  the  church  at  Seekonk,  and  bound 
over  to  keep  the  peace  by  the  authorities  of  Plymouth  ;  and  Crandall, 
to  his  other  offence  of  being  an  Anabaptist,  had  added  that  of  mar- 
rying a  daughter  of  Samuel  Gorton.  Three  such  criminals  were  not 
to  be  permitted  to  come  with  impunity  within  the  boundaries  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, although  the  church  of  which  all  three  were  members  had 
deputed  them  to  visit  a  brother  member,  sick  and  old  and  blind,  who, 
from  his  distant  home,  had  asked  for  the  consolation  of  a  religious 
visit.2 

On  the  Sunday  after  their  arrival,  "  not  having  freedom  in  our 
Arrest  of  Spirits,"  says  Clark,  "for  want  of  a  clear  Call  from  God  to 
ciark and  unto  the  Publike  Assemblie  to  declare  there  what  was 

nie  com  pan-     o 

ions-  the  mind,  and  counsell  of  God  concerning  them,"  he  "  judged 

it  a  thing  suitable  "  to  hold  divine  service  in  the  house  and  with  the 
family  of  Witter,  and  four  or  five  others  who  came  in  to  join  in  their 
worship.  While  thus  engaged  there  came  in  two  constables  with  a 
warrant  for  their  arrest.  A  request  to  finish  the  services  was  denied, 
and  "  the  erronious  persons,  being  Strangers"  whom  the  writ  of  Jus- 
tice Bridges  commanded  should  be  brought  before  him  in  the  morn- 
ing, were  marched  off  as  prisoners  —  bail  being  refused  —  to  the  inn 
for  safe  keeping. 

The  constables  were  more  zealous  than  wise,  for  in  the  afternoon 
they  insisted  upon  taking  the  prisoners  to  the  Meeting,  notwithstand- 

1  Witter  was  nearly  seventy  years  of  age  and  blind  ;  not  being  able  to  go  to  Newport 
for  the  comfort  of  the  ordinances  in  the  church  to  which  he  belonged,  he  asked  that  he 
might  be  visited,  for  he  seemed  to  be  near  his  end.  Clark,  Holmes,  and  Crandall  were  sent 
as  the  representatives  of  the  church  at  Newport,  as  appears  by  the  records  of  the  church, 
as  quoted  l>y  Backus. 

2   Backus's  History  of  the  Baptists,  vol.  i.,  p.  215. 


1G51.] 


JOHN   CLARK'S  MISSION   TO  LYNN. 


1U1 


ing  Mr.  Clark's  repeated  protests  and  warnings  that  if  compelled  to  go 
there  his  conscience  would  constrain  him  to  testify  to  his  dissent  both 
by  word  and  gesture  from  those  with  whom  he  could  hold  no  religious 
communion.  And  he  was  true  to  his  word  ;  for  in  the  Meeting  he 

kept  his  hat  upon  his  head  till 
the  constable  removed  it,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  services 
undertook  to  exhort  the  con- 
gregation. It  is  no  wonder 
that  such  conduct  exasperated 
Justice  Bridges,  by  whose  or- 
der they  had  been  arrested, 
and  who  now  compelled  the 
preacher  to  hold  his  peace. 


The   Meeting  at  Witter's  House. 


The  next  morning  the  three  were  sent  to  Boston  jail  for  safe-keep- 
ing till  the  next  sitting  of  the  court,  the  charges  against  them  being 
that  they  had  held  a  private  religious  meeting  ;  that  they  had  dis- 
turbed public  worship ;  that  they  had  led  others  astray  ;  that  they 


^ 


108     RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.     [CHAP.  V. 

were  suspected  of  rebaptizing  of  one  or  more  persons,  and  had  failed 
to  give  security  that  they  would  appear  for  trial.1 

They  lay  in  jail  for  ten  days  before  the  Court,  consisting  of  the 
governor,  deputy  governor,  and   three   assistants,  was  con- 

Their  trial.  ,     ,  .?      J  j    ,  ,  v    r 

vened,  but  there  was  no  delay  when  they  were  once  before 
their  judges.  There  were  neither  accusers  nor  witnesses  summoned 
against  them  ;  no  jury  to  try  them,  and  no  law  either  of  God  or  man 
cited  to  their  condemnation.  It  was  enough  for  the  irascible  Governor 
Endicott  to  declare  that  they  were  Anabaptists ;  the  formalities  of 
trial  evidently  were  of  small  moment  with  regard  to  criminals  of  that 
sort. 

Of  course  they  were  found  guilty.  They  were  Baptists  ;  the  com- 
mitment said  they  had  held  two  meetings  of  worship  at  Witter's 
house ;  and  when  taken  into  the  meeting-house  of  the  town  they  had 
kept  on  their  hats.  They  were  sentenced  to  be  well  whipt,  or  to  pay, 
Clark  twenty  pounds,  Holmes  thirty  pounds,  and  Crandall  five  pounds. 
Mr.  Clark  asked  respectfully  that  he  might  be  told  under  what  law 
they  were  condemned.  He  reminded  them  that  by  their  Code  no 
man  should  be  molested  except  under  a  law  of  the  General  Court,  or, 
failing  that,  the  law  of  God  ;  and  neither  had  been  produced  against 
them.  He  hoped  they  were  not  less  tender  of  the  rights  of  the  stranger 
within  their  gates,  than  they  were  of  the  rights  of  their  own  people. 

Endicott  was  equal  to  the  occasion  ;  they  denied  infant  baptism,  he 
shouted  ;  they  ought  to  be  put  to  death,  and  "  he  would  not  have  such 
trash  brought  into  their  jurisdiction."  Holmes,  more  meek,  said  as 
he  turned  to  leave  the  court,  "  I  bless  God  I  am  counted  worthy  to 

suffer  for  the  name  of  Jesus." 
Whereupon  he  adds,  "John 
Wilson  (their  pastor,  as  they 
call  him)  strook  me  before  the 

Signature  of  John  Wilson.  .      i  i 

judgment  seat  and  cursed  me, 

saying,  the  curse  of  God  or  Jesus  go  with  thee."  It  was  not  much 
that  would  put  John  Endicott  in  a  towering  passion  at  any  time ;  but 
it  must  have  been  a  lively  and  exciting  occasion  that  could 
move  John  Wilson  —  though  capable  of  being  moved,  for 
we  have  seen  him  climbing  a  tree  in  a  time  of  popular 
clamor  to  harangue  a  crowd 2  —  that  could  so  move  him  as  to  strike 
and  curse  even  a  theological  opponent  in  open  court.3 

Endicott  told  Clark  that  it  was  only  the  weak  to  whom  he  ventured 

1  ///  Xeices  From  New-England :  or  A  Narrative  of  New-Enr/lunds  Persecution.     By  John 
Clark.     London  :    1652.     Reprinted  ^fass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  ii. 

2  Vol.  i.,  p.  554. 

8  Holmes's  Narrative  in  Backus ;  and  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  vi. 


1651.]  TRIAL   OF   CLARK,  HOLMES,  AND   CRANDALL.  109 

to  present  his  doctrines,  but  that  he  could  not  sustain  himself  in  a 
controversy  with  the  Boston  ministers  —  with  brother  Wilson,  for  ex- 
ample, then  and  there  present  ready  on  the  instant  to  pound  the  ob- 
durate Holmes  into  a  Christian  state  of  mind.  Nothing  could  be 
more  acceptable  to  the  Newport  clergyman  than  such  a  challenge  ; 
but  though  agreed  to  and  the  preliminaries  arranged  after  much  nego- 
tiation, the  proposal  came  to  naught.  It  was  not  so  much,  probably, 
that  Messrs.  Wilson  and  Cotton  feared  to  meet  Mr.  Clark  in  debate  as 
that  they  dreaded  the  effect  on  the  popular  mind,  all  the  more  ready 
to  embrace  new  doctrines  which  it  was  unwisely  attempted  to  sup- 
press by  the  persecution  of  those  who  held  them. 

After  some  days  of  imprisonment  both  Clark  and  Crandall  were  re- 
leased, their  fines  being  paid  by  some  judicious  friends  without  their 
knowledge.  But  with  Holmes  it  fared  otherwise.  His  conscience 
would  not  permit  him  to  pay  for  himself,  or  allow  others  to  pay  for 
him,  the  sum  adjudged  as  penalty.  He  struggled  hai'd,  he  tells  us, 
to  resist  the  temptation  to  escape  a  painful  punishment,  and  on  the 
morning  of  its  execution,  "  in  consideration  of  the  weakness  of  the 
flesh  to  bear  the  strokes  though  the  spirit  was  willing,  I  was,"  he  adds, 
*k  caused  to  pray  earnestly  unto  the  Lord  that  he  would  be  pleased  to 
give  me  a  spirit  of  courage  and  boldness,  a  tongue  to  speak  for  Him, 
and  strength  of  body  to  suffer  for  His  sake,  and  not  to  shrink  or  yield 
to  the  strokes,  or  shed  tears  lest  the  adversaries  of  the  truth  should 
thereupon  blaspheme  and  be  hardened,  and  the  weak  and  feeble- 
hearted  discouraged." 

Fortified  with  this  spirit  of  resignation  and  endurance,  he  was  led 
out  of  the  prison  into  the  presence  of  the  people.     He  tried 
to  speak  that  he  might  bear  witness  to  them  that  he  suffered 


for  "  the  Word  of  God  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ." 
If  the  punishment  was  just  it  was  just  that  he  should  be  silenced,  for 
it  was  for  preaching  that  he  was  punished.  "  Fellow,  do  thine  office," 
said  the  magistrate  to  the  executioner;  "for  this  fellow  would  but 
make  a  long  speech  to  delude  the  people."  To  him  there  was  nothing 
ignominious  in  his  position  ;  rather  the  glorification  of  martyrdom. 
"  I  dressed  myself,"  he  says,  "  in  as  comely  a  manner  as  I  could,  hav- 
ing such  a  Lord  and  Master  to  serve  in  this  business."  And  these 
comely  garments  had  to  be  removed  from  him,  for  "  I  made,"  he  de- 
clares, "  as  much  conscience  of  unbuttoning  a  button  as  I  did  of  pay- 
ing the  30/.  in  reference  thereunto."  To  this  disrobing  he  submitted 
gently  and  unresistingly,  as  he  did  to  his  punishment  ;  "  for  in  truth," 
continues  his  narrative,  "  as  the  strokes  fell  upon  me  I  had  such  a 
spiritual  manifestation  of  God's  presence  as  the  like  thereto  I  never 
had  nor  felt,  nor  can  with  fleshy  tongue  express,  and  the  outward  pain 


110     RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.     CCHAP.  V. 


was  so  removed  from  me  that,  indeed,  I  am  not  able  to  declare  it  to 
you  ;  it  was  so  easy  to  me  that  I  could  well  bear  it,  yea, 
and  in  a  manner  felt  it  not,  although  it  was  grievous,  as 
the  spectators  said,  the  man  striking  with  all  his  strength, 
(yea,  spitting  on  his  hand  three  times,  as  many  affirmed),  with  a 
three-corded  whip,  giving  me  therewith  thirty  strokes."  Such  was 
his  spiritual  exaltation  that  when  the  ghastly  spectacle  was  over  and 
his  clothes  were  restored  to  him  to  cover  his  scored  and  bloody  back, 


Whipping  of  Obadiah  Holmes. 

he  turned  to  the  magistrates  standing  by  and  said,  "  You  have  struck 
me  as  with  roses." 

When  the  scourging  was  finished  a  number  of  the  bystanders 
crowded  around  the  sufferer  to  avow  their  pity  for  his  condition,  if 
not  their  sympathy  for  his  doctrines  and  their  indignation  at  his  per- 
secution. Writs  were  immediately  issued  for  the  arrest  of  a  dozen  or 
more  of  these  persons,  but  only  two  were  taken.  These  also  would 
have  been  publicly  punished  at  the  whipping-post,  had  not  their  fines, 
which  their  consciences  forbade  their  paying,  been  discharged  by  their 
friends. 

Whatever  were  the  merits,  and  they  were  many,  of  the  early  Puri- 


1651.]  PUNISHMENT    OF   OBADIAH  HOLMES.  Ill 

tans  of  Massachusetts,  candid  and  truthful  history  can  neither  wink 
out  of  sight  nor  palliate  the  intolerance  and  cruelty  which  Thegpiritoi 
they  visited  upon  those  who  differed  from  them.  Fortunately  ^SJ™!0 
for  her,  and  for  the  whole  country  whose  destiny  she  has  tolerance- 
done  so  much  to  influence,  the  efforts  of  her  earliest  rulers  to  stamp 
her  character  with  the  indelible  impress  of  their  own  narrow  views 
and  purposes  were  not  successful.  In  all  those  years  there  was  among 
the  common  people,  particularly  outside  of  Boston,  a  determined  pur- 
pose, which  it  was  impossible  altogether  to  suppress,  not  to  submit  to 
the  arbitrary  will  and  narrow  fanaticism  with  which  the  magistrates 
proposed  to  govern  in  the  name  of  religion  and  of  law.  The  struggle 
was  long  continued,  —  continued,  indeed,  even  down  to  our  own  time. 
But  that  spirit  which  led  some  of  the  most  enlightened  of  her  people 
to  build  up  another  colony  on  a  foundation  of  religious  toleration  and 
the  equal  civil  rights  of  all  men,  has,  in  the  long  run,  been  triumphant 
in  Massachusetts  also.  The  extravagancies  in  theological  discursive- 
ness which  grew  out  of  the  intellectual  and  religious  activity  of  the 
age  came,  in  the  end,  to  harmless  and  sometimes  rational  conclusions ; 
while  the  intolerant  bigotry  which  knew  no  better  way  to  meet  the 
vagaries  of  fanaticism  than  persecution  became  at  length  so  intolerable 
to  all  sober-minded  people  as  to  be  looked  upon  with  such  abhorrence 
as  to  defeat  itself. 

It  is  not  at  all  impossible  that  these  outrages  in  Boston  upon  two 
well-known  clergymen  of  Rhode  Island  may  have  had  some 
influence  upon  political  events  in  that  colony.  Governor  ton-s"om- 
Coddington  had,  by  a  clever  coup  de  main,  obtained  from  the  Rixnie  isi- 
Council  of  State  in  England  a  commission  to  govern  Rhode 
Island,  with  a  council  of  six  men,  during  his  life.  With  this  commis- 
sion he  returned  home  about  the  time  of  the  visit  of  Clark  to  Massa- 
chusetts ;  and  though  there  is  no  evidence  of  his  having  repeated  his 
overtures  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  that  Rhode 
Island  should  be  admitted  to  that  Confederacy,  there  was,  neverthe- 
less, a  good  deal  of  alarm  among  the  people  at  his  success.  Roger 
Williams,  as  representative  of  the  mainland  towns,  and  John  Clark, 
on  behalf  of  those  of  the  Island,  were  sent  soon  after  to  England, 
the  one  to  procure  the  recall  of  the  commission  to  Coddington,  the 
other  to  obtain  a  confirmation  of  the  charter.  The  latter  was  prob- 
ably thought  desirable,  as  since  that  charter  was  granted  Charles  the 
First  had  been  brought  to  the  block,  England  had  been  declared  a 
Commonwealth,  and  the  government  of  the  nation  entrusted  to  the 
Council  of  State  appointed  by  parliament.  The  mission  of  the  com- 
missioners, however,  was,  in  effect,  the  same  —  to  restore  the  govern- 
ment of  Providence  Plantations,  which  had  lapsed  through  the  dis- 


112    RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.     [CHAP.  V. 

sensions  of  the  several  towns,  and  the  repeal  of  the  appointment  of 
Coddington  as  governor  for  life  over  those  of  Rhode  Island. 

The  mission  was  successful.  Williams  and  Clark  presented  their 
petition  to  the  Council  of  State  the  following  spring;  in  the  autumn 
of  1652  the  commission  to  Coddington  was  recalled,  and  a  few  months 
later  the  towns  were  again  united  under  one  government,  Williams, 
who  had  meanwhile  returned  from  England,  being  the  first  gov- 
ernor. 

Clark  remained  in  England  to  watch  over,  during  the  next  ten 
momentous  years  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  interests  of  the 
and  charter  Colony.  On  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  he  devoted  him- 
self to  obtaining  a  royal  charter,  which  was  granted  in  July, 
1663,  to  the  Colony  under  the  new  name  of  "  Rhode  Island  and  Prov- 
idence Plantations."  All  the 
rights  granted  in  the  earlier 
patent  were  confirmed  in  this ; 
the  original  title  of  the  native 
Indians  —  for  affirming  which 
as  to  the  country  of  New 
England  Roger  Williams  was, 
among  other  reasons,  banished 
from  Massachusetts  —  was  rec- 
cognized ;  the  rights  of  con- 
science and  of  private  judg- 
ment, for  which  the  people  of 
Rhode  Island  had  suffered  so 
much  at  the  hands  of  their 
neighbors,  were  affirmed  by 
the  declaration  that  "  no  per- 
son within  the  said  Colony,  at 
any  time  hereafter,  shall  be 
anywise  molested,  punished, 
disquieted,  or  called  in  ques- 
tion, for  any  differences  in 
opinion  in  matters  of  religion, 

that  do  not  actually  disturb  the  civil  peace  of  our  said  Colony  ;  but 
that  all  and  every  person  and  persons  may,  from  time  to  time,  and  at 
all  times  hereafter,  freely  and  fully  have  and  enjoy  his  and  their  own 
judgments  and  consciences,  in  matters  of  religious  concernments, 
throughout  the  tract  of  land  hereafter  mentioned  ;  they  behaving 
themselves  peaceably  and  quietly,  and  not  using  this  liberty  to  licen- 
tiousness and  profaneness,  nor  to  the  injury  or  outward  disturbance  of 
others  " ;  it  empowered  a  general  assembly  "  to  make,  ordain,  constitute 


Portrait  of  Charles  II. 


1663.]  THE  CHARTER   OF   1663.  113 

or  repeal,  such  laws,  statutes,  orders  and  ordinances,  forms  and  cere- 
monies of  government  and  magistracy,  as  to  them  shall  seem  meet,  for 
the  good  and  welfare  of  the  said  Company,  and  for  the  government 
and  ordering  of  the  lands  and  hereditaments  hereinafter  mentioned 
to  be  granted,  and  of  the  people  that  do,  or  at  any  time  hereafter 
shall,  inhabit  or  be  within  the  same  ;  so  as  such  laws,  ordinances 
and  constitutions,  so  made,  be  not  contrary  and  repugnant  unto,  but 
as  near  as  may,  agreeable  to  the  laws  of  this  our  realm  of  Eng- 
land, considering  the  nature  and  constitution  of  the  place  and  peo- 
ple there  "  ;  that  in  all  matters  of  public  controversy  between  this 
and  other  colonies  the  appeal  should  be  to  the  government  in  Eng- 
land, and  that  to  the  inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island  there  should  be 
perfect  freedom  to  pass  and  repass  without  let  or  molestation  into  the 
other  colonies,  and  to  hold  intercourse  and  trade  with  such  of  their 
people  as  were  willing,  "  any  act,  clause,  or  sentence  in  any  of  the 
said  Colonies,  provided,  or  that  shall  be  provided,  to  the  contrary  in 
any  wise  notwithstanding."  This,  no  doubt,  referred  to  the  sentence 
of  banishment  of  Roger  Williams  and  others  from  Massachusetts  which 
had  never  been  repealed. 

No  charter  so  comprehensive  and  so  radical  as  this  had  ever  before 
been  granted  to  any  English  colony.  It  guaranteed  to  the 
people  of  Rhode  Island  those  great  principles  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty  for  which  they  had  struggled  so  long  and  some  of 
them  had  sacrificed  so  much  ;  it  anticipated  in  a  royal  grant  the  fun- 
damental law  of  that  great  republic  of  which  this  colony  is  a  part, 
but  which  was  waited  for  till  more  than  another  century  of  growth 
and  struggle  had  passed  away  ;  and  so  broad  and  free  it  was  that  it 
served  as  the  constitution  of  that  little  commonwealth  for  the  next 
hundred  and  eighty  years.  Under  it  Benedict  Arnold  was  the  first 
governor;  among  the  names  of  those  on  whose  behalf  the  king  was 
petitioned  that  such  a  patent  be  granted,  were  those  of  Samuel  Gor- 
ton, John  Greene,  Randall  Holden,  and  William  Coddington  ;  1  and 
the  man  to  whom  it  owed  its  character  and  at  whose  importunity  the 
royal  will  was  chiefly  moved,  was  Dr.  John  Clark,  who  two  years  be- 
fore barely  escaped  the  whipping-post  in  Boston,  where  the  magis- 
trates were  not  ashamed  to  condemn  to  a  punishment  so  ignominious 
a  venerable  and  estimable  and  learned  clergyman  whose  offence  was 
one  that  this  charter  forbade  to  be  called  a  crime,  and  maintained  as 

1  Those  on  whose  behalf  John  Clark  petitioned  the  king  were  :  Benjamin  Arnold,  Wil- 
liam Breuton,  William  Coddington,  Nicholas  Easton,  William  Boulston,  John  Porter,  John 
Smith,  Samuel  Gorton,  John  Weeks,  Roger  Williams,  Thomas  Olney,  Gregory  Dexter, 
John  Coggeshall,  Joseph  Clarke,  Randall  Holden,  John  Greene,  John  Roome,  Samuel 
Wildbore,  William  Field,  James  Barker,  Richard  Tew,  Thomas  Harris,  and  William  Dyre. 
VOL.  n.  8 


ter- 


114     RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.    [CHAP.  V. 

a  precious  right.  As  an  historical  document  the  instrument  is  full  of 
the  gravest  interest  for  the  incidents  and  the  men  whose  memory  it 
preserves ;  for  the  events  in  the  formation  of  governments  of  which  it 
was,  in  a  certain  measure,  a  prophecy  ;  and  for  the  end  which  awaited 
it  when  nearly  two  centuries  later  its  form  though  not  its  spirit  was 
outgrown. 


Roger  Williams'  Compass. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

NEW   NETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT. 

STCYVESANT'S  ARRIVAL  AT  MANHATTAN.  —  HOPEFUL  RECEPTION  BY  THE  CITIZENS. — 

HE  BEFRIENDS  EX-GOVERNOR   KlEFT.  AliREST  AND  TRIAL  OF  KUYTER  AND  Mfi- 

LYN. — THEIR  BANISHMENT  AND  DEPARTURE  WITH  KIEFT.  —  WRECK  OF  THE  PRIN- 
CESS.—  DIFFICULTIES  WITH  NEW  ENGLAND. —  SEIZURE  OF  THE  ST.  BENINIO. — 
THE  CONSEQUENT  QUARREL  WITH  NEW  HAVEN. —  CONTROVERSY  WITH  THE  COM- 
MISSARY OF  RENSSELAERSWYCK. —  DISCONTENT  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  —  APPEAL  OF  THE 
CITIZENS  TO  HOLLAND. — MELYN.'S  RETURN.  —  REVERSAL  OF  HIS  SENTENCE.  —  THE 
REMONSTRANCE  FORWARDED  TO  THE  STATES-GENKRAL.  —  VAN  DER  DOXCK  AND  THE 
DELEGATES  AT  THE  HAGUE.  —  STUYVESANT'S  CONTINUED  ARROGANCE. 

ON  the  27th  of  May,  1647,  Peter  Stuyvesant,  the  new  governor 
who,  the  New  Netherlander  hoped,  had  come  to  remedy  all 
the  evils  which  they  had  suffered  under  the  administration  stuyvesant's 
of  Kieft,  arrived  amid  "  shouting  on  all  sides  "  and  the  burn-  Manhattan, 
ing  of  nearly  all  the  powder  in  the  town  in  salutes.1     The 
rejoicing  was  universal,  and  even  Kieft  himself  was  glad,  probably,  to 
welcome  a  successor  who  was  to  release  him  from  the  cares  of  a  vexa- 
tious office.     As  the  excited   burghers  gathered  near  the  foi't  upon 
what  is  now  known  as  the  Battery,  to  look  at  the  fleet  anchored  in 
the  harbor,  they  congratulated  each  other,  no  doubt,  that  an  era  of 
peace,  prosperity,  and  equitable  rule  had  come  at  last. 

The  burghers  forgot  for  the  moment,  if  they  had  ever  heard,  that 
the  reputation  of  the  new  governor  was  not  altogether  un-  IIig  previous 
sullied.     It  is  said  that  in  Holland  he  had  been  detected  in  career- 
robbing  the  daughter  of  his  host,  and  that  he  would  have  been  pun- 
ished for  the  act  had  he  not  been  mercifully  forgiven  for  the  sake  of 
his  father,  who  was  a  clergyman  in  Vriesland,  and  greatly  esteemed. 
The  famous  expedition  against  St.  Martin,  where  Stuyvesant  lost  his 
leg  —  in  place  of  which  he  ever  after  wore  a  wooden  one,  bound  to- 
gether with  rings  of  silver,  and  therefore  called  his  "silver  leg," — this 
expedition,  it  was  said,  was  unsuccessful  because  it  was  so  badly  con- 

1  So  extravagant  was  this  demonstration  of  welcome  "  that  they  were  obliged  to  send 
to  another  place  to  buy  powder  for  exercising  and  in  case  of  need." —  The  Breeden  Raedt. 
Extracts  translated  in  Documentary  History  of  New  York,  vol.  iv.,  p.  69. 


116     NEW  NETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.    [CHAP.  VI. 

ducted  ;  for  the  commander  wasted,  in  vainglorious  salutes  at  sea, 
nearly  all  his  powder  before  he  reached  the  fort ;  and  when  he  raised 
the  siege,  which  he  had  not  ammunition  enough  to  go  on  with,  he  left 
behind  him,  not  only  his  leg  but  much  property,  especially  cannon. 
But  as  the  leg  was  really  lost,  it  seems  hai-dly  probable  that  its  owner 
had  acted  the  part  of  a  coward,  and  other  stories  against  him  on  the 
same  authority  mav  be  as  little  likely  to  be  true.1 

•/  •/  V 

At  any  rate  the  enthusiastic  people  of  New  Amsterdam,  when  they 
welcomed  with  shouts  and  all  their  powder  this  successor  to  Kieft,  were 
so  full  of  pleasant  excitement  and  hopeful  anticipations  of  a  happy 
and  prosperous  future,  that  they  failed  to  call  to  mind,  if  they  had 
ever  heard  of,  any  moral  delinquencies  of  which  the  man  might  have 
been  guilty  in  far-off  Holland,  or  of  military  failures  which  had  be- 
fallen him  in  the  West  Indies. 

This  popular  enthusiasm,  however,  hardly  outlasted  the  ceremony 
of  reception.  Stuyvesant  was  a  man  of  haughty  as  well  as  violent 
temper  ;  more  imperious  in  presence  and  in  manners  than  Kieft  whom 
he  came  to  displace,  he  was  quite  as  despotic,  and  the  more  to  be 
feared  for  his  ability  and  strength  of  purpose.  When  he  landed  he 
marched  into  the  town  "  like  a  peacock,  with  great  state  and  pomp." 
Some  of  the  principal  citizens  met  him  bare-headed,  and  bare-headed 
*'  he  let  them  wait  for  several  hours,  he  himself  keeping  his  hat  on  his 
His  recep-  head  as  if  he  was  the  czar  of  Muscovy  ;  nobody  was  offered 
Uon-  a  chair,  while  he  seated  himself  very  comfortably  on  a  chair, 

the  better  to  give  the  welcomers  an  audience."  2  The  picture  is  not 
drawn  by  friendly  hands,  but  it  is  not  out  of  keeping  with  what  we 
know  of  Peter  Stuyvesant. 

But  he  did  better  presently  when  Kieft  came  forward  to  surrender 
the  government  into  the  hands  of  his  successor.  As  the  retiring 
governor  stood  for  the  last  time  before  his  fellow-citizens  in  his  official 
capacity,  he  wished,  perhaps,  to  bury  the  memory  of  past  animosities  ; 
at  any  rate  he  must  have  been  anxious  to  step  down  gracefully  from 
his  elevation,  as  he  yielded  the  place  to  another.  He  thanked  his 
fellow-citizens  with  a  natural  if  not  pardonable  exaggeration  for  the 
fidelity  they  had  shown  him  during  his  administration  of  affairs, 
hoping,  no  doubt,  that  he  would  be  met  in  a  like  conciliatory  and 
compliant  mood,  and  his  services  acknowledged  in  terms  that  would 
be  complaisant  if  insincere.  But  the  sturdy  Dutchmen  were  not  to 
be  cheated  out  of  their  resentments  by  any  momentary  enthusiasm  or 

1  Translations  from  The  Breeden  Kafdt,  in  Documentary  Hist,  of  New  York. 

2  The  Representation  nf  New  Net/terland  (1650).    By  Adrian  van  der  Donck.    Translated 
by  Henry  C.  Murphy.     N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Second  Series,  vol.  ii.     The  Breeden  Raedt. 
Documentary  Hist.  N.  Y. 


1647.] 


STUYVESANT'S  PROMISES. 


11: 


ceremonial  proprieties.  On  all  sides  went  up  a  shout  of  loud  dissent ; 
as  spokesmen  for  the  rest,  Joachim  Kuyter  and  Cornelis  Melyn,  who 
were  of  the  old  Board  of  "  Eight  Men,"  and  had  otherwise  been  con- 
spicuous as  opponents  of  Kieft,  declared  boldly  that  they  had  nothing 
to  thank  him  for  and  no  approval  to  give.  Such  unexpected  candor 
marred  the  harmonies  of  the  occasion, 
and  might  have  led  to  even  more  sig- 
nificant demonstrations  of  popular  feel-  •J^HiSf'i  ~'.'\  \l':'  / 

I  W        ••/••  -->..•'.      Vi  V  I  ? 

had    not    Stuyvesant  &X—2  >M 


stepped  forward  and  stilled 
the  growing  excitement  by 


declaring  that  "  every  one  should  have 
justice  done  him.  I  shall  govern  you," 
he  said,  "as  a  father  his  children,  for 

the   advantage   of    the   chartered  West   India   Company,  and  these 

burghers  and  this  land."  l 

The  crowd  dispersed,  quieted  if  not  satisfied  with  these  assurances 

of  the  paternal  intentions  of  the  new  governor,  and  almost  forgot  how 

long  they  had  stood  bare-headed  in  the  sun. 

1  Breeden  Raedt  and  Albany  Records,  cited  by  Brodhead,  History  of  New  York,  vol.  ii., 
p.  433. 


118     NEW  NETHERLANI)  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.  [CHAP.  VI. 

There  was  not  much  delay,  however,  in  testing  his  sincerity.     Be- 
fore many  days  had  passed  Kuyter  and  Melyn  brought  a  formal  com- 
plaint against  Kieft,  and  asked  that  a  rigid  inquiry  be  made 

The  citizens'  .        '  ,  ...  J 

complaint  of  into  tlie  alleged  abuses  of  his  government,  and  especially 
of  his  treatment  of  the  Indians  which  had  led  to  the  war. 
The  answer  was  as  unexpected  as  it  was  unwelcome.  Was  it  to  be 
accepted  as  his  opinion  that  it  was  treason  to  petition  against  one's 
magistrates,  whether  there  was  cause  or  not  ?  The  denials  of  Kieft, 
-  he  considered  as  of  more  weight  than  any  evidence  his  antagonists 
Vjpould  bring  to  substantiate  their  charges.  He  would  not,  he  declared, 
recognize  them  officially  as  members  of  the  late  Board  of  "  Eight 
Men,"  nor  as  representatives  of  the  citizens  at  large  ;  but  only  as  "  pri- 
vate persons."  He  looked  upon  them,  he  said,  merely  as  "  pertur- 
bators  of  the  public  peace,"  hardly  worthy  of  a  hearing.  In  all  this 
he  was  mindful  of  the  force  of  precedent.  "  If  this  point  be  con- 
ceded," he  said  to  his  council,  "  will  not  these  cunning  fellows,  in  order 
to  usurp  over  us  a  more  unlimited  power,  claim  and  assume,  in  conse- 
quence, even  greater  authority  against  ourselves  and  our  commission, 
should  it  happen  that  our  administration  do  not  quadrate  in  every  re- 
Poiicy  of  spect  with  their  whims  ?  "  His  despotism  was  not  without 
stuyyesant.  forethought.  The  council  had  no  will  and  no  opinions  of 
their  own  ;  all  its  members,  Van  Dincklage,  Van  Dyck,  Keyser, 
Captain  Newton,  La  Montague,  and  Van  Tienhoven  the  provincial 
secretary,  hastened  to  agree  with  him,  and  the  petition  of  Kuyter  and 
Melyn  was  not  granted.1 

The  wily  Kieft  saw  his  opportunity  in  this  unexpected  turn  of 
affairs,  and  embraced  it  promptly.  The  defendant  became  plaintiff, 
and  brought  charges  against  Kuyter  and  Melyn,  who,  he  declared, 
were  the  authors  of  that  appeal  of  the  "  Eight  Men  "  to  the  chamber 
of  Amsterdam  ;2  that  they  had  induced  their  colleagues,  against  their 
better  judgment,  to  join  in  that  petition,  all  whose  statements,  he 
affirmed,  were  false.  The  ex-governor  was  listened  to  where  the 
"  private  persons "  had  no  standing  in  court.  They  were  ordered  to 
answer  the  accusations  within  twenty-four  hours. 

Stuyvesant  was  only  the  more  enraged  when  that  answer  was  an 
offer  to  produce  the  evidence  of  the  truth  of  all  the  charges  sent  to 
Amsterdam  against  Kieft,  and  to  bring  forward  the  four  survivors  of 
the  Eight  Men  to  testify  that  they  had  voluntarily  signed  the  docu- 
ments containing  those  charges.3  It  was  only  an  aggravation  of  the 

• 

1  See  Stuyvesant's  address  on  this  subject  in  O'Callaghan,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  24,  26. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  p.  462. 

8  The  Breeden  Ratdt  says  that  these  survivors  were  induced  by  threats  and  promises  to 
testify  that  they  had  been  bribed  to  sign  the  letters  sent  to  Holland  containing  the  charges' 
against  Kieft. 


1647.]  TRIAL   OF   KUYTER   AND  MELYN.  119 

offence,  on  the  part  of  the  accused,  to  propose  thus  to  show  their 
innocence.  The  Director  General  ordered  that  they  be  at  once  in- 
dicted ;  a  speedy  trial  followed,  and  a  prompt  conviction  waited  on 
the  trial. 

Both  were  found  guilty.  Kuyter  was  condemned  to  three  years' 
banishment  and  to  pay  a  fine  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  Arbitrarv 
guilders.  The  sentence  of  Melyn  was  more  severe.  Per-  1™^™^°* 
haps  there  were  additional  charges  against  him  ;  perhaps  the  leaders 
enmity  of  Kieft,  who,  says  one  authority,  had  resented  Melyn's  refusal 
some  time  before  to  give  him  a  share  in  the  manor  of  Staten  Island, 
was  more  bitter.  The  patroon  was  at  any  rate  declared  guilty  of  trea- 
son, of  bearing  false  witness,  of  libel  and  defamation  ;  was  sentenced 
to  forfeit  all  benefits  of  the  Company,  to  pay  a  fine  of  three  hundred 
guilders,  and  to  be  banished  for  seven  years.  The  Director  was  in 
favor  of  severer  punishment,  but  even  his  pliant  council  dissented 
from  his  judgment,  though  he  supported  it  by  a  violent  speech,  in 
which  he  appealed  to  Scripture  and  the  authority  of  the  learned  in 
civil  and  criminal  law  with  many  a  text  and  quotation. 

When  it  was  suggested  to  the  triumphant  Kieft  that  the  result  of 
the  trial  might  have  been  different  in  Holland,  "  Why  should  we," 
said  he,  exultingly,  "alarm  each  other  with  justice  in  Holland? 
In  this  case  I  consider  it  only  a  scarecrow."  Stuyvesant  was  even 
more  emphatic.  Melyn, 
he  thought,  deserved 

death,  and  was  threat-  — "  nj 

ened    with     it    by    the 

Signature  of  Cornells  Melyn. 

Director.      "  If    I    was 

persuaded,"  he  said,  "  you  would  appeal  from  my  sentences  or  di- 
vulge them,  I  would  have  your  head  cut  off,  or  have  you  hanged  on 
the  highest  tree  in  New  Netherland."  To  another  person  he  said, 
"  If  any  one,  during  my  administration,  shall  appeal,  I  will  make  him 
a  foot  shorter,  and  send  the  pieces  to  Holland,  and  let  him  appeal  in 
that  way." 

These  servants  of  the  West  India  Company  had  little  fear,  prob- 
ably, of  their  masters,  who  cared  little  and  did  less  for  New  Nether- 
land,  and  who,  already  in  a  condition  of  bankruptcy,  had  neither  the 
power  nor  the  will  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  the  distant  colony.1  Had 
it  been  otherwise,  however,  Stuyvesant  would  not  have  been  likely  to 
put  a  bridle  upon  his  tongue,  for  so  transported  was  he  with  rage  at 
these  daring  attacks  upon  prerogative,  that  "  the  foam  hung  on  his 
beard  "  as  he  roared  and  raged  against  their  perpetrators.  "  These 

1   The  West  India  Company  :  in  Btbliajjraptieal  and  Historical  Essays  on  the  Dutch  Books 
i»id  Pamphlets  relatin;/  to  New  Netherland.     By  G.  M.  Asher. 


120     NEW  NETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.    [CHAP.  VI. 

brutes,"  he  said,  "  may  hereafter  endeavor  to  knock  me  down  also, 
but  I  will  manage  it  so  now,  that  they  will  have  their  bellies  full  for 
the  future."  The  people  of  New  Amsterdam  had  good  reason  to  be 
amazed  and  alarmed  at  the  words  of  this  impetuous  and  irascible  gen- 
tleman, as  well  as  at  these  first  acts  of  the  administration  of  a 
governor  who  not  long  before,  had  declared  "  under  the  canopy  of 
heaven,"  that  justice  should  be  done  in  all  New  Netherland,  and  that 
he  was  to  rule  over  them  as  a  father  over  his  children. 

But  there  was  one  man,  at  least,  who  was  thankful  for  such  a 
Director ;  and  that  was  Kieft.  Had  he  been  the  benefactor  instead  of 
the  oppressor  of  New  Netherland  he  could  hardly  have  retired  from 
its  government  with  more  triumphant  complacency  than  that  with 
which  he  now  hugged  himself.  On  the  17th  of  August,  less  than 
Kieffs  ae-  three  months  after  the  coming  of  Stuy vesant,  Kieft  embarked 
parture.  £or  j-[oiiam|  m  tjie  snjp  Princess,  carrying  with  him  an  am- 
ple fortune,  and  taking  on  board  with  him,  "  like  criminals  torn  away 
from  their  goods,  their  wives,  and  their  children,"  l  the  "  two  faithful 
patriots,"  Kuyter  and  Melyn,  who  had  ventured  to  impeach  his  admin- 
istration, and  who  for  their  temerity  were  thus  punished  by  banish- 
ment, with  the  added  humiliation  of  going  as  the  prisoners  of  the  man 
they  had  hoped  to  humble. 

But  their  humiliation  and  his  triumph  were  not  to  last  long.  It 
was  on  this  voyage  there  came  that  "observable  hand  of  God,"  of 
which  Winthrop  speaks,  and  which  he  interpreted  as  "  against  the 
Dutch  at  New  Netherlands,"  and  showing  "  so  much  of  God  in  favor  of 
his  poor  people  here  [in  New  England]  and  displeasure  toward  such 
as  have  opposed  and  injured  them."  For  Kieft,  he  adds,  "  had  con- 
tinually molested  the  colonies  of  Hartford  and  New  Haven,  and  used 
menacings  and  protests  against  them  upon  all  occasions,  and  had 
burnt  down  a  trading-! louse  which  New  Haven  had  built  upon  Dela- 
ware River." 

Therefore  it  was  that  the  hand  of  God  was  heavy  upon  him  ;  so 
that  when  the  Princess  approached  the  English  coast  she  lost  her 
reckoning,  ran  upon  the  coast  of  Wales,  near  Swansea,  in- 
-  stead  of  up  the  English  Channel,  and  was  lost.  Many  saw 
in  it  a  judgment,  who  did  not  agree  with  the  Massachu- 
setts governor  that  Kieft  was  "  a  sober  and  prudent  man,"  and  who 
believed  that  the  providence  of  God  sometimes  had  other  purposes 
than  the  punishment  of  the  enemies  of  the  Puritans  of  New  England. 
"  I  told  Wilhelm  Kieft,"  —  De  Vries  had  written  four  years  before, 
—  "  that  I  doubted  not  that  vengeance  for  the  innocent  blood  which 

i  This  is  the  testimony  of  the  Breetbn  Ilaedt,  a  little  colored,  perhaps,  by  partisanship,  as 
it  is  certaiu  that  Melyn  took  a  sou  with  him. 


1647.] 


THE  WRECK   OF  THE  PRINCESS. 


121 


he  had  shed  in  his  murderings,  would,  sooner  or  later,  come  on  his 
head."  Kuyter  and  Melyn,  and  their  friends,  also,  had,  no  doubt, 
their  reflections.  To  Kieft  himself,  whose  life  had  been  one  of  so 
much  turbulence  and  injustice,  there  came  a  sort  of  death-bed  repent- 
ance, as  his  ship  lay  pounding  to  pieces  on  the  Welsh  rocks  ;  for  call- 
ing his  prisoners  to  his  side,  he  said:  "Friends,  I  have  been  unjust 
towards  you,  —  can  you  forgive  me  ?" 

So  he  perished,  and  with  him  eighty  others  —  among  them  Melyn's 
son,  and  Bogardus,1  the  minister  of  the  church  of  New  Amsterdam, 
who  had  been  one  of  Kieft's  most  determined  opponents.  Twenty  only 


View  on  the  Coast  of  Wales  near  Swansea. 

were  saved,  and  of  these  one  was  Kuyter,  who  was  washed  ashore  in 

a  surf  so  heavy  that  it  threw,  at  the  same  time,  a  cannon 

upon  the  beach ;  and  another  was  Melyn,  who  escaped  upon  ami  Melyn 

d.         T-»      i  1 1      •      i         i   i  •  t  in  Holland. 

a  rait,      rernaps  their  hardships  aroused  some  sympathy  for 

them  in  Holland ;  at  any  rate  their  grievances  were  listened  to,  the 

1  The  farm  of  Dominie  Bogardus  —  railed  first  the  "Dominie's  Bowery,"  afterward 
"  the  Duke's  Farm."  "  the  Kind's  Farm,"  "tlie  Queen's  Farm,"  as  it  was  conveyed,  in  the 
progress  of  events,  from  one  proprietor  to  another  —  became  at  length  the  property  of 
Irinity  Church,  New  York,  by  letters-patent  under  the  seal  of  the  province.  It  is  still,  for 
tlie  most  part,  in  the  hands  of  that  corporation,  and  produces  an  immense  revenue.  To  the 
conveyance  of  this  farm  to  Governor  Lovelace,  in  1C71,  by  the  children  of  Aunetje  Jaiis,  — 
'lie  widow  of  Dominie  Bogardus,  Avho  had  been  twice  married,  —  one  of  the  sous  was  not 
a  party,  and  the  property  is  claimed  by  his  descendant*-  — 0'C-M.layhan. 


122       NE\V  NETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.   [CHAP.  VI. 

sentences  against  them  reversed  by  the  States-General,  and  Stuyvesant 
had  reason  subsequently  to  regret  that  he  had  begun  his  ud ministra- 
tion of  the  affairs  of  New  Netherland  by  their  persecution. 

In  the  spirit  and  temper,  however,  with  which  lie  had  come  to  the 
defence  of  Kieft,  the  Director-general  continued  to  administer  the 
affairs  of  the  colony  after  the  departure  of  the  Princess.  He  began 
at  once  to  enforce  some  burdensome  taxes,  particularly  upon  wine  and 
beer,  which  aroused  the  most  bitter  opposition  ;  and  he  showed  it  to 
be  clearly  his  policy  to  make  the  colony  profitable  to  the  Company 
rather  than  that  the  rights  of  the  colonists  should  be  protected.  If  his 
laws  and  their  rigid  enforcement  were  sometimes  beneficial  to  the  citi- 
zens, as  they  sometimes  unquestionably  were,  it  was  not  so  much  that 
Stuyvesant  was  anxious  for  their  welfare,  as  because  the  laws  were  in 
themselves  judicious  and  wholesome  for  them  as  well  as  favorable  to 
the  interests  of  the  Company.  He  was  accused  of  imposing  restrictions 
upon  trade  that  he  might  have  a  monopoly  in  smuggling  some  partic- 
ular article  of  commerce  ;  when  the  truth  was  that  he  was  honestly 
aiming  to  repress  some  illegal  and  injurious  practice,  the  repression 
of  which  would  deprive  his  accusers  of  the  monopoly  which,  they  said, 
he  was  prostituting  his  power  to  get  into  his  own  hands.  Undoubt- 
edly he  was  very  much  of  a  despot,  had  very  little  faith  in  popular 
government,  and  very  little  respect  for  popular  rights ;  but  he  was 
personally  honest ;  he  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  colony  in  a  way 
Feature*  of  which  he  sincerely  believed  was  for  the  benefit  of  the  Com- 
•duiiuistrti-*  Panv  >  an(l  ne  ruled  with  a  strong  hand  because  he  thought 
tlon  that  was  the  only  way  the  people  could  be  governed.  As  a 

natural  consequence  he  had  almost  as  little  popular  support  in  acts 
that  were  judicious  and  for  the  good  of  the  community,  as  in  those 
which  were  unwise  and  clearly  against  its  best  interests. 

But  he  could  not  carry  on  the  administration  of  affairs  without 
some  sort  of  popular  cooperation.  Taxes  were  paid,  if  paid  at  all, 
with  reluctance  and  much  grumbling  ;  the  Indians  were  threatening 
the  fort,  and  the  palisades  around  the  town  were  in  need  of  repairs  ; 
the  church  was  only  half  finished  ;  trade  languished,  and  there  was  a 
general  condition  of  danger,  depression,  and  discontent.  Stuyvesant 
listened  at  last,  though  very  unwillingly,  to  the  advice  of  his  council, 
to  admit  the  people  to  such  share  in  the  government  as  they  were 
accustomed  to  at  home.  A  general  election  was  ordered  in  the 
autumn,  at  which  the  burghers  of  New  Amsterdam,  of  Breuckelen, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  East  River,  of  Pavonia,  and  Amersfoort  or 
Flatlands  on  Long  Island,  were  to  choose  eighteen  delegates,  from 
whom  the  governor  and  council  were  to  select  a  board  of  Nine  Men 
as  the  popular  representatives  of  the  colony. 


1647.]  THE   BOARD    OF   NINE   MEN.  123 

By  proclamation  in  September,  the  powers  of  this  body  were  de- 
fined.    That  the  colony  "  and  principally  New  Amsterdam,  our  cap- 
ital and  residence,  might  continue  and  increase  in  good  order,  justice, 
police,  population,  prosperity,  and  mutual  harmony,  and  be  provided 
with  strong  fortifications,  a  church,  a  school,  trading-place,  harbor, 
and  similar  highly  necessary  public  edifices  and  improvements  ; "  that 
"  the  honor  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  our  dear  Fatherland, 
to  the  best  advantage  of  the  Company,  and  the  prosperity  of  *•* 
our  good  citizens  "  be  promoted  ;  that  u  the  pure  reformed 
religion,  as  it  is  here  and  in  the  churches  of  the  Netherlands,"  be  pre- 
served and  inculcated,  this  Board  of  Nine  Men  was  established. 

These  were  to  convene  when  called  by  the  governor  and  council, 
but  were  not  to  hold  private  meetings,  the  governor,  whenever  he 
pleased,  sitting  with  them  as  the  presiding  officer.  Their  duty  and 
powers  were  advisory,  not  legislative,  as  they  were  only  to  give  advice 
on  such  propositions  as  the  governor  and  council  thought  fit  to  submit 
to  them.  Three  of  them  were  to  sit  in  turn  at  the  council-board  each 
week,  and  to  act  as  arbitrators  in  civil  suits,  the  parties  to  which, 
however,  had  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  council  on  payment  of  a  fee. 
Six  of  the  nine  were  to  retire  annually,  and  six  new  members  to  be 
appointed  from  twelve  of  "the  most  notable  citizens."1  Thus  the 
Nine  Men  were  to  nominate  their  successors,  with  the  Director's  help, 
without  recurrence  again  to  a  popular  election  ;  and  the  Board  was 
to  "  continue  until  lawfully  repealed,"  —  continue,  that  is,  until  the 
Director  and  council  saw  fit  to  dispense  with  it.  Its  creation,  never- 
theless, was  a  concession,  on  the  part  of  Stuyvesant,  to  the  popular 
will,2  and  its  members  sometimes  were  enabled  to  withstand  and  de- 
feat the  arbitrary  acts  of  the  Director  and  his  Council. 

Besides  his  difficulties  at  home  the  Director  was  soon  involved  in 
trouble  with  his  neighbors  of  New  England.  Kieft  had  left, 
as  he  could  hardly  help  doing,  the  questions  of  boundaries 
and  jurisdiction  in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  in  an  un- 
satisfactory  condition,  and  an  effort  to  come  to  some  equitable  settle- 
ment with  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  was  among  the 
earlier  acts  of  Stuyvesant's  administration.  He  entered  into  cor- 
respondence with  the  several  colonies  with  a  sincere  desire,  no  doubt, 
to  reach  an  amicable  understanding;  but  the  policy  of  New  England 
was  to  come  to  no  understanding  whatever.  There  was  no  lack  of 

1  The  proclamation  —  or  charter,  as  it  is  sometimes  called  —  is  given  in  full  from  Albany 
Records  (vii.  72-84),  by  O'Callaghan,  in  his  History  of  New  Netherland,  ii.  37-39. 

2  The  Nine  Men  first  appointed  were  Augustine  Ileeriiians,  Arnoldns  van  Hardenburg, 
and  Covert  Loockennnnns,  merchants  ;  Jan  Jansen   Dam,  Jacob  Wolfertsen  van  Couwen- 
hoven,  and  Hendrick  Hendricksen  Kip,  citizens;  and  Michael  Jauseu,  Jan  Evertseu  Bout, 
and  Thomas  Hall,  farmers. 


124     NEW  NETHERLANI)  UXDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.    [CHAP.  VI. 

courteous  words,  and  on  his  side  an  earnest  purpose  ;  on  the  other, 
fair  words  only  covered  up  the  determination  to  "  keep  crowding  the 
Dutch."  Stuyvesant's  proposition  of  a  friendly  conference  Governor 
Winthrop  of  Massachusetts  accepted  in  vague  terms ;  that  it  might 
take  place  at  some  proper  time  and  place  when  his  health  permitted  ; 
but  no  conference  followed.  Stuyvesant  suggested  as  the  basis  of 
any  settlement  the  right  of  the  West  India  Company  "to  all  that 
land  betwixt  that  river  called  Connecticutt,  and  that  by  the  English 
named  Delaware."  The  New  England  commissioners,  on  their  side 
met  the  suggestion  by  complaints  of  the  restrictions  on  trade  estab- 
lished by  the  Dutch,  and  of  the  selling  of  arms  to  the  Indians  to  the 
great  danger  of  the  English  settlements.  Energetic  action,  however, 
suited  the  temper  of  the  Dutch  Director  better  than  this  sort  of  diplo- 
matic correspondence  which  led  to  nothing. 

What  he  would  do  when  a  practical  case  of  disputed  jurisdiction 
presented  itself  he  soon  had  opportunities  of  showing.  Some  years 
before,  as  we  have  related  in  another  chapter,1  a  company  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, under  Captain  How,  had  made  a  settlement  within  the 
territory  of  New  Netherland,  not  only  without  the  permission  of  the 
Dutch,  but  in  such  evident  contempt  of  their  assumed  proprietorship 
as  to  pull  down  the  Dutch  escutcheon,  and  to  carve  in  its  place  a 
mocking  effigy.  These  Englishmen  had  bought  the  lands  of  the 
Indian  owners  by  an  agreement  with  one  James  Farrett,  the  agent  of 
the  Earl  of  Stirling,  who  claimed  the  island  of  Matowack,  or  Long 
Island,  under  a  grant  from  the  council  of  New  England.2 

In  September  one  Andrew  Forrester  appeared  on  Long  Island  and 
at  New  Amsterdam,  claiming  to  be  —  as  he  no  doubt  really 
Lord  stir-  was  —  the  agent  of  Lady  Stirling,  the  widow  of  the  earl, 
to'Eong  and  asserting  her  right  of  proprietorship.3  As  Ivieft,  in  his 
time,  had  dispersed  the  people  who  claimed  the  right  of  set- 
tlement near  Cow  Neck  by  virtue  of  an  agreement  with  Farrett,  act- 

1  See  Chapter  ii.,  p.  34. 

2  Salisbury's  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  p.  204. 

8  Some  confusion  has  crept  into  the  books  in  relation  to  these  two  agents,  Farrett  and 
Forrester,  which  is  explained  in  a  note  to  Murphy's  translation  of  The  JRfprescntatiou  of 
New  Netherhwd.  Wood,  in  the  first  edition  of  his  Sketch  of  £0/1/7  Island,  confounded  For- 
rester with  Farrett,  and  this  led  Savage  [  }Vinthrop's  Journal,  note,  vol.  ii.,  p.  6]  to  assert 
that  there  was  no  such  agent  as  Forrester.  In  the  second  edition  [Furman  Clul>]  of  Wood's 
Sketch  the  error  of  the  first  is  corrected,  nud  the  agent  of  the  Earl  of  Stirling,  in  1640, 
is  properly  named  as  James  Farrett.  Hubhard,  in  his  History  of  New  England,  calls  him 
Forliead.  As  all  that  is  of  much  value  in  Huhbard  is  copied  from  Winthrop,  it  is  difficult 
to  account  for  his  change  of  spelling  on  any  other  supposition  than  that  Hulibard  assumed 
to  correct  Winthrop,  who,  he  may  have  supposed,  had  written  forehead,*.*  the  vulgar  pro- 
nounced it  —  forrett  —  which  supposition,  if  correct,  settled  Hubbard's  pronunciation  rather 
than  Winthrop's  spelling.  The  fact  is  that  Farrett  was  the  Earl's  agent  in  1640,  and  For- 
rester in  1647. 


1647.]  CONTROVERSIES  WITH  THE  ENGLISH.  125 

ing  for  the  Earl  of  Stirling,  so  Stuyvesant  now  disposed  of  Forrester 
when  claiming  to  represent  the  widow  of  the  earl  as  the  owner  of 
the  whole  island.  Forrester  was  arrested,  and,  though  con-  Arrestof 
sideration  enough  was  shown  him  to  permit  him  to  present  Forrester- 
the  grounds  on  which,  on  behalf  of  his  principal,  he  claimed  the  own- 
ership of  Long  Island,  he  was  kept  in  close  confinement  till  he  could 
be  put  on  board  ship  for  Holland.  He  left  the  vessel,  however,  at  an 
English  port,  not  without,  perhaps,  the  consent  of  those  who  had 
charge  of  him,  and  who  cared  little  where  he  was  so  he  was  not  in 
New  Netherland  ;  for  it  is  plain  the  Dutch  did  not  feel  quite  easy 
about  this  Stirling  patent. 

The  next  case  of  disputed  jurisdiction  was  not  so  easily  disposed  of, 
but  Stuyvesant  had  as  little  hesitation  in  dealing  with  it  as  Contegtwith 
with  Lady  Stirling's  agent.  He  learned  that  a  Dutch  ship  New  1Iaven- 
was  at  New  Haven  taking  in  a  cargo  without  a  permit  from  the  gov- 
ernment at  New  Amsterdam,  or  paying  the  legal  duties.  She  was 
pronounced  a  smuggler,  and  her  seizure  was  determined  upon,  for  the 
Director  claimed  that  New  Haven  was  within  the  territory  of  New 
Netherland.  It  happened  that  Mr.  Goodyear,  the  Deputy  Governor 
of  New  Haven,  had  just  purchased  the  Company's  ship,  the  Zwol,  at 
New  Amsterdam,  to  be  delivered  at  New  Haven,  and  the  Director 
took  advantage  of  this  transaction  for  a  strategical  rfiovement  against 
the  other  ship.  The  Zwol  sailed  in  due  course  from  New  Amsterdam 
to  New  Haven  for  delivery  to  her  purchaser,  but  beneath  her  hatches 
were  concealed  a  company  of  soldiers  under  the  command  of  one  Cap- 
tain Van  der  Grist,  with  orders  to  take  the  St.  Beninio,  the  offending 
vessel,  and  bring  her  to  Amsterdam.  The  expedition  was  eminently 
successful.  Suddenly,  "on  the  Lord's  day,"  Van  der  Grist,  with  his 
men,  boarded  the  St.  Beninio,  made  prisoners  of  one  of  the  owners, 
of  her  officers  and  crew,  and  before  the  astonished  Englishmen  had 
time  to  come  to  the  rescue,  sailed  out  of  the  harbor. 

Against  this  high-handed  act  Governor  Eaton  of  New  Haven  pro- 
tested, promptly  and  indignantly.  "  We  have  protested,"  he  wrote, 
"  and  by  these  presents  do  protest  against  you,  Peter  Stuyvesant, 
Governor  of  the  Dutch  at  Manhattans,  for  disturbing  the  peace  be- 
tween the  English  and  Dutch  in  these  parts  ....  by  making  unjust 
claims  to  our  lands  and  plantations,  to  our  havens  and  rivers,  and  by 
taking  a  ship  out  of  our  harbor,  without  our  license,  by  your  agents 
and  commission  ;  and  we  hereby  profess  that  whatever  inconveniences 
may  hereafter  grow,  you  are  the  cause  and  author  of  it,  as  we  hope  to 
show  and  prove  before  our  superiors  in  Europe."  But  Stuyvesant 
confiscated  the  ship  and  cargo,  nevertheless,  having  asserted  —  with 
some  considerable  extension  of  his  former  claim  —  that  New  Nether- 


126       NEW  NETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER  STU  YVES  ANT.   [CHAP.  VI. 

land  embraced  the  whole  country  from  Cape  Cod  to  Cape  Henlopen,1 
and  that  the  St.  Beninio  was  legally  seized  within  New  Netherland 
boundaries. 

The  correspondence  was  hot  and  furious.  You  write  me  neither 
in  Latin  nor  in  English,  "  but  in  Low  Dutch,  whereof  I  understand 
little,  nor  would  your  messenger,  though  desired,  interpret  anything," 
wrote  the  angry  Englishman.  Stuyvesant  refused  at  length  to  hold 
further  communication  with 
Eaton,  and  retorted  by  com- 
plaining of  him  to  Good- 
year, the  deputy  governor, 
as  "  ripping  up,  as  he  con- 
ceives, all  my  faults,  as  if  I 
were  a  school-boy,  and  not 
one  of  like  degree  with  him- 


Capture  of   the  St.   Benmlo. 

self."     The  New  Haven  governor  was  sufficiently  revenged  tor  the 

Low  Dutch,  in  exciting  the  Director  to  this  childish  display  of  anger. 

And  not  only  this;  Eaton  was  presently  able  to  retaliate  in  acts  as 

well  as  words.     Three  of  the  servants  of  the  Dutch  governor  escaped 

from  New  Amsterdam  and  fled  to  New  Haven.    Stuyvesant  demanded 

their  rendition,  addressing  his  letter,  Winthrop  says,  to  "  New  Haven 

1  Stuyvesaut  afterward  explained  that  by  Cape  Cod  he  meant  Point  Judith. 


1647.]  CONTROVERSIES  WITH  THE  ENGLISH.  127 

in  New  Netherlands."     It  was  not  wise  to  ask  a  favor  with  the  air  of 
a  sovereign.    Eaton  refused  to  return  the  fugitives,  contrary 

i ,     •  p  w  •  Progress  of 

to  the  advice  of  Winthrop,  who  considered  that  such  an  act   thecontro- 

ii«'».  ,  ...  versy. 

of  courtesy,  though  asked  tor  in  a  way  that  was  objection- 
able, could  be  assented  to  without  prejudice  to  the  territorial  title  of 
the  English. 

On  receiving  this  reply  Stuyvesant's  conduct  was  characteristic.  It 
was  of  no  little  importance  to  all  the  colonies  that  fugitives  from  jus- 
tice or  from  labor  in  any  one  of  them  should  not  find  an  asylum  in 
another.  To  retaliate  in  kind  upon  Governor  Eaton  was  a  most  un- 
popular proceeding  even  in  New  Netherland ;  nevertheless,  the  Di- 
rector issued  a  proclamation  when  Eaton's  refusal  reached  him,  every 
word  of  which  flashed  with  indignation,  declaring  that  u  if  any  person, 
noble  or  ignoble,  freeman  or  slave,  debtor  or  creditor,  yea  to  the  lowest 
prisoner  included,  run  away  from  the  colony  of  New  Haven,  or  seek 
refuge  in  our  limits,  he  shall  remain  free,  under  our  protection,  on 
taking  the  oath  of  allegiance."  It  was,  at  least,  a  bold  act,  if  not  a 
masterly  stroke  of  policy.  Governor  Winthrop  lamented  the  more 
that  New  Haven  had  not  followed  the  advice  of  Massachusetts  instead 
of  obstinately  adhering  to  its  own  judgment,  "  in  pursuit  whereof  this 
damage  and  reproach  befell  them." 

But  it  was  as  easy  to  recapture  a  prisoner  as  to  cut  out  a  ship,  and 
Stuyvesant  was  not  a  man  to  satisfy  himself  with  proclama-  StUTVesant,g 
tions,  or  to  let  his  actions  lag  behind  his  wrath.  However  No, 
loud  he  barked,  his  bite  was  always  worse  than  his  bark.  eessfil1 
He  contrived  to  get  letters  conveyed  to  the  refugees  in  New  Haven 
both  from  himself  and  from  the  dominie  of  New  Amsterdam ;  they 
were  assured  of  a  full  pardon  for  offences  in  the  past,  and  plied  with 
promises  of  good  treatment  in  the  future.  The  Director  was  as  suc- 
cessful in  his  strategy  as  he  was  vigorous  in  his  proclamation.  The 
men  were  persuaded  by  his  assurances  and  returned  to  New  Nether- 
land.  It  was  easy  enough  then  to  recall  with  dignity  his  offer  of  pro- 
tection of  offenders  against  the  laws  of  New  Haven,  which  he  had 
already  explained  to  Massachusetts  and  Virginia  was  only  meant  to 
apply  to  that  colony. 

These  quarrels  with  the  New  Englanders  were  neither  forgotten 
nor  forgiven,  and  the  New  Netherlanders  had  occasion  a  few 
years  later  to  regret,  and  the  Director,  possibly,  to  repent  of  menPa?" 
them.     Meanwhile  his  administration  of  the  affairs  of  his 
own  colony  was  no  less  vigorous,  sometimes  judiciously  so,  and  some- 
times injudiciously  and  oppressively.     It  was  not  that  he  disdained  to 
take  counsel  of  prudence,  but  that  his  prudential  measures  were  often 
carried  out  with  a  passion  and  vehemence  that  defeated  his  most  cher- 


128      NEW  NETHERLAXD  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.  [CiiAP.  VI. 

ishecl  purposes.  The  selling  of  arms  to  the  savages,  who  might  on 
the  smallest  provocation,  or  with  none  at  all,  turn  them  against  the 
whites,  was  an  evil  so  obvious,  that  the  complaints  of  other  colonies 
were  not  needed  to  convince  him  of  the  necessity  of  its  suppression. 
He  issued  stringent  orders  upon  the  subject,  and  when  certain  persons 
in  New  Amsterdam  were  suspected  of  disregarding  this  prohibition, 
he  brought  them  to  trial,  and  they  were  sentenced  to  death.  The 
penalty  was  too  severe,  and  so  shocked  the  community  that  it  was 
commuted  to  milder  punishment,  and  especially  when  it  appeared 
that  there  were  grave  doubts  of  the  guilt  of  some  of  the  accused. 

The  intention  of  the  governor  was  certainly  praiseworthy,  and  for 
the  real  good  of  every  citizen  of  the  colony.  But  men  are  free-traders 
by  nature,  and  restrictions  even  upon  a  traffic  so  dangerous  as  to  put 
arms  in  the  hands  of  those  who  may  at  any  time  become  enemies, 
may  be  made  unpopular  by  undue  severity.  Stuyvesant's  energy,  in 
the  right  direction,  was  almost  sure  to  make  itself  offensive  by  harsh- 
ness and  arrogance,  and  his  zeal  made  the  recrimination  all  the  more 
bitter,  when  later  it  was  suspected  that  nobody  violated  his  own  pro- 
hibition in  this  matter  so  flagrantly  as  himself.  The  truth  really  was 
that  he  only  sparingly  distributed  arms  and  ammunition  among  the 
Indians,  by  order  of  the  directors  in  Holland,  to  bribe  the  savages  to 
keep  the  peace  ;  but  either  the  distinction  was  not  understood,  or  was 
wilfully  misinterpreted.  The  result,  at  any  rate,  was  to  unjustly 
aggravate  the  unpopularity  of  the  governor,  which  he  was  justly  earn- 
ing in  other  ways. 

This  question  of  trade  with  the  Indians  was  probably  one  cause  of 

a  conflict  which  soon  arose  between  Stuyvesant  and  Brandt 

ernorv  con-  van  Slechtciihorst,  the  commissary  of  the  young  patroon  of 

van  .siech-     Rensselaerswvck  at   Beverswyck,  Albany.     The  old  patroon 

tenhorst.  '  .          . 

was  dead  and  Van  blechtenhorst  was  sent  out  by  the  guar- 
dians of  the  son  and  heir,  Johan  van   Rtnsselaer,  as  his  representa- 
tive, about  the 

~  //          /    /?  time  that  Stuy- 

' va^i.  jfc^nwPtt^A^^,,     vesant    arrived 
/  at  New  Amster- 

dam.   The  COm- 
Signature  of  Johan  van   Rensselaer. 

m  i  s  s  a  r  y  was 

quite  as  jealous  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  young  patroon  as  the  Di- 
rector was  of  the  rights  of  the  Company.  An  opportunity  soon  arose 
of  testing  the  question,  for  when  Stuyvesant  proclaimed  a  fast  Van 
Slechtenhorst  refused  to  keep  it,  on  the  ground  that  the  Director 
General  of  New  Netherland  had  no  jurisdiction  within  the  domain 
of  the  Patroon. 


1648.] 


CONFLICT  WITH  VAN  SLECHTENHORST. 


Such  a  defiance  of  authority  was  certain  to  exasperate  Stuyvesant, 
and  he  unwisely  determined  to  assert  his  authority  in  a  more  positive 
way.  He  visited  Fort  Orange,  about  which  the  hamlet  of  Bevers- 
wyck  had  clustered,  and  which  certainly  belonged  to  the  West  India 
Company,  and  ordered,  on  a  survey  of  the  place,  that  certain  houses 
should  be  pulled  down  to  permit  of  a  better  defence  of  the  fort  in  case 
of  an  attack  from  the  Indians ;  he  commanded  also  that  stone  and 
timbers  should  be  taken  from  the  Patroon's  lands  for  the  purpose  of 
repairing  and  adding  to  its  fortifications.  Van  Slephtenhorst  refused 
to  permit  the  houses  to  be  destroyed,  and  forbade  that  depredations 
should  be  made  upon  the  Patroon's  property. 


Stuyvesant  at  Fort  Orange. 

The  Director  sent  a  squad  of  soldiers  from  New  Amsterdam  to  en- 
force his  orders  ;  the  commissary  defied  them  to  interfere  with  his 
authority  on  his  lordship's  manor,  and  though  they  derided  and  al- 
most assaulted  him,  the  commander  of  Fort  Orange  was  too  prudent 
to  try  the  temper  of  the  people  of  Beverswyck  by  any  attempt  to  en- 
force the  Director's  commands.  Even  the  Indians  shared  in  the  ex- 
citement, and  wondered  why  "  Wooden  Leg  "  wanted  to  pull  down 
the  houses  of  his  own  countrymen,  and  wei-e  evidently  ready  if  a 
struggle  ensued  to  take  sides  with  those  whom  they  looked 
upon  as  their  friends  and  who  sold  them  guns  and  ammuni-  teuhomthe 
tion.  The  conflict  of  authority  between  the  Company  and  a 
patroon  was  one  that  was  inevitable  whenever  an  occasion  for  it  should 

VOL.  ii.  9 


130      NEW  NETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.    [CHAP.  VI. 

arise,  and  this  occasion  was  an  unfortunate  one.  The  commissary 
stoutly  and  successfully  maintained  the  rights  of  his  lord  ;  the  Director 
was  powerless  to  maintain  those  of  the  Company.  Proclamations 

were  loud  and  long  from  both 
parties;  but  the  commissary  car- 
ried  his  point,  while  the  Director 

Signature  of  Brandt  van  Slechtenhorst.  gained    nothing,    CXCCpt,    pei'llflpS, 

some  loss  of  prestige  for  asserting  a  right  which  he  had  not  the  power 
to  maintain. 

So  far  Stuyvesant  had  not  proved  a  successful  governor,  nor  been 
to  the  people  as  he  had  promised,  "  as  a  father  to  his  children."  Dis- 
content had  followed  increased  taxation  ;  prosperity  had  diminished 
rather  than  grown  ;  the  vexed  question  of  colonial  boundaries  re- 
mained as  unsettled  and  vexatious  as  ever,  and  in  the  confused  con- 
dition of  affairs  in  England  seemed  likely  to  remain  so ;  trade  was 
driven  from  the  port  of  New  Amsterdam,  for  New  England  and  Vir- 
ginia vessels  were  afraid  to  venture  into  a  harbor  where,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  St.  Beninio,  seized  at  New  Haven,  the  governor  did  not 
hesitate  to  confiscate  ship  and  cargo  if  his  demands  were  not  complied 
with ;  and  the  fear  of  such  acts  was  said  to  have  been  a  loss  of  the 
trade  of  twenty-five  ships  a  year  to  New  Netherland.  Within  t\vo 
years  the  first  board  of  Nine  Men  became  dissatisfied  and  uncompliant, 
and  another  was  appointed.  This  second  board  proved  as  unman- 
ageable as  the  first,  and  succeeded  in  doing  what  the  first  had  at- 
tempted to  do  without  success,  —  in  sending  a  deputation  to 
the  citizens  the  Hague  to  present  to  the  States-General  a  statement  of 
the  grievances  of  the  colonists,  and  to  complain  of  the  gen- 
eral mismanagement  of  the  affairs  of  New  Netherland  by  the  West 
India  Company  and  its  servants.  Of  this  commission  Adrian  van  der 


Signature  of  Adrian  van  der   Donck. 

Donck  was  the  head,  as  he  was  probably  the  author  of  the  Vertocyh, 
or  Representation,  presented  to  their  High  Mightinesses.1 

This  important  measure,  however,  was  not  carried  without  a  strug- 
gle with  the  imperious  Director.  When  the  Nine  Men  proposed  it 
they  asked  permission  of  Stuyvesant  that  they  might  confer  with 
their  constituents  in  a  popular  meeting  to  be  called  to  consider  the 

1  The  Representation  of  New  Netlierland-     Translated  by  Henry  C.  Murphy,  N.  F.  Hist. 
Soc.  CM.,  Second  Series,  vol.  ii. 


1649.]  MELYN'S  RETURN.  131 

condition  of  the  colony,  whether  it  would  approve  of  sending  a 
delegation  to  Holland,  and  to  provide  means  to  defray  the  expenses. 
The  Director  refused  permission,  saving  that  any  such  com- 

J  ill-  Stuyvesanf* 

immication   with  the    people   must   he  made  through  him,  treatment  of 

t  HP  iii'it  tt*r 

and  his  directions  followed.  The  next  best  thing  the  Nine 
Men  could  do  was  to  go  from  house  to  house  to  consult  with  their 
constituents  privately,  and  Van  der  Donck  was  appointed  to  keep  a 
record  of  the  result  of  these  private  conferences.  Stuyvesant,  exas- 
perated at  this  defiance  of  his  authority,  went  to  Van  der  Donck's 
chamber,  in  his  absence,  seized  all  his  papers,  and  the  next  day  ar- 
rested and  imprisoned  their  author.  That  he  might  not  be,  however, 
without  some  show  of  popular  support  he  called  a  meeting  of  dele- 
gates of  the  militia  and  the  burghers.  From  these  he  secured  an 
approval  of  his  course,  and  Van  der  Donck  was  expelled  from  the 
board  of  Nine  Men,  and  the  demand  that  his  papers  be  returned  to 
him  refused. 

While  this  struggle  was  going  on  between  the   Director  and  the 
party  opposed  to  him,  Melyn  returned  from  Holland,  not 
only  with  the  sentence,  pronounced  against  him  by  the  Coun-  turns  from 

*  .          .  Holland. 

cil  of  New  Amsterdam,  reversed  by  their  High  Mightinesses, 
but  bringing  with  him  a  mandamus  requiring  the  Director  to  appear 
at  the  Hague,  either  in  person  or  by  attorney,  to  answer  to  the  charges 
which  Melyn  and  Kuyter  had  brought  against  him.  The  Patroon  was 
by  no  means  disposed  to  carry  his  triumph  meekly.  He  declared  that 
the  decision  in  his  favor  ought  to  be  pronounced  as  publicly  in  New 
Amsterdam  as,  two  years  before,  he  had  been  publicly  condemned. 
This  he  demanded  in  a  public  meeting  in  the  church  soon  after  his 
arrival.  At  this  bold  step  the  whole  assembly  was  ablaze  with  excite- 
ment. An  excited  and  vehement  debate  followed  ;  but  the  motion  to 
read  the  mandamus  was  carried,  and  Van  Hardenburg,  one  of  the 
board,  was  about  to  obey,  when  Stuyvesant,  declaring  that  a  copy 
ought  first  to  be  served  upon  him,  snatched  the  document  from  the 
bands  of  the  councilman. 

All  dignity  and  reserve  were  thrown  aside  at  this  violence  of  the 
governor.     The  disputants  forgot  where  they  were  and  who  Excitement 
they  were  ;  an   unseemly  struggle  followed,  in  which,  if  the  fiVn«ai^te8 
burghers  did   not  knock  each    other  down,  they  showered  orders- 
hard  and  angry  words  upon  each   other.     One  party  tried  to  retain, 
the  other  to  regain  possession  of  the  paper,  and  in  the  snatching  and 
re-snatching  the  seal  was  torn  from  it.     The  tumult  was  at  length 
quelled  by  the  intercession  of  some  of  the  cooler  and  wiser  by-stand- 
ers,  and  the  Director  was  persuaded  to  return  the  document,  on  Me- 
lyn's  promise  that  a  copy  should   be  given   him.     When  the  manda- 


132      NEW  NETHERLAXD  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.  [CHAP.  VI. 

mus  was  read,  Stuyvesant  said  in  answer,  "  I  honor  the  States,  and 
shall  obey  their  commands.  I  shall  send  an  attorney  to  sustain  the 
sentence  that  was  pronounced."  Melyn  demanded  that  a  written 
reply  should  be  given,  but  this  Stuyvesant  refused. 

The  popular  feeling  was  evidently  in  Melyn's  favor,  but  that  was 
of  no  personal  advantage  to  him,  as  Stuyvesant  let  no  chance  escape 
him  which  could  be  used  to  annoy  his  enemy.  But  the  governor's 
conduct  in  this  affair,  his  imprisonment  of  Van  der  Donck,  and  the 
strong  suspicion  that  he  used  his  office  to  promote  his  own  interests,  in 
shops  which  he  owned  and  others  kept  for  him,  in  farms  cultivated,  in 
breweries  carried  on,  in  ships  sailed  wholly  or  in  part  on  his  account, 
and  in  a  monopoly  of  the  sale  of  arms  to  the  Indians,  —  all  these 
charges,  true  or  untrue,  combined  at  this  time  to  so  arouse  the  public 
indignation,  that  he  did  not  venture  to  continue  to  throw  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  a  popular  delegation  to  Holland. 

A  memorial  was  prepared  and  signed  by  eleven  persons  who  were 
members  of  the  second,  or  had  been  members  of  the  first  Board  of 
Nine  Men,  asking  that  the  States-General  would  take  the  colony 
under  its  own  care  ;  that  they  would  establish  in  it  a  Burgher  Gov- 
ernment, as  much  as  possible  like  that  of  Holland  ;  that  there  should 
be  free  trade,  colonial  commerce,  with  the  encouragement  of  the  fish- 
eries ;  that  the  boundaries  of  New  Netherland  should  be  definite!}'  and 
definitively  determined,  all  for  the  "  peace  and  quietness,"  and  the 
'•  liberty  "  of  the  people.  In  the  Remonstrance,  or  Vertoogh,  which 
The  uemon-  accompanied  the  memorial  and  which  was  signed  by  the 
"  same  men,  the  gravest  charges  were  brought  against  the  ad- 
ministrations  of  Kieft  and  Stuyvesant,  and  it  was  declared 
that  the  colony  could  never  flourish  if  left  longer  in  the  hands  of  the 
West  India  Company.  And  this  was  not  done  in  a  corner,  but  in 
the  light  of  day.  The  haughty  and  irascible  Director  was  brought 
by  the  popular  clamor  to  unwonted  submission.  He  permitted  the 
departure  of  three  of  the  signers  of  these  documents,  —  Van  der 
Donck,  Couwenhoven,  and  Bout,  —  as  delegates  to  the  States-Gen- 
eral, one  of  whom  he  had,  not  long  before,  imprisoned,  partly  because 
he  was  the  author  of  this  very  Remonstrance.  He  dispatched  Van 
Tienhoven,  the  provincial  secretary,  however,  to  Holland,  to  meet  his 
accusers. 

Van  der  Donck  was  zealous  and  able,  and  his  efforts  on  behalf  of 
his  constituents  were  well  supported  not  only  by  his  colleagues,  but  by 
Melyn,  who  went  out  to  Holland  with  them,  and  the  Dominie  Back- 
Effortsot  its  erusi  the  clergyman  of  New  Amsterdam,  who  left  the  colony 
supporters.  noj.  long  before.  A  strong  popular  feeling  was  soon  aroused 
in  favor  of  the  colony,  for  Van  der  Donck  appealed  to  the  people  of 


1649.] 


THE  REMONSTRANCE  IN  HOLLAND. 


133 


Holland  by  publishing  the  Remonstrance,  as  well  as  to  the  States 
General  by  his  earnest  representations.  "  The  name  of  New  Nether- 
land,"  wrote  the  Amsterdam  Chamber  to  Stuy  vesant,  "  was  scarcely 
ever  mentioned  before,  and  now  it  would  seem  as  if  heaven  and  earth 
were  interested  in  it." 

Van  Tienhoven,  the 
secretary,  on  the  other 
side,  was  not  less  busy 
nor  less  in  earnest.  He 
put  in  a  long  reply  to 
the  Remonstrance,  de- 
fending the  Company,  up- 


The  Delegates  before  the  States-General. 

holding  the  administrations  of  Kieft  and  Stuyvesant,  denying,  and,  if 
he  spoke  the  truth,  sometimes  disproving  the  charges  brought  against 
them,  but  resorting  to  the  common  line  of  defence,  where  the  de- 
fendant's cause  is  a  weak  one,  of  abusing  the  plaintiff's  attorney. 
And  this  he  did  with  a  good  deal  of  bitterness  and  some  humor. 
"Those,"  he  said,  "•  who  complained  about  the  "haughtiness  of  Stuy- 
vesant are  such  as  seek  to  live  without  law  or  rule  ; "  those  indebted 


134       NEW  NETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.   [CiiAr.  VI. 

to  the  Company  were  "  angry  and  insolent "  if  payment  was  de- 
manded, and  "  would  be  right  glad  to  see  that  the  Company  dunned 
nobody,  nor  demanded  their  own,  yet  paid  their  creditors  ;  "  many 
of  them  had  been  provided  with  provisions  and  clothing  on  arriving 
from  Holland,  and  "  now  when  some  of  them  have  a  little 

Opposition  .  -11 

of  VHII Tien-  more  KOMI  they  can  eat  up  in  a  day,  the}1  wish  to  be  re- 

hoven.  11.  «  •        >  p       i      •        i  <•  1-1 

leased  from  the  authority  of  their  benefactors,  and  with- 
out paying  if  they  could  ;  a  sign  of  gross  ingratitude;  "  the  place  of 
Dominie  Backerus  was  now  "  supplied  by  a  learned  and  godly  min- 
ister who  has  no  interpreter  when  he  defends  the  reformed  religion 
against  any  minister  of  our  neighbors,  the  English  Brownists ; "  Van 
der  Donck  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  proprietors  of  Rensselaerwyck, 
and  there  is  the  sting  of  an  insinuation  in  the  comment  that  he  did 
not  remain  long  in  that  service ;  Stevensen,  another  signer  of  the  Re- 
monstrance, had  "  profited  iu  the  service  of  the  Company,  and  endeav- 
ored to  give  his  benefactor  the  world's  pay,  that  is,  to  recompense 
good  with  evil ;  "  Elbertsen  was  indebted  to  the  company,  and  "would 
be  very  glad  to  get  rid  of  paying ; "  Loockermans,  who  from  a  "  cook's 

mate  "  had  become  a 
prosperous       trader, 
-^-—?___  ^ —      **  owed    gratitude   to 

S^     •    —--^- "  "-V 

the    Company,    next 
"7"  God,  for    his    eleva- 

Signature  of  Govert  Loockermans.  ^     ^     Qught     ^ 

advise  its  removal  from  the  country  ; "  Kip  was  a  tailor  who  had 
never  lost  anything,  which  was  only  another  way  of  saying  he  had 
nothing  to  lose  ;  and  Evertsen's  grievance  was  that  he  had  lost  a 
house  and  barn  in  the  war  with  the  Indians,  though  the  land  on  which 
they  stood,  and  which  cost  him  nothing,  he  had  sold  for  a  great  price. 
In  short,  the  secretary,  though  he  undertook  to  show  that  the  in- 
dictment of  the  Company  and  its  servants  could  not  be  sustained, 
hoped  to  strengthen  his  arguments  and  his  assertions  by  showing  or 
insinuating  that  those  who  brought  the  charges  were  either  interested 
witnesses  or  not  worthy  of  belief.  It  was  unfortunate  for  his  own 
case  that  he  proposed  to  test  the  truth  of  alleged  facts  by  the  char- 
acter of  those  who  stated  them,  for  soon  after  making  this  appeal  he 
was  brought  to  trial  in  Amsterdam  and  found  guilty  of  seducing  a 
young  woman  under  promise  of  marriage,  he  having  a  wife  and  chil- 
dren residing  in  New  Netherland. 

Redress  did  not  come  immediately  for  the  grievances  com- 

ProvUional         ••''''»-'•''  -i  i  •  m       v   m 

onitT  of  the   plained  ot,  though  some  promise  ot  relier  was  given  in  a  pro- 
visional order  of  their  High  Mightinesses  containing  some 
wise   measures  for  the  government  of  the   colony,  and  commanding 


1650.] 


PERSECUTION  OF  MELYN. 


135 


Stuyvesant's  return  to  Holland.  It  was  not  accepted,  however,  by 
the  Amsterdam  Chamber  of  the  Company,  and,  when  sent  to  Xew 
Netherland,  Stuy  vesant  refused  to  obey  it.  "  He  should  do  as  he 
pleased,"  he  said,  and  in  all  such  matters  he  was  quite  as  good  as 
his  word.  In  two  successive  years  the  board  of  Nine  Men  added 
fresh  delegates  to  their  deputation  in  Holland,  moved  thereto,  the  sec- 
ond year,  by  the  Director's  refusal  to  nominate  new  members  to  the 
board,  thus  virtually  dissolving  it.  In  nothing  would  Stuyvesant 
abate  the  arrogance  of  his  temper,  the  rigor  of  his  rule,  or  the  bitter- 
ness of  his  resentments. 

No  sooner,  for  example,  was  Melyn  again  within  his  reach  than  the 
Director  subjected  him  to  new  persecution.    The  Patroon  returned  in 


1650,  in  a  ship  which  was  com- 
pelled by  stress  of  weather  to 
put  into  Rhode  Island,  and 
when  she  arrived,  some  months 
later,  at  New  Amsterdam,  the 

Director      Ordered       her        tO       be  Melyn's   Manor  at   Staten   Island. 

seized  for  violation  of  a  regulation  of  the  company  in  trading  without 
a  license,  and  brought  Melyn  to  trial  as  her  owner.  He  stuwe^m's 
was  only  so  far  interested  in  her  voyage  that  she  brought  a  ^tion. a 
number  of  settlers  for  his  manor  of  Staten  Island,  and  though  the  ship 
and  cargo  were  confiscated,  there  was  no  evidence  that  could  hold  him 
responsible.1  Failing  in  this  Stuyvesant  brought  new  charges  against 
the  patroon,  confiscated  his  property  in  New  Amsterdam,  and  com- 
pelled him  to  confine  himself  to  his  manor  of  Staten  Island.  Melyn 
surrounded  himself  with  defences,  and  establishing  a  sort  of  baronial 

1  The  Company  was  subsequently  compelled  to  pay  heavy  damages  to  the  rwnersof 
tins  vessel  for  this  arbitrary  act  of  the  Director.  —  O'Callaghan,  vol.  ii.,  p.  157. 


136       NEW  XETHERLAND  UNDER  PETER  STUYVESANT.   [CHAP.  VI. 

court  contrived  for  a  while  to  live  till  Stuyvesant's  persecutions  drove 
him,  at  length,  out  of  the  colony. 

With  Melyn,  on  Staten  Island,  Van  Dincklage,  the  vice-director, 
also  found  a  refuge  from  the  violence  of  Stuyvesant.  The  vice- 
director  busied  himself  in  prepai'ing  a  new  protest  to  the  States-Gen- 
eral on  behalf  of  the  colony,  when  Stuyvesant  ordered  that  he  be 
expelled  from  the  council.  Van  Dincklage  refused  to  be  thus  dis- 
posed of,  on  the  plea  that  he  held  his  commission  not  from  the 
Director  but  from  Holland.  Stuyvesant  arrested  and  imprisoned 
him  for  some  days,  and  he  felt  that  his  life  was  not  safe  on  Manhat- 
tan Island. 

Other  leaders  of  the  popular  party  were  subjected  to  treatment 
hardly  less  vindictive  and  arbitrary.  "  Our  great  Muscovy 
of  the  pop-  Duke  (noster  magnus  Museovi  Dux),''  Van  Dincklage  wrote 
to  Van  der  Donck,  "  goes  on  as  usual,  resembling  somewhat 
the  wolf,  —  the  older  he  gets  the  worse  he  bites.  He  proceeds  no 
longer  by  words  or  letters,  but  by  arrests  and  stripes."  Van  Dyck, 
the  fiscal,  or  attorney-general,  who,  with  Van  Dincklage,  was  detected 
in  drawing  up  the  protest,  was  excluded  from  the  council,  and  his  duty 
reduced  to  that  of  a  mere  scrivener.  Sometimes  he  was  "  charged 
to  look  after  the  pigs  and  keep  them  out  of  the  fort,  a  duty  which  a 
negro  could  very  well  perform  ; "  and  if  he  objected  the  Director  "got 
as  angry  as  if  he  would  swallow  him  up  ;  "  or  if  he  disobeyed,  "  put 
him  in  confinement  or  bastinadoed  him  with  his  rattan."  ]  Finally  he 
was  charged  with  drunkenness,  and  removed  from  office.  The  secre- 
tary, Tienhoven,  was  appointed  in  his  place  ;  —  the  "  perjured  secre- 
tary,'' wrote  Van  Dyck,  u  who  returned  here  contrary  to  their  High 
Mightinesses'  prohibition  ;  a  public,  notorious,  and  convicted  whore- 
monger and  oath-breaker ;  a  reproach  to  this  country,  and  the  main 
scourge  of  both  Christians  and  heathens,  with  whose  sensualities  the 
Director  has  been  always  acquainted."  "  The  fault  of  drunkenness," 
he  adds,  "  could  easily  be  noticed  in  me,  but  not  in  Van  Tienhoven, 
who  has  frequently  come  out  of  the  tavern  so  full  that  he  could  go 
no  further,  and  was  forced  to  lie  down  in  the  gutter."  1  While  the 
Director  was  thus  making  life  a  burden  to  his  enemies,  he  had,  under 
the  pretext  that  his  own  person  was  in  danger,  four  halberdiers  to 
attend  him  whenever  he  walked  abroad. 

1  Albany  Records  and  Holland  Documents,  cited  by  O'Callaghan  and  Brodhead. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   DUTCH   AND   THEIR    NEIGHBORS. 

THE  HARTFORD  BOUNDARY  TREATY  OF  1650.  ACTION  OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL  ON 
THE  NEW  NETIIERLAND  REMONSTRANCE.  —  NEW  ENGLAND  TROUBLES.  —  STUYVE- 
8ANT  ACCUSED  OF  CONSPIRING  WITH  THE  INDIANS  AGAINST  THE  ENGLISH.  — JOHN 
UNDERHILL  IN  THE  FIELD. —  POPULAR  DISCONTENTS  AT  NEW  AMSTERDAM  AND  os 
LONG  ISLAND.  —  CONVENTION  OF  THE  TOWNS.  —  A  RENEWED  APPEAL  TO  HOL- 
LAND.—  ENGLISH  FEELING  ON  LONG  ISLAND. —  HOSTILE  PREPARATIONS  IN  CON- 
NECTICUT.—  NEW  ENGLAND  ASKS  AID  FROM  THE  PROTECTOR  AGAINST  THE  DUTCH. 

—  AN  APPROACHING    CONFLICT    PREVENTED    BY    THE    TREATY   OF  PEACE    IN   EUROPE. 

—  UNFAVORABLE  REPLY  TO  THE  CONVENTION'S  APPEAL.  —  NEW  SWEDEN  ON  THE 
DELAWARE.  —  CONTESTS  BETWEEN  THE  DUTCH  AND  THE  SWEDES.  —  STUYVESANT 
VISITS  THE  SOUTH  RIVER.  —  FORT  NASSAU  ABANDONED  AND  FORT  CASIMIR  BUILT 
BY  THE  DUTCH. — GOVERNOR  PRINTZ   RETIRES. —  FORT   CASIMIR  TAKEN   BY   THE 
SWEDES.  —  RETAKEN  BY  THE  DUTCH.  —  DIVISION  OF  THE  COLONY  BETWEEN  THE 
W.  I.  COMPANY  AND  THE  CITY  OF  AMSTERDAM.  —  LIMITS  OF  NEW  AMSTEL.  —  DIS- 
ASTERS AND  DISSENSIONS. 

STUYVESANT  had  a  leaning  toward  the  English,  notwithstanding 
his  quarrels  with  Governor  Eaton,  of  New  Haven,  and  his  altercations 
with  others  of  the  New  England  colonies.     Of  all  the  people  of  New 
Netherland,  the  English  on  Long  Island  were  treated  with  the  most 
consideration,  and  in  return  they  gave  him  the  weight  of  their  sup- 
port against  the  opposition  party  among  his  countrymen.     This  was 
not  the  smallest  among  the  causes  of  his  unpopularity,  and  it  gained 
new  intensity  and  bitterness  when  in  the  midst  of  all  these 
other  troubles   the  Director  concluded   an   agreement  with   of  the 
New  England  in  regard  to  the   boundary.     The  two  com-  treaty  of 
missioners    appointed    by    him    to  conduct   the    negotiation 
were  both  Englishmen,  Thomas  Willett,  a  merchant  of  Plymouth,  and 
George  Baxter,  employed  by  Stny  vesant 
as  his   secretary.     His    opponents   ex- 
claimed  at  this  loudly  and  vehemently, 

as  treacherous  to  the  colony  and  an  in-  signature  of  Thomas  wniett. 

suit  to  the  Dutch. 

The  articles  of  agreement  between  the  contracting  parties  left  the 
question  of  jurisdiction  on  the  South  River,  the  Delaware,  undeter- 
mined ;  but  the  boundary  line  on  Long  Island  was  fixed  to  run  from 


138  THE   DUTCH   AND   THEIR  NEIGHBORS.        [Caxp.  VII. 

the  westernmost  part  of  Oyster  Bay  straight  to  the  sea,  east  of  that 
line  to  belong  to  the  English,  and  west  of  it  to  the  Dutch  ;  on  the 
mainland  the  point  of  departure  was  on  the  west  side  of  Greenwich 
Bay,  about  four  miles  from  Stamford,  the  line  to  run  thence  up  into 
the  country  twenty  miles,  provided  it  did  not  come  within  ten  miles 
of  the  Hudson  River,  the  Dutch  agreeing  not  to  build  within  six 
miles  of  such  line.  The  inhabitants  of  Greenwich  were  to  remain  under 
the  Dutch  till  some  other  arrangement  was  agreed  upon  —  which 
agreement  by  a  subsequent  article  of  the  treaty  was  modified  by  trans- 
ferring them  to  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Haven,  —  and  the  Dutch 
were  to  retain  only  such  lands  in  Hartford  as  they  were  in  actual 
poss-  ssion  of.1 

Here  was  ground  for  fresh  complaints  with  the  popular  party  of 
New  Amsterdam,  inasmuch  as  the  Director  had  first  outraged  his  own 
countrymen  by  intrusting  so  important  a  negotiation  to  Englishmen 
on  his  behalf,  and  then  by  consenting  to  give  away  enough  territory, 
which  the  Dutch  claimed  as  theirs,  to  make  fifty  plantations  each  four 
miles  square.  It  was  the  resignation  of  more  than  half  of  Long  Isl- 
and, and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  present  States  of  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island,  even  if  the  Dutch  claim  was  limited  to  Point  Judith. 
Stuyvesant  reported  to  his  masters  in  Holland  that  he  had  made  this 
treaty  with  the  English,  and  it  did  not  meet  with  their  approval ;  but 
as  he  sent  no  copy  its  precise  terms  were  probably  unknown  there. 

It  was  plain  at  last  to  the  States-General  that  temporizing  meas- 
ures with  a  man  of  Stuvvesant's  despotic  temper,  unscrupu- 

The  States-  .111,1,...  ,  i 

General  act  lous  will,  and  fearless  disposition,  were  altogether  useless, — 
Netheriand  they  only  made  him  worse.  Hitherto  all  the  complaints  of 

the  colonists,  backed  by  the  energetic  efforts  of  Van  der 
Donck  and  his  colleagues,  were  incapable  of  overcoming  the  influence 
of  the  Amsterdam  Chamber  of  the  West  India  Company.  But  the 
Chamber  yielded  in  the  spring  of  1652,  when  it  was  evident  that  if 
the  desired  reforms  in  New  Netheriand  were  not  made  with  their 
consent,  they  would  be  made  without. 

After  three  years  of  delay  the  prayer  of  the  people  was  listened  to 

in  earnest.     It  was   decreed  that   a  "  burgher  government" 

Their  order.       ,111  11-11  ,  ••  «    *r  •  i 

should  be  established  ;  that  the  citizens  or  New  Amsterdam 
should  have  the  right  to  elect  their  own  municipal  officers  ;  that  those 
officers  should  constitute  a  court  of  justice,  with  appeal  to  the  supreme 
court  of  the  Director  and  Council ;  that  the  export  duty  on  tobacco 
should  be  abolished  ;  that  emigration  should  be  encouraged  by  a 
reduction  in  passage-money  ;  that  the  importation  of  negro  slaves, 
hitherto  a  monopoly  of  the  Company,  should  be  now  free  to  all  citi- 

1  Hazard's  State  Papers,  vol.  ii. 


1653.] 


MUNICIPAL   GOVERNMENT. 


139 


zens  ;  and  Stuyvesant  was  ordered  to  return  home  to  give  an  account 
of  his  administration  of  affairs  in  answer  to  the  numerous  complaints 
that  had  been  made 
against  him.  This  last 
order,  however,  was 
presently  revoked,  for 
war  was  declared  be- 
tween England  and  Hol- 
land ;  Tromp  and  Blake 
were  sweeping  up  and 
down  the  English  Chan- 
nel, and  it  was  thought 
not  wise  to  remove  a 
governor  who  was,  at 
any  rate,  bold  and  ener- 
getic, in  the  probable 
contingency  of  an  out- 
break of  hostilities 
among  the  American 
colonies. 

These  long-delayed 
concessions  were  taken 
to  New  Amsterdam  by 
Van  der  Donck  himself, 
and  in  accordance  there- 
with Stuyvesant  pub- 
lished a  proclamation  on  the  day  of  the  Feast  of  Candlemas,  the 
2d  of  February,  1653.  But  none  knew  better  than  he  how  to  keep  a 
promise  to  the  ear  and  break  it  to  the  hope.  The  States-General 
meant  to  bestow  upon  New  Amsterdam  the  right  of  self-government 
•  as  it  existed  in  their  own  city  of  Amsterdam  ;  —  in  the  election  bv  the 

V  V 

people  of  a  sellout  or  sheriff ;  of  two  burgomasters,  who  were,  in  ef- 
fect, the  chief  magistrates  of  the  town  ;  and  of  five  schepens.  who 
constituted  a  court  of  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction.  Van  der  Donck 
might  well  come  home  in  triumph  with  this  grant  of  municipal  gov- 
ernment, as  the  fruit  of  his  three  years'  incessant  labor  in  Holland, 
and  the  people  might  well  rejoice  that  they  were  at  last  to  govern 
themselves.  It  was,  indeed,  the  beginning  of  popular  government  in 
New  Netherland  ;  for  in  the  years  to  come  new  concessions  to  the 
will  and  rights  of  the  people  followed  as  the  inevitable  consequence 
of  this  first  success.  But  even  this  first  success  the  Director  de- 
feated for  a  time,  by  assuming  the  right  to  appoint  where  election 
was  ordered.  Such  appointments  he  at  once  made,  and  they  were  all 


The  Old  Stadt  Huvs  of  New  Amsterdam. 


140 


THE  DUTCH  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBORS.        [CHAI-;  VII. 


action. 


acceded  to  without  objection,  except  that  of  Van  Tienhoven  as  sellout. 
Against  him  there  was  loud  protest,  but  the  rest  were  accepted,  per- 
haps,  because  they  were  unexceptionable,  and  the  people 
were  weary  of  contest  ;  perhaps,  because  the  fear  that  the 
war  between  England  and  Holland  might  involve  the  colonies  in  se- 
rious difficulties  overshadowed,  for  the  present,  all  internal  dissension. 
The  apprehension,  real  or  feigned,  of  coming  trouble,  existed  on  all 
sides.  Stuyvesant  endeavored,  and  no  doubt  with  sincerity,  to  avert 
the  danger,  by  assuring  Virginia  and  the  New  England  colonies  of 


The  Building  of  the  Palisades. 

the  continued  good  feeling  of  the  Company  and  of  the  colony,  not- 
withstanding the  war  at  home,  and  expressing  the  hoj-e  that  their 
friendly  relations  would  not  be  interrupted.  At  the  same  time  he  did 
not  neglect  prudent  preparations  for  defence,  for  New  England  he 
heard  was  arming.  The  people  of  New  Amsterdam  for  once  agreed 
with  him,  and  submitted  cheerfully  to  a  tax  for  the  digging  of  a  ditch 
from  the  North  to  the  East  River,  and  the  erection  of  a  breastwork 
and  palisades  to  secure  the  town  from  attack. 


1653.]  AN   ALLEGED   INDIAN   PLOT.  141 

On  the  other  hand  the  belief  —  or  at  least  the  assertion — among 
the  English,  was  that  it  was  they  who  had  cause  for  dread, 
and  that  Stuyvesant  was  secretly  preparing  for  their  de-  trouble  with 

TT  -.1  •          n/  i.  i.-    e       i  j    A.\,       the  English. 

struction.  Uncas,  the  cunning  Mohegan  chier,  alarmed  the 
New  England  colonists  along  the  Sound,  with  a  story  that  the  Dutch 
had  persuaded  the  Indians  of  that  part  of  the  country  to  conspire 
for  the  massacre  of  the  English  people,  and  that  the  Sachems,  Nini- 
gret,  Pessicus,  and  Mixam,  were  the  leaders  in  this  plot.  Stuyvesant 
had,  indeed,  said  that  he  should  avail  himself,  if  possible,  of  an  alli- 
ance with  the  Indians  in  the  event  of  hostilities  between  the  Dutch 
and  the  English,  and  this  may  have  been  the  origin  of  the  report  of 
Uncas ;  or,  perhaps,  the  wily  chief  hoped  to  benefit  himself  and  his 
tribe  by  stirring  up  strife  among  the  whites. 

But  the  story,  no  doubt,  was  untrue.  Stuyvesant,  when  he  heard 
of  it,  promptly  and  indignantly  denied  that  he  had  any  stuJ.Tegant 
hostile  intentions  against  his  neighbors  ;  and  the  Indians  ^"4^°°"^ 
whom  the  story  of  Uncas  implicated,  when  carefully  cross-  the  Indi*n8- 
questioned  by  order  of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  of 
New  England,  denied  any  knowledge  of 
such  a  plot.  "  Do  you  think  we  are 
mad  ? "  they  said.  They  knew  well 
enough  how  much  stronger  the  English 
were  than  the  Dutch.  "  Do  not  we 
know,"  they  declared,  "  the  English  are 
not  a  sleepy  people  ?  Do  they  think  we 
are  mad  to  sell  our  lives  and  the  lives  of 
our  wives  and  children  and  all  our  kin- 
dred, and  to  have  our  country  destroyed 
for  a  few  guns,  powder,  shot,  and  swords  ? 
What  will  they  do  us  good  when  we  are 
dead  ? "  Why,  Ninigret  asked,  was  he 
ti'eated  even  with  indignity  by  the  Dutch 
governor,  if  he  had  made  a  league  with 
him  against  the  English,  his  friends? 
He  had  made  a  visit  recently  to  New 
Netherland.  "  I  stood,"  he  said,  "  a  great 
part  of  a  winter  day  knocking  at  the  Portrait  of  Ninigret 

governor's  door,  and  he  would  neither  open  it,  nor  suffer  others  to 
open  it  to  let  me  in.  I  was  not  wont  to  find  such  carriage  from  the 
English  my  friends."  1 

Some  of  the  Long  Island  Indians,  nevertheless,  confirmed  the  story 
of   Uncas,   and  consternation    spread  through  the  towns   along   the 

1  Hazard's  State  Papers,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  207-209. 


142  THE   DUTCH   AND  THEIR  NEIGHBORS.         [CHAP.  VII. 

Sound  and  among  the  English  of  Long  Island.  A  delegation  from 
the  United  Colonies  sent  to  New  Netherland,  returned  with  this  un- 
favorable report,  and  the  commissioners  of  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven  proposed  that  a  force  be  raised  at  once  and  war  declared 
against  the  Dutch.  But  the  Massachusetts  magistrates  were  wiser 
and  more  moderate.  Perhaps  it  was  because  they  were  so  far  re- 
moved from  the  scene  of  any  possible  danger  that  they  could  better 
sift  the  character  and  weigh  the  value  of  Indian  testimony  ;  at  any 
rate  they  did  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  any  plot,  or  that  the 
Dutch  were  so  rash  as  to  provoke  hostilities  from  their  stronger  neigh- 
bors. Massachusetts,  therefore,  refused  to  contribute  her  quota  of 
troops  for  such  a  war,  maintaining  the  right  of  independent  action,  in 
such  a  case,  on  the  part  of  any  one  of  the  United  Colonies.  She  was 
strong  enough  to  stand  alone  if  need  be,  and  the  rest  were  not  strong 
enough  to  act  without  her.  The  fear  of  the  Dutch  was  not,  after  all, 
so  great  as  the  fear  of  a  dissolution  of  the  New  England  Confederacy. 

In  troubled  waters  no  head  was  so  sure  to  come  to  the  surface  as 
that  of  John  Underbill.  He  is  soon  heard  of  as  being  lodged 
byrjoim  et  in  jail  in  New  Amsterdam,  for  asserting  within  their  own 
towns,  that  the  Dutch  were  in  league  with  the  Indians  against 
the  English.  He  was  soon  released,  however,  without  trial,  perhaps 
because  his  conduct  had  a  kind  of  official  sanction,  inasmuch  as  Gover- 
nor Eaton  and  the  agents  of  the  New  England  Confederacy  had  sent 
him  to  Long  Island  to  gather  evidence  of  this  alleged  conspiracy. 
The  captain  was  not  a  man  to  waste  his  time  in  searching  for  facts  to 
justify  violent  measures  when  such  measures  could  be  provoked  just 
as  well  without  the  facts.  If  New  England  was  not  ready  for  a  war 
with  the  Dutch,  that  was  no  reason  why  John  Underbill  should  not 
declare  it  on  his  own  account.  He  hoisted  the  colors  of  the  Parlia- 
ment at  Flushing  and  Heemstede  ;  issued  a  manifesto  in  which  great 
crimes,  such  as  the  unlawful  imposition  of  taxes,  the  appointment  of 
magistrates  over  the  people  without  election,  the  violation  of  con- 
science, the  conspiring  with  the  Indians  to  murder  the  English,  the 
hampering  of  trade,  and  other  acts  of  tyranny,  even  to  the  striking 
an  old  gentleman  of  his  Council  with  a  cane,  were  charged  upon  the 
administration  of  Peter  Stuyvesant ;  and  both  Dutch  and  English  were 
called  upon  "  to  throw  off  this  tyrannical  yoke."  It  shows  how  far 
Stuyvesant  was  from  wishing  to  provoke  a  collision  with  the  Eng- 
lish, that  instead  of  hanging  Underbill  for  this  second  offence,  he  only 
banished  him.1 

As  the  other  New  England  colonies  had  not  admitted  the  Provi- 

1  Underhill's  Manifesto  may  be  found  in  full  in  O'Callaghan,  History  of  New  Netherland, 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  225  et  seq. 


1653.]  UNDERHILL  IN  THE   FIELD.  143 

deuce  Plantations  into  their  confederacy,  that  colony  was,  perhaps,  the 
more  willing  to  show  its  zeal  for  the  Parliament  in  its  war 

.         ,        _  .  .   ,  •  .•  Action  of 

with  Holland.  It  was  not,  however,  without  some  opposition  Rhode 
from  the  mainland  towns,  that  the  people  of  the  island  of 
Rhode  Island,  whose  interests  were  more  commercial  than  maritime, 
carried  in  the  General  Assembly  a  declaration  of  war  against  New 
Netherland.  In  consideration  of  "  the  servile  condition  "  which  the 
English  on  Long  Island  were  "  subjected  to  by  the  cruell  tirannie  of 
the  Dutch  power  at  the  Manathoes,"  and  the  danger,  should  the}-  *•  be 
cutt  off  and  murdered,"  that  would  fall  upon  Providence  Plantations, 
the  General  Assembly  issued  commissions  to  Captain  John  Underbill, 
to  be  commander  on  land,  and  to  Captain  William  Dyre  and  Edward 
Hull,  to  be  commanders  at  sea,  "  to  bring  the  Dutch  to  conformitie 
to  the  Commonwealth  of  England."  Some  cannon  and  small  arms 
and  twenty  volunteers  were  provided  to  carry  on  the  war,  and  a  court 
of  admiralty  was  appointed  for  the  trial  of  prizes  which  were  to  be 
taken  into  Newport.1 

Underbill  took  the  field.     Marching  to  Fort  Good   Hope  on  the 
Connecticut,  once   held   by  the  Dutch,  but  now  emptv,  he 

11  •  i  TTTii'iir-T-n     Underbill  at 

posted  upon  the  door  a  notice  that  he,  "  lo.  Underbill  [didj   Fort  Good 
seaze  upon  this   hous   and    lands   thereunto   belonging,   as 
Dutch  goods  claymed  by  the  West  India  Company  in  Amsterdam, 
enemies  of  the  Commonweal  of  England."     Having  done  this  much 
for  the   Commonwealth   and  the  conquest  of  New  Netherland,  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  land  forces  of  Rhode  Island  disbanded  his 
army  of  twenty  volunteers.     The  conquered  territory  —  being  about 
thirty  acres  —  he  sold,  on  his  own  account,  first  to  one  man  for  twenty 
pounds  sterling,  and  two  months'  later  to  another,  giving  a  deed  to 
each.2 

Operations  at  sea  were,  at  least,  less  farcical,  but  not  much  more 
damaging  to  the  enemy.  Captain  Hull  captured  a  Frenchman,  which 
certainly  did  no  harm  to  the  Dutch,  and  served  to  aggravate  Tneconfljct 
the  difficulties  already  existing  between  Rhode  Island  and  atsea- 
Massachusetts.  The  latter  complained,  with  some  reflection  upon 
Parliament,  that  the  act  was  illegal ;  Rhode  Island  retorted  by  using 
the  reflection  as  lending  strength  to  her  other  charges  against  Mas- 
sachusetts.3 One  Thomas  Baxter,4  however,  did  better  service.  He 
sailed  under  a  letter  of  marque  from  Rhode  Island,  and  actually  took 

1  O'Ciillaghan.     Hazard.     Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island. 

-  Hartford  Records. 

3  Arnold's  Rhode  Island. 

*  Arnold — History  of  Rhode  Island — confounds  him  with  George   Baxter,  who  took 
another  way,  as  will  appear  presently,  to  show  his  enmity  to  the  administration  of  Stuy- 
vesant. 


144 


THE  DUTCH  AND   THEIR  NEIGHBORS.        [CHAP.  VII. 


two  or  three  Dutch  vessels.  But  as  he  also  captured  English  vessels, 
under  an  expansive  rule  of  his  own  making  as  to  what  constituted 
contraband  of  war,  it  is  questionable  to  which  side  he  did  the  most 
damage. 

Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  for  Stuyvesant  if  the  threatened 
trouble  from  without  had  not  been  so  easily  and  speedily  dispelled. 
The  fortifications  of  New  Amsterdam  were  not  half  completed  when 
the  citizens,  no  longer  afraid  of  an  attack  from  the  English,  refused  to 
be  further  taxed  to  finish  the  work.  The  new  officers,  whom  Stuyve- 
sant had  appointed,  refusing  to  submit  their  selection  to  a  popular 


Underbill  at  Fort  Good  Hope. 

election,  arrayed  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  citizens,  and  con- 
strained the  Director  to  share  his  power  in  some  respects  —  partic- 
ularly with  regard  to  the  excise  upon  wine  and  beer  —  with  the 
city. 

The  discontent  on  Long  Island,  both  among  Dutch  and  English, 
took  a  more  formidable  shape.  In  the  contest  with  Van  der  Donck, 
Stuyvesant  had  had  no  more  useful  or  zealous  partisans  than  the  Eng- 
lish settlers  of  that  portion  of  New  Netherland.  But  now,  alarmed 
at  the  continuance  of  Indian  hostilities,  and  disgusted  at  the  want  of 


1653.]  A   CONVENTION   OF   THE  TOWNS.  145 

prosperity  generally,  which  they  attributed  to  the  arbitrary  and  un- 
wise rule  of  the  Director,  they  united  with  the  popular  party  Affair9  on 
in  opposition  to  his  administration.     A  meeting  of  delegates  Lon8Iiilan'J 
under  the  leadership  of  two  Englishmen,  George  Baxter  and  James 
Hubbard,  assembled  at  the  Stadt  Huys  in  New  Amsterdam,  in  No 
vember.     On  the  plea   of  the  necessity  of  devising  some   means  for 
the  general  welfare,  Stuyvesant  had   been  consulted  with   regard  to 
this  meeting,  and  two  of  his  council,  La  Montagne  and  Van  Werck- 
hoven,  took  seats  in  it,  as  the  representatives  of  that  body  and  the 
Director  General.     But  the  presence  of  Van  Werckhoven  especially 
was  objected  to.     The  delegates  from  the  towns  declared  they  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  him,  and  that  neither  the  Director- 
general  nor  any  of  his  council  would  be  permitted  to  preside  of  the 
over  the  convention.      As  the  object  of  the  meeting  was  to 
provide  for  the  common  defence,  they  were  willing  to  unite  with  the 
municipal  government  of  New  Amsterdam  —  which  was  also  repre- 
sented in  the  body  —  and  to  continue  under  the  rule  of  the  States- 
General  and  the  Company  ;  but  they  would  not  submit  to  the  Director 
and  Council  who  could  not  protect  them.     "  We  are  compelled,"  they 
said,  "  to  provide  against  our  own  ruin  and  destruction,  and  there- 
fore we  will  not  pay  any  more  taxes." 

All  this,  Stuyvesant  said,  "  smelt  of  rebellion,  of  contempt  of  his 
high  authority  and  commission,"  which  certainly  was  true.  Not  that 
he  objected  to  an  alliance  of  the  towns  for  their  mutual  protection, 
but  in  such  an  alliance  all  the  towns,  Dutch  as  well  as  English,  should, 
he  thought,  be  included.  To  such  a  proposition  there  could  be  no 
reasonable  objection ;  indeed,  it  seems  to  have  come  first  from  the 
delegates  themselves,  and  they  determined,  therefore,  "  that  they 
should  meet  on  the  tenth  of  next  month ;  he  might  then  do  as  he 
pleased,  and  prevent  it  if  he  could." 

At  the  appointed  time  another  convention  assembled.     There  were 
present  representatives  from    the  four  Dutch  towns,  New   Asecond 
Amsterdam,  Breuckelen,  Amersfoort  or  Flatlands,  and  Mid-  me*tins- 
wont  or  Flatbush;  and  the  four  English  towns,  Flushing,  Middle- 
burgh  or  Newtown,  Heemstede,  and  Gravesend.     Ten  of  these  dele- 
gates were  Dutchmen,  and  nine  were  Englishmen  ;  but  they  were  of 
one  mind. 

The  memorial  in  which  they  set  forth  their  grievances  was  drawn 
up  by  Baxter.  Six  years  before  he  was  the  English  secretary  to  the 
colony,  and  it  fell  upon  him  to  do  that  which  he,  better  than  anybody 
else,  was  fitted  to  do.  It  was  a  good  point,  nevertheless,  for  Stuyvesant. 
"  Is  there,"  he  asked  in  his  reply,  "  no  one  among  the  Netherlands 
nation  expert  enough  to  draw  up  a  remonstrance  to  the  Director  and 

VOL.  II.  10 


146  THE  DUTCH  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBORS.        [CHAP.  VII. 

Council  ....  that  a  foreigner  or  an  Englishman  is  required  to  dictate 
what  ye  have  to  say?"  The  Director  was  not  wanting  in  skill  to 
play  upon  the  prejudices  of  his  countrymen.  But  it  was  useless  ;  the 
burghers  were  too  much  in  earnest  to  be  moved  by  any  such  appeal. 
To  the  memorial,  which  complained  of  the  government  as  both  arbi- 
trary and  incompetent,  Stuyvesant  could  make  no  satisfactory  answer, 
and  the  end  of  the  discussion  that  followed  between  him  and  the  con- 
vention was  a  denial,  on  his  part,  of  the  right  of  the  people  to  self- 
government,  or  even  to  hold  a  public  meeting ;  on  the  part 

Renewed  ap-    °,      .  .  i  -i  •  .  -      ,     . 

peal  to  Hoi-  ot  the  convention  a  sturdy  and  persistent  assertion  of  their 
rights,  and  the  dispatch  of  an  agent  to  Holland  with  an  ap- 
peal to  the  West  India  Company  for  protection  and  redress. 

The  colonies  of  Southern  New  England,  meanwhile,  were  living  in 
a  state  of  perpetual  agitation  and  dread  of  the  Indians,  persisting  in 
the  assertion  that  the  Dutch  were  at  the  bottom  of  these  troubles, 
and  that  the  safety  of  the  English  lay  in  the  conquest  of  New  Nether- 
land.  There  was,  at  least,  this  much  ground  for  their  fears,  that 
Ninigret  and  his  band  were  all  the  while  on  the  war-path  against  the 
Indians  of  Long  Island,  who  were  in  alliance  with  the  English.  The 
savage  thirst  for  blood  might  easily  enough  take  a  new  direction,  and 
the  frontiersmen,  whether  living  in  their  isolated  clearings  in  the 
forest,  or  gathered  into  small  and  feeble  hamlets,  could  feel  no  cer- 
tainty that  the  appalling  war-whoop  of  the  Indian  might  not  at  any 
moment  come  as  the  swift  warning  of  sudden  death  to  all  their  house- 
holds. The  terrible  suspense  in  which  these  people  lived  is  enough  to 
explain  the  intense  feeling  toward  the  Dutch.  As  reports  of  Indian 
outrages  on  Long  Island  spread  through  the  Connecticut 
towns,  it  was  almost  inevitable  that  they  should  be  supposed 
to  be  instigated  by  the  Dutch,  and  that  the  Connecticut 
colonies  were  safe  from  such  calamities  only  so  long  as  Ninigret  was 
pi-evented  from  re-crossing  the  Sound.  That  safety,  it  was  obvious, 
would  be  permanent  and  absolute,  if  the  Dutch  themselves  could  be 
brought  into  subjection  to  English  rule. 

So  intense  was  this  feeling  in  the  border  towns  of  Stamford  and 
Fairfield,  that  their  people  accused  their  own  government  of  want  of 
courage  and  energy,  and  were  almost  at  the  point  of  open  rebellion. 
The  general  court  at  New  Haven,  —  although  it  had  resolved  that 
"the  Massachusetts  had  broken  their  covenant  with  them  in  acting 
directly  contrary  to  the  articles  of  confederation,"  in  the  refusal  to  de- 
clare war — knew  better,  perhaps,  than  the  affrighted  people  of  the 
border  towns,  how  little  real  reason  there  was  to  apprehend  any  al- 
liance between  the  Dutch  and  the  Indians.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
the  dread  of  a  savage  massacre  was  used  to  inflame  animosity  against 


1653.] 


THE   GATHERING   AT   FAIRFIELD. 


147 


the  Dutch,  and  as  a  pretext  for  the  invasion  of  New  Netherland ; 
and  the  real  grievance  on  the  part  of  the  other  colonies  against  Mas- 
sachusetts was  that  she  would  not  be  led  into  a  war  of  annexation 
under  a  false  pretence. 

But  Stamford  and  Fairfield  were  in  deadly  and  earnest  fear  of  the 
Indians,  to  whose  hostility  they  were  more  exposed  than  any 
of  the  other  towns  along  the  Sound,  and  they  firmly  believed  pamtions  at 

A.I,      T\    L   1  J  ..u  n    •   c    u  Fairfield. 

the  Dutch  were  as  dangerous  as  the  savages,  tan-held  es- 
pecially had  been  alarmed  by  the  appearance  of  two  Dutch  vessels  sent 
out  by  Stuyvesant  in  pursuit  of  Baxter  during  his  cruise  in  the  Sound, 
though  they  were  deterred  from  venturing  within  the  harbor  by  a 
proclamation  of  the  New  England  Commissioners,  prohibiting  any 
Dutch  vessels  from  entering  the  ports  of  the  English  colonies.  In  the 
autumn  that  town  determined  that  there  must  be  war,  and  that  the 
way  to  bring  it  about  was  to  begin.  One  of  the  principal  magistrates 


The  Gathering  at  Fairfield. 

of  the  colony,  Mr.  Ludlow,  was  appointed  commander  in  chief,  and 
volunteers  were  called  for.  The  step  was  a  bold  one,  and  might  have 
been  successful  but  for  the  lateness  of  the  season  ;  for  the  govern- 
ments of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  compelled  by  this  in- 
subordination in  the  border  towns  to  consider  seriously  whether  they 
would  not  declare  war  against  the  Dutch  even  without  Massachusetts. 
But  the  coming  winter  settled  the  question  for  the  present,  and  in 
the  meantime  they  awaited  an  answer  to  an  appeal  that  had  been 


148  THE  DUTCH   AND   THEIR   NEIGHBORS.         [CHAP.  VII. 

made  to  the  Protector  and  to  Parliament  for  aid.  A  special  agent 
An  appeal  was  sent  to  England  on  this  errand,  but  Governor  Hopkins 
to  England.  0£  Connecticut  was  then  in  London,  and  great  reliance  was 
properly  placed  upon  his  diligence  and  ability  as  the  representative 
of  New  England  interests.1 

Had  the  New  Netherland  been  a  Puritan  colony,  the  Puritans  would 
have  rejoiced  to  see  how,  in  the  events  of  the  year,  she  was  the  evi- 
dent object  of  the  protection  of  a  special  Providence.  In  the  begin- 
ning of  these  troubles,  had  not  Massachusetts  so  firmly  refused  to 
unite  with  the  other  members  of  the  confederacv  in  a  declaration  of 

w 

war,  the  province  would  probably  have  been  thus  early  annexed  to 
New  England,  for  the  Dutch  were  altogether  too  weak  to  have  suc- 
cessfully resisted  an  attack  from  the  combined  power  of  the  English 
colonies.  Had  Fairfield  and  Stamford  moved  a  little  earlier,  New 
Haven  and  Connecticut  would  have  been  unable  to  resist  the  popular 
hostility  to  the  Dutch  and  the  popular  determination  to  acquire  their 
territory,  aggravated  and  intensified  now  by  an  Indian  panic.  That 
New  England  was  dilatory  was  the  salvation  of  New  Netherland  thus 
far,  when  delay  again  averted  a  danger  more  threatening  than  any 
that  had  yet  menaced  her. 

w 

The  prayers  of  New  Haven  and  Connecticut  were  listened  to  by 
Cromwell,  and  he  wrote  to  the  governors  of  the  colonies  urging  them 
to  zeal  and  activity,  and  promising  the  help  of  four  well-manned  ships. 
All  the  colonies,  except  Massachusetts,  responded.  Connecticut  was 
to  raise  two  hundred  men,  to  be  increased,  if  necessary,  to  five  hun- 
Eng-  ^red '  New  Haven  promised  a  hundred  and  thirty-three  ; 
Plymouth  promised  fifty,  to  be  under  the  command  of  the 
old  soldie^  Miles  Standish,  and  that  Captain  Willetts,  who 
was  one  of  Stuyvesant's  commissioners  on  the  boundary  question  four 
years  before.  But  Massachusetts  declined  to  furnish  her  quota,  though 
she  permitted  a  force  of  volunteers  to  be  recruited  in  Boston.  The 
ships  sent  by  Cromwell  were  to  be  under  the  command  of  one  Major 
Sedgwick  and  a  Captain  Leverett,  and  in  good  season  they  sailed  from 
England.  Three  of  the  four,  however,  consumed  four  months  in  a 
voyage  by  way  of  the  Western  Islands,  and  news  of  the  peace  be- 
tween England  and  Holland,  concluded  in  May,  1654,  received  soon 
after  their  arrival  in  New  England,  put  an  end  to  the  proposed  ex- 
pedition. Its  only  result  was  the  seizure  of  Fort  Good  Hope  —  in 
spite  of  Underbill's  former  capture,  —  which  was  the  final  disposses- 
sion of  the  Dutch  of  any  territory  on  the  Connecticut  River. 

Great  were  the  rejoicings  at  the  reception  of  this  news  at  New 
Amsterdam,  where  the  formidable  preparations  in  New  England  for 

1  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut. 


1654.] 


FAILURE    OF   THE   CONVENTION'S   APPEAL. 


149 


an  invasion  of  the  Dutch  colony  had  aroused  such  alarm  as  to  bring 
about  some  temporary  harmony  between  Stuyvesant  and  his  The  ronflict 
opponents,  and  had  united  them  in  some  preparations  for  averted- 
defence.  The  Director  appointed  a  day  of  public  thanksgiving. 
"  Praise  the  Lord,"  he  said  in  his  proclamation,  "  praise  the  Lord,  O 
England's  Jerusalem  ;  and  Netherland's  Sion,  praise  ye  the  Lord  ! 
He  hath  secured  your  gates,  and  blessed  your  possessions  with  peace, 
even  here,  where  the  threatened  torch  of  war  was  lighted  ;  where  the 
waves  reached  our  lips,  and  subsided  only  through  the  power  of  the 
Almighty !  "  i 


Arrest  of  Baxter. 

__ 

There  came  at  the  same  time  other  tidings  hardly  less  gratifying  to 
the  Director.  The  agent,  Le  Bleeuw,  who  was  the  bearer  of  the  re- 
monstrance to  the  West  India  Company,  had  been  received  with  great 
coldness  and  severity,  and  he  was  forbidden  to  return  to  New  Nether- 
land.  The  directors  wrote  to  Stuyvesant  that  the  complaints  of  the 
citizens  were  unreasonable,  and  that  they  had  nothing  to  object  to  in 
his  administration  of  affairs,  except,  indeed,  that  he  was  too  lenient  in 
his  dealings  with  these  seditious  persons ;  that  he  "  ought  to  have 
acted  with  more  vigor  against  the  ringleaders  of  the  gang,  and  not 
1  Albuny  and  New  Amsterdam  Records,  cited  by  O'Callaghau. 


150  THE   DUTCH   AND   THEIR  NEIGHBORS.        [CHAP.  VII. 

have  condescended  to  answer  protests  with  protests."  They  com- 
manded him  now  to  punish  them  as  they  deserved,  and  especially 
The  appeal  those  delegates  from  Gravesend,  the  Englishmen  Baxter  and 
Ten«on°dis-  Hubbard.  The  only  concession  made  by  the  chamber  at 
approved.  Amsterdam  to  the  popular  party  was  that  the  offices  of  city 
schout  and  provincial  fiscal  should  not  be  held  by  the  same  person, 
and  a  commission  for  the  former  office  was  sent  to  Kuyter,  who, 
more  fortunate  than  his  old  companion,  Melyn,  had  long  before  been 
forgiven  for  his  past  offences.  He  had,  however,  been  recently  mur- 
dered by  the  Indians  somewhere  on  Long  Island,  and  Stuyvesant  per- 
mitted his  friend.  Van  Tienhoven,  to  still  remain  both  schout  and 
fiscal  without  regard  to  the  orders  of  the  directors  of  the  Company. 
The  other  injunction  for  the  punishment  of  ringleaders  he  observed 
more  faithfully,  for  he  visited  Gravesend  and  ejected  Baxter  and  Hub- 
bard  from  the  magistracy.  Baxter  fled  to  New  England,  but  returned 
again  within  two  months,  and  not  long  after  he  and  Hubbard  were 
arrested  in  the  act  of  raising  the  English  flag  and  reading  a  pro- 
clamation declaring  Gravesend  to  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  Re- 
public of  England.  Van  Tienhoven,  who  had  gone  from  New  Am- 
sterdam to  quell  the  disturbance,  arrested  both  and  tiirew  them  into 
prison,  where  they  remained  for  months. 

During  all  these  busy  and  turbulent  years  the  Director-general  had 
had  little  leisure  to  bestow  upon  affairs  on  the  South  River.  It  was 
not  till  1651  that  he  took  any  decisive  steps  to  exercise  his  power  as 
governor  of  New  Netherland  over  the  Company's  territory  on  the 
Delaware.  Printz's  Hall  on  Tinicum  Island,  at  that  time  still  knew 
its  lord  and  master  ;  its  timbers  still  creaked  under  his  massive  tread, 
and  its  windows  rattled  at  his  stentorian  voice.  But  Printz  returned 
soon  after  to  Sweden.  There  might  have  been  some  lively  and  enter- 
taining passages  of  history  had  the  two  hot-headed  and  imperious 
governors  known  each  other  earlier ;  but  it  was  only  when  peace  be- 
tween England  and  Holland  released  Stuyvesant,  for  a  season,  from 
internal  dissensions  and  perils  from  without,  that  events  on  the  South 
River  demanded  his  active  interference. 

For  years  the  few  Dutch  settlers  of  that  region  were  left  to  an 

almost  hopeless  contest  with   their   neighbors.      Their   fort  —  Fort 

Nassau  —  about  four  miles  below  the  present  city  of  Philadelphia,  and 

a  little  more  above  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill,1  was  too  far  up  the 

river  to  be  of  any  practical  use,  even   had   its  garrison   been 

on  the          larger  than  the  usual   number  of  about  half  a  dozen  men. 

The  only  Indians  whose  trade  was  of  much  value  were   the 

• 

Minquas,  and  they  were  on  the  Schuylkill.     But  that  river  was  com- 
i  A  Dutch  word  signifying  Hidden-creek  or  Skulk-creek. 


1654.] 


THE  DUTCH  AND  SWEDES. 


151 


manded  by  the  Swedes  by  a  fort  built  by  Printz  on  an  island  near 
its  mouth,  as  well  as  by  Fort  Gottenburg  on  Tinicum  Island,  —  the 
present  quarantine  station  of  Philadelphia,  —  whence  vessels  could 
sail  to  the  Schuylkill  by  a  short  passage  over  meadows,  then  under 
water,  extending  southward  from  the  point  now  known  as  Bartram's 
Botanical  Garden.  The  fort  on  the  Schuylkill  was  on  a  cluster  of 
rocks,  at  that  time  an  island,  near  where  a  deep  cut  is  made  through 
the  bluff  in  front  of  Bartram's  Garden  for  the  Philadelphia,  Wilming- 
ton, and  Baltimore  Railroad.1  The  Dutch  commissioner  Hudde,  who 
commanded  at  Fort  Nassau,  complained  that  the  Swedes  had  obtained 
"  command  over  the  whole  creek."  For,  he  adds,  "  this  kill  or  creek 
is  the  only  remaining  avenue  for  trade  with  the  Minquas,  and  without 
this  trade  the  river  (*'.  e.  the  Delaware)  is  of  little  value."  2 


Mouth  of  the  Schuylkill. 


The  Dutch  were  not  numerous  enough  to  dispute  the  possession  of 
the  river  with  the  Swedes  with  any  success ;  they  were  not  even 
strong  enough  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  being  held  as  Contentiong 
enemies.  The  Swedes  treated  them  as  trespassers  rather  DutT^a1* 
than  as  foes  ;  as  troublesome  neighbors  rather  than  as  the  Swedes- 
representatives  of  another  nationality.  Hudde  put  up  a  house  near 
the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill,  which  he  called  Fort  Beversrede,  that  he 

1  Ferris's  Original  Settlements  on  the  Delaware,  pp.  70.  71. 

2  Hudde's  Report.     From  the  Dutch  Colonial  Records,  rcpublished  in  J.V.  Y.  Hist.  Soc. 
.,  New  Series,  vol.  i. 


152  THE    DUTCH   AND   THEIR   NEIGHBORS.         [CHAP.  VII. 

might  share  in  the  trade  with  the  Minquas ;  the  Swedes  contented 
themselves  with  cutting  down  the  trees  around  it,  including  the  fruit 
trees  which  Hudde  had  planted,  and  built  another  house  directly  in 
its  front  between  it  and  the  river.  All  such  assertions  of  sovereignty 
were  treated  with  like  contempt.  Any  attempt  to  erect  a  building 
by  the  Dutch,  the  Swedes  met  by  sending  upon  the  ground  sufficient 
force  to  destroy  the  material,  threatening  the  repetition  of  the  offence 
with  "  a  sound  drubbing."  It  was  the  power  of  the  constable  rather 
than  of  the  military  arm,  that  was  relied  upon  to  sustain  the  right  of 
the  Swedes  to  the  territory.  No  severer  measures  than  these  threats 
of  personal  chastisement  were  needed  to  keep  the  Dutch  in  sub- 
jection. 

Among  all  the  early  colonial  governors  none  held  more  undisputed 
sway  than  was  exercised  by  Printz  over  the  broad  waters  of  the  Dela- 
ware, from  the  muddy  banks  at  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill  to  the  low 
capes  of  Henlopen  and  May,  where  the  vexed  and  shifting  sands  con- 
tend in  endless  strife  with  the  winds  and  waves  of  the  Atlantic.  It 
was  all  New  Sweden  for  a  hundred  miles  along  both  banks 
Swedish  pos-  of  the  noble  river  —  a  rich  and  lovely  country,  its  broad, 

sessions.  ii-n  t        '   i     t  e  i 

round  hills  covered  with  forests  of  great  trees,  the  growth 
of  many  centuries,  sweeping  down  with  gentle  undulations  to  the 
green  meadows  through  which  the  quiet  streams  of  many  creeks 
wound  gracefully  in  tortuous  channels  on  their  way  to  the  wide 
waters  of  the  Bay.  "  Printz's  Hall  "  on  Tinicum  Island,  was  the 
capital  of  this  noble  principality.  Besides  the  fort  —  New  Gotten- 
burg  —  on  that  island  ;  another,  not  far  off,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Schuylkill;  another  —  Elfsborg,  or  Elsingborg  —  at  the  mouth  of 
Salem  Creek  ;  and  still  another,  Fort  Christina,  were  the  strongholds 
whereby  the  Swedish  governor  overawed  the  natives  of  the  country, 
and  kept  out  intruders. 

The  Dutch,  however,  never  forgot  their  claims,  by  right  of  prior 
discovery,  to  the  South  River  and  the  beautiful  region  watered  by  its 
many  affluents.  Hudde,  from  his  fort  a  mile  below  Gloucester  Point, 
could  only  watch  the  growth  and  progress  of  the  Swedes,  and  by  his 
presence  bear  witness  against  their  occupation  of  territory  belonging 
to  the  Company.  If  Stuyvesant  could  do  little  else  for  several  years 
than  support  his  subordinate  by  protest,  with  such  aid,  at  least,  he 
was  always  ready  to  sustain  the  title  of  the  Dutch.  But  when,  in 

1651,  he  found  leisure  for  a  visit  southward,  his  quick  intel- 
stuvvesantto  licence  and  the  eve  of  the  soldier  detected  at  once  an  error 

South  River.     .  •7,  ... 

in  the  policy  of  the  past,  and  where  an  advantage  could  he 
gained  in  the  future.  Fort  Nassau,  he  saw.  was  too  far  up  the  Dela- 
ware, and  was  powerless  against  the  Swedes,  who,  with  wise  fore- 
thought, had  taken  possession  of  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill. 


1652.]  FORT   CASIMIR  BUILT.  153 

The  trade  of  the  country,  even  at  that  day,  found  its  natural  centre 
at  this  confluence  of  the  rivers.  Printz  was  shrewd  enough  to  see 
this.  To  command  and  absorb  this  trade  he  built  his  forts  on  the 
river  and  at  Tinicum,  and  barred  the  approach  to  that  point  by  his 
forts  further  down  the  Delaware.  The  wisdom  of  the  Swedish  gov- 
ernor has  been  justified  by  modern  commerce,  which  concentrates  at 
Girard  Point,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill,  the  shipping  trade  of 
Philadelphia,  loading  for  all  parts  of  the  world  from  its  elevators  and 
warehouses,  the  corn  and  wheat  of  the  West,  and  the  petroleum  from 
the  central  counties  of  Pennsylvania,  while  the  products  of  her  mines 
are  turned  into  iron  ships  in  the  yards  of  Newcastle,  a  little  further 
down  the  Bay. 

Fort  Nassau  —  as  too  far  out  of  the  way  for  defence,  where  there 
was  nothing  to  protect,  and  too  far  out  of  the  way  for  Fort  Xassau 
offence,  where  nobody  came  to  be  attacked  —  Stuyvesant 
ordered  to  be  destroyed  and  abandoned.  From  the  Indians, 
who  were  always  friendly  to  the  Dutch,  he  easily  purchased  Dutch 
all  the  land  from  the  Christina  to  Boomtje's  or  Bambo  Hoeck,  —  now 
corrupted  into  Bombay  Hook.  Within  this  territory,  about  four  miles 
below  the  mouth  of  the  Christina,  is  a  bold  promontory,  commanding 
a  wide  view  of  the  Delaware,  both  above  and  below,  then  named 
Sandhuken.  On  this  point,  where  now  stands  the  town  of  New- 
castle, the  Dutch  built  a  fort  which  they  called  Fort  Casimir. 

Printz  protested  against  this  act  as  an  invasion  of  soil  belonging  to 
the  Swedes.  But  Stuyvesant  apparently  had  brought  force  enough 
with  him  to  defy  interference,  otherwise  it  is  not  likely  that  the  uni- 
form policy  of  past  years,  —  the  prompt  suppression  of  any  attempt 
of  the  Dutch  to  gain  some  vantage-ground  for  offence  and  defence 
on  or  below  the  Schuylkill,  —  would  have  been  pretermitted.  Printz 
certainly  was  not  unmindful  of  the  advantage  he  was  losing.  He  no 
longer  commanded  the  Delaware,  and  his  fort  at  the  mouth  TheSweJe8 
of  Salem  Creek  (Elsingborg)  was  abandoned  as  useless.  It  For"fc™jn. 
was  pretended  that  it  had  become  uninhabitable  because  of  borg- 
the  mosquitoes,  and  that  it  was  named  therefore  Myggenborg  (Mos- 
quito FortJ  ;  but  the  real  reason  was,  no  doubt,  the  absurdity  of  at- 
tempting to  blockade  a  river  of  which  the  Swedes  were  not  strong 
enough  to  hold  possession.  Both  parties,  moreover,  dreaded  the  occu- 
pation of  the  disputed  territory  by  the  English  more  than  they  feared 
each  other;  and  it  was  agreed,  therefore,  between  Stuyvesant  and 
Printz,  that  they  should  not  indulge  themselves  in  hostilities,  but  that 
they  would  "keep  neighborly  friendship  and  correspondence  together, 
and  act  as  friends  and  allies." 

Both,  no  doubt,  meant  to  keep  this  compact  till  they  were  strong 


154 


THE   DUTCH    AND   THEIR   NEIGHBORS.         [CHAP.  VII. 


M«p  of  the  Lower  Delkwtr*  (after  Campaniut). 


enough  to  break 

it.       This     fear 

of    the 

The  English     „ 

on  the  South    iii  11   S- 

River.  .    . 

1   1    S    ll 

was  not  without 
reason,  for  the 
New  Haven  peo- 
ple had  not  for- 
gotten the  pleas- 
ant lands  on  the 
South  River,  — 
the  genial  cli- 
mate, the  round- 
ed hills  and  no- 
ble forests,  the 
rich  meadows  on 
the  winding 
creeks,  the  broad 
bay  of  a  hundred 
miles  in  length, 
where  all  the 
ships  in  the 
world  could  ride 
in  safety,  —  from 
which  in  Kieft's 
time,  a  few  years 
before,  the 
Dutch  and 
Swedes  had 
united  to  drive 
them  away. 
Only  the  au- 
tumn preceding 
the  building  of 
Fort  Casimir  a 
company  of  fifty 
persons  had  left 
New  Haven  de- 
termined to  re- 
new the  attempt 
at  an  English 
settlement  OH. 


1G54.]  THE   ARRIVAL   OF   RYSINGH.  155 

the  Delaware.  But  stopping  at  New  Amsterdam,  to  inform  Stuyve- 
sant  in  a  friendly  way  of  their  purpose,  and  to  secure  his  acquiescence, 
he  arrested  them  without  ceremony,1  and  would  only  release  them  on 
condition  of  their  immediate  return  whence  they  came. 

Printz,   nevertheless,   sent   messengers  to   Sweden   to  complain   of 
the  intrusion  of  the  Dutch,  and  had  he  waited  long  enough  would 
have  received  the  aid  he  asked  for.     But  either  tired  of  waiting,  or 
impelled  by  a  growing  unpopularity  which  his  arbitrary  rule  had  pro- 
voked, he  sailed  himself  for  home  late  in  1653,  before  his 
messengers  could  be  heard  from.     Their  mission,  however,   leaves  New 
was  not  unsuccessful.     Before  Printz  reached  Sweden  a  ship 
was  dispatched  with   a  deputy   governor   on  board,    John    Rysingh, 
with  a  force  of  about  three  hundred  men,  whose  first  act  was  the 
capture  of  Fort  Casimir. 

Rysingh  was  to  supersede  Printz  in  case  Printz  should  wish  to  re- 
tire, as  he  had  asked  leave  to  do.  Having  already  gone  to  Sweden 
there  was  no  question  of  Rysingh's  position,  though  Printz  had  left 
his  son-in-law,  John  Pappegoya,  as  his  representative  at  Tinicum.  It 
seems,  however,  that  Rysingh  did  not  wait  to  communicate  with  his 
countrymen  before  exercising  his  power  ;  for  he  found  none  of  them 
below  Fort  Casimir,  as  Elsingborg,  on  Salem  Creek,  had  been  aban- 
doned. His  instructions  from  the  government  at  home  were  pacific ; 
he  was  not  to  break  the  peace  with  the  Dutch  ;  as  to  Fort  Casimir — 
he  was  to  leave  it  in  their  hands,  unless  there  was  danger  of  its  falling 
into  the  hands  of  the  English  —  a  danger  not  imminent,  as  there  was 
hardly  an  Englishman  then  on  the  banks  of  the  South  River. 

He  paid  no  regard,  however,  to  his  instructions,  not  waiting  even, 
apparently,  to  learn  the  situation  of  affairs  on  shore,  or  that  his  supe- 
rior, Printz,  had  gone  to  Sweden.  "  On  the. last  day  of  May,"  wrote 
Gerrit  Bikker,  the  commandant  of  Fort  Casimir,  to  Stuyvesant,  "  we 
perceived  a  sail,  not  knowing  who  she  was  or  where  from."  On  the 
27th  of  May,  1654,  Rysingh  himself  wrote  to  Stuyvesant:  "I  cannot 
refrain  giving  you  notice  that  a  few  days  ago  I  arrived  here  safe  in 
the  government  ship  the  Aren,  with  a  considerable  number  of  people 
from  the  kingdom  of  Sweden  ; "  and  in  his  report  to  his  own  govern- 
ment 2  he  fixes  the  date  of  his  arrival  as  "  a  few  days  before  the  27th 
of  May." 

Whatever  the  date  of  his  arrival,  which  is  thus  left  uncertain,  the 
fort  was  taken  without  resistance.  Bikker  sent  messengers  to  the  ship 
to  ask  who  she  was  and  what  was  her  purpose.  Adrian  van  Tien- 

1  See  the  petition  for  redress  for  this  outrage  of  "Jasper  Graine,  William  Tuttill,  and 
many  other  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven  and  Sotocket."     Hazard,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  192  et  seq. 

2  Holland  Doc.  cited  in  Hazard's  Annals  of  Pennsylvania. 


156 


THE   DUTCH    AND   THEIR   NEIGHBORS.         [CHAP.  VII. 


hoven  —  a  brother  of  the  New  Amsterdam  fiscal  —  reported  on  his  re- 
turn that  she  was  Swedish,  and  that  a  new  governor  was  on 
taken  by  the  board  who  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  fort.  Van  Tien, 
hoven  and  others  counselled  defence.  "  What  can  I  do  ?  "  said 
Bikker,  "  there  is  no  powder."  There  was  no  time  for  deliberation. 
The  captain  of  the  ship  immediately  landed  at  the  head  of  twenty  or 
thirty  men,  marched  into  the  fort  and,  at  the  points  of  their  swords, 
compelled  submission.  Bikker  "  welcomed  them  as  friends,"  he  says, 
and  asked  a  parley  ;  but,  he  adds,  "  the  soldiers  were  immediately 
chased  out  of  the  fort,  and  their  goods  taken  in  possession,  as  likewise 
my  property,  and  I  could  hardly  by  entreaties  bring  it  so  far  to  bear 
that  I,  with  my  wife  and  children,  were  not  likewise  shut  out  almost 
naked."  Van  Tienhoveu  hurried  back  to  the  ship  to  ask  of  Rysingh 
his  commission  and  the  reasons  for  this  summary  proceeding.  It  was 
by  order  of  the  Queen,  the  governor  said,  whose  ambassadors  at  the 

Hague  had  been 
told  by  the  States- 
General  and  the 
directors  of  the 
West  India  Com- 
pany that  they  had 
not  authorized  the 
erection  of  this  fort 
on  Swedish  terri- 
tory, the  directors 
adding,  "  If  our 
people  are  in  your 
Excellency's  way, 
drive  them  off."  It 
was  all  a  lie,  no  doubt ;  but  Rysingh  slapped  Van  Tienhoven  on  the 
breast,  and  said,  with  a  hearty  and  confident  familiarity,  "  Go,  tell 
your  Governor  that !  "  l 

The  Swedes  were  again  in  undisputed  possession  on  the  South 
River.  All  the  Dutch  in  and  about  the  fort  were  required  either  to 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Sweden  or  to  leave  that  part  of  the 
country.  To  make  the  event  the  more  significant  the  name  of  the 
fort  was  changed  to  Trefalldigheet  (Trinity  fort)  because  it  was  taken 
on  Trinity  Sunday,  or  more  probably,  because  that  festival  of  the 
church  was  within  a  week  of  its  capture.2 

When  the  news  reached  New  Amsterdam  the  town  rocked  with 

1  Hoi.  Dor.  cited  in  O'Callatrhan  aiid  Hazard's  Annals. 

2  It  is  usually  said  that  the  fort  was  so  named  because  the  capture  was  on  Trinity  Sun- 
day.    It  was  probably  taken  two  or  three  days  before  Trinity  Sunday. 


Fort  Trinity  (fac-simile  from   Campanius). 


1654.]  THE   SWEDES  VICTORIOUS.  157 

excitement  and  indignation  from  the  Battery  to  Wall  Street.  Stuyve- 
sant seized  an  opportunity  that  occurred  presently  to  re- 
taliate, though  it  produced  no  other  result  than  private  in-  of  stujve- 
jury.  A  Swedish  ship,  bound  for  the  South  River,  ran  into 
the  Kill  behind  Staten  Island,  and  sent  a  messenger  to  New  Amster- 
dam for  a  pilot.  Stuyvesant  imprisoned  the  messengers  and  dis- 
patched a  file  of  soldiers  to  the  vessel  to  seize  her  and  her  crew,  to  be 
detained  till  Fort  Casimir  was  restored.  The  captain  lost  ship  and 
cargo,  but  Rysingh  was  not  moved  thereby  to  give  up  his  capture.  He 
disregarded  all  the  messages  from  Stuyvesant,  who  invited  him  to  New 
Amsterdam,  with  the  assurance  of  a  safe  conduct,  that  they  might 
come  to  terms  in  regard  to  the  fort  and  the  question  of  jurisdiction 
on  the  Delaware.  The  Swedish  governor  preferred  possession  to  ne- 
gotiation, and  declined  to  discuss  the  subject,  either  in  person  or  by 
deputy.  Stuyvesant  had  nothing  to  do  but  wait,  and  his  anger  was 
not  of  a  kind  that  cooled  by  waiting. 

But  his  indignation  was  no  greater  than  that  of  the  Company's 
directors  in  Holland.  In  their  letters  to  Stuyvesant  they  denounced 
the  surrender  of  Casimir  as  "  infamous,"  as  "  scandalous,"  and  as 
"  cowardly  ; "  the  conduct  of  the  commandant,  Bikker,  was  declared 
to  be  in  that  "shameful  transaction,"  "unfaithful,  yea,  treacherous," 
and  his  apprehension  was  earnestly  insisted  on  ;  and  it  was,  they 
urged,  the  Director's  duty,  "to  exert  every  nerve  to  revenge  that 
injury,  not  only  by  restoring  affairs  to  their  former  situation,  but  by 
driving  the  Swedes  from  every  side  of  the  river  as  they  did  with  us." 
They  were  much  in  earnest,  and  meant  to  put  it  in  the  Director's 
power  to  obey  their  orders. 

Communication  between  the  colonies  and  Europe  was  so  slow  and 
infrequent  that  winter  was  near  before  Stuyvesant  could  hear  from 
Amsterdam,  and  all  action  was  necessarily  delayed.  The  Director 
availed  himself  of  this  interval  of  quiet  in  the  affairs  of  his  govern- 
ment to  visit  the  West  Indies,  where  he  remained  some  months  in  the 
hope  of  advancing  the  interests  of  the  colony.  But  in  this  he  was 
thwarted  by  Cromwell's  expedition  under  Sir  William  Penn.  "  We 
have  mett  the  Dutch  governor  of  New  Netherlands,  with  three  ships 
under  his  command,"  wrote  the  commissioner,  Edward  Winslow,  from 
Barbadoes.  "  This  man's  business  was  to  settle  a  faire  trade  between 
the  Netherlands  and  this  place ;  but  we  spoiled  the  sport."  In  this 
project  Stuyvesant  spent  more  than  half  a  year,  and  had  hoped  great 
things.  So  serious  a  disappointment,  we  may  be  sure,  did  not  make 
him  the  less  inclined  for  another  expedition  in  another  direction,  when 
soon  after  his  return  a  ship  of  war  arrived  from  Holland  with  orders 
that  he  should  move  against  the  Swedes  on  the  South  River. 


158  THE   DUTCH   AXD   THEIR   NEIGHBORS.         [CHAP.  VII. 

New  Sweden  was  to  be  reconquered,  and  the  Director  set  on  foot 
Preparations  ^ne  mos^  active  preparations.  The  company  had  sent  from 
NewCtf"%qe-er  Holland  a  single  ship,  the  Balance,  a  man  of  war  ;  such  other 
den-  vessels  as  were  needed  were  chartered,  or  impressed  without 

the  consent  of  the  owners  ;  and  patriotic  volunteers  were  invited  to 
join  the  expedition.  Measures  were  taken  to  keep  it  secret,  that  the 
enemy  might  be  taken  by  surprise.  The  fleet  numbered  seven  vessels, 
and  they  were  manned  by  a  force  of  from  six  to  seven  hundred  men. 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  many  of  these  were  volunteers  attracted  by  the 
alluring  aspects  of  an  expedition  which  might,  after  a  pleasant  voyage 
of  four-and-tAventy  hours,  appear  before  the  stronghold  of  an  enemy 
unprepared  for  their  coming,  and  whom  they  outnumbered  probably 
by  ten  to  one.  If  there  was  no  fighting,  there  might  at  least  be  a 
chance  of  plunder,  and  there  was  the  prospect  of  a  charming  excur- 
sion. There  was  certainly  nothing  to  fear,  for  all  the  people  of  the 
South  River  counti-y,  both  Swedes  and  Dutch,  scattered  about  in  the 
different  forts  and  the  neighborhoods,  from  the  Schuylkill  to  the  capes, 
•were  not  more  than  half  the  invading  force. 

It  was,  therefore,  only  a  handful  of  men  that  on  the  10th  of  Sep- 
tember saw  Stuvvesant's  formidable  fleet  of  seven  vessels 

Fort  Trinity 

taken  by       with  six  or  seven  hundred  men  on  board  come  to  anchor 

the  Dutch. 

just  above  Fort  Trinity.  A  force  was  landed  :  an  earthwork 
was  thrown  up ;  a  detachment  was  sent  forward  to  command  the  road 
from  Fort  Christina,  four  miles  above ;  and  then  a  surrender  was  de- 
manded. Resistance,  of  course,  was  useless,  but  the  Swedisli  com- 
mandant, Swen  Sehute,  nevertheless,  contrived  to  protract  the  parley 
through  the  day  and  delay  capitulation  till  the  next  morning.  Then 
he  evacuated  the  fort  with  all  the  honors  of  war,  and  the  Dutch 
marched  in.  Such  of  the  garrison  as  chose  to  take  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  "  the  high  and  mighty  lords  and  patrons  of  this  New  Neth- 
erland  province  "  were  permitted  to  remain  as  "  Freemen  on  South 
River."  Twenty,  two  thirds  of  the  whole  number,  accepted  these 
terms.  "  About  noon,"  wrote  Stuvvesant  to  the  magistrates  at  New 
Amsterdam,  u  our  troops  with  flying  colors  marched  into  the  fort;" 
Domine  Megapolensis,  the  New  Amsterdam  minister,  who  had  come 
as  the  chaplain  of  the  expedition,  preached  a  sermon  "  with  our  im- 
perfect thanksgivings,"  continues  the  Director,  "  as  God's  hand  and 
blessing  was  so  remarkably  visible  with  us  as  well  in  the  weather  and 
prosperous  success,  as  in  the  discouragement  of  our  enemies."  And 
as  a  day  of  fasting  had  been  held  in  New  Amsterdam  before  the  fleet 
had  sailed,  so  now  he  directed  that  there  should  be  a  day  of  thanks- 
giving set  apart  that  "  the  all-wise  and  good  God  should  be  openly 
thanked  and  praised  "  for  granting  him  the  victory. 


1655.] 


THE   EXPEDITION   AGAINST  NEW   SWEDEN. 


Io9 


Rysingh,  who  was  in  command  at  Christina,  could  see  the  Dutch 
ships  at  anchor  between  his  fort  and  Trinity,  and  knew  what  he  had 
to  expect.  He  had  sent  ten  men  to  reinforce  Schute,  before  he  had 
heard  of  the  surrender,  but  these  were  met  by  the  Dutch  and  all  but 
two  taken  prisoners.  It  was  a  serious  loss,  as  it  reduced  the  garrison 
of  Fort  Christina  to  only  about  thirty  men.  Stuyvesant  pushed  for- 
ward to  its  investment  the  day  after  Trinity  capitulated. 


Map  of  the  Siege  of  Ft.  Christina  (from  Camptnlui). 

The  fort  was  at  the  confluence  of  the  Fishkill  (now  Brandywine) 
and  Christina  Creek,  on  low  land  overlooked  by  all  the  neighboring 
heights.  Its  builder  had  evidently  thought  that  no  enemy  would 
ever  be  so  ungenerous  as  to  take  advantage  of  its  situation  and  ap- 
proach it  on  the  land  side  from  the  rear,  when  the  clear  intent  was 
that  it  should  only  be  attacked  in  front  from  the  river.  Stuvvesant 

f  */ 

paid  only  so  much  deference  to  this  confidence  in  the  probable  mode 
of  attack  as  to  erect  his  first  battery  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the 


lb'0  THE  DUTCH   AND  THEIR  NEIGHBORS.         [CHAP.VIL 

Christina  ;  then  moving  his  vessels  up  the  Brandywine  he  landed  his 
men  and  threw  up  four  other  batteries,  one  on  Timber  Island,  another 
directly  in  the  rear  of  the  fort,  two  more  to  the  west  of  it,  and  all 
commanding  it.  On  each  of  these  and  on  Rysingh's  shallop,  which 
the  Dutch  had  captured,  they  hoisted  the  flag  of  the  States-General, 
"  all  which  hostile  acts,  injuries,  and  insults,"  says  the  indignant 
Swedish  commander,  "  we  were  to  our  great  mortification  compelled 
to  witness  and  suffer,  being  unable  to  resist  them  by  reason  of  our 
want  of  men  and  of  powder,  whereof  our  supplies  scarcely  sufficed  for 
a  single  round  for  our  guns." 

The  siege  lasted,  nevertheless,  for  twelve  days.  Shots  were  once 
or  twice  exchanged,  one  from  the  Swedes  doing  no  other  damage 
than  to  frighten  some  of  the  Dutchmen  into  the  woods,  while  those 
from  the  batteries  went  wide  over  the  fort.  The  time  was  consumed 
not  in  fighting  but  in  negotiation,  though  the  invaders  destroyed  the 
little  village  of  Christinaham,  where  they  planted  a  battery  in  the 
rear  of  the  fort,  despoiled  and  razed  to  the  ground  the  houses  of  the 
Swedes,  killed  their  cattle  and  swine,  and  abused  their  women. 
These  depredations  were  carried  on  as  far  up  the  river  as  New  Got- 
tenburg.  where,  among  those  robbed  of  their  possessions  was  Printz's 
daughter,  the  wife  of  the  ex-governor,  Pappegoya.  Stuyvesant,  per- 
haps, was  unwilling  to  shed  blood  ;  Rysingh,  evidently,  could  only 
delay  the  inevitable  result  by  protest  and  expostulation.  When  at 
last,  as  he  says,  his  "  few  and  hastily  collected  people  were  getting 
worn  out,  partly  sick,  and  partly  ill-disposed,  and  some  had  de- 
serted," and  all  who  were  left  were  inclined  to  mutiny,  then  he  sur- 
rendered. 

By  the  articles  of  capitulation  the  garrison  was  permitted  to  march 
out  of  the  fort  "  with  beating  of  drums,  fifes,  and  flying 
Fort  chris-  colors,  firing  matches,  balls  in  their  mouths,  with  their  hand 
and  side-arms ; "  the  property  belonging  to  the  Swedish 
crown,  the  Swedish  company,  and  to  individuals  was  to  be  unmo- 
lested ;  and  the  Governor,  Rysingh,  and  all  who  chose  to  go  with 
him,  were  to  be  transported,  free  of  expense,  to  Europe.1  Not  that 
there  was  any  wish  to  expel  the  Swedes  from  the  country,  but  only 
to  give  facilities  to  those  who  chose  to  go.  It  was  the  order  of  the 
Company  that  they  should  be  permitted  to  retain  possession  of  Chris- 
tina on  condition  of  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  States-Gen- 
eral ;  Stuyvesant  made  the  offer  to  Rysingh,  but  he  declined  it. 

This  was  the  end  of  Swedish  rule  in  America.     Though  the  events 

1  Attinni/  Records  cited  in  Hazard  and  O'Callaghan  ;  Ferris's  Original  Settlement  on  the 
Dtluwurf ;  Campanius'  Description  of  New  Sweden ;  Rysiugh's  Report  in  New  Y«rk  Hist. 
Soc.  CM.,  New  Series,  vol.  i.,  and  Hazard's  Annals. 


1655.]  THE  END   OF   SWEDISH  RULE. 

we  have  related  continued  to  be  the  subject  of  diplomatic  correspond- 
ence between  Sweden  and  Holland  for  years  afterward,  and  Rysingh 
labored  long  and  zealously  to  induce  his  government  to  reinstate  him 
in  the  possession  of  the  South  River,  no  measures  were  ever  taken 
to  that  end.1  Some  Swedes  remained  along  the  banks  of  the  Dela- 
ware ;  and  being  devoted  to  agriculture,  while  the  Dutch  cared  more 
for  trade  with  the  Indians,  they  did  much  by  their  industry  and  thrift 
to  develop  the  best  resources  of  that  fertile  region. 

At  the  fall  of  Christina  Stuyvesant  returned  to  New  Amsterdam, 
and  soon  after  appointed  Johan  Paul  Jaquet  as  governor  over  the 
southern  territory  of  the  West  India  Company.  The  undisputed  pos- 
session of  that  territory,  however,  was  rather  a  burden  than  a  benefit 
to  a  corporation  already  embarrassed  with  enormous  debts. 

A  portion  of  it,  therefore,  was  conveyed  to  the  city  of  Amsterdam 
in  consideration  of  advances  its  burgomasters  had  made  the  xewAmstei, 
Company.  This  Colony  of  the  City,  as  it  was  called,  ex-  ^ ethe  dt^  of 
tended  from  the  west  side  of  Christina  Creek  to  Bombay  Amsterda'm 
Hook  on  the  Delaware  ;  the  remainder  of  the  territory  belonging  to 
New  Netherland  was  known  as  the  Colony  of  the  Company.2 

The  new  colony  was  to  be  called  Nieuwer  Amstel  (New  Amstel) 

1  Iii  removing  a  portion  of  the  foundation  wall  of  the  old  Fort  Christina  in  March, 
1755,  a  hundred  years  after  its  capture  by  the  Dutch,  there  was  found  buried  a  quantity 
of  cannon-balls,  grenades,  and  other  articles,  which  it  was  supposed  were  concealed  there 
by  Rysingh  with  reference  to  his  possible  return.     Acrelius.    Ferris. 

2  Acrelius  (New  Sweden,  or  the.  Swedish  Settlements  on  the  Delaware ;  New  York  Hist. 
Soc.  Coll.,  New  Series,  vol.  ii.)  reverses  these  boundaries,  giving  to  the  Colony  of  the  Com- 
pany the  territory  from  Christina  Creek  to  Bombay  Hook,  and  to  the  Colony  of  the  City 
that  extending  from  the  creek  to  the  extent  of  the  Dutch  settlement  northward.     Ferris 
accepts  this  as  correct  notwithstanding  it  would  include  Fort  Casimir,  —  which  was  unques- 
tionably ceded  to  the  burgomasters  of  Amsterdam,  —  within  the  bounds  of  the  Colony  of 
the  Company.    It  is  undoubtedly  wrong,  strange  as  it  is  that  Acrelins,  usually  so  accurate, 
should  have  made  such  a  mistake,  and  that  Ferris,  who  is  always  careful,  should  have  fol- 
lowed  him.      O'Callaghau,  Brodliead,  Bancroft,  and    others   give   the   division   we  have 
adopted  in  the  text.     There  can  be  no  question  of  its  accuracy.     Smith  (History  of  Xew 
York)  quotes  from  the  commission  to  Jacob  Alricks  —  who  was  sent  out  by  the  burgo- 
masters of  Amsterdam  as  director-general  of  their  colony  —  the  limits  of  his  jurisdiction 
as  "  beginning  at  the  west  side  of  the  Minquaa  or  Christina  Kill,  in  the  Indian  language 
Suspecough,  to  the  mouth  of  the   bay,  or  river,  called  Bompt  Hook  (now  Duck  Creek  or 
Little  Duck  Creek),  in  the  Indian  language  Cauuaresse ;  and  so  far  inland  as  the  bounds 
aud  limits  of  the  Miuquans  land  with  all  the  streams,  etc.,  appurtenances  and  dependen- 
cies."    In  the  "  transfer  and  cession  "  of  the  colony  from  Stuyvesant  to  Alricks  (cited  in 
full  from  Albatiy  Records,  vol.  xv.,  in  Hazard's  Annals)  the  boundaries  are  defined  in  almost 
the  same  terms  as  "  beginning  at  the  west  side  of  the  Miuquas  or  Christinakil,  named  in 
their  language  Suspencongh,  to  the  mouth  of  the  bay  or  river  included,  named  Bompjes- 
hock,  (Trees  Corner),  in  the  Indian  language  Cannareses,"  etc.,  etc.     The  northern  boun- 
dary of  New  Amstel,  then,  was  Christina  Creek,  and  its  southern  at  the  island  which 
has  been  called  Bompt  Hook,  Bomptjeshoeck,  Boomtes  Hook,  Bambo  Hook,  hut  is  now- 
known  as  Bombay  Hook  Island. 

VOL.  H.  11 


10-2 


THE   DUTCH    AND   THEIR   NEIGHBORS.         [CHAP.  Vil. 


from  a  suburb  of  the  city  of  Amsterdam ;  ?  and  Casimir,  where  a 
town  began  to  grow,  to  be  known  in  later  times  as  Newcastle,  took 
the  name  of  the  colony.  Fort  Christina  became  Altona,  and  New 
Gottenberg  the  Island  Kattenberg.  The  burgomasters  of  Amsterdam 
were  warmly  interested  in  their  new  possession,  and  offered  large  in- 
ducements to  all  who  would  emigrate  thither.  The  directors  of  the 
Company  were  full  of  confidence,  and  evidently  looked  upon  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  new  colony  under  such  favorable  auspices  as  the 


Newcastle,   Delaware. 

assurance  of  fresh  prosperity  to  themselves.  The  exiled  Waldenses, 
then  numerous  in  Holland,  it  was  thought,  would  be  a  large  and  val- 
uable accession  to  New  Netherland,  and  that  there  might  be  room 
enough  for  the  expected  increase  in  population  the  directors  ordered 
Stuyvesant  to  "  endeavor  to  purchase,  before  it  can  be  accomplished 
by  any  other  nation,  all  that  tract  of  land  situated  between  the  South 
River  and  the  corner  of  the  North  River,"  by  which  was  meant,  all 
that  portion  of  the  present  State  of  New  Jersey  whose  coast  line  ex- 
tends from  Cape  May  to  Sandy  Hook. 

But  these  sanguine  anticipations  were  never  to  be  fulfilled  under 
Dutch  rule  on  the  South  River.  The  first  company  of  emigrants  sent 
out  from  Amsterdam  for  the  city  colony,  with  Jacob  Alricks  at  their 

1  Brodhead. 


1656.]  DISTRESS   AT   NEW   AMSTEL.  163 

head  as  director-general  of  New  Amstel,  were  wrecked  on  the  south 
side  of  Long  Island  near  Fire  Island  inlet  —  a  neighborhood  where  so 
many  good  ships  have  since  laid  their  bones.  Though  no  lives  were 
lost,  and  the  people,  more  than  a  hundred  in  number,  were  sent  for- 
ward, with  others  from  other  ships  that  arrived  safely,  to  their  new 
homes,  the  misfortune  was  onty  the  first  of  many  to  follow. 

The  first  two  years  were  years  of  sickness,  privation,  and  discon- 
tent. The  pleasant  climate  tempted  the  ignorant  emigrants  Digress  in 
to  carelessness  and  exposure,  while  the  virgin  soil  was  as  tbecolony 
rank  with  miasm  as  it  was  rich  in  fertility.  The  crops  were  full  of 
promise,  but  before  the  time  of  harvest  came  worms  and  other  insects 
devoured  the  ripening  grains,  and  what  they  left  the  enfeebled  settlers, 
stricken  with  fevei's  and  with  agues,  were  too  weak  to  gather.  Nature 
resented,  as  she  always  does,  the  intrusion  upon  her  savage  solitude ; 
to  the  ploughing  of  every  field,  to  every  encroachment  of  the  clearing 
upon  the  forest,  she  attached  a  penalty,  and  for  every  seed  that  was 
sowed  she  provided  an  enemy ;  if  she  could  not  destroy  the  intruders 
by  disease,  she  would  drive  them  away  by  depriving  them  of  the  fruits 
of  their  labor.  In  this  inevitable  strife  of  the  pioneer  with  the  forces 
of  nature  the  unhappy  settlers  were  reduced  to  extremity.  Many 
died,  among  them  the  surgeon  of  the  colony,  the  wife  of  Director 
Alricks,  and  later  the  Director  himself ;  but  the  greatest  mortality 
was  among  the  children. 

To  add  to  their  other  misfortunes  it  was  announced,  the  second 
year,  when  the  sickness  was  at  its  worst,  and  the  failure  of  the  har- 
vest had  compelled  them  to  use  their  seed-corn  for  food,  that  the 
Amsterdam  Company  would  no  longer  supply  provisions,  as  it  was 
originally  agreed  they  should,  for  a  certain  length  of  time,  to  all  the 
emigrants  ;  taxes  on  their  lands,  from  which  it  was  promised  they 
should  be  free,  were  exacted ;  and  restrictions  upon  trade,  from  which 
they  were  to  be  exempt,  for  a  term  of  years,  were  to  be  enforced  at 
an  earlier  period.  The  stimulus  of  hope  for  the  future,  which  might 
have  sustained  them  in  their  present  distress,  was  taken  away  ;  dis- 
content made  hunger  the  harder  to  bear,  and  to  sickness  was  added 
despair. 

William  Beekman,  one  of  the  schepens  of  New  Amsterdam,  was 
appointed  vice-director  over  the  colony  of  the  Company.  Perhaps 
it  was  impossible  that  any  administration  of  affairs  should  be  satis- 
factory with  a  people  reduced  to  a  condition  so  wretched  ;  at  any  rate, 
between  the  governors  there  was  no  harmony,  each  accusing  the  other 
of  a  want  of  wisdom,  and  the  colonists  sustaining  the  charges  that 
were  made  against  each.  Those  who  could  returned  to  Now  Nother- 


164 


THE  DUTCH  AND   THEIR  NEIGHBORS.        [CHAP.  VII. 


land  or  to  Holland ;  those  who  by  their  contracts  with  the  companies 
were  bound  to  remain  fled  from  evils  they  could  bear  no  longer  to 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  or  wherever  else  they  could  find  a  refuge. 
The  burgomasters  of  Amsterdam  more  than  once  proposed  to  reconvey 
to  the  Company  their  interest  in  a  colony  which  had  become  a  burden 
and  a  reproach,  for  it  was  said  of  New  Amstel  that  it  gained  "  such 
a  bad  name  that  the  whole  river  would  not  wash  it  out." 


Animals  of   New  Netnerland  ^ac-simile  from   Van  der   Donck's   "  Vertoogh.") 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

QUAKERISM    IN    NEW    ENGLAND. 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  SOCIETY  OF  FRIENDS  IN  ENGLAND.  —  GEORGE  Fox. —  His  LIFE, 
CHARACTER,  AND  TEACHINGS.  —  BELIEFS  OF  THE  FRIENDS.  — THEIR  MANNER  OF 
LIFE  AND  SPEECH.  —  THE  FRIENDS  AND  THE  ESTAHLISHED  CHURCH.  —  ORIGIN  OF 
NAME  "  QUAKERS."  —  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  FIRST  FRIENDS  AT  BOSTON. —  ACTION  OF 
THE  BOSTON  MAGISTRATES. — THE  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  QUAKERS  BEGUN.  —  AC- 
CESSIONS TO  THEIR  NUMBER.  —  THE  FIRST  GENERAL  LAWS  AGAINST  THEM.  —  KE- 
FUSAL  OF  RHODE  ISLAND  TO  JOIN  IN  THIS  LEGISLATION.  —MARY  DYER.  —  BAN- 
ISHED FRIENDS  RETURN  TO  BOSTON.  INCREASED  STRINGENCY  OF  THE  LAWS.  — 

PROCEEDINGS  AT  NEW  HAVEN  AND  ELSEWHERE.  —  THE  DEATH  PENALTY  IN  MAS- 
SACHUSETTS.—CASES  OF  PERSECUTION. —  MARY  DYER  AND  HER  COMPANIONS  AT 
BOSTON.  —  THEIR  TRIAL  AND  PUNISHMENT.  —  OTHER  TRIALS.  —  INTERFERENCE  OP 
THE  KING. —  END  OF  THE  PERSECUTIONS. 

AFTER  the  Rev.  John  Clark  and  his  companion  Crandall  had  been 
punished  in   1651,  for  their  visit  to  Lynn,    and   the  Rev.  Aiullin 
Obadiah  Holmes  had  been  whipped  for  the  same  offence,  the 
church  of  Boston  enjoyed   rest  for  a  season.      Perhaps  the 
word  enjoyment  carries  with  it  a  flavor  too  positive  to  be  associated 
with  the  men  whose  temper  tasted  a  fierce  delight  in  controversy, 
and  who  might  therefore  be  imagined  as  pining  while  heresy  was  in- 
active.    At  any  rate   they  were  not  long  left  without  a    fresh   and 
peculiarly  grateful  opportunity.     This  came  with  the   first 
appearance  of  Quakerism  in   Massachusetts  ;    and  the  facts  appear,, 'in 
must  be  prefaced  by  a  brief  account  of  the  origin  and  pur-  ***.— I* 
port  of  that  form  of  religion. 

In  the  summer  of  1051  Cromwell  was  getting  ready  to  win  the 
battle  of  Worcester  against  Scotch  Presbyterians,  royalists,  and 
Charles  Stuart.  George  Fox  was  lying  in  the  House  of 

r\  •  TAI  •          i  '  T         •  T->  i     George  Fox. 

Correction  at  Derby,  committed,  as  Justices  Bennet  and 
Barton  said,  for  the  "  avowed  uttering  and  broaching  of  divers  blas- 
phemous opinions  contrary  to  a  late  act  of  Parliament."  While  there 
in  durance  he  was  pestered  by  Justice  Bennett  to  enlist  and  take  part 
in  the  coming  campaign.  There  seems  always  to  have  been  a  great 
opinion  of  his  steadiness,  power  of  command,  and  sway  over  men. 
The  Parliament  soldiers  were  once  very  angry  with  him  because  he 


con- 
troversies. 


166 


QUAKERISM   IX  NEW   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP. 


declined  their  offer  of  a  colonelcy ;  and  it  led  to  his  being  thrown  into 
a  vile  hole  in  a  jail.  But  he  would  not  purchase  his  liberty  of  Jus- 
tice Bennett  on  those  terms.  "  I  told  him  that  I  was  brought  off 
from  outward  wars.  After  a  while  the  constables  fetched  me  up 
again,  and  brought  me  before  the  commissioners,  who  said  I  should 
go  for  a  soldier."  Probably  a  general  jail-delivery  was  going  on  at 
this  time  of  all  promising  subjects,  debtors  and  otherwise,  not  abso- 
lute malefactors,  to  recruit  the  army.  "  But  I  told  them  that  I  was 
dead  to  it.  They  said  I  was  alive."  Truly,  never  was  any  man 
more  so,  and  more  valiant  with  all  the  essential  qualities  of  a  soldier. 
We  shall  see  that  disciples  of  his  brought  over  his  stiffness  and  heroic 
patience  to  America. 


t<-r. 


Village  Church  at  Drayton,  Leicestershire. 

George  Fox  was  born  at  Drayton-in-the-Clay,  in  Leicestershire,  in 
'  1624.  His  father's  name  was  Christopher,  and  the  neighbors 
for  good  reason  called  him  '•  Righteous  Christer."  The  son 
George  described  himself  as  a  grave  and  staid  child,  rather 
disliking  that  lightness  and  gayety  of  demeanor  which  he  was  always 
disposed  to  consider  wanton.  His  youth  was  pure  and  righteous. 
They  tried  to  make  a  minister  of  him,  but,  like  Jacob  Behmen,  he 
became  a  cobbler.  It  was  a  habit  of  his  to  say  "  Verily  "  in  all  his 
dealings ;  so  that  people  said,  "  If  George  says  Verily,  there  Is  no  al- 


1643.]  GEORGE  FOX.  167 

tering  him."  1  At  nineteen  he  was,  with  a  cousin,  drinking  beer  in  a 
company  which  insisted  that  he  who  refused  to  drink  healths  should 
pay  the  whole  score.  Fox  refused  the  wanton  drinking,  and  retired, 
and  from  that  day  he  broke  off  all  familiarity  with  his  relations,  old 
and  voting,  and  fell  into  great  despondency  and  spiritual 

11  i     e  •  T  «    i  -i      His  doubta 

trouble  which  lasted  for  some  time.  "  I  went,  he  said,  and  despon- 
"  to  many  a  priest  to  look  for  comfort,  but  found  no  comfort 
from  them."  One  of  them  advised  him  to  get  rid  of  his  megrims  by 
singing  psalms  and  smoking  tobacco.  But  Fox  had  neither  ear  nor 
voice,  and  took  no  pleasure  in  "  drinking  the  shameful,"  as  the 
Wahabees  style  the  custom  which  Raleigh  imported  into  England. 
He  went  to  see  a  very  experienced  adviser  in  spiritual  matters,  and 
"  found  him  only  like  an  empty  hollow  cask."  Walking  in  the  garden 
with  another  minister,  imparting  the  secret  ailment  to  him,  he  hap- 
pened to  put  his  foot  into  a  flower-bed,  whereupon  the  man  of  God 
fell  into  a  great  rage,  and  dispensed  with  the  use  of  consolatory 
phrases.  Another  minister  thought  he  needed  physic  and  blood-let- 
ting, but  Fox  says  that  no  blood  could  come  out  of  him,  so  dried  up 
was  his  body  with  sorrow.  He  avoided  Christmas  gayeties  and  mar- 
riage feasts,  and  began  to  seek  out  the  company  of  widows  and  poor 
persons,  to  minister  to  their  low  estate. 

Walking  in  a  field  on  a  Sunday  morning  the  Lord  opened  to  him 
that  a  man  need  not  be  bred  at  the  University  in  order  to  be 
a  minister  of  Christ.  It  was  a  new  idea  to  him  ;  as  new  as  his  new 
it  was  to  the  great  majority  of  Englishmen.  It  struck  at  the 
whole  hierarchy  of  ministers.  At  another  time  he  was  impressed  that 
God  dwelt  in  people's  hearts  and  not  in  the  "  steeple-houses."  From 
that  time  forward  the  sound  of  the  Sunday  bells  struck  at  his  life  "  at 
the  very  hearing  of  it,"  and  he  obeyed  its  summons  to  go  to  church 
for  the  purpose  of  clearing  his  conscience  to  the  priest  and  the  parish. 
He  fasted,  wandered  in  solitary  places,  sat  with  his  Bible  in  hollow 
trees  where  it  was  too  lonesome  for  mankind  ;  walked  at  night,  and 
gave  himself  up  to  the  workings  of  that  mingled  imagination  and 
spiritual  feeling  which  he  perceived  to  be  the  direct  working  of  the 
Lord.  "  I  saw  the  great  love  of  God,  and  I  was  filled  with  admiration 
at  the  infinitude  of  it."  "  When  at  any  time  my  condition  was 
vailed  "  —  as  it  frequently  was  by  the  conflict  between  his  old  conven- 
tional beliefs  and  this  new  spontaneity  —  "  my  secret  belief  was  stayed 
firm,  and  hope  underneath  held  me,  as  an  anchor  in  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  and  anchored  my  immortal  soul  to  its  Bishop,  causing  it  to  swim 
above  the  sea,  the  world,  where  all  the  raging  waves,  foul  weather, 
tempests,  and  temptations  are." 

1  Journal  of  George  Fox,  edited  by  Wilson  Armistead. 


168  QUAKERISM   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

Then  everything  that  was  carnal  and  unrighteous  was  manifested 
to  him  in  this  inner  light  which  dawned  beyond  his  ordinary  morn- 
ings. And  he  saw  the  mountains  burning  up,  "and  the  rubbish, 
the  rough  and  crooked  ways  and  places,  made  smooth  and  plain, 
that  the  Lord  might  come  into  his  tabernacle."  People  soon  began 
to  come  from  far  and  near  to  listen  to  his  prophecy.  He 
of^i1"'  dealt  largely  in  symbols,  and  seemed  to  be  endowed  with  an 
imagination  like  that  of  William  Blake,  the  poet  and  artist, 
who  earned,  in  our  time,  the  reputation  of  insanity  by  believing  in 
the  external  reality  of  his  inward  visions.  Like  Blake,  Fox  had  an 
eye  which  translated  into  instantaneous  solidity  the  imagery  of  his 
feeling.  Sitting  in  a  friend's  house,  he  saw  there  was  a  great  crack 
about  to  split  the  eai-th,  and  "a  great  smoke  to  go  as  the  crack 
went,"  and  a  great  shaking  to  follow  the  path  of  the  crack.  It  was 
the  earth  in  people's  hearts.  Walking  through  the  main  street  of 
Litchfield  he  saw  a  channel  of  blood  running  down,  and  the  market- 
place a  pool  of  blood.  Once  he  met  Cromwell  riding  into  Hampton 
Court,  and  before  he  came  to  him  he  saw  a  waft  of  death  go  forth 
against  him,  "  and  when  I  came  to  him  he  looked  like  a  dead  man." 
No  doubt  the  Protector  did  so  look,  about  a  fortnight  before  his  death 
in  1658,  when  George  Fox  met  him. 

So  John  Woolman  saw  one  day  "a  mass  of  matter  of  a  dull, 
gloomy  color,  between  the  south  and  the  east,"  and  was  informed 
that  it  was  the  misery  of  all  human  beings,  and  that  he  formed  a 
part  of  it.  Afterward  he  heard  a  pure  and  ravishing  voice,  as  of 
an  angel  speaking  to  other  angels,  and  saying,  "  John  Woolman  is 
dead  ; "  but  knowing  perfectly  well  that  he  was  alive,  he  greatly  won- 
dered what  the  heavenly  voice  could  mean.  But  it  meant,  u  I  am 
crucified  with  Christ,  nevertheless  I  live;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  me."  It  was  the  death  and  surrender  of  his  own  will. 

No  mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages  ever  believed  more  profoundly  than 
The  Quaker  ^e  early  Quakers  in  that  absolute  self-abnegation  and  anni- 
seiSbne^L-  hilation  of  the  individual  which  secured  to  the  Divine  will 
tion  a  free  com-se  through  their  souls.  This  was  a  prime  doc- 

trine of  Quakerism.  In  the  strength  of  it  they  abjured  all  personal 
preferences,  hazarded  the  prejudice  and  wrath  of  their  opponents, 
breathed  sweet  air  in  the  foulness  of  dungeons,  where  they  had  to  lie 
with  the  mouth  close  to  the  crack  beneath  their  cell  door,  to  keep  the 
beatified  life  in  their  bodies  ;  the  doctrine  dulled  the  smart  of  the 
lash,  made  the  hangman's  noose  sit  lightty,  and  soothed  the  bruises  of 
stonings  and  cudgel  lings. 

With  this  lively  outwardness  of  George  Fox's  imagination  there  was 
combined  a  sense  of  inward  discernment,  a  spiritual  touch  for  the 


1G43.] 


GEORGE   FOX. 


169 


moral  condition  of  the  people  whom  he  met,  which  could  hardly  fail 
in  his  times  to  be  regarded  as  having  a  supernatural  origin.     He  per- 
ceived that  some  persons  in  his  congregations  were  possessed  by  un- 
clean spirits.     He  told  them   so  ;  sometimes  they   left  the 
room,  sometimes  they  were  converted  to  a  cleaner  life.     He  of  FOX'S 
said  that  the  Lord  had  given  him  a  spirit  of  discerning.     It 
is  certain  that,  as  in  the  case  of  Heinrich  Zschokke,  the  Swiss  nov- 
elist and  historian, 
who    could     recall, 
without  effort,  and 
very    much    to   the 
astonishment  of  the 
persons   implicated, 
their     words      and 
sometimes  the  inci- 
dents of  their  lives, 
never    having    seen 
or    heard    of    them 
before,     but     never 
laying  claim  in  con- 
sequence to  any  pre- 
ternatural   gift,  — 
so  Fox  felt  the  veiled 
presence  of  irregular 
dispositions.      "  As 
I   was    going    to   a 
meeting,"  said  Fox, 
"  I  saw  some  women 
in  a  field,  and  I  dis- 
cerned an  evil  spirit 
in  them  ;  and  I  was 
moved  to  go  out  of 
my    way    into    the 
field  to   them,    and 
declare   unto   them 
their  conditions."     "  There  came  also  at  another  time  another  woman, 
and  stood  at  a  distance  from  me,  and  I  cast  mine  eye  upon  her,  and 
said,  *  Thou  hast  been  an  harlot,'  for  I  perfectly  saw  the  condition  and 
life  of  the  woman."     This  is  the  test  of  a  soul  which  is  so  chastely 
separated  from  all  evil  that  it  detects  the  lines  which  evil  etches  upon 
the  face  and  person,  and  also  feels  an  unwholesome  effluence.     It  is 
not  at  all  strange  that,  in  those  days  of  witchcraft,  and  of  delusion 
concerning  special  providences,  the  people  should  accredit  miracu- 


Fox  reproves  the  Women. 


1"0  QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

lous  power  to  Fox,  of  whom  certain  stories  of  healing  are  also  re- 
ported. 

Fox's  journal,  like  Winthrop's,  abounds  with  cases  of  judgments 
that  befell  their  enemies  and  withstanders.     For  it  was  a 

Fox  s  belief  . 

in  divine       mental  tashion  of   the  times,  belonging  to  the   established 

judgments.  o      o 

church  as  well  as  to  all  the  sectaries,  though  specially  to 
the  Boston  Puritans.  A  rude  butcher  had  sworn  to  kill  Fox,  and  was 
accustomed  to  thrust  out  his  tongue  whenever  a  Friend  passed  him. 
So  it  fell  out  that  one  day  his  tongue  swelled,  he  never  could  draw 
it  in  again,  and  died  so.  The  judgments  against  Fox's  enemies  were 
so  many  that  they  would  "  be  too  large  to  declare.  God's  vengeance 
from  heaven  came  upon  the  bloodthirsty,  who  sought  after  blood  ;  for 
all  such  spirits  I  laid  before  the  Lord,  and  left  them  to  him  to  deal 
with  them,  who  is  stronger  than  all."  This  is  not  more  sombre  and 
inconsequent  than  the  ordinary  Puritan  spirit  of  the  times. 

But  the  truly  characteristic  doctrine  of  the  Friends  exalts  the  intu- 
itive feelings,  and  all  spontaneous  movements  of  the  mind,   above 
scholarship,  instruction,  Scriptures,  and  ordinances.     This  is 

The  doctrine      ,  T  •    i  i«ii«ii  •  r  •  •• 

of  an  inner  the  true  Light  which  hghteth  every  man :  if  so,  it  antici- 
pates all  forms  and  texts,  tries  them  all,  interprets  the 
divine  Word,  and  tests  the  customs  of  society.  When  this  doctrine 
was  so  consistently  held,  as  by  Fox,  it  became  hostile  to  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  church,  and  to  the  church  itself  with  its  hierarchical  scale 
of  paid  clergy  ;  hostile  to  governments  which  rested  upon  force,  hos- 
tile to  the  application  of  force  in  any  form.  It  is  not  at  all  wonderful 
that  Fox's  courageous  and  persistent  logic  should  have  involved  his 
life  in  difficulties,  and  made  it  an  almost  unbroken  career  of  impris- 
onment and  contumely.  Hireling  priests  did  not  like  to  be  withstood 
in  their  own  "steeple-houses;"  justices  of  the  peace  could  hardly 
relish  Fox's  superb  disdain  for  their  authority,  and  the  cool  equa- 
nimity of  his  answers  as  he  stood  before  them  with  his  hat  on  till 
it  was  knocked  off  his  head.  Many  a  term  in  jail  did  he  serve  to 
gratify  the  anger  of  judges  excited  by  a  demeanor  which  was  all  the 
more  aggressive  because  it  was  so  imperturbable.  And  he  did  not 
mince  his  English :  his  invective  could  assume  all  the  power  and  au- 
thority of  Scripture. 

Fox  mentions  that  when  he  went  to  Whitehall  to  speak  to  Crom- 
welTTthe  Protector  did  not  object  to  his  hat.  The  early  Friends 
loved  to  use  symbolic  gestures  and  fashions.  Even  modest  women 
would  sometimes  violate  their  natural  feeling  and  appear  in  a  state 
more  or  less  like  that  of  Godiva  when  she  rode  through  Coventry, 
because  it  was  so  borne  in  upon  them  from  the  Lord,  that  they  must 
protest  against  the  nakedness  of  ordinances.  But  these  were  occur- 


1648.]  WEARING  THE  HAT.  171 

rences  of  rare  fanaticism  belonging  rather  to  individuals  than  rep- 
resenting: the  whole  body  of  Friends.     There  were  only  two 

,r.  .,  ,  The  resiet- 

Or  three  such  cases  in   Massachusetts,  while,  on  the  other  anceotthe 

hand,  women  when  publicly  whipped  were  stripped  naked  outward  or- 
to  the  waist  — "  shall  be  stripped  naked  from  the  middle 
upwards,  and  shall  be  openly  whipped  until  his  or  her  body  shall  be 
bloody  ;  "  were  the  words  of  the  English  law.  The  wearing  of  the 
hat  was  a  symbol  of  human  equality  with  principalities  and  powers. 
Even  the  Almighty  could  not  be  honored  by  uncovering  the  head. 
Penn  wrote,1  "  The  first  and  most  pressing  motive  upon  our  spirits 
to  decline  the  practice  of  these  present  customs  of  pulling  off  the  hat, 
bowing  the  body  or  knee,  and  giving  people  gaudy  titles  and  epithets, 
in  our  salutations  and  addresses,  was  that  savor,  sight  and  sense  that 
God,  by  his  light  and  spirit,  has  given  us  of  the  Christian  world's 
apostasy  from  God,  and  the  cause  and  effects  of  that  great  and  lam- 
entable defection." 

That  is  the  moral  ground  of  the  first  protest  of  the  Friends,  and 
the  iust  explanation  of  those  habits  and  manners  for  the 

,.,.,,  ,  ,        .    ,     ,  ...  ,  ,   .„      Their  belief 

sake  of  which  they  endured  with  humility  such  scorn  and  ill-  as  to  wear- 
treatment.  Said  Penn,  "  honor  was  from  the  beginning  but 
hat-respects,  and  most  titles  are  of  hate."  George  Keith,  a  contem- 
porary of  Fox,  and  for  a  time  a  disciple,  till  he  lapsed  and  took 
orders,  ridiculing  the  fashion  of  uncovering  the  head,  wrote,  "  The 
preachers  in  Germany,  and  especially  at  Hamburgh  —  which  I  have 
seen  with  my  eyes  —  use  such  gross  partiality  in  their  salutations,  that 
commonly  they  have  two  caps  under  their  hat ;  and  the  poor,  except 
extraordinarily,  they  pass  by  without  any  notice  ;  to  others  they  doff 
the  hat ;  others  more  rich  in  the  world,  they  salute  with  doffing 
the  hat  and  one  of  the  caps  ;  and  to  those  whom  they  most  honor,  or 
rather  flatter,  they  doff  the  hat  and  both  caps.  What  degrees  of  par- 
tiality are  here ! "  George  Fox  said,  "  Do  not  the  very  Turks  mock 
at  the  Christians  in  their  proverb,  saying  that '  the  Christians  spend 
much  of  their  time  in  putting  off  their  hats,  and  showing  their  bare 
heads  to  each  other.' ' 

The  plain  garb  and  the  plain  speech  well  became  the  righteous 
dissent   of    plain   livers   and    spiritual    thinkers   from   the  Thei,.,!^ 
world's  hypocrisies.     The  Quakers  assumed  the  plain  garb  and  life- 
of  a  uniform  color  in  order  to  be  clothed  in  a  daily  protest  against  the 
gayly  slashed  doublet,  the  ribbon-knots,  rapier,  and  trunk-hose  which, 
as  it  all  went  ruffling  through  the  streets  of  England,  seemed  to  them 
to  be  an  anti-symbol  to  their  own,  and  to  express  the  folly,  dissolute- 
ness, and  subservience  of  the  times.     Samuel  Fothergill  wrote  to  a 

1  No  Cross  No  Crown,  Am  ed.,  pp.  83,  85,  91,  92. 


172  QUAKERISM  IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

young  man  "  who  had  laid  aside  the  dress  of  the  Society,  and  with  it 
some  of  the  moral  restrictions  which  it  imposed  :  '  If  thou  Inn  1st  ap- 
peared like  a  religious,  sober  Friend,  those  companions  who  have  ex- 
ceedingly wounded  thee,  durst  not  have  attempted  to  frequent  thy 
company.  If  thou  hadst  no  other  inducement  to  alter  thy  dress,  I 
beseech  thee  to  do  it  to  keep  the  distinction  our  principles  lead  to, 
and  to  separate  thee  from  fools  and  fops.  At  the  same  time  that  by 
a  prudent  distinction  in  appearance  thou  scatterest  away  those  that 
are  the  bane  of  youth,  thou  wilt  engage  the  attention  of  those  whose 
company  will  be  profitable  and  honorable  to  thee.' ' 

Plainness   of  speech  —  theeing  and   thouing  —  was  as  tenaciously 
held  to  as  the  plainness   of   apparel.1     But    Fox's  suit  of 

Their  111:111- 

ner  of          leather,  which  subjected  him  to  so  much  ridicule,  seems  to 

speech.  -  .    . 

have  been  assumed  by  lum  in  no  spirit  of  ostentatious 
meanness,  but  because  he  found  it  more  convenient  on  those  inces- 
sant journeys  which  he  took  from  place  to  place  to  deliver  his  mes- 
sage. It  was  also  a  protection  against  the  foulness  and  dampness  of 
the  numerous  cells  which  he  tenanted  ;  for  if  there  was  one  hole  in 
the  jail  more  loathsome  than  the  rest,  the  jailer  might  be  depended 
upon  to  put  Fox  in  it,  and  not  only  Fox,  but  many  a  brave,  pro- 
testing woman,  who  had  been  delicately  reared,  to  whom  foul  air  was 
as  poisonous  as  hireling  doctrine. 

The  Friends  did  not  subject  themselves  to  persecution  merely 
Reasons  for  because  they  insisted  upon  speaking  in  the  established 
churches.  It  was  not  unusual  at  that  time,  and  the  min- 
isker  would  sometimes  accord  the  favor  even  to  women  who 
church.  signified  a  desire  to  address  his  congregation  after  the  close 
of  service.2  Nor  was  an  interruption  of  the  sermon  by  some  remark 

1  This  mode  of  address  seemed  to  have  some  peculiar  aggravation  in  it.    People  hated  it 
worse  than  the  doctrine.     They  would  cry,  "  T/ioti  me  !  thou  my  dog  !     If  thou  thouest  me, 
I'll  thou  thy  teeth  down  thy  throat."     (Penn's  Preface  to  Fox's  Journal.)     And  Fox  wrote, 
"  Oh,  the  storm,  heat,  and  fury  that  arose  ;  oh,  the  blows,  punchings,  beatings,  and  impris- 
onments that  we  underwent,  for  not  putting  off  our  hats  to  men  !     Some  had  their  hats 
violently  plucked  off  and  thrown  away,  so  that  they  quite  lost  them.     The  bad  language 
and  evil  usage  we  received  on  this  account  is  hard  to  be  expressed  ;  besides  the  danger  we 
were  sometimes  in  of  losing  our  lives  for  this  matter." 

2  "  But  have  there  not  been  women  among  the  Presbyterians,  who  have  spoke  in  the  pres- 
ence of  many,  both  men  and  women,  of  their  experiences  of  the  things  of  God  ?     I  sup- 
pose T.  M.  may  have  heard  of  Margaret  Mitchelson,  who  spoke  to  the  admiration  of  many 
hearers  at  Edinburgh  as  concerning  her  experience,  in  the  time  of  Henry  Rogue,  preacher 
there,  who  is  said  to  have  come  and  heard  her  himself,  and  to  have  given  her  this  testimony 
(being  desired  to  speak  himself),  that  he  was  to  l>e  silent  when  his  Master  was  silent  (meau- 
iug  Christ  in  that  Presbyterian  woman).     There  is  a  relation  of  her  speeches  going  about 
from  hand  to  hand  among  professors  at  this  day  ;  and  I  myself  have  heard  a  Presbyterian 
woman  speak  in  a  meeting  of  Presbyterians,  which  were  a  church  or  convention  of  men  and 
women.     Yea,  hath  not  T.  M.  in  such  meetings,  and  consequently  in  assemblies  of  churches, 
invited  some  woman  to  speak  and  pray,  and  declared  solemnly  (whether  he  did  it  merely 


1643.]       THE  FRIENDS  AND  THE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH.  173 

of  dissent  unprecedented  in  those  heated  times  when  all  men's  minds 
were  so  occupied  with  the  discussion  of  religious  matters ;  and  for  this 
an  arrest  was  seldom  made.  The  Puritan  in  America  could  not  con- 
sistently prevent  that  custom  of  speaking  in  meeting  which  he  used  to 
indulge  in  the  old  country.  But  the  trouble  lay  less  in  the  desire  of 
the  Quaker  to  free  his  conscience  in  the  "  steeple-houses  "  than  in  the 
substance  of  the  message.  It  was  also  frequently  couched  m  Anglo- 


Swarthmore  Hall.      Residence  of  George  Fox. 

Saxon  of  terrific  emphasis.  Ministers  could  hardly  brook  the  invec- 
tive, particularly  when  it  was  directed  against  the  paying  The  QU^^ 
of  tithes.  George  Fox  held  a  meeting  of  his  own  at  Car-  ^^u'hed 
lisle  one  day,  the  Abbey  having  been  granted  to  him  for  cler» 
the  purpose.  After  the  meeting,  a  Baptist  pastor,  "  a  high  notionist, 
and  a  flashy  man,  came  to  me,  and  asked  me,  '  what  must  be  damned.' 
I  was  moved  immediately  to  tell  him,  'that  which  spoke  in  him  was 
to  be  damned.'  This  stopped  his  mouth." 

A  vigorous  episode  to  divine  service  occurred  in  a  Yorkshire  steeple- 
house.     The  preacher  had  chosen  a  most  unfortunate  text  for  himself, 

in  his  ordinary  customary  way  of  complimenting,  that  is  Iwst  known  to  himself)  that  he  was 
edified  thereby  ?  And  if  some  of  those  women  formerly  in  that  respect  so  much  applauded 
by  T.  M.  be  of  those  that  now  open  their  mouths  in  the  Quakers'  meetings,  how  comes  it 
now  to  be  Popish  and  heretical,  more  than  in  the  days  of  old  when  T.  M.  did  use  to  fre- 
quent the  chamber  conventicles,  unless  that  he  now  bath  forgotten  these,  because  fear  hath 
made  them  out  of  fashion  with  him  ?  "  —  George  Keith's  Quakerism  no  Popery.  Excerpt  in 
Southey's  Common-Place  Book. 


174  QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

"  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters,  and  he  that  hath 
no  money,  come  ye,  buy  and  eat ;  yea,  come,  buy  wine  and  milk,  with- 
out money  and  without  price."  Fox  could  not  wait  to  hear  the  ser- 
mon through.  "  Come  down,  thou  deceiver !  Dost  thou  bid  people 
come  freely,  and  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely,  and  yet  thou  takest 
three  hundred  pounds  a  year  of  them  ?  Mayest  thou  not  blush  for 
shame,  etc."  The  preacher  was  so  confounded  at  the  closeness  of  this 
message  that  he  left  the  pulpit,  went  out,  and  Fox  spoke  to  the  peo- 
ple. Such  primitive  evangelism  touched  the  pocket  too  closely  to  be 
long  tolerated. 

There  was  a  meeting  at  Leicester  for  a  dispute  in  the  church,  at- 
tended by  all  kinds  of  sectaries,  the  minister  of  the  parish  being  in 
the  pulpit.  When  he  checked  a  woman  who  desired  to  speak,  Fox 
was  wrapped  up,  "  as  in  a  rapture,  in  the  Lord's  power,  and  I  stepped 
up  and  asked  the  priest,  '  Dost  thou  call  this  a  church  ?  Or  dost  thou 
call  this  mixed  multitude  a  church  ? '  For  the  woman  asking  a  ques- 
tion, he  ought  to  have  answered  it,  having  given  liberty  for  any  to 
speak.  But  instead  of  answering  me,  he  asked  me  what  a  church 
was  ?  I  told  him,  the  church  was  the  pillar  and  ground  of 

Fox's  defini-  '          .  ....  &        .    . 

tion  of  the  truth,  made  up  of  living  stones,  living  members,  a  spiritual 
household,  which  Christ  was  the  head  of ;  but  he  was  not  the 
head  of  a  mixed  multitude,  or  of  an  old  house  made  up  of  lime,  stones, 
and  wood.  This  set  them  all  on  fire ;  the  priest  came  down  out  of 
his  pulpit,  and  others  out  of  their  pews,  and  the  dispute  there  was 
marred."  That  sentence  furnishes  us  at  once  with  the  pith  and  the 
offence  of  Quakerism.  And  here  is  one  more  paragraph  to  illustrate 
the  interior  states  and  processes  of  the  early  Friends.  "  One  morn- 
ing as  I  was  sitting  by  the  fire,  a  great  cloud  came  over  me,  and  a 
temptation  beset  me  ;  but  I  sat  still.  And  it  was  said,  '  all  things 
come  by  nature  ; '  and  the  elements  and  stars  came  over  me,  so  that 
I  was  in  a  manner  quite  clouded  with  it.  But  as  I  sat  still,  and  silent, 
the  people  of  the  house  perceived  nothing ;  and  as  I  sat  still  under  it, 
and  let  it  alone,  a  living  hope  arose  in  me,  and  a  true  voice,  which 
said,  '  there  is  a  living  God  who  made  all  things.'  And  immediately 
the  cloud  and  temptation  vanished  away,  and  life  rose  over  it  all  ;  rny 
heart  was  glad,  and  I  praised  the  living  God." 

How  pure  and  sweet  is  the  tone,  and  so  different  from  that  of  the 
The  Ranters  Ranters  of  that  period  with  whom  the  Quakers  were  unjust- 
w<Hhathtd  ty  identified.  Of  them  but  short  notice  need  be  given. 
Quakers.  Probably  the  reports  of  their  extravagant  and  indecent  do- 
ings found  their  way  over  to  Boston,  and  helped  to  confirm  the  minds 
of  elders  and  magistrates  against  the  Quakers  when  they  appeared.1 

1  "  I  have  a  collection  of  several  Ranters'  books  in  a  thick  quarto,"  says  Leslie,  "  and 


1643.]  FOX  AND  THE  RANTERS.  175 

But  the  Quakers  disowned  the  Ranters.  Fox  said  that  he  heard  of 
persons  who  were  imprisoned  on  account  of  their  religion.  Fox  Bnd  ^ 
Of  course  he  went  to  visit  them.  "  And  as  I  walked  toward  Raatt^n- 
the  jail,  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  me  saying,  *  My  Love  was  al- 
ways to  thee,  and  thou  art  in  my  love.'  And  I  was  ravished  with  the 
sense  of  the  love  of  God,  and  greatly  strengthened  in  my  inward  man. 
But  when  I  came  into  the  jail,  where  the  prisoners  were,  a  great  power 
of  darkness  struck  at  me,  and  I  sat  still,  having  my  •spirit  gathered 
into  the  love  of  God.  At  last  these  prisoners  began  to  rant,  and  va- 
pour, and  blaspheme,  at  which  my  soul  was  greatly  grieved.  They 
said  they  were  God  ;  but  we  (the  Quakers)  could  not  bear  such 
things.  After  I  had  reproved  them  for  their  blasphemous  expressions, 
I  went  away  ;  for  I  perceived  they  were  Ranters." 

Speaking  at  another  time  of  some  noted  Ranters,  he  shows  the  true 
sobriety  of  his  own  spiritual  motions.  "  I  was  in  a  fast  for  about  ten 
days,  my  spirit  being  greatly  exercised  on  truth's  account ;  for  James 
Milner  and  Richard  Mye*  went  out  into  imaginations,  and  a  company 
followed  them.  This  James  Milner  and  some  of  his  company,  had 
true  openings  at  first,  but  getting  into  pride  and  exaltation  of  spirit, 
they  ran  out  from  truth." 

And  here  is  his  first  notice  of  the  notorious  James  Nay  lor,  who  re- 
vived in  England  some  of  the  worst  extravagances  of  Munzer  and 
the  German  Anabaptists.  "  The  night  we  came  to  Exeter,  I  spoke 
with  James  Naylor,  for  I  saw  he  was  out  and  wrong,  and  so  was  his 
company."  "  The  next  day  I  spoke  with  James  Naylor  again  ;  and 
he  slighted  what  I  said,  and  was  dark,  and  much  out ;  yet  he  would 
have  come  and  kissed  me.  But  I  said,  '  since  he  had  turned  against 
the  power  of  God,  I  could  not  receive  his  show  of  kindness.' "  Al- 
luding to  another  set  of  people  who  had  been  cast  into  jail,  he  said, 
"  though  they  were  Ranters,  great  opposers  of  Friends*  and  disturbers 
of  our  meetings,  yet  in  the  country  where  they  came,  some  people 
that  did  not  know  them,  would  be  apt  to  say  they  were  Quakei-s." 

Fox's  dealings  with  the  deluded  Ranters,  and  the  explicit  testimony 
left  by  him  and  his  closest  followers,  quite  overcome  the  scandal 
which  migrated  to  America  and  set  the  minds  of  the  chief  men 
against  Quakerism.  Ann  Hutchinson,  whose  principles  sprang  from 

though  I  am  pretty  well  versed  with  the  Quaker  strain,  I  took  all  these  authors  to  be  Qua- 
kers, and  had  marked  some  quotations  out  of  them,  to  show  the  agreement  of  the  former 
Quakers  with  the  doctrine  which  their  later  authors  do  hold  forth  ;  till,  showing  this  book  to 
a  friend  who  knew  some  of  them  and  had  heard  of  the  rest,  he  told  me  they  were  Ranters, 
and  that  I  could  not  make  use  of  these  quotations  against  the  Quakers."  This  was  writ- 
ten frankly  enough,  by  a  determined  and  bitter  foe  of  Quakerism.  But,  afrer  conceding 
the  point,  he  hopes  to  cancel  the  concession  by  contradicting  himself  ;  "  but  though  I  can- 
not do  it  "  —  i.  e.,  make  use  of  the  quotations  —  "  in  the  sense  I  intended,  yet  it  may  serve 
to  better  purpose,  viz.,  to  show  the  agreement  'twixt  the  Ranters  and  the  Quakers  " 


176 


QUAKERISM  IN   NEW   ENGLAND. 


[€HAP.  VIII. 


the  same  root  as  Fox's,  had  a  fairer  hearing.  But  the  clearness  of 
Fox's  tone  on  this  vexed  subject  reminds  us  of  his  experience  when 
he  was  in  jail  at  Carlisle  under  a  brutal  jailer.  "  While  he  struck 
me,  I  was  made  to  sing  in  the  Lord's  power ;  and  that  made  him  rage 
the  more.  Then  he  fetched  a  fiddler,  and  brought  him  in  where  I 


Fox  in    Prison. 


was,  and  set  him  to  play,  thinking  to  vex  me  thereby  ;  but  while  he 
played  I  was  moved  in  the  everlasting  power  of  the  Lord  God  to  sing; 
and  my  voice  drowned  the  noise  of  the  fiddle,  and  struck  and  con- 
founded them,  and  made  them  give  over  fiddling  and  go  their  way." 
The  Friends  were  first  called  Quakers  by  Justice  Bennet  of  Derby, 
in  1650,  because  Fox  bade  the  people  tremble  at  the  word 
of  the  Lord  The  first  use  of  the  epithet  in  the  records  of 
parliament  was  made  in  the  Journal  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons for  1654.  Whenever  Fox  appeared  the  cry  went  abroad,  u  The 


Oriein  of 
the  name 
"  Quakers." 


1656.]  THE   FIRST   FRIENDS   IN   BOSTON.  177 

man  in  leather  breeches  is  come ; "  and  it  was  a  grievous  salute  to  the 
ministers. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  notices  which  we  have  of  Fox  is  con- 
nected with  his  enforced  visit  to  London  in  1654  as  a  prisoner,  when 
he  was  lodged  at  Shakespeare's  and  Ben  Jonson's  old  tavern  of  the 
Mermaid,  whence  he  wrote  a  paper  to  Cromwell  against  the  drawing 
of  a  carnal  sword.  It  was  a  document  of  the  principle  of  non-resist- 
ance which  has  always  been  cherished  by  the  Friends.  Soon  after  he 
was  brought  before  the  Protector  at  Whitehall,  and  made  a  Fo*  before 
great  impression  by  his  speaking,  Cromwell,  it  is  said,  being  Cromwe11- 
moved  to  tears,  and  desiring  to  know  him  more  intimately.  Then 
he  was  brought  into  a  hall  where  the  gentlemen  of  the  palace  were 
gathered  for  the  noonday  meal,  and  was  invited  to  dine  with  them. 
"  I  bid  them  let  the  Protector  know,  I  would  not  eat  of  his  bread  nor 
drink  of  his  drink.  When  he  heard  this,  he  said,  '  Now  I  see  there  is 
a  people  risen  and  come  up,  that  I  cannot  win  either  with  gifts, 
honors,  offices,  or  places,  but  all  other  sects  and  people  I  can.'  It 
was  told  him  again,  '  that  we  had  forsaken  our  own,  and  were  not 
likely  to  look  for  such  things  from  him.'  "  l 

This  was  the  style  of  the  people  whose  sufferings  symbolized  the 
same  sentiment  in  New  England.     Even  before  they  came,  ArriTai  of 
New  England  held  them  in  dread.     In  May,  1656,  the  Gen-  £lk£e«at 
eral  Court  of  Massachusetts  appointed  a  day  of  humiliation,  Bogton- 
"  to  seek  the  face  of  God  "  on  behalf  of  England,  "  abounding  with 
erroi's,  especially  those  of  the  Ranters  and  Quakers,"  —  whom  they 
thus  confounded.    Then  there  came  two  months  later  to  Boston,  Mary 
Fisher  and  Anne  Austin,  having  shipped  for  that  port  at  Barbadoes. 
This  easternmost  of  the  West  India  islands,  first  colonized  by  the  Eng- 
lish in  1625,  seems  to  have  been  a  refuge  and  starting-point  for  various 
opinions.      The  Quakers  were  not  molested  there.     Henry    Fell,  an 
eminent  minister  of  the  Society,  writing  to  Margaret  Fell,  who  after- 
Avards  married  George  Fox,  mentions  the   refreshing  meetings   that 
were  held  freely  over  the  island,  and  adds,  "  Truly  Mary  Fisher  is  a 
precious  heart  and  hath  been  very  serviceable  here :  for  here  are  many 

1  Thomas  Elwood,  the  loving  friend  of  Johu  Milton,  describes  himself  as  having  once 
been  "  free,  debonair  and  courtly."  But  he  became  in  habit  and  discipline  a  strict  convert 
of  Quakerism.  He  fir>t  copied  out  Fox's  journal  for  the  press.  Here  is  his  portrait  of 
Fox:  "  Graceful  he  was  in  countenance,  manly  in  ]>ersonage,  grave  in  gesture,  courteous 
in  conversation,  free  from  affectation  in  speech  or  carriage  :  a  severe  reprover  of  html  and 
obstinate  sinners ;  a  mild  and  gentle  admonisher  of  such  as  were  tender  and  sensible  of 
their  failings ;  not  apt  to  resent  personal  wrongs ;  easy  to  forgive  injuries,  but  zealously 
earnest  where  the  honor  of  God,  the  prosperity  of  truth,  the  peace  of  the  church,  were  con- 
cerned ;  very  tender,  compassionate,  and  pitiful  he  was  to  all  that  were  under  any  Fort  of 
affliction;  the  common  butt  of  all  apostates'  envy;  whose  good,  notwithstanding,  he  ear- 
nestly sought." 

VOL.    II.  12 


178 


QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


people  convinced  of  the  truth,  who  meet  together  in  silence,  in  three 
several  places  in  the  island."  l 

Mary  Fisher  was  born  in  1623.     We  find  her  convinced  of  Qua- 
kerism, and  addressing  a  congregation  after  service  at  Selby, 
in  1652.     For  this  she  underwent  imprisonment  in  York  Cas- 
tle for  sixteen  months.     In  the  autumn  of  1653  she,  with  a  female 
companion,  preached  to  the  Cambridge  students  "  at  Sidney  College 
gate.  "     The  mayor  interfered,  and  they  were  taken  to  the  market- 
cross  and  soundly  whipped,  because  they  despised  the  sacraments  and 
the  ministry.     Mary  Fisher  was  the  first  member  of  the  Society  who 


Mary  Fisher  be'ore  the  Sultan. 


was  publicly  whipped.  She  was 
three  times  imprisoned  before 
1655,  when  she  found  her  way  to 
the  West  Indies.  In  1660  she  was 
impressed  to  visit  Turkey  and  have 
an  interview  with  the  Sultan  Mo- 
hammed IV.  She  found  him  at 
Adrianople,  and  was  kindly  received 
by  him,  and  was  everywhere  through  the  East  well  treated.  Of  her 
numerous  toilsome  journeys  by  sea  and  land  to  bear  her  testimony  we 
need  not  speak.  She  was  unmarried  at  the  time  of  her  arrival  in 
Boston ;  but  Anne  Austin  was  the  mother  of  five  children,  and  well 
advanced  in  years. 

When  it  was  known  that  Simon  Kempthorn,  master,  had  these  two 
pestilent  women  on  board  his  vessel,  Bellingham,  the  Dep- 
uty Governor,  Endicott   being  absent,  refused  to  let  them 
land  ;  their  baggage  was  searched  and  all  their  books  and 
tracts  confiscated.     And  at  a  council  which  was  held  July  11, 1656, 

1  Bowden's  History  of  Friends  in  America,  i.,  37. 


Action  of 

the  Boston 

magistrates, 


1656.]  ACTION   OF  THE  MAGISTRATES.  179 

the  following  order  was  issued,  which  deserves  to  be  put  upon  the  his- 
torical record :  — 

"  Whereas,  there  are  several  laws  long  since  made  and  published  in 
this  jurisdiction,  bearing  testimony  against  heretics  and  erroneous 
persons  ;  yet,  notwithstanding,  Simon  Kempthorn  of  Charlestown,  mas- 
ter of  the  ship  Stvallow  of  Boston,  hath  brought  into  this  jurisdiction, 
from  the  island  of  Barbadoes,  two  women,  who  name  themselves  Anne, 
the  wife  of  one  Austin,  and  Mary  Fisher,  being  of  that  sort  of  people 
commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Quakers,  who  upon  examination  are 
found  to  be  not  only  transgressors  of  the  former  laws,  but  to  hold  very 
dangerous,  heretical  and  blasphemous  opinions ;  and  they  do  also  ac- 
knowledge that  they  came  here  purposely  to  propagate  their  said  errors 
and  heresies,  bringing  with  them  and  spreading  here  sundry  books, 
wherein  are  contained  most  corrupt,  heretical  and  blasphemous  doc- 
trines, contrary  to  the  truth  of  the  gospel  here  professed  among  us. 
The  Council,  therefore,  tendei'ing  the  preservation  of  the  peace  and 
truth,  enjoyed  and  professed  among  the  churches  of  Christ  in  this  coun- 
try, do  hereby  order  :  First,  that  all  such  corrupt  books  as  shall  be  found 
upon  search  to  be  brought  in  and  spread  by  the  aforesaid  persons,  be 
forthwith  burned  and  destroyed  by  the  common  executioner.  Secondly, 
that  the  said  Anne  and  Mary  be  kept  in  close  prison,  and  none  ad- 
mitted communication  with  them  without  leave  from  the  Governor, 
Deputy  Governor,  or  two  magistrates,  to  prevent  the  spreading  their 
corrupt  opinions,  until  such  time  as  they  be  delivered  aboard  some  ves- 
sel, to  be  transported  out  of  the  country.  Thirdly,  the  said  Simon  Kemp- 
thorn  is  hereby  enjoined,  speedily  and  directly,  to  transport  or  cause 
to  be  transported  the  said  persons  from  hence  to  Barbadoes,  whence 
they  came,  he  defraying  all  the  charges  of  their  imprisonment ;  and 
for  the  effectual  performance  hereof,  he  is  to  give  security  in  a  bond 
of  .£100  sterling,  and  on  his  refusal  to  give  such  security,  he  is  to  be 
committed  to  prison  till  he  do  it." 

This  is  the  first  legislation  of  Massachusetts  against  the  first  Qua- 
kers who  ever  reached  the  colony.  The  root  of  heresy  was  the  same 
in  all  sectaries :  it  was  an  assertion  of  the  individual  conscience  and 
the  right  of  private  interpretation.  Since  the  days  of  Ann  Hutch- 
inson  of  the  nimble  tongue  and  distracting  wit,  the  magistrates  in- 
stinctively felt  that  any  setting  up  of  private  reason  was  likely  to  turn 
out  so  far  irrational  as  to  defy  their  politics  as  well  as  their  religion. 
But  it  was  rather  hard  upon  Simon  Kempthorn,  who  innocently  gave 
passage  to  these  two  formidable  women,  and  had  to  pay  their  expenses 
in  jail  and  carry  them  back  again.  It  was  a  judicious  hint  to  all 
shipmasters  to  be  more  cautious  in  assorting  their  cargoes  for  the 
future. 


180 


QUAKERISM   IX   NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


The  two  women  were  transferred  to  Boston  jail,  and  the  window  of 
Anne  Austin  their  cell  was  boarded  up  to  prevent  intercourse  with  the 
FuherTm-  inhabitants ;  for  the  same  reason  they  were  deprived  of 
prisoned.  writing  materials.  Their  persons  were  stripped  and  exam- 
ined for  the  supposed  signs  of  witchcraft,  but  fortunately  there  was  not 
a  birth-mark,  scar,  or  mole  to  be  discovered,  otherwise  they  might 
have  gone  the  way  of  Governor  Bellingham's  own  sister-in-law. 


We  know  not  for 

what     reason      the 

magistrates  forbade 

them  to  be  fur- 
nished with  provisions.  Not  only  the 

jailer  but  the  citizens  were  cautioned  not 

to  feed  them.     But  Nicholas  Upshall,  a 

grave  and  righteous  citizen  of  Boston,  a 

strict  Puritan,  but  inclined  to  dispense 

with  the  ceremonies  of  his  own  church, 

was  much  attracted  by  the  arrival  of  these 

women.  When  the  new  law  was  proclaimed  by  beat  of  drum  before 
his  door,  he  uttered  a  protest,  desiring  to  wash  his  hands 
of  such  a  transaction.  The  magistrates  cited  him  to  appear 
before  them.  He  warned  them  to  take  heed  lest  they  be 

found    fighting  against  God.      For  a  conclusive    reply  to  that    they 

fined   him  £20,  imprisoned  him  four  days,  ordered  him  out  of  the 


Upshall's    Protest. 


i>hai-8 


1656.]  PERSECUTION   BEGUN.  181 

colony  in  thirty,  and  fined  him  £8  additional  for  each  absence  from 
worship  during  that  time.  His  real  offence  was  in  giving  the  jailer 
privily  five  shillings  a  week  to  provide  food  for  the  prisoners.  He 
was  a  weakly  and  delicate  old  man.  Late  in  the  autumn  he  took  wife 
and  children  and  proceeded  on  his  exile,  first  to  Sandwich  in  the  Plym- 
outh colony,  whose  magistrates,  hoping  to  emulate  the  zeal  of  Boston, 
forbade  any  one  from  receiving  him.  But  the  prescript  of  nature 
proved  stronger  than  the  one  that  was  issued  by  warrant,  and  for 
awhile  he  found  shelter  and  succor.  The  governor  at  Plymouth  tried 
to  get  him  within  his  power,  and  issued  a  warrant  for  his  appearance 
there.  Upshall  pleaded  ill  health  ;  the  inhabitants  would  not  permit 
the  constable  to  take  him  on  the  warrant.  When,  however,  the  next 
year  opened,  the  Governor's  pressure  was  so  great  that  the  good  people 
of  Plymouth  were  forced  to  send  him  forth  into  the  wilderness.  At 
last  he  found  his  way  to  Newport.  While  wandering  the  Indians  fed 
and  sheltered  him  :  one  of  them  said  "  Come  and  live  with  me  and  I 
will  make  you  a  good  warm  house."  Another  chief  reflected,  "  What 
a  God  have  these  English,  who  deal  so  with  one  another  about  their 
God  !  " 

The  Indians  naturally  pitied  the  men  who  were  the  victims  of  a 
system  which  also  encroached  upon  themselves.    Apart  from 

£  ,  ,  ,.  .         -         The  Friend. 

that,  they  always  appear  to  have  round  some  temper  in  the  and  the  in- 


f\       i  i  •    i  1*11*  •  (•••  i 

Quaker  which  enlisted  their  native  sense  of  justice  and 
drew  forth  a  feeling  of  brotherhood.  When,  for  instance,  Christopher 
Holder  and  a  companion  "  felt  it  required  of  them  "  to  leave  Rhode 
Island  for  Martha's  Vineyard,  the  Governor  of  that  island  hired  an 
Indian  to  take  them  away,  to  be  paid  for  the  service  by  the  Friends 
themselves.  The  Friends  not  having  a  clear  call  to  do  this,  refused 
to  go.  The  Governor  insisted  that  the  Indians  should  remove  them. 
The  natives  declined  this  office  of  the  constable,  and  kept  the  Friends 
for  several  days  during  stormy  weather,  treating  them  with  the  ut- 
most hospitality.  The  Friends  offered  to  pay  them,  but  they  refused, 
saying,  "  You  are  strangers  —  we  are  taught  to  love  strangers."  So 
John  Taylor  travelled  alone  among  Indians,  holding  meetings  with 
them  in  the  woods,  exhorting  and  teaching,  always  welcomed  with 
kindness,  and  finding  the  best  in  the  wigwams  at  his  disposal.  And 
John  Woolman,  also,  many  years  afterward,  preaching  to  Indians  in 
Pennsylvania  through  interpreters,  received  kindly  treatment  and 
hearing  ;  one  of  the  chief  men  said,  "  I  love  to  feel  where  words  come 
from."  i 

After  five  weeks'  imprisonment  Mary  Fisher  and  her  companion 
were  put  on  board  the   Swallow  to  be  returned  to  Barbadoes,  the 

1  Fox's  Journal,  ii.,  115,  169.     Woolman's  Journal,  1  12. 


182  QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

jailer  confiscating  their  beds  and  Bibles  for  his  fees.  On  the  whole 
this  was  good  fortune  for  the  women  ;  for  Endicott,  who  was  absent, 
hearing  of  this  comparative  lenity,  avowed,  "  If  I  had  been  there  I 
would  have  had  them  well  whipped."  l 

Hardly  was  the  Swallow  out  of  sight  when  a  vessel  from  London 

came  into  the  harbor,  with  eight  Friends  aboard:  "four 
other  from  London  and  four  from  Bristol ;  pretty  hearts ;  the 

blessing  of  the  Lord  is  with  them,  and  his  dread  goes  before 
them."2  When,  as  usual,  the  captain  submitted  a  list  of  his  passengers 
to  the  Governor,  and  it  was  learned  that  eight  of  them  were  Friends, 
officers  went  on  board  with  a  warrant,  "  to  search  the  boxes,  chests, 
and  trunks  of  the  Quakers  for  erroneous  books  and  hellish  pamph- 
lets," and  to  bring  the  Quakers  before  the  court.  Four  of  them  were 
women.  After  a  long  examination  upon  their  belief  in  God  and  the 
Scriptures,  they  were  sent  to  jail.  The  examination  was  renewed 
the  next  day,  the  Friends  declining  to  reply,  and  simply  asking  for 
the  reason  of  their  arrest.  Endicott  only  deigned  to  say,  "  Take  heed 
ye  break  not  our  ecclesiastical  laws,  for  then  ye  are  sure  to  stretch  by 
Their  treat-  a  halter."  They  were  sentenced  to  be  returned  by  the 
ment-  same  vessel  which  brought  them,  and  to  be  kept  in  jail  till 

it  was  ready  to  sail.  The  jailer  received  an  order  to  search  their 
baggage  as  often  as  he  saw  fit.  The  master  of  the  vessel  was  ordered 
to  give  bond  in  the  sum  of  .£500  to  take  them  to  England  at  his  own 
cost !  This  at  first  he  refused  to  do,  not  being  conscious  of  any 
infraction  of  law ;  but  he  thought  better  of  it  after  a  few  days  in 
prison.  After  lying  in  jail  for  eleven  weeks,  during  which  their 
bedding  and  most  of  their  effects  were  seized,  to  discharge  the  jailer's 
fees,  they  were  put  thus  stripped  and  unprovided  for  on  board  the 
vessel.  Some  of  the  inhabitants,  touched  with  pity  and  indignation, 
redeemed  their  goods,  so  that  they  reached  London  in  comparative 
comfort. 

All  these  proceedings  were  so  clearly  arbitrary  and  illegal,  and  the 

discontent  of  the  people  was  so  marked,  and  even  threaten- 
generanaw  ing,  that  the  magistrates  took  measures  to  procure  the  sanc- 
klrsninNe^  tion  of  law  for  future  proceedings.  So  in  July  a  letter  was 

addressed  to  the  commissioners  of  the  four  Confederate  Col- 
onies, who  were  about  to  meet  at  Plymouth,  asking  that  they  would 
grant  authority  for  framing  a  particular  law  against  Quakers  and 
heretics.  Procuring  this,  a  law  was  passed  at  a  General  Court  in 
Boston,  October  14,  1656,  enacting  that  any  master  of  any  kind  of 
craft  who  should  bring  Quakers  to  New  England  should  be  fined 

1  Bowden's  History  of  Friends  in  America,  i.,  36. 

2  Caton's  collection  of  MS-,  quoted  by  Bowden. 


1657.]  MARY  DYER  AND  ANNE  BURDEN.  183 

£100,  in  default  of  payment  to  be  imprisoned  till  the  money  was 
forthcoming  :  that  he  should  carry  them  back,  or  upon  refusing  be 
imprisoned  till  he  consent  ;  that  any  Quaker  who  might  arrive  should 
be  committed  to  the  house  of  correction,  be  severely  whipped,  kept  at 
constant  labor,  and  forbidden  from  communication  and  discourse  with 
any  one  ;  that  whoever  should  import  Quaker  books,  or  "  writings 
concerning  their  devilish  opinions,"  shall  be  fined  £5  for  each  book 
or  pamphlet  ;  that  whoever  should  undertake  to  defend  those  writings 
and  opinions  shall  be  fined  for  the  first  offence  forty  shillings,  for  the 
second,  £4  ;  if  they  continue  in  that  way  they  shall  be  put  into 
jail  till  there  be  an  opportunity  to  convey  them  into  banishment  ;  and 
that  whoever  should  revile  the  persons  of  magistrates  and  ministers, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  Quakers,  shall  be  whipped,  or  pay  £5. 

This  law  was  adopted  by  the  four  federate  colonies,  and  Rhode  Isl- 
and was  urged  to  do  the  same  ;  but  the  Assembly  replied  that  they 
could  not  undertake  to  punish  any  man  for  declaring  his 
mind  with  regard  to  religion  ;  that  no  doubt  the  Quakers  and  refusal 
•vere  very  inconvenient,  and  their  doctrines  disorganizing  ; 
but  that  they  seemed  to  court  controversy,  and  persecution,  and  that 
the  better  policy  would  be  to  let  them  alone.  "  These  people,"  they 
said,  begin  to  loathe  this  place  for  that  they  are  not  opposed  by  the 
civil  authority,"  —  a  psychological  law  which  was  beyond  the  compre- 
hension of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans.  Roger  Williams  afterwards 
endeavored  to  get  rid  of  Quakerism  by  challenging  their  Society  to  a 
public  disputation.  It  lasted  several  days,  and  ended  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  both  parties,  each  being  convinced  of  a  triumphant  refutation. 
Williams  wrote  "  George  Fox  digged  out  of  his  Burrow,"  and  Fox 
replied  with  "  A  New-England  Firebrand  quenched,  being  an  An- 
swer to  a  lying,  slanderous  Book  by  one  Roger  Williams,  confuting 
his  blasphemous  Assertions." 

But  the  bit  of  parchment  on  which  the  law  was  engrossed  could  not 
keep  Quakers  out  of  New  England.  Early  in  1657,  Mary 
Dyer  and  Anne  Burden  sailed  into  the  Bay.  Mary  Dyer 
—  a  woman  "of  a  comely  and  grave  countenance,  of  a  good 
family  and  estate,  and  a  mother  of  several  children"  —  belonged  to 
Rhode  Island,  but  came  this  time  from  England.  So  also  did  Anne 
Burden,  to  collect  some  debts  contracted  in  Boston  to  her  husband 
now  deceased.  They  had  both  been  disciples  of  Ann  Hutchinson,  and 
banished  on  that  account.  Of  course  they  were  immediately  arrested 
and  strictly  confined.  Anne  Burden  pleaded  lawful  business,  but  only 
received  for  reply  that  she  was  a  plain  Quaker  and  must  abide  the 
law.  After  three  months  of  suffering  she  was  transferred  to  ship- 
board. Some  pitying  citizens  collected  a  portion  of  the  money  due  to 


Burden 


184 


QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


her,  and  invested  it  in  goods  that  would  find  a  market  in  Barbadoes, 
hoping  that  she  might  be  carried  thither.  The  magistrates  refused 
this,  and  sent  her  to  England,  advising  the  reluctant  master  to  get  his 
pay  out  of  her  goods.  He  was  bold  enough  to  decline ;  whereupon 
the  magistrates  distrained  her  goods  to  cover  her  passage  money,  and 
ordered  that  the  remainder  should  not  be  shipped.  This  act  of  deli- 
cate consideration  robbed  the  widow  of  everything  but  six  shillings, 

which  a  debtor  slipped  into 
her  hand.  Mary  Dyer's  hus- 
band, William  Dyer,  the  sec- 
retary of  Rhode  Island,  came 
to  take  his  wife  home ;  and 
the  magistrates  held  him  in 
a  heavy  sum  not  to  stop  with 
her  in  any  town  of  the  colony, 
and  not  to  allow  any  person 
to  speak  with  her  on  the  way. 
Nothing  but  intense  bigotry 
could  inspire  such  abject 
dread. 

While  Anne 
Burden  was 
thus  sailing 
back  to  Eng- 
land, six  of 
the  eight 
Friends  who 
had  been 
banished 
were  fully 
impressed 
that  their 
duty  was  to 
return.  At 
the  same 

time  five  others  agreed  to  join  them.  Of  these  eleven  persons  four 
were  women.  What  conviction,  deep  as  the  human  heart,  must  have 
rested  in  these  persons,  who  knew  to  a  certainty  the  reception  they 
would  meet.  No  vulgar  love  of  notoriety,  or  itch  to  invite  persecu- 
tion, sent  them  beai'ing  their  testimony  across  stormy  seas.  "  They 
were,"  wrote  William  Dewsbury  to  Judge  Fell's  wife  Margaret,  "  in 
their  measure,  bold  in  the  power  of  God :  the  life  did  arise  in  them." 
The  little,  uncomfortable  vessel  sailed  from  London  in  April,  1657, 


Departure  of  Anne   Burden. 


1657.]  BANISHED  FRIENDS  RETURN.  185 

and  in  consequence  of  rude  weather  put  into  Southampton,  whence 
William  Robinson  also  wrote  to  Margaret  Fell :  "  Dear  Sister,  my 
dear  love  salutes  thee  in  that  which  thinks  not  ill,  which  was  before 
words  were,  in  which  I  stand  faithful  to  him  who  hath  called  us, 
and  doth  arm  us  against  the  fiery  darts  of  the  enemy,  even  in  the 
fear  and  dread  of  the  Almighty.  I  know  thee  and  have  union  with 
thee  though  absent  from  thee." 

Robert  Fowler,  who  built  the  little  vessel  and  proposed  to  carry  its 
cargo  of  Quakerism  across,  has  left  an  interesting  account, 
entitled,  "  A  True  Relation  of  the  Voyage  undertaken  by  me  the  banished 
Robert  Fowler,  with  my  small  vessel  called  the  '  Woodhouse' ; 
but  performed  by  the  Lord,  like  as  he  did  Noah's  Ark,  wherein  he 
shut  up  a  few  righteous  persons  and  landed  them  safe,  even  at  the  hill 
Ararat.  "  His  crew,  besides  himself,  consisted  of  two  men  and  three 
boys.  While  he  waited  in  Southampton  for  a  fair  wind,  he  says,  "  the 
ministers  of  Christ  were  not  idle,  but  went  forth  and  gathered  sticks, 
and  kindled  a  fire,  and  left  it  burning.  "  He  was,  of  course,  all 
through  the  voyage  in  the  mood  to  attribute  his  own  tact  and  seaman- 
ship to  the  Lord.  Several  escapes  were  due  to  divine  intervention. 
"  The  sea  was  my  figure,  for  if  anything  got  up  within,  the  sea  with- 
out rose  up  against  me,  and  then  the  floods  clapped  their  hands."  "  We 
see  the  Lord  leading  our  vessel  even  as  it  were  a  man  leading  a  horse 
by  the  head."  In  two  months  the  little  vessel  landed  its  passengers 
at  New  Amsterdam,  five  of  them  waiting  there,  while  the  rest,  taking 
passage  again,  reached  Rhode  Island.  Of  these,  Mary  Clark  felt  im- 
pelled to  go  to  Boston.  It  is  singular  what  keenness  on  the  trail  of 
Quakerism  the  magistrates  possessed.  She  was  arrested,  and  impris- 
oned after  a  severe  whipping,  inflicted  with  a  three  corded  whip,  "  laid 
on  with  fury." 

We  have  already  mentioned  Christopher  Holder,  who  went  to  Mar- 
tha's Vineyard.  He  was  one  of  Fowler's  passengers.  The  Indians 
put  him  ashore  at  Sandwich,  much  to  the  confusion  and  dismay  of  that 
settlement.  Thence  he  and  a  companion  found  their  way  to  Plym- 
outh. A  warrant  was  issued  against  them  "  as  extravagant  persons 
and  vagabonds."  A  man  at  whose  house  they  held  a  meeting  was 
fined  ten  shillings,  and  they  were  reconveyed  to  Rhode  Island. 

Now  Boston  became  seriously  alarmed  at  the  influx  of  Quakers  into 
Rhode  Island,  which  became  a  kind  of  port  for  repairing  and 
refitting,  whence  Quakerism  could  sally  out  to  desolate  the  Boston  at 
land.     Commissioners  sent  a  remonstrance  to  the  Governor  of  "Quaker*"" 
of  that  colony,  dated  September  12,  1657.     It  contained  a 
vague  menace  in  these  words :  "  We  apprehend  that  it  will  be  our 
duty  seriously  to  consider  what  provision  God  may  call  us  to  make 


186  QUAKERISM  IX   NEW   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

to  prevent  the  aforesaid  mischief."  The  General  Assembly  of  Rhode 
Island,  meeting  in  January,  1658,  returned  a  prudent  reply,  but  it  was 
based  upon  the  statement  that  "  freedom  of  different  consciences,  to  be 
protected  from  enforcements,  was  the  principal  ground  of  our  charter  " 
—  "  which  freedom  we  still  prize  as  the  greatest  happiness  that  men 
can  possess  in  this  world,"  and  more  noble  words  of  like  import,  em- 
bedded in  which  was  the  politic  proposition  to  refer  all  diffi- 
amianathe  culties  that  might  arise  from  the  presence  of  Quakers  to  the 
s-  pro-  supreme  authority  of  England.  A  letter  was  also  dispatched 


to  the  agent  of  the  colony  in  England,  stating  that  "  for  the 
present  we  have  no  just  cause  to  charge  them  (Quakers)  with  the 
breach  of  the  civil  peace."  The  agent  was  instructed  "  to  have  an  eye 
and  ear  open,  in  case  our  adversaries  should  seek  to  undermine  us  in 
our  privileges  granted  to  us,  and  to  plead  our  case  in  such  sort  as  we 
may  not  be  compelled  to  exercise  any  civil  power  over  men's  con- 
sciences, so  long  as  human  orders,  in  point  of  civility,  are  not  cor- 
rupted and  violated,  which  our  neighbors  about  us  do  frequently 
practice,  whereof  many  of  us  have  large  experience,  and  do  judge 
it  to  be  no  less  than  a  point  of  absolute  cruelty."  Sweet  and  solid 
words,  showing  that  the  Rhode  Islanders  were  capable  of  appreciating 
Friends,  and  fit  to  protect  and  entertain  them. 

In  the  mean  time  Holder  and  Copeland  felt  a  call  to  go  to  Salem, 

where  they  arrived  in   July,  1657.     They  made  converts 
go  there,  though  when  Holder  attempted  to  speak  after  service 


in  the  meeting  house,  he  was  held  violently  down  by  the  hair 
and  a  glove  and  handkerchief  thrust  into  his  mouth.  A  man,  Samuel 
Shattock,  whose  feelings  were  shocked  into  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
Quakerism,  interfered.  He  was  arrested  with  the  two  Friends  and 
sent  to  Boston.  After  the  usual  subtle  and  protracted  examination, 
the  Friends  were  sentenced"  to  receive  thirty  lashes  each.  The  execu- 
tioner, with  that  notorious  three-corded  and  knotted  knout  which  was 
used  on  these  religious  occasions,  "  measured  his  ground  and  fetched 
They  are  I"8  strokes  with  all  his  might."  Then  with  lacerated  flesh 
they  were  sent  to  jail,  without  even  straw  to  lie  upon,  and 
kept  for  three  days  without  food.  There  they  remained  nine 
weeks.  Shattock  was  released  on  bail  to  answer  afterward.  Two 
other  sympathizers,  Lawrence  and  Cassandra  Southwick,  were  also 
arrested  ;  Cassandra  was  kept  seven  weeks  in  jail.  Another  member 
of  the  party  of  eleven  was  discovered  in  Dedham  :  he  received  thirty 
lashes  and  was  sent  to  prison  to  join  his  friends. 

During  Holder's  confinement  he  wrote  a  Declaration  of  Faith,  and 
also  a  paper  setting  forth  the  unscriptural  nature  of  the  persecution 
against  Friends.  This  so  enraged  the  magistrates  that,  at  the  instance 


1657.]  INCREASED   STRINGENCY  OF   LAWS.  187 

of  Endicott,  they  resolved  that  all  Quakers  who  were  then  in  prison 
should  be  soundly  thrashed  twice  a  week,  to  begin  with  fifteen  lashes 
and  add  three  each  time  ! 

But  all  this  starving,  this  compendious  brutality  and  nourishing  of 
whips,  availed  nothing.  Already  there  were  many  secret  converts.  It 
was  plain  that  the  first  law  of  1656  failed  to  keep  foreign  Quakers  out 
of  New  England,  and  threatened  to  create  native  ones.  Then,  with 
curious  short-sightedness,  the  men —  whose  historical  vista  was  crowded 
with  images  of  the  pillory,  the  branding-iron,  the  whipping-post,  the 
ear-shears,  from  whose  expansive  cruelties  they  had  escaped  beyond  the 
sea  —  concluded  to  repeat  the  experiment  which  they  had  proved  to  be 
a  failure  by  outliving  and  subduing  it.  Another  law  was  AnewUw 
passed  in  August,  1657,  in  effect  as  follows :  that  whoever  •*•* 
shall  bring  into  the  jurisdiction,  or  cause  to  be  brought,  any  member 
of  the  "cursed  sect"  of  Quakers,  shall  forfeit  £100,  and  be  put  in 
jail  till  the  money  is  paid :  that  whoever  shall  entertain  or  conceal  a 
Quaker,  or  other  blasphemous  heretic,  shall  forfeit  forty  shillings  for 
every  hour  of  such  entertainment,  and  be  imprisoned  till  all  the  reck- 
oned forfeitures  are  paid  ;  that  every  male  Quaker  who  shall  presume 
after  commitment  by  the  previous  law  to  come  into  the  jurisdiction 
shall  have  one  ear  cut  off  and  be  kept  in  jail  till  a  chance  occurs  to 
get  rid  him  ;  that  for  a  second  offence  the  other  ear  shall  be  cut  off, 
and  he  "  kept  at  the  house  of  correction  as  aforesaid ; "  that  every 
woman  Quaker,  previously  committed,  who  shall  appear  again,  shall 
be  severely  whipped,  and  kept  in  the  house  of  correction  till  she  can 
be  sent  away  "  at  her  own  charge ;"  that  every  Quaker,  "  he  or  she," 
who  shall  offend  for  the  third  time  shall  have  the  tongue  bored  with 
a  hot  iron  and  then  be  kept  at  hard  labor  in  the  house  of  correction 
until  they  can  be  got  rid  of  "  at  their  own  charge. "  And  further- 
more it  is  ordered,  "  that  all  and  every  Quaker,  arising  from  amongst 
ourselves,  shall  be  dealt  with  and  suffer  the  like  punishment  as  the 
law  provides  against  foreign  Quakers."  "  You  are  to  take  with  you 
the  executioner "  —  runs  a  warrant  to  the  marshal,  signed  Edward 
Rawson,  Secretary,  in  pursuance  of  this  law  —  "and  repair  to  the 
house  of  correction,  and  there  see  him  cut  off  the  right  ears  of  John 
Copeland,  Christopher  Holder,  and  John  Rons,  Quakers." 

Endicott's  private  and  illegal  luxury  of  having  the  imprisoned 
Quakers  whipped  twice  a  week  so  shocked  and  excited  the  inhabitants 
that  the  heretics  had  to  be  discharged.  The  new  law  was  read  to 
them,  and  they  were  exiled  from  the  colony. 

A  growing  popular  sympathy  for  the  Friends  appeared  also  in 
Plymouth,  and  drove  the  magistrates  into  an  imitation  of  the  Boston 
method.  A  law  was  passed  that  no  person  should  entertain  a  Quaker 


188 


QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


under  a  penalty  of  five  pounds  for  each  offence,  or  to  be  whipped 
for  it.  If  he  could  declare  on  oath  that  the  person  entertained  was 
not  known  by  him  to  be  a  Quaker,  he  would  be  free  of  the  penalty. 
It  would  be  superfluous  to  mention  each  individual  case  of  suffering 
and  persecution  of  members  of  the  Society,  and  to  dwell  upon 
its  features.  In  fact  the  cases  were  too  numerous  for  that. 
In  New  Haven  a  key  was  tied  in  Humphrey  Norton's  mouth 
to  prevent  his  speaking ;  he  was  sentenced  to  be  whipped  in  the  stocks, 


Proceedings 
at  New 

1 1. -l veil. 


Norton's   Punishment. 


to  be  branded  in  the  hand  with  the  letter  H  for  heretic,  to  be  fined 
ten  pounds,  and  to  be  banished.  Every  detail  of  this  sentence  was 
carried  out  with  an  alacrity  and  heartiness  that  disgusted  the  bystand- 
ers. Norton  had  no  money,  but  a  Dutch  settler  paid  his  fine  and 
prison  fees.  Afterwards  Norton  and  a  companion  venturing  to  visit 
Plymouth,  the  authorities,  baffled  in  their  efforts  to  convict  them  on 


1658.]  THE  DEATH  PENALTY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  189 

the  charge  of  heresy,  laid  a  trap  by  demanding  of  them  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance.  This,  George  Fox  would  never  do  ;  and  no  Friend 
after  him  could  be  induced  to  recognize  thus  a  carnal  authority.  Nor- 
ton and  Rous  were  both  severely  whipped.  The  barbarous  action 
made  converts  among  the  spectators. 

And  so  the  ineffectual  work  of  the  colonial  authorities  went  on. 
Women  were  stripped  for  a  whipping  ;  one  of  them  was  whipped 
with  a  lately  born  babe  clinging  to  her  breast ;  the  record  of  fining, 
starving,  imprisoning,  banishing,  and  miscellaneous  cruelty  becomes 
monotonous.  The  whole  spirit  and  disposition  of  the  sufferers  were 
so  prayerful,  so  forgiving,  so  lifted  apparently  beyond  the  reach  of 
pain,  yet  so  resolved  to  endure  unto  the  end,  that  a  pro- 
found impression  was  made  upon  the  people.  But  the  mag-  the  Friend*' 
istrates,  though  secretly  alarmed  at  this,  showed  no  sign 
of  relenting,  but  rather  sought  to  stamp  out  the  rising  sympathy  by 
redoubled  severity.  Meetings  of  Friends  sprang  up  in  many  towns, 
and  notably  the  largest  gatherings  were  made  in  places  where  the 
application  of  the  law  had  been  severest.  And  all  these  people  refused 
henceforth  to  attend  the  regular  public  worship. 

Something  more  decisive  must  be  done.     The  ministers,  with  John 
Norton  at  their  head,  persuaded  the  magistrates  to  pass  a  The  death 
law  holding  the  penalty  of  death  over  Quakers  once  banished. 
The  law,  however,  was  only  passed  by  the  accident  of  the 
absence  of  a  deputy  who  was  ill.     He  was  a  deacon,  but 
would  have  voted  against  it.     Hastening  to  the  Assembly  1658- 
he  besought  that  his  vote  might  still  be  received.     The  magistrates, 
however,  had  procured  what  they  wanted,  and  were  in  no  humor  to 
gratify  the  deacon.     This  Massachusetts  law  was  passed  October  20, 
1658.     It  also  included  a  provision  for  imprisoning  sympathizers,  pub- 
lishers of  Quaker  opinions,  truants  from  church  assemblies,  attendants 
upon  Quaker  meetings,  and  also  for  banishing  obstinate  recusants  upon 
pain  of  death. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  action  of  the  General  Court  in  the 
case  of  the  two  children  of  Lawrence  and  Cassandra  South-  The  case  of 
wick?     Their  parents  had  been  banished  under  penalty  of  ^ckcuu1- 
death.     The  children,  who  stayed  behind  in  extreme  poverty,  dren 
could  not  pay  the  fine  levied  on  them  for  non-attendance  upon  regular 
worship.     That  fine  must  somehow  be  paid ;  and  this  was  the  way  that 
Massachusetts  men  expected  to  secure  their  pound  of  flesh,  —  namely, 
under  this  order  :  "Whereas,  Daniel  Southwick  and  Provided  South- 
wick,  son  and  daughter  of  Lawrence  Southwick,  absenting  themselves 
from  the  public  ordinances,  having  been  fined  by  the  courts  of  Salem 
and  Ipswich,  pretending  they  have  no  estates,  and  resolving  not  to 


190 


QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


work,  the  Court,  upon  perusal  of  a  law  which  was  made  upon  account 
of  debts,  in  answer  to  what  should  be  done  for  the  satisfaction  of  the 
fines,  resolves,  That  the  treasurers  of  the  several  counties  are  and  shall 
be  fully  empowered  to  sell  the  said  persons  to  any  of  the  English  na- 
tion at  Virginia  or  Barbadoes,  to  answer  the  said  fines.  "  This  brother 
and  sister,  it  was  hoped,  might  bring  ten  pounds  each,  and  the  treas- 
ury incur  no  loss.  But  let  it  be  remembered  that  there  was  not  a 
sea-captain  in  the  port  of  Boston  who  would  turn  slave-dealer  to  suit 
the  General  Court.  One  of  them  objected  that  such  passengers 
would  spoil  the  ship's  company.  Of  that  the  officer  assured  him  he 
need  have  no  fear,  for,  he  said,  "  They  are  poor,  harmless  creatures, 
and  will  not  hurt  anybody."  "And  will  you  "  —  was  the  sailor's 
retort  —  "  offer  to  make  slaves  of  such  harmless  creatures  ?  "  So  the 
children  lingered  in  their  poverty  till  a  more  favorable  opportunity 
might  offer. 

Later  an  attempt  was  made  to  dispose  of  a  mature  person  in  the 
same  way,  who  was  fined  for  non-attendance  on  public  wor- 
be  sold  as       ship,  and  was  too  poor  to  discharge  it.    Again  no  vessel  could 


be  found  to  transport  him  to  a  market.  Notwithstanding 
these  hints  of  the  popular  displeasure,  the  General  Court  drafted  its 
intention  into  a  law,  as  follows  :  "  That  all  children  and  servants  and 
others,  that  for  conscience  sake  cannot  come  to  their  meetings  to  wor- 
ship, and  have  not  estates  in  their  hands  to  answer  the  fines,  must  be 
sold  for  slaves  to  Barbadoes  or  Virginia,  or  other  remote  parts." 
Thus  the  record  stands. 

But  if  death  be  a  darker  and  more  piteous  fate  than  slavery  we  shall 
now  see  the  record  darken.  About  the  middle  of  April,  1659,  Wil- 
liam Robinson  and  Marmaduke  Stevenson  arrived  in  Boston,  under  a 
deep  feeling  of  religious  duty,  to  protest  against  the  intolerance  of  rulers. 
It  was  a  day  of  public  fast,  and  the  two  Quakers  attended  church  and 
tried  to  address  the  people.  They  were  of  course  arrested  and  thrown 
into  prison.  Two  other  Quakers,  Nicholas  Davis  and  Patience  Scott, 
who  were  in  Boston  at  the  same  time,  were  also  arrested  and  put  in  the 
same  prison.  Davis  came  to  Boston  on  business  ;  but  Patience  Scott, 
a  remarkable  child,  only  eleven  years  old,  had  come  from  Providence 
where  her  parents  lived,  thinking  that  she  had  a  message  of  the  Spirit 
to  bear.  After  an  imprisonment  of  tln-ee  months,  at  her  examination 
she  conducted  herself  with  such  discretion,  and  a  wisdom  far  above 
her  years,  as  quite  to  baffle  the  magistrates,  who  could  not  help  admir- 
ing her.  It  would  not  do  to  banish  such  a  child,  so  the  Court  consid- 
ering that  "  Satan  is  put  to  his  shifts  to  make  use  of  such  a  child,  " 
ordered  her  to  be  sent  home. 

In  the  guileless  earnestness  of  children  there  was  an  appeal  which 


QUAKERS   IMPRISONED. 


191 


even  those  stern,  hard  men  could  not  always  resist.  Mary  Wright, 
a  child  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  years,  whose  sister  had  been  banished 
from  Massachusetts,  found  her  way  from  Long  Island  to  Boston  that 
she  might  warn  the  magistrates  to  desist  from  the  persecution  of  the 
innocent.  She  appeared  before  the  court  and  delivered  her  message. 
"  This  saying  so  struck  them  at  first,  that  they  all  sate  silent."1  Per- 
haps some  of  them  were  thinking  when  and  where  it  was  said  — 
"•  of  such  are  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  But  Secretary  Rawson  was 
quick  to  discern  this  unwonted  mood.  "What!  "  he  cried  out,  "shall 
we  be  baffled  by  such  a  one  as  this  ?  Come,  let  us  drink  a  dram  !  " 


Mary  Wright  in  Court. 


Mary  Dyer,  who  had 
been  turned  out  of  Bos- 
ton in  1657,  hearing  of 
Friends  in  prison,  felt 
a  divine  call  to  visit 
them.  Very  soon,  by 

a  warrant  for  her  arrest,  they  all  met  under  one  roof.    Their 
examination  occurred  in  September,  and  they  were  sentenced  arrest  of 
to  banishment  under  the   penalty  of  death.     Robinson  re-  iier'baiiish- 
buked  the  Court  in  terms  so  galling  to  its  pride  that  he  was 
gagged  with  a  handkerchief ;  and  when  he  persisted,  the  Court,  in  a 
rage  at  his  astonishing  perversity,  had  him  taken  out,  stripped  to  the 
waist,  and  well  whipped. 

Davis  and  Mary  Dyer  went  home.  Robinson  and  Stevenson,  under 
an  impression  of  religious  duty,  went  to  Salem,  where  they  held  meet- 
ings in  the  woods,  which  many  of  the  inhabitants  attended.  Thence 
they  went  to  Portsmouth.  While  this  was  going  on,  Mary  Dyer 

1  Scwel's  History  of  the  Quakers. 


192  QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

could  have  no  peace  of  her  soul  unless  she  returned  to  Boston  to  visit  a 
Friend  in  prison.  She  was  recognized  and  arrested.  Soon  Robinson 
and  Stevenson  appeared  in  Boston  ;  coming  through  Salem  a  party  of 
Friends,  four  of  whom  were  women,  joined  them,  and  the  sad  journey 
was  made.  One  of  the  women  "  brought  linen  to  wrap  the  dead  bodies 
of  those  who  were  to  suffer."  The  Salem  people  understood  the  tem- 
per of  Endicott.  They  were  all  arrested ;  Robinson  and  Stevenson 
were  chained  in  a  separate  cell.  "  There  were  now,"  says  Bowden, 
"  no  less  than  seventeen  persons  in  the  jails  of  Boston  for  professing 
Quakerism." 

The  three  banished  ones  were  brought  before  the  General  Court. 
Great  was  the  embarrassment  of  the  magistrates,  for  indeed 

of  Robin-  they  shrunk  from  inflicting  the  death  penalty.  The  prison- 
son,  Steven-  ..  •  i  i  •,  i  •  11-  T  • 

son,  and       crs  all  said  that  they  returned  in  obedience  to  a  divine  call. 

Mary  Dyer.       -n-i-ii  -I-I-M-VT-I-I 

tor  that  day  they  were  remanded  to  jail.  .Next  day,  how- 
ever, John  Norton  preached,  and  gave  the  magistrates  a  piece  of  his 
cruel  and  unrelenting  mind ;  and  putting  the  cases  of  the  Quakers  on 
the  ground  of  the  public  danger  and  the  damnable  injury  done  to  the 
salvation  of  souls,  he  so  stiffened  up  the  Court  that  Endicott,  still  with 
some  misgiving  which,  it  was  said,  was  betrayed  in  his  voice  and  on 
his  face,  managed  to  pronounce  sentence  of  death  on  the  three.  He 
recovered  his  tone  when  the  superb  tranquillity  of  Mary  Dyer  nettled 
him,  and  he  cried,  "  Take  her  away."  "  Yea,  joyfully  shall  I  go,"  she 
said. 

The  27th  of  August,  the  day  appointed  for  the  execution,  was  a 
sermon  day  in  Boston  ;  and  while  John  Wilson  was  keeping 
up  the  spirits  of  his  hearers  to  the  standard  of  the  gibbet,  a 
great  crowd  of  amazed  and  sympathizing  people  gathered 
at  the  prison.  Robinson  exhorted  them  from  a  window  till  an  officer 
came  in  and  thrust  all  the  Quakers  down-stairs  and  locked  them  into  a 
room.  A  company  of  soldiers  could  not  prevail  upon  the  crowd  to 
disperse. 

Now  the  procession  starts  for  Boston  Common,  with  a  great  force 
of  soldiers  ;  the  drummers  receive  instructions  to  rattle  vigorously  if 
the  Quakers  should  try  to  speak,  which  several  times  they  did.  Said 
Marv  Dver  Mary  Dyer,  "  This  is  to  me  an  hour  of  the  greatest  joy  I 
reprieved.  ever  had  in  this  world.  No  ear  can  hear,  no  tongue  can 
utter,  and  no  heart  can  understand,  the  sweet  incomes  and  the  re- 
freshings of  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  which  I  now  feel."  Surely  there 
was  nothing  feigned  or  fantastic  in  her  feeling.  So  lofty  was  the 
strain  of  her  soul  that  when  at  the  last  moment  she  was  reprieved, 
she  seemed  reluctant  to  accept  the  fresh  lease  of  life. 

Robinson  was  the  first  to  suffer  ;  and  even  that  penalty  did  not 


1660.] 


MARY  DYER. 


193 


exempt  him  from  insult  from  Wilson,  the  minister.  "  We  suffer,"  he 
said,  "  not  as  evil  doers,  but  as  those  who  have  testified  and 
manifested  the  truth."  Wilson  interrupted  him,  "  Hold  thy 
tongue  —  thou  art  going  to  die  with  a  lie  in  thy  mouth." 
Then  came  Stevenson,  who  simply  said,  "  Be  it  known  unto  you  all, 
this  day,  that  we  suffer  not  as  evil  doers,  but  for  conscience  sake." 
How  strange  it  is  that  the  tone  of  these  men  did  not  remind  magis- 
trates of  the  early  apostolic  days.  No  —  those  lay  dead  and  buried 
in  their  Bibles. 

Mary  Dyer  stood  by  and  calmly  saw  these  bodies  dangle,  waiting  her 
turn.     The  rope  was  adjusted,  her  clothes  tied  around  her  feet,  for  the 


Mary  Dyer  led  to  Execution. 

General  Court  is  decent.  At  the  last  moment  the  cry  of  her  reprieve 
came  sounding  across  the  Common,  extorted  by  the  pleadings  of  her 
son  ;  and  Wilson  will  have  to  wait  awhile.  The  government  would 
not  incur  the  expense  for  coffins ;  the  bodies  were  stripped  and  thrown 
into  a  pit  unburied,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrance  of  many  people. 

Mai'y  Dyer  was  only  reprieved  for  two  days.  But  at  the  end  of  that 
time  the  magistrates  saw  that  it  would  be  more  prudent  to  banish  her 
again,  and  she  returned  alone  to  Rhode  Island. 

The  usual  effect  followed  of  a  propagation  of  Quaker  sentiment. 


VOL.   II. 


13 


194  QUAKERISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

Sevei-al  people  were  fined,  imprisoned,  and  whipped  in  consequence. 
The  other  Quakers  in  the  prison  were  also  whipped  and  dis- 
meas-    charged.     Some  of  them  refused  to  pay  their  prison  fees, 


but  there  were  plenty  of  aggrieved  and  compassionate  citi- 
zens to  undertake  that  charge. 

Then  Mary  Dyer  returned  again  to  Boston,  as  it  was  required  of  her, 
she  said,  to  finish  her  sad  and  heavy  experience  in  that  bloody  town. 
She  came  in  March,  1660.  "  Are  you  the  same  Mary  Dyer  that  was 
here  before  ?  "  asked  Endicott.  "  I  am  the  same  Mary  Dyer,"  she 
answered,  "  that  was  here  the  last  General  Court."  A  letter  soon 
followed  from  her  husband,  who  was  not  a  Quaker,  to  Governor  En- 
dicott. It  contained  a  touching  appeal  that  the  life  of  his  wife  might 
be  preserved.  "  If  her  zeal  be  so  great  as  thus  to  adventure,  oh,  let 
your  pity  and  favor  surmount  it,  ana  save  her  life."  "  I  only  say 
this,  yourselves  have  been,  and  are,  or  may  be,  husbands  to  wives  :  so 
am  I,  yea,  to  one  most  dearly  beloved.  Oh,  do  not  deprive  me  of 
her,  but  I  pray  give  her  me  once  again.  Pity  me  !  I  beg  it  with 
tears,  and  rest  your  humble  suppliant." 

But  Endicott  asked  —  "  You  will  own  yourself  a  Quaker,  will  you 
not  ?  "  "I  own  myself  to  be  reproachfully  called  so,"  was 
retentenwi  her  answer.  Then  the  Governor  pronounced  the  sentence  of 
death  against  her  before  the  General  Court.  "  This,"  said 
she,  "  is  no  more  than  thou  saidst  before."  "  But  now  it  is  to  be  ex- 
ecuted :  therefore  prepare  yourself  for  nine  o'clock  to-morrow."  And 
as  she  spake  concerning  the  motives  for  her  return,  Endicott  impa- 
tiently ordered  her  away.  So  next  day,  with  a  strong  body  of  sol- 
diers, for  fear  of  the  people,  and  with  drummers  before  and  behind 
to  drown  the  dreadful,  accusing  voice,  she  reached  Boston  Common 
again.  There  she  refused  to  purchase  her  life  at  the  expense  of  not 
performing  her  present  mission  from  the  Lord.  She  declined  the 
prayers  of  any  elder  ;  this  was  offered  gratis  to  her.  Wilson  called 
Her  execu-  ou^  *°  uer  no*  *°  ^e  8O  deluded  by  the  devil.  "  Nay,  man, 
Uon  I  am  not  now  to  repent,"  she  answered.  Some  one  taunted 

her  with  having  said  that  she  had  been  in  Paradise.  "  Yea,  I  have 
been  in  Paradise  several  days,"  Then  came  the  end.  "  She  did 
hang  as  a  flag,"  said  one  of  her  judges  scoffingly,  "for  others  to  take 
example  by." 

In  this  year  monthly  meetings  of  the  Society  were  set  up  in  many 
places  in  New  England.  Quarterly  meetings  were  established  a  few 
years  later. 

William  Leddra  was  a  banished  Quaker  who  dared  to  return  in  the 
same  year.  Early  in  1661  he  was  brought  before  the  Court,  bound 
with  chains  to  a  log  which  he  dragged  behind  him.  His  examination 


1661.]  END  OF  THE  PERSECUTION.  195 

swarmed  with  trivial  questions  and  absurd  replies  to  his  responses. 
But  the  court  tried  to  persuade  him  to  recant  his  opinions  and  save  his 
life.  "  What !  join  with  such  murderers  as  you  are  !  Then  Executioner 
let  every  man  that  meets  me  say,  Lo,  this  is  the  man  that  Leddr* 
hath  forsaken  the  God  of  his  salvation."  So  on  a  day  when  a  sermon 
was  to  be  delivered  he  was  sentenced  to  be  executed.  After  the  con- 
clusion of  it  he  too  found  his  way  to  Boston  Common,  and  died  there 
as  tranquilly  as  his  predecessors. 

This  was  the  last  execution  in  Boston  for  cause  of  religious  opinion. 
A  great  many  Quakers  were  still  languishing   in   prison  ; 
among  them  was  Wenlock  Christison,  a  returned  banished  weniock 

Chrigtison. 

Quaker,  and  liable  to  be  hanged.  He  happened  to  return  on 
the  day  that  Leddra  was  sentenced  and  entered  the  Court  at  the  mo- 
ment of  pronouncing  the  sentence.  His  presence  struck  dumb  the 
magistrates.  But  he  was  soon  brought  to  the  bar,  briefly  questioned, 
and  sent  to  prison.  On  the  day  when  Leddra  was  hanged,  he  was 
brought  to  the  bar  again,  the  magistrates  hoping  to  frighten  him  into 
a  recantation.  They  offered  him  that  or  death.  He  preferred  the  lat- 
ter, in  such  a  style  of  speech  and  sweetness  of  temper  as  greatly  to  con- 
fuse his  persecutors,  which  being  noticed  by  Endicott  much  disturbed 
him.  He  was  remanded  until  the  next  General  Court,  when  a  strong 
minority  appeared  against  the  death  penalty  ;  but  Endicott  passion- 
ately sentenced  him.  And  he  prophesied :  "  If  you  have  power  to 
take  my  life  from  me,  the  which  I  question,  I  believe  you  shall  never 
more  take  Quakers'  lives  from  them.  Note  my  words."  Sure  enough  ; 
and  they  were  notable ;  for  about  this  time  the  news  of  the  Restoration 
reached  Boston,  and  there  was  no  Cromwell  of  any  name  to 
countenance  the  doings  of  the  Puritan.  This,  coupled  with  tion.  rt^ 
the  growing  anger  of  the  people,  led  to  a  general  jail  delivery  Fnendare- 
of  Quakers,  including  Christison.  A  new  law  was  passed, 
substituting  for  the  death  penalty  banishment  on  pain  of  a  whipping 
from  town  to  town  ;  and  several  were  so  treated.  Josiah  Southwick 
—  an  elder  brother  of  the  two  children  who  were  sentenced  to  be  sold 
as  slaves  —  said,  on  hearing  his  sentence,  "  Here  is  my  body  ;  if  you 
want  a  further  testimony  to  the  truth  I  profess,  take  it  and  tear  it  in 
pieces  ;  it  is  freely  given  up  ;  and  for  your  sentence  I  matter  not.  It 
is  no  more  terrifying  to  me  than  if  ye  had  taken  a  feather  and  blown 
it  in  the  air."  Then  he  was  whipped  through  Boston,  Roxbury,  and 
Dedham,  and  cast  off  into  the  wilderness. 

It  seemed  advisable  to  enlighten  Charles  II.  upon  the  opinions  and 
practices  of  the  Quakers,  to  make  it  appear  that  they  were  of  An  ^1^ 
such  a  nature  as  to  justify  the  General  Court  in  its  exercise  tothe  King- 
of  the  late  severities.     An  address  was  prepared  and  sent  to  the  King, 


196 


QUAKERISM  IN   NEW  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


setting  forth  the  necessity  of  extreme  measures  against  those  enemies 
of  religion  and  government.  The  Friends  in  London  furnished  the 
King  with  a  counter-declaration  which  took  up  severally  the  charges 
in  the  address,  and  showed  how  unlikely  to  be  true  they  were,  and 
how  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the  Society.  A  book,  entitled  "  New 
England  Judged,  written  by  a  Friend,  giving  a  minute  account  of  the 
persecutions  in  the  colony,"  was  also  put  into  the  hands  of  the  King, 
who  was  particularly  struck  by  a  passage  that  reported  remarks  by  a 
prominent  enemy  of  the  Society,  to  this  effect  :  "  This  year  ye  will  go 


Shattock's  Commission. 


and  complain  to  the  Parliament ;  and  the  next  year  they  will  send  to 
see  how  it  is ;  and  the  third  year  the  government  is  changed." 
Whether  or  not  this  was  accurately  repeated,  it  had  a  great  effect 
upon  the  King.  "  Lo,  these  are  my  good  subjects  of  New  England, 
but  I  will  put  a  stop  to  them."  And  when  about  this  time  the  news 
of  the  execution  of  William  Leddra  reached  England,  it  was  plain  to 
the  Quakers  that  they  might  count  upon  the  royal  interposition. 

At  the  personal  solicitation  of  Edward  Burrough,  a  prominent  and 


1661.]  THE  KING'S   ORDER.  197 

influential  member  of  the  Society,  the  King  put  into  his  hands  an 
order  "  To  our  trusty  and  well-beloved  John  Endicott,  Esq.,  charle«  in- 
and  to  all  and  every  other  the  governor  or  governors  of  our  j^^E^f^ 
plantations,"  etc.,  commanding  them  to  forbear  to  proceed  Fnends 
any  further  against  their  prisoners,  but  to  send  them  over  to  England, 
with  the  charges  against  them.     With  excellent  policy  and  fine  irony 
the  order  was  entrusted  to  Samuel  Shattock,  a  Quaker,  banished  under 
penalty  of  death  ;  the  Society  hired  a  vessel  and  sent  him  over  with 
dispatch. 

It  was  a  pardonable  and  not  unnatural  weakness  in  Shattock  if  he 
felt  some  satisfaction  when  he  came  into  the  presence  of  En- 
dicott with  his  hat  on  and  that  order  in  his  pocket.     The  presents  the 
captain  of  the  vessel,  also  a  Quaker,  accompanied  him.     En-  to  Endicott. 
dicott  ordered  Shattock  's  hat  to  be  removed,  and  was  pro- 
ceeding to  make  the  old  brutal  interrogations  preparatory  to  sending 
him  to  prison,  when  Samuel  presented  his  credentials  and  the  order. 
A  sight  of  the  Governor's  face  at  that  moment  might  have  atoned  for 
a  good  deal  of  persecution.     In  his  amazement  he  handed  back  Shat- 
tock 's  hat  to  him,  and  took  off  his  own  in  deference  to  the  presence  of 
the  King's  authority,  then  slowly  read   the   papers.     He  withdrew 
awhile  to  collect  himself,  then  took  Shattock  with  him  to  the  Deputy 
Governor,  Bellingham.     After  <*  brief  conference  with  him,  Endicott 
simply  said,  "  We  shall  obey  his  Majesty's  commands." 

But  should  the  prisoners  be  sent  to  England  ?  That  would  be  to 
send  loud  and  swift  witnesses  against  their  own  doings.  How,  then, 
should  the  exigency  be  met  ?  Simply  by  not  having  any  prisoners  ! 
William  Salter,  keeper  of  Boston  jail,  was  at  once  ordered  to  release 
and  discharge  all  the  Quakers  in  his  custody. 

When  soon  after  John  Norton,  the  minister,  and  Simon  Bradstreet 
were  sent  as  commissioners  to  England  to  assure  the  King  of  Ml8Pion  o{ 
the  loyalty  of  Massachusetts  —  which  there  was  good  reason 
for  doubting  —  the  question  of  the  treatment  of  the  Quakers 
was  one  pretty  certain  to  confront  and  trouble  them.  They  were  met 
in  London  by  Friends,  among  them  John  Copeland,  whose  mutilated 
ear  was  a  swift  witness  against  them  of  the  trials  and  persecutions  he 
and  his  fellows  had  suffered  in  Boston.  George  Fox  himself  was  pres- 
ent at  this  conference,  and  questioned  the  Commissioners  so  closely 
that  they  soon  became  confused.  William  Robinson's  father,  who 
was  not  a  Friend,  might,  it  was  suggested,  institute  an  investigation 
as  to  the  death  of  his  son.  Some  there  were  who  proposed  that  the 
Commissioners  should  be  held  personally  responsible  for  the  persecu- 
tion of  Friends  in  Massachusetts.  When  the  Commissioners  returned 
to  Boston  and  they  were  received  with  marked  ill-favor  because  their 


to 


198  QUAKERISM   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  [CiiAi-.  VIII. 

mission  was  less  successful  than  it  was  hoped  it  would  be,  the  disap- 
pointment and  chagrin  was  supposed  to  have  caused  Norton's  death. 
At  any  rate  he  soon  died  suddenly,  and  this  was  of  course  accepted 
by  the  Quakers  as  a  judgment. 

But  when  the  magistrates  found  that  the  feeling  against  them  was 
seventies  abating,  and  that  no  warrant  would  be  likely  to  issue  from 
K?u"!a!.  re-  England,  they  revived  their  exercises  against  the  Quakers,  so 
far  as  to  have  them  whipped  whenever  they  could  be  found 
delivering  their  message.  Men  and  women  were  tied  to  the  cart's 
tail  and  scourged  from  town  to  town  ;  and  this  happened  also  in  New 
Hampshire,  which  then  belonged  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bay.  Three 
women  preaching  in  Dover  were  driven  thus  from  constable  to  con- 
stable through  several  towns,  receiving  ten  lashes  in  each  town.  This 
was  in  December,  1662,  and  the  season  was  inclement  also.  Two 
bystanders  who  expressed  commiseration  were  clapped  in  the  stocks. 
In  Cambridge  a  woman  was  thrown  into  the  jail  without  food,  and 
nothing  to  lie  upon.  A  Friend  brought  her  some  milk ;  he  was  fined 
five  pounds  and  put  into  the  same  jail.  The  woman  was  whipped 
through  three  towns.  She  returned  several  times  to  Boston,  and  was 
whipped  each  time.  The  last  occasion  happened  in  1665,  on  the  day 
when  Endicott  was  buried.  She  attended  the  funeral,  and  making, 
probably,  some  unpalatable  remarks,  was  imprisoned.  She  was  then 
sixty-five  years  old. 

The  cases  of  these  persecutions  are  too  numerous  to  mention  singly, 
Further  in-  an(^  they  all  have  a  revolting  sameness.  They  lasted  ten 
from'th"8  years,  and  did  not  come  to  an  end  until  the  King,  offended 
Kmg  by  the  prohibition  of  Episcopacy  and  of  the  reading  of  the 

Liturgy,  issued  sharp  injunctions.  To  Massachusetts  he  said,  "  It  is 
very  scandalous  that  any  person  should  be  debarred  the  exercise  of 
his  religion,  according  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  England,  by  those 
who  were  indulged  with  the  liberty  of  being  of  what  profession  or 
religion  they  pleased."  To  Connecticut  he  sent,  "  All  persons  of  civil 
lives  might  freely  enjoy  the  liberty  of  their  consciences,  and  the  wor- 
ship of  God  in  that  way  which  they  think  best."  So  it  came  to  pass 
that  Quakerism  conquered  a  life  in  New  England. 

"  We  own,"  wrote  Penn  from  his  cell  in  Newgate,  —  "  we  own  Civil 
Government,  or  Magistracy,  as  God's  Ordinance  for  the  pun- 
statement  of  ishment  of  Evil-doers  and  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well  ; 

Joctriue.  ••'•«••  i  i  i  «i  • 

and  though  we  cannot  comply  with  those  laws  that  prohibit 
us  to  worship  God  according  to  our  Consciences,  as  believing  it  to  be 
His  alone  Prerogative  to  preside  in  matters  of  Faith  and  Worship, 
yet  we  both  own  and  are  ready  to  yield  Obedience  to  every  Ordinance 
of  Man  relating  to  Human  Affairs  and  that  for  Conscience-sake." 


1661.]  PENN'S    STATEMENT   OF   DOCTRINE.  199 

Through  long  years  of  suffering  and  tribulation  this  was  the  unvary- 
ing rule  of  the  Friends.  So  even  and  self-possessed  was  their  temper 
that  it  was  only  in  rare  instances  that  outrage  and  hardship  provoked 
some  ill-balanced  disciple  to  extravagance  and  fanaticism.  "  To  con- 
ceit," wrote  Penn  when  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  of  London,  "  that 
men  must  form  their  Faith  of  things  proper  to  Another  World  by 
the  Prescriptions  of  mortal  Men,  or  else  they  can  have  no  right  to 
eat,  drink,  sleep,  walk,  trade,  be  at  liberty,  or  live  in  This,  to  me 
seems  both  ridiculous  and  dangerous."  l  Eminent  common  sense  like 
this  was  united,  in  them,  with  a  noble  courage  and  a  power  of  en- 
durance which  nothing  could  overcome.  They  disobeyed  human  law 
only  in  obedience,  as  they  believed,  to  the  divine  law,  taking  the  con- 
sequences without  resistance.  Prisons,  loss  of  worldly  estate,  scourg- 
ings,  mutilations,  the  rage  of  mobs,  ruin  and  persecution  in  every  form, 
were  visited  upon  them  in  the  blindness  of  an  intolerant  age.  But  it 
was  only  by  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  that  they  were  hanged. 

1  Select  Works  of  William  Penn. 


I 


CHAPTER  IX. 


VIRGINIA    AND    MARYLAND    UNDER    THE   COMMONWEALTH. 

, 

RETURN  OF  SIR  JOHN  HARVEY  TO  VIRGINIA.  —  His  NEW  ADMINISTRATION. —  SUC- 
CEEDED BY  WYAT.  —  SIR  WILLIAM  BERKELEY  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR.  —  THB 
PURITANS  AND  ROYALISTS  OF  VIRGINIA. — LAWS  AGAINST  THE  FORMER.  —  INDIAN 
INSURRECTION  IN  1643.  —  DEATH  OF  OPECHANCANOUGH.  —  GROWTH  OF  THE  COLONY. 
—  EMIGRATION  OF  CAVALIERS  TO  AMERICA. — SURRENDER  OF  VIRGINIA  TO  THE 
PARLIAMENTARY  COMMISSIONERS.  —  REDUCTION  OF  MARYLAND. — CHARACTER  AND 
CAREER  OF  WILLIAM  CLAYBORNE.  —  ATTEMPTS  OF  LORD  BALTIMORE  TO  RETAIN 
MARYLAND. — GOVERNOR  STONE'S  PROCEEDINGS. — FIGHT  ON  THE  SEVERN. — THE 
CONTROVERSY  ENDED.  —  RESTORATION  OF  BERKELEY  IN  VIRGINIA. — NEW  LAWS 
UNDER  THE  ROYAL  GOVERNMENT.  —  SLAVERY.  —  THE  TOBACCO  TRADE  AND  THE 
NAVIGATION  ACT. — NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  INTERESTS. 


WHEN  in  1635  the  Virginia  Assem- 
bly and  Council  —  moved  thereto  by 
the  troubles  with  Maryland  —  sent  Sir 
John  Harvey  to  England  to  answer  for  jfeturn  of 
the  part  he  had  taken  in  those  troubles,  ft^Jlo 
the  king  declared  that  he  should  go  back  virginia 
again  to  rule  over  the  insolent  colonists,  if  it  were  only  for  a  day.1 
The  threat  was  made  good,  and  within  two  years  Harvey  returned, 
bringing  with  him  as  colonial  treasurer,  Jerome  Hawley,  one  of  Cal- 
vert's  first  councillors,  and  Richard  Kemp  as  colonial  secretary. 

i  Vol.  i..  p.  504 


1642.]  HARVEY,   WYAT,  AND   BERKELEY.  201 

Both  men  were  fit  coadjutors  for  Harvey,  who  showed  in  his  con- 
duct of  affairs  for  the  next  two  years  the  same  overbearing  temper 
which  before  had  made  him  so  obnoxious.  The  records  of  his  new 
administration  are  meagre,  for  he  permitted  no  assembly  to  be  called, 
and  took  all  power  into  his  own  hands,  except  so  far  as  he  chose  to 
share  it  with  the  treasurer  and  secretary.  In  the  differences  between 
Maryland  and  Virginia  his  sympathies  were  unchanged.  Hawley,  he 
permitted,  while  still  treasurer  and  councillor  of  Virginia,  to  sit  as  a 
member  of  the  Maryland  Assembly  of  1637-8,  —  that  Assembly  which 
tried  Thomas  Smith  for  piracy  and  murder,  and  condemned  him  to  be 
hanged  for  acting  as  second  in  command  to  Warren  in  the  fight  be- 
tween him  and  Cornwallis ; l  and  which  passed,  at  the  same  time,  a 
bill  of  attainder  against  Clayborne,  and  pronounced  a  forfeiture  of  all 
his  property  in  Maryland. 

Kemp  was  also  the  friend  of  Lord  Baltimore,  and  soon  became 
equally  unpopular  with  Harvey  and  Hawley  ;  for  there  was  no  abate- 
ment of  feeling  among  the  Virginia  people  as  to  the  Maryland  con- 
troversy. The  official  acts,  however,  which  made  the  secretary  dis- 
liked, are  not  so  well  remembered  as  that  he  built  the  best  brick 
mansion-house  in  the  colony,  and  that  it  was  "  the  fairest  ever  known 
in  this  country  for  substance  and  uniformity." 

Harvey's  administration  continued  for  about  two  years  only,  when 
Sir  Francis  Wyat  succeeded  him  for  the  two  years  follow- 
ing.    The  best  known  of  all  the  Virginia  colonial  governors,  ce^ds  HM- 
—  whose  occupation  of  that  office  was  the  longest,  and  the 
events  of   his  administration  the  most  important  and  interesting  of 
that   period,  —  Sir  William    Berkeley,  followed    Wyat,    arriving   at 
Jamestown  early  in  1642. 
His  appointment  was  popu- 
lar and  his  reception  enthu- 
siastic,   though   there   was 
nothing  in  his  instructions 

Signature   of  Berkeley. 

to  warrant  the  hope  of  any 

change  for  the  better  in  the  government  of  the  colony.  Indeed,  so  far 
as  the  royal  orders  differed  at  all  from  those  which  had  been  given 
to  preceding  governors,  they  were  inimical  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
colony  in  proposing  some  new  regulations  in  regard  to  the  trade  in 
tobacco.  The  Governor,  however,  seems  not  to  have  given  offence  by 
any  serious  attempt  to  enforce  a  royal  command,  which,  a  few  years 
later,  became  an  imperative  law  in  the  far  more  stringent  and  inju- 
rious measures  of  the  Navigation  Act  of  the  Long  Parliament. 

But  no  shadow  of  coming  trouble  darkened  the  beginning  of  Berke- 

i  Vol.  i.,  p.  507. 


202  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

ley's  administration.  The  Assembly  was  soon  convened,  and  entire 
harmony  was  assured  between  the  royal  governor  and  the 
Berkeley  colonial  legislature.  One  of  its  first  acts  was  to  send  a  protest 
to  England  against  a  project  to  revive  the  old  charter  and 
reestablish  the  old  Company.  Against  so  unpopular  a  measure  Gov- 
ernor, Assembly,  and  councillors  were  cordially  united.  The  proposi- 
tion had  been  urged  upon  Parliament  by  George  Sandys  and  others, 
and  a  petition  in  its  favor  had  even  been  sent  forward  from  Virginia, 
signed,  however,  by  only  a  few  persons.  The  Assembly  remonstrated 
with  great  earnestness,  contrasting  the  condition  of  the  colony  when 
under  the  rule  of  the  Company,  with  its  condition  when  delivered 
from  that  rule.  The  king  gave  a  prompt  and  positive  assurance  that 
there  should  be  no  change. 

Charles  was  at  York  when  he  sent  this  answer.  The  remonstrance 
to  which  it  was  a  reply  was  full  of  assurances  of  the  loyalty  of  Vir- 
ginia and  of  devotion  to  his  own  person.  He  was,  at  that  moment, 
arming  for  the  struggle  which  was  to  cost  him  his  throne  and  his 
head,  and  this  interchange  of  cordial  feeling  probably  helped  to  con- 
firm that  fidelity  to  the  royal  cause  which  Virginia,  alone  of  all  the 
colonies,  maintained  to  the  last. 

There  was,  nevertheless,  a  growing  Puritan,  as  well  as  a  Royalist 
party  in  Virginia,  and  hostility  between  the  two  soon  made  itself  man- 
ifest. In  New  England  religious  zeal  had  often  determined  purely  po- 
litical measures  ;  in  Virginia  the  order  was  reversed  ;  political  causes 
produced  the  first  decided  action  ever  taken  in  the  colony  upon  the 
question  of  religious  observance.  Up  to  the  time  of  Berkeley  the  laws 
for  enforcing  conformity  to  the  Church  of  England  were  practically  a 
dead  letter.  But  the  Puritan  was  now  a  political  as  well  as  a  relig- 
ious dissenter.  A  royalist  province,  ruled  by  a  governor  whose  devo- 
tion to  the  king  had  the  earnestness  of  a  religious  faith,  was  ready  to 
resort  to  any  measure  for  the  punishment  of  disloyal  citizens. 

In  March,  1643,  the  Assembly  enacted  that  "  for  the  preservation  of 
the  purity  of  doctrine  and  unity  of  the  church,"  .  ..."  all 
ministers  whatsoever,  which  shall  reside  in  the  colony,  are 
to  be  conformable  to  the  orders  and  constitutions  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  the  laws  therein  established ;  and  not  other- 
wise to  be  admitted  to  teach  or  preach,  either  publicly  or  privately  ; 
and  that  the  governor  and  council  do  take  care  that  all  non-conform- 
ists, upon  notice  of  them,  shall  be  compelled  to  depart  the  colony  with 
all  convenience." 

In  the  preceding  year  a  number  of  Puritans  living  in  Virginia  had 
begged  of  the  Boston  elders  that  ministers  might  be  sent  to  them  from 
New  England.  In  accordance  with  this  request  three  Massachusetts 


1643.] 


PERSECUTION   OF   THE  PURITANS. 


203 


clergymen  had  gone  down  to  Jamestown,  and  had  been  settled  over 
goodly  congregations  in  different  parts  of  the  province.  This  was 
not  without  objection  from  the  authorities,  though  they  were  com- 
mended by  the  government  of  Massachusetts  to  that  of  the  sister 
colony.  But  it  was  enough  for  the  preachers  that  they  found  "  the 
hearts  of  the  people  much  inflamed  with  desire  after  the  ordi- 


nances. 


It  was  upon  these  men  and  their  churches  that  the  Assembly's  pro- 
hibition, speedily  reinforced  by  a  proclamation  from  the  Governor,  fell 
with  its  first  force.  Their  congregations  were  broken  up ;  and  though 
for  a  time  (according  to  Winthrop)  "  the  people  resorted  to  them  in 


Breaking  up  of  a  Puritan  Meeting. 


private  houses  to  hear  them,"  they 
soon  returned  to  Massachusetts. 
The  congregations  themselves  were 
soon  dispersed,  some  passing  the 
Maryland  border  to  become  there  ere  long  a  cause  of  serious  dissen- 
sions; others  taking  refuge  in  New  Netherland.  It  was  only  the  most 
stout-hearted  that  remained,  hoping  for  Parliamentary  successes  in 
England  to  ameliorate  their  condition.  Such  successes,  indeed,  were 
already  near,  and  Marston  Moor  was  soon  to  lend  new  courage  to 
American  as  well  as  to  English  Puritans. 

Hardly  a  twelvemonth  had  passed,  however,  after  the  passage  of 
the  Act  of  March,  1643,  when  there  came  upon  Virginia 
that  sudden  and  terrible  calamity  of  which  Winthrop  says,  with  the 
many,  even  of  Virginia,  were  forced  to  give  "glory  to  God 
in  acknowledging  that  this  evil  was  sent  upon  them  from  God  for  their 
reviling  the  gospel  and  those  faithful  ministers  he  had  sent  among 


204  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

them."  For  twenty  years  the  peaceful  relations  between  the  English 
and  the  natives  had  been,  for  the  most  part,  unbroken.  But  the 
great  massacre  of  1622  was  remembered  as  a  fearful  era  in  the  history 
of  the  colony,  and  the  more  exposed  settlements  never  forgot  to  be 
cautious  nor  ceased  to  be  anxious  at  the  approach  of  any  large  body  of 
savage  guests  or  traders.  Not  long  before  the  coming  of  Sir  William 
Berkeley,  some  Indian  outrages  upon  some  of  the  frontier  farms,  and 
an  increase  of  theft  and  treachery  among  the  natives  who  hung  about 
the  villages,  increased  the  general  apprehension  and  mistrust.  The 
Assembly,  at  length  alarmed,  as  these  signs  of  coming  trouble  grew, 
declared  in  1643,  that  "  no  peace  "  should  be  maintained  with  the 
Indians,  and  that  they  should  be  treated  as  enemies.  Thus  made  an 
outlaw,  a  savage  might  anywhere  be  shot  by  the  whites  with  im- 
punity. 

It  was  an  ill-judged  and  cruel  measure,  certain  to  give  fresh  in  ten - 
insurrection  S^Y  *°  ^ie  longing  for  vengeance  among  the  Indians,  already 
6  alarmed  and  exasperated  by  the  increasing  encroachments 
o£  £ne  wbite  men  upon  their  hunting-grounds.  They  knew 
that  a  great  war  was  waging  among  the  English  at  home ;  they  saw 
that  the  colonists  were  divided  among  themselves  ;  and  their  venera- 
ble chief,  Opechancanough  —  over  whose  head  had  passed  nearly  a 
hundred  winters  —  summoned  them  to  rid  the  land  of  their  hated 
enemies. 

On  the  18th  of  April,  1644,1  an  attack  planned  with  all  the  cunning 
that  had  everywhere  distinguished  Indian  massacres,  was  made  upon 
the  outlying  settlements,  and  from  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  of 
the  English  slaughtered.  For  some  unexplained  reason,  but  prob- 
ably the  sudden  recollection  of  the  sharp  vengeance  that  would  be 
sure  to  overtake  them,  the  Indians  were  seized  with  a  panic.  The 
massacre  ceased  when  it  had  barely  begun  ;  the  savages  hurriedly 
retreated  to  the  woods  before  even  an  attempt  at  resistance  had  been 
made. 

The  blow  was  a  terrible  one  ;  yet  in  the  condition  the  colony  had 
now  reached,  it  was  light  as  compared  with  the  similar  outbreak  of 
twenty-two  years  before.  Such  a  calamity,  in  a  province  of  more 
than  thirty  years'  standing,  well-organized  for  defence  and  with  rulers 
prepared  to  act  promptly,  was  a  different  matter  from  the  annihila- 
tion of  a  great  part  of  a  struggling  settlement  of  scattered  planters, 
under  the  unpopular  and  inefficient  government  of  a  feeble  Company. 
Sir  William  Berkeley  turned  upon  the  savages  with  all  the  forces  of 

1  The  date  of  the  massacre  is  only  guessed  at  by  the  older  historians  —  some  of  them 
putting  it  in  one  year,  and  some  in  another ;  —  but  it  is  fixed  by  Winthrop's  Journal,  ii 
165,  and  Savage's  note,  and  by  Hening's  Statutes  for  1645.  See  also  Campbell,  203. 


1644.] 


OPECHANCANOUGH. 


205 


the  colony ;  and  after  driving  them  from  one  point  to  another,  severely 
punishing  all  such  as  could  be  actually  met  in  battle,  he  sue-  He  ig  t^^ 
ceeded,  with  a  troop  of  mounted  men,  in  capturing  Opechan-  Pnsoner- 
canough  himself  and  bringing  him  in  triumph  into  Jamestown. 

The  Indian  king  was  altogether  broken  and  enfeebled  by  his  great 
age.  He  hardly  lived,  except  in  that  vigor  of  will  and  in  that  hostil- 
ity to  his  English  foes  which  could  end  only  with  his  life.  He  could 
no  longer  walk ;  his  captors  carried  him  in  a  rough  litter  made  of 
branches.  Partial  paralysis  had  robbed  him  of  his  strength ;  he  could 
not  even  unclose  his  eyes  to  look  about  him  at  the  people  who  came 


Death  of  Opechancanough. 

crowding  around  his  bed.  Those  who  attended  him  were  accustomed, 
when  he  asked  it,  to  lift  up  his  eyelids  so  that  his  rapidly  failing  sight 
could  show  him  what  was  passing  ;  but,  with  true  savage  stoicism,  he 
seldom  made  the  request,  and  passed  the  greater  part  of  his  time  in 
an  apparent  stupor.  He  was  imprisoned  in  the  town,  and  it  was  said 
that  Berkeley  intended  taking  him  to  England,  to  show  the  English  a 
man  who  had  been  for  years  the  terror  of  their  colony.  But  he  had 
hardly  been  placed  in  confinement  when  one  of  his  guards,  perhaps 
irritated  by  some  remembered  injury,  wantonly  shot  the 
wretched  prisoner  through  the  back,1  giving  a  wound  that 
soon  proved  fatal,  and  saved  the  dying  savage  the  misery  of  a  death 
away  from  his  own  country.  As  he  lay  dying  —  the  tradition  runs  — 

1  Beverley,  57.    Bark,  ii.,  53,  note. 


206  VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

he  asked  for  the  last  time  that  his  eyelids  should  be  raised  ;  and  look- 
ing dimly  at  the  crowd  about  him,  said  indignantly  to  the  Governor, 
that  had  it  been  his  fortune  to  have  taken  Sir  William  Berkeley  pris- 
oner, "  he  should  not  meanly  have  exposed  him  as  a  show  to  his 
people." 

Opechancanough  was  the  last  of  the  great  chiefs  who  ruled  in  abso- 
lute and  undivided  sovereignty  over  the  confederation  of  Virginian 
tribes  which  had  formerly  called  Powhatan  their  king.  His  successor, 
Necotowance,  after  two  years  of  unavailing  warfare,  made  formal  sub- 
mission to  the  whites  by  a  treaty  in  the  autumn  of  1646.  From  that 
time  Virginia  suffered,  like  other  colonies,  only  from  the  hostilities  of 
scattered  tribes,  or  from  the  sudden  raids  of  independent  bands,  never 
from  a  great  organized  attack  of  a  whole  savage  nation,  aroused,  as 
Opechancanough  had  aroused  them,  by  the  hope  of  a  complete  exter- 
mination of  the  strangers. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1644,  Sir  William  Berkeley  sailed  for  Eng- 
land for  a  year's  visit,  and  left  Richard  Kemp  as  his  deputy  in  charge 
of  the  province.  It  was  a  time  when  an  Englishman  of  property  and 
influence  at  home  —  a  courtier  and  a  soldier,  as  well  as  a  member  of 
a  family  which  had  every  interest  at  stake,  —  could  hardly  sit  quietly 
in  his  colonial  governorship,  and  watch  from  beyond  seas  the  conflict 
for  life  in  which  his  king  and  his  brothers  were  fighting.  The  storm 
of  the  Civil  War  was  sweeping  over  his  own  county  of  Gloucester- 
shire when  Berkeley  reached  it ;  and  before  he  returned  again  to 
Virginia  —  to  which  he  seerns  to  have  hurried  back  with  the  convic- 
tion that  he  could  serve  the  king  better  there  than  in  the  field,  — 
the  battle  of  Naseby  had  been  fought,  and  the  royal  cause  was  lost. 
There  was  little  leisure  now  in  the  Parliament  for  any  attention  to 
colonial  affairs  ;  in  the  four  years  that  followed,  the  American  prov- 
ince was  left  to  govern  itself  in  its  own  way.  It  could  hardly  have 
had  a  better  ruler  than  the  vigorous  cavalier  Governor. 

These  four  years  saw  an  unusual  addition  to  the  population  of  the 
Growth  of  colony  —  unusual  both  in  numbers  and  in  character.  At  a 
the  colony,  time  when  emigration  to  New  England  had  greatly  fallen 
away,  —  the  English  Puritans  seeing  a  better  day  in  their  own  land 
and  having  few  of  the  old  motives  to  leave  it,  —  precisely  opposite 
reasons  brought  to  Virginia  companies  of  royalists  whose  fortunes  the 
war  had  wrecked,  or  who  had  with  difficulty  saved  a  little  competence 
from  the  impending  ruin.  They  came  by  hundreds  to  the  one  spot 
in  the  new  world  in  which  their  king,  their  traditions,  and  their 
church  were  still  respected  ;  and  they  brought  with  them  their  old 
way  of  life,  — the  way  of  court  and  camp  ;  the  careless  luxury  and  the 
careless  morality  which  were  abominations  to  their  Roundhead  adver- 


1649.]  EMIGRATION    OF   CAVALIERS.  207 

saries.  The  death  of  Charles  sent  many  even  of  his  most  persistent 
adherents  to  America;  "for," — writes  one  of  them,  Colonel  Norwood, 
—  "  if  our  spirits  were  somewhat  depressed  in  contemplation  of  a  bar- 
barous restraint  upon  the  person  of  our  king  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  to 
what  horrors  and  despairs  must  our  minds  be  reduced  at  the  bloody 
and  bitter  stroke  of  his  assassination  at  his  palace  of  Whitehall  ?  .  .  .  . 
The  sad  prospect  of  affairs  in  this  juncture  gave  such  a  damp  to  ali 
the  royal  party  who  had  resolved  to  persevere  in  the  principle  which 
engaged  them  in  the  war,  that  a  very  considerable  number  of  nobility, 
clergy,  and  gentry,  so  circumstanced,  did  fly  from  their  native  country 
as  from  a  place  infected  with  the  plague."  1 


Cape  Hatteras. 


This  Colonel  Norwood  left  a  narrative  of  his  own  and  his  compan- 
ions' perilous  and  eventful  voyage  away  from  "  so  hot  a  con-  The  ,,„„. 
tagion,"  that  is  as  vivid  and  as  entertaining  as  the  story  tlveofCo1- 


onel  Nor- 
wood. 


of  the  wanderings  of  a  new  Ulysses.  "  The  cavaliers  changed 
their  clime  but  not  their  habits,"2  wrote  a  Virginian  historian  ;  and 
one  sees  how  true  this  was  in  reading  the  adventures  of  this  exiled 
royalist,  with  his  jollity  in  the  midst  of  adversity,  and  his  characteristic 
mixture  of  bravery,  sentiment,  and  cynicism.  How  the  voyage  began 
merrily  enough  (after  the  ship  had  kept  them  waiting  "  until  our 
money  was  almost  spent  at  Deal  ")  ;  how  they  touched  at  Fayal  for 
water,  and  caroused  there  for  days  together  over  their  Madeira  and 
"  handsome  plenty  of  fish  and  fowl ;  "  how  they  met  with  a  wonderful 
Portuguese  beauty,  whom  Norwood  describes  with  glowing  eloquence, 
and  with  whom  they  drank  the  health  of  their  respective  kings  "  with 
thundering  peals  of  cannon  ; "  how  finally  they  sailed  away  westward 
—  their  ship  barely  escaping  a  water-spout  which  would  have  "  made 
her  do  the  supersalt ;  "  —  all  this  is  probably  not  unlike  many  another 

1  Norwood's  Voyage,  in  Force's  Hist.  Tracts,  iii.,  10th  paper,  p.  1. 

2  "Ccdum  non  anhnum  mutant  171/1  trans  mare  curriint."  —  Horace. 


208  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Virginian  voyage.  But  as  they  neared  the  American  coast  their 
troubles  began.  Escaping  by  a  lucky  chance  from  the  Shoals  off  Hat- 
teras,  where  they  were  aground  for  a  little  time,  they  beat  to  sea 
again,  only  to  be  driven  far  out  by  "  mountainous  tow'ring  northwest 
seas  "  and  a  furious  gale,  their  ship  dismasted,  their  provisions  and 
water  nearly  exhausted.  For  nearly  sixty  days  they  beat  about,  until, 
after  many  adventures,  they  came  to  anchor  off  the  mouth  of  a  creek 
in  an  unknown  region. 

Here  Norwood  and  a  large  party  going  ashore  for  water,  were 
basely  abandoned  by  their  comrades.  They  were  in  reality  upon  an 
island  on  the  coast  of  Virginia ,  though  some  distance  from  the  main  ; 
and  for  ten  days  or  more  they  endured  the  extreme  horrors  that 
fall  to  the  lot  of  shipwrecked  men  and  women.  The  living  de- 
voured the  bodies  of  those  who  had  "  the  happiness  to  end  their  mis- 
erable lives ;  "  and  "  terrible  stoi'ins  of  hail  and  snow  at  northwest " 
beat  upon  their  wretched  bodies  in  the  bitter  January  weather. 
Finally,  about  the  tenth  day,  Indians  came  to  them  from  the  shore, 
who  proved  friendly,  took  them  to  the  main  land,  and  brought  them 
to  an  Indian  village  where  they  were  feasted  royally.  All  manner  of 
strange  things  happened  to  them  among  the  savages,  no  word  of 
whose  language  they  could  understand  ;  and  they  were  almost  doubt- 
ing whether  this  friendliness  was  not  a  cover  for  intended  treachery, 
when  suddenly  an  English  trader  from  Jamestown  appeared  among 
them.  Norwood,  from  the  beginning  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
party,  who  had  held  them  together  throughout  with  his  unwearied 
courage  and  readiness  in  expedients,  now  hurried  southward  with  a 
guide,  to  the  hospitable  settlements  along  the  Chesapeake.  He  was 
everywhere  received  with  great  hospitality  as  he  went  from  planta- 
tion to  plantation,  and  on  arriving  at  the  house  of  Captain  Wormly, 
not  far  from  York  River,  he  found  "  feasting  and  carousing,"  his  old 
friends  Sir  Thomas  Lundsford,  Sir  Henry  Chichely,  Sir  Philip  Honey- 
wood,  and  several  more,  all  recently  come  from  England,  but  with 
better  luck  than  he.  The  next  morning,  on  a  good  horse,  he  was  on 
his  way  to  Jamestown,  to  his  kinsman  Berkeley. 

Apart  from  the  interest  of  his  narrative  there  is  no  account  of  so 
early  a  date,  that  gives  so  clear  a  picture  of  the  class  of  men  which,  at 
this  time,  went  to  Virginia.  Each  substantial  manor  was  filled  dur- 
ing these  years  with  guests  enjoying  the  liberal  hospitality  of  a  time 
when  crops  were  plenty,  and  the  abundance  of  fish  and  game  had  not 
been  diminished.1  For  a  while  the  little  capital  of  Jamestown  was 
lively  with  these  shabby  cavaliers,  their  pockets  as  empty,  their  swords 

1  A  Virginia  law  ordered  that  "  if  any  inhabitant  received  any  stranger  Merchant,  or 
border  into  their  houses,  and  did  not  condition  in  Writing  with  him  or  them  so  entertained 


1648.] 


EMIGRATION  OF  CAVALIERS. 


209 


as  ready  in  a  brawl,  their  hands  as  averse  to  labor,  and  their  spirits  as 
irrepressible  as  the  most  reckless  and  most  worthless  of  their  kind 
at  home.  Some  at  length  took  up  plantations  for  themselves,  waiting 
the  more  prosperous  days  of  the  Restoration,  while  others  who  were 
altogether  as  ruined  in  purse  as  in  reputation  became  dispersed 
among  the  ordinary  people  of  the  province. 

All  the  projects  for  the  emigration  of  distressed  cavaliers  to  Amer- 
ica during  these  years  of  their  adversity,  were  not  conceived 

&  J  Plowden's 


11 

upon  a  scale  so  modest  as  Tisit  to  the 


but  the 


that  of  Colonel  Norwood 
and  his  few  companions  ; 
more  ambitious  plans  appear  to 
have  miscarried.  In  or  just  be- 
fore the  year  1648,  that  somewhat 
mysterious  character,  Beauchamp 
Plantagenet  (whose  name  is  sup- 


The  Cavaliers  at  Wormly's   house. 

posed  to  be  a  pseudonym  of  Sir  Edmund  Plowden  or  Ployden)  visited 
Virginia  and  Maryland  to  look  for  a  desirable  site  whereon  the  "  New 
Albion  Company  "  could  plant  a  colony  ;  but  finding  one  spot  too  wet 
and  another  too  dry,  one  too  exposed  to  savage  attack  and  another 
to  diseases,  he  went  further  north  to  continue  his  search. 

Widely  different  was  the  scheme  of  the  English  poet,  Sir  William 

on  what  tearms  he  received  them,  it  should  be  supposed  an  invitation,  an  no  satisfaction 
should  be  allowed  or  recorded  in  any  Court  of  Justice."  —  Leah  and  Rachel,  in  Force's 
Hist.  Tracts,  iii.,  14th  paper,  p.  15. 

VOL.    II.  14 


210  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Davenant,  for  leading  a  colony  to  the  one  province  which  seemed  to 
him  faithful  to  the  king  and  cause  for  which  he  had  suffered 
proposed       and  been  exiled.     This  was  a  true  poet's  scheme  —  to  take 
out  from  France  a  little  company  of  French  artisans,  vine- 
growers,  and  silk  makers,  and  to  plant  a  new  Arcadia,  where  there 
should  be  no  more  noise  of  wars  and  overthrow  of  thrones,  but  peace, 
and  pleasant  toil,  and  pastoral  simplicity.    He  had,  no  doubt,  thoughts 
of  a  pure  and  patriarchal  government,  made  up  (to  take  a  line  from 
one  of  his  own  old  poems)  from  "  the  assembled  souls  of  all  that  men 
held  wise."  l     The  exiled  royal  family  and  the  French  government 
aided  him  in  carrying  out  his  plan  ;  his  company  was  brought  together, 
and  the  expedition  sailed  for  America  with  high  hope  of  success.     But 
a  short  distance  off  the  coast  the  vessel  was  discovered  by  the  English 
fleet,  captured,  and  taken  to  an  English  port.     Davenant,  well  known 
as  a  prominent  and  staunch  royalist,  would,  it  is  said,  have  been  con- 
demned to  death  by  the  Puritan  rulers,  had  it  not  been  for  the  in- 
tercession of  Milton,  who  pleaded  successfully  for  the  lesser  poet's  life. 
Virginians  weffe  by  no  means  calm  spectators  of  the  bitter  strife 
among  their  countrymen  at  home,  but  the  great  body  of  the  older 
settlers,  whose  chief  interests  were  in  Virginia,  did  not  let  political 
excitements  interfere  with  the  steady  progress  of  the  colony.     Trade 
was  comparatively  unrestricted,  for  there  was  laxity  in  enforcing  regu- 
lations while  the  rights  of  conflicting  parties  were  in  question.     More 
than  thirty  vessels  annually  brought  out  English  goods  and  took  back 
cargoes  of  native  products.      Men  did  not  cease  to  smoke  Virginian 
tobacco  because  they  were  passing  through  a  great  political  convul- 
sion ;  and  that  continued  to  be  the  great  staple  of  the  colony,  though 
the  price  had  sunk  to  threepence  the  pound.    As  the  planters  increased 
in  wealth  they  added  to  their  plantations,  and  attached  themselves  to 
their  homes  by  building  spacious  mansions,  and  surrounding  them  with 
all  the  appliances  of  generous  and  luxurious  living  at  their  command. 
There  was  no  lack  of  skilled  labor,  for  among  the  fifteen  thousand 
English  2  who  made  up  the  population  of  the  colony  in  1648,  there 
were  workmen  in  every  branch,  and   new  experiments  were  making 
Condition  of  *n  a^  directions  —  in  smelting  iron,  in  hemp  and  flax  cul- 
the  colony.     ^ure?  [n  vine-raising,  in  the  making  of  indigo,  and  the  manu- 
facture of  brick.     There  are  few  years  in  the  early  colonial  history 
of  Virginia  more   marked   by  general  activity  and  prosperity  than 
those  four  during  which  England  was  convulsed  with  civil  war,  and 
the  province  was  left  practically  to  its  own  devices. 

The  Long  Parliament  turned,  at  length,  when  some  signs  of  tran- 

1  Davenant's  Gondihert,  book  ii.,  Canto  v. 

2  A  Perfect  Description  of  Virginia,  etc.,  in  Force,  ii. 


2 

"£• 
O 


ai 
3 
en 

a 


1652.]  THE   PARLIAMENTARY   COMMISSIONERS.  211 

quillity  at  home  permitted,  to  the  subjection  of  those  distant  colonies 
which  hitherto  had  remained  faithful  to  the  royal  cause.  Barba- 
does,  Bermuda,  and  Antigua  had  refused  to  recognize  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Commonwealth  ;  the  Assembly  of  Virginia  had  openly 
denounced  the  execution  of  the  king,  and  enacted  a  law,  making  it 
treason  to  asperse  his  memory  or  question  the  lawful  succession  of 
his  son.  The  neighboring  province  of  Maryland  was  looked  upon 
with  suspicion,  though  Lord  Baltimore  had  spared  no  effort  to  gain 
the  favor  of  the  party  in  power.  In  October,  1650,  Parliament  had 
decreed  the  prohibition  of  trade  with  the  uncompliant  colonies,  and 
appointed  commissioners  to  bring  them  to  obedience. 

Sir  George  Ayscue  was  sent  to  the  islands  with  a  formidable  fleet ; 
soon  after,  in  September  1651,  Captain  Robert  Dennis  was 
ordered  to  sail  with  a  smaller  squadron  to  the  Chesapeake. 
The  expedition  carried  a  regiment  of  soldiers  and  a  hundred  to  Vll«inia 
and  fifty  prisoners  from  the  battle  of  Worcester,  who  were  to  be  sold 
as  servants  in  Virginia.  Dennis  found  Ayscue  at  Barbadoes,  and  with 
his  regiment,  assisted  by  the  prisoners,  enabled  him  to  take  the  island 
where  for  two  months  his  landing  had  been  bravely  resisted. 

When  the  fleet  arrived  in  the  James  River,  early  in  March  1652,  it 
was  under  the  command  of  Captain  Edward  Curtis,  also  a  Surrenderof 
commissioner,  for  Dennis  in  his  ship  the  John  had  been  Berkele>- 
lost  at  sea,  and  with  him  Stagg,  the  third  commissioner.  Jamestown 
was  at  once  summoned  to  surrender.  Berkeley,  it  is  said,  sought  to 
arouse  his  fellow-officials,  but  this  is  improbable,  as  such  resistance 
would  have  been  useless,  though  perhaps  the  sturdy  cavalier  vented 
his  feelings  in  some  last  defiant  speech  to  his  more  vacillating  council. 
At  all  events,  the  colony's  submission  was  not  long  delayed,  and  on 
the  twelfth  of  March  the  Governor  signed  articles  of  capitulation,  and 
handed  over  the  affairs  of  the  province  to  the  Parliamentary  Commis- 
sioners. 

The  terms  of  the  surrender  were  liberal,  including  an  act  of  amnesty 
and  oblivion  for  past  offences  ;  liberty  to  the  Governor  and  Council  to 
refrain  for  a  year,  if  they  desired  to  do  so,  from  swearing  allegiance  to 
the  Commonwealth ;  a  confirmation  of  the  right  of  assembly,  and  a 
promise  that  no  taxes  should  be  imposed  upon  the  province  without  its 
consent ;  and  a  provision  that  all  land  grants,  deeds,  debts,  and  rights 
in  private  property,  should  be  unimpaired  by  the  change  of  govern- 
ment. With  a  liberalit}r  rare  in  Puritan  dealings  with  religious  mat- 
ters, it  was  also  set  forth  in  the  capitulation  that  "the  use  of  the  book 
of  common  prayer  "  should  be  permitted  for  one  year  ensuing,  pro- 
vided that  such  parts  as  related  to  "  Kingshipp  "  and  the  royal  gov- 
ernment should  not  be  used  in  public.  To  Berkeley  and  his  officers 


212 


VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


great  courtesy  was  shown  ;  liberty  was  granted  them  to  sell  their 
estates  and  remove  from  the  colony  whither  they  pleased  within  a 
year  ;  meanwhile  their  property  was  exempted  from  examination  or 
seizure,  and  protection  and  "  equal  justice  "  were  promised  to  them 
under  the  new  government. 

Besides  the  commissioners  who  sailed  from  England  in  the  fleet  — 
Dennis,  Stagg,  and   Curtis  (or  Courteis)  were   two  others  —  Rich- 

ard Bennett,  a  Virginia  Puritan 
whom  persecution,  it  is  said,  had 
driven  to  England,  and  William 
Clay  borne,  already  distinguished 
in  the  history  of  the  colony. 
Curtis  probably  soon  returned  in 
his  ship  to  England,  and  the 
power  and  responsibility  there- 
fore devolved  upon  Bennett  and 
Clayborne,  who  established  a  pro- 
visional government  with  Ben- 
nett at  its  head.  That  both  men 
were  highly  esteemed  by  all  the 
colonists  seems  evident  in  the 
ready  acquiescence  with  which 
their  rule  was  accepted. 

No  Virginian  was  more  deserv- 
ing of  such  esteem,  or  more  fit  to 
be  entrusted  by  Parliament  at 
this  time  with  the  conduct  of 
affairs,  than  Clayborne.  If  his  career  had  hitherto  been  turbulent,  it 
was  so  in  the  maintenance  of  the  rights  of  the  colony  ;  if  he  had  been 
unfortunate,  it  was  because  of  the  injustice  of  the  king.  His 
family,  of  the  county  of  Westmoreland,1  was  an  ancient  and 
influential  one,  and  was  zealous,  perhaps  distinguished  in 
the  north  of  England,  in  upholding  the  Protestant  faith.  It  is  neither 
improbable  nor  impossible  that  there  should  have  been  enmity  be- 
tween such  a  family  and  that  of  the  Calverts,  of  the  neighboring 
county  of  York,  so  devoted  to  the  church  of  Rome.  Clayborne  cer- 
tainly opposed  the  settlement  of  a  colony  of  Catholics  on  Chesapeake 
Bay,  before  any  question  arose  as  to  the  possession  of  Kent  Island. 
The  desire  to  secure  this  small  portion  of  his  grant  seems  hardly  an  ad- 
equate motive  for  the  hostility  which  Baltimore  showed  to  Clayborne. 

1  He  was  the  second  son  of  Sir  Edmund  —  not  Edward  as  Neill  says  in  his  English  Col- 
onization of  America  —  Cleiburne  (or  Clayborne)  of  Cleiburne  Hall.  The  portrait  is  that  of 
William  or  his  sou  —  it  is  not  quite  certain  which. 


Supposed   Portrait  of  William  Clayborne. 


1652.]  WILLIAM  CLAYBORNE.  213 

They  may  have  simply  hated  each  other  with  that  fervor  then  thought 
so  becoming  to  all  good  Christians  travelling  different  roads  to 
Heaven ;  but  there  is,  besides,  the  suspicion  of  a  tenderer  influence 
in  the  conduct  of  Calvert.  He  had  failed  in  his  suit  for  the  hand  of 
Agnes,  the  lovely  daughter  of  the  rich  and  powerful  Sir  Richard  Low- 
ther  of  Lowther,  where  Thomas  Clayborne,  William's  elder  brother, 
was  successful. 

At  any  rate  Clayborne's  ancient  grievance  was  well  grounded. 
Kent  Island  was  within  the  boundaries  of  the  patent  of  the  Virginia 
company  ;  he,  who  was  the  secr/etary  of  the  colony,  and  its  surveyor 
general,  had  taken  possession  of  this  island  and  established  there  a 
trading-post  by  virtue  of  a  royal  commission  for  trade  and  discovery, 
and  a  similar  permit  from  the  Company.  There  was  not  only  priority 
of  date  in  his  favor,  but  he  could  enforce  that  plea  —  afterward  used 
so  successfully  by  the  Dutch  and  the  Pennsylvanians  in  relation  to 
the  region  on  Delaware  Bay  —  that  the  grant  to  Lord  Baltimore, 
whatever  might  be  its  nominal  boundaries,  limited  him  to  the  pos- 
session only  of  lands  hitherto  uncultivated  —  hactenus  inculta.  In  the 
course  of  that  long  and  bitter  controversy  the  Governor  and  council  of 
Virginia  had  declared  in  1634  that  they  were  in  duty  bound  to  main- 
tain their  right  to  the  Isle  of  Kent,  and  a  royal  order  had  decided 
in  Clayborne's  favor  and  against  Lord  Baltimore.  Whatever  may 
have  been  his  motives,  the  influence  of  Baltimore  at  court  was  strong 
enough  to  procure  a  reversal  of  this  decision  in  spite  of  Clayborne's 
complaint  that  the  royal  order  was  disregarded,  and  his  offer  to  pay  a 
large  rental  for  the  lands  which  were  his  by  right  of  discovery  and 
occupation.1 

It  was  not  in  Clayborne's  nature  to  be  a  lukewarm  partisan,  even 
if  he  had  not  had  the  remembrance  of  such  wrongs,  extending  over  a 
period  of  nearly  twenty  years,  to  in-  .  ^~ 

fluence  him.     But  he  was  a  Parlia-    AA '/y^"    / 
ment   man    both  from  religious  and     '  V-  \*_U;UV (mi£ 

political      Convictions,     and      not     that  Signature  of  William  Clayborne. 

he  might  gain  his  personal  ends.  That  he  did  not  permit  his  private 
griefs  to  shape  his  public  acts  is  clear  from  the  moderation  of  his  con- 
duct now  that  Maryland  was,  in  a  measure,  in  his  power.  It  was  for- 
tunate for  both  colonies  that  the  conduct  of  affairs  was  entrusted  to 
two  such  men  as  he  and  Bennett,  for  the  latter,  as  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, seems  never,  for  his  part,  to  have  remembered  that  under  Sir 
William  Berkeley  he  had  been  compelled  to  escape  persecution  by 

flight. 

o 

1  MS.  notes  upon  Clayborne,  collated  in  England  by  Mr.  C.  J.  Hubbard  of  Portsmouth, 
N.  H.  —  English  Slate  Papers. 


214  VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

The  commission  from  Parliament  empowered  them  to  reduce  "  all 
the  plantations  within  the  Bay  of  Chesapeake,"  and  there  is  nothing  in 
all  the  negotiations  to  which  the  subsequent  troubles  gave  rise  to 
suggest  that  this  commission  was  not  meant  to  embrace  Maryland. 
The  commissioners  assumed  that  it  did,  and  after  the  submission  of 
Jamestown  they  sailed  on  board  the  Guinea  for  Saint  Mary's,  the 
capital  of  Maryland,  and  demanded  of  Governor  Stone  (the  successor 
of  that  Thomas  Green  whom  Leonard  Calvert  had  appointed  on  his 
dentil-bed),1  an  oath  of  conformity  to  the  laws  of  the  Commonwealth. 
If  this  were  given,  they  declared,  they  would  not  interfere  in  any  way 
with  the  government  of  the  Lord  Proprietary  or  disturb  his  officers. 
This,  at  first,  Stone  refused,  and  the  Commissioners  deposed  him  and 
his  council,  and  appointed  a  provisional  council  in  their  place.  But 
on  a  subsequent  visit  of  the  Commissioners  the  Maryland  governor 
reviewed  his  former  decision,  and  was  restored  to  office  on  condition 
that  he  should  issue  his  writs  and  other  official  papers  "  in  the  name 
of  the  keepers  of  the  liberties  of  England  by  authority  of  Parliament," 
while  he  was  still  "  to  reserve  and  save  to  himself  "  his  oath  to  Lord 
Baltimore  as  proprietor  of  the  province,  till  "  the  pleasure  of  the  state 
of  England  be  further  known." 

It  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  Commissioners  to  be  more 
moderate  and  considerate,  and  to  have  obeyed  at  the  same  time,  in 
any  degree,  the  instructions,  as  they  understood  them,  of  Parliament. 
Indeed,  the  advantage  was  on  Stone's  side,  so  far  at  least  as  to  gain 
time,  for  he  held  in  reservation  the  right  of  Lord  Baltimore.  The 
expedient,  as  might  have  been  foreseen,  led  in  due  season  to  inevit- 
able trouble. 

Before  those  troubles  came,  however,  one  act  of  tardy  justice  was 
done.  At  the  first  sitting  of  the  court  after  the  return  of  Stone  to 
his  office  of  governor,  a  commission  was  appointed  —  consisting  en- 
tirely of  residents  of  Maryland  with  the  exception  of  Governor  Ben- 
nett of  Virginia  —  to  conclude  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  tribe  of 
Susquehanocks.  Its  first  article  conveyed  to  the  English  the  country 
from  the  Patuxent  to  the  Susquehanna,  on  the  west  side  of  Chesa- 
peake Bay,  and  from  the  Choptank  to  the  Elke  on  the  east  side, 
with  the  islands,  rivers,  creeks,  etc.,  etc.,  "  and  whatsoever  else  to 
the  same  belonging,  excepting  the  Isle  of  Kent  and  Palmer's  Island 
which  belong  to  Captain  Clayborne."  The  acknowledgment  may 
have  been  an  act  of  political  expediency,  but  it  was  none  the  less 
one  of  simple  justice. 

There  were  grievances  and  differences  enough  still  remaining.  Lord 
Baltimore,  when  tidings  of  events  in  Maryland  reached  him,  appeared 

1  Vol.  i.,  p.  514. 


1652.] 


LORD   BALTIMORE   PROTESTS. 


215 


by  petition,   in    August,  1652,  before    the  Long   Parliament,  setting 
forth  his  claims  to  the  colony  and  asking  for  redress.1     From    ^^  IWU_ 
that  body  he  obtained  little  consideration,  though  he  urged  more  P™- 
on  his  own  behalf  that  while  Virginia  had  adhered  faithfully 
to  the  king,  Maryland,  like  New  England,  had  not  declared  against 
the  Parliament.      Humble  as  this  submission  was  from  one  who  had 
been  so  devoted  a  friend  to  the  late  king,  it  availed  nothing  ;   for 
nearly  eighteen  months  later  (January,  1654)  the  Governor  and  As- 
sembly of  Virginia  are  advised  by  the  Council  of  State  that  the  Lord 
Protector,  to  whom,  with  succes- 
sive parliaments,  the  government 
of  the  Commonwealth  was  now 
intrusted,  had  taken  upon  himself 
the  settlement  of  the  differences 
between  Lord  Baltimore  and  the 
Virginians.2 

It  may  be  that  the  hope  of  re- 
dress either  from  Parliament  or 
Cromwell,  induced  Lord  Balti- 
more to  submit,  for  a  while,  to 
the  compromise  which  Stone  had 
made  with  the  Parliamentary 
Commissioners.  As  late  as  No- 
vember, 1653,  the  Governor  of 
Maryland  gives  as  the  reason  for 
not  holding  a  general  court  that 
it  was  requisite  that  "some  direc- 
tions out  of  England  touching 
the  government  here,"  should  be 
received  before  there  could  be  anything  for  a  general  court  to  do ; 3 
and,  he  says,  there  had  been  no  arrival  of  English  ships. 

Instructions  from  the  proprietary  \vere  on  the  way.  Satisfied, 
no  doubt,  that  however  much  he  might  abase  himself  he  Freshm- 
could  gain  nothing  of  the  Long  Parliament,  nor  of  Cromwell 
himself,  when  he  had  dispersed  that  body  and  assembled  its 
successor,  Baltimore  wrote  to  Stone,  reproaching  him  for  submitting 
to  the  Commissioners,  accusing  him  of  cowardice,  ordering  him  to  re- 
store the  proprietary  government,  to  issue  all  public  papers  in  the 
name  of  the  lord  proprietor,  and  to  demand  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  him 
from  the  land-holders  of  the  province.  In  January,  1654,  Stone 
issued  a  decree  in  accordance  with  these  instructions. 


Oliver  Cromwell. 


1  Salisbury's  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  p.  338. 

2  Salisbury's  Calendar,  p.  412. 


3  Boz man's  History  of  Maryland. 


216  VIRGINIA   AND   MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

The  unhappy  Governor  found  it  hard  to  serve  two  masters.  Not 
many  weeks  after  he  had  thus  reversed  the  order  of  affairs  in  obedi- 
ence to  Baltimore,  tidings  arrived  of  the  dispersion  by  Cromwell  of  his 
second  Parliament.  Thereupon  Stone  issued,  early  in  May,  another 
proclamation  acknowledging  Cromwell  as  "  the  lord  protector  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and  the  dominions 
thereunto  belonging,"  and  declaring  the  government  of  Maryland 
under  the  lord  proprietary  to  be  therefore  "subordinate  unto  and  de- 
pendent upon  "  that  commonwealth.  In  commemoration  of  this  sol- 
emn event  he  proclaimed  a  general  pardon  for  all  offences  committed 
in  the  province  with  certain  exceptions.  But  these  exceptions  he 
declared,  before  the  month  had  expired,  were  —  beside  murder,  trea- 
son, and  unsatisfied  forfeitures  —  "  rebellion,  conspiracy,  combination, 
or  endeavour  used  at  any  time  heretofore  by  any  person  against  the 
lord  proprietary's  right  and  dominion  over  this  province." 

Such  a  declaration  could  only  have  been  meant  to  be  a  defiance  of 
Bennett  and  Clayborne,  the  Parliamentary  Commissioners.  That 
there  should  be  no  doubt,  however,  on  this  point,  Stone  issued,  a 
few  weeks  later,  another  proclamation  relating  to  affairs  in  Calvert 
County,  —  where,  by  Lord  Baltimore's  express  order,  he  had  removed 
the  Puritan  sheriff  from  office,  —  in  which  he  charged  the  Commission- 
ers with  leading  the  people  into  "  faction,  sedition,  and  rebellion  " 
against  the  lord  proprietor. 

Bennett  and  Clayborne,  however,  were  not  men  to  be  frightened 
by  proclamations.  They  in  their  turn  issued  a  manifesto,  and  by 
authority  of  commands  which,  they  declared,  they  had  "lately  re- 
ceived "  from  Cromwell,  brushed  away  with  little  ceremony  all  that 
Stone  had  lately  done  on  behalf  of  the  proprietary  government,  re- 
moved the  Catholic  officers,  and  appointed  a  board  of  commissioners 
to  govern  Maryland  in  the  name  of  the  Protector.1  Stone  yielded 
without  resistance,  though  not  without  some  "  opprobrious  and  uncivil 
language,"  and  resigned  his  office. 

Under  the  new  Commissioners  there  followed  some  months  of  undis- 
puted Puritan  rule,  and  of  that  peace  which  Puritans  so  often  secured 
by  tolerating  no  religious  faith  but  their  own.  Lord  Baltimore  again 
protested,  however,  when  the  tidings  reached  England,  against  this 
infringement  of  his  rights,  again  reproached  Stone  with  faithlessness 
and  cowardice,  and  sent  an  agent  to  the  colony  to  make  this  protest 
and  these  reproaches  the  more  emphatic.  Stone,  yielding  as  usual  to 
the  influence  last  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  resolved  upon  another 
revolution. 

In  January,  1655,  he  issued  military  commissions  and  rallied  his 

l  Neill's  Terra  Marice,  p.  121. 


1655.] 


GOVERNOR   STOXE'S   PROCEEDINGS. 


217 


Stone 


forces.    The  Commissioners  had  removed  the  archives  from  St.  Mary's 

to  their  new  capital,  the  house  of  a  Mr.  Preston  on  the  Pa-  MilitarT 

tuxent.     Stone's  first  object  was  to  recover  and  bring  them 

back.     At  Preston's  house   there  was  deposited   a  consid- 

erable  quantity  of  arms  and  ammunition,  which  Stone  also  seized.     It 

is  said  1  that  he  is- 

sued   at    the    same 

time  a  proclamation 

to  persuade  the  peo- 

ple of  Patuxent  and 

of      Providence   — 

now   Annapolis    — 

that  in  restoring  the 

proprietary  govern- 

ment he  had  no  un- 

friendly purpose 

toward   them,    who 

were  Puritans.    He, 

nevertheless,  search- 

ed other  houses  than 

Mr.     Preston's     for 

arms  and   ammuni- 

tion, and  when  the 

Commissioners  sent 

messengers    to    ask 

the  meaning   of   his   acts   he 

them  into  prison. 

His  force  in  March  had  reached 
the  number  of  about  two  hundred 
men,  and  then  he  abandoned  all  pre- 
tence of  a  peaceful  return  to  power. 
He  resolved  to  compel  the  Puritans  of  Anne  Arundel  County  by  arms 
to  submit  to  his  government,  and  to  that  end  embarked  his  men  on 
board  twelve  boats  to  go  up  Chesapeake  Bay  to  the  Severn  opposite 
Kent  Island.  It  was  in  this  neighborhood  that  the  Puritan  settle- 
ments had  chiefly  been  made,  as  those  of  the  Catholics  were  about 
St.  Mary's. 

The  fleet  of  boats  was  met  on  its  way  up  the  Bay  by  messengers 
who  protested  against  this  hostile  approach,  and  declared,  if 
no  terms  of  settlement  could  be  agreed  upon,  that  those  who  up  the 
sent  them  were  ready  to  "  die  like  men  rather  than  live  like  slaves." 
Stone  seized  these  men  and  their  boat,  but  a  part  of  them  escaped 

1  Boziuaii. 


— *•_-<;.-  - 


Stone  at  Preston's  House- 


218 


VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


and  returned  to  report  the  character  of  the  expedition.  Somewhere 
on  the  Bay  he  chased  and  fired  into  a  New  England  vessel.1  At 
Herring  Creek  he  captured  one  of  the  Commissioners  and  detained 
him  as  a  prisoner.  From  this  point  or  near  it  he  sent  forward  one 

Dr.  Barber  and  a 
Mr.  Coursey,  to  de- 
mand the  surrender 
of  the  Puritans  and 
to  publish  a  procla- 
mation to  the  peo- 
ple of  Anne  Arun- 
del  County,  declar- 
ing that  he  came 
with  no  hostile  in- 
tent, but  that  he 
sought  to  reclaim 
them  by  fair  means 
only.2  Nevertheless 
the  fleet  proceeded, 
and  on  the  24th  of 
March,  twelve  days 
after  its  departure 
from  St.  Mary's, 
anchored  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Sev- 
ern. 

In  the  Severn  lay 
a  large  merchant- 
ship,  the  Golden  Lion,  and  on  her  mainmast,  William  Durand,  the 
Puritan  secretary  of  the  Colony,  had  affixed  an  official  order 
requiring  her  commander  in  the  name  of  the  Protector  to 
aid  in  the  defence  of  the  people  against  the  approach  of 
Stone.  A  shot  from  the  ship  met  the  advancing  fleet  as  they  came 
into  the  outer  harbor,  and  another  fell  among  the  boats  as  Stone  or- 
dered his  men  to  land  on  Horn  Point,  a  part  of  the  present  city  of 
Annapolis,  between  the  Severn  and  a  creek  which  is  the  southern 
boundary  of  the  peninsula.  Stone  took  his  vessels  further  up  the 

1  Papers  relating:  to  Maryland  in  Thurloe's  State  Papers,  vol.  v. 

2  Barber's  letter  to  Cromwell  iu  Bozraan.     Neill's  Terra  Mariie  and  English  Colonization 
in  America.     McSherry's  History  of  Man/land.     There  are  incongruities  in  the  different 
narratives  which  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile.     It  is  said  that  Barber  was  promised  the  gov. 
ernorship,  if  Stone  did  not  obey  the  orders  of  Baltimore,  while  on  the  other  hand  he  is 
represented  as  beiujr  a  friend  of  Cromwell,  as  having  been  attached  to  his  family,  and 
serving  in  the  Parliament  army.     Apparently  his  sympathies  were  with  Stone. 


Posting  the   Notice  on  the   "Golden   Lion." 


1655.]  BATTLE   ON  THE   SEVERN.  219 

creek,  and  landing  his  men  marched  inland,  probably  out  of  reach  of 
the  guns  of  the  Golden  Lion,  whose  captain,  Heamans,  returned  a  de- 
fiant answer  to  Stone's  remonstrance. 

The  invading  party  were  elate  and  confident,  making  their  landing 
"with  drums  and  shoutings,"  calling  out  for  the  "Round-head  dogs 
and  rogues,"'  threatening  them  with  "  whole  bagfuls  of  chewed  Bullets 
rolled  in  powder,"  and  crying  "  The  Devil  take  him  that  spares  any."  1 
But  Stone  had  blundered.  In  the  course  of  the  night  the  Golden 
Lion,  with  several  smaller  vessels,  had  sailed  up  the  creek,  and  when 
day  broke  they  opened  fire  across  the  point  upon  Stone's  force  and 
compelled  them  to  march  still  further  up  the  peninsula. 

But  when  they  had  put  themselves  out  of  the  reach  of  this  attack 
in  the  rear,  they  suddenly  found  themselves  confronted  by  a  hundred 
and  twenty  men,  who  had  marched  out  from  Providence  to  intercept 
their  advance.  Retreat  was  useless,  even  if  it  were  possible  in  the  face 
of  the  fire  from  the  ships,  for  one  John  Cutts,  in  a  small  New  England 
vessel,  had  taken  possession  of  all  their  boats  and  the  provision  and 
ammunition  left  on  board.2  The  enemy  confronting  them  on  land 
was  under  the  command  of  Captain  Fuller,  the  head  of  the  board  of 
Puritan  commissioners.  He  ordered  his  men,  it  is  said,  not  to  strike 
the  first  blow.3  But  the  first  blow  had  been  struck  already  when 
Captain  Heamans  of  the  Golden  Lion  had  fired  upon  Stone's  men 
and  killed  one  of  them.  There  seemed  nothing  else  to  do  but  fight 
or  surrender.  Should  they  lay  down  their  arms  before  a  force  they 
outnumbered  ?  At  least  they  were  not  cowards. 

With  the  cry  of  "  Hey,  for  St.  Mary's  !  "  they  rushed  on  the  enemy. 
The  Puritans  met  blow  for  blow,  and  cry  for  cry,  shouting  "  In  the 
name  of  God  fall  on  !  God  is  our  strength  !  "  The  battle  was  furi- 
ous while  it  lasted,  but  it  did  not  last  long.  The  Puritans  were 
always  good  fighters  ;  religious  zeal  was  stronger  than  numbers.  They 
were  inspired  with  a  belief  in  "  the  glorious  presence  of  the  Lord  of 
hosts,  manifested  in  and  towards  his  poor  oppressed  people."  4  Against 
men  so  inspirited  the  Catholics  "  could  not  endure,  but  gave  back." 
Fifty  were  slain  and  wounded;  four  or  five  only  escaped  by  flight; 
the  rest  were  taken  prisoners,  and  the  whole  field  kt  was  strewed  with 
Papist  beads."  On  the  other  side  two  only  were  killed  in  the  fight, 
and  two  died  afterwards  from  their  wounds. 

This  success  was  followed   up  with   more  vigor  than  mercy.     A 

1  Virginia  and  Maryland  in  Force's  Tracts,  vol.  ii. 

2  Leah  and  Rachel.     Force's  Tracts,  vol.  iii. 

8  Bali/Ion's  Fall  in  America,  the  fullest  narrative  of  these  occurrences.  It  was  written 
by  Leonard  Strong,  who  was  one  of  Fuller's  associates  on  the  Board  of  Commissioners, 
and  meant  to  tell  the  best  story  possible  for  his  own  side. 

*  Ibid. 


220 


VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


court-martial  was  speedily  summoned,  and  four  of  the  leaders,  one  of 
them  a  councillor,  were  sentenced  to  death,  and  so  also  was  Stone.1 
The  four  were  executed,  but  Stone's  life  was  spared  at  the  inter- 
cession of  some  who  had  fought  against  him.  The  lives  of  the  rest  of 
his  councillors  were  saved  by  the  petitions  of  the  women  and  some 
other  friends.2 

The  battle  was   fought,  the  Catholics  were  deposed,  and  Puritan 
government  firmly  established  in  Maryland,  before  a  letter  was  re- 


The   Battle  at  the   Mouth  of  the  Severn. 

ceived  from  Cromwell,  which,  had  it  come  sooner,  might  have  pre- 
vented these  events.  The  Protector,  moved  by  the  entreaties  and 
Letter  of  representations  of  Lord  Baltimore,  had  written  in  January 
Gov°raor  *°  ^°  Governor  Bennett  of  Virginia,  forbidding  any  intercourse 
Bennett.  with  the  affairs  of  Maryland  till  all  questions  in  regard  to 
the  boundaries  between  Virginia  and  Maryland  had  been  settled  in 
England.  "  We  ....  will  and  require  you,"  said  the  latter,  "  to 
forbear  disturbing  the  Lord  Baltimore,  or  his  officers,  or  people  in 

1  Leah  and  Rachel. 

2  Letter  of  Mrs.  Stone  to  Lord  Baltimore  in  Neill's  Terra  Maria,  p.  124. 


1655.]  MARYLAND  AFFAIRS.  221 

Maryland,  and  to  permit  all  things  to  remain  as  they  were  before  any 
disturbance  or  alteration  made  by  you,  or  by  any  other  upon  pretence 
of  authority  from  you."  l 

Though  the  question  of  boundaries  was  the  point  specially  referred 
to,  it  might  be  doubted  whether  the  Commissioners  had  not  been  igno- 
rantly  acting  against  the  wishes  of  the  Protector.  It  was,  no  doubt, 
to  justify  himself,  and  to  explain  the  condition  of  affaire  to  the  Pro- 
tector, that  Governor  Bennett  went  to  England,  soon  after  the  fight 
on  the  Severn,  as  agent  for  Virginia  with  Captain  Mathews.  The 
exigency  was  quite  serious  enough  for  a  personal  explanation.  Eng- 
lish subjects  had  been  killed  in  battle ;  officers  appointed  under  Lord 
Baltimore's  patent  had  been  ignominiously  hanged  ;  the  proprietary 
government  of  Maryland  had  been  completely  subverted  ;  and  all  the 
while  a  letter  from  the  Lord  Protector  was  on  its  way  which  perhaps 
was  intended  to  forbid  any  interference  whatever  in  the  affairs  of  that 
colony.  The  turbulence  of  the  times,  indeed,  might  make  such  things 
seem  comparatively  of  little  moment ;  but  disobedience  to  the  orders 
of  one  who  had  never  brooked  opposition  to  his  will  might  well  excite 
the  gravest  apprehensions.  It  was  for  this  reason,  no  doubt,  that  the 
Council  of  Virginia  made  haste,  after  the  departure  of  Bennett,  to 
disavow  all  responsibility  for  what  had  been  done  in  Maryland. 

Bennett,  nevertheless,  was  so  far  successful  in  his  mission  that 
Cromwell  wrote  in  September  another  letter,  explaining  that  of  the 
previous  January.  It  was  intended  only,  he  said,  "to  prevent  and 
forbid  any  force  or  violence  to  be  offered  by  either  of  the  plantations 
of  Virginia  or  Maryland  from  one  to  the  other,  upon  the  differences 
concerning  their  bounds,"  but  did  not  mean  to  intimate  that  a  stop 
should  be  "  put  to  the  proceedings  of  those  commissioners  who  were 
authorized  to  settle  the  civil  government  of  Maryland."  That  the 
Commissioners  had  not  exceeded  the  power  entrusted  to  them  to  re- 
duce "  all  the  plantations  within  the  Bay  of  Chesapeake  "  to  obedi- 
ence to  the  Commonwealth  of  England  seems  conclusively  settled  by 
this  letter. 

But  the  civil  government  of  Maryland  was  not  settled,  notwith- 
standing the  success  of  one  party  and  the  defeat  of  the  other,  for 
a  doubt  still  prevailed  for  a  time  as  to  the  right  of  either.  While 
Bennett  and  Mathews  were  pleading  their  case  before  the  Protector, 
Baltimore  sent  out  to  Josias  Fendall  a  commission  as  his  deputy  gov- 
ernor. Fendall  had  been  in  the  fight  on  the  Severn,  under  Stone, 
and  the  commission  found  him  just  released  from  prison,  even  if  he 
was  not  still  within  the  walls  of  a  jail.  He  made  good  use  of  his  lib- 

1  This  letter,  which  Bozman  thought  woe  lost,  has  been  recovered,  and  is  published  by 
Campbell. 


222  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

erty,  however,  when  he  gained  it,  and  attempted,  with  more  or  less 
success,  to  establish  the  authority  of  the  proprietor,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Philip  Calvert,  an  illegitimate  son,  it  is  said,  of  the  first  Lord 
Baltimore,  as  secretary.  On  the  other  hand,  Captain  Fuller,  on  the 
part  of  the  Commissioners,  asserted  their  jurisdiction,  called  a  meeting 
of  the  General  Assembly,  enacted  laws,  and  assumed  the  control  of  the 
affairs  of  the  colony  in  the  name  of  the  Protector.  The  Puritans  on 
the  Severn  and  the  Patuxent  recognized  and  obeyed  one  government; 
the  Catholics  about  St.  Mary's  recognized  and  obeyed  the  other. 

Meanwhile  the  questions  at  issue  were  under  consideration  and 
debate  in  England.  Cromwell  referred  them  to  the  Council  of  State, 
and  the  Council  of  State  handed  them  over  to  the  Commissioners  of 
Trade.  It  was  two  years  before  any  conclusion  was  reached  ;  but  in 
November,  1657,  an  agreement  was  entered  into,  in  Eng- 
of  disputes  land,  between  Lord  Baltimore  and  the  agents,  Bennett  and 

between 

Virginia  and   Mathews.      This,  in  March  following,  was  first  modified  and 

Maryland.  .  ° 

then  ratified  in  Maryland  by  Fendall  on  the  one  side,  and 
Fuller  and  his  council  on  the  other,  and  the  leading  men  among  both 
Catholics  and  Puritans,  as  the  representatives  of  the  people  at  large. 
It  was  provided  that  all  past  offences  be  condoned  ;  that  there  never 
should  be,  with  the  assent  of  Lord  Baltimore,  any  interference  with 
the  liberty  of  conscience ;  that  from  those  then  resident  in  the  colony 
no  oath  of  fidelity  to  his  lordship  should  be  required,  but  simply  a 
promise  of  submission  to  his  authority,  which  was  again  paramount 
as  Lord  Proprietor ;  that  land  warrants  should  be  granted,  and  acts 
of  past  assemblies  held  to  be  legal,  without  regard  to  the  differences 
and  disturbances  of  recent  years. 

When  Bennett  resigned  the  office  of  Governor  of  Virginia,  in  1655, 

to  take  that  of  agent  in  England,  Edward  Digges,  who  was 
Digges  also  a  member  of  the  Parliamentary  party,  was  chosen  by 

chosen  gov-  11-1  TT       "  •         i    •          n* 

ernorof  vjr-  the  Assembly  to  take  his  place.  He  remained  in  omce,  how- 
ever, only  a  year,  when  he  also  went  to  England  as  agent, 
where  his  influence  proved  to  be  potent  in  bringing  about  the  final 
Succeeded  settlement  of  affairs  in  Maryland.  Mathews  succeeded  him 
b>  Mathews.  ag  gOvernori  an(j  continued  in  that  office,  it  is  supposed,  till 
his  death,  in  1659,  though  he  seems  to  have  been  in  England  in  1657, 
when  his  signature  appears  to  the  agreement  between  Lord  Balti- 
more and  the  Virginia  agents. 

For  an  interval  of  several  years  the  colony  has  no  history  except  in 
Legislative  *ne  quiet  enactment  of  laws  which  show,  in  their  aim  at 
»cts.  regulating  the  ordinary  conduct  of  the  citizens,  that  no  great 

affairs  of  state  engaged  their  attention.  Thus  the  keeping  of  the 
Sabbath  was  enjoined  by  law  ;  a  penalty  was  pronounced  upon  those 


1660.]  RESTORATION  OF  BERKELEY.  223 

who  invented  or  spread  untruthful  reports ;  attorneys  at  law  were 
expelled  from  the  courts  and  prohibited  from  taking  fees  ;  the  weight 
and  dimensions  of  a  hogshead  of  tobacco  were  limited  by  statute,  and 
an  export  duty  upon  that  staple  levied  when  in  foreign  bottoms  or 
shipped  to  foreign  ports  ;  the  food,  the  clothing,  and  the  good  treat- 
ment of  servants  were  cared  for ;  servitude  as  a  legal  penalty  was 
abolished  ;  the  right  of  suffrage  was  secured  to  all  who  paid  taxes  ; 
the  Indians  were  protected  in  the  possession  of  their  lands,  and  the 
kidnapping  of  their  children  was  prohibited.1  Such  legislation  marked 
a  period  of  tranquillity  and  progress. 

Puritanism,  which  had  never  made  any  very  deep  impression  in 
Virginia,  gradually  lost  its  influence  and  control  after  the  DecUneof 
death  of  Cromwell.  A  cause  that  was  declining  in  its  strong-  Puntamsm 
hold  at  home,  could  hardly  gain  in  the  colony  where  it  had  little 
strength  of  its  own.  During  the  year  in  which  England  was  pre- 
paring itself  for  the  restoration  of  the  King  by  putting  aside  the  new 
Protector,  Richard  Cromwell,  the  assembling  and  dispersion  of  the 
old  House  of  Commons  and  the  election  of  a  new  one,  and  the  march 
of  Monk  from  Edinburgh  to  London,  Virginia  was  without  a  gov- 
ernor. From  the  death  of  Mathews,  in  the  spring  of  1659,  till  the 
spring  of  1660,  the  people  awaited  events  at  home. 

In  March  the  General  Assembly,  after  declaring  that  as  the  state 
in  England  had  no  acknowledged  head,  and  that  the  gov- 

,    ,,  ,  ,    . °     ..       .,       .  ,     0.       ,lr.,f!  Sir  William 

ernment  or  the  colony  vested  in  itself,  elected  Sir  William  Berkeley  re- 
Berkeley  governor,  afterward  confirmed  by  a  commission 
from  the  King.  Though  this  was  in  some  sense  a  triumph  of  his 
party,  the  address  of  the  old  royalist  was  cautious  and  conciliatory. 
"  I  do,  therefore,"  he  said, ,"  in  the  presence  of  God  and  you,  make 
this  safe  protestation  for  us  all,  —  that  if  any  supreme  settled  power 
appears,  I  will  immediately  lay  down  my  commission,  but  will  live 
most  submissively  obedient  to  any  power  God  shall  set  over  me,  as 
the  experience  of  eight  years  has  shewed  I  have  done."  He  candidly 
confessed  that  he  had  unwillingly  surrendered  to  the  Parliament,  — 
"  God  pardon  me  !  "  he  said,  as  he  recalled  it,  —  and  that  he  "  would 
not  voluntarily  have  made  choice  "  of  those  who  had  been  set  over  him 
"  for  his  supremes  ; "  but  he  wished  to  make  "  this  truth  apparent," 
that  he  had  lived  like  a  good  citizen  "  under  all  these  mutable  gov- 
ernments of  divers  natures  and  constitutions."  That  he  would  not 
have  held  office  under  the  Commonwealth,  and  would  not  now  if  it 
continued,  was  the  tenor  of  his  speech  ;  but  he  left  his  hearers  to 
infer  the  unexpressed  hope,  which  doubtless  a  considerable  majority 
of  them  shared,  that  the  house  of  his  "  ever  honored  master "  would 

1  Hening's  Statutes,  passim. 


224 


VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


soon  regain  the  throne.  Two  months  later  this  wish  was  fulfilled, 
and  the  news  of  the  restoration  of  the  King  was  welcomed  generally  in 
Virginia,  as  it  was  received  with  joy  by  the  Governor  himself. 

When  the  new  commission  was  sent  by  Charles  II.  to  Sir  William 
Address  to  Berkeley,  the  faithful  cavalier  in  reply  sent  a  delighted  letter, 
Charles  ii.  saying  that  he  had  only  held  office  during  the  interregnum, 
as  one  who  had  leaped  "  over  the  fold  to  save  your  Majesty's  flock, 
when  your  Majesty's  enemies  of  that  fold  had  barred  up  the  lawful 
entrance  into  it  and  enclosed  the  wolves  of  schism  and  rebellion.'' 
The  Assembly  also  voted  an  address  to  Charles  ;  and  referred  in  bitter 
terms  to  the  Commonwealth  that  had  governed  them  so  well,  as  "  that 


Berkeley's  Address  to  the  Assembly. 


execrable  power  that  so  bloodily  massacred  the  late  King  Charles  the 
First  of  ever  blessed  and  glorious  memory  "  —  a  memory  that  should 
now  be  kept  alive  in  the  colony,  as  they  decreed,  by  an  annual  fast 
upon  the  thirtieth  of  January,  the  anniversary  of  his  execution.  Per- 
haps the  Puritans  of  the  Assembly  were  reconciled  to  these  proceed- 
ings by  the  personal  consideration  that  was  otherwise  accorded  them. 
Bennett,  the  late  Puritan  Governor,  was  first  named  in  the  Council  of 
State,  and  Clayborne,  who  had  been  secretary  under  Bennett,  Digges, 
and  Mathews,  was  continued  in  that  office  by  Berkeley. 


1661.]  REVISION  OF  THE   LAWS.  225 

A  considerable  change  in  the  character  of  the  government  of  the 
colony  was,  however,  soon  made  apparent.  The  new  As- 
sembly of  1661,  which  was  almost  exclusively  royalist,  em-  thenewgor- 
powered  the  Governor  and  Council  to  levy  taxes  for  three 
years,  dispensing,  thei-eby,  with  the  necessity  of  calling  the  House 
together  oftener,  except  in  case  of  some  unusual  emergency.  At  the 
same  session  the  right  of  prorogation  was  granted,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence there  was  for  the  next  fifteen  years  no  popular  election. 
Hitherto,  the  representatives  had  been  paid  by  the  counties  that 
elected  them  ;  but  the  Assembly,  which  had  provided  for  its  own  per- 
manence, fixed  also  the  rate  of  remuneration  of  its  members  at  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco  a  day,  or  about  nine  dollars. 
The  salary  of  the  Governor,  which  was  in  the  same  tobacco  currency, 
was  not  less  exorbitant  according  to  the  money  value  of  the  time,  and 
was  equal  to  the  whole  annual  expenditure  of  the  colony  of  Connecti- 
cut.1 The  virtual  monopoly  of  the  trade  with  the  Indians  was  also 
given  him  by  prohibiting  any  traffic  in  furs  except  under  his  commis- 
sion. The  colonial  laws  generally,  were  from  time  to  time  revised, 
and  on  the  third  revision  in  1662,  under  the  direction  of  Francis  Mor- 
rison and  Henry  Randolph,  it  was  ordered  that  all  those  which 
"  might  keep  in  memory  our  forced  deviation  from  his  Majesty's  obe- 
dience "  should  be  erased  from  the  statutes.  The  laws  relating  to 
the  Indians,  however,  aimed  more  than  any  laws  had  hitherto  done 
to  secure  their  well-being.  Encroachment  upon,  or  even  purchase  of 
their  lands  was  forbidden.  None  were  to  be  sold  as  slaves,  though 
they  could  be  indented  as  servants  for  a  limited  period,  as  the  English 
themselves  were  ;  and  while  they  were  generally  to  be  responsible  to 
the  law,  they  were  to  be  under  its  protection.2 

Legislation  upon  the  slavery  of  the  blacks  had  no  such  humane 
purpose.  The  common  law  of  England,  that  the  children  of 
mixed  parentage  should  follow  the  condition  of  the  father, 
-was  reversed  and  the  maxim  of  the  Roman  law  adopted,  that 
the  children  should  be  bond  or  free  according  to  the  condition  of  the 
mother — partus  sequitur  ventrem.  All  of  mixed  blood,  therefore,  — 
and  the  hybrid  race  began  to  be  manifest  from  the  first  introduction 
of  African  women  —  were  born  slaves  for  life.  If  there  were  any  ex- 
ception, it  was  in  the  case  of  the  offspring  of  free  white  women  and 
slave  fathers,  and  that  may  seem  in  our  time  too  improbable  to  be 
noticed.  But  it  should  be  considered  that  the  antipathy  to  the  Afri- 
can, —  no  deeper  naturally  than  that  which  always  exists  between 
different  races — has  been  intensified  by  two  centuries  of  servitude. 
It  exercised  but  little  influence  two  hundred  years  ago,  when  whites 

1  Bancroft.  2  Hening's  Statutes. 

VOL.  n.  15 


VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

as  well  as  blacks  were  slaves  in  Virginia,  and  where  the  larger  propor- 
tion of  these  white  slaves  were  from  the  lowest  dregs  of  English 
society,  —  from  the  gutters,  the  jails,  and  the  brothels,  —  and  were 
hardly  more  than  half  civilized.  That  the  women  of  this  large  class 
of  the  population  should  intermarry  with  negroes  was  not  merely  pos- 
sible ;  it  was  common  enough  to  become  in  Maryland  the  subject  of 
legislation.  It  was  provided  in  that  colony,  in  1663,  that  any  free- 
born  English  woman  who  should  marry  a  slave  should  serve  his  mas- 
ter during  the  life  of  her  husband,  and  that  all  her  issue  should  be 
"  slaves  as  their  fathers  were."  1 

The  spirit,  if  not  the  letter  of  the  law,  however,  in  regard  to  black 
mothers,  was  undoubtedly  the  same  then 'in  the  two  colonies  as  it  was 
in  later  times  in  all  the  slave-holding  portion  of  the  country.  Ser- 
vitude was  the  penalty  for  any  admixture  of  African  blood  on  the 
mother's  side.  Literally  the  sins  of  the  fathers  were  heavily  visited 
upon  the  children,  while  it  soon  ceased  to  be  a  question  whether  there 
could  be  any  serious  immorality  in  a  relation  which  legislators  were 
careful,  without  condemning,  to  turn  into  a  source  of  so  much  worldly 
wealth. 

By  the  revised  code  it  was  provided  that  the  Church  of  England 
be  the  established  church  of  the  colony.  But  there  was  at  the  same 
time  some  pretence  of  toleration.  It  was  declared  that  no  man  was 
to  be  "  molested  or  disquieted  in  the  exercise  of  his  religion,  so  he 
be  content  with  a  quiet  and  peaceable  enjoying  it ; "  yet  the  oaths 
Ken  -ou8  °f  obedience  and  supremacy  —  those  parts  of  which  relating 
intolerance.  to  tne  establishment  the  Puritans  could  not  conscientiously 
take  —  were  exacted,  and  the  non- conformist  was  not  permitted  to 
teach  even  in  private.2  In  1662  a  fine  of  two  thousand  pounds  of 
tobacco  was  imposed  upon  all  "  schismatical  persons "  who,  "  out  of 
their  averseness  to  the  orthodox  established  religion,  or  out  of  the  new- 
fangled conceits  of  their  own  heretical  inventions,"  refused  to  have 
their  children  baptized  ;  and  those  attending  meetings  of  Separatists 
were  heavily  fined  for  the  first  and  second  offence,  and  banished  on 
its  repetition  a  third  time.  Such  penalties  had  long  been  enforced 
against  the  Friends,  whose  presence  in  Virginia  had  been  no  more 
tolerable  to  the  Puritans  than  it  was  now  to  the  Established  Church. 
Many  of  these  persecuted  people  were  driven  into  North  Carolina,  for 
the  laws  were  enforced  against  them  with  much  more  severity  than 
against  any  other  class  of  dissenters. 

Much   uneasiness  and  alarm  was  aroused  when  the  news  arrived 

1  A  Sketrh  of  the  Laws  Relating  to  Slavery  in  the  Several  States  in  the  United  States.     By 
George  M.  Stroud,  1827. 

2  Anderson's  History  of  the  Colonial  Church. 


16G1.] 


THE   NAVIGATION    ACT. 


227 


that  the  first  Parliament  of  the  restored  king  had  made  the  Navi- 
gation Act  more  than  ever  obnoxious  to  the  interests  of  the  The  xavig*. 
colonies,  and  that  it  was  to  be  rigidly  enforced.  This  was  tlonAct- 
a  grievance  about  which  Royalist  and  Puritan  were  of  one  mind.  Sir 
William  Berkeley  went  to  England  in  May,  1661,  to  represent  how 
seriously  the  prosperity  of  the  colony  was  hindered  by  the  enforce- 
ment of  such  a  law  against  its  trade.  He  remained  in  England  more 
than  a  year,  Francis  Morrison  acting  as  governor  in  his  absence  ;  but 
his  mission,  so  far  as  the  Navigation  Act  was  concerned,  was  fruit- 
less, though  he  was  more  fortunate  in  the  advancement  of  his  own 
interests,  for  he  obtained  a  grant  for  himself  and  others  of  that  part 
of  Virginia  territory  afterward  known  as  North  Carolina. 


Tobacco  Ships  in  the  James. 

The  interests  of  the  colony,  nevertheless,  were  stronger  than  acts 
of  Parliament,  for  its  prosperity  depended  largely  upon  free 

.  •;  Trade  in  and 

trade  in  the  one  great  staple,  tobacco.     Even  without  inter-  cultivation 

e  r  T-»      !•  i  °*  tobacco. 

ierence  from  Parliament,  there  was  enough  to  contend  with, 
for  the  supply  of  that  staple  usually  exceeded  the  demand.  To  reg- 
ulate its  production  —  to  force  by  penalties  the  raising  of  more  corn 
and  less  tobacco  —  was  from  the  beginning  of  these  settlements  the 
constant  aim  of  legislation  in  Virginia  and  Maryland ;  but  the  attempt 
to  set  aside  the  natural  law  of  political  economy  by  statute  was  as 
futile  here  as  the  attempt  to  prevent  the  trade  to  foreign  ports  when 
the  tobacco  was  ready  for  shipment.  Equally  futile  was  it  to  expect 


228 


VIRGINIA    AND   MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


to  create  by  legislative  act  towns  into  which  the  people  should  gather. 
The  people  were  planters,  and,  with  their  servants  and  slaves,  were 
scattered  on  the  great  plantations  along  the  banks  of  the  James  and 
other  rivers.  The  planters  with  these  large  grants  of  land  were  com- 
paratively few  ;  the  slaves  and  servants  many.  To  live  in  towns  and 
to  be  supported  by  diversified  industry  was  impossible  to  such  a  peo- 
ple, for  slaves  can  be  devoted  only  to  unskilled  labor.  To  raise  to- 
bacco, therefore,  to  be  shipped  directly  from  the  river-bank  —  usually 
the  water-front  of  the  plantation — was  the  chief  employment  and 
support  of  the  colonial  plantei-s,  and  it  was  equally  difficult  to  limit 
production  by  local  laws  or  to  confine  the  foreign  trade  to  an  English 
channel. 

The  last  especially,  it  was  found  impossible  to  do,  so  long  as  the 
Northern  Dutch  Colony  of  New  Netherland  offered  every  facility  for 
era  in°tcrh  a  contraband  commerce  which  English  law  could  not  reach, 
*•**•  and  in  which  both  English  and  Dutch  vessels  could  so  easily 

engage.  The  grant  to  the  Duke  of  York  of  the  territory  of  the  Dutch 
was  not  merely  a  royal  gift  to  the  brother  of  the  King.  It  was 
meant  to  add  to  the  revenues  of  the  King  himself,  by  making  it  pos- 
sible to  enforce  the  Navigation  Act,  and  to  control  the  tobacco  trade 
of  Virginia.  That  the  Dutch  province  on  the  Hudson  should  belong 
to  the  English  was  sure  in  the  end,  whatever  might  be  the  ulterior 
purposes  of  Charles,  to  be  a  benefit  to  New  England.  To  the  people 
of  Virginia,  it  was  of  no  territorial  advantage,  but  a  direct  interfer- 
ence with  their  freedom  of  trade  and  an  immediate  injury  to  their 
prosperity.  It  was  the  inevitable  antagonism  of  free  and  slave  labor. 

The  severitv  of  the  laws  in  the  early  years  of  the  restored  royal 
government,  and  perhaps,  the  evident  intent  of  the  colonial 

Aplotdis-  .  .  .  .,  ,  ,  ,      ,. 

covered  Assembly  to  grasp  at  irresponsible  power,  caused  much  dis- 
cromweiuan  content  among  the  people.  In  1663,  after  the  return  of 
Berkeley  from  England,  a  plot  was  discovered  to  overthrow 
the  government.  But  as  it  seems  to  have  been  confined  to  some  of 
Cromwell's  soldiers  who  had  been  sent  out  and  sold  as  servants  —  a 
disposition  of  prisoners  to  which  both  parties  resorted  —  it  had  its 
origin,  probably,  in  a  general  political  and  religious  discontent,  rather 
than  in  any  special  complaint  of  particular  laws.  It  was  suppressed, 
however,  without  much  difficulty,  though  it  was  thought  to  be  serious 
enough  to  warrant  the  execution  by  hanging  of  four  of  the  ring-lead- 
ers, and  for  setting  apart  the  13th  of  September,  the  day  fixed  for  the 
insurrection,  as  a  day  of  annual  thanksgiving. 


Governor's  Island  and  the  Battery. 


CHAPTER  X. 

• 

THE   LATTEK  YEARS   OF   NEW  NETHEBLAXD. 

AMSTERDAM  INVADED  BY  INDIANS.  —  DESTRUCTION  OF  PAVONIA.  —  MASSACRE 
AND  DEVASTATION  ELSEWHERE.  —  JUDICIOUS  POLICY  OF  THE  DIRECTOR.  —  CONTRAST 
IN  FRENCH  AND  DUTCH  TREATMENT  OF  THE  NATIVES.  —  THE  RESULT.  —  THE  ESOPUS 
WAR.  —  STUYVESANT'S  DETERMINATION  TO  ESTABLISH  RELIGIOUS  UNIFORMITY. — 
PERSECUTION  OF  THE  LUTHERANS  AND  QUAKERS.  —  INDIFFERENCE  OF  THE  DUTCH 
TO  RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY.  —  STUYVESANT  REBUKED  BY  THE  AMSTERDAM  CHAM- 
BER.—  CRUEL  PUNISHMENT  OF  A  QUAKER.  —  BANISHMENT  OF  JOHN  BOWNE  AND 
HIS  TRIUMPHANT  RETURN  FROM  HOLLAND.  —  GROWTH  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

A  MORE  prudent  ruler  than  Stuy  vesant  would  have  hesitated  to  take 
between  six  or  seven  hundred  men  from  New  Amsterdam,  even  for  so 
important  a  purpose  as  the  reduction  of  New  Sweden.  However  confi- 
dent he  might  feel  that  the  New  Englanders  would  be  faithful  to  the 
terms  of  the  recent  treaty  of  peace,  he  would  have  known  how  little 
reliance  could  be  placed  upon  any  promise  of  friendship  from  the  In- 
dians. It  needed  only  the  smallest  pretext  at  any  time  to  arouse  the 
savages,  eager  for  plunder  and  thirsty  for  blood,  to  carry  desolation  and 
death  into  the  villages  and  farms  of  the  whites ;  and  the  more  certain 
they  were  that  their  victims  would  be  defenceless,  the  shriller  would 
be  their  war-cry  and  the  louder  their  boasts  of  their  own  prowess  and 
bravery.  When  Stuyvesant  sailed  for  the  South  River  with  so  large 


"r 


230  THE   LATTER  YEARS   OF   NEW  NETHERLAND.     [CHAP.  X. 

a  proportion  of  the  fighting  men  of  New  Netherland,  it  does  not  seem 
to  have  occurred  to  him  how  imminent  a  danger  he  left  behind. 

While  he  was  busy  before  Fort  Christina,  New  Amsterdam  was 
New  \m-  aroused  one  September  morning  to  find  its  streets  swarming 
with  nearly  two  thousand  naked  warriors,  gathered  of  several 
tribes  from  far  up  the  North  River,  from  the  extremity  of 
Long  Island,  and  from  the  mainland  of  Connecticut.  All  day  they 
roamed  through  the  town,  breaking  into  houses  on  the  pretence  of 
seeking  for  northern  Indians,  and  hinting  at  redress  for  the  death  of  a 
squaw  whom  Van  Dyck,  the  late  Attorney-general,  had  shot  at  his 
farm  on  Staten  Island,  for  stealing  fruit  from  his  garden.  Persuasion 
was  wiser  than  resistance  against  so  large  a  body,  many  of  whom  were 
well  armed,  and  the  frightened  bui-ghers  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren submitted  for  hours  to  insolence  and  outrage  they  did  not  dare, 
or  thought  it  more  prudent  not  to  resist. 

The  invaders  agreed  at  last  to  leave  the  town  at  sunset,  to  paddle 
over  to  Nutten  (Governor's)  Island,  and  there  await  the  result  of  a 
conference  to  be  held  between  their  chiefs  and  the  magistrates.  But 
a  conflict  could  only  be  delayed,  not  avoided,  even  if  the  savages 
meant  anything  more  by  their  promise  than  to  gain  time  for  the  ad- 
vantage of  confusion  in  a  night  attack.  Either  the  Indians  grew 
bolder  or  the  Dutch  less  prudent,  for  a  fight  was  begun  by  one  side  or 
the  other,  and  there  was  an  end  then  of  all  talk  of  peaceful  negotia- 
tion. 

Van  Dyck  was  brought  down  with  an  arrow  in  the  breast  ;  Captain 
Van  der  Grist  was  cloven  to  the  ground  with  an  axe.  Shouts  of  alarm 
and  cries  of  murder  rung  through  the  streets,  and  the  timid  and  the 
feeble  ran  to  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  stronger  and 
bolder,  or  to  hide  themselves  in  some  place  of  safety.  The  military, 
who  had  been  prudently  ordered  to  the  fort  to  be  ready  for  an  emergency, 
marched  to  the  rescue  of  the  citizens.  An  organized  attack  was  too 
much  for  the  savages  ;  they  were  driven  to  their  canoes,  but  their  de- 
fence was  so  desperate  that  they  left  three  dead  warriors  upon  the 
beach.  In  the  assault,  two  of  the  Dutch  were  killed  and  three  others 
wounded.  Mobs  are  dispersed  now  with  results  quite  as  serious  ;  it 
was  a  respectable  Indian  fight  in  the  seventeenth  century  that  counted 
even  less  than  half  a  dozen  dead. 

The  fleet  of  canoes  pulled  out  into  the  stream.  They  did  not  go  to 
Nutten  Island,  and  were  lost  to  sight  in  the  darkness,  though  over 
the  water  came  out  of  the.  night  their  yells  of  vengeance  and  de- 
fiance. The  people  of  New  Amsterdam,  relieved  from  the  terrible 
fear  of  an  immediate  massacre,  watched  anxiously  along  the  shore, 
straining  their  eyes  and  ears  to  catch  any  sign  of  the  purpose  of  the 
enemy.  They  had  not  long  to  wait. 


1655.] 


MASSACRE   AND  DEVASTATION. 


231 


Over  Pavonia  and  Hoboken  sprung  a  sudden  light.  Along  the 
beach  of  Manhattan  Island  the  pitying  people  gathered,  paVOnia  de- 
dreading  what  next  the  night  might  bring  forth,  watching  str°.ved 
the  forked  flames  as  they  shot  into  the  reddening  sky,  listening  help- 
lessly for  the  mingled  shrieks  of  agony  and  despair,  the  whoop  of 
savage  hate  and  fury,  the  crackling  of  the  fire  as  it  leaped  from 
house  to  house,  the  moans  and  cries  of  terror  from  maddened  beasts. 
Pavonia  in  a  little  while  was  a  heap  of  burning  coals  and  ashes  ;  not 
a  house  was  spared  ;  save  in  a  single  family  not  a  man  was  left  alive  ; 
the  cattle  were  all  dead,  the  crops  destroyed  ;  with  a  rare  mercy  only 
the  women  and  children  were  spared  and  carried  off  as  prisoners. 


Destruction  of  Pavonia. 


It  would  be  easy  to  see  from  the  shores  of  Staten  Island,  over  whose 
beautiful  hills  were   scattered  many  pleasant  boweries,  the  burning 
village  of   Pavonia.      But  the    cause  of   the    fire   may  not  j^^  upon 
have  been  known.     When   its  work  wras  done,  the  savages,  ^"JjJ^1" 
drunk  with  success  and  blood,  sprung  to  their  canoes  and  elsewhere- 
paddled  across  the  Bay  straight  for  the  Island.     In  the  farm-houses  on 
the  peaceful  hill-sides  slept  ninety  people,  men,  women,  and  children. 
The  paddles  of  between  sixty  and  seventy  canoes  broke  the  silence  of 
the  night ;   the  alarm  was  given  in  time  for  many  to  escape  ;  others 
were  too  late  or  lost  their  lives  in  a  vain  attempt  at  defence.    Twenty- 
three  were  killed,  and  the  morning  sun   rose    upon  the  new  silence 
of  death    and    desolation,  upon    ruined    homes,   on    desolate    hearth- 


232    THE  LATTER  YEARS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  [CHAP.X. 

stones,  on  dead  cattle  lying  among  the  trampled  grain,  where  the 
night  before  smiled  peace,  and  plenty,  and  content. 

For  three  days  bands  of  exultant  savages  harried  the  villages  and 
farms  about  the  Bay  and  along  the  river.  At  Gravesend  lived  a 
Lady  Moody,  —  an  English  lady  whom  religious  intolerance  had 
driven  out  of  Massachusetts  more  than  a  dozen  years  before,  and  to 
whom  Kieft  had  made  a  grant  of  lands  for  the  bravery  of  her  follow- 
ers in  defending  themselves  against  the  Indians  in  the  war  of  that 
period.  Her  house  was  now  again  attacked,  though  discrimination 
usually  was  made  in  favor  of  the  English,  for  it  was  the  Swannekins 
—  the  Dutch  —  who  in  the  other  English  towns  were  threatened  with 
massacre ;  a  new  settlement  at  Esopus,  on  the  North  River,  was  so 
sore  beset  that  its  people  abandoned  all  their  possessions  and  fled  to 
New  Amsterdam  to  escape  from  death ;  on  all  Manhattan  Island  no 
farm  was  safe,  and  their  owners  sought  refuge  in  the  town ;  conster- 
nation and  ruin  spread  with  this  savage  outbreak  over  all  New  Neth- 
erland  ;  many  plantations  with  their  buildings,  crops,  and  cattle  were 
destroyed ;  three  hundred  of  the  people  were  reduced  to  want ;  one 
hundred  were  killed ;  one  hundred  and  fifty  were  taken  prisoners. 

A  summons  was  sent  to  Stuyvesant  to  hasten  back  from  the  South 
River  to  the  defence  of  New  Netherland.  Prompt  and  energetic  in 
action,  though  often  unwise  and  rash  in  judgment,  he  was  always 
ready  to  meet  an  emergency.  His  very  presence  inspired  confidence 
in  the  panic-stricken  people.  All  who  had  not  already  sought  refuge 
in  the  town  he  ordered  to  leave  their  farms  till  peace  could  be  restored. 
The  citizens  were  enrolled  in  a  military  organization ;  new  defences 
were  added  to  the  fortifications  of  New  Amsterdam  ;  military  detach- 
ments were  sent  out  to  meet  and  drive  off  the  Indians  wherever  they 
appeared  most  formidable,  and  effectual  measures  were  taken  to  meet 
the  additional  expense  incurred  by  all  these  measures. 

But  when  some  of  the  more  rash  and  hot-headed  of  the  colonists 
urged  that  war  be  declared  against  the  tribes  who  had  brought  such 
calamities  upon  the  colony,  the  Director  counselled  moderation.  He 
advised  that  friendly  relations  be  cultivated  with  the  savages,  while 
the  settlers  should  keep  nearer  together  in  villages,  with  a  block-house, 
capable  of  defence,  to  fly  to  in  the  event  of  an  attack.  It  was  better, 
The  savages  ne  thought,  to  subdue  the  Indians  if  possible,  by  kindly  treat- 
pacified.  ment,  rather  than  exasperate  them  by  declaring  a  war  of  ex- 
termination, which  the  Dutch  were  not  strong  enough  to  bring  to  a 
successful  issue.  So  judicious  was  the  course  he  pursued  that  in  a  few 
months  the  unfriendly  tribes  again  made  promises  of  lasting  peace, 
and  the  prisoners  taken  in  the  recent  raids  were  all  released,  though 
heavy  ransoms  were  paid  for  them  in  gunpowder  and  lead. 


1655.]          THE  FRENCH  AND  DUTCH  AND  THE  INDIANS.  233 

At  Rensselaerswyck  they  did  not  wait  for  the  suggestion  of  this 
policy  from  Stuyvesant,  and  escaped,  therefore,  the  calamity  which 
fell  upon  other  parts  of  New  Netherland.  When  the  tidings  of  the 
atrocities  committed  by  the  Indians  in  the  neighborhood  of  New 
Amsterdam  reached  the  Patroon,  his  people  looked  at  once  to  their 
own  safety.  By  timely  gifts  and  promises  they  induced  the  Mohawks 
to  renew  the  old  treaty  of  amity  and  peace  which  for  many  years  had 
been  advantageous  to  the  whole  province  of  New  Netherland  and 
profitable  especially  to  themselves.  It  may  have  been  because  theirs 
was  the  frontier  settlement  that  the  people  of  Van  Rensselaer's 
manor  had  always  aimed  to  maintain  friendly  relations  with  the 
powerful  tribes  who  occupied  that  vast  region  on  the  west  as  yet 
almost  unknown  to  the  white  men.  But  whether  the  policy  was  one 
of  choice  or  of  necessity,  they  determined  to  keep  on  good  terms  with 
the  savages  for  the  sake  of  trade,  and  the  result  justified  at  least  their 
worldly  wisdom. 

Where  the  Dutch  had  succeeded  in  gaining  and  in  keeping  the 
good-will  of  the  Indians,  the  French,  with  a  far  higher  pur- 
pose to  the  same  end,  had  signally  failed.  For  years  the  ana  the™ 
missionaries  of  the  French,  sometimes  singly,  sometimes  in 
companionship,  had  sought  the  Iroquois  in  their  remotest  villages  in 
friendly  contest  for  their  friendship  with  the  Dutch.  The  desire  to 
bring  these  benighted  heathen  within  the  pale  of  the  church  took 
precedence  of  any  political  or  commercial  aim  with  the  government 
of  Canada.  It  was  not  that  trade  and  territorial  acquisitions  were 
esteemed  by  them  as  of  little  value ;  that  treaties  were  not  made  to 
secure  both  ;  that  well-appointed  expeditions  were  not  sent  out  to 
gain  a  foot-hold  within  the  territory  of  the  present  State  of  New  York ; 
but  that  it  was  above  all  and  before  all  made  almost  a  reason  of  state 
that  the  cross  should  mark  every  advancing  step  of  the  white  man, 
and  that  the  subjugation  of  the  savages  should  be  the  triumph  of 
the  Church. 

But  the  trader  was  received  as  the  missionary  of  peace  and  good 
will  where  the  servant  of  religion  pi-ovoked  only  strife.  The  Five 
Nations,  whose  domain  was  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  extending  from 
the  Hudson  to  Lake  Erie,  and  whose  most  powerful  tribe  was  the  Mo- 
hawk,1 were  in  almost  perpetual  hostility  with  the  French  of  Canada 
through  all  the  years  that  New  Netherland  was  a  Dutch  province. 
More  than  one  of  the  gentle  and  devoted  Jesuits  died  deaths  of  tor- 
ture or  privation  in  return  for  their  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  the  souls 
of  their  unrelenting  enemies.  In  the  little  box  in  which  Father 
Jogues  carried  the  simple  furniture  for  an  altar  in  the  wilderness 

1  Gallatin's  Synopsis  of  the  Indian  Tribes,  Coll.  Am.  Ant.  Soc.,  vol.  ii. 


234 


THE   LATTER  YEARS   OF  NEW   NETHERLAXD.     [CHAP.  X. 


Fate  of 
Father 
Jogues. 

deatl 


. 


the  savages  believed  the  "  black  gown  "  concealed  an  Evil  Spirit. 
To  save  themselves  from  the  dire  disasters  that  would  come 
with  its  release,  they  tore  the  flesh  from  his  arms  in  strips  be- 
fore they  could  be  merciful  enough  to  end  his  torments  with 
But  they  were  slow  to  detect  the  devil  in  the  brandy,  the 

gunpowder,  and  the  lead  which 
the  Dutch  trader  brought,  and 
they  welcomed  him  as  a  friend. 
The  trader  and  his  wares  the 
Indians  understood;  the  crucifix 
and  the  missal  appealed  only  to 
their  superstitions  and  their 
fears.  At  times  the  enthusiastic 
missionaries  were  persuaded  that 
the  light  of  the  gospel  had  pene- 
trated into  the  dark  recesses  of 
those  savage  souls.  No  such 
pious  aspiration  disturbed  the 
minds  of  the  dealers  in  peltries. 
The  Dutch  were  careful  to  cul- 
tivate the  friendship  of  the 
/-•  ,  Mohawks,  to  be  kind  to  them 

/y  *    I 

I-/UVT*         siA^   '•.  >         jn  j.jie  wa^  Q£  strong  waters  and 
e^-  ^Vj.  fire-arms,    and    the    colony    on 

their  borders  on  the  upper  Hud- 
son increased  in  wealth  and 
strength.  But  the  handful  of 
Frenchmen  who  at  length,  in 
1655,  clustered  about  the  bark 
chapel  of  the  Fathers  Chaumo- 

not  and  Dablon,  near  the  Salt  Springs  of  Onondaga,  were  glad  in  less 
than  three  yeai's  to  escape  with  their  lives,  leaving  all  their  posses- 
sions behind  them,  while  the  Indians,  who  had  come  to  massacre 
them,  lay  in  a  drunken  sleep.2 

1  Father  Jogues  was  treacherously  murdered,  in  1646,  by  the  Mohawks  in  the  Mohawk 
Valley,  called   thenceforth  in  the  annals  of  the  Jesuits  "The  Mission  of  the  Martyrs." 
An  interesting  sketch  of  the  singularly  devoted  and  romantic  life  of  this  Father  is  given  by 
J.  G.  Shea  in  his  edition  of  the  JVouwm  Belgium,  written  by  Jogues,  in  1644.     He  was  the 
first  European,  probably,  to  explore  Lake  George,  which  he  named  Saint  Sacrament  in 
commemoration  of  the  festival  of  Corpus  Christi,  the  day  on  which  he  reached  it.     The 
Indian  name  was  Audiatarocte. 

2  Le  Moyne,  a  Jesuit  Father,  discovered  the  Salt  Springs  of  Onondaga  in  1654,  and  on  a 
visit  to  New  Amsterdam  four  years  later  told  the  Dominie  Megapolensis  of  a  spring  at  the 
source  of  a  little  lake  which  the  Indians  did  not  dare  to  drink,  because,  they  said,  there 

a  devil  at  the  bottom  of  it.     The  Father  tasted  it  and  found  it  as  salt  as  the  water  of 


dTat/ 


J( 


Portrait  and   Signature  of  Father  Jogues 


1658.] 


THE   ESOPUS   WAR. 


235 


Totem  or  Tribe-mark  of  the  Five  Nations 
(from  La  Hontan). 


The  conflict  between  Stuyvesant  and  the  authorities  at  Rehsselaer- 
wyck  had  little  intermission  till  in  the 
latter  years  of  his  administration  the  su- 
premacy of  the  company  was  acknowl- 
edged in  the  payment  of  a  fixed  subsidy 
in  wheat  by  the  Patroons.  But  the  Di- 
rector always  had  reason  to  be  grateful 
to  them  for  their  steady  adherence  to  that 
policy  which  preserved  friendly  relations 
with  the  Five  Nations.  In  1658  trouble 
again  broke  out  with  the  river  Indians, 
which  might  have  been  far  more  disas- 
trous had  not  the  Mohawks  remained 
neutral. 

The  Director  had  persuaded  the  people  of  Esopus,  when  they  re- 
turned to  their  farms,  after  the  massacre  of  three  years  be-  The  E^,,,, 
fore,  to  find  mutual  protection  in  a  compact  village  sur-  war 
rounded  with  defences.  The  confidence  that  very  precaution  gave 
may,  perhaps,  have  made  them  careless  of  provoking  the  hostility  of 
the  savages.  A  band  of  these,  who  had  been  engaged  to  assist  in  the 
harvest,  were  fired  upon  by  the  villagers,  for  no  greater  offence  than 
being  noisy  and  offensive  in  a  drunken  revel  for  which  the  Dutch 
themselves  had  supplied  the  means.  Retaliation  followed,  and  the 
whites,  as  usual,  suffered  in  the  devastation  of  their  farms  and  in  loss 
of  life. 

This  Esopus  war,  as  it  was  called,  continued  intermittently  till  1664, 
and  might  have  been  ruinous  to  the  settlements  along  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson  had  not  the  Mohawks  been  persuaded  to  continue  faithful 
to  the  peaceful  and  friendly  relations  which  had  been  so  long  main- 
tained. Even  without  the  aid  of  that  tribe  the  Esopus  Indians  were 
a  formidable  enemy.  In  the  course  of  the  war  some  of  those  who  had 
been  taken  prisoners  by  the  Dutch  were  sent  to  the  plantations  of 
Curac.oa  as  slaves.  The  wrong  was  one  not  to  be  forgotten  nor  for- 
given. In  June,  1663,  the  village  of  Wiltwyck  or  Wildwyck  —  as 
Esopus  was  then  named  —  was  almost  totally  destroyed.  Although 
the  ostensible  cause  of  this  particular  attack  was  the  building  of  a 
new  Ronduit,  a  little  fort,  at  the  neighboring  village,  —  thence  known 
ever  since  as  Rondout,  —  in  every  blow  that  fell  from  the  tomahawks 
of  the  savages  was  the  memory  of  the  slaves,  their  brothel's,  across 
the  sea. 

It  was  at  high  noon,  while  Stuyvesant  was  conferring,  in  the  open 

the  sea.     The  Domiuie  repeated  this  in  a  letter  to  the  Classis  iu  Amsterdam,  but  adding 
"whether  ihis  be  true  or  whether  it  be  a  Jesuit  lie,  I  do  not  determine." —  O'Caliayluin. 


236  THE   LATTER  YEARS   OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.     [CHAP.  X. 


fields  outside  the  town,  with  the  chiefs  who  had  agreed  to  meet 

on    pretence  of  making   a   treaty,  that  the 

warriors,  scattering  themselves  through  the 

village   apparently  in   friendly  mood,    sud- 

denly  fell    upon    the   unsuspecting   people. 

The  houses  were  plundered  and  set  on  fire  ; 

some  were  killed,  and  some  were  seized  and 

carried  off  as  prisoners  ;  men  at  work  in  the 

fields,  hurrying  in  at  the  sight  of  the  burn- 

ing houses,  to  protect  their  wives  and  chil- 

dren, were  shot  down  from  within  their  own 

doorways.    When,  after  a  fierce  and  desper- 

ate fight,  the  savages  were  driven  off,  they 

left  behind  them  a  heap  of  ruins  in  which 

were  the  charred  bodies  of  twenty-one   of 

the   murdered   villagers,    but   they   carried 

away  more  than  twice  that  number  of  women 

and  children  as  prisoners.     It  was,  however, 

the  last  event  of  the  war  ;  the  Indians  were 

vigorously  pursued   and   punished  ;   and   in 

the  course  of  the  next  few  months  a  treaty 

was  concluded,  the  last  ever  made  between 

the  Dutch  and  the  Indians. 

But  notwithstanding  these    Indian    wars 
and  massacres,  from  which   no  colony  was 

altogether   free,    New   Netherland 

slowly  grew   and    prospered.     At 

New  Amsterdam  Stuyvesant  yield- 
ed, when  longer  resistance  was  useless,  to 
fresh  innovations  upon  the  prerogatives  of 
the  Director-general,  though  none  of  them 
took  much  from  his  power,  or  added  much 
to  the  power  of  the  people.  Whatever  gain 
there  was  to  popular  government  came  not 
through  any  such  well-defined  purpose  as  ex- 
isted in  New  England,  of  deriving  the  right 
of  governing  from  the  will  of  the  governed  ; 
but  only  that  the  privileges  belonging  to  cit- 
izenship in  the  fatherland  should  be  pre- 
served in  the  new  home.  So  far  as  popular 
freedom  existed  in  Holland  it  was  to  be 
maintained  in  the  New  Netherland  ;  but 
wherever  a  limit  or  a  barrier  had  been  set 


him 


1854.]  PERSECUTION    OF   LUTHERANS.  237 

up  at  home  it  was  also  to  be  set  up  in  the  colony.  The  burgher  gov- 
ernment, which  was  wrested  from  the  unwilling  hands  of  the  com- 
pany, was  limited  subsequently,  by  a  division  of  burghers  into  Great 
and  Small,  giving  certain  exclusive  privileges  to  those  who  were  rich 
enough  to  buy  admission  into  the  first  rank,  and  denying  those  priv- 
ileges to  the  poor.  It  was  the  system  of  Amsterdam,  and  was  there- 
fore adopted  by  the  colonists,  though  peculiarly  burdensome  to  the 
people  of  a  new  country  ;  it  was  not  long,  however,  before  it  was 
modified  by  an  experience  of  its  inevitable  evils. 

But  whatever  concessions  Stuyvesant  made  to  the  popular  will  and 
to  the  rights  of  the  people  he  made  upon  compulsion,  not 

T,  f.  „  .    ..    r       ,,  The  policy 

convmcement.  It  was  his  most  firm  conviction  that  the  of  the  w- 
powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God.  He  governed  in  that 
belief,  and  his  temper  was  not  one  to  mitigate  the  severity  of  a  rule 
that  appealed  to  such  authority.  Naturally  he  was  as  intolerant  of 
any  approach  to  religious  freedom  as  he  was  jealous  of  any  encroach- 
ment upon  the  authority  and  privileges  of  the  company  whose  vice- 
gerent he  was.  As  a  rigid  and  zealous  Calvinist  he  was  impatient  and 
scornful  of  any  other  doctrinal  belief,  or  any  other  form  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal government.  No  Boston  Puritan  could  be  more  positive  than  he 
that  there  was  but  one  road  to  the  Heavenly  Kingdom,  though  he  was 
equally  sure  that  the  road  the  Puritan  had  chosen  was  the  wrong  one. 

For  the  Lutherans  —  the  Dutch  non-conformists  of  New  Nether- 
land, —  the  Director  had  little  mercy.     Aided  by  the  Dom- 
inies Megapolensis  and  Drisius,  he  determined  upon  their  of  the  LU- 
suppression  so  soon  as  they  asserted  their  difference  of  faith. 
The  right  they  asked  for,  of  public  worship  among  themselves,  he 
denied,  not  only  because  such  worship  was  not  in  accordance  with 
that  sounder  belief  and  better  rule  which  belonged  to  the  Reformed 
Church,  but  also  because  if  the  door  were  once  opened  to  one  set  of 
schismatics  it  would  be  hard  to  close  it  upon  others.     The  Independ- 
ents of  the  English  towns  would  be  only  too  glad  to  avail  themselves 
of  a  new  pretext  for  insubordination.     In  religious  as  in  civil  affairs 
there  should  be,  the  Director  determined,  uniformity  and  obedience 
to  the  established  order. 

The  duty  of  this  uniformity  and  obedience  he  enforced  upon  the 
Lutherans,  so  soon  as  they  were  numerous  enough  to  attract  attention, 
by  proclamations.  He  refused  to  grant  them  a  meeting-house  of  their 
own  in  New  Amsterdam.  When  the  more  zealous  among  them  pre- 
ferred the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences  to  the  commands  of  the 
Director,  he  punished  them  by  fines  and  imprisonments.  When  they 
sent  to  Holland  for  a  minister  of  their  own  persuasion,  he  was  soon 
made  to  see  that  a  proper  discharge  of  his  duties  was  impossible,  and 
he  was  driven  out  of  the  colony. 


238  THE   LATTER   YEARS   OF   NEW  XETHERLAND.     [CHAP.  X. 

This  policy,  however,  was  the  policy  of  Stay vesant  himself,  and  his 
Disapproval  allies,  the  New  Amsterdam  clergymen,  rather  than  of  the 
stfenianfm~  West  India  Company.  In  this,  as  on  so  many  other  occa- 
chamber.  sjonSi  the  Director-general  ran  before  he  was  sent.  The 
Amsterdam  Directors  were  governed  by  that  spirit  which  had  made 
Holland  an  asylum  for  all,  of  whatever  faith  and  whatever  country, 
who  were  sufferers  and  exiles  for  their  religious  convictions.  Stuyve- 
sant  was  rebuked  by  his  superiors  for  his  want  of  charity  as  well  as  for 
his  want  of  judgment.  There  might  be,  they  thought,  a  "needless 
preciseness  "  as  to  the  formulary  of  baptism,  which  was  the  essential 
point  of  difference  between  the  Calvinists  and  the  Lutherans,  and 
the  Directors  hinted  that  the  Company  would  feel  constrained  to  per- 
mit the  Lutherans  to  have  a  church  of  their  own,  if  the  harsh  measures 
toward  them  should  be  continued. 

That  zeal  for  religion  which  so  absorbed  the  New  Englanders  had 
far  less  power  over  the  Dutch.  Stuyvesant  and  his  clerical  advisers 
were  earnest  enough  and  strong  enough  to  prevent  the  Lutherans 
from  having  a  place  of  their  own  for  public  worship,  so  long  as  New 
Netherland  was  a  Dutch  colony.  But  the  fervor  of  the  Director  and 
the  clergymen  seems  to  have  had  as  little  support  in  popular  sympa- 
thy as  it  had  from  the  Company's  Directors  in  Holland.  The  people 
at  large  were  not  much  disposed  to  the  rigid  method  of  enforcing  uni- 
formity of  belief  and  religious  observance  in  which  Stuyvesant  was 
inclined  to  follow  the  example  of  the  New  England  Puritans.  This 
difference  between  them  and  their  New  England  neighbors  was  one  of 
race  rather  than  the  result  of  a  more  humane  disposition  or  a  wider 
intelligence  ;  but  to  that  difference  it  was  due,  no  doubt,  that  there 
were  fewer  heretics  among  them.  A  novel  doctrine  loses  much  of 
its  attractiveness  if  no  penalty  is  attached  to  entertaining  it,  and  the 
preacher  of  that  doctrine  is  sure  to  avoid  a  people  among  whom  he 
cannot  command  even  attention  enough  to  be  controverted. 

The  outward  observances  of  religious  duty  could  hardly  have  been 
of  paramount  interest  among  a  people  who  did  not  build  on 

Dutch  imlif-  r  *. 

ferenw  to      all  Long  Island,  for  the  first  thirty  years  ot  its  occupation, 

novel  relig-  . 

ious  doc-  a  single  church,  or  settle  among  them  a  single  minister  of 
their  own  faith.  For  that  long  period  they  were  content  to 
depend,  for  such  spiritual  comfort  and  instruction  as  they  required, 
upon  occasional  visits  to  New  Amsterdam,  or  occasional  services  in  the 
rural  districts  from  her  clergymen.  Whether  such  a  state  of  things 
showed  contentment  or  indifference,  in  either  case  it  was  plain  that 
this  was  stony  ground  for  the  sowing  of  the  seed  of  new  doctrine.  It 
was  not  so  much,  probably,  that  the  Director  feared  the  people  might 
be  led  away  from  a  faith  they  professed  so  coldly,  as  from  a  sincere 


1657.] 


PERSECUTION   OF    THE    QUAKERS". 


239 


disapproval  of  what  he  believed  to  be  error,  that  he  visited  heretics 
with  punishment. 

The  prohibition  of  public  worship,  meant  at  first  for  the  Lutherans 
only,  was  extended  to  others.  At  Flushing,  among  the  English,  in 
1656,  were  a  few  Anabaptists.  A  poor  shoemaker,  from  Rhode  Island, 
one  William  Wickendam,  felt  himself  called  upon  to  expound  the 
Word,  and  to  give  new  baptism  to  his  disciples  in  the  river.  William 
Hallett,  the  sheriff,  permitted  his  house  to  be  used  for  the  conventicles 
of  these  people,  where  Wickendam  preached  and  administered  the 
sacraments.  Stuyvesant  commanded  that  the  ordinance  be  enforced 
against  them,  and 
both  the  sheriff  and 
the  shoemaker  were 
fined  and  banished, 
though  Wicken- 
dam, because  of  his 
poverty,  was  per- 
mitted to  go  with- 
out payment  of  the 
fine. 

The  next  year  a 
ship  arrived  at  New 
Amsterdam,  having 
on  board  several  of 
the  "  cursed  sect  of 
heretics  "  —  as  they 
were  called   in  the 
Massachusetts  stat- 
ute —  of    Quakers.      Some    of    this 
company    had    been    banished   from 
Boston  the  year  before,  and  were  now 
on  their  way  to  Rhode  Island,  "  where 
all  kinds  of  scum  dwell,"  wrote  the 
Dominies  Megapolensis  and  Drisius,  &*ke'  Women  Pr««<=hin«  in  New  Amsterdam. 
"  for  it  is  nothing  else  than  a  sink  of  New  England." l    Among  them 
were  two  women,  whose  names,  "  after  the  flesh,"  as  they 
said,  were  Dorothy  Waugh   and  Mary  Witherhead.     Both  m  xew 

,      .  ,       i  r>  Netherland. 

were  of  that  number  who,  the  autumn  before,  had  been  first 
imprisoned  in  Boston,  and  then  compelled  to  reembark  for  Barba- 
does  ;  both,  no  doubt,  had  listened  with  stern  approval  to  Mary 
Prince,  as  from  the  window  of  the  Boston  jail  she  bore  her  testimony 
against  Governor  Endicott,  as  he  passed  by  in  the  street,  crying  unto 
1  Letter  to  the  Classis  iu  Holland,  cited  by  Brodhead. 


240  THE   LATTER  YEARS   OF   NEW  NETHERLAND.     [CHAP.  X 

him,  "  Woe  unto  thee,  thou  art  an  oppressor  "  *  When  they  landed 
at  New  Amsterdam  they  emulated  the  example  of  that  zealous 
woman.  They  asked  neither  for  a  place  of  public  worship  nor  for  per- 
mission to  preach,  but  going  from  street  to  street,  through  the  town, 
they  announced  the  new  doctrine,  and  declaimed  against  the  steeple- 
houses,  the  hireling  priesthood,  and  their  pernicious  teachings.  To 
many  of  the  gaping,  and  probably  amused  crowd  of  Dutchmen  who 
followed  them,  they  spoke  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and  upon  questions 
which  gave  them  little  concern,  even  if  they  could  have  understood 
the  preachers.  But  the  preaching  nevertheless  was  a  defiance  of  au- 
thority and  law  which  the  Dutch  Director  was  as  little  disposed  as  any 
Puritan  governor  to  brook.  The  women  were  seized,  and  thrown  into 
separate  prisons  —  "  miry  dungeons  "  they  are  called  —  infested  with 
vermin.  After  eight  days'  endurance  of  this  punishment,  their  hands 
were  tied  behind  them,  and  they  were  sent  back  to  their  ship  to  finish 
their  voyage  to  Rhode  Island.2 

With  another  of  the  company,  Robert  Hodgson  (or  Hodshone),  it 

fared  still  worse.  He  proposed  to  remain  in  New  Nether- 
of  Robert  land,  and  was  welcomed  at  Heemstede  by  a  few  of  his  own 

way  of  thinking,  with  whom  he  soon  held  a  meeting.  He 
was  arrested  and  word  sent  to  Stuyvesant,  who  ordered  him  to  be 
brought  to  New  Amsterdam.  His  knife  and  his  Bible,  the  latter  with 
him  the  more  dangerous  weapon,  were  taken  away  from  him.  Tied 
to  the  tail  of  a  cart  in  which  rode  two  young  women,  one  with  a  baby 
at  her  breast,  offenders  like  himself,  and  under  a  guard  of  soldiers, 
he  was  driven,  pinioned,  in  the  night-time  and  through  the  woods, 
"  whereby  he  was  much  torn  and  abused,"  to  the  city.  On  his  arrival 
the  gentle  Friend  was  led  by  a  rope,  like  some  dangerous  criminal,  to 
the  prison,  "  a  filthy  place  full  of  vermin." 

What  was  done  with  the  young  women  does  not  appear,  but  not 
being  preachers  they  were  probably  dismissed  without  further  punish- 
ment. Hodshone's  principal  accuser  seems  to  have  been  Captain 
Willett,  again  apparently  an  influential  adviser  of  Stuyvesant,  though 
three  years  before  he  was  appointed  to  the  command,  with  Standish, 
of  the  Plymouth  troops  in  the  proposed  invasion  of  New  Netherland. 
He  "  had  much  incensed  the  governor  "  against  the  prisoner,  it  is  said, 
though  it  is  easy  to  conceive  that  Stuyvesant's  rage  would  need  no 
prompting  in  an  encounter  with  one  of  that  sect  who  feared  no  wrath 
but  the  divine  wrath,  and  respected  no  authority  but  the  authority  of 

1  Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts. 

2  Notwithstanding  her  sentence  of  banishment  from  Massachusetts,  Dorothy  Waugh 
went  back  to  Boston,  where  she  and  Sarah  Gibbons  were  imprisoned  and  whipped  for 
speaking  in  the  meeting-house  after  the  lecture. 


1657.] 


PERSECUTION  OF   ROBERT   HODSHOXE. 


241 


God.  A  prisoner  who  would  not  even  remove  his  hat  in  the  presence 
of  the  court  would  seem  to  such  a  judge  as  the  Director  as  hardly  de- 
serving of  other  consideration  than  that  hat  and  head  should  come  off 
together. 

The  forms  of  law  were  of  little  moment  with  an  offender  of  this  kind. 
No  defence  was  permitted  him,  and  his  sentence  was  read  to  him  only 
in  Dutch.    Its  meaning,  however,  was  not  long  left  in  doubt ;  he  was  to 
pay  a  fine  of  six  hundred  guilders  ; 
for  two  years  his  home  was  to  be  a 
loathsome  dungeon  ;   his   days  were 
to  be  passed   at  hard  labor,  with   a 
negro,  chained    to   a   wheelbarrow. 
When  he  pleaded  that  he  "was  never 
brought  up  to    nor   used    to   such 
work,"   a   negro   beat   him   with   a 
tarred  four-inch  rope  till,  as  the  nar- 
rative   says,   "  Robert  fell    down." 


Hodshone       retired  to  the  Lord. 


"  Thus  he  was  kept  all  that  day  in  the 
heat  of  the  sun,  chained  to  the  wheel- 
barrow, his  body  being  much  bruised 
and  swelled  with  the  blows,  and  he, 
kept  without  food,  grew  very  faint  and 
sat  upon  the  ground  with  his  mind  re- 
tired to  the  Lord,  and  resigned  to  his 
will,  whereby  he  found  himself  supported." 

So  "  retired  to  the  Lord,"  so  resigned  and  so  supported,  he  endured 
such  punishment  for  three  days,  —  the  dungeon  at  night,  the  barrow 
and  its  chains,  the  negro  and  his  tarred  rope,  by  day.  Again  he 
was  taken  before  the  Director,  less  able  than  ever  to  work,  as  little 
disposed  as  ever  to  submission.  "  What  law  have  I  broken  ?  "  he 


VOL.   II. 


16 


242 


THE  LATTER  YEARS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  [CHAP.X. 


demanded.  He  should  work,  he  was  told,  or  be  whipped  every  day. 
Again  he  was  chained  to  the  barrow  and  threatened  with  even  worse 
punishment  if  he  dared  to  speak  to  any  one.  But  the  threats  did  not 
move  him  ;  "  he  did  not  forbear  to  speak  to  some  that  came  to  him, 
so  as  he  thought  meet  and  convenient."  The  worse  punishment  fol- 
lowed. Hung  up  by  the  hands,  his  feet  tied  to  a  log,  his  bare  back 
was  torn  with  rods  till  he  became  almost  insensible  to  torture.  A 
country-woman  was  permitted  to  enter  his  prison  to  wash  and  dress 
his  wounds  and  nurse  him  back  to  life ;  others  interceded  with  the 
authorities  on  his  behalf,  for  many  even  among  the  Dutch  were  moved 
with  pity.  Some  would  gladly  have  paid  his  fine,  but  he  refused 


Friends'    Meeting-house  in   Flushing. 

mercy  on  such  terms,  lest  it  should  be  construed  into  an  acknowledg- 
ment on  his  part   of  conscious  wrong. 

When  sentence  was  first  pronounced  upon  him  it  was  displeasing  to 
many  of  the  Dutch,  as  "did  appear  by  the  shaking  of  their  heads." 
More  scandalous  and  inhuman  it  seemed  to  many  of  them  when,  after 
the  cruel  and  repeated  punishment  of  one  whose  sole  offence  was  obe- 
dience to  his  own  conscience,  he  was  again  led  out,  still  chained  to 
his  barrow,  to  labor  upon  the  public  highway.  Some  openly  expressed 
their  sympathy,  at  least  for  his  sufferings  if  not  for  the  cause  for  which 
he  suffered.  Among  those  who  exerted  themselves  on  his  behalf  was 
the  widow  Anna  Bayard,  a  sister  of  the  Director.  She  was  full  of 
compassion,  perhaps  of  indignation,  and  at  her  prayers  and  expostula- 


16.61-]  PERSECUTION   OF   THE   QUAKERS.  243 

tioris  her  stern  brother  relented.     Hodshone  was  released  at  length, 
and  the  fine  remitted,  but  he  was  banished  from  the  colony.1 

To  the  interference  of  the  good  Mrs.  Bayard  the  Friends  owed  more, 
probably,  than  the  release  of  a  single  one  of  their  number 
from  the  severe  treatment  of  the  Director.  No  others  of  «"  M 
that  sect  were  subjected  to  such  cruel  persecution  as  had 
been  visited  upon  Hodshone,  though  meetings  were  held,  and  the  ob- 
noxious doctrines  preached,  at  Jamaica,  Flushing,  Heemstede,  and 
Brooklyn,  from  the  first  appearance  of  Friends  in  New  Netherland. 
Neither  imprisonment,  fines,  nor  an  act  forbidding  all  persons  to  en- 
tertain a  Quaker  for  a  single  night  under  a  penalty  of  fifty  pounds, 
could  abate  the.  zeal  or  enforce  the  silence  of  these  people.  If  nc 
house  was  open  to  them,  they  assembled  in  the  woods  for  worship  after 
their  manner.  They  were  willing  to  endure  whatever  should  be  in- 
flicted upon  them,  for  conscience'  sake  ;  but  happily  after  the  release 
of  Hodshone,  they  seemed  no  more  obnoxious  to  the  Director  than  other 
dissenters.  In  1663.  even  the  comparatively  mild  persecution  of 
enforcing  the  law  against  those  who  most  persistently  defied  it  ceased. 

One  John  Bowne,  of  Flushing,  had  in  that  year  become  a  convert 
to  the  doctrines  of  Friends  and  had  opened  his  house  for 

.      .  .  .„,  ,  ,  .  .  Banishment 

their  meetings.      I  here  was,  perhaps,  something  more  than  of  John 
usually  exasperating  in  the  quiet  and  patient  firmness  with 
which  the  sturdy   English   farmer  endured  three  months'  imprison- 
ment, and  refused  to  pay  a  fine,  for  the  council  ordered  that  he  should 
be  sent  out  of  the  province  by  the  first  ship  ready  for  sea.     He  went 
as  a  prisoner  to  Holland,  Stuyvesant  writing  to  the  Directors  in  Am- 
sterdam that  if  others  did  not  take  warning  by  his  banishment  they 
would  be  even  more  severely  dealt  with. 

Bowne  defended  himself  before  the  Amsterdam  chamber  with 
complete  success.  So  far  from  approving  what  Stuyvesant  proposed 
to  do,  the  Directors  rebuked  him  for  his  previous  course.  Though  they 
preferred  that  there  should  be  neither  Quakers  nor  any  other  dis- 
senters in  the  colony,  they  doubted  the  wisdom  of  attempting  to  sup- 
press them  by  vigorous  measures.  It  was  poor  policy,  they  thought, 
in  a  commercial  colony  to  repel  men  by  persecution  for  opinion's  sake. 
"  Let  every  one,"  they  said,  "  remain  free  as  long  as  he  is  modest, 
moderate,  his  political  conduct  irreproachable,  and  as  long  as  he  does 
not  offend  others  or  oppose  the  government."  This  "  maxim  of  mod- 
eration "  had  been  the  rule  of  the  magistrates  of  Amsterdam.  "  Tread 
thus  in  their  steps,"  they  exhorted  the  Director,  "and  we  doubt  not 
you  will  be  blessed."  Stuyvesant  had  the  grace  to  accept  this  wise 

1  Scwnll's   History  of  the   Quakers :   An  Abstract  of  the  Sufferings  nf  the    People   called 
Quakers  for  the  Testimony  of  <i  Good  Conscience.     London,  1733. 


244 


THE  LATTER  YEARS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  [CiiAi-.X 


and  humane  counsel.  The  Friends  were  not  again  molested.  Bowne 
returned  to  New  Amsterdam,  and,  when  they  met,  the  Director 
"  seemed  ashamed  of  what  he  had  done."  1 

But  these  religious  persecutions  had  little  to  do  with  the  matei'ial 
progress  of  New  Netherland.  They  neither  helped  nor  hindered  it, 
and  they  were  rather  individual  than  national  —  less  the  outgrowth 
of  the  character  of  the  people  than  indications  only  that  Stuyvesant 
was  as  earnest  and  passionate  on  the  religious  as  on  other  sides  of  his 
nature.  If  the  ordinary  Dutchman  cared  little  what  his  neighbors 
might  think  or  do  about  the  affairs  of  the  life  to  come,  it  was  because 
he  was  not  prone  to  trouble  himself  very  much  about  affairs  of  any 


Bowne's   House. 


kind.  His  temperament  led  him  to  live,  so  long  as  he  lived  in  this 
world  at  all,  a  quiet,  not  over-anxious  nor  over-active  life,  and  to  ac- 
cept without  question  and  without  much  thought  the  teachings  of  es- 
tablished authority.  If  he  was  more  tolerant  than  his  English  neigh- 
bor of  differences  of  opinion  on  sacred  as  well  as  civil  subjects,  more 
merciful  in  punishment  when  punishment  seemed  to  be  called  for,  it  was 
not  so  much  that  he  was  more  just,  but  that  he  was  less  susceptible. 
It  came  to  pass  therefore,  that  his  own  province  of  New  Netherland 
was  indebted  for  whatever  progress  it  made  very  much  to  the  Eng- 
lish, whose  restless  energy,  much  more  than  any  diplomatic  policy, 
urged  them  to  "  keep  crowding  the  Dutch." 

1  Alii.  Rec.,  cited  by  O'Callaphau  and  Brodhead. 


1661.J  GROWTH    OF   NEW   NETHERLAND.  245 

It  was  not  till  1661  that  any  serious  efforts  were  made  to  extend 
the  border  settlement  at  Fort  Orange.  In  that  year  the  ura.iiiai 
"Great  Flat''  stretching  from  the  fort  to  the  Mohawk  the  colony, 
country  was  conveyed  to  Arendt  Van  Curler,  one  of  the  earliest  .set- 
tlers of  Rensselaerswyck,  and  the  commissary  and  secretary  of  the 
first  Patroon.  But  it  was  three  years  later  before  the  first  settle- 
ment was  made  upon  the  tract  at  Schaenhechstede,  now  Schenectady. 

In  the  same  year  of  this  purchase  by  Van  Curler,  Melyn  finally 
parted  with  his  manor  of  Staten  Island,  the  whole  of  which  became 
the  property  of  the  West  India  Company.  A  new  village — still 
called  New  Dorp  — soon  sprung  up  a  few  miles  south  of  the  Narrows ; 
grants  of  land  were  made  in  other  parts  of  the  island  to  some  of  the 
French  Waldenses  who  were  among  the  earlier  emigrants,  and  to  Hugue- 
nots from  Rochelle,  whose  descendants  have  clung  tenaciously  from 
generation  to  generation  to  the  soil  which  their  fathers  first  culti- 
vated. In  1656,  Jamaica  —  a  corruption  of  the  Indian  name,  Jimeco 
—  was  settled  by  Englishmen,  though  the  Dutch  name  was  given  it 
of  Rust-dorp,  or  Quiet  Village.  Westchester  was  reluctantly  recog- 
nized as  Oost-dorp,  or  East  village,  for  this  also  was  settled  by  English- 
men, between  whom  and  Stuy vesant  there  was  frequent  conflict.  One 
Thomas  Pell  was  the  first  English  purchaser  of  land  within  the  bound- 
aries of  the  present  Westchester  County ;  the  tract  he  bought  of  the 
Indians  included  the  spot  where  Ann  Hutchinson  and  her  family 
sought  a  last  refuge  from  Puritan  persecution  and  became  the  victims 
of  an  indiscriminate  savage  ferocity.  New  Haerlem  was  large  enough 
in  1660  to  be  entitled  to  a  village  government.  The  next  year  two 
new  towns,  New  Utrecht  and  Boswyck  —  now  Bushwick — were  in- 
corporated on  Long  Island,  on  the  south  side  of  the  bay  ;  and  on  the 
other  side,  the  first  municipality  in  the  present  State  of  New  Jersey 
was  established  at  Bergen.  Gradually  the  number  of  farms  was 
enlarged,  and  agriculture  became  a  more  important  element  in  the  in- 
dustry of  the  province.  Among  a  people  with  whom  beer  was  a  neces- 
sary of  life  breweries  were  never  wanting  ;  but  to  those  other  manufac- 
tures had  from  time  to  time  been  added,  especially  of  brick  and 
delft.  In  1660  New  Amsterdam  contained  three  hundred  and  fifty 
houses,  which  was  an  increase  of  two  hundred  in  four  years. 

It  was  about  this  period  that  the  trade  in  African  slaves  began  to 
assume  some  activity.  A  free  trade  in  slaves  was  among  the  privileges 
which  the  colonists  had  long  thought  the  Company  should  grant  them, 
for  only  with  such  laborers  was  it  deemed  possible  that  agriculture 
could  flourish.  A  promise  of  aid  of  this  sort  had  more  than  once  been 
given,  but  the  number  of  negroes  in  the  province,  till  after  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  was  probably  small.  In  1648.  an  attempt 


246 


THE   LATTER  YEARS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAXD.      [CHAP.  X. 


was  made  to  encom-age  an  exchange  of  colonial  products  with  Brazil  for 
slaves,  apparently  with  small  result.  In  1652,  permission  was  granted 
for  direct  importation  from  the  African  coast ;  but  two  ships  only 
seem  to  have  availed  themselves  of  this  privilege.  It  was  not,  indeed, 
till  two  years  later  that  the  trade  became  established,  and  the  slaves 
after  that  date  were  brought  chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  from  Cura<joa, — 
the  principal  Dutch  depot  for  this  traffic  in  the  West  Indies.  The  im- 
portations to  New  Netherland  were  chiefly  in  the  interest  of  the  Com- 
pany, though  some  share  in  them  was  granted  to  the  municipality  of 
New  Amsterdam.  Those  brought  on  account  of  the  Company  were 
sold  on  arrival  at  public  auction  for  beaver-currency,  or  its  equivalent 
in  provisions,  with  the  proviso  that  they  should  not  be  exported  from 
the  colony.  Stuy vesant  was  among  the  few  who  had  the  privilege  — 
limited,  perhaps,  to  official  persons  —  of  importing  slaves  for  his  own 
use.  Director  Beck  of  Cura^oa,  writes  him  in  August,  1659,  that  he 
had  purchased  for  him  two  boys  and  a  girl,  who,  according  to  the  bill 
of  lading,  were  shipped  on  the  Spera  MuncH,  "  all  dry  and  well  con- 
ditioned, and  marked  with  the  annexed  mark."  In  February  of  the 
next  year  Beck  writes  again  that  he  hopes  soon  to  send  him  some 
"  lusty  fellows."  Four  or  five  years  later,  ships  counted  their  living 
freight  by  hundreds.  Though  the  Dutch  were  the  first  to  bring  the 
African  slave  to  this  continent,1  and  the  trade  was  thus  successfully 
established  in  their  colony,2  slavery  was  earlier  made  an  important 
element  of  their  social  system  by  the  English  in  Virginia. 

1  See  vol.  i.,  p.  302. 

2  Voyages  of  the.  Slavers  St.  John  and  Arms  of  Amsterdam,  1659,  1663  ;  together  vrith  addi- 
tional Papers  illustrative  of  the  Slave  Trade  under  the  Dutch.     Translated  from  the  Original 
Manuscripts.    By  E.  B.  O'Callaghan. 


t  CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

ENCROACHMENTS  OF  THE  ENGLISH.  —  THE  SOUTH  RIVER  COLONY.  —  LORD  BALTI- 
MORE'S CLAIM,  AND  CONTROVERSY  WITH  MARYLAND.  —  A  NEW  PATENT  GRANTED 
TO  CONNECTICUT. —  DISSATISFACTION  OF  NEW  HAVEN.  —  OTHER  ENGLISH  TOWNS 
ACCEPT  THE  PROTECTION  OF  CONNECTICUT.  —  CONFEDERACY  OF  LONG  ISLAND 
TOWNS  UNDER  JOHN  SCOTT.  —  His  ATTEMPTS  TO  COERCE  THE  DUTCH.  —  NEW  NETH- 
ERLAND AND  PART  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  GRANTED  TO  THE  DUKK  OF  YORK. —  THE 
NICOLLS  COMMISSION.  —  NEW  NEIHERLAND  INVADED.  —  ITS  SURRENDER.  —  NICOLLS 
PROCLAIMED  GOVERNOR.  CHANGE  OF  NAMES.  —  NTEW  AlISTEL  TAKEN  BY  THE  ENG- 
LISH. 

THESE  later  years  of  Dutch  rule  in  America  were  anxious  years 
to  Stuyvesant.  Notwithstanding  the  growing  prosperity  of  Encroach. 
his  own  province  he  watched  with  jealous  eyes  the  encroach-  ™*n^f  the 
ments  and  increasing  influence  and  power  of  the  English, 
even  if  he  had  not  actual  prevision  of  their  ultimate  supremacy  over 
all  New  Netherland.  Massachusetts,  who  claimed  that  her  patent  ex- 
tended indefinitely  westward,  proposed  to  settle  a  colony  on  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Hudson,  and  claimed  the  right  of  navigation 
upon  that  river  to  reach  her  alleged  possessions.  The  right  was  de- 
nied on  the  ground  of  priority  of  discovery,  but  the  claim  was  none 
the  less  a  source  of  anxiety  to  the  Director.  By  the  treaty  of  Hart- 
ford a  large  proportion  of  Long  Island  was  ceded  to  the  English,  and 
both  there  and  in  Westchester  they  were  pressing  hard  upon  the 
Dutch,  with  no  very  strict  observance  of  boundary  lines.  "  Place  no 
confidence,"  wrote  the  Director  to  the  Amsterdam  Chamber  hi  1660, 
"  in  the  weakness  of  the  English  government  and  its  indisposition  to 
interfere  in  affairs  here.  New  England  does  not  care  much  about 
its  troubles,  and  does  not  want  its  aid.  Her  people  are  fully  convinced 
that  their  power  overbalances  ours  tenfold ;  and  it  is  to  be  appre- 
hended that  they  may  make  further  attempts,  at  this  opportunity, 
without  fearing  or  caring  for  home  interference."  Nor  was  there 
much  in  the  relations  of  the  mother  countries  to  lead  him  to  hope 
that  in  colonial  affairs  the  interests  of  his  colony  would  be  protected. 
Holland  was  not  left  long  in  doubt  as  to  how  much  reliance  there 


248       THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NKTHERLASD.  [CHAP.  XL 

might  be  upon  the  acts  of  the  restored  king,  Charles  II.,  for  the  ful- 
filment of  the  promises  of  an  exiled  prince. 

On  the  South  River  the  Director  was  beset  by  never-ceasing  per- 
plexity and  anxiety,  relieved  by  no  perspective  of   general 

Affairs  on  J  .  XT       •  e  1    4-'  t 

the  South  prosperity.  Wo  increase  of  population,  no  extension  or  ag- 
riculture, no  growth  of  manufacturing  industry  cheered  the 
company  and  encouraged  to  fresh  exertions  on  behalf  of  that  colony. 
The  absence  of  all  healthful  energy  and  enterprise  in  that  portion  of 
New  Netherland  was  due  to  conditions  under  which  all  such  energy 
and  enterprise  were  well-nigh  impossible.  A  wilderness  lay  between 
it  and  the  capital  of  the  colony,  and  none  of  the  advantages  which 
might  come  from  nearness  to  the  seat  of  power  could  influence  its 
affairs.  It  was  only  the  province  of  a  province,  governed  or  misgov- 
erned by  the  deputy  of  a  deputy,  claimed  now  by  one  nation,  now  by 
another,  a  bone  of  contention  gnawed  by  each  in  turn.  Half  of  the 
community  had  almost  always  been  in  the  wretched  position  of  a 
subjugated  people.  The  strength  and  vitality  without  which  the 
work  of  the  pioneer  must  be  an  irremediable  failure  were  paralyzed 
by  contention,  dependence,  and  uncertainty. 

Not  the  least  of  the  difficulties  which  Stuyvesant  had  to  meet  in 
the  management  of  the  affairs  of  this  portion  of  his  government  was 
that  which  confronted  him  everywhere  in  fending  off  the  English. 
The  enterprising  New  Englanders  pitied,  no  doubt,  the  distresses  and 
hardships  which  beset  the  people  on  the  South  River,  so  far  as  they 
came  from  natural  causes.  But  they  were  not  unmindful,  neverthe- 
less, of  the  good  ch;inces  for  trade  which  those  distresses  opened  to 
them.  Beeckman,  whom  the  Director-general  had  appointed  as  gov- 
ernor of  the  company's  colony,  purchased  of  the  Indians  the  territory 
south  of  the  Boomtjes  (Bombay)  Hook  to  Cape  Henlopen,  and  estab- 
lished at  Horekill  a  trading-post,  putting  in  it  a  small  garrison,  near 
the  spot  where  De  Vries  and  Godyn  had  planted  their  colony  of 
Swaanendael  a  quarter  of  a  century  before.  This  gave  to  the  Dutch 
a  valid  claim  to  the  whole  river  from  the  capes  to  the  Schuylkill ;  but 
the  New  Englanders  gave  no  heed  to  the  few  Dutch  soldiers  who 
guarded,  or  attempted  to  guard,  the  passage  of  the  Delaware,  and  de- 
fied the  laws  which  prohibited  their  trading  along  its  banks.  Where 
ships  of  all  nations  now  ride  safely  at  anchor  off  the  quaint  little 
village  of  Lewes,  under  the  lee  of  the  Delaware  breakwater,  awaiting 
orders  for  the  great  staples  of  American  commerce,  or  seeking  a 
refuge  from  the  storms  outside  the  capes  of  Henlopen  and  May,  more 
than  two  centuries  ago  the  little  vessels  of  New  England  lingered 
for  wind  and  tide  with  their  cargoes  of  peltries  gathered  along  the 
shores  of  the  Delaware,  and  laughed  at  the  handful  of  Dutch  soldiers 


Sche  jfunaihurifk 


Matovancons 


.j>    gg» 


:ay#n 

Barudegat 

NEW    NETHERLAXD 

From  the  Map  of 

A,    VAXDEEDONCK. 

1656. 


1659.]  CONTROVERSY  WITH  MARYLAND.  249 

on  the  Horekill,  who  wei'e  powerless  to  resent  this  infringement  on 
the  territorial  and  commercial  rights  of  the  West  India  Company. 

Trouble  from  another  direction  was  even  more  threatening.  The 
rendition  of  the  fugitives  to  Virginia  and  Maryland  was  de-  contest  with 
manded  by  Stuyvesant  as  Director-general,  and  a  contro-  Mar>land- 
versy  was  provoked  which  came  near  producing  a  quite  unlooked-for 
result.  These  people  who  had  fled,  not  only  from  legal  obligations, 
which  they  considered  unjust  and  oppressive,  but  from  trials  and 
afflictions  which  were  the  natural  consequences  of  their  settlement  in 
a  new  country,  must,  nevertheless,  have  represented  that  country 
as  one  worth  possessing.  The  English  from  the  southward  began 
quietly  and  gradually  to  encroach  upon  the  Dutch  boundaries,  and  in 
reply  to  Stuyvesant's  demand  that  the  fugitives  should  be  compelled 
to  return  to  the  jurisdiction  from  which  they  had  fled,  Lord  Balti- 
more renewed  his  claim,  that  the  whole  South  River  region  was  in- 
cluded within  his  patent,  the  northern  boundary  of  which  was  the 
fortieth  parallel. 

A  delegation  from  Maryland,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Colonel 
Nathaniel  Utie,  appeared  at  New  Amstel,  with  a  summons  from  Gov- 
ernor Fendall  for  the  surrender  of  the  province.  The  official  gentle- 
men had  reason  enough  to  be  alarmed  at  such  a  summons,  for  there 
were  not  more  than  twenty-five  soldiers  at  their  command  in  the 
whole  province,  and  two  thirds  of  these  were  stationed  at  Horekill ; 
but  possibly  the  people  had  little  share  in  these  apprehensions.  Worn 
out  with  sickness  and  sullen  with  discontent,  they  were  in  a  state  of 
mind  to  listen  to  Utie,  whose  instructions  were  to  "  insinuate  unto  the 
people  there  seated  "  that  they  should  have  "  good  conditions,"  and 
"  have  protection  in  their  lives,  liberties,  and  estates."  1  Alrichs,  in 
his  letter  to  Stuyvesant,  on  the  arrival  of  the  Maryland  delegation, 
says  "  the  citizens  are  few  in  number,  and  unwilling  to  fight,  because, 
as  they  say,  the  city  has  not  kept  its  conditions,  but  curtailed  them,"2 
and  he  reports  Utie  as  saying :  "•  We  [that  is  the  Dutch]  ought  to 
take  hold  of  this  opportunity,  as  our  men  had  chiefly  deserted  us,  and 
they  who  are  yet  remaining  will  be  of  little  or  no  aid ;  therefore  it  is 
our  intention  to  take  hold  of  this  occasion,  as  we  will  not  let  it  pass 
by,  convinced  as  we  are  of  your  weakness." 

There  was  no  hope  in  resistance,  and  the  Dutch  wisely  resorted  to 
protracted  negotiation,  which  they  carried  on  with  great  skill.  Al- 
richs and  Beeckman  replied  courteously  —  much  to  Stuyvesant's  dis- 
gust when  he  heard  of  it —  but  firmly  to  the  Maryland  envoys,  repre- 
senting that  the  right  of  the  Dutch  to  the  South  River  was  founded 

1  Proceedings  of  Council  of  Maryland;  iu  Hazard's  Aiumi.-;,  p.  257. 

2  Albany  Records,  cited  by  Hazard. 


250       THK  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

on  priority  of  discovery  and  occupation ;  that  such  "  procedures  and 
treatment  by  Christians  and  Protestant  brethren  "  appeared "  un- 
expected and  strange  ; "  that  they  were  contrary  to  the  peace  and 
harmony  existing  between  the  republic  of  England  and  the  States 
General ;  that  such  a  question  should  be  submitted  to  their  respective 
rulers;  and,  finally,  that  they  ought  to  have  three  weeks  to  communi- 
cate with  the  Director-general  at  New  Amsterdam.  Utie  acceded  to 
the  latter  proposition  and  returned  to  Maryland  to  await  the  event. 

Stuyvesant's  anger  when  he  received  the  tidings  from  Alrichs  and 
Beeckman  was  more  than  usually  intemperate.  "  I  did  see,"  he  says, 
"  with  no  less  regret  than  surprise  ....  the  frivolous  conclusion  of 
Nathaniel  Utie,  and  your  not  less  frivolous  answer,  and  further  pi-o- 
ceedings  with  him  on  such  a  frivolous  fabricated  instructions  .... 
much  more  so  yet,  that  you  permitted  the  aforesaid  Utie  to  sow  his 
seditious  and  mutinous  seed  among  the  community,  ....  who  rather 
deserved  to  have  been  apprehended  as  a  spy  and  conducted  hither, 
than  to  have  obtained  an  audience  upon  such  a  frivolous  fabricated  in- 
struction without  a  commission."  There  was  no  limit  to  the  absurdi- 
ties into  which  his  ungovernable  temper  would  not  hurry  the  Direc- 
tor. He  must  have  known  that  Utie's  instructions  were  from  Gover- 
nor Kendall  of  Maryland  ;  that  the  mission  was  undertaken  by  oi-der 
of  Lord  Baltimore  himself  ;  that  there  was  ample  power  behind  it,  — 
five  hundred  men,  it  was  soon  reported,  being  ready  to  move  upon  the 
Dutch  ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  he  well  knew  that  the  whole  force  on 
which  Alrichs  and  Beeckman  had  to  rely  consisted  of  five  and  twenty 
men,  two  thirds  of  whom  were  at  a  distance  of  seventy  miles,  and  that 
the  colony  generally,  if  they  did  not  welcome  a  change  of  government, 
would  look  upon  it  with  the  coolest  indifference.  But  Stuyvesant's 
anger  was  not  merely  absurd  ;  it  became  outrageous  when,  to  punish 
the  governors  of  the  South  River  for  conduct  which  under  the  circum- 
stances was  altogether  judicious,  he  insulted  them  by  sending  his 
secretary,  Cornelius  Van  Ruyven,  and  Captain  Martin  Kregier,  to 
take  charge  of  affairs. 

But,  as  usual,  however  unreasonable  Stuyvesant  was  in  temper,  he 
was  rational  in  action.  On  the  same  day  that  he  so  berated  his  sub- 
ordinates who  received  Utie,  he  wrote  to  the  governor  of  Maryland, 
and  appointed  two  commissioners,  Augustine  Heermans  and  Resolved 
Waldron,  as  bearers  of  the  letter,  and  with  power  to  enter  into  nego- 
tiation upon  the  subject  of  Utie's  mission.  He  WHS  not  so  blinded  by 
anger  as  not  to  see  that  the  only  course  open  to  him  was  precisely  that 
for  adopting  which  he  so  blamed  Alrk-hs  and  Beeckman.  They  knew 
that  if  the  claim  presented  on  behalf  of  Lord  Baltimore  could  be 
defeated  at  all,  it  could  only  be  by  an  appeal,  not  to  arms,  but  to 


1G60.] 


CONTROVERSY    WITH    MARYLAND. 


2ol 


reason  and  argument.  Stuyvesant  knew  they  were  right,  and,  while 
he  humiliated  them  with  reproaches  he  justified  their  conduct  by  re- 
sorting, as  they  had  done,  to  pretexts  for  delay  and  offers  of  nego- 
tiation. Though  he  made  a  show  of  armed  defence  by  sending  sixty 
soldiers  to  the  South  River  with  Captain  Kregier,  his  real  reliance 
was  upon  his  ambassadors,  Heermans  and  VValdron,  who  were  to  push 
on  to  Maryland,  armed  only  with  his  letter  of  remonstrance. 

The  negotiation  with  the  governor  and  council  of  that  province  was 
conducted,  on  the  part  of  the  Dutch  commissioners,  with  a 
good  deal  of  ability  and  tact.     The  invasion  of  the  rights  of 

i/~i  i    '  11  ii<- 

the  Company,  they  contended,  was  contrary  to  the  law  or 
nations  and  to  treaties  existing  between  England  and  the  States  Gen- 
eral ;  that  the  colony  of  the  city  of  Amsterdam,  which  Maryland  spe- 
cially claimed  had  intruded  upon  Lord  Baltimore's  patent,  was  a  colony 


The  Maryland  and  New  Netherland  Ambassadors. 

within  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Netherland,  and  that  the  West  India 
Company  had  planted  the  colony  in  the  South  River  region  from 
thirteen  to  fifteen  years  before  any  grant  of  lands  along  that  coast  was 
made  to  Lord  Baltimore ;  and  while  they  professed  a  strong  desire  to 
live  in  peace  and  amity  with  their  neighbors,  they  firmly  avowed  the 
determination  to  submit  to  no  wrong. 

In  the  course  of  the  discussion  the  Baltimore  patent  was  shown  to 
the  commissioners,  who  at  once  detected  and  fastened  upon  that 
clause  which  limited  the  grant  to  lands  a  Jiactenus  inculta"  (hitherto 


252       THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  [CHAP.  XL 

uncultivated),  and  inhabited  only  by  the  Indians.  On  this  point  the 
Dutch  commissioners  immediately  presented  a  supplementary  declara- 
tion, confining  themselves  to  the  single  argument  that  the  South 
River  region  was  distinctly  excluded  from  Lord  Baltimore's  patent  by 
its  own  terms,  inasmuch  as  when  the  grant  was  made  that  country  no 
longer  belonged  to  the  Indians,  but  had  been  bought  of  them  by  the 
Dutch,  who  were  in  possession  of  it,  and  had  been  for  years,  at  the 
date  of  Lord  Baltimore's  patent. 

To  this  presentation  of  the  case  there  seems  to  have  been  no 
answer.  It  was  unanswerable,  indeed,  as  between  the  contending 
parties,  if  the  assumption  of  the  Dutch  was  admitted,  — that  early  and 
long  occupation  carried  with  it  the  title  to  the  country.  But  one 
party  chose  to  ignore,  and  the  other  did  not  know  or  unaccountably 
forgot,  that  if  by  possession  something  more  than  mere  military  tenure 
was  meant,  there  was  still  a  third  nationality  whose  right  was  better 
than  any  that  could  be  given  by  royal  patent  or  company's  charter. 

It  perhaps  occurred  to  the  Dutch  commissioners  that  the  English 
might  make  use  of  the  fact  that  the  Swedes  had  so  long  maintained 
jurisdiction  over  the  South  River  as  an  argument  against  the  claim  of 
the  West  India  Company ;  for  the}'  allude  in  their  first  declaration  to 
the  Swedes  as  "  Dutch  Swedes,"  who  in  common  with  the  Dutch  had 
settled  in  several  places  on  that  river,  and  when  Governor  Fendall  of 
Maryland  asked  what  was  meant  by  "  Dutch  Swedes,  "  the  commis- 
sioners answered  that  "  they  had  been  partners  and  associates  residing 
for  a  time  under  jurisdiction  of  the  Company,  or  rather  connived  at, 
but  who  became  more  insolent,  so  as  at  length,  in  a  traitorous  man- 
ner, they  surprised  Fort  New  Amstel,  before  called  Fort  Casimir,  by 
which  director-general  and  council  in  New  Netherland  were  com- 
pelled to  cleanse  that  neighborhood  of  such  a  vile  gang." 

This  ingenious  misrepresentation  of  the  order  of  events  of  more 
than  twenty  years  on  the  South  River  seems  to  have  been  accepted  as 
true  by  the  English.  Either  they  did  not  know  or  did  not  choose  to 
assert  that  the  "  vile  gang  "  was  still  the  larger  though  now  a  subject 
portion  of  the  people  of  the  province,  and  that  during  the  long  ad- 
ministration of  John  Printz  at  least,  so  far  fi-om  being  "connived  at  " 
as  associates  and  partners  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Company,  they 
were  the  masters  of  the  Dutch,  whose  presence  they  had  hardly  toler- 
ated. The  commissioners  were  as  careful  to  present  all  the  argument 
in  their  own  favor  as  they  were  to  anticipate  any  possible  rejoinder 
on  the  other  side.  While  they  thus  ignored  the  Swedes,  whose  juris- 
diction could  be  used  as  a  strong  point  against  them,  they  reminded 
the  English  of  that  Sir  Edmund  Plowden  who  called  himself  earl 
palatine  of  New  Albion,  and  claimed  that  New  Albion  was  granted 


1660.] 


CONTROVERSY  WITH  MARYLAND. 


253 


to  him  by  James  II.,  and  extended  from  the  North  River  to  Virginia. 
The  title  of  Lord  Baltimore  to  the  Delaware  was,  they  said,  no  better 
than  this  of  Plowden,  who  "  in  former  time  would  make  us  believe  he 
hath  unto,  when  it  afterward  did  prove  and  was  found  out,  he  only 
subreptiff  and  obreptiff  hath  something  obtained  to  that  purpose  which 
was  invalid."  It  was  a  shrewd  reminder  to  the  Maryland  people  that 
their  own  rights  were  not  undisputed,  and  that  among  rival  claimants 
possession  was  the  better  title.1 
The  difficulties  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  the  able  presentation 
of  it  by  Stuyvesant's  ambas- 
sadors, quite  confounded  the 
Maryland  magistrates.  The 
subject  was  referred  to  Lord 
Baltimore,  then  in  England, 
for  further  consideration.  The 
consideration  was  not  want- 
ing, but  no  adjustment  of  the 
conflicting  claims  was  ever 
reached.  In  1660  we  hear  of 
Captain  James  Neal,  the  attor- 
ney of  Baltimore,  demanding 
of  the  College  of  XIX  at  Am- 
sterdam the  cession  of  New 
Amstel,  and  of  the  reply  of 
the  college  that  "  they  will  use 
all  the  means  God  and  nature 
have  given  to  protect  the  in- 
habitants." Two  years  later 
Beeckman  writes  to  Stuy  vesant 

J  t  Swedish  Soldier  of  the  Seventeenth  Century- 

that  he  hears  of  the  arrival  of 

the  son  of  Lord  Baltimore  in  Maryland,  and  that  "nothing  further  is 

mentioned  there  of  any  intentions  upon  this  district." 

Apprehension  of  trouble  from  that  quarter,  nevertheless,  increased 
in  the  Amsterdam  Chamber.  In  less  than  a  year  from  the  time  of 
Beeckman's  hopeful  letter,  the  Company  transferred  all  their  posses- 

1  The  Plowden  patent  has  been  the  cause  of  a  good  deal  of  controversy.  The  truth 
about  it  seems  to  be  that  Sir  Edmund  Plowden  asked  for  a  grant  from  King  Charles  of 
the  country  from  Virginia  to  the  North  River,  to  be  called  New  Albion,  but  the  request 
was  refused  by  the  king,  and  a  worthless  patent  was  obtained  from  the  viceroy  of  Ireland, 
who  had  no  authority  to  give  it.  A  Description  of  the  Province  of  New  Albion,  etc.,  etc.,  etc., 
by  Beauchamp  Plantagenct  (a  supposed  assumed  nnme  for  Plowden).  Hazard's  Annals. 
Note  by  Henry  C.  Murphy  in  his  translation  of  the  Vertoorjh,  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
Second  Series,  vol.  ii. 


254       THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NETHERLANI).  [CHAP.  XI. 

sion  on  the  South  River  to  the  city  of  Amsterdam  ;  and  the  reason 
given  is  that  the  colony  m;iv  be  protected,  without  expense 

Transfer  of  •  r 


. 

to  the  Company,  against  encroachments  from  the  hughsh  on 

to  the   i-itv.  r        "         &  .  .  & 

the  south.  For,  from  the  English  on  that  side,  the  Directors 
declare,  as  little  favor  is  to  be  expected  as  from  the  English  on  the 
north,  and  that  these  "are  continuing  in  their  usurpations."  It  was 
the  shadow  of  the  coming  event.  In  less  than  a  year  thereafter  New 
Amsterdam  became  New  York,  and  New  Amstel,  Newcastle,  and  the 
Dutch,  except  for  a  brief  subsequent  interval,  ceased  to  contend  with 
England  for  colonial  power  in  North  America. 

But  these  later  years  of  Dutch  possession  on  the  South  River  were 
not  otherwise  years  of  prosperity  or  of  peace.  Alrichs  died 

riiitrh      while  the  controversy  was  going  on  between   Stuyvesant's 


commissioners  and  the  mngistrates  of  Maryland,  and  was 
succeeded  by  D'Hinoyossa.  The  administration  of  this  new 
governor  of  the  Colony  of  the  City  "was  marked  by  little  else  than 
quarrels  with  Beeckmau  and  intrigues  against  him.  "  He  feels  him- 
self again  pretty  high,"  Beeckman  writes  of  his  rival,  "  and  is  strut- 
ting forward  in  full  pride.  He  is  boasting  that  he  will  recover  all  the 
effects  of  the  deceased  Alrichs,  and  sings  already  another  tune."  This 
was  when  D'Hinoyossa  was  appointed  Director,  and  the  antagonism  it 
shows  between  the  two  men  had  from  that  moment  no  abatement. 
A  struggle  for  supremacy  in  the  colony  left  little  time  to  look  after  its 
real  interests  ;  industry  was  crippled  by  constant  fear  of  Indian  hos- 
tilities :  idleness  and  the  want  of  a  good  example  in  the  rulers  led  to 
general  immorality  and  lawlessness.1 

D'Hinoyossa,  probably,  as  well  as  fear  of  the  English,  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  transfer  of  the  South  River  to  the  city  of  Amster- 
dam. The  governor  had  sometime  before  gone  secretly  to  Holland, 
and  when  he  returned  it  was  as  sole  governor  where  hitherto  he  had 
held  only  a  divided  command.  But  his  triumph  over  Beeckman  was 
short-lived. 

At  the  north  events  were  hurrying  on  the  inevitable  conclusion. 
A  ,„.«  ,,,r-  After  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  John  Winthrop  the 
t'.'Y'm'iu'.rti-  younger  was  sent  by  the  general  court  of  Hartford  as  the 
cut  agent  of  that  colony  to  England,  with  instructions  to  procure 

a  new  charter  from  the  king,  whom  Connecticut  had  hastened  to  ac- 
knowledge. Mr.  Winthrop  was  successful.  The  boundaries  of  the 

1  There  could  have  been  little  respect  for  either  law  or  justice  where  the  wife  of  the 
Swedish  priest  eloped  with  a  young  man,  and  when  the  priest  broke  into  the  young  man's 
room  in  search  of  the  woman,  was  compelled  by  the  authorities,  because  he  took  an  inven- 
tory "of  a  few  old  stockings."  to  assume  all  the  debts  which  his  wife's  paramour  had  left 
behind  him.  The  priest  sought  consolation  by  marrying  himself  immediately  to  another 
woman,  though  this  was  pronounced  illegal  till  he  had  obtained  a  divorce. 


1662.]  DISSATISFACTION    OF  XE\V    HAVEX.  -->o 

original  patent,  conveyed  by  the  Earl  of  Warwick  to  Lord  Say 
and  Seal  and  others,  which  the  colony  had  afterward  purchased  of 
Fenwick,  were  confirmed  in  April,  1662,  by  new  letters  patent  with 
enlarged  privileges.  It  gave  to  the  patentees  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  from  the  Narragansett  River  along  the  coast  '•  toward  the  south- 
west, west  and  by  south,"  and  from  that  line  westward  in  its  full 
breadth  to  the  Pacific,  or,  as  it  was  then  called,  the  South  Sea,  with 
all  the  islands  along  the  included  coasts  of  both  oceans.1 

New  Haven  and  other  English  towns  along  the  Sound  and  on  Long 
Island,  which   had    hitherto    been    independent,  were    thus 
brought  under   the    jurisdiction    of   Connecticut.     Some    of  faction  of 

New  liaven. 

them  submitted  cheerfully  ;  those,  especially,  near  the  bound- 
ary line  of  New  Netherland  gladlv  welcomed  the  protection  of  such  a 
union.  But  these  were  the  weaker  towns.  New  Haven,  strong  and 
self-reliant,  protested  with  vehemence  against  this  disregard  of  her 
rights  by  purchase  and  settlement.  Her  legislature  called  the  act 
"  the  great  sin  of  Connecticut,"  as  one  "  contrary  to  righteousness, 
amity,  and  peace."  The  magistrates  of  that  colony  were  accused  of  bad 
faith  in  the  measures  they  took  to  procure  the  new  patent ;  of  treach- 
ery in  the  course  they  pursued  in  arousing  discontent  and  animosity 
among  the  people,  that  New  Haven  might  be  disorganized  and  become 
the  prey  of  Connecticut.  Whether  the  charges  were  true  or  not, 
the  assertion  of  jurisdiction  was  the  source  of  perpetual  trouble  for 
the  two  years  that  the  controversy  lasted  ;  it  was  so  easv  to  evade 
the  payment  of  taxes  within  the  boundaries  of  New  Haven  by  the 
plea  that  allegiance  was  due  to  the  new  government  only. 

Consanguinity  and  common  interests  were  sure  to  heal  such  polit- 
ical dissensions  among  the  English  in  the  end.  It  was  quite  other- 
wise with  the  Dutch.  The  new  patent  covered  not  only  Long  Island 
but  all  Northern  New  Netherland.  Stuyvesant  saw  and  compre- 
hended the  situation.  Years  before  he  had  conceded  the  line  of  the 
Hartford  treaty  to  these  encroaching  English.  Even  within  that  line 

1  At  the  time  of  Winthrop's  presentation  of  the  petition  of  Connecticut  for  a  new 
charter,  Lord  Say  and  Seal  held  the  privy  seal,  and  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  another  warm 
friend  of  the  colony,  was  chamberlain  of  the  royal  household.  Both,  says  Trunihnll  (///.<- 
ten/  of  Connecticut)  were  instrumental  in  forwarding  Winthrop's  purpose.  It  is  also  said 
that  Winthrop  presented  to  the  king  an  extraordinary  ring,  -riven  by  Charles  I.  to  Win- 
throp's grandfather,  which  the  kinjr  was  <rlad  to  recover.  There  is  another  tradition  that 
the  king,  Charles  II.,  gave  his  miniature  to  Winthrop.  The  miniature,  however,  —  now 
in  the  possession  of  Miss  Elizabeth  W.  Winthrop,  a  descendant  of  the  governor. —  is 
undoubtedly  the  portrait,  not  of  Charles,  but  of  the  Chevalier  St.  Georcre,  the  "  Old  Pre- 
tender," who  was  not  born  till  twenty -six  years  after  this  visit  of  Winthrop  to  Enirland. 
Such  traditions  are  to  be  received  with  caution.  That  about  the  ring  may  have  as  little 
foundation  as  the  story  of  the  portrait.  Adam  Winthrop,  John's  grandfather,  was  a  plain 
country  gentleman,  unconnected  with  the  court,  who  died  before  Charles  I.  became  king. 


256 


THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 


there  were  English  towns  which  he  could  only  with  the  greatest 
Embarrass-  difficulty  hold  in  subjection  to  Dutch  rule.  That  difficulty 
Gove'rnor  now  was  immensely  increased  by  the  assertion  of  English 

Stuyvesant.      tjt]e    to    the    wnole    Qf     Long    Is]an(J     au(J     the     North     RlVCr 

region  by  a  new  patent  from  the  English  king.     The  Dutch  could 

hardly  fail  to  see  the  end 
that  was  coming. 

The  right  of  those 
towns  on  Long  Island, 
hitherto  independent  by 
virtue  of  the  Hartford 
treaty  of  1650,  to  accept 
the  protection  of  Connec- 
ticut, could  not  be  ques- 
tioned, however  much 
their  strength  might  be 
increased  and  that  of  the 
Dutch  lessened  by  a  union 
with  that  colony.  But 
Stuyvesant  was  not  the 
man  to  submit  without  a 


struggle  to  the  assertion 
which  Connecticut  has- 
tened to  make  of  such  a 
right,  under  the  new  pa- 
tent, as  belonging  also 
to  other  English  towns 


The  English  Agitators  re-naming  th»  Towns. 

within  the  boundaries  of  New  Netherland.  For  two  years  he  carried 
on  a  hopeless  struggle,  cheered  sometimes  by  temporary  success,  but 
on  the  whole  gradually  and  certainly  losing  ground.  A  visit  to  Bos- 
ton and  a  conference  with  the  commissioners  of  the  united  New  Eng- 
land colonies  availed  him  nothing ;  he  was  defeated  by  that  old  policy 


1663.]  JOHN   SCOTT.  257 

of  delay  with  which  the  New  Englanders  had  always  met  the  Dutch 
in  any  attempt  at  negotiation.  He  sent  commissioners  to  Hartford 
only  to  be  baffled  by  a  similar  result. 

Meanwhile,  within  the  limits  of  his  own  province  the  English  were 
steadily  aggressive.     One  Captain  John  Talcott  was  sent 
from  Connecticut,  in    the  autumn  of  1663,  to  Westchester  ceedingsm 

New  Neth- 

to  encourage  the  people  in  their  hostility  to  Dutch  rule,  eriand  un- 
He  bettered  his  instructions  by  fostering  discontent  in  all  necticut 
the  English   towns  on  the  west  end  of  Long  Island.     Two 
months  later  Anthony  Waters  and  John  Coe,  at  the  head  of  a  con- 
siderable force,  marched  from  town  to  town,  changed  the  names  of 
several  of  them,  calling  Flushing  Newark,  Newtown  or  Middelburgh 
Hastings,  Jamaica  Crafford,  and  Oyster  Bay  Folestone  ;  deposed  the 
magistrates  and  appointed  new  ones ;  and  proclaiming  Charles  II. 
king,  declared  these  places  to  be  part  of  his  dominions.     The  Director 
was  glad  now  to  accept  the  compromise  which  his  commissioners  had 
rejected  in  Hartford  only  a  few  weeks  before,  —  that  there  should  be 
mutual  forbearance,  the  Dutch  and  English  towns  to  be  free  respect- 
ively from  interference  from  either  government. 

It  was  a  virtual  surrender  on  the  part  of  Stuyvesant,  but  he  had  no 
alternative.  The  treasury  was  empty ;  help  from  the  Company  there 
was  none  till  it  was  too  late  ;  an  assembly  of  the  people  could  devise 
no  remedy  with  which  to  arrest  the  encroachments  of  the  English. 
And  it  was  while  the  Director  was  thus  made  almost  desperate  with 
troubles  from  without,  destroying  the  integrity  and  threatening  the 
existence  of  his  colony,  that  he  was  called  upon  to  defend  the  settle- 
ments on  the  North  River  from  the  renewed  attacks  of  the  Esopus 
Indians. 

In  the  earlier  differences  between  New  Netherland  and  the  New 
England  colonies,  one  John  Scott  had  been  conspicuous  on 

T  •          «•  •  i  Attempted 

Long  Island  in  efforts  to  unite  his  countrymen  of  the  Ens:-  revolt  of 

1  *  &      John  Scott. 

lish  towns  against  the  Dutch,  and  had  been  punished  by  im- 
prisonment. He  claimed  to  have  purchased  of  the  Indians  large 
tracts  of  country,  and  returning  to  England  at  the  restoration  he  pe- 
titioned the  king  to  bestow  upon  him  the  government  of  the  whole  of 
Long  Island.  He  was  not  without  a  valid  claim  to  the  royal  favor, 
for  he  had  served  in  the  army  under  Charles  the  First,  and  his  father 
had  spent  his  fortune,  and  at  last  laid  down  his  life,  in  the  cause  of 
that  unhappy  king.  The  Committee  of  Foreign  Plantations,  to  whom 
his  petition  was  referred,  gave  him  a  commission  to  return  to  America, 
arming  him  with  large  powers,  but  in  conjunction  with  George  Bax- 
ter, another  well-known  opponent  of  the  Dutch,  and  Samuel  Maver- 
ick of  Boston. 

VOL.  n.  17 


258      THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.  fCHAp.  XL 


The  commissioners  were  instructed  not  merely  to  examine  into 
English  titles  upon  Long  Island  ;  they  were  ordered  to  look  into  the 
question  of  the  "  intrusion  "  of  the  Dutch  ;  their  power,  commerce, 
government;  their  disregard  of  English  law,  especially  of  the  Navi- 
gation Act,  that  early  protective  policy  which  proposed  to  shut  out 
all  foreigners  from  trade  with  the  English  colonies  ;  and  finally  of  the 
means  whereby  this  people  could  be  brought  most  readily  to  submis- 
sion, or  failing  that,  to  expulsion.  As  Scott  bore  royal  letters  of  com- 
mendation to  the  colonial  governors,  such  instructions  if  carried  out 
would  be  almost  tantamount  to  a  declaration  of  war. 

On  his  arrival,  Scott  was  joined  in  a  commission,  with  Talcott  and 
others  from  Connecticut,  to  annex  all  Long  Island  to  that  province. 
To  accept  such  an  office  seems  hardly  compatible  with  the  instructions 
from  the  Committee  of  Plantations  ;  but  as  he  needed  force  to  back 
his  pretensions,  he  was  ready,  perhaps,  to  accept  aid  from  any  quarter. 

Circumstances  favored  him.  The  towns  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Island,  within  the  boundaries  of  New  Netherland,  had  be- 

Confederacy  ,  ,  ,  ~  ,       . 

of  English  come,  by  the  agreement  between  Stuyvesant  and  the  mag- 
istrates at  Hartford,  free  from  allegiance  either  to  Connecticut 
or  the  Dutch.  But  the  people  were  divided  among  themselves.  They 
were  glad  to  be  no  longer  counted  as  Dutch  colonies  ;  but  the  Baptists, 
Quakers,  and  other  dissenters  among  them,  dreaded  coming  under  the 
Puritan  rule  of  New  England.  "  Wee  ware  put,"  they  wrote  to  Scott, 
"  uppon  proclaiming  the  King  by  Capt.  John  Youngs,  who  came  with 
a  trumpet  to  Heemstede,  and  sounded  in  our  ears  that  Conecticot 
would  do  great  things  for  us."  But  the  promise  had  been  redeemed 
by  nothing  but  "  if  so  bees  and  doubtinghs."  On  the  other  hand  the 
Dutch  authorities  threatened,  some  actually  abused  them,  and  they 
appealed,  therefore,  to  Scott  to  come  to  their  aid. 

He  came,  and  came  with  the  unexpected  announcement  that  the  king 
had  granted  all  Long  Island  to  his  brother  the  Duke  of  York.  It  was 
welcome  news  to  the  English,  and  harmonized  all  differences.  Heem- 
stede, Gravesend,  Flushing,  Newtown,  and  Jamaica,  at  once  united  for 
their  mutual  protection,  choosing  John  Scott  as  their  president,  until 
the  Duke  of  York  or  the  king  should  establish  a  permanent  government. 
At  the  head  of  a  force  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  men,  President  Scott 
took  the  field  to  reduce  the  Dutch  towns  to  obedience  to  the  English 
king.  At  Breukelen  he  addressed  the  people,  telling  them  they  were 
no  longer  Dutch  subjects.  He  was  asked  to  wait  upon  the  Director- 
general.  "Let  Stuyvesant  come  here  with  a  hundred  men,"  he  an- 
swered ;  "  I  shall  wait  for  him  and  run  a  sword  through  his  body." 
Perhaps  he  meant  it,  for  turning  round  he  gave  a  blow  to  a  lad  — 

1  O'Callaghan's  New  Nttherland. 


1664.] 


JOHN   SCOTT. 


259 


knocked  off  his  hat,  probably  —  for  refusing  to  uncover  to  the  English 
flag.  %i  He  had  better  strike  men,  not  boys,"  shouted  one  of  the 
crowd.  The  remark,  however  just,  was  ill-timed,  and  four  of  Scott's 
men  immediately  fell  upon  the  new  offender  and  put  him  to  flight. 
The  "  usurper,"  as  he  was  soon  called,  marched  from  town  to  town, 
everywhere  proclaiming  Charles  II.  as  the  rightful  sovereign  of  New 
Netherland,  and  creating  disorder  wherever  he  went. 


A.F 


Scott  at   Breukelen. 


It  was  disorder  only,  how- 
ever, and  not  revolution. 
Scott  and  his  troopers  har- 
assed the  Dutch  through  the 
winter  —  1664  —  threaten- 
ing to  take  New  Amsterdam 
in  the  spring.  Stuyvesant 
called  a  meeting  of  delegates,  for  such  a  threat  was  more  serious  than 
any  lawlessness  in  the  outlying  villages.  The  Stadt-Huys  and  the 
fort  of  the  capital  in  possession  of  the  English,  a  Director-general  and 
his  council  overawed  or  imprisoned  in  the  name  of  Charles  II.,  would 
be  actual  revolution.  The  emergency  was  met  with  promptness  and 
energy.  Money  was  raised  and  measures  taken  for  defence,  though 
there  was  hot  dispute-  whether  the  city  was  bound  to  do  more  than 
take  care  of  itself,  leaving  the  rest  of  the  province  to  the  protection 
of  the  Company.  Scott's  career,  at  any  rate,  was  checked.  A  con- 
ference was  held  between  him  and  the  Director,  and  affairs,  it  was 
agreed,  should  be  restored  to  the  old  order :  the  English  towns  to 
remain  under  such  government  as  they  should  deem  fit,  the  Dutch 
to  be  unmolested  for  a  twelve-month,  while  the  question  of  juris- 
diction and  boundaries  should  be  referred  to  the  home  governments. 

For  a  brief  period  it  seemed  to  the  Dutch  that  better  days  were 
coming.     In  the  spring  the  war  with  the  Esopus  Indians  was  brought 


260 


THE  SURRENDER  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.   [CHAP.  XI. 


to  a  successful  end,  and  Stuyvesant  made  with  them  that  treaty  of 
peace  and  amity  which  proved  to  be  his  last.    The  commissioners,  who 
had  been  sent  the  autumn  before  to  Holland,  returned  with  assur- 
ances of  protection  from  the  States-General,  and  letters  to  the  Eng- 
lish towns  enjoining  them  to  return  to  their  allegiance  to  the  Dutch. 
But  it  was  a  deceitful  lull  in  the  storm.     The  magistrates  at  Hart- 
ford imprisoned  Scott,  but  it  was  for  asserting  his  own  au- 
prisoned  at    thority  and    disregarding  theirs,  not  for  high    crimes  and 

Uartford.  .     ,    J  .        °,  ,    ,  .  ,  ~        ,. 

misdemeanors  in  the  peaceful  province  of  an  unottending 
neighbor.  The  letters  of  their  High  Mightinesses  of  the  States-Gen- 
eral to  their  English  subjects 
were  disregarded,  —  in  some 
instances  were  not  even 
opened.  The  copies  that 
were  sent  to  Hartford  were 
pronounced  to  be  forgeries, 
as  a  convenient  way  of  pay- 
ing no  heed  to  them.  Win- 
throp  openly  visited  the 
English  towns  to  induce 
them  to  submit  to  the  rule 
of  Connecticut,  and  in  an 
interview  with  Stuyvesant 
and  the  burghers  of  New 
Amsterdam  firmly  main- 
tained that  under  the  new 
charter  all  Long  Island  be- 
longed to  her.  By  virtue 

Portrait  of  the  Duke  of  York,  afterwards  James  II.  Qf  t}lat  charter,  Pell  bought 

of  the  Indians  all  the  country  lying  between  Westchester  and  the 
North  River,  including  Spuyten-Duyvil  Creek,  which  the  Dutch  had 
purchased  fifteen  years  before. 

The   overwhelming  calamity   was  already  certain.     In  March  the 
king  granted  to  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  York  and  Albany, 

Grant  of  ter-         ,  c  11 

ritorytothe  a  large  portion  of  the  province  of  Maine,  and  the  country 
York  by  the  from  the  west  side  of  the  Connecticut  River  to  the  east  side 
of  Delaware  Bay.  This  grant  included  Martha's  Vineyard, 
Nantucket,  all  Long  Island,  and  the  whole  of  the  territory  of  New 
Netherland.  The  next  month  a  fleet  of  four  ships,  with  a  force  of 
three  or  four  hundred  men,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Richard 
Nicolls,  as  the  lieutenant-governor  of  the  Duke,  sailed  for  New  Eng- 
land. With  Nicolls  were  joined  as  commissioners,  Sir  Robert  Carr, 
Sir  George  Cartwright,  and  Samuel  Maverick,  with  extraordinary 


1664.]       THE   COMMISSIONERS   OF  THE   DUKE   OF   YORK.  261 

powers  for  settling  all  difficulties  in  the  New  England  colonies,  as 
well  as  to  take  possession  of  the  Dutch  province  and  reduce  its  in- 
habitants to  obedience. 

A  rumor  of  the  coming  of  this  fleet,  and  its  purpose,  reached  New 
Amsterdam  in  July.  Captain  Willett  was  the  first  to  hear  it,  and 
he  hastened  to  inform  Stuyvesant,  who  proposed  at  once  the  most 
energetic  measures  for  defence.  The  fortifications  were  to  be  re- 
paired and  enlarged ;  money  was  to  be  raised,  ammunition  to  be 
brought  from  New  Amstel,  provisions  to  be  stored,  and  the  city  put 
in  a  condition  to  withstand  a  siege.  But  before  those  preparations 
could  be  made,  dispatches  came  from  the  Company's  directors  in  Hol- 
land. It  was,  they  said,  to  reduce  the  New  England  colonies  to  obe- 
dience and  uniformity  in  state  and  church,  that  the  fleet  was  sent ; 
New  Netherland  had  nothing  to  fear.  Willett,  who  had  done  so 
much  to  arouse  alarm,  now  did  all  he  could  to  quell  it.  Stuyvesant, 
with  restored  tranquillity,  left  the  city  for  Fort  Orange,  on  some  offi- 
cial business. 

The  Directors  of  the  Company  were  so  far  right,  that  the  commis- 
sioners had  almost  plenary  powers  bestowed  upon  them  in 
regard  to  all  the  affairs  of  the  New  England  colonies.  The 
English  government  had  no  doubt  taken  care  that  this  theduke 
should  be  well  known  in  Amsterdam.  But  Nicolls  and  his  associates 
were  also  enjoined  to  reduce  New  -Netherland ;  and  though  this  was 
not  known  in  Amsterdam,  the  commissioners,  on  their  arrival  in  Bos- 
ton, were  anxious  to  have 
it  understood  that  this  part 
of  their  mission  was  of  pri- 

mary  importance.    The  con-  —          Sienature  of  Nicolls. 

quest   of   New  Netherland 

would  be  the  easier,  if  the  Dutch  were  kept  carefully  ignorant  of  such 
a  purpose.  When  New  England  was  gratified  by  that  conquest,  it 
would  be  time  to  develop  the  ulterior  purposes  in  regard  to  those  col- 
onies. This  astute  policy  was  entirely  successful  so  far  as  New 
Netherland  was  concerned.  She  was  not  in  the  least  prepared  to 
meet  the  impending  calamity.  The  dispatches  fi-om  Amsterdam 
allayed  all  fears  and  put  aside  all  precautionary  measures. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  commissioners  in  Boston,  late  in  July,  they 
made  known  their  designs  against  New  Netherland  to  the  govern- 
ments of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and  asked  for  their  coopera- 
tion. Connecticut  was  ready  to  render  at  once  every  aid  in  her 
power ;  but  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  who  probably  knew  that 
the  commissioners  had  a  private  letter  of  royal  instructions  as  well  as 
the  public  letter  which  they  presented,  was  less  disposed  to  lend 


262  THE   SURRENDER   OF  NEW   NETHERLAND.      [CiiAP.  XI. 

assistance.1  Her  people  had  never,  like  those  of  the  other  New  Eng- 
land colonies,  been  eager  for  the  conquest  of  the  Dutch  province,  and 
if  the  Governor  knew  the  character  of  the  private  instructions  to  the 
commissioners  he  knew  that  Massachusetts  had  more  to  dread  than  to 
hope  from  their  visit. 

There  was  a  delay  of  nearly  a  month  after  the  arrival  of  the  fleet 
An  English  at  Boston  before  the  expedition  sailed  for  New  Amsterdam. 
bayVNew  Some  preparation  for  a  resistance  that  would,  at  least,  have 
Amsterdam.  Delayed  the  catastrophe,  might  in  that  interval  have  been 
made  had  not  the  assurances  of  the  Company's  Directors  removed 
all  sense  of  danger.  The  flag-ship  was  sailing  up  the  bay  before 
Stuyvesant,  who  had  been  recalled  by  a  hasty  message,  could  reach 
the  city  from  Fort  Orange  ;  he  had  been  at  home  only  three  days 
before  the  whole  squadron  was  at  anchor  in  Nyack  Bay,  just  below 
the  Narrows  on  the  Long  Island  side.  The  block-house  on  the 
opposite  shore  of  Staten  Island  was  at  once  seized  by  the  English  ; 
the  harbor  was  effectually  blockaded  ;  the  people  of  the  neighborhood 
were  forbidden  to  carry  supplies  to  New  Amsterdam  ;  and  proclama- 
tion  was  widely  made  that  none  should  be  molested  who  submitted 
quietly  and  acknowledged  allegiance  to  the  king  of  England. 

Stuyvesant  met  the  emergency  with  his  usual  energy.  Every  third 
man  was  ordered  out  to  work  upon  the  defences  of  the  city ; 

Stuyvesant^o  .  ... 

resistance  to  additional  guns  were  mounted  ;  a  requisition  was  made  upon 
monafor  Fort  Orange  for  help,  and  all  the  soldiers  were  called  in 

surrender.  i  -i    •  T-»I  ...  -,-.          .-. 

from  the  outlying  posts.  But  the  requisition  on  tort  Orange 
was  disregarded  :  the  farmers  on  Long  Island  refused  to  come  in 
to  the  defence  of  the  city,  on  the  plea  that  their  own  homes  were  in 
danger.  The  Director  was  left  with  only  about  a  hundred  soldiers 
and  the  panic-stricken  citizens  of  New  Amsterdam  to  rely  upon. 
From  the  outset  it  was  evident  that  there  could  be  no  effectual  re- 
sistance. 

Nevertheless,  on  Friday,  the  29th  of  August,  a  deputation  was  sent 
to  Nicolls,  demanding  his  purpose,  and  by  what  authority  he  made 
this  invasion.  The  next  day  came  a  formal  summons  for  the  sur- 
render of  the  town  and  all  the  forts  belonging  to  it,  with  a  proclama- 
tion promising  protection  of  life  and  property  to  all  who  would  sub- 
mit "  to  his  majesty's  government,  as  his  good  subjects  ought  to  do." 

It  was  with  great  reluctance  that  Stuyvesant  consented  that  this 
answer  of  the  English  commander  should  be  made  public.  It  would 
"  discourage  the  people,"  he  said  ;  but  the  principal  burghers  and 
other  magistrates,  and  the  officers  of  the  guard  had  already  met,  and 
had  shown  themselves  to  be  utterly  destitute  of  any  manly  courage. 

i  Palfrey's  History  of  New  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  583. 


1664.] 


THE   ENGLISH   BEFORE   NEW  AMSTERDAM. 


263 


The  most  spirited  resolution  to  which  they  could  bring  themselves  was, 
that  they  would  make  some  pretence  of  defence,  in  the  hope  that  the 
enemy  would  think  it  worth  while  to  propose  more  favorable  condi- 
tions. But  protection  to  life  and  property  were  already  offered  by  the 
proclamation  ;  what  could  be  expected,  if  this  were  known,  from  a 
populace  ready  to  surrender  even  without  that  promise  ?  The  Director 


1 


Stuyvesant  and  the  English  Letter. 

i 

•was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  public  clamor  and  give  up  the  dis- 
patches, but  he  must  not,  he  said,  be  held  "  answerable  for  the  calam- 
itous consequences." 

This  conclusion  had  been  reached  on  Monday,  when  Governor  Win- 
throp  —  who  had  joined  the  fleet  with  a  reinforcement  of  Connecticut 
volunteers  —  came  up  the  bay  under  a  flag  of  truce  and  presented 


264  THE   SURRENDER   OF  NEW   NETHERLAND.      [CHAP.  XI. 

another  letter  from  Nicolls.  Stuyvesant  read  it  in  the  presence  of 
conflict  be-  tne  council  and  the  burgomasters.  The  terms  it  offered 
DirectoJ'anii  were  still  more  favorable.  Trade  with  Holland  in  Dutch 
the  people.  Vegsei8  Would  not  be  interfered  with;  emigrants  from  the 
mother-country  could  come  and  settle  in  New  Netherland  as  hitherto ; 
the  colony  would  be  under  English  jurisdiction,  instead  of  that  of 
the  Company,  but  otherwise  the  condition  of  the  Dutch  colonists 
would  hardly  be  interfered  with.  Those  who  favored  surrender  were 
all  the  more  anxious  that  the  people  should  see  this  second  letter; 
Stuyvesant  all  the  more  dreaded  the  effect  it  would  have  upon  them. 
The  debate  was  hot  and  furious,  till  Stuyvesant  in  a  rage  ended  it 
by  tearing  the  letter  in  pieces  and  scattering  the  fragments  upon  the 
floor,  —  "  dilacerated  "  it,  exclaimed  the  indignant  and  baffled  burgo- 
masters. 

Hitherto  there  had  been  some  show  of  labor  upon  the  fortifications, 
but  now  they  were  abandoned,  and  an  exasperated  mob  surged  about 
the  Stadt-Huys.  They  demanded  to  seethe  Governor;  to  offer  re- 
sistance to  such  a  force  as  threatened  them  would  be,  they  said,  "  as 
idle  as  to  gape  before  an  oven."  When  Stuyvesant  appeared  he  was 
greeted  with  shouts  of  "  The  letter !  the  letter ! "  Reproaches  and 
curses  were  showered  upon  him  and  the  Company.  Defeated  and 
helpless  he  returned  to  the  council  chamber ;  the  fragments  of  the 
**  dilacerated  "  document  were  gathered  up  and  put  together,  and  a 
copy  delivered  to  the  burgomasters  to  do  with  it  what  they  would. 

The  question  of  surrender  was,  nevertheless,  still  in  the  hands  of 
the  Director.  He  sent  to  Nicolls  a  long  answer,  defiant,  didactic,  and 
argumentative.  He  defended  the  rights  of  the  Dutch  to  the  country 
by  discovery,  settlement,  and  possession  ;  he  protested  against  this 
infringement  of  the  treaty  between  England  and  the  States-General ; 
he  urged  the  agreement  between  himself  and  Scott  which  was  to 
stand  good  for  a  twelvemonth :  he  feared  no  threats,  and  he  trusted 
in  God,  who  could  as  well  preserve  with  a  small  force  as  with  a  great 
army. 

Nicolls,  nevertheless,  though  he  may  have  been  quite  as  pious  as  the 
Preparations  Director,  had  great  reliance  on  superiority  of  force.  A  com- 
Muu'oV'the  Pany  °f  regular  cavalry  and  the  Connecticut  militia  were  al- 
«ity.  ready  encamped  on  Long  Island  just  below  Breukelen  ;  these 

he  ordered  should  be  reinforced  with  all  the  troops  of  two  of  the  ships, 
in  readiness  for  an  attack  by  land  and  in  the  rear,  while  the  two  other 
frigates  were  to  sail  up  in  front  and  bring  their  broadsides  to  bear  upon 
the  town. 

Standing  on  the  walls  of  the  fort,  by  the  side  of  a  gun,  the  gunner 
ready  with  his  lighted  match,  Stuyvesaut  watched  the  ships  as  they 


1664.]  THE   FALL   OF  NEW   AMSTERDAM.  265 

came  up  the  harbor,  and  then  swung  to  their  anchors  in  the  channel 
between  Nutten  (Governor's)  Island  and  the  fort.  Had  he  ordered 
the  gunner  to  fire,  the  ships  would  at  once  have  bombarded  the  city. 
He  gave  no  such  order.  Perhaps  his  own  prudence  restrained  him, 
for  though  a  violent  man,  his  good  judgment —  as  we  have  sometimes 
seen  —  often  controlled  his  anger ;  perhaps  he  was  restrained  by  the 
Dominies  Megapolensis,  father  and  son,  who  begged  him  not  to  be  the 
first  to  shed  human  blood  in  such  a  contest.  At  any  rate  he  gave  no 
order,  and  no  shot  was  fired.  The  city  was  quietly  put  under  the 
guns  of  the  two  ships,  and  Stuyvesant  left  the  fort  with  a  hundred  of 
the  garrison  to  be  prepared  to  resist  a  landing.  The  Directors  of  the 
West  India  Company  afterward  reproached  him  that  he  permitted 
himself  to  be  influenced  by  the  two  clergymen  and  "  other  chicken- 
hearted  persons,"  and  allowed  himself  "  to  be  led  in  from  the  bulwarks 
between  two  pi'eachers  "  while  the  hostile  frigates  passed  the  fort  and 
the  mouths  of  twenty  pieces  of  cannon.  But  he  did,  no  doubt,  the 
best  he  could ;  he  alone  could  not  serve  the  twenty  guns ;  and  not 
another  man,  save  he,  in  fort  or  city,  seems  to  have  thought  of  resist- 
ance. 

Again  he  wrote  to  Nicolls,  and  again  declared  he  should  stand  an 
assault,  but  sending  at  the  same  time  a  deputation  of  magistrates  to 
come,  if  possible,  to  some  agreement  with  the  English  commander. 
Nicolls  would  listen  to  no  proposal  but  that  of  surrender ;  he  should 
come,  he  said,  the  next  day  with  ships  and  soldiers,  and  he  would  be 
a  bold  man  who  came  on  board  unless  the  white  flag  was  hung  out 
from  the  fort. 

When  this  answer  was  known  the  utmost  panic  spread  through  the 
town.     The   Director  was  beset  with  weeping  women  and  StuVTegant 
children  ;  in  the  City  Hall  a  tumultuous  assembly  met,  and  a  j^1^  tu. 
remonstrance  was  adopted,  signed  by  all  the  principal  citi-  mult- 
zens  —  among  them  Stuyvesant's  son  —  begging  that  the  terms  offered 
by  the  English  might  be  at  once  accepted.     The  fort,  they  said,  could 
not  stand  a  three  days'  siege ;  the  offer  of  the  enemy  was  generous  ; 
their  conduct  had  been  forbearing ;  unless  now  there  should  be  an  im- 
mediate surrender  they   could  foresee  nothing  but  "  misery,  sorrow, 
conflagration,  the  dishonor  of  women,  murder  of  children  in  their  cra- 
dles, the  absolute  ruin  and  destruction  of  about  fifteen  hundred  inno- 
cent souls."     Still  Stuyvesant  declared  "  he  had  rather  be  carried  a 
corpse  to  his  grave  "  than  yield. 

The  situation  was,  in  truth,  desperate.  The  town  dn  the  north 
was  defended  only  by  an  embankment  three  feet  high,  surmounted  by 
a  fence  of  rotten  palisades ;  this  was  overlooked  by  the  hills  outside 
within  gunshot  range  commanding  all  the  houses ;  and  on  both  sides 


266  THE   SURRENDER   OF  NEW  NETHERLAND.     [CHAP.  XI. 

the  town  was  open  to  the  rivers.  The  fort  itself  a  council  of  war  de- 
clared was  untenable  ;  there  was  not  powder  enough  to  last  a  day  ; 
there  was  no  store  of  provisions  for  a  lengthened  siege.  Moreover 
and  worse  than  all,  the  garrison  was  mutinous.  "  Now  we  hope,"  they 
cried,  "  to  pepper  those  devilish  traders  who  have  so  long  salted  us  ; 
we  know  where  booty  is  to  be  found,  and  where  the  young  women  live 
who  wear  gold  chains  J  " 

Nicolls  came  as  he  said  he  would,  yielding  nothing  of  his  conditions, 
except  that  he  promised  the  fort  and  city  should  be  restored  "  in  case 
the  difference  of  the  limits  of  this  province  be  agreed  upon  betwixt  his 
majesty  of  England  and  the  high  and  mighty  States-General,"  —  a 
promise  most  safe  to  make.  The  terms  of  surrender,  which  were  mer- 
ciful to  the  Dutch  —  the  protection  of  life  and  property,  a  guaranty 
of  religious  liberty,  freedom  of  trade,  of  emigration,  of  the  public 
debt,  of  the  laws  of  inheritance  and  contracts,  and  of  a  representative 
government  —  were  agreed  upon  on  Saturdaj'  by  a  board  of  commis- 
sioners. On  Monday  the  articles  were  ratified  by  the  Director- 
general. 

And  on  Monday  morning,  the  8th  of  September,  1664,  there 
marched  out  of  Fort  Amsterdam  on  the  Beaver  Street  side,  at 
the  head  of  the  poltroons  who  knew  where  the  young  women 


lived  who  wore  gold  chains,  the  stern  old  wooden-legged  sol- 
dier who  would  rather  have  been  carried  out  a  corpse  to  his  grave. 
As  they  went  on  board  ship  in  the  East  River  for  Holland,  six  columns 
of  English  soldiers  filed  through  the  streets  of  the  city  ;  English  sol- 
diers mounted  guard  at  the  Stadt  Huys  and  at  the  city  gates,  while 
over  the  fort  floated  the  English  flag  which  a  corporal's  guard  had 
hoisted  as  Stuyvesant  passed  out  from  beneath  the  shadow  of  the 
walls  he  would  have  so  gladly  defended.  The  obedient  burgomas- 

ters proclaimed  Nicolls  as  Gov- 
s  /j  si  ernor;  Fort  Amsterdam  was 

named  Fort  James;  New  Am- 

Bterdam  was  changed  to  New 

York  ;  twelve  days  later  Fort 

Signature  of  Sir  George  Cartwrlght.  .,.  j  "       ,  .,  , 

Orange    surrendered    without 

resistance  to  Sir  George  Cartwright,  and  the  name  of  Albany,  the 
duke's  second  title,  was  given  to  it. 

New  Amstel  was  still  to  be  reduced,  and  in  the  course  of  the  month 
Sir  Robert  Carr  sailed  with  three  ships  and  a  body  of  troops  for  the 
Delaware.  This  display  of  force  only  was  necessary.  On  Sunday,  the 
New  Amstei  ^rst  ^HY  °^  October,  Fort  Casimir  surrendered,  and  though 
taken.  there  was  no  resistance  and  almost  no  parley,  there  was  less 
consideration  shown  to  the  Dutch  than  there  had  been  in  New  Am- 


9S 
> 


a 

^-s 

z 


1664.] 


SURRENDER  OF  NEW  AMSTEL. 


267 


sterdam.  Arms  and  amunition,  live  stock,  stores,  provisions,  and 
their  crops  were  taken  from  the  people.  Some  were  permitted  to 
return  to  Holland ;  others  were  seized  as  prisoners  of  war  and  sold 
into  bondage  in  Virginia.  D'Hinoyossa,  the  Governor,  was  sent  back 
to  Holland,  but  his  estate  —  consisting  in  part,  if  not  wholly,  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  meadow-land  on  the  Delaware  near  the 
fort,  and  of  an  island  called 
Swarton  Natton  of  about 
three  hundred  acres  at  the 
mouth  of  Christina  Creek  — 
was  confiscated  to  the  use  of 
Carr.  Beeckman  and  others 
went  back  to  New  York, 
where  he  is  afterward  heard  of  as  an  alderman  of  the  city.  Many, 
both  Dutch  and  Swedes,  remained  in  the  colony,  and  the  Swedes, 
especially  in  and  about  Newcastle  and  Wilmington,  long  preserved 
their  national  characteristics  in  language,  habits,  and  religion,  though 
faithful  in  their  allegiance  to  the  English,  as  they  had  been  peaceful 
citizens  before  when  finally  brought  under  the  rule  of  the  Dutch. 


Signature  of  Sir  Robert  Carr. 


S-3al  of  New  Amsterdam. 


CHAPTER   XII. 


THE    CAHOLIXAS. 


THE  CAROLINA  PATENTS  OF  1663  AND  1665. —  THE  PATENTEES.  —  EARLIER  GRANTS 
AND  PROJECTED  SETTLEMENTS.  —  FlRST  SETTLERS  ON  Al.BEMARLE  SOUND. —  NEW 
ENGLAND  MEN  AT  THE  MOUTH  OF  CAPE  FEAR  RIVER.  —  THE  COLONY  UNDER  YEA- 
MANS. —  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  ALUKMARLE  COLONY.  —  LOCKE'S  "FUNDAMENTAL 
CONSTITUTIONS."  —  INDEPENDENT  LEGISLATION  AT  ALBEMARLE.  —  GOVERNORS  AND 
PROGRESS  OF  THE  CAPE  FEAR  SETTLEMENT. — JOSEPH  WEST.  —  DISSENSIONS  IN 
THE  NORTH  UNDER  CARTEKET  AND  MILLER. —  THE  PASQUOTANK  INSURRECTION. — 
GOVERNOR  SOTHEL. 

BY  the  capture  of  New  Netherland,  that  "  New  English  Nation  " 
•which  Raleigh  had  hoped  to  see,  stretched  for  the  first  time  in  an  un- 
broken line  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  from  James  River,  in  Virginia, 
to  Nova  Scotia.  And  nearly  half  a  century  had  passed  away,  after 
Raleigh  was  led  to  the  scaffold,  before  a  permanent  colony  was 
planted  in  the  more  southern  region,  where  his  first  attempts  had  so 
unhappily  failed. 

Only  the  year  before  the  King  bestowed  upon  the  Duke  of  York 
that  munificent  gift  of  a  province  which  not  only  was  not 

First  grant  °  » 

o|  Carolina,  his  to  give,  but  did  not  even  belong  to  England,  either  by 
right  of  possession  or  by  right  of  discovery,  the  same  gen- 
erous monarch  granted  to  some  other  gentlemen  about  the  court  a 
patent  of  a  wide  tract  of  country  south  of  Virginia.  The  grant  ex- 
tended from  about  the  thirtieth  to  the  thirty-sixth  parallel  of  latitude, 
• —  or  from  the  St.  John's  River,  in  Florida,  to  nearly  the  present 
southern  boundary  of  Virginia,  —  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  that  vague 
South  Sea,  still  thought  to  be  within  reach  of  a  moderate  journey. 
One  of  its  early  governors  wrote  of  this  region  that  "  it  was  indeed  the 
very  Center  of  the  habitable  Part  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  .... 
lying  parallel  with  the  Land  of  Canaan  ....  not  being  pestered 
with  the  violent  Heats  of  the  more  Southern  colonies,  or  the  extream 
and  violent  Colds  of  the  more  Northern  Settlements."  l  And  another 
of  its  earliest  historians  says  that  from  its  latitude  and  situation  Caro- 

«/ 

lina  must  needs  be  "  a  delicious  country,  being  placed  in  that  girdle 

1  Description  of  that  Fertile  and  Pleasant  Province  of  Carolina,  etc.,  etc.     By  John  Arch- 
dale.     [London,  1707.]     In  Carroll's  S.  C.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  ii. 


1665.] 


THE   PATENTS   AND  PATENTEES. 


269 


The  Second 

Charter. 

1665. 


of  the  world  which  affords  wine,  oil,  fruit,  grain,  and  silk,  with  other 
rich  commodities,  besides  a  sweet  air,  moderate  climate,  and  fertile 
soil  ....  blessings  that  spin  out  the  thread  of  life  to  its  utmost 
extent,  and  crown  our  days  with  the  sweets  of  health  and  plenty."  * 
There  is  something  of  that  love  of  hyperbole  which  belongs  to  the 
writers  of  that  period  in  these  descriptions,  —  something  of  an  evi- 
dent desire  to  attract  emigration  by  means  not  unknown  in  later 
times.  Much  may  be  pardoned  to  these  influences,  even  as  we  pardon 
the  want  of  strict  scientific  accuracy  in  the  author  of  the  history  we 
quote  from,  who,  in  the  list  of  "  Insects  "  of  Carolina,  gives  the  first 
place  to  alligators  and  rattlesnakes. 

The  first  charter  was  dated  (old  style)  the  24th  of  March,  1663  ; 

two  years  later 
this  was  amended 
by  a  second, — 
June  30,  1665,  —  which  ex- 
tended the  boundaries  a 
degree  southward,  and  a 
half  degree  further  north. 

The  patentees  on  whom 
the  king  thus  bestowed  a 
territory  including  Thepaten. 
all  of  the  present  toe*- 
States  of  North  and  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  with 
its  indefinite  Western 
boundary  of  the  South  Sea, 
were  Clarendon,  then  Lord 
Chancellor;  Monk,  the 
Duke  of  Albemarle,  the 
leader  in  the  Restoration ;  the  Earl  of  Craven ;  Lord  Berkeley  ;  Lord 
Ashley  (later  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury)  Sir  George  Carteret ;  Sir  John 
Colleton  ;  and  Sir  William  Berkeley,  of  Virginia,  Lord  Berkeley's 
younger  brother.  Shaftesbury  was  the  leader  in  this  enterprise,  and 
he  was  chiefly  responsible  for  all  that  the  proprietors  did,  or  left  un- 
done. Home  affairs  occupied  his  associates ;  but  they  never  entirely 
diverted  him  from  the  affairs  of  the  colony.  Almost  every  docu- 
ment connected  with  it  shows  traces  of  his  influence,  and  he  hoped 
to  find  in  it  an  opportunity  for  carrying  out  those  political  ideas 
which  were  otherwise  impracticable  in  his  time. 

1  The  History  of  Carolina,  containing  the  Exact  Description  and  Natural  History  of  that 
Country,  etc.,  etc.  By  John  Lawson,  Geiit.,  Surveyor  General  of  North  Carolina.  [Lon- 
don, 1714-1 


Portrait  of  Shaftesbury. 


270  THE   CAROLIXAS.  [CHAP.  XII. 

The  territory  thus  defined  as  Carolina  had  not  been  altogether  neg- 
lected  while  colonies  were  planted  in  other  places.  As  early 
as  1630>  the  attorney-general  of  England  under  Charles  I., 
settlements.  gjr  Robert  Heath,  had  secured  a  grant  of  almost  the  same 
region,  under  the  name  of  the  Province  of  Carolana,  on  condition  that 
he  should  "  in  a  reasonable  time  "  colonize  it,1  "  and  Christianize  the 
native  Indians."  But  neither  he,  nor  Lord  Maltravers  (afterwards  the 
Earl  of  Arundel),  to  whom  Heath  transferred  his  title,  succeeded  in 
making  any  permanent  settlements.  This  claim,  and  another  by  the 
heirs  of  Sir  Richard  Granfield,  were  revived  when  the  grant  of  1663 
was  made  to  Clarendon  and  his  associates,  but  the  patents  were  re- 
called, on  the  ground  that  their  terms  had  never  been  fulfilled.2 

Companies  of  adventurers  had,  at  different  times,  scattered  them- 
selves along  the  coast  and  on  the  banks  of  rivers  not  far  distant  from 
the  parent  colony  of  Virginia.  Some  of  these  were  in  pursuit  of  In- 
dian trade  ;  others  were  restless  spirits  to  whom  even  the  lax  disci- 
pline of  Jamestown  and  its  neighborhood  was  irksome  ;  and  some, 
perhaps,  were  of  those  whose  religious  beliefs  exposed  them  to  annoy- 
ance, if  not  persecution,  in  a  region  where  the  Established  Church 
was  formally  maintained.  As  early  as  1609  there  were  outlying  plan- 
tations about  the  Nansemond  River,  and  doubtless  many  unrecorded 
expeditions,  if  not  settlements,  were  made  in  the  territory  to  the  south 
of  this  district,  in  the  twenty  years  following,  before  the  grant  was 
made  to  Heath.  In  the  winter  of  1621-2  John  Pory,  sometime  Secre- 
tary of  Virginia,  a  great  traveller,  and  the  friend  of  Hakluyt,3  ex- 
plored as  far  as  the  Chowan,  where  he  found  "a  very  fruitful  and 
pleasant  country,  yielding  two  harvests  in  a  year,  and  much  silk 
grass."4 

In  1643,  the  Virginia  Assembly,  without  regard  to  Heath's  patent, 
made  trading  grants  to  a  company  which  purposed  to  traffic  along  the 
Roanoke  ;  though  perhaps  their  design  included  only  the  upper  part 
of  the  stream,  which  was  outside  the  patent,  for  they  described  it  as 
the  river  lying  southwest  of  the  Appomattox.5  Later  attempts  and 
grants  of  the  same  kind  are  also  obscurely  mentioned  ;  but  there  is 
no  record  of  their  results,  and  it  seems  probable  that  nothing  more 

1  See  vol.  i.,  p.  487,  note. 

2  Letter  of  the  Lords  Proprietors  to  Sir  William  Berkeley,  in  Chalmers'  Annals. 

3  Pory  visited  Plymouth  in  1622,  and  Bradford  says  of  him,  "  Himselfe  after  his  returne 
(to  England)  did' this  poore  plantation  much  credite  amongst  those  of  no  mean  ranck." 
He  ^vas  a  scholar,  and  a  man  of  a  good  deal  of  influence  among  the  early  adventurers,  but 
become  at  last  a  penniless  and  rather  disreputable  vagabond.     See  a  sketch  of  him  in 
Neill's  History  of  The  Virginia  Company. 

*  Smith's  History  of  Virginia. 

6  Hening's  Virginia  Statutes,  i.,  552. 


1653.]  EARLY   GRANTS    AND   SETTLEMENTS.  271 

than   a  fair   knowledge  of   the  upper  part  of   North  Carolina  was 
gained  through  all  of  them  until  1653.     In  Julv  of  that 

_,  j?  J  t 

year,  Roger  Green,  a  clergyman,  and  a  party  from  the  Nan- 


semond  region,  penetrated  to  Albemarle  Sound,  and  a  grant 
of  land  was  made  by  Virginia  to  Green  himself  of  a  thousand  acres. 

Similar  grants  were  promised  to  all  who  would 

plant  upon   that  coast  and  the  neighboring 

•         i 
rivers.1 

Others  scattered  themselves,  about  the  same 
time,  along  the  northern  side  of  the  Sound. 
A  mong  the  earliest  —  probably  indeed  the  very 


first  —  was  one  George  Durant,  a  Quaker  ; 
and  "  Durant's  Neck,"  about  midway  be- 
tween  the  Chowan  and  the  sea,  commem- 
orates  his  name  as  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  State.  That  this  was  sometime  before 

1662  is  shown  by  the  records  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  of  North  Car- 
olina. 

A  suit  was  tried  in  1697  between  the  heirs  of  George  Durant  and 
the  heir  of  one  Edward  Catchmaid,  for  possession  of  the  Probabie 
lands  first  occupied  by  Durant.     Catchmaid,  who  was  en-  n/oxva'n^t- 
trusted  by  Durant  to  procure  for  him  a  grant  of  these  lands  tlement- 
from  Governor  Berkeley  of  Virginia,  treacherously  took  out  the  patent 
in  his  own  name.     The  deed  of  restitution  which  he  was  compelled  to 
make,  and  which  was  produced  in  evidence  on  the  trial,  bore  the 
date  of   March,  1662  (new  style,  1663).      Catchmaid   must   there- 
fore have  been  in  the  country  for  some  time  previous  to  that  date ; 
and  the  record  further  shows  that  when  he  came  it  was  by  Durant's 

1  Heuing's  Virginia  Statutes,  i.,  380. 


272  THE   CAROLINAS.  [CHAP.  XII. 

invitation,  who  was  then  in  the  occupation  of  lands,  having  "  come  in 
with  the  first  seaters,"  and  "  did  for  the  space  of  two  years  bestow 
much  labor  and  cost  in  finding  out  the  said  country."  l  By  "  first 
seaters  "  were  evidently  meant  the  first  in  the  province  of  Carolina,  — 
not  merely  the  first  in  that  particular  neighborhood;  and  it  is.  to 
them,  probably,  that  Lawson  refers  when  he  says  :  "  A  second  settle- 
ment [second,  that  is,  after  Raleigh's  time]  of  this  country  was  made 
about  fifty  years  ago,  in  that  part  we  now  call  Albemarl  County,  and 
chiefly  in  Chuwon  precinct,  by  several  substantial  planters  from  Vir- 
ginia and  other  plantations."  Lawson's  visit  was  in  1700. 

There  were  probably  few  bays  or  rivers  along  the  coast,  from  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  to  Florida,  unexplored  by  the  New  England- 
ers,  where  there  was  any  promise  of  profitable  trade  with 


settlement  -IT  mi  i        •        e    ti  11 

byNewEng-  the  Indians.  1  he  colonist  followed  the  trader  wherever  un- 
claimed lands  were  open  to  occupation.  These  energetic 
pioneers  explored  the  sounds  and  rivers  south  of  Virginia  in  pursuit 
of  Indian  traffic,  contrasted  the  salubrity  of  the  climate  and  the 
fertility  of  the  soil  with  that  region  of  rocks  where  they  had  made 
their  homes,  and  where  winter  reigns  for  more  than  half  the  year. 
In  1660  or  1661,  a  company  of  these  men  purchased  of  the  natives 
and  settled  upon  a  tract  of  land  at  the  mouth  of  Cape  Fear  River. 
Their  first  purpose  was  apparently  the  raising  of  stock,  as  the  coun- 
try seemed  peculiarly  fitted  to  grazing,  and  they  brought  a  number 
of  neat  cattle  and  swine  to  be  allowed  to  feed  at  large  under  the  care 
of  herdsmen.  But  they  aimed  at  something  more  than  this  nomadic 
occupation,  and  a  company  was  formed,  in  which  a  number  of  adven- 
turers in  London  were  enlisted,  to  found  a  permanent  colony.  Dis- 
couraged, however,  either  by  the  want  of  immediate  success,  or  for 
want  of  time  to  carry  out  their  plans,  or  for  some  less  creditable  rea- 
son, the  settlement  was  soon  abandoned. 

On  this  point  there  is  sufficient  evidence.  In  1663,  some  persons 
from  Barbadoes  were  on  the  coast  in  search  of  a  suitable 
mentor  the  place  for  the  planting  of  a  colony.  They  visited  the  spot 
iand  settle-  where  the  New  Englanders  had  been,  and  their  report  is 
that  they  found  "  a  writing  left  in  a  post  at  the  point  of 
Cape  Fear  river  by  those  New  England  men  that  left  cattle  with  the 
Indians  there,  the  contents  whereof  tended  not  only  to  the  dispar- 
agement of  the  land  about  the  said  river,  but  also  to  the  great  dis- 
couragement of  all  such  as  should  hereafter  come  into  those  parts  to 
settle."  2  So,  also,  the  London  associates  of  this  New  England  Com- 
pany declared,  at  a  meeting  held  in  August,  1663,  "  that  at  the  pres- 

1  Hawks's  History  of  North  Carolina,  vol.  ii.,  p.  132. 

2  Lawsou's  History  of  Carolina. 


1663.1 


THE   NEW   ENGLAND   SETTLEMENT. 


273 


ent  the  undertaking  of  the  plantation  of  the  said  Charles  River  lieth 
under  some  obloquy,  that  hath  given  a  check  to  it ;  some  that  were 
sent  from  New  England  thither,  in  order  to  the  carrying  on  the  said 
settlement,  being  come  back  again  without  so  much  as  sitting  down 
upon  it ;  and  for  the  better  justification  of  themselves  in  their  return, 
have  spread  a  reproach  both  upon  the  harbour  and  upon  the  soil  of 
the  river  itself."  J 

Was  there  sufficient  ground  for  this  "  reproach  both  upon  the  har- 
bor and  the  soil  ?  "  The  explorers  from  Barbadoes,  at  least,  did  not 
think  so.  "  In  answer  to  that  scandalous  writing,"  as  they  called 
it,  found  affixed  to  the  post,  they  affirm,  "  that  we  have  seen,  facing 
both  sides  the  river  and  branches  of  Cape  Fair  aforesaid,  as  good 


Finding  the  Message  of  the   New  England   Men. 

land,  and  as  well  timbered,  as  any  we  have  seen  in  any  other  part  of 
the  world,  sufficient  to  accommodate  thousands  of  our  English  nation, 
and  lying  commodiously  by  the  said  river's  side."  It  was  a  quite 
sufficient  answer,  as  the  future  showed. 

It  is  not  impossible,  however,  that  justification  was  sought  for  to 
cover  up  the  real  reason  for  failure.     Lawson,  in  comment-  ReasonRfor 
ing  upon  the  report  of  the  Barbadoes  men,  —  which  he  pre-  ltsfailure- 
served  in  his  history,  —  gives  as  a  reason  why  the  New  Englanders 
"  did  not  only  take  off  themselves,  but  also  their  stocks  of  cattle," 


VOL.    II. 


1  Hutchinson  Pafters  in  Mass.  Hist.  6"oc.  Coll.,  vol.  i.,  3d  series. 
18 


274  THE  CAROLINAS.  [CHAP.  XII. 

that  there  were  "  irregular  practices  of  some  of  that  colony  against  the 
Indians,  by  sending  away  some  of  their  children  (as  I  have  been  told) 
under  pretence  of  instructing  them  iu  learning  and  the  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion,  which  so  disgusted  the  Indians,  that  though 
they  had  then  no  guns,  yet  they  never  gave  over  till  they  had  entirely 
rid  themselves  of  the  English  by  their  bows  and  arrows."  Perhaps 
this  was  the  "  obloquy  "  to  which  the  London  associates  referred. 

The  New  England  Company,  nevertheless,  asserted  their  right  to 
the  lands  in  question  by  virtue  of  their  purchase  from  the  Indians. 
Their  friends  in  London,  at  the  meeting  in  August,  1663,  just  re- 
ferred to,  presented  their  views  upon  this  claim  for  the  consideration 
of  the  new  patentees.  The  New  England  colonies,  they  said,  have 
ever  had  "full  liberty  to  choose  their  own  govenours  among  them- 
selves; to  make  and  confirm  laws  with  themselves;  with  immunity 
also  wholly  from  all  taxes,  charges,  and  impositions  whatsoever,  more 
than  what  is  laid  upon  themselves  by  themselves."  But  unless  these 
privileges  were  "preserved  entire  to  them,"  it  was  "feared  that  all 
thoughts  of  further  proceeding  in  the  said  river  will  be  wholly  laid 
aside  by  them."1 

A  month  later,  —  September,  1668,  —  the  Proprietors  wrote  to  Gov- 
ernor Berkeley,  informing  him  that  they  had  received  their 
the  Carolina  charter  from  the  King.  They  empowered  him  to  appoint  a 
governor,  or  governors,  for  the  people  who,  they  understood, 
were  already  settled  on  both  banks  of  the  Chowan.  In  response  to 
"a  paper  from  persons  that  desired  to  settle  near  Cape  Fear,"  —  by 
which  they  meant  the  New  England  Company,  —  the  only  proposals 
they  have  to  make  with  special  reference  to  that  company  relate  to 
the  allotment  of  land,  declaring  it  to  be  "  our  resolution  and  desire 
that  you  persuade  or  compel  those  persons  to  be  satisfied  with  such 
proportions  as  we  allot  to  others."  2 

The  character  of  the  government  had  already  been  decided  at  the 
character  of  ^l's^  meeting  of  the  Proprietors  in  the  preceding  May.  There 
was  ^°  ^e  ^u^  liberty  of  conscience  ;  the  governor  and  assem- 
jjjy  were  to  be  chosen  by  popular  election ;  and  duties  from 
customs  were  not  to  be  enforced.3  In  the  proposals  sent  with  this  let- 
ter to  Berkeley  in  September,  these  conditions  were  repeated.  This 
repetition  was  intended,  doubtless,  for  the  instruction  and  assurance 
of  emigrants  from  New  England,  or  anywhere  else,  who  should  choose 
to  avail  themselves  of  such  an  offer.  But  that  they  were  not  a  con- 
cession to  the  demand  of  the  New  England  claimants  is  manifest,  as 

1  Hiitrhinson  Papers,  as  above. 

2  Letter  from  the  Lords  Proprietors  to  Sir  William  Berkeley.    Chalmers'  Annuls. 

8  Chalmers'  Annals.     Martin's  History.     Papers  in  State  Paper  Office,  London;  cited  in 
Coll.  Hist.  Soc.  of  South  Carolina,  vol.  i. 


1664.] 


COLONY   OF   SIR  JOHN  YEAMANS. 


275 


their  remonstrance  to  the  Proprietors  could  not  at  the  time  of  this 
meeting  in  May  have  been  received,  —  was  not,  probably,  even  writ- 
ten.1 

Nothing  more  is  heard  of  the  New  England  Company.  If  any  in- 
fluence was  exerted  from  that  region  upon  the  new  province,  it  was 
through  individual  citizens,  who  chose  to  make  it  their  home.  Of 
these  there  were  many  in  the  early  settlement  of  North  Carolina, 
—  more,  however,  probably  upon  the  Chowan  than  the  Cape  Fear 
River.  "  Make  everything  easy  to  the  people  of  New  England," 
wrote  the  Proprietors  to  Sir  John  Yeamans,  in  1665,  "  from  which 
the  greatest  emigrations  are  expected,  as  the  southern  colonies  are 
already  drained."  2 


Landing  of  Yeamans. 

Yeamans   came   with   a   colony   of   several    hundred   persons,  and 
landed  at  Cape  Fear  River  on  the  29th  of  May,  1664.3    The  party 

1  The  abortive  attempt  to  settle  a  Xcw  England  colony  at  the  mouth  of  Cape  Fear 
River,  and  its  influence  upon  the  character  of  the  constitution  of  the  new  province,  have 
been  a  source  of  much  controversy  and  misunderstanding-     The  mistake  in  regard  to  it 
seems  to  have  originated  with  Chalmers,  who,  assuming  that  the  "  proposals  "  sent  to  Ber- 
keley in  September  were  made  "  at  the  desire  of  the  New  England  people,"  overlooked  the 
fact  that  they  were  simply  a  repetition  of  the  form  of  government  decided  upon  by  the 
proprietors  at  their  first  meeting  in  May.     Their  charter  then  was  only  a  little  more  than 
a  month  old,  and  no  protest  in  regard  to  it  could  at  that  time  have  reached  England  from 
America. 

2  Chalmers. 

s  A  Brief  Description  of  the  Province  of  Carolina,  on  the  Coasts  of  Florida.    London,  166G 
Republished  in  Hawks'  History.     The  colonists  landed  on  the  8th  of  June,  new  style. 


276 


THE   CAROLINAS. 


[CllAP.  XII. 


ony 


sent  from  Barbadoes  to  explore  the  coast  of  Carolina,  —  whose  indig- 
nation was  so  aroused  by  the  warning  put  up  by  the  New 
under  Yea-  England  herdsmen  on  the  Cape  Fear  River,  —  had  bought  of 
the  Indians  a  tract  of  thirty-two  miles  square,  and  the  pro- 
prietors were  asked  to  confirm  the  purchase  by  a  grant.  Though  this 
was  refused,  the  terms  granted  to  the  colonists  were  satisfactory. 
Their  settlement,  which  was  "up  the  river,  about  twenty  or  thirty 
miles"  l  they  called  Charles-town.  The  province  or  county  of  which 
Yeainans  was  appointed  Governor,  was  named  Clarendon,  and  extend- 
ed from  Cape  Fear  to  the  St.  John's,  in  Florida. 

Meanwhile  Sir  William  Berkeley,  in  accordance  with  the  instruc- 
tions  given  by  the  Proprietors  in  their  letter  of  September, 
-  1663,  established  a  government  on    the  Chowan.     He   ap- 
pointed  a  governor — William  Drummond — and  a  council 
of  six,  who,  with  an  assembly  chosen  by  the  people,  were  to  enact 

laws,  subject  to  the  approv- 
al of  the  proprietors ;  pos- 
sessions of  lands  were  con- 
firmed, and  new  grants  were 
made,  with  an  allowance  of 
three  years  for  the  payment 
of  quit-rents.  In  1666,  how- 
ever, the  Assembly  protest- 
ed against  the  payment  of 
these  quit-rents,  and  prayed 
that  the  tenure  of  lands 
should  be  the  same  as  that 
established  in  Virginia. 
The  petition  was  granted 
with  regard  to  those  who 
then  held  possession,  but  the 
rule  was  enforced  upon  all 
subsequent  entries.2  An 
Assembly  was  probably  con- 
vened as  early  as  1663,3 
though  Albemarle  County  was  not  included  within  the  boundaries  of 
Carolina  till  after  the  issue  of  the  second  charter,  in  1665. 

In  the  elaboration  of  a  Constitution  for  the  new  province  Lord 
Shaftesbury  called  to  his  aid  the  great  philosopher  and  statesman,  John 
Locke.  It  was  not  till  1669  that  the  first  of  these  "  Fundamental  Con- 

1  A  Brief  Description,  etc.     It  was,  Hawks  says,  "  in  Brunswick  county,  at  or  near  the 
junction  of  Old  Town  Creek  with  the  Cape  Fear." 


Portrait  of  Locke. 


2  Chalmers'  Annals. 


8  Hawks. 


BO- 

bilit- 


1669.]  THE  "FUNDAMENTAL   CONSTITUTIONS."  277 

stitutions  "  was  finished.     By  it  the  eight  Lords  Proprietors  were  con- 
stituted supreme  rulers,  the  eldest  to  be   Palatine  of  the 
province,  and  upon  his  death  the  eldest  of  the  survivors  to  MM 
succeed  him.     The  seven  other  offices,  of  admiral,  chamber-  mental  con 
lain,  chancellor,  constable,  chief  justice,  high  steward,  and 
treasurer,  were  to  be  divided  among  the  others,  the  eldest  always  to 
have  choice  of  a  vacant  place.     To  the  proprietor  was  given  the  priv- 
ilege, until  the  year  1701,  to  relinquish  or  dispose  of  his  proprietor- 
ship to  any  other  person.     All  his  rights  were  hereditary  in  the  male 
line ;  in  default  of  direct  male  heirs,  male  descendants  through  the 
female  line  succeeded,  and  after  them  "  heirs  general ;  "  in  default  of 
any  heirs,  the  surviving  proprietors  filled  the  place  by  election  from 
the  next  of   the  orders  of   hereditary  nobility.      Of  these 

'  .    in        .  Officers  and 

orders  there  were  two  —  Landgraves  and  Cassiques,  each  °rf(frsof 
Landgrave  possessing  four  baronies,  and  each  Cassique 
two.  The  domains  of  the  Proprietors,  on  the  other  hand,  were  called 
seigniories ;  and  eight  seigniories  and  eight  baronies,  with  twenty-four 
"  colonies  "  which  could  be  owned  by  "  the  people,"  made  up  a  county. 
Each  seigniory,  barony,  and  colony  contained  twelve  thousand  acres ; 
each  county,  therefore,  consisted  of  480,000  acres,  of  which  Dmgiong  of 
twenty-four  parts  (or  three  fifths)  were  to  be  owned  by  the  tb*  country 
people,  and  sixteen  parts  (or  two  fifths)  by  the  hereditary  nobility  — 
"  that  so  in  setting  out  and  planting  the  lands,"  say  the  constitutions, 
"  the  balance  of  the  government  may  be  preserved."  There  would 
thus  be,  of  course,  just  as  many  Landgraves  as  counties,  and  only 
twice  as  many  Cassiques ;  but  every  member  of  both  these  classes  of 
nobles  was  to  be,  "  by  right  of  his  dignity,"  a  member  of  the  parlia- 
ment, whereas  every  "  colony  "  was  not  to  have  a  member  —  Tbe  Parlia. 
only  every  "  precinct "  which  was  still  another  division  ment- 
formed  for  convenience  of  six  colonies.  There  were  but  four  popular 
members  to  a  county,  therefore ;  and  the  further  restriction  was  made, 
that  "  no  man  should  be  chosen  a  member  who  had  less  than  five  hun- 
dred acres  of  freehold  within  the  precinct ; "  while  only  those  who 
had  fifty  or  more  acres  of  freehold  could  take  part  in  electing  him. 
The  parliament  thus  chosen  was  to  sit  "all  together  in  one  room,  and 
have  every  member  one  vote." 

The  privileges  thus  given  to  the  hereditary  nobility  were  further 
hedged  about  with  provisions  absolutely  prohibiting  the  en- 
trance of  others  into  the  titled  class.     The  highest  dignity  manors  and 
attainable  under  them  was  the  lordship  of  a  manor,  which 
must  consist  of  not  less  than  three  thousand,  or  more  than  twelve 
thousand   acres ;    and  even   such  a  freehold   could  only  constitute  a 
manor  "  by  the  grant  of  the  Palatine's  court."     Under  the  nobility 


278  THE   CAROLINAS.  [CHAP.  XII. 

and  lords  of  manors  were  "  leet-men,"  and  these  were  "  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  respective  lords  of  the  said  seigniory,  barony  or 
manor,  without  appeal  from  him."  "  All  the  children  of  leet-men 
shall  be  leet-men,  and  so  to  all  generations." 

There  were  to  be  eight  supreme  courts,  —  the  highest  consisting  of 
the  Palatine  and  the  other  proprietors,  the  others  each  of  a 
proprietor,  six  councillors,  and  a  college  of  twelve  assistants 
chosen  by  the  Palatine's  court,  and  by  Parliament  from  the  nobility. 
Nobles  could  only  be  tried  by  the  chief  justice's  court.  The  Pala- 
tine's court  had  a  veto  power  over  all  parliamentary  measures  ;  and 
each  of  the  other  courts  had  its  special  controlling  functions,  —  the 
chancellor's  having  power  over  land  grants,  treaties,  etc.  ;  the  chief 
justice's  over  all  civil  and  criminal  appeals  ;  the  constable's  over  mili- 
tary matters  ;  the  admiral's  over  matters  of  marine ;  the  treasurer's 
over  finance  ;  the  high-steward's  over  public  works,  etc. ;  the  cham- 
berlain's over  "  all  ceremonies,  precedency,  heraldry,  reception  of  pub- 
lic messengers,  pedigrees,  the  registry  of  all  births,  burials,  and  mar- 
riages," and  also  over  the  regulation  of  "  all  fashions,  habits,  badges, 
games,  and  sports !  "  The  happy  province  was  to  be  governed  even 
down  to  the  amusements  of  its  children,  and  the  fashion  of  its  wom- 
en's gowns.  Finally,  the  proprietors,  and  the  forty-two  councillors  of 
the  other  courts,  were  to  constitute  a  "  Grand  Council,"  or  final  court 
of  appeal,  in  case  of  any  dissensions  among  the  rest.1 

Of  the  hundred  lesser  offices,  or  of  the  detailed  regulation  of  civil, 
other  pro-  military,  and  judicial  affairs,  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak  ; 
thTconsti-  Je^  some  minor  provisions  still  remain  to  be  cited,  without 
tutions  which  no  sketch  of  the  Constitutions  could  be  complete. 
Lands,  for  instance,  could  not  be  subdivided  even  at  the  death  of  the 
Proprietor,  but  must  descend  entire.  Proprietors  need  not  live  in 
Carolina  to  exercise  their  rights,  but  might,  in  carefully  prescribed 
ways,  appoint  their  deputies,  who  could  not,  however,  confirm  laws, 
or  appoint  Landgraves  or  Cassiques.  A  singular  regulation  pre- 
scribed that  "  to  avoid  multiplicity  of  laws,"  all  statutes  should,  "  at 
the  end  of  an  hundred  years  after  their  enacting,"  become  null  and 
void  ,  and  to  avoid  "  multiplicity  of  comments,"  the  publication  of 
any  commentary  on  the  "  Fundamental  Constitutions  "  was  pro- 
hibited. In  trials  by  jury  a  majority  was  to  decide.  It  was  for- 
bidden to  take  pay  for  pleading  in  courts  of  law.  "  Absolute  power 
and  authority  over  his  negro  slaves,  of  what  opinion  or  religion  what- 
soever," was  given  to  every  freeman. 

Finally  there  were  some  remarkable  provisions  as  to  religion  and 

1  Grahame,  History  of  the  United  States  (ii.,  87),  says  the  functions  of  this  body  were  like 
those  of  the  Scotch  "  Lords  of  the  Articles." 


1667.]  INDEPENDENT   LEGISLATION.  279 

the  liberty  of  conscience.  They  were  singularly  contradictory ;  for, 
against  the.  wishes  of  Locke,1  some  of  the  chief  proprietors  inserted, 
in  the  second  draft  of  the  Constitutions,  an  article  making  the  Church 
of  England  alone  entitled  to  maintenance,  and  pronouncing 
it  the  "  only  true  and  orthodox  "  religion.  Yet  fortunately 
his  own  provision  was  also  left  as  he  had  written  it ;  and  had  the 
form  of  his  scheme  of  government  been  left  unchanged,  this  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  the  only  reference  to  religious  matters  to  be 
found  in  it.  "  In  the  terms  of  communion  of  every  church  or  pro- 
fession," he  wrote,  "  these  following  shall  be  three ;  without  which 
no  agreement  or  assembly  of  men,  under  pretence  of  religion,  shall  be 
accounted  a  church  or  profession  within  these  rules  :  — 

"  1.  That  there  is  a  GOD. 

"  2.  That  GOD  is  publicly  to  be  worshipped. 

"3.  That  it  is  lawful  and  the  duty  of  every  man,  being  thereunto 
called  by  those  that  govern,  to  bear  witness  to  truth  ;  and  that  every 
church  or  profession  shall,  in  their  terms  of  communion,  set  down  the 
external  way  whereby  they  witness  a  truth  as  in  the  presence  of  GOD, 
whether  it  be  by  laying  hands  on  or  kissing  the  Bible,  as  in  the 
Church  of  England,  or  by  holding  up  the  hand,  or  any  other  sensible 

way No  person  above  seventeen  years  of  age  shall  have  any 

benefit  or  protection  of  the  law,"  etc.,  "  who  is  not  a  member  of  some 
church  or  profession." 

Even  earlier  in  the  Constitutions  it  had  been  prescribed  that  "  no 
man  shall  be  permitted  to  be  a  freeman  of  Carolina,  or  to  have  any 
estate  or  habitation  within  it,  that  doth  not  acknowledge  a  GOD,  and 
that  GOD  is  publicly  and  solemnly  to  be  worshipped."  Locke  re- 
turns to  this  with  frequent  insistance  ;  yet  this  one  point  granted,  he 
concedes,  in  a  long  subsequent  article,  that  all  other  distinctions  form 
no  justification  for  the  interference  of  the  state ;  and  prescribes 
further  that  110  man  shall  interfere  with  or  "  use  any  reproachful, 
reviling  or  abusive  language  against  the  religion  of  any  church  or 
profession  —  that  being  the  certain  way  of  disturbing  the  peace,  and 
of  hindering  the  conversion  of  any  to  the  truth." 

It  is  a  significant  commentary  on  this  complicated  piece  of  political 
machinery,  that  while  it  was  assuming  definite  shape,  the 
people  of  Albemarle  had  taken   the  matter  of  law-making 
for  the  new  country  into  their  own  hands.     All  unconscious  ple- 
that  they  were  to  be  only  "  leet-men,"  or  at  best  "  lords  of  manors," 
amid  a  magnificent  prospective  population  of  seigniors,  landgraves, 
and  cassiques  ;  and  ignorant  of  the  vast  system  of  councils,  courts- 

1  Locke's    Works,  folio  ed.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  676,  note,  as  cited  by  Grahame,  ii.,  89,  and  as 
uuoted  in  note  to  Carroll,  ii.,  384. 


280  THE   CAROLINAS.  [CHAP.  XII. 

leet  and  courts-baron  which  was  to  regulate  their  lives,  amusements, 
and  dress  down  to  the  smallest  detail,  these  practical  pioneers  had 
quietly  drawn  up  such  simple  regulations  as  their  situation  seemed  to 
need. 

Since  Berkeley's  visit  to  the  Albemarle  region  it  had  received  sev- 
eral additions,  and  now  there  were  settlements  all  the  way  along  the 
north  shore  of  the  Sound.  The  original  Virginian  plantations  had 
been  supplemented  by  several  made  by  New-Englanders,  and  as 
far  east  as  the  Pasquotank  River  a  colony  of  Bermuda  people  had 
taken  up  lands.  Drummond  had  been  succeeded  in  October,  1667,  in 
the  governorship  by  Samuel  Stephens,  and  the  proprietors  in  Eng- 
land, pending  the  completion  of  their  great  scheme,  had  authorized  a 
temporary  government  of  a  council  of  twelve,  half  of  them  to  be 
chosen  by  an  assembly  of  the  settlers. 

It  was  such  an  assembly  which  now  sent  to  London  the  simple 
code  which  it  believed  to  have  become  necessary  for  the 

Character  of.  .  .,.  ,  .11,  ,          i  ••• 

the  Aibe-  increasing  population  —  or  perhaps  it  should  rather  be  said, 
needful  to  secure  its  further  increase.  Exemption  from  tax- 
ation for  a  year  was  secured  to  every  new  settler  ;  but,  to  guard 
against  a  monopoly  of  lands  by  absentees,  it  was  declared  neces- 
sary to  live  in  the  country  two  years  before  such  land-grant  should 
form  a  complete  title.  The  traffic  with  the  neighboring  Indians  was 
reserved  to  the  people  of  the  district ;  stringent  means  were  to  be 
used  against  the  participation  of  traders  from  outside.  In  addition 
to  these  inducements  to  emigration,  the  proposed  laws  gave  to  the 
country  the  very  questionable  advantage  of  forming  a  virtual  asylum 
for  runaway  debtors  ;  no  debt  contracted  outside  of  Albemarle  could 
be  sued  for  within  five  years,  nor  could  any  colonist  accept  a  power 
of  attorney  to  demand  such  a  debt  from  another.  A  tax  of  thirty 
pounds  of  tobacco  on  every  lawsuit,  while  it  provided  for  the  ex- 
penses of  the  Governor  and  Council,  was  also  intended  to  check  the 
litigation  so  likely  to  arise  in  a  new  country  where  titles  to  land 
were  a  source  of  frequent  dispute.  Marriage  was  de- 
cerningmar-  clared  to  be  only  a  civil  contract.  Parties  appearing  be- 
fore "  the  governor,  or  any  member  of  the  council,  or  a  few 
of  their  neighbors,  and  declaring  their  mutual  consent,  were  declared 
to  be  man  and  wife."  It  has  been  conjectured  that  such  a  law  was 
deemed  expedient  in  the  scarcity  of  clergymen,  in  a  widely  scattered 
community.  Perhaps  it  was  also  meant  to  encourage  matrimony  and 
the  emigration  of  women.  A  contemporary  pamphlet,  written  in  the 
interest  of  the  proprietors,  holds  out  as  an  inducement  to  such  an 
emigration,  that,  "  if  any  Maid  or  single  Woman  have  a  desire  to  go 
over,  they  will  think  themselves  in  the  Golden  Age,  when  Men  paid 


1669.] 


GOVERNOR  WILLIAM   SAYLE. 


281 


a  Dowry  for  their  Wives  ;  for  if  they  be  but  Civil,  and  under  50 
years  of  Age,  some  honest  Man  or  other  will  purchase  them  for  their 
Wives."  1  This  sufficient  constitution  continued,  with  all  its  faults, 
to  regulate  Northern  Carolina  for  more  than  forty  years,  till  in  1715 
it  was  deliberately  reenacted  by  the  people. 

The  Duke  of  Albemarle  was  the  first  Palatine  under  the  Consti- 
tutions, and  at  his  death  the  office  passed  to  Lord  Berkeley.   pau>  of  the 
But   the  "Fundamental  Constitutions"  never  became   the  mentau'on- 
law  of  the  land.     From  the  time  they  were  first  adopted  by  stitutions-- 
the  Proprietors,  in  1669,  till  they  were  finally  rejected  by  the  Assem- 
bly of   South    Carolina,   in 
1698,  they  were  four  times 
amended,  till  their   articles 
were  reduced  from  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  to  forty- 
one.      Their   onerous   and 
impracticable    provisions 
•were  so  ill  adapted  to  the 
condition   of  colonists    in   a 
new   country,    that    hardly 
was  respect  enough  paid  to 
them  even  to  attempt  their 
serious  enforcement. 

The  Proprietors  had 
made,  meanwhile,  their  first 
direct  attempt  to  plant  in 
the  province  a  colony  of 
their  own.  Albemarle  was  an  off-shoot  of  Virginia  ;  Cape  Fear  of 
Barbadoes  ;  the  new  settlement  was  to  be  supplied  directly  from 
England,  and  furnished  with  means  by  the  lords  themselves. 

In  July,  1669,  Captain  William  Sayle,  who  had  already  made  ex- 
plorations of  the  coast  in  the  proprietaries'  service,  was  com- 
missioned governor  of  that  part  of  Carolina  "lying  south 
and  west  of  Cape  Carteret  "  or  Cape  Romain,2  a  region 
which  had  been  especially  excepted  from  the  jurisdiction  of  Yea- 
mans.  In  1670  Sayle  and  Joseph  West,  a  commercial  agent  of  the 
proprietaries,  set  sail  from  England  with  two  ships  loaded  with  emi- 
grants and  stores. 

They  sailed  in  January.     But  they  touched  first  at  some  port  in 
Ireland  before  they  were  fairly  off  on  their  long  voyage  for  Carolina 

1  A  Brief  Description  of  the  Province  of  Carolina  on  the  Coasts  of  Florida,  etc.,  London, 
1666. 

2  Romain  was  its  earliest  name  ;  then  it  became  Carteret  ;  now  it  is  Romain  again. 


Portrait  of  George   Monk,    Duke  of  Albemarle. 


282  THE   CAROLINAS'.  [CHAP.  XII. 

by  way  of  Barbadoes.  It  was  months  before  they  reached  Port  Royal, 
to  which  they  were  ordered,  no  doubt  because  it  was  the  best  known 
point  on  that  coast.  Whether  they  did  more  than  enter  that  beauti- 
ful bay  is  not  certain,  though  some  of  the  early  writers  think  they  at- 
tempted a  settlement.  It  is  more  probable  that  they  thought  a  port 
so  accessible  from  the  sea  was  less  desirable  for  an  infant  colony  than 
a  place  more  difficult  of  approach.  At  any  rate,  they  did  not  remain 
at  Port  Royal,  but  before  the  year  was  out,  Sayle,  who  knew  the 
coast,  sailed  up  the  present  harbor  of  Charleston,  and  landed  his 
people  about  three  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Ashley  River.  The 
place  they  named  Charles-town. 

Sayle  before  long  fell  a  victim  to  the  climate,  and  Sir  John  Yea- 
Death  of  nians,  who  had  been  made  a  landgrave,  succeeded  him  as 
Yeam'aM  governor  by  virtue  of  that  rank,  though  West  would  have 
governor.  been  preferred  by  the  people.  For  several  years  the  colony 
was  in  a  languishing  condition  ;  nor  did  the  Proprietaries  conceal 
their  discontent  at  the  steady  drain  it  kept  up  upon  their  treasury, 
while  the  possibility  of  its  becoming  self-sustaining  seemed  to  grow 
no  nearer.  New  emigrants  were  sent  out,  but,  like  the  first  settlers, 
they  appear  to  have  been  of  the  class  least  likely  to  make  successful 
pioneers.  The  climate  discouraged  Europeans  from  the  only  kinds 
of  planting  which  could  have  proved  profitable,  and  the  hard  labor  of 
clearing  and  tilling  was  in  great  part  done  by  negro  slaves,  a  few  of 
whom  had  been  sent  from  Barbadoes,  or  brought  thence  by  Yeamans 
and  his  companions  to  Cape  Fear.1  There  was  a  small  number  of 
industrious  and  experienced  men  from  the  northern  colonies,2  and 
apparently  there  were  a  few  English  emigrants  of  more  spirit  and 
persistency  than  the  rest  ;  but  the  great  majority  was  made  up  from 
the  broken-down  and  vicious  class  which  was  drawn  upon  so  largely 
by  all  the  proprietary  colonies. 

The  proprietors,  not  without  grumbling,  continued  for  some  time  to 
respond  to  the  calls  for  supplies,  for  which  no  return  was 
of  made  in  colonial  products.  But  no  provision  could  be  made 


for  the  proper  distribution  of  what  was  sent,  and  supplies 
were  furnished  to  idle  and  industrious  alike  ;  the  founders  of  the  col- 
ony found  themselves  supporting  a  majority  of  useless  paupers,  where 
they  had  relied  upon  returns  which  the  minority  of  hard-workers 
was  not  strong  enough  to  secure.  By  the  beginning  of  1674  a  heavy 
debt  —  some  thousands  of  pounds  —  had  accumulated  on  account  of 
the  plantation.  Sir  John  Yeamans  —  who  appears  to  have  taken  ad- 
vantage of  his  position  to  direct  what  little  export  trade  there  was 
toward  Barbadoes,  where  he  could  turn  it  to  his  own  profit  —  was 

1  Htwit,  in  Carroll's  Hist.  Coll.  2  Chalmers. 


1674.] 


JOSEPH   WEST. 


283 


removed,   and,  much  to  the  general  satisfaction,  Joseph  West   was 
appointed  governor  in  his  place. 

Yeamans,  broken  in  health  by  the  climate,  but  with  a  large  for- 
tune acquired  during  the  years  of  his  administration,  retired  We8t  gOTer. 
again  to  Barbadoes,  and  the  popular  and  prudent  West  soon  nor>  167*' 
changed  the  condition  of  affairs  for  the  better.  Emigrants  were  now 
willing  to  go  to  the  province  "  at  their  own  expense.  Men  of  estate 
ventured  where  they  were  assured  of  fair  dealing,"  says  one  of  the 
older  historians,  and  all  accounts  concur  in  representing  the  confidence 
in  the  new  Governor  as  giving  an  immediate  impetus  to  the  settle- 
ment and  progress  of  the  place,  while  his  management  seems  also  to 
have  checked  for  the  time  the  complaints  of  the  proprietaries.  The 
colonists,  it  is  true,  did  not  pay  the  large  indebtedness  already  con- 
tracted, nor  even  the  Governor's  salary,  as  they  promised  when  his 


View  of  Charleston   Harbor. 


administration  began.     But  this  latter  point  was  settled,  in  1677,  by 
the  Proprietors'  assignment  to  West  of  all  their  stock,  un-  Improve. 
used  supplies,  and  overdue  debts  in  the  province,  thus  giving  {^oLyVaf- 
him  a  new  motive,  for  the  improvement  of  the  colony.     For  fair8- 
themselves,  they  doubtless  considered  it  a  favorable  state  of  things  if 
even  the  drain  on  their  treasury  was  stopped.      The  idea  of  large 
profits  must  have  been  given  up  by  this  time  even  by  the  most  san- 
guine "  seignior  "  among  them,  while  the  more  fortunate  landgraves 
and  cassiques,  some  few  of  whom  had  been  appointed,  must  have  re- 
joiced that  their  barren  honors  had  been  so  cheaply  purchased. 

This  prosperity,  which  was  to  last  for  several  years,  was  hardly  es- 
tablisfied,  when  the  condition  of  affairs  in  their  northern  colony  de- 


284  THE   CAKOLINAS.  [CHAP.  XII. 

manded  the  attention  of  the  vexed  Proprietors.     The  people  of  Albe- 

marle  had  become  thoroughly  discontented.  The  code  of 
•i Alto-  temporal-)7  laws  sent  to  them  had  been  openly  disregarded, 

and  the  Assembly  seems  to  have  gone  on  without  paying  at- 
tention to  any  other  code  than  its  own.  All  manner  of  disquieting  ru- 
mors had  been  spread  abroad  concerning  the  intentions  of  the  propri- 
etors regarding  this  particular  settlement,  —  how  they  intended  to 
give  it  to  Sir  William  Berkeley  for  his  own,  separating  it  from  the 
rest  of  the  province,  or  how  they  favored  their  own  colony  at  the 
south  at  the  expense  of  the  north.  In  1674,  to  make  confusion  worse, 
Stephens,  the  Governor,  died  ;  and  Carteret,  chosen  in  his  place  pend- 
ing advices  from  England,  proved  indifferent  to  or  dissatisfied  with 
his  duties,  and  sailed  for  home  after  an  administration  of  little  more 
than  a  year. 

In  1675  the  fear  of  the  colonists  as  to  the  dismemberment  of  the 

province,  and  Berkeley's  dreaded  rulership  over  it,  led  to 
the  Propri-  an  address  to  the  Proprietors.  Their  prompt  denial  of  the 

rumor,  and  their  acknowledgment  that  they  had  "  neglected 
Albemarle,"  did  not  check  the  excitement.  At  the  same  time  one 

Thomas  Miller  was  the  object  of  great  suspicion,  and  was 

The  case  of  T  -  .    .       .  i        •   i  i-   •  TT 

Thomas  Mil-  sent  to  Jamestown  tor  trial,  charged  with  sedition.     He  was 

Icr 

acquitted  by  a  Virginian  jury ;  but  this  did  not  allay  the 
popular  discontent.  That,  probably,  was  increased  by  the  fact  that 
he  was  taken  out  of  the  colony  for  trial. 

In  1676  the  Assembly  decided  to  send  an  intelligent  representative 

to  England,  to  lay  before  the  Proprietors  the  disorderly  con- 

Eastchurch  .J  , r  .  .     J     ' 

sent  to  Eng-  dition  of  the  colony,  to  ask  redress  for  various  grievances, 
and  to  secure  a  governor  who  should  understand  their  neces- 
sities, and  satisfy  their  reasonable  wants.  Thomas  Eastchurch,  the 
speaker  of  the  Assembly,  was  chosen  for  the  duty  ;  and  about  the  time 
of  his  setting  out,  Miller  also  sailed  for  England,  to  demand  redress 
for  the  injuries  done  him. 

Eastchurch  succeeded  so  well  in  his  mission  as  to  secure  his  own 
Hi»  success  appointment  to  the  governorship,  with  a  set  of  instructions 
SentaTGoT-  which  he  thought  would  quiet  dissension  and  satisfy  the 
ernor.  people.  But  though  Eastchurch  was  made  Governor,  Miller 

was  no  less  successful  in  obtaining  redress  for  his  private  grievances. 
The  Proprietors  acknowledged  that  he  had  been  wronged  in  being 
taken  to  Virginia  for  trial,  even  if  there  was  any  ground  for  the  trial 
itself.  He  who  had  been  foremost  in  denouncing  their  rule  in  the 
colony,  now  became  their  servant.  He  was  made  collector  of  the  cus- 
toms, secretary,  and  Lord  Shaftesbury's  deputy  in  Carolina.  Nor  was 
this  all ;  for,  when  the  two  newly-appointed  officers  sailed  together 


u 

x 

a 


I 

u 


1677.]  DISSENSIONS  IN  THE  NORTH.  285 

for  the  colony,  and  landed  first  in  the  West  Indies,  Eastchurch  fell 
in  love  with  a  Creole  heiress  in  Nevis  Island,  and  sent  his  compan- 
ion to  rule  at  Albemarle,  with  full  powers  as  his  deputy,  MiiierDcpu- 
"till  the  chain  that  bound  him  proved  too  weak  to  hold  tyw™*- 
him,  or  strong  enough  to  enable  him  to  draw  the  beauty  who  had  im- 
posed it."  Miller  probably  did  not  object  to  this  arrangement,  but 
proceeded  promptly  to  the  colony,  where,  on  his  arrival  in  July,  1677, 
the  people  received  him,  no  doubt  with  deep  disgust,  but  with  out- 
ward signs  of  submission. 

Albemarle  had  now  a  population  of  fourteen  hundred  "  taxables," 
or  persons  between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  of  age,  one  third  of  them 
being  women,  negro  slaves,  and  Indians.  How  these  colonists  had 
been  ruled  during  Carteret's  absence  does  not  appear ;  probably 
chiefly  by  their  own  Assembly,  with  perhaps  an  executive  named  by 
the  Council,  whose  name  has  not  been  recorded.  One  thing  seems 
certain,  however,  —  that  the  fourteen  hundred  colonists  had  proved 
themselves  as  difficult  of  tranquil  government  as  many  populations  of 
ten  times  their  numbers.  Affairs  had  been  left  "•  in  bad  order  and 
worse  hands,"  said  the  Proprietors  ;  and  Miller  found  the  oontinile(i 
place  full  of  all  the  elements  of  turbulence  that  a  combina-  dlsorder- 
tion  of  plantation  and  trading-post  could  furnish.  A  degree  of  an- 
archy must  inevitably  have  resulted  from  the  uncertainty  caused  by 
attempts  to  enforce  first  one  and  then  another  code  of  laws  ;  but 
apart  from  this,  the  population  was  made  up  of  the  most  diverse 
classes,  among  whom  quiet  would  have  been  impossible.  Puritan 
New  Englanders,  not  feeling  themselves  at  ease  under  ultra-royalist 
proprietors  of  a  kind  whom  all  their  traditions  led  them  to  oppose  ; 
adventurers,  who  saw  in  any  kind  of  strong  government  the  prospect 
of  taxes  and  restrictions  on  their  profits  ;  refugees  from  the  political 
troubles  in  Virginia,  finding  safety  in  a  province  which  refused  to 
give  them  up,  —  all  these  mingled  with  the  original  colonists  to  make 
up  a  people  peculiarly  difficult  to  control.  The  principal  trade  was 
with  New  England,  and  the  men  who  carried  it  on  added  to  the  dis- 
order by  a  systematic  evasion  of  the  English  customs-dues,  which 
were  perhaps  unjust  enough,  yet  which  the  proprietary  governors 
were  instructed  to  enforce. 

It  was  on  the  question  of  this  trade  that  the  first  open  conflict 
arose  between  Miller  and  the  colonists.  As  collector  for  the  king, 
he  assessed  a  duty  of  one  penny  on  every  pound  of  tobacco  exported 
to  other  American  colonies.  By  this  tax  he  collected  in  the  first  six 
months  thirty-three  hogsheads  of  tobacco  and  more  than  five  thousand 
dollars.1  The  indignation  was  great,  particularly  among  the  New 
1  Martin.  See  also  Williamson  and  Hawks. 


286  THE  CAROLIXAS.  [CHAP.  XII. 

England  trading-captains.  Every  device  of  smuggling  and  conceal- 
ment was  resorted  to  in  order  to  evade  the  law. 

In  December,  a  northern  trader  named  Gillam,  commanding  an 
armed  vessel  from  New  England,  was  arrested  for  violation  of  the 
law,  and  was  bound  in  a  thousand  pounds  to  abide  his  trial.  He 
threatened  the  people  that  he  would  bring  them  no  more  supplies  at 
insurrection  such  risk.  In  the  district  of  Pasquotank,  where  the  arrest 
1  took,  place,  the  people  rose  at  once,  and  the  insurrection  was 
almost  immediately  joined  by  the  planters  of  other  districts. 
Miller  and  several  of  the  Proprietors'  deputies  were  imprisoned  by 
the  insurgents  led  by  one  Culpepper,  a  man  who  had  already  been 
prominent  in  agitations  on  Ashley  River.  The  funds  of  the  revenue 
officers  —  some  three  thousand  pounds  —  were  seized,  and  a  popular 
assembly  was  called,  new  courts  established,  and  all  matters  of  ad- 
ministration taken  under  the  control  of  the  successful  rebels. 

The  people  of  Pasquotank  published  a  proclamation  or  "  remon- 
strance," addressed  "  to  all  the  rest  of  the  County  of  Albe- 

"  Remon-  F 

gtrance"of    marie,"  in  i  ustification  of  their  conduct.     Miller  was  accused 

the  Pasquo-  J 

tank  peo-  of  preventing  a  free  election,  which  deprived  them  of  a  free 
parliament  whereby  their  grievances  could  be  made  known  to 
the  Lords  Proprietors.  The  chief  of  these  grievances  was  that  the 
tax  on  tobacco  was  enforced,  and  that  trade  was  interfered  with  ;  and 
they  relate  with  an  almost  ludicrous  pathos  the  circumstances  of  Gil- 
lam's  arrest  —  who  had  come  "  with  three  times  the  goods  he  brought 
last  year,"  —  which,  of  course,  he  meant  to  dispose  of  in  a  contraband 
trade,  in  tobacco  —  of  Miller's  boarding  his  vessel  "  with  a  brace  of 
pistols,"  and  presenting  one  of  them  at  George  Durant's  breast,  whom 
he  seized  as  a  traitor. 

The  grievance  in  truth  was  serious  enough.  Their  chief  produc- 
tion was  tobacco.  The  tax  was  a  heavy  burden  upon  colonists  in- 
evitably poor  ;  and  the  enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Act  was  to 
shut  them  off  from  a  trade  with  New  England  upon  which  they  were 
dependent  almost  for  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  arrest  of  Gillam 
was  the  one  thing  needed  to  make  a  crisis.  "  Three  times  as  many 
goods  as  the  year  before,"  but  safely  under  hatches  in  Gillam's  vessel, 
and  not  to  be  exchanged  for  the  tobacco  on  which,  nevertheless,  the 
tax  was  inexorably  levied  —  here  was  palpable  oppression  to  be  borne 
no  longer.  The  insurrection  was  completely  successful. 

When  Eastchurch  arrived  —  having  won  his  bride  at  last  in  the 
West  Indies  —  he  found  that  the  delay  had  cost  him  his 
Eastchurch.  governorship.  He  appealed  to  Virginia  for  aid,  but  before 
he  had  time  to  put  his  plans  into  operation,  he  died. 

The  colonists,  however,  had  no  intention  of  setting  the  Proprietors 


1679.]          STATEMENT   OF  THE   PASQUOTAXK   PEOPLE. 


287 


altogether  at  defiance.      But  it  was  nearly  two  years  before  they 
thought  fit  to  offer  any  justification  of  their  conduct  in  deposing  one 
officer  and  refusing  obedience  to  another.     In  1679,  Culpepper  and 
Robert  Holden  were  sent  as  commissioners  to  England  to  lay  their 
grievances  before  the  Proprietors.     Miller  and  his  companions  in  im- 
prisonment succeeded  in  escaping  and  in  securing  passage 
on  a  homeward-bound  vessel,  and  appeared  in    London  not  the  propri*- 
long  afterward.    The   majority  of  the  Proprietors  seem  to 
have  been  much  puzzled  by  the  contradictory  accounts  thus  simulta- 
taneously    brought 
before  them.     But 
Lord    Shaftesbury, 
finding   that   the 
commissioners  were 
willing    to    yield 
every  thing  to  the 
proprietaries  if 
only  Miller  should 
be  permanently 
displaced    and   the 
insurgents  par- 
doned ;  feeling  also, 
perhaps,    that    the 
colonists  really  had 
grievances   which 
should  be  redress- 
ed ;  but  especially 
seeing,    no    doubt, 
that  the  successful 
rebel  was  much 
more  of  a  man  than 
the  governor  he 
had  deposed, — used 
his  influence  in  Cul- 
pepper's  favor.    No 

thought  seems  to  have  been  entertained  of  returning  Miller  to  the 
government.  A  commission  as  governor  of  Albemarle  had  been  pre- 
viously issued  to  Seth  Sothell,  who  had  lately  become  a  proprietor 
by  purchasing  the  share  of  Lord  Clarendon. 

Sothell  started  for  the  colony  probably  late  in  1678,  or  early  the 
next  year.  But  he  was  captured  by  the  Turks  on  his  outward  voy- 
age, and  taken  into  Algiers.  The  Proprietors  consequently  decreed 


Arrest  of  Ourant. 


288  THE  CAROLINA^.  [CHAP.  XII. 

that  a  temporary  government  should  be  continued  under  one  John 
Harvey,  to  whom  a  commission   for  the  time  being  seems 

Sothell  »P-  ,  ,  . 

pointed  goy-  to  have  been  granted  previously  —  perhaps  because  he  was 
already  in  Carolina,  and  in  a  position  to  govern  till  a  new 
officer's  arrival.1  But  the  expedient  proved  unsuccessful ;  his  power 
Governors  was  derided  because  it  was  known  that  it  was  to  last  but  a 
ad  inttnnt  \{ft\e  time.  Indeed,  he  seems  to  have  been  virtually  deposed 
in  the  summer  of  1680,  one  John  Jenkins  succeeding  him  for  a 
few  months.  In  February,  1681,  still  another  governor  was  com- 
missioned pending  Sothell's  coming  —  Captain  Henry  Wilkinson, 
whose  credentials  call  him  "governor  of  that  part  of  the  province  of 
Carolina  lying  five  miles  south  of  the  river  Pamlico,  and  thence  to 
Virginia." 

In  the  mean  time  Culpepper,  when  he  was  about  to  reembark  for 
Arrest  of  tb-e  colony  after  having  apparently  gained  all  his  ends,  had 
cmpepper.  been  arrested,  at  the  instigation,  it  has  been  suggested,  of 
the  proprietors  opposed  to  Shaftesbury,2  and  brought  to  trial  by  the 
commissioners  of  customs,  for  unlawfully  acting  as  collector  in  the 
colony,  and  for  high-treason.  He  begged  in  vain  to  be  tried  in  Caro- 
lina, where  the  act  was  committed ;  this  was  refused  him  on  the 
ground  that  "  by  a  Statute  of  Henry  VIII.,  foreign  treason  may  be 
either  tried  by  special  commission  or  in  the  King's  Bench  by  a  jury  of 
the  county,  where  that  court  sits."  3  He  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
convicted  and  sentenced  by  the  King's  Bench,  had  not  Shaftesbury 
pleaded  for  him  that  there  never  had  been  a  regular  government  in 
His  acquit-  Albemarle,  and  that  the  rebellion  had  therefore  been  only  a 
tol>  quarrel  between  factions  of  the  colonists.  Culpepper  was 

acquitted.  This  trial  occurred  in  Trinity  Term,  in  the  summer  of 
1680,  that  is,  some  months  after  Sothell's  appointment,  departure, 
and  capture ;  and  there  is  obviously  no  ground  for  the  general  as- 
sumption that  Sothell  was  sent  to  the  colony  as  a  consequence  of  Cul- 
pepper's  acquittal. 

In  the  province  itself  dissensions  were  far  from  ended  ;  nor  did  the 
conciliatory  measures  which  the  Proprietaries  now  adopted  do  much 
good.  Instructions  were  given  to  the  Governor  to  "pardon"  the  in- 
surgents ;  a  measure  which  naturally  seems  to  have  been  laughed  at 
by  a  faction  which  was  almost  as  strong  as  the  one  now  nominally  in 
power ;  and  as  naturally  disregarded  by  the  Governor  himself,  who 
knew  that  to  keep  his  place  at  all  he  must  rule  with  a  strong  hand. 

1  State  Papers  cited  in  Coll.  Hist.  Soc.  ofS.  C.,  vol.  i.,  p.  102. 

2  Graharae,  ii.,  107. 

3  Ventris's  Reports,  349.    Cited  by  Chalmers. 


1683.] 


GOVERNOR   SOTHEL. 


289 


Severe  measures  of  punishment,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  retaliation  on 
the  other,  appear  to  have  kept  Albemarle  in  constant  anarchy  during 
a  period  too  turbulent  to  have  left  us  any  clear  records  ;  and  when 
Sothell,  who  had  escaped  from  captivity,  arrived  in  Carolina  in  1683, 
he  had  every  reason  to  find  affairs  in  as  bad  a  state  as  ever. 


VOL.   II 


Seal  of  the  Proprietors  of  Carolina. 
19 


CHAPTER   XIII. 


VIRGINIA    UNDER   BERKELEY. 


CONDITION  OF  VIRGINIA  IN  1670.  —  ABUSES  AND  POPULAR  GRIEVANCES.  —  THE  GRANT 
TO  ABLINGTON  AND  CULPEPPER.  —  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES  AND  THEIR  RESULTS.  —  IN- 
EFFICIENCY OF  BERKELEY.  —  INDIGNATION  OF  THE  COLONISTS. — NATHANIEL  BACON 
TAKES  THE  FlELD  IN  DEFIANCE  OF  THE  GOVERNOR. — His  INDIAN  CAMPAIGN. — 
BERKELEY  PROCLAIMS  HIM  A  REBEL.  —  POPULAR  UPRISING.  —  CONCESSIONS  FORCED 
FROM  THE  GOVERNOR.  —  BACON'S  ARREST,  SUBMISSION,  AND  ESCAPE.  —  HE  CAPTURES 
JAMESTOWN.  —  SECOND  INDIAN  CAMPAIGN.  —  RENEWED  ATTEMPTS  OF  BERKELEY 
TO  SUPPRESS  THE  POPULAR  MOVEMENT.  —  BACON'S  RETURN.  —  HE  SEIZES  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT.—  FLIGHT  OF  BERKELEY.  —  THE  CONVENTION. —  AIMS  OF  THE  BACON 
PARTY.  —  REVIVING  FORTUNES  OF  THE  DEPOSED  GOVERNOR.  —  BACON  AGAIN  CAP- 
TURES AND  BURNS  THE  CAPITAL.  —  ILLNESS  AND  DEATH  OF  BACON.  —  CLOSE  OF  THE 

REBELLION.  —  PUNISHMENT  OF  THE  REBELS. — ARRIVAL  OF  ENGLISH  COMMISSION- 
ERS.—  RECALL  AND  DEATH  OF  BERKELEY. 

IN  the  year  1670,  the  Commissioners  of  Foreign  Plantations,  in 
London,  asked  of  Sir  William  Berkeley  a  report  upon  the  condition 
of  his  colony.  Apart  from  mere  statistics,  more  may  be  inferred  from 
his  response  than  he  saw  fit  to  tell,  —  more,  perhaps,  than  he  really 
knew.  But  even  the  facts  he  gives  are  valuable. 

There  were  forty  thousand  people  in  Virginia  at  this  period :  of 
condition  of  these,  only  two  thousand  were  negro  slaves ;  but  there  were 
six  thousand  white  servants  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of 
years.  It  is  not  a  violent  supposition  that  these  were  not 
contented  subjects.  The  best  of  them  had  been  soldiers  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, —  men  who  had  risked  their  lives  for  the  sake  of  political 
and  religious  liberty,  and  were  not  likely  now  to  submit  quietly  to 
personal  servitude.  Others  were  of  an  even  more  dangerous  class, 
for  the  Assembly  of  that  year  had  listened  to  complaints,  from  mem- 
bers of  the  Council  and  other  gentlemen,  of  the  dangers  that  threat- 
ened the  colony  by  the  introduction  of  felons.  The  annual  importa- 
tion of  white  servants  was  fifteen  hundred  ;  the  Assembly  hoped  at 
least  to  mitigate  the  evils  of  such  an  emigration  by  prohibiting  the 
landing  in  Virginia  of  convicts  from  the  English  jails.  Upon  these 
indented  servants  and  the  negro  slaves  the  colony  depended  for  its 
labor.  That  their  lives  were  held  cheaply  is  plain,  for  four  fifths  of 


Virginia  in 
1670.  The 
people. 


1670.]  CONDITION   OF   VIRGINIA.  291 

them  died  when  put  upon  new  plantations.     It  was  cheaper  to  buy 
new  servants  than  to  keep  old  ones  alive  by  sanitary  measures. 

Virginia  owned  but  two  small  vessels  of  her  own,  though  eighty 
ships  came  yearly  from  England  to  take  away  her  tobacco  The  coloniftl 
and  bring  in  exchange  those  commodities  of  luxury  or  neces-  tl'ade 
sity  that  her  people  could  not  do  without.  Nothing  could  be  ex- 
ported except  to  the  king's  dominions,  and  nothing,  therefore,  of  much 
value,  could  be  imported  from  anywhere  but  England.  No  improve- 
ment could  come,  the  Governor  thought,  to  the  trade  of  Virginia  till 
she  was  allowed  to  sell  her  tobacco,  her  staves,  her  timber,  and  her 
corn  in  the  best  market,  and  buy  what  she  wanted  in  return  where  it 
could  be  bought  cheapest.  In  1671,  she  exported  sixteen  thousand 
hogsheads  of  tobacco,  on  which  the  export  tax  was  two  shillings  a 
hogshead.  The  price  in  London  ruled  the  price  at  which  it  was  put 
on  board  the  English  vessels  at  the  river-banks  of  the  plantations, 
the  planters  taking  goods  in  pay.  The  price  of  the  tobacco  was  at 
the  lowest,  that  of  the  goods  at  the  highest,  to  which  monopoly  could 
bring  them.  The  merchant  made  an  enormous  profit  on  both.  More 
than  one  old  writer  says  that  the  remuneration  to  the  planter  would 
hardly  find  him  in  clothes  ;  but  it  was,  no  doubt,  the  four  fifths  of 
the  servants  who  died  that  went  without  the  clothes,  and  not  the 
planters  on  their  great  estates,  with  their  generous  living  and  large 
hospitality. 

The  militia  of  the  province  could  muster  eight  thousand  men.     On 
the  James  were  two  forts  ;  on  the  Rappahannock,  the  York, 

,  _.  ,  „,,  The  militia. 

and  the  Potomac,  one  each.  Ihey  were  meant,  however, 
less  for  protection  than  as  ports  where  ships  should  load  and  unload, 
that  the  restrictions  upon  trade  might  be  the  easier  enforced  than 
when  cargoes  were  discharged  and  received  at  the  plantations.  For 
a  year  only,  however,  was  that  regulation  obeyed.  The  great  fire  in 
London  in  1666  reduced  the  number  of  ships  that  came  out  that  sea- 
son ;  and  the  fear  that  the  plague  which  followed  it  might  be  introduced 
into  the  colony  and  spread  by  the  aggregation  of  people  at  these  ports, 
scattered  the  ships  again  along  the  rivers  wherever  a  market  could 
be  found.  But  the  forts  were  kept  up,  and  the  taxation  for  that  pur- 
pose was  a  grievous  burden  for  which  there  was  no  return. 

The  religious  condition  of  the  colony  did  not  altogether  suit  Berke- 
ley ;  with  him  religion  meant  conformity  to  the  Established  R^J,,,,,,  a{. 
Church,  and  the  church  a  form  of  prescribed  belief  and  wor-  fairs 
ship  with  which  the  constable  should  have  as  much  to  do  as  the 
priest.  He  hated  non-conformity  and  dreaded  any  appeal  to  or  re- 
liance upon  the  human  reason.  He  believed  devoutly  in  authority, 
and  every  Puritan  that  went  back  to  New  England,  every  Quaker 


292  VIRGINIA   UNDER  BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

that  sought  refuge  in  Carolina,  was  a  good  riddance  to  a  ruler  who 
recognized  the  perfection  of  human  government  under  Charles  I. 
and  Charles  II.  There  were  forty-eight  parishes  in  the  colony,  and 
in  these,  Berkeley  said,  "  our  ministers  are  well  paid  ;  by  my  consent, 
should  be  better,  if  they  would  pray  oftener  and  preach  less.  But  as 
of  all  other  commodities,  so  of  this,  —  the  worst  are  sent  us,  and  we 
have  had  few  that  we  could  boast  of,  since  Cromwell's  tyranny  drove 
divers  men  hither."  But  some  of  these  parishes  were  sixty  or  seventy 
miles  in  length,  and  better  authority,  perhaps,  than  the  Governor's, 
asserted  that  many  of  them  were  for  years  without  pastors.  Nor 
were  clergymen,  when  employed,  held  in  much  esteem,  —  in  many 
cases  were  not  deserving  of  it.  Parishioners  were  often  indifferent 
whether  the  parsons  prayed  or  preached  most,  or  whether  they  did 
neither.  Not  unfrequently  a  lay  reader  was  employed  at  the  lowest 
possible  wages  for  which  a  substitute  for  a  minister  could  be  hired. 
This  saved  a  clergyman's  salary,  and  filled  at  the  same  time  the  Gov- 
ernor's requirement  of  religious  teaching, — no  preaching  and  more 
prayer-book. 

But  if  the  Governor  was  a  little  doubtful  as  to  the  religious  state 
of  the  colon}7,  he  had  no  misgivings  of  the  perfectly  health- 
ful condition  of  the  merely  secular  mind  of  his  people.     To 
this  consideration  he  turns  with  the  keenest  satisfaction.     "  But,"  he 
adds,  "  I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools,  nor  printing,  and  I 
hope  we  shall  not  have  these  hundred  years  ;  for  learning  has  brought 
disobedience  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them  and  libels 
against  the  best  governments.     God  keep  us  from  both." 

From  1660  to  1676  there  was  no  election  of  representatives  to  the 
Assembly  of  Virginia.  That  body  preserved  its  power  from  year  to 
year  by  prorogation,  and  rendered  any  interference  with  it  the  more 
difficult  by  restricting  the  right  of  suffrage.  Industry  was  paralyzed ; 
the  taxes  were  enormous  ;  official  tyranny  was  intolerable  ;  monopoly 
absorbed  all  trade ;  the  people  had  no  voice  in  the  government.  In 
1673  the  whole  territory,  occupied  already  by  nearly  forty 
thousand  Englishmen,  was  given  by  the  king  to  two  of  his 
favorites,  the  Earl  of  Arlington  and  Lord  Culpepper,  —  the 
former  the  father-in-law  of  the  king's  bastard  son,  the  Duke 
of  Grafton,  by  the  profligate  and  beautiful  Lady  Castlemaine,  after- 
ward the  Duchess  of  Cleveland.  The  grant  was  a  new  source  of  tax- 
ation to  the  oppressed  colonists,  who  were  compelled  to  pay  heavily 
for  the  support  of  agents  in  London  in  vain  efforts  to  procure  the 
restoration  of  their  homes  to  the  rightful  owners.  The  condition  of 
the  colony  seemed  well-nigh  hopeless,  and  only  some  pretext  for  re- 
volt was  needed  to  arouse  the  people  to  resistance.  In  1674  some 


1675.] 


INDIAN    HOSTILITIES. 


293 


disturbances,  which  promised  to  become  a  revolution,  were  with  diffi- 
culty allayed  by  a  proclamation  from  the  Governor  and  the  inter- 
cessions of  some  influential  citizens  of  his  party. 

But  the  insurrection,  which  so  many  causes  combined  to  make  pop- 
ular and  inevitable,  was  only  postponed  for  about  a  year.   Indianhos- 
The  Indians  on  the  frontier  —  either  the  local  tribes  insti-  tUlt"~ 
gated  by  Senecas  from   the   north,  or  the  Senecas  themselves  —  be- 
came so  troublesome  that  the  forts  were  put  in  a  condition  of  de- 
fence, and  Sir  Henry  Chicheley,  the  Lieutenant-governor,  prepared 
to  march,  in  the  spring  of  1675,  against  the  enemy  at  the  head  of  five 
hundred   men.      There    was 
promise  of  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign ;    the    laws  against 
providing  the  Indians  with 
guns  and  ammunition 


Gathering  of  the   Virginia  Planters   in   1674. 


were  much  more 
stringent  ;  set- 
tlers were  warned 

to  take  their  arms  to  church  ;  days  of  fasting  were  ordered,  and  the 
whole  colony  seems  to  have  been  animated  with  the  hope  that  some- 
thing was  at  length  to  be  done  whose  end  was  the  common  good.  But 
when  Chicheley  and  his  little  army  were  ready  to  move,  an  unac- 
countable and  unexplained  order  to  disband  was  received  from  Gov- 
ernor Berkeley. 

Whether  this  was  done  in  the  interest  of  the  Indian  traders,  — 
which  was  Berkeley's  own  interest,  —  or  whether  the  Governor  sin- 
cerely believed  that  the  danger  from  the  Indians  was  exaggerated, 
and  would  disappear  if  let  alone,  the  effect  upon  the  colonists  was 


294  VIRGINIA    UNDER  BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

unquestionably  exasperating.  If  the  Governor  would  not  defend 
them,  they  determined  to  defend  themselves. 

The  occasion  was  not  long  in  coming.  One  Sunday  morning,  in 
Murder  of  the  summer  of  that  year,  some  persons  in  Stafford  County,  on 
Hen-  their  way  to  church,  found  lying  at  his  own  door,  wounded 

and  dying,  a  man  named  Hen,  and  near  him  a  friendly  Indian,  quite 
dead.  Hen  lived  long  enough  to  tell  his  friends  that  the  Doegs  were 
the  murderers. 

Alarm  was  spread  through  the  neighborhood,  and  thirty  men 
started  at  once  in  pursuit.  For  twenty  miles  up  the  Poto- 
of  the  mu°  mac  the  trail  was  followed,  till,  crossing  the  river,  it  divided 
into  two  paths.  The  force  separated  to  follow  both,  —  one 
party  under  Captain  Brent,  the  other  under  Colonel  Mason.  Brent 
soon  came  upon  a  wigwam,  which  he  surrounded  with  his  men.  A 
chief  came  out  at  the  Captain's  summons,  who  accused  him  of  having 
murdered  Hen,  and,  as  he  attempted  to  fly,  shot  him  down.  His  com- 
panions within  the  wigwam  made  some  show  of  defence,  and  then,  as 
they  rushed  out  to  escape,  ten  of  them  fell  before  the  fire  of  the  Vii-- 
ginians.  They  were  of  the  Doeg  tribe,  and,  very  likely,  the  mur- 
derers. 

The  other  party,  who  also  reached  a  wigwam  in  the  woods,  waited 
Attack  on  a  f°r  no  parley.  The  Indians,  aroused  by  the  noise  of  the 
nock'wi'g-11  firing  of  Brent's  men,  rushed  to  the  door,  and,  as  they  ap- 
wam'  peared,  fourteen  of  them  were  shot  dead  before  the  assail- 

ants could  be  made  to  understand  that  these  were  not  Doegs,  but 
Susquehannocks.  But  the  murder  of  Hen  was  fully  avenged.  The 
sun  had  risen  but  once  over  his  grave,  before  —  as  the  Indians  be- 
lieved —  twenty-four  of  their  people  followed  him  into  the  valley  of 
darkness. 

Retaliation  was  inevitable.  Susquehannocks,  Doegs,  Senecas,  Pis- 
cataways,  —  all  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  region  were  aroused  by  the 
slaughter  in  a  single  day  of  so  many  warriors.  Two  of  these  tribes 
mourned  for  their  own  ;  the  third  was  accused  of  the  act  that  had 
brought  upon  them  so  terrible  a  calamity.  All  had  now  cause  to 
hate  the  whites  ;  some  of  them  —  perhaps  all  —  proved  by  new  atroci- 
ties how  eagerly  they  accepted  the  lesson.  In  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia alike,  the  isolated  planters  knew  that  at  any  moment  they 
might  stand  face  to  face  with  death. 

The  two  colonies  united  in  an  expedition,  and  a  thousand  men 
Expedition  were  sent  out  under  Colonel  John  Washington,  —  George 
sSlrueh^n-  Washington's  great-grandfather,  —  of  Virginia,  and  Major 
nocks.  Thomas  Truman,  of  Maryland.  The  Susquehannocks  had  • 

taken  refuge  with  their  women  and  children  in  a  strong  foil  on  the 
Piscatawav,  and  this  the  combined  force  surrounded. 


1675.] 


MURDER   OF  INDIAN   ENVOYS. 


295 


Six  of  their  chiefs  were  summoned  from  the  fort,  that  negotiations 
might  first  be  tried.  They  denied  that  their  people  were  guilty  of  any 
hostile  acts  against  the  whites,  and  charged  them  to  the  Senecas,  who 
had  already  fled  northward.  Truman  accepted  their  explanations, 
and  promised  them  protection,  but  the  Virginians  were  not  satisfied. 

The  next  morning,  a  detachment  brought  into  the  camp  the  muti- 
lated bodies  of  one  Hanson  and  some  members  of  his  family 
who  had  been  recently  murdered.     The  act  was  known  be-  theindun 
fore,  and  was  one  of  those  now  under  consideration.     But 
when  this  visible  evidence  of  Indian  atrocity  was  laid  before  the 

whites,  their  rage  was  be- 
yond control.  Whether 
with  or  without  the  consent 


of  the  two  commanders,  five  of 
the  chiefs,  who  had  again  come 
out  of  the  fort  for  a  parley,  and  The  K'"ing  °f  the  Chiets 

who,  under  the  rules  of  war,  were  entitled  to  protection,  were  in- 
stantly bound  and  led  out  to  execution. 

The  act  was  too  atrocious  to  be  sustained  even  by  the  pubh'c  opin- 
ion of  that  time.  Truman  was  brought  to  trial  by  the  Legislature  of 
Maryland,  and  found  guilty  in  that  he  did  "  in  a  barbarous  and  cruel 
manner  cause  five  of  said  Indians  to  be  killed  and  murdered,  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  God  and  of  nations."  How  he  was  punished  does  not 
appear,  for  the  records  are  lost.1  When  Colonel  Washington  re- 
turned to  Jamestown,  and  took  his  seat  in  the  Assembly,  Berkeley 
said,  in  his  opening  address,  "If  they  [the  Susquehannocks]  had 
killed  my  grandfather  and  my  grandmother,  my  father,  my  mother, 

1  For  the  fullest  narrative  of  all  these  transactions,  see  a  lecture  before  the  Maryland 
Historical  Society,  by  S.  F.  Streeter,  published  in  Hist.  May.,  voL  i. 


296  VIRGINIA   UNDER  BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

and  all  my  friends,  yet,  if  they  had  come  to  treat  in  peace,  they 
should  have  gone  in  peace." 

This  public  rebuke  was  Washington's  only  punishment.  Their 
Indian  re-  revenge  the  Indians  took  into  their  own  hands.  Though 
taiiation.  j.}ie  forj.  on  foe  Piscataway  was  strong  and  capable  of  de- 
fence, they  had  laid  in  no  provisions  for  a  long  siege.  In  the  night, 
while  the  camp  without  slept  unsuspicious  of  danger,  the  Susquehan- 
nocks,  with  their  women  and  children  —  leaving  behind  only  a  few  old 
men  —  crept  out  silently  among  their  enemies,  killing  ten  of  them  as 
they  went,  and  escaped  to  the  forest. 

Arousing  other  tribes,  they  spread  dismay  along  the  Rappahanock 
and  the  James.  Through  the  following  winter  they  spread  through 
Virginia,  almost  to  Jamestown  itself.  Their  object  was  rather  re- 
venge than  plunder.  "In  these  frightful  times,"  says  a  narrative 
written  a  few  years  afterward  by  one  of  the  planters  who  related 
what  he  saw,1  "  the  most  exposed  small  families  withdrew  into  our 
houses  of  better  numbers,  which  we  fortified  with  pallisadoes  and 
redoubts ;  neighbours  in  bodies  joined  their  laborers  from  each  plan- 
tation to  others  alternately,  taking  their  arms  into  the  ffields  and  set- 
ting centinels  ;  no  man  stirred  out  of  door  unarm 'd,  Indians  were 
(ever  and  anon)  espied,  three,  4,  5,  or  6  in  a  party,  lurking  through- 
out the  whole  land  ;  yet  (what  was  remarkable)  I  rarely  heard  of 
any  houses  burnt  ....  or  other  injury  done  besides  murders,  except 
the  killing  a  very  few  cattle  &  swine."  Sixty  of  the  colonists,  be- 
fore the  spring  came,  had  fallen  victims  to  this  savage  warfare  along 
the  York,  the  James,  and  the  Rappahannock. 

In  this  season  of  dire  distress  Berkeley  was  strangely  inefficient  or 
inefficiency  unpardoiiablv  indifferent.  Even  the  Susquehannocks,  sat- 
of  Berkeley.  isge(j  wjth  their  bloody  work,  made  overtures  of  peace,  to 
which  they  received  no  answer  ;  the  colonists  appealed  to  him  for 
protection,  but  he  was  moved  neither  by  their  sufferings  nor  their 
prayers.  The  time  had  come  when  they  must  depend  upon  them- 
selves for  safety.  In  securing  that,  came  the  opportunity  to  redress 
much  other  wrong. 

Among  the  owners  of  plantations  on  the  James  was  young  Na- 
Natnaniei  tlianiel  Bacon,  the  cousin  and  heir  of  a  rich  and  well-known 
Bacon.  Jamestown  citizen  of  the  same  name.  Although  he  was 
not  yet  thirty,  and  had  joined  his  relative  in  Virginia  less  than  three 
years  before,  he  was  already  of  sufficient  mark  in  the  province  to 
have  been  appointed  member  of  the  council,  and  to  have  gained  an 
influence  among  his  neighbors  that  implied  unusual  qualities  in  so 

1  The  Beginning,  Progress,  and  Conclusion  of  Bacon's  Rebellion.     By  T.  M.     Republished 
ill  Force's  Tracts,  vol.  i. 


1676.] 


INEFFICIENCY   OF   BERKELEY. 


297 


young  a  man.  He  lived  upon  an  estate  called  Curies,  on  the  river,  a 
little  distance  below  Richmond ;  but  he  also  owned  a  plantation  near 
the  falls  of  the  James,  —  perhaps  where  the  place  called  "  Bacon 
Quarter  Branch  "  still  keeps  his  name.1  Here,  in  the  late  winter  or 
early  spring  of  1676,  a  band  of  savages  stole  into  the  clearing,  a^d 
killed  two  persons,  —  a  servant,  and  Bacon's  overseer,  whom  he  held 
in  high  esteem.2 


Bacon  Quarter  Branch. 

The  young  man  had  been  already  greatly  excited  by  the  distresses 
of  the  people  about  him,  and  it  needed  only  this  appeal  to  personal 
interest  and  feeling  to  move  him  to  action.  His  neighbors,  one  and 
all,  looked  to  him  as  their  leader  ;  and  he  and  they  had  "  sent  often- 
times to  the  Governor,  humbly  beseeching  a  commission  to  go  against 
those  Indians  at  their  own  charge."  But  no  commission  came.  "  The 
misteryes  of  these  delays  were  wondered  at,"  and  the  minds  of  the 
people,  bitter  with  other  grievances,  were  filled  with  "  surmizes  and 
rnurmurings."  The  climax  came  when  Bacon  himself,  struck  at  last 
in  his  own  family,  swor-e  that  he  would  avenge  his  overseer's  death, 

1  Campbell's  History  of  Virginia. 

2  There  are  several  contemporary  accounts  of  Bacon's  Rebellion.     The  so  called  "  Bur- 
well  Account,"  found  among  the  papers  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Burwell,  of  Virginia,  and 
published  in  Mass.  Hist.  Sor.  Coll.,  Second  Series,  vol.  i.,  is  incomplete.    That  by  "T.  M." 
in  Force's  Hist.  Tracts,  i.,  is  the  fullest.     See  also  An  Account  of  our  Late  Troubles  in  Vir- 
ginia, by  Mrs.  An.  Cotton,  of  Q.  Creeks,  in  Force,  i.,  9th  paper;  *4  List  of  those  Executed 
for  the  Late  Rebellion  in  Virginia,  etc.,  ibid.,  10th  paper  ;  and  the  documents  in  the  appm- 
dix  to  chap.  v.  in  Burk's  History  of  Virginia,  vol.  ii. 


298  VIRGINIA    UNDER   BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

and  that  should  news  of  another  murder  reach  him,  he  would  march 
out  against  the  savages,  "  commission  or  no  commission." 

Such  news  was  but  a  little  while  in  coming  ;  and  he  kept  his  word. 
A  force  whose  numbers  are  differently  stated  at  ninety,  three  hun- 
dred, and  even  six  hundred  men,1  gathered  about  their  leader.  But 
even  on  the  eve  of  their  march,  they  sent  once  more  to  Berkeley  for 
authority,  warning  him  that  should  he  not  send  it  by  a  certain  day, 
Bacon  takes  they  would  go  without  it.  It  did  not  come,  and  at  the 
appointed  time  the  expedition  moved.  It  had  gone  only  a 
short  distance,  before  it  was  overtaken  by  a  messenger,  bearing  in  hot 
haste  a  proclamation  from  the  Governor,  denouncing  all  as  rebels  who 
did  not  disperse  and  return  to  their  homes  before  a  given  date.  This 
was  decisive,  and  the  line  must  be  drawn  at  once  between  such  as 
would  brave  the  final  threat  of  the  authorities  and  such  as  would  turn 
back  while  it  was  yet  possible.  Fifty-seven  of  his  company  kept  on 
into  the  wilderness  with  Bacon  ;  "those  of  estates,"  who  feared  their 
confiscation,  returned  with  discontented  obedience  to  save  their  prop- 
erty. 

Bacon  and  his  party  had  not  accomplished  that  most  difficult  and 
dangerous  part  of  Indian  warfare,  the  finding  of  the  enemy,  when 
their  supplies  began  to  run  low.  Coming  upon  the  fortified  village 
of  a  friendly  tribe,  they  asked  the  savages  for  provisions,  with  offers 
of  pay.  If  the  white  men  would  wait  till  the  next  day,  they  should 
have  what  they  asked,  was  his  answer.  It  shows  what  was  the  pop- 
ular opinion  of  the  Governor,  that  a  suspicion  at  once  arose  among 
the  Bacon  party  that  these  Indians  were  acting  by  his  direction.  It 
was  absolutely  necessary  that  food  should  be  had.  Wading  "  shoulder 
deep  "  through  the  creek  that  ran  before  the  palisades,  they 

Attack  upon  ,       .      .  .        ,  , 

friendly  in-  pressed  their  request.  A  shot,  coming  from  some  unseen 
enemy  as  night  was  falling,  killed  one  of  the  troop,  and 
aroused  a  suspicion  that  the  Indians  were  reenforced.  An  attack  was 
made,  the  fort  taken  and  burned,  and,  according  to  Bacon's  own 
account,  one  hundred  and  fifty  Indians  were  put  to  the  sword.  It 
was  the  annihilation  of  the  tribe  of  Susquehannocks.  That,  it  was 
thought,  must  put  an  end  to  all  further  trouble  from  the  savages, 
and  the  colonists  dispersed. 

The  supposed  collusion  of  Sir  William  Berkeley  and  the  Indians 
Berkeley  in  liad  this  much  color  of  probability,  —  that  the  Governor,  so 
Barn's0'  soon  as  ne  was  satisfied  of  the  determined  purpose  of  Bacon 
force.  an(j  njg  men?  na(j  taken  a  troop  of  horse  and  set  out  in  pur- 

suit.    He  did  not  reach  them  ;  but  his  desertion  of  the  capital,  at 

1  Biirk,  ii.  164,  says  six  hundred;  Burwell,  p.  10,  says  "about  seventy  or  ninety  per- 
sons ; "  T.  M.,  p.  11,  says  three  hundred  men. 


1676.] 


POPULAR   UPRISING. 


•209 


this  critical  moment,  proved  an  ill-judged  step.     No  sooner  was  lie 
well  away,  than  a  revolt  broke  out  among  the  planters  to  the  south. 
In  the  absence  of  the  Governor,  the  Assembly  hesitated  and  tem- 
porized, and  allowed  the  rebellion  to  gain  headway.    Hurry-  Popuiardi8- 
ing   back,  Sir  William  found   the   country  everywhere   in  n"rke°ey:s 
such  commotion  that  he  was  compelled  to  make  concessions.  conet'' 
Among  the  first  demanded  was  the  abolition  of  taxes  for  the  useless 
forts,  —  their  uselessness  now  doubly  shown,  —  and  the  dissolution  of 
that  long  Assembly  which  had  not 
been    changed    for   fifteen    years. 
The   scanty  records  tell   us  little 
of  the  details ;  but  both  points  were 
yielded,  and  for  the  moment  a  de- 
ceptive quiet  was  restored. 


Bacon's  Troops  crossing  the  Creek. 

The  elections  to  the  new  Assembly,  for  which  writs  were  imme- 
diately issued,  resulted  almost  everywhere,  as  might  have  xeweiec- 
been  expected,  in  favor  of  the  popular  party.     A  great  ma-  tlon8' 
jority  of  the  delegates  were  men  pledged  to  demand  redress  of  the 
people's  grievances.     Bacon,  whose  great  popularity  was  increased  by 
his  action  in  the  Indian  matter,  was  among  the  new  members.     Not- 
withstanding his  recent  defiance  of  the  Governor,  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  start  for  Jamestown  on  the  day  appointed.     This  audacity  even  a 
weaker  man  than  Berkeley  might  have  resented.     As  Bacon  sailed 
down  the  river  from  his  home  at  Curies,  on  his  way  to  the  Assembly's 
session,  his  sail-boat  was  brought  to  by  an  armed  vessel,  and  he  was 
carried  to  the  capital  under  arrest.    "Mr.  Bacon,''  asked  the  Thc arrest of 
old  Governor,  as  the  culprit  was  brought  before  him,  "  have  Bacon- 
you  forgot  to  be  a  gentleman  ?  "  —  "  No,  may  it  please  your  honor." 


300 


VIRGINIA   UNDER  BERKELEY. 


[CHAP.  XIII. 


— "  Then,"  said  the  old  soldier,  with  a  courtesy  not  forgotten  in  se- 
verity, "  I  will  take  your  parole  ; "  and  the  popular  leader  took  his 
seat  unhindered  among  the  burgesses.1 

The  burgesses  met  on  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  June  ;  and  when 
they  had  chosen  a  speaker,  the  Governor  summoned  them  before  him. 
In  "  a  short,  abrupt  speech,"  as  we  have  already  related,  he  rebuked 


Bacon's   Submission. 


Colonel  Washington  for  the  murder  of  the  Susquehannock  chiefs. 
Then,  after  seating  himself  for  a  moment,  he  rose  and  surprised  the 
house  by  saying,  "  if  there  be  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  over 
Bacon's  sub-  one  sinner  that  repenteth,  there  is  joy  now  ;  for  we  have  a 
minion.  penitent  sinner  come  before  us.  Call  Mr.  Bacon."  "  Then," 
says  an  eye  witness,  "  did  Mr.  Bacon,  upon  one  knee  at  the  bar,  de- 

1  T.  M.'s  Narrative. 


1676.]  BACON'S  ESCAPE.  301 

liver  a  sheet  of  paper  confessing  his  crimes  and  begging  pardon  ot 
God,  the  king,  and  the  governor."  There  was  a  brief  silence  broken 
by  Berkeley's  saying,  with  real  emotion,  "  God  forgive  you  —  I  for- 
give you."  1 

There  seems  to  have  been  in  the  veteran  officer  a  warm  personal 
regard  for  the  brilliant  young  man  before  him.  A  moment  after 
pronouncing  his  forgiveness,  he  started  up  again  from  his  chair  and 
said,  "  Mr.  Bacon,  if  you  will  live  civilly  but  till  next  quarter  court 

—  but  till  next  quarter  court  —  I'll  promise  to  restore  you  again  to 
your  place  there,"  —  pointing  to  Bacon's  vacant  seat  in  the  council. 
"  And  in  th'  afternoon,"  says  the  narrator  of  the  incident,  "  passing 
by  the  court  door  in  my  way  up  to  our  chamber,  I  saw  Mr.  Bacon  on 
his  quondam  seat  ....  which   seemed  a  marvellous  indulgence  to 
one  whom  he  had  so  lately  proscribed  as  a  rebell."  2 

It  is  not  easy  to  credit  the  assertion  that  all  this  action  on  Sir 
William  Berkeley's  part  was  treacherous  ;  that  his  kindness  and  his 
emotion  were  both  feigned  ;  and  his  reception  of  Bacon  a  mere  de- 
vice to  conciliate  the  excited  planters.  Yet  Bacon  and  his  adherents 
believed  this,  or  at  least,  doubted  that  Berkeley  meant  to  heed  their 
just  complaints.  A  few  days  later,  while  the  Assembly  was  still  en- 
gaged in  a  stormy  debate  upon  the  Indian  question,  "•  one  morning 
early  a  bruit  ran  about  the  town  — '  Bacon  is  fled  —  Bacon  is  fled!  '"3 

The  rumor  speedily  proved  true.  Leaving  no  other  excuse  for 
breaking  his  parole,  than  the  insufficient  one  that  he  be- 
lieved he  was  meeting  treachery  with  treachery,  —  "  having 
information  that  the  Governor's  generosity  ....  [was]  no  other  than 
previous  weadles  to  amuse  him  and  his  adherents  and  to  circumvent 
them  by  stratagem,"  —  the  young  man  had  left  Jamestown  to  rejoin 
his  neighbors.  Some  said  his  cousin  had  given  him  "  timely  inti- 
mation to  flee  for  his  life ; "  for  that  the  Governor  —  "  seeing  all 
quiet,"  and  noticing  that  the  turbulent  country  people  who  had  come 
to  the  capital  had  dispersed  again  on  seeing  justice  apparently  done 
to  their  favorite,  —  had  issued  "  private  warrants  to  take  him  againe." 
But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  contemporary  narratives,  on 
which  we  must  rely  for  the  details  of  these  events,  are  not  impartial 
and  may,  therefore,  be  unjust  to  Berkeley.  Narrow-minded,  arbitrary, 
and  destitute  of  any  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  common  people,  and 

—  as  he  soon  showed   himself  to  be — careless  of  human  life,   the 
whole  career  of  the  Governor  hardly  justifies  the  belief  that  he  would 
stoop  to  gain  his  ends  by  deceit  and  treachery.    That  Bacon,  however, 
believed  him  capable  of  it,  is  the  only  justification  of  his  own  conduct. 

1  "  Thrice  repeating  the  same  words,"  says  T.  M. 

2  T.  M.'s  Narrative.  *  Ibid. 


302  VIRGINIA   UNDER  BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

Bacon's  adherents  of  course  accepted  his  conclusions,  and  all  hope, 
therefore,  of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  troubles  ended  with  his  arrival 
among  his  friends. 

Only  a  few  days  of  excitement  and  alarm  had  passed  since  his  es- 
cape, when   news  reached    Jamestown  that  the  rebel   was 
marches  on    marching  thither  at  the  head  of  "  an  army  "  of  four  or  five 

Jamestown.  °  <f 

hundred  men,  who  had  mustered  some  thirty  miles  or  more 
up  the  river.  With  almost  every  hour  expresses  reached  the  capital 
with  news  of  his  approach.  Berkeley  tried  vainly  to  collect  the 
militia  for  defence  ;  but  many  of  them  were  already  with  the  in- 
surgents, and  no  sufficient  body  could  be  gathered.  On  the  fourth 
day  after  the  first  news  of  their  coming,  the  horse  and  foot  under 
Bacon  entered  the  town  without  resistance.  They  were  bivouacked 
upon  the  green  close  by  the  state-house,  and  the  proper  disposition 
made  of  them  to  hold  all  the  streets.  This  done,  they  disarmed  all 
the  inhabitants,  and  would  permit  none  to  enter  the  town  without 
giving  up  his  weapons. 

Amid  this  confusion  the  Assembly  was  called  together  by  beat  of 

drum.  Barely  had  its  session  been  begun,  when  Bacon, 
Tiew  with  with  a  double  file  of  fusileers,  took  up  a  position  near  the 

corner  of  the  state-house.  The  members  of  the  Assembly 
crowded  to  the  windows,  while  the  Governor  and  Council  went  out  to 
treat  with  the  rebel  leader.  It  was  a  scene  of  wild  confusion  ;  in  the 
midst  of  "  the  hubbub  "  Bacon  raged  up  and  down  between  his  files 
of  men,  "  with  his  left  arm  on  Kenbow,  flinging  his  right  arm  every 
way  ;  "  the  crowd  about  him  clamoring  with  such  violence  that,  says 
the  narrator,  "if  in  this  moment  of  fury  that  enraged  multitude  had 
fain  upon  the  Governor  and  Council,  we  of  the  Assembly  expected 
the  same  immediate  fate."  Berkeley,  as  excited  as  Bacon,  thrust 
himself  between  the  lines  of  troops,  and  baring  his  breast  to  their 
weapons,  cried  "  Here  —  shoot  me !  'Fore  God,  fair  mark  !  Shoot !  " 
To  which  the  rebel,  still  commanding  his  temper,  as  it  seemed,  an- 
swered, "  No,  may  it  please  your  honor  —  we  will  not  hurt  a  hair  of 
your  head,  nor  of  any  other  man's ;  we  are  come  for  a  commission  to 
save  our  lives  from  the  Indians,  which  you  have  so  often  promised ; 
and  now  we  will  have  it  before  we  go  ! "  The  Governor  turned,  and 
walked  toward  his  private  apartments,  followed  by  the  Council ;  and 
Bacon,  now  losing  his  self-command  entirely,  followed  him  with  "out- 
rageous postures,"  "  often  tossing  his  hand  from  his  sword  to  his  hat," 
and  seeming  like  one  delirious  with  rage.  "  Dam  my  bloud ! "  he 
shouted,  "  I  '11  kill  Governor,  Council,  Assembly,  and  all,  —  and  then 
I  '11  sheathe  my  sword  in  my  own  heart's  bloud  !  "  —  and  turning  to 
his  men  he  ordered  them  to  point  their  fusils  at  the  windows  filled 
with  anxious  faces. 


1676.]  BACON   AND   THE   ASSEMBLY.  303 

For  a  moment  there  was  wild  excitement ;  the  people  clamored  for 
the  commission  with  shouts  of  "  We  will  have  it !  we  will 

.,  ,  i       i        i      •          •  Excitement 

have  it!       and   the  fusileers   cocked   their  pieces;    when  a  among  the 
person  at  the  window  waved  a  handkerchief,  and  called  out 
that  they  should  be  satisfied.     " 'T  was  said,"  —  continues  the  narra- 
tive,—  "Bacon  had  given  a  signall  to  his  men   ....   that  if  he 
should  draw  his  sword,  they  were  on  sight  of  it  to  fire  and  slay  us ;  so 
near  was  the  massacre  of  us  all  that  very  minute,  had  Bacon  in  that 
paroxism  of  phrentick  fury  but  drawn  his  sword  before  the  pacifick 
handkercher  was  shaken  out  at  window  !  " 

Excited  as  the  people  were,  both  they  and  the  fusileers,  as  well  as 
Bacon  himself,  had  recognized  the  person  who  waved  the  handker- 
chief as  one  of  the  most  influential  citizens,  and  believed  that  lie  had 
both  will  and  power  to  keep  his  promise.  The  soldiers  lowered  their 
arms,  and  Bacon,  after  a  moment's  consultation,  marched 

......  T  i.         Bacon  ad- 

them  away  to  the  main  body  of  his  troops.     In  an  hour  he  dreads  the 
came  back  alone,  and  going  into  the  Assembly's  room,  ad- 
dressed that  body  vehemently,  demanding  that  the  commission  be  is- 
sued to  him  at  once.     A  large  majority  favored  his  request,  but  no 
one  dared  to  act  decisively.     Bacon's  own  colleague,  Bruce,  hesitat- 
ingly said,  "  it  was  not  in  their  province  or  power,"  or  any  one's  save 
the  Governor's.    No  one  else  spoke  ;  Bacon  retired  "  dissatisfied,"  and 
for  the  rest  of  the  day  comparative  quiet  reigned. 

The  anxious  night  that  followed  seems  to  have  produced  a  change 
of  policy  on  the  part  of  both  Berkeley  and  the  burgesses. 
The  former  saw  himself  at  last  forced  to  another  compro-  the  Bur- 
mise,  and  the  majority  of  the  Assembly  came  together  the 
next  morning  with  no  sign  of  the  hesitancy  of  the  day  before.  The 
only  difficulty  was  to  restrain  the  motions  for  the  redress  of  popular 
grievances  long  enough  to  permit  the  all-important  Indian  question 
to  be  finally  disposed  of.  Bacon's  commission  was  speedily  passed, 
and  was  promptly  confirmed  by  Governor  and  Council.  But,  in  the 
altered  state  of  feeling,  this  was  not  by  any  means  enough.  The 
house  was  in  perfect  accord  and  sympathy  with  the  people,  and  its 
boldness  increased  with  every  concession.  It  next  passed  an  Act  of 
amnesty  toward  Bacon  and  his  followers,  and  directed  the  prepara- 
tion of  a  letter  to  the  King  justifying  their  action.  A  letter  written 
by  the  Governor,  in  which  he  complained  to  His  Majesty  that  he  was 
"•  encompassed  with  rebellion  like  waters,"  was  submitted,  and  received 
by  the  burgesses  with  due  respect ;  but  it  was  doubted,  nevertheless, 
that  "  his  hono'r  sent  all  he  wrote."  Other  versions  of  affairs,  how- 
ever, than  that  of  the  Governor's,  were  sent  to  England  by  several 
delegates. 


304  VIRGINIA  UNDER  BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

Then  followed  rapidly  a  multitude  of  reformatory  measures.  The 
Reformatory  franchise  was  again  extended  to  all  freemen.  The  county 
measures.  magistrates,  who  had  long  had  local  taxation  in  their  own 
hands,  were  now  compelled  to  associate  with  them  a  board  of  dele- 
gates elected  by  the  people.  The  privileges  of  members  of  the  Coun- 
cil were  curtailed.  No  one  was  to  be  appointed  to  an  office  who  had 
not  for  three  years  resided  in  the  country.  Propositions  —  possibly 
never  carried  out  —  were  made  for  an  examination  of  the  colonial  ac- 
counts. The  Governor's  fees  in  certain  cases  were  restricted  ;  his  vir- 
tual monopoly  of  the  fur  trade  was  abolished.  The  majority,  now 
altogether  under  the  influence  of  Bacon  and  his  chief  advisers,  Law- 
rence and  Drummond,  effected  in  a  few  days  more  radical  reforms 
than  the  boldest  would  have  believed  possible  a  week  or  two  before. 
That  they  should  be  bitterly  opposed  by  the  minority,  and  only  con- 
firmed by  the  Governor  under  the  pressure  of  necessity,  was  a  matter 
of  course.  Some  of  the  debates  upon  them  were  very  stormy  ;  and 
party  feeling  ran  so  high  that,  according  to  one  historian,  it  founded 
feuds  of  a  century's  duration  between  members  of  the  different  fac- 
tions. The  whole  time  occupied  by  all  this  legislation  was  barely  a 
week,  and  at  the  end  of  it  Berkeley  succeeded  in  dissolving  an  Assem- 
bly which  had  suddenly  become  so  formidable,  —  the  hasty  dissolution 
probably  meeting  with  but  little  opposition,  because  it  was  felt  that 
all  that  could  be  done  at  the  moment  had  been  accomplished. 

Bacon  —  who  had  meanwhile  been  occupied  in  organizing  the  thou- 
sand men  allowed  him  by  the  act,  and  in  wisely  appoint- 
onaTndia^  ing  as  his  subordinates  men  who  were  already  known  as 
officers  in  the  regular  militia  —  now  set  out  for  a  vigorous 
campaign  against  the  Indians  ;  and,  in  a  short  time  after  the  breaking 
up  of  the  Assembly,  was  hotly  engaged  in  the  Pamunkey  country, 
driving  the  savages  successfully  before  him.  No  sooner  was  he  at 
a  safe  distance,  however,  than  events  showed  that  the  acquiescence 
he  had  extorted  from  the  Governor  in  measures  of  reform  was  to  be 
but  short-lived.  By  a  petition  which  came  to  him  from  the  people  of 
Gloucester  and  Middlesex  counties  (on  the  peninsula  between  the 
Rappahannock  and  the  York),  Berkeley  was  led  to  believe  that  the 
people  of  that  region  were  still  loyal  to  him,  and  opposed  to  the  in- 
Renewed  surgent  party.  He  crossed  the  York,  and  called  a  muster  of 
B«r-  the  militia  of  the  peninsula.  Twelve  hundred  men  col- 
lected  ;  and  relying  upon  their  adherence,  he  once  more  de- 
clared Bacon  a  rebel,  and  called  upon  them  to  join  in  a  march  against 
him  and  his  army.  He  was  speedily  convinced  of  his  mistake.  Im- 
mediately "  arose  a  murmuring  before  his  face,  k  Bacon  !  Bacon  ! 
Bacon ! '  and  all  walked  out  of  the  field,  muttering  as  they  went, 


1676.] 


BACON   SEIZES  THE   GOVERNMENT. 


4  Bacon,   Bacon,  Bacon,'  leaving  the  Governor  and  those  that  came 
with  him  to  themselves." 

Bacon  was  approaching  the  head  of  York  River  when  news  came 
that  Berkeley  had  again  proclaimed  him  an  outlaw,  and  was  Bacon-*  r» 
seeking  volunteers  to  pursue  him.    Answering  angrily  "  that  yj™nt  o{ 
it  vexed  him  to  the  heart  that  while  he  was  hunting  wolves  Berkeley- 
which  were  destroying  innocent  lambs,"  the  Governor  and  his  follow- 
ers should  seek  to  put  him  "  like  corn  between  two  mill-stones,"  he 
turned  his  army  instantly  and  hurried  across  country.     It  was  the  un- 
lucky Berkeley,  and  not  the  rebel,  who  now  found  himself  likely  to  be 


Berkeley  and  the  Gloucester   Men. 


"ground    to  powder."     Failing 
completely  in  his  efforts  to  gain 

popular  support,  he  fled  precipitately  to  Accomac,  across  the  Chesa- 
peake, and  left  the  province  at  the  mercy  of  his  opponent. 

Bacon  was  now  virtually  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  and  the  first 
uses  made  of  his  power  justified  the  popularity  that  he  en- 
joyed. Marching  his  force  as  rapidly  as  possible  into 
Gloucester  County,  —  where,  in  spite  of  Berkeley's  failure  ' 
to  arouse  the  people  at  large,  there  was  still  a  party  in  his  favor,  — 
he  deployed  a  large  detachment  to  patrol  the  country,  and  to  arrest 
Berkeley's  adherents.  These  were  put  under  parole  ;  but  they  suf- 
fered in  no  other  way,  and  his  whole  course  seems  to  have  been  gen- 
erous and  conciliatory.  He  is  credited  with  offering  to  spare  the  life 
of  a  spy  captured  by  his  men,  provided  a  single  voice  out  of  the  whole 

VOL.   II.  20 


306  VIRGINIA   UNDER  BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

. 

little  army  should  be  raised  in  his  behalf  ; l  "  which  no  man  appear- 
ing to  do,"  the  prisoner  duly  suffered  death.  And  it  was  said  that 
during  the  whole  course  of  the  rebellion  this  was  the  only  man  put 
to  death  in  cold  blood  by  the  insurgents,  while  not  a  single  house, 
even  of  the  Governor's  immediate  and  most  obstinate  adherents,  was 
plundered  or  molested. 

When  Bacon  issued  a  call  for  a  convention  of  the  leading  men  of 
the  province  to  meet  him  at  Middle  Plantation,  fifteen  miles 

Conyention       e  t  •  -11 

of  the  coio-    from  Jamestown,  it  was  very  widely  responded  to.     A  large 
assemblage  gathered  in  the  month  of  August,  and  listened 
to  propositions  for  the  reorganization  of  the  government.     An  oath 
was  to  be  administered  to  the  people,  without  distinction.    Those  who 
took  it  were  to  promise  to  aid  Bacon  in  a  war  against  the  Indians  ; 
to  oppose  Berkeley  in  any  attempt  to  interfere  with  them  in  so  doing  ; 
and  to  resist  any  force  which  might  arrive  from  England, 
oath  of  ai-     until  its  leaders  should  grant  such  terms  as  would  include  a 
hearing  in  England  of  the  popular  complaints  against  Berke- 
ley's administration.     The  first  two  clauses  were  agreed  to  without 
hesitation  ;   but  to  the  third,  as  an  act  of  flat  rebellion  against  the 
Mother  country,  there  was  a  determined  opposition,  and  a  "bloudy 
debate  "  of  twelve  hours  followed. 

It  is  said  to  have  been  turned  in  Bacon's  favor,  after  he  had  elo- 
quently contended  in  vain  against  his  opponents,  by  an  unlooked- 
for  incident.  While  the  discussion  was  at  its  height,  a  gunner  arrived 
from  Fort  York,  to  report  that  the  Indians  had  made  a  raid  under  the 
very  walls,  as  it  were,  of  that  post ;  that  several  persons  had  been 
killed  ;  and  that  others  had  thronged  into  the  works  for  protection. 
Bacon's  point  was  instantly  and  forcibly  made ;  he  asked  the  gunner 
how  it  could  be  that  this  threatening  aspect  of  affairs  could  exist  close 
by  the  strongest  work  in  that  part  of  the  province  ?  The  reply  was 
that  Berkeley,  sailing  into  the  York,  had  on  the  very  day  before  the 
murders  removed  all  the  powder  from  the  fort  into  his  own  vessel. 
This  turned  the  scale,  and  the  majority  consented  to  Bacon's  oath  at 
once.  A  clause  was  inserted  in  the  preamble  to  the  oath  setting  forth 
that  "  Sir  William  Berkeley,  Knight,  Governor  of  the  Country,"  hav- 
ing sought  to  divert  the  country's  army  from  its  pursuit  of  the  In- 
dians, and  having  failed  therein,  had  "withdrawn  himself,  to  the 
great  astonishment  of  the  people ; "  and  then  followed  an  explana- 
tion of  the  calling  of  the  convention.  Thus  introduced,  and  signed 
by  the  members  of  that  body,  including  some  of  Berkeley's  govern- 
ment, and  many  of  the  leading  men  of  the  whole  province,  it  was 
published  immediately  to  the  citizens  at  large.  Writs  for  an  Assem- 

i  T.M. 


J676.]  AIMS   OF  THE  BACON   PARTY.  307 

bly  were  issued,  under  the  names  of  four  members  of  the  Council  who 
took  part  in  the  convention's  proceedings,  and  had  sided  throughout 
against  the  Governor. 

The  feeling  among  the  leaders  who  had  taken  upon  themselves  the 
responsibility  of  these  decisive  measures  was  that  of  men  Spiritand 
who  had  begun  a  war  of  independence.  There  was  no  tell-  JCon°U!rty 
ing  to  what  lengths  they  might  be  called  upon  to  go.  Their  leaders- 
talk  was  earnest,  resolute,  and  grave,  —  a  forecast  of  that  which,  just 
a  century  later,  was  to  be  heard  at  Philadelphia  in  a  greater  cause, 
Richard  Lawrence  and  William  Drummond,  the  former  governor  of 
Carolina,  who  appears  to  have  been  the  brain  of  the  enterprise  of 
•which  Bacon  was  the  right  hand,  saw  clearly  whither  their  action 
tended,  and  guided  each  step  with  prudent  firmness.  Beside  them,  at 
a  council  of  which  record  is  preserved,  stood  Drummond's  wife,  taking 
part,  with  an  influence  rarely  given  to  a  woman  of  that  day  and 
place,  in  their  debates  upon  the  future.  The  spirited  words  she  spoke 
seemed  half  prophetic.  "  The  child  that  is  unborn  shall  have  cause 
to  rejoice  for  the  good  that  will  come  by  the  rising  of  the  country," 
she  said;  and  to  a  cautious  gentleman,  who  warned  them  of  "a  greater 
power  from  England,"  that  would  certainly  prove  their  ruin,  she  an- 
swered, "  I  fear  the  power  of  England  no  more  than  a  broken  straw." 
"Now  we  can  build  ships,"  she  added,  "and,  like  New  England, 
trade  to  any  part  of  the  world."  If  all  she  uttered  was  not  to  be  ful- 
filled in  her  own  time,  her  great-grandchildren  were  to  see  it  carried 
out  with  a  broader  significance. 

Berkeley,  meanwhile,  was  gathering  at  Accomac  such  of  his  people 
as  could  reach  him  in  his  disadvantageous  position  ;  but,  at  Berkeley  at 
the  best,  the  force  which  he  could  collect  was  a  very  small  Acconuic 
one,  and  his  prospects  seemed  almost  hopeless  until  the  coming  of  aid 
from  England,  when  suddenly  accident  and  the  bravery  of  one  of  his 
followers  changed  the  whole  current  of  affairs.     The  first  direct  act 
of  hostility  which  the  insurgents  attempted  against  him  resulted  in 
giving  him  the  very  means  he  wanted  to  make  head  against  them. 

Giles  Bland,  collector-general  of  the  royal  customs  in  Virginia, 
was  one  of  Bacon's  warmest  partisans,  besides  being  a  per-  Blanirsex_ 
•sonal  enemy  of  the  Governor.  In  the  zeal  which  grew  out  p**""011 
of  both  these  relations,  he  suggested,  and  was  appointed  to  carry  out, 
a  plan  for  Berkeley's  capture.  Taking  advantage  of  his  office,  he  was 
to  board  the  ship  of  a  certain  Captain  Laramore,  that  lay  near  the 
mouth  of  the  York  River,  and,  while  pretending  to  examine  her  cargo, 
was  to  put  his  men  in  possession  and  take  her  commander  prisoner. 
Accompanied  by  a  smaller  vessel,  under  one  Captain  Carver,  he  was 
then  to  sail  for  Accomac,  where  the  defenceless  Governor  could  easily 
be  captured  and  returned  to  Jamestown. 


808  VIRGINIA   UNDER  BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

The  plan  worked  admirably  as  far  as  the  seizure  of  the  vessel  went, 
and  Bland,  with  his  armed  men,  soon  had  her  captain  shut  up  in  his 
cabin,  while  they  and  the  captured  crew  weighed  anchor  and  made 
ready  to  set  sail.  But  Laramore,  feigning  complete  submission,  as- 
sured Bland  of  his  willingness  to  take  part  in  the  expedition,  pro- 
claimed himself  an  enemy  of  Berkeley,  and  so  won  Bland's  confidence 
that  he  was  again  put  in  charge  of  the  ship,  and  forthwith  made  him- 
self conspicuous  in  furthering  the  preparations.  Followed  by  Carver's 
vessel  and  a  sloop,  all  manned  by  more  than  two  hundred  men,  the 
collector  —  or  the  lieutenant-general,  as  Bacon  had  commissioned  him 
—  bore  away  for  Accomac.  In  the  bay  he  compelled  another  sloop 
to  accompany  his  fleet,  and  so  arrived  at  the  eastern  shore  as  the 
admiral  of  four  well-armed  craft. 

On  the  news  of  the  arrival  of  this  hostile  force,  Berkeley  despaired 
fleet  °^  defence,  and  proposed  to  surrender.  But  while  he  was 
debating  with  his  companions,  a  message  was  brought  to 
ley's  hands.  |jjm  wnitj,  changed  the  aspect  of  affairs.  Laramore  had  suc- 
ceeded in  smuggling  ashore  a  note,  in  which  he  promised,  if  the  Gov- 
ernor would  send  a  force  to  aid  him,  to  deliver  Bland,  Carver,  and 
their  men,  into  his  hands,  and  to  put  the  vessels  and  their  crews  at 
his  disposal.  There  was  a  moment's  hesitation,  for  Laramore 's  repu- 
tation was  not  of  the  best,  and  it  was  thought  that  he  might  be 
merely  acting  the  decoy.  But  Philip  Ludwell,  one  of  Berkeley  s 
warmest  adherents,  decided  the  doubtful  question  by  offering  to  take 
charge  of  the  force  Laramore  proposed,  and  thus  insuring  success  if 
the  captain  were  acting  honestly,  or  making  at  least  a  stubborn  fight 
if  he  were  treacherous. 

At  midnight,  Ludwell  and  a  company  of  twenty-six  picked  men 
pulled  silently  alongside  the  ship.  Laramore  proved  faithful,  and 
the  sleeping  men  on  board,  waking  in  confusion  and  seeing  an  armed 
party  pouring  over  the  sides,  were  overpowered  before  they  knew  the 
weakness  of  their  captors.  It  was  only  needful  to  turn  the  guns  of 
the  larger  vessel  upon  her  smaller  tenders  ;  and  without  the  firing  of 
a  shot  the  formidable  little  fleet  was  taken.  Berkeley  emphasized 
his  triumph  by  hanging  Carver  a  few  days  afterward,  upon  the  shore 
of  the  bay ;  and  why  Bland  and  the  other  leaders  escaped  a  similar 
fate  is  not  clear.  Perhaps  the  Governor  —  who,  while  the  Laramore 
plot  had  been  maturing,  had  sent  for  Carver  under  a  safe-conduct, 
and  tried  to  bribe  him  to  desert  the  Baconites  —  owed  the  stout 
sailor  a  grudge  for  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  all  his  arguments. 

The  hesitating  loyalists,  who  had  kept  prudently  aloof  while  Berke- 
ley was  altogether  without  defence  or  resources,  now  rallied,  reani- 
mated by  Ludwell's  exploit.  Fourteen  sloops  and  other  small  craft 


1676.] 


BACON  AGAIN   IN   THE    FIELD. 


were  soon  added  to  the  four  captured  vessels,  and,  with  six  hundred 
men    ready  to  follow  him,  Berkeley   found   himself  at   the 

J  ,J  Rally  of  the 

head  of  a  formidable  force.     Crossing  the  bay,  he  took  pos-  ' 


session  of  Jamestown,  on    September  IT,  without  meeting  Jamestown 

1     recaptured. 

any  attempt  at  resistance,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  restore 
his  friends  to  their  offices,  to  reestablish  his  old  government,  and  to 
issue  a  new  proclamation  proclaiming  Bacon  and  his  followei's,  for  the 
third  time,  traitors,  rebels,  and  outlaws. 

The  Governor's  sudden  movement  caught  his  opponents  for  a  mo- 

ment at  a  disadvantage.  Ba- 
con had  conducted  a  short, 
decisive  campaign  against  the 
.Indians,  marching  from  near 
Petersburg  to  the  Roanoke 
river,  driving  all  before  him, 
and  ending  at  one  blow  all 


Taking  of   Bland's   Fleet. 

possibility  of  any  formidable  Indian  war  for  years  to  come.  His  work 
thus  thoroughly  accomplished,  and  regarding  Berkeley  as  now  alto- 
gether powerless,  he  returned  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  James  and 
disbanded  the  main  body  of  his  men ;  and  as  nearly  all  of  them  were 
planters,  they  quickly  scattered  to  their  homes.  He  was  in  this  posi- 
tion when  the  news  of  the  capture  of  Jamestown  reached  him  through 
Drummond  and  others  of  his  adherents  who  had  fled  from  the  place ; 
but  acting  with  his  usual  energy,  he  turned  at  once  to  the  offensive. 


310  VIRGINIA   UNDER   BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

Gathering  a  small  force,  to  which  he  added  as  he  marched,  he  came 
rapidly  across  the  country,  and  appeared  before,  the  capital 
before  the  just  as  the  Governor  had  finished  his  hurried  preparations 
for  defence  by  running  a  palisade  across  the  neck  of  James- 
town peninsula.  Before  the  besieged  enemy  knew  his  whereabouts, 
—  for  he  had  moved  "  with  a  marvellous  celerity,  outstripping  the 
swift  wings  of  fame,"  —  they  heard  his  trumpet  blown  from  the  high 
ground  near  the  town,  and  the  cannon  shot  with  which  he  warned 
them  of  his  presence.  It  was  at  sunset  that  he  appeared  before  the 
palisades  ;  and  by  the  morning  his  men  were  sheltered  behind  earth- 
works, which  they  had  finished  in  apparent  carelessness  of  the  "  3 
grate  guns  "  the  Governor  had  planted  on  his  ramparts,  and  of  the 
ships,  lying  "•  almost  close  aborde  the  shore  ....  with  their  broade 
sides,  to  thunder  upon  him  if  he  should  offer  to  make  an  onslaute." 

An  account  hostile  to  Bacon  avers  that  he  made  up  for  "  the  paucity 
of  his  numbers  "  by  a  stratagem  that  was  anything  but  creditable. 
Sending  some  of  his  horse  to  scour  the  country  near  at  hand,  he  or- 
dered them  to  take  and  bring  to  him  certain  gentlewomen  living  near 
by,  whose  husbands  were  in  the  town,  that  he  might  hold  hostages, 
as  it  were,  to  secure  the  granting  of  all  his  demands.  When  they 
arrived,  he  "  sends  one  of  them  to  inform  her  owne  and  the  others 
Husbands,  for  what  purposes  he  had  brought  them  into  the  camp, 
namely,  to  be  placed  in  the  fore  frunt  of  his  men  at  such  time  as  those 
in  town  should  sally  forth  upon  him."  According  to  the  writer  of  this 
story,  which  is  not  elsewhere  confirmed,  "  these  Ladyes  white  Aprons  " 
naturally  "  became  of  grater  force  to  keep  the  besieged  from  falling 
out,  than  his  works  (a  pitiful  trench)  ;  "  and  either  u  these  considera- 
tions or  some  others  ....  kep  their  swords  in  their  scabbards." 
Yet  he  goes  on  to  say  that  the  gentlewomen  were  after  all  soon  taken 
out  of  danger,  but  that  a  party  sent  out  by  Berkeley  to  make  an 
attack  on  Bacon's  works,  "  went  out  with  heavie  harts,  but  returned 
home  with  light  heels  ;  "  —  were,  in  short,  driven  back  disgracefully 
by  the  Baconites,  to  the  disgust  of  the  Governor,  "  which  he  exprest 
in  som  passionate  terms." 

The  next  day,  when  Bacon  mounted  three  guns  upon  his  works,  ac- 
tually to  begin  the  reduction  of  the  place,  Berkeley  and  his  adherents 
gave  up  all  hope  of  a  successful  defence.  Before  the  rebels  had  fired 
a  single  damaging  shot,  the  fleet  dropped  silently  down  the  river, 
under  cover  of  the  darkness,  carrying  Governor,  officials,  troops, 
townspeople,  and  even  their  household  goods,  and  leaving  Jamestown 
a  mere  collection  of  empty  houses. 

When  Bacon  entered,  the  next  morning,  he  found  a  deserted  capital, 
the  guns  spiked,  and  nothing  left  but  a  few  horses,  "  two  or  three 


1676.]        BACON   RECAPTURES   AND   BURNS  JAMESTOWN. 


311 


sellers  [cellars]  of  wine,  and  some  small  quantity  of  Indian  Come 
with  a  grate  many  tanned  hides."  No  army  could  subsist  upon 
such  plunder  ;  nor  would  it  have  profited  Bacon  to  hold  the 

i  -i  iii  11  i   •       Jamestown 

empty  place.     A  council  was  called  ;  and  though  among  his  taken  and 
people  there  were  many  property-holders  of  the  town,  it  was 
decided  to  destroy  it,  that  it  might  not  serve  again  as  a  harbor  for  the 
enemy.     Lawrence  and   Drummond  applied  the  torch  to  their  own 
houses,  at  nightfall ;  and  that  night  Sir  William  Berkeley,  lying  at 
anchor  twenty  miles  below,  saw  the  dark  sky  lighted  by  the  flames 
of  the  first  English  town  built  in  America,  —  the  historic  settlement 
of  Smith,  Newport,  and  Wingfield.     The  destruction  was  complete, 
"not  so  much  as  sparing  the  church — and  the  first  that  ever  was  in 
Virginia."     Nor  was  the  place  ever  rebuilt. 


Bacon  and  the  Jamestown  Gentlewomen. 


Crossing  the  long  peninsula  between  the  James  and  York,  Bacon 
now  established  himself  at  Gloucester  Point,  expecting  to  be  ^^  again 
attacked  there  by  Colonel  Brent,  who  was  known  to  be  ap-  in  P°wer- 
preaching  from  Northern  Virginia,  at  the  head  of  a  thousand  men. 
But  this  attack,  says  a  contemporary,  "  like  the  hoggs  the  devill 
sheared,  produced  more  noyse  than  wool ;  "  for  Brent's  men  nearly  all 
deserted  before  they  came  in  face  of  the  enemy  advancing  to  meet 
them,  and  left  their  leader  "  mightily  astonished."  Bacon  was  thus 
left  free  to  attempt  once  more  the  organization  and  quieting  of  the 
province ;  and  began  it  by  calling  a  convention  of  the  uncertain  peo- 


312 


VIRGINIA   UNDER   BERKELEY. 


[CHAP.  XIII. 


pie  of  Gloucester  County,  to  whom  he  administered  the  oath  before 
resolved  upon.  Then,  yearning  to  make  his  Indian  victories  even- 
more  final  and  complete,  he  began  to  plan  another  expedition  into  the 
interior. 

While  thus  engaged,  a  trifling  illness  which  he  had  neglected  in  the 

restless  energy  of  his  cam- 
paign, began  to  gain  upon 
him.  In  the  high  tide  of  his 
success  he  suddenly  found 
himself  sinking  rapidly  ;  and 


Burning  of  Lawrence's   House  at  Jamestown. 


despite  all  the  efforts  of  his  people,  nothing  checked  the  course  of 
his  disease.  And  so,  says  his  hostile  biographer,  not  with- 
out an  unholy  exultation,  "  all  his  strengtli  and  provissions 

being  spent,  [he]    surrendered  up  that  Fort  he  was  no  longer  able 


Death  of 
Bacon 


1676.]  CLOSE   OF   THE   REBELLION.  313 

to  keepe,  into  the  hands  of  that  grim  and  all  conquering  Captaine, 
Death."  He  died  on  the  first  day  of  October,  1676,  in  the  house  of 
Dr.  Pate,  near  Gloucester.  His  burial-place  was  kept  a  secret  that 
has  never  been  revealed.1 

The  command  of  Bacon's  forces  passed  into  the  hands  of  his  lieuten- 
ant-general, Joseph  Ingrain  ;  but  the  dead  leader  had  left  ^g  ,,„„,.. 
no  one  behind  who  was  precisely  fitted   to  take  his  place.  ^th°uta 
Lawrence  and  Druminond,  wise  advisers  as  they  had  proved  leader- 
themselves,  had  not  the  influence  of  their  more  active  associate  over 
his  followers ;  and  the  loss  of  the  energetic  and  brave  commander  dealt 
the  revolution  a  blow  from  which  it  could  not  rise.     The  speedy  cap- 
ture and  execution  of  several  leading  insurgents,  by  a  party  of  Berke- 
ley's adherents,  served  to  intensify  the  despondency  and  panic  that 
prevailed  among  the  great  body  of  the  Baconites ;  and  in  the  country 
at  large  the  rebellion  suddenly  died.     A  large  part  of  the  insurgents 
scattered  quickly  to  their  homes,  following  the  impulse  to  Thedosing 
save  themselves  from  the  fate  of  a  lost  cause  ;  and  only  the  8Cenes- 
leaders,  the  men  who  had  the  courage  of   their  convictions,   or  for 
whom  pardon  was  believed  to  be  impossible,  were  left  with  a  small 
fon:e  to  make  a  final  struggle. 

Ingram  established  himself  at  West  Point,  on  the  upper  York 
River,  a  place  which  Bacon  himself  had  designed  to  make  his  "  prime 
Randevouze,  or  place  of  Retreat,"  because  of  its  natural  facilities  for 

1  The  grief  of  Bacon's  friends  and  the  joy  of  his  enemies  have  each  left  a  rhymed  epi- 
taph, that  show  the  fervor  with  which  he  was  both  loved  and  hated,  and  correspond  to  the 
two  views  that  have  been  and  are  still  taken  of  his  action  and  his  restless  life  :  — 

"  Death  why  soe  crewill  I  what,  no  other  way 
To  manifest  thy  splleene,  but  thus  to  slay 
Our  hopes  of  safety  ;  liberty,  our  all 
Which  through  thy  tyrany,  with  him  must  fall 
To  its  late  caoss  ? 

.     .    .    .     Now  we  must  complaine 
Since  thou,  in  him,  hast  more  than  thousand  slain, 
Whose  lives  and  safetys  did  so  much  depend 
On  him  there  lif,  with  him  their  lives  must  end. 


While  none  shall  dare  his  obseques  to  sing 
In  desarved  measures  ;  uutill  time  shall  bring 
Truth  crowned  with  freedom,  and  from  danger  free 
To  sound  his  praises  to  posterity. 

Here  let  him  rest ;  while  wee  this  truth  report 
Hee  's  gone  from  henre  unto  a  higher  Court 
To  plead  his  Cause  where  he  by  this  doth  know 
Whether  to  Ceaser  bee  was  friend  or  foe." 


In  the  other  epitaph  is  lavished  a  flood  of  abuse  on  "  his  flagitious  name  "  : — 


'  The  braines  to  plot,  the  hands  to  execute 
Projected  ills.  Death  Joyntly  did  nonsute 
At  bis  black  Bar.     And  what  no  Baile  could  save 
He  hath  committed  Prissoner  to  the  Grave  : 
From  whence  there  's  no  reprieve.     Death  keep  him  close, 
We  kave  too  many  DirtUs  still  _'0«  loose." 


314 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  BERKELEY. 


[CHAP.  XIII. 


defence.  Here  the  principal  insurgents  gathered  ;  but  there  were 
smaller  bodies  at  Greenspring,  a  place  belonging  to  Berkeley  himself, 
somewhat  further  down  the  river ;  and  at  an  estate  belonging  to  Ba- 
con's cousin,  probably  in  the  same  neighborhood.  The  whole  insur- 
gent force  remaining  under  arms  to  garrison  these  three  final  strong- 
holds probably  numbered  not  more  than  four  hundred  men  ;  while 
in  the  region  about  them  —  now  that  the  death  of  Bacon  led  to  the 
appearance  of  a  host  of  concealed  adherents  of  the  Governor,  and 
time-servers  who  wished  to  seem  so —  there  were  at  least  as  many  en- 
emies as  friends. 

Berkeley  lost  little  time  in  taking  advantage  of  the  new  turn  of 


West   Point,  Virginia. 


affairs.  His  first  step,  when  the  news  of  Bacon's  death  had  reached 
him,  had  been  the  sending  out  of  that  party  which,  as  already  men- 
tioned, had  captured  and  executed  several  leading  revolutionists.  But 
he  was  making  preparations  to  return  in  person  when  he  dispatched 
this  preliminary  expedition,  —  "a  winged  messinger,  to  see  if  hap- 
pily the  Delluge  was  any  whit  abated."  Then  he  ventured  out  from 
his  "  Ark  "  at  Accomac,  and  appeared  in  the  York  River  with  four 
ships  and  "  two  or  three  sloops,"  carrying  a  force  of  some  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men.  From  the  people  along  the  lower  York  he  met  with 
no  resistance  ;  his  return  appeared  to  be  taken  as  a  matter  of  course  ; 
and  his  adherents  in  Gloucester  County  volunteered  in  large  numbers 


1676.] 


PUNISHMENT   OF   THE   REBELS. 


315 


to  help  him  drive  out  the  still  troublesome  "  vermin  "  from  "  their 
warm  Kennil."  A  proclamation  of  amnesty  followed,  from  which, 
however,  most  of  the  Baconite  leaders  still  in  resistance  to  his  author- 
ity were  excepted,  while  the  bitterness  of  his  enmity  to  Lawrence  and 
Drummond  was  shown  by  a  special  mention  of  them. 

Driving  out  the  last  stubborn  rebels  did  not  prove  easy  work. 
They  again  and  again  defeated  parties  sent  against  them,  Fjnalgup_ 
until  at  last  their  stronghold  at  West  Point  was  lost  through  {^^"on' 
treacheiy.  Two  accounts  are  given  of  its  surrender :  one,  VBTty- 
that  the  Governor  sent  a  messenger,  one  Grantham,  who  by  argu- 
ments and  promises 
persuaded  Ingram 
'to  deliver  up  the 
place ;  the  other, 
that  he  wrote  to 
Wakelet,  Ingrain's 
second  in  command, 
offering  him  pardon 
and  a  reward  for 
the  same  betrayal 
of  his  comrades. 
Ingram  escaped  in 
safety,  and  Wakelet 
appears  to  have  re- 
ceived his  pay,  so 
that  it  is  probable 
both  were  con- 
cerned in  the  mat- 
ter. But,  at  all 
events,  the  position 
was  given  up  to 
Berkeley's  officers, 

together      With      the  Drummond  before  Berkeley. 

less  important  strongholds  at  Greenspring  and  at  Bacon's  house.  As 
an  organized  insurrection,  the  rebellion  was  at  an  end ;  it  lived  only 
in  the  embittered  spirit  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people,  who  had 
at  one  time  or  another  been  engaged  in  it,  and  who,  though  wanting 
courage  and  persistence  to  carry  it  on  after  the  death  of  their  leader, 
etill  adhered  in  secret  to  the  cause  which  he  had  so  nearly  made  suc- 
cessful. 

Of  the  other  chief  actors,  Lawrence  escaped  into  the  wilderness  : 
but  Drummond,  seeking  safety  by  hiding  himself  for  a  time  in  the 
ewamp  of  the  Chickahoininy,  was  captured  there  in  the  dead  of 


316  VIRGINIA   UNDER  BERKELEY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

winter,  overcome  by  cold  and  hunger.  On  the  20th  of  January,  the 
Fate  of  the  day  after  his  capture,  he  was  brought  before  Berkeley  at 
Bacon's  house,  the  former  station  of  one  of  the  smaller  bands 
of  insurgents.  The  old  Governor's  triumph  had  come.  This  man  and 
Lawrence  were  regarded  by  him  as  his  bitterest  enemies,  and  he 
hated  them  with  a  positive  ferocity.  He  greeted  the  prisoner  with 
a  low  bow.  kt  Mr.  Drummond,"  he  said,  "  you  are  very  welcome  ;  I 
am  more  glad  to  see  you  than  any  man  in  Virginia.  Mr.  Drummond, 
you  shall  be  hanged  in  half  an  hour."  Drummond  answered  with 
courage  and  dignity,  "  What  your  honor  pleases  ; "  and  when,  three 
hours  later,  his  sentence  was  carried  out  at  Middle  Plantation,  he  met 
death  bravely.  He  was,  says  one  of  the  narratives,  a  sober  Scotch 
gentleman  of  good  repute,  and  he  left  a  name  which  few  even  of  his 
enemies  treated  with  disrespect,  except  in  the  one  matter  of  his  polit- 
ical action. 

•. 

Berkeley  used   the  power  that  victory  gave  him  without  mercy. 
For  a  time  there  was  in  Virginia  an  actual  reign  of  terror, 

Punishments  ° 

inflicted  by  and  no  man  knew  when  he  might  be  seized,  condemned,  and 
executed.  Druminond's  little  plantation  was  seized,  and  his 
wife  and  five  children  were  driven  from  it  "  to  wander  in  the  woods 
and  desarts  till  they  were  ready  to  starve."  It  was  proposed  to  ex- 
pose the  bones  of  Bacon  hung  in  chains  upon  a  gibbet ;  but  his  body 
had  been  so  carefully  concealed  that  all  attempts  to  find  it  proved 
useless.  Punishments  of  all  kinds  —  fine,  confiscation,  imprisonment, 
banishment,  and  many  ingenious  minor  penalties  —  were  inflicted 
right  and  left,  until  even  the  Governor's  friends  expostulated.  Their 
counsel  would  perhaps  have  been  in  vain,  had  not  a  sudden  check  of 
a  more  powerful  sort  been  put  upon  the  angry  knight's  revenge. 

At  the  end  of  January,  1677,  the  tardy  assistance  sent  from.  Eng- 
Arrirai  of  land,  in  reply  to  Berkeley's  petition  of  many  months  before, 
eremfromion~  arrived  in  the  James  River.  But  it  did  not  come  precisely 
England.  m  tj,e  form  which  the  Governor's  party  wished.  In  the 
small  fleet  that  anchored  below  the  ruins  of  the  capital  was  Colonel 
Herbert  Jeffreys,  armed  with  a  commission  to  succeed  Sir  William  in 
his  office,  while  he,  as  well  as  Sir  John  Berry,  the  admiral,  and 
Colonel  Morrison,  who  had  been  Berkeley's  substitute  for  awhile  in 
1661,  brought  appointments  as  commissioners  to  investigate  the  causes 
of  the  rebellion,  and  to  attend  to  the  settlement  of  affairs  after  its 
suppression.  Berkeley  was,  it  is  true,  to  aid  them  in  this  work  ;  but 
in  reality  his  own  conduct  was  under  examination,  and  he  found  him- 
self at  once  in  the  attitude  of  a  defendant.  The  instructions  of  the 
commissioners  authorized  them  to  grant  amnesty  to  those  who  should 
submit  and  give  bonds  for  future  good  behavior,  excepting  Bacon, 


1677.] 


THE   ROYAL  COMMISSIONERS. 


317 


whose  death  was  not  known,  of  course,  when  the  fleet  left  England  ; 
but  still,  a  discretionary  power  to  punish  other  leaders  and  those  espe- 
cially obnoxious  was  left  in  their  hands. 

The  English  officials  put  a  speedy  end  to  the  system  of  drum-head 
courts-martial,  by  which  the  Governor  had  brought  so  many 
of  his  enemies  to  execution.     From  the  time  of  their  arrival 
(soon  after  which  an  Assembly  met  at  Green  Spring)  the 
trials  of  Baconite  prisoners  were  conducted  with  due  form  and  caution 


The  punish- 

menu 

checked. 


by  the  civil  power, 
still  suffered  death,  among 
whom  was  Giles  Bland, 
whose  conspiracy  to  take  the 
Governor  was  so  patent  that 
all  the  influence  exerted  in 
his  behalf  was  powerless  to 
save  him ;  but  the  general 

reign   Of    persecution  and  CrU-  Berkeley's  Departure. 

elty  ceased  with  the  Commissioners'  interference.  Local  courts  winked 
at  the  means  —  sometimes  ludicrously  ingenious  —  by  which  the  spirit 
of  ignominious  punishments  was  generally  evaded,  even  when  the 
letter  was  carried  out.  John  Bagwell  and  Thomas  Gordon  wore 
"small  tape,"  and  William  Potts  "Manchester  binding."  instead  of 
the  halters  with  which  they  were  ordered  to  appear  in  public.  Some 
fifty  persons  were  excepted  from  the  amnesty,  including  those  al- 
ready executed  or  banished,  and  acts  of  attainder  were  passed  against 
twenty  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  certain  that  all  the  measures  decided 


318 


VIRGINIA  UNDER  BERKELEY. 


[CHAP.   XIII. 


The  Com- 
missioners' 
report. 


upon  were  at  all  rigidly  carried  out.  In  their  report,  Jeffreys,  Mor- 
rison, and  Berry  spoke  in  the  severest  terms  of  Berkeley's 
course  in  trying  men  by  martial  law  after  peace  had  been 
reestablished ;  and  their  investigation  of  the  charges  which 
the  people  made  against  him  seems  to  have  been  made  with  a  positive 
leaning  toward  the  side  of  his  accusers.  Gradually  the  country  be- 
came quieter.  Protected  by  the  presence  of  the  Commissioners,  the 
Assembly  took  a  more  independent  tone,  and  the  Vii'ginians,  encour- 
aged for  a  moment  to  believe  that  they  had  gained  something  of  that 
redress  for  which  they  had  hoped,  gradually  settled  back  into  the  quiet 
life  of  their  plantations.  Bacon's  rebellion  had  cost  the  col- 
the  rebel-  ony  a  hundred  thousand  pounds,  the  loss  of  many  lives,  and 
months  of  anarchy  ;  but  it  had  shown  the  people  their  own 
power,  and  had  developed  an  independence  that  was  to  bear  fruit 
long  after.  When,  in  October,  1677,  the  royal  Commissioners  seized 
the  Assembly's  journals  for  investigation,  and  that  body  indignantly 
protested  that  "  such  a  power  had  never  been  exercised  by  the  King 
of  England,  and  could  not  be  authorized  even  by  the  great  seal,"  they 
virtually  asserted  the  principle  of  colonial  legislative  rights  for  which 
their  descendants  fought  a  hundred  years  later. 

When  the  fleet  of  the  Commissioners  returned  to  England  in  April, 
Berkeley  went  with  it,  leaving  Jeffreys  Governor.  The  old  cavalier 
was  ill  and  broken  in  spirit.  The  bitter  outbreak  of  his  revenge 
was  possibly,  as  it  was  urged  on  his  behalf,  a  result  of  the  "peevish- 
ness "  and  irritability  of  age.  He  had  one  longing  left,  — 
to  justify  his  conduct  in  the  eyes  of  the  King,  whose  approval 
would  have  consoled  him  for  all  else.  But  he  seems  to 
have  been  altogether  disappointed.  Opinion  both  in  Parliament  and 
at  court  he  found  to  be  bitterly  against  him.  It  is  said  by  one  writer 
that  he  was  received  by  Charles  with  kindness ;  but  it  was  generally 
believed  that  he  was  treated  with  entire  neglect,  and  did  not  see  the 
King  at  all,  —  sinking  rapidly  from  the  time  of  his  arrival,  until,  in 
a  few  weeks,  he  died  broken-hearted  and  disgraced.  There  came  back 
to  Virginia  one  who  had  been  his  servant  on  his  voyage  and  till  his 
iii*  iiinew»  death,  "from  whom  a  report  was  whispered  about,  that  the 
and  death.  King  did  say,  *  that  old  fool  has  hanged  more  men  in  that 
naked  country  than  he  had  done  for  the  murther  of  his  father." 
This  speech,  says  the  gossiping  writer  who  records  it,  coming  to  the 
old  Governor's  ears,  hastened  his  death  :  So  that  "  he  dyed  soon 
after  without  having  seen  his  Majesty ;  which  shuts  up  this  tragedy." 


Berkeley 
returns  to 
Kngland. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

NEW  YORK. 

QUIET  BEGINNING  OF  THE  ENGLISH  ROLE.  —  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  NICOLLS. — 
THE  NEW  JERSEY  GRANT.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  CARTERET.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEWARK 
AND  ELIZABETH.  —  THE  CONNECTICUT  BOUNDARY.  —  THE  NAMES  AND  DIVISIONS 
OF  THE  PROVINCE.  —  THE  "  DUKE'S.  LAWS."  —  ENGLISH  OFFICIALS.  —  THE  WAR 
BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  THE  NETHERLANDS. — DISCONTENT  IN  LONG  ISLAND. — 
NEW  YORK  AND  CANADA.  —  THE  FRENCH  AND  THE  MOHAWKS.  —  THE  PEACE  or 
BREDA. —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LOVELACE.  —  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PROVINCE.  —  THB 
TOWN  OF  NEW  YORK.  —  RENEWED  WAR  IN  EUROPE.  —  THE  RE-CONQUEST  OF  TEW 
NETHERLAND.  —  COLVE'S  ADMINISTRATION.  —  NEW  NETHERLAND  CEDED  TO  ENG- 
LAND BY  THE  PEACE  OF  WESTMINSTER. 


THE  people  of  New  Amsterdam 
learned,  almost  as  soon  as  the  garrison 
of  the  fort  had  disappeared  down 
Beaver  Street,  and  the  English  flag 

view  in  the  Kills.  was  recognized  as  flying  from  its  flag- 

staff, that  the  change  which  had  taken  place  was  not,  to  their  dull  sen- 
sitiveness, a  very  essential  one.    Stuy  vesaut,  no  doubt,  when   Qujet 
he  had  seen  his  troop  safely  embarked  for  Holland,  stumped  J^"^ 
back  into  the  town  in  profound  depression.     But  depres-  nUe- 
siou  may  have  turned  to  rage  as  he  met  the  cheerful  burghers  who 
had  insisted  on  his  surrender,  and  who  could  congratulate  themselves, 


the 


320  NEW  YORK.     •  [CHAP.  XIV, 

and  almost  reproach  him,  upon  the  faithfulness  with  which  the  Eng- 
lish were  observing  its  terms.  There  was  no  plundering,  no  disorder; 
the  Connecticut  men,  whom  the  Dutch  had  the  most  reason  to  fear, 
were  kept  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  ;  private  property  was  every- 
where respected  ;  the  property  of  the  Company  was  protected  from 
molestation  ;  the  course  of  trade  was  no  more  interrupted  than  in  any- 
other  brief  interval  of  unusual  excitement  ;  and  the  ordinary  affairs 
of  life  returned  almost  immediately  to  their  usual  channel.  Nicolls 
wisely  acted  as  if  he  were  receiving  a  repentant  province  that  had  fer 
a  season  forgotten  its  true  allegiance,  rather  than  as  taking  possession 
of  one  he  had  conquered.  Perhaps  the  Dutch  made  no  very  nice  dis- 
tinctions ;  but  they  could  remember  some  heavy  grievances  under  the 
rule  of  the  Company  ;  this  new  power  promised,  at  least,  that  things 
should  be  no  worse,  and  it  was  clearly  meant  that  the  promise  should 
be  kept. 

A  provincial  government  of  Englishmen  was  presently  organized, 
but  it  was  chiefly  of  those  who  had  not  before  had  to  do 
with  New  Netherland  affairs,  and  had  no  prejudices.  Cap- 
tain Matthias  Nicolls  was  made  secretary  ;  Captains  Need- 
ham  and  Delavall,  of  England,  and  Thomas  Topping  and  William 
Wells,  of  Long  Island,  were  counsellors,  —  two  of  the  former  Dutch 
officers  also  being  sometimes  called  into  consultation.  But,  as  the 
articles  of  surrender  provided,  the  municipal  government  was  un- 
changed ;  and  the  municipal  court  met  and  transacted  current  busi- 
ness on  the  very  day  after  English  occupation.  At  Fort  Orange  — 
now  Albany  —  and  at  Esopus  the  same  general  course  was  pursued; 
at  Rensselaerswyck  Jeremias  van  Rensselaer  was  only  compelled  to 
renew  his  patent  under  the  Duke  of  York,  his  people  taking  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  England.  This  oath  was  also  required  of  the  Dutch 
The  oath  of  i°  New  York  ;  and  although  it  excited  some  opposition  at 
allegiance.  first  bec;iuse  it  was  not  prescribed  in  the  articles  of  capitula- 
tion, it  was  taken  in  October  by  all  the  leading  Dutch  inhabitants. 
Even  Stuyvesant  and  his  immediate  followers  consented  to  this  when 
satisfied  that  it  did  not  affect  the  terms  of  capitulation.  Nor  was  this 
frank  acceptance  of  a  new  allegiance  the  only  evidence  of  the  general 
content  ;  the  city  magistrates  sent  an  address  to  the  Duke  of  York 
avowing  their  warm  approval  of  the  new  Governor,  and  of  their  hopes 
of  prosperity  under  his  rule. 

No  sooner  was  the  province  fairly  in  English  hands  than  new  names 
Grants  to  were  given  to  different  portions,  its  boundaries  were  as  far  as 
Englishmen.  pOssibie  defined,  and  grants  of  land  were  made  to  English- 
men. That  region  lying  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware  was 
named  Albania,  and  grants  and  purchases  were  made  within  its  boun- 


w 

C/3 

a: 
w 

w 
fc 

fc 

— 

w 

^ 


u 

i. 


1665.] 


THE   NEW  JERSEY  GRANT. 


321 


daries  from  Sandy  Hook  to  the  mouth  of  the  Raritan,  and  from  the 
Raritan  to  the  Achter  Cul,  now  Newark  Bay.1  But  before  Nicolls,  in 
the  name  of  the  Duke  of  York,  had  taken  possession  of  all  New  Neth- 
erland,  the  Duke,  in  anticipation  of  that  event,  granted  in  June, 
1664,  the  whole  country,  from  the  Hudson  to  the  Delaware,  and  from 
latitude  41°  40'  to  Cape  May,  to  two  favorites  of  the  court,  Lord 
Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Carte- 
ret.  Thus  New  Netherland,  be- 
fore it  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  English,  had  been  divided 
into  two  provinces,  and  the  divis- 
ion, it  is  supposed,  was  made  at 
the  instigation  of  that  Captain 
John  Scott,  who,  not  long  before, 
and  on  doubtful  authority,  had 
attempted  to  wrest  Long  Island 
from  the  Dutch.  To  the  new 
province  the  name  of  New  Caesa- 
rea,  or  New  Jersey,  was  given, 
in  commemoration  of  Carteret's 
defence  of  the  Channel  island  of 
Jersey  against  the  forces  of  the 
Commonwealth  in  1649. 

Of  this  grant,  however,  Nicolls  knew  nothing  till  June,  1665,  when 
Captain  Philip  Carteret  arrived  as  governor  of  the  new  Thegrantof 
province.  There  was,  of  course,  no  alternative  but  to  re-  New  Jenf*- 
ceive  with  courtesy  one  coming  armed  with  such  credentials,  though 
Nicolls  represented  to  the  Duke  that  he  had  hastily  given  away  the 
fairest  portion  of  his  dominions.  "  But  I  must  charge  it  upon  Cap- 
tain Scott,"  he  wrote,  "  who  was  born  to  work  mischief  as  far  as  he 
is  credited,  or  his  parts  serve  him."  2 

A  storm  had  driven  Carteret's  ship,  the  Philip,  into  Chesapeake 
Bay,  but  in  July  she  arrived  at  New  York,  and  a  few  days   ArriTai  of 
later  anchored  off   the  point  now  known   as  Elizabethport,  c**6""" 
New  Jersey,  and  landed  her  thirty  emigrants.     At  the  head  of  these 
people,  Carteret,  with  a  hoe  over  his  shoulder,  marched  to  the  spot  he 
had  chosen  for  a  settlement,  two  or  three  miles  inland,  and  to  which, 
in  honor  of  the  Lady  Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  Sir  George  Carteret,  he 
gave  her  name.     He  found  at  the  point  where  he  and    his   people 

1  Achter  Cul,  or  Kol  =  the  cul  achter  (behind)  the  great  Bay  ;  corrupted  into  After  Cul, 
and  then  Arthur  Kil,  and  now  applied  to  Staten  Island  Sound. 

2  Letter  of  Nicolls  to  the  Duke  of  York  in  the  State  Paper  Office,  cited  by  Chalmers 
and  others;  also  Letter  to  the  Earl  of  Clarendon.     N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  1869. 

VOL.  ii.  21 


Seal  of  the  Carterets. 


322  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

landed  four  families  who  had  taken  possession  of  lands  under  the 
grant  which  had  been  made  by  Nicolls.1  The  new-comers  brought 
with  them  the  title  of  a  new  English  province,  and,  though  more 
than  one  settlement  had  been  earlier  made  by  the  Dutch  on  this  side 
the  Bay  of  New  York,  this  was  the  actual  beginning  of  the  State  of 
New  Jersey  at  Elizabeth. 

Four  years  before,  the  West  India  Company  had  discerned   and 
sought  to  take  advantage  of  the  discontent  and  apprehension 

Previous  ne-     ,   ,  °  ° 

fe'""^18  of  ^e^  "}'  so  many  °f  the  English,  both  at  home  and  in  the  col- 
Havenpeo-  onies,  at  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  The  Directors  in- 

ple  regard-  .  . 

ingNewjer-  vited  them  to  settle  on  the  Raritan,  or  in  its  neighborhood, 
and  offered  them  most  favorable  terms.  Three  of  the  mag- 
istrates of  New  Haven,  —  where  this  discontent  was  very  general, — 
Matthew  Gilbert  the  Deputy  Governor,  Benjamin  Fenn,  and  Robert 
Treat,  entered  into  negotiation  with  Stuyvesant  upon  this  subject,  on 
behalf  of  some  New  Haven  people,  and  found  no  difficulty  in  getting 
from  the  Dutch  governor  the  promise  that  a  hearty  welcome  would  be 
given  and  religious  freedom  be  secured  to  any  Puritan  colony  that 
should  plant  itself  within  the  Dutch  jurisdiction.  But  the  English 
asked  also  for  political  independence,  and  the  negotiations  were  sus- 
pended. The  question  of  civil  relations  Stuyvesant  felt  must  be  re- 
ferred to  his  superiors  at  home. 

Even  that  concession,  he  was  instructed,  the  Directors  were  disposed 
to  make  to  almost  any  degree,  provided  that  Dutch  supremacy  was 
acknowledged  in  the  last  appeal.  The  New  Haven  people  were  the 
more  eager  to  set  up  anew  for  themselves  when  the  Winthrop  charter 
brought  them  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut,  and  they  would, 
perhaps,  had  there  been  time  enough,  have  yielded  somewhat  in  their 
demands.  But  while  diplomacy  hesitated  events  made  no  halt.  Be- 
fore any  agreement  could  be  reached,  satisfactory  to  both  parties,  New 
Netherland  ceased  to  be  a  Dutch  colony,  and  the  Duke  of  York  had 
granted  to  its  new  proprietaries  the  whole  region  from  the  Hudson  to 
the  Delaware. 

Treat  and  his  friends,  nevertheless,  were  not  turned  from  their  pur- 
Their  design  pose.  They  could  at  least  free  themselves  from  obligations 
unde^ctr-  an<^  ties  that  had  become  intolerably  irksome,  though  new 
teret'  ones  had  to  be  made.  But  the  constitution  Carteret  brought 

with  him  was  as  liberal  as  a  proprietary  government  could  be ;  relig- 
ious liberty  was  guaranteed,  with  the  usual  reservation  providing 

1  In  the  litigation  which  arose  out  of  these  conflicting  claims,  it  was  asserted  on  behalf 
of  the  first  settlers,  that  the  place  was  named  for  Queen  Elizabeth.  But  this  was  an  after- 
thought. Curteret  undoubtedly  called  the  place  Elizabeth,  in  honor  of  bis  brother's  wife. 
East  Jersey  under  the  Proprietary  Governments,  by  William  A.  Whitehead. 


1666.] 


NEWARK,  NEW  JERSEY. 


323 


against  license  and  civil  disturbance,  but  granting  to  all  the  ministra- 
tions they  preferred  ;  a  popular  Assembly  was  to  have  its  share  of 
power ;  the  grants  of  lands  to  actual  settlers  were  liberal.1 

In  the  spring  of  1666  the  site  of  Newark  WHS  purchased  of  the  In- 
dians, and  possession  taken    by  a  party  from  Milford,  Connecticut, 
led  by  Treat.2      In  the  autumn  others  joined   them  from    Guilford 
and  Branford.     A  preliminary  agreement  had  been  entered  into  be- 
tween Carteret  and  Treat,  but  its  precise  character  is  not  settlement 
known.3     That  it  secured,  however,  to  the  new  colony  self-  of  Newark- 
government,  independent  of   the  proprietaries  and  their  promise  of 


View  of   Newark,    New  Jersey. 

religious  freedom  to  all  comers,  is  probable.  For  the  Branford  people 
made  it  a  condition  of  their  joining  the  company  that  none  should  be 
admitted  as  freemen,  or  should  have  the  right  to  hold  office,  or  to  vote, 
who  were  not  members  of  a  Congregational  Church.  To  this  the 
emigrants  from  Milford  assented.  Abraham  Pierson  was  chosen  min- 
ister of  the  first  church,  and  the  place  was  named  Newark  in  his 

1  Gordon's  History  of  New  Jersey. 

-  The  price  paid  for  the  tract  purchased  of  the  Indians  —  which  included  the  present 
villages  of  Bloomfield,  Belleville,  Orange,  and  Caldwell  —  wns  "  fifty  double  hands  of 
powder,  one  hundred  barrs  of  lead,  twenty  axes,  twenty  coats,  ten  gun-,  twenty  pistols,  ten 
kettles,  ten  swords,  four  blankets,  four  ban-els  of  beer,  two  pairs  of  breetches,  fifty  knives, 
twenty  hoes,  eight  hundred  and  fifty  fathoms  of  wampum,  two  ankers  of  Liquors,  or 
something  equivalent,  and  three  troopers  coats." 

8  Whitehead's  Historical  Memoir  of  Newark.     Coll.  N.  J.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  vi. 


324  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

i  *- 

honor,  as  he  came  from  that  place  in  England.1  Pierson  came  to  the 
new  settlement  at  tho  head  of  nearly  all  his  parishioners,  for  Bran- 
ford  —  whose  church  was  the  town  —  refused  to  be  annexed  to  Con- 
necticut under  the  Winthrop  charter,  to  which  New  Haven  and  other 
towns  had  by  this  time  assented.2 

In  later  years  the  title  of  Berkeley  and  Carteret  to  lands  occupied 
Questions  as  by  Elizabeth  and  Newark  was  disputed.  In  both  cases  they 
M<uteriw-'8  na<l  been  purchased  of  the  Indians,  —  at  Newark  by  consent 
ley'" title-  of  Governor  Carteret ;  at  Elizabeth,  before  Carteret's  arri- 
val, and  under  warrant  from  Governor  Nicolls.  To  the  division  of 
the  province  he  was  appointed  to  govern,  Nicolls  had  no  alternative 
but  to  submit.  The  Duke,  his  master,  was  as  much  the  source  of 
power  in  New  Jersey  as  in  New  York. 

Elsewhere,  however,  there  was  room  for  anxiety  and  negotiation. 

New  Haven  and  the  other  towns  along  the  Sound,  'which 

N"W  i  ilven    had  strenuously  resisted  annexation    to  Connecticut   under 

Duke-*8        the  Winthrop  patent,  ceased  all  opposition  to  that  measure 

when  confronted  by  one  far  more  to  be  dreaded.     The  grant 

to  the  Duke  of  York  included  all  the  country  from  the  west  side  of  the 

Connecticut  River  to  the  Delaware.     Local  differences  were  put  aside 

to  meet  this  common  danger.     Puritan  New  England   could  hardly 

conceive  of  a  greater  calamity  than  to  come  under  the  rule  of   the 

popish  brother  of  the  king. 

No  feeling  of  this  kind,  however,  was  permitted  to  interfere  with 
the  friendly  reception  given  to  Nicolls.  He  had,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
cordial  cooperation  of  the  Connecticut  people  in  the  subjection  of 
New  Netherland.  It  was  only  Massachusetts  that  held  back.  There 
was  little  sympathy  in  Boston  with  the  impatience  felt  in  the  colonies 
along  the  Sound  at  the  presence  of  the  Dutch.  But  there  was  un- 
ceasing vigilance  lest  the  government  at  home,  whether  king  or  par- 
liament, should  interfere  with  that  independence  which  Massachusetts 
always  aimed  at  and  so  often  abused.  While  that  colony,  therefore, 
from  the  outset  received  the  commissioners  with  coldness  and  distrust, 
Connecticut,  New  Haven,  and  their  neighbors,  gladly  gave  their  aid 
against  the  Dutch,  and  then  combined  to  preserve  the  integrity  of 
their  own  territory  against  the  claim  of  the  Duke  of  York. 

The    General  Assembly  of   Connecticut  voted  that   five   hundred 

bushels  of  corn  should  be  presented  to  the  English  commis- 

in  cotfnecfi-  sioners.     A  further  gift  of  horses  was  made  when  Governor 

Winthrop  with  six  associates  went  to  New  York  to  enter 

upon  negotiation  with  regard  to  the  boundaries.    In  our  less  austere 

1  Whitehead's  Memoir. 

-  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut. 


THE  CONNECTICUT  BOUNDARY. 


age  such  offerings  would  have  been  presented  on  the  one  side,  and  re- 
ceived or  rejected  on  the  other,  as  a  bribe.  The  result  in  this  case 
justifies  no  such  suspicion.  Both  parties  seem  to  have  been  disposed 
to  make  an  honorable  compromise  between  conflicting  claims.  The 
Connecticut  patent  and  the  grant  to  the  Duke  of  York  covered  the 
same  territory.  Connecticut  had,  besides  her  patent,  the  right  of 
possession.  Should  she  be  deprived  of  this,  gained  by  so  much  toil 
and  sacrifice,  by  virtue  of  a  sheet  of  parchment  and  a  royal  seal  ? 
But  the  Duke  had  wrested  by  force  of  arms  a  portion  of  his  grant 
from  a  foreign  power.  What  just  claim  could  Connecticut  offer  to 
territory  she  had  never  occupied  though  covered  by  her  patent  ? 


Meeting  of  the  Connecticut  and  New  York 
Commissioners. 


To  these  considerations 
due  weight,  apparently,  was 
given.  The  Connecticut  del- 
egates conceded  that  all  Long 
Island,  —  which  was  granted 
expressly  by  name  to  the  Duke,  and  much  of  which  was  a  part  of  New 
Netherland, —  properly  belonged  to  New  York. 

But  in  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  on  the  mainland  a  singular 
want  of  knowledge  of  the  topography  of  the  country  was  Di8CU8Sion 
shown  on  both  sides,  unless  there  was,  as  has  sometimes  been  S«yq^"n" 
suggested,  a  sharp  advantage  taken  by  one  side  of  the  ig-  tk>n- 
norance  of  the  other.     The  line,  it  was  understood  in  general  terms, 
should  be  run  about  twenty  miles  east  of  the  Hudson   River.     That 
agreed  upon  was  to  start  at  tidewater  on  the  Mamaroneck  creek  and 


326 


NEW  YORK. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


run  thence  north-northwest  to  the  southern  boundary  of  Massachu- 
setts. But  the  mouth  of  Mamaroneck  creek  is  much  less  than  twenty 
miles  from  the  Hudson,  and  a  line  drawn  from  it  north-northwest 
would  cross  that  river  within  fifty  miles  of  New  York. 

This  boundary  would  give  to  Connecticut  a  large,  and  the,  most 
valuable,  portion  of  the  late  province  of  New  Netherland: 
That  Winthrop  and  his  associates  understood  this,  and  pur- 
posely imposed  upon  the  ignorance  of  the  English  Commissioners,  is 
incredible.  They  were  anxious  to  retain  the  territory  they  already 
occupied  ;  they  were  willing  to  release  all  claim  to  Long  Island  if 


The  settle- 
ment. 


Mouth  of  Mamaroneck  Creek. 

they  were  not  disturbed   on  the  mainland;  and  they  were  neither 
knaves  nor  fools.     As  a  blunder l  it  was  very  soon  exposed,  as  it  was 

1  That  the  beginning  was  twenty  miles  from  the  Hudson  was  clearly  a  mistake.  It  is 
not  quite  so  clear  that  the  commissioners  did  not  understand  that  the  Hue  crossed  the 
river  and  agreed  to  it  with  their  eyes  open.  Nicolls  in  a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Clarendon 
(see  Clarendon  Papers,  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1869,  p.  76),  writes  :"  Your  LdPP  will  allsoe 
perceiue  by  this  inclosed  determinacfm,  betweene  the  Comission™  witli  the  Governor  & 
councell  of  Conecticutt  that  those  Townes  upon  the  maine  to  the  Eastward  of  N.  Yorke 
did  properly  belong  to  their  precedent  patient,  soe  that  there  remayncs  only,  One  small 
Towne  to  his  Royall  highnesse  of  all  that  tract  of  land  from  Conecticnt  Hi  tier  to  Hudsous 
Kiuer  which  is  all  the  North  part,  and  soe  cold  that  few  or  none  will  bestow  their  Lalxnirs. 
Only  one  Towne  is  seated  wt  Planters  to  which  or  very  neare  the  Indenture  readieth. 
aboue  that  70  myles  is  Albany  seated,  who  are  noe  planters  but  only  atowne  of  Trade,  with 
the  Indians,  Thus  the  extent  of  the  Dukes  Pattent  is  described  to  yor  Ldpp." 

By  the  one  town  "  to  which  or  very  near  the  Indenture  reacheth,"  seventy  miles  below 
Albany,  the  Governor  must  have  meant  Esopus.  A  line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mamaro- 
neck running  north-northwest  and  touching  Esopus  would  necessarily  if  produced  cross  the 
river  at  that  point.  Believing  this  "  north  part  so  cold  that  few  or  none  will  bestow  their 
labors"  upon  it,  he  may  have  thought  it  of  little  consequence  to  which  jurisdiction  the 


1665.]  "THE  DUKE'S  LAWS."  327 

certain  to  be  even  had  it  been  a  fraud.  What  was  done  in  haste  was 
considered  at  leisure,  and  the  Duke  of  York  refused  his  assent  to  the 
agreement.  Twenty  vears  later,  a  new  line  was  drawn  and  surveyed 
beginning  at  Bvrain  River,  which  is  essentially  the  present  boundary 
of  the  States  of  New  York  and  Connecticut. 

To  Long  Island,  thus  made,  as  it  has  ever  since  remained,  a  part  of 
New  York,  the  name  of  Yorkshire  was  given.  That,  with  the  neigh- 
boring country,  was  afterward  divided  into  three  judicial  districts  or 
ridings,  in  each  of  which  a  court  was  to  sit  three  times  a  year.  The 
present  Queen's  County  (excepting  the  town  of  Newtown)  and  West- 
chester  formed  the  North  Riding  ;  Newtown,  the  present 
King's  County  and  Staten  Island  made  the  West  Riding;  ionland'" 
the  present  Suffolk  alone  was  the  East  Riding.  There  Duke's  tem- 
was,  however,  some  question  whether  Staten  Island  be- 
longed to  New  Jersey  or  New  York,  which  was  not  settled  till  1068, 
and  seems  to  have  been  referred  to  the  proprietary  in  England.  Sam- 
uel Maverick,  one  of  the  commissioners,  writing  in  February,  1669,  to 
Governor  Winthi'op,  says,  on  the  authority  of  a  letter  from  Nicolls  — 
who  returned  to  England  the  previous  autumn  :  "  Staten  Hand  is 
adiudged  to  belong  to  N:  Yorke."  It  is,  he  says  in  another  letter, 
"  the  most  commodiosest  seate  and  richest  land  I  haue  seene  in  Amer- 


The Indians  parted  with  it  so  reluctantly  that  the  Dutch  had  been 
compelled  to  make  repeated  purchases  ;  but  the  chiefs  gave  a  final 
and  lasting  title  in  1670  to  Governor  Lovelace,  Nicolls's  successor, 
receiving  as  recompense  four  hundred  fathoms  of  wampum  and  a 
number  of  guns,  axes,  kettles,  and  watch-coats. 

The  King  in  his  grant  to  the  Duke  of  York  had  empowered  him  to 
make  all  laws  for  his  new  territory,  with  the  usual  proviso 
that  these  be  not  contrary  to  the  laws  of  England.  The  Duke  Duke** 
in  turn  had  granted  this  power  to  Nicolls  as  his  deputy.  1*W8-'1 
Having  settled  the  boundaries  of  New  York  for  the  time,  renamed  its 
different  parts,  put  English  garrisons  and  officers  at  Albany,  Esopus, 
and  elsewhere,  and  brought  the  affairs  of  the  distant  Delaware  region 
into  proper  train,  the  Governor  assumed  the  duties  of  a  legislator. 
He  took  for  his  guidance  the  Codes  of  the  New  England  colonies  in 
civil  affairs,  but  disregarded  their  severe  provisions  relating  to  religion. 

"  The  Duke's  Laws  "  —  as  the  code  prepared  by  Nicolls  and  his 

territory  belonged.  But  as  if  doubting  the  wisdom  of  this  settlement  of  the  boundary  he 
adds  :  "  I  humbly  begg  your  LdPi'-  to  take  the  whole  matter  into  serious  consideracon.  for 
if  the  Duke  will  improove  this  place  to  the  vtmost,  Neither  the  trade,  the  Riuer,  nor  the 
Adjacent  lands  must  bee  devided  from  this  Collony,  but  remayne  Entire." 

1  Maverick's  Letters  in  the  Winthrop  Papers.    Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Fourth  Series. 
vol.  vii. 


328  NEW  YORK.  CHAP.  XIV. 

councillors  was  called — were  promulgated  at  a  meeting  of  delegates 
from  the  towns  of  Yorkshire,  held  at  Hempstead  on  Febru- 
isiandpeo-  ary  28,  1665.  The  people  of  these  towns  alone  —  the  great 
nowTegisia-  majority  being  Englishmen  — seem  to  have  felt  much  inter- 
est in  the  character  of  the  new  government  about  to  be 
established.  For  this  reason,  no  doubt,  they  only  were  summoned  to 
send  representatives.  Certainly  the  code  had  been  drawn  up  more 
with  a  view  to  their  wants,  as  Nicolls  understood  them,  than  to  those 
of  any  other  portion  of  the  province.  Being  emigrants  from  New 
England,  the  Long  Islanders  especially  hoped  for  the  concession  of 
all  the  popular  rights  which  the  people  of  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut enjoyed.  They  did  not  gain  them  ;  it  was  not  within  Nic- 
olls's  power  to  grant  them,  indeed  ;  but  they  received,  with  consider- 
able grumbling  and  discontent,  the  next  best  system  —  as  wise  and 
liberal  a  code,  perhaps,  as  it  was  possible  for  the  deputy  of  a  propri- 
etary government  to  bestow. 

The  Duke's  Laws  prescribed  the  annual  holding,  on  the  last  Thurs- 
day in  September,  of  a  court  of  assizes  at  New  York,  which 
the  Duke's  should  be  the  court  of  highest  resort  in  the  province  ;  the 
holding  of  courts  of  sessions,  next  in  rank,  in  each  of  the 
Yorkshire  "  ridings  "  thrice  a  year ;  arbitration  was  allowed  in  tri- 
fling cases,  but  a  local  court  of  a  constable  and  six  overseers  might  be 
held  for  the  trial  of  cases  involving  less  than  five  pounds.  The  exec- 
utive power  in  Yorkshire  was  in  the  hands  of  a  high  sheriff  appointed 
annually  by  the  Governor,  the  three  ridings  in  turn  furnishing  the 
candidate.  Each  town  had  eight  overseers,  chosen  by  the  freeholders, 
the  freeholders  selecting  one  of  the  eight  to  act  as  constable.  The 
town  officers  made  the  assessments  for  taxes.  Old  land  grants  were 
to  be  looked  upon  as  valueless  unless  submitted  to  the  provincial 
authorities  and  confirmed  by  new  patents  issued  by  the  Governor  in 
the  Duke's  name.  Trade  with  the  Indians  was  restricted  —  that  in 
arms,  ammunition,  liquor,  and  furs  being  permitted  only  under  spe- 
cial license.  Disputes  between  Indians  and  whites  were  to  be  fairly 
adjusted  by  the  authorities  as  if  between  Christians.  Slavery  was 
recognized  as  legal,  as  there  were  many  negro  slaves  already  in  the 
province  ;  but  kind  and  humane  treatment  for  them  and  for  servants 
was  enforced  by  penalties.  The  militia  law  included  all  persons  over 
sixteen  years  old,  the  militia  expenses  to  be  equitably  shared  by  all 
the  towns.  One  form  of  blasphemy  ("denying  the  true  God"), 
treason,  murder,  some  offences  against  nature,  the  striking  of  parents 
in  case  the  offender  were  over  fourteen,  and  kidnapping,  were  capital 
crimes.  A  very  great  number  of  regulations  provided  for  all  minor 
matters  of  discipline,  for  licenses,  trading  and  shipping  laws,  and  so 


1665.] 


ENGLISH   OFFICIALS. 


329 


on.  Trial  by  juries  was  provided  for  ;  but,  except  in  capital  cases, 
the  jury  was  not  to  exceed  seven  men.  No  person  who  **  professed 
Christianity "  was  to  be  molested  for  minor  differences  of  opinion. 
There  were  a  few  regulations  about  church  matters,  applying  equally 
to  all  sects,  but  no  Indian  was  to  be  permitted  "  to  po\vo\v,  or  per- 
form outward  worship  to  the  devil." 

Nicolls  enforced  this  code  immediately  and  thoroughly  in  Yorkshire 
only,  leaving  the  changes  to  be  very  gradual  in  New  York  Thec<xiein 
and  along  the  river,  where  the  Dutch   could    not    conform   New  YoA- 
at  once  to  English  ways.     In    the  city  there  was  for  a  little  while 
loud  complaint  that  the  English  official  titles  of  mayor,  alderman,  and 


Inauguration  of  the  First  English   Municipal  Government  at  the  Stadt    Huys. 

sheriff  were  substituted  for  the  old  Dutch  terms  of  schepen,  burgo- 
master, and  schout ;  and  when,  in  June,  1665,  Thomas  Willett  was 
appointed  mayor,  and  other  Englishmen  were  put  upon  the  board  of 
aldermen,  Nicolls  was  accused  of  disregarding  the  articles  of  capitu- 
lation. Such  complaints  the  Governor  met  by  pointing  to  his  instruc- 
tions, which  required  him  to  conform  to  English  custom  in  his  rule 
of  the  province.  In  the  appointment  of  Englishmen  to  office  EngUgh  offl. 
his  wish  was,  he  declared,  to  provide  for  the  peace  and  quiet  Cl*u' 
of  the  whole  community  by  having  in  office  men  of  both  nations.  The 
discontent  was  speedily  allayed,  for  no  fault  could  be  found  with  the 
selection  of  officers  made  among  the  English.  The  mayor,  Willett, 


330  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

especially,  was  greatly  esteemed  among  the  Dutch,  whom  more  than 
once  he  had  served  in  important  trusts  in  the  time  of  the  late  gov- 
ernor. Moreover,  there  could  he  little  real  fear  of  injustice,  for  the 
sheriff,  or  schout,  and  the  majority  of  this  new  board  of  aldermen, 
were  still  Dutch. 

Only  on  the  day  before  the  inauguration  of  this  first  municipal 
Breaking  government  in  the  town  so  lately  called  New  Amsterdam, 
warbLfwlen  tne  Dutch  and  English  at  home  were  fighting  the  great 
fhnegx"thern-d  »avjl1  battle  off  Lowestoft  in  the  North  Sea.  The  furious 
cannonading  was  heard  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames  in  Eng- 
land—  almost  in  London.  While  Nicolls  peacefully  debated  with  the 
burghers  in  the  Stadt  Huys,  the  Duke  of  York  was  face  to  face  with 
Dutchmen  in  quite  another  way,  and  one  that  came  well-nigh  giving 
to  the  Governor  a  new  master  ;  for  as  the  Duke,  who  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  English  fleet,  stood  on  the  deck  of  his  flag-ship,  the 
Royal  Charles^  three  of  his  officers  were  shot  down  at  his  side,  so  that 
their  blood  "flew  in  the  Duke's  face."  1 

The  war  had  at  length  come,  to  which  the  disturbed  relations  of 
the  two  governments  had  been  gradually  leading  since  the  restoration 
of  Charles,  and  which  now  the  conquest  of  New  Netherland  made 
inevitable.  Angry  competition  on  the  coast  of  Africa  had  given  rise 
to  actual  conflicts,  and  the  English  had  driven  the  Dutch  out  of  the 
forts  they  had  built.  In  the  East,  the  Dutch  East  India  Company 
and  the  English  merchants  were  virtually  at  war.  The  news  from 
Africa  and  from  Manhattan  had  reached  England  in  the  same  week, 
to  be  received  with  open  approval  at  court.  Carte  ret  told  Pepys  that 
"  the  king  did  joy  mightily  at  it,"  but  asked  him,  laughing,  "  How 
shall  I  do  to  answer  this  to  the  embassador  when  he  comes  ?  "  2  He 
answered  it  by  the  insolent  claim  of  priority  of  ownership  of  the 
New  Netherland  territory,  and  the  English  ambassador  at  the  Hague 
treated  the  matter  with  an  equally  high  hand.  De  Witt,  the  Grand 
Pensionary  of  Holland,  answered  sharply  for  the  States  General  that 
the  American  province  must  be  given  back  ;  at  the  same  time  the 
Dutch  admiral,  De  Ruyter,  was  secretly  ordered  to  retaliate  upon 
the  English  on  the  Guinea  coast  —  which  he  did  effectually  a  short 
time  after.  The  English  seized  such  Dutch  vessels  as  were  in  their 
poi;ts,  and  thus  the  two  nations  were  already  at  war,  though  this  was 
only  December,  1664,  and  no  formal  declaration  was  made  till  the 
fourth  of  March  following,  after  considerable  further  negotiation  on 
Holland's  part  had  proved  fruitless. 

It  was  in  this  war  that  the  battle  off  Lowestoft  had  been  the  first  — 
though  a  useless  —  English  victory.     These  events  belong  to  Euro- 

1  Pepys's  Diary.  »  Ibid. 


1666.]  THE   FRENCH   AND   THE   MOHAWKS.  331 

pean,  rather  than  to  American  history,  except  that  by  the  treaty  of 
Breda — 1667  —  the  possession  of  New  York  was  confirmed  progreRgof 
to  the  English.  The  only  immediate  effect  of  the  declara-  the  war 
tion  of  war  upon  that  province  was  to  compel  Nicolls  to  take  all  pos- 
sible measures  for  its  defence,  lest  De  Ruyter  should  come  that  way 
on  his  mission  to  "inflict  ....  as  much  damage  and  injury  as  possi- 
ble "  *  upon  the  English.  The  apprehended  attack,  however,  never 
came.  There  were  no  dissensions  between  the  old  and  new  masters 
of  New  Netherland,  and  through  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1665 
Nicolls  was  left  unmolested  to  quietly  bring  the  whole  province  into 
obedience  to  his  rule. 

The  next  spring,  however,  brought  the  necessity  of  quelling  some 
disturbances  in  eastern  Long  Island,  where  there  was  still 
much  dissatisfaction  because  the  Duke's  code  denied  the  peo-  in  Lung 
pie  the  popular  elements  of  New  England,  especially  of  Con- 
necticut, government.  When  the  Governor  had  quieted  these  disor- 
ders by  tempering  vigorous  measures  against  the  chief  offenders  with 
indulgence  to  the  rest,  new  trouble  arose  in  the  same  region  in  resist- 
ance to  the  enforcement  of  the  law  of  renewal  of  patents  —  a  matter 
requiring  the  wisest  management.  The  Court  of  Assizes  decreed  in 
September  that  the  neglect  of  the  Long  Island  towns  and  of  individ- 
uals to  renew  their  land  grants  under  the  Duke  of  York  could  be  no 
longer  tolerated.  It  required  all  Nicolls's  skill  and  firmness  to  carry 
out  the  measure,  accompanied  as  it  was  by  the  exaction  of  fees  and 
quit-rents.  After  much  discontent,  however,  all  the  towns  of  conse- 
quence, except  Southold  and  Southampton,  yielded,  and  these  com- 
plied with  the  conditions  a  year  or  two  afterward. 

Though  the  war  in  Europe  left  Nicolls  thus  free  to  establish  order 
in  his  new  government,  it  was  not  to  pass  away  without  dis-  xewTork 
turbance  to  the  American  colonies.  The  alliance  of  Louis  and0anad* 
XIV.  with  the  Dutch  against  England,  in  January,  1666,  had  of 
course  made  enemies,  nominally  at  least,  of  those  colonies  and  the 
French  in  the  new  world.  King  Charles  sent  out  letters  in  Febru- 
ary directing  his  American  subjects  to  begin  whatever  hostile  meas- 
ures they  could  against  Canada,  doubtless  expecting  that  New  Eng- 
land and  New  York  would  undertake  at  once  a  vigorous  campaign 
against  their  northern  neighbors.  But  he  little  understood  the  com- 
parative indifference  to  European  affairs  felt  by  the  colonists.  His 
instructions  were  received  with  little  enthusiasm,  and  the  only  meas- 
ures taken  were  some  attempts  to  excite  the  Mohawk  Indians  to 
enmity  against  the  French  settlers.  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 
Nova  Scotia  agreed  that  it  would  not  be  wise  to  undertake  an  expe- 
dition against  the  French  settlements  in  Canada. 

1  Dutch  documcut  cited  in  Brodhead,  ii.,  58. 


332  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

Before  any  news  of  the  French  declaration  of  war  had  reached 
America,  however,  —  indeed,  before  it  had  been  formally 
of  cour-  made,  —  Courcelles,  the  Governor  of  Canada,  had  started 
from  Quebec  with  some  five  hundred  men,  and  marched  into 
the  Mohawk  country,  to  reduce  that  powerful  tribe  to  the  subjection 
which  several  of  the  other  Indian  nations  beyond  the  great  lakes  had 
already  acknowledged.  The  Canadians  did  not  yet  know  that  New 
Netherland  had  passed  from  Dutch  into  English  hands.  But  when 
Courcelles  reached  Schenectady  (which  the  French  called  "Cor- 
laer,"  from  a  settlement  the  Dutch  commissary  Arendt  Van  Curler 
had  formerly  made  there),  he  was  met,  to  his  great  surprise,  by  del- 
egates from  Albany,  who  had  been  sent  out,  on  a  report  from  the 
Mohawks,  to  know  the  purpose  of  Courcelles'  invasion. 

Though  he  already  knew  the  probability  of  a  war  between  France 
and  England,  the  Canadian  governor  did  not  dare  to  make 

Hiareception  .,  .  •  *i  • 

by  the  AI-      any  hostile  demonstration  against  the  comparatively  strong 

bany  people.  £  .  "  .  J  » 

Albany  garrison.  He  declared  that  his  purpose  was  only  to 
subdue  the  Mohawks,  and  the  Albany  people  charitably  gave  succor 
to  his  wounded  men,  and  supplied  provisions  to  his  worn-out  troops, 
who  had  suffered  terribly  from  the  long  winter's  march  through  deep 
snows.  Beyond  a  few  indecisive  skirmishes  with  his  Indian  foes,  most 
of  whom  kept  out  of  sight,  he  did  nothing,  and  soon  after  began  his 
homeward  march,  about  the  time  that  news  of  his  expedition  reached 
Nicolls  at  New  York.  The  Governor,  though  he  expressed  some  indig- 
nation at  the  inroad,  fully  approved  of  the  friendly  reception  given 
French  ne-  *°  Courcelles  at  Albany,  and  even  exerted  himself  in  com- 
wit'h  t'heMo-  mon  with  them  to  bring  about  a  treaty  of  peace  between 
hawks.  ^g  ]?renc}j  an(j  Mohawks.  This  was  at  last  so  far  success- 
ful that  the  Indians  expressed  their  desire  for  peace  to  the  wounded 
French  left  behind  at  Albany,  and  letters  were  sent  announcing  this 
to  the  officers  at  Quebec,  —  certain  Oneida  chiefs  undertaking  to 
carry  and  deliver  the  important  news. 

This  was  toward  the  end  of  March,  but  the  slow  messengers  did 
not  reach  Canada  till  the  beginning  of  July.  Meanwhile  another 
expedition  of  four  hundred  men  had  marched  against  the  Mohawks. 
But  this  was  now  recalled,  and  messengers  were  sent  by  Tracy,  the 
French  commander  at  Quebec,  with  a  treaty  to  be  ratified  by  the  In- 
dians. 

This  friendly  deputation  had  been  gone  a  few  daj's  only  when  they 

also  were  recalled  to  Quebec.     The  Mohawks   had   shown 

French  ex-     that  their  offers  of  peace  and  friendship  meant  nothing.     A 

hunting  party  of  French  officers  had  been  surprised  by  an 

Indian  band  on  or  near  Lake  Champlain,  who  treacherously  murdered 


1666.] 


THE   FRENCH   AND   THE   MOHAWKS. 


333 


several  of  them,  —  of  whom  one  was  a  nephew  of  Tracy,  the  Sieur 
de  Chazy,  —  and  had  carried  off  the  rest  as  prisoners.  A  fresh  force 
of  three  hundred  men  started  at  once  to  carry  destruction  into  the 
Mohawk  country. 

The  exasperated  Frenchmen  had  almost  reached  the  Mohawk  vil- 
lages when  they  were  met  by  an  Indian  deputation.  They  begged 
for  peace.  The  attack  upon  the  hunting  party,  they  declared,  was 
neither  ordered  by  nor  approved  by  their  chiefs  and  people  ;  the  cap- 
tives, they  promised,  should  be 
restored,  and  reparation  made  for 
n  J7  ft  -  i  II  I  III  those  who  were  killed.  The  ex- 


planation  was  accepted,  and  the 
troops  returned  quietly  to  Que- 
bec, taking  the  Indians  with  them. 

It  was  only  to  find  that  they  had  Arrest  of  Chazy's  Murderer 

again  been  overreached  by  savage  treachery  and  cunning.     It  was  one 
of    these  very  Mohawk   ambassadors  who    had   buried   his 
tomahawk  in  the  brains  of  Tracy's  nephew.     The  boastful  of  the  £v- 
spirit  of  the  savage,  aroused  probably  by  drink,  led  him  to 
avow  at  Tracy's  own  table  that  it  was  he  who  split  the  head  of  that 
young  officer.    He  was  seized  and  hanged  on  the  instant,  and  his  com- 
panion thrown  into  prison. 

Tracy,  thus  repeatedly  betrayed  and  baffled,  wrote  bitterly  to  the 
Albany  authorities  who  had  sent  him  the  first  overtures  of  peace, 


334  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

complaining  that  they  had  deceived  him  intentionally.  A  few  weeks 
re-  later  he  set  out  in  person  at  the  head  of  twelve  hundred 
whites  and  a  hundred  Indian  allies,  passed  down  Lake  Cham- 
plain  in  fleet  of  boats  and  canoes,  and  in  the  month  of  October 
marched  through  the  Mohawk  country,  burning  the  villages,  which 
were  generally  deserted  at  his  approach,  and  setting  np  the  arms  of 
France  in  the  chief  fort.  Returning  to  Quebec,  he  now  sent  by  his 
prisoners  such  terms  of  peace  as  he  would  grant  to  the  tribe,  which 
they  had  till  the  next  summer  to  consider. 

In  this  expedition  the  French  had  made  no  hostile  demonstrations 
against  Albany,  though  the  question  of  doing  so  had  been 
ence  be-  debated  before  the  march  was  commenced.  Indeed,  Nicolls 
andThe™  had  written  in  a  moderate  and  friendly  spirit  to  Tracy  in 
reply  to  his  letter  accusing  the  Albany  officers,  and  had  told 
him  that  he  should  always  prefer  the  "  European  interest"  as  against 
the  "  heathen,"  provided  the  English  possessions  were  not  invaded,  as 
in  the  case  of  Courcelles'  expedition,  at  which  he  again  expressed  sur- 
prise. The  Albany  authorities  also  wrote  to  explain  their  conduct  in 
the  matter  of  the  Mohawk  proposals  for  peace.  Tracy  answered  both 
letters  civilly  in  the  spring,  acknowledging  that  he  had  judged  too  ' 
hastily.  Friendly  relations  were  thus  again  apparently  restored  be- 
tween New  York  and  its  northern  neighbor. 

Nicolls,  however,  not  knowing  how  far  the  French  were  to  be 
trusted,  could  neglect  no  precaution,  and  was  kept  in  a  state 
rice  to  the  of  constant  anxiety.  After  strengthening  the  river  garri- 
sons, he  advised  the  Mohawks,  who  sought  counsel  at  Albany 
in  regard  to  the  French  terms  of  peace,  that  they  should  stipulate  for 
the  destruction  of  the  posts  the  Canadians  had  planted  along  Lake 
Champlain ;  and  should  declare  that  they  (the  Mohawks)  acknowl- 
edged English  rule,  and  would  make  no  peace  unless  it  should  be 
agreed  that  no  more  armed  forces  should  enter  the  English  territory. 
Many  were  the  debates  held  with  the  Indians  during  the  winter. 
The  English  wei-e  earnest  in  their  assurances  of  protection  ;  eloquent 
in  portraying  the  advantages  an  alliance  with  them  would  be  against 
a  common  enemy.  But  with  the  Indians,  the  memory  of  recent 
calamity  was  more  vivid  than  any  promise  of  future  good.  They  re- 
called their  dismantled  "castles"  and  burning  villages;  their  women 
and  children  flying  to  hide  themselves  in  the  forest ;  their  stores  of  corn 
destroyed  or  eaten  by  the  French,  while  they  were  left  to  starve; 
their  young  men  lying  dead  with  only  the  leaves  of  autumn  to  cover 
them.  Then  their  ears  were  closed  to  the  words  of  the  English  ;  it 
was  wiser,  they  thought,  to  be  friends  with  these  terrible  Frenchmen 
who  could  fight  better  than  an  Indian,  and  were  quite  as  much  at 
home  in  the  woods  as  he. 


1667.] 


THE   PEACE   OF   BREDA. 


335 


When  the  summer  came  a  deputation  of  Mohawk  and  Oneida  chief- 
tains appeared  at  Quebec,  with  promises  of  submission.     The  war  in 
Europe  had  recalled  Tracy  to  France,  where  the  services  of  the  brave 
old  man  were  more  needed  than  in  Canada,  and  Courcelles  had  suc- 
ceeded to  the  command  at  Qu'ebec.     The  Indians  brought  their  fami- 
lies with  them  as  pledges  of   their  sincerity,  and  the  new   French 
Governor  had  no  difficulty  in   securing  a  treaty  by  which   [^o™'"1 
they  promised  allegiance  to  the  King  of  France,  and  con-  ha"ks 
sented  to  accept  the  teachings  of  the  Catholic  priests.     It  was  a  treaty 
meant  to  be  kept,  and  for  many  years  the  English,  whose  whole  north- 
ern frontier  was  now  left  exposed,  had  reason  to  remember  it. 


Submission  of  the   Mohav 


The  peace  of  Breda,  between 
England  and  Holland  —  The  ^^ 
negotiations  for  it  having  of  Breda- 
been  long  in  progress  — was  signed 
on  the  last  day  of  July,  1667  ;  and 
a  separate  treaty  of  the  same  date  closed  the  war  with  France.  To 
the  colonists  in  America,  whose  intercourse  with  England  was  se- 
riously interrupted  while  the  war  continued,  this  seemed  a  sudden 
as  it  was  a  welcome  termination  of  the  struggle.  To  those  at  home, 
however,  disgusted  with  the  subserviency  of  their  own  King  to  the 
King  of  France,  the  profligacy  of  the  court  and  the  corruption  of  the 
government,  it  brought  little  satisfaction.  Englishmen  found  no 
pleasure  in  a  treaty  which  gave  up  two  colonies  in  the  East  Indies, 
and  Nova  Scotia  in  America,  and  secured  in  return  only  New  Neth- 
erland,  the  value  of  which  was  as  yet  but  little  understood.  In 
Northern  New  England,  at  least,  it  was  a  question,  whether  such  an 
acquisition  was  not  dearly  paid  for  by  the  surrender  of  Nova  Scotia, 


336  NEW  YORK.    •  [CHAP.  XIV. 

which  brought  the  Canadian  frontier  so  much  nearer  to  their  outlying 
settlements. 

However,  the  war  was  over,  and  immediate  danger  was  past  ;  and 
if  this  news  was  welcomed  with  pleasure  anywhere  outside  of  Hol- 
land, it  was  among  both  Dutch  and  English  in  New  York, 
peace  in        On  the  first  of  January,  1668,  Nicolls  caused  the  glad  tidings 
to  be  proclaimed  throughout  the  province.    The  English  had 
good  reason  to  rejoice  that  the  question  of  jurisdiction  was  now  set- 
tled by  treaty.     The  Dutch  were  quite  reconciled  by  the  judicious 
rule  of  Nicolls  to  the  change  of  masters  ;  but  they  heard  with  satisfac- 
tion, that  for  seven  years  a  limited  trade  with  Holland  would  be  per- 
mitted.    For  this  they  were  indebted  to  their  old  governor,  Stuyves- 
ant,  which  made  it,  no  doubt,  the  more  generally  acceptable.     He  had 
returned  in  the  spring  of  1665,  to  Holland,  to  answer  for  his  conduct 
at  the  time  of  the  surrender,  for  which  the  directors  of  the  West  India 
Company  were   disposed   to   blame   him  without   measure. 
Holland        But  the  treaty  ended  all  discussion  of  that  point.     Stuyves- 

conceded 

to  the  ant  thoroughly  understood  the  wants  of  the  colony,  and  be- 

fore returning  thither  —  for  he  meant  it  should  still  be  his 
home  —  he  secured  in  England  this  concession  of  trade  for  the  benefit 
of  the  colonists,  to  whose  comfort  certain  kinds  of  goods  from  the 
Fatherland  were  indispensable. 

Nicolls  had  more  than  once  asked  that  he  might  be  relieved  from 

his  government  and  permitted  to  return  home.     After  the 

ceeded  by      loss  of  New  Jersey,  he  seems  to  have  thought  the  remainder 

of  the  grant  to  the  Duke  of  York  hardly  worth  possessing 

—  much  less  governing.     His  request  was  at  length  listened  to,  and 

Colonel  Francis  Lovelace  was  appointed  to  succeed  him. 

Lovelace  was  not  unfamiliar  with  affairs  in  America,  and  had  been 
both  in  New  Netherland  and  Virginia.  He  arrived  in  New  York  in 
the  spring  of  1668.  But  he  and  Nicolls  spent  the  summer  in  arrang- 
ing the  affairs  of  the  government  which  was  about  to  be  transferred 
from  one  to  the  other ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  end  of  August  that 
the  freemen  of  New  York  mustered  under  arms  and  in  military  order 
at  the  lower  part  of  the  town,  to  bid  a  ceremonious  as  well  as  a  heart- 
felt farewell  to  the  Governor,  who  had  ruled  them  so  justly  that  he 
left  no  enemies  behind.  For  four  years  (his  fellow-commissioner 
services  of  Maverick  wrote)  he  had  served  in  the  province  "  with  great 
Nicoiis.  reputation  and  honor."  He  had  done  "  His  Majesty  and 
his  Royal  Highness  very  considerable  service  in  these  parts,"  indeed, 
"  having,  by  his  prudent  management  of  affairs,  kept  persons  of  dif- 
ferent judgments  and  of  diverse  nations  in  peace  and  quietness,  dur- 
ing a  time  when  a  great  part  of  the  world  was  in  warrs."  He  had 


1668.] 


DEPARTURE   OF  GOVERNOR   XICOLLS. 


337 


brought  the  "several  nations  of  the  Indians"  ....  "into  such  a 
peaceable  posture  and  faire  correspondence  "  as  had  never  been  known 
before. 

On  the  28th  of  August  he  left  New  York,  bearing  with  him  an 
address  from  the  people  to  the  Duke,  setting  forth  his  good  HU  depurt. 
service  and  the  peacefulness  of  the  province,  and  leaving  ure 
behind  a  name  which  stands  preeminent  among  the  royal  governors 
in  America  for  moderation,  justice,  and  wise  forbearance.     He  had 

spent   much  of  his   own  means 
in  promoting  the  welfare  of  his 
and  had  once  at  least 


Departure  of  Nicolls 

been  obliged  to  pledge  his  personal  credit  to  secure  funds  for  the  de- 
pleted provincial  exchequer. 

The  province  had  now  reached  the  period  most  favorable  to  the 
growth  of  a  new  state.     The  hardships  of  the  first  years  of 
settlement,  the  trials  of  early  misgovernment,   the  dimcul-  thcproT- 
ties  of  a  change  of  masters,  and  the  perplexities  attending 
a  new  code  of  laws,  had  all  been  in  great  measure  overcome.     The 
individual  citizen  felt  secure  in  person  and  property.     Sixty  years  of 
slow  but  constant  growth  had  brought  the  "  village  at  the  Manliat- 
toes "  to  a  size  and  importance  which  almost  entitled   it  to  its  new 
name  of  "  city  "  ;  "  the  best  of  His  Majesty's  towns  in  America,"  as 
Nicolls  had  called  it  on  his  arrival,  was  beginning  to  give  tokens  of 
its  future   leadership   in   commerce  —  a   fact,  said   its  Governor,  of 
which  "  the  brethren  of  Boston  were  very  sensible." 

The  little  sea-port,  in  this  time  of  its  transition  under  the  earlier 
VOL.  a.  22 


838       %  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

English  governors,  had  characteristics  not  belonging  to  any  other  of 
the  colonial  towns  —  peculiarities  arising  partly  from  its  singular  min- 
gling of  races,  and  partly  from  the  reproduction  of  the  manners  and 
customs  of  another  nationality.  Looked  back  upon  through  two  cen- 
turies, the  life  of  New  York  in  these  first  days  of  its  English  name 
has  a  picturesque  quaintness  that  is  sharply  marked  against  the  colder 
background  of  New  England. 

Though  a  good  deal  of  English  energy  and  activity  had  already 
begun  to  pervade  its  streets  and  wharves,  yet  its  customs 
city  of  New  long  remained  those  which  its  first  settlers  had  brought  with 
them  out  of  the  Dutch  fatherland.  Its  architecture,  most 
of  its  local  names,  and  even  its  more  common  speech,  were  Dutch. 
Its  domestic  and  social  life  was  regulated  by  the  customs  of  Hol- 
land. If  it  was  simple  and  somewhat  heavy,  it  was  at  the  same  time 
healthy,  virtuous,  and  full  of  kindliness  and  hospitality.  If  the  stout 
burghers  moved  slowly,  thought  only  of  the  practical  side  of  things, 
and  went  to  bed  at  nine  o'clock,  they  also  worked  steadily,  governed 
their  households  wisely,  and  persecuted  nobody.  If  they  introduced 
for  a  brief  period  into  their  new  home  the  law  they  brought  from  Hol- 
land, of  the  great  burgher-right  and  the  lesser  burgher-right,  those 
who  received  the  former  were  worthy  of  the  dignity,  and  those  who 
were  confined  to  the  latter  valued  their  citizenship  and  educated  their 
children  none  the  less  carefully.  The  town  that  now  occupied  the 
lower  end  of  Manhattan  Island,  with  its  substantial  brick  houses  and 
its  clean  streets,  had  been  their  work.  It  is  worth  while  to  recall 
what  kind  of  city  they  left  to  their  successors  as  the  nucleus  of  a 
metropolis. 

During  the  decade  between  1660  and  1670  New  York  covered  that 
Topography  Par*  °^  the  island  which  lies  below  the  present  Wall  Street, 
of  the  town.  wnjch  still  commemorates  by  its  name  the  line  of  stout  pal- 
isades that  there  formed  the  northern  limit  of  the  thickly  settled  por- 
tion of  the  town.1  A  gate  in  the  palisade —  the  "Land-gate,"  which 
the  city  watchmen  shut  at  nightfall  —  gave  entrance  to  the  wide 
road  called  the  "  Heere  Wegh "  without  and  the  "  Heere  Straat " 
within  the  wall.  This  was  the  thoroughfare  that  has  become  the 
Broadway  of  the  present  city,  its  name  preserving  a  literal  translation 
of  the  old  Dutch  title.  The  "compact  und  oval  "  group  of  houses  in 
which  the  burghers  lived  was  divided  into  two  nearly  equal  parts 
by  this  street.  Altogether  there  were  about  four  hundred  buildings ; 
**  the  meanest  house  therein,"  says  one  old  writer,  "  being  valued  at 
one  hundred  pounds,"2  so  that  they  must  have  been  solid  and  well 
constructed,  "much  after  the  manner  of  Holland."  They  were  "  built 

1  VoL  i.,  p.  462.  2  Josselyn's  Two  Voyages  to  New  England,  1672. 


1670.]  THE  TOWN  OF  NEW  YORK.  339 

with  Dutch  brick,  alla-modema"  "  covered  with  red  and  black  tile,"  l 
and  their  gable-ends  faced  the  streets  after  the  fashion  of  the  father- 
land. 

Solid  citizens,  men  of  much  consideration,  occupied  the  greater 
part  of  this,  the  town  proper,  the  majority  of  the  poorer  class  of  colo- 
nists being  scattered  on  farms 
or  in  hamlets  outside.  Yet 
there  was  a  distinction  be- 
tween the  west  side  of  the 
Heere  Straat,  where  all  the 
land  was  good,  and  the  east 
side,  where  were  all  sorts  of 
disadvantages  which  modern 
New  York  long  ago  covered 
up,  so  that  they  have  left  no 
traces  but  in  local  names. 
On  the  west,  from  the  Wesr 
India  Company's  great  gar- 

,  ,      ,  .    ,  ,    ,       ,     ,  Old  House  in  New  York,   built  1668 

dens  (which  stretched  from 

the  Heere  Straat  to  the  Hudson,  and  covered  the  ground  where  Trinity 
Church  now  stands),2  to  the  fort  just  below  the  Bowling  Green,  were 
the  dwellings  of  the  leading  men,  and  their  great  gardens  and  orchards 
that  often  stretched  across  all  that  half  of  the  town  and  overlooked 
the  water.  Here  was  the  churchyard,3  and  the  Dominie's  house,  and 
the  schoolmaster's  ;  and  along  a  part  of  the  river-bank  behind  the 
Company's  ground  were  "  the  locust  trees," 4  shading  a  path  which 
was  a  favorite  resort  for  all  classes,  and  an  admirable  outlook  over 
the  river  and  the  bay. 

The  region  between  the  Heere  Straat  and  the  East  River,  on  the 
contrary,  was  covered  with  marshes  and  a  tangle  of  water-  Theeagtern 
courses,  of  which  the  city  of  to-day  shows  no  trace  what-  <iuarter 
ever.  A  group  of  little  hills,  hardly  more  than  knolls,  surrounded  a 
low  boggy  pasture,  —  the  "  Company's  Valley,"  or  "  the  sheep  pas- 
ture,"—  which  of  itself  might  have  made  the  quarter  untenantable 
for  any  but  true  Hollanders.  But  they  contented  themselves  by  par- 
tially draining  it  by  a  ditch  along  the  Bever-graft  (Beaver  Street), 
and  one  along  the  upper  part  of  the  present  Broad  Street,  —  the 
lower  part  of  which  was  occupied  by  something  still  more  character- 
istic of  the  fatherland,  — a  canal  from  tidewater,  extending  up  to  Ex- 
change Place.  The  busy  place  was  then  traversed  chiefly  by  the  cattle 
coming  up  from  the  meadow,  marking  out  the  future  street  by  their 

1  Denton's  Description  of  New  York,  1670.  2  Gerard's  Old  Streets  of  New  York. 

8  But  it  was  not  so  used  after  1677.     Gerard,  20.       *  Ibid. 


340 


NEW   YORK. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


muddy  trail.  Between  the  Heere  Sti-aat  and  the  Company's  Valley 
the  ground  was  high ;  and  the  boys  of  New  Amsterdam  used,  in  the 
winter,  to  bring  out  their  sleds  to  the  "  Verlettenberg,"  and  slide 
down  hill  directly  over  the  site  of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange ; 
while  in  summer  they  ran  down  the  slope  to  drive  home  the  cows  that 
fed  where  the  custom-house  stands,  or  collect  the  sheep  that  pastured 
where  the  vaults  of  the  sub-treasury  now  undermine  the  street. 

The  central  point  of  commercial  matters  was,  however,  then  as 
The  business  nowS  in  this  neighborhood  ;  for  Governor  Lovelace,  to  facili- 
centres.  ^g  ^Q  business  of  the  town,  ordered  in  1670  that  the 
bridge  over  the  canal,  at  the  corner  of  Bridge  and  Broad  streets, 
should  be  a  meeting-place  —  an  Exchange,  or  a  kind  of  Rialto  —  for 

_  .^^^  the  New  York  mer- 

chants. There  they 
met  every  Friday, 
between  eleven  and 
twelve  o'clock,  to 
discuss  and  to  trade. 
Near  them  were  the 
chief  warehouses,  — 
the  five  stone  build- 
ings of  the  West 
India  Company  on 
the  Winckel  Street, 
which  ran  from 
Bridge  Street  to 
what  is  now  Pearl 
Street,  but  what 
was  then  a  road 
along  the  edge  of 
the  East  River, 
from  which  a  stout 
planking  defended 

View  of  Wall  Street.  its  Outer  Side.      This 

was  "  T'Water,"  or  "  Waterside ; "  l  but  some  parts  of  it  had  dif- 
ferent names,  from  one  of  which  —  Paerel  Straat  —  the  present 
title  comes.  On  Bridge  Street  —  so  near  the  "Exchange"  as  to 
overlook  it  —  lived  many  of  the  merchants  and  traders  ;  and  close  by 
were  the  most  prosperous  industries  of  the  little  town,  the  breweries, 
enough  to  give  their  name  to  a  street  —  Brouwer  Straat,  now  Stone 
Street,  —  the  tannery,  and  the  shops  of  smiths  and  shipwrights. 

But  though  the  exchange  had  its  one  busy  day,  the  real  centre  of 

*  Gerard,  36,  37. 


1670.]  THE  TOWN   OF  NEW  YORK.  341 

bustle  and  activity  was  only  reached  when  one  had  passed  the  stone 
house  of  the  Governor,  built  by  Stuyvesant  to  replace  the  one  for- 
merly used  in  the  fort,  and  called  by  the  English  "  the  Whitehall  "  — 
whence  Whitehall  Street,  —  and  had  come  to  the  Marckvelt  —  the 
market-place  of  the  town.  This  included  a  large  space  just  east  of 
Whitehall  Street,  and  south  of  Beaver ;  and  here  the  farmers,  when 
they  had  left  their  wagons  ranged  side  by  side,  and  their  horses 
picketed  to  graze  on  the  Common  (now  the  Bowling  Green),  spread 
out  their  goods  for  sale.  Some  came  by  boats  which  they  brought  up 
the  Broad  Street  canal  and  tied  to  the  bridge  ;  others  came  only  so 
far  as  the  single  dock  which  New  York  then  had,  on  the  East  River, 
a  little  below  the  mouth  of  the  canal,  where  was  a  smaller  market 
and  a  weigh-house.1  Barter  went  on  briskly,  but  little  coin  changed 
hands ;  wampum  and  beaver  skins  were  the  currency,  and  their  value 
varied  with  the  supply. 

Ovei-looking  all  this  busy  quarter  was  the  fort  —  Fort  Amsterdam 
under  the  Dutch,  and  Fort  James  under  their  successors. 
Bridge,  Whitehall,  and  State  streets,  and  the  Bowling 
Green,  now  bound  the  square  which  it  occupied  with  its  imposing,  if 
not  very  formidable  walls.  It  was  "  capable  to  lodge  three  hundred 
soldiers  and  officers  ; "  it  had  "  four  bastions,  and  forty  pieces  of  can- 
non mounted  ; "  and  was  "  of  stone,  lined  with  a  thick  rampart  of 
Earth ;  well  accommodated  with  a  spring  of  fresh  water,  always  fur- 
nished with  arms  and  ammunition  against  accidents."  2  Within  it  was 
the  stone  church, — the  one  which  Kieft  had  built,  —  with  double 
roof,  and  a  little  tower  between  the  two  gables  at  the  end  toward  the 
bay.3  The  old  brick  mansion  of  the  Governor  also  was  within  the 
walls,  and  houses  for  the  garrison.  In  one  bastion  towered  a  wind- 
mill ;  though  the  chief  windmill  was  probably  outside,  near  the  Hud- 
son, about  the  foot  of  Battery  Place.  As  a  structure  the  fort  lent 
considerable  dignity  to  the  little  island  town.  But  as  a  fortification 
it  was  almost  ludicrously  useless,  and  its  garrison  might  have  been 
picked  off  with  pistol  bullets  from  the  high  ground  near  by.  A  block- 
house would  have  been  as  good  defence  against  the  Indians  as  its  elab- 
orate bastions  and  stone-faced  walls ;  how  useless  they  were  against 
a  civilized  foe  there  was  evidence  enough  on  two  occasions. 

"  His  Majesty's  town  of  New  York,"  which  thus  covered  the  point 
of  Manhattan  lying  below  the  line  of  palisades,  was  hardly  Theenyiron. 
more  quaint  than  its  surroundings.  Along  the  Heere  Wegh  of  the  citT- 
toward  the  upper  end  of  the  Island  the  houses  and  bouweries  stood 
close  together  for  "a  little  distance  outside  the  wall.  Then  came 
the  thickly-wooded  and  wilder  region  to  the  north.  The  pleasant 
i  Gerard,  22.  2  Ogilby.  8  Ibid. 


342 


NEW  YORK. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


valley-road  called  the  Maagde-Padtje  —  Maiden  Lane  ;  the  deep,  still 
pond  surrounded  by  green  hills,  which  lay  where  the  prison  of  the 
Tombs  now  stands;  the  "Flats"  or  "Common,"  covering  the  site 
of  the  City  Hall  and  its  park;  the  "Kissing  Bridge"  about  the  cor- 
ner of  Chatham  and  Roosevelt  streets — over  which  no  right  minded 
young  Hollander  suffered  his  buxom  companion  to  pass  unsaluted;1 
all  these  were  near  enough  to  be  favorite  resorts  of  the  burghers  and 
their  English  fellow-townsmen.  Then  came  the  farms ;  and  after  a 
long  interval  of  partly  cleared  land,  the  "Great  Bouwerie"  (from 
which  the  present  Bowery  takes  its  name)  of  Governor  Stuyvesant. 
Here  the  old  Dutch  Governor  retired  after  his  return  from  Holland 
and  England,  to  take  no  part  in  government  matters  under  the  Eng- 
lish, but  to  live  for  a  few  years  in  quiet,  until,  in  1672,  he  died 

at  the  ripe  age  of 
eighty,  and  his 
towns-people  buried 
him  in  the  little 
chapel  he  had  built 
here  upon  his  farm. 
The  Governor's 
house  must  have 
stood  near  Tenth 
Street  of  modern 
New  York,  and  a  lit- 
tle east  of  Third 
Avenue.  Beyond 
it  stretched  swamps, 
woods,  and  clear- 
ings, interspersed 
with  outlying  plan- 
tations, over  the  rest  of  Manhattan,  to  New  Haarlem,  a  little  village 
at  the  junction  of  Harlem  and  East  rivers. 

From  the  Westchester  villages  along  the  Sound,  the  people  al- 
ways reached  New  York  by  water,  preferring  to  the  woods 
and  marshes,  the  terrible  perils  of  Hell-Gate.  The  old  de- 
scriptions of  this  dreaded  strait  show  careful  observation. 
"  A  place  called  Hell  Gate,"  one  calls  it ;  "  which  being  a  narrow 
passage,  there  runneth  a  violent  stream,  both  upon  flood  and  ebb,  and 
in  the  middle  lieth  some  Islands  of  Rocks,  which  the  Current  sets  so 
violently  upon  that  it  threatens  present  shipwreck  ;  and  upon  the 
flood  is  a  large  Whirlpool,  which  continually  sends  forth  a  hideous 
roaring,  enough  to  affright  any  stranger  from  passing  any  further,  and 

1  Gerard,  passim. 


The   Bowling  Green. 


Hell-gate 
and  East 
River. 


1670.] 


OTHER  TOWNS  AND   SETTLEMENTS. 


343 


to  wait  for  some  Charon  to  conduct  him  through ;  yet  to  those  that 
are  well  acquainted  little  or  no  danger  ;  yet  a  place  of  great  defence 
against  any  enemy  coming  in  that  way,  which  a  small  Fortification 
would  absolutely  prevent,  and  necessitate  them  to  come  in  at  the  West 
end  of  Long  Island  by  Sandy  Hook,  where  Nutten  Island  doth  force 
them  within 
command  of  the 
Fort  at  New- 
York,  which  is 
one  of  the  best 
Pieces  of  De- 
fence in  the 
North  parts  of 
America."1 

Witli  the  near- 
Hen  Gate  (from  an  Old  Dutch  Print). 

est  part  of  Long 

Island,  the  communication  was  by  a  ferry  near  the  present  Peck  Slip, 

where  such  passengers  as  would  cross   might   summon  the 

ferryman   by  blowing  a  horn    that   hung  to  a  neighboring  island 

tree.     The  ferryman's  boat  carried  its  passengers  to  Breuke- 

len,  described  as  a  village  with  "  a  small  and  ugly  church  standing  in 

the  middle  of   the  road ; "  whence  the  traveller  might   turn  to    the 

right  to  go  to  Gouanes  —  Gowanus,  —  to  't  Vlacke  Bos  —  Flatbush, 

—  to   Rust-dorp  —  Jamaica,  —  Heemsteede,    and    the   hamlets   and 
farms  beyond. 

Along  the  bank  of  the  Hudson,  and  kept  in  communication  with 
the  capital  by  the  little  shallops  of  the  settlers,  or  the  larger 
vessels  that  constantly  passed  up  and  down  with  goods  and  mentsouthe 

.  .         Hudson. 

peltries,  were  scattered  farms  and  little  settlements  ;   while 
Esopus,  Rensselaerswyck,  and  Albany  were  garrisoned  places  —  the 
latter  already  beginning  to  present  some  evidences  of  rapid  growth. 
To  the  northwest  of  Albany,  on  the  beautiful  Mohawk,  lay  the  very 
outpost  of  civilization,  the  hamlet  of  Schaenhechstede — Schenectady, 

—  which  had  been  laid  out  in  1664  by  Arendt  van  Curler,  the  former 
manager   of   Rensselaerswyck,    and    who   was   so   popular   with   the 
Iroquois  that  they  called  the   governors   of  New  York   "  Corlaers " 
from  his  name.     Regretted  by  Hollanders,  English,  French,  and  In- 
dians alike,  he  met  his  death  in  a  storm  on  Lake  Champlain,  in  1667, 
while  on  his  way  to  Quebec  as  an  ambassador  from  Nicolls. 

It  was  long  before  the  English  conquest  made  any  essential  impres- 
sion upon  the  aspect  or  character  of  these  Dutch  towns.  The  col- 
onists were  faithful  to  the  customs,  the  traditions,  and  the  habits  of 

1  Dentoii's  Description  of  New  York,  1670. 


344  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

the  Fatherland.  Everywhere  was  the  same  Dutch  picture.  It  has 
Domestic  been  often  enough  described.  The  Hollander,  and  his  son, 
Duet°u  cul-  and  h's  son's  son  after  him,  for  generations,  sat  by  the  same 
xens.  large  tiled  fire-place  ;  in  his  hand  was  his  long  clay  pipe  ; 

the  floor  about  him  was  strewn  with  clean  sand  swept  into  curves  and 
figures,  and  the  low-studded  room  scrupulously  clean  with  frequent 
scouring  ;  his  garden  was  filled  with  tulips  and  hyacinths  ;  over  the 
Dutch  gable  of  his  house  swung  the  traditional  weather-cock;  the 
porch  or  stoep  had  its  benches,  where  the  family  collected  on  summer 
evenings.  Within,  in  the  living  room,  the  settle  and  straight-backed 
leather  chairs,  the  great  glass-doored  cupboard  for  delft  and  p  ate, 
the  huge  linen-chest,  the  ponderous  curtained  bed  shut  into  its  alcove 
or  closet,  replaced  in  the  poorer  houses  by  the  mere  "  banck  "  or  bunk 
along  the  wall,  —  all  recalled  the  furniture  of  Holland,  whence,  in- 
deed, most  of  it  had  been  brought.  The  pages  of  Knickerbocker's 
History  rather  reproduce  than  caricature  these  homes  of  the  early 
Dutch  colonists.  Hospitality  was  boundless ;  and  with  the  hard  work 
of  every-day  life  was  mingled  a  good  deal  of  jovial  festivity.  In  the 
winter  were  the  quaint  tea-parties  for  the  elder  people,  and  the  balls 
for  both  young  and  old  at  the  town  tavern  —  afterward  the  Stadt-Huys 

—  on  Paerel  Straat,  from  five  until  the  watch  made  their  round  at  nine 
and  warned  all  to  go  home.     Even  the  staid  city  and  provincial  offi- 
cials had  their  times  of  unbending.     "  There  is  good  correspondence 
kept  between  the  English  and  Dutch,"  wrote  Commissioner  Maverick 
in  1669  ;  "  and  to  keep  it  the  closer,  sixteen  (ten  Dutch  and  six  Eng- 
lish) have  had  a  constant  meeting  at  each  other's  houses  in  turns,  twice 
every  week  in  winter,  and  ....  in  summer  once.     They  meet  at  six 
at  night,  and  part  about  eight  or  nine." l    And  other  authorities  speak 
of  the  "  Fiall,  Passado,  and  Madeira,"  to  say  nothing  of  punch,  both  of 
brandy  and  of  West  India  rum,  which  the  Dutch  called  "  kill-devil." 
There  were  out-door  sports  in  the  day-time  on  the  snow  and  ice.     If 
they  had  not  the  canals  of  Holland,  New  Amsterdam  was  a  place 
of  ponds,  and  the  undisturbed  waters  of  the  two  rivers  and  the  bay 
were  no  doubt  much  oftener  covered  with  solid  ice  than  now.     "  Its 
admirable,"  wrote  the  English  chaplain  of  the  fort,  "  to  see  Men  and 
Women  as  it  were  flying  upon  their  Skates  from  place  to  place,  with 
Markets  upon  their  Heads  and  Backs."  2 

In  the  summer  were  excursions  to  gather  peaches  and  strawberries 

—  the  trees  of  the  villages  of  the  rich  virgin   soil  about  New  York 
being  literally  borne  down  with  the  former  fruit,  and  the  ground 
covered  with  those  that  had  fallen.     As  for  the  strawberries,  on  Long 

1  Quoted  in  Brodhead,  ii.,  153. 

2  A  Two  Years'  Journal  in  New  York,  by  Charles  Wooley,  1679. 


1670.] 


GOVERNOR  LOVELACE. 


345 


Island  there  was  such  abundance  "  that  the  fields  and  woods  are  died 
red  :  Which  the  country-people  perceiving,"  says  an  old  writer,  "  in- 
stantly arm  themselves  with  bottles  of  wine,  cream  and  sugar,  and, 
instead  of  a  coat  of  Male,  everyone  takes  a  Female  upon  his  horse 
behind  him,  and  so  rushing  violently  into  the  fields,  never  leave  'till 
they  have  disrob'd  them  of  their  red  colours,  and  turned  them  into 
the  old  habit."  l 

Contrasting  the  simplicity,  the   contentment,   the   easy-going   in- 
dustry, and  the   love  of  harmless  amusement  in  these  Dutch  com- 
munities with   the 
restless      character 
which  belonged  to 
the  Southern  colo- 
nies, and  with  the 
bitter  theological 
and    political    con- 
troversies    which 
shook  those  of  New 
England,  it  is  plain 
that  New  York 
must  have  been  at 
this  time  the  hap- 
piest,  though    not 
the  most  progress- 
ive of  the  American 
provinces.    Love- 
lace's rule  was  ju- 
dicious and  for  the 
most  part   quiet. 
But  some  disputes 
between  the  Eng- 
lish and  Dutch  at 
Albany  called  for  the  sending  of  commissioners  thither  in  the  spring  of 
1670,  and  their  report  was  followed  by  the  dismissal  of  the 
English  commander,  Captain  Baker.     There  was  some  dis-  adminutr»- 
content  in  the  Long  Island  towns,  several  of  which  refusing 
to  contribute  to  renew  the  New  York  fortifications,  Lovelace  ordered 
their  votes  to  be  publicly  burned.     This  arbitrary  measure,  however, 
was  only  a  temporary  disposition  of  a  question  which  was  a  source 
of  subsequent  trouble.     On  the  northern  and  northwestern  borders  of 
the  province,  the  movements  of  the  French  and  their  great  progress 
in  the  exploration  and  occupation  of  the  country  also  gave  the  Gov- 

1  Deutuii's  A'ett.'  York. 


Burning  the  Votes. 


346  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV 

ernor  some  uneasiness,  though  less,  perhaps,  than  they  caused  in  New 
England.  But  there  was  neither  opportunity  nor  excuse  for  action  in 
the  matter,  and  he  contented  himself  with  reassuring  the  Albany 
people  that  it  was  very  improbable  that  when  there  was  no  war  in 
Europe,  Courcelles  would  begin  one  in  America.  On  the  whole,  the 
few  disquieting  matters  of  Lovelace's  administration  may  be  said  to 
have  happened  on  the  frontiers,  while  at  the  capital  all  went  well, 
and  the  province  daily  grew  in  strength  and  numbers. 

Recommendations  from  England  to  be  prepared  against  all  attacks, 
which  reached  Lovelace  in  February,  167*2,  were  followed  during  the 
next  month  by  explicit  instructions  from  the  King  to  erect  an  addi- 
tional battery  in  New  York,  and  to  see  that  ships  going  to  Europe 
should  sail  in  companies  for  safety.  Excepting  vague  rumors,  this 
was  the  first  news  that  reached  the  colony,  that  war  had  broken  out 
again  between  England  and  Holland. 

Charles  II.  had  shamelessly  abandoned  the  famous  Triple  Alliance  oy 
which,  in  1668,  the  plans  of  Louis  XIV.  had  been  thwarted, 

New  com- 
plications in   and  England  had   joined  with  its  Dutch  rival  in  one  of  the 

Europe.  i   .  .  t  -,  .  n 

strongest  combinations  ever  formed  against  a  European 
power.  The  league  had  been  entirely  successful  in  its  objects,  and 
WHS  universally  popular;  in  the  House  of  Commons  it  had  been  called 
"  the  only  good  publick  thing  that  hath  been  done  since  the  King 
come  into  England  ;  "  l  yet  Charles's  heart  had  never  been  in  it, 
nor  had  he  ceased  for  a  moment  to  treat  secretly  with  the  French 
king.  In  May,  1670,  he  concluded  with  Louis  the  infamous  treaty 
of  Dover,  according  to  which,  in  consideration  of  large  subsidies 
and  military  aid  from  France,  Charles  was  to  declare  himself  a 
Roman  Catholic,  and  use  his  utmost  endeavors  to  change  the  "  state 
of  religion  in  England  for  a  better  ;  "  2  while  France  and  England 
were  to  join  in  a  war  against  Holland.  The  opposition  of  Par- 
liament was  the  only  remaining  bar  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  latter 
design,  which  was  to  precede  the  fulfillment  of  the  other ;  but  a  way 
was  found  by  which  Parliament  was  deceived.  A  large  appropriation 
was  asked  of  it,  ostensibly  to  strengthen  the  fleet  for  the  purposes  of 
the  Triple  Alliance;  and  no  sooner  was  this  subsidy  obtained  than 
parliament  was  prorogued  (April,  1671).  Charles,  with  character- 
istic effrontery,  openly  declared  that  he  meant  to  keep  it  apart  for 
nearly  a  year.  Then,  for  the  sake  of  additional  supplies,  followed 

the  iniquitous  measure  of  closing  the  exchequer.    The  King's 

Renewed  •i-n  i-r-riiiii 

w«r aiding    object  was   attained.      France  and   England  declared    war 
against  the  Netherlands  on   March  17,   1672,  and  the  first 
battles,  both  by  sea  and  land,  followed  soon  after.     In  the  first  naval 
1  Pepys.  2  Green's  Short  History  of  the  English  People. 


1673.]  THE  DUTCH  BEFORE  NEW  YORK.  347 

conflict,  in  the  Solebay  in  Suffolk,  where  De  Ruyter  attacked  the 
French  and  English  ships,  Richard  Nicolls  was  standing  near  his 
master,  the  Duke  of  York.  In  the  midst  of  the  action  he  was  shot 
down  by  a  cannon  ball  from  one  of  the  Dutch  fleet. 

The  news  of  the  war,  and  the  explicit  instructions  that  came  with 
it,  might  well  excite  the  anxiety  of  Lovelace.  But  he  did  not  foresee 
—  indeed  he  had  no  reason  to  look  for  —  the  serious  consequences  that 
were  to  follow  to  his  own  province.  The  remainder  of  the  year  1672 
passed  away  quietly  enough,  but  in  the  spring  of  1673,  when  the 
Governor  was  temporarily  absent,  his  lieutenant,  Manning,  sent  for 
him  in  haste  to  come  back  to  New  York,  for  a  rumor  had  reached 
the  town  that  a  Dutcli  fleet  was  already  on  its  way  northward  from 
the  West  Indies.  The  Governor  thought  fit  to  "  slite  "  the  intelli- 
gence, and  characterized  it  as  "  one  of  Manning's  larrums."  1  But 
he  nevertheless  concentrated  a  considerable  force  at  New  York,  only 
to  be  dispersed  again  when  the  rumor  came  to  nothing.  Only  about 
eighty  men  were  left  in  the  dilapidated  Fort  James.  The  blow  was 
coming,  and  was  to  fall  upon  the  English  with  even  more  sudden- 
ness than  theirs  had  fallen  on  Stuyvesant  nine  years  before. 

On  the  seventh  of  August,  1673,  twenty-three  Dutch  ships,  carry- 
ing sixteen  hundred  men,  under  command  of  Cornelis  Evert- 
sen  and  Jacob  Binckes,  anchored  in  the  outer  bav  of  New  fleet  before 

New  York 

York,  just  below  Staten  Island.  The  fleet  was  last  from 
Virginia,  where  it  captured  a  number  of  English  merchantmen,  some 
of  which  were  burnt,  and  others  added  to  their  own  force.  The  ships 
were  in  need  of  wood  and  water,  and  would  have  run,  could  pilots 
have  been  procured,  into  Delaware  Bay.  It  was  accident,  therefore, 
rather  than  design,  which  took  them  to  New  York  ;  for  though  they 
were  assured  by  one  of  their  English  prisoners  that  the  place  was 
incapable  of  defence,  another  declared  that  there  were  a  hundred  and 
fifty  guns  mounted  at  the  fort,  and  that  five  thousand  men  could  be 
mustered  in  three  hours.  The  necessity  of  recruiting  compelled  the 
Dutch  to  seek  the  nearest  port,  and  they  entered  the  bay,  "  rather 
afraid,"  says  a  contemporary  writer,  "  of  receiving  some  disturbance 
from  New  Yorke  than  giving  any  to  it."  2 

The  Dutch  on  shore  hailed  the  arrival  of  their  countrymen  with 
delight,  and  soon  made  them  acquainted  witli  the  real  state  of  things. 
The  fort  was  garrisoned  by  only  seventy  or  eighty  men  :  the  guns 
were  either  dismounted  or  their  carriages  rotten  ;  the  Governor  was 
absent,  and  no  efficient  commander  was  in  his  place  ;  and  the  people 
generally  were  discontented  with  English  rule.  Encouraged  by  such 

1  Manning's  answer  to  charges  against  him.    Documentary  Hist.  ofN.  Y.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  57. 
8  Letter  of  Richard  Wharton  (contributed  by  George  H  Moore),  Hist.  Mag.,  Second 
Series,  vol.  i.,  p.  297. 


348  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

intelligence,  the  fleet  was  taken  within  the  Narrows  and  anchored  off 
Staten  Island.1 

Manning,  meanwhile,  was  not  idle.  Messengers  were  hurried  off  to 
Attempts  at  recall  Lovelace ;  orders  were  issued  to  the  military  captains 
of  the  towns  to  hasten  to  New  York  with  their  companies  ; 
the  drums  were  beaten  through  the  streets  for  volunteers  ;  the  smith 
was  set  to  work  to  repair  the  arms ;  the  commissary  was  sent  out  to 
gather  provisions  to  victual  the  fort  in  case  of  siege ;  and  to  gain 
time,  a  deputation  was  dispatched  to  the  fleet  to  demand  the  meaning 
of  the  approach  of  this  hostile  force.  Manning  —  it  was  afterward 
granted,  when  courts  sat  in  judgment  of  his  acts  —  was  not  a  coward, 
and,  no  doubt,  he  did  all  that  any  man  could  do  under  the  circum- 
stances in  discharge  of  his  duty.  But  his  efforts  were  in  vain  ;  there 
was  not  time  for  the  Governor  to  get  back  from  Connecticut ;  the 
militia  of  the  country  towns  refused  to  rally,  even  where  —  as  was 
the  case  in  only  two  or  three  instances  —  their  captains  responded  to 
the  summons  from  Manning  ;  the  drums  stirred  no  martial  ardor  in 
the  breasts  of  the  citizens  ;  the  labors  of  a  single  smith  on  firelocks 
could  avail  but  little  in  a  fort  where  nobody  would  come  to  use  them, 
where  six  only  of  the  large  guns  were  on  platforms,  and  to  the  whole 
there  were  only  four  sponges  and  four  ladles.  Even  his  attempt  to 
gain  time  by  sending  a  flag  to  the  fleet  probably  only  betrayed  weak- 
ness and  fear  to  the  enemy.  The  next  day  their  guns  were  frowning 
upon  Fort  James  from  as  many  ships  as  the  stream  in  front  could  con- 
veniently float. 

To  the  repeated  demand  for  surrender  Manning  could  only  ask  a 
New  York  little  more  time.  The  Dutch  commanders  would  give  at  last 
surrendered.  ^^  thirty  minutes,  and  turned  over  an  hour-glass  to  mark 
the  time.  As  the  last  sand  ran  out  they  opened  fire,  and  some  in  the 
fort  were  killed  and  some  wounded.  Any  defence,  of  course,  was 
utterly  hopeless,  though  the  fire  seems  to  have  been  returned  ;  but  at 
the  same  time  a  force  of  six  hundred  Dutch  landed  on  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson  in  the  rear  of  the  present  Trinity  Church  in  Broadway, 
and  moved  to  the  assault.  There  was  nothing  left  but  immediate 
capitulation.  Just  as  the  sun  went  down  the  Dutch  troops  marched 
into  the  fort  out  of  which  Stuyvesant  had  stumped  nine  years  before 
at  the  head  of  his  men.  How  happy  would  he  have  been  could  he 
have  lived  to  see  that  sight ! 

Again  with  a  change  of  rulers  came  a  change  of  names.     The 

province  of  New  York  was   once  more  New  Netherland  ; 

and  other      Fort  James  received  its  third  designation,  and  became  Fort 

changes. 

William  Hendrick,  in  honor  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  ;  the 

town  itself,  a  few  days  later,  was  declared  to  be  for  the  future  New 

i  Colden's  Letters.     N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  CM.,  1869. 


1673.] 


RE-CONQUEST   OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 


349 


Orange,  instead  of  New  Amsterdam,  as  it  had  been  under  the  rule  of 
the  West  India  Company.  Mayor,  aldermen,  and  sheriff,  gave  place 
in  name  as  well  as  officially,  and  burgomasters,  schepens,  and  sellouts, 
were  again  hailed  as  magistrates.  Dutch  supremacy  was  asserted, 
and  Dutch  influences  were  again  felt  to  be  paramount  in  all  the  rela- 
tions of  society. 

But  the  affairs  of  every-day  life  soon  resumed  their  usual  channels. 
Personal  hostilities,  perhaps,  may  have  seized  such  an  opportunity  for 
their  indulgence,  but  now,  as  nine  years  before,  there  seems  to  have 
been  little  disturbance  of  the  neighborly  harmony  and  friendship  ex- 
isting between  the  two  peoples.  Here,  indeed,  was  then  no  large 


The  Dutch  Ultimatum. 


city  ;  no  dangerous  class  was  hidden  away  in  dark  cellars  and  ob- 
scure attics,  to  swarm  in  unexpected  numbers,  ready  for  bloodshed 
and  plunder  at  the  first  sign  of  temporary  anarchy.  But,  neverthe- 
less, the  capture  of  New  Amsterdam  by  the  English,  and  the  recap- 
ture of  New  York  by  the  Dutch,  are  among  the  most  remarkable  in- 
stances in  history  of  peaceful  revolutions.  There  was  the  confisca- 
tion of  public  property,  and  its  conversion  to  the  use  of  the  victorious 
party,  which,  if  not  absolutely  necessary,  is  not  surprising.  But  the 
private  suffering  seems  to  have  been  hardly  enough  to  be  counted  as 
an  act  of  war.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  private  property  was  molested, 
except  that  the  houses  of  Lovelace  and  Manning  were  plundered  ;  and 
to  this  —  which  was  done  by  some  disorderly  soldiers  —  a  stop  was 
speedily  put.  Thus  in  those  times  as  in  ours,  it  seems  almost  to  have 


350  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

been  accepted  as  a  decree  of  Providence  that  New  York  should  always 
be  open  to  occupation  by  any  alien  race  that  thought  it  worth  its  while  ; 
and  that  any  rule  should  be  acceptable  to  its  citizens,  provided  there 
was  no  personal  outrage,  and  that  robbery  should  be  disguised  under 
the  form  of  municipal  government. 

The  Dutch  had  retaken  New  Netherland ;  and  the  two  command- 
prov-  ers  wno  had  accomplished  the  conquest,  after  they  had  ap- 
pointed  Anthony  Colve  to  be  temporary  governor,  and  is- 
gue(j  provisional  instructions  to  him  pending  advices  from 
the  Hague,  leaving  him  two  ships  of  war  for  protection,  sailed  away 
at  the  end  of  September  with  the  two  departments  of  their  fleet  — 
Evertsen  for  the  West  Indies,  and  Binckes  for  home.  Colve  issued 
provisional  instructions  to  his  new  subjects.  The  towns  on  the  Hud- 
son had  submitted  without  resistance  to  a  small  force  sent  against 
them  ;  New  Jersey  and  Delaware  had  quietly  acknowledged,  through 
delegates  from  the  chief  towns,  the  Dutch  restoration.  The  six 
towns  at  the  western  end  of  Long  Island  had  done  the  same  ;  others 
had  submitted  upon  being  sharply  summoned  ;  and  finally,  even  those 
at  the  eastern  end  were  forced  to  yield.  Lovelace  imprudently  ven- 
tured back  to  New  York  after  some  parley,  and  arrived  there  three 
days  after  the  surrender.  He  was  kindly  treated,  and  not  held  as 
a  prisoner  by  the  commanders  and  their  council  of  war  ;  but  though 
the  hand  of  military  law  spared  him,  he  had  been  only  three  days 
in  the  town  when  he  was  arrested  for  debt ;  and  during  all  the  rest 
of  the  Dutch  negotiations  he  remained  virtually  a  captive  among 
the  new  masters  of  the  province.  A  few  days  before  their  depar- 
ture, the  commanders,  after  some  consideration,  issued  a  decree  con- 
fiscating all  the  property  they  had  formerly  attached ;  and 
tionnof  the  unfortunate  Lovelace,  thus  stripped  of  his  last  guilder, 
was  quietly  told  that  if  he  would  now  pay  what  he  owed,  he 
would  in  six  weeks  be  permitted  freely  to  leave  the  country.  But 
though  the  property  of  his  subordinate  officers  and  of  some  other 
Englishmen  was  taken,  and  the  right  of  confiscation  against  all  Hol- 
land's enemies  in  America  was  assumed,  it  was  declared  that  "for 
sufficient  reasons  "  that  of  "  actual  inhabitants  "  of  New  England, 
Virginia,  and  Maryland,  might  be  for  the  present  exempt. 

At  the  end  of  September  Governor  Colve  found  himself  left  in 
undivided  authority  over  the  mixed  population  of  New  Or- 
ange  ;  the  "  Achter  Col "  (such  was  the  new  name  of  New 
Jersey);  the  Hudson  River  villages,  with  " Willemstadt " 
(Albany),  and  Esopus;  Westchester  and  Long  Island  ;  and  all  the 
rest  which  had  made  up  the  ancient  domain  of  New  Netherland  un- 
der his  Dutch  predecessors.  He  might  well  assume  the  state  of  "a 
coach  and  three  horses;"  yet  he  and  his  compatriots,  exultant  as  they 


1673.]  COLVE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  351 

•were  over  the  restoration  of  its  lost  jewel  to  the  Fatherland,  trembled 
when  they  thought  of  their  weak  condition,  surrounded  by  and  min- 
gled with  the  enemies  over  whom  they  had  achieved  their  victory. 
Reinforcements,  which  the  schout  and  schepens  of  New  Orange  had 
already  written  for,  must  be  sent  out  at  once,  and  Holland  must 
take  them  under  its  especial  protection  ;  for  it  was  not  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  few  thousands  of  subjects  which  the  States  had  in 
America  could  long  withstand  the  anger  and  the  retaliation  of  the 
French  and  English,  by  whom  New  Netherland  was  surrounded.  Sec- 
retary Van  Ruy ven,  sailing  for  home  in  September,  had  been  charged 
with  these  urgent  appeals ;  but  his  vessel,  having  almost  suffered 
shipwreck,  had  to  put  into  Nantucket,  whence  the  secretary,  to  the 
surprise  and  disappointment  of  every  one,  made  his  reappearance  in 
New  Orange  during  the  following  November.  The  news  he  carried 
was  destined  to  reach  Holland  by  other  hands.  Would  it  arrive  in 
time  to  secure  the  province  from  the  possibility  of  English  recapture  ? 
New  England  was  naturally  both  indignant  and  alarmed  to  hear 
that  the  Dutch  were  again  established  on  its  borders.  The 


commissioners  of  its  colonies  met  at  Hartford  early  in  Sep-  recapture 

received  in 

tember,  less  than  a  month  after  Evertsen  s  easjr  conquest,   New  Eng- 
and  passed  a  recommendation  that  each  member  of  the  New 
England  confederation  make  preparations  for  defence  against  a  possi- 
ble Dutch  attack.    Nor  were  those  wanting  who  urged  upon  the  meet- 
ing a   more  aggressive  policy.      But  want  of  union,  and    a  natural 
disinclination  for  war,  prevented.     Massachusetts  refused  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  offer  of  an  English  captain,  whose  ship  lay  at  Boston, 
to  retake  New  York  with  no  other  aid  than  that  of  supplies  and  a 
reinforcement.      Unless   the   conquered  region    could  be  annexed  to 
her  own  territory,  that  colony  did  not  care  to  engage  in  any  efforts  for 
the  recapture  of  New  York.     Plymouth  was  indifferent  in  the  mat- 
ter, so  long  as  freedom  from  Dutch  interference  with  her  coasters  was 
secured.     Connecticut  resolved  to  do  what  she  could  to  re- 
tain eastern  Long  Island,  at  all  events.      The  authorities  at  tween  the 
Hartford  sent  a  threatening  letter   to  Colve,  by  a  special  English"™- 

j  ,,  ,.  .      .  thority. 

messenger ;  and.  at  the  same  time  two  commissioners  were 
appointed  to  visit  the  island,  ascertain  the  state  of  affairs,  and  warn 
such  Dutch  authorities  as  they  might  find  there  of  the  possibility  of 
extreme  measures.  To  the  letter  Colve  replied  sharply  that  it  was 
"  impertinent  and  absurd,"  and  that  he  could  hardly  credit  its  coming 
from  Winthrop.  The  commissioners  were  met  off  the  Long  Island 
coast  by  three  officers  whom  Colve  had  previously  sent  out  to  visit 
the  eastern  towns,  and  receive  their  submission.  Treating  each  other 
civilly,  the  two  parties  of  commissioners  went  together  to  Southold, 


352  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

where  the  Englishmen  triumphed  in  so  far  as  to  find  the  inhabitants 
almost  unanimously  in  their  favor,  so  that  Colve's  men  retired  with- 
out accomplishing  anything.  The  Connecticut  messengers  returned 
to  Hartford  and  reported,  and  some  volunteers  were  sent  over  to  help 
the  Long  Islanders.  But  no  conflict  followed,  and  the  whole  matter 
went  over  quietly  until  it  was  swallowed  up  in  the  more  important 
events  which  were  soon  to  follow. 

So  also  passed  a  momentary  prospect  of  direct  conflict  with  Mas- 
sachusetts, excited  by  Colve's  prompt  confiscation  of  four  Massachu- 
setts coasters,  in  retaliation  for  the  carrying  away  of  the  wreck  of 
Van  Ruyven's  vessel  from  Nantucket,  as  the  prize  of  an  English 
privateer.  Massachusetts  fitted  out  a  war  vessel,  and  made  some 
preparations  for  reprisals.  But  she  did  nothing  moi'e  ;  nor  did  Plym- 
outh, in  spite  of  the  urging  of  Connecticut.  Rhode  Island  —  not  be- 
longing to  the  New  England  confederacy  —  looked  after  her  own  de- 
fence. The  year  1673  closed  with  the  rivals  in  America  occupying 
this  position  of  passive  hostility  ;  but  it  was  threatening  enough  to 
the  Dutch  at  New  Orange  to  make  them  long  the  more  anxiously  for 
aid  from  home. 

Once  more,  as  in  the  past,  the  course  of  events  in  Europe  was  to 
Rumors  of  decide  the  fate  of  New  Netherland  without  the  knowledge  of 
ofextwion  its  people  or  its  neighbors.  During  the  first  few  days  of 
Netheriana.  7yjay  167^  Mvh\\e  Colve  and  his  officers  were  hard  at  work 
at  the  labor  which  had  chiefly  occupied  their  minds  throughout  the 
spring  —  the  strengthening  of  the  town  against  a  possible  "  New  Eng- 
land army,"  —  two  men  came  to  Manhattan  from  Connecticut,  de- 
spite an  edict  forbidding  the  coming  of  New  Englanders  without  pass- 
ports, and  brought  the  first  rumor  of  a  treaty  restoring  the  Dutch 
province  to  the  English  crown.  So  enraged  were  the  citizens  of  New 
Orange  at  the  mere  report,  that  they  arrested  and  punished  these 
bearers  of  evil  tidings.  They  collected  in  excited  groups  in  the 
streets,  cursing  the  rulers  at  home  who  would  give  up  so  readily  the 
greatest  colony  of  the  Fatherland.  One  of  the  messengers,  returning 
to  Connecticut,  declared  there  that  the  New  Netherlander  vowed  in 
their  wrath  that  no  demand  or  authority  "  of  the  States  or  Prince  " 
should  make  them  surrender  again  ;  but  that  they  would  keep  their 
territory  "  by  fighting,  so  long  as  they  could  stand  with  one  leg  and 
fight  with  one  hand." 

This  warlike  ardor  cooled  with  time,  however,  and  the  rumor  proved 
New  Nether-  to°  true-  On  tne  sixth  of  March,  the  treaty  of  Westminster 
gtvenX'to  hac*  been  proclaimed  at  London,  and  at  the  H;igue,  whereby 
England.  New  Netherland  was  surrendered  to  England.  On  the 
eleventh  of  July,  the  Governor  gave  official  notice  at  the  Stadt  Huys 


1674.] 


NEW  NETHERLAND   CEDED   TO   ENGLAND. 


353 


that  peace  was  made  between  England  and  Holland,  and  that  on 
duly  authorized  demand  he  must  give  up  the  province  over  which  he 
had  ruled  for  less  than  one  short  year. 

The  events  which  brought  about  the  Peace  of  Westminster  are 
familiar  passages  of  English  history.  In  the  hot  conflict  be-  ETentgsn, 
tween  King  Charles  and  his  party  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  ] 
Commons  and  people  of  England  on  the  other,  over  questions  that 
were  believed  to 
involve  the  safety 
of  Protestantism  in 
the  kingdom, 
Charles  had  been 
for  the  moment 
worsted.  At  first 
forced  into  recall- 
ing his  "  Declara- 
tion of  Indul- 
gence,"  whereby  all 
"  penal  laws  on 
matters  ecclesiasti- 
cal against  what- 
ever sort  of  Non- 
conformists or  re- 
cusants "  were  suspended, 


he  had 


Old   House.  Southold,   Long  Island. 


at  once  closely  pressed  by  the  passage 
in  Parliament  of  the  "  Test  Act,"  which 
compelled  all  holding  civil  and  military 
office  under  government  to  take  an  oath 
which  was  impossible  to  Roman  Catho- 
lics. This  compelled  the  resignation  of 
the  Duke  of  York  as  Lord  High  Admiral  of  the  fleet,  of  Sir  Thomas 
Clifford  as  a  cabinet  minister,  and  of  many  others.  Some  of  the  cab- 
inet would  have  carried  resistance  to  this  act  to  any  length  ;  but  the 
King,  once  driven  to  yield,  refused  his  support.  He  only  turned  sav- 
agely upon  his  chancellor  and  most  able  minister,  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
who  had  aided  the  Parliament,  demanded  from  him  the  seals,  and  so 
drove  his  strongest  adviser  into  a  determined  opposition.  The  effect 
of  this  was  quickly  seen  in  the  increased  bitterness  and  strength  of 
the  Protestant  measui'es  now  pressed  by  Parliament.  The  war  against 
the  Protestant  Prince  of  Orange  and  his  nation,  which  even  in  a  mil- 
itary point  of  view  had  been  unsuccessful,  grew  more  unpopular  every 
day.  Defeated  at  home  by  the  masterly  use  made  by  Shaftesbury  of 
the  opposing  elements,  discouraged  by  events  abroad,  and  unable  to 

VOL.  ii.  23 


354 


NEW   YORK. 


[CHAP.  XIV- 


New  York 


rule 


sufficiently  repair  his  exhausted  resources  even  by  his  old  shameless 
means  of  a  resort  to  France,  Charles  was  driven  into  a  third  surren- 
der. He  adopted  a  policy  of  concession  and  conciliation  at  home ;  and 
he  consented  to  make  peace  with  Holland. 

These  were  the  events  which  had  unexpectedly  reacted  on  the  fate 
°^  the  Dutch  province  in  America.  New  York  was  to  re- 
mam  in  English  hands  from  this  time  forth  ;  and  though 
virtually  winners  of  a  peace  on  their  own  continent,  the 
Dutch  were  to  give  up  for  it  their  only  stronghold  on  this.  A  new 
patent  to  the  Duke  of  York  was  issued  in  June,  1674.  He  ap- 
pointed as  his  governor  Major  Edmund  Andros,  an  officer  of  dis- 
tinction, whom  the  King  had  already  in  March  appointed  to  receive 
the  surrender  of  New  Orange  under  the  treaty  ;  and  on  the  first  of 
November  the  British  frigates  Diamond  and  Castle  made  their 
appearance  at  the  anchorage  off  Staten  Island. 

On  the  ninth  of  the  month,  Colve,  who  had  asked  a  week's  delay  to 
make  all  final  arrangements,  absolved  the  city  officials,  in  solemn  con- 
clave at  the  Stadt  Huys,  from  their  oaths  of  allegiance  to  Holland  ; 
and  on  Saturday,  the  tenth,  "  the  New  Netherland  and  dependances" 
were  formally  given  over  to  "Governor  Major  Edmund  Andros  on 
behalf  of  His  Britannic  Majesty."  The  English  names  were  restored, 
the  English  laws  reestablished,  as  they  had  been  under  Nicolls  and 
Lovelace.  A  great  number  of  the  provincial  and  local  officers  were 
reinstated ;  the  Mayor's  Court  was  again  convened  at  New  York ;  the 
routine  of  public  business  and  private  life  went  on  as  before.  The 
few  months  of  Dutch  occupation  had  hardly  left  a  trace  on  the  gov- 
ernment which  Nicolls  had  been  the  first,  since  the  settlement  of 
Manhattan  Island,  to  bring  into  a  really  smooth,  continuous  course  of 
prosperity. 


gjBplBjffl 


une 

PETRUS  STUYVESANT 
Captain  Gencrd^GovernorinChiefofAmstertCa 

InNewNefherland  now  caJIed.New^  York 
DutchWesft  IndialsIandsDieJ.AD.l6r 


Tomb  0(    Stuyvesant 


CHAPTER  XV. 

NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHARLESTON  FOCNDBD. —  WAR  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  GOVERNOR  MORETON. —  JO- 
SEPH BLAKE.  —  LORD  CARDROSS'S  SETTLEMENT  AT  PORT  ROYAL. —  PIRACY  AND 
SPANISH  HOSTILITY.  —  CARDROSS'S  COLONY  DESTROYED.  —  SOTHEL  DEPOSED  AND 

BANISHED     FROM    ALBEMARLE.  —  HE     LEADS    A    REVOLUTION     IN    THE    SOUTH.  —  HlS 

CAREER. — THE   COLONIES   UNDER  ONE   GOVERNOR. —  INTRODUCTION  OF  RICE. — 
JOHN  ARCHDALE  GOVERNOR.  —  PROSPERITY  OF  THE  COLONIES  UNDER  HIS  RULE. 

WHILE  northern  Carolina  had  been  passing  through  a  time  of 
such  disturbance  and  adversity,  the  people  at  the  south  had 

i  •     J      £          '    *          J  A-  J          The  South. 

enjoyed  a  period  of  quiet  and  comparative  prosperity  under  em  coion- 
the  skilful  rule  of  Joseph  West.  Not  that  the  settlements 
at  Cape  Fear  and  Ashley  River  were  free  from  the  troubles  which 
disturbed  every  American  colony  —  differences  of  religion,  and  feuds 
between  the  Puritans  of  New  England  and  the  Royalists  who  had 
come  out  under  the  Proprietors'  patronage ;  —  but  these  were  held  in 
check  by  the  Governor,  and  were  little  interruption  to  the  general 
course  of  affairs.  There  was  a  steady  flow  of  emigrants  from  Eng- 
land ;  and  Huguenots  from  France  sought  a  refuge  from  persecution 
at  home  in  a  region  whose  pleasant  climate  had  for  them  a  peculiar 
attraction.  In  April,  1679,  the  King  gave  a  token  of  favor  to  the 
Proprietaries  and  the  new  colony  in  sending  out  at  his  own  expense 
two  vessels  with  a  band  of  Frenchmen  skilled  in  vine  growing  and 
silk-producing,  who  brought  with  them  vine-slips  and  silkworms'  eggs 
for  the  establishment  of  those  industries. 

During  the  years  that  had  passed  since  their  first  settlement,  the 
Ashley  River  people  had  not  failed  to  see  their  mistake  in  settling  so 
far  up  the  stream.  Some,  indeed,  seem  not  to  have  made  this  error  at 
all ;  for  the  old  records  speak  of  people  both  from  the  Ashley  settle- 
ment and  from  Cape  Fear,  "  resorting  to  Oyster  Point "  from  the 
earliest  times  of  the  colony ;  and,  doubtless,  dwellings  had  been  built 
there  at  the  same  time  that  the  town  had  been  founded  on  the  more 
inland  bluff.  This  "  Oyster  Point  "  was  at  the  junction  of  the  Ashley 
and  Cooper  Rivers ;  and  the  tendency  to  resort  thither  had  grown  so 
strong  by  the  beginning  of  1680  that  the  authorities  yielded  to  it. 


356 


NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


as  they  should  have  done  long  before.  The  old  town  was  abandoned 
Charleston  altogether  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  and  the  foundations  of 
founded.  a  new  Charles  Town  —  the  present  city  of  Charleston  —  were 
laid  on  what  had  from  the  beginning  been  pointed  out  by  nature  as 
the  proper  site  for  the  colonial  port. 

The  new  town  was  judiciously  planned.  A  visitor,  in  the  first 
year  of  its  existence,  described  it  as  "  regularly  laid  out  into  large 
and  capacious  streets,  which  to  Buildings  is  a  great  Ornament  and 
Beauty.  In  it  they  have  reserved  convenient  places  for  Building  of  a 
Church,  Town  House,  and  other  Publick  Structures,  an  Artillery 
Ground  for  the  Exercise  of  their  Militia,  and  Wharves  for  the  Con- 
venience of  their  Trade  and  Shipping.  At  our  being  thei-e  was  judged 


in  the  Country  a 
1000  or  1200  souls ; 
but  the  great  Num- 

.  .     .  Abandonment  of  Old  Charles  Town. 

bers  ot  families 
from  England,  Ireland,  Berbadoes,  Jamaica,  and  the  Caribees,  which 
daily  Transport  themselves  thither,  have  more  than  doubled  that 
Number"  [that  is,  between  the  visit,  1680,  and  the  publication, 
1682] . l  The  extreme  unhealthfulness  of  the  place  soon  passed  away, 
a  "  fortunate  revolution  "  which  "  men  of  discernment  ....  attrib- 
uted to  the  dispersion  or  purification  of  the  noxious  vapour  by  the 
smoke  issuing  from  the  numerous  culinary  fires."  2 

Contemporary  testimony  does  not  give  the  most  favorable  account 
of  the  discipline  and  manners  which  prevailed  in  the  promising  new 

1  A  Compleat  Discovery  of  the  Stale  of  Carolina,  by  T.  A.,  Gent.,  London,  1682. 

2  Chalmers. 


1680.] 


WAR  WITH   THE   INDIANS. 


35T 


1   It  was  the 
story   of 


town  ;   and  the  looseness  and  turbulence  which  ruled  there,  though 
not  of  a  kind  to  make  political  disturbance,  brought  upon 

.,  ,  .,         ,  .   \       .  ,.  ,,  i-i        Character  of 

the  colony  an   evil  which  for  a  time  threatened  seriously  the  chariex- 

to  check  its  progress.     "  The  most  desperate  Fortunes  first 

ventured  over  to  break  the  Ice,"  explains  one  chronicler,  in  account- 

ing for  the  character  of  his  fellow-settlers,  "  which  being  generally 

the  Ill-livers  of   the  pretended  Church-men,  altho'  the   Proprietors 

commissionated  one  Colonel  West  their  Governour,  a  moderate,  just, 

pious,  and  valiant  person  ;  yet  having  a  Council  of  the  loose  princi- 

pled Men,  they  grew  very  unruly,  that  they  had  like  to  have  Ruin'd 

the    Colony   by 

Abusing  the  Indi- 

ans, whom  in  pru- 

dence   they  ought 

to  have  obliged  in 

the   highest   de- 

gree. 

usual 

abuse  in  trade,  the 

taking  of  the   In- 

dian  women,    and 

the  oppressive 

punishment  of  tri- 

fling offences  often 

brought   about  by 

rum  or  ignorance  ; 

and   the  Westoes, 

the    tribe    of    the 

neighborhood, 

were    a  warlike 

people,  and   not 

slow    to    retaliate. 

After   a    series  of 

petty  raids,  actual  war  broke  out  with  them  in  1680,  —  the  first  year 

of  the  new  seaport. 

Fortunately  for  the  colony,  it  was  comparatively  strong,  well-armed, 
and,  above  all,  well  led  by  West  ;  and  the  war  was  a  vig- 
orous  and  short  one,  the  savages  gladly  making  peace  within 
a  year  after  its  beginning.  But  the  conflict  had  worse  results  than 
the  actual  fighting.  To  obtain  the  money  for  carrying  it  on,  West 
and  his  Council  had  adopted  the  plan  of  offering  a  price  for  every  In- 

1  A  New  Description  of  That  Fertile  and  Pleasant  Province  of  Carolina,  etc.     By  John 
Archdale,  late  Governor.     London,  1707.     la  Carroll's  Historical  Coll.,  vol.  ii. 


An   Indian   sent   into   Slaver 


the  lndians- 


358  NORTH  AND   SOUTH  CAROLINA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

dian  captive,  and  then  selling  all  who  were  brought  in  to  West  Indian 
slave -traders,  who  again  disposed  of  them  profitably  in  the  Islands.1 
The  war  had  thus  changed,  before  its  close,  from  one  of  defence  to 
one  of  pure  greed.  The  colonists  gained  money  with  every  captive 
they  sold  to  the  authorities  ;  the  authorities,  with  eveiy  one  they  sold 
to  the  traders  ;  and  this  flourishing  traffic  went  on  uninterrupted  until 
it  was  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Proprietors,  who  for  once  inter- 
fered promptly  and  successfully. 

Expressing  their  strong  disapprobation  of  "  this  barbarous  prac- 
tice,"  2  and  sharply  pointing  out  the  necessity  of  concili- 
ating  the  Indians  by  just  treatment,  they  gave  strict  orders 
pressed.  against  the  kidnapping  of  any  savages,  now  that  peace  had 
been  concluded,  and  appointed  a  commission  of  four  members  to  try 
all  causes  of  dispute,  and  to  do  full  justice  to  any  on  either  side  who 
might  wrong  the  other.3  But  these  measures  were  not  enough.  The 
Council  openly  supported  the  continuance  of  a  traffic  which  had 
proved  so  profitable  ;  and  even  West,  contrary  to  his  usual  modera- 
tion and  wisdom,  opposed  his  superiors  in  this.  The  enemies  he  had 
made  among  the  turbulent  but  influential  church-party  in  the  colony, 
took  advantage  of  the  attitude  he  thus  assumed  to  turn  the  Proprie- 
tors against  him ;  and  in  1683  he  was  removed  by  their  order,  after 
nine  years  of  successful  administration,  and  Joseph  Moreton  was  ap- 
pointed Governor  of  Southern  Carolina  in  his  place. 

Moreton  not  only  had  the  old  dissensions  to  quiet,  —  in  attempting 
which  he  had  little  success,  —  but  he  was  almost  immedi- 
ately  confronted  by  new  troubles.  West  had  held  a  "  par- 
«uities.  liament "  at  Chai-lestown  in  1682,  which  had  made  a  few 
disciplinary  laws,  and  organized  a  militia  ;  and  soon  after  his  appoint- 
ment Moreton  called  a  similar  one,  to  organize  further  the  affairs  of 
the  province.  The  Proprietors  had  now  made  Charleston  the  capital 
of  Southern  Carolina,  or  at  least  had  ordered  elections  and  parlia- 
ments to  be  held  there  ;  and  all  the  southern  part  of  the  province  had, 
in  1682,  been  divided  into  three  great  counties,  —  Craven,  including 
much  of  that  formerly  called  Clarendon  ;  Berkeley,  the  region  imme- 
diately surrounding  Charleston  ;  and  Colleton,  the  country  to  the 
south,  extending  to  the  region  about  Port  Royal.  It  had  been  ordered 
that  the  lower  house  of  the  parliament  —  for  there  was  still  an  attempt 
to  make  that  body  somewhat  resemble  that  prescribed  in  the  "  Grand 
Model  "  —  should  consist  of  twenty  members  ;  and  it  was  with  regard 
to  the  election  of  these  that  the  colonists  met  the  first  of  a  long  series 
of  legislative  difficulties. 

It  is  evident  that  a  large  number  of  scattered  settlers  had  by  this 
1  Chalmers.  Oldmixon.  2  Chalmers.  8  Oldmixon. 


1682.]  REPRESENTATION  AND   LEGISLATION.  359 

time  established  themselves  along  the  coast  to  the  southward,  or  in- 
land at  some  distance  south  and  southwest  of  the  capital.  For  al- 
though Craven  County  was  considered  to  have  so  few  inhabi-  Cho0ging 
tants  that  it  was  not  worth  while  for'  it  to  elect  deputies  at  all,  tt^Pwiia1-0 
yet  Colleton  County  was  allowed  to  choose  ten  of  the  twenty  ment 
members  of  the  new  Parliament,  the  rest  representing  Berkeley.  It 
was  this  allotment  which  caused  the  trouble.  The  Berkeley  people 
would  not  permit  their  scattered  neighbors  to  have  a  delegation  equal 
to  that  of  the  crowded  town,  and  quietly  took  the  matter  into  their 
own  hands  by  choosing  themselves  all  the  twenty  members.  There 
may  have  been  other  reasons  for  this  action  than  the  alleged  one  of 
inequality  of  population.  The  people  of  the  inland  country  may  not 
have  been  willing  to  support  the  people  of  the  port  in  the  traffic  in 
Indian  slaves,  —  the  retaliation  of  the  savages  having  naturally  more 
terrors  for  them  than  for  the  inhabitants  of  a  town.  Whatever  was 
the  cause,  the  usurpation  of  power  by  the  capital  was  suc- 
cessful ;  the  twenty  Berkeley  delegates  met,  and  made  laws  the  Berkeley 
which  were  approved  by  Moreton  and  his  Council.  Nor 
would  they  dispei-se  at  the  command  of  the  Proprietors,  who  indig- 
nantly ordered  them  to  do  so,  and  not  to  meet  again  until  they  should 
have  obeyed  instructions.  Not  this  Parliament  only,  but  subsequent 
ones,  seem  to  have  utterly  disregarded  the  proprietary  orders  ;  until 
at  last,  apparently  in  despair,  the  Proprietors  gave  the  Berkeley  peo- 
ple their  own  way,  and  the  one-sided  system  of  representation  con- 
tinued till  the  inhabitants  of  other  counties  grew  numerous  enough  to 
take  the  matter  into  their  own  hands,  and  put  a  stop  to  it. 

The  laws  passed  by  the  Parliament  were  of  little  moment,  save  one 
following   the  example  of   Albemarle   by  suspending    "  all 
prosecutions  for  foreign  debts."     So  indignant  were  the  Pro- 


prietaries  at  the  passage  and  signature  of  such  an  Act,  —  so 
"contrary  to  the  King's  honor,"  being  "in  effect  to  stop  the  course  of 
justice,"  —  that  they  ordered  all  officers  to  be  "displaced,  who  had 
promoted  it."  1     It  was  probably  for  this,  among  other  things,  that 
Moreton,  like  West  before  him,  was  made  a  scapegoat.     He  seems  to 
have  tried  honestly  to  carry  out  the  Proprietors'  wishes,  —  to  have 
checked  the  Indian  slave  traffic,  and  to  have  made  himself  unpopular 
on  this  account  ;  while  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  was  in  any  sense  a 
"  promoter  "  of  the  acts  of  a  Parliament  which  was   too   strong   for 
him.     Whether  he  resigned    because  of  popular  enmity,  or  Wefttagain 
was  deposed   by  his  superiors,  he  ceased   to  govern  within   Governor 
a  year  after  his  appointment,  and  the  Council  made  West  governor 
again  until  a  new  officer  should  be  sent  out  from  England. 

1  Chalmers 


360  NORTH  AND   SOUTH  CAROLINA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

Meanwhile  the  colony  received  additions,  promising  better  for  the 
future   than  did   the   original   settlers.     In   1683   Joseph   Blake,  the 
i  of      brother  of  the  famous  English  admiral,  and  a  dissenter  of 

great  influence,  led  a  new  company  to  Southern  Carolina. 

They  were  of  his  own  way  of  thinking  —  men  who  be- 
lieved "  that  the  miseries  they  endured  "  in  their  native  Somersetshire 
"  were  nothing  to  what  he  [Blake]  foresaw  would  attend  the  Reign 
of  a  Popish  successor."1  "  Many  honest  substantial  Persons  "were 
among  these  emigrants,  who  must  have  found  themselves  strangely 
at  variance  with  the  turbulent  people  of  Charleston,  in  and  near 
which  they  seem  to  have  made  their  homes.  A  company  of  Irish- 
men, who  came  out  about  the  same  time  under  the  leadership  of  one 
Ferguson,  and  who  "  instantly  mingled  with  the  mass  of  the  inhabi- 
tants," were  more  welcome. 

During  West's  brief  second  administration,  the  county  of  Colleton 
Lord  card-  a'so  received  an  important  accession  of  good  colonists  —  a 
£e"nt8atPort"  company  of  Scotch  Presbyterians  who,  under  the  leadership 
*°ya*-  of  Lord  Cardross,  afterward  the  Earl  of  Buchan,  made  a  set- 
tlement at  Port  Royal,  in  1684.  They  understood  that  their  agents 
had  secured  beforehand  from  the  Proprietors  in  London  the  same 
rights  and  privileges  that  had  been  granted  to  the  government  at 
Charleston  —  that  they  were  to  be  an  independent  colony.  But 
they  found  on  such  a  question  the  people  of  the  country  more 
powerful  than  the  Proprietors,  and  that  assent  to  so  divided  a  juris- 
diction would  never  be  given.  Cardross  left  the  colony  in  disgust, 
but  his  companions  were  compelled  to  accept  a  condition  which  they 
had  not  the  means  to  escape  from  nor  the  strength  to  resist. 

During  these  two  years  governors  —  Kyle,  Moreton,  West,  Quarry 

—  followed  each  other  in  rapid  succession,  none  of  them  re- 
change  of  maining  long  enough  in  office  to  influence  essentially  the 

history  of  that  period  either  for  good  or  evil,  or  influencing 
it  only  so  far  as  they  fell  in  with  the  temper  of  the  times  though  with- 
out controlling  it.  The  western  Atlantic,  and  especially  the  region 
about  the  West  Indies,  had  been  for  years  infested  with  adventurers 
who  had  in  most  cases  begun  as  privateers,  but  who  continued  their 

depredations   after   the   wars   had    ceased.        They   preyed 

chiefly  upon  Spanish  commerce,  and  while  this  assured 
them  of  immunity  from  the  English  government,  they  were  certain  of 
the  sympathy  if  not  the  cooperation  of  the  southern  English  colonists, 
to  whom  fear  of  Spanish  incursion  was  familiar. 

The  Spaniards  had  not  abandoned  their  ancient  claim  to  all  the 
territory  which  the  English  had  included  in  the  region  of  Southern 

1  Oldmixon. 


u 


c 

OS 


O 

H 

W 

u 

S5 
< 

Oi 


C 


1684.] 


THE   BUCCANEERS. 


361 


Carolina.  In  1670  an  expedition  started  from  St.  Augustine  to  root 
out  the  settlement  just  made  on  Ashley  River  ;  but,  having  gone  only 
so  far  north  as  Stono  Inlet,  returned  on  learning  that  the 

.  ' 

English  were  prepared  to  receive  them.      Ihreats  of  a  more 
serious   invasion   were   often   made.      In    Charleston    there 
was   a   hearty  welcome   for    Buccaneers  who  preyed   upon 
Spanish  commerce.     The  port  was  a  convenient  recruiting  station  ; 
the  pirates  were  lavish  of  their  ill-gotten  gains  ;  the  love  of  adventure 


SpanUh  hos- 

tint)  creates 

sympathy 


Pirates  in  Charleston. 


appealed  to  the  lawless  ;  the  hope  of  the  capture  of  Spanish  ships  laden 
with  treasure  excited  the  cupidity  of  the  more  sober-minded.  Piracy 
of  this  sort  did  not  want  for  encouragement  directly  from  the  reck- 
less sailors  about  the  wharves,  indirectly  even  from  governors  and 
councils. 

Not  only  the  Proprietaries  but  the  King  took  immediate  notice  of 


362  NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

this  spirit  in  Carolina,  as  soon  as  it  was  openly  manifested  under  the 
administrations  of  West  and  Quarry.  As  early  as  April,  1684,  "  a 
law  against  pirates  "  or  their  encouragement  had  been  sent  out  with 
the  most  stringent  directions  of  the  Propi-ietors  that  it  must  be  at 
once  obeyed.  But  this,  like  repeated  instructions  which  followed 
later,  and  like  the  removal  of  Quarry,  and  other  measures  of  suppres- 
sion, proved  altogether  unavailing.  The  difficulty  was  not  to  be 
ended  during  Charles  II.'s  reign  ;  and  it  was  not  until  James  II.,  in 
1687,  sent  a  fleet  to  put  down  the  pirates  with  a  stronger  hand  than 
that  of  written  law,  that  the  Carolinians  were  frightened  into 
obedience. 

One  sharp  and  unexpected  act  of  retaliation  on  the  part  of  the 
The  Port  Spaniards  struck,  perhaps,  the  least  blameworthy  of  all  the 
Royai  coio-  Carolina  settlements.  In  1686,  a  year  after  Moreton's  re- 

ny  destroyed  .  .   , 

by  the  span-  appointment,  three  Spanish  galleys  suddenly  appeared  be- 
fore Lord  Cardross's  little  colony  of  Scotchmen  at  Port 
Royal.  The  crews  landed,  and  meeting  but  little  resistance  from  the 
settlers,  "  killed  and  whipped  a  great  many,  after  taken,  in  a  most 
cruel  and  barbarous  manner  ; "  and  having  destroyed  the  place,  took 
ship  again  and  sailed  up  the  coast.  Landing  again  at  an  outlying 
settlement  called  Bear  Bluff,  on  Edisto  River,  a  little  south  of  Charles- 
ton, they  sacked  the  place,  and  took  prisoner  Governor  Moreton's 
brother,  the  leading  colonist  there.  The}'  would  have  gone  farther, 
perhaps  to  venture  on  an  attack  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
the  town,  but  were  prevented  by  a  hurricane,  in  which  one  of  their 
galleys  was  driven  ashore  so  far  that  she  could  not  be  got  off.  So 
that,  "  the  Country  being  by  that  Time  sufficiently  Alarmed,  they 
thought  proper  to  make  a  Retreat ;  but  first  set  Fire  to  that  Galley 
on  board  which  Mr.  Morton  was  actually  then  in  Chains,  and  most 
inhumanly  burnt  in  her."1 

Naturally  enough  the  Carolinians  proposed  an  immediate  return 
for  this  injury,  and  preparations  were  made  at  once  for  an 
toJ forbid6"  expedition  against  St.  Augustine,  which  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  doubted  their  ability  to  take.  But  the  Proprietaries 
promptly  forbade  it.  "  Every  rational  man,'?  they  wrote,  "  must 
have  foreseen  that  the  Spaniards,  thus  provoked,  would  assuredly 
retaliate;  ....  the  clause  in  the  patent  that  had  been  relied  on 
to  justify  the  measure"  (the  section  permitting  the  colonists  "to 
make  war  and  pursue  the  enemies  aforesaid,"  etc.),  "  meant  only 
a  pursuit  in  heat  of  victory,  not  a  deliberate  making  war  on  the 
King  of  Spain's  subjects  within  his  own  territories:  nor  do  we 
claim  any  such  power :  No  man,  however,  can  think  that  the  depen- 

1  Introduction  to  Oglethorpe's  Report  on  the  Expedition  against  St.  Augustine. 


1686.] 


SPANISH   HOSTILITIES. 


363 


dencies  of  England  can  have  power  to  make  war  upon  the  King's 
allies,  without  his  knowledge  or  consent." 1  The  Charleston  peo- 
ple yielded,  and  abandoned  the  enterprise,  though  whether  owing 
to  these  persuasions  or  to  the  difficulties  of  the  proposed  expedition, 
must  remain  a  matter  of  doubt.  At  all  events,  the  authorities  re- 
ceived a  rather  grim  congratulation  from  their  superiors,  who  wrote, 
"  We  are  glad  you  have  laid  aside  your  project,  as,  had  it  proceeded, 
Moreton,  Godfrey,  and  others  might  have  answered  it,  perhaps,  with 
their  lives.2  Furthermore,  they  received  the  somewhat  aggravating 


Burning  of  the  Spanish  Galley. 

instruction  to  write  a  "  civil  letter  "  to  the  St.  Augustine  commander, 
inquiring  by  what  authority  he  had  acted.  Whether  the  letter  was 
"  civil "  or  not,  it  is  not  surprising  that  all  the  older  chroniclers  of 
Carolina  date  from  this  time  a  rooted  animosity  between  the  colony 
and  its  southern  neighbors. 

In  spite  of  the  reproof  of  the  Proprietors  Moreton  certainly  seems 
to  have  had  as  good  intentions  and  to  have  tried  as  hard  to  Mopeton  de_ 
rule  the  southern  province  well,  as  any  governor  they  had  fe^n'Goveil 
sent  out.  An  intelligent  and  honest  man,  in  sympathy  with  nor- 
the  better  element  among  the  settlers,  married  to  the  sister  of  the 
generally  respected  colonist  Blake,  and  throwing  his  whole  influence 
on  the  side  of  law  and  order,  he  appeared  as  good  an  officer  as  could 
1  Chalmers.  2  Chalmers  and  State  Papers. 


364  NORTH   AND   SOUTH  CAROLINA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

have  been  chosen  for  turbulent  Chai'leston.  But  either  because  he 
could  not  control  the  worse  part  of  its  people,  or  because  his  enemies 
persuaded  the  Proprietors  that  he  was  acting  against  their  designs,  he 
was  deposed,  after  a  governorship  of  but  little  more  than  a  year,  and 
his  successor,  James  Colleton,  was  instructed  to  punish  him  and  his 
council  for  disobedience. 

As  well  might  one  man,  without  any  physical  force  to  aid  him,  have 
been  told  to  punish  the  whole  population  of  the  province.  For 
though  Moreton  had  been  unpopular  so  long  as  he  tried  to  enforce  the 
proprietary  decrees,  the  anti-proprietary  party,  grown  strong  beyond 
control,  promptly  espoused  his  cause,  now  that  he  was  in  opposition. 
If  Moreton  had  tried  to  keep  them  under  during  his  rule,  they 
laughed  at  a  successor  for  whom  they  appear  to  have  had  much  less 
respect.  The  Proprietors,  weak  enough  in  any  case,  were  now,  that 
James  II.  had  become  King,  more  feeble  than  ever,  fearing  that  their 
charter  should  go  the  way  of  the  New  England  patents.  They 
could  give  their  Governor  but  little  help. 

Surrounded  by  factions,  "as  rampant"  says  Oldmixon,  "as  if  the 
people  had  been  made  wanton  by  many  ages  of  prosperity,"  Colleton 
called  a  Parliament  in  the  autumn  of  1686.  But  he  no  sooner  at- 
tempted to  organize  it  than  the  majority  of  its  members  refused  obe- 
dience to  the  Constitutions,  basing  their  objection  on  the  pretext  that 
Determined  *ne  completed  version  was  different  from  the  original  draft 
^Proprie^  and  tne  temporary  laws  sent  over  long  before.  They  then 
tors  proceeded  to  draw  up  a  code  for  themselves,  though  they 

were  formally  excluded  from  the  house  by  the  Governor  ;  and  even 
sent  their  version  under  the  title  of  "  standing  laws  of  Carolina  "  l  to 
the  Proprietaries  for  approval.  It  was  indignantly  rejected,  but  this 
did  not  check  the  opposition  party,  which  grew  daily  stronger.  A 
new  Parliament  was  called  in  1687.  Its  members  were  instructed  to 
41  oppose  whatsoever  the  Governor  requested;  insomuch  that  they 
would  not  settle  the  Militia  Act,  tho'  their  own  security  (in  a  Natural 
way)  depended  on  it."  2  Grievances  and  complaints  poured  in  from 
every  quarter.  The  measures  of  the  Governor  were  in  the  highest 
degree  injudicious,  though  honestly  intended  to  secure  their  just  po- 
litical and  financial  dues  to  the  Proprietors ;  and  finally,  seeing  him- 
self surrounded  by  threatening  factions  on  every  side,  Colleton  took 
the  rash  step  of  declaring  martial  law  in  a  colony  where  the  only 
soldiery  were  the  people. 

All  that  the  discontented  party  among  the  colonists  had  hitherto 
wanted,  in  order  to  completely  overthrow  the  government  they  op- 
posed, was  a  leader  ;  and  as  the  southern  settlements  had  formerly 

1  Oldmixon  in  Carroll,  vol.  ii.,  p.  412.  2  Archdale. 


1690.]  SETH   SOTHELL.  365 

given  a  chief,  in  the  person  of  Culpepper,  to  the  insurgents  in  the 
north,  so  Albemarle,  at  this  critical  moment,  returned  the  favor  by 
contributing  an  organizing  head  to  the  revolutionary  movement  at 
Charleston. 

Seth  Sothell  had  no  sooner  assumed  the  government  of  Northern 
Carolina,  in  1683,  than  he  proved  equally  false  to  Proprie- 

_   ...  i         i  •      i         •  i  i  e      i         Discontents 

tors  and  settlers.     Deliberately  disobeying  the  orders  ot  the  int 

i       •        j  11-  -11  j     em 

former,  who  appear  to  have  desired  to  deal  impartially  and 
leniently  with  the  people  lately  in  rebellion,  and  neglecting  the  col- 
lection both  of  the  customs  and  the  proprietary  revenue,  he  used  his 
official  power  merely  as  a  means  of  enriching  himself.  For  five  years 
he  kept  up  an  administration  under  which  every  class  of  settlers  in 
Albemarle  suffered  from  his  injustice  and  rapacity,  until,  at  the  end 
of  that  time,  the  unconcealed  indignation  of  the  people  took  effect  in 
stronger  measures  than  the  appeals  they  had  made  to  England.  By 
an  insurrection,  even  more  decisive  and  unanimous  than  that  under 
Culpepper,  they  deposed  and  arrested  Sothell  in  1688,  and 

11*  T         i  •   i  c      i     •  Arrest  and 

prepared  to  send  him  to  London  with  agents  or  their  own,  trial  of 
to  defend  himself  before  the  Proprietors  for  his  abuse  of 
power.  But  the  delinquent  Governor  feared  his  superiors  more  than 
the  colonists,  and  begged  for  mercy,  declaring  his  willingness  to  un- 
dergo trial  by  the  Albemarle  Assembly  on  any  charge  the  people 
would  make  against  him.  His  trial  was  a  long  one  ;  thirteen  specifi- 
cations appeared  in  the  indictment  against  him,  and  on  all  of  these  he 
was  found  guilty.  Sentenced  to  perpetual  disqualification  from  office, 
and  to  banishment  from  the  province  for  one  year,  it  was  supposed 
that  he  had  been  made  powerless  for  further  evil,  when  suddenly  he 
was  heard  of  in  South  Carolina,  just  as  affairs  there  were  ripe  for  an 
outbreak,  claiming  authority  by  his  rights  as  a  palatine,  and  every- 
where gaining  the  adherence  of  the  dissatisfied,  who  were  ready  to 
accept  a  leader  with  even  the  flimsiest  pretence  to  official  position. 

Sothell,  in  1690,  seized  upon  the  government,  and,  calling  together 
a  Parliament  made  up  entirely  from  his   own  followers,  de- 
manded  the   trial  of   Colleton    for   various   imaginary  and  outbreak  in 

t          .  rn-,  -,  i  .         the  South. 

real  crimes.  Ihe  same  sentence  was  passed  upon  him 
which  had  driven  Sothell  from  Albemarle,  and  many  of  his  Council 
and  fellow-officials  shared  his  condemnation  and  punishment.  Wide- 
spread confiscation  of  their  property  filled  the  new  Governor's  cof- 
fers, and  these  acts  of  rapacity  began  gradually  to  open  the  eyes  of 
the  Charleston  people  to  the  character  of  the  ruler  they  had  put 
over  them.  As  was  natural,  the  real  nature  of  the  man  soon  put  an 
end  to  his  temporary  popularity.  A  year  after  his  usurpation  he  was 
hated  as  heartily  in  Southern  Carolina  as  he  had  been  in  Albemarle. 


366 


XORTH   AND   SOUTH   CAROLINA. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


But  he  went  on  steadily  piling  up  additions  to  his  great  fortune  by 
the  most  shameless  extortion  and  injustice.  The  clamor  about  him 
probably  mattered  little  to  the  hardened  adventurer,  so  long  as  he 
was  able  to  keep  in  his  pay  men  enough  to  defend  his  person. 

The   unfortunate  Proprietaries,   perplexed  and  disheartened  with 
these  rapid   changes  and  conflicting  reports  from  the  col- 

Sotheland  .,..'.  .   ,  „      .     .. 

the  Proprie-    ony,  had  in  vain  written  with  mild  expostulation  to  Sothell 

after  the  Albemarle  affair.    Though  they  had  heard  that  the 

people  had  risen  against  his  alleged  injustice  and  oppression,  yet  they 


Sothell  and  his   Followers  seizing  the   South  Carolina  Government. 

were  unwilling  to  accept  the  accusations  as  true.  Still,  they  thought 
it  necessary  to  suspend  him  from  office,  and  appointed  Colonel 
Philip  Ludwell  in  his  place  till  an  impartial  examination  should  be 
made.  It  was  only  with  the  failure  of  their  summons  to  him  to  ap- 
pear in  England  that  their  eyes  were  opened  to  his  treachery  toward 
themselves  ;  but  even  after  this,  and  after  they  heard  of  his  first 
doings  at  Charleston,  they  wrote  with  extraordinary  mildness  —  not 
to  say  weakness.  They  had  received  his  letters,  they  said,  under  date 
of  October  10, 1690  ;  for  it  seems  he  had  quietly  written  to  them,  even 
perhaps  consulting  them  about  taking  charge,  under  his  palatinate 
rights,  of  the  southern  colony.  They  were  pleased,  they  feebly  added, 


1691.]  LUDWELL   GOVERNOR   OF   BOTH   COLONIES.  367 

to  find  that  he  would  submit  to  their  instructions ;  but  no  single  Pro- 
prietor, they  reminded  him,  had  any  right  to  the  government,  nor  to 
take  jurisdiction  upon  himself  without  the  others'  consent  ;  and  to  do 
so  would  be  high  misdemeanor  and  treason.  They  hoped  that  it 
was  not  true  that  Mr.  Joseph  Blake  had  been  put  out  of  his  office 
of  deputy.  Touching  the  protestation  of  the  deputies,  with  a  list  of 
the  misdemeanors  in  thirteen  particulars  alleged  against  him,  his  im- 
prisonment by  the  people  of  Albemarle,  his  after-submission  and  com- 
pulsory abjuration  of  the  government,  and  the  proceedings  of  the 
people,  —  all  these  were  "  highly  prejudicial,  both  to  the  royal  pre- 
rogative and  to  the  dignity  of  the  Proprietors ; "  they  "  did  not  ap- 
prove "  of  his  conduct,  but  had  no  intention  of  acting  otherwise  than 
uprightly  toward  him  ;  still,  they  "  would  not  be  imposed  upon." l 

Only  when  they  heard  of  the  actual  usurpation,  does  a  little  energy 
seem  to  have  infused  itself  into  their  councils.  A  series  of  letters, 
increasing  from  comparative  mildness  to  the  sternest  severity,  then 
began  to  come  in  upon  Sothell.  From  the  first  his  claim  to  be  allowed 
to  retain  the  governorship  on  the  ground  of  his  vested  rights  in  the 
province,  and  his  being  the  only  resident  representative  of  the  pro- 
prietary class,  was  disallowed.  His  "pretended  act,  purporting  to 
disable  James  Colleton "  was  sharply  reproved,  and  he  was  ordered 
to  nullify  it :  the  acts  of  his  Parliament  were  declared  void ;  and 
finally,  on  November  8,  1691,  a  peremptory  order  suspended  him  from 
all  power  in  Carolina,2  and  added  the  threat  that  a  royal  mandamus 
should  compel  him  to  come  to  England  and  stand  trial,  if  he  did  not 
at  once  submit.  This  last  order  overcame  his  audacity.  Enjofgoth- 
Amid  the  rejoicing  of  all  the  people  he  slunk  back  to  the  el'8rule- 
Albemarle  region  again,  where  he  was  suffered  to  end  his  days  as  a 
private  citizen.  In  1694  he  died. 

And  now  the  Proprietors  did  what  prudence  should  have  dictated 
long  before.     They  appointed  one  governor  for  all  the  prov- 
ince, north  and  south  ;  fixing  his  residence   at  Charleston,   «eii  goi- 

_...         -  .  ...  ertior  of 

and  allowing  mm  to  appoint,  subject  to  confirmation,  a  dep-  both  coio- 
uty  or  deputies  for  other  quarters.     Philip  Ludwell,  whom 
they  had  at  first  intended  to  substitute  for  Sothel  in  the  government 
of  Albemai'le  alone,  now  became  the  first  General  Governor.     His 
lack   of   all   previous  connection  with  Carolina,  and   the   confidence 
placed  in  him  by  the  people  of  Virginia,  gave  the  Proprietaries  great 
hope  that  he  would  be  able  to  restore  tranquillity. 

But  Carolina  needed  a  Governor  of  more  than  ordinary  ability  and 
energy ;  and  this  Ludwell  did  not  prove  to  be,  though,  like  several 
of  his  predecessors,  he  apparently  assumed  his  duties  with  the  best 

1  State  Papers  in  Coll.  Hist.  Soc.  S.  C.,  vol.  i.  2  State  Papers. 


368 


NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


intentions.  His  attempt  to  carry  out  his  superiors'  instructions,  by 
allowing  the  franchise  and  equal  privileges  to  the  French  Protes- 
tants, who  now  formed  a  large  element  in  the  population  of  the  prov- 
ince, was  the  signal  for  a  new  outbreak  of  discontent.  When  he 
further  ventured  to  carry  out  the  law  by  the  arrest  of  a  crew  of 
pirates,  he  found  himself  confronted  by  opposition  as  determined  as 
that  which  had  made  the  government  impossible  to  Moreton  or  to 


Acquittal    of  the   Buccaneers  at  Charleston. 


Colleton.  The  pirates  were 
acquitted  ;  and  from  this  time 
forward  the  Proprietors  found 
Ludwell  unable  to  carry  out  a 
single  measure  that  opposed  in 
any  way  the  popular  will. 
Disgusted  at  this  renewed  failure,  they  removed  him  in  1692,  and  ap- 
pointed in  his  place  one  of  the  Carolina  planters  themselves,  Thomas 
Smith  —  "a  wise,  sober,  well-living  man."  1 

Though   his    wisdom,    soberness,    and   other  good    traits 
availed  no  more  than  the  efforts  of  his  predecessors  toward 
preserving  order,  yet  Smith's  brief   administration   of  two 
years  was  noteworthy  for  three  substantial  benefits.      In  1693,  the 
year  after  his  appointment,  the  Proprietaries,  worn  out  at 
toe  "con-      last  with  their  useless  attempts  to  enforce  even  a  few  of  its 
complicated  provisions,  went  through  the  form  of  abolishing 
"  Grand  Model." 


Governor- 
ship of 
Thomas 
Smith. 


John  Locke's 


As  the  "  fundamental  constitutions  " 


1  Archdale  aud  Oldmixon. 


1694.]  INTRODUCTION   OF   RICE.  369 

had  never  existed  in  Carolina,  save  on  paper,  their  repeal  was  hardly 
a  necessary  formality.  Yet  for  men  who  for  more  than  twenty  years 
had  talked  in  glowing  terms  of  these  laws  that  should  "  endure  for- 
ever," it  was  a  significant  concession  when  they  confessed  that  the 
people  of  the  settlements  knew  their  own  needs  best.  "  As  the  peo- 
ple," they  wrote,  "  have  declared  they  would  rather  be  governed  by 
the  powers  granted  by  the  charter  without  regard  to  the  fundamental 
constitutions,  it  will  be  for  their  quiet,  and  the  protection  of  the  well- 
disposed,  to  grant  their  request."  *  From  this  time  forth  the  popular 
legislative  body  in  the  province  was  called  an  Assembly  instead  of  A 
Parliament ;  2  even  the  little  consideration  previously  shown  it,  ceased 
to  attach  to  the  title  of  landgrave  ;  the  people  ceased  to  have  an  ex- 
cuse for  disputing  with  the  Governor,  and  the  Governor  no  longer  took 
advantage  of  the  pretext  of  higher  rank  to  justify  arbitrary  meas- 
ures. But  except  these  trifling  changes  nothing  marked  the  down- 
fall of  Shaftesbury's  and 
Locke's  ideal  code,  that  was 
to  have  been  the  admiration  of 
all  future  ages. 


A  Carolina   Rice-field 


The  second   fortunate  event  of  Smith's  administration  seemed  a 
trifle  at  the  time,  yet  its  consequences  were  of  lasting  benefit  Introduc. 
to  the  province.     In  1694,  rice  was  introduced  into  Carolina,   [j^jj* 
An  English  vessel  touched  at  Charleston  in  that  year,  on  lita~ 
the  way  home  from  Madagascar,  and  its  captain  gave  to  Governor 
Smith  a  quantity  of  seed-rice,  which  the  latter  and  his  friends  planted 
as  an  experiment.     Thriving  beyond  measure  in  the  marshes  along 
the  rivers,  it  was  the  origin  of  one  of  Carolina's  greatest  products.     A 
few  years  later  a  writer  could  say  of  the  province  that  it  exported  in 
very  valuable  quantities  "  rice  the  best  of  the  known  world." 

Smith's  greatest  benefit  to  the  country,  however,  came  with  the  end 
of  his  short  rule ;  for  when  he  grew  "  uneasy  in  the  government,  by 
reason  that  he  could  not  satisfy  the  people  in  their  demands,"  he 

1  Quoted  from  State  Papers  by  Chalmers.  2  Grahame. 

VOL.  ii.  24 


370  NORTH   AND   SOUTH  CAROLINA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

"  writ  over  "  to  the  Proprietors  a  much  wiser  and  more  candid  exposi- 
tion of  the  state  of  affairs  than  had  before  reached  them  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  that  he  confessed  his  own  inability  to  improve  matters,  he 
suggested  a  way  in  which  this  could  be  done.  It  was  useless,  lie 
showed  them,  to  try  any  longer  to  govern  by  deputy  ;  "  it  was  impos- 
sible to  settle  the  Country,  except  a  Proprietor  himself  was  sent  over 
with  full  power  to  Heal  their  Grievances."  J  The  Proprietaries  saw 
at  last  the  wisdom  of  this  proposal ;  and  with  their  adoption  of  it  be- 
gan the  first  period  of  quiet  that  Carolina  had  ever  known. 

The  man  first  chosen  from  their  number  to  undertake  this  mission 

•was  Lord  Ashley,  Shaftesbury's  grandson.      But  when  he 
ment  of        begged  his  colleagues  to  excuse  him  because  his  father's  af- 

fairs  compelled  his  presence  in  England,  the  choice  fell  upon 


John  Archdale,  a  Quaker,  who  had  bought  out  the  interest 
of  one  of  the  older  Proprietors,  and  who  was  considered  —  most 
rightly,  as  the  event  proved  —  to  be  a  wise,  moderate,  liberal,  and 
far-seeing  man. 

Archdale  arrived  in  Charleston  in  August,  1695  ;  and  no  sooner 
was  his  arrival  known,  and  the  almost  unlimited  power  given  by  his 
commission  fairly  understood,  than  "  every  faction  apply 'd  them- 
selves "  to  him  "  in  hopes  of  Relief."  He  "  appeased  them,"  he  says 
in  his  account,  "  with  kind  and  gentle  Words  ; "  and  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible after  his  landing,  he  called  an  Assembly,  to  which  he  made  a  wise 
and  kindlv  address. 

tf 

"  I  believe  I  may  appeal  to  your  Serious  Rational  Observations,"  he 
said,  "  whether  I  have  not  already  so  allayed  your  Heats,  as 
»0  the  AS-  that  the  distinguishing  Titles  thereof  are  so  much  withered 
away ;  and  I  hope  this  Meeting  with  you  will  wholly  extin- 
guish them,  so  that  a  solid  Settlement  of  this  hopeful  Colony  may 
ensue,  and  by  so  doing  your  Posterity  will  bless  God  for  so  Happy  a 
Conjunction And  now  you  have  heard  of  the  Proprietors  In- 
tention of  sending  me  hither,  I  doubt  not  but  the  Peoples  Intentions 
of  Choosing  you  were  much  of  the  same  nature  ;  I  advise  you  there- 
fore, to  proceed  soberly  and  mildly  in  this  weighty  Concern  ;  and  I 
question  not  but  we  shall  answer  you  in  all  things  that  are  reasonable 
and  honourable  for  us  to  do.  And  now  Friends,  I  have  given  you  the 
reason  of  my  Coming,  I  shall  give  you  the  Reasons  of  my  calling  you 
so  soon,  which  was  the  consideration  of  my  own  Mortality,  and  that 

such  a  considerable  Trust  might  not  expire  useless  to  you I 

hope  the  consideration  hereof  will  quicken  and  direct  you  into  a  speedy 
conclusion  of  what  the  People  may  reasonably  expect  from  you  ;  and 
I  hope  the  God  of  Peace  will  prosper  your  Counsels  herein." 

1  Archdale. 


1696.] 


JOHX  ARCHDALE   GOVERNOR. 


371 


The  Assembly  replied  in  a  similar  conciliatory  vein,  yet  "  after  this 
fair  Blossomin  Season  to  produce  Peace  and  Tranquilitv  to 

1  J  Good  mflu- 

the  Country,  some  endeavour'd  to  sow  Seed  of  Contention,   en«  °f 

«f '  Archdale. 

thereby  to  nip  the  same ;  insomuch  that  they  sat  six  Weeks 
under  Civil  Broils  and  Heats,"  till  at  length  they  "  recollected  their 
Minds  into  a  cooler  Frame  of  Spirit,"  the  Governor's  "  Patience  being 
a  great  means  to  overcome  them  ;  so  that  in  the  conclusion  all  Mat- 
ters ended  amicably."     "  The  Acts  of  grace  you  have  so  seasonably 
condescended  unto,"  wrote  the  popular  representatives  to  their  new 
ruler  at  the  close   of  the  session,  '•  have  removed  all  former  Doubts, 
Jealousies  and  Dis- 
couragements of  us 
the     People  ;     and 
hath  laid  a  firm  and 
sure  Foundation  on 
which  may  be  erect- 
ed a  most  glorious 
Superstructure      to 

the  Honour  of  the  >«8SBI  ^^MOK  .^-  ^*^v^MKHW~ 
Lords  Proprietors 
and  you  our  Gov- 
ernor ;  which  we  do, 
and  forever  shall  be 
obliged  most  heart- 
ily to  own  as  the 
Production  of  the 
Wisdom,  Discre- 
tion, Patience  and 
Labour  of  the  Hon- 
ourable John  Arch- 
dale^  Esq." 

For  once  it  seems 
as  if  this  flourish  of 
compliments,  to 

which  Mr.  "  Jonathan  Amery,  Speaker,"  subscribed  on  behalf  of  the 
delegates,  was  really  richly  deserved.  Forgiveness  of  arrears  of  quit- 
rent;  careful  inquiry  into  cases  of  individual  grievance;  the  selection  of 
a  council  from  among  the  citizens  most  trusted  by  the  people,  —  these 
were  some  of  the  conciliatory  measures  which  had  gained  for  Archdale 
the  esteem  and  attachment  of  "every  faction  ;  "  while  his  energy  in 
matters  that  required  a  strong  hand  was  no  less  conspicuous  and  disin- 
terested. Of  the  hostile  Indians  he  made  warm  friends  ;  yet  he  did 
not,  though  a  Quaker,  abate  for  a  moment  his  attention  to  the  defence 


Archdale  s  Address. 


372 


NORTH  AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


of  the  colony  ;  and  the  militia  was  never  better  trained  than  during  his 
governorship.  He  exempted  those  of  his  own  faith  from  military 
Prosperity  service,  provided  they  could  show  that  they  objected  to  it 

from  conviction,  and  not  from  cowardice  ;  but,  for  himself, 

jie  iooke(j  carefully  to  every  detail  of  military  matters. 
North  Carolina  accepted  his  rule  as  gladly  as  the  southern  settlements. 
One  of  his  daughters  married  a  Pasquotank  planter,  and  the  many 
Quakers  at  Albemarle  seconded  his  efforts  warmly  ;  so  that  not  even 
a  hint  of  sedition  or  discontent  came  in  his  time  from  this  quarter  of 
the  colony.  Even  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine  gratefully  acknowl- 
edged his  justice  and  kindness  to  some  Christian  Indians,  their  pro- 
tege's, who  had  been  captured,  and  were  about  to  be  sold  as  slaves  by 
a  Carolina  tribe.  Every  where  in  the  province  tranquillity  and  prosper- 
ity were  established,  when  Archdale,  having  accomplished  all  his  ob- 
jects to  the  mutual  benefit  of  Proprietors  and  people,  set  sail  for  home 
at  the  close  of  1696. 

He  left  as  his  successor,  whom  he  had  the  right  to  appoint,  Joseph 

Blake,  the  son  of  the  first  emigrant  of  the  name,  and  a  man 
Biake  GOT-  who  resembled  his  father  in  ability  and  merit.  During  the 

four  remaining  years  of  the  century  he  ruled  quietly  and 
well  over  the  now  prospering  colony.  No  dissension  worthy  of  notice 
disturbed  his  Governorship  ;  and  the  chief  event  that  appears  on  the 
record  of  his  time,  is  his  successful  and  liberal  support  of  the  relig- 
ious interests  of  Charleston.  In  1698,  John  Cotton,  a  son  of  John 
Cotton,  of  Boston,  settled  there l  with  the  Governor's  hearty  support 
and  patronage  ;  while  at  the  same  time,  with  rare  impartiality,  for  he 
was  a  dissenter,  he  procured  the  passage  of  an  Act  giving  £150  a 
year,  and  a  house,  to  the  Episcopal  clergyman  of  the  town. 

1  Savages'  Genealogy. 


Signature  of  John  Archdale. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  POLITICAL  POLICY  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

THE  FIRST  MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER.  —  TEMPORIZING  POLICY  OF  THE  COLONIAL 
AUTHORITIES.  —  THE  GOVERNMENT  AT  HOME  BAFFLED.  —  REVOLUTION  IN  ENG- 
LAND. —  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  PURITANS.  —  APPEAL 
TO  CROMWELL.  —  His  SCHEMES.  —  THE  REGICIDES.  —  CHARLES  IL  AND  THE  CHAR- 
TER. —  THE  ROYAL  COMMISSIONERS.  —  NEW  DANGERS  TO  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  ED- 
WARD RANDOLPH.  —  THE  CHARTER  REVOKED.  —  GOVERNOR  ANDROS'S  ARBITRARY 
GOVERNMENT.  —  CONCEALMENT  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT  CHARTER.  —  DEPOSITION  AND 
ARREST  OF  ANDROS.  —  COURSE  OF  KING  WILLIAM.  —  A  NEW  CHARTER.  —  GOV- 
ERNOR PHIPS.  —  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  CANADA.  —  OPPOSITION  TO  PHIPS.  —  His 
RECALL. 

THE  political  anxieties  of  Massachusetts,  through  all  the  earlier 
years  of  her  colonial  life,  were  not  less  constant,  while  they 
were  much  more  reasonable,  than  the  theological  dissen-  fat™  in  Maa- 
sions  which,  as  we  have  seen  in  former  chapters,  she  so  took 
to  heart.  Such  anxieties  seemed,  indeed,  to  the  earnest  Puritans,  of 
importance,  mainly  because,  through  the  achievement  of  a  certain 
political  purpose,  there  might  come  the  realization  of  a  religious  end. 
They  aspired  to  political  independence,  —  so  far  as  a  colony  could  be 
independent,  perhaps  even  further,  —  that  the  Commonwealth  which 
they  planted  and  nurtured  might  become  a  commonwealth  in  which 
there  should  be  no  citizenship,  hardly  even  the  right  to  live,  except  to 
those  who  were  of  their  own  faith.  But  that  fervid  zeal,  while  it 
failed,  in  the  long  run,  to  limit  the  rights  of  conscience  and  of  private 
judgment,  established,  year  by  year  and  step  by  step,  that  civil  liberty 
to  which  the  world  owes  so  much. 

The  original  charter  of  Massachusetts,  which  had  been  transferred 
from  England  to  Boston,  and  which  was  procured  with  that 
intent,1  was  an  object  of  continual  hostility  and  of  continual 
solicitude.  A  quo  warranto  was  soon  issued  whereby  the 
colonists  were  called  upon  to  show  upon  what  authority  they  held  that 
patent.  The  jealousy  of  Gorges,  and  the  fear  that  he  might  assume 
the  governor-generalship  over  Northern  New  England,  had  their  root 
in  the  dread  of  an  interference  with  chartered  rights  as  well  as  of  the 

1  See  vol.  i.,  pp.  524,  525,  526. 


ter' 


374        THE   POLITICAL  POLICY   OF   THE  PURITANS.    [CHAP.  XVI. 


establishment  of  the  episcopacy  from  which  the  colonists  had  fled. 
They  saw  with  apprehension  how  carefully  they  were  watched  in 
England  by  the  vigilant  eyes  from  which  they  hoped  they  had  escaped. 
Charles  changed  his  mind,  —  that  it  would  be  good  policy  to  rid  his 
kingdom  of  the  Puritans ;  and  then  emigration  was  interfered  with. 
Among  some  passengers  who  were  ordered  to  disembark  after  having 
taken  ship  for  New  England,  were,  it  is  said,  —  and  there  is  good  rea- 
son for  believing  the  story  to  be  true,  —  the  two  men  whose  staying 
at  home,  if  he  could  have  looked  into  the  future,  the  King  had  the 
most  cause  to  dread,  John  Hampden  and  Oliver  Cromwell. 


Orders  of  the 
Koyal  Com- 
missioners 
evaded. 


Cape  Elizabeth. 

In  1637,  the  lately  appointed  commissioners  for  New  England  sent 
ou^  a  c°Py  °^  a  commission  to  the  magistrates  of  Massachu- 
setts empowering  them  to  exercise  the  functions  of  govern- 
ment only  until  further  orders.  This  was  on  the  pretext 
that  they  were  governing  without  authority.  To  this  order  the 
magistrates  gave  no  heed ;  contenting  themselves  with  the  plea  that 
nothing  but  a  copy  of  the  commission  had  been  served  upon  them, 
while  the  original  in  London  had  not  as  yet  —  as  they  learned  from  a 
friend  on  the  spot  —  received  the  royal  seal.  About  the  same  time  an 
adroit  attempt  was  made  under  the  commission  granted  to  Gorges  to 
schemes  of  engage  *ne  General  Court  in  the  government  of  his  eastern 
Gorges.  province  of  New  Somersetshire,  which  extended  from  Cape 
Elizabeth  to  the  Sagadahoc.  To  have  accepted  this  charge  would 


1638.]  THE  FIRST  MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER.  375 

have  been  equivalent  to  the  acknowledgment  of  his  prior  patent.  Win- 
throp  merely  says  in  his  journal  that  it  "  was  observed  as  a  matter  of 
no  good  discretion,  but  passed  in  silence."  They  knew  as  well  when 
to  be  silent  as  when  to  speak. 

A  year  later  a  peremptory  demand  was  made,  in  accordance  with 
the  quo  warranto,  for  the  surrender  of  the  charter  and  that 
it  be  sent  at  once  to  England.     The  General  Court  replied  mand  for 

_,  ,  •          ,  i      •  •  f    ii  i  •    i  tlle  surren- 

m  September,  tempering  their  evasion  of  the  order  with  as-  derof  the 
surances  of  loyalty.  They  referred  to  the  royal  encourage- 
ments which  had  attended  the  early  emigrations  ;  they  reminded  the 
King  of  the  venture  they  had  made  of  lives  and  fortunes  in  extending 
his  dominion  in  those  distant  and  inhospitable  regions ;  they  proposed 
to  continue  in  that  obedience  to  his  will  which  they  had  always  shown  ; 
but  they  did  not  send  back  the  charter.  Again  the  next  year  the  de- 
mand was  renewed,  with  the  assurance  that  the  regulation,  not  the 
subversion  of  their  liberties,  was  intended.  But  their  liberties,  they 
thought,  were  safer  in  their  own  hands  than  in  the  hands  of  a  royal 
commission.  The  General  Court  gave  to  this  second  summons  also 
their  serious  consideration.  Their  conclusion  was  that  as  the  order 
came  this  time  in  a  private  letter  and  not  by  an  accredited  messenger 
they  were  under  no  obligation  to  send  any  answer  whatever. 

Space  and  time  did  them  good  service.  It  was  a  long  voyage  to 
England  and  back  again  ;  orders  and  replies  were  a  long  while  in 
coming  and  going ;  still  a  longer  while  passed  in  waiting  for  replies 
that  never  came.  The  magistrates  were  kept  carefully  advised  by 
friends  in  England  of  the  condition  of  public  affairs,  and  of  every  step 
taken  by  their  enemies  to  their  prejudice.  Explanations  were  always 
ready ;  and  if  they  were  not  always  ingenuous,  never  was  there  a  time 
when  the  plea  could  be  more  justly  urged  —  that  much  may  be  par- 
doned to  the  spirit  of  liberty.  Meanwhile  much  might  happen  of 
which  the  colony  might  have  the  benefit. 

And  much  did  happen.  The  King  soon  had  other  affairs  on  his 
hands  of  more  moment  than  to  bring  to  immediate  obedience  Ag^n,  jn 
these  self-willed  colonists  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  En«lMld- 
His  subjects  nearer  home  were  in  insurrection.  In  1640,  the  Scotch 
entered  England  ;  the  "  Short  Parliament "  was  called,  to  be  speedily 
dispersed  again  when  Charles  found  that  redress  of  grievances  must 
precede  any  vote  of  money.  The  Puritans  of  England  hailed  the 
promise  of  a  brighter  future  in  the  events  of  this  period,  and  they 
were  less  anxious  to  leave  the  country.  Emigration  to  New  England 
fell  off ;  but  Massachusetts  was  consoled  with  the  reflection  that 
neglect  by  the  government  at-home  was  much  more  her  gain  than  her 
loss.  Increase  of  population  was  less  desirable  than  to  be  let  alone. 


376         THE   POLITICAL  POLICY   OF   THE  PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

All  fear  of  any  interference  with  the  charter  was  allayed  when  the 
The  Long  news  came  of  the  meeting  of  the  "  Long  Parliament "  in 
parliament.  November,  1640.  The  Puritans  of  England  in  resisting  the 
King  were  taking  up  arms  in  the  cause  of  the  colony  as  well  as  in 
their  own.  Fifteen  months  after  the  meeting  of  that  Parliament  the 
House  of  Commons  declared  that  "  the  plantations  of  New  England 
have  by  the  blessings  of  the  Almighty  had  good  and  prosperous  suc- 
cess without  any  public  charge  to  this  State,  and  one  now  likely  to 
prove  very  happy  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  these  parts  very 
beneficial  to  the  kingdom  and  nation."  For  their  "  better  advance- 
ment and  encouragement,"  therefore,  it  was  decreed  that  all  trade 
between  Old  and  New  England  should  be  unrestricted  by  "  any  cus- 
tom, subsidy,  taxation  or  other  duty."  Not  long  after  came  a  letter 


Fac-simile   of  the   First   Lines 


signed  by  Warwick,  Say  and  Seale,  Cromwell,  Harding,  and  other 
leading  men,  declaring  that  both  houses  united  in  a  wish  for  the  pres- 
ence of  Mr.  Cotton,  Mr.  Hooker,  and  Mr.  Davenport  to  come  over 
with  all  possible  speed,  all  or  any  of  them,  if  all  cannot."  "  You  will 
find  opportunity  enough,"  they  added  "  to  draw  forth  all  that  healpe- 

fullness  that  God  shall  affoard  by  you Onely  the  sooner  you 

come  theHBettar." l 

The  invitation  was  not  accepted,  perhaps  prudently.  '*  Had  the 
churches  of  New  England,"  says  Hutchinson,  "  appeared  there  by 
their  representations,  or  any  of  the  principal  divines  appeared  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Assembly  [at  Westminster]  greater  exception  might  have 
been  taken  to  their  building  after  a  model  of  their  own  framing." 
That  model  was  Congregationalism.  The  next  year,  adds  the  histo- 

1  Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i. 


1651.] 


THE  COMMONWEALTH   AND   THE   CHARTER. 


377 


rian,  some  persons  from  England  "  made  a  muster  to  set  up  Presby- 
terian government,  under  the  authority  of  the  assembly  at  Westmin- 
ster ;  but  a  New  England  assembly  the  General  Court,  soon  put  them 
to  rout.1'  They  believed  with  Milton  that, 

"  New  Presbyter  is  but  Old  Priest  writ  large." 

But  whether  for  personal  reasons  or  for  public  considerations  the 
three  invited  clergymen  declined  to  accede  to  the  wish   for  CourBeof 
their  presence  and  counsel  in  England,  the  relations  between  J^{ 
the  colonists  and  the  revolution  were  intimate  and  influen-  Puntan8- 
tial.     Hugh  Peters  and  Thomas  Welde  went  to  England  at  the  re- 
quest of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts ;  others  followed  or  preceded 
them  ;  Sir  Henry  Vane  was  already  there.1 


of  the  Massachusetts  Charter. 

Nevertheless  when  in  1651,  after  the  battle  of  Worcester,  the  power 
of  Parliament  had  become  firmly  established,  and  Charles  I.  had  been 
dethroned  and  beheaded,  a  demand  was  made  upon  all  the  colonies 
to  recognize  its  supreme  authority.  The  charter  of  Massachusetts  was 
again  threatened.  Her  magistrates  were  ordered  to  transmit 

.—......  TI«       New  danger 

it  to  England,  and  receive  in  return  a  new  patent.     In  this  to  the  cfiar- 
emergency,  instead  of  denying  the  right  of  Parliament  to  thecom- 
revoke  the  charter  —  as  might  justly  have  been  done  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  an  extemporized  body  of  men  expressing  a  new 
kind  of  authority  not  dreamed  of  in  the  first  days  of  emigration  and 
of  the  charter  —  the  General  Court,  declining  this  dangerous  argu- 

1  For  a  thorough  discussion  of  the  influence  of  the  New  England  Puritans  upon  affairs 
in  England  at  this  period  see  The  Historical  Relation  of  New  England  to  the  English  Com- 
monwealth, by  John  VVingate  Thornton. 


378        THE  POLITICAL  POLICY   OF  THE  PURITANS.    [CHAP.  XVI. 


M  A  M  tt  3  S-  E 
WUNNEETUPANATAMWB 

UP-B1BLUM    GOD 

NANEEJWE 

NUKKONE    TESTAMENT 

XAH  WONK 

WUSKU  TESTAMENT. 


ment,  recurred  to  its  old  policy  of  simply  baffling  without  incensing 
arbitrary  power.  Instead  of  the  patent,  a  memorial  was  sent  home  ; 
it  reviewed  the  proceedings  under  the  late  King  and  the  reasons  for 
leaving  England  when  liberty  could  not  exist  there;  it  rejoiced  in  the 
cause  of  the  people ;  it  renewed  the  colony's  allegiance  to  Parliament, 
and  prayed  that  they  might  not  be  worse  off  than  when  they  lived 
under  a  king. 

A  judicious  letter  which  the  General  Court  drew  up  and  sent  to 
An  appeal  Cromwell  proved  more  efficacious  than  the  memorial;  for  it 
to  croniweii.  seeme(j  to  revive  the  personal  interest  of  the  General  in  the 
brave  old  pi-otesting  sentiment  which  once  set  him,  with  other  repub- 
licans, afloat  for  America,  when  perhaps,  as  the  report  survives  in 
history,  Cromwell  himself  had  land  in  Massachusetts  which  he  meant 
to  occupy.  It  was  due,  no  doubt, 
to  the  influence  of  Cromwell 
that  the  independence  of  Mass- 
achusetts was  respected,  while 
the  other  colonies  were  frequent- 
ly embroiled  with  Parliament. 

Cromwell's  protection,  how- 
cromweii's  ever,  resulted  from 
plans.  mixed  motives.  H  e 
had  a  scheme  for  strengthening 
his  government  and  pacifying 
Ireland  by  removing  the  whole 
colony  thither,  and  settling  it 
upon  lands  which  were  to  be 
ceded  to  it.  Of  course  the  Gen- 
eral Court  was  not  in  the  least 
likely  to  desert  its  flourishing  es- 
tate, and  at  such  cost  to  remove 
so  near  to  the  source  of  possible 

Oppression.       It    laid  great  Stress      Reduced  Fac-simile  of  the  Title-page  of  Eliot's  Bible. 

in  its  reply  upon  the  prospects  of  converting  and  civilizing  the  IndiaYi, 
for  at  that  time  John  Eliot,  Thomas  Mayhew,  and  many 
devoted  associates,  were  engaged  in  laboring  among  the  In- 
dians, both  on  the  mainland  and  among  the  islands  as  far 
as  Nantucket.  Though  the  first  Indian  church  at  Natick 
was  not  founded  till  1660,  Eliot's  Indian  Bible  was  printed  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1664.  His  influence  among  the  Indians  was  wonderfully 
persuasive,  and  his  civilizing  efforts  did  really  promise  permanent 
results.  He  domesticated  them  and  revolutionized  their  manners,  in 
spite  of  the  jealousy  and  opposition  of  the  native  priests.  Cromwell 


£ 


SI 


fit  qocfhkiowmdli  tu(b|n  Wotiinotumob  (HRI&T 
nob  ifowrfii 

JOHN     ELIOT- 


•    6    6    J 


IS 


Euot  knd 


1660.] 


THE   REGICIDES. 


379 


might  well  have  been  interested  at  this  attempt  to  propagate  the 
Gospel  in  the  spirit  of  his  own  reading  of  it.  But  his  ambition,  and 
a  certain  fantastic  impulse  which  ran  in  his  blood,  seemed  to  sway 
him  when  in  1655,  after  the  conquest  of  Jamaica,  he  proposed  to 
Massachusetts  to  remove  to  that  island,  and  undertake  the  conversion 
of  all  neighboring  Catholics,  with  various  arguments  of  interest  urging 
them  to  assist  thus  in  the  consolidation  of  his  power. 

It  would  have  been  fortunate,  probably,  for  Jamaica  could  Crom- 
well have  had  his  way,  but  the  genuine  Massachusetts  would  The  Jamaica 
have  vanished  forever.1     The  General  Court  represented  the  srheme- 
magnitude  of  the  difficulties  of  such  a  step,  in  a  manner  so  sober  and 
yet  so  devoted  to  his 
service,  that  Cromwell 
did  not  take  ill  their 
refusal ,    and    never 
withdrew  his   counte- 
nance from  his  favored 
people. 

It  was  fortunate 
that  no  General  Court 
could  ever  be  prevailed 
upon  to  put  the  colony 
under  the  protection  of 
Parliament.  The 
prospect  of  advantages 
which  friends  in  Eng- 
land urged  for  this  act  of  virtual  submission  was  no  temptation  against 
the  certain  good  of  holding  back  from  entangling  alliances.  The 
same  advice  was  renewed  after  the  death  of  Cromwell,  and 
without  effect.  Then  came,  in  the  summer  of  1660,  a  vessel  Cldes' 
with  the  two  regicides  on  board,  Whalley  and  Goffe,  to  announce  the 
accession  of  Charles  II.  Massachusetts  was  in  no  hurry  to  proclaim 

1  The  Englishmen  who  were  successively  sent  to  that  island  languished  and  died  in  great 
numbers,  yet  Cromwell  kept  a  stern  determination  to  hold  it  at  all  hazards  and  make  it  a 
Protestant  colony  in  the  very  heart  of  the  "  Spanish  Domdanicl."  He  wrote  to  the  Gov- 
eruor  of  Barbadoes  instructing  him  to  remove  his  colony,  saying,  '  We  have  also  sent  to 
the  colonies  of  New  England  like  offers  with  yours,  to  remove  thither,  our  resolution  being 
to  people  and  plant  that  island."  In  another  letter  to  Jamaica :  "We  have  sent  Commis- 
sioners and  instructions  into  New  England,  to  try  what  people  may  l>e  drawn  thence." 
[Carlyle's  Life  of  Cromwell.}  In  fact,  a  large  number  of  colonists  were  inflamed  by  Crom- 
well's ambition  "  to  strive  with  the  Spaniard  for  the  mastery  of  all  tho>e  seas."  Notably 
a  party  from  Salem,  incited  by  wilder  spirits,  were  preparing  to  go,  when  the  General 
Court  interposed  and  quashed  the  enterprise.  Still,  it  was  the  per>istency  of  Cromwell  in 
sending  relays  of  good  and  bnd,  and  a  thousand  Irish  girls,  to  the  island,  which  eventually 
made  it  a  colony.  They  were  led  by  Venner.  a  Fifth  Monarchy  man,  that  is,  one  who  be- 
lieved that  the  four  great  monarchies  of  the  world  "vould  be  succeeded  by  a  universal  one 


Regicides'  Cave,  ne-.r  New  Haven,  a  supposed  Hiding-place  of 
Whalley  and  Goffe. 


The  Regi- 


380        THE   POLITICAL   POLICY   OF   THE  PURITANS.    [CHAP.  XVI. 

its  adhesion  to  the  new  King:  it  cordially  protected  Whalley  and 
Goffe,  and  when  the  orders  for  their  surrender  arrived,  with  emi- 
nent tact  connived  at  their  escapes  and  various  concealments. 

At  the  next  General  Court  an  address  was  drawn  up  to  be  pre- 
The  Restore-  sented  to  Charles  II.,  filled  with  protestations  of  loyalty, 
tion-  allusions  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  a  fugitive  like  them- 

selves, and  exposures  of  the  heresy  of  the  Quakers  as  a  vindication  of 
the  treatment  they  had  received.  "  We  distinguish  between  churches 
and  their  impurities "  they  said  ;  therefore  would  the  King  protect 
their  liberty  of  worship  and  civil  government  ?  The  King  was  at  the 

beginning  of  his  reign  in  a 
forgiving  temper:  he  re- 
turned a  gracious  answer,  but 
it  was  balanced  by  a  peremp- 
tory order  for  the  surrender 
of  the  two  regicides.1  It  was 
no  doubt  chiefly  in  conse- 
quence of  the  protection  af- 
forded to  them,  and  of  the 
connivance  of  magistrates  at 
their  escapes,  that  the  King's 
mood  changed,  and  he  lent 
a  readier  ear  to  the  enemies 
of  the  colony.  Again  came 
alarming  rumors  over  the 
water,  —  threats  of  commer- 
cial I'estriction,  of  governor 
general,  and,  worse  than  all, 
the  withdrawal  of  the  beloved  original  charter. 

In  May,  1661,  Simon  Bradstreet,  a  magistrate,  and  John  Norton, 

a  Boston  minister,  were  sent  over  in  obedience  to  an  order 

setts  agents    of  the  King  that  the  complaints  against  the  colony  should 

in  England.  &  r  ^    .  ,        ^  in 

be  met  and  cleared  up.     In  the  meantime  the  Oreneral  Court 
recognized  the  authority  of  the  King,  issuing  an  address  to  explain 

with  Christ  for  king:.  He  was  a  cooper  by  trade,  and  indulged  in  preaching.  In  London 
his  chapel  was  in  Coleman  St.,  where  he  instigated  his  followers  to  a  rising  against  Crom- 
well, April  9,  1657.  But  instead  of  the  coming  of  the  expected  king,  there  came  a  troop  of 
horse  which  dispersed  the  monarchy.  Venner  was  afterwards  released,  and  attempting  the 
same  thing  two  years  subsequently  with  Charles  II.,  was  tried  and  executed. 

1  The  discussion  of  the  fate  of  Col.  Whalley  has  lately  been  renewed.  Thomas  Robins, 
of  Philadelphia,  in  a  letter  to  the  Historical  Society,  states  that  his  ancestor  of  the  same 
name  married,  in  1736,  Leah  Whalley,  a  daughter  of  Elias,  youngest  son  of  Col.  Edward 
Whalley.  The  latter  found  his  way  from  a  hiding-place  in  Connecticut  to  Virginia,  where 
he  joined  his  family  who  had  arrived  there  from  England.  Thence  he  went  into  Maryland 
and  settled  upon  a  remote  point  of  laud  in  the  easternmost  county,  where  he  lived  safely 
died,  and  was  buried  on  his  farm.  The  grave  is  well  known. 


w 


Portrait  of  Simon  Bradstreet. 


1664.]  THE   ROYAL   COMMISSIONERS.  381 

upon  what  grounds  they  did  it.  The  original  patent  was  the  founda- 
tion of  their  Commonwealth  :  it  entitled  them  to  form  a  government 
of  freemen  ;  to  conduct  their  own  municipal  affairs  ;  to  protect  them- 
selves by  their  own  laws,  if  not  repugnant  to  those  of  England. 

The  deputies  departed  with  instructions  to  insist  upon  the  loyalty 
of  the  colony,  to  explain  the  causes  of  false  accusations,  to  watch 
the  enemy,  and  above  all,  do  nothing  that  might  be  prejudicial  to  the 
existence  of  the  charter.  Supported  by  the  powerful  influence  of 
friends  near  the  Court,  they  succeeded  in  procuring  a  royal  confirma- 
tion of  the  charter.  But  the  grace  was  disfigured  by  distasteful  con- 
ditions ;  every  ordinance  passed  during  the  interim  of  the  Common- 
wealth should  be  pronounced  invalid  ;  all  such  as  contravened  royal 
authority  should  be  repealed  ;  all  persons  should  take  an  oath  of  al- 
legiance ;  members  of  the  Church  of  England  should  be  free  to  sustain 
public  worship  according  to  its  usages  ;  all  freeholders  should  have 
the  right  of  suffrage  irrespective  of  religious  opinions,  and  judicial 
proceedings  should  be  conducted  in  the  King's  name. 

These  were  demands  which  might  have  been  expressly  premeditated 
to  develop  colonial  resistance.     By  obeying  them  the  past 
would  have  been  sacrificed  and  the  future  made  still  more 


insecure.     The  General  Court  published  them  according  to  the'°Geneni 
royal  command,  but  at  the  same  time  postponed  obedience 
save  on  the  last  point,  on  the  ground  that  they  could  not  be  adapted 
to  the  state  of  the  colony  without  grave  deliberation.     A  delay  of  two 
years  was  thus  secured. 

But  in  1664  the  royal  commissioners  Carr,  Nicolls,  Cartwright,  and 
Maverick,  appeared  in  Boston,  duly  accredited  to  hear  com- 
plaints against  the  administration  of  the  colony  and  to  en- 
force  the  modification  of  the  charter.     True,  the  ostensible 
object  of  this  commission  was  the  conquest  of  New  Nether- 
land  ;  but  the  second  and  not  less  important  purpose  was  to  bring  all 
the  New  England  colonies  into  complete  subjection  to  the  King. 

After  the  capture  of  New  Amsterdam  the  Commissioners  returned 
to  New  England.  Affairs  wore  to  the  General  Court  a  most  serious 
and  threatening  aspect  —  the  more  threatening  that  one  of  the  board, 
Maverick,  was  among  the  earliest  settlers  of  Boston,  and  thoroughly 
understood  the  motives  and  policy  of  her  magistrates.  But  the  Court 
was  quite  able  to  hold  its  ground.  The  conflict  that  followed  was 
conducted  with  no  little  skill  on  both  sides,  the  Commissioners,  on 
their  part,  maintaining  the  prerogatives  of  the  King,  while  professing 
.that  there  was  no  intention  of  trenching  upon  the  liberties  of  the 
colony  ;  the  colonists,  on  the  other  hand,  taking  their  stand  upon  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  charter,  with,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  ear- 


382         THE   POLITICAL  POLICY   OF   THE   PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 


nest  protestations  of  loyalty.  In  the  end  the  Commissioners  were 
baffled  in  every  attempt  to  force  from  the  General  Court  an  admission 
of  their  authority  ;  their  acts  of  assumed  jurisdiction  were  pronounced 
invalid  ;  the  General  Court  acknowledged  allegiance  to  the  King 
under  the  protection  of  the  charter,  and  that  was  all  its  conscience 
could  allow. 

It  is  noticeable  how  singularly  events  seemed  to  conspire  with  the 
temporizing  policy    of  the  Colony  to  postpone  the  designs  of 

The  fire  and     .  .  *\,    J          .        _,        ,        *,  & 

plague  of       its  enemies.     Wot   only  England  s   engagement  with  Euro- 
pean politics,  but  occurrences  at  home  interfered  to  divert 

the  King  and  council  from  their  attempts  upon  the  charter.     In  1666, 

just  after  the  re- 
turn of  these  Com- 
missioners from 
their  fruitless  er- 
rand, and  the  re- 
fusal of  Massachu- 
setts to  send  over 
deputies  to  meet 
their  complaints 
before  the  King, 
the  Great  Plague 
of  London  broke 
out,  and  this  ca- 
lamity was  speed- 
ily followed  by  the 
Great  Fire. 

The  General  Court  took  advantage  of  all  England's  critical  mo- 
ments to  earn  a  character  for  loyalty  and  obedience.     If  the 

.  ,  i  -t    •*. 

motive  was  merely  politic,  the  result  was  tne  same  as  it  it 
had  arisen  solely  from  patriotic  affection,  —  to  win  a  de- 
gree of  consideration  and  forbearance  from  the  government  at  home. 
Thus  when  England  was  occupied  with  the  Dutch  war  of  1664-66, 
Massachusetts  assumed  the  government  of  Maine  and  New  Hamp- 
shire ;  but  at  the  same  time  she  furnished  from  the  Maine  forests 
great  store  of  shapely  spars,  which  were  sent  over  to  the  King  ;  the 
freight  alone  amounted  to  over  £1,600.  The  West  India  fleet  was 
completely  revictualled  at  the  expense  of  the  colony  ;  and  after  the 
Great  Fire  of  London  the  General  Court  encouraged  the  colonies  to 
contribute  to  the  utmost  extent  of  their  means  for  the  relief  of  their 
distressed  countrymen. 

w 

The  colony  had  never  been  in  so  prosperous  a  condition  as  in  the 
few  years  immediately  following  the  departure  of  the  Nicolls  Com- 


The  Cradock  House  at  Medford,  built  about  1639. 


Aid  from 


1671.]  THE  BOARD   OF  TRADE   AND   PLANTATIONS.  383 

mission.  Its  jurisdiction  over  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  was,  for 
the  time  being,  firmly  established.  Commerce  was  active  and  profit- 
able, for,  notwithstanding  the  navigation  laws,  the  merchants  traded 
where  they  would,  and  in  what  they  pleased,  without  let  or  hindrance, 
for  there  was  no  custom-house  or  customs  officers.  It  was  a  condition 
which  most  excited  anxiety  in  England,  for  it  was  difficult  to  see  how 
a  people  outwardly  prosperous,  and  inwardly  determined  and  rebel- 
lious, could  best  be  dealt  with. 

John  Evelyn  —  one  of  the  Board  —  writing  of  a  meeting  of  the 
Commissioners  of  Trade  and  Plantations  in  May  1671,  says  :  Actionof 
"  But  what  we  most  insisted  on  was  to  know  the  condition  xrade^nj°f 
of  New  England,  appearing  to  be  very  independent  as  to  Plantation»- 
their  regard  to  Old  England  or  his  Majesty,  rich  and  strong  as  they 
now  were,  there  were  greate  debates  in  what  style  to  write  to  them, 
for  the  condition  of  that  colony  was  such  that  they  were  able  to  con- 
test with  all  other  plantations  about  them,  and  there  was  feare  of 

their  breaking  from  all  dependence  on  this  nation Some  of 

our  council  were  for  sending  them  a  menacing  letter,  which  those  who 
better  understood  the  peevish  and  touchy  humor  of  that  colonie,  were 
utterly  against."  A  month  later,  on  the  receipt  of  fresh  intelligence, 
there  was  again  long  debate  upon  "  the  best  expedients  as  to  New 
England,"  and  "  at  length  'twas  concluded  that,  if  any,  it  should  be 
only  a  conciliating  paper  at  first,  or  civil  letter,  till  we  had  better  in- 
formation of  the  present  face  of  things,  since  we  understood  they  were 
a  people  almost  upon  the  very  brink  of  renouncing  any  dependence 
on  the  Crowne."  And  when  in  August  of  the  same  summer  the 
Board  resolved  to  advise  the  King  to  send  commissioners  again  to 
Massachusetts,  the  necessity  was  debated  "  of  seacret  instructions  to 
informe  the  council  of  the  condition  of  those  colonies,  and  whether 
they  were  of  such  power  as  to  be  able  to  resist  his  Majesty,  and  de- 
clare for  themselves  as  independent  of  the  Crowne,  which  we  were 
told,  &  which  of  late  years  made  them  refractorie."  l 

The  Commissioners  of  Plantations  were  not  unreasonably  anxious. 
There  was,  no  doubt,  a  certain  vagueness  in  the  Massachusetts  mind  as 
to  the  exact  degree  of  political  independence  of  the  mother-country 
which  Massachusetts  wanted.  But  on  the  whole  it  came  perhaps  to 
this,  that  she  would  be  dependent  when  it  suited  her  and  at  all  other 
times  free  of  control.  She  would  make  her  own  laws,  agreeing  that 
they  should  be  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  England ;  but  the 
laws  of  England  should  be  of  no  effect  and  void  within  her  borders  ex- 
cept it  pleased  her  to  give  them  her  voluntary  respect.  But  as  to 
religious  matters  she  was  never  in  doubt.  England  and  her  hiei-archy 

1  Evelyn's  Diary  and  Correspondence. 


384        THE   POLITICAL   POLICY   OF   THE   PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

she  had  left  behind  her  ;  the  theocracy  she  had  established  with  God's 
help  she  would  maintain  against  the  world.  The  depth  of  her  relig- 
ious fervor,  though  it  so  often  made  her  a  bigot,  gave  her  also  a  ro- 
bust political  constitution  which  would  do  its  own  work  in  good  time. 

The  question  of  the  charter  was  suspended  only,  not  dismissed 
during  this  period.  Fortunately  for  New  England  the  government 
at  home  permitted  it  a  still  longer  rest,  calling  only  upon  Mas- 
sachusetts to  defend  her  assumption  of  jurisdiction  over  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  leaving  her  free  from  the  old  anxiety  while  the  war  with 
Philip  gave  a  serious  check  to  her  prosperity.  The  King  determined 
at  length  upon  rigorous  measures.  The  Council  of  Trade  and  Plan- 
tations was  dissolved  and  its  duties  devolved  upon  a  committee  of 
the  Privy  Council  which  brought  the  affairs  of  the  colonies  more 
under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  King. 

The  controversy  in  regard  to  New  Hampshire  had  brought  to  New 
Edward  England  one  Edward  Randolph,  whose  part  in  affairs  was 
Randolph,  thenceforth,  for  some  years,  a  conspicuous  and  important 
one.  It  was  said  of  him  by  the  people  that  he  "  went  up  and  down 
seeking  to  devour  them."  It  was  true  enough  in  a  sense,  for  his  official 
zeal  seems  to  have  been  almost  a  passion.  From  year  to  year  this 
man  went  back  to  England,  carrying  each  time  some  fresh  complaint 
against  the  colonies  and  returning  always  with  some  additional  official 
ordei's.  From  the  bearer  of  the  King's  letter  he  became  an  inspector 
of  the  customs;  from  an  inspector  he  rose  to  the  control  of  all  the 
customs-revenue  of  New  England.  It  was  impossible  that  so  zealous 
a  servant  of  the  crown  should  faithfully  serve  his  master  in  England 
and  not  become  at  the  same  time  obnoxious  to  the  colonists.  He 
could  not  fail  to  see  that  some  ordinances  had  by  long  immunity  been 
rendered  inoperative ;  that  others,  the  colonists  deliberately  set  aside 
when  found  to  be  inimical  to  their  welfare,  or  an  infringement  upon 
their  rights.  Though  overbearing  in  temper,  hesitating  at  no  measure 
however  arbitrary,  strengthening  his  resolution  and  his  zeal  by  yearly 
visits  to  England,  the  collector,  nevertheless,  still  found  himself 
powerless,  in  a  great  measure,  to  cope  witli  the  steady,  sagacious, 
as  well  as  stern  spirit  of  independence  in  which  the  colony  managed 
its  affairs. 

Among  his  accusations  against  Massachusetts  was  one  of  entire 
disregard  of  the  Act  of  Navigation.  The  General  Court  acknowl- 
edged its  truth  ;  but  such  laws  they  declared  were  "  an  invasion  of 
the  rights,  liberties  and  properties  "  of  the  colonies,  "  they  not  being 
represented  in  parliament"  —  an  early  protest  against  the  doctrine  of 
taxation  without  representation  to  be  fought  out  a  hundred  years 
later.  The  laws  of  England,  they  said,  did  not  reach  America,  but 


1671.]  THE   "PINE   TREE"   COINAGE.  385 

still  as  the  King  had  signified  that  these  acts  relating  to  trade  should 
be  observed  in  Massachusetts,  they  would  provide  for  it  by  an  act  of 
their  own.  So  Randolph  laid  his  commission  as  collector  before  the 
General  Court  and  asked  their  aid  in  enforcing  the  laws ;  they  paid 
no  regard  to  him.  He  informed  the  public,  by  notice  posted  in  the 
town-house,  of  his  appointment  and  the 
requisitions  of  the  law ;  the  marshal,  by 
order  of  the  Court,  or  some  of  its  members, 
tore  the  notice  down.  He  appealed  to  the 
Governor  ;  but  that  magistrate  —  who  was 
that  year  Bradstreet,  one  of  the  more  mod- 

.  Pine   Tree   Sixpence 

erate    party  —  seems   to    have    given     no 

heed  to  the  complaint.  Randolph  carried  his  grievance  to  the  King, 
and  to  the  rebuke  that  followed  there  was  in  reply  a  general  denial 
so  far  as  that  served  the  purpose,  a  general  promise  of  future  acqui- 
escence quite  as  vague,  with  a  decided  intimation  that  these  appeals 
from  their  authority  ought  not  to  be  listened  to  by  the  King. 

Randolph  also  complained  that  Massachu- 
setts coined  money,  which  was  a  mark  of  sover- 
eignty. It  was  not  the  first  time  that 
the  charge  had  been  brought  against 
the  colony.  In  1652,  in  the  time  of  T 
pine  tree  Threepence  the  Commonwealth,  a  mint  had  ••*• 
been  established  which  continued  in  operation  till  1684,  issuing  silver 
coins  of  the  value  of  a  shilling,  sixpence,  threepence  and  two  pence.1 
These  formed  the  currency  of  the  country,  in  large  part,  remained  in 
circulation  for  nearly  a  century,  and  were  shipped  sometimes  as  bul- 
lion to  England  in  the  course  of  trade.  It  is  related  that  when  Sir 
Thomas  Temple,  who  had  been  residing  for 
some  years  in  New  England,  returned  to  Eng- 
land after  the  Restoration,  he  was  sent  for  by 
the  King  to  learn  from  him  something  of  the 
affairs  of  Massachusetts.  Charles,  it  is  said, 

,  ,       ,        i         ,    .       .          .  ...  Pine  Tree  Twopence. 

snowed  a  good  deal  01  irritation   against  her, 

and  among  other  things  declared  that  her  magistrates  had  encroached 
upon  his  prerogative  by  coining  money.  Temple  took  some  of  these 
coins  from  his  pocket  and  handed  them  to  the  King  with  the  assur- 
ance that  they  had  been  issued  by  the  colonists  for  their  own  use,  and 

1  Hutchiusou,  vol.  i.  See  Discussion  of  the  "  Pine  Tree  "  coinage  of  Massachusetts  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  First  Series,  vol.  vii. ;  Second  Series,  vol.  ii. ;  Memoir  of  John  Hull ; 
Arch&ologia  Americana,  vol.  iii. ;  Hist.  May.,  vol.  iii.  ;  John  Hull  was  the  master  of  the  mint, 
ami  received  a  remuneration  of  one  shilling  out  of  every  twenty  that  he  coined.  John 
Hull's  daughter  Hannah  married  Samuel  —  afterward  Judge  —  Sewall,  and  the  tradition 
is  that  at  the  marriage  her  dowry  was  paid  in  the  "  Pine  Tree  "  coin,  the  bride  being  bal- 
vou  n.  25 


Pine  Tree  Shi 


386        THE    POLITICAL   POLICY   OF   THE    PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

without  any  intention  of  infringing  upon  the  law,  of  which,  he  said, 
they  knew  little.  The  King  inquired  what  tree  was  represented  upon 
the  coin.  "  Sir  Thomas,  artfully  taking  hold  of  that  circumstance," 
says  the  narrator  of  the  story,  "  informed  His  Majesty  it  was  the 
Royal  Oak.  The  Massachusetts  people,  says  he,  did  not  dare  to  put 
your  Majesty's  name  on  their  coin,  and  so  put  the  oak  which  pre- 
served your  life.  The  King  was  put  into  a  fit  of  good  humor,  said 
they  were  a  parcel  of  honest  d — gs,  and  was  disposed  to  hear  favor- 
able things  of  them."  l 

There  is  no  official  authority  for  calling  the  tree  of  this  coinage  a 
pine  tree,  though  that  supposition  has  given  it  its  popular  designa- 
tion. The  motive  for  its  issue 
was  undoubtedly  the  public 
convenience  and  not  an  inten- 
tion of  usurping  a  sovereign 
right.  While  the  imports  of 
the  country  largely  exceeded 
the  exports  little  of  the  coin 
of  the  realm  would  remain  in 
the  country,  and  there  was 
absolute  necessity  of  some  domestic  currency  to  satisfy  the  wants  of 
the  people.  Wampum  was  generally  resorted  to,  but  its  inevitable  in- 
flation soon  made  it  valueless.  At  one  time  in  the  early  days  of  Massa- 
chusetts (1634-5)  it  was  decreed,  "  that  muskett  bulletts,  of  a  full 
boare,  shall  pass  currantly  for  a  farthing  a  peice,  provided  that  noe 
man  be  compelled  to  take  above  xijd  att  a  tyme  in  them."  2  Various 
expedients  of  paper  money  were  from  time  to  time  resorted  to,  de- 
pending sometimes  on  public  credit,  and  sometimes  on  mortgages 
upon  real  estate.  A  large  amount  of  the  pine  tree  money  was  coined 
—  how  much  is  not  known  —  which  long  continued  in  circulation,  and 
was  unquestionably  a  firm  basis,  as  far  as  it  went,  for  sound  and  pros- 
perous trade. 

But  these  various  complaints  and  complications  all  tended  to  the 
inevitable  revocation  of  the  charter.  In  accordance  with  its  temporiz- 
ing and  procrastinating  policy,  the  colony  had  neglected  to  send  dep- 
uties to  England  to  answer  the  various  charges  made  against  it.  In 

anced  in  one  scale  against  an  equal  weight  of  coin  in  the  other.  Hutchiuson  says  her 
dowry  was  £30,000,  the  weight  of  which  —  iu  shillings  or  sixpences  —  would  have  been 
about  three  tons  and  three  quarters.  But  Judge  Sewall's  ledger  (see  Memoir  of  John 
Hull;  Arch.  Am.,  vol.  iii.)  shows  that  he  received  witli  his  wife  £500.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  Miss  Hull  may  have  been  weighed  against  this  sum,  in  shillings,  which  would  have 
been  about  120  pounds,  Troy. 

1  Letters  from  Andrew  Eliot  to  Thomas  Hollis.     Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  CM.,  Fourth  Series, 
vol.  iv. 

2  Records  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i. 


1685.]  GOVERNOR   ANDROS.  387 

1681  there  came  a  peremptory  letter  from  the  King  that  such  dep- 
uties should  be  sent  with  authority  to  tender  the  unqualified  sub- 
mission of  the  colony.  Delay  was  no  longer  safe,  and  Joseph  Dudley 
and  John  Richards  were  sent  to  England  in  answer  to  the  summons. 

Dudley  belonged  to  the  moderate  party,  and  he  went  with  a  disposi- 
tion to  compromise  ;  but  he  also  carried  a  letter  of  the  Gen- 
eral  Court  of  a  tone  so  inflexible  that  the  King's  patience 
gave  way.  Again  a  writ  was  issued  against  the  colony,  to 
show  by  what  warrant  it  held  its  charter.  Judgment  was  Colon>- 
pronounced  against  it  in  1684,  and  an  official  copy  served  upon  the 
General  Court  on  the  2d  of  July,  1685. 

Events  now  moved  rapidly  against  the  liberties  of  Massachusetts. 
Colonel  Kirke  was  appointed  Governor  of  that  province  together  with 
New  Plymouth,  New  Hampshire,  and  Maine.  His  commission  was  con- 
firmed a  few  months  later  by  James,  and  he  was  about  to  sail  for  the 
colonies,  when,  fortunately  for  them,  his  services  were  required  to  aid 
in  the  suppression  of  the  insurrection  in  Scotland  under  Argyll,  and 
in  the  West  of  England  under  Monmouth,  which  immediately  chal- 
lenged James's  succession  to  the  throne. 

Charles  II.  died  in  February,  1685,  and  James  was  proclaimed  in 
Boston  the  following  April,  before  judgment  on  the  charter  had  been 
officially  announced.  By  the  advice  of  Randolph  the  temporary  con- 
trol of  affairs  was  given  to  a  provisional  commission,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  put  Dudley,  who  had  taken  care  while  in  England  to  in- 
gratiate himself  with  the  party  inimical  to  the  colony.  The  General 
Court  contented  itself  with  a  protest.  "  The  subjects," 
they  said,  "  are  abridged  of  their  liberty  as  Englishmen,  both  the  General 
in  the  matter  of  legislation  and  in  laying  of  taxes."  They 
urged  the  Commissioners  to  consider  whether  such  a  commission  "  be 
safe  for  you  or  for  us  ; "  but,  they  added,  if  the  members  of  the 
Board  were  satisfied  to  assume  the  government,  "  although  we  cannot 
give  our  assent  thereto,  yet  we  hope  we  shall  demean  ourselves  as  true 
and  loyal  subjects  to  his  Majesty,  and  humbly  make  our  addresses 
unto  God,  and  in  due  time  to  our  gracious  prince,  for  our  relief." 
Yes  ;  "  in  due  time  ;  "  they  knew  how  to  wait. 

The  provisional  government  was  short-lived,  doing  little  harm  and 
no  good,  when  Sir  Edmund  Andros   arrived  in  Boston  in  j^^i  of 
December,  1686,  with  a  commission  as  Governor  of  all  New  Andros 
England,  —  the  governor-general  that  Massachusetts  had  dreaded,  and 
planned  against,  and  been  almost  ready  to  fight  against  for  half  a  cen- 
tury.    As  Governor  of  New  York  Andros  had  made  himself  familiar 
with  colonial  affairs  ;  the  consolidation  he  was  now  to  rule  over  he 
had  long  before  advised  ;  his  character,  and  his  faithful  adherence  to 


388        THE  POLITICAL   POLICY   OF  THE  PURITANS.    [CHAP.  XVI. 

the  principles  by  which  the  King  proposed  to  govern  his  kingdom, 
pointed  him  out  as  a  fit  instrument  to  carry  out  the  royal  purposes. 

Andros  was  a  proud  and  ostentatious  man,  who  regarded  his  official 
relation  to  the  King  more  than  all  things  else.  He  found  himself 
among  men  proud,  but  not  vain-glorious,  highly  comfortable  with  this 
world's  goods,  and  a  fund  of  sanctifying  grace.  His  drinking  bouts 
were  especially  distasteful,  for  even  healths  were  no  longer  drunk 
by  the  Puritans.  He  was  more  irritable ;  they  were  quietly  and 
provokingly  tenacious  of  purpose.  At  that  time  New  England  easily 

supported  a  population  of  more 
than  130,000  :  a  dozen  years  be- 
fore his  coming  it  could  furnish 
16,000  fighting  men.  Fifteen 
merchants  were  worth  £50,000 
each  :  five  hundred  persons  about 
£3,000  each.  The  country  around 
Boston,  in  which  town  there  were 
about  fifteen  hundred  families, 
was  thickly  settled  with  these  men 
who  in  the  last  resort  would  insist 
upon  having  their  own  way,  as 
they  did. 

The  new  Governor  began  his  ad- 
ministration by  announcing  that 
all  the  laws  then  in  force  were  to 
be  respected,  if  not  found  to  be 
inconsistent  with  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land. There  was  little  satisfaction 
in  this,  for  the  colonists  maintained  that  it  was  for  them  to  decide 
what  laws  they  needed,  whether  inconsistent  with  those  of 
England  or  not.  A  tax  was  levied  of  a  penny  in  the  pound 
on  all  estates  real  or  personal ;  of  twenty  pence  a  head  as  poll-tax  ; 
of  a  penny  in  the  pound  on  all  imports  ;  and  an  excise  beside  on  all 
liquors.  The  taking  away  of  the  charter  had  abolished  the  General 
Court,  and  this  taxation  was  without  the  consent  of  the  people  or 
their  representatives.  To  enforce  it  the  severest  measures  were  re- 
sorted to,  for  the  resistance  was  everywhere  determined.  Then  the 
obnoxious  Randolph  was  appointed  licenser  of  the  press,  and  other 
officers  were  brought  from  New  York  who  soon  made  themselves  quite 
as  unpopular  as  he. 

But  these  were  civil  affairs ;  Andros  touched  more  dangerous 
ground  when  he  issued  an  order  that  no  marriage  could  be  solemnized 
save  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England.  Civil  marriages  by 


Portrait  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros. 


New  taxes 
and  laws. 


1688.J  DESPOTIC   GOVERNMENT   OF  ANDROS.  389 

magistrates  had  for  a  long  time  been   common    among  the  people, 
and  they  clung  to  the  habit.    But  the  Governor  ordered  that 
persons  to  be  married  should  enter  into  bonds  with  sureties,  JtsTfTn- 
to  be  forfeited   in  case  any  impediment   might   be   after- 
ward shown.    He  had  no  respect  for  Puritan  principles,  and  was  always 
menacing  the  Congregational  style  of  worship.     He  demanded  the  use 
of  the  Old  South  meeting-house  during  a  part  of  the  Lord's  Day  for 
celebration  of  the  Episcopal  service.     The  reading  of  the  service  for 
the  dead  at  the  grave  frequently  created  a  disturbance.     Then  a  for- 
mality, repugnant  to  the  people,  of  swearing  by  the  Book,  instead  of 
holding  up  the  right  hand,  was  introduced. 

His  administration,  as  it  went  on,  became  more  and  more  intolera- 
ble. He  levied  taxes,  not  as  he  at  first  promised,  according  to  the  pre- 
vious rates,  but  by  a  rate  of  his  own ;  but  this  came  in,  partly  in  conse- 
quence of  the  Indian  wars  in  which  he  became  involved  in  1688.  All 
the  judges,  elected  from  the  council,  charged  high  fees.  Various 
other  arbitrary  proceedings  served  to  exasperate  the  people.  Here  is 
an  example,  —  he  denied  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  Rev.  John 
Wise,  of  Ipswich,  who  had  advised  his  people  from  the  pulpit  to  re- 
sist his  system  of  taxation  without  representation.  Said  Andros, 
"  Did  they  really  think  that  Joe  and  Tom  may  tell  the  king  what 
money  he  may  have?"  That  is  just  what  Joe  and  Tom  did  think, 
even  then,  —  much  more  thoughtfully  afterwards.  On  another  occa- 
sion he  said :  "  The  scabbard  of  an  English  Red-Coat  shall  quickly 
signify  as  much  as  the  Commission  of  a  Justice  of  the  Peace." 

Andros  preserved  the  trial  by  jury,  but  was  accused  of  using  in- 
trigue to  pack  it  for  some  special  trial.  But  he  gave  the  rudest  touch 
to  the  colonial  nerve  when  he  summoned  the  land-owners  to  give  up 
their  titles  for  examination.  When  some  of  them  showed  their  deeds 
from  the  Indians,  signed  or  marked  by  them,  he  threw  them  aside 
contemptuously.  "  They  are  not  worth  the  scratch  of  a  bear's  paw,*' 
he  said.  No  doubt,  from  the  absence  of  a  strict  surveying  system, 
and  from  the  loose  habits  of  early  squatting,  many  of  the  farmers 
could  not  define  their  land.  But  the  chief  objection  with  Andros 
was  that  all  the  titles  held  their  validity  under  a  charter  which  no 
longer  existed.  This  excited  the  bitterest  reflections.  Andros  offered 
to  renew  titles  if  the  proprietors  would  acknowledge  their  invalidity, 
and  pay  a  quit-rent.  Those  who  refused  these  conditions  were  threat- 
ened with  writs  of  intrusion,  which  occasionally  were  issued. 

Despotic  as  the  rule  of  the  new  Governor  seemed,  he  was  only  car- 
rying out  the  will  of  his  master.  He  thoroughly  and  honestly  be- 
lieved, no  doubt,  that  both  in  civil  and  religious  affairs  such  govern- 
ment was  righteous  and  wise.  Conceding  his  honesty,  he  is  not  to  be 


390        THE   POLITICAL   POLICY   OF   THE   PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

blamed  for  his  energy,  for  he  only  discharged  with  vigor  the  duty  that 
devolved  upon  him.  Out  of  the  struggle  between  a  royal  despotism 
and  a  Puritan  oligarchy  came,  in  due  season,  the  government  of  the 
people. 

Andros  was  as  firm  and  unyielding  elsewhere  as  he  was  in  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Thomas  Hinckley,  the  Gov- 
ernor of  New  Plymouth  complained  with  good  reason  that 


Acts  of 
Antiros  in 


regard  to 

other  coio-     jus  people  were  compelled  to  pay  taxes  more  burdensome 


tries. 


than  they  had  ever  known  before.     Rhode  Island  willingly 
accepted  a  change  which  promised  to  end  her  struggle  with  her  Puri- 


View  of  the  Harbor  of  Castine. 


tan  neighbors.  In  New  Hampshire  the  new  Governor  established 
his  authority  with  little  difficulty :  in  Maine,  he  had,  or  thought  he 
had  more  to  fear  from  the  interference  of  the  French  than  any  unwil- 
lingness on  the  part  of  the  English  to  submit  to  his  rule.  At  the 
mouth  of  the  Penobscot,  the  Baron  Vincent  de  Saint  Castin  had 
established  himself  as  the  lieutenant  of  the  French  governor  of  Aca- 
dia;  had  encroached  upon  the  territory  of  the  Duke  of  York;  had 
won  the  favor  of  the  Indians  by  adopting  their  habits,  and  taking 
several  of  their  women  as  his  wives,  and  had  gained  so  much  influ- 
ence over  them  as  to  be  made  one  of  their  chiefs.  When  the  con~ 
dition  of  affairs  in  Massachusetts  permitted,  Andros  made  a  visit  to 
New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  and  an  important  part  of  his  errand  was 
to  bring  Castin  to  submission.  The  baron  did  not  wait  for  an  inter- 


1G87.] 


THE   CONNECTICUT   CHARTER. 


301 


view,  but  fled  with  all  his  retainers.  Andros  entered  his  house,  or 
fort,  took  possession  of  the  arms,  ammunition,  and  some  other  prop- 
erty ;  but  left  the  little  popish  chapel  and  its  furniture  untouched. 
The  plunder,  he  sent  word  to  Castin,  should  be  restored  on  his  sub- 
mission to  the  English  King.  The  only  result  was  the  exasperation 
of  Castings  friends,  the  Indians,  which  in  due  time  had  its  results. 

Connecticut,  like  Massachusetts,  was  deprived  by  a  quo  warranto 
of  its  Charter,  in  spite  of  its  protests  and  its  prayers.  In  October, 
1687,  Andros  appeared  in  Hartford  at  the  head  of  a  troop  of  soldiers, 
while  the  General  Court  was  in  session.  He  demanded  the  surrender 


Securing  the  Charter. 

of  the  charter,  declaring  that  the  government  under  it  had  come  to 
an  end.  He  seems,  nevertheless,  to  have  permitted  the  subject  to  be 
debated,  Governor  Treat  defending  their  right  to  the  charter,  recount- 
ing the  hardships  the  early  settlers  had  suffered  in  making  a  home  in 
the  wilderness,  and  asserting  that  they  had  had  no  sufficient  hearing 
in  England.1  The  arguments  were  not  new,  and  not  likely  to  influ- 
ence Andros,  however  courteously  he  may  have  listened  to  them. 
The  charter,  meanwhile,  lay  with  its  box  upon  the  table. 

The  debate  continued  till  evening,  and  candles  were  lighted.     An 
excited  crowd  had  collected  in  and  about  the  building.     Discussion 

1  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut. 


392         THE   POLITICAL  POLICY  OF  THE  PURITANS.    [CHAP.  XVI. 

came  to  an  end,  and  Andros  ordered  the  charter  to  be  returned  to  its 
box  and  delivered  to  him.  Suddenly  the  lights  were  put  out.  Nat- 
urally  there  must  have  been  some  confusion  and  some  delay 
in  relighting  the  candles.  When  this  was  at  length  done, 
the  charter  was  not  to  be  found.  It  had  disappeared  in  the 
darkness.  The  instrument,  at  least,  was  safe,  and  the  royal  Governor 
so  far  baffled.  Other  resistance,  however,  was  useless,  even  if  any 
was  thought  of,  for  Andros  had  at  his  back  sixty  obedient  soldiers. 
The  General  Court  submitted,  for  they  could  do  no  otherwise.  Enter- 
ing upon  their  records  a  minute  of  the  meeting,  they  wrote  at  the  end 


The  Charter  Oak. 


the  significant  word  "  FlNIS."  The  crowd  dispersed,  sorrowfully  no 
doubt,  but  quietly.  The  beloved  parchment  was  safe  in  a  hollow  oak 
on  the  grounds  of  Samuel  Wyllys,  one  of  the  magistrates,  where  it 
had  been  put  by  Captain  Wadsworth  of  Hartford,  and  where  it 
long  remained. 

Connecticut  was  now  only  a  part  of  the  royal  province  of  New 
England.  A  few  months  later  Andros  received  a  commission  as  gov- 
ernor, also,  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey. 

When  the  rumor  came  creeping  up  in  April,  1689,  from  Virginia, 

of  the  landing  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  England  the  pre- 

Engiinh         vious  November,  the   inhabitants  of   Boston  could  hardly 

Revolution.  .  .,.,.  ..  „,. 

fail  to   look  upon   it  as  a  providential  interposition.     The 
young  man  who  brought  the  news  —  John  Winslow  —  was  impris- 


THE   DEPOSITION   OF  GOVERNOR   ANDROS. 


1689.]  GOVERNOR   ANDROS   DEPOSED.  393 

oned,  and  Andros  issued  a  proclamation  against  the  Prince's  cause. 
But  the  people  could  not  be  restrained  by  that,  nor  by  the  hesitating 
policy  of  some  of  their  own  leading  men.  The  reports  and  sus- 
picions which  usually  spring  up  in  such  critical  moments,  filled  the 
air  of  Boston,  and  needed  no  electric  wire  to  thrill  the  adjacent  towns. 
Was  there  a  plot  for  a  massacre  of  the  people  by  the  Governor's 
Guards  ?  Was  the  town  to  be  fired  at  one  end  by  traitors  on  shore, 
while  Captain  George  from  the  Rose  frigate  set  it  on  fire  at  the  other 
end  by  bombardment  ? 

The  popular  excitement  was  soon  beyond  control.  The  North  End 
heard  that  the  South  End  was  in  arms  ;  at  the  South  End  came  swift 
rumors  that  the  North  End  was  up  and  on  the  march.  The  tar-barrels 
blazed  up  on  Beacon  Hill.  From  the  country  round  about  the  people 
came  raging  into  Boston  by  land  and  by  water  on  the  18th  of  April. 
Drums  beat  through  the  town ;  where  the  signals  had  blazed  on 
Beacon  Hill  by  night,  a  flag  was  raised  by  day.  Up  King,  now  State, 
Street  marched  a  company  of  Boston  soldiery  under  Captain  Hill, 
escorting  a  number  of  the  former  magistrates,  whom  the  crisis  had 
called  together  at  noon.  These  gentlemen  appeared  on  the  balcony 
of  the  Town  House  overlooking  King  Street,  and  to  the  expectant 
and  excited  crowd  below  was  read  a  "  Declaration  of  the  Gentlemen, 
Merchants  and  Inhabitants  of  Boston  and  the  Country  adjacent." 
It  rehearsed  the  oppressive  acts  of  Andros's  administration ;  the  ille- 
gal appointment  of  the  Dudley  Commission  ;  the  wrongful 

•  c    ^  -f.    i      -1     J     ..u  •  r    .1         Deposition 

suppression  of  the  charter  ;    it  hailed  the  accession  of  the  am  arm* 
Prince  of  Orange  to  the  throne,  and   justified   the  arrest 
and  imprisonment  of  '"those  few  ill  men  which  have  been  (next  to 
our  sins)  the  grand  authors  of  all  our  miseries."     Cotton  Mather  is 
supposed  to  have  been  the  author  of  this  address. 

Some  of  the  most  obnoxious  of  the  citizens,  official  and  otherwise, 
had  already  been  arrested.  Captain  George  of  the  frigate  Rose  was 
met  on  the  street  and  arrested.  A  boat  was  sent  by  his  lieutenant  to 
rescue  Andros,  who  was  in  the  fort  on  Fort  Hill,  but  was  captured  by 
the  soldiers.  Finding  escape  impossible,  he  went  to  the  Town  House 
with  others,  and  was  put  under  guard  in  a  private  house,  to  be  re- 
moved a  day  or  two  later  to  the  fort.  Several  members  of  the  coun- 
cil were  arrested  with  him.  Randolph  was  thrown  into  the  common 
jail.  Dudley,  who  was  absent  on  his  judicial  duties  —  he  had  been 
made  Chief  Justice  —  was  arrested  a  few  days  later.  The  next  day 
the  fort  was  surrendered.  The  Rose,  it  was  agreed,  should  strike  her 
topmasts  and  send  her  sails  ashore,  and  so  lie  helpless  in  the  stream 
under  the  guns  of  the  fort.  The  revolution  was  complete  and  with- 
out the  shedding  of  a  drop  of  blood.  A  provisional  government  was 


394         THE   POLITICAL   POLICY   OF   THE   PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

organized  under  the  name  of  a  "  Council  for  the  Safety  of  the  Peo- 
The  council  P^e  an^  Conservation  of  the  Peace."  The  venerable  Simon 
of  safety.  Bradstreet,  now  eighty-seven  years  of  age,  was  appointed 
president,  and  a  number  of  the  old  assistants  were  called  to  his  aid 
as  a  council. 

Twice  Andros  escaped  from  confinement ;  the  first  time  by  dis- 
guising himself  in  the  clothes  of  a  woman.  He  passed  two  of  the 
guards  in  safety,  but  his  shoes  betrayed  him  to  the  third,  and  he  was 


Governor   Andros  s   Atien.pt   at   Escape. 

taken  back  to  the  fort.  The  second  attempt  was  inoi-e  successful. 
His  servant  plied  the  sentinel  with  liquor  and  took  his  master's  place. 
On  the  5th  of  August  he  was  recognized  in  Newport,  arrested  the 
same  day,  and  returned  to  Boston.1 

The  overthrow  of  the  Andros  government  was  as  complete  in  the 
other  colonies  as  in  Massachusetts.  Rhode  Island  remained  without 
a  governor ;  but  Connecticut  at  once  restored  her  old  magistrates. 

1  For  a  complete  history  of  the  Andros  administration,  see   The  Andros  Tracts,  in  Pul> 
licatious  of  the  Priuce  Society. 


1689.]  COURSE   OF   KING   WILLIAM.  395 

The  revolution  in  New  York,  with  its  tragic  consequence,  requires  a 
chapter  by  itself.  Andros  was  at  length  sent  back  to  England,  but 
his  career  in  America,  did  not  debar  him  from  further  favors,  and  he 
subsequently  returned  to  the  country  as  Governor  of  Virginia. 

Representatives  of  the  people  from  fifty-four  towns  of  Massachu- 
setts assembled  after  the  fall  of  Andros,  and  though  the  feeling  was 
strong  that  the  ancient  charter  might  be  resumed,  it  was  decided  to 
suspend  all  action  under  it  until  it  was  restored.  On  May  26,  the 
news  arrived  that  the  new  King  had  been  invested  with  the  crown, 
and  on  the  29th,  William  and  Mary  were  proclaimed  in  Boston. 

For  once  the  colonists  had  been  deceived  in  their  expectations, 
They  relied  confidently  upon  that  clause  in  the  Prince's 
Declaration  to  the  people  of  England,  that  he  came  in  order  {£{J,cy  ?J  the 
that  "  all  magistrates  who  have  been  unjustly  turned  out, 
shall  forthwith  reassume  their  former  Imployments,  and  the  English 
corporations  return  to  their  ancient  prescriptions  and  charters."  For 
James  II.,  in  order  to  neutralize  the  Whig  and  Dissenting  interest,  im- 
itated the  action  of  Charles  I.  after  the  Rye-House  Plot,  deprived  more 
than  a  hundred  boroughs  of  their  charters,  and  put  Tory  magistrates 
in  the  places  of  incumbents.  New  charters  had  been  granted  which 
reserved  a  power  to  the  King  of  dismissing  magistrates.  Under  the 
new  Charter  of  London  more  than  eight  hundred  prominent  citizens 
had  been  turned  out  of  office  at  one  stroke. 

But  William's  ministers  explained  that  the  English  charters  had 
been  taken  away  for  different  cause  from  those  of  the  colonies  ;  on 
the  new  political  grounds  they  might  be  restored.  The  colonial  char- 
ters had  violated  the  Navigation  Acts,  and  threatened  the  interests  of 
English  trade  and  manufactures.  The  King  and  his  advisers,  —  Lord 
Halifax  alone  strenuously  urging  the  return  of  the  original  charter,  — 
though  not  disposed  to  imitate  the  ruinous  policy  of  the  late  reign, 
were  unwilling  to  let  the  opportunity  slip  for  putting  some  restraint 
upon  colonial  independence,  and  maintaining  a  foothold  here  for  the 
royal  authority.  Therefore  the  Massachusetts  deputies  could  only  gain 
permission  to  use  the  old  charter  until  a  new  one  could  be  framed. 

To  make  this  proceeding  more  palatable  to  the  colonists,  the 
designation  of  a  governor,  who  would  be  acceptable  to  the 
people,  was  left  to  the  agents  of  the  colony.  One  of  these  was 
Increase  Mather,  the  President  of  Harvard  College,  who 
had  been  sent  to  England  when  the  affairs  of  the  colony 
were  considered  in  the  most  critical  condition.  He  had  not  suc- 
ceeded either  in  saving  the  old  charter  or  in  procuring  a  new  one 
which  would  satisfy  the  people  ;  but  his  influence  was  sufficient  to 
secure  the  appointment,  as  governor,  of  Sir  William  Phips,  who  was 
then  in  London. 


Portrait  of  Increase   Mather. 


The  new 
Charter. 


396         THE   POLITICAL  POLICY   OF  THE  PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

Phips  was  a  native  New  Englander,  a  successful  adventurer  who 
had  made  a  large  fortune  for  himself  and  others,  had  achieved  some 
euccess,  as  well  as  met  with  seme  disaster,  in  military  expeditions  in 

Nova  Scotia  and  Canada,  and 
whose  popularity  at  home  was 
sure  to  make  him  acceptable  as 
the  chief  magistrate.  Mather's 
confidence  in  him  was,  perhaps, 
all  the  greater  that  he  knew  him 
to  be  a  member  of  his  son  Cotton 
Mather's  church.  The  Governor 
was  not  likelv  to  be  in  want  of 

*/ 

plenty  of  counsel,  and  the  elder 
Mather,  no  doubt,  thought  it 
would  be  as  good  as  it  was  sure 
to  be  plentiful. 

Phips  arrived  in  Boston  with 
the  new  charter  in  May,  1692. 
By  this  instrument  a  new  Province  was  created  including  Massachu- 
setts, Plymouth,  Maine,  and  Nova  Scotia.  New  Hampshire 
begged  hard  to  be  included,  but  the  inheritors  of  the  Mason 
claim  had  interest  enough  tD  prevent  it.1  The  Governor,  Deputy, 
Secretary,  and  Admiralty  officers  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  crown. 
A  General  Court,  or  House  of  Assembly,  was  provided  by  election  of 
two  persons  from  each  town,  to  frame  laws  which  were  to  be  subject 
to  the  royal  approval.  Under  its  common  seal,  in  the  King's  name, 
judges,  justices,  sheriffs,  and  civil  officers  could  be  appointed  ;  mili- 
tary officers  could  only  be  appointed  by  the  Governor ;  the  danger- 
ous power  was  also  conferred  upon  him  of  annulling  the  appoint- 
ment of  other  officers.  Citizenship  was  no  longer  to  be  restricted  to 
church-members,  liberty  of  worship  was  free  to  all  but  Catholics.  All 
laws  were  to  be  transmitted  to  England,  and  if  not  approved  within 
three  years  were  to  be  void.  This  prerogative  which  the  King  re- 
served, of  rejecting  any  laws  and  acts  of  the  Province,  was  the  sharp 
point  of  the  new  charter  ;  but  the  General  Court  felt  constrained  to 
adopt  it,  and  it  remained  substantially  in  force,  with  but  few  and 
slight  amendments,  till  the  American  Revolution.  The  first  law 
which  the  King  rejected  was  one  passed  by  the  Assembly  exempting 
the  colonists  from  all  taxes  except  those  which  were  imposed  by  then 
own  representatives. 

1  Edward  Randolph,  the  obnoxious  Collector,  married  Jane  Gibbon,  whose  brother  Rich- 
ard married  Anne  Tnfton.  sister  of  Kol>ert  Mnson  (Tnfton),  ;ind  grand-daughter  of  the  old 
proprietor,  Captain  Johii  Mason.  All  his  colonial  interests  waited  upon  the  success  of  thi 
family  claim  to  lauds  in  New  Hampshire. 


1692.] 


SIR  WILLIAM   PHIPS. 


397 


Phips  as  a  governor  was  not  successful ;  as  a  picturesque  figure  in 
the  history  of  Massachusetts  he  is  distinguished.     He  was  at 
this  time  only  forty-two  years  of  age,  having  been  born  at  ch^ter  of 
Woolwich,  on  the  Kennebec,  in  Maine,  in  1650.     His  father 
and  mother  were  the  parents   of  twenty-six  children,  twenty-one    of 
whom  were  boys.    Till  he  was  eighteen  years  old  William's  occupation 
was  that  of  tending  sheep,  and  in  after  life  he  took  pleasure  —  as  most 
men  do  in  such  early  associations  —  in  pointing  out  the  fields  where 
he   had  followed   his  flocks.     Afterwards  he  passed  four   years  in  a 
ship-yard    and    be- 
came a  skilful  ship- 
carpenter.    He  went 
to    Boston  —  as 
country  boys  of  New 
England  have  done 
ever  si  nee, — to  seek 
his   fortune.     He 
found  it  befote  the 
year    was    out    in 
learning  to  read  and 
write,  and  in  marry- 
ing  a  sensible  and 
good   woman.     She 
was  a  widow,  some 
years   older  than 
himself,    and    pos- 
sessed of  some  for- 
tune.     Her    money 
gave   him    a   fresh 
start  in   his  career, 
and  her  good  sense 
as  well  as  his  ener- 
gy  and    courage, 
no  doubt,  made   a   most   important   element   of   his   future    success. 

The  young  man  built  himself  a  vessel  and  engaged  in  commerce. 
But  he  wanted  a  quicker  turn  of  fortune  than  carrying  lumber  would 
bring  him.  He  determined  to  do  what  so  many  have  tried  and  so 
few  have  succeeded  in  —  to  recover  treasures  lost  in  a  wrecked  ship. 
Somewhere  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  in  the  West  Indies  there  were 
such  treasures  in  bullion,  plate,  and  coin  in  sunken  Spanish  vessels,  if 
one  could  but  find  them.  One  such  vessel  he  found,  but  the  return 
was  small.  But  he  heard  of  another,  and  he  only  wanted,  he  be- 
lieved, sufficient  means  to  certainly  recover  her. 


Phips  raising  the   Spanish   Treasure. 


398         THE   POLITICAL   POLICY   OF  THE   PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 

He  went  to  England,  and  so  succeeded  in  arousing  the  King's  in- 
terest in  his  proposed  adventure  that  a  man-of-war,  well  appointed, 
was  given  him.  He  was  gone  on  his  first  voyage  two  years,  and 
came  back  without  any  treasure,  but  the  certain  knowledge,  he 
thought,  of  the  exact  spot  where  it  could  be  found.  But  he  also 
brought  back  a  high  reputation  as  a  naval  commander,  for  he  had 
shown  great  skill  and  courage  in  quelling  a  formidable  mutiny  among 
his  men. 

That  he  should  have  been  able  to  induce  a  company  to  second  him 
in  another  attempt  is  an  evidence  of  the  irrepressible  energy  of  the 
man.  And  this  time  he  succeeded.  The  sunken  Spanish  ship  was 
found  and  she  was  filled  with  treasure. 

About  £300,000  were  recovered  in  bullion,  coin  and  plate.  Phips's 
share  of  this  was  .£16,000  and  a  gold  cup  of  the  value  of  £1,000, 
which  was  given  to  his  wife  by  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  the  patron 
of  the  expedition.  But  he  was  otherwise  rewarded,  for  the  King 
knighted  him,  and  the  young  man  who  a  few  years  before  was  hewing 
ship-timber  in  a  Boston  ship-yard,  and  learning  at  odd  times  to  read 
and  write,  was  wealthy  and  famous. 

He  returned  to  New  England  in  1688,  with  the  appointment  of 
sheriff,  the  duties  of  which  office,  however,  he  found  it  impossible  to 
discharge  under  Andros.  Two  years  later  —  both  Andros  and  his 
master  having  been  meanwhile  disposed  of,  and  war  having  broke  out 
between  France  and  England  —  Phips  was  appointed  by  Governor 
Bradstreet  to  lead  an  expedition  against  Port  Royal.  In  this  he  was 
successful.  The  fort  was  destroyed,  the  town  plundered,  the  French 
governor  and  others  taken  prisoners  and  carried  to  Boston.  On  his 
return  Sir  William  landed  at  various  points  along  the  coast,  and  the 
whole  of  Acadia  was  reduced  to  English  rule. 

Soon  after  his  return  from  this  successful  expedition,  a  larger  and 
more  important  one  was  undertaken,  for  the  reduction  of 
Canada,  which  had  been  planned  and  decided  upon  at  a 
Congress  of  the  colonies  which  met  at  New  York  at  the  call 
of  Governor  Leisler.  A  land-force  of  New  York  and  Con- 
necticut troops,  under  John  Winthrop  and  Robert  Livingston,  were 
to  invade  Canada  and  threaten  Montreal,  while  a  naval  expedition 
under  Phips,  with  Major  Walley  of  Plymouth  as  commander  of  the 
troops  on  board,  was  to  take  Quebec.  The  fleet,  which  sailed  in 
August,  1690,  consisted  of  thirty-two  vessels  and  carried  two  thousand 
and  two  hundred  men. 

The  expedition  from  New  York  met  with  nothing  but  disaster. 
Disputes  before  starting  between  New  York  and  Connecticut  in  rela- 
tion to  commanders  caused  delay  and  neglect  of  measures  essential  to 


1692.]  SIR  WILLIAM  PHIPS  GOVERNOR.  399 

success.  When  the  troops  reached  the  lakes  no  boats  had  been  pro- 
vided for  their  transportation.  A  inarch  through  the  wilderness 
seemed  impossible,  and  the  army  turned  back.  Phips  meanwhile  had 
sailed  leisurely  along  the  coast  and  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  so  leisurely 
that  Frontenac  had  time  to  hear  of  his  coming  and  to  move  down  from 
Montreal  to  Quebec  and  to  prepare  for  defence.  When  at  length  the 
fleet  reached  the  fortress,  the  attack  was  so  clumsily  conducted  — 
owing  partly  to  Phips's  inexperience  in  military  affairs,  and  partly  to 
Walley's  cowardice  and  inefficiency  —  that  repulse  was  inevitable. 
Men  were  landed  at  the  wrong  time  and  in  wrong  places ;  ammunition 
was  wasted  in  useless  bombardments  of  works  on  which  no  impression 
could  be  made ;  useless  exposure  brought  on  fatal  sickness ;  cold 
weather  set  in  and  caused  a  good  deal  of  suffering.  A  second  attempt, 
in  which  it  was  hoped  some  of  these  blunders  might  be  corrected,  was 
prevented  by  a  storm  which  dispersed  the  fleet.  The  ships  found 
their  way  back  to  Boston  as  best  they  could ;  several  were  so  long  at 
sea  that  they  were  given  up  for  lost ;  one  was  never  again  heard  of  ; 
another  was  burnt  at  sea,  and  a  third  was  wrecked,  though  the  crew 
was  saved.  No  booty  was  brought  away  to  help  pay  the  cost  of  the 
expedition,  which  was  large  enough  to  impair  seriously  the  finances 
of  the  colony  ;  some  of  the  artillery  was  left  be'hind  in  the  hands  of 
the  French,  and  the  loss  of  life  — though  Phips  denied  this —  was  said 
to  have  been  two  hundred  men. 

To  meet  the  exhaustion  of  the  colonial  exchequer,  caused  by  this 
unfortunate  expedition,  a  resort  was  had  to  an  issue  of  paper  money. 
The  soldiers  were  paid  off  in  a  currency  which  soon  fell  to  a  discount 
of  about  thirty-three  per  cent.  It  is  greatly  to  Phips's  credit,  that 
feeling  himself  in  a  large  measure  responsible  for  this  public  disaster, 
he  redeemed  with  his  own  money  the  depreciated  bills  which  his  sol- 
diers had  been  compelled  to  accept. 

Owing  probably  in  part  to  this  generous  act,  the  credit  and  popu- 
larity of  Sir  William  were  little  impaired  by  his  military  failure.  In 
1691  he  again  went  to  England  to  interest  the  King  in  fresh  projects 
for  destroyiug  the  French  power  in  Canada,  in  bringing  to  an  end  the 
Indian  raids  under  French  guidance  upon  the  eastern  settlements, 
and  to  aid  the  agents  in  London  in  obtaining,  if  possible,  the  restora- 
tion of  the  old  Charter.  He  returned  with  a  new  Charter  and  as  Gov- 
ernor, as  we  have  already  said,  in  May,  the  next  year. 

The  stubborn  friends  of  the  old  Charter  soon  organized  themselves 
into  a  party  in  watchful  opposition  to  Governor  Phips.     It  opposition 
was,  no  doubt,  a  factious  opposition,  so  far  as  there  could  be   to  phlps 
any  real  expectation  of  restoring  the  old  rule  of  Puritanic  government. 
But  Phips  was  not  a  man  of  much  wisdom,  of  much  dignity  of  char- 


400 


THE  POLITICAL  POLICY   OF  THE   PURITANS.     [CHAP.  XVI. 


acter,  nor  of  that  experience  in  political  affairs  which  sometimes  suffices 
in  the  absence  of  higher  qualities.  He  made  an  expedition  to  Maine 
against  the  Indians,  which  had  no  brilliant  result,  while  the  fort  he 
ordered  to  be  built  at  Pemaquid  was  costly,  of  little  use,  and  gave 
rise  to  bitter  complaints  of  the  taxation  it  involved.  He  was  some- 
times indolently  or  ignorantly  good-natured,  leaving  the  General  Court 
to  follow  the  bent  of  its  own  inclinations  without  check ;  and  he  was 
sometimes  so  choleric  in  temper  as  to  assert  what  he  conceived  to  be 
his  official  privileges,  in  a  way  better  fitted  to  the  deck  of  a  ship  and 
a  disorderly  crew  than  the  peaceful  citizens  of  a  quiet  city.  For  ex- 
ample, he  disputed  the  authority  of  the  Collector  sent  from  England  ; 
and  when  that  officer  declined  to  obey  the  Governor's  order  for  the 
release  of  a  ship  and  cargo,  Sir  William  went  down  to  the  wharf,  fell 
upon  the  Collector  and  gave  him  a  beating.  He  had  a  dispute  with 
a  Captain  Short,  of  a  British  frigate,  and  on  meeting  him  in  the  street, 
upbraided  and  abused  him  and  finally  fell  upon  him  and  "  broke  his 
head  with  a  cane." 

One  incident  of  his  administration,  however,  had  political  import- 
ance. It  was  common  in  the  country  towns  of  Massachusetts  to  choose 
their  representatives  to  the  General  Court  from  among  the  citizens  of 
Boston.  The  inevitable  result  was  a  preponderating  influence  which 
usually  enabled  a  few  men  in  Boston  to  manage  affairs  to  suit  them- 
selves. Phips  was  popular  in  the  country,  where  probably  little  was 
known  of  his  overbearing  temper  and  his  ignorance  of  affairs  of  state. 
In  1694,  a  movement  for  his  removal  had  gathered  so  much  strength 
that  his  friends  in  the'  General  Court  proposed  an  address  to  the  King 
against  it.  The  motion  was  carried,  but  it  was  only  by  a  vote  of 
twenty-six  to  twenty-four,  and  in  the  minority  were  all  the  members 
chosen  from  Boston.  A  law  was  immediately  enacted  requiring  that 
no  town  should  be  represented  in  the  General  Court  by  a  non-resident. 

But  Phips's  enemies  at  length  prevailed,  and  he  was  ordered  to 
England  to  answer  the  charges  made  against  him.  He  went  in  1694, 
and  about  a  year  after  died  of  malignant  fever  in  London. 


Box  in  which  the   Connecticut  Charter  was  kept. 


Mount  Hope. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
PHILIP'S  WAR. 

OUTBREAK  OF  PHILIP'S  WAR.  —  ITS  CAUSES.  —  PHILIP'S  EARLIER  RELATIONS  WITH 
THE  ENGLISH.  —  INDIAX  ATTACKS  AT  SWANSEA,  TAUXTOX,  AND  ELSEWHERE. — 
WILLIAM  BLACKSTOXE.  —  THE  FIGHTS  AT  BROOKFIELD  AND  HADLEY.  —  THE  AM- 
i-.rsn  AT  BLOODY  BROOK.  —  EXPEDITION  INTO  THE  NARRAGAXSETT  COUNTRY. — 
THE  SURPRISE  AT  TURNER'S  FALLS.  —  PHILIP  ATTACKED  AXD  KILLED  NEAR 
MOUNT  HOPE. 

THE  conduct  of  affairs  in   Massachusetts  devolved,  when   Phips 
went  to  England,  upon  William  Stoughton,  the  Lieutenant- 
governor.     The  Indian  hostilities,  which,  as  the  next  chap- 

•  11          i  1111  •        >          i  Stoughton. 

ter  will  relate,  had  broken  out  again  in  the  eastern  prov- 
inces, soon  gave  him  sufficient  occupation,  and  he  was  wanting 
neither  in  energy  nor  ability  to  meet  the  exigency.  But  he  is  better 
remembered  as  a  benefactor  of  Harvard  College,  where  a  hall  still 
makes  his  name  familiar  to  each  successive  generation  ;  less  pleas- 
antly remembered  as  one  of  Andres's  judges  in  the  Ipswich  and  other 
trials,  where  the  people  resisted  the  despotic  Governor  ;  while  as  the 
Chief  Justice  of  the  province  in  the  witchcraft  persecution,  which 
marked  the  period  of  Phips's  administration,  the  distinction  he 
achieved  was  that  of  a  cruel  magistrate  in  whom  superstition  over- 
came all  sense  of  justice. 

Before,  however,  that  gloomy  page  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts 
is  turned,  it  is  necessary  to  revert  to  a  previous  bitter  experience  — 
the  last  great  war  in  New  England  with  the  Indians,  an  account 


VOL.   II. 


26 


402  PHILIP'S  AVAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

of  which,  in   chronological  order,  would  have   interrupted  the  con- 
secutive narrative  of  events  relating  to  the  charters. 

The  origin  of  this  war,  which  broke  out  in  1675  and  lasted  for  two 
years,  was,  of  course,  in  that  hidden  but  inextinguishable 
Philip"  hatred  which  the  red  man  felt  for  the  white  intruder,  —  a 
hatred  that  might,  at  any  moment,  be  lit  by  a  single  spark 
and  blaze  up  at  once  into  a  mighty  flame.  Philip,  the  chief  of  the 
Wampanoags,  or  Pokanokets,  who  was  at  the  head  of  this  decisive 
struggle,  did  not,  perhaps,  premeditate  a  war  until  the  temper  of  his 
tribe  made  it  inevitable ;  even  when  his  intentions  were  suspected, 
there  was  no  wish,  perhaps,  for  a  conflict  with  the  Indians,  on  the 
part  of  the  colonists,  but  rather  a  dread  of  it,  while  the  memory  of 
the  fate  of  the  Pequots,  it  was  hoped,  would  deter  the  savages  from 
so  desperate  a  measure.  But  there  came  the  inexorable  point  of  time 
and  circumstance  where  race  and  interest,  civilization  and  savage 
freedom,  clashed,  and  forced  the  bloody  conclusion. 

If  it  were  easier  to  disentangle  the  web  of  Indian  politics  in  New 
England  through  the  last  two  thirds  of  the  seventeenth  century  — 
from  the  settlement  of  New  Plymouth  to  the  time  when  the  native 
tribes  were  subdued  or  annihilated, —  it  would  be  possible,  perhaps, 
to  trace  events  to  their  immediate  causes,  to  understand  that  sudden 
outbreak  of  relentless  hate  which  blazed  through  the  provinces  from 
Narragansett  Bay  to  the  extreme  northern  and  eastern  borders.  But 
causes  of  ^}ls  we  know, —  the  very  presence  of  the  whites  was  a  prov- 
the  conflict.  ocation  ;  instinct  alone  soon  taught  the  savages  that  civili- 
zation must  crowd  them  out  of  lands  which  were  useless  except  they 
remained  a  wilderness.  Purchase,  so  far  as  they  understood  what 
purchase  meant,  was  no  equivalent  for  the  loss  of  the  hunting-grounds 
from  which  they  mainly  drew  the  means  of  existence  ;  practically  an 
exchange  of  a  cart-load  or  two  of  clothing  and  trinkets,  a  few  guns 
and  a  little  ammunition,  for  hundreds  of  square  miles,  was  as  much 
an  infringement  of  the  Indians'  right  to  the  soil  as  it  was  for  the 
whites  to  take  possession  of  the  lands  by  violence.  Purchase  meant 
to  the  Indian,  in  the  first  place,  only  toleration  of  a  joint  occupancy ; 
but  when  in  the  course  of  time  it  was  plain  that  joint  occupancy  was 
impossible,  —  that  to  the  whites  there  came  absolute  possession,  to 
themselves  absolute  expulsion,  —  then  the  purchase,  which  they  had 
misunderstood,  was  as  much  a  robbery  as  if  no  price  had  been  paid. 
Herein  was  the  bitter  root  of  deadly  hostility. 

Other  provocations  there  were,  known  and  unknown.  Personal 
wrongs  and  outrages  were  committed  on  one  side  and  the  other,  im- 
possible to  be  avoided  in  frontier  settlements,  however  peaceful  in 
theory  and  even  in  practice  may  have  been  the  policy  of  the  state. 


IC75.] 


CAUSES   OF   THE   WAR. 


403 


Chiefs  and  tribes  became  involved  in  controversies  and  in  the  conflict 
of  interests  between  different  colonies.  The  Indian  balance  of  power 
would  sometimes  be  thrown  in  on  one  side  or  the  other  as  a  prepon- 
derating influence;  the  Indian  himself  would  make  use  of  an  alliance 
with  the  whites  to  feed  fat  some  ancient  grudge  against  a  rival  tribe. 
So  Uncas  avenged  himself  in  the  death  of  Miantonomo  when  Massa- 
chusetts involved  them  in  her  quarrel  with  Gorton  and  his  people. 
So  Pumham  and  Sacononoco  were  used  by  the  magistrates  of  Boston 
to  give  them  a  pretext  for  jurisdiction  over  the  heretics  of  Shawomet. 


It  is  impossible  now  to  separate  and  trace  all  these  personal  wrongs, 
these  political  expedients,  these  jealousies  of  tribes,  intensified 
always  by  hatred  of  race,  which  led,  at  length,  to  the  war 
under  Philip.  If  the  outbreak  seemed  sudden  and  inexpli-  and  his 
cable,  it  was  only  because  the  real  causes  were  sometimes 
remote  and  often  unseen.  Who  could  tell  what  influence  may  have 
been  exercised  over  the  mind  of  Philip  by  the  memory  of  a  fend  be- 
tween his  father  and  Pumham,  when  Pumham  was  a  tool  in  the 
hands  of  the  Masssachusetts  Puritans  ?  What  was  the  measure  of 
all  the  outrages  which  Uncas  for  years  inflicted  upon  other  Indians, 
under  the  protection  of  his  close  alliance  with  the  English  ?  Philip 
had  no  stronger  ally  than  Xanuntenoo,  and  he  was  hardly  less 


404  PHILIP'S   WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

dreaded  than  Philip  himself.  Could  this  chief  of  the  Narragansetts 
forget  that  he  was  the  son  of  Miantonomo  ?  In  1661,  Philip's  elder 
brother,  Alexander,  was  taken  and  compelled  to  go  as  a  prisoner  to 
Plymouth  on  suspicion  of  hostile  designs,  in  conjunction  with  the 
Narragansetts,  against  the  English.  This  accusation  may  have  been, 
or  may  not  have  been,  true  ;  the  proof  was  not  forthcoming.  On  the 
way  the  chief  was  taken  suddenly  ill  and  in  a  few  hours  was  dead,  — 
died,  his  captors  said,  of  a  fever,  into  which  he  was  thrown  by  rage 
and  mortification.  His  young  wife  was  the  squaw  sachem  Weetamoo, 
whose  camp  or  fort  was  on  the  Pocasset  shore,  now  Tiverton.  She 
believed  the  English  had  poisoned  her  husband.  Were  her  suspicions 
forgotten  when,  fourteen  years  later,  she  joined  with  Philip  ?  She 
brought  to  the  king  three  hundred  warriors.  One  }ear  later,  but 
twenty-six  were  left,  when  all  were  surprised  and  taken  prisoners  on 
the  banks  of  the  Mattapoisett,  she  alone  evading  capture.  She  was 
drowned  in  attempting  to  swim  the  river,  and  when,  soon  after,  her 
poor  naked  body  was  found  washed  up  upon  the  bank,  the  head  was 
cut  off  and  set  up  in  Taunton.  When  the  prisoners,  the  feeble  rem- 
nant of  her  late  followers,  saw  this  sight,  "  they  made,"  says  Mather, 
'•a  most  horid  and  diabolical  lamentation,  crying  out  that  it  was 
their  queen's  head."  ;  The  spirit  that  prompted  the  act,  and  this 
contemptuous  comment,  were  not  the  growth  of  a  single  year. 

Massasoit,  the   sachem  of   the  Wampanoags  or  Pokanokets,  the 

early  and   steadfast  friend   of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth, 

lationVwith   lived  till  1660.     Three  or  four  years  before  his  death,  he 

took  two  of  his  sons,  Mooanam,  known  also  as  Wamsutta, 

and    Metacomet,  also   called   Pometacom,  to  Plymouth,  and  asked 

that  both  should  receive  English  n;imes.     Thenceforth  the  first  was 

known  as  Alexander,  and    the  second   as   Philip.     How  Alexander 

came  to  his  death,  soon  after  he  succeeded  his  father  as  sachem,  we 

have  just  related.     From  that  time  Philip  was  the  head  of  the  tribe. 

Philip  was  watched,  as  his  brother  had  been,  with  anxiety  and 
suspicion.  In  the  intervening  years,  before  war  actually  broke  out, 
there  were  on  both  sides  provocations  enough  to  keep  up  the  angry 
irritation  of  the  old  wounds,  which  were  never  closed,  however  hid- 
den. In  1671,  some  strolling  Indians  murdered  a  white  man  near 
Dedlmm  in  Massachusetts.  The  connivance,  if  not  the  instigation 
of  Philip,  was  suspected ;  but  an  Indian,  the  son  of  a  Nipmuck 
sachem,  was  tried  and  executed.  Boston  called  upon  Philip  to  ex- 
plain his  position,  and  to  allay  if  he  could  the  jealousy  which  was 
created  by  the  rumor  that  he  was  preparing  arms  of  all  kinds,  and 
collecting  ammunition.  Taunton  Green  was  designated  as  the  place 

1  Increase  Mather's  Brief  History  of  Philip's  War.     Drake's  Book  of  the  Indiant. 


1675.] 


PHILIP  PREPARES  FOR  WAR. 


405 


for  an   interview.      His  party  approached   in   war-paint   and   fully 
armed  ;  but,  perceiving  that   the    Boston  party  was  large  and  also 
armed,  they  paused  on  the  ridge  of  a  hill.     The  English  hesitated  to 
go  further,  and  insisted  that  Philip  should  advance  to  the  appointed 
spot.     They  could  only  overcome  the  distrust  of  the  natives  by  leav- 
ing hostages  with  them  during  the  interview,  which,  it  was  The  confer- 
mutually  agreed,  should  take  place  in  the  meeting-house.  theeindians 
One  half  of  the  sanctuary  was  filled  by  the  painted  war-  »tTaunton 
riors,  with  feathered  crests  and  beaded  trappings,  —  sombre,  silent, 
wary.     On  the  other  side  was  the  counter- 
foil of  Englishmen  in  broad  hats,  muskets 
slung  in  bandoliers,  cuirasses,  and  long  ra- 
piers, —  a  picture  from  the  age  of  Crom- 
well.    Never  before  or  since  did  the  plain 
roof    of    a   New    England    meeting-house 
cover  a  contrast  so  highly  colored  in  cos- 
tume  and   idea.     In   those   pews,    Boston 
compelled  Philip  to  promise  to  deliver  up 
all  the  English  arms  in  the  possession  of 
his    tribe.      Slowly   and   reluctantly    they 
came   in   afterward,   and    the   compulsion 
rankled  sorely.     To  the  feeling  of  the  na- 
tives it  seemed  an  aggression   which  they 
were  always  trying  to  match  in  various  petty  ways.     It  was  clear 
to  Philip,  in  1674,  that  he  must  begin  to  look  around  for  allies. 

There  was  an  Indian  of  the  name  of  Wussausmon,  who  was  one 
of  Eliot's  disciples.  His  name  was  pronounced  Sausamon 
by  the  English.  John  Sausamon  went  freely  to  and  fro  paiUPforre~ 
among  the  Indians,  and  was  even  trusted  by  Philip.  John 
observed  the  inevitable  drift  of  the  native  feeling,  and  warned  the 
Plymouth  men.  For  this,  it  was  supposed,  he  was  murdered  in  the 
winter  of  1675,  near  Middleborough  Pond,  and  his  body  thrust  into 
a  hole  in  the  ice.  His  trappings  were  left  lying  near  the  edge,  and 
conveyed  at  first  the  impression  that  he  had  fallen  through.  But 
when  the  body  was  recovered,  marks  of  violence  were  found  upon  it. 
Three  Indians  were  caught,  tried  by  a  jury  of  six  white  men  and  six 
Indians,  and  executed  for  this  deed.  Apparently  there  was  some  rea- 
son for  doubting  that  there  had  been  any  murder,  or,  if  there  had  been, 
that  the  real  murderers  had  been  discovered.  "  Many  wish,"  wrote 
Roger  Williams,  "  that  Plymouth  had  left  the  Indjans  alone,  at  least 
not  to  put  to  death  the  3  Indjans  vpon  one  Indjan's  testimony." 
Whether  Philip  meditated  war  or  not,  the  anger  of  the  Indians  could 
have  hardly  failed  now  to  push  him  into  one. 


Philip's  Chair. 


• 


406 


PHILIP'S   WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


Accordingly,  on  June  24,  1675,  —  a  day  that  had  been  appointed  for 
The  attack  a  ^as^  that  the  horrors  of  war  might  be  averted,  —  the  unsus- 
at  Swansea.  pectjng  peOple  of  Swansea,  who  were  just  going  home  from 
the  meeting,  were  attacked.  One  man  was  killed,  and  others  wounded  ; 
the  two  men  who  were  despatched  for  a  surgeon  were  killed.  Six 
other  men  near  the  garrison  were  killed  and  horribly  mutilated. 
Some  barns  and  houses  were  burned. 

At  this  time  the  New  England  villages  were  scattered  over  a  large 
area.    Emigrants  had  gone  from  Connecticut  as  far  as  Deer- 
field;  the  remotest  western  settlement  was  Westfield.    Ha- 
verhill  was  on  the  frontier;  Lancaster  and  Brookfield  were 
isolated  settlements.    Leverett  was  governor  of  Massachusetts,  Wins- 

low    of    PI  v  m- 

«/ 

o  u  t  h  ,  John 
Winthrop  of 
Connecticut 
and  New  Ha- 
ven. At  first 
the  war  was 
confined  to  the 
Plymouth  Col- 
ony. At  Mid- 
dle b  o  r  o  u  g  h, 
Taunton,  Dart- 
mouth, Reho- 
both,  and  else- 
w  here  much 
property  was 
destroyed  and 
many  were 
killed.  Reho- 
both  was  most 
unfortunate, 

for  its  houses,  barns,  and  mills  were  all  burnt.  Its  vicinity  to  Mount 
Hope,  the  home  of  Philip,  may  have  made  it  peculiarly  the  object 
of  hostility,  for  five  times  in  the  course  of  the  war  its  homes  were 
made  desolate.  Rhode  Island,  though  not  approving  the  war,  was 
nevertheless  involved  in  the  general  calamity.  Houses  were  burned 
and  several  persons  killed  at  Pocasset  —  now  Tiverton  —  in  July; 
a  few  days  before  eighteen  houses  were  destroyed  in  Providence.  It 
was  probably  then  that  the  savages  laid  waste  the  place  of 
William  Blackstone,  on  the  banks  of  the  Seekonk,  a  few 
miles  from  Providence.  Here,  on  the  spot  which  he  named  "  Study 


Philip's  Seat  at   Mount   Hope. 


William 
Blackstone. 


1675.] 


THE    FIGHT   AT   BHOOKFIELD. 


407 


Hill,"  the  first  white  settler  of  the  peninsula  of  Boston  as  well  as  of 
Rhode  Island,  had  built  a  house  and  planted  an  orchard  and  found  a 
refuge  for  his  old  age  from  the  turmoils  of  the  time  and  the  "  lords 
brethren"  of  Massachusetts.  His  rest  was  undisturbed  by  the  sav- 
ages, for  he  had  died  a  few  weeks  before  and  been  laid  in  a  quiet 
grave  —  still  to  be  seen  —  among  his  apple  trees. 

In   August  the  General  Court  proposed  to  negotiate  a  peace  with 
the  Nipmucks —  or  Nipmets  —  who  lived  on  the  northern  Thefightat 
tributaries    of   the    Thames.     The  result  was  a  disastrous   Brookfield 
fight  at  Brookfield,  near  which  the  conference  was  to  be  held.     No 
Indians   were   to  be   found   at   the   place    appointed,   and    Captain 


Blackstone's  Study   Hill. 

Wheeler  with  twenty  troopers  went  .in  search  of  them.  They  had 
not  gone  far  when  they  fell  into  an  ambush  ;  eight  of  the  twenty 
were  shot  down,  either  killed  or  wounded,  and  among  the  latter  was 
the  captain.  Those  who  escaped  regained  Brookfield  by  a  circuitous 
path,  and  gave  the  alarm. 

There  was  hardly  time  to  hurry  the  people,  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, to  the  number  of  seventy,  into  the  one  house  capable  of  defence, 
when  the  village  was  filled  with  three  hundred  yelling  savages. 
They  set  fire  to  every  house  and  its  surroundings,  save  only  the  one 
in  which  the  English  had  taken  refuge.  That  needed  to  be  ap- 
proached with  more  caution. 

The  attack  was  begun.  It  was  furious,  determined,  and  incessant 
for  two  days  and  nights.  Shot  were  poured  in  from  all  sides ;  against 
the  walls  of  the  house  fires  were  kindled  ;  crevices  and  projections 
were  sought  for  with  fire-brands  tied  to  poles  ;  roof  and  walls  were 


408 


PHILIP'S   WAR. 


[CHAP  XVII. 


pierced  with  arrows  around  which  were  wound  burning  rags  filled 
with  sulphur.  But  every  attempt  to  get  into  the  house,  or  to  drive 
out  its  brave  garrison,  was  met  and  baffled.  By  sorties  the  most 
threatening  tires  against  the  walls  were  put  out ;  water  was  poured, 
in  spite  of  risk,  upon  the  burning  sulphur  as  fast  as  it  fell  upon  the 
roof  ;  every  stratagem  was  met  with  some  more  cunning  device  ;  the 
savages  were  glad  of  the  shelter  of  the  forest  against  the  desperate 
bravery  of  men  who  were  fighting  for  their  wives  and  children. 

On  the  third  day  a  new  and  most  alarming  stratagem  was  resorted  to 
by  the  assailants.  They  contrived  a  sort  of  cart  on  which  were  piled 
bundles  of  flax,  and  hay  and  hemp  and  any  other  combustible  mate- 
rial on  which  they  could  lay  their 
hands ;  and  this  machine,  all  ablaze 
with  mounting  flames,  they  thrust 
with  long  poles  against  the  build- 
ing. The  strait  was  desperate. 
Either  the  besieged  must  submit 
to  cruel  death  by  fire,  or  face  the 
hardly  less  cruel  alternative  of 
fighting  hand  to  hand,  surrounded 
by  women  and  children,  with 
their  savage  enemy  who  outnum- 
bered them  more  than  three  to 
one.  But  fortunately  before  they 
were  compelled  to  make  their 
choice  between  these  desperate 
measures,  a  sudden  and  heavy 
shower  of  rain  extinguished  the 
fires,  and  made  a  repetition  of  the  experiment  impossible. 

Before  the  day  was  over  Major  Simon  Willard  of  Boston,  who, 
on  the  march  westward,  had  been  intercepted  by  a  messenger  the  be- 
sieged had  contrived  to  send  off,  dashed  into  the  town  with  between 
fifty  and  sixty  men.  They  attacked  the  Indians  with  spirit,  and  be- 
fore day-break  the  next  morning,  they  had  all  disappeared.  Not 
only  were  the  Brookfield  people  saved,  but  so  successful  had  been 
their  defence  that  eighty  of  the  Indians  were  killed  and  wounded. 

The  emissaries  of  Philip  were  ubiquitous.  They  stirred  up  the 
spread  of  Indians  of  the  Connecticut  valley,  and  even  at  length  suc- 
thewar.  ceeded  in  influencing  the  baptized  Indians,  for  blood  is 
thicker  than  Avater.  Men  went  to  meeting  with  their  arms  ;  ammu- 
nition was  stored  in  the  meeting-houses ;  each  man  furnished  himself, 
under  a  penalty  of  two  shillings  for  each  neglect,  with  at  least  five" 
charges  of  powder  and  shot.  Flint  locks  were  in  general  use  here 


Blackstone's  Grave 


1675.J  THE  FIGHT   AT   HADLEY.  409 

before  they  were  known  in  England,  the  new  exigency  of  Indian  war- 
fare turning  the  matchlock  into  a  musket. 

Hadley  on  the  Connecticut  was  an  important  frontier  post,  and  a 
place  of  deposit  for  military  supplies.  On  the  first  of  Sep-  HaUley  at. 
tember,  a  montli  after  the  burning  of  Brookfield,  the  Indians  t*eked- 
took  advantage  of  the  absence  of  most  of  the  garrison,  to  attempt  its 
destruction.  It  was  a  fast-day,  and  the  people  were  in  the  meeting- 
house when  the  alarm  was  given.  The  men  seized  their  arms,  which 
were  ready  to  their  hands  ;  but  even  the  hands  of  men  as  brave  and 
determined  as  they  were  may  have  trembled  a  little,  when  they 
looked  at  their  women  and  children  huddled  together  in  a  building 
which  was  incapable  of  any  defence  from  within,  and  when  they 
listened  to  the  war-whoops  of  savages  more  pitiless  than  wild  beasts. 
It  seemed  to  them,  it  may  be,  that  they  could  only  die  ;  that  with 
such  odds  against  them  there  could  be  no  hope  of  repelling  the  en- 
emy ;  that  the  sight  of  their  helpless  families  unnerved  rather  than 
inspirited  them.  They  defended  rather  than  attacked  ;  they  looked 
over  their  shoulders  at  the  cowering  figures  behind  as  often  as  at  the 
savages  who  pressed  nearer  and  nearer  in  front.  They  wavered  and 
fell  back ;  upon  the  action  of  a  moment  of  time  hung  the  result  of 
the  fight  and  the  fate  of  the  whole  village. 

Suddenly  there  stood  among  them  a  man  almost  aged,  but  of  a 
soldierly  bearing  and  commanding  presence.  He  drew  his  suddenap. 
sword  as  one  who  knew  how  to  use  it ;  he  put  himself  at  the  5^ntheeof 
head  of  the  men  as  his  natural  and  proper  place.  Whether  Re8lclde- 
he  spoke  or  not,  words  were  hardly  needed,  for  he  marched  forth  as 
a  captain.  There  was  the  quick  response  of  men  who  did  not  want 
courage  but  needed  leadership.  They  rallied,  as  certain  now  of  driv- 
ing back  the  savages  as  before  they  were  doubtful  of  successful  de- 
fence. It  was  defence  no  longer,  but  attack.  Under  the  impulse 
of  vigorous  command  sprung  hope  and  energy  in  place  of  despair. 
Wherever  this  calm  and  brave  soldier  would  lead  they  would  fol- 
low. There  was  much,  no  doubt,  in  the  strangeness  of  this  sudden 
apparition  of  a  captain  when  all  would  be  speedily  lost  without  one  ; 
there  must  have  been  still  more  in  the  commanding  aspect,  the  con- 
fident assumption  of  power,  the  quiet  intrepidity  of  the  man,  that 
made  him  at  once  accepted  and  obeyed. 

The  tide  of  fight  was  turned.  The  savages  fell  back,  —  then  fled, 
the  impetuous  English  pursuing  them  to  the  woods.  When  the 
sound  of  the  retreat  had  died  away,  the  men  gathered  together  again 
in  the  village ;  but  he  who  had  led  them  to  victory  was  not  among 
them  ;  he  had  gone  as  suddenly  as  he  had  come  ;  whence  he  came 
none  knew,  and  none  saw  him  go  away. 


410 


PHILIP'S   WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


Such  is  the  story  as  tradition  has  handed  it  down.  There  is  no 
reason  for  doubting  its  essential  truth,  though  the  imagination  of 
successive  narrators  may  have  made  a  romance  of  a  natural  though 
effective  incident.  The  regicide,  Colonel  Goffe,  was  at  that  period 
concealed  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Russell  at  Hadley,  and  the  old  soldier 
certainly  would  not  see  the  villagers  getting  the  worst  of  the  fight 
with  the  Indians  if  his  presence  and  bravery  could  prevent  it.  He 


Goffe  at    Hadley. 


may  have  seemed  to  his  countrymen  almost  a  supernatural  visitor 
when  he  appeared  so  suddenly  among  them,  and  the  impression 
would  be  deepened  when  he  as  suddenly  vanished.  That  Goffe  was 
concealed  in  Hadley  was  probably  unknown  to  the  people,  for  though 
there  was,  perhaps,  no  wish  on  the  part  of  the  magistrates  to  surren- 
der the  regicide,  had  the  place  of  the  retreat  of  himself  and  Whalley 
been  publicly  known,  there  would  have  been  a  legal  obligation  for 
their  capture  not  easily  evaded. 

September  was  a  fatal  month.     At  Deerfield,  on  the  same  day  that 
Hadlev  was  attacked,  several  houses  and  barns  were  burnt,  and  two 

*/  7 


1675.] 


DEERFIELD   AND  BLOODY   BROOK. 


411 


men  killed.    The  block-house  at  Northfield  was  besieged  after  a  dozen 
men  had  fallen  and  the  dwelling-houses  were  burned.    Cap- 

.  .  ,.  Renewed  at- 

tain  Beers,  going  with  thirty  men  to  its  relief,  was  ambus-   tack  on 

caded  and  killed  with  twenty  of  his  men.     Deerfield  was 
again  attacked  ;  the  people  were  fired  on  as  they  were  going  to  meet- 
ing, and  their  houses  burned.     The  farmers  in  their  flight  had  left  a 
quantity  of  grain  unthreshed.     A  company  of  eighty  picked  men.  the 
flower  of  Essex,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Lathrop  of  Ipswich, 


The  Ambush  at   Bloody   Brook. 


was  detailed  from  Had  ley  to 
complete  the  threshing,  and  load 
the  grain  in  wagons.  Captain 
Moseley  was  left  at  Deerfield 
with  a  company  to  protect  their 
rear.  Early  on  September  18,  Captain  Lathrop,  returning  to  Had- 
ley,  halted  his  command  in  a  fair  grove  watered  by  a  brook,  a  few 
miles  from  Deerfield  ;  the  men  broke  their  ranks  and  loitered  to 
and  fro,  thrown  off  their  guard  by  the  allurements  of  the  cool  and 
pleasant  spot. 

The  savages  had  been  all  night  upon  the  trail,  waiting  for  such  an 
opportunity.  Seven  hundred  of  them,  sheltered  by  the  trees,  deliv- 
ered a  fire  so  destructive  that  Lathrop  and  all  but  seven  of  his  men 


412 


PHILIP'S  WAR. 


[CHAR  XVII. 


were  killed.     By  this  massacre  the  clear  brook  acquired  its  name  of 
Bloody. 

While  the  savages  were  hilariously  engaged  in  scalping  the  troops, 
Captain  Moseley,  who  had  heard  the  firing,  hurried  to  the  spot, 
charged  the  savages  repeatedly,  going  through  them  with  great 
slaughter,  and  maintaining  his  ground  against  the  superior  numbers, 
from  eleven  o'clock  till  evening,  when  Major  Treat  arrived  with  one 

hundred  men  and  sixty 
Mohegans,  and  the  In- 
dians were  driven  off 
with  great  loss  and  pur- 
sued for  some  distance. 
All  day  long  Captain 
Moseley  lost  only  two 
men  and  eleven  wound- 
ed.1 

After  this  disastrous 
autumn  it  was  resolved 
to  strike  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  Indians  in 
the  country  of  the  Nar- 
ragansetts,  who  were  se- 
cret allies  of  Philip. 
Massachusetts  furnished 
five  hundred  and  twenty 
men,  Plymouth  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-nine,  and 
Connecticut  three  hun- 
dred :  there  were  in  ad- 
dition one  hundred  and 
fifty  Mohegan  Indians. 
Governor  Winslow  of  Plymouth  was  appointed  commander  of  the 
expedition. 

The  fort  of  the  Narragansetts  was  in  South  Kingston,  Rhode  Island. 
It  Avas  built  upon  five  or  six  acres  of  dry  ground,  encircled  by  a 
swamp,  and  was  very  formidably  defended  with  palisades  and  a 
chevaux-de-frise,  a  rod  in  thickness,  of  felled  trees.  The  troops 

1  Athwart  the  terror  of  those  years  there  falls  a  single  gleam  of  grotesque  humor  from 
Bloody  Brook.  When  Captain  Moseley  came  up  with  the  Indians  as  they  were  collecting 
spoils  it  ml  sculps,  lie  coolly  took  off  his  periwig  .-ind  stuffed  it  into  his  breeches,  to  be  in 
better  fighting  trim.  This  action  startled  the  Indians,  one  of  whom  exclaimed,  "  English- 
man got  two  heads  ?  Me  cut  off  one,  he  got  uoder,  put  it  on  beter !  "  Drake  (Old  Indian 
Chronicle)  has  the  report  that  some  of  the  Indians  disappeared  in  consequence  of  this  oc- 
currence. But  Moseley's  fre»h  muskets  were  more  demoralizing  than  a  head  that  was  too 
indefinite  to  vield  a  scalu. 


The   Monunx-nt  at   Bloody  Brook. 


1675.] 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST  THE  NARRAGANSETTS. 


413 


marched  through  a  deep  snow,  reaching  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  early 
on  December  19,  and  attacking  it  at  four  in  the  afternoon. 
There  was  but  one  entrance,  and  to  reach  it  the  men  had  }?a 
to  get  over  a  log  breast  high,  under  fire  from  a  block-house  countr>- 
or  shelter.  The  fire  was  so  heavy  that  the  Massachusetts  men,  who 
were  first  to  enter,  were  obliged  to  retreat.  At  this  time  Captains 
Johnson,  Davenport,  and  Gardiner,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Gallop, 
Seely,  and  Marshall,  of  Connecticut,  were  killed.  By  another  des- 
perate onset,  a  party,  under  Captain  Benjamin  Church,  managed  to 
get  into  the  rear,  which  was  not  so  elaborately  defended,  and  en- 
tered the  place,  Church  receiving  three  bullets.  Then  it  became  a 


Attack  on  the   Narragansett  Fort. 

driving  hand-to-hand  fight,  the  six  hundred  wigwams  were  set  on 
fire, — a  blunder,  however,  against  which  Church  in  vain  protested, 
for  they  were  filled  with  corn.  The  savages  were  driven  out  through 
the  swamp  into  the  open  country,  after  a  desperate  and  bloody  con- 
test. About  seven  hundred  Indians  were  killed,  including  twenty 
chiefs.  Of  a  great  number  of  wounded,  three  hundred  died.  Many 
old  men,  squaws,  and  children  perished,  some  of  them  in  the  flames. 
All  the  utensils  and  great  store  of  corn  were  burnt.  That  winter's 
day  had  a  lurid  sunset.  The  Connecticut  troops  alone  lost  eighty 
men.1  It  was  a  great  blow,  but  not  a  decisive  one,  for  Philip  was 
yet  al've. 

1  Connecticut  Historical  Collections. 


414  PHILIP'S   WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

-  The  next  year  the  war  was  again  transferred  to  the  interior  of 
The  war  in  Massachusetts.  Lancaster  was  attacked  in  February,  1676, 
settT— hMrs.  ^y  *ne  Wachusett  Indians.  One  of  the  sachems  had  mar- 
Rowianason.  rje(j  t]ie  s}ster  of  Philip's  wife,  and  also  had  another  squaw, 

who  was  the  widow  of  Wamsutta.  The  Lancaster  tragedy  was  made 
memorable  by  the  story  of  Mrs.  Rowlandson's  captivity.  Her 
youngest  girl,  six  years  old,  was  wounded  in  the  attack  upon  the 
garrison  house,  and  died  on  the  eighth  day.  The  brave  woman  had 
toiled  through  the  snowy  swamps  and  forests  with  her  child  in  her 
arms,  subsisting  upon  ground  nuts,  acorns,  old  bones,  horses'  ears  and 
entrails,  frogs  and  rattlesnakes,  compelled  to  witness  the  stealthy 
and  ferocious  attacks  on  other  places,  returning  finally  to  Mount 
Wachusett,  where  she  was  redeemed  for  £20. 

The  Indians  had  taken  possession  of  the  deserted  acres  of  Deer- 
field  and  were  planting  them.  A  large  body  of  them  was  camped 
Turner's  around  the  falls,  which  earned  a  name  from  that  Captain 
Expedition  Turner  who  here  made  himself  famous.  When  this  news 
was  brought  in  by  escaped  captives,  Turner,  who  had  succeeded  to 
the  command  of  the  forces  in  the  valley,  gathered  one  hundred 
mounted  men  at  Hatfield  for  a  night  ride  of  twenty  miles  across 
the  country  through  Whately  and  Deerfield.  An  Indian  lodge 
was  roused  from  sleep  by  hearing  the  noise  of  their  march,  but 
discovering  no  hoof  prints  at  the  ford,  which  Turner  had  avoided, 
concluded  that  a  herd  of  moose  had  crossed  the  river.  The  sound 
of  Turner's  approach  was  deadened  by  the  sound  of  the  rapids 
which  were  four  miles  further  up  the  stream.  He  found  the  main 
encampment,  therefore,  fast  asleep,  close  to  the  overhanging  rocks, 
just  at  daybreak  of  May  10.  The  horses  had  been  left  in  a  ravine 
below,  and  the  troops  marched  a  mile  or  two  to  gain  the  rear  of 
the  Indians,  who  had  neglected  to  post  a  guard.  The  surprise  was 
complete.  Many  of  them  took  to  their  canoes,  but  left  the  paddles 
behind  and  went  over  the  falls.  Many  were  shot  in  attempting  to 
cross  the  river.  Many  hid  among  the  rocks  and  were  killed  by 
the  sword.  After  the  fight  one  hundred  Indians  lay  dead,  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  were  counted  as  they  went  over  the  falls,  all  of  whom 
but  one  perished.  Over  three  hundred  Indians  had  been  destroyed. 
Turner's  loss  was  a  single  soldier. 

But  another  party  of  Indians,  not  far  off,  heard  the  noise  of  the 
fight  and  were  soon  on  Turner's  tracks.  Then  commenced  a  dis- 
astrous retreat.  A  panic  seized  the  troops,  on  a  rumor  that  Philip 
was  at  hand  with  a  thousand  men.  Captain  Holyoke  took  command 
of  the  rear-guard  and  checked  the  pursuit.  Turner  was  killed  ;  a 
large  number  of  his  men  were  cut  off ;  but  Holyoke  reached  Hatfield 


167C.] 


PHILIP   DRIVEN   FROM    THE    VALLEY. 


safely  with  the  main  body.  The  excitement  and  fatigues  of  that  day, 
however,  cost  him  his  life,  as  he  died  not  long  after. 

Among  the  earliest  of  the  Indian  chiefs  to  turn  against  his  old 
friends,  and  take  part  with  Philip,  was  Pumham.  In  this  fight  at 
Turner's  Falls,  he  was  conspicuous  in  the  pursuit  of  the  English  for 
his  bravery  and  great  strength.  Two  months  later,  he  was  found 
lurking,  half  starved,  with  a  few  followers,  in  the  Dedham  woods, 
near  Boston,  where  he  was  killed,  fighting  desperately  after  he  was 
mortally  wounded. 

This  disaster  at  Turner's  Falls  was  a  great  blow  to  Philip,  for  it 
broke  up  his  fishery  at  that  place,  by  which  he  intended  to  pi-ovide 
himself  for  the  winter.  Many  of  his  best  sachems  had  been  slain. 


Turner's   Falls. 


He  attempted  reprisals  by  an  attack  upon  Hatfield.  but  a  reinforce- 
ment from  Hadley  defeated  the  savages,  killing  twenty-five  of  them. 
Hadley  was  again  beset  by  a  band  of  seven  hundred  In-  Further 
dians,   but    they  were  repulsed  with   heavy  loss.     Captain    HklViev.!! 
Henchman  at  one  place,  and  Major  Talcot  at  another,  were  tl"«*liw- 
equally  successful  in  defeating  and  killing  a  number  of  the  Indians. 

The  garrison  at  Northampton  was  largely  reinforced,  and  it  became 
clear  to  Philip  that  he  could  not  hold  the  valley.  The  war  was  again 
shifted  to  the  south.  Seekonk,  Plymouth,  Bridgewater,  Scituate, 
and  many  other  places,  were  partly  sacked  and  burned.  Through  the 
spring  and  summer  all  Southern  Massachusetts,  and  the  contiguous 
settlements  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  were  kept  in  constant 
alarm.  The  settlers  knew  that  the  savages  might  at  any  moment  be 


416 


PHILIP'S   WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


lurking  in  the  woods  about  their  homes,  with  a  tread  as  stealthy  and 
still  as  that  of  a  tiger,  and  thirsting,  as  tigers  thirst,  for  blood.  By 
night  and  by  day,  in  the  field,  at  the  work-bench,  in  the  meeting- 
house pew,  the  thing  nearest  to  each  man's  hand  was  his  musket. 
The  peculiar  qualities  which  gave  the  Indian  a  certain  superiority  as 
a  hunter  and  a  warrior,  were  his  no  longer.  Stem  necessity  had  com- 
pelled the  white  man  to  learn  from  his  enemy  and  improve  on  what 
was  taught.  And  the  women  were  as  brave  as  the  men,  as  fertile  in 
resources,  as  quick  in  defence,  as  enduring  in  captivity,  when  captiv- 
ity happened  to  be  their  lot.  Thrilling  stories  of  defence,  escape,  res- 
cue, stratagem,  still  make  the  legendary  lore  of  that  whole  region. 


Site  of   the   Squaw   Sachem   Magnus's  Fort. 


m 

In  this  spring  and  summer 
of  1676,  the  colonies  called  into 
active  service  almost  every  man 
who  could  handle  a  musket.  All 
who  could  be  spared  from  home- 
defence  were  sent  out  upon  ex- 
peditions through  the  country. 
Notwithstanding  the  superiority 
of  the  whites,  the  aspect  of  affairs  was  sometimes  almost  desperate, 
for  there  was  more  than  one  signal  disaster.  Thus  Captain  Wards- 
worth,  going  to  the  relief  of  Sudbury,  in  Massachusetts,  which  had 
been  partly  burnt,  was  entrapped  in  an  ambush,  and  he,  and  about 
sixty  of  his  company  of  eighty  men,  were  killed.  The  fate  of  Cap- 
tain Pierce's  company  of  fifty  Englishmen  and  twenty  friendly  In- 
dians was  even  worse.  The  enemy  surprised  them,  and  only  one  of 
the  Englishmen  and  but  a  few  of  the  Indians  escaped.  There  was 
as  little  mercy  on  one  side  as  on  the  other.  Nanuntenoo,  the  son  of 
Miantonomo,  was  almost  as  much  feared  as  Philip  himself.  Great 
was  the  rejoicing  when  the  news  was  spread  abroad  that  he  who  it 


1676.]  COLONEL   CHURCH   AND   KING   PHILIP.  417 

was  supposed  had  led  in  the  attack  on  Pierce,  had  been  taken  pris- 
oner and  immediately  executed.  "  I  like  it  well,"  said  the  brave 
chief ;  "  I  shall  die  before  my  heart  is  soft,  or  have  said  anything 
unworthy  of  myself."  But  on  neither  side  was  there  an  act  of  more 
signal  vengeance  than  that  of  Major  Talcot,  who,  with  a  force  of 
three  hundred  mounted  men,  —  English  and  Indians  —  overtook  a 
body  of  nearly  the  same  number  of  Narragansetts  in  a  swamp  in 
their  country.  Those  who  were  not  killed  in  the  first  assault  were 
made  pi'isoners,  and  ninety  so  taken  were  put  to  death.  Among 
them  was  the  Squaw  Sachem  Magnus,  whose  fort  was  on  a  hill  in 
the  present  town  of  North  Kingston,  Rhode  Island. 

The  Indians  themselves  were  the  first  to  show  that  the  strain  was 
too  much  for  them.  Plymouth  had  put  the  conduct  of  military 
affairs  almost  exclusively  into  the  hands  of  Colonel  Church,  and  his 
uniform  success  had  ^ 

aroused  a  dread  of  him 
among  the  Indians,  as 

much  as  it  inspired  the  Church.s  Sword 

confidence  of  his  own 

people.  He  was  more  than  a  match  for  the  Indian  in  cunning  as 
well  as  courage;  could  meet  him  and  beat  him  where  he  thought 
himself  strongest ;  detect  him  in  ambush,  or  lead  him  into  one ; 
overcome  him  by  strategy,  or  defeat  him  when  hand  to  hand  in 
open  fight.  When  the  savage  doubts  and  hesitates,  he  is  lost.  If 
success  ebbs,  there  is  no  returning  flood.  The  loss  in  chiefs  and  war- 
riors weakened  and  disheartened  the  Indians,  and  large  expeditions 
were  abandoned.  To  distract  pursuit,  they  broke  up  into  small  par- 
ties, and  continued  only  a  predatory  warfare.  Philip  himself  re- 
treated to  the  hill  and  isthmus  of  Mount  Hope. 

The  chief  was  at  last  in  desperate  strait.  Twice  within  a  few 
weeks  he  had  barely  escaped  capture  or  death.  On  one  of  these  oc- 
casions his  uncle  was  shot  down  at  his  side,  the  English  soldier  not 
recognizing  Philip,  who  had  cut  off  his  hair  to  disguise  himself;  at 
another  time,  he  avoided  capture  by  a  precipitate  flight,  abandoning 
his  wife  and  children.  Now  he  had  reached  his  own  home,  hoping 
there  to  find  concealment  and  safety. 

Church  was  at  Tiverton,  when  a  savage,  whose  brother  had  just 
been  killed  by  Philip  for  counselling  submission  to  the  English,  came 
and  offered  to  betray  his  chief.  He  and  his  men,  the  deserter  said, 
were  on  a  bit  of  upland  at  the  south  end  of  the  swamp  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Hope.  The  place  was  well  known  to  Church.  When  this 
intelligence  reached  him  he  started  at  once  for  Mount  Hope,  arriving 
there  about  the  middle  of  the  night.  His  arrangements  were  all 

VOL.  ii.  27 


418 


PHILIP'S   WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


quietly  and  speedily  made ;  so  far  as  the  number  of  his  men  permit- 
ted, every  outlet  from  the  swamp  was  guarded ;  then  a  company  was 
sent  in  to  arouse  the  camp. 

The  Indians  were  sleeping  in  tranquil  security.  One  at  length 
awoke,  and  was  fired  at ;  then  a  volley  was  poured  into  the  camp. 
Philip  jumped  to  his  feet,  and,  seizing  only  his  gun,  sprang  forward 
at  his  utmost  speed.  His  flight  was  directly  toward  the  spot  Avhere 
two  of  Church's  men  —  an  Englishman  and  an  Indian — lay  in  am- 
bush. Both  raised  their  guns ;  the  Englishman's  missed ;  the  Indian 
fired,  and  Philip  fell  forward  dead  in  a  pool  of  the  swamp. 

Essentially  this  was  the  end  of  the  war,  though  some  of  the  In- 
dians, in  small  parties,  held  out  a  little  longer.  It  had  lasted  for 
more  than  a  year.  Thirteen  towns  had  been  destroyed ;  six  hundred 
buildings  burned,  countless  numbers  of  stock  of  all  kinds  were  lost; 
six  hundred  men  killed  in  fights  or  murdered,  and  great  numbers 
disabled  by  wounds.  There  was  hardly  a  family  without  its  scar  of 
sorrow.  But  the  power  of  the  Indians  in  all  Southern  New  England 
was  destroyed  for  ever.  Some  escaped  by  flight  into  the  western 
wilds  where  the  white  man  had  not  penetrated  ;  but  many  small 
tribes  were  obliterated;  whole  families  had  pei'ished ;  many  Avho 
were  captured  were  sent  to  the  West  Indies,  and  dragged  out  the  re- 
mainder of  their  miserable  lives  as  slaves. 


Ruins  of  Colonel  Church's  House. 


THE   DEATH    OF  PHILIP. 


Portsmouth  Harbor. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

NEW    HAMPSHIRE. 

CHARACTER  OF  THE  MAINE  AND  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  SETTLERS.  —  KITTERY  —  GORGE- 
ANA.  —  THE  NORTHERN  COLONIES  ABSORBED  BY  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  EARLY  NKW 
HAMPSHIRE  CHURCHES.  —  THE  ISLES  OF  SHOALS.  —  HISTORY  OF  MASON'S  NKW 
HAMPSHIRE  GRANT.  —  THE  CLAIMS  OF  HIS  HEIRS  RESISTED.  —  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 
GOVERNORS.  —  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES.  —  ATTACKS  AT  SACO,  BERWICK,  AND  ELSE- 
WHERE. —  THE  TREATY  AT  CASCO.  —  WAR  RENEWED.  —  DOVER  ATTACKED.  —  Mrn- 
DER  OF  WALDRON.  —  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR. 

THE  settlers  who  came  out  to  New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  under 
the  patronage  of  Gorges  and  Mason,1  were  mainly  royalists  and  adhe- 
rents of  the  Church  of  England.  The  principal  men  were 
disposed  to  favor  those  feudal  notions  of  manors,  seignories, 
and  ecclesiastical  sees,  which  the  two  proprietors  entertained. 
Captain  Francis  Champernoon,  who  bought  of  Gorges  Gerrislfs  and 
Cutts's  islands,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua,  and  the  place  of 
whose  burial  upon  Cutts's  is  still  marked  by  the  simple  cairn  of 
stones  which  he  dii'ected  for  his  monument,  was  a  distinguished  roy- 
alist, whose  ancestor,  Richard,  was  a  stout  adherent  of  Henry 
VII.  in  his  struggle  with  Richard  II.  The  favor  of  the 
family  at  court  is  shown  by  an  extant  petition  of  Arthur 
Champernoon  to  Charles  I.,  in  1634,  about  the  Priory  of  Plimpton, 
which  belonged  to  him  in  tail  male,  and  which,  in  default  of  male 

i  VoL  i.,  i>.  333. 


Maine 


! 


420 


NEW    HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


The 


issue,  would  have  reverted  to  the  crown.  He  prayed  fur  a  grant  of 
reversion  to  himself,  and  the  petition  bears  the  king's  consent.  The 
island,  afterwards  called  Gerrish's,  was  at  first  called  Dartington  by 
his  son  Francis,  from  the  name  of  a  family  castle  upon  the  River  Dart 
in  Devonshire. 

Another  place  upon  that  English  river  was  Kittery,  which,  in  1652, 

The  town  of  became  the  name  of  a  town  in   New  Hampshire,  originally 

called  Piscataqua,  at  a  time  when  it  included  Eliot,  South 

Berwick,  and  Berwick,  which  are  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river, 

and  now  in  Maine. 

In  1036,  there  were  a  few  settlers  at  Agamenticus,  as  the  territory 
was  called,  between  the  mountain  of  that  name  and  the  sea,  which  is 
now  tne  township  of  York.  Here  an  incorporated  city  was 
fonncie(i  jn  1641,  on  the  old  English  plan,  with  a  mayor  and 
aldermen,  and  pompous  revival  of  antique  usage.  It  was  called 
Gorgeana.  The  occupants  of  the  land  were  to  be  subject  to  the 

proprietors  as  their  ten 

,*?•  *._»£:'.  ants  at  will.  Mason  and 

Gorges  did  their  best  to 
transplant  to  America 
foreign  fruits  and  the 
feudal  manor.  But  of 
i  hem  all  the  grapes  and 
t  he  manor  failed  to  ef- 
fect a  lodgment.  The 
aristocratic  principle 
could  not  take  root  and 
become  New  English 
any  more  than  the  va- 
rieties of  slips  which 
were  intended  for  vine- 

yards. But  the  English  apple  liked  the  soil,  where  it  improved  in 
size  and  flavor  till  it  became  the  hardy  symbol  of  New  England. 
One  of  the  apple  trees  which  were  brought  over  in  tubs,  in  1629,  to 
start  an  orchard  in  York,  has  borne  fruit  ever  since,  till  the  year  1875, 
when  it  was  cut  down. 

Many  of  the  settlers,  who  came   over   to  improve   their  fortunes, 
favored  no  prerogative  but  the  personal  one  of  earning  their 
living.     They  did  not  relish  any  transfer  of  old  abuses  to  the 
scene  of  their  new  venture.     The  proprietors  were  baffled  and 
discouraged,  because  the  popular  opinion   among  men,  who 
were  bold  and  hardy  enough  to  venture  here,  was  decidedly  hostile 
to  privilege.     The  settlers  were  always  trying  to  establish  :i  system 


Champernoon's   Cairn. 


of 

Ne«  Eug- 


1641.]     THE   NORTHERN   COLONIES   AND   MASSACHUSETTS.      421 

of  governing  that  should  meet  their  local  wants  and  circumstances, 
with  the  least  possible  encroachment  from  delay  or  vested  rights.  Ma- 
son aspired  to  be  Lord  of  the  Manor.  The  settler  wanted  to  own  his 
farm  and  fishing-stage.  The  dissensions  which  arose  from  the  collis- 
ion of  the  two  interests,  finally  led  a  great  number  of  the  settlers,  in 
1641,  to  petition  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  to  be  included 
under  its  government ;  a  popular  tendency  which,  of  course,  was  skil- 
fully fostered  by  agents  of  the  Puritans,  who  longed  to  exer- 

J  ,  •  •  .        .  ,.     .  Northern 

cise  authority  over  the  region  where  their  enemies  in  religion  colonies 
and  politics  ruled,  and  all  the  disaffected  sectaries  took  ref-  Massachu- 
uge.     For   Gorges   and   Mason   were  tolerant   in    religious 
matters,  though  staunch  royalists  and   intensely  feudal.     They  had, 
of  course,  no  objection  to  the  expectation  that  fishing  and  trading 


View  of  Kittery,    N.   H. 

might  pay  the  expenses  of  colonizing  and  serve  as  an  inducement  to 
colonists.  But  while  they  were  profoundly  loyal  to  their  own  relig- 
ious convictions,  and  to  the  customs  of  public  worship  which  belonged 
to  them,  they  were  well  disposed  to  welcome  all  men  with  freedom 
to  worship  God  in  their  own  way. 

Richard  Gibson,  an  Episcopalian,  was  the  first  minister  of  the  Pis- 
cataqua  parish  at  Portsmouth ;  and  the  people  at  Odiorne's  Point 
came  over  the  water  between  there  and  Strawberry  Bank  — 

*  Firet  church 

as  Portsmouth  was  first  called  —  to  hear  him  preach.     A  at  Port»- 

*•  mouth* 

chapel  was  built  for  him  in  1638.     This  appeared  to  be  no 
religion  at  all  to  the  Massachusetts  men,  who  were  prone  to  accuse 


422 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


their  neighbors  of  cultivating  tolerance  solely  for  the  sake  of  trade. 
Gibson,  Winthrop  said,  "  did  scandalize  our  government,  oppose  our 
title  to  those  parts,  and  provoke  the  people,  by  way  of  arguments 
to  revolt  from  us."  Therefore,  they  had  him  up  before  the  General 
Court  in  Boston,  extorted  from  him  an  acknowledgment  of  his  offence  ; 
but,  as  he  was  about  to  leave  the  country,  dismissed  him  "  without 
any  fine  or  other  punishment."  Mr.  James  Parker  of  VVeymouth, 
"  a  godly  man  and  a  scholar,"  took  Mr.  Gibson's  place.  Parker  was, 
of  course,  a  Puritan,  or  Winthrop  could  not  have  thus  commended 
him.  He  adds  that  the  new  minister  was  invited  to  come  to  Ports- 
mouth by  more  than  forty  of  her  people,  whereof  "  the  most  had  been 
very  profane,  and  some  of  them  professed  enemies  to  the  way  of  our 
churches."  Even  so  godly  a  man  as  Mr.  Parker  could  do  little  with 


View  of  Exeter,    N.   H 


so  perverse  and  backsliding  a  generation.  The  Governor  bewails  that 
"  most  of  them  fell  back  again  in  time,  embracing  this  present  world," 
—  fell  back,  that  is,  into  the  slough  of  a  non-Puritan  church. 

When  John  Wheelwright  was  driven,  in  1638,  out  of  Boston  for 
wheel-  Antinomian  opinion,  he  founded  at  Squamscot  Falls,  Exeter, 
tiement8aTt"  a  church,  and  at  the  same  time  a  body  politic,  upon  a  purely 
Exeter.  democratic  basis.  Every  man,  without  respect  to  his  theolog- 
ical bias,  had  a  voice  in  choosing  rulers  annually,  and  two  assistants  to 
each  ruler.  A  similar  social  system  was  founded  and  prevailed  at 
Dover.  Two  elements  from  the  old  country  appear  to  have  met  in 


1641.]  EARLY  NEW  HAMPSHIRE   CHURCHES.  423 

New  Hampshire.  The  settlers  from  London  and  Bristol  seem  gener- 
ally to  have  favored  the  Church  of  England ;  those  from  the  West 
Country  were  more  inclined  to  non-conformity.  There  are  traces  of 
certain  jealousies  between  the  two  parties,  as  when  the  agent  of  the 
Dover  people  claimed  a  point  of  land  at  Newington,  and  was  resisted 
by  the  agent  of  Portsmouth.  When  the  affair  threatened  to  be 
serious,  the  employers  of  the  agents  had  recourse  to  arbitration,  and 
the  point  was  amicably  settled,  though  to  this  day  it  is  called  Bloody 
Point  from  the  unsanguinary  nature  of  the  quarrel  there. 

When  New  Hampshire  came  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachu- 
setts, in  1641,  Wheelwright's  policy  was  respected  ;  he  had  the  tri- 
umph of  seeing  the  rights  of  his  freemen  without  regard  to  their 
religion  allowed  by  the  colony  which  banished  him.  But  he  would 
not  remain  under  its  jurisdiction.  He  retired  to  Wells,  in  Maine ; 
afterward  he  was  permitted 
to  preach  at  Winnicumett  / 

(Hampton).      During    Crom-        tf  r"™ 
well's  protectorate  he  went  to        / 
England,  was  admitted  to  an 

°  .  ,,  Signature  of  Wheelwright. 

audience    of    his    old    college 

mate,  the  Protector,  who  received  him  with  much  consideration. 
Turning  to  the  persons  standing  near,  Cromwell  said,  "  I  remember 
the  time,  gentlemen,  when  I  have  been  more  afraid  of  meeting  Wheel- 
wright at  foot-ball  than  of  meeting  any  army  since  in  the  field." 
Wheelwright  returned  to  New  Hampshire,  and  died  at  Salisbury,  in 
1680. 

Wheelwright  was  a  stiff  Calvinist.  The  men  who  exiled  him  held 
Calvinistic  doctrine  with  a  silent  modification  in  favor  of  practical 
religion,  and  lived,  as  he  said,  mainly  under  a  covenant  of  works. 
But  he  was  a  pure  supporter  of  a  Covenant  of  Faith.  To  his  mind 
the  doctrines  of  Election  and  Foreordination  were  absolute ;  they 
claimed  his  homage  so  entirely  that  he  seemed  to  undervalue  justifica- 
tion by  works. 

Notwithstanding  the  strong  predilection  for  the  Church  of  England, 
which  the  proprietary  settlers  brought  with  them,  the  principles  of 
the  Puritans  soon  prevailed  in  the  colony,  and  fortunately  brought  it 
into  greater  sympathy  with  the  Colony  of  the  Bay.  Winthrop  and 
the  rest  used  to  regard  the  Piscataqua  as  another  Rhode 

Puritanism 

Island,  that  is,  only  a  sink  for  Massachusetts,  into  which  all  >»  New 

t  •  i-  -i  ci  Hampshire. 

malcontents,  fanatics,  royalists,  and  miscreants  drifted.    Some 
persons  of  a  bad  moral  quality  did  indeed  find  it  safer  to  go  there,  but 
also  safer  eventually  to  leave  it.     The  colony  was  not  so  jealous  of  its 
strict   brethren  of  the  Bay  as  to  countenance  moral  irregularities. 


424 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


*""• 


The  spirit  of  antagonism  was  kept  alive  partly  by  the  pretensions  of 
Gorges  and  Mason,  and  partly  by  these  theological  differences.  But 
the  early  Episcopalians  of  the  Piscataqua  were  quite  as  sincere,  and 
of  a  motive  as  honest  as  any  other  people  in  New  England,  though 
the  man  who  should  have  said  so  in  1642,  in  Boston,  would  have  been 
haled  before  the  General  Court. 

We  find,  as  everywhere  else  in  New  England,  a  great  deal  of  early 
Early  letfu-  legislation  applied  to  church  matters  and  customs.  It  was 
ordered,  in  1662,  that  a  cage  be  made  by  the  selectmen; 
"  to  punish  such  as  sleepe,  or  take  tobacco  on  the  Lord's 
Day  out  of  the  meeting  in  the  time  of  publick  exercise."  The  usual 

custom  prevailed  of 
seating  the  people 
in  the  meeting- 
house according  to 
rank  and  conse- 
quence. When  Mr. 
Moody  was  or- 
dained, Captain 
John  Pickering  was 
appointed,  on  ac- 
count of  his  great 
strength  and  com- 
manding manner, 
to  reserve  seats  for 
the  distinguished 
guests  and  keep  the 
congregation  in  or- 
der. But  he  let  all 
the  people  in  before 
service  time  on  the 
ground  that  all  men 
were  equal  in  a 
house  of  God.1 

The  early  records  contain  an  order  in  town-meeting  that  "one 
householder  or  more  walk  every  Sabbath  day  in  sermon  time  with  the 
constable  to  every  Publick  House  in  ye  town  to  suppress  ill  order,  and 
if  they  think  convenient,  to  private  houses  also."  It  is  also  ordered, 
"  for  the  prevention  of  fire  or  other  dangers  which  may  happen  by 
smoking  in  the  Meeting  House,  that  every  person  soe  smoking  at  any 
meeting  in  the  Meeting  House  be  fined."  This  alludes  to  the  town 
meetings  which  were  held  in  the  early  times  in  the  single  meeting- 
1  Rev.  James  De  Normandie's  Historical  Sketches. 


The  Sabbath   Inspection   of  Taverns. 


1662.] 


THE   ISLES    OF   SHOALS. 


425 


house  belonging  to  the  town.  The  names  of  common  drunkards  were 
furnished  by  the  selectmen  to  every  inn  holder,  who  was  then  fined 
for  selling  liquor  to  them.  A  vote  was  passed  that  all  persons  should 
go  over  the  ferry  free  upon  the  Sabbath.  If  strangers  remained  in 
town  more  than  a  day  or  two,  they  were  obliged  to  give  their  names 
to  the  selectmen. 

Cases  of  intolerance  were  quite  rare  in  New  Hampshire  ;  they 
seem  to  have  occurred  chiefly  while  the  colony  was  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Bay.  It  was  in  1662  that  an  occurrence  already  alluded 
to  took  place.  Three  Quaker  women  were  sentenced  to  be  publicly 
whipped  at  the  cart's  tail  through  several  towns.  The  punishment 
was  applied  in  two  or  three,  when  Walter  Barefoot  interfered,  and 
prevailing  upon  the  constable  to  surrender  the  warrant  to  him,  re- 


The   Isles  of  Shoals. 


leased  them.  In  1656  there  were  several  enactments  against  "a 
cursed  sect  of  hereticks  lately  arisen  up  in  the  world,  which  are  com- 
monly called  Quakers,  who  take  upon  themselves  to  be  immediately 
sent  of  God." 

The  Isles  of  Shoals,  a  group  of  seven  rocky  islets  lying  about  nine 
miles  southeast  of  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua,  had  in  the  Tbe^egof 
seventeenth  century  an  importance  now  hardly  conceivable.  s^oals- 
These  islands  had  been  seen  and  visited  quite  early,  but  received  no 
particular  description.     In  1610  Samuel  Argall  was  driven  by  a  storm 
upon  the  coast  of  Maine,  and  returned  thence  to  Virginia  with  a  cargo 
of  fish  which  were  caught  in  these  waters,  and  perhaps  cured  upon 
the  rocks  of  the  Shoals.     But  we  have  definite  accounts  of  them  in 
1614,  by  Capt.  John  Smith,  whose  opinion  of  them  was  slightingly 


426  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.    ,  [CHAP.  XVIIL 

expressed  afterwards  when  they  fell  to  his  share  in  a  division  of  ter- 
ritory under  a  patent  of  Gorges.  He  says,  "  No  lot  for  me  but 
Smith's  Isles,  which  are  a  many  of  barren  rocks,  the  most  over- 
growne  with  such  shrubs  and  sharpe  whins  you  can  hardly  pass  them  ; 
without  either  grass  or  wood,  but  three  or  four  short  shrubby  old 
Cedars."  l  These  scrubby  trees  gave  the  name  to  Cedar  Island  ;  but 
John  Winthrop  had  no  other  cause  to  write  in  his  journal,  "  the  Isles 
of  Shoals  are  woody."  2 

The  name  would  indicate  that  the  group  is  encircled  by  shoals,  like 
those  which  lie  off  Nantucket  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cape  Cod ; 
but  there  are  only  three  or  four  outlying  ledges  which  are  distinctly 
marked  by  the  breaking  water.  The  sea  deepens  quite  abruptly 
around  all  the  islands,  and  it  is  evident  that  Captain  Smith  laid  down 
upon  his  map  several  ledges  as  if  they  had  been  islands,  making  three 
or  four  out  of  Duck  Island,  for  instance  ;  so  that  perhaps  the  name 
of  the  group  was  derived  from  this  number,  as  of  a  shoal  of  islets.  It 
is  more  likely  that  the  abundant  shoals  of  fishes  which  attracted  ves- 
sels thither  gave  it  the  name.  But  there  is  one  authority  which  claims 
that  the  word  Shole,  in  some  dialect  of  the  west  coast  of  England, 
means  cod-fish. 

The  group  was  first  included  in  a  patent  which  Gorges  obtained 

from  the  King  in  1620 ;  under  it  they  belonged  to  Maine  till 

of  the          1652.     It  was  in  1621  that  the  Council  of  Plymouth  was 

Islands.  * 

summoned  to  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons,  upon  the 
charge  that  its  charter  for  the  settlement  of  New  England  was  based 
upon  a  monopoly  of  fishing  and  trading,  and  included  the  right  to  lay 
taxes  upon  other  parties  ;  as  Captain  Smith  complained,  "  those  pat- 
entees procured  a  Proclamation,  that  no  ship  should  goe  thither  to 
fish  but  pay  them  for  the  publike,  as  it  was  pretended,  five  pound 
upon  every  thirty  tuns  of  shipping,  neither  trade  with  the  natives, 
cut  downe  wood,  throw  their  balast  over  bord,  nor  plant  without 
commission,  leave  and  content  to  the  Lord  of  that  division  or  Man- 
nor :  some  of  which  for  some  of  them  I  believe  will  be  tenantlesse  this 
thousand  yeare."  3 

Politics  and  interest  combined  to  make  an  effective,  national  griev- 
ance of  this  fishing  question  ;  and  the  principal  fishing  station  was  the 
Isles  of  Shoals.  The  Islands  gradually  lost  their  importance :  new 
ports  upon  the  coast  were  opened,  trade  became  diverted  to  more 
thriving  settlements,  and  vessels  from  Malaga  and  the  West  Indies 
sought  safer  harbors.  When,  in  1679,  New  Hampshire  became  a  sep- 

1  Smith's  Advertisements  for  Unexperienced  Planters  (Veazie's  reprint),  p.  39. 

*  Savage's  Winthrop's  Journal,  ii.,  p.  418. 

*  Smith 's  Advertisements  for  Unexperienced  Planters,  p.  39. 


1620.]  GORGES  AND  MASON'S   GRANT.  427 

arate  Royal  Province  under  the  Presidency  of  John  Cutts,  the  group 
was  divided  by  a  line  running  through  the  middle  of  the  roadstead : 
then  the  northerly  islands,  Appledore,  Smutty  Nose  and  Duck  re- 
verted to  Maine,  the  others  came  under  the  government  of  New 
Hampshire.  This  was  the  old  partition  agreed  upon  between  Gorges 
and  Mason,  when  the  latter  occupied  the  Piscataqua ;  and  the  divis- 
ion remains  undisturbed  to-day.1 

The  history  of  Captain  John  Mason's  proprietorship,  by  virtue  of 
which  he  and  his  heirs  claimed  the  ownership  of  all  New  Captain 
Hampshire  which  lay  west  of  the  Piscataqua,  with  power  ^£1 
to  extort  rent  and  taxes  from  the  actual  settlers,  is  interest-  grant- 
ing  because  it  furnishes  a  most  striking  example  of  the  way  in  which 
municipal  and  republican  usage  were  developed  in  America.  It  must, 
however,  be  briefly  told,  because  it  was  protracted  clear  through  the 
seventeenth  century. 

In  1620  Gorges  obtained  a  comprehensive  patent,  which  covered  all 
New  England,  described  as  then  existing  between  the  fortieth  and 
forty- eighth  parallels  of  latitude.  This  was  not  only  the  basis  of  all 
the  supplementary  patents  which  were  issued  to  different  individuals, 
and  empowered  them  to  occupy  their  grants  or  claims,  but  it  also 
furnished  Gorges  and  Mason  with  their  authority  to  assume,  as  they 
did  afterwards,  the  control  over  the  whole  territory  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  and  the  Piscataqua.  It  provided  for  a  General  Gov- 
ernor, who  should  be  a  royalist,  and  for  a  form  of  worship  after  the 
ritual  of  the  Church  of  England.  As  often  as  this  scheme  recurred 
it  was  of  course  vigorously  resisted  by  the  Massachusetts  men.  They 
viewed  with  dismay  such  a  prospect  of  consolidating  New  England  in 
the  interest  of  royalism.  But  the  charter  clearly  justified  Gorges  and 
Mason  in  the  attempt  to  transfer  their  favorite  scheme  of  govern- 
ment and  religion  to  the  New  World.  It  was  therefore  that  the  Mas- 
sachusetts people  viewed  it  as  a  divine  interposition  when  Captain 

1  Appledore  is  chiefly  remembered  as  the  place  where  William  Peperell,  a  fisherman, 
first  settled.  Removing  to  Kittery,  he  became  the  father  of  Sir  William,  the  hero  of 
Louisbourg,  and  the  first  and  only  native  New  Englander  (except  possiblv  his  own  grand- 
son) upon  whom  a  baronetcy  was  conferred  while  the  colonies  belonged  to  England.  Sir 
George  Downing,  who  was  also  made  a  baronet,  was  not  a  native  of  New  England ;  Sir 
William  Phips  was  only  a  knight ;  Sir  John  Davie  inherited  his  baronetcy  ;  also  Sir  John 
Stewart ;  Sir  John  Wentworth  was  made  a  baronet  after  the  separation  of  the  colonies  from 
England.  —  Sabine's  American  Loyalists.  Hist.  Magazine,  vol.  i.,  p.  150.  It  is  claimed  also 
(Hist.  Mag.,  p.  286),  that  Sir  William  Peperell's  grandson,  born  a  Sparhawk,  whose  name 
was  changed  to  Peperell  when  he  became  the  baronet's  heir  (a  son  having  died),  was  created 
a  baronet  in  1774. 

William  Peperell  did  not  relish  the  rough  life  at  the  island,  and  it  is  related  that  he  and 
his  friend  Gibbous  agreed  to  leave  it  in  the  direction  which  their  canes  took  in  dropping 
from  the  hand.  Peperell's  cane  pointed  toward  Kittery,  and  Gibbous's  toward  Maine, 
whither  he  went  and  settled  on  land  which  was  afterward  covered  by  the  Waldo  Patent. 


428  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.,  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

John  Mason,  who  had  been  appointed  Vice  Admiral  of  New  Eng- 
D^th  of  land  in  1635,  died  during  the  same  year.  Then,  as  Win- 
Mason,  throp  said  in  his  Journal,  "  all  the  business  fell  on  Sleep." 
If  the  growing  independence  of  New  England  had  been  checked  by 
such  a  scheme  in  the  interest  of  monarchy,  the  restraint  would  have 
only  lasted  until  the  English  Commonwealth  arose.  Then  its  repub- 
lican politics  would  have  interfered  to  restrain  the  ambition  of  royal 
proprietors,  and  to  confirm  the  Puritan  tendency  of  New  England. 

But  the  heirs  of  Gorges  and  Mason  clung  tenaciously  to  the  pro- 
claims of  prietary  claim.  In  1676  New  Hampshire  was  still  under 
huhein.  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts.  In  that  year  the  heirs 
perceived  their  opportunity,  in  the  jealousy  of  Charles  II.  which 
had  been  long  nursed  against  the  independence  of  New  England,  to 
renew  their  claim  under  the  old  patent  issued  by  the  Council  of 
Plymouth.  When  Charles  II.,  who  had  been  waiting  several  years 
for  a  pretext  to  interfere  with  the  affairs  of  New  England,  sent  Ed- 
ward Randolph  to  Boston,  the  General  Court  was  ordered  to  appear  by 
deputy  in  England  to  defend  its  pretensions,  on  peril  of  judgment 
in  case  of  disobedience.  No  remonstrance  or  delay  could  serve  their 
cause  ;  the  deputies  were  obliged  to  repair  to  London.  There  it  was 
decided  that  the  Council  of  Plymouth  never  had  the  right  to  convey 
to  Gorges  and  Mason,  under  a  simple  grant  of  territory,  any  absolute 
jurisdiction  over  New  Hampshire.  No  municipal  jurisdiction  existed, 
thei-efore,  that  could  be  transferred  to  Massachusetts.  It 

New  Hamp-  .  -i    •         i  i  • 

BhireaRoyai  remained  vested  in  the  crown ;  a  royal  commission  for  the 

Province.  —  .... 

CuttsGov-  government  of  New  Hampshire  was  issued,  which  restrained 
Massachusetts  from  its  exercise  of  jurisdiction.  John  Cutts 
was  appointed  in  1679  the  President  of  a  council  of  nine  to  govern 
this  royal  province  for  one  year. 

But  at  the  same  time  it  was  decided  that  the  heirs  of  Mason  might 
claim  the  ownership  of  all  the  land  which  had  been  granted  to  Cap- 
tain John  Mason,  in  1629,  and  occupied  ever  since  by  numerous  ten- 
ants. These  had  purchased  their  estates  from  previous  holders,  had 
put  toil  and  money  into  them,  and  therefore  were  in  no  humor  to  pay 
rent  to  a  new  claimant,  or  to  take  leases  of  him. 

When  a   grandson  of   Captain  John  —  Robert   Mason,  who  had 

dropped  his   father's  surname  of  Tufton,  and  assumed  his 

son  in  New  maternal  grandfather's  —  came  from  England,  and  claimed 

Hampshire.  .  .  .  .  .  .  ,  .          ,        . 

proprietorship,  proposing  to  issue  titles,  receive  back-rents, 
and  extort  sixpence  in  the  pound  upon  all  the  improvements  that  had 
been  made  by  the  settlers  for  more  than  forty  years,  there  followed 
endless  complaints,  great  bitterness  of  feeling,  and  obstinate  litigation. 
His  stewards  demanded  rents  with  threats  to  sell  the  occupant's  prem- 


1679.]  CLAIMS  OF  MASON'S  HEIRS  RESISTED.  429 

ises  over  his  head  if  the  demands  were  not  complied  with.  Sheriffs 
attempted  to  serve  writs  of  ejectments,  but  the  colonists  united  every- 
where  in  the 
sturdiest  resist- 
ance. There  was  f>e  ^  , 

little  respect  for      yLSft~~~y  £  f~~o 
proceedings     at          \L       x~~^ 
law,  and  quite  as  ^^- 

little  paid  to  per-  Signature  of  Robert  Ma'on- 

sons.     Mason,  in  despair,  returned  to  England  to  solicit  a  change  in 
the  administration  of  the  Province,  under  which  he  hoped  to  renew 
his   claim   more   successfully.      Edward   Cranfield  was   ap- 
pointed Lieutenant-governor,  with  a  council  at  whose  head  Lieutenant- 
sat  Mason,  who  undertook  to  contribute  to  Cranfield's  sup- 
port in  office  by  mortgaging  the  province  to  him  as  security  for  an 
annuity  of  £150.     Cranfield  came  out  with  the  resolution  of  a  Roman 
proconsul  to  make  the  province  bleed. 

His  preliminary  proceedings,  looking  to  the  interest  of  the  claim- 
ant, were  so  arbitrary,  and  inflamed  the  popular  discontent  to  such 
a  degree  that  riots  broke  out  at  Hampton  and  Exeter,  started  by 
Edward  Gove,  a  hot-headed  member  of  the  Assembly  which  Cranfield 
had  just  illegally  dissolved.  No  persons  of  importance  joined  him. 
He  was  arrested,  tried,  and  condemned  to  death,  as  if  his  offence 
had  involved  high-treason.  The  Governor,  fearing  to  execute  the 
sentence,  sent  him  to  be  put  to  death  in  England.  This  monstrous 
spectacle  of  the  King's  government  carrying  out  the  sentence  of  a 
provincial  magistrate  was  prevented,  partly,  it  is  said,  by  the  inter- 
ference of  Cranfield  himself,  who  felt  that  his  rule  was  too  unpopular 
to  be  much  longer  tolerated. 

As  a  few  of  the  settlers  consented  to  take  leases  of  Mason,  the 
Governor  and  Council  concluded  that  among  them  a  sufficient  number 
of  jurymen  and  sheriffs  could  be  found  willing  to  try  cases  for  Mason 
and  serve  his  writs.  His  law  suits  began ;  a  dozen  cases  were  some- 
times disposed  of  in  a  day ;  but  Mason  could  do  nothing  with  the 
estates  that  lapsed  to  him.  Cranfield's  tax-bills  developed  General 
even  more  resistance  than  Mason's  writs  of  ejectment.  Mascm-"0*  ^ 
Under  provocation  from  these  arbitrary  measures,  the  peo-  demands- 
pie  sometimes  lost  their  temper,  and  opposed  "swamp  law  to  parch- 
ment law."  The  hard-worked  women  were  as  little  disposed  as  the 
men  to  acknowledge  Mason's  bit  of  parchment  as  a  needed  title-deed, 
where  the  right  had  been  won  by  the  hard  fight  with  a  savage  wilder- 
ness. They  heated  spits  and  prepared  scalding  water  for  a  suitable 
ovation  to  the  renegade  settlers  who  had  turned  officers.  One  sheriff, 


430 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


•who  incautiously  attempted  to  make  an  arrest  during  divine  service, 
was  floored  by  a  damsel  who  brought  the  collective  word  of  God  to 
bear  in  one  blow  with  a  folio  Bible ;  the  whole  parish  joined  the 
Church  Militant  upon  the  spot,  and  Cranfield's  posse  was  dismissed. 

The  influence  of  non-conforming  clergymen   over  public  opinion 
was  conspicuous  during  New  Hampshire's  royal  episode.     Cranfield 


The  Sheriff  Resisted. 


wrote  to  England  that  allegiance  was  impossible  while  the  clergy- 
men had  the  liberty  of  speech.     Among  them  the  figure  of 
popular        Moody,  the  Puritan  minister  of  Portsmouth,  stands  stoutly 
forth  in  resistance  to  the  politics  of  the  Governor,  who  en- 
deavored to  silence  him  by  enforcing  the  act  against  non-conformity. 
Cranfield  issued  an  order  that  the  ministers  should  admit  all  persons 
of  moral  life  to  the  Sacraments  of  the  Lord's  Supper  and  Baptism, 
and  notified  Moody  that  he  should  appear  at  the  Lord's  table  the  next 
Sunday,  with  the  expectation  that  the  Communion  would  be  admin- 


1685.]  CLAIMS   OF  MASON'S  HEIRS  RESISTED.  431 

istered  to  him  according  to  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England. 
Cranfield  knew  that  Moody  would  refuse.  The  minister  was  put 
upon  trial,  and  notwithstanding  the  valid  defence  he  made  that  he 
had  not  been  episcopally  ordained,  sentence  went  against  him,  his 
living  was  forfeited,  and  he  was  sent  to  prison.  Being  afterwards 
banished  from  the  province,  he  preached  in  Boston  till  1692,  when  he 
could  return  to  Portsmouth. 

Cranfield  was  given  leave  of  absence  in  1685,  and  Captain  Walter 
Barefoot  was  appointed  Deputy  Governor  during  his  absence.  His 
efforts,  on  behalf  of  the  assumed  proprietor,  were  quite  as  earnest  as 
Cranfield's,  but  quite  as  futile.  Mason  was  a  lodger  in  Barefoot's 
house,  and  that  intimate  relation  was  unfortunate  for  both.  Two 
sturdy  yeomen,  Thomas  Wiggins  and  Anthony  Nutter,  called  to  see 
Mason  one  day,  probably  to  expostulate  with  him  upon  the  legal  pro- 
ceedings to  substantiate  his  claims,  by  which  they,  in  common  with 
the  colonists  generally,  were  threatened  with  the  loss  of  their  long 
years  of  hard  labor  in  making  homes  for  themselves  and  their  fam- 
ilies. 

There  was  evidently  little  ceremony  in  the  approach  of  these  men 
even  to  a  Deputy  Governor  and  the  assumed  owner  of  all  New 
Hampshire.  Wiggins  declared  that  neither  he  nor  others  cared  "  one 
rush"  for  Mason's  claim;  that  he  had  no  business  in  the  province; 
that  he  had  not  a  foot  of  land  there,  and  never  should  have;  and 
"  did  give  "  —  says  Mason,  in  an  affidavit  —  "  very  abusive  and  pro- 
voking language."  Both  Barefoot  and  Mason  ordered  Wiggins  to 
leave  the  house,  and  Mason,  unfortunately,  undertook  to  enforce  the 
order.  Wiggins  seized  him  and  tossed  him  into  the  fire  ;  —  not  only 
tossed  him  into  the  fire,  but  sat  upon  him  ;  —  not  only  sat  upon  him, 
but  grasped  "  his  wind-pipe  in  high  contempt  of  his  majesty's  royal 
authority,  and  against  the  peace  of  our  sovereign  lord  the  King," 
and  "  almost  choked  him."  Barefoot  rushed  to  the  rescue ;  but 
him  also  Wiggins  seized  and  tossed  into  the  embers  out  of  which 
Mason  was  crawling,  and  sat  upon  him  so  hard  that  he  broke  two  of 
his  ribs.  Mason  called  for  his  sword,  which,  before  he  had  time 
to  draw,  was  taken  away  from  him  by  Nutter,  who  had  stood  by 
hitherto  laughing  at  the  way  in  which  his  companion  handled  the 
official  gentlemen.  The  maid  screamed  for  assistance ;  the  neighbors 
rushed  in,  but  only,  it  seems,  to  snatch  the  Deputy  Governor's  velvet 
cap  from  behind  the  back-log,  and  to  pick  the  live  coals  from  his 
breeches,  for  clothes  and  periwigs  were  burning.1  It  was  in  this 
temper  that  the  settlers  met  the  assertion  of  right  under  a  royal 

1  Affidavits  in  Provincial  Papers  of  New  Hampshire,  vol.  i.     Compiled  and  edited  by 
Nathaniel  Bouton,  D.  D.,  Secretary  of  N.  H.  Hist.  Society. 


432 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


patent  against  the  claim  of  personal  ownership,  bought  with  their 
own  sweat  and  blood.  How  easy  it  is  to  discern  in  these  encounters 
the  fountain  of  that  spirit  of  independence  which,  in  another  century, 
would  break  into  a  flood. 

Robert  Mason  left  his  odious  land-title  to  two  sons,  who  sold  it  out 
to  Samuel  Allen,  of  London,  who  received  a  commission  to 
govern  the  province.     William  of  Orange  appointed  Allen's 
son-in-law,  John  Usher,  Lieutenant-governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, to  act  during  the  absence  of  Allen.     Usher  was  amiable,  and 


Usher 
Lieutenant- 
governor. 


The  Assault  on  Mason  and  Barefoot. 

disposed  to  conciliate  the  province ;  but  he  was  pledged  to  Allen,  and 
the  old  distraining  processes  of  Mason  had  to  be  renewed,  but  so 
ineffectually  that  Allen  could  not  pay  to  Usher  the  annuity  which 
had  been  promised  to  him.  Usher  had  greatly  excited  the  people 
by  removing  from  his  council  two  prominent  men  who  were  hostile 
to  Allen's  claim.  During  a  visit  which  Usher  made  to  Boston,  the 
people  privately  dispatched  an  influential  merchant,  William  Part- 
ridge, to  London  to  solicit,  in  their  name,  the  office  of  Lieutenant- 
governor.  Partridge  was  successful,  owing  to  private  interest  exerted 
in  his  behalf ;  and  the  councillors  who  were  obnoxious  to  Usher  re- 
sumed their  seats  at  the  council  board. 


1689.]  NEW  HAMPSHIRE   GOVERNORS.  433 

Usher,    at    the  beginning  of   his  administration,  found  the  actual 
possessors  of  land  as  unwilling  to  be  ejected  by  writs  issued 
under  Allen's  derived  title  as  under  Mason's  original  one.  difficulty  as 

!  .  to  titles. 

They  were,  at  the  very  moment,  defending  their  homes,  with 

loss  of  life  and  property,  against  the  attacks  of  the  Eastern  Indians. 

Smarting  under  the  griefs 

and    hardships    of    that 

warfare,    living   in    con- 

stant   uncertainty    and 

dreading  fresh  outrages, 

Jr\j?  —  Signature  of  John   Usher. 

they  naturally  resented 
this  legal  onset  upon  possessions  which  they  could  hardly  hold  against 
the  savages.  While  the  exposed  settlements  saw  their  barns  and 
dwellings  disappear  in  smoke,  their  kindred  vanish  into  captivity,  and 
precious  lives  laid  down  to  maintain  a  colony,  this  fire  in  the  rear  was 
opened  upon  them  by  the  official  persons  in  Portsmouth. 

It  was  important  for  Usher  to  obtain  possession  of  the  papers  which 
preserved  all  the  business  connected  with  Mason's  suits.  They  had 
been  taken  by  force  from  the  clerk  who  legally  held  them,  and  car- 
ried over  to  Kittery,  to  be  concealed  there.  This  was  done  in  1689, 

after  the  people  in  Bos- 
ton had  deposed  An- 


king  and  a  change  of 

Signature  of  William  Partridge.  -\       ...        ..  T  »   i 

administration.    L  slier 

attempted  to  recover  them  from  the  person  who  was  prominent  in 
their  removal  ;  but  he,  though  imprisoned,  refused  to  deliver  them 
up  except  upon  an  order  of  the  Assembly.  It  does  not  appear  that 
such  an  order  was  issued  ;  but  Usher  did  at  length  get  possession  of 
the  papers,  which  were  restored  to  the  custody  of  the  clerk. 

But  while  Usher  was  in  Boston,  and  when  the  party  which  was 
hostile  to  Allen's  claim  had  put  Partridge  into  office,  the  Assembly 
ordered  the  papers  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  newly  appointed 
recorder. 

Allen,  who  was  the  actual  Governor,  came  over  in  1698,  and  as- 
sumed office  ;  Partridge  continued  in  his  place  as  Lieuten-  Arrival  of 
ant-governor,  notwithstanding   the   remonstrance  of  Usher,   Allen- 
who  produced  a  letter  from  the  Lords  of  Trade  which  directed  him  to 
hold  his  office  till  the  arrival  of  the  Earl  of  Bellomont.     But  Par- 
tridge's commission  was  held  to  be  valid.     The  Earl  had  been  lately 
created  Governor  of  New  York  and  the  New  England  Provinces.     He 
went  first  to  New  York  and  spent  a  year  there,  during  which  Allen's 

VOL.  ii.  28 


434  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

administration  only  served  to  embitter  the  popular  feeling  ;  it  was  ex- 
pressed in  the  resistance  which  the  Assembly  made  to  some  of  his 
measures,  and  so  stubbornly  that  he  dissolved  it.  The  people  hailed 
the  appearance  of  the  Earl  in  the  summer  of  1699,  for  they  had  then 
a  Governor  whose  private  interest  was  not  involved  in  the  proprietary 
The  Eari  of  title.  He  was  able  to  entertain  impartially  the  complaints 
Beiiomont.  o£  j^^  partjes>  jje  advised  the  Assembly  to  reconstitute 
the  courts  which  had  been  presided  over  by  judges  who  were  disposed 
to  favor  Allen's  claim.  Their  commissions  had  been  vacated.  Now 
the  Assembly  passed  an  act  reestablishing  the  superior  and  inferior 
courts,  and  Partridge,  as  acting  Governor  in  the  absence  of  the  Earl, 
appointed  the  judges. 

When  the  question  came  before  the  new  courts,  it  was  found  that  no 
Progress  of  record  of  any  judgments  in  favor  of  Mason,  and  no  trace  of 
tion'ovCT  his  taking  possession  under  them,  was  in  existence.  New 
Alien's  title.  g^g  were  brought,  therefore,  to  test  the  claim  of  Allen, 
who  did  not  succeed  in  winning  one  of  them.  Consequently  he  ap- 
pealed to  the  King  through  the  court.  But  the  court  held  the  Massa- 
chusetts doctrine  that,  under  the  old  charter,  no  appeal  through  the 
court  to  the  King  was  admissible.  Allen  was  obliged  to  petition  the 
King  to  grant  him  an  appeal. 

It  would  prove  monotonous  to  recount  at  length  the  varying  for- 
tunes of  this  legal  strife,  so  important  to  a  large  portion  of  New  Eng- 
land. The  King  died,  and  Allen's  appeal  came  before  Queen  Anne. 
Thus  the  great  quarrel  passed  into  the  eighteenth  century.  Juries 
refused  to  find  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiff.  But  the  people  were  dis- 
turbed at  the  prospect,  that  litigation  might  at  any  time  be  renewed  at 
A  gettiement  *ne  w^  °^  the  representatives  of  Allen's  claim.  Therefore, 
proposed.  through  a  meeting  of  deputies  of  actual  settlers,  a  scheme 
for  settlement  was  drawn,  by  which  the  inhabitants  of  townships 
should  hold  their  lands  absolutely  free  by  quitclaim  from  Allen  and  his 

heirs,  upon  payment  of  .£2,000, 
to  be  assessed  upon  inhabitants 
of  townships,  and  an  allotment  of 
sundry  acres  of  common  land  in 
the  several  townships. 

Signature  of   Samuel  Allen.  Tl    .  i      i  i       ,1  A  11  i 

It  is  probable  that  Allen,  whose 

means  had  been  all  swallowed  up  in  lawsuits  and  expenses  of  agents, 
would  have  accepted  this  composition  ;  but  he  died  before  it  could  be 
presented  to  him.  Of  his  assets  falling  to  his  son  there  was  nothing 
but  an  opportunity  to  renew  the  litigation  if  the  prospect  pleased  him. 
It  was  renewed  in  1706  by  a  fresh  writ  of  ejectment  brought  against 
Waldron,  who  was  one  of  the  largest  landowners  on  the  popular  side, . 


1675.] 


THE  INDIANS.  435 


and  had  been  brought  prominently  forward,  as  his  father  was  be- 
fore him,  to  resist  the  title  of  Mason.  Losing  the  suit,  Allen  ap- 
pealed to  the  Superior  Court,  when  a  last  supreme  effort  was  made 
by  both  parties,  and  all  the  conflicting  documents  were  displayed, 
including  that  famous  and  doubtful  deed  which  four  Indian  Sa- 
chems, it  was  said,  had  made  in  1629,  to  Rev.  John  Wheelwright 
and  others,  under  which  Wheelwright  settled  Exeter.  Settlers  of 
other  places  also  held  their  land 
directly  from  the  original  native 
proprietors.  Waldron's  father  thus 

,         ,         .          T-.  T  Signature  of  Waldron. 

possessed    lands   m    Dover,     it    is 

riot   necessary  to  review  the  charters,  grants,  and  decisions  which 
supported    the   proprietary   title,  nor   the   arguments   employed   by 
the  counsel  on   both   sides.     The   jury  found   for   the   de-  End  o{  the 
fendant,  Waldron,  a  confirmation  of  the  judgment  of   the  < 
inferior  court;  an  appeal  was  made  as  usual;   but  before  it  could 
reach  a  hearing  in  council  Allen  died  in  1715,  and  the  memorable 
contest  never  was  renewed.1 

The  Indians  who  lived  on  the  Piscataqua,  the  Merrimac,  and  around 
Lake  Winnipiseogee,  speaking  a   kindred  dialect  with  the 
Abnaki  tribes  of  Maine,  were  called  Tarratines  by  the  Mas-  «wre  i*™P 

•      i  .     .  Jiuns. 

sachusetts  Indians.  At  some  former  period  one  original 
Algonquin  language  probably  prevailed  all  along  the  coast  of  New 
England  ;  but  at  the  time  of  the  white  man's  coming  it  had  fallen 
apart  with  various  modifications,  influenced  by  the  movements  of 
separate  tribes,  by  distance,  isolation,  and  the  fortunes  of  war.  From 
the  river  St.  George  to  the  Piscataqua,  and  perhaps  to  the  Merrimac, 
the  tribes  appear  to  have  been  once  under  the  sway  of  the  chief  of 
the  Wavvenocks,  the  famous  Ba&heba,  a  word  that  was  either  a  title 

1  Belknap's  History  of  New  Hampshire. 

Mason's  direct  heirs  were  so  reduced  in  fortune  that  we  find  a  Tufton  Mason  living  with 
his  mother  obscurely  in  Boston,  in  1713.  One  day  the  son,  rummaging  in  an  old  cabinet 
hit  upon  a  secret  drawer  in  which  a  signet  ring  was  concealed,  that  bore  the  arms  and 
motto  of  the  Tufton  family.  The  head  of  the  Tufton  branch  was  the  Earl  of  Thanet, 
and  the  young  man  determined  to  earn  money  enough  to  take  him  to  England,  that  he 
might  there  prove  his  connection.  He  went  to  sea  as  a  common  sailor  and  worked  his  way 
up  to  be  the  mate  of  a  ship.  Finding  himself  in  an  English  port,  with  a  respectable  out- 
fit, he  inquired  his  way  to  the  Earl's  mansion,  and  bade  the  porter  announce  him  as  an 
American.  Upon  being  admitted,  he  said,  "  My  Lord,  I  am  one  of  your  Lordship's  kin- 
dred," and  produced  the  ring,  which  bore  the  motto,  "  Ales  volat  propriis,"  the  bird  flies  to 
its  kind.  The  Earl  accepted  the  claim  which  was  thus  made  upon  his  relationship,  became 
interested  in  Mason,  procured  his  education,  and  then  a  commission  in  the  army.  He  was 
a  major  of  marines  at  the  taking  of  Senegal  from  the  French,  was  made  a  colonel  for  gal- 
lantry, and  then  Governor  of  Senegal.  He  presented  to  St.  John's  Church,  in  Portsmouth, 
the  beautiful  font  which  was  found  among  the  French  spoils.  In  this  form  the  tradition  of 
the  old  territorial  Proprietor  was  gracefully  transmitted  by  one  of  his  landless  descendants. 
MS.  of  John  L.  Hayes,  Esq.,  Traditions  of  a  Royal  Province. 


436 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


of  some  prominent  chief,  or  his  name  which  became  a  title.  His  head- 
quarters were  on  the  Sagadahoc.  The  Penobscots  had  attacked  the 
tribe  and  destroyed  the  supremacy  which  it  exercised  both  to  the  east- 
ward and  westward.  Then  the  different  sachems  found  themselves 

unmolested  in  their 
local  authority  over 
their  respective 
tribes;  but  though 
independent  of  the 
Eastern  Indians 
they  were  still  ex- 
posed to  raids,  and 
dreaded  the  restless 
and  warlike  temper 
of  the  Penobscots. 
The  Mohawks  also 
frequently  attacked 
the  New  Hampshire 
Indians,  and  a  great 
defeat,  which  was 
sustained  by  the 
Penacook  Indians 
near  the  present 
Concord,  was  re- 
membered with 
dread.1 

The  four  sachems 

mentioned  in  Rev.  John  Wheelwright's  deed  as  sellers  of  land  to  him 
were  Passaconaway  of  Penacook  ("  place  of  the  ground-nut," 
named  in       now  Concord),   Runawit  of  Pentucket  (at  the  falls  of  the 


View  on    Lake   Winnipiseogee. 


Merrimac),  Wahaugnonawit  of  Squamscot,  now  Exeter,  and 
Rowls  of  Newichawannock,  now  Berwick.    Of  these  sachems 
Passaconaway  was  the  most  influential  ;  the  other  sachems  and  the 
natives  around  Lake  Winnipiseogee  deferred  to  his  counsels.     He  was 
a  great  medicine-man,  skilled  in  all  the  charms  and  occult  practices  of 

1  The  Indians  loved  to  settle  around  falls  and  profitable  fishing  places.  They  named 
parts  of  rivers  rather  than  their  whole  length.  Merrimac  means  the  Place  of  Swift  Water, 
and  was  applied  to  the  rapids  below  Amoskeag.  The  latter  word  means  fishiug-place. 
Pawtucket  means  the  Place  of  Deer.  Piscataqua  means  Big-Deer  Place,  because  deer  were 
found  in  great  numbers  around  the  river  in  the  interior.  The  elements  of  the  word  also 
enter  into  Pautuckaway.  "  When  the  inhabitants  in  that  district  became  numerous  enough 
to  petition  for  an  act  of  incorporation  as  a  town,  they  sent  a  large  deer  as  a  present  to  the 
Governor,  Benning  Wentworth,  who  thereupon  signified  his  wish  that  the  new  town  should 
be  called  Deer-field."  Wamesit  was  at  the  junction  of  the  Concord  and  Merrimac  rivers, 
Naumkeag  was  the  fishing-place  at  the  Falls.  —  Ballard's  Geographical  Names. 


1675.]  RELATIONS  WITH  THE   INDIANS.  437 

the  Indian,  and  used  them  with  great  effect  to  preserve  ascendency 
over  the  native  mind.  Some  of  the  feats  which  were  told  of  him  have 
all  the  color  and  flavor  of  East  Indian  jugglery.  Years  afterward, 
when  he  was  an  old  man,  he  confessed  at  a  great  feast  that  he  had 
often  tried  his  strongest  spells  against  the  white  man,  with  a  view  to 
hinder  his  increase  in  the  country  ;  but  as  they  invariably  failed  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  that  war  would  be  a  failure  also,  and  coun- 
selled his  young  men  not  to  engage  in  it.  His  influence,  which  pre- 
served the  early  settlements  from  attack,  may  be  partly  credited  to 
John  Eliot  "  the  Apostle,"  who  came  into  his  country  on  a  mission- 
ary tour  with  Mayhew,  and  impaired  his  belief  in  the  native  sorcery, 
chiefly  by  convincing  him  of  the  efficacy  of  English  drugs  in  the 
treatment  of  disease.  In  1642,  the  settlements  became  alarmed  to 
find  Indians  in  the  woods  who  were  hunting  with  fire-arms,  and  a 
force  visited  the  old  chief  to  discover  his  intentions.  But  the  alarm 
was  groundless,  except  that  the  unwelcome  discovery  was  made  that 
a  trader  from  Weymouth  had  been  furnishing  guns  and  powder  to  the 
natives.  In  fact  they  were  provided  with  arms  before  1628. 

The  Pequot  war  was  waged  at  too  great  a  distance  to  agitate  the 
Eastern  Indians.  No  common  ground  of  offence  then  existed,  no 
emissaries  tampered  with  them.  The  New  Hampshire  set- 
tlements  enjoyed  immunity  till  1675.  Wonnelauset,  the 
son  of  Passaconaway,  was  then  the  chief,  though  the  old 
man  was  still  alive  ;  he  lived,  in  fact,  to  be  over  one  hun-  ho8tilitie8 
dred  years  of  age.  Eliot  conversed  with  the  son  at  Pawtucket,  now 
Lowell,  Massachusetts,  and  found  him  well  disposed  toward  the  new 
doctrine.  He  said  to  Eliot  that  he  was  "  quite  willing  to  leave  his 
old  canoe  and  embark  in  a  new  canoe."  But  on  the  breaking  out  of 
Philip's  war  he  fell  under  suspicion  of  the  English,  and  a  hundred 
men,  under  Captain  Moseley,  were  sent  to  his  village,  at  Penacook. 
At  their  approach  the  natives  withdrew  and  hid  in  the  woods,  to 
avoid  offence  and  collision.  The  soldiers  wantonly  burned  the  wig- 
wams and  their  contents.  But  Wonnelauset  did  not  undertake  to 
retaliate  for  this  injury.  He  withdrew  all  his  people  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Connecticut  that  they  might  not  be  led  into  war. 

It  is  doubtful  if  Philip  did  anything  to  excite  the  Eastern  Indians 
to  hostilities.  He  had  no  need  to  lift  his  hand  for  that,  because  it 
was  diplomatically  fomented  by  French  priests  and  officers.  The  old 
story  of  wanton  outrage,  remembered  by  the  native  while  he  bided 
his  time,  was  repeated.  Various  kidnapping  operations  had  not  been 
forgotten.  Supercilious  acts  were  frequent  enough  ;  and  a  disparag- 
ing behavior  galled  the  native  pride.  One  day  some  sailors  upset  the 
canoe  of  the  sachem  Squaiido,  in.  which  were  his  squaw  and  an  in- 


438 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


The  betfn- 


fant,  as  they  said,  to  see  if  the  child  had  a  natural  gift  of  swimming. 
The  frantic  mother  succeeded  in  rescuing  the  child,  but  it 

& 

^**^  °^  ^ie  s^oc^-     Quite  naturally  Squando  made  a  note  of 
it.    The  English  annalists  affect  to  talk  about  the  malignant 

influence  of  this  sachem,  but  outrages  similar  to  this  one,  and  a  num- 

ber of  petty  treacheries  which  did  not  reach  the  length  of  murder, 
are  quite  sufficient  to  account  for  the  promptness  with 
which  the  Indians  availed  themselves  of  the  moment  of 
phiiip's  war<  There  suddenly  appeared  a  chance  for  bring- 

ing the  white  man  to  a  reckoning  when  he  was  deeply  involved  in 

other  directions. 

The  Indians  around  the  Kennebec  struck  the  first  blow  when  their 

English  neighbors,  who  dreaded  the  effect  of  the  news  from  Philip, 


The  New 


Hostilities 
begun. 


The   Sailors  upsetting  Squando's  Canoe 


attempted  to  make  them  surrender  their  arms.  Then  a  case  or  two 
of  plunder  and  assault  broke  the  long  truce,  and  sufficed  to  bring  on 
hostilities.  The  savages  tasted  their  first  blood  at  Falmouth, 
where  an  old  man  and  seven  of  his  family  were  killed  and 
most  barbarously  mutilated,  and  two  grandchildren  carried  off.  When 
the  Indian  temper  was  thus  aroused,  and  every  pretence  of  accommo- 
dation thrown  aside,  devastation  spread  slowly  but  surely  from  place 
to  place. 

The  tactics  of  the  savages  were  the  same  as  in  Massachusetts. 
They  lay  in  wait  for  laborers  in  the  field,  for  isolated  parties  that 
strolled  out  of  the  garrison-houses.  They  skulked  behind  people  who 
were  returning  to  a  fortified  place,  and  slipped  in  with  them.  At 
Saco  they  attempted  to  set  fire  to  a  garrison  house  by  the  same  strat- 


1675.]  INDIAN   HOSTILITIES.  439 

agem  which  Philip's  men  tried  at  Brookfield.  Screened  behind  a 
wagon  filled  with  combustibles,  they  pushed  it  up  to  the  log-walls. 
Botli  attempts  failed  :  the  wagon  in  one  case  getting  hopelessly  mired, 
and  in  the  other  jerking  suddenly  into  a  rut  and  exposing  the  savages 
to  the  fire  of  the  besieged.  They  seldom  persisted  in  attacks  which 
promised  to  be  long  and  obstinate.  Like  the  tiger,  if  the  first  spring 
missed  the  victim,  they  slunk  away  to  make  fresh  attempts  elsewhere. 
Fire  and  blood  blazed  their  path  as  far  as  Exeter  and  Do-  in<.i(i,.ntg  Of 
ver.  At  Newicha  wan  nock  (Berwick),  a  servant-maid  of  thewar- 
eighteen  who  observed  a  party  of  Indians  approaching  Richard  To- 
zier's  house,  bravely  held  the  door  till  the  rest  escaped  to  the  garrison- 
house  :  fifteen  women  and  children  were  within.  The  Indians  hacked 
down  the  door,  and  with  it  the  girl,  left  her  for  dead,  and  pursuing 
the  rest,  caught  two  little  children  who  could  not  get  over  a  fence, 
and  killed  them.  The  girl  recovered  and  lived  to  be  quite  old.  A 
hundred  Indians  attacked  this  place  again  in  October,  when  three 
soldiers  were  surprised  and  killed.  Brave  Roger  Plaisted,  going  out 
with  a  cart  and  twenty  men  to  recover  the  bodies,  fell  into  another 
ambush.  All  his  men  and  the  frightened  team  ran  back  ;  he  and  two 
sons  stood  fighting  and  were  slain.  The  example  of  their  heroism 
made  a  wholesome  impression  upon  the  savages,  who  went  on  more 
cautiously,  scoring  their  fury  as  far  as  Kittery  ;  but  by  the  end  of 
1675  as  many  as  fifty  settlers  had  been  murdered,  and  many  barns, 
mills,  and  houses  burned. 

A  severe  winter  with  a  great  fall  of  snow  compelled  the  Indians  to 
suspend  their  designs.  Hunger,  too,  proved  to  be  an  excellent  peace- 
maker, for  they  had  grown  dependent  upon  the  English  for  various 
supplies.  Therefore,  a  treaty  was  made  and  all  captives  restored. 
But  the  bitter  feelings  only  smouldered,  and  blazed  out  again,  prin- 
cipally in  Maine,  where  some  of  Philip's  men  who  were  dispersed  by 
his  death  retreated  and  mingled  with  the  Eastern  Indians. 

Massachusetts  was  not  unmindful  of  the  dangers  which  threatened 
the  remote  settlements  of  New  Hampshire.  She  sent  one 

.....  _ ,     .          Aid  from 

hundred  and  thirty  men  to  Dover  to  join  the  force  of  Major   >ia»sachu- 
Waldron  who  commanded  there.     This  was  in  the  summer 
of  1676.     Under  orders  to  seize  all  Indians  who  had  been  guilty  of 
murder,  he  invited  those  who  were  disposed  for  peace  to  come  in  to 
him  under  a  flag  of  truce.     They  came  without  any  guaranty  of  pro- 
tection.    Among  them  were  a  number  of  Philip's  men,  and  the  Mas- 
sachusetts soldiers   insisted  that  an   indiscriminate   seizure 
should  be  made  of  all.     To  effect  this  without  bloodshed,  iron's  str»t- 
Major  Waldron  invited  the  Indians  to  participate  in  a  mock 
training,  and  when,  at  the  command  to  fire,  all  their  muskets  were 


440 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


emptied,  the  troops  closed  round  and  took  all  prisoners  save  two  or 
three.  The  Major  intended  to  release  the  well-disposed,  among  whom 
were  Passaconaway's  son  and  the  Penacook  Indians  who  had  returned 
from  the  Connecticut ;  but  so  little  discrimination  was  used  that 
many  of  them  were  included  in  the  two  hundred  who  were  removed 
to  Boston  and  subsequently  sold  as  slaves,  "  sent  into  other  parts  of 
the  world,  to  try  the  difference  between  the  friendships  of  their  neigh- 
bors here,  and  their  service  with  other  masters  elsewhere  !  "  The  sav- 
ages stored  up  the  recollection  of  this  stratagem  and  its  benign  results  ; 


for  they  considered  that  Philip's  men 
had  fled  to  them  for  protection  and 

hospitality.      The  deeds  of  violence  Waldron,s  Shim.fight 

were  renewed.     Seven  Massachusetts 

men  were  surprised  and  killed  at  Falmouth,  and  an  entire  settlement 
of  forty  persons  in   a  remote  place  was  destroyed ;  many 

Retaliation  •,  ,  .     ,    . 

of  the          were  murdered  under  tortures  and  the  rest  carried  into  cap- 
tivity.    At  Cape  Neddock  l  a  woman,  and  her  infant  at  the 
breast,  were  murdered  in  a  most  barbarous  manner. 

Captain  Hathorne  was  detailed  with  one  hundred  and  thirty  men, 
in  the  fall  of  1676  to  pursue  the  Indians ;  but  he  never  succeeded  in 
coining  up  with  them.  In  November  there  appeared  at  Portsmouth  a 
famous  sachem  of  the  Eastern  Indians  named  Mugg  or  Mogg,  to  make 
another  treaty.  He  was  sent  to  Boston  to  confer  with  the  magistrates, 
and  concluded  with  them  a  treaty  providing  for  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties, restoration  of  prisoners,  and  a  prohibition  to  purchase  arms  and 
powder  except  from  an  agent  of  the  government. 

1  Meaning  "  cleared  laud,"  a  neighborhood  where  the  Indians  had  some  cultivated  fields, 
and  many  of  their  implements  are  still  turned  up  by  the  plough.  —  Bollard's  Geographical 
Names. 


1677.]  MAJOR  WALDRON'S  EXPEDITION.  441 

Mogg  carried   this   treaty  to  Madockawando,    the  sachem  of  the 
Penobscot,  who  was  his  chief ;  lie  signed  it  in  behalf  of  his   MofK •„ 
tribe,  and  doubtless  in  good  faith.     But  Mogg,  under  pre-  Trcatv 
tence  of  visiting  other  tribes  to  persuade  them  to  release  their  Eng- 
lish prisoners,  did  not  return,  and  fomented  the  hatred  of  the  natives. 
This  policy  was  suspected  at  Portsmouth,  and   the  alarmed  inhabi- 
tants prevailed  upon  the  government  to  forestall  the  treachery  of  the 
natives  by  some  prompt  action  of  its  own.    Consequently  in  February, 
1677,  Major  Waldron,  with  a  force  of  English  and   Natick  Indians, 
sailed  for  the  Kenuebec  and  Pemaquid. 

At  the  latter  place  an  interview  with  the  natives  looking  to  some 
amicable  arrangement  was  broken  up  by  the  discovery  that  Hostilities 
they  had  brought  arms  ;  at  least  one  lance  was  found  con-  renewcd- 
cealed  in  a  canoe.  In  the  quarrel  that  ensued,  several  Indians  were 
killed ;  and  hostilities  were  renewed  with  the  opening  spring.  Seven 
men  were  killed  near  York,  nine  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec. 
Mogg  was  killed  in  leading  an  attack  upon  Black  Point,  but  at  the 
same  place  a  week  after  ninety  soldiers  were  caught  in  an  ambush 
and  sixty  slain.  The  natives  became  so  adventurous  that  they  en- 
gaged in  sea-fights,  by  boarding  from  their  frail  canoes  fishing  ves- 
sels that  lay  at  anchor  off  the  coast  in  various  places,  sometimes 
between  the  Isles  of  Shoals  and  York.  If  these  vessels  were  care- 
lessly guarded,  the  savages  always  got  possession  of  them,  killed  the 
crew  and  destroyed  the  cargo.  Up  and  down  the  Piscataqua  con- 
tinual alarms  travelled.  Houses  were  burned  and  people  slain  in 
Wells,  Kittery,  and  within  the  limits  of  Portsmouth,  at  a  place  now 
called  Greenland. 

The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  sent  Major  Pynchon  of  Spring- 
field and  Richards  of  Hartford  into  the  country  of  the  Mo- 
hawks to  stir  up  their  ancient  animosity  against  the  Eastern   wmTt'h"01 
Indians  and  direct  it  toward  the  protection   of  the  settle- 
ments in  New  Hampshire  and   Maine.     This  mission  was  so  far  suc- 
cessful that  some  parties  of  Mohawks  appeared  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Dover  and  Wells.     In  the  former  place  they  made  the  mistake  of 
attacking  some  of  Major  Waldron's  friendly  Indians,  so  that  it  be- 
came rumored  abroad  among  the  natives  that  the  English  had  treach- 
erously imported  Mohawks  to  slay  indiscriminately  all  Indians.     The 
native  suspicion  was  kept  alive  by  this  unhappy  mistake  and  this 
injudicious  policy  of  setting  Indian  to  fight  Indian.     The  immediate 
results  were   not   important,   but   subsequently  the  French  adopted 
that  policy  when  they  wanted  to  combine  the  natives   against  the 
English. 

At  length  commissioners,  one  of  whom  was  Captain  Champernoou 


442 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


of  Kittery,  were  appointed  to  meet  the  various  sachems  at  Casco  and 
endeavor  to  effect  a  permanent  treaty.  Thither  Squando  went,  sated 
of  vengeance,  and  Madockawando,  the  father-in-law  of  Baron  Castin, 
by  him  instructed  how  to  meet  the  advances  of  the  English.  It  was 
the  Baron  who  had  supplied  the  arms  and  powder  for  this  three  years' 


war. 


The  most  aggressive  tribes  were  represented  at  this  council.  A 
A  treaty  of  treaty  which  closed  hostilities,  but  only  for  a  few  years,  was 
******  here  made,  which  promised  to  return  all  captives  and  to 

refrain  from  future  attacks  upon  the  settlers,  who  were  to  be  allowed 
to  reoccupy  their  desolated  lands.     The  English,  on  their  part,  en- 


View  of  Dover,    N.   H. 


gaged  to  pay  one  peck  of  corn  annually  for  every  English  family 
settled  between  the  Piscataqua  and  Penobscot.  This  was  regarded 
by  the  Indians  not  only  as  tribute  but  symbol  of  acknowledgment  of 
their  original  proprietorship  of  the  soil.  But  the  annual  payments 
were  very  irregularly  made.  The  treaty  was  concluded  in  April, 
1678. 

Governor  Cranfield  in  1684,  laid  a  tax  upon  the  people  without 
their  consent.  When  the  council  demurred  he  adroitly 
availed  himself  of  reports  that  the  Eastern  Indians  meditated 
new  disturbances  in  the  coming  spring,  and  the  tax  was 
agreed  to  on  the  ground  of  the  common  defence.  His  project  of  en- 
listing the  Mohawks  against  the  Eastern  Indians,  and  paying  their 


action  in 
Indian  af- 
fair-. 


1684.]  GOVERNOR  CRANFIELD  AND  THE   INDIANS.  443 

services  out  of  the  money  raised  by  the  tax,  increased  his  unpopular- 
ity. The  friendly  Indians  became  alarmed,  for  it  was  understood  that 
the  Mohawks  made  no  distinction  among  New  England  Indians :  they 
were  all  traditional  enemies.  In  the  summer  of  1685  the  Penacook 
and  Saco  Indians,  after  gathering  their  corn,  began  to  remove  their 
families  from  the  English  neighborhood,  under  the  impression  that 
the  Mohawks  were  about  to  invade  them.  The  English  in  their 
turn  became  alarmed  at  the  movement ;  but  inquiries  led  to  a  good 
understanding,  and  a  treaty  of  mutual  defence  and  reparation  of  in- 
juries was  made,  which  lasted  about  four  years. 


Signature  of  Champernoon. 

The  chief  of  the  Penacooks  at  that  time  was  Kancamagus,  a  nephew 
of  Wonnalauset,  who  went  by  the  English  name  of  Hogkins  or  Haw- 
kins. He  wrote  to  and  visited  the  Governor,  but  there  was  a  want  of 
that  personal  attention  so  grateful  to  an  Indian,  and  a  disregard  of 
the  appeals  made  by  him  and  his  people.  The  chief  was  converted 
into  an  implacable  foe,  and  is  supposed  to  have  planned  the  subsequent 
attack  upon  Dover.1 

1  Hogkins  wrote  the  following  curious  letter  to  Cranfield :  "  Honour  Governor  my 
friend,  you  my  friend  I  desire  your  worship  and  your  power  Because  I  hope  you  can  do 
som  great  matters  this  once  I  am  poor  and  naked  and  I  have  no  men  at  my  place  because 
I  afraid  allways  mohogs  he  will  kill  me  every  day  and  night  if  your  worship  when  please 
pray  help  me  you  no  let  mohogs  kill  me  at  my  place  at  Malamaki  [Merrimac]  River  called 
Panukkog  and  Nattukkog  I  will  submit  your  worship  and  your  power  and  now  I  want 
powder  and  such  allmiuish  shott  and  guns  because  I  have  forth  at  my  horn  and  I  plant 
theare. 

"  This  all  Indian  hand  but 

pray  you  do  consider  your  humble  Servant 

JOHN  HOGKINS." 

SIMON  BETOGKOM 

JOSEPH  +  TRASKE 

KING  -}-  HARY 

SAM  -f-  LINIS 

WAPEGWANAT  -(-  TAGNACHCWA8HAT 
OLD    ROBIN  -j- 
MAMANOSQUES  -(-  ANDWA 
PETER  -f-  ROBIN 

MR.  GORGE  -|-  RODDUNONUKGCS 
MR.  HOPE  -|-  BOTH 
JOHN  +  TONEH 
JOHN  -f-  CUNOWA 
JOHN  -f-  OWAMOSIMMIN 
NATONILL  -f-  INDIAN 


444  NEW   HAMPSHIRE.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

In  1688,  the  Eastern  Indians  were  again  in  motion,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  Castin,  whose  house  had  been  plundered  by  Andros. 
di"n  out-  A  few  raids  in  Maine  during  the  summer  were  only  prelim- 
inary to  the  outbreak  of  1689  which  so  seriously  affected 
New  Hampshire.  Major  Waldron's  mock  training  bore  mortal  con- 
sequences after  thirteen  years  of  brooding  vengeance.  Some  of  the 
natives  who  were  sent  to  Boston  and  sold  into  slavery  escaped,  and 
found  their  way  back.  They  easily  inflamed  numbers  of  Philip's 
men  who  were  still  harbored  by  the  Penacook  and  Fryburg  Indians  ; 
and  the  resentment  spread  to  the  tribes  who  were  nominally  friendly. 
Castin's  agents  were  also  at  work  to  effect  a  hostile  combination 
against  the  English. 

There  were  five  garrison-houses  in  Dover  to  which  the  inhabitants 
The  Indians  retired  at  night.  They  were  strongly  built,  surrounded  by 
tall  palisades,  and  capable  of  making  an  effective  defence. 
Anxiety  concerning  the  Indians  had  subsided.  Waldron  himself  felt 
entirely  secure.  The  watch  at  these  garrison-houses  was  carelessly 
kept,  and  the  Indians  went  freely  to  and  fro  among  the  inhabitants. 
Some  of  the  settlers  fancying  that  the  natives  were  observing  the 
situation  more  closely  than  usual,  became  alarmed.  There  was  re- 
newed dread  of  coming  trouble,  but  Waldron  told  the  people  to 
mind  their  pumpkin-planting.  Though  the  town  was  fuller  of  Indians 
than  usual,  Waldron  professed  to  divine  instinctively  their  disposition, 
and  lightly  rallied  the  concern  of  the  people. 

On  the  27th  of  June,  toward  evening,  two  squaws  applied  at  each 
garrison-house  for  permission  to  pass  the  night,  as  they  had  frequently 
done  before.  They  were  admitted  to  all  but  one  of  them.  A  chief 
accompanied  the  two  squaws  who  went  to  Major  Waldron's  house. 
They  were  received  with  hospitality.  Said  the  squaws  to  the  Major, 
many  Indians  will  come  to  trade  to-morrow.  Said  the  chief,  "  Brother 
Waldron,  what  would  you  do  if  the  strange  Indians  should  come  ?  " 
"  If  I  lift  my  finger  I  can  summon  a  hundred  men,"  said  the  Major. 

So  profound  was  the  confidence  in  their  perfect  safety  which  Wal- 
dron had  inspired  in  his  people  that  when  the  gates  were 
Murder  of '  secured,  the  squaws  were  instructed  how  to  undo  the  fasten- 
ings, on  their  intimation  that  they  might  wish  to  go  out 
during  the  night.  At  a  signal  from  their  confederates  outside  the 
squaws  unbolted  the  gate,  the  Indians  entered  and  found  their  way  to 
an  inner  room  where  Waldron  slept.  The  old  man  of  eighty  seized 
his  sword  and  drove  the  savages  out  from  room  to  room,  but  a  blow 
from  a  hatchet  stunned  him  and  he  fell. 

Now  came  the  hour  of  triumph.  It  was  not  for  a  sham-fight  that 
they  picked  up  the  old  man  and  set  him  in  a  chair  upon  a  table,  cry- 


THE  MURDER  OF  MAJOR  WALDRON. 


1689.]  DOVER   ATTACKED.  445 

ing  "  Now  judge  Indians."  Then  they  deliberately  helped  themselves 
to  food,  compelling  the  other  inmates  of  the  house  to  serve  them. 
After  the  meal  they  gathered  round  the  Major  and  each  one  slitting 
some  part  of  his  body  with  a  knife,  said,  "  That's  my  account  —  I 
cross  it  out."  One  savage  cut  off  his  nose,  another  his  ears  ;  another, 
calling  for  the  scales  used  in  barter  to  weigh  beaver  skins,  cut  off  his 
right  hand  and  threw  it  in,  saying,  "  We  '11  see  if  it  does  weigh  a 
pound,"  for  there  was  a  saying  among  the  Indians  that  in  selling 
beaver  a  white  man's  hand  weighs  a  pound.  To  their  terror  and  as- 
tonishment it  weighed  a  pound  exactly.  Then  the  old  man  sinking 
from  the  loss  of  blood,  they  held  his  sword  so  that  he  might  fall  upon 
it  and  be  transfixed. 

The  house  was  pillaged  and  set  on  fire.  Another  was  served  in  the 
same  way  after  the  men  had  been  killed  and  the  women  set  Incidenta  of 
aside  for  captivity.  The  barking  of  a  dog  saved  another  just  theatt«ck- 
as  the  Indians  were  entering.  A  man  cast  himself  on  the  ground 
to  avoid  the  bullets  which  the  savages  began  to  fire  through  the 
door  and  held  it  with  his  feet  till  the  inmates  were  aroused.  One 
house  belonging  to  a  man  against  whom  the  Indians  bore  no  grudge 
escaped  with  pillaging ;  they  made  him  throw  his  coin  among  them 
while  they  scrambled  for  it.  He  was  the  father  of  the  man  who  had 
refused  admittance  to  the  squaws.  They  took  him  to  the  house  and 
threatened  to  kill  him  if  the  son  would  not  surrender.  These  two 
families  were  reserved  for  captivity,  but  in  the  confusion  managed  to 
escape. 

Elizabeth  Heard,  with  three  sons  and  a  daughter,  belonged  to  the 
house  which  was  saved  by  the  dog.  She  was  coming  with  them  up 
the  river  from  Portsmouth  that  night,  and  hearing  the  noise  she  sus- 
pected trouble,  and  the  party  landed  and  went  to  Waldron's  house. 
Not  procuring  admission,  a  young  man  scaled  the  palisade,  and  saw 
an  Indian  with  a  gun  waiting  at  the  inner  door.  The  woman  was  so 
overcome  by  the  news  that  she  sunk  to  the  ground,  and  only  begged 
her  children  to  leave  her  and  escape.  Toward  morning  an  Indian 
came  toward  her  with  a  pistol,  looked  at  her  and  walked  away.  He 
returned,  and  she  spoke  to  him.  He  recognized  the  voice  and  ran 
away  with  loud  exclamations.  He  was  one  of  the  Indians  who  es- 
caped from  Major  Waldron's  stratagem  in  1676,  took  refuge  in  her 
house,  and  was  harbored  by  her.  He  promised  then  that  he  would 
never  do  harm  to  her  and  her  family.  Thus  one  act  of  gratitude  re- 
lieved the  horrors  of  that  night. 

Twenty-three  persons  were  killed  and  twenty-nine  were  taken  to 
Canada,1  and  sold  to  the  French,  who  brought  the  children  up  as 
Roman  Catholics.  Several  houses  and  mills  were  burned. 

1  The  Saco  starts  in  Crawford's  Notch. 


446 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVIII. 


Massachusetts  despatched  a  few  companies,  and  Captain  Church 
was  sent  from  Plymouth.  The  name  of  the  conqueror  of  Philip  was 
a  terror  to  the  Indians.  Along  the  Androscoggin,  the  Penobscot, 
and  the  Kennebec,  he  made  several  campaigns,  never  fighting  without 
success,  but  often  unable  to  overtake  the  savages,  who  fled  on  hearing 
of  his  approach,  leaving  behind  them  only  the  ashes  of  their  villages 
and  their  stores.  But  the  blow  of  the  enemy  always  fell  upon  places 

where  it  was  least  expected.     At  Oyster  River  the  Indians 

waited  till  the  garrison 
went  out  to  work,  then  slipped 
between  them  and  the  house, 
and  killed  all  but  one.  Two 
boys  defended  the  house  bravely, 


Other  raids 


Elizabeth   Heard  and  the   Indian. 


till  it  was  set  on  fire,  and  even  then  refused  to  surrender,  save  on 

condition  that  the  lives  of  the  women  and  children  should  be  spared. 

The  promise  was  broken  :    one  of  the  little  children  was  impaled 

before  the  eyes  of  the  mother. 

In  1690  the  French  were  at  war  with  England.  The  Governor 
°f  Canada  organized  expeditions  of  French  and  Indians, 
against  various  points  of  the  colonies  in  New  England  and 

New  York.     Fifty-two  men  attacked  Salmon  Falls  on  the  morning 


Later-Indian 
hostilities, 


- 


ment- 


1690.]  THE   FRENCH   AND  INDIANS.  447 

of  the  18th  of  March.  The  inhabitants  made  a  brave  but  vain  re- 
sistance. Thirty  were  killed  and  the  rest  surrendered.  Twenty- 
seven  houses  and  two  thousand  head  of  cattle  in  the  barns  were 
destroyed.1  This  party  was  pursued  by  one  hundred  and  forty  men, 
and  warmly  engaged,  but  made  good  their  retreat  with  little  loss, 
carrying  off  the  women  and  children,  some  of  whom  were  treated 
with  great  cruelty.  The  incident  of  dashing  a  babe's  brains  out 
against  a  tree,  which  is  told  of  various  places,  occurred  upon  this 
journey  through  the  woods  to  Canada.  It  was  more  economical  to 
slay  the  weaker  captives,  because  each  scalp  brought  a  premium  when 
presented  before  some  French  officer. 

The  details  of  every  fight  in  this  war  need  not  be  told.  Casco  was 
destroyed,  Exeter  was  attacked,  houses  were  burned,  and  people 
killed  in  the  field  in  various  directions.  Twenty  persons  were  killed 
and  captured  at  Rye  Beach  in  1691.  York  was  destroyed  the  pre- 
vious year.  In  1694,  a  body  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  Eastern  In- 
dians under  French  guidance,  and  with  a  French  priest  to  shrive  the 
dying,  made  an  attack  upon  the  settlement  at  Oyster  River.  Attack  on 
Twelve  of  the  houses  were  fortified,  but  they  were  badly 
watched  and  ill  provided  for  defence.  Many  of  the  people 
lived  carelessly,  in  ordinary  houses.  How  easily  the  edge  of  bitter 
experience  grows  dull  in  a  frontier  life,  where  Nature's  sense  of  secur- 
ity seems  to  be  shared  by  human  beings.  An  important  element  of 
success  in  these  enterprises  of  the  savages  was  the  short  memories  of 
the  victims. 

On  this  occasion  the  party  divided  into  small  groups,  one  being 
detailed  to  each  house  on  either  side  of  the  river.  The  first  gun  fired 
was  to  be  the  signal  for  a  simultaneous  assault,  but  a  man  drew  the 
first  shot  prematurely  by  appearing  at  the  door  of  his  house.  The 
attacking  parties  were  not  all  in  readiness,  so  that  only  five  of  the 
garrison-houses  were  taken,  but  nearly  all  the  other  houses  were  de- 
stroyed, a  great  many  people  killed,  with  the  usual  barbarities.  Per- 
sons who  surrendered  on  a  promise  that  their  life  should  be  spared 
were  instantly  butchered.  A  woman  with  child  was  ripped  open  ;  a 
little  boy  of  nine  was  made  to  run  down  a  lane  of  the  Indians,  who 
pelted  him  with  tomahawks  till  he  was  killed.  Thomas  Bickford, 
who  was  alone  in  his  house,  managed  to  repel  an  assault  by  frequently 
changing  his  hat  and  dress,  :ind  issuing  orders  as  to  a  number  of  men. 
While  the  massacre  was  going  on  the  French  priest  got  into  the 
meeting-house,  and  amused  himself  by  scrawling  the  tenets  of  his  faith 
with  a  piece  of  chalk  on  the  pulpit.  About  a  hundred  persons  were 

1  Charlevoix  is  quoted  with  some  incredulity  by  Belknap's  Hist,  of  New  Hampshire,  i., 
207. 


448 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


[CHAP.  XVI II. 


killed  and  captured.  One  woman  during  the  succeeding  winter  was 
delivered  of  a  child  in  a  violent  snow-storm.  The  Indians  killed  it. 
She  lived  fourteen  days  on  a  decoction  of  bark  and  water,  became 
senseless  from  the  cold,  was  revived  by  the  usual  Indian  remedy  of 
warm  water  poured  down  her  throat,  remained  in  brutal  captivity  four 
years,  rejoined  her  husband,  had  fourteen  children,  and  died  at  eighty- 
nine  ! l  Of  such  stuff  were  made  the  matrons  of  those  perilous  times. 
About  three  miles  up  the  river  from  Portsmouth,  Madame  Ursula 
Cutts,  widow  of  John  Cutts,  the  first  royal  President,  lived  upon  her 
farm.  The  affair  at  Oyster  River  did  not  scare  her  into  town.  She 
insisted  upon  staying  in  the  country  till  all  her  hay  was  in  the  barn. 
Some  Indians  lay  in  ambush  as  she  was  in  the  field  directing  her 
laborers.  She  was  shot  and  scalped,  and  her  fingers  were  cut  off  for 


Rye   Beach. 

the  rings.  Colonel  Richard  Waldron  and  his  wife  were  going  up  the 
river  in  a  boat  to  dine  with  the  old  lady  when  the  tidings  of  her  death 
intercepted  them. 

In  the  summer  of  1696  the  Indians  crossed  from  York  to  Rye 
Beach  in  canoes,  and  made  an  attack  upon  some  houses  near  Little 
Harbor,  killing  fourteen  people  and  firing  the  houses.  They  were 
pursued,  but  reached  their  canoes  and  put  to  sea.  Some  boats  that 
were  sent  to  intercept  them,  delivered  fire  too  soon,  and  they  escaped 
by  going  round  the  Isles  of  Shoals.  Fort  William  Henry  at  Pema- 
quid,  which  the  Indians  had  captured  six  years  before,  was  the  scene 
of  a  serious  disaster.  Sir  William  Phips  had  rebuilt  and  fortified  it 
at  great  expense  contrary  to  the  advice  of  Church,  who  believed  that 

1  Belknap's  Hist,  of  New  Hampshire,  i.,  216-220. 


1697.]  THE   CLOSE   OF  THE   WAR.  449 

in  Indian  warfare  such  places  were  only  "  nests  of  destruction."  It 
was  a  constant  provocation  to  the  French  of  Canada,  who  were  de- 
termined to  take  and  destroy  it.  A  force  of  two  ships  of  war,  with 
two  companies  of  soldiers,  under  Iberville,  to  be  reinforced  by  Baron 
Castin  with  Indians,  was  sent  against  it.  On  the  way  Iberville  en- 
countered two  English  ships  of  war,  the  Newport  and  the  Sorling*, 
and  a  cutter  belonging  to  the  Province  of  Massachusetts.  The  New- 
port he  took,  the  others  escaped  in  a  fog.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Pen- 
obscot  Castin  joined  the  expedition  with  two  hundred  savages  in  a 
fleet  of  canoes.  This  formidable  force  invested  Pemaquid,  and  sum- 
moned it  to  surrender.  The  fortress  had  a  garrison  of  a  hundred 
men,  ammunition  and  food  enough  to  stand  a  siege,  and  mounted  fif- 
teen guns.  The  first  summons  was  rejected  ;  but  in  the  night  the 
French  set  up  a  battery  on  shore,  and  on  the  second  day  threw  shot 
and  shell  into  the  town  and  fort.  Castin  threatened  that  if  the  place 
was  taken  by  storm  it  should  be  given  up  to  the  plunder  of  the  sav- 
ages. Captain  Chubbs,  the  commander,  yielded,  and  threw  open  his 
gates.  The  garrison  was  only  saved  from  massacre  by  being  taken 
to  an  island  in  the  harbor  and  put  under  a  guard  of  French  marines. 
But  the  fort  was  demolished  and  the  town  plundered.  Chubbs  may 
have  only  meant  to  save  the  lives  of  his  men,  but  he  was,  neverthe- 
less, tried  for  cowardice  on  his  return  to  Boston,  and  cashiered.1  At 
Dover  three  persons  were  killed  returning  home  from  divine  service. 
Belknap  relates  the  remarkable  escape  of  Exeter  in  the  summer  of 
1697.  A  number  of  Indians  were  concealed  near  the  town  waiting 
for  an  opportunity.  By  a  stroke  of  foolish  good  luck  some  women  and 
children  took  that  very  time  to  go  into  the  fields  for  strawberries,  and 
would  not  be  prevented.  Somebody  in  town  fired  a  gun  to  scare  them 
back  ,  but  the  report  scared  the  Indians  also,  who  retreated,  suppos- 
ing that  they  had  been  discovered.  But  on  the  4th  of  July  Endo£  the 
of  that  year  they  killed  Major  Frost,  at  Kittery,  thus  clos-  war 
ing  a  piteous  list  of  massacres,  and  making  the  circle  of  their  re- 
venge complete  by  the  death  of  an  officer  who  was  concerned  in 
Major  Waldron's  sham-fight  at  Dover.  This,  probably,  was  the  last 
Indian  shot  fired  in  New  Hampshire  during  the  war.  In  1698  the 
Peace  of  Ryswick  restrained  the  Indians  from  further  hostilities. 
Many  of  the  captives  were  returned,  but  a  good  many  preferred  to  re- 
main, and  thus  started  a  race  of  half-breeds  to  be  most  dangerous  ene- 
mies in  future  wars. 

1  Sewall's  Ancient  Dominions  of  Maine.    Annals  of  Salem. 


VOL.   II. 


Witches'   Hill,S»lem. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 


THE   WITCHCRAFT    DELUSION. 


OUTBREAK  OF  THE  WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION. —  ITS  EARLIER  HISTORY.  —  CAUSES  OF 
THE  EXCITEMENT  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  WITCHCRAFT  CASES  IN  SALEM.  —  SAMUEL 
PARRIS.  —  THE  EARLIER  TRIALS.  —  RETURN  OF  PHIPS.  —  A  SPECIAL  COURT 
CREATED  FOR  WITCHCRAFT  CASES.  —  FURTHER  PROSECUTIONS.  —  EXPOSURE  AND 
END  OF  THB  DELUSION.  —  WITCHCRAFT  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  —  THE  BELIEF 
FINDS  FEW  ADHERENTS  OUTSIDE  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  "STONE-THROWING"  AT 
GREAT  ISLAND.  —  THE  CASE  OF  GEORGE  BURROUGHS. 

THE  important  and  interesting  political  events  —  ending  with 
Phips's  return  from  England  with  the  new  charter  —  following  the 
close  of  Philip's  War,  had  hardly  ceased  to  agitate  the  colonies, 
when  there  came,  especially  upon  Massachusetts,  a  dispensation  more 
gloomy  and  terrible  than  marked  any  other  period  of  the  century. 
It  cannot,  indeed,  be  said  that  the  witchcraft  panic,  which  broke  out 
in  1692,  was  a  result  of  Puritan  theology,  or  due  to  the  sombre  and 
intolerant  temperament  which  its  doctrines  nourished.  The  belief  in 
a  diabolical  possession  is  coextensive  with  and  as  old  as  the  human 


1484.]  ITS  EARLIER   HISTORY.  451 

race.  Its  superstitions,  it  is  true,  have  been  colored  by  the  culture 
of  different  epochs,  and  by  different  developments  of  the  religious 
sentiment.  But  no  religion  has  ever  succeeded  in  so  filtering  the 
popular  mind  as  to  let  the  so-called  facts  of  witchcraft  drop  as  dregs 
to  the  bottom.  If  the  Puritanism  of  New  England  was  as  powerless 
as  other  religious  systems  to  enlighten  the  ordinary  intelligence,  its 
faith,  nevertheless,  in  the  intimate  nearness  of  the  supernatural,  made 
its  followers  peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  delusion  which,  under  the 
name  of  witchcraft,  so  overwhelmed  the  colony.  It  may,  however, 
be  said  on  their  behalf  that  never  yet  has  the  belief  of  a  supernatural 
interference  in  the  affairs  of  men,  distinct  from  the  omnipotent  and 
omniscient  rule,  been  rooted  out  of  the  human  mind.  It  lurks  even 
now,  not  merely  among  half-civilized  peoples,  but  in  the  habits  and 
practices  of  the  most  cultivated  nations,  wherever  the  inevitable  com- 
bination of  credulity  and  ignorance  invites  it. 

Certain  obscure  facts  of  a  physico-nervous  character  have  always 
drawn  the  attention  of  mankind,  and  suggested  thoughts  of  super- 
natural causes.  Whenever  the  accidental  and  abnormal  traits  of 
the  human  organization  are  not  understood,  they  are  invariably  inter- 
preted in  a  preternatural  sense.  The  sufferers  are  victims  of  invis- 
ible agencies;  the  names  which  have  been  invented  for  these  run 
along  a  whole  gamut  from  heathen  and  classical  times  to  the  medi- 
aeval imps  and  the  modern  Satan.  It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  peo- 
ple should  endeavor  to  protect  themselves  against  something  uncanny 
which  they  do  not  understand. 

Perhaps  the  modern  animosity  against  reputed  witches  was  first 
fomented  by  the  Bull  of  Pope  Innocent  VIII.,  in  1484,  to  5^^^  his. 
arrest  persons  suspected  of  witchcraft.  In  1485  forty-one  witchcraft1" 
old  women  were  burnt  in  Burlia,  denounced  for  something  delusion- 
that  was  only  crabbedness  of  disposition,  oddity  of  habit,  repulsive- 
ness  of  appearance,  —  traits  which  perhaps  they  used  to  threaten  or 
to  affright.  These  marks  have  always  sufficed  to  send  odd  and  lonely 
old  women  to  the  stake  or  gallows.  Massachusetts  did  not  invent 
mankind's  great  trepidation.  One  hundred  persons  were  condemned 
by  one  inquisition  in  Piedmont,  and  forty-eight  in  Ravensburg.  In 
1515  five  hundred  were  executed  at  Geneva  in  the  space  of  three 
months.  These  are  merely  random  specimens  of  the  mediaeval  tem- 
per. It  was  the  same  in  all  other  countries,  and  under  Protestant 
as  well  as  Catholic  religions.  If  Luther,  worn  out  by  too  protracted 
study,  could  conjure  the  Devil  out  of  the  air  of  his  apartment,  what 
must  have  been  the  visions  and  frights  of  peasants  and  burghers  ? 
Probably  no  amount  of  ink  thrown  at  that  dark  personage  will  ever 
expel  him  from  the  fancy. 


452  THE  WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

It  was  in  the  twelfth  century  that  the  notion  of  a  witch,  as  a 
woman  who  had  made  a  secret  compact  with  Satan,  who  gave  her 
power  to  ride  through  the  air  to  attend  a  witch's  meeting,  first  ap- 
peared. This  survived  to  be  the  chief  modern  qualification  of  a 
witch.  She  could  perform  various  other  preternatural  feats,  vex, 
blast,  blight,  and  kill.  Her  genius  was  always  guided  by  malice, 
but  the  aeronautic  faculty  was  her  distinction.  People  suspected  of 
this  were  sacrificed  in  Europe  by  thousands,  so  deep  a  terror  had 
seized  hold  of  the  popular  mind.  The  more  sensitive  woman,  sub- 
ject to  hysteria,  to  religious  and  epidemical  influences,  to  obscure 
affections  of  the  nerves,  was  the  principal  sufferer,  always  the  Joan 
of  Arc  of  the  popular  ignorance. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  there  were  a  few  executions  for  witch- 
witchcraft  craft  in  England,  under  a  law  of  1541,  which  was  soon  re- 
in England,  pej^ed.  Ever  since  the  reign  of  King  John  there  had  been 
trials  for  witchcraft,  and  probably  executions.  In  1537,  Lady  Glam- 
mis  of  the  Douglas  family  was  burnt  alive  as  a  witch ;  but,  as  in  the 
case  of  Joan  of  Arc,  political  motives  were  mixed  up  in  the  act. 
Scotch  witchery  was  connected  with  the  use  of  herbs,  salves,  reme- 
dies, and  charms :  attempts  at  unbinding,  that  is,  healing,  were  pun- 
ishable. In  Aberdeen,  in  1597,  one  man  and  twenty-three  women 
were  burnt.  In  the  same  place  there  was  an  outcry  of  witchcraft  in 
1617,  and  twenty-seven  women  were  burnt  in  that  year.  In  1559 
the  English  Parliament  passed  a  law  against  witchcraft,  and  again  in 
1563,  which  remained  in  force  till  it  was  repealed  in  1736.  Bishop 
Jewel,  in  a  sermon  before  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  used  to  frequent  Dr. 
Dee's  conjuring  shop  for  consultation,  informed  her  that  witches  and 
sorcerers  were  marvellously  increased  in  her  realm.  In  1575  many 
were  hung  at  Barking  ;  in  1579,  three  at  Chelmsford,  four  at  Abing- 
don,  two  at  Cambridge  ;  in  1582,  thirteen  at  St.  Osith's,  and  so  on, 
with  melancholy  frequency.  Matthew  Hopkins,  in  1644-1646,  under- 
took the  function  of  Witchfinder.  He  laid  down  rules  and  reduced 
the  hunting  of  witches  to  a  science,  while  Harvey,  Wallis,  Wilkins, 
Boyle,  were  founding  the  Royal  Society.  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that 
he  found  too  many  witches :  the  people  became  disgusted  and 
alarmed,  and  mobbed  him  into  obscurity.  His  most  lucrative  witch- 
year  was  1645,  when  about  ninety  were  hanged.  The  trials  were  held 
before  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  a  devout  believer  in  witchcraft.  So  were 
Dr.  More  and  Sir  Thomas  Brown.  Hobbes  was  undecided.  Cud- 
worth  used  to  listen  to  reputed  witches,  to  test  them  by  their  ability 
to  recite  the  Common  Prayer  and  the  Apostle's  Creed.  The  Lord's 
Prayer  was  a  later  test.  Lord  Bacon  prescribed  the  ingredients  for 
a  witch's  ointment.  Even  Selden,  famous  lover  of  liberty,  said  that 


1661.]  ITS  EARLIER   HISTORY.  453 

if  witchcraft  were  a  delusion,  still  crimes  of  the  imagination  might 
be  punished  with  death,  because  realities  were  not  more  deadly  in 
their  consequences.  Boyle  inclined  to  a  belief  in  it;  Archbishop 
Cranmer  put  a  witch-clause  into  his  Articles  of  Visitation.  In  1  593 
the  income  of  .£40,  derived  from  the  confiscated  property  of  three 
persons  executed  for  witchcraft,  was  appropriated  for  an  annual  lec- 
ture upon  its  enormity,  to  be  preached  by  a  Doctor  or  Bachelor  of 
Divinity,  of  Queen's  College,  Cambridge ;  and  the  custom  continued 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years.1 

A  class  of  witch-finders  was  created  by  the  popular  demand  who 
were  very  active.  Like  judges,  they  used  to  go  on  the  cir-  Witch.find. 
cuit ;  the  town-crier  would  make  proclamation  and  order  ere- 
up  the  witch-cases  before  them.  Finders  realized  so  much  per  head 
on  all  persons  convicted,  and  free  passage  to  and  fro.  It  was  the 
best  speculative  business  of  the  time,  when  a  man  like  Edward  Fair- 
fax, the  translator  of  Tasso,  whose  children  were  subject  to  fits,  pros- 
ecuted six  of  his  neighbors  for  bewitching  them.  In  1655  Dalton's 
"  Country  Justice  "  lays  down  the  legal  signs  by  which  the  victim 
may  be  held  for  trial.  The  witch-names  used  by  Shakespeare  were 
found  in  the  Manual  of  W.  W.,  which  was  printed  in  1582.  In 
1693  a  great  many  trials  were  held  before  Chief  Justice  Holt.  He 
kept  a  clear  brain  through  the  business,  and  was  the  first  public  man 
in  office  who  protected  the  accused.2  Then  the  superstition  began 
to  decline  in  England:  the  last  capital  trial  occurred  in  1712.  But 
in  Scotland  it  was  1727  before  the  last  witch  was  burned.  Perhaps 
the  worst  time  in  England  for  witches  was  in  1661,  the  year  after 
the  Restoration.  Fourteen  commissions  were  issued  for  trying  them, 

1  Jndd'a  History  of  Hadley.    The  general  subject  is  indebted  to  Michelet's  La  Sorcitre  ; 
Lecky's  History  of  Rationalism  ;   Smedley,  Thompson,  Rich,  and  others,  Occult  Sciences  ; 
Drake's  ed.  of  Calefs  Witchcraft  Delusion  in  New  England ;  South  Meadows,  or  the  Days 
of  Witchcraft,  by  E.  T.  Disoway  ;  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft ;  Thomas  Brattle's  Account, 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.:  Mather's  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World;  Hutchinson's  Historical  Essay ; 
Thomas  Wright's  Narrative  of  Sorcery  and  Magic. 

2  "  I  told  the  Bishop  of  Worcester  that  his  diocese  is  infected  with  notions  about  witches ; 
he  intends  his  clergy  shall  rectify  their  mistakes  in  that  particular.     He  told  me  some  of 
the  topics  he  would  have  argued.     He  don't  much  controvert  the  power  of  devils  in  the 
Gentile  world,  and  their  extraordinary  operations  may  still  take  place  among  the  Pagans- 
He  is  inclinable  enough  to  believe  what  some  authors  have  writ  of  the  strange  effects  in 
such  places ;  but  he  thinks  the  Gospel,  as  far  as  it  reaches,  lias  destroyed  the  works  of  the 
devil,  and  those  who  are  in  the  covenant  of  grace  can  receive  no  hurt  from  the  infernal 
powers,  either  in  their  persons,  children  or  goods ;  that  a  man  may  be  so  profligate  as  to 
give  himself  to  the  devil,  but  he  can  have  no  assistance  from  him  to  hurt  anybody  else  in 
a  supernatural  way.     I  think  we  may  assent  to  this  latter  part,  and  leave   the  devil  and 
the  Gentiles  to  argue  the  rest  among  themselves."     Letter  of  James  Vernon,  King   Wil- 
liam's Secretary  of  State,  to  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury,  written  in  June,  1699.     But  at  that 
time  even  Englishmen  of  broad  intelligence  and  unsectarian  feeling  could  go  no  further 
than  this.    The  common  clergy  of  all  sects  were  advocates  of  witchcraft. 


454 


THE   WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION. 


[CHAP.  XIX. 


and  one  hundred  and  twenty  victims  were  hanged.  In  1662  fourteen 
additional  commissions  were  issued.  In  Sweden,  1670,  children 
charged  seventy  persons  with  bewitching  them  ;  many  confessed  and 
were  executed.  Then  fifteen  children  confessed  and  were  executed. 
Fifty  others  were  whipped  every  Sunday. 

Certainly  Massachusetts  did  not  enter  upon  a  novel  and  untried 
Literature  of  path.  During  all  the  European  epochs  of  the  delusion  a 
witchcraft.  yast  literature  upon  the  subject  sprang  up  ;  out  of  it  all  only 
three  books  of  consequence  undertook  a  refutation  of  witchcraft.  It 
was  a  dangerous  thing  for  an  author's  good  repute  and  sometimes 
for  his  person.  All  the  other  books,  tracts,  pamphlets,  were  more  or 


General  View  of  Salem,  Mass. 

less  elaborate  defences  of  the  reality  of  witchcraft.  What  could  be 
expected  when  all  the  leading  men  of  society,  politics,  religion, 
firmly  pledged  their  faith  to  its  reality  ?  When  such  a  man  as  Baxter 
could  write  the  "  Certainty  of  the  World  of  Spirits,"  and  thank  Cot- 
ton Mather  for  information  of  fresh  cases  and  for  his  zeal  in  the 
cause,  and  grow  very  angry  when  some  Sadducee  disbelieved,  a  thriv- 
ing crop  of  books  might  be  expected.  They  performed  an  awful 
work  in  propagating  the  delusion.  They  came  over  to  New  England 
and  were  perused  with  creeping  awe  in  farm-houses  and  towns. 
Clergymen  made  a  point  of  procuring  them  in  order  to  learn  how  to 
resist  the  wiles  of  the  adversary  ;  —  no  gentleman's  library  was  com- 


1692.]  ITS   ORIGIN   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  455 

plete  without  them.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Parr  is,  of  Salem,  had  these 
books  where  his  children  and  neighbors  could  get  at  them.  One  of 
them  was  a  book  by  William  Perkins,  preacher  at  St.  Andrews, 
Cambridge,  entitled  kk  Discourse  of  the  Damned  Art  of  Witchcraft," 
written  toward  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Sir  Matthew 
Hale's  "  Trial  of  Witches,"  1661,  enjoyed  a  great  authority  in  both 
countries,  because  it  was  based  upon  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
Indeed  it  was  enough  for  a  Puritan  to  fall  back  on  the  clear  letter  of 
Holy  Writ.  First,  find  your  witch,  and  then,  "  thou  shalt  not  suffer 
a  witch  to  live." 

A  few  sporadic  cases  of  witchcraft  had  previously  occurred  in  Xew 
England.     Margaret  Jones  was  hanged  at  Charlestown  in 

1648.     Mrs.  Hibbins,  although  she  was  a  sister  of  Deputy  pr..swutions 

r     J    for  \\  itch- 
Governor    Bellingham,    suffered   in    1656,    upon    no   other  t-raftmXew 

ground  that  can  be  discovered  than  that  of  knowing  a  great 
deal  more  than  her  neighbors,  and  of  venting  it  with  a  sharp  and 
cynical  tongue.  Her  husband  had  been  a  prominent  merchant,  and 
was  an  agent  of  the  colony  in  England.  He  died  in  1654.  How 
strange  it  is  that  the  woman  could  not  have  been  saved  from  such  a 
fate  !  John  Norton,  the  Boston  clergyman,  hinted  that  she  knew  too 
much,  that  she  was  too  subtle  in  her  perception  of  what  was  occur- 
ring around  her.  Michelet,  in  treating  of  the  mediaeval  sorcery, 
shows  that  the  possession  of  any  unusual  talent  or  knowledge  was 
enough  to  turn  a  woman  into  a  witch.  Several  accusations  followed 
hers,  but  none  of  them  terminated  fatally,  for  Philip's  War  was  too 
definitely  diabolical  to  admit  any  play  for  a  metaphysical  Satan. 

Great  despondency  reigned  throughout  the  colony  in  1692.     The 
wounds  of  Philip's  War  still  smarted,  another  Indian  war  Evpnt(lprp_ 
seemed  impending  at  the  eastward,  several  murders  had  al-  o^' 
ready  occurred,  the  beloved  Charter  was  lost,  and  there  was 
nothing  but  uncertainty  for   the   future.     Four   times  the   lhu:-ctts 
small-pox  had  raged  along  the  coast,  carrying  off  a  great  many  peo- 
ple in  Boston  and  the  vicinity :  the  last  time  in  1690.     Six  great 
fires  had  laid  waste  the  city  ;  the  last  two  in  1690  and  1691.     All 
these  calamities,  by  reducing  the  tone  of  the  public  temperament, 
made  it  susceptible  to  fears  and  suspicions,  and  ripe  for  any  epidemic. 

In  1688,  a  daughter  of  John  Goodwin,  of   Boston,  was  offended 
by  an  Irish  washerwoman  named  Glover,  and   in   childish  The(iooa. 
spite,  accused   the   harmless  creature   of    bewitching   her.  w"li'*sc- 
Forthwith  she  fell  into  the  conventional  tricks  and  spasms,  crying  out 
whenever  the  Irishwoman  was  near,  and  falling  to  the  ground.    Three 
other  children  caught  the  infection.     The  poor  woman  was  tried  and 
hanged.     Cotton  Mather,  who  believed  devoutly  in  witchcraft,  took 


456 


THE   WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION. 


[CHAP.  XIX. 


Portrait  of  Cotton   Mather. 


the  girl  into  his  family  to  make  a  study  of  the  phenomena.  She 
could  not  bear  to  hear  the  Assembly's  Catechism,  or  Cotton's  "  Milk 
for  Babes,"  but  could  read  the  "  Oxford  Jest  Book  "  with  impunity. 
She  flew  violently  at  the  Doctor  when  he  proposed  domestic  wor- 
ship, but  always  managed  to  stop  short  of  striking  him.  She  fell 
into  the  use  of  incoherent  language,  was  "struck  dead  "by  day,  but 
slept  peacefully  at  night.  She  had  committed  herself  to  the  trick, 
and  succeeded  in  deceiving  Mather.  When  the  woman  was  exe- 
cuted, she  managed  to  recover. 
The  excitement  of  such  repeated 
performances  will  generally  estab- 
lish a  half  conscious  impression 
in  the  actor's  mind  that  they  have 
a  basis  of  reality ;  they  are  not 
thrown  off  in  cold-blooded  hypoc- 
risy. The  person  is  really  pos- 
sessed by  Ins  own  deceit ;  if  physi- 
cal weakness  or  nervous  disorders 
conspire  with  this  mood,  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  the  person  has  be- 
witched himself.  And  such,  to  a 
considerable  degree,  was  the  case 
with  the  children  and  young  people  in  Salem  Village,  now  Danvers, 
with  whom  the  delusion  there  originated. 

The  parish  in  Salem  Village  had  been  set  off  from  the  First 
Beginnings  Church  of  Salem.  Its  people  had  never  been  harmonious  ; 
bickering  and  heart-burnings  disturbed  its  councils  and 
nourished  animosities  which  mingled  fearfully  in  the  ap- 
proaching tragedy.  There  was  great  opposition  to  James  Bayley,  the 
first  minister,  and  eventually  he  was  not  settled.  His  wife  was  a 
Mary  Carr,  whose  sister  Ann  married  Sergeant  Thomas  Putnam. 
Ann  had  a  good  deal  of  influence,  was  a  clever  woman  and  of  a  high 
temper.  Perhaps  she  remembered  the  bitter  feud  in  regard  to  her 
brother-in-law  when  afterward  she,  her  son,  and  especially  her  daugh- 
ter, were  swift  and  bitter  witnesses  against  some  accused  of  witch- 
crafts. 

Deodat  Lawson,  a  learned  and  eloquent  man,  was  settled  in  1684, 
but  left  the  parish  before  1690,  and  went  to  Scituate.  Then 
came  Samuel  Parris,  a  merchant  of  Barbadoes,  who  did 
not  cast  off  the  tricks  of  his  trade  when  he  put  on  the  surplice. 
For  a  year,  while  he  seemed  to  be  reluctant  to  settle,  his  native 
sharpness  was  employed  in  bargaining  with  the  parish.  His  terms 
were  accepted  in  1689.  The  first  ministerial  duty  which  he  exer- 


of  the  first 
cases  at 
Salem. 


Samuel 
Parris. 


1692.] 


SAMUEL   PARRIS   AND   HIS   FAMILY. 


457 


cised,  was  to  get  hold  of  the  parochial  property.  Great  was  the 
indignation  when  he  was  labored  with  to  give  it  up,  and  refused.  The 
parish  split  into  two  parties,  and  Rebecca  Nourse's  family  were  in 
the  opposition.  Parris  loved  all  the  power  he  could  get,  a  most  ob- 
stinate man,  incapable  of  accepting  the  broadest  hint,  and  not  thor- 
oughly scrupulous  in  his  methods. 

His  daughter  Elizabeth  was  nine  years  old  ;  a  niece  living  in  the 
family  was  eleven ;  a  frequent  visitor  and  neighbor  was  Ann,  the 
daughter  of  Thomas  Putnam,  Sergeant  and  Parish  Clerk,  who  was 


Tituba  and  the  Children. 

twelve  years  old.  Parris  had  two  slaves,  John  Indian  and  his  wife 
Tituba ;  she  was  half  negro,  half  Indian,  and  was  learned  in  the 
practices  of  sorcery.  In  the  winter  of  1691-92,  the  Parris  children, 
and  three  or  four  neighbors,  whose  ages  ranged  from  twelve  to  twenty, 
met  at  his  house  to  form  a  circle  for  practising  various  tricks,  some 
of  which  were  suggested  by  Tituba.1  They  had  learned  from  Cot- 
ton Mather's  account  the  performances  of  the  Goodwin  girl  and  the 
other  children,  and  soon  the  entertainment  took  the  form  of  an  imi- 

1  One  is  tempted  to  note  that  her  mime  is  the  imperative  of  a  Latin  verb,  aud  means 
"  tip.' 


458  THE  WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

tation.  By  the  contagion  of  intercourse,  during  these  forbidden  ex- 
ercises, the  girls  became  thoroughly  infected  with  their  own  fancies. 
Elizabeth  was  a  precocious  girl.  Mary  Walcot,  seventeen  years  old, 
when  quite  young  was  in  the  family  of  Rev.  George  Burroughs.  Per- 
haps Parris,  who  hated  his  old  rival,  though  he  lived  in 

The  children          r  '  to 

of  the  Parris   Wells,  made  a  note  of  that.     By  this  time  their  strange  ac- 

family  de-  .  .  •  •  « 

ciared  be-  tions  and  contortions  had  plainly  established  a  hysterical 
condition  ;  but  when  the  doctors  were  called  in  they  pro- 
nounced that  they  were  bewitched. 

This  hint  was  enough  for  young  people  in  a  condition  of  morbid 
excitement.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Lawson,  preaching  for  Parris,  was  inter- 
rupted by  them  during  the  service,  with  grotesque  remarks.  The 
parish  was  profoundly  moved.  The  fresh  temptation  set  in  when 
they  were  asked  who  was  bewitching  them.  Did  Parris  foment  this 
trouble  for  purposes  of  his  own  ?  Perhaps  not,  at  first ;  but  he 
managed  to  direct  it  in  the  path  of  his  own  dislikes.  The  children 
began  to  name  individuals. 

On  March  1,  1692,  they  pitched  upon  Sarah  Good,  against  whom 
sarah  Good  some  popular  prejudice  existed.  She  was  brought  before 
Corey  ac^  Justices  Hathorne  and  Curwen,  and  sent  to  prison.  These 
cused.  |.wo  justices  and  Marshal  G.  Herrick  did  a  thriving  business 
in  sending  people  to  jail.  There  were  some  remarkable  circumstances 
in  the  case  of  Giles  Corey,  a  man  eighty-one  years  old,  odd,  unconven- 
tional, irascible,  and  very  positive  in  his  ways  and  opinions.  Many 
stories  were  afloat  concerning  him,  which  now-a-days  would  be  mainly 
traceable  to  his  manner.  He  beat  a  farm  laborer,  who  soon  after- 
wards happened  to  die,  and  Corey  was  arrested  for  murder.  In  de- 
fault of  evidence,  he  was  discharged  upon  paying  a  fine.  He  was  again 
arrested  for  arson,  but  clearly  proved  an  alibi,  - —  a  much  suspected 
man  upon  the  slenderest  grounds.  He  was  the  kind  of  person  whom 
it  would  be  safe  to  denounce.  He  seemed  to  incline  to  a  belief  in 
witchcraft.  His  wife  was  an  obstinate  skeptic,  and  tried  to  keep 
him  from  the  examinations  ;  but  he  would  attend  them.  So  one  day 
the  children  fell  into  convulsions  at  his  presence,  and  writhed  on  the 
floor  in  agony.  Corey  was  made  to  approach,  so  that  they  might 
touch  him,  for  this  was  a  test  of  bewitching,  the  children  gi-owing 
calm,  as  if  by  the  touch  the  maleficent  fluid  were  discharged.  When 
Corey  was  brought  to  trial  he  refused  to  plead,  and  manfully  kept 
his  mouth  shut,  appai'ently  with  the  hope  of  escaping  a  conviction 
Corey  exe-  f°r  witchcraft,  of  whatever  else  he  might  be  found  guilty, 
cuted.  an(j  ^i,e  consequent  forfeiture  of  estate.  But  the  justices 

killed  him  all  the  same  for  contumacy,  sentencing  him  to  the  terrible 
punishment  of  peine  forte  et  dure ;  —  he  was  pressed  to  death,  the 


1692.] 


THE   SPECIAL   COURT. 


459 


first  and  only  time  of  this  infliction  in  New  England.  When  the 
brave  old  man's  tongue  lolled  out,  the  sheriff  thrust  it  back  with  his 
cane. 

When  Sir  William  Phips  returned  and  assumed  the  office  of  gov- 
ernor, he  organized  a  special  court  of  over  and  terminer  for 

.-,  .    •    1          -      f  .  /    .  ,  .         A  special 

these  trials  ;  in  fact,  a  commission  consisting  of  seven  magis-  court  organ- 
trates,  among  whom  were  the  implacable  Stoughton,  Judge  witchcraft 
Sewall,  and  Saltonstall.     This  was  an  illegal  proceeding  on 
the  Governor's  part,  as  all  the  cases  properly  should  have  gone  before 


Trial  of  Giles  Corey. 

the  Supreme  Court.  No  notice,  however,  was  taken  of  this  at  the 
time,  so  deep  was  the  preoccupation  of  the  public  mind.  Simon 
Bradstreet,  the  acting  Governor  superseded  by  Phips,  was  no  believer 
in  witchcraft.  As  the  trials  went  on.  a  few  other  persons  were  cour- 
ageous enough  to  resist  the  tide,  and  declare  their  disbelief :  among 
clergymen,  Willard,  Increase  Mather,  and  the  staunch  old  Puritan 
Moody ;  among  laymen,  Thomas  Danforth,  Thomas  Brattle,  and 
Robert  Calef,  the  merchant  who  wrote  down  his  opinion  that  some  pf 


460 


THE   WITCHCRAFT   DELUSION. 


[CHAP.  XIX 


. 


the  cases,  like  that  of  Margaret  Rule,  were  simply  attacks  of  delirium 
tremens.  Two  or  three  of  the  Massachusetts  justices  were  also 
much  dissatisfied.  Men  who  talked  in  this  wav  carried  their  lives  in 

•/ 

their  hands.  Saltonstall  soon  became  disgusted,  and  left  the  bench  ; 
the  rest  sat  through  the  tragedy,  among  them  Judge  Sewall,  who  af- 
terwards read  a  public  recantation  in  the  Old  South  Church,  bowed 
down  with  mortification  and  sorrow.  Annually  he  shut  himself 

up  for  a  day  of  penance  and 
fasting,  to  keep  alive  the 
memory  of  his  sad  complic- 
ity. Not  so  did  Deputy 
Governor  Stoughton,  who 
never  forgave  his  colleagues 
when  they  began  to  waver 
in  the  matter  of  convic- 
tions ;  and  when  he  per- 
ceived the  public  opinion 
was  falling  away  from  sus- 
taining the  bench,  he  re- 
signed his  seat  in  a  passion 
on  occasion  of  a  reprieve. 

A  statute  against  witch- 
craft, passed  in  the  reign 
of  that  superstitious  king, 
James  I.,  seems  to  have 
been  the  basis  of  these  col- 
onial proceedings.  The 

doctors  were  frequently  called  in  to  examine  the  bodies  of  the  ac- 
cused, to  discover  the  witch's  marks,  the  teat  at  which  sometimes  the 
apparitions  of  two  black  pigs  were  suckled,  sometimes  Satan  himself 
sought  refreshment  there.  Any  mole  or  callosity  served  the  doctors 
to  pronounce  upon  the  witch's  mark. 

Francis  Nourse  and  his  wife  Rebecca  were  living  happily  in  a  house 
that  was  built  in  1636.  Unfortunately  he  had  a  quarrel  with  the 
Endicotts  about  the  occupation  of  his  farm.  Jealousy  and 
hostile  feeling,  that  drew  in  other  people,  had  for  some  time 
existed.  The  children  "  cried  out  "  one  day  against  Re- 
becca Nourse  ;  the  usual  display  of  hysterics,  fits,  possessions,  took 
place,  terrible  to  the  overwrought  feelings  of  the  spectators.  A  cler- 
gyman, named  Lawson,  delivered  a  most  exciting  discourse  on  March 
24,  which  put  the  witchcraft  trials  upon  Scripture  grounds  and  con- 
firmed all  minds.  A  blameless  life  and  a  sweet  demeanor  at  her  trial 
could  not  save  Rebecca.  The  jury  were  forced  to  believe  her  inno- 


Portrait  of  Saltonstall. 


JJ^  ° 


1692.] 


REBECCA  NOURSE   AND  BRIDGET  BISHOP. 


461 


cent,  but  were  sent  out  till  they  consented.  She  went  the  way  of  all 
the  rest  to  Witclus'  Hill,  and  her  body  was  thrown  into  the  common 
pit  provided  as  a  dishonored  last  resting-place  for  these  unhappy  vic- 
tims. It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  piteous  midnight  search  of  Rebecca's 
pious  children  and  husband,  braving  possible  detection,  to  recover  the 
motherly  body  and  give  it  a  more  tender  burial  in  the  little  burial 
ground  near  the  old  homestead. 
Before  she  was  executed,  she  was 
led  up  the  broad  aisle  of  the  meet- 
ing-house, that  the  minister  Parris 
might  excommunicate  and  thrust 
her  out  of  the  communion.1  When 
Parris  afterwards  preached  a  de- 
nouncing sermon,  Sarah  Cloyse,  sis- 
ter of  Rebecca,  got  up  and  left  the 
meeting.  To  leave  the  public  ser- 
vice under  any  circumstances  was 
an  unpardonable  offence  to  the 
forefathers  of  Massachusetts,  but 
doubly  so  in  this  case,  because  the 
sister  sided  with  a  witch.  The 
children  promptly  denounced  her. 
Bridget  Bishop,  in  1680,  was  a 
gay  and  pleasant  woman,  anti-puritan  in  her  style  and  opinions.  She 
used  to  appear  in  a  black  cap,  black  hat,  and  a  "  red-par-  Briaget 
agon  boddice."  If  a  woman  wore  a  scarlet  petticoat  it  went  Buthop- 
hard  with  her  if  she  did  not  become  suspected.2  Red  was  Satan's 
favorite  mediaeval  color.  Bridget's  dress  and  manner  led  to  gossip- 
ing, and  it  was  thought  she  was  going  "the  primrose  way  to  the 
everlasting  bonfire."  An  accusation  of  witchcraft  was  made  and  she 
was  tried,  but  at  that  time  it  was  more  difficult  to  convict.  In  the 
present  temper  of  the  people  much  less  was  required  for  the  manu- 
facture of  a  witch.  A  woman  walking  from  Amesbury  to 
Newbury,  in  bad  weather,  came  into  a  kitchen  and  boasted 
that  her  shoes  and  clothes  were  not  wet.  That  was  clearly  impos- 
sible, save  by  preternatural  means.  She  was  denounced.  As  another 
woman  was  crossing  a  marshy  place,  a  will-o-wisp  was  noticed  to  be 
near  her,  like  an  imp  dancing  attendance.  That  too  was  fatal.  A 

1  A  few  of  her  descendants  lately  met  in  Boston  to  form  a  "  Nourse  Monument  Asso- 
ciation," charged  with  the  duty  of  erecting  a  monument  to  her  memory.     For  once  let  an 
epitaph  record  the  unvarnished  truth. 

2  A  Portsmouth  witch  "  had  on  her  head  a  white  linen  hood  tied  under  her  chin,  and  her 
waistcoat  and  petticoat  were  red,  with  an  old  green  apron,  and  a  black  hat  upou  her  head  — 
and  she  vanished  away  iii  the  shape  of  a  cat." 


Portrait  of  Lieut. -governor  Stoughton. 


Other  cases. 


462 


THE   WITCHCRAFT   DELUSION. 


[CiiAP.  XIX. 


man  named  Jacobs  was  accused  ;  he  said,  contemptuously,  "  You  tax 
me  for  a  wizard,  you  may  as  well  tax  me  for  a  buzzard."  All  sorts 
of  personal  piques  and  private  grudges,  says  Upham,  many  of  them 
of  long  standing,  now  began  to  influence  these  transactions.  When 
Burroughs  was  denounced,  a  strong  charge  against  him  was  that  he 
possessed  a  witch's  trumpet,  which  he  used  to  summon  his  pai'tners 
whenever  he  desired  a  conference.  Cotton  Mather  stood  by  to  see 
Burroughs  hanged,  and  when  the  people  seemed  impressed  by  his 
sweet  and  lofty  words,  he  explained  that  Satan  often  transformed 
himself  into  an  angel  of  light  to  delude  men's  souls.  On  occasion  of 
the  execution  of  eight  at  one  time,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Noyes  stood 


"7i  58*4**  %  fitfafA 
t3L.affi.il "fr  "•#  1 


A  commute 


— — .K • . , — -^-  — -         -  •  *-      ••-  F**^^   — 

Fac-simile  of  Sheriff's  Return  of  Bridget  Bishop's  Execution. 


by  and  said  to  the  people,  "  What  a  sad  thing  it  is  to  see  eight 
firebrands  of  hell  hanging  there  !  " 

A  committee  of  vigilance  was  appointed,  and  the  citizens  were 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  finding  and  prosecuting  witches.  Any 
man  wno  na(^  a  g1'11^?6  f  ound  opportunity  now  to  put  his 
eneniy  jn^o  ]?i\\..  The  children  had  a  very  precise  way  of 
imitating,  half  automatically  no  doubt,  the  gestures  of  accused  per- 
sons, their  way  of  shaking  the  head,  lifting  the  eyes,  shifting  the 
attitude.  This  was  attributed  to  supernatural  domination.  But  this 
consummate  acting  was  not  a  mere  histrionic  display  ;  the  hysteric 
passion  was  too  much  implicated  for  that.  It  was  a  contagion  that 
extended  to  all  persons  whose  state  of  health  and  nervous  condition 
invited  it.  Several  other  children  were  thus  bewitched.  At  length 
one  of  them,  Mary  Warren,  who  found  she  was  dissembling,  im- 
peached the  other  children.  There  began  to  be  suspicions  of  a  con- 
spiracy. The  accused  children  turned  upon  her  and  denounced  her 
for  a  witch  to  recover  their  own  credit. 

But  now  the  end  was  approaching,  for  the  children,  under  the 
stimulus  of  the  popular  madness,  began  to  fly  at  higher  game.  Per, 


1692.] 


ITS  DECLINE. 


463 


sons  of  too  great  importance  were  implicated  in  their   accusations, 
and  opinion  was  manifestly  affected  by  the  admirable  record 
and   demeanor  of  the  denounced.     Mrs.   Hale,  wife  of  the  ure  of  the 
minister  at  Beverly,  was  too  fine  and  good.     As   soon  as  its  quick  de- 
they  mentioned  her  name  their  occupation  began  to  wane. 
She  was  probably  selected  because  her  husband  believed   in  witch- 
craft. 


Captain  Alden  Denounced. 


It  appears  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  inland  towns 
were  less  affected  by  the  de- 
lusion. Captain  Partridge  of 
Hatfield  had  a  man  served 
with  ten  stripes  who  came  to 
him  to  accuse  a  neighbor  of 
witchcraft.  The  children  denounced  some  excellent  per-  Caitesin 
sons  in  Andover,  who  were  protected  by  the  people.  Sev-  other  townB- 
eral  actions  for  slander  were  commenced.  A  few  persons  of  impor- 
tance who  were  imprisoned  in  consequence  of  denunciations,  were 
assisted  to  escape.  Among  them  was  Captain  John  Alden,  belonging 
to  a  Duxbury  family.  He  was  sent  for  by  the  magistrates  The  ctLge  of 
to  be  examined.  The  children  went  through  with  their  JohnAlllen- 
usual  performances  but  when  asked  to  point  out  the  person  who  was 
afflicting  them,  one  of  them  selected  the  wrong  man,  till  one  who 
was  standing  near  her  stooped  down  and  whispered  something :  then 
she  cried  out,  kt  It  is  Aldeii."  Said  the  magistrate,  u  Did  you  ever 


464  THE   WITCHCRAFT   DELUSION.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

I 

see  him  ?  "  "  No,  but  the  man  just  told  me  so."  Instead  of  dismiss- 
ing the  case,  the  infatuated  magistrates  ordered  a  ring  to  be  formed 
in  the  street  with  Alden  in  it:  the  child  was  secretly  instructed  by 
the  man,  who  was  probably  an  enemy  ;  so  when  told  to  point  out 
Alden  she  did  so,  crying,  "  There  stands  Alden,  a  bold  fellow,  with 
his  hat  on,  sells  powder  and  shot  to  the  Indians."  He  was  committed. 
The  children  prudently  cried  that  it  was  his  sword  which  afflicted 
them,  and  it  was  taken  away.  Alden  was  a  prominent  man,  and  the 
magistrates  carried  him  into  the  meeting-house  and  put  him  on  a 
chair  in  full  view  of  the  people,  where  of  course  he  begun  to  pinch 
the  children.  He  was  asked  to  confess  and  give  glory  to  God.  Al- 
den replied  "  that  he  hoped  he  should  always  give  glory  to  God, 
but  never  would  gratify  the  devil."  Then  he  asked  the  magistrate 
why  his  looking  upon  him  did  not  strike  him  down  as  well  as  his 
accusers.  The  only  answer  to  that  plain  bit  of  common  sense  was 
his  commitment  to  prison.  He  proposed  to  stand  his  trial,  but 
was  prevailed  upon  to  be  aided  to  escape.  He  went  to  Duxburv, 
and  entering  the  house  of  a  relative,  "  saluted  them  with  the  cheer- 
ful assurance  ^  that  he  was  come  from  the  devil  and  the  devil  was 
after  him."  l 

After  the  illjudged  accusation  of  Mrs.  Hale  several  trials  occurred, 

but  nearly  all  of   the  persons  were  acquitted.     When,  in 

ing  of  the      May,  1693,  the  children  began  to  whisper  the  names  of  the 

Governor's  wife  and  of  some  relatives  of  Increase  Mather, 

Phips  took  decisive  measures.     Even  Cotton  Mather  surmised  that 

Satan  had  become  confused.    The  General  Court,  at  the  instance  of 

numerous  petitions  from  victims  still  shut  up  in  jail,  had  superseded 

Phips's  Special  Commission.     Now  he  ordered  a  general  jail-delivery. 

The  huge  and  baleful  bubble  had  collapsed. 

Compared  with  European  epidemics  of  the  mental  kind,  this  Amer- 
ican experiment  was  brief,  but  bitterly  sharp  while  it  lasted.  A  mo- 
ment came  when  the  excitement  ran  so  high  it  turned  to  froth ;  it 
was  a  moment  of  collapse  and  not  of  increase.  But  twenty  innocent 
persons,  and  two  dogs  suspected  of  being  witches'  familiars,  had  been 
executed.  Two  persons,  and  perhaps  many  more,  died  in  jail :  a 
good  many  broke  jail,  and  were  not  recaptured  ;  one  hundred  and 
fifty  prisoners  were  released  by  Phips.  Several  hundred  had  suffered 
for  this  delusion.  Persons  who  were  acquitted  were  obliged  to  re- 
main in  jail  till  they  had  paid  all  charges,  —  board,  jailer's  fees,  court 
charges.  Many  were  too  poor  to  do  this,  and  would  have  lingered  in 
confinement  save  for  the  Governor's  discharge.  The  motive  which 
influenced  fifty-five  of  the  victims  to  confess,  was  partly  a  hope  of 

1  Winsor's  History  of  Duxbwry. 


1693.] 


INCIDENTS. 


465 


self-preservation  and  partly  a  suspicion,  growing  out  of  their  theo- 
logical conception  of  Satan  and  his  influence,  that  it  might  be  true 
that  their  singular  sensations  were  really  consequences  of  bewitch- 
ment. 

Only  one  special  pardon  was  granted  by  the  Governor  during  all 
the  convictions.  The  in- 
tention to  secure  safe  con- 
victions grew  to  be  almost 
a  mania.  Frequently  false 
depositions  were  procured 
after  the  trial,  and  secretly 
interpolated  among  the  pa- 
pers to  make  the  case  seem 
more  complete.  Two  theo- 
ries were  propounded  in  the 
court ;  one,  that  the  Devil 
used  the  spectres  of  the 
persons  who  were  in  league 
with  him,  in  order  to  tor- 
ment others ;  the  other,  that 
the  spectres  of  any  persons, 
whether  in  league  with  the 
Devil  or  not,  might  be  em- 
ployed by  that  personage 
for  the  same  object.  The 
Chief  Justice  ruled  that  the  first  theory  was  the  more  rational  one 
and  in  harmony  with  legal  precedents. 

During  the  excitement  there  were  some  curious  incidents,  the  re- 
ports of  which  assume  to  be  authentic,  involving  the  spon- 
taneous movement  of  objects,  the  throwing  of  stones,  the 
opening  of  doors,  and  the  freaks  of  different  utensils,  spec- 
tacles,  rolling-pins,  books,  tubs,  all  engaged  in  a  promiscu- 
ous excursion.  A  person  who  was  trying  to  write  an  account  of 
these  phenomena  was  interrupted  by  the  attempts  of  his  hat  to  rub 
out  the  page  ;  he  held  it  tight,  but  could  not  prevent  it  from  getting 
away.  There  is  a  remarkable  similarity  in  the  narratives  which 
cluster  around  different  periods  of  nervous  excitement.  Occurrences 
like  these  are  not  unusual  even  now.  But  they  excite  only  a  mo- 
mentary curiosity,  and  the  belief  in  them  as  supernatural  phenomena, 
if  it  exists  at  all,  is  limited  to  the  few  to  whom  they  are  otherwise 
inexplicable. 

It  must  be  recorded  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  New  Hampshire 
settler  that  he  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  delusion  of  witchcraft. 


Chief  Justice  Sewall. 


VOL.  II. 


30 


466  THE  WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

This  is  sometimes  attributed  to  the  more  liberal  sentiment  which 
The  delusion  belonged  to  adherents  of  the  Church  of  England,  whose 
influence  in  Portsmouth  was  so  considerable.  When  how- 
evel^  the  delusion  broke  out  at  Salem,  the  most  vigorous  de- 
nouncer of  it  was  the  Puritan  Moody;  and  Portsmouth  became  a  place 
of  refuge  for  persons  who  were  accused  in  Massachusetts,  or  who  had 
reason  to  fear  that  they  would  be  selected.  The  settlers  on  the  Pis- 
cataqua,  without  distinction  of  ci'eed,  indulged  sparingly  in  bigotry 
and  persecution.  A  stern  and  unrelenting  discipline  did  not  there 
involve,  as  in  Massachusetts,  the  safety  and  existence  of  the  colony. 
Many  of  the  people  were  refugees  for  opinions'  sake  ;  many  were 
liberal  livers  and  thinkers  who  retreated  from  the  too  nipping  and 
eager  air  of  Plymouth  and  the  Bay ;  and  many  of  the  most  promi- 
nent men  were  easily  tolerant,  but  not  from  sheer  indifference,  of  sen- 
timents which  were  not  their  own.  But  on  the  point  of  witchcraft 
there  was  a  quite  general  public  opinion  that  a  belief  in  it  should  not 
prevail. 

Every  now  and  then  there  was  an  opportunity  to  test  the  feeling 
of  the  people.  In  1658,  Susanna  Trimmings,  who  lived  at  Little 
Harbor,  met  Goodwife  Walford,  who  asked  her  the  loan  of  a  pound 
of  cotton.  Susanna  said  that  she  had  but  two  pounds  and  would  not 
lend  any  to  her  own  mother.  Whereupon  the  Goodwife  said  that 
she  would  rue  it,  and  that  she  was  going  on  a  long  journey  and  never 
would  return.  With  this  threat  a  clap  of  fire  struck  Susanna  on  the 
back,  and  the  Goodwife  vanished  in  the  shape,  to  her  apprehension, 
of  a  black  cat.  Then  also  the  woman  wore  the  red  petticoat  which 
was  the  regular  thing  for  witches.  Susanna  went  home,  and  was  soon 
found  by  her  husband  ill  and  moping  by  the  fire.  An  action  was 
brought  against  Goodwife  Walford,  and  several  persons  testified  that 
she  had  done  strange  things.  The  case  was  not  decided  against  her, 
but  she  was  bound  over  to  appear  at  the  next  court.  At  the  next 
term  the  case  was  dropped.  Then  she  brought  an  action  for  slander 
against  her  accusers,  laying  damages  at  £1,000,  and  succeeded  in  re- 
covering £5.  She  was  wife  of  a  church-warden,  and  it  has  been 
hinted  that  the  charge  of  witchcraft  originated  in  the  enmity  that 
existed  between  the  Independents  and  the  Episcopalians.  Now  and 
then  an  accusation  would  be  brought  against  prominent  individuals, 
who  promptly  answered  with  actions  for  slander,  and  thus  broke  up 
such  prosecutions. 

It  is  the  more  strange  that  there  was  no  popular  excitement,  for 
Great  Island,  now  Newcastle,  was  the  scene  of  an  incident  supposed 
to  be  preternatural,  and  the  people  ought  in  all  decency  to  have  been 
profoundly  moved  by  it.  Salem  would  have  been  delirious  with  appro- 


1682.] 


IN  NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 


46T 


bation  of  such  proof  of  Satanic  agency.    Dr.  Mather  would  have  dipped 
his  credulous  pen  in  the  blackest  ink  to  record  it.     The  The" stone- 
story  is  told  by  Richard  Chamberlain,  justice  of  the  peace,  J.t™™tg 
in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  Lithobolia,  or  the  Stone  Throw-  l8Und 
ing  Devil.    Being  an  exact  and  true  Account  of  the  various  actions  of 
infernal  spirits  or  (Devils  incarnate)  witches,  or  both."  etc.     This 


Susanna  Trimmings  and  Goodwife  Walford. 

rare  pamphlet  was  printed  at  London  in  1698,  five  years  after  the 
terrible  delusion  at  Salem  had  passed  away  ;  but  the  incidents  re- 
corded in  it  happened  in  1682,  ten  years  before  the  troubles  at  Salem. 
In  the  summer  of  that  year,  Chamberlain  was  living  in  George  Wal- 
ton's family,  "a  sojourner  in  the  same  family  the  whole  time  (about 
three  months)  and  an  ocular  witness  of  those  diabolical  inventions." 
They  consisted  of  the  throwing  about  by  an  invisible  hand  of  stones, 


468  THE   WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

bricks,  hammers,  iron  crows,  spits  and  other  kitchen  furniture,  just 
as  it  happened  to  come  "  into  their  hellish  minds."  And  these 
objects  seemed  to  have  a  personal  spite  against  the  inmates  of  the 
house.  When  Chamberlain  undertook  to  dissipate  his  alarm  by  play- 
ing upon  some  instrument,  a  big  stone  rolled  into  his  room,  —  not 
attracted  by  his  playing,  as  he  says,  for  he  was  110  Amphion.  The 
windows  of  the  house  were  broken  by  stones  which  seemed  to  be 
hurled  from  the  interior ;  one  stone  lodged  in  the  hole  which  it  made 
in  the  glass,  and  was  taken  from  it.  Stones  gambolled  on  the  grass 
of  the  neighboring  field,  and  hopped  up  to  hit  those  passing  by.  A 
pile  was  made  of  the  stones  which  thus  saluted  them  in  the  open  day- 
light, but  it  disappeared  soon  after,  although  no  one  had  been  noticed 
near  it.  One  day  Walton  was  returning  from  Portsmouth  in  a  boat 
when  his  anchor  leaped  overboard  and  stopped  it.  When  working 
supposed  in  the  fields,  men  found  their  sickles  bent  by  blows  from 
e- the  stones  hurled  by  some  invisible  agent.  All  these  disturb- 
ances  by  night  and  day  were  attributed  to  a  neighboring 
woman  who  had  accused  Walton  of  appropriating  a  piece  of  her  land 
and  fencing  it  into  his  own  lot.  The  fence  was  thrown  down,  and 
when  some  men  undertook  to  replace  it,  they  were  pelted  with  above 
a  hundred  stones.  These  incidents  were  witnessed  by  a  number  of 
prominent  persons  who  testified  to  them.  Among  their  names  we 
find  Woodbridge,  the  minister,  Jeffrey,  a  merchant,  the  Governor  of 
West  Jersey,  and  the  Deputy  Governor  of  Rhode  Island.  And 
Chamberlain  declares  that  he  who  would  doubt  the  facts  and  disbe- 
lieve in  their  Satanic  origin,  "  must  temerariously  unhinge  or  under- 
mine the  best  Religion  in  the  world  ;  and  he  must  disingenuously 
quit  and  abandon  that  of  the  three  Theologick  Virtues  or  Graces  to 
which  the  great  Doctor  of  the  Gentiles  gave  the  precedence,  Charity, 
through  his  unchristian  and  uncharitable  incredulity." 

But  the  people  had  little  charity  for  his  preternatural  theory. 
The  phenomena  ceased  about  the  time  that  the  Council  called  wit- 
nesses, and  began  to  take  notice  of  the  affair.  Walton's  head  was 
broken  by  a  stone  as  he  was  on  the  way  to  be  examined  ;  and  it 
appears  to  have  been  the  last  stone  thrown.  No  charge  was  sus- 
tained against  any  person  ;  the  incidents,  instead  of  creating  a  panic 
and  fostering  delusion,  seem  to  have  been  neglected  and  forgotten. 
There  was,  indeed,  as  late  as  1769,  a  place  called  "Witches'  Creek," 
half  way  between  Great  Island  and  Portsmouth ;  perhaps  it  was 
where  Walton's  anchor  concluded  to  come  to  a  mooring. 

There  is  another  place  in  New  Hampshire,  to  this  day  called 
"  Witch  Trot,"  that  painfully  connects  the  State  with  the  dread  affair 
at  Salem.  Parris,  the  Salem  minister,  in  whose  family  the  first  symp- 


1692.]  CASE    OF    GEORGE    BURROUGHS.  469 

toms  of  the  delusion  appeared,  and  who  eventually  availed  himself  of 
it  to  destroy  his  rivals,  or  enemies,  hated  the  Rev.  George  Burroughs 
and  drove  him  away  from  Salem.  He  retired  to  Wells,  in  Maine,  and 
settled  there  with  his  family.  Parris  had  influence  enough,  Am,,,tand 
in  the  height  of  the  witch  trials,  to  have  Burroughs  ar-  ofo*^0 
rested  for  witchcraft  and  brought  to  Salem.  It  seems  in-  Burroushs- 
credible  that  it  could  have  been  done ;  but  he  had  left  many  enemies 
behind  when  he  went  to  Wells.  The  accusation  was  based  upon  some 
commanding  personal  qualities  which  Burroughs  possessed.  He  was 
a  man  of  great  stature  and  uncommon  strength.  His  personal 
presence  carried  control  and  infected  people  with  the  magnetism 
of  a  superior  nature.  His  look  was  very  daunting.  His  knowl- 
edge of  the  mysteries  of  wood-craft,  and  forest  life  seemed  to  many 
people  an  uncanny  endowment.  When  at  his  trial  he  happened  to 
look  backward,  all  the  persons  fell  down  whom  he  was  supposed 
to  be  afflicting.  He  was  charged  with  lifting  a  barrel  of  cider, 
with  holding  out  a  heavy  musket  at  arms'  length.  No  man,  it 
was  thought,  without  preternatural  aid  could  perform  such  feats. 
He  explained  that  he  grasped  the  musket  just  behind  the  lock.  It 
was  said  that  he  lifted  a  barrel  of  molasses  by  just  putting  his  fin- 
gers into  the  bung-hole.  This  he  denied.  He  was  asked  if  his  house 
in  Wells  was  not  haunted ;  he  denied  this,  but  was  willing  to  own, 
he  said,  that  there  were  toads.  Alas,  the  house  in  Wells  was  haunted 
by  wife  and  children  filled  with  agony  and  dread,  as  they  Hig  execu. 
waited  so  long  for  him  ;  but  he  did  not  return.  Parris  tion- 
managed  to  have  him  hanged.  He  was  a  spotless  man,  and  pos- 
sessed a  ruling  intelligence. 

It  was  supposed  that  the  enterprise  to  arrest  him  would  be  a  dif- 
ficult one,  so  an  elder  and  two  constables  were  sent  to  bring  him  to 
Salem.  When  they  arrived  and  stated  their  errand,  he  promptly 
replied,  "  Oh,  yes,"  and  left  his  family,  who  were  cheered,  no  doubt, 
with  the  reflection  that  a  charge  so  preposterous  could  not  for  a 
moment  be  sustained.  As  the  party  started  about  nightfall,  it  was 
the  more  desirable  to  take  the  shortest  route.  Burroughs  conducted 
them  along  a  stretch  of  country  leading  through  Berwick  to  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Piscataqua.  There  was  no  direct  road  ;  the 
track  lay  through  an  unbroken  forest.  The  constables  demurred  at 
the  prospect ;  Burroughs  said  that  he  knew  the  way  ;  they  dreaded 
him,  but  had  to  follow,  as  they  afterwards  declared,  because  they 
were  under  a  spell.  He  knew  the  desolate  forest  as  well  as  his  own 
acres,  for  it  was  favorite  ground  of  his.  In  the  depth  of  it  they  were 
surprised  by  a  storm  which  began  with  a  pitchy  darkness  and  a 
great  hush.  The  men  trembled  with  the  suspicion  that  Burroughs 


470 


THE  WITCHCRAFT  DELUSION. 


[CHAP.  XIX. 


was  evoking  supernatural  aid  They  watched  and  shuddered  with 
fear.  Then  came  the  powerful  wind,  bending  and  breaking  trees, 
the  rush  of  rain  and  the  crashing  thunders.  The  horses  were  mad 
with  terror,  and  started  at  a  furious  pace  over  the  ground  that  is 
now  called  Witch  Trot.  The  party  came  out  at  length  upon  the 
river  safely,  and  Burroughs  with  them,  who  had  no  desire  to  escape ; 
but  the  constables  on  the  day  of  his  trial  added  their  testimony  to 


Burroughs  and  the   Sheriffs. 


his  familiarity  with  the 
powers  of  air  and  dark- 
ness, and  always  believed 
that  he  raised  the  storm. 

In  1720,  an  attempt  was 

made  in  Littleton,  Massachusetts,  to  revive  the  witchcraft 
tempts  to  delusion,  but  it  proved  abortive.  But  the  old  Scotch  ordeal 
witchcraft  for  discovering  witches  by  throwing  the  accused  into  the 
water,  when  the  innocent  one  would  sink,  not  much  to  her 
personal  advantage,  was  tried  in  the  eighteenth  century  at  an  inlet 
of  Lynnhaven  Bay,  Virginia,  called  "  Witch-Duck." 

When  the  curtain  had  fallen  upon  the  Salem  tragedy,  Cotton 
Mather  undertook  to  sum  up  the  matter  and  vindicate  his  share  in 
it.  This  superficial  and  ambitious  divine  wrote  thus  :  "  It  may  be 


1692.] 


COTTON  MATHER'S  VINDICATION. 


471 


that  errors  on  both  sides  have  attended  them  [the  troubles]  which 
will  never  be  understood  until  the  day  when  Satan  shall   Mather-8 
be  bound  after  another  manner  than  he  is  at  this  day ;  but  Tmdicatlon- 
for  my  own  part,  I  know  not  that  ever  I  have  advanced  any  opinion 
in  the  matter  of  witchcraft,  but  what  all  the  ministers  of  the  Lord 
that  I  know  of  in  the  world,  whether  English  or  Scotch,  or  French  or 
Dutch,  are  of  the  same  opinion  with  me." 


CHAPTER  XX. 


COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS. 


PROGRESS  OF  NEW  JERSEY.  —  INSURRECTION  UNDER  JAMES  CARTERET. — CHANGES  IN 
THB  NEW  JERSEY  TITLES.  —  THE  "  QUINTIPARTITE  DEED." — DIVISION  INTO  EAST 
AND  WEST  JERSEY.  —  PROSPERITY  OF  WEST  JERSEY  UNDER  QUAKER  RULE. — 
CONFLICTS  OF  JURISDICTION. — THE  QUAKERS  BUY  EAST  JERSEY.  —  EARLIEST 
CONNECTION  OF  WILLIAM  PENN  WITH  AMERICAN  COLONIZATION. —  LIFE  AND 
CHARACTER  OF  PENN.  —  THE  GRANT  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  —  EARLY  SETTLERS. — 
PENN  IN  AMERICA. — PHILADELPHIA  FOUNDED.  —  THE  TREATY  AT  SHACKAMAXON. 
—  PBNN'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  —  PROGRESS  OF  THE  COLONY.  —  PENN  AGAIN  AT 
PHILADELPHIA. 

THE  new  Proprietors  of  New  Jersey  had  no  reason  to  complain  of 
Progress,  of  any  want  of  progress  and  prosperity  in  their  colony  for  the 
New  jersey.  flrgf.  £ew  years  after  it  came  into  their  possession.  The 
constitution  of  government  which  they  had  established  was  accept- 
able to  the  people  ;  the  climate  and  the  soil  were  attractive ;  the 
vicinity  to  older  colonies  made  it  easy  to  supply  the  wants  of  those 
who  should  settle  in  it,  —  exempt  from  the  privations  and  hardships 
which  necessarily  attend  a  settlement  in  an  isolated  wilderness.  Such 
representations  brought  emigrants  from  England  ;  the  enterprising 
and  discontented  in  New  England,  whether  desirous  of  more  room, 
or  restless  for  political  or  religious  reasons,  saw,  or  thought  they 
saw,  that  they  could  better  their  condition  by  a  removal  to  the  new 
province.  The  first  towns  grew  rapidly ;  others  were  begun.  The 
axe  and  the  plough,  in  the  hands  of  sturdy  farmers,  everywhere  en- 
croached upon  the  primeval  forests  and  the  virgin  soil. 

But  when,  in  1670,  the  first  quit-rents  were  demanded  by  the  Pro- 
prietors, there  came  a  check  to  all  this  prosperity.  Titles 
to  lands  led  to  inevitable  and  bitter  disputes.  Some  had 
purchased  from  the  Indians  ;  some  claimed  under  the  origi- 
nal Dutch  owners  ;  others  had  received  grants  from  Nicolls  ;  fewer 
still  held  deeds  from  the  Proprietors  at  that  time,  Berkeley  and  Car- 
teret.  Bergen  and  Woodbridge  were  among  the  latter,  and  acknowl- 
edged their  liability  to  the  payment  of  these  rents  ;  but  Elizabeth, 
Newark,  and  isolated  farmers  here  and  there,  who  had  settled  upon 


Trouble 
OYer  rents 
and  titles. 


head  of  the 
insurrec- 
tion. 


1673.]  CHANGES   OF   GOVERNORS  AND   TITLES.  473 

their  lands  before  the  country  had  come  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
English,  united  in  resisting  the  demands  of  the  proprietary  govern- 
ment. 

Resistance,  at  length,  came  to  be  absolute  insurrection.  A  leader 
only  was  wanted,  and  it  was  not  long  before  one  was  provided. 
About  a  year  after  the  demand  for  the  quit-rents  was  made,  James 
Carteret,  the  second  son  of  Sir  George,  arrived  in  the  colony  on  his 
way  to  Carolina,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  landgraves.  A  dissolute, 
unscrupulous,  and  ambitious  man,  he  was  ready  to  take  advantage 
of  any  fortune  that  chance  threw  in  his  way.  He  put  him-  captain 
self  at  the  head  of  the  movement  against  his  cousin,  Philip 
Carteret,  who  held  his  commission  from  James's  father,  Sir 
George.  In  the  spring  of  1672  the  insurrectionary  party 
called  an  assembly  at  Elizabethtown,  formally  deposed  Philip  Carte- 
ret,  and  elected  James  to  be  Governor  in  his  stead. 

Philip  made  little  further  attempt  to  contest  the  matter  on  the 
spot,  but,  appointing  a  deputy  TO  represent  him,  took  ship  in  the  early 
summer  and  sailed  for  England,  to  lay  the  whole  matter  before  his 
superiors.  It  was  his  wisest  course.  Unaided,  he  could  do  nothing 
against  an  unwilling  people ;  and  possibly  he  believed  that  his  cous- 
in's government  would  be  to  the  malcontents  a  most  salutary  les- 
son. Such,  at  least,  was  the  result.  James  showed  himself  to  be  ut- 
terly incompetent.  By  the  time  orders  were  received  from  the  Duke 
of  York,  the  insurgents  were  ready  to  submit.  Captain  Berry,  Philip 
Carteret's  deputy,  was  acknowledged  without  further  trouble  Theproprie- 
in  May,  1673 ; l  and  James  Carteret  sailed  for  Virginia  ten  mentGr^em 
days  afterward.2  There  was  no  further  interruption  of  the  8tored- 
proprietary  government  until  the  Dutch  reconquest  of  New  Nether- 
land in  the  autumn  of  that  year  ;  and  even  then,  though  New  Jersey 
received  the  new  name  of  Achter  Col,  and  ostensibly  passed  once 
more  under  the  Netherland  rule,  the  real  change  was  but  slight,  and 
internal  tranquillity  was  almost  undisturbed. 

New  Jersey  was  placed  in  a  new  position  when  by  the  treaty  of 
Westminster   New   Netherland  was   restored   to   England. 
The  Duke  of  York's  title  to  New  York  had  been  entirely  Jersey  after 
extinguished  by  the  conquest  of  the  territory  by  a  foreign  «>stmm- 
power,  and  its  subsequent  passage  to  the  crown  by  treaty  ; 
and  he  required  a  new  grant  from  the  King,  in  order  to  be  again 
the  rightful  proprietor  of  the  province.     How  much  more,  then,  it 

1  Whitehead,  pp.  58,  59. 

2  He  came  back  to  New  York  afterward,  where  he  was  seen  in  1679,  "running  about 
among  the  farmers,  and  staying  where  he  can  get  most  to  drink,  and  sleeping  in  barns  on 
the  straw."  —  Journal  of  the  Labadists. 


474 


COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


was  argued  —  and  it  was  an  argument  the  Duke  was  willing  enough 
to  listen  to  —  was  the  title  of  his  grantees,  Berkeley  and  Carteret, 
in  the  province  of  New  Jersey  destroyed.  James  saw  that  he  had 
an  opportunity,  under  cover  of  this  theory,  to  possess  himself  again 
of  the  territory  he  had  parted  with  so  rashly  ;  and  he  availed  himself 
of  it  without  delay.  He  gave  to  Andros,  after  he  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  government  of  New  England,  a  commission  to  govern 
all  his  property  in  America,  New  Jersey  included,  assuming  that  the 
grant  to  Berkeley  and  Carteret  was  void. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  Sir  George  Carteret  had  hastened  to 
do  all  in  his  power,  not  only  to  protect  his  own  title,  but 


sir  ueorge     to  absorb  that  of  his  partner  as  well.     He  had  gone  to  the 
His  title        King  at  once  ;  and  Charles,  before  he  sealed  his  new  grant 

confirmed. 

to  the  Duke,  had  been  induced  to  assure  Carteret  by  let- 
ter that  he  was  "  seized   of  the  Province  of  New  Caesarea,  or  New 


Entrance   to   Barnegat   Inlet. 

Jersey,"  and  that  he  had  "  the  sole  power,  under  us,  to  dispose  of 
the  said  country,  upon  such  terms  and  conditions  as  he  should  think 
fit."  Berkeley,  whose  title  had  been  equal  with  that  of  Carteret, 
had,  in  the  spring  of  this  year  (1674)1,  conveyed  his  "  un- 
gmnt  to  divided  half  "  to  John  Fenwicke  in  trust  for  Edward  Byl- 

Fenwieke         ,.  ,  i       -i      i  •         •    i  i    i  • 

and  Byi-        linge,  but  both  his  right  to  grant  and   his  grantees  were 

utterly  ignored  in  this  new  royal  document. 

This  step  on  the  part  of  Carteret,  interfering  alike  with  the  in- 
terest of  all  parties,  led  to  a  compromise.  A  short  time  after  the 
issue  of  Andres's  commission,  a  new  grant  was  made  (Au- 
gust 8,  1674),  to  Carteret,  in  severalty,  of  that  part  of  New 
Jersey  lying  northeast  of  a  line  drawn  from  Barnegat  Inlet  to  Ren- 

1  Proud  says  (History  New  Jersey,  i.,  136),  "in  or  about   1675;"  but  there  is  no  doubt 
it  was  ou  March  18,  1674. 


Anew 


1676.]  THE    "  QUINTIPARTITE  DEED."  475 

kokus  creek ;  but  in  conveying  this  the  Duke  did  not  give,  as  he  had 
done  before,  "the  full  power  and  authority  to  rule  and  govern,"  nor 
did  he  vary  the  terms  of  Andros's  appointment  to  be  Governor  over 
all  the  Duke's  possessions  in  America.  For  a  time  all  went  well  once 
more,  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  next  year  Philip  Carteret  returned 
as  Governor,  made  liberal  concessions  on  the  part  of  his  cousin,  and 
was  quietly  accepted  by  the  people.  But  just  as  his  government  was 
thoroughly  restored,  the  successors  of  Berkeley's  grantees  proposed 
another  compromise,  the  consequences  of  which  were  momentous. 

A  quarrel  had  sprung  up  between  Fenwicke  and  Byllinge  with  re- 
gard to  their  respective  rights  in  their  new  purchase.     It 

i      •  •  i  i  Fenwiek* 

was  against  the  tenets  of  their  faith — both  were  members 
of  the  Society  of  Friends  —  to  go  to  law  with  one  another, 
and  they  had  decided  to  settle  the  matter  by  the  arbitration  of  one 
of  their  own  number.  The  dispute  was  referred  to  William  Penn, 
already  one  of  the  most  eminent  members  of  their  sect  in  England  ; 
and  his  decision,  after  some  argument  with  Fenwicke,  was  made 
satisfactory  to  both.  Fenwicke  in  person,  with  a  few  companions, 
set  sail  for  America  to  found  a  colony ;  but  Byllinge,  overwhelmed 
by  debts,  was  compelled  to  make  an  assignment  for  his  creditors  ; 
and  the  greater  part  of  his  right  and  title  in  New  Jersey  was  handed 
over  to  Penn,  to  Gawen  Laurie  and  Nicholas  Lucas  —  the  latter  being 
two  of  those  to  whom  Byllinge  was  most  deeply  indebted. 

The  matter  had  now  become  so  complicated  that  all  who  were  in- 
terested saw  the  necessity  of  an  exact  division  of   the  province;  for 
Berkeley  had  disposed  of  his  share  as  an  undivided  half ;  while  Sir 
George   Carteret's    pretensions,    as   the  Duke    of    York's    secretary 
wrote  to  Andros,  had  not  yet  been  so  adjusted  that  he  could  disregard 
the  claims  of  others.     Carteret  evidently  thought  it  better  to  nego- 
tiate directly  with  those  whose  rights  were   at  least  equal  with  his 
own,  than  to  trust  to  the   Duke's  last  grant,  or  even  to  the  docu- 
ments that  had  preceded  it ;  while  Penn,  Laurie,  and  Lucas  were  anx- 
ious to  make  Byllinge's  property  of  immediate  avail,  if  possible,  and 
perhaps  also  to  carry  out  another  plan  of  colonization,  the  outlines 
of  which  had  just  been  considered  among  them.    On  the  first  of  July, 
1676,  old  style,  therefore,  after  much  preliminary  negotia- 
tion, a  "  quintipartite  deed  "  was  completed,  and  signed  by  tipartite 
Carteret  on  the  one  side,  and   Penn,   Laurie,  Lucas,  and  Ea*tknd 
Byllinge  on  the  other,  which  divided  the  whole  province  of 
New  Jersey  into  two  great  portions.     "  East  New  Jersey  "  included 
all  that  part  northeast  of  a  line  drawn  from  Little  Egg  Harbor  to 
a  point  on  the  most  northern  branch  of  the  Delaware  River,  in  north 
latitude  41°  40'.  "  West  New  Jersey  "  comprehended  all  the  rest  of 


476 


COLONIZATION  BY   FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


subdivision 


the  territory  originally  granted  by  the  Duke.  East  New  Jersey  was 
the  property  of  Carteret  ;  West  New  Jersey  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  associates  ;  and  the  Quintipartite  Agreement  marked  the 
first  great  purchase  made  by  Friends  in  the  New  World,  where  they 
were  to  found  a  powerful  State. 

The  four  managers  of  the  newly  defined  territory  now  proceeded 
*°  ma^e  tln  equitable  division  of  it  among  the  persons  in- 
terested.  Dividing  it  into  one  hundred  parts,  and  setting 
aside  ten  for  Fenwicke,  who  had  already  made  (in  June, 
1675)  the  first  settlement  at  Salem  on  the  Delaware,  —  they  ar- 
ranged to  administer  or  dispose  of  the  other  ninety  in  the  interest  of 

Byllinge's  creditors.  And  since,  to 
make  the  scheme  profitable,  it  was  nec- 
essary, first  of  all,  to  attract  more  col- 
onists than  the  few  who  had  joined  the 
Salem  settlers,  they  drew  up  a  set  of 
"  concessions  and  agreements,"  which 
should  at  the  same  time  provide  for  the 
future  government  of  their  province, 
and,  by  its  liberality,  draw  emigrants 
to  the  province.  Like  the  constitution 
of  New  Jersey  under  Berkeley  and 
Carteret,  these  "  concessions  "  provided 
for  taxation  by  the  people  themselves, 
through  an  annual  assembly  having  one  delegate  from  every  "  pro- 
priety ;  "  but  the  new  instrument  went  farther.  It  pro- 
vided for  a  secret  ballot,  "  whereby  every  man  may  freely 
choose  according  to  his  own  judgment  and  honest  intention,"  instead 
of  the  u  common  and  confused  way  of  cries  and  voices  ;  "  and  every 
colonist  could  vote  and  was  eligible  to  the  position  of  a  delegate. 
Each  delegate  was  to  be  paid  for  his  services  at  the  rate  of  a  shilling 
a  day  during  the  Assembly's  sitting  ;  each  was  to  be  known  as  the 
"servant  of  the  people."  Religious  freedom,  it  need  hardly  be  said, 
was  secured  in  the  fullest  sense.  Imprisonment  for  debt  was  abol- 
ished, and  a  sensible  bankrupt  law  substituted.  Trial  by  jury  and 
the  rights  of  the  English  common  law  were  secured  to  every  settler. 
These  liberal  provisions  were  published  in  England  in  the  begin- 
ning of  1677.  The  proprietors  invited  and  urged  Friends  to  remove 
to  a  country  where  they  would  be  secure  from  persecution,  and  cer- 
tain of  prosperity.  Several  hundred  persons  went  over  that  year. 
In  March  a  company  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  had  collected  and 
embai'ked  on  one  vessel.  As  their  ship,  the  Kent,  lay  at  anchor  in 
the  Thames,  about  ready  to  sail,  King  Charles  passed  by  in  his 


Seal  of  East  Jersey. 


Its  Laws. 


1677.] 


THE   FRIENDS   IN   WEST  JERSEY. 


477 


barge.  The  crowded  decks  attracted  his  attention,  and  he  came 
alongside.  He  asked  her  destination  ;  he  inquired  if  all  on  board 
were  Friends,  for,  probably,  he  had  heard  of  an  enterprise  in  which 
so  much  interest  had  been  aroused  all  over  England.  It  certainly 
excited  his  curiosity,  perhaps  something  more,  for  he  wished  them 
a  good  voyage  and  gave  them  his  blessing.  It  did  them  no  harm 
if  it  did  them  no  good,  though,  perhaps,  there  was  not  another  man 
in  the  kingdom  less  capable  than  Charles  of  comprehending  the 
character  and  the  principles  of  the  people  to  whom  he  gave  his 
benediction. 


The    Kent  reached   New  York  in 
August.  The  commissioners  on  board, 
to  whom  the  management  of  The  Quak. 
affairs  had  been  entrusted  by  "0^"ind 
the  proprietors,  reported  the  Andr08- 
arrival  to  Andros.     Recent  events  in 
the  colony  had  not  been  of  a  charac- 
New  jersey.  ter  to  dispose  the  Governor  to  welcome 

their  coming.  Fenwicke,  who  had  now  been  two  years  at  Salem, 
had  denied  the  legality  of  the  Duke  of  York's  customs-duties  and 
other  taxes,  and  in  the  January  preceding  the  arrival  of  these  new 
emigrants  had  been  arrested,  brought  to  Xew  York  and  thrown  into 
prison.  He  was  still  confined  in  Fort  James,  and  when  the  com- 
missioners came  before  Andros,  his  first  question  was,  what  evidence 
had  they  to  produce  of  title  from  the  Duke.  They  had  none.  The 
successive  grants  from  the  Duke  to  Berkeley,  and  from  Berkeley  to 
others,  gave,  they  asserted,  right  of  government  as  well  as  title  to  the 
soil.  This,  the  Governor  declared,  it  would  be  as  much  as  his  head 
was  worth  to  grant  without  orders  from  his  master;  but  if  they  "had 
but  a  line  or  two  from  the  Duke,  he  would  be  as  ready  to  surrender 
it  to  them  as  they  would  be  to  ask  it."  As  he  laid  his  hand  on  his 


478  COLONIZATION  BY  FRIENDS.  [CHAP.  XX. 

sword  in  confirmation  of  his  purpose  to  hold  his  government  over  all 
the  Duke's  territory  till  further  commands  from  England,  the  Friends 
saw  themselves  obliged  to  yield  thus  far ;  and  agreeing  to  consider 
Tneques-  themselves  only  as  magistrates  under  him  until  other  in- 
d\°cHonJ"™I  struetions  came,  they  were  suffered  to  proceed  upon  their 
promised.  voyage.  Fenwicke  was  permitted  at  the  same  time  to  go 
upon  his  own  recognizance,  and  directed  to  report  in  the  following 
autumn  at  New  York,  for  the  final  decision  on  his  case. 

The  Kent  arrived  at  Newcastle  on  the  Delaware  on  the  sixteenth 
of  August.  It  was  three  months  later,  however,  before  a  place  of 
permanent  settlement  was  fixed  upon.  This  was  the  present  town 
of  Burlington.  It  was  first  named  New  Beverley ;  but  this  was 
soon  changed  to  Bridlington  —  corrupted  into  Brellington,  then 
Burlington  —  a  parish  in  Yorkshire,  England,  whence  many  of  the 
emigrants  had  come.  "  Here  is  a  town,"  wrote  one  of  them,  John 
Crips,  to  a  friend  in  England,  "  laid  out  for  twenty  proprieties, 
and  a  straight  line,  drawn  from  the  river  side  tip  the  land,  which  is 
to  be  the  main  street,  and  a  market-place  about  the  middle.  The 
Yorkshire  ten  proprietors  are  to  build  on  one  side,  and  the  London 
ten  on  the  other  side ;  and  they  have  ordered  one  street  to  be  made 
along  the  river  side,  which  is  not  divided  with  the  rest,  but  in  small 
lots  by  itself,  and  every  one  that  hath  any  part  in  a  propriety  is  to 
have  his  share  in  it.  The  town  lots  for  every  propriety  will  be 
about  ten  or  eleven  acres."  1 

The  new  village  was  prosperous  from  the  beginning,  and  as 
shipload  after  shipload  of  colonists  arrived,  other  settlements  sprung 
up  along  the  river  and  its  tributaries,  until  the  Proprietors  saw  their 
plantation  increasing  more  rapidly  in  two  or  three  years,  than  other 
colonies  had  done  in  ten,  and  this  almost  entirely  through  the 
exertions  of  Friends  alone. 

The  greatest  drawback  to  the  complete  success  of  the  undertaking 
Renewed  was  *ne  question  of  jurisdiction.  Taxes  were  still  assessed 
^"unv  on  behalf  of  the  Duke  of  York.  In  East  New  Jersey  Philip 
diction.  Carteret  and  Sir  Edmund  Andros  were  in  open  opposition. 
Carteret  had  proclaimed,  with  the  hearty  support  of  the  Assembly, 
that  all  vessels  coming  directly  to  the  province  should  be  free  from 
duties.  Andros  intercepted  a  ketch  bound  to  Elizabethport  with  a 
cargo  of  rum,  and  compelled  her  captain  to  pay  duties  at  the  New 
Conflict  be-  Y°rk  custom-house.  A  proposal  for  a  friendly  meeting  of 
d^Mand"  the  two  governors  on  Staten  Island  was  declined  by  Car- 
carteret.  teret.  Andros  warned  him  to  forbear  exercising  any  jurisdic- 
tion ;  and  announced  that  he  should  erect  a  fort  "  at  Sandy  Point " 

1  Letter  in  Proud's  History  qf  Pennsylvania. 


1678.] 


CONFLICT   OF  JURISDICTION. 


479 


to  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  his  authority.  Carteret  declared  that 
this  should  be  resisted  ;  and  when  Andros  went  to  New  Jersey,  a 
month  later,  seeking  a  peaceful  conference,  Carteret  met  him  with  a. 
military  force  to  oppose  his  landing.  As  Andros  came  without  troops 
he  was  permitted  to  land,  but  the  conference  came  to  nothing.  The 


Arrest  of  Carteret. 


crisis  soon    came.     A  few  weeks  after  Andros's  visit,  Carteret  was 
taken  from  his  house  at  Elizabethtown  by  New  York  sol-   Arrestof 
diers,  in  the  night ;  and  taken  to  the  city,  where  he  was  put  Carteret- 
in   the  sheriff's  hands  like  a  common  criminal.     He  was  tried  at  a 
special  term  of  the  Court  of  Assizes,  in  May,  and,  though  Andros  sent 
the  jurors  out  three  times,  acquitted.     He  was  compelled,  however, 
to  give  security  that  he  would  not  again  assume  any  authority  in  New 


480  COLONIZATION  BY  ERIENDS.  [CHAP.  XX. 

Jersey.  As  some  atonement  for  this  ill-treatment,  Andros  escorted 
him  back  to  Elizabethtown.  The  Assembly  was  asked  to  accept  the 
"  Duke's  Laws,"  but  they  maintained  their  own,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  accepted  the  government  of  Andros.  Carteret  transferred 
the  dispute  to  England,  where  it  was  presented  by  the  widow  of  Sir 
George  Carteret  —  who  had  died  the  year  before  —  for  the  decision  of 
the  Duke  himself. 

The  Friends  of  West  Jersey  had  been  even  earlier  in  presenting 
their  complaints  against  Andros.  They  succeeded  in  having  their 
case  referred  to  the  Duke's  commissioners  in  September,  1679  ;  and 
Wegt  Penn  and  his  associates  came  forward  with  a  masterly  argu- 

freed  from"     meiit  which  secured  their  end.     It  was  a  bold  and  striking 

the  Duke  ...  P  IT. 

cfn'OIt's  P  m  *****  °*  PoPuJar  liberty ;  and  the  commissioners, 
advised  by  Sir  William  Jones,  decided  that  James's  grant 
had  reserved  no  jurisdiction,  and  that  none  could  be  rightly  claimed. 
The  Duke  accepted  the  decision.  In  August,  1680,  he  executed  a 
new  deed,  relinquishing  all  rights  over  West  Jersey  ;  and  in  October, 
Carteret's  friends  secured  a  similar  document  with  regard  to  their 
portion  of  the  province,  and  a  deed  confirming  it  to  Sir  George 
Carteret,  the  grandson  of  the  original  grantee.  But  East  New 
Jersey  had  never  been  a  profitable  property ;  and  now,  while  its 
neighbor  grew  apace,  it  seemed  to  lose  rather  thnn  to  gain.  Philip 
Carteret  imprudently  brought  forward  again  a  question  already  once 
decided  —  the  ownership  of  Staten  Island,  —  and  thus  came  once 
more  into  conflict  with  the  representatives  of  the  Duke  of  York.  At 
the  same  time  his  home  administration  was  disturbed  by  quarrels 
with  a  new  Assembly,  which  he  at  last  arbitrarily  dissolved  in  the 
autumn  of  1681.  The  proprietors  at  home  were  discouraged.  The 
The  Quakers  watchf  ul  Friends,  whose  own  undertaking  had  been  so  suc- 
New^leVsev  cessful,  now  saw  an  opportunity  to  extend  it  further.  Pro- 
1682-  posals  were  made  to  the  trustees  of  Carteret's  estate,  which 

the  latter  were  only  too  glad  to  close  with ;  and  in  February,  1682, 
the  eastern  territory  was  sold  to  ten  of  the  West  Jersey  proprietors, 
among  whom  was  William  Penn. 

William  Penn  was  the  son  of  Admiral  Sir  William  Penn,  a  distin- 
guished naval  officer  born  at  Bristol  in  1621,  of  a  family 
wintam8*      that   had    preserved   an  honorable  station  and  record  foi 
fourteen  generations.     Sir  William,  the  father,  was  pecu- 
liarly fitted  for  a  life  of  enterprise,  and  had  a  capacity  for  command- 
ing  men,  which  was,  however,  signally  baffled  when    he 
Admiral        undertook  to  bend  his   Quaker  son  to  his  own  notions  of 
preferment  and  court  life.    He  became  a  Captain  at  twenty- 
one,  Rear   Admiral  of   Ireland   at  twenty-three,  Vice  Admiral   at 


1681.]  WILLIAM   PENN.  481 

twenty-five,  and  Vice  Admiral  of  England  at  thirty-one  years  of  age. 
When  Cromwell  planned  his  expedition  against  the  Spanish  West  In- 
dies, he  was  appointed,  in  1654,  Admiral  of  the  fleet  that  was  destined 
to  cooperate  with  the  land  forces  under  General  Venables.  Unfortu- 
nately the  Protector  sent  on  board  civil  commissioners  charged  witb 
some  control  over  the  actions  of  the  officers.  This,  and  the  climate, 
and  a  disagreement  or  failure  of  cooperation  between  the  sea  and  land 
forces,  resulted  in  a  disastrous  failure,  and  the  Admiral,  on  his  re- 
turn, fell  into  temporary  disgrace  and  was  lodged  in  the  Tower. 
But  we  find  him  returned  for  Parliament  from  Weymouth,  in  1655, 
and,  what  is  more  important,  a  commander  under  the  Duke  of  York 
in  a  great  fight  against  the  Dutch  fleet  in  1665,  when  he  rendered 
such  important  service  to  the  Duke  that  Charles  II.  made  it  a  special 
point  in  the  patent  which  he  issued  to  his  son  for  the  government  of 
Pennsylvania,  partly  to  conciliate  the  Duke,  who  had  some  preten- 
sions to  the  territory  and  was  opposed  to  Penn's  claim. 

The  Admiral  died  in  1670.  His  turn  for  public  affairs,  and  a 
certain  vivacity  of  temper  and  sense  of  humor,  were  inherited 
by  his  son  William,  who  was  born  in  London,  October  14,  *•>•• 
1644,  of  a  pious  and  high-minded  mother.  She  very  early 
began  to  impart  her  religious  feeling  to  her  son,  and  to  awake  the 
instinct  which  he  had  plainly  inherited  from  her.  When  he  was 
five  years  old  she  asked  him  a  great  question.  "  Who  made  you, 
William?"  "  Sure  enough,"  said  the  eager  boy,  "was  it  not  God?" 
"But,  how  do  you  know?"  "You  have  told  me  so  a  hundred  times." 
"  But  suppose  I  had  not  told  you,  could  you  have  found  it  out  for 
yourself  ?  "  "I  don't  know."  "  Why,  William,  nothing  is  easier." 
"  Tell  me,  mother."  "  Do  you  see  that  stone  lying  there  ?  "  "  What 
of  it,  mother  ?  "  "  It  is  something,  is  it  not  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  But  how 
do  you  know  ?  "  "  Why  I  see  it,  I  can  feel  it,  and  lift  it."  "  Then  do 
you  think  it  made  itself?"  "  I  don't  see  how ;  it  is  a  senseless  thing, 
and  no  thing  can  make  itself."  Many  and  sweet  must  have  been  the 
colloquies  between  mother  and  son  upon  high  matters,  while  perhaps 
the  Admiral  was  on  the  seas,  or  tempting  the  unstable  element  of 
courts. 

The  boy  was  sent  to  school  at  Chiswell  in  Essex.     One  day  in  his 
eleventh  year  he  perceived  an  exceeding  glory  in  his  room, 
and   great  comfort   and   emotion   flowed   through  his   soul,   uooaand 

'1-1  •  •  11  n          youth. 

inis  experience   was  not  traceable  to  any  external   influ- 
ence ;   he  had  as  yet  held  no  communication  Avith  Friends  who  ex- 
pected and  cherished   these  mental  states.     But  this  first  touch  of 
the  divine  presence  did  not  impair  the  buoyancy  of  his  youth.     He 
loved  sports  and  manly  exercises,  was  overflowing  with  animal  spirits, 

VOL.    II.  31 


482 


COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


and  was  fond  of  a  joke.  At  fifteen,  he  was  so  advanced  as  to  enter 
Oxford,  where  he  associated  with  noblemen  of  rather  discursive 
habits. 

But  there  came  to  Oxford  one  Thomas  Lee,  an  eminent  preacher 
of  the  Society  of  Friends.  Penn  heard  him  and  was  greatly  impressed 
with  the  new  doctrines.  Gradually  he  began  to  stay  away  from  the 
inclines  to  Anglican  worship  because  of  his  love  of  hearing  any  Friend 
Quakerism.  Speak  who  came  to  town.  For  this  he  was  fined  in  1660. 
When,  under  Charles  II.,  a  mandate  came  up  to  Oxford,  restoring  the 
habit  of  the  surplice  to  the  students  and  making  its  use  imperative, 
Penn,  collecting  a  few  of  his  spirited  comrades,  attacked  the  students 


Wanstead,    Essex,    Home  of  William   Perm's  Childhood. 


who  appeared  in  surplices  and  tore  them  over  their  heads.  This  led 
EX  lied  to  his  expulsion,  to  the  extreme  disgust  of  the  Admiral,  who 
from  oxford,  cherished  views  of  propriety  and  advancement  for  his  son. 
In  a  fit  of  anger,  in  spite  of  the  protesting  mother,  he  turned  young 
Penn  out  of  the  house.  Repenting  at  leisure  of  this  undomestic  pro- 
cedure, and  alarmed  at  Penn's  increasing  tendency  to  the  peculiar 
lie  is  sent  to  views  of  sectaries,  he  was  summoned  back  and  despatched 
Pans.  t-0  paris  jn  1662,  well  provided  with  money  ;  the  father 

hoping  to  divert  his  mind  by  gayety  and  to  change  his  habit  of  life. 

Penn  did  not  dislike  it ;  all  his  senses  were  keen  and  vital,  and  he 
liked  to  taste  the  humor  of  things.  He  was  engaged  once  in  a  street 
fight,  but  he  acquired  fine  manners  and  a  more  easy  accommodation 
to  circumstances.  The  delighted  Admiral  presented  him  at  court, 


1681.]  WILLIAM   PENN. 

then  sent  him  to  Dublin  to  look  after  some  family  property.  Here 
he  led  a  gay  life,  till  one  day  he  saw  a  placard  announ-  Pennjs(icilt 
cing  that  a  Friend  "  would  preach  in  the  Market  House."  to  Dublin 
He  was  impressed  to  go  and  listen.  The  preacher  was  his  old  friend, 
Thomas  Lee,  who  taught  him  at  Oxford  to  despise  ordinances  and 
cherish  the  Spirit.  His  heart  was  turned  back  to  the  old  genuine 
affections  of  his  nature,  and  he  became  again  the  school-boy  who 
had  felt  a  presence  in  his  room. 

The   decisive   moment    of  his   life   had  arrived.     He   doffed   the 
courtly  garb   and    adopted   the    ordinary   costume   of   the 
Friend  of  that  period  ;  but  the  courtly  eloquence  and  suav-   "i^'y em- 

*  •  braces  the 

itv  of    manner  which  nature  had   bestowed   upon   him    he   *'«™<i«' 

•*  doctrines. 

could  not  dispense  with.  There  remained  too  the  inextin- 
guishable force  and  vivacity  of  his  nature,  which  still  sometimes 
led  him  into  a  broadness  of  speech  and  contemptuous  allusion.  Im- 
mediately surrendering  his  old  habits  of  living  he  became  a  constant 
attendant  upon  the  meetings  of  Friends.  And  it  was  upon  one  of 
these  occasions  in  Cork  that  he  was  arrested,  taken  before  the  mayor, 
and  for  the  first  time  committed  to  prison.  His  father,  though  dis- 
gusted at  the  change  in  his  son's  opinions,  continued  to  be  useful  in 
getting  him  out  of  prison,  whenever  his  boldness  lodged  him  there. 
He  was  recalled  home  in  1666,  and  subjected  to  the  father's  argu- 
ments and  threats.  A  severe  struggle  took  place  in  his  heart  be- 
tween his  paternal  duty  and  the  new  light  which  had  risen  within 
him.  The  light  prevailed,  and  the  angry  father  again  dismissed  him 
from  the  house. 

Now  he  began  to  speak  in  Friends'  meetings,  and  to  employ  a 
sprightly  pen  in  defence  of  the  new  doctrines.  In  1668,  Pcnnim. 
after  an  abortive  discussion  with  some  Presbyterian  minis-  Jinf^!" 
ters,  he  wrote  his  "  Sandy  Foundation  Shaken,"  which  Ing8- 
gave  such  offence  that  he  was  committed  to  the  Tower  on  the  charge 
of  heresy.  Here  he  solaced  confinement  with  industrious  writing ; 
among  other  treatises  composing  his  famous  "  No  Cross  No  Crown," 
of  which  he  said,  "  It  is  a  path  God  in  his  everlasting  kindness 
guided  my  feet  into,  in  the  flower  of  my  youth,  when  about  two  and 
twenty  years  of  age."  And  we  find  the  key-note  of  the  whole 
Quaker  practice  in  England  and  America  in  this  sentence  :  "  To  say 
that  we  strain  at  small  things,  which  becomes  not  people  of  so  fair 
pretensions  to  liberty  and  freedom  of  spirit,  I  answer  with  meekness, 
truth  and  sobriety  ;  first,  nothing  is  small  that  God  makes  matter  of 
conscience  to  do  or  leave  undone."  He  was  kept  in  the  Tower  for 
seven  months,  and  at  length  released  in  consequence  of  his  clear  and 
positive  religious  statements  in  a  treatise  called  "  Innocency  with  her 
open  Face." 


484  COLONIZATION  BY  FRIENDS.  [CHAP.  XX. 

The  father's  temper  had  "  like  to  break  his  heart  when  things 
went  wrong,"  but  he  underwent  a  hard  conflict  to  set  them  right. 
A  partial  reconciliation  between  him  and  the  son  led  gradually  to  a 
complete  one  before  his  death  in  1670.  Then  Penn  inherited  great 
estates,  which  he  lavishly  used  and  encumbered  in  his  important  en- 
terprises. 

But  meantime  the  persecutions  of  the  Quakers  attained  unusual 
Persecution  severity.  Although  Charles  II.  had  enjoined  the  Boston 
other'o'uX1  magistrates  to  suspend  their  cruelties  against  the  Friends, 
ers  and  had  manifested  a  spirit  of  toleration  in  England,  he 

subsequently,  when  under  the  influence  of  his  ministers,  issued  fresh 
orders  to  New  England  to  suppress  the  sect,  and  allowed  the  statutes 
to  be  enforced  at  home.  Mayors  and  Recorders  took  advantage  of 
this  mood  and  revived  the  municipal  statutes  against  dissenters' 
meetings  and  preaching.  When  the  King  recovered  from  his  tem- 
porary mood  of  reaction  and  began  to  have  considerable  regard  for 
leading  Quakers,  it  did  not  affect  the  popular  prejudice.  The 
prosecutions  went  on,  and  the  King  made  no  active  interference. 
The  usual  outrages  prevailed  through  the  kingdom.  Meetings  were 
mobbed,  hats  pulled  off  and  trampled  on,  Friends  were  beaten, 
robbed,  given  over  to  any  ruffianly  treatment,  thrown  into  loath- 
some jails,  and  if  they  had  any  money  were  fined,  in  some  cases  at 
the  rate  of  £'20  a  month. 

Penn  was  arrested  for  preaching  in  1670,  and  his  trial  at  the  Old 
Bailey  occurred  in  September.  He  and  his  friend,  William 
Mead,  a  linen-draper  who  knew  how  to  quote  Latin  in  his 
plea,  were  arraigned  on  an  indictment  that  absurdly  charged  them 
with  gathering  a  tumultuous  assembly  in  Grace  Church  Street  with 
force  and  arms  to  the  disturbance  of  the  King's  peace,  and  did  there 
preach  to  the  great  terror  and  disturbance  of  many  of  his  liege  sub- 
jects. We  have  Penn's  own  report  of  this  trial,  published  in  Howell's 
"  State  Trials  "  and  in  his  Works.  On  September  first,  the  accused 
simply  pleaded  not  guilty,  and  were  remanded  till  the  third.  On  that 
day,  as  they  entered  the  court,  some  official  rudely  pulled  their  hats 
off,  whereupon  the  Mayor  rebuked  the  officer  and  made  him  put  on 
their  hats  again.  At  this  the  Recorder  magnified  his  office  by  fining 
each  forty  marks  for  contempt  of  court,  though  the  order  for  repla- 
cing their  hats  came  from  the  bench.  So,  said  Penn,  it  is  not  we,  but 
the  bench  which  ought  to  be  fined.  When  the  Recorder  said  that  the 
indictment  was  founded  upon  the  common  law,  Penn  asked  him  what 
was  that  law ;  to  which  the  testy  and  virulent  Recorder  replied  that 
he  had  jiot  time  enough  to  explain  the  cases  which  made  the  common 
law ;  and  Penn  rejoined,  "  If  it  be  common  it  should  not  be  so  hard 


1681.] 


WILLIAM   PEXN. 


48o 


to  produce."  Penn's  retorts  were  so  sharp  that  the  tolerably  well 
disposed  Mayor  ordered  him  into  the  hail-dock,  a  felon's  dirty  place  in 
the  purlieus  of  the  court  room  ;  and  Mead  conducted  himself  with 
such  steadiness  that  he  soon  followed.  The  iurv,  though  vigorously 

J          »/  •/ 

bullied  by  the  Recorder,  brought  in  the  simple  verdict,  "  Guilty  of 
speaking  in  Grace  Church  Street."  Sent  out  again,  they  soon  returned 
with  the  same  verdict.  But  this  did  not  suit  the  court.  The  jury 
was  shut  up  and  watched  overnight,  without  meat,  drink,  fire,  or  any 


Trial  of  William   Penn. 


other  accommodation.  The  next  morning  it  returned  the  same  ver- 
dict. Again  it  was  angrily  sent  out.  only  to  return  with  the  original 
verdict.  This  happened  twice  more,  the  trial  lasting  till  September 
fifth,  and  Penn  and  Mead  being  transferred  to  Newgate  while  it  was 
pending,  and  the  oostinate  jury  being  shut  up  without  food  or  drink. 
When  at  last  the  original  verdict  was  rendered,  each  juror  was  fined 
forty  marks  for  folk  wing  his  own  opinion,  and  Penn  and  Mead  sent 
to  Newgate  till  each  paid  his  forty  marks  for  having  his  hat  i 


486  COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS.  [CHAP.  XX. 

upon  his  head.  Such  was  the  tolerated  spite  and  injustice  of  that 
interval  of  persecution.1 

Soon  after  the  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey,  Penn's  father  died,  as  it  ap- 
pears under  great  concern  of  mind  at  a  tardy  recognition  of  his  son's 
courage  and  virtue.  After  taking  the  final  leave  of  the  household, 
iv-ath  of  the  ne  said  :  "  Son  William,  I  charge  you  do  nothing  against 
your  conscience  :  if  you  and  your  friends  keep  to  your  plain 
uay  of  preaching,  and  keep  to  your  plain  way  of  living,  you  will 
make  an  end  of  the  priests,  to  the  end  of  the  world." 

In  1671,  Penn  was  again  in  Newgate  for  six  months  for  being  pres- 
ent at  a  Friends'  meeting.  After  his  release,  he  went  on  a  religious 
mission  to  Holland  and  Germany,  with  Robert  Barclay,  author  of  the 
famous  "  Apology,"  and  George  Fox.  His  interviews  with  the  sus- 
ceptible Princess  Elizabeth  of  Germany  are  memorable  in  the  annals 
of  Quakerism. 

Among  the  effects  of  his  father,  Penn  had  inherited  a  claim  against 
penn-R  <-iaim  ^ne  Crown  for  arrears  of  the  Admiral's  pay,  and  for  various 
c^wntthe  loans  to  the  Admiralty.  What  with  principal  and  interest, 
iiis  proposal.  it  amoimteti  {n  iQ$\  to  £16,000,  a  sum  which,  in  the 

money  value  of  to-day,  would  be  a  very  large  one.  Penn  proposed 
to  the  government  to  liquidate  this  debt  by  a  grant  to  him  of  terri- 
tory in  America.  Those  members  of  the  Privy  Council  who  were 
hostile  to  the  views  of  Quakerism  relative  to  the  Church  and  State, 
strongly  opposed  the  grant.  But  even  the  Duke  of  York,  with  whom 
he  had  been  lately  in  controversy,  favored  his  petition,  mindful  per- 
haps of  the  Admiral's  great  service  to  him  in  the  tight  pinch  of  the 
naval  battle.  The  Duke  might  have  preferred  to  extend  his  own 
province  of  New  York  farther  to  the  southward. 

Penn  was  well  skilled  in  the  methods  of  courts,  and  knew  when  to 
wait,  when  to  persist,  how  smoothly  to  deal  with  the  men  of  influence, 
in  order  to  prefer  his  claim.  The  treasury  also  was  empty,  and  the 
King  thought  he  would  be  well  rid  of  a  debt  of  £16,000  for  many 
square  miles  of  wilderness  peopled  only  by  Indians.  The  Lords'  Com- 
mittee of  Colonies,  the  Board  of  Trade,  were  quite  contemptuous 

1  Eighty  years  later,  on  June  7,  1753,  a  Quakeress  managed  to  get  into  the-  House  of 
Lords,  and  reprehended  the  Peers  on  aecount  of  some  fashionable  excesses  in  dress  and 
amusements.  The  Mont/i/i/  Rtrietr  said:  "  She  was  indulged  with  the  attention  of  the 
House."  During  the  French  Revolution,  a  Quaker  preferred  to  keep  on  his  hat  in  the 
trihime  when  lie  wa<  present  at  a  sitting  of  the  Council  of  Ancients.  It  was  the  Presi- 
dent's opinion  that  the  Council,  hy  allowing  him  to  remain  with  it  on,  would  give  a  proof 
of  its  rcs|tect  for  the  freedom  of  religious  opinions.  But  the  order  of  the  day  w:is  carried 
upon  a  verv  sensible  remark  by  Rousseau,  who  .-aid  :  "  He  may  come  with  his  coat  but- 
toned after  the  fashion  of  the  Quakers,  if  he  pleases,  lint  let  him  take  off  his  hat  or  stay 
away.  If  the  delicacv  of  his  conscience  cannot  yield  to  his  curiosity,  let  him  make  Ins 
curiosity  yield  to  the  delicacy  of  his  conscience." 


WILLIAM    PENN. 
(from  tltf  (-OIHJ  lnj  IVncf  <it  lite  Xationul 


1681.]  THE   GRANT   OF   PENNSYLVANIA.  487 

over  the  idea  of  establishing  over  Indians,  and  amid  foreign  rivalries, 
a  set  of  non-resistants.  Hut  a  very  cogent  address  in  Council  by 
Penn's  chief  advocate,  clearing  up  the  anti-governmental,  anti-priest, 
and  anti-royal  principles  of  the  Friends,  prevailed.  Chief  Justice 
North  was  appointed  to  draw  up  a  charter,  with  specifications  of 
boundaries,  which  was  signed  March  4,  1681.  In  considera- 
tion of  two  beaver-skins  annually,  and  a  fifth  part  of  all  the  of  i'cnn>.yi- 
gold  and  silver  that  might  be  mined,  the  King  granted  to 
Penn  a  territory  of  forty  thousand  square  miles.  This  monarch  was 
nothing  if  not  merry  ;  he  must  be  allowed  his  sport.  "  Here,"  said 
he,  "  I  am  doing  well  in  granting  all  these  coasts,  seas,  bays,  etc.,  to 
such  a  fighting  man  as  you  are.  But  you  must  promise  not  to  take 
to  scalping.  And  will  you  practise  entire  toleration  toward  all  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  of  England  ?  "  To  which,  of  course,  Penn  readily 
assented.  As  regards  the  scalping,  a  striking  decline  from  the  prin- 
ciples of  his  father  was  shown  by  the  grandson  of  Penn,  who  pro- 
claimed in  July,  1764,  that  for  every  male  Indian  above  the  age  of 
ten  who  was  captured,  a  bounty  of  $150  should  be  paid ;  for  every 
male  killed  and  scalped,  $  134 ;  for  every  one  thus  served  under  ten, 
$130  ;  for  every  female  killed  and  scalped,  $50.  But  Penn's  descend- 
ants had  then  long  ceased  to  be  Friends,  and  the  frontier  influence 
of  the  French  among  the  Indians  was  of  the  most  murderous  kind. 

The  King  had  called  the  new  territory,  thus  granted,  Pennsylvania. 
But  Penn,  whose  family  originated  in  Wales,  had  intended 
to  call  it  New  Wales.     In  the  conference  with  the  Secre-  t*irit«n 
tary,  who  handed  him  the  charter,  he  objected  to  the  King's 
designation,  and  tried  to  prevail  upon  the  Secretary  to  substitute  his 
own,  even  offering  him,  when  he  proved  stubborn,  twenty  guineas  to 
alter  it.     But  the  Secretary  could  not  overcome  his  sense  of  duty. 
Upon  referring  the  matter  to  the  King,  with  the  compromise  of  Svl- 
vania,  the  King  said,  "  No.    I  am  godfather  to  the  territory,  and  will 
bestow  its  name." 

Penn's  proprietary  jurisdiction  thus  made  secure,  he  issued  a  far- 
sighted   and  liberal  advertisement  of  the   inducements  for 
emigration,  which  particularly  addressed  the  Quaker  dispo-   f^Vto'0" 
sition.     His  scheme  of  administration  is  too  long  to  repro- 
duce entire  :  but  two  or  three  special  traits  of  it  deserve  emphasis. 
He  declared  that  he  wished  to  establish  a  just  and  righteous  govern- 
ment in  his  province,  that  others  might  take  example  by  it.     In  Eng- 
land there  was  not  room  for  such  a  holy  experiment.     Government 
is  a  part  of  religion  itself,  a  thing  sacred  in  its  institution  and  end. 
Any  government  is  free  to  the  people  under  it,  whatever  be  the  frame, 
where  the  laws  rule,  and  the  people  are  a  party  to  those  laws.     Gov- 


488  COLONIZATION  BY   FRIENDS.  [CHAP.  XX. 

ernments  depend  upon  men,  not  men  upon  governments.  The  first 
principle  of  Perm's  new  code  recognized  liberty  of  conscience ;  all 
persons  acknowledging  the  one  Eternal  God,  living  peaceably  and 
justly,  were  not  to  be  molested  or  prejudiced  in  matters  of  faith  and 
worship. 

Penn  went  further  than  this  ;  with  the  sad  example  of  New  Eng- 
land experience  in  his  thought,  he  added  that  nobody  shall  be  com- 
pelled at  any  time  to  frequent  or  maintain  any  religious  worship, 
place,  or  ministry  whatsoever.  Only  murder  and  treason  were  to  be 
punishable  by  death.  That,  at  least,  was  insisted  upon  by  Chief  Jus- 
tice North.  But  while  Penn  lived,  no  gallows  was  erected  in  his 
province.  He  said  that  a  prison  must  be  converted  into  a  school  of 
reformation  and  education  ;  that  litigation  ought  to  give  way  to  some 
regularly  appointed  arbitration  ;  that  an  oath  was  a  superfluity ;  so, 
also,  were  cock-pits,  bull-baiting,  card-playing,  theatres,  and  drunken- 
ness. Lying  was  punishable  as  a  crime.  This,  indeed,  went  to  the 
root  of  the  matter,  for  all  nations  from  the  earliest  times  have  acknowl- 
edged that  a  lie  is  the  parent  of  a  horde  of  vices.  Trial  by  jury  was 
established,  and  in  all  cases  which  involved  an  Indian,  the  jury  must 
be  composed  of  six  whites  and  six  natives,  and  whenever  a  planter 
conceived  that  he  was  injured  in  person  or  property  by  a  native  he 
must  not  take  the  law  into  his  own  hands,  but  apply  to  a  magistrate, 
and  the  latter  must  confer  with  the  native's  sachem.  The  person  of 
the  Indian  was  declared  to  be  sacred. 

Penn  advertised  the  land  in  his  province  at  forty  shillings  per 
hundred  acres,  and  even  servants  could  hold  fifty  acres  in  fee  simple. 
"  Still,"  said  he  to  the  Friends,  eager  to  enter  upon  their  new  homes, 
"  let  no  one  move  rashly,  but  have  an  eye  to  the  Providence  of  God." 
So  great  was  his  reputation  in  Europe  that  he  attracted  many  emi- 
grants from  its  countries,  mainly  from  Germany,  and  recruited  from 
the  soberest  and  thriftiest  kind.  A  German  Company,  under  the 
guidance  of  Franz  Pastorius,1  bought  fifteen  thousand  acres. 

Three  vessels  came  over  in  1681.  One  of  them  was  frozen  in  at 
Early  set-  Chester,  and  the  passengers  could  get  no  further.  They 
tiers.  were  obliged  to  dig  caves  in  the  river  bank  and  live  in  them. 

This  was  a  common  expedient  with  the  earliest  settlers,  and  at  a  later 
period  Penn  complained  of  the  liquor  drinking  and  excesses  in  the 
caves.  It  had  always  been  his  object  to  live  in  his  province  and 
manage  his  affairs.  When  the  ship  in  which  he  intended  to  embark 

1  See  a  German  pamphlet  in  the  library  of  Harvard  College,  by  Fr.  Daniel  Pastorius,  "a 
geographical  statistical  Description  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania."  It  contains  the 
events  which  occurred  from  1683  to  1699.  At  the  time  of  writing  it  he  was  chief  magis- 
trate at  Gerinautuwn. 


. 


1682.] 


PENN'S   VOYAGE. 


was  nearly  ready,  he  requested  an  audience  of  the  King.  Said 
Charles,  "It  will  not  be  long  before  I  hear  that  you  have  pennand 
gone  into  the  savages'  war  kettle:  what  is  to  prevent  it?" 
"  Their  own  inner  light,"  said  Penn.  "  Moreover,  as  I  intend  equitably 
to  buy  their  lands,  I  shall  not  be  molested."  "Buy  their  lands; 
Why,  is  not  the  whole  land  mine  ? "  "  No,  your  majesty,  we  have 
no  right  to  their  lands ;  they  are  the  original  occupants  of  the  soil." 
"  What !  have  I  not  the  right  of  discovery  ?  "  "  Well,  just  suppose 
that  a  canoe  full  of  savages  should  by  some  accident  discover  Great 
Britain.  Would  you  vacate  or  sell?"  The  King  was  astonished  at 
the  retort,  and  no  less  at  the  policy  which  soon  bore  such  admirable 


Chester,    Pennsylvania. 


fruit  that  was  unfertilized  by  blood.  New  England  began  by  trying 
to  convert  the  Indian,  taking  in  the  mean  time  his  land  in  the  name 
of  the  Gospel.  Penn  began  by  paying  for  the  land  and  solemnly 
treating  with  the  Indian  that  he  might  thus  possibly  convert  him. 

After  his  visit  to  the  King,  Penn  passed  a  day  with  his  family  at 
Worminghurst,  engaged  in  devout  exercises  and  domestic  converse. 
He  left  there  a  truly  Christian  document  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to 
his  family,  which  was  at  the  same  time  an  address  to  all  who  professed 
the  opinions  of  Friends.     On  September  1,   1682,  he  set 
sail   in   the    ship   Welcome,  a  name  as   propitious  as  May-  >ojag«to 
flower,   with   a   hundred    passengers,    nearly    all    of    whom 
were  Friends  from  his  own  county  of   Sussex.     Robert  Greenaway 


490  COLONIZATION   BY  FRIENDS.  [CHAP.  XX. 

was  the  commander.  The  uncomfortable  voyage  lasted  six  weeks, 
during  which  thirty  of  the  passengers  died  of  the  small-pox.  One 
day  the  captain  saw  a  ship  which  appeared  to  be  in  pursuit  of  his 
own,  and  took  her  to  be  an  enemy.  He  made  every  preparation  for 
resistance,  and  manned  his  guns.  Then  addressing  the  non-resistant 
Quakers,  he  advised  them  to  take  refuge  in  the  cabin.  Penn  and  the 
rest  did  so,  excepting  James  Logan,  his  private  secretary.  Logan 
stayed  on  deck  and  took  his  station  at  a  gun.  When  the  strange  sail 
came  near  it  proved  to  be  a  friendly  one.  Penn  came  on  deck  and 
severely  rebuked  Logan  for  remaining  to  fight.  Said  Logan,  "  I 
being  thy  secretary,  why  didst  thou  not  order  me  to  come  down  ? 
But  thou  wert  willing  enough  that  I  should  stay  and  help  to  fight 
the  ship  when  thou  thought  there  was  danger." 

At  length  the  Delaware  was  reached,  and  a  landing  was  made  at 
Newcastle  on  the  27th  of  October.     The  Dutch  and  Swedes 

The  landing 

at  New-         gave  the  heartiest   welcome  to  their  new  Governor.     His 

castle. 

first  act  was  to  naturalize  all  these  inhabitants  of  the  prov- 
ince. They  were  summoned  to  the  court-house  and  addressed  by 
Penn  on  the  true  nature  and  functions  of  government.  The  commis- 
sions of  all  the  existing  magistrates  were  renewed.  Then  he  went 
up  the  river  to  Upland,  now  Chester,  and  met  the  delegates  who  had 
been  already  selected  by  his  Commissioners  to  compose  the  first  As- 
sembly. Their  first  session,  held  in  the  Friends'  Meeting  House, 
lasted  only  four  days,  much  time  being  saved  by  the  admirable  rule 
which  was  adopted,  that  "  none  speak  but  once  before  the  question  is 
put,  nor  after,  but  once ;  and  that  none  fall  from  the  matter  to  the 
person,  and  that  superfluous  and  tedious  speeches  may  be  stopped 
by  the  Speaker."  So  the  Quaker  principle  of  freedom  of  utterance 
as  the  spirit  prompted,  was  judiciously  balanced.  No  four  days  of 
Plenty  and  legislative  work  were  ever  more  harmoniously  spent  in  lay- 
552*5**"  ing  the  foundations  of  society.  Penn's  own  sincere  tem- 
vanui.  per  was  imparted  to  all.  "  As  to  outward  things  we  are 

satisfied ;  the  land  good,  the  air  clear  and  sweet,  the  springs  plentiful, 
and  provision  good  and  easy  to  come  at ;  an  innumerable  quantity 
of  wild-fowl  and  fish  ;  in  fine,  here  is  what  an  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  would  be  well  contented  with."  l 

1  The  wild  turkeys  sometimes  turned  the  scale  at  forty -six  pounds  ;  one  of  thirty  pounds 
sold  for  :t  shilling,  a  deer  for  two  shillings.  One  settler  bought  a  fat  buck  for  two  gills  of 
guujxnvder.  Wild  pigeons  could  be  killed  with  sticks,  apparently  too  numerous  to  get  out 
of  the  wav.  Six  rock-cod  cost  twelve  pence,  salt  fish  three  farthiugs'  a  pound.  "  Peaches 
by  cart-loads,"  said  one  letter  writer:  "the  Indians  bring  us  seven  or  eight  fat  bucks  a  day. 
Without  rod  or  net  we  catch  abundance  of  herrings,  after  the  Indian  manner,  in  pcnfolds." 
There  were  plenty  of  swans,  and  oysters  six  inches  long.  But  all  this  was  true  of  nearly 
all  the  more  southern  settlements  in  the  earlier  years. 


1682.] 


PHILADELPHIA   FOUNDED. 


491 


In  good  years  the  farmer  gathered  twenty  or  thirty  bushels  of  wheat 
for  every  one  he  sowed.  A  native  grape  grew  in  great  abundance, 
and  yielded  an  excellent  wine.  The  woods  and  meadows  swarmed 
with  all  kinds  of  wild  berries ;  and  the  settlers  soon  had  their  various 
fruit  trees  and  bushes,  melons  planted,  their  presses  started,  and  perry, 
cider,  etc.,  running  from  them.  The  natives  were  always  hospitable, 
well  inclined  to  barter  because  never  overreached.  Great  plenty 
ruled  in  this  province  from  the  beginning.  If  the  Dutch  and  Swedes 
had  suffered  from  hunger  and 
want  on  the  banks  of  the  Dela- 
ware, it  was  their  own  fault.1 

At  first  Penn  instructed  his 
Commissioners    who 


Penn's  Address  at   Newcastle. 


1681,  to  examine  the  neighborhood  of  Upland  to  find  a  suitable  site 
for  a  town  ;  but  when  he  went  up  the  river  he  pitched  upon  Phiis(ielphi» 
the  broad  peninsula  that  lay  between  the  Delaware  and  the  founded- 
Schuylkill.     Here  he  projected  a  city  upon  a  great  scale  of  squares, 
streets  with  avenues  of  trees — some  of  which  still  preserve  the  names 

1  A  planter,  writing  before  1696,  gave  the  following  rates  of  wages :  Carjieuters,  brick- 
layers, and  masons,  six  shillings  a  day  ;  shoemakers,  two  shillings  on  each  pair ;  journey- 
men tailors,  twelve  shillings  a  week  and  their  diet ;  weaver>,  ten  pence  a  yard  ;  wool-comb- 
ers, twelve  pence  a  pound  ;  ]>otters,  sixteen  pence  for  a  pot  which  cost  in  England  only  four 
pence;  brick  makers,  twenty  shillings  per  thousand  of  bricks  ;it  the  kiln;  hatters,  seven 
shillings  for  a  hat ;  all  other  trades,  of  which  every  conceivable  kind  was  pursued  in  the 
province,  making  it  quite  independent  of  the  mother  country,  were  rewarded  in  the  »aiu<- 
proportion.  All  kinds  of  food  were  much  cheaper  than  in  England  ;  and  the  Barbadoes 
furnished  a  constant  market  for  corn.  Laboring  men  earned  fourteen  pounds  a  year,  with 
meat,  drink,  washing,  and  lodging ;  maid-servants  ten  pounds  a  year.  Floating  mills  for 
grinding  corn  took  advantage  of  the  river's  current,  and  on  the  laud  horse-mills  were  used- 


492 


COLONIZATION  BY  FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


of  the  original  trees  —  and  houses  to  be  surrounded  with  gardens. 
Before  houses  could  be  built  the  settlers  lived  in  huts,  and  in  caves 
which  were  excavations  in  the  river  bank  arched  over  with  branches 
and  sodded.  The  chimneys  were  built  of  clay  strengthened  with 
grass.  One  house  was  in  process  of  building  by  a  man  with  the 
happy  name  of  Guest.  Penn's  first  landing  was  made  at  Dock  Creek 
opposite  this  unfinished  house,  which  was  afterwards  known  as  the 
Blue  Anchor  Tavern.  The  first  keeper  of  the  tavern  was  Guest,  and 
a  long  line  of  hospitable  Friends  succeeded  him.  Beyond  Guest's 
house,  ten  others  were  soon  built  in  the  old  English  fashion,  of  frames 


Letitia  Cottage,    Philadelphia,   supposed   First  Residence  of  Perm. 


filled  in  with  brick,  and  called  "  Budd's  Long  Row."  The  tavern 
"was  but  about  twelve  feet  front,"  says  Watson  in  his  copious 
"  Annals,"  "  on  Front  Street,  and  about  twenty-two  feet  on  Dock 
Street,  having  a  ceiling  of  about  eight  and  a  half  feet  in  height."  A 
little  cottage,  built  by  one  Drinker,  who  settled  on  this  site  alone 
several  years  before  the  arrival  of  Penn,  was  the  first  habitation  on 
the  site  of  Philadelphia.  Pe'nn  meant  to  convey  to  the  settlers  by 
the  name  of  his  new  city  the  disposition  which  he  hoped  would  pre- 
vail within  its  walls. 

In  this  year  of  Penn's  landing  twenty-three  ships  filled  with  col- 
onists came  up  the  Delaware.  In  less  than  a  year  eighty  houses  and 
cottages  were  built,  three  hundred  farms  laid  out,  and  bounteous  crops 


1682.] 


TREATY  WITH  THE  INDIANS. 


493 


secured.     In  1684,  there  were  three  hundred  and  fifty-seven  houses, 
"  large  and  well  built,  with  cellars,"  and  fifty  townships  had 
been  settled.     In  1685,  there  were  six  hundred  houses.     In  crew*  of 
one  year  ninety  ships  brought  more  than  seven  thousand 
people  into  his  province. 

A  treaty  had  been  made  with  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, which  only  required  to  be  ratified  before  the  Governor.  A 
scene,  October  14,  1682,  which  history  has  made  memor- 
able, took  place  under  the  spreading  branches  of  an  Ameri-  Indian 
can  elm,  at  Shackamaxon,  or  Sakimaxing,  "  place  of  kings," 
an  old  resort  for  Indian  councils.  The  Indians  met  Penn  at  "the 
half-way  house,"  that  is,  at  noon.  They  were  tribes  of  the  Lentil 
Lenape,  a  nation 
which  long  ago 
had  its  seat  beyond 
the  Alleghanies, 
whence  it  migrated 
to  the  Hudson  and 
Delaware.  Their 
tribal  names  were 
derived  from  the 
creeks  and  rivers  of 
their  territory,  as 
Raritan,  Assunpink, 
Mingo,  Navesink. 
They  were  of  a  war- 
like disposition,  and 
falling  into  frequent 
fights  with  Indian 
neighbors.  Penn  described  them  well,  with  a  few  strokes:  k*  They 
are  tall,  straight,  tread  strong  and  clever,  and  walk  with  a  lofty  chin. 
Their  custom  of  rubbing  the  body  with  bear's  fat,  gives  them  a 
swarthy  color.  They  have  little  black  eyes.  Their  heads  and  coun- 
tenances have  nothing  of  the  negro  type,  and  I  have  seen  as  comely 
European-like  faces  among  them  as  on  your  side  the  sea.  Their  lan- 
guage is  lofty,  yet  narrow ;  like  short-hand  in  writing,  one  word  servetli 
in  the  place  of  three,  and  the  rest  are  supplied  by  the  understanding 
of  the  hearer.  I  have  made  it  my  business  to  understand  it,  that  I 
might  not  want  an  interpreter  on  any  occasion.  In  liberality,  they 
excel ;  nothing  is  too  good  for  their  friend ;  give  them  a  fine  gun, 
coat,  or  other  thing,  it  may  pass  twenty  hands  before  it  sticks  ;  light 
of  heart,  strong  affections,  but  soon  spent.  The  justice  they  have  is 
pecuniary.  In  case  they  kill  a  woman,  they  pay  double,  and  the 


--*•:.>' 

The  Treaty  Ground  at  Kensington,  before  the  Fali  of  the  "  Treaty  Tree." 


494 


COLONIZATION  BY  FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


The  scene  at 


reason  they  render  is,  that  she  breedetli  children,  which  men  cannot 
do.  It  is  rare  that  they  fall  out,  if  sober  ;  and  if  drunk,  they  forgive 
it,  saying,  it  was  the  drink  and  not  the  man  that  abused  them." 

On  this  occasion,  Penn  had  an  interpreter.  The  chief  sachem, 
Taminent,  sat  in  the  middle  of  a  semi-circle,  composed  of  old  men 
and  councillors.  At  a  little  distance  behind,  "the  young  fry,"  in 
the  same  order.  The  sachem  deputed  one  to  address  Penn,  during 
whose  harangue  no  one  whispered  or  smiled.  Penn's  com- 

,  •  .«•  •  -n  i  i 

puny  advanced  to  this  meeting  without  arms  ;  he  was  only 
distinguished  by  a  blue  silk  net-work  sash.  The  sachem 
wore  a  kind  of  chaplet,  with  a  small  horn  projecting  from  it  as  a 
symbol  of  sovereignty.  When  he  put  it  on  all  the  natives  threw 
down  their  arms  ;  it  was  a  signal  that  the  place  was  inviolate. 

The  confirmation  of  the  treaty 
was  engrossed  upon  a  roll  of  parch- 
ment. Penn's  address,  with  its  em- 
phasis of  the  Great  Spirit,  must  have 
sparkled  with  a  peculiar  sincerity, 
because  of  his  personal  belief  in  a 
direct  intercourse  with  the  source 
of  all  power.  He  told  the  Indians 
that  every  thought  of  the  heart  was 
known  above  ;  that  the  desire  of 
his  own  heart  was  to  live  in  per- 
petual amity  with  them  ;  that  he 
and  his  friends  came  unarmed  be- 
cause they  never  used  weapons. 
Then  the  conditions  of  the  purchase 
were  read,  and  in  addition  to  the 
stipulated  price  he  presented  them  with  various  articles  of  merchandise. 
The  treaty  concluded  upon  this  pacific  basis,  without  the  exhibition  of 
a  single  weapon  of  modern  warfare,  and  expressly  disclaiming  a  resort 
to  force,  was  faithfully  kept  by  those  barbarians  for  sixty  years. 

While  Penn  was  allotting  land  to  purchasers,  he  reserved  a  tract 
of  a  thousand  acres  for  his  friend  George  Fox.  Land  was  frequently 
purchased  of  the  Indians  by  paying  for  as  much  as  the  purchaser 
could  comprise  in  a  walk.  When  some  of  the  best  English  pedestri- 
ans were  detailed  for  this  new  style  of  measurement,  they  covered  so 
much  ground  that  the  Indians  were  mortified  at  the  unequal  bargain. 
Then  an  additional  present  of  merchandise  set  the  matter  right. 
Thus  the  peace  was  always  kept  in  politic  fashion,  and  the  Indian 
could  entertain  no  cause  for  feud.  Only  one  alarm  ever  occurred  pur- 
porting to  come  from  an  Indian  quarter,  when  one  day  in  1688,  some 


The  Treaty   Monument,    Kensington. 


1683.]  PROGRESS   OF  THE   COLONY.  495 

women  came  running  in  with  the  tidings  that  a  large  body  of  Indians 
were  coming  down  to  massacre.  This  was  dire  news  to  the  defence- 
less Friends.  But  instead  of  sending  out  scouts  to  reconnoitre,  who 
were  willing  to  bear  arms,  a  commissioner  was  despatched,  who,  upon 
arriving  at  the  place  indicated,  found  an  old  Indian  chief  lying  all 
alone  upon  the  grass  nursing  his  lame  leg,  and  a  number  of  squaws  at 
work  in  the  field.  No  other  man  was  in  sight.  The  old  chief  said 
the  women  ought  to  be  hanged  for  spreading  so  false  a  report. 

Penn  used  every  lawful  art  of  intercourse  to  conciliate  the  Indians. 
"  He  walked  with  them,"  at  one  of  their  earliest  meetings,  sat  with 
them  on  the  ground,  and  ate  with  them  of  their  roasted  acorns  and 
hominy.  At  this  they  expressed  their  great  delight,  and  soon  began 
to  show  how  they  could  hop  and  jump,  at  which  exhibition  William 
Penn,  to  cap  the  climax,  "  sprang  up  and  beat  them  all."  We  cannot 
imagine  the  fathers  of  New  England  jumping  in  rivalry  with  savages. 
Their  methods  seldom  raised  a  smile. 

In    October,    1683,  one   Enoch    Flower  —  what   pleasant    Quaker 
symbolism  in  the  name  —  began  to  teach  boys  and  girls  in 
a  dwelling  made  of  pine  and  cedar  planks.     His  terms  were,  and  reiig- 
"To  learn  to  read,  four  shillings  a  quarter;  to  write,  six  shil-  ten m ^hit- 
lings  ;  boarding  scholars,  to  wit :  diet,  lodging,  washing,  and 
schooling,  ten  pounds  the  whole  year."     A  printing-press  was  set  up 
soon  after.     From  the  time  of  the  first  settlement  of  New  Netherland 
it  was  seventy  years  before  any  book  or  paper  was  printed  there. 

In  1683,  among  the  emigrants  who  came  over  was  James  Claypoole, 
author  of  several  books  and  pamphlets,  an  admired  friend  of  Penn. 
He  was  an  uncle  of  the  Lord  John  Claypoole  who  married  Cromwell's 
favorite  daughter,  Elizabeth.  He  was  one  of  the  Friends  to  whom 
Penn  addressed  a  touching  religious  exhortation,  just  before  his  re- 
turn to  England  in  1684,  to  be  read  at  all  Friends'  Meetings  in  the 
province.  The  first  Yearly  Meeting  in  Philadelphia  was  held  in 
July,  1683. 

One  reason  for  Penn's  return  to  England  was  the  necessity  for  de- 
termining the  boundary  line  between  his  own  province  and 
that  of  Maryland.    Lord  Baltimore  had  already  gone  on  this  mums  t» 
business,  reasserting   the   right,   under   his   patent,  to   the 
country  along  the  west  side  of  the  Delaware,  from  Philadelphia  to 
Cape  Henlopen,  which  he  had  so  persistently  maintained  against  the 
Dutch   in    Stuyvesant's   time.     On   this  vexed   question,  after  many 
delays,  Penn  succeeded  in  getting   a  decision   from  the  Committee 
of  Trade   and   Plantations   against   Lord   Baltimore.     Baltimore,  the 
Dutch   had  contended,  had  no  title  to  this  country,  because  it  was 
settled  by  their  people  at  the  time  his  patent  was  issued,  and  that 


496 


COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


patent  only  entitled  him  to  lands  uncultivated  and  inhabited  by  sav- 
ages. The  King  had  conquered  the  country  from  the  Dutch  and 
granted  it  to  the  Duke  of  York,  and  the  Duke  had  conveyed  it  to 
William  Penn.  The  title,  therefore,  was  now  vested  in  Penn,  as 
against  Baltimore,  by  Order  of  Council.1 

But  he  was  moved  to  go  to  England  by  another  motive.  He  had 
heard  of  the  accusations  which  were  rife  against  him,  that  he  was 
working  with  Jesuits  to  secure  the  supremacy  of  James  II.,  who 
would  have  been  glad  to  reintroduce  the  Roman  Catholic  religion 
into  England.  The  only  ground  for  the  absurd  report  seems  to  have 
been  the  favor  in  which  he  had  been  held  by  Charles  II.,  and  still 
enjoyed  from  James  II.  To  his  care  the  elder  Penn  —  whom  James 
had  so  much  reason  for  holding  in  affectionate  remembrance  —  had 
warmly  commended  his  son.  Surely  that  sou  is  not  to  be  blamed 

that  he  retained  the 
King's  esteem  by  his 
admirable  bearing, 
his  conciliatory  tem- 
per, and  his  un- 
flinching integrity. 
The  influence  he  ac- 
quired he  used  for 
the  benefit  of  all  who 
were  in  need,  espe- 
cially for  hundreds 
of  his  own  sect  who 
still  suffered  in  pris- 
ons all  over  England. 
If  he  sought  to  re- 
tain that  influence 
for  his  own  purposes, 
it  was  only  on  behalf  of  that  commonwealth  he  had  founded,  which 
he  so  loved,  and  for  which  he  spent  his  own  life  and  estate.  If  his 
principles  of  toleration  found  favor  with  James,  it  was  not  because 
of  any  leaning,  on  Penn's  part,  to  the  Catholic  Church.  It  is  impos- 
sible not  to  believe  that  his  numerous  avowals  against  idolatries  and 
ordinances  were  sincere ;  impossible  not  to  accept  as  true  his  many 
disclaimers  of  any  sympathy  with  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  "  No 
Cross,  no  Crown,"  is  thoroughly  anti-papal.2 

1  The  line  fixed  by  this  decision  was  the  present  boundary  between  Maryland  and  Del- 
aware.     The    final    line    between    Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  continued  a  question  of 
dispute  till  settled  by  the  running  of  "  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,"  by  Charles  Mason  and 
Jeremiah  Dixon,  in  1762. 

2  Were  we  professing  to  give  a  complete  biography  of  William  Penu,  it  would  be  nec- 


The  Penn  Mansion,  later  Residence  of  the  Penn  Family  in  Philadelphia. 


1694.]  TROUBLES  IN  ENGLAND  AND   AMERICA,  497 

But  his  enemies,  and  the  haters  of  Quakerism,  could  not  tolerate 
the  favor  which  his  diplomatic  disposition,  combined  with  his  remark- 
able independence,  won  for  him  at  court.  They  were  less  pennin 
the  foes  of  Jesuits.  Penn  thought  it  right  to  use  all  the  in-  En8'*nd- 
fluence  he  could  command  for  the  benefit  of  his  American  province, 
and  to  have  the  new  persecutions  against  the  Quakers  abated.  He 
succeeded  in  both  purposes.  Before  leaving  America  he  appointed 
a  Provincial  Council  to  act  for  him  during  his  absence ;  but  it  was 
not  long  before  disputes  arose  which  caused  him  much  anxiety.  He 
could  not  succeed  in  prevailing  upon  the  Assembly  to  restrain  the  use 
of  spirituous  liquors,  and  to  withhold  them  altogether  from  the  Indi- 
ans. His  officers  committed  many  extortions  in  the  sale  of  his  lands. 
He  experienced  great  difficulty  in  collecting  his  quit-rents,  and  was 
seriously  embarrassed  by  the  great  outlay  which  he  had  made :  "  Six 
thousand  pounds  out  of  pocket,"  he  said  repeatedly. 

At  the  revolution  of  1688,  he  fell  under  serious  suspicion  of  aiding 
in  the  plots  for  the  return  of  James  II.  Once  he  was  arrested  and 
brought  before  the  Lords  of  Council,  and,  at  his  own  request,  was 
taken  before  the  King.  A  letter  had  been  written  him  by  James, 
and  when  examined  in  regard  to  it,  he  could  not,  he  said,  prevent 
him  from  writing  to  him  ;  but  if  that  brought  him  under  a  suspicion 
of  plotting  for  a  restoration,  it  did  not  compel  him  to  violate  his  duty 
to  the  state.  The  King  seemed  satisfied  with  his  defence,  and  he  was 
not  again  molested.  It  did  not  seem  to  him  proper,  however,  to 
leave  the  kingdom  while  under  such  suspicion,  and  he  remained  in 
England. 

During  this  time  he  was  pained  by  the  accounts  sent  to  him  of  the 
dissensions  in  his  province.  The  three  lower  counties  on  the 
Delaware,  called  the  "  Territories,"  had  insisted  on  a  sepa- 
rate  government,  and  to  this  he  reluctantly  assented.  Other  torehiP- 
difficulties  occurred,  relating  to  the  religious  doctrines  of  Friends. 
These  were  chiefly  fomented  by  George  Keith,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed the  principal  of  the  Friends'  public  school  in  Philadelphia, 
which  was  established  in  1689.  The  court  took  advantage  of  these 
disturbances  to  depose  Penn  from  the  government  of  the  province,  and 
another  governor  was  sent  out,  who  administered  affairs  till  Penn  was 
reinstated  in  1694,  having  shown  the  hollowness  of  the  charges 
against  himself  and  reestablished  old  feelings  of  amity  with  the  sus- 

essary  to  meet  the  various  charges  brought  against  him  by  Macaulay,  in  his  History  of 
England.  A  complete  refutation  of  them  may  be  found  in  a  Preface  to  Clarkson's  Life 
of  Penn,  by  William  E.  Forster,  the  English  statesman  ;  in  The  Life  of  William  Penn,  by 
Samuel  E.  Janney  ;  in  a  Defence  of  William  Penn,  by  Henry  Fairbairn  ;  and  in  Dixon's 
Life  ofPfnn,  which  on  this  point,  at  least,  may  be  considered  as  an  authority.  The  evi- 
dence is  ample,  and  would  be  accepted  in  any  court  of  justice. 

VOL.   II.  32 


498 


COLONIZATION   BY  FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


picious  party  in  the  Society.  The  new  Governor,  Fletcher,  who  was 
also  Governor  of  New  York,  had,  in  the  meantime,  with  the  usual 
fatal  facility  of  royal  governors,  quarrelled  with  the  Assembly  and 
retired  in  disgust  to  New  York. 

Penn  made  his  defence  and  explanation  before  the  Council  in  1693 ; 
His  restora-  n^s  reinstatement  in  the  proprietary  government  took  place 
tion.  in  August,  1694.  While  he  was  preparing  to  return  he 

appointed  his  cousin,  Colonel  Markham,  Deputy  Governor  of  the 
province,  his  friend  Thomas  Lloyd,  who  had  been  his  Deputy  for  some 
time,  having  recently  died.  Markham's  administration  was,  on  the 
whole,  satisfactory,  and  there  was  little  for  several  years  to  disturb 
the  tranquillity  and  prosperity  of  the  colony,  which  already  contained 
20,000  people.  Penn  permitted  his  private  affairs  to  retain  him  in 
England  till  1699,  when  he  once  more  sailed  for  America  with  his 
family,  with  the  firm  intention  of  remaining  there  for  the  rest  of  his 
days. 


UIIMMMUMIIII  i  i  iiiiiuiimiuKiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiuiiuiuiuimuiii  i  mmmimiuimimi  in 
citiiiiiKiiiitu  i  i  luiiiiiiiiiiiiuiumiiaiiiiiiiiuiuiiiiimmiiuuii  i  uumwttumuciuii  uu 
IIHIHIMIMHI  i  immimiiiiimiiiimiiumi  uuiiumiuuumui  i  mmiiimuiuuuiiu  inn 
NMWNIIIHI  i  i  (iiiuiiumiuiH  imtiiuu  iiuiituiimiumii  i  iiuiuiiuuimnuuii  mm 
[fHdiiutili  (  I  iiimuniiHiimu  iimuimii  miumaumuim  i  iimiiuiiuuiuuipsi  mnu 
[ttiiuuuii  i  i  mmititiiiiiiKc  i  nun  iiiiiummui  i  iiiiuiuuiimmuir*  nniiii 

muiuuK  i  i  iNMnwwilKiic  i  i  item  u  ti  iiiniuiiiiii  i  iiuiituiuifuctmu 
mwHin  i  i  iiiimuiniiwiut  c  [( iru  in  it  iiiiiuuiuii  i  iiiiii:umuuuium 
uuiictu  i  i  iMimuinuiiuicci  c  in  i  tit;  r  miiumu  i  iiimimuiiituKuii 
rttuiui  I  [  HWIWHWHIINUI  [  in  in  :  ii  iiniiiutii  i  iiimniiiiiiuiiicuu  i 


iicitti  e     t  tttmummuiuiiiimi  i  uiiiiiuii  i  tuuiuuiiii   i  uuiuiiiiiiiumui  i 

mill  i     i  iiimniiiiiiiiiiciiiutut  i  iiiiiiuii    t  iiiuiuini  i    I  iiliiiiiiniiiililiiii  i 

men     i  iiiiiuiiutiiiiiuiiiiiuiii  i  [iiiiiiuii  i  aiiiiiim  i    I  iiiiitiaaiiiiitiiui  i    Lwiuiunm 

tin  i     i  [iimuaiiiUKiuiiiitiui   [   iiifiati    i    iitiuin  i    i  iiiiiiiuiiiititKini  i     inV,  niiinm; 

tit  i     i  cu[uctc(U(iti[uii([i[i([(c([(itiiitiiimtitiiuiiiiui  i    i  innuiiiiaiiiuuK  i     HI  .Viiiiiumi 


•!  i     i  luuumiuuuuiimiuLiutuitiimuuauiuuiuii  i 


lUUtHIMtHtUI 


(I     ( iiiinKuiniiiiiiiiuiiiuutnatuiiiiuiiuiiutfiiut  i    i  titiienmiiuiiuHi  i    (iiiiiiiununiu 


Wampum  received  by  Penn  in  Commemoration  of  the  Indian  Treaty. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE  FRENCH   IN   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

THE  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  AND  THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  LOUISIANA. — 
FRENCH  MISSIONARIES  AND  HUNTERS.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  OHIO,  INDIANA,  AND  OTHER 
NORTHWESTERN  STATES.  —  THE  POLICY  OF  COLBERT  AND  TALON.  —  DISCOVERY  OF 
THE  UPPER  LAKES. — CONGRESS  OF  NATIVE  TRIBES  AT  MACKINAC.  —  MARQUETTE 
AND  JOLIET  SAIL  FOR  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  —  FRENCH  COLONY  OF 
1699. —  D'lBERVILLE  AND  HIS  BROTHERS.  —  BlLOXI  AND  POVERTY  POINT. — WAR 
OF  SUCCESSION.  —  PENSACOLA. —  MINES.  —  CROZAT'S  GRANT. 

THE  English  and  Dutch  settlers,  to  whose  history  this  volume  has 
thus  far  been  for  the  most  part  devoted,  never  showed  any  disposition 
to  make  permanent  homes  with  the  aborigines.  Their  efforts  to 
Christianize  them  were  made  loyally,  but  did  not  include  life  in  their 
wigwams  or  villages.  Even  the  hunter  or  trapper  of  English  blood, 
who  brought  furs  from  the  frontier  to  the  sea,  was  not  a  man  who  had 
carried  on  his  hunting  or  trapping  in  league  with  the  natives.  He 
had  lived  in  a  solitary  hut,  or  he  had  made  his  excursions  from  a  fron- 
tier village. 

From  the  very  beginning,  however,  a 
different  disposition  showed  it-  Tendency  ot 
self  in  the  French  colonies  of 
Acadie  and  of  Canada.  When 
the  white  population  of  Canada  ture- 
was  not  more  than  three  hundred  per- 
sons, a  considerable  number  of  those  per- 
sons were  living  in  the  villages  of  the 
Hurons,1  whose  homes  were  then  further 
to  the  east  than  that  great  lake  which 

Totem  of  the   Hurons  (from   La  Hontan).  ,-1      •  o  ... 

now  preserves  their  name.    Some  of  these 
Frenchmen  were  traders  for  furs,  some  were  priests,  at  first  of  the 

1  The  handful  of  Wyandots,  now  in  Kansas,  represents  the  great  tribe  of  Hurons.  The 
spelling  Ycndat  is  the  earlier  form.  See  Gallatin's  Synopsis.  The  word  "  Huron  "  is 
itself  not  Indian  but  French,  derived  from  the  French  word  hure,  meaning  a  rough  mane 
or  head  of  hair. 


• 


500 


THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 


Re'collet  order,  afterwards  of  the  fraternity  of  Jesuits.  It  was  by  such 
traders  and  missionaries  that  several  of  the  western  States  of  the 
American  Union  were  first  opened  to  the  knowledge  of  Europe. 

The  great  Champlain,  from  whom  the  real  history  of  Canada  be- 
gins, arrived  in  Quebec  on  the  3d  of  July,  1608,  only  a  year  after  the 
French  pio-  settlement  at  Jamestown.1  In  1615  he  discovered  Lake  On- 
neers.  tario,  and  Lake  Nipissing.  He  pressed  his  explorations 
westward,  and  recent  research  has  shown  that  as  early  as  1634,  Jean 
Nicollet,  a  Frenchman  who  had  become  an  Indian  in  all  his  habits, 
visited,  in  the  course  of  his  western  travels,  the  region  which  we  now 
know  as  Wisconsin.  These  were  pioneer  adventures.  Nicollet  was 
himself  a  sincere  Catholic.  He  and  other  pioneers  were  followed,  as 
early  as  the  year  1640,  by  the  Fathers  Chaumonot  and  Bre"boeuf,  who 


Island  of  Mackinac. 


coasted  along  the  northern 
shore  of  the  State  of  Ohio, 
and  the  eastern  shore  of 
Michigan  as  far  as  the 
Straits  of  Mackinac.  In 
1659,  two  young  traders, 
who  pushed  their  explora- 
tions farther  west,  joined  a  tribe  of  Indians,  with  whom  they  went  so 
far  west  upon  Lake  Superior,  that  they  heard  for  the  first  time  of  the 
great  tribe  of  the  Sioux,  whose  conflicts  against  the  whites  occupy  the 
journals  even  as  late  as  our  day.  At  that  time,  the  Sioux  appeared  to 
these  travellers  a  powerful  nation,  of  more  gentle  manners  than  the 
eastern  Indians,  whom  they  had  known  before.  The  Frenchmen  re- 
ported that  they  were  not  cruel  to  their  prisoners,  and  that  they  wor- 

i  See  vol.  i.,  p.  321. 


1660.] 


FRENCH  MISSIONARIES. 


501 


shipped  one  God.1  These  pioneers  returned  to  Montreal  in  the  spring 
of  1660,  with  sixteen  canoes  packed  with  furs.  In  these  movements, 
dictated  now  by  adventure,  now  by  religious  zeal,  and  often  by  both 
combined,  our  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Wisconsin, 
and  Minnesota,  were  first  visited  by  the  whites.  Perhaps  it  would 
be  too  much  to  say,  in  all  cases,  that  those  who  made  these  explo- 
rations were  what  we  should  call  civilized  men. 

In  the  summer  of  1660  Father  Mesnard  took  with  him  some  In- 
dians of  the  Aigonkin  race,  and  founded  a  new  mission.     He 

Mesnanl's 

established  himself  at  first  at  a  point  on  the  southern  shore 

of  Lake  Superior  which  is  still 
known  as  Chagwamegan,2  the  name  it  then 
bore.  Mesnard,  however,  on  the  invitation 
of  the  Hurons,  returned  to  the  western  bay 
of  Lake  Huron,  where  he  lost  his  life  in 
some  unknown  way.  In  1665,  Father  Al- 
louez  established  a  mission  at  the  same  point, 
and  was  able  to  preach  in  the  Aigonkin  lan- 
guage to  twelve  or  fifteen  different  tribes. 
The  same  language  is  still  used  by  the  Chip- 
peways  of  that  region. 

Tot.m  of  the  S,ou*  (from  La  Hont.n)          ^    Jesuit    writera    gay  that    the    fame    Q£ 

Father  Allouez  extended  even  to  the  Sioux,  and  that  they  Other  mig_ 
told  him    of  the  prairies  on  the  banks  of   the  Mississippi.  BionB- 
Father  Dablon,  another  missionary,  learned  of  the  Mississippi  from  a 
map  which  the  Sioux  drew  for  him,  and  as  early 
as  1669  proposed  to  himself  an  expedition  to 
discover  it.     With  Father  Allouez  he  went  as 
far  as  the  Fox  River,  and  learned  that  the  Wis- 
consin River,  of  the  present  State  of  Wisconsin. 
was  one  of  the  affluents  of  the  Mississippi. 

Meanwhile  the  genius  of  Colbert  in  France 
had  apprehended  the  value  of  the  French  es- 
tablishment in  Canada.  He  was  beginning  to 
undo  the  unfortunate  results  of  the  narrower 
policy  of  Cardinal  Richelieu.  In  pursuance  of 
this  policy,  Jean  Talon,  who  had  gained  the  Totem  of  the  Foxes  (from  La 
favor  of  the  king  in  France,  was  entrusted 
with  the  oversight  of  commerce  in  Canada.  He  arranged  a  great  coun- 

1  The  Sioux  call  themselves  Dahcotahs. 

2  Chagwamegan  means  "  on  the  long,  narrow  point  of  land,  or  sand-bar."   For  this,  and 
many  similar  interpretations,  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  the  learned 
master  of  the  Indian  tongues. 


502 


THE  FRENCH  IN   THE   MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.     [CHAP.  XXI. 


cil  of  Indians  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Superior,  in 
1671.    Nicolas  Perrot,  who  knew  their  languages  and  customs, 


ii»n  OMB-     convened  the  assembly.    It  is  in  the  report  of  this  council  that 

M.  de  St. 


cil. 


the  name  "  Chicago  "  first  appears  in  literature. 
Lousson  represented  Louis  XIV.     He  found  here  the  chiefs  of  tribes 
as  distant  as  Hudson's  Bay  on  the  east,  and  the  head  of  Lake  Supe- 

rior and  Lake  Michigan  on  the  west 
and  south.  In  the  joint  hyperbole  of 
French  genius  and  the  Indian  dialect 
he  described  the  glories  of  Le  grand 
Monarque.  The  chiefs  declared  that 
they  asked  for  no  other  father  than 
tiie  great  OnnontJiio  J  of  the  French. 
A  cross  was  erected,  to  which  the  Arms  of  France  was  fastened,  and 
possession  was  assumed  in  the  name  of  the  French  crown. 


of  joiiet. 


View  on  the   Fox   River. 

Louis  Joiiet  had  been  sent  from 
France  to  Count  Frontenac,  the 
governor  of  Canada,  as  a  proper 
person  to  attempt  the  discovery, 
overland,  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Talon  had  already  suggested  in 


France,  the  appointment  of  Poulet,  a  captain  of  Dieppe,  for  an  ex- 
ploration of  the  Pacific  by  way  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan.     Father 

1  The  name  lingers  among  the  Indians  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  In  the  deposition  of  Charles 
Soskonharowane,  of  Caughnawaga,  taken  to  determine  whether  Rev.  Eleazer  Williams 
should  or  should  not  be  known  as  King  Louis  XVII.,  son  of  Louis  XVI.,  this  Indian 
says,  "  Many  incidents  of  his  youth  would  remove  the  thought  of  his  being  the  son  of  the 
great  Anonthica."  Sworn  to  April  16,  1853. 


1673.] 


MARQUETTE'S  VOYAGE. 


508 


Marquette,  who  had  already  gone  as  far  as  Wisconsin  as  a  missionary, 
joined  Joliet,  and,  in  1673,  they  started  on  the  expedition  in  Marquette-s 
which,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  source  and  course  of  the  Mis-  T0-vase- 
sissippi  were  discovered  by  Europeans.  Of  the  discovery  of  its  mouth 
by  the  adventurous  Spaniards,  and  part  of  the  region  above,  the  his- 
tory is  already  told  in  an  earlier  chapter.1 

In  this  eventful  voyage,  the  first  in  which  civilized  men  navigated 
a  large  part  of  the  course  of  a  river,  which  has  since  become  the  high- 
way of  half  a  nation,  Marquette  and 
Joliet  descended  the  Mississippi  as  far 
as  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  River. 
They   satisfied  themselves   that  they 
were  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  and  wishing  to  avoid  any 
collision  with  the  Spaniards  returned 
to  Canada.     We  have  a  charming  ac- 
count of  the  enterprise  by  Marquette 
himself,  which  was  published  in  Paris 
in    1681.     The   voyagers    passed    up 
Green  Bay,  and  the  Fox  River.    Near 
the  head  of  the  Bay  was  the  most  ad- 
vanced French  station,  and  here  they        <C^ 
bade  their  compatriots  good-by.     The 
Indian  village  there  was  made  up  of 
Miamis,   Mascoutins,  and  Kickapoos, 
of  whom  the  priests  rated  the  Miamis 
most  highly  for  civility.     The  travel- 
lers saw,  with  pleasure,  a  cross,  which  had  been  erected  in  the  vil- 
lage,   and   was   adorned   by   the   devotion   of   the   natives. 
They    addressed    the    assembly   of    them,    explained    their  on  FOX 
object,  and  enlisted   two  Miami   guides,  who  should  show 
them  the  difficult  passage  by  which  to  cross  from  the  Fox  to  the  Wis- 
consin River ;  from  the  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  those  flowing 
into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     The  channel  of  the  river  was  so  choked 
with  wild  rice,  that  the  Frenchmen  could  not  have  found  its  course 
without  such  help.     A  passage  of  little  more  than  a  mile  brought  the 
explorers  to  the  waters  of  the  Wisconsin.     The  two  guides  there  left 
the  party  of  seven  Frenchmen  alone  on  these  strange  waters,  five  or 
six  hundred  leagues  from  Quebec,  according  to  Marquette's  calcula- 
tion, to  take  the  stream  which  would  bear  them  into  lands  wholly 
new.     Marquette's  own  map  preserves,  with  curious  accuracy,  their 
route  in  Wisconsin,  through  the  county  of  Portage,  which  takes  its 

1  See  chapter  vii.,  vol.  i. 


The  Wild  Rice. 


504 


THE  FRENCH  IN   THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 


name  from  the  easy  transfer  here  made  between  the  two  great  systems 
of  American  waters. 

They  seem  to  have  crossed  the  portage  on  the  10th  of  June.  A 
week  was  sufficient  for  the  voyage  of  forty  leagues,  according  to  their 
estimate,  which  brought  them  to  the  Mississippi,  which  they  entered 


Marquette's  Map.1 

with  inexpressible  joy.  They  estimated  the  latitude  of  the  point 
where  the  Wisconsin  joins  it  at  42£  degrees,  —  about  half  a  degree 
farther  south  than  it  is  placed  by  the  more  modern  observations. 

1  The  map  here  given  is  a  part  of  that  published  in  Paris  by  Thevenot  as  "  Marquette's 
Map."  It  differs  from  the  original  manuscript,  which  is  still  preserved,  in  the  spelling  of 
a  few  of  the  words,  —  prol>ably  only  through  an  error  of  the  engraver. 


1673.] 


RECEPTION  BY   THE  ILLINOIS. 


505 


For  eight  days  the  navigators  floated  down  the  river,  without  seeing 
men  or  signs  of  men.     The  herds  of  buffalo,  which  they  called  by  the 
Indian  word  Pisikiou,  were  new  to  them,  and  are  carefully  described. 
For  fear  of  surprise,  the  explorers  made  but  little  fire,  spent  the  night 
in  their  canoes,  anchored  a  little  distance  from  the  shore,  and  always 
kept  a  sentinel  on  the  alert.     At  last,  on  the  25th  of  June,  a  well 
worn  path  on  the  shore  indicated  the  presence  of  men,  and 
Marquette  and  Joliet,  warning  their  crews  not  to  be  sur-  wuL'tfe  in- 
prised  in  their  absence,  followed  up  the  trodden  trail  to  com- 
municate with  the  natives.     These  proved  to  be  Illinois ;  and  they  re- 


%, 


Marquette's    Reception    by  the    Illinois. 

cei\ed  the  Frenchmen  cordially.  The  chief  of  the  village  came  forth 
naked  from  his  wigwam  to  welcome  them,  with  his  hands  raised  to 
the  sun  ;  others  flourished  the  pipe  of  peace.  To  these  pipes  they 
gave  the  name  "  calumet,"  1  now  so  familiar  to  us,  which  was,  how- 
ever, new  to  the  voyagers.  While  the  formalities  of  smoking  were 

1  Marquette  notes  the  fact  that  the  calumet  was  made  of  red  stone.  The  Indians  of  the 
Northwest  still  use  the  Pipe  Rock  for  their  calumets,  which  has  acquired  a  sacred  value. 
It  is  found  in  the  ridge  between  the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi.  It  appears  to  be  the  only 
locality  now  known  in  the  world,  for  that  almost  precious  stone  which  antiquaries  know  as 
Rosso  Antic". 


606 


THE   FRENCH   IX   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.     [CHAP.  XXI. 


going  on,  an  invitation  arrived  from  the  great  chief  of  the  Illinois 
that  the  strangers  should  visit  him  at  his  village,  —  and  they  did  so. 
They  found  him  standing  between  two  old  men  in  front  of  the  cabin, 
which  served  him  for  a  palace,  —  all  three  naked.  The  chief  held  a 
calumet  turned  towards  the  sun.  After  felicitating  the  strangers  on 
their  arrival,  he  invited  them  into  his  cabin,  and  received  them,  as 
Marquette  says,  "  with  the  usual  caresses."  After  a  feast,  and  a  sort 
of  triumphal  procession  in  which  the  strangers  saw  the  town,  which 
consisted  of  three  hundred  cabins,  more  than  six  hundred  persons  ac- 
companied them  to  their  canoes,  assuring  them  of  the  pleasure  which 
their  visit  had  given.  They  gave  to  Marquette  a  calumet,  which 
proved  valuable  to  him  afterwards. 

Leaving  their  hospitable  friends  they  continued  their  voyage.  They 
The  Painted  recognized  the  rocks  known  long  afterward  as  the  Painted 
Rocks,  on  which  the  designs  were  so  striking  that  Marquette 
thought  the  best  painters  in  France  would  scarcely  have  done  so  well. 
Traces  of  these  paintings  have  been  made  out  within 
the  present  century.1  They  struck  the  Missouri,  — 
to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Pekitanoui.2  Their 
description  of  its  mighty  flow,  of  its  muddy  water, 
and  the  distinctness  of  its  current  from  that  of  the 
Mississippi,  notes  the  points  which  every  traveller 
first  observes,  to  this  day.  Marquette  says  in  his 
journal  that  he  hoped  by  means  of  it  to  make  the 
discovery  of  the  Red  Sea  or  Gulf  of  California,  both 
these  names  being  given  in  his  time  to  the  same  gulf, 
which  we  know  only  by  the  latter  title  of  the  two. 

In  this  hope  he  was  encouraged  by  his  Indian 
The  Mis-  friends,  who  told  him  that  by  going  up  the 
eouri  River.  ]v|jS8Ouri,  for  five  or  six  days,  he  would  come 
to  a  beautiful  prairie  twenty  or  thirty  leagues  long ; 
that  he  could  carry  his  canoes  easily  across  this 
prairie  to  the  northwest,  where  he  would  find  a  little  river.  By  this 
river  he  could  descend  ten  or  fifteen  leagues  till  he  came  to  a  little 
lake,  the  source  of  another  deep  river  "  which  flows  to  the  west  and 
discharges  into  the  sea.''  All  this  imaginary  geography  may  have  had 
little  foundation,  but  it  excited  Marquette's  hopes  of  visiting  the 
Pacific.  From  the  course  of  the  Missouri,  and  these  narratives  of  the 

1  See  Dr.  Shea's  paper,  Wisconsin  Hist.  Trans.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  116.     The  painting  last  pre 
served  could  be  made  out,  even  from  the  other  side  of  the  river.     It  was  called  the  Piasa 
Bird.     We  have  found  no  representation  of  it  sufficiently  accurate  to  copy.     It  was  de- 
stroyed iu  quarrying,  within  the  memory  of  the  present  generation. 

2  For  Pekitauoni  is  the  misprint  of  the  French  printer. 


Totem  of  the   Illinois. 
(From  La  Hontan.) 


1673.] 


THE  OHIO   RIVER. 


507 


Indians,  he  was  already  satisfied  that  he  should  find  that  the  Missis- 
sippi discharged  itself  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

He  and  his  companions  fixed  the  latitude  of  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio 
at  36°  north,  —  supposing  themselves  two  degrees  farther  south  than 
they  were.  They  give  the  name  of  Ouabouskigou  to  this  river.  The 
name  Wabash,  which  is  the  modern  form  of  this  word,  is  now 
confined  to  the  stream  which  makes  part  of  the  western  bor- 
der of  the  State  of  Indiana.1  The  travellers  here  speak  of  the  Shaw- 
nee  Indians,  resident  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  as  a  peaceful  race, 


The  Ohio. 


Mouth  of  the  Ohio. 


who  suffered  shamefully 
from  the  inroads  of  the 
cruel  Iroquois.  It  is  to 
be  observed  that  French 
hunters  seem  to  have 
come  down  the  Ohio, 
almost  to  the  point  of 
its  union  with  the  Mississippi,  before  Marquette's  voyage,  for  he  al- 
ludes to  their  account  of  iron  mines  upon  the  river.  In  a  memorial 
of  the  date  of  1677,  La  Salle,  of  whom  we  are  soon  to  speak,  claims 

1  Onabachioui,  or  Wabashiwi,  in  the  Illinois  dialect,  means  "  silver.''  Some  romantic 
red  man  may  have  called  the  stream  a  "  silver  stream,"  as  so  many  other  ]>oets,  of  other 
races,  have  called  other  rivers.  But  Father  Du  Marest  mentions  the  report,  which  would 
grow  naturally  from  the  name,  that  silver  mines  had  been  found  near  it.  This  report  has 
not  been  confirmed,  nor  is  it  likely  to  be.  In  the  Chippeway,  "  Wabashkiki "  means 
"  swampy  "  or  "  marshy."  So  certain  is  it,  that  one  man's  silver  is  another  man's  dirt- 
But  there  seems  no  reason  why  Chippeways  should  have  named  a  river  of  the  Illinois,  or 
Sliawnees.  Our  name  Ohio,  is  from  the  Iroquois,  in  allusion  to  the  beauty  of  the  stream. 
It  is  so  said  on  a  MS.  map  of  1673,  in  Mr.  Parkmau's  possession." 


608  THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.   [CHAP.  XXI 

that  he  discovered  the  Ohio.     Its  upper  waters  are  not  far  from  his 
post  on  Lake  Erie. 

Passing  the  junction  of  the  Ohio,  Marquette  notes  the  canebrakes 
and  the  mosquitoes,  peculiarities  of  the  Mississippi  which  two  centuries 
have  not  changed  since  his  time.  The  discoverers  were  fain  to  surround 
themselves  with  mosquito  nets  as  they  sailed.  As  they  floated  down, 

they  saw  on  shore  savages,  armed  with  guns,  who  invited 
tribes  along  them  to  land,  and  regaled  them  with  buffalo  beef,  bear's 

grease,  and  "  white  plums."  l  Their  hosts  assured  them  that 
they  bought  their  guns,  powder,  knives,  hatchets,  and  cloths  from 
Europeans  on  the  eastern  coasts ;  that  these  men  had  images  and  hats 
and  played  on  instruments,  and  that  a  voyage  of  ten  days  was  enough 
to  bring  the  travellers  to  the  sea.  And  they  seem  to  have  given  to 
Marquette  the  impression  that  they  themselves  had  found  European 
traders  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  On  this  news  he  eagerly 
resumed  his  voyage. 

At  a  point  not  far  from  the  site  of  the  city  of  Helena  he  found  a 
village  named  Mitchigamea.  The  name  seems  to  show  that  its  people 
had  strayed  thus  far  from  the  north.2  These  savages  had  no  guns,  but 
they  appeared  hostile  until  they  saw  the  calumet.  By  an  old  man  who 
spoke  the  Illinois  language,  communication  became  possible,  and  these 
people  took  the  strangers  as  far  as  to  the  next  tribe,  of  which  the  chief 
town  was  ten  leagues  further  down.  It  was  named  Akansea,  as  the 
French  travellers  spelled  it,3  and  here  they  met  the  tribe  known  to  us 
till  lately,  as  the  Arkansas  Indians.  They  have  since  recovered  their 
original  name  of  Quapaws.4  Here  the  Frenchmen  were  hospitably 
entertained,  a  good  interpreter  was  found,  and  the  natives  heard  with 
wonder  what  Marquette  told  them  of  the  mysteries  of  faith,  and 
showed  a  great  desire  that  he  might  give  them  further  instructions. 
As  to  his  voyage  to  the  gulf,  however,  they  dissuaded  him.  It  was 
possible  to  make  it  in  five  days.  But  the  tribes  whom  he  would  meet 
were  hostile.  They  cut  off  from  the  Arkansas  all  commerce  with 
Europeans,  and  they  were  so  much  in  the  habit  of  plying  to  and  fro 
on  the  river,  that  the  voyagers  would  be,  according  to  these  Indians, 
in  great  danger. 

1  The  prunus  Americana  of  Michaux.     Its  range  is  as  wide  as  from  the  Saskatchewan  to 
Texas.     Its  colors  vary,  and,  while  Marquette  calls  the  plums  Wanes,  they  are  sometimes 
yellow,  and  sometimes  red. 

2  See  Dr.  Shea,  loc.  cit.,  p.  116. 
8  Or  their  French  printer. 

4  See  Dr.  Shea,  loc.  cit.,  p.  116.  Mr.  Gallatin  suggests  that  they  are  the  Pacachas  of  De 
Soto.  Touty  calls  them  Cappas.  Mr.  Gallatin  says:  "The  superiority  of  this  race  of 
Indians  struck  the  French,  who  called  the  Arkansas  'Beaux  Homines.'  Their  men  are 
(said  to  have  exceeded  in  height  the  average  of  the  Europeans." 


1673.]  THE  ILLINOIS  RIVER.  509 

This  friendly  reception  by  the  Arkansas  was   not  to  be  wholly 
relied  upon.     The  same  evening  the  chiefs  held  a  council  to  The  Arkan. 
decide  whether  they  should  not  knock  the  Frenchmen  on  the  8a8- 
head  and  take  their  goods.    But  the  great  chief  forbade,  assured  the 
travellers  of  his  protection,  and  even  gave  to  them,  as  a  token,  his  own 
calumet. 

Joliet  and  Marquette,  however,  decided  that  it  was  time  for  them 
to  return.  They  knew  that  they  were  near  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In- 
deed they  mistook  its  real  boundary,  and  expected  to  find  it  at  a  point 
a  hundred  miles  farther  north  than  New  Orleans.  They  supposed 
themselves  to  be  in  the  latitude  of  forty-four  degrees,  and  in  this 
supposition  they  were  nearly  correct,  for  the  site  of  the  village  of 
Dakansea,  or  Akansea,1  was  nearly  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Arkan- 
sas River.  They  reflected  that  if  they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniards  all  the  results  of  their  expedition  would  be  lost.  They 
therefore  turned  on  their  course  on  the  17th  of  July.  But,  when 
they  reached  the  Illinois  River,  they  took  that  beautiful  stream,  and 
made  one  of  the  portages,  since  so  well  known,  into  Lake  Michi- 
gan. Of  the  Illinois  Valley  Marquette  writes:  "We  have  voyage  up 
seen  nothing  equal  to  this  river  for  the  goodness  of  land,  the  Illlno18- 
prairies,  wood,  cattle,  deer,  goats,  wild  cats,  bustards,  swans,  ducks, 
parroquets,  and  even  beaver;  there  are  many  little  lakes  and  little 
rivers."  A  chief  of  the  Illinois  guided  their  return  to  Green  Bay, 
and  here  they  arrived  in  the  end  of  September. 

In  this  voyage  our  States  of  Missouri  and  Kentucky  were  discov- 
ered, so  far  as  we  know,  to  Europeans.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Tennessee,  Arkansas,  and  Mississippi,  which  were  now  visited  by 
Marquette,  had  been  traversed  in  some  parts  by  De  Soto  and  his  fol- 
lowers.2 

Marquette,  whose  simple  and  devout  narrative  makes  the  reader 
love  the  adventurer,  remained  two  years  among  the  Miamis. 
On  his  way  in  his  canoe  to  Mackinac  in  1675,  he  stopped  ute  of  Mar- 
on  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  to  raise  an  altar  and 
celebrate  the  mass.     He  then  asked  his  companions  to  leave  him  alone 
for  a  little  while.     They  did  so,  and  when  they  returned  they  found 
him  dead.     Joliet,  his  companion  in  adventure,  had  returned  to  Mon- 
treal in  1674.     On  his  way  thither  his  canoe  upset,  he  lost  his  papers 
and  his  journal,   and  some  curiosities  from  the  discovery.     A  little 

1  Marquette  gives  one  name  on  his  map  and  the  other  in  the  text. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  p.  165.     Coxe.  in  the  appendix  to  the  "  Carolana,"  a  book  written  to  show 
that  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  bdoijgs  to  the  English  crown,  says  that  the  first  redis- 
covery of  the  great  river  after  De  Solo's  was  made  by  adventurers  from  New  England. 
But  Coxe's  memorial  was  dated  in  1699,  and  we  have  no  earlier  mention  of  Col.  Wood. 


510  THE   FRENCH  IN    THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.   [CHAP.  XXI. 

boy,  of  ten  years  old,  who  had  been  given  to  him,  was  also  lost. 
Joliet  himself  was  four  hours  in  the  water,  and,  as  he  says,  rescued 
only  by  miracle.  He  reported,  on  his  arrival,  to  Count  Frontenac, 
the  governor,  and  he  relates  the  success  of  the  expedition  in  a  de- 
spatch to  Colbert  of  the  14th  of  November,  of  the  year  after  it  was 
completed. 

When  Joliet  returned  with  the  tidings  of  the  success  achieved  by 
this  modest  expedition,  Robert  Cavelier  de  la  Salle,  a  Nor- 
euerdeia  man  gentleman,  was  living  in  Canada.  He  had  been  trained 
by  the  Jesuits  in  early  life,  and  was  determined  both  to 
make  a  reputation  and  a  fortune.  He  had  come  to  Canada  eager  to 
seek  a  passage  to  Japan  and  China,  and  at  this  moment  had  a  trading 
house  at  Lachine,  above  Montreal.  It  is  said  that  the  name  "La- 
chine  "  is  taken  from  that  of  China.  When  the  news  of  Marquette's 
discovery  was  made  known,  La  Salle  waited  upon  Count  Frontenac, 
and  represented  that  the  time  had  come  for  an  expedition  to  the 
Pacific.  So  little  interest  had  been  taken  in  France  in  these  dis- 
coveries, that  as  late  as  April  16,  1676,  Louis  XIV.  writes  to  Fronte- 
nac, in  a  letter  which  still  exists  in  manuscript,  "•  With  regard  to  new 
discoveries  you  will  not  address  yourself  to  them  excepting  in  a  great 
necessity."  This  was  not  encouraging.  But  Frontenac  gave  La  Salle 
a  good  introduction  at  court,  and  he  obtained  from  the  Marquis  of 
Seignelay,  who  had  succeeded  Colbert  as  Minister  of  Marine,  all  that 
he  asked  for. 

He  sailed  from  Rochelle  for  Canada,  in  the  summer  of  1678,  with 
thirty  men,  and  with  the  stores  proper  for  equipping  the  vessels  which 
he  meant  to  build  upon  the  lakes.  Arriving  at  the  head  of  Lake 
Ontario,  he  made  the  portage  by  Niagara  Falls  to  Lake  Erie,  and  on 
Niagara  River  began  to  build  a  ship  of  forty-five  tons,  which  he  called 
the  Griffin.  On  the  7th  of  August,  1679,  she  sailed  on  her  western 
voyage,  and  on  the  28th  of  that  month  arrived  at  Mackinac.  The 
appearance  of  a  vessel  of  her  size,  armed  with  seven  cannon,  waking 
on  occasion  with  their  thunders  the  echoes  of  the  wilderness,  amazed 
the  natives,  who  had,  till  now,  never  seen  the  servants  of  their  great 
Onnonthio,  Louis  XIV.,  but  in  the  humbler  garb  and  equipage  of 
trappers  and  missionaries.  La  Salle  proceeded  in  state  to  hear  mass 
at  the  chapel  of  the  Ottawas  at  Mackinac,  and  then  continued  his 
Voyage  of  vovage  prosperously  to  the  settlement  of  Green  Bay,  where 
the  Griffin.  jie  arrjve(j  jn  September.  Freighting  the  Griffin  with  furs, 
he  proceeded  to  St.  Joseph  at  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river  which  still  bears  that  name,  nearly  opposite  the 
river  Chicago.  Here  he  built  a  fort,  and  here  he  expected  the  Griffin, 
which  did  not  return,  however,  and  was  in  fact  never  again  heard  of. 


1679.] 


LA  SALLE  AND  FATHER   HENXEPIX. 


511 


Anxious  though  he  were,  he  pushed  his  explorations  westward,  and 
somewhere  at  the  head  of  the  Illinois  River,  probably  in  the  very 
county  which  bears  his  name,  he  established  Fort  Creve-Coeur,  which 
took  its  name  from  his  depression  of  spirits  in  the  calamities  of  that 
sad  winter.  No  tidings  came  of  the  Griffin,  and  La  Salle  determined 
to  return  by  land  to  Niagara. 

He  first  detached  Father  Hennepin,  a  missionary,  with  one  com- 
panion, to  trace  the  Illinois  to  its  mouth,  and  then  to  ascend   nennepjns 
the   Mississippi  in  search  of  a  route  to  the  Pacific.     This  J°urnc-v- 
Hennepin  did.     He  appears  but  meanly  as  a  narrator,  or  as  a  voyager, 
in  comparison  with  the  modest  and  unselfish  Marquette.     He  availed 
himself  of  the  "  local  colouring  "  which  he 
thus  acquired,  to  give  probability  to  a  ly- 
ing narrative,  which  he  published  in  France 
some  years  afterward,  in  which  he  claimed 
for  himself  the  honor,  which  belongs  to  La 
Salle  alone,  of  tracing  the  river  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.     There  is  no  better  instance  in 
literary  history  of  the  danger  of  such  an  at- 
tempt, or  the  certainty  that  it  will  furnish 
the  means  within  itself  to  disprove  its  own 
statements.    What  Hennepin  did  was  to  sail 
down  the  Illinois  to  its  mouth,  and  then  to 
ascend  the  Mississippi  as  far  as  the  falls  of 
St.  Anthony.     Here  he  was  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Sioux,  who  permitted  him  to  return 
to  his  countrymen,  on  condition  that  he  would  revisit  them  in  the 
next  year. 

La  Salle  had  left  his  companion  Henri  de  Tonty l  in  charge  at  Cr£ve- 

Coeur  while  he  went  back  to  Niagara.  At  this 
time  however  the  Iroquois,  always  hostile  to  the 
French,  and  excited,  as  La  Salle  thought,  by  his 
personal  enemies,  attacked  the  Illinois,  among 
whom  the  fort  was  situated.2  Tonty's  whole 

Signature  of  Tonty.  garrison      was      five      mell.       He      found      himself 

obliged   to  evacuate  Creve-Coeur  and  to  return.     While  he  passed 
down  Lake  Michigan  on  its  west  side,  La  Salle  passed  up  on  the  other 
with  reinforcements.     His  heart  must  have  quailed   again   La^n,,,. 
when  he  came  to  Creve-Coeur  to  find  it  deserted.    After  this  r*turu- 
failure,  he  could  only  do  his  best  to  secure  alliances  with  the  Indians, 

1  He  was  son  of  Lorenzo  Tonty,  who  invented  the  Tontine. 

2  Mr.  Parkmnn  lias  identified  the  site  of  the  great  town  of  the  Illinois.     It  is  near  Utioa, 
La  Salle  County,  Illinois. 


Sioux  Chief  (from  Catlin). 


512 


THE   FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 


and  then  returned  to  Montreal.  Here  he  had  to  compound  with 
his  creditors,  for  the  loss  of  the  Griffin  left  him  unable  to  meet  his 
pecuniary  obligations.  He  said,  himself,  that  with  the  exception  of 
the  governor,  Count  Frontenac,  it  seemed  as  if  every  man  in  Canada 
were  opposed  to  his  adventure.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  bring- 
ing together  the  resources  for  his  undertaking,  and  started  once 
more,  on  the  expedition  which  proved  successful,  in  the  summer  of 
1681.1 

The  party  embarked  on  Lake  Erie  at  the  end  of  August,  and  ar- 
rived at  the  port  at  St.  Joseph  early  in  November.     La  Salle  there 


Site  of  Chicago 


chose  for  his  party  twenty-three  Frenchmen  and  eighteen  Indians,  of 
the  Abnakis  and  Mohegans,  New  England  tribes,  which  had  put 
themselves  under  his  protection.  Daniel  Coxe,  in  his  memorial  to 
William  III.,  cited  above,  says  that  these  native  New  Englanders 
were  chosen,  because  they  had  in  the  year  before  accompanied  a  con- 
siderable number  of  adventurers  from  New  England  to  the  Missis- 
sippi. The  statement  is  probable  enough,  but  the  narrative  to  which 
Coxe  refers  has  not  yet  been  found  in  the  Massachusetts  archives. 
The  Indians  took  with  them  ten  of  their  wives  and  these  women  had 
three  children.  The  whole  party  thus  consisted  of  fifty-four  persons, 
among  whom  were  the  Chevalier  Henri  de  Tonty,  Father  Zenobe,  of 

1  We  have  his  own  narrative,  written  in  the  third  person,  recently  discovered  in  the  ar- 
chives  in  France,  and  printed  in  Thoniassy's  Geology  of  Louisiana.  We  have  also  Jou- 
tel's  narrative,  and  that  of  the  Chevalier  Tonty. 


1682.]  LA  SALLE'S   SECOND  EXPEDITION.  618 

the  Recollet  Order,  and  Dautray,  the  son  of  the  procureur  general  of 
Quebec. 

They  crossed  the  lake  to  the  Chicago  River,  to  which  they  had 
given  the  name  of  the  Divine  River.1  Time  has  preserved  the  native 
name,  of  which  the  derivation  is  not  savory,  and,  as  time  will,  has 
forgotten  the  piety  of  the  discoverers.  This  river  proved 

,,  i   rii  i  111  111     Second  ex- 

to  be  frozen,  and  lonty,  who  commanded  the  advance,  had 


to  build  sledges  for  the  party  and  its  boats.  They  left  the 
site  of  the  present  city  of  Chicago  on  the  27th  of  January,  1682,  and 
were  obliged  to  haul  their  luggage  and  provisions  eighty  leagues.  On 
this  march  they  passed  the  chief  village  of  the  Illinois,  but  the  tribe 
wintered  elsewhere.  At  the  widening  of  the  river  where  Fort  Creve- 
Coeur  stood,  which  they  called  Lake  Pimedy,  they  found  the  ice 
melted.  Here  they  were  able  to  launch  their  canoes,  and  in  them 
they  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  on  the  6th  of  February. 
La  Salle  placed  this  point  at  38°  of  north  latitude.  In  this  calculation 
he  was  a  degree  too  far  south. 

The  ice  of  the  Mississippi  detained  them  for  a  week,  when  they 
sailed.  The  next  day,  on  the  fourteenth,  they  passed  the  village  of 
Tamaroa,  but  here,  also,  they  found  no  inhabitants,  and  they  con- 
tinued their  voyage  for  more  than  a  hundred  leagues  without  meeting 
any  person.  On  the  first  of  March,  having  lost  one  of  his  hunters, 
La  Salle  established  a  fort  on  shore,  and  ordered  several  excursions  in 
hope  of  finding  him.  In  one  of  these  two  natives  were  taken  prison- 
ers, who  said  that  they  were  Sicachas.  They  were  probably  of  our 
tribe  of  Chickasaws.2  They  said  their  town  was  distant  a  day  and  a 
half's  journey.  But,  after  La  Salle  had  accompanied  them  for  that 
time,  the  town  proved  to  be  still  three  days  off,  and  he  refused  Lo 
go  farther.  One  of  them  returned  with  him,  and  the  other  said 
he  would  bring  the  chiefs  to  the  river.  La  Salle  returned  to  his  boats, 
—  the  lost  hunter  had  meanwhile  been  found,3  —  and  on  the  3d  of 
March  he  continued  his  voyage. 

On  the  13th,  after  sailing  forty-five  leagues,  the  sound  of  drums 
and  war-cries  gave  notice  that  the  savages  had  discovered 
them,  and  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river  their  village  could  with  the 
be  seen.     La  Salle  established  himself  at  once  on  the  left 
bank  and  in  an  hour's  time  built  a  fort  on  a  point  of  land  there.     The 
Indian  chiefs  sent  across  a  canoe,  —  the  occupants  of  which  received 
the  calumet  of  peace,  —  and  pleasant  relations  were  at  once  opened 

1  La  Salle's  text  i«  distinct.    "  Pour  aller  vere  la  riviere  Divine,  appelee  par  les  Sauvages 
Chicagou."     On  many  of  the  maps  the  name  Divine  is  given  to  the  Illinois. 

2  Their  name  is  mentioned  in  the  narratives  of  De  Soto. 

8  The  hunter's  name  was  Prudhomme,  and  was  given  to  a  fort  at  this  place,  which  re- 
tained that  name  long  after. 

VOL.    I!  33 


614 


THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 


between  the  parties.  La  Salle  remained  with  his  hosts  three  days, 
and,  when  he  left,  they  provisioned  him  from  their  stores.  He  no- 
ticed, at  once,  the  difference  between  them  and  the  northern  Indians. 
•'  These  are  better  formed,"  he  says,  u  free,  courteous,  and  of  a  gay 
humour.  The  northern  Indians  are  all  triste  and  of  severe  disposi- 
tion." 

This  village  is  described  as  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  "  Many 
kinds  of  fruits  and  peaches  were  already  formed  on  the  trees."  La 
Salle  planted  a  cross  there,  with  King  Louis's  arms,  and  on  his  re- 
turn, he  found  they  had  surrounded  the  cross  with  a  palisade.  They 
also  gave  him  provisions,  and  interpreters  to  communicate  with  their 
allies,  the  Taensas,  eighty  leagues  further  down. 


The  Taen- 

»as. 


Wisconsin    Indians  gathering  Wild   Rice. 


On  the  22d  he  came  to  the  Taensas,  whom  he  found  living  in  eight 
villages.  He  had  passed,  without  stopping,  the  villages  of 
the  Arkansas.  He  describes  the  houses  of  the  Taensas  as 
built  of  walls  of  mud  and  straw,  the  roof  of  canes,  which  form  a  dome 
ornamented  by  painting.  "  They  have  bedsteads  and  other  furniture 
and  embellishments.  They  have  temples  in  which  they  bury  the 
bones  of  their  chiefs,  and  they  are  clothed- with  white  robes,  made  of 
the  bark  of  a  tree,  which  they  spin."  The  whole  account  shows  rela- 
tionship to  the  Natchez  and,  probably,  to  Mexican  or  other  Southern 
tribes.  Their  chief  received  De  Tonty  hospitably,  La  Salle  having 


1682.] 


LA  SALLE'S   GREAT  DISCOVERY. 


515 


sent  him  as  his  ambassador.  Continuing  feheir  navigation,  the  French 
opened  communication  with  the  Natchez,  who  told  them  that  they 
were  still  ten  days  from  the  sea.  On  the  2d  of  April  they  were 
for  the  first  time  attacked  by  Indians,  who  belonged  to  a  tribe  called 
Quinipisa.1  The  French  had  offered  them  the  calumet,  but  the  sav- 
ages fired  their  arrows  and  fled.  La  Salle  did  not  pursue  them,  but 
kept  on  his  course.  On  the  6th  the  river  divided  into  three  branches. 
La  Salle  took  the  west,  he  sent  De  Tonty  to  the  middle,  and  Dautray 
to  the  left.  Two  leagues  farther  and  the  water  was  salt,  —  a  little 
moi*e,  —  and  the  sea  appeared,  and  the  great  discovery  was  made ! 

On  the  9th  of  April,  La  Salle  planted  a  cross  with  the  arms  of 
France.     They  sang  the  hymn   Vexilla  Regis  and  the  Te  Lasaiiemt 
Deum,  and  in  the  name  of  King  Louis  he  took  possession  of  ofethe°Mi*- 
the  river  and  all  the  streams  which  fall  into  it,  and  all  the  S18S1PP' 
countries  which  belong  to  them.     This  act  of  possession  has  been  sub- 
stantially respected  ever  since.    It 
is  under  this  act  that  France  held 
her  rights  to  the  great  province 
known  as  Louisiana,  —  and,  there- 
fore, it  is  under  this  act  that  the 
United  States  holds  the  State  of 
Louisiana,    and   all    its   territory 
north  of  the  line  of  Texas  and 
west   of    the    Mississippi    to   the 
Rocky  Mountains,   to   this   day. 
It  must  be  remembered,  that,  un- 
til 1803,  the  name  LOUISIANA  ap- 
plies   to    the   whole    Mississippi 
valley. 

La     Salle's     provisions    were 
nearly    exhausted.      The    party 
found  some  dried  meat  near  the 
mouth  of    the    river,   and   were 
glad  to  satisfy  their  hunger  with 
it,  till  the  suspicion  was  started 
that  it  was  the  flesh  of  men.    On  this  the  whites  left  it  to  the  savages, 
who  declared  it  was  delicious.2    On  the  10th  of  April,  La  Salle 
began  his  return ;  and,  until  they  came  to  the  Quinipisa  In- 
dians, the  party  had  to  live  on  alligator's  flesh  and  potatoes.     He  suc- 

1  On  the  map,  as  drawn  by  Franquelin,  this  is  spelled  Kennipesa,  the  same  as  were  after- 
wards spelled  Colapissas,  and  Aqiieloupissas,  "Those  who  hear  and  see." 

2  See  report  of  Father  Zenobe,  of  which  the  original  is  in  possession  of  M    Dooz,  of 
Baton  Rouge. 


Portrait  of   Louis  XIV. 


616  THE   FRENCH  IN   THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 

ceeded  in  capturing  four  women  of  the  Quinipisa ;  he  explained  to  them 
that  his  intentions  were  peaceable,  and  by  their  means  purchased  maize 
and  other  supplies  from  the  tribe.  He  was  well  received  by  the  Taen- 
sas  and  Arkansas,  arriving  at  the  villages  of  the  latter  on  the  17th  of 
May.  When  he  was  a  hundred  leagues  below  the  Illinois  River  he 
fell  dangerously  ill.  He  was  therefore  obliged  to  intrust  his  dispatches 
to  De  Tonty,  who  went  on  in  advance.  La  Salle  himself  was  detained 
forty  days  by  his  illness.  He  arrived  at  St.  Joseph  at  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember, but  the  approach  of  winter  prevented  his  return  to  Quebec. 
"  He  thus  finished,"  he  says  in  closing  his  report,  "  the  most  important 
and  difficult  discovery  which  has  ever  been  made  by  any  Frenchman, 
without  the  loss  of  a  single  man,  in  the  same  country  where  Jean 
Ponce  de  Leon,  Pamphile  de  Narvaez,  and  Ferdinand  de  Soto  per- 
ished unsuccessful,  with  more  than  two  thousand  Spaniards.  No 
Spaniard  ever  carried  through  such  an  enterprise  with  so  small  a 
force,  in  presence  of  so  many  enemies.  But  he  has  gained  no  advan- 
tage for  himself.  His  misfortunes  and  the  frequent  obstacles  in  his 
way  have  cost  him  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  livres.  Still  he 
will  be  happy  if  he  has  done  anything  for  the  advantage  of  France, 
and  if  his  endeavors  may  win  for  him  the  protection  of  Monseigneur." 

Father  Mambre*  took  to  France  La  Salle's  report  of  his  great  dis- 
His  report  covery.  Unfortunately  for  the  great  explorer,  Count  Fron- 
u>  France,  tenac  had  been  replaced  by  M.  de  la  Barre,  who  had  con- 
ceived a  dislike  of  La  Salle.  He  had  written  home,  charging  him 
with  the  Iroquois  war  ;  and  he  afterwards  represented  that  La  Salle 
was  a  mischief-maker  among  the  Indians,  who  perverted  his  royal 
commission  for  the  purposes  of  mere  trade.  But  so  soon  as  La  Salle 
himself  was  able  to  report  in  person  at  Paris,  he  swept  away  any  in- 
jurious impressions  which  had  been  thus  made.  The  French  mon- 
archy was  never  at  a  higher  point  of  success  or  ambition.  The  peace 
of  Nimeguen  in  1678  had  given  to  Louis  almost  all  he  could  ask  for. 
Seignelay,  the  Minister  of  Marine,  listened  with  pleasure  to  La  Salle's 
narratives.1  He  sent  directions  to  La  Barre  to  restore  Fort  Fron tenac 
(now  Kingston)  to  his  agents  ;  and  to  La  Salle  himself  he  gave  large 
powers  for  the  colonization  of  Louisiana. 

In  the  memoir,  which  is  still  preserved,  which  La  Salle  addressed 
to  the  Marquis  Seignelay,  he  proposes  to  establish  a  colony  sixty 
leagues  above  the  mouth  of  the  river.  This  would  have  been,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  map,  not  far  from  the  point  where  the  Atchafalaya 
makes  a  separate  course  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  sea,  —  and  it  is 
probable  that  he  intended  at  that  point  to  establish  his  colony.  With- 


1  On  Franquelin's  map,  made  in  1684,  under  La  Salle's   direction,  the  Mississippi  is 
named  the  "  Colbert,"  and  the  Red  River  is  named  the  "  Seignelay." 


1685.]  .LA   SALLE'S   VOYAGE   TO   TEXAS.  517 

out  any  disguise,  he  proposes,  as  the  principal  object  of  this  colony, 
such  an  attack  on  the  back  of  the  Spanish  possessions,  as  was  to  open 
to  the  French  their  thirty  silver  mines  in  New  Biscay.  And  he  coolly 
remarks,  that  if  the  peace  of  Europe  makes  it  necessary  to  postpone 
such  designs,  it  will  be  well  to  be  prepared  for  them  in  the  event  of  a 
war.  He  says  that  Spain  makes  six  million  crowns  yearly  by  these 
mines,  and  that,  with  superior  ease  of  transport  of  silver,  France  will 
make  much  more.  La  Salle  is  truly  enough  called  a  representative 
of  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  and  to  the  real  spirit  of  the  chivalrous  ages 
such  a  proposition  as  this  not  unfitly  belongs. 

Seignelay  and  the  King  gave  him  more  than  he  asked  for.  The 
colonists  sailed  from  Rochelle  on  the  24th  of  July,  1684,  ad-  LBSaUe-g 
mirably  well  equipped,  in  four  vessels,  —  a  part  of  a  fleet  ••"•^P** 
of  twenty-five,  of  which  the  others  were  bound  to  the  French  West 
Indies  and  to  Canada.  But  the  passage  across  the  Atlantic  was  then 
long.  Much  time  was  consumed  in  stopping  at  San  Domingo,  and  the 
year  had  almost  ended  before  the  squadron  of  La  Salle  was  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  By  a  terrible  misfortune,  due  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  rightly  calculating  longitude  in  those  times,1  they  passed  the 
true  mouth  of  the  great  river. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1685,  La  Salle  landed,  —  perhaps  on  the 
southern  shore  of  our  State  of  Louisiana,  near  the  Sabine,  —  but  he 
could  learn  nothing  from  the  Indians,  and  continued  west  for  a 
fortnight  longer.  When  they  found  the  coast  trending  south,  they 
were  sure  of  their  own  error.  But  the  captain  of  the  fleet,  Beatijeu, 
refused  to  return  along  the  coast,  and  after  an  altercation  between  him 
and  La  Salle,  the  vessels  entered  Matagorda  Bay,  which  they  called 
the  Bay  of  St.  Bernard.  Here  the  stores  of  the  colony  were 
landed,  and  here  Beaujeu,  who  had  been  at  cross-purposes,  Matagorda 
left  them.  By  such  a  series  of  misfortunes  did  it  happen 
that  the  State  of  Texas  was  the  earliest,  after  Florida,  of  the  States 
which  we  call  Gulf  States,  to  be  colonized  by  Europeans.  Beaujeu 
left  the  party  on  the  12th  of  March,2  under  circumstances  of  cruel 
desertion.  On  his  return  to  France  he  made  the  most  unfavorable 
report,  and  to  him,  and  possibly  to  Jesuit  hatred,  may  it  be  attributed 
that  no  relief  was  sent  out  to  the  great  explorer. 

To  the  stream  which  flows  into  Matagorda  Bay  from  the  northwest, 
La  Salle  gave  the  name  Les  Vaches,  from  the  buffaloes  he  found 

1  A  quarter  of  a  century  after,  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel  and  his  fleet  were  lost  on  the  coast 
of  Cornwall,  because  their  longitude  was  more  than  a  degree  out  of  the  way. 

2  He  left  among  other  stores  eight  cannon,  which  the  King  had  given  to  the  colony. 
They  were  lately  to  be  seen  at  Goliad,  identified  by  having  Louis  XIV.'s  mark  upon 
them. 


618 


THE   FRENCH   IN    THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.     [CHAP.  XXI. 


there.  Near  the  same  spot,  the  town  of  Lavaca  retains  the  name, 
the  only  name  given  by  La  Salle  to  his  establishments  in  Texas  which 
has  been  preserved.  The  name  St.  Louis  was  given  to  the  new  settle- 
ment. The  Indians,  whom  he  found  in  Texas,  were  of  the 
same  great  race  as  the  tribes  he  had  met  on  the  Mississippi. 
They  had  large  and  populous  villages,  with  well-built  cabins,  said  to 


The  Texas 
Indians. 


La  Salle's   Landing  in  Texas  (reduced  fac-simile  from  Hennepin). 

be  sometimes  forty  and  fifty  feet  high.1  They  had  traded  with  the 
Spaniards  for  horses,  clothing,  spurs,  and  silver  spoons,  and  knew  what 
money  was.  La  Salle  found  them  gentle  and  hospitable.  Among 
such  tribes  he  was  to  pass  what  little  was  left  of  his  adventurous  life. 

1  Father  Douay's  narrative-     It  is  supposed  that  the  name  Texas  is  from  the  Spanish 
Tejas,  in  allusiou  to  these  covered  houses. 


1687.]  LA  SALLE'S   OVERLAND  JOURNEY.  519 

His  colony  once  sufficiently  established,  he  left  it  on  the  1st  of  No- 
vember, 1685,  on  an  expedition  of  discovery,  always  hoping  to  find, 
what  Joutel,  his  second  in  command,  learned  to  call  "  his  unfortunate 
river."  Once  and  again  from  such  expeditions,  in  which  he  trav- 
ersed Texas  far  in  different  ^^ 
routes,  he  returned  to  the  set-  ( 
tlement,  always  to  hear  some  y 
new  story  of  misadventure.  °^ 
But  his  own  buoyant  and  easy 
temper  would  restore  the  spirits 

ft-  11  11,1  Signature  of  Beauieu. 

of  his  men,  and  he  would  find 

new  resource  in  every  difficulty.  At  last,  at  the  end  of  1686,  he  de- 
termined to  lead  a  party  across  to  Canada  to  obtain  succors  from 
France  for  the  colony,  for  which,  thanks  to  Beaujeu's  treachery,  no 
supplies  had  arrived  in  two  years'  time. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1687,  this  hero,  who  combines  in  his  own 
character  so  much  that  would  have  challenged  regard  in  a 
chevalier  of  the  days  of  Philip  Augustus,  —  and  would  com- 


•  •  •  i*  i  i     i* 

mand  respect  in  the  vigorous  enterprises  of  to-day,  —  left 
the  wretched  colony,  on  what  was  to  prove  his  last  adventure.  For 
want  of  better  material,  the  clothing  which  he  and  his  men  wore  was 
made  from  the  sails  of  the  little  vessel  which  had  been  lost.  He  was 
to  lead  his  party  nearly  two  thousand  miles  overland.  The  same 
journey  may  be  made  to-day  by  railroad,  and  the  traveller  if  he 
chooses,  takes  his  ease.  But  even  now,  no  man  thinks  the  journey  a 
trifle.  Poor  La  Salle  and  his  companions  were  to  make  it  with  little 
guidance  beside  that  which  the  compass  gave  them,  and  must  trust  to 
their  weapons  or  their  address,  to  secure  their  passage  among  hostile 
tribes. 

He  had  bought  five  horses  from  the  Indians,  who  had  already 
learned  the  use  of  horses  from  the  Spaniards.  These  beasts  were 
used  as  pack-horses  for  the  party.  Twenty  of  the  colonists,  among 
whom  were  seven  women  and  girls  and  some  children,  were  to  remain 
behind  under  Barbier,  a  hunter,  who  had  been  married  since  their  ar- 
rival in  America,  and  who  was  appointed  governor  in  the  place  of 
Joutel.  La  Salle  made  them  a  farewell  address  in  his  own  engaging 
way,  and  all  who  were  to  stay,  while  they  felt  the  necessit}7  of  his 
journey,  wei'e  melted  to  tears.  Yet,  doubtless,  they  felt  that  their 
dangers  were  less  than  his. 

The  travelling  party  consisted  of  about  twenty  also.     La  Salle  and 
his  brother  Cavelier,  the  priest,  with  their  two  nephews,  —  LaSaiie's 
Joutel  and  Father  Anastasius,  Duhaut  and  Liotot,  the  sur-  comPauions- 
geon,  were  those  who  seemed  the  most  distinguished  of  the  party. 


520  THE   FRENCH  IN   THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.     [CHAP.  XXL 

Beside  them  were  a  man  named  Hiens,  who  had  been  a  buccaneer, 
and  was  sometimes  known  as  English  Jem,  and  Nika,  a  faithful 
Shawnee  Indian. 

In  that  climate,  there  is  no  real  hardship  in  travelling  in  January, 

and  had  the  party  been  better  provided, 
it  would  have  made  rapid  progress,  com- 
pared with  what  proved  possible.  But 

Signature  of  Cavelier.  x  .,      , 

they  lacked  shoes,  until  they  could  sup- 
ply their  place  with  buffalo-hide  and  deer-skin.  The  rivers  were 
swollen,  and  they  were  obliged  to  make  boats  from  hides  to  ferry 
them.  Thus  they  crossed  the  Brazos,  and  in  two  months'  time,  they 
approached  Trinity  River.  Nothing  but  the  scantiness  of  their  equip- 
ment, and  the  fullness  of  the  streams  and  rivers,  accounts  for  the  slow- 
ness of  their  progress.  Meanwhile  the  members  of  the  party  were 
not  on  good  terms.  La  Salle  appeared  reserved  and  anxious,  and 
Liotot  and  Duhaut  had  quarrelled  with  young  Moranget,  his  nephew 

On  the  15th  of  March,  La  Salle  sent  a  party  from  camp  to  find 
some  provisions  which  he  had  left  on  his  last  expedition.  They  found 
the  provision  spoiled, —  but  they  killed  two  buffaloes,  and  sent  to  La 
Salle  for  horses  to  bring  the  meat.  La  Salle  sent  Moranget  and  two 
others  with  the  horses.  They  found  the  successful  hunters,  among 
whom  were  Duhaut,  Liotot,  and  Heins,  already  curing  the  meat. 
Moranget,  hot-headed  boy  as  he  was,  broke  into  rage  with  them,  be- 
cause they  had  put  by  for  themselves  some  part  of  the  meat,  to 
which  the  customs  of  hunting  entitled  them.  It  was  not  the  first  of 
Mutiny  in  Moranget's  outbursts  of  rage.  Duhaut  was  so  angry,  that 
the  camp.  jje  conspire(j  with  the  others  to  kill  Moranget,  —  and,  as  he 
knew  the  fidelity  of  Nika  the  Indian,  and  Saget,  La  Salle's  servant, 
their  death  also  was  determined.  Night  came,  the  three  victims  each 
served  his  watch  in  turn.  So  soon  as  they  slept,  Duhaut  and  Heins 
stood  by  with  their  guns  cocked,  —  and  Liotot,  with  an  axe,  killed  the 
three  sleeping  men.  La  Salle  was  six  miles  away. 

They  did  not  dare  join  him.  When  the  others  had  been  absent  two 
days,  La  Salle  sought  them  in  his  anxiety,  accompanied  by  the  friar 
Anastasius.  As  they  walked  he  talked  with  the  priest  on  religious 
themes,  and  of  his  gratitude  to  God  for  his  safety  in  twenty  years' 
peril.  Suddenly  he  was  overcome  with  profound  sadness,  and  was  so 
much  moved  that  Father  Anastasius  scarcely  knew  him.  They  came 
near  Duhaut's  camp,  and  La  Salle  noticed  two  birds  of  prey  hovering 
above.  He  saw  on  the  ground  a  piece  of  bloody  clothing.  He  fired 
Mur,i.>r  of  his  two  pistols  to  summon  the  hunters.  They  heard  the 
La  saiie.  shots,  and  crossed  a  little  river  to  meet  him.  La  Salle  asked 
for  his  nephew.  One  of  them  replied  insolently,  that  "  Moranget 


1687.]  FATE   OF   LA   SALLE   AND  HIS   COLONY.  521 

was  along  the  river."     La  Salle  rebuked  him.     Duhaut  fired  his  gun 
in  reply,  and  La  Salle  fell  dead,  —  shot  through  the  brain. 

"There  you  are,  great  pashavv,"  1  — this  was  the  contemptuous  cry 
of  the  false  surgeon.  Such  was  the  death  of  one  of  the  noblest  heroes 
of  France,  when  he  seemed  at  the  very  prime  of  his  life.  He  was 
only  forty-three  years  old.  Had  he  lived,  with  his  spirit  and  power 
of  command,  to  carry  out  the  enterprise  lie  had  planned,  the  history 
of  Louisiana  must  have  been  different.  By  his  death,  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi  was  left  for  nearly  twenty  years  more  to  be  the  home 
of  savages. 

After  his  death,  the  first  history  of  his  colony,  which  had  left  France 
in  such  high  hope,  sinks  into  the  separate  effort  of  the  colonists  to 
escape  with  their  lives  from  a  wilderness.  In  a  quarrel  Deathof 
among  the  murderers,  Duhaut,  who  had  himself  fired  the  fa-  Duhaut- 
tal  shot  which  killed  La  Salle,  was  himself  killed,  and  the  little  com- 
pany afterwards  broke  in  pieces.  Joutel,  Father  Anastasius,  —  the  two 
relatives  of  La  Salle,  —  and  four  others,  made  a  separate  party,  which 
persevered  towards  Canada.  They  had  horses,  which  they  had  ob- 
tained from  the  natives,  and,  by  following  a  northeast  course,  from 
the  country  of  the  Caddos,  above  the  lake  of  that  name  on  Red  River, 
they  came  out,  to  their  delight,  on  the  24th  of  July,  upon  a  cottage 
built  in  the  French  fashion,  and  a  cross  upon  the  northern  side  of  the 
Arkansas  River,  just  above  the  place  where  it  unites  with  the  Missis- 
sippi. 

The  cottage  was  the  home  of  two  Frenchmen,  Charpentier  and  De 
Launay,  both  of  the  city  of  Rouen,  whom  De  Tonty,  La  Salle's  old 
companion,  had  left  at  the  junction  of  the  Arkansas  and  Mississippi, 
in  the  spring  of  1685.  De  Tonty  had  gone  down  the  river,  in  vain, 
in  hopes  to  meet  his  old  chief  there.  The  names  of  these  Frenchmen 
deserve  permanent  record,  as  those  of  the  persons  who  established  the 
first  permanent  post  of  Europeans  south  of  the  Illinois  River,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

From  this  point  the  friends  of  La  Salle  went  home  by  routes  now 
familiar  to  the  French.  The  fate  of  the  twenty  colonists  left  at  St. 
Louis,  in  Matagorda  Bay,  is  not  clear.  A  Spanish  officer,  dispatched 
to  find  them  in  1689,  found  only  the  deserted  settlement.  Two  of  the 

1  "  Te  voila,  grand  bacha,  te  voila."  Joutel's  narrative.  There  are  three  narratives  by 
members  of  this  wretched  expedition  :  Father  Cavelier,  Joutel's,  and  that  of  Father  Anas- 
tasius. We  have  followed  Mr.  Parkmau's  thrilling  narrative.  The  spot  is  not  determined. 
The  Texan  historian  supposes  it  to  have  been  near  the  Neches  River  where  the  old  Indian 
trail  crosses  that  stream.  Yonkum's  Hist,  of  Texas,  i.  38.  But  the  old  map  of  De  Lisle 
places  it  distinctly  at  a  point  about  seven  miles  west  of  Trinity  River,  in  the  county  of  San 
Jaciuto,  not  very  far  from  the  field  of  the  critical  battle  known  by  that  name. 


522  THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CiJAP.  XXI. 

murderous  party  were  arrested  by  the  same  officer,  and  were  even- 
tually condemned  to  the  Spanish  mines.  Thus  the  first  French  effort 
to  colonize  the  southwest  left  no  sign,  in  1689,  but  the  cottage  of  the 
two  Frenchmen  who  were  established  at  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas, 
with  the  addition  of  a  third  from  La  Salle's  party. 

The  successful  colonization  of  Louisiana,  and  from  Louisiana  up- 
wards, of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  was  due  not  to  the  spirit  of 
chivalry,  so  far  as  that  was  represented  by  La  Salle,  or  to  his  chival- 
rous plans  for  seizing  the  Spanish  silver  mines,  but  to  more  modern 
developments  of  the  spirit  of  mercantile  adventure. 

It  is  probable  that  the  long  and  successful  enterprises  of  La  Salle 
Canadian  an^  his  companions  were  the  first  steps  which  led  to  the  edu- 
expiorers.  cation  of  a  race  of  men  still  existing,  known  as  the  Cana- 
dian Voyageurs.  In  all  the  great  river  adventures  of  North  America 
from  those  days  down,  these  voyageurs  have  taken  their  part,  humble, 
but  none  the  less  essential.  The  names  of  such  men  are  in  the  nar- 
ratives of  Hearne  and  Mackenzie,  of  Lewis  and  Clarke,  of  Franklin, 
Back,  and  the  Simpsons.  The  nomenclature  which  they  have  created 
is  still  in  use  on  all  the  American  rivers  between  New  Brunswick 
and  California,  and  their  readiness  to  undertake  any  of  the  hardships 
of  a  campaigner's  life  makes  them  favored  volunteers  in  the  compo- 
sition of  any  expedition  of  adventure.  From  the  time  when  De  Tonty 
went  down  the  river  in  1686,  in  unsuccessful  hope  of  meeting  La 
Salle,  there  was,  perhaps,  not  a  single  year  that  some  of  these  voy- 
ageurs did  not  "  try  the  adventure  "  of  the  Mississippi  in  whole  or  in 
part.1 

But  it  was  not  for  ten  years  after  La  Salle's  death  that  the  French 
Crown  made  any  effort  to  renew  the  colonization  of  the  Mississippi 
valley.  The  work  was  then  put  into  competent  hands. 

The  Sieur  Lemoyne  d'Iberville  was  the  third  of  eleven  brothers, 
sons  of  Charles  Lemoyne,  Baron  Longueuil,  of  Canada.  To  him  was 
intrusted  the  oversight  of  an  expedition  fitted  out  by  the  King  to  plant 
a  colony.  Two  frigates  conveyed  the  colonists,  of  which 
ofXD^ibe'r°-n  D'Iberville  himself  commanded  the  larger,  so  that  the  evils 
of  a  divided  command,  which  had  broken  the  strength  of 
La  Salle's  effort,  were  avoided.  A  third  vessel  joined  at  Saint  Do- 
mingo, and  on  the  25th  of  January,  1699,  the  expedition  arrived  at 
the  island  of  St.  Rosa,  just  below  Pensacola.  At  this  point  the 
Spaniards  had  established  themselves  more  than  a  month  before. 

1  It  has  been  said  that  a  party  went  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  as  early  as  1686 
No  sucli  party  made  a  permanent  establishment;  this  statement  is  derived  from  some  recoj 
lectiuii  of  De  Toiity's  expedition. 


1700.]  D'IBERVILLE  AND   BIENVILLE.  523 

D'Iberville  spent  some  weeks  in  exploring  the  coast,  and  on  the  2d 
of  March  entered  the  Mississippi  River.  He  had  with  him  Father 
Anastasius,  who 
had  accompanied 
La  Salle,  and  who 
found  no  difficulty 

.    .  .  Signature  of  D'Iberville. 

in   recognizing  its 

turbid  waters  and  its  majestic  flow.  Evidence  more  convincing  to 
D'Iberville  was  found,  when,  forty  leagues  up  the  river,  they  found 
the  Bayagoula  Indians,  who  brought  out  cloaks  which  La  Salle  had 
given  them,  a  breviary  which  Father  Anastasius  had  left  in  1682,  and 
a  letter  which  De  Tonty  had  left  in  1686.  They  called  it  "a  speaking 
bark."  1  DTberville's  first  post  was  at  Biloxi  Island,  in  Mobile  Bay. 
He  returned  to  France,  and  was  again  despatched  to  the  river.  He 
founded  his  second  post  at  a  point  on  the  Mississippi,  now  known  as 
Poverty  Point,  about  thirty-eight  miles  below  the  present  city  of  New 
Orleans. 

The  settlement  at  Biloxi  was  within  the  limits  of  the  present  State 
of  Alabama,  and  was  the  first  establishment  of  whites  there. 
It  was  abandoned  after  a  year  for  a  station  further  up  on   mentatBi- 
the  Mobile  River,  about  eighteen  leagues  from  the  sea.    The 
settlement  at  Poverty  Point  was  the  first  settlement  made  in  Lou- 
isiana.   It  was  established  in  1700.     By  this  time  D'Iberville  had  the 
assistance  of  a  Canadian  colony  to  meet  him  by  the  way  of  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Miami  portage. 

While  D'Iberville  was  absent  in  France,  his  brother  Bienville  fell 
in  with  an  English  ship,  commanded  by  Captain  Barr,  which  was 
twenty-eight  leagues  up  the  river,  having  been  sent  out  to  explore 
and  take  possession  of  the  Mississippi.  Bienville  boldly  told  him 
that  the  Mississippi  was  farther  west,  that  this  river  was  a  depend- 
ency of  Canada  of  which  he  had  taken  possession,  and  Barr  went 
in  search  of  the  great  river,  just  where  poor  La  Salle  had  looked 
for  it  so  vainly.  The  reach  of  the  river  where  this  interview  took 
place  is  still  known  as  the  "  English  turn."  The  expedition  thus  ar- 
rested was  a  private  expedition  sent  out  by  Coxe,  an  Englishman, 
who  held  a  charter  given  by  Charles  I.,  for  a  supposed  province  of 
Carolana  or  West  Florida.  Our  only  other  account  of  this  expedi- 
tion is  by  Coxe's  son,  and  was  published  twenty  years  after.  He 
complains  that  the  captain  of  one  ship  deserted  the  other,  but  says 
that  one  of  the  two  ascended  the  river  one  hundred  miles.2 

1  "  Ecorce  parlante." 

2  The  younger  Coxe's  map  is  drawn  to  show  that  all  of  southern  Louisiana,  except  the 


524 


THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 


During  the  war  of  succession,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  Spain  and  France  were  in  alliance,  and  the  Spanish  governors, 

both  of  Mexico  and  of 
Florida,  rendered  one  and 
another  service  to  the  in- 
fant French  colony  which 
D'Iberville,and  his  brothers 
Bienville  and  Serigny,  re- 
quited as  they  could  in  their 
weakness.1  The  history  of 
the  infant  State  is  but  little 
more  than  that  of  a  small 
garrison,  whose  enterprising 
commanders  were  making 
alliances  with  the  neigh- 
boring savages.  Communi- 
cation was  constantly  kept 
up  with  Canada,  and  in 
1700,  Le  Soeur,  an  explorer 
of  mines,  went  so  far  as 
Lake  Superior,  and  re- 
turned, with  what  the 
chronicler  says  was  two 
hundred  thousand  pounds 
of  copper  ore.2  It  must  be 
doubted  whether  any  such 
quantity  was  carried  across  the  Portages  of  Wisconsin  or  Minne- 
sota, especially  as  Le  Sceur's  journal  says  that  it  was  in  three  ca- 
noes. 

The  pacification  of  Europe  resulting  from  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
gave  the  signal  for  an  enlargement  of  the  little  colony.  At  that  time 
the  military  force  in  Louisiana  did  not  exceed  one  hundred  French 
soldiers,  and  seventy-five  Canadians.  There  were  perhaps  three  hun- 

very  months  of  the  Mississippi,  was  included  in  the  charter  of  "Carolana,"  that  is,  was 
north  of  31°  north  latitude.  The  line  of  31°  is  the  northern  line  of  our  State  of  Florida, 
and  the  southern  of  the  greater  part  of  Mississippi.  Coxe  claims  the  river  for  England  on 
the  frround  that  his  father's  ship  was  the  first  to  enter  it  from  the  sea  It  probably  was, 
but  the  claim  of  discovery  is  absurd.  Still,  had  William  the  Third  lived  longer,  he  might 
have  followed  up  this  claim. 

1  Archiv  de  la  Marine.     No.  9,  No.  458  in  Mr.  Forstall's  list. 

2  La  Harpe's  narrative,  preserved  in  MS.  in  the  Philosophical  Society's  Library.     The 
text  is,  "  Monsieur  Lc  Sueur  arriva  avec  2000  quint"  de  terre  bleue  y  verte,  venaut  des 
Scioux."     The  narrative,  in  an  English  translation,  has  been  published  by  Mr.  Trench  in 
the  Louisiana  Historical  Transactions. 


Portrait   and   Signature   of   Bienville 


1713.]  CROZAT'S   GRANT.  525 

dred  whites  beside,  and  twenty  negroes  held  as  slaves,  scattered  over 

the  enormous  territory  known  as  Louisiana.     So  soon  as  the 

peace  came,  the  King  granted  the  whole  territory  to  Antoine   ilouisiann 

/-I  e   ^  C.  •  U          1  •  to  Crozat. 

Crozat,  one  of  those  great  financiers  who  play  so  curious  a 
part  in  the  French  history  of  those  times.  The  grant  says  specific- 
ally, that  in  consequence  of  the  war  there  had  been  no  possibility  of 
reaping  the  advantages  which  might  have  been  expected.  It  says 
also  that  Crozat's  zeal,  and  singular  knowledge  in  maritime  commerce, 
encourages  hope  for  as  good  success  as  in  his  former  enterprises, 
"  which  have  procured  great  quantities  of  gold  and  silver  to  the 
kingdom  in  such  conjunctures  as  have  rendered  them  very  accept- 
able." 

In  the  grant,  the  great  rivers  are  thus  named:  "The  river  St. 
Louis,  heretofore  called  Mississippi,  the  river  St.  Philip,  heretofore 
called  Missouri,  the  river  St.  Jerome,  heretofore  called  Ouabache." 
But  these  names  have  lasted  as  little  as  the  other  special  CrOMt-SgoT- 
privileges  granted  to  Crozat.  The  grant  cedes  all  territo-  ernmellt- 
ries  watered  by  the  Mississippi.  Crozat  appointed  as  his  governor, 
La  Mothe  Cadillac,  a  soldier,  in  place  of  Le  Muys,  who  had  died  on 
his  passage  home.  Le  Muys  had  been  the  governor-general  named  by 
the  King. 

Cadillac  arrived  at  the  colony  in  May,  1713,  bringing  the  news  of 
peace,  the  news  of  the  grant  to  Crozat,  and  of  his  own  appointment. 
With  him  came  several  officers  of  administration.  D'Iber- 
ville  had  died,  but  his  influence  in  the  colony  was  inner- 
ited  by  his  brother,  Bienville,  so  long  celebrated  in  the  thepolony- 
history  of  Louisiana.  Naturally  enough  altercations  grew  up  between 
the  new  officials  and  Bienville  and  his  friends,  which  were  the  basis 
of  parties  extending  well  down  into  that  century.  In  a  colony  where 
there  were  not  a  hundred  persons  resident  at  any  one  point,  and 
at  this  time  not  more  than  four  hundred  persons  in  all,  such  alter- 
cations were,  doubtless,  all  the  more  bitter.  Crozat's  plans  were 
based  on  the  hope  of  commerce  with  the  Spaniards.  But  the  Span- 
ish government  changed  its  policy,  and  fell  back  on  a  system  of  exclu- 
sion, which  had  originated  with  Philip  II.,  and  which  generally  char- 
acterized its  rule  of  its  colonies,  until  it  brought  that  rule  to  an  end. 
Cadillac  remained  in  the  country  but  two  years.  He  made  some  per- 
sonal explorations,  and  ordered  an  expedition  into  Texas,  which 
will  be  best  described  in  our  chapter  on  the  early  history  of  that 
State. 

His  successor  was  M.  de  L'Epinay.    Bienville  was  appointed  King's 
Commandant,  while  De  L'Epinay  was  Governor-general.     There  was 


626 


THE   FRENCH   IN   THE    MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.   [CHAP.  XXI. 


no  less  dissension  between  these  two  than  between  Bienville  and 
Cadillac.  But  the  fortunes  of  the  colony  were  not  dependent  on  as 
trivial  motives  as  the  discords  of  local  commanders.  With  the  death 
of  "  Le  grand  Monarque  "  in  1715,  and  the  accession  of  the  Regent 
Duke  of  Orleans  to  the  sway  of  France,  a  new  destiny  awaited  Lou- 
isiana. It  came  through  the  spirit  which  was  given  to  emigration  by 
the  enterprise,  so  disastrous  in  Europe,  of  the  famous  John  Law, 
known  in  history  as  the  Mississippi  Scheme. 


Indians  in  a  Canoe  (fac-simile  from   La  Hortan). 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


John  Law. 


THE   MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 

JOHN  LAW.  —  THE  REGENT  ORLEANS.  —  LAW'S  BANK.  —  THE  WESTERN  COMPANY. 
—  RENEWED  EMIGRATION. — THE  INDIAN  COMPANY.  —  SPANISH  WAR.  —  NEW  ES- 
TABLISHMENTS.—  FAILURE  OF  LAW'S  PLANS.  —  RUIN  OF  SPECULATORS.  —  MIS- 
SIONS IN  LOUISIANA.  —  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  ORLEANS. — ESTABLISHMENT  AT 
NATCHEZ.  —  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  NATCHEZ.  —  CHO- 
PART'S  FOLLY.  —  ITS  RESULTS.  —  CAMPAIGNS  AGAINST  THE  NATCHEZ  AND  CHICKA- 
8AWS.  —  BlENVILLE  HE-APPOINTED.  —  HlS  ILL-SUCCESS  AS  A  MILITARY  LEADER. — 
VAUDREUIL  AND  KERLEREC. 

JOHN  LAW  was  born  in  Edinburgh  in  April,  1671,  the  son  of  a  gold- 
smith of  considerable  fortune.  The  goldsmiths  of  that  day 
were  the  bankers  of  the  world,  and  all  the  social  privileges 
of  a  banker  of  to-day  belonged  to  this  Scotch  goldsmith  then.  John 
Law  was  but  fourteen  years  old  when  his  father  died.  He  was  edu- 
cated with  care,  but  did  not  choose  to  embrace  his  father's  calling, 
preferring  a  life  of  pleasure 
and  travel.  He  left  his 
mother  at  the  age  of  twen- 
ty, and  went  first  to  Lon- 
don, where,  like  many  other 
adventurers,  he  applied  his 
knowledge  of  finance  and 
mathematics  to  the  calcula- 
tions of  the  gambling  table, 
without  more  success  than  is 
usual.  His  mother  paid  his 
debts  and  saved  his  estate. 
For  himself  he  became  pop- 
ular in  London ;  but  the 
fortune  of  Louisiana  was 
changed,  as  it  happened,  on 
the  9th  of  April,  1694,  when 
in  a  duel  in  Bloomsbury  Square,  he  killed  on  the  spot  a  gentleman 
named  Edward  Wilson,  "  commonly  called  Beau  Wilson."  For  this 


John    Law. 


528 


THE   MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


.  XXII. 


offence  be  was  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  death,  but  was  par- 
doned by  the  King.  He  was,  however,  thrown  into  prison  on  some 
charge  connected  with  the  duel,  bat  he  effected  his  escape  and  fled  to 
the  continent. 

At  Amsterdam  he  became  a  clerk  of  the  English  Resident,  in  order 
in*  cnreor  ^°  study  the  system  of  the  celebrated  Bank  of  Amsterdam  ; 
ana  finan-  an(j  at  thirty  years  of  age  he  returned  to  Scotland.  About 
schemes.  j.])e  year  1700,  he  presented  in  print  a  plan  for  what  we 
should  now  call  The  National  Bank  of  Scotland,  —  far  in  advance  of 

the  financial  wisdom  of  the  day, 
and,  indeed,  only  differing  from 
the  systems  now  in  use  in  the 
European  national  banks,  so  far 
as  it  included  the  system,  then 
universal,  of  monopolies  of  com- 
merce and  of  farming  out  the 
revenue.  Another  plan  of  his, 
at  this  time,  that  for  a  land  bank, 
has  been  often  brought  forward 
since,  but  never  reallv  tried. 

•/ 

Neither  Scotland  nor  England 
was  prepared  for  his  financial 
schemes,  and,  returning  to  the 
continent,  he  engaged  himself 
in  the  not  uncongenial  occupa- 
tion of  gambling,  —  managing 
faro  banks  with  profit.  This 
occupation  brought  him  into 
acquaintance  with  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  an  acquaintance  which  afterwards  proved  so  important.  On 
the  close  of  the  war  of  the  succession  he  urged  his  financial  plans  on 
of  the  French  government,  which  was  already  bankrupt.  But 
Louis  XIV.  rejected  them,  not  so  much  because  the  plans 
were  not  good,  of  which  nobody  in  France  was  a  judge,  as 
because  the  author  of  them  was  a  Protestant.  Law  went  to  offer 
them  to  Victor  Amadeo  at  Turin,  and  to  the  Emperor  of  Germany. 
Both  these  sovereigns  declined  to  try  his  experiments.  But  at  their 
courts  and  elsewhere,  lie  won  two  million  livres  at  gambling,  —  and 
this  he  carried  to  Paris,  where  it  became  the  nucleus  of  his  after 
fortunes. 

Louis  XIV.  died.  His  ambition,  his  selfishness,  and  in  especial,  the 
war  of  the  succession,  had  brought  France  to  bankruptcy.  It  is  not 
fair  to  ascribe  this  bankruptcy  to  John  Law.  The  truth  is,  that  he 


The  Regent  Orleans. 


th 


1715.]  JOIIX   LAW.  529 

postponed  for  a  few  years  the  inevitable  catastrophe.  To  borrow  the 
language  of  the  modern  exchange,  he  flew  the  great  kites,  which, 
for  a  little  while,  promised  to  carry  France  over  an  abyss.  When 
the  King  died  the  royal  stocks  were  at  a  discount  of  from  seventy  to 
eighty  per  cent.  A  treasury  report  of  September  20,  1715,  shows 
that  the  annual  expenses  were  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  million 
livres.1  All  the  receipts  of  the  year  were  pledged  in  advance,  except 
three  millions.  Seven  hundred  and  ten  millions  of  stocks  were  due 
in  the  current  year.  The  troops  were  not  paid,  commerce  was  ruined, 
and  whole  provinces  were  depopulated.  The  Regent  was  urged  to 
proclaim  the  crown  bankrupt.  The  Regent  declared  that  he  should 
be  dishonored,  and  that  France  would  be  dishonored,  by  such  a  course. 
In  place  of  it  he  attempted  every  half  way  measure  known  in  his 
time,  or  indeed,  since,  to  insolvent  states  or  failing  merchants.  When 
it  is  remembered,  that  in  fourteen  years  the  expenses  of  the  monarchy 
had  been  two  billions  of  livres  more  than  the  revenue,  and  that  this 
amount  had  been  borrowed  ;  that  the  arrears,  when  the  King  died, 
were  seven  hundred  and  eleven  millions,  and  the  deficit  on  the  year 
then  current  was  seventy-eight  millions ;  when  it  is  also  remembered 
that  Law's  plans,  such  as  they  were,  maintained  the  credit  of  the 
crown  for  five  years ;  the  injustice  will  be  seen  of  that  sweeping 
charge,  which  says  that  the  public  bankruptcy  of  France  was  the 
consequence  of  those  schemes. 

When  the  Regent  came  into  power  he  had  placed  the  Duke  <!«• 
Noailles  at  the  head  of  the  department  of  finance.     To  this 
department  he  referred  Law  and  his  plans.     Law  proposed   <-..ptanoc  in 
a  public  bank,  which  should  collect  the  revenues,  carry  on 
the  great  monopolies,  issue  bills  current  as  money,  and  discount  notes 
of  merchants  and  others  who  wished  to  borrow.      The  Council  of 
Finance  rejected  this  proposal,  and  Law  substituted  a  private  bank 
of  discount,  on  a  basis  which  seems  modest  to  later  times.     The  cap- 
ital was  six  million  livres,  divided   into  twelve  hundred  shares.     It 
was  authorized  to  discount  merchants'  notes,  and  to  issue  bills  re- 
deemable in  coin.     The  Duke  of  Orleans  accepted  the  title  of  Patron 
of  the  bank,  which  was  opened  in  Law's  own  house. 

So  necessary  were  these  simple  bank  facilities,  in  the  disordered 
commerce  of  France,  that  the  bank  at  once  became  popular  IIiKtory  0{ 
and  acquired  credit.     At  the  end  of  a  year  Law's  predic-  LaW8Bank 
tions  were  fulfilled,  and  he  was  able  to  take  a  second  step.     The  gov- 
ernment, also,  could  give  him  its  countenance,  by  a  decree  ordering 

1  The  value  of  a  livre  varies,  from  time  to  time,  especially  as  it  is  a  paper  livre  or  made 
of  silver.  But  the  reader  of  our  time  may  remember  to  advantage,  that,  in  1700,  the  word 
represented,  in  substance,  what  the  word  "  franc  "  stands  for  now. 

VOL.  n.  34 


530 


THE   MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


public  officials  to  receive  the  notes  of  the  bank,  as  if  they  were  coin. 
From  this  time,  of  course,  they  answered  all  purposes  of  exchange 
within  the  kingdom.  With  such  facilities  the  notes  instantly  gained 
value,  the  deposits  of  gold  and  silver  increased,  and  the  bank  was  on 
the  high  road  of  prosperity.  Its  notes  even  commanded  one  per  cent, 
more  than  specie,  at  times,  for  the  government  was  not  above  tam- 
pering with  specie ;  but  the  bank  redeemed  its  notes  in  the  coin  it 
received.  The  trade  of  the  country  felt  the  benefit  to  commerce  of 
such  a  currency.  Taxes  were  paid  cheerfully,  and  branches  of  the 
bank,  in  accordance  with  Law's  original  plan,  were  established  in  five 
provincial  cities. 

A  second  feature  of  Law's  great  scheme  had  been  the  management 
of  the  great  commercial  monopolies,  which  made,  at  that  time,  a  part 


N  °    /  /L  &  r^y  s  Cent  Itvrej  Tournou 

-Li  A  ^ANQUE promet payer  au  Porteuri  vlie  Cent  Ifvrcs  Toumois 
en  Efpec«  d'jAr^ent ,  valeur  receuc   A  Pans  le  premier  Janvier  mil 


^C^aKF^irs^u^^. 
l^J/frHtM     ^ -> 


Fac-simile  of  Bank-note  issued  by  Law- 


of  the  commercial  system  of  all  the  great  nations.  He  was  now 
tempted  to  engraft  this  part  of  that  plan  upon  his  private  bank. 
And  it  is  from  that  temptation,  and  the  plans  made  in  consequence, 
that  Law  became  the  founder  of  New  Orleans,  and,  practically,  the 
person  who  directed  the  French  settlement  of  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. Crozat,  who  had  obtained  the  grant  of  the  Missis- 
sippi trade  for  twelve  years,  had  not  been  successful  in  his 
plans,  for  reasons  which  have  been  stated.  He  asked  per- 
mission to  give  up  his  privilege,  and  Law  gladly  became  his  successor. 
It  seems  as  if  Crozat  had  attempted  commerce  only,  with  hopes  of 
success  in  mining,  while  Law,  with  a  broader  view,  expected  to  make 


1717.]  THE   WESTERN   COMPANY.  531 

the  colonists  at  least  support  themselves  by  agriculture.  The  con- 
tract for  the  trade  in  beaver  in  Canada  expired  in  1717.  Law,  there- 
fore, asked  permission  to  form  a  company,  which  should  unite  all  the 
commerce  of  Louisiana  with  the  fur  trade  of  Canada.  The  Regent 
granted  all  that  he  asked,  in  an  edict  issued  in  August,  1717. 

The  company  thus  formed  received  the  name  of  the  ••  Western 
Company."  The  grants  made  to  it  were  for  twenty-five  years.  The 
sovereignty  over  all  Louisiana  was  granted  to  it,  on  the  condition  of 
homage  to  the  king  of  France,  and  of  a  gold  crown  at  the  beginning 
of  every  new  reign.  This  token  of  vassalage  indicates  the  nature  of 
the  hopes  with  which  it  was  undertaken.  The  capital  was  nominally 
one  hundred  million  livres.  But  subscribers  were  permitted  to  pay 
three  fourths  of  their  subscriptions  in  royal  bonds,  which  were  still  at 
the  old  discount  of  seventy  or  eighty  per  cent.  Only  one  fourth  of 
the  subscription  was  asked  for  in  coin.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that 
the  real  capital  paid  in  was  about  fort}7  million  livres. 


New  Orleans   in    1719  (from   an  old   Map). 

With  this  capital  Law  and  his  associates  went  to  work  with  spirit 
in  the  details  of  colonization.     We  can  still  refer  to  the  little 
emigration  tracts  which  they  circulated  through  France  and  ti!mT™rcoi- 
Germany  to  collect  emigrants.     Vessels  were  armed,  troops 
sent  forward,  and  colonists  enlisted.     The  great  feudal  cultivators  of 
France  did  not  encourage  the  emigration  of  peasants.    The  emigrants, 
therefore,  were  not  so  often  as  might  have  been  wished,  persons  used 
to  agriculture.     They  were  indeed  enlisted    largely   bv  the 

l  c          11  11 

nope   or   collecting    gold,  —  then,    as   now,  the    nope   most 
tempting  to  a  poor  and  discouraged  people.      M.  tie  L'Ep-  ii»-nt  «.i  \»-»- 
inay  was  recalled,   and    Law  showed   his  .good  sense  and 
knowledge  of  the  position  by  appointing  Bienville  Governor-general  of 
Louisiana.      Bienville  was  also  instructed,  probably  by  an  echo  of  ad- 
vice given  by  himself,  to  select  a  new  site  for  the  capital.     With  the 


582  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

knowledge  he  had  acquired  of  the  geography  of  his  dominions,  he 
chose  the  admirable  site  of  New  Orleans,  commanding  the  approaches 
to  the  sea  by  the  river  and  by  Lake  Pontchartrain,  and  here  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1718,  he  left  fifty  persons  to  clear  the  ground  and  to  build. 
Through  the  year  different  vessels  arrived  with  colonists  for  diffei'ent 
landowners,  —  in  one  party  alone  eight  hundred  persons. 

The  next  year  two  of  Bienville's  brothers  arrived  with  news  of  the 
short  Spanish  war,  set  on  foot  by  the  folly  of  Alberoni.  With  great 
promptness  Governor  Bienville  moved  against  the  Spanish  port  of 
Pensacola,  and  took  it.  It  was  soon  retaken  by  a  superior  force,  but 
Avas  again  captured  by  a  French  squadron  in  September.  Mean- 
while, without  check  from  the  war,  John  Law  was  going  forward 
with  apparent  success  in  his  great  schemes.  The  Western  Com- 
pany, as  the  charter  called  his  corporation,  had  not  at  first  attracted 
much  public  attention.  But  its  shares  gradually  rose  to  par,  that  is, 
to  a  money  par,  though  they  had  been  largely  paid  for  in  reduced 
securities.  In  May,  1719,  he  was  strong  enough  in  public  confi- 
dence to  obtain  from  the  Regent  power  to  join  with  it  the  East  India 
Company  of  France.  The  exclusive  right  of  trading  beyond  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  given  to  it.  Its  name  was  changed  to 
that  of  "  The  Indian  Company,"  and,  for  its  new  purposes,  it  was 
authorized  to  issue  fifty  thousand  new  shares  at  a  par  of  five  hundred 
livres. 

But  the  company  was  already  so  prosperous  that  it  refused  even  to 
The  Indian  issue  these  new  shares  at  less  than  five  hundred  and  twenty 
company.  livres,  fifty  livres  down,  and  the  remainder  in  twenty  equal 
monthly  payments.  Nor  was  any  person  permitted  to  take  one  new 
share  who  did  not  exhibit  four  old  ones.  Old  shares,  therefore,  rose 
rapidly  under  the  new  enthusiasm.  This  condition  brought  them 
from  three  hundred  livres  up  to  seven  hundred  and  fifty  livres, — 
that  is,  they  rose  from  sixty  per  cent,  of  their  nominal  value  to  fifty 
per  cent,  above  it. 

It  w*is  at  this  crisis,  when  the  Western  Company  became  the 
Indian  Company,  that  it  really  won  the  bad  name  which  from 
that  moment  to  this  has  hung  around  the  "  Mississippi  Scheme,"  so 
called.1  A  capital  of  forty  million  livres  was  not  an  extraordinary 
sum  with  which  to  develop  the  fur  trade  of  Canada,  and  all  the  re- 
sources of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  methods  of  the  Company  for 
its  legitimate  business,  even  in  the  midst  of  stockbroking  in  Paris, 
were  judicious,  though  they  were  not  so  considerable  as  its  capital 
would  have  justified.  Concessions  of  land,  as  they  were  called,  were 

1  Which  has  seemed  to  attend  subsequent  financial  transactions  which  bore  the  same 
name. 


1719.]  THE   MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  538 

made  to  adventurei-s  under  the  Company,  and  these  adventurers  sent 
out  settlers,  as  the  Company  itself  did.  In  1718,  seven  ves-  Progressof 
sels  were  sent  out  with  stores  and  emigrants,  numbering  in  emisratlon- 
all,  perhaps,  fifteen  hundred  persons.  The  year  1719  sent  eleven 
ships,  besides  those  ships  of  war  belonging  to  the  crown,  which  as- 
sisted in  the  operations  against  Pensacola.  Meanwhile  new  establish- 
ments for  trade  were  opened  on  the  Red  River,  the  Missouri,  and  the 
Upper  Mississippi.1  In  this  year  five  hundred  negroes  from  the 
Guinea  Coast  were  brought  in,  and  another  cargo  arrived  the  next 
year.  A  terrible  epidemic,  contracted  at  St.  Domingo,  where  the  ves- 
sels always  stopped,  swept  through  the  emigrants  of  1720.  From 
one  vessel,  one  man,  who  was  set  on  shore  at  his  own  request,  was 
the  only  person  who  ever  arrived ;  the  ship  itself  was  never  heard 
of  again.  In  1721  nearly  a  thousand  white  emigrants  arrived,  and 
thirteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven  slaves  were  brought  from  Guinea, 
not  three  quarters  of  the  poor  wretches  who  were  embarked  for  the 
voyages.  In  this  year  the  Garonne,  belonging  to  the  Company,  with 
supplies  and  three  hundred  German  emigrants,  was  taken  by  pirates 
near  St.  Domingo. 

This  year,  however,  the  most  active  of  the  operations  of  the  Com- 
pany, as  far  as  Louisiana  was  concerned,  was  the  last  of  its  prosperity 
at  home.  The  popularity  gained  by  the  union  of  the  East  and  West 
India  Companies  in  August,  1719,  was  so  great,  and  the  demand  so 
flattering  for  the  consolidated  stock,  that  Law  was  able  to  advance 
another  step  towards  his  original  design,  and  to  undertake,  by  the 
Company,  the  payment  of  a  considerable  part  of  that  ter- 
rible public  debt,  with  which  the  Regent's  administration  si™ippi 
had  found  itself  saddled  by  the  later  wars  of  Louis  the  Mag- 
nificent. In  exchange  for  the  privilege  of  collecting  the  revenue  of 
France,  he  proposed  to  take  up,  by  the  issue  of  company  stock,  gov- 
ernment stock  to  the  amount  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  millions, 
a  considerable  part  of  which  was  approaching  maturity.  The  plan 
was  gigantic,  but  it  oft'ered  unquestionable  advantages.  If  so  large 
an  enterprise  could  have  been  carried  out  with  the  privacy  and  deli- 
cate handling  necessary,  it  seems  to  have  rested  on  an  intelligible  and 
practicable  basis.  In  fact  the  new  shares  which  Law  issued,  of  which 
nine  tenths  were  to  be  paid  in  government  stock,  were  sought  with 
overwhelming  eagerness.  This  means,  partly,  that  the  French  people 
went  crazy.  But  it  also  means,  partly,  that  people  trusted  John  Law 
and  his  business-like  methods  of  administration  more  than  they  did 

1  In  the  Yazoo  country,  at  Baton  Rouge,  at  Bayagoula,  at  Ecores  Blaucs,  at  Point  Cou- 
pee,  at  the  Black  River,  at  Pascagoula,  and  amoiig  the  Illinois.  All  these  plantations 
proved  permanent. 


634 


THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


the  Regent  Orleans  and  the  men  around  him.  For  the  real  question 
was,  whether  the  holders  of  government  securities  would  or  would  not 
exchange  them  for  his  securities,  when  they  could  do  so,  if  they  would 
add  a  payment  of  one  ninth  of  the  amount  in  cash,  for  all  which  they 
would  receive  his  bonds,  or  those  of  his  company.  The  speculators 
and  the  capitalists  of  France  alike,  chose  to  make  the  change.  And 
this  is  the  cause  of  the  frenzy,  in  which  all  France  combined  to  give, 
for  a  moment,  an  exaggerated  value  to  the  bonds  of  the  India  Com- 
pany. It  was  not  the  possession  of  the  whole  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. Land  is  as  valueless  in  itself  in  any  market,  as  is  the  ocean 


A  Caricature  of  the  Time  of  the  "  Mississippi  Bubble.' 


or  the  clouds.  It  needs  the  occupancy  of  men  —  men  who  know  how 
to  subdue  the  earth  —  before  it  has  a  money  value.  If  the  Indian 
Company  could  have  given  this  element  of  value  to  their  empire  on 
the  Mississippi,  it  would  have  been  worth  the  whole  debt  of  France  a 
hundred  times  told.  But  such  inhabitancy,  or  such  a  population,  is 
not  to  be  gained  by  any  inducements  which  such  companies  can  offer. 
For  the  moment,  however,  the  public  enthusiasm  supplied  the  place 
of  more  substantial  values.  Three  hundred  thousand  new  shares  were 
applied  for,  where  there  were  but  fifty  thousand  to  distribute.  The 
enlargement  of  currency,  accompanied  by  universal  confidence,  quick- 


1719.]  SPECULATION   AT  ITS   HEIGHT.  585' 

ened  every  form  of  industry.     The  annual   taxes  were  reduced  by 
fifty-two  million  livres  in  the  year  1719,  while  thirty-five 

•  Momentary 

millions  had  been  taken  off  before,  since  the  Regent's  acces-   effect*  of  the 

plan.     Law 

sion  to  power.     The  rate  of  interest  fell,  lands  rose  in  price,  at  the  height 

r  x  of  power. 

labor  found  its  reward,  and  plenty  appeared   everywhere. 
The  author  of  such  wonders  was  hailed  as  a  demi-god ;  the  crowds  fol- 
lowed him,  the  nobility  courted  him,  the  Regent  honored  and  obeyed 
him.     To  John  Law,  the  Scotch  goldsmith's  son,  poor  France  owed 
the  one  gleam  of  prosperity  which  she  had  enjoyed  for  twenty  years. 

It  is  said  that  in  the  three  years  of  its  power  in  Louisiana,  the 
Indian  Company  expended  twenty-five  million  of  francs.  It  would 
probably  be  impossible  to  say  what  this  immense  sum  was  expended 
for.  La  Harpe,  a  very  competent  authority,  testifies  that  eight  million 
francs  only  were  expended  on  supplies  and  transportation  for  the  col- 
ony, and  he  avers  that  this  sum  brought  no  return  to  France.  He 
says  that  convicts  and  prostitutes  were  sent  out  as  colonists  ;  that 
inexperienced  clerks  were  put  in  chai'ge  of  the  stores  and  plundered 
them  openly  ;  that  the  Company  did  not  hold  to  its  contracts  with 
Swiss  and  German  companies,  and  with  miners  ;  that  these  contracts 
themselves  were  unfortunate  ;  that  it  was  always  making  places  for 
adventurers,  and  al\va}Ts  quarrelling  with  Bienville.  All  this  is  said 
more  simply,  when  we  say  that  a  company  of  directors  in  Paris  under- 
took to  rule  a  colony  in  America.  Napoleon  has  taught  us  TlleCom. 
that  two  good  generals  are  worse  than  one  bad  one.  When  j^oui™'6 
a  directory  of  generals  is  on  one  side  of  the  world,  and  their  lana 
army  is  on  the  other,-  its  ruin  is  certain.  It  is  a  curious  question, 
whether  under  a  careful  management,  that  part  of  the  capital  of  the 
Company  which  was  subscribed  for  the  develop- 
ment of  Louisiana,  could,  in  these  days,  have 
been  made  productive.  An  annual  income  of 
four  per  cent,  would  have  satisfied  the  share- 
holders. Their  privilege  ran  for  twenty-five 
years,  and  when  it  reverted  to  the  crown,  the 
separate  holders  could  take  lands  to  represent 
the  principal.  It  is  certain  that  the  furs  of 
Canada  and  of  Louisiana  would  not  amount  to  Arms  of  the  western  company. 
an  annual  value  of  one  million  six  hundred  thousand  livres.  Indeed, 
the  Company  relied,  not  so  much  on  furs,  as  on  mines  and  tobacco. 
They  never  found  any  mines  of  value,  and  the  product  of  tobacco 
was  inconsiderable.  So  far  their  empire  in  the  West  yielded  them 
but  little.  If,  however,  the  Company  had  been  willing  to  do  as 
Winthrop  and  his  associates  did,  go  themselves  with  their  charter 
to  the  province  of  which  it  made  them  masters,  it  could  not  have  been 


536  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

hard  to  make  that  province  worth  forty  millions  francs  before  1742. 
But  no  man  of  the  stockholders,  though  the  examples  were  before 
them  of  Winthrop,  of  Champlain,  of  Penn,  and  other  colonists,  had, 
at  any  moment,  any  such  idea. 

Whatever   may  have  been  the   legitimate  basis   on  which  Law's 
earlier  plans  were  founded,  all  recollection  of  it  was  swept 

Wild  specu-  -iniir  i        •  f  •          i 

lation  in  the  a  way  and  all  thought  ot  any  basis  was  forgotten  in  the 
whirlwind  of  excitement  which  swept  over  France,  when  all 
men  tried  to  join  in  the  successes  of  those  whose  early  investments  in 
Indian  stocks  had  proved  fortunate  beyond  the  wildest  hope.  Under 
this  wild  excitement  shares  issued  at  500  livres  eventually  sold  at 
5,000  livres,  and  even  more.  In  its  five  issues,  the  Company  put  out 
624,000  shares,  which  at  the  nominal  par  amounted  to  312,000,000 
livres.  To  pay  four  per  cent,  interest  on  these,  would  have  required 
12,480,000  livres  annually.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  its  income 
was  more  than  six  times  this  amount,  being  80,500,000  livres  annu- 
ally. The  Company  was  therefore  amply  able  to  make  good  its  tech- 
nical obligations.  But,  of  course,  persons  who  had  bought  for  5,000 
livres  a  share  nominally  worth  500,  would  not  be  satisfied  with  a 
miserable  annual  income  of  twenty  livres  for  that  investment.  The 
price  of  shares  was  merely  fanciful.  It  could  not  be  held  at  the  ficti- 
tious level.  And  the  moment  the  decline  began,  nothing  would  arrest 
it.  These  statements  are  due  to  the  memory  of  John  Law.  He  un- 
doubtedly made  the  grossest  errors  in  his  efforts  to  arrest  the  fall  of 
these  securities.  But  it  was,  in  the  first  instance,  not  the  audacity 
of  his  proposals,  but  their  success,  which  caused  his  ruin. 

Ruin  came.  So  soon  as  the  holders  of  shares  began  to  buy  with 
them  houses  and  castles  and  jewels,  and  did  not  buy  other 
company  shares,  so  soon  as  they  ceased  to  speculate  and  began  to 
invest  in  real  securities,  so  soon  the  price  of  bonds  fell.  All 
the  ingenuity  and  all  the  audacity  of  Law,  all  the  willing  help  of  the 
unscrupulous  Regent  could  not  arrest  the  fall,  more  than  they  could 
make  water  run  up  hill.  In  one  year  from  the  greatest  success  of  the 
"•  system,"  as  this  rash  adventure  was  called,  it  had  wholly  disap- 
peared. In  that  time  thousands  had  become  rich  who  were  poor, 
thousands  were  poor  who  had  been  rich.  Law  fled  from  Paris,  and 
all  his  estates  were  sequestered.1  This  was  in  November,  1720. 
News  of  his  fall  and  flight  arrived  in  Louisiana  on  the  15th  of  April, 
1721.  The  year  1721,  however,  saw  the  largest  accession  yet  made 
of  emigrants  to  the  colony. 

1  For  au  admirable  account  of  all  Law's  transactions,  examined  in  the  light  of  modern 
financial  scii-nce,  such  as  it  is,  see  M.  Thiers's  chapters,  translated  into  English  with  illus- 
trations, bv  Frank  S.  Fiske. 


1721.] 


VOYAGE   OF   FATHER   CHARLEVOIX. 


537 


As  the  "  system  "  rolled  on,  adding  one  extravagance  to  another,  it 
was  announced  that  Law  had  become  a  Roman  Catholic.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  sincerity  of  this  conversion,  it  was  followed  by  his 
appointment  as  minister  of  finance,  and  men  said  he  had  become  a 
Catholic  that  he  might  become  a  minister.  It  was  perhaps  this  con- 
version which  gave  rise  to  the  first  measures  of  the  Company  for  assist- 
ing the  religious  missions  in  Louisiana,  —  missions  to  which,  in  the  out- 
set, France  owed  even  her  knowledge  of  the  river.  Pierre  Francois 
Xavier  de  Charlevoix,  the  writer  to  whom  we  have  since  voyage  of 
owed  our  most  interesting  history  of  New  France  in  that  ' 
century,  who  was  indeed  the  diligent  historian  of  Jesuit  enterprise 


View  on  the  Arkansas  River. 


through  the  world,  embarked  at  Rochelle,  in  July,  1720,  to  visit  the 
Canadian  Missions.  He  was  at  Kaskaskia,  in  our  State  of  Illinois,  in 
November  8,  1721.  The  brethren  of  his  order  had  already  established 
a  post  here,  six  miles  from  the  Mississippi.  He  went  from  this  point 
down  the  river  in  a  canoe  made  from  a  long  walnut  tree.  Thirty 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  he  found  the  village  already 
in  ruins  where  Law  was  to  have  established,  on  his  own  concession,1 
nine  thousand  Germans  from  the  Palatinate.  All  who  came  were 
discouraged,  and  eventually  planted  what  is  now  known  as  the  kt  Ger- 
man Coast "  above  New  Orleans.  No  part  of  the  world  shows  more 
beautiful  homes  and  farms  than  those  made  there  by  these  exiles  who 
were  then  thought  to  be  abandoned  to  misery.  Charlevoix  found  that 

1  The  concession  was  twelve  miles  square. 


588  THE   MISSISSIPPI    SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

the  small-pox  was  already  ravaging  tribes  which  La  Salle  had  found 
numerous.  He  arrived  at  Natchez,  on  the  loth  of  December,  and  at 
New  Orleans  on  the  31st.  It  is  amusing  now  to  see,  that  the  little 
circle  of  critics  in  New  Orleans  thought,  that,  if  he  had  chosen,  he 
could  have  found  his  way  to  the  Western  Ocean.1  That  enterprise 
was  reserved  to  Lewis  and  Clarke,  nearly  a  hundred  years  after,  and 
occupied  them  then  more  than  two  years.  The  Jesuit  missionary 
proved  his  own  good  sense,  and  made  good  his  Christian  profession, 
by  reconciling  Bienville  the  Governor,  and  Hubert,  one  of  the  other 
officers,  who  were  in  one  of  the  chronic  quarrels  which  embittered  life 
in  the  petty  colony. 

Charlevoix,  like  the  other  early  explorers,  sent  home  accounts  of 
the  resources  and  geography  of  the  country,  which  are  amus- 
"       ing  when  read  by  the  light  of  our  modern  knowledge.     We 


have  seen  that  La  Salle  proposed  to  establish  his  colony  as 
an  easy  method  by  which  the  French  could  attack  the  Spanish  silver 

mines.  La  Harpe,  one  of  the  most 
valuable  officers  who  served  under 
Bienville,  in  a  report  which  he  pre- 
sented at  home,  urged  the  necessity 
of  keeping  the  English  away  from 
these  same  silver  mines  of  New 
Mexico.  And  in  Charlevoix's  first 
letter  describing  the  resources  of  the 
new  colony,  the  two  productions 
which  he  describes  with  most  enthu- 
siasm are  the  "  apalacchine  "  and 
the  wax  of  the  candleberry.  The 
first  of  these  is  already  wholly  for- 
gotten. It  is  the  Hex  Cassine  of 
the  botanists,  and,  at  the  time 
Charlevoix  wrote,  had  a  reputation 
as  a  substitute  for  tea,  and  even  as 
dispelling  the  emotion  of  fear. 
lie*  cassine  (Yaupan).  There  will  be  many,  even  among  the 

American  readers  of  these  lines,  who  have  never  heard  of  candleberry 
wax,  which  Charlevoix  supposed  was  to  be  an  important  article  of 
foreign  export.  Those  who  ever  have  made  a  candle  from  it,  will 
sympathize  with  the  "  fiv.e  or  six  slaves,"  who  being  unfit  for  ordi- 
nary duty,  were  thought  by  the  good  father  sufficient  to  gather  a 
shipload  of  wax  every  year. 

i  By  a  curious  parody  on  this  criticism,  the  biographical  dictionaries,  French  and  Eng- 
lish, sav  that  Chateaubriand,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  crossed  from  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  the  Pacific,  —  an  impossible  journey  in  the  period  of  his  tour. 


1721.]  THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIANS.  539 

The  city  of  New  Orleans,  so  named  in  honor  of  the  Regent,  was 
regularly  laid  out  on  paper  when  Charlevoix  visited  it,  —  on 

•  i  i       i        T       rr\  in  •       Founding  of 

the  convenient  plan  made  by  La  lour  and  ranger,  but  it  NewOr- 
Avas  still  a  city  on  paper.  There  were  two  hundred  people 
encamped  there,  who  were  to  carry  out  the  plans  of  the  engineers. 
To  each  applicant  a  lot  was  given  sixty  feet  in  front  by  twice  that 
depth.  Each  landholder  was  directed  to  fence  in  his  lot  and  to  leave 
a  vacant  space,  three  feet  wide,  for  open  drains  which  should  carry 
off  superficial  water.  These  ditches  were  connected,  and  a  dyke  or 
levee  of  earth  made  on  the  river  side.  The  seat  of  government  was 
removed  thither  in  the  same  year,  and  the  names  of  the  two  hundred 
settlers  whom  Charlevoix  found  there,  are  preserved.  Bienville's  is 
first  upon  the  roll. 

The  result  in  America  of  the  work  of  the  Western  Company,  or 
the  Indian  Company,  had  been  the  establishment  of  a  few  thousand 
emigrants  in  a  climate  to  which  they  were  not  accustomed,  on  soil  of 
whose  capacities  they  were  ignorant,  with  hopes  which  could  not  be 
gratified.  A  staff  of  officials,  larger  than  would  be  appointed  now 
for  the  same  region,  though  its  population  is  counted  for  millions, 
quarrelled  among  themselves,  but  regularly  drew  their  salaries.  The 
common-sense  and  practical  intelligence  of  Bienville  were  the  most 
cheerful  element  in  the  horoscope  of  the  infant  state. 

The  French   establishment  at  Natchez  was  the  most  flourishing  of 
the  trading  establishments  on  the  river.     The  massacre  by 
the  Natchez  Indians  of  almost  all  its  male  inhabitants,  was  ment  of  * 
the  first  terrible  event  which  broke  the  course  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  colony,  and  the  vengeance  taken  upon  that  tribe  was 
the  first  great  effort  made  by  the  colonists  against  the  natives. 

The  policy  of  La  Salle  had  been  to  conciliate  the  natives  of  all 
tribes.  He  would  not  permit  his  men  to  fire  upon  them,  except  under 
extreme  provocation,  and  he  would  not  adopt  the  easy  policy,  which 
was  a  favorite  policy  with  the  Spaniards,  of  taking  one  side  or  an- 
other in  their  mutual  feuds.  DTberville  and  Bienville  seem  to  have 
been  willing  to  continue  in  a  policy  of  conciliation.  But,  from  the 
beginning,  it  was  the  custom  of  the  French  to  supply  the  Indians 
with  guns,  powder,  and  shot.  They  relied  on  the  Indians  of  the 
north  for  hunting,  as  the  supply  of  furs  to  Europe  made  the  largest 
element  in  their  trade,  and  they  boldly  took  the  risk  that  such  arms 
might  be  used  against  themselves. 

So  long  as  the  charge  of  the  outposts  was  entrusted  to  officers  of 
humanity  or  discretion,  this  hazardous  policy,  which  armed  the  In- 
dians as  well  as  the  whites,  brought  few  disastrous  consequences.  All 
parties  regarded  themselves  as  adventurers,  and  the  loss  of  one  life, 


540 


THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII 


more  or  less,  in  a  brawl  with  savages  was  not  regarded  so  seriously 
as  it  would  have  been  in  the  earlier  settlements  of  New 
ley  towud  England.  As  early  as  1716,  some  Indians  of  the  Natchez 
tribe,  or  allies  of  theirs,  had  killed  some  voyageurs  coining 
down  the  river.  Bienville  suspected  that  they  had  been  instigated  to 
this  atrocity  by  English  traders  from  the  Carolinas.  He  took  resolute 
measures.  He  seized  on  some  of  the  Natchez  chiefs,  and  gave  the 
tribe  to  understand  that  he  would  take  the  lives  of  these  men  if  the 
heads  of  the  murderers  were  not  sent  to  him.  After  some  intrigue 
and  wavering,  caused  partly  by  their  doubt  of  his  firmness  perhaps, 
and  partly  by  real  inability  to  meet  so  hard  an  order,  it  was  complied 
with  in  full.  From  this  moment  the  Brother  of  the  Sun,  as  the  chief 
of  the  Natchez  was  called,  must  have  felt  that  he  had  a  master.  This 
transaction  is  known  in  the  colonial  history  as  the  first  Natchez  war. 


View  of  the  Mississippi  at  Natchez. 

So  far  as  we  can  see,  the  Natchez  might  have  been  retained,  as  a 
useful  ally  of  the  French,  for  an  indefinite  period,  but  for  the  folly 
and  selfishness  of  one  French  commander,  named  Chopart.  The  tribe 
The  Natchez  was  more  comPactly  organized  than  most  of  the  Indian 
tribe.  tribes.  It  understood  subordination  to  its  chiefs,  and,  in- 

deed, in  many  other  regards,  showed  a  higher  civilization  than  that 
of  most  of  the  Indian  nations.  The  conjecture  has  always  seemed 
probable  that  it  was  an  off-shoot  from  that  superior  Mexican  race,  the 
civilization  of  which,  as  described  in  the  exaggerated  accounts  of  the 


1722.]  THE  NATCHEZ  INDIANS.  541 

companions  of  Cortez,  is  still  one  of  the  problems  and  wonders  of  his- 
tory. The  Natchez  worshipped  the  sun.  His  temple  was  of  oval 
shape,  built  of  clay,  without  windows,  and  arched  in  a  dome.  It  was 
about  one  hundred  feet  in  circumference,  and,  to  defend  it  from  the 
rain,  was  covered  with  three  layers  of  woven  mats.  Above  it  were 
three  wooden  eagles,  one  red,  one  white,  one  yellow.  No  person  was 
permitted  to  live  in  it,  but  the  Guardian  of  the  Temple  had  a  little 
shed  without,  where  he  lodged.  The  whole  was  surrounded  by  a 
palisade  on  which  were  exposed  the  skulls  which  had  been  brought 
back  from  battle.  In  this  temple  a  perpetual  fire  was  kept,  supplied 
from  time  to  time  by  the  Guardian  of  the  Temple.  It  was  his  duty 
to  feed  the  fire  with  logs,  to  see  that  they  did  not  blaze,  and  that  the 
fire  did  not  go  out. 

The  palace  of  the  great  chief,  who  took  the  name  of  the  Brother  of 
the  Sun,  was  similar  to  the  temple.     It  was  raised  on  an 
artificial  mound,  that  he  might  the  better  converse  with  his  emmentand 
brother  in  the  heavens  every  morning.     The  door  of  the 
palace   fronted  the  east,  and,  when  the  sun  arose,  his  brother  saluted 
him  with  howls,  ordered  that  his  calumet  should  be  lighted,  offered 
to  him  the  three  first  puffs  of  smoke,  and  raising  his  hands,  and 
turning  from  east  to  west,  directed  his  course  for  that  day  through 
the  heavens. 

On  the  death  of  the  supreme  chief  his  sister's  son  succeeded.  The 
princesses  of  the  blood  espoused  none  but  men  of  obscure  family,  and 
had  the  right  of  dismissing  a  husband  whenever  they  pleased.  The 
power  of  the  Brother  of  the  Sun  was  absolute ;  no  man  would  refuse 
him  his  head  if  he  asked  for  it,  and  if  he  appointed  a  guard  to  wait 
upon  the  French,  none  of  these  men  were  permitted  to  receive  any 
wages.  He  had  a  sort  of  body-guard,  or  personal  staff,  appointed  even 
at  his  birth.  For,  so  soon  as  an  heir  presumptive  was  born,  a  certain 
number  of  infants  was  chosen  from  the  infants  of  the  tribe  near  his 
age,  and  these  were  assigned  for  the  service  of  the  young  prince. 
They  hunted,  fished,  planted,  and  farmed  for  him,  —  they  were  his 
servants,  and  they  furnished  his  table.  That  they  might  serve  him  in 
another  world,  they  all  sacrificed  themselves  to  follow  him,  when  he 
died.  In  a  religious  rite  of  great  solemnity  they  were  strangled  that 
they  might  go  at  once  to  be  his  servants  in  the  world  of  spirits.  All 
these  customs,  and  many  others,  described  in  the  early  writers,  are 
analogous  to  those  ascribed  in  the  Spanish  writers  to  the  Mexican 
tribes.  Charlevoix  observed  bas-relief  carvings,  "  not  so  badly  done 
as  one  expects,"  among  the  chiefs  of  a  neighboring  tribe. 

The  Natchez  were  not  disposed  to  make  war,  but  for  some  reason, 
perhaps  because  of  the  small-pox  which  their  new  friends  gave 


542  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

them,  their  numbers  diminished  rapidly  after  the  arrival  of  the 
French,  or  were  supposed  to  do  so.  It  was  thought  that  they  were 
more  numerous  in  La  Salle's  day  than  when  Iberville  landed ;  and, 
in  1722,  Charlevoix  thought  they  had  diminished  in  six  years  from 
four  thousand  to  two  thousand  fighting  men.  They  were  fond  of  the 
French,  and  the  French  found  them  very  useful.  Opposite  to  their 
town,  the  French  had  established  a  post  which  bore  the  name  of 
Rosalie,  a  name  still  preserved.  It  was  given  by  Bienville  in  compli- 
ment to  Mad.  la  Duchesse  de  Pontchartrain.  The  convenience  for 
trade,  the  excellence  of  the  soil,  and  the  beauty  of  the  situation,  which 
is  exquisite,  called  up  a  very  considerable  number  of  whites,  —  and, 
as  has  been  said,  this  was  the  most  successful  settlement  in  the  valley. 
After  the  "first  Natchez  war,"  for  nearly  ten  years  this  beautiful 
village  showed  every  sign  of  external  prosperity.  But  for  the  folly 
and  selfishness  of  Chopart,  the  commander,  this  prosperity  might  have 
continued. 

Chopart  formed  the  idea,  which  seems  almost  insane,  that  he  should 
chopart's  ^^e  the  s^e  °f  the  great  village  of  the  Natchez  for  his  own 
madness  home,  and  that  the  fine  plain  about  it  would  be  an  admi- 
rable plantation  for  himself.  He  had  the  effrontery  to  send  for  the 
Brother  of  the  Sun,  and  to  tell  him  that  the  great  chief  of  the  French 
had  ordered  the  Natchez  to  leave  this  village,  as  he  needed  it.  The 
chief  and  council  refused  indignantly.  They  said  that  the  nation  had 
long  possessed  this  territory,  and  that  it  was  sacred.  The  very  ashes 
of  their  fathers  were  buried  beneath  the  temple.  They  reminded  him 
that  till  now  all  the  points  occupied  by  the  French  in  their  territory 
had  been  given  in  token  of  regai'd,  or  had  been  bought  and  paid  for. 
Chopart  was  deaf  to  their  arguments.  He  insisted  that  in  two  months' 
time  they  must  be  ready  to  remove.  The  wily  Natchez  pretended, 
after  deliberation,  to  assent  to  his  mad  demand.  Chopart  even  made 
them  agree  to  pay  an  indemnity  in  compensation  for  the  extension  of 
time. 

In  fact,  however,  the  Natchez  agreed,  in  secret  council,  that  they 

would  by  one  fell  stroke  get  rid  of  the  French,  and  that 
plans"™""  forever.  They  sent  messengers  to  the  other  Indian  tribes 

to  bind  them  to  the  same  work  of  destruction.  Nor  did  any 
tribe  refuse  so  far  as  to  betray  them.  The  Choctaws  joined  eagerly 
in  the  plan,  and  took,  as  their  part,  the  destruction  of  the  French  on 
the  lower  part  of  the  river.  To  make  sure  that  the  massacre  should 
take  place  on  the  same  day,  at  all  the  lower  settlements  the  Choctaw 
chief  and  the  Natchez  chief  exchanged  parcels  of  little  sticks,  in  each 
of  which  were  as  many  twigs  as  would  indicate  the  number  of  days 
before  that  appointed  for  the  butchery.  This  had  been  fixed  at  the 


1729.]  THE   NATCHEZ   INDIANS.  643 

time  when  Chopart  had  directed  the  abandonment  of  the  village  and 
the  temple. 

The  fatal  night  came  on  without  any  preparation  on  the  part  of  the 
French  to  oppose  the  Indians.  Women  from  the  Natchez  tribe,  more 
faithful  to  their  French  lovers,  or  to  those  who  are  so  called,  than  to 
their  race,  warned  them  of  their  danger.  Some  of  these  men  com- 
municated the  warning  to  Chopart,  but  he  ridiculed  their  fears,  ar- 
rested them  and  put  them  in  irons.  He  had  just  returned  from  a 
visit  of  state  to  the  Brother  of  the  Sun.  The  Indians  had  well  kept 
their  horrible  secret,  all  parties  had  drunk  and  revelled  together,  and 
it  was  not  till  three  in  the  morning  that  Chopart  returned,  received 
the  report  of  danger,  ordered  the  men  to  be  ironed  who  brought  it, 
and  then  retired  to 
sleep  off  the  effects  of 
his  debauch,  warning 


Chopart  and  the  Indian  Envoys. 

the  sentinel  not  to  call  him  till  nine  in  the  morning.     This  was  on 
the  28th  of  November,  1729. 

Morning  came.     There  was  not  a  settler's  house  but  had  in  it  one 
or  more  Indians,  who  came  in  on  one  pretence  or  another. 
The  great  chief  set  out  from  his  village,  attended  by  his  t 


warriors,  beating  the  drum  of  ceremony,  and  bearing  the 
calumet  aloft.  The  calumet,  as  La  Salle  had  seen,  may  be  a  cal- 
umet of  war  as  well  as  of  peace.  The  pretence  of  the  procession 
was  that  they  might  bring  to  Chopart  the  tribute  exacted  in  pay- 
ment for  delay.  They  reached  his  house  and  wakened  him.  He 
came  out  in  his  robe  de  chambre,  and  bade  the  cortege  enter.  They 
did  so  and  offered  their  tribute.  They  then  proceeded  to  the  river, 
where  a  galley  just  up  from  New  Orleans  was  unloading  valuable 
stores.  Everv  Indian  in  the  train  picked  out  his  man  among  those 


544  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

at  work  on  the  galley,  fired,  and  killed  him.  The  discharge  was  the 
signal  agreed  upon.  All  through  the  settlement  the  Indians  closed 
on  the  French,  and  in  an  hour's  time  more  than  two  hundred1  French- 
men were  killed.  Of  the  garrison,  which  consisted  of  one  small  com- 
pany, only  one  soldier  escaped.  Most  of  the  women  and  children  were 
spared,  to  be  held  as  slaves.  But  some  of  the  women  were  killed  in 
the  effort  to  defend  their  husbands. 

Chopart  was  among  the  last  to  be  killed.  He  saw  the  slaughter, 
Death  of  but  SJIW  ^  t°°  late«  He  fled  to  his  garden,  not  so  much  as 
chopart.  seizing  a  gun.  He  whistled  for  his  soldiers,  —  but,  they 
were  not  left  to  hear.  He  was  surrounded  by  Indians.  But  no 
Natchez  would  lay  hands  on  him.  He  was  a  dog,  they  said,  unworthy 
to  be  killed  by  a  brave.  A  Puant  chief  was  called,  who  killed  him 
with  a  club.2 

Had  the  simple  arithmetic  of  the  Natchez  and  Choctaws  proved  as 
accurate  as  they  expected,  that  day  would  probably  have  been  the  last 
of  the  whole  colony.  But  if,  in  the  best  calculations  of  the  greatest, 
a  little  dog  may  do  more  mischief  than  he  can  conceive,  —  what  must 
not  be  expected  in  the  computations  of  ignorant  savages  ?  It  hap- 
pened that  one  day  when  the  Natchez  chief  burned  his  fatal  stick  in 
the  temple,  his  little  son  stood  by.  While  the  father's  attention  was 
engaged  elsewhere,  the  boy,  with  a  child's  passion  for  imitation,  burned 
two  sticks,  as  he  had  seen  his  father  burn  one,  without  being  observed. 
In  consequence  of  this  accident,  the  Natchez  pounced  upon  their  prey 
two  days  earlier  than  the  day  fixed  upon  in  their  solemn  treaty. 

With  all  the  facilities  of  modern  skill,  the  traveller  is  a  long  day  in 
descending  the  Mississippi,  even  on  the  flood,  from  Natchez  to  New 
Orleans.  The  distance,  in  a  direct  line,  is  more  than  a  hundred  miles, 
and,  by  the  winding  of  the  river,  it  is  twice  as  far.  The  poor  fugi- 
tives from  Natchez  had  no  means  of  carrying  the  intelligence  of  the 
massacre  to  New  Orleans  in  the  fatal  two  days  which  were  left  to  that 
post.  When,  therefore,  on  the  appointed  day,  the  first  of  December, 
six  hundred  of  the  Choctaws  assembled  in  force  by  the  Lake  of  St. 
Louis,  Perier,  the  governor,  had  no  notice  of  what  had  taken  place 
above.  The  Choctaws  sent  to  him  a  delegation,  saying  that  they  had 
come  to  present  to  him  the  calumet.  Perier  was  alive  to  the  advan- 
tage of  conciliating  this  important  tribe ;  but  he  was  too  good  a  sol- 
dier to  admit  them  inside  his  fortifications.  He  sent  a  civil  message, 
that  he  would  gladly  receive  the  chief  with  thirty  of  his  warriors. 
This  answer  disconcerted  the  Choctaws,  and  seems  to  have  been  enough 

1  This  number  corresponds  best  with  what  we  know  of  the  colony.     But  Dumout  says 
seven  hundred. 

2  The  Puants  were  Indians  from  Green  Bay,  now  in  Wisconsin. 


1729.] 


THE  EXPEDITION  AGAINST   THE   NATCHEZ. 


546 


to  avert  an  immediate  attack.  They  sent  a  delegation  to  the  Natchez 
to  present  the  calumet  to  the  great  chief.  The  delegation  was  not 
received  with  such  honor  as  was  expected.  They  soon  learned  that 
the  Natchez  had  made  their  attack  two  days  befoi-e  that  agreed  upon. 
What  was  worse,  perhaps,  in  the  presents  which  they  received,  from 
the  plunder  then  taken  by  "  the  Brother  of  the  Sun,"  there  were  no 
guns,  powder,  or  balls.  The  Choctaws  were  indignant  at  all  this,  and 
turned  their  rage  against  the  Natchez.  They  accused  them  of  selfishly 
anticipating  the  assault,  that  they  might  gain  all  the  benefits.  They 
forbade  them  to  kill  any  of  their  captives,  lest  they  should  have  to 
account  for  such  lost  lives  to  the  Choctaws. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  third  of  December,  fugitives  who  had  escaped 
the  slaughter,  arrived  at  New  Orleans.     Perier  acted  with 

rr-  •  •    i  .  The  news 

promptness.     He  sent  an  omcer  to  communicate  with  the  atNewOr- 
Choctaws,  and,  before  long,  bad  succeeded  in  engaging  these 
fickle  savages  on  his  side.     He  formed  a  little  army,  and,  with  his 
new  allies,  moved 
against    the   Nat- 
chez.    The   nego- 
tiations and  prepa- 
rations   consumed 
the  months  of  De- 
cember and  Janu- 
ary, but,  in  Feb- 
ruary,   the    Choc- 
taws '  arrived     at 
Natchez,     sixteen 
hundred    in   num- 
ber.   The  French 
contingent    joined 
them    in    March, 
and  the  fort  of  the 
Natchez    was    in- 
vested.    They  did 
not  stand  a  siege 
in   which    cannon 
were  to  be  served  against  their  palisades.     They  agreed   to  surren- 
der their  prisoners  and  to  make  peace  on  those  terms.     Loubois,  the 
French    commander,  on  the   spot,  acceded   to  these   terms,  without 
meaning  to  keep  them,  having  a  theory  that  he  was  not  bound  to 
keep  faith  with  them,  more  than  they  would  with  him.     The  next 
morning,  therefore,  after  he  had  received  the  prisoners,  he  prepared 
to  renew  the  siege.     But  he  found  that  the  Natchez  did  not  trust  him 

VOL.  II.  35 


Costumes  of  French  Soldiery  early  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 


546  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXIL 

any  more   than   be   deserved,  and   that   they  had   abandoned    their 
town. 

The  main  body  of  the  tribe  kept  together,  and,  after  one  or  two 
efforts  to  surprise  the  fort  at  Natchez,  moved  up  the  Red  River,  and 
made  an  attempt  on  that  at  Natchitoches.  But  St.  Denis,  the  com- 
mander, was  too  watchful  for  them.  The  same  summer,  Perier,  find- 
ing himself  reinforced  by  three  companies  of  marines  from  France, 
made  a  final  movement  up  the  river.  He  found  the  Natchez  in  their 
last  retreat,  attacked  them  and  compelled  them  to  surrender.  In 
truth,  two  hundred  of  them,  of  whom  most  were  women,  were  taken 
prisoners,  and  were  sold  as  slaves  to  the  plantations  at  St.  Domingo. 
Three  hundred  escaped,  and  found  asylum  among  the  tribes  which 
hated  the  French.  At  this  day,  among  the  Creek  Indians,  who  now 
cultivate  the  fertile  lands  reserved  to  that  tribe  in  the  upper  valleys 
of  the  Washita  River,  there  are  three  hundred  or  more  good  citizens 
who  speak  the  Natchez  language,  and  trace  their  descent  back  to  the 
vassals  of  the  "  Brother  of  the  Sun."  l 

The  poor  Natchez,  however,  in  their  untimely  insurrection,  achieved 
more  than  they  knew.  For  when  the  news  of  the  destruction  of  the 
only  promising  post  on  the  river  reached  Paris,  the  Western  Com- 
pany, quite  discouraged,  represented  to  the  king  their  loss,  and  returned 
to  him  their  unprofitable  right  in  the  colony.  The  king,  very  wisely, 
appointed  Bienville  its  governor  again,  in  the  place  of  Perier,  and 
Bienville's  last  administration  began.  He  arrived  at  New  Orleans  in 
1734 ;  Perier,  who  had  been  promoted  to  be  lieutenant-general,  resigned 
the  government  and  returned  to  Europe. 

The  surrender  by  the  Western  Company  marks  the  miserable  fail- 
Failure  of  ure  °f  ^ne  °^  system  of  giving  the  business  of  colonization 
c^np^r  over  i1^0  the  oversight  of  favored  boards  of  men  who  did  not 
system.  mean  to  emigrate.  After  thirty  years  of  nursing,  after  all 
the  energy  of  Law's  movements,  and  the  large  sums  of  money  which 
had  been  expended  on  the  colony,  its  population,  when  it  was  returned 
to  the  king,  was  estimated  at  only  five  thousand.  Of  these,  nearly 
two  thousand  were  negroes.  The  whole  number  was  scattered  among 
eleven  posts.  Fourteen  years  later,  a  careful  census  showed  even  a 
smaller  number,  —  so  that  this  estimate  of  five  thousand,  even,  was 
probably  exaggerated.  In  1745,  there  were  but  seventeen  hundred 
white  men,  fifteen  hundred  women,  and  two  thousand  and  twenty 
slaves,  of  whom  the  Illinois  had  about  three  hundred  white  men,  the 
Missouri  posts  two  hundred,  and  Natchez,  which  had  been  the  most 
attractive  settlement  of  all,  only  eight  white  men  and  fifteen  negro 
slaves.  It  must  be  remembered,  therefore,  that  we  are  still  tracing 
1  See  Gallatin's  Synopsis,  Arch.  .4m.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  114. 


1736.] 


BIENVILLE'S  EXPEDITION. 


547 


chronicles  which  derive  their  interest  only  from  the  results  which  were 
to  grow  from  petty  beginnings,  and  not  from  the  numbers  engaged, 
or,  indeed,  even  from  the  personal  characteristics  of  most  of  the 
actors. 

Bienville  probably  wished  to  show,  that  if  he  had  been  commander, 
the  savages  would  not  have  come  off  so  well  as  they  did  Bienville>g 
under  Perier's  administration.     He  demanded  of  the  Chick-  Jj^^tthe 
asaws  that  they  should  surrender  the  Natchez.     The  Chick-  Chlcka8aWB 
asaws  had  by  this  time  cemented  alliances  with  the  English  of  Caro- 
lina, —  they  were  confident  of  their  own  power,  —  and  they  sent  back 
word  to  Bienville  that  the  Natchez  and  they  now  formed  one  nation, 
and  that  they  should  not  comply  with  his  demand.     Bienville  then 
determined  to  attack  the  Chickasaws.     He  sent  orders  to  D'Artag- 
nette,  who  commanded  the  fort  at  Kaskaskia,  among  the  Illinois,  to 


Bienville's  Army  on  the  River. 

meet  him  in  person  on  the  10th  of  May,  1736,  in  the  Chickasaw 
country,  with  the  largest  army  he  could  muster  from  Illinois  Indians, 
French  troops,  and  settlers.  Bienville  himself  proposed  to  lead  an 
army  from  New  Orleans  and  Mobile.  The  expedition  thus  set  in 
motion  was  by  far  the  most  formidable  which  the  little  colony  ever 
attempted.  Bienville's  contingent  made  its  rendezvous  at  Mobile. 
On  Easter  Day,  the  1st  of  April,  it  moved  up  the  Mobile  River  in 
a  fleet  of  thirty  piraguas  and  as  many  batteaux.  On  the  20th  he 
reached  a  point  which  he  called  Tombecbe,  —  which  is  the  Jones's 
Bluff  of  the  Little  Tombigbee  River  of  the  Alabama  geography  of 
to-day.  Hither  he  had  sent  an  advance  guard,  the  year  before,  to 


548  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

build  a  fort.  The  Choctaws  met  him  there  with  the  calumet,  and 
received  the  tribute,  for  so  they  began  to  regard  it,  —  in  considera- 
tion of  which  they  served  as  auxiliaries.  On  the  4th  of  May,  the 
Hisexpe-  armv»  thus  reinforced,  reembarked  and  proceeded  slowly  up 
dition.  tfte  riveri  an(j?  on  ^e  24th  disembarked  for  the  last  time, 
and  then  began  the  construction  of  a  palisade  and  shed  for  the  pro- 
tection of  its  stores. 

The  enemy  was  in  a  stockade  fort,  seven  miles  distant,  built  upon 
a  hill,  surrounded  by  the  cabins  of  an  Indian  village.  The  fort  was 
built  of  heavy  timbers  a  foot  in  diameter :  it  was  circular  in  shape, 
with  three  rows  of  loop  holes.  The  Chickasaws  were  not  only  pro- 
tected by  the  logs,  but  stood  in  pits  or  trenches  which  covered  all  but 
the  upper  parts  of  their  bodies.  They  kept  silence,  and  let  the  French 
come  within  good  musket  shot  before  they  fired.  As  the  French  ap- 
proached they  saw  Englishmen  whom  they  supposed  to  be  allies  of 
the  Chickasaws.  The  stockade  proved  to  be  quite  too  strong  to  be 
taken  by  storm,  as  Bienville  had  proposed.  After  a  loss  of  nearly 
one  hundred  and  twenty,  very  severe  for  so  small  a  force,  he  was 
obliged  to  withdraw  his  men,  without  producing  the  least  effect  on  the 
enemy.1  He  spent  the  night  in  his  camp,  but  on  the  next  day  he  had 
the  grief  of  seeing  that  his  men,  who  had  been  left  dead  on  the  field, 
had  been  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Chickasaws,  who  had  exposed  the  quar- 
tered bodies  on  the  palisades  in  derision.  A  rumor  was  spread  that 
The  French  D'Artagnette,  with  the  Illinois  contingent,  was  approach- 
repuiued.  jng  gu|.  Bienville  had  no  such  good  fortune.  He  returned 
to  his  camp  on  the  Tombigbee,  not  much  molested  on  his  retreat. 
His  attack  was  made  on  the  26th  of  May. 

Poor  D'Artagnette  had,  in  fact,  with  military  precision,  arrived  in 
time  to  make  the  junction  contemplated  in  his  orders.  He  reached 
the  Chickasaw  country  on  the  9th  of  May,  and  waited  within  sight 
of  the  enemy  till  the  20th,  but  heard  no  news  of  Bienville.  His 
Indians  murmured,  and  wished  either  to  retreat  or  attack.  D'Artag- 
nette chose  to  attack,  —  and  did  so  successfully,  —  but  while  driving 
the  Chickasaws  from  a  second  village  he  was  himself  wounded.  His 
Indians  abandoned  him,  —  but  a  loyal  company  of  forty-eight  French- 
men held  by  him.  This  force  was  so  small,  that  he  was  compelled  to 
surrender,  and  he  and  they  were  prisoners  of  the  Chickasaws  at  the 
time  when  Bienville  made  his  rash  and  unsuccessful  attack.  The 
whole  Illinois  detachment  had  been  396  men,  of  whom  130  were 
Fat*  of  the  French,  38  Iroquois,  38  Arkansas,  and  190  Illinois  and  Mi- 
prisonere.  amis.  So  soon  as  Bienville  retreated,  the  savages  took  their 
French  prisoners  to  a  plain,  tied  all  but  one  of  them  to  stakes  and 

1  This  estimate  of  the  loss  is  that  of  Du  Tortre  in  a  despatch  sent  to  Paris.    Dumont's 
account  says  the  French  loss  was  thirty-two  killed,  and  at  least.sixty  wounded. 


1740.J  A    SECOND   EXPEDITION.  649 

burned  them  to  death  by  a  slow  fire.  The  whole  expedition  was  a 
wretched  failure,  of  which  the  blame  seems  to  rest  with  Bienville. 
The  Chickasaws  never  lost  the  prestige  which  their  success  gave  them. 
The  historian  of  Alabama  says  of  them  :  "  The  Chickasaws  have  never 
been  conquered."  l 

In  1740  Bienville  led  another  expedition  against  them  by  way  of  the 
Mississippi  river.  He  moved  with  thirty-six  hundred  men,  —  of  whom 
one  third  were  whites  and  the  rest  negroes  and  Indians,  — from  Fort 
Assumption,  which  stood  near  the  site  of  our  city  of  Memphis.  This 
was  the  largest  army  which  the  colony  had  ever  put  in  the  field.  The 
unconquered  Chickasaws  were  frightened,  end  offered  to  make  peace 
on  condition  of  surrendering  all  their  white  slaves.  Bienville  assented. 
He  received  from  them  two  English  prisoners,  satisfied  himself  that 
they  had  no  French  in  their  hands,  and  with  this  concession,  withdrew 
his  expedition.  The  Chickasaws  pretended,  and  the  French  believed 
what  was  probably  true,  that  the  Natchez  had,  for  the  time,  so  far 
withdrawn  from  their  confederacy,  that  a  war  against  the  former  tribe 
did  not  serve  the  purpose  of  vengeance  against  the  latter.  The  two 
campaigns  certainly  did  not  add  to  the  reputation  of  Bienville  as  a 
military  leader.  But  he  retains  the  reputation  of  a  successful  admin- 
istrator of  a  colony,  who  had  to  act  often  on  his  own  responsibility, 
who  was  always  separated  from  his  metropolitan  masters  by  an  ocean 
of  slow  navigation,  and  often  by  the  frequent  wars.  He  dismissed  his 
auxiliaries  with  presents.  Fort  Assumption  was  razed,  and  no  new 
military  works  were  erected  on  its  site  for  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years.  After  an  absence  of  more  than  ten  months  the  army  returned 
to  New  Orleans.  Bienville  himself  returned  to  France  the  next  year, 
and  was  succeeded  by  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil.  Bienville  never  re- 
turned to  America.  He  died  in  1767. 

In  truth  Louisiana  had  succeeded  as  a  royal  colony  no  better  than 
it  succeeded  under  the  Western  Company.  Its  officers  and  garrisons 
in  Bienville's  time  entailed  on  the  Crown  an  annual  expense  of  five 
hundred  thousand  livres,  —  not  a  very  large  sum  in  current  money, 
but  not  inconsiderable  in  the  pinched  finances  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  XV.  If  the  figures  could  be  relied  on,  with  which  the 
Western  Company  gave  back  their  charter  to  the  King  in  June,  1731, 
its  population  was  then  five  thousand  on  the  Mississippi 
and  all  its  affluents,  beside  two  thousand  slaves.  A  census  campaign  of 
taken  fifteen  years  later  showed  a  population  of  only  four 
thousand  whites,  of  whom  eight  hundred  were  the  troops  in  the  gar- 
risons. These  figures  would  show  even  a  decrease  in  the  years  of  the 
Royal  administration.  Twenty  years  later,  under  the  careful  admin- 

1  Pickett's  Alabama. 


550 


THE   MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


Louis  XV. 


istration  of  Ulloa,  a  census  showed  a  population  of   5,526  whites,  and 
about  as  many  blacks.     It  was  not  unnatural  that  Louis  XV.  should 

care  but  little  for  his  namesake, 
which,  after  half  a  century  of 
nursing,  had  shown  such  incon- 
siderable growth,  and  gave  so 
little  visible  promise  of  im- 
provement. An  army  of  eight 
hundred  men  to  protect  four 
times  their  number  of  settlers 
gave  indeed  but  little  hope  for 
any  permanent  establishment  of 
value. 

The  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil  was 
appointed  Bienville's  successor, 
and  he  filled  the  post  of  Royal 
Governor  at  New  Orleans  for 
eight  years,  whence  he  was 
transferred  to  Canada.  He 
was  in  fear  that  the  English 
would  attack  him  by  sea,  as 
through  the  Choctaw  allies  of  the  Carolinians  and  Georgians  they 
threatened  him  by  land.  Under  more  vigorous  lead  the  English  would 
have  done  so.  But  no  English  fleet  attempted  to  force  his  petty  for- 
tifications. By  land,  his  people  were,  again  and  again,  in  terror  of 
attack  from  the  Choc  taws  of  the  English  party.  At  one  time  Vaud- 
reuil was  inspecting  his  post  at  Mobile,  so  that  the  colony  at  New 
Orleans  was  without  its  chief.  On  the  German  Coast  so  called,  on 
^ne  river,  and  indeed  close  to  the  little  city,  the  Choctaws 
killed  one  and  another  Frenchman.  Vaudreuil  returned  to 
gn(j  j.ne  c}{.y  jn  djsrnav<  Jje  sent  out  detachments  of  re- 
gulars, militia,  and  friendly  Indians,  on  every  side.  His  strategy  was 
successful,  and  was  rewarded  by  the  capture  of  the  whole  Choctaw 
army,  excepting  two  men.  The  others,  —  only  eleven  in  number,  — 
were  brought  prisoners  to  the  city,  and  the  Marquis's  satisfaction  for 
such  a  victory  was  of  course  chastened  by  his  mortification  for  the 
terror  of  his  subordinates. 

In  1750  that  part  of  the  Choctaws  who  were  attached  to  the  French 
interest  obtained  a  series  of  crushing  victories  over  the  smaller  party 
who  were  in  the  English  interest,  and,  by  what  was  known  as  the 
Grand  Pre  Treaty,  extorted  such  hard  terms  as  to  secure  for  a  time 
peace  from  their  most  dreaded  enemy.  The  Chickasaws  offered 
peace  also.  But  Vaudreuil  wrote  to  his  government  that  he  did 


conflicts 
with  the 


1752.]  PRODUCTIONS   OF  THE   COLONY.  551 

not  want  to  make  a  treaty  with  them  till  he  had  conquered  them. 
In  this  desire,  he  was  never  gratified. 

In  1751,  so  great  was  Vandreuil's  consideration  at  Court,  and  so 
desirous  was  the  Court  to  maintain  Louisiana  against  the  English,  that 
he  had  under  his  orders  two  thousand  soldiers,  —  a  force  more  than 
one  third  of  the  whole  white  population  of  that  immense  region. 
With  such  a  force  the  expenses  of  the  colony  of  course  increased  also, 
and  in  the  last  year  of  his  administration  they  were  930,767  livres. 
On  the  9th  of  February,  1753,  he  gave  up  his  place  to  Capt.  Kerlerec 
of  the  Navy,  and  took  the  command  of  Canada.  The  petty  victory 
over  the  Choctaws  which  we  have  mentioned,  a  series  of 
anxious  discussions  about  the  paper  currency  of  a  handful 


of  traders,  and  the  well  sustained  memoirs  in  which  a  large  auctions  of 
staff  of  officers  explain  how  the  river  should  and  how  it 
should  not  be  defended,  make  up  the  voluminous  annals  of  the  col- 
ony during  his  administration.  Meanwhile  that  conquest  of  the  soil 
and  climate  made  progress  which  is  so  seldom  recorded  in  history, 
but  on  which  all  history  of  course  depends.  That  commerce  in  the 
wax  of  the  candleberry  to  which  Charlevoix  had  called  attention, 
still  attracted  interest.  One  year  the  king  bade  Vaudreuil  pur- 
chase the  whole  crop  on  his  account  at  the  rate  of  ten  or  twelve 
livres  a  pound.  A  dispatch  of  a  later  year  says  that  one  planter 
raised  six  thousand  pounds  of  the  wax,  a  handsome  crop  for  those 
days  at  the  rate  named.  The  report  says  that  this  is  the  only  lu- 
minary used  by  the  inhabitants.  Another  report  of  the  year  1752  l 
speaks  of  the  difficulties  of  the  cotton  culture,  resulting  from  the 
amount  of  labor  necessary  to  separate  seed  from  fibre,  and  alludes 
to  a  gin  which  M.  Dubreuil,  the  same  planter  who  had  succeeded  best 
with  the  wax,  had  invented  for  that  purpose.  This  unsuccessful  gin 
antedates  Eli  Whitney's  by  forty-one  years.  The  manufacture  of 
sugar,  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  few  colonists,  was  introduced,  but 
afterwards  declined.  Indigo  was  cultivated,  and  eventually  became 
an  article  of  export.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  while  the  expenses 
of  the  crown  doubled  in  the  period  of  Vaudreuil's  stewardship,  the 
real  prosperity  and  wealth  of  the  planters  were  increasing  in  a  larger 
proportion.  Full  memoirs  preserved  in  the  French  Archives  show 
that  intelligent  men,  even  then,  foresaw  in  a  small  degree  some  part  of 
the  immense  value  which  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  had  in  store  for 
the  world.  It  is  interesting  to  see  that  at  a  period  of  scarcity  in  New 
Orleans  the  Illinois  farms  were  already  productive  enough  to  supply 
the  distant  seaport  with  bread-stuffs.  The  culture  of  silk  and  tobacco 

1  No.  241.     Portfolio  No.  v.     Archives  de  ta  Marine,  Sept.  22,  1752.     M.  Michel  to  the 
minister. 


652 


THE   MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


is  eagerly  recommended,  and  the  development  of  the  mines  of  copper 
and  lead  in  the  northwest,  the  existence  of  which  was  perfectly  well 
known  to  the  officers  of  the  crown. 

The  administration  of  Kerlerec,  as  governor,  covered  ten  years.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  he  was  recalled  to  France,  and  thrown  into  the 
Bastile.  He  was  a  captain  in  the  French  navy,  who  had  distinguished 
himself  in  battle.  But  in  the  colony  he  was  constantly  quarrelling 
with  Rochemore,  the  intendant  of  commerce,  and  his  arrest  was  caused 
by  charges  of  mal-appropriation  of  ten  millions  of  livres  in  four  years 
under  the  pretence  of  preparation  of  war.  He  held  office  during  the 
most  of  the  French  war  of  George  II.'s  reign,  and  for  long  periods 
of  that  time  was  left  without  any  direct  dispatches  from  France  ;  for 
the  English  cruisers,  who  never  attacked  him  directly,  were  successful 
in  cutting  off  all  his  communications.  Kerlerec's  administration  began 
with  high  hopes  of  conciliating  the  Choctaws.  But  he  soon  lost  con- 
fidence in  them,  and  his  reports  home,  regarding  the  under  officers  of 
the  crown,  and  indeed  most  of  the  people,  with  whom  he  had  to 
do,  were  anything  but  flattering.  The  army  itself  was  recruited  from 
such  worthless  material  as  to  give  Kerlerec  quite  as  much  trouble 
as  the  savages  whom  it  was  to  keep  in  order. 


Coins  struck  in  France  for  the  Colonies. 


The  Old   Fort  at  Saint  Augustine 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 

SPANISH  FOOTHOLD  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  SUCCESSIVE  ACQUISITIONS  BY  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  —  THE  FORTUNES  OF  FLORIDA.  —  BORDER  WARS  WITH  CAROLINA 
AND  GEORGIA. — OGLETHORPE'S  EXPEDITIONS.  —  FLORIDA  CEDED  TO  ENGLAND. — 
ITS  POPULATION.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  CALIFORNIA.  —  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NAME.  — 
ROMANCE  OF  ESPLANDIAN.  —  FATHER  NICA'S  PRETENDED  DISCOVERIES.  —  CORO- 
NADO'S  EXPLORATION  IN  ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO.  —  DRAKE  IN  CALIFORNIA. — 
His  RECEPTION  BY  THE  INDIANS.  —  LOCALITIES  OF  HIS  DISCOVERIES. 

THE  destiny  of  the  United  States  has  passed  so  far  under  the  em- 
pire of  institutions  which  have  an  English  origin,  that  it  is  easy  to 
forget  how  large  a  portion  of  her  territory  has  in  other  times  be- 
longed to  the  Spanish  crown.  The  prevalence  of  the  English  lan- 
guage as  the  language  of  public  procedure  in  every  State  and  Territory, 
and  the  sway,  in  a  very  large  degree,  of  English  law  and  the  habits 
of  English  administration,  are  enough  to  keep  out  of  view  the  fact, 
that,  at  one  time  or  another,  more  than  half  the  present  Extent  of 
territory  of  the  United  States  has  been,  on  the  map  at  least,  dominion  in 
subject  to  the  King  of  Spain.  The  Spanish  claim  to  Mex-  America, 
ico  and  the  regions  north  of  it,  was  pressed  indefinitely  northward. 
Somewhere  on  the  coast  of  what  we  call  Oregon,  Drake  saw  the 
shore  in  1579,  and  he  took  possession  of  the  country  in  California  for 


564  SPANISH   COLONIZATION.  [CHAI-.  XXIII. 

the  English  crown  as  New  Albion.  But  England  scarcely  asserted 
her  rights  under  this  discovery  for  centuries. 

At  one  and  another  time  since  she  seized  the  port  of  Astoria  in 
1813,  she  has  made  one  and  another  claim  to  this  territory,  running 
back  to  her  rights  under  Drake's  discovery.  But  the  decision  which 
gave  to  the  United  States,  holding  under  the  Spanish  claim,  the 
region  south  of  the  line  of  49°  north  latitude,  states,  quite  correctly, 
the  average  opinion  of  the  older  geographers.1  On  the  seacoast  of 
The  Pacific  ^e  Pacific  the  Spanish  claim  resulted  from  a  series  of  dis- 
siop*  coveries  and  explorations,  beginning,  as  will  be  seen,  when 

Hernando  Cortez  discovered  California  in  1536.  In  the  interior  the 
eagerness  for  silver  early  established  colonies  of  which  Santa  F£  in 
New  Mexico  was  the  most  important  of  those  far  to  the  northward. 
It  is  generally  supposed,  that  the  droves  of  wild  horses  now  found 
through  the  whole  of  Western  America,  as  far  north  as  the  climate 
will  permit,  were  of  Spanish  origin.  So  far  as  the  natives  received 
any  supplies  from  the  workshops  of  civilization,  it  was  from  Spanish 
traders ;  and,  to  this  hour,  some  fragments  of  the  Spanish  language, 
acquired  at  a  very  early  period,  will  be  found  in  their  dialect. 

Eastward  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  Spaniards  showed  no  dispo- 
spanishpoi-  sition  to  extend  their  dominion,  after  the  expeditions  of  De 
the  Rocky  Soto  and  Ponce  de  Leon  had  seemed  to  prove  that  no  treas- 
Mountains.  ure  of  g()1(j  or  siiver  was  to  be  found  there.  The  Spanish 

government  made  no  protest  when,  under  Louis  XIV.,  the  French 
claimed  a  right  to  the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  founded  upon 
the  discoveries  of  Joliet,  Marquette,  and  La  Salle.  On  the  ground, 
an  irritable  commander  of  a  Spanish  post  in  Texas  might  quarrel 
with  an  impetuous  French  officer  in  a  garrison  on  the  Red  River. 
But  at  home  the  policy  of  Spain  was  well  defined ;  and  if  the  King 
of  France  were  willing  to  keep  a  line  of  defence  between  the  English 
colonies  and  the  Spanish  mines,  the  King  of  Spain  made  no  objec- 
tion. It  was  not  until  the  treaty  of  Paris,  in  1763,  that  the  King 
of  France  showed  that  he  was  tired  of  this  expensive  good-nature. 
He  then  gave  this  immense  territory  to  his  well-beloved  brother  of 
Spain,  who  showed  himself,  indeed,  somewhat  coy  about  receiving 
the  magnificent  but  costly  present.  Twenty  years  afterward,  the 
Spanish  crown  gave  it  back  to  France,  only  to  learn,  in  a  few  months, 
that  France  had  sold  it  to  the  young  Republic  of  America. 

Florida,  from  which  so  much  was  hoped  in  the  days  of  Ponce  de 
Leon,  had  remained  in  the  possession  of  Spain,  after  the  cruel  mas~ 

1  This  claim  was  reinforced  by  Gray's  discovery  of  the  Columbia  River,  and  Lewis  & 
Clarke's  exploration  of  it.  These  discoveries  pave  to  the  United  States  precisely  the  same 
sort  of  right  as  that  which  La  Salle's  gave  to  France,  for  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 


1819.]  FLORIDA.  555 

J 

sacres  which  have  been  already  described.1     But  no  discoverer  had 
found   gold,   or  silver,  or  the  fountain  of   life  in    Florida. 

.....  The  Span- 

The  Spanish  posts,  therefore,  were  simply  military  positions,  iardsin 
held  to  insure  the  command  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  On  the 
eastern  side  St.  Augustine,  without  trade,  and  with  but  a  small  civil 
population,  was  held  by  Spain  until  1762,  when  it  was  ceded  to  Eng- 
land, to  be  restored  in  1783.  By  Spain  it  was  ceded  to  the  United 
States  in  1819.  On  the  other  side,  Pensacola,  as  has  been  seen,  once 
and  again  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  Afterwards,  with  East- 
ern Florida,  it  fell  to  the  English.  But  no  settlement  of  Florida 
followed  from  either  of  these  establishments.  The  territories,  nomi- 
nally Spanish,  thus  added  to  those  which  were  colonized  under  the 
flag  and  protection  of  England,  or  under  titles  derived  from  her, 
cover  rather  more  than  half  of  the  superficial  area  of  the  United 
States,  with  the  exception  of  the  province  of  Alaska,  recently  pur- 
chased from  Russia.  Of  the  several  parts  of  this  immense  domain, 
the  earliest  to  come  under  the  dominion  of  the  United  States,  was 
the  western  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  which  was  that 
which  came  latest  under  the  Spanish  flag.  In  1819  the  United 
States  acquired  Florida  from  Spain,  and  all  her  rights  on  the  west- 
ern shore  of  the  continent  north  of  42°  north  latitude,  comprising 
the  State  now  known  as  Oregon,  and  Washington  Territory.  In 
1845,  by  a  joint  resolution,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  an- 
nexed Texas  to  the  Union,  and  this  decision  was  confirmed  by  the 
arbitration  of  war.  The  question  whether  Texas  were  a  part  of 
Louisiana  or  not,  had  always  been  an  open  question  between  France 
and  Spain,  but  it  had  practically  been  yielded  by  France,  and  in 
the  treaty  of  1819  the  United  States  had  acquiesced  in  that  decision. 
By  the  treaties  with  Mexico  of  1848  and  1853,  the  dominion  of  the 
United  States  was  extended  by  the  acquisition  of  California  and  the 
region  now  covered  by  the  territory  between  that  State  and  Texas. 

We  recur  now  to  the  earlier  history  of  the  Spanish  possession  of 
these  regions. 

The  reader  has  already  been  told2  of  the  destruction  of  the  oldest 
town  in  the  United  States,  St.  Augustine,  by  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  on  his  return   from  his  expedition  to  the  Spanish   Drake  s 
Main.    The  Spanish  Armada  occupied  the  attention  of  Eng-         ° 


land  too  intensely,  when  Drake  returned,  for  any  effort  to  be 
made,  either  to  follow  up  his  victory  in  Florida,  or  to  renew  the 
English  establishment  at   Roanoke.     The   Spaniards   who  had   fled 
from  his  arms  in  Florida,  returned  to  the  ruins  of  their  fort   and 
reestablished  it.      The  Menendez,  who  has  earned  the  right  to  be 

1  Vol.  i.,  p.  208.  *  Vol.  i.,  p.  222. 


556 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


called  "  great "  by  his  cruelty  and  falsehood,  had  died.  But  the 
government  of  St.  Augustine  was  made  hereditary  in  his  family  l 
until  the  year  1655.  The  history  of  the  colony,  meanwhile,  is  scarcely 
more  than  that  of  an  insignificant  garrison,  elevated  occasionally  to 
general  interest  in  the  events  of  a  general  war.2 

In  1593  twelve  brothers  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis  were  sent  to 
Florida,  to  continue  such  missions  as  had  been  established 
among  the  natives.     By  their   efforts   and   those  of  other 
brethren  sent  to  continue  and  enlarge  their  work,  many  missions  were 


Missions  in 
Florida. 


General  View  of  St.  Augustine. 


established  in  the  course  of  the  next  hundred  years.  Of  these,  the 
most  important  was  at  first  at  the  island  of  Guale.  But  the  chief  of 
the  savages  in  this  neighborhood  excited  his  people  against  them,  in 
a  severe  attack  which  resulted  in  the  murder  of  five  priests,  and  the 
cruel  injury  of  another.  The  Governor  avenged  them  by  burning  the 
granaries  and  dwellings  of  the  Indians.  In  the  years  1612  and  1613, 
thirty-one  missionaries  of  the  same  brotherhood  were  sent  to  Florida, 
and  the  name  of  St.  Helena  was  given  to  it  as  a  religious  province  of 
that  order.3  Twenty  missions  were  now  established,  and  the  brethren 

1  In  Buckingham  Smith's  collection  of  Florida  papers  is  the  will  of  one  of  the  smaller 
Menendez  governors. 

2  It  has  been  admirably  treated,  in  its  detail,  by  Mr.  Fairbanks  in  his  history.     The 
South  Carolina  Historical  Collections  give  orijrinal  authorities  on  the  "  wars  "  with  Carolina 

8  This  name  must  not  he  confounded  with  the  name  of  St.  Helena  on  the  shore  of  South 
Carolina,  though  both  had  the  same  origin. 


1678.]  THE   SPANIARDS  AND  THE  ENGLISH.  657 

preached  to  the  natives  with  success  in  their  own  language.  In  1638, 
a  war  broke  out  between  the  colony  and  the  Apalachee  Indians. 
Such  Indians  as  were  captured  were  reduced  to  slavery ; 

,  -  i  .  Slow  growth 

the  tribe  was  so  far  overcome  as  to  be  kept  for  the  time  of  the  coi- 
within  its  own  limits.     Meanwhile  the  growth  of  the  colony 
was  so  small,  that  in  1647,  eighty-two  years  after  Menendez  founded 
the  colony,  the  number  of  families  in  St.  Augustine  was  but  three 
hundred,  and  this  was  almost  the  whole  of  the  settlement.     There 
were  also  fifty  Franciscan  friars  domiciled  in  the  city.     When  it  is 
remembered  that   Menendez  took  with  him   two  thousand  six  hun- 
dred and  fifty  colonists  from  Cadiz,  it  will  be  seen  that   the   his- 
tory of  Florida,  thus  far,  had  been  a  history  of  decline  and  not  of 
progress. 

With  the  colonists  of  Virginia  and  other  northern  colonies  the 
Spaniards  had  little  intercourse,  peaceful  or  otherwise.  So 
soon  as  Charles  II.  gave  a  charter  for  the  settlement  of  English  a 
Carolina,  which  was  in  1663,  jealousies  arose  on  both  sides, 
and  the  hatred  of  Englishmen  for  Spaniard,  and  Catholic  for  heretic, 
was  enough  to  keep  the  little  colonies  suspicious  of  each  other,  even 
when  nominal  peace  united  their  sovereigns  at  home.  In  1665  an 
expedition  under  Captain  John  Davis,  a  buccaneer,  made  a  descent 
"on  St.  Augustine  and  ravaged  the  town.  In  1667,  however,  Charles 
II.  of  England  concluded  a  treaty  with  Spain,1  in  which  Spain  con- 
ceded to  England  all  colonies  which  Charles  and  his  subjects  "  then 
possessed."  On  the  other  hand,  Charles  agreed  to  cut  off  all  future 
protection  from  the  buccaneers,  who,  till  this  time,  had  considered 
Spanish  property  to  be  fair  prize  if  found  in  the  Pacific,  and  were 
not  distressed  if  they  seized  it  in  the  other  great  ocean.  No  Eng- 
lish settlement  was  in  fact  made  in  Carolina,  under  Charles's  charter, 
until  1670.  But,  in  the  diplomacy  of  the  two  nations,  it  was  virtually 
agreed  that  the  English  claim  to  that  region  was  good,  and  the  line 
of  the  St.  Mary's  River  was  eventually  agreed  on  as  the  line  of  the 
separation  between  the  English  and  Spanish  dominions.  It  is  there- 
fore, to  this  day,  the  dividing  line  between  the  State  of  Georgia,  which 
bears  an  English  name,  and  that  of  Florida,  which  retains  the  Spanish 
name  given  it  by  Ponce  de  Leon.2 

The  Spaniards,  on  their  side,  attacked  the  English  colonies  in  1670 
and  1686,  but  without  other  success  than  burning  and  ravaging  the 
homes  of  a  few  settlers  on  the  coast.  Such  raids,  of  course,  kept  up 
the  feeling  of  mutual  hatred,  strong  enough  at  the  very  best.  But 

1  Each  king  was  Charles  II.    Charles  II.  of  England  reigned  from  1660  to  1685.    Charles 
II.  of  Spain  reigned  from  1665  to  1700. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  p.  147. 


558 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIH. 


for  the   rest  of    the  seventeenth  century,    there  was  no   exploit  on 
either  side  which  deserves  the  name  of  war. 

Menendez  had  been  authorized,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  col- 
ony, to  introduce  five  hundred  negro  slaves.  So  many  laboring  men 
pressed  themselves  upon  him  in  Spain,  that  he  made  no  use  of  the 
concession.  But  in  1687  one  hundred  negroes  were  introduced  as 
slaves,  and  for  nearly  two  centuries  Florida  suffered  under  the  dis- 
advantage of  slave  labor.  Cabrera,  who  was  governor  in  1681,  un- 
dertook the  enterprise  of  removing  the  Indians  not  Christianized  to 
the  islands  of  the  coast.  The  result  was  simply  an  insurrection  of 
these  tribes,  who  took  refuge  within  the  limits  of  Carolina.  In  a  sub- 
sequent incursion,  these  Indians  attacked  the  Tomoquas,  a  Christian 


Pensacol*. 


tribe,  friendly  to  the  Spaniards,  whose  name  is  still  preserved  in  the 
Tomoka  River.  They  killed  a  large  number  of  the  Tomoquas,  and 
carried  the  other  prisoners  to  the  colony  of  St.  Helena,  where  their 
Christianity  did  not  protect  them  so  far  but  that  they  were  reduced 
into  slavery. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  western  coast  of  the  peninsula   of  Florida,  the 
Spanish  government  established  a  fort  at  Pensacola,  in  the 


The  settle- 


Pensacola. 


year  1696.  The  name  of  the  place,  spelled  by  them  Pen- 
cacola,  is  that  of  a  tribe  of  Indians  who  once  resided  there. 
The  Spaniards  were  stimulated  by  the  efforts  of  the  French  to  settle 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and,  indeed,  had  only  just  founded 
Pensacola  when  the  French  colony  under  D'Iberville  arrived.  A 
square  fort,  known  by  the  name  of  Charles,  the  king  of  Spain,  a 
church,  and  other  public  buildings,  were  erected.  Andres  d'Arriola 
was  the  first  governor.  Within  two  years  D'Iberville  touched  at  the 
new  post,  nor  was  it  long  before  his  brother  was  attacking  it,  in  the 
War  of  the  Succession.  Before  that  time,  however,  new  opportunities 


1700.]  WAR  WITH   CAROLINA.  55S 

for  carnage  and  ravage  had  been  found  by  English  and  Spaniards  on 
the  eastern  shore. 

Near  the  close  of  the  year  1700,  on  the  death  of  Governor  Blake  of 
Carolina,  James  Moore  had  been  chosen  as  his  successor.  With  the 
poor  object  of  personal  gain  from  the  traffic  in  Indian  slaves,  he 
granted  commissions  for  the  capture  of  Indians  with  power  to  sell 
them  as  slaves  ;  and,  on  the  outbreak  in  Europe  of  the  war  with 
Spain,  he  undertook  an  expedition  against  St.  Augustine  with  the 
same  object  in  view.  He  embarked  with  this  purpose  in  September, 
1702,  having  arranged  that  Daniel,  an  officer  of  spirit,  should  make  a 
descent  upon  the  town  by  land,  while  Moore  himself  block-  Engligh  ex. 
aded  the  harbor  by  sea.  The  Spaniards,  under  their  gov-  |^AU^ 
ernor  Cuniga,  had  heard  of  the  movement,  and  retired  with  tine 
their  effects  into  their  castle.  When  Moore  arrived,  he  found  his 
guns  too  weak  to  assault  them,  and  sent  Daniel  to  Jamaica  for  heavy 
artillery.  While  Daniel  was  absent,  two  Spanish  ships,  one  of 
twenty-two  guns  and  one  of  eighteen,  appeared  off  the  harbor,  and 
so  terrified  the  English  that  they  raised  the  siege.  Moore  retired 
by  land  to  Charleston,  without  losing  a  man,  burning  the  town  of 
St.  Augustine  and  his  own  transports.  Daniel,  on  his  return  with 
the  mortars  and  guns  for  which  he  had  been  sent,  hardly  escaped 
capture. 

The  Spaniards  retaliated  for  this  foolish  assault  in  exciting  the 
Apalachee  Indians,  their  allies,  to  attack  the  English  set-  g^utR,,. 
tlements.  The  Apalachees  marched,  nine  hundred  in  num-  tallatlon 
ber,  but  fell  into  an  ambush  of  the  Creeks,  who  were  always  the 
firm  allies  of  the  English,  and  were  routed  by  them.  In  reward  for 
this  service,  all  who  survived  of  the  Indians  who  had  been  held  as 
slaves  in  St.  Augustine  and  those  who  had  been  taken  since  1640, 
were  now  set  free  by  Cuniga,  under  a  promise  that  they  should  return 
to  work  on  the  fortifications  whenever  they  were  needed.  Cuniga 
urged  the  government  at  home  to  send  him  the  means  to  make  five 
new  posts  on  his  frontiers.  Before  any  such  aid  reached  him,  Moore, 
with  a  thousand  Creeks  and  about  fifty  of  the  Carolina  militia,  at- 
tacked the  Indian  allies  of  the  Spaniards  and  defeated  them.  He 
carried  away  three  hundred  slaves,  —  most  of  the  people  of  seven 
Indian  towns.1  He  burned  San  Luis  and  Ayaralla,  and  took  the 
church  plate  and  vestments,  and  everything  else  of  value.  These 
Indians  had,  before  this  time,  made  some  progress  in  civilization  —  it 
was,  perhaps,  the  loosening  of  the  habits  of  savage  life  which  made 
them  so  easy  a  prey  to  the  untamed  savages  who  attacked  them. 
This  incursion  was  followed  by  others,  frequent  enough  to  forbid  the 
1  South  Carolina  Report  in  Carroll's  Collections,  ii.  353. 


660  SPANISH   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXHI. 

recolonization  of  the  wasted  country  before  the  end  of  the  war.  So 
enraged  were  the  Indians  that  the  Carolinians  were  obliged  to  put 
up  forts  for  their  frontier  defence,  one  of  which  was  established  at 
Apalachicola,  close  to  the  limits  of  the  State  of  Florida.1  The  Ye- 
massees,  who  had  been  driven  out  from  Carolina  into  Florida,  kept 
up  an  unremitted  warfare  on  the  frontiers. 

So  soon  as  Bienville,  Governor  of  Louisiana,  learned  in  1719,  that 
war  existed  between  Spain  and  France,  he  took  Pensacola  by 

Capture  and  . r  .  .  J 

recapture  of  surprise.  The  Spaniards  retook  it  at  once,  in  the  same 
way.  But,  in  September  of  the  same  year,  Bienville  took 
it  again.  This  time  the  French  commander  destroyed  the  fortifica- 
tions and  the  town,  leaving  only  a  small  battery  and  a  handful  of 
men.  In  1722,  the  Spaniards  reoccupied  the  harbor,  and  built  a 
town  on  Santa  Rosa  island,  near  where  Fort  Pickens  now  stands. 
But  the  settlement  was  gradually  transferred  to  the  northern  side  of 
the  bay,  where  the  present  city  of  Pensacola  stands ;  the  point  taken 
on  the  island  having  proved  particularly  sandy  and  barren. 

In  1732,  Oglethorpe's  settlement  of  Georgia  pressed  even  closer 
than  Carolina  had  done  on  the  frontiers  of  Florida.  Oglethorpe 
Hostilities  claimed  that  the  Altamaha  was  the  southern  boundary  of  his 
d  province.  The  English  fort,  King  George,  erected  on  the 
banks  of  that  river,  had  already  given  umbrage  to  the  Span- 
iards, and  in  1736,  the  Spanish  government  ordered  Oglethorpe  to 
evacuate  all  territory  south  of  St.  Helena  Sound.  The  Governor 
brought  three  companies  of  foot  with  him  to  Frederica,  the  most 
northerly  Spanish  settlement,  —  the  place  still  known  by  the  same 
name  on  the  sea-coast  of  Georgia.  Oglethorpe  went  at  once  to  Eng- 
land for  aid.  At  that  moment  the  people  of  England  were  indig- 
nant with  Spain  for  other  reasons,  and  Oglethorpe  returned,  with  the 
commission  of  major-general,  and  a  regiment  of  men.  The  Span- 
iards strengthened  St.  Augustine  in  their  turn.  In  October,  Wai- 
pole's  pacific  policy  was  abandoned,  war  was  declared,  and  the  Eng- 
lish sent  a  squadron  under  Admiral  Vernon  to  the  West  Indies,  with 
directions  to  aid  Oglethorpe,  who  at  once  set  on  foot  operations 
against  St.  Augustine.  He  succeeded  in  cementing  the  alliance  be- 
tween the  English  and  the  Creeks,  who  hated  the  Spaniards  with  a 
very  perfect  hatred. 

The  officers  of  the  navy  having  agreed  to  cooperate  in  the  attack 
on  St.  Augustine,  Oglethorpe  appointed  a  rendezvous  on  the  Florida 
side  of  the  St.  John's  River  and  moved  on  the  9th  of  May,  1740,  with 

1  This  is  not  at  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Apalachicola.  The  point  was  farther  up 
the  river  of  that  name,  not  far  from  Chattahoochee.  The  fort  known  as  Savanas  was  still 
farther  up,  and  must  not  lit-  confounded  with  the  site  of  Savannah. 


1740.] 


WAR  WITH  GEORGIA. 


561 


four  hundred  whites  and  a  large  party  of  Indians.  The  next  day  he  in- 
vested a  Spanish  outpost  called  Diego,  belonging  to  a  Spaniard,  named 
Spinosa,  reduced  and  garrisoned  it.  He  then  returned  to  his  rendez- 
vous, and  with  his  whole  command  —  two  thousand  men,  regular 
troops,  provincials,  and  Indians,  moved  against  Fort  Moosa,  two  miles 
from  St.  Augustine.  The  Spaniards  abandoned  this  post  and  retired  into 
the  town,  which  he  had  given  them  time  to  provision  by  driving  in 
cattle,  while  he  was  occupied  with  Fort  Diego  and  his  counter-marches. 
He  was  compelled  to  blockade  the  harbor  and  invest  the  town.  He  left 


Oglethorpe's  Attack  on  St.  Augustine  (from   "  An  Impartial  Account  of  the  Late  Expedition  to  St.  Augus- 
tine."    London,  I742}.1 

ninety-five  Highlanders  and  forty-two  Indians  at  Moosa,  to  intercept  all 
supplies  of  cattle  for  the  town.  This  was  all  the  force  he  left  on  the 
land  side.  He  sent  Colonel  Vanderdussen,  with  the  Carolina  regiment, 
to  take  Point  Quartelle  on  the  water  side,  about  a  mile  distant  from 
the  castle,  and  build  a  battery.  With  his  own  regiment  and  most  of 
the  Indians  he  landed  on  the  island  of  Anastasia.  One  of  the  ships 
was  stationed  to  the  southward  to  block  up  the  Matanzas  passage,  and 
the  others  blockaded  the  harbor.  Batteries  were  erected  on  Anastasia. 
Having  made  these  dispositions,  Oglethorpe  summoned  the  Spanish 

l  KEY  TO  THE  MAP.  —  1.  The  Town.  2.  The  Castle.  3.  A  Batter)-.  4.  Moosa  or  Negro  Fort.  5.  The  Look- 
out. 6.  Small  Fort  abandoned  by  the  Spaniards.  7.  A  Battery  of  one  mortar,  and  three  six-pounders.  8. 
A  Battery,  one  mortar,  two  eighteen-pounders,  and  one  nine-pounder.  9  Six  half  galleys  at  anchor  (Span- 
ish). 10.  A  Battery,  two  mortars,  four  eighteen-pounders,  and  one  nine-pounder.  11.  Harbor  "  where 
our  vessels  lay."  12.  Carolina  Regiments,  first  Camp  on  Pt.  Quartelle.  13.  Sailor's  Camp.  14.  Carolina 
Regiments,  Second  Camp  on  Pt.  Quartelle.  15.  Carolina  Camp  upon  Anastasia.  16.  The  Volunteers'  Camp. 
17  Gen  Oglethorpe's  Camp  after  he  went  from  Anastasia. 

VOL.   II  36 


562  SPANISH  COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

garrison  ;  to  receive  from  the  Governor  the  cheerful  answer  that  he 
should  be  glad  to  kiss  his  hands  in  the  fort.  Oglethorpe  then  began 
his  attack  by  throwing  shells  into  the  town,  which  were  returned  by 
the  fort  and  six  half  galleys  in  the  harbor.  Little  execution  was  done 
on  either  side.  Captain  Warren  of  the  English  navy  offered  to  lead 
a  night  attack  against  the  Spanish  galleys,  but  a  council  of  war  de- 
clared this  impracticable.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Spanish  com- 
mander sent  out  a  detachment  against  Colonel  Palmer  in  his  isolated 
post  at  Moosa,  and  broke  it  up,  killed  him  and  sixty-eight  of  his 
men,  and  took  many  prisoners.  A  party  of  Chickasaws  coming  to 
the  English  camp,  cut  off  a  Spaniard's  head  and  brought  it  to  Ogle- 
thorpe. He  showed  his  indignation,  called  them  barbarous  dogs  and 
bade  them  begone.  The  proud  "  unconquered  Chickasaws "  were 
offended,  and  said  the  French  would  not  treat  them  thus,  had  they 
carried  in  an  English  head,  —  which  was  probably  true.  These  allies, 
thus  rebuffed,  deserted  the  English  camp.  The  vessel  at  the  Matan- 
zas  passage  was  not  a  sufficient  guard  on  the  south.  For,  by  the 
Mosquito  inlet,  which  runs  parallel  to  the  sea,  supplies  from  Cuba 
were  received  by  the  garrison.  The  master  of  the  vessel  at  Ma- 
tanzas  Inlet  could  see  them  pass,  beyond  his  range  of  prevention. 
Some  Spanish  prisoners,  who  were  carried  to  Oglethorpe,  told  him 
that  the  reinforcements  were  seven  hundred  men,  with  a  large  supply 
of  provisions.  All  prospect  was  thus  lost  of  starving  the  garrison. 
Retreat  of  The  naval  commander  of  the  English  feared  hurricanes,  and 
the  English.  ^^  jje  mus^  withdraw.  The  Carolinian  troops  withdrew 
without  asking  leave.  And  poor  General  Oglethorpe  himself,  sick  of 
a  fever,  was  obliged  to  withdraw  his  own  regiment,  and  reached  Fred- 
erica  early  in  July. 

So  disgraceful  a  defeat  of  a  force  so  considerable  greatly  elated  the 
Spaniards.  When  their  supplies  arrived  from  the  Havana,  they  had 
but  three  days'  bread,  and  they  piously  ascribed  their  relief  to  St. 
Rosana,  the  Virgin  of  the  Apalachees.  The  Carolinians,  who  had 
expended  men  and  money  freely  in  the  expedition,  were  indignant, 
and  charged  Oglethorpe  with  utter  incompetency,  nor  were  the  officers 
of  the  English  army  and  navy  of  another  opinion. 

Monteano,  the  Spanish  Governor,  who  had  defended  his  post  so  well, 
expected  a  renewal  of  the  attack  in  the  autumn,  which  would  have 
been  a  much  more  favorable  season  for  his  enemies.  He  begged  for 
reinforcements,  and  received  eight  companies  of  infantry.  But  no 
second  attack  came.  He  was  tempted  to  retaliate.  A  terrible  fire 
had  devastated  Charleston,  and  he  urged  the  Governor  at  Cuba  to 
make  an  attack  on  the  place  at  the  moment  of  its  exhaustion.  His 
advice  was  not  taken  in  1741,  but  in  the  next  year  a  fleet  of  thirty- 


1762.] 


FLORIDA   CEDED  TO  ENGLAND. 


563 


six  sail  with  two  thousand  men  was  sent  to  him.  He  added  a  force 
of  one  thousand  men,  took  the  command,  and  sailed  for  the  harbor  of 
St.  Simon's,  better  known  now,  perhaps,  as  the  harbor  of  Brunswick. 
This  movement,  however,  was,  in  its  turn,  unsuccessful,  and  Monteano 
returned  as  much  mortified  as  Oglethorpe  the  year  before. 

In  March  of  the  next  year,  Oglethorpe  took  the  aggressive,  and 
marched  to  the  very  walls  of  St.  Augustine,  with  such  celer-  continued 
ity,  that  his  Indian  allies  killed  forty  Spanish  soldiers  before  hostilitie8- 
they  could  enter  the  fort.     But,  failing  to  draw  out   the  Spaniards 
for  an  encounter  in  the  field  he  again  retired,  and  in  1748,  peace  at 
home  closed  these  miserable  hostilities  on  the  frontier.     The  garrison 


Old  Gate  at  St.  Augustine. 

at  St.  Augustine  was  so  reduced  that  in  1759  the  whole  force  was  but 
five  hundred   men.     When  in  1762  hostilities   broke  out   again   be- 
tween England  and  Spain,  an  English  fleet  seized  the  Havana,  and, 
on  the  negotiation  of  peace,  Spain  was  glad  to  cede  Florida  to  regain 
Cuba.     This  measure  indeed  was  necessary  to  the  tripartite 
diplomacy  between  England,  Spain,  and  France,  in  which  Fiona*  to 
eastern  Louisiana  was  ceded  to  England.     For,  where  east- 
ern Louisiana  began  and  where  Florida  ended,  had  never  been  de- 
termined.    Spain  gained  by  that   treaty  all  western  Louisiana,  and 
could  well  afford  to  give  up  Florida  to  the  victorious  English,  who 
thus  carried  to  the  Gulf  the  frontier  of  that  colonial  empire  which 
was  to  be  theirs  for  so  few  years.     The  English  government  named 


564  SPANISH  COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

General  Grant  Governor  of  East  Florida,  and  he  received  the  post  from 
the  Spaniards.  A  t  the  period  of  the  evacuation  the  whole  population 
amounted  to  5,700  persons,  including  a  garrison  of  2,000  men.  Many 
condition  of  ^e^  *ne  place  never  to  return.  Three  years  afterward,  a 
fnd^rfter1  traveller  speaks  of  Picolata,  a  small  fort  and  garrison  on 
the  cession.  tne  gt  john>  Mr  Rone's  settlement,  twenty-five  miles  above, 
and  Mr.  Spalding's  trading  house,  fifteen  miles  farther  up,  as  the  only 
stations  on  this  magnificent  river.1  The  greater  part  of  the  popu- 
lation of  Florida  consisted  of  a  mixture  of  the  remnants  of  the 
Cowetas,  Talipoosas,  Coosas,  Apalachees,  Cussetas,  Ockmulgees,  Wee- 
tumkas,  Pakanas,  Taensas,  Chaesihoomas,  Abekas,  and  other  tribes, 
who  had  organized  in  a  confederacy  under  the  name,  since  well  known 
and  formidable,  of  Muscogees.  From  this  confederacy  the  Seminoles 
afterwards  parted ;  their  name  Isty-Semole,  wild  men,  indicates  that 
they  were  hunters,  rather  than  farmers.  In  1773,  Bartram  speaks  of 
the  Seminoles  as  but  a  weak  people  in  respect  of  numbers ;  he  sup- 
poses all  of  them  would  not  people  one  of  the  Muscogee  towns.  As 
civilization  advanced,  and  the  Indian  towns  were  broken  up,  the 
"  wild  men  "  must  have  gained  accessions  from  their  former  kindred. 
Bartram  "  ventures  to  assert  that  no  part  of  the  globe  so  abounds 
with  wild  game  or  creatures  fit  for  the  food  of  man  "  as  the  territory 
which  they  then  inhabited.  The  population  of  this  Muscogee  confede- 
racy, sixty  years  after,  was  twenty-six  thousand.2  The  population  of 
Indians  and  whites  in  1762  was  probably  larger  than  that  of  whites 
and  negroes  in  1830,  when  there  were  only  about  fifteen  thousand  of 
each  of  those  races,  reported  in  the  census  of  the  United  States. 

While  the  kings  of  Spain  followed  up  thus  languidly  the  expedi- 
tions of  Ponce  de  Leon  and  of  Hernando  de  Soto,  in  Florida  and  the 
other  eastern  regions  traversed  by  those  adventurers,  their  viceroys  and 
other  officers  in  Mexico  showed  more  eagerness  both  in  discovery  and 
in  colonization  to  the  northward,  and  their  enterprises,  both  by  sea  and 
by  land,  come  within  the  range  of  the  historian  of  the  United  States. 
Hernando  Cortez  himself,  as  early  as  1534,  sent  out  an  expedition 
of  discovery  under  Hernando  de  Grijalva  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
i™    in  which  that  commander  first  discovered  the  peninsula  of 
California.      Not  long  before,  a  Spanish  author,3  who  had 
with  very  inferior  genius  attempted  to  write  a  sequel  to  Lobeira's  in- 
imitable romance  of  Amadis  of  Gaul,  had  invented  a  pagan  queen  of 

1  Bartram  found  only  the  same  settlements  in  1773,  three  more  trading-posts  were  to  be 
established  in  that  year.     His  map  shows  the  sites  of  "  Hollestown  "  and  Spalding's  post. 

2  Roman's  Florida.     Gallatin's  Synopsis,  p.  101. 
8  Garcia  Ordonez  de  Montalvo. 


1534.] 


CALIFORNIA." 


565 


Amazons,  who  brought  from  the  "  Right  hand  of  the  Indies "   her 
allies  to  the  assistance  of  the  infidels  in  their  attacks  on  Constanti- 
nople.  In  this  romance  —  which 
bore  the  name  of  "  Esplandian," 
—  the  Emperor  Esplandian,  the 
imaginary  son  of  the  imaginary 
Amadis,  appears  as  the  Greek 
emperor,  living  in  Constantino- 
ple.     The   imaginary    Amazo- 
nian queen  is  Calafia,  and   to 
her  imagined  kingdom,  blazing 
with   gold    and   diamonds   and 
pearls,  the  author  had  given  the 
name  "  California,"  a  name  per- 
haps   derived    from    the  word 
Calif,  which  in  the  mind  of  the 
children  of  crusaders  was  con- 
nected with  paynim  lands.   This 
romance,  which  would  now  be 
forgotten    but    for    this    name 
California,  and   from   a  single 
reference  to  it  in  Don  Quixote, 
was  a  comparatively  new  novel  in  the  days  of  Cortez,  the  first  edition 
having  been  issued  from  the  press  only  in  the  year  1510,  and  the  sec- 
ond in  1519.     Both  Grijalva  and  Cortez  were  still  deluded 
by  the  universal  impression  of  their  time  that  they  were  on  name  oaii- 
the  coast  of  Asia  or  in  its  neighborhood  ;  and,  having  discov- 
ered this  region  near  the  latitude  of  Constantinople  "  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  Indies,"  they  were  not  unwilling  to  engage  the  interest 
of  the  romance-reading  world  by  giving  to  their  discovery  the  name 
of  the  gold  and  diamond  bearing  region  of  Amazons. 

This  unknown  country,  which  by  this  accident  gave  the  name  to 
the  country  which  proved  to  be  the  richest  gold-bearing  region  in  the 
world,  was  thus  described  by  the  exuberant  fancy  of  the  romancer, 
twenty-five  years  before  Grijalva  discovered  the  peninsula  of  Califor- 
nia, and  at  least  thirty  years  before  the  discovery  of  that  part  of  the 
mainland  which  has  yielded  to  the  world  its  untold  millions  of  gold. 

"  Know  that  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Indies  there  is  an  island 
called  California,  very  close  to  the  side  of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,1 
and  it  was  peopled  by  black  women  without  any  man  among  them, 

1  In  the  cosmogonv  of  that  time  it  was  supposed,  as  it  had  been  supposed  in  Dante's 
time,  that  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  was  opposite  to  Jerusalem.  Compare  Mr.  Hale's  paper, 
Am.  Ant.  Soc.  Transactions,  April,  1872. 


Portrait  of  Cortez 


666  SPANISH  COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

for  they  lived  in  the  fashion  of  Amazons.  They  were  of  strong  and 
hardy  bodies,  of  ardent  courage,  and  great  force.  Their  island  was 
the  strongest  in  all  the  world,  with  its  steep  cliffs  and  rocky  shores. 
Their  arms  were  all  of  gold,  and  so  was  the  harness  of  the  wild  beasts 
which  they  tamed  and  rode.  For  in  the  whole  island  1  there  was  no 
metal  but  gold.  They  lived  in  caves  wrought  out  of  the  rock  with 
much  labor.  They  had  many  ships  with  which  they  sailed  out  to 
other  countries  to  obtain  booty."  In  another  part  of  the  romance  it 
is  said  coolly  that  precious  stones  are  to  be  found  in  California  like 
stones  of  the  field  for  their  abundance. 

The  imperious  and  impetuous  Cortez  was  dissatisfied  with  the  slow 
Expedition  progress  of  Grijalva,  and  embarked  himself,  in  hope  of  more 
of  cortez.  SUCcess,  with  four  hundred  Spaniards  and  three  hundred 
slaves  in  1535.  He  had,  before  this,  sent  a  small  expedition  north  by 
land,  of  whose  fate  he  never  heard  a  word.  He  now  coasted  both 
sides  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  then  called  the  Gulf  of  Cortez,  but 
known  for  nearly  two  centuries  afterwards  as  the  Red  Sea.2  During 
his  stay  in  the  bay  of  Santa  Cruz  he  learned  the  distressing  news  of 
the  arrival  of  the  Viceroy  Mendoza.  The  appointment  of  this  officer 
by  the  Emperor  Charles  left  to  the  great  conqueror  no  civil  adminis- 
tration, and  restricted  him  to  his  duties  as  military  commander.  So 
eager  was  he,  however,  for  the  further  prosecution  of  discovery  at  the 
north,  that  he  sent  Francisco  de  Ulloa  to  continue  it,  and  in  the 
course  of  two  years  Ulloa  traced  the  coasts  of  California  nearly  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Colorado  River  of  the  West. 

The  very  first  exploration  of  the  Gulf  of  California  resulted  in  the 
discovery  of  pearls,  and  from  that  day  to  this  the  pearl  fishery  has 
been  prosecuted  there.  In  the  excited  notions  of  that  day,  it  was 
taken  for  granted  that  a  country  which  produced  pearls  would  pro- 
duce gold  and  diamonds ;  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  a  re- 
flected glory  from  the  romance  of  "  Esplandian,"  and  the  gorgeous 
description  there  of  the  imagined  California,  hung  over  the  unex- 
plored parts  of  the  namesake  of  that  province.  Spaniards  are  pro- 
verbially ready  for  building  castles  in  the  air ;  and,  although  the 
voyages  of  Grijalva,  of  Cortez,  and  of  Ulloa,  brought  back  no  diamonds, 
and  no  gold,  yet  they  brought  pearls  enough  to  awaken  popular 
interest  and  curiosity.  As  it  happened,  also,  these  reports  gave  birth 
to  another  romance  hardly  second  in  absurdity  to  the  fables  of  Esplan- 
dian. Mendoza,  the  viceroy,  was  disgusted  when  he  found  that  his 
rival  Cortez  still  insisted  on  his  right  to  send  out  explorers.  When 

1  It  is  possible  that  this  reference  to  the  island  gives  the  reason  why,  in  face  of  all  ex- 
plorations, the  geographers  so  long  marked  the  peninsula  of  California  as  an  island. 

2  So  called  by  Marqnette  in  his  Narrative. 


1540.]  FATHER  NI£A  AND   CORONADO.  567 

Cortez  sent  out  Ulloa,  Mendoza  borrowed  money  with  which  to  send 
out  Vasquez  de  Coronado  in  the  same  direction.  Coronado  sent  in 
advance  a  Franciscan  friar  named  Marco  de  Ni^a,  who  had 
with  him  a  negro,  one  of  the  four  men  who  had  crossed  the  of  Marco  de 
continent  from  the  perilous  expedition  under  Narvaez.1  This 
Father  Marco  showed  a  facility  in  narrative,  which  belongs  only  to 
the  master  of  that  "  lie  with  a  circumstance  "  which  is  said  to  be  the 
most  deceptive  lie  of  all.  Returning  to  Coronado  he  announced  the 
discovery  of  seven  cities,  whose  number  alone  suggested  the  famous 
"  seven  cities  "  of  the  island  of  the  old  legend.2  To  the  capital  of 
these  Seven  Cities  the  name  Cibola,  or  Cevola,  was  given.  He  gave 
a  description  of  the  city  of  Cibola,  as  he  finally  arrived  there  after 
thirty  days  of  travel  from  St.  Michael  in  Culiacan.3 

According  to  his  story,  Stephen  Dorantes  —  the  negro,  who  had 
served  as  in  some  sort  a  guide,  and  whom  he  had  sent  before  him  — 
had  been  killed  by  the  jealous  inhabitants  of  this  city.  Niga  himself, 
however,  determined  to  see  it  with  his  own  eyes  ;  and  thus  came 
near  enough  for  the  mountain  prospect  which  he  describes.  He  then 
fled  back  with  his  story  to  St.  Michael  in  Culiacan,  "  with  more  fear 
than  victuals,"  as  he  says. 

In  sharp  contrast  with  his  tales  of  gold  and  silver  and  turquoises 
and  diamonds,  is  the  business-like    report  of   Vasquez   de  Expeditioa 
Coronado,  who  with  a  little  army  followed  up  the  father's  "dc™^rt 
traces.     On  the  22d  of  April,  1540,  they  left  St.  Michael,  nado 
and  on  the  23d  of   June,  had   arrived,  by  travelling   in  a  northern 
and  northeasterly  direction,  on  the  confines  of   a  desert  country  of 
which  Niga   had   warned   them.     Through   the   desert   "  is   a  most 
wicked  way,  at  least  thirty  leagues  and  more  because  they  are  inac- 
cessible mountains."     After  the  thirty  leagues,  however,  they  found 
pleasant  country,  with  rivers  and  grass,  and,  in  a  day  more,  they  met 
Indians  who  at  first  seemed  friendly.     But  a  day  or  two  more  showed 
that  the  natives  meant  to  defend  their  passes,  but  brought  Coronado 
to  a  town,  which  he  called  Grenada,  and  which,  however  unlike  the 
Cibola  of  Father  Marco's  description,  he  was  willing  to  accept  for  it. 

"  To  be  brief,"  he  writes,  "  I  can  assure  yotir  honour  that  the  friar 
saith  truth  in  nothing  that  he  reported,  but  all  was  quite  the  con- 
trary." Still  the  names  of  the  cities  proved  to  be  correct,  and  al- 
though the  houses  were  not  wrought  with  turquoises  nor  lime  nor 
brick,  they  proved  to  be  "  very  excellent  good  houses  "  of  three  or 
four  lofts  high,  with  good  lodgings  and  fair  chambers  and  ladders 

1  See  vol.  i.,  p.  156. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  pp.  13,  35.    Compare  note  xxiv.  in  Appendix  to  vol.  iii.,  Irving's  Columbus, 
8  See  vol.  i.,  p.  192. 


568 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIIL 


instead  of  stairs.     The  seven  cities  were  within  four  leagues  of  each 
other  and  all  together  made  the  kingdom  of  Cibola. 

Of  turquoises,  Coronado  found  none,  though  he  thought  some  had 
been  carried  away  in  fear  of  his  arrival ;  of  emeralds  he  found  two, 
which  were  lost  on  his  way  home ;  and  of  gold  none.  This  was  the 
sorry  result  of  the  monk's  story  and  of  the  expedition  founded  upon 
it.  The  natives  wore  cotton  dresses,  though  Coronado  thought  the 
country  too  cold  for  cotton.1  He  said  they  ate  the  best  cakes  that  he 


A  Pueblo  restored  (from  Cozzens). 


ever  saw,  and  had  the  best  way  of  grinding  One  woman  of  Cibola 
would  grind  four  times  as  much  meal  as  four  Mexican  women.  They 
brought  their  salt  from  a  lake  only  one  day's  journey  from  their  city. 
But  they  had  no  knowledge  of  the  Northern  Sea,  nor  of  the  Western 
Sea,  at  which  ignorance  Coronado  did  not  wonder,  for  he  believed 
himself  one  hundred  and  fifty  leagues  from  the  Western  Ocean.  He 
describes  what  we  must  suppose  to  be  buffaloes,  as  "  sheep  as  big  as  a 
horse,  with  very  great  horns  and  little  tails,  —  with  their  horns  so  big 
that  it  is  a  wonder  to  behold  their  greatness." 

Here  ends  Coronado's  own  narrative,  which  deserves  respect  and 
credence.  He  would  not  return  without  doing  something  nor  with 
empty  hands,  and  as  he  was  told  that  the  country  was  better  and 
better  he  went  on.  Cardenas  with  a  company  of  cavalry  continued 

1  It  afterwards  proved  that  these  dresses  were  made  from  the  thread  of  the  maguey. 


1543.]  CABRILLO.  569 

westward  till  he  came  to  the  sea.  Coronado  went  to  Tiguex  and 
there  had  news  of  the  long-sought  Quivira.  After  sieges  and  battles 
and  other  adventures,  he  found  a  region  which  he  accepted  as  worthy 
of  that  name.  But  in  place  of  the  hoary  headed  King  Tatatrax 
whom  he  was  to  find  here,  who  was  girt  with  a  Bracamart  and 
worshipped  a  cross  of  gold  with  the  image  of  the  Queen  FateofCor- 
of  Heaven,  Coronado  found  a  naked  savage,  with  a  jewel  of  ouado 
copper  hanging  from  his  neck,  "  which  was  all  his  riches."  After 
two  vears  of  such  misadventures,  Coronado  fell  from  his  horse  and 

m 

went  mad.     The  rest  of  his  party,  excepting  one  or  two  stragglers, 
returned  to  Mexico.1 

They  represented  Quivira  as  in  the  latitude  of  forty,  with  grass, 
plums,  mulberries,  nuts,  melons,  and  grapes,  but  without  cotton. 
The  people  dressed  in  ox-hides  and  deer-skins.  They  reported, 
Gomara  says,  that  they  had  seen  ships  on  the  coast,  with  golden 
albatrosses  or  pelicans  on  their  prows,  the  seamen  of  which  made 
signs  that  their  voyage  had  been  thirty  days. 

The  narrative  of  Gomara  is  entitled  to  little  historical  regard,  —  that 
of  Father  Nic,a  to  none.  But  the  manly  letter  of  Coronado  commands 
respect,  and  his  narrative  was  unexpectedly  confirmed  nearly  half  a 
century  after,  by  a  new  discovery  which  enables  us  to  fix  with  some 
precision  the  site  of  Cibola  and  the  "seven  cities."  Coronado's  re- 
port displeased  Mendoza,  who  had  spent  large  sums  in  the  expedition. 
But  Coronado  insisted  that  the  country  was  poor  and  too  far  from  suc- 
cor, and  therefore  no  establishment  was  made  there.  An  after  narra- 
tive gives  a  more  particular  description  of  the  buffalo,  and  alludes  to 
the  custom  of  the  natives  of  burning  the  buffaloes'  dung.  These  no- 
tices are  alone  sufficient,  in  a  degree,  to  locate  Quivira.  But  his  tale  of 
dogs,  trained  as  beasts  of  burden,  has  not  yet  been  confirmed  by 
other  writers.  With  the  introduction  of  the  horse,  the  Indians  may 
have  abandoned  such  use  of  those  animals.  Meanwhile,  upon  the  coast, 
after  various  failures,  a  voyage  was  made  in  1543,  which  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  the  sea-coast  of  that  part  of  California,  Vo.va«eof 
which  is  now  so  important  a  State.  Juan  Rodriguez  Cabrillo  Cabrill°- 
sailed  with  two  ships  from  the  port  de  Navidad,  on  the  27th  of  June 
in  that  year. 

Touching  near  the  point  of  the  peninsula,  he  coasted  it  on  its  ocean 
side  as  far  as  the  latitude  of  44°.  Here  he  found  extreme  cold  in 
March  of  1543-44,  and  returned.  He  gave  names  to  different  points, 
which  have  not  been  retained,  with  the  exception  of  Cape  Mendocino, 
which  he  named  in  honor  of  the  Viceroy  Mendoza,  who  had  sent 
him.  He  described  it  as  a  large  cape  between  mountains  covered  with 

1  Gomara,  cited  in  Ilukluyt,  iii.  p.  454. 


570 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


snow.  This  cape  subsequently  became  the  point  best  known  upon 
that  coast,  because  the  Spanish  fleets  took  their  departure  from  it  on 
their  way  to  the  East  Indies,  and  it  was  made  the  object  of  the 
fleets  eastward  bound.  Cabrillo  placed  it  about  the  latitude  of  40° 
north  ;  it  lies,  in  fact,  a  few  minutes  northward  of  that  parallel.  Like 
all  other  Spanish  voyagers  of  that  time,  Cabrillo  missed  the  remark- 
able Bay  of  San  Francisco,  the  entrance  to  which  is  no*t  easily 
discerned.  Near  its  parallel  he  described  some  hills  covered  with  trees, 
which  he  called  the  Point  of  San  Martin. 

In  the  next  year  Juan  Rodriguez  repeated  this  voyage,  by  sail- 
ing as  far  as  Cape  Mendocino ;  but  it  was  reserved  for  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  the  great  English  seaman,  to  discover  a  seaport  in  California. 
He  spent  some  weeks  on  shore,  and  took  possession  in  the  name  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  He  was  engaged  in  his  celebrated  voyage  round 
the  world.  With  his  little  fleet,  consisting  of  the  Pelican  of  one  hun- 
dred tons,  the  Elizabeth  and  the 
Marigold  each  of  eighty,  Drake 
had  passed  the  Straits  of  Ma- 
gellan, and  entered  the  Pacific 
Ocean  on  the  6th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1578.  On  the  30th,  he  lost 
sight  of  the  Marigold  in  a  gale, 
and  never  saw  her  again.  On 
the  8th  of  October,  the  Eliza- 
beth deserted  him  ;  and  he  was 
left  to  pursue  his  voyage  of  ad- 
venture and  discovery  in  the 
Pelican  alone.  He  was  for  the 
rest  of  that  year  and  the  begin- 
ning of  1579  the  terror  of  the 
Spanish  ports  in  the  South  Seas. 
Having  left  the  port  of  Gua- 
tulco  on  the  Mexican  coast,  on 
the  16th  of  April,  he  went  di- 
rectly to  sea,  and  having  first 
sailed  west  and  afterwards  north,  he  ran  as  far  north  as  the  parallel 
of  43°,  or,  according  to  other  accounts,  of  48°  north  latitude,  —  where 
they  were  all  dismayed  by  exceeding  cold.  Six  men  could  hardly  do 
the  work  of  three,  so  stiff  was  the  rigging  from  ice,  and  this  as  late 
in  the  year  as  the  month  of  June.  On  the  5th,  they  made  land,  and 
anchored  in  a  bay  much  exposed  to  winds  and  flaws,  and,  "  when  they 
ceased,  there  instantly  followed  thick  stinking  fogs,  which  nothing  but 
the  wind  could  remove."  If  this  land,  the  first  seen  by  Drake  on  the 


Sir  Francis  Drake. 


1579.] 


DRAKE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


571 


coast  north  of  Mexico,  were  indeed  under  the  parallel  of  42°,  as  one 
account  implies,  it  is  the  shore  of  Pelican  Bay,  which  has    p^^  in 
been  rightly  named  from  his  ship,  at  the  line  which  divides  CaUforni»- 
Oregon  from  California.     But,  although  the  accounts  are  confused, 
Drake  seems  to  have  seen  the  coast  as  far  north  as  43°  30'  of  north 
latitude,  and  indeed  the  claim  was  made  that  he  saw  it  at  480.1     This 
latitude  corresponds  best  of  all  with  the  accounts  of  the  severe  cold. 
But  Robert  Dudley,  a  son  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  himself  an  explorer, 
and  well  acquainted  with  the  survivors  of  these  voyages,  says  :  "  The 
reason  why  Drake  sought  and  found  the  port  of   New  Albion,  was 
that  having  passed  beyond  Cape  Mendocino  in  latitude  forty-two  and 
a  half,  in  seeking  for  water  as  far  as  forty-three  and  a  half,  he  found 
the  coast  so  cold  in  the  month  of  June  that  his  people  could  not  bear 
it." 2     Dudley  gives  the  same  latitudes  to  Drake's  discoveries  on  his 
map,  and  it  seems  probable   that   the  parallel   of   43°  SO* 
marks  the  northern  limit  of  Drake's  discovery.     Discouraged  of  New  AI- 
by  the  cold,  Drake  ran  down  the  shore  toward  the  south- 
east, and  on  the  17th  of  June,  "  it  pleased  God  to  send  us  into  a  fair 
and  good  bay  with  good  wind  to  enter  the  same."     In  this  bay,  which 
he  called  the  Port     [  i,«p 
of  New  Albion,  he 
lay  for  more  than 
a     month,    having 
landed     his     men, 
while    he     refitted 
his  vessel,  and  built 
a     little     fort     on 
shore. 

The  next  morn- 
ing after  their  ar- 
rival an  Indian  ap- 
peared in  a  canoe 
making  tokens  of 
respect  and  submission.  He  brought  with  him  a  little  basket  of 
rushes  filled  with  an  herb  called  tabak,  which  he  threw  into  Drake's 
boat.  Drake  tried  to  recompense  him,  but  in  vain,  —  he  took  noth- 
ing but  a  hat  thrown  into  the  water.  Then  and  afterwards,  the  ship's 
company  of  the  Pelican  thought  that  these  natives  reverenced  them 
as  gods.  Drake  proceeded  to  land  his  stores,  by  way  of  preparation 
for  repairing  his  ship.  As  he  landed,  a  large  company  of  the  Indians 

1  Humboldt  evidently  thought  so.     See  Humboldt's  New  Spain,  ii.  337,  et  »eq. 

2  Early  maps,  and  a  note  on  Robert  Dudley  in  The  Proceedings  of  the  Am.  Antiq.  Soc. 
Oct.  21,  1873. 


Drake's  Port  of  New  Albion. 


572 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXTTI. 


approached,  and,  to  the  end  of  his  sojourn,  the  most  friendly  relations 
were  maintained  between  them  and  the  Englishmen.  Drake  exerted 
himself,  probably  not  without  success,  to  remove  the  impression  that 
he  and  his  were  gods.  But  he  took  the  precaution  of  fortifying  his 
camp  with  care  against  too  eager  advances. 

On  the  26th  of  June,  the  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  strangers  hav- 
ing been  widely  dispersed,  a  greater  number  of  people  as- 

An  embassy  ,  .  ,  i  i 

from  the  in-  sembled,  among  them  the  king  himself,  a  man  of  goodly 
stature,  with  many  other  tall  and  warlike  men,  and  a  guard 

of  a  hundred  strong.  He  sent  two  messengers  in  advance,  to  say  that 

the  Hioh,  or  king,  was 
coming.  One  of  the  am- 
bassadors spoke  in  a  very 
low  tone,  and  the  other 


Drake  and  the  Indian  King. 

repeated  the  message  verbatim,  very  loud,  in  a  ceremony  which  lasted 
half  an  hour.  They  then  asked  for  a  present  in  token  of  friendship, 
which  Drake  gladly  gave.  On  their  return  to  the  king  he  and  hia 
train  appeared  in  pomp.  In  front  of  him  marched  a  tall  man  with 
the  sceptre  or  mace  of  black  wood,  a  yard  and  a  half  long.  Upon  it 
hung  two  crowns,  one  larger  than  the  other,  with  three  long  chains  of 
bone.  Such  chains  were  regarded  as  marks  of  honor,  the  links  in  each 
were  almost  innumerable.  The  king  was  clothed  in  a  dress  of  rabbit 
skins,  —  this  being  a  distinction  which  the  others  might  not  claim. 
The  guard  were  dressed  in  other  skins.  The  great  body  of  the  people 


1579.] 


DRAKE'S  RECEPTION  BY  THE  INDIANS. 


573 


were  almost  naked.  Those  about  the  king's  person  wore  feathers  as 
a  sign  of  honor,  and  had  "  cawls  of  feathers  "  covered  with  a  down 
growing  on  an  herb,  exceeding  any  other  down  for  fineness,  and  only 
to  be  used  by  those  around  the  king.  The  common  people  were  almost 
naked,  but  their  hair,  also,  was  tied  with  feathers,  arranged  in  a 
different  way.1 

Drake  received  them  cordially  but  with  precaution.  The  sceptre- 
bearer  and  another 
officer  then  spoke  for 
half  an  hour,  one  re- 
peating very  loudly 
what  the  other  said 
in  low  tones.  This 
ceremony  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  dance, 
in  which  the  women 
joined.  After  this 
they  asked  Drake  to 
sit  down,  and  the 
king  and  others  were 
then  understood  by 
the  Englishmen  to 
ask  him  "to  become 
the  king  and  gover- 
nor of  their  country,"  to  whom  they  were  most  willing  to  resign 
the  government  of  themselves  and  their  posterity  :  and  more  fully 
to  declare  their  meaning,  the  king,  singing  with  all  the  rest,  set  the 
crown  upon  Drake's  head,  and  enriched  his  neck  with  all  their  chains. 
They  saluted  him  by  the  title  of  ffioh,  and  in  a  song  and  dance  con- 
gratulated themselves  that  now  he  was  their  king  and  patron  they 
were  the  happiest  people  in  the  world. 

Drake  having  half  a  continent  offered  him  in  this  manner,  thought 
best  to  accept  it,  not  for  himself,  but  for  his  queen.     "  In 
the  name  and  for  the  use  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  he  took  the  king  by  the 
Sceptre,  Crown  and  Dignity  of  that  Land  upon  him,  wishing 
that  the  riches  and  Treasures  thereof,  wherein  the  upper  parts  abound, 
might  be  as  easily  transported  to  England  as  he  had  obtained  the 
sovereignty  thereof."    When  the  ceremony  was  finished,  the  common 

1  La  Perouse  and  Laugsdorff  observed  their  fondness  for  feathers,  as  late  as  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  "  The  feathers  are  twisted  together  into  a  sort  of  ropes,  and  then 
these  are  tied  close  together,  so  as  to  have  a  feathery  surface  on  both  sides."  Langsdorff 
counted  in  one  feather  bandeau  four  hundred  and  fifty  tail-feathers  of  the  golden-winged 
woodpecker.  Each  woodpecker  furnishes  but  two  feathers.  —  See  Forbes's  California, 
p.  183. 


«.** 


California  Indians  and  their  Summer  Huts.     (From   Bartlett.) 


574 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


Expedition 
into  the 
interior. 


people  eagerly  offered  sacrifices  to  the  strangers  with  shrieks  and 
weeping,  tearing  the  flesh  from  their  faces  with  their  nails.  The 
English  vainly  attempted  to  dissuade  them,  by  lifting  their  hands  and 
eyes  to  heaven.  During  their  stay  the  people  generally  brought  sac- 
rifices every  third  day,  till  they  at  last  understood  how  much  the 
English  were  displeased  by  them. 

As  soon  as  the  English  had  finished  the  repairs  upon  their  ship, 
Drake  and  some  of  his  company  made  a  journey  into  the  in- 
terior.   He  found  the  Indians  living  in  villages.    The  houses 
were  made  by  digging  round  holes  in  the  earth,  covered  by 
poles  of  wood,  which  met  in  the  centre  "  like  a  spired  steeple,"  the 

whole  being  covered 
with  earth.  The  door 
"  made  slopous  like 
the  scuttle  of  a  ship  " 
was  also  the  chim- 
ney.1 The  people 
slept  in  these  houses 
on  rushes  on  the 
ground,  around  a  fire 
in  the  middle.  The 
country  was  very  dif- 
ferent from  the  bar- 
ren sea-shore.  It  was 
fruitful,  and  fur- 
nished with  all  nec- 
essaries. The  ad- 
venturers saw  thou- 
sands of  deer  in  a 
|i  herd,  and  were  much 
interested  by  the  ground 
squirrel,  which  they  describe 
as  a  peculiar  "  coney."  The 
whole  country  was  a  warren 
of  them.  Their  bodies  were 
as  big  as  the  Barbary  coneys, 
their  heads  as  the  heads  of  the 
English,  the  feet  like  the  feet 
of  a  want,  and  the  tail  long 
like  that  of  a  rat.  The  coney  had  on  each  side  of  the  chin  a  bag 
into  which  to  gather  such  food  as  he  did  not  need  to  eat. 

Returning  to  his  port,  Drake  took  possession  of  the  country  in  the 

1  Captain  Beechey  found  similar  houses  as  late  as  1827. 


Drake's    Departure. 


1579.]  LOCALITY   OF  DRAKE'S  DISCOVERIES.  576 

name  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  He  erected  a  monument  which  was,  like 
so  many  other  monuments  of  possession,  only  a  wooden  post  with  a 
copper  plate  upon  it.  On  this  he  inscribed  an  assertion  of  the  right 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  her  successors  to  that  kingdom,  with  the 
time  of  his  own  arrival,  and  a  statement  of  the  free  resignation  of  the 
country  by  the  king  and  people  into  her  hands.  Her  picture  and 
arms,  and  Drake's  arms,  were  also  engraved  on  this  remarkable  plate, 
which  must  have  done  credit  to  the  amateur  engraver  from  the  crew 
of  the  Pelican. 

After  this  ceremony  of  possession,  the  ship  sailed  for  the  Moluc- 
cas, to  the  great  grief  of  the  native  king  and  his  followers,   0,^-6  de_ 
who  lighted  fires  on  the  cliffs  as  if  to  cheer  them  on  their  Pftrture- 
way. 

It  is  a  curious  question,  not  yet  decided  by  geographers,  what  was  the 
bay  where  Sir  Francis  Drake  repaired  his  ship,  and  on  the 
shore  of  which  he  encamped  and  took  possession.     The  va-  Drake -«y  ° 
rious  accounts  differ  about  the  highest  north  latitude  attained 
by  Drake,  but  when  driven  back  by  cold  weather  he  came  south,  they 
agree  u  it  was  within  thirty-eight  degrees  toward  the  line."     "  In 
which  height  it  pleased  God  to  send  us  into  a  fair  and  good  bay  with 
good  wind  to  enter  the  same."     Was  this  bay  the  Bay  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, of  which  the  opening,  by  the  Golden  Gate,  is  in  37°  49'  N. 
latitude,  or  is  it  the  open  bay  just  above  this,  marked  on  the  maps 
as  Sir  Francis  Drake's  Bay,  or  is  it  Bodega  Bay,  where  the  latitude  of 
the  anchorage  is  38°  197  ? l     Within  so  narrow  a  range  it  would  be 
idle  to  infer  anything  from  Drake's  general  statement  that  the  good 
bay  which  God  led  him  into  was  in  38°.     Either  of  them  is  near 
enough  to  meet  that  definition. 

The  maps  annexed  will  enable  the  reader  to  understand  this  diffi- 
culty. The  more  modern  one  represents  the  coast  substantially  as  it 
has  been  drawn  by  the  accurate  hydrographers  of  our  own  time.  The 
other  was  drawn  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  Robert  Dudley, 
son  of  the  great  Earl  of  Leicester,  himself  a  navigator  and  the  son-in- 
law  of  Cavendish,  one  of  the  explorers  of  the  South  Seas.  Drake's 
port  of  New  Albion  will  be  found  on  this,  so  drawn  as  to  represent 
sufficiently  well  the  double  bay  of  San  Francisco.  If  this  were  the 
only  authority  it  would  probably  be  granted  that  Drake's  port  was 
San  Francisco  Bay.  But  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  Spaniards,  who 
eagerly  tried  to  rediscover  the  port,  with  this  map  in  their  possession, 
did  not  succeed  until  near  two  hundred  years  after.  Long  before 
they  did  discover  it,  they  were  seeking  for  it,  calling  it  the  Bay  of 
San  Francisco — that  name  probably  having  been  taken  from  no  less  a 
1  These  latitudes  are  those  of  Captain  Beechey's  survey. 


576 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


saint  than  the  heretic,  Sir  Francis  Drake.    In  1769,  a  land  party  dis- 
covered the  great  bay  which  runs  south  from  the  entrance,  now  called 

the  Golden  Gate.  But  it  was  not  until 
1776  that  this  inland  sea  was  connected 
by  the  Spaniards  with  the  ocean. 

It  is  urged  on  the  one  side,  that  Sir 
Francis  Drake  would  never  have  called 
"  Jack's  Bay,"  which  is  the  Sir  Fran- 
cis Drake's  bay  of  the  maps,  "  a  fair 
and  good  bay,"  nor  thanked  God  as 
for  a  special  providence  for  the  wind 
which  took  him  into  that  open  road- 
stead, which  under  the  circumstances, 
he  could  hardly  have  kept  out  of.  If 
indeed,  he  did  land,  and  unload  his  ship 
there,  repair  her,  and  take  in  his  cargo 
again,  lying  for  five  weeks  there,  he  is 
the  last  shipmaster  who  has  done  so. 
Having  done  so,  that  he  should  have 
drawn  the  bottle-shaped  bay,  which 
appears  on  the  charts  of  his  time,  seems 
impossible.  For  such  reasons,  high 
authority :  concedes  that  he  entered 
the  Golden  Gate  and  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco,  now  known  by  that  name. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  urged  that 
the  physical  distinctions  of  the  Golden  Gate  and  the  present  San 
Opinions  of  Francisco  Bay  are  so  marked  that  Drake  or  his  historian 

geographers. 


Map  of  a  Part  of  the  California  Coast. 


is  not  language  as  strong  as  should  be  used  of  that  matchless  harbor, 
and  that  once  discovered,  it  could  never  be  forgotten.  The  weight 
of  California!!  opinion  at  this  time  seems  to  be  that  Sir  Francis 
Drake  never  entered  the  Golden  Gate.  In  one  of  the  early  narra- 
tives of  his  voyage,  in  Hondius's  voyages,  the  annexed  map  of  the 
bay,  unfortunately  with  no  scale,  is  given  in  the  margin.  It  bears 
this  inscription  in  very  bad  Latin  :  "  The  inhabitants  by  terrible 
frequent  laceration  of  their  bodies  deprecate  the  departure  of  Drake, 
now  twice  crowned,  from  this  harbour  of  Albion."  But  it  is  clear 
enough,  from  an  examination  of  the  copy  of  a  small  part  of  the  Bay 
of  San  Francisco,  from  Captain  Beechey's  survey,  that  the  draughts- 
man of  Hondius's2  map,  had  no  knowledge  of  that  great  estuary. 

1  So  Davidson  in  the  Coast  Pilot,  and  Mr.  Grcenhow. 

2  For  the  copy  of  Hondius's  very  rare  map,  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Charles  Deane. 


1579.] 


LOCALITY   OF   DRAKE'S   DISCOVERIES. 


677 


It  is  equally  sure,  however,  that  his  map  represents  no  other  bay  on 
the  coast,  and  that  it  must,  therefore,  be  taken  as  merely  imaginary. 

Dudley    also    says    that 
Drake    found    manv   wild 

*/ 

horses  at  the  northward, 
—  at  which  he  wondered, 
because  the  Spaniards  had 
never  found  horses  in 
America.  It  is  customary 
to  account  for  the  immense 
herds  of  American  horses 
on  the  assumption  that  the 
Spaniards  introduced 
them.  Drake's  visit,  how- 
ever, to  Port  New  Albion 
was  but  thirty-eight  years 
after  Coronado's  visit  to 
Cibola,  —  which,  as  we  now  know,  was  at  least  five  hundred  miles 
away.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  a  few  stray  horses  from  Coro- 
nado's troop,  should,  in  so  few  years,  have  multiplied  into  large  herds 
observed  by  Drake  on  the  distant  seaboard  of  Oregon.  Coronado  had 
but  few  horses,  would  have  had  fewer  brood  mares,  and  would  have 
been  apt  to  mention  any  loss  of  a  large  number  of  auxiliaries  so 
essential. 


corf.arvmL  ai-etatme  (ScrttrrS  in  ten  fiiusfacri/ict/s  /><t-JiiS 


Hondius's   Map  of  Drake's  Bay. 


Spanish  Coat  of  Arms  on  the  St    Augustine  Fort. 


VOL.   II. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION. 


FATHER  AUGUSTIN  RUYZ.  —  Rio  DEL  XORTE.  —  CUNAMES.  —  ACOMA.  —  ZUNI  OB  Ci- 
BOLA. — JUAN  DE  OSATE. —  EL  PASO.  —  "Ei.  MORO." — INSCRIPTIONS.  —  VISCAINO. 
—  EUSEBIO  FRANCISCO  KINO.  —  SALVATIERRA.  —  ARIZONA  — PABLO  QUIHUE. — 
FATHER  AUGUSTIN  DE  CAMPOS. —  EXPULSION  or  THE  JESUITS.  —  LA  SALLE. — 
DE  LEON.  —  ST.  DENIS.  —  DON  MARTIN  D'ALARCORNE. — TEXAS. 

Two  years  after  Drake's  departure  a  land  expedition  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Sierra  brought  the  lost  cities  of  Cibola  to  light  again. 

In  the  year  1581,  the  Franciscan  Father,  Augustin  Ruyz,  inter- 
Bxpedition  ested  by  the  report  of  some  Conchos  Indians,  undertook  an 
of  Ruyi.  expedition  northward,  which  resulted  in  the  re-discovery  of 
Quivira  and  some  certainty  as  to  the  location  of  the  Cibola  of  Coro- 
nado.  Eager  to  save  souls,  Ruyz  obtained  leave  to  travel  thither,  and 
started  with  two  brethren  of  his  order,  and  eight  soldiers.  Leaving 
the  mines  of  Santa  Barbara  in  Northern  Mexico,  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  present  province  of  Chihuahua,  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  the  capital,  they  began  their  journey  northward  ;  but  one  of 
the  friars  having  been  killed  by  Indians,  the  soldiers  deserted  the 
others,  and  left  them  to  go  forward  alone.  When  at  Santa  Barbara 
the  soldiers  reported  the  plight  in  which  they  had  left  these  holy 
men,  a  spirited  gentleman  of  St.  Bartholomew,  a  station  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, named  Antonio  de  Espejo,  raised  a  company  for  their  relief, 
journey  of  an<^  started,  in  November,  1582;  with  a  caravan  of  one  hun- 
Espejo.  <jred  and  fifteen  horses  and  mules  and  some  Indian  guides. 
They  travelled  northward  through  various  tribes,  and  soon  struck  the 
Conchos  River,  which  flows  into  the  Rio  del  Norte.  Here  they  found 
natives  who  seemed  to  have  some  knowledge  of  the  symbols  of  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  when  asked  how  they  obtained  it,  they  said  that  three 
Christians  and  a  negro  had  passed  that  way,  and  had  instructed  them. 

The  Spaniards  believed  these  missionaries  to  have  been  Cabeca  de 
Vaca,  Dorantes,  and  Castillo  Maldonado,  with  their  negro  whose  es- 
cape from  the  wreck  of  Narvaez's  party  has  been  described.1  Con- 

1  Vol.  i.,  p.  156. 


1582.]    ESPEJO  IN  THE  VALLEY   OF  THE   RIO   DEL  NORTE.     57P 

tinuing  northward,  the  explorers  met  men,  willing  to  trade  with  them, 
who  wore  cotton  garments,  made  of  stuffs  striped  with  white  and 
blue.1  They  could  only  converse  with  them  by  signs.  But  they  saw 
among  them  the  precious  metals ;  they  learned  that  these  were  ob- 
tained from  a  place  at  five  days'  journey  westward.  After  travelling 
together  for  some  days,  —  probably  along  the  foot  of  the  Organ 
Mountains  —  they  found  a  Concho  Indian  whose  language  they  could 


The  Organ  Mountains,  near  El  Paso. 


in  part  understand.  He  told  them  that  fifteen  days  westward  there 
was  a  large  lake,  and  that,  after  passing  this,  they  would  come  to 
large  towns  with  houses  of  three  or  four  stories  high,  whose  inhab- 
itants were  well  clothed.  He  even  offered  to  conduct  them  thither. 
The  adventurers  were  not  able  to  follow  his  directions,  because  they 
were  still  pressing  to  the  north  in  pursuit  of  the  two  priests  whom 
they  hoped  to  succor. 

Travelling  up  the  valley  of  the  Rio  del  Norte  they  passed  for  fifteen 
days  together  a  forest  of  pines,  "  such  as  men  see  in  Cas- 
tile," without  meeting  any  inhabitants.  Eighty  leagues  far-  of  th 
ther  they  came  to  a  little  village,  whose  inhabitants  surprised 
them  by  the  skill  with  which  they  tanned  their  leather,  which  was 
of  as  fine  quality  as  that  of  Flanders.  After  two  days'  stay  with 
them,  still  following  the  river,  of  which  they  found  both  banks  cov- 

1  The  impression  of  later  travellers  is  that  this  cloth  was  that  made  from  the  maguey 
fibre. 


680     SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

ered  with  poplars,  varied  sometimes  by  nut  trees  and  vines,  a  journey 

of  two  days  brought  them  to  villages  containing  ten  thousand  persons, 

where   they  were  well  received.     The  houses  were  well  built,  four 

stories  high,  with  good  chambers,  most  of  them  having  fire-places 

for  winter.     The  people  were  well  dressed  in  cotton  and  leather,  with 

good  shoes  and  boots,  such  as  the  Spaniards  had  not  seen  among  tlie 

natives  before.     To  this  country  they  gave  the  name  of  New  Mexico. 

After  remaining  with  them  for  four  days  the  travellers  went  on  to 

another  tribe  called  the  Tiguas,  of  sixteen  towns.     Here  it 

The  Tiguas. 

was  that  the  missionary  had  been  killed,  and  here  in  a  town 
named  Poala,  they  obtained  news  of  the  murder  of  the  two  other 
fathers  whom  they  were  seeking,  Lopez  and  Ruyz.  The  Indians  see- 
ing the  interest  taken  in  these  men  by  so  large  a  company,  fled  from 
their  houses  and  could  not  be  persuaded  to  return.  Espejo  deter- 
mined to  establish  a  camp  here,  and  with  only  twelve  companions  to 
prosecute  the  further  discovery.  In  two  days  more  he  came  to  a 
country  of  eleven  towns,  of  which  the  natives  said  the  population  was 
more  than  forty  thousand.  Espejo  believed  that  this  country  was 
next  to  the  famous  Cibola.  He  was  cordially  received  and  found  the 
appearance  of  rich  mines,  and  observed  that,  in  the  houses  where  the 
idols  were,  there  were  pieces  of  silver.  After  this  expedition  he  re- 
turned to  his  camp.  Here  he  obtained  news  of  the  province  of  the 

Quires,  six  leagues  from  the  Del  Norte.     He  visited  them, 

The  Quires.  . 

and  found  five  towns,  with  a  population  of  fifteen  thousand 
people.  The  Spaniards  were  pleased  to  find  a  pye  in  a  cage,  "  as 
you  may  see  in  Castile,"  and  umbrellas,  like  those  of  China,  on  which 
were  painted  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  At  this  point  Espejo  fixed  his 
latitude  and  found  it  37 £°  north.  If  this  observation  were  correct,  he 
was  in  the  limits  of  the  present  State  of  Colorado ;  but  this  must  have 
been  an  error  of  more  than  two  degrees. 

Fourteen    leagues  further  he  found   the  Cunames,  who   had   five 

towns,  with  a  population  of  twenty  thousand  people.  Their 
names,  the  houses  were  built  of  stone  and  lime  and  were  the  best  he 

Amejeg,  and  . 

the  town  of  had  seen.  1  hey  also  had  the  precious  metals.  Next  to 
them  were  the  Amejes,  thirty  thousand  in  number ;  fifteen 
leagues  westward,  the  travellers  found  the  town  of  Acoma,  inhabited 
by  six  thousand  people.  This  town  is  still  in  existence,  probably  with 
the  same  race  of  inhabitants.  It  was  on  a  high  cliff,  which  has  more 
than  fifty  platforms  in  height,  and  could  only  be  ascended  by  steps 
cut  out  of  the  rock  itself.  At  this  the  Spaniards  greatly  wondered. 
All  the  water  was  in  cisterns.  The  people  met  the  Spaniards  cor- 
dially and  brought  them  presents  of  clothes.  Their  arable  land  was 
two  leagues  away  and  was  watered  by  artificial  means  from  a  little 


1582.] 


ESPEJO'S  EXPLORATIONS. 


581 


river  in  the  neighborhood.     Here  the  Spaniards  spent  three  days,  and 
were  entertained  by  a  solemn  ball. 

This  curious  spot  is  perfectly  known.  Similar  cave  dwellings  in 
other  regions  have  been  identified,  described,  and  pictured  by  the 
recent  surveying  parties  of  the  United  States  government.  The  de- 
scription of  Acoma  is  so  distinct  that  it  is  clear  that  at  some  point 
Espejo  must  have  left  a  little  while  before  what  we  call  the  Del 
Norte,  and  come  on  the  waters  of  the  Puerco  River.1 

Twenty-four  leagues  further  west,  Espejo  and  his  men  came  to  the 
province  known  as  Zuni  by  the  natives,  and  Cibola  by  the   ^ 
Spaniards,  which  Coronado  had  entered  half  a  century  before  reaches  w- 
from  the  Gulf  of  California.    They  found  the  crosses  planted 
by  him  and  other  tokens  of  his  presence,  among  others  three  baptized 


-- 


Acoma. 

Indians,  who  served  them  as  interpreters.  These  men  apprised  them 
of  a  great  lake  sixty  days  further  on,  where  were  great  cities  with 
much  gold.  The  province  of  Zuni  still  retains  its  name.  The  Zuni 

1  Judge  Cozzens  thus  describes  Acoma  in  1860:  "It  stands  upon  the  top  of  a  rock  at 
least  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  surrounding:  plain.  The  Pueblo  can  only  be 
reached  by  means  of  a  staircase  containing  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  steps,  cut  in  the 
solid  rock.  At  the  upper  end  of  this  is  a  ladder  eighteen  feet  long,  made  from  the  trunk 
of  a  tree,  in  which  notches  have  been  cut  for  the  feet."  —  The  Marvellous  Country,  p.  287. 

A  narrative  by  Mr.  Holmes  of  similar  residences  now  in  ruins,  further  west,  describes 
such  edifices  where  Spanish  civilization  has  not  followed  on  that  of  the  natives.  The  rem- 
nant of  the  cave  dwellings  may  still  be  trnced.  The  openings  are  arched  irregularly 
above,  in  a  soft  and  friable  shale,  a  hard  stratum  serving  as  a  floor.  In  many  instances, 
this  gave  a  platform  by  which  the  inhabitants  passed  from  one  house  to  another.  Frag- 
ments of  mortar  still  show  that  the  houses  were  plastered.  They  probably  had  doors  and 
windows. 

A  drawing  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  who  visited  a  series  on  the  San  Juan,  in  1875,  shows 
their  appearance  at  that  time.  In  another  drawing,  Mr.  Holmes  gives  his  impression  of 
their  appearance  when  occupied,  as  Espejo  may  have  seen  them. 


682     SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

people  still  live  there,  and  maintain  at  their  altars  the  worship  of  the 
days  of  Espejo. 

Espejo  was  disposed  to  go  still  farther  on  his  adventures.  But, 
finding  the  religious  men  and  most  of  the  party  unwilling,  he  went  on 
with  nine  soldiers  only.  After  travelling  twenty-eight  leagues,  they 
came  to  the  city  Zaguato.  After  some  suspicion,  they  were  hospita- 
bly welcomed.  Espejo,  after  a  few  days'  stay,  went  with  five  compan- 
ions forty-five  leagues  farther.  Here  he  found  the  mines  of  which  he 


Map  of  California,   Arizona,  and  New  Mexico. 

had  been  told.  With  his  own  hand  he  took  ores  which  contained  a 
great  quantity  of  silver,  of  which  he  could  see  that  the  vein  was 
very  large.  The  Indians  of  the  neighborhood  received  him  kindly. 
They  told  him  that  on  the  other  side  of  their  mountains  was  a  river 
eight  leagues  wide.  They  showed  by  signs  that  it  flowed  to  the 
Northern  Ocean,  and  on  its  banks  the  towns  were  so  large  and  so 
many  that  their  own  were  nothing  but  hamlets  in  comparison.  With 
this  intelligence  Espejo  returned  to  Zuni,  or  Cibola.  Unfortunately 
the  account  does  not  tell  in  what  direction  Espejo  travelled  from  the 
site  of  the  Zuni.  Their  pueblos  are  placed  by  the  surveyors  of  the 
United  States  government  about  latitude  35°  north,  and  longitude 


1595.]  OCCUPATION   OF  NEW  MEXICO.  583 

109°  west.1  The  city  of  Zaguato,  twenty-eight  leagues  distant,  is 
not  easily  identified.  The  interesting  tribe  of  Moquis  are  now  at 
about  that  distance  to  the  northwest  of  the  Zuni. 

When  Espejo  rejoined  his  party  the  greater  part  of  his  people  deter- 
mined to  return  to  Santa  Barbara.  But  he  himself,  with 
eight  soldiers,  undertook  the  further  exploration  of  the  River  piorations  of 
del  Norte.  Having  returned  to  the  Quires,  he  found,  twelve 
leagues  west  of  them,  the  Hubates,  twenty-five  thousand  in  number, 
who  received  him  kindly.  Their  houses  also  were  four  or  five  stories 
high,  and  their  hills  covered  with  pine  and  cedar.  Next  to  this  tribe 
were  the  Tamos,  who  were  not  friendly  ;  and  Espejo,  rather  than 
risk  a  conflict  with  them,  returned  home  by  another  valley,  of  a  river 
which  he  called  the  River  of  Cows,  so  many  did  he  find  there.  This 
stream  brought  him  to  the  Conchos  River,  by  which  he  returned  to 
the  valley  of  St.  Bartholomew,  whence  he  had  departed.  He  found 
that  the  other  part  of  his  party  had  preceded  him.  The  expedition 
had  lasted  nearly  two  years.2 

The  interest  excited  in  Spain  by  these  discoveries  must  have  been 
very  great,  although  with  the  policy  which  then  prevailed 
at  Madrid,  no  official  publication  was  made  of  them.  It  these  discor- 
seems  to  be  by  accident  that  the  narrative  of  Espejo  was  wired  in 
printed  in  connection  with  the  history  of  China,  from  which 
the  vigilance  of  Hakluyt  at  once  reproduced  it  for  English  readers. 
Orders  were  given  from  Madrid  that  New  Mexico  should  be  occupied, 
and  as  early  as  1594  we  have  the  thanks  of  the  king  to  the  company 
of  Jesuits  for  their  success  in  planting  missions  there.  In  that  year  it 
was  attached  to  the  ecclesiastical  charge  of  Father  Martin  Pelez  of 
Cinaloa,  the  most  northerly  station  till  then  held,  and  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Sierra.  In  1595,  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico,  the  Count  of 
Monterey,  sent  Juan  de  Onate  into  New  Mexico,  and  under  his  di- 
rections colonies  were  planted  in  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande.3  One 
of  Onate's  settlements  was  near  Santa  Fe\  which  may  probably,  there- 
fore, claim  to  be  settled  before  Jamestown,  and  to  be,  after  St.  Au- 
gustine, the  oldest  town  built  by  whites  in  the  United  States.  Acoma 
is  an  older  town.  The  original  settlement  by  Ouate  was  made  with 

1  It  is  in  section  77  of  the  Harden  Survey. 

2  This  narrative  is  preserved  by  Gonzales  de  Mendoza,  the  author  of  the  "History  of 
China  "  and  the  "  Itinerary  to  the  New- World."     It  is  perhaps  embellished  by  exaggera- 
tions.    But  it  carries  with  it,  —  in  many  of  the  local  descriptions  which  were  not  verified 
for  nearly  three  centuries  by  other  narrators,  — evidence  that  Espejo  went  over  the  ground 
which  he  described.     He  may  be  considered,  therefore,  as  the  discoverer  of  New  Mexico, 
and  the  valley  of  the  Gila,  above  the  points  where  it  had  been  explored  by  Coronado.     It 
is  probable  that  in  the  word  Tiguas  we  have  the  origin  of  the  name  Texas,  which  next 
appears  in  the  form  Latekas,  used  by  La  Harpe. 

8  Allegre,  Hist.  Jesuits,  vol.  i.,  p.  325.    Mexican  edition  of  1842. 


684     SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 


one  hundred  soldiers  and  five  hundred  settlers,  and  it  is  not  proba- 
ble that  the  establishments  in  New  Mexico  largely  exceeded  these 
numbers  for  a  century.  A  bloody  massacre  by  the  Indians  in  1640  is 
alluded  to  by  the  Jesuit  historians,  and  in  1680,  by  a  successful  union 
of  the  pueblos,  they  drove  all  the  Spaniards  from  the  upper  river  and 
compelled  them  to  take  refuge  in  El  Paso.  Successive  expeditions 
against  the  Indians  from  that  point  proved  unsuccessful  till  1692, 
when  Diego  de  Bargas  regained  possession  of  the  valley  for  the 
Spanish  garrisons.1  The  town  of  El  Paso,  on  the  Mexican  side  of 
the  frontier  of  the  United  States,  where  the  western  boundary  de- 
termined by  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  begins,  was  proba- 
bly founded  by  Onate. 
The  Piro  Indians  had 
a  village  called  Sinecu, 
which  still  exists  with- 
in the  precincts  of  the 
town.  From  the  mis- 
sionary establishment 
there,  it  is  probable 
that  the  town  of  El 
Paso  sprung.  The 
signs  of  Moorish  archi- 
tecture may  be  still 
noticed  in  the  public 
buildings  of  El  Paso, 
as  in  other  mission 
buildings  of  Mexican 
or  Spanish  origin  in  that  region ;  and  the  venerable  church  itself  is 
supposed  by  the  worshippers  to  have  been  built  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 

From  this  time,  with  various  reverses,  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande 
inscription  was  ne^  ^Y  Spanish  priests  and  officials,  with  some  set- 
Rock,  tiers.  Inscription  Rock,  a  remarkable  rock  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Sierra  Madre,  not  far  from  the  pueblo  of  Acoma,  records, 
not  insufficiently,  the  history  of  this  outlying  province,  in  the  auto- 
graphs, or  autoglyphs,  of  the  men  who  belonged  to  the  time.  For 
two  hundred  and  ten  feet  of  its  height  this  rock  has  a  natural  pol- 
ish. At  a  distance  it  perfectly  resembles  a  Moorish  castle,  so  that 
the  Spaniards  called  it  "  El  Moro."  Indians  and  Spaniards  have 
used  it  as  a  monument  rock ;  and  when  Lieut.  Simpson  saw  it  in 

1  The  dates  given  by  Pike,  Allegre,  and  Venepas  are  confused,  hut  those  in  the  text 
are  furnished  for  Lieutenant  Simpson  by  Don  Donaciano  Vigil,  Secretary  of  State  for 
New  Mexico,  and  may  probably  be  relied  upon. 


!r 


Inscription    Rock. 


1603.]  THE   SEARCH  FOR  "PUERTO   FRANCISCO  " 

1849,  he  found  a  large  number  of  inscriptions  still  visible.  Some 
were  mere  savage  carvings  of  hands  or  animals,  but  many  were  in 
Spanish  or  a  sort  of  Latin.1 

On  the  western  coast,  the  news  of  Drake's  discovery  stimulated  the 
court  of  Spain  to  make  some  new  efforts  to  save  the  land,  Action  of 
whose  natives  had  given  it  to  the  heretic  queen.  Under  the 
king's  own  orders  Viscaino,  an  officer  of  ability,  was  again 
despatched  on  the  survey  of  the  coasts  of  California.  After 
one  voyage  on  the  gulf,  which  resulted  in  disaster,  he  sailed  from 
Acapulco  for  a  second  on  the  5th  of  May,  1602,  and  went  as  far  as 
the  parallel  of  42°  north.  He  rediscovered  the  harbors  of  San  Diego 
and  Monterey,  and  gave  to  them  those  names.  He  reported  that  the 
natives  on  the  coast  were  docile,  clothed  with  the  skins  of  sea-wolves, 
—  but  with  abundance  of  hemp,  flax,  and  cotton.  The  Indians  all 
told  him,  he  said,  that  in  the  inland  were  large  towns,  silver,  and  gold. 
Viscaino's  manuscripts  have  not  been  brought  to  light.  His  second 
voyage  was  not  finished  until  1603.  It  appears  that  his  instructions 
were  to  put  into  "  Puerto  Francisco,"  and  see  if  anything  was  to  be 
found  of  the  ship  San  Augustin,  which  in  1595,  had  been  sent  from 
the  Philippine  Islands  to  survey  that  coast,  and  had  been  lost  there. 

1  With  praiseworthy  accuracy  Lieutenant  Simpson  copied  these  curious  records,  and  in 
his  Report  fac -similes  of  them  vrere  published.  There  are  thirty-eight  inscriptions  in  his 
list,  ranging  from  the  16th  day  of  April,  1606,  when  some  officer  "  passed  this  place  with 
despatches,"  down  to  1836.  It  seems  to  have  become  a  custom  with  the  Spanish  officers 
to  leave  here  a  brief  account  of  their  mission.  As  the  other  records  of  New  Mexico  before 
1680  were  burned  by  the  Indians  in  that  year,  the  earlier  of  these  inscriptions  supply 
names  and  dates  not  elsewhere  accessible.  The  character  of  them  may  be  understood  from 
such  examples  as  these : 

"Passed  this  place  with  despatches — 16th  day  of  April,  1606." 

"J.  Apaulla,  1619." 

"  Bartolome  Narsso,  Governor  and  Captain  General  of  the  provinces  of  New  Mexico,  for 
our  Lord,  the  King,  passed  by  this  place  on  his  return  from  the  pueblo  of  Zuni,  on  the  29th 
of  July,  of  the  year  1620,  and  put  them  in  peace  at  their  petition,  asking  the  favor  to 
become  subjects  of  His  Majesty ;  and  anew  they  gave  obedience.  All  which  they  did  with 
free  consent,  knowing  it  prudent,  as  well  as  very  Christian. 

"  To  so  distinguished  and  gallant  a  soldier,  indomitable  and  famed,  we  love " 

(The  rest  of  this  inscription  is  illegible.) 

"  Here  passed  General  Don  Diego  de  Bargas  to  conquer  Santa  Fe'  for  the  royal  crown, 
New  Mexico,  at  his  own  cost,  in  the  year  1692." 

Judge  Cozzens,  in  1860,  found  and  copied  an  earlier  inscription:  "Don  Joseph  de  Ba- 
zemzalles.  1526."  Judge  Cozzens  rightly  says,  that  such  an  inscription  could  only  be 
truly  carved  by  one  of  the  lost  officers  whom  Cortez  sent  north  in  a  quest  for  the  lands  of 
silver.  Of  that  band  of  twenty  men  there  is  no  history  since  they  left  Cortez,  excepting 
on  this  silent  stone. 

But,  among  Lieutenant  Simpson's  inscriptions,  there  appears,  perfectly  distinct,  on 
another  part  of  the  rock,  "  Por  aqui  pazo  el  Alferez  Dn  Joseph  de  Payba  Basconzelos  el 
ano  que  tugo  el  Canildo  del  Reyno  a  su  costa  a  18  de  feb°  de  1726  Anos."  Tugo  is  some 
misspelling  of  the  stone-cutter,  —  but  the  meaning  is  that  this  officer,  whose  rank  was 
that  of  lieutenant,  passed  here  in  an  expedition  undertaken  at  cost  of  the  council  of  the 
kingdom. 


586    SPANISH    EXPLORATIONS   AND  COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

She  was  under  the  direction  of  Sebastian  Rodriguez  Cermenon. 
Her  pilot,  Volanos,  was  chief  pilot  of  Viscaino's  squadron.  Having 
passed  the  latitude  of  Port  Francisco,  they  returned  to  look  for  it, 
and  anchored  under  La  Punta  de  los  Keys.  This  is  the  westerly 
point  of  "Jack's  Bay."  They  did  not  land,  and  Viscaino  having 
parted  from  his  tender,  continued  his  voyage  in  search  of  her.  He 
thus  lost  his  opportunity  of  discovering  the  great  Bay  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. He  ran  up  the  coast,  as  far  north  as  42°,  and  then,  because  his 
whole  company  were  sick  with  a  terrible  distemper,  they  returned  to 
Acapulco.  The  tender  persevered  as  far  as  43°.  Here  her  coin- 


Acapulco. 


mander  found  a  river  whose  banks  were  covered  with  ash  trees,  wil- 
lows, and  other  Spanish  trees.  But  he  had  passed  farther  than  his 
orders  directed,  and  he  returned  to  Acapulco  also.  No  such  river 
exists  in  that  latitude.  The  Columbia  is  as  far  north  as  48°. 

Philip  III.,  of  Spain,  or  some  minister  of  his,  on  the  reception  of 
order  of  *n^s  report,  issued  a  very  interesting  order,  of  the  greatest 
Philip  in.  stringency,  that  the  search  for  a  harbor  should  be  renewed, 
and  that  Monterey  should  be  occupied.  But  the  fatality  of  inaction, 
which  governed  both  Mexico  and  Spain,  prevailed.  Viscaino  died  as 
he  was  preparing  for  the  expedition  ordered,  and  the  occupation  of 
Northern  California  was  reserved  to  another  century.  Men,  widely 
differing  from  those  who  discovered  California,  acting  under  another 
class  of  motives,  undertook  the  colonization  which  for  a  century  and 
a  half  had  been  neglected,  since  it  proved  that  she  had  no  cities  of 
gold  and  turquoises.  The  Spanish  court,  meanwhile,  had  changed  as 


1670.] 


MISSIONS   IN   CALIFORNIA   AND   ARIZONA. 


587 


much  as  the  adventurers  in  Mexico  had  changed  ;  and  the  appeals  to 
Charles  the  Second  of  Spain  rested  on  different  motives  from  those 
which  had  swayed  the  Emperor  Charles,  who  from  his  distant  throne 
lifted  Cortez  or  put  him  down  at  his  will. 

After  one  and  another  inefficient  scheme  for  the  conquest,  as  it  was 
called,  of  California,  a  royal  order  came  from  Mexico  to  Spain  that 
all  enterprises  in  that  direction  should  be  laid  aside.  At  this  mo- 
ment the  Jesuit  body,  hardly  yet  declining  from  the  maturity  of  its 
power,  was  urged  by  the  persons 
in  command  in  Mexico  to  take 
the  charge  of  California.  The 
Viceroy  offered  to  the  Jesuits  the 
necessary  sums,  to  be  paid  out  of 
the  king's  treasury,  if  they  would 
undertake  the  enterprise.  The 
Mexican  chapter  of  the  society 
was  convened  for  the  considera- 
tion of  the  proposal,  and  answered 
that  while  the  society  would  un- 
dertake the  spiritual  duty  of  fur- 
nishing missionaries,  they  saw 
great  inconveniences  in  undertak- 
ing the  temporal  charge  of  such  an 
enterprise,  and  declined.  Thegen- 
eral  council  urged  it  again,  but 
again  the  society  refused.  The 
last  of  these  refusals  was  in  1686. 

Eusebio  Francisco  Kino,  a  brother  of  the  Jesuit  Society,  who  had 
come  from  Ingoldstadt  in  Bavaria,  in  pursuance  of  avow  made 

,  •        1  j.u  •  *   j         i  i  11  •          Father  Kino 

when  seemingly  at  tne  point  of  death,  undertook,  almost  sin-  in  caiifor- 
gle-handed,  the  regeneration  of  the  peninsula  of  California. 
To  his  efforts,  as  it  proved,  the  first  settlement  was  due  of  those  parts 
of  California  and  Arizona  which  now  belong  to  the  United  States.  It 
is  said  that  as  early  as  1658  he  had  been  connected  with  the  explora- 
tions of  Arizona.1  He  had  afterwards  been  engaged  in  the  examina- 
tions of  the  peninsula  of  California  made  by  order  of  the  government. 
In  1686  he  left  the  city  of  Mexico,  as  superior  of  the  province  of  So- 
nora,  the  Mexican  province  immediately  south  of  Arizona.1  In  1670, 
with  other  priests,  he  set  out  on  a  mission  on  the  Gila.  In  1672,  he 
began  a  mission  among  the  Yaquis.  Before  1679  he  and  his  compan- 
ions had  established  five  missions  among  Yaquis,  Opotes,  and  Papa- 

1  Cozzens's  Wonderful  Land  (Arizona),  p.  32.     Mr.  Cozzens  refers  to  MSS-  in  the  mon- 
astery of  Dolores.     Kino  accompanied  Admiral  Otondo  as  early  as  1 648. 


Portrait  of  Philip  III.  of  Spain 


588      SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

goes.1  On  the  left  bank  of  the  Gila,  he  established  Encarnacion  and 
San  Andres.  In  San  Andres  he  describes  one  of  the  "great  houses," 
four  stories  in  height,  which  recall  the  memories  of  Cibola.  His 
wishes  for  California  were  not  accomplished  until  1697,  when  Father 
Salvatierra  was  appointed  to  make  collections  for  a  mission  in  Lower 
California,  and  at  length  sailed  from  Hiagui  in  that  service  on  the 
10th  of  October. 

The  sedulous  efforts  by  which  he  and  his  companions  attempted  to 
civilize  and  Christianize  the  savages  of  that  peninsula,  do 

The  Califor-  .  .  '  .' 

nian  Mis-  not  belong  to  this  narrative.  But  as  a  consequence  ot  these 
plans,  a  series  of  missionary  efforts  grew  up,  which  resulted 
in  the  first  civilization  of  the  State  known  as  California  of  the  Ameri- 
can Union,  the  limits  of  which  correspond  nearly  with  those  of  the 
province  of  Upper  California,  as  it  is  described  in  the  narratives  of 
Mexico.  The  friendly  relations  of  Father  Kino  in  Sonora  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  with  Father  Salvatierra  on 
the  west  side,  led  constantly  to  mutual  offices  of  kindness  and  help ; 
and  the  history  of  the  two  regions  is  substantially  one  history  of  two 
provinces,  administered  in  the  same  spirit  and  under  the  same  gen- 
eral system.  In  one  expedition  of  Salvatierra,  he  passed  to  the  head 
of  the  gulf,  and  satisfied  himself  that  California  was  indeed  a  pen- 
insula. "  This  discovery,"  he  says,  "  we  owe  to  the  holy  virgin  of 
Loreto  ;  "  and  he  adds,  "  these  are  the  steps  by  which  within  a  few 
years  California  may  come  to  be  the  soul  of  this  kingdom,  the  main 
source  of  its  opulence,  the  scene  of  cheerful  industry  ;  and  accord- 
ingly I  conclude  that  you  will  charge  all  persons  that  they  continue 
to  assist  us  in  these  missions  of  Nuestra  Senora  de  Loreto  de  Cali- 
fornias."2  There  was  only  this  external  distinction  between  the 
missions  of  California  and  those  of  Sonora :  that  in  California  a  hand- 
ful of  soldiers  was  in  each  mission  placed  under  the  direction  of 
the  Fathers.  In  Sonora,  the  garrisons,  if  garrisons  there  were,  were 
directed  immediately  by  the  viceroy.  But  scarcely  any  difference  in 
result  seems  to  have  arisen  from  this  distinction.  It  must  be  under- 
stood that  the  word  Sonora,  in  the  history  of  that  country  at  that 
time,  includes  what  is  known  to  our  geographers  as  Arizona. 

Having  selected  a  point  for  a  mission,  the  fathers  began  immediately 
to  invite  and  induce  the  Indians  to  attend  the  daily  religious  services. 
As  soon  as  they  themselves  acquired  the  language  of  the  country, 
they  taught  the  natives  the  catechism  in  that  language.  By  way  of 
rewarding  those  who  attended  on  the  services,  the  fathers  served  out 
rations  to  them,  and  attempted  in  the  same  way  to  wean  all  the 

1  Noticias  Estadicas  del  Estado  de  Sonora,  by  Jose  Francisco  Velasco.    Mexico,  1 850. 

2  Venetjas,  vol.  i.,  p.  307.     English  translation. 


JESUIT  MISSIONARIES   IN  CALIFORNIA. 


1G97.] 


MISSIONS  IN   CALIFORNIA   AND   ARIZONA. 


589 


savages  from  the  habits  of  wanderers.  In  California  all  who  at- 
tended divine  service  were  wholly  supported  by  the  mission.  Every 
morning  and  night  they  received  an  allowance  of  "  atole,"  a  sort  oi 
hominy  ;  at  noon  they  were  served  with  boiled  Indian  corn,  called 
pozoli,1  and  with  fresh  or  salt  meat  and  vegetables,  according  as  the 
mission  provided.  All  the  sick,  aged,  and  children  from  six  to  twelve, 
and  the  Indian  governor  of  the  village,  were  also  thus  provided  with 
food.  Beside  these,  a  weekly  allowance  of  the  same  amount,  was 
made  to  such  Indians  of  the  rancherias  as  came  to  be  catechised  and 
as  attended  the  divine  service  on  Sunday.  The  missionary  priest  also 


The  Mission   Indians. 


clothed  all  his  parishioners  with 
coarse  cloth  from  Old  Spain,  and 
provided  cloaks  and  blankets. 
Meanwhile  they  were  instructed 
in  managing  the  fields  and  in 
irrigation  ;  and  as  they  would 
not  save  the  crops,  Venegas  says, 

the  fathers  preserved  them  for  their  regular  use.  Wine,  which  was  at 
an  early  date  produced  in  the  Californian  missions,  was  the  only 
product  withheld  from  them,  the  fathers  early  learning  that  such 
was  the  only  method  to  save  them  from  drunkenness.2 

The  effect  produced  by  such  a  system  would  not  immediately  ap- 
pear.   But,  after  a  generation,  a  body  of  children  had  grown  Effectof  the 
to  be  men  and  women,  without  any  habits  of  the  chase  or  of  Ml88ions 
war,  and  with  the  habit  of  farm  labor  and  regular  attendance  on  the 

1  Cozzens's  Wondfrfid  Land,  37.  2   Veneyas,  i.  432. 


690     SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

rites  of  the  church.  The  missions  were,  in  many  instances,  very  small 
establishments.  One  father  with  one  soldier  might  be  all  the  white 
population.  The  father  then  appointed  one  Indian  as  governor  of  the 
village,  one  to  the  charge  of  the  church,  and  a  third  to  be  the  catechist 
of  those  who  were  undergoing  instruction.  So  simple  a  system  was 
considered  sufficient.  In  the  absence  of  the  father  the  soldier  acted 
as  his  vicegerent,  having  "  an  eye  to  everything  "  as  is  the  expressive 
phrase  of  Venegas.1  He  could  seize  delinquents,  and  mildly  punish 
them,  "  unless  in  capital  cases,"  which  were  referred  to  the  captain  of 
the  garrison.  The  minor  punishments  were  more  or  less  lashes ;  the 
severer  punishment  was  imprisonment  in  the  stocks.  The  first  care 
in  every  mission  was  for  the  education  of  the  children.  Some  of  them 
were  selected  from  every  Californian  mission  to  be  sent  to  Loreto,  the 
chief  station.  They  were  instructed  in  reading,  writing,  and  singing, 
and  in  the  Spanish  language,  and  afterwards  as  they  showed  ability 
were  promoted  to  be  church  wardens  or  catechists  in  the  several 
"  rancherias." 

It  is  mentioned  as  an  exceptional  instance  in  these  plans,  that,  on 
the  peninsula  of  California,  Father  Ugarte  taught  his  Indians  to  spin 
wool  and  weave  it,  himself  making  the  distaffs,  wheels,  and  looms. 
He  added  the  industry  of  making  sail-cloth  from  hemp.  This  was  a 
violation  of  the  whole  colonial  system  of  Spain,  which  attempted  to 
compel  the  colonies  to  obtain  all  their  manufactures  from  Europe. 
Venegas,  the  Jesuit  historian,  is  eloquent  in  his  description  of  the 
ruinous  effects  of  this  policy  in  the  province  of  Sonora.  The  cause  of 
the  poverty  of  Sonora,  he  says,  is  its  want  of  almost  all  necessary 
manufactures  and  trades.  While  other  European  nations  encourage 
these  in  their  colonies,  Spain  depresses  them.  But  the  immediate  con- 
sequence of  manufacture,  he  says,  is  the  promotion  of  agriculture,  for 
the  providing  of  the  raw  material  and  for  feeding  the  artisan.  The 
policy  of  Cortez,  therefore,  was  to  encourage  manufacture,  and  this 
policy  was  continued  by  some  of  his  successors.  But  his  policy  hav- 
ing been  overturned,  poor  Sonora  must  receive  from  Mexico  the  cloth 
which  had  been  bought  in  Cadiz,  after  it  had  been  carried  thither 
from  Holland. 

As  the  expense  of  the  Jesuit  ^missions  involved  the  feeding  and 
Their  sup-  clothing  of  all  the  converts,  neophytes,  and  catechumens,  it 
P01*'  was  of  course  considerable,  and,  so  long  as  any  mission  was 

in  its  infancy,  it  must  be  supplied  by  contributions  from  the  faithful 
all  over  the  world.  At  this  point  the  literary  ability  of  the  Jesuit 
brethren  was  called  upon,  and  the  attractive  histories  of  their  mis- 
sions, published  through  Europe,  assisted  their  indefatigable  collections 

1  Venegas,  vol.  i.,  435. 


1705.]  ARIZONA.  591 

of  money.  The  Fathers  never  founded  a  new  mission  unless  some 
benefactor  had  endowed  it  with  ten  thousand  dollars.  This  sum 
furnished,  at  five  per  cent,  interest,  five  hundred  dollars,  which  was 
allowed  for  the  support  of  the  missionary  and  his  unavoidable  ex- 
penses with  the  Indians.  A  royal  grant  of  three  hundred  dollars  for 
each  missionary  seems  to  have  provided  in  part  for  other  missions. 
Venegas,  the  historian  of  Jesuit  missions,  explains  still  farther,  that 
the  funds  for  the  first  seven  missions  were  invested  in  farms  near  the 
city  of  Mexico,  and  that  the  necessary  supplies  of  cattle  and  of  corn 
were  furnished  from  these  farms.  To  the  agent  who  had  these  farms 
in  charge  the  king's  payment  was  made,  of  eighteen  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year  for  the  payment  of  the  garrisons  and  of  the  seamen  em- 
ployed by  the  missions.  From  these  funds,  and  from  the  products  of 
the  farms,  were  paid  everything  necessary  for  worship,  for  the  build- 
ing and  repair  of  the  church  and  for  the  maintenance  not  of  the 
priest  only,  but  of  his  people.  It  is  interesting,  at  this  time,  to  ob- 
serve, that  in  Salvatierra's  report  of  the  25th  of  May,  1705,  he  says, 
"  in  those  parts  of  the  country  that  are  conquered  and  discovered 
there  are  very  promising  appearances  of  mines." 

These  anticipations  were  fully  confirmed  as  that  century  went  on. 
The  acquisitions  from  mines  in  Arizona,  as  we  now  call  it,  and  from 
Sonora  cannot  be  accurately  distinguished.  But  it  is  certain  that 
Arizona  well  earned  its  name,  —  which  is  derived  from  Arizuma,  a 
name  said  to  be  given  by  the  king  himself  to  denote  its  richness  in 
silver.  As  early  as  1683,  the  attorney  of  the  king  brought  a  suit  in 
Sonora  to  recover  a  mass  of  virgin  silver  weighing  twenty-eight  hun- 
dred pounds,  which  he  claimed  as  a  "  curiosity,"  although  it  was 
found  in  the  mine  of  an  explorer  named  Gandera.1  A  wide  desert 
separated  the  silver- bearing  parts  of  Arizona  from  the  Pacific.  A 
long  transport  by  land  separated  them  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  But 
the  traces  of  old  mining  operations  and  the  records  of  the  viceroyalty 
of  Mexico  alike  show,  that  in  face  of  these  discouragements,  very 
large  mining  operations  were  conducted  in  the  seventeenth  and  eight- 
eenth centuries  in  the  frontier  provinces  which  are  now  States  and 
Territories  of  the  United  States. 

The  tranquil  arrangements  of  the  Jesuits,  which  attempted  to  sub- 
stitute for  savage  life  the  proprieties  and  decorum  of  pueblos  Difficuitie8 
of  men  and  women  trained  to  act  like  obedient  children,  were  byCthcnMi7-* 
constantly  broken  in  upon  by  savage  uprisings,  which  the  sionarie8- 
fathers  considered  as  so  many  triumphs  of  the   devil.     As  early  as 
1695  the  Janos,  Jocomes,  and  Apaches  were  at  war.     The  Conchos 
Indians  joined  in  the  fray,  which  was  for  the  time   suppressed  by 

1  Cozzens,  as  above,  p.  41. 


592    SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS   AND  COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 


the  energetic  efforts  of  Antonio  de  Solis,  the  military  commandant. 
But  none  the  less  on  all  sides  of  the  frontier  were  there  fears  of  a 
general  rising.  An  Indian  called  Pablo  Qujhue  was  considered  the 
head  of  a  conspiracy.  He  had  been  the  governor,  under  the  scheme 
just  now  described,  of  the  mission  of  Santa  Maria  Basieraca,  but  he 
now  proved  faithless  to  his  masters.  He  told  all  the  natives  that  in 
the  last  sixty  years  they  had  gradually  given  away  all  their  lands 
to  the  Spaniards ;  that  the  fathers,  instead  of  acknowledging  such 
gifts  gratefully,  had  seized  the  lands  and  enslaved  the  people.  Lands, 
flocks,  herds,  houses,  women,  and  children  were  all  at  the  disposal 
of  the  priests.  "  Do  they  tell  you  that  their  soldiers  protect  you  ? 
Do  they  tell  you  that  they  will  defend  you  ?  Do  they  tell  you  that 
you  live  in  true  religion,  in  obedience  to  the  king  and  in  peaceful 
life?  So  they  told  us  when  they  came,  and  we,  like  fools,  received 
them  as  men  who  came  from  heaven  to  bless  us.  What  has  come 
of  these  magnificent  promises  ?  You  can  see.  The  Apaches,  the 
Jocomes,  the  Janos,  have  for  years  desolated  our  fields  and  stolen  our 
flocks.  Have  the  fathers  protected  us  ?  Have  their  soldiers  helped 

us ;  have  they  not  been  our  ruin  ? 
Have  more  Sonoras,  Pimas,  Tarau- 
mares,  and  Conchos  fallen  under  the 
arrows  of  the  Apaches,  than  have 
perished  under  the  cruelty  of  the 
Spaniards.  At  the  least  alarm,  they 
charge  us,  whom  they  have  enslaved,, 
with  being  apostates,  traitors  to  God 
and  to  the  king,  enemies  of  our  coun- 
try and  allies  and  accomplices  of  the 
Apaches !  They  show  more  enmity 
Indian  council  (from  La  Hont«n).  to  U8  than  to  them  !  Do  they  treat 

them  as  cruellv  as  they  treat  us  ?  Have  the  Apaches  ever  seen  their 
faces  ?  And  have  they  ever  hurt  us  so  much,  as  these  protectors  of 
ours?"  Such  is  the  remarkable  speech,  which  Allegre,  a  Jesuit  histo- 
rian, is  frank  enough  to  put  into  the  mouth  of  this  rebel.1 

So  well  founded  were  his  arguments,  so  imposing  the  outside  force 
of  the  Apaches,  and  so  hateful  the  Spaniards,  that  his  hopes 
might  have  been  crowned  with  success,  but  that,  by  an  ac- 
cident so  often  repeated  in  savage  annals,  the  conspiracy' 
broke  out  too  early  in  one  quarter.  The  Cuquiarachi,  Cuchuta,  and 
Teurcicatzi  broke  into  rebellion  before  his  plans  were  ripe.  The  peo- 
ple of  these  places  seized  the  ornaments  of  the  churches  and  fled  with 
them  into  the  mountains.  This  precipitancy  disarranged  all  the  plans 

1  Allegre,  iii.,  93  :  Mexican  edition. 


iion. 


1697.] 


INDIAN  INVASIONS. 


593 


of  Quihue.  The  rebellion  was  suppressed  ;  and  the  fathers  were  able 
to  praise  the  loyalty  of  many  of  the  pueblos,  whose  people  joined  with 
the  Spanish  soldiery  in  the  movements  necessary,  and  in  one  case  sus- 
tained a  battle  which  lasted  from  day  to  night,  without  their  assist- 


ance. 


In  1697  new  invasions  from  the  Apaches  and  Jocomes  wasted  So- 
nora;  and  again  the  suspicions  of  the  Spaniards  were  roused 

against  the  people  of    their  own  flocks,  including  Pimeria, 
r    r 


.  ,      TT  i  The 

as  the  missions  among  the  .r  imos  began  to  be  called  at  that  ««•  re- 

time.    It  was  true  that  the  Pimos  suffered  as  much  as  the 

Spaniards,  or  more,  but  they,  fell  under  the  suspicion  which  in  all  col- 

onies, English,   Spanish,   or   French,  has  always   hovered  over  con- 

verted Indians.     An  inspection  by  a  Spanish  officer  wholly  relieved 

them   from   this   suspicion.      It   proved    that   they   had    beaten   the 

Apaches  in  fight,  as 

they  do  to  this  day, 

;ind  were  in  no  way 

entangled    with 

them.     His   report 

estimates  the  num- 

bers of  the  Opas  and 

Maricopas  as  about 

4,000.     He    speaks 

of   their   aqueducts 

and     fertile     land, 

their  crops  of  wheat 

and  houses  of  adobe, 

much  as  a  traveller 

of  to-day  might  do. 

But  it  must  be  re- 

membered that  they 

then  occupied  a  site  lower  down  the  Gila  River  than  that  which  they 

live  upon  to-day.1     At  length,  on  the  30th  of  March,  the  chief  of  the 

Quiburi,  one  of  the  "  reduced  "  or  converted  tribes,  struck  a  fortu- 

nate blow  with  his  people  upon  the  marauders  and  wholly  defeated 

them.      By  this  blow,  rather  than  from  any  action  of  the  Spanish 

troops,  as  would   appear,   the  tranquillity  of   the  missions  was  for 

some  time  assured.     In  a  pastoral  visit  made  to  the  northern  stations 

at  this  time  Father  Kino  made  an  observation  of  latitude  at  St.  Ra- 

fael de  Actun,  which  fixes  that  place  as  in  the  parallel  of  32°  30'  45" 

north.     He  frequently  alludes  in  his  letters  to  the  certainty  that  Cal- 

ifornia is  a  peninsula,  as  it  had  been  pronounced  by  Cortez  and  his 

1  Emory's  report,  on  the  authority  of  Kit  Carson. 
VOL.  ii.  38 


California  Indians  catching  Salmon. 


594     SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS    AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

contemporaries.  The  later  geographers,  for  a  long  time,  insisted  on 
marking  it  as  a  long  island  ;  and  it  was  long  before  the  intelligent 
assertions  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers,  though  founded  on  personal  observa- 
tions, were  attended  to  by  the  map-makers.  In  January,  1699,  on 
one  of  these  tours  of  inspection,  Fathers  Kino  and  Gilg  met  five  hun- 
dred Yumas,  Opas,  and  Cocomaricopas  at  a  point  three  leagues  above 
the  junction  of  the  Gila  and  Colorado.  These  people  had  traditions 
of  the  arrival  of  Spaniards  from  the  east,  which  probably  referred  to 
the  party  of  Onate.  They  told  of  a  visit  from  a  white  woman  whom 
the  Fathers  supposed  to  be  an  enthusiast  named  Maria  de  Jesus  Agre- 
da,  who  had  gone  out  alone  as  early  as  1630,  among  the  savages. 


Junction  of  the  Gila  and  Colorado  Rivers. 


These  people  also  said  that  at  the  north  there  lived  white  men  who 
wore  clothes,  who  at  times  came  armed  to  the  Colorado,  and  brought 
goods  in  exchange  for  skins.  This  can  only  allude  to  some  expedition 
of  French  traders,  of  which  we  have  no  account,  or  possibly  to  the 
expedition  from  Boston,  already  alluded  to,  which  is  said  to  have  pre- 
ceded by  a  year  the  expedition  of  La  Salle. 

So  far  at  least,  as  their  written  history  goes,  the  flourishing  condi- 
tion of  the  Pimeria,  which  was  the  result  of  the  Jesuit 
labors  in  Arizona,  ended  with  the  death  of  Father  Kino  in 
the  year  1711.  This  remarkable  man,  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful and  enterprising  of  apostles,  had  been  a  professor  of  math- 
ematics in  the  University  of  Ingolstadt  in  Bavaria.  By  a  divine  call 


Death  of 

Father 

Kino. 


1711.]  DECAY   OF   THE   JESUIT   MISSIONS.  595 

he  was  led  to  abandon  his  professorship  and  to  enter  on  the  work  of 
preaching  the  gospel  to  the  heathen.  His  indomitable  spirit,  his  cour- 
age and  adventure,  led  him  to  such  successes,  as  have  been  described. 
His  zeal  constantly  outran  the  slower  notions  of  the  Mexican  Vice- 
roys, and  he  was  frequently  in  conflict  with  them  and  with  other  au- 
thorities. It  was  only  after  long  delay  that  his  plans  for  the  reduc- 
tion, as  it  was  called,  of  California,  were  adopted ;  and  he  was  fre- 
quently held  back  in  his  undertakings  in  his  beloved  Pimeria.  It 
is  said  that  he  himself  baptized  more  than  forty  thousand  infidels,  — 
and  that  he  would  have  baptized  many  thousand  more  had  the  zeal  of 
the  church  behind  him  been  sufficient  to  provide  them  with  teachers 
and  ministers.  San  Xavier  del  Bac,  as  it  now  appears,  gives  an  idea 
of  the  external  appearance  of  the  churches  he  founded.  The  people  of 


The   Mission  of  San   Xavier  del   Bac. 


Arizona  believe  this  building  to  be  the  very  same  which  was  erected 
under  his  direction.  In  this  temple  the  worship  of  the  Catholic  church 
is  still  maintained  by  a  handful  of  Papajo  Indians. 

His  successor  was  Father  Augustin  de  Campos.  But  he  could  not 
prevent  the  decay  of  the  missions.  Probably  the  enthusiasm  Decay  of  the 
of  Europe  and  Mexico  had  been  turned  in  other  directions,  Ml8S10DS- 
and  it  was  impossible  to  provide  ecclesiastical  chiefs  for  these  frontier 
settlements.  The  slow  death  settling  upon  Spain,  —  attributed  by 
most  students  of  history  to  the  inevitable  lethargy  attendant  on  Jesuit 
counsels,  —  hindered  the  aid  which  the  Spanish  monarchs  themselves 
often  tried  to  give  the  missions.  Nothing  is  more  amusing,  if  it  were 
not  at  the  same  time  pathetic,  than  the  narrative  by  Venegas  of  the 
ingenious  ways  in  which  the  officials  of  the  crown  resisted  and  de- 
feated the  pious  orders  of  their  kings.  For  many  years,  the  Jesuit 
historian  tells  us,  the  people  of  the  villages  maintained  their  crops  and 
built  their  houses  in  a  civilized  way.  But  as  time  passed,  they  fell 


596    SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

back  toward  the  habits  of  savage  life.  Many  of  the  villages  had 
no  Spanish  ministers  till  1731,  when  a  sudden  revival  for  a  mo- 
ment filled  the  posts  anew.  Dolores  and  Remedies  were  entirely 
unpeopled,  and  many  others  suffered  from  the  invasions  of  the 
Apaches. 

In  1740  a  rebellion  broke  out,  more  critical  than  any  before,  led  by 
an  "  apostate  "  Indian  named  Muni,  one  of  the  Yaquis,  — 
dian  rebel-  another  named  Baltazar,  and  another  named  Juan  Calixto. 
Succeeding  in  Mayo  they  passed  to  Cedros  and  Bayorca. 
Muni  was  at  one  moment  taken  prisoner,  but  having  been  liberated 
he  was  so  far  encouraged  that  with  his  Yaquis  he  continued  his  rav- 
ages. So  efficient  was  this  rebellion  that  the  villages  of  the  valley  of 
the  Gila  were  wholly  cut  off  from  Mexican  inspection,  and,  indeed, 
they  have  remained  in  much  that  condition  ever  since.  In  1744 
Father  Keeler,  who  attempted  to  revisit  them,  was  permitted  to  pass 
no  farther  than  the  first  village  of  the  Moquis.  A  second  revolt  in 
1750,  under  one  Luis,  did  still  more  to  break  up  the  missions  of  the 
southern  part  of  Sonora,  which  now  constitutes  the  Mexican  state  of 
that  name,  and  well-nigh  completed  the  isolation  of  Pimeria  in 
the  valley  of  the  Gila.  The  authority  of  Luis  over  the  Pimeria  was 
not  broken  until  the  year  1753,  when  a  new  governor  seized  him  and 
put  him  in  prison,  where  he  soon  died  of  "  melancholy."  His  relative 
took  refuge  with  the  Seris,  a  barbarous  tribe  on  the  Gulf  of  Califor- 
nia, always  their  enemies  till  now.  Some  fathers  were  despatched, 
after  this  success,  to  renew  the  abandoned  missions  ;  but  it  would  ap- 
pear that  their  decay  could  not  be  arrested. 

Their  history  is  at  the  bottom  the  same  as  that  of  the  Jesuit  mis- 
sions in  Paraguay,  which  have  attracted  more  of  the  attention  of  stu- 
dents of  social  order.  By  these  experiments  it  is  proved  possible  to 
The  lesson  educate  savages  in  a  state  of  tutelage,  and  to  maintain  the 
fhef<?haNV  outward  external  aspects  of  exquisite  order  and  simplicity, 
tempts.  The  iover  Of  tranquillity,  delighted  with  such  social  order- 
when  he  sees  it  contrasted  with  the  strifes  of  a  more  active  world, 
describes  the  pretty  scene  as  an  Arcadia,  if  he  be  of  a  classical 
bent ;  or  as  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth,  if  he  be  trained  in 
another  school.  But  the  moment  a  storm  comes,  or  the  moment  the 
mild  tyranny  of  the  spiritual  father  is  removed,  it  proves  that  this 
people,  so  gentle  and  so  simple,  have  not  been  educated  to  the  care 
of  themselves.  They  have  been  taught  to  obey,  in  a  false  school, 
which  has  not  taught  them  either  to  direct  or  to  command.  And  the 
lovely  village,  so  charming  to  the  traveller  who  sees  it  from  the 
outside  for  a  day  or  two,  is  swept  away,  like  a  vision  of  the  night, 
and  leaves  almost  as  little  trace  behind. 


1767.] 


EXPULSION   OF   THE  JESUITS. 


597 


For  the  missions  of  Pimeria  and  of  Upper  California,  the  final  blow- 
was  struck,  —  so  far  as  Jesuit  supervision  went,  —  on  the 
25th  of  June,  1767.  "A  little  before  the  break  of  day," 
says  the  historian,  with  a  certain  pathos,  "the  decree  for 
the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  went  forth,  with  the  great  seal  itself, 
from  the  council  chamber  of  Charles  III."  In  the  endless  intrigues, 
in  which  the  history  of  the  com- 
pany of  Jesuits  is  involved,  per- 
haps from  its  own  nature,  the 
balance  had  gone  against  it  heav- 
ily, at  that  moment,  in  the  dying 
court  of  Spain.  King  Charles  was 
so  eager  to  secure  the  execution 
of  his  decree  that  by  an  autograph 
letter  to  the  viceroy  of  Mexico 
he  notified  his  will,  and  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Jesuits  from  Mex- 
ico followed  with  much  more  ra- 
pidity than  had  attended  the  ex- 
ecution of  many  of  the  decrees 
in  their  favor.  The  accounts 
given  by  the  Jesuit  writers  and 
their  enemies  as  to  the  origin  of 
this  decree,  belong  rather  to  the 
history  of  Europe  than  to  that  of 
Pimeria.  It  was  due  to  the  in- 
fluence of  Choiseul  and  Aranda,  who  seem  to  have  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing Charles  that  the  Jesuits  had  circulated  slanders  regarding  his 
own  birth.  Certain  is  it  that  the  blow  was  sudden  and  unexpected. 


Portrait  of  Cnarles  III.  of  Spain. 


When,  in  1683,  the  French  explorer,  La  Salle,  addressed  to  the 
king  of  France  his  memoir  on  the  foundation  of  a  colony  in  New  MejuCO 
Louisiana,  the  silver  mines  of  New  Mexico  were  so  well  es-  auUTexa8- 
tablished,  that  the  prime  reason  suggested  by  him  for  his  enterprise, 
was  the  ease  with  which  the  French  might  seize  the  product  of  those 
mines,  and  bring  it  down  the  Red  River.  After  two  hundred  years, 
that  route  is  not  yet  taken  by  the  silver  of  New  Mexico  and  the 
neighboring  regions.  But  it  may  yet  prove  true,  that  by  a  railway 
through  the  valley  of  the  Red  River  these  stores  of  silver,  the  magni- 
tude of  which  has  deranged  the  balance  of  the  coinage  of  the  world, 
may  find  their  way  to  their  market.  The  Spanish  government  \vas 
as  quick  as  La  Salle  to  note  the  danger  to  their  mines  from  his  enter- 


598    SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

prise.  When  his  unfortunate  colony  landed,  in  fact  within  the  limits 
of  our  State  of  Texas,1  in  Matagorda  Bay,  which  they  called  the  Bay 
of  St.  Bernard,  the  nearest  Spanish  positions  on  the  gulf  were  the 
port  of  Panuco,  near  the  present  Tampico,  more  than  two  hundred 
leagues  distant,  and  El  Paso  on  the  Rio  Grande.  The  Spanish  settlers 
had  been  driven  from  New  Mexico  by  the  rising  of  1680,  nor  was 
possession  regained  until  1695.  Early  in  1686  the  viceroy  of  Mexico, 
Laguna,  was  informed  of  the  French  expedition  of  La  Salle.  But 
its  destination  was  unknown ;  and  the  historian  of  Texas  believes  that 
the  Spaniards  learned  from  the  Camanche  Indians  of  the  colony  in  St. 
Bernard's  Bay.  A  council  held  in  Mexico  determined  on  an  expedi- 
tion of  discovery  and  repression,  and  to  this  expedition  Captain  Alonzo 
de  Leon  was  appointed,  under  the  title  of  Governor  of  Coahuila. 

De  Leon  arrived  at  Fort  St.  Louis  on  the  22d  of  April,  with  his 
Expedition  command  of  one  hundred  men.  He  found  there  the  wreck 
of  De  Leon.  Q£  ^ne  unfOrtunate  French  colony ;  and,  learning  from  the 
Indians  that  there  were  French  stragglers  among  the  Cenis,  he  visited 
them  and  found  two  of  the  murderers  of  La  Salle,  whom  he  took  pris- 
oners. They  were  sent  to  Mexico  and  thence  to  Spain,  and  then  sent 
back  to  Mexico  and  condemned  to  the  mines. 

De  Leon  made  a  favorable  report  as  to  Texas,  and  it  was  determined 
to  establish  a  mission  at  Fort  St.  Louis.  In  1690  this  was  done.  The 
king  approved  of  this  proceeding,  saying  it  was  of  importance  for  the 
security  of  his  dominions  in  New  Mexico.  Venegas,  the  historian  of 
California,  expresses  a  mild  regret  that  the  necessities  of  the  crown 
diverted  to  this  enterprise  treasure  which  he  is  sure  could  have  been 
well  used  on  the  Pacific  shore.  But  the  French  were  too  near  for 
delay.  It  would  indeed  seem  as  if,  till  this  time,  the  policy  of  Spain 
had  been  that  ascribed  to  the  ancient  Persian  prince,  who  kept  a  por- 
tion of  desert  three  days  journey  in  width  between  his  own  empire 
and  many  others.  But  Texas  was  then  a  desert  far  more  than  three 
days  wide.  If  such  were  the  policy,  it  gave  way  before  the  danger 
that  other  colonists  might  inhabit  the  desert.  In  1691,  Don  Domingo 
Teran  was  appointed  governor  of  Coahuila  and  Texas,  and  with  fifty 
soldiers  and  seven  lay  friars,  proceeded  to  establish  missions  and  mili- 
tary posts.  These  they  began,  but  in  1693  they  were  all  abandoned, 
in  face  of  hostile  Indians,  and  the  king  approved  of  the  abandonment. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  therefore,  Spain  had  no 
posts  in  Texas.  On  the  west  side  of  the  Rio  Grande,  the  posts  still 
known  as  Presidio  del  Norte  and  El  Paso  were  maintained  as  stations 
on  the  road  to  New  Mexico. 

When  in  1712,   Louis  XIV.  gave  to  Antoine  Crozat  a  grant  of 

1  See  chap.  xxi. 


1714.] 


ATTEMPTS  TO   COLONIZE   TEXAS. 


Louisiana,  it  was  so  phrased  as  to  extend  his  boundaries  to  the  Rio 
Grande  on  the  west.  In  1714,  he  sent  out  Huchereau  St.  Expedition 
Denis,  a  young  man  of  noble  family,  on  an  expedition  to  Ofst-Dems- 
the  western  part  of  his  new  domain.  Leaving  Natchitoches  on  the 
Red  River,  where  a  trading  post  had  already  been  established,  St. 
Denis  crossed  Texas,  and  in  August  reached  the  mission  of  St.  John 
Baptist  on  the  Rio  Grande,  where  he  was  hospitably  received  by  the 
commander.  But,  so  soon  as  Don  Gaspardo  Anaya,  the  Governor  of 
Coahuila.  heard  of  his  arrival  he  arrested  St.  Denis  and  one  of  his 


companions  and  sent  them  to  Mexico,  where  they  were  imprisoned  for 
six  months.  After  two  years,  however,  he  returned  to  Mobile,  having 
escaped  or  been  released.  He  married  the  daughter  of  Villeseas,  the 
governor  of  St.  John  Baptist,  and  from  that  day  began  a  system  of 
smuggling  between  the  Mexican  territories  and  those  of  Louisiana, 
which  has  continued  to  this  time.1 

Those  movements  alarmed  the  Spaniards  again,  and  the  Duke  of 
Linares,  now  Viceroy  of  Mexico,  made  new  efforts  to  prose-  Spani8h  at_ 
cute  the  colonization  of  Texas.     A  new  mission  was  estab-  JX^J0 
lished  in  the  Bay  of  St.  Bernard,  and  one  among  the  Adaes,  Texas- 
only  fifteen  miles  from  Natchitoches.    It  was  therefore  within  the  pres- 
ent line  of  the  State  of  Louisiana.     A  mission  called   Dolores  was 

1  Yoakum,  Hist.  Texas,  vol.  i.,  48.     American  State  Papers,  vol  xii.     Mr.  Gayarre  lias 
made  a  romance  from  these  adventures. 


600     SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 


established  west  of  the  Sabine,  and  San  Antonio  de  Valero  was  placed 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  San  Pedro,  about  three  fourths  of  a  mile 
from  the  present  church  at  San  Antonio.  The  present  position  of 
San  Antonio  was  soon  after  chosen  instead  of  the  first,  for  reasons 
which  recommend  themselves  to  every  visitor  to  that  beautiful  city. 
Soon  after,  a  mission  was  established  near  the  present  town  of  Nacog- 
doches,  and  a  sixth  near  San  Augustine.  The  establishment  of  these 
missions  was  intrusted  to  a  captain  named  Don  Domingo  Ramon. 
When  he  was  at  the  Adaes  he  visited  San  Denis  at  Natchitoches,  and 
was  hospitably  received. 


San    Antonio,   Texas. 


•XT' 

The  Texan  missions  were 
from  the  first  in  the  hands  of 
Franciscan  fathers.  But  the 
methods  of  these  fathers  were 
not  materially  different  from 
those  which  we  have  described  as  practised  by  the  Jesuits.  At  each 
preside  or  mission  there  was  a  garrison,  with  a  military  commandant  ; 
but  T&ese  garrisons  were  sometimes  very  small.  A  plaza  de  armas, 
surrouflded  by  the  church,  barracks,  storehouses,  and  other  public 
buildings?  was  the  centre  of  the  establishment.  Around  these  huts 
were  built  for  the  "  reduced  "  or  converted  Indians. 

After  the  declaration  of  war  of  1718  between  France  and  Spain  had 
conflict*,  be-  been  heard  of  on  this  distant  frontier,  the  little  garrisons 
made  an  attempt  to  imitate  the  contentions  of  their  masters 
in  EUrope-  The  Frenchmen,  La  Harpe  and  St.  Denis,  broke 
up  the  Spanish  posts  and  drove  the  garrisons  from  the  lesser  stations 
to  San  Antonio.  The  Marquis  de  Aguayo,  the  Spanish  Governor 
of  New  Estremadura,  collected  five  hundred  men  to  drive  them  back, 
but  they  had  already  retreated,  and  Don  Aguayo  reestablished  the 
garrisons  1  which  they  had  put  to  flight. 

1  Am.  Slate  Papers,  vol.  xii. 


spaui*h. 


1728.]  THE   SPANIARDS   IN  TEXAS.  601 

In  the  same  year  Don  Martin  d'Alarcone  had  been  appointed 
Governor  of  Texas.  After  the  success  of  Aguayo's  expedition,  a  larger 
jinny  was  fitted  out  against  the  French  settlements  on  the  Upper  Mis- 
sissippi. The  Spaniards  lost  their  route,  and  falling  in  with  the  Mis- 
souri Indians,  mistook  them  for  Osages.  They  had  relied  on  the  as- 
sistance of  the  Osages  against  the  French.  Now,  the  Missouris  were 
the  firm  allies  of  the  French.  The  Missouris  had  the  address  to 
encourage  the  mistake,  till  they  had  received  from  the  Spaniards  pis- 
tols, sabres,  hatchets,  and  what  the  narrator  speaks  of  as  fifteen  hun- 
dred muskets,  a  number  which  is  incredible.  With  these  arms,  how- 
ever, the  Indians  massacred  all  the  Spaniards  except  the  priest,  and 
this  misfortune  ended  the  Spanish  claims  on  the  Upper  Mississippi.1 
The  French  home  government,  in  the  meanwhile,  ordered  Bienville  to 
establish  a  new  post  in  Matagorda  Bay,  which  he  did.  But  the  de- 
tachment was  soon  withdrawn  on  account  of  the  hostility  of  the 
Indians. 

A  royal  order  of  1721  directed  the  Spanish  authorities  to  attempt 
no  further  hostilities  against  the  French,  but  to  fortify  the 

Fiirthpr 

bay  of  St.  Bernard  and  other  important  posts.     A  garrison  pro&re*.  of 

II  T       t  f    T  ?•  i«        i  ii-ii     Texa«  under 

called  "our  Lady  of  Loretto      was  accordingly  established  spankh 
at  St.  Bernard.     In  the  next  year  the  four  garrisons  which 
defended  Texas,  consisted  of  one  hundred  men  at  the  Adaes  Mission, 
twenty-five  at  the  Neches,  ninety  at  the  bay  of  St.  Bernard,  and  fifty- 
three  at  San  Antonio.    There  were  no  colonists,  excepting  the  fathers, 
at  the  missions,  but  Aguayo,  before  returning  to  his  own  department, 
recommended  the  introduction  of  colonists.     So  soon  as  he  departed, 
the  forbidden  trade  between  French  and  Spanish  frontiersmen  began 
again,  and  when,  in  the  war  of  1726,  France  and  Spain  were  in  alli- 
ance, this  trade  gained  new  activity.2 

In  1728  the  Spanish  government  ordered  the  transportation  of  four 
hundred  families  from  the  Canary  Islands  to  Texas.  The  garrisons 
were  reduced  to  one  hundred  and  fifty-three  men  in  the  whole  prov- 
ince. Of  the  four  hundred  families  ordered,  thirteen  arrived  at  San 
Antonio,  and  this  new  population  was  a  stimulus  to  the  missionary 
efforts.  In  1732  the  Spanish  troops  defeated  the  Apaches,  and  this 
victory  gave  security  to  the  colony.  In  1734  Sandoval  took  the  place 
of  Cevallos  as  governor,  and  again  checked  the  depredations  of  the 
savages.  While  he  was  Governor,  St.  Denis  removed  the  French  gar- 
rison of  Natchitoches  to  a  point  west  of  the  Red  River.  Sandoval 
having  been  charged  with  conniving  with  this,  a  long  litigation  took 
place,  —  with  the  interminable  slowness  of  Spanish  procedures, — in 

1  Gayarre's  Hist,  of  Louisiana,  vol.  i.,  p.  264. 

2  Yoakum,  i.,  77. 


802   SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION.   [CHAP.  XXIV. 

which  he  and  Franquis,  his  successor,  were  engaged.  In  1740  Sando- 
val  was  thrown  into  prison,  in  one  of  the  consequences  of  this  charge, 
but  with  the  arrival  of  a  new  governor,  he  was  liberated. 

In  1744  the  European  population  of  Texas  did  not  exceed  fifteen 
hundred,  divided  mostly  between  Adaes  and  San  Antonio ;  a  few 
were  at  Bahia,  and  a  few  at  San  Saba.  The  settlements  to  the  south 
of  Texas  made  but  very  little  progress,  and  the  old  policy  of  Spain,  to 
leave  a  desert  between  her  provinces  and  her  neighbors,  was  in  no  way 
violated. 


The  Yucc*  Tree  of  New  Mexico 


TABLE   OF  DATES. 


1540.     Coronado's  expedition  in  search  of  Cibola. 
1579.     Drake  on  the  California  Coast. 
1582.     Espejo's  expedition  on  the  Rio  del  Norte. 
1602.     Voyage  of  Viscaino  on  the  coast  of  California. 

1636.  Endicott's  Expedition  to  Block  Island. 
Providence  founded  by  Roger  Williams. 

1637.  The  Pequot  War. 

Sir  John  Harvey  returns  as  Governor  of  Virginia. 

1638.  New  Haven  founded. 

Settlement  of  Rhode  Island  at  Portsmouth. 

A  quo  warranto  issued  against  the  Massachusetts  charter. 

Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  founded. 

1639.  First    Constitution    of    Connecticut    adopted,   and    a    Government 

formed. 

1640.  Explorations  of  Fathers  Chaumonot  and  Bre'bceuf,  in  Ohio  and  Michigan. 

1641.  The  Body  of  Liberties  adopted  in  Massachusetts. 

New  Hampshire  passes  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts. 
'1642.     Sir  William  Berkeley  Governor  of  Virginia. 

1643.  The  Confederation  of  New  England  Colonies  formed. 
Trial  of  the  Gorton  Party  at  Boston. 

Issue  of  the  Narragansett  Patent. 
Murder  of  Miantonomo. 

1644.  The  Charter  for  Providence  Plantations  granted  to  Roger  'Williams. 
Indian  massacre  in  Virginia. 

1647.     Stuy vesant  arrives  at  New  Amsterdam  as  Governor  of  New  Nether- 
land. 
Stuyvesant's  controversy  with  the  popular  party  at  New  Amsterdam. 

1650.  Boundary  Treaty  between  Connecticut  and  New  Netherland  concluded  at 

Hartford. 

1651.  Clark,  Holmes,  and  Crandall  tried  in  Boston. 

1652.     Surrender  of  Jamestown  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  Common- 
wealth. 

A  mint  established  in  Massachusetts. 
1653.     Elective  municipal  government  established  at  New  Amsterdam. 

Rhode  Island  declares  war  against  New  Netherland. 

First  Settlements  in  North  Carolina,  on  Albermarle  Sound. 
1655.    The  Dutch  take  possession  of  New  Sweden. 

Establishment  of  the  Colony  of  New  Amstel. 

VOL.    II 


304  TABLE   OF  DATES. 


Conflict  in  Maryland  between  the  Puritans  and  Roman  Catholics. 
Indian  massacres  at  Hoboken,  Pavonia,  and  elsewhere. 

1656.  The  First  Quakers  arrive  in  Boston. 

1657.  Persecution  of  Quakers  in  New  England. 

1659.  Execution  of  Quakers  at  Boston. 

1660.  Berkeley  reelected  Governor  of  Virginia, 

(Or  1661),  Settlement  of  New  England  men  at  Cape  Fear,  S.  C. 

Execution  of  Mary  Dyer  at  Boston. 

Father  Mesnard  founds  a  Mission  on  Lake  Superior. 

1661.  Charles  II.  checks  the  persecution  of  Quakers  in  New  England. 

1663.  Charter  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations  granted  by 

Charles  II. 
First  Grant  of  Carolina. 

1664.  Grant  of  New  Nether  land  to  the  Duke  of  York,  and  its  Surrender  to 

the  English.  —  Named  New  York. 
Tending  of  the  Colony  under  Yeamans  at  Cape  Fear. 
Government  of  North  Carolina  established. 
Grant  of  New  Jersey  to  Berkeley  and  Carteret. 
First  settlement  of  Central  New  York  at  Schenectady. 

1665.  Second  Grant  of  Carolina. 

Arrival  of  Philip  Carteret  as  Governor  of  New  Jersey.  —  Elizabeth 

founded. 

The  "  Duke's  Laws  "  adopted  in  New  York. 
1666.     Newark,  New  Jersey,  founded. 

1668.  Lovelace,  Governor  of  New  York. 

1669.  Completion  of  John  Locke's  "Fundamental  Constitutions  for  Carolina." 

1671.  Great  Indian  Council  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 

1672.  Anti-rent  insurrection  in  New  Jersey. 

1673.  Recapture  of  New  York  by  the  Dutch. 
Marquette  explores  the  Mississippi. 

1674.  Treaty  of  Westminster   confirms   New  York  to   England.  —  New 

Patent  issued  to  the  Duke  of  York. 
Andros  Governor  of  New  York. 
Fenwicke's  and  Byllinge's  Purchase  of  West  New  Jersey. 

1675.  Outbreak  of  Philip's  War  in  New  England. 
Indian  War  in  Virginia. 

1676.  Bacon's  Rebellion  in  Virginia. 

The  "  Quintipartite  Deed  "  for  the  Partition  of  New  Jersey. 

Close  of  Philip's  war. 
1678.     Royal  Commissioners  arrive  in  Virginia.     Berkeley's  recall  and  death. 

Emigration  of  Friends  to  West  Jersey. 

Insurrection  in  the  district  of  Pasquotank,  N.  C. 

Indian  Treaty  concluded  at  Casco,  Me. 

1679.     New  Hampshire  made  an  independent  Royal  Province. 
1680.     Hennepin's  Voyage  on  the  Mississippi. 

Charleston,  S.  C.,  founded. 

1681.  The  Grant  of  Pennsylvania  signed.  —  Emigration  begun. 

1682.  The  Friends  buy  East  Jersey. 
Penn  sails  for  America. 
Philadelphia  founded. 
Penn's  Indian  Treaty. 


TABLE  OF  DATES. 


605, 


La  Salle's  Voyage  on  the  Mississippi. 

1684.  Lord  Cardross's  Colony  founded  at  Port  Royal,  S.  C- 
Judgment  against  the  Massachusetts  Charter. 
Penn  returns  to  England. 

1685.  La  Salle's  colony  founded  in  Texas. 

1686.     Andros  Governor-general  of  New  England. 

1687.  Andros  attempts  to  seize  the  Connecticut  charter.     Its  concealment  in  the 

Charter  Oak. 
Murder  of  La  Salle. 

1688.  Indian  War  renewed  in  Maine  and  New  Hampshire.     Massacres  at  Dovei 

and  elsewhere. 
1689.     Deposition  and  Arrest  of  Andros  at  Boston. 

William  and  Mary  proclaimed. 
1690.     Sothell  seizes  the  government  of  South  Carolina. 

French  and  Indian  expeditions  into  New  Hampshire. 
1692.     Phips  Governor  of  Massachusetts  under  the  new  Charter 

Outbreak  of  the  'Witchcraft  Panic  at  Salem,  Mass. 

1694.  Rice  introduced  into  South  Carolina. 

1695.  Archdale  Governor  of  South  Carolina. 

1696.  Spanish  fort  established  at  Pensacola,  Florida. 

1699.  Penn  returns  to  America. 

1 700.  Iherville  establishes  a  settlement  at  Poverty  Point,  La. 
Attack  by  the  Carolinians  on  St.  Augustine. 

1712.     Louisiana  granted  to  Crozat. 

1717.  Law's  "  Western  Company  "  established. 

1718.  New  Orleans  founded. 

1719.  Law's  "  Mississippi  Scheme." 
Capture  of  Pensacola  by  Bienville. 

1720.     Charlevoix's  voyage  to  visit  the  Jesuit  missions  in  America. 

*        O 

1722.     Recapture  of  Pensacola  by  the  Spaniards. 
1729.     Massacre  of  French  by  the  Natchez. 
174O.    Oglethorpe's  Attack  on  St.  Augustine. 


L  I  E>  RARY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 

PRESENTED  BY 

Miss  Ethel  Bicker 

from  the 

Library  of  her  Father 
Nathan  Clifford  Bicker 
Head  of  the  Department  of 
Architecture,  1873-1911 


373 

684 


v.3 


The  person  charging  this  material  is  re- 
sponsible for  its  return  on  or  before  the 
Latest  Date  stamped  below. 

Theft,  mutilation,  and  underlining  of  books 
are  reasons  for  disciplinary  action  and  may 
result  in  dismissal  from  the  University. 

University  of  Illinois  Library 


APR-61! 


L161— O-1096 


SCRIBNER'S 


POPULAR    HISTORY    OF 
THE   UNITED  STATES 


-     •  s 


SCRIBNER'S 

POPULAR  HISTORY  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES 


FROM    THE    EARLIEST    DISCOVERIES    OF   THE    WESTERN 
HEMISPHERE  BY  THE  NORTHMEN  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


BY 

WILLIAM    CULLEN    BRYANT 

SIDNEY    HOWARD    GAY 

NOAH    BROOKS 


WITH    MORE    THAN    SIXTEEN    HUNDRED 
ILLUSTRATIONS    AND    MAPS 


VOLUME    III 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
1896 


COPYRIGHT,  1879,  1881,  1896,  BY 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 


RIGHT  OF   TRANS  LA  T/ON  RESERVED 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
-Astor  Place.  New  York 


'• 

- 


<3 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH. 

PAGI 

CONDITION  OF  NEW  YORK  ON  THE  ARRIVAL  OF  ANDROS  AS  GOVERNOR.  —  COM- 
PARISON WITH  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  ANDROS  VISITS  CONNECTICUT.  —  His  RECEP- 
TION BY  CAPTAIN  BULL  AT  SATBROOK.  —  COMPLAINED  OF  BT  LADY  CARTERET, 
AND  OTHERS.  —  HlS  RECALL  TO  ENGLAND.  —  NEW  PROPRIETORS  OF  EAST  JtR- 
SEY.  —  THOMAS  DONGAN  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK.  —  GENERAL  AS- 
SEMBLY ORDERED  BY  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.  —  CHARTER  OF  LIBERTIES  ADOPTED. 

—  ASSEMBLY  DISSOLVED  BY  JAMES.  —  DONGAN'S  ADMINISTRATION.  —  ANDROS 
AS  GOVERNOR-GENERAL.  —  ACCESSION  OF  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.  —  AFFAIRS  UN- 
DER LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR  NICHOLSON. — His  COUNCIL-MEN,  PHILLIPSE,  VAN 
CORTLANDT,  AND  BAYARD.  —  CAPTAIN  LEISLER  ASSUMES  COMMAND,  AND  ACTS 
AS  GOVERNOR. —  SUPPORTED  BY  A  COMMITTEE  OF  SAFETY  AND  RECOGNIZED 
BY  THE  COLONIES.  —  His  DIFFICULTIES. — TROUBLES  WITH  THE  FRENCH  AND 
INDIANS.  —  CONTEST  WITH  CAPTAIN  INGOI.DSBY.  —  SURRENDERS  THE  GOVERN- 
MENT TO  COLONEL  SLOUGHTER.  —  TRIAL  AND  EXECUTION 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

ROYAL  GOVERNORS    UNDER    WILLIAM    AND   MARY. 

COLONIAL  POLICY  OF  WILLIAM  AND  MARY. —  GOVERNOR  FLETCHER  OF  NEW 
YORK.  —  His  VISIT  TO  CONNECTICUT. —  RENEWAL  OF  HOSTILITIES  WITH  THE 
FRENCH  AND  INDIANS.  —  SCHUYLER'S  EXPEDITION. —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE 
EARL  OF  BELLOMONT.  —  PREVALENCE  OF  PRIVATEERING  AND  PIRACY.  —  CAP- 
TAIN KIDD'S  ADVENTURES.  —  LORD  CORNBURY,  GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK  AND 
NEW  JERSEY.  —  EAST  AND  WEST  JERSEY  UNITED  AND  PROPRIETARY  GOVERN- 
MENT ENDED.  — CONTROVERSY  BETWEEN  CORNBURY  AND  THE  NEW  JERSEY  AS- 
SEMBLY.—GOVERNORS  LOVELACE,  INGOLDSBY,  AND  HUNTER. —  PORT  ROYAL 

TAKEN  BY  THE  ENGLISH.  —  PROPOSED  INVASION  OF  CANADA.  — NOVA  SCOTIA 
CEDED  BY  THE  FRENCH. —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOVERNOR  BURNET  ....  25 

CHAPTER   III. 

VIRGINIA   AND   MARYLAND. 

VIRGINIA  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  BERKELEY'S  ADMINISTRATION.  —  PHILIP  LUDWELL 
AND  GOVERNOR  JEFFREYS.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LORD  CULPEPPER. — WRETCHED 
VOL.  in. 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CONDITION  OF  THE  COLONY.  —  OVER-PRODUCTION  OF  TOBACCO.  —  THE  "PLANT- 
CUTTERS." —  INFLATION  OF  THE  CURRENCY  BY  THE  GOVERNOR.  —  LORD  EFFING- 
HAM  SUCCEEDS  Cri.PEPPER.  —  A  CHANGE  FOR  THE  BETTER  UNDER  GOVERNOR 

NICHOLSON. — WILLIAM  AND  MARY  COLLEGE.  —  NICHOLSON  REMOVED  TO  MARY- 
LAND.—  AFFAIRS  IN  THAT  COLONY.  —  LORD  BALTIMORE  DEPRIVED  OF  POLIT- 
ICAL POWER.  —  MARYLAND  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE  — CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  ES- 
TABLISHED ISY  NICHOLSON. —  EDMUND  ANDROS,  GOVERNOR  OF  VIRGINIA. — 
SUCCEEDED  IIY  NICHOLSON. —  Mis  SECOND  ADMINISTRATION,  AND  CACSES  OF 
HIS  RECALL.  —  GOVERNOR  SPOTSWOOD. —  His  EXPEDITION  OVER  THE  BLUE 
RIDGE. —  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY.  —  GREATER  RELIGIOUS 
TOLERATION.  —  PROGRESS  AND  PROSPERITY  OF  VIRGINIA.  —  SUCCESSIVE  GOV- 
ERNORS, TILL  THE  ARRIVAL  OF  DINWIDDIE 51 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   CAROLINAS. 

GOVERNOR  MOORE'S  MILITARY  EXPEDITIONS  AND  THEIR  RESULTS.  —  TROUBLES 
UNDER  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  SlR  NATHANIEL  JOHNSON. —  REPULSE  OF  A 
FRENCH  AND  SPANISH  INVASION.  —  DISSENSION  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA.  —  CON- 
TEST BETWEEN  CAKY,  GLOVER,  AND  HYDE  FOR  THE  GOVERNORSHIP.  —  INTERFER- 
ENCE OF  GOVERNOR  SPOTSWOOD.  —  INDIAN  OUTBREAK  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. — 
THE  YEMASSEE  WAR  IN  THE  SOUTHERN  PROVINCE.  —  INDIFFERENCE  OF  THE 
PROPRIETORS.  —  THE  BUCCANEERS  OF  THE  CAROLINA  COAST.  —  THEIR  SUP- 
PRESSION, AND  DEATH  OF  THE  PIRATE-ADMIRAL,  BLACK  BEARD.  —  REVOLUTION 
IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA. —  DEPOSITION  OF  GOVERNOR  ROBERT  JOHNSON. —  SIR 
FRANCIS  NICHOLSON  PROVISIONAL  GOVERNOR.  —  PURCHASE  OF  THE  CAROLINAS 
BY  THE  CROWN.  —  ROBERT  JOHNSON  REAPPOINTED  AS  ROYAL  GOVERNOR. — 
CONDITION  OF  THE  PROVINCE 81 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   ROYAL   GOVERNORS   IN   NEW   ENGLAND. 

MASSACHUSETTS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  —  THE  TROUBLES  OF  RHODE  ISLAND. — 
ARBITRARY  INTERFERENCE  OF  LORD  BELLOMONT.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  DUD- 
LEY.—  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES.  —  ATTACKS  ON  DEERFIELD  AND  OTHER  PLACES. — 
WAR  IN  MAINE.  — CAPTURE  OF  PORT  ROYAL.  —  MASSACHUSETTS  EARLY  IN  THE 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  —  INOCULATION  FOR  SMALL-POX.  —  GOVERNOR  SHUTE 
IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  —  THE  ROYAL  PREROGATIVE  IN 
FORESTS.  —  FINANCIAL  POLICY  OF  THE  COLONIES.  —  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  AND 
THE  "Xuw  ENGLAND  COURANT."  —  SETTLEMENTS  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  AND 
MAINE.  109 


CHAPTER   VI. 

GEORGIA. 

PROPOSED  SETTLEMENT  SOUTH  OF  THE  SAVANNAH.  —  THE  MARGRAVATE  or 
Ax i i.i A.  —  THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  GF.ORGIA.  —  SKETCH  OF  JAMES  OGLETHORPE. 
—  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  COLONISTS.  —  BUILDING  OF  SAVANNAH.  —  SPEECH  OF  TOMO 


CONTENTS.  vii 

CHICHI.  —  THE  HIGHLANDERS  AND  SALZBURGERS. —  THE  PILGRIMAGE  OK  THE 
SALZBUKGERS.  —  THE  "GKAND  EMBARKATION."  —  THE  BROTHERS  WESLEY. — 
GEORGE  WHITEFIELD  AND  HIS  ORPHAN  HOUSE.  —  SLAVERY  AND  THE  IMPORTA- 
TION OK  RUM  PROHIBITED  IN  GEORGIA. LAND  TENURE. —  Oo  LETHOICPt'S 

JOURNEY  TO  THE  INTERIOR.  —  SLAVE  INSURRECTION  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA. — 
GEORGIA  INVADED  BY  THE  SPANIARDS. —  GALLANT  ACTION  OF  OGLLTHORPE. — 
THE  ROAD  TO  FREDERICA.  —  SLAUGHTER  OF  THE  SPANIARDS  IN  A  DEFILE. 
—  OGI.ETHORPE'S  STRATAGEM.  —  RETREAT  OF  THE  SPANISH  FLEET.  —  OGLE- 
THORPE'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  —  THE  LATTER  YEARS  OF  HIS  LIFE. —  SUR- 
RENDER OF  THE  CHARTER.  —  THE  HALF-BREED  QUEEN  MARY. —  SUPPRESSION 

OF   THE    BOSOMWORTII   INSURRECTION. GEORGIA  A   ROYAL   PROVINCE.  —  ITS 

SLOW  PROGRESS  .  140 


CHAPTER   VII. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

PENN'S  RETURN  TO  AMERICA.  —  ASPECT  OF  PHILADELPHIA  AT  THAT  TIME. — 
BIRTH  OF  HIS  SON  JOHN.  —  PENN'S  SEAT  AT  PENNSBCRY  MANOR.  —  RELATIONS 
TO  THE  INDIANS  AND  HIS  NEIGHBORS.  —  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  —  FRIENDS  AND 
SLAVERY.  —  THE  EARLIEST  ABOLITIONISTS.  —  NEW  CHARTER  GRANTED.  —  JOHN 
EVANS  APPOINTED  DEPUTY-GOVERNOR.  —  PENN'S  TROUBLES  WITH  THE  FORDS, 
AND  HIS  ARREST  AND  IMPRISONMENT.  —  NEGOTIATIONS  FOR  SALE  OF  THE 
PROVINCE  TO  THE  CROWN.  —  TROUBLES  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  —  OPPOSITION  PARTY 
UNDER  DAVID  LLOYD.  —  RESISTANCE  TO  TAXATION.  —  COMPLAINTS  AGAINST 
JAMES  LOGAN.  —  CONDUCT  OF  WILLIAM  PENN,  JR.  —  DEATH  OF  THE  PROPRI- 
ETOR.—  GOVERNOR  GOOKIN  ON  MILITARY  REQUISITIONS  AND  OATHS.  —  SIR 
WILLIAM  KEITH'S  ADMINISTRATION.  —  VISITS  OF  THE  YOUNGER  PENNS. — 
BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 170 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

NEW  ENGLAND  AND  THE  FRENCH. 

THE  THIRD  INDIAN  WAR  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  A  SEPARATE 
PROVINCE. — GOVERNOR  BENNING  WENTWORTH.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOV- 
ERNOR BELCHER  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. — FINANCIAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  COLONY. 
—  APPOINTMENT  OF  GOVERNOR  SHIRLEY.  —GEORGE  WHITEFIELD'S  FIRST  VISIT 
TO  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  THE  REVIVAL  PERIOD.  —  WAR  AGAIN  DECLARED  BETWEEN 
ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.  —  THE  SIEGE  AND  CAPTURE  OF  LOUISBURG.  —  COLONEL 
WILLIAM  PEPPERELL.  —  LOUISBURG  RESTORED  TO  FRANCE.  —  AN  ENGLISH 
PRESS-GANG  IN  BOSTON.  —  THE  TOWNHOUSE  ASSAULTED.  —  INSURRECTION 
SKILFULLY  AVERTED  .  .  .  192 


CHAPTER  IX. 

NEW  YORK. 

GOVERNOR  COSBY'S  ADMINISTRATION. —  CONTROVERSY  WITH  VAN  DAM.  —  THE 
ZENGER  LIBEL  SUIT. —  STRUGGLES  OF  POLITICAL  PARTIES.  —  GEORGE  CLARKE, 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.  —  THE  NEGRO  PLOT  OF  1741.  —  GROWTH  OF  THE  COL- 


i 


vm 


CONTENTS. 


ONY  IN  A  HALF  CENTURY.  —  EARLY  SETTLEMENTS  ON  THE  MOHAWK  AND  SUB- 

QUEHANNA.  —  TlIE    ClTY    OF    NEW    YORK    AT    SEVERAL    PERIODS.  —  KlNO's    COL- 

LEGB  ESTABLISHED.  —  POSITION  OP  THE  COLONY  BY  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  —  APPOINTMENT  OF  GOVERNOR  CLINTON.  —  THE  PER- 
PLEXITIES OF  HIS  ADMINISTRATION. — PREPARATIONS  FOR  A  DOUBLE  EXPEDI- 
TION AGAINST  CANADA.  —  THE  TREATY  OF  AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.  —  SIR  DANVERS 
OSBORN'S  INAUGURATION  AND  DEATH  — CHIEF  JUSTICE  DE  LANCEY  SUCCEEDS 
AS  LlEUTENANT-GOVERXOK .  222 


CHAPTER   X. 

OPENING   OF   THE   FRENCH    WAR. 


CONTEST  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE  FOR  TERRITORY  IN  AMERICA. — 
FRENCH  MOVEMENTS  INTO  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  OHIO.  —  LINE  OF  FRENCH 
FORTS  AT  THE  WEST.  —  PROGRESS  OF  ENGLISH  SETTLEMENT  WESTWARD. — 
THE  OHIO  COMPANY.  —  MAJOR  WASHINGTON.  —  His  FIGHT  WITH  JUMONVILLE. 

—  SURRENDER  AT  FORT  NECESSITY.  —  CONVENTION  AT  ALBANY  AND  PLAN  FOR 
COLONIAL  UNION.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  GENERAL  BRADDOCK.  —  His  EXPEDITION. — 
FRANKLIN'S  ADVICE. —  BRADDOCK'S    DEFEAT   AND   DEATH.  —  OPERATIONS   IN 
NOVA  SCOTIA.  —  THE  QUESTION  OF  BOUNDARIES.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  HALIFAX. 

—  EXILE  OF  THE  ACADIANS      ....  .  254 


CHAPTER  XI. 


CONTINUATION    OF   THE   FRENCH    WAR. 

PROPOSED  OPERATIONS  UNDER  SHIRLEY  AND  JOHNSON.  —  BATTLE  OF  LAKE  GEORGE. 
—  WAR  DECLARED  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE. —  LORD  LOUDOUN  CoM- 
MANDER-IN-CHIEF  IN  AMERICA.  —  MONTCALM  IN  CANADA.  —  LOSS  OF  FORT  Os- 
WEGO.  —  LOUDOUN'S  PLANS  AND  FAILURE.  —  FORT  WILLIAM  HENRY  TAKEN  BY 
THE  FRENCH.  —  MASSACRE  OF  THE  GARRISON.  —  DISCOURAGEMENT  IN  THE  COL- 
ONIES.—  THE  WAR  AT  THE  SOUTH.  —  GENERAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  COLONIES 
AND  OF  CANADA.  —  WILLIAM  PITT.  —  AMHERST  SUPERSEDES  LOUDOUN.  —  CAP- 
TURE OF  LOUISBURG.  —  DEFEAT  OF  ABERCROMBIE. —  CAPTURE  OF  FORTS  FRON- 
TENAC,  Du  QUESNE,  AND  NIAGARA.  —  TlCONDEROGA  TAKEN  BY  AMHERST  .  .  282 


CHAPTER  XII. 

CONQUEST   OF  CANADA.  —  PONTIAC'S   WAR. 

FALL  OF  QUEBEC  AND  MONTREAL.  —  RENEWAL  OF  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES.  —  PON- 
TIAC'S CONSPIRACY. —  SIEGE  OF  DETROIT. — BATTLE  OF  BLOODY  BRIDGE. — 
DEATH  OF  DALZELL.  —  ATTACK  ON  SANDUSKY.  —  TAKING  OF  FORTS  ST.  JOSEPH. 
MlAMI,  AND  OUATANON. — MASSACRE  AT  MlCHILIMACKINAC.  —  FlGHT  AT  PRESQU* 
ISLE.  —  BURNING  OF  FORT  LE  B<EUF.  —  FORTS  VENANGO,  LIGONIER,  AND  AU- 
GUSTA REDUCED. —  FORT  PITT  BESIEGED.  —  BOUQUET'S  EXPEDITION.  —  BATTLE 
OF  BUSHY  RUN.  —  THE  PAXTON  MEN.  —  ADVANCE  ON  PHILADELPHIA.  —  DEATH 
OF  PONTIAC.  —  SUBMISSION  OF  THE  INDIANS 304 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

ALIENATION    FROM    ENGLAND. 

DEBTS  OF  ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES.  —  WEALTH  OF  AMERICA. — THE  NAVI- 
GATION ACTS.  —  THE  WRITS  OF  ASSISTANCE.  —  PLAN  OF  TAXING  AMERICA  FOB 
THE  ROYAL  EXCHEQUER. —  GEORGE  GKENVILLE'S  RESOLUTION.  —  THE  KING 
AND  THE  KING'S  FRIENDS.  —  GHENVILLE  AND  THE  COLONIAL  AGENTS.  —  THE 
SUGAR  ACT.  —  COLONIAL  PROTEST  AGAINST  TAXATION.  —  OTIS'S  LETTER  ANU 
BOOK.  —  PASSAGE  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT.  —  REPLY  OF  THE  COLONIES.  —  FIRST 
CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS.  —  THEIR  RESOLVES.  —  RESOLVES  OF  VIRGINIA. — 
OTHER  MEASURES  OF  OPPOSITION.  —  THE  STAMPS  REFUSED.  —  MOB  IN  BOS- 
TON.—  THE  ENGLISH  GOVERNMENT.  —  WILLIAM  PITT.  —  THE  STAMP  ACT  RE- 
PEALED.—THE  DECLARATORY  ACT.  —  CONFUSION  IN  ENGLISH  COUNSELS.— 
JOY  FOR  THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT.  —  FRANKLIN  BEFORE  THE  HOUSE 
OF  COMMONS  329 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

END   OF   COLONIAL   RULE. 

MEASURES  FOLLOWING  THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT.  —  IGNORANCE  OF  AMER- 
ICA IN  ENGLAND. —  QUARTERING  TROOPS  IN  BOSTON.  —  CONSEQUENT  ILL- 
FEELING. —  IMPRESSMENT  AND  RESISTANCE  OF  SEAMEN.  —  QUARRELS  BETWEEN 
CITIZENS  AND  SOLDIERS.  —  THE  BOSTON  MASSACRE.  —  REMOVAL  OF  THE  MILI- 
TARY.—  "SAM.  ADAMS'S  REGIMENTS."  —  TRIAL  AND  ACQUITTAL  OF  CAPTAIN 
PRESTON.  —  VERDICT  AGAINST  Two  SOLDIERS.  —  EFFORTS  OF  THE  DUKE  OF 
GRAFTON  AT  RECONCILIATION.  —  CONDUCT  OF  THE  EARL  OF  HILLSBOROCGH  — 
LORD  NORTH'S  MINISTRY.  —  THE  TEA  TAX.  —  THE  WHATELY  LETTERS.  — 
FRANKLIN  INSULTED  BY  WEDDERBURN.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  TEA  SHIPS  IN 
AMERICA.  —  DISPOSITION  OF  THE  TEA  IN  VARIOUS  PLACES.  —  BOSTON  PORT 
BILL.  —  GAGE  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 351 


CHAPTER   XV. 

BEGINNING    OF   THE  WAR. 

LOYALTY  OF  THE  AMERICANS  TO  THE  CROWN.  —  OUTBREAK  OF  HOSTILITIES. — 
COLONEL  LESLIE'S  MARCH  TO  SALEM.  —  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  MASSACRE. 
—  ALTERCATIONS  WITH  THE  TROOPS.  —  EXCURSION  TO  JAMAICA  PLAIN.  —  THE 
COMMITTEE  OF  SAFETY.  —  COLONEL  SMITH'S  MARCH  TO  LEXINGTON.  —  SIGNAL 
LIGHTS  IN  NORTH  CHURCH  BELFRY.  —  THE  FIRST  SHOT.  —  CONCORD  AND 
CONCORD  BRIDGE.  —  THE  FIGHT  AT  LEXINGTON.  —  THE  ENGLISH  RETREAT. — 
LORD  PERCY  AND  HIS  REENFORCEMENT.  —  THE  SIEGE  BEGINS. —  ARRIVAL  OF 
MORE  TROOPS  FROM  ENGLAND.  —  SKIRMISHES  IN  BOSTON  HARBOR.  —  BUNKER 
HlLL  FORTIFIED  BY  THE  AMERICANS.  —  THE  BATTLE. —  RESULTS  OF  THE 
BATTLE  .  377 


x  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE   SIEGE   OF   BOSTON. 

WASHINGTON  APPOINTED  COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.  —  MAJOR-GENERALS  COMMISSIONED 
BY  CONGRESS. —  WASHINGTON'S  ARRIVAL  AT  CAMBRIDGE.  —  SCARCITY  OF  POW- 
DER.—  WEAKNESS  OF  THE  ARMY. —  RELATIVE  POSITIONS  OF  THE  CONTENDING 
FORCES. —  HECALL  OF  GAGE.  —  CONDITION  OF  BOSTON.  —  PROPOSED  INTERVIEW 
BETWEEN  BURGOYNE  AND  LEE.  —  MEASURES  FOR  SUPPLIES  OF  AMMUNITION. — 
NAVAL  PREPARATIONS.  —  MISREPRESENTATIONS  OF  THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  AMERI- 
CANS IN  EUROPE.  —  BURNING  OF  FALMOUTH  IN  MAINE.  —  CAPTURE  OF  AN  ENG- 
LISH VESSEL  WITH  SUPPLIES.  —  TREACHERY  OF  DR.  BENJAMIN  CHURCH. — 

HOWE'S  DIFFICULTIES  AND  PROPOSALS  TO  THE  MINISTRY.  —  CONGRESS  SUG- 
GESTS THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  BOSTON.  —  DORCHESTER  HEIGHTS  FORTIFIED.  — 
THE  TOWN  COMMANDED  BY  THE  AMERICANS.  —  EVACUATED  BY  THE  BRITISH. 
—  THE  AMERICAN  ARMY  TAKES  POSSESSION  .  407 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

» 

THE   NORTHERN    CAMPAIGN   OF    1775. 

THE  DISPUTE  CONCERNING  THE  TERRITORY  OF  VERMONT.  —  THE  GREEN  MOUN- 
TAIN BOYS.  —  ALLEN'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  TICOXDEROGA.  —  ARNOLD  CLAIMS 
COMMAND.  —  CAPTURE  OF  TICONDEROGA  AND  CROWN  POINT.  —  EXPEDITION 
DOWN  LAKE  CHAMPLAIN. — RICHARD  MONTGOMERY.  —  SIEGE  OF  ST.  JOHN'S. — 
EXPEDITION  TO  FORT  CHAMBLY.  —  CAPTURE  OF  MONTREAL.  —  ARNOLD'S  EXPE- 
DITION THROUGH  MAINE  TO  CANADA,  AND  ITS  SUPPOSED  IMPORTANCE.  —  ITS 
UNEXPECTED  DIFFICULTIES.  —  OPERATIONS  BEFORE  QUEBEC.  —  DEFEAT  AND 
DEATH  OF  MONTGOMERY.  —  WOOSTER  TAKES  COMMAND.  —  THE  FINAL  FAIL- 
URE .  430 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

OPENING   OF   THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   1776. 

PARLIAMENT  SUPPORTS  THE  KING.  —  EFFORTS  TO  INCREASE  THE  BRITISH  FORCES. 
—  EMPLOYMENT  OF  MERCENARIES.  —  MILITARY  IMPORTANCE  OF  NEW  YORK 
CITY.  —  THE  PROVINCIAL  CONGRESS  OF  NEW  YORK  AND  THE  COMMITTEE  OF 
SAFETY.  —  THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY.  —  EXPLOIT  OF  MARINUS  WILLETT.  —  ZEAL 
OF  ISAAC  SEARS.  —  LEE  TAKKS  COMMAND.  —  FORTIFICATIONS  OF  BROOKLYN 
AND  NEW  YORK.  —  LORD  STIRLING.  —  THE  SOUTHERN  EXPEDITION.  —  BATTLE 
OF  MOORE'S  CREEK  BRIDGE. — ARRIVAL  OF  PARKER'S  FLEET.  —  SOUTH  CARO- 
LINA ADOPTS  A  TEMPORARY  CONSTITUTION.  —  THE  BRITISH  ATTACK  THE  DE- 
FENCES OF  CHARLESTON,  AND  ARE  REPULSED 


CONTENTS.  xi 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  INDEPENDENCE. —  PAINE'S  "COMMON  SENSE."  —  THE 
MENDON  RESOLUTIONS.  —  THE  SUFFOLK  RESOLUTIONS.  —  THE  CHESTER  RESO- 
LUTION.—  THE  MECKLENBURG  RESOLUTIONS.  —  ACTION  OF  THE  SEVERAL  COL- 
ONIES, AND  OF  THE  CONTINENTAL,  CONGRESS. —  I.KK'S  RESOLUTIONS.  —  TlIK 

COMMITTEE  TO  DRAFT  A  DECLARATION  OF  REASONS. — INDEPENDENCE  DE- 
CLARED.—  JEFFERSON'S  DECLARATION.  —  THE  SLAVE-TRADE  CLAUSE. —  RECEP- 
TION BY  THE  PEOPLE.  —  FORMATION  OF  THE  STATE  CONSTITUTIONS.  —  SOME  OF 
THEIR  PECULIARITIES  470 

CHAPTER  XX. 

LOSS   OF   LONG   ISLAND   AND   NEW   YORK. 

THE  MILITARY  SITUATION  OF  NEW  YORK.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  ENEMY. — Scu- 
MARY  OF  THE  FORCES.  —  THE  HOWES  ATTEMPT  PEACE  NEGOTIATIONS.  —  THE 
BRITISH  CROSS  THE  BAY  — DEFENCES  OF  BROOKLYN.  —  BATTLE  OF  LONG 
ISLAND  — DETAILS  OF  THE  ACTION.  —  THE  LOSSES.  —  RETKEAT  OF  THE  AMER- 
ICANS.—  THEY  CROSS  TO  NEW  YORK. —  THE  QUESTION  OF  DESTROYING  THE 
CITY. —  ENTRANCE  OF  THE  ENEMY.  —  BATTLE  OF  HARLEM  HEIGHTS.  —  NEW 
YORK  OCCUPIED  BY  THE  BRITISH. —  A  GREAT  FIRE  IN  THE  CITY.  —  EXECU- 
TION OF  NATHAN  HALE. —  HOWE'S  SECOND  ATTEMPT  TO  NEGOTIATE  FOR  PEACE. 

—  BATTLE  OF  WHITE  PLAINS.  —  SURRENDER  OF  FORT  WASHINGTON    ....  490 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

THE   NEW   JERSEY   CAMPAIGN. 

CONDITION  OF  THE  ARMY.  —  RETREAT  THROUGH  NEW  JERSEY.  —  HOWE'S  PROCLA- 
MATION OF  AMNESTY.  —  WASHINGTON  CROSSES  THE  DELAWARE.  —  CONDUCT  or 
GENERAL  LEE.  —  His  CAPTURE.  —  OUTRAGES  BY  THE  FOREIGN  TKOOPS — TUB 
HESSIANS  SURPRISED  AND  CAPTURED  AT  TRENTON.  —  WASHINGTON  RECROSSES 
THE  DELAWARE.  —  BATTLE  OF  PRINCETON.  —  WINTER  QUARTEKS  AT  MORRIS- 
TOWN. —  RESULTS  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN.  —  SUFFERINGS  OF  AMERICAN  PRISONERS 
IN  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  BRITISH. — THE  QUESTION  OF  EXCHANGE.  —  WASH- 
INGTON'S POSITION 520 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  CAMPAIGN   IN   PENNSYLVANIA. 

THE  NEW  ARMY.  —  FRENCH  ASSISTANCE.  —  THE  BEADMARCHAIS  TRANSACTIONS. 

—  SYMPATHY  OF  THE  FRENCH  COURT.  —  SPAIN'S  ATTITUDE.  —  OPENING  SKIR- 
MISHES OF   THE   CAMPAIGN  IN  NEW  JERSEY.  —  BURNING   OF  DANBURY,  CON- 
NECTICUT.—  MEIGS'S  SAG  HARBOR  EXPEDITION. — GENERAL  HOWE  SAILS  FROM 
NEW  YORK.  —  APPEARS  IN  THE  DELAWARE,  AND  THEN  IN  THB  CHESAPEAKE. — 
WASHINGTON  MARCHES  TO  MEET  HIM.  —  BATTLE  OF  BRANDT  WINK. — DEFEAT 
OF  THE  AMERICANS.  —  WAYNE  SURPRISED  AT  PAOLI.  —  PHILADELPHIA  OCCU- 
PIED BY  THE  BRITISH.  —  BATTLE  OF  GERMANTOWN.  —  A  VICTORY  LOST  .    .    .  543 


xii  CONTENTS. 

* 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN. 

BURGOYNE  SUPERSEDES  CARLETON.  —  PLAN  OF  A  NORTHERN'  CAMPAIGN.  —  EM- 
PLOYMENT OF  INDIANS.  —  DEATH  OF  JANE  McCREA.  —  Loss  OF  TICONDEROGA. 

—  BATTLE  OF   HUBBARDTON. —  ST.  LEGER'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  THE   MOHAWK 
VALLEY.  —  BATTLE  OF  ORISKANY.  —  DEATH  OF  GENERAL  HERKIMER.  —  BATTLE 
OF   BENNINGTON. —  MILITARY   JEALOUSIES. —  GATES   DISPLACES   SCHUYLER. — 
BATTLE  OF  FREEMAN'S  FARM.  —  CLINTON'S  EXPEDITION  UP  THE  HUDSON  RIVER. 

—  FALL  OF  FORTS  MONTGOMERY  AND  CLINTON.  —  SECOND  BATTLE  OF  STILL- 
WATKR,  OR  BEMUS'S  HEIGHTS.  —  BURGOYNE'S  SURRENDER 566 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

ALLIANCE   WITH   FRANCE.  —  PROPOSALS   FOR   PEACE   REJECTED. 

THE  WINTER  AT  VALLEY  FORGE.  —  THE  CONWAY  CABAL.  —  BARON  VON  STEU- 
BEN.  —  ALLIANCE  WITH  FRANCE  —  NORTH'S  PROPOSITIONS  FOR  PEACE.  —  LA- 
FAYETTE AT  BARREN  HILL.  —  EVACUATION  OF  PHILADELPHIA.  —  BATTLE  or 
MONMOUTH.  —  LEE'S  CONDUCT.  —  TRIED  BY  COURT-MARTIAL.  —  THE  RHODE 
ISLAND  CAMPAIGN.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  A  FRENCH  FLEET  WITH  TROOPS.  —  THE  TORY 
AND  INDIAN  WARFARE  IN  CENTRAL  NEW  YORK.  —  THE  PIONEERS  OF  TENNES- 
SEE AND  KENTUCKY.  —  COLONEL  CLARK'S  EXPEDITION  TO  ILLINOIS.  —  OPERA- 
TIONS BEGUN  AT  THE  SOUTH. LOSS  OF  SAVANNAH.  PARTISAN  WARFARE.  

NAVAL  AFFAIRS.  —  FIGHT  BETWEEN  THE   "  BON  HOMME  RICHARD"  AND  THE 

"SEHAPIS" 3 593 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS,  VOLUME   III. 


STEEL    PLATE. 
Title.  Engraver.  To  face 

PORTRAIT  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON Charles  Burt   .    Title 

By  permission,  from  the^original  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  in  the  possession 
of  Dr.  William  F.  Channing,  Providence,  R.  I. 


WOOD    ENGRAVINGS. 

To  face 
Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  page 

INDEPENDENCE  HALL F.  B.  Schell  .     .  J.  Karst    ...       1 

THE    TRAIN-BANDS     SIGNING     LEISLER'S 

DECLARATION A.  Fredericks     .  E.  Clement   .     .     ir> 

THE  REBURIAL  OF  LEISLER  .  .  .  .  E.  A.  Abbey  .  .  J.  G.  Smithwick  32 
SPOTSWOOD'S  EXPEDITION  OVER  THE 

BLUE  RIDGE W.  L.  Sheppard  .  Andrew     ...     74 

PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  OGLETHORPE .     .  142 

After  a  contemporary  engraving. 

THE  SURRENDER  OF  LOCISBURG  .  .  .  A.  R.  Waud  .  .  E.  A.  Winham  .  Zl't 
THE  EMBARKATION  OF  THE  ACADIANS  .  E.  Bayard  .  .  Hildibrand  .  .  280 
AN  INDIAN  GAME  OF  BALL J.  Ruugc  .  .  .  Leggo  Bros.  .  .  322 

After  Catlin. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  OTIS .     .  332 

After  the  portrait  by  Blackburn. 
PORTRAIT  OF  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN .     .  368 

After  the  portrait  by  Duplessis  in  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

THE  RETREAT  FROM  CONCORD  .  .  .  C.  S.  Reinhart  .  J.  G.  Sraithwick  392 
THE  ATTACK  ON  FORT  SULLIVAN  .  .  J.  E.  Kelly  .  .  J.  W.  Evans  .  .  469 
PORTRAIT  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON .  .  484 

After  a  portrait  by  Stuart. 


XIV 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  TEXT. 


To  face 
page 

.  487 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver. 

THE  READING  OF  THE  DECLARATION    .  A.  B.  Frost     .     .  E.  Clement 

WASHINGTON     CROSSING     THE     DELA- 
WARE    W.  L.  Sheppanl    .  J.  Hellawell 

PORTRAIT  OF  LAFAYETTE     

After  a  contemporary  portrait,  1789. 

FIGHT    BETWEEN    THE     BON     HOMME 

RICHARD   AND   THE   SERAPIS    .  .  J.  O.  Davidson     .  E.  Heinemann    .  619 


528 
554 


Titlr.  Desitjner.  En  graver.  Pttrje. 

NEW  YORK  IN   1673 Runge      .     .     .     .  H.  East  mend  .     .       1 

From  a  print  in  A  slier' s  "  New  Netherlands* 

ISLAND  OF  NANITCKKT G.  Perkins   .     .    .  Bogert  ....      3 

AXDROS  AT  SAYBROOK Fredericks   ..*.     .  Winliani     ...       5 

PERTH  AMBOY Warn! Winham     ...       7 

From  a  nkeU-h. 

SEAL  OF  NEW  ENOI.AXD Range      ....  Clement      ...       9 

SIGNATURE  OK  DONT.AX L«ggo    ....     11 

From  Valentine's  "Manual.'' 
LEISI.ER'S  HOUSE Rungc      ....  Clement      ...     14 

From  a  print  in  Valentine's  "  Manual,"  from  a  drawing 

ma<le  in  1679. 
SIGNATURE  OF  FROXTEXAC Leggo    ....     16 

From  Shea's  Charleroix's  "  New  France.1' 

THE  ATTACK  ox  SCHEXKCTADY    .     .  Reinhart.     .     .    .  Hitchcock  ...     18 
INGOLDSBY'S  ATTACK  ON  THE  FORT  .   Cary H.  Karst      ...     21 

Sl.OUGHTER  SIGNING  I,EISLER'S  DEATH- 
WARRANT     Reinhart       .     .     .  Juengling    ...     23 

SIGNATURE  OF  JACOB  LEISLER Leggo    ....    24 

From  Va'entine's  "  Manual.1" 

SIGNATURE  OF  FI.KTCIIKR Leggo    ....     25 

From  Valentine's  "  Manual." 

KING  WILLIAM Beech     ....  Pierson    .     .     .     .     2C 

From  tie  "  National  Portrait  Gallery.''1 

QUEEN  MARY Beech     .     .     .     .  J.  Karst  ....     27 

From  the  "  National  Portrait  Gallery." 

THE    READING  OF  FLETCHER'S   COM- 
MISSION      Sheppanl      .     .     .  Bogert    ....     28 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS.  xv 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  P<njt. 

SCHUYLER  AND  THE   SCOUTS  ....  Gary Clement      ...     31 

ARHEST  OF  KIDD Fredericks    .     .     .  Bobbett ....     30 

QUEEN  ANNE Beech Meeder  &  Chubb     38 

From  a  prin'  of  a  painting  by  Sir  G.  Kneller. 
CORNBURY Hosier     ....  Wilson   ....     41 

From  a  print  now  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 
AUTOGRAPH  OF  LOVELACE Li'ggo    ....     43 

From  Valentine's  "Manual." 
THE  FOUR  IROQUOIS  CHIEFS  SENT  TO 

ENGLAND  — 

Ho  NEE  YEATH  TAN  No  RON  .       .  Beech     ....  Bobhett      ...     44 

TEE  YEE  NEEN  Ho  GA  RON     .       .       "         ....>•  .     .     .     45 

SA  GA  YEATH  QUA  PIETH  TON       .       "          .     .     .     .       "  ...     46 

ETON  OH  KOAN "         ....       "  ...    47 

From  contemporary  English  prints  in  the  Library  of  the  Amer- 
ican Antiquarian  Society,  Worcester,  Mass. 
SIGNATURE  OF  HUNTER Leguo    ....     48 

From  Valentine's  '•  Manual." 

COLONIAL  TABLE Waud Clement      ...     50 

THE  OLD  CAPITOL  AT  ANNAPOLIS      .  Warren    ....  Langridge  ...     51 

From  a  photograph  for  this  work. 
GOVERNOR  CULPEPPER Sheppard .     .     .     .  J.  Karst      ...     54 

From  the  painting  at  Richmond. 

PLANT-CUTTING Frost Davis     .     .     .     .     50 

WILLIAM  AND  MARY  COLLEGE  .     .     .  Sheppard      .     .     .  Kilburn ....     60 

From  a  sketch  for  this  work. 
CHARLES,  SECOND  LORD  BALTIMORE   .  Mayer     ....  Jansen  ....     63 

From   the  portrait   in   the   Maryland  Historical    Society's 

rooms,  Ballimore. 
PRESIDENT  BLAIR Sheppard     .     .     .  Jansen   ....     67 

From  a  contemporary  portrait.  « 

GENERAL  VIEW  OF  ANNAPOLIS    .    .     .  Warren   ....  Meeder  &  Chubb    68 

From  a  photograph  for  this  work. 
RUINS  OF  PRESIDENT'S   HOUSE,   WIL- 
LIAM AND  MARY  COLLEGE      .     .     .  C.  Mente    .     .     .  G  A.  Bogert .     .     71 

From  a  sketch. 
GOVERNOR  SPOTSWOOD Sheppard     .     .     .  H.  Karst    ...     72 

From  the  Portrait  at  Richmond. 
LAWRENCE  WASHINGTON Beech     ....  Kilburn      ...     70 

From  a  copy  of  the  Mount  Vernon  Portrait. 
FREDERICK,  LAST  LORD  BALTIMORE     .  Mayer    ....  Potter    ....     79 

From  the  portrait  in  the  Maryland  Historical  Society's  rooms. 
GRANVILLE  AND  ARCHDALE  .     .         .  Reinhart  .  .  J.  Karst  84 


XVI 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver. 
THK  FRENCH  MKSSEXGER  AT  CHARLES- 
TON      Kappes    ....  Heiiifinann 

CARY  BEFORE  HYDE'S  HOUSE  .     .     .  Perkins  ....  Winham     . 
LAWSON  AND  DE  GRAKKENKIED     .     .  Sheppard    .     .     .  J.  P.  Geratv 
THE  "BLOODY  STICK" Cary Juengling  . 


Page. 

.  86 

.  88 

.  92 

.  94 

.  95 

.  99 

.  102 

.  106 


Carv Davis 


108 


109 


110 


Warren 
Warren 


Meeder  &  Chubb  113 
Meeder  &  Chubb  114 

.   116 


SAXUTE  AND  MRS.  ERASER    ....  McCutcheon     .     .  J.  P.  Davis 

MAYNARD'S  RETURN Sheppard     .     .     .II.  Karst    . 

THE  MUSTER  AT  CHARLESTON  .     .     .  Fredericks    .     .     .   Bobbett     . 

JOHNSON'S  RETURN Cary Clement     . 

MEDAL  STRUCK  IN  1736  TO  COMMEM- 
ORATE THE  SEPARATION  OF  NORTH 

AND  SOUTH  CAROLINA Mente Eastmead 

From  Johnson's  "  Revolutionary  Traditions." 
FAC-SIMILE    OF  THE   INVITATION    TO 

PHIPS'S  FUXERAL Leggo  .     . 

From  an  engraving  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's 

Proceedings. 

HANNAH. DUSTIN'S  ESCAPE     .     . 
MOUTH  OF  THE  PAWCATUCK  .     . 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  icork. 
WICKFORD,  RHODE  ISLAND    .    . 

From  a  sketch  for  this  toork. 
ESTHER,  THE  LAST  OF  THE  ROYAL  NAR- 

RAGANSETTS         Runge      ....  Treat 

From  an  ambrotype  from  life. 

MAP  OF  RHODE  ISLAND Russell  &  Struthers  118 

GOVERNOR  DUDLEY F.  Merrill    .     .     .    Andrew      .     .    .121 

From   a  portrait  in  the   Massachusetts  Historical  Society's 

rooms. 
WILLIAMS  HOUSE,  DEERFIELD,  MASS.    Runge     .     .     .    .Hitchcock.     .     .122 

From  an  old  drawing. 
PLAN- OF  PORT  ROYAL,  NOVA  SCOTIA.     Runge     ....  Leggo    ....  125 

From  Shea's  Charlevoix. 
THREE-SHILLING  MASSACHUSETTS  BILL 

OF  1741 Photo-Eng.  Co.   .   131 

Photographed  from  the  Massachusetts   Historical   Society's 

collection. 
TWO-PENCE,  1722 "          "        -132 

From  the  same  collection. 
NEW    HAMPSHIRE    BILL    OF    FORTY 

SHILLINGS,  1742 "          "        .  133 

From  the  same  collection. 
AUTOGRAPH  OF  VAUDREUIL Leggo    .     .     .     .133 

From  Shea's  Charlevoix. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS.  xvn 

Title.                                              Designer.  Ew/rarfr.  Paijt. 

SIX-PENCE,  1744 Photo-En;,'.  Co.   .    134 

Photographe  I  from  the   Massach  usetls  Historical   Society's 

collection. 
BIRTHPLACE  OF  FRANKLIN     ....  Garrett    ....  Andrew       .     .     .136 

From  an  old  print. 
FAC-SIMILE  OF  THE  HEADING  OF  THE 

BOSTON  NEWS  LETTER Leg-^o    .     .     .     .137 

From  "American  Historical  and  Literary  Curiosities." 
MRS.  DUSTIN'S  MONUMENT     ....  Mente     ....  Gilmore      .     .     .139 

From  a  photograph 
SAVANNAH Runge      .     .     .     .  F.  Karst     .     .     .  140 

From  a  print  of  17^1. 
THE    MARGRAVATE  OF   AZILIA  .     .    .  Runge      ....  Hitchcock  .     .     .  142 

From  the  print  in  Force's  Tracts. 
FAC-SIMILE  FROM  A  NOTE  OF  OGLE- 
THORPE'S    Leggo    .     .     .    .144 

From  Harris's  "•  Memorials  of  Ogletftorpe." 

THE    LANDING   AT    SAVANNAH   .     .     .  Waud McCracken     .     .  146 

TOMO  CHICHI Runge      ....  Hitchcock  .     .     .  147 

From  the  print  in  "  Xachrichten  der  Salzburyer  Kmigranten," 

taken  from  a  portrait  marie  from  life,  in  London. 

THE  SALZBURGERS  AT  FRANKFORT  .     .  Walter  Shirlaw     .  Heinemann     .     .149 
JOHN  WESLEY Beech     ....  Wolf      ....  152 

From  an  old  print. 
BOLZIUS Runge      ....  Winham     .     .     .  155 

From  the  picture  in  "Das  amerikanische  Ackerwerk  Gottes." 
MAP  OF  THE  GEORGIA  COAST    .     .     .  Runge     ....  Photo-Eng.  Co.  .   156 

From  Stevens' s  "  History  of  Georgia." 
ADMIRAL  VF.RNON Beech J.  Karst      .     .     .158 

From  a  copy  of  the  picture  at  Mount  Vernon. 

FIGHT  OF  THE  GALLEYS Davidson.     .     .     .11.  Kurst    .     .     .  159 

THE  SPANIARDS  SURPRISED    ....  Waud Geraty  .     .     .     .163 

OGLETHORPE  IN  1785 Runge      ....  Photo-En<r.  Co.   .   165 

cr  O 

From  Ireland's  sketch  and  etching  from  life. 
SEAL  OF  THE  GEORGIA  TRUSTEES  .     .  Runge     ....  Eastmead   .     .     .  169 

From  White's  "  Georgia  Historical  Collections." 
THE  SLATE-ROOF  HOUSE Schell      ....  Schoonuiaker .     .  171 

From  a  sketch  made  just  before  its  demolition  in  1868. 

PENN  AND  REBECCA  WOOD     ....  Reinhart       .     .     .  Hellawell    .     .     .173 
PENNSBURY  MANOR Schell      ....  Pierson  .     .     .     .174 

From  a  sketch  for  this  work. 
ANDREW  HAMILTON Beech      ....  Gilmore      .     .     .178 

From  the  portrait  photographed  in  Eytinge's  "  Independence 
Hall." 


xvni  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.  litsiyner.  Engraver. 

PASSING  NEW  CASTLE Davidson      .     .     .  Knapp    .     .     .     .181 

.1  \MI  s  LOGAN Will Hitchcock  .     .     .  182 

From  the  portrait  in  Armour's  "  Governors  of  Pennsylvania" 

RtscoMBE Warren    ....  Hellawcll    .     .     .  184 

THK  GKAVE  OF  PENN       "         ....          "          ...  185 

From  prints  made  for  "  Sat  tain's  Magazine." 
SIR  WILLIAM  KKITII Will Mceder  &  Cliubb  186 

Frum  the  portrait  in  Armour's  "  Governors  of  Pennsylvania." 
KKITH'S  MANSION  HOUSE  AT  GR.EME 

PARK,  NEAR  PHILADELPHIA     .     .     .  Schell      .    .     .     .  J.  Karst      .     .     .  18" 

From  a  sketch  for  this  tcork. 
PATRICK  GORDON Will Piorson  ....  189 

From  the  portrait  in  Annour's  "  Governors  of  Pennsylrania." 

FRANKLIN  ENTERING  PHILADKLPHIA  .  Reinhart  .     .     .    .  J.  Karst     .     .     .  190 
PENN'S  BREWING  JAR Waud      ....  Clement      .     .     .191 

From  a  sketch  for  this  icork. 
CAPE  CANSO Cary Geraty   .     .     .     .192 

From  a  sketch. 
DEATH  OF  FATHER  RASLE     ....   Shirlaw    ....  Davis    ....  195 

ROBBINS'S  LAST  SHOT McCutcheon      .     .  H.  Karst    .     .     .  196 

GOVERNOR  BEXNING  WENTWORTH      .  Beech Knapp   .     .    .    .198 

Fnm  a  painting  at  Portsmou'h. 
WEXTWORTH'S  HOUSE Hosier    ....  Varley    .     .     .     .199 

From  a  painting  by  W.  Allan  Gay,  Esq. 
GOVERNOR  SHIRLEY Merrill     ....  Kilburn  ....  202 

From  an  engraring  in  the  JMMflMMN  of  Francis  S.  Drake, 

Esq.,  from  a  painting  in  England. 
GEORGE  WUITEFIELD Beech Wolf      ....  206 

From  an  old  print. 
DEFENCES  AT  LOUISBCRG      ....  Runge      ....  Leg<ro    ....  210 

From  a  contemporary  map  copied  in  Shea's  Charlecoix. 
SIR  WILLIAM  PEPPERELL      ....  Merrill     ....  Andrew      .     .     .211 

From  an  engrat'ing  taken  from  a  painting  by  Smybcrt,  in  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  rooms. 

RAISING  THE  RKD  COAT Davidson.     .     .     .  McCracken     .     .  213 

ATTACK  ON  THE  TOWN-HOUSE  .     .     .  Reinhart .     .     .     .  Smithwick  .     .     .  219 
RIP  VAN  DAM Beech Pierson  ....  228 

From  the  /tortrait  in  the  New  York  Historical  Society's  rooms. 
VIEW  IN  BROAD  STREET,  ABOUT  1740  Warren    ....  Bookhout    .     .     .  225 

From  Valentine's  "Manual." 
FERRY- HOUSE   ON  EAST   RIVER,   1746  Runge D.Nichols.     .     .  227 

From  Valentine's  ''Manual." 
MRS.  EARLE  AND  THE  NEGROES    .     .  Reinhart  ....  Juengling   .    .     .  229 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xix 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver. 

SIGNATURE  OF  HORSMAXDKN     ..........  Leggo    ....  230 

From  Valentine's  "  Manual." 
MARY    BURTON   BEFORK  THE   GRAND 

JURY  ............  Fredericks    .     .     .  Bobbett.     .     .     .231 

THK  MEAL  MARKET,  NEW  YORK     .     .  Runge      ....  Meeder  &  Chubb    232 

From  Valentine's  "Manual." 

THE  NEGROES  SENTENCED      ....  Reinhart  ....  Davis     ....  235 
TRINITY  CHURCH  IN  1741  .....  Runge      ....  Winhaiu      .     .     .  237 

From  Valentine's  "  History  of  Broadway." 
THE    MOB  DEMANDING  THAT   QUACK 

BE  BURNED  .........   Reinhart  ....  Juengling  .     .     .  239 

EI.LIS'S  ISLAND   ........   Warren    .     .     .     .  H.  Karst     .     .     .  242 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
FORT  GEORGE  IN  1740  ......  Mente  .....  Davis     ....  245 

From  an  old  print  copied  in  Valentine's  "  Manual." 
NEW  YORK  IN  1746,  EAST  SIDE    .     .  Runge      ....  Winliain     .     .     .  246 

From  Valentine's  "Manual." 
CADWALLADER  COLDEN     .....  Beech  .....  Jansen  ....  249 

From  the  portrait  belonging  to  the  New   York  Chamber  of 

Commerce. 
SMITH'S  VLY      .........  Cary    .....  Pierson  ....  251 

From  Valentine's  "Manual." 
EAST  RIVER  SHORE  IN  1750  ....  Runge  .....  Foster    ....  253 

From  Valentine's  "Manual." 
BRADDOCK'S  FIELD     ......       Warren    ....  Meeder  &  Chubb    254 

MAP      SHOWING       THE      POSITIONS      OF 

FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  FOISTS,  ETC  .......     Russell  &  Struthers  256 

WASHINGTON    ON     HIS    JOURNEY    TO 

THE  FRENCH  FORTS  ......  Cary    .....  Jueng'ing   .     .     .  259 

PLAN  OF  FORT  Du  QUESNE  ...........  Leggo    ...     .  260 

From  the  "American  Pioneer." 
OLD  BARRACKS,  FREDERICK  ....  Warren    ....  Winhain     .    .     .  264 

From  a  sketch  made  for  the  "  Riverside  Magazine." 
BRADDOCK'S  ROUTE,  —  MAP   ....  Hosier      ....  Leggo     ....  265 

MAP  OF  BRADDOCK'S  FIELD  "  "  266 

BEAUJEU'S  ADVANCE    ......   Cary    .....  Geraty  ....  268 

BRADDOCK  WOUNDED  ......  Kappes    ....  Kilburu  ....  269 

EARL  OF  HALIFAX  .......  Beech  .....  Gilmore      .     .     .  272 

From  the  portrait  in  Entick's  "  History  of  the  Late  War." 
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL  WINSLOW      .     .  Merrill     ....  Knapp  ....  276 

From  the  original  portrait  in  the  possession  of  Isaac  Window, 

Esq.  ,  of  Hingham,  Mass. 
WIN-SLOW  READING   THE   DECREE  OF 

EXPULSION  ..........  Frost  .....  Smithwick  .     .     .278 

EMBARKING  THE  YOUNG  MEN         .     .  Reinhart  .  "  .  279 


X.X 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

BRADDOCK'S  GKAVK Warren    ....  Meeder  &  Chubb    281 

From  the  "  Kit-entitle  Magazine." 
VIEW  ON  LAKK  GEOKGE F.  S.  Church    .     .  Varley    ....  282 

From  a  sketch  made  fur  "  Scribner's  Magazine" 
MAP  OK  LAKE  GEORGE  AND  PART  OK 

LAKE  CHAM  PLAIN I^ggo    ....  284 

BLOODY  POND Church     ....  Varli-y    .     .     .     .286 

From  a  sketch  made  for  "  Scribner's  Magazine." 
PLAN  OF  FORT  GEORGE,  OR  WILLIAM 

HENRY Leggo    ....  288 

VIEW  FROM  OLD  FORT,  LAKE  GEORGE  Church     ....  Varley   ....  293 

From  a  sketch  made  for  "  Scribner's  Magazine." 
WILLIAM  PITT Beech D.  Nichols      .     .  297 

From  a  print  of  the  portrait  by  J.  Hopner.  R.  A. 
FIELD  OF  ABERCROMBIE'S  DEFEAT     .  Warren    .     .     .     .  J.  Karst     .     .     .  299 

FORT  TICONDEROGA Mente Geraty   ....  302 

GENERAL  WOLFE Will Knapp   .     .     .     .305 

From  a  contemporary  print  by  Houston. 
QI-KBEC  IN   1730 Runge      ....  Otto 307 

From  an  old  print  in  Popple's  "  American  Atlas." 

LANDING  OF  WOLFE Sheppard      .     .     .  Hellawcll    .     .     .  309 

MONTCALM Hosier      ....  Varley    .     .     .     .311 

From  a  contemporary  print. 
SCALP- DANCE Runge      ....  Leggo     .     .     .     .314 

From  Catlin's  "  North  American  Indians." 

THE  FIRE-RAFTS  IN  DETROIT  RIVER  .  Davidson      .     .     .  Davis     ....  319 
SIR  WILLIAM  JOHNSON'S  HOUSE  .     .  Warren     ....      '•        ....  327 

From  an  engraving  in  Stone's  "  Life." 
BOUQUET'S  REDOUBT  AT  PITTSBURG  .  Beech Winham     .    .    .  828 

From  an  engraving  in  Day's  "  Pennsylvania  Historical  Collec- 
tions." 
THE  PROVINCE  HOUSE  is  BOSTON Andrew      .     .     .  329 

From  an  old  print. 
GEORGE  III Beech      ....  Pierson 334 

From  the  portrait  by  Sir  William  Beechey. 
FANUEIL  HALL  IN  1879 Andrew.    .    .    .  335 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
A  ROYAL  STAMP Runge      ....  Leggo    ....  339 

From  a  paper  in  the  New  York  Historical  Society's  collection. 
PATRICK  HENRY Beech Nichols      .    .    .340 

From  the  portrait  in  Wirt's  "  Life." 
OLD  CITY  HALL,  WALL  STREET,  NEW 

YORK,  WHERE  THE  FlRST  CONTINEN- 
TAL, CONGRESS  MET    Mente G.  A.  Bogert  .     .  341 

From  Valentine's  "Manual." 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxi 

Title,  Designer.  Engraver.  P'"Jf- 

BUKNING  THE  STAMPS Frost Clement      .     .     .  344 

EDMUND  BURKE Beech H.  Karst    .     .    .  347 

From  the  portrait  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 

LIUERTY-POLE  FESTIVAL Fredericks    .     .     .  Clement     .     .     .  349 

CASTLE  WILLIAM,  BOSTON  HARBOR   .  Garrctt     ....  Dana      ....  355 

From  an  old  print. 
THE  BEACON,  BEACON  HILL,  BOSTON  .  Mente      .     .     .     .  F.  Karst     .     .     .  356 

From  an  old  print. 
JOHN  HANCOCK Jansen  ....  358 

From  the  painting  by  Copley  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston. 
BOSTON  MASSACRE  .......  Photograph  .     .     .  Leggo    ....  360 

From  the  engraving  by  Paul  Revere. 
SAMUEL  ADAMS Beech       ....  Potter    ....  362 

From  the  painting  by  Copley. 
LORD  NORTH Beech Pierson  ....  365 

From  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
OLD  SOUTH  MEETING-HOUSE Andrew       .     .     .  371 

From  sketches  made  for  this  work. 
HUTCHINSON'S    COUNTRY-SEAT,   MIL- 
TON HILL,  MASS Garrett     ....  Dana      .     .     .     .372 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
CAPTAIN    O'CONNOR'S     COAT-SKIRTS 

NAILED  TO   THE  WHIPPING-POST     .  Waud Langridge  .     .     .374 

PROFILE  VIEW  OF   THE   HEIGHTS   OF 

CHARLESTOWN Leggo     ....  377 

From  a  print  in  Frothingham's  "  Siege  of  Boston." 
SALEM  BRIDGE Vanderhoof  .     .     .  H.  Karst    .     .     .  379 

From  a  photograph. 

WARREN'S  ORATION Reinhart      .     .     .  E.  Clement     .     .  381 

SIGNAL  LANTERNS  IN  NORTH  CHURCH 

BELFRY Merrill     ....  Andrew       .     .     .  385 

LEXINGTON  GREEN Perkins    ....        "  ...  387 

.From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
CONCORD  BRIDGE       Yendell    ....         "  ...  390 

From  a  sketch  made,  for  this  icork. 
GENERAL  GAGE Will Wolf      ....  395 

From  the  painting  in  the  possession  of  the  family,  copied  in 

Sumner's  "  History  of  East  Boston." 
ARTEMAS  WARD Andrew      .     .     .  397 

From  a  portrait  taken  in  1  795. 

PLAN  OF  BUNKER  HILL Runge      ....  Leggo    ....  399 

BUNKER  HILL  BATTLE "        ....  401 

From  a  contemporary  print. 


XX11 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  /Designer.  Knijraver.  Paije. 

JOSKPH  WARREN Merrill     ....  Wilson  ....  404 

From  the  portrait  by  Copley. 

Hot'SK     FORMKRLY    OCCl'PIKD    BY    THE 

PRKSIDEXTS  OF  HAI:VAKI>,  —  WASH- 

IXGTOX'S  FIRST  CAMBKIDGK  HEAD- 
QUARTERS     Varloy  ....  408 

From  a  sketch  made  for  "  Scribner's  Magazine." 
WASHINGTON'  ELM.  CAMBRIDGE "       ....  410 

From  '•  Scribner's  Magazine." 
GEXEKAL  HOWE        Beech Karst     .     .     .     .412 

From  A  ndrcw's  "  History  of  the  A  mericttn  War. ' ' 
THE  CRAIGIE  HOUSE.  WASHINGTON'S 

HEADQUARTERS  AT  CAMBRIDGE  .     .  R.  Swain  Gifford 41 

From  a  sketch  made  for  "  Scribner's  Magazine.'" 

THE  UNION  FLAG Hosier     ....  Potter     ....  420 

THE  PINE-TREE  FLAG "         .    .    .     .      "        ....  420 

THE  RATTLESNAKE  FLAG      ....       "          ....       "         ....  -121 
DRAGGING  CAXXON  OVER  THE  GREEN 

MOUNTAINS    ox    THE    WAY    FROM 

TICOXDEROGA    TO    BOSTOX      .     .     .   Reinhart  ....  Meeder  &  Chubb  424 
NORTH  END  OF  BOSTOX Leggo   ....  426 

By  permission,  from  reprint  from  Recere's  Drawing  in  Mr. 
H.  W.  Holland's   "  William  Daires,  and  Jtis  Ride  with 
Paul  Reeere." 
WASHINGTON'S  MEDAL Garrett  ....       '•       ....  429 

From  the  original  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's 
rooms. 

CITADEL  OK  QUEBEC Mente     ....  Winham    .     .     .  430 

ALLEN  CAPTURING  DELAPLACE      .     .  Rcinhart      .     .     .  Heinemann    .     .  436 
RICHARD  MONTGOMERY Beech     .    '.     .     .  J.  Karst     .     .     .  439 

From  the  portrait  by  Peale. 
MAP  OF  ARNOLD'S  ROUTE    ....  Mente     ....  Loggo   .     .     .     .441 

ARNOLD'S  MARCH Shirlaw  ....  Davis    ....  443 

ATTACK    ON     QUEBEC.  —  DEATH     OF 

MONTGOMERY Frost       ....  Bogert  .     .     .     .447 

MONTGOMERY'S    MONUMENT     IN    ST. 

PAUL'S  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK   .     .     .  Mente     .     .     .     .  H.  Karst   .     .     .  450 
BRITISH  AND  HESSIAN  SOLDIERS    .     .  Warn!  &  Hosier    .  Knapp .     .     .     .  453 

BURNS'S  COFFEE-HOUSK,  —  HEADQUAR- 
TERS OF  THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY     .     .  Mente      ....  Langridge       .     .  456 
From  Valentine's  "Manual." 

MARINUS  WILLETT'S  EXPLOIT     .     .     .   Abbey      ....  Smithwick      .     .  457 
From  a  drawing  made  for  "  Scribner's  Magazine." 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxiii 


Title.  Dtsiyncr.  Engravir. 

HEAD  OF  RIVIXGTOX'S  GAZETTEER  .     .  Runge      .     ...  Leggo    ....  409 

Frnm  a  copy  in  I  lie  New  York  Historical  Society's  room*. 
GENERAL  CHARLES  LEE    .....  Beech      ....  Knapp  ....  460 

BIJ  permission,  fn>m  Mr.   Georye  Moore's    "Treason   of 
Charles   Lee."     From  a  Caricature  by  Barham   Rush- 
brooke. 
LORD  STIRLING  .........  Beech  .....       •'        ....  462 

From  the  engraving  in  Duer's  "  Life." 
ISRAEL  PUTNAM     ...............  Nichols  ....  40:5 

Front  the  portrait  by  Trumbull. 

MOORE'S  CREEK  BRIDGE  —  PLAN  .  .  Hosier  ....  Leggo  ....  465 
THE  LIBERTY  BELL,  AS  IT  NOW  HANGS 

IN  INDEPENDENCE  HALI  ......  Schell       ....  Varley   ....  470 

From  a  sketch  maile  for  this  work. 
PORTRAIT  OF  THOMAS  PAINE     .     .     .  Beech       ....  Pierson  ....  471 

Frn.n  the  print  in  Rickman  s  '•  Life." 
COXGRKSS  HALL      ........  Schell       .     .     .     .  J.  Karst     .     .     .481 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 

HOUSE    IN    WHICH     THE    DECLARATION 

WAS  WRITTEN      ........       "  ....  Hoev      ....  483 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 

TAKING  DOWX  THE  KING'S  STATUE  .  Frost  .....  Davis  ....  486 
MAP  OF  MANHATTAN  ISLAND  ix  1776  .  Hosier  .  .  .  Russell  &  Strut  hers  491 
ROSE  AXD  CROWN  TAVERN  ....  Mente  ....  Langridge  .  .  .492 
HEADQUARTERS,  Xo.  1  BROADWAY  .  Warren  ....  Pierson  .  .  .  495 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
PASSAGE    OF   THE    TROOPS    TO    LONG 

ISLAND     .......     .     .     .  Wand      .     .     .     .  H.  Karst     .     .     .  497 

HOWE'S  HEADQUARTERS,  —  BEEKMAN 

HOUSE       ......................  503 

From  a  sketch  made  for  "Scribner's  Magazine." 
JUMEL     MANSION.  —  WASHINGTON'S 

HEADQUARTERS     .......   Gary       ....  Pierson      .     .     .  505 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  trork. 
MRS.  MURRAY  AND  GENERAL  HOWE.  Abbey    ....  Xichols      .     .     .  507 

From  a  drawing  made  for  "  Scnbner's  Magazine." 
HARLEM  PLAINS  ........  Mente     ....  McCrackeii     .     .  509 

From  an  old  print  in  Valentine's  '•  Manual." 
RUINS  OF  TRINITY  CHURCH  ix  1776    .  AVarren  .     .     .     .   G.  A.  Bogert  .     .  510 

From  Valentine's  "  History  of  lirnadtcay." 
THE  BILLOP  HOUSE   .......  Mente      .     .     .     .  J.  Robinson     .     .  512 

From  a  sketch  made  for  f/.t<  work. 
CHATTERTON'S  HILL,   WHITE  PLAINS  Bonwill    .     .     .     .  H.  Karst     .     .     .  514 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 


XXIV 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

SHIPS  PASSING  FORT  WASHINGTON  .     .  Davidson      .     .     .  Andrew      .     .     .  516 
WASHINGTON   AT  WASHINGTON 

HEIGHTS "  ...  Clement      .     .     .517 

VIEW  OF  FORT   LEE        Bon  will    ....  Smart     .     .     .     .521 

From  a  sketch  made  for  Ihia  tcork. 

CAPTURE  OF  GENERAL   LEE  ....  Sheppard      .     .     .  Langridge  .     .     .  524 
VIEW  OF  TRENTON Mente      ....  Meeder  &  Chubb  529 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  tcork. 

THE    STOLEN  MARCH J.  C.  Beard  ...  "  533 

OLD  SUGAR  HOUSE,  LIBERTY  STREET.  Mente      ....  Langridge  .    .     .  537 

From  Valentine's   "  Manual." 
MIDDLE  DUTCH  CHURCH "          ....  Pierson       .    .     .  539 

From  Disosway's  "Old  Churches." 
RHINELANDER'S  SUGAR  HOUSE  ...      <l          ....  Langridge  .     .     .  540 

From  Valentine's  "  Manual." 
NORTH  DUTCH  CHURCH "          .     .     .    .  J.  Karst      .     .     .  541 

From  Di$o*tcay. 
THE  CHEW  HOUSE  AT  GERMANTOWN    .  Runge      ....        "  ...  543 

From  ait  old  drawing. 
DOOR   OF  WASHINGTON'S    HEADQUAR- 
TERS AT  MORRISTOWN Mente     .     .     .     .  F.  Karst     .     .     .  544 

From  a  drawing  by  Mr.  Bassett  Jonex,  architect. 
WOOSTER'S  SIGNATURE "          ....  Leggo  .     .     .     .547 

From  the  "National  Portrait  Gallery.'" 
MEIGS'S    EXPEDITION    TO     SAG    HAR- 
BOR   Reinhart 549 

WASHINGTON'S      HEADQUARTERS      AT 

HARTSVILLE Schell      ....  Knapp      .     .     .  551 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  tcork. 
LAFAYETTE'S  STATUE,  UNION  SQUARE, 

NEW  YORK Mente      ....  Jansen      .     .     .  552 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  tcork. 

'SQUIRE  CHENEY  BRINGING  THE  NEWS  .  Frost Kilbnrn     .     .     .  555 

HOWE'S  HEADQUARTERS,  —  CADWALLA- 

DER  HOUSE Schell      ....  Knapp      .    .    .  558 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
FORT  MIFFLIN •'  ....  Meeder  &  Chubb  563 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
DONOP'S  GRAVE "          ....  Anthony  .     .     .  565 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
PORTRAIT  OF  BURGOYNE Beech      .     .    .     .  H.  Karst  .    .    .  567 

From  Fonblanque's  "  Burgoyne." 
DEATH  OF  JANE  McCREA Beard Geraty      .    .     .570 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxv 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver. 

RUINS  OK  OLD  Four  AT  CROWN  POINT  .  Mente      ....  Andrew    .     .     .  572 
FAC-SIMILE  OF  HERKIMER'S  ORDER     ........  Photo.  Eng.  Co.  577 

From  the  original  in  the  Historical  Society's  rooms  at  Utica. 
HERKIMER  AT  THE   BATTLE    OF  ORIS- 

KASY     ............  Beard  .....  Heinemann   .     .  579 

GENERAL  JOHN  STARK     ......  Beech  .....  J.  Karst   .     .     .  581 

From  the  portrait  by  Trumbull. 

BATTLE-FIELD  OF  BENNINGTON     .    .    .  Warren    ....  Geraty      .     .     .  583 
GENERAL  HORATIO  GATES  .....  Beech  .....  Potter  ....  586 

From  the  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart. 
FRASER'S  BURIAL     ........  Frost  .....  Clement   .     .     .  591 

VALLEY  FORGE   .........  Schell  .....  Andrew    .     .     .  595 

From  a  sketch. 
SIGNATURE  OF  LAURENS     ............  Leggo  ....  596 

From  the  "  National  Portrait  Gallery." 
BARON  VON  STEUBEN  .......  Beech      ....  Potter  ....  598 

From  Knapp's  "Life." 
MAP  OF  NEW  JERSEY     ...........     Russell  &  Struthers  .  602 

JOSEPH  BRANT     .........  Beech  .....  J.  Karst   .     .     .  608 

From  Stone's  "Life." 

SURRENDER  OF  FORT  VINCENNES     .     .  Fredericks    ...         "         ...  612 
CHARLESTON  IN  1780  .......  Beech  ...........  614 

By  permission,  from  the  old  print  in  Moore's  "  Diary  of  the 

Revolution." 
STONY  POINT  ..........  Mente      ....  Jansen  .  616 

i 

From  a  sketch  made  for  this  work. 
JOHN  PAUL  JONES  ........  Beech  .....  Knapp      .     .    .619 

From  the  portrait  by  Peale. 
JOHN  PAUL  JONES'S  MEDAL    ....  Mente      ....  Karst  .         .    .  622 


FULL-PAGE  MAPS  AND  FAC-SIMILES. 

To  face 
Title.  Page. 

OSWEGO 48 

From  an  old  print  copied  in  O'Callaghan's  "Documentary  History  of  New 
York." 

THE  BOSTON  WATER-FRONT 218 

From  an  old  drawing  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  collections. 

THE  BATTLES  OF  LAKE  GEORGE 288 

From  an  old  print  copied  in  0'  Callaghan's  "  Documentor!/  History  of  New 
York." 


xxvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

"  A  VIEW  OF  PART  OK  THE  TOWN  OF  BOSTON,  IN  NEW  ENGLAND,  AND 

BRITISH  SHIPS  OF  WAR  LANDING  THKIK  TROOPS,  176*." 356 

From  an  old  print  copied  in  Frothing/tain's  "  Sieye  of  ttostoii." 

MAP  OF  BOSTON  AND  ITS  EVVIRONS,  1776 426 

From  Ellin's  u  Evacuation  of  Boston," 

REDt'CKD   FAC-SIMILE  OK  THE  BROADSIDE  OF  THE  DECLARATION,  DIS- 
TRIBUTED  THROUGH   THE    COUNTRY   IN    1776 484 

From  an  original  preserved  in  Boston. 


INDEPENDENCE   HALL. 


New  York  in  1673. 


CHAPTER  I. 


NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH. 

CONDITION  OF  NEW  YORK  ON  THE  ARRIVAL  OF  ANDROS  AS  GOVERNOR.  —  COMPARI- 
SON WITH  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  ANDROS  VISITS  CONNECTICUT.  —  His  RECEPTION  BY 
CAPTAIN  BULL  AT  SAYBROOK.  — COMPLAINED  OF  BY  LADY  CARTERET,  AND  OTHERS. 

—  His  RECALL  TO  ENGLAND.  —  NEW   PROPRIETORS  OF  EAST  JERSEY.  —  THOMAS 
DONGAN   APPOINTED   GOVERNOR   OF   NEW  YORK.  —  GENERAL   ASSEMBLY  ORDERED 
BY  THE    DUKE  OF  YORK.  —  CHARTER  OF  LIBERTIES   ADOPTED.  —  ASSEMBLY   DIS- 
SOLVED   BY  JAMES.  —  DONGAN'S  ADMINISTRATION.  — ANDROS  AS  GOVERNOR-GEN- 
ERAL.—  ACCESSION   OF  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.  —  AFFAIRS  UNDER  LIEUTENANT-GOV- 
ERNOR NICHOLSON.  —  His  COUNCIL-MEN,  PHILLIPSE,  VAN  CORTLANDT,  AND  BAYARD. 

—  CAPTAIN   LEISLER  ASSUMES    COMMAND,  AND   ACTS  AS  GOVERNOR.  —  SUPPORTED 
BY  A  COMMITTEE  OF   SAFETY  AND   RECOGNIZED    BY   THE  COLONIES. —  His  DIFFI- 
CULTIES.—  TROUBLES  WITH  THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIANS.  —  CONTEST  WITH  CAPTAIN 
INGOLDSBY. —  SURRENDERS   THE   GOVERNMENT  TO  COLONEL  SLOUGHTER. — TRIAL 
AND  EXECUTION. 

WHEN  Edmund  Andros  first  arrived  in  America,  —  fifteen  years 
before  the  catastrophe,  already  related,  that  overtook  him 
in  Boston,1  —  the  colony  of  New  York  which  he  was  to  gov-  under  GOT. 
ern  contained  only  about  six  or  seven  thousand  people.    The 
population  of  New  England  is  computed  to  have  been  at  that  time 
not  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand.     Striking  as  the  con- 

1  See  vol.  ii.,  p.  393,  et  seq. 

VOL.    HI.  1 


2  NEW   YORK   UNDER  THE   ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

trast  is  between  these  colonies  of  nearly  the  same  age,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  account  for  it.  The  colonial  commerce  of  that  period  had  no 
need  to  seek  out  the  most  commodious,  or  the  most  accessible  of  har- 
bors ;  the  small  or  inconvenient  ports,  whose  selection  was  deter- 
mined by  some  other  exigency  than  that  of  trade,  answered  all  com- 
mercial necessities.  The  superiority  of  soil  and  of  climate,  the  easy 
access  from  the  sea,  the  navigable  inland  waters,  and  the  central  po- 
sition of  New  York,  so  certain  to  insure  the  future  supremacy  of  the 
State,  were  not  yet  taken  advantage  of  with  that  stern  purpose  and 
restless  energy  through  which  the  hardy  people  of  New  England  so 
outstripped  their  slower  and  duller  neighbors  of  another  race.1 

From  the  accession  of  the  English,  however,  there  came,  with  Eng- 
CondiHon  of  ^$\l  ideas  and  English  entei-prise,  an  increase  of  prosperity 
the  province  an(j  ft  more  rapi(|  growth  to  ^ew  York,  although  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Dutch,  especially  in  the  social  character  of  the  people,  was 
long  felt.  Within  four  years  of  Andros's  arrival  there  was  an  addi- 
tion of  probably  a  third  to  its  population.  Besides  the  natural  in- 
crease, which  prosperity  would  stimulate,  there  was  some  emigration 
from  England,  —  still  more,  perhaps,  from  other  colonies. 

The  eastern  part  of  Long  Island,  from  its  relations  to  Connecticut, 
felt  this  new  impulse  moi'e  sensibly  and  rapidly  than  any  other  part 
of  the  colony.  Whaling  soon  became  an  important  industry  on  that 
shore,  and  Southampton  was  deemed  worthy  of  mention  with  New 
York  by  Andros  as  one  of  the  two  principal  places  of  trade.  Nan- 
tucket, —  settled  in  1659  by  Thomas  Macy  and  his  family,2  —  which, 
with  Martha's  Vineyard,  made  a  county  of  New  York,  was  also  at  this 
early  period  engaged  in  the  whale-fishery  along  the  coast ;  but  it  was 
a  far  more  important  industry  at  the  eastern  end  of  Long  Island  than 
anywhere  else  in  any  of  the  colonies.  Albany  continued  the  centre 
of  the  Indian  trade,  and  was  of  importance  as  the  place  of  negotiation 
with  the  Indians,  and  with  the  French.  These  negotiations,  involv- 
ing the  question  of  whether  the  Iroquois  or  Five  Nations  should  be 

1  Even  a  century  later  the  population  of  New  England  was  nearly  three  times  as  great 
as  that  of  New  York,  though  the  area  —  exclusive  of  Maine,  which  was  still  largely  a  wil- 
derness —  was  less.    It  was  not  till  within  the  last  fifty  years  that  the  natural  advantages  of 
New  York  were  able  to  overcome  the  superiority  which  New  England  had  so  long  held, 
and  which  was  largely  due  to  difference  of  character  in  the  founders  of  the  colonies. 

2  The  first  proprietor  of  Nantucket  was  Thomas  Mayhew.  who  bought  the  island  of 
Jaiues  Torrett,  the  agent  of  the  Earl  of  Stirling,  in  1041.    Mayhew  conveyed  nine  tenths  of 
it  to  nine  others,  namely  :  Tristram  Coffin,  Thomas  Macy,  Hichard  Swain,  Thomas  Barnard, 
Peter  Coffin,  Christopher  Hussey,  Stephen  Greenleaf,  John   Swain,  and  William    Pile. 
Pile   sold  his  tenth  to  Kit-hard   Swain,  and   the  nine  proprietors  then  took  as  partners 
John  Smith,  Nathaniel  Starbuck,  Edward  Starbuck,  Thomas  Look,  Hobcrt  Barnard,  James 
Coffin,  Kobert  Pike,  Tristram  Coffin,  Jr.,  and  Thomas  Coleman.     Thomas  Macy  was  the 
first  to  settle,  with  his  family,  upon  his  lauds.     Others  soon  followed.  — A  Short  Journal  of 
the  First  Settlement  of  Nantucket,  etc.    Bv  Zaccheus  Macy.    Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  iii. 


/678.] 


GROWTH  AND  CONDITION  OF  NKW  YORK. 


controlled  by  French  or  English,  a  question  on  which  peace  or  war  so 
often  depended,  occupied  much  of  the  time  and  attention  of  Andros 
and  his  immediate  successors. 

In  a  report  upon  the  condition  of  his  colony  in  1678  Andros  says 
that  he  could  muster  two  thousand  militia  men ;  the  fort  in  New  York 
—  James-Fort  —  mounted  forty-six  guns ;  that  at  Albany  twelve 
guns,  and  the  fortifications  at  Pemaquid  in  Maine  seven  guns.  In 
each  of  these  the  garrisons  were  victualled  for  a  year.  Within  two 
years  twenty  thousand  acres  had  received  new  settlers.  The  colony 
contained  twenty-four  towns  or  villages  ;  it  exported  yearly  about 
sixty  thousand  bushels  of  wheat,  besides  provisions,  fish,  tobacco, 
peltries,  lumber,  and  even  horses  ;  and  the  valuation  of  its  estates  was 
,£150,000.  A  merchant  was  thought  a  substantial  citizen  who  was 
worth  a  thousand  or  even  five  hundred  pounds  ;  the  standard  of  wealth 
in  a  planter  was  only  half  as  high. 


Island  of  Nantucket. 


The  annual  export  trade  of  the  province  was  carried  on   in   fif- 
teen vessels  of  an  average  measurement  of  a  hundred  tons. 
Of  these  one  third  belonged  to  New  York,  and  some  were   th"proT-n 
built  there.     Occasionally  there  was  an  arrival  from  En*;- 

•/ 

land,  the  yearly  value  of  the  imports  amounting  to  £50,000  :  but 
most  of  these  small  vessels  must  have  been  engaged  in  a  coastwise 
trade,  the  most  important  of  which,  no  doubt,  was  bringing  tobacco 
—  their  single  staple  —  from  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  exchanging 


4  NEW   YORK   UNDER  THE  ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

for  it  bread-stuffs  and  provisions.  No  law,  however  severe,  could 
induce  their  planters  to  raise  for  themselves  sufficient  food  for  their 
slaves  so  long  as  a  crop  of  tobacco  returned  a  profit. 

There  were  slaves  also  in  New  York,  but  not  enough  to  influence 
the  system  of  labor.  As  Andros  said,  they  were  "  but  very  few." 
Beggars  there  were  none  ;  the  poor  who  could  not  support  themselves 
were  taken  care  of  —  easily  taken  care  of,  no  doubt,  as  there  could 
not  have  been  many.  The  manufacture  of  flour  soon  became  an  im- 
portant industry  ;  and  more  than  one  attempt  was  made  by  legislation, 
which  for  some  years  succeeded,  to  give  a  monopoly  of  it  to  the  city 
of  New  York.  Ministers,  Andros  said,  were  "  scarce,"  and  "  religions 
many."  The  Catholic  Duke,  his  master,  could  tolerate  all  sects  so 
long  as  the  law  of  England  proscribed  his  own. 

This,  briefly,  was  the  condition,  two  hundred  years  ago,  of  the 
little  town  destined  in  the  lapse  of  time  and  events  to  become  one  of 
the  foremost  cities  of  the  world.  To  Andros  the  province  seemed, 
doubtless,  of  small  value,  as  it  had  to  Nichols,  unless  he  could  retain 
New  Jersey  and  the  country  on  the  Delaware  within  his  jurisdiction, 
and  extend  it  also  over  that  portion  of  New  England  embraced  within 
the  Duke  of  York's  patent.  One  of  the  earliest  acts  of  his  adminis- 
tration was  to  assert  this  claim,  seizing  as  the  occasion  information 
sent  him  by  Winthrop  of  the  breaking  out  of  Philip's  war.  He  was 
"  very  much  troubled,"  he  wrote  to  the  Connecticut  Governor,  "  at  the 
Christians'  misfortunes  and  hard  disasters  in  those  parts,  being  so 
overpowered  by  such  heathen."  But,  he  added,  "  I  intend,  God  will- 
ing, to  set  out  this  evening,  and  to  make  the  best  of  my  way  to  Con- 
necticut River,  His  Royall  Highnesses  bounds  there." 

The  Connecticut  authorities  were  alarmed  at  this  plain  intimation 
of  the  purpose  of  the  new  Governor  to  maintain  the  Duke's 

Andros  vis-  x        J     .  .  ,  , 

itsconnecti-  claim  to  their  province.  I  he  General  Assembly  was  con- 
vened, and  one  Captain  Bull  was  sent  to  Fort  Say  brook  with 
a  hundred  men  to  resist  this  violation  of  their  chartered  rights.  An- 
dros was  not  permitted  even  to  i-ead  the  Duke's  patent  to  the  people, 
and,  after  declining  to  submit  the  question  in  dispute  to  a  commission, 
he  yielded  to  the  evident  determination  to  be  rid  of  him,  which  he 
could  not  resist,  and  reembarked  for  New  York.  The  rebuff  may 
have  irritated  him,  but  if  the  tradition  preserved  by  Trumbull  be 
true,  it  amused  him  no  less.  This  Captain  Bull,  he  said,  was  a  bull 
whose  horns  should  be  tipped  with  silver.  He  hardly  could  have 
failed  to  remember  this  first  reception  in  Connecticut  when  twelve 
years  later  he  came  to  Hartford  as  Governor-general,  to  demand  the 
colonial  charter.  He  could  then  compel  submission,  but  he  was  met 
with  the  same  spirit  of  defiance,  which  could  still  baffle  if  it  could  not 
rout  him. 


1682.] 


ANDROS  RECALLED. 


5 


Though  his  efforts  to  retain  New  Jersey  were  unsuccessful ; l 
though  the  distant  settlement  at  Pemaquid,  in  Maine,  where  he 
built  a  fort,  was  an  expensive  and  almost  useless  acquisition  ;  and 
though  he  failed  to  bring  Connecticut  under  the  jurisdiction  of  New 
York,  his  administration  of  the  affairs  of  his  immediate  government 
was  judicious.  He  inaugurated  the  policy  which  aimed  to  detach 
the  Five  Nations  from  an  alliance  with  the  French,  and  to  secure 


for  Albany  the  exclusive  control 
of  the  trade  with  that  powerful 
confederacy ;  and  he  sought  to 
check  in  general  the  progress  of 
the  French  at  the  West.  But  Andros  at  Saybrook 

he  saw  that  the  position  of  New  York  was,  in  comparison  with  other 
colonies,  one  of  insignificance,  and  he  believed  it  would  remain  so 
unless  all  the  northern  provinces  were  united  under  a  single  gov- 
ernment. 

He  urged  this  policy  upon  the  Duke  of  York,  and  it  is  quite  possi- 
ble that  he  did  not  regret  being  recalled  —  as  he  was  in  jj^,,  of 
1680  —  when  complaints  from  Lady  Carteret,  the  widow  of  Andros- 
Sir  George,  of  unwarrantable  interference  in  the  affairs  of  New 
Jersey,  required  that  he  should  return  to  England.  Some  charges  of 
misgovernment  were  also  made  against  him  by  others  between  whom 
and  himself  differences,  more  or  less  serious,  had  arisen,  —  particu- 
larly by  Christopher  Billop  of  Staten  Island,  whom  Andros  had  sent 
as  his  deputy  to  the  Delaware  and  then  recalled  for  misconduct. 
These  accusations  fell  to  the  ground,  and  events  disposed  of  those  of 
Lady  Carteret.  Andros,  who,  on  a  visit  to  England  three  years  be- 

1  See  chap,  xx.,  vol.  ii. 


6  NEW  YORK   UNDER   THE  ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

fore,  had  been  created  a  knight,  was  now  further  rewarded  by  being 
made  a  gentleman  of  the  king's  bed-chamber. 

The  Carteret  interest  in  East  Jersey  ceased,  soon  after  the  recall  of 
Andros  —  as  has  been  already  shown  in  another  chapter  — 
0  '      by  the  sale  of  the  young  Sir  George's  patent  to  Perm  and 


reey'  his  associates.  In  March,  1682-83,  these  twelve  proprie- 
tors associated  with  themselves  twelve  others,  most  of  whom  were 
Scotch.1  The  Governor  of  the  province  was  Robert  Barclay  of  Ury, 
a  distinguished  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  a  favorite  of  the 
Duke  of  York,  and  the  author  of  that  Quaker  classic  :  "  An  Apology 
for  the  True  Christian  Divinity,  as  the  Same  is  Preached  and  Held 
Forth  by  the  People,  in  scorn  called  Quakers."  The  Scotch  interest 
in  East  Jersey  induced,  from  time  to  time,  a  large  emigration  from 
Scotland,  many  seeking  in  the  new  colony  an  asylum  from  both  re- 
ligious and  political  persecution  at  home.  At  Ambo  Point,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Raritan,  a  new  city  was  founded  at  this  time  and  called 
Perth  —  now  Perth  Amboy  —  in  honor  of  the  Earl  of  Perth.  This 
became  ere  long  the  capital  of  the  province,  in  place  of  Elizabethtown, 
and  for  a  while  was  a  successful  rival  even  of  New  York  in  commerce. 
On  leaving  the  colony  Andros  had  appointed  Anthony  Brockholls 
—  or  Brockholst  —  as  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Militia  and 
as  Lieutenant  governor.  But  he  neglected  to  renew  the 
order  for  collecting  the  customs-duties,  which  had  expired 


by  limitation,  and  Brockholst  was  at  once  involved  in  a  con- 
troversy with  the  merchants.  They  refused  to  pay  these  duties,  and 
William  Dyre,  formerly  of  Rhode  Island,  who  was  collector  of  the  port 
as  well  as  mayor  of  the  city,  seized  a  cargo  of  goods.  The  merchant 
brought  a  suit  against  the  collector  ;  his  act  was  pronounced  illegal, 
Pavmentof  ant^  an  indictment  found  against  him  for  treason  in  usurping 
dutiTre-  power  over  the  people.  Brockholst  and  his  council  sus- 
fu»eu.  tained  the  decision  of  the  court,  and  the  city  seal  and  his 

commission  were  demanded  of  Dyre.  He  refused  to  surrender  them, 
disputed  the  authority  of  the  court,  summoned  specially  for  his  trial, 
on  the  ground  that  their  power  and  his  emanated  from  the  same 
collector  authority,  —  the  Duke  of  York,  —  and  one  could  not  be  re- 
fnracquu-  sponsible  to  the  other  where  there  was  a  common  master. 
ted-  He  was  hereupon  arrested  and  sent  to  England  for  trial, 

where,  in  due  time,  it  was  decided  that  he  was  guiltless  of  any  offence. 

1  The  twenty-four  proprietors  of  East  Jersey,  a  majority  of  whom  were  Friends,  were, 
James,  Earl  of  Perth,  John  Drummoiid,  Robert  Barclay,  David  Barclay,  Robert  Gordon, 
Arent  Sonmaus,  William  Penn,  Robert  West,  Thomas  Rudyard,  Samuel  Groome,  Thomau 
Hart,  Richard  Mew,  Ambrose  Rijrp,  John  Haywood,  Hugh  Hartshorne,  Clement  Plum 
stead,  Thomas  Cooper,  Gawen  Lawrie,  Edward  Byllinge,  James  Braine,  William  Gibson, 
Thomas  Barker,  Robert  Turner,  and  Thomas  Warue. 


1683.]  GOVERNOR   DONGAN.  —  THE   NEW   CHARTER.  7 

For  some  months  there  was  entire  free  trade  in  the  colony,  for  cus- 
toms-duties are  never  a  free-will  offering;  but  a  more  important  result 
of  the  controversy  was  that  the  Court  of  Assizes,  which  attempted 
the  trial  of  Dyre,  represented  to  the  Duke  that  arbitrary  taxation, 
without  regard  to  the  wishes  and  interests  of  the  people,  was  a  griev- 
ous burden,  and  that  a  remedy  for  this  and  other  evils  could  only  be 
found  in  the  right  of  self-government  through  a  General  Assembly 
chosen  by  popular  vote.  "  The 
people,"  wrote  Brockholst, 
"  generally  cry  out  for  an  As- 
sembly." "Authority  and  j 


Magistracy,"  he  said,  "is 
grown  so  low  that  it 
can  scarce  maintain  the 
public  peace  and  quiet 
of  the  government." 
The  Duke  promised 
that  the  prayer  should 
be  granted. 

A  few  months  later  — 
Perth  Amboy'  in  the  summer   of   1683 

—  a  new  governor,  Colonel  Thomas  Dongan,  the  younger  son  of  an 
Irish  baronet,  was  sent   out  to  supersede  Brockholst.     He 
brought  orders  to  issue  writs  for  the  election  of  eighteen   itongan. 
representatives  of  the  people,  who  were  to  constitute  a  Gen- 
eral Assembly  to  be,  with  the  Governor  and  Council,  the  government 
of  the  colon}'.     Their  acts  were  to  be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
Governor,   and   finally  of  the   Duke.      The  Governor  and  Council, 
whose  appointment  still  remained  with  the  Duke,  were  to  grant  lands, 
establish  courts  and  custom-houses,  control  the  militia  ;   but  no  tax 
was  to  be  levied  without  the  consent  of  the  Assembly.     No  man  was 
to  be  punished  except  by  due  course  of  law  ;  a  grand  jury  of  inquest, 
and  trial  by  jury,  were  decreed  ;  martial  law  and  the  billeting  of  sol- 
diers in  private  houses  were  declared  illegal ;  the  right  of  dower,  in 


8  NEW   YORK   UNDER   THE   ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

one  third  of  the  real  estate  of  the  husband,  was  secured  to  widows ; 
religious  freedom  was  guaranteed  to  all  professing  Christians  who  did 
not  disturb  the  public  peace ;  the  right  of  suffrage  was  given  to  every 
freeholder  and  freeman  in  any  corporation ;  the  Assembly  was  to 
meet  every  three  years  with  the  right  of  meeting  and  adjourning  as 
it  saw  fit  during  the  session  ;  and  the  members  and  their  servants  — 
if  not  more  than  three — were  for  that  time  free  from  arrest 

The  Charter  ,  . 

of  Liberties    or  any  legal   action,  except  in   cases   ot   treason   or  felony. 

anil  1'rivi-  »  i       -i    •  i  i  .  .  «        J       ,W 

leges  pro-       An  Act  embodying  these  franchises,  under  the  title  of  "  The 
Charter  of  Libertys  and  Privileges  "  was  passed  by  the  As- 
sembly, at  its  first  meeting  in  October,  1683,  and  sent  to  the  Duke 
of  York  for  his  approval. 

The  new  form  of  government  was  quite  as  liberal  as  that  accorded 
by  royal  charter  to  any  of  the  colonies.  But  it  was  not  to  last  long. 
The  Duke  gave  no  formal  assent  to  the  Act  of  the  Assembly,  and 
within  less  than  two  years  from  the  time  of  its  first  meeting  Charles 
II.  died  and  his  brother  succeeded  to  the  throne.  The  new  policy, 
begun  with  New  England,  of  uniting  the  crown  colonies  under  a 
single  governor,  soon  embraced  New  York. 

When  the  first  troubles,  which  awaited  the  King  at  home,  were 
GOT-  disposed  of,  James  had  leisure  to  give  his  serious  attention 
to  colonial  affairs;  a  new  commission  with  fresh  instruc- 
tions  was  then  given  to  Dongan,  and  Andros  was  sent  out 
as  Governor-general  of  New  England.  In  these  the  King  declared  it 
to  be  his  will  and  pleasure  that  the  recent  "  Charter  of  Franchises  be 
repealed,  determined  and  made  void."  New  England  was  first  to  be 
reduced  to  obedience  ;  New  York,  meanwhile,  was  to  be  held  in  sub- 
jection as  a  royal  province,  its  government  invested  in  a  governor 
and  council  of  the  King's  appointment  without  regard  to  the  popular 
will.  James  objected  to  the  phrase,  "  The  People,  met  in  Gen- 
eral Assembly."  The  motto  upon  the  great  seal  of  New  England, 
delivered  to  Andros,.  was  more  to  his  mind  :  "  Nunquam  Libertas 
gratior  extat,"  —  *•  Liberty  is  never  more  agreeable  than  under  a  pious 
King."  i 

Dongan  was  faithful  to  his  master  but  not  less  faithful  to  the  in- 
Dongan's  terests  of  his  colony.  He  followed  the  policy  of  Andros  in 
policy.  unwearied  efforts  to  conciliate  the  Five  Nations,  to  secure 
their  trade  for  his  own  countrymen,  to  cripple  the  influence  of  the 

1  The  whole  sentence  iu  Claudian's  De  Laudibus  Stilichonis,  from  which  the  motto  is 
taken,  is :  — 

....  fiunquum  libertas  gratior  extat, 
Quarn  sub  rei*e  pio.  .      .  . 

It  was  probably  assumed  that  the  loyal  subject  would  remember,  or  evolve  from  his  own 
consciousness,  the  latter  portion  of  the  passage  in  looking  at  the  figure  of  the  King  on  the 


1685.] 


NEW  YORK  AND   ITS  NEIGHBORS. 


French  over  the  native  tribes,  and  to  repel  French  intrusion  upon  the 
territory  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  chain  of  the  great  lakes. 
In  these  efforts  he  was  the  more  successful  because  he  was  a  Catholic, 
could  call  English  Jesuits  to  his  aid,  and  satisfy  the  religious  senti- 
ment in  the  Indian,  which  inclined  to  the  symbols  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  so  far  as  he  was  moved  at  all  by  Christian  teaching. 

No  former  governor  saw  more  clearly  than  Dongan  how  much  the 
wealth  and  importance  of  the  province  would  be  enhanced  if  its  juris- 
diction could  include  the  territoi-y  south  and  east,  originally  covered 
by  the  Duke  of  York's  patent.  Penn  had  planted  his  vigorous  com- 
monwealth at  the  south,  taking  from  New  York  the  rich  lands  of  the 
Delaware  ;  East  Jersey,  under  its  successive  Lieutenant-governors,  — 
for  Barclay  remained  in  England,  —  Rudyard,  Lawrie,  Lord  Neill 
Campbell,  and  Andrew  Hamilton,  ha,d  in  ten  years  doubled  in  popu- 
lation. If  the  prosperity  of  his  neighbors  did  not  excite  the  jealousy 
of  Dongan,  it  at  least  made  him  the  more  anxious  that  his  own  colony 
should  have  the  advantage  of  it.  He  proposed  that  Pemaquid  —  too 
far  off  to  be  of  any 
value  to  New  York 
—  should  be  given 
to  Massachusetts, 
and  in  lieu  thereof 
Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island  be  an- 
nexed to  New  York. 
That  any  part  of 
Connecticut  should 
go  to  Massachusetts 
would  be,  he  said, 
'*  the  most  unpropor- 
tionable  thing  in  the 
world,  they  having 
already  a  hundred 
times  more  land, 
riches,  and  people 
than  this  Province, 
and  yet  the  charge  of 
this  government  more  than  that."  He  complained  that  New  Jersey 
robbed  New  York  of  her  trade  and  her  people  ;  that  Pennsylvania  was 
encroaching  upon  New  York  territory  on  the  Susquehanna;  that  Con- 
necticut was,  as  always,  grasping,  tenacious,  prosperous  at  her  neigh- 
bor's expense,  of  evil  influence  over  the  New  York  towns  of  Long 
Island,  whose  "refractory"  people  would  carry  their  oil  to  Boston  and 


Seal  of  New  England. 


10  NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

their  whalebone  to  Perth,  rather  than  to  their  own  capital.  In  1687, 
while  on  Long  Island  they  were  already  complaining  of  the  want  of 
land,  the  Governor  wrote  that  he  believed  there  had  not  come  into  his 
colony,  within  seven  years,  twenty  English,  Scotch,  or  Irish  families. 
The  population,  he  added,  had  increased  by  Dutch  and  French  — 
Huguenot  —  emigration ;  but  this  fact  he  used  only  as  an  additional 
argument  for  annexing  the  nearest  English  colonies  to  his  own;  — 
"  that  a  more  equal  ballance  may  be  kept  between  his  Maty"  naturall 
born  subjects  and  Foreigners,  which  latter  are  the  most  prevailing 
part  of  this  Government." 

He  hardly  did  justice,  however,  to  the  growth  of  New  York,  in  his 
.        ardent  desire  to  extend  its  dominion.     In  the  first  fourteen 

Prosperity 

under  Don-  years  of  English  occupation  its  population  had  trebled.  Yet 
he  acknowledged  that  "  the  people  [were]  growing  every 
day  more  numerous,"  and  as  a  reason  for  suggesting  the  necessity 
of  more  forts,  he  said,  they  were  "  generally  of  a  turbulent  disposi- 
tion." He  gave  them  credit  for  great  vigor,  for,  he  said,  "  the  men 
that  are  here  have  generally  lusty  strong  bodies  ;  "  and  of  the  other 
sex  he  had  an  equally  high  opinion,  for  this  is  his  representative 
woman  :  "  In  this  country  there  is  a  woman  yet  alive  from  whose 
Loynes  there  are  upwards  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  persons  now 
living." 

But  the  old  pleas  were  powei-less  now.     The  policy  of  the  Duke, 

the  provincial  Proprietary,  was  not  the  policy  of  the  King,  who  meant 

to  take  away  all  charters  and  unite  the  colonies  in  a  single  royal 

province.     In   only  one  case  did   Dongan  succeed  in  effecting   any 

change  in  colonial  relations,  —  it  was  agreed  to  end  the  long 

The  Con-  ,   & 

necticut        and  vexatious  controversy  as  to  the  boundary  line  between 

boundary.  . 

Connecticut  and  New  York  by  fixing  its  starting-point,  where 
it  has  ever  since  remained,  on  the  Bynun  River  instead  of  the  Mamar- 
oneck.  Another  early  act  of  his  administration  makes  it  memorable: 
the  province  was  subdivided  into  twelve  counties  with  new  names  to 
some  of  them,  which  names,  though  not  the  boundaries,  remain  unal- 
tered. Ulster  was  so  called  for  the  Irish  earldom  of  the  Duke  of 
Naming  of  York  ;  Orange,  for  his  son-in-law,  William  of  Orange  ;  Rich- 
counties.  mond,  probably,  for  his  illegitimate  son  by  the  Duchess  of 
Portsmouth  ;  Duke's,  which  comprised  Nantucket,  Martha's  Vine- 
yard, Elizabeth  Islands,  and  No  Man's  Land,  was  so  named,  no  doubt, 
for  the  Duke  himself,  as  Duchess  was  either  for  his  wife  or  his  mis- 
tress. Suffolk  took  its  name  from  an  English  county,  and  so  also  did 
Cornwall,  which  included  Pemaquid  and  the  rest  of  the  Duke's  pos- 
sessions in  Maine.1 

1  The  twelve  counties  were:    The  City  and  County  of  New  York,  Richmond,  Queen's, 
King's,  Suffolk,  Uuke's,  Westchestcr,  Ulster,  Orange,  Duchess,  Albany,  and  Cornwall. 


1688.]  ANDROS,   GOVERNOR-GENERAL.  11 

The  new  government  of  the   "  Territory  and  Dominion  of  New 
England  "  was  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  New  Jersey  and  New  York, 
and  a  new  commission  issued  to  Andros  as  Governor-general  in  1688. 
Though  many  may  have  rejoiced  at  the  removal  of  the  Catholic  Gov- 
ernor, Dongan,  the  act  by  which  he  was  superseded  was  by  no  means 
popular.     To  merge  New  York  in  New  England  was  not  to  New  York 
annex  New  England   to   New  York  in   the  way  that  had  New6!^-10 
been  so  long  wished  for.     The  greater  would  now  swallow  land 
the  less  in  fact  as  in  name.     The  independence  of  the  colony  was  sac- 


Signature  of  Dongan. 

rificed  to  the  policy  of  the  King.  They  might  be  reconciled  to  this 
in  the  eastern  part  of  Long  Island,  where  they  were  chiefly  New  Eng- 
landers,  but  elsewhere  the  feeling  was  one  of  humiliation  and  chagrin. 

Andros,  nevertheless,  was  received  in  New  York  with  military 
pomp  and  civic  honors.  The  seal  of  the  province  was  formally 
broken  in  pieces  and  that  of  the  Dominion  of  New  England  presented 
as  its  substitute.  Whatever  the  popular  feeling  might  be,  official 
gentlemen  had  much  to  expect  from  the  new  Governor ;  and  he  on  his 
part  was  not  slow  to  reward  his  old  favorites,  the  more  readily  that 
every  office  —  whose  duties  were  to  be  discharged  in  Boston,  the  pro- 
posed seat  of  government  —  bestowed  upon  a  New  Yorker,  not  only 
served  a  friend  but  mortified  an  enemy.  He  visited  New  Jersey  ;  at 
Albany  he  called  a  council  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Five  Nations,  and  ex- 
changed with  them  high-sounding  phrases  on  the  inferiority  of  the 
French,  —  who  had  recently  consented,  under  a  general  pacification, 
to  abandon  the  fort  built  the  year  before  on  the  site  of  La  Salle's  old 
Fort  de  Conty  —  on  the  superiority  of  the  Iroquois,  and  their  willing- 
ness to  be  considered,  not  the  children,  but  the  brothers,  of  the  English. 
After  a  sort  of  vice-royal  progress  through  his  southern  provinces, 
the  Governor-general  returned  to  Boston,  taking  with  him  the  most 
important  of  the  official  records  of  New  York.  Francis  Nicholson,  a 
lieutenant  in  the  army,  remained  as  Lieutenant-governor. 

We  have  sketched  already  the  character  of  the  administration  of 
Andros,  and  the  heavy  hand  that  Boston  laid  upon  him  in  return 


12  NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH.       [CHAP.!. 

when  the  opportunity  came  to  her.1  William  of  Orange  landed  in 
England  only  about  a  month  after  Andros  returned  to  New 
in  England  England  from  New  York.  In  another  month  James  had 
tk.n  orAn-  fled  to  France ;  in  February,  1689,  William  and  Mary  were 
proclaimed  in  London  King  and  Queen  of  England.  All 
winter,  tidings  of  the  progress  of  the  revolution  had  crossed  the  Atlan- 
tic ;  in  February  they  knew  in  New  York  that  the  Prince  of  Orange 
was  at  Torbay.  The  news  was  sent  by  Nicholson  and  his  Council  to  Sir 
Edmund  both  by  land  and  by  water,  and  they  ordered,  at  the  same 
time,  that  the  King's  money  should  be  placed  in  the  fort,  —  a  fact  that 
shows  that  even  at  the  outset  they  were  apprehensive  of  some  popular 
outbreak.  A  more  timid  or  a  wiser  man  than  Andros  would  have 
taken  prompt  measures  to  anticipate  an  event  which,  he  should  have 
foreseen,  would  be  sure  to  follow  in  the  colonies  any  serious  disas- 
ter to  the  King  in  England.  But  he  sent  no  instructions  to  his  New 
York  Council  till  nearly  three  months  later,  when  he  was  already  a 
prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Boston  Committee  of  Safety. 

The  government  of  New  York  was  left  in  the  hands  of  Nicholson, 
the  Lieutenant-governor,  Frederick  Phillipse,  Stephen  van  Cortlandt, 
and  Nicholas  Bayard,  the  three  more  active  members  of  the 
Hon  in6New  Council.2  These  men  were  to  work  out  their  difficult  prob- 
lem with  such  wisdom  as  they  had,  —  wisdom  which,  as  it 
happened,  would  have  been  insufficient  for  an  exigency  of  much  less 
moment.  The  popular  mind  was  governed  by  other  though  not  less 
efficient  influences,  than  those  which  moved  the  people  of  Boston. 
The  Dutch  inhabitants  naturally  sympathized  with  the  Prince  of 
Orange  and  hoped  for  his  success.  There  were  in  New  York  more 
Romanists  than  in  all  New  England  ;  the  Protestant  population  were 
alive  to  the  fear  of  Popery,  quickened  by  the  apprehension  that  Don- 
gan  —  not  without  power,  though  out  of  place  —  and  Nicholson  were 
both  under  Jesuit  influence.  Dongan  was  frankly  and  openly  a  Cath- 
olic ;  Nicholson,  it  was  suspected,  only  pretended  to  be  a  Protestant. 

But  neither  the  people  on  one  side,  nor  the  Council  on  the  other,  took 
anj'  action  until  the  26th  of  April,  when  news  came  from  Boston  of 
the  revolution  there  on  the  18th,  and  Colonel  Nicholson  called  to- 
gether his  Council  and  read  to  them  the  formal  declaration  of  "  the 

1  See  vol.  ii.,  p.  387,  et  seq. 

8  Brodhead  says  (History  of  the  State  of  New  York)  that  Phillipse  was  remarkable  only 
for  being  the  dullest  and  the  richest  man  in  the  town.  Van  Cortlandt  had  made  himself 
ridiculous  a  few  months  before  at  a  celebration  of  the  birth  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  when 
he  "  both  sacrificed  his  hat,  peruke,  etc."  (Letter  from  Leisler,  N.  Y.  Col.  Doc.),  and  it 
was  remembered  against  him.  Bayard,  the  most  efficient  of  the  three,  was  a  wealthy  and 
respectable  merchant,  but  a  hot-headed  militia  captain,  quite  unfit,  as  his  own  letters  show, 
for  important  command  in  a  time  of  emergency. 


1689.]         NEW  YORK   AND   THE  ENGLISH   REVOLUTION.  13 

gentlemen  merchants  and  inhabitants  of  Boston."  l     To  him  and  his 
associates  in  the  Government  this  was  a  "  great  surprizall."   Action  of 
Being   but  four  in    number,  as    they  said,  they  took  the 
usual  refuge  of  weak  men  in  conditions  of   unexpected  re- 
sponsibility,  and  called  together  the  mayor,  the  members  of  Counci1 
the  common  council,  and  all  the  officers  of  the  militia.     It  was  agreed 
to  fortify  the  town  against  the  French,  with  whom  England  was  now 
at  war,  and,  as  the  merchants  were  already  sensitive  about  paying 
import  duties  to  the  old  officers,  it  was  agreed  that  all  such  duties 
should  be  expended  on  the  new  fortifications.     For  some  time  the 
little  town  assumed  the  aspects  of  a  camp. 

On  the  first  of  May  the  Council  wrote  an  ingenious  letter  in  dupli- 
cate to  be  sent  to  Boston,  one  copy  to  Sir  Edmund  An- 

.  rTJ  r.  The  Council 

dros,  to  ask  him  to  return  the  Kecords  of  the  rrovince  write  to  BOS- 
which  he  had  with  him,  —  the  other  to  Governor  Bradstreet 
and  the  other  leaders  of  the  popular  movement,  in  which  the  request 
for  the  Records  is  changed  into  a  request  that  Andros  himself  may  be 
forwarded  to  them.  But  the  Massachusetts  Committee  of  Safety  de- 
clined to  release  the  Governor,  and  Colonel  Nicholson  and  his  three 
friends  were  again  left  to  face  their  own  difficulties. 

Meanwhile  —  to  mention  a  straw  which  showed  the  wind — the 
chaplain  at  the  fort  prayed  regularly  for  the  infant  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  that  the  dethroned  king  might  be  "  victorious  over  his  enemies." 
No  proclamation  of  William  was  made.  The  anxious  Council  Avrote 
to  the  Secretary  of  State,  whoever  he  might  be,  and  the  Board  of 
Trade,  whoever  they  might  be,  explaining  how  doubtful  their  posi- 
tion was,  and  how  fortunate  it  was  that  New  York  was  not  more 
closely  united  with  Boston.  A  few  days  after  a  verbal  message  ar- 
rived from  Andros,  asking  that  Hamilton  and  Smith,  two  of  his  coun- 
cilmen,  might  be  sent  on  to  him.  But  both  these  gentlemen  had 
troubles  enough  at  home,  and  declined  mixing  in  his  affairs.  This 
was  on  the  22d  of  May.  On  the  6th  of  June  Nicholson  had  deter- 
mined on  what  was  certainly  the  course  of  prudence,  —  to  leave  his 
jurisdiction ;  on  the  10th  of  June  his  administration  ceased,  though 
he  did  not  sail  till  the  end  of  the  month.  But  the  power,  and  the 
duties  of  government,  had  already  passed  into  other  hands. 

The  transfer  of  power  had  really  taken  place  when  this  imbecile 
Council  called  together  the  officers  of  militia,  and  with  their  advice 
embodied  the  military  force.  At  a  time  when  some  one  must  take 
command,  it  followed,  almost  of  course,  that  those  who  in  arms  sup- 
ported the  little  state  took  the  place  for  which  the  Council  showed  it- 
self wholly  incompetent.  Among  the  captains  of  the  militia  Jacob 
1  The  Bostoines,  as  a  despatch  of  the  time  calls  them. 


14 


NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH. 


[CHAP.  I. 


Leisler  appeared  as  the  most  prompt  and  courageous  man,  willing  to 
take  responsibility.  While  the  temporizing  policy  of  the  Council  — 
waiting  for  more  news  —  exasperated  the  great  body  of  the  people ; 
while  terrors  of  French  invasion  kept  the  little  army  on  the  alert, 
everybody  asked  why  William  was  not  proclaimed.  A  foolish  speech 
of  Nicholson's  gave  rise  to  a  rumor  that  he  had  threatened  to  burn 
the  town.  When  Leisler's  turn  came  to  guard  the  fort  with 
ier  takes  his  company,  he  gave  notice  that  he  should  call  all  the  train- 
bands on  parade,  and  ask  the  inhabitants  to  unite  to  defend 
the  Protestant  religion.  A  rumor  spread  that  the  French  fleet  was 


Leisler's  House.1 

below.  Leisler's  critics  afterwards  said  that  he  started  this  rumor;  — 
certainly  he  improved  it.  He  gave  the  signal  agreed  upon,  and  the 
train-bands  met.  The  captains  of  some  companies  ordered  them  to 
disperse,  but  they  refused ;  and  at  Leisler's  direction  they  all  signed  a 
declaration,  by  which  they  said  they  held  and  should  hold  the  fort  for 
his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Orange,  on  behalf  of  such  person  as 
he  had  appointed  Governor.  Six  captains  and  four  hundred  men 
signed  this  document. 

Within  a  very  short  time  news  arrived  that  William  and  Mary  had 
for  the  present  confirmed  in  office  all  Protestants  holding  commissions 

1  Leisler's  house  was  on  Whitehall  Street,  south  of  Pearl  Street,  and  was  the  first  brick 
house  in  New  York.  The  picture  —  taken  from  the  Corporation  Manual  —  is  from  a  draw- 
ing made  in  1679.  Leisler's  house  is  marked  L. 


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1689.]         LEISLER  ASSUMES  THE  CONDUCT  OF  AFFAIRS.  15 

in  the  colonies.  Had  Nicholson  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  people 
at  all,  or,  indeed,  had  he  been  a  man  of  resource,  he  might  even  now 
have  resumed  authority  under  this  order.  But  Leisler  was  in  com- 
mand. Almost  all  the  counties,  except  New  York,  had  thrown  off  all 
allegiance  to  Nicholson  already.  And  thus,  as  we  have  seen,  he  noti- 
fied the  Council  on  the  6th  that  he  should  leave  for  England.  They 
approved  of  his  departure,  and  Leisler  at  the  head  of  his  train-bands 
was  thus  left  the  only  commander  of  the  city.  Comparing  his  posi- 
tion with  Bradstreet's  in  Massachusetts,  it  is  impossible  to  say  that 
Leisler  was  more  a  usurper  than  Bradstreet.  In  the  case  of  the  New 
York  interregnum,  the  Governor  who  held  under  James  was  per- 
mitted to  depart  in  peace ;  while  in  Boston  he  was  put  NichoUon 
under  close  watch  and  ward.  Had  Leisler's  assumption  jg""  f°r 

Hmffl&UUi 

gone  no  further  than  this,  he  would  probably  have  received, 

in  the  end,  not  even  a  momentary  censure,  but  the  constant  favor 

of  the  new  monarchs. 

Leisler  thus  became  leader  of  the  Protestant  movement,  —  which 
happened  to  be  the  Dutch  movement,  —  which  happened  also  to  be 
the  popular  or  plebeian  movement  in  the  little  city,  all  of  whose  peo- 
ple, of  every  shade  of  politics  and  religion,  did  not  number  more  than 
three  thousand.  It  was  at  the  same  time  the  "  country  "  movement, 
to  adopt  a  convenient  phrase,  often  used  in  English  politics,  and  some- 
times  in  the  politics  of  America,  to  express  the  sentiments  of  the 
rural  districts,  where  they  differ  from  those  of  the  merchants,  or  other 
men  of  cities.  Leisler,  however,  was  not  himself  a  Hollander,  or  of 
Dutch  origin.  He  was  born  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  and  had  come 
to  New  York  thirty  years  before  as  a  soldier.  But  for  many  years  he 
had  been  a  merchant,  and,  of  late  years,  a  prosperous  merchant.  He 
first  appears  in  the  records  of  recent  dissensions  as  receiving  a  cargo 
of  wines,  on  which  the  duties,  amounting  to  a  hundred  pounds,  he  re- 
fused to  pay  to  a  revenue  officer,  who  was  still  serving  under  King 
James's  commission  and  claimed  no  other  authority. 

Connecticut  proclaimed  William  and  Mary  on  the  13th  of  June, 
and  delegates  from  Connecticut,  who  had  the  printed  Eng- 

Vi  .  .  .  j    ,.  ii-  .  William  and 

Iisn  proclamation  of  the  accession,  delivered  this  to  Leisler.   Mary  pro- 
On  the  22d  he   made   the  formal  proclamation.     The  fact 
that  the  Connecticut  delegates  recognized  him  as  the  actual  Governor 
instead  of  going  to  the  "  rump  "  of  a  Council,  excited  the  indignation 
of  the  Councillors.     The  King's  proclamation,  confirming  all  Protes- 
tants in  office,  was  made  public  by  them ;  but  this  was  but  a  half  tri- 
umph on  their  side,  as  it  compelled  them  to  dismiss  Plowman,  the 
Collector,  who  was  a  Catholic,  and  who  had  most  aroused  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  Protestant  party.     Leisler  appointed  Peter  de  la  Noye  Col- 


16  NEW  YORK   UNDER  THE   ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

lector  in  his  place,  turning  out  the  three  commissioners  appointed  by 
the  other  party.  Bayard  took  alarm  at  the  audacity  of  Leisler's  pro- 
Flight  or  the  ceedings,  and  on  the  28th  fled  to  Albany,  leaving  Phillipse 
council.  an(j  yan  Qortlan(Jt  the  only  representatives  of  the  Council. 
Van  Cortlandt  soon  followed,  and  from  this  time,  for  a  year  and  a 
half,  Leisler  was  practically  at  the  head  of  the  government. 

In  imitation  of  the  proceedings  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  London, 
he  invited  the  counties  and  towns  to  meet  in  convention.  The  call 
committee  was  obeyed,  and  the  delegates  assembled  on  the  26th  of  June. 
pointedy«id  '•^ne  meeti°g  consisted  of  twelve  members,  of  whom  two 
ogn^eYas"  withdrew  after  the  first  session.  The  others  signed  a  paper 
commander,  appointing  Leisler  to  be  Captain  of  the  Fort,  and  constitu- 
ting themselves  a  Committee  of  Safety.  Under  this  authority  Leisler 
assumed  from  this  time  to  be  the  governor  of  the  province. 

This  unskilled,  self-taught  merchant,  into  whose  hands  the  conduct 
of  affairs  had  fallen  at  a  dangerous  and  critical  moment,  was  beset 
with  difficulties  from  without  as  well  as  within.  King  James,  who 
had  commissioned  Nicholson  and  his  council  of  three,  was  at  this  mo- 
ment the  guest  and  ally  of  Louis  XIV.  That  king,  on  the  7th  of 
French  ho«-  June,  in  the  very  week  in  which  Leisler  took  command  of 
the  fort,  gave  these  instructions  to  Frontenac,  Governor  of 
Canada,  with  regard  to  the  whole  Province  of  New  York  :  "  If 
among  the  inhabitants  of  New  York  there  are  any  Catholics  whose 
fidelity  can  be  assured,  they  may  be  left  in  their  homes  after  they  have 
sworn  fidelity  to  King  Louis.  From  the  other  inhabitants,  artisans 
and  people  necessary  for  agriculture  may  be  kept  at  work  as  prisoners. 
All  officers,  and  all  the  principal  inhabitants,  will  be  kept  in  prison  till 
they  are  redeemed  by  ransom.  With  regard  to  all  others  who  are 
not  French,  they  will  be  transported  to  New  England,  Frauce,  or  other 

places.  But  all  French- 

/^\        f       A-S\-^SJ    ^sy  stst  sit  men,  especially  those  of 

C?   J^s(/7vJr£^L£L^      the  pretended  reformed 

^        religion,  will  be  sent  to 

Signature   of   Frontenac.  T-.  .<  rrn 

t  ranee.         1  liese    were 

a  part  of  the  direct  orders  for  an  invasion  of  New  York.     And  at 

this  very  moment  the  Jesuit  body,  at  once  servants  and  masters  of 

this  French  king,  were  carrying  on,  on  the  frontier,  those  intrigues 

which  in  this  and  the  following  years  resulted  in  the  mas- 

Indian  mas-  '    » 

sacreaonthe  sacres  of  Pemaquid,  of  Schenectady,  of  Salmon  Falls,  and 

of  Wells'  River.     Of  these  massacres  the  cruelties  were  due, 

in  the  first  instance,  not  to  savage  ferocity,  but  to  the  counsels  of  men 

who  took  the  name  of  Jesus  for  their  own.1     At  such  a  time  Leisler 

1  Compare,  for  the  details,  Parkmau's  Life  of  Frontenac. 


1689.]        LEISLER'S  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  PROVINCE.  17 

found  one  of  the  few  Roman  Catholics  in  his  province  a  governor  of 
Albany  on  the  frontier,  and  another  the  collector  of  the  king's  rev- 
enue in  New  York.  He  would  not  have  been  justified,  either  as  the 
representative  of  King  William,  or  as  governing  the  province  for  its 
own  best  good,  had  he  consented  to  serve,  on  equal  terms,  with  these 
Catholic  officers. 

The  city  and  county  of  Albany  was  the  only  part  of  the  province 
which  for  a  time  refused  to  recogtiize  his  authority.  Albany  was  prob- 
ably strengthened  in  its  independence  by  Colonel  Bayard,  and  not  un- 
willing to  resent  New  York  interference.  She  had  called  her  own 
convention,  and  intrusted  all  public  affairs  to  her  own  magistrates. 
She  had  declined  to  send  delegates  to  Leisler's  convention.  This  quasi 
independent  attitude  would  probably  have  excited  little  attention  in 
history,  but  that  the  news  of  the  butcheries  of  Pemaquid  and  at 
Dover1  arrived  at  this  time  in  Albany.  The  frontier  village  now  felt 
its  weakness.  She  sent  for  aid  to  the  city  whose  ruler  she  had  de- 
fied, asking  for  help.  Leisler  would  not  recognize  the  Al- 

&  &  Albany  re- 

bany  government,  and  they  wrote   to  Connecticut  and   to  fuses  u>re«- 

UTI  i  •  f  •  f  ognize  Leis- 

Massachusetts  asking  for  a  garrison  for  the  fort.  They  ap-  lerasGover- 
pointed  Schuyler  to  its  chief  command,  displacing  Sharp, 
against  whom  as  a  Catholic  there  were  "  jealousies."  Leisler  sent  up 
a  company  under  Milborne,  but  he  was  refused  admission  to  the  fort. 
He  returned,  and  the  fort  and  outposts  at  Schenectady  were  garri- 
soned by  Connecticut  men. 

Had  Nicholson  dared  to  remain  in  New  York  he  would  have  re- 
ceived a  commission  from  King  William  broad  enough  and  strong 
enough  to  relieve  him  from  all  difficulty.  For,  all  through  these  con- 
fusions William  showed  no  fondness  for  any  revolutions  but  such  as 
he  made  himself  On  the  30th  of  July,  while  Nicholson  was  yet  on 
the  ocean,  an  order  issued  at  Whitehall  to  appoint  him 
Lieutenant-governor,  enclosing  instructions  from  the  King  ceived't^m 
and  Queen.  The  letter  was  addressed  to  him,  and,  in  his  EngUmd 
absence,  "  to  such  as  for  the  time  being  take  care  for  preserving  the 
peace  and  administering  the  laws."  It  is  said  that  Nicholson  arrived 
in  London  before  the  letter  Avas  started,  and  it  has  been  conjectured 
that  no  alteration  was  made  in  the  address  because  it  was  supposed 
that  Phillipse,  Cortlandt,  and  Bayard  would  open  it.  But  Nichol- 
son must  have  told  the  authorities  that  a  convention  had  been  sum- 
moned, and  that  Leisler  was  in  actual  command.  It  is  probable 
either  that  the  despatches  were  beyond  correction,  or  that  the  Eng- 
lish authorities  were  willing  to  avail  themselves  of  the  doubt  hidden 
under  the  address.  In  point  of  fact  at  the  moment  they  were  writ- 

1  See  vol.  ii.,  pp.  444,  et  seq. 
VOL.  in.  2 


18 


NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH. 


[CHAP.  I. 


ten,  Bayard  and  Cortlandt  had  both  fled  from  New  York,  and  there 
was  no  government  there  but  that  of  Leisler.  Nor  did  the  Council, 
which  was  thus  reduced  to  Phillipse  alone,  make  any  pretence  of  exer- 
cising authority. 

The  letter  did  not  arrive  till  the  9th  of  December,  when  Bragge, 
who  brought  it,  came  by  way  of  Boston.  He  delivered  it  to  Leisler, 
who  claimed  it  as  "  the  person  who  administered  the  laws  and  pre- 
served the  peace."  When  Cortlandt,  who  had  returned,  and  Phil- 
lipse claimed  the  despatches,  the  messenger  prudently  said  he  would 
not  be  hanged  for  any  of  them.  With  this  addition  to  his  authority 
Leisler  continued  his  administration  and  again  proclaimed  William 


The  Attack  on   Schenectady. 

and  Mary,  "  Scotland  being  formerly  omitted."  Cortlandt  and  Phil- 
lipse sent  a  protest  to  the  King  against  his  claim,  but  made  no  pre- 
tence of  assuming  the  duties  of  governor  themselves. 

The  duties  of  the  post  to  which  Leisler  found  himself  called  might 
well  have  appalled  him.  Frontenac  on  the  north,  one  of  the  ablest 
rulers  over  hunters,  Jesuits,  and  savages,  who  ever  served  France, 
was  taking  advantage  of  the  declai-ation  of  war  to  pounce  upon  the 
exposed  frontier.  In  February,  1689-90,  the  blow  came.  He  formed 
three  war  parties  of  picked  men,  who  were  to  attack  Albany,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Maine.  The  first  gathered  at  Montreal,  made  up  of 
ninety-six  Christian  Iroquois,  so  called,  and  more  than  a  hundred 
French  coureurs  du  lots.  They  were  led  by  three  of  the  Le  Moynes, 


1690.]  WAR   WITH  THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIANS.  19 

of  the  same  blood  as  Iberville  and  Bienville  who  founded  Louisiana, 
—  of  the  distinguished  family  to  whom  France  owed  so  many  victo- 
ries in  the  years  of  her  American  rule. 

These  leaders  were  destined  to  meet  one  cruel  disappointment. 
After  the  party  had  crossed  Lake  Champlain  on  the  ice,  a  council 
was  called  in  which  the  Le  Moynes  named  Albany  as  the  point  of  at- 
tack. "  How  long,"  said  the  sullen  Indians,  "  since  the  French  have 
been  so  bold  ?  "  The  Frenchmen  answered  that  since  their  War  with 
late  misfortunes,  honor  required  them  to  take  Albany  or  die.  the  French- 
The  Indians  had  no  such  notion  of  honor,  and  at  the  Hudson,  where 
the  tracks  then  and  now  diverge  —  one  for  Albany  and  one  for  Sche- 
nectady  —  they  took  the  path  to  Schenectady.  The  French  were 
obliged  to  acquiesce.  A  thaw  had  softened  the  snow  and  ice,  and  it 
was  nine  days  more  before  they  came  near  the  fated  village.  About 
dark  on  the  8th  of  February,  they  reached  the  river  Mohawk,  a  little 
above  the  village.  Sunset  has  a  peculiar  marvel  at  that  spot,  which 
even  savages  have  observed.  The  range  of  southern  mountains  on  its 
western  side  is  so  curved  that  the  red  ball  of  the  sun,  seen  through 
the  mists  of  the  river,  seems  to  roll  slowly  down  the  ridge  to  its  re- 
pose. But  in  this  fatal  twilight  and  bitter  storm  there  was  little 
thought  of  nature's  beauty  or  of  savage  legend.  The  scout,  sent  for- 
ward, saw  nobody.  The  cold  was  so  bitter  that  they  feared  to  dis- 
pense with  fires,  while  their  prey  was  so  near  that  they  dared  not 
make  them.  Nor  was  delay  needed.  Some  village  festival  was  just 
finished  and  the  whole  town  was  asleep  soon  after  nightfall.  Tal- 
madge  of  Connecticut,  with  eight  or  nine  of  his  militia,  was  in  the 
block-house,  and  only  two  snow  images  stood  as  sentinels  at  the  gate 
of  the  palisades  of  the  town,  in  fatuous  derision  of  danger.  In  two 
bands  the  invaders  entered,  without  opposition,  having  failed  to  close 
the  Albany  gate  so  as  to  shut  in  the  fugitives.  One  band  marched 
to  the  right,  one  to  the  left,  till  the  sleeping  village  was  surrounded. 
The  signal  was  then  given,  they  "  screeched  the  war-whoop  together," 
and  fell  to  their  horrid  work.  No  resistance  was  made  but  at  the 
block-house.  In  two  hours  of  carnage  sixty  persons  were  killed,  — 
men,  women,  and  children,  —  and  eighty  or  ninety  captives 
were  secured.  A  few  escaped  through  the  storm  to  Albany,  of 
The  village  was  fired,  and  at  noon  it  was  in  ashes.  Four  tady' 
hundred  thousand  livres'  worth  of  property  was  destroyed,  says  the 
French  report,  with  a  curious  precision. 

The  Albany  commander,  Schuyler,  learned  from  prisoners  whom  he 
took  in  pursuit,  that  Frontenac  meant  to  attack  Albany  in  the  spring. 
He  sent  messengers  to  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Maryland,  and 
Virginia,  urging  them  to  relieve  him,  and  even  to  "  the  civil  and  mili- 


20  NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

tary  officers  at  New  York."  Connecticut  gave  him  sound  advice  in 
suggesting  that  this  was  no  time  for  quarrel  with  New  York,  and  this 
advice  prevailed.  Leisler  renewed  and  pressed  the  urgent  demands 
made  by  the  Albany  government,  upon  the  other  provinces ;  Albany 
received  the  ree'nfon-ements,  and  sent  delegates  to  the  House  of  As- 
sembly which  he  summoned  to  meet  on  the  24th  of  April.  An  ex- 
pedition was  concerted  against  the  French,  and  to  form  plans  for  this 
Leisler  invited  the  other  colonies  to  send  delegates  to  New  York. 

Seven  delegates  attended  this  first  Colonial  Congress,  which  was 
in  session  on  the  1st  of  May.  The  names  of  all  have  become  histor- 
ical in  the  annals  of  this  and  the  next  century.  They  were  Stough- 
ton,  Sewall,  Gold,  Pitkin,  Walley,  Leisler,  and  De  la  Noye.  They 
agreed  that  New  York  should  provide  four  hundred  men,  Massachu- 
setts one  hundred  and  sixty.  Connecticut  one  hundred  and  thirty-five, 
and  Plymouth  sixty.  Maryland  had  promised  one  hundred.  It  was 
agreed  that  Leisler  should  appoint  the  commander. 

With  the  energy  which  merchants  or  other  men  of  affairs  often 
show  when  some  accident  throws  them  into  the  administration  of 
government,  and  with  the  eager  and  terrified  zeal  of  the  burghers  and 
sea-faring  men  of  New  York  to  back  him,  Leisler  rebuilt  the  fortifica- 
tions of  that  city,  which  had  fallen  into  decay  in  the  preceding  peace- 
ful years.  Hearing  of  French  cruisers  at  sea  he  sent  out  privateers, 
some  of  considerable  force,  to  capture  them  ;  and  he  was  able  to  offer 
some  assistance  also  to  the  ill-fated  New  England  expedition  against 
Canada.  The  year  1690,  for  the  whole  of  which  he  was  the  sole 
Governor  of  New  York,  was  a  year  of  spirited  military  and  naval 
enterprise.  And  the  occasional  arrival  of  a  prize  showed  that  neither 
the  dangers  nor  the  rewards  of  the  seas  had  been  over-estimated. 

His  foreign  was  more  successful  than  his  domestic  policy.  At 
home  there  was  no  lack  of  complaint;  and  probably  many  of  those 
who  had  found  fault  with  the  imbecile  languor  of  King  Log,  found 
fault  now  with  the  activity  of  his  successor.  When  the  royal  Governor 
arrived,  who  had  been  fifteen  months  in  coming,  he  found  a  hotbed  of 
sedition  and  bitter  complaint  ready  to  welcome  him.  Walley,  the 
Plymouth  delegate  to  the  Congress,  not  unfriendly  to  Leisler,  had 
characterized  his  temper  well  enough  when  he  said,  "  He  is  a  man 
that  carries  on  some  matters  too  arbitrary." 

Still,  had  King  William  at  this  juncture  appointed  any  competent 
person  governor  of  New  York,  the  troubles  which  followed,  with  the 
cruel  tragedy  which  they  involved,  would  have  been  prevented.  But, 
with  the  recklessness  which  has  not  yet  been  outgrown  in  the  admin- 
istration of  colonies.  William  considered  the  needs  of  the  candidate  for 
office  rather  than  the  need  of  the  colony  which  was  to  be  governed. 


1691. J 


INGOLDSBY'S    ATTACK   ON  THE   FORT. 


21 


Soon  after  the  letter  was  sent,  under  which  Leisler  continued  his  rule, 
but  long  before  it  arrived,  William  appointed  Col.  Henry  Sloughter, 
a  personal  favorite  of  his  own,  to  represent  the  crown  in  si 
New  York.  Even  now,  had  Sloughter  with  any  promptness 
assumed  his  office,  he  would  have  arrived  in  New  York  as  XewYork- 
soon  as  the  paper  which  served  Leisler  for  a  year  as  his  commission. 
In  fact,  however,  Sloughter,  who  was  commissioned  November  14, 1689, 
did  not  sail  until  December  1,  1690,  —  after  a  year  of  inexplicable  de- 
lay, —  and  then  went  by  way  of  Bermuda.  Unfortunately  again,  Rich- 


Ingoldsby's  Attack  on  the  Fort. 

ard  Ingoldsby,  who  sailed  at  the  same  time  with  Sloughter  as  a  cap- 
tain of  a  company  of  grenadiers,  arrived  in  New  York  on   the  29th 
January,  1691,  a  few  weeks  before  his  Governor.     Finding 
Leisler  in  command  of  the  fort,  he  ordered  him  to  deliver  captain  in- 
it.     He  had  no  civil  commission  ;  he  had  no  warrant  from  ' 
Sloughter  to  hold  the  fort  ;  he  had  no  commission  whatever  but  that 
of  major  in  the  King's  army.     No  officer  of  any  rank,  superior  to  In- 
goldsby's,  would  have  obeyed  such  a  command,  unless  special  orders 
were  given  him  by  a  superior.      Leisler  offered  to  Ingoldsby  every 
courtesy,  and  quarters  for  the  troops,  but  declined  giving  up  the  fort 
until  Sloughter  or  some  one  commissioned  by  him,  should  arrive.     On 


22  NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

this  Ingoldsby  proceeded  to  mount  cannon  against  the  fort,  and  actu- 
ally fired  upon  it.  The  fort  returned  the  fire.  There  was  after- 
He  attacks  wards  a  collision  of  testimony  as  to  which  began  this  combat. 
Fort  James,  jj^  fc  jg  certain  that  almost  all  the  injury  and  loss  of  life 
were  caused  by  Ingoldsby's  party,  who  maintained  a  fire  against  the 
fort  for  some  hours.  At  the  utmost  but  a  few  men,  most  of  them 
soldiers,  were  killed. 

In  this  state  of  half  war,  Leisler  maintained  the  fort  for  some 
weeks,  until  on  the  19th  of  March,  Sloughter,  the  long  looked-for 
Governor,  arrived,  for  whom  all  along  he  said  he  had  been  waiting. 
Here,  on  the  after  trials,  testimony  differed  again.  Leisler's  son  said 
that  his  father,  as  soon  as  he  had  notice  of  S  lough  ter's  arrival,  al- 
though late  at  night,  sent  two  gentlemen  to  congratulate  him  on  his 
arrival,  and  offer  the  fort  and  government  to  him  as  their  Majesty's 
Governor,  but  that  they,  without  being  heard,  were  committed  to  the 
common  jail ;  that  the  next  morning  Captain  Leisler  sent  a  letter  to 
the  Governor  desiring  him  to  send  some  persons  to  receive  the  fort, 
which  he  did,  but  immediately  caused  said  Leisler  and  others  to  be 
committed  to  prison.1  Colonel  Sloughter,  in  his  official  report  to  the 
King,  says  he  sent  Major  Ingoldsby  to  demand  the  fort,  to  whom 
Leisler  replied  that  he  would  own  no  Governor  without  orders  from 
the  King  directed  to  him.  Sloughter  also  says  that  Leisler  sent  a  man 
out  that  night  to  identify  him  and  make  sure  that  he  was  Colonel 
Sloughter;  that  he  then  demanded  the  fort  from  Leisler  a  second 
time,  and  that  he  refused  it ;  that  only  when  preparations  were  made 
to  storm  it,  did  Leisler  send  out  the  two  persons  spoken  of  to  surren- 
der it. 

Ingoldsby  marched  into  the  fort.  Some  of  Leisler's  men  threw 
The  fort  down  their  arms,  and  without  further  opposition  he  relin- 
tosiougbT1  quished  the  command.  Sloughter  issued  a  commission  at 
ter-  once  for  the  trial  of  him  and  his  Council  for  murder  and 

treason.  The  trial  immediately  followed.  It  has  become  one  of  the 
celebrated  cases  in  our  history.  Six  of  the  prisoners  pleaded  in  form. 
Leisler  and  Milborne,  his  son-in-law,  refused  to  plead  until  the  court 
would  decide  whether  the  King's  letter  of  July  30, 1689,  had  not  given 
Leisler  formal  authority.  The  court  would  not  go  into  this  question, 
but  referred  it  to  the  Governor  and  Council.  They  replied  that  the 
King's  letter  and  the  papers  with  it  gave  no  power  or  direction  to  the 
Leisler.  Leisler  and  Milborne  still  refused  to  plead, 
a^ter  a  tri&l  °f  eight  days,  they  and  six  others  of  Leis- 
triai.  jer's  Council  were  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  death. 

Dudley,  a  Massachusetts  man,  whom  the  king  had  made  judge,  pre- 
1  Administration  of  Leisler.  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  1868. 


1691.] 


EXECUTION  OF  LEISLER. 


23 


sided  at  the  trial  and  pronounced  sentence.  The  Governor,  by  the 
advice  of  the  judges,  I'eprieved  all  the  prisoners  until  the  king's 
pleasure  was  known. 

This  was  on  the  20th  of  April,  1691.  The  whole  picture  is  a 
wretched  web-work  woven  by  men  who  were  wild  with  the  excite- 
ments of  religious  bigotry  and  the  hot  rivalries  of  race,  in  the  narrow 
confines  of  a  petty  seaport,  far  from  their  chiefs,  and  jealous  of 
their  privileges.  The  histoi-ian  who  traces  it  feels  all  along  that 
even  thus  far  it  might  all  have  dropped  into  the  oblivion  to  which  the 
most  of  such  wretch- 
ed broils  belong,  but 
for  the  terrible  blun- 
der made  a  few 
weeks  later. 

Sloughter  called, 
as  he  had  been  bid- 
den, the  first  regu- 
lar Assembly  sum- 
moned by  a  royal 
governor.  The  prov- 
ince was  more  wild 
than  ever  in  its  dread 
of  the  papists,  under 
the  horrible  lessons 
taught  on  the  fron- 
tier. But  the  As- 
sembly was  chosen 
wholly  in  the  inter- 
est of  the-party 
whom  Leisler  had 
ousted ;  and  it  had 
captured,  as  a  mod- 
ern phrase  has  it,  In- 
goldsby  and  Slough- 


ter.      All    the   men 


Sloughter  signing   Leisler's   Death-warrant. 


whom  Leisler  had 

deposed  from  authority  were  now  ready  to  take  their  revenge.  On 
the  one  hand  petitions  for  Leisler's  pardon  were  pressed  on  the 
Governor.  Counter-petitions  for  his  execution  came  in,  some  of 
them  even  from  women.  Bayard,  of  kin  to  Leisler  by  marriage, 
pressed  Sloughter,  who  was  his  guest,  to  carry  out  the  sentence. 
"  Tradition  says  that  when  no  other  means  could  prevail  with  him, 
a  sumptuous  feast  was  prepared,  to  which  Colonel  Sloughter  was 


24  NEW  YORK   UNDER  THE   ENGLISH.  [CHAP.  I. 

invited.  When  his  reason  was  drowned  in  his  cups  the  entreaties 
sioughter  °f  tne  company  prevailed  on  him  to  sign  the  death-warrant, 
and  before  he  recovered  his  senses  the  prisoners  were  exe- 
cuted." 1  This  was  on  the  16th  of  May,  1691,  nearly  two 
years  after  Leisler  had  assumed  the  government.  On  that  day  Leisler 
and  Milborne  were  hanged,  and  their  bodies  were  then  beheaded,  in 
the  presence  of  a  crowd  of  indignant  people. 

Sioughter  himself  died  suddenly  on  the  23d  of  July.  There  were 
suspicions  that  he  had  been  poisoned,  but  a  medical  examination  gave 
no  color  to  them.  It  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  the  sudden  death 
of  such  men.  Within  three  years,  on  the  application  of  Leisler's  son 
at  London,  the  whole  question  as  to  his  father's  guilt  was  argued  be- 
fore a  committee  of  the  House  of  Lords,  the  attainder  pronounced  on 
him  was  reversed  by  Parliament  after  full  discussion,  and  such  repa- 
ration as  money  could  give  was  made  to  his  family,  for  the 


verged  by  charges  which  his  private  estate  had  met  in  his  conduct  of 
Lords.  the  administration.  Bellomont,  who  succeeded  him  after 
some  years  as  Governor  of  New  York,  made  no  scruple  in  saying  that 
the  evidence  on  the  trial  convinced  him  that  Leisler  was  murdered 
judicially.  That  he  would  have  been  more  prudent  had  he  surrend- 
ered his  command  to  Ingoldsby,  the  event  has  proved.  That  he 
should  have  yielded  to  Sioughter,  at  the  moment  he  knew  who 
Sioughter  was,  is  certain.  That  he  was  unjustly  charged  with  mur- 
der and  treason  was  the  decision  of  the  English  Parliament,  and  such 
will  probably  be  the  verdict  of  history.2 

1  Smith's  History  of  New  York. 

2  The  student  interested  in  Leisler's  rule  and  in  his  fate  must  read  iiot  only  the  papers  in 
the  Colonial  Documents,  but  the  invaluable  collection  in  the  New  York  Historical  Society's 
Collections  for  the  year  1868. 


"3 1  .       ts >:• 


Signature  of  Jacob  Leisler. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ROYAL  GOVERNORS   UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY. 

COLONIAL  POLICY  OF  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.  —  GOVERNOR  FLETCHER  OF  NEW 
YORK.  —  His  VISIT  TO  CONNECTICUT.  —  RENEWAL  OF  HOSTILITIES  WITH  THE 
FRENCH  AND  INDIANS.  —  SCIIUYLER'S  EXPEDITION.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE 
EARL  OF  BELLOMONT.  —  PREVALENCE  OF  PRIVATEERING  AND  PIRACY.  —  CAPTAIN 
KIDD'S  ADVENTURES.  —  LORD  CORNIH;RY,  GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YOKK  AND  NEW 
JERSEY.—  EAST  AND  WEST  JERSEY  UNITED  AND  PROPRIETARY  GOVERNMENT 
ENDED. —  CONTROVERSY  BETWEEN  CORNBURY  AND  THE  NEW  JERSEY  ASSEMBLY. — 
GOVERNORS  LOVELACE,  INGOLDSBY,  AND  HUNTER. —  PORT  ROYAL  TAKEN  BY  THE 
ENGLISH.  —  PROPOSED  INVASION  OF  CANADA.  —  NOVA  SCOTIA  CEDED  BY  THE 
FRENCH.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOVERNOR  BDRNET. 

SLOUGHTER  had  been  governor  only  four  months  at  the  time  of  his 
death.    Except  for  the  melancholy  tragedy  which  marked  his  adminis- 
tration, it  is  remem- 
bered only  for  a  visit 
to  Albany  and   the 
Mohawk    River, 
when     he    renewed 

the  treaties  of  friend-  Signature  of  Retcher 

ship    with    the   Iro- 

quois,   and  succeeded   in  detaching  the   Mohawks   from  the   French. 
The  Chief  Justice,  Dudley,  would  have  been  his  temporary  successor, 
as  the  senior  member  of  the  Council,  had  he  not  been  ab-  Appoint. 
sent  in   the  West   Indies.      Captain   Ingoldsby   for  a  brief  J^bOTM 
period  discharged  the  duties  of  that  office,  but  was  relieved   K°Terilor- 
in  August,  1692,  by  the  arrival  of  Benjamin  Fletcher  from  England 
with  a  commission  from  the  King. 

The  Whig  party,  and  William  and  Mary  whom  that  party  led  to 
the  throne  of  England,  understood  as  Avell  as  any  people  in  the  world 
of  that  day,  how  to  use  those  phrases  which  denounced  tyranny  and 
asserted  the  rights  of  Englishmen.  But,  as  has  been  often  remarked, 
this  oligarchy  —  for  it  was  nothing  more  —  was  quite  as  willing 
to  use  the  results  of  the  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts,  as  if  that  tyranny 
had  been  their  own.  When  Mather  and  Phips  were  in  England, 
pleading  for  the  restoration  of  the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  Somers 


26      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CHAP.  II. 

was  as  ready  as  any  Tory  lawyer  would  have  been,  to  instruct  them 
that  the  crown  could  take  no  steps  backward.  In  his  gov- 
ernment of  the  new  province  of  New  York  the  new  King 
did  as  his  predecessor  would  have  done.  The  Governor 
was  instructed  to  send  home  all  laws  for  approval ;  he  was 
directed  to  introduce  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  among  Presbyte- 
rians, Huguenots,  and  Dutchmen,  where  perhaps  James  II.  would 
have  been  glad  to  introduce  a  mass-book  ;  he  was  to  take  a  salary 
of  .£600  a  year  from  the  colony  revenue,  accepting  no  gift  from  the 
Assembly  unless  the  King  permitted  ;  and  he  was  to  send  to  the 

King  a  list  of  prominent  persons 
from  whom  the  Governor's  Council 
would  be  named.  The  Stuarts 
would  hardly  have  found  any- 
thing to  change  in  this  scheme  for 
colonial  administration. 

William  and  Mary's  first  ap- 
pointments, also,  were  such  as  re- 
flected little  credit  on  their  advis- 
ers. It  must  be  remembered  that 
New  York  Avas  more  distant  in 
time  from  England  than  any  of  her 
colonies  are  to-day  ;  that  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  city  was  hardly  four, 
thousand  ;  that  besides  the  city 
were  ''  only  Long  Island  and  some 
other  small  islands,  Zoptis,  Albany, 

and  the  limitts  thereof," — to  borrow  from  one  of  the  Council's  dec- 
larations of  its  weakness.  If  one  considers  how  little  care  is  given 
at  this  time  by  the  most  careful  ministry  to  the  selection  of  a  co- 
lonial governor  for  ten  thousand  people  on  the  other  side  of  the 
world,  it  is  easy  to  understand  why  the  new-created  Whig  monarchy 
of  William  and  Mary  was  as  indifferent  as  it  seemed  to  be  in  the 
choice  of  its  representative  in  New  York. 

No  more  striking  proof,  for  example,  could  be  given  of  the  careless- 
ness with  which  colonial  affairs  were  managed  than  the  power  be- 
stowed upon  Fletcher,  who  was  not  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary 
ability,  and  of  rather  less  than  ordinary  good  character.  His  commis- 
sion gave  him  the  command  of  the  militia  of  the  New  England  colo- 
nies as  well  as  his  own.  But  Sir  William  Phips,  when  appointed 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  was  also,  by  his  commission,  made  com- 
mander-in-chief  in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  Yet  both  these 
colonies  were  under  governments  of  their  own  in  accordance  with  their 


1693.] 


GOVERNOR   FLETCHER   OF  NEW  YORK. 


27 


charters,  and  neither  of  them  was  likely  to  submit  quietly  to  any 
assumption  of  authority  within  their  borders  by  either  Phips  Conflict  of 
or  Fletcher.     It  was  thought  necessary,  for  the  safety  of  all  a^°^y 
the  colonies  against  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  that  there  provincial 

•'•'"•'  i  uui       militia. 

should  be  somewhere  exclusive  command  over  the  whole 
body  of  provincial  militia.  The  heedless  appointment  of  two  com- 
manders-in-chief  would  have  necessarily  defeated  that  purpose,  even 
had  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  been  disposed  to  submit  to  the 
orders  of  any  other  governor  than  their  own.  Phips  and  Fletcher 
quarrelled  with  each  other,  and  both  quarrelled  with  Treat  of  Con- 
necticut. That  colony  sent  General 
Fitz-John  Winthrop  to  England  to 
complain  to  the  King  of  the  vio- 
lation of  their  rights  under  the 
charter.  So  strong  was  the  feeling 
of  her  people,  that  twenty-two 
hundred  of  her  three  thousand 
freemen  assembled  to  give  pop- 
ular sanction  to  Winthrop's  mis- 
sion. Rhode  Island  was  no  less 
determined  to  withstand  Phips's 
attempt  to  displace  her  militia  of- 
ficers, and  also  sent  an  agent  — 
Mr.  Almy  —  to  England  with  a 
protest  against  this  assumption  of 
power  b)i  the  Massachusetts  Gov- 
ernor. 

But  Connecticut  was  quite  capable   of   defending  her  own  rights 
without  waiting  for  help  from  the  King.     Fletcher  appeared 
in  Hartford  in  October,  1693,  and  ordered  the  militia  under  Twits  con- 

,  T  ,       ,  111111  •  •  necticut. 

arms.  He  assured  the  Assembly  that  he  had  no  intention 
of  exercising  any  undue  authority  over  the  colony,  and  in  proof  he 
offered  the  command  of  the  troops  to  Governor  Treat,  as  his  lieuten- 
ant. The  Assembly  were  equally  determined  that  he  should  exercise 
no  authority  at  all,  whether  he  intended  it  or  not ;  and  Treat  declined 
to  be  appointed  second  in  command  where  he  was  already  commander- 
in-chief. 

The  grim  humor  of  the  sturdy  Puritans  of  Connecticut  again 
showed  itself  as  it  had  more  than  once  before  in  recent  years  in 
resisting  usurpation,  or  what  they  believed  to  be  so.  The  militia 
were  allowed  to  muster  at  Hartford,  apparently  to  give  to  Fletcher's 
pretences  a  practical  answer  which  could  not  be  misunderstood.  He 
ordered  his  commission  and  instructions  to  be  read  to  the  troops. 


Queen   Mary. 


28      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CHAP.  II. 

Captain  Wadsworth  was  in  command  in  front  of  the  ranks,  and,  as 
some  there  remembered,  he  was  not  afraid  of  governors.  When  the 
reading  began,  he  gave  the  order,  "Beat  the  drums!"  Their  rattle 
completely  drowned  the  voice  of  Captain  Bayai'd,  —  Captain  Nicholas 
Bayard,  of  New  York.  Governor  Fletcher  commanded  silence.  The 
reading  recommenced,  when  Wadsworth  shouted,  lk  Drum  !  drum  !  T 
say."  "  Silence !  silence  !  "  cried  the  Governor.  "  Drum  !  drum  ! 


The  Reading  of  Fletcher's  Commission. 

• 

I  say,"  repeated  the  captain.  Then,  turning  to  Fletcher,  he  added, 
with  a  fine  disregard  of  the  present  facts,  but  a  keen  perception  of  his 
duty  to  Connecticut,  "  If  I  am  interrupted  again,  I  will  make  the 
sun  shine  through  you  in  a  moment !  "  No  further  attempt  was 
made  to  resume  the  reading,  and  such  was  the  evident  spirit  of  the 
crowd,  that  the  Governor  and  his  suite  thought  it  prudent  to  quit 
Hartford  with  what  dignity  was  still  left  them. 

Fletcher    and    Phips    both   claimed    Martha's  Vineyard,  and  with 
equal  heat  promised  each  other  to  meet  there  in  arms  in  the  spring 


1693.]       HOSTILITIES  WITH    THE    FRENCH  AND   INDIANS.  29 

of  1693 ;  but  when  the  spring  came,  each  was  otherwise  engaged. 
Fletcher's  principal  occupation,  according  to  Bellomont  his  successor, 
was  rifling  the  revenue,  and  in  particular,  dealing  with  privateers  and 
pirates,  to  whom  he  sold  licenses,  quite  indifferent  how  they  were 
used.  Under  his  sway  New  York  became,  as  Bellomont  says,  "  a  nest 
of  pirates." 

The  Governor,  however,  did  not  altogether  neglect  his  public  duties. 
So  long  as  Count  Frontenac  was  governor  of  Canada,  no  Eng-  Renewed 
lish  colony  on  the  border  had  leisure  to  rest  for  an  instant  J^"anand 
without  alarm.     He  was  every  inch  a  soldier,  and  even  in  his  ho8tllltie8- 
old  age,  active  and  adventurous.     The  savage  attacks  made  on  the 
New  England  frontier  have  been  described  in  another  chapter.1     The 
Mohawk  villages,  and  Albany  itself,  were  to  renew  the  terrors  of  the 
capture  of  Schenectady. 

On  Wednesday,  the  8th  of  February,  1693,  three  years  after  the 
massacre  of  Schenectady,  the  settlers  of  that  village  were  aroused  by 
the  report  that  an  expedition  of  French  and  Christian  Indians  had  ar- 
rived on  the  upper  Mohawk.  The  news  was  sent  at  once  to  Albany, 
and  the  next  day  Schenectady  was  reinforced  by  a  troop  of  horse, 
soon  followed  by  Major  Peter  Schuyler,  who  took  command.  On  his 
arrival  he  sent  messengers  to  warn  the  nearest  Mohawk  fort ;  but 
these  returned  without  being  able  to  cross  the  river.  On  Friday  a 
party  of  observation  brought  the  news  that  two  of  the  three  Mohawk 
towns  were  already  in  the  hands  of  the  French.  On  Saturday  an 
advance  party  of  fifty  was  sent  out  to  feel  the  enemy  and  build  a 
fort  of  observation.  They  heard  firing  at  the  nearest  Mohawk  town. 
When  the  news  that  the  enemy  were  so  near  came  to  Albany,  the 
commander  there  collected  a  hundred  men  and  sent  them  on  Sunday 
to  Schenectady.  With  these  and  the  Schenectady  detach- 
ment,  in  all  about  three  hundred  men,  Major  Schuyler 
marched  on  Monday  afternoon,  but  too  late  to  help  the  two  Mohawk 
towns.  These  had  been  surprised  by  their  Christian  kinsmen  on 
succeeding  nights,  and  the  inhabitants  killed  or  captured,  men, 
women,  and  children.  It  is  said  that  the  French  tried  to  keep  their 
Indians  to  a  promise  they  had  made  of  killing  all  their  prisoners,  but 
that,  more  humane  than  faithful,  they  refused.2 

After  burning  the  towns  the  allies  had  turned  to  a  jubilant,  victo- 
rious return  to  Canada.  Schuyler  by  a  quick  night  march  reached, 
early  on  Tuesday  morning,  the  block-house  built  on  Saturday;  the 
enemy,  it  was  said,  were  within  eight  miles,  and  a  large  party  of 
friendly  Indians  were  coming  from  the  upper  river.  He  sent  out 
scouts  towards  the  enemy  and  also  a  demand  to  Albany  for  more  sup- 

1  See  voL  ii.,  chap,  xviii.  2  Parkmun's  Frontenac. 


30      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CHAP.  II. 

plies  to  feed  the  reinforcements.  These  scouts,  apparently  without 
the  knowledge  of  Sclmyler,  gave  the  enemy  the  surprising  information 
that  peace  had  been  declared,  and  that  Schuyler  wanted  only  to  par- 
ley. At  this  the  Indians  refused  to  go  further,  despite  the  prayers 
of  the  French,  but  built  themselves  a  log  fort  where  they  prepared  to 
wait  for  the  overtures  of  peace.  The  French,  unwilling  and  afraid  to 
desert  them,  were  constrained  to  stay  as  well. 

On  Wednesday  Schuyler  was  joined  by  his  reinforcement  of  about 
three  hundred  Indians,  men  and  boys,  and,  in  the  afternoon,  he  cau- 
tiously inarched  ten  miles  on  the  track  of  the  enemy,  without  meet- 
ing them.  The  next  morning  he  marched  ten  miles  further,  when 
one  of  the  Oneidas  met  him  who  had  been  sent  by  the  French  to  gain 
over  the  Mohawks  to  their  side.  He  told  Schuyler  of  the  encamp- 
ment of  the  French.  Sending  back  information  of  this  to  Schenec- 
tady,  Schuyler  again  pushed  on  two  miles,  when  the  news  was  con- 
firmed by  an  escaped  prisoner.  Advancing  to  a  favorable  position  he 
built  a  fortified  camp  where  he  passed  the  night.  On  Fri- 
overtakes  day  morning  his  scouts  brought  him  information  that  the 

the  enemy.  » 

enemy  were  but  a  mile  distant.  Breaking  camp  he  marched 
forward  till  he  came  in  sight  of  them.  At  this  he  gave  orders  to 
engage,  risking  his  five  hundred  and  fifty  men  against  the  rumored 
seven  hundred  protected  by  a  log  fort.  But  here  his  Indians  failed 
him.  They  insisted  on  building  a  counter-fort,  and  he,  like  his  French 
opponent,  was  compelled  to  assent. 

The  French,  not  receiving  the  promised  overtures  of  peace,  sallied 
out  three  times  against  him,  to  be  repulsed  each  time.  It  then  be- 
gan to  snow,  and  both  parties  retired  to  their  fortifications,  and  passed 
the  night  in  great  discomfort,  the  Albany  troops  suffering  from  hun- 
Retreatof  ger  as  well  as  from  cold.  The  next  morning  a  deserter 
theFreuch.  brougb.t,  in  news  that  the  enemy  were  packing  up  for  flight, 
and  scouts  venturing  up  to  the  fort  announced  that  they  were  gone. 
Schuyler  wished  to  march  immediately  in  pursuit,  but  his  men  refused 
to  move  till  provisions  should  arrive.  He  therefore  remained  in  camp 
all  day,  merely  sending  out  a  party  of  observation. 

On  Sunday,  at  ten,  the  convoy  arrived,  and  when  the  men  had  been 
served  with  their  biscuits  they  were  sent  after  the  enemy.  They 
inarched  quickly,  and  at  four  the  news  was  sent  from  the  front  that 
the}7  had  come  up  with  them.  No\v  again,  however,  the  Indians  re- 
fused to  move,  their  reason  being  that  the  French  threatened  to  kill 
all  the  prisoners  if  they  were  attacked.  After  an  hour's  pleading 
they  were  persuaded,  but  too  late ;  the  enemy  had  crossed  the  Hud- 
son on  a  "  flake  "  of  ice  and  were  beyond  pursuit. 

Schuyler  would  have  followed  still,  but  the  men  were  worn  out  and 


1698.] 


FLETCHER  RECALLED. 


31 


hungry,  and  the  Indians  still  mutinous.     He  therefore  turned  back, 
and  reached  Schenectady  on  Tuesday,  a  fortnight  after  the 
first  alarm.     Here  he  found   Governor   Fletcher,  who  had   schuyier's 
heard  the  news  at  New  York  on  Sunday,  the  12th,  and  had  ' 
immediately  collected  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  and  set  sail  up  the 
river.     The  voyage  had  taken  three  days,  and  he  arrived  too  late. 

After  this  raid  Frontenac's  party 
were  not  successful.     Their  provis- 
ions, left  in  de"p8t  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain,    were   spoiled, 
and    the    ice    failed 
them.      They   broke 
into  small    parties, 
and    in    dreadful 
straits  for   food,   re- 
turned   to   Canada 
only    after    severe 
hardships. 

Fletcher's  laurels, 
such  as  they  were, 
earned  in  this  expe- 
dition, were  all  that 
belong  to  his  admin- 
istration. Its  after 
history,  till  1698,  is 
merely  the  record 
of  his  intrigues  for 
money,  and  his  quar- 
rels with  assemblies. 
He  was  recalled  that 
year  to  answer  many 
charges  of  m  a  1  a  d- 
ministration  brought 
against  him. 

The  Earl  of  Bellomont  succeeded  him.  His  appointment,  with  en- 
larged powers,  had  been  talked  of  for  two  or  three  years.  A 
party  of  some  strength,  comprising  men  of  influence  in  Eng- 
land  and  the  colonies,  had  urged  a  consolidated  government 
of  all  the  northern  provinces,  like  that  which  had  existed  un-  New 
der  Andros.  But  it  was  found  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  shire- 
to  reconcile  all  their  rival  interests.  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island, 
governing  themselves  under  their  recovered  charters,  were  peculiarly 
hard  to  deal  with.  Jealous  of  their  rights,  which  agents  in  London 


Schuyler  and  the  Scouts. 


The  Eari  of 


32      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.    [CHAP.  II. 

carefully  watched  over,  they  never  willingly  submitted  to  any  law 
meant  to  be  of  general  application ;  much  less  were  they  patient  and 
obedient  when  conformity  implied  subordination.  In  matters  of  trade 
they  consulted  their  own  intei'ests,  without  much  regard  to  the  interests 
of  other  colonies,  or  to  royal  regulations.  They  bought  where  they 
could  buy  cheapest,  and  sold  where  they  could  sell  dearest,  without 
asking  leave  of  either  Boston  or  New  York,  or  consulting  always  the 
orders  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  When  military  aid  was  needed  for  de- 
fence against  the  Indians  on  other  frontiers  than  their  own,  both  col- 
onies reserved  the  right  of  judging  for  themselves  of  their  ability  to 
meet  such  requisitions.  It  was  in  deference,  probably,  to  their  char- 
tered rights  and  independent  spirit,  that  Bellomont,  who  was  ap- 
pointed Governor  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Hampshire, 
was  only  made  Captain-general  over  the  military  foi'ces  of  the  two 
other  New  England  provinces  and  of  the  Jerseys. 

The  new  Governor  found  awaiting  him  in  New  York  every  kind  of 
irregularity  which  had  grown  up  under  Fletcher's  administration,  — 
frauds  upon  government,  systematic  violations  of  the  Navigation 
Laws,  and  the  whole  population  of  the  city  divided  by  a  bitter  feud 
between  the  Leisier  and  anti-Leisler  factions.  He  came  with  a  deter- 
mi  nation  to  break  up  piracy,  reestablish  legitimate  com- 
merce,  and  enforce  an  honest  collection  of  the  revenue.  To 
these  objects  he  devoted  himself  with  great  energy  and  zeal  during 
the  three  years  of  his  administration. 

Bellomont's  sympathies  were  known,  before  he  was  appointed  a 
provincial  governor,  to  be  with  the  Leisier  party.  As  a  member  of  a 
Parliamentary  Committee  he  had  heard  all  the  testimony  in  regard  to 
ins  B.vmpa-  tne  execution  of  Leisier,  and  had  said  emphatically,  that  "he 
£[?1*j.th  tbe  was  murdered,  and  barbarously  murdered."  The  new  Gov- 
party-  ernor  used  his  influence  at  once  over  the  New  York  Assem- 

bly to  procure  an  act  of  indemnity  for  the  family  of  that  unfortunate 
victim  of  party  hate ;  and  within  a  few  months  of  Bellomont's  arrival 
the  bodies  of  both  Leisier  and  Milborne  —  which  had  been  interred 
in  private  ground  —  were  taken  up  and  reburied,  with  public  solem- 
nities, in  the  Dutch  Church,  and  their  hatchments  hung  upon  its 
walls. 

The  adherents  of  the  murdered  Governor  were  those  who  had  ear- 
nestly believed  in  the  wisdom  of  that  revolution  which  had  called 
William  and  Mary  to  the  throne  ;  it  was  their  aim  to  maintain  relig- 
ious freedom,  and  to  secure  for  the  people  the  right,  as  far  as  possible, 
of  popular  government.  Bellomont's  decided  course  in  favor  of  the 
popular  party  meant,  perhaps,  more  to  them  than  he  intended.  But 
he  could  have  done  nothing  more  certain  to  secure  the  applause  of 


THE   RE-RURTAL   OF   LETSLER 


1698.]      ADMINISTRATION   OF  THE   EARL   OF  BELLOMONT.  33 

the  larger  portion  of  the  people  than  this  support  of  the  Leisler  party. 
It  justified  the  popular  abhorrence  of  a  tyrannical  and  cruel  act,  and 
was  hailed  as  the  promise  of  a  just  and  tranquil  government. 

The  great  object  of  Bellomont's  administration,  and  to  this  he 
devoted  himself  with  almost  passionate  zeal,  was  the  sup- 
pression of  that  form  of  piracy  which  in  the  guise  of  priva- 
teering had  almost  supplanted  honest  commerce  in  nearly  all  the 
colonial  seaports.  The  success  of  the  English  privateers  in  the  long 
wars  with  France  bred  a  race  of  men  —  the  successors  to  the  bucca- 
neers —  who  cruised  in  all  latitudes,  and  became  quite  indifferent 
whether  the  unfortunate  ship  which  they  captured  was  of  one  coun- 
try or  another.  The  ease  with  which  commissions  were  granted  for 
privateering  increased  the  evil.  The  governor  of  a  province  like 
New  York,  when  it  had  not  ten  thousand  inhabitants,  had  no  doubts  as 
to  his  right  to  commission  a  rover  who  might  never  return  to  the 
harbor  of  New  York,  and  might  be  a  terror  in  all  seas. 

It  was  under  such  a  system  of  naval  lawlessness  that  New  York  be- 
came a  "  nest  of  pirates."  The  name  of  William  Kidd  or  Kyd  Captaln 
has  become  prominent  among  these  because  political  rancor  Kljd' 
in  England  seized  on  his  association  with  some  of  the  great  Whig 
leaders.  But  Kidd  was  only  one  of  a  class,  —  a  man  whose  guilt 
was  probably  less  than  that  of  other  men  of  his  calling  ;  but  he  is  re- 
membered where  others  are  forgotten,  because  he  confided  too  much 
in  his  great  associates.  His  name  first  appears  in  the  troubles  of 
New  York,  in  the  midst  of  the  excitement  when  Leisler  held  the 
fort  against  Ingoldsby.  Then  "  this  blaspheming  privateer  "  as  he  is 
called,  apparently  with  approval,  brought  his  vessel  up  to  the  town. 
to  assist  Ingoldsby's  party,  and  in  their  despatches  lie  is  commended 
for  it.  For  this  timely  service  he  afterwards  received  a  grant  of  a 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds  from  the  anti-Leisler  Assembly. 

In  1695,  Col.  Robert  Livingston  of  New  York  appeared  before 
the  Commissioners  of  Trade  in  London,  to  press  against  Governor 
Fletcher  a  charge  for  overawing  the  elections  in  New  York.  Kkl(1  rom. 
Among  the  witnesses  against  Fletcher  called  by  Livingston 
was  Captain  Kidd,  who  was  then  in  London.  Livingston's  Pirates- 
confidence  in  him  was  such  that  he  recommended  him  to  Bello- 
mont  as  a  proper  person  to  be  commissioned  against  pirates;  —  the 
English  government  being  already  eager  to  break  up  the  system  of 
piracy,  and  Bellomont  having  been  already  suggested  as  Governor  of 
New  York. 

Bellomont  acceded  to  the  proposal  and  a  joint-stock  company*  as 
we  should  now  call  it,  was  formed  for  the  outfit  of  the  Adventure 
Galley  to  be  placed  under  Kidd's  command.  Seiners,  Halifax, 

VOL.  III.  3 


the 


34      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CHAP.  II. 

Shrewsbury,  Romney,  and  Bellomont,  were  among  the  chief  sub- 
scribers ;  and  the  King  himself  was  to  receive  one  tenth  part  of  the 
profits  of  the  adventure.  The  agreement  provides  that  Kidd  should 
sail  in  search  of  pirates  who  had  left  America  with  intent  to  cruise 
in  the  Red  Sea  and  elsewhere.  Bellomont  and  his  friends  were  to 
provide  a  proper  ship  for  Kidd's  use,  paying  four  fifths  of  the  cost, 
while  Kidd  and  Livingston  paid  one  fifth.  The  crew  was  to  be  en- 
listed on  condition  of  receiving  for  their  service  not  more  than  one 
fourth  of  the  prizes  taken  from  pirates.  If  nothing  were  taken,  Kidd 
and  Livingston  were  to  return  the  cost  of  the  galley  before  March  21, 
1697.  Of  the  three  fourths  prize  money  after  the  crew  were  paid, 
Bellomont  for  the  subscribers  was  to  receive  four  fifths  and  Kidd  and 
Livingston  the  remaining  fifth.  The  King's  tenth  was  to  be  paid  by 
the  stockholders.  Kidd  was  bound  in  an  obligation  of  twenty  thousand 
pounds,  and  Livingston  in  a  similar  obligation  of  ten  thousand,  to 
fulfil  their  part  of  the  agreement.  The  royal  commission  authoriz- 
ing the  adventure  finally  passed  the  great  seal  on  the  26th  day  of 
January,  1695-96. 

Beside  giving  leave  to  cruise  against  the  French,  the  commission 
instructed  Kidd  to  seize  certain  notorious  pirates,  Tew,  Ireland,  Wake, 
and  Maze.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  expedition  was  supposed 
to  be  fitted  out  against  them. 

Captain  Kidd  sailed  for  New  York  in  April,  1696,  with  a  crew  of 
lie  sails  for  eighty  men,  taking  on  the  voyage  a  French  ship.  In  New 
NOW  York.  York  he  advertised  for  volunteers,  and  enlarged  his  crew  to 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  of  so  bad  repute  that,  after  the  issue 
of  his  adventures,  people  remembered  it  was  said  that  Kidd  would 
never  be  able  to  control  so  desperate  a  company. 

He  is  next  heard  of  at  Madagascar,  then  a  noted  rendezvous  for 
pirates,  where  they  made  themselves  secure  and  lived  in  barbaric  lux- 
ury. Kidd  had  cruised  about  for  nine  months  without  falling  in  with 
a  single  one  of  the  sea-roveis  whom  he  was  commissioned  to  suppress. 
It  was  disobedience  of  orders  to  leave  American  waters  for  this  dis- 
tant latitude,  but  in  Madagascar  he  hoped  for  such  good  fortune  as 
would  condone  his  disregard  of  instructions. 

But  not  a  single  pirate-vessel  was  there  in  the  ports  of  Madagascar. 
Then  Kidd  sailed  for  the  western  coast  of  Hindostan,  almost  in  de- 
spair at  his  bad  luck,  aggravated  now  by  scarcity  of  provisions.  He 
soon  fell  in  with  the  wreck  of  a  French  vessel  with  some  coin  on 
board,  and  with  this  he  made  purchases  that  relieved  his  immediate 
necessities.  But  still  not  a  pirate  was  overtaken.  Many  richly  laden 
Eastern  ships  were  met  with  which  the  eager  crew  urged  Kidd  to 
take.  He  resisted  until  they  fell  in  with  a  Mogul  fleet  under  Dutch 


1699.]  CAPTAIN  KIDD'S  ADVENTURES.  35 

and  English  convoy  ;  one  of  the  largest  of  the  merchantmen  he  at- 
tacked,  was  roughly  handled   and  repulsed.     His  position  He  turns 
now  was  worse  than  ever ;  he  had  virtually  fired  upon  the  piwte 
English  and  Dutch  flags,  and  that  offence  must  be  atoned  for  by  suc- 
cess at  any  hazard.     He  was  now  a  pirate  by  force  of  circumstances, 
and  his  own  inability  to  resist  their  pressure. 

In  August,  1698,  when  he  was  first  heard  from  in  New  York,  news 
came  that  he  had  taken  an  East  Indiaman,  called  the  Quedagh  Mer- 
chant, and  transferred  his  stores  from  the  Adventure  to  that  ship,  burn- 
ing his  old  vessel.    Other  piracies  he  also  committed  ;  many  of  his  crew 
nevertheless  deserted  him  for  service  more  to  their  minds,  Kidd  still 
professing  to  act  under  the  King's  commission,  and  to  reserve  a  large 
share  of  his  plunder  for  the  noble  subscribers,  through  whose 
influence  he  hoped  that  his  offences  would  be  overlooked,   sued  for  his 
But  the  East  India  Company  had  already  given  notices  of  his 
several  piracies,  particularly  of  the  Quedagh  Merchant,  and  orders  had 
been  issued  for  his  arrest. 

In  May,  1699,  he  was  heard  from  at  Nevis.  Soon  after  he  was 
in  Delaware  Bay  with  forty  men  in  a  sloop  ;  thence  he  "sailed  into 
the  Sound  of  New  York  and  set  Goods  on  Shore  at  several  Places 
there,  and  afterward  went  to  Rhode  Island."  From  Block  Island, 
where  his  sloop  lay,  he  sent  a  message  to  the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  who 
was  at  Boston.  He  told  him  that  he  had  left  the  Quedagh  Merchant 
in  a  creek  in  Hispaniola,  with  goods  of  great  value.  On  board  his 
own  sloop  he  had,  he  said,  goods  worth  .£10,000.  As  to  the  ci'imes 
alleged  against  him  —  of  these,  he  said,  he  could  prove  his  innocence. 
Bellomont  showed  this  letter  to  the  Massachusetts  Council.  With 
their  approval,  he  wrote  to  Kidd  "  assuring  him  that  if  he  would 
make  his  innocence  appear,  he  might  safely  come  to  Boston." 

The  audacity  of  Kidd's  appearance  in  Boston  is  wholly  accounted 
for  .by  the  existence  of  this  safe  conduct  from  Bellomont. 
Robert  Livingston  came  to  Boston  also.    He  demanded  from    Boston  and 
Bellomont  the  surrender  of  his  bond  for  £10,000,  and  said 
that  unless  this  were  given  up  Kidd  would  never  bring  in  the  Queddgh 
Merchant  and  the  wealth  she  contained.    Bellomont  says  he  construed 
this  as  a  threat,  and  on  the  6th  of  June,  six  days  after  Kidd's  arri- 
val, he  arrested  him  at  the  Council  Board.     Kidd  drew  his  sword,  but 
was  secured  and  sent  to  the  Boston  jail.    While  in  jail  he  offered  to 
Bellomont  to  go,  as  a  prisoner,  to  the  West  Indies,  and  bring  back 
£40,000  of  treasure  which  would  else  be  lost.    But  Bellomont  refused 
the  offer. 

The  Admiralty  received  the  news  of  Kidd's  arrest  in  September, 
and  on  the  12th  sent  a  vessel  for  him  and  his  crew.  She  was  driven 


36 


ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CHAP.  IT. 


back  by  stress  of  weather,  and  Kidd  did  not  finally  arrive  in  England 
Kidd  t»ken  a  prisoner  until  April,  1700.  The  delay  was  thought  to  be 
tri5«nSd>  intentional  by  the  critics  of  the  Whigs.  He  was  kept  in 
hanged.  prison  a  year.  On  the  15th  of  April,  1701,  when  the  great 
Tory  prosecution  against  Somers,  the  Whig  Chancellor,  was  begun 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  one  of  the  charges  against  him  was  his 


Arrest  of  Kidd. 


connection  with  Kidd.  Those 
charges  never  came  to  trial. 
But  under  the  same  govern- 
ment and  with  a  pertinacity 
which  belonged  to  the  same 
scheme,  Kidd  was  tried  for 
murder,  and  another  bill  was 
found  for  piracy  against  him  and  several  of  his  crew. 

The  report  of  his  trial  is  one  of  the  melancholy  instances  of 
the  unjust  administration  in  those  days  of  English  criminal  law. 
The  evidence  brought  against  him  justifies  no  sentence  but  one  of 
manslaughter,  resulting  from  the  death  of  Moore,  his  gunner,  from  a 
blow  given  in  a  brawl,  in  which  there  could  have  been  no  previous 
intention  to  kill,  so  far  as  appeared  from  the  testimony.  But  Kidd 
was  found  guilty  of  murder.  The  trial  for  piracy  followed.  Kidd 
claimed  that  the  Quedagh  Merchant  was  sailing  under  a  French  com- 
mission when  he  took  her,  and  that  her  capture  was,  therefore,  justi- 
fied. But  this  commission,  if  it  existed,  was  among  Bellomont's 


1701.]  CAPTAIN  KIDD'S   SENTENCE.  37 

papers,  and  Kidd  could  not  produce  it.     The  government  was  deter- 
mined to  have  him  hanged,  and  he  was  hanged. 

One  of  the  most  popular  of  seamen's  ballads  l  has  preserved  his 
name,  while  those  of  Tew  and  Bradish  and  Bellamy  are  well-nigh 
forgotten.  If  a  man  is  innocent  unless  he  is  proved  at  law  to  be 
guilty,  Kidd  must  be  regarded,  in  the  light  of  the  present 

,  .  i  i        TI         i  •  Injustice  of 

legal  ruling,  as  innocent  when  he  was  hanged.    But  his  stay  Kicurssen- 
in  the  East  was  extended  long  after  the   period  when  he 
promised  to  return.     The  capture  of   the  Quedagh  Merchant  in  no 
sense  fulfilled  the  object  for  which  he  was  sent,  and  the  stealth  and 
concealment  of  her  treasure  cannot  have  been  the  acts  of  innocent 
men.     On  the  other  hand  Bellomont's  correspondence,  now  fully  made 
public,  is  consistent  all  through.      He  unquestionably  believed  that 
the  original  purpose  had  been  abandoned,  and  he  did  not  dare,  there- 
fore, to  sully  his  hands  with  the  treasure  which  Kidd  gained  by  that 
course. 

Had  such  a  French  commission  existed  as  Kidd  pretended,  the  seiz- 
ure of  the  Quedagh  was  lawful,  and  four  fifths  of  .£40,000  of  treasure 
belonged  to  Bellomont  and  his  associates.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that, 
without  a  motive,  the  Governor  sacrificed  an  innocent  man,  and  gave 
up  wealth  which  was  large  to  him,  merely  in  obedience  to  the  pres- 
sure of  political  enemies.  The  true  verdict  is,  probably,  that  Kidd 
deserved  to  be  hanged,  though  never  found  guilty  by  a  fair  trial. 
It  is  to  be  observed  that  at  the  time  no  one  pretended  that  Kidd  was 
innocent.  The  utmost  that  the  critics  of  the  trial  maintained  was 
that  Bellomont  and  his  friends  were  also  guilty. 

Lord  Bellomont  died  in  March,  1701,  having  passed  about  one  half 
his  term  of  office  in  New  England.  To  his  administration  of  Death  of  Lord 


the  affairs  of  that  portion  of  his  government  we  shall  recur 

in  subsequent  pages.     At  the  time  of  his  death  Nanfan,  the  Lieuten- 

ant-governor, was  absent  from  New  York  ;  and  the  party  known  as 

the  "White  People"  —  the  "Black  People"  and  the  "  White  Ooutestbe. 

People"  had  become  the  designations  of  the  Leisler  and 

anti-Leisler  factions  —  seized  the  opportunity  for  an  attempt 

to  regain  possession  of  power.     The  timely  return  of  Nan-  New  York- 

fan,  however,  defeated  this  purpose,  and  the  leaders  were  signally  pun- 

ished.    Edward  Livingston,  who  was  one  of  them,  was  the  collector 

of  customs  and  receiver  of  quitrents.     The  Assembly  demanded  his 

accounts.     Whether  disposed  or  not  to  obey  this  order  it  was  out  of 

1  Strangely  enough,  in  the  ballad,  even  in  the  early  editions,  his  name  is  made  "  Robert 
Kidd."  William  Moore  the  guimer  is  rightly  named,  as  the  song  is  sung  in  the  forecastle 
to  this  day  :  — 

"  I  murdered  William  Moore, 

As  I  sailed,  as  I  sailed." 


38      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CHAP.  II. 


his  power  to  do  so,  for  his  papers  were  in  the  hands  of  Lord  Bello- 
mont's  widow,  who  had  gone  to  England.  The  Assembly  thereupon, 
whether  justly  or  not,  declared  him  a  defaulter,  and  confiscated  his 
property. 

Against  Bayard,  who  had  had  so  much  to  do  with  Leisler's  death, 
the  feeling  was  even  more  bitter  than  against  Livingston.     An  act, 

passed  while  Sloughter  was 
Governor,  making  it  treason 
"  to  disturb  the  peace,  good, 
or  quiet  of  the  province  by 
force  of  arms  or  otherwise/' 
was  largely  Bayard's  work. 
To  this  law  he  now  made  him- 
self liable  by  sending  to  Eng- 
land complaints  of  Nanfan's 
conduct  of  affairs.  He  was 
brought  to  trial  and  found 
guilty.  And  he  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  punished 
under  the  act  of  his  own  con- 
triving, had  not  a  new  Gov- 
ernor, Lord  Corn  bury,  arrived, 
whose  character  and  associa- 
tions led  him  into  immediate 
affiliation  with  what  in  our 
Queen  Anne.  time  would  be  called  the  con- 

servative party.  Bayard  and  his  friends  were  again  in  the  ascen- 
dency, and  Atwood,  who  had  presided  at  Bayard's  trial,  rather  with 
the  zeal  and  asperity  of  a  prosecuting  attorney  than  the  cool  impar- 
tiality of  a  judge,  thought  it  prudent  to  leave  the  province  for  his 
own  safety.1 

The  new  Governor,  Lord  Cornbury,  was  the  cousin  of  Queen  Anne  — 

who  came  to  the  throne  at  the  death  of  William  in  1702  —  and  the 

grandson  of  Hyde,  Lord  Clarendon.     He  was  simply  a  dis- 

bury  GOV-      reputable  profligate,  and  so  overwhelmed  with  debt  that  he 

eruor.  111  •    •11  ••  11-1  i 

could  only  escape  a  jail  by  quitting  the  kingdom.  As  he  was 
to  be  provided  for,  his  worthless  character  was  not  considered  a  dis- 
qualification for  a  colonial  governorship.  The  summer  of  his  arrival 
was  marked  by  a  dreadful  mortality  from  yellow  fever,  introduced 

1  A  tradition  is  preserved  that  Bayard  was  respited  from  time  to  time  by  the  payment  of 
money  to  Lieutenant-governor  Naufau.  But  his  children,  tired  at  last  of  these  costly  ap- 
peals to  their  filial  piety,  expostulated  with  their  father  for  not  consenting  to  be  hanged,  as 
the  cost  of  saving  him  would  come  to  be,  they  feared,  their  pecuniary  ruin.  —  Da  Simitiere, 
N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1868. 


1702.]  LORD    CORNBURY.  39 

from  the  West  Indies,  and  in  ten  weeks'  time  more  than  five  hundred 
of  the  population  were  swept  away.  Among  them  were  some  of  the 
most  distinguished  citizens,  but  the  Governor  escaped  by  retiring  to 
Jamaica  on  Long  Island. 

Cornbury  was  by  no  means  singular  among  colonial  governors,  in 
that  he  regarded  his  office  as  given  him  solely  that  he  might 

•    i_    i_-  IJT         TT  J  -i.      j     i.-  -ii.   j.i  Hischaracter. 

enrich  himself.  He  entered  upon  its  duties,  with  that  pur- 
pose, with  enthusiasm  and  success.  The  Assembly  was  persuaded  to 
appropriate  <£  1,500  under  a  pretence  of  fortifying  the  Narrows  at  the 
entrance  of  New  York  harbor,  in  anticipation  of  a  French  invasion. 
The  Narrows  remained  unfortified  and  the  Governor  was  the  richer 
by  <£  1,500.  The  lesson  was  not  lost  on  the  Assembly,  and  they  ap- 
pointed a  Treasurer  of  their  own,  who  was  to  see  that  future  appro- 
priations were  spent  in  accordance  with  their  intentions.  The  Gov- 
ernor resented  this  reflection  upon  his  conduct  and  interference  with 
his  will,  and  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  Crown.  It  was  a  substantial 
gain  to  the  cause  of  popular  rights  that  the  royal  authority  sustained 
the  action  of  the  Assembly.  The  incident  is  one  of  many  to  point 
the  truth  of  the  reflection,  that  it  was  ultimately  to  the  advantage  of 
America,  that  the  government  in  England  sent  profligate  and  worth- 
less men  to  be  colonial  governors.1 

Though  destitute  of  any  sense  of  public  or  of  private  virtue,  Corn- 
bury  was  not  the  less  zealous  on  behalf  of  the  Church.  It  was  a  zeal, 
however,  not  for  religion  but  for  the  established  Church  of  England 
as  a  part  of  the  State.  A  dissenter  was  to  him  intolerable  as  a  politi- 
cal freethinker  who  was  disloyal  to  the  State,  and  with  whom  there 
was  no  need  of  keeping  terms  of  either  justice  or  mercy.  When  driven 
from  New  York  to  Jamaica  by  the  prevalence  of  yellow  fever,  he  ob- 
tained by  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Hubbard,  the  Presbyterian  Pergecutloll 
minister,  possession  of  the  parsonage,  the  best  house  in  the  of  Dissentere 
town.  When  no  longer  needed  for  his  own  residence  he  delivered  it 
to  the  few  Episcopalians  of  the  village,  and  the  glebe  attached  was 
leased  for  the  support  of  their  church.  He  subsequently  forbade  that 
any  clergyman  or  school  teacher  should  preach  or  teach  except  by 
special  license.  By  his  persecution  of  two  Presbyterian  preach- 
ers, McKenzie  and  Hampton,  he  elevated  them  into  martyrs,  and 
aroused  a  resentment  which  appealed  to  the  love  of  religious  free- 
dom throughout  the  colonies. 

No  royal  governor  ever  made  himself  more  obnoxious  to  the  whole 
country.  The  ambitious  and  unscrupulous  Dudley,  who  was  at  this 
time  chief  magistrate  of  Massachusetts,  was  using  all  the  power 
which  his  office  gave  him,  and  all  the  influence  he  possessed  in  Eiig- 

1  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  State*. 


40     ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CHAP.  II. 

land,  to  destroy  the  charter  governments.  He  found  a  willing  ally  in 
Dudley  and  Cornbury.  Both  professed  to  wish  for  a  union  of  all  the 
uniteaj£Vinst  northern  colonies  under  a  single  governor.  Cornbury  wrote 
and'wiode1*  nome  "that  he  was  satisfied  this  vast  continent  which  might 
island.  ke  ma(je  very  useful  to  England,  if  right  measures  were 
taken,  would  never  be  so  till  all  the  proprietary  and  charter  govern- 
ments were  brought  under  the  crown."  The  immediate  purpose,  how- 
ever, of  the  two  Governors  was  that  Rhode  Island  should  be  annexed 
to  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  to  New  York ;  and  it  was  only  by 
the  utmost  diligence  of  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  the  agent  in  London  of 
Connecticut,  and  of  William  Penn,  who  then  represented  Rhode  Isl- 
and, that  the  design  was  defeated. 

The  Proprietors  of  East  and  West  Jersey  had  united,  in  1702,  in  a 
voluntary  surrender  to  the  Queen  of  their  right  of  civil  gov- 

Surrenderof  J       „          ,  ,    ,  =  . 

Proprietary  eminent.  Cornbury  was  appointed  by  a  separate  commis- 
in  the  jer-  siou  Governor  of  that  province  as  well  as  of  New  York,  for 
the  Jersey  Proprietors  did  not  intend,  in  consenting  to  re- 
ceive a  governor  from  the  crown,  to  surrender  their  provincial  inde- 
pendence. Each  province  retained  its  own  Assembly  and  was  governed 
by  its  own  laws.  But  Cornbury  resided  in  New  York,  making  only 
occasional  visits  to  Perth  Amboy  or  Burlington.  Even  a  governor 
conscientious  in  the  discharge  of  his  official  duty,  could  hai'dly  have 
failed,  in  thus  neglecting  the  inferior  province,  to  sacrifice  its  inter- 
ests. Cornbury,  who  was  not  conscientious,  and  who  looked  upon 
official  duty  as  only  a  means  for  the  furtherance  of  personal  ends, 
considered  New  Jersey  merely  as  an  outlying  possession  to  be  farmed 
for  his  benefit.  Ingoldsby  was  his  lieutenant-governor,  and  he  and 
other  favorites  ruled  New  Jersey  in  their  own  and  their  master's  in- 
terest, without  the  smallest  regard  to  the  rights  and  welfare  of  the 
people. 

In  New  Jersey,  as  in  the  other  colonies,  the  popular  party,  if  not 
the  stronger,  was  the  abler  party.  It  was  led  by  wise  and  bold  men, 
chief  among  them  Samuel  Jenings,  a  Quaker  pi'eacher,  —  who  had 
been  Governor  of  West  Jersey,  —  and  Lewis  Morris,  —  afterwards 
Governor,  —  a  nephew  of  Richard  Morris,  of  the  Manor  of  Morrisania, 
near  New  York.  Of  Jenings,  Cornbury  said,  he  "  had  impudence 
enough  to  face  the  Devil."  l  He  never  hesitated  to  face  Cornbury, 
whether  in  or  out  of  the  Assembly,  of  which  he  was  for  some  time 
Speaker,  with  calm  and  fearless  dignity. 

If  Cornbury  was  able  to  enforce  submission  to  harsh  and  arbitrary 
rule,  the  steady  resistance  of  such  men  as  these  did  not  permit  the 
rights  of  the  people  to  be  lost  sight  of.  It  was  easy  to  dissolve  an 

1  Smith's  History  of  New  Jersey. 


1707.] 


THE   GRIEVANCES   OF  NEW  JERSEY. 


41 


obstinate  Assembly,  and  not  impossible  to  create  another  more  com- 
pliant to  the  Governor's  will,  by  interfering  with  the  free-  Cornbury 
dom  of  elections,  and  excluding,  on  one  pretext  or  another,  £"t 'jersey 
members  who  could  not  be  relied  upon  to  do  his  bidding.  Assembl>- 
But  the  large  minority,  who  were  really  the  popular  representatives, 
could  be  neither  corrupted 
nor  silenced.     The  long  and 
sharp     controversies     be- 
tween   Cornbury    and    the 
Assemblies  are  a  significant 
evidence  of  the  spirit  of  the 
people,  and  the  insolent  con- 
tempt with  which  their  just 
and  dignified  remonstrances 
were  met  by  a  royal  gov- 
ernor.1 

In  an  address  of  the  As- 
sembly of  1707  it  is  said : 
"  It  Avere  to  be  wished  the 
affairs  of  New  York  would 
admit  the  Governor  oftener 
to  attend  those  of  New  Jer- 
sey, he  had  not  then  been 
unacquainted  with  our  Cornbury.' 

grievances;  and  we  are  in- 
clined to  believe  they  would  not  have  grown  to  so  great  a  number." 
These  grievances  are  recounted,  —  among  them  the  want  of 
a  due  administration  of  justice,  and  the  pardon  or  permitted  ances  of 
escape  of  convicted  murderers :  the  exorbitant  fees  of  courts, 
and  the  exaction  of  illegal  fees  generally ;  the  want  of  an  office  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Province,  and  of  a  Court  of  Probate,  in  the  Eastern 
Division,  whereby  one  half  the  people  were  compelled  to  take  long 
journeys  on  business  of  constant  occurrence  ;  the  keeping  of  the  pro- 
vincial records,  which  contained  all  the  evidence  of  titles  to  estates, 
by  a  person  who  was  not  even  a  resident  of  the  colony,  and  had  given 
no  security  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  his  trust ;  the  assumption  by 
the  Governor  of  the  right  of  granting  land-warrants,  which  belonged 
to  the  Proprietors  ;  the  evasion  of  quit-rents,  and  the  alleged  payment 
of  large  sums  of  money  to  the  Governor  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Assem- 

1  See  papers  relating  to  these  controversies  iu  full  in  Smith's  History. 

2  Lord  Cornbury  was  iu  the  habit  of  appearing  on  public  occasions,  and  even,  it  is  said, 
in  the  streets  of  New  York,  dressed  as  a  woman.    He  declared  that  it  was  proper  he  should 
be  so  clothed  the  more  fittingly  to  represent  his  sovereign  mistress.    The  picture  in  the  text 
is  from  an  original  portrait  in  the  Kensington  Museum,  London. 


42      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.    [CHAP.  II. 

bly  to  that  end;  the  granting  of  an  exclusive  privilege  —  history  has 
repeated  herself  in  our  time  in  this  form  of  New  Jersey  grievance  — 
to  cart  goods  across  the  province  between  Burlington  and  Amboy, 
then  the  only  practicable  route  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia ; 
and,  add  the  remonstrants,  ik  we  cannot  but  be  very  uneasy  when  we 
find  by  these  new  methods  of  government,  our  liberties  and  proper- 
ties so  much  shaken,  that  no  man  can  say  he  is  master  of  either,  but 
holds  them  as  tenant  by  courtesy  and  at  will,  and  may  be  stript  of 
them  at  pleasure,"  and  therefore  it  is  that  they  seek  some  relief  from 
their  manifold  burdens.  "  For,"  they  reflect,  "  Liberty  is  too  valuable 
a  thing  to  be  easily  parted  with." 

Such  men  might  have  been  conciliated ;  they  could  not  be  fright- 
ened. "  I  don't  know  of  any  grievances,"  replied  Cornbury,  u  this 
province  labours  under,  except  it  be  the  having  a  certain  number  of 
people  in  it  who  will  never  be  faithful  to,  nor  live  quietly  under  any 
government,  nor  suffer  their  neighbours  to  enjoy  any  peace,  quiet,  or 
happiness,  if  they  can  help  it."  This  was  ill-judged  insolence.  They 
were  "  apt  to  believe,  upon  the  credit  of  your  Excellency's  assertion," 
replied  the  Assembly,  that  there  are  a  number  of  people  of  this  kind 
in  the  Province  ;  but,  they  add,  "  such  people  are  pests  in  all  govern- 
ments, have  ever  been  so  in  this,  and  we  know  of  none  who  can  lay 
a  fairer  claim  to  these  characters  than  many  of  your  excellence's 
favorites." 

In  the  Assembly  were  many  who  were  members  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  besides  Jenings,  the  speaker.  In  reply  to  the  respectful  re- 
quest that  the  Secretary  of  the  Province  should  have  more  than  one 
office,  and  that  there  should  be  more  than  one  place  where  wills  could 
be  admitted  to  probate,  the  Governor  said  :  "  Of  all  the  people  in  the 
world,  the  Quakers  ought  to  be  the  last  to  complain  of  the  hardships 
of  travelling  a  few  miles  upon  such  an  occasion,  who  never  repine 
at  the  trouble  and  charges  of  travelling  several  hundred  miles  to  a 
yearly  meeting,  where,  it  is  evidently  known,  that  nothing  was  ever 
done  for  the  good  of  the  country,  but  on  the  contrary  continual  con- 
trivances are  carried  on  for  the  undermining  of  the  government  both 
in  church  and  state."  "  It  is  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Province," 
rejoined  that  body,  "  that  complains,  and  not  the  Quakers,  with  whose 
persons  (considered  as  Quakers)  or  meetings  we  have  nothing  to  do, 
nor  are  we  concerned  in  what  your  excellency  says  against  them." 
Perhaps  Friends  might  think  themselves  called  upon  to  vindicate 
their  meetings  from  the  irrelevant  aspersions  which  his  excellenc)'  so 
liberally  bestowed  upon  them.  But  those  of  them  who  were  members 
of  the  House,  now  "  begged  leave  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  their 
friends,  to  tell  the  Governor  they  must  answer  him  in  the  words  of 


1708.J  LOVELACE   AND    IXGOLDSBY.  43 

Nehemiah  to  Sanballat,  contained  in  the  8th  verse  of  the  6th  chapter 
of  Nehemiah,  namely,  '  There  is  no  such  thing  done  as  thou  sayest, 
but  thou  feignest  them  out  of  thine  own  heart." 

But  rebukes  were  unheeded,  as  grievances  were  unredressed.  The 
Assemblv  determined,  as  they  told  the  Governor,  to  appeal  Cornhurv 
to  the  Queen  for  protection.  Like  complaints  went  up  to  j^pril^ned'1 
the  throne  from  all  the  colonies,  and  Cornbury  was  recalled  inXewYork- 
in  1708.  He  did  not,  however,  immediately  leave  New  York,  for  so 
soon  as  it  was  known  that  he  was  no  longer  Governor  he  was  arrested 
for  debt.  He  remained  in  jail  till,  by  the  death  of  his  father,  he  suc- 
ceeded to  the  Earldom  of  Clarendon,  when  he  was  released  by  the 
privilege  of  rank. 

Lord  Lovelace,  who  succeeded  Cornbury  as  Governor  of  the  same 
provinces,  came  attended  by  that  good  fortune  which  belongs  Ix)veiace 
to  all  new  dynasties  when  following  bad  ones.     People  were  Governor- 
sure  that  nothing  could  be  so  bad  as  that  which  they  had  just  seen. 
He  arrived  on  the  18th  of  December, 
1708,  and  was  received  with  enthu- 
siasm.    The  Assembly,  in  its  address 
to  him,  said  :   "  Our  wishes  are  that 
measures  may  be  taken  to  encourage 
the  few  inhabitants  left  to  stay  in  the  Autograph  of 

provinces,  and  others  to  come."  Unwilling  to  quarrel  with  a  new 
Governor  they  voted  to  him  £1,600  for  that  year,  reserving 

,,  -Mr  •  e      •  ,,  T,,    ,     &    His  death. 

the  privilege  of   renewing  or   refusing  the  grant.     Before 

Lord  Lovelace  could  protest  against  the  restriction  he  died,  on  the 

very  day  when  the  bill  passed  the  house.1 

In  the  interregnum,  before  the  arrival  of  his  successor,  Governor 
Hunter,  the  administration  was  in  the  hands  of  that  Col- 
onel Richard  Ingoldsby.  who  had  held  the  government  while  covei™™* 
Fletcher  was  waited  for,  and  was  more  latelv  the  lieutenant 
and  the  tool  of  Cornbury  in  the  Jerseys.  The  long  war  between 
Queen  Anne  and  King  Louis  was  still  in  progress,  and  the  colony 
was  greatly  excited  by  a  new  project  for  the  invasion  of  Canada. 
In  this  juncture  the  first  bills  of  credit,  which  New  York  ever  issued, 
were  put  out,  the  treasury  being  wholly  empty.  But  the  failure  of 
the  English  fleet,  which  was  to  attack  Canada  by  the  St.  Lawrence, 
broke  up  the  whole  expedition,  to  the  great  mortification  of  all  who 
engaged  in  it. 

The  conquest  of  the  French  province,  however,  was  too  important 

to  the  colonies  to   be  abandoned.     The    Eastern    Indians  were  easilv 

•     j 
nu-ited  at  any  moment,  to   fall   upon   the  exposed  frontiers  of  New 

1  May  5,  1709. 


44      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.    [€HAI>.  II. 

England.  At  the  least  rumor  of  war  the  little  villages  and  scattered 
Indian  chiefs  fai'iiis,  from  the  Connecticut  to  the  Penobscot,  trembled  at 

in  England.     eve,.y  unusu;ll   SOuild    from    the    forest    lest    the  WHl'-wllOOp  of 

the  savage  should  break  its  silence.  The  friendship  or  the  subjection 
of  the  Five  Nations  could  never  be  relied  upon  so  long  as  the  French 
were  behind  them  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  They  were  the 

allies  of  the  English  now,  and  the 
advantage  was  too  great  not  to  be 
made  use  of  at  once.  Colonel 
Schuyler  sailed  for  England,  taking 
with  him  five  distinguished  chiefs 
of  the  Confederacy.  With  these 
living  witnesses  to  the  promised 
faithfulness  of  their  nation  lie 
hoped  to  give  irresistible  weight  to 
his  arguments  upon  the  necessity 
of  the  conquest  of  the  French. 

It  was  a  hundred  years  since 
Wey mouth's  two  New  England 
savages  had  stalked  about  the 
streets  of  London ;  almost  a  hun- 
dred since  Pocahontas  and  her  com- 
panions were  brought  over  from 
Virginia.  These  Iroquois  chiefs 
from  New  York1  were  regarded 
with  no  less  curiosity  by  the  crowds 
that  followed  them  than  Wey- 
mouth's  stolen  savages  ;  were  received  with  no  less  ceremony  and 
distinction  at  Court  than  had  awaited  the  Virginian  princess.  They 
made  a  speech,  —  or  a  speech  was  put  into  their  mouths, —  wherein 
they  avowed  their  devotion  to  the  Queen  of  England,  their  hostility 
to  their  French. 

1  No.  50  of  Thf  Spectator — Friday,  April  27,  1711  —  is  an  essay  suggested  l>y  the  visit 
of  those  Indian  chiefs  to  London,  and  the  essay,  in  its  turn,  may  possibly  have  suggested 
to  Macaulav  his  famous  New  Zealandcr,  who,  in  the  distant  future,  from  a  broken  arch  of 
London  Bridge,  is  to  sketch  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul's.  "  When  the  four  Indian  Kings,"  wrote 
Addison,  "  were  in  this  country  about  a  twelvemonth  ago,  I  often  mixed  with  the  rabble 
and  followed  them  a  whole  dav  together,  beinj;  wonderfullv  struck  with  the  sight  of  every- 
thing that  is  new  or  uncommon."  Pretending  then  to  have  found  at  their  lodgings,  after 
their  departure,  a  bundle  of  papers,  he  gives  some  extracts  from  the  "abundance  of  very 
odd  observations  which  I  find  this  little  fraternity  of  kings  made  during  their  stay  in  the 
i>le  of  Great  Britain."  Golden  in  his  letters  on  Smith's  History  of  New  York  (see  N.  Y, 
Hint.  Soc.  Coll.,  1868),  declares  these  Indians  were  not  chiefs,  though  passed  off  as  such  by 
Schuyler  and  Nicholson,  and  so  accepted  in  England.  (See  also  Mwj.  Am.  Hist.,  vol.  ii.) 

The  portraits  are  taken  from  copies  in  the  Hooms  of  the  Antiquarian  Society,  in 
Worcester,  Mass.,  of  large  engravings,  published  in  1710. 


1710.] 


ROBERT  HUNTER  GOVERNOR  OF  XE\V  YORK. 


45 


Sclmyler  gained  his  end,  ;ind  the  results  were  more  important,  per- 
haps, than  he  had  hoped  for.  It  was  not  difficult  to  convince  the 
ministry  how  great  an  influence  further  operations  in  America  might 
have  upon  the  conduct  of  the  war  in  Europe.  Ships  and  men  were 
provided  for  another  expedition,  and,  though  the  brilliant  achieve- 
ment which  crowned  it  —  the  capture  of  Port  Royal,  related  in  an- 
other chapter  —  was  mainly  the 
act  of  New  England  men,  Nichol- 
son and  Schuyler  had  good  reason 
to  be  proud  of  their  share  in  it. 

Six  months  before  the  taking  of 
Port  Royal  Ingoldsby  had  been  su- 
perseded by  Robert  Hunter  as  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York.     He  and  the 
Assembly   agreed    on    one    point, 
though   disagreeing  on    almost   all 
others,  —  that  no  effort  was  to  be 
spared  to  carry  on  the  war  against 
the  French  in  America.     Perhaps 
they   were  emulous  of   the  success 
of  New  England  in  the  conquest  of 
Nova  Scotia ;  at  any  rate,  a  fresh 
expedition  against  Canada,  ordered 
by  the  home  government,  received 
their   hearty    cooperation.     N  e  \v 
York  supplied  six  hundred  nu-n,  in 
addition  to  six  hundred  Iroquois, — 
brought  into  the  field  by  the  influence  of  Colonel  Schuyler,  —  as  her 
proportion  of  the  colonial  contingent;  and  another  issue  of  Robertiiuu- 
£10,000  in  paper  money  was  resorted  to  for  their  support,   ernorof 
The   other  colonies   were   not    less    energetic.     Connecticut   Nt'w  York- 
and  New  Jersey  added  sixteen  hundred  men  to  the  army  of  four  thou- 
sand which  Nicholson  mustered  at  Albany  for  an  expedition 

.  l  .        Preparations 

against  Montreal.     Massachusetts  had  nine  hundred  men  in   to  invade 
readiness  to  embark  on  board  the  English  fleet  of  sixteen 
men  of  war  and  forty  transports  which  arrived  in  Boston  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1711  for  an  attack  upon  Quebec.     Of  this  fleet  Sir  Hovenden 
Walker  was  the  admiral,  and   the  land  force  on  board,  when  it  sailed 
for  the  St.  Lawrence  in  July,   was  under  the  command  of   General 
Hill,  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Masham,  the  favorite  of  the  Queen.     Seven 
English  regiments  and  the  Massachusetts  reenforcement  numbered  al- 
together nearly  seven  thousand  men. 

The  incompetence  of  Admiral  Walker  and  the  ignorance  of  the  pi 


46      ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  WARY.  '  [CHAP.  II. 


lots  brought  inevitable  disaster.     The  fleet  had  sailed  only  ten  leagues 
up  the  St.  Lawrence  when,  by  some  fatal  mismanagement, 

Dispersion  .      * 

of  «aiker-s    ten  or  eleven  of  the  ships  drifted  upon  the  rocks,  where  they 

went  to  pieces,  and  a  thousand  men  perished.1 

Nicholson,  meanwhile,  had  marched  from  Albany  with  his  army  of 
Retreat  of  four  thousand  men  to  attack  Montreal.  Taking  the  route 
Nicholson.  of  j.jle  expedition  of  the  year  before,  and  that  under  Win- 
throp  in  1691,  by  way  of  Wood's  Creek  and  Lake  Champlain,  he  had 

only  gone  so  far  as  the  Lake,  when 
he  received  the  news  of  the  disas- 
ter to  the  fleet.  De  Vaudreuil, 
the  Governor  of  Canada,  relieved 
from  all  fears  of  an  attack  upon 
Quebec,  was  now  free  to  meet  the 
invasion  by  land.  Nicholson  had 
no  alternative  but  to  fall  back  to 
Albany.  Then  the  failure  of  this 
new  attempt  at  the  conquest  of 
Canada — the  most  formidable 
that  had  yet  been  undertaken  — 
was  complete. 

Complete,  that  is  in  its  direct 
aim  ;  indirectl}',  the  gain  was 
great  to  England.  De  Vaudreuil 
feared  that  France  would  soon 
cease  to  hold  a  rood  of  soil  on  the 
American  continent  if  an  army  of 
ten  thousand  Englishmen  should, 
at  the  same  moment,  summon  Mon- 
treal and  Quebec  to  surrender.  Every  Frenchman  at  his  command 
he  kept  in  Canada  for  a  desperate  resistance.  Castin,  the  Governor 
of  Nova  Scotia,  begged  in  vain  for  aid  to  recapture  Port  Royal.  DC. 
Vaudreuil  understood  its  importance ;  the  French  minister  regretted 
its  loss  and  was  anxious  for  its  recovery.  But  the  delay,  which  the 
invasion  of  Canada  at  first  made  imperative,  was  soon  past  remedy. 
France  was  exhausted  by  the  war  ;  the  Whig  party  —  the  party  of 
peace  —  had  attained  to  power  in  England  ;  a  few  months 
Nova  Scotia  later  Marlborough  was  deposed  and  disgraced,  and  the  war 
was  at  an  end.  By  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  Nova  Scotia  was 
ceded  to  England  ;  —  the  first  substantial  success  in  that  long  strug- 

1  Charlevoix  (History  of  New  France)  says  that  the  Ixxlics  of  three  thousand  men  were 
found  upon  the  beach,  but  this  is  unquestionably  an  error.  Duulap  (History  of  New  York) 
repeats  it. 


1720.] 


NOVA   SCOTIA  CEDED  TO  ENGLAND. 


47 


gle  for  supremacy  on  the  American  continent,  and  which  was  only  to 
cease  with  the  complete  expulsion  of  the  French  which  this  acquisi- 
tion of  so  large  a  territory  foi'eshadowed.1 

When  Hunter  retired  in  1719  the  improved  condition  of  the  people 
justified  the  congratulatory  address  he  made  to  the  Assembly.  His 
relations  were  more  amicable  with 
that  body  when  the  necessities  of 
war  no  longer  strained  the  resources 
of  the  colony.  But,  notwithstand- 
ing his  avowal  of  the  hope  that 
"as  the  very  name  of  faction  or 
party  seems  to  be  forgotten,  may  it 
ever  be  in  oblivion,"  he  left  to  his 
successor,  Burnet,  —  the  son  of 
Bishop  Burnet,  —  causes  enough 
for  dissension. 

As  the  friend  and  correspondent 
of  Hunter,  Burnet  had  the  benefit 
of  his  experience,  and  had  become, 
when  he  assumed  the  government 
in   1720,  familiar  with  the  affairs 
of   the  colony.     That  he  failed  to 
make    himself   acceptable   to    the 
people  was  not  from  any  want  of 
devotion    to    its    interests.     He 
adopted  the  doctrine  of  the  states- 
men of  the  time  that   the  presence  of   the  French  on   the  northern 
border  was  a  perpetual  and  a  dangerous  menace  to  all  the 
English  colonies.     Where  war  had  failed,  other  measures,   Burnet  and 
he  hoped,  might  be  more  successful.     The  French,  he  rea- 
soned, drew  their  chief  support  from  trade  with  the  Indians ;  and  as 
their  commerce  with  Europe  was  small,  from  the  long  and  difficult 
voyage  up  the  St.   Lawrence,  they  were  largely  dependent  upon  the 
English  at  Albany  for  supplies  for  traffic  with  the  native  tribes.     To 
starve  out  a  troublesome  neighbor,  and  to  secure,  at  the  same  time, 
complete  control  of  the  Indians,  Burnet  conceived  to  be  the  wisest 

1  One  of  the  political  scandals  of  the  time  was  that  the  attempted  invasion  of  Canada 
under  Hill  and  Nicholson,  which  cost  the  lives  of  a  thousand  men  and  plunged  the  colonies 
into  debt,  was  a  job  of  St.  John's,  —  Lord  Bolingbroke,  —  the  Secretary  of  State.  In  the 
bitter  controversies  of  parties  uo  story  was  deemed  too  mons-trous  for  belief.  Recent  re- 
searches prove  that  St.  John  was  grossly  wronged  by  this  charge,  and  that  he  was  exceed- 
ingly anxious  for  the  conquest  of  Canada,  believing  it  would  greatly  strengthen  his  admin- 
istration and  perpetuate  his  power.  See  Palfrey's  History  of  New  England,  vol.  iv.,  p.  281, 
note. 


?7*~ 


48      ROYAL  (H)VERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CiiAr.  II. 

policy.     He  proposed  to  prohibit,  therefore,  all  commercial  intercourse 
between  his  own  province  and  the  French  of  Canada.     In  this  he  had 
the  support  of  the  Assembly  which  he  found  and,  for  a  time,  con- 
tinued in  office. 

But  selfish  interests  were 
stronger  than  law.  The  trade 
with  Canada  continued  not- 
withstanding a  prohibitory  act. 
A  strong  party  was  soon  ar- 
rayed  against  the  policy  of  the 
Governor  on  this  subject,  led 
by  men  who  would  no  doubt 

Signature  of   Hunter.  •  ' 

be  ready  enough  to  fight  the 

French  if  occasion  offered,  but  who  were  not  to  be  deterred  by  law 
from  a  profitable  trade  with  the  worst  enemies.  The  party  in  opposi- 
tion was  strengthened  by  a  growing  hostility  to  the  Court  of  Chan- 
cery, established  by  Hunter  without  the  consent  of  the  Assembly,  and 
declared  to  be  injurious  to  the  rights  of  the  people.  Personal  unpop- 
ularity, with  which  politics  had  nothing  to  do,  increased  the  number 
of  the  Governor's  opponents.  His  impulsive  temper  led  him  into  dif- 
ficulties which  a  more  prudent  ruler  would  have  avoided ;  he  thus  lost 
friends  and  gained  enemies  by  becoming  involved  in  a  bitter  con- 
troversy among  the  members  of  the  French  Church  in  New  York, 
which  led  to  its  division. 

His  administration,  however,  was  notable  in  that  it  did  much  to 
strengthen  the  English  alliance  with  the  Indians  and  to  weaken  that 
of  the  French.  A  fort  was  built  and  a  trading-post  established  at 
Oswego ;  advantage  was  taken  of  the  exasperation  of  the  Indians  at 
the  encroachments  of  the  French  at  Niagara.  The  Five  Nations 
were  induced  to  convey  their  country  to  the  English  King  ;  the  trade 
with  other  native  tribes  was  enlarged  and  extended,  and  deputations 
of  the  Miamies  from  the  Upper  Mississippi,  and  of  the  Michilimacki- 
nacks  from  the  Great  Lakes,  were  attracted  to  Albany. 

The  Five  Nations  at  this  time  had  become  the  Six  Nations  by  the 
addition  of  the  Tuscaroras  from  the  south.1  They  understood,  quite  as 

1  In  1689  the  population  of  the  Five  Nations  was  estimated  at  2,550  men;  ten  years 
afterward  —  in  1699  —  it  had  fallen  to  1,230.  At  the  period  of  the  Revolution  it  wns  com- 
puted that  all  the  men,  women,  and  children  of  the  Six  Nations  numbered  9,050.  Tlie.se 
had  decreased  in  1845,  according  to  Mr.  Schoolcraft's  estimate,  to  6,942,  of  whom  only 
aliout  one  half  remained  in  New  York.  The  politics  of  this  powerful  confederacy  became 
of  less  and  less  importance  as  New  York  grew  to  be  something  more  than  a  trading  depot 
for  heave r  skins  and  elk  skins.  Remnants  of  this  as  well  as  of  many  other  of  the  earlier 
Indian  tribes  still  linger  in  the  Atlantic  States.  On  the  western  slope  of  the  continent 
they  still,  in  uudiiniuishcd  numbers,  though  under  new  names,  remain  as  a  factor  in  na- 


§3 


3 


1727.]  GOVERNOR    BURNET. 

well  as  either  the  French  or  the  English,  how  important  they  were  to 
both,  and  that  their  true  policy  was  to  play  off  their  powerful 

rr(  .  i.  it  i     Confederacy 

neighbors  against  each  other.      To  this  policy  they  adhered  of  the  six 

.,*,.,  .        Nations. 

with  what  may  be  called  a  savage  cunning,  but  which  was  m 
fact  wise  statesmanship,  till  half  a  century  later,  when  France  was  no 
longer  a  power  in  America,  and  all  that  was  left  to  England  was  the 
comparatively  little  she  had  acquired  from  France. 

The  opposition  aroused  by  Burnet's  measures  was  strong  enough  to 
effect  his  removal.  The  royal  assent  was  withheld  to  the  act  prohibit- 
ing trade  with  Canada.  A  new  Assembly  was  chosen,  a  major- 

6  -i  i        /-.  i  i  Death  of 

ity  of  which  was  hostile  to  the  Governor,  and  he  was  trans-   <;.>vernor 
ferred  in  1727  to  Massachusetts  Bay.1     He  died  in  Boston 
two  years  afterward  from  fever  brought  on  by  falling  into  the  water 
when  thrown  from  his  carriage  on  a  causeway  in  Cambridge. 

Governor  Burnet  said  of  himself,  that  his  genius  did  not  bud  till 
late;  —  that  his  father,  Bishop  Burnet,  despaired  till  he  was  twenty 
years  of  age,  whether  he  would  make  any  figure  in  life.  To  the 
reader,  in  an  age  which  has  wholly  forgotten  him,  the  bishop's  doubt, 
through  his  son's  boyhood,  seems  well  founded.  But,  as  compared 
with  other  royal  governors,  it  can  be  well  understood  how  many  of 
the  people  of  New  York  and  of  Massachusetts  looked  back  on  him 
with  a  certain  respect.  To  write  poor  commentaries  on  the  book  of 
Revelation,  as  he  did,  is  an  occupation  more  worthy  of  the  lieutenant 
of  the  King,  than,  like  Fletcher,  to  sell  licenses  to  pirates,  or,  like 
Cornbury,  to  steal  appropriations  made  for  fortifications.  These  com- 
mentaries, however,  were  not  thought  unworthy  of  condemnation  — 
that  highest  evidence  sometimes  of  worth.  If  we  may  believe  Smith, 
the  New  Jersey  historian,  an  act  was  proposed  in  the  Assembly  of  that 
province  with  special  reference  to  the  Governor's  book.  Its  title  was 
"  An  Act  against  denying  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Burners  aa- 
Christ,  the  doctrine  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  the  truth  of  the  in"^^!/"" 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  spreading  Atheistical  Books."  But  no  M°- 
other  mark  appears  of  an}7  want  of  harmony  between  him  and  the 
people  of  that  portion  of  his  government.  Under  him,  as  under  most 
of  the  Governors  of  the  viceroyalty  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  the 
smaller  province  was  neglected  for  the  larger,  and  thrived  with  neglect. 

tional  'politics,  .-till  righting,  with  their  backs  to  the  Pacific,  inch  by  inch  for  possession  of 
their  hunting-grounds. 

1  He  was  received  at  the  Hhode  Island  boundary  line  by  a  delegation  and  escorted  to 
Boston  with  unusual  marks  of  welcome.  It  is  said  that  he  was  annoyed  bv  the  long  graces 
before  meat,  and  a>ked  when  these  lengthy  ceremonies  would  come  to  an  end.  Colonel 
layler  of  Boston,  one  of  his  escort,  replied  :  "  Please  your  honour,  the  graces  will  iucivase 
in  length  until  you  come  to  Boston ;  after  that  they  will  shorten  till  you  come  to  your  gov- 
ernment of  New  Hampshire  ;  there  you  will  rind  110  grace  at  all." 
VOL.  in.  4 


50       ROYAL  GOVERNORS  UNDER  WILLIAM  AND  MARY.     [CHAP.  II. 


c.overnor 


John  Montgomerie,  Burnet's  successor,  probably  owed  his  appoint- 
nient  to  the  personal  favor  of  George  the  Second,  to  whom 
Montgomcnc.  jje  ]iaj  heen  groom  of  the  chamber.  He  is  said  to  have  re- 
fused to  act  as  chancellor,  as  his  commission  bade  him,  until  specially 
ordered  to  do  so.  He  arrived  on  the  loth  of  April,  1728.  His  ad- 
ministration was  short  and  uneventful,  and  he  died  on  the  first  of 
July,  1731.  After  an  interregnum  of  thirteen  months  in  which  Mr. 
Kip  Van  Dam,  as  senior  member  of  the  Council,  acted  as  governor, 
Colonel  Cosby,  who  arrived  August  1,  1732,  succeeded  to  the  office. 


Colomel  Table 


The   Old   Capitol   at   Annapolis. 


CHAPTER  III. 


VIRGINIA    AND   MARYLAND. 

VIRGINIA  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  BERKELEY'S  ADMINISTRATION.  —  PHILIP  LCDWELL  AND 
GOVERNOR  JEFFREYS.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  LORD  CULPEPPER.  —  WRETCHED  CON- 
DITION OF  THE  COLONY.  —  OVER-PRODUCTION  OF  TOBACCO.  —  THE  "  PLANT-CUT- 
TERS." —  INFLATION  OF  THE  CURRENCY  BY  THE  GOVERNOR.  —  LORD  EFFINGHAM 
SUCCEEDS  CULPEPPER.  —  A  CHANGE  FOR  THE  BETTER  UNDER  GOVERNOR  NlCHOL- 
SON.  —  WILLIAM  AND  MARY  COLLEGE.  —  NICHOLSON  REMOVED  TO  MARYLAND.  — 
AFFAIRS  IN  THAT  COLONY.  —  LORD  BALTIMORE  DEPRIVED  OP  POLITICAL  POWER.  — 
MARYLAND  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  —  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  ESTABLISHED  BY  NICHOL- 
SON. —  EDMUND  ANDROS,  GOVERNOR  OF  VIRGINIA.  —  SUCCEEDED  BY  NICHOLSON.  — 
His  SECOND  ADMINISTRATION,  AND  CAUSES  OF  HIS  RECALL.  —  GOVERNOR  SPOTS- 
WOOD.  —  His  EXPEDITION  OVER  THE  BLUE  RIDGE.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  SHEN- 
ANDOAII  VALLEY.  —  GREATER  RELIGIOUS  TOLERATION.  —  PROGRESS  AND  PROSPER- 
ITY OF  VIRGINIA.  —  SUCCESSIVE  GOVERNORS,  TILL  THE  ARRIVAL  OF  DINWIDDIE. 

THE  suppression  of  Bacon's  Rebellion  did  not  necessarily  bring 
tranquillity  to  Virginia.  The  leaders  on  both  sides  —  Bacon 
and  Berkeley  —  were  dead,  and  a  heavy  retribution  had 
fallen  upon  many  who  had  vainly  hoped  that  in  an  appeal 
to  arms  they  would  find  a  redress  for  all  their  grievances.  There  was 
rather  sullen  acquiescence  than  cheerful  submission  in  the  restoration 
of  order  ;  for  many  who  were  too  prudent  or  too  timid  to  give  to 


Conditionof 


U 

li.t 


" 


52  VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND.  '  [CHAP.  III. 

Bacon  their  open  support,  no  doubt  regretted  that  nothing  was  gained 
by  the  Rebellion. 

As  in  other  colonies,  the  attitude  of  the  Assembly  indicated  the 
popular  temper.  That  attitude  was  one  of  watchful  determination  to 
maintain,  within  the  law,  the  rights  of  the  people,  and  resist,  so  far 
as  it  was  prudent  or  possible,  their  infringement  by  royal  governors. 
When  Berkeley  asked  that  the  Assembly  would  bestow  some  mark  of 
distinction  upon  Accomac  County  for  the  loyalty  of  its  citizens  at  the 
most  trying  period  of  the  Rebellion,  the  Speaker,  Colonel  Warner,  an- 
swered, no  doubt  as  truly  for  his  colleagues  as  he  did  frankly  for  him- 
self :  "  He  knew  not,"  he  said,  "  what  marks  of  distinction  his  honor 
could  have  sette  on  those  of  Accomack,  unlesse  to  give  them  ear- 
marks or  burnt  marks  for  robbing  and  ravaging  honest  people,  who 
stay'd  at  home,  and  took  care  of  the  estates  of  those  who  ran  away, 
when  none  intended  to  hurt  'em."1  The  Governor  could  hardly  have 
failed  to  understand  that  beneath  the  sneer  was  concealed  some  sym- 
pathy for  the  rebels  as  well  as  a  rebuke  of  himself. 

It  was  this  Assembly  whose  remonstrances  against  his  cruel  perse- 
cution of  the  late  insurgents  drove  Berkeley  at  length  to  seek  refuge 
in  England.  It  was  this  Assembly  also  which  refused  to  comply  with 
the  demand  of  the  royal  commissioners  for  its  journals,  notwithstand- 
ing the  evident  disposition  of  those  officers  to  deal  mercifully  with 
the  partisans  of  Bacon.  The  members  conceived  it  to  be  incompati- 
ble with  their  honor  and  their  rights,  as  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  to  submit  their  proceedings  to  the  representatives  of  the  King, 
and  they  boldly  protested  against  the  act  when  the  journals  were  for- 
cibly seized  by  the  commissioners. 

The  royalists,  not  unnaturally,  presumed  upon  the  success  of  their 
continue,!  cause,  and  were  everywhere  avaricious  and  overbearing.  Ac- 
beTwwlTthe  comae  County  claimed  exemption  from  taxes  for  twenty 
parties.  years,  in  return  for  those  services  upon  which  Colonel  War- 
ner, the  Speaker,  put  so  small  a  value.  Sir  Herbert  Jeffreys  —  one  of 
the  King's  commissioners,  and,  after  Berkeley's  departure,  Lieutenant- 
governor —  found  it  no  easy  task  to  divide  the  line  of  truth  and  jus- 
tice between  the  malcontents  on  both  sides.  One  of  the  chief  of  these 
was  that  Philip  Ludwell  who  by  his  daring  and  zeal  had  served  the 
loyal  cause  so  effectually,  at  a  critical  moment  in  Bacon's  Rebellion, 
by  the  capture  of  Bland  and  his  fleet  in  the  Chesapeake, 
of  Philip'  In  spite  of  the  amnesty  granted  to  the  late  rebels,  he  sued 
one  of  them  —  George  Walklate  —  for  alleged  damages  done 
to  his  property  in  some  rebel  raid.  The  Governor  granted  protection 
to  Walklate,  and  refused  the  writ  which  Ludwell  demanded.  "  The 

1    Burk's  History  of  I'iryinia. 


1680.]  LORD   CULPEPPER.  53 

Governor  was  a  worse  rebel  than  Bacon"  —  was  Lud  well's  loud  and 
angry  complaint  —  "for  he  had  broke  the  laws  of  the  country,  which 
Bacon  never  did  ....  that  he  was  perjured  ....  that  he  was  not 
worth  a  groat  in  England  ....  and  that,  if  every  pitiful  little  fel- 
low, with  a  periwig,  that  came  in  Governor  to  this  country,  had 
liberty  to  make  the  laws,  as  this  had  done,  his  children,  nor  no  man's 
else,  could  be  safe  in  the  title  or  estate  left  them." 

It'  laws  are  silent  in  time  of  war,  no  less  true  is  it  that  morals  and 
manners  are  loosest  when  war  is  over.  Ludwell,  indeed,  was  brought 
before  the  Council  to  answer  for  this  invective  against  the  Governor  ; 
the  offence  was  pronounced  treasonable,  and  it  was  ordered  that  the 
proceedings  be  sent  to  the  King  and  Privy  Council,  that  due  pun- 
ishment might  be  awarded  him.  But  the  General  Assembly  decided, 
on  his  appeal  to  that  body,  that  the  defence  as  well  as  the  accu- 
sations should  go  to  England,  which  was  all  he  could  in  justice  ask. 
Perhaps  the  death  of  Jeffreys  in  1678  may  have  put  an  end  to  the 
suit  ;  perhaps  the  Lords  in  Council  thought  it  wiser  to  lay  it  and 
leave  it  on  their  table,  for  Ludwell  seems  to  have  gone  unpunished. 
On  the  other  hand  his  defiance  of  a  royal  governor  was  welcomed  ap- 
parently as  the  espousal  of  the  cause  of  the  people,  and  he  is  next 
heard  of,  a  few  years  later,  as  the  agent  of  the  colony  in  England  to 
seek  a  redress  of  grievances  which  had  grown  meanwhile  more  and 
more  burdensome  —  grievances,  however,  which  Jeffreys  seems  to 
have  been  sincerely  disposed  to  remove,  while  they  made  an  ardent 
patriot  of  Ludwell  only  when  he  found  that  by  patriotism  he  could 
best  subserve  his  private  interests. 

But  the  incident  is  of  little  moment  except  that  it  shows  how  se- 
rious were  the  differences  that  divided  parties  in  Virginia,  and  how 
little  even  an  appeal  to  arms  had  done  to  reconcile  them.  The  ad- 
ministrations of  Jeffreys  and  Sir  Henry  Chichely,  —  who  soon  suc- 
ceeded Jeffreys  as  Lieutenant-governor  —  did  little  for  the  colony, 
except  that  they  secured  peace  by  a  treaty  with  the  Indians,  brought 
about  chiefly  by  the  influence  of  New  York  with  the  Five  Nations. 
Something  more  was  hoped  for  from  the  coming  of  Lord 
Culpepper,  who,  since  1675,  had  held  a  commission  as  Gov- 
ernor  for  life  over  the  province  which,  two  years  before,  had 
been  granted  to  him  and  the  Earl  of  Arlington  for  thirtv-one  years. 
Culpepper  had  preferred  to  remain  in  England,  but  the  King  insisting, 
at  length,  that  he  should  assume  the  duties  of  his  office,  he  arrived  in 
Virginia  in  1680.  He  brought  a  proposal  for  general  amnesty  and  ob- 
livion for  past  political  offences,  but  only  for  this  one  act  of  mercy  from 
the  Crown  had  the  people  reason  to  welcome  his  coming.  kk  The  Lord 
Culpepper,"  says  a  writer  of  that  period,  "  had  a  singular  dexterity  in 


tratlou- 


54 


VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


making  use  of  all  advantages  to  his  own  interests;  "  l  and  being  "one 
of  the  most  cunning  and  covetous  men  in  England,"  he  induced  the 
King  to  suggest  that  the  salary  of  the  Governor  be  doubled  —  hitherto 
£1,000,  —  and  its  perquisites  increased  to  almost  as  much.  This  was 
no  slight  additional  burden  to  an  already  over-taxed  and  impoverished 
colony.  Still  harder  to  accept  was  another  proposed  law,  that  the 
duties  on  tobacco  and  other  merchandise,  heretofore  levied  from  year 
to  year  and  the  proceeds  disbursed  as  the  Colonial  Assembly  should 
judge  for  the  public  welfare,  should  now  be  made  perpetual  and  under 
the  exclusive  control  of  the  King.  But  these  and  other  laws  of  less 
consequence,  the  drafts  of  which  Culpepper  brought  from  England, 

the  Assembly  was  constrained  to 
accept  in  consideration  of  the  act 
of  general  pardon  which  came 
with  them. 

Culpepper  returned  to  Eng- 
land in  a  few  months,  leaving  be- 
hind him  these,  with  the  other 
fruitful  causes  of  discontent  of 
an  older  growth.  The  colonists 
were  oppressed  with  the  weight 
of  fresh  taxes  while  at  the  same 
time  the  price  of  their  single 
staple  product  —  tobacco  —  was 
constantly  falling.  The  old  rem- 
edies were  resorted  to,  with  the 
old  I'esults.  Fresh  attempts  were 
made  to  regulate  the  production 
of  tobacco  by  agreements  with 
Maryland  and  Carolina  to  limit 

%j 

the    planting,  —  agreements    so 
Governor  Culpepper.  easv  jo  niake  and  so  sure  to  be 

disregarded.  It  was  proposed  to  encourage  the  settlement  of  towns 
by  enforcing  the  law  which  forbade  that  ships  should  pick 
UP  their  cargoes  by  going  from  plantation  to  plantation  along 
t]ie  kanks  Of  t)ie  rivers,  but  should  load  only  at  designated 
points,  where,  it  was  hoped,  the  towns  would  soon  grow.  No  towns 
sprung  up,  for  the  industrial  necessities  for  their  existence  were  want- 
ing ;  but  many  a  planter  was  compelled  to  add  a  new  item  of  expen- 
diture to  the  cost  of  his  tobacco,  or,  if  the  distance  to  the  shipping- 

1  An  Account  of  the  Present  Stale  and  Government  of  Virginia.  Written,  proUably,  within 
the  last  ten  yenrs  of  the  seventeenth  century,  auil  first  published  from  the  original  MSS. 
in  vol.  v.  of  Cull,  of  Mass.  Hist.  Svc. 


tobacco. 


1681.]  OVER-PRODUCTION    OF   TOBACCO.  55 

point  was  too  great,  to  leave  it  to  rot  at  home.  Discontent  was  again 
growing  to  desperation.  The  one  fact  that  everybody  could  see  was, 
that  because  there  was  too  much  tobacco  its  price  was  ruinously  low, 
but  that  the  planter  must  sell  at  that  price  or  he  and  his  people 
starve ;  the  fact  nobody  would  see  was,  that  because  the  laborers 
were  slaves,  the  crop  most  easily  raised  on  great  estates  was  tobacco, 
and  the  true  remedy  was  a  reform  in  the  tenure  of  lands  and  the 
system  of  labor. 

Another  rebellion  seemed  imminent  and  would,  no  doubt,  have 
broken  out  had  another  Bacon  appeared  to  lead  it.  Petitions  were 
sent  to  the  King,  praying  that  the  overproduction  of  tobacco  might  be 
prohibited  by  royal  proclamation  ;  Chichely,  the  acting  Governor  in 
Culpepper's  absence,  was  besought  to  apply,  meanwhile,  some  remedy 
to  the  correction  of  that  evil.  He  would  have  gladly  found  one,  but 
he  could  devise  nothing  better  than  to  convene  the  Assembly.  The 
Assembly,  fresh  from  the  people,  could  talk  of  nothing  but  the  peo- 
ple's wrongs — of  misgovernment,  of  rights  withheld,  of  poverty,  of 
want  for  which  they  had  no  alleviation. 

But,  as  in  all  times  of  popular  distress  and  turbulence,  there  were 
men  who  thought  themselves  wise  enough  to  discern  and  ap-  ..  Plant<ut. 
ply  the  remedy.  The  way,  they  said,  to  stop  the  over-pro-  tmg- 
duction  of  tobacco  was,  to  —  stop  it.  Putting  themselves  at  the  head 
of  the  more  violent  of  the  population,  they  went  from  plantation  to 
plantation,  destroying  the  young  plants  when  too  late  for  a  second 
growth  that  season.  This  earliest  American  "  strike,"  like  most  of 
those  of  modern  times,  only  brought  fresh  distress  upon  those  it 
was  meant  to  aid.  The  "  plant-cutters,"  as  they  were  called,  were 
too  few  to  damage  essentially  the  staple  production  of  three  colonies, 
but  they  were  enough  to  bring  serious  calamity  upon  themselves  and 
upon  all  those  whose  plantations  they  laid  waste. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  troubles  that  Culpepper  returned  from 
England,  and  his  method  of  dealing  with  them  was  characteristic  of 
the  colonial  rule  of  that  period.  His  first  measure  of  conciliation  was 
to  hang  the  leading  "plant-cutters,"  whose  grievance  was  the  com- 
mon one,  however  little  sympathy  the  planters  may  have  had  with  the 
violent  conduct  of  those  misguided  men  ;  and  his  first  measure  of  relief 
was  to  inflate  the  currency  by  permission  of  the  King,  declaring  silver 
coins  —  crowns,  rix-dollars,  and  pieces  of  eight  —  of  the  cur-  cuipePP«T 
rent  value  of  five  shillings,  should  be  legal  tender  for  six  shil-  vafu<fof  'the 
lings,  the  fractional  coins  to  be  rated  in  like  proportion.  curreucJ'- 
But  the  burden  of  the  change  was  to  fall  upon  the  people  alone ;  the 
five  shillings,  which  were  to  pass  for  six  in  transactions  among  them- 
selves, were  still  to  be  reckoned  at  five  shillings  only  in  the  payment 


56 


VIRGINIA    AND   MARYLAND. 


[ClIAP.  III. 


of  the  Governor's  salary,  in  payment  of  the  heavy  tax  on 

v    '  *f  •/ 

and  all  other  taxes,  and  in  payment  of  bills  of  ex- 
change.    The   indignant  Burgesses  remonstrated. 
They  demanded   that    there  should   be   equaliza- 
tion  in  the  vulne  of  money  —  not  one  value 
fur  the  debtor  and  another  for  the  creditor. 
They  were   not  unreasonable  in  asking  that 
the  six   shillings  they  were  compelled 
to  accept  as  legal    tender   in   the    sale 
of  their  tobacco  should  be  six  shillings 
still,  and  not  five  only  when  they  paid 
their  taxes;   nor   were    they  irrational 
in  complaining   that  they  got  only 
five  shillings'    worth    of    English 
merchandise  for  six  shillings, 
while  the  price  was  enhanced    ->-;f 
by   the    increase   in   the    rate 
of  exchange.     The  Governor 
answered  by  driving  the  As- 
semblymen out  of  their  chain- 

•. 

her.       Though    the    cur- 


rency was  afterward  re- 
stored to  its  normal  value. 


• 


"  Plant-cutting." 

it  was  evidently  not  from  any  def- 
'   y  i^  -^L    '  y^- — «• ' '  * 

'  '       '  erence   to    the  will   of    the    House 

of  Burgesses  or  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  people. 


1684.]  LORI)    EFFINGIIAM    SUCCEEDS    CULPEITER.  57 

The  Governor  also  brought  from  England  the  severest  condemnation 
of  the  Assembly  for  its  spirited  refusal  to  surrender  its  journals  for 
examination  to  the  King's  commissioners.      Beverley,  the  Clerk,  who, 
like  Ludwell,  had  distinguished  himself  for  his  services  on  the  royal 
side  in  the  late  Rebellion,  was   imprisoned  now  for  the  zeal 
with  which  he  defended  the  independence  of  the  Assembly,   tnm  mwis. 
The   next,  more   direct,  attack  upon  the  individual  citizen, 
was  to  take  away  the  privilege  of  appeal  from  the  decisions  of  the 
General  Court  —  that  is,  the  Governor  and  Council  —  to  the  General 
Assembly,  except  in  cases  involving  only  a  small  sum  of  money. 

Culpepper  ceased  to  be  Governor  when  he  ceased  to  be  Proprietary 
—  in  1684  —  on  the  surrender  of  the  patent,  which  had  become  vested 
in  him  alone,  in  consideration  of  a  sum  in  hand  and  a  pension  of 
£000  a  year  for  twenty  and  a  half  years. l  Virginia  was  so  far  the 
gainer,  that  it  became  once  more  a  royal  province,  with  a  promise 
that  its  revenues  should  be  used,  in  part  at  least,  for  its  own  benefit. 
The  last  act  of  Charles  II.  relating  to  the  affairs  of  the  colony  was  the 
appointment  of  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham  as  Culpepper's  successor. 

Hut  the  change  of  rulers  was  not  a  change  of  policy  ;  it  was  only 
to  turn  loose  upon  the  flock  another  wolf  whose  hunger  was 

...  ~    ,  .          Lord  Effing- 

still  to  be  appeased.     Culpepper  was  mercenary,  despotic,    imm,  Gover- 
cruel,  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of   the  colon}'  as  he  was  ig- 
norant of  its  true  interests.     Effingham,  if  not  Culpepper's  rival  in 
these  qualities,  was  at  least  his  pupil,  and  bettered  his  instruction. 
Those  of  the    ignorant   "plant-cutters"  whom   one   had   spared,   the 
other  hanged.     New  duties  were  levied  ;  new  fees  exacted  ;  The  oppres. 
new  perquisites  contrived  ;  new  pretences  invented  for  fresh   ooimw  con- 
oppression.     The  struggle  between  Governor  and  Assembly  tmuea- 
was  continued,  and  the  measures  resorted  to  by  Effingham  were  more 
arbitrary  than  those  of  any  of  his  predecessors.     James  had  among 
all  his  colonial  servants  no  one  more  swift  to  catch  the  spirit  of  his 
rule  than  this  Virginia  viceroy.     Ostensibly  by  royal  authority  he  re- 
pealed laws,  or  revived  those  that  had  been  repealed  by  the  Assem- 
bly ;  the  members  of  that  body  he  bought  by  bribes  when  that  was 
possible  ;  when  that  was  impossible  he  coerced  them  by  threats  or  im- 
prisonment ;  and  when  all  other  measures  failed  to  bend  them  to  his 
will,  he  would  prorogue  or  dissolve  that  branch  of  the  government. 
Of  the  Council,  always  obedient  and  subservient,  he  made  a  Court  of 
Chancery,  that  he  might  add  to  his  power  as  Governor  that  of  a  High 

1  The  colony,  however,  was  not  altogether  rid  of  Cnipepper.  In  1671,  Charles  II.  had 
granted  to  the  Earl  of  St.  Albans,  Lord  Berkeley,  and  others,  a  patent  for  the  Northern 
Neck, — the  region  between  the  Kappuhannock  and  the  Potomac,  —  which  Culpepper  after- 
wards purchased,  and  the  right  was  confirmed  to  him  by  letters-patent  from  James  II.  in 
1685. 


58  VIRGINIA    AND   MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

Chancellor.  More  than  once,  in  the  course  of  four  years,  he  was 
called  upon  to  suppress  incipient  rebellion  ;  once  a  slave  insurrection 
threatened  the  lives  of  the  white  masters.  The  number  of  the  white 
servants  of  the  colony  was  increased  by  the  exportation  from  England 
to  Virginia  of  many  of  those  prisoners  taken  with  Monmouth  at  Sedge- 
moor,  but  whose  lives  were  spared  when  Jeffreys  made  his  Bloody 
Circuit ;  and  these  added  new  strength  to  the  more  discontented  and 
turbulent  of  the  population,  although  the  General  Assembly  pru- 
dently neglected  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  King  to  pass  a  law  denying 
them  all  power  of  redemption  from  servitude  for  at  least  ten  years. 
Philip  Ludwell  was  sent  to  England  to  represent  to  the  King  and 
Council  the  condition  of  the  province  under  Effingham's 
rtstVi,  pro-  rule.  He  arrived,  fortunately,  about  the  time  of  the  land- 

test  of  tin1         .  fir**  e   s\  i  ill  i         *       f 

colonists  to     in<*  of  the  1  rince  or  Untnige.  and  was  enabled  to  obtain  from 

VI  I 

William  and  Mary  the  hearing  which  James  II.  would  no 
doubt  have  refused.  Ludwell  was  so  far  successful  that  Effingham  — 
who  was  also  in  England  —  never  resumed  the  duties  of  his  office, 
though  he  was  permitted  to  retain  both  the  title  and  the  salary  for 
several  years  longer. 

The  accession  of  the  new  sovereigns  excited  small  enthusiasm  in 
n  Virginia,  when  it  was  known  that  Effingham  still  held  his 
)"J.  commission  and  that  lie  was  to  rule  by  deputy.  Colonel 
fin'.'h!iu>f  Francis  Nicholson  was  appointed  Lieutenant-governor.  He, 
indeed,  would  have  much  preferred  to  return  to  New  York 
as  its  chief  magistrate,  and  all  the  influence  he  could  command  was 
used  to  procure  him  that  position.  It  would,  however,  have  been 
hardly  prudent,  hardly  even  decent,  to  impose  him  upon  a  colony 
where  he  had  so  recently,  either  from  want  of  moral  courage  or 
from  feebleness  of  judgment,  made  a  popular  revolution  almost  in- 
evitable. But  the  political  amenities,  then  as  now  held  to  be  of  so 
much  more  moment  than  considerations  of  mere  fitness  for  office, 
made  him  Lieutenant-governor  of  Virginia. 

He  showed  himself,  however,  anxious  to  discharge  the  duties  of  his 
post  creditably  to  himself  and  for  the  good  of  the  colony.  Perhaps 
he  thought  he  should  best  commend  himself  to  the  new  sovereigns 
by  making  his  administration  as  wide  a  contrast  as  possible  to  those 
which  had  preceded  it ;  perhaps  his  late  experience  in  New  York  had 
really  taught  him  wisdom,  and  he  had  learned  to  respect  the  rights 
of  his  fellow-citizens.  It  was,  at  any  rate,  a  new  thing  to  see  a  gov- 
ernor in  Virginia  who  thought  it  worth  his  while  to  visit  every  part 
of  his  province  that  he  might  observe  with  his  own  eyes  the  condition 
of  the  people ;  who  invited  them  to  meet  him  in  familiar  intercourse  ; 
who  gave  festivals  and  established  athletic  sports  to  improve  and 


1692.]  WILLIAM    AND   MARY    COLLEGE.  59 

modify  their  social  relations  ;  who  proposed  a  public  post-office,  and 
made  a  great  public  road  through  the  most  populous  portion  of  the 
province  ;  who  encouraged  other  industries  than  that  of  tobacco- 
planting,  especially  the  growing  of  flax,  the  manufacture  of  leather, 
and  an  unrestricted  trade  with  the  Indians  in  furs,  in  skins,  and  other 
commodities ;  and  who  cooperated  heartily  with  the  Legis- 

i  e  t  •  r     ImProT<*l 

lature  in  the  enactment  of   laws  for  the  purity  and  peace  of  condition  of 

•  -i  •      affllirs- 

society,  making  drunkenness  a  misdemeanor  with  a  pecuni- 
ary penalty  or  punishment  in  the  stocks,  and  enjoining  in  other  re- 
spects —  such  as  "  swearing,  cursing,  profaning  God's  holy  name, 
Sabbath  profaning,  attending  meetings  outside  the  parish,  or  travel- 
ling on  that  day" — a  rigid  rule  of  life  more  in  accordance  with  the 
Puritanical  government  of  New  England  than  that  of  the  Established 
Church  in  Virginia. 

The  two  Assemblies  which  passed  these  laws  were  called  by  Nich- 
olson, notwithstanding  Effingham's  injunction  that  he  should  not 
permit  the  popular  representatives  to  come  together.  So  satisfied 
was  that  body  with  his  rule,  that  at  its  first  session  it  gave  him 
£300,  in  addition  to  his  salary;  and  so  anxious  was  the  Lieutenant- 
governor  for  the  public  welfare,  or  so  diligent  to  gain  the  public 
approbation,  that  he  gave  one  half  this  sum  to  aid  in  the  establish- 
ment of  William  and  Mary  College.  The  real  founder  of  that  col- 
lege—  the  second  in  the  colonies,  Harvard  being  the  first  —  was  the 
Rev.  James  Blair,  the  Commissary  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  the 
head,  therefore,  of  the  Established  Church  in  Virginia.  But  his  suc- 
cess was  undoubtedly  due,  in  large  measure,  to  the  influence  used 
by  Nicholson  in  its  favor. 

The  charter  for  this  seminary  —  originally  intended  mainly  for  the 
education  of  young  men  meaning  to  be  clergymen,  and  for  Foundatiou 
the  instruction  of  Indian  children  —  was  granted  in  Febru-  ^"j{a*Tm 
ary,  1692,  by  William  and  Mary,  and  by  them  the  college  College- 
was  liberally  endowed.  Sir  Christopher  Wren  was  the  architect  of 
the  first  college  building;  Blair  was  the  first  president,  having  under 
him  six  professors,  for  the  training  of  a  hundred  pupils  or  more;  and 
the  college  was  entitled  to  one  representative  in  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses. The  opposition  to  the  scheme  was  persistent,  often  contempt- 
uous and  bitter.  Seymour,  the  Attorney -general  of  England,  ex- 
pressed a  common  feeling,  though  with  more  frankness  than  courtesy, 
when  ordered  to  draw  up  the  charter  for  the  college.  He  declared 
that  it  was  useless,  and  protested  against  the  royal  endowment  as  ex- 
travagant. Mr.  Blair  maintained  its  necessity,  especially  as  it  was  in- 
tended to  relieve  the  religious  destitution  of  the  colony  in  training 
young  men  for  the  ministry.  He  begged  the  Attorney-general  to  re- 


60 


VIRGINIA    AND   MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


member  that  the  people  of  Virginia,  quite  as  much  as  the  people  of 
other  parts  of  the  world,  had  souls  to  be  saved.  "Souls!''  —  was  the 
answer  —  "Damn  vour  souls!  Make  tobacco!  ' 

m 

Nicholson  remained  in  Virginia  only  about  two  years  ;  but  why  he 

should  have  retired  from  office  is  not  quite  clear.     Nor  is  it, 
Retirement      ....... 

<.f  Nirhoi-      indeed,  of  much  importance,  except  that  the  reason  given  by 

Beverley,  and  accepted  by  later  historians,  rather  suggests 
doubts  on  other  subjects  than  explains  this.  It  is  asserted  that  the 
Governor  became  suddenly  unpopular  for  opposing  settlement  in 
towns  —  "cohabitation,"  as  the  term  of  the  time  was — which,  at 


William  and   Mary  College. 

first,  he  had  favored.  But  he  could  hardly  have  rendered  himself 
obnoxious  for  opposing  that  which  nothing  could  have  hindered  the 
people  of  Virginia  from  doing  if  they  saw  fit,  and  which  they  had 
obstinately  refused  to  do  for  years.  If  there  really  were  any  differ- 
ence of  opinion  between  him  and  them  on  this  subject,  there  must 
be  some  other  explanation  for  the  slow  and  painful  growth  of  the  col- 
ony than  the  Avant  of  towns,  the  isolation  of  planters  upon  grants  of 
immense  tracts  of  land,  and  the  system  of  labor  and  cultivation  which 
grew  up  with  such  settlements. 

It  is  more  probable  that  Nicholson  returned  to  England  with  the 
hope,  perhaps  with  the  promise,  of  promotion.  Before  he  left  Vir- 
ginia a  revolution  in  Maryland  had  deposed  the  government  of  Lord 


1692.]  AFFAIRS   IN   MARYLAND.  61 

Baltimore,  and  that  colony  had  also  become  a  royal  province.  Sir 
Lionel  Copley  was  appointed  Governor' in  1690.  Nicholson  may  have 
hoped  to  supersede  him  ;  he  was,  at  any  rate,  appointed  in  his  place 
on  the  death  of  Copley  in  1692. 

Charles  Calvert,  the  Lord  Baltimore  who  by  this  revolution  was 
deprived  of  all  political  power  in  his  American  inheritance,  Affnirs  in 
was  the  son  of  the  second  Lord  Baltimore,  who  died  in  167f>.  Mar-vland- 
The  fortunes  of  that  family  had  changed  with  the  changing  dynasties 
of  England  from  the  death  of  Cromwell  to  the  accession  of  William 
and  Mary.  The  prosperity  of  the  state  is  not  always  —  perhaps  not 
often  —  measured  by  the  struggles  of  political  parties,  and  Maryland 
was  not  an  exception  to  this  obvious  truth.  Sometimes  the  Catholics, 
sometimes  the  Puritans,  through  these  eventful  years,  gained  the  as- 
cendency. Fendall,  whom  Cecil,  Lord  Baltimore,  had  made  a  Gov- 
ernor, turned  against  his  master  and  put  a  Puritan  Assembly  into 
power  ;  Philip  Calvert,  Cecil's  brother,  reestablished  the  authority 
of  the  Proprietary,  and  made  the  way  smooth  and  pleasant  for  his 
nephew  ;  and  through  all  these  bitter  contentions  and  vicissitudes, 
however  important  they  might  be  to  individual  fortunes  and  the  po- 
litical ambition  of  a  few  men,  the  progress  of  the  colony  was  steady 
and  its  prosperity  undisturbed.  In  the  ten  years  from  1660  to  1670 
the  population  increased  from  twelve  to  twenty  thousand.  Under 
the  mild  rule  of  the  Baltimores,  and  the  spirit  of  tolerance  which, 
notwithstanding  their  religious  differences,  had  become  the  habitual 
temper  of  the  people  of  Maryland,  the  province  was  a  place  of  refuge 
for  the  persecuted  of  whatever  faith.  Had  the  first  proprietors  of 
that  beautiful,  salubrious,  and  fertile  region  been  so  fortunate  or  so 
wise  as  to  make  it  an  asylum  of  political  and  social,  as  well  as  relig- 
ious liberty,  it  might  have  become  in  time  the  central  seat  of  the 
power  and  the  commerce  of  a  great  empire. 

But  the  inevitable  changes  came  at  last.     While  on  a  visit  to  Eng- 
land,—  Thomas  Notely  acting  in  his  absence  as  Lieutenant-governor, 
—  Baltimore  met  and   successfully  rebutted  all  complaints    brought 
against  him  by  the  opposing  party  in  the  colony.     But  more  Cathoiicg 
serious  trouble  awaited  him  on  his  return  in  1681  ;  for  the  t^tf^aln 
restless  Fendall,  with  the  aid  of  one  Coode,  a  disreputable  inconaict- 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  was  almost  successful  in  arous- 
ing the  Protestants  to  armed  resistance  to  the  Catholic  government. 
Both  the  leaders  were  arrested  in  1681,  tried,  and  Fendall,  at  least, 
convicted  of  treason,  though  neither  was  punished. 

The  remaining  years  of  Baltimore's  administration  of  the  affairs  of 
his  province  were,  nevertheless,  years  of  great  anxiety  and  continual 
contention.  In  Maryland  the  Protestant  party  was  diligent  and 


62  VIRGINIA   AND   MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

watchful  for  an  opportunity  to  seize  the  government ;  in  England 
their  friends  were  not  less  active  on  their  behalf,  and  all  the  more 
that  this  struggle  between  religious  parties  in  Maryland  could  be  used 
to  strengthen  the  anti-Catholic  party  at  home.  Even  the  King,  who 
cared  little  for  the  religious  faith  of  any  of  his  subjects,  was  quite 
willing  to  listen  to  the  suggestion  that  his  own  revenue  from  the 
colony  was  diminished  under  Baltimore's  rule. 

Threatened  on  all  sides,  Baltimore  again  returned  to  England, 
Baltimore's  leaving  his  infant  son,  Benedict  Leonard  Calvert,  nominally 
shiTin'jaii-  Grovemor,  but  committing  the  province  to  the  care  of  a 
ger-  Council  of  Nine,  of  which  William  Joseph  was  president. 

Charles  II.  died  before  the  Proprietary  reached  England,  and  he  prob- 
ably looked  for  more  favor  from  the  Catholic  successor  to  the  throne. 
But  James  did  not  mean  to  make  Maryland  an  exception  in  the 
policy  he  proposed  to  adopt  for  the  government  of  the  American 
colonies.  The  quo  warranto  which  Charles  had  threatened,  moved 
thereto  by  Baltimore's  enemies,  James  soon  ordered  to  be  issued  in 
accordance  with  his  own  general  purpose.  Whatever  his  sympathy 
might  be  with  Baltimore  as  a  Catholic  governor  in  a  struggle  with 
Protestant  opponents,  he  had  small  consideration  for  him  as  a  colonial 
proprietary. 

Through  the  few  years  of  James's  reign  Baltimore  was  held  in  that 
worst  of  all  conditions,  a  condition  of  uncertainty  ;  for  neither  could 
he  get  the  quo  warranto  against  him  withdrawn,  nor  were  the  pro- 
ceedings under  the  writ  brought  to  a  conclusion.  To  him  any  change 
was  a  chance,  however  desperate,  and  when  William  and  Mary  landed 
in  England  he  was  prompt  in  offering  them  his  recognition  and  alle- 
giance. Orders  were  sent  to  his  deputies  in  Maryland  to  proclaim  the 
accession  of  the  new  sovereigns  ;  but  either  these  orders  were  delayed 
in  the  passage,  or  the  Council  unwisely  neglected  to  obey.  Perhaps 
the  result  would  have  been  the  same  in  any  event ;  but  the  delay 
gave  the  Protestant  party  an  advantage  which  they  eagerly  seized. 
Rumors  were  industriously  spread,  or  sprang  up  naturally  and  spon- 
taneously, that  the  Catholics  would  remain  loyal  to  James  and  defy 
the  revolution.  It  may  have  been  only  to  guard  against  a  popular 
outbreak,  and  to  be  in  a  position  to  safely  wait  events,  that  Balti- 
more's adherents  made  preparations  to  arm  and  defend  the  forts.  It 
was  the  best  thing  to  do,  if  they  did  anything,  having  committed  the 
first  mistake  of  neglecting  to  proclaim  the  accession  of  the  new  King 
and  Queen.  But  it  made  little  difference  in  the  end.  The  prepara- 
tions for  defence  on  this  side  were  made  the  pretext  of  attack  on  the 
other,  and  had  this  pretext  been  wanting,  another  would  have  been 
found.  The  losing  cause  in  England  could  not  be  the  winning  on& 
in  Maryland. 


1692.] 


ANDROS   GOVERNOR   OF   VIRGINIA. 


63 


The  Protestants,  once  more  under  the  lead  of  John  Coode,  concen- 
trated their  strength  in  an  Association  to  maintain  the  Prot- 

...  11          •     i  r   ifT-ii-  i    -\*  IT-  A  new  rev- 

estant  religion  and  the  rights  of  William  and  Mary  as  King   oiutionin 

.„  11     r«        1-    1      J          •     •  r>       J  V     •  Marv  land. 

and  Queen  over  all  English  dominions.  Coode,  an  Episco- 
pal clergyman,  though  a  man  of  doubtful  character,  possessed,  never- 
theless, the  energy  which  makes 
revolutions  successful.  Balti- 
more's adherents  were  driven 
out  of  the  capital ;  Fort  Matta- 
pany,  the  Government  House 
where  they  took  refuge,  was  be- 
sieged and  soon  compelled  to 
surrender;  and  the  Proprietary's 
government  was  in  a  few  weeks 
utterly  overthrown.  In  August 
(1689)  a  popular  Assembly  was 
convened  at  St.  Mary's.  A  re- 
port of  late  events  was  prepared 
and  sent  to  England  for  the  ap- 
proval of  the  King,  and  mean- 
while, till  a  response  could  be 
received,  the  Assembly  took 
upon  itself  the  direction  of  the 
affairs  of  the  colony. 

The   royal  approbation  came 

in  due  time,  to  be  followed  soon  after  by  a  royal  governor.  This 
was  Sir  Lionel  Copley,  who,  dying  within  a  year,  was  sue- 
ceeded  by  Nicholson.  Lord  Baltimore  had  been  compelled 
at  last  to  answer  to  the  quo  ivarranto  before  the  Privy  Coun-  etorsh'P- 
cil,  and  except  that  he  was  permitted  to  retain  the  revenue  from 
the  lands  of  Maryland,  was  deprived  of  all  his  proprietary  rights. 

Since   his    return  to  England,  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  after  his  dis- 
charge from  arrest  and  virtual  exculpation  for  his  conduct  as 
Governor  of  New  England,  had  busied  himself  in  the  affairs   c.™'-?* 
of  Virginia.    If  it  was  with  the  hope  of  being  rewarded  with 
a  commission  as  Governor  of  that  colony,  he  gained  his  end.    He  was 
appointed  in  Effingham's  place  and  assumed  the  duties  of  his  office 
about  the  time  of  Nicholson's  return  to  England.    If  the  King  thought 
him  not  unworthy  of  being  made  again  the  Governor  of  an  American 
Colony,  the  Virginians  may  have  reflected  that  it  was  not  for  them 
to  question  his  fitness.     At  any  rate,  they  welcomed  him  heartily  for 
his  recent  services,  and  many  of  them,  no  doubt,  thought  none  the 
worse  of  him  because  the  Boston  Puritans  had  deposed  and  imprisoned 


Charles,    Second   Lord   Baltimore. 


64  VIRCIXIA    AND   MARYLAND.  [CiiAP.  HI. 

him  as  the  friend  of  James,  and  an  enemy  of  the  revolution  that 
seated  Mary  and  William  upon  the  throne.  His  loyalty,  however,  could 
not  now  be  questioned.  If  not  a  better,  he  was  a  wiser  man  with 
William's  commission  in  his  pocket  than  when  he  imprisoned  Win- 
slow  for  promulgating  in  Boston  the  news  of  the  landing  of  the  Prince 
of  Orange  in  England. 

It    mav  have   been    partly  because   he  served  a  new  master  that 

+>  «/ 

Andros  now  remembered  that  a  colonial  governorship  had  its  duties 
as  well  as  its  privileges.  That  he  was  less  arrogant  and  overbearing 
may  have  been  the  result,  in  some  measure,  of  his  past  painful  expe- 
rience;  and  then  a  more  congenial  atmosphere  than  that  of  Puritan 
New  England  had,  no  doubt,  a  softening  influence  upon  his  temper. 
Like  Nicholson,  he  came  a  new  man  with  new  things. 

He  brought  with  him  the  charter  of  William  and  Mary  College, 
in  which    he    professed  the  strongest  interest.      Nicholson 

Character  of    .       .       .  l 

his  a<iiuini»-  had  already  done  something  to  establish  post  routes  and 
offices.  Andros  completed  the  work  in  aiding  Thomas  Neale, 
who  held  from  the  crown  a  patent  for  establishing  a  postal  service  to 
connect  all  the  colonies.  It  is  Andros  to  whom  Virginia  should  be 
grateful  that  he  caused  to  be  collected  and  preserved  all  the  records 
of  the  colony  not  already  destroyed.  Nor  was  he  unmindful  of  the 
material  needs  of  the  people.  He  encouraged,  not  without  some 
success,  domestic  manufactures  ;  that  less  tobacco  might  be  raised, 
he  introduced  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  and  it  was  not  his  fault,  but 
the  fault  of  the  climate,  that  the  attempt  was  a  failure. 

For  the  first  year  or  two  Andros  was  a  popular  Governor,  and  de- 
served to  be,  though  popular  applause  was  clearly  not  his  motive  of 
action,  however  much  he  may  have  come  to  believe  that  the  welfare 
of  the  people  was  worth  consideration.  He  disregarded  much  grum- 
bling Avhen  he  sent  out  vessels  to  suppress  the  contraband  trade  along 
the  coast,  and  he  codified  English  statutes  and  promulgated  them  as 
the  law  of  Virginia,  without  paying  the  slightest  heed  to  appeals  to 
charters,  to  precedents,  to  common  justice,  or  to  common  sense. 

His  position,  however,  was  unquestionably  one  of  great  difficulties. 
The  best  intentions   and    the   most  vigorous  rule,  even    if 
the  colony      directed  by  a  wiser  man  than  Andros  had  ever  shown  him- 
self to  be,  could  not,  in  four  or  five  years,  correct  the  evils 
which,  with  the  misgovernment  of  three  quarters  of  a  century,  had  sunk 
deeply  into  the  social  and  political  structure.     "  It  is  astonishing," 
says  a  writer  of  that  period,  "  to  hear  what  contrary  characters  are 
given  of  the  country  of  Virginia,  even  by  those  who  have  often  seen 
it.  and  know  it  very  well ;  some  of  them  representing  it  as  the  best, 
others  as  the  worst  country  in  the  world.     Perhaps  they  are  both  in 


1896.]  CONDITION   OF   VIRGINIA.  60 

the  right.  For  the  most  general  true  character  of  Virginia  is  this : 
that  as  to  the  natural  advantages  of  a  country  it  is  one  of  the  best; 
but  as  to  the  improved  ones,  one  of  the  worst  of  all  the  English  planta- 
tions in  America."  "  As  it  came  out  of  the  hand  of  God,  "  the  writer 
holds,  no  region  ever  had  more  prospect  of  becoming  a  great  state. 
14  But  ....  if  we  inquire  for  well-built  towns,  for  convenient  forts 
and  markets,  for  plenty  of  ships  and  seamen,  for  well- improved  trades 
and  manufactures,  for  well-educated  children,  for  an  industrious  and 
thriving  people,  or  for  an  happy  government  in  church  and  state, 
....  it  is  certainly  for  all  these  things,  one  of  the  poorest,  misera- 
blest  and  worst  countries  in  all  America  that  is  inhabited  by  Chris- 
tians." » 

This  acute  observer  was  quite  able  to  discern  some  of  the  causes  of 
the  want  of  prosperity  in  the  colony,  —  that,  for  example,  the  grant- 
ing of  lands  in  large  tracts  was  a  hindrance  to  the  settlement  of  the 
country,  and  that  the  cultivation  of  a  single  staple  was  an  unwise  em- 
ployment of  industry.  But  it  was  no  more  revealed  to  him  than  to 
anybody  else  of  that  period,  —  hardly  even  yet,  indeed,  is  it  under- 
stood as  an  axiom  of  political  economy  by  the  Southerner  of  average 
intelligence  —  that  beneath  these  ostensible  causes  lay  the  fatal  mis- 
take of  a  reliance  upon  slave-labor,  an  evil  that  no  political  devices 
however  wise,  and  no  government  however  well  administered,  could 
ever  I'emedy.2 

There  was,  nevertheless,  marked  improvement  in  the  condition  and 
character  of  the  people.  A  growing  jealousy  of  arbitrary  rule  by  a 
royal  Governor  soon  made  itself  visible.  It  was  only  a  few  years  since 
Berkeley  had  thanked  God  that  there  was  neither  a  free  school  nor  a 
printing-press  in  the  colony  ;  and  Culpepper  aud  Effingham  had  for- 

1  "An  Account  of  the  Present  State  and  Government  of  Virginia."  J/ass.  Flint.  Soc. 
Coll.,  vol.  v. 

'2  Slavery  was  the  curse  of  every  colony  where  it  gained  a  permanent  foothold  ;  and  this 
came  to  be  as  evident  to  sagacious  men,  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  as  it  is 
held,  in  the  nineteenth,  to  be  a  self-evident  fact.  Said  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Boucher,  —  in 
1763,  —  Hector  of  St.  Anne's  Church  in  Annapolis  and  at  one  time  tutor  of  Mrs.  George 
Washington's  sou  by  her  first  husband  :  "  Were  an  imparti.il  and  comprehensive  observer 
of  the  state  of  society  in  these  middle  colonies  asked,  Whence  it  happens  that  Virginia  aud 
Maryland,  which  were  the  first  planted,  and  which  are  superior  to  many  colonies,  and  infe- 
rior to  none  in  poiut  of  every  natural  advantage,  are  still  so  exceedingly  behind  most  of 
the  other  British  American  provinces  in  all  those  improvements  which  bring  credit  and 
consequence  to  a  country  ?  He  would  answer  :  They  are  so  because  they  are  cultivated 
by  slave*."  Five  and  twenty  years  later,  when  the  American  provinces  had  censed  to  be- 
long to  Great  Britain,  William  Pinkney,  chief  among  the  distinguished  men  of  Maryland, 
exclaimed  :  "  Eternal  infamy  awaits  the  abandoned  miscreants,  whose  selfish  souls  could 
ever  prompt  them  to  rob  unhappy  Afric  of  her  sons,  and  freight  them  hither  by  thou- 
sands to  poison  the  fair  Eden  of  liberty  with  the  rank  weed  of  individual  bondage  !  " — 
Cited  in  Xeill's  Terra  31arias. 

VOL.  III.  5 


66  VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

bidden  that  any  printing  should  be  done  except  for  the  publication 
of  laws  by  express  permission,  in  certain  cases.  The  establishment 
of  a  college  was  the  fulfilment  of  those  fears  which  Berkeley  hoped 
would  not  be  accomplished  for  another  hundred  years.  It  was  an  evi- 
dence of  increasing  intelligence,  as  well  as  a  promise  of  future  cul- 
ture, that  a  seminary  of  learning  should  be  so  soon  asked  for,  even 
with  a  limited  purpose.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  more  it  flourished 
the  more  certain  it  was  to  come  into  collision  with  men  like  Andros, 

whose  idea  of  government  was  at  bottom  the  same  as  that  of 
nor  ana  the  Berkeley  and  his  immediate  successors.  The  Governor  was 

certain  to  claim  an  authority  over  the  affairs  of  the  college 


which  a  president  like  Blair  was  sure  to  resist.  One  con- 
tended for  his  prerogative  ;  the  other  for  the  true  interests  of  the  in- 
stitution over  which  he  presided.  Though  the  question  at  first  was 
one  of  ecclesiastical  precedence  between  a  royal  Governor  and  a  com- 
missary of  the  Bishop  of  London,  it  widened  into  a  controversy  which 
gave  new  strength  to  the  cause  of  popular  government,  and  finally 
cost  Andros  his  office.  To  punish  and  overcome  the  firmness  of  Blair 

as  president  of  William  and  Mary  College,  the  Governor  ar- 
caiied,  and  bitrarily  removed  him  as  a  member  of  the  Council.  The 
again  ap-  political  issue  thus  created  went  by  appeal  to  England.  An- 

dros was  defeated  and  recalled,  and  Nicholson  transferred 
from  Maryland  to  take  his  place. 

Nicholson  had  earned  this  promotion  by  his  diligence  and  zeal  dur- 
ing the  four  years  of  his  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  smaller 
colony.  The  substitution  of  the  Church  of  England  for  the  Catholic 
Church  appears  to  have  been  his  chief  business,  but  that  may  have 
seemed  to  be  no  easy  task.  It  was  not  a  field  ready  for  the  reaper, 
over  which  fruitful  seed  had  been  cast  with  lavish  hands.  Only  five 
years  before  Baltimore  was  compelled  to  surrender  all  his  rights  as 
Proprietary  —  save  only  his  pecuniary  rights  —  a  petition  to  the  King 
set  forth  that  Maryland  was  "  without  a  Church  or  any  settled  min- 
istry." l  A  church  of  the  regular  Establishment,  of  course,  is  meant, 
for  Presbyterians  and  Quakers  had  liberty  of  conscience  and  of  woi-- 
ship,  under  Catholic  rule,  and  of  forming  religious  organizations  after 
their  kind.  That  there  were  no  "  churches,"  was  because  of  the  few- 
ness or  lukewarmness  of  churchmen.  To  bring  the  new  royal  prov- 
ince within  the  pale  of  the  Established  Church  of  England  ;  to  do 
away  with  the  assumed  evil  of  toleration  ;  to  establish  religion  by 
Litany  and  Prayer-book  ;  —  this  was  the  policy  of  the  King,  and  the 
first  duty  of  the  Governor. 

One  of  the  earliest  acts  of  the  Assembly,  after  the  arrival  of  Cop- 

1  The  Emjlish  Colonization  of  America.     By  Edward  D.  Neill. 


1694.] 


NICHOLSON   IN  MARYLAND. 


6T 


ley,  was  a  law  for  the  establishment  of  the  Protestant  religion,  and 
for  dividing  the  ten  counties  of  Maryland  into  twenty-five  Ilu,gOVern. 
parishes.     The   Friends  and  the  Catholics  were,  however,  M^ryUnd 
sufficiently  numerous  to  disregard  the  act  for  a  while  with  reviewed- 
impunity.     Plainly,  the  want  of  churchmen  was  a  serious  difficulty 
in  the  way  of  building  up  the  Church.     When  Nicholson  came,  how- 
ever, he  brought  with  him 
six   clergymen;    in    two 
years  their  number  was  in- 
creased to   fifteen  ;   public 
worship  was  forbidden  to 
the  Catholics ;  five  or  six 
church  edifices  were  built 
in  various  places ;  and  all 
that   law   and   intolerance 
could  do  was  done  to  force 
the  Established  Church  of 
England  upon  an    unwill- 
ing or  an  indifferent  peo- 
ple.    The   more    rigid    of 
the  Puritans,  to  whom  any 
recognition  of  Episcopacy 
was  a  necessity  very  bitter 
and  hard  to  bear,  had,  at 
least,    the    consolation    of 
seeing  their   old   enemies, 
the  Catholics,  suffer, —  perhaps  aiding  in  their  persecution  when  it 
could    be  done  consistently  with   their  own   professions  of  non-con- 
formity. 

This  enforcement  of  a  state  religion  upon  the  colony  brought  with 
it  some  advantages.  Nicholson  caused  a  law  to  be  passed  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  school  in  each  county  of  the  province.  This,  it  was 
declared,  was  to  secure  a  perpetual  provision  of  clergymen  for  the 
churches ;  but  the  design,  no  doubt,  was  broader,  or  would  almost  in- 
evitably become  so.  King  William's  School,  as  that  opened  at  Annap- 
olis—  which  in  1694  was  made  the  capital  —  was  named,  received 
from  Nicholson  material  aid  and  countenance,  and  may  have  served 
as  a  model  for  others.  There,  "  arithmetic,  navigation,  and  all  useful 
.earning  "  were  to  be  taught,  as  well  as  theology.  This,  at  least,  was 
an  improvement  on  the  times  of  the  Baltimores,  when  there  was  no 
provision  for  schools  of  any  kind.  Such  a  measure  could  not  be  with- 
out marked  influence  in  the  progress  of  society.  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore every  one  of  the  thirty  parishes  had  a  small  parochial  library, 


President  Blair. 


68 


VIRCJIXIA    AND   MAKYLAXI). 


[CHAP.  III. 


averaging  about  fifty  volumes  each,  exclusive  of  that  of  Annapolis, 
which  contained  about  eleven  hundred  volumes.  Twenty-five  hun- 
dred well-chosen  books,  accessible  to  every  person  in  the  community, 
would  be  an  important  fact  in  any  American  province  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century. 

But  of  Nicholson's  long  career  in  America,  the  five  or  six  years  of 
iiisM-i-nn.i  ms  second  term  of  office  in  Virginia  are  the  least  creditable. 
l  Something  of  the  reputation  attending  that  administration 
must  be  attributed  to  the  evident  prejudice  of  his  contempo- 
rary, Beverley,  the  historian  of  Virginia,  whose  assertions  have  been 


tion. 


General  View  of  Annapolis. 

accepted  for  the  most  part  by  later  writers.  Much,  nevertheless,  of 
all  alleged  against  him  must  be  true.  He  was  self-willed,  and  oppo- 
sition may  have  often  led  him  to  be  overbearing  and  violent.  That 
his  sense  of  duty  as  a  royal  Governor,  should  have  sometimes  clashed 
with  the  true  interests  of  the  colony  and  the  determination  of  its 

tt 

leading  men  to  maintain  them,  does  not,  however,  necessarily  imply 
that  Nicholson  was  a  bad  or  an  unscrupulous  man.  Virginia  had 
become  second  in  importance  of  till  the  colonies;  her  House  of  Bur- 
gesses represented  a  population  of  -40,000  ;  these  representatives  did 
not  readily  yield  their  own  convictions,  and  there  could  be  a  perfectly 
honest  difference  of  opinion  between  them  and  the  Governor,  which 
might,  nevertheless,  lead  to  bitter  contention. 

It  was  the  policy  of  the  King,  and  the  interest  of  all  the  colonies. 


1703.]  NICHOLSON'S  DEVOTION  TO  THE  CHURCH.  69 

that  there  should  be  unity  of  action  for  defence  against  the  French 
and  Indians.  The  Virginians  felt  that  they  had  little  to  fear  now 
from  the  tribes  upon  their  own  borders,  and  declined  to  contribute 
anything  for  the  building  of  forts  for  the  protection  of  the  Northern 
provinces.  Nicholson  disagreed  with  the  Burgesses  on  this  point,  and 
visited  New  York  to  consult  with  the  Northern  Governors,  declaring 
that  he  would  pay  the  Virginia  quota  from  his  own  means  rather  than 
the  colony  should  be  disgraced  by  refusal.  The  Burgesses  were  ob- 
stinate, and  the  Governor  made  arrangements  to  fulfil  his  promise. 
Beverley  intimates  that,  if  the  contribution  was  made  at  all,  it  was 
done  at  the  cost  of  the  King's  revenue.  Then  the  breach  between  the 
House  and  the  Governor  was  widened  when  he  openly  avowed  that 
the  colonies  ought  to  be  united  in  a  single  confederation,  under  a  sin- 
gle governor,  with  a  standing  army.  More  than  one  royal  governor 
had  warmly  urged  this  policy  in  earlier  years  ;  nowhere  could  it 
arouse  more  indignation  than  in  Virginia,  where  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses was  rapidly  growing  in  power  and  influence,  as  the  representa- 
tive of  a  people  growing  more  and  more  tenacious  of  their  rights. 

Nicholson's  devotion  to  the  Church  involved  him  in  a  controversy 
which  did  much  to  add  to  his  unpopularity,  and  finally  cost  Q,,arrel, 
him   his   place.      Though   he   had   not,  as  in   Maryland,  to  ehu'reh'ves- 
establish    the    State    Church,    he    proposed    to    increase    its   tncs 
strength.     The  clergyman  in  Virginia  was  entirely  dependent  upon 
the  vestry  of  his  parish,  who  controlled  his  stipend,  and  bestowed  or 
withheld  it  by  an  annual  vote.     Whether  wisely  exercised  or  not,  it 
was  then  and  there  a  wise  limitation  of  the  tenure  of  the  clerical 
office. 

The  ordinary  clergyman  of  the  Established  Church,  at  that  period, 
even  in  England,  was  not  a  very  reputable  character.  Intel-  character  of 
lectually  he  was  but  little,  if  at  all,  superior  to  those  over  rf'^™^. 
whom  he  was  set  to  teach ;  if  he  were  free  from  the  contain-  ll!ih  churcl1- 
ination  of  worldly  vices,  it  was  more  from  want  of  means  than  want  of 
inclination  ;  socially  he  was  rather  beneath  the  farmers  who  tilled  the 
land  of  the  great  proprietors,  and  hardly  above  the  servants  who  served 
at  their  tables  ;  his  wages  were  wages  of  service  and  not  a  return  for 
productive  industry,  though  over  the  household  servant  who  jostled 
him  as  he  approached  their  master  he  had  this  one  advantage  —  that 
his  wages,  though  small,  were  permanent  and  not  dependent  upon  the 
caprice  of  anybody. 

But  in  Virginia  he  neither  had  nor  deserved  this  advantage.  Low 
as  the  clergy  were  as  a  class  in  England,  the  clergy  of  the  colony 
were  generally  the  mere  refuse  of  the  order.  Bankrupt  in  purse  they 
could  not  be,  for  that  would  imply  that  somebody  had  once  trusted 


70  VIRGINIA   AND   MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

them  ;  but  most  of  them  were  bankrupt  in  everything  else  that  could 
have  made  them  respectable  at  home,  and  they  sought  in  Virginia  an 
asylum  for  freedom  to  serve  the  devil  with  as  much  zeal  as  ever  moved 
Puritan  to  fly  to  the  wilderness  for  freedom  to  worship  God.  It  was 
well  that  those  wolves,  to  whose  care  the  flocks  were  intrusted,  could 
always  be  held  in  some  restraint  by  the  will  of  the  vestry. 

When  Nicholson  proposed  that  this  power  should  be  taken  away 
from  tlu>  vestries,  the  disgust  was  almost  universal.  The  clergymen, 
on  their  part,  gave  a  lively  and  characteristic  evidence  of  their  sense 
of  the  favor  to  be  bestowed,  and  their  fitness  to  be  trusted  uncon- 
trolled with  parochial  duties.  Most  of  them  met  together  at  a  public 
banquet  and  got  uproariously  drunk  and  broke  each  other's  heads  in 
honor  of  an  ecclesiastical  reform.  There  were  a  very  few  decent  men 
among  them,  however,  who  were  unselfish  enough  to  oppose  a  meas- 
ure which  could  only  do  harm,  and  at  the  head  of  these  was  the 
Bishop's  Commissary,  the  President  of  the  College,  Mr.  Blair,  and 
a  Rev.  Mr.  Fouace. 

Complaints  were  sent  to  England  against  the  Governor.  An  error 
of  judgment,  grave  as  his  conduct  was  on  this  subject,  might,  perhaps, 
have  been  overlooked.  But  other  charges  of  neglect  of  official  duty, 
misuse  of  official  power,  and  of  private  misconduct,  were  brought 
agninst  him.  A  scandal  in  relation  to  a  Miss  Burwell,  whom  he 
wished  to  marry,  was  made  great  use  of,  and  probably  not  without 
good  reason.  This  lady  and  her  friends  had  rejected  the  suit  of  the 
Governor  ;  he  nevertheless  persisted  in  it,  threatening  the  lives  of  her 
father  and  brothers,  involved  himself  in  a  quarrel  with  the  clergyman 
of  the  parish  —  Mr.  Kouace  —  and  with  Mr.  Blair,  and  pursued  with 
bitter  enmity  for  years  all  who  opposed  him.  The  matter  became  of 
sufficient  importance  in  the  colony  to  be  the  subject  of  a  long  memo- 
rial to  the  government  at  home ;  and  as  it  was  the  subject  of  many 
bitter  private  animosities,  so  it  undoubtedly  had  much  to  do  with 
intensifying  the  acrimony  on  public  questions. 

Nicholson  gave  to  Virginia,  as  he  had  given  to  Maryland,  a  new 
A  n«w  capi-  capital.  Jamestown  had  never  recovered  from  its  almost 
complete  destruction  by  Bacon  and  his  adherents  after  the 
flight  of  Berkeley ;  the  malaria  of  the  surrounding  lowlands  had  al- 
ways made  it  tin  wholesome,  and  to  abandon  it  was  a  wise  measure. 
The  Governor  chose  Middle  Plantation,  where  the  college  was  built, 
for  the  new  seat  of  government.  The  town  was  laid  out  in  the  form 
of  a  W,  —  an  arrangement  which  convenience,  however,  soon  over- 
ruled,—  and  was  named  Williamsburg  in  honor  of  the  King.  The 
second  year  of  its  settlement  was  commemorated  by  the  first  Com- 
mencement—  1700  —  of  William  and  Mary  College  —  an  event  of  so 


1710.] 


AVJLLIAM  AND  MARY  COLLEGE. 


71 


mi-ncvim-nr 

of  William 


much  interest  that  planters  in  their  coaches  with  their  wives  and 
daughters,  surrounded  by  negro  servants  on  horseback,  came  from 
all  parts  of  the  colony;  visitors  came  by  sea  from  other  colonies  to 
do  honor  to  the  occasion;  and  here  and  there,  mingled  in  the  crowd, 
giving  color  and  picturesqueness  to  the  novel  spectacle,  was  many 
an  Indian  in  the  bravery  of  his  brightest  paint  and  most 
brilliant  and  graceful  feathers.  It  was  a  pleasant  picture  of 
colonial  prosperity  and  progress  in  this  oldest  of  the  Ameri-  vaiiEuj 
can  colonies;  but  a  reflective  spectator  could  hardly  have 
failed  to  remember  that  it  was  nearly  sixty  years  since  the  first  Com- 
mencement-day at 
Harvard  College  in 
Massachusetts  was 
celebrated,  or  fail  to 
remark  in  that  fact 
the  essential  differ- 
ence in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  peoples  of 
the  two  leading  colo- 
nies. 

Virginia  was 
about  to  begin  a 
h  a  p  {>  y  —  perhaps 
the  happiest  —  pe- 
riod in  her  colonial 
history.  On  the  re- 
call of  Nicholson  in 
1705,  the  governor- 
ship of  the  colony 
was  given  as  a  sine- 
cure to  the  Earl  of  Orkney.  The  appointment  of  governors  and  a  por- 
tion of  the  salary  were  his  ;  but  beyond  the  enjoyment  of  these  perqui- 
sites he  interfered  no  further  in  the  affairs  of  the  province,  and  his  dep- 
uties were  called,  and  really  were,  the  governors.  For  five  years  it  so 
happened  that  the  colony  was  left  to  manage  its  own  affairs  under  the 
Council,  —  of  which  the  presiding  member  was  Edward  Jenings,  —  for 
Edward  Nott,  Orkney's  first  nominee,  died  a  few  months  after  his  ar- 
rival in  Virginia,  and  the  second,  Robert  Hunter,  never  arrived  at  all, 
being  taken  by  a  French  cruiser  on  his  outward  passage.  With  the 
exception  of  a  few  months,  therefore,  there  were  five  years  of  tran- 
quillity and  self-government,  which  prepared  the  Avay  for  a  wiser  and 
more  prosperous  administration  than  Virginia  had  ever  known  under 
any  of  her  royal  governors. 


Ruins  of  President's  House,    William  and   Mary   College. 


72 


VIRGINIA    AND   MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


colonel 


The  new  Governor  was  Colonel  Alexander  Spotswood,  who  arrived 
in  June,  1710.  It  was  accepted  as  a  happy  augury  of  his 
rule  that  he  was  ordered  to  extend  to  Virginia  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  which  had  hitherto  been  with- 
held. The  great  satisfaction  with  which  this  was  received  by  the 
people,  and  possibly  the  evident  necessity  of  such  a  protection  to  their 
rights,  may  have  turned  the  attention  of  the  Governor  to  the  condi- 
tion of  the  laws.  It  is,  at  any  rate,  remarkable  that  he,  a  young 
man,  bred  to  arms  from  his  boyhood,  should  have  at  once  introduced 
much-needed  reforms  in  the  constitution  of  the  courts,  in  the  general 

administration  of  justice,  in  the 
character  of  the  revenue  laws, 
and  in  the  collection  of  taxes. 

In  all  these  measures  he  had 
the  hearty  cooperation  of  the 
Assembly  and  the  commenda- 
tion of  the  people.  Both  were 
wanting  when  he  overstepped 
the  boundary  line  between  royal 
prerogative  and  popular  rights. 
Five  years  of  popular  govern- 
ment had  greatly  strengthened 
the  House  of  Burgesses,  and  that 
body  was  always  ready  to  with- 
stand, firmly  and  unhesitatingly, 
any  encroachment  of  the  Gov- 
ernor upon  their  privileges.  In 
the  second  year  of  his  adminis- 
tration the  House  refused  to 
provide  the  means  he  asked  for,  to  aid  in  repelling  an  apprehended 
invasion  of  the  French  from  Canada ;  compelled  him  to 

Differences  .  . 

between  the  ask  tlie  government  in  England  tor  assistance  in  the  prep- 

(jovernor  .  1-111  i  11  i  i 

and  the  AS-  anitioiis  winch  he  thought  necessary  and  they  thought  use- 
less, for  defence  against  the  Indians  ;  and  declined  to  con- 
cur with  his  proposals  for  the  discharge  of  the  public  debt,  except 
by  a  tariff  upon  British  merchandise  and  discriminating  taxes 
against  British  ships  and  in  favor  of  Virginian  vessels.  Notwith- 
standing these  and  other  less  important  differences  between  him 
and  the  people  and  their  representatives,  his  popularity  for  years  was 
undiminished.  He  proved  his  sincere  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
colony  by  his  exertions  on  behalf  of  the  college  ;  by  assisting  to  raise 
a  large  fund  for  its  support,  and  by  restoring  the  building,  which  was 
burnt  several  years  before  his  arrival  and  left  in  ruins  ;  by  establish- 


Governor  Spotswood 


1716.]  EXPEDITION   OVER  THE  BLUE  RIDGE.  73 

ing  a  school  for  the  education  of  Indian  children  ;  by  insisting  upon 
a  rigid  economy  in  all  the  offices  under  his  control,  and  by  giving  a 
hearty  support  to  every  measure  conducive  to  the  general  prosperity. 
Spotswood's  ardent  curiosity  about  this  new  country  in  which  he 
had  come  to  live,  led  him  into  long  expeditions  that  he  might 

•  ii  /••*  e  Expedition 

learn  more  of  its  extent  and  character.  One  of  these  was  over  the 
to  explore  the  way  to  the  country  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains  of  the  great  Appalachian  chain.  He  started  in  August, 
1716,  from  German  town,  on  the  Rappahannock,  with  a  company  of 
gentlemen  well-mounted  and  armed,  led  by  Indian  guides,  surrounded 
by  a  troop  of  white  hunters,  rangers,  and  servants  leading  horses 
laden  with  provisions  and  all  other  things  necessary  for  such  an  expe- 
dition. These  extraordinary  preparations  were  a  safe-guard  against 
any  of  the  perils  or  hardships  of  the  adventure.  But  none  were 
encountered.  No  savages  dared,  even  if  they  were  disposed,  to  at- 
tack a  party  so  well  appointed.  The  spoils  of  the  chase  were  enough 
for  their  support.  The  march  by  day  was  a  hunt;  for  the  first  time 
the  solemn  forest  resounded,  and  the  mountain  peaks  echoed  and  re- 
echoed with  the  clang  of  trumpets  and  the  sound  of  guns.  There  was 
no  want  of  song  and  laughter  and  merry-making  around  the  camp- 
fires  at  night  as  they  cooked  their  suppers  of  game,  and  drank  of 
"  white  and  red  wine,  usquebaugh,  brandy-shrub,  two  kinds  of  rum, 
champagne,  canary,  cherry  punch,  and  cider,"  which  were  among 
the  stores  they  took  to  beguile  the  weariness  of  the  way.  No  enemy, 
whether  man  or  beast,  ventured  to  approach  with  hostile  intent  this 
hilarious  invasion  of  the  wilderness. 

The  most  elevated  summit  they  reached  was  named  Mount  George, 
where  they  drank  health  to  George  the  First  and  the  royal  family. 
The  next  in  height  was  called  either  Mount  Spotswood  or  Mount 
Alexander,  in  honor  of  the  Governor.  They  crossed  the  dividing 
ridge  of  the  mountains  where  the  waters  parted,  one  stream  running 
westward,  the  other  to  the  east ;  they  descended  the  western  slope, 
marched  seven  miles  into  the  valley  beyond,  and  crossed  a  fordable 
stream  which  they  named  the  Euphrates.  On  its  farther  bank,  with 
such  ceremony  as  their  resources  permitted,  —  the  firing  of  salutes, 
the  blowing  of  trumpets,  the  free  use  of  that  extraordinary  list  of 
liquors  with  which  the  expedition  was  provided,  —  possession  was 
taken  of  the  country  in  the  name  of  George  the  King,  and  a  bottle 
was  buried  containing  a  written  attestation  to  that  possession.  It 
was,  probably,  the  number  of  empty  bottles  that  suggested  this  certain 
method  of  concealing  the  fact  from  any  future  explorers. 

The  expedition  occupied  six  weeks,  and  the  distance  travelled  was 
more  than  two  hundred  miles.  About  the  middle  of  September  the 


74  VIRGINIA    AND   MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

party  returned  to  Williamsburg  and  rode  triumphantly  into  the  town, 
preceded  by  its  own  trumpeters,  and  welcomed  by  the  towns-folk. 
To  commemorate  the  event,  Spotswood  instituted  a  Tramontane  Or- 
der, to  encourage  future  expeditions,  presenting  to  each  of  his  com- 
panions a  small  golden  horseshoe,  to  be  worn  as  a  badge,  choosing 
that  emblem,  it  is  said,  because  of  the  number  of  horseshoes  —  little 
used  in  the  soft  loam  and  sand  of  the  lowlands  of  Eastern  Virginia  — 
required  for  that  mountainous  journey. 

The  adventure  was  altogether  picturesque  and  spirited,  but  that  was 
all.  No  migration  immediately  followed  in  its  trail.  The  Tramon- 
tane Order  could  not  exist  long  on  a  single  past  achievement ;  and 
the  golden  horseshoe,  which  no  one  was  entitled  to  wear  who  had 
not  drunk  the  King's  health  on  the  top  of  Mount  George,  soon  came 
settlement  t°  be  only  a  pretty  memento,  well  enough  to  have  won,  but 
amioaVvai-  no^  worth  the  winning  anew.  Sixteen  years  more  passed  be- 
le>-  fore  the  axe  of  the  settler  was  heard  in  the  Shenandoah  Val- 

ley, and  then,  first,  not  where  Spotswood  and  his  jolly  companions 
had  entered  it,  but  near  its  northern  extremity.  In  1732,  one  Joist 
Hite  took  up  forty  thousand  acres  of  land  near  the  present  town  of 
Winchester,  and  entered  upon  possession  with  a  colony  from  Penn- 
sylvania. Others  soon  followed  to  the  same  region,  some  pushing 
farther  west  over  the  mountains  till  they  descended  into  the  valley  of 
the  Monongahela.  John  Lewis,  an  Irishman  with  a  Scotch  wife,  and 
their  children,  founded  Staunton,  the  oldest  town  in  the  Shenandoah 
Valley  ;  and  one  Burden,  an  agent  of  Lord  Halifax,  following  him, 
obtained  a  grant  of  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land,  on  condition 
that  he  should  settle  upon  them  a  hundred  families.  These  and  more 
he  brought  out  from  the  north  of  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  the  border 
counties  of  England.  In  the  course  of  ten  years,  from  1730  to  1740, 
Friends,  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians,  and  Germans  from  Pennsylvania, 
as  well  as  emigrants  to  Virginia  direct  from  Germany  and  Ireland, 
scattered  themselves  through  this  rich  and  beautiful  valley  from  its 
northern  to  its  southern  extremity. 

In  1744  the  Six  Nations  consented,  in  consideration  of  the  sum  of 
four  hundred  pounds,  to  relinquish  their  title  to  all  that 
with  the  country  lying  between  the  western  boundary  of  Virginia 
and  the  Ohio  River.  Twenty-two  years  before,  Spotswood 
had  secured  a  treaty  with  those  tribes  whereby  they  bound  themselves 
to  abandon  all  the  region  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  south  of  the 
Potomac.  Both  treaties  prepared  the  way  for  this  steady  and  irre- 
sistible progress  of  colonization  westward,  to  be  pushed  a  few  years 
later  into  the  valley  of  the  Ohio. 

In  the  year  of  this  treaty  — 1722  —  Spotswood  ceased  to  be  Gover- 


SPOTSU'OOD'S    EXPEDITION   OVER    THE    BLUE    RIDGE. 


1722.]  CONFLICTS  WITH    GOVERNOR   SPOTSWOOD.  75 

nor ;  but  he  lived  for  eighteen  years  longer  as  a  private  citizen  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  must  have  seen  with  gratification  the  enlargement  of  the 
area  of  the  province,  which  was  the  object  of  his  expedition  across 
the  mountains.  It  was  a  continuation  of  that  prosperity  to  which  his 
long  administration  had  given  so  strong  an  impulse.  The  welfare  of 
Virginia  was  sincerely  his  aim,  and  his  efforts  were  often  successful, 
notwithstanding  the  serious  conflict  of  purpose  and  opinion  between  a 
royal  Governor  and  a  provincial  Assembly,  so  sure  to  manifest  itself 
in  the  course  of  a  dozen  years.  The  Burgesses  were  slow  and  cautious, 
often  obstinate,  sometimes  stolid,  but  always  honest.  The  Governor, 
conscious  of  his  own  integrity,  and  slow  to  see  that  there  could  be 
any  legitimate  conflict  between  royal  prerogative  and  popular  right, 
was  very  often  imperious  and  contemptuous.  The  people  had  made 
a  mistake,  he  said  to  the  House  of  Burgesses  on  one  occasion,  in  the 
choice  "  of  a  set  of  representatives  whom  heaven  has  not  generally 
endowed  with  the  ordinary  qualifications  requisite  to  legislators,"  and 
who  put  at  the  head  of  standing  committees  men  who  could  neither 
"  spell  English  nor  write  common  sense."  The  statement  of  fact  no 
doubt  was  true  ;  but  neither  that  nor  the  terms  used  to  convey  it  were 
pleasant  to  hear,  or  likely  to  have  a  conciliatory  influence.  Patriotism 
would  not  be  less  stern  and  uncompromising  in  men  treated  with  such 
hearty  contempt,  and  they  often  made  the  Governor  understand  that 
bad  English  and  a  poor  style  were  not  at  all  incompatible  with  a 
clear  comprehension  of  their  rights  and  a  vigorous  defence  of  them. 
They  took  the  ground  —  specially  with  relation  to  postal  laws,  but  as 
a  general  principle  —  that  Parliament  could  not  enforce  a  tax  in  the 
colony  without  the  assent  of  the  Assembly  ;  and  the  essential  thing 
was,  not  that  they  were  not  able  always  to  carry  out  this  doctrine 
against  the  Governor,  but  that  they  should  assert  and  maintain  it  as 
a  fundamental  rule  of  conduct.  Taxation  without  representation  was 
a  phrase  to  remember  for  near  three  quarters  of  a  century,  though  it 
might  be  forgotten  that  when  first  loudly  asserted  in  Virginia  it  was 
provoked,  perhaps,  by  a  colonial  governor  declaring  that  the  House  of 
Burgesses  was  a  house  of  blockheads. 

Of  all  the  conflicts,  however,  in  which  Spotswood  was  involved, 
none  was  more  earnest  and  bitter  than  the  old  one  in  regard  to 
church  patronage.  The  Governor,  like  his  predecessors,  claimed  that 
the  presentation  to  pastoral  livings  was  a  privilege  of  his  office,  and 
that  any  interference  by  the  vestries  was  mere  usurpation.  There 
was  just  as  little  disposition  now  as  in  the  time  of  Andros  and 
Nicholson  to  relinquish  the  control  of  the  individual  churches  over 
their  clergymen.  As  in  former  years,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Blair  came 
forward  to  lend  the  weight  of  his  character  and  ability  to  the  cause 


VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


removed. 


of  the  vestries  ;  and,  as  in  former  years,  the  victory  was  with  them. 
With  the  aid  of  this  controversy  the  enemies  of  Spotswood 
prevailed  against  him,  and  he  was  removed  in  1722. 
As  an  influential  private  citizen  he  was,  perhaps,  of  more  service  to 
the  colon}'  than  he  had  ever  been  as  its  governor.  On  his  domain  of 
forty  thousand  acres  he  found  beds  of  iron  ore,  established  a  furnace 
and  foundry,  and  gave  to  Virginia  a  new  and  important  industry.1 
This  identity  with  the  interests  of  the  colony,  from  his  long  residence 
in  it,  brought  him  at  length  to  juster  and  more  liberal  views  of  the 
rights  of  the  colonists.  In  ceasing  to  be  Governor,  however,  he  did 
not  retire  altogether  from  public  life.  From  1730  to  1739,  he  was 

Deputy  Postmaster-general  of 
the  colonies,  and  through  him 
Benjamin  Franklin  was  ap- 
pointed postmaster  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Pennsylvania.  When 
Virginia  was  called  upon  to 
furnish  troops  in  1740  to  aid 
in  the  expedition  against  Car- 
thagena,  Spotswood  was  called 
upon  to  take  command,  and 
he  died  —  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
four  years  —  while  attending 
to  the  active  duties  of  the  em- 
bar  kation  at  Annapolis. 
Lawrence  Washington  —  a 
half-brother  of  George  Wash- 
ington —  was  a  captain  in 
this  expedition,  and  he  after- 
ward named  his  family-seat  in 
Virginia  Mount  Vernon,  in 
honor  of  the  admiral  under  whom  he  served. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  century  to  about  the  end  of  Spots- 
Progress  of  wood's  administration,  the  population  of  Virginia  doubled. 
the  colony,  jj.  Doubled  again  within  the  next  five  and  twenty  years, 
a  period  through  which  Hugh  Drysdale  —  first  after  Spotswood  —  and 
William  Gooch,  from  1728  to  1749,  were  governors.  This  increase 
was  inevitable  in  the  addition  of  a  third  to  the  settled  area  of  the 
province  by  the  occupation  of  the  region  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge. 
Of  still  more  moment  was  it  that  the  emigrants  attracted  to  that 

1  He  did  not,  however,  as  has  been  stated,  introduce  the  manufacturing  of  iron  into  the 
colonies.  Two  brothers,  named  Leonard,  were  the  first  manufacturers  in  the  town  of 
Raynham,  in  Massachusetts,  in  1652.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  iii. 


Lawrence  Washington. 


1736.]  GREATER  RELIGIOUS  TOLERATION.  77 

lovely  valley,  differed  in  many  respects  from  those  who  first  settled 
upon  the  bottom  lands  of  lower  Virginia,  and  from  their  descendants 
who  still  lived  there.  There  were  fewer  among  them  who  came  to 
America  with  the  hope  of  acquiring  fortunes  ;  more  who  came  that 
they  might  find  permanent  and  peaceful  homes ;  fewer  who  sought 
for  large  tracts  of  land  for  plantations  ;  more  who  were  content  with 
enough  to  give  them  prosperous  farms ;  fewer  who  depended  upon 
the  labor  of  slaves  and  servants  ;  more  who  tilled  the  earth  with  their 
own  hands,  and  were  willing  to  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  their 
own  faces ;  fewer  who  prided  themselves  on  gentle  blood  ;  more  who 
were  satisfied  to  remember  that  they  came  of  the  stock  of  English 
yeomen,  and  that  neither  they,  nor  their  fathers,  nor  their  mothers, 
were  among  those  raked  out  of  the  prisons  of  England,  and  the  gut- 
ters and  stews  of  London,  to  be  sent  to  grow  tobacco  in  Virginia ; 
fewer  who  from  habit  trusted  for  spiritual  guidance  to  the  rollick- 
ing parsons  of  the  Established  Church  as  the  respectable  religion  of 
the  time  ;  more  who  had  broken  away  from  a  formal  worship  which 
seemed  to  them  to  be  without  sincerity  or  vitality,  and  who  cherished, 
instead,  profound  religious  convictions,  acquired  by  long  and  earnest 
reflection,  and  made  the  rule  of  life. 

The  dissent  which  began  at  this  period  to  assume  a  bolder  tone  in 
the  older  part  of  the  province,  must  have  been  strengthened  by  the 
influence  of  the  Quakerism  and  Presbyterianism  of  these  later  emi- 
grants. But  as  the  prosperity  of  the  colony  increased,  some  portion 
of  the  new  element  was  absorbed  by  Eastern  Virginia  as  its  popula- 
tion slowly  crept  up  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Blue  Ridge  from  the 
alluvial  region  between  that  and  the  sea.  Greater  freedom  of  thought 
and  a  larger  religious  toleration  went  step  by  step  with  the  material 
progress  of  the  colony.  Governor  Gooch  was  much  more  troubled  in 
the  later  years  of  his  administration  with  the  frequency  of  itinerant 
preaching,  and  the  gathering  of  dissenting  churches,  than  with  the  old 
question  of  the  power  of  vestries  in  the  Established  Church.  What 
was  the  purpose  of  a  pulpit,  and  what  manner  of  man  should  occupy 
it,  came  to  be  questions  of  more  moment  than  how  a  man  should  be 
put  into  a  pulpit  which  the  state  had  built.  Whitefield  was  as 
warmly  welcomed  on  his  first  visit  to  Virginia  as  among  the  Puritans 
of  the  northern  colonies,  not  because  he  was  in  orders,  but  because  of 
his  power  as  a  field-preacher.  The  New  Lights  were  a  terror  to  the 
soul  of  Governor  Gooch  ;  but  commissary  Blair  invited  the  founder  of 
the  Methodist  Church  in  America  to  preach  at  Williamsburg. 

At  Williamsburg,  that  which  Berkeley  had  so  deprecated,  and  Cul- 
pepper  and  Effingham  would  not  tolerate,  had  already  come  to  pass. 
A  printing-press  was  set  up  in  1736,  and  William  Pai'ks  published  a 


78  VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

weekly  newspaper.     The  growing  wants  of  a  growing  people  found 
New  towns     their  own  remedy.     Towns  which  legislation  had  tried  so 


tien.  jong  jn  vajn  ^Q  create,  sprung  up  where  they  were  needed. 
Increasing  commerce  wanted  new  ports  ;  increasing  production  new 
centres  of  traffic.  Norfolk  was  incorporated  near  the  entrance  to 
Chesapeake  Bay  ;  Fredericksburg  and  Fal  mouth  at  the  head  of  tide- 
water on  the  Rappahannock  ;  at  the  Falls  of  the  James,  partly  upon 
land  that  once  belonged  to  Nathaniel  Bacon,  William  Byrd,  an 
eminent  and  wealthy  citizen,  laid  out  a  town  to  be  called  Richmond, 
and  on  the  Appomattox  another  to  be  called  Petersburg.  New 
counties  were  made,  —  among  them  Albemarle,  so  called  from  the 
Earl  of  Albemarle,  who  was  appointed  the  titular  Governor  on  the 
death  of  Orkney  in  1737,  —  and  in  these,  the  convenient  neighbor- 
hood of  two  or  three  log-houses,  as  at  Winchester  and  Staunton, 
speedily  grew  to  county-seats  and  market  towns. 

Gooch  relinquished   his  office  in  1749  and  returned  to  England. 

Three   successive   presidents  of  the  Council,  John   Robin- 

Govemor       son,  Thomas  Lee,  and  Lewis  Burwell,  discharged  the  duties 

Dinwitldie. 

of  Governor  till  the  arrival  of  Robert  Dinwiddie  in  1752. 
Under  his  administration  Virginia,  in  extending  her  rule  still  farther 
westward,  was  led  into  new  and  momentous  relations  to  the  general 
welfare  of  the  American  colonies. 

For  the  first  twenty  years  of  this  century  there  had  been  little 
change  in  the  neighboring  province  of  Maryland,  except  that  it  was 
restored  once  more  to  the  Baltimore  family.  Charles,  Lord  Balti- 
more, died  in  1714  ;  his  son,  Benedict  Leonard  Calvert,  had  surren- 
dered his  Catholic  faith,  had  accepted  a  pension  from  Queen  Anne, 
and  had  educated  his  children  as  Protestants.  He  died  not  long  after 
his  father,  and  to  his  son,  Charles,  then  a  child,  were  restored  those 
political  rights  as  Proprietary  which  had  been  taken  from  his  grand- 
father at  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary.  John  Hart,  the  last 
royal  Governor,  was  continued  in  office  as  Baltimore's  lieutenant  for 
twelve  years.  Except  for  two  years,  the  Proprietary  governed  his 
colony  by  deputies,  till,  at  his  death,  Frederick,  his  son,  succeeded 
him  in  1751.  This,  the  sixth  and  last  Lord  Baltimore,  left  the  prov- 
ince, by  will,  to  his  natural  son,  Henry  Harford,  in  1771. 

The  rule  of  the  Protestant  Baltimores  was  as  gentle  and  as  just 
as  that  of  their  Catholic  predecessors  had  been,  and  it  is  sometimes 
remarked  that  the  prosperity  of  the  colony  seemed  suspended  under 
the  royal  governors.  But,  in  truth,  as  no  marked  difference  in  the 
character  of  the  government  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  Baltimores 
is  visible,  so  no  lasting  influence  can  be  traced  in  the  administra- 
tion of  proprietary  and  royal  governors.  Maryland,  like  Virginia, 


1733.] 


PAPER   MONEY  IN  MARYLAND. 


79 


like  the  other  colonies  at  a  certain  period,  emerged  from  the  time  of 
struggle  and  dependence  to  enter  upon  another  of  ease  and  strength  ; 
and  Mai'}  land,  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other  colony,  was  left  free  to 
grow  and  achieve  prosperity,  while  the  rule  of  royal  governors  was 
too  brief  to  permit  of  any  serious  innovation  upon  that  popular  inde- 
pendence which  the  Proprietaries  had  submitted  to,  and  had,  in  some 
measure,  permitted  and  encouraged. 

There  was,  indeed,  here  as  elsewhere,  the  same  contention  between 
Governor  and  Assembly,  but  it  belonged  to  both  royal  and  proprietary 
government.  This,  however,  though  it  might  delay,  was  not  a  se- 
rious bar  to  the  progress  of 
the  colony.  If  very  often 
the  colony  would  have  been 
happier  without  any  gov- 
ernor, so,  no  doubt,  it  could 
sometimes  have  well  spared 
an  Assembly.  That,  for  ex- 
ample, which  in  1733  pro- 
vided by  a  single  act  for  the 
issue  of  ninety  thousand 
pounds  of  paper  money,  in- 
flicted upon  the  colony  an 
injury  not  easily  recovered 
from.  It  was  more  than  a 
pound  to  every  inhabitant 
of  the  province,  and  it  was 
distributed  among  them 
partly  by  expenditures  upon 
public  buildings,  and  partly 
by  loans.  The  bills,  ere 
long,  sunk  to  one  half  their 
nominal  value,  and,  to  pro- 
vide a  fund  for  their  ulti- 
mate redemption,  the  colo- 
nists were  compelled  to  submit  to  a  heavy  export  tax  upon  their  great 
staple,  tobacco.  But  Maryland  was  not  singular  in  the  committal  of 
this  financial  blunder.  There  was  not  a  colony  that  did  not  believe, 
and  act  upon  its  belief,  that  a  pound  and  a  paper  promise  to  pay  a 
pound  were  of  equal  value ;  not  a  colony  that  did  not  find  the  belief 
a  fallacy  when  the  time  came  to  pay  the  pound. 

But  for  all  this  Maryland  flourished.  By  the  middle  of  the  century 
her  people  numbered  about  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand;  her  aver- 
age annual  export  of  tobacco  was  thirty  thousand  hogsheads,  and  she 


Frederick,   last   Lord   Baltimore. 


80  VIRGINIA  AND   MARYLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

sent  abroad  also  largely  of  wheat,  and  flour,  and  Indian  corn.  A 
number  of  furnaces  and  forges  were  in  successful  operation,  notwith- 
standing the  effort  of  the  British  Government  to  cripple  this  industry 
by  offering  a  bounty  on  the  importation  of  English  iron  —  a  measure 
met  by  the  Maryland  Legislature  by  granting  a  hundred  acres  of  land 
to  any  one  establishing  a  furnace  or  a  forge.  There  were  manufacto- 
ries also  of  woollen  and  of  linen,  and  tanners,  shoemakers,  and  smiths 
were  encouraged  by  an  export  duty  on  the  raw  material  of  their 
trades.  One  third  of  the  people,  however,  were  slaves,  and  their  un- 
skilled labor  was  inevitably  forced  into  the  over-production  of  a  single 
staple.  Baltimore  was  laid  out  in  1729,  on  lands  belonging  to  Charles 
Carroll,  and  Frederick  was  founded  sixteen  years  later.  Other  towns 
were  projected,  but  were  of  slow  growth  where  they  grew  at  all ;  for, 
as  in  lower  Virginia,  large  plantations  and  slavery  enforced  a  rural 
population  and  a  restricted  industry. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    CAROLINAS. 

GOVERNOR  MOORE'S  MILITARY  EXPEDITIONS  AND  THEIR  RESULTS.  —  TROUBLES 
UNDER  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  SlR  NATHANIEL  JOHNSON.  —  REPULSE  OF  A 
FRENCH  AND  SPANISH  INVASION.  —  DISSENSION  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA.  —  CONTEST 
BETWEEN  GARY,  GLOVER,  AND  HYDE  FOR  THE  GOVERNORSHIP.  —  INTERFERENCE  OF 
GOVERNOR  SPOTSWOOD. —  INDIAN  OUTBREAK  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA.  —  THE  YEMAS- 
SEE  WAR  IN  THE  SOUTHERN  PROVINCE.—  INDIFFERENCE  OF  THE  PROPRIETORS. — 
THE  BCCCANEERS  OF  THE  CAROLINA  COAST.  — THEIR  SUPPRESSION,  AND  DEATH  OF 
THE  PIRATE-ADMIRAL,  BLACK  BEARD.  —  REVOLUTION  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  DEP- 
OSITION OF  GOVERNOR  ROBERT  JOHNSON.  —  SIR  FRANCIS  NICHOLSON  PROVIS- 
IONAL GOVERNOR.  —  PURCHASE  OF  THE  CAROLINAS  BY  THE  CROWN. — ROBERT 
JOHNSON  REAPPOINTED  AS  ROYAL  GOVERNOR. —  CONDITION  OF  THE  PROVINCE. 

THE  unfortunate  expedition  of  Governor  Moore  of  South  Carolina 
against  St.  Augustine,  related  in  another  chapter,1  had  conse-  Effects  Of 
quences  of  more  moment  than  belonged  to  it  as  a  merely 
military  disaster.  It  fastened  a  public  debt  of  £6,000  upon  a  ^ 
colony  of  only  about  five  thousand  people,  created  by  the  first  issue  of 
paper  currency,  in  that  province,  in  the  usual  form  of  bills  of  credit; 
and  this  was  followed,  in  due  time,  by  the  inevitable  depreciation  and 
consequent  distress  which,  sooner  or  later,  always  attended  that  des- 
perate expedient  in  every  one  of  the  colonies.  The  creation  of  this 
debt  was  a  question  of  grave  difference  of  opinion  among  the  people, 
and  this  divided  them  into  two  parties,  whose  hostility  grew  more  bit- 
ter from  year  to  year,  as  new  occasions  and  new  opportunities  arose 
to  widen  the  breach  and  strengthen  either  one  side  or  the  other. 

An  administration  that  entailed  such  results  as  the  issue  of  ambi- 
tion or  imbecility,  might  well  be  called  an  unmitigated  evil,  had  not 
Moore,  after  his  return  from  Florida,  undertaken  that  other  and  more 
fortunate  enterprise,  by  which  a  new  southern  frontier  was  Campaign 
gained  at  the  expense  of  the  Spaniards,  and  more  territory  "oS'them Un- 
secured for  future  colonization.     But  even  this  service  did    dl1118' 
little  to  reconcile  the  opposition.     Moore  was  accused,  and  probably 
with  justice,  of  serving  his  own  private  ends  on  this  expedition,  by 

1  See  vol.  ii.,  p.  559. 
VOL.  in.  6 


82  THE   CAROLINAS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

holding  his  Indian  prisoners  as  slaves  on  his  plantation,  and  in  ex- 
porting them  for  sale  to  the  West  Indies.  It  was  not  forgotten  that 
he  had,  not  long  before,  dissolved  an  Assembly  for  withstanding  his 
attempt  to  get  the  whole  trade  with  the  Indians  into  his  own  hands, 
that  he  might,  it  was  said,  the  more  easily  kidnap  or  buy  the  savages 
for  that  foreign  slave-market.  Perhaps  he  was  not  so  bad  as  he  was 
painted ;  but  so  little  harmony  was  there,  at  any  time,  between  him 
and  the  representatives  of  the  people,  that  Charleston  was  for  several 
days  given  over  to  riot  when  the  question  of  raising  funds  to  meet  the 
expense  of  the  unsuccessful  expedition  against  St.  Augustine  came 
before  the  Assembly. 

This   confusion  was   still  worse   confounded   when    Sir  Nathaniel 
Johnson  was  appointed  to  office  in  Moore's  place,  at  the  ac- 

Sir  Nathan-  . 

iei  Johnson  cession  of  Queen  Anne.  Of  this  man  Johnson,  John  Arch- 
dale,  the  former  Quaker  Governor  and  a  Proprietor,  said, 
that  he  "by  a  Chimical  Wit,  Zeal  and  Art,  transmuted  or  turn'd  this 
Civil  Difference  into  a  Religious  Controversy."  l  It  was  a  religious 
controversy,  however,  only  so  far  as  religious  differences  could  be  used 
to  compass  a  political  end. 

The  official  party,  the  friends  and  servants  of  the  Lords  Proprie- 
tors, were  of  the  Established  Church  ;  their  opponents,  who  were 
largely  country  people,  were  dissenters.  Dissent,  however,  was  with 
many  of  them  more  a  matter  of  tradition  than  conviction.  The  gen- 
eration then  native  of  the  soil,  and  living  upon  isolated  plantations, 
had  grown  up  in  ignorance,  destitute  of  schools  and  of  churches,  but 
inheriting  a  feeling  that  no  church  at  all  was  better  than  the  Church 
of  England.  Many,  it  is  said,  went  farther  than  this,  and  had  lost 
all  religious  faith.  Ostensibly  to  punish  these  unbelievers,  Johnson's 
first  Assembly  passed  an  act  depriving  of  their  civil  rights  all  who 
blasphemed  the  Trinity,  or  questioned  the  Divine  authority  of  the 
Bible,  and  condemning  them  to  three  years'  imprisonment. 

It  is  hardly  credible  that  there  could  be  many  in  the  province  ob- 
Actsofthe  noxious  to  this  law.  Infidelity  is  not  often  an  intellectual 
a^in'^lL.  conviction  or  assertion  with  the  merely  ignorant;  they  cling 
senters.  rather  to  a  religious  belief  of  some  sort,  though  their  faith 
may  be  little  better  than  an  unreasoning  superstition.  If,  however, 
the  act  of  the  Assembly  was  meant  as  a  blow  sit  the  opposition  party, 
it  evidently  failed  of  its  purpose,  and  was  therefore  speedily  followed 
up  by  another,  which  was  more  effectual.  This  law  required  that 
any  citizen  chosen  as  a  member  of  the  Assembly  should  conform  to 
the  religion  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  should  partake  of  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  that 

1  Aix-hdale's  New  Description,  etc.     Republished  in  Carroll's  Hist.  Coll.  of  S.  C.,  vol.  ii 


1704.]  TROUBLES  UNDER  GOVERNOR  JOHNSON.  83 

church.  The  act  was  passed  by  a  single  vote ;  the  election  to  the 
Assembly  of  many  of  the  majority  was  disputed  as  carried  by  corrupt 
and  arbitrary  measures  ;  yet,  by  this  law,  every  dissenter  in  the 
colony  was  virtually  disfranchised,  and  the  popular  party  —  which 
embraced  all  the  dissenters,  and  far  outnumbered  their  opponents  — 
was  left  completely  at  the  mercy  of  the  minority  who  represented  the 
Lords  Proprietors,  and  who  governed  the  colony,  not  for  the  good  of 
the  people,  but  for  their  own  profit. 

The  disfranchised  party  sent  an  agent  —  John  Ashe  —  to  England 
to  represent  their  grievances  to  the  Proprietors.  He  escaped  with 
some  difficulty,  when  his  errand  became  known,  from  Carolina;  and 
he  might  as  well  have  remained  there,  so  far  as  any  redress  awaited 
him  in  London.  Archdale,  in  his  place  at  the  Board  of  Pro- 
prietors, maintained  the  rights  of  the  colonists  with  the  same  the  Proprie- 
zeal  and  integrity  that  he  had  shown  when  their  governor. 
But  the  majority  was  against  him,  and  Lord  Granville,  the  "  Pala- 
tine," cut  short  the  debate  by  exclaiming :  "  Sir,  you  are  of  one  opin- 
ion, I  am  of  another;  our  lives  may  not  be  long  enough  to  end  the 
controversy.  I  am  for  the  bills,  and  this  is  the  party  I  will  head  and 
support." 

Granville  was  a  bigoted  churchman,  and  cared  much  more  for  the 
religious  than  the  political  aspect  of  the  question.  A  proposal  to  build 
a  parish  church  in  each  county  of  the  province,  and  to  compel  the  peo- 
ple to  worship  therein,  would  with  him  condone  a  multitude  of  polit- 
ical sins,  even  if,  in  his  estimation,  the  political  purposes  concealed 
beneath  the  religious  pretense  were  sins  at  all.  The  Governor  re- 
ceived the  assurance  that  the  Lords  Proprietors  approved  of  the  "  un- 
wearied and  steady  zeal  "  with  which  he  had  prosecuted  a  "  great 
and  pious  work  "  for  "  the  honor  and  worship  of  Almighty  God." 
With  this  success  the  zeal  of  Johnson  and  his  party  was  redoubled. 
Churches  were  to  be  built  and  pastors  provided,  and  lest  this  last 
duty  should  be  neglected,  the  ecclesiastical  government  of  the  colo- 
nial church,  which  rightfully  belonged  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  was 
vested  in  a  commission  of  twenty  laymen  to  be  appointed  by  the  Gov- 
ernor. The  quarrel,  in  this  aspect  of  it,  was  essentially  the  same 
as  that  which,  about  the  same  period,  agitated  Virginia,  and  ousted 
three  governors  successively  from  their  seats. 

The  dissenters,  who  were  about  two  thirds  of  the  population,  had 
been  contending  chiefly,  thus  far,  for  the  right  of  keeping  succesrful 
in  the  Assembly  ;  they  were  now  forced  to  contend  also  for  fhe'dusent- 
the  right  of  keeping  out  of  the  parish  church,  if  it  so  pleased  ere- 
them.    A  new  agent  —  Joseph  Boone  —  was  sent  to  England,  but  this 
time  to  look  for  redress  in  higher  quarters  than  from  the  Proprietors. 


84 


THE    CAROLIXAS. 


[ClIAP.  IV. 


The  appeal  was  made  directly  to  the  House  of  Lords.  That  body 
condemned  in  terms  positive  and  emphatic  the  act  relating  to  religious 
worship,  and  that  which  excluded  dissenters  from  the  Assembly  ;  and 
they  referred  the  petition  of  the  complainants  to  the  Queen,  with  a, 
prayer  that  their  wrongs  might  be  righted,  and  that  those  persons 


Granville  and  Archdale. 


should  be  punished  who  were,  guilty  of  so  flagrant  and  oppressive 
a  misuse  of  power.  Anne  responded  by  declaring  the  objectionable 
laws  to  be  null  and  void,  and  forthwith  ordered  the  law  officers  of  the 
Crown  to  take  immediate  steps  for  the  revocation  of  the  charter. 

The  issue  of  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  and  the  proceedings  under  it 
were  never,  as  we  have  so  often  seen  in  the  case  of  other  provinces, 


1706.]  FRENCH   AND   SPANISH   INVASION.  85 

measures  rapidly  disposed  of.  Lord  Granville  died  a  few  months 
after  the  Queen's  decision,  and  Lord  Craven,  a  man  of  less  arbitrary 
temper  and  of  better  judgment,  stepped  into  his  place  as  Palatine. 
A  few  months  afterward,  toward  the  close  of  the  year  1708,  Colonel 
Edward  Tynte  was  appointed  Governor  in  Johnson's  place.  He 
came  with  instructions  from  Craven  so  conciliatory  and  considerate 
that  differences  were  reconciled  and  animosities  subdued  for 

An  interval 

several  years.     It  was  only  for  a  few  years,  however.     The  of  iuiet- 
seeds  of  dissension  sown  in  Johnson's  administration  had  taken  too 
deep  a  root  to  be  easily  eradicated.     They  bore  fruit  an  hundred  fold, 
as  we  shall  see  presently,  and  Carolina  ceased  to  be  a  proprietary 
colony. 

Before  Johnson's   removal,  however,  one  opportunity  occurred  to 
him   of  showing  that,  at  least  as  a  soldier,  he  was  worthy  of  being 
entrusted  with  the  command  of   a  province.      Intelligence  reached 
him  that  an  attack  was  to  be  made  upon  Charleston  by  the 
French  and  Spanish,  partly  as  a  war  measure  against  the  south  caro- 
power  of  England  on  the  American  continent,  partly  in  sup- 
port of  the  old  Spanish  claim  to  Carolina.     His  preparations  to  meet 
the  threatened  invasion  were  prompt  and  vigorous.     Fort  Johnson  — 
still  standing,  and  under  the  same  name  —  was  built  on  James  Island 
in  Charleston  harbor ;  redoubts  were  thrown  up  on  that  exposed  front 
of  the  city  since  known  as  the  Battery ;   and  a  corps  of  observation 
was  placed  on  Sullivan's  Island  to  give  the  earliest  possible  notice,  by 
signal  fires,  of  the  approach  of  an  enemy. 

The  invading  fleet  consisted  of  a  frigate  and  four  smaller  vessels, 
under  the  command  of  a  Captain  Le  Feboure,  a  Frenchman.  He  sailed 
from  Havana  in  August,  1706,  touching  at  St.  Augustine  to  take  on 
board  some  Spanish  recruits,  and  in  due  time  appeared  in  Charleston 
harbor.  The  Governor  had  ordered  all  the  militia  of  the  province 
under  arms,  reinforced  by  all  the  friendly  Indians  within  reach  ;  guns 
and  ammunition  were  hurried  on  board  six  merchant  vessels  in  the 
harbor,  and  these  put  under  the  command  of  William  Rhett  as  admiral. 
Everything  was  done  that  could  be  done  by  a  prudent  and  brave  com- 
mander. When  Le  Feboure  sent  a  flag  to  demand  a  surrender,  the 
summons  was  received  with  defiance  ;  the  messenger  was  taken  blind- 
folded from  fortification  to  fortification,  to  be  shown  a  well-appointed 
force  in  each.  The  men  were  quietly  marched  from  one  point  to 
another,  in  advance  of  the  unsuspicious  Frenchman,  who  supposed 
that  he  was  brought  face  to  face  with  a  new  company  whenever  his 
e}-es  were  uncovered.  Every  attempt  of  Le  Feboure  to  make 
good  a  landing  was  repulsed.  Rhett's  little  fleet  of  mer- 
chantmen were  handled  like  men-of-wai,  and  the  end  was  that  the 


86 


THE   CAROLIXAS. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


French  retired  in  a  few  days,  completely  baffled  and  disheartened,  and 
a  ship  with  ninety  men  on  board,  sent  to  reinforce  Le  Feboure,  which 
arrived  soon  after  he  left,  remained  as  a  prize  in  the  hands  of  the  Caro- 
linians. 

In  1704,  Henderson  Walker,  who  as  President  of  the  Council  was 
acting  Governor  of  North  Carolina,  died,  and  Johnson  was  directed 
North  caro-  by  Lord  Granville  to  appoint  some  one  to  take  that  office, 
ima  affairs.  jje  name(j  Colonel  Robert  Daniel,  who,  it  may  be  remem- 
bered, was  engaged  with  Moore  in  his  unlucky  expedition  against  St. 
Augustine.  Daniel,  like  Johnson,  was  a  churchman  ;  whatever  John- 
son did  to  secure  supremacv  for  the  pro- 

,  — _  i        s^t       " 

prietary  party  in  South  Carolina,  Daniel 


The  French  Messenger  at  Charleston. 


•was  equally  eager  to  do,  so  far  as 
it  was  necessary  to  gain  the  same 
end,  within  his  jurisdiction.  When, 
therefore,  John  Ashe  passed  through  North  Carolina  on  his  way  to 
Virginia,  to  find  a  passage  to  England,  he  was  received  with  open 
arms  by  the  Quakers  and  other  dissenters  of  the  province,  who  felt 
that  the  cause  which  he  represented  was  theirs  also.  They  accord- 
ingly empowered  one  Edmund  Porter,  a  Friend,  to  join  Ashe  in  his 
mission  to  England,  to  represent  to  the  Lords  Proprietors  how  griev- 
ously they  were  wronged  by  this  new  Governor  whom  Johnson  had 
appointed  to  rule  over  them. 


1707.]  AFFAIRS    OF   NORTH   CAROLINA.  .  87 

For  some  reason,  not  now  apparent,  Porter  was  more  successful 
than  his  colleague,  and  the  Board  of  Proprietors  directed 
Johnson  to  remove  Daniel  and  make  a  new  appointment.  He 
selected  Thomas  Gary,  who  soon  became  as  obnoxious  as  n™°he°rn 
Daniel  had  been,  and  especially  so  to  Friends,  whom  he 
would  not  admit  to  seats  in  the  Assembly,  or  to  any  other  office,  with- 
out exacting  an  oath,  to  take  which  was  forbidden  both  by  their  con- 
sciences and  the  discipline  of  their  society.  Porter  was  once  more 
dispatched  to  England,  to  ask  redress,  and  was  once  more  listened  to 
with  favor.  Archdale's  influence  with  the  other  Proprietors  was  suf- 
ficient not  only  for  the  removal  of  Gary,  but  to  take  from  Johnson  all 
the  power  that  had  been  left  in  his  hands  as  Governor-general  of  the 
two  provinces,  and  to  give  to  the  Council  of  North  Carolina  —  a  body 
nominated  by  the  Lords  Proprietors  —  the  right  to  elect  a  chief  mag- 
istrate for  that  colony. 

The  Council  —  to  which  several  new  members  had  been  appointed, 
some  of  whom  probably,  through  Archdale's  influence,  were  Rcmovaiand 
Friends  —  assembled  when  Porter  returned,  and  elected  J^aJJ^b" 
William  Glover  Governor.  But  Glover  was  also  a  church-  the  Council- 
man,  and  no  more  disposed  than  his  predecessor  to  admit  Friends  to 
office  without  the  legal  formality  of  the  oath.  The  Council  thereupon 
reassembled,  deposed  Glover,  and  elected  Gary.  The  natural  conclu- 
sion is,  that  a  compromise  had  been  made  between  Gary  and  the 
Friends,  inasmuch  as  Gary,  when  in  office  before,  had  insisted  upon 
the  oath,  while  now  Friends  were  permitted  to  affirm  instead  of  swear- 
ing. 

But  the  important  question  was,  who  was  the  rightful  Governor?  On 
one  side  it  was  asserted  that  Glover's  election  had  been  illegal  be- 
cause the  Council  had  come  together  before  the  time  appointed  for 
their  meeting  ;  on  the  other,  it  was  declared  that  Gary  had  no  right  to 
the  office,  because  some  of  the  old  delegates,  who  had  been  superseded 
by  new  appointments,  had  been  admitted  to  the  meeting  which  elected 
him  and  deposed  Glover.  There  is  no  conclusive  evidence  now  attain- 
able from  which  a  positive  judgment  can  be  pronounced  on  this  ques- 
tion ;  but  it  is  a  case  where  testimony  as  to  previous  character  has  great 
weight.  So  far  as  that  may  influence  the  verdict,  the  Gary  party  were 
in  the  right.  Whatever  may  have  been  his  motives,  those  of  the 
Friends  were  pure  ;  for  they  at  least  were  contending  for  religious 
toleration,  freedom  of  conscience,  and  their  civil  rights  ;  and  Disputes 
there  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  that  sect,  either  in  North  %££? by 
Carolina  or  anywhere  else,  to  justify  the  supposition  that  chanse8- 
they  would  condescend  to  any  dishonest  measures  to  attain  an  end, 
however  just  and  desirable.  That  the  end  does  not  justify  the  means 


TIIK   CAROLTXAS. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


is  a  fundamental  principle  of  their  faith,  and  one  to  which  as  a  so- 
ciety they  have  been  generally  true.  The  result,  nevertheless,  was 
disastrous.  Both  Glover  and  Gary  assumed  to  be  the  legitimate  Gov- 
ernor ;  the  Council  was  divided  between  them,  and  both  assumed, 
with  their  adherents,  to  represent  the  Proprietors ;  and  both  issued 
writs  for  the  election  of  representatives  to  a  new  Assembly. 

Here,  however,  Gary  proved  to  be  the  stronger ;  the  people  were 
on  his  side ;    the  Assembly,  when  it  came  together,  recognized  him 

and  his  Council,  and  repudiated 
Glover.  A  bitter  contest  followed, 
which  lasted  two  or  three  years, 
leading  to  violence  and  even  blood- 
shed, till  Glover  and  his  immediate 
associates  fled  for  refuge  to  Virginia. 
This  civil  contention,  injurious  to  a 


Gary  before   Hyde's   House. 

colony  still  struggling  for  existence,  was  the  prelude,  perhaps  in  some 
degree  the  cause,  of  still  further  disaster. 

It  was  not  till  1710  that  the  Lords  Proprietors  in  England  gave  any 
sign  of  consciousness  of  the  strife  with  which  this  poi'tion  of  their  do- 
-  minion  was  torn.  Then  they  appointed  Edward  Hyde  as 
t.  Governor,  and  sent  orders  to  Tynte  at  Charleston,  as  titular 
Governor-general,  to  issue  a  commission  to  him.  When  Hyde  arrived 
Tynte  was  dead ;  the  only  proof,  therefore,  of  his  appointment  that 
the  new  Governor  could  exhibit  was  that  contained,  it  was  said,  in 


1710.]  CONTEST   FOR  THE   GOVERNORSHIP.  89 

some  private  and  unofficial  letters  from  individual  Proprietors.  Gary 
at  first  hesitated,  and  then  refused,  to  accept  this  as  sufficient  evi- 
dence. How  far  he  was  justified  in  this  course  it  is  impossible  to 
judge  now,  as  we  know  nothing  of  the  character  and  the  number  of 
the  alleged  letters.  That  Hyde  had  no  official  commission,  and  Gary, 
therefore,  acted  within  the  law,  is  acknowledged.  He  seemed  to 
apprehend  violence,  and  fortified  his  house  against  a  possible  attack  ; 
then,  growing  more  confident,  as  he  found  that  his  own  party  did  not 
fall  away  from  him,  he  armed  two  vessels,  filled  them  with  soldiers, 
sailed  into  Chowan  Sound,  and  attempted  to  land  at  a  place  where 
Hyde  and  his  Council  were  assembled,  apparently  with  the  purpose  of 
seizing  Hyde.  Baffled  in  this,  he  retired  to  Pamlico  and  proposed  to 
make  a  stand  at  the  house  of  one  Roach.  This  Roach  was  a  trader 
recently  arrived  from  England,  and  the  agent  of  a  commercial  house 
in  which  John  Danson  was  a  partner.  The  fact  has  its  significance, 
for  Danson  was  a  son-in-law  of  Archdale's,  to  whom  Archdale  had 
two  years  before  conveyed  all  his  right  and  title  as  a  Proprietor  of 
Carolina.1  From  Roach  Gary  received  material  aid  in  arms  Cary  op. 
and  ammunition,  as  well  as  a  welcome  to  his  house.  The  P°se8him- 
trader  understood,  probably,  the  wishes  and  the  interests  of  his  em- 
ployers, and  in  aiding  Cary  in  Carolina  represented  truly  the  Quaker, 
or  non-conformist,  element  in  the  Board  of  Proprietors  in  England. 

In  this  crisis  of  affairs  Hyde  repeatedly  appealed  to  Spotswood  of 
Virginia  for  help.  It  was  finally  granted,  for  Spotswood  was  a  royal 
Governor,  and  to  him  all  who  arrayed  themselves,  for  whatever  cause, 
against  constituted  authority  were  only  a  "  mutinous  rabble."  His 
Council  agreed  with  him  in  the  necessity  of  suppressing  an  "  insur- 
rection "  which  might  prove  of  evil  influence  among  the  discontented 
of  their  own  colony ;  even  the  House  of  Burgesses  assented  to  his  in- 
terference, while  they  showed  that  they  were  not  without  sympathy 
for  the  popular  party  by  refusing  to  grant  all  the  men  and  money  that 
he  thought  the  occasion  demanded.  But  for  this,  perhaps,  he  would 
not  have  condescended  to  negotiation. 

Negotiation,  however,  was  first  tried  ;  naturally  nothing  but  delay 
came  of  it.  Both  parties  had  gone  too  far  to  yield  to  anything  but 
force.  The  Governor  of  Virginia  then  called  out  the  militia  of  the 
border  counties  to  march  into  Carolina,  and  bring  that  force  to  bear 
upon  Cary  ;  but  the  militia  did  not  respond  to  this  summons.  The 
people  of  those  counties  were  almost  all  Friends,  and  if  they 

fj  •  •  -i        Spotswood 

could  at  any  time  be  induced  to  take  up  arms,  it  certainly  interferes  in 

J  ,  J      the  dispute. 

was  not  now,  when  they  were  to  be  used  against  their  own 
brethren.     Spotswood  asked  that  a  sufficient  force  from  some  naval 

1  Hawks's  History  of  North  Carolina,  vol.  ii. 


90  THE   CAROLINAS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

vessels,  which  just  then  happened  to  be  in  Virginia,  might  be  put 
under  his  orders ;  but  their  commanders  refused,  on  the  plea  that  such 
a  service  was  beyond  the  line  of  their  duty.  There  was  one  other  re- 
source left  to  the  Governor :  he  ordered  out  the  marines  on  board  the 
guard-ships  of  Virginia,  and  sent  them  to  Carolina.  Their  number 
must  have  been  small,  but  they  proved  to  be  sufficient.  At  their  ap- 
pearance, Gary  and  the  few  followers  by  whom  he  was  surrounded 
dispersed  without  a  blow.  When  it  came  to  a  question  of  serious 
armed  resistance  or  submission,  he  knew  that  he  had  no  alternative 
but  to  submit. 

Why  ?  Not  because  the  party  which  had  sustained  him  were  cow- 
ards, but  because  they  were  Friends.  In  numbers  they  far  exceeded 
their  opponents  ;  Gary  and  his  immediate  associates,  it  is  plain,  were 
ready  enough  to  lead  them  to  the  utmost  extremity  of  armed  revolt ; 
the  successful  issue  of  such  a  revolt  was  by  no  means  hopeless.  But 
cary-ssub-  Gary  knew  that  he  and  his  half  dozen  followers  could  not 
mission.  carry  on  a  civil  war  alone ;  he  knew  that  to  their  ambitious 
personal  aims  —  if  they  had  any  —  the  great  body  of  the  people  who 
had  thus  far  sustained  him  were  utterly  indifferent;  he  knew  that 
that  support  was  given  for  the  cause  of  religious  freedom  as  the 
Quakers  understood  it ;  but  not  even  for  that  cause  would  these  peo- 
ple take  up  arms  in  violation  of  their  profoundest  religious  convictions 
There  seems  to  be  no  other  rational  explanation  of  this  sudden  col- 
lapse of  a  promising  rebellion.  It  entered  upon  a  new  stage  with  the 
appearance  of  troops  who  represented  a  government  determined  ta 
suppress  it  by  force  of  arms.  In  that  last  resort  the  Friends  had 
no  response  to  make ;  the  weapons  with  which  they  fought  the  good 
fight  were  not  carnal  weapons. 

What  this  may  have  had  to  do  with  subsequent  events  it  is  impos- 
sible, from  the  meagre  records  of  the  time,  to  tell.  Gary  and  two  or 
three  others  were  arrested  and  sent  to  England  as  prisoners  by  Spots- 
wood,  but  they  were  never  brought  to  trial.  A  universal  pardon  was 
proclaimed  for  all  except  the  half  dozen  leaders,  but  even  these  seem 
to  have  escaped  punishment.  In  1714  we  hear  of  Gary  residing  in, 
or  visiting,  North  Carolina,1  unmolested.  This  forbearance  may  have 
been  due,  in  some  measure,  to  the  indifference  of  the  Proprietors  to 
the  affairs  of  a  colony  which  it  was  more  profitable  to  let  alone  than 
to  care  for.  But  it  is  also  probable  that  the  conciliatory  spirit  of 
Friends,  prompting  them  rather  to  suffer  than  to  do  evil,  was  not 
without  influence.  All,  at  any  rate,  that  they  could  have  gained  by 
violent  resistance  was  soon  accorded  them.  In  1713  Charles  Eden 

1  "  Colonel  Gary  is  gone  for  the  West  Indies  but  intends  in  again   this  Fall."     Letter 
from  Governor  Pollock  to  Governor  Spotswood.     Cited  by  Hiiwks  from  Polloc'k  MSS. 


1711.]  INDIAN   OUTBREAK   IN  NORTH   CAROLINA.  91 

was   appointed   Governor   by  the    Proprietors,   and    from    his   time, 
though  the  Church  of  England  was  established  by  law,  relig- 
ious freedom  was  also  acknowledged  as  the  right  of  every  of  the 
man,  and  the  affirmation  of  a  Quaker  was  accepted  in  place 
of  an  oath. 

Among  the  accusations  made  against  Gary  was  one  which,  if  true, 
should  have  brought  him  to  condign  punishment,  but  which,  as  he 
was  not  punished  at  all,  was  probably  known  to  be  an  invention  of 
partisan  animosity.  Hyde  was  hardly  in  quiet  and  undisputed  pos- 
session of  his  office  when  he  was  called  upon  to  meet  a  new  and  more 
terrible  calamity.  An  Indian  war  suddenly  broke  out  and  swept 
over  the  colony.  Gary,  it  was  said,  had  sent  emissaries  among  the 
Tuscaroras  and  incited  them  to  hostilities  to  create  a  diversion  in  hia 
favor.  It  is  far  more  likely  that  the  savages,  observing  the  anarchy 
resulting  from  the  dissensions  among  the  colonists,  hoped  that  an  op- 
portunity had  come  for  their  annihilation. 

Gary  and  his  adherents  had  dispersed  early  in  July,  1711 ;  the 
appointed  day  of  the  massacre  planned  by  the  Indians  was  not  till 
September.  To  suppose  that  Gary  could  have  had  anything  to  do 
with  it,  is  to  assume  that  he  could  resort  to  measures  simply  diaboli- 
cal to  satiate  his  vengeance  upon  political  enemies. 

The  Tuscaroras  had  induced  all  the  smaller  tribes  to  unite  with 
them  in  a  general  conspiracy  against  the  English  ;  the  half-  Warwith 
tamed  savages  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  whites,  ^^"xoS 
and  those  who  were  servants  in  their  houses,  agreed  to  join  Carolina- 
in  the  work  of  slaughter  at  the  hour  appointed.  And  they  kept  their 
word.  From  every  dwelling  where  these  trusted  servants  had  their 
homes  came  the  signal  war-whoop,  at  break  of  day,  to  the  bands  who 
the  night  before  had  concealed  themselves  in  the  vicinity  of  every 
settlement  of  whites  along  the  Roanoke,  the  Neuse,  and  the  Pamlico. 
Hundreds  were  slain  within  an  hour,  and  those  who  escaped  fled 
from  their  burning  houses  to  seek  a  shelter  in  the  woods. 

XT  £  11  iir  i  I'll-  Massacres 

.None  of  the  sudden  outbreaks  of  savage  hate  which  from  along  the 

>iii  i  ii-  Roanoke. 

time  to  tune  had  burst  upon  the  several  colonies  was  ever 
more  furious  or  more  fatal  than  this.  For  three  days  it  swept  un- 
checked over  the  province  from  its  southern  to  its  northern  extremity, 
and  then  only  ceased  for  the  want  of  more  victims  when  not  a  man, 
woman,  or  child  was  to  be  found  outside  of  the  shelter  of  a  house 
garrisoned  for  a  siege. 

Among  those  who  suffered  most  were  a  company  of  Swiss  and  Ger- 
mans whom  persecution  had  driven  from  the  Palatinate  to  England, 
and  thence  to  find  new  homes  in  Carolina,  The  leader  of  these  peo- 
ple was  the  Baron  De  Graffenried,  a  Swiss  gentleman  from  the  Canton 

: 


92 


THE   CAROLINAS. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


The  Swiss 


of  Berne,  and  in  his  honor  the  town  in  and  near  which  they  settled 
was  called  New  Berne.  A  few  days  before  the  outbreak,  De 
Graffcnried  and  John  Lawson,  the  Surveyor-general  of  the 
Kate  colony  and  its  earliest  historian,  had  gone  up  the  Neuse  to 
andc*  o»f-  learn  how  far  it  was  navigable,  and  to  select  and  survey  lands 
fenried.  £or  new  settlements.  They  were  taken  prisoners  by  the 
Indians,  and  Lawson  was  soon  put  to  death  with  horrible  tortures. 
Had  their  captivity  been  known,  it  would  have  been  a  warning  to  the 
colonists  of  the  hostile  purposes  of  the  savages;  but  the  baron  was  not 

released  for  several  weeks,  and  then  only  on 
condition  of  entering  into  a  treaty  with  the 
Tuscaroras  and  Cores,  binding  his  people  to  re- 
main neutral  in  the  war,  and  to  take  possession 
of  no  lands  without  the  consent  of  those  tribes. 


Lawson  and  De  Graffenried. 

He  was  faithful  to  this  agreement,  and  was  enabled  thereby  to  save 
the  remnant  of  the  Palatines  whom  the  massacre  had  spared ;  he  was 
better  able,  moreover,  to  serve  the  colony  at  large  by  the  information 
he  gained,  while  the  war  continued,  from  friendly  Indians,  than  if  he 
had  taken  up  arms. 

Meanwhile  Governor  Hyde  appealed  to  Virginia  and  South  Caro- 
lina for  aid.  The  generous  and  impulsive  Spotswood  was  restrained 
by  the  cautious  Burgesses,  and  was  compelled  to  content  himself  with 


1713.]  END   OF  THE   WAR  IN  NORTH   CAROLINA.  93 

interceding  with  the  Indians.     But  more  immediate  help  came  from 
Governor  Craven  of  South  Carolina.     Colonel  Barnwell,  at 
the  head  of  a  small  body  of  militia  and  several  hundred  of  south  CMO- 
the  Yemassees,  made  a  toilsome  march  through  the  wilder- 
ness from  Charleston  to  the  Neuse,  and  there  joined  the  small  force 
Governor  Hyde  had  gathered  to  await  their  coming.     The  Tuscaroras 
had  built  a  fort  about  twenty  miles  from  Newbern,  and  had  retired 
there  in  great  numbers.     Here  they  gave  Barnwell  battle  in  the  open 
field,  but  lost  three  hundred  killed,  and  a  hundred  taken  prisoners  ; 
the  rest  were  driven  back  to  their  fortifications,  with  many  wounded. 

But  this  did  not  happen  till  within  a  day  or  two  of  the  end  of 
January.  For  more  than  a  third  of  a  year  the  North  Carolinians  had 
been  shut  up  in  their  garrison  houses.  Their  crops  were  lost ;  their 
farms  and  villages,  through  the  southern  portion  of  the  province, 
were  destroyed ;  in  almost  every  family  there  was  the  sound  of  lamen- 
tation for  dead  relatives  or  friends  ;  the  living  were  reduced  to  pov- 
erty, even  to  absolute  suffering  for  the  want  of  food ;  it  was  a  long 
winter  of  sorrow,  of  terrible  fear,  of  continual  privations,  that  this 
victory  of  Barnwell's  broke  in  upon,  and  without  that  relief  the 
colony  would  have  soon  ceased  to  exist. 

The  siege  of  the  Tuscarora  fort  was  not  a  long  one.  Barnwell  was 
wounded  ;  he  found  it  difficult  to  feed  his  men  ;  his  Indian  allies  were 
restless  and  impatient,  as  Indians  always  are  of  any  work  requiring 
steady  and  quiet  persistence.  He  raised  the  siege,  made  a  treaty,  and 
returned  to  South  Carolina.  The  North  Carolinians  bitterly  com- 
plained that  he  had  abandoned  them  ;  for  the  Tuscaroras  broke  the 
treaty,  renewed  hostilities,  and  sought  an  alliance  with  the  Senecas,  of 
the  Five  Nations,  to  carry  on  the  war.  The  summer  was  spent  by 
both  parties  in  preparations  for  a  renewal  of  the  struggle. 

In  the  autumn  Hyde  died,  and  Colonel  Pollock,  a  man  of  more 
energy,  was  chosen  Governor.  A  general  Indian  war  was 

i     i   •  i        TT-       •     •  <•    Pollock  Gov- 

dreaded  in  all  the  southern  colonies  ;  the  Virginia  House  of  emor.    The 

_  ,  ~  -,  Indian  war 

iJurgesses  gave  a  more  hearty  support  to  opotswood  s  meas-  ended  in  the 
lives  of  defence,  and  South  Carolina  sent  a  larger  force, 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  James  Moore,  to  the  relief  of  the 
northern  province.  Pollock,  meanwhile,  sowed  division  among  the 
Tuscaroras,  and  seduced  Tom  Blunt,  an  influential  chief,  from  his  alle- 
giance. Moore  overtook  the  remainder  of  the  tribe,  with  others  who 
had  entered  into  alliance  with  them,  in  a  fortified  camp  near  the  pres- 
ent village  of  Snow  Hill,  on  an  affluent  of  the  Neuse,  in  March,  1713. 
His  attack  was  so  vigorous  that  the  war  was  then  and  there  virtually 
ended.  A  large  number  of  the  enemy  were  slain,  and  eight  hundred 
were  taken  prisoners,  most  of  whom  the  southern  Indians  carried  back 


94 


THE   CAROLIXAS. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


to  South  Carolina  as  slaves.  A  remnant  of  the  Tuscarovas  fled  north- 
ward, and  the  Five  Nations  from  that  time  became  the  Six  Nations  by 
the  absorption  of  the  tribe.  The  submission  of  all  the  Indians  remain- 
ing in  North  Carolina  was  absolute.  They  had  staked  everything 
on  this  final  contest.  But  if  affairs  with  them  were  desperate,  they 
were  hardly  less  so  with  the  English.  An  estimate  of  the  resources 

of  the  colony,  made 
a  few  days  after  the 
battle,  showed  that 
there  were  but  thir- 
ty-two barrels  of 
meat  and  eight 
hundred  bushels  of 
corn  in  the  whole 
province. 

The  force  led  to 
the  suppression  of 
this  Indian  war  iu 
North  Carolina, 
first  by  Barn  well 
and  then  by  Moore, 
was  composed  al- 
most entirely  of 
Yemassees.  Could 
these  Indians  have 
looked  forward  for 
only  two  years,  and 
acted  on  that  fore- 
sight, it  is  quite 
possible  that  not  a  white  man 
would  have  been  left  south 
of  the  Virginia  boundary.  An 
alliance  between  the  Tuscaroras 
and  the  Yemassees  would  have  been 
too  formidable  to  be  met  with  any 
hope  of  successful  resistance.  But 
when  the  destruction  and  dispersion  of  the  Tuscaroras  made  such  an 
alliance  impossible,  then  the  Yemassees  undertook  to  do  alone  that 
which  they  had  just  prevented  the  northern  tribe  from  doing,  —  that 
which  by  their  combined  strength  could  have  been  so  easily  accom- 
plished. 

For,  in  the  spring  of  1715  the  southern  Indians  sent  the  "  bloody 
stick,"  as  a  signal  for  war,  from  Cape  Fear  to  the  St.  John's  River, 


The  "  Bloody  Stick." 


1715.] 


THE   YEMASSEE   WAR  IN    SOUTH   CAROLINA. 


95 


erenee. 


carrying  dismay  through  South  Carolina  from  the  frontier  to  the  coast. 
In  a  single  instance  only  was  there  any   warning  of  the  calamity. 
Sanute,  a  Yemassee  chief,  had  become  warmly  attached  to  a 
Scotch  settler  on  the  frontier,  named  Fraser,  and  to  his  wife,  of  the  Ye- 
a  beautiful  woman  whom  the  Indian  regarded  with  great  rev- 
To  both  he  had  sworn  eternal  fidelity,  confirming  his  oath  by 

the  ceremony  usual, 
among  his  people,  of 
washing  their  faces 
with  water  scented 
with  certain  herbs, 
and  vowing  with  his 
hands  upon  his  breast 
that  whatever  came 
to  his  knowledge 
should  be  toldto 
them.  True  to  his 
vow,  he  came  secretly 
to  Mrs.  Fraser,  an- 
nounced to  her  that 
the  "  blood  v  stick" 

•/ 

had  been  sent  from 
tribe  to  tribe,  and  that 


Sanute  and  Mrs.   Fraser. 


they  must  flee  for  their  lives.  It  may  have  been  a  part  of  the  agree- 
ment that  any  secret  communicated  by  the  Indian  to  his  friends 
should  not  be  revealed  to  others ;  at  any  rate,  though  the  Frasers 
accepted  the  warning  for  themselves,  and  fled  to  the  coast,  they  gave 
no  hint  of  the  coming  danger  to  the  scattered  settlers,  whose  houses 
they  passed  in  their  flight. 

For  a  few  days  even  Charleston  trembled  for  its  safety,  as  the  few 
who  escaped  the  sudden  outbreak  fled  to  the  town  from  the  outlying 


96  THE   CAROLINAS.  [CuAP.  IV. 

plantations.  The  massacre,  however,  soon  ceased,  for  the  want  of  de- 
fenceless victims.  The  Indians  were  now  compelled  to  meet  an  organ- 
ized force  led  by  Governor  Craven,  who  defeated  them  in  a  general 
fight  near  Port  Royal.  The  victory  was  so  complete  that  the  savages 
were  driven  through  the  wilderness  across  the  Florida  border,  and  the 
province  relieved  altogether  from  a  people  far  more  to  be  feared  than 
trusted,  notwithstanding  their  past  services.  They  left  behind  them 
the  ashes  of  hundreds  of  homes,  and  the  bodies  of  more  than  four 
hundred  of  the  victims  of  their  barbarity  and  hate.  The  outbreak 
was  supposed  to  be  instigated  by  the  Spaniards  ;  but  whether  this  was 
true  or  false,  the  savages  were  received  with  welcome  and  applause  in 
Florida,  and  encouraged  in  future  raids.  These,  however,  were  suffi- 
ciently guarded  against  by  two  or  three  military  outposts  along  the 
southern  frontiers. 

Two  years  only  had  passed  away  since  the  existence  of  North  Caro- 
lina seemed  merely  a  question  of  hours.     Both  colonies,  had 

Final  defeat  .  .       -i  .    i        i 

of  the          their  enemies  united,  might  have  been  destroyed    between 

Indians.  .  '  J 

sunrise  and  sunset.  Now,  rather  through  savage  fatuity  than 
the  prowess  of  the  whites,  these  remained  in  quiet  possession  of  that 
broad  domain,  while  the  powerful  tribes  who  claimed  it  as  theirs 
were  scattered  north  and  south,  separated  from  each  other  by  almost 
half  the  length  of  the  continent.  The  beautiful  forests,  the  lovely 
islands,  the  noble  mountains,  of  their  old  homes,  above  all  the  graves 
of  their  fathers,  were  to  be  to  them  henceforth  only  a  tradition.  In 
all  the  colonial  history  of  North  America  there  is  no  more  remark- 
able instance  of  how  events,  not  brought  about  by  the  English,  but  of 
which,  nevertheless,  they  knew  how  to  take  advantage,  served  to  dis- 
possess the  Indians  of  their  country  and  give  it  into  the  hands  of 
a  new  people. 

In  all  these  years  the  Proprietors  in  England  had  left  the  colonies, 
for  the  most  part,  to  prosper  or  to  perish,  as  events,  which  they  made 
little  or  no  effort  to  control,  should  determine.  Or  rather,  if  an 
earlier  historian  l  is  right,  the  Proprietors  did  far  worse  by  the  colo- 
nists than  to  neglect  them ;  for  their  affairs  were  left  to  the  manage- 
ment of  a  secretary,  so  far  as  they  were  managed  at  all,  and  this  man 
was  moved  in  all  that  he  did  by  Nicholas  Trott,  of  South  Carolina. 
Trott  was  Chief  Justice  for  years,  Judge  at  the  same  time  of  the 
Vice-admiralty  Court,  President  of  the  Council,  sometimes  acting 
Course  of  Governor,  —  always  in  office,  always  using  the  proprietary 
tor* 'Turing"  secretary  for  his  own  purposes  and  those  of  his  party.  But 
this  period  so  £ar  as  t]ie  Proprietors  acted  at  all,  of  their  own  volition, 
in  the  affairs  of  the  colonies,  it  was  to  neglect  them  where  their  inter. 

1  Hewit's  History  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Colony  of  South  Carolina. 


1717.J  THE   CAROLINA   BUCCANEERS.  97 

ference  would  have  been  a  help,  —  to  interfere  when  neglect  was  ot 
all  things  to  be  most  desired.  They  were  left  to  defend  themselves  as 
best  they  could  against  their  savage  enemies  ;  to  reconcile  the  strife 
of  factions  ;  to  stagger  under  the  load  of  debt  which  war  created,  a 
burden  added  to  by  the  attempt  to  relieve  it  by  the  issue  of  bills  of 
credit.  But  any  scheme  for  adding  to  the  revenue  of  the  Proprietors 
by  an  increase  of  taxes  was  certain  of  their  approbation ;  any  op- 
pressive measure  contrived  by  their  officers  they  were  sure  to  sustain. 
To  acts  of  the  Assembly  of  South  Carolina  to  regulate  trade  with  the 
Indians,  and  to  secure  a  free  and  general  election  of  representatives  — 
both  of  imperative  necessity  for  the  public  welfare  —  the  Proprietors 
refused  their  assent.  When  the  lands  vacated  by  the  Yemassees  were 
taken  possession  of  by  the  colony,  and  opened  to  the  use  of  settlers, 
they  were  seized  by  the  Proprietors  for  their  own  use,  and  hundreds 
of  new  emigrants  ruined  by  demands,  for  rent  and  purchase-money, 
impossible  to  meet.  Craven's  successor,  Robert  Johnson,  a  son  of  the 
former  Governor,  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson,  received  instructions  that 
took  from  the  Assembly  almost,  all  voice  in  the  government  of  the 
colony,  the  Proprietors  declaring  that  all  legislation  should  be  sub- 
mitted to  them,  and  that  they  should  reject  and  repeal  all  laws  as  they 
saw  fit.  A  royal  order  in  Council  was  about  the  same  time  received, 
requiring  the  repeal  of  an  act  levying  ten  per  cent,  on  all  British 
goods  imported,  from  which  came  alrn'ost  the  only  revenue  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  colony,  except  direct  taxation. 

The  public  debt  was  augmented  soon  after  Johnson's  accession, 
by  a  necessary  public  service,  and  this  added  burden  fell,  as  usual, 
upon  the  colonists.  The  pirates  who  had  always,  more  or 
less,  lurked  along  the  Carolina  coast,  had  become  so  bold  the  Carolina 
that  they  could  be  tolerated  no  longer.  The  island  of  Provi- 
dence, one  of  the  Bahamas,  had  long  been  a  convenient  rendezvous 
for  these  buccaneers,  but  driven  thence  by  an  expedition  under  Cap- 
tain Woodes  Rogers,  who  took  possession  of  the  island  in  the  name 
of  the  King,  they  had  found  convenient  hiding-places  in  the  sounds 
and  inlets  of  the  Carolinas,  particularly  about  Cape  Fear.  They  were 
the  ruin  of  all  legitimate  commerce,  and  the  terror  of  all  honest  sail- 
ors. So  well  armed  and  manned  were  their  vessels  that  they  did  not 
hesitate  to  capture  merchantmen  within  sight  of  the  town  of  Charles- 
ton, and  extort  a  ransom  from  the  government  for  any  prisoners  of 
note  that  fell  into  their  hands.  The  admiral  of  these  rovers,  one 
Teach  or  Thache,  —  but  universally  known  by  the  more  romantic  name 
of  Black  Beard,  —  hoisted  his  flag  upon  a  ship  of  forty  guns,  and  the 
squadron  under  his  command  consisted  of  six  vessels.  Three  of  his 

VOL.    III. 


98  THE   CAKOLIXAS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

captains,  Vane,  Worley,  and  Steed  Bonnet,  were  as  well  known,  and 
almost  as  much  dreaded,  as  himself. 

The  harbor  of  Charleston  was  kept  under  constant  blockade  by  one 
or  more  of  these  vessels,  in  turn,  from  the  convenient  station  in  the 
month  of  Cape  Fear  River.  Hardly  a  merchantman  bound  in  or  out, 
could  escape  them,  and  so  serious  was  the  injury  to  the  commerce  of 
the  port  that  Johnson  determined  to  put  an  end  to  it  at  all  hazards. 
He  sent  out  a  ship  under  command  of  William  Rhett,  and  Steed  Bon- 
net awaited  him  outside  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  till  he 
saw  that  the  enemy  was  stronger  than  he  dared  encounter, 
locution  of  Then  he  sailed  for  the  station  at  Cape  Fear.  Thither  Rhett 

Steed  Bonnet 

followed,  attacked  and  took  the  pirate  with  a  crew  of  thirty 
men.  Returning  with  these  to  Charleston,  they  were  speedily  tried, 
and  twenty-nine  of  the  thirty  as  speedily  hanged. 

Worley,  another  of  the  pirate  captains,  soon  afterward  appeared 
in  defiance  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  and  the  Governor,  taking 
command  of  his  ship  in  person,  went  out  to  meet  him.  Worley 's 
sloop  carried  six  guns  and  was  ready  for  battle.  The  engagement  was 
desperate ;  no  quarter  was  asked  or  given  ;  every  man  on  board  the 
pirate,  save  the  captain  and  one  of  the  crew,  was  killed,  and  these  two 
refused  to  surrender,  though  they  could  fight  no  longer.  Johnson 
sailed  back  to  town,  in  sight  of  which  the  battle  was  fought,  and  lest 
And  of  wor-  n's  ^wo  wounded  prisoners  should  cheat  justice  by  dying  of 
their  wounds,  they  were  hanged  immediately. 

The  loss  of  two  vessels,  of  two  of  his  bravest  captains,  and  of  so 
many  men,  so  crippled  and  alarmed  Black  Beard  that  he  went  with 
twenty  of  his  comrades  before  Governor  Eden,  of  North  Carolina,  and 
took  advantage  of  a  royal  proclamation  made  some  time  before,  prom- 
ising pardon  to  all  pirates  who  would  surrender.  He  remained  for  a 
while  on  shore,  living  a  riotous  life  upon  his  ill-gotten  gains,  finding 
among  his  neighbors  on  Pamlico  Rivera  young  woman  who  consented 
to  be  his  thirteenth  wife.  This  rural  leisure  and  domestic  bliss  — 
though  probably  his  wives  were  numbered  with  the  ports  where  he 
refitted  —  he  soon  relinquished,  and  took  to  the  sea  again.  For  a 
while  he  kept  within  the  law,  by  bringing  in  vessels,  found,  he  said, 
deserted  at  sea,  for  condemnation  in  the  court  of  admiralty.  There 
were  grave  suspicions  that  in  this  sort  of  salvage  the  Governor,  the 
secretary  of  the  colony,  and  the  admiralty  judge  had  a  share  of  the 
profits.  But  even  this  pretence  of  an  honest  employment  of  his  time 
by  Black  Beard  was  soon  abandoned,  and  he  returned  to  his  old 
ways. 

Either  because  Governor  Eden  wanted  the  strength  or  wanted  the 
will,  to  undertake  the  suppression  and  punishment  of  these  bold  buc- 


1718.] 


SUPPRESSION    OF   THE   BUCCANEERS. 


cancers,  Governor  Spotswood  was  asked  to  send  a  naval  force  to  the 
relief  of  the  North  Carolinians.  The  Virginia  Governor  offered  a 
large  reward  for  the  pirate  captain's  head,  and  two  armed  sloops,  un- 
der the  command  of  Lieutenant  Maynard  of  the  royal  navy,  were 
ordered  to  Pamlico  River.  It  WHS  intended  to  take  the  pirate  by  sur- 
prise, but  Black  Beard  was  informed  of  their  coming,  and  was  pre- 
pared to  fight  if  he  could  not  escape.  On  board  his  vessel  were  twen- 
ty-five desperate  men.  When  Maynard  overtook  them,  the  pirates 
opened  the  battle  with  a  broadside,  swearing  that  they  would  neither 
give  nor  take  quarter.  Maynard's  vessel,  unfortunately,  ran  aground, 
and,  unable  to  manoeuvre,  was  so  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy 
that  twenty  men  were  shot  down  at  a  single  broadside.  Then  Black 

Beard   boarded,  not  knowing  that  May- 
nard had  a  reserve  of  men  below.     These 
sprang  upon  deck  as  the  pirates  poured 
over  the  bulwarks.     In  the.  desperate 
hand-to-hand    fight    that   followed, 
the  two  captains   led;  they  dis- 
charged their   pistols    at  each 


Maynard's  Return. 

other's  heads  without  harm  ;  then  each  rushed  upon  the  other  with 
his  dirk  and  fought  with  skill,  courage,  and  desperation  till  Teach 
fell.  The  boarding-party  had  numbered  seventeen  ;  nine,  besides  the 
pirate  captain,  lay  dead  upon  the  bloody  deck ;  the  other  seven  were 
mortally  wounded.  Then  Maynard,  in  his  turn,  boarded  the  pirate 
vessel,  made  prisoners  of  the  rest  of  the  crew,  and  was  just  in  time  to 
seize  a  negro  who  stood  with  a  firebrand  at  the  magazine,  with  orders 
from  the  captain  to  blow  up  the  ship  in  case  she  should  be  taken. 


100  THE   CAROLINAS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

So  the  victory  was  complete,  and  the  law  erelong  gave  the  pirates 
who  survived  the  fight  to  the  gallows.  There  is  hardly  a  more  con- 
spicuous figure  of  that  time  in  all  the  colonies  than  that  of  the  brave 
young  lieutenant,  as  he  sailed  through  Pamlico  Sound  and  into  Chesa- 
peake Bay,  with  the  ghastly  head  of  the  dreaded  pirate  Black  Beard 
dangling  at  the  end  of  his  bowsprit. 

South  Carolina's  share  in  the  extermination  of  this  formidable  band 
of  buccaneers  cost  her  ten  thousand  pounds, —  a  serious  increase  of  her 
public  debt  —  a  serious  addition  to  the  tangle  of  difficulty  and  discord 
to  be  cut  by  the  sword  of  revolution.  The  conduct  of  Trott,  the 
Chief  Justice,  had  become  so  intolerable  that  the  Governor  and  Coun- 
cil united  with  the  bar  and  the  Assembly  in  demanding  his  removal, 
and  one  of  the  Council,  Francis  Yonge,  was  sent  to  England 

A  new  mis-  .  &  fo 

sion  to  Eug-  to  represent  the  condition  of  the  colony  to  the  Proprietors. 
The  mission  was  a  failure.  If  no  redress  could  be  obtained 
on  the  representations  of  an  officer  of  the  government,  it  was  plain 
that  the  popular  party  had  nothing  to  hope  from  any  further  remon- 
strance. In  the  dispatches  which  Yonge  brought  back,  the  Governor 
was  rebuked  for  being  too  lenient  to  the  colonists ;  he  was  ordered 
peremptorily  to  enforce  the  prerogatives  of  the  Proprietors ;  to  dis- 
solve the  Assembly,  to  repeal  their  objectionable  laws,  to  insist  upon 
the  payment  of  taxes,  to  increase  the  number  of  councillors,  to  forbid 
any  increase  of  the  popular  representation  in  the  Assembly,  —  in  short, 
to  enforce  with  more  severity  than  ever  the  rule  which  the  colonists 
believed  would  prove  their  speedy  ruin. 

The  point  was  reached  at  which  almost  any  public  exigency  would 
be  sure  to  bring  about  a  collision  between  the  government  and  the 
people.  It  came  with  the  apprehension  of  a  Spanish  invasion  which 
the  Governor  learned  was  in  preparation  at  Havana.  He  called  the 
Assembly  together,  represented  to  them  the  exposed  condition  of  the 
province,  and  asked  for  means  of  defence.  The  Assembly  declared 
that  the  tax  upon  imports  was  sufficient  to  meet  the  emergency.  The 
Governor  replied  that  the  Proprietors  had  repealed  the  law.  The 
repeal,  the  Assembly  said,  would  be  disregarded,  and  whoever  refused 
to  pay  the  duties  would  be  compelled  to  obey  the  law.  Thereupon 
Chief  Justice  Trott  pronounced  judgment  in  advance,  by  declaring 
that  in  any  such  suits  brought  in  his  courts  he  should  decide  in  favor 
of  the  defendants.  The  crisis  had  come  in  which  one  party  or  the 
other  must  yield  absolutely. 

Governor  Johnson,  however,  that  there  might  be  some  preparation 
to  repel  the  expected  invasion,  ordered  out  the  militia  regiments  of 
the  province  for  review,  and  appointed  a  day  for  general  inspection. 
The  members  of  the  Assembly,  on  their  part,  quietly  held  meetings 


• 


1719.]  REVOLUTION  IN   SOUTH  CAROLINA.  101 

in  different  places  in  the  country,  formed  an  association,  and  prepared 
for  revolution.  At  the  appointed  time  the  militia  regiments  mus- 
tered ;  the  revolutionary  leaders  seized  the  opportunity,  produced  the 
articles  of  association  to  the  soldiers,  and  they  were  eagerly  signed  by 
almost  every  man  in  the  colony  capable  of  bearing  arms.  Happily 
there  was  no  Spanish  invasion,  but  the  Lords  Proprietors,  neverthe- 
less, then  and  there  lost  a  province. 

For  Johnson  himself  there  was  the  utmost  respect  The  revolt  was 
not  against  him,  but  against  his  masters.  The  members  of  the  As- 
sembly, resolving  themselves  into  a  convention  of  the  people,  issued 
a  declaration  of  reasons  for  what  they  had  done,  declined  to  recognize 
the  proprietary  government  under  the  Governor  and  his  ille- 

5T  .«    «          i  ir  '       •          a?  Contest  be- 

gal  Council,  but  besought  Mr.  Johnson  to  remain  in  omce  as  tweenGover- 

r*.  i  -11        f      i         TT--  tit        i  norjohnson 

royal  Governor  until  the  will  of  the  King  could  be  known,  anathecon- 
He  refused,  addressing  to  the  Convention  a  long  and  able 
message,  setting  forth  the  rights  of  the  Proprietors,  his  own  duty 
under  their  commission,  and  the  illegality  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
Convention.  "We  beg  leave  to  tell  you,"  replied  the  Convention, 
"  that  the  paper  your  honor  read  and  delivered  to  us  we  take  no 
notice  of,  nor  shall  we  give  any  further  answer  to  it,  but  in  Great 
Britain."  But  they  assured  him  "  that  it  is  the  greatest  satisfaction 
imaginable  to  us  to  find  throughout  the  whole  country  that  univer- 
sal affection,  deference,  and  respect  the  inhabitants  bear  to  your  hon- 
or's person,  and  with  what  passionate  desire  they  wish  for  a  continu- 
ance of  your  gentle  and  good  administration,"  and  therefore  they 
again  earnestly  desired  and  entreated  him  to  remain  as  Governor  "iu 
his  majesty's  name,  till  his  pleasure  shall  be  known."  True  to  his 
sense  of  duty  the  Governor  was  unmoved. 

But  however  great  their  respect  for  his  private  character,  the  Con- 
vention now  owed  it  to  the  people  to  be  firm  in  their  disregard  of 
the  Governor's  authority.  He  issued  a  proclamation  dissolving  the 
House  ;  the  representatives  would  not  permit  it  to  be  read,  and  or- 
dered it  to  be  torn  from  the  hands  of  the  marshal.  A  new  Governor, 
Colonel  James  Moore,  was  elected,  and  the  day  on  which  Johnson 
had  previously  ordered  the  militia  to  assemble  in  Charleston  was 
selected  by  the  Convention  as  a  fitting  time  for  the  inauguration  of 
Moore.  Johnson  had  subsequently  directed  the  commander  of  the 
military,  Colonel  Parris,  to  countermand  his  order,  but  this,  Parris, 
who  was  on  the  popular  side,  had  neglected  to  do.  On  the  appointed 
day  Johnson,  coming  into  Charleston  from  his  plantation,  found  the 
town  alive  with  preparations  for  the  celebration  of  a  joyful  event. 
The  colors  were  flying  from  the  flagstaffs  of  the  fort ;  every  bit  of 
bunting  at  their  command  decked  the  vessels  in  the  harbor;  the  peo- 


102 


THE   CAROLINAS. 


[CHAP.  JV. 


pie  had  culled  out  a  holiday,  and  put  on  their  best  attire,  and  in  the 
great  square  in  the  middle  of  the  town  were  drawn  up  in  imposing 
array  the  citizen-soldiers  of  the  whole  province. 

Astonished,  indignant,  but  not  in  the  least  intimidated,  the  ex-gov- 
ernor faced  this  unexpected  situation.  Seeking  out  the  leading  men, 
he  expostulated  quietly  but  earnestly  with  some  who,  he  believed, 
were  honestly  pursuing  a  mistaken  course  ;  others  he  accused  of  basely 
abandoning  their  duty,  and  forgetting  their  oaths.  These  he  threat- 
ened with  punishment.  Of  Colonel  Parris  he  demanded  how  he  dared 
appear  there  at  the  head  of  his 
troops  in  disobedience  of  positive 
orders ;  and  he  commanded  him 
to  disperse  his  men  at  once.  The 


colonel  replied  that  he  was  there  in 
obedience  to  the  commands  of  the 
Convention,  and  as  the  ex-governor 
approached  with  angry,  perhaps 

The   Muster  at  Charleston.  V  .     '  r 

with  some  threatening  gesture,  the 

ti-oops  were  ordered  to  present  their  guns,  and  he  was  warned  that  he 
came  nearer  at  the  peril  of  his  life. 

Charleston  at  that  early  and  rude  period  of  her  history  was  used 
to  riots  as  the  easiest  way  to  carry  an  election  or  suppress 
a  party,  and  either  there  must  have  been  at  this  juncture 
unusual  self-restraint  exercised  by  the  people,  or  the  affec- 
tion they  bore  their  late  Governor  was  his  efficient  protection.  For, 
he  stood  alone,  looking  into  the  faces  of  the  soldiery  ;  not  one  of 


BMMA 


1721.]  SIR  FRANCIS  NICHOLSON,  GOVERNOR.  103 

the  officers  of  the  proprietary  government  —  toward  whom,  perhaps, 
there  would  have  been  less  forbearance  —  came  to  his  side ;  in  the 
multitude  around  him  there  was  not  one  personal  enemy,  but  among 
them  all  he  saw  not  one  who  was  a  friend  to  his  cause.  Persuaded, 
at  length,  that  farther  contention,  under  such  circumstances,  was  use- 
less, he  consented  to  retire,  and  was  led  away  courteously  and  kindly 
by  one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  opposition.  The  interest  of  that  gala 
day  —  an  interest  all  the  greater  that  it  was  unexpected  —  faded 
away  as  he  turned  his  back  upon  the  soldiers  into  the  muzzles  of 
whose  guns  he  had  looked  without  flinching.  It  was  the  Governor 
deposed,  not  the  Governor  proclaimed,  who  had  become  the  central 
figure  of  that  celebration.  It  so  often  happens  that  it  is  more  effect- 
ive to  be  dramatic  than  to  be  right. 

This  was  in  December,  1719.  Thenceforward  South  Carolina  was 
in  fact  a  royal  province,  though  Johnson  for  a  year  or  more  longer 
endeavored  by  one  device  and  another  to  maintain  his  authority. 
His  last  desperate  effort  was  made  in  the  winter  of  1721,  when  two 
men  of  war  were  ordered  to  Charleston  to  repulse  another  appre- 
hended Spanish  invasion.  Relying  on  the  aid  of  these  ships,  whose 
captains  brought  their  guns  to  bear  upon  the  town,  Johnson  took 
the  field  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  men.  Two  shots  over  their  heads 
dispersed  them,  and  it  was  plain  at  last,  even  to  him,  that  the  cause 
of  the  Proprietaries  was  hopeless. 

Meanwhile  both  parties  sent  representatives  to  England.  A  revo- 
lution so  serious  and  so  complete  could  not  be  ignored  there.  The 
Proprietors  were  charged  with  having  forfeited  their  charter 
by  misgovernment,  and  the  Attorney-general  was  once  more 
instructed  to  take  the  proper  steps  to  test  the  question, 
A  provisional  Governor  of  the  province  was  appointed,  and  GoTemor- 
soon  after  Johnson's  final  attempt  to  reinstate  the  proprietary  gov- 
ernment, Sir  Francis  Nicholson  arrived  as  the  representative  of  the 
King. 

It  was  Nicholson's  good  fortune  to  be  sent  to  Carolina,  as  he  had 
previously  been  sent  to  Virginia  and  Maryland,  at  the  moment  when 
the  colony  was  about  to  emerge  from  the  long  and  bitter  struggle  with 
hardship,  poverty,  ignorance,  and  misgovernment,  and  was  in  a  condi- 
tion to  enter  upon  a  new  ei-a  of  success  and  prosperity.  It  was  his  own 
good  sense  and  sound  judgment  that  enabled  him  to  see  the  necessities 
of  the  people,  and  to  understand  what  measures  were  requisite  to 
take  advantage  of  new  conditions.  The  presence  of  a  royal  gov- 
ernor ended  all  immediate  strife  between  the  contending  parties, 
and  with  the  consciousness  of  royal  protection  came  a  pei-iod  of 
tranquillity,  content,  and  hope  throughout  the  colony.  War  had 


THE    CAKOLINAS.  [CkAP.  IV. 

ceased  between  England  and  Spain,  and  Nicholson's  first  care  was  to 
avail  himself  of  the  peace  to  deliver  the  colony  from  the  fear  of 
Indian  hostilities.  He  sought  and  secured  peaceful  relations  with 
both  the  Spaniards  and  the  Yemassee  tribe  in  Florida.  With  the 
powerful  nations  of  the  Cherokees  and  the  Creeks  on  the  western  and 
southwestern  borders  of  the  province  he  concluded  treaties  of  peace 
and  of  commerce,  guarantying  to  them  the  possession  of  their  own 
hunting-grounds,  and  receiving  a  promise  in  return  that  the  English 
settlements  should  be  unmolested,  —  agreements  kept  like  all  Indian 
treaties,  so  long  as  the  reasons  for  keeping  were  stronger  than  the 
reasons  for  breaking  them. 

Nicholson,  if  not  a  devout  man  in  his  private  life,  was  too  wise  a 
statesman  to  underrate  the  value  of  religious  influences.  No  other 
American  colony  was  so  destitute  of  churches  as  South  Carolina,  and 
nowhere  else  was  there  so  marked  an  absence  of  any  sense  of  relig- 
ious feeling  and  responsibility.  When  heretofore  it  had  showed  it- 
self at  all,  it  took  on,  as  we  have  seen,  a  political  aspect,  and  was 
made  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  strife  between  the  Proprietary 
party  and  its  opponents.  The  robe  of  the  saint  was  stolen  only  to 
serve  the  devil  in.  But  the  new  Governor,  through  the  four  years  of 
his  administration,  labored  with  great  zeal  to  relieve  a  destitution 
which  —  if  he  deprecated  it  for  no  other  reason  —  he  felt  to  be  an 
obstacle  to  the  welfare  and  growth  of  the  state.  He  laid  down  the 
boundaries  of  parishes;  encouraged  and  aided  the  people  to  build 
church  edifices ;  and  interceded  with  the  Society  in  England  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  to  provide  them  with  pastors.  The 
church  he  labored  for  was,  of  course,  the  Established  Church  ;  there 
was  hardly  religious  feeling  enough  in  the  province,  at  that  period,  to 
seriously  suggest  any  question  of  conformity  or  dissent. 

Whether  it  was  that  the  people  were  irreligious  because  they  were 
ignorant,  certainly  ignorance  and  irreligion  went  hand  in  hand  among 
them.  Nicholson  was  equally  earnest  in  his  efforts  to  overcome  both. 
There  was  not  a  single  public  school  in  the  province  at  the  time  of 
his  arrival.  He  aroused  the  people  to  some  sense  of  the  importance 
of  education,  and  aided  them  to  secure  it  for  their  children  with  his 
private  means  as  well  as  with  the  weight  of  his  official  influence  and 
authority. 

It  is  strong  evidence  of  the  excellence  of  his  administration  that, 
for  the  four  years  it  lasted,  the  Proprietors  seem  to  have  submitted 
without  a  murmur  to  their  loss  of  authority.  But  both  they  and 
their  party  in  Carolina  showed  signs  of  life  again  when  Nicholson  re- 
turned to  England,  leaving  his  office  in  the  hands  of  Arthur  Middle- 
ton,  the  President  of  the  Council.  The  writ  against  the  charter  had 


1729.]  SEPARATION   OF  THE   CAROUNAS.  105 

not  been  issued  ;  in  the  colony  the  strife  of  parties,  which  had  begun 
to  show  itself  before  Nicholson  left,  had  become  threatening.  The 
Proprietors  assumed  the  right  of  appointing  a  Governor,  and  Purchage  of 
named  Colonel  Samuel  Horsey  for  that  office  ;  if  other  offi-  {Jf^1"* 
cers  were  appointed  by  the  Crown,  they  claimed  that  the  nom-  Crown- 
inations  should  be  submitted  to  them  for  their  approval.  But  the 
contest  was  too  unequal  to  be  long  sustained  on  their  part,  and  they 
offered  to  surrender  their  proprietary  interest  for  a  pecuniary  consid- 
eration. The  prayer  was  granted,  and  in  1729  both  the  northern  and 
southern  colonies  were  purchased  by  the  Crown  —  including  territory 
and  arrearages  of  quit  rents  —  for  twenty-two  thousand  five  hundred 
pounds  sterling.  To  this  agreement,  however,  Lord  Carteret  was  not 
a  party.  A  one-eighth  interest  in  the  property  was  retained  by  him, 
which  about  twenty  years  later  was  set  apart  from  the  rest  by  giving 
him  all  the  territory  from  34°  35'  to  the  boundary  line  of  Virginia, 
and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

From  the  date  of  the  purchase  of  the  colony  by  the  Crown,  North 
and  South  Carolina  became  in  law,  as  they  had  long  been  in  fact,  two 
separate  provinces.  Thenceforward  there  was  no  pretence  of  the  au- 
thority of  a  governor-generalship  to  be  exercised  over  the  northern 
colony  by  the  governor  of  the  southern,  —  an  authority  which,  for 
many  years,  had  been  merely  nominal,  or  only  exerted  at  times  by 
special  order  of  the  Proprietors  for  some  special  purpose.  The  last 
proprietary  Governor  of  North  Carolina  was  Sir  Richard  Ev- 
erhard,  who  had  displaced  George  Burrington.  Burrington,  Carolina 
in  his  turn,  as  the  first  royal  Governor,  displaced  Everhard. 
The  years  of  the  official  tenure  of  these  men  were  marked  by  little 
else  than  their  personal  quarrels.  Burrington  was  evidently  a  ruffian 
of  a  low  order,  and  was  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  for  an  assault 
upon  Everhard  while  he  was  Governor.  The  indictment  gives  many 
of  the  terms  of  obloquy  and  defiance  which  Burrington  publicly  hurled 
at  his  opponent :  that  "  he  was  no  more  fit  to  be  governor  than  a 
hog "  ;  that  he  was  a  "'  calve's  head ; "  that  "  I  (the  said  George 
himself  meaning)  will  scalp  your  damned  thick  skull  (the  said  Sir 
Richard's  head  meaning)  "  ;  and  other  equally  "  scandalous,  oppro- 
brious, and  malicious  words,"  which  even  then  seem  to  have  been  con- 
sidered as  hardly  compatible  with  the  dignity  of  an  ex-governor.  He 
was  nevertheless  reappointed  when  the  province  passed  to  the  Crown, 
for  his  family,  it  is  supposed,  was  in  favor  at  Court.  As  royal  Gov- 
ernor his  conduct  was  so  outrageous  that  he  thought  it  prudent  to 
leave  the  province,  and  he  was  murdered  not  long  after,  in  a  drunken 
brawl  in  London.  Gabriel  Johnston,  who  was  appointed  in  1734  as 
Governor  of  North  Carolina,  remained  in  office  for  the  next  twenty 
years. 


106 


THE   CAROLINAS. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


apppointed 
Governor  of 
South 
Carolina. 


It  was  a  singular  testimony  to  the  estimation  in   which   Robert 
Johnson  was  held,  both  in  England  and  in  South  Carolina, 
that  the  Governor  whom  revolution  had  deposed  should  be 
sent  back  with  a  royal  com- 
mission, and  that  his  return 
should  be   welcomed    with    universal 
satisfaction.     That  welcome,  when  he 
arrived  in  Charles- 
ton, in  December, 
1730,    was    the 
warmer   that    he   i| 


Johnson's  Return. 


brought  with  him  six  Cherokee  chiefs  returning  from  England.  So 
important  was  the  friendship  of  that  powerful  nation  held  to  be  by 
the  government,  that  almost  its  first  act  after  the  purchase  of  the 
colony  was  to  send  an  embassy,  under  Sir  Alexander  Gumming,  to 


1730.]  CONDITION   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA.  107 

these  Indians.  Six  of  their  chiefs  he  had  taken  back  with  him  to 
England,  a  sight  of  the  Tower  of  London  and  the  King  on  his  throne 
being  thought  then  as  certain  to  soothe  the  savage  breast,  and  in- 
duce the  warrior  to  turn  his  tomahawk  into  a  reaping-hook,  as  it  is 
now  believed  these  pleasant  consequences  come  from  a  sight  of  the 
Capitol  at  Washington  and  of  a  President  in  the  White  House. 
These  fallacious  hopes  were  not,  indeed,  of  long  duration.  Beyond 
the  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  countries  were  the  French  on  the  Gulf 
and  the  Mississippi ;  and  whether  in  trade  or  in  war,  the  Indians 
knew  too  well  ho\v  important  their  position  was  between  the  rival 
powers.  There  were,  however,  more  immediate  dangers  requiring  the 
presence  of  a  governor  in  South  Carolina.  Johnson's  report,  a  few 
months  after  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  was  that  no  taxes 
had  been  collected,  and  not  a  court  of  justice  had  been  held  in  the 
province  for  four  years,  —  not,  in  other  words,  since  Nicholson's  de- 
parture.1 To  restore  harmony  and  order  where  discord  and  anarchy 
reigned  was  the  work  to  which  he  addressed  himself,  with  a  large 
measure  of  success,  for  the  four  remaining  years  of  his  life. 

But  it  was  no  easy  task.  In  no  other  colony  was  there  so  mixed  a 
population,  including  English,  French,  Scotch,  Irish,  and  Spanish,  un- 
used for  years  to  much  restraint  from  either  law  or  gospel, 
and  too  ignorant  to  be  safely  left  to  be  a  law  to  themselves. 
There  were  from  six  to  seven  thousand  of  these  white  people,  ' 
and  in  addition  to  them  about  twenty-two  thousand  African  slaves. 
This  heterogeneous  population  lived,  for  the  most  part,  upon  isolated 
plantations  of  large  tracts  of  land  ;  here  the  labor  of  the  slaves  was 
chiefly  devoted  to  the  production  of  a  single  staple,  rice,  though  to 
this  the  cultivation  of  indigo  was  soon  added.  The  laboring  whites 
were  indented  servants,  and,  with  labor  degraded  and  cheapened  by 
slavery,  their  condition  was  quite  hopeless.  To  their  servitude  there 
came  in  time  an  end,  but  the  degradation  of  their  class  has  been  per- 
petuated in  the  "  poor  whites,"  who  are  even  yet  a  distinctive  feature 
in  the  society  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  The  colony,  moreover, 
was  overwhelmed  with  debt,  and  the  repeated  issue  of  bills  of  credit 
had  borne  its  legitimate  fruit  in  the  depreciation  of  the  value  of  cur- 
rency. That  value  was  necessarily  brought  to  the  test  of  exchange  on 
England,  and  it  required  about  this  period  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  of  South  Carolina  currency  to  buy  a  bill  on  London  for  one 
hundred  pounds.2  It  had  been  the  policy  of  the  Proprietors  to  escape 
the  burden  of  a  great  public  debt  by  limiting  the  issue  of  these 
bills  of  credit ;  the  people,  on  the  other  hand,  both  to  provide  a 

1  Papers  in  State  Paper  Office,  London.     Coll.  of  Hist.  Soc.  of  S.  C.,  vol.  i. 

8  The  condition  of  the  currrency  iu  the  several  colonies  in  1748,  as  measured  by  the  rate 


108 


THE   CAROUNAS. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


revenue  for  the  support  of  government  and  to  check  the  increase  of 
slaves,  had  insisted  that  a  heavy  duty  should  be  levied  upon  their 
importation.  Unhappily,  in  the  struggle  of  parties  both  measures 
were  nullified,  either  of  which  would  have  been  a  blessing  to  the  com- 
monwealth. 

The  establishment  of  the  royal  government  under  Johnson,  how- 
ever, gave  a  new  impulse  to  the  energies  of  the  colonists,  and  fresh 
interest  was  aroused  in  England  in  the  domain  south  of  Carolina, 
the  only  region  along  the  Atlantic  coast  now  unoccupied  by  Euro- 
peans. The  Governor  was  ordered  to  lay  out  eleven  new  townships 
on  the  banks  of  several  rivers,  to  be  divided  into  small  farms  as  an 
inducement  to  the  emigration  of  poor  but  industrious  persons.  The 
project  was  defeated,  at  least  in  the  southern  part  of  the  province,  by 
the  preoccupation  of  the  lands  in  large  tracts  by  planters,  who  found 
an  abundant  supply  of  labor  in  the  increasing  importation  of  slaves. 
But  this  southward  movement  of  the  Carolinians  was  soon  checked  by 
a  project  to  plant  a  new  colony  on  the  further  side  of  the  Savannah 
River. 

of  exchange  on  London,  is  tabulated  in  Douglass's  Summary,  Historical  and  Political,  etc., 
of  the  British  Settlements  in  North  America,  as  follows  :  — 

For  £100  New  England  currency .        .        1100. 

New  York  '  .      190. 

East  Jersey  '  190. 

West  Jersey  .  .180. 

'        Pennsylvania  180. 

Maryland  200. 

Virginia  120@  125. 

'        '       North  Carolina  1000. 

'       "        South  Carolina          ,  "50. 


Medal   Struck  in  1736  to  commemorate  the  Separation  of  North  and  South  Carolina. 


YOUaredefired  to  Accompany  the  Corps 
of  Sir  William.  Phippst  Knight,  from 
Suiters  Hall  in  Swithins  Lane,  to  the  Parifh- 
Church  of  St.  Maty  Woolnoth,   ia  Lumbard- 
flreet  :  On  Thurfday  fhe  2 iff.  of  February, 
169*.    At   Five  of   fhe  Clock  in  the  After- 
noon precifely  :  And  bring  this  Ticket  with 
you. 


/v 


Fac-simile  of  the   Invitation  to  Phipi's  Funeral. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  ROYAL  GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

MASSACHUSETTS  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE.  —  THE  TROUBLES  OF  RHODE  ISLAND.  —  ARBI- 
TRARY INTERFERENCE  or  LORD  BELLOMONT.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  DUDLEY.  —  IN- 
DIAN HOSTILITIES.  —  ATTACKS  ON  DEERFIELD  AND  OTHER  PLACES.  —  WAR  iv 
MAINE.  —  CAPTURE  OF  PORT  ROYAL.  —  MASSACHUSETTS  EARLY  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTCHY.  —  INOCULATION  FOR  SMALL-POX.  —  GOVERNOR  SHUTE  IN  MASSACHUSETTS 
AND  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  —  THE  ROYAL  PREROGATIVE  IN  FORESTS.  —  FINANCIAL 
POLICY  OF  THE  COLONIES.  —  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  AND  THE  ''NEW  ENGLAND  Cou- 
RANT."  —  SETTLEMENTS  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  AND  MAINE. 

THE  charter  which  was  brought  back  by  Sir  Williams  Phips  con* 
verted  Massachusetts  into  a  royal  province.     The  first  Par- 


liament which  assembled  in  the  reign  of  William,  manifest- 

ed  a  willingness  to  pass  a  bill  restoring  to  the  colony  its  orig- 

inal charter,  but  this  intention  was  defeated  by  the  Court.     The  par- 

tial discontent  which  met  Phips  in  the  colony  when  he  returned  as 


110 


THE  ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.     [CHAP.  V. 


Governor  under  the  new  charter  was  considerably  increased  by  the 
hostility  of  persons  who  had  been  connected  with  the  witchcraft 
trials.  When  he  died  at  London,  it  became  necessary  to  select  an- 
other royal  Governor.  The  appointment  was  neglected,  however, 
in  the  more  imperative  necessities  of  the  new  reign  ;  for  three  years 
the  unpopular  S  tough  ton  acted  as  Governor,  and  party  feeling  be- 
came much  embittered.  A  fresh  distraction  came  in  the  renewed  at- 
tacks of  the  Indians  upon  frontier  towns,  stimulated  by  the  French, 
with  whom  England  was  at  war. 

New  Hampshire  and  the  Province  of  Maine  suffered  this  time  more 

severely  than  Massachusetts.  An  attack  upon  Haverhill  was 
hostilities,  memorable  for  the  subsequent  exploit  of  Hannah  Dustin, 
Pustin  of  who,  with  an  infant  only  a  few  days  old,  a  boy  named  Samuel 

Leonardson,  and  another  woman,  was  carried  off  to  an  In- 
dian camp  on  an  island  in  the  Merrimack,  near  Concord,  N.  H.  The 


Hannah  Dustin's  escape. 

infant,  as  usual,  was  killed  against  the  trunk  of  a  tree.  The  sight  of 
this  prepared  the  mother's  heart  for  her  bloody  reprisal.  One  day 
when  the  boy  was  at  work  chopping  for  the  Indians,  he  casually  asked 
one  of  the  savages  how  and  where  he  struck  a  man  with  a  hatchet. 
The  Indian,  pleased  to  show  that  bit  of  sylvan  skill,  told  him.  That 
night  the  three  captives  with  hatchets  slew  the  ten  sleeping  guards, 
and  Hannah,  remembering  her  infant,  scalped  them.  Then  they 
dropped  down  the  river  in  a  canoe  to  Haverhill. 


1699.]  AFFAIRS  IN  RHODE  ISLAND.  Ill 

Joseph  Dudley,  the  Puritan  courtier  of  the  King,  had  been  sent 
with  Andros  to  England,  where  the  King  released  him.  To  appease 
somewhat  his  hunger  for  official  station,  he  was  appointed  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  New  York.  Tiring  of  this  contracted  sphere,  he  returned  to 
England  and  was  made  Lieutenant-governor  of  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  In  the  mean  time  Lord  Bellomont  had  been  ap-  mont,  GOT- 
pointed  Governor  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  New 
Hampshire.  There  was  nothing  in  the  brief  period  of  the  Earl's  ad- 
ministration of  fourteen  months  to  mar  the  cordiality  with  which  he 
was  welcomed  in  Boston,  in  1699.  His  High-Church  principles  were 
overlooked  in  the  deference  he  paid  to  the  Congregationalism  of  New 
England  ;  but  the  General  Court  abated  nothing,  notwithstanding 
the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held,  of  their  jealous  care  for  their 
chartered  rights.  They  refused  to  vote  him  a  fixed  salary,  while  they 
made  the  liberal  appropriation  of  nearly  ten  thousand  dollars  in  little 
more  than  a  year  for  his  use. 

Rhode  Island,  however,  was  less  fortunate  during  his  administra- 
tion than  those  colonies  of  which  he  was  the  actual  Governor. 
He  was  only  the  commander-in-chief  of  her  militia  ;  but  he  Rhode  i«i- 
evidently  did  not  forget  that  she  also  would  have  been  un- 
der his  rule  had  the  discussion  upon  making  him  Governor-general 
of  all  the  northern  colonies,  which  so  long  delayed  his  coming,  been 
decided  the  other  way.     The  unfortunate  condition  of  Rhode  Island 
gave  him  the  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  an  authority  over  that 
colony  which  his  military  commission  did  not  warrant  ;   his  zeal  for 
the  suppression  of  privateering  and  piracy  and  the  enforcement  of  the 
Navigation  Laws,  supplied  a  motive. 

Circumstances,  quite  as  much  as  choice,  had  made   Rhode  Island  a 
maritime   community.       Her   undisputed   possessions   were 
nearly  limited  to  the  island  within  the  waters  of  Narrasran-  ti 


sett  Bay,  for  on  the  mainland  she  was  met  by  rival  claimants 
on  all  sides.  The  harbor  of  Newport  was  more  open  to  the  sea  than 
either  that  of  New  York  or  Boston.  And  it  was  never  closed.  When 
the  tortuous  channel  and  shallow  flats  of  Boston  harbor  were  covered 
with  miles  of  solid  ice,  and  the  bay  of  New  York  was  a  firm  roadway 
from  Fort  George  to  Staten  Island,  the  mighty  current  of  the  Gulf 
Stream,  sweeping  in  upon  the  Narragansett  coast,  tempered  the  cold 
currents  from  the  north  with  the  warm  waters  of  a  southern  climate. 
This  advantage  of  situation,  when  commerce  was  chiefly  carried  on  ir> 
small  coast-wise  vessels,  made  Newport  always  an  easy  port  of  ret 
uge,  while  from  its  central  position  it  was  a  convenient  point  of  trade, 
Lawful  privateers  in  time  of  war  could  find  nowhere  else  a  plac& 
where  they  could  so  easily  refit,  where  they  could  so  easily  run  in 


112  THE   ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.    [CHAP.  V. 

•with  their  prizes  or  land  their  plunder ;  and  when  peace  turned  priva- 
teers into  pirates,  courts  of  admiralty  were  not  always  mindful  of  nice 
inquiries  as  to  manifests  and  bills  of  lading,  even  if  the  legal  exist- 
ence of  the  court  itself  was  beyond  question. 

The  interests  of  the  people  were  marine,  and  that  made  them  sail- 
ors. Block  Island,  now  only  known  as  a  pleasant  resort  for  summer 
visitors,  was  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  famous  as  a 
rendezvous  for  sea-rovers,  who  put  in  there  to  recruit,  or  hovered  off 
shore  to  intercept  some  ship,  worth  taking,  bound  in  or  out.  And 
more  than  once,  during  those  years,  when  a  Frenchman  was  seen  in 
the  offing,  a  well-manned  ship  hurried  out  of  Newport  harbor  in  pur- 
suit, and,  after  a  gallant  fight,  sailed  back  again  with  a  prize  in  tow. 

So  for  many  years,  in  the  uncertainty  of  her  territorial  domain, 
Newport,  with  the  tribute  which  Newport  drew  from  the  sea,  was  the 
chief  reliance  on  which  Rhode  Island  depended  for  prosperity  and 
wealth.  Massachusetts  had  never  forgiven  her  for  presuming  to  exist 
Rhode  isi  a^  all,  and  the  boundary  between  the  two  colonies  was  a 
d£rybqueV-  source  of  perpetual  conflict  till  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
tions.  century.  A  similar  controversy  existed  with  Plymouth, 

and  this  lost  none  of  its  acrimony  when  that  colony  became  a  part 
of  Massachusetts  during  the  administration  of  Sir  William  Phips. 

But  the  question  of  the  western  boundary  was  still  more  serious, 
for  it  involved  all  that  portion  of  the  present  State  of  Rhode  Island 
which  lies  between  Narragansett  Bay  and  Pawcatuck  River,  and  south 
of  the  latitude  of  Warwick.  This  came  to  be  known  as  the  King's 
Province  because  of  that  solemn  act  of  submission  of  the  Narragan- 
sett chiefs  to  the  King  which  Gorton  and  Holden  took  to  England  in 
1644.1  The  territory  was  claimed  both  by  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Jsland  as  covered  by  their  respective  patents.  And  in  fact  it  had 
been  granted  to  both,  though  the  grant  to  Connecticut  was  a  blun- 
der. 

It  was  one  of  the  frequent  blunders  of  that  early  period  arising 
partly  from  geographical  ignorance,  partly  from  carelessness 
in  the  administration  of  colonial  affairs.    The  patents  secured 
by  John  Winthrop  for  Connecticut  in   1662,  made  the  Nar- 
ragansett River  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  colony.2    John 
Clarke  of   Rhode  Island  was   then    in  England    soliciting  a  charter 
for  his  people,  and  he  exposed  the  wrong  that  would  be  done  them  by 
this  encroachment  upon  territory  which  they  claimed  as  theirs  un- 
der the  older  patent.    So  obviously  just  was  his  protest  that  Winthrop 
was  finally  convinced  of  it,  and  when  Clarke,  the  next  year,  sent  home 
the  Rhode  Island  charter  granted  by  Charles  II.  —  Winthrop  acceding 
i  See  vol.  ii.,  p.  91.  2  Vol.  ii.,  p.  254. 


1733.]  THE   RHODE   ISLAND   TROUBLES.  113 

to  it  as  the  Connecticut  agent  —  it  made  the  Pawcatuck  River  the 
western  boundary  of  Rhode  Island,  expressly  reciting  that  "  the  sayd 
Pawcatuck  river  shall  bee  alsoe  called  alias  Narragansett  river  ;  and 
to  prevent  other  disputes,  that  otherwise  might  arise  thereby,  forever 
hereafter  shall  be  construed,  deemed  and  taken  to  bee  the  Narraganset 
river  in  our  late  graunt  to  Connecticut  Colony  mentioned  as  the 
easterly  bounds  of  that  Collony." 

Nothing  could  be  plainer ;  the  Pawcatuck  had  been  mistaken  for 
the  Narragansett,  and  the  Rhode  Island  charter  corrected  and  limited 


m 


Mouth  of  the  Pawcatuck. 


that  given  the 
year  before  to 
Conn  ecticut. 
Connecticut,  nev- 
ertheless, refused 

to  abide  by  that  limitation,  and  continued,  for  many  years,  to  maintain 
her  title  to  the  King's  Province  as  part  of  her  territory,  and  at  the 
later  period  claimed  as  far  north  as  Providence.  Winthrop,  she  de- 
clared, had  ceased  to  be  her  agent  and  had  no  right  to  acquiesce  in 
such  a  compromise.  But  it  was  the  King  who  had  granted  the  pat- 
ent, not  Winthrop.  Rhode  Island  accused  her  neighbor  of  securing 
a  charter  by  "  underhand  "  measures  ;  Winthrop  exonerated  himself 
by  acknowledging  that  a  wrong  had  been  done ;  if  those  he  repre- 
sented had  not  committed  a  fraud,  they  proposed,  at  any  rate,  to  take 
advantage  of  a  blunder —  which  supreme  authority  had  attempted 
to  correct. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  territorial  complication  which  embarrassed 
and  impoverished  the  Rhode  Islanders.  A  company,  called  the  Ath- 
erton  Company,  —  from  that  Humphrey  Atherton  who  was  one  of 

VOL.  III.  8 


114 


THE  ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW   ENGLAND.    [CHAP.  V. 


the  Massachusetts  commissioners  sent  to  break  up  the  Gorton  settle- 
ment at  Shawomet  in  1643 l  —  had  purchased  large  tracts  in 

The  Ather-  r  , 

ton  com-      the  Narragansett  country  on  the  Bay  about  "  Smith's  trading 

house,"  now  Wickford,  from  the  Indians.    Another  company 

had  taken  possession  of  lands,  under  authority  from  Massachusetts, — 

who  claimed  them  by  right  of  conquest  of  the  Pequot  country,  —  on 


settlement 


Wickford,   R.   I. 


both  sides  of  the  Pawcatuck  River  at  its  mouth.  The  township  laid 
out  by  them  was  called  Southertown,  now  Stonington.  Its 
eastern  division  on  the  east  side  of  the  Pawcatuck  was  with- 
\\eateriy.  jn  £ne  iimits  of  the  Rhode  Island  patent,  and  some  Newport 
men  settled  upon  it  and  called  it  Westerly.  Thenceforth  raged  a 
feud,  always  bitter  and  sometimes  bloody,  between  the  two  settle- 
ments. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  worthy  of  passing  notice,  that  in  that  part 
Indian  Res-  °f  *-ms  o^d  town  of  Westerly,  now  called  Charlestovvn,  reside 
chaM0" in  *&  that  are  left>  in  New  England,  of  the  tribe  of  Narra- 
town.  gansett  Indians,  though  there  is  not  among  them  one  of  pure 

Narragansett  blood.  In  numbers  they  are  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  persons.  In  condition  they  are  reduced  to  dependence  upon  the 
State,  which  provides  for  their  wants  when  the  fruits  of  their  own  toil, 
as  common  laborers  and  as  basket-makers,  are  not  sufficient  for  their 
subsistence.  The  land  they  live  upon  is  reserved  for  their  special  occu- 

1  See  vol.  ii.,  pp.  79  et  seq. 


1662.]  THE   LAST   OF   THE  NARRAGANSETTS. 

pation  ;  and  when  portions  are  conveyed  to  individuals  for  their  sole 
use,  as  is  sometimes  done,  the  title  passes  by  the  ancient  ceremony  of 
presenting  to  the  new  owner  a  bit  of  turf  and  a  twig  from  the  land. 
The  tribal  government  is  still  preserved,  their  local  affairs  being  man- 
aged —  subject  to  the  Legislature  of  the  State  —  by  a  council  chosen 
yearly  from  among  themselves.1  A  republic  has  displaced  the  line  of 
kings,  the  royal  dynasty  ceasing,  probably  about  a  century  ago,  with 
King  Tom  —  a  rather  disreputable  monarch  and  much  given  to  drink 
—  and  his  Queen,  Esther.  The  burial-place  of  the  royal  family  is  on 
a  hill,  within  the  reservation,  where  the  pensive  Indian  may  recall  — 
if  he  remembers  them  —  the  traditions  of  his  race  as  he  looks  out  over 
many  miles  of  lovely  landscape,  once  happy  Indian  hunting-grounds  ; 
over,  as  far  as  Montauk  point,  the  blue  waters  of  the  Bay,  whose  sur- 
face, not  many  generations  ago,  was  never  disturbed  save  by  the  swift 
canoes  of  savage  fishermen  and  warriors.  On  the  horizon,  seaward, 
rises  the  rocky  coast  of  Block  Island  where  Endicott  landed,  in  spite 
of  wind  and  waves,  to  punish  the  natives  and  to  destroy  their  corn, 
their  wigwams,  and  their  boats;  near  by,  inland,  within  the  reserva- 
tion of  the  tribe,  rises  Fort  Neck,  where  Mason  passed  the  night  and 
held  counsel  with  the  famous  Narragansett  chiefs,  Canonicus  and  Mian- 
tonomo,  on  his  way  to  the  destruction  of  the  Pequot  Fort  and  tribe. 
It  is  historic  ground.  Does  the  half-breed  pauper,  standing  upon  the 
graves  of  the  kings  of  his  race,  ponder  upon  departed  glories?  Do 
no  old  savage  instincts  stir  his  blood  as  he  turns  from  the  sight  of  his 
home  of  civilized  penury  to  look  upon  thriving  villages  and  mills  and 
farms  ;  upon  the  sea  dotted  with  the  glistening  sails  of  commerce  ; 
upon  the  smoky  pennants  streaming  across  the  sky  from  passing 
steamers  ?  No  scalps  now  hang  in  his  wigwam  ;  no  squaw  pounds 
his  corn  ;  no  deer  bounds  through  the  forest  to  fall  by  his  swift 
arrows  ;  no  enemy  lurks  in  its  recesses  to  be  followed  with  stealthy 
tread  and  brought  to  sudden  death.  The  wigwam  of  fragrant  boughs, 
gay  with  many-colored  deer-skins,  is  a  board  shanty  :  the  squaw, 
once  picturesque  in  scanty  garment  and  untrammeled  limbs,  a  play- 
thing  and  a  slave,  is  a  hard-worked  woman  weaving  wicker  bas- 
kets ;  in  the  woods  and  swamps  the  son  of  the  warrior  and  the  hun- 
ter cuts  cedar  posts2  and  fire-wood.  There  are  only  the  Thelllgtof 
graves  on  the  quiet  hill-side  to  remind  him  of  the  past.  But 
that  one  spot,  at  least,  is  sacred  ;  no  common  dust  is  permit- 
ted  to  mingle  there  with  the  dust  of  kings,  and  even  tradition  fails  to 
preserve  the  memory  of  the  last  burial.  The  blood  of  this  royal  race 

1  MS.  notes  of  Mr.  S.  H.  Cross,  Indian  agent  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Islaud. 

2  The  best  cedar  posts  in  Rhode  Island  come  from  this  Indian  reservation.  —  Mr.  Cross's 
MS. 


sett8' 


116 


THE    ROYAL    GOVERNORS   IX   NEW   ENGLAND.      [CHAP.  V. 


flows  now  only  through  the  veins  of  one  living  person — Esther,  an 
old  woman  in  Westerly,  living  apart  from  her  people,  the  only  repre- 
sentative of  the  ancient  Narra- 
gansett chiefs,  and  though  not 
quite  of  the  pure  blood,  the 
purest  living  of  the  Narragansett 
tribe. 

But — to  resume  the  history  of 
the  boundary  question  —  "  under- 
handed "  certainly  were  the  meas- 
ures sometimes  resorted  to,  that 
Rhode  Island  might  be  deprived 
of  territory  which  was  justly 
hers,  and  her  colonial  power  b(^ 
limited  to  the  narrowest  bounds. 
The  animosities  engendered  in 
those  earlier  times  when  Massa- 
chusetts banished  Williams,  rav- 
aged Shawomet,  and  carried  Gor- 
ton and  his  companions  trium- 
phantly to  Boston,  imprisoned 
Clarke  and  punished  Holmes  with  many  stripes,  for  the  manifold 
heresies  intolerable  to  the  Puritans,  —  those  bitter  memories  had,  no 
doubt,  much  to  do  with  this  later  hostility  to  the  struggling  little 
colony.  That  questionable  Narragansett  patent  of  1643,1  whereby 
Massachusetts  might  have  set  up  a  claim  to  all  Rhode  Island,  was 
sometimes,  though  cautiously,  appealed  to  as  an  argument  in  defence 
of  the  Atherton  purchase. 

The  Atherton  Company  was  composed  of  some  of  the  most  influen- 
tial men  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut ;  but  its  affairs  were  chiefly 
managed  by  that  Edward  Hutchinson  who  was  among  the  earliest 
settlers  of  Rhode  Island,  but  afterward  returned  to  Massachusetts  and 
was  restored  to  favor.  Perhaps  he  bore  no  good  will  to  the  early  as- 
sociates whom  he  abandoned ;  at  any  rate,  he  seems  to  have  been  more 
considerate  of  the  interests  of  his  Company  than  scrupulous  of  the 
rights  of  the  colony,  of  a  portion  of  whose  domain  the  Company  pro- 
posed to  take  possession. 

Hutchinson  found  a  facile  tool  in  that  Captain  John  Scott  who  was 
captain         8Oon  afterward  conspicuous  in  the  affairs  of  New  Netherland 
just  before  its  surrender  to  the  English  Commissioners,2  and 


Esther,  the  last  of  the  Royal   Narragansetts. 


pJlny'taEng-  °^  wuom  Governor  Nicolls  said  two  years  later  —  when  the 
1*"d  Duke   of    York    conveyed   New   Jersey    to    Berkeley   and 


1  See  vol.  ii.,  pp.  100  tt  seq. 


2  See  vol.  ii.,  pp.  257  et  seq. 


1663.]  CAPTAIX   SCOTT'S  MANAGEMENT.  117 

Carteret —  "I  must  charge  it  upon  Captain  Scott,  who  was  born  to 
work  mischief  as  far  as  he  is  credited,  or  his  parts  serve  him." 

Captain  Scott  was  in  England  acting  as  Hutchinson's  agent,  when 
Winthrop  and  Clarke  were  soliciting  charters  for  their  respective  gov- 
ernments. That  to  Connecticut  was  granted  in  April,  1662  ;  that 
to  Rhode  Island  in  July  of  the  following  year,  after  the  points  of  dif- 
ference between  these  agents  had  been  discussed  and  an  attempt  at 
settlement  made  by  a  board  of  referees.  One  of  the  points  pronounced 
upon  by  that  board  was,  that  the  Narragansett  people  —  the  company 
was  now  called  the  Narragansett  Company,  Major  Atherton  having 
been  killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse  the  year  before  —  should  choose 
for  themselves  to  which  of  the  two  governments  they  would  be  at- 
tached. 

If  the  eastern  boundary  of  Connecticut  was  to  remain  as  provided 
by  its  blundering  charter,  —  on  Narragansett  Bay,  —  this  proposed 
compromise  was  unnecessary,  for  the  Narragansett  people  were,  in  that 
case,  already  under  the  jurisdiction  they  preferred.  But  the  transfer 
of  that  boundary  to  Pawcatuck  River  —  "  alias  Narraganset,"  — 
would  leave  these  people,  where  they  did  not  wish  to  be,  within  the 
bounds  of  Rhode  Island.  Connecticut  accepted  their  offered  submis- 
sion, while  she  rejected  the  new  boundary  of  the  Rhode  Island  charter 
on  the  ground  that  her  agent  had  no  longer  power  to  act ;  accepted, 
that  is,  as  much  of  the  compromise  as  suited  her  ;  Rhode  Island  de- 
clined to  surrender  to  another  government  jurisdiction  in  the  very 
heart  of  that  country  which  the  new  charter  decided  to  be  hers.  The 

•/ 

terms  of  this  charter  unquestionably  were  the  only  legal  and  proper 
basis  of  settlement,  and  those  most  interested  knew  it. 

About  three  weeks  after  the  meeting  in  London  of  the  referees  who 
thought  they  had  settled  this  vexed  and  troublesome  question,  Captain 
Scott  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hutchinson,  for  the  first  time  published  a 
few  years  since  by  Mr.  Arnold  in  his  admirable  history  of  Rhode 
Island.1  Mr.  Winthrop,  he  writes,  was  "very  averse  to  my  prosecut- 
ing your  affairs,  he  having  had  much  trouble  with  Mr.  Clarke,  whiles 
he  remained  in  England."  Perhaps  he  meant  that  Winthrop,  having 
already  brought  the  affair  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion,  was  impatient 
of  any  interference  ;  and  certainly,  if  he  was  at  all  aware  of 

Scott's  proposed  method  of  interference,  he,  as  an  honorable  SCOH-S  man- 
agement. 

man,  might  well  be  "  very  averse  "  to  any  such  companion- 
ship.    For  so  soon  as  Scott  was  assured  that  Winthrop  had  fairly  left 
England,  he  took,  he  says,  "  into  the  Societye  a  Potent  Gentleman," 
sent  in  a  petition  against  Clarke  and  his  associates  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  did  not  doubt  "  of  effecting  the  premises  in  convenient  tyme." 

1  Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island,  vol.  i.,  chap,  ix.,  appendix. 


118          THE   ROYAL   GOVERNORS   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.     {CHAP.  V. 


srtt  Coin- 


And  his  method  "  in  order  to  accomplish  the  business  "  was  this  :  "  I 
have  bought"  he  wrote,  "of  Mr.  Edwards  a  parcel  of  curiosityes  to  the 
value  of  .£60,  to  gratifye  persons  that  are  powerfull,  that  there  may 
be  a  Letter  filled  with  Authorizing  Expressions  to  the  Collonyes  of 
the  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,"  who  should  thereby  "  joyntlye 
or  severallye  have  full  power  to  doe  us  Justice  to  all  intents  as  to  our 
Naraganset  concernes."  The  u  potent  gentleman  "  made  good  use  of 
A  Mter  the  sixtv  pounds'  worth  of  curiosities  to  be  given  to  powerful 

from  the  ,    •  ,  i 

King  in  fa-     persons,  and  in  return   came  a  royal  letter  addressed  to  the 
United  Colonies  of  New  England,  commending  the  Narra- 

,  i      •      i   •      i  i  i        mi        i 

gansett  people  to  their  kindness  and  protection.1  Ihe  letter 
thus  procured,  and  signed  by  the  King  probably  in  ignorance  and  in- 
difference alike  of  the  fresh  difficulties  in  which  it  might  involve  his 

subjects  in  Rhode 
Island,  was  granted 
only  seventeen  days 
before  the  new  char- 
ter was  issued  to 
her.  That  charter 
was  dated  the  8th 
of  July  ;  the  agree- 
ment in  regard  to 
it  between  Win- 
throp  and  Clarke 
was  concluded  on 
the  7th  of  April  ; 
"I  cannot  deeme," 
wrote  Scott  to 
Hutchinson,  "those 
termes  Mr.  Win- 
throp  made  with 
Clarke  any  way  to 
answere  your  de- 
sires, were  there  a 

certaintye  in  what  Clarke  hath  granted."  Here  was  the  motive  for 
procuring  the  mandate  of  the  King  to  the  United  Colonies  —  Rhode 

1  In  the  letter  of  the  Kiiig,  as  published  in  the  Collections  of  the  Rhode  Islmd  Historical 
Society,  vol.  iii.,  the  iiame  of  this  "potent  gentleman"  is  given  as  Thomas  Chissick.  In 
the  discussion  011  the  Narra^ansett  Patent  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  (Pro- 
ceedings, June,  1862),  Colouel  Aspiuwall  says  he  was  Thomas  Chiffinch,  "  the  Court  pimp; 
the  willing  abettor  of  every  vile  Court  intrigue  ;  the  man  who  to  furnish  assurance  of  the 
royal  sanction,  contrived  the  interviews  between  Charles  II.  and  DangerHeld,  the  assassin 
from  Newgate,  hired  to  murder  the  discarded  Premier  Shaftesbury  ;  and  who  afterwards 
stealthily  admitted  the  Catholic  confessor  to  the  dying  monarch." 


Map  of  Rhode   Island,  showing  the  disputed   Boundaries. 


1703.]  DECISION   OF   THE   BOUNDARY   QUESTION.  119 

Island,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  excluded  from  that  Union  —  for 
the  protection  of  the  Narragansett  Company  ;  and  it  was  necessary  to 
bribe  some  persons  about  the  King  to  secure  his  signature  to  a  letter 
in  direct  collision  with  the  Rhode  Island  charter,  decided  upon  a  few 
days  before,  and  signed  a  few  days  afterward.  Thus  harassed  on  all 
sides  —  at  Southertown,  by  the  Narragansett  Company,  and  along  the 
boundary  lines  of  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  and  Connecticut  —  for 
years  the  colony  could  assert  no  authority,  nor  collect  a  dollar  of  rev- 
enue, without  dispute  or  resistance,  anywhere  beyond  her  little  island. 

Implicit  obedience  to  imperial  authority  was  by  no  means  a  colonial 
habit,  and  it  did  not  in  the  least  avail  Rhode  Island  that  in  the  course 
of  successive  years  that  authority  was  exercised  on  its  behalf.  Two 
of  the  royal  commissioners,  Carr  and  Maverick,  decided  in  its  favor, 
and  declared  the  Atherton  purchase  of  the  Indians  null  and  void ; 
Andros  was  equally  positive  as  to  the  justice  of  the  cause  of  Rhode 
Island,  although  he  suspended  her  charter  ;  in  1694  the  Board  D^^g  of 
of  Trade  in  London,  by  advice  of  the  Attorney  General,  sus- 
tained  all  the  claims  which  the  province  insisted  upon  under 
that  charter  which  at  the  fall  of  Andros  had  again  become  Island 
its  constitution  of  government ;  and  the  same  Board  decided  against 
the  claim  of  the  heirs  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  to  the  Narragansett 
country,  notwithstanding  it  took  precedence  of  all  others,  as  it  was 
founded  upon  a  purchase  made  of  the  old  Plymouth  Company  early 
in  the  century. 

But  all  this  availed  nothing  ;  there  were  conflicting  decisions  enough, 
meant  to  be  authoritative,  to  keep  the  question  an  open  quarrel  ;  and 
it  was  not  till  1703  that  Connecticut  consented  to  accept  the  Pawca- 
tuck  as  her  eastern  boundary,  and  not  till  nearly  half  a  century  later 
that  Massachusetts  would  agree  to  any  compromise  whatever. 

These  protracted  disputes  were  a  source  of  perpetual  anxiety  to  the 
colony,  hindering  her  growth  as  well  as  interfering  with  her  freedom 
of  action.     It  was  an  encroachment  upon  her  rights  under  the  charter 
to  give  to  Phips,  and  to  Stoughton  of  Massachusetts,  and  to  Fletcher 
of  New  York,  the  command  of  her  militia.     The  case  was  still  worse 
when  the  same  power  was  given  to  Bellomont,  who  was  Gov-  Bellomont-, 
ernor  of  two  other  colonies,  and  Captain-general  also  of  the  a^ds^hode 
forces  of  Connecticut  and  the  Jerseys.     He  was  the  repre-  Island- 
sentative  of  the  party  who  believed  it  to  be  for  the  interest  of  the 
Crown  that  all  the  northern   colonies  should  be  united  as  a  single 

o 

province,  and  his  conduct  was  not  likely  to  be  questioned  if  he  went 
beyond  the  letter  of  his  commission.  Should  he  see  fit  to  exceed  his 
legitimate  powers  by  interfering  with  civil  affairs  in  Rhode  Island, 
she  had  small  capacity  of  resistance. 


120  THE   ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.     [CHAP.  V. 

He  did  interfere,  to  her  great  alarm  and  injury,  by  upholding  the 
pretensions  of  her  opponents.  To  carry  out  his  purpose  in  the  sup- 
pression of  piracy  and  privateering,  and  the  enforcement  of  the  Navi- 
gation Laws,  he  needed  more  power  over  Rhode  Island  than  his  mili- 
tary commission  gave  him.  This  question  of  boundaries  was  a  weapon 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  use.  When  she  declined  or  neglected  to  obey 
his  military  requisitions,  whether  because  she  could  not,  or  because 
she  would  not,  he  forbade  her  to  levy  taxes  or  exercise  any  other  au- 
thority within  the  disputed  territories.  Though  received  at  Newport 
with  cordiality  and  such  hospitality  as  the  people  could  command,  his 
attitude  was  hostile,  and  his  judgment  severe.  In  a  letter  to  Eng- 
land he  declared  her  government  to  be  "  the  most  irregular  and  illegal 
in  their  administration  that  ever  any  English  government  was."  Her 
worthy  chief  magistrate,  Samuel  Cranston,  he  denounced  as  "  con- 
niving at  pirates,  and  making  Rhode  Island  their  sanctuary." 

It  was  not  that  the  little  colony  was  so  much  worse  than  her  neigh- 
bors, but  that  being  driven  to  the  sea  for  a  subsistence,  she  made  the 
most  of  it.  That  one  is  a  good  sailor  is  not,  indeed,  a  good  reason 
for  being  privateersman  or  pirate  ;  but  surely  that  favorite  argument 
so  often  urged  on  behalf  of  the  Puritan  —  that  he  was  not  the  less 
a  most  estimable  man  and  exemplary  Christian  when  hanging  Quak- 
ers, or  drowning  witches,  or  whipping  Anabaptists,  because  such  was 
the  fashion  of  his  time  —  may  palliate  those  evil-doings  of  the  Rhode 
Islanders.  Of  New  York,  Bellomont  said :  "  The  people  have  such  an 
appetite  for  piracy  and  unlawful  trade  that  they  are  ready  to  rebel  as 
often  as  the  government  puts  the  law  in  execution  against  them." 
The  Governor  may  have  thought  that  because  of  the  weakness  and 
friendlessness  of  Rhode  Island  she,  at  least,  might  be  easily  brought 
to  obedience  and  good  behavior.  His  accusations,  at  any  rate,  were 
unsparing,  and  were  met  with  difficulty  by  her  agent  in  England ;  and 
had  the  Earl  lived  long  enough  to  push  them  to  a  conclusion,  Rhode 
Island  might  have  been  compelled  to  answer  to  a  quo  warranto,  and 
have  lost  her  charter. 

After  the  death  of  Bellomont,  Stoughton  again  became  acting  Gov- 
ernor,  but  he  too  died  in  four  months  and  left  an  oppor- 
tunity  for  Dudley  which  he  was  not  slow  to  seize.  Cotton 
Mather  warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  a  man  who  in  Eng- 
again  active.  jan(j  cultivated  piety  and  Puritanism  so  sedulously  as  to 
win  the  Congregational  heart.  Dudley's  active  party  was  chiefly  in 
England ;  Massachusetts  had  not  forgotten  his  subservience  to  An- 
dros,  and  his  complicity  in  the  composition  of  the  new  charter.  His 
intrigue  was  so  skilful  and  persevering  that  the  King  was  prevailed 
upon  to  appoint  him  Governor  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire. 


1703.] 


ADMINISTRATION    OF   DUDLEY. 


121 


This  happened  just  before  William's  death.  The  appointment  was 
confirmed  by  Queen  Anne,  and  Dudley  came  to  Boston,  satisfied  at 
reaching  the  point  of  an  ambition  which  was  inspired  partly  by  patri- 
otic and  partly  by  personal  considerations. 

The  first  token  of  his  unpopularity  appeared  when,  according  to 
instructions  from  the  Court,  he  demanded  that  the  province  should 
vote  permanent  salaries  to  the  Governor,  his  deputy,  and  the   IIi9  ^^ 
Crown  judges.     Massachusetts  refused,   insisting    upon    its  Ilor8luP- 
custom  of  annual  grants,  and  the  General  Court  voted  Dudley  about 
one  half  of  the  sum  which  was  paid  to  Bellomont. 

In  May,  1695,  a  Board  of 
Trade  had  been  organized 
in  London,  for  the  regula- 
tion of  colonial  commerce. 
Its  function  lasted  until  the 
American  Revolution,  and 
being  inspired  chiefly  by  pri- 
vate interests,  it  was  a  con- 
stant source  of  vexatious  in- 
terference. The  old  laws  of 
trade  were  revived,  and  Ran- 
dolph was  sent  out  as  Sur- 
veyor-general. 

Dudley,  besides  favoring 
the  Board  of  Trade,  under- 
took to  carry  into  effect  the 
most  unpopular  article  of 
the  new  charter,  that,  name- 
ly, which  clothed  the  gov- 
ernor with  authority  to  re- 
ject the  nominations  of  the 
General  Court,  or  Assembly,  for  members  of  his  council.  He  also, 
without  a  shadow  of  authority,  endeavored  to  put  creatures  of  his 
own  into  the  Speaker's  seat.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  express 
hostility  to  all  charters.  His  son  wrote  to  England :  "  this  country 
will  never  be  worth  living  in  for  lawyers  and  gentlemen  till  the  char- 
ter is  taken  away.  My  father  and  I  sometimes  talk  of  the  Queen's 
establishing  a  court  of  chancery  here."  A  strong  party,  headed  by 
Cotton  Mather,  who  was  not  so  influential  with  Dudley  as  he  expected 
to  be,  and  including  the  leading  clergymen  of  the  province,  was 
formed,  and  made  persistent  but  unavailing  attempts  to  oust  Dudley 
from  office.  But  he  skilfully  created  a  party  of  his  own,  and  kept  it 
in  active  cohesion  by  catering  to  the  interests  of  its  members.  Au- 


Governor  Dudley. 


122 


THE    ROYAL    GOVERNORS   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.      [CHAP.  V. 


thorities  accuse  him  of  conniving  at  the  illicit  trade  of  his  party  dur- 
ing the  war  with  France,  and  he  was  suspected  of  sharing  in  its 
profits  ;  for  Dudley  was  a  lover  of  money  for  the  sake  of  the  power 
which  it  could  buy. 

The  Peace  of  Ryswick,  which  was  transmitted  to  the  colonies  in 
October,  1697,  put  an  end  for  a  time  to  French  and  Indian  hostilities. 
But  when,  in  1702,  after  the  death  of  William,  Louis  XIV. 
determined  to  espouse  the  cause  of  James's  son,  the  Preten- 
der, England  declared  war.  Indian  atrocities  of  a  frightful 
kind,  directed  and  stimulated  by  the  French,  were  wreaked  upon 
Massacre  at  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire.  De  Rouville,  with 
three  hundred  French  and  Indians,  came  down  from  Canada 
by  the  Connecticut  valley  to  surprise  Deerfield.  That  village,  con- 


Queen 

Anne's 
War. 


Williams  House,   Deerfield.   Mass 

taining  about  two  hundred  inhabitants,  suspected  an  attack  and  was 
vigilant.  But  one  morning  in  February,  1704,  the  savages,  hiding  in 
the  woods  till  the  sentries  retired  at  daylight,  surprised  the  half- 
awakened  people.  Fifty  persons  were  killed,  and  a  hundred  prisoners, 
including  women  and  children,  were  taken  and  carried  off  to  Canada. 
It  was  the  policy  of  the  Jesuits  to  get  hold  of  as  many  children  as  pos- 
sible, in  order  to  rear  them  in  the  principles  of  Romanism.  Many  of 


1704.]  WAR   WITH   THE   FRENCH    AND   INDIANS.  123 

them  thus  became  Catholics,  and  some  of  the  women,  married  to  In- 
dians, began  the  race  of  half-breeds  which,  together  with  the  unions  of 
Frenchmen  and  Indian  women,  filled  Canada  and  the  Northwest 
with  able  guides  and  trappers. 

Among  the  Deerfield  captives  were  the  minister,  Williams,  his  wife, 
and  five  young  children.  The  youngest  had  been  only  a  few  days 
born ;  and  while  the  poor  mother,  finding  that  she  was  too  weak  to 
travel  through  the  snow,  knelt  down  in  prayer,  an  Indian  tomahawked 
her.  Some  twenty  years  after,  a  woman  in  an  Indian  dress  walked 
into  Deerfield.  The  people  did  not  recognize  a  daughter  of  Wil- 
liams, who  had  married  an  Indian  in  Canada  and  refused  to  desert 
her  children.  The  minister  ordered  a  public  fasting  and  prayer  that 
her  resolution  might  be  changed ;  but  the  new  ties  were  more  relig- 
iously observed  than  the  old  ones,  and  she  returned.  Indeed,  many 
children  made  captives  in  this  manner,  who  afterwards  came  back  to 
the  settlements,  could  not  submit  to  the  restraints  of  civilized  life, 
and  declared  that  the  Indian  way  was  the  best. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  Lancaster  met  a  similar  fate.     The  war, 
with  the  French  element  of  subtle  intelligence  to  guide,  was  At  ^^ 
even  more  barbarous  than  Philip's.     The  colonists,  in  scat-  Ca8ter- 
tered  parties,  sought  to  defend  a  long  frontier  against  an  enemy  who 
knew  how  to  avoid  striking  till  the  stroke  promised  to  be  fatal. 

The  French,  claiming  the  whole  coast  of  Maine  as  far  as  the  Ken- 
nebec,  had  established,  not  long  before,  a  trading  and  missionary  post 
among  the  Norridgewock  Indians  on  the  upper  waters  of  that  river. 
The  Indians,  ever  the  warm  allies  of  the  French,  were  ready  always 
to  oppose  any  settlement  of  the  English  east  of  the  Kennebec,  while 
the  French  men-of-war  seized  every  English  fisherman  who  was  found 
in  Acadian  waters.  The  province  was  equally  stimulated  by  hostility 
to  the  French  and  dread  of  the  Indians,  and  Dudley  recognized  the 
importance  of  protecting  the  frontier  against  both.  He  went  to  Casco 
and  induced  the  representatives  of  various  Eastern  tribes,  including 
the  Norridgewocks,  to  meet  him  in  council.  French  advisers  had  care- 
fully instructed  the  chiefs  to  assume  a  spirit  of  neutrality.  The 
Governor  was  presented  with  the  customary  belt  of  wampum  and 
assured  that  an  intention  to  go  to  war  was  as  distant  from  their  minds 
as  the  sun  was  above  the  earth.  Then  two  cairns  of  stones  were  piled 
up,  both  parties  assisting,  in  token  of  amity  and  fraternity.  All  this 
time  a  plot  existed  among  them  to  seize  the  Governor  and  his  suite 
and  turn  them  over  to  the  French  ;  and  it  was  only  frustrated  by  the 
failure  of  a  French  party  to  arrive  in  time. 

In  less  than  six  weeks  after  this  scene  of  pretended  sincerity,  at- 
tacks were  made  upon  the  settlements  between  the  Kennebec  and  the 


124  THE   ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.      [CiiAi>.  V. 

Piscataqua,  and  the  whole   region  was  filled  with  terror.      Families 
took  refuge  in  garrison  houses,  and  no  work  in  the  fields 

Hostilities  ° 

in  the          could  be  done  without  armed  protection.     Detachments  of 

northeast.  .  *• 

troops  were  sent  out  to  intercept  the  savages,  but  they  were 
not  to  be  found.  Winter  expeditions,  undertaken  upon  snow-shoes, 
were  no  more  successful. 

Colonel  Church  was  sent,  in  1704,  from  Massachusetts  with  over 
five  hundred  men  to  succor  these  harassed  settlements  on  the  eastern 
frontier.  He  destroyed  some  villages,  and  met  and  killed  some  of 
the  enemy,  both  French  and  Indian,  on  the  Penobscot,  but  with  no  im- 
portant result.  In  the  winter  an  attack  was  made  by  New  Hampshire 
men  upon  Norridgewock,  and  the  wigwams  and  French  chapel  were 
burned.  These  reprisals  only  exasperated  the  savages.  They  struck 
back  with  terrible  and  cruel  blows  wherever  they  found  the  English 
off  their  guard.  That  year  and  the  next,  Haverhill,  York,  Exeter, 
Dover,  Sudbury,  Groton,  and  other  places  in  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
and  Massachusetts,  were  fallen  upon  and  some  of  them  destroyed. 
The  savage  enemy  was  so  successful  in  attacking  where  there  was  no 
chance  of  defence,  or,  where  defence  was  made,  in  eluding  pursuit, 
that  it  was  computed  each  Indian  slain  cost  the  provinces  a  thousand 
pounds.1  Scalps  were  at  a  premium.  Massachusetts  offered  fifteen 
pounds  for  the  hair  of  any  male  Indian  who  was  over  twelve  years 
of  age  ;  eight  pounds  was  offered  also  for  each  child  or  woman  cap- 
tured.2 The  French  also  attempted  to  stimulate  their  Indian  allies 
by  offering  a  scale  of  bounties  for  English  scalps  ;  but  the  savages 
generally  preferred  to  take  prisoners  and  transport  them  to  Canada, 
partly  inclined  to  this  by  the  Jesuit  priests,  who  desired  to  make  con- 
verts of  Protestants,  and  partly  by  the  pleasure  which  they  felt  in 
finding  that  a  good  many  youthful  captives  were  disposed  to  adopt 
their  mode  of  life  and  to  intermarry  with  their  own  young  women. 
Thus  the  years  of  Queen  Anne's  War,  glorious  to  England  in  the 
great  campaigns  of  Marlborough  and  Peterborough,  the  splendid  vic- 
tories of  Blenheim,  of  Barcelona,  of  Ramillies,  of  Oudeuarde,  were  to 
the  colonies  years  of  inglorious  Indian  warfare  and  savage  onslaughts 
upon  the  peaceful  homes  of  women  and  children,  —  inglorious,  but 
often  heroic  in  brave  deeds  and  braver  endurance  of  torture  and  be- 
reavement. 

Through  all,  the  colonial  authorities  held  steadily  to  the  purpose  of 
the  conquest  of  Canada  and  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  their 

1  Pcnhallow's  Indian  JFars. 

2  This  scale  of  bounties  for  scalps  advanced  so  rapidly  that  when  Lovewell's  volunteers 
took  the  war-path  in  1724,  a  man's  scalp  was  worth  one  hundred  pounds,  and  one  of  a 
child  or  woin:m  brought  fifty  pounds  to  persons  in  the  public  service,  and  the  double  of 
each  sum  to  volunteers. 


1710.] 


CAPTURE  OF  PORT  ROYAL. 


125 


northern  borders.  In  1707,  Dudley  sent  a  force  of  a  thousand  men, 
under  Colonel  March,  raised  in  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  and 
Rhode  Island,  to  reduce  Port  Royal.  In  two  campaigns, 

.,,,..  7  Expeditions 

extending  through  the  winter  into  the  following  spring,  ag»iu»t  Port 
the  thousand  men  were  reduced  to  less  than  two  hundred, 
chiefly  by  hardship  and  disease,  and  the  fort  was  not  taken.  Nichol- 
son's first  campaign  from  New  York,  though  not  so  disastrous,  was 
quite  as  unsuccessful ;  but  neither  these  nor  other  misfortunes,  the 
uncertainty  of  the  friendship  of  the  Five  Nations,  the  certainty  of 
the  hostility  of  all  the  Eastern  savages,  abated  the  courage  or  deter- 
mination of  the  colonies. 

In  1710,  however,  the  place  was  taken  by  the  aid  which  Schuyler 
and  Nicholson  had  induced  the  ministry  to  give  to  the  war  in  Amer- 
ica. In  September,  a  fleet  of  six  ships  of  war  and  about  thirty 


FORT  ROYAL 

,._  oLuiftlAiccjuLte 

ApptUc  *yi*r«  fl*riu  AmjJmu 

ANNAPOLIS  ROYAL* 


"""„!      J~  '  EchelUa. 

—          ~     .    .  ^_  f          JJeiyrmtlU  jruAfnt  efmtfjii 
*^  '        **"_•-    . —  j**    A*          *jy#  /*/#          j 

,__    ~-  - — -  V^     •-- f^ 2itrueM*ri*&  «i*fr*ii£e  t!  *.A*.j 

*     ~      ~  ~~  y*  >,  ^ 


Plan  of  Port  Royal,    Nova  Scotia 

transports,  carrying  five  regiments  of  troops,  sailed  from  Boston  har- 
bor. Five  of  the  war  vessels  belonged  to  the  English  navy,  the 
sixth,  a  galley,  to  Massachusetts.  Two  of  the  five  regiments  were 
New  England  men  ;  the  fifth  was  a  regiment  of  English  marines. 
General  Nicholson  of  New  York  was  the  commander-in-chief.  Sir 
Charles  Hobby  and  Colonel  Taller  of  Massachusetts,  Colonel  Whiting 
of  Connecticut,  and  Colonel  Walton  of  New  Hampshire,  led  the  troops 
of  their  respective  colonies. 

Port  Royal  —  named  afterward  Annapolis  Royal  in  honor  of  the 


126  THE  ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.     [CHAP.  V. 

Queen  —  was  still  under  the  command  of  Subercase,  who  had  so  suc- 
cessfully repulsed  March  and  Wainright,  two  or  three  years  before. 
With  less  than  three  hundred  men,  he  could  make  little  defence  against 
the  formidable  force  which  now  approached.  The  people  outside  the 
fort  opposed  the  landing  of  the  English  troops,  and  killed  a  few  of 
it«  sur-  them ;  but  Subercase  yielded  when  summoned  to  surrender, 
render.  Qne  transport  was  wrecked  on  entering  the  harbor,  and  twen- 
ty-six men  were  lost ;  fourteen  or  fifteen  were  killed  in  the  advance  to 
the  fort ;  but  at  this  cost  of  only  forty  lives  Nova  Scotia  became  an 
English  province,  for  the  capture  of  Port  Royal  was  virtually  the 
conquest  of  all  that  portion  of  New  France.  The  proposed  invasion 
of  Canada  by  land  and  sea  at  the  same  time,  under  Hill  and  Nichol- 
son, which  failed  so  signally  the  next  year,  prevented  —  as  we  have 
shown  in  a  previous  chapter  —  the  sending  of  any  aid  to  Castin,  and 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht  gave  to  England  the  province  which  the  New 
England  troops  had  conquered. 

With  the  accession  of  George  I.,  August  1,  1714,  to  the  throne,  the 
doctrine  of  passive  obedience  which  the  Tories  maintained  against 
the  Whigs  was  understood  to  have  been  defeated.  At  the  same  time 
the  friends  of  Governor  Dudley,  who  were  principally  Tories,  lost 
their  influence,  and  it  was  easy  for  his  enemies  to  procure  his  re- 
moval. For  twelve  years  he  had,  for  the  most  part,  misgoverned  Mas- 
sachusetts, planting  in  the  soil  seeds  of  enmities  which  grew  to  have 
a  protracted  life.  Cotton  Mather,  who  expected  to  make  of  him  a 
supple  instrument,  was  foiled  by  his  own  weapons  in  the  hands  of 
an  adroiter  man  ;  he  became,  therefore,  an  implacable  foe,  and  carried 
great  numbers  of  the  clergy  with  him.  They  sympathized  with  the 
accession  of  Whiggery  to  power,  because  it  was  understood,  though 
mistakenly,  to  be  more  favorable  to  provincial  principles.  Their 
Dudley  re-  f  1'iends  at  court  were  strong  enough  to  procure  the  removal 
moved.  o£  DucUey^  when  the  Massachusetts  Assembly  declared,  soon 
after  the  death  of  the  Queen,  that  the  office  of  governor  was  vacant. 

In  New  Hampshire  Dudley  was  less  unpopular  than  in  Massachu- 
setts, for  he  espoused  the  cause  of  the  actual  settlers  upon  the  land 
against  the  Mason  claim.  This  was  still  the  paramount  question  to 
the  people  of  that  province,  and  anxious  to  win  over  to  their  side  the 
influence  of  the  Crown,  they  voted  the  permanent  salaries  which  Dud- 
ley was  instructed  to  exact,  but  which  Massachusetts  refused  to  grant. 
When,  therefore,  the  Crown  allowed  Allen,  the  representative  of  the 
Mason  claim,  to  take  possession  of  all  common  and  unin- 
shkeAf-m  closed  land,  and  he  summoned  Dudley  to  appear  at  the  trial 
on  writs  of  ejectment  to  sustain  the  royal  instructions,  the 
Governor  managed  on  various  pretexts  to  delay  his  journey  and  not  to 


1721.]  CONDITION   OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  127 

reach  Portsmouth  at  all.  So  it  was  easy  for  him  on  several  occasions 
to  persuade  that  province  to  send  addresses  on  his  behalf  to  the  Queen. 
One  of  these  was  sent  to  George  I.,  in  1715,  earnestly  praying  for 
Dudley's  continuance  in  office. 

f 

Massachusetts  then  contained  about  94,000  inhabitants,  and  of  these 
2,000  were  Negro  slaves,  and  1,200  civilized  Indians.  The  popula- 
tion of  Boston  was  probably  about  10,000.  As  early  as  1690,  Indians 
were  employed  as  field-hands  at  one  shilling  a  day  and  their 

,  i          mi         XT  u-   a       r.  i       •        .LI        Population 

board.       ihe    .Negroes   were   cnieny  house-servants   in   the  andcondi- 
larger  towns.     The  price  of  a  slave  in  provincial  currency   sactmsetts 
was  equivalent  to  about  $80  of  our  money.     If  the  slaves 
ran  away,  which  occurred  but  seldom,  for  their  servitude  was  not  se- 
vere, Indians  were  employed  for  their  recapture.     The  labor  of  white 
workmen  was  worth  two  shillings  a  day.1 

The  province  owned  at  that  period  190  vessels  of  various  kinds  and 
of  8,000  tons  in  all,  sailed  by  1,100  men.  There  were  employed 
in  the  fisheries  150  smacks,  with  crews  in  all  of  600  men.  A  few 
manufactories  of  hats  and  cloths  existed,  which  were  a  perpetual 
source  of  jealousy  to  England,  whose  exports  in  English  products  to 
all  American  ports  were  valued  at  £1,000,000  sterling.  Exports 
from  all  American  plantations  were  valued  at  £800,000.  During  a 
period  of  great  commercial  activity,  from  1714  to  1717,  Boston  cleared 
for  the  West  Indies  alone  518  vessels,  and  for  all  the  ports  of  her  trade 
1,247  vessels ;  and  232  vessels  were  cleared  at  Salem.2  The  colonial 
policy  of  self-protection  was  in  continual  struggle  with  the  English 
policy  of  restriction  which  affected  everything,  iron-work,  hats,  wool- 
ens, and  linen. 

The  scourge  of  this  colony  was  small-pox.     Four  times  it  had  been 
epidemic  in  Boston  at  different   periods,  and   it   appeared 
again  in  the  spring  of  1721.     Nearly  six  thousand  persons,  and  inocu- 
more  than  one  half  the  population,  were  attacked,  of  whom 
nearly  nine  hundred  died.     Inoculation  was  introduced  at  this  time  in 
America  by  Dr.  Zabdiel  Boylston,  and  its  efficacy  was  proved  in  the 
next  serious  visitation  from  this  pestilence,  thirty  years  later,  when 
out  of  the  5,544  who  took  the  disease  the  natural  way,  514  died,  while 

1  In  England  at  that  time  the  rates  of  wages  were  as  follows:  cook-maids  and  dairy- 
maids £2  10  a  year;  mowers  of  corn  and  grass  1  s.  2  d,  a  day  without  meat  and  drink,  and 
only  6  d.  with  food ;   male  haymakers  10  d.  a  day  without  food,  5  d.  with ;  female  hay- 
makers  6  d. ;     rough  masons,  carpenters,  ploughmen,  bricklayers,  plasterers,   and  tilers 
I  s.  6  d.  from  Lady  Day  to  Michaelmas,  and  1  s.  from  Michaelmas  to  Lady  Day.     If  they 
were  fed  they  had  only  8  d.  a  day  all  the  year  round.    Gardeners  and  thatchers  were  paid 
at  the  same  rate.     Tailors  earned  6  d.  a  day  with  food,  10  d.  without;  spinners  earned  only 
4  d.  daily  without  food.     This  schedule  of  wages  lasted  into  the  reign  of  George  L 

2  Barry's  History  of  Massachusetts,  Part  ii.,  p.  107. 


128  THE   ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.     [CHAP.  V. 

of  the  2,113  who  were  inoculated  only  31  died.  The  remedy  was 
first  used  in  England  by  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu,  who  had  ob- 
served its  effect  at  Adrianople,  and  had  the  courage  to  try  it  upon  a 
child  of  her  own.  The  medical  faculty  were  bitterly  opposed  to  it. 
The  clergy  preached  against  it  from  their  pulpits  and  advised  the  peo- 
ple to  hoot  at  her  as  an  unnatural  mother  who  had  put  the  life  of  her 
child  in  peril.  The  four  physicians  who  were  appointed  by  the  gov- 
ernment to  watch  the  experiment  upon  her  daughter  were  so  rancor- 
ously  hostile,  so  maliciously  incredulous,  that  she  never  left  them 
alone  with  the  child.  As  in  old  England,  so  in  New ;  the  hatred  of 
innovation  was  stronger  than  the  fear  of  the  most  loathsome  of  dis- 
eases and  the  strong  probability  of  death. 

Cotton  Mather  —  who  was  somewhat  of  a  lay  practitioner  of  med- 
icine —  was  warmly  interested  in  this  bold  attempt  to  mitigate  human 
suffering,  and  became,  in  consequence,  so  obnoxious  that  his  house 
was  assaulted  and  an  attempt  made  upon  his  life.  Increase  Mather, 
his  father,  then  a  very  old  man,  published  a  tract  in  favor  of  the 
remedy,  in  which  he  quoted  the  Negro  slaves  as  averring  that  it  had 
always  been  practised  with  success  in  Africa,  whence,  perhaps,  the 
Turks  had  obtained  their  knowledge  of  it.  About  two  hundred 
and  fifty  persons  were  safely  inoculated  by  Dr.  Boylston,  —  seven 
only  dying  —  who  began  with  his  own  children  and  servants.  The 
brave  man  stood  almost  alone  in  his  own  profession  ;  but  among  the 
clergy,  though  the  opposition  was  general  and  bitter,  the  Mathers 
were  supported  by  some  of  the  more  eminent  of  the  brethren,  —  as 
the  Rev.  Drs.  Colman  of  Boston,  Walter  of  Roxbury,  a  son-in-law  of 
Increase  Mather,  and  Wise  of  Ipswich.1 

Dudley's  successor  was  nominally  one  Colonel  Burgess,  chiefly 
known  and  esteemed  as  a  soldier.  He  valued  his  appointment,  how- 
ever, so  little  that  he  was  easily  persuaded  to  surrender  his  commis- 
sion for  £1,000,  raised  by  subscription  among  friends  of  the  provinces 
who  doubted  his  fitness  for  the  office  of  governor.  It  was  given  then 
to  Samuel  Shute,  also  a  soldier  ;  but  till  his  arrival  the  duties  of  the 
office  were  discharged  by  Colonel  Tailer,  who  had  been  made  Lieuten- 
ant-governor in  reward  for  his  services  in  the  capture  of  Port  Royal. 

Governor    Shute    was    fated    to   discover   that    party   spirit   could 

rage   as  violently  as  an  epidemic.     Before   he   became -in- 

«hip  of  Sam-  volved  in  a  controversy  which  arose  from  the  depreciation  of 

the  currency,  he  got  into  trouble  from  a  zeal  like  that  of 

Dudley's  to  promote  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown.     In  fact,  much  to 

the  surprise  and  disappointment  of  the  province,  he  was  disposed  to 

favor  Dudley's  old  party.     This    first  dispute    turned    upon  the  en- 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  passim. 


1722.]  THE   EXPORT  OF  TIMBER.  129 

forcement  of  the  acts  of  Parliament  on  the  right  to  the  forests,  and 
the  exportation  of  naval  stores  from  the  colonies. 

When  the  Earl  of  Bellotnont  came  out  as  Governor,  nearly  twenty 
years  before,  his  instructions  upon  this  subject  were  very  positive.  It 
was  believed  that  the  colonies  could  be  made  to  contribute  largely  to 
the  support  of  the  royal  navy  and  relieve  England  from  its  depend- 
ence upon  Norway  for  ship  timber  and  other  stores.  But  the  supply 
was  to  be  enforced  by  arbitrary  and  inconsiderate  acts  of  Parliament, 
not  as  the  result  of  a  legitimate  commerce.  The  Earl  had  faithfully 
devoted  himself  to  the  fulfillment  of  his  instructions.  He  died  before 
his  plans  were  so  matured  as  to  influence  his  own  popularity  ;  but 
they  were  so  definitely  fixed,  and  were  so  confirmed  by  subsequent 
laws  that  his  successors  had  only  to  enforce  an  established  policy. 

The  vast  primeval  forests  along  the  Atlantic  coast  had  become  to 
the  colonists  a  source  of  commerce  with  Spain  and  Portu- 
gal.  This  profitable  trade  was  interdicted,  that  England 
might  pick  and  choose  the  choicest  timber  for  the  wooden  ber- 
walls  of  the  royal  navy  —  "  to  be  the  mast  of  some  great  ammiral  " 
— and  in  so  doing  little  regard  was  paid  to  the  rights  of  private  own- 
ers. The  assertion  of  a  royal  privilege  first  bred  discontent,  then 
violent  resistance.  It  was  not  easy  to  prevent  the  shipping  of  tim- 
ber to  foreign  countries  —  a  trade  which  the  hardy  lumberers  of 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire  maintained  as  a  right  wrested  from  na- 
ture herself  by  toil  and  privation.  Quite  as  difficult  was  it  to  prevent 
the  farmers  from  felling  trees  on  lands  to  which  they  had  a  legal  title 
by  grant  or  purchase  —  their  own  trees  which  the  King's  surveyors 
marked  with  a  broad  arrow  that  they  might  be  reserved  for  the 
King's  use.  The  curious  explorer  in  those  eastern  forests  may  even 
now  find  occasionally  upon  pine  trees  which  the  centuries  have  spared, 
these  arrow-marks  cut  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  —  the  King, 
his  mark,  upon  a  domain  to  which  the  Revolution  secured  a  quit- 
claim deed. 

John  Bridger  was,  as  he  had  long  been,  Surveyor-general  when 
Shute  assumed  his  office.  Wherever  the  surveyor  and  his  men  saw 
fit,  they  carved  the  emblem  of  royal  ownership.  The  settlers  resisted 
this  assertion  of  a  right  over  lauds  held  by  titles  which  should  be 
good  even  against  the  King,  and  for  which  they  had  risked  their 
scalps,  and  endured  the  extremity  of  hardship,  that  this  savage  wil- 
derness might  be  turned  to  the  uses  of  civilization.  The  loss  of  their 
tallest  and  most  shapely  trees  moved  them  to  righteous  anger ;  hardly 
less  did  they  resent  the  act  of  Parliament  which  denied  a  trial  by 
jury  on  any  question  of  ownership  that  it  was  thought  worth  while  to 
listen  to,  but  left  it  to  the  decision  of  a  judge  of  admiralty  appointed 


VOT,.   III. 


130          THE  ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.     [CHAP.  V. 

by  the  Crown.  The  products  of  the  soil  they  owned  were  theirs,  they 
maintained,  to  do  with  as  they  would,  to  use  or  to  sell  —  to  sell  even 
to  the  King,  if  he  wanted  their  tar  and  timber.  Still  the  surveyors 
went  on  carving  the  broad  arrow-heads  with  indifference  or  con- 
tempt. Every  stroke  of  the  axe  in  the  clearings  was  a  blow  in  the 
long  conflict  between  provinces  and  Crown. 

Remonstrance  and  indignant  complaint  against  Bridger  found  their 
way  to  Portsmouth  and  Boston,  and  the  Governor  sided  with  the  sur- 
veyor. Elisha  Cooke,  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Council,  showed 
the  justice  of  the  settlers'  claims,  and  the  irascible  old  soldier  deprived 
him  of  his  office.  Thereupon  the  General  Court  sent  a  remonstrance 
to  the  Governor  which  he  forbade  them  to  print.  They  printed  it 
nevertheless,  establishing  thereby  a  parliamentary  privilege,  never 
again  questioned,  of  printing  what  they  pleased. 

The  General  Court  offended  the  Governor  still  further  by  electing 
Cooke  as  Speaker.  Shute  stood  upon  his  prerogative,  refused  to  con- 
firm their  choice,  and  dissolved  the  Court.  When  compelled  to  call  a 
second,  that  body  declined  to  grant  certain  appropriations  he  asked 
for.  He  indignantly  prorogued  them  also.  A  third  voted  him  an 
insignificant  sum,  but,  at  the  same  time,  they  patiently  and  firmly 
thwarted  his  obnoxious  measures.  The  old  quarrel  was  fastened 
upon  him  when  he  attempted,  like  Dudley,  to  have  a  fixed  salary  at- 
tached to  his  office.  To  manifest  its  rooted  policy  upon  this  point, 
the  Assembly  quietly  reduced  year  by  year  the  annual  grant  which  it 
allowed  him,  and  voted  a  sum  so  small  to  Lieutenant-governor  Wil- 
liam Dummer  that  he  disdained  to  accept  it. 

All  this  time  another  cause  of  bitter  variance  flowed  out  of  the 
deplorable  financial  condition  of  the  province,  which  was  suffering  all 
the  evils  of  gambling  speculation  that  belong  to  periods  of  paper 
Paper  money  and  depreciated  currency.  The  infection  of  specula- 

money.  j.jon  kad  something  of  the  virulence  of  John  Law's  Missis- 
sippi scheme  and  the  subsequent  English  South  Sea  Bubble,  though 
these  manias  did  not  directly  implicate  the  provinces.  Queen  Anne's 
War  was  responsible  for  a  resort  to  a  financial  policy  which  so  readily 
buys  immediate  supplies,  and  so  fatally  contracts  a  public  debt  for 
another  generation  to  repudiate  or  pay  at  heavy  cost.  The  provinces 
were  drained  of  gold  and  silver ;  and  as  a  desperate  remedy  recourse 
was  had  to  a  fresh  supply  of  paper  money.  It  was  called  currency, 
but  nothing  could  make  it  current.  Land  and  merchandise  increased 
nominally  in  value,  but  actually  depreciated. 

The  province  was  divided  into  three  heated  parties,  —  one  that  pro- 
posed a  speedy  return  to  gold  and  silver ;  another,  much  larger,  that 
sought  to  defeat  resumption  by  the  establishment  of  a  private  bank 


1722.] 


FINANCIAL  POLICY. 


131 


for  the  issuing  of  unlimited  paper ;  and  a  third  that  perceived  the 
necessity  for  a  public  bank  that  should  steadily  labor  to  pay  the 
public  debt,  and  issue  paper  but  restrain  the  abuse  of  it.  There  was 
great  agitation  in  every  town  and  village.  The  acrimony  of  theologi- 
cal difference  was  never  more  bitter  than  this  discussion  over  a  ques- 
tion of  finance  which  was  little  understood.  It  divided  Financial 
parishes  and  families  like  a  civil  war.  At  length  the  project  Pr°Jects- 
of  a  public  bank  was  successful.  It  was  a  great  misfortune,  the  re- 
sult of  unreasonable  neglect  and  parsimony  on  the  part  of  England, 
that  the  provinces,  which  had  lavished  their  life  and  treasure  upon 
various  wars,  were  left,  thus  impoverished,  to  pay  the  bills.  Under 
this  ingratitude  of  the  mother  country,  for  whose  continental  policy 
the  provinces  bled  as  well  as  for  their  own  welfare,  they  may  be 
pardoned  for  finding  no  resource  save  in  the  frequent  issue  of  bills 
of  credit. 

The  Council  generally,  from  1710  downward,  favored  a  public  bank ; 
but  the  Assembly  was  pretty  evenly  divided.  Boston,  being  a  lively 
centre  for  speculative  operations, 
was  eager  for  a  private  bank. 
When  the  project  for  a  public  bank 
finally  prevailed  in  1721,  a  loan  of 
£50,000  in  bills  of  credit  was 
placed  with  a  board  of  trustees  for 
five  years  at  five  per  cent.,  and  one 
fifth  of  the  principal  was  to  be  paid 
in  yearly.  Colonel  Burgess,  who 
sold  out  his  appointment  as  Gover- 
nor, was  among  those  who  asked 
for  the  establishment  of  a  private 
bank  ;  its  supporters  were  highly 
incensed  when  they  discovered  that 
Governor  Shute  favored  the  public 
bank.  But  no  financial  plan  could 
resist  the  demoralizing  effect  of 
frequent  issues  of  bills  of  credit. 
When  the  five  years  had  expired 
in  which  the  principal  was  to  have 
been  paid,  the  issue  of  these  bills  had  increased  to  .£100,000.  In  that 
year,  1727,  £60,000  more  were  voted  by  the  Assembly,  and  when 
Dummer,  who  was  acting  Governor  till  Burnet  arrived,  vetoed  the 
measure,  the  Assembly  simply  refused  his  grant  of  money  until  he 
signed  the  bill. 

In  1722  bits  of  paper  representing  five  pounds  were  struck  off  for 


Three-Shilling  Massachusetts  Bill  of  1741. 


132  THE   ROYAL   GOVERNORS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.      [CHAP.  V. 

small  change.  The  penny  was  round,  the  two-pence  square,  and  the 
three-pence  angular.  In  1728,  £340  in  this  fractional  currency  was 
issued  ;  in  1730,  £380,  the  specie  value  of  which  was  only  £100.  In 
1733,  by  a  vote  of  the  General  Court,  bills  to  the  amount  of  £75,500 

were  issued  to  pay  the  public  debts ;  and 
in  1737,  £20,000  of  the  new  tenor  "to 
exchange  for  old  bills  at  the  rate  of  one 
new  for  three  old." 

Governor  Belcher,  who  was  opposed 
to  all  the  schemes  which  steadily  depre- 
ciated the  currency,  stated,  in  1740, 
that  the  issue  of  bills  up  to  that  time 
amounted  to  £260,000,  of  which  £70,- 
000  were  yet  unredeemed.1  In  the  pre- 
vious year  a  number  of  private  individ- 

Two-peoce,   1722.  •'  * 

uals  undertook  to  establish  a  land  bank 

with  a  capital  of  £150,000.  Notwithstanding  the  popularity  of  this 
step,  it  failed  to  procure  the  sanction  of  Parliament,  and  the  company 
dissolved.  The  different  parliaments  of  the  eighteenth  century  which 
eagerly  voted  enormous  sums  to  sustain  England's  continental  wars, 
The  colonies  could  seldom  be  influenced  to  reimburse  the  colonies  for  their 
ex-  heavy  expenses  incurred  in  expeditions  against  France  and 
t|)e  Yyest  jn(jies.  When  in  1741  England  was  organizing 
an  expedition  against  the  island  of  Cuba,  the  American  provinces  were 
called  upon  to  furnish  3,600  men,  with  the  bounties,  provisions,  and 
transports.  The  quota  of  Massachusetts  was  five  hundred  men;  their 
outfit  and  transportation  cost  £7,000,  not  a  shilling  of  which  was 
ever  reimbursed.  Five  years  after  the  fall  of  Louisburg  in  1745,  the 
expenditure  of  the  colonies  in  that  expedition  was  remitted  to  Boston 
by  the  home  government  in  specie,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  a 
return  to  specie  payments.  But  in  1748  the  existing  currency  could 
only  purchase  one  eighth  the  value  which  the  same  nominal  sum 
would  buy  in  1700,  and  exchange  on  London  stood  at  £1,100  cur- 
rency for  £100  sterling.  A  measure  toward  resumption  which  stead- 
ily grew  popular  in  spite  of  all  interested  opposition,  was  in  two  years 
confirmed  by  an  act  of  Parliament  commanding  the  colonies  to  call  in 
all  their  bills  of  credit  and  to  issue  no  more  that  were  not  to  be  dis- 
charged within  a  year.  And  no  further  issue  of  paper  money  was  to 
be  made  save  in  extraordinary  emergencies. 

Specie  was  at  one  time  so  scarce  in  New  Hampshire  that  paper 
currency  was  issued  for  half  a  crown,  and  an  ordinance  was  passed 
to  allow  the  payment  of  taxes  in  tar  that  was  rated  at  twenty  shil- 

1  Felt's  History  of  Ipswich,  p.  105. 


1722.] 


PAPER   CURRENCY. 


133 


lings  to  the  barrel.1  The  soldiers  who  were  engaged  in  the  various 
campaigns  against  the  French  and  Canada  after  1755  were  paid  in 
paper  bills  that  were  issued  on  the 
plea  of  emergency.  A  bill  bear- 
ing the  face  of  fifteen  shillings 
was  worth  a  dollar.  Of  this 
money  the  soldiers  received  ,£13 
10s.  a  month,  and  as  the  paper 
steadily  depreciated  their  pay 
stood  in  the  course  of  the  same 
year  at  £15,  in  1756  at  £18,  in 
1757  at  £25.  But  sterling  money 
soon  recovered  its  status  as  the 
standard,  and  the  paper  value 
followed  the  price  of  silver  in  all 
contracts  and  exchange.  This  di- 
gression will  serve  to  group  the 
financial  interests  of  the  province 
for  a  considerable  period.  In 
other  colonies  similar  measures  of 
a  resort  to  the  issue  of  paper 
money  to  meet  public  exigencies 
had  like  results. 

The  Indian  difficulties  during  the  administration  of  Governor  Shute 
became  another  source  of  serious  embarrassment.     With  the 

•  /~i  TT        i          M      i          /-i  (-/-til         Indian  diffl- 

connivance  of  Count  Vaudreuil,  then  Governor  of  Canada,  the  cuities  dur- 

.  i         i      ir    i  •  11        «>i  ing  Shute's 

t  rench  secretly  stirred  up  the  half-slumbering  ill-will  of  the  Governor- 
Indians,  in  spite  of  the  treaty,  on  the  pretext  that  France  pos- 
sessed the  coast  of  Maine  as  far  as  the  Kennebec.     It  was  not  diffi- 
cult to  inflame  the  temper  of  the  savages  when  they  observed  the  in- 
evitable encroachments  of 
the  English  upon  domains 
which  had  been  purchased 

from  them.     They  did  not  Autograph  of 

at  first  foresee  the  practical  effect  upon  themselves,  —  upon  their  hunt- 

1  The  Provincial  Papers  of  New  Hampshire  con  fain  frequent  records  of  legislation  against 
the  counterfeiting  which  can  be  so  easily  practised  in  an  era  of  paper  currency.  One  day 
in  January,  1756,  £95  of  counterfeit  hills  were  brought  into  the  Assembly,  and  there 
ordered  to  be  burnt  in  the  presence  of  the  members.  This  was  done  with  sufficient  solem- 
nity. At  one  time  the  counterfeiters  got  possession  of  unfilled  blanks  of  currency,  left  over 
from  the  printing,  and  proceeded  to  imitate  them  at  their  leisure.  Then  each  officer  of  the 
government  and  each  member  of  the  Assembly  was  furnished  with  such  blanks,  that  they 
might  be  compared  with  the  bills  in  circulation.  In  1730  the  punishment  for  counterfeit- 
ing in  Pennsylvania  was  death  ;  but  that  proved  to  have  little  deterring  power,  and  a  con- 
viction was  seldom  obtained. 


New  Hampshire  Bill  of  Forty  Shillings,   1742. 


134 


THE    ROYAL   GOVERNORS   IN  NEW  ENGLAND.     [CHAP.  V. 


ing,  fishing,  and  planting,  —  of  the  more  elaborate  and  persistent  meth- 
ods of  the  white  man,  who  was  not  very  scrupulous  in  observing  the 
bounds  of  the  tracts  which  had  been  ceded  to  him  for  an  insignificant 
remuneration.  Naturally  all  this  civilizing  movement  began  to  be 
clear  to  them,  and  the  French  made  it  clearer.  Claims  and  counter 
claims,  disputes,  ill-blood,  quarrels,  were  inevitable.  The  Governor 
had  an  excellent  plan  of  building  trading-houses  in  the  eastern  ter- 
ritory to  supplant  the  French  by  direct  traffic  with  the  Indians  for 

their  furs.  These  trading- 
posts  were  to  have  been  under 
the  direct  control  of  the  pro- 
vincial government.  The  con- 
stant turmoil  of  provincial 
politics  prevented  their  estab- 
lishment ;  so  that  the  private 
traders  as  usual,  then  and  at 
present,  fleeced  the  Indians 
and  made  their  business  ope- 
rations easier  by  the  demoral- 
izing effect  of  liquor.  The 
Governor  anticipated  that 
trouble  would  result  from  the 
complication,  and  endeavored 
to  arrive  at  some  friendly 
understanding  with  the  chiefs. 
He  made,  however,  the  mis- 
take of  pressing  upon  them  a 
Puritan  minister  to  reside 
among  them,  hoping  thus  to 
observe  and  counteract  the  Jesuit  intrigues.  The  Indians  favored  the 
religion  of  France  as  well  as  its  politics,  and  no  minister  was  allowed 
to  settle  where  a  Jesuit  ruled. 

When  the  war  impended,  the  General  Court  gave  additional  um- 
brage to  Shute  by  encroaching  upon  his  power  as  comman- 
dei'-hi-chief  of  the  provincial  forces.  The  officers  who  were 
attached  to  the  first  expedition  were  instructed  to  commu- 
nicate, not  with  the  Governor,  but  with  the  General  Court 
as  the  representative  of  the  people  who  were  taxed  to  support  the 
war.  This  was  clearly  an  illegal  measure,  which  provoked  bitter 
wrangling,  and  the  Governor  found  himself  involved  in  a  fresh  dis- 
pute. 

The  provincial   temper  exhibited   such  an  increase  of   animosity 
toward  the  royal  government  that  Shute  sailed  for  England  in  disgust 


Six-pence,   1744. 


tween  the 

GoTenior 


1727.]          GOVERNOR   SHUTE  AND  THE  GENERAL  COURT.          135 

He  spent  the  time  there  in  explanation  of  his  course  and  in  urging  a 
decisive  policy  against  the  province.  As  the  result  of  his  activity,  a  re- 
monstrance was  sent  to  the  General  Court  in  1723  ;  it  enumerated  the 
complaints  brought  by  the  Governor  of  interference  with  his  preroga- 
tive, and  demanded  explanations.  At  first  the  General  Court  treated 
the  charge  with  an  aggravating  nonchalance,  contenting  itself  with 
a  vote  that  an  agent  should  be  appointed  to  manage  the  vindication 
of  its  conduct.  When  the  Provincial  Council  stoutly  non-concurred 
with  this,  the  General  Court  undertook  the  more  prudent  course  of 
returning  specific  answers  to  the  complaints.  The  provincial  agents 
found  the  Court  obstinately  bent  upon  enforcing  the  provisions  of  the 
royal  charter,  especially  on  the  points  of  cutting  timber,  the  Gov- 
ernor's power  to  negative  the  selection  of  Speaker,  and  interference 
with  military  operations. 

The  judgment  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  the  law-officers  of  the 
Crown  was  clearly  against  the  province.     A  supplementary  The  TesuH 
charter  intended  to  enforce  the  most   important   points  at  ment^ple~ 
issue  was  sent  to  Boston  in  August,  1725,  and  laid  before  charter- 
the  Genei-al  Court.     After  some  preliminary  discussion  and  voting, 
during  which  a  great  deal  of  popular  opposition  was  developed,  this 
explanatory  charter  was  finally  accepted  by  a  majority  upon  a  joint 
vote  of  the  House  and  Council. 

Governor  Shute  was  now  confirmed  in  his  power  to  negative  the  se- 
lection of  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  he  proceeded  to  work  for  another 
concession,  —  that  of  a  permanent  salary  for  the  Govei-nor  and  Lieu- 
tenant-governor. Put  off  and  disappointed,  he  was  on  the  point  of 
returning  in  1727,  greatly  to  the  discontent  of  the  province,  whose 
affairs  had  been  judiciously  administered  by  the  Lieutenant-governor, 
William  Dummer.  Just  at  that  crisis  George  I.  died  ;  new  intrigues 
sprang  up  under  a  new  reign  ;  new  men  came  into  prominence  ;  new 
favorites  clamored  for  office  and  had  to  be  provided  for.  In  conse- 
quence of  this,  Shute  was  pensioned,  and  the  government  of  Mas- 
sachusetts and  New  Hampshire  was  conferred  upon  William  Bur- 
net. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  the  disposition  of  the  clergy  of  Massachu- 
setts had  been  slowly  softening  in  matters  of  theology.  Theological 
Even  the  intolerant  Cotton  Mather  preached  a  tolerant  dis- 
course  on  the  occasion  of  the  establishment  of  a  Baptist 
Church  in  Boston  during  Shute's  administration.  It  was  within  the 
memory  of  living  men  that  the  whipping-post  or  the  stocks  was  thought 
to  be  the  proper  place  for  those  who  doubted  the  efficacy  of  infant 
baptism  ;  in  a  controversy  of  half  a  century  before  upon  the  rightful- 
ness  of  admitting  to  baptism  the  children  of  those  who  were  not  mem- 


setts- 


136 


THE    ROYAL   GOVERNORS   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.      [CHAP.  V. 


bers  of  the  Church,  the  father  and  the  grandfather  of  Cotton  Mather 
had  taken  different  sides.  The  times  had  greatly  changed.  They 
had  changed  still  more  since  Roger  Williams  said  that  Cotton  was 
the  high  priest  of  Boston,  when  the  priest  was  the  head  of  the  State 
as  well  as  of  the  Church.  In  country  towns  the  clergyman  was  still 

indeed  chief  among 
men  ;  looked  up  to 
as  fittest  of  all  to 
guide  in  worldly  as 
in  spiritual  affairs  ; 
as  absolute  in  the 
town-meeting  as  in 
the  pulpit  ;  always 
revered  and  often 
beloved  by  those  of 
mature  age,  and  al- 
ways feared  by  the 
young,  who  would 
fly  from  before  his 
face  and  hide  from 
that  austere  and 
reverend  presence. 
But  in  larger  places 
the  influence  of  the 
growth  of  political 
freedom  asserted 
itself  more  r  a  p- 

•  idly  ;  the  clergy  had  come  to  be  less  and 
less  a  power  in  the  state  ;  liberty  of  thought 
had  grown  to  be  less  and  less  a  civil  of- 
fence  ;  religious  differences  were  more  tol- 
erated, and  free  discussion  of  all  subjects  was  beginning  to  be  possi- 
ble. Journalism,  with  something  of  the  meaning  which  later  times 
attach  to  that  term,  made  its  appearance. 

The  first  newspaper  was  printed  in  Boston,  in  the  autumn  of  1690, 
and  was  meant  to  be  a  monthly,  with  occasionally  more  fre- 

Newspapcrs  .  ,1111  i  •  i 

established  quent  issues,  should  the  demand  warrant  it.  A  single  number, 
however,  only  appeared.  In  1704,  the  "  Boston  News  Letter  " 
was  established,  —  a  weekly  paper  which  long  held  its  own,  but  which 
never,  till  a  rival  appeared,  was  anything  but  a  mere  digest  of  news. 
In  1719,  the  "  Boston  Gazette"  was  started,  of  which  James  Franklin 
was  the  printer.  Two  years  later  —  August,  1721  —  Franklin  estab- 
lished the  u  New  England  Courant,"  partly,  it  was  thought,  because  the 


of  Franklin. 


1722.]  BEXJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  137 

printing  of  the  "  Gazette  "  had  been  taken  from  him.1  The  publisher 
of  the  "  Gazette,"  Philip  Musgrave,  was  also  postmaster,  and  in 
the  first  number  of  the  "Courant"  Franklin  attacked  him  for  of- 
ficial incapacity.  Of  the  "  News  Letter  "  the  "  Con  rant  "  said  it 
was  only  "  a  dull  vehicle  of  intelligence."  The  new  journal  was 
evidently  to  be  a  thing  as  yet  unheard  of  —  a  paper  in  which  politics 
and  religion,  morals  and  manners,  were  to  be  freely  discussed.  Its 
editor  indeed  soon  wrote  himself  into  prison,  and  in  about  six  years  it 

JJl.  6.  Humb.  i. 

TheBofton  News  •Letter. 


From,S8onba?3prili7.to  2flonbae  April  2  «-. 

38offon  •  Printed  \)y£Grecn>  Sold  byMcfioIasBaotUfiltysSbop  nearrfieoldMeefinjHoufe 

Fac-simile  of  the  Heading  of  the   "  News  Letter." 

was  discontinued  ;  but  its  appearance  and  its  character  mark  an  era 
in  intellectual  progress  and  in  the  freedom  of  thought  and  speech  in 
Massachusetts.  A  club  of  gentlemen  contributed  essays  on  various 
subjects,  and  these  writers  were  called  by  conservative  people,  some- 
times "  Free  Thinkers,"  sometimes  the  "  Hell  Fire  Club."  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  the  younger  brother  of  James,  and  wrote  paragraphs 
as  well  as  set  type  for  the  paper.  He  was  about  sixteen  n^min 
years  of  age,  having  been  born  opposite  the  Old  South  Franklin- 
Church  on  January  6,  1706.  He  was  the  carrier  of  the  paper,  and 
wrote  the  earner's  addresses.  Curiously  enough,  the  paper  opposed 
inoculation,  and  perhaps  its  popularity  in  this  respect,  especially  with 
the  physicians,  who  had  the  free  use  of  its  columns,  procured  tolera- 
tion for  its  more  offensive  matter. 

The  paper  was  only  a  year  old  when  the  publisher  was  bound  over 
to  be  of  good  behavior,  in  the  sum  of  £100,  in  consequence  of  "  many 
passages  ....  published,  boldly  reflecting  on  His  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment, the  Ministry,  Churches,  and  College."  It  was  at  the  same  time 
ordered  that  no  number  of  the  paper  should  be  printed  till  it  had  been 
submitted  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Council,  and  permission  granted. 
When  afterward  the  elder  Franklin  was  imprisoned  for  continued 
contumacy,  the  management  of  the  paper  fell  into  young  Benjamin's 
hands.  When  James  was  ordered  to  cease  the  publication  he  obeyed, 

1  Benjamin  Franklin  probably  shared  his  brother's  resentment  against  the  proprietor  of 
the  Gazette.  In  his  autobiography  he  ignores  its  existence,  and  asserts  that  the  Courant 
was  the  second  newspaper  established  in  America,  the  News  Letter  being  the  first. 


138  THE   ROYAL    GOVERNORS   IX   NEW   ENGLAND.     [CHAP.  V. 

so  far  as  his  own  name  was  concerned  ;  but  the  paper  came  out,  nev- 
ertheless, with  Benjamin  as  publisher.  There  was  no  abatement  of 
the  freedom  of  comment  upon  public  affairs,  while  the  journal  com- 
mended itself  for  family  reading  by  a  selection  of  the  best  hymns  of 
one  Dr.  Watts.  James  seems  to  have  been  jealous  of  his  younger 
brother's  success,  and  they  quarrelled.  Then  Benjamin  ran  away  ; 
and  the  loss  to  Boston  was  a  gain  to  Philadelphia,  till  the  whole 
country  claimed  the  services  of  one  of  the  wisest  and  best  of  her 
sons. 

Shute  was  no  happier  in  his  administration  of  the  affairs  of  New 
Hampshire  than  of  those  of  Massachusetts.     The  Assembly 

New   H.-iinp-  *•  » 

shire  under    would  never  vote  him  a  permanent  salary,  and  this  standing 

Shute's  ad-  '  ' 

grievance  of  the  royal  governors  in  all  the  colonies  precluded 

the  possibility  of  any  cordiality  of  feeling  between  him  and 
the  popular  representatives.  He  removed  several  members  of  the  Coun- 
cil and  appointed  others,  who  represented  the  local  interests  of  Ports- 
mouth, to  the  prejudice,  the  country  people  thought,  of  their  own. 
He  called  the  Assembly  to  a  conference  with  the  Council,  regarding 
the  issue  of  bills  of  credit,  but  without  condescending  to  inform  its 
members  of  his  reason  for  convening  them.  When  the  two  Houses 
resented  this  treatment,  he  dissolved  them.  On  one  point,  how- 
ever, they  agreed  ;  the  Assembly  supporting  him  in  the  suspension  of 
Vaughan,  the  Lieutenant-governor,  who  assumed  the  exercise  of  su- 
preme authority  during  Shute's  absence  in  Boston.  The  removal  of 
Vaughan  was  justified  also  by  the  Crown,  and  John  Wentworth  was 
appointed  in  his  place. 

The  emigration  of  some  Scotch  Presbyterians  to  New  Hampshire, 

in  1718,  while  Shute  was  Governor,  was  much  more  impor- 
by'terians  "'  tant  in  her  history  than  these  political  quarrels.  These 
London-  people,  who  undertook  to  better  their  condition  in  America, 

were  descendants  of  the  colonists  who  had  been  transferred 
by  James  I.  to  the  North  of  Ireland,  where  their  condition,  from 
penal  laws  against  Protestants  and  from  local  taxation,  had  become 
intolerable.  Arriving  first  in  Boston,  they  dispersed  in  various  direc- 
tions ;  but  sixteen  of  the  families,  holding  together,  settled  upon  lands 
a  few  miles  northwest  of  Haverhill.  The  boundary  between  New 
Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  had  not,  at  this  time,  been  determined, 
though  the  two  provinces  had  more  than  once  appointed  commis- 
sioners to  draw  it,  who  could  not  agree.  Massachusetts  informed 
these  new  settlers,  when  they  applied  for  a  grant,  that  they  were  out 
of  her  jurisdiction.  In  New  Hampshire  the  disputed  title  to  the  land 
gave  them  some  trouble,  but  under  the  protection  of  Wentworth 
they  remained  upon  the  spot  of  their  choice,  and,  being  joined  from 


1723.]         SETTLEMENTS  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  AND  MAINE.        139 

time  to  time  by  other  families,  they  called  their  place  Londonderry, 
in  1722. 

Their  minister,  MacGregor,  informed  Governor  Shute  how  offensive 
it  was  to  them  to  be  confounded  with  the  Irish  against  whom  they 
had  fought  always  for  the  defence  of  Protestantism.  But  the  New 
Hampshire  people  were  jealous  of  these  new-comers,  who  entered  into 
quiet  possession  of  the  soil  at  a  time  when  their  own  lands  were 
threatened  with  litigation.  These  Presbyterians  did  the  province  the 

good  service  of  introducing  the 
manufacture  of  linen  by  the 
spinning-wheel,  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  potato.  That  vege- 
table was  first  planted  at  An- 
dover,  whose  inhabitants  began 
with  boiling  the  balls  instead  of 
the  bulbs,  wondering,  when  the 
result  was  served  up  at  their 
simple  tables,  that  a  potato  was 
considered  to  be  an  esculent. 

The  prosperity  attending 
these  new  colonists  led  other  wtt)e. 
other  people  to  peti-  ment8 
tion  for  grants  of  land  for  town- 
ships. They  took  possession 
before  their  charters  were  made 
out,  and  began  to  fell  the  trees, 
incurring  the  usual  dispute  with 

Mrs.  Dustin's   Monument,    Concord,  N.   H.  ^    j^^    surveyon        Jn    17OO 

charters  for  four  townships,  Chester,  Nottingham,  Harrington,  and 
Rochester,  were  drawn  up,  including  a  reservation  during  the  pen- 
dency of  Allen's  suit,  and  signed  by  Governor  Shute,  which  was  his 
last  official  act  in  the  province.  From  1713  to  1720  some  attempts 
were  also  made  to  settle  tracts  of  land  in  Maine.  On  Shute's  depart- 
ure for  England  in  1723,  Wentworth  became  acting  Governor  of 
New  Hampshire. 


Stvannah,  from  »  Print  of  1741 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GEORGIA. 

PROPOSED  SETTLEMENT  SOUTH  OF  THE  SAVANNAH.  —  THE  MARGRAVATE  OF  AZILIA. — 
THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA.  —  SKETCH  OF  JAMES  OGLETHORPE.  —  ARRIVAL  OF 
THE  COLONISTS.  —  BUILDING  OF  SAVANNAH.  —  SPEECH  OF  TOMO  CHICHI.  —  THE 
HIGHLANDERS  AND  SALZBURGERS.  —  THE  PILGRIMAGE  OF  THE  SALZBURGERS. — 
THE  "GRAND  EMBARKATION."  —  THE  BROTHERS  WESLEY.  —  GEORGE  WHITEFIELD 
AND  HIS  ORPHAN  HOUSE.  —  SLAVERY  AND  THE  IMPORTATION  OF  RUM  PROHIBITED 
IN  GEORGIA.  —  LAND  TENURE.  —  OGLETHORPE'S  JOURNEY  TO  THE  INTERIOR. — 
SLAVE  INSURRECTION  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  GEORGIA  INVADKD  BY  THE  SPANIARDS. 

—  GALLANT  ACTION  OF  OGLETHORPE. — THE  ROAD  TO  FREDEIUCA.  —  SLAUGHTER 
OF  THE  SPANIARDS  IN  A  DEFILE. —  OGLETHORPE'S  STRATAGEM.  —  RETREAT  OF  THE 
SPANISH  FLEET.  —  OGLETHORPE'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND. — THE  LATTER  YEARS  OF 
HIS   LIFE. —  SURRENDER  OF   THE   CHARTER.  —  THE  HALF-BREED  QUEEN  MARY. — 
SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  BOSOMWORTH  INSURRECTION.  —  GEORGIA  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE. 

—  ITS  SLOW  PROGRESS. 


Proposed 


It  was  proposed  as  early  as  1717  by  Sir  Robert  Montgomery,  a 
Scotchman,  to  plant  a  colony  on  the  Savannah  River,  and 
*t  ls  quite  possible  that  the  failure  of  his  plan  was  partly  due 
fc°  the  revolution  in  South  Carolina.  Adventurers  may  have 
been  deterred  from  trying  their  fortunes  in  the  vicinity  of 
a  colony  torn  at  that  time  with  internal  dissensions,  and  the  more 


1'rt  >ioi!t-b 


1717.]  THE   MARGRAVATE   OF  AZILIA.  141 

exposed,  therefore,  to  attacks  from  their  Spanish  and  Indian  enemies 
on  the  southern  border.  Perhaps  it  was  better,  however,  for  the  fut- 
ure settlement  of  the  beautiful  region  between  South  Carolina  and 
Florida  that  it  should  be  left  a  while  longer  to  its  virgin  solitude, 
rather  than  be  made  the  scene  of  the  fanciful  schemes  of  this  vision- 
ary Scotchman. 

Montgomery  purchased  the  territory  of  the  Proprietors  on  condition 
that  he  should  occupy  it  within  three  years.  "  My  Design,"  he  said, 
in  a  "  Discourse  "  commending  it  to  public  attention,  "  arises  not  from 
any  sudden  Motive,  but  a  strong  Bent  of  Genius  I  inherit  from  my 
Ancestors,"  one  of  whom,  a  century  earlier,  had  been  interested  in 
some  plans  of  colonization  in  Nova  Scotia.  "  The  Humour,  however," 
he  continues,  "  Descended  and  ran  down  with  the  Blood  :  For  my 
Father  was  so  far  of  this  Opinion,  that  together  with  Lord  Cardross, 
the  late  Earl  of  Buchan,  and  some  other  Gentlemen,  he  entered  into 
Measures  for  Establishing  a  Settlement  on  Port  Royal  River  in  South 
Carolina,  and  Lord  Cardross  went  thither  in  Person."  l 

The  projector  of  the  new  colony  pi'oposed  to  call  it  by  the  grandi- 
sonous  title  of  the  "  Margravate  of  Azilia."  It  was  generally  agreed, 
he  said  in  his  "  Discourse,"  that  "  Carolina,  especially  in  its  Southern 
Bounds,  is  the  most  amiable  Country  of  the  Universe ;  That  Nature 
has  not  bless'd  the  World  with  any  Tract  which  can  be  pref-  The  Mantra_ 
erable  to  it;  that  Paradise  with  all  her  Virgin  Beauties,  may  Tateof  Azllia 
be  modestly  suppos'd  at  most  but  equal  to  its  Native  Excellencies." 
His  fanciful  plan  of  colonization  was  not  dependent  upon  any  proposed 
community  of  labor  or  of  property ;  and  it  paid  no  heed  to  the  prac- 
tical difficulties  in  the  way  of  contiguous  blocks  of  farms  laid  out  for 
cultivation,  regardless  of  soil  or  situation,  as  city  blocks  are  planned 
for  residence  and  trade.  The  country  was  to  be  divided  into  districts, 
as  population  increased,  each  district  to  be  twenty  miles  in  length  and 
width,  surrounded  by  a  square  of  fortifications.  These  were  to  be  de- 
fended by  garrisons  who  should  maintain  themselves  and  the  Mar- 
grave by  the  cultivation  of  a  strip  of  land  one  mile  in  width  running 
around  the  square  within  the  walls.  Inside  of  this  another  strip,  two 

1  See  vol.  it.,  p.  360.  The  "  humour  descended  and  ran  down  with  the  blood  "  also  in 
the  Erskiue  family.  The  great-grandson  of  the  Lord  Cardross  here  alluded  to  —  the 
eccentric  sixth  Earl  of  Buchan,  whose  faith  in  metempsychosis  was  so  profound  that  he 
believed  all  his  ancestors  lived  in  his  own  person,  and  who  might  have  said,  "  when  I  was 
at  Port  Royal,"  as  he  would  say,  "  when  I  was  at  the  battle  of  Agincourt,"  —  this  descend- 
ant of  Lord  Cardross  was  deeply  interested  in  America,  and  his  sympathies  warmly  enlisted 
on  behalf  of  the  colonists  in  the  American  Revolution.  He  entered  into  correspondence 
with  some  of  the  leading  men,  and  sent  them  his  engraved  portrait.  One  of  these, 
presented  by  the  Earl  to  James  Otis,  is  in  the  possession  of  the  author,  and  bears  the 
autograph  inscription,  "  As  a  mark  of  my  attachment  to  the  cause  of  Liberty  and  its 
friends." 


142 


GEORGIA. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


miles  in  width,  was  to  be  reserved  to  furnish  these  defenders  with  farms 
of  their  own,  rent  free  for  life,  after  their  term  of  service  should  be 
over.  Of  the  remaining  land,  the  most  was  laid  out  in  one  hundred 
and  sixteen  smaller  squares  of  one  mile  each,  "  bating  only  for  the 
highways  which  divide  them  ;  and  in  the  centre  of  each  square  should 


The  Margravate  of  Azilia 

stand  its  owner's  dwelling :  "  these  are  the  estates  belonging  to  the 
Gentry  of  the  District."  Finally,  in  the  middle  of  the  whole  there 
was  a  large  square  for  a  city,  and  at  the  corners  there  were  others  for 
great  parks  —  each  four  miles  square  —  in  which  were  to  be  kept  the 
stocks  of  cattle  and  of  game.  Like  a  holy  of  holies,  at  the  city's 
central  point  was  to  be  built  the  Margrave's  house  —  his  constant  res- 
idence. 

But  this  ingenious  scheme  of  a  great  rural  city,  portrayed  by  picture 


JAMES   OGLETHORPE. 
(After  a  contttujjorary  engraving.) 


1732.]  JAMES   OGLETHORPE.  148 

as  well  as  described  in  words,  failed  to  excite  the  admiration  and  en- 
thusiasm its  designer  hoped  for.  Not  an  emigrant  offered  Failureof 
to  avail  himself  of  the  beauties  and  advantages  of  the  prom-  the  schen>«- 
ised  "Paradise."  The  provisional  three  years  expired,  and  the 
Proprietaries  resumed  their  ownership  of  the  country.  For  fifteen 
years  longer  it  remained  a  sort  of  debatable  land  between  the  English 
and  the  Spaniards  of  Florida,  a  hunting-ground  and  refuge  for  a  few 
hundred  Indians,  till,  purchased  by  the  Crown  of  the  Proprietors,  it 
was  once  more  selected  as  the  site  of  a  colony. 

A  humane  movement  about  this  time  for  the  reformation  of  Eng- 
lish jails  —  where,  it  was  notorious,  the  most  shocking  abuses  AnewmoTe- 
existed  —  enlisted  the  sympathies  and  the  energies  of  James  Inellt- 
Oglethorpe,  a  member  of  Parliament.  His  experience  as  a  member 
of  a  parliamentary  committee,  appointed  with  reference  to  this  sub- 
ject, led  him  and  others  to  wider  observation  and  reflection  upon  the 
condition  of  the  poor  generally,  and  his  committee  suggested,  in  a 
report  to  the  House,  that  "  there  were  great  numbers  of  indigent 
persons  burthensome  to  the  public,  who  would  be  willing  to  seek  a 
livelihood  in  any  of  his  Majesty's  plantations  in  America,  if  they  were 
provided  with  a  passage  and  means  of  settling  there."  They  asked 
that  lands  might  be  given  them,  as  Trustees,  in  the  southern  part  of 
South  Carolina,  for  the  planting  of  such  a  colony.  The  subject  was 
deliberately  and  carefully  discussed  for  two  years  after  the  report  was 
made,  and  on  the  9th  of  June,  1732,  a  charter  was  granted  to  twenty 
Trustees,  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  of  the  kingdom,  and  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  southern  frontier  of  the  American  colonies,  of  all  that 
region  between  the  Savannah  and  Altamaha  rivers.1  The  new  colony 
was  to  be  called  Georgia,  in  honor  of  the  King,  George  II. 

Oglethorpe  was  at  this  time  little  more  than  forty  years  of  age,  and 
his  life  had  been  full  of  action  and  adventure.  His  family  had  been 
well  known  in  courts  and  camps  for  generations.  His  great-grand- 
father and  his  grandfather  had  held  positions  in  the  royal  household  ; 
and  his  father  —  that  Sir  Theophilus  Oglethorpe  referred  to  in  a  par- 
agraph of  "  Guy  Mannering :'  as  one  who  "  held  orgies  with  the  wicked 
Laird  of  Ellangowan  "  —  had  been  a  well-known  general  under  James, 
but  at  the  time  of  the  Georgia  founder's  birth,  in  1688,  had  retired  to 
live  as  a  quiet  country  gentleman  in  Surrey.  Oglethorpe  was  sent  to 
Oxford  at  sixteen ;  and  at  twenty-one  entered  the  army  as  an  ensign. 
He  subsequently  took  service  under  the  great  Prince  Eugene,  was 

1  The  Trustees  were  Lord  Percival,  Edward  Dighy,  George  Carpenter,  James  Ogle- 
thorpe, George  Heathcote,  Thomas  Tower,  Rol>ert  Moor,  Robert  Hucks,  Roger  Holland, 
William  Sloper,  Francis  Eyles,  John  Laroche,  James  Vernoii,  William  Behtha,  John  Bur- 
ton, Richard  Bundy,  Arthur  Benford,  Samuel  Smith,  Adam  Anderson,  and  Thomas 
Coram. 


144  GEORGIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

made  an  officer  of  his  staff,  and  for  several  years  shared  in  the  most 
'a  famous  fighting  °f  the  time,  serving  at  Petervvardein  and  at 


Belgrade,  and  not  returning  finally  to  England  until  peace 
rope-  was  made  with  the  beaten  Turks  in  1718.  This  military 

experience  was  not  the  least  among  the  qualifications  that  fitted  him 
for  the  post  of  governor  of  a  frontier  colony. 

The  project  of  the  Georgia  Trustees  was  received  with  a  good  deal 
Settlement  °f  enthusiasm.  Subscriptions  on  its  behalf  were  numer- 
of  Georgia.  oug  Parliament  made  generous  grants,  and  the  Bank  of 
England  and  other  public  institutions  led  long  lists  of  contributors. 
All  the  Trustees  themselves  gave  money,  besides  gratuitous  service. 
They  adhered  rigidly  to  their  original  design  ;  selecting  their  first 
body  of  colonists  cai-efully  from  the  destitute  inhabitants  of  large 
cities  ;  from  deserving  insolvent  debtors,  whose  creditors  were  gener- 
ally willing  to  forego  their  worthless  claims  on  the  payment  by  the 
company  of  a  small  sum  ;  and  from  well-disposed  laborers  out  of  em- 
ployment. Their  aim  was  to  exclude  from  the  company  all  idlers 
and  vicious  persons,  and  all  married  men  who  were  disposed  to  leave 
their  families  behind. 

On  the  17th  of  November,  1732,  Oglethorpe  sailed  from  Gravesend 
in  the  ship  Anne,  with  the  first  company  of  emigrants,  —  thirty-five 
families,  containing  in  all  one  hundred  and  fourteen  persons.  On  the 
13th  of  January  she  arrived  in  the  lower  bay  of  Charleston,  where  she 
Arrival  of  remained  only  a  day,  while  Oglethorpe  went  up  to  the  town 
emigrants.  to  confer  wftn  Governor  Johnson.  Then  the  Anne  sailed  for 
Beaufort,  and  the  people  were  landed  to  recruit  after  their  long  voy- 
age; but  Oglethorpe,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Bull  of  Charleston,  —  sub- 


Fac-simile  from  a   Note  of  Oglethorpe,   ordering   Provisions. 

sequently  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  —  went  up  the  Savannah 
River  to  select  the  place  for  their  future  home.  The  city  of  Savannah 
now  stands  on  the  spot  he  thought  best  adapted  to  his  purpose. 

He  rejoined  his  people  at  Beaufort,  and  the  next  Sunday  was  ob- 
served as  a  day  of  thanksgiving.  "  There  was,"  says  a  contemporary 
narrative,  "  a  great  resort  of  the  Gentlemen  of  that  neighborhood  and 


1733.]  THE   BUILDING   OF   SAVANNAH.  145 

their  families  ;  and  a  plentiful  Dinner  provided  for  the  Colony,  and 
all  that  came,  by  Mr.  Oglethorpe  ;  being  4  fat  hogs,  8  turkies,  besides 
fowls,  English  Beef,  and  other  provisions,  a  hogshead  of  punch,  a 
hogshead  of  beer,  and  a  large  quantity  of  wine;  and  all  was  so  dis- 
posed in  so  regular  a  manner,  that  no  person  was  drunk,  nor  any  dis- 
order happened."  1  In  the  course  of  the  week  the  company,  charmed 
with  their  first  experience  of  the  new  country,  and  full  of  cheerful- 
ness and  hope,  were  taken  to  the  place  their  leader  had  selected. 
Oglethorpe's  first  care  was  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  nearest  Indian 
chief,  one  Tomo  Chichi,  to  his  occupation  of  the  land.  In  this  he  was 
aided  by  Mary  Musgrove,  the  half-breed  wife  of  an  Indian  trader 
whose  post  was  in  the  neighborhood.  This  woman,  who  acted  as 
interpreter,  persuaded  the  Yamacraw  chief  that  the  settlement  of  an 
English  colony  at  that  spot  would  be  an  advantage  to  his  people,  and 
he  agreed  to  use  his  influence  with  the  Creeks,  to  whom  the  territory 
belonged. 

For  the  first  week  the  people  were  employed  in  landing  their  goods. 
When  this  was  done  they  were  divided  into  three  parties :  one  to  pre- 
pare land  for  cultivation  ;  another  to  fell  the  trees  on  the  proposed 
site  of  the  town,  —  Oglethorpe,  however,  wisely  sparing  some  of  the 
finest  of  them  ;  a  third  to  build  palisades.  Their  poor  shelter,  and 
exposure  to  the  malaria  from  the  low  banks  of  the  river,  caused 
some  sickness,  but  their  progress  was  rapid.  All  worked  with  a  will ; 
"  there  are  no  idlers  here,"  wrote  a  visitor  from  Charleston  ;  "even  the 
boys  and  girls  do  their  part."  "  Our  people  still  lie  in  tents,"  Ogle- 
thorpe wrote  to  the  Trustees  on  the  10th  of  March,  "  there  being  only 
two  clapboard  houses  built,  and  three  sawed  houses  framed.  Our 
crane,  our  battery,  cannon,  and  magazine  are  finished.  This  is  all 
that  we  have  been  able  to  do,  by  reason  of  the  smallness  of  our  num- 
ber, of  which  many  have  been  sick,  and  others  unused  to  labor ;  though, 
I  thank  God,  they  are  now  pretty  well,  and  we  have  not  lost  one  since 
our  arrival  here." 

With  the  aid  of  Captain   Bull,  of  Charleston,  who  had  returned 
thither  and  brought  back  hired  laborers  and  settlers,  Oglethorpe  laid 
out  the  place  on  that  symmetrical  and  excellent  plan  which  makes 
the  present  city  of  Savannah  so  beautiful.     The  broad  avenues,  with 
little  parks  at  the  alternate  crossings,  still  bear  witness  to  ^vingout 
Oglethorpe's  good  taste   and   judgment,  and   many   of   the   Savanuah 
streets   retain    the   names  —  Bull,  Drayton,  Whi taker,  Abercorn  — 
which  he  then  gave  them  from  his  associates,  or  from  American  or 
English  patrons  of  the  enterprise.     Several  months  later,  when  the 

1  A  Brief  Account  of  the  Establishment  of  the  Cobny  of  Georgia,  etc.,  a  contemporary  nar- 
rative first  published  in  Force's  Tracts,  vol.  i. 

VOL.  III.  10 


146 


GEORGIA. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


number  of  the  colonists  was  increased  by  fresh  arrivals  from  England, 
the  four  wards  of  the  town  received  the  names  of  Percival,  Derby, 


The   Landing  at  Savannah. 


Heathcote,  and  Decker, 
from  Lord  Percival,  the 
president  of  the  com- 
pany, and  three  of  its 
leading  benefactors  ; 
and  at  the  same  time 
names  of  other  Trustees 
were  given  to  the  "  ti  th- 
ings "  into  which  these 
wards  were  subdivided. 
The  divisions  and  their  names  were  officially  announced  on  July  7,  — 
a  day  specially  set  apart  for  the  establishment  of  the  local  government, 
and  kept  by  all  the  people  as  a  holiday. 

In  May  a  council  of  the  chiefs  of  all  the  nearer  Indian  tribes  was 
Savannah,  and  the  treaty  first  made  with  Tomo  Chi- 
^  Was  confirmed.  Oglethorpe  assured  them  that  he  did  not 
mean  to  dispossess,  or  to  injure  their  people  in  any  way,  and  that  what- 
ever land  they  would  grant  for  the  convenience  of  the  English  should 
be  fairly  paid  for.  "  We  are  persuaded,"  said  a  sachem  of  the  Lower 
Creeks,  '•  that  the  Great  Spirit  who  dwells  above  and  around  all  has 
sent  the  English  hither  for  our  good  ;  and  therefore  they  are  welcome 
to  all  the  land  we  do  not  need."  "  When  these  white  men  came," 
said  Tomo  Chichi,  "  I  feared  that  they  would  drive  us  away,  for  we 
were  weak  ;  but  they  promised  not  to  molest  us."  Then  in  acknowl- 
edgment of  corn  and  other  supplies  which  the  Englishmen  had  given 


Treaty  with 


1733.] 


TOMO    CHICHI. 


147 


them,  he  offered  presents  in  return,  and  besought  the  strangers  for 
continued  kindness.  "  Here,"  —  he  went  on  with  that  figurative  elo- 
quence in  which  the  North  American  Indian  has  always  so  Speecb  Of 
loved  to  clothe  his  speech  —  "  Here  is  a  buffalo  skin  Tomo  Chichi- 
adorned  with  the  head  and  feathers  of  an  eagle.  The  eagle  signifies 
speed,  and  the  buffalo  strength.  The  English  are  swift  as  the  eagle, 
and  strong  as  the  buffalo.  Like  the  eagle,  they  flew  hither  over  great 
waters,  and  like  the  buffalo,  nothing  can  withstand  them.  But  the 
feathers  of  the  eagle  are  soft,  and  signify  kindness  ;  and  the  skin  of  the 
buffalo  is  covering,  and  signifies  protection.  Let  these,  then,  remind 
them  to  be  kind  and  protect  us."  l 

Between  the  new  colony  and  its  nearest  English  neighbor  there 
was  the  utmost  harmony.  South  Carolina  came  to  Ogle-  Progregsof 
thorpe's  help  with  large  public  and  private  subscriptions,  thecolony- 
and  on  a  visit  to  Charleston  he  cordially  and  feelingly  acknowledged 
these  in  an  address  to  its  Assem- 
bly. At  Savannah  the  first  rude 
shelter  of  boughs  of  trees,  and  the 
clapboard  houses,  were  soon  dis- 
placed by  substantial  dwellings. 
A  public  garden  was  planted  as  a 
nursery,  with  many  kinds  of  fruit 
trees,  and  especially  with  mul- 
berry trees ;  for  it  was  proposed 
to  make  the  manufacture  of  silk 
a  principal  industry  of  the  colony, 
and  for  this  purpose  some  skilled 
workmen  from  Italy  were  sent 
out  among  the  earliest  emigrants. 
On  Tybee  Island,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Savannah,  a  light-house  to 
be  ninety  feet  in  height  was  be- 
gun ;  on  the  river  bank  below  the 
town,  a  battery  was  built  for  its  protection.  On  the  Ogeechee  River, 
Captain  M'Pherson  with  a  company  of  Highlanders  built  a  fort  and 
called  it  Fort  Argyle,  as  a  defence  against  the  Spaniards.  When 
Oglethorpe  returned  to  England  after  fifteen  months'  stay,  he  left  his 
colony  in  a  prosperous  and  promising  condition.  He  had  brought  to 
it  a  little  more  than  one  hundred  persons;  in  the  first  year  and  a  half 
it  increased  to  very  nearly  five  hundred. 

Every  ship  that  had  come  from  England  had  brought  small  parties 
of  emigrants,  most  of  them  of  that  class  for  whose  benefit  especially 
1  The  English  found  the  buffalo  in  immense  numbers  iu  Georgia. 


Tomo  Chichi.     (A  Portrait  painted  in   London. 


148  GEORGIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

the  colony  was  projected.  Not  all,  however  ;  Highlanders  came  from 
Scotland  under  their  petty  chiefs,  who,  at  different  times, 
land  emu  settled  at  Fort  Argyle  and  at  Darien  on  the  Altamaha, — 
men  well-trained,  by  their  lives  at  home,  for  the  new  life 
of  the  wilderness,  whose  love  of  arms  and  the  hunt,  whose  picturesque 
garb  and  the  wild  music  of  their  bagpipes  commended  them  to  the 
enthusiastic  admiration  and  warm  friendship  of  the  natives.  And  in 
absolute  contrast  to  these  was  still  another  class  who,  like  the  Fathers 
of  Plymouth  the  century  before,  were  truly  Pilgrims,  fleeing  from  re- 
ligious persecution,  and  who  prized  above  all  earthly  things  freedom  of 
belief  and  of  worship ;  a  devout,  humble,  long-suffering,  and  indus- 
trious people,  certain  to  remain  as  a  distinct  community  apart  from 
the  general  population  with  whom  they  had  so  little  in  common. 

These  were  the  Salzburgers,  descendants  of  those  Piedmontese  Wal- 
denses  who,  as  early  as  the  twelfth  century,  were,  as  Pope  Inno- 
cent III.  lamented,  "  carried  along  by  an  immoderate  desire  of  know- 
ing the  Scriptures,"  and  who  came,  therefore,  under  the  ban  of  the 
church.  Through  the  centuries,  down  to  the  time  of  the 
Reformation,  persecution  followed  them,  and  then,  as  they 
became  distinguished  for  their  adherence  to  the  tenets  of 
Luther,  the  church  determined  that  they  should  be  exterminated  from 
the  face  of  the  earth.  They  were  hunted  like  wild  beasts ;  some  were 
scourged  till  they  died ;  some  were  burnt  to  death  in  the  flames  of 
their  own  houses  ;  some  were  blown  up  with  gunpowder.  Ingenuity 
was  exhausted  in  devising  methods  of  pain  and  terror ;  their  minis- 
ters were  tortured  till  death  released  them  ;  the  head  of  one  of  their 
most  beloved  teachers,  Anthony  Brassus,  was  nailed  in  mockery  to 
the  pulpit  from  which  he  had  preached.  But  they  were  not  quite  de- 
stroyed ;  a  remnant  escaped  and  fled  to  the  valley  of  Salzburg,  then  a 
province  of  Bavaria. 

Here,  in  obscurity,  they  found  safety.  They  had  preserved  their 
organization  and,  though  without  ministers,  kept  alive  their  religious 
zeal,  holding  their  meetings  in  the  depths  of  the  forests  and  in  the 
dark  recesses  of  mines.  For  three  quarters  of  a  century  they  were 
unnoticed  and  unmolested,  handing  down  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion an  inheritance  of  the  memory  of  centuries  of  wrong  and  suffering, 
and  of  the  steadfast  faith  which  had  sustained  their  fathers,  and 
would  sustain  them. 

As  their  numbers  increased,  the  eyes  of  the  church  searched  them 
out,  and  again  the  church  stretched  out  its  hands  against 
of  the  saiz-    them.     Their  belief  was  denounced  and  derided,  and  their 
worship  forbidden.     They  were  summoned  before  ecclesias- 
tical courts  for  trial;  many  were  left  to  languish  in  prisons,  their  limbs 


1728.] 


THE   SALZBURGERS. 


149 


loaded  with  chains,  while  their  souls  were  vexed  with  priests  who 
labored  to  confound  their  belief  and  frighten  them  into  apostasy; 
others  were  driven  from  their  homes,  their  possessions  seized  or  de- 
stroyed, husbands  and  wives  separated,  the  children  taken  from  both 
to  be  nurtured  in  the  bosom  of  the  church.  It  was  only  by  the 
protests  of  Protestant  Germany,  and  especially  of  Frederic  William, 
the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  that  there  came,  toward  the  end  of  the 


The  Salzburgers  at   Frankfort. 

seventeenth  century,  some  mitigation  of  tlmr  many  trials  and  sorrows, 
and  the  wretched  Lutherans  were  left  for  a  season  in  peace. 

But  it  was  only  for  a  season.  In  1728,  Leopold,  the  Archbishop  of 
Salzburg,  alarmed  at  the  spread  of  heresy  within  his  diocese,  deter- 
mined that  it  should  be  suppressed.  He  renewed  the  persecution  of 
the  unhappy  people  with  a  resolute  will  and  a  relentless  spirit,  and  sue- 


150  GEORGIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

ceeded  in  three  or  four  years  in  driving  thirty  thousand  of  them  into 
exile.  Twenty  thousand  found  a  refuge  in  Prussia  ;  the  other  third 
fled  to  Holland,  to  England,  anywhere  where  their  faith  and  their 
sufferings  entitled  them  to  sympathy  and  welcome. 

Nowhere  was  there  a  warmer  interest  aroused  on  behalf  of  this  peo- 
ple, who  had  endured  so  long  and  so  much  for  conscience'  sake,  than 
in  Protestant  England.  In  Oglethorpe's  scheme  for  planting  a  colony 
in  America,  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  Christian  Knowledge 
saw  the  opportunity  for  providing  an  asylum  for  some  of  those  wjio 
were  still  exposed  to  persecution.  Arrangements  were  made  to  pro- 
vide the  necessary  aid  to  a  limited  number,  and  a  proposition  to  emi- 
grate to  Georgia  was  accepted  by  about  fifty  families  of  the  village  of 
Berchtesgaden,  a  few  miles  south  of  Salzburg. 

The  way  was  toilsome  and  long  through  Germany  to  the  northern 
coast.     But  in  the   autumn  of    1733  the  villagers   started, 

Their  pil-  .  . 

in      most  of  them  on  toot,  carrying  only  the  young  and  inhrm 


with  their  household  goods  in  rude  carts.  At  Augsburg 
they  remained  awhile  to  rest,  though  the  Catholic  authorities  at  first 
refused  them  entrance  even  to  the  town.  As  they  dragged  on  through 
their  weary  journey,  they  were  scoffed  at  and  sometimes  maltreated, 
when  in  Catholic  districts  ;  but  among  Protestants  they  found  every- 
where hospitality  and  kindness,  the  peasants  taking  the  tired  women 
and  children  in  their  arms  to  carry  them  from  one  village  to  the  next. 
At  Frankfort-on-the-Main  the  citizens  came  forth  to  meet  them  aud 
led  them  into  the  city  in  a  sort  of  triumphal  procession,  to  the  music 
of  Lutheran  hymns.  Here  their  long  march  ended,  as  they  took  boat 
upon  the  Main.  Here,  also,  they  were  met  by  two  clergymen,  Bolzius 
and  Gronau,  who  were  to  lead  them  as  their  pastors  to  the  promised 
land. 

It  was  not  till  March  of  the  next  spring  that  these  way-worn  pilgrims 
Arrival  in  by  ^an(^  an(^  ty  sea  reached  Charleston,  their  voyage  alone 
Georgia.  having  taken  more  than  a  hundred  days.  Oglethorpe  was 
on  the  eve  of  departure  for  England,  but  he  gladly  turned  back  with 
them  to  Savannah.  They  came  without  wealth  ;  their  only  arms 
were  their  Bibles  and  prayer-books,  for  the  non-resistance  to  violence, 
which  discretion  had  so  long  taught  a  hopeless  minority,  had  grown  to 
an  abhorrence  of  all  violence  ;  but  Oglethorpe  well  knew  that  these  vir- 
tuous, harmless,  and  industrious  people,  long  acquainted  with  priva- 
tion, self-denial,  and  submission,  must  needs  be  a  valuable  acquisition 
to  a  new  colony.  Lands  were  given  them  on  the  Savannah,  selected 
by  themselves  because  the  hills  and  valley  bore  some  remote  resem- 
blance to  the  home  they  would  never  see  again.  The  place  they 
called  Ebenezer,  for,  they  said,  "  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us  ;  ' 
and  the  name  was  retained  when  two  or  three  years  afterward  they 


1735.]  THE  GRAND  EMBARKATION.  151 

removed  a  little  farther  inland,  —  retained  by  their  descendants  ever 
since. 

In  the  winter  of  1735-6  Oglethorpe  returned  from  England,  where 
the  report  of  the  first  success  of  the  colony,  and  the  pres- 

-~,   .1.  i  ,         ,  T      -I-  i  •     p  i  The  Grand 

ence  ot  Toino  Chichi  and  several  other  Indian  chiefs  whom  Embarka- 
he  had  taken  with  him,  had  renewed  the  public  enthusiasm. 
He  brought  an  addition  of  about  three  hundred  persons,  a  few  of  whom 
were  of  a  better  class  than  the  beneficiaries  of  the  Trustees  ;  some 
were  Salzburgers,  others  were  Moravians,  with  the  Baron  von  Rick 
and  Captain  Hermsdorf,  from  Germany,  at  their  head.  Charles  Wes- 
ley came  as  the  Governor's  secretary  ;  the  elder  brother,  John,  was 
sent  by  the  Trustees  as  a  missionary  to  the  Indians.  This  second 
voyage  is  known  as  the  Grand  Embarkation,  from  its  importance  to 
the  colony,  and  the  distinction  is  not  misapplied.  Hermsdorf,  as  a 
brave  soldier,  was  of  signal  service  in  the  contests  with  the  Spaniards 
which  soon  threatened  the  existence  of  the  colony  ;  the  Wesleys, 
though  then  young  and  unknown  men,  whose  stay  in  Georgia  was  short, 
made  in  this  visit  the  first  step  that  led  to  important  results  in  the 
religious  history  of  the  country. 

Charles  Wesley  quarrelled  with  Oglethorpe,  promulgating  a  scan- 
dalous story  which  it  was  base  to  repeat  if  he  did  not  be- 

The  We^- 

lieve  it ;  and  if  he  did  believe  it,  the  cordial  friendship  of  leys  in 
subsequent  years  is  not  creditable  to  Wesley.  His  stay  in 
Frederica  was  short,  and  judicious  people  had  quite  as  much  reason  to 
rejoice  at  his  departure  as  he  had  in  going.  The  career  of  his  brother 
John  at  Savannah  was  longer  and  his  course  even  more  reprehensible. 
He  permitted  his  disappointment  in  a  love  affair  to  influence  his  con- 
duct as  a  clergyman  ;  he  showed  more  zeal  than  charity  or  good  judg- 
ment in  censorious  criticism  (from  the  pulpit)  of  public  affairs  and 
public  men  ;  "he  drenched  them,"  says  Southey,  "  with  the  physic  of 
an  intolerant  discipline."  !  Perhaps  it  was  not  altogether  his  own 
fault  that  he  failed  to  commend  Christianity  to  the  Indians,  though 
he  might  have  succeeded  better  had  he  sought  them  outside  of  the 
English  settlements ;  for,  when  he  strove  with  Tomo  Chichi  to  lead 
him  to  a  new  faith,  the  clear-sighted  savage,  who  measured  precept 
by  practice,  said  —  "Why,  these  are  Christians  at  Savannah  !  Those 
are  Christians  at  Frederica !  Christians  get  drunk  !  Christians  beat 
men!  Christians  tell  lies!  Me  no  Christian  !" 

But  the  Wesleys  were  young  men  then,  and  the  zeal  and  ardor  of 
youth  ran  before  knowledge.  This  episode  in  their  lives  would  have 
been  forgotten  had  there  not  come  in  after  years  the  abounding  grace, 
the  eloquence  that  moved  multitudes  to  bow  before  it  as  the  forest 

1  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  i. 


152 


GEORGIA. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


bends  before  the  storm,  the  wisdom  that  could  lay  deep  and  strong  the 
foundations  of  a  great  ecclesiastical  organization  to  rule  millions,  which 
made  them  among  the  most  marked  and  most  influential  men  of  their 
century.  It  may  be  that  the  painful  experience  of  failure  in  positions 
whose  duties  were  then  beyond  their  strength  fitted  them  for  other 
and  higher  duties  which,  had  they  remained  in  a  young  and  feeble 
colony,  they  would  never  have  found.  But  their  departure  prepared 
the  way  for  the  coming  of  another  whose  immediate  influence  upon 
his  time  was  equal  to  if  it  did  not  exceed  theirs,  both  in  England  and 
America. 

This  was  George  Whitefield,  who  was  sent  to  take  John  Wesley's 
George  place  at  Savannah.  Wesley  had  left  there  in  secrecy,  shaking 
whitefleid.  Q^  as  jje  gj,^  the  dust  of  his  feet  against  it  ;  for,  there  was 
an  indictment  for  libel  hanging  over  his  head  on  complaint  of  the 

husband  of  the  woman 
whom  he,  at  one  time, 
had  hoped  to  marry. 
To  him  Savannah  had 
become  not  a  pleasant 
place  to  live  in,  and  it  is 
to  be  presumed  that  he 
was  truthful  enough  and 
humble  enough  to  know 
that  this  was,  in  part  at 
least,  his  own  fault. 
How  else  could  he  urge 
Whitefield  to  take  the 
place  he  had  run  away 
from,  and  in  such  terms 
as  these  ?  "  Do  you 
ask  me  what  you  shall 
have  ?  Food  to  eat,  and 
raiment  to  put  on,  a 
house  to  lav  your  head 

«/       «/ 

in  such  as  your  Master 
had  not,  and  a  crown  of 
glory  that  fadeth  not 
away."  He  surely  could 
not  have  meant  to  de- 
ceive his  friend.  For  it  was  no  common  tie  that  bound  them  togeth- 
er ;  even  the  bitterness  and  acrimony  of  theological  difference  —  and 
nothing  will  make  men  hate  each  other  so  cordially  —  failed  in  later 
years  to  separate  them  permanently.  They  had  been  fellow-students 


John  Wesley. 


1738.]  CONCERNING   RUM   AND   SLAVERY.  153 

at  Oxford  ;  had  suffered  together,  with  a  few  others,  ridicule  and  per- 
secution for  a  religious  enthusiasm  incomprehensible  to  those  about 
them.  The  more  they  were  divided  from  the  world  in  those  days, 
the  more  closely  they  were  bound  together,  and  in  behavior  and  belief 
alike  they  had  set  themselves  apart.  It  was  to  this  Oxford  time  that 
Whitefield  alluded  once  when  he  said  —  "I  myself  thought  that  Chris- 
tianity required  me  to  go  nasty."  And  it  was  also  of  that  time,  or 
soon  after,  that  the  father  of  the  Wesleys,  himself  a  clergyman,  said 
of  his  son  John  —  "I  sat  myself  down  to  try  if  I  could  unravel  his 
sophisms,  and  hardly  one  of  his  assertions  appeared  to  me  to  be  uni- 
versally true."  These  "  sophisms  "  were  beginning  to  be  a  puzzle  to 
many  by  the  time  Whitefield  came  to  Georgia  in  1738.  On  his  ar- 
rival at  Charleston,  the  Rev.  Alexander  Gordon,  the  Episcopal  clergy- 
man, warned  his  people  against  this  disturber  of  the  peace  of  the 
church,  preaching  from  the  text  —  "Those  who  have  turned  the  world 
upside  down  are  come  hither  also."  Whitefield  answered  him,  and 
his  text  was  —  "Alexander  the  coppersmith  hath  done  me  much  evil; 
the  Lord  reward  him  according  to  his  works." 

At  this  second  coming  to  Georgia,  Oglethorpe  brought  with  him 
two  acts  of  Parliament  of  a  novel  and  radical  character.  It  would  be 
a  subject  of  curious  speculation  what  the  future  history  of  the  country 
would  have  been,  could  these  acts  have  been  permanently  enforced. 
But  as  both  were  from  the  outset  evaded  ;  and  as  it  was  difficult, 
probably  impossible,  under  the  circumstances  of  time  and  situation, 
to  build  up  a  commonwealth  from  such  foundations  ;  they  remain  only 
as  a  remarkable  instance  of  failure  to  establish  a  purely  moral  gov- 
ernment. One  of  these  acts  prohibited  the  introduction  of  spirituous 
liquors  into  the  colony  ;  the  other  forbade  the  holding  of  slaves.  In 
the  one  case  the  Trustees  hoped  to  encourage  and  aid  dependence  upon 
free  white  labor,  which  they  believed,  and  believed  truly, 


could  never  flourish  in  competition  with  the  labor  of  slaves  ;  of 
in  the  other  case  they  knew  that  a  free  traffic  in  rum  led  p£rtation"of 
to  drunkenness,  and  that  this  was  an  unmitigated  evil  to 
rough  emigrants  necessarily  freed,  in  large  measure,  from  the  ordinary 
restraints  of  law  in  older  communities,  and  an  exterminating  curse  to 
the  savage  tribes  by  which  they  were  surrounded.  But  appetite  and 
avarice  were  far  stronger  than  acts  of  parliament  or  local  laws.  The 
most  profitable  trade  in  Carolina  was  the  trade  in  rum  ;  such  wealth 
and  prosperity  as  Carolina  had,  she  derived  from  the  use  of  slave 
labor.  The  law  was  powerless  to  keep  rum  out  of  Georgia,  where  on 
one  side  of  an  imaginary  line  were  a  people  determined  to  buy,  and 
on  the  other  side  a  people  determined  to  sell.  Equally  futile  was  it 
to  attempt  to  keep  out  slavery.  For  a  brief  period  the  prohibition 


154  GEORGIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

of  the  ownership  of  slaves  was  evaded  by  hiring  them  in  gangs  from 
South  Carolina,.     But  even  this  soon  ceased  to  be  necessary. 

For  a  time,  also,  there  was  another  grievance  which  was  a  real 
and  serious  injury.  This  was  the  descent  of  lands  to  sons  only. 
The  tenure  Widows  and  daughters  were  debarred  by  law  from  any  share 
in  the  real  estate  of  husband  and  father,  who  had  no  right  of 
devise  of  lands  to  any  person  whatever.  The  tenure  was  strictly  and 
inalienably  in  tail  male.  The  Trustees,  however,  were  wise  enough 
to  see  at  an  early  period,  that  such  a  system  in  a  new  colony  was 
impracticable  and  ruinous.  But  the  progress  of  the  colony  was  seri- 
ously interfered  with  from  these  various  causes.  It  had  besides  to 
contend  with  the  hostility  of  the  Charleston  tradesmen,  who  were  dis- 
gusted with  Oglethorpe's  determination  to  control  the  traffic  with  the 
Indians  within  the  boundaries  of  Georgia.  The  Governor  was  quite 
willing  to  grant  licenses,  but  it  was  on  condition  that  no  rum  should 
be  sold  to  the  natives.  The  trader  looked  upon  this  as  a  double 
wrong ;  not  only  was  he  deprived  of  his  best  customer  for  rum,  but 
he  also  lost  the  advantage,  when  he  in  his  turn  became  a  customer  for 
peltries,  of  having  a  drunken  Indian  to  deal  with.  The  merchants 
of  Charleston  were  at  a  loss  for  words  to  express  their  indignation 
and  contempt  for  such  an  interference  with  free  trade.  In  Georgia 
the  malcontents  and  the  friends  of  the  Trustees  gave  and  took  hard 
blows  in  a  skirmish  of  pamphlets.  In  one  of  these,  in  a  dedication 
to  Oglethorpe,  it  was  said  with  what  was  meant  to  be  fine  irony : 
"  The  valuable  Virtue  of  Humility  is  secured  to  us  by  your  Care  to 
prevent  our  procuring,  or  so  much  as  seeing,  any  Negroes  (the  only 
human  Creatures  proper  to  improve  our  Soil)  lest  our  Simplicity 
might  mistake  the  poor  Africans  for  greater  slaves  than  ourselves : 
And  that  we  might  fully  receive  the  Spiritual  Benefit  of  those  whole- 
some Austerities,  you  have  wisely  denied  us  the  Use  of  such  Spiritu- 
ous Liquors  as  might  in  the  least  divert  our  Minds  from  the  Con- 
templation of  our  Happy  Circumstances."  l 

Whitefield,  on  one  of  his  early  visits  to  the  colonies,  says,  in  a  let- 
ter to  the  people  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Carolina :  "  I  was  sen- 
sibly touched  with  a  fellow  feeling  for  the  poor  Negroes."  'He  won- 
ders "  they  have  not  more  frequently  risen  up  in  arms  against  their 
owners."  "  And  though  I  heartily  pray  God,"  he  adds,  "  they  may 
never  be  permitted  to  get  the  upper  hand,  yet  should  such  a  thing  be 
permitted  by  Providence,  all  good  men  must  acknowledge  the  judg- 
ment would  be  just."  But  this  "fellow  feeling,"  unhappily,  did  not 
last  long.  The  clamor  for  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  the  colony 
carried  him  along  with  it. 

1  A  True  and  Historical  Narrative  of  the  Colony  of  Georgia,  etc.     Republished  in  Forces 
Tracts. 


1738.] 


WHITEFIELD'S   ORPHAN   HOUSE. 


155 


In  accordance  with  a  plan  of  Oglethorpe's  and  Charles  Wesley's,1 
he  had  established  near  Savannah  an  orphan  house,  and  in  all  his 
wanderings  and  preachings  through  America  and  Great 

n    -.L    •        i  e  1.  t      I  U       -i    VI        e  Whitefield's 

Britain  he  never  forgot  to  beg  of  the  charitable  for  means  orphan 
to  support  his  Georgia  orphans.     But  he  cut  off  from  one 
end  of  his  mantle  of  charity  to  piece  out  the  other.     He  discovered 
what  clear  gain  it  was  to  rob  the  poor  of  their  wages ;  how  safe  and 
expedient  a  thing  to  do  if  the  law  would   sanction  it ;  how  much 
easier  to  support  those  poor  orphans,  the  constant  theme  of  his  elo- 
quence, if  there  was  nothing  to  pay  for  the  labor  on  which  they  de- 
pended.    The  law  forbade  it  in  Georgia ;  but  there  was  nothing  to 
prevent  his  holding  slaves  in  Carolina.     He  bought  a  plan-  Whitefleid 
tation  there  for  that  purpose,  and,  while  thanking  God  that  onslaTer-T- 
the  investment  was  profitable,  he  complained  in  pathetic  terms  to  the 
Trustees  of  the  inconvenience  of  that  law  which  compelled  him  to 
have  his  slaves  and  his  orphans  in  separate  provinces.     It  is  a   piti- 
able record  of  inconsistency  and  weakness.     Before  he  was   himself 
tempted  to  become  a  slaveholder,  he  had,  in  his  expostulation  with 
the  colonists,  reminded    them  of 
"  God's   taking    cognizance,    and 
avenging  the  quarrel  of  the  poor 
slaves  ;  "  that  "  God  is  the  same 
to-day  as  He  was  yesterday,  and 
will  continue   the   same  forever. 
He  does  not  reject  the  prayer  of 
the  poor  and  destitute,  nor  disre- 
gard the  cry  of  the  meanest  ne- 
groes.     Their   blood  which    has 
been   spilt  for  these   many  years 
in  your  respective  provinces,  will 
ascend  up  to  Heaven  against  you. 
I  wish  I  could  say  it  would  speak 
better  things  than  the  blood  of 
Abel."    Now  his  eyes  were  blind- 
ed, and  he  could  not  see  that  the 
blood  was  on  his  own  hands.     So  far  as  the  influence  of  his  character 
and  example  went,  no  man  did  more  than  he  to  fasten  slavery  upon 
Georgia. 

The  destination  of  the  larger  portion  of  the  Grand  Embarkation 
under  Oglethorpe,  was  to  build  a  new  town  upon  the  Island  Xew  towns 
of  St.  Simon's,  at  the  mouth  of   the  Altamaha.      Darien,  built- 
farther    up    that    river,  the   new  Ebenezer   of   the   Salzburgs,   and 

1  Life  and  Travels  of  George  White  field.     By  J.  P.  Gledstone,  London,  1871. 


Bolzius. 


156 


GEORGIA. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


Augusta  —  botli  on  the  Savannah  —  were  begun  at  about  the  same 
time,  but  it  was  to  Frederica,  on  St.  Simon's  Island,  that  the  Governor 
gave  his  chief  attention.  The  town  itself  and  the  approach  to  it 
were  defended  with  military  prevision  by  forts  and  batteries  at  differ- 
ent points  on  St.  Simon's  and  Cumberland  Island,  for,  as  Georgia 
was  to  be  the  protection  of  Carolina  against  the  Spaniards  of  Flor- 
ida, Frederica  was 
to  be  so  formidable 
that  no  Spanish 
force  would  venture 
to  leave  it  in  their 
rear,  should  an  in- 
vasion of  the  settle- 
ments north  of  it  be 
undertaken.  The 
Governor  made  it 
his  base  in  the  un- 
fortunate expedi- 
tion against  St.  Au- 
gustine, —  already 
related  in  the  chap- 
ter on  Spanish  colo- 
nization.1 But  this 
was  not  till  after  he 
had  made  a  second 
visit  to  England, 
and  returned,  for 
the  third  time,  with 
a  military  commis- 
sion which  included 
South  Carolina  as 
well  as  Georgia.2 

That  he  was  en- 
abled to  hold,  after 
his  repulse  from 
Florida,  all  the 

Map  of  the  Georgia  Coast.  !  -i         i      j    r.     -li. 

places  he  had  built 
and  fortified  on  the  southern  frontier,  was  due  largely,  if  not  alto- 

1  See  vol.  ii.,  p.  560,  et  seq. 

2  His  commission  was  that  of  colonel,  and  not  major-general,  as  we  inadvertently  said 
in  the  account  referred  to,  though  he  was  called  by  courtesy  General.     He  went  through 
the  various  gradations  of  military  rank  on  his  final  return  to  England,  till  he  was  for  years 
the  senior  general  of  the  British  army.     His  last  military  service  was  in  the  suppression  of 
the  Rebellion  of  1 745  under  Charles  Edward,  the  Pretender. 


1739.]          OGLETHORPE'S  JOURNEY   TO   THE   INTERIOR.  157 

gether,  to  the  friendly  relations  he  had  established  with  the  Creeks, 
Choctaws,  and  Chickasaws.  He  learned,  in  the  summer  of  1739,  that 
the  Spaniards  were  making  overtures  to  these  tribes,  and  attempting 
to  alienate  them  from  the  English  ;  and  that  their  success  was  not  im- 
possible, as  many  of  the  chiefs  were  exasperated  by  the  disorder  cre- 
ated among  their  people  by  the  introduction  of  rum  by  traders  from 
Carolina,  who  had  gone  among  them  without  licenses.  A  grand  coun- 
cil was  to  be  held  in  August  at  the  Indian  town  of  Coweta,  three  hun- 
dred miles  northwest  of  Savannah,  and  Tomo  Chichi  and  other  chiefs 
begged  Oglethorpe  to  attend  it. 

With  only  three  or  four  attendants  he  made  this  arduous  journey 
through  the  unbroken  wilderness,  into  which,  except  for  the  first  few 
miles,  not  a  settler  had  penetrated,  making  his  way  through  forests 
and  swamps,  crossing  rivers,  when  wading  or  swimming  was  impos- 
sible, upon  rafts  built  for  the  emergency,  exposed  by  day 

,,        1  t  ,,  &,  .    ,  ,  j  Oglethorpc-s 

to  the  heat  of  a  southern  summer,  by  night  to  dangerous  journey  into 
malaria,  sleeping  upon  the  ground  without  shelter,  or  upon 
heaps  of  branches  where  the  ground  was  wet.  It  was  a  journey  of 
nearly  a  month  each  way  ;  and  so  completely  did  the  party  pass  out 
of  the  sight  and  out  of  the  reach  of  their  countrymen,  that  either 
they  would  bring  back  the  tidings  of  their  own  safety,  or  never  again, 
in  all  probability,  be  heard  of.  The  courage  to  encounter,  the  energy 
to  overcome  the  difficulties  of  such  an  enterprise,  and  the  complete 
reliance  upon  the  good  faith  of  the  Indians  evinced  in  undertaking 
it,  were  virtues  certain  to  command  the  enthusiasm  and  admiration 
of  the  savages.  Chiefs  of  various  tribes,  who  together  could  bring 
into  the  field  7,000  warriors,  met  Oglethorpe  at  Coweta.  The  per- 
sonal influence  he  gained  over  them  was  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
him  so  long  as  he  remained  in  Georgia,  and  to  the  colony  long  after 
he  had  surrendered  its  care  into  other  hands. 

It  was  not  Indians  only,  however,  whom  the  vigilant  and  deter- 
mined enemy  of  the  English,  the  Spaniards,  endeavored  to 


stil*  up  against  them.     The  slaves  of  Carolina  were  encour-  ?„" 


in- 
surrection 


South 


aged  to  escape  to  Florida,  where  they  were  organized  into  Oarolma 
military  companies,  and  to  their  officers  were  given  the  same  rank, 
the  same  uniform,  and  the  same  consideration  that  distinguished  the 
officers  of  Spanish  regiments.  It  was  fortunate  for  the  five  or  six 
thousand  whites  of  Carolina  that  their  forty  thousand  slaves  had  no 
allies  in  Geoi-gia  at  this  critical  period,  when  Spain  was  determined 
upon  the  conquest  of  these  English  provinces.  Oglethorpe  had 
scarcely  recovered  from  the  fatigue  and  serious  illness  which  followed 
his  long  journey  to  the  West,  when  tidings  of  a  formidable  servile 
insurrection  in  South  Carolina  reached  him.  The  number  of  the  in- 


158 


GEORGIA. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


surgents  constantly  increased  as  they  took  up  their  march  toward 
Florida,  devastating  plantations  and  killing  the  whites  as  they  made 
their  way  southward.  But  they  were  without  discipline  or  organiza- 
tion. Giving  themselves  up,  at  last,  to  a  carouse  upon  the  liquor 
which  they  had  brought  away  from  some  of  the  houses  they  had  plun- 
dered, they  were  surrounded  by  a  body  of  militia,  attacked,  some 
killed,  some  taken  prisoners,  and  the  rest  dispersed.  Oglethorpe 
issued  a  proclamation  for  the  arrest  of  any  fugitives  who  should  be 
found  in  Georgia,  and  for  any  Spanish  emissaries  discovered  in  the 

province,  and  sent 
out  a  body  of  troops 
to  enforce  his  or- 
ders. The  wide 
frontier  of  free  ter- 
ritory between  the 
Savannah  and  the 
Altamaha,  thus 
vigilantly  guarded, 
was  an  efficient 
protection  to  slave- 
holding  Carolina 
against  the  designs 
of  the  Spaniards. 

How  efficient,  was 
to  be  made  evident 
when  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1742,  two 
years  after  Ogle- 
thorpe's  failure  to 
take  St.  Augustine, 
the  Spaniards  in 
their  turn,  as  we 
Admiral  vernon.  have  briefly  related 

in  a  former  chap- 

ter, determined  to  invade  the  English  provinces.  Don  Manuel  de 
Montiano,  who  was  still  Captain-general  of  Florida,  having 
been  reenforced  from  Havana,  appeared  off  St.  Simon's  Isl- 
and with  a  fleet  of  more  than  thirty  vessels  and  a  force  of  five 
thousand  men.1  Reports  of  this  proposed  invasion  had  reached  Ogle- 
thorpe some  weeks  before,  and  he  had  sent  dispatches,  asking  for  aid, 

1  A  Memoir  of  General  Oylethorpe.  By  R.  Wright.  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  General 
Junes  Oylethorpe.  By  Thomas  Spalding.  Hewit,  in  his  Historical  Account  of  South  Car- 
olina and  Georgia,  estimates  the  force  at  three  thousand. 


0 


1  742.] 


SPANISH   INVASION. 


159 


to  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  and  to  Admiral  Vernon  in  com- 
mand of  the  English  fleet  in  the  West  Indies.  But  no  assistance  came 
in  time  from  either.  He  called  in  his  Highland  troops  from  Darien  ; 
summoned  those  of  his  Indian  allies  who  were  within  reach  ;  released 
indented  servants,  and  so  mustered  a  force  of  about  eight  hundred 
men.  There  appeared  first  eleven  galleys,  probably  in  what  is  now 


Fight  of  the  Galleys. 

called  St.  Andrew's  Sound,  between  Jekyl  and  Cumberland  islands. 
It  was  necessary  to  reenforce  Fort  William  on  the  southern  extremity 
of  Cumberland  Island,  and  to  do  this  Oglethorpe  started  with  three, 
boats  carrying  two  companies  of  men.  As  they  crossed  the  Sound 
the  Spaniards  bore  down  upon  them,  and  one  of  the  three  boats,  un- 
der Lieutenant  Folson,  was  driven  back.  But  Oglethorpe,  with  the 
other  two  boats,  pushed  on  through  the  fleet  of  galleys,  delivering  his 
shot  right  and  left  as  he  passed,  with  such  effect  that  four  of  them 
afterward  foundered,  and  the  rest  were  seriously  disabled.  Pulling 
to  leeward  of  the  smoke  of  the  battle,  he  escaped  without  the  loss  of 


160  GEORGIA.  fCHAp.  Vf. 

a  man,  while  those  who  had  watched  the  engagement  from  St.  Simon's 

Island  supposed  —  as  Folson  htvd  also  reported  —  that  he  and  his  men 

were  utterly  destroyed.     He  landed  at  Fort  William,  how- 

Vrtff  Wil 

iiam  ree&  ever,  the  troops  requisite  for  its  defence,  removed  thither  the 
men  and  guns  from  St.  Andrew's  Fort,  at  the  upper  end 
of  Cumberland  Island,  and  then  returned  in  safety  to  bis  fleet  in 
St.  Simon's  Sound.  This  gallant  action,  and  the  immediate  arrest  of 
Folson  for  cowardice,  aroused  an  enthusiasm  and  determination  in  his 
little  army  without  which  their  situation  would  have  been  desperate 
and  hopeless. 

The  enemy's  fleet  of  thirty-two  vessels,  a  few  days  later,  ran  into 
St.  Simon's  harbor  with  a  brisk  breeze,  and  were  received  with  a  heavy 
fire  from  the  batteries  on  shore.  To  meet  them  on  the  water,  Ogle- 
thorpe  had  only  a  merchant-vessel  of  twenty  guns,  on  board  which  he 
put  one  hundred  and  ten  men,  and  two  schooners  of  fourteen  guns  and 
eighty  men  each,  all  with  springs  on  their  cables.  On  eight  "  York 
sloops  "  in  the  harbor  he  put  one  man  each,  with  orders  to  sink  or  run 
them  ashore  in  case  they  were  likely  to  be  taken.  The  object  of  the 
Spaniards  was  to  get  up  the  river,  rather  than  destroy  these  vessels. 
Twice,  however,  they  attempted  to  board  the  larger  ship,  the  Suc- 
cess, and  one  of  the  schooners,  but  were  repulsed  with  a  loss  of 
twenty  men  after  four  hours'  fighting.  Oglethorpe  was 

Approach  of  ,  Ai          •    i  •  11 

the  Spanish  everywhere  at  the  right  moment;  sometimes  on  the  vessels 
encouraging  his  men,  sometimes  on  shore  directing  the  bat- 
teries. When  this  hot  work  was  over,  and  the  Spanish  fleet  had 
fought  their  way  through  the  fire  of  the  batteries  and  the  resistance 
of  the  three  English  vessels,  then  Oglethorpe  ordered  his  troops 
ashore,  thanked  the  sailors  for  their  brave  conduct,  and  ordered  them 
to  escape  to  Charleston.  That  nothing  might  be  left  behind  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards,  he  dismantled  his  shore-batteries, 
spiked  their  guns,  destroyed  all  the  provisions,  and  fell  back  upon 
Frederica  in  good  order. 

The  military  skill  with  which  the  defences  of  Frederica  had  been 
laid  out  now  became  apparent.  The  town,  well  fortified,  was  at  the 
head  of  a  bay  of  difficult  navigation  ;  at  one  point,  called  the  Devil's 
Elbow,  no  ship  could  pass  without  "  going  about,"  and  batteries  were 
so  planted  that  as  she  made  that  manoauvre,  she  could  be  raked  at 
once  from  three  directions  for  three  quarters  of  a  mile.  The  Span- 
iards lacked  the  courage  to  expose  themselves  to  so  formidable  a  fire, 
and  the  fleet  came  to  anchor  at  a  point,  about  four  miles  below  the 
town,  called  Gascoin's  Bluff.  Here  the  \vhole  force  of  about  5,000 
men  was  set  ashore,  that  the  attack  might  be  made  by  land  and  in 
the  rear. 


1742.]  THE  DEFENCES   OF   FREDERICA.  161 

But  neither  here  had  Oglethorpe's  prevision  been  wanting.     The 
road  running  southward  from    the  town  reached,  at  a  dis-  Theroadto 
tance  of   two  or  three    miles,  a  marsh,  along   the    edge  of  JrrtUenca- 
which  it  continued,  with  an  impassable  morass  on  one  side  and  a  dense 
and  tangled  wood  on  the  other.     A  mile  or  two  farther  on,  this  road 
took  a  crescent  shape  with  a  width  of  only  about  sixty  feet,  making  a 
defile  dangerous  to  be  caught  in,  with  an  enemy  concealed  at  the  inlet 
and  outlet,  and  in  the  wood  on  one  side,  while  over  the  morass,  on  the 
other,  escape  was  impossible. 

This  crescent  terminated  in  a  wood,  where  Oglethorpe,  when  he 
fell  back  the  day  before  to  Frederica,  had  left  a  small  de- 

•    i  T      T  11-  j  e    The  Span- 

tacihment  of  troops  with  some  Indian  allies.  At  dawn  or  ianis  re- 
day  the  Spaniards  attacked  this  handful  of  men,  and  drove 
them  through  the  woods  to  the  entrance  of  the  crescent.  Speedy  in- 
formation was  sent  to  the  General,  who,  with  such  force  as  he  could 
rally  on  the  instant,  galloped  to  the  front,  met  the  Spaniards  and  at- 
tacked them  with  such  impetuosity  that  he  drove  them  through  the 
wood  into  the  open  ground  beyond.  Then  placing  areenforcement  to 
resist  any  farther  advance  of  the  enemy,  he  hurried  back  to  Frederica, 
apprehensive  that  this  movement  in  his  rear  might  be  a  feint  to  distract 
his  attention  and  draw  off  his  men  from  an  attack  on  the  town  by  the 
fleet. 

There  was  no  movement,  however,  from  the  ships,  and  he  moved 
down  the  road  again  with  a  larger  force  to  meet  the  Spaniards  in  case 
of  another  advance  in  that  direction.  Before  reaching  the  crescent 
he  met  the  troops  which  he  had  left  in  the  woods  beyond,  in  disorderly 
retreat.  The  Spaniards  —  veteran  troops  selected  from  the  army  and 
brought  from  Cuba  for  this  important  service  —  outnumbered  the 
English,  probably  six  or  seven  to  one.  Oglethorpe's  men,  knowing 
how  perilous  their  position  would  be  should  the  enemy  be  able  to  get 
possession  of  the  pass  and  cut  off  their  retreat,  swept  through  it  in 
too  great  a  panic  to  remember  that  they  might  make  a  successful 
stand  there  against  their  pursuers.  They  had  already  left  it  a  mile 
or  two  behind  when  Oglethorpe  met,  rallied,  and  turned  them  back. 
They,  as  well  as  he,  knew  that  should  the  enemy  once  pass  through 
the  crescent  and  up  the  road  to  the  open  prairie  in  the  rear  of  Fred- 
erica,  the  chance  of  a  successful  resistance  of  800  men  against  5,000 
was  hopeless. 

The  Spaniards  had  pursued  the  panic-stricken  Englishmen  into  the 
pass  and  marked  by  the  retreating  footsteps  that  they  had  fled  precip- 
itately through  the  farther  entrance.  The  victory  seemed  complete, 
and  the  road  beyond  open  to  an  advance  at  the  pursuers'  leisure.  Their 
present  position  could  be  easily  held  against  any  attack  in  front,  and 

VOL.  III.  11 


162  GEORGIA.  [(CHAP.  VI. 

from  the  rear  there  was,  they  thought,  no  possibility  of  danger.  On 
one  side  they  observed  the  perfect  protection  of  the  impassable  mo- 
rass ;  on  the  other,  what  seemed  to  be  an  impenetrable  wood.  Con- 
fident in  security,  and  exultant  in  success,  the  tired  and  hungry  sol- 
diers stacked  their  arms,  threw  themselves  upon  the  grass  for  rest,  and 
prepared  to  break  their  fast,  for  they  had  not  as  yet  that  day  taken 
food.  There  were  within  the  curve  of  the  road  probably  from  two  to 
three  hundred  men. 

When  the  English  had  fled  in  utter  confusion  before  the  Spaniards 
into  the  defile,  the  rear  guard  was  a  company  of  Highland- 

The  defile  -  ,       ,   T  •  •*,    -,r  i   /-.          i 

heia  by  the  ers  under  the  command  of  Lieutenants  McKay  and  Souther- 
land.  They  followed  without  being  in  the  least  touched  by 
the  panic  which  had  seized  their  fellow-soldiers  in  advance,  and  when 
in  the  bend  of  the  road  they  swept  out  of  sight  of  the  pursuit,  the 
Highland  lieutenants  halted  their  men.  A  brief  and  hurried  con- 
sultation resulted  in  a  rapid  movement.  Before  the  Spaniards  had 
again  come  in  sight,  every  Highlander,  and  a  few  Indians  with  them, 
had  sprung  silently  into  the  dense  woods  bordering  one  side  of  the 
road,  and  disappeared.  Not  the  flutter  of  a  single  plaid,  not  the 
rustle  of  a  single  footstep  upon  the  dried  leaves  of  the  forest,  revealed 
to  the  Spaniards  that  they  were  leaving  behind  them  a  detachment  of 
the  troops  whom  they  had  seen  only  a  few  moments  before  in  rapid 
retreat. 

Stealthily  and  silently  the  Highlanders  and  Indians  crept  through 
the  underbrush.  McKay  and  Southerland  placed  their  men 
fhespan-r  so  as  to  command  both  ends  of  the  pass,  and  the  whole  of 
the  sweep  of  the  crescent.  Without  impatience,  motionless 
as  the  trunks  of  the  trees  which  hid  them,  they  watched  the  move- 
ments of  the  enemy.  When  the  arms  were  stacked  and  the  Span- 
iards were  dispersed  in  groups  taking  the  needed  food  and  rest,  hi- 
larious at  success  achieved,  buoyant  with  the  hope  of  success  to  come, 
there  appeared  suddenly,  among  the  green  foliage,  the  concerted  signal 
of  two  Highland  caps,  raised  in  the  air  at  different  points.  Instantly 
a  volley  of  bullets  was  poured  in  among  the  Spaniards  ;  then  another 
and  another.  The  wildest  panic  seized  all  who  were  not  killed  by 
these  first  discharges.  Some  plunged  into  the  woods,  only  to  be  cut 
clown  by  the  broadswords  of  the  Highlanders ;  some  fled  to  the  en- 
trances, to  be  met  there  by  death  from  an  unseen  foe.  On  one  side 
were  a  few  men,  cool,  collected,  out  of  sight ;  on  the  other,  there  were 
many  more,  but  in  the  open  roadway,  crazed  with  fear,  unarmed, 
hopeless  of  escape,  falling  with  every  shot.  The  disparity  of  numbers 
counted  for  nothing.  Oglethorpe  was  near  enough  to  hear  the  din  of 
battle,  but  not  near  enough  to  take  part  in  it.  The  firing  had  ceased 


1742.] 


SLAUGHTER   OF   THE   SPANIARDS. 


163 


before  he  reached  the  defile ;  as  he  rode  rapidly  into  it  at  the  head  of 
his  men,  he  was  received  with  the  shouts  of  the  victorious  and  trium- 
phant Highlanders  and  the  yells  of  the  Indians,  who  stood  wiping 
swords  and  tomahawks,  surrounded  by  the  dead  and  dying  Spaniards, 
of  whom  hardly  a  man  had  escaped. 

No  further  attempt  to  approach  the  town  by  land  was  made  by  the 
Spaniards,  and  an  advance  two  or  three  days  afterwards,  by  water,  in 
boats,  was  easily  repulsed  by  the  batteries,  and  by  a  judicious  disposi- 
tion of  men  along  the  shores  of  the  bay.  Disaster  produced  dissen- 
sion among  the  invaders  ;  the  Havana  troops  separated  from  those  of 
Florida  and  encamped 
by  themselves.  Ogle- 

thorpe  with  his  small     |        ^       ^SBIS..    "^"^^^^^^^^^ 
but  active  force  har- 
assed both  and  kept 
both  upon  the  defen- 


The  Spaniards  surprised. 

sive.  A  proposed  assault  upon  one  of  them  with  six  hundred  men  at 
the  dawn  of  day,  was  defeated  by  a  Frenchman,  who  gave  the  alarm 
by  a  premature  discharge  of  his  gun  and  made  his  escape  into  the 
Spanish  camp.  The  misfortune  was  the  greater  that  the  man  knew 
exactly  the  condition  and  resources  of  the  English,  and  it  was  of  the 
last  importance  that  of  these  the  Spaniards  should  be  kept  in  igno- 
rance. By  the  boldness  and  energy  of  Oglethorpe  they  were  persuaded 
that  he  was  much  stronger  than  he  really  was  ;  he  might  be  over- 
whelmed by  mere  force  of  numbers,  should  the  Spanish  commanders 
know  that  their  fleet  of  thirty-two  vessels  and  force  of  5,000  men 
were  opposed  by  only  800  men.  To  meet  this  new  emergency  he  re- 
sorted to  a  desperate  bit  of  strategy,  suggested  by  the  treachery  of 
this  Frenchman. 


164  GEORGIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

He  immediately  wrote  a  letter  of  instructions  to  the  French  deserter 
Oglethorpe -a  which  assumed  him  to  be  a  spy  sent  into  the  Spanish  camp. 
stratagem.  jje  or(jere(j  \}\m  to  (Jo  a]l  in  his  power  to  persuade  the  Span- 
ish commander  that  the  English  could  muster  only  a  few  hundred 
men,  and  that  Frederica  was  really  almost  defenceless  ;  and  he  was  to 
offer  to  pilot  the  fleet  up  the  river  that  it  might  thereby  be  detained,  if 
only  for  three  days  longer.  For,  the  spy  was  to  let  drop  no  hint  of  the 
immediate  approach  of  reinforcements  of  2,000  men  from  Charles- 
ton, according  to  dispatches  which,  it  was  declared,  had  been  received 
since  his  departure ;  nor  that  an  English  fleet  was  off  the  coast  bound 
to  Frederica,  and  that  Admiral  Vernon  was  on  the  way  to  attack  St. 
Augustine.  Should  the  Frenchman  strictly  and  skillfully  obey  these 
directions,  he  was  assured  that  the  reward  already  paid  him  should  be 
doubled.  This  dispatch  was  put  into  the  hands  of  a  Spanish  prisoner, 
who  was  liberated  and  heavily  bribed  on  condition  that  he  would 
faithfully  deliver  it  to  the  Frenchman  on  his  arrival  in  the  camp  of 
the  enemy.  This  man,  as  Oglethorpe  had  presumed  he  would  be, 
was  taken  before  the  Spanish  commander  when  he  reached  the 
Spanish  lines,  was  questioned  as  to  his  escape,  and,  on  giving  some 
confused  account  of  himself,  was  searched  and  the  letter  taken  from 
him. 

Desperate  as  the  expedient  was,  it  happened  to  be  well-timed  and 
successful.  A  stratagem  was  suspected,  but  so  much  credence  was 
given  to  the  intercepted  letter  that  the  Frenchman  was  put  in  irons, 
and  the  Spaniards  delayed  all  movements,  awaiting  further  tidings. 
Meanwhile,  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  days,  some  passing  vessels 
were  seen  off  the  coast,  which  the  Spaniards  at  once  believed  to  be 
the  advance  guard  of  that  English  fleet  which,  as  the  letter  hinted, 
was  approaching.  The  Spanish  general  permitted  himself  to 

Retreat  of          ,       ,  J r     .  i  •  i      i  l.          •    J  U         J  1  • 

the  span-       doubt  no  longer ;  his  whole  army  was  hurried  on  board  his 
vessels ;    all   sail   was    crowded    for   St.  Augustine ;    Ogle- 
thorpe, audacious  to  the  last,  chasing  them  out  of  the  sound  with  his 
few  boats  —  too  few  and  too  small  to  venture  upon  an  attack. 

So  the  formidable  invasion  came  to  this  sorrv  and  almost  ludicrous 

w 

conclusion.  But  the  brave  and  skilful  defence  of  Frederica,  never- 
theless, had  saved  two  provinces  to  the  British  Crown,  and  while  it 
covered  the  Spanish  commander  with  disgrace  and  ridicule,  it  gave 
great  military  renown  to  the  English  general.  It  was  the  last  serious 
attempt  of  Spain  to  establish  her  assumed  right  to  territory  north  of 
the  Altamaha  River,  though  for  the  twenty  years  longer  that  Florida 
remained  a  Spanish  province,  hostilities  occasionally  broke  out  —  as 
when  in  1743  Oglethorpe  again  carried  the  war  to  the  very  walls  of 
St.  Augustine. 


1744.] 


OGLETHORPE'S    RETURN   TO  ENGLAND. 


165 


A  year  after  that  expedition  he  returned  to  England  —  recalled  by 
his  own  request.     Calumnies  had  gone  before  him  from  ene- 
mies in  Charleston  ;  one  Cook,  whom  he  had  made  a  lieu-  final  return 
tenant-colonel  at  Frederica,  but  who  had  deserted  his  com- 
mand on  the  plea  of  illness  just  before  the  late  invasion,  had  followed 
with  accusations  which  jealousy  and  malice  had  at  length  formulated. 
The  General's  pecuniary  affairs  also  demanded  his   personal   presence 
in  London,  as  they,  not  through  any  fault  of  his  own,  but  through  the 
official  stupidity  at  the  war-office,  had  become  entangled. 

That  there  was  nothing  in  all  these  complications  that  he  could  not 
and  did  not  satisfactorily  answer,  is  plain  enough  from  the  fact  that 
Cook  was  dismissed 
from  the  service  when 
his  accusations  were 
brought  before  a  board 
of  generals,  and  that 
Oglethorpe  in  the 
course  of  two  years 
was  raised  to  the  rank 
of  major-general  and 
two  years  later  to  that 
of  lieutenant-general. 
He  did  not  again  re- 
turn to  Georgia,  but 
his  warm  interest  in 
the  colony,  to  the  end 
of  his  long  life  of 
ninety-six  years,  nev- 
er wavered.  And  to 
the  very  end  of  his 
days  he  preserved  the 
vigor  of  character 
which  always  distin- 
guished him,  though 
he  gradually  retired 
from  public  life.  Not  long  before  his  death  Horace  Walpole  wrote 
of  him  :  "  His  eyes,  ears,  articulation,  limbs,  and  memory  would  suit 
a  boy,  if  a  boy  could  recollect  a  century  backwards ;  "  and  added  — 
"  two  years  and  a  half  ago  he  challenged  a  neighboring  gentleman 
for  trespassing  on  his  manor."  This  vigorous  old  man  was  often  a 

1  The  inscription  on  the  old  print  from  which  this  is  copied,  states  that  the  sketch  was 
made  at  the  sale  of  Dr.  Johnson's  library,  Feb.  18,  1785,  "  where  the  Gent-nil  was  reading 
a  book  he  had  purchased,  without  spectacles." 


Oglethorpe  in   1785.     From  a  Sketch  from   Life.1 


166  GEORGIA.  [CHAI-.  VI. 

conspicuous  figure  in  the  literary  society  of  London  in  the  last  quarter 
of  the  eighteenth  century  ;  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  ven- 
erable Samuel  Rogers,  the  poet,  whom  many  living  persons  knew, 
remembered  that  when  a  young  man  he  met  General  Oglethorpe,  the 
founder  of  the  last  English  colony  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  America, 
at  the  sale  of  Dr.  Johnson's  library. 

After  Oglethorpe's  return  to  England  the  Trustees  appointed  a 
president,  —  William  Stephens,  who  had  been  the  colonial  secretary, 
—  with  a  council  of  four  for  the  government  of  Georgia.  The  popu- 
lation at  this  time  numbered  only  about  fifteen  hundred  persons,  and 
these  were,,  for  the  most  part,  poor  and  not  prospering.  If  their 
energy  and  industry  had  not  been  misdirected  in  the  attempt  to  make 
condition  of  s^^  an(^  wine  the  staple  products  of  the  country,  they  were 
the  colony.  at  jeagt  disappOinted  and  depressed  at  the  failure  of  the 
experiment.  No  great  degree  of  prosperity,  moreover,  was  possible 
so  long  as  the  settlers  were  harassed  with  a  constant  dread  of  their 
Spanish  and  Indian  neighbors,  and  were  so  frequently  engaged  in 
active  warfare.  The  tenure  of  land,  though  the  laws  of  the  Trustees 
were  modified  from  time  to  time,  continued  unwise  and  burdensome ; 
and  the  discontent  was  almost  universal  at  the  prohibition  of  the  use 
of  slave  labor,  which  was  so  obviously  a  source  of  wealth  in  the 
neighboring  province.  There  was  little  agriculture,  almost  no  com- 
merce, an  impoverished  people,  and  a  feeble  government.  The  bril- 
liant promises  of  the  early  days,  if  they  were  still  promulgated,  were 
no  longer  believed  in,  and  few  new  emigrants  sought  homes  in  a 
colony  where,  though  prosperity  was  possible,  it  was  certain  that  a 
struggle  with  many  difficulties  awaited  them. 

In  1752,  the  Trustees,  convinced  at  length,  by  an  experience  of 
surrenderor  twenty  years,  of  their  inability  to  govern  profitably  for  them- 
the  charter.  seives  or  wisely  for  the  colonists,  voluntarily  surrendered  the 
charter  to  the  Crown.  An  incident  had  occurred,  however,  five  years 
before,  at  Savannah,  which  came  near  making  this  surrender  a  barren 
concession.  A  new  claimant  appeared  to  a  portion,  if  not  the  whole, 
of  the  territory  of  Georgia,  and  had  the  title  been  established  the 
province  would,  probably,  have  passed  out  of  the  control  of  the 
Trustees. 

That  Mary  Musgrove,  the  half-breed  Indian  whom  Oglethorpe  had 
AD  Indian  made  his  interpreter  on  his  first  arrival,  had,  after  losing 
insurrection,  successively  two  English  husbands, —  John  Musgrove,  Jr., 
and  Jacob  Mathews,  —  married  the  Rev.  Thomas  Bosomworth,  a 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  at  one  time  a  missionary  of  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  Christian  Knowledge,  and  a  chaplain 
tc  Oglethorpe.  He  relinquished  these  clerical  duties  for  the  more 


1752.]  THE  HALF-BREED   QUEEN  MARY.  167 

profitable  calling  of  the  propagation  of  cattle,  and  ran  in  debt  for 
large  herds  in  South  Carolina.  The  islands  of  Ossabaw,  St.  Cather- 
ine's, and  Sapelo,  and  some  portion  of  the  mainland,  had  been  re- 
served to  the  Creeks  by  treaty.  Bosomworth  induced  the  Indians 
to  cede  these  lands  to  him  for  the  accommodation  of  his  herds.  But 
the  enterprise  was  a  failure,  and  it  is  conjectured  that  he  then  re- 
sorted to  a  desperate  measure  to  relieve  himself  from  debt.  It  is 
quite  as  likely,  however,  that  the  acquisition  of  so  much  influence 
over  the  Indians  as  to  induce  them  to  part,  for  a  trifling  consideration 
in  merchandise,  with  three  islands,  extending  nearly  half  the  length 
of  the  coast  of  Georgia,  suggested  the  more  ambitious  scheme  to  be 
accomplished  by  their  help. 

Mary  Musgrove,  Mary  Mathews,  Mary  Bosomworth,  —  as  she  was 
known  by  the  surnames  of  her  successive  husbands,  —  was  a  woman 
of  mark,  as  an  interpreter  and  a  trader,  and  had  acquired,  in  both 
callings,  great  power  over  the  Indians.  She  had  as  well,  it  seems, 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  Oglethorpe,  who,  on  leaving  Georgia, 
presented  her  with  a  diamond  ring.  Apparently  she  was  quite  con- 
tent for  years  to  act  as  the  common  friend  of  both  races,  being  allied 
to  both  by  blood,  —  serving  one  by  selling  it  peltries,  the  other  by 
selling  it  rum. 

But  as  the  wife  of  Bosomworth,   and   probably   at  Bosomworth's 
instigation,  she  aspired  at  length  to  higher  things.     She  was,  or  pre- 
tended to  be,  descended  from  a  royal  race  of  Creeks,  and,  calling  the 
chiefs  of  that  nation   together,  she  persuaded  them  to  acknowledge 
her  as  their  queen.    She  asserted  her  sovereign  right  to  all  the  Queen 
territory  of  the  Upper  and  Lower  Creeks ;  she  disavowed  all  Mary- 
allegiance  to  the  King  of  England,  whose  equal  she  assumed   to  be ; 
and  she  sent  a  messenger  to  Savannah  demanding   from  President 
Stephens  a  recognition  of  her  claims,  and  threatening,  in  case  of  re- 
fusal, the  extirpation  of  the  colony. 

If  all  this  had,  at  first,  a  ludicrous  aspect,  it  became  serious  enough 
when  Mary  approached  the  town  at  the  head  of  a  large  body  of 
Indians.  The  whole  militia  of  the  province  —  which  numbered,  how- 
ever, only  a  hundred  and  seventy  men  —  had  been  hastily  called  to- 
gether. A  company  of  horse  was  sent  out  to  meet  the  invaders,  who 
were  so  far  overawed  by  the  determination  of  the  English  that  they 
agreed  to  lay  down  their  arms  before  entering  Savannah.  But  the 
approach  of  this  Indian  host,  though  unarmed,  was  quite  enough  to 
excite  the  utmost  apprehension  among  the  people.  At  the  head  of 
this  formidable  procession  marched  Bosomworth,  in  his  canonical 
robes,  and  Mary  the  queen.  These  royal  persons  were  followed  by 
the  principal  chiefs  of  the  Creek  nation ;  and  behind  them  came  the 
tumultuous,  hideous,  howling,  raging  mob  of  naked  savages. 


168  GEORGIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

The  courage  and  sagacity  of  President  Stephens  and  his  council 
were  sufficient  for  the  emergency.  No  signs  of  fear  were  seen  in 
Captain  Jones  and  the  provincial  militia  as,  drawn  up  in  the  public 
square,  they  received  the  warriors,  who  so  many  times  outnumbered 
them,  with  an  artillery  salute  of  fifteen  guns.  It  is  questionable, 
however,  whether  a  general  massacre  could  have  been  long  averted 
had  not  the  savages  been  induced  to  lay  down  their  arms  at  the  out- 
set. In  the  course  of  the  negotiations,  which  continued  for  several 
days,  there  were  moments  of  exasperation  and  fury,  when  Bosom- 
worth,  enraged  at  imprisonment,  and  Mary,  wild  with  drink,  could 
easily  have  led  their  followers,  had  they  been  armed,  to  carry  out  the 
threat  of  extermination.  But  the  leaders  were  separated,  as  much  as 
possible,  at  first  by  persuasion  and  then  by  force,  from  the  chiefs,  and 
these  at  length  were  brought  to  a  calmer  and  more  rational  state  of 
mind.  A  judicious  use  of  presents  is  never  without  influence  upon 
the  contemplative  Indian,  and  Stephens  brought  it  to  bear  with  great 
skill  upon  the  Creek  chieftains.  Then  he  reminded  them  —  of  what 
they  must  have  known  even  better  than  he  —  that  there  was  no 
strain  of  royal  blood  in  the  veins  of  Mary,  but  that  this  daughter  of 
some  common  squaw  by  some  obscure  white  man  was,  when  "  in  a 
poor,  ragged  condition,  neglected  and  despised  by  the  Creeks,"  raised 
into  consideration  by  Oglethorpe,  as  an  interpreter.  Bosomworth 
stormed  and  threatened  when  he  saw  his  followers  fall  away  from 
him  ;  Mary,  in  a  drunken  rage,  stamped  upon  the  ground  which,  she 
swore  by  her  Maker,  was  all  hers ;  she  cursed  Oglethorpe 
rectionS8up-  and  his  treaties,  and  devoted  to  speedy  death  all  these  white 
intruders.  More  than  once  there  was  imminent  danger 
that  the  Indians,  inflamed  by  these  appeals,  would  put  the  threats 
in  execution ;  but  the  chiefs,  at  last  convinced  that  the  claims  of  this 
half-breed  impostor  to  be  their  queen  were  preposterous,  and  that 
her  husband  was  a  liar  and  a  cheat,  consented  to  disperse. 

The  province  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  English  without  fur- 
ther molestation  from  the  Bosomworths,  who,  however,  seem  to  have 
been,  in  later  years,  persons  of  some  consideration,  notwithstanding 
their  attempt  to  set  up  a  throne  for  themselves  within  the  dominions 
of  the  King.  It  is  quite  possible  that  they  still  retained  so  much 
influence  over  the  Creeks  as  to  be  too  formidable  for  punishment, 
while  the  colony  remained  too  feeble  to  risk  a  struggle. 

The  growth  of  the  colony  was  slow  even  for  ten  years  after  it  be- 
came a  royal  province.  When,  in  1754,  a  convention  of  delegates 
from  the  several  colonies  assembled  at  Albany  and  resolved  to  form 
a  union,  Georgia  was  not  represented ;  and  in  the  apportionment  of 
representation  in  the  proposed  Congress  under  that  plan,  no  members 


1754-1762.] 


GROWTH   OF   THE   COLONY. 


169 


were  assigned  to  that  province.  It  was  only,  probably,  because  the 
colony  was  too  insignificant  for  recognition.  It  was  not  till  at  the 
Peace  of  Paris,  in  1762,  when  Florida  was  ceded  to  England,  and 
Georgia  relieved  from  the  presence  of  a  dangerous  neighbor,  that  it 
gave  much  promise  of  prosperity. 


Seal  of  the  Georgia  Trustees. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

PENN'S  RETURN  TO  AMERICA. — ASPECT  OF  PHILADELPHIA  AT  THAT  TIME. —  BIRTH 
OF  HIS  SON  JOHN.  —  PENN'S  SEAT  AT  PENNSBURY  MANOR.  —  RELATIONS  TO  THE 
INDIANS  AND  HIS  NEIGHBORS.  —  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  —  FRIENDS  AND  SLAVERY. 
—  THE  EARLIEST  ABOLITIONISTS.  —  NEW  CHARTER  GRANTED.  —  JOHN  EVANS 
APPOINTED  DEPUTY-GOVERNOR.  —  PENN'S  TROUBLES  WITH  THE  FORDS,  AND  HIS 
ARREST  AND  IMPRISONMENT.  —  NEGOTIATIONS  FOR  SALE  OF  THE  PROVINCE  TO 
THE  CROWN.  —  TROUBLES  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  —  OPPOSITION  PARTY  UNDER  DAVII> 
LLOYD. —  RESISTANCE  TO  TAXATION.  —  COMPLAINTS  AGAINST  JAMES  LOGAN. — 
CONDUCT  OF  WILLIAM  PENN,  JR. —  DEATH  OF  THE  PROPRIETOR. — GOVERNOR 
GOOKIN  ON  MILITARY  REQUISITIONS  AND  OATHS.  —  SIR  WILLIAM  KEITH'S  AD- 
MINISTRATION.—  VISITS  OF  THE  YOUNGER  PENNS.  —  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 

WHEN  William  Penn  returned  to  his  colony  in  December,  1699, 
it  was  after  an  absence  of  fifteen  years.  The  Meetings  of 
"*  Friends  in  England  parted  from  him  with  the  warmest  as- 
surances of  their  respect  and  affection,  and  on  his  arrival  in 
the  colony  he  was  received  with  enthusiasm.  It  was  not  thought  too 
trifling  an  incident  by  a  Friend  l  to  record  in  his  journal  that  some 
young  men  —  belonging,  no  doubt,  to  the  world's  people  —  deter- 
mined to  salute  the  arrival  of  the  Governor  at  Chester  by  the  firing 
of  cannon.  So  unseemly  a  demonstration  was  forbidden  by  the  mag- 
istrates ;  the  salute,  nevertheless,  was  made  with  two  small  field- 
pieces,  but  done  so  clumsily  that  the  premature  discharge  of  one  of  the 
guns  so  mutilated  the  young  man  who  was  loading  it  that  he  after- 
ward died.  It  is  an  evidence  of  the  paternal  relations  which  Penn 
maintained  with  his  people,  that  in  the  Proprietary  Cash  Book  of  that 
period  are  several  entries  of  sums  paid  "for  B.  Bevan,  of  Chester, 
who  lost  his  arm,"  closing  with  one  of  "  April  20th,  for  his  funeral 
charges." 

The  colony  was  not  yet  nineteen  years  old.  Penn  was  thinking  of 
it  as  he  last  saw  it,  when,  before  embarking  in  England,  he  said  he 
was  about  to  return  to  "the  American  Desart."  But  he  found  a  prov- 
ince of  more  than  twenty  thousand  inhabitants,  "  a  noble  and  beau- 

1  Thomas  Story's  Journal. 


1699.] 


PHILADELPHIA. 


171 


' 


. 


pbU 


tiful  city  "  of  "  above  two  thousand  houses,  and  Most  of  them  stately 
and  of  Brick,  generally  three  stories  high,  after  the  Mode 
in  London."  There  were  "  curious  wharfs,"  as  "  Chestnut 
Street  Wharf,  High  Street  Wharf,  Mulberry  Street  Wharf, 
Vine  Street  Wharf,"  and  from  one  of  these  the  goods  were  carted 
into  the  city  "  under  an  Arch  over  which  part  of  the  street  is  built." 
There  were  many  lanes  and  alleys  leading  from  Front  Street  to  Sec- 
ond Street ;  and 
some  of  the  princi- 
pal streets  were 
named  Walnut, 
Vine,  Mulberry, 
Chestnut,  Sassa- 
fras, "  taking  their 
names  from  the 
abundance  of  those 
Trees  that  former- 
ly grew  there."  1 
Those  familiar 
with  Philadelphia 
will  observe  how 
accurately  names 
and  localities  have 
been  preserved  for 
nearly  two  cen- 
turies. Penn  took 

,          ,  .  The  "Slate  Roof  House," 

tor    niS    tOWn     reSl-  as  it  appeared  just  before  its  demolition  in  1868. 

dence   the    "  Slate 

Roof  House,"  as  it  was  called,  in  Second  Street,  at  the  southeast 
corner  of  Norris's  Alley.    In  this  house  was  born  John,  the  Birth  of 
oldest  son  of  his  second  wife,  Hannah  Callowhill,  —  the  only  John  Penn- 
one  of  his  children  born  in  this  country,  and  called  therefore,  by  way 
of  distinction,  "The  American."    But  his  principal  residence,  to  which 
he  removed  in  the  spring,  was  his  country-seat,  Pennsbury  Manor, 
four  miles  above  Bristol,  on  the  Delaware  River. 

Eighteen  years  before,  during  his  first  visit,  a  mansion  had  been 
built  at  this  place,  spacious  and  well  appointed,  and  worthy   pennsbury 
of  its  surrounding  domain  of  about  six  thousand  acres.    Here  Manor- 
he  lived  in  a  style  to   which,  as   an  English   country  gentleman,  he 
was  accustomed,  and  here  he  exercised  the  large  hospitality  and  in- 
fluence becoming  a  provincial  proprietor  and  governor.     From  the  gen- 

1  An  Historical  ami  Geographical  Account  of  the  Province  and  Country  of  Pennsylvnniit, 
etc.     By  Gabriel  Thomas. 


172  PENNSYLVANIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

tie  eminence  on  which  the  house  stood,  an  avenue  of  poplars  led  from 
the  broad  porch  down  a  terraced  bank  to  the  river ;  the  grounds  were 
laid  out  in  lawns  and  gardens  ;  here  and  there  were  planted  trees 
from  other  parts  of  the  country,  not  indigenous  to  Pennsylvania  ; 
there  were  nurseries  of  carefully  selected  fruit  and  forest  trees,  and 
shrubs  imported  from  England  to  enrich  the  native  flora  ;  and  the 
most  beautiful  of  the  native  flowers  were  gathered  together  in  beds. 
Only  a  few  acres  of  the  surrounding  land  were  cultivated,  and  the  old 
woods  were  preserved,  except  where  it  was  necessary  to  cut  a  road,  or 
where  some  added  charm  could  be  given  to  the  landscape  by  opening 
a  vista  to  a  stretch  of  the  river,  or  to  a  distant  view.  In  the  river,  at 
the  foot  of  the  poplar  avenue,  swung  with  the  current  the  barge  of 
the  Governor.  Near  the  house  were  buildings  for  all  the  convenient 
offices  of  such  a  residence,  —  a  detached  kitchen  and  larder  ;  a  wash- 
house  ;  a  brewery,  that  there  should  be  no  want  of  the  national  Eng- 
lish beverage,  of  more  universal  use  at  that  period,  at  all  meals,  than 
tea  and  coffee  are  now  ;  stables  for  imported  blooded  horses,  and  Eng- 
lish carriages.  In  the  spacious  rooms  of  the  mansion,  where  Hannah 
Penn — described  as  "a  delicate,  pretty  woman,  sitting  beside  the 
cradle  of  her  infant  "  l  —  bore  gentle  sway,  were  signs  of  luxurious 
living  not  then  quite  common  in  the  colonies,  in  satin-covered  and 
plush-covered  cushions,  in  damask  and  camblet  curtains,  in  silk  blan- 
kets, in  plate  and  Tunbridge  ware,  and  blue  and  white  china,  and  in 
damask  table-cloths  and  napkins,  in  high-backed  chairs  and  spider- 
legged  tables  of  solid  oak.2  Everywhere,  without  and  within,  were  the 
evidences  of  cultivated  tastes,  and,  combined  with  them,  the  purpose 
was  apparent  of  so  using  wealth  that  it  should  conduce  to  the  enjoy- 
ment and  the  good  of  others.  For,  there  was  no  ostentation  and  no  as- 
sumption of  superiority.  In  the  great  hall  of  the  house  were  always 
standing  long  tables,  at  which  a  hearty  welcome  awaited  all  comers, 
ins  hospi-  whites  or  Indians,  whether  of  high  or  low  degree.  There  is 
taiity.  a  tradition  of  one  entertainment  given  to  the  Indians,  when 

they  were  so  numerous  that  it  was  necessary  to  lay  the  tables  out-of- 
doors,  in  the  great  poplar  avenue,  and  one  hundred  roasted  turkeys 
were  provided  as  a  part  only  of  the  ample  bill  of  fare.3  When  among 
the  Indians,  in  their  own  villages,  Penn  ate  of  their  simple  food  with 
as  much  heartiness  as  he  entertained  them  at  his  own  more  elaborate 
feasts.  Nor  did  he  disdain,  on  such  occasions,  to  join  in  their  sports, 
to  try  a  fall  with  their  athletes  in  a  wrestling  match,  or  to  put  his  agil- 
ity against  theirs  in  a  contest  in  running  or  jumping.  No  English- 

1  Logan  MSS.  cited  in  Januey's  Life  of  Penn. 

8  Private  Life  of  William  Penn.     By  J.  F.  Fisher.     Memoirs  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa. 

3  Fisher's  Private  Life. 


1699.]    PENN'S  RELATIONS   WITH   INDIANS  AND  NEIGHBORS.   173 

man  ever  so  gained  their  good-will,  affection,  and  respect,  and  there 

was  no  more  affectation  or  condescension  in  the  familiarity 

with  which  he  associated  with  them,  than  there  was  want  wuiTthe'iS? 

of  sincerity  in  the  uniform  policy  of  absolute  justice  which 

he  made  the  rule  of  all  his  dealings  with  the  natives.     A  perfectly 

sincere  simplicity  in  all  his  social  intercourse  was  a  marked  trait  of 

Penn's  character.     He  was,  apparently,  incapable  of  comprehending 

that  mere  worldly  position  made  any  difference  between  him  and  his 

fellow-men.     So  well  was  this  understood  among  those  who  saw  bis 


Penn  and  Rebecca  Wood. 


daily  life,  that  only  a  stranger  would  remark  upon  it,  as  a  thing 
worthy  of  notice,  that  Penn  i*ode  up  to  the  Darby  Meeting  with  a 
young  girl,  —  Rebecca  Wood,  —  whom  he  had  picked  up  on  the  way, 
sitting  behind  him  on  the  bare  back  of  the  horse,  her  naked  legs  and 
feet  dangling  down  by  the  well-clothed  limbs  of  the  Governor.     Yet 
he  was  by  no  means  indifferent  to  personal  appearance  and  Personal 
presence ;  the  ladies  at  Pennsbury  Manor  wore  silk  gowns  h»blts- 
and  jewelry  ;  its  master  was  careful  of  the  texture  of  his  garments, 


174 


PENNSYLVANIA. 


[€HAP.  VII. 


and,  if  his  coat  was  plain,  it  probably  fitted  nicely  to  his  shapely 
figure  ;  he  did  not  think  it  essential  to  the  purity  of  the  inner  man 
that  the  outer  man  should  be  clothed  in  the  leather  breeches  of 
George  Fox  ;  in  one  year,  while  in  America,  he  bought  four  wigs,  at 
a  cost  of  twenty  pounds. 

Pennsbury  Manor  he,  no  doubt,  sincerely  hoped  would  be  his  per- 
Retnrn  to  maneiit  home  for  the  rest  of  his  days,  and  that  there  he  could 
England.  devote  himself  to  the  government  of  his  province,  and  the 
development  of  its  resources.  Within  two  years,  however,  he  was 


Pennsbury   Manor. 

recalled  to  England,  where  his  presence  was  absolutely  necessary  to 
defend  his  proprietary  rights  against  a  proposition  introduced  by  bill 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  to  bring  all  the  provinces  under  the  direct 
government  of  the  Crown.  "My  heart  is  among  you,"  he  said,  in  a 
speech  to  the  Assembly,  "  as  well  as  my  body,  whatever  some  people 
may  please  to  think :  and  no  unkindness  or  disappointment  shall  (with 
submission  to  God's  providence)  ever  be  able  to  alter  my  love  to  the 
country,  and  resolution  to  return  and  settle  my  family  and  posterity 
in  it."  But  now,  he  thought,  he  could  best  serve  the  colony  and  him- 
self on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean.  It  was,  however,  a  final  leave- 
taking.  He  never  again  saw  his  beloved  Pennsylvania ;  anxiety,  per- 
plexity, and  pecuniary  embarrassments  vexed  the  remainder  of  his 
days,  and  of  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  he  doubtless  looked  back 
to  the  two  years  passed  at  Pennsbury  Manor,  as  the  only  happy  ones. 


1701.]  PENN'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  175 

Nor  did  he  ever  cease,  so  long  as  disease  left  him  the  power  of  volition, 
to  long  for  a  return  to  that  tranquil  residence  on  the  banks  of  the 
Delaware,  and  to  hope  that  he  might  escape  to  it  from  the  cares  and 
vexations  which  beset  his  declining  years. 

He  left  the  colony  late  in  October,  1701,  and,  though  his  visit  had 
not  been  long,  he  had  reason  to  reflect  with  satisfaction,  upon  the 
good  that  had  resulted  from  it.  Many  laws  were  passed  at  his  sug- 
gestion, which  were  directly  conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
and  where  his  influence  was  less  direct,  it  was  not  less  permanent. 
A  minute  of  the  Philadelphia  Monthly  Meeting  in  1700,  says  :  "  Our 
dear  friend  and  Governor  laid  before  the  meeting  a  concern  that  hath 
laid  upon  his  mind  for  some  time,  concerning  the  negroes  and  Indians." 
He  had,  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  attempted  to  procure  the  passage 
of  a  law,  —  which  the  Assembly  rejected,  —  for  regulating  the  mar- 
riage of  negroes  ;  for  his  theory  seems  to  have  been,  that  a  care  for 
the  moral  well-being  of  the  slave  was  the  imperative  duty  of  the 
master  —  a  theory  which  was  the  high-road  to  doubting  whether  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave  was  not  itself  immoral.  That  it  was 
absolutely  unchristian,  inhuman,  and  impossible  of  existence  in  a 
high  state  of  civilization,  had  no  more  occurred  to  Penn,  as  a  self-evi- 
dent proposition,  than  to  anybody  else  a  hundred  and  eighty  years  ago. 
He  was  himself  an  owner  of  slaves  ;  the  very  possibility  of  penna 
such  a  relation,  however,  seems  to  have  impelled  him,  in-  8laTeholder- 
stinctively  and  irresistibly,  to  be  rid  of  it.  In  a  will,  written  just 
before  he  sailed  for  England,  he  gives  freedom  to  his  blacks,  but  from 
the  phraseology  in  which  the  bequest  is  conveyed,  it  is  apparent  that 
it  was  meant,  not  to  confer  a  new  benefit,  but  to  guard  one  already 
bestowed.  The  benefit  of  the  doubt,  in  his  mind,  —  if  he  had  only 
come  to  the  point  of  doubt,  —  as  to  the  morality  of  slave-holding,  he 
gave  to  his  slaves.1 

Twelve  years  before  this  date,  the  German  Friends  about  German- 
town  had  sent  to  the  Monthly  Meeting  a  strong  though  quaint  Friends  and 
remonstrance  against  "  the  traffic  of  men-body."  "  We  slaTery- 
hear,"  they  said,  "  that  the  most  part  of  such  negroes,  are  brought 
hither  against  their  will  and  consent,  and  that  many  of  them  are  stolen. 
Now,  though  they  are  black,  we  cannot  conceive  there  is  more  liberty 

to  have  them  slaves,  as  [than]  it  is  to  have  other  white  ones 

But  to  bring  men  hither,  or  to  rob  and  sell  them  against  their  will, 

we   stand   against Pray,   what   thing   in   the    world   can   be 

done  worse  toward  us,  than  if  men  should  rob  or  steal  us  away,  and 
sell  us  for  slaves  to  strange  countries ;  separating  husbands  from  their 
wives  and  children.  Being  now  this  is  not  done  in  the  manner  we 

1  See  Janney's  Life  of  Penn. 


176  PENNSYLVANIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

would  be  done  at,  therefore,  we  contradict,  and  are  against  this  traffic 
of  men-body."  The  memorial  was  referred  to  the  Quarterly  Meeting, 
and  by  that  to  the  Yearly  Meeting  of  Philadelphia.  This  body  de- 
clined to  give  a  positive  judgment  upon  the  question  of  the  "unlaw- 
fulness and  lawfulness  of  buying  and  keeping  negroes." 

Discussion,  however,  was  not  silenced.  Eight  years  afterward 
—  1696  —  in  response  to  the  remonstrances  of  subordinate  meetings, 
the  Yearly  Meeting  advised,  "  that  Friends  be  careful  not  to  encour- 
age the  bringing  in  of  any  more  negroes ;  and  that  such  as  have 
negroes  be  careful  of  them,  bring  them  to  meeting,  and  have  meetings 
with  them  in  families,  and  restrain  them  from  loose  and  lewd  living, 
as  much  as  in  them  lies,  and  from  rambling  abroad  on  first  days  [Sun- 
days]." So  also  about  the  same  time  the  schismatics  who  followed 
George  Keith,  charged  Friends  that  "  they  should  set  their  negroes  at 
liberty,  after  some  reasonable  time  of  service."  1 

The  minds  and  the  consciences  of  Friends  had  been  thus  prepared 
for  a  further  consideration  of  the  condition  of  the  Africans, 

Growth  of 

opposition  when  the  subject  was  again  brought  before  the  Yearly  Meet- 
ing and  the  Assembly  by  Penn.  It  may  have  been  partly 
because  there  was  no  precedent  for  such  legislation  as  he  proposed, 
that  the  Assembly  declined  to  accede  to  his  wishes.  The  good  seed, 
nevertheless,  did  not  perish,  though  it  was  of  slow  growth.  It  was 
observed  by  Clarkson,  that  when,  in  later  years,  the  preponderating 
influence  in  the  Assembly  was  on  the  side  of  the  Proprietary  and  the 
Friends,  legislation  leaned  to  mercy.2  But  so  long  as  Pennsylvania 
remained  an  English  colony,  every  attempt  to  interdict  the  importation 
of  African  slaves  was  promptly  suppressed  by  the  English  government. 

The  convictions  of  Friends,  however,  and  their  action  in  Yearly 
Meetings,  were  beyond  the  reach  even  of  the  Crown.  For  the  next 
half  century  these  bodies  "  bore  their  testimony  ;  "  first,  upon  the 
responsibility  of  those  Friends  who  were  slaveholders,  for  the  moral 
condition  of  their  slaves ;  then,  against  any  increase  of  their  number 
by  importation  or  purchase ;  and  finally,  in  1755,  a  rule  of  discipline 
was  adopted  for  the  disownment  of  all  members  of  the  Society  who 
persisted  in  the  practice  of  buying  negroes.  Three  years  afterward, 
Friends  were  advised  to  manumit  their  slaves ;  in  1776  this  advice 
was  enforced  by  discipline,  and  Friends  were  no  longer  permitted  to 
retain  their  membership  if  they  continued  slaveholders. 

To  this  final  and  conclusive  step,  the  Society  was  gradually  led  by 

1  The  Friend,  vol.  xvii.     Bettle's  Notices  of  Negro  Slavery.     Mem.  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.,  vol. 
v.    Janney's  Life  of  Penn.     Moore's  Notes  on  the  History  of  Slavery  in  Massachusetts  —  the 
fullest  and  most  thorough  history  of  the  progress  of  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  in  this  coun- 
try in  the  eighteenth  century,  that  has  ever  been  written. 

2  History  of  the  Slave  Trade. 


1701.]  EARLY   ABOLITIONISTS.  177 

the  persistent  and  earnest  preaching  and  writing,  through  many  years, 
of  Burling,  Sandiford,  Lay,  Woolman,  Benezet,  and  other  earnest 
persons,  though  the  forerunner  of  them  all  was  William  Southeby,  a 
Roman  Catholic,  of  Maryland,  who  wrote  against  slavery  before  1700, 
and  in  a  petition  to  the  Assembly,  in  1712,  prayed  for  the  3^  Abo_ 
abolition  of  slavery  in  Pennsylvania.  It  may  be  that  others  Iltloni6te- 
preceded  or  followed  Friends  in  that  humane  work,  but,  as  a  religious 
society,  they  were  the  earliest  Abolitionists.  It  was  impossible,  more- 
over, that  the  agitation  among  them,  which  continued  for  three  quar- 
ters of  a  century,  till  a  Quaker  could  no  longer  be  a  slaveholder, 
should  not  influence  the  character  of  the  people  at  large,  and  the 
legislation  of  the  province.  As  the  feeling  against  slavery  grew 
stronger  year  by  year  in  the  Yearly  Meeting,  so  from  time  Aboution  of 
to  time  hostility  to  the  slave  trade  showed  itself  in  the  As- 
sembly ;  and  at  length  in  1780,  Pennsylvania,  first  of  all 
the  States,  passed  an  act  for  the  gradual  emancipation  of  all  the 
slaves  within  its  jurisdiction. 

But  if  generations  of  the  unfortunate  Africans  were  to  perish  be- 
fore the  benevolent  purposes  of  Penn  bore  perfect  fruit,  his 
policy  in  regard  to  the  Indians  was  firmly  established  before  traty  with 
he  left  for  England.  A  new  treaty  was  made  in  April, 
1701,  with  the  assembled  chiefs  of  all  the  leading  Indian  tribes  within 
his  territory,  securing  to  them  and  all  their  subjects  the  protection 
and  the  privileges  of  the  colonial  laws,  without  restriction.  "  That 
the  said  Indians,"  it  promised,  "  shall  have  the  full  and  free  privileges 
and  immunities  of  all  the  said  laws,  as  any  other  inhabitant ;  they 
duly  owning  and  acknowledging  the  authority  of  the  Crown  of  Eng- 
land and  government  of  this  province."  And  "  that  if  any  of  the 
said  Indians,  by  means  of  evil-minded  persons  and  sowers  of  sedition, 
should  hear  any  unkind  or  disadvantageous  reports  of  the  English, 
....  such  Indians  shall  send  notice  thereof  to  the  said  William 
Penn,  his  heirs  or  successors,  or  their  lieutenants,  and  shall  not  give 
credence  to  the  said  reports  till  by  that  means  they  shall  be  fully 
satisfied  concerning  the  truth  thereof;  and  that  the  said  William 
Penn,  his  heirs  and  successors,  or  their  lieutenants  ....  do  the  like 
by  them."  The  immediate  cause  of  this  treaty  was  a  question  as  to 
the  title  of  lands  on  the  Susquehanna  which  Penn  had  purchased  of 
the  Five  Nations,  through  Governor  Dongan,  of  New  York.  The 
Susquehanna  and  the  Conestoga  Indians  denied  the  right  of  the  Five 
Nations  to  sell  these  lands ;  but  by  this  treaty  Penn's  title  was  con- 
firmed, and  a  bond  of  friendship  established  between  these  tribes  and 
the  Pennsylvanians,  which  remained  unbroken  for  more  than  half  a 
century. 

VOL.  in.  12 


178 


PENNSYLVANIA. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


Before  his  departure,  the  Governor  gave  to  the  colony  a  new  char- 
A  new  ch«r-  ^er»  under  which  it  continued  to  be  governed  till  it  ceased  to 
***•  be  a  proprietary  province.  It  gave  to  an  annual  Assem- 

bly, consisting  of  four  persons  out  of  each  county,  power  to  propose 
bills,  a  privilege  hitherto  belonging  to  the  Governor,  to  judge  of  the 
qualifications  and  elections  of  their  own  members,  and  to  "  sit  upon 
their  own  adjournments,"  with  "  all  other  powers  and  privileges  of  an 
Assembly,  according  to  the  rights  of  the  free-born  subjects  of  Eng- 
land, and  as  is  usual  in  any  of  the  King's  plantations  in  America." 
With  great  reluctance,  Penn  affixed  to  this  new  constitution  his  con- 
sent that  the  province  and  the  territories  —  the  lower  coun- 
ware  coun-  ties,  now  the  State  of  Delaware  —  should  have  separate  leg- 
islatures, in  case  they  should  not  afterward  "agree  to  join 
together  ;  "  but  he  made  one  last  effort,  just  before  his  going,  to  rec- 

oncile the  two,  and  sent  to  the 
representatives  of  both  an  ap- 
peal which  was  as  strong  as  it 
was  brief. 

"  Friends,"  he  wrote,  "  your 
union  is  what  I  desire  ;  but  your 
peace  and  accommodating  one 
another  is  what  I  must  expect 
from  you  :  The  reputation  of  it 
is  something  ;  the  reality,  much 
more.  And  I  desire  you  to  re- 
member and  observe  what  I 
say  :  Yield  in  circumstantials  to 
preserve  essentials;  and  being 
safe  in  one  another,  you  will 
always  be  so  in  esteem  with  me. 
Make  me  not  sad,  now  I  am 
going  to  leave  you  ;  since  it  is 
for  you,  as  well  as  for  your  Friend  and  Proprietary  and  Governor, 
William  Penn." 

One  more  act  remained  before  his  leaving  —  the  grant  of  a  special 
municipal  charter  to  the  town  of  Philadelphia.  This  done, 
and  Andrew  Hamilton  appointed  deputy,  with  Penn's  warm 
friend,  James  Logan,  who  had  come  with  him  from  England, 
as  secretary,  the  founder  of  Pennsylvania  sailed  down  the  Delaware 
as  the  first  year  of  the  new  century  drew  to  a  close,  and  looked  his 
last  upon  the  field  of  his  "  Holy  Experiment." 

It  was  December  when  he  reached  home.  In  February  the  King 
died,  and  with  the  reign  of  Anne,  the  daughter  of  the  man  who  had 


Andrew   Hamilton. 


tertop 


1702.]  PENN'S  TROUBLES.  179 

never  been  false  to  Penn,  whatever  treachery  he  showed  to  others, 
the  Quaker  came  again  into  court  favor.  The  proceedings  against  his 
charter  were  soon  put  aside  ;  and  had  political  opposition  at  home 
been  all  he  had  to  fight  against,  he  would  have  gone  back  to  America 
completely  victorious  and  prosperous. 

But  he  had  still  worse  things  to  face.     New  tidings  reached  him 
continually  of  the  dissensions  which  had  been  renewed  in 
Pennsylvania  as  soon  as  he  had  left  it.     The  old  dispute  be-  from  Pe 


tween  the  legislatures  broke  out  still  more  violently  ;  and, 
besides  this,  he  was  overwhelmed  with  complaints  from  the  people  of 
petty  grievances.  The  new  municipal  government  of  Philadelphia 
did  not  work  well  ;  there  was  great  opposition  to  the  payment  of  the 
quit-rents  now  falling  due  ;  Deputy-governor  Hamilton  died  at  the 
end  of  1702,  and  was  succeeded  the  next  year  by  John  Evans,  whose 
earlier  administration  proved  eminently  unsatisfactory  ;  in  John  Evang 
brief,  for  several  years  Penn  heard  little  else  than  bad  news  Governor- 
from  the  province,  or  from  Philadelphia,  or  from  personal  friends  ; 
while  his  private  affairs  prevented  his  returning  to  restore  the  pros- 
perity his  presence  might  have  brought  about. 

For,  from  a  long  accumulation  of  causes,  his  private  property  was 
found  to  be  embarrassed  almost  beyond  remedy.     The  steward,  Philip 
Ford,  to  whom  he  had  intrusted  his  affairs  in  England,  had  died  just 
after  Penn's  arrival  at  home,  and  out  of  the  confusion  in  which  the 
property  was  left,  it  soon  became  clear  that  Penn  had  been  defrauded 
of  large  sums.     But  the  worst  feature  of  the  matter  only  appeared 
when  Ford's  widow  —  apparently  a  woman  with  as  few  scru-  Penn,g 
pies  as  her  husband  —  brought  forward  a  lien  on  the  Ameri-  |fIjthbthe 
can  province,  which  Penn  had  given  her  husband  as  security   Fords- 
for  money  advanced  at  the  time  of   the  second  voyage  to  America. 
This  indebtedness  Penn  had  paid  off  by  installments,  but  these  Ford 
had  carefully  refrained  from  crediting  in  the  accounts,  while  the  ap- 
parent indebtedness  had  been  increased  to  X  12,000,  by  computations 
of  compound  interest  every  six  months,  at  six  and  eight  per  cent.     The 
accounts,  which  Penn    had  carelessly  received  without  examination, 
would   not  —  wrote  Thomas  Callowhill,  a  merchant  of    Bristol,  and 
Penn's   father-in-law  —  "had    they   been    corrected   in    time,    have 
amounted  to  a  tenth  part  of  what  they  now  are."     But  evidence  of 
Penn's  payments  was  wanting,  and  when  the  widow  and  the  son  of 
Ford  brought  an  action  against  the  proprietor,  judgment  was  given  in 
their  favor.     Penn  was  arrested,  and  lodged  in    the  Fleet  Pennin 
Prison,  where  he  remained  for  nine  months.     The  object  of  Fleetprison- 
the  Fords  was  to  get  possession  of  the  province,  but  despairing  of 
that  after  several  hearings  before  the  Lord  Chancellor,  they  consented 


180  PENNSYLVANIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

to  a  compromise.     To  meet  the  payment  of  the  sum  agreed  upon  — 
which  was  nearly  eight  thousand  pounds  —  Penn  mortgaged 

Proposes  to  .  ,       r    i  •      <•    •         i 

sen  his  prov-  the  pi'ovince  to  several  01  his  friends,  and  entered  into  nego- 
tiations for  its  sale  to  the  Crown.  These  dragged  on  for 
several  years,  and  were  about  to  be  concluded,  when  an  attack  of  pa- 
ralysis, from  which  he  never  recovered,  though  he  lived  several  years 
longer,  rendered  him  incapable  of  business,  and  the  negotiations  came 
to  an  end. 

The  disappointments  and  anxieties  of  this  period,  which  covered  the 
last  vigorous  years  of  Penn's  life,  were  aggravated  by  the 

Administra-  .  °L  J          ...  ,&&  * 

tionofGov-    unsatistactory  condition  of  affairs  in  the  colony.     Evans s  ad- 

ernor  Evans.          ...  .  " 

ministration  was  unwise  and  oppressive.  He  refused  to  pass 
a  reasonable  judiciary  bill,  presented  by  the  Assembly  ;  he  undertook 
to  enroll  a  militia  force,  and  foolishly  aroused  the  people  of  Phila- 
delphia by  a  false  alarm  of  the  approach  of  a  French  fleet,  keeping 
the  town  under  arms  for  two  nights,  and  pretending  that  the  conster- 
nation of  the  inhabitants  was  the  best  proof  of  the  necessity  for  mili- 
tary preparations ;  he  imposed  burdens  upon  commei-ce,  by  compel- 
ling all  vessels  to  report  at  New  Castle,  and  those  inward  bound  to  pay 
an  impost  duty  ;  he  granted  a  commission  for  privateering ;  and  finally 
he  brought  reproach  upon  the  colony  by  the  scandals  of  his  private 
life.  A  vigorous  opposition  party  was  aroused  against  him,  of  which 
An  opposi-  David  Lloyd,  a  Quaker  lawyer,  was  the  able,  but  not  always 
tion  party.  scrupulous  leader.  He  united  all  who  were  not  Friends,  and 
many  who  were,  against  the  proprietary  party  under  Evans.  And  it 
was  a  Quaker  who  resisted  and  effectually  put  an  end  to  the  Lieu- 
tenant-governor's attempt  to  raise  a  revenue  by  subjecting  vessels 
coining  up  the  Delaware  to  a  tonnage  duty. 

Richard  Hill,  who  was  one  of  the  Council,  determined  to  test  the 
question,  and  went  down  the  river  in  a  vessel  of  his  own,  bound  to 
Barbadoes.  As  he  approached  the  fort  at  New  Castle,  two  of  his 
friends,  Isaac  Morris  and  Samuel  Preston,  who  had  embarked  with 
him  to  carry  out  his  purpose  —  both  also  Quakers,  and  merchants  of 
great  respectability  —  went  on  shore  and  informed  the  commander, 
John  French,  that  Hill's  vessel  was  standing  out  to  sea,  and  would  re- 
fuse either  to  report  to  him  or  to  submit  to  the  fine  for  not  reporting. 

French  attempted  to  bring  the  vessel  to  by  opening  fire  from 
the  Deia-  his  guns,  and  a  shot  tore  through  her  mainsail.  But  Hill 

himself  had  taken  the  helm,  and  the  Philadelphia  stood 
steadily  on  her  way.  French  threw  himself  into  an  armed  boat  and 
pursued  her,  and  as  he  came  alongside,  Hill  ordered  a  rope  to  be 
thrown  him.  As  the  commander  stepped  on  deck  he  was  secured 
and  taken  to  the  cabin  as  a  prisoner,  and  his  boat  was  cut  adrift. 


1702.] 


TROUBLES   ON   THE  DEL  AAV  ARE. 


181 


French  begged  to  be  released,  and  appealed  to  Hill's  pity  by  declar- 
ing he  was  ill.  "If  that  be  the  case,"  answered  the  Quaker,  "why 
didst  thou  come  here  ?  " 

From  the  fort,  Evans  himself  had  witnessed  this  defiance  of  his  au- 
thority, and  in  great  rage 
gave  chase  in  another  boat. 
At  Salem  he  overtook  the 
Philadelphia,  where  Hill  had 
come  to  anchor,  and  taken 
French  on  shore.  It  hap- 


Passing  New  Castle. 

pened  that  Lord  Cornbury  of  New  York  was  at  that  place,  who,  as 
Governor  of  New  Jersey,  claimed  to  have  jurisdiction  over  the  waters 
of  the  lower  Delaware.  The  parties  appeared  before  him,  and  his  de- 
cision, that  the  free  navigation  of  the  river  should  not  be  interrupted, 
was  submitted  to,  because  it  could  not  at  the  moment  be  resisted. 
Logan,  the  secretary  of  the  province,  afterward  waited  upon  him,  and 
he  wrote  to  Penn,  "  I  entered  fully  into  the  matter,  and  protested,  in 
thy  name  and  behalf,  against  these  proceedings,  as  being  not  only 
against  thy  inclinations,  but  evasive  of  thy  rights.  I  found  he  had 
resented  the  matter  to  our  Governor,  and  will  resent  it  home  to  the 
Lords  of  Trade."  But  Hill's  summary  method  of  resentment  had 
already  settled  the  question.  Others  followed  his  example.  He,  with 
a  large  number  of  the  merchants  of  Philadelphia,  waited  upon  the 


182 


PENNSYLVANIA. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


Assembly,  and  that  body  unanimously  adopted  an  address  to  the 
Governor,  in  which  they  declared  that  the  "  arbitrary  actions  and 
oppressions  complained  of,"  were  an  abuse  of  the  Queen's  authoi-ity, 
an  open  defiance  of  the  royal  grant,  that  they  "obstruct  our  lawful 
commerce,  and  invade  our  liberties,  rights,  and  properties,  and  under 
the  pretence  of  fortifying  the  river  for  the  service  of  the  Queen,  com- 
mit hostilities  and  depredations  upon  her  liege  people."  The  Dela- 
ware was  henceforth  free  of  any  exactions  from  Governor  Evans. 

"  These  are  very  cloudy  times  indeed,  and  to  us  a  day  of  severe 
complaints  trial,"  Logan  wrote  to  Penn.  The  secretary  was  a  man  of 
j^lefLo-  great  integrity,  and  too  wise  to  approve  in  all  things  of  the 
gan-  course  and  character  of  Evans.  But  his  official  relations  to 

the  Lieutenant-governor,  and  his  efforts  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the 

Proprietor,  made  his  position  one 
of  great  difficulty.  He  was  ac- 
cused of  having  aided  Evans  in 
his  senseless  scheme  of  spreading 
the  alarm  of  the  approach  of  a 
French  fleet,  when  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Philadelphia  were  thrown 
into  so  great  a  panic  that  many 
abandoned  their  houses  to  escape 
into  the  country,  injuring  and 
destroying  their  household  goods 
in  attempting  to  conceal  them. 
For  this  and  other  wrong-doings 
of  Evans,  Logan  was  made  the 
scape-goat.  An  indictment  was 
found  against  him,  and  though 
nothing  came  of  it  in  the  end,  it 
was  a  cause  of  great  vexation 
both  to  him  and  his  warm  friend,  the  Proprietor.  But  though  the 
"  cloudy  times "  pervaded  all  this  period  of  Penn's  life,  there  were 
intervals  of  sunshine.  The  conduct  of  the  opposition  sometimes  pro- 
Lloyd's  let-  duced  reaction,  and  the  proprietary  party  would  attain  again 
tertoPenn.  a  major;ty  jn  the  Assembly.  Tims,  David  Lloyd  overshot 
the  mark  when  he  sent  to  England  —  to  Penn  and  other  Friends  there 
—  a  memorial  setting  forth  the  real  grievances  of  the  colonists  with 
great  exaggeration  and  more  bitterness  ;  and  this  he  signed  as  Speak- 
er of  the  Assembly,  though  it  had  never  been  submitted  to  that  body. 
It  had  been  proposed  to  send  an  official  remonstrance  to  the  Proprie- 
tor, and  to  ask  for  the  redress  of  certain  wrongs ;  but  when  it  became 
known  that  Lloyd  had  taken  advantage  of  this  purpose  to  address 


James   Logan. 


1702.]  WILLIAM   PENX,  JR.  183 

Penn  in  a  tone  that  the  facts  did  not  justify,  and  with  an  assump- 
tion of  authority  that  did  not  belong  to  him,  the  revulsion  of  feeling 
was  very  great,  both  in  England  and  in  Pennsylvania.1 

But  through  all  this  period,  Penn's  heaviest  trial  was,  doubtless,  a 
private  grief,  —  a  private  grief,  however,  that  carried  with  it 

mi  •  <•  Conduct  of 

much  public  scandal.  Ihis  was  the  conduct  of  his  eldest  wiiiiam 
son,  William,  whom,  two  or  three  years  after  his  return  to 
England,  he  had  sent  to  America.  This  youth  had  given  great  prom- 
ise of  future  worthlessness  at  home,  but  his  father  hoped  that  new 
associations  and  surroundings,  and  a  removal  from  old  temptations, 
might  work  a  change  in  him.  He  changed  his  skies,  but  not  his  mor- 
als. The  sober  influence  of  Logan  and  other  friends  of  his  father  in 
the  colony  weighed  nothing  with  young  Penn,  while,  for  his  name's 
sake,  he  received  for  a  while  more  tender  consideration  than  should 
have  been  accorded  him  in  his  many  offences  against  society.  'In  the 
Lieutenant-governor,  Evans,  he  found  a  boon  companion  after  his 
own  heart,  and  a  useful  friend  in  bringing  him  safely  through  many 
an  awkward  dilemma.  Strange  and  disgraceful  stories  were  told  of 
his  conduct  —  women  in  men's  dress  in  the  streets  ;  midnight  orgies  ; 
his  increasing  following  and  evil  influence  among  the  young  men  of  the 
town  —  until  at  last  he  was  engaged  in  a  tavern  brawl,  and  arrested 
for  beating  a  constable.  Evans  was  his  companion  on  this  occasion, 
and  getting  the  worst  in  the  fight,  sought  safety  by  declaring  his  rank. 
His  assailant  had  already  recognized  him,  but  pretending  that  he  did 
not  believe  the  assertion,  beat  him  all  the  more  for  scandalizing  the 
Governor  by  suggesting  the  possibility  of  his  being  engaged  in  such 
disgraceful  proceedings.  Evans,  however,  managed  to  escape,  and 
attempted  afterward  to  rescue  Penn  by  proposing  to  exercise  his 
official  authority  over  the  court.  But  the  court  disregarded  this,  and 
brought  an  indictment  against  Penn.  The  young  man,  in  a  rage,  de- 
clared he  would  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  Quakers  or  with  Penn- 
sylvania ;  he  renounced  the  Quaker  doctrines  ;  he  denied  the  right  of 
the  provincial  magistrates  to  try  him  ;  and  shortly  afterward  was  al- 
lowed —  probably  very  willingly  by  those  who  loved  his  father  —  to 
sail  for  home,  leaving  creditors  everywhere  behind  him,  and  selling, 
before  his  departure,  all  the  property  his  father  had  given  him  in  the 
colony. 

1  Great  use  is  made  in  the  Historical  liecieic  of  Pennsylvania  —  attributed  to  Franklin  — 
of  this  assumed  memorial  or  letter  of  the  Assembly.  No  intimation  is  siven  that  Llovd 
had  put  his  name  as  Speaker  to  a  document  of  his  own  writing,  which  the  Assembly  had 
never  seen,  which  had,  indeed,  no  existence  till  after  the  House  was  dissolved.  Yet  it 
seems  hardly  possible  that  the  author  of  the  Rerieiv  should  not  have  known  that  the  docu- 
ment, so  far  as  it  pretended  to  have  any  other  authority  than  that  of  Lloyd  aloiie,  was  little 
better  than  a  forgery. 


184 


PENNSYLVANIA. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


Ruscombe. 


Penn  lived  till  1718,  but  the  last  six  years  of  his  life  were  passed 
in  a  childlike  tranquillity,  on  his  estate  at  Ruscombe,  his  mind  seri- 
ously impaired  and  his  physical  vigor  almost  destroyed  by 
iand      the  show  progress   of   disease.     By  his  will   he   left  all  his 
property  in   England  and  Ireland  to  his  son,  William,  in 
spite  of  his  misconduct;  but  the  proprietorship  in  the  American  col- 

<;4£s*'  /**         onv   he   left   to 

j.     _  _  ~«dh»  th;ee    trustees< 

"to  dispose 
thereof  to  the 
Queen,  or  any 
other  person,  to 
the  best  advan- 
tage they  can ; " 
and  to  pay  over 
the  proceeds  to 
still  other  trus- 
tees, for  the  ben- 
efit —  after  the 
payment  of  all 

debts  and  the  conveyance  of  some  land  to  each  of  William's  children 
—  of  his  children  by  his  second  wife.  To  her  he  left  his  personal 
property,  and  made  her  sole  executrix.  As  might  have  been  expected, 
William  entered  on  a  contest  of  the  will ;  and  the  whole  matter, 
going  into  chancery,  resulted  ultimately  in  the  confirmation  to  the 
younger  branch  not  only  of  the  part  the  will  had  left  to  them  di- 
rectly, but  of  the  right  of  government  as  well,  which  had  been  left  to 
be  disposed  of  to  the  Crown.  The  proposal  to  surrender  the  prov- 
ince was  never  seriously  revived  again  ;  and  John,  Thomas,  and  Rich- 
ard Penn,  the  heirs,  and  their  mother,  the  executrix,  became  pro- 
prietors in  the  political  as  in  the  ordinary  sense,  till  the  American 
Revolution  dispossessed  the  survivors. 

The  colony,  meanwhile,  had  grown  in  prosperity  and  numbers,  — 
Politic^  dis-  a  growth  never  seriously  checked  by  the  political  dissensions 
Pe"i'u°"i-of  between  Governor  and  Assembly,  which  continued,  not  only 
TBUW.  so  jong  as  penn  Jived,  but  till  his  sons  Avere  old  men  and 

Pennsylvania  became  a  State.  These  dissensions  had  their  root  in 
differences  hard  to  reconcile,  —  the  vital  principles  of  Friends  in  re- 
gard to  oaths  and  the  lawfulness  of  war,  and  the  conflicting  interests 
of  Proprietaries  and  people.  The  conflict  was  more  or  less  deter- 
mined, more  or  less  successful  on  one  side  or  the  other,  as  the  Quaker 
element  was  sometimes  stronger  or  Aveaker  in  the  Assembly,  or  as  the 
Governor  might  possess  strong  powers  of  persuasion,  or  command  re- 


1709.] 


POLITICAL   DISSENSIONS. 


185 


spect  and  obedience  by  weight  of  intellect  or  will.  Evans  possessed 
none  of  these  qualities,  and  it  was  a  relief  to  the  colonists  when 
Charles  Gookin  succeeded  him  in  1709.  His  administration  was,  at 
least,  without  scandal,  but  the  differences  to  which  we  allude  marked 
it  from  its  beginning  to  its  close. 

The  Governor  was   uncompromising  in  character,  uncompliant  in 
temper.    In  obedience  to  the  Queen,  he  made,  soon  after  his  Governor 
arrival,  a  requisition  upon   the  Assembly  for  the  quota  of  ^t"^.8 
the  province  in  men,  to  be  used  against  the  French,  or  their  reiu>SItlons- 
equivalent  in  money.     The  Assembly,  with  every  assurance  of  their 
devotion  and 
loyalty     to    the 
Crow  n,  were 
constrained,    i  n 
obedience  to 
the  religious 
scruples  of    the 
larger  portion  of 
the  people  of  the 
province,  to  de- 
cline contribut- 
ing directly  for 
the   support   of 
war  ;   but  they 
were  willing,  on 

their  part,  to  make  a  present  to  the  Queen.  By  this,  or  some  similar 
device,  the  colony  continued  to  do  its  part  in  support  of  war  meas- 
ures, for  many  years  ;  but  any  Governor  with  a  weakness  for  casuistry 
could  find  in  the  subject,  as  Gookin  did,  an  opportunity  for  contro- 
versy which  could  be  made  to  last,  if  he  chose,  a  man's  natural  life. 
"  We  did  not  see  it,"  said  Isaac  Norris,  "  inconsistent  with  our  prin- 
ciples to  give  the  Queen  money,  notwithstanding  any  use  she  might 
put  it  to,  that  not  being  our  part,  but  hers."  There  was  little  of  this 
conciliatory  spirit  and  common-sense  view  of  the  subject  on  the  Gov- 
ernor's part;  he  demanded  more  than  the  Assembly  thought  the  prov- 
ince could  afford  to  give,  and  his  demands  were  always  an  unpleasant 
reminder  to  Friends  that  he  was  asking  them  to  violate  their  princi- 
ples, and  not  merely  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  government. 

He  raised  subsequently  a  more  serious  question,  by  refusing  to  ac- 
cept an  affirmation  instead  of  an  oath  from  Quakers.     No- 
where in  the  whole  range  of  history  could  a  moot-court  find  tionof 
a  question  with  so  many  points  for  the  exercise  of  ingenuity, 
with  so  many  unanswerable  arguments  on  both  sides,  and  one  so  abso- 


Grave  of  Perm. 


186 


PENNSYLVANIA. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


lately  impossible  of  settlement  by  any  process  of  reasoning  on  either 
one  side  or  the  other.  The  charter  granted  by  Charles  II. ;  acts  of 
Parliament  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  of  William  III. ;  orders  of 
the  Queen  in  council  under  Anne  ;  act  of  Parliament  in  the  first  of 
George  1.  ;  acts  of  the  Colonial  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania ;  decisions 
by  the  Governor  and  the  Chief  Justice  of  New  Jersey,  —  from  all 
these  sources  were  drawn  arguments,  precedents,  confirmations,  in- 
consistencies, and  incompatibilities,  by  a  judicious  and  skilful  use  of 
which  it  could  be  shown  that  one  side  was  perfectly  impregnable  till 

the  other  side  was  shown  to  be 
equally  so,  and  that  neither,  ac- 
cording to  the  laws,  had  a  leg  to 
stand  upon.  As  a  question  of  con- 
troversy, moreover,  it  had  this 
great  charm  :  practically  it  was 
of  the  smallest  consequence,  if  let 
alone,  but,  if  meddled  with,  its 
capability  of  mischief  could  only 
be  measured  by  the  possibility  of 
its  interminable  discussion.  Goo- 
kin  fortunately  retired  in  1717, 
silenced,  though  not  convinced,  by 
the  last  message  on  the  subject 
from  the  Assembly.  Sir  William 
Keith,  the  next  Governor,  had 
the  good  sense  not  to  reopen  it ; 
Friends  went  on  quietly  as  before,  affirming  instead  of  swearing,  when 
an  oath  was  required  as  a  qualification  for  any  civil  position  ;  and  in 
1725  the  question  was  once  more  taken  up,  but  only  to  be  settled  for- 
ever by  a  positive  act  of  the  Assembly,  confirmed  by  an  act  of  Par- 
liament, permitting  affirmation,  and  releasing  Friends  from  oaths. 

Keith,  either  because  his  sympathies  were  really  with  the  Friends, 
or  because  he  thought  it  politic  to  govern  his  conduct  in  accordance 
with  the  known  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the  people,  yielded  gracefully, 
rather  than  contended,  on  these  vexed  questions.  For,  that  Friends 
Avould  yield  nothing  on  a  question  of  conscience,  they  gave  him  to 
understand  at  the  outset  of  his  administration.  The  Assembly  joined 
with  him,  at  his  accession,  in  an  address  to  the  King,  which  was  writ- 
ten in  the  style  used  by  subjects  when  speaking  to  a  sovereign.  But 
they  were  also  careful  to  note  upon  their  minutes,  that,  though  they 
agreed  "  as  to  the  matter  and  substance  of  the  said  address,"  they  ex- 
cepted  to  "  the  plural  term  you  ; "  they  would  have  preferred  to  say, 
41  thy  most  dutiful  subjects,"  rather  than  "  your  Majesty's  ;  "  —  "  may 


Sir  William   Keith. 


1723.] 


SIR   WILLIAM   KEITH'S   ADMINISTRATION. 


187 


it  please  thee  to  know,"  rather  than  "  may  it  please  your  Majesty." 
The  Governor  clearly  had  not  forgotten  this  significant  evidence  of 
the  sturdy  persistence  of  Friends,  when,  some  years  afterward,  the 
Quarterly  Meeting  sent  him  a  remonstrance  upon  an  incident  in  the 
Court  of  Chancery.  He  had  ordered  the  hat  to  be  lifted  Adherenee 
from  the  head  of  John  Kinsey  —  an  eminent  Quaker  law-  tofl3r«S« 
yer,  and  afterward  Chief  Justice  —  before  he  was  permitted  PnnclPles- 
to  address  the  court.  Keith  had  the  good  sense  to  see  that  ceremony 
had  better  yield  to  conscience,  and  thereupon  ordered,  in  response  to 
the  memorial  of  the  Quarterly  Meeting,  that 
Friends  might  wear  their  hats  where  they  would, 
"  as  an  act  of  conscientious  liberty,  of  right,  ap- 
pertaining to  the  religious 
pei-suasion  of  said  peo- 
Jv.  pie."  The  deter- 
mined and  inde- 
pendent spirit 
shown  in  these  af- 
fairs of  compara- 
tively small  mo- 
ment, marked  the 
character  of  the 
people  in  the  long 
and  almost  mo- 
notonous struggle 
of  later  years  be- 

•/ 

twee n  successive 
Governors  and  Assemblies.  The  time  came  when  the  province  had 
little  other  history  than  the  constant  demand  of  chief  magistrates  for 
means  to  aid  in  the  general  defence  of  the  colonies  in  the  French  and 
Indian  wars,  and  the  firm  purpose  of  the  Assemblies  to  contribute  to 
that  end  in  their  own  way,  and  to  compel  the  Proprietaries  to  bear 
their  share  of  the  burden. 

That  struggle  began  during  Keith's  administration,  in  a  proposi- 
tion from  him  to  raise  money  by  the  issue  of  a  paper  cur-  Paper 
rency,  in  1723.     The  project  was  discussed  with  great  thor-   Ulouey- 
oughness,  and  its  possible  consequences  wisely  foreseen.     It  was  diffi- 
cult in  the  then  condition  of  the  colonies  to  avoid  a  resort  to  this 
measure,  and  still  more  difficult,  when  the  first  step  was  taken,  to 
avoid  the  inevitable  evil  consequences.     The  Assembly  of  Pennsyl- 
vania was  cautious.     "•  It  was  provided,"  says  a  report  made  to  the 
Crown  fifteen  years  later,  and  after  several  other  issues  had  been  made 
on  the  same  plan,  "  that  a  real  estate,  in  fee  simple,  of  double  the 


Keith's   Mansion   House      Graeme   Park,  near  Philadelphia. 


188  PENNSYLVANIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

value  of  the  sum  lent  out,  should  be  secured  in  an  office  created  for 
that  purpose  ;  and  that  the  sums  so  let  out  should  bu  annually  repaid 
into  the  office,  in  such  equal  sums  or  quotas  as  would  effectually  sink 
the  whole  capital  sum  of  forty-five  thousand  pounds  within  the  time 
limited  by  the  aforesaid  acts."  In  1739,  when  this  report  was  made, 
the  amount  of  these  bills  that  had  been  issued  was  altogether  about 
£87,000,  of  which  some  £80,000  were  outstanding  in  the  province; 
yet  so  favorably  did  they  stand  in  comparison  witli  some  other  colo- 
nial paper  money,  that  the  £80,000  of  provincial  currency  had  a 
value  of  £50,196  in  sterling  money.  This  comparative  value,  how- 
ever, steadily  decreased  in  later  years  with  the  additional  issues  of 
paper  currency. 

Keith  was  removed  from  the  office  of  Governor  in  1725,  but  he  re- 
Keith'src-  maiiied  a  citizen  of  the  province,  and  was  chosen  a  repre- 
sentative to  the  Assembly.  If  he  had  lost  the  confidence  of 
the  Proprietoi's,  the  people  seem  to  have  believed  that  his  administra- 
tion of  the  affairs  of  the  colony  was  for  its  good. 

It  was  a  period  of  great  prosperity,  so  great  that  it  does  not  seem 

to  have  been  retarded  by  an  act  passed  in  the  fifth  year  of 

of  I'enusyi-  Patrick  Gordon's  administration,  which  succeeded   Keith's. 

vania.  T-»         i  •  •  i          •  •      • 

By  this  act  it  was  attempted  to  impose  restrictions  upon  im- 
migration,1 by  taxing  every  immigrant  five  shillings  on  his  settlement 
in  the  province.  It  was  ostensibly  designed  "  to  prevent  poor  and 
impotent  persons  from  being  imported,"  but  is  said  to  have  been  dic- 
tated by  alarm  at  the  large  numbers  that  arrived  from  Ireland  and 
from  Germany,  and  seriously  threatened  the  supremacy  of  the  Friends 
in  the  colony  which  they  regarded  as  especially  their  own.  That  the 
prosperity  of  Pennsylvania  was  great  enough  to  bear' without  injury 
this  check  to  population,  appears  from  a  statistical  account  published 
this  year  (1731).  "That  Pennsylvania,"  the  writer  says,2  "which 
has  not  any  peculiar  staple  (like  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  Maryland), 
and  was  begun  to  be  planted  so  late  as  1680,  should  at  present  have 
more  white  inhabitants  in  it  than  all  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  both 
the  Carolinas,  is  extremely  remarkable.  And  although  the  youngest 
colony  on  the  continent,  they  have  by  far  the  finest  capital  city  of  all 
British  America;  and  the  second  in  magnitude  ;"  and  adds,  after 
a  long  enumeration  of  the  colony's  products  and  profitable  industries  : 
"  The  Pennsylvanians  build  about  2,000  tons  of  shipping  a  year  for 
sale,  over  and  above  what  they  employ  in  their  own  trade,  which 
may  be  about  6,000  tons  more.  They  send  great  quantities  of  corn 
to  Portugal  and  Spain,  frequently  selling  their  ships  as  well  as  cargo; 
and  the  produce  of  both  is  sent  thence  to  England,  where  it  is  always 

1  Grahaine,  vol.  Hi.,  pp.  134  aud  135.  *  Cited  by  Proud,  vol.  ii.,  p.  203. 


1732.] 


VISITS   OF   THOMAS    AND  JOHN   PENN. 


1  *i» 


laid  out  iu  goods  and  sent  home  to  Pennsylvania They  receive 

no  less  than  4,000  to  6,000  pistoles  from  the  Dutch  isle  of  Curac.oa 
alone,  ....  and  they  trade  to  Surinam,  ....  and  to  the  French  part 

of  Hispaniola  as  also  to  the  other  French  sugar  islands From 

Jamaica  they  sometimes  return  with  all  money  and  no  goods 

And  all  the  money  they  can  get  ....  is  brought  to  England,  .... 
which  has  not  for  many  years  past  been  less  than  £150,000  per  an- 
num." The  Pennsylvania  trade  with  the  other  colonies  this  writer 
estimates  at  £ 60,000  a  year. 

In  1732,  Thomas  Penn,  the  founder's  second  son  by  his  second 
marriage,  arrived  in  Philadelphia  ;   but,  though   the  people 

.        ,    i  •  ,.    ..  .   ,  Visit,  of  the 

received  him  cordially',  HIM  he  lived  tor  years  among  them,  younger 
he  was  never  popular,  and  had  but  little  personal  influence. 
The  case  was  very  different  with  his  elder  brother  John  —  the  senior 
Proprietor  —  who  came  in  1734. 
His  personal  magnetism,  cordial 
interest  in  the  province,  and  ex- 
ceptional ability,  recalled  his  fath- 
er; but  a  renewed  attempt  by  the 
Baltimores  to  revive  the  old  claim 
to  Delaware,  called  him  again  to 
England,  as  William  Penn  had 
once  been  called,  after  a  year's 
residence,  and  he  did  not  return. 
In  the  year  after  his  departure 
(1736),  Governor  Gordon  died ; 
and  after  an  interval,  during  which 
the  venerable  Logan  acted  as  chief 
magistrate,  George  Thomas  fol- 
lowed in  the  governorship  in  1738, 
—  beginning  a  nine  years'  admin- 
istration, which,  while  it  showed  his  own  ability  to  be  inferior  to 
Gordon's,  was  not  more  eventful  or  less  quietly  prosperous. 

If  the  general  annals  of  the  province  yield  but  little  which  it  is  of 
interest  to  trace,  much  happened  in  the  Quaker  city  —  "  the  finest 
capital  of  British  America"  —  during  these  quiet  years,  that  was  as 
important  as  though  it  had  come  under  the  head  of  political  events. 
One  of  the  foremost  characters  in  American  history  was  coming  into 
public  notice,  and  beginning  his  career  in  ways  as  various  Benjalllin 
as  his  abilities.     Benjamin  Franklin,  —  whose  first  visit  to  the   f.™^1"^ 
town  had  been  made  when  his  quarrel  with  his  elder  brother  "'*• 
at  Boston  had  sent  him  out,  a  printer's-boy  of  seventeen,  to  seek  his 
fortune,  —  had  returned   to    Philadelphia   in   1726,  and  made  it  his 


Patrick  Gordon. 


190 


PENNSYLVANIA. 


[CllAP.  VII. 


home.  The  story  of  his  first  short  stay  there  is  familiar ;  his  arrival 
on  a  Sunday  morning  in  1723,  and  his  traditional  walk  through  the 
streets  eating  his  breakfast  of  a  roll  of  bread  ;  his  unprosperous  en- 
gagement with  the  printer  Keimer;  his  encouragement  by  Governor 
Keith,  and  his  voyage  to  London,  only  to  find  there  that  he  had  been 
deceived  by  the  Governor's  promises.  His  second  arrival  in  the  Penn- 

__      ^  sylvania  capital  was 


very  different.     He 

9 

came  with  employ- 
ment assured  him  ; 
and  from  this  time 
nil  that  lie  did  pros- 
pered. In  1728  he 
was  a  partner  in 
establishing  the 
"  Pennsylvania  Ga- 

tl 

zette,"  a  newspaper 
which  had  a  life 
of  a  hundred  and 
twenty  years.  He 
sprang  almost  im- 
mediately into 

• 

prominence.  His  ac- 
tivity was  ceaseless ; 
he  improved  the 
printing  press,  and 
printed  paper-mon- 
ey for  his  own  and 
other  provinces ;  he 
founded  a  cheap  li- 
brary ;  and  wrote 
usefully  on  all  man- 

Frar.klin  entering  Philadelphia.  ner  Qf  suljjects.      He 

published  the  first  edition  of  the  famous  "  Poor  Richard's  Almanac  " 
in  1732.  The  Assembly  appointed  him  its  clerk  in  1735 ;  and  under 
Thomas's  administration  he  was  the  provincial  postmaster.  What 
Philadelphia  owed  to  his  sound  sense  and  public  spirit,  can  hardly 
be  over-estimated.  Every  part  of  the  city  administration  profited  by 
his  suggestions.  He  founded  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in 
1744;  and  two  years  afterward  began  the  series  of  experiments  in 
electricity  which  led  him  to  such  great  achievement.  From  his  elec- 
tion to  the  Assembly  four  years  later,  his  political  life  belongs  to 
other  chapters  of  the  history  of  the  time ;  and  to  those  greater  strug- 


1748.] 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN. 


191 


gles  on  which  his  adopted  colony  was  now,  like  the  rest,  about  to 
enter. 

The  history  of  Pennsylvania  begins  to  merge  into  the  history  of 
that  colonial  union  which  the  events  of  the  next  ten  years  so  thoroughly 
cemented.  James  Hamilton,  a  native  of  the  colony,  and  the  son  of 
Andrew  Hamilton,  Penn's  former  deputy,  succeeded  Thomas  in  the 
fall  of  1748 ;  and  by  the  close  of  his  administration,  the  shadow  of  a 
coining  war  had  forced  the  Quaker  province,  like  its  neighbors,  into 
active  preparations  for  defence. 


Penn  s   Brewing-jar. 


Care   Canso 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


NEW  ENGLAND  AND  THE  FRENCH. 

THE  THIRD  INDIAN  WAR  IN  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  A  SEPARATE  PROV- 
INCE. —  GOVKRNOK  BENNING  WENTWORTII.  —  ADMINISTRATION  OF  GOVERNOR 
BELCHER  OK  MASSACHUSETTS.  —  FINANCIAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  COLONY.  —  APPOINT- 
MENT OF  GOVERNOR  SHIRLEY.  —  GEOKGE  WHITEFIELD'S  FIRST  VISIT  TO  NEW  ENG- 
LAND. —  THE  REVIVAL  PERIOD.  —  WAR  AGAIN  DECLARED  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND 
FRANCE.  —  THE  SIEGE  AND  CAPTURE  OF  LOUISBURG.  —  COLONEL  WILLIAM  PEP- 
PERELL.  —  LOUISBURG  RESTORED  TO  FRANCE.  —  AN  ENGLISH  PRESS-GANG  IN  BOS- 
TON. —  THE  TOWN-HOCSE  ASSAULTED.  —  INSURRECTION  SKILFULLY  AVERTED. 


The  twra 


land- 


IN  the  third  Indian  war,  which  broke  out  in  1722,  in  the  Northern 
provinces,  the  strife  was  most  deadly  and  the  destruction 
Hiost  complete  along  the  Eastern  border,  in  the  disputed  ter- 
ritory  claimed  both  by  the  English  and  the  French  and  their 
Indian  allies.  But  it  was  not  confined  to  that  region.  Bands  of  sav- 
age warriors  crept  along  the  frontiers  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire, 
watching  with  unwearied  vigilance  for  a  chance  to  fall  suddenly  upon 
some  sleeping  village  or  defenceless  farm-house,  disappearing  again 
like  the  shadows  of  the  night,  before  the  next  day's  sun  arose  upon 
heaps  of  mangled  bodies  and  the  smouldering  ashes  of  desolated 


1723.]  THE   THIRD   INDIAN   WAR.  193 

homes.  In  1723,  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  and  its  vicinity,  suffered 
from  the  over-confidence  of  the  inhabitants,  who  were  careless  in  re- 
tiring at  night-fall  to  their  garrison -houses.  Many  narratives  of  heroic 
conduct  belong  to  this  period.  For  instance,  Aaron  Rawlins,  at  New- 
market, had  a  daughter  twelve  years  old  ;  her  mother  saw  her  own 
father  killed  by  the  Indians  in  1704,  and  the  recollection  mingled  with 
the  blood  of  this  daughter.  Late  in  August,  1723,  the  house  of  Raw- 
lins was  attacked  by  a  band  of  eighteen  Indians.  His  wife  and  two 
children,  going  out  by  chance,  were  seized,  the  father  and  the  young- 
est daughter  being  left  within.  He  barred  the  door,  and  both  made 
such  a  defence  by  rapid  firing  that  the  people  in  the  garrison-house 
were  afraid  to  send  assistance,  concluding  by  the  frequent 

,        T     ,.  .  ,  »       i  ,        ,         Fate  of  the 

reports  that  the  Indians  were  in  great  torce.     At  length  the  luwiins 
father  was  killed,  and  his  daughter's  head  cut  off.     The  cap- 
tive son  was  adopted  by  the  Indians,  and  never  cared  to  resume  the 
English  life;  and  the  captive  daughter  married  a  Frenchman. 

In  172-1  a  few  persons  were  killed,  but  the  vigorous  movements  of 
scouting  parties  prevented  great  disasters.  In  Dover,  there  were  sev- 
eral Quakers,  who  would  neither  use  arms  for  the  defence  of  their 
families,  nor  avail  themselves  of  the  shelter  of  the  garrison-houses. 
The  Indians  could  neither  understand  nor  respect  their  scruples  ;  a 
few  were  killed,  and  the  families  taken  to  Canada.  These  outrages 
led  to  the  expeditions  of  the  two  provinces  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
Hampshire,  against  Father  Rasle  and  his  Eastern  Indians.  If  it  be 
true,  as  Belknap  says,  that  a  half-breed  son  of  the  priest  was  killed  at 
Oyster  River  in  the  summer  of  1724,  his  bitter  plotting  against  the 
English  involved  a  personal  feeling. 

Father  Sebastian  Rasle  had  lived  among  the  Indians  for  thirty- 
seven  years,  accommodating  himself  with  the  usual  French  Father 
facility  to  their  habits  of  life,  building  his  own  wigwam,  R*sle' 
planting  curn,  and  preparing  his  meals  in  their  method,  adopting  their 
language,  and  devoting  himself  to  their  temporal  and  spiritual  im- 
provement. He  was  a  polished  scholar,  who  had  surrendered  all  the 
preferments  of  the  Church  to  occupy  this  outpost  in  the  wilderness. 
Age  and  privation  had  not  blunted  a  single  faculty  of  his  intelligence, 
and  he  devoted  it,  together  with  a  rare  diplomatic  talent,  to  the  ser- 
vice of  Rome  and  of  France.  A  truly  remarkable  pioneer,  a  perfectly 
unselfish  man,  as  the  Jesuits  generally  were,  —  a  man  whose  delight 
was  in  the  commanding  influence  which  he  had  fairly  earned,  —  his 
record  has  been  not  altogether  appreciated  by  the  men  whose  hate  he 
naturally  incurred.  In  him  the  Governor  of  Canada  found  an  agent 
more  potent  than  his  troops. 

The  first  act  of  violence  was  committed  by  the  Indians  upon  some 

VOL.  III.  13 


194  NEW    ENGLAND    AND   THE   FRENCH.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

tradei-s  at  Canso,  in  August,  1720  ;  their  goods  were  plundered,  and 
The  flwt  several  persons  were  killed.  Then  the  Eastern  Indians, 
hostilities.  wjlo  kegan  to  ni  uster  with  fresh  threats  against  the  frontier 
towns  of  New  England,  were  again  met  by  Governor  Shute's  agents, 
and  with  difficulty  dissuaded  from  their  purpose  of  attempting  to  re- 
cover, as  they  said,  the  territory  which  by  natural  right  belonged  to 
them.  Their  abandonment  of  the  attempt  was  a  sore  disappointment 
to  Father  Rasle  and  Vaudreuil,  the  Governor  of  Canada,  who  had 
hoped  to  reanimate  the  hostility  of  the  Indians.  This  intrigue  was 
suspected,  and  a  demand  was  made  upon  the  Indians  at  Norridgewock 
to  deliver  up  their  favorite  priest.  Their  consent  ought  not  to  have 
been  expected  ;  but,  on  their  refusal,  Colonel  Westbrook  was  sent 
with  a  party  of  men  to  arrest  the  priest,  who  had  notice  in  time  to 
escape,  but  his  flight  was  so  precipitate  that  he  left  behind  the  com- 
promising correspondence  with  Vaudreuil.  This  was  in  1722.  The 
plunder  of  their  village  and  attempt  upon  the  Father  so  enraged  the 
Norridgewock  Indians  that  they  led  the  other  Eastern  tribes  in  fresh 
attacks  upon  the  frontier,  and  plunged  the  provinces  into  a  serious 
and  costly  defence. 

The  Indian  settlement  at  Norridgewock  had  greatly  flourished  un- 
der the  supervision  of   Father  Rasle.     Every  political  and 

The  settle-         ,        .       .      .  *          .          .          .       ,      ,  .  .   ,     \      , 

mentatNor-  theological  motive  inspired  the  provinces  with  iealousv  and 

ridgewock.         -,  •,       f    ^-  •     -V    •  .1      •  • 

dread  of  this  success  at  civilizing  their  worst  enemies,  and 
of  the  establishment  of  a  frontier  post  which  would  be  a  constant 
menace.  Two  attempts  had  been  made  to  break  up  this  settlement 
by  the  capture  of  its  master-spirit.  On  the  12th  of  August,  1724,  a 
third  attempt  succeeded. 

The  place  was  surprised  by  an  expedition  of  two  hundred  men,  at 
its  capture  a  time  when  few  Indian  fighters  were  at  home.  The  sur- 
and  pillage.  vjvors  of  the  attack  fled  into  the  forest  with  their  wives,  and 
Father  Rasle  was  slain  in  advancing  toward  the  English  in  order  to 
divert  their  attention  from  his  flock.  The  victors  pillaged  the  chapel, 
and  tore  down  the  crucifixes  and  other  symbols  of  worship  which  the 
Indians  had  learned  to  reverence.  When  they  returned  to  their  de- 
vastated village,  the  beloved  priest  was  found  all  hacked  with  wounds, 
scalped,  and  with  mud  crammed  into  the  persuasive  mouth.  It  is  said 
that  strict  orders  had  been  issued  to  capture  but  not  injure  the  father; 
but  that  when  a  soldier  summoned  him  to  surrender,  he  refused,  and 
was  slain.  The  body  of  the  priest  was  buried  underneath  the  altar 
at  which  he  had  ministered  to  his  converts,  with  savage  vows  of  ven- 
geance for  a  funeral  service. 

In  the  same  year,  Captain  John  Lovewell,  with  a  company  of  vol- 
unteers numbering  eighty-seven,  made  a  successful  expedition  against 


1725.] 


THE   EXPEDITION   TO   PEQUAWKETT. 


195 


a  party  of  Indians  who  were  coming  from  Canada,  well  equipped  with 
snow-shoes  and  moccasins  for  the  captives  whom  they  ex-  ^^^11^ 
pected  to  carry  back.     Stimulated  by  this  success,  by  the  exPedItlon- 
lai'ge  bounty  offered  for  scalps,  and  by  the  liberal  pay,  it  was  easy 
for  the  Captain  to  organize  another  expe- 
dition.    Each  man  received    two    shillings 
and    sixpence  a  day  during    his  term    of 
volunteering.      Starting    in     April, 
1725,  Lovewell  determined  to  strike 
the     Pequawkett    (Pigwacket) 
Indians,  whose  village  was  near        . 
a  pond  in  the  present  township 
of    Fryeburg,    Maine,    a    small 


Death  of  Father  Rasle. 


sheet  of  water  two  and  a  half  miles  long  and  a  mile  wide.  When  they 
reached  Ossipee  Pond,  a  stockade  was  erected,  to  afford  a  place  of  shel- 
ter in  case  of  a  reverse.  Here  eight  men  were  left ;  the  rest  pushed  for- 
ward about  twenty  miles,  and  came  to  the  pond,  where  they  encamped. 
The  next  morning,  May  8,  an  Indian  who  was  hunting  ducks  dis- 
turbed them  by  the  report  of  his  gun.  They  left  their  packs  on  the 
ground  and  pursued  him,  expecting  to  come  upon  a  bod)'  of  the  en- 
emy ;  he  was  killed,  and  the  men,  finding  no  trace  of  other  savages, 
returned  to  their  camping-ground.  In  the  mean  time  a  party  of  In- 
dians, under  a  noted  sachem,  Paugus,  came  upon  Lovewell's  track, 


196 


NEW   ENGLAND  AND   THE   FRENCH.          [Ciixr.  VIII. 


and,  counting  the  packs,  discovered  that  his  own  force  was  superior  in 
numbers.  He  placed  an  ambush,  and  when  the  men  returned  for 
their  packs  they  received  a  fire  which  instantly  killed  Lovewell  and 
eight  more,  and  wounded  three.  The  rest,  only  twenty-three  in  num- 
ber, retreated  to  a  pine  grove  upon  a  point  which  ran  into  the  pond. 
Here  they  maintained  themselves  all  day  without  food,  and  delivered 
so  deadly  a  fire  that  the  savages,  toward  nightfall,  retreated,  carrying 
away  many  of  their  dead  and  wounded. 

Only  nine  of  the  men  remained  unhurt.     They,  and  the  wounded 

who  could  walk,  be- 
gan their  retreat 
toward  the  stockade, 
leaving  on  the  well- 
fought  field  the  mor- 
tally wounded,  one 
of  whom  —  Lieuten- 
ant Robbins  —  asked 
that  a  musket  be  left 
with  him,  hoping  to 
have  one  more  shot 
before  he  died.  They 
had  struggled  to  the 
stockade  with  incred- 
ible suffering,  only 
to  find  it  deserted  ; 
for  a  man  who  had 
run  away  at  the  first 
volley  had  so  alarmed 
the  little  garrison 
with  his  report  that 
they  fled.  In  the 
m  arch  homeward, 
three  wounded  men 
died.  The  survivors 
were  amply  honored 
and  rewarded,  for 

Robbins's   Last  Shot.  .  •.  .        /»     i   ,          t     ,  i      • 

this  right   of   theirs 

was  the  most  determined  and  audacious  recorded  in  the  earlier  Indian 
warfare.  Paugus  was  killed,  and  the  tribe  had  suffered  so  severely 
that  the  remnant  deserted  the  spot,  and  went  to  settle  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  Connecticut.1 

1  There  was  a  legend  connected  with  this  fight,  long  believed  but  now  somewhat  discred- 
ited, that  John  Chamberlain  and  Paugus  went  down  to  the  water  to  clean  out  their  guns, 


1725.]  A   TREATY    WITH   THE    EASTERN   TRIBES.  197 

It  was  liigh  time  that  the  provinces  should  attempt  to  restrain  this 
deadly  warfare  in  a  time  of  peace,  by  proceeding  to  the  Englilih 
headquarters  in  Canada  of  the  French  instigation.  Vau-  "M"^"" 
dreuil  was  at  Montreal,  where  he  received  the  provincial  treal 
commissioners  with  a  deal  of  blandness  and  courtesy,  and  professed 
to  be  surprised  at  their  charge  of  his  intrigue  through  Father  Rasle. 
Whereupon  the  commissioners  quietly  produced  his  correspondence, 
at  the  sight  of  which  he  was  struck  with  mortification  and  a  sense 
of  guilt  at  having  disturbed  the  relations  established  by  treaty  be- 
tween France  and  England.  But  he  was  still  so  much  swayed  by  the 
influence  of  the  Jesuit  priests  who  were  around  him,  that  the  com- 
missioners found  difficulty  in  bringing  him  to  any  terms.  They  no- 
ticed that,  whenever  a  priest  was  present  at  their  conferences,  the 
Governor  was  stubborn;  but  when  they  addressed  him  alone,  he  was 
disposed  to  consider  the  justice  of  their  complaint.  At  length  he  did 
interfere  so  far  as  to  procure  the  release  of  several  captives  at  a  mod- 
erate ransom,  and  to  promise  to  counsel  the  Indians  to  cease  hostili- 
ties. After  a  while,  the  Eastern  tribes  did  solicit  peace,  when  they 
discovered  that  the  provinces  were  preparing  to  pursue  them  still  more 
vigorously.  A  treaty  was  made  with  them  at  the  close  of  Atreatyof 
1725.  The  English  set  up  trading-posts  on  the  St.  George,  P**06' 
Kennebec,  and  Saco,  toward  which  they  succeeded  in  attracting  the 
Indians  by  underselling  the  French.  The  policy  was  not  fimmcially 
profitable,  and  the  posts  had  to  be  sustained  by  special  appropriations, 
but  the  period  of  tranquillity  that  was  thus  secured  lasted,  with  few 
interruptions,  till  the  war  between  England  and  France  which  began 
in  1755.1 

which  had  become  fouled  by  firing.  In  this  process,  each  gesture  which  they  made  was 
simultaneous,  as  they  taunted  each  other  and  threatened  death ;  but  the  musket  of  the 
Englishman  had  a  habit  of  self-priming,  and  while  Paugus  was  filling  his  pan,  Chamber- 
lain shot  him.  True  or  false,  the  story  is  a  happy  hint  of  the  benefit  of  that  shortening 
of  method  attained  in  the  modern  revolver.  If  the  story  he  true,  Chamberlain's  gun, 
probably,  only  had  the  trick  of  priming  itself  —  not  uncommon,  as  sportsmen  know,  with 
the  old-fashioned  musket  —  from  an  enlargement  of  the  vent  in  the  pan.  But  it  is  a  curious 
coincidence  that  something  like  the  modern  revolver  had  already  been  invented  in  Boston. 
Pen  hallow  [Inilian  Wnrs],  speaking  of  the  reception  given  there  to  some  chiefs  of  the  Six 
Nations,  a  few  months  before  Lovewell's  fight,  says  :  "They  were  entertained  with  the  cu- 
rious sight  of  a  gun  that  was  made  by  the  ingenious  Mr.  Pirn,  of  Boston ;  which,  although 
loaded  but  once,  yet  was  discharged  eleven  times  following  with  bullets,  in  the  space  of 
two  minutes,  each  of  which  went  through  a  double  door  at  fifty  yards  distance." 

1  The  coast  of  Maine  and  its  rivers  were  very  sparsely  settled  by  the  English,  notwith- 
standing this  accommodation  with  the  Indians,  for  their  treachery  was  held  in  lively  re- 
membrance, and  a  well-defended  trading-post  offered  the  only  security.  From  George's 
River  to  the  St.  Croix,  there  was  not  one  white  habitation  till  the  first  permanent  settle- 
ment was  made  by  Governor  Pownall,  of  Massachusetts,  on  Penobscot  Bay,  in  1759.  At 
that  time,  hardly  six  hundred  of  the  once  dreaded  Peuobscot  Indians  remained.  Belfast 
was  first  settled  by  Scotch  Presbyterians  from  Londonderry  and  Antrim,  in  Ireland,  in 
1769. 


198 


NEW    ENGLAND    AND   THE    FRENCH.          [CHAP.  VIII. 


liiciitpnant- 

governor 

Wentworth. 


eminent. 


The  counsel  of  Wentworth,  the  Lieutenant-governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, through  these  years  of  border  warfare,  was  us  saga- 

.  ,   .  ,          ,     -  „,,  .  .         , 

cious  as  were  Jus  measures  tor  oetence.     1  he  province  prized 

.   .  .  •,  ...  i       i      11  i    i   •  r 

his  executive  ability,  and  gladly  voted  him  grants  ot  money. 
During  his  administration,  New  Hampshire  first  acquired  the  royal 
assent  to  an  act  establishing  a  limited  local  self-government.  He  fa- 
vored the  popular  movement  for  triennial  Assemblies,  for  fixing  the 
qualification  of  an  elector  at  real  estate  worth  <£50,  and  of  a  repre- 
sentative at  a  freehold  estate  worth  £300,  though  he  was  not  bound 
to  be  a  resident  in  the  town  which  voted  for  him.  The  selectmen 
ami  the  moderator  of  the  town  meeting  were  to  decide  if  a  candidate 
were  properly  qualified,  but  their  decision  was  subject  to  an  appeal 
to  the  House  of  Representatives. 

The  controversy  between  Shute  and  Vaughan,  on  the  question  of 
otums  of   Absentee   governors,  had  widened   till   it  divided  the  prov- 
i"ce  into  two  parties:  one  proposing  that  New  Hampshire 
sl,onld    be  absorbed  by  Massachusetts  ;    the  other,   that  it 
should  have  a  governor  and  administration  of  its  own.     But  the  prov- 

ince was  still  poor.  Its  ex- 
port trade  was  chiefly  con- 
fined to  fish  and  lumber,  and 
though  that  in  lumber  was 
profitable,  it  was  small  and 
precarious,  and  trammelled 
ever  by  royal  regulations. 
An  independent  adminis- 
tration could  not  yet  be 
maintained,  but  the  provin- 
cial politics  tended  decidedly 
in  that  direction.  It  was 
partly  from  this  motive  that 
New  Hampshire  steadily 
pushed  its  claim  to  town- 
ships over  which  its  neigh- 
bor had  pretensions.  A  great 
deal  of  acrimony  attended 
this  controversy  over  the 
boundary-line.  New  Hamp- 
shire sent  its  agents  to  England,  who  well  knew  how  to  inflame  the 
Territorial  jealousy  which  coutiiiuully  exist.ifl  between  the  Crown  and 
Massachusetts.  Belcher,  who  succeeded  Burnet  in  1780,  was 
especially  anxious  to  preserve  harmony  between  his  two  provinces. 
each  of  which  was  a  desperate  claimant  for  territory.  It  might  have 


Went  worth. 


1740.]        WENTWORTH   GOVERNOR    OF   NEW    HAMPSHIRE. 


109 


been  foreseen  that  the  Privy  Council  would  favor  New  Hampshire. 
In  1740,  its  final  decision  took  from  Massachusetts  a  tract  of  territory 
fourteen  miles  in  width  and  fifty  in  length,  which  was  more  than  New 
Hampshire  had  ever  asked  for.  The  persistent  effort  of  one  province 
to  have  this  decision  modified,  and  of  the  other  to  have  it  maintained, 
bore  such  fruits  of  ill-feeling,  and  of  embarrassment  to  the  Crown, 
that  it  yielded  to  the  party  which  desired  a  separate  administration," 
at  the  same  time  reaffirming  the  decision  of  the  Council. 

Thus  New  Hampshire  at  length  took  the  administration  of  affairs 
into  her  own  hands,  and  attained  to  the  dignity  of  a  Gov- 
ernor of  her  own.     Benning  Wentworth,  a  son  of  the  Lieu- 
tenant-governor,  was  the  first  incumbent  of  the  office,  and 
in  his  hands  it  lost  none  of  the  importance  attached  to  a  thing  so  long 


Wentworth's  House. 


and  so  earnestly  desired.  The  Governor  was  fond  of  display.  His 
splendid  coach,  surrounded  by  a  troop  of  guards,  became  a  feature  of 
Portsmouth;  and  in  the  panelled  rooms  of  his  ample  house  he  affected 
an  almost  vice-regal  state.  There  were  not  wanting,  however,  those 
who  charged  .corruption  upon  his  administration,  and  accused  him  of 
appointing  his  own  relatives  and  friends  to  office,  with  little  regard 
to  their  qualifications.1 

1  In  his  domestic  service  was  a  pretty  girl,  the  daughter  of  one  Shortredge,  whom  he 
desired  to  marry  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife.  When  her  father  objected  to  the  match, 
the  Governor  had  him  press  gauged  aud  sent  to  seu.  When  Shortredge  returned,  he  told 


200  NEW   ENGLAND    AND  THE   FRENCH.          [CiiAP.  VIII. 

When  Shute  retired  in  disgust  from  the  perplexities  and  dissen- 
sions which  had  beset  his  term  of  office  —  leaving  Boston  for 

Lieutenant-       r^iii  •  i  •     •  •  r         rr    • 

governor        Lnglaim  almost  in  secrecy  —  the  administration  of    affairs 

Dumuior.  ITT-M-  TV  • 

devolved  upon  William  Dummer,  the  Lieutenant-governor. 
Of  a  more  conciliatory  temper  than  some  of  his  predecessors,  he  had 
less  trouble  with  the  General  Court,  and  the  more  leisure,  therefore, 
to  devote  to  that  Indian  warfare  upon  the, Eastern  border,  the  main 
incidents  of  which  we  have  just  related.  Burnet,  who  relieved  him 
in  1728,  was  less  fortunate.  If  he  indulged  in  illusions  fed  by  his  flat- 
tering reception,  they  were  dissipated  when  he  came  into  collision 
with  the  House  upon  the  old  variance  i-especting  a  permanent  salary. 
The  House  steadily  adhered  to  its  policy  of  voting  an  an- 
nual  gi'ant,  of  a  sum  strictly  calculated  upon  the  Governor's 
popularity.  Burnet  refused  to  accept  the  first  grant  which 
was  voted  by  the  House  ;  whereupon  that  body  expressed 
its  regrets  and  quietly  dispersed  at  the  end  of  the  session.  Then  a 
formidable  meeting  of  the  citizens  took  place,  and  Boston  approved 
the  act  of  the  Assembly.  This  so  nettled  Burnet,  that  when  the  next 
House  assembled,  whose  members  manifested  an  increased  aversion  to 
fixed  salaries,  he  did  not  dissolve  it,  but  resorted  to  a  measure  which 
he  thought  would  bring  it  less  dangerously  to  terms ;  he  adjourned  it 
to  Salem,  and  then  refused  to  sign  a  warrant  for  the  payment  of  its 
expenses  there.  This  did  not  improve  its  temper.  The  expenses 
were  paid  by  private  subscriptions,  and  Burnet  wrote  to  England  he 
could  do  nothing  with  the  representatives.  They  retorted  that  Bur- 
net's  measures  were  arbitrary  and  unconstitutional,  and  that  he  was 
eager  to  extort  money.  He  was,  indeed,  deeply  in  debt  when  he  first 
left  England,  and  was  always  scheming  how  to  repair  his  broken 
fortunes.  When  the  next  House  assembled,  he  recurred  to  his  last 
unfortunate  expedient  and  adjourned  it  to  Cambridge. 

But  the  disposition  of  the  General  Court  was  not  affected  by  this 
change  of  place.  The  House  at  length  sent  two  agents  to  explain  its 
attitude  to  the  King.  Frederick  Wilkes,  a  merchant,  and  Jonathan 
Belcher,  hardware  merchant  and  member  of  the  Council,  were  selected. 
But  when  the  House  voted  a  grant  to  defray  the  expenses  of  its  agents 
in  London,  the  Council  refused  to  concur,  so  that  resort  was  had 
again  to  a  private  subscription.  When  the  agents  arrived  in  London 
they  found,  of  course,  that  the  Board  of  Trade  supported  the  Gov- 

the  odious  story  of  his  disappearance,  and  it  was  remembered  against  Wentworth  in  the 
dawning  of  the  Revolution.  The  girl  persisted  iu  saying  No  for  the  three  years  of  her 
father's  absence,  having  left  the  Governor's  service.  Finally  she  married  him.  Mr.  Long- 
fellow's charming  poem  celebrates  the  circumstances  of  the  wedding.  Shortredge  was  cap- 
tain of  the  first  company  raised  at  Portsmouth  for  the  Continental  army. —  Hayes's  MS. 
Traditions. 


\ 


1739.]  BELCHER  GOVERNOR  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  201 

ernor's  measures,  particularly  in  that  matter  of  the  salary.  The 
House  was  not  discouraged,  but  stood  out  obstinately  for  the  policy  of 
annual  grants.  So  this  opposition  to  the  Governor  went  on  till  he 
died,  September  7,  1729. 

Dummer  became  again  the  acting  Governor  till  the  appointment 
of  Jonathan  Belcher,  who  was  a  Boston  man  and  personally  Governor 
popular.  He  arrived  in  August,  1730,  with  the  old  instruc-  Belcher 
tions  to  insist  upon  the  salary,  which  he  did  most  faithfully.  The 
House,  with  equal  pertinacity,  proposed  its  annual  grant.  Belcher  re- 
fused to  accept  it,  and  dissolved  the  House.  The  next  one  which  as- 
sembled proved  so  refractory  that  Belcher  resorted  to  bribing  the 
more  accessible  members,  and  succeeded  by  various  influences  in  get- 
ting a  measure  of  compromise  introduced,  to  the  effect  that  a  bill  for 
an  annual  grant  of  .£1,000  sterling,  or  some  fixed  sum,  should  pass, 
with  the  understanding  that  it  should  continue  annually,  provided 
that  no  future  House  should  be  bound  to  the  bill  as  a  precedent. 
The  friends  of  the  Governor  were  not  powerful  enough  to  secure  the 
passage  of  this  bill.  The  King  had  instructed  Belcher  to  leave  the 
province  and  return  to  London  in  case  of  the  failure  of  the  House  to 
vote  the  required  salary;  but  he  preferred  to  remain  and  exercise 
what  influence  he  could  command,  till  he  succumbed  at  the  failure  of 
his  last  measure,  when  he  addressed  the  King  with  a  frank  statement 
of  the  difficulties  of  his  situation,  explained  the  temper  of  the  people, 
and  said  the  resolution  of  its  representatives  would  never,  in  his  opin- 
ion, be  overcome.  He  asked  for  a  modification  of  his  instructions. 
The  House  backed  his  solicitation  with  an  address,  drawn  up  Settlement 
at  his  own  request,  praying  the  King  to  permit  the  Governor  "Jyljtiesi" 
to  accept  such  grants  of  money  as  might  be  voted.  This  the  t10"' 
Court  prudently  yielded.  It  was  an  important  victory  for  Massachu- 
setts, involving  graver  interests  than  that  of  payment  of  money,  be- 
cause it  threw  the  administration  of  the  royal  governors  more  directly 
upon  the  appreciation  or  dislike  of  the  people,  and  secured  a  measure 
of  deference.  On  the  other  hand,  it  confirmed  a  spirit  of  liberty  ;  dis- 
tance and  the  difficulties  of  intercourse  alone  postponed  the  epoch  of 
the  Revolution. 

The  conciliating  action  of  Governor  Belcher  in  the  contest  upon  the 
salary  procured  for  him  a  considerable  degree  of  popularity,  Financjai 
until  he  began  to  oppose  the  financial  scheming  which  broke 
out  in  1739.  He  had  received  strict  instructions  to  permit 
no  further  issue  of  bills  of  credit  for  any  term  beyond  1741,  which 
was  the  limit  in  time  for  those  already  in  circulation.  The  Land 
Bank,  which  was  started  in  1739,  was  a  scheme  of  speculators  to  evade 
this  prohibition  of  the  Crown.  The  Governor's  hostility  to  their  proj- 


8etts- 


202 


NEW    ENGLAND    AND   THE    FRENCH.          ['CHAP.  VIII. 


Belcher  re- 
pal  leil 
Governor 
Shirley. 


ect  threw  many  <>f  them  into  the  arms  of  his  old  enemies,  who  were 
secretly  plotting  for  his  removal.  Conscious  of  the  general  excellence 
of  his  administration,  which  he  had  conducted  without  one  sordid  mo- 
tive, and  in  a  spirit  of  as  much  impartiality  as  any  man  at  the  time 
could  exercise  between  an  obstinate  Crown  and  an  unconciliating 
province,  he  took  no  measures  of  defence,  but  relied  upon  his  record. 
Certain  intrigues  among  the  dissenters  in  England  who  had  been  led  to 
believe  in  his  hostility  to  Congregationalism,  in  connection  with  other 
grievances,  procured  his  recall  in  1741.  He  went  to  England,  and 
completely  reinstated  his  character,  but  it  was  too  late  to  receive  the 
thorough  vindication  of  a  return  to  his  government,  for  another  person 
had  been  appointed,  the  Court  not  being  willing  to  face  his  provincial 
unpopularity.  But  he  was  made  Governor  of  New  Jersey  in  1747, 
where  his  administration  was  prosperous. 

He  was  succeeded  in  Massachusetts  by  William  Shirley,  an  English 
lawyer  who  had  lived  eight  years  in  Boston.     One  of  his 
earliest    measures,  which    at    least  showed    a    prudent    and 
adaptive  policy,  was  to  neglect  the  royal  instructions  forbid- 
ding any  issue  of  fresh  bills  of  credit  after  1741.     This  he  was  con- 

strained to  do  by  the  evident 
reluctance  of  the  General 
Court  to  tax  the  province  in 
order  to  take  up  the  old  bills 
of  credit.  Perhaps  he  was 
flattered  by  the  action  of 
that  body  in  voting  that  his 
annual  grant  should  never 
fall  below  a  thousand  pounds 
sterling.  He  was  the  first 
of  the  royal  governors  who 
established  a  fair  under- 
standing between  himself 
and  the  province,  helped  in 
this  by  a  spirit  of  modera- 
tion and  a  just  estimate  of 
the  old  difficulties  which 
might  recur. 

The  great  religious  awak- 
ening which  began  in  1740  with  the  labors  of  George  Whitefield  in 
New  Enland,  continued  into  Shirle's  administration.    The 


Governor   Shirley. 


i"  xelv  'ing-   most  brilliant  events  of  the  reign  of  George  II.,  whether  of 

war  or  of  peace,  yield  in  importance,  some  wise  men  think, 

to  that  rejigious  revolution  in  England,  begun  by  the   preaching  of 


1740.]  WHITEFIELD   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  203 

the  Wesleys  and  of  Whitefield.1  But  except  that  the  preaching  of 
Whitefield  laid  the  foundations  of  a  sectarian  Church,  to  become,  in 
the  course  of  a  century,  the  largest  in  the  United  States,  this  revival 
was  less  remarkable  and  of  less  moment  in  this  country  than  in  Eng- 
land. It  was  not  compelled  to  encounter  that  frank  skepticism 
which,  Priestley  says,  was  so  prevalent  in  France  that  every  philo- 
sophical person  he  was  introduced  to  in  Paris  was  an  unbeliever  in 
Christianity,  or  even  an  atheist,  some  of  whom  told  him  that  lie 
"was  the  only  person  they  had  ever  met  with  of  whose  understanding 
they  had  any  opinion,  who  professed  to  believe  in  Christianity."' 
This  want  of  religious  faith  prevailed  hardly  less  in  England,  at  that 
period,  but  it  was  the  result  of  indifferentism  rather  than  of  A  religious 
philosophy.  John  Wesley  and  his  followers  appealed  to  revolutlon- 
men  dissatisfied  with  negations,  weary  with  the  coldness  of  unbe- 
lief, eager  to  welcome  any  reaction,  even  one  which  would  dispel 
doubt  by  mere  force  of  bold  and  fervid  assertion.  They  preached 
also  to  hearts  numb  and  almost  desperate  and  dead  with  suffering, 
arousing  a  sense  of  a  divine  love  and  care,  and  holding  out  a  promise 
of  compensation  for  the  utter  wretchedness  of  this  life.  But  in  Amer- 
ica there  was  little  absolute  infidelity,  and  there  was  not  then,  any 
more  than  now,  that  brutish  lower  order  so  wretched  from  poverty, 
so  degraded  by  the  want  of  any  social  consideration,  so  cut  off  from 
all  opportunity  of  intellectual  culture,  as  to  be  hardly  responsible  for 
its  ignorance  of  moral  law,  and  its  insensibility  to  any  obligation  of 
religion.  In  New  England  Whitefield  had  only  to  breathe  upon  the 
slumbering  fires  of  Puritanism  to  fan  them  into  a  flame  ;  and  in  the 
middle  colonies,  and,  to  a  certain  degree,  farther  south,  he  was  sure 
of  I'eady  and  sympathizing  listeners  among  those  whose  religious  life 
was  a  protest  against  the  formalism,  the  worldliness,  and  the  want  of 
spiritual  emotion  in  the  Established  Church.  Successful  as  that  i-e- 
markable  religious  movement  was  in  England,  it  Avas  accomplished 
through  enormous  exertion,  much  tribulation,  and  many  perils,  which 
it  was  not  compelled  to  encounter  in  America.  No  wonder  that 
Whitefield  loved  to  return  again  and  again  to  that  comparatively 
peaceful  field  of  evangelical  labor,  as  he  did  more  than  a  dozen  times, 
where  at  length  his  brief  and  eventful  life  ended. 

There  had  been,  nevertheless,  a  great  falling  off  in  New  England 
from  the  rigid  religious  discipline  of  the  earlier  times,  which  punished 
in  this  world,  as  well  as  threatened  punishment  in  the  next,  for  any 
departure,  mental  or  material,  from  an  established  rule  of  faith  and 
conduct.  Generations  had  come  and  gone  since  the  ministers  of  the 

1  See  the  admirable  chapter  on  "  The  Religious  Hevival "  in  the  second  volume  of  Lecky's 
Eiiyland  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.     Also  Gletlstone's  Life  and  Travels  of  George  Whitejield, 


204  NEW   ENGLAND    AND   THE    FRENCH.        [CiiAr.  VIII. 

churches  had  ceased  to  be  the  chief  power  in  the  State,  and  since  only 
church-members  in  good  standing  were  thought  worthy  of  political 
enfranchisement.  Diverse  sects  had  crept  in  with  every  wave  of  emi- 
gration, and  had  established  the  right  to  freedom  of  opinion.  Of  later 
years  many  new  comers  from  England  had  brought  with  them  the 
laxity  of  thought  and  observance  upon  religious  subjects  which  were 
there  so  general.  Godliness  had  been  displaced  by  indifference,  or  at 
least  by  a  worldliness  which  was  more  concerned  with  present  pros- 
perity than  so  to  live  and  believe  as  to  prepare  for  and  deserve  a  life  of 
eternal  happiness  in  the  world  to  come.  This  unregenerate  condition 
was  observed  and  lamented  as  almost  hopeless.  When,  "•  on  the  night 
after  the  Lord's  day,  October  29th,  1727,"  says  Trumbull,  "  the 
Almighty  arose,  and  so  terribly  shook  the  earth  through  this  great 
continent,"  though  many  men  sought  the  ministers  and  the  meeting- 
house, it  was  more  "  from  fear  than  conviction,  or  through  change  of 
heart."  Six  and  seven  years  later,  when  an  epidemic,  called  the  throat 

distemper,  prevailed  throughout  the  colonies,  —  though  most 
N^'Kiig1-  'n  severely  in  New  England,  —  even  the  frightful  ravages  of  that 

disease,  carrying  off,  sometimes,  whole  families  of  children  in 
a  few  days,  produced,  it  was  remarked,  no  religious  change  in  the  peo- 
ple.1 Professors  continued  lukewarm,  young  people  were  so  "  loose  and 
vicious  "  as  to  seek  amusement  in  social  intercourse  on  Sunday  evenings 
and  the  evenings  of  lecture-days ;  the  Thursday  lectures  were  thinly 
attended  ;  there  was  great  want  of  strictness  in  the  keeping  of  the 
Sabbath,  neighbors  greeting  each  other  and  indulging  in  conversation 
upon  worldly  matters  in  the  intermissions  of  divine  service ;  many  of 
the  clergy  were  known  to  be  content  with  inculcating  from  the  pulpit 
the  duty  of  leading  pure  and  virtuous  and  unselfish  lives,  while  they 
neglected  to  enforce  the  inherent  depravity  of  all  born  of  women,  and 
salvation  by  the  grace  of  God.2  The  good  time  had  passed  away 
when  all  things  were  subordinated  to  religious  belief;  when  life  here- 
after was  surely  eternal  damnation,  and  life  here  was  hardly  worth 
having,  and  hardly  permitted,  to  him  convicted  of  heterodox  notions 
upon  sanctification,  justification,  and  a  covenant  of  works. 

It  was  believed  that  the  Lord  had  permitted  the  sowing  of  such  seed 

1  The  throat-distemper,  as  it  was  called,  prevailed  as  an  alarming  epidemic  in  many 
places,  at  intervals  of  about  thirty  years,  throughout  the  last  century.     The  modern  diph- 
theria is  unquestionably  the  Mime  disease,  as  the  characteristics,  course,  severity,  and  age 
most  liable  to  attack,  are  precisely  the  same  iu  both.     So  f;ir  as  the  few  bills  of  mortality 
of  those  ]>enods  show,  the  disease  is  quite  as  fatal  now  as  it  was  then.     Medical  science, 
however,  IIMS  discovered  that  it  i-  the  result  of  bad  drainage,  and  not  a  special  evidence  of 
divine  wrath.     (See  Belkuap's  History  of  New  Ham/is/iire.) 

2  Edwards's  Narrative,  and  Prince's  Christian  History,  as  cited  iu  TrmnbuH's  History  of 
Connecticut. 


1740.]  THE   REVIVAL   PERIOD.  205 

* 

that  there  should  be  a  harvest  of  revivifying  grace.  For  such  a  harvest 
the  laborers  were  ready.  For  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  Northampton  in  Massachusetts  had  been,  under  the  ministry 
of  the  Rev.  Solomon  Stoddard,  a  central  point  of  occasional  revivalism. 
Moved  by  the  influence  of  that  example,  the  flame  of  religious  excite- 
ment broke  out  at  times  in  various  places  in  New  England,  like  signal- 
fires,  to  warn  the  church  of  its  lukewarmness,  and  to  arouse  its  zeal. 
Not  long  before  the  death  of  Mr.  Stoddard,  his  grandson,  Jonathan 
Edwards,  became  his  colleague.  The  mantle  of  the  older  prophet  fell 
upon  the  younger  and  stronger  shoulders,  and  in  1733,  and  Kciigiom 
the  two  following  years,  a  revival,  more  remarkable  than  any  revivals- 
that  had  preceded  it,  came  —  in  the  language  of  that  time  —  as  in  "a 
rain  of  righteousness,"  and  as  "  the  dews  of  heaven  "  upon  Northamp- 
ton and  the  neighboring  towns.  A  "Narrative  of  Surprising  Con- 
versions," written  by  Mr.  Edwards,  and  published  both  in  Boston  and 
London,  was  widely  read,  arousing  everywhere  a  deep  religious  fervor, 
and  preparing  the  way  for  a  fresh  revival  in  1740.  Even  sober  Rhode 
Island  did  not  escape  the  universal  excitement.  As,  for  example,  it  is 
related  that  in  Westerly,  where  "  there  was  not  one  praying  family," 
where  they  treated  "  even  with  scorn  and  ridicule  "  the  doctrines  of 
the  total  depravity  of  the  human  heart,  of  regeneration,  and  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith,  there  was  soon  gathered  a  church  of  thirty  or  forty 
members.  So  in  other  places  the  tranquillity  of  all  alike,  whether 
devout  or  indifferent,  was  broken  up,  sometimes  to  good  purpose, 
sometimes  to  not  so  good.  The  churches  were  stirred  as  they  had 
never  been  before,  and  have  never  been  since ;  new  ones  were  gathered ; 
old  ones  were  increased,  and  the  pious  rejoiced  that  though  New  Eng- 
land was  the  centre  of  this  movement,  its  influence  extended  even  to 
the  remotest  southern  colonies. 

But  this  rejoicing  had  its  limit.  There  were  some  who  indeed 
from  the  beginning  had  questioned  the  healthfulness  of  this  Reaction 
emotional  outbreak ;  had  doubted  whether,  in  the  long  run,  follo"'s- 
the  cause  of  religion  did  not  receive  more  harm  than  good  from  sudden 
conversions  brought  about  by  sympathetic  and  uncontrollable  excite- 
ment rather  than  by  calm  appeals  to  reason  and  conscience.  These, 
however,  were  a  small  minority,  and  they  were  silenced,  if  they  were 
not  convinced,  by  being  denounced  as  enemies  of  the  true  faith,  and 
as  Arminians,  —  a  term  then  so  obnoxious  as  to  be  almost  a  sentence 
of  banishment  from  the  society  of  pious  people.  But  events  justified 
the  judgment  of  these  doubters  in  some  degree,  even  with  many  of 
the  most  zealous  of  the  revivalists.  The  movement  at  length  got  be- 
yond the  control  of  the  more  rational  of  the  clergy  in  many  places,  and 
its  progress  was  marked  with  extravagances  and  excesses,  over  which 


•206 


NEW    ENGLAND    AND   THE    FRENCH.         [ChAp.  VIII. 


the  judicious  grieved  and  the  scoffers  triumphed.  Not  only  were  the 
phenomena  of  uncontrollable  emotion,  of  bodily  contortions,  of  epileptic 
prostrations,  of  hysteric  weeping  and  wailing,  common  in  this  as  in  all 
epidemics  of  religious  revivalism  ;  but  there  came  divisions  in  the 
churches.  Lay  preachers,  men  and  women,  took  the  work  of  grace 
out  of  the  hands  of  ordained  ministers.  Fanaticism  and  extravagance 
sometimes  crept  out  of  the  pews,  and  up  the  pulpit  stairs,  and  clergy- 
men led  their  parishioners  into  the  devious  ways  of  the  "  New  Lights." 
To  the  churches  of  Connecticut,  where  the  movement  spread  the 

widest,  and  struck  its 
roots  the  deepest,  it  was 
a  time  of  p e c u  1  i  a r 
trouble.  Ecclesiastical 
trials  divided  ministers 
and  peoples,  and  social 
relations  were  disturbed 
past  all  patience  and  for- 
bearance. It  came  at 
length  to  be  questioned 
more  and  more  by  many 
good  people  whether 
this  work  was  the  work 
of  God  or  of  the  devil. 

The  influences  which 
had  such  consequences 
were  already  at  work 
when  Whitefield  arrived, 
in  the  autumn  of  1740, 
at  Boston.  There  were 
at  that  time,  in  the  town, 
nine  Congregational 
churches,  three  Episco- 
pal, one  Baptist,  one 
French,  and  one  Scotch  Presbyterian.  The  stated  lectures  were  thinly 
M-iiit«-iu-ur.s  attended,  and  the  ministers  generally  complained  of  the 
preaching,  lukewariuness  of  their  congregations.  Whitefield,  whose 
fame  as  a  preacher  had  preceded  him,  was  warmly  welcomed.  His 
power  of  oratory  has  probably  never  been  surpassed  in  the  world  : 
not  so  much  for  what  he  said,  as  for  the  way  in  which  he  said  it.  He 
had  strong  emotional  force,  and  marked  dramatic  ability,  which  some 
training  as  a  strolling  actor  in  early  life  had,  no  doubt,  helped  to  per- 
fect. Over  his  voice,  which  was  rich  and  musical,  he  had  perfect 
command  ;  his  gestures  were  frequent,  but  always  graceful,  and  every 


George  Whitefield 


1740.]  THE   PREACHING   OF   WHITEFIELD.  -07 

motion  of  the  head,  every  sway  of  the  body,  was  a  gesture.  His 
imagination,  probably,  was  rather  redundant  than  rich,  for  his  im- 
agery seems  commonplace,  and  his  thoughts  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  either  profound  or  original.  His  mastery  was  a  mastery  over 
words  and  the  way  of  using  them.  Garrick  used  to  say  that  he  could 
plunge  an  audience  into  tears  by  merely  varying  his  pronunciation 
of  Mesopotamia.  Chesterfield,  decorous,  self-possessed,  cynical,  ske|>- 
tical,  —  as  he  heard  Whitefield  describe  a  sinner  as  an  old  man,  blind, 
trembling,  staggering  upon  the  brink  of  a  precipice,  over  which  in  a 
moment  he  would  be  dashed  into  pieces,  —  was  so  lifted  out  of  him- 
self and  out  of  reality,  that  he  sprang  forward  with  t'he  cry,  "  Good 
God  !  he  is  gone  !  "  When  lie  preached  on  Boston  Common,  it  was 
to  audiences  of  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  people.  Franklin  was  once 
cool  enough,  as  he  listened  to  him  in  Philadelphia,  to  walk  backward 
till  he  was  out  of  the  reach  of  distinct  hearing,  and  then,  by  calcula- 
tion of  distances  and  the  number  of  persons  who  could  stand  in  the 
given  area,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  that  rich  and  powerful 
voice  could  be  made  to  penetrate  through  the  open  air  to  thirty  thou- 
sand persons.  Nor  was  the  philosopher  himself  proof  against  its  per- 
suasive tones.  His  judgment  did  not  approve  of  that  Orphan  House 
in  Georgia  which  was  so  dear  to  Whitefield,  and  he  went  to  a  meet- 
ing where  its  claims  were  to  be  urged  upon  the  audience,  determined 
to  give  nothing.  His  pocket  was  full  of  money  —  copper,  silver,  and 
gold.  His  determination  soon  yielded  so  far  as  to  gain  his  own  con- 
sent to  give  the  copper  ;  then,  as  the  preacher  went  on,  he  was  willing 
that  the  silver  should  follow  the  copper ;  before  the  sermon  was  over, 
copper,  silver,  and  gold  were  all  emptied  into  the  contribution-box. 
But  Franklin  thought  it  was  a  mistake  to  publish  Whitefield's  ser- 
mons. They  were  nothing  if  not  heard. 

Wherever  Whitefield  preached,  he  aroused  the  deepest  feeling.  As 
he  went  through  New  England,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  proclaim  that 
many  of  the  ministers  were  unconverted  men,  and  ought  to  be  de- 
serted ;  yet  they  flocked  to  hear  him  nevertheless,  and  he  found  no 
such  admiration  from  clergymen  in  any  part  of  the  country  as  in  Bos- 
ton. But  at  the  annual  convention  of  the  clergy  of  Massachusetts  in 
1743,  the  tide  turned,  and  a  "  Testimony  against  the  Disorders  in  the 
Land  "  was  framed  and  printed.  The  revivalists  rallied  at  a  meeting 
of  their  own  in  Cambridge,  and  issued  a  counter-testimony,  which  de- 
clared that  the  converts  were  "  epistles  of  Jesus  Christ,  written  not 
with  ink,  but  by  the  Spirit."  In  1744,  Harvard  College  appeared 
with  a  testimony  against  the  errors  of  Whitefield,  signed  by  every 
member  of  the  Faculty.  When,  in  1745,  the  ministers  who  still  sup- 
ported the  revival  called  another  meeting,  only  twenty-eight  were 


208  NEW   ENGLAND   AND  THE   FRENCH.         [CHAP.  VIII. 

present.  The  result  of  so  decided  a  reaction  in  the  public  mind  was 
to  strengthen  the  uncalvinistic  tendencies,  against  which  the  clergy 
hoped  to  make  Whitefield  their  instrument. 

The  Peace  of  Utrecht,  which  had  been  continually  disturbed  in  the 
war  be-  colonies  by  French  Canadian  intrigue,  was  definitely  broken 
France  and  by  a  declaration  of  war  in  the  spring  of  1744,  resulting 
England.  from  the  hostile  continental  politics  of  France  and  England. 
The  news  of  this  reached  Duquesnel,  the  Governor  of  Cape  Breton, 
before  it  was  known  in  the  colonies,  and  he  took  advantage  of  it  to 
strike  an  unexpected  blow.  The  French  viewed  with  jealousy  the 
settlement  of  fishermen  on  the  island  of  Canso,  whose  small  garrison 
might  be  captured  by  a  surprise,  and  perhaps  the  fishing  interest  of 
the  English  in  those  waters  might  be  broken  up  by  attacks  on  other 
places.  The  undertaking  was  intrusted  to  Duvivier,  who  was  sent 
from  the  fortress  of  Louisburg  with  nine  hundred  men.  He  was  suc- 
cessful at  Canso,  captured  all  the  inhabitants,  and  sent  them  to  Louis- 
burg,  but  he  failed  at  Placentia  ;  and  at  Annapolis,  after  a  desperate 
fight,  he  was  forced  to  retreat,  for  Shirley  had  reenforced  the  garrison 
just  in  time.  Although  the  French  were  not  yet  in  condition  to  fol- 
low up  the  first  attacks,  their  privateers  took  many  prizes,  especially 
of  fishing  vessels,  all  of  which  were  brought  into  Louisburg,  and  the 
fishing  business  was  completely  paralyzed. 

These  operations  of  the  French  roused  the  indignation  and  alarm 
of  New  England,  and  a  corresponding  zeal  for  war  animated  the  in- 
habitants. Governor  Shirley  was  found  to  be  adequate  to  the  emer- 
gency. First  taking  vigorous  measures  to  protect  the  frontier,  he 
sought  to  organize  and  direct  the  earnest  popular  conviction  that  Lou- 
isburg, a  formidable  neighbor  and  perpetual  threat  to  the  interests  of 
New  England,  must  be  captured.  From  fishermen  who  had  been  re- 
leased, and  from  other  sources,  he  drew  sufficient  information  about 
the  fortress  to  perfect  a  plan  for  taking  it ;  but  as  the  success  of  it 
shiriey-s  depended  upon  secrecy,  he  desired  the  House  then  in  session, 
proposal.  January,  1745,  to  receive  a  private  message  from  him,  under 
an  oath  not  to  divulge  it.  Fully  confiding  in  Shirley's  patriotism, 
the  House  consented. 

The  plan  was  of  such  magnitude,  involving  so  many  difficulties  and 
such  expense,  that  the  members  at  first  brought  little  but  amazement 
to  its  discussion.  It  was  considered  to  be  an  undertaking  beyond  the 
means  at  their  command,  even  if  all  the  provinces  should  unite.  The 
information  which  Shirley  communicated,  regarding  its  feasibility,  did 
not  seem  to  the  House  so  conclusive  as  it  did  to  the  ardent  Governor. 
It  was  discussed  for  a  few  days,  then  referred  to  a  committee,  who 
reported  adversely,  and  the  report  was  accepted.  One  of  the  mem- 


1745.]         SHIRLEY'S  EXPEDITION   AGAINST    LOUISBURG.  209 

bers  who  favored  the  enterprise  was  a  bold  deacon  who  made  it  a  sub- 
ject of  family  prayers.  His  startled  and  curious  listeners  gave  him 
no  peace  till  he  explained  the  design  for  which  he  invoked  the  divine 
blessing,  —  waiving  his  oath  as  a  legislator  to  his  peace  as  a  family 
man.  The  Governor's  purpose  was  soon  made  known  to  everybody, 
and  received  the  popular  approbation.  Petitions,  signed  by  promi- 
nent merchants  and  ship-owners,  were  sent  in  to  the  House  Theexpedi- 
from  various  places.  The  public  opinion  thus  bearing  on  EUuVbE!^' 
the  members,  they  became  more  evenly  divided,  and  a  reso-  decldedon- 
lution  in  favor  of  the  enterprise  passed  by  the  casting  vote  of  Speaker 
Hutchinson. 

In  some  respects,  the  time  was  favorable.  Duquesnel,  an  officer  of 
great  ability,  had  died,  and  his  successor  was  old  and  a  man  of  medi- 
ocrity. The  officer  who  captured  Canso  had  returned  to  Europe  to 
solicit  help  for  the  garrison  in  troops  and  supplies.  It  had  been  re- 
ported to  Shirley  that  the  men  were  ill-fed  and  in  no  temper  to  make 
a  protracted  defence.  The  winter  was  unusually  mild  ;  the  harvest 
had  been  abundant,  and  provisions  were  plenty  ;  the  unemployed  fish- 
ermen were  eager  to  enlist.  In  the  autumn,  a  French  ship,  that  was 
hastily  fitting  out  to  relieve  the  starving  and  discontented  garrison, 
was  broken  in  launching.  Shirley  also  counted  upon  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  English  fleet  in  the  West  Indies.  He  had  petitioned  the 
ministry,  without  broaching  to  them  his  scheme,  to  send  Commodore 
Warren  to  Boston  to  protect  the  fisheries  and  the  general  interests  of 
England.  He  had,  in  the  mean  time,  solicited  the  Commodore  for  aid, 
who  declined  for  want  of  orders ;  but  the  day  after  this  refusal,  instruc- 
tions from  the  ministry  to  repair  to  Boston  reached  him.  On  his  way 
a  vessel  gave  him  the  news  that  the  provincial  ships  had  sailed  for 
Canso,  whither  he  shaped  his  course,  and  arrived  just  in  time. 

But  Louisburg,  under  every  temporary  disadvantage,  was  a  formi- 
dable place,  and  was  styled  the  Gibraltar  and  the  Dunkirk 
of  America.      A  much   stronger  power  than  a  dependent  fences  of 
colony   might  well   hesitate  to  attack  it.     Shirley's  secret, 
though  well  kept  from  France,  was  scented  by  the  Indians,  who  com- 
municated it  to  the  French  in  Canada,  where  it  was  received  with  ridi- 
cule and  general  incredulity,  so  confident  were  the  people  that  the 
fortress  was  impregnable.     The  place  had  been  twenty-five  years  in 
building,  and  had  cost  France   thirty  millions  of  livres.     In  1713  a 
walled  town  was  begun  at  the  southeastern  extremity  of  Cape  Breton, 
two  miles  and  a  half  in  circumference,   with  a  stone  rampart  over 
thirty  feet  high  behind  a  ditch  that  was  eighty  feet  wide  wherever 
the  place  was  liable  to  an  attack.     The  entrance  of  the  harbor  was 
defended  by  a  battery  of  thirty  twenty-eight-pouuders  upon  a  small 

VOL.  III.  14 


210 


NEW   ENGLAND    AND   THE   FRENCH.         [CnAP.  VIII. 


island.  Just  opposite,  on  the  harbor's  inner  edge,  was  a  formidable 
battery  of  twenty -eight  forty-two-pounders,  and  two  eighteen-pound- 
ers.  The  entrance  to  the  town  was  over  a  drawbridge  which  a  cir- 
cular battery  of  thirteen  twenty-four-pounders  commanded.  The 
batteries  and  six  bastions  could  mount  one  hundred  and  forty-eight 
cannon  :  sixty-five  of  this  number  were  mounted,  and  sixteen  mor- 
tars. The  town  was  laid  out  in  squares,  and  contained  valuable  mag- 
azines of  naval  stores.  Many  of  the  houses  were  substantially  built 
of  stone.  This  was  the  rugged  nut  that  Shirley  meant  to  crack. 


g5j       ^      ./  ,  ^ 


The  Xew 
England 
forces. 


Defences  at   Louisburg,   from  a  contemporary  French  Plan. 

He  addressed  circulars  to  every  American  province,  asking  for  its 
aid.  Every  one  out  of  New  England  shrunk  from  the  formidable  en- 
terprise. But  New  England  possessed  fourteen  armed  vessels  mount- 
ing two  hundred  and  four  guns,  and  nearly  a  hundred  sail  of  trans- 
ports. The  quota  of  troops  was  3,200  for  Massachusetts,  including 
150  New  Hampshire  men ;  300  for  Rhode  Island ;  350  for 
New  Hampshire,  and  500  for  Connecticut.  The  New  Hamp- 
shire regiment,  under  Colonel  Samuel  Moore,  sailed  in  trans- 
ports belonging  to  that  province,  directly  for  the  rendezvous  at  Canso. 
They  were  under  convoy  of  an  armed  sloop  carrying  thirty  men,  com- 
manded by  Captain  John  Fernald,  and  this  vessel  afterward  did  good 
service  as  a  cruiser.  The  Rhode  Island  troops  did  not  reach  Boston 
till  after  the  fleet  had  sailed,  but  they  arrived  in  Louisburg  in  July, 
just  in  time  to  relieve  those  who  by  that  time  had  captured  the  place. 

Colonel  William  Pepperell,  a  merchant  of  Kittery,  New  Hampshire, 
was  appointed  to  command  the  expedition,  but  he  naturally  hesitated. 


1745.] 


COLONEL   WILLIAM   PEPPERELL. 


211 


Sir  William   Peppered. 


He  sought  counsel  of  Whitefield,  who  was  then  lodging  at  his  house, 
and  who  told  him  that  the  scheme  did  not  look  promising ;  if  it  should 
not  succeed,  the  widows 
and  orphans  of  the  slain 
would  reproach  him,  and  if 
it  should  succeed,  he  would 
become  an  object  of  envious 
hostility.  He  must  there- 
fore undertake  it  with  a 
motive  so  pure  and  strong 
as  to  deserve  success.  When 
Pepperell  yielded  to  the  so- 
licitations of  Shirley's  mes- 
sengers, Whitefieldgave  him 
as  a  motto  for  his  flag,  NIL 

DESPERANDUM,  CHRISTO 
DUCE.  The  great  revival- 
ist was  urged  to  countenance 
the  enterprise,  that  his  fol- 
lowers might  be  encouraged 
to  enlist  ;  accordingly  a 
great  enthusiasm  arose  among  them  at  this  dedication  of  a  standard, 
and  the  expedition  put  on  something  of  the  aspect  of  a  crusade.  One 
clergyman  armed  himself  with  a  hatchet  wherewith  to  smite  the 
Romish  images.  Old  Parson  Moody,  the  famous  preacher  of  York, 
—  whom  Pepperell  made  chaplain,  —  when  there  was  a  call  made 
in  that  place  for  volunteers,  stepped  to  the  drum-head  and  put  down 
his  name.  None  held  back  after  that  example.  From  Berwick  and 
Kittery  the  male  inhabitants,  almost  to  a  man,  followed  Pepperell. 
Besides  his  services  he  gave  to  the  expedition  Xo^OO.1  His  second 
in  command  of  the  expedition  was  Roger  Wolcott,  the  Lieutenant- 
governor  of  Connecticut. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  French  should  not  have  suspected  the  pur- 
pose of  all  these  preparations.  But  every  province  refrained  from 
sending  vessels  in  the  direction  of  Louisburg.  Not  a  copy  of  Shirley's 
order  to  the  captains  of  train-bands  was  allowed  to  be  taken.  In 
eight  weeks  four  thousand  three  hundred  men  were  enlisted,  and  all 

1  Governor  Wentworth  of  Ne.w  Hani|»liirc  was  ambitious  and  did  not  relish  Governor 
Shirley's  preference  of  Pepperell  for  the  command  of  the  troops  destined  for  Lotiisburg. 
After  Pepperell  had  accepted,  Shirley  sought  the  cooperation  of  Wentworth  by  writing  to 
him  ti  po'itic  letter  to  the  effect  that  it  would  have  been  a  great  satisfaction  to  all,  and  a 
great  advantage  to  the  expedition,  had  not  the  gubernatorial  gout  prevented  him  from 
taking  the  command.  Whereupon  Wcntworth  denied  the  gout  and  offered  his  services. 
Shirley  was  then  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  he  had  giveii  the  command  to  Pcppercll. 


i 


212  NEW   ENGLAND   AND  THE    FRENCH.          [CHAP.  VIII. 

the  preparations  were  complete,  New  York  loaning  a  few  cannon,  and 
Ne\v  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  contributing  some  provisions  and 
clothing. 

The  fleet  collected  at  Nantasket  Roads  ;  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer 
was  ordered  through  the  province,  and  one  evening  each 

The  rendez-  i       r  •    i  rm  i          -,  *  i 

vousat  week  lor  special  prayer.  Ihen  the  Massachusetts  vessels 
sailed,  March  24,  for  Canso.  The  New  Hampshire  troops 
were  already  there  ;  those  from  Connecticut  arrived  about  April  10. 
The  ice  around  the  shores  detained  the  fleet  till  April  29,  when  it 
weighed  anchor  for  Cabarus  Bay  at  Cape  Breton.  Not  a  French  ves- 
sel of  observation  was  encountered  ;  the  appearance  of  a  numerous 
fleet,  the  following  morning,  was  actually  the  first  advertisement  of 
Pepperell's  destination  which  reached  the  garrison.  This  element  of 
surprise  was  very  effective.  A  feint  of  landing  at  one  place  favored 
the  putting  ashore  of  a  detachment  at  another,  where  a  tardy  attack 
was  easily  repulsed.  The  French  retreated  within  their  lines  ;  half 
the  troops  were  landed,  and  the  rest  upon  the  two  following  days. 
Some  large  warehouses  filled  with  inflammable  stores  and  spirits  were 
set  on  fire,  the  smoke  of  which  as  it  drifted  inland  so  alarmed  the 
French  that  they  spiked  the  guns  of  the  powerful  battery  at  the 
bottom  of  the  harbor,  threw  the  powder  into  a  well,  and  retreated  in 
boats  to  the  town. 

The  next  morning  Colonel  Vaughan,  a  soldier  of  admirable  con- 
duct, reconnoitering  with  thirteen  men,  discovered  that  the  batteiy 
was  deserted,  took  possession,  and  sent  to  Pepperell  for  reinforcements 
and  a  flag.  Meantime  a  soldier  went  up  the  flagstaff  with  a  red 
coat  in  his  teeth,  and  nailed  up  the  symbol  of  possession.  The  French 
soon  attacked  Vaughan  with  a  hundred  men  under  cover  of  a  fire 
from  the  city,  but  his  thirteen  held  out  till  reenforcements  arrived, 
and  the  French  gave  up  the  attempt.  Ample  war  material  was  found 
in  the  battery ;  the  guns  were  unspiked  and  did  good  service  against 
the  town  during  the  siege. 

By  May  5,  Pepperell  had  thrown  up  three  batteries  by  night,  the 
third  being  only  seven  hundred  vards  from  the  city.1  The 

The  siege.  J  •  «  • 

labor  of  bringing  up  guns  and  munitions  was  great ;  every- 
thing had  to  be  dragged  by  hand  through  morasses,  consuming  four- 
teen days.  A  fourth  fascine  battery  was  thrown  up  within  two  hun- 

•  It  is  worth  noting  that  the  man  to  whom  Pepperell  entrusted  the  planning  of  his  bat- 
teries was  the  Colonel  Gridley  who  marked  out  the  lines  of  the  redoubt  on  Bunker  Hill  in 
which  Warren  fell.  Many  of  the  bravest  officers  of  the  Revolution  served  under  Pepperell 
at  Louisburg,  where  New  England  men  l>egau  to  have  a  salutary  contempt  for  their  ene- 
mies' lines.  "  When  Gage  was  erecting  breastworks  across  Boston  Neck,  the  provincial 
troops  sneeringly  remarked  that  his  mud  wajts  were  nothing  compared  with  the  stone  walls 
of  old  Louisburg."  —  Parsons's  Life  of  Pepperell. 


1745.] 


THE   SIEGE   OF  LOUISBURG. 


213 


dred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  drawbridge.  It  was  evident  that  to 
capture  tlie  island  battery  the  fleet  must  come  into  the  harbor.  This 
dangerous  movement  was  not  popular  among  the  volunteers ;  and  so 
much  dissatisfaction  reigned  that  a  council  of  war  thought  best  to 
postpone  it.  On  May  20,  Commodore  Warren,  who,  under  great  dis- 
comforts, was  cruising  outside, 
captured  the  Vigilant,  of  sixty- 
four  guns,  having  on  board  six 
hundred  men,  and  military  stores. 
This  stroke  of  luck  raised  the 
spirits  of  the  volunteers,  and  pro- 
portionally depressed  the  French 
when  Pepperell  managed  to  con- 
vey intelligence  of  it  to  them. 

But  the  Commodore  was  anx- 
ious to  have  the  island  battery 
taken  out  of  his  way.  Pepperell, 


on  the  other  hand,  inclined  to 
rely  upon  the  strong  impression 
which  his  fascine  batteries  were 
making  upon  the  enemy's  works. 
The  Commodore's  prisoners  hap- 
pened to  let  out  the  fact  that  a  number  of  war  vessels  were  nearly 
due  ;  his  crews  were  falling  sick,  and  no  fresh  provisions  could  be  pro- 
cured. So  Pepperell  consented  to  a  night  attack,  which  was  made 
by  four  hundred  men  with  scaling-ladders  ;  but  the  boats  were  ob- 
served and  fired  upon,  the  muskets  of  the  men  were  wetted  in  land- 
ing, and  the  attack  was  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  sixty  killed,  and  one 


214  NEW   ENGLAND    AND   THE   FRENCH.         [CHAP.  VIII. 

hundred  and  twelve,  with  the  wounded,  taken  prisoners.  Amid  con- 
siderable depression  the  regular  business  of  the  siege  was  resumed, 
under  volleys  of  cheering  from  the  French  which  were  more  galling 
than  their  fire. 

Pepperell  maintained  a  constant  communication  with  Governor 
Shirley,  from  which  we  learn  that  he  was  frequently  short  of  ammu- 
nition, and  there  were  not  trained  gunners  enough  to  man  his  bat- 
teries. He  borrowed  powder  of  the  Commodore,  hoping  to  turn 
against  the  enemy  several  French  cannon,  found  under  water;  but 
these,  for  want  of  balls  corresponding  to  their  calibre,  wei'e  useless. 
His  largest  mortar  and  one  or  two  cannon  burst.  He  could  do  little, 
for  want  of  ammunition.  By  the  first  week  in  June  fifteen  hundred 
men  were  on  the  sick  list,  and  a  call  for  reinforcements  followed  that 
for  powder. 

Meantime,  while  French  war  ships  were  expected,  the  garrison  kept 
vigorously  pounding  away  at  the  works  of  the  besieging  forces.  The 
fog  also  settled  down  upon  the  batteries  and  disturbed  the  effective 
use  of  their  guns  and  communication  with  the  fleet  outside. 

Yet  even  in  June  the  French  in  Quebec  were  utterly  incredulous 
as  to  any  expedition  against  Louisburg  ;  so  uncertain  was  the  water 
intercourse  of  those  days,  and  so  watchful  were  the  English  cruisers. 
But  the  Commodore's  fleet,  though  strengthened  by  the  arrival  of 
several  ships,  could  not  venture  past  the  island  battery  to  make  with 
the  land  forces  a  joint  attack  upon  the  town.  During  the  siege  the 
provincials  were  shelterless,  and  many  died  of  fever,  while  the  French 
were  snugly  ensconced  beneath  their  roofs.  The  French,  however, 
who  were  trained  soldiers  and  began  by  underrating  this  little  army 
of  tradesmen,  fishermen,  backwoodsmen,  and  mechanics,  had  omitted 
from  their  reckoning  one  element  of  the  temper  of  a  New  Englander, 
—  that  when  he  is  the  worst  baffled  he  is  the  most  obstinate  and  dan- 
gerous. So  Pepperell  grimly  held  on  to  all  his  positions,  and  threw 
up  another  battery,  which  got  the  range  of  the  dreaded  island  battery 
and  seriously  annoyed  it.  He  had  also  succeeded  in  silencing  all  the 
guns  except  three  in  the  drawbridge  battery,  and  that  was  nearly  a 
heap  of  ruins. 

Under  these  circumstances  a  combined  attack  seemed  to  the  Com- 
modore more  practicable.  Every  arrangement  to  that  effect  had  been 
made,  his  fleet  was  drawn  up  in  line,  eleven  ships  of  forty  guns  each  ; 
the  land  forces  were  in  position  to  attack,  and  Pepperell  and  the  Com- 
modore, and  no  doubt  Parson  Moody  also,  were  stirring  them  up  with 
Thesur-  appeals  to  their  courage  and  sense  of  duty.  It  was  the  fif- 
teenth of  June,  1745.  Governor  Duchambou  rapidly  sur- 
veyed his  prospects.  No  French  vessel  could  enter  the  harbor;  his 


1745.]  THE    CAPTURE    OF   LOUISBURG.  215 

island  battery  was  dominated ;  several  breaches  had  been  made  in  his 
bastions ;  his  soldiers,  worn  out  by  the  incessant  strain  by  niglit 
and  day  for  seven  weeks,  could  only  feebly  stand  to  their  guns. 
Pepperell's  forces  outnumbered  by  five  times  his  own. 

In  the  afternoon  he  concluded  to  ask  for  terms  of  capitulation. 
During  a  suspension  of  hostilities  the  island  battery  was  delivered  up 
to  the  Commodore,  and  his  fleet  entered  the  harbor.  Honorable  terms 
were  offered  and  accepted  by  the  Governor,  and  although  the  articles 
of  capitulation  were  not  signed  till  the  19th,  Pepperell  disregarded 
the  formality,  as  if  to  anticipate  a  memorable  date.  On  the  seven- 
teenth of  June  he  entered  the  fortress  at  the  head  of  his  volunteers. 
Shirley's  nut  was  cracked,  and  the  troops  who  did  it  were  astonished 
to  discover  the  strength  of  the  shell.  Shirley  soon  arrived,  and  re- 
ceived the  keys  from  Pepperell.  Six  hundred  and  fifty  regular  troops, 
thirteen  hundred  militia-men,  six  hundred  sailors,  and  two  thousand 
inhabitants  were  sent  to  France.  Cannon,  stores,  provisions,  and  prop- 
erty to  an  enormous  amount  were  taken,  for  which  the  English  paid  by 
the  death  of  only  130  men.  The  French  lost  300.  All  the  bells  in  the 
provinces  rang  their  joy-peals  when  the  event  was  known;  all  Eng- 
land broke  into  illuminations  and  bonfires  ;  and  Europe,  not  surpriRein 
excepting  France,  was  astonished.  General  Pepperell  became  Europe- 
the  first  American  baronet;  he  and  Shirley  were  commissioned  as 
Colonels  in  the  British  army  ;  Warren  was  promoted  to  be  an  Ad- 
miral. Still  further  honors  awaited  Pepperell ;  within  the  next  three 
years  the  city  of  London  presented  him  a  silver  table  and  a  service  of 
plate,  and  the  King  made  him,  at  Pitt's  suggestion,  a  Lieutenant- 
general.1 

While  Louisburg  was  garrisoned  for  a  year  by  New  England  troops, 
the  other  provinces,  which  had  declined  to  share  in  the  expedition, 
manifested  a  noble  spirit  of  gratitude  and  admiration  towards  those 
who  had  taken  the  place,  and  sent  abundant  store  of  necessaries  to 
the  troops.  The  news  of  its  fall  was  carried  to  France  by  Duvivier, 
who  was  on  his  way  in  July,  with  a  squadron  of  seven  ships,  for  the 
recovery  of  Nova  Scotia.  When  in  mid-ocean  he  learned  from  a  cap- 
tured vessel  —  on  board  which  was  ex-Lieutenant-governor  Clarke  of 
New  York  —  that  Louisburg  was  in  the  hands  of  the  English.  He 

1  After  the  surrender,  Mr.  Moody  preached  a  sermon  in  a  Jesuit  chapel.  At  a  dinner 
given  by  Pepperell,  Moody  was  the  senior  chaplain,  and  therefore  entitled  to  say  grace. 
The  officers  dreaded  to  annoy  the  guests  with  one  of  his  long-winded  addresses,  but  no  one 
dared  to  counsel  the  rather  irritable  parson.  He  seemed  on  this  occasion  to  be  anxious  for 
his  dinner,  and  the  grace  was  simply,  "  O  Lord,  we  have  so  many  things  to  thank  thee  for, 
that  time  will  be  infinitely  too  short  to  do  it ;  we  must  therefore  leave  it  for  the  work  of 
eternity.  Bless  our  food  and  fellowship  upon  this  joyful  occasion,  for  the  sake  of  Christ 
our  Lord.  Amen." 


216  XKW    ENGLAND   AND   THE   FRENCH.          [CHAP.  VIII. 

returned  to  bear  the  evil  tidings  to  France,  abandoning   his  design 
against  Nova  Scotia,  which  now  seemed  hopeless. 

France  was  aroused  to  fresh  and    more  extensive  preparations  to 
recover  all  it  had  lost,  and  to  add  to  its  dominion  in  Amer- 

Viporous  .  . .  ...  .,  .  . 

I,,.-:.-...-,-,  of    ica.     It  contemplated  the  possibility  even  of  conquering  the 

Hi,.  Kr.-n.-li.  ,  i-  -vr    •  /-.  •  1   xl. 

whole  country  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  and  the  utmost  alarm 
spread  through  the  colonial  seaports  as  rumors  reached  them,  from 
time  to  time,  of  the  designs  of  the  French.  The  next  summer  a  fleet 
of  eleven  ships  of  the  line,  with  thirty  smaller  vessels  of  from  ten  to 
thirty  guns  each,  and  transports  carrying  over  3,000  troops,  sailed  from 
K'M-helle.  To  these  were  to  be  added  four  ships  from  the  West  Indies  ; 
and  an  army  of  nearlv  two  thousand  Canadians  and  Indians  was  al- 

V  ». 

ready  in  arms  to  join  the  land  force  on  its  arrival. 

The  colonists  trusted  to  the  fleet  at  Louisbnrg  and  to  reinforcements 
Th.-irfaii-      fi'()m  England — which  did  not  come — to  meet  the  French 


ure. 


on  the  coast.  On  land,  preparations  were  made,  under  the 
energetic  leadership  of  Shirley,  to  counteract  the  French  invasion  by 
a  fresh  attempt  upon  Canada,  and  troops  were  collected  from  the 
several  provinces  to  that  end.  Hut  the  naval  expedition  of  the  French 
was  from  the  beginning  attended  with  disaster.  The  ships  were 
separated  at  sea  by  storm  ;  some  were  disabled  and  abandoned,  or 
returned  to  France.  The  Admiral,  the  Duke  d'Anville,  soon  after 
his  arrival  in  the  bay  of  Chebucto,  in  Nova  Scotia,  suddenly  died. 
The  Vice-Admiral,  D'Estournelle,  worn  with  anxiety  at  the  non-arrival 
of  many  of  the  fleet,  and  by  a  fatal  sickness  which  broke  out  among 
the  men,  himself  fell  ill  of  fever,  and  in  a  fit  of  delirium  ran  his  sword 
through  his  body.  Jonquiere,  the  Governor  of  Canada,  who  had 
joined  the  expedition,  succeeded  to  the  command,  and  set  sail  for  an 
attack  upon  Annapolis,  though  half  the  men  were  already  dead.  But  a 
storm  overtook  and  dispersed  his  fleet ;  the  enterprise  was  abandoned, 
and  the  ships  made  their  way  back  to  France. 

More  than  a  year  had  passed,  and  with  the  signs  of  approaching 
peace,  there  was  relaxation  of  effort  on  both  sides.  The  one 
brilliant  result  of  the  war  in  America  was  the  capture  of 
Louisbur  :  but  it  was  after  all  a  barren  victor  to  the 


e 

provinces,  save  that  it  taught  them  a  well-remembered  les- 
son,—  that  the  rough  colonial  life  was  no  bad  school  for  the  training 
of  soldiers  who  would  be  a  match  for  the  best  of  regular  troops.  No 
share  of  the  prize  money  of  ,£600,000  from  captured  French  ships, 
which  the  expedition  threw  into  the  hands  of  the  English  fleet,  fell 
to  the  army  on  shore.  Notwithstanding  Pepperell's  just  claim,  War- 
ren and  his  sailors  took  the  whole  of  it.  When  peace  was  made  be- 
tween England  and  France,  in  April,  1748,  Cape  Breton  was  restored 


1749.]  NEW   ENGLAND   FINANCES.  217 

to  France  by  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  people  of  New 
England  had  expended  costly  lives  and  much  treasure  in  the  capture 
of  Louisburg,  and  they  saw  with  disgust  this  cession,  for  which  no 
equivalent  was  received  that  benefited  either  England  or  the  colonies. 
Pepperell  had  hoped  that  Cape  Breton  and  its  dependencies  would  be 
annexed  to  the  Crown,  and  converted  into  an  American  colony. 

When  the  New  England  regiments  which  garrisoned  Louisburg 
were  disbanded  in  consequence  of  this  peace,  Sir  William  was  obliged 
to  send  money  to  the  troops  for  the  payment  of  debts  and  to  trans- 
port them  to  their  homes.  He  forwarded  1,420  silver  dollars,  and  sil- 
ver was  so  scarce  that  he  could  only  procure  it  by  paying  from  fifty 
to  fifty-two  shillings  in  currency  for  each  dollar.  But  the  Provinces, 
who  saw  the  dearly  bought  Cape  Breton  taken  from  them,  could  now 
demand  more  earnestly,  and  with  the  more  reason,  the  reimbursement 
of  their  expenses.  In  the  summer  of  1749,  Parliament  voted  the  sum 
of  £183,649  sterling  to  liquidate  this  demand.  In  consequence  of  the 
urgent  representations  of  prominent  merchants  who  were  opposed  to 
the  existing  paper  currency  and  desired  to  retire  it,  that  sum  was 
transmitted  in  metal.  Six  hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand  ounces  of 
silver  and  ten  tons  of  copper  were  landed  at  Long  Wharf,  in  Boston, 
—  more  coin  than  was  ever  seen  there  before.  It  was  divided 
between  the  four  New  England  Colonies.  Massachusetts  land 


received  the  greatest  share,  and  that  of  New  Hampshire  afu-rthe 
amounted  only  to  -$16,000.  Before  tins  arrival  the  paper 
currency  of  Massachusetts  stood  at  the  rate  of  eight  to  one  in  silver; 
it  was  now  redeemed  at  one  fifth  less  than  the  current  value.  The 
colony  had  learned  from  hard  experience  that  a  promise  to  pay  was 
not  paying;  that  the  increment  of  promises  was  only  an  increment  of 
debt.  It  profited  by  that  lesson,  and  now  proposed  to  make  real 
money,  not  a  fluctuating  paper  substitute  for  money,  the  measure  of 
values.  To  this  end  it  prohibited  the  circulation,  within  its  own 
jurisdiction,  of  the  paper  currency  of  neighboring  provinces,  while  it 
redeemed  its  own.  The  wholesome  result  of  this  wise  policy  was  the 
sound  financial  condition  and  consequent  prosperity  of  Massachusetts 
till  in  the  struggle  for  independence  she  again  resorted  to  a  paper 
currency  and  accepted  bankruptcy  as  a  part  of  the  price  to  be  paid 
for  civil  libertv. 

if 

The  colonies  were  compelled,  at  this  period,  almost  to  exhaust  their 
resources  and  energies  to  defend  themselves  and  to  secure  to 
England  her  American  possessions.     They  were  left,  for  the   B^iudMt 
most  part,  to  fight  their  own  battles,  to  work  out  their  own 
safety,  with  little  or  no  aid  from  the  parent  government.     American 
affairs  were,  not  altogether   without  reason,  of  secondary  importance 


218  NEW    ENGLAND    AND   THE   FRENCH.          [CHAP.  VIII. 

to  England.  Deeply  involved  in  a  war  in  which  all  Europe  was  en- 
gaged, and  harassed  by  the  machinations  of  the  Pretender,  Charles 
Edward,  —  whose  claim  to  the  throne  was  a  perpetual  menace  to  the 
peace  of  the  kingdom,  till  his  disastrous  campaign  in  Scotland,  in 
1745,  —  the  difficulties  and  the  dangers  of  the  distant  colonies  were 
of  comparatively  small  moment.  The  sense  of  neglect  and  the  feel- 
ing of  resentment — though  often  from  opposite  causes  —  were  not  new 
moods  in  the  colonial  temper;  but  they  were  strengthened  quite  as 
much  by  indifference  to  the  welfare  and  safety  of  the  colonies  as  they 
had  ever  been  by  any  seeming  or  real  attack  upon  them.  With  this 
discontent,  however  nurtured,  grew  the  spirit  of  independence,  ready 
to  show  itself  on  any  provocation. 

A  provocation  came  in  Boston  in  1747.  A  number  of  sailors  had 
deserted  from  some  English  men-of-war,  then  in  that  harbor,  under 
the  command, of  one  Commodore  Knowles.  To  supply  their  places 
the  Commodore  ordered,  as  he  would  have  done  in  England,  that  a 
press-gang  should  take  from  merchant  vessels  and  on  the  wharves  of 
Boston,  as  many  men  as  were  needed.  He  did  not  know,  perhaps, 
or,  if  he  did  know,  did  not  care  that  a  law  of  the  realm,  passed  in  the 
reign  of  Anne,  forbade  impressment  in  the  colonies,  except  of  deserters 
from  naval  vessels.  But  certainly  he  could  not  have  understood  that 

H 

no  man  in  Boston,  however  humble,  could  be  made  against  his  will  to 
serve  even  the  King. 

When  it  was  known,  one  day  in  November,  that   Knowles's  boats 

had  come  up  early  in  the  morning  from  the  fleet  in  Nantas- 

pras-gang1     ket   Roads,  had   visited   all  the  vessels  in  the   harbor,  had 

in  Boston.  <•      i  •  i  i 

taken  the  crews  even  or  those  just  ready  tor  sea,  bad  swept 
the  warehouses  and  the  wharves  of  laboring  men  and  mechanics,  — 
then  the  town  broke  out  into  a  blaze  of  excitement  and  fury.  A  mob 
armed  with  clubs  and  stones,  and  whatever  other  weapons  they  could 
suddenly  lay  their  hands  upon,  filled  the  streets.  The  Governor's 
house,  where  some  of  the  officers  of  the  English  ships  happened  to  be, 
was  soon  surrounded  by  an  angry  crowd.  An  assault  was  threatened, 
and  the  officers  armed  themselves  to  defend  their  lives.  Influential 
citizens  mingled  with  the  mob,  exhorting  them  to  refrain  from  violent 
measures.  A  deputy  sheriff,  more  courageous  than  prudent,  ordered 
them,  in  the  name  of  the  law,  to  disperse.  Him  they  seized,  bore  off 
in  triumph,  and  set  in  the  stocks.  The  ludicrous  spectacle  of  his  dis- 
comfiture turned  angry  oaths  and  cries,  for  a  while,  into  jibes  and 
laughter,  and  served  to  lure  the  crowd  from  the  Governor's  house. 
Tumult  in  •^ll^  ^  was  only  a  diversion.  When  evening  came,  the 

people  swarmed  into  King  (now  State)  Street  from  all  parts 
of  the  town,  defiant,  irresistible,  determined  that  the  wrong  should 


1747.] 


AX   ENGLISH    PRESS-GANG   IN  BOSTON. 


219 


be  righted.  The  Town-House  at  the  head  of  the  street,  where  the 
General  Court  was  in  session,  was  surrounded,  and  that  body  ap- 
pealed to  with  shouts,  —  with, 
no  doubt,  impatient  impreca- 
tions, and  when  these  were  un- 
answered, stones,  sticks,  and 
brickbats  crashed  through  the 
windows  of  the  Council  Cham- 
ber. The  Governor  and  other 
official  gentlemen  replied  to  this 
unmistakable  summons  by  ap- 
pearing upon  the  balcony.  The 
crowd  was  besought  to  be  pa- 
tient till  the  General  Court 
could  act;  it  was  assured  that 
the  Governor  would  make  ev- 
ery possible  effort  for  the  re- 


Attack  on  the  Town-house. 

lease. of  the  men,  whose  kidnapping  he  disapproved  of,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  he  deprecated  these  violent  outbreaks.  But  even  so  popu- 
lar a  man  as  Shirley  talked  in  vain  ;  deeds,  not  words  merely,  were 
wanted;  "  it  was  thought  adviseable,"  says  Hutchinson,  "for  the  Gov- 
ernor to  withdraw  to  his  house/ 

The  citizens  demanded  that  every  officer  in  town,  belonging  to  the 


220  NEW   ENGLAND   AND  THE  FRENCH.         [CHAP.  VIII. 

fleet,  should  be  seized  and  held  till  the  kidnapped  men  were  released. 
In  the  course  of  the  evening  a  rumor  that  a  barge  had  come  up  the 
harbor  from  the  fleet  spread  through  the  crowd.  A  rush  was  made  to 
the  waterside,  a  boat  was  seized, — only  it  happened  to  be  the  wrong 
one,  —  dragged  to  the  front  of  the  Governor's  house,  then  to  some 
more  open  place,  and  burnt.  The  blood  of  the  town  was  up,  and  it 
was  fearfully  in  earnest. 

The  next  day  the  Governor  ordered   out  the   militia  by  beat  of 

drum;   but  the  drummers  were  silenced  by  orders  more  po- 

pectofat-      tent  than  the   Governor's,  and   the  militia-men  refused  to 

fairs.  „,,   .  .     .  re    . 

appear.  Inis  was  giving  to  affairs  so  serious  an  aspect, 
that  Shirley  retired  to  the  Castle  in  the  harbor,  not,  probably,  in  fear, 
but  as  the  most  serious  and  dignified  protest  he  could  make  against 
the  riotous  subversion  of  civil  authority. 

From  the  Castle  he  appealed  to  Commodore  Knowles,  protesting 
against  the  outrage  which  had  been  perpetrated  by  his  orders  and  had 
thrown  the  town  into  a  state  of  insurrection.  The  Commodore  would 
accept  no  terms  and  offer  none,  except  this :  that  unless  his  officers, 
who  had  been  arrested  and  detained  in  Boston,  were  set  at  liberty,  he 
•would  bombard  the  town.  Whether  he  would  really  have  proceeded 
to  that  extremity,  or  thought  the  threat  would  be  enough,  he  was  sup- 
posed to  be  in  earnest,  and  several  of  his  ships  weighed  anchor  and 
sailed  up  the  bay. 

Things  had  come  to  that  pass  that  a  settlement  of  some  sort  was  in- 
evitable. Though  the  General  Court  continued  in  session,  for  three 
days  the  naval  officei-s  had  been  held  in  custody,  or  on  parole,  by  no 
other  authority  than  that  of  rioters.  Though  these  rioters  were  labor- 
ing men  and  mechanics,  it  was  thought  that  they  were  instigated  and 
upheld  by  many  influential  people.  It  WHS  seriously  discussed  whether 
the  Governor's  retreat  to  the  Castle  was  not  an  abdication;  whether 
Massachusetts  Bay  had  any  longer  a  government. 

Thereupon  the  General  Court  passed  a  series  of  Resolutions.  These 
tumultuous  and  riotous  proceedings,  they  declared,  tended  to  the  de- 
struction of  all  government  and  order  ;  it  was  incumbent  on  the  civil 
and  military  officers  to  suppress  them  "  whensoever  they  may  hap- 
pen;" and  that  the  house  would  "stand  by  and  support  with  their 
lives  and  estates  his  excellency  the  Governor  and  the  executive  part 
of  the  government;"  but  they  were  also  careful  to  add  that  "this 
house  will  exert  themselves  by  all  ways  and  means  possible  in  redress- 
ing such  grievances  as  his  Majesty's  subjects  are  and  have  been  under," 
which  were  the  cause  of  those  recent  disturbances.  A  town  meeting 
was  also  held,  where  it  was  resolved  that  the  General  Court  should 
be  sustained. 


1747.]  INSURRECTION  AVERTED.  221 

All  this,  of  course,  was  eminently  proper  ;  and  care  had  been  taken 
that  it  should  also  be  eminently  safe.  The  militia  were  now  Order  re. 
again  called  out,  and  the  summons  was  obeyed  with  great  8tored' 
alacrity.  Governor  Shirley,  under  the  assurance  that  government 
was  to  be  supported,  returned  from  the  Castle  in  great  state  and  dig- 
nity, and  was  received  with  military  honors.  The  British  naval  offi- 
cers were  released,  and  permitted  to  return  to  the  fleet  unmolested. 
Had  there  been  then,  after  all,  only  a  riot  of  depraved  and  misguided 
persons,  demanding  an  unreasonable  thing  in  an  outrageous  man- 
ner, who  were  only  to  be  put  down?  Negotiations  of  state  are  not 
always  recorded,  and  history  is  left  to  guess  from  events  by  what 
solemn  agreements  they  may  have  been  brought  about.  The  peace 
and  order  which  had  fled  before  riot,  were  restored  with  much  osten- 
tation ;  but  at  the  same  time  the  sailors,  the  ship-carpenters,  the  sail- 
makers,  and  the  laborers,  who  had  been  seized  and  carried  on  board 
the  British  vessels,  quietly  returned  to  their  homes  with  none  to  hin- 
der. All  Boston  hurried  down  to  the  wharves  to  huzza  lustily  as 
Commodore  Knowles's  fleet  got  under  way  and  sailed  out 
of  Nantasket  Roads  for  England,  for  there  was  not  one  of  the  inci- 
Boston  boy  on  board.  The  General  Court  ordered  the  win- 
dows of  the  Council  Chamber  to  be  mended,  and  asked  no  further 
questions.  Commodore  Knowles,  no  doubt,  made  due  report  at  the 
Admiralty  Office  in  London  of  the  indignity  put  upon  the  King's 
colors  and  uniform;  but  evidently  it  was  thought  best  not  to  reopen  a 
dispute  with  a  people  who  had  not  been  moved  in  the  least  by  a  threat 
to  knock  their  town  about  their  ears,  had  abated  nothing  of  their  as- 
sertion of  the  sacredness  of  personal  liberty,  had  gained  all  they  asked 
for,  and  in  return  had  given  nothing. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


NEW    YORK. 

GOVERNOR  COSBY'S  ADMINISTRATION.  —  COXTROVKRSY  WITH  VAN  DAM.  —  THE  ZEN- 
GER  I.  mi  i.  Srir.  —  STRUGGLES  OF  POLITICAL  PARTIES.  —  GEORGE  CLARKE,  LIEU- 
TKNANT-GOVERNOR.  —  THE  NEGRO  PLOT  OF  1741.  —  GROWTH  OF  THE  COLONY  IN  A 
HALF  CENTURY.  —  EARLY  SETTLEMENTS  ON  THE  MOHAWK  AND  SLSQUEHAXNA.  — 
THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK  AT  SEVERAL  PERIODS.  —  KING'S  COLLEGE  ESTABLISHED.  — 
POSITION  OF  THE  COLONY  BY  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  —  AP- 
POINTMENT OF  GOVERNOR  CLINTON.  —  THE  PERPLEXITIES  OF  HIS  ADMINISTRA- 
TION. —  PREPARATIONS  FOR  A  DOUBLE  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  CANADA.  —  THE 
TREATY  OF  AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.  —  SIR  DANVERS  OSBORN'S  INAUGURATION  AND 
DEATH  —  CHIEF  JUSTICE  DE  LANCEY  SUCCEEDS  AS  LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. 

COLONEL  COSBY,  who  arrived  in  New  York  in  August,  1732,  came, 
like  others  who  had  preceded  him,  to  make  a  fortune  from 

Arrival  of  ........  .  . 

Governor  orhcial  service.  He  entered  at  once  into  a  controversy  with 
Van  Dam,  the  acting  Governor,  demanding  an  equal  parti- 
tion of  the  salai'y  and  perquisites  received  by  that  gentleman  in  the 
interval  between  Cosby's  appointment  and  arrival.  The  result  was 
a  suit  in  equity,  in  which  not  only  all  the  lawyers  of  the  colony,  but 
most  of  the  people,  were  deeply  interested.  The  popular  party  sym- 
pathized with  Van  Dam  ;  the  aristocratic  party,  with  the  Governor. 
Out  of  this  suit  grew  that  trial  of  John  Peter  Zenger  for  libel, 
which  is  so  distinctive  a  mark  in  the  history  of  American  jurispru- 
dence. 

Zenger  was  the  publisher  of  a  newspaper,  —  "The  New  York 
Weekly  Journal,"  —  and  he  made  it  the  mouth-piece  of  the 
opposition  to  the  Governor  and  his  supporters.  It  was  or- 
dered by  the  Council  that  four  obnoxious  numbers  of  the  paper,  to- 
gether with  two  printed  ballads  which  were  considered  libellous,  be 
publicly  burned  by  the  common  hangman,  or  the  whipper  at  the  pil- 
lory  ;  and  the  magistrates  of  the  city  were  required  to  preside  at  that 
ceremony.  The  magistrates  refused,  but  the  order  to  burn  the  pa- 
pers was,  nevertheless,  obeyed.  Zenger  was  afterwards  arrested  and 
brought  to  trial. 

His  counsel,  at  a  preliminary  hearing,  filed  objections  to  the  legal- 


173G.] 


THE   ZENGER   LIBEL   SUIT. 


223 


ity  of  the  warrant,  and  to  the  trial  of  the  case  before  Judges  De  Lan- 

cey  and  Philipse,  inasmuch  as  they  held  their  places  by  appointment 

from  the  Crown.     "  You  have  brought  it  to  that  point,"  said  Chief 

Justice  De  Lancey,   "  that  either  we  must  go  from  the  bench  or  you 

from   the   bar."     And   the 

lawyers  were  dismissed  from  Mfe; 

the  bar,  the  court  assigning 

in    the    case     before    them 

counsel  of  their  own  choos- 


ing. 


Rip  Van  Dam. 


The  defendant,  however, 
engaged  Mr.  Andrew  Ham- 
ilton, an  eminent  lawyer  of 
Philadelphia,  to  appear  on 
his  behalf.  The  case  came 
before  a  jury.  Hamilton 
boldly  took  the  ground  that 
the  defence  might  prove  the 
truth  of  the  libel  in  justifi- 
cation, and  that  the  jury 
were  to  determine  both  the 
law  and  the  fact.  The  pub- 
lication was  acknowledged ; 
but  "  you  will  have,"  said 
Hamilton,  "something  more  to  do,  before  you  make  my  client  a  li- 
beller ;  for  the  words  themselves  must  be  libellous,  that  is,  false, 
scandalous,  and  seditious."  "  Our  constitution,"  he  said,  "  gives  us 
an  opportunity  to  prevent  wrong  by  appealing  to  the  people."  The 
jury  followed  this  reasoning,  and  responded  to  the  appeal.  The  pris- 
oner was  acquitted  ;  the  people  approved  the  verdict ;  the  corporation 
presented  Hamilton  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  in  a  gold  box,  and 
when  he  left  the  town,  to  return  home,  a  salute  was  fired  in  his  honor. 
The  trial  gave  the  last  blow,  in  public  estimation,  to  the  Exchequer 
Court,  and  objections  were  again  raised,  such  as  had  been  made 
against  Montgomerie,  to  the  Governor's  sitting  as  Chancellor. 

Cosby  died  in  March,  1736,  soon  after  his  defeat  in  this  memora- 
ble trial.     Van   Dam,  who  had  given  him  so  much  trouble, 

.,.,  11-  111  Death  of 

claimed  by  right  to  be  his  temporary  successor  as  the  oldest  «ov«nor 
member  of  the  Council.      He  had,  however,  absented  him-  t 
self  for  some  time  from  the  meetings  of  that  body,  a  majority  of  which 
were  the  partisans  of  the  Governor.      It  was  declared,  moreover,  that 
Cosby,  not  long  before  his  death,  had  removed  Van  Dam  from   the 
Council,  and  the  Board  thereupon  recognized  George  Clarke  as  the  old- 


224  NEW    YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

est  member,  and  appointed  him  Lieutenant-governor.  The  popular 
feeling  was  warmly  in  Van  Dam's  favor,  and  nothing  was  expected 
from  his  opponent  but  a  continuation  of  the  arbitrary  and  selfish  policy 
which  had  made  Cosby 's  administration  so  obnoxious  to  the  people. 
George  The  contest  was  warm  and  bitter ;  both  men  assumed  the 
l-olut^Hiov-  functions  of  the  office,  and  Clarke,  who  held  the  Fort,  took 

measures  for  its  defence.  The  struggle,  which  seems  to 
have  risen  nearly  to  the  dignity  of  a  rebellion,  was  only  ended  when 
Clarke's  claim  was  confirmed  by  a  commission  from  England. 

The  political  tranquillity  of  his  seven  years'  government  shows  that, 

if  there  was  not  much  to  blame  him  for,  so  there  was  little 

Character  of  .  .  -r»       i  i        t        i    i  i  •  •    •  i 

his  aduiiuis-  reason  for  praise,  remaps  he  had  less  disposition  than  some 
other  colonial  rulers  to  encroach  upon  the  rights  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  perhaps  he  was  only  wise  enough  to  understand  that  the  people 
would  not  tolerate  encroachment.  •*  We  beg  leave  to  be  plain  with 
your  honor,  and  hope  you  will  not  take  it  amiss,"  said  the  first  Assem- 
bly he  met,  "  that  you  are  not  to  expect  that  we  will  either  raise  sums 
not  fit  to  be  raised,  or  put  what  we  shall  raise  into  the  power  of  a 
Governor  to  misapply,  if  we  can  prevent  it."  They  assured  him  fur- 
ther that  they  would  only  make  up  such  deficiencies  as  seemed  to  them 
just ;  that  such  revenue  as  they  thought  fit  to  raise  would  be  provided 
from  year  to  year,  and  that  they  did  not  "  think  it  convenient  to  do 
even  that,  until  such  laws  are  passed  as  we  conceive  necessary  for  the 
safety  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  colony." 

Each  successive  Assembly  showed  a  similar  spirit,  which  was  not  to 
be  shaken  by  the  remonstrances  of  the  Governor,  even  when  he  warned 
one  of  them  of  "the  jealousy  prevailing  in  Great  Britain  that  the 
colony  wished  to  be  emancipated  from  the  Crown."  Perhaps  it  was 
because  he  knew  what  serious  ground  there  was  for  that  "  jealousy," 
that  he  was  so  careful  not  to  try  the  impatience  of  the  people  by  any 
other  provocation  than  reproaches,  and  sometimes  by  an  adjournment 
of  the  Legislature. 

During  his  administration,  however,  occurred  an  event  which  marks 
TheXeTo  tlu  era  in  t'16  history  of  New  York,  as  sombre  with  tragic 
Plot  of  1741.  jnterest  as  that  given  to  the  annals  of  Massachusetts  by  the 
Quaker  and  witchcraft  persecutions  of  the  previous  century.  But 
New  York  went  mad  in  a  senseless  panic,  and  burned  negroes  at  the 
stake  eighty  years  after  the  last  Quaker  was  hanged  on  Boston  Com- 
mon, and  half  a  century  after  it  was  believed  in  Massachusetts  that 
an  old  woman,  accused  of  witchcraft,  would  drown  when  thrown  into 
a  pond,  if  she  was  innocent,  but  would  float  like  a  cork,  if  she  was 
guilty,  to  be  saved  only  to  suffer  death  at  the  hands  of  the  public  exe- 
cutioner. 


1741.] 


THE   NEGRO   PLOT. 


225 


The  origin  of  this  tragedy  was  almost  contemptible.  In  February, 
1740-41,  one  Mrs.  Hogg,  who  kept  a  small  shop  in  Broad 
Street,  was  robbed  of  some  goods  and  money.  A  few  days 
before,  she  had  heedlessly  opened  a  drawer  containing  some  silver 
coin,  in  the  presence  of  a  young  sailor  of  the  name  of  Wilson.  This 
Wilson  was  in  the  habit  of  frequenting  a  low  ale-house  on  the  North 
River,  kept  by  one  John  Huglison,  a  place  of  resort,  probably,  of  dis- 
solute persons  of  all  sorts,  but  especially  of  idle  servants  among  the 
negro  slaves.  To  three  of  these,  Caesar,  Prince,  and  Cuft'ee  —  they 
had  no  other  names,  but  were  known  as  Vaarck's  Csesar,  Auboyneau's 
Prince,  and  Philipse's  Cuffee  —  to  these  three  Wilson  told  how  he 
had  seen  the  money  in  Mrs.  Hogg's  drawer,  how  easily  the  shop  could 


Vi3w  in  Broad  Street,  about  1740. 

be  entered  in  a  way  he  knew  of,  and  the  prize  secured.  On  this  hint, 
the  burglary  was  committed  ;  but,  whether  Wilson  repented  of  his 
share  in  it,  or  whether  he  hoped  to  secure  impunity  for  himself  by 
betraying  his  comrades,  he,  a  few  days  afterward,  assured  Mrs.  Hogg 
that  he  had  seen  a  square  piece-of-eight,  described  as  among  the  stolen 
coin,  in  the  hands  of  Caesar,  at  John  Hughson's  dram-shop. 

This  evidence  was  confirmed  bv  Marv  Burton  —  an  indented  ser- 

*.  */ 

van t  of  John   Hughson's,  a  girl  of  fifteen  years  —  who  con- 
fessed to  a  neighbor  that  she  knew  who  committed  the  rob-  ton's  evi- 
bery,  and  showed  a  piece  of  the  stolen  money,  which  she  said 
the  negro  Caesar  had  given  her.     On  further  examination,  she  im 
plicated  one   "  Margaret   Sorubiero,  alia*  Salingburgh,  alias   Kerry^ 
commonly  called  Peggy,  or  the  Newfoundland  Irish  beauty,"  a  dis- 
reputable young  woman  of  one  or  two  and  twenty,  who  lodged  at 


VOL.    III. 


15 


226  NE\V  YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Hughson's  house,  and  was  reputed  to  be  the  kept  mistress  of  Vaarck's 
Caesar.  Then  some  of  the  goods  were  found  under  the  kitchen  floor 
of  Vaarck,  the  baker  —  Caesar's  master  —  to  which  access  could  be 
had  from  a  low  drinking-place,  next  door,  kept  by  John  Romme. 
Romme  fled  on  this  discovery,  and  the  assumption  was,  that  he  was  an 
Am-Mof  accomplice  in  the  burglary.  The  other  persons  accused, 
".This"  including  Hughson  and  his  wife,  were  arrested,  Hughson 
family.  acknowledging  that  he  had  received  and  concealed  some  of 
the  stolen  goods.  It  was  a  commonplace  crime,  and  there  was  no 
lack  of  evidence  to  convict  the  criminals.  The  incident  would  have 
been  soon  forgotten,  had  not  unexpected  events  presently  given  his- 
torical interest  to  the  dram-shops  of  Hughson  and  Romme,  to  the 
negroes  Caesar,  Prince,  and  Cuffee,  and  to  the  young  white  women  of 
questionable  character,  Mary  Burton  and  the  Irish  beauty,  Peggy. 

A  fortnight  after  the  accused  persons  were  committed  to  prison,  a 
Fire  in  the  ^re  broke  out  in  the  roof  of  the  Governor's  house,  within 
fort  the  Fort,  about  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  The  house, 

the  adjoining  chapel,  the  barracks  opposite,  and  the  secretary's  office 
over  the  gate  of  the  fort,  were  all  burned  to  the  ground.  The  furni- 
ture of  the  government  house  and  the  colonial  records,  kept  in  the 
office  of  the  secretary,  were  saved  ;  and  it  was  thought  most  fortunate 
that  the  fire  occurred  in  the  daytime,  as  therefore,  probably,  it  did  not 
spread  beyond  the  walls  of  the  fort.  There  was  naturally  for  a  few 
days  a  good  deal  of  excitement  in  the  town,  rather,  however,  from  the 
character  of  the  buildings  burned,  than  from  the  extent  of  the  fire  or 
any  doubt  about  its  origin.  A  plumber  had  been  engaged  upon  the 
roof  of  the  Governor's  house  during  the  morning,  in  soldering  the 
leaden  gutter  between  it  and  the  chapel,  carrying  with  him  from 
place  to  place  a  furnace  of  hot  coals.  The  wind  was  very  high ;  the 
roofs  of  the  two  buildings  were  covered  with  wooden  shingles ;  with 
such  a  concatenation  of  circumstances,  the  result  was  almost  inevitable. 
At  first  there  was  no  thought  of  any  other  than  this  obvious  explana- 
tion ;  and  again,  but  for  subsequent  events,  an  incident  of  no  great 
moment  would  have  soon  ceased  to  be  of  the  slightest  interest  to  any- 
body. 

About  a  week  afterward,  also  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  a  fire  broke 
other  fires  ou^  in  the  roof  of  Captain  Warren's  house  near  the  bridge 
in  the  town.  in  tiie  southwestern  part  of  the  town.  Sparks  from  afoul 
chimney  had  caught  upon  old  and  dry  shingles.  It  was  put  out  with 
little  difficulty,  and  there  was  no  doubt  about  the  cause  of  it  while 
men's  minds  were  cool. 

On  the  East  River  side  of  the  town,  was  an  old  wooden  storehouse, 
belonging  to  Mr.  Van  Zandt.  It  was  filled  with  boards  and  hay,  and 


1741.] 


THE   NEGRO   PLOT. 


227 


was  burnt  down  about  a  week  after  the  fire  at  Warren's.  This  also 
happened  in  the  daytime.  The  proximity  to  the  river  made  it  easy 
to  prevent  the  flames  from  spreading  ;  and  everybody  believed  that 
the  carelessness  of  a  smoker,  known  to  be  within  the  building,  who 
dropped  sparks  from  his  pipe  among  the  hay,  was  the  origin  of  the  tire. 
These  two  fires,  following  within  a  week  of  each  other,  kept  up  the 
excitement  which  that  at  the  Fort  had  caused.  The  town,  which  con- 
tained about  twelve  thousand  people,  was  compactly  built,  still  cover- 
ing only  that  end  of  the  peninsula  below  Wall  Street.  Three  fires, 
two  of  which  were  serious,  within  so  short  a  period,  were,  no  doubt, 
unusual,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  panic  that  presently  followed. 


Ferry  House  on   East  River,   1746.  —  From  an  Old   Print. 

The  day  after  the  burning  of  Van  Zandt's  warehouse,  some  hay 
was  found  to  be  on  fire  in  a  cow-stable,  belonging  to  one  Quick,  on 
the  east  side  of  the  town.  This  was  easily  suppressed  ;  but  it  was 
scarcely  done,  when  another  alarm  was  sounded  from  the  west  side, 
where  smoke  was  seen  coming  from  the  kitchen-loft  of  Ben.  Thomas's 
house  near  the  city  market  and  "next  door  to  Captain  Sarby."  It 
was  traced  to  two  beds  between  which  fire  had  been  put,  and  which 
was  the  sleeping-place  of  a  negro. 

Early  the  next  morning  —  on  Sunday  —  some  coals  were  found 
under  a  hay-stack  near  John  Murray's  stables  in  Broadway.  But 
the)7  had  gone  out  without  doing  any  damage.  The  next  forenoon  an 
alarm  came  from  Serjeant  Burns's  house,  opposite  Fort  Garden  ;  but 
if  there  was  any  cause  for  it,  it  was  only  the  burning  of  a  foul  chim- 
ney. An  hour  or  two  later  it  was  discovered  that  the  roof  of  Mrs. 

•/ 

Hilton's  house  —  which  adjoined  Sarby's  on  the  east  side,  as  Thomas's 


228  NEW   YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

did  on  tlie  west —  was  on  fire.  Here  was  pregnant  matter  for  suspic- 
ion, and  it  grew  into  fnry  when  some  flax  was  found  near  by,  which, 
it  was  thought,  was  used  to  kindle  the  flames.  Then  a  cry  arose  in 
the  streets — "The  Spanish  negroes!  the  Spanish  negroes!  Take 
up  the  Spanish  negroes  !  *' 

There  was,  as  it  happened,  a    Spanish  negro  in  Captain    Sarbv's 
house,  whom  he  had  recently  purchased,  and  who  was  one  of 

Spanish  HP-          .  i     i  •  <•  •    i  i         i 

jrrors  appn-    nineteen    belonging    to    a    Spanish  vessel  taken  at  sea  and 

brought  not  long  before  into  Xew  York  as  a  prize.     A  Court 

of  Admiralty  had  condemned  them  as  slaves,  in  spite  of  their  protest 

that  they  were  freemen  in  their  own  country.     It  is  evident  that  these 

f  V 

unfortunate  blacks  had  not  quietly  submitted  to  their  fate  ;  had  proba- 
bly complained  angrily,  and  perhaps  threatened  ;  for,  this  first  public 
outbreak  of  panic  pointed  to  them  as  men  who  had  a  motive  for 
some  signal  act  of  vengeance.  Sarby's  servant  was  at  once  seized,  and 
orders  were  given  for  the  arrest  of  all  who  came  in  the  same  ship. 

In  hot  haste  the  magistrates  came  together  at  the  City  Hall.  Sarby's 
negro  was  still  under  examination  when  again  the  alarming  cry  of 
fire  was  heard.  Looking  from  their  windows,  Mayor  Cruger  and  the 
rest  saw  a  streak  of  flame  running  up  the  roof  of  Colonel  Philipse's 
storehouse  —  the  work,  this  time,  possibly  of  an  incendiary,  for  there 
was  no  chimney  in  the  building.  It  was  hardly  extinguished  —  which 
was  done  speedily  —  when  the  crowd  was  turned  in  a  new  direction 
by  a  fresh  alarm,  which  seems,  however,  to  have  been  groundless. 
But  soon  after  some  chips  were  found  burning  in  a  baker's  cellar ; 
and  trifling  as  this  common  incident  was,  it  served  to  feed  the  popu- 
lar excitement. 

A  negro  was  seen  to  jump  from  a  window  of  Philipse's  ware- 
house.  He  may  have  been  there  for  no  unlawful  purpose  — 
certainly  not  to  kindle  a  fire  that  was  already  extinguished. 
But  frightened  men  do  not  stop  to  reason.  A  shout  arose — "The 
negro!  the  negro!  the  negroes  are  rising!"  —  then,  "Cuff  Philipse! 
Cuff  Philipse  !  "  A  frantic  rush  was  made  for  Philipse's  house,  where 
Curt'  was  found  quietly  sitting  in  the  kitchen.  He  was  seized  upon, 
nevertheless,  and  hurried  to  jail  ;  an  order  was  issued  that  all  negroes 
in  the  streets  should  be  arrested.  There  were  many  about  who  had 
been  diligently  assisting  in  passing  buckets  of  water  in  the  line  with 
the  whites  ;  but  this  circumstantial  evidence  of  the  absence  of  any  evil 
purpose  among  them  seems  not  to  have  been  thought  of.  To  be  black 
was  prima  facie  evidence  of  being  a  conspirator. 

The  air  was  heavy  with  rumors.  Only  the  day  before  Mrs.  Earle 
had  seen,  from  the  window  of  her  house  in  Broadway,  three  negroes 
on  their  way  to  Trinity  Church.  As  they  passed,  one  of  them  ex- 


1741.] 


QUACO. 


•229 


claimed :  "  Fire,  Fire  !  Scorch,  Scorch  a  little  !  damn  it  !  By  and 
by!"  then  he  "threw  up  his  hands  and  laughed."  At  these  terrible 
words  and  alarming 
gestures,  "the 
woman  conceived 
great  jealousy,"  and 
repeated  them  to 
her  next-door  neigh- 
bor, Mrs.  George. 
They  watched  for 
the  return  of  the 
negroes  from  church, 
and  Mrs.  George 
recognized  the  man 
whom  Mrs.  Earle 
pointed  out,  as  Mr. 
Walter's  Quaco. 
The  two  women 
went  to  an  alder- 
man, and  the  alder- 
man went  to  the 
other  magistrates, 
and  Quaco  was  soon 
under  lock  and  key. 

Quaco  said  on  ex- 
am i  n  a  t  i  o  n  —  and 
brought  the  other  Mrs'  Earle  and  the  Negroe8' 

negroes  to  prove  it  —  that  they  were  talking  of  Admiral  Vernon's 
capture  of  Porto  Bello  —  the  news  of  which  had  just  been  received  — 
and  what  he  would  do  by  and  by  to  the  Spaniards.  The  man's  ex- 
planation, confirmed  by  his  companions,  was  accepted  then,  and  he  was 
I'eleased,  —  though  he  was  hanged  not  long  afterward.  But  the  story, 
nevertheless,  flew  like  wild-fire  about  the  town.  The  magistrates  as 
yet  had  not  taken  leave  of  their  senses,  but  everybody  else  believed 
that  it  was  New  York  Quaco  was  talking  about ;  that  it  was  only 
"scorched  "  a  little  now,  but  "damn  it  by  and  by  M  it  was  to  be  laid 
in  ashes ;  witli  other  dreadful  things,  as  it  appeared  later. 

The  jail  —  a  part  of  the  City  Hall  —  was  soon  full  of  terrified  ne- 
groes, and  among  them  were  Hughson  with  his  wife  and  daughter, 
Mary  Burton  his  servant,  Peggy  the  prostitute,  who  had  lived  in 
his  house,  and  one  Arthur  Price,  a  thief,  under  arrest  for  stealing  at 
the  fire  in  the  Fort,  who  was  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  coining 
tragedy.  The  Governor  issued  his  proclamation  offering  rewards  for 


230  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

any  disclosure  that  should  lead  to  the  detection  of  incendiaries  —  to 
whites,  money ;  to  free  negroes,  money  and  pardon ;  to  slaves,  money, 
pai'don,  and  freedom.  On  a  day  appointed,  the  troops  were  called  out 
to  patrol  the  city,  while  the  aldermen  and  councilmen,  attended  by 
constables,  ransacked  every  house  of  their  respective  wards  for  stolen 
goods  and  concealed  strangers.  Neither  were  found  in  a  single  in- 
stance. Yet,  it  was  confidently  said,  that  the  panic-stricken  people, 
as  they  moved  from  place  to  place  to  escape  the  neighborhood  of 
threatened  fires,  had  been  plundered  without  mercy  of  their  house- 
hold goods.  The  goods,  it  was  plain,  were  not  in  the  possession  of 
the  negroes,  but  there  was  no  pause  to  consider  of  how  much  weight 
that  fact  was  worth,  nor  whether  the  stolen  property  could  be  any- 
where else  than  in  the  houses  of  the  blacks.  Mercy  had  already  fled ; 
men  had  lost  their  reason. 

The  Supreme  Court  was  convened;1  a  grand  jury  was  summoned; 
every  member  of  the  bar,  without  a  single  exception,  volunteered  his 
services  on  behalf  of  the  government,  leaving  the  accused, —  who, 

from  their  ignorance  and 
friendlessness,  Avere  pecul- 
iarly in  need  of  counsel,  — 
without  the  possibility  of 

Signature  of  Horsmanden.  ,   .  ,     -  „ 

making  a  defence/     As  we 

have  said,  the  first  outbreak  of  frenzy  was  directed  against  the  Span- 
ish negroes,  —  the  few  poor  fellows  whom  the  Admiralty  Court  had  re- 
duced to  slavery.  Next  came  the  vague,  thoughtless,  but  terrible  fear 
of  a  negro  insurrection,  —  terrible  in  the  dread  of  vengeance  for  the 
innumerable  and  unutterable  wrongs  suffered  by  a  slave,  but  of  which 
the  slave  himself  is  so  often  less  conscious  than  he  who  inflicts  them. 
Not  only  did  the  negroes  in  prison  deny  all  knowledge  of  any  plot, — 
that  they  would  have  done  in  any  case,  —  but  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  destitution  of  any  evidence  against  them,  in  their  conduct  at 
home  or  abroad,  —  an  absence  of  all  signs  of  any  unusual  conscious- 
ness of  discontent,  —  a  want  of  any  appearance  of  exaltation  as  at 
some  coming,  longed-for  period  of  freedom  and  happiness.  They  hud- 
dled together  in  the  jail,  appalled,  despairing,  helpless ;  outside  of  it, 

1  It  is  to  a  Justice  of  this  court,  —  Dauiel  Horsmanden,  —  that  we  are  indebted  for  a 
complete  and  curious  record  of  these  events.     He  sat  on  the  bench  at  most,  if  not  all  of  the 
trials,  —  a  position  for  which  he  was  eminently  unfit,  from  his  ludicrous  narrow-minded- 
ness, timidity,  and  want  of  sound  judgment.    His  book  is  entitled  The  New  York  Conspiracy, 
or  History  oj 'the  Negro  Plot.     It  is  a  scarce  work,  of  nearly  four  hundred  pages;   minute, 
entirely  one-sided,  and  reflects  faithfully  the  credulity  and  abject  fear  which,  for  months, 
overcame  the  common  sense  and  manliness  of  the  people. 

2  New  Yorkers  will  be  interested  to  kuow  the  names  of  the  lawyers  of  the  city  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty-eight  years  ago.     They  were  Messrs.  Bradley,  —  who  was  Attorney-gen- 
eral,—  Murray,  Alexander,  Smith,  Chambers,  Nichols,  Lodge,  and  Jameson. 


17-11.] 


MARY   BURTON. 


231 


they  were  in  continual  dread  of  accusation  which  might  fall  any- 
where, and  against  which  innocence  was  no  defence. 

The  robbery  of  Mrs.  Hogg's  shop  had  occurred  on  the  last  day  of 
February  ;  but  it  was  not  till  toward  the  end  of  April  that 

.    ,  ,  ,  Commence- 

the  case  came  on  for  trial,  at  the  moment  when  the  town  mem  of  the 
luid  gone  wild  with  affright  at  the  repeated  fires  and  ru- 
mors of  insurrection.     There  was  an  interval  of  weeks  between  the 
robbery,  concerning  which  Mary  Burton  was  the  principal  witness,  in- 
deed the  only  witness,  —  for  Wilson  seems  to  have  disappeared, — and 


Mary  Burton  before  the  Grand  Jury. 

the  first  fire.  In  all  this  time  Mary  had  given  no  hint  of  any  knowl- 
edge of  a  plot.  But  now,  whether  instigated  by  others,  or  impelled 
by  the  hope  of  a  reward  of  £100,  and  release  from  her  term  of  servi- 
tude, she  insinuated  that  she  could  tell  as  much  about  the  fires  as 
about  the  burglary.  Of  course  she  was  urged  to  tell  the  truth  ;  but 
the  truth  assumed  was,  that  the  negroes  had  entered  into  a  horrible 
conspiracy  to  burn  the  city,  to  rob  and  to  murder  the  inhabitants,  and 
to  commit  any  other  atrocities  that  the  most  heated  imagination  could 
conceive  of.  "The  grand  jury,"  says  Judge  Horsmanden's  narra- 
tive, "was  very  importunate  and  used  many  arguments  with  her, 


232 


NEW   YORK. 


[ClIAP.  IX. 


in  public  and  private,  to  persuade  her  to  speak  the  truth,  and  tell 
all  she  knew  about  it."     When   she  hesitated,  apparently 
te?L»*fr   from  fear  of  evil  consequences  to  herself,  she  was  promised 
protection  ;  she   was  reminded   of   "the    heinousness  of  the 
crime  she  would  be  guilty  of  if  she  was  privy  to,  and  could  discover 
so  wicked  a  design,"  and  would  not ;    that  "  she  would  have  to  an- 
swer for  it  at  the  day  of  judgment,"  and   that  "a  most  damnable  sin 
would  be  at  her  door." 

No  wonder  that  an  ignorant  child  of  fifteen  years  yielded,  at  last,  to 
such  importunities  and  arguments,  in  the  official  and  solemn  presence 
of  seventeen  of  the  most  respectable  gentlemen  of  the  town.  On  the 
one  hand,  her  gain  would  be  great;  on  the  other,  she  had  little  to 
fear  now  from  her  late  master  and  mistress,  John  Hnghson  and  his 
wife,  or  from  her  late  companion,  Peggy,  whose  certain  punishment, 
even  she  could  see,  was  a  foregone  conclusion.1 


The  Meal   Market.  —  From  an  Old   Print. 

The  wonder  is,  rather,  that  seventeen  sensible  and  sober  men  could 
heed  her  story.  Even  on  the  robbery,  her  testimony  conflicted  with 
that  she  had  at  first  given,  and  if  either  statement  were  true  the  other 
was  false.  But  the  stealing  of  Mrs.  Hogg's  spotted  linen  and  pieces- 
of-eight  was  of  trifling  moment  compared  with  the  revelations  of  a 
conspiracy  that  the  witness  now  made. 

She  said  that  Caesar,  Prince,  and  Cuffee  were  not  merely  thieves 
but  arch-conspirators,  and  their  common  talk  was  of  burning 
the  Fort,  and  of  going  to  the  Vly  and  burning  the  whole 
town.  They  were  to  do  this  in  the  night,  and  as  the  white 
people  came  to  put  out  the  fires,  the  three  negroes  were  to  put  them 
all  to  death.  To  this  plot  John  Hughson  and  his  wife  assented  and 

1  The  Grand  Jury  was  composed  of  seventeen  gentlemen,  all  decimated  us  merchants. 
Amoug  them  are  names  well  known  at  this  day  in  New  York,  and  held  in  the  highest  es- 
teem. They  were  :  Hubert  Watts,  Jeremiah  Latouche,  Joseph  Head,  Anthony  Rutgers, 
John  McEvers,  John  Cruger,  Jr.,  John  Merritt,  Adoniah  Schuyler,  Isaac  I)e  Peyster, 
Abraham  Ketelta.ss,  David  1'ruvoost,  Kene  Ilett,  Henry  Beekman,  Jr.,  David  Van  Home, 
George  Spencer,  Thomas  Duncan,  and  Wiuau  Van  Zaudt. 


1741.]  CAUSES   OF   THE   PANIC.  233 

promised  to  give  their  aid.  It  was  "in  their  common  conversation" 
that  when  all  this  was  done,  Ca?sar  was  to  be  Governor,  and  Hughson 
was  to  be  King.  Sometimes,  she  declared,  there  were  large  meetings 
of  twenty  or  thirty  negroes  at  her  master's  house,  who  would  not 
dare,  the  three  leaders  declared,  to  disobey  their  orders.  But  there 
were  no  white  people — she  said  then — except  the  Hughsons  and 
Peggy  at  any  of  those  consultations ;  and  the  preparations  made  for 
the  insurrection  were  eight  guns  and  some  swords,  —  three  pistols 
and  four  swords,  she  added  afterward. 

All  this,  meagre,  inconclusive,  and  absurd  as  it  was,  we  are  told  by 
Judge  Horsmanden,  "  was  most  astonishing  to  the  grand  jury,"  and 
44 could  scarce  be  credited."  It  was  not  that  so  incredible  a  tale 
should  be  invented,  and  men  in  their  sober  senses  be  asked  to  accept 
it  as  true,  that  astonished  them ;  but  that  "  white  people  could  con- 
federate with  slaves  in  such  an  execrable  and  detestable  purpose." 
The  gross  absurdity  of  the  story,  —  that  three  black  men  and  one 
white,  with  a  doubtful  following  of  about  twenty  more,  without  even 
arms  enough  for  the  leaders  alone,  had  conspired  to  destroy  a  city  of 
twelve  thousand  inhabitants,  only  a  sixth  of  whom,  bond  and  free, 
were  negroes,  that  one  of  the  conspirators  might  be  made  a  Governor 
and  another  a  King,  —  the  absurdity  of  such  a  story  told  by  a  child 
of  fifteen  years,  whom  seventeen  grave  gentlemen  had  alternately 
tempted  by  rewards,  and  frightened  by  threats  of  terrible  punishments 
in  this  world  and  the  next,  seems  to  have  occurred  to  nobody. 

But  the  fear  of  insurrection  is  an  ever-present  terror  wherever  slav- 
ery exists.  This  dread  had  been  touched  to  the  quick  by  the  Cauf.es  o{ 
rapid  succession  of  alarms  of  fire;  rumors,  none  too  absurd  th*p*nic- 
for  belief,  fed  the  popular  excitement.  There  was  war  with  Spain, 
and  in  the  town  wei-e  a  score  of  Spanish  negroes  held  as  slaves,  but 
who  claimed  to  be  freemen  ;  the  jail  was  full  of  blacks,  arrested,  not 
because  they  were,  but  because  they  might  be,  dangerous  ;  fear  was 
lashed  into  frenzy,  and  demanded  victims ;  here  at  hand  was  a  band 
of  thieves  ;  what  more  likely  than  that  they  should  be  a  band  of 
conspirators  also,  contriving  riot  and  arson,  murder,  rape,  and  all  con- 
ceivable atrocities,  proposing  the  conquest  of  a  province  and  to  make 
of  their  leaders  kings,  and  governors,  and  captains  ?  The  Grand  Jury 
believed  in  all  this  wickedness  and  folly,  from  the  tale  of  a  foolish  or 
a  cunning  child,  and  went  with  it  to  the  grave  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  They  also  listened  and  believed.  The  whole  bar  of  the  city 
was  summoned  in  consultation  in  so  serious  an  emergency ;  it  was 
determined  that  the  trials  should  be  conducted  in  the  highest  court, 
and  the  Governor  was  asked  for  a  special  order  to  prolong  the  session, 
about  to  close,  for  that  purpose. 


234  NEW   YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

There  came  forth  presently  another  swift  and  artful  witness  —  Price 
The  witness  — under  indictment  for  stealing  goods  saved  from  the  Gov- 
rrice.  ernor's  house  at  the  fire  in  the  Fort.  He  was  right  if  he 
believed  that  his  own  crime  would  soon  be  forgotten,  could  he  help  fix 
the  far  more  monstrous  crime  of  premeditated  insurrection  upon  any 
of  his  fellow-prisoners.  It  was  easy  for  the  inmates  of  the  ill-con- 
trived and  over-crowded  jail  to  hold  intercourse  with  one  another,  and 
Price  was  soon  ready  to  repeat  real  or  invented  conversations. 

The  first  of  these  was  with  Peggy,  Hughson's  lodger ;  the  second, 
a  few  days  later,  with  Sarah,  Hughson's  daughter.  These  people  were 
absolute  sti-angers  to  Price,  yet  Peggy  —  if  he  was  to  be  believed 
—  had  twice  come  voluntarily  to  the  wicket  in  his  door,  and,  in  the 
most  extraordinary  way,  reposed  in  him  entire  confidence.  Except 
that  the  language,  which  he  said  the  woman  used,  was  to  the  lust 
degree  profane  and  vile,  and  might,  therefore,  well  have  been  hers, 
the  internal  evidence  in  his  statement  shows  its  falsehood.  But  it 
was  ingenious;  as  in  Mary  Burton's  testimony,  there  was  the  innu- 
endo indirect  about  the  fires,  substituted  for  the  proof  direct  about 
the  robbery ;  and  while  it  was  assumed  that  this  was  true,  it  was 
suggestive  of  the  wildest  suspicions  of  the  truth  of  the  other.  He 
made  no  pretensions  of  having  obtained  any  information  from  Sarah 
Hughson  by  voluntary  confession  ;  on  the  contrary,  she  denied,  he 
said,  all  knowledge  of  any  plot ;  but  in  the  expression  of  her  fears  of 
what  might  befall  her  parents  and  herself,  and  in  her  comments  on 
the  fires,  when  induced  to  talk  of  them,  she  betrayed  —  or  was  repre- 
sented as  betraying  —  how  intimate  her  knowledge  of  a  plot  was. 

If  Mary.  Burton  had  told  the  truth,  here  was  the  most  remarkable 
confirmation  of  her  story,  coming  at  exactly  the  right  time;  on  the 
other  hand,  if  the  imagination  of  the  child  had  been  stimulated  by 
persuasions  the  most  tempting,  and  by  threats  the  most  appalling,  this 
suspicious  story  was  clearly  an  invention,  suggested  by  hers  and  told 
with  a  selfish  purpose.  It  was  certainly  clumsy,  contradictory,  and 
incredible  ;  it  was  related  by  a  thief  who,  unless  he  could  commend 
himself  to  mercy  in  this  way,  was  certain  of  heavy  punishment ;  was 
certain,  if  he  could  so  commend  himself,  of  reward  as  well  as  pardon. 

From  so  slight  a  beginning  of  wrong-doing,  first  made  fortuitously 
conspicuous,  then  tortured  into  something  that  it  was  not  by  low 
cunning,  transparent  falsehood,  and  intense  credulity,  there  grew  a 
strange  scene  of  terror  and  outrage.  For  its  disregard  of  all  rules 
of  legal  evidence,  for  its  prostitution  of  the  forms  of  law  for  the  per- 
petration of  cruelty,  for  popular  credulity  and  cowardice,  for  the 
abnegation  of  all  sense  of  mercy,  for  the  oppression  of  the  weakest  and 
most  defenceless,  it  was  without  precedent,  and  has  had  no  parallel  in 


1741.] 


FATE   OF   THE   ACCUSED. 


235 


any  civilized  community.  There  were,  indeed,  Judge  Horsmanden 
acknowledges,  "some  wanton,  wrong-headed  persons  amongst  us,  who 
took  the  liberty  to  arraign  the  justice  of  the  proceedings,  and  set  up 
their  private  opinions  in  superiority  to  the  court  and  grand  jury,"  and 
who  "declared  with  no  small  assurance  (notwithstanding  what  we 
saw  with  our  eyes,  and  heard  with  our  ears,  and  every  one  might  have 
judged  of  by  his  intellects,  that  had  any)  that  there  was  no  plot  at 
all !  "  But  these  were  only  a  wretched  minority.  The  popular  mind 
was  not  in  a  state  to  weigh  nice  points  of  evidence,  or  even  points 
that  were  far  from  nice,  to  detect  motives  in  cunning  and  interested 
witnesses,  to  consider  probabilities  calmly.  Except  by  the  few,  the 
tales  of  Mary  Burton  and  Price  were  caught  up  with  avidity  and 
accepted  without  question.  The  man  Hughson,  Peggy,  and  the  three 


The  Negroes  Sentenced. 

negroes  were  speedily  brought  to  trial,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be 
hanged.      They  were   tried,  indeed,  for  the  robbery  —  the 
negroes  for  committing  the  act,  the  whites  for  receiving  the  of  c«sar 
stolen  goods ;  —  but  when  Ca?sar  and  Prince  were  brought 
up  for  sentence,  the  judge  exhorted  them  to  discover  their  confede- 


236  NEW   YORK.  -    [CHAP.  IX. 

rates  "  in  designing  or  endeavouring  to  burn  this  city  and  to  destroy 
its  inhabitants,"  as  he  was  "  fully  persuaded  "  it  was  in  their  power  to 
do  if  they  would.  But  there  was  no  delay  in  their  execution,  in  the 
hope  that  their  speedy  punishment  might  bring  others  to  confession. 
To  the  last  they  denied  that  they  knew  of  any  conspiracy. 

The  Hughsons  and  Peggy  were  spared  a  little  longer,  to  be  in- 
dicted for  the  plot.  Peggy  had  stoutly  and  indignantly  denied,  up  to 
this  time,  that  there  was  any  truth  in  Price's  story.  But  now,  in  the 
Peggy's  con-  h°Pe  of  saving  her  life,  she  made  a  pretended  confession.  If 
fession.  what  she  said  was  true,  Mary  Burton's  tale  was  false,  for 
she  shifted  the  headquarters  of  the  plot  from  Hughson's  to  Romme's, 
charging  him  with  being  a  receiver  of  goods  stolen  by  negroes,  with 
inciting  them  to  insurrection,  and  promising  to  take  them  all,  when 
enough  had  been  stolen,  to  another  country.  She  said  nothing  of  the 
two  negroes  who  had  just  been  hanged,  but  she  implicated  a  number 
of  others,  all  of  whom  were  immediately  arrested. 

The  13th  of  May,  designated  a  month  before  by  Lieutenant-gov- 
A  public  ernor  Clarke  as  a  day  of  public  fasting  and  humiliation, 
Fast  ordered.  was  &o  observec|  with  great  solemnity.  The  excitement 
grew  more  intense,  sanctioned  thus  by  religious  observance,  and  the 
highest  example  in  the  State,  and  fed  with  constantly  new  revela- 
tions. At  Hackensack,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Bay,  in  New  Jersey, 
some  barns  had  been  burnt,  and  suspicion  fell,  of  course,  upon  the 
negroes.  Two  were  apprehended  and  tried,  confession  was  extorted 
from  one  of  them,  and  both  were  burnt  at  the  stake. 

The  Burton  child  was  equal  to  any  demands  that  could  be  made 
upon  her.  With  that  "  remarkable  glibness  of  tongue,"  which  even 
Judge  Horsmanden  —  who,  no  doubt,  would  have  cheerfully  burned 
any  negro  in  the  colony  —  was  compelled  to  acknowledge,  distin- 
guished her,  she  could  confirm  any  accusation  brought  against  any- 
body. Romme,  she  now  remembered,  was  intimate  with  Hughson, 
and  often  conferred  with  him ;  the  negroes  whom  Peggy  accused, 
Mary  had  frequently  seen  at  Hughson's  house.  When,  soon  after, 
with  Hughson  and  his  wife,  Peggy  was  hanged,  declaring,  with  her 
last  breath,  that  there  was  not  a  word  of  truth  in  her  previous  con 
fession,  and  that  she  was  totally  ignorant  of  any  plot,  having  hoped 
only  to  save  herself  by  accusing  others,  Mary's  testimony — which 
that  pretended  confession  had  suggested  —  was  still  held  as  conclusive 
by  the  Court. 

And  so  in  all  subsequent  proceedings,  the  trembling  slaves  —  wild 
character  of  with  fright  —  sometimes  when  arrested  on  mere  suspicion, 
theevideuce.  or  wnen  standing  at  the  foot  of  the  gallows,  or  about  to  be 
bound  to  the  stake  where  the  ready  fagots  were  piled  to  consume 


1741.] 


CHARACTER   OF  THE  PLOT. 


237 


presently  their  living  flesh,  —  were  only  too  eager,  as  the  frenzy 
grew,  to  confess  to  anything,  to  avow  the  wildest  and  most  improbable 
designs,  to  impute  to  others  the  most  horrible  purposes,  that  so  they 
might  appeal  to  the  mercy  of  the  Court,  and  save  their  own  wretched 
lives.  To  Mary  Burton  any  new  revelation  was  a  fresh  impulse  to 
her  own  recollections,  and  her  evidence  was  always  forthcoming  in 
proof  of  anything  that  needed  confirmation.  Price,  within  the  walls 
of  the  jail,  was  equally  useful,  so  long  as  the  unsuspicious  negroes 
would  consent  to  hold  intercourse  with  him.  That  he  might  lead  his 
victims  into  unwary  talk,  to  be  turned  against  them,  the  authorities 
furnished  him  with  liquor,  that  he  might  first  make  them  drunk. 

No  stories,  however  absurd,  were  held  by  the  Court  or  by  the  people 
as  incredible.  None  of 
these  confessions  ex- 
torted by  fear,  some- 
times at  the  gallows' 
foot,  or  at  the  stake  in 
the  hope  of  reprieve, 
and  often  recalled  when 
hope  was  no  longer  pos- 
sible, —  none  of  these 
pretended  to  any  con- 
certed plan,  which  could 
secure  success  to  an  in- 
surrection, or  prevent  its 
immediate  suppression 
by  the  most  ordinary 
method  of  preserving 
the  peace.  There  was 
only  the  vague  purpose 
of  burning  and  killing, 
for  which  the  provision  Trinity  church.  1741. 

of  arms  was  the  eight  guns,  three  pistols,  and  four  swords  which  Mary 
Burton  declared  were  concealed  at  Hughson's. 

This  baldness  of   detail,  and  the  evident  poverty  of   imagination 
which  gave  no  heed  even  to  probabilities,  showed  that  the 
mere  abjectness  of  fear  prompted  these  confessions,  while  no  the  alleged 
outside   evidence   supplied    the   essential  element   of  proof. 
It  was  accepted   as  true  that  there  was  an  understanding   between 
Hnghson  and  Ho  mine  —  who  supplied  negroes  with  liquor  and  received 
their  petty  thievings  —  and  the  Spanish  Government  for  the  capture 
of  the  city,  and  this  ridiculous  supposition  was  suggested  no  doubt  by 
the  presence  of  the  score  of  Spanish  negroes  probably  held  unlawfully 


238  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

as  slaves.  It  was  seriously  believed  that  a  few  negroes  meant  to 
watch  at  the  doors  of  Trinity  Church  with  the  expectation  that  the 
congregation,  as  it  came  out  from  service  some  Sunday  morning,  would 
quietly  submit  to  be  killed  one  by  one  ;  that  a  handful  of  discontented 
blacks  meant  to  murder  their  musters  and  take  their  mistresses  for 
their  wives,  in  the  expectation  that  their  fellows  would  at  once  follow 
their  example  when  a  few  should  begin  the  work  of  murder  and  ra- 
pine —  that  thus  a  small  minority  of  the  population,  ignorant,  de- 
graded, unorganized,  and  unarmed,  could  compel  the  most  servile  sub- 
mission from  a  community,  intelligent,  well-ordered,  strong  in  civil 
and  military  government,  outnumbering  these  besotted  insurgents  — 
even  if  they  were  joined  by  every  negro  in  the  city  —  five  to  one  ; 
and  that  in  such  a  community  there  could  be  grave  reason  for  fearing 
that  one  of  the  vilest  of  the  lowest  class  of  whites  had  seriously  pro- 
posed to  make  himself  King,  his  wife  Queen,  the  slave  Caesar  Gov- 
ernor, with  the  prostitute  Peggy  as  the  head  of  a  governor's  house- 
hold. 

In  the  great  dread  that  all  these  absurd  and  impossible  things  were 
impending,  the  Supreme  Court,  countenanced  and  aided  by  the  whole 
bar  of  the  city,  applauded  and  urged  on  by  the  most  enlightened  and 
influential  citizens,  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  months,  imprisoned 
more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  negroes  —  four  of  them  women;  con- 
victed over  a  hundred  of  these  as  conspirators  ;  burnt  twelve  of  them 
alive  at  the  stake  ;  hanged  eighteen,  and  transported  seventy-two  — 
some  of  whom  were  probably  freemen  —  to  be  sold  as  slaves  in  other 
countries.  The  accused  were  in  all  cases  without  counsel  ;  whenever 
their  masters  appeared  on  their  behalf  to  give  testimony  as  to  their 
good  character,  or  to  show  by  alibi,  or  other  circumstances,  that 
the  accusations  were  necessarily  false,  the  evidence  was  disregarded. 
That  a  conspiracy  existed,  was  assumed  to  be  true  ;  accusation  was 
accepted  as  proof,  and  this  was  held  to  be  none  the  less  conclusive 
although  the  so-called  confession  on  which  it  rested  was  subsequently 
declared  to  be  false  by  him  who  had  made  it  with  the  hope  of  saving 
his  own  life,  because  he  repented  of  having  borne  false  witness  against 
the  innocent. 

One  instance  may  be  given  of  the  method  pursued  in  the  trials 
and  the  character  of  the  confessions  that  obtained  credence. 

T>  i»/-vi  i  I'll-  e      \ 

Koosevelt  s  Quack  was  charged  with  being  one  or  the  con- 


spirators, and  with  having  set  fire  to  the  Governor's  house. 
When  bound  to  the  stake,  the  hope  of  a  pardon  was  held  out  to  him, 
if  he  would  tell  all  he  knew.  With  the  fagots  piled  about  the  wretched 
negro,  what  else  could  he  do  but  confess  anything  that  was  charged 
against  him?  The  essential  point  was,  did  he  set  fire  to  the  Gov- 


1741.] 


JOHX    URY. 


239 


ernor's  house  ?  He  declared  that  he  did ;  that  the  night  before,  he 
took  a  brand  from  the  kitchen  fire  and  placed  it  on  a  beam  beneath 
the  roof.  But  as  nothing  came  of  it,  he,  the  next  day  —  twelve  or 
thirteen  hours  afterwards  —  went  again  to  the  garret,  quickened  the 
still  burning  brand  with  his  breath,  and  the  fire  caught  the  roof.  The 
confession  was  accepted  as  true,  nobody,  apparently,  observing  its 


The  Mob  demanding  that  Quack  be  burnt. 

evident  absurdity,  and  nobody  remem- 
bering that  on  that  morning  a  plumber 
had  been  employed  upon  the  roof  in  a  high  wind,  with  an  open  furnace 
of  live  coals.  But  it  was  too  late  to  save  his  life  ;  the  mob  howled 
for  his  execution,  and  the  fagots  piled  about  the  stake  to  which  he  was 
bound  were  soon  ablaze. 

But  among  the  accused  were  some  who  were  not  black,  besides  the 
Hughson  and  Romme  families.     As  the  panic  spread,  there  Arrest0f 
sprang  up  the  fear  of  Papacy.     The  town  was  searched  for  ^"a™,1^ 
Catholic  priests ;  none  were  found  ;  but  an  obscure  school-  Ury- 
master,  one  John  Ury,  was  arrested  on  suspicion.     Extorted  confes- 
sions, after  his  arrest,  were  made  to  implicate  him  as  one  of  the  con- 


240  NEW   YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

spirators  at  John  Hughson's  house.  Sarah,  Hughson's  daughter,  who 
was  repeatedly  reprieved  and  finally  pardoned,  had  become  a  swift 
and  willing  witness  against  any  prisoner  whose  conviction  was  deter- 
mined on.  Ury,  hitherto  unheard  of,  and  about  whom  many  who  had 
gone  to  their  deaths  had  said  no  word,  appeared  now  as  a  chief  insti- 
gator of  the  plot.  It  was  he  who  presided  at  banquets  at  Hughson's  ; 
he  who  kept  a  list  of  the  conspirators ;  he  who  swore  them  to  secrecy 
by  drawing  a  circle  on  the  floor  with  chalk,  into  winch  each  negro  put 
his  foot  as  he  took  the  oath  ;  he  who  administered  the  sacrament  and 
absolved  from  all  sins  —  confessing  Peggy  among  the  rest,  who  was 
often,  it  was  said,  his  bed-fellow.  Mary  Burton,  who  was  never  want- 
ing, who  at  first  swore  she  had  seen  no  white  persons  at  Hughson's 
house,  except  themselves,  but  who  remembered  Rom  me  as  soon  as  he 
was  arrested,  now  also  remembered  Ury.  She  had  witnessed  these 
ceremonies  ;  had  seen  the  chalk-circle,  and  '*  black  things  "  —  the  ne- 
groes' toes,  it  was  conjectured  — going  in  and  out ;  had  been  offered 
absolution  by  Ury.  All  this,  forgotten  before,  was  now  recalled 
vividly  by  this  swift  and  willing  witness. 

Ury  was  hanged.  All  testimony  from  those  who  knew  him  well, 
and  who  showed  him  to  be  a  harmless  and  humble  teacher,  was  re- 
jected. He  protested,  on  the  gallows,  with  an  appeal  to  God,  that  he 
'*  never  knew  Hughson,  his  wife,  or  the  creature  that  was  hanged  with 
them;"  that  he  "never  saw  them  living,  dying,  or  dead;"  that  he 
"  never  knew  the  perjured  witnesses  but  at  his  trial ;  "  that  he  "  never 
had  any  knowledge  or  confederacy  with  white  or  black  as  to  any 
plot;  "  and  he  declared  that  he  was  not  a  Catholic,  but  a  non-juring 
minister  of  the  Church  of  England. 

On  his  trial  was  produced  a  letter  from  Governor  Oglethorpe  to 
Governor  Clarke,  in  which  the  writer  said  he  had  received 

Governor  ....  ,  .  n    •  ,      •  e 

Oglethorpe-*  "  some  intelligence  of  a  villainous  design  ot  a  very  extraor- 
dinary nature  and,  if  true,  very  important."  It  was  that 
"  the  Spaniards  had  employed  emissaries  to  burn  all  the  magazines 
and  considerable  towns  of  North  America,"  and  that  for  this  purpose 
"  many  priests  were  employed  who  pretended  to  be  physicians,  dan- 
cing-masters, and  other  such  kinds  of  occupations."  It  was  thought 
certain  that  Ury  was  one  of  these  priests.  Then  there  was  one 
Corry,  a  dancing-master,  already  in  custody,  suspected  of  being  a 
Catholic  —  whom  Mary  Burton,  of  course,  recognized  at  once,  as  one 
of  the  company  at  Hughson's,  when  Corry  "stoutly  denied  it  and 
declared  he  had  never  seen  her  before,  at  which  the  girl  laughed." 
There  was  also  great  search  for  one  Holt,  another  dancing- master 
and  supposed  Catholic,  but  he,  fortunately  for  himself,  had  left  the 
town.  Oglethorpe's  letter  produced  a  profound  sensation,  though  it 


1741.]  REVULSION   OF   FEELING.  241 

does  not  seem  to  have  been  observed  that  he  closes  it  by  saying  that 
he  had  no  faith  in  these  rumors  and  failed  to  find  any  confirmation 
of  them  from  Spanish  prisoners.  They  firmly  believed,  in  New  York, 
in  pretended  schoolmasters  and  dancing-masters,  who  were  Catholic 
priests  in  disguise,  and  who  were  conspiring  with  slaves  to  burn 
American  cities. 

Some  soldiers  stationed  at  the  Fort  were  also  taken  into  custody, 
apparently  on  no  other  ground  than  the  suspicion  that  they     , 
were  Papists.     One  of  them  was  frightened  into  a  confes-  supposed 

,  ,.     ,  .         Catholics. 

sion,  and  his  testimony  was  much  relied  upon  to  convict 
Ury.     The  Burton  child  professed  to  know  all  about  these  men  also 
—  to  know  so  much,  indeed,  that  she  had  often  been  sent,  she  said, 
to  bring  a  dozen  soldiers  at  a  time  to  Hughson's  house. 

But  it  seems  to  have  been  suspected,  at  last,  that  these  stores  of 
knowledge,  held  in  reserve  by  this  ingenious  young  person,  might 
become  embarrassing.  She  talked  of  many  white  persons  coming  to 
Hughson's  house,  and  "  some  in  ruffles  ; "  that  these  ruffled  gentle- 
men would  often  send  letters  to  Hughson,  with  money  in  them,  which 
she  judged,  by  the  feeling,  to  be  "milled  Spanish  pieces-of  -  eight :" 
she  gave  "  the  names  of  several  white  persons  beyond  the  vulgar 
who  sometimes  resorted  at  Hughson's  ; "  and  she  said  that  attempts 
had  been  made  to  bribe  her  to  silence  by  offers  of  silk  dresses  and 
promises  of  gold.  Of  all  this,  Judge  Horsmanden,  who  sat  upon  all 
the  trials,  says,  "  the  Recorder  did  not  care  to  be  over-solicitous,  for 


some  reasons." 


But  Judge  Horsmanden  was  himself  the  Recorder.  His  solicitude 
for  the  extreme  punishment  of  negroes  and  obscure  Catholics  had 
been  intense,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  as  to  his  reasons  for  hesi- 
tating to  enter  upon  the  wider  field  of  exploration  to  which  Mary 
Burton  was  ready  to  lead  the  way.  The  fervor  of  the  persecution 
was  burning  itself  out ;  the  opinion  of  those  "  wanton,  wrong-headed 
persons  "  who,  as  Judge  Horsmanden  said,  always  declared 

0  ...  Revulsion 

"  there  was  no  plot  at  all,  was  making  its  way  among  sen-  of  popular 
sible  people ;  the  testimony  of  the  infatuated  and  evil- 
minded  child — whose  story  had  grown  so  rapidly  from  the  imputation 
of  some  vague  talk  of  insurrection  by  two  or  three  thieves  and  the 
receiver  of  the  stolen  goods,  to  a  plot  including  gentlemen  of  stand- 
ing, with  wealth  at  their  command,  and  in  which  soldiers  by  the  score 
had  already  enlisted — such  testimony  would  prove  too  much,  if  ac- 
cepted, and  would  presently  make  everybody  ridiculous  who  lent  an 
ear  to  it.  The  natural  revulsion  of  a  panic  came  at  last.  Of  the 
twenty  white  persons  committed,  four  were  hanged  and  others  ban- 
ished from  the  colony.  But  with  Ury  the  tragedy  ended ;  the  town 

VOL.  in.  16 


242 


NEW   YORK. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


Tha 


recovered  from  its  insane  and  cowardly  terror  by  the  end  of  summer  ; 
though  for  months  timid  people  heard  in  every  alarm  of  fire  a  threat- 
ened conflagration,  and  so  long  after  as  March  of  the  next  spring,  a 
futile  attempt  was  made  to  revive  the  belief  in  insurrection  by  hang- 
ing a  negro  idiot  accused  of  arson.  As  the  proceedings 
began  with  a  Fast,  so  now  the  Governor  and  Council  ap- 
pointed the  24th  of  September  as  a  day  of  public  Thanks- 
giving to  God  for  his  mercies  in  delivering  the  colony  from  "  this 
horrible  and  execrable  conspiracy."  To  many  persons  the  presence 
of  an  avenging  Providence  had  been  visible  in  a  miraculous  manner, 
in  that  the  body  of  Hughson,  which  had  been  hung  in  chains,  was 
believed  to  have  turned  black,  and  the  body  of  Caesar  —  also  hung  in 
chains  on  Ellis's  Island,  in  New  York  harbor  —  to  have  turned  white. 


Ellis's  Island. 


This  melancholy  exhibition  of  the  unmanly  and  abject  fear  which 
may  seize  upon  an  intelligent  and  vigorous  community  in  the  presence 
of  a  servile  race,  ignorant  and  powerless,  seems  to  have  been  confined 
chiefly  to  the  city.  There  were  two  or  three  cases  of  the  punishment 
of  blacks  for  some  alleged  connection  with  the  plot  —  one  we  have 
already  mentioned  on  the  Jersey  side  of  the  Hudson  —  in  the  vicinity 
of  New  York  ;  but  everywhere,  except  in  the  town,  the  proportion 
of  blacks  to  whites  was  probably  too  small  to  admit  of  any  serious 
apprehension  of  a  negro  insurrection. 

The  population  of  this  province  had  increased,  in  the  half  century 
between  Leisler's  death  and  the  accession  of  Clinton,  who  succeeded 
Clarke  as  Governor,  from  ten  thousand  to  more  than  sixty  thousand 
people.  "  We  are,"  said  a  memorial  of  the  Council  to  the  Govern- 


1704.]  GROWTH   OF   THE  COLONY.  243 

raent  at  home  in  1692,  "  the  key  and  centre  of  all  their  majesties' 
plantations  in  this  main."  Although,  as  the  memorial  com-  Growth  o{ 
plained,  "the  East  and  West  Jerseys,  Pennsylvania,  the  theprov- 
lower  counties  on  the  Delaware,  and  that  part  of  Connecticut 
which  is  to  the  westward  of  the  Connecticut  River,  were  lopped  off,"  1 
the  province  was  large  enough  and  its  advantages  obvious  enough 
to  attract  emigrants.  Presbyterians  from  Ireland,  and  Protestants 
from  France,  came  in  considerable  numbers  towards  the  end  of  the 
century.  In  1710  three  thousand  of  the  Protestants  who  had  fled  to 
England  at  the  invasion  of  the  Rhenish  palatinate  by  Louis  XIV., 
crossed  the  ocean,  and  many  of  them  planted  new  homes  along  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Mohawk  and  Schoharie  Creek.  In  1737  several 
hundred  Dutch  families  made  their  way  to  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk. 
Within  the  next  two  years  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  John  Lindesay,  pushed  over  the  hills  which  border  the  Mo- 
hawk on  the  south,  and  settled  on  the  banks  of  Cherry  Valley  Creek 
upon  a  grant  of  land  made  by  Governor  Clarke  to  four  associates 
—  among  them  his  own  representative.2  These  hardy  pioneers 
brought  with  them  the  best  elements  of  civilization,  and  were  as 
robust  and  vigorous  of  character  as  they  were  strong  to  encounter 
the  hardships  of  the  wilderness.  By  them  were  built  the  first  church 
and  school-house  in  which  the  English  tongue  was  spoken  and  taught 
west  of  the  Hudson.3  Among  the  earlier  settlers  in  the  Mohawk 
Valley  was  William  Johnson  —  afterward  Sir  William  —  who  came 
as  the  manager  of  his  uncle,  Admiral  Sir  Peter  Warren,  to  whom  a 
large  land-grant  had  been  made  in  that  region.  So  along  the  Sus- 
quehanna  and  the  Mohawk  and  their  tributaries  was  scattered  from 
time  to  time  through  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  seed 
that  was  to  bloom  in  later  years  into  the  rich  harvest  of  Central  and 
Western  New  York. 

In  the   interminable   records  of   disputes  which    royal   governoi-s 
maintained    with   their  councils  and    assemblies,    the   reader   vainly 
searches  for  some  glimpse  of  the  life  of  the  men  and  women  who  were 
unconsciously  building  up  an  empire  through  the  uneventful  detail  of 
their  daily  duties  and  pleasures.     But  a  bit  of  a  journal  from  the  pen 
of  an  adventurous  woman  who  went  on  horseback  from  Bos- 
ton to  New  York  in  1704,  to  collect  some  debts  due  to  the  *•*«£ 
estate  of  her  husband,   supplies  a  little  picture  of  domes-  M**«t* 
tic  life  in  that  prosperous  hamlet  by  the  seaside,  which  has 
now  become   a   city  of  a  million   inhabitants.     "  The   City  of   New 

1  See  Documents  Relating  to  the  Colonial  I/istori/  of  the  State  of  \ew  York,  vol.  iii.,  836 

2  New  York  Colonial  Documents,  vol.  vi. 

3  Centra)  New  York  in  the  Revolution.     By  Douglass  Campbell.     1878. 


244  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

York,"  she  says,  "is  a  pleasant,  well-compacted  place,  situated  on  a 

Commodious  River  which  is  a  fine  harbor  for  shipping The 

Bricks  in  some  of  the  Houses  are  of  divers  Colors,  and  laid  in  Check- 
The  houses  ers  5  being  glazed,  look  very  agreeable.  The  inside  of  them 
lescribed.  are  neafc  £O  admiration,  the  wooden  work,  for  only  the  walls 
are  plastered,  and  the  Lumoners  and  Joist  are  planed  and  kept  very 

white  scoured,  as  so  is  all  the  partitions  if  made  of  Boards 

The  hearths  and  staircases  were  laid  with  the  finest  tile  that  I  ever 
see,  which  is  ever  clean,  and  so  are  the  walls  of  the  kitchen,  which  had 

a  Brick  floor They  are  Generally  of  the  Church  of  England, 

and  have  a  New  England  Gentleman  l  for  their  minister,  and  a  very 
fine  church,  set  out  with  all  Customary  requisites.  There  are  also  a 
Dutch  and  Divers  Conventicles,  viz.  :  Baptists,  Quakers,  &c.  They 
are  not  strict  in  keeping  the  Sabbath  as  in  Boston  and  other  places 
where  I  had  been,  But  seem  to  deal  with  great  exactness,  as  far  as  I 

can  see  or  Deal  with The  English  go  very  fashionable  in  their 

dress.  But  the  Dutch,  especially  the  middling  sort,  differ  from  our 
Female  cos-  women  in  their  habit,  go  loose,  wear  French  muches,  which 
are  like  a  Cap  and  head-band  in  one,  leaving  their  ears  bare, 
which  are  set  out  with  Jewels  of  large  size  and  many  in  number,  and 
their  fingers  hooped  with  Rings,  some  with  large  stones  in  them  of 
many  Colors,  as  were  their  pendants  in  their  ears,  which  you  should 
see  very  old  women  wear  as  well  as  young. 

"  They  have  Vendues  very  frequently,  and  make  their  Earnings  very 
well  by  them,  for  they  treat  with  good  Liquor  Liberally,  and 
the  Customers  Drink  as  Liberally  and  Generally  pay  for  it 
as  well,  by  paying  for  that  which  they  Bid  up  Briskly  for,  after  the 
sack  has  gone  plentifully  about,  —  though  sometimes  gcod  penny- 
worths  are  got   there.      Their   Diversions  in   the  Winter  is   Riding 
Sleighs  about  three  or  four  Miles  out  of  Town,  where  they  have 
Houses  of  entertainment  at  a  place  called  the  Bowery,  and  some  go 
to  friends'  Houses,  who  handsomely  ti'eat  them." 

In  1724,  when  Benjamin  Franklin  was  returning  from  his  first  visit 
Anecdote  of  ^°  Boston,  after  he  had  made  his  home  in  Philadelphia,  the 
Frankim.  captain  of  the  sloop  which  brought  him  to  New  York  spread 
the  intelligence  that  his  passenger  had  "  a  trunk  full  of  books."  So 
large  a  cargo  of  an  article  so  rare  excited  surprise,  and  in  consequence 
the  printer  lad  received  a  message  from  Governor  Burnet  that  he 
would  be  glad  to  see  him,  and  Franklin  accordingly  waited  on  the 
Governor.  A  long  narrative  of  the  interview  is  preserved,  which 
closed  with  a  cordial  invitation  from  the  Governor  to  Franklin  to 
visit  him  again.  This  incident  is  valuable  as  showing  the  utter  sim- 

i  Mr.  Vesey. 


1740.] 


GROWTH   OF   THE   COLONY. 


245 


plicity  of  life  in  the  colonial  seaport,  where  books  and  men  who  had 
read  them  were  so  few  that  the  King's  representative  was  glad  to 
hold  an  hour's  literary  conversation  with  a  printer's  boy. 

The  Governor  lived  within  the  lines  of  the  Fort,  near  the  upper  end 
of  what  is  now  the  Battery,  and  his  official  residence  was  The  GoTCT. 
called  Fort  George.  It  was  burned  down,  with  tragic  con-  nor"  hou*e" 
sequences,  as  we  have  already  related,  in  the  fire  of  1740.  The  Gov- 
ernor's report  of  that  date  shows  that  it  was  roofed  with  cedar  shingles. 
Most  of  the  large  buildings  at  that  time  were  covered  with  tiles,  and 
it  is  said  that  no  roof  in  New  York  was  slated  till  after  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 


Fort  George  in   1740. 

An  amusing  passage  in  one  of  Governor  Clarke's  despatches  shows 
how  far  the  city,  in  1738,  had  drifted  from  the  decorous  pre-   pe^-of 
tences  of  loyalty.     He  complains  that  many  of  the  principal  lo-valty- 
people   of    the   town   refused   to    follow   his    example    in   putting  on 
mourning  for  the  death  of  Queen  Caroline,   "pretending  that  they 
had  made  themselves  the  joke  of  the  town  for  doing  it  on  the  late 
king's  death." 

The  population  of  New  York  city,  which  was  hardly  3,000  in  1689, 
was  about  12,000  in  1756.  In  the  face  of  the  perpetual  difference, 
common  to  all  the  colonies,  produced  by  the  desire  of  the  governors 
to  make  their  own  salaries  a  permanent  charge  on  the  colonial  rev- 
enue, the  matchless  advantages  of  the  seaport  asserted  themselves 


246 


NEW   YORK. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


in  a  growth  so  quiet  and  steady  as 
to  be  hardly  noticed.  Their  corn- 
Growth  of  Points  that  their  territory 
the  city.  had  been  diminished,  to 

the  advantage  of  Connecticut  and 
the  Jerseys,  showed  their  ignorance 
of  the  laws  of  trade ;  for  the  prod- 
ucts of  those  provinces  came  to  New 
York  as  steadily  as  ever.  New  Jer- 
sey, as  we  have  seen,  hoped  to  make 
of  Perth- Am  boy  the  most  import- 
ant provincial  seaport.  But  natural 
laws  are  stronger  than  legislation, 
and  it  is  difficult  now  to  believe 
that  the  pretty  seaside  village  on 
the  Jersey  coast  could  ever  have 
been  supposed  to  be  a  formidable 
rival  to  the  great  commercial  city 
of  our  time. 

As  the  trade  in  furs  became  less 
important,  the  exportation 
of  naval  stores  increased. 
But  down  to  1740  the  attempts  to 
manufacture  potash  —  now  one  of 
the  products  most  readily  furnished 
by  forest  regions  in  America  —  had 
not  been  successful.  Dreams  of 
making  a  wine  country  of  the  val- 
leys of  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk 
appear  in  some  of  the  governors' 
despatches.  Some  iron  was  made 
from  the  rich  bog  ores ;  but  neither 
the  people  of  New  York  nor  the 
grantees  of  Pennsylvania  knew  the 
value  of  the  coal  which  was  yet  to 
be  found  on  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Delaware  and  Susquehanna.  In 
general,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
manufactures  of  the  province  were 
unimportant.  That  colonial  policy 
of  England  which  Chatham  suc- 
cinctly stated  when  he  said  he 
would  not  have  a  hob-nail  made  in 


Manufac- 
tures. 


1743.]  HEALTHY  PROGRESS.  247 

the  colonies,  had  full  sway.  In  1700  "  a  coarse  pair  of  yarn  stock- 
ings," which  cost  9d.  in  London,  cost  3s.  6d.  English  in  the  city  of 
New  York ;  and  a  pair  of  shoes  which  cost  3  a.  6  d.  in  London,  cost 
7  «.  6  d.  in  New  York.  But  ship-building  flourished  steadily,  and  ves- 
sels were  sent  abroad  loaded  with  provincial  products,  and  sold  at  once 
in  foreign  harbors. 

Cadwallader  Golden,  the  Surveyor-general,  who  was  one  of  the  few 
American  men  of  science  at  that  time,  in  attempting  to  show 
the  existence  of  a  feasible  route  for  trade  to  the  Mississippi,  negation 

»  scheme. 

finds  it  by  the  upper  waters  of  the  Susquehanna,  which  he 
proposed  to  reach  by  Cayuga  Lake,  thence  through  the  Juniata  by 
portages  to  the  Alleghany  River,  and  so  through  the  Ohio. 

As  early  as  1703  a  delegation  waited  on  Lord  Cornbury  to  ask  in 
what  part  of  the  "  King's  farm  "  he  wished  to  have  the  col-  Talk  of  a 
lege  [King's,  now  Columbia]  built.     The  King's  farm  in-  college- 
eluded  all  the  region  west  of  Broadway,  and  north  of  Cortland  Street. 
But  no  happy  answer  of  Cornbury  founded  a  university  by  a  grant 
out  of  that  princely  domain.     In  1738  Lieutenant-governor  Clarke 
sent  home  "  an  act  for  the  further  encouragement  of  public  schools 
for  the  teaching  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  mathematics."     The  encourage- 
ment was  the  appropriation  for  this  purpose  of  a  tax  on  peddlers  and 
hucksters. 

From  a  perusal  of  council  records,  or  governors'  reports,  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  colony  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 

1J  U    1  U      J-  Healthy 

century,  one  would  suppose  it  was  shaken  by  disease  in  every  growth  of 
limb,  and  only  preserved  each  year  from  instant  death  by 
the  most  heroic  stimulants.  But  in  truth  it  was  gaining  with  that 
sturdy  health  which  a  temperate  climate,  a  matchless  system  of  water 
communication,  boundless  forests,  fertile  soil,  and  a  frugal,  religious, 
and  industrious  people  almost  compelled.  Before  the  half  century 
was  over,  which  began  when  Sloughter,  in  a  drunken  fit,  hanged 
Leisler,  the  representative  of  popular  rights,  the  people  of  New  York 
had  discovered  their  own  real  power,  and  in  their  own  quiet  way  had 
asserted  it.  The  misdeeds  of  the  King's  governors  did  little  toward 
arresting  the  healthy  growth  of  material  prosperity.  Education  and 
the  ornaments  of  civilization  followed,  perhaps  with  somewhat  unequal 
step,  on  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  and  before  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury the  province  had  established  itself  as  "  the  key  of  the  system  of 
American  colonies."  Though  it  did  not  know  it,  New  York  was 
already  well  forward  on  the  path  of  empire. 

Since  1737  Lord  Delaware  had  held  the  sinecure  office  of  Governor- 
general  over  New  York  and  New  Jersey  ;  but  in  1743  a  separate  ju- 
risdiction was  established  in  each,  George  Clinton  being  appointed 


248  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Governor  of  the  former,  and  Lewis  Morris  of  the  latter  province.  Clin- 
ton was  the  second  son  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  and  an  ad- 
ton°Gov-  "  miral  in  the  British  navy.  He  remained  in  office  ten  years ; 
and  if,  as  has  been  charged  against  him,  he  carried  back  to 
England  eighty  thousand  pounds  as  the  fruit  of  his  ten  years'  service, 
he  may  have  thought  himself  sufficiently  compensated  for  an  official 
career  of  more  than  ordinary  trials  and  vexations.  If  the  post  was 
bestowed  upon  him  through  family  influence,  rather  than  because  of 
any  personal  fitness,  he  served  his  royal  master  at  least  with  zeal, 
even  if  he  gained  small  credit  for  ability. 

His  administration  was  one  long  struggle  in  defence  of  the  royal 
prerogative.  The  result  was  an  enforced  concession  to  the 
D"  ilencCey0  colonists  of  rights  for  which  they  had  long  contended,  but 
which  by  previous  governors  had  been  in  some  measure  suc- 
cessfully withstood.  Clarke,  the  late  Lieutenant-governor,  had  retired 
from  office  worn  out  with  contention  with  the  popular  party,  and  the 
most  influential  leader  of  that  party  was  James  De  Lancey,  the  Chief 
Justice.  This  able  man  Clinton,  nevertheless,  at  his  accession  took 
for  his  adviser,  and  for  the  rest  of  his  term  repented  of  his  weakness. 
It  had  long  been  a  vital  point  with  the  party  which  De  Lancey  rep- 
resented, that  the  Governor  should  be  under  the  control  of  the  Assem- 
bly, by  making  his  salary  depend  upon  an  annual  appropriation. 
Hunter  had  in  his  time  defeated  this  policy,  by  inducing  or  constrain- 
ing the  Assembly  to  extend  the  limitation  to  five  years,  and  this  had 
held  good  through  the  administrations  of  successive  governors  to  the 
time  of  Clarke,  Clinton's  predecessor.  In  the  contest  with  Clarke  the 
•  popular  party  had  been  successful;  the  rule  was  changed,  and  the 
salaries  of  the  Governor  and  other  official  persons  were  to  be  deter- 
mined from  year  to  year  by  the  will  of  the  Assembly. 

De  Lancey  persuaded  Clinton  to  continue  this  concession ;  to  ac- 
cept,  that  is,  the  precedent  lately  established  under  Clarke, 
and  not  to  insist  upon  that  which  several  preceding  govern- 
bly-  ors  had  made  the  rule.     He  took  a  still  greater  advantage 

afterward  of  the  Governor's  ignorance  of  civil  affairs,  by  persuading 
him  to  consent  to  another  and  more  serious  innovation.  The  Assem- 
bly sent  the  Governor  an  appropriation  bill,  in  which,  instead  of 
appropriating  certain  sums  for  the  salaries  of  incumbents  of  certain 
offices,  they  provided  that  those  salaries  should  be  paid  to  certain  per- 
sons named  who  then  held  those  offices.  The  Governor  signed  the 
bill,  and  the  advantage  once  gained  the  Assembly  never  relinquished. 
They  had  reduced  him  at  the  outset  to  pecuniary  dependence,  by  get- 
ting into  their  own  hands  the  power  of  making  his  salary  what  they 
pleased  from  year  to  year,  or  even  of  withholding  it  altogether  ;  and 


1743.]  PERPLEXITIES   OF   GOVERNOR  CLINTON.  249 

he  practically  surrendered  the  appointing  power  when  he  permitted 
them  to  bestow  a  salary  upon  a  person  named  in  the  appropriation 
bill ;  for  the  pay  expired  with  his  term  of  office,  and  the  next  incum- 
bent was  without  pay  till  the  Assembly  saw  fit  to  provide  it.  It  was 
a  short  step  from  refusing  to  pay  anything  to  an  officer  nominated  by 
the  Governor,  to  dictating  whom  they  chose  to  have  him  nominate. 

Experience  soon  taught  the  Governor  how  skillfully  he  had  been 
led  to  put  himself  almost  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  Assembly. 
His  letters  to  the  Government  at  home  are  filled,  from  the  first  year  of 
his  administration  to  the  end  of  it,  with  complaints  of  encroachments 
upon  the  royal  prerogative  by  an  insolent,  malicious,  and  flagitious 
"faction,"  which  aimed  at  getting  the  whole  power  of  government 
into  its  own  hands,  and  would  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than 
making  the  colony  independent 
of  the  Crown.  Whether  from 
want  of  regard  to  the  man,  or 
indifference  as  to  the  affairs  of 
the  colony,  and  incredulity  as 
to  the  growth  of  this  popular 
spirit,  the  Board  of  Trade  and 
the  Secretary  of  State  seem  to 
have  given  little  heed  to  these  ;;' 
constant  and  bitter  complaints 
of  the  Governor.  He  soon  quar- 
relled with  De  Lancey,  and  took 
Cadwallader  Golden  as  his  chief 
adviser ;  the  result  was  only  to 
add  to  the  hostility  of  the  Assem- 
bly the  hostility  of  the  Council. 
When  the  war  with  France  was 
over  and  the  public  exigencies 
were  lessened,  he  attempted  to 

r  Cadwallader  Golden. 

retrieve  his  early  errors,  by  re- 
fusing to  sign  money  bills  till  the  Assembly  would  consent  to  make 
the  support  of  the  Governor  permanent,  and  to  attach  sala-  Ciinton'« 
ries  to  offices  and  not  to  officers  named.     But  the  Assembly  weakness 
was  quite  as  firm  as  he,  and  could  afford  to  refrain  from  appropriat- 
ing money  much  longer  than  he  and  the  Government  could  afford  to 
do  without  it.     A  dead-lock  of  two  years  ended  in  his  unconditional 
submission,  and  he  signed  the  bills  at  last  with  their  objectionable 
features  unchanged.     He  prorogued   Assemblies  and  removed  coun- 
cillors, but  the  faction  did  not  abate  in  the  slightest  degree  its  oppo- 
sition to  him  and  his  plans  and  policy.     The  Government  at  home 


250  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

paid  so  little  heed  to  his  complaints,  that  it  sent  out  to  De  Lancey  a 
commission  as  Lieutenant-governor.  Clinton  put  it  in  his  pocket  and 
kept  it  there  for  a  year  or  two,  making  the  while  pathetic  appeals  to 
Government  that  he  might  not  be  compelled  to  submit  to  the  humilia- 
tion of  appointing  his  bitterest  enemy  to  a  place  of  trust  second  only 
to  his  own,  —  a  humiliation,  nevertheless,  which  he  was  compelled  to 
submit  to  when  he  left  for  England,  and  was  constrained,  on  the  eve 
of  departure,  to  install  De  Lancey  as  his  successor. 

This  bitter  contest  between  Clinton  and  the  Assembly,  underlies  all 
the  public  events  of  this  period  of  ten  years  in  the  history  of  New 
York,  —  a  contest  not  merely  personal,  remarkable  as  it  was  in  that 
respect,  but  between  the  incongruous  forces  of  arbitrary  rule  and  the 
rights  of  the  people.1  The  renewal  of  war  between  France  and  Eng- 
land was  known  in  New  York  in  July,  1744,  and  Clinton  was  at  that 
war  with  time  in  Albany  making  preparations  in  expectation  of  that 
France.  event.  The  treaty  with  the  Six  Nations  was  renewed  ;  cir- 
cular letters  were  sent  to  the  governors  of  the  other  provinces,  that 
measures  might  be  concerted  for  the  common  defence,  and  the  Governor 
some  time  before  had  ordered  a  double  garrison  to  Oswego,  which  the 
traders  had  deserted,  to  hold  that  important  post.  He  was  already 
face  to  face  with  the  difficulties  which  were  for  years  to  perplex  and 
harass  him.  The  Assembly  was  urged  by  repeated  messages  to  pro- 
vide for  the  safety  of  the  province,  but  he  writes  to  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle, Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  —  to  whom  he  sends  his  messages 
and  the  replies,  —  u  Your  Grace  will  see  how  backward  they  are  in 
their  deliberations,  and  that  it  is  with  the  utmost  difficulty  to  bring 
them  to  any  tolerable  resolution  for  the  service  of  the  publick."  The 
Assembly  chose  to  judge  for  itself,  of  the  necessities  of  the  occasion  ; 
the  treasury  was  under  their  control  ;  they  would  not  sub- 
mit  to  dictation  from  the  Governor,  and  they  were  largely 


influenced  by  the  jealous  caution,  —  common  to  all  the  colo- 
nies, —  lest  their  expenditure  for  defence  should  be  of  more  benefit 
to  some  other  province  than  their  own.  It  was  a  question,  moreover, 
with  many  persons  whether  the  wiser  policy  was  not  for  the  colonies 
to  maintain  neutrality  in  the  war,  and  thus  be  safe  from  attack  from 
either  French  or  Indians;  and  from  this  came  the  most  serious  accu- 
sation which  Clinton  made,  as  year  by  year  the  difference  between 
him  and  his  opponents  grew  wider  and  deeper,  that  there  was  a  strong 
party  at  Albany  with  whom  the  trade  in  peltries  and  rum  was  of  far 
more  moment  than  their  allegiance  to  the  King  or  the  safety  of  the 
colony,  —  an  accusation  which  was  hardly  thought  worthy  of  contra- 
diction. 

1  New  York  Colonial  Documents,  vol.  vi. 


1746.]      PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  INVASION  OF  CANADA.       251 

The  next  year  Governor  Shirley,  of  Massachusetts,  asked  for  aid  in 
his  proposed  expedition  against  Louisburg.     It  was,  Clinton  Aid  to  ex. 
thought,  of  quite  as  much  importance  to  New  York  as  to  ^j^°tn 
New  England  that  this  attempt  should  be  successful.     But  ^"M"*- 
the  Assembly  did  not  agree  with  him.     They  refused  to  send  men, 
and  in  money  appropriated  only  .£3,000.     Even  this  was  done  with 
great  deliberation  and  evident  reluctance,  while  they  were  not  in  the 
least  moved  to  emulation  when  the  Governor  sent  off  at  his  own  ex- 
pense some  cannon  to  assist  in  the  siege.     They  turned  a  deaf  ear  to 
his  earnest  demands  for  active  measures  of  defence  and  offence,  till  at 
length,  wearied  with  a  hopeless  struggle,  he  dissolved  the  House,  and 
ordered  a  new  election.     Though  the  news  of  the  probable  success  of 
the  siege  of  Louisburg  induced  this  body  to  vote  £5,000  additional  in 
aid  of  that  enterprise,  it  soon  showed  itself  as  uncompliant  as  its  pre- 
decessor.     "The    dispatch   of    business,"   wrote    the    Governor,   is 


Smith's  Vly.  — From  an  Old  Print. 

"greatly  neglected  by  the  Assembly."  "  They  are  selfish,  and  jealous 
of  the  power  of  the  Crown,  and  of  such  levelling  principles  that  they 
are  constantly  attacking  its  prerogative."  That  his  complaints  were 
not  altogether  unreasonable,  is  plain  enough. 

In  November  of  this  year  the  fort  and  twenty  houses  at  Saratoga 
were  destroyed,  thirty  persons  killed,  and  sixty  made  captives  by  the 
Indians. 

Crown  Point  on  Lake  Champlain  was  a  position  of  great  impor- 
tance to  both  French  and  English,  as  it  commanded  the  frontier  line 
and  the  ordinary  road  of  communication  between  Canada  and  Albany. 
In  1746  orders  came  from  England  for  the  capture  of  Canada,  in  ac- 


252  NEW  YORK.  [CHAP.  IX. 

cordance  with  Shirley's  plan,  to  follow  up  the  taking  of  Louisburg  ; 
and  all  the  colonies,  as  far  south  as  Virginia,  were  to  furnish 
of  "    troops  for  that  purpose.     An  advance  was  to  be  made  from 


Louisburg  against  Quebec,  and  another  from  Albany  towards 
Montreal  by  way  of  Crown  Point.  The  Six  Nations  again  promised  to 
take  up  the  war  hatchet  against  the  French,  and  that  they  would  not 
permit  their  priests  to  come  among  them  any  more,  declaring,  "on 
the  contrary,  should  any  now  dare  to  come,  we  know  no  use  for  him 
or  them  but  to  Roast  them."  As  the  rendezvous  of  the  troops  was  at 
Albany,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Governor  Clinton,  the  command 
devolved  upon  him,  when  Lieutenant-governor  Gooch,  of  Virginia, 
who  had  been  appointed  to  that  position  by  the  commissioners  of  the 
several  provinces,  declined  to  accept  it. 

Clinton  called  to  his  aid  William  Johnson,  who  was  already  well 
wniiam  known  for  his  knowledge  of  the  Indians  and  his  influence 
Johnson.  over  ^nem>  fhe  Mohawks  made  him  one  of  their  chiefs, 
and  he  had  married  an  Indian  woman,  the  sister  of  Joseph  Brant,  who 
was  the  head  of  that  tribe.  Through  Johnson's  efforts  the  alliance  with 
the  Six  Nations  was  confirmed,  and  other  tribes  in  Pennsylvania  and 
New  England  had  promised  to  go  upon  the  war-path.  But  all  these 
formidable  preparations  were  destined  only  to  involve  the  unfortunate 
Governor  in  fresh  difficulties.  D'Anville's  fleet  off  the  coast  of  Nova 
Scotia  arrested  the  movement  from  Louisburg.  General  St.  Clair, 
who  was  to  be  commander-in-chief  of  the  expedition  against  Canada, 
did  not  come  with  the  promised  reenforcement  of  British  troops. 
Delay  was  inevitable  ;  the  Indians,  disgusted  with  inactivity,  began 
to  disperse.  The  colonial  troops  remained  idle,  without  pay,  and 
poorly  fed,  at  Albany,  through  the  autumn  and  winter.  The  Assem- 
bly, in  spite  of  Clinton's  appeals  and  protests,  refused  to  make  any 
appropriation  for  their  pay,  and  the  Council,  with  the  exception  of 
Mr.  Golden  and  one  or  two  other  members,  sustained  the  Assembly. 
The  troops  clamored  and  broke  out  at  last  into  open  mutiny,  and  the 
Governor  was  only  able  to  extricate  himself  from  serious  difficulty  by 
drawing  upon  England  for  large  sums.  Johnson  attempted  to  take 
Crown  Point  with  an  inadequate  force  and  failed,  and  then  came  ad- 
vices from  England  that  the  expedition  against  Canada  was  abandoned, 
to  be  followed  soon  after  by  a  general  peace  and  the  treaty  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle. 

When  the  news  reached  the  Governor  that  the  offensive  movement 
against  the  French  was  given  up,  and  that  the  troops  were  to  be  dis- 
banded, he  proposed  to  put  his  own  province  upon  the  defensive.  He 
deemed  it  necessary  that  a  force  of  eight  hundred  men  should  be  re- 
tained and  sent  to  the  frontier,  but  the  Assembly  refused  to  provide 


1753.]  DE  LANCEY   LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.  253 

the  means,  and  declined  to  do  anything  further  for  the  support  of  the 
Indians.  The  Governor  thereupon  ordered  the  colonels  of  the  militia 
of  the  several  counties  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to 

...  .  Disregard  of 

march  at  a  moment  s  notice.     He  called  out  the  regiment   Clinton's  or- 
and  independent  companies  of  the  city  of  New  York   to 
parade,  and   his  order  was  read  at  the  head  of  the  ranks.     "  But," 
he  writes  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  "  every  man  unanimously  re- 
fused to  obey  any  orders  from  the  Crown,  unless  an  Act  of  Assembly 


East  River  Shore,   1750.  —  From  an  Old  Print. 


was  passed  in  the  Province  for  that  purpose  ;  which  shows  how  well 
my  opinion  of  their  levelling,  and  the  republican  principles,  has  been 
grounded  from  time  to  time."  And  he  adds  pathetically  in  a  post- 
script —  "  nothing  has  encouraged  y*  faction  so  much  as  this,  that  I 
have  not  been  able  to  obtain  any  thing  to  show  to  them,  signifying 
His  Majest8  approbation  of  my  conduct,  or  displeasure  of  theirs." 
It  was  not  his  fault  that  he  was  compelled  for  several  years  longer  to 
endure  these  humiliations,  for  he  asked  repeatedly,  but  in  vain,  to  be 
recalled  ;  and  the  final  mortification  —  the  necessity  of  giving  to  De 
Lancey  his  commission  as  Lieutenant-governor  —  was,  no  doubt,  the 
keener  that  he  had  hoped  to  escape  it  when  Sir  Danvers  Osborn  ar- 
rived in  1753,  to  supersede  him  as  Governor.  But  that 
gentleman,  who  was  in  a  condition  of  morbid  mental  depres-  s^Dan^ers 
sion,  took  his  own  life  two  days  after  his  inauguration  ;  and 
Clinton  had  then  no  alternative  but  to  deliver  formally  to  De  Lancey 
the  commission  which  he  had  so  long  withheld,  and  had  so  repeatedly 
urged  the  Government  in  England  to  recall. 


CHAPTER  X. 


OPENING   OF   THE   FRENCH   WAR. 


CONTEST  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE  FOR  TERRITORY  IN  AMERICA.  —  FRENCH 
MOVEMENTS  INTO  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  OHIO.  —  LINE  OF  FRENCH  FORTS  AT  THE 
WEST.  —  PROGRESS  OF  ENGLISH  SETTLEMENT  WESTWARD.  —  THE  OHIO  COMPANY. 
—  MAJOR  WASHINGTON.  —  His  FIGHT  WITH  JUMONVILLE.  —  SURRENDER  AT  FORT 
NECESSITY.  —  CONVENTION  AT  ALBANY  AND  PLAN  FOR  COLONIAL  UNION.  —  AR- 
RIVAL OP  GENERAL  BRADDOCK.  —  His  EXPEDITION.  —  FRANKLIN'S  ADVICE. — 
BRADDOCK'S  DEFEAT  AND  DEATH.  —  OPERATIONS  IN  NOVA  SCOTIA.  —  THE  QUES- 
TION OF  BOUNDARIES.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  HALIFAX.  —  EXILE  OF  THE  ACADIANS. 


THE  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 
settled  nothing  of  the  great  con- 
test between  France  and  England 
for  supremacy  in  America  ;  it 
merely  announced  a  truce,  during 
which  both  parties,  recovering  from  their  exhaustion,  made  provision 
against  an  inevitable  and  decisive  conflict.  In  America  petty  hostil- 


1748.]  THE   DISPUTED   TERRITORY.  255 

ities  on  the  border  were  scarcely  interrupted  between  the  date  of  the 
treaty  (1748)  and  the  resumption  of  open  war  in  1755.  As  we  have 
seen,  Governor  Clinton,  of  New  York,  thought  it  absolutely  neces- 
sary,—  though  the  Assembly  did  not  agree  with  him, —  that  on  the 
disbanding  of  the  troops  in  1748,  a  force  of  eight  hundred  men  should 
be  in  readiness  to  march  at  a  moment's  warning  to  the  defence  of 
the  frontiers.  The  Governors  of  other  provinces  sympathized  witli 
Clinton's  apprehensions,  and  not  without  reason. 

The  two  centres  of  interest  for  both  nations  were  the  country  about 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  In  1749,  De 
Celoron,  the  French  commander  at  Detroit,  made  an  expedition  to  the 
Ohio  River,  claimed  the  country  as  belonging  to  the  French  King, 
commanded  all  English  traders  to  leave  it,  and  wrote  to  the  Governor 
of  Pennsylvania  that  if  such  "  traders  should  thereafter  make  their 
appearance  on  the  Beautiful  River,  they  would  be  treated  without  any 
delicacy."  Some  who  did  not  obey  were  afterward  arrested  near  the 
lake  of  Otsanderket  (Sandusky)  and  were  detained  as  prisoners.  A 
few  months  later,  several  Mohawk  chiefs  assembled  at  the  house  of 
Colonel  Johnson,  and  asked  of  him  an  explanation  of  a  leaden  tablet 
which  was  to  have  been  buried  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  but  had 
been  taken  by  some  of  their  tribe  from  a  French  interpreter.  It  bore 
a  Latin  inscription  claiming  ownership  of  all  that  region  of  coun- 
try for  France.1  The  French  built  a  fort  at  a  commanding  point 
above  Niagara  Falls,  the  Governor  of  Canada  maintaining  their  right 
to  encroach  thus  upon  the  lands  of  the  Iroquois,  who,  he  declared, 
were  not  subjects  of  England,  but,  if  subjects  at  all,  of  France. 
There  were  constant  alarms  of  bodies  of  Frenchmen  making  their 
way  southward  from  the  lakes  to  the  Ohio  valley;  and  of  their  de- 
termination to  possess  and  hold  that  region,  there  was  no  room  for 
doubt.  The  aim  of  both  nations  was  the  same,  to  be  com-  French  and 
passed,  however,  for  different  purposes  and  in  different  ways,  p,"*"*}1,,  the 
The  French  meant,  by  a  series  of  fortifications,  to  connect  West- 
the  St.  Lawrence  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  the  English  proposed  the 
establishment  of  colonies  westward  of  the  Alleghanies,  which  should 
be  outposts  of  defence  for  the  seaboard  settlements,  and  bases  for 

1  Translation:  In  the  year  1749,  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  King  of  France,  we, 
Celoron,  commander  of  a  detachment  sent  by  Monsieur  the  Marquis  de  la  Galissoniere.com- 
mander-in-ehief  of  New  France-,  for  the  restoration  of  tranquillity  in  some  villages  of  In- 
dians of  these  districts,  have  buried  this  plate  at  the  confluence  of  the  Ohio  and  Tchada- 
koiu,  this  29th  July,  near  the  River  Ohio,  otherwise  Beautiful  River,  as  a  monument  of  the 
renewal  of  possession  which  we  have  taken  of  the  said  River  Ohio,  and  of  all  those  that 
therein  fall,  and  of  all  the  lands  on  both  sides,  as  far  as  the  sources  of  the  said  rivers,  as 
enjoyed  or  ought  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  preceding  kings  of  France,  and  as  they  therein  have 
maintained  themselves  by  arms  and  by  treaties,  especially  by  those  of  Riswk  k.  of  Utrecht, 
and  OL"  Aix-la-Chapelle  —  Lhcunitnts  Relating  to  Colonial  History  of  New  York,  vol.  vi. 


256 


OPENING   OF  THE   FRENCH   WAR. 


[CHAP.  X. 


further  advances  into  the  unknown  western  country.  Each  put  forth 
claims  resting  upon  discovery  or  purchase,  but  each  knew  also  that 
possession  was  the  strongest  title,  and  it  was  inevitable  that  the 
struggle  for  possession  should  come  first  upon  those  who  actually 
stood  upon  the  disputed  territory. 

The  course  of  the  French  can  be  traced  by  the  successive  posts 
which  they  established  along  the   chain  of  great  lakes  and  upon  the 


Map  showing  the  Positions  of  French  and   English  Forts  and  Settlements 
about  the  beginning  of  the   French  War. 

highways  of  the  river  system.  As  early  as  1670  and  1671  the  Jesuits 
established  missions  at  the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior,  at  the  head  of 
Green  Bay,  and  upon  the  northern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  ;  and  the 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  La  Baye,  and  Michilimackinac  became  centres  of 
Indian  trade,  rendezvous  for  the  coureurs  de  bois,  and  garrisons  for 
French  troops.  A  little  later,  a  line  of  forts  was  established,  guarding 
the  passages  of  the  great  lakes,  Frontenac,  —  where  the  St.  Lawrence 
issues  from  Lake  Ontario,  —  Niagara,  and  Detroit.  These  places  be- 
came by  degrees  the  centres  of  little  settlements  that  grew  up  under 
the  protection  of  their  walls,  but  military  occupation  continued  to  be 
the  chief  aim.  Then  the  access  to  the  Mississippi  was  controlled  by 
Fort  St.  Joseph  near  one  of  the  sources  of  the  Illinois,  and  still  more 
by  the  older  fort  at  Green  Bay,  on  the  Wisconsin  River.  The  valleys 
of  the  Miami  and  the  Wabash  were  held  by  Fort  Miami  and  Fort 


1748.]  THE   OHIO   COMPANY.  257 

Ouatanon,  a  little  below  the  present  site  of  Lafayette,  Ind.,  while 
the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  was  guarded  by  Forts  Presqu'  Isle, 
Le  Bocuf,  and  Sandtisky.  Along  the  natural  highways  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  Ohio  were  stockade  settlements  at  Vincennes,  at 
Kaskaskia,  at  Cahokia ;  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  were 
solitary  stations  marking  the  course  of  French  arms  and  trade. 
Coming  closer  to  the  frontier  of  British  settlements,  communica- 
tion was  open  from  Fort  Niagara  to  Presqu'  Isle,  on  the  site  of  the 
present  town  of  Erie,  thence  to  Fort  Le  Boeuf  on  a  branch  of  the 
Allegliany,  from  which  there  was  direct  passage  by  water  to  Venango, 
and  to  the  entrance  of  the  Alleghany  into  the  Ohio,  where  stood  the 
farthest  outpost  of  the  French,  in  this  quarter,  Fort  Du  Quesne.  It 
will  thus  be  seen  that  the  French  could  march  their  troops  by  natural 
highways  from  the  stronghold  in  Canada,  at  the  back  of  the  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia  settlements,  and  were  rapidly  get- 
ting control  of  that  great  artery,  the  Mississippi  itself. 

The  English,  on  the  other  hand,  were  pushing  their  colonies  from 
the  Atlantic  coast  westward,  by  irregular  lines,  across  the  rugged 
Alleghanies,  with  little  help  from  river  courses.  From  those  moun- 
tains and  from  the  country  on  the  farther  side,  incursions  from  Indians 
were  always  threatened,  and  it  was  early  seen  that  there  was  need  of 
establishing  settlements  upon  that  frontier  country  which  should  serve 
as  a  protection  to  the  thinly  scattered  homes  lying  between  the  moun- 
tains and  the  sea-coast.  But  the  English  life  was  that  of  settlers,  not 
of  traders  and  hunters,  and  the  measures  taken  were  for  occupation  of 
the  country,  not  for  simple  military  control.  It  was  partly  the  move- 
ments of  the  French  that  suggested  to  Spotswood  of  Virginia  the 
extension  of  the  Virginia  settlements  westward,  to  intercept  the  com- 
munication between  Canada  and  Louisiana ;  and  three  years  later 
Governor  Keith  of  Pennsylvania  urged  upon  the  Lords  of  Trade  the 
erection  of  a  fort  on  Lake  Erie.  From  time  to  time,  during  the  next 
thirty  years,  warning  voices  were  raised  by  sagacious  observers,  and 
plans  suggested  for  the  systematic  action  of  the  government.1 

The  first  organized  attempt  at  possession,   was   the   formation   of 
the  Ohio  Company  in  1748,  by  an  association  of  gentlemen  The0hio 
in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  with  a  representative  in  London.   ComPau-v 
Thomas  Lee,  one  of  his  Majesty's  Council  in  Virginia,  was  the  original 
projector ;  and  Lawrence  and  Augustine  Washington,  elder  brothers 
of  George,  were  largely  interested  in  the  enterprise.     Five  hundred 
thousand  acres  of  land  were  granted  to  the  Company  by  the  King,  to  be 

1  These  considerations,  with  others,  were  set  forth  at  a  later  date  by  Franklin  in  his  de- 
fence of  the  Walpole  Grant,  which  asked  for  an  immense  tract  of  country  south  of  the 
Ohio,  for  purposes  of  settlement. 
VOL.  in.  17 


258  OPENING   OF   THE   FRENCH    WAR.  [CHAR  X. 

taken  chiefly  on  the  south  side  of  the  Ohio,  between  the  Monongahela 
and  Kanawha  rivers,  and  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  One  of  the  princi- 
pal objects  of  the  Company  was  to  make  use  of  the  river  communica- 
tion by  the  Potomac  and  the  eastern  branches  of  the  Ohio,  and  thus 
connect  the  new  country  with  Virginia  and  Maryland,  rather  than 
with  the  rival  colony  of  Pennsylvania.  The  road  over  the  mountains 
from  Cumberland  to  what  is  now  Pittsburg,  was  laid  out  by  Colonel 
Cresap,  one  of  the  Company,  chiefly  through  the  agency  of  a  friendly 
Indian,  Nemacolin.  Exploring  parties  were  sent  out  in  1750  and  1751 
under  Christopher  Gist,  and  Gist  himself,  who  had  been  appointed 
surveyor  of  the  Company,  formed  a  settlement,  with  eleven  other  fam- 
ilies, in  the  country  between  the  Monongahela  and  Youghiogheny 
rivers. 

But  the  country  which  the  Ohio  Company  proposed  to  occupy, 
though  granted  by  George  II.,  had  other  owners.  When  Penn  made 
his  first  settlement,  he  found  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  the  Lenni 
Lenape  (Original  Men),  known  by  the  English  then  and  afterward 
as  the  Delaware  Indians.  They  had  been  reduced  to  submission  by 
the  Iroquois,  and  they  afterward  sold  their  lands  to  Penn,  and  lived 
amicably  by  the  side  of  the  settlers.  But  little  by  little  the  whites 
crowded  back  the  Indians,  Penn's  successors  not  always  dealing  with 
them  according  to  his  precept  and  example,  till  the  Delawares  were 
driven  to  the  western  slopes  of  the  Alleghanies  and  the  adjacent  val- 
leys. The  Shawnoes,  who  had  also  been  subdued  by  the  Six  Nations, 
were  their  neighbors. 

The  Ohio  Company  petitioned  the  government  of  Virginia  to  invite 
the  Indians  to  a  treaty.  A  meeting  was  called  at  Logstown, 
a  tmding-post  about  seventeen  miles  from  the  present  site 


of  Pittsburg,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio.  The  traders 
and  the  French  alike  threw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  a  good  understand- 
ing between  the  government  and  the  Indians,  and  it  was  not  until  a 
second  call  was  given  in  1752,  that  Mr.  Gist,  as  agent  of  the  Com- 
pany, Colonel  Fry,  and  two  other  commissioners  from  Virginia,  met 
the  Indians  and  effected  a  treaty,  by  which  the  Indians  agreed  not  to 
molest  any  settlements  that  might  be  made  on  the  southeast  side  of 
the  Ohio.  But  the  Indians  were  careful  even  now  to  refuse  to  recog- 
nize any  English  claim  to  the  land.  The  Company  constructed  a  fort, 
built  some  roads,  and  brought  goods  for  trading  ;  a  few  families  set- 
tled about  Gist's  place,  but  before  the  country  had  been  fairly  occupied, 
their  vigilant  adversaries,  the  French,  had  pushed  southward  from 
Lake  Erie  by  the  highway  of  the  Alleghany,  and  were  preparing  to 
establish  themselves,  not  by  colonies,  but  by  forts,  in  the  heart  of  the 
disputed  territory.  In  the  autumn  of  1753  they  had  intrenched 


1753.]  MAJOR   WASHINGTON.  250 

themselves  tit  Venango  (now  Franklin,  in  Venango  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania). When  this  was  known  in  Virginia,  it  was  determined  to  send 
a  commissioner  to  investigate  the  proceeding,  since  Venango  was  on 
territory  claimed  by  that  colony.  Governor  Dinwiddie  selected  for 
this  duty  a  Virginia  surveyor,  about  twenty-two  years  of  age,  r,earKe 
who  had  already  shown  a  marked  capacity  for  dealing  with 
Indians  and  for  backwoods  life,  and  whose  brothers  had  been 
closely  identified  with  the  movements  of  the  Ohio  Company,  pan>- 
—  Major  George  Washington.  The  young  commissioner,  accompa- 
nied by  Mr.  Gist  and  a  few  attendants,  set  out  from  Fredericksburg, 
October  30,  1753,  and  making  friends  at  Logstown  with  some  Dela- 
ware chiefs,  took  them  with  him  to  Venango,  which  he  reached  early 
in  December.  The  officers  whom  he  found  there  sent  him  on  to  the 


Washington  on   his  Journey  to  the   French    Forti. 

commander  at  Fort  Le  Boeuf,  to  whom  he  delivered  the  letter  of 
Governor  Dinwiddie.  He  brought  back  an  evasive  reply,  but  the 
object  of  his  expedition  was  really  accomplished  in  his  observations  of 
the  movements  and  plans  of  the  French  and  their  dealings  with  the 
Indians. 

The  report  made  by  Washington  on  his  return,  Jannarv  1»>,  1754, 
led  to  prompt  action  on  the  part  of  Virginia.  The  Assembly  voted 
£10,000  for  fitting  out  an  expedition,  which  was  to  erect  necessary 
fortifications  at  the  confluence  of  the  Alleghany  and  the  Monongahela 
to  protect  the  Ohio  Company  in  its  operations.  The  provinces  of 
North  Carolina,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland  were  called  upon  for  aid, 
but  the  jealousy  between  the  provinces,  and  the  disputes  between  the 
people  and  Proprietary  in  Pennsylvania,  prevented  any  very  vigorous 


260 


OPENING   OF   THE   FRENCH   WAR. 


[CHAP.  X. 


begun  by 


assistance,  so  that  the  main  burden  fell  upon  Virginia.  Washington 
was  made  second  in  command,  under  Colonel  Joshua  Fry,  and  the 
active  work  of  organizing  the  little  army  at  Alexandria  was  mainly 
his.  Meanwhile,  in  advance  of  the  action  of  the  Burgesses,  a  com- 
pany of  men  under  Ensign  Ward  had  been  sent  forward  in  haste  to 
secure  the  position.  Washington,  in  command  of  the  main  body,  had 
reached  the  camp  at  Will's  Creek,  near  Cumberland,  when  he  learned 
that  the  French  under  Contrecceur  had  appeared  in  force 
before  the  works  which  Ward  and  his  men  had  begun,  and 
had  demanded  an  immediate  surrender.  On  the  17th  of 
April,  1754,  Ward  surrendered,  and  that  date  has  been  taken  as  the 

beginning  of  actual  hostilities 
in  this  final  struggle  of  the 
French  and  English  for  su- 
premacy in  America.  Ward 
himself  brought  the  intelli- 
gence to  Washington,  who  at 
once  sent  expresses  to  the 
Governors  of  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  and  Virginia,  ask- 
ing for  reinforcements,  and 
then  pressed  forward  with  his 
men,  without  waiting  for  Col- 
onel Fry,  who  had  not  yet  ar- 
rived. Contreco3ur  proceeded, 
after  Ward's  surrender,  to 
complete  the  works  which 
the  English  had  begun,  and 
named  the  place  Fort  Dn  Quesne,  in  honor  of  the  Governor  of  Canada. 
It  was  Washington's  plan  to  proceed  to  the  junction  of  Red  Stone 
Creek  with  the  Monongahela,  thirty-seven  miles  from  the  French 
position,  and  there  intrench  while  waiting  for  reinforcements  ;  but 
before  he  reached  that  point  he  learned,  at  a  place  called  Great  Mead- 
ows, not  only  that  the  French  force  had  been  increased,  but  that  a 
party  was  in  the  woods  approaching  him.  He  took  advantage  of 
the  night  to  surprise  the  scouting  party  in  advance  of  the  main  body, 
and  captured  more  than  half  their  number.  In  the  attack  M.  de 
Jumonville,  the  commander,  was  slain.  Washington  then  hastily 
erected  earthworks  at  Great  Meadows,  naming  the  place  Fort  Neces- 
sity, and  waited  anxiously  for  the  reenforcements  which  he 
had  been  told  were  on  the  way.  Before  these  came,  how- 
ever, on  the  3d  of  July,  he  was  attacked  by  a  large  body  of 
French  and  compelled,  after  a  gallant  struggle,  to  capitulate,  upon 


Plan  of  Fort  Du  Quesne. 


Washing- 
ton's sur- 
render. 


1754.]  CONVENTION   AT    ALBANY.  261 

terms  which,  through  the  ignorance  or  duplicity  of  the  interpreter, 
proved  to  be  less  favorable  than  was  at  first  supposed. 

The  French  seized  upon  this  affair  as  a  pretext  for  diplomatic  nego- 
tiation, behind  which  they  concealed  more  active  measures. 
The  English  pushed  forward  their  preparations  with  less  re«s  toward 
diligence.  The  government  had  already  sent  instructions  to 
the  colonies  not  to  permit  encroachments  by  the  French,  —  which  was 
precisely  the  course  Virginia  had  been  pursuing,  —  to  form  a  confed- 
eracy for  mutual  support,  and  directed  the  Governor  of  New  York  to 
call  a  Council  of  Indian  chiefs,  to  conciliate  them  by  presents,  and 
win  them  to  the  British  interest.  The  imminent  peril  in  which  the 
colonies  found  themselves  was  a  powerful  auxiliai'y  to  these  instruc- 
tions, and  on  the  19th  of  June,  1754,  twenty-five  delegates  from  seven 
northern  colonies,  assembled  at  Albany,  and  there  met  delegates  from 
the  Six  Nations. 

Franklin,  who  was  sent  from  Pennsylvania,  relates,  in  his  "  Auto- 
biography," that,  on  the  way  to  Albany,  he  drew  up  a  plan  for  a 
union  of  all  the  colonies  under  one  government,  and  found,  on  his 
arrival,  that  several  of  the  commissioners  had  done  the  same  thing. 
There  was  a  general  belief  in  the  necessity  of  such  a  union  for  the 
better  defence  of  the  colonies,  and  the  subject  was  discussed 
with  great  deliberation.  The  plan  finally  adopted,  based  union  oi  the 
upon  that  proposed  by  Franklin,  provided  for  a  federal 
government,  consisting  of  a  President-general  and  a  Grand  Council. 
The  President  was  to  be  appointed  by  the  Crown,  with  a  veto  power 
over  the  acts  of  the  Council ;  the  Council  was  to  be  a  popular  Congress, 
composed  of  a  designated  number  of  delegates  chosen  by  the  Assem- 
bly of  each  colony.  The  Congress  was  to  meet  annually,  and  oftener 
if  summoned  by  the  President,  and  the  term  of  service  of  members 
was  to  be  three  years.1  This  constitution  of  government  was  submit- 
ted in  due  time  to  the  Board  of  Trade  in  England,  and  to  the  Assem- 
blies of  the  several  provinces,  but  was  rejected  by  both.  In  England 
it  was  thought  to  give  too  much  power  to  the  people ;  in  America  the 
fear  was  that  too  much  was  granted  to  a  royal  President. 

1  The  delegations  of  the  several  provinces  were  fixed  as  follows,  and  they  show  the 
relative  impoitnncK  uf  each  at  that  time  :  — 

Massachusetts  Bay 7  Pennsylvania '.6 

New  Hampshire 2  Marvlaiid  .  4 

Connecticut 5  Virginia .7 

Rhode  Island 2  North  Carolina 4 

New  York 4  South  Carolina         .        ....     4 

New  Jerseys 3 

Nova  Scotia  and  Georgia  were  not  included  in  the  plan.     For  a  full  report  of  the  Con- 
vention, see  New  York  Colonial  Documents,  vol.  vi. 


262  OPENING   OF   THE    FRENCH    WAR.  [CHAP.  X. 

The  Convention,  however,  devoted  itself  with  great  zeal  to  strength- 
ening the  alliance  with  the  Indians,  and  impressing  upon  them  how 
disastrous  it  would  be  to  their  welfare,  should  they  permit  the  French 
to  build  forts  upon  the  Ohio.  The  Indians  replied  :  "•  The  Governor 
of  Virginia  and  the  Governor  of  Canada  are  both  quarrelling  about 
lands  which  belong  to  us,  and  such  a  quarrel  as  this  may  end  in  our 
destruction." 

In  September,  1754,  Edward  Braddock  was  commissioned  as  Com- 
mander-in-chief of  all  the  forces  in  North  America,  and  witli 
General  him,  as  next  in  command,  were  associated  Governor  Shirley 
and  Sir  William  Pepperell  of  Massachusetts.  It  was  the 
design  of  the  government  to  make  a  fourfold  movement  against  the 
French  possessions.  The  French  forts  in  Acadia  were  to  be  taken  ; 
expeditions  were  to  proceed  against  Crown  Point  and  Niagara;  and 
Braddock  himself  was  at  once  to  dislodge  the  French  from  Fort  Du 
Quesne  and  the  other  forts  in  the  Ohio  valley.  After  reducing  those 
places,  he  was  to  move  on  to  Niagara  and  join  the  expedition  which 
was  at  the  same  time  to  attack  that  stronghold.  The  provision  made 
for  this  comprehensive  plan  was  liberal.  Six  thousand  troops  were 
provided  by  the  Crown,  equipped  for  service,  and  large  sums  were 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  provinces,  which  were  encouraged  to  raise 
a  provincial  army.  Braddock  himself  arrived  with  his  expedition  in 
Hampton  Roads,  in  February,  1755.  The  French,  after  reenforcing 
Fort  Du  Quesne,  in  expectation  of  an  early  attack,  had  withdrawn 
their  troops  during  the  winter,  and  there  were  now  not  over  two  hun- 
dred men,  French  and  Indian,  in  occupation.  But  the  movements  of 
the  English  were  speedily  known,  and  the  commander  of  the  fort,  on 
guard  against  surprise,  was  able  to  summon  something  less  than  a 
thousand  men  from  the  neighboring  forts.  Two  months  after  Brad- 
dock  landed  in  Virginia,  a  formidable  squadron  sailed  from  Brest,  car- 
rying three  thousand  men  to  Canada.  It  seems  almost  as  if  the  Eng- 
lish had  become  befogged  by  their  own  diplomatic  manoeuvres,  when, 
instead  of  attacking  at  once  an  armament  whose  destination  and  pur- 
pose were  unequivocal,  they  sent  Admiral  Boscawen,  with  a  force  half 
that  of  the  enemy's,  to  lie  in  wait  for  the  squadron  off  the  Banks  of 
Newfoundland,  and  some  time  after  sent  an  insufficient  reinforcement 
to  support  him  in  the  face  of  another  powerful  detachment  of  the 
French  fleet.  Mirepoix  had  declared  that  the  first  gun  fired 

\\  ar  begun. 

at  sea  in  a  hostile  manner  should  be  taken  as  a  declaration  of 
war.  Boscawen  captured  only  two  French  ships,  and  war  was  now 
opened  in  dead  earnest. 

The  Commander-in-chief  of  the  British  forces  in  North  America  was 
a  soldier  of  acknowledged  training  and  personal  bravery,  but  a  self- 


1755.]  BRADDOCK'S   EXPEDITION.  263 

confident  and  obstinate  man,  a  martinet  who  held  in  high  esteem  the 
traditions  of  the  Coldstream  Guards,  of  which  lie  had  been  Lieutrn- 
ant-colonel.  Upon  his  arrival  he  called  a  convention  of  the  Governors 
of  the  different  colonies  to  meet  him  for  conference,  and  urged  upon 
them,  in  the  same  letter,  the  formation  of  a  common  fund  with  which 
to  assist  in  carrying  on  operations.  The  convention  met  on  April  14, 
at  Alexandria,  and  the  intervening  months  were  spent  by  the  General 
in  discovering  the  difficulties  which  lay  in  his  way.  He  found  himself 
representing  the  British  power,  but  unable  to  overcome  the  obstinacy 
or  indifference  of  Assemblies  and  Governors.  The  affair  of  the  Ohio 
lands  had  been  taken  up  by  Virginia,  and  Virginia,  therefore,  showed 
most  alacrity  in  supporting  the  English  General ;  Pennsylvania  was 
dilatory,  not  from  want  of  interest,  but  because  of  the  interminable 
quarrel  between  the  Governor  and  the  Assembly  as  to  the  amount  of 
money  to  be  raised  and  the  best  way  of  raising  it.  The  Bra,Ho(.k-g 
most  direct  road  led  through  that  province,  and  contempoi'ary  ex''eij 
as  well  as  later  judgments  unite  in  deploring  the  error  which  led 
Braddock  to  make  Virginia,  rather  than  Pennsylvania,  his  starting- 
point;  l  but  the  choice  was  not  singular,  when  Virginia  had  been  all 
along  the  moving  colony,  and  the  previous  expeditions  had  followed 
the  road  that  had  been  blazed  from  Hill's  Creek. 

At  the  meeting  of  Governors,  General  Braddock  earnestly  urged 
those  points  in  the  campaign  which  formed  the  basis  of  his  instruc- 
tions. He  called  for  the  establishment  of  a  common  fund  ;  but  they 
replied  that  they  had  in  vain  endeavored  to  persuade  the  several  As- 
semblies to  take  measures  for  this.  He  proposed  that  a  treaty,  with 
presents,  should  be  made  with  the  Six  Nations,  and  that  Colonel  John- 
son should  negotiate  it.  They  assented  to  this,  promised  to  raise  eight 
hundred  pounds  for  presents,  and  also  agreed  to  place  the  expedition 
against  Crown  Point  under  Johnson's  command.  He  proposed  the 
reenforcement  of  the  fort  at  Oswego,  and  the  building  of  two  vessels 
on  Lake  Ontario,  to  which  they  also  agreed;  and  after  full  instructions 
to  Johnson,  —  who  was  at  first  reluctant  to  accept  his  trust  as  pleni- 
potentiary to  the  Six  Nations,  because  of  the  lack  of  faith  heretofore 
shown  toward  the  Indians,  but  finally  was  persuaded  to  accept  in  con- 
sideration of  Braddock 's  known  integrity,  —  the  council  broke  up,  and 
the  armv  began  its  movements. 

V 

On  the  24th  of  April  Braddock  was  at  Frederick,  Maryland,  impa- 
tiently awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  wagons  which  he  had  ordered  for 

1  Eutick,  i.  142.  Franklin's  Autobiography,  in  Bigelow's  -Life  <>f  Benjamin  /-'funk/in, 
written  by  himself,  i.  317.  The  Oldt-n  Time,  ii.  540.  "It  was  computed  at  the  time  that 
had  he  lauded  at  Philadelphia,  his  inarch  would  have  been  shortened  by  six  weeks,  and 
£40,000  wou'd  have  been  saved  in  the  cost  of  the  expedition.  —  Sargent's  Bfid<lu<-k-,  pp. 
161,  162. 


264 


OPENING   OF   THE   FRENCH  WAR. 


[CllAl-.  X. 


transporting  his  stores.  In  the  old  barracks,  still  standing,  he  received 
Washington,  whom  he  had  invited  to  join  his  military  family  as  aid- 
de-camp,  and  Franklin,  who  at  this  time  was  Postmaster-general  of  the 
colonies.  Franklin  gave  him  immediate  and  important  aid.  When 
the  efforts  to  procure  wagons  had  signally  failed,  he  came  forward 
with  a  proposal  to  obtain  them  from  Pennsylvania,  and  by  a  most 
adroit  advertisement  and  address,  added  to  his  personal  influence,  the 
necessary  conveyances  were  promptly  secured.  He  might  have  been 
of  far  greater  service  if  Braddock  could  have  been  prevailed  upon  to 
take  warning  from  the  words  of  this  shrewd  American.  The  English 
General,  who  had  already  discussed  with  the  naval  commander  the 
Braddock's  best  course  to  be  pursued  with  the  French  whom  he  should 
plans'  capture  at  Fort  Du  Quesne,  and  had  laid  out  his  journey 
through  the  backwoods  as  confidently  as  if  expecting  to  march  from 
London  to  Greenwich,  said  to  Franklin,  in  an  off-hand  way,  that  he 

should  only  stop  a 
day  or  two  at  Fort 
Du  Quesne,  and 
then  go  on  to  Niag- 
ara and  Frontenac. 
Franklin  ventured 
only  to  say :  "  To 
be  sure,  sir,  if  you 
arrive  well  before 
Du  Quesne  with 
these  fine  troops,  so 
well  provided  with 
artillery,  that 
place,  not  com- 
pletely fortified,  and,  as  we  hear,  with  no  very  strong  garrison,  can 
probably  make  but  a  short  resistance.  The  only  danger  I  apprehend 
of  obstruction  to  your  march  is  from  ambuscades  of  Indians,  who,  by 
constant  practice,  are  dexterous  in  laying  and  executing  them  ;  and 
the  slender  line,  near  four  miles  long,  which  your  array  must  make, 
may  expose  it  to  be  attacked  by  surprise  in  its  flanks,  and  to  be  cut 
like  a  thread  into  several  pieces,  which,  from  their  distance,  cannot 
come  up  in  time  to  support  each  other."  "  He  smiled  at  my  ignor- 
ance," adds  Franklin,  "and  replied:  'These  savages  may,  indeed,  be  a 
formidable  enemy  to  your  raw  American  militia,  but  upon  the  King's 
regular  and  disciplined  troops,  sir,  it  is  impossible  they  should  make 
any  impression.'  I  was  conscious  of  an  impropriety  in  my  disputing 
with  a  military  man  in  matters  of  his  profession,  and  said  no  more."1 

1  Bigelow's  Life  of  Franklin,  i.  324,  325. 

• 


Old  Barracks,    Frcdcr  ck. 


1755.] 


BRADDOCK'S   EXPEDITION. 


265 


The  same  fatuous  reliance  on  "  regular  troops "  led  Braddock  to 
receive  so  coldly  and  disdainfully  the  overtures  of  Croghan,  the  in- 
terpreter, and  his  hundred  Indians,  that  they  fell  off  from  him. 
Washington  knew  the  value  of  these  men,  and  urged  them  upon  the 
General ;  but  though  he  seems  to  have  been  drawn  to  the  young  Vir- 
ginian, he  was  incapable,  as  Washington  himself  says,  "  of  giving  up 
any  point  he  asserts,  be  it  ever  so  incompatible  with  reason  or  com- 
mon sense." 

The  rendezvous  for  all  the  forces  was  at  Fort  Cumberland  on  Will's 
Creek,  and  here,  on  the  7th  of  June,  Franklin's  wagons  and 
horses  having  been  gathered,  the  expedition  made  its  final 
start.  It  consisted  of  1,000  regulars,  brought  over  by  Braddock,  30 
sailors,  and  1,200  provincials,  be- 
sides a  train  of  artillery,  and  with 
them,  at  the  start,  were  a  number  of 
friendly  Indians.  The  road  fol- 
lowed was  that  originally  made  by 
Nemacolin,  over  which  Washington 
had  passed,  now  slowly  widened  by 
the  axes  of  the  advance  guard. 
On  the  third  night  after  starting, 
the  encampment  was  only  five  miles 
beyond  Fort  Cumberland.  A  week 
later,  when  they  had  effected  the 
crossing  of  the  Great  Savage  Moun- 
tain, they  entered  upon  the  gloomy 
tract  known  as  the  Shades  of 
Death.  Dense  woods  of  enormous 
white  pines  covered  this  region, 
and  the  stillness  of  the  forest  only 
sharpened  the  ear  more  intently 
for  the  sudden  crack  of  the  Indian's 
rifle. 

When  the  expedition  emerged 
from  this>  at  Little  Meadows,  where 
an  advance  detachment  had  thrown 
up  some  rude  fortifications,  a  council 
was  held,  to  consider  how  best  to 
meet  the  growing  difficulties.  Wash- 
ington's urgent  advice  was,  to  push 
on  with  twelve  hundred  men,  lightly 
equipped,  leaving  about  half  the  men  and  all  the  baggage  and  horses 
that  could  be  spared.  His  advice  was  taken,  and  again  the  army 


Braddock's  Route 


266 


OPENING   OF  THE   FRENCH   WAR. 


[CHAP.  X. 


His  march. 


moved  forward,  now  more  compact,  but  growing  worn  and  exhausted 
by  the  unwonted  labors. 

Now  began  also,  as  they  plunged  deeper  into  the  wilderness,  deser- 
tions of  the  Indian  allies,  the  picking  off  of  stragglers  by 
hostile  savages  hovering  on  the  flanks  of  the  train,  and  sud- 
den apparitions  of  dusky  forms  at  night.  The  tactics  of  the  army  were 
still  those  of  European  warfare.  They  halted,  as  Washington  impa- 
tiently declares,  "  to  level  evei'y  mole-hill  and  to  erect  bridges  over 
every  brook,  by  which  means  we  were  four  days  in  getting  twelve 
miles."  It  was  with  difficulty  that  Braddock  could  persuade  any  of 
the  Indians  still  remaining  with  him,  to  act  as  scouts,  while  his  own 
movements  were  constantly  watched  and  reported  to  the  French 
commander.  At  length  on  the  8th  of  July  the  army  encamped  two 

miles  from  the  Monongahela, 
near  what  is  known  as  Crooked 
Run.  They  were  on  the  same 
side  of  the  river  as  the  Fort,  but 
the  passage  for  two  miles  was 
by  a  narrow  defile,  having  the 
river  on  the  left,  and  a  high 
ridge  on  the  right.  It  was  de- 
termined, therefore,  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  two  fords  on  the 
Monongahela;  to  cross  at  the 
first  ford  not  far  from  the  camp  ; 
then,  proceeding  along  the  south 
side,  to  recross  at  the  other,  at 
the  mouth  of  Turtle  Creek,  dis- 
tant, as  the  crow  flies,  from  Fort 
£>u  Quesne,  only  about  eight 
miles  ;  thence  to  march  upon  the  fort  and  invest  it. 

The  progress  of  Braddock's  march  had  been  reported  from  day 
to  day  to  Contrecosur,  the  commander  at  the  fort.  The 
number  of  the  army,  whose  line  extended  sometimes  four 
miles,  was  greatly  exaggerated,  and  Contrecoeur,  looking  upon  his 
feeble  garrison,  not  a  thousand  in  number,  of  which  four  fifths  were 
Indians  encamped  about  the  walls,  resolved  not  to  hazard  a  battle, 
but  to  seek  an  honorable  surrender.  The  Indians  shared  his  appre- 
hensions ;  but  one  of  the  captains  of  the  regulars,  De  Beaujeu,  well 
versed  in  Indian  warfai-e,  begged  to  be  allowed  to  lay  an  ambuscade 
and  intercept  the  British  on  their  march.  To  do  this,  the  consent 
of  the  Indians  had  to  be  obtained,  and  it  was  only  upon  the  morn- 
ing of  the  9th,  when  a  runner  brought  word  that  the  army  was  in 


s  F.e'd. 


Action  of 
the  French. 


1755.]  BEAUJEU    ATTACKS   BRADDOCK.  267 

motion  again,  that  Beaujeu  could  bring  them  to  resolution.  Ap- 
pearing at  their  council,  he  burst  out,  "  I  am  determined  to  go  out 
and  meet  the  eneiny.  What !  will  you  suffer  your  father  to  go  out 
alone  ?  "  From  timidity  and  unfeigned  reluctance  they  passed  sud- 
denly to  fierce  confidence  and  headlong  haste.  In  a  moment  the  war- 
paint was  on,  and  the  whole  body  of  French  and  Indians  were  frantic 
for  action. 

Braddock  broke  camp  early  on  the  morning  of  the  9th,  and  hav- 
ing sent  detachments  to  hold  both  fords,  moved  his  army  across  the 
river.  He  ordered  the  march  to  be  made  as  if  on  dress  parade,  and 
in  this  manner,  with  splendid  uniforms,  colors  flying,  and  martial 
music,  the  soldiers  eagerly  looking  forward  to  the  end  of  their  toil, 
the  whole  army  passed  along  the  southern  bank  from  the  first  ford 
to  the  second,  the  sunlight  falling  on  the  brilliant  colors  and  gleam- 
ing steel.1  Washington  and  Gates,  Gage,  Morgan,  and  Mercer, — 
names  that  were  to  be  famous  in  another  war, — were  there. 

By  two  o'clock  most  of  the  troops  had  crossed  the  second  ford. 
From  the  gentle  slope  of  the  river  bank,  covered  with  an  open  wood 
of  walnut  trees,  the  land  rose  abruptly  into  high  hills  from  which  fell 
off  three  deep  ravines,  dense  with  a  rank  growth  of  trees  and  under- 
brush. The  inarch  was  over  these  rounding  hills  and  diagonally  to 
the  ravines  which  now  began  to  disclose  themselves.  Suddenly,  when 
the  troops  were  separated  by  the  nature  of  the  ground,  one  of  the  engi- 
neers, who  was  marking  out  the  road,  looked  up  and  saw  a  man, 
gayly  dressed  in  a  fringed  hunting-dress,  wearing  a  silver  gorget  on 
his  breast,  come  leaping  down  the  hill-side.  It  was  Beaujeu.  Be- 
hind him,  following  with  bounding  steps,  the  motley  array  of  French 
and  Indians  came  pressing  on.  He  stopped,  and  swung  his  Theambug_ 
hat  about  his  head,  when  suddenly  the  savages  disappeared,  cade 
the  French  only  remaining  in  sight  and  pouring  a  murderous  fire  upon 
the  English.  In  a  moment  from  the  ravines  on  either  side  came  vol- 
leys accompanied  by  unearthly  yells  and  shrieks  such  as  never  before 
had  saluted  the  ears  of  the  regulars.  Gage's  men,  who  held  the  ad- 
vance, stood  their  ground  and  were  presently  reenforced  by  St.  Clair's 
working  party.  They  returned  the  fire  of  the  French,  and  Beaujeu  fell 
dead. 

The  Indians  began  to  fly,  but  Dumas  and  De  Ligueris,  compan- 
ions of  Beaujeu,  rallied  the  savages,  and  from  their  posts  behind  the 
trees  rapidly  picked  off  the  regulars,  who  continued  to  fire  with  great 
noise  and  fury  into  the  forest,  which  now  seemed  transformed  into  a 

1  "  Washington  was  often  heard  to  say.  during  his  lifetime,  that  the  most  beautiful  spec- 
tacle he  had  ever  beheld  was  the  display  of  the  British  troops  ou  this  eveutful  morning."  — 
Sparks's  Washington,  ii.  469. 


268 


OPENING    OF   THE    FRENCH    WAR. 


[CHAP.  X. 


troop  of  devils,  each  tree  sending  its  murdei-ous  bullets  into  the  ranks 
of  the  regiment.  Scarcely  a  man  was  to  be  seen,  but  the  deadly  fire 
was  unerring  and  incessant.  Braddock,  who  was  with  the  rear  still 
at  the  river  bank,  hearing  the  engagement,  sent  forward  the  bulk  of 
his  forces,  leaving  four  hundred  to  protect  the  baggage  at  the  river. 
They  had  formed  and  were  advancing,  when  Gage's  party  fell  back 
upon  the  advance,  and  the  mass  of  men,  struggling  in  confusion,  be- 
came almost  a  mob,  into  which  the  French  and  Indians,  hovering 
about  as  if  in  the  branches  of  the  trees,  plunged  their  deadly  fire. 
In  vain  Braddock,  rushing  hither  and  thither,  sought  to  rally  his 


Beaujeu's  Advance. 

men  and  form  them ;  in  vain  he  urged  them  forward.  Four  horses 
were  shot  under  him  ;  he  mounted  a  fifth,  and  with  his  officers  flung 
himself  in  advance  to  inspirit  his  men.  But  they  could  not  be  ral- 
lied. The  provincials,  indeed,  who  throughout  maintained  more  cool- 
ness than  the  regulars,  better  understanding  the  nature  of  the  warfare, 
quickly  took  positions  behind  trees.  Washington  urged  Braddock  to 


1755.] 


BRADDOCK'S   DEFEAT. 


260 


give  the  word  for  the  men  to  adopt  this  method,  but  instead,  the  in- 
fatuated commander  himself  drove  men  from  out  of  their  skulking- 
places,  as  he  thought  them,  and  insisted  that  the  battle  should  be  waged 
according  to  established  rules.  In  the  confusion  the  men  fired  upon 
their  own  comrades.  Braddock  himself  was  wounded,  but  while  lying 
upon  the  ground  he  continued  to  give  orders,  and  the  army,  trained  to 
obedience,  while  it  could  not  advance,  could  at  least  stand  and  be 
shot  down. 

At  length,  when  they  were  surrounded  and  even  the  baggage  was 
attacked,  and  all  hope  of  victory  was  gone,  he  ordered  the 
drums  to  beat  a  retreat.     In  a  moment,  the  retreat  became 
a  panic,  and  it  was  only  by  the  bravery  of  a  few  devoted  men  that 
Braddock  himself  was  borne  off  the  field.     The  men  threw  aside  guns 
and  accoutrements,  and  rushed  across  the 
river.     Here  Braddock  made  an  effort 
to  bring  his  demoralized  army  to  a  stand, 
for  the  savages  did  not  follow  them  be- 


yond the  bank  ;  but  the  rout  was  com- 
plete, and  though  a  stand  was  made, 
every  soldier  stole  away  from  his  post. 
The  straggling  remnant  pushed  back 


Braddock  wounded. 

advanced,  and  on  the  llth  the  camp  of  reserves  was  reached.  The 
army  was  utterly  disorganized,  and  no  effort  was  made  to  save  any- 
thing. The  stores  were  destroyed,  and  the  straggling  troops  fell  back 
at  last  to  Fort  Cumberland. 

Braddock  continued  giving  orders  so  long  as  strength  remained  to 
him,  but  kept  utter  silence  otherwise.  On  Sunday,  the  13th,  as  the 
shattered  army  lay  at  Great  Meadows,  he  gave  his  final  orders,  and 


270  OPENING   OF   THE    FRENCH  "WAR.  [CHAP.  X. 

committed  affairs  to  Washington,  for  whom  he  had  formed  a  strong 
attachment.  During  the  retreat  he  is  said  to  have  spoken  only  to 
give  his  commands.  Now,  his  sole  allusion  to  the  terrible  discom- 
fiture which  had  broken  up  his  army  and  destroyed  his  military  repu- 
tation, was  in  the  half-muttered  words,  "Who  would  have  thought 
it!  Who  would  have  thought  it!"  He  turned  to  Orme,  his  faithful 
lieutenant,  and  said,  "  We  shall  better  know  how  to  deal  with  them 
another  time."  But  Braddock's  one  chance  had  been  lost  through 
his  own  obstinacy  and  wrong-headed  ness.  He  died,  and  was  buried 
at  Great  Meadows,  where  his  grave  is  still  pointed  out.  The  ai'my, 
under  Dunbar,  finally  reached  Philadelphia  at  the  end  of  August. 

The  miserable  conclusion  of  an  expedition  which  had  set  out  so 
vaingloriously,  brought  a  train  of  evils  in  the  devastation  of 
Braddock's  the  back  country  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  by  the  In- 
dians, who  had  no  fear  of  this  defeated  enemy ;  it  brought 
also  one  unsuspected  good  in  the  knowledge  that  regulars  were  not 
invincible,  and  the  British  power  not  blindly  to  be  relied  upon.  The 
conduct  of  the  provincials  in  the  fight,  showed  clearly  the  mettle  of 
the  country  troops,  and  their  superiority  in  fighting  methods.  The 
breaking  down  of  the  foreign  army  led  at  once  to  the  creation  of  a 
militia  organization,  and  out  of  Braddock's  defeat  grew  that  confi- 
dence in  themselves  which  sustained  the  Americans  in  the  subsequent 
conflict  with  Great  Britain.  The  immediate  effect,  nevertheless,  upon 
the  minds  of  English  and  Americans  was  one  of  bitter  chagrin  and 
disappointment. 

In  Nova  Scotia,  the  news  of  the  disaster  was  received  at  a  moment 
so  critical  to  operations  in  that  quarter,  that  imperative  orders  were 
given  to  prevent  its  reaching  the  French  inhabitants.  The  English 
occupation  of  that  province  since  its  cession  by  France  in  the  treaty 
of  Utrecht,  in  1713,  had  been  very  meagre,  and  such  population  as 
the  peninsula  held  was  mainly  French,  while  the  boundaries  of  the 
province  were  the  subject  of  long  and  minute  controversy,  a  contro- 
versy only  ended  by  the  conquest  of  Canada  itself. 

The  question  of  boundaries  was  considered   for  more  than   three 

years  at  Paris  by  a  Board  of  Commissaries.     The  range  of 

of  Nova        the  discussion  included  the  consideration  of  ancient  limits 

and  the  identity  of  Nova  Scotia  and  Acadia,  and  conclusions 

differed  widely.     But   both   governments  practically  recognized  the 

popular  understanding  that  Nova  Scotia  or  Acadia  corresponded  with 

the  present  limits  of  the  peninsula.     The  French  acknowledged  that 

the  people  about  the  Basin  of  Minas  were   British  subjects,  and  the 

English  confined  their  efforts  at  colonization  to  Nova  Scotia  proper. 

The  importance  of  the  peninsula,  and  the  necessity  of  planting  it 


1749.]  CONDITION   OF   NOVA    SCOTIA.  271 

with  Englishmen,  if  it  was  to  be  anything  more  than  nominally  Eng- 
lish, were  beginning  to  be  seen.  Scarcely  any  organized  effort  had 
been  made  by  the  English  to  occupy  the  country,  while  the  French 
settlements  about  Annapolis  Royal  and  the  Basin  of  Minas  had 
grown  into  compact  communities  who  were  rapidly  accumu- 

XT  •          T  i  i  •     •  *    Condition  of 

latmg  wealth.  JNot  the  nationality  only,  but  the  religion  of  the  Acadian 
these  French  settlers  held  them  together  and  made  them  a 
foreign  body,  all  the  more  dangerous  in  the  eyes  of  Englishmen  that 
they  were  both  French  and  Roman  Catholic.  "  The  zeal  and  attach- 
ment of  these  Nova  Scotians  to  the  Romish  faith,"  writes  a  vigorous 
pamphleteer  of  that  day,1  "will  always  prevent  the  settlement  of 
Protestants  in  the  country,  unless  it  be  done  in  compact  bodies  and 
under  the  cover  of  fortifications  ;  but  till  this  is  accomplished,  it  can 
no  more  be  said  that  the  Province  belongs  to  the  Crown  of  Great 
Britain,  because  it  is  possessed  of  Annapolis  Royal,  than  of  the  king- 
dom of  Spain  from  our  possession  of  Gibraltar.  It  is  therefore  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  the  safety  and  interest  of  the  Northern  colonies 
that  some  speedy  and  effectual  measures  are  taken  to  put  these  Nova 
Scotians  on  a  definite  footing,  or  to  remove  them  ;  the  last  cannot 
well  be  done,  and  the  first  in  nothing  better  than  by  encouraging 
a  considerable  number  of  foreign  Protestants  and  others  to  settle 
amongst  them." 

This  encouragement  was  soon  given.  An  advertisement  in  the  Lon- 
don "  Gazette,"  dated  at  Whitehall,  7th  March,  1749,  was  Inducement9 
issued  by  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  Trade  and  Planta-  teu'e^'in 
tions,  offering  special  inducements  to  recently  dismissed  offi-  XoTaScoti* 
cers  and  privates  of  the  army  and  navy,  as  also  to  carpenters,  ship- 
wrights, smiths,  masons,  joiners,  brickmakers,  bricklayers,  "  and  all 
other  artificers  necessary  in  building  or  husbandry,"  by  which  pas- 
sage was  given  to  Nova  Scotia,  grants  of  land  made,  and  subsistence 
promised  for  a  year.  So  popular  was  the  enterprise  and  so  prompt 
the  movement  that,  early  in  May  of  the  same  year,  Colonel  Edward 
Cornwallis  —  uncle  to  that  Lord  Cornwallis  whose  name  occupies  so 
conspicuous  a  place  in  the  annals  of  the  American  Revolution  —  led 
an  expedition  of  about  twenty-five  hundred  persons  into  Chebucto 
Harbor  in  Nova  Scotia.2 

The  name  of  Halifax  was  given  to  the  settlement  which  was  then 
begun,  in  honor  of  the  President  of  the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Planta- 
tions, Lord  Halifax,  who  was  exceedingly  interested  in  the  success 

1  Tlie  Stale  of  Trade  in  the  Northern  Colonies  considered :  with  an  Account  of  their  Produce, 
and  it  particular  Description  of  Nova  Scotia.  By  Otis  Little. 

-  Haliburton's  Historical  and  Statistical  Account  of  Noca  Scotia  makes  the  number  much 
larger ;  but  Akins's  Selections  from  the  Public  Documents  of  Nova  Sdftia  gives  a  list  of 
those  who  came  with  Cornwallis. 


272 


OPENING    OF  THE    FRENCH   WAR. 


[CHAP.  X. 


Halifax 
founded. 


of  the  enterprise.  The  country  about  Chebucto  Harbor  was  densely 
wooded,  and  the  nearest  settlement  was  that  of  the  French 
about  the  Basin  of  Minas,  twenty  miles  distant,  but  a  cattle- 
path  already  connected  the  two  points.  Cornwallis  at  once  set  his 
colonists  to  work,  clearing  the  ground  in  preparation  for  the  winter, 
and  at  the  end  of  four  months  could  report  "  there  are  now  three 
hundred  houses  covered  in  at  Halifax,  which  I  hope  will  be  tolerably 
comfortable  for  the  winter."  The  removal  of  the  garrison  from  Lou- 
isburg  added  both  to  the  force  and  to  the  stores  of  the  young  colony, 
and  French  and  Indians  were  hired  to  labor  upon  the  public  works. 

Cornwallis  had  the  poorest 
possible  opinion  of  the  mili- 
tary resources  at  Annapolis. 
"  My  Lord,"  he  writes  to 
the  Duke  of  Bedford,  who 
had  now  become  Secretary 
for  the  Colonies,  "  these 
Companies  are  as  prepared 
for  service  as  a  Regiment 
raised  yesterday.  The 
whole  management  in  this 
Province,  both  with  regard 
to  the  Inhabitants  and  these 
Companies,  has  been  such 
that  't  is  scandalous  the 
Crown  should  be  so  served. 
It  has  been  called  an  Eng- 
lish Province  these  thirty- 
four  years,  and  I  don't  be- 
lieve that  the  King  had  one 
true  subject  without  the  Fort  of  Annapolis.  I  cannot  trace  the  least 
glimpse  of  an  English  Government.''  He  wrote  repeatedly  of  the 
way  in  which  the  French  were  inciting  the  Indians  to  make 
war  upon  the  colony,  openly  and  by  stealth  :  "  The  French 
have  not  only  set  on  the  Indians,  but  have  acted  in  conjunc- 
tion with  them  ;  they  have  entered  and  took  possession  of 
part  of  the  Province,  drove  off  the  Inhabitants,  forced  them  to  swear 
allegiance  to  the  French  King,  and  in  short  acted  with  as  much  vigour 
and  done  as  much  harm  to  us  as  they  could  have  done  in  open  war." 

There  was  hardly  a  pretence,  indeed,  of  a  cessation  of  hostilities. 
A  French  settlement  had  recently  been  made  at  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  John,  and  an  expedition  had  been  sent  to  occupy  the  isthmus 
between  Nova  Scotia  and  the  mainland.  Throughout  the  whole  win- 


Earl  of  Halifax 


Relations  of 


colonists 
with  the 
French. 


1749.]  THE    ACADIAX   PROBLEM.  273 

ter  Halifax  was  in  constant  apprehension  of  attack,  and  was  inces- 
santly annoyed  by  predatory  bands  of  French  and  Indians.  To 
strengthen  the  Province,  Cornwallis  believed  first  of  all  in  military 
measures  ;  but  he  recommended  also  the  introduction  of  foreign  Prot- 
estants, especially  from  among  the  Swiss,  whose  influence  over  the 
French  Catholics,  he  hoped,  would  be  beneficial. 

But  some   more  direct   interference  with   the  inhabitants  seemed 
necessary.'    The  troubles  of  the  colonists  could  be  traced  di- 

.  ...  PL-  •  i     •          •        •  Tll<>  proliU-m 

rectly  to  the  machinations  or  certain  priests  and  intriguing  of  dealing 
men  amongst    them;    and    in   event  of    an  open  war  with   Fr.-nri.in- 
France,  which  was  steadily  becoming  more  probable,  there 
could  be  little  doubt  that  the  French  settlers  would,  openly  or  secretly, 
side  with  the  French  cause.     To  banish  them  from  the  Province  was 
only  to  turn  them  into  open  enemies  and  increase  the  strength  of  Can- 
ada and  Cape  Breton.     That  peril  had  been  early  foreseen,  and  re- 
peated allusions  to  it  recur  in  the  correspondence  between  Cormvallis 
and  the  home  government.     On  the  other  hand,  there  was  no  time, 
in  the  face  of  the  gathering  storm,  to  make  English  citizens  of  them. 
The   introduction   of   French    Protestants  was  an   experiment  which 
might  easily  work  in  the  opposite  direction  from  what  was  intended, 
and  fan  the  flame  of  religious  hatred. 

In  tracing  the  relations  between  the  English  and  French  which  led 
to  the  deportation  of  the  Acadians,  it  becomes  necessary  to 
note  how  constantly  the  English  government,  both  at  home  of  the  «w 
and  in  the  Province,  were  reminded  that  the  persons  with 
whom  they  were  dealing  held  but  a  paper  loyalty  to  them.  By  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  in  1713,  the  French  residents  in  Aca- 
dia,  then  ceded  to  the  English,  were  allowed  a  year  in  which  either 
to  take  the  oath  as  British  subjects,  or  to  leave  the  country.  But 
while  the  French  in  Canada  urged  them  to  remove,  and  threatened 
them  with  the  fate  of  rebels  if  they  did  not,  the  English  were  aware 
that  not  only  would  their  removal  greatly  increase  the  importance 
of  the  rival  colony  of  Cape  Breton,  but  leave  Nova  Scotia  almost 
entirely  depopulated.  It  was  hoped,  moreover,  that  in  process  of 
time  the  descendants  would  become  Anglicized  by  intercourse  with 
English  emigrants.  But  English  emigrants  came  slowly,  while  the 
French  remained,  assuming  the  position  of  Neutrals,  a  name,  indeed, 
which  was  frequently  applied  to  them.  They  claimed  that  to  the 
oath  of  allegiance,  which  they  finally  took,  there  was  a  reservation 
which  exempted  them  fcom  taking  up  arms  against  their  own  blood. 
Like  all  neutrals,  they  were  suspected  by  both  sides  —  by  the  French, 
because  they  owed  allegiance  to  the  English;  by  the  English,  because 
their  blood,  their  sympathies,  and  their  religion  were  French. 

VOL.    III.  18 


274 


OPEXIXG   OF   THE   FRENCH    WAR. 


[CllAT.  X. 


From  the  settlement  of  Halifax  in  1749,  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  in  1755,  the  French  Acadians,  either  personally  or  by  delegates, 
were  repeatedly  summoned  to  meet  the  English  authorities,  and  the 
one  condition  imposed  upon  them,  of  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance 
without  reserve,  was  evaded  or  refused  with  an  ingenuity  which  con- 
firms the  common  judgment  of  the  English  at  that  time  —  that  behind 
these  simple  people  were  French  emissaries,  especially  the  priest  Le 
Soutre,  who  used  them  with  great  dexterity  for  their  own  purposes. 
When  every  other  argument  failed,  the  Aeadiaus  would  announce 
their  resolution  to  leave  the  country ;  but  that  was  precisely  what  the 
English  were  bent  on  preventing,  although  the  project  of  removing 
them  began  to  present  itself  as  the  only  satisfactory  method  of  solv- 
ing the  problem.  The  position  which  the  English  claimed  for  them- 
selves is  very  forcibly  set  forth  in  the  reply  which  Cornwallis  made 
to  the  deputies  of  the  French  district,  when,  at  the  beginning  of  his 
rule  as  Governor,  the}'  appeared  before  him  and  presented  a  letter 
signed  by  one  thousand  persons,  having  in  it  this  clause  :  "The  in- 
habitants in  general,  Sir,  over  the  whole  extent  of  this  country,  have 
resolved  not  to  take  the  oath  which  Your  Excellency  requires  of  us  ; 
but  if  Your  Excellency  will  grant  us  our  old  oath  which  was  given  at 
Minas  to  Mr.  Richard  Phillips,1  with  an  exemption  for  ourselves  and 
for  our  heirs  from  taking  up  arms,  we  will  accept  it.  But  if  Your 
Excellency  is  not  disposed  to  grant  us  what  we  take  the  liberty  of 
asking,  we  are  resolved,  every  one  of  us,  to  leave  the  country."  In 
his  reply,  Colonel  Cornwallis  said,  with  great  emphasis : 
"  Gentlemen,  you  allow  yourselves  to  be  led  away  by  people 
who  find  it  to  their  interest  to  lead  you  astray.  They  have 
made  you  imagine  it  is  only  your  oath  which  binds  you  to  the  English. 
They  deceive  you.  It  is  not  the  oath  which  a  king  administers  to 
his  subjects  that  makes  them  subjects.  The  oath  supposes  that  they 
are  so  already.  The  oath  is  nothing  but  a  very  sacred  bond  of  the 
fidelity  of  those  who  take  it." 

The  crisis  seems  to  have  been  reached  in  the  summer  of  1755,  when 
memorials  were  presented  from  the  people  of  Minas  and  Pisiquid  (now 
Windsor),  praying  for  the  restoration  of  the  arms  which  had  been 

1  This  oath,  given  in  1727-28,  was  the  oath  of  allegiance,  qualified  by  the  insertion  of  a 
clause  in  the  margin  that  the  Aeadiaus  were  not  to  be  obliged  to  take  up  arms  against 
France.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Governor  Phillips  tendered  such  an  oath,  but  it  does 
appear  that  Governor  Armstrong  in  1727  allowed  the  modification  in  certain  cases,  and 
was  severely  reprimanded  by  the  home  government  for  so  doing,  and  that  Ensign  Wroth 
repeated  the  blunder  the  next  year  in  other  cases.  He  «tlso  was  summoned  before  the 
Council  and  reprimanded,  on  the  ground  that  "  the  articles  and  concessions  "  granted  by 
him  were  "  unwarrantable  and  dishonorable  to  H.  M.  government  and  authoritv,  and  con- 
sequently null  and  void."  See  Akins,  p.  78.  The  Acadians  clung  to  this  modified  oath 
with  the  greatest  persistency. 


1755.]  A    CRISIS    IN    NOVA    SCOTIA.  275 

taken  from  them,  and  for  exemption  from  the  required  oath.      These; 
memorials  were  offered  at  a  time  when  it  w;is  rumored  that  a 
French  fleet  was  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  the  commander 
in   charge   at  Minas  reported  an  immediate  change  of  temper  in  the 
people  from   submission  to   insolence.     The   deputies  who   presented 
the  memorials  were  brought  before  the  Council,  July  3,  17oo,  and  a 
long  conference  was  held,  at  the  close  of  which  the  deputies  asked 
permission  to  return  and  consult  the  body  of   inhabitants;    but  the 
request,  clearly  to  gain  time,  was  refused,  and  they  were  required  to 
give,  a  definite  answer  to  the  demands  of  the  Council  the  next  da)r. 

The  next  day  came,  and  the  deputies  refused  to  take  the  oath,  where- 
upon they  were  ordered  into  confinement.  The  Governor  l  now  issued 
an  order  for  all  the  French  inhabitants  to  send  at  once  to  Halifax 
new  deputies  with  the  "  general  resolution  of  the  said  inhabitants  in 
regard  to  taking  the  oath,  and  that  none  of  them  should  for  the  future 
be  admitted  to  take  it  after  having  once  refused  so  to  do,  but  that 
effectual  measures  ought  to  be  taken  to  remove  all  such  recusants  out 
of  the  Province."  Two  hundred  and  seven  inhabitants  of  Annapolis 
River  sent  thirty  deputies,  with  instructions  to  contract  no  new  oath  ; 
one  hundred  and  three  inhabitants  of  Pisiquid,  Minas,  and  the  river 
Canard,  presented  a  memorial  by  deputies,  utterly  refusing  to  take 
any  but  the  reserved  oath,  and  asking  that  those  who  had  been  de- 
tained at  Halifax  be  set  at  liberty;  two  hundred  and  three  inhabi- 
tants of  Minas  and  the  river  Canard  clung  to  the  oath  which  they 
believed  they  had  taken  under  Governor  Phillips,  and  called  for  the 
release  of  the  prisoners  in  Halifax.  The  deputies  presenting  these  me- 
morials appeared  before  the  Council  and  refused  the  oath.  "  Where- 
upon," says  the  record  of  the  Council,  "  they  were  all  ordered  into 
confinement.  As  it  had  been  before  determined  to  send  all  the 
French  inhabitants  out  of  the  Province,  if  they  refused  to  take 
the  oaths,  nothing  now  remained  to  be  considered  but  what  meas- 
ures should  be  taken  to  send  them  away,  and  where  they  should  be 
sent  to." 

The  force  requisite  for  this  purpose  was  at  hand.  Besides  the  small 
body  of  troops  in  the  Province,  a  regiment  of  two  battal-  A  forco  t(.nt 
ions,  consisting  in  all  of  two  thousand  men,  had  been  en-  toAcadi!l- 
listed  in  Massachusetts  by  Lieutenant-colonel  John  Winslow,  of 
Marshh'eld,  great-grandson  of  Edward  Winslow,  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Plymouth  settlement.  This  expedition,  sailing  from  Boston 
on  the  20th  of  May,  had  arrived  at  Annapolis  Harbor  five  days  later, 
and  on  the  1st  of  June  moved  forward  in  a  fleet  of  forty-one  vessels 

1  Cornwallis  had    been  succeeded    by  Peregrine  Thomas    Hopson  in   1752,  :ind    he  by 
Charles  Lawrence,  as  Lieutenant-governor,  iu  1754,  and  Governor-iu-chief  in  1756. 


276 


OI»KXIX<;    OF   THE    FRKXCII    WAR. 


[ClIAP.  X. 


to  Chiegnecto,  the  district  now  known  as  Cumberland,  where  a  nar- 
row isthmus  separates  the  waters  of  the  Hay  of  Fundy  from  North- 
umberland Strait,  and  connects  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  with  the 
continent.  Here  the  French  had  established  themselves  in  three  for- 
tified places,  with  a  view 
to  command  the  land 
connection  and  give  free 
passage  into  the  district 
occupied  mainly  by  the 
French  Acadians.  Wins- 
low's  force  was  enlarged 
by  the  addition  of  three 
hundred  regulars,  with  a 
small  train  of  artillery, 

v    * 

and  the  whole  expedition 
was  under  the  command 
of  L  i  e  u  t  e  n  a  n  t-colonel 
Monckton.  The  success 
of  the  expedition  was  un- 
equivocal. The  French 
fortifications  were  taken ; 
the  garrison  of  Fort 
Beau  Se/jour  were  sent 
to  Louisburg  on  condi- 
tion of  not  bearing  arms 
in  America  for  six 
months;  the  Acadians  and  Indians  were  disarmed,  the  Acadians  be- 
ing pardoned,  in  one  instance  at  least,  as  having  been  pressed  into 
the  service. 

It  was  this  force  on  which  Governor  Lawrence  now  relied  for  the 
deportation  of  the  Acadians.     The  whole  number  for  which 
ram-in!:        provision  was  to  be  made  was  about  three  thousand.1     In  a 
KrViich  coi-     letter  to  Colonel  Monckton,  Governor  Lawrence  had  already 
advised  that  the  whole  affair  should  be  conducted  as  a  strat- 
agem :  "  It  will  be  necessary  to  keep  this  measure  as  secret  as  possible, 
as  well  to  prevent  their  attempting  to  escape,  as  to  carry  oft'  their  cat- 
tle, etc. ;  and  the  better  to  effect  this,  you  will  endeavor  to  fall  upon 
some  stratagem   to  get  the  men,  both  young  and  old  (especially  the 
heads  of  families),  into  your  power,  and  detain  them  till  the  trans- 

1  Minot's  I/ixlon/  of  Massachusetts  savs  :  "  The  whole  number  of  persons  collected  at 
Grand  1're  finally  amounted  to  48.'$  men  and  337  women,  heads  of  families,  and  their  sons 
anil  daughters  to  527  of  the  former,  and  576  of  the  latter,  making  in  the  whole  1,923 
souls." 


Lieutenant-colonel  Winslov 


1755.]  EXILE    OF    THE    AC ADIAXS.  -~~ 

ports  shall  arrive,  so  as  that  they  may  be  ready  to  be  shipped  off ;  for 
when  tliis  is  done,  it  is  not  much  to  be  feared  that  the  women  and 

children  will  attempt  to  go  away  and  carry  off  the  cattle As 

their  whole  stock  of  cattle  and  corn  is  forfeited  to  the  Crown  by  their 
rebellion,  and  must  be  secured  and  apply'd  towards  a  reimbursement  of 
the  expense  the  government  will  be  at  in  transporting  them  out  of 
the  country,  care  must  be  had  that  nobody  make  any  bargain  for 
purchasing  them  under  any  colour  or  pretence  whatever  ;  if  they  do, 
the  sale  will  be  void,  for  the  inhabitants  have  now  (since  the  order  in 
Council)  no  property  in  them,  nor  will  they  be  allowed  to  carry  away 
the  least  thing  but  their  ready  money  and  household  furniture." 

The  mode  of  procedure  being  left  to  Colonel  Winslow  and  Captain 
Murray,  they  agreed  upon  the  issuing  of  a  proclamation  to  call  the 
people  together,  which  should  be  ambiguous  in  statement,  but  posi- 
tive in  its  object.  The  paper  was  accordingly  drawn  up  and  dis- 
tributed in  the  several  communities.  It  ordered  all  the  inhabitants, 
**  both  old  men  and  young  men,  as  well  as  all  the  lads  of  ten  years  of 
age,  to  attend  at  the  church  at  Grand  Pre,  on  Friday  the  fifth  instant, 
at  three  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon,  that  we  may  impart  to  them 
what  we  are  ordered  to  communicate  to  them  ; "  declaring  that  no 
excuse  will  be  admitted  on  any  pretence  whatever,  on  pain  of  forfeit- 
ing goods  and  chattels,  in  default  of  real  estate. 

The  purpose  of  this  meeting  does  not  seem  to  have  been  suspected 
by  the  inhabitants,  for  it  was  not  the  first  time  they  had  been  sum- 
moned to  appear  before  their  rulers  to  discuss  their  relations  to  the 
government.  At  any  rate,  they  assembled  at  the  appointed  time,  to 
the  number  of  four  hundred  and  eighteen  able-bodied  men,  in  the 
church  at  Grand  Pre.  The  church  was  put  under  guard,  and  was 
continued  thenceforth  as  a  guard-house.  They  were  not  kept  long  in 
suspense  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  reception.  Colonel  Winslow,  sur- 
rounded by  his  officers,  took  his  place  in  the  centre  of  the  Assembly. 
They  were  called  together,  he  told  them,  to  hear  "his  Majesty's  final 
resolution  "  in  regard  to  a  people  who  "  for  almost  half  a  century  had 
had  more  indulgence  granted  to  them  than  any  of  his  subjects  in  any 
part  of  his  dominions,''  though,  he  added.  "  what  use  you  have  made 
of  it,  vou  vourselves  best  know."  The  duty  that  had  devolved  upon 
him,  he  continued,  "  though  necessary,  is  very  disagreeable  to  my  nat- 
ural make  and  temper,  as  I  know  it  must  be  grievous  to  you ; "  but 
his  business  was  to  deliver  "his  Majesty's  orders  and  instructions, 
namely  —  that  your  lands  and  tenements,  cattle  of  all  kinds,  and  live 
stock  of  all  sorts,  are  forfeited  to  the  Crown,  with  all  other  your 
effects  saving  your  money  and  household  goods."  So  far  as  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  transports  permitted,  they  were  to  be  allowed  to  carry 


278 


OPENING    OF   THE   FRENCH   WAR. 


[CHAP.  X. 


their  household  goods  with  them  ;  families,  it  was  promised,  should 
be  kept  together,  and  the  removal  should  be  as  easy  to  them  as  it  was 
possible  to  make  it.  He  concluded  with 
the  expression  of  a  hope  "  that,  in  -what- 
ever part  of  the  world  you 
may  fall,  you  may  be  faith- 


Winslow  reading  the  Decree  of   Expulsion. 

fill    subjects,    a    peaceable   and 
happy  people." 

They  were  surrounded  by  the  troops,  and 
escape  was  impossible.    But  they  begged  that 

certain  of  their  number  might  be  retained  as  hostages,  leaving  the  rest 
free  to  attend  to  their  families  and  make  the  necessary  provision  for 
removal.  Colonel  Winslow  would  not  grant  this,  but  he  permitted 
ten  to  be  absent  at  a  time,  and,  as  the  ten  returned,  others  took  their 


' 


1755.] 


EXILE    OF   THE   ACADIANS. 


279 


places.  But  even  this  privilege  he  was  soon  compelled  to  deny  them. 
He  saw,  or  fancied  he  saw,  some  suspicious  movement  among  the 
prisoners.  The  transports  had  not  arrived,  and  it  was  determined 
that  other  vessels  in  the  harbor  should  be  used,  instead  of  the  church, 
as  a  temporary  place  of  detention.  Orders  were  given  for  the  re- 
moval to  these  vessels,  first,  of  all  the  young  unmarried  men,  and  then 
of  the  young  married  men,  leaving  on  shore  only  the  old  and  feeble. 
The  scene  of  the  separation  was  one  of  great  lamentation.  At  first 


Embarking  the  Young  Men. 

the  young  men  refused  to  march,  but  the  prick  of  the  bayonet,  and 
Colonel  Winslow's  personal  handling  of  the  foremost,  brought  The  parting 
them  into  line,  and  they  filed  down  to  the  boats,  weeping,  sceue8- 
praying,  and  singing  hymns,  while  a  great  company  of  women  and 
children  knelt  by  the  way,  and  added  their  cries  to  the  voice  of  the 
men.  It  was  many  weeks  yet  before  the  transports  arrived  which 
were  to  remove  the  families,  and  meanwhile  the  cares  of  Colonel 
Window  increased.  He  was  not  inhuman  nor  even  needlesslv  severe 


280  OPEXIX(i    OF   THE   FREXCH  \\'AR.  [CHAP.  X. 

in  the  performance  of  tlie  task  imposed  upon  him  ;  but  he  was  a  man 
of  decision,  and  the  delays  fretted  him.  "It  hurts  me,"  he  writes, 
September  2t>,  "-to  hear  their  weeping,  wailing,  and  gnashing  of 
teeth  ;  "  and  on  the  same  date  he  expresses  an  ardent  wish  "  to  be 
rid  of  the  worst  piece  of  service  that  ever  I  was  in." 

The  transports  did  not  arrive  until  the  10th  of  October,  but,  in  an- 
ticipation of  their  arrival,  Colonel  Winslow,  on  the  6th,  ordered  the 
families  to  be  in  readiness  for  embarkation.  "  Even  then,"  he  says, 
"  I  could  not  persuade  them  I  was  in  earnest."  Meanwhile  twenty- 
four  of  the  young  men  deserted  from  the  vessels,  but  twenty-two  of 
these  returned.  On  the  21st  of  October,  the  transports  were  filled 
with  their  unhappy  passengers,  and  ready  to  sail.  Orders  were  given, 
in  accordance  with  Winslow's  promise,  that  families  should  not  be 
separated  ;  but  in  the  confusion  of  embarkation,  and  from  the  prelim- 
inary dispersion  of  the  younger  men  among  the  vessels  of  the  harbor 
for  safe-keeping,  the  rule  was  sometimes  disregarded,  though  not  by 
design.1 

The  exiles  were  scattered  through  the  several  colonies,  and  their 
names  are  found  in  many  places  to  this  day.  though  often  sadly  cor- 
rupted. Many  were  merged  in  time  in  the  English  population.  Two 
separate  villages,  however,  near  Bordeaux,  in  France,  are  filled  with 
descendants  of  Acadian  exiles  who  found  their  way  thither.  Some 
families  went  to  Guiana  ;  ten  years  later,  enough  of  them  retained 
their  social  and  religious  relations  to  plant  a  colony  in  the  western 
parishes  of  Attakapas  and  Opelousas,  in  Louisiana,  where  the  cor- 
rupted name  of  "  Cajeans,"  and  the  primitive  habits  and  simplicity 
of  the  people,  still  testify  to  their  pure  descent  from  the  Acadians  of 
Nova  Scotia. 

The  larger  portion  of  these  exiles  were  sent  to  Massachusetts, 
where  they  were  distributed  among  the  several  towns.  The  two  vol- 
umes of  records  in  the  State  House  at  Boston2  contain  varied  testi- 
mony respecting  the  unfortunate  exiles.  They  were  often  subjected 
to  harsh  treatment.  Their  children  were  forcibly  taken  from  them  ; 
the  provision  for  their  support  was  denied  ;  and  they  were  shifted 
impatiently  from  town  to  town.  The  tenacity  with  which  they  clung 

1  The  number  of  persons  expelled  from  Acadia  has  commonly  been  set  down  as  about 
7,000.  This  is  the  estimate  of  Haliburtun,  Grnhain,  Parkman,  and  others.  Probably  the 
origin  of  the  statement  is  in  the  circular  letter  from  Governor  Lawrence  to  the  governors 
of  the  several  colonies  to  which  the  exiles  were  sent :  "  As  their  numbers  amount  to  near 
seven  thousand  persons,"  he  writes,  "  the  driving  them  off,  with  leave  to  go  whither  they 
pleased,  would  have  doubtless  strengthened  Canada  with  so  considerable  a  number  of  in- 
habitants." Seveii  thousand  probably  represents  with  sufficient  accuracy  the  total  French 
population  of  Acadia  in  1755,  but  the  entire  number  of  those  exiled  did  not  exceed,  if 
Minot  be  correct,  two  thousand,  of  whom  many  subsequently  returned  to  Acadia. 

'-  French  Neutnds,  23,  24. 


1755.] 


THE   ACADIAN   EXILES. 


281 


to  their  faith  seems  to  have  annoyed  their  persecutors.  One  town 
sends  in  its  bill  for  "keeping  three  French  pagans."  There  were 
instances,  however,  of  friendly  protection  shown  by  individuals,  and 
the  more  generous  sentiment  found  expression  in  a  report,  though  it 
was  not  accepted,  by  a  committee  appointed  to  consider  certain  com- 
plaints of  ill  usage,  wherein  the  selectmen  of  the  towns  complained 
against  are  "  expected  to  show  common  acts  of  humanity."  In  Penn- 
sylvania, a  somewhat  similar  disposition  of  the  exiles  was  made  in  a 
distribution  among  the  country  towns,  and  provision  was  made  for 
them  from  time  to  time,  amounting  in  all  to'  about  <£ 7,500. l 

Until  they  ceased  to  continue  as  a  distinct  body  in  the  several 
colonies,  there  is  almost  unvarying  witness  to  their  submission  and 
gentleness.  The  whole  body  of  testimony  regarding  them  deepens 
the  sense  of  their  harmlessness,  and  when  the  poet  sang  of  their 
wrongs,  he  at  once  touched  the  latent  feeling  regarding  them  when 
two  or  three  generations  had  removed  their  history  from  the  arena  of 
war  and  politics. 

1  See  Hon.  W.  B.  Reed's  paper,  "  The  Acadian  Exiles,  or  French  Neutrals  in  Pennsyl- 
vania," Memoirs  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  vi.,  1858,  in  which  he  clearlv 
refutes  Judge  Haliburton's  charge  that  the  Acadians  were  offered  for  sale  in  Pennsylvania- 


Braddock's  Gray*. 


CHAPTER   XI. 


CONTINUATION   OF   THE   FRENCH   WAR. 


PROPOSED  OPERATIONS  UNDER  SHIRLEY  AND  JOHNSON. —  BATTLE  OF  LAKE  GEORGB. 

WAK  DECLARED  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE. LORD  LoUDOUN  CoMMANDER- 

IN  CHIEF  IN  AMERICA.  —  MOSTCALM  IN  CANADA.  —  Loss  OF  FORT  OSWEGO. — 
LOUDOUN'S  PLANS  AND  FAILURE. —  FORT  WILLIAM  HENRY  TAKEN  BY  THE  FRENCH. 
—  MASSACRE  or  THK  GARRISON. —  DISCOURAGEMENT  IN  THE  COLONIES.  —  THE 
WAR  AT  THE  SOUTH.  —  GENERAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  COLONIES  AND  OF  CANADA. 
— WILLIAM  PITT.  —  AMHERST  SUPERSEDES  LOUDOUN.  —  CAPTURE  OF  LOUISBURG. — 
DEFEAT  OF  ARKRCROMIME.  —  CAPTURE  OF  FORTS  FRONTENAC,  Du  QUESNE,  AND 
NIAGARA.  —  TICONDEKOGA  TAKEN  BY  AMHERST. 

BRADDOCK'S 
ill-starred  expe- 
dition was  only 
part  of  a  gen- 
eral scheme  for 
establishing  the 
supremacy  of 
the  British  in- 
terests in  North  America.  The  move- 
ments in  Acadia  had  been  successful  by 
the  reduction  of  Beau  Se*jour,  and  by  the 
silence  of  the  depopulated  and  wasted  vil- 
lages about  the  Minas  Basin  and  Annapolis  Royal.  We  have  seen 
that  Braddock  purposed,  after  capturing  Du  Quesne,  to  push  on 
and  join  the  forces  sent  to  take  Niagara.  Albany  was  the  rendez- 
vous for  the  two  expeditions,  the  one  against  Niagara  under  General 
Shirley,  and  the  other  against  Crown  Point  under  General 

The  expeili-  .  ri-.ii  j 

tjon against  Johnson,  and  in  June  an  army  ot  nearly  six  thousand  men, 
raised  by  the  northern  provinces,  was  assembled  there  and 
in  the  neighborhood.  They  were  mainly  provincials,  ill-disciplined 
and  impatient  of  delay,  and  Indians,  who  never  could  be  brought 
under  even  the  ordinary  rules  of  the  camp.  It  was  Shirley's  plan 
to  take  his  forces  to  Oswego,  by  way  of  the  Mohawk  River  and 
Oneida  Lake,  and  thence  to  Niagara.  There  was  delay  in  the  ar- 
rival of  the  troops  ;  and  when,  at  the  end  of  July,  the  last  regiments 
were  embarking  at  Schenectady,  the  news  of  Braddock's  defeat  ar- 


Vicw  on   Lake  George. 


1755.]  INDECISION   OF  GENERAL   SHIRLEY.  283 

rived,  and  so  discouraged  the  men,  already  dispirit^  by^-the  evident 
lack  of  generalship,  that  great  numbers  deserted,  and  many  of  the 
batteau  men  especially,  on  whom  the  expedition  was  so  dependent, 
refused  to  go  farther.  It  was  the  18th  of  August  before  Shirley 
reached  Oswego,  and  another  month  before  he  could  make  sufficient 
pi'ovision  for  the  attack  upon  Niagara.  The  stormy  season  then  set 
in,  and  after  waiting  nearly  a  fortnight,  and  seeing  the  force  reduced 
steadily  by  sickness  and  by  desertion,  it  was  determined  in  council  to 
abandon  the  attack  this  year,  to  leave  Colonel  Mercer  with  a  garrison 
of  seven  hundred  men  at  Oswego,  and  that  General  Shirley  should 
return  with  the  rest  of  the  army  to  Albany. 

There  was  another  reason  why  Shirley  hesitated  to  attack  Niagara, 
and  determined  instead  to  strengthen  Oswego,  though  it  would  have 
moved  a  man  of  more  martial  zeal  to  prosecute  his  first  purpose  with 
greater  activity.     Intelligence  had  reached  him  of  an  intended  move- 
ment against  Oswego.     The  French  expedition  which  had  sailed  from 
Brest  in  the  spring  had  lost  six  hundred  men  and  two  ships  of  war  in 
a  dash  made  by  Admiral  Boscawen;  but  it  had  substantially  increased 
the  military  resources  of  Canada  by  landing  a  thousand  men  at  Louis- 
burg,  and  fourteen  hundred  at  Quebec.     The  first  duty  imposed  on 
Baron  Dieskau,  in  command  of  these  forces,  was  the  reduction  of  Os- 
wego.    Forts  Frontenac  and  Niagara  commanded   the  two 
extremities  of  Lake  Ontario,  but  so  long  as  Oswego  was  movement 
held  by  the  English,  the  communication   between  Canada  ostvego 
and    the    Ohio  Valley   was  always    liable    to   interruption,   teim 
Moreover,  the   capture  of  General  Braddock's  papers  had 
disclosed  the  plans  of  Shirley.     Accordingly,  Dieskau,  proceeding  to 
Montreal,   prepared  at  once  for  a  movement  up  the  river  to  Fort 
Frontenac.     It  was  a  rumor  of  this  movement  chat  came  to  Shirley, 
and  he  hesitated,  when  he  should  have  taken  active  measures  either 
for  a  vigorous  attack  or  a  prudent  defence. 

But  when  Dieskau  was  on  the  eve  of  moving,  information  reached 
Montreal  that  the  other  expedition,  designed  to  reduce  Crown  Point, 
had  already  been  put  in  motion,  and  Dieskau  was  importuned  to  aban- 
don his  original  intention  and  meet  this  more  imminent  danger.  He 
consented  with  reluctance,  and  led  his  troops,  numbering  about  two 
thousand  men,  up  Lake  Champlain  to  Fort  St.  Frederick  at  Crown 
Point,  and  there  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  English. 

The  forces  collected  at  Albany  for  the  northern  campaign  were  sent 
forward,  without  artillery  or  batteanx,  under  General  Ly-  En  lish 
man,  early  in  July.     These  were  occupied  in  building  Fort  exp*nS'tT" 
Lyman,  afterward  Fort   Edward,  on   the  east  bank  of  the  conder°Ka 
Hudson,  until  General  William  Johnson  should  arrive  with  the  neces- 


284 


CONTINUATION   OF   THE   FRENCH   WAR.       [CHAP.  XI. 


sary  equipments  and  provisions.  It  was  the  8th  of  August  before 
Johnson  set  out  and  joined  Lyman  at  the  fort,  which  was  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  "•  carry  " 
of  fourteen  miles,  to  Lake 
St.  Sacrament  —  named 
soon  afterward,  by  Gener- 
al Johnson,  Lake  George, 
in  honor  of  the  King, 
George  II. 

Marching  leisurely 
northward,  he  encamped 
at  the  south  end  of  the 
lake  in  a  strong  position, 
covered  by  swampy  ground 
and  woods  on  the  sides  not 
protected  by  the  lake. 
Here  he  proposed  waiting 
for  his  batteaux,  building 
a  fort  meanwhile,  when  he 
would  proceed  to  Ticon- 
deroga,  fifteen  miles  below 
Crown  Point,  a  strong  mil- 
itary position  not  yet  oc- 
cupied, to  make  that  his 
base  of  operations  against 
Fort  St.  Frederick.  He 
expected  to  be  joined  here 
by  a  large  number  of  war- 
riors from  the  Six  Nations, 
and  was  mortified  and  dis- 
appointed that  they  did 
not  come.  The  old  chief, 
Hendrick,  attributed  this 
to  Shirley,  who,  he  de- 
clared, had  spoken  with 
great  contempt  of  Johnson 
to  the  Indians,  and  had 
urged  them  to  go  with 
him  to  Oswego,  and  not 
to  Crown  Point.  This,  no  doubt,  was  true,  for  there  was  no  cor- 
diality between  the  two  generals.  Johnson  had  already  complained 
to  the  Board  of  Trade  of  Shirley's  attempts  to  undermine  his  influ- 
ence with  the  Six  Nations,  and  his  unwarrantable  interference  with 


Map  of  Lake  George  and  part  of   Lake  Champlain. 


1755.]  FIRST   BATTLE   OF    LAKK   (JKOIIGK.  28o 

him  as  their  superintendent,  to  which  post  Johnson  had  been  ap- 
pointed by  Braddock.  The  Indians,  however,  came  in  day  by  day. 
though  in  small  companies,  and  took  an  active  share  in  the  campaign. 

Dieskau,  leaving  a  large  force  at  Crown  Point,  pushed  on  with  six 
hundred  Indians,  seven  hundred  Canadians,  and  two  hundred  regulars, 
by  way  of  Lake  Champlain  to  South  Bay,  now  Whitehall.  Here  he 
learned  from  an  English  prisoner  that  the  fort  which  Lyman  had  built 
was  without  cannon,  and  that  Johnson,  in  his  camp,  was  also  almost 
without  artillery.  The  French  commander  then  proposed  by  a  sud- 
den movement  to  seize  Fort  Lyman,  thus  cutting  off  John- 
son from  his  supplies,  and  to  occupy  a  position  from  which  marches  on 
he  could  either  descend  upon  Albany  and  intercept  the  com- 
munication with  Oswego,  or  attack  the  New  England  border.  The 
scheme  seemed  perfectly  feasible.  Dieskau  marched  his  army  to 
within  a  short  distance  of  the  fort,  on  the  road  leading  directly  to 
Lake  George,  where  he  halted  and  sent  a  party  of  Indians  to  recon- 
noitre. They  quickly  returned,  bringing  word  that  Johnson  had 
learned  of  their  approach,  and  had  sent  warning  to  the  fort.  John- 
son was  indeed  aware  of  the  imminent  peril  in  which  both  his  little 
army  and  the  fort  were  placed.  Early  in.  the  morning  of  the  7th  of 
September  a  council  was  held,  in  which  it  was  decided  to  despatch  a 
thousand  troops  and  two  hundred  Indians  on  the  road  to  the  fort,  to 
meet  the  enemy.  Hendrick,  the  Iroquois  Sachem,  alone  dissented 
from  the  decision.  "  If  they  are  to  fight,"  he  reasoned,  "  they  are 
too  few ;  if  they  are  to  be  killed,  they  are  too  many."  But  he  was 
overruled.  The  march  was  begun,  the  provincials  headed  by  Colonel 
Williams,  the  Indians  by  Hendrick  himself,  whose  weight  compelled 
him  to  ride. 

Meanwhile  Dieskau,  whose  aim  it  was  to  capture  the  fort  first, 
found  himself  balked  by  the  reluctance  of  his  Indians,  who  had  a 
terror  of  fortified  places,  and  believed  that  the  fort  was  supplied 
with  the  dreaded  cannon.  They  refused  to  make  the  attack,  but  were 
ready  to  march  against  Johnson's  camp.  Dieskau  accepted  the  situa- 
tion, and  at  once  moved  toward  Lake  George,  encamping  near  the 
southern  spur  of  the  French  Mountain.  On  the  8th,  learning  of  the 
approach  of  the  English,  he  prepared  an  ambuscade  in  a 
defile  of  the  road  less  than  four  miles  from  Johnson's  camp. 
On  his  left,  where  his  line  extended  half  a  mile,  a  natural 
breastwork,  covered  with  trees  and  shrubs,  concealed  the  men  from  the 
road  ;  the  right  line  bent  like  a  hook  across  the  road  for  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  to  where  swampy  ground  covered  with  a  thick  growth  of  trees 
and  brush  afforded  perfect  concealment.  The  ambush  formed  thus  a 
horse-shoe-shaped  trap,  and  if  the  enemy  should  enter  it,  it  would  be 


280 


CONTINUATION   OF   THE   FRENCH   WAR.        [CHAP.  XI. 


possible,  by  bringing  round  the  long  left  line,  to  enclose  the  whole  body 
and  open  an  attack  on  the  rear. 

Into  tliis  trap  marched  Colonel  Williams  and  Hendrick  with  their 
men.  Williams  had  halted  two  and  a  half  miles  from  the  camp,  near 
the  entrance  of  the  defile,  to  wait  for  the  other  divisions,  but  by  a 
strange  neglect  in  so  experienced  an  officer,  had  not  sent  forward 
scouts.  The  Indian,  Hendrick,  now  took  the  lead,  and  the  division 
pushed  forward.  The  old  warrior  had  advanced  beyond  the  extremity 
of  the  shorter  line  of  the  ambuscade  when  he  was  suddenly  hailed  by 


Bloody  Pond. 

an  Indian  who  appeared  near  him.  "•  Whence  came  you?"  was  the 
challenge.  "  From  the  Mohawks.  Whence  came  you?  "  "From  Mon- 
treal." At  this  a  musket-shot,  fired,  contrary  to  orders,  by  some  im- 
patient  man  before  the  entire  division  had  entered  the  fatal 
c'rc'e'  brought  on  the  engagement.  From  the  thick  woods 
on  ejther  side,  and  in  the  rear,  volley  after  volley  fell  upon 
the  entrapped  soldiers.  The  old  Indian  chieftain  was  one  of  the 
first  to  fall,  shot  through  the  back.  Williams  also  fell,1  and  the 
1  Colonel  Ephraim  Williams,  a  bravo  soldier  and  earnest  patriot,  by  his  will  founded 


of 


wnuams. 


1755.]  SECOND   BATTLE   OF   LAKE   (iEORGE.  287 

command  devolved  upon  Lieutenant  Whiting.  The  men,  who  fought 
bravely,  rushed  to  the  right  of  the  road  where  Dieskau's  long  left  was 
hidden  behind  the  natural  breastwork.  The  French  and  Indians  rose 
suddenly  and  fell  upon  them,  doing  great  execution.  But  the  men  fell 
back,  notwithstanding,  in  good  order,  till  another  stand  was  made 
near  a  small  pond,1  where  reinforcements,  sent  forward  by  Johnson, 
gave  them  new  confidence  and  covered  the  retreat  to  the  camp. 

Arrived  at  the  camp,  they  clambered  over  the  hasty  barricade  of 
fallen  trees  which  Johnson  had  begun  to  raise  after  sending  out  Col- 
onel Williams's  party  in  the  early  morning.  He  had  also  dragged  up 
his  cannon  from  the  lake,  and  had  disposed  them  where  they  could  l>e 
most  serviceable  in  case  of  attack.  Dieskau  following  the  retreating 
soldiers  came  into  full  view  of  the  camp,  and  the  sight  of  the  cannon 
at  once  damped  the  ardor  of  the  Indians,  who  skulked  into  the  woods. 
The  quarter-hour  which  was  spent  in  bringing  back  the  stragglers  and 
forming  his  lines,  was  a  breathing-time  for  the  English,  who  were 
now  behind  their  slight  defences  and  under  the  command  of  their 
officers. 

Johnson's  camp  was  protected  in  the  rear  by  the  lake;  in  front  the 
hastily  thrown-up  breastwork  afforded  a  slight  bulwark.     Three  guns 
were  posted  in  front  of  the  road  which  led  to  the  camp  from  Ly man's 
fort,  and  other  cannon  were  placed  near  the  ammunition  close  by  the 
lake.     It  was  half  after  eleven  o'clock.     Down  the  road  came 
the  regulars  of  the  French  army,  forming  in  line  as  if  for  on  the 
parade,  their  white  uniforms  gleaming  and  sharp   bayonets 
glistening ;  on  either  flank  the  Indians  and  Canadians  had  dispersed 
themselves  in  the  swamps.     The  Mohawks  at  the  first  alarm  had  fled 
with  their  squaws  and  pappooses  to  their  own  camp,  and  had  not  re- 
turned when  the  battle  opened. 

These  New  England  and  New  York  men  had  known  little  of  fight- 
ing in  the  presence  of  solid  ranks  of  trained  soldiers.  Dieskau  halted 
the  regulars,  who  opened  tire  by  platoons,  while  the  Canadians  and  In- 
dians kept  up  a  sharp  rattle  on  the  flanks.  The  three  guns  at  first  only 
made  reply ;  but  presently  the  provincials,  finding  themselves  as  yet 
unhurt,  regained  their  courage  and  began,  from  behind  their  breast- 
work, picking  oft'  the  regulars  before  them.  Unable  to  hold  their  po- 
sition in  this  cleared  place,  the  regulars  took  to  the  woods  like  the 
savages.  Dieskau  led  his  men  to  Johnson's  left,  but  without  effect, 
and  then  passed  to  the  right,  where  the  Indians  had  done  the  fiercest 
fighting.  Johnson,  wounded  at  the  outset,  had  been  carried  to  his  tent, 

Williams  College,  iu  Massachusetts.  The  Alumni  of  the  College  have  erected  a  monument 
over  his  grave 

1  Bloody  Pond,  still  pointed  out  as  holding  in  its  depths  the  bones  of  the  men  who  fell 
in  i hat  tight. 


288 


CONTINUATION    OF  THE   FRENCH  WAR.       [CHAP.  XI. 


and  Lyman  took  command,  placing  himself  in  the  most  exposed  posi- 
tion and  showing  the  utmost  bravery.  The  Mohawks  had  returned 
and  engaged  in  the  fight,  which  now  became  a  hand-to-hand  contest 
over  the  breastwork.  The  provincials,  no  longer  in  fear,  fought,  as 
Dieskau  said,  like  devils,  and  leaping  the  breastwork,  clubbed  their 
muskets  and  dashed  furiously  at  the  enemy.  The  guns  at  the  same 
time  were  brought  to  bear  upon  a  party  of  Canadians  and  Indians 
concealed  in  the  morass,  and  did  such  execution  that  the  enemy  was 
dislodged  from  a  position  of  much  advantage.  The  Indians  and  Cana- 
dians were  scattered  right  and  left  ;  the  regulars  were  speedily  over- 
come at  close  quarters  with  the  provincials,  who  struck  at  them  as 
with  sledges,  and  pounded  them  to  death,  so  that  scarcely  one  escaped. 
The  retreat  was  a  disorderly  flight.  Dieskau,  who  had  already 
Retreat  of  been  severely  wounded,  was  shot  by  one  of  his  own  men 
the  French.  ag  tnev  je£fc  ^Q  fiyjj  .  ne  was  carr{e(j  jnto  the  general's 

tent,  and  treated  with  consideration.     Lyman  was  for  pursuing  the 
enemy,  but  Johnso'i  gave  orders  to  call  back  the  men.     But  the  gar- 

rison at  Fort  Lyman  had  heard  the  noise 
of  the  engagement,  and  had  sent  a  detach- 
ment of  two  hundred  New  Hampshire  troops 
to  the  field.  These  suddenly  came  upon  the 
remnant  of  the  French  army  at  dusk,  rest- 
ing by  Rocky  Brook,  where,  half-starved, 
they  were  making  a  hasty  supper.  Lyman's 
men  fell  upon  them,  and  completed  the  rout, 
capturing  the  baggage  and  ammunition.  Of 
the  English  forces,  the  loss  during  the  day 
was  ^twccn  two  hundred  and  three  hun- 
dred. The  French  lost,  by  different  estimates,  not  far  from  a  third  of 
their  number,  or  about  five  hundred. 

That  the  whole  expedition  was  not  captured,  was  due  apparently  to 
the  extreme  caution  or  hesitation  of  the  wounded  general,  Johnson. 
But  the  success  was  otherwise  so  complete,  and  the  news  of  it  so  in- 
spiriting, after  Braddock's  defeat  two  months  before,  that  the  colonies 
rang  with  rejoicings.  Johnson,  besides  being  rewarded  with  a  gift  of 
£5,000  from  the  English  Government,  was  made  a  baronet.  His  part 
in  the  fight  was  not  to  be  overlooked,  but  in  his  own  account  of  it  he 
seems  to  have  slighted  General  Lyman's  services.1  The  escape  from 
peril  was  a  real  one,  and  the  danger  was  even  more  imminent  than 
from  the  defeat  of  Braddock  ;  for,  had  Dieskau  captured  Fort  Lyman 
and  defeated  Johnson,  he  would  have  been  able  to  march  at  once  upon 
Albany,  and  leave  behind  him  an  open  road  to  Canada. 

1  See  Livingston's  Review,  and  Dwiyhfs  Travels,  iii. 


Fort  George,  or  w.ii.am  Henry. 


4R  t*r-^*t**a  Us^  ^C    X&^&W'&r-  '••>  + 

^^^^S^^^^fuiW 

'«^^A  ii ?J^^2j  '' ls£j& :^..C;; ^'^ssjj^r' H  'i  •*-•->. \ *'  '" ^? •>-. 


-•  ;a^U       •  >  P>~v    )  .  !••  '  ,7  .-o'    ><^IiOvp-      -»i':;r~-v^,-         -,   Y->.~  -^  '  ^ 


"^       "  — ^     i   ^         '  *  i 


afcj 


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175G,]  THE  MARQUIS  DE  MONTCALM.  289 

While  the  English   built  a  strong  fort  at  the  south  end  of  Lake 
George  after  Dieskau's  repulse,  —  Fort  William  Henry  or  g^  ]iartie8 
Fort  George, — and  garrisoned  that  and  Fort  Edward,  —  as   fortlf-v 
Fort  Lyman  was  re-named,  —  the  French  took  possession  of  the  im- 
portant pass  at  Ticonderoga,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  fortify  it.     Af- 
ter the  death  of  Braddock,  Governor  Shirley  was  at  the  head  of  the 
English  army  in  America.     He  called  a  council  in  the  autumn  of  this 
year  (1755),  in  which  the  campaign  for  the  ensuing  spring  and  sum- 
mer was  laid  down  upon  precisely  the  lines  adopted  for  the  late  cam- 
paign.    That  is,  Fort  Du  Quesne  and  Crown  Point  were  to  be  the  ob- 
jects of  attack;   Oswego  was  to  be  reenforced,  and  Niagara  ghiricv-8 
and  Frontenac  to  be  assailed  from  that  point.     Ticonderoga  cami>a|8n- 
was  to   have  been  attacked  in   front  from  the  fro/en  lake,  but  this 
project  was  defeated  by  the  mildness  of  the  winter.    In   the  almost 
palsied  condition  of  the  British  administration  of  that  day,  all  action 
seemed  perpetually  waiting  upon  some  special  movement  which,  after 
all,   was   not  of  vital  importance.     War  had   been  actually   Thed«-iar»- 
declared  at  length  by  the  British  Government  on  the  17th  tionofwiir 
of  May,  1756,  and  by  the  French  Government  on  the  9th  of   June 
following.     The  campaign   in  America  now  waited  on   the   Lord  Ix)U. 
arrival  of  the  new  Commander-in-chief,  Lord  Loudoun,  and   m^ii'der-in- 
Lord  Loudoun  waited  for  somebody  else.     He  was  "  a  mere  chl<;f 

*/ 

pen-and-ink  man,"  as  the  Earl  of  Shelburne  styles  him,1  one  of  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland's  school,  forever  getting  ready  to  start.2 

A  very  different  man  was  at  the  head  of  the  French  forces.  Louis 
Joseph,  Marquis  de  Montcalm  de  Saint  Veron,  had  arrived  in  Montcalm  in 
Canada  with  three  thousand  men  and  abundant  stores  with  Canatla- 
which  to  prosecute  the  war.  The  management  of  military  affairs  in 
Canada  had  not  been  of  the  best,  but  the  French  rarely  lacked  men 
ready  to  seize  the  opportunity,  and  Montcalm  brought  great  ability  and 
experience  to  his  task.  While  the  English  were  waiting  and  hesitat- 
ing, or  quarrelling  about  rank  and  precedence,  the  French  were  ac- 
tively engaged  in  cutting  off  the  supplies  intended  for  Oswego,  in  mak- 
ing dashes  at  the  English,  capturing  small  forts  and  taking  prisoners, 
and  in  winning  the  Six  Nations  so  far  as  they  could  from  the  English 
alliance.  The  siege  of  Oswego  was  early  determined  upon,  and  a  strong 
corps  of  observation  was  posted  by  Montcalm  at  what  is  now  Six- 
Town  Point,  in  Henderson,  Jefferson  County,  New  York,  on  the  shore 
of  Lake  Ontario.  Fort  Niagara  also  was  strengthened  and  reenforced. 

1  Fitzmauricc's  Life  of  William,  Earl  of  Shfl/mrne,  i.  81. 

2  Franklin,  who  was  vexed  at  Loudoun's  indecision,  quotes  a  witty  characterization  of  the 
Earl  by  one  Innis  :  "  He  is  like  St.  George  on  the  signs,  always  on  horseback,  and  never 
rides  on." — Autobiography  in  Bigelow's  Life  of  Benjamin    Franklin,  vol.  i.,  p.  356. 

VOL.  III.  19 


290  CONTINUATION   OF  THE  FRENCH  WAR.       [CHAP.  XI. 

On  the  3d  of  July,  when  Colonel  Bradstreet,  who  had  been  charged 
with  the  conduct  of  a  convoy  of  provisions  and  stores  down  the 
Onondaga  to  Oswego,  was  I'eturning  to  Schenectady,  he  was  suddenly 
attacked  about  ten  miles  from  Oswego,  and  had  a  sharp  skirmish  with 
a  body  of  Canadians  and  Indians,  followed  by  a  more  serious  engage- 
ment, in  which  Bradstreet  routed  the  enemy,  but  was  unable  to  follow 
up  his  advantage.  From  one  of  the  prisoners  the  movements  of  the 
French  against  Oswego  were  learned,  and  promptly  reported  to  General 
Abercrombie,  who,  awaiting  Lord  Loudoun's  arrival,  was  commanding 
at  Albany  and  Fort  William  Henry  a  force  of  about  ten  thousand  men. 
The  General  ordered  a  regiment  of  regulars  to  the  relief  of  Oswego ; 
but  before  they  could  be  moved,  Lord  Loudoun  appeared,  and  through 
his  dilatory  action  it  was  the  12th  of  August  before  the  relief  set  out 
from  Albany. 

On  that  verv  day  the  last  of  the  forces  intended  for  the  invest- 

•/  •/ 

Oswego  be-  nient  of  Fort  Oswego  arrived  in  camp,  and  Montcalm  at 
sieged  once  opened  fire  upon  Fort  Ontario,  on  the  right  bank  of 

the  river.  The  garrison  was  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Mer- 
cer. As  the  enemy  brought  their  batteries  nearer  and  nearer,  Colonel 
Mercer,  whose  ammunition  was  already  expended,  spiked  his  guns, 
destroyed  his  provisions,  and  ordered  a  retreat  across  the  river  to  Fort 
Oswego,  distant  four  hundred  and  fifty  yards.  Here  a  brisk  fire  was 
opened  upon  the  fort  he  had  just  abandoned.  A  portion  of  his  force, 
however,  had  ascended  the  river  four  and  a  half  miles  to  a  hill,  where 
Colonel  Schuyler  was  intrenched,  whence  they  could  have  harassed  the 
enemy  ;  but  Montcalm  perceived  the  manoeuvre,  and  while  keeping  up 
an  active  fire  on  the  fort,  sent  a  large  body  of  Canadians  and  Indians 
to  cut  off  communication  between  it  and  the  hill.  On  the  13th  Colo- 
And  cap-  ne^  Mercer  was  killed  by  a  cannon  ball,  and  the  garrison 
tured.  gave  up  the  struggle,  and  surrendered  to  Montcalm,1  though 

the  common  soldiery  were  still  ready  to  continue  the  fight.  The 
French  loss  was  trifling.  The  English  lost  as  prisoners  of  war  sixteen 
hundred  men,  including  eighty  officers,  one  hundred  and  twenty-one 
pieces  of  artillery,  and  a  great  store  of  ammunition,  together  with 
seven  armed  ships  and  two  hundred  batteaux  which  had  been  pre- 
paring for  a  descent  upon  Niagara  and  Frontenac.  The  forts  at 

1  Montcalm  was  a  little  surprised  at  the  quickness  with  which  he  had  accomplished  his 
object.  "  The  celerity  of  our  operations  in  a  soil  which  they  considered  impracticable,  the 
erection  of  our  batteries,  completed  with  so  much  rapidity,  the  idea  these  works  gave  them 
of  the  number  of  the  French  troops,  the  movements  of  the  corps  detached  from  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  the  dread  of  the  savages,  the  death  of  Colonel  Mercer,  commander  of 
Chouaguen  [as  the  French  called  Oswego |,  who  was  killed  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
doubtless  determined  the  besieged  to  a  step  which  we  had  not  dared  to  expect  so  soon.' 
Montcalm's  Journal  of  the  Siege  of  Oswego,  in  New  York  Colonial  History,  x.  443. 


1756.]  LOUDOUN'S  PLANS  AND  FAILURE.  291 

Oswego  had  been  built  in  the  territory  of  the  Six  Nations.  Several  of 
these  Indians  were  present  at  the  battle,  and  Montcalin,  immediately 
upon  the  surrender,  destroyed  the  forts  in  the  presence  of  the  Indians  ; 
an  act  which  had  a  two-fold  significance,  as  marking  the  superiority  of 
the  French  to  the  English  and  the  friendliness  of  the  French  to  the 
Indians. 

General  Webb,  meanwhile,  with  his  reinforcements,  was   slowly 
making  his  way  to  Oswego,  and  had  reached  the  great  portage,  when 
he  heard  the  news  of  the  capture  of  the  forts.     The  great  portage 
was  now  the  most  advanced  post  held  by  the  English  in  the  Iroquois 
country,  and  as  if  to  aid  the  French  in  their  schemes,  General  Webb 
proceeded  to  destroy  the  fortifications  which  had  been  begun  there  in 
a  naturally  strong  position,  and  to  retreat  with  the  garrison   Webb.s  re- 
and  his  own  men  to  Schenectady  and  Albany.     The  English  "*•*• 
had  now  apparently  abandoned  the  Six  Nations  as  well  as  lost  the  key 
to  Lake  Ontario. 

There  still  remained  an  opportunity  to  turn  the  forces  assembled  at 
Albany  against  Crown  Point,  and  so  retrieve  the  ill-fortune.  But  the 
paralysis  of  inaction  continued.  In  the  long  delay  the  seven  thousand 
men  who  had  been  collected  had  dwindled  by  desertion  and  sickness 
to  four  thousand  ;  the  success  of  Montcalm,  instead  of  quickening  the 
English,  seemed  to  discourage  them,  and  the  expeditions  against  Ti- 
conderoga  and  Du  Quesne  were  abandoned.  Forts  William  Henry 
and  Edward  were  strengthened,  and  the  grand  campaign  which  had 
been  planned  was  turned  into  an  ignoble  defence.  Montcalm,  antici- 
pating an  attack  on  Ticonderoga,  hurried  thither  from  Oswego :  but 
no  enemy  appearing,  he  strengthened  the  fortifications  there  and  re- 
turned to  Montreal  for  the  winter. 

The  campaign  for  the  next  year  was  begun  by  assembling  another 
council   of   generals  and   governors.      With   more  men  and   with  a 
naval  armament,  Lord  Loudoun  proposed  to  confine  active  LoU<ioun,a 
hostilities  to  a  single  expedition.     The  posts  already  held  pbuis' 
were  to  be  strongly  fortified,  and  a  combined  attack  by  land  and  sea  to 
be  made  against  Louisburg,  a  place  which  New  England  coveted  above 
all  others.     It  was  partly  on  this  account,  doubtless,  that  a  requisition 
for  four  thousand  men  was  readily  complied  with.    New  York  and  New 
Jersey  added  their  quota,  and  in  July  Admiral  Holbourne  arrived  at 
Halifax  with  a  squadron  and  a  reenforcement  of  five  thou-   A  fiagco  at 
sand   troops.      Halifax   was  the  rendezvous,   and   Loudoun    Louisbur8 
arrived  there  from  New  York  with  six  thousand  regulars.     There  he 
learned  that  Louisburg  was  held  by  six  thousand  regulars,  in  addition 
to  the  provincials,  was  guarded  by  seventeen  line-of-battle  ships  in  the 
harbor,  and  a  French  fleet  that  had  lately  sailed  from  Brest  was  looked 


292  CONTINTATION    OF   THE   FRENCH    WAR.       [('HAI>.  XL 

for  daily.  It  was  quite  in  accordance  with  liis  usual  method  to  return 
to  New  York  with  the  Admiral  the  last  of  August,  putting  off  the 
capture  of  Louisburg  for  a  year.1 

When  Montcalm  learned  that  Loudoun  had  left  New  York  for 
Louisburg  he  proceeded  to  carry  into  execution  the  plan  which  he  had 
formed  for  attacking  Fort  William  Henry.  The  French  had  been 
unceasing  in  their  efforts  to  win  over  the  Indians  of  the  Six  Nations 
to  their  side,  and  the  repeated  defeats  of  the  English,  together  with 
the  policy  of  the  French  emissaries,  had  at  length  produced  so  strong 
an  impression  upon  the  Indians  that  by  parties  and  tribes  they  deserted 
the  English  and  attached  themselves  to  the  successful  and  more  sympa- 
thetic French.  The  fort  which  had  been  erected  on  the  spot  where 
Johnson  and  Lyman  had  repulsed  Dieskau  was  badly  placed  on  the 
Fort  wii-  shore  of  Lake  George,  with  low  land  all  about  it,  and  over- 
iiam  iicnry.  }O()^et|  foy  \i\]]s  On  the  west  and  northwest,  by  one  of  which  at 
least  it  was  perfectly  commanded.  At  this  time  it  was  garrisoned  by 
two  or  three  thousand  regulars  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Monroe, 
while  at  Fort,  Edward  was  stationed  an  army  of  four  thousand  men 
under  General  Webb.  At  both  forts  a  descent  from  the  upper  waters 
was  constantly  looked  for,  and  this  summer  had  already  brought  with 
it  several  warnings.  As  early  indeed  as  March  18,  an  attempt  had 
been  made  by  Rigaud  to  surprise  Fort  William  Henry,  and  though  he 
was  obliged  to  return  to  Ticonderoga  he  succeeded  in  destroying  more 
than  three  hundred  batteaux,  several  buildings,  and  a  quantity  of  pro- 
visions. A  skirmish  had  taken  place  near  the  end  of  July  at  Harbor 
Island,  a  little  south  of  Sabbath  Day  Point ;  a  raid  almost  to  the  walls 
of  Fort  Edward  had  resulted  in  the  loss  of  thirty-two  of  the  English 
and  Indians ;  and  a  few  days  later  a  party  sent  from  Fort  William 
Henry  to  reconnoitre  fell  into  an  ambush,  and  almost  the  entire 
party  of  three  hundred  were  either  killed  or  captured,  twelve  only 
escaping. 

Montcalm,  with  fifty-five  hundred  Canadians  and  regulars,  and  six- 
teen hundred  Indians,  was  now  making  his  way  from  the  rendezvous 

1  How  these  performances  were  viewed  in  England,  which  was  fretting  under  the  gross 
mismanagement  of  affairs,  may  be  inferred  from  Walpole's  letters.  "Shortly  after  came 
letters  from  the  Earl  of  Loudoun,  the  commander-in-chief  in  North  America,  stating  that 
he  found  the  French  twenty-one  thousand  strong,  and  that,  not  having  so  many,  lie  could 
not  attack  Louisburg,  but  should  return  to  Halifax.  Admiral  Holbourne,  one  of  the 
sternest  condemners  of  Byng,  wrote  at  the  same  time  that  he  having  but  seventeen  ships 
and  the  French  nineteen,  he  dared  not  attack  them.  Here  WHS  another  summer  lost!  Pitt 
expressed  himself  with  great  vehemence  against  the  Earl  ;  and  we  naturally  have  too  lofty 
ideas  of  our  naval  strength  to  suppose  that  seventeen  of  our  ships  are  not  a  match  for  any 
nineteen  others."  Walpole's  George  //..vol.  ii.,  p.  231.  Eutick  (ii.,392)  declares  that  there 
was  no  such  formidable  force  at  Louisburg,  but  that  the  enemy  adroitly  managed  to  let 
the  English  capture  some  tictitious  despatches,  giving  these  impressions. 


1757.] 


SIEGE   OF   FORT   WILLIAM   HENRY. 


293 


View    from    Old    Fort, 
Lake   George. 

at  Ticonderoga  across 
the  portage  to  the  up- 
per waters  of  Lake  George.  Here  a  division 
was  made.  De  LeVis,  with  twenty-two  hun- 
dred French  and  Canadians,  escorted  by  six 
hundred  Indians,  toiled  by  land  down  the 
narrow  trail  at  the  west  of  the  lake ;  the  rest, 
with  all  the  baggage,  were  transported  in 
batteaux  and  canoes.  The  Indians  had  been 
brought  together  from  wide  distances.  On 
the  morning  of  the  3d  of  August  the  be- 
sieging army  landed  on  the  west  side  of  the 
lake,  about  two  miles  from  the  fort.  The 
guns  were  immediately  placed  in  The  fort  be. 
position,  and  Montcalm  despatched  6'eB°d' 
a  letter  to  Colonel  Monroe,  calling  upon  him 
to  surrender,  and  intimating  that  he  might 
not  be  able  to  restrain  his  Indians  in 
case  the  English  resisted  and  the 
fort  should  be  taken.  But  the 
English  commander  relied  not 
alone  upon  his  own  forces. 
General  Webb,  at  Fort  Ed- 
ward, was  only  fifteen  miles 


294  CONTINUATION    OF   THE    FRENCH    WAR.       [CHAP.  XI. 

distant  with  four  thousand  men,  and  Monroe  replied  briefly  that  he 
would  not  surrender.  Montcalm's  approach  was  not  unknown  to 
Webb.  Sir  William  Johnson  also  had  heard  of  the  movement  as  soon 
as  the  French  General  left  Ticonderoga,  and  at  once  hastily  gathered 
Indians  and  militia,  and  marched  to  Fort  Edward,  which  he  reached 
on  the  second  day  of  the  siege.  Israel  Putnam,  making  a  reconnois- 
sance  on  the  lake  with  a  body  of  rangers,  discovered  Montealm's  ap- 
proach, and  had,  it  is  said,  notified  Webb,  urging  him  to  oppose  the 
landing;  Webb,  who  was  near  Fort  William  Henry,  enjoining  secrecy 
upon  Putnam,  hastily  returned  to  Fort  Edward. 

In  the  investment  of  the  fort,  De  Le"vis  occupied  the  right  and  held 
the  road  leading  to  Fort  Edward.  On  the  4th  of  August,  the  second 
day  of  the  siege,  a  messenger  from  the  fort  to  Colonel  Monroe  was 
intercepted,  and  a  letter  found  from  the  imbecile  Webb,  advising 
Monroe  to  surrender,  as  he  dared  not  send  any  reinforcements  until 
he  should  himself  receive  aid  from  below.  The  messenger  was  sped 
on  his  way.  Johnson  did  come,  apparently  that  same  day,  and  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  take  volunteers  to  the  support  of  Monroe.  Webb 
gave  consent  reluctantly,  but  when  the  entire  body  of  provincials 
sprang  forward  ready  to  follow  Johnson,  he  withdrew  his  consent,  and 
left  Monroe  to  his  fate. 

The  siege  lasted  six  days,  when  Monroe,  with  half  of  his  guns  use- 
Ana  cap-  less  an^  nearly  all  his  ammunition  expended,  hung  out  a  flag 
tured.  of  truce  and  obtained  liberal  terms  from  Montcalm.  But 
the  confidence  which  he  placed  in  the  French  General's  word  that  the 
English  should  march  to  Fort  Edward  under  guard  of  a  detachment, 
was  not  justified.  Montcalm,  in  the  terms  of  surrender,  stipulated 
that  a  hostage  should  be  held  by  him  until  the  safe  return  of  the  es- 
cort from  Fort  Edward.  The  peril  did  not  lie  with  them,  but  with  the 
unhappy  men  whom  they  escorted,  for  scarcely  had  they  begun  their 
march  when  the  Indians,  wild  with  liquor  and  the  hope  of  plunder,  fell 
Massacre  of  uPon  the  English  soldiers,  and  killed  them,  without  mercy. 
the  gammon.  ^  panic  seized  the  English.  Some  fled  to  the  French  for  pro- 
tection, others  took  to  the  woods,  and  many  were  held  captive  by  the 
Indians.  Montcalm,  like  other  commanders  in  similar  situations,  had 
sown  the  wind,  and  the  whirlwind  was  reaped.  It  was  easier  to  excite 
the  Indians  to  a  pitch  of  frenzy  than  to  control  them  when  thus  ex- 
cited, and  it  has  been  necessary  ever  since  that  day  to  defend  a  general 
whose  fault  lay  not  in  a  deliberate  connivance  with  his  savage  allies, 
but  in  his  reckless  use  of  material  which  served  his  purpose  in  war. 
When  the  news  of  this  massacre  was  spread  through  the  country,  the 
provincials  flocked  to  the  defence  of  the  frontier.  But  Montcalm, 
after  burning  the  fort,  returned  to  Canada  with  the  stores. 


1757.]  REVIEW   OF   AFFAIRS.  '295 

The  close  of  the  year  1757  marked  the  most  discouraging  period  in 
the  contest  of  the  colonies  with  France.  At  the  extreme 

•       i-ii  n  t  .  KovifW  of 

south  indeed  there  was  peace  and  moderate  prosperity.  A  affairs  in 
firm  hand  held  the  government  in  Georgia,  where  Governor 
Ellis,  finding  the  colony  distracted,  factious,  and  disordered,  speedily 
succeeded  in  restoring  good  feeling,  protecting  the  coast  and  frontier, 
effecting  amicable  relations  with  the  Creek  Indians,  and  making  the 
colony  a  refuge  for  many  families  that  fell  back  from  the  dangerous 
frontiers  farther  north.  To  South  Carolina,  also,  there  had  been  an 
exodus  of  families  from  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania,  after 
Braddock's  defeat ;  but  here  the  often-repeated  story  of  English  mis- 
management of  the  Indians  was  approaching  a  terrible  conclusion. 
In  1753,  Governor  Glen  had  made  a  treaty  with  the  Cherokees,  by 
which  that  tribe  had  agreed  to  keep  the  peace  with  the  Creeks,  and 
also  to  concede  large  tracts  in  the  upper  country  to  the  English.  At 
least,  this  was  the  English  interpretation  of  the  treaty,  and.  amid  the 
murmm'S  of  a  people  among  whom  the  French  had  already  begun  to 
intrigue,  they  proceeded  to  build  forts,  notably  Fort  Prince  George 
near  the  headwaters  of  the  Savannah,  and  Fort  Loudoun,  at  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Tennessee,  about  thirty  miles  from  Knoxville. 

The  French  had  already  penetrated  to  the  centre  of  East  Tennessee, 
and  had  trading-houses  convenient  to  the  over-hill  Cherokees,  and 
these  Indians,  like  the  other  tribes,  were  vacillating  between  the 
two  powers,  uncertain  which  was  the  more  deadly  enemy.  These 
forts,  meanwhile,  though  far  removed  from  the  base  of  supplies,  gave 
encouragement  to  settlers  in  the  back  country  and  in  the  western 
parts  of  the  two  Carolinas.  But  farther  north,  the  country  west  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  had  been  rendered  uninhabitable  for  whites.  The  Indians 
and  French  had  carried  fire  and  sword  up  and  down  the  valley.  Fort 
Loudoun,  at  Winchester,  was  the  chief  protection  of  the  western  fron- 
tier. Dinwiddie,  the  somewhat  visionary  and  capricious  Governor  of 
Virginia,  had  urged  on  the  Board  of  Trade  the  erection  of  a  cordon 
of  forts  from  Crown  Point  to  the  country  of  the  Creeks,  and  Wash- 
ington had  advised  that  Virginia  should  erect  forts  along  her  frontier 
at  distances  of  fifteen  miles ;  but  the  cries  of  families  flying  before 
the  Indians  continued  to  be  heard,  and  the  military  resources  of  Vir- 
ginia had  been  reduced  by  the  policy  of  Loudoun  in  drawing  off  sol- 
diers for  his  great  and  utterly  ineffective  army.  Fort  Du  Quesne  was 
still  in  the  hands  of  the  French,  and  the  English  had  lost  Oswego. 
Acadia  was  still  in  their  possession,  but  a  powerful  armament  at  Lou- 
isburg  threatened  not  only  Halifax,  but  the  New  England  colonies. 
Bitter  conflicts  in  the  management  of  internal  affairs  were  distract- 
ing Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  and  although  the  people  everywhere, 


200  CONTINUATION  OF  THE  FRENCH  WAR.      [CHAP.  XT. 

especially  on  the  frontier,  made  vigorous  by  the  hard  experience  of 
life  in  a  new  country,  were  equal  to  any  emergency,  there  was  no  one 
in  England  or  America  who  so  commanded  the  universal  respect  and 
confidence  as  to  be  able  to  unite  for  any  common  purpose  the  separate 
strength  inherent  in  all  the  colonies. 

The  French,  on  the  other  hand,  though  Canada  was  suffering  from 
gross  official  peculation  and  was  brought  to  the  verge  of  a  distressing 
poverty,  appeared  at  this  time  singularly  strong  and  victorious.  They 
had  achieved  almost  uninterrupted  military  success  ;  they  had  been  for- 
tunate in  their  commanders ;  and,  though  the  history  of  that  province 
had  been  the  history  of  a  military  and  ecclesiastical  despotism,  there 
was  a  concentrated  force  now  under  control  which  could  strike  quickly 
and  effectively.  But  New  France,  nevertheless,  was  approaching  a 
point  of  exhaustion.  The  very  advantage  which  it  held  as  a  military 
power  carried  with  it  the  disadvantage  of  having  no  allies  in  an  agricul- 
tural and  self-reliant  people.  The  base  of  supplies  was  in  France,  not 
in  the  colony,  and  thus,  as  the  war  continued,  the  gathering  force  of 
the  English  and  American  resources  began  to  tell.  In  the  long  run  the 
English  would  have  worn  out  the  French  ;  the  wavering  line  of  fron- 
tier settlements  would  have  been  slowly  pushed  forward  from  behind. 
But  the  issue  was  to  come  quicker,  and  the  disadvantages  under  which 
the  colonies  had  labored  were  to  give  way  before  the  genius  of  a  sin- 
gle man. 

Pitt  had  been  forced  upon  the  King  by  his  own  impetuous  nature 
wiiiiam  and  by  the  complaints  of  a  disappointed  people.  The  Sec- 
Pitt  retary  of  State,  who  was  one  of  the  Council,  became  substan- 

tially prime  minister.  His  measures  for  prosecuting  the  war  in  Amer- 
ica met  at  once  the  obstacles  which  before  had  stood  in  the  wav  of 

if 

success.  He  had  faith  in  the  men  of  the  colonies,  and  he  dealt  with 
them  frankly  and  honestly.  England  should  furnish  arms,  ammuni- 
tion, and  all  necessary  equipments  ;  the  colonies  were  to  raise,  clothe, 
and  pay  the  men.  England  would  furnish  from  her  trained  soldiers 
the  generals  and  upper  officers  ;  but  the  colonial  troops  might  choose 
their  own  colonels  and  subordinate  officers,  and  these  should  rank 
with  English  officers  of  the  same  grade.  To  Pitt's  policy  at  this  time 
is  largely  due  not  only  the  success  in  arms  but  the  independent  spirit 
of  the  colonies.  They  responded  at  once  to  -the  call  for  men  and 
money. 

The  objective   points  in   the  coming  campaign  were  the  same  as 

they  had  always  been  —  Louisburg,  Ticonderoga  and  Crown 
p«jjgnof        Point,   Du  Quesne,  —  these  were  the  keys  of   the  French 

military  system.     Instead  of  Admiral  Holbourne  and  the 

*.  V 

Earl  of  Loudoun,  who  had  been  recalled,  Admiral  Boscawen  and  Sir 


1758.] 


CAPTURE   OF   LOUISBUKG. 


297 


Jeffery  Amherst  were  placed  in  command  of  the  naval  and  land  forces 

which  were  to  attack  Louisburg.     On  the  2d  of  June,  1758,  the  com- 

bined forces,  acting  in  perfect  harmony,  arrived  before  Louisburg,  and 

on  the  8th,  the  first  favorable  day,  landed  in   the  face  of  the  enemy, 

making  their  way  through  heavy  surf  and  up  steep  acclivities.      The 

decisive  work  was  done  with  the  landing  ;  after  that  it  was  a  question 

of  time,  as  the  English  parallels  rapidly  advanced.     On  the   raptureof 

25th  of  July  the  garrison  surrendered  upon  demand,  threat-   Lou"'burB- 

ened  by  a  final   assault,  for  which  preparations  had  been  made  with 

great  vigor.     Nearly  six  thousand  prisoners  were  taken,  and  sent  to 

England    and    France,   and 

the   victory    was   not   only 

complete,  but  left  a  substan- 

tial result  in  the  possession 

of   the   coveted   fortress, 

which    at    once    became    a 

standing  menace  to  Quebec. 

The  moral  effect  of  the  cap- 

ture was  in  every  way  im- 

portant.   New  England  was 

awakened  to  new  enthusiasm 

by  the  recapture  of  a  place 

which  she  had  once  taken, 

and    whose    restoration    to 

France  by  England  she  had 

never  ceased  to  regret.    The 

brilliancy  of  the  assault,  in 

which   B  r  i  g  a  d  i  e  r-general 

Wolfe  played  a  conspicuous 

part,    revived    the    sinking 

spirits  of  men  who  had  seen  action  paralyzed  under  the  feebleness  of 

Loudoun  and  Webb. 

While  Amherst  was  prosecuting  the  siege,  General  Abercrombie, 
who  had  succeeded  Loudoun  upon   his  return  to  England, 

,  ,  t  .  e     .  ,  . 

was  aiming  at  the  second  great  object  or  the  campaign  — 
the  capture  of  Ticonderoga.  The  officer  next  in  command, 
Lord  Howe,  was  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  army.  Before  Abercrombie 
reached  the  camp,  Howe  had  sent  Rogers  with  his  rangers,  who,  win- 
ter and  summer,  had  scoured  the  woods  and  lakes  of  the  country,  on 
a  reconnoissance,  and  thus  had  secured  a  plan  of  the  French  works  at 
Ticonderoga,  and  a  survey  of  the  neighboring  district.  The  fortified 
town  and  camp  of  Carillon,  as  the  French  called  the  place,  was  upon 
a  point  of  land  washed  on  the  north,  east,  and  south  by  the  waters 


William  Pitt. 


Attack  on 


298  CONTINUATION    OF   THE   FRENCH    WAR.      [CHAP.  XI. 

of  Wood's  Creek,  the  entrance  to  Lake  Champlain,  and  the  entrance 
to  Lake  George.  On  the  west  only  was  there  approach  by  land,  and 
here,  on  either  extremity,  was  low,  wet  land,  while  the  country  occu- 
pied by  the  French  was  hilly  and  broken.  Montcalm  was  in  com- 
mand, with  about  three  thousand  effective  soldiers,  and  De  LeVis, 
who  had  been  sent  to  relieve  Fort  Frontenac,  which  was  threatened, 
was  hastily  recalled,  as  the  news  came  that  the  English,  twenty-five 
thousand  strong,  were  setting  out  for  Carillon.  The  fortifications  of 
the  place  were  not  very  strong,  but  the  ground  to  be  passed  over  by 
an  investing  force  offered  excellent  opportunities  for  defence.  Here, 
therefore,  intrenchments  were  hastily  made,  with  an  abattis  of  felled 
trees.  Yet  Montcalm,  even  on  the  day  of  the  attack,  hesitated 
whether  to  attempt  to  hold  it  or  retire  to  Crown  Point.  He  finally 
decided  that  he  would  await  the  attack  of  the  enemy  who  were 
before  him,  since  if  they  could  not  carry  the  works  by  storm  there 
would  needs  be  two  or  three  days  before  they  could  bring  up  the  ar- 
tillery.1 Abercrombie  had  not  twenty-five  thousand,  but  only  fifteen 
thousand  troops,  regulars  and  provincials. 

It  was  the  5th  of  July  when  he  left  his  camp  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
George  and  ascended  the  lake  with  batteaux  and  rafts, — a  brilliant 
spectacle,  made  more  picturesque  by  the  bright  plaids  of  his  High- 
landers. Two  bodies  of  French  troops  had  been  sent  out  to  dispute 
the  landing  of  the  English  ;  but  when,  the  next  day,  the  enemy 
appeared  in  force,  they  at  once  retreated  ;  one  division  went  safely 
back  ;  the  other,  making  a  detour,  became  involved  in  the  tangled 
woods,  and  suddenly  came  upon  a  body  of  English  troops,  equally  be- 
wildered. It  was  the  centre  column,  headed  by  Lord  Howe,  and  the 
two  parties  at  once  began  firing  upon  each  other.  The  provincials 
with  Howe  fought  bravely,  and  almost  the  whole  French  detachment 
Death  of  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  men  was  slain;  but  Howe  fell 
llowe-  at  the  first  fire,  and  his  loss  was  irreparable.  Abercrombie 

knew  nothing  of  fighting  but  by  rule ;  he  refused  the  advice  of  the 
provincial  leaders  ;  he  showed  caution  when  dash  would  have  suc- 
ceeded, and  was  obstinate  in  attack  when  obstinacy  was  failure  and 
defeat.  The  French  labored  incessantly  at  their  defence,  cheered  by 
Montcalm,  who  worked  with  the  i-est.  De  LI  vis  arrived,  and  gave 
them  fresh  courage.  Meanwhile  the  English  lost  precious  time  in 
securing  a  position  which  was  unnecessary,  whether  they  were  to  suc- 
ceed or  to  fail. 

The  attack  was  made  on  the  8th.  Abercrombie,  ignorant  of  the 
formidable  character  of  the  abattis,  though  warned  by  Stark,  of  New 

1  Pouchot's  Mnnoir  upon  the  Late   War  in  North  America,  translated  by  Franklin  B 
Hough,  1866,  i.  115,  116. 


1758.] 


DEFEAT    OF   ABERCROMBIE. 


299 


Hampshire,  sent  his  obedient  regulars  again  and  again  to  the  attack. 
For  five  hours  the  battle  raged ;  the  English  were  dogged  and  obedi- 
ent, the  provincials  cool  and  alert.  They  tried  now  the  centre,  now 
the  flanks  ;  they  hurled  themselves  against  the  sharp,  ugly  barrier, 
and  could  scarcely  see  the  shouting  line  behind  that  poured  a  murder- 
ous fire  into  their  ranks.  A  French  officer  hung  a  red  handkerchief 
on  the  end  of  a  musket,  and  beckoned  the  enemy  on.  Some  thought 
it  a  flag  of  truce,  and  rushed  up  crying  quarter.  The  French,  seeing 
them  come  with  their  arms  held  against  their  breasts,  were  at  first 
puzzled,  and  then  fired  furiously  at  the  intrepid  men  who  were  break- 
ing through  the  hedge. 


Field  of  Abercrombie's  Defeat. 

At  sunset  the  hopeless  attempt  was  abandoned,  and  the  troops 
withdrew  to  the  lake.  But  the  final  confession  of  failure, 
with  the  terrible  scenes  of  the  day,  broke  down  the  spirits 
of  the  men,  and  those  who  had  made  the  attack  without  flinching  at 
last  took  to  precipitate  flight.  The  darkness  of  the  night  and  the  igno- 
rance of  the  French  saved  them  from  pursuit,  and  the  shattered  force 
encamped  again  on  the  ruins  of  Fort  William  Henry,  having  lost 
more  than  two  thousand  men,  and  left  the  dead  and  wounded  along 
their  track. 

Immediately  after  the  ill-starred  attack  on  Carillon,  Bradstreet,  with 
a  detachment  of  three  thousand  men,  nearly  all  provincials, 
marched  rapidly  to  Oswego,  and,   taking  passage  to   Fort 
Frontenac,  quickly  reduced  it,  and  captured  its  little  garri- 


300  CONTINUATION   OF   THE   FRENCH   WAR.      [CHAP.  XL 

son  and  abundant  stores.  He  destroyed  the  fort  and  the  vessels  that 
lay  there,  and  returned  to  Albany  to  join  the  main  army. 

Meanwhile  the  remaining  expedition,  for  the  recovery  of  Fort  Du 
Quesne,  succeeded  through  the  weakness  of  the  French,  and  almost 
in  spite  of  the  English  commander.  It  had  been  placed  under  the 
command  of  Brigadier-general  Joseph  Forbes,  who,  with  nearly  seven 
thousand  men,  was  five  months  in  crawling  to  the  Ohio,  and  was  even 
abandoning  the  object  at  the  last  moment,  when  a  happy  fortune  dis- 
closed the  weakness  of  the  enemy.  General  Forbes  had  left  Phila- 
delphia with  his  command  early  in  July,  and  listening  to  Penn- 
sylvania advisers,  who  were  suspected  of  wishing  to  secure  a  new 
road,  determined  not  to  use  Braddock's  road,  but  to  make  another, 
which  would  be  shorter,  from  his  rendezvous  at  Raystown,  now  Bed- 
ford. Colonel  Washington  joined  him  with  the  Virginia  troops  at 
Bedford,  greatly  dissatisfied  with  the  course  which  had  been  pursued. 
He  WHS  sent  forward  in  advance  of  the  main  army  to  take  command 
of  a  division  employed  in  opening  the  road,  against  which,  as  a  use- 
less waste  of  time,  he  had  vainly  protested. 

At  Turtle  Creek,  twelve  miles  from  the  Ohio,  a  council  of  war  was 
called,  on  the  24th  of  November,  for  the  situation  seemed  well-nigh 
desperate.  Provisions  were  almost  exhausted,  and  the  general  opinion 
was,  that  a  retreat  was  imperative.  Forbes,  who  from  his  unbending 
will  had  earned  the  name  of  the  Head  of  Iron,  swore  that  he  would 
take  Du  Quesne  or  die  in  the  attempt.  But  that  night  clouds  of  smoke 
were  seen  above  the  fort,  and  the  sound  of  a  heavy  explosion  reached 
the  camp.  It  was  conjectured  —  as  Forbes  soon  knew  from  his  scouts 
was  the  fact  —  that  the  French  were  abandoning  the  place.  In  the 
morning  the  army  moved  cautiously  forward  ;  no  enemy  opposed 
them  ;  in  a  few  hours  they  entered  the  fort,  but  it  was  only  to  take  a 
heap  of  ruins. 

The  French  had  retreated  down  the  river,  and  the  Indians  had 
dispersed.  That  the  works  had  been  destroyed,  was  of  little  moment ; 
the  important  thing  was,  that  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  was  recovered 
to  the  English.  But  it  might,  perhaps,  have  been  done  at  less  cost 
had  Forbes  been  as  sagacious  as  he  was  undoubtedly  brave.  A  rapid 
march  by  the  old  road  would  have  led  to  the  same  result  and  would 
have  precluded  one  disaster.  While  the  army  halted  at  Raystown, 
waiting  for  the  new  road  to  be  made,  the  General  sent  Bouquet  with 
two  thousand  men  to  occupy  the  Loyalhanna  (now  Ligonier,  Pennsyl- 
vania). Here  Bouquet  entrenched,  and  sent  forward  Major  Grant 
with  eight  hundred  men,  as  a  preparatory  movement  toward  taking 
the  fort,  which  he  believed  he  could  do  without  waiting  for  Forbes. 
On  a  hill  —  still  called  Grant's  Hill  —  overlooking  Du  Quesne,  Grant 


1758.]  CAPTURE   OF   FORT   NIAGARA.  301 

was  surprised  by  a  sally  of  seven  or  eight  hundred  Frenchmen,  with  a 
host  of  Indians,  and,  though  he  fought  with  great  bravery,  his  com- 
mand was  almost  destroyed.  It  consisted  chiefly  of  Highlanders  ;  and 
as,  on  the  2oth  of  November,  their  countrymen  under  Forbes  moved 
through  an  Indian  path  in  approaching  the  fort,  their  rage  and  their 
grief  were  beyond  control  when  they  saw  the  remains  of  their  old 
comrades  exposed  to  every  indignity  that  savage  ingenuity  could 
invent.  To  bury  these,  as  he  had  already  buried  the  whitening 
bones  that  still  strewed  the  field  of  Braddock's  fight,  Forbes  es- 
teemed a  sacred  duty. 

Pitt,  aware  of  the  growing  weakness  of  Canada,  was  pouring  men 
and  material  into  America,  in  preparation  for  a  campaign 
which  it  was  hoped  would  be  final.     Amherst  had  displaced   im-nts  from 
Abercrombie,  and  was  to  mass  his  forces  in  an  attack  upon 
Ticonderoga  and   Crown   Point,  and   then   proceed   by  the  northern 
route.     Wolfe,  who  had  shown  his  skill  and  counige  at  Louisburg, 
was  to  conduct  an  expedition  up  the   St.  Lawrence  against  Quebec, 
and  General  Prideaux,  in  command  mainly  of  provincials  and  Indians, 
was  to  lay  siege  to  Fort  Niagara,  and  then,  descending  the  St.  Law- 
rence, meet  the  other  two  armies  before  Montreal. 

Fort  Niagara  was  being  strengthened  by  Pouchot,  who  had  been  sent 
in  command,  and  who  complained  bitterly  of  the  inadequate  support 
given  him.  He  was  going  to  a  distant  post  in  the  midst  of  Indians 
who  were  fast  coming  under  the  control  of  the  English,  and  onlv  about 
a  hundred  and  fifty  men  were  allowed  him.  He  intimates  that  M.  de 
Vaudreuil,  Governor  of  Canada,  was  so  sure  the  place  would  be  cap- 
tured, that  he  withheld  a  larger  body  from  him.  Nevertheless,  he  pro- 
ceeded on  his  errand,  and  even  entertained  the  project  of  retaking  and 
destroying  Fort  Du  Quesne.  He  reached  Niagara  on  the  30th  of 
April,  and  busied  himself  in  repairing  the  fort,  in  communicating  with 
the  other  posts,  and  in  using  every  exertion  to  detach  the  Indians 
from  the  English  alliance. 

General  Prideaux's  division,  inarching  rapidly  to  Oswego,  embarked 
at  once,  and   appeared  before  Niagara  on  the  6th  of  July. 
The  work  was  pushed  forward  with  great  vigor,  but  Pri-  For'tUNiag- 
deaux  was  killed  by  the  carelessness  of  one  of  his  soldiers 
very  early  in  the  siege,  and  the  command  devolved  on  Sir  William 
Johnson.     Pouchot  summoned  to  his  aid  the  forces  from  Detroit,  Ve- 
nango,  and  Presqu'  Isle  ;  for  it  was  clear  that  the  fort  could  not  stand 
a  long  siege,  and  that  their  only  hope  lay  in  a  repulse  of  the  Eng- 
lish.    That  hope  was  speedily  destroyed.     About  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  July  24,  the  garrison  heard  distant  firing  and  saw  a  com- 


302 


CONTINUATION   OF  THE  FRENCH  WAR.       [CHAP.  XI. 


motion  which  they  could  not  understand.  It  was  explained  to  them 
shortly  by  the  arrival  of  a  messenger,  bringing  a  summons  to  surren- 
der, and  the  intelligence  that  the  little  army  sent  to  raise  the  siege 
had  been  met,  and  in  a  spirited  battle  of  an  hour  had  been  completely 
routed.  Pouchot  refused  to  believe  the  calamity,  but  when  it  was 
made  clear  the  garrison  surrendered. 

Meanwhile  the  centi-e  division  was  encountering  the  delays  which 

seemed  to  attend  every  movement  on  Lake  George.  On 
taken  by  the  the  22d  of  July,  after  n  month's  delay,  —  for  disaster  had 

inculcated  prudence,  —  Amherst  appeared  with  an  army  of 
about  eleven  thousand  men  before  Ticonderoga,  and  occupied  the  outer 
lines  which  had  been  abandoned  by  the  French.  Four  days  later, 


when  he  was  ready  to  open  his 
batteries,  an  explosion  an- 
nounced that  the  besieged  had 
blown  up  the  magazine  and  evacuated  the  fort.  Amherst  took  pos- 
session of  the  works,  and,  still  cautious,  groped  his  way  to  Crown 
Point,  only  to  find  that  Fort  St.  Frederick  had  also  been  aban- 
doned, and  that  the  French  had  retreated  to  the  Isle  aux  Noix,  at 
the  northern  extremity  of  Lake  Champlain.  He  spent  the  rest  of 
the  season  in  strengthening  Ticonderoga  and  building  massive  works 
at  Crown  Point,  which  consumed  millions  of  money,  apparently  only 
to  give  pleasure  to  the  idle  tourists  who  now  saunter  about  the  ruins. 
Amherst  indeed  made  preparations  for  a  flotilla  which  should  com- 
mand the  lake  and  give  means  for  attack  on  the  French  army ;  he 
opened  a  road  also  to  the  Connecticut  River,  and  he  sent  the  daring 


1758.]  ACTION   AND   INACTION.  303 

Rogers  on  an  expedition  against  the  Indian  village  of  St.  Francis,  an 
expedition  marked  by  some  of  the  most  exciting  passages  of  the  ran- 
ger's perilous  life.  But  the  army  which  had  been  gathered  with  so 
much  care  remained  inactive,  while  Wolfe  was  conducting  his  part  of 
the  campaign  before  Quebec  with  untiring  energy. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

COXQTEST   OF   CANADA.  —  TOXTIAC's    WAR. 

FALL  OF  QL-KHEC  AND  MONTREAL. —  RENEWAL  OF  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES.  —  PONTIAC'S 
CONSPIRACY. —  SlEGE  OF  DETROIT.  —  BATTLE  OF  BLOOHY  BRIDGE. —  DEATH  OF 
DALZEI.L. —  ATTACK  ox  SAXDIJSKY. — TAKIXG  OF  FORTS  ST.  JOSEPH.  MIAMI,  AM> 
OUATAXON.  —  MASSACKE  AT  MICHILI.MACKIXAC.  —  FIGHT  AT  I'UESQU'  ISLE. — 
BURNING  OF  FORT  LE  BCEUF. —  FORTS  VEXAXGO,  LIGONIKR,  AXI>  AUGUSTA  RE- 
DUCED.—  FORT  PITT  HESIEGED.  —  BOUQUET'S  EXPEDITION.  BATTLE  OF  BUSHY 
Hex.  —  THE  PAXTOX  MEN.  —  ADVAXCE  ON  PHILADELPHIA.  —  DEATH  OF  PONTIAC. 

SUBMISSIOX    OF    THE    IXDIAXS. 

§ 

AFTER  the  capture  of  Louisburg,  Wolfe  bad  returned  for  a  season 
to  England,  but,  with  all  bis  bodily  Aveakness,  be  bad  the 
tvoife  un-  invincible  spirit  of  a  soldier,  and  a  loyalty  which  borrowed 
the  rupture  pathos  from  a  presentiment  of  death  in  the  field.  Louis- 
burg  was  the  rendezvous  for  the  land  and  sea  forces,  amount- 
ing to  about  eight  thousand,  with  which  Wolfe  undertook  the  capture 
of  Quebec.  He  was  ably  seconded  both  by  Admirals  Saunders  and 
Holmes,  and  by  the  three  Brigadiers — Monckton,  Townsend,  and 
Murray.  They  left  Louisburg  toward  the  end  of  June,  175(J,  and 
dropped  anchor  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  below  Quebec,  making  the  prin- 
cipal camp  on  the  Isle  d'Orleans,  but  presently  occupying  also  the 
promontory  of  Point  Levi,  on  the  southern  shore  of  the  river  and 
nearer  Quebec.  Montcalm  had  been  advised  of  the  approach  of  the 
enemy,  and  gathering  all  the  forces  which  could  be  spared  from  Mont- 
real, Three  Rivers,  and  the  fields  of  the  starving  Canadians,  had  dis- 
posed them  in  such  a  way  as  to  fortify  those  approaches  to  the  citadel 
The  city  and  not  then  deemed  naturally  impregnable.  The  city,  rising 
its  defences.  w^  n)cky  fl.ont  between  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  St. 
Charles,  had  been  unapproachable  by  the  Indians,  who  for  a  hundred 
years  and  more  had  scalped  their  victims  almost  at  its  base  ;  it  had  de- 
fied the  formidable  squadron  under  Sir  William  Phips,  and  it  seemed 
now  to  need  only  abundance  of  provision  and  a  few  disciplined  sol- 
diers to  hold  out  against  a  siege  until  the  hard  northern  winter  should 
again  encircle  it  with  the  protection  of  frost  and  storm. 

But  Canada  was  assailed  by  more  dangerous  enemies  than  the  Eng- 


1759.] 


THE   SITUATION  AT   QUEBEC. 


305 


lish,  and  when  the  great  fleet  with  its  profusion  of  resources  lay  be- 
fore Quebec,  Montcalm  must  have  grown  bitter  ov«  r  the  corruption 
which  had  eaten  away  the  strength  of  the  place.  He  had  lined  the 
shore,  from  the  St.  Charles  to  the  Falls  of  the  Montmorenci,  with 
fortified  camps,  containing,  with  the  garrison  in  the  city,  about  thir- 
teen thousand  men  of  varying  degrees  of  military  discipline  and  with 
unequal  equipment.  A  boom  had  boen  built  across  the  St.  Charles, 
with  vessels  sunk  be- 
hind it,  and  barges  in 
front.  On  the  south 
side  of  the  city,  the 
land  fell  off  precipi- 
tously to  the  St.  Law- 
rence, here  a  rapid 
river,  a  mile  wide, 
the  ascent  of  which 
was  guarded  by  the 
small  naval  force, 
consisting  of  two  frig- 
ates under  Captain 
Vauquelin.  Steep 
paths  led  from  the 
shore  to  the  plains 
above,  and  small 
bodies  of  troops 
stationed  here  could 
serve  easily  as  pickets 
in  a  place  so  admi- 
rably fortified  by  na- 
ture. Wolfe  planted 
his  batteries  along 
the  opposite  shore, 
and  began  a  severe 
cannonading  on  the 

city  walls  —  harmless  as  regarded  the  citadel,  but  rendering  the  lower 
town  almost  uninhabitable.  His  forces  were  not  equal  to  Montcalm's 
in  numbers,  and  it  was  evident  that  he  must  gain  the  advantage  either 
by  strategy  or  by  the  powerful  assistance  of  the  fleet.  The  French 
maintained  the  defensive,  except  that  they  made  two  futile  attempts, 
one  to  destroy  the  enemy's  fleet  by  fire-rafts,  the  other  to  dislodge 
Monckton,  shortly  after  he  had  taken  up  his  position  at  Point  Levi. 
Wolfe  resolved  to  attack  Montcalm's  extreme  left,  which  rested  on  the 
banks  of  the  Montmorenci.  He  had  already  occupied  the  left  bank  of 


General    Wolfe. 


VOL.    III. 


20 


306  CONQUEST   OF  CANADA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

that  river,  and  he  had  there  the  advantage  of  overlooking  the  lower 
right    bank,   with    the   French   intrenehments.      Below   and 
HI.-  French     above  the  Falls  were  ford  ing-places;  by  these  Wolfe  proposed 
to  send  detachments,  while  a  division  from  Point  Levi,  cross- 
ing in  barges,  was  to  land  on  the  strand,  west  of  the  Falls,  where  the 
lauding  was  to  be  covered  by  the  Centurion,  a  sixty-gun  ship  anchored 
below. 

The  day  chosen  for  the  movement  was  the  31st  of  July,  and  the 
basin  swarmed  with  barges  bearing  Monckton's  detachment,  and  fly- 
ing back  anil  forth  between  the  several  camps.  It  was  a  sultry  day, 
and  the  movement  did  not  begin  until  after  noon.  De  L6vis,  in  com- 
mand of  the  extreme  left  of  the  French  army,  had  disposed  his  troops 
at  the  two  fords,  and,  having  the  inside,  could  readily  mass  the  defence 
at  either  point.  It  was  Wolfe's  intention  that  the  three  parties,  after 
landing  and  crossing  the  river,  should  meet  upon  the  Courville  1'oad, 
and  immediately  advance  upon  the  French  redoubt,  and  it  was  an  im- 
portant part  of  his  plan  that  the  landing  and  the  two  crossings  should 
be  made  simultaneously,  in  order  to  divide  the  enemy's  defence. 
There  was  a  redoubt  near  the  point  where  Monckton's  division  was  to 
land,  and  not  far  from  the  lower  ford,  and  when  this  was  taken  the 
ranks  were  to  form  for  an  attack  upon  the  intrenehments  behind. 

The  plan  was  intricate  and  bold,  and  there  was  no  lack  of  courage 
in  the  assailants.  There  was,  however,  apparent  lack  of  discipline 
and  concentration.  At  the  upper  ford  the  British  were  driven  back, 
and  De  Levis's  men,  accomplishing  this,  made  haste  to  reenforce  those 
who  were  awaiting  the  attack  of  the  troops  which,  landing  on  the 
strand,  were  now  hurrying  pell-mell  across  the  ground  from  the  re- 
doubt that  had  been  immediately  evacuated,  toward  the  intrenehments. 
There  was  irregularity  and  want  of  concert  both  in  the  landing  and  in 
the  attack.  The  abandonment  of  the  redoubt  may  have^  misled  the 
English  into  a  contempt  for  the  enemy.  But  they  were  quickly  unde- 
ceived. The  Canadians,  waiting  behind  the  intrenehments,  suddenly, 
as  the  troops  came  rushing  upon  them,  opened  fire,  so  sure  and  so 
rapid  that  the  attack  was  arrested.  At  that  moment  a  thunder-storm 
burst  overhead.  Over  the  slippery  ground  the  English  fled  precipi- 
tately to  their  boats,  their  retreat  hidden  by  the  blinding  rain.  When 
the  storm  cleared,  the  Canadians  saw  the  enemy  bearing  their  wounded 
to  the  boats,  a  part  recrossing  the  lower  ford  and  regaining  their  in- 
trenehments on  the  left  bank  of  the  Montmorenci,  and  part  returning 
in  the  barges  to  the  camp  at  Point  Levi.  The  victorious  Canadians 
harassed  the  retreating  soldiers  with  their  guns,  while  their  Indian  al- 
lies hovered  about  them  with  their  tomahawks.  The  British  kept  up 
their  cannonading  all  night,  but  the  expedition  was  a  sorry  failure. 
About  five  hundred  men  had  been  lost  by  the  attacking  party. 


1759.] 


THE    SIEGE    OF    QUEBEC. 


307 


The  siege  was  prolonged  for  another  month,  and  an  expedition  was 
sent  up  the  river,  but  with  little  effect,  except,  it  may  be,  to  familiar- 
ize the  officers  with  that  side  of  the  city  which  was  now  to  witness 
the  triumph  of  the  British  army.  Wolfe,  sick  and  discouraged,  called 
a  council  of  his  officers  and  invited  new  plans  for  the  capture  of 
Quebec.  The  plan  proposed  by  the  council  involved  the  reembar- 
kation  of  the  army,  to  be  conducted  up  the  river  to  the  south  side, 
above  the  town,  where  they  should  cross,  gain  the  rear  of  the  works, 
and  compel  Montcalm  to  meet  them,  while  at  the  same  time  they 
cut  off  his  communication  with  Montreal.  The  preparations  for  this 
new  approach  excited  great  uneasiness  in  the  city,  and  Montcalm  was 
urged  to  anticipate  the  movement  by  a  new  disposition  of  his  troops. 
But  he  was  confident  that  a  handful  of  men  could  defend  the  ap- 


Quebec  in  1730.— From  an  Old  Print. 

proach  to  the  city  in  the  narrow  passes  leading  to  the  river,  and  more- 
over he  had  strong  doubts  that  the  enemy  intended  anything  more 
than  a  feint,  as  demonstrations  were  still  continued  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Montmoreuci.  However,  Bougainville  with  a  body  of  men  was 
stationed  up  the  river,  and  was  now  ree'n  forced,  while  the  guards  along 
the  steep  bank  were  cautioned  to  be  on  the  lookout. 

Wolfe,  lying  almost  helpless  in  his  chamber,  caught  at  a  plan 
which  commended  itself  to  his  own  courageous  spirit,  and  the  troops 
were  transferred  to  the  fleet.  A  detachment  was  sent  forward  to 
reconnoitre  during  the  7th,  8th,  and  Oth  of  September,  and  news  \vas 
brought  by  two  deserters  from  the  French  that  a.  convoy  of  provis- 
ions was  to  arrive  from  up  the  river,  and  seek  to  gain  the  port  in  the 
darkness  of  the  night  of  the  12th-13th.  The  city  was  much  dis- 
tressed from  lack  of  provisions,  which  were  slowly  brought  with  great 


308  CONQUEST    OF   CANADA.  [CiiAr.  XII. 

difficulty  by  land,  and  it  had  been  determined  to  run  the  risk  of 
dropping  barges  noiselessly  down  the  river  with  the  flood.  Wolfe 
seized  upon  the  fact  to  further  his  own  purposes.  Holmes's  fleet 
had  passed  the  town,  receiving  a  fire  from  the  fortress,  which  it  could 
not  return,  and  was  now  anchored  above  the  port.  A  detnchment 
had  been  sent  beyond  Cape  Rouge  in  order  to  hold  Bougainville's 
attention,  while  a  show  of  operations  was  still  kept  up  at  the  Mont- 
morenci,  to  engage  the  vigilance  of  De  Ldvis.  There  was  no  moon 
on  the  night  of  the  12th,  but  the  air  was  clear  and  the  sky  was 
the  success-  bright  with  stars.  Wolfe  rose  from  his  sick-bed  and  led  the 
fui  assault,  perilous  expedition  in  person.  In  the  depth  of  the  night, 
some  thirty  boats,  bearing  sixteen  hundred  soldiers,  fell  silently  down 
the  river  toward  the  little  cove  which  had  been  chosen  for  the  de- 
barkation. As  they  floated  down  the  stream,  Wolfe  repeated  in  a  low 
voice  stanzas  from  Gray's  "Elegy,"  one  verse  of  which,  it  has  been 
often  remarked,  was  so  appropriate  to  the  fate  about  to  befall  him  :  — 

"  The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  ]>onip  of  power, 

And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Await  alike  the  inevitable  hour  : 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave." 

"Gentlemen,"  he  said  to  the  officers  who  had  listened  to  him,  "I 
would  rather  have  written  those  lines  than  take  Quebec  to-morrow." 

The  boats  drew  near  the  landing  place  beneath  the  ovei'hanging 
wooded  heights.  The  sentinel,  peering  out  from  the  darkness,  heard 
rather  than  saw  the  objects  in  the  water.  "  Qui  vive  ?  "  he  called. 
"  La  France  !  "  replied  a  Highlander  in  the  foremost  boat,  plans  hav- 
ing been  laid  for  those  familiar  with  French  to  answer  the  demands. 
"A  quel  regiment?"  continued  the  sentinel.  "De  la  Reine,"  was  the 
reply,  the  name  of  a  regiment  under  Bougainville's  command.  This 
boat  and  others,  being  under  too  much  headway,  shot  beyond  the 
landing-place.  Again  one  of  the  barges  was  challenged.  "•  Qui 
vive  ?  "  "  Ne  faites  pas  de  bruit,  ce  sont  les  vivres,"  ("  Hush  I  the 
provisions,")  was  the  half-whispered  rejoinder.  Then  some  of  the 
boats  grated  on  the  beach  at  the  cove,  and  the  Highlanders  of  Fra- 
ser's  regiment  sprang  ashore.  Wolfe  had  turned  his  boat  back,  and 
was  one  of  the  first  to  land.  A  guard-house  stood  at  the  head  of  the 
cove,  and  a  narrow  path  led  up  the  steep  from  this  point.  The  guard 
was  instantly  surprised,  and  the  Highlanders  sprang  up  the  path, 
catching  at  bushes  and  roots  and  trees  to  help  them.  A  small  guard 
was  at  the  head  of  the  pass,  commanded  by  an  officer  who  had  already 
shown  himself  unworthy,  and  who  now  was  in  bed.  These  made  a 
hasty  defence,  but  were  overpowered  by  the  foremost  Highlanders, 
while  up  the  path,  hastened  by  the  sound  of  musket-shots  above, 


1759.] 


WOLFE    ON   THE   PLAINS    OF    ABRAHAM. 


309 


men  came  crowding  and  pushing  one  another.  The  pass  was  held, 
and  in  the  breaking  day  the  men  could  see  the  ships  coming  to  anchor 
opposite  the  cove,  now  known  as  Wolfe's  Cove,  when  fresh  troops 
clambered  up  the  path.  As  the  sun  rose,  the  English  army  stood 

in  battle  array  on  the  Plains  of 
Abraham,  which  stretched  in  a 
great  table-land  behind  the  city. 
The  attack  upon   the  guard, 
some  of  whom  had  escaped  into 
the   city,  aroused   the    garrison, 
and  word  was  instantly  sent  to 
Montcalm.     He  re- 
fused at  first  to  be- 
lieve in  the  whole 
extent  of  the  dan- 
ger, but,  taking   a 
body  of  4,500  men, 
marched    over   the 
bridge  of  boats  cross- 


Landing  of  Wolfe. 

ing  the  St.  Charles,  and  passed  through  the  city  to  the  Plains  beyond. 
It  was  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  Montcalm,  fearful  lest  the 
British  should  intrench  themselves,  as  indeed  they  had  already  be- 
gun to  do,  determined,  against  the  advice  of  his  generals,  to  make  an 
immediate  assault.  The  enemy  had  been  able  to  bring  up  but  one 
gun,  and  in  case  of  defeat  would  inevitably  be  subjected  to  terrible 
punishment,  for  there  could  be  no  orderly  retreat  from  the  position 


• 
310  CONQUEST   OF  CANADA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

they  had  taken,  while  Bougainville's  division,  which  had  been  ordered 
np  at  once,  would  receive  them  in  rear  and  Hank.  Montcalm  was 
driven  to  desperation  as  he  saw  the  British  in  a  position  which  he 
had  first  declared  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  take,  and  that  to 
take  it  was  of  the  greatest  peril  to  the  city.  He  ordered  an  attack, 
and  the  Canadians,  crouching  in  the  corn  and  copse,  kept  up  a  brisk 
lire,  while  the  regulars  began  to  advance  rapidly  in  three  divis- 
ions, the  English  still  maintaining  an  unbroken  front.  The  French 
advance  was  broken  and  irregular,  the  men  already  fatigued  by  their 
march  to  the  city,  but  it  was  quick  and  resolute,  and  the  platoons 
delivered  a  determined  fire  as  they  pushed  forward.  Still  the  Brit- 
ish line  did  not  reply.  When  at  length  the  French  were  only  forty 
yards  distant,  the  word  was  given  to  fire,  and  in  an  instant  the  mus- 
kets, doubly  charged,  mowed  down  the  French  ranks,  so  that  these, 
already  disorderly,  became  confused  and  irresolute.  Wolfe  saw  his 
opportunity.  He  flung  himself  before  the  grenadiers,  and  charged 
upon  the  amazed  Frenchmen.  They  turned  and  fled,  and  the  shout- 
ing Englishmen  leaped  after  them,  driving  them  headlong  and  fell- 
ing them  to  the  ground.  In  the  first  rush  of  this  impetuous  charge 
a  ball  pierced  Wolfe  in  the  side.  He  staggered  forward,  when  an- 
other struck  his  breast,  and  he  fell.  He  was  borne  to  the 
wnite  niui  rear  and  laid  on  the  grass.  The  charge  was  still  tumul- 
tuous, and  one  of  the  officers  excitedly  cried  out,  "  See  how 
they  run  ! " 

"Who  run?''  asked  Wolfe,  who  had  lain  as  if  in  a  deadly  swoon, 
but  roused  himself  now. 

"The  enemy,  sir  ;  they  give  way  everywhere." 

"Then,"'  said  Wolfe,  "tell  Colonel  Burton  to  march  Webb's  regi- 
ment down  to  Charles  River,  to  cut  off  their  retreat  from  the  bridge. 
Now,  God  be  praised,  I  shall  die  in  peace."  And  turning  on  his  side, 
he  passed  into  the  shadow  at  the  end  of  the  path  of  glory.  By  a 
tragic  coincidence,  Montcalm  also  fell  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  as  he 
sought  to  rally  them  after  the  first  fierce  attack.  He  was  borne  to 
the  hospital,  and  refused  to  give  any  more  orders.  He  had  words  for 
the  bravery  of  his  opponents,  and  for  the  last  offices  of  religion,  but 
the  fight  he  gave  up  instantly.  He  had  a  soldier's  burial,  at  his  own 
desire,  in  a  cavity  of  the  earth  formed  by  the  bursting  of  a  bomb- 
shell. 

The  French  were  driven  behind  the  walls  of  Quebec.  Within  a  few 
days,  terms  of  capitulation  were  proposed,  which  General  Townsend 
acceded  to,  and  on  the  18th  of  September  the  British  entered  the 
city.  The  winter  passed  in  enforced  inactivity  on  both  sides,  the 
French  withdrawing  their  troops  to  Montreal,  and  the  English  send- 
ing away  a  portion  of  their  army  in  the  fleet. 


1762.] 


CAPITULATION   OF   THE   FRENCH. 


When  the  river  opened  in  the  spring,  De  Levis,  with  an  army  of 
about  seven  thousand  men,  moved  down  from  Montreal,  General 
Murray  had  not  three  thousand  men  in  garrison,  but  lie  sallied  out  at 
once  to  meet  the  enemy,  and  a  second  welWought  battle  upon  the 
Plains  of  Abraham  followed.  The  English,  however,  were  repulsed, 
and  the  French  made  immediate  preparations  for  a  siege.  Both  com- 
manders were  hoping  for  speedy  reinforcements,  and  in  May  they 
came,  but  to  the  English  only.  De  Levis  threw  his  heavy  guns  into 
the  river  and  retreated.  Vauquelin  withstood  an  attack,  but,  after  a 
stout  defence,  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  his  two 
frigates  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy. 

It  was  plain  that  the 
French  could  do  little  now 
but  await  events.  The  ap- 
proach to  Montreal  was 
guarded  at  the  Isle  anx 
Noix  by  Bougainville  ;  the 
rapids  above  were  held  by 
a  small  force,  as  were  those 
on  the  upper  St.  Lawrence. 
Fresh  reinforcements  to 
the  English  were  looked  for 
by  all  these  routes.  From 
the  south  came  Colonel 
Haviland,  with  an  army 
from  Crown  Point;  Am- 
herst,  with  his  own  divis- 
ion of  ten  thousand  regulars 
and  provincials,  reenforced 
at  Oswego  by  a  thousand 
Indians  under  Sir  William 
Johnson,  came  from  Lake  Ontario  ;  and  these,  with  General  Murray 
from  the  east,  met  before  Montreal.  On  the  8th  of  September  the 
city  surrendered,  and  in  the  terms  of  capitulation  were  included  De- 
troit, Michilimackinac,  and  other  posts  held  by  the  French  farther 
west.  The  French  fleet,  which  arrived  upon  the  coast  soon  after,  but 
too  late,  was  met  by  a  British  squadron  and  completelv  destroyed. 
New  France  was  soon  wiped  out  from  the  map  of  America. 

Peace,  indeed,  was  not  definitively  concluded  between  France  ami 
Great  Britain  till  the  autumn  of  17(32,  when  Canada,  Nova  Scotia. 
and  Cape  Breton  were  ceded  to  Great  Britain.  France  retaining 


Montcalm. 


312  CONQUEST   OF  CANADA.  [CHAI>.  XII. 

New  Orleans  and  the  region  west  of  the  Mississippi,  which  she  imme- 
con.mions  diately  conveyed  to  Spain.  The  contest,  meanwhile,  was 
continued  in  America,  not  by  the  French,  but  by  the  Indians, 
who  foresaw  the  certainty  of  their  own  subjugation  when  they  could 
no  longer  command  the  friendship  and  protection  of  one  of  the  two 
great  powers.  A  few  months  after  the  surrender  of  Quebec,  Major 
Robert  Rogers,  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  a  noted  ranger,  was  sent 
by  General  Amherst  to  carry  the  news  of  the  capitulation  to  Detroit, 
and  take  possession  of  that  and  other  western  posts  on  the  fron- 
tier. In  November,  1760,  they  encamped  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cuya- 
hoga,  where  the  city  of  Cleveland  now  stands,  to  wait  for  fair  weather. 
Here  they  were  visited  by  a  party  of  Indians,1  who  announced  that 
they  came  from  Pontiac,  the  chief  who  claimed  all  that  country,  and 
whose  orders  were,  that  the  English  should  proceed.no  farther  till  they 
had  received  his  permission.  A  few  hours  later  he  entered  the  camp 
in  person. 

Pontiac  was  chief  of  the  Ottawas,  whom  he  was  said  to  have  com- 
manded at  Braddock's  defeat,  and  in  1746  he  and  his  war- 
riors had  defended  the  French  at  Detroit  against  an  attack 
by  some  of  the  northern  tribes.  His  mother  was  an  Ojibwa,  and  the 
Ojibwas  and  Pottawotamies  were  in  alliance  with  the  Ottawas,  he 
being  the  principal  chief  of  the  three  tribes.  He  was  now  nearly  or 
quite  fifty  years  of  age,  and  is  described  as  unusually  dark  in  complex- 
ion, of  medium  height,  of  powerful  frame,  and  of  haughty  bearing. 
Subtle,  patient,  cruel,  with  much  more  than  the  ordinary  capacity  of 
his  race,  he  possessed  all  of  their  few  good  qualities  and  most  of  their 
many  bad  ones. 

Pontiac  demanded  of  Major  Rogers  his  reasons  for  being  at  that 
place,  and  why  he  presumed  to  pass  through  the  country  without  his 
permission.  He  was  told  in  reply  of  the  conquest  of  Canada  by  the 
English,  that  the  party  were  on  their  way  to  receive  the  surrender  of 
Detroit,  and  that  it  was  hoped  a  general  peace  and  friendly  relations 
might  immediately  follow.  Pontiac  took  a  night  for  the  considera- 
tion of  intelligence  with  which  probably  he  was  already  familiar,  and 
the  next  day  in  a  second  speech  declared  that  he  wished  to  be  at  peace 
with  the  English,  and  would  let  them  remain  in  the  country  so  long 
as  they  treated  him  with  due  consideration.  He  was,  perhaps,  at  that 
moment  sincere.  His  old  friends,  the  French,  were  conquered,  and 
he  may  have  hoped,  by  an  early  declaration  of  friendship  for  the 

1  In  the  relation  of  the  Indian  warfare  of  this  period,  the  historian  has  only  to  follow 
faithfully  and  gratefully  The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,  by  Francis  Parkinau,  one  of  the 
most  exhaustive,  as  well  as  interesting  and  instructive  monographs,  that  have  ever  beeu  con- 
tributed to  American  history. 


1762.]  POXTIAC. 

English,  to  secure  an  influence  that  would  give  him  a  complete  ns- 
cemlency  over  the  other  tribes.     His  good-will  was  further   nis friol).i. 
shoAvn  when  Rogers  and  his  two  hundred  rangers  arrived  at  ' 
Detroit  River,  where  four  hundred  Detroit  Indians  were  lying  in  am- 
bush.    They  were  persuaded  by  Pontiac  to  relinquish  their  design  of 
cutting  off  the  English. 

The  Indians  who  witnessed  the  surrender  of  Detroit.  November  29, 
1700,  marvelled  that  the  stronger  garrison  should  tamely  lay  down 
their  arms  to  a  force  so  much  inferior,  and  could  only  account  for  it 
by  attributing  to  the  English  a  superhuman  prowess.  No  such  be- 
lief, however,  found  lodgment  in  the  mind  of  their  wiser  chief.  He 
hated  the  English,  and  did  not  believe  them  to  be  invincible  ;  he 
dreaded  their  supremacy,  and  feared  that  they  meant  to  conquer  his 
own  race,  as  thev  had  conquered  the  French,  and  would  drive  them 
from  their  hunting-grounds  or  make  them  slaves.  His  eai"S  were  open 
to  idle  tales  which  soon  reached  him  from  the  Canadian  traders  —  that 
his  father,  the  French  King,  was  old  and  had  been  asleep,  but  that 
he  had  aroused  himself,  and  a  great  army  was  coming  to  the  help  of 
his  dusky  children  ;  his  fleet  of  great  canoes,  it  was  rumored,  was  on 
its  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence  River.  He  took  counsel,  therefore,  of 
his  thirst  for  vengeance,  and  not  of  any  fear  of  the  prowess  or  the 
numbers  of  the  hated  enemy.  He  pondered  over  these  things  for 
months  alone  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  or  in  the  silence  of 

...  .  i '•.«"••  t  <•     Pontiac's 

his  wigwam,  where  none  dared  to  interrupt  the  thoughts  of   plan  of  ex- 


trniiinutinn. 


the  grim  and  melancholy  savage.  His  plans,  at  length,  were 
fixed.  In  a  single  day  all  the  forts  should  be  attacked  and  their  gar- 
risons put  to  the  sword;  all  the  frontier  settlements  should  be  laid 
waste  ;  then,  with  the  aid  of  the  French,  he  would  move  upon  the 
older  ones,  and  the  English  should  be  exterminated  or  driven  across 
the  sea. 

Near  the  close  of  1762,   Pontiac   sent  ambassadors  to  the  several 
nations,  to  lay  his  plan  before  them  and  propose  the  next 
spring  as   the  time  for  its  execution.     These   ambassadors,    tt 


bearing  a  red-stained  tomahawk  and  a  wampum  war-belt, 
visited  every  tribe  between  the  Ottawa  and  the  Lower  Mississippi. 
The  only  nation  of  the  Iroquois  that  joined  in  the  conspiracy  was  the 
Senecas,  the  others  being  restrained  through  the  influence  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam Johnson.  But  all  the  Algonquins,  with  few  exceptions,  the 
Wyandots,  and  some  of  the  Southern  tribes,  entered  into  it.  as  well 
as  the  three  immediately  under  the  control  of  Pontiac.  The  time  was 
fixed  at  a  certain  change  of  the  moon  in  May.  Each  tribe  w;is  to  dis- 
pose of  the  garrison  of  the  nearest  fort,  and  then  all  were  to  turn 
upon  the  settlements. 


314 


PONTIAC'S  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XII. 


Although  within  two  years  several  smaller  conspiracies  of  this 
nature  had  been  discovered  and  thwarted,  most  of  the  commanders  of 

the  forts  appear  to  have  been  almost  stupidly  unsuspicious 
e*"  and  negligent.  In  March,  Ensign  Holmes,  commanding 

Fort  Miami,  where  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  now  stands,  was 
informed  by  a  friendly  Indian  that  the  neighboring  tribe  had  received 
a  war-belt  and  were  preparing  to  capture  his  post.  He  at  once  called 
them  together,  and  accused  them  of  it.  They  confessed  the  truth, 
pleaded  that  they  had  been  over-persuaded  by  another  tribe,  and  re- 
newed their  old  protestations  of  friendship.  Holmes  wrote  to  Major 
Gladwyn,  the  commander  at  Detroit,  saying:  "  Since  my  last  letter  to 


Scalp-Dance. 


you,  wherein  I  acquainted  you  of  the  Bloody  Belt  being  in  this  vil- 
lage, I  have  made  all  the  search  I  could  about  it,  and  have  found  it  out 
to  be  true.  Whereon  I  assembled  all  the  chiefs  of  this  nation,  and 
after  a  long  and  troublesome  spell  with  them,  I  obtained  the  Belt 
with  a  Speech  as  you  will  receive  enclosed.  This  affair  is  very  timely 
stopt,  and  I  hope  the  news  of  a  peace  will  put  a  stop  to  any  further 
troubles  with  those  Indians  who  are  the  principal  ones  of  setting  mis- 
chief on  foot.  I  send  you  the  Belt  with  this  packet,  which  I  hope  you 
will  forward  to  the  General."  Gladwyn  did  send  the  information  to 
Amherst,  but  said  lie  believed  it  to  be  a  trifling  matter  which  would 
soon  blow  over. 

Pontiac  called  a  great  council,  at  a  point  on  the  river  Ecorces,  not 


1763.]  PONTIAC   AT   DETROIT.  315 

far  from  Detroit,  which  was  held  on  the  27th  of  April,  1763,  and  was 
very  fully  attended.     He  delivered  a  long  oration,  in  which  rolltiac's 
he  recounted  the  wrongs  and   indignities  that  the  Indians  couucl1- 
had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  English.     The  French,  he  told  them, 
were  their  friends,  and  he  repeated  the  stories  he  had  heard 

,         -,..  <•    1-1  11  -i  o       T  His  speech. 

that  the  King  or  b  ranee  would  soon  sail  up  the  ot.  Law- 
rence with  his  great  war-canoes  to  assist  his  children.  Above  all  he 
pointed  out  to  them  the  probability  that  unless  something  was  done, 
their  extermination  was  inevitable.  Then  he  told  them  of  a  tradition, 
which  he  could  hardly  have  invented,  that  a  Delaware  Indian  had 
been  admitted  to  the  presence  of  the  Great  Spirit,  who  told  him  his 
race  must  return  to  the  customs  and  weapons  of  their  ancestors,  throw 
away  the  implements  they  had  acquired  from  the  white  man,  abstain 
from  whiskey,  and  take  up  the  hatchet  against  the  English,  —  "  these 
dogs  dressed  in  red,  who  have  come  to  rob  you  of  your  hunting- 
grounds  and  drive  away  the  game." 

The  time  fixed  for  the  insurrection  was  the  7th  of  May.     Pontiac 

«/ 

was  to  lead  in  person  the  attack  on  Detroit.  On  the  1st  he  visited  the 
fort  with  forty  warriors,  and  danced  the  calumet-dance  before  the  offi- 
cers. A  few  days  later  he  called  a  final  council  of  a  hundred  T^  plan  at 
chiefs,  and  laid  before  them  his  specific  plans.  With  weapons  Detroit 
concealed  in  their  blankets,  they  were  to  go  to  the  fort  and  demand  a 
council  with  the  commandant.  Being  admitted,  Pontiac  was  to  make 
a  speech,  and  when  he  presented  the  wampum-belt  wrong  end  fore- 
most, it  was  to  be  the  signal  for  the  chiefs  to  fall  upon  and  slaughter 
the  officers.  At  the  sound  of  this,  the  Indians  who  waited  at  the  gate, 
or  lounged  about  the  streets,  were  to  massacre  the  soldiers  and  citizens. 
On  the  oth  the  wife  of  a  settler,  visiting  an  Ottawa  village  to  buy 
maple  sugar  and  venison,  observed  many  of  the  warriors 
cutting  off  the  barrels  of  their  guns  with  files.  When  she 
returned  home  and  reported  this,  the  blacksmith  of  the  post  remem- 
bered that  the  Indians  had  recently  come  to  his  shop  to  borrow  files 
and  saws,  refusing  to  tell  the  purpose  for  which  they  wanted  them. 
Those  who  understood  the  native  character,  knew  at  once  that  this 
could  only  mean  that  the  guns  were  to  be  shortened  for  easier  con- 
cealment beneath  their  blankets,  and  this  could  only  be  for  some 

•/ 

treacherous  purpose.  But  Gladwyn  was  not  convinced  till  the  next 
day,  when  he  received  a  visit  from  his  mistress,  an  Ojibwa  girl,  said 
to  be  very  beautiful,  whose  unusual  manner,  and  reluctance  to  depart 
when  the  gates  were  about  to  be  closed,  led  him  to  question  her. 
After  considerable  hesitation  she  revealed  the  plot  with  all  its  par- 
ticulars.1 

1  Turkman  traces  the  fate  of  this  girl.     She  was  probably  seized  bv  the  Indians  aud 


31 1)  POXTI AC'S   WAR.  [CHAP.  XII. 

The  fort  at  this  time  consisted  of  a  square  inclosed  by  -A  palisade 
Description  twenty-five  feet  high,  with  a  wooden  bastion  at  each  corner 
<>t -tin-  fort.  nK)Untin<r  ;i  few  light  pieces  of  artillery,  and  block-houses 
over  the  gateways.  Within  were  barracks,  a  small  church,  and  about 
a  hundred  houses,  mostly  of  wood,  divided  from  one  another  by  nar- 
row streets,  but  all  separated  from  the  palisade  by  a  wide  space.  The 
garrison  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  men,  and  there  were 
about  forty  others  capable  of  bearing  arms.  Two  armed  schooners 
were  anchored  in  the  river.  Estimates  of  the  force  under  Pontiac 
vary  from  six  hundred  to  two  thousand.  When,  at  ten  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  the  7th,  the  great  chief  entered  the  gate  with  his  sixty 
chosen  warriors,  all  plumed  and  painted,  and  closely  wrapped  in  gaudy 
blankets,  he  saw  at  once  that  his  design  was  known.  The  garrison 
Pontmc  was  ""der  arms  and  posted  in  readiness  for  immediate  or- 
ders, while  every  officer  had  a  sword  and  two  pistols  in  his 
belt.  "Why,"  said  the  chief,  "do  I  see  so  manv  of  mv  father's  young 

tf    "  v  w  • 

men  standing  in  the  street  with  their  guns?"  Gladwyn  answered 
carelessly  that  he  had  ordered  them  out  for  exercise.  With  many 
misgivings,  knowing  what  they  themselves  would  have  done  had  they 
discovered  such  treachery  on  the  part  of  pretended  friends,  the  Indians 
took  the  seats  assigned  them,  and  with  much  embarrassment  Pontiac 
began  his  speech.  He  appeared  to  debate  in  his  own  mind  whether 
it  would  not  be  best,  even  now,  to  attempt  carrying  out  the  plot. 
Once  he  seemed  about  to  lift  the  wampum-belt,  when  a  slight  gesture 
from  Gladwyn  was  instantly  answered  by  the  rattle  of  urnis  at  the 
door,  and  the  warning  roll  of  a  drum.  Pontiac  seemed  confounded  at 
this  evidence  of  the  discovery  of  his  purpose,  and  that  the  English 
were  in  readiness  to  resist  the  proposed  onslaught,  was  silenced,  and 
sat  down.  After  a  pause,  Gladwyn  made  a  short  reply,  assuring  the 
warriors  of  his  friendship  so  long  as  they  deserved  it,  but  telling  them 
that  instant  vengeance  would  be  taken  for  any  hostile  act.  The  conn-  - 
cil  presently  broke  up,  and  the  discomfited  conspirators  were  con- 
ducted to  the  gate. 

The  next  day  Pontiac  and  three  of  his  chiefs  returned  to  present 
Major  Gladwyn  with  a  calnmet,  and  to  assure  him  that  "  evil  birds 
had  sung  lies  in  his  ear."  He  knew  that  Gladwyn  knew  it  was  he 
HC  declares  wno  l'e(l»  anc^  when,  the  following  day,  he  came  with  a  large 
crowd  of  warriors,  he  found  the  gates  barred,  and  was  told 
that  he  alone  might  enter.  Then  he  made  instant  declaration  of  war. 
His  followers  gave  the  war-whoop,  and  running  to  the  houses  of  two 

taken  before  Poutiac,  who  punished  her  with  his  own  hands,  beating  her  with  a  kind  of 
racket  dub  which  the  natives  used  in  their  bull-play.  But  her  life  was  spared.  She  lived 
to  be  an  old  woman,  and  was  at  last  scalded  to  death  in  a  kettle  of  boiling  maple-sup  into 
which  >he  fell  when  drunk. 


1763.]  THE    SIEGE    OF    DETROIT.  317 

or  three  defenceless  English  outside  the  palisades,  murdered  them  and 
shook  their  bleeding  scalps  at  the  soldiers  of  the  fort. 

Pontiac  ordered  the  Ottawa  village  to  be  moved  across  the  river  to 
the  Detroit  shore,  where  it  was  pitched  at  the  mouth  of  Par-  Th(,  sifge 
ent's  Creek  (afterward  called  Bloody  Run),  a  mile  and  a  bf«UD- 
half  northeast  of  the  fort.  He  had  been  joined  by  the  Ojibwas,  and 
on  the  10th  established  a  determined  siege.  From  behind  barns, 
fences,  and  trees,  and  from  inequalities  in  the  ground,  the  savages 
opened  fire,  and  kept  it  up  for  six  hours.  This  was  returned  when- 
ever one  of  the  dusky  forms  could  be  seen.  A  group  of  outbuildings 
which  sheltered  a  large  number  of  them  was  set  on  fire  with  red-hot 
spikes  shot  from  a  cannon,  and  burned  down.  When  the  day  closed, 
no  impression  had  been  made  upon  the  fort,  except  that  five  of  the 
garrison  were  wounded. 

Gladwyn  greatly  underrated  the  extent  and  seriousness  of  the  plot, 
and  on  the  llth  he  opened  negotiations  with  the   Indians, 

/-v  T  TM  i  •    e  Campbell 

through  an   interpreter  and  two  Canadians,     llie  cliiet  re-   ami  MOD., <\- 

,.      i       ,  'it  111  •  !         •   i  T*        i*   i        gal  bi-trayeJ- 

plied  that  he  wished  to  hold  a  council  with  the  English, 
and  asked  that  Major  Campbell,  who  was  second  in  command,  be  sent 
to  him.  The  Major  went,  accompanied  by  Lieutenant  McDougal, — 
rather  against  Gladwyn's  will,  however,  —  and  both  were  detained  as 
prisoners.  McDougal  escaped  a  few  weeks  later,  but  Campbell  was 
afterward  murdered  by  a  savage  to  revenge  the  death  of  his  nephew, 
who  had  been  killed  in  a  skirmish. 

On  the  12th,  Pontiac  compelled  the  Wyandots  to  join  him,   and 
renewed  the  siege.     By  midnight  sallies  and  other  expedients,  the 

•/ 

garrison  gradually  removed  all  buildings,  fences,  and  orchards  that  in- 
terfered with  the  sweep  of  their  guns,  or  gave  shelter  to  the  enemy  in 
their  approaches  to  the  fort.  The  cannon-shot,  of  which,  in  common 
with  all  Indians,  they  had  great  dread,  kept  them  at  a  distance  ;  but 
they  could  still  shoot  their  arrows  tipped  with  burning  tow  upon  the 
roofs  of  the  houses  within  the  palisades.  The  supply  of  water  was 
inexhaustible,  but  it  needed  unwearied  watchfulness  to  guard  against 
this  terrible  danger.  Every  man  in  the  fort  was  constantly  under 
arms  ;  no  possible  precaution  was  overlooked  ;  the  provisions  were 
wisely  husbanded ;  and  friendly  Canadians  across  the  river  brought 
over  considerable  supplies  under  cover  of  darkness.  On  the  other 
side,  the  assailants,  who  had  expected  a  speedy  victory,  had  ex- 
hausted their  scanty  stores  of  food,  and  they  sought  to  replenish 
them  by  robbing  the  Canadian  farmers  of  the  neighborhood. 
When  these  complained  to  Pontiac,  he  replied  that  he  was  coinmissa- 
fighting  for  their  interests  no  less  than  his  own.  Theft, 
he  promised  them,  should  be  stopped,  but  he  substituted  for  it  regu- 


318  PONTIAC'S  WAR.  [CHAP.  XII. 

lar  requisitions  upon  them  for  supplies,  and  gave  them  in  payment 
promissory  notes  drawn  on  birch  bark,  and  signed  with  the  figure  of 
an  otter,  —  all  of  which,  it  is  said,  were  redeemed. 

Gladwyn  kneAv  that  reinforcements  and  supplies  for  his  own  and 
other  posts  were  on  their  way  up  Lake  Erie,  and  one  of  the  schooners 
was  sent  to  meet  the  boats  and  hurry  them  forward.  Unfortunately 
she  missed  them,  and  they  approached  leisurely  along  the  shores  of 
the  lake  till  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Detroit  River,  quite  unsus- 
picious of  any  danger.  While  they  were  making  preparations  to  encamp 
for  the  night,  a  band  of  Wyandots  surprised  and  routed  the  party. 
About  sixty  men  were  killed  or  taken  prisoners,  two  only  of  the  boats 
escaping,  in  one  of  which  was  Lieutenant  Cuyler,  the  commander  of 
the  expedition,  and  about  forty  men.  The  other  boats  the  Indians 
compelled  their  prisoners  to  row  to  Detroit,  where  their  appi'oach  was 
hailed  with  delight  till  it  was  discovered  that  they  were  filled  with 
savages.  They  had  concealed  themselves  in  the  bottoms  of  the  boats, 
and  had  hoped  to  enter  the  fort  by  stratagem.  The  disappointment 
in  the  fort  was  almost  unbearable,  when  they  discovered,  by  a  fight 
in  one  of  the  boats  between  an  Indian  and  a  white  soldier,  that  the 
whole  convoy  had  been  captured,  and  that  the  hoped-for  relief  was 
only  so  much  additional  strength  to  the  savages,  in  arms,  ammuni- 
tion, and  provisions. 

When  Cuyler  reached  Niagara  and  told  his  story,  another  expe- 
dition of  relief  was  started  in  Gladwyn's  schooner,  which  had 
onga  arrived  at  that  place  in  safety.  On  the  23d  of  June  she 

came  in  sight  of  Detroit,  but  for  lack  of  a  breeze  was  com- 
pelled to  drop  anchor.  That  night  the  Indians,  in  their  canoes,  at- 
tempted her  capture  ;  but  when  they  came  within  a  few  yards  of  the 
prize,  a  broadside  of  grape-shot,  with  a  shower  of  musket-balls,  tore 
through  the  fleet  of  birch  bark,  killing  fourteen  Indians,  wounding  as 
many  more,  and  scattering  the  remainder.  Several  days  afterward 
she  succeeded  in  ascending  to  the  fort,  giving  the  Wyandot  village  a 
broadside  of  grape  as  she  passed,  and  came  to  anchor  beside  her  con- 
sort. Besides  food,  ammunition,  and  reinforcements,  she  brought  news 
of  the  Treaty  of  Paris. 

Hut  Pontiac  still  clung  to  his  purpose,  gained  a  few  recruits  among 
the  floating  and  adventurous  population  of  the  Canadian  villages,  and 
pushed  the  siege.  The  schooners  were  a  serious  annoyance  to  the 
Indians,  as  their  fire  swept  the  approaches  to  the  fort,  and  their  guns 
were  frequently  turned  upon  the  camp  of  the  besiegers.  Several 
attempts  were  made  to  destroy  them  by  means  of  fire-rafts,  but  with 
no  success. 

The   Wyandots   and   Pottawotamies  now  sued   for  peace,  and  ex- 


1763.] 


THE  BATTLE   OF   BLOODY   BRIDGE. 


319 


changed  prisoners  with  Gladwyn  ;   but  the  Ottawas  and  Ojibwas  still 
watched  the  fort  and  kept  tip  a  desultory  fire.     Meanwhile  Two  tribes 
a  reenforcement  of  two  hundred  and  eighty  men,  with  artil-   s"6*01"!**06 
lery  and  supplies,  was  coming  from  Niagara  in  twenty-two  barges, 
under  command  of   Captain   Dalzell.      On    the  morning  of 


The   > 

July  29,  favored  by  a  heavy  fog,  they  ascended  the  river  ;  continu,-.i  i.y 

i       i  -,i  p       i         iiT  i  th«  Ojibwas. 

but  as  they  passed  the  villages  ot  the  W  yandots  and  Potta- 
wotamies  a  heavy  fire  was  opened  upon  them  and  fifteen  men  were 
killed  or  wounded. 

Dalzell,  whose  arrival  was  hailed  as  a  promise  of  salvation  to  the 
exhausted  garrison,  soon  proposed  a  rash  plan  for  a  night  attack  on 
Pontiac's  camp.  Gladwyn,  who  better  knew  the  numbers  and  re- 


The  Fire-rafts  in   Detroit  River. 

sources  of  the  Indians,  consented  only  with  great  reluctance  and  many 
misgivings.  At  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  31,  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  led  by  Dalzell,  left  the  fort  and  marched  silently  along 
the  shore  toward  the  Indian  camp,  which  was  on  the  farther  bank  of 
Parent's  Creek.  They  were  accompanied  by  two  large  batteaux,  each 


320  PONTIAC'S  WAR.  [CHAP.  XII. 

carrying  a  swivel  gnn  in  the  bow.  But  some  Canadians  had  learned 
of  the  intended  attack  and  betrayed  it  to  Pontiac,  and  the  Indians 
had  made  the  mile  and  a  half  of  road  that  lay  between  the  fort  and 
the  camp  one  long  ambuscade.  They  were  behind  every  tree  and 
fence  and  house,  silently  watching  their  victims  as  they  unsuspect- 
ingly marched  by.  No  resistance  was  offered  till  the  van  reached  the 
bridge  over  the  creek,  when  a  destructive  fire  was  opened  in  fi'ont, 
and  half  of  the  advance  guard  fell.  Dalzell,  conspicuous  for 

Battle  of          ...  ,    ,     , 

Bloody  his  bravery  and  coolness,  prevented  a  rout  and  led  on  his 
men  through  the  darkness.  But  no  enemy  was  to  be  found 
in  front ;  the  English  knew  nothing  of  the  ground  beyond  this  point, 
and  a  retreat  became  inevitable.  Then  from  every  shelter  along  the 
roadside  flashed  the  guns  of  the  hidden  savages,  and  the  whole  retreat, 
though  marked  by  many  acts  of  brave  devotion,  became  little  more  than 
a  sickening  detail  of  helpless  slaughter.  Those  who  straggled  or  fell 
were  quickly  scalped  as  the  exultant  enemy  closed  in  upon  the  retir- 
ing column.  Dalzell,  already  twice  wounded,  turned  back  to  rescue  a 
Death  of  wounded  sergeant,  and  was  shot  dead.  Major  Rogers  with 
a  strong  party  covered  the  retreat  by  taking  possession  of 
a  strong  house,  which  was  already  crowded  with  refugees,  the  cellar 
being  full  of  women  and  children,  and  the  aged  master  of  the  house 
standing  upon  the  trap-door  that  led  to  it,  to.  keep  out  the  hardly 
less  frightened  soldiers.  Here,  while  the  remainder  of  the  troops 
reached  the  fort,  Rogers  and  his  men  were  besieged  by  two  hundred 
Indians  till  the  batteaux,  which  had  gone  down  laden  with  the 
wounded,  returned  and  drove  off  the  assailants  by  a  fire  from  ths 
swivels  that  swept  the  whole  ground  about  the  house.  In  this  battle, 
known  as  the  fight  of  Bloody  Bridge,  the  English  lost  fifty-nine  men 
killed  or  wounded ;  the  Indians  probably  not  more  than  twenty. 
One  of  the  schooners,  sent  down  to  Niagara  with  despatches,  was 
returning  with  a  crew  of  ten  men,  besides  the  captain  and 
mate,  when  she  was  attacked  in  Detroit  River,  on  the  night 
of  August  4,  by  more  than  three  hundred  Indians,  who 
silently  surrounded  her  in  their  canoes,  and  were  clambering  up  the 
sides  with  their  knives  between  their  teeth,  when  the  alarm  was 
given.  The  crew  sprang  to  the  gunwales  with  spears  and  hatchets, 
and  despatched  more  than  a  score  of  the  assailants.  But  the  captain 
was  killed,  several  of  the  crew  disabled,  and  the  vessel  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  savages,  when  the  mate  roared  out  an  order  to  fire  the 
magazine  and  blow  her  up.  A  few  of  the  Indians  knew  enough  Eng- 
lish to  understand  this  order,  and  in  an  instant  more  the  whole  party 
leaped  overboard  and  swam  off  in  every  direction. 

Notwithstanding  the  supply  of  provisions  brought  by  the  schooner, 


1763.]  ENGLISH  POSTS  TAKEN   BY   THE  INDIANS.  321 

it  was  soon  necessary  to  place  the  garrison  on  short  allowance.  But 
now  the  Indians,  whose  own  provisions  were  failing,  began  to  tire  of 
the  siege,  and  were  further  discouraged  by  news  that  strong  reent'orce- 
ments  from  Niagara  were  coming  to  the  relief.  But  this  expedition, 
under  command  of  Major  Wilkins,  was  overtaken  by  a  disastrous 
storm  on  the  lake.  Seventy  lives  were  lost,  besides  all  the  stores  and 
ammunition,  and  the  survivors  returned  to  Niagara. 

On  the  12th  of  October,  all  except  the  Ottawas  sued  for  peace. 
Gladwyn  replied  that  he  had  no  power  to  make  peace,  but  would  grant 
a  truce.  This  was  finally  accepted,  and  he  took  advantage  of  it  to 
gather  in  a  good  supply  of  provisions  for  the  winter's  use.  The  Otta- 
was maintained  their  hostile  attitude  till  the  30th  of  October,  when 
a  French  messenger  arrived  with  a  letter  from  M.  Neyon,  com- 
manding Fort  Chartres  on  the  Mississippi,  in  which  Pontiac  was  in- 
formed that  he  could  have  no  help  from  the  French,  as  they  were 
now  at  peace  with  the  English,  and  he  was  advised  to  discon-  The  giege 
tinue  hostilities  at  once.  Pontiac  sullenly  i-aised  the  siege,  ralsed- 
and  went  off  into  the  country  bordering  the  Maumee,  where  he  vainly 
endeavored  to  organize  another  movement. 

Though  the  originator  of  this  plan  of  extermination  had  failed  to 
carry  out  his  own  part  in  it,  his  allies  who  attacked  the  other  Attack  on 
English   posts  were   almost  uniformly  successful.      On   the  Sandusky- 
16th  of  May,  seven  Indians  appeared  at  Fort  Sandusky,  commanded 
by  Ensign  Paully,  and  asked  for  a  conference.     They   were  admit- 
ted, and,  at  a  signal,  seized  Paully  and  bound  him.     At  the  same 
instant,  shots  and  shrieks  were   heard  without,  and   in  a  few  min- 
utes the  fort  was  in  the  hands  of  a  band  of  savages,  and  most  of  the 
garrison  were  slain.     They  burned  the  fort,  and   carried  off  Paully 
with  the  intention  of  torturing  him  to  death  ;  but   an  aged  Indian 
widow  offered  him  the  alternative  of  marriage,  which  he  accepted, 
and  after  a  time  made  his  escape.     On  the  25th  of  May,  a  large  party 
of  Pottawotamies  appeared  before  Fort  St.  Joseph,  on  the  0nSt  Jo. 
southeastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  at  the  mouth  of  St.   seph- 
Joseph  River.     This  little  work  was  held  by  Ensign  Sehlosser  with 
fourteen  men.     The  Indians,  crowding  in  under  pretences  of  friend- 
ship, suddenly  fell  upon  the  garrison,  and  in  less  than  two  minutes 
killed  all  but  Sehlosser  and  three  men,  quickly  plundered  the  fort, 
and  carried  its  commander  to  Detroit.     At  Fort  Miami,  on  May  27, 
Ensign  Holmes  was  decoyed  from  the  fort  by  a  story  of  a 
sick  woman  in  the  Indian  village  who  wanted  medical  assist- 
ance.    On  arriving  there,  he  was  shot  dead.     The  fort  was  then  sum- 
moned to  surrender,  with  a  promise  of  mercy  if  no  resistance  was 
made.     Discouraged  by  the  loss  of  their  commander  and  the  numbers 

VOL.  III.  21 


322  POXTIAC'S  WAR.  [CHAP.  XII. 

of  the  Indians,  the  garrison  made  haste  to  surrender.     Fort  Ouata- 
non,  on  the  Wabash,  near  the  present  site  of  Lafayette,  was 

Ouatanon.  -  ,  A  • 

also  captured  by  stratagem  ;  but  the  lives  ot  Lieutenant  Jen- 
kins and  his  men  were  spared  through  the  intercession  of  some  French 
traders. 

At  Michilimackinac  the  Chippewas  assembled  in  great   numbers, 

but  aroused  no  suspicion  of  the  purpose  of   their  visit,  so 


harmless  at  first  was  their  behavior,  and  so  earnest  their 
protestations  of  friendship  to  the  English.  On  the  4th  of  June, 
these  were  invited  to  witness  their  game  of  ball  on  the  plain  in  front 
of  the  fort.  The  whole  garrison  looked  out  upon  the  sport,  from 
open  doors  and  windows,  and  were  thrown  entirely  off  their  guai'd  by 
the  eagerness  with  which  the  savages  followed  the  ball,  intent  appar- 
ently to  drive  it  either  to  one  goal  or  the  other.  The  game  continued 
from  early  morning  till  noon.  Just  outside  the  gate  stood  Captain 
Etherington  and  Lieutenant  Lester,  careless  and  unsuspicious  of  any 
sinister  design.  Hut  the  savages,  in  all  their  racing  and  shouting, 
were  warily  watching  for  the  favorable  moment.  At  length,  about 
noon,  the  ball  was  throAvn  near  the  gate  as  if  by  accident  ;  there  was 
a  sudden  rush,  —  the  two  officers  were  bound  and  hurried  away,  and 
the  savages  poured  into  the  fort.  Their  squaws  were  already  there, 
with  weapons  concealed  in  their  blankets,  which  the  warriors  snatched 
from  their  hands.  So  sudden  was  the  movement  that  the  scattered 
and  unprepared  soldiers  were  incapable  of  defence.  Seventeen  were 
instantly  killed,  and  the  five  or  six  wrho  were  taken  prisoners,  were 
only  reserved  for  a  more  cruel  death.  All  the  English  traders  were 
robbed  of  their  goods  and  they  themselves  led  away  into  captivity. 
But  there  was  no  molestation  of  the  French,  who  had  calmly  wit- 
nessed, and,  for  the  most  part,  probably  approved  of  the  massacre. 

At  Presqu'  Jsle,  near  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Erie,  Pennsyl- 
Attack  on  vania,  was  an  unusually  strong  block-house  commanded  by 
*squ  -ie.  £nsjgn  Christie,  with  a  courageous  and  skillful  garrison. 
On  the  morning  of  June  15,  it  was  surrounded  by  two  hundred 
Indians,  most  of  whom  had  come  from  Detroit.  The  garrison  at  once 
retired  to  the  block-house,  where  thev  held  out  against  an  assault  that 

tt 

had  no  cessation  for  two  days  and  a  half.  The  Indians  threw  fire- 
arrows  and  balls  of  flaming  pitch,  and  again  and  again  the  house  was 
set  on  fire,  but  amid  showers  of  bullets  the  flames  were  extinguished 
by  the  cool  courage  of  the  soldiers.  Rude  breastworks  were  piled  up 
bv  the  savages  on  a  ridge  that  commanded  the  fort,  whence  they 
could  fire  in  comparative  safety.  Some  of  them,  growing  bold,  at- 
tempted to  cross  an  open  space  and  take  shelter  under  the  walls,  but 
were  shot  down  in  the  attempt.  Then  they  resorted  to  mining  ;  and 


1763.]  FORT   PITT.  323 

while  this  work  was  going  on  the  water  in  the  fort  became  exhausted, 
and  the  soldiers,  the  well  in  the  parade-ground  being  out  of  their 
reach,  dug  a  new  one  inside  the  fort.  The  mine  reached  the  house  of 
the  commanding  officer,  which  the  assailants  at  once  set  on  fire,  nearly 
stifling  the  garrison  with  the  smoke  and  heat,  for  it  was  close  to  the 
block-house.  Through  the  night  and  all  the  next  day  the  intrepid 
garrison  fought  without  a  moment's  rest  against  fire,  and  the  incessant 
and  fierce  assaults  of  the  enemy.  When  it  was  evident  that  the  mine 
had  reached  a  point  beneath  their  feet,  and  that  further  resistance  was 
hopeless,  they  surrendered,  but  only  on  condition  that  they  should  be 
permitted  to  depart  unmolested.  The  promise,  however,  was  broken  ; 
they  were  all  bound  and  taken  prisoners  to  Pontiac's  camp,  whence 
Christie  soon  escaped  and  found  refuge  in  the  fort  at  Detroit. 

Three  days  after    this  attack  on   Presqu'  Isle,  Fort    Le  Boeuf,  a 
dozen  miles  south  of    it,  was  surrounded  and  set  on   fire. 

frv     *  n  •  ii-  •  r      i  •  11        Burning  of 

Ensign  Price  and    his  garrison  of  thirteen   men  cut  a  hole   Fort  Le 

Boeuf. 

through  the  rear  wall  of   the  block-house,   and   silently  es- 
caped, while  the   howling  savages  in  front   believed  them  to  be  per- 
ishing in  the  flames.     About  half  of  them  reached  Fort  Pitt,  the  re- 
mainder dying  of  hunger  by  the  way.    Fort  Venango,  still  farther  down 
the   Alleghany,   was    captured  by  a  band  of   Senecas,  who 
gained  admittance  on  some  friendly  pretext.    They  butchered 
the  entire  garrison  at  once,  tortured  Lieutenant  Gordon  to  death  by 
slow  process,  and  then  laid  the  whole  work  in  ashes.     Soon  afterward 
the  same  band  made  a  futile  demonstration  against  Niagara.     Fort 
Ligonier,  forty  miles  southeast  of  Fort  Pitt,  was  attacked  Lig0),ierand 
by  a  strong  force,  but  was  successfully  defended  till  relieved   A"£usta 
by  the  advance  of  Bouquet's  expedition.     Fort  Augusta,  at  the  forks 
of  the  Susquehanna,  was  only  threatened  —  perhaps  because  of  its  sit- 
uation so  far  east. 

At  Fort  Pitt,  where  Captain  Ecuyer  commanded  three  hundred  and 

thirty  soldiers,  traders,  and  woodsmen,  when  news  of  some 

IT  •  •  Fort  Pitt- 

ot  these  disasters  arrived,  the  most  vigorous  measures  were 

taken  for  defence.  The  walls  of  the  fortification  were  repaired  and 
strengthened,  a  larger  supply  of  water  provided  for,  and  an  efficient 
though  rude  steam-engine  was  built.  On  June  23  a  few  Delawares 
appeared,  called  a  parley,  and  with  the  usual  professions  of  friendship, 
said  that  six  great  Indian  nations  had  captured  all  the  other  forts,  and 
were  now  marching  against  this.  "You  must  leave  this  fort,''  snid 
their  chief,  "  with  all  your  women  and  children,  and  go  down  to  the 
English  settlements,  where  you  will  be  safe.  There  are  many  bad 
Indians  already  here,  but  we  will  protect  you  from  them."  Ecuyer, 
who  was  quite  as  cunning  as  the  Indians,  thanked  them  warmly,  but 


324  PONTIAC'S  WAR.  [CHAP.  XII. 

declined  to  go.  He  told  them,  he  said,  "  in  confidence,"  as  a  return 
for  their  kindness,  that  an  English  army  of  six  thousand  men  was  on 
its  way  thither,  while  another  of  three  thousand  had  gone  to  attack 
the  Ottawas  and  Ojibwas,  and  a  third,  on  the  frontiers  of  Virginia, 
would  be  joined  by  the  Cherokees  and  Catawbas,  "  who  are  coining 
here  to  destroy  you.  Therefore  take  pity  on  your  women  and  chil- 
dren, and  get  out  of  the  way  as  soon  as  possible."  The  frightened  In- 
dians withdrew  for  a  time,  but  returned  on  the  26th  of  July,  and  re- 
peated their  proposition,  but  were  defied.  At  night  they  began  the 
attack,  many  of  them  digging  holes  in  the  river  bank,  where  they  could 
shelter  themselves  and  fire  at  every  soldier  who  appeared. 

Colonel  Henry  Bouquet,  by  birth  a  Swiss,  an  able  and  experienced 
Bouquet's  soldier,  who  had  entered  the  English  service  and  was  now  in 
expedition,  command  at  Philadelphia,  was  ordered  to  march  to  the  relief 
of  Fort  Pitt,  with  all  the  force  he  could  muster.  With  five  hundred 
men,  mainly  Highlanders,  he  set  out,  and  about  the  1st  of  July 
reached  Carlisle,  where  he  found  the  population  in  a  state  of  terror. 
Many  of  the  settlements  in  Western  Pennsylvania  had  been  laid 

«/  v 

waste,  and  those  of  the  settlers  who  had  escaped  the  tomahawk  were 
crowding  into  the  villages  farther  east.  There  were  more  in  Carlisle 
than  could  be  sheltered,  and  they  were  encamped  in  the  fields  all 
around  it.  About  the  18th,  Bouquet  was  ready  to  leave  Carlisle,  and, 
sending  forward  thirty  chosen  men  to  Fort  Ligonier,  he  took  both 
that  and  Fort  Bedford  on  his  line  of  march,  and  dispersed  the  Indians 
who  had  gathered  about  and  beleaguered  them  for  weeks.  Thence 
he  passed  on  over  the  ground  traversed  by  Braddock  eight  years  be- 
fore. But  Bouquet  was  as  familiar  with  the  Indian  character  and 
Indian  methods  of  warfare  as  Braddock  had  been  ignorant.  The  vig- 
ilance of  his  men,  on  the  march  or  in  camp,  was  never  relaxed  for  a 
moment  ;  on  such  perpetual  watchfulness  he  knew  that  safety  de- 
pended, and  that  he  could  best  encounter  Indians  with  Indian  tactics. 
At  one  o'clock  on  the  5th  of  August,  they  had  reached  within  a 
Battle  of  niile  °f  a  small  stream  called  Bushy  Run,  by  the  side  of 
uusuyKun.  whjcii  jt  was  proposed  to  encamp  and  give  the  needed  rest  to 
troops  who  had  been  on  the  march  since  daybreak.  Bouquet  was  not 
taken  by  surprise  when  suddenly  a  fierce  attack  was  made  upon  his 
advanced  guard.  Sending  forward  troops  to  their  support,  he  brought 
together  his  horses,  cattle,  and  wagons,  to  secure  their  safety,  sur- 
rounding them  with  a  reserved  corps.  As  the  battle  in  front  evi- 
dently grew  more  furious,  he  led  forward  this  force,  who,  with  rapid 
discharges  from  their  guns  and  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  drove  the 
Indians  before  them  and  relieved  their  comrades.  Then  came  fresh 
assaults  upon  both  flanks,  and  upon  the  convoy  in  the  rear,  and  the 


1763.]  THE    BATTLE    OF    BUSHY   RUN.  325 

troops  fell  back  to  meet  the  tide  of  battle  from  these  unexpected 
quarters.  The  little  army  was  surrounded  ;  the  woods  were  full  of 
Indians,  who,  fighting  from  behind  trees  and  under-brush,  poured  a 
deadly  fire  into  the  troops  collected  in  one  spot.  The  maddened 
horses,  —  there  were  nearly  four  hundred  of  them  in  the  inclosed 
space, — bewildered  and  unmanageable  with  fright  at  the  firing  and 
the  yells  of  the  savages,  plunged  about  wildly  and  created  inextricable 
confusion.  But  the  men  stood  firm.  They  delivered  their  fire  with 
precision,  or  charged  steadily  with  the  bayonet,  whenever  a  chance 
was  offered  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  enemy  ;  though  the  chances  were 
few,  for  the  Indians  fled  to  their  hiding-places  at  every  charge,  to  ap- 
pear again  from  all  sides,  and  to  pour  in  again  their  deadly  fire,  as  the 
soldiers  fell  back  into  line.  So  the  conflict  continued  all  the  after- 
noon, till  the  friendly  darkness  hid  assailants  and  assailed  alike. 

The  situation  seemed  desperate,  and  Bouquet  wrote  that  night  to 
Amherst  in  a  tone  that  showed,  though  he  had  not  lost  courage,  he 
had  little  hope  that  he  and  his  command  would  survive  the  next  day's 
battle.  Already  he  had  lost  sixty  men,  and  many  were  wounded. 
The  camp  was  on  a  hill,  and  they  had  no  water.  The  suffering,  espe- 
cially of  the  wounded,  from  thirst  was  almost  intolerable,  —  "  more 
intolerable,"  wrote  Bouquet,  "  than  the  enemy's  fire."  But  they  had 
only  to  wait  through  the  long  night,  weary  and  faint  with  waiting  and 
watching,  for  what  another  day  would  bring  forth.  Any  attempt  to 
move  the  camp  in  the  face  of  the  enemy  would  be  fatal.  They  must 
conquer  or  die  where  they  were. 

The  day  renewed  the  fight.  With  the  first  light,  the  forest  re- 
sounded with  the  yells  of  the  savages  ;  through  the  branches  and 
leaves  bullets  rattled  like  hail.  It  was  a  question  of  hours  only,  as  to 
how  long  it  would  be  before  every  soldier  would  be  shot  down,  as  all 
stood,  a  conspicuous  target  to  enemies  who  surrounded  them  on  all 
sides,  and  who  took  a  deadly  aim,  each  man  from  his  own  particular 
hiding-place.  To  return  their  fire  was  to  fire  at  shadows ;  to  charge 
was  to  charge  upon  dusky  phantoms  who  flitted  singly  from  tree  to 
tree,  or  faded  out  of  sight  in  the  dim  light  of  the  forest.  Bouquet  was 
hopeless  of  any  successful  resistance,  unless  he  could  bring  these  scat- 
tered and  agile  opponents  into  one  compact  body,  to  remain  so  long 
enough  to  receive  the  crushing  blows  he  knew  the  English  could  deal 
them.  To  do  this,  he  resorted  to  a  stratagem  which  completely  an- 
swered his  purpose.  He  feigned  a  retreat.  Two  companies  of  light 
infantry  were  ordered  to  fall  back  into  the  circle  which  was  Bouquet's 
central  point  of  defence.  On  the  right  and  left  the  troops  opened  their 
tiles  to  receive  them,  and  then  closed  up  in  their  rear  as  if  to  cover  the 


PONTIAC'S   WAR.  [CHAP.  XII. 

retreat  of  the  central  circle.  Two  other  companies  drew  up  as  if  in 
aid  of  this  proposed  retreat,  when  the  Indians,  completely  deceived  by 
these  skilful  and  careful  movements,  and  fearing  that  their  prey  was 
about  to  escape  them,  rushed  headlong,  wild  with  rage,  and  —  that 
which  the  English  so  longed  to  see  —  in  a  compact  body,  to  the  at- 
tack. It  was  a  fierce,  a  terrible  and  destructive  onslaught,  as  it  must 
needs  have  been  ;  but  out  of  it  came  safety.  Had  the  Indians  watched 
more  warily,  they  would  have  seen  there  were  movements  from,  as 
well  as  toward,  the  central  circle.  Two  companies,  under  cover  of 
the  hill,  were  so  placed  that,  as  the  savages  threw  themselves  on  the 
main  body,  determined  to  destroy  it  by  one  united  and  concentrated 
blow,  these  two  companies  poured  in  upon  their  flanks,  dealing  death 
by  bullet  and  bayonet  upon  the  foe  at  last  within  their  reach.  As  the 
Indians  turned  to  fly,  two  other  companies  met  them  in  front,  and  the 
rout  of  the  few  who  were  left  alive  was  complete.  No  savage  had 
time  to  fire  his  gun  more  than  once  ;  he  was  either  dead  or  flying  for 
his  life  before  he  could  load  a  second  time.  The  Indians  who  were 
on  the  other  flank  made  no  attempt  to  help  those  on  whom  such  swift 
ArriTnint  destruction  had  fallen,  but  fled  with  the  utmost  precipita- 
tion. The  English  lost,  in  the  two  days,  eight  officers  and 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  men,  and  the  Indian  loss  was  somewhat 
smaller.  The  march  was  resumed;  the  enemy  made  but  one  attempt 
to  interrupt  it,  which  was  easily  repulsed,  and  on  the  loth  of  August 
the  troops  entered  Fort  Pitt. 

There  came,  not  long  afterward,  general  submission  and   universal 
peace.     Bradstreet,  along  the  lakes,  and  Croghan  and  Bou- 
1766  at  o»-     quet,  in   the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  had  pacified  the  most  war- 
like of  the  tribes,  compelled  the  surrender  of    all    English 
prisoners,  and  induced  the  chiefs  —  Pontiac  among  them  —  to  assemble 
at  Oswego  to  meet  Sir  William  Johnson,  where  a  treaty  was  con- 
cluded in  the  summer  of  1766. 

But  for  many  months,  along  the  borders  of  all  the  midland  colonies, 
the  people  lived  in  perpetual  fear  of  savage  incursions,  subjected  often 
to  atrocities  that  seem  almost  incredible,  and  retaliating  with  as  little 
mercy  when  the  chance  was  offered  them.  Two  thousand  of  the 
whites  were  killed,  and  as  many  families  were  driven  from  their 
homes.  It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  peaceful  tenets  of  the 
Friends  —  who  would  not  believe  that  all  the  fault  was  on  the  side  of 
the  untutored  savages,  who  were  fighting  for  the  lands  which  had  be- 
longed to  them  and  their  fathers  —  exasperated  the  backwoodsmen 
whose  life  was  a  perpetual  warfare.  Some  of  these  on  the  Susque- 
hanua  —  who  came  to  be  known  as  the  kt  Paxton  Men,"  from  the  name 


1766.] 


THE   PAXTON   MEN. 


izi 


of  their  settlement  —  were  restrained  by  no  considerations  of  mercy 
or  of  justice.  Believing  that  some  Indians  at  Conestoga  were  more 
faithful  to  their  own  people  than  to  the  Christians  whose  faith  they 
had  accepted,  the  Paxton  Men  forced  an  entrance  into  a  Theraxton 
house  Avhere  these  Indians  had  been  put  for  safety,  and  mur-  Men 
dered  them  in  cold  blood.  When  others  were  taken  to  Philadelphia 
for  protection,  the  borderers  inarched  on  the  city,  swearing  vengeance 
on  Quakers  and  Indians  alike.  For  a  day  or  two  the  city  was  almost 
in  a  state  of  siege  from  a  mob  of  several  hundred  of  these  rough  men, 
who  had  gathered  at  Germantown,  and  peaceful  Friends  took  up  arms, 
turning  their  meeting-house  into  barracks,  in  defence  of  the  innocent 
and  helpless.  The  frontiersmen  were  at  length  induced  to  disperse 
and  return  to  their 
homes.  Much  of 
their  exasperation 
was  undoubtedly 
due  to  the  inter- 
minable dispute  be- 
tween the  Proprie- 
tary Governors  and 
the  Assemblies, — 
in  which  there  was 
usually  a  large  Qua- 
ker element.  —  the 
latter  always  stur- 
dily maintaining 
their  right  to  tax 
themselves  in  their 
own  way,  and  that 
an  equitable  por- 
tion of  that  taxa- 
tion should  be  borne 
by  the  Proprietaries.  And  this  difference  was  also  aggravated  by  the 
jealousy  of  the  Presbyterians  of  the  influence  of  Friends. 

Pontiac's  conspiracy  had  failed  in  its  grand  object.     But  it  had  re- 
sulted in  the  capture  and  destruction  of  eight  out  of    the 

11       i  f     Result*"! 

twelve  fortified  posts  attacked,  generally  by  the  massacre  ot   tiiecou»pir- 
their  garrisons  ;  it  had  inflicted  upon  the  English  the  wreck 
of  several  costly  expeditions,  and   had  carried  terror  and  desolation 
into  some  of  the  most  fertile  valleys  on  the  frontiers  of  civilization. 
This  able  chief  afterward  succeeded  in  rallying  some  of  the  tribes  of 
the  Illinois   country,  and  was   joined  by  a  considerable   number  of 
French  traders  ;  but  his  followers  gradually  fell  away,  and  in  1766 


Sir  William  Johnson's  House. 


POXTIAC'S  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XII. 


he  gave  in  his  formal  submission  to  Sir  William  Johnson.  In  1769.  a 
Kaskaskia  Indian,  being  bribed  by  an  English  trader  with  a 
barrel  of  liquor  and  a  promise  of  additional  reward,  followed 

the  great  chief  into  the  forest,  where  East  St.  Louis  now  stands,  and 

assassinated  him. 


Death  of 
Pontiac. 


•  Bouquet's  Redoubt  at  Pittsburg. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


ALIENATION   FROM    ENGLAND. 


DEBTS  OF  ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES.  —  WEALTH  OF  AMERICA.  —  THE  NAVIGA- 
TION ACTS.  —  THE  WHITS  OF  ASSISTANCE.  —  PLAN  OF  TAXING  AMERICA  FOK  THK 
ROYAL  EXCHEQUER. — GEORGE  GRENVILLE'S  RESOLUTION.  —  THE  KING  AND  THK 
KING'S  FRIENDS. —  GRENVILLE  AND  THE  COLONIAL  AGENTS.  —  THE  SUGAR  ACT. — 
COLONIAL  PROTEST  AGAINST  TAXATION.  —  OTIS'S  LETTER  AND  BOOK.  —  PASSAGE  OF 
THE  STAMP  ACT.  —  REPLY  OF  THE  COLONIES.  —  FIRST  CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS. — 

THEIR  RESOLVES.  —  RESOLVES 
OF  VIRGINIA.  —  OTHER  MEAS- 
URES OF  OPPOSITION.  —  THK 
STAMPS    REFUSED.  —  MOB    IN 
BOSTON.  —  THE  ENGLISH  GOV- 
ERNMENT.   —    WILLIAM 
PITT.  —  THE  STAMP  ACT 
REPEALED.  —  THE     I)E- 

.  CLARATORY  ACT. CoN- 

FUSION  IN  ENGLISH 
COUNSELS.  —  JOY  FOR 
THE  REPEAL  OF  THE 
STAMP  ACT.  —  FRANK- 
LIN BEFORE  THE  HOUSE 
OF  CoMSIONS. 

THE  end  of  war 
is,  of  course,  a  pe- 
riod    of     universal 
congratulation : 
yet  all  nations  have 
1  e  a  r  n  ed  that  it 
brings  with  it  a  series  of  changes 
in  social,  financial,    and    com- 
mercial    arrangements,     in- 

,     .  ,.,..       ,,.  Results  of 

volvinggreat  dimculties even  tiie  peace  of 
after  victory.  The  peace  of 
1763  was  attended  with  such  results  both  in  England  and  in  America. 
True,  France  was  humbled  and  disgraced,  and  there  were  court  flat- 
terers enough  in  England  to  say  that  her  power  was  broken  forever. 
But  the  wise  Count  de  Yergennes,  one  of  the  ministers  of  France, 


The  Province  House  in   Boston. 


330  ALIENATION   FROM  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

read  the  future  well  enough  to  see  and  to  say  that  the  loss  of  Canada 
by  France  involved  the  loss  to  England  of  her  American  colonies. 
Since  the  event,  many  similar  prophecies  have  been  found  in  the 
words  of  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  and  Americans  of  that  time. 

Both  countries  over-estimated  the  immediate  value,  to  either  crown, 
value  of  °f  tne  province  which  was  lost  and  won.  The  French  Gov- 
Franoea'nd  eminent  did  not  know  how  to  administer  colonies.  It  had 
England.  given  away  the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  King 
of  Spain,  for  mere  want  of  skill  to  make  it  worth  the  trifle  which  it 
cost  the  French  exchequer.  Canada,  though  longer  held,  was  not 
more  profitable.  For  the  bureaux  of  administration,  under  all  dynas- 
ties, have  a  foolish  way  of  valuing  possessions  or  departments  accord- 
ing as  they  are  a  charge  on  the  treasury  or  yield  it  a  profit.  To  Eng- 
land, Canada  was  of  value,  because  its  possession  secured  peace  to  the 
English  colonies,  —  but  hardly  for  its  own  sake.  Even  under  the 
false  "  Colonial  System  "  it  could  hardly  be  claimed  that  the  furs  or 
timber  or  naval  stores  of  Canada  were  any  more  valuable  to  English 
trade  than  those  which  could  be  obtained  in  her  other  colonies. 

What  was  perfectly  clear,  however,  both  in  the  colonies  and  in 
England,  was,  that  the  first  duty  of  peace  was,  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
war.  The  American  governments,  fortunately  for  themselves,  had 
had  so  little  credit  in  Europe  that  they  had  not  attempted  to  borrow 
largely  there.  But  their  home  debts  were  considerable.  That  of  Mas- 
sachusetts alone  was  nearly  £200,000,  not  funded,  —  a  large  sum  for 
those  days, — and  the  province  had  determined  on  a  system  of  tax- 
ation which  should  repay  it  in  five  years.  In  other  colonies,  the  em- 
barrassments caused  by  debt,  in  especial  by  paper  currency,  were  con- 
siderable. The  national  debt  of  England,  almost  doubled  by  the  war, 
was  now  £145,000,000.1  What  had  been  gained  by  the  war?  Safety 
to  the  American  colonies,  and  additional  territory.  True,  the  new 
territory  had  but  a  few  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  and  much  of  it 

*/ 

was  inaccessible  wilderness.  But  on  the  map,  at  least,  it  doubled  the 
English  dominions  in  America,  and  the  thought  was  naturally  sug- 
gested that  America  must  pay  a  part  of  the  enormous  debt,  to  justify 
which  American  provinces  were  the  largest  visible  acquisitions. 

A  habit  had  grown  up,  indeed,  of  justifying  the  subsidies  paid  to 
German  powers,  and  the  other  expenses  of  war  upon  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  by  saying  that  England  could  "  conquer  America  in  Ger- 
many." It  was  not  simply  the  cost  of  the  campaigns  of  Braddock, 
Abercrombie,  and  Wolfe,  which  was  to  be  repaid  ;  it  was  those  more 
doubtful  expenditures  which  had  left  the  memories  of  Minden  and 

1  Private  correspondence  of  that  time  is  full  of  terrors  regarding  it,  and  a  belief  that 
the  nation  is  bankrupt  is  constantly  expressed. 


1760-1775.]  TRADE   OF   THE    COLONIES. 

Fontenoy,  that  were  to  be  met,  if  possible,  by  the  colonies  now  freed 
from  the  dread  of  French  rivalry  or  of  savage  war.  The  money  grants 
made  to  all  the  American  colonies  in  the  war  were  only  a  little  over  a 
million  pounds.1  But  the  charge  of  the  army  and  the  navy,  it  was 
said,  should  be  borne  in  part  by  them.  The  colonists  considered  that 
they  had  borne  their  share  in  maintaining  their  own  contingents  of 
troops,  and  they  had  lost  nearly  thirty  thousand  of  their  young  men 
in  the  war. 

Meanwhile,  the  rapid  increase  of  the  American  colonies,  both  in 
numbers  and  in  wealth,  was  forced  upon  the  attention  even  w-e»ithof 
of  the  most  careless.  It  is  said  that,  between  1765  and  canc™o" 
1775,  two  thirds  of  the  foreign  commerce  of  Great  Britain  nies- 
was  that  which  she  conducted  with  America.  Between  1700  and 
1760,  the  value  of  property  in  England  increased  fifty  per  cent.,  and 
Pitt  declared  this  was  wholly  due  to  the  American  colonies.  Speak- 
ing in  1766,  he  said,  "  The  profit  to  Great  Britain  from  the  trade  of 
the  colonies  is  two  millions  a  year.  This  is  the  fund  that  carried  you 
triumphantly  through  the  last  war.  You  owe  this  to  America."  Let 
it  be  remembered  that  Great  Britain  supplied  three  millions  of  peo- 
ple in  America  with  almost  every  manufactured  article  which  they 
needed  ;  that  she  received  from  her  colonies  the  tobacco  and  much  of 
the  fish,  indigo,  rice,  naval  stores,  and  other  productions  which  she 
required ;  that,  with  her  growing  strength  in  the  West  Indies,  she 
used  her  colonies  on  the  main  land  to  feed  her  islands,  —  and  it  will 
be  understood  that  English  merchants  and  those  who  had  to  deal  with 
them  in  England  conceived  high  ideas  of  the  wealth  to  be  derived 
from  America.  From  1760  to  1775,  Great  Britain  sent  to  New  Eng- 
land, New  York,  and  Pennsylvania  alone,  goods  amounting  in  value 
to  about  £2,000,000  annually.  The  exports  of  the  thirteen  colo- 
nies to  Great  Britain  alone,  as  appeared  from  the  public  statistics, 
were  often  more  than  a  million  pounds  a  year.  In  1773  they  were 
as  much  as  .£1,369,232.  The  comparison  supplies  us  with  an  estimate 
of  the  result  of  the  trade  of  the  colonies  with  the  West  Indies  and 
the  Mediterranean,  from  which  trade  by  bills  of  exchange,  or  other 
methods,  the  English  merchants  were  paid  what  the  direct  exports 
did  not  provide.  There  was  a  constant  drain  of  specie,  which  com- 
pelled the  colonies  to  resort  to  the  issue  of  paper  currency  as  a  cir- 
culating medium  among  themselves,  and  in  its  turn  increased  their 
burdens.  Sir  Robert  Walpole  said  he  supposed  that  if  the  colonies 
should  gain  £500,000  in  trade,  half  of  it  would,  in  two  years,  pass  by 
indirect  channels  into  the  English  exchequer.  There  were  sound 
commercial,  as  well  as  political,  reasons  for  colonial  resistance  to  any 
taxation  in  the  benefits  of  which  they  were  to  have  no  share. 

1  The  precise  sum  was  £1,031,006  13s.  4d. 


332  ALIENATION  FROM  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

In  the  vast  enlargement  of  the  commerce  of  England  and  of  the 
The  Naviga-  colonies,  and  in  the  movements  of  armies  and  navies  in  the 
tion  Act.  war^  £ne  strictness  of  the  "  Navigation  Act "  sustained  many 
severe  strains.  Exceptions  were  made  to  its  principles  by  statute. 
In  particular,  such  exceptions  permitted  direct  commerce  with  Cath- 
olic countries,  which  the  colonies  supplied  with  fish  for  Lent,  and  with 
the  islands  of  the  West  Indies.  More  than  this,  however,  —  the  reve- 
nue officers  had  been  permitted,  and  were  even  expected,  to  overlook 
violations  of  the  act  in  certain  classes  of  trade,  where  the  national 
interest  seemed  to  require  its  relaxation.  But  on  the  whole  these 
laws  were  sustained,  and  with  the  return  of  peace  a  greater  stringency 
was  observed.  Every  province  felt  it,  and  the  annals  of  every  state 
contain  accounts  of  popular  indignation  against  the  officers  of  the  cus- 
toms. In  Boston,  they  were  ordered  to  procure  from  the  Supreme 
Court  general  warrants  authorizing  them  to  search  where  they  would 
for  smuggled  goods.  The  collector  directed  his  deputy  at  Salem  to 
obtain  one  of  these  Writs  of  Assistance,  as  they  were  called.  The 
question  of  legality  was  raised,  and  the  Superior  Court  decided  to 
hear  argument  before  granting  the  writ.  James  Otis,  Jr., 
'  was  Advocate-general,  and  it  was  his  duty  officially  to  ap- 
pear on  behalf  of  the  Crown.  He  refused,  resigned  his  office,  and  at 
the  trial  in  Boston,  in  February,  1761,  appeared,  with  Oxenbridge 
Thacher,  a  leading  lawyer,  on  behalf  of  the  popular  side.  "  Then 
and  there,"  says  John  Adams,  "  American  Independence  was  born." 
"  Otis  was  a  flame  of  five.  With  a  promptitude  of  classical  allusions, 
a  depth  of  research,  a  rapid  summary  of  historical  events  and  dates, 
a  profusion  of  legal  authorities,  a  prophetic  glance  into  futurity,  and  a 
rapid  torrent  of  impetuous  eloquence,  he  hurried  away  all  before  him. 

American  independence  was  then  and  there  born Every  man 

of  an  immense,  crowded  audience,  appeared  to  me  to  go  away  as  I 
did,  ready  to  take  arms  against  writs  of  assistance."  In  this  case,  the 
court  took  time  to  consult  the  English  practice,  which,  as  it  proved, 
permitted  the  issue  of  the  general  warrants.  But  the  warrants, 
though  granted,  were  never  used. 

In  the  interval  between  the  petition  for  the  writ  and  the  hearing 
before  the  Supreme  Court,  Chief  Justice  Sewall,  who  had  doubts  of 
the  legality  of  granting  the  power  of  search,  died.  Hutchinson,  who 
was  Lieutenant-governor,  a  member  of  the  Council,  and  a  Judge  of 
Probate,  was  also  appointed  Chief  Justice,  as  Sewall's  successor,  by 
Governor  Bernard.  There  was  little  doubt  what  the  decision  of  the 
Court  would  be  under  this  new  Chief  Justice.  The  appointment  was 
made,  it  was  supposed,  to  secure  a  decision  in  favor  of  the  Crown ; 
and  the  indignation  and  disgust  were  the  greater  that  the  .choice 


JAMES   OTIS. 
(After  the  jtortrait  by  Blackburn.) 


. 


1764.]  PLAN   OF  TAXING  THE   COLONIES.  333 

should  have  fallen  upon  one  who  already  held  three  other  important 
offices.  In  reply  to  the  bitter  animadversions  upon  such  an  appoint- 
ment, it  was  retorted  that  Otis  had  resigned  his  position  as  Advocate- 
general,  not  from  any  patriotic  motive,  but  because  the  office  of  Chief 
Justice  was  not  given  to  his  father,  James  Otis,  a  distinguished  lawyer 
of  Barnstable,  and  a  member  of  the  Provincial  Assembly.  The  cal- 
umny was  a  baseless  invention,  and  John  Adams  afterward  expressed 
his  surprise,  in  writing  upon  these  events,  that  anybody  should  "  have 
swallowed  that  execrable  lie,  that  Otis  had  no  patriotism."1 

When  the  popular  hatred  had  driven  Lord  Bute  from  the  ministry 
in  1763,  George  Grenville  succeeded  him  as  prime  minister.  GrenviUe<g 
On  the  10th  of  March,  1764,  Grenville  moved,  on  an  amend-  £££„. 
ment  to  the  Sugar  Act,  a  resolution  which  contained  these  tles< 
words :  "  It  may  be  proper  to  charge  stamp-duties  on  the  colonies  and 
plantations."  The  issue  of  these  fatal  words  has  been  so  important, 
that  every  effort  has  been  made  to  trace  the  origin  of  the  suggestion. 
As  early  as  1734,  Governor  Cosby,  of  New  York,  had  proposed  to  the 
Assembly  "a  Duty  upon  Paper  to  be  used  in  the  Law,  and  in  all 
Conveyances  and  Deeds,"  as  a  convenient  method  of  taxation ;  but  the 
Assembly  did  not  accept  the  proposition,  though  it  was  intended  as  a 
colonial  measure.  That  such  a  tax  should  be  levied  by  act  of  Par- 
liament, seems  to  have  been  first  suggested  ten  years  later  by  Lieuten- 
ant-governor Clarke,  of  New  York.  In  December,  1744,  Governor 
Clinton  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle :  "  Mr.  Clarke,  the 
Lieu1  Governor,  lately  showed  me  two  printed  scheimes  tion  oT  fhe*~ 
which  he  said  were  sent  him  from  England."  One  was  of  a  ' 
general  character  in  relation  to  trade ;  but  the  other  was  a  proposal 
'?  for  establishing  by  Act  of  Parliament  dutys  upon  stamp  papers  and 
parchment  in  all  the  British  and  American  Colonys."  "  I  must  beg 
leave,"  adds  the  Governor,  "  to  make  a  short  observation  upon  them," 
—  and  it  was  the  wisest  observation  he  ever  made.  "  The  People  in 
North  America,"  he  continues,  "  are  quite  strangers  to  any  duty,  but 
such  as  they  raise  themselves,  and  was  such  a  scheim  to  take  place 
without  their  knowledge,  it  might  prove  a  dangerous  consequence  to 
His  Majesty's  interest."  2  The  next  reference  to  the  project  is  found 
in  the  English  Archives,  under  date  of  July  5,  1763,  in  a  note  from 
Hugh  McCulloh,  a  treasury  clerk,  in  which  he  says  the  stamp-duty 
on  vellum  and  paper  in  America  would  produce  upwards  of  .£60,000 
a  year.  The  plan  must  have  been  considered,  therefore,  immediately 
after  Grenville  took  the  reins.  For  the  Earl  of  Bute  had  resigned  on 
the  8th  of  April,  1763. 

1  Tudor's  Life  of  James  Otis. 

2  Documents  Relating  to  the  Colonial  History  of  New  York,  vol.  vi. 


334 


ALIENATION   FROM  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.   XIII. 


The  King 
and  "  the 
King's 

friend*."       Of  tjie  Continent. 


According  to  an  anecdote  of  a  later  period,  told  on  the  authority  of 
Benjamin  West,  George  III.,  when  he  came  to  the  throne, 
wished  to  have  a  new  palace,  which  might  rival  the  palaces 

It  is  said  that  the  ground  for  this  new 
Versailles  was  selected  in  Hyde  Park,  and  that  nothing  was  needed 

but  the  money  to  build  it. 
To  obtain  for  the  treasury 
a  larger  revenue  became 
thus  a  personal  wish  of  the 
King  and  the  courtiers,  and 
to  gratify  that  wish  also  the 
scheme  of  a  revenue  from 
the  colonies  was  determined 
on.  There  is  probably  some 
foundation  for  this  story.  It 
is  not  necessary,  however,  to 
go  far  to  find  the  reasons 
why  the  ministers  of  great 
nations  wish  to  increase  the 
receipts  of  the  treasuries 
they  control.  This  is  cer- 
tain, —  that  the  knot  of 
courtiers  who,  at  this  time, 
took  the  name  of  "  The 
King's  friends,"  always  fa- 
vored, as  the  King  himself  did,  all  proposals  for  taxation. 

The  cautiously  worded  clause  introduced  by  Grenville  into  a  sugar 
Gnmviiie  bill  only  committed  Parliament  to  what  might  be  necessary, 
colonies'  an<l  attracted  but  little  observation  in  London,  except  among 
agents  the  agents  of  the  colonial  Assemblies.  The  custom  had  be- 
come general  for  each  Assembly  to  maintain  an  agent  constantly 
in  London,  who  represented  its  interests.  This  custom  illustrates  the 
relations  of  the  colonies  to  the  Crown,  and  shows  how  little  the  As- 
semblies trusted  their  own  Governors  as  mediators  between  them  and 
England.  The  agents  instantly  told  Grenville  that  any  scheme  for 
internal  taxation  would  be  intolerable  to  America.  He  replied  that  he 
should  have  carried  through  the  measure  that  year,  instead  of  indicat- 
ing it  by  a  resolution,  if  he  had  not  himself  thought  it  advisable  that 
the  Assemblies  should  have  notice  of  the  intention,  and  an  opportu- 
nity of  proposing  another  mode  of  contributing  to  this  charge,  if  any 
other  should  be  more  agreeable  to  them.1 

1  There  was  afterwards  much  discussion,  even  in  Parliament,  how  far  this  overture  of 
Grenville's  to  the  agents  went.     A  comparison  of  the  statement  in  Franklin's  letters,  and 


George  III. 


1764.] 


THE   SUGAR  ACT. 


335 


The  Sugar  Act,  which,  by  Grenville's  amendment,  obtained  a  place 
so  important  in  American  history,  was  first  enacted  in  the  The  Sugar 
sixth  year  of  the  reign  of  George  II.  (1734).     In  order  to  Act 
protect  the  English  sugar  colonies,  a  duty,  so  high  as  to  be  practically 
prohibitory,  was  laid  upon  all  sugar  and  molasses  from  foreign  colo- 
nies introduced  into  American  ports.     This  act  expired  in  1764.     In 
renewing  it,  Grenville  wished  to  make  it  remunerative  instead  of  pro- 
hibitory, and  accordingly  changed  both  text  and  title.     The  old  title 
was,  "  An  act  for  the  better  securing  the  trade  of  his  Majesty's  sugar 
colonies  in  America;"  the  new  one 
was,  "An  act  granting  duties  in 
the   colonies   of   America."      The 
duty     on     foreign     molasses     was 
changed  from  sixpence  a  gallon  to 
three  pence,  and  new  duties  were 
imposed  on  coffee,  pimento,  East 
India  goods,  and  wines  from  Ma- 
deira and  the  West- 
ern Islands.    Impor- 
tations   direct    from 
these  islands  to  the 
colonies  were  permit- 
ted, by  one  of  the  nu- 
merous exceptions  to 
the  Navigation  Act. 
The  colonies  had  con- 
ceded the  right  of  the 
government   to  pro- 
tect trade  with  a  pro- 
hibitory tariff;   but 
when    the  preamble  Faneuil  HaM-  l879- 

of  the  new  bill  declared  that  it  was  "just  and  necessary  that  a  revenue 
should  be  raised  there,"  and  it  was  proposed  that  this  be  done  by  a 
tax  virtually  direct,  which  would  burden  almost  every  business  trans- 
action in  the  daily  life  of  the  citizens,  it  aroused  a  storm  of  universal 
indignation.  It  was  an  assumption  by  Parliament  of  a  power  which 

Hutchinson's  account  of  Bollan's  advices  to  Massachusetts,  shows  that  the  fact  is  as 
given  above.  Hutchinson's  statements  are  always  open  to  suspicion,  because  he  wrote  after 
the  result.  But  in  this  case,  the  Assembly's  letter  in  reply  to  that  of  their  agent.  Jasper 
Mauduit,  makes  it  certain  that  Hutchinson  rightly  represents  its  contents.  That  letter 
was  written  by  James  Otis,  June  13,  1764.  It  says  distinctly  :  "  The  kind  offer  of  suspend- 
ing the  stamp-duty,  in  the  manner  and  upon  the  condition  mentioned,  amounts  to  no  more 
than  this,  that  if  the  Colonies  will  not  tax  themselves  as  they  may  be  directed,  the  Parlia- 
ment will  tax  them." 


336  ALIENATION   FROM   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  X11I. 

the  Colonial  Assemblies  had  long  maintained  was  inherent  in  the 
colonies  themselves,  and  considerations  of  private  interest  now  gave 
strength  to  a  principle  of  public  policy. 

When  the  news  reached  Boston  that  it  was  proposed  to  impose  a 
stamp  act  upon  the  colonies,  a  meeting  was  called  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
and  instructions  to  the  representatives  of  the  town  in  the  General 
Court  —  written  by  Samuel  Adams  —  were  adopted.  "There  is," 
said  this  paper,  "  no  more  room  for  delay.  We  therefore  expect  that 
you  will  use  your  earliest  endeavors  in  the  General  Assembly  that 
such  methods  will  be  taken  as  will  effectually  prevent  these  proceed- 
ings  But  what  still  heightens  our  appi-ehensions  is,  that  these 

unexpected  proceedings  may  be  preparatory  to  more  extensive  taxa- 
tions upon  us.  For  if  our  trade  may  be  taxed,  why  not  our  lands  ? 
Why  not  the  produce  of  our  lands,  and  in  short  everything  we  possess 
or  make  use  of?  ....  If  taxes  are  laid  upon  us  in  any  shape,  without 
our  having  a  legal  representative  where  they  are  laid,  are  we  not  re- 
duced from  the  character  of  subjects  to  the  miserable  state  of  tributary 
slaves  ?  "  And  the  instructions  concluded  with  this  suggestion,  —  the 
germ  of  the  union  of  the  provinces,  —  that  "  as  his  Majesty's  other 
North  American  Colonies  are  embarked  with  us  in  this  most  impor- 
tant bottom,  we  further  desire  you  to  use  your  endeavors  that  their 
weight  may  be  added  to  that  of  this  Province  ;  that  by  the  united 
applications  of  all  who  are  aggrieved,  all  may  obtain  redress." 

This  document  the  House  adopted  essentially  as  its  own,  and  sent 
it,  with  James  Otis's  pamphlet  on  the  "  Rights  of  the  Colonies,"  as 
instructions  for  the  guidance  of  Mauduit,  the  Massachusetts  agent  in 
London.  About  the  same  time,  a  committee  to  correspond  with  other 
colonies  "  upon  measures  which  concerned  their  common  interest "  was 
appointed,  as  Adams's  original  report  to  the  town  meeting  had  sug- 
gested. 

The  letter  to  Mauduit,  the  English  agent,  undoubtedly  drawn  by 
James  Otis,  was  explicit.  It  set  forth  the  expenses  which  Massachu- 
setts also  had  sustained  in  these  wars,  carried  on  for  the  benefit  of  the 
empire.  "  Granting  the  time  may  come,  which  we  hope  is  far  off, 
when  the  British l  Parliament  shall  think  fit  to  oblige  the  North 

1  Once  for  all  in  these  pages,  it  may  be  said  here  that  the  use  of  the  word  "British" 
was  the  custom  of  the  time  on  both  sides  of  the  water.  After  the  union  with  Scotland,  it 
had  been  made  a  fashion,  which  had  at  last  taken  root  every  where.  In  literature,  in  Par- 
liament, and  in  correspondence,  the  "  British  army,"  the  "  British  Parliament,"  and  the 
"  British  Constitution  "  were  spoken  of,  —  of  course  correctly,  if  the  feelings  of  Scotland 
were  to  be  considered.  This  habit  has  died  out  in  England,  and  the  custom  of  to-day 
speaks  of  the  "  English  Parliament "  and  the  "  English  Army."  Readers  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott  will  remember  how  unwilling  he  was  to  yield  to  this  habit.  Ignorant  Englishmen, — 
as  ignorant  of  the  literature  of  their  own  country  as  of  everything  else,  —  have  come  to 
regard  the  use  of  the  word  "  British  "  in  American  writers  as  a  provincialism.  The  truth 


1764.]  PROTESTS  AGAINST   TAXATION.  337 

Americans  not  only  to  maintain  civil  government  among  themselves, 
but  to  support  an  army  to  protect  them,  can  it  be  possible  that  the 
duties  to  be  imposed,  and  the  taxes  to  be  levied,  shall  be  assessed  with- 
out the  voice  of  an  American  parliament  ?     If  all  colonists  Colonilll 
are  to  be  taxed  at  pleasure,  without  any  representation  in   i>rotests- 
Parliament,  what  will  there  be  to  distinguish  them,  in  point  of  lib- 
erty, from  the  subjects  of  the  most  absolute  prince  ?     If  we  are  not 
represented,  we  are  slaves." 

This  is  the  same  ground  which  the  House  of  Representatives  had 
taken  two  years  before,  in  a  remonstrance  also  prepared  by  Otis.  In 
that  case,  Governor  Bernard,  in  a  recess  of  the  Assembly,  had  incurred 
a  small  expense,  and  made  a  contract  for  the  future,  which  he  asked 
the  Assembly  to  assume.  The  House  of  Representatives  then  replied 
that  their  most  darling  privilege  was  the  right  of  originating  all  taxes. 
They  said,  "  It  would  be  of  little  consequence  to  the  people  whether 
they  were  subject  to  George  or  to  Louis,  —  the  King  of  Great  Britain, 
or  the  French  King,  —  if  both  were  as  arbitrary  as  both  would  be,  if 
both  could  levy  taxes  without  Parliament."  1 

Other  colonies  were  not  less  alarmed,  and  some  of  them  not  less 
emphatic  in  their  protests  against  the  proposed  tax.  In  October,  the 
General  Assembly  of  New  York  addressed  a  memorial  to  the  House 
of  Commons,  in  concluding  which  they  said  they  had  "  no  desire  to 
derogate  from  the  power  of  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  ;  but  they 
cannot  avoid  deprecating  the  loss  of  such  rights  as  they  have  hith- 
erto enjoyed,  ....  the  deprivation  of  which  will  dispirit  the  people, 
abate  their  industry,  discourage  trade,  introduce  discord,  poverty,  and 
slavery."  And  they  also  at  the  same  time  appointed  committees  to 
correspond  with  the  agent  of  the  province  in  London,  and  with  the 
Assemblies,  or  their  committees,  in  the  other  colonies.  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  and  Virginia  instructed  their  agents  to  ask  for  a  hearing 
before  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Pennsylvania  sent  a  moderate  but 
firm  protest  to  Franklin,  to  be  presented  to  Grenville. 

On  the  llth  of  August,  however,  the  Earl  of  Halifax  had  sent  in- 
structions to  all  the  Governors  in  the  colonies,  that  they  should  at 
once  transmit  to  him  "a  list  of  all  instruments  made  use  of  in  public 
transactions,  law  proceedings,  grants,  conveyances,  securities  of  land 
or  money,  within  your  government,  with  proper  and  sufficient  descrip- 
tions of  the  same  ;  in  order  that,  if  Parliament  should  think  proper 
to  pursue  the  intention  of  the  aforesaid  •  resolution,  they  may  thereby 

is,  the  American  writers  follow  the  custom  of  the  period  when  their  ancestors  were  still  the 
subjects  of  the  "  Best  of  Kings." 

1  Adjourned  session,  September,  1762. 
VOL.  in.  22 


338  ALIENATION  FROM  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

be  enabled  to  carry  it  into  execution  in  the  most  effectual  and  least 
burdensome  manner." 

So  soon  as  the  Massachusetts  Assembly  received  these  tidings,  it 
prepared  an  address,  drawn  up  by  Hutchinson,  to  the  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons.  There  was  much  difficulty  in  framing  it  so  that  it 
should  be  acceptable  at  once  to  the  people,  who  were  represented  in 
the  Assembly,  and  to  the  more  courtly  Council,  which  had  been  se- 
lected by  the  Governor  from  the  candidates  sent  up  by  the  House. 
At  last,  however,  an  address  was  agreed  upon.  When  it  arrived  in 
England,  the  Board  of  Trade  seems  at  first  to  have  refused  to  forward 
it  to  the  King.1  Edmund  Burke  and  Governor  Hutchinson  both  speak 
of  the  refusal  to  receive  this  and  other  memorials.  But  at  the  end 
of  the  year,  perhaps  in  response  to  some  unofficial  instructions,  this 
memorial,  with  Otis's  pamphlet  and  the  New  York  protest,  was  sent 
to  the  King  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  with  the  letter  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Assembly  to  Mauduit,  their  agent.  The  Board  said,  "  We  hum- 
bly conceive  that  in  this  letter  the  Acts  and  Resolutions  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  Great  Britain  are  treated  with  the  most  indecent  disrespect, 
principles  of  the  most  dangerous  nature  and  tendency  openly  avowed, 
and  the  Assemblies  of  other  colonies  invited  in  the  most  extraordi- 
nary manner  to  adopt  the  same  opinions.  We  think  it  our  duty 
humbly  to  lay  these  votes  before  your  Majesty,  together  with  a  book 
referred  to  therein,  printed  and  published  in  Boston,  and  since  re- 
printed and  published  in  London." 

The  Legislature  of  Virginia  met  so  late  in  the  year  that  its  resolu- 
tions were  not  among  those  thus  coolly  condemned  by  the  Board  which 
sent  these  memorials  to  the  King.  When  it  met,  in  November,  1764, 
a  memorial  was  drawn  by  Pendleton  or  Bland,  which  remonstrated 
with  Parliament  against  taxation  without  representation.  The  lan- 
guage was  moderate  in  comparison  with  that  of  after  years,  but  it  did 
not  lack  for  distinctness  in  its  assertion  of  the  principle  for  which  her 
sister  colonies  were  contending. 

With  such  warnings,  Grenville  introduced  the  Stamp  Act,  which 
The  stamp  was  passed  on  the  22d  of  March,  1765.  It  was  debated 
Act>  hotly,  and  was  opposed  earnestly  in  a  full  House ;  but  the 

majority  for  the  measure  was  very  large  —  294  to  42.  By  this  act, 
every  business  document  was  declared  illegal  and  void  unless  written 
on  paper  bearing  the  government  stamp.  The  cheapest  stamp  was 
one  shilling,  and  for  the  more  important  documents  the  prices  ranged 
upward  from  this  sum. 

1  Judge  Marshall  says  the  ground  was  taken  that  petitions  against  money  bills  interfered 
with  the  privilege  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Neither  Burke  nor  Hutchinson  alludes  to 
this  excuse.  If  it  was  made,  the  claim  was  extraordinary. 


1765.]  THE   STAMP  ACT.  339 

The  colonies  had  been  wholly  prepared  for  this  by  the  intimations 
of  the  previous  year,  and  their  indignation  was  all  the  greater  because 
their  remonstrances  were  unnoticed.  Protests  against  parliamentary 
interference  in  taxation,  which  for  a  century  and  a  half  had  been 
made  on  separate  occasions,  were  now  called  forth  at  the  same  mo- 
ment by  one  act,  of  which  for  a  year  they  had  had  warning.  Every 
colony  spoke  in  reply,  and  with  no  uncertain  sound.  The  news  arrived 
in  Massachusetts  before  the  annual  "  election  day  "  in  May.  The 
House  of  Representatives  did  not  so  much  as  compliment  the  Gov- 
ernor by  an  answer  to  his  speech,  but  sent  letters, 
in  the  name  of  the  House,  to  every  Assembly  as  F 
far  as  South  Carolina,  proposing  a  general  con- 
gress to  consult  on  the  circumstances  of  the  colo- 
nies, and  the  difficulties  to  which  they  would  be 
reduced  by  parliamentary  taxation,  and  to  "con- 
sider of  a  general,  united,  dutiful,  loyal,  and  hum- 
ble representation  to  the  King."  The  day  pro- 
posed was  the  first  Tuesday  in  October.  In 
Rhode  Island,  where  the  Governor  was  elected 

A  Royal  Stamp. 

by  the  people,  Ward,  who  held  the  office,  refused 

to  swear  to  carry  out  the  act.     In  Connecticut,  the  Governor,  Fitch, 

took  the  fatal  oath,  fell  from  popular  favor  at  once,  and  was  never 

reelected. 

The  Legislature  of  Virginia  had  also  met  in  May.     According  to 
Patrick  Henry's  recollections,  when  he  was  an  old  man,  there  Henry'« 
was  a  certain  aversion  on  the  part  of  the  leading  members  to  re801"00118 
come  forward.     Observing  this,  he  wrote,  on  the  blank  leaf  of  an  old 
law-book,  four  resolutions  which  became  celebrated.     The  third  and 
fourth  are  in  these  words  :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  taxation  of  the  people  by  themselves,  or  by 
persons  chosen  by  themselves  to  represent  them,  who  can  only  know 
what  taxes  the  people  are  able  to  bear,  or  the  easiest  method  of  rais- 
ing them,  and  must  themselves  be  affected  by  every  tax  laid  on  the 
people,  is  the  only  security  against  a  burdensome  taxation,  and  the 
distinguished  characteristick  of  British  freedom,  without  which  the 
ancient  constitution  cannot  exist. 

"  Resolved,  That  his  Majesty's  liege  people  of  his  most  ancient  and 
loyal  colony,  have  without  interruption  enjoyed  the  inestimable  right 
of  being  governed  by  such  laws  respecting  their  internal  polity  and 
taxation,  as  are  derived  from  their  own  consent,  with  the  approbation 
of  their  sovereign  or  his  substitutes,  and  that  the  same  has  been  con- 
stantly recognized  by  the  King  and  people  of  Great  Britain." 

These  resolutions  were  opposed,  with  great  earnestness,  by  all  the 


340 


ALIENATION   FROM  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  XIII. 


more  prominent  members.  They  said  the  same  thing  had  been  ex- 
pressed in  more  conciliatory  form,  in  the  resolutions  of  the  previous 
year,  to  which  no  answer  was  yet  received.  Henry  supported  his  res- 
olutions with  all  the  fire  of  his  eloquence.  It  was  in  the  midst  of 
this  debate  that  he  exclaimed,  "  Csesar  had  his  Brutus,  Charles  the 
First  his  Cromwell,  and  George  the  Third  —  "  ("  Treason  ! "  cried 
the  Speaker.  "  Treason !  treason  !  "  echoed  from  every  part  of  the 
house.)  Henry  faltered  not  for  an  instant,  but  rising  to  a  loftier  atti- 
tude, and  fixing  on  the  Speaker  a  look  of  determination,  finished  his 
sentence  with  the  firmest  emphasis —  '•'•may profit  by  their  example.  If 
this  be  treason,  make  the  most  of  it." 

The  resolutions  passed  by  a  very  close  vote ;  the  last  of  the  series 

by  one  majority  only.  It 
was  afterwards  remembered 
that  the  messenger  who  car- 
ried to  Massachusetts  these 
resolutions  of  Virginia, 
passed  on  the  way,  and  con- 
versed with,  the  messenger 
who  carried  to  Carolina  and 
Virginia  the  invitation  of 
Massachusetts  to  a  Conti- 
nental Congress. 

The  resolutions  of  Virginia 
were  passed  on  the  29th  of 
May,  1765.  The  Massachu- 
setts Assembly  met  the  same 
week.  As  the  summer  passed, 
the  arrival  of  bales  of  stamped 
Patr.ck  Henry.  paper  and  the  commissions 

for  the  new  officers  who  were  to  sell  the  stamps,  was  the  signal  in 
each  seaport  for  the  expression  of  popular  indignation.  The  col- 
lectors were  hung  in  effigy  ;  they  were  "  waited  on  "  by  mobs,  and 
compelled  to  decline.  As  successive  Assemblies  met,  they  pronounced 
the  Stamp  Act  illegal.  And  nine  Assemblies  appointed  their  dele- 
gates, in  answer  to  the  invitation  of  Massachusetts,  to  the  First  Con- 
tinental Congress.  It  met  in  the  city  of  New  York  on  the  first 
Tuesday  of  October,  1765.  Twenty-eight  delegates  constituted  the 
congress  of  Assembly.  They  chose  General  Timothy  Ruggles,  of  Massa- 
htidnueNew  chusetts,  President.1  This  Congress  was  composed  of  some 
York-  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in  the  colonies.  They  had 

been  chosen,  also,  with  the  wish  to  have  the  colonies  fairly  repre- 

1  He  did  not  concur  in  the  conclusions  of  the  Congress. 


1765.] 


THE  FJRST   CONTINENTAL   CONGRESS. 


341 


sented.     On  the  roll  are  found  the  names  of  some  who,  in  the  final 
issue,  sided  with  the  Crown.     But  their  resolution  was  decided  ;   it 
satisfied  the  most  eager  ;  it  surprised  the  royal  Governors  ;  it  prob- 
ably surprised  the  government  in  England.      The  resolves  Theirpro. 
which  the  Congress  agreed  upon  should  be  studied  for  a  pre-  ***** 
cise  view  of  the  position  in  which  at  that  moment  the  country  stood, 
now  united  for  the  first  time.     They  are  in  the  following  words  :  — 

"  The  members  of  the  Congress,  sincerely  devoted,  with  the  warm- 
est sentiments  of  affection  and  duty,  to  his  Majesty's  person  and  gov- 
ernment, inviolably  attached  to  the  present  happy  establishment  of 
the  Protestant  suc- 
cession, and  with 
minds  deeply  im- 
pressed by  a  sense 
of  the  present  and 
impending  misfor- 
tunes of  the  British 
Colonies  on  this  con- 
tinent, having  con- 
sidei-ed,  as  maturely 
as  time  will  permit, 
the  circumstances  of 
the  said  colonies,  es- 
teem it  our  indis- 
pensable duty  to 
make  the  following 
declaration  of  our  humble  opinion  respecting  the  most  essential  rights 
and  liberties  of  the  colonies,  and  of  the  grievances  under  which  they 
labour  by  reason  of  several  late  acts  of  Parliament. 

"  I.  That  his  Majesty's  subjects  in  these  colonies  owe  the  same  alle- 
giance to  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain  that  is  owing  from  his  subjects 
born  within  the  realm,  and  all  due  subordination  to  that  august  body, 
the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain. 

"  II.  That  his  Majesty's  liege  subjects  in  these  colonies  are  entitled 
to  all  the  inherent  rights  and  liberties  of  his  natural-born  subjects 
within  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain. 

"  III.  That  it  is  inseparably  essential  to  the  freedom  of  a  people, 
and  the  undoubted  right  of  Englishmen,  that  no  taxes  be  imposed  on 
them  but  with  their  own  consent,  given  personally  or  by  their  repre- 
sentatives. 

"  IV.  That  the  people  of  these  colonies  are  not,  and  from  their 
local  circumstances  cannot  be,  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
in  Great  Britain. 


Old  City  Hall,  Wall  St.,  where  the  First  Continental  Congress  met 


342  ALIENATION  FROM  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

"  V.  That  the  only  representatives  of  the  people  of  these  colonies 
are  persons  chosen  therein  by  themselves,  and  that  no  taxes  ever  have 
been  or  can  be  constitutionally  imposed  on  them  but  by  their  respect- 
ive legislatures. 

"  VI.  That  all  supplies  to  the  Crown  being  free  gifts  of  the  people, 
it  is  unreasonable  and  inconsistent  with  the  principles  and  spirit  of 
the  British  Constitution,  for  the  people  of  Great  Britain  to  grant  to 
his  Majesty  the  property  of  the  Colonists. 

"  VII.  That  trial  by  jury  is  the  inherent  and  invaluable  right  of 
every  British  Subject  in  these  Colonies. 

"  VIII.  That  the  late  act  of  Parliament,  entitled  '  An  Act  for 
granting  and  applying  certain  stamp  duties,  and  other  duties  in  the 
British  Colonies  and  plantations  in  America,  etc.,'  by  imposing  taxes 
on  the  inhabitants  of  these  Colonies,  and  the  said  act,  and  several 
other  acts,  by  extending  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Admiralty 
beyond  its  ancient  limits,  have  a  manifest  tendency  to  subvert  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  colonists. 

"  IX.  That  the  duties  imposed  by  several  late  acts  of  Parliament, 
from  the  peculiar  Circumstances  of  these  Colonies,  will  be  extremely 
burthensome  and  grievous,  and  from  the  scarcity  of  specie  the  pay- 
ment of  them  is  absolutely  impracticable. 

"  X.  That  as  the  profits  of  the  trade  of  these  Colonies  ultimately 
centre  in  Great  Britain  to  pay  for  the  manufactures  which  they  are 
obliged  to  take  from  thence,  they  eventually  contribute  very  largely 
to  all  supplies  granted  there  to  the  Crown. 

"  XI.  That  the  restrictions  imposed  by  several  late  acts  of  Parlia- 
ment on  the  trade  of  these  Colonies  will  render  them  unable  to  pur- 
chase the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain. 

"  XII.  That  the  increase,  prosperity,  and  happiness  of  these  Colo- 
nies depend  on  the  full  and  free  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and  liber- 
ties, and  an  intercourse  with  Great  Britain,  mutually  affectionate  and 
advantageous. 

"XIII.  That  it  is  the  right  of  the  British  subjects  in  these  Colo- 
nies to  petition  the  King,  or  either  house  of  Parliament. 

"  Lastly,  that  it  is  the  indispensable  duty  of  these  Colonies  to  the 
best  of  sovereigns,  to  the  mother  country,  and  to  themselves,  to  en- 
deavour by  a  loyal  and  dutiful  address  to  his  Majesty,  and  humble 
applications  to  both  houses  of  Parliament,  to  procure  the  repeal  of  the 
act  for  granting  and  applying  certain  stamp  duties,  of  all  clauses  of 
any  other  acts  of  Parliament,  whereby  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Admi- 
ralty is  extended  as  aforesaid,  and  of  the  other  late  acts  for  the  restric- 
tion of  American  commerce." 

Similar   resolves   were   passed   in   many  of   the  Colonial   Assem- 


1785.]  OPPOSITION   TO   THE   STAMP   ACT.  343 

blies,  Virginia  taking  the  lead  in  a  series  which  encouraged  all  the 
others. 

Among  the  measures  already  taken  in  the  colonies  to  resent  the 
proposal  of  taxation,  were  agreements  by  which  the  asso-  Me(lfiure(tof 
ciates  bound  themselves  not  to  import  English  goods,  and  "I'l™"1011- 
orders  that  had  gone  forward  were  countermanded.  Retail  traders 
agreed  not  to  buy  and  sell  such  goods  if  they  were  brought  into  the 
country  ;  and  in  New  York  a  fair  was  opened  for  the  exhibition  and 
the  encouragement  of  domestic  manufactures.  It  was  agreed  not  to 
put  on  mourning  apparel,  as  the  required  stuffs  were  English.  That 
the  growth  of  wool  might  be  encouraged,  it  was  determined  that  lambs 
should  not  be  used  as  food.  The  royal  Governors,  in  that  delusion 
which  ruled  them  through  the  whole,  spoke  with  contempt  of  these 
compacts.  But  they  were  so  powerful  as  to  govern  the  whole  course 
of  the  year's  trade,  and  were  sufficient  to  appall  some  of  the  largest 
manufacturing  towns  in  England.  Manchester  first  appears  in  the 
parliamentary  history  as  a  place  of  importance  at  this  crisis,  when 
the  petition  of  her  manufacturers  asserts  that  nine  tenths  of  their 
workmen  are  unemployed. 

It  was  soon  found  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  enforce  the  use  of 
stamped  paper,  though  the  refusal  suspended  the  whole  busi-  popuiarhos. 
ness  of  the  country.      Mr.  Oliver,  the  agent  for  its  distri-  J^y^* 
bution  in  Massachusetts,  was  compelled  to  resign,  and  after-  tnbutors 
ward  required  by  a  mob  to  renew  his  resignation  in  public.     His  win- 
dows were  broken  and  his  house  entered,  in  the  violence  of  the  trans- 
action.    Gaining  courage  by  the  quiet  with  which  this  outrage  was 
received,  the  mob  attacked  the  house  of  his  brother-in-law,  Lieuten- 
ant-governor Hutchinson,  which  was  entered,  and  everything  in  it 
thrown  into  the  street  and  destroyed  or  carried  away.1    The  Mob8  in 
local  authorities  called  out  the  militia,  and  offered  rewards  Boston- 
for  the  arrest  of  the  ringleaders.     But  when  some  persons  were  ar- 
rested, another  mob  released  them. 

In  other  colonies,  violent  measures  or  peaceable  agreements  were 
resorted  to  with  the  same  result.  Except  among  those  holding  office 
under  the  Crown,  there  was  but  one  feeling.  The  newspapers  — 
whose  influence  then  was  less  through  editorial  comment  upon  public 
affairs,  and  more  in  letters  from  private  citizens  —  led  public  opinion 
in  warm  appeals  to  patriotism,  as  well  as  in  dispassionate  essays  upon 
the  rights  of  the  people.  In  New  York,  an  association  called  the 
Sons  of  Liberty  a  took  upon  itself  the  direction  of  the  opposition. 

1  The  estimate  of  the  damage  was  £2,500,  which  may  he  taken  as  the  value  of  the  fur- 
niture and  other  property  in  one  of  the  most  elegant  establishments  in  Boston,  at  that  time. 
*  When  the  Stamp  Act  was  passing  through  Parliament,  Charles  Townsheud  spoke  of 


344 


ALIENATION  FROM  ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  XIII. 


Similar  associations  were  formed  in  other  provinces,  and  a  committee 
of  correspondence  gave  to  that  opposition  the  strength  of  mutual  and 

concentrated   purpose.      Lieu- 
tenant-governor Golden  made 
military   preparations   for 
resistance,  and  was  only 
prevented  by  General 
*•*      Gage,  the  commander- 
in-chief,    from    firing 
upon  the  people  when 
they  gathered    about 


Burning  the  Stamps. 

the  Fort  and  demanded  that  the  stamps 

should  be  surrendered.     Golden  was 

burnt  in  effigy;  the  house  of  Major' 

James  was  sacked,  and  its  contents  completely  destroyed.     He  had 

made  himself  peculiarly  obnoxious  by  declaring  that  "  he  would  cram 

the  colonies  as  planted  by  the  care  of  England.     It  was  then  that  Colonel  Barre  broke  out 
in  that  brilliant  and  indignant  defence  of  the  colonies,  where  in  the  French  War  he  had 


1765.]  POPULAR   EXCITEMENT.  345 

the  stamps  down  their  throats  with  the  end  of  his  sword;"  that  "if 
they  attempted  to  rise  he  would  drive  them  all  out  of  the  town,  for  a 
pack  of  rascals,  with  four  and  twenty  men."  Golden  was  at  length 
compelled,  by  the  popular  excitement  and  violence,  to  pledge  himself 
not  to  use  the  stamps,  and  to  deposit  them  with  the  city  Goveniment 
for  safe-keeping.  When  a  vessel  arrived  in  the  harbor  of  New  York 
with  stamps  on  board  for  use  in  Connecticut,  the  vessel  was  boarded, 
the  packages  seized,  taken  on  shore,  and  a  bonfire  made  of  them.  In 
Philadelphia,  the  stamp-distributor,  one  Hughes,  made  haste  publicly  to 
resign  his  office  when  informed  that  his  rather  tardy  deliberation  would 
be  aided  by  a  visit  from  the  Sons  of  Liberty.  In  Maryland,  the  dis- 
tributor, Hood,  was  burnt  in  effigy,  and  when  he  fled  to  New  York,  a 
deputation  from  the  "  Sons  "  visited  him  at  Flushing,  demanded  and 
received  a  formal  resignation  of  his  office,  and  an  oath  that  he  would  not 
resume  it.  In  every  province,  the  stamp-distributor  was  compelled  to 
resign  his  office.  In  New  Hampshire,  the  commission  of  that  officer 
was  carried  in  procession  upon  the  point  of  a  sword  ;  the  newspaper 
of  Portsmouth  came  out  in  mourning,  and  an  effigy  of  the  Goddess 
of  Liberty  was  carried  to  an  open  grave.  In  South  Carolina,  the 
Stamp  Act  was  publicly  burnt,  while  the  bells  of  Charleston  tolled, 
and  the  flags  on  the  ships  in  the  harbor  were  hung  at  half-mast. 

The  Constitution  of  England  was  by  no  means  yet  adjusted  on  its 
present  basis,  or  on  what  were  then  called  "  constitutional  The  E^;,^ 
principles."  George  III.  had  steadily  carried  forward  his  BOTemment- 
notions  of  a  possible  royal  prerogative,  such  as  his  predecessors,  George 
I.  and  George  II.,  had  been  content  to  yield.  The  Earl  of  Bute,  the 
favorite  of  the  young  King's  mother,  and  the  head  of  his  household 
when  he  was  a  prince,  had  indeed  ceased  to  rule  ;  but  the  popular 
indignation  suspected,  however  unjustly,  that  his  influence  still  con- 
trolled the  government  when  Grenville  was  crowded  out  of  power 
before  the  year  closed,  chiefly  from  the  feeling  that  he  was  Bute's  tool 
and  appointed  successor.  Under  the  powerful  patronage  of  the  Duks 

served  as  a  soldier.  "  They  planted  by  your  care  !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  No,  your  oppres- 
sions planted  them  in  America They  nourished  up  by  your  indulgence  !  They  grew 

by  your  neglect  of  them.  As  soon  as  you  began  to  care  about  them,  that  care  was  exer- 
cised in  sending  persons  to  rule  them  in  one  department  and  another,  who  were  perhaps 
the  deputies  of  deputies  to  some  mem!>er  of  this  House,  sent  to  spy  out  their  liberties,  to 
misrepresent  their  actions,  and  to  prey  upon  them  ;  men  whose  behaviour  on  many  occa- 
sions has  caused  the  blood  of  those  sons  of  Utterly  to  recoil  within  them."  The  speech  was 
reported  by  Jared  Ingersoll,  the  agent  of  Connecticut,  and  was  probably  widely  and  grate- 
fully read  in  America  before  the  Sons  of  Liberty  in  New  York  had  formed  their  association 
and  given  it  a  name.  "I  am  happy  to  hear  of  your  success  the  American  day,"  wrote  the 
Earl  of  Shelburne  to  Barre.  "It  must  give  your  friends  in  America  the  greatest  pleas- 
ure."—  Fitzmaurice's  Life  of  Shelburne.  Mr.  J.  Hammond  Trumbull  has  shown  that  the 
phrase  "sons  of  liberty  "had  been  used  many  years  before  in  Connecticut.  But  it  had 
then  been  applied  to  freedom  from  ecclesiastical  rather  than  political  tyranny. 


346  ALIENATION   FROM  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

of  Cumberland,  a  new  cabinet,  which  was  really  independent  of  the 
Earl  of  Bute,  came  into  being,  headed  by  the  Marquis  of  Rocking- 
ham.  This  Rockingham  ministry  was  so  much  engaged  in  home  poli- 
tics, and  in  securing  its  own  existence,  that  when  it  became  necessary 
to  call  Parliament  together,  in  December,  1765,  it  had  come  to  no 
understanding  ou  its  course  regarding  America ;  the  King's  speech 
simply  referring  to  the  importance  of  the  news  received  from  there. 
Grenville,  enraged  by  this  news,  moved  an  amendment  to  the  address, 
full  of  indignation.  The  Ministers  were  not  yet  reflected  to  Parlia- 
ment, and,  with  some  difficulty,  Grenville,  in  deference  to  them,  with- 
drew his  motion.  But  after  the  recess  the  storm  came. 

Strange  to  say,  however,  even  in  the  recess,  the  Ministry  could  not 
agree  on  their  course.  Nor  had  they  agreed  when  the  necessity  of  ac- 
tion was  forced  upon  them.  Then  ensued  one  of  the  most  dramatic 
scenes  that  Parliament  ever  witnessed,  and  the  debate  of  January, 
1766,  which  is  one  of  the  most  memorable  in  history. 

It  was  a  year  since  William  Pitt  had  appeared  in  the  House.  The 
wiiiiam  formal  debate  on  the  address  to  the  King  came  on.  A 

young  member,  whom  the  world  did  not  know,  but  who  has 
since  given  us  the  most  vital  history  of  this  whole  business,  —  Edmund 
Burke,  —  made  his  maiden  speech.  Pitt  rose  immediately  after  him, 
the  whole  House  eager  to  hear  the  voice  of  the  oracle.  He  began  by 
congratulating  Parliament  and  Burke's  friends  on  the  value  of  the 
acquisition  of  such  a  member,  and  then  went  on  to  speak  doubtfully, 
even  sarcastically,  of  the  Ministry.  At  last  he  came  to  speak  of 

America  :  "  When  the  resolution  was  taken  in  the  House 
fence  of  to  tax  America,  I  was  ill  in  bed.  If  I  could  have  endured 

America.  ,  .     ..   .  .        .  r         .      , 

to  be  carried  in  my  bed,  so  great  was  my  agitation  or  mind 
for  the  consequences,  I  would  have  solicited  some  kind  hand  to  have 
laid  me  down  on  this  floor  to  have  borne  my  testimony  against  it. 
....  Since  I  cannot  depend  upon  health  for  any  future  day,  I  will 
now  say  thus  much,  that  in  my  opinion  this  kingdom  has  no  right  to 
lay  a  tax  upon  the  colonies Taxation  is  no  part  of  the  gov- 
erning or  legislative  power.  At  the  same  time,  on  any  real  point  of 
legislation,  I  believe  the  authority  of  Parliament  to  be  fixed  as  the 
Polar  Star,  fixed  for  the  reciprocal  benefit  of  the  mother  country  and 
her  infant  colonies.  They  are  the  subjects  of  this  kingdom,  equally 
entitled  with  yourselves  to  all  the  natural  rights  of  mankind,  and  the 
peculiar  privileges  of  Englishmen,  and  equally  bound  by  its  laws. 
The  Americans  are  the  sons,  not  the  bastards,  of  England."  J 

1  It  was  in  this  speech  that  Pitt  made  his  celebrated  prophecy  thnt  the  "  rotten  part  of 
the  Constitution"  —  by  which  he  meant  the  "rotten  borough"  system — would  not  con- 
tinue a  century. 


1765.] 


MEMORABLE   LANGUAGE   OF   PITT. 


347 


At  the  close  of  this  speech  a  long  pause  ensued.  Then  General 
Con  way  rose,  —  the  leader  of  the  Ministry  in  the  House.  He  was 
one  of  the  few  men  who  had  voted  against  the  Stamp  Act.  He  said 
lie  agreed  with  almost  every  word  which  Pitt  had  uttered,  and  he  be- 
lieved the  Ministers  did ;  and  he  disclaimed  distinctly  the  charge 
which  Pitt  had  made  in  the  speech,  that  the  Earl  of  Bute  still  had  an 
influence  in  the  royal  councils. 

George  Grenville,  of  course,  could  not  bear  silently  such  attacks  on 
his  policy.  He  defended  the  Stamp  Act  ably.  He  said  the  origin 
of  the  American  hatred  to  it 
was  to  be  found  in  the  fac- 
tions of  the  House.  When 
he  ceased  speaking,  Pitt  rose 
to  answer  him,  though  to 
speak  twice  was  forbidden 
by  the  rules.  But  the  House 
cried,  "Go  on  !"  and  Pitt 
went  on.  "  The  gentleman 
tells  us  America  is  obsti- 
nate, America  is  almost  in 
open  rebellion.  Sir,  I  rejoice 
that  America  has  resisted  ! 
Three  millions  of  people  so 
dead  to  all  the  feelings  of 
liberty  as  voluntarily  to  sub- 
mit to  be  slaves,  would  have 
been  fit  instruments  to  make 
slaves  of  all  the  rest." 
These  words,  perhaps,  more 
than  any  others  in  those  celebrated  addresses,  endeared  Pitt  to  the 
Americans.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  other  words  more  widely  re- 
peated, even  by  school-boys  in  their  declamations,  for  more  than  a 
hundred  years. 

The  address  to  the  King  determined  nothing.  But  Pitt's  speeches 
fixed  the  minds  of  the  wavering  ministers.  He  had  given 

i  i-  i  •  iii  -11          The  results. 

them  a  policy,  and  they  were  sure  it  would  be  sustained  by 
the  House.  In  compliance  with  his  ideas,  they  brought  in  a  bill  re- 
pealing the  Stamp  Act,  and  another  declaring  the  supreme  power  of 
Parliament  over  the  colonies.  They  also  laid  on  die  table  large  ex- 
tracts from  the  American  correspondence.  The  House  heard  at  its 
bar  witnesses  acquainted  with  the  subject,  among  others,  Dr.  Frank- 
lin.1 This  examination  closed  with  these  questions  and  answers :  — 

1  The  full  report  of  the  examination,  all  alive  with  Franklin's  \\isdum  and  wit,  is  iu 
Sparks's  Franklin,  vol.  iv.,  p.  192,  and  iu  earlier  editions  of  Franklin's  Works. 


Edmund  Burke. 


348  ALIENATION   FROM   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

"  Q.  What  used  to  be  the  pride  of  Americans  ? 

"  A.  To  indulge  in  the  fashions  and  manufactures  of  Great  Britain. 

"  (J.  What  is  now  their  pride  ? 

"  A.  To  wear  their  old  clothes  over  again." 

If  the  final  result  of  Pitt's  eloquence,  of  Conway's  conviction,  of 
Franklin's  wit  and  wisdom,  and  the  apparent  wish  of  the  majority  of 
the  House,  seems  to  us  a  confused  medley,  we  are  no  worse  off  than 
they  were  who  participated  in  it.  Pitt  wrote  to  his  wife,  confiden- 
tially, on  the  llth  of  February,  "The  whole  of  things  is  inexplicable." 
Lord  Chesterfield  wrote  to  his  son  the  same  day,  "  Perhaps  you  ex- 
pect from  me  a  particular  account  of  the  present  state  of  affairs.  If 
you  do,  you  will  be  disappointed,  for  no  man  living  knows  what  it  is." 
In  truth,  the  ministers  were  disappointed  in  their  effort  to  state,  in 
resolutions,  the  doctrines  which  Pitt  had  laid  down.  The  Stamp  Act 
could  be  repealed  ;  but  the  law  officers  would  not  consent  to 

Conflict  of  ........  i-i  i> 

opinions        any  statement  of  his  favorite  doctrine  that  the  right  to  legis- 

aniong  Eng-    ,  •«_•'«  ••     '«  TI/~II 

luh  states-  late  and  the  right  to  tax  were  distinct.  Lord  Camden  un- 
derstood, and  maintained  the  distinction.  But  Lord  Mans- 
field ridiculed  it,  and,  when  the  bill  was  to  be  drawn,  he  would  not 
hear  of  it.  Pitt  and  Camden  both  said  that  taxation  and  legislation 
were  separate.  Pitt's  statement  had  been,  "  that  we  may  bind  their 
trade,  confine  their  manufacture,  and  exercise  any  power,  except  only 
that  of  taking  their  money  from  their  pockets  without  their  own  con- 
sent.'' But  the  Declaratory  Act,  as  drawn  by  the  law  advisers  of  the 
Crown,  instead  of  saying  this,  said  that  the  power  of  Parliament  was 
supreme  over  the  colonies,  and  extended  to  all  cases  whatsoever.  It 
always  happens  that  a  body  like  Parliament  prefers  the  larger  defi- 
nition of  its  own  authority,  and  Pitt  writes  to  his  wife,  in  the  same 
letter  which  has  been  cited,  "  We  debated  long  on  various  resolu- 
tions relating  to  America,  and  finally  ended  in  a  good  deal  of  agree- 
ment.'' It  seemed  to  him,  as  to  all  men  eager  for  a  solution  of  the 
immediate  difficulty,  that  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  the  great 
practical  object. 

Meanwhile  the  Ministry  were  embarrassed  on  another  side.     They 
were  embarrassed,  as  those  who  dealt  with  George  III.  often  were,  by 
finding  they  had  misconceived  his  wishes.     Before  the  debate  was 
over,  the  leaders  in  the  House  found  they  were  speaking  and  voting 
against   "  the  King's  friends."     But  this  misunderstanding  was  ex- 
plained, and,  at  the  moment,  wrought  them  no  mischief. 
'General  Conway  brought  in  the  resolution  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  on  the  17th  of  February,  1766.    After  another  re- 
the i  stamp      markable  debate  in  March,  in  which  Grenville  and  Pitt  both 
spoke,  the  vote  in  its  favor  was  275  to  167.     Describing  this 


1766.]  REJOICINGS  IN  THE  COLONIES.  349 

occasion,  eight  years  after,  Burke  said  :  "  I  remember,  Sir,  with  a  mel- 
ancholy pleasure,  the  situation  of  the  honorable  gentleman  (General 
Conway)  who  made  the  motion  for  the  repeal ;  when  the  whole  trad- 
ing interest  of  this  Empire,  crammed  into  your  lobbies,  with  a  trem- 
bling and  anxious  expectation,  waited,  almost  to  a  winter's  return  of 
light,  their  fate  from  your  resolutions.  When  at  length  you  had  de- 
termined in  their  favor,  and  your  doors,  thrown  open,  showed  them 
the  figure  of  their  deliverer,  in  the  well-earned  triumph  of  his  impor- 
tant victory,  from  the  whole  of  that  grave  multitude  there  arose  an 
involuntary  burst  of  gratitude  and  transport.  They  jumped  upon 

him  like  children  upon  a  long-absent  father. 

All  England,  all  America,  joined  to  his  ap- 


plause.    Nor  did  he  seein 
insensible  to  the  best  of  al! 
earthly  rewards,  the   love 
and  admiration  of  his  fel- 
low-citizens.   Hope  elevated,  and  joy  bright- 
ened his  crest.     I  stood  near  him  ;  and  his 
face,  to  use  the  expression  of  the  Scripture 
of  the  first  martyr, k  his  face  was  as  if  it  had  Liberty-Pol.  Festival. 

been  the  face  of  an  angel.'  ....  I  did  hope  that  that  day's  danger 
and  honor  would  have  been  a  bond  to  hold  us  all  together  forever. 
But,  alas !  that,  with  other  pleasing  visions,  is  long  since  vanished." 

The  joy  described  with  so  much  spirit  by   Burke,  extended  itself 
through  all  the  mercantile  and  manufacturing  towns  in  Eng-  Jovatthe 
land.      In   America  it  was  unbounded.      The  people   had   reP**' 
hoped ;  but  the  news,  when  it  came,  was  more  than  they  had  dared 


350 


ALIENATION   FROM  ENGLAN7D. 


[CHAP.   XIII. 


to  hope  for.  Genei-al  Con  way,  who  had  been  the  consistent  friend  of 
the  colonies,  accompanied  the  repealing  act  by  a  conciliatory  letter, 
and,  for  the  moment,  it  seemed  as  if  the  bone  of  contention  was  out 
of  the  way  and  a  new  era  had  come  in.  Full-length  portraits  of  Con- 
way  and  of  Barre  were  ordered  to  be  hung  up  in  Faneuil  Hall  in 
Boston.  The  Assembly  of  Virginia  voted  to  erect  a  statue  of  George 
III.;  and  a  similar  honor  to  Pitt  was  proposed  in  Maryland.  But 
nowhere  was  the  enthusiasm  greater  than  in  New  York.  The  inhab- 
itants petitioned  for,  and  the  Assembly  decreed,  the  erection  of  statues 
both  of  the  King  and  of  Pitt ; l  on  the  King's  birthday,  which  oc- 
curred not  long  after  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was 
received,  the  people  assembled  in  the  Fields  (now  City  Hall  Park) 
and  with  rejoicings  and  festivities  set  up  a  Liberty  Pole,  at  the  foot 
of  which  the  King's  health  was  drunk  in  hogsheads  of  punch. 

But  it  was  a  perishable  monument  of  the  restoration  of  peace  and 
harmony.  Before  the  summer  was  over,  in  only  a  little  more  than 
two  months  from  the  time  of  its  erection,  the  Pole  was  levelled  to  the 
ground  by  the  soldiers  of  the  Fort.  Thenceforward  it  became  for  sev- 
eral years  a  rallying-point  of  contention  between  the  soldiers  and  the 
people.  It  was  repeatedly  cut  down,  or  blown  up  with  gunpowder, 
and  as  often  replaced  at  once  by  a  new  one ;  and  in  these  contests, 
where  hard  blows  and  sometimes  serious  wounds  were  given  and 
taken,  the  spirit  of  resistance  was  kept  alive  and  active. 

1  The  statues  were  not  finished  for  four  years.  In  August,  1770,  that  of  George  III., 
which  was  of  lead,  was  set  up  in  the  Bowliug  Green,  and  that  of  Pitt,  iu  marble,  at  the 
corner  of  Wall  and  Smith  (now  William)  Streets. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

END   OF    COLONIAL   RULE. 

MEASURES  FOLLOWING  THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT. — IGNORANCE  OF  AMERICA 
IN  ENGLAND.  —  QUARTERING  TROOPS  IN  BOSTON.  —  CONSEQUENT  ILL-FEELING.— 
IMPRESSMENT  AND  RESISTANCE  OF  SEAMEN.  —  QUARRELS  BETWEEN  CITIZENS  AND 
SOLDIERS. —  THE  BOSTON  MASSACRE.  —  REMOVAL  OF  THE  MILITARY.  —  "SAM. 
ADAMS'S  REGIMENTS."  —  TRIAL  AND  ACQUITTAL  OF  CAPTAIN  PRESTON.  —  VERDICT 
AGAINST  Two  SOLDIERS. —  EFFORTS  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GRAFTON  AT  RECONCILIA- 
TION.—  CONDUCT  OF  THE  EARL  OF  HILLSBOROUGH.  —  LORD  NORTH'S  MINISTRY. — 
THE  TEA  TAX.  — THE  WHATELY  LETTERS.  —  FRANKLIN  INSULTED  BY  WKDDER- 
BURS.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  THE  TEA  SHIPS  IN  AMERICA.  —  DISPOSITION  OF  THE  TEA  is 
VARIOUS  PLACES.  —  BOSTON  PORT  BILL.  —  GAGE  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR  OF  MASSA- 
CHUSETTS. 

THE  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was,  after  all,  only  a  concession  for 
the  sake  of  present  expediency,  not  an  acknowledgment  of 
an  exclusive  and  inherent  right  in  the  colonial  subjects  to  power  ow 
tax  themselves.     It  was  accompanied  by  a  Declaratory  Act  »•>-  i-ariia- 
asserting  the  power  of  Parliament  over  the  colonies  "  in  all 
cases  whatsoever;"  which  might  well  arouse,  as  Lord  Shelburne  after- 
ward wrote  to  Pitt  it  did,  "an  unfortunate  jealousy  and  distrust  of 
the   English   Government   throughout  the  Colonies."      The  Mutiny 
Act,  also,  not  long  before,  had  been  extended  to  America,  and  one  of 
its  provisions  was,  that  the  Colonial  Assemblies  should  pro-  The  Mutiny 
vide   quarters,  with    '"fire,  candles,  vinegar,   salt,    bedding,    Act- 
utensils  for  cooking,  beer  or  cider,  and  rum,"  for  the  support  of  troops. 
Parliament,  moreover,  accompanied  the  repeal  of  the  obnoxious  act 
by  a  resolution   recommending  that  the  Assemblies  of   the  several 
provinces  should  compensate  all  those  who  had  suffered   loss  the  year 
before  in  the  stamp  riots.     That  the  Sugar  Act  should  still  remain 
the  law,  without  modification,  would  have  been  enough  to  keep  alive 
distrust  of  the  home  government ;  but  when,  to  the  negation  of  any 
essential  change  of  policy,  there  was  added  so  much  positive  proof 
that  the  policy  was  unchanged,  there  was  quite  sufficient  reason  for 
the  most  jealous  watchfulness  on  the  part  of  the  Americans. 

Meanwhile  the  Rockingham  Ministry  was  dissolved,  and,  though 
Pitt  accepted  the  Privy  Seal,  the  changes  in  the  Cabinet  indicated 


352  END   OF  COLONIAL    RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

that  a  spirit  of  aggression  rather  than  of  conciliation  would  rule  in 
the  affairs  of  the  colonies.     Pitt,  moreover,  to  the  surprise  of 
the  English    all  England,  and,  indeed,  of  all  Europe,  chose  to  go  into  the 
House  of  Lords  as  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  at  the  sacrifice  of 
his  influence  as  well  as  of  his  popularity.     That  mysterious  illness  of 
his  —  which  has  been  a  cause  of  so  much  speculation,  which  was  be- 
lieved by  many  to  be  akin  to  madness,  by  others  the  exaggeration  of 
peculiar  eccentricity,  and,  in  our  time,  perhaps,  would  be  covered  un- 
der the  more  charitable  and  comprehensive  term  of  nervous  prostra- 
tion —  was  now  at  its  height.     Whatever  it  was,  it  led  him,  unfortu- 
nately both  for  England  and  America,  into  almost  complete 
of  Town"-*    isolation,  leaving  Charles  Townshend  free  from  all  restraint. 
He  had  accepted  office  under  Pitt,  while  opposed  to  his  pol- 
icy in  regard  to  the  affairs  of  the  colonies.     He  had  acceded  to  the 

«/ 

repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  only  because  it  was  inexpedient  to  attempt 
to  enforce  it.  Military  garrisons,  he  now  insisted,  should  be  kept  up 
in  the  large  colonial  towns,  to  be  supported  by  colonial  taxation  ;  a 
colonial  revenue  must  be  exacted;  and  he  ridiculed  the  distinction 
between  internal  and  external  taxes.  This  distinction  was  one  at  first 
strenuously  insisted  upon  by  the  Americans  ;  but  had  Townshend,  who 
died  in  the  autumn  of  1767,  lived  a  little  longer,  he  would  have  seen 
how  completely  his  own  measures  changed  their  opinions  on  this  point. 
Taxation  of  the  colonies  was  to  be  resisted,  let  it  take  what  form  it 
would,  if  only  the  purpose  was  plainly  seen  that  taxation  was  in- 
tended. 

The  intrigues  and  strife  of  parties,  and  the  determination  of  the 
landed  interest  in  England  to  lighten  its  own  burden,  favored  Towns- 
hend's  polity.  It  was  proposed  to  reduce  the  land-tax  of  four  shil- 
lings in  the  pound  to  three  shillings,  and  Townshend  was  quite  willing 
to  see  the  defeat  of  his  own  party  on  this  question,  as  it  enabled  him 
to  insist  upon  making  up  the  deficiency  in  the  revenue  by  colonial 
taxation.  But  the  colonies  were  of  one  mind  ;  they  would  submit  to 
no  infringement  upon  their  rights  by  Parliament,  though,  as  events 
ordered,  it  was  upon  New  York  and  Massachusetts  that  the  duty  de- 
volved of  taking  the  lead  in  defence  of  those  rights. 

When  Sir  Henry  Moore,  the  Governor  of  New  York,  sent  a  mes- 
sage  *n  Jl'"e>  1768,  to  the  Assembly,  requiring  them  to  make 
provision  for  troops,  then  on  their  way  to  that  colony,  in  ac- 
cordance  with  the  Act  of  Parliament,  the  Assembly  refused. 
They  were  willing  to  bear  a  proportionate  share  in  the  support  of 
troops  on  the  march  through  the  province,  as  they  had  always  done, 
and  of  their  own  free  will.  But  the  quartering  of  soldiers  in  the  col- 
ony at  the  colony's  expense,  as  this  act  provided,  was  the  imposition 


1768.]  CIRCULAR  LETTER   OF   MASSACHUSETTS.  353 

of  a  tax  without  their  consent.  In  the  spring,  Parliament  ordered 
that  the  legislative  functions  of  New  York  should  be  suspended  till 
the  law  was  complied  with.  In  the  debate  on  this  measure,  Pownall, 
formerly  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  but  now  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment, was  exceedingly  frank  in  his  animadversions  upon  the  conduct 
of  the  House.  It  had  seen  fit  to  assume  that  New  York  alone  had 
revolted  against  this  assumption  of  power.  "  Believe  me,"  said  Mr. 
Pownall,  —  whose  experience  and  sound  judgment  should  have  com- 
mended his  words  to  those  men  who  ought  by  this  time  to  have  begun 
to  see  that  they  were  attempting  to  ride  a  storm  and  guide  a  whirl- 
wind,—  "  Believe  me,  there  is  not  a  province,  a  colony,  or  a  planta- 
tion that  will  submit  to  a  tax  thus  imposed,  more  than  New  York 
will." 

Other  colonies,  where  like  requisitions  were  made  for  the  support 
of  troops,  were  careful,  in  granting  them,  to  avoid  seeming 

.....  ,  •  «     vr          «r      1        Sustained 

to  do  so  in  obedience  to  the  act.  sympathy  with  .New  York,  by  the  other 
as  the  target  of  ministerial  displeasure,  extended  to  them 
all,  and  that  deepened  to  indignation  when  the  Mutiny  Act  was  ex- 
tended for  another  )rear,  and  it  was  determined  to  impose  port  duties 
on  wines,  oil,  and  fruit,  if  shipped  direct  from  Spain  and  Portugal, 
and  upon  glass,  paper,  lead,  colors,  and  tea.  The  revenue  to  be  raised 
from  these  duties  was  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  Crown,  and  to  be 
used  for  the  support  of  the  civil  officers  of  the  colonies. 

This  was  justly  considered  a  blow  at  the  very  root  of  their  consti- 
tutional rights.  The  one  thing  above  all  others  which  the  colonists 
had  never  lost  sight  of,  and  had  never  ceased  to  contend  for,  —  as  the 
history  of  the  colonial  period  shows,  —  was,  to  provide  for  the  necessi- 
ties of  government  in  their  own  way,  and  to  keep  those  to  whom  the 
affairs  of  government  were  intrusted,  dependent  upon  the  Colonial 
Assemblies.  In  this  emergency,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
addressed  a  circular  letter  to  the  Assemblies  of  all  the  other  colo- 
nies, suggesting  that  they  should  unite  in  supplications  to  the  King 
for  relief. 

The  acts  of  Parliament,  they  said  in  this  letter,  •'  imposing  duties 
on  the  people  of  this  province,  with  the  sole  and  express 

,         .    .  ....  i:   ,.       •  Circular  Lt-t- 

purpose  oi  raising  a  revenue,  are  infringements  or  their  nat-  terot  Ma*- 
ural  and  constitutional  rights  ;  because,  as  they  are  not  rep- 
resented in  the  British  Parliament,  his  Majesty's  Commons  in  Britain 
by  those  acts  grant  their  property  without  their  consent."     And  they 
submitted  it  to  the  consideration  of  their  countrymen,  "Whether  any 
people  can  be  said  to  enjoy  any  degree  of  freedom,  if  the  Crown,  in 
addition   to    his    undoubted  authority  for    constituting   a   Governor, 
should  appoint  him  such  a  stipend  as  it  shall  judge  proper,  without 

VOL.  in.  23 


354  END   OF  COLONIAL   RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

the  consent  of  the  people,  and  at  their  expence  ;  and  whether,  while 
the  judges  of  the  land,  and  other  civil  officers,  hold  not  their  commis- 
sions during  good  behavior,  their  having  salaries  appointed  for  them 
by  the  Crown,  independant  of  the  people,  hath  not  a  tendency  to  sub- 
vert the  principles  of  equity,  and  endanger  the  happiness  and  security 
of  the  subject."  With  one  accord  the  other  colonies  united  in  hearty 
approbation  of  this  letter.  But  when  it  reached  England,  the  Earl 
of  Hillsborough,  who  had  succeeded  Shelburne  as  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Colonies,  wrote  to  Governor  Bernard  of  Massachusetts  to  order 
the  General  Court  u  to  rescind  the  resolution  which  gave  birth  to 
the  letter,  and  to  declare  their  disapprobation  of  and  dissent  to  that 
rash  and  hasty  proceeding  ;  "  and  if  they  refused,  the  Governor  was 
to  dissolve  the  Court.  The  other  colonies  were  ordered  to  take  no  no- 
tice of  the  letter,  and  were  also  threatened  with  dissolution  of  their 
Assemblies  in  case  of  disobedience. 

It  is  a  remarkable  evidence  of  the  utter  ignorance  that  prevailed  in 

England  of  American  affairs  and  American  character,  that 

ignorance  of  Hillsborougli  could   have  sent  such  a  message  to  a  body 

America.  ?•  i  •  c 

whose  leading  men,  when  measured  with  the  worthiest  ot 
the  public  men  of  England,  were  in  every  sense  their  peers,  and  in 
some  sense  their  superiors.  The  General  Court  replied  with  great 
dignity  to  the  minister's  insolent  demand,  and  by  a  vote  of  ninety-five 
to  seventeen  declined  to  comply  with  it.  In  truth,  no  other  result  was 
probable,  or  hardly  possible.  The  older  colonies  had  been  essentially 
self-governed  for  a  century  and  a  half,  and  were  virtually  indepen- 
dent. Almost  all  of  the  inhabitants,  except  in  Georgia,  were  born 
upon  the  soil.  The  circumstances  of  their  lives  had  created  habits  of 
thought  as  well  as  methods  of  living,  and  no  "  Be  it  enacted,"  pro- 
nounced three  thousand  miles  away,  could  stand  if  brought  in  conflict 
with  this  native  self-reliance  and  inborn  belief  in  their  own  rights. 
To  ministers  in  England  it  seemed  that  to  dissolve  an  Assembly  was 
a  final  and  decisive  step.  In  Boston  it  only  showed  the  people  that 
the  time  had  come  for  town  meetings.  An  appeal  from  Faneuil  Hall 
was  responded  to  by  every  town  in  the  province,  and  committees  of 
correspondence  and  of  safety  laid  deep  and  strong  the  foundations  of 
a  new  state.  It  was  easy  to  impose  taxes  on  imports  by  bills  in  Par- 
liament, and  to  appoint  revenue  officers  for  their  due  collection.  If 
not  quite  so  easy  to  do,  it  was  more  to  the  purpose  when  done,  to 
determine  neither  to  order  nor  to  receive  importations.  If  the  Minis- 
try supposed  that  the  colonists  were  to  be  overawed  by  the  presence 
of  troops,  they  misjudged  the  circumstances  and  character  of  the 
people  in  this  as  in  everything  else.  Their  appeals  had  been  to  the 
clemency  of  a  King  to  whom  they  avowed  the  most  loyal  allegiance  ; 


1768.] 


QUARTERING   TROOPS   IN  BOSTON. 


to  the  justice  and  reason  of  ministers  who,  they  were  slow  to  believe, 
intended  to  take  from  them  the  rights  they  had  always  maintained, 
and  the  loss  of  which  would  reduce  them  to  political  slaveiy.  If  the 
final  arbitration  must  be  by  force  of  arms,  they  would  be  as  ready 
for  that  as  they  had  been  to  meet  all  other  questions  ;  but  they  were 
reluctant  to  admit  that  the  necessity  for  such  arbitration  could  ever 

arise. 

When,  therefore,  under  the  King's  new  system  of  government,  four 
regiments  of   soldiers  from  the   Crown   establishment  were 
quartered  in  the  town  of  Boston,  every  prejudice  of  that  teringo* 

_  .  troops. 

community  was  shocked  ;  every  man  felt  that  this  was  an 
insult  to  the  good  fame  of  the  town ;  and  every  man,  whatever  his 

station,  asked  him- 
self what  these  sol- 
diers were  doing, 
and  what  they  were 
there  for.1  The 
answer  was  clear 
enough,  that  they 
\vere  doing  nothing. 
The  King  was  pay- 
ing them  for  doing 
nothing,  in  a  little 
town  in  which  the 
[  whole  population  of 
able  -  bodied  men, 
not  more  than  three  times  as  numer- 
ous as  these  soldiers,  were  engaged  in 
the  most  active  industry.  Worse 
than  this,  the  soldiers  and  their  offi- 
cers introduced  habits  in  the  last  de- 
gree exasperating  in  a  Puritan  town. 
The  army  of  England  at  that  time  was  recruited  from  the  lowest 
dregs  of  the  English  population.  And  here,  \>\  way  of  bravado,  four 
regiments  were  introduced  in  the  midst  of  a  community  where  men 
had  not  been  used  to  see  a  professional  soldier  once  in  a  generation, 
and  where  public  morals,  and  the  outward  forms  of  society,  had  been 
pushed  by  the  leaders  of  the  government  to  the  very  verge  of  asceti- 
cism. Had  any  enemy  of  King  George  counselled  him  as  to  the  best 
method  by  which  he  could  alienate  his  subjects  here,  such  an  enemy 

1  Ten  years  after,  when  the  Count  Rochambeau  commanded  the  French  army  in  Amer- 
ica, he  was  asked  in  Connecticut,  to  his  great  amusement,  "  What  he  did  when  he  was  at 
home  ? " 


356 


END   OF  COLONIAL   RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


Castle  Wil- 
liam. 


could  not  have  suggested  a  plan  more  ingenious  than  that  of  quar- 
tering a  considerable  body  of  troops  in  Boston.  To  quarter  so  many 
troops  in  a  provincial  town  of  England  would,  perhaps,  have  been 
thought  a  favor.  The  habits  of  society,  the  gayety,  and  the  other 
stimulants  to  intercourse  and  trade,  had  long  since  blotted  out  in 
England  the  old  prejudice  against  a  standing  army.  But  all  the 
larger  colonies  had  been  formed  while  that  prejudice  still  existed. 
All  the  old  political  writers  of  England,  on  whom  the  colonists  greatly 
relied,  regarded  any  standing  army  as  an  instrument  of  tyranny. 
And,  as  has  been  said,  the  experience  of  all  their  history  had  shown 
that  in  such  states  as  theirs,  at  least,  no  standing  army  was  neces- 
sary for  order  or  tranquillity. 

Up  to  the  year  1767,  the  presence  of  English  troops  was  unknown 
in  New  England,  excepting  in  time  of  war  ;  and  even  then, 
such  troops  were  moved  as  soon  as  possible  to  the  frontier. 
In  the  spring  of  1768,  in  the  midst  of  bitter  irritation  between  the 
Governor  and  the  Massachusetts  Assembly,  the  newly- 
appointed  Commissioners  of  the  Customs  had  been  com- 
pelled to  remove  to  Castle  William,  about  three  miles 
below  Boston,  in  the  harbor,  where  the  garrison  then 
consisted  of  a  detail  from  the  militia  of  the  neighbor- 
hood.    The  Governor  was  so  far  dissatisfied  with  this 
garyison,  that  he  requested  General  Gage,  the  English 
Commander-in-chief  at  New  York,  to  order  one  or  two 
regiments  of  the  King's  troops  from   Halifax  to  hold 
the  fort.     He  also  moved  three  vessels  of  war  down 
the  harbor  so  as  to  cover  it.     Before  his  orders  could 
be  executed,  the  government  in  England,  of  their  own 
movement,  had  anticipated  them  and  sent  their  orders 
for  quartering  troops  in  the  town.     Early  in  Septem- 
ber, an  officer  arrived  to  prepare  their  quarters.     His 
errand  was  at  once  known,  and  the  popular  indignation 
was  shown  by  the  immediate  provision  of  a  tar-barrel, 
which  was  hauled   up  by  night  into  the  frame,  long 
empty,  of  the  beacon  which  gave  its  name  to  Beacon 
Hill, —  the  highest  of  the  three  hills  of  Boston.     In 
preparation  for  such  a  purpose,  the  selectmen  of  the  town  had  re- 
paired  the  beacon.     It  may  be  doubted  whether  this  beacon 
na(^  been  used  since  it  summoned  the  people  of  the  ccmn- 
trv  to  tne  overthrow  of  Andros.1     It  had  been  established 
in  the  very  earliest  days  of  the  colony. 

The  town  meeting  of  Boston  sent  a  committee  to  the  Governor, 

1  See  vol.  ii.,  p.  393. 


The  Beacon. 


digntition  in 
Boston.  The 


1768.]  QUARTERING   TROOPS  IX  BOSTON.  357 

asking  him  to  issue  precepts  for  a  General  Assembly,  to  take  meas- 
ures for  the  preservation  of  their  civil  rights  and  privileges.  The 
Governor  refused,  and  the  committee  of  the  town  of  Boston  pro- 
ceeded, on  its  own  warrant,  to  summon  an  Assembly  for  the  purpose 
named.  The  town  meeting  then  voted  that  every  inhabitant  should 
be  requested  to  provide  himself  with  fire-arms  for  sudden  danger  in 
case  of  a  war  with  France.  As  no  war  was  probable,  the  design  of 
this  vote  was  evident.  Meanwhile  the  Council  declined  to  provide 
barracks  for  the  ti'oops  in  Boston.  They  said  there  were  barracks  for 
a  thousand  men  at  Castle  William,  and  that  these  would  accommo- 
date all  the  troops  expected  from  Halifax.  The  act  of  Parliament 
requiring  them  to  prepare  quarters  for  troops  had  provided  that 
where  barracks  already  existed,  they  should  be  used. 

In  the  midst  of  this  irritation  the  Convention  met,  and  addressed 
the  Governor.  They  asked  him  to  convene  the  General  TroopSKent 
Assembly.  The  Governor  refused  to  receive  their  petition,  to  Boston- 
but  addressed  a  paper  to  them  admonishing  them  instantly  to  sep- 
arate. They  remained  in  session  nine  days.  Their  moderation  seems 
to  have  disappointed  everybody,  of  both  parties.  The  troops  finally 
arrived  off  the  harbor  on  the  28th  of  September,  the  Convention  ad- 
journed on  the  29th,  and  on  the  1st  of  October  the  troops  landed. 
Even  the  regiment  which  was  intended  for  the  castle  was  brought  up 
to  the  town.  One  regiment  encamped  on  the  Common,  and  the  other 
was  quartered  in  FaneuilHall  and  the  Town  House.  The  local  au- 
thorities still  refused  to  provide  barracks,  and  the  commanding  officer 
hired  quarters  for  them  and  purchased  supplies  at  the  charge  of  the 
Crown.  The  Irish  regiments  in  addition  arrived  on  the  10th  of  No- 
vember, and  were  quartered  in  a  similar  way.  A  fleet  of  eight  men- 
of-war,  with  an  aggregate  of  more  than  a  hundred  and  eighty  guns, 
was  anchored  off  the  town. 

The  justification  made  by  the  home  government  for  sending  a  gar- 
rison to  Boston  was  the  news  of  a  riot  on  the  8th  of  July.  Riot8  the 
A  schooner,  laden  with  molasses,  had  been  seized  for  viola-  Pretext- 
tion  of  the  customs.  Thirty  men  entered  her  at  night,  confined  the 
keepers,  and  carried  off  the  cargo.  The  selectmen  restored  the 
molasses,  but  Governor  Bernard,  in  reporting  the  matter  to  the  gov- 
ernment, said,  with  a  sneer,  u  We  are  not  without  a  government,  only 
it  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people  of  the  town."  This  occurrence,  and 
a  similar  riot  in  which  some  wines  were  landed  from  the  sloop  Lib- 
erty, belonging  to  John  Hancock,  seem  to  have  given  the  motive  to 
the  English  administration  for  severer  measures  than  they  had  at- 
tempted before.  A  large  garrison  once  in  the  town,  there  occasionally 
broke  out  the  annoyances  which  might  be  expected  after  such  circum- 


358 


END    OF   COLONIAL    RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


nprincon 


stances  of  irritation.     So  soon  as  the  General  Court  met,  in  May,  it 
proved  that  the  result  of  this  irritation  was  a  stronger  ma- 

Removal  of      *      .  .  ,/-,  IIP  *  • 

the  troops      iontv  against  the  Governor  than  before.     A  committee  was 

demanded.        J  J  . 

at  once  appointed  to  ask  for  the  removal  of  the  troops.     The 
Governor  answered  that  he  had  no  authority  over  them.     The  Gen- 
eral Court  replied  that  it  was  only  owing  to  exaggerated  reports  that 
the  troops  had  been  sent.     They  said  there  had  been  no  dis- 
turbances  which  bore  any  proportion  to  similar  tumults  in 
the  General    the  best  regulated  cities  of  Europe.     Any  disturbances  here 
were  far  from  being  carried  to  that  atrocious  and  alarming 
length  to  which  riotous  assemblies  had  been  carried  in  Great  Britain, 

"  at  the  very  gates 
of  the  palace,  and 
even  in  the  royal 
presence."  They 
refused  to  proceed 
to  business  while 
surrounded  with 
soldiers.  Governor 
Bernard  met  this 
refusal  by  remov- 
ing the  General 
Court  to  Cam- 
bridge, where  was 
no  garrison  ;  and 
the  House  pro- 
ceeded to  business 
there,  under  a  pro- 
test. On  the  27th, 
they  voted  a  peti- 
tion to  the  King 
for  Governor  Ber- 
nard's removal, 
who,  as  it  hap- 
pened, had  the 
mortification  of 
communicating  to 
them  the  next  day  the  King's  orders  that  he  should  return  to  England 
to  lay  before  him  the  state  of  the  province.  He  had  received  these 
orders  as  early  as  April.  The  General  Court  asked  to  see  the  King's 
order,  and  it  was  laid  before  them.  The  Court  replied  that  they 
"  cheerfully  acquiesced  in  the  command  of  their  sovereign  for  his  re- 
turn to  Great  Britain,  and  the  order  for  a  true  statement  of  the 


John  Hancock. 


1770.]  ATTEMPTED   IMPRESSMENT    OF   SEAMEN.  359 

affairs  of  the  province  gave  them  peculiar  satisfaction."  On  the 
departure  of  Bernard,  Hutchinson,  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Prov- 
ince, a  gentleman  of  old  New  England  blood,  became  acting  Gov- 
ernor. 

Such  are,  perhaps,  the  more  important  external  signs  of  constant 
irritation  which  appear  on  the  public  records  after  more 
than  a  century.  But,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  occasions  sources  of 
of  personal  and  private  irritation,  occurring  almost  with  every 
hour,  did  more  to  alienate  the  people  from  the  Crown  than  any  for- 
mal passages,  however  bitter.  Such  were  the  daily  parade  of  regi- 
ments, and  their  military  instruction  in  the  heart  of  the  town,  —  duels 
between  officers,  and  between  officers  and  citizens,  —  the  ridicule  with 
which  a  body  of  English  officers  would  regard  the  antiquated  and 
provincial  customs  of  the  little  sea-port,  —  and,  worst  of  all,  the  quar- 
rels, more  and  more  frequent,  between  ignorant  and  brutal  privates 
and  the  people  of  the  lowest  class  of  the  town,  equally  ignorant  and 
equally  brutal.  Of  the  population  of  Boston,  which  would  not  count 
more  than  four  thousand  able-bodied  men,  a  large  portion  were  sea- 
faring men,  with  the  habits  of  adventure  and  violence  which  are  not 
unusual  with  sailors  in  all  countries.  Under  such  conditions,  alterca- 
tions constantly  took  place,  of  which  the  local  annals  are  full.  One 
of  the  most  exasperating  was  the  impressment  by  the  offi- 

,    ,,        D  e  e  r  w      i  i        Attempted 

cers  or  the  Hose  man-or-war  or  some  seamen  from  a  Marble- 


head  brig.  The  seamen  resisted,  defied  the  English  officer 
in  command,  and  killed  him.  On  the  trial  of  the  guilty  person,  he 
was  acquitted  by  the  Admiralty  Court,  which  was  wholly  in  the 
King's  interest,  on  the  ground  that  he  acted  in  self-defence.  It  also 
proved  that  the  statute  which  gave  the  right  of  impressment  specially 
excepted  the  American  coast  from  its  execution. 

Such  altercations  and  bitterness  culminated,  after  a  year  and  a  half, 
in  an  occurrence  which  at  the  time  received  the  exaggerated  name  of 
the  "  Boston  Massacre,"  a  name  which  it  has  never  lost.  In  the  ex- 
perience of  places  always  accustomed  to  quarrels  between  soldiers  and 
civilians,  this  transaction  would  have  been  considered  trifling.  Its  im- 
portance in  this  instance  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  brought  to  a  crisis  a 
long  series  of  annoyances  in  a  community  wholly  unused  to  a  garrison. 

On  the  3d  of  March,  1770,  by  mutual  agreement,  a  party  of  soldiers 
and  rope-makers  had  an  encounter  with  clubs,  near  mid-  TheBostoll 
night,  and  several  men  on  each  side  were  badly  wounded.  Ma8sacre- 
The  next  night,  a  renewal  of  the  fight  was  prevented  with  some  diffi- 
culty.    On  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  March,  two  young  men  under- 
took to  pass   a  sentinel  at  the  foot  of  Cornhill,1  without  answering 

1  The  name  "  Cornhill  "  then  applied  to  a   part  of  what  is  now  Washington  Street. 


360 


END   OF   COLONIAL   RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


his  challenge.  A  struggle  ensued,  in  which  some  of  the  soldiers  from 
the  neighboring  barracks  turned  out,  one  armed  with  a  pair  of  tongs 
and  another  with  a  shovel,  and  the  offending  citizen  was  driven  back 
through  the  alley-way  which  he  had  attempted  to  pass.  This  en- 
counter, trifling  in  itself,  was  sufficient  to  call  out  the  soldiers  in  de- 
fence of  the  sentry,  and  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  as  well. 

T  h  e  assembly  of 
people  was,  of 
course,  much  the 
larger.  The  offi- 
cers succeeded  in 
drawing  the  sol- 
diers into  the  bar- 
racks ;  but  the 
mob  was  now  large 
enough  to  turn  its 
attention  to  an- 
other sentinel,  who 
stood  not  far  off,  in 
front  of  the  Custom 
House.1  A  boy 

»/ 

pointed  him  out  as 
a  soldier  who  had 
lately  knocked  him 
down,  and  some 
twenty  young  men 
attacked  him  with 
missiles.  The  man 
loaded  his  gun,  and 
tried  to  retire  with- 
in the  building,  but, 
finding  the  door 

Boston  Massacre. —  From  an  Engraving  by  Paul  Revere.  locked        Called       fd* 

the  main  guard,  whose  station  was  within  hearing.  The  officer  in 
command  sent  a  sergeant  with  six  men  to  his  relief,  and  also  sent 

When  that  name  gradually  absorbed  the  names  of  the  short  streets  which  run  from  south  to 
north  through  Boston,  the  name  of  "  Cornhill  "  lapsed.  It  was  taken  up  and  used  again 
for  the  street  which  now  bears  it.  As  it  happens,  the  altercation  named  in  the  text  was  nt 
the  foot  of  each  Cornhill.  It  was  in  a  narrow  alley  which  pas-ted  from  what  was  then 
the  end  of  Washington  Street,  to  Brattle  Square.  The  opening  of  what  is  now  called 
"  the  new  Washington  Street"  swept  away  all  local  monuments  of  that  spot,  which  is  now 
a  part  of  the  great  thoroughfare. 

1  In   State  Street,  then  King  Street,  where  the  building  stands  now  occupied  by  the 
(Juiou  aud  State  Buuks. 


1770.]  THE   BOSTON   MASSACRE.  261 

a  messenger  for  Captain   Preston,  the  officer  of  the  day,  who  was  at 
an  entertainment  in  Concert  Hall. 

Meanwhile  an  immense  mob  was  gathering,  perhaps  with  the  in- 
tention on  the  part  of  their  leaders  of  attacking  the  main  guard. 
But  if  this  were  so,  that  intention  was  diverted,  when  they  saw  this 
wretched  little  file  in  front  of  the  Custom  House.  The  bells  had 
been  set  ringing,  as  if  for  fire,  and  the  crowd  constantly  increased. 
The  soldiers  had  found  time  to  charge  their  pieces  without  orders. 
They  were  joined  by  Captain  Preston,  with  six  more  men.  By  way 
of  defence,  they  only  presented  their  bayonets,  falling  back  in  a 
curved  line  in  front  of  the  Custom  House.  Their  caution  is  shown, 
from  the  fact  that  there  was  time  to  send  to  Concert  Hall  for  Preston, 
their  commander,  and  for  him  to  come  down  to  the  main  guai'd  and 
join  them.  He  knew  perfectly  well,  and  the  mob  knew,  that,  by  Eng- 
lish law,  his  men  must  not  fire  without  the  order  of  a  civil  magistrate. 
Preston  seems  to  have  behaved  with  moderation  and  judgment  to  the 
last.  The  mob  challenged  the  soldiers  to  fire.  "  Come  on,  you 
bloody-backs  !  "  "  Come  on,  you  lobster-backs  !  "  Such  allusions  to 
the  red  coat  were,  for  ten  years,  favorite  epithets  of  derision.  "  Fire 
if  you  dare  !  "  "  Damn  you,  why  don't  you  fire  ?  "  At  last  a  sol- 
dier received  a  severe  blow  from  a  club.  He  stepped  aside  a  little, 
levelled  his  piece,  and  fired.  Immediately  after,  seven  or  eight  more 
of  the  men  fired,  and  the  mob  fled.  Three  men  lay  dead  on  the 
ground,  two  others  wei'e  mortally  wounded,  and  six  slightly. 

The  drums  beat  to  arms,  the  Twenty-ninth  formed  in  King  Street, 
and  an  immense  concourse  of  people  also  assembled,  among  whom 
were  some  of  the  most  distinguished  citizens.  Governor  Hutchinson 
addressed  the  people  from  the  balcony  of  the  State  House.  He 
promised  that  a  full  investigation  should  be  made  in  the  morning,  and 
the  crowds  retired.  A  citizens'  guard  of  a  hundred  men  took  charge 
of  the  streets,  and  peace  was  restored.  Before  daybreak,  Preston  had 
surrendered  himself  for  trial,  and  was  committed  to  jail,  and  the  sol- 
diers who  had  fired  upon  the  people  were  committed  also. 

With  the  morning,  the  selectmen  of  Boston  waited  upon  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council.     They  said  that,  unless  the  troops  were 
removed  from  the  town,  terrible  consequences  must  be  ex- 


pected.  A  town  meeting  was  called,  which  convened  at  once. 
It  sent  a  committee  of  fifteen  to  demand  the  removal  of  troops  ;  but 
the  Governor  replied  that  he  had  no  power  to  remove  them.  He  said 
the  troops  were  under  the  command  of  General  Gage  at  Xew  York, 
but  that  Colonel  Dalrymple  was  ready  to  withdraw  the  Twenty-ninth 
Regiment  to  the  Castle,  that  being  the  regiment  whose  soldiers  had 
had  fights  with  the  rope-makers,  and  had  fired  upon  the  people.  The 


362 


END   OF   COLONIAL   RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


committee  reported  this  answer  to  the  town  meeting  at  the  Old  South 
Church,  and  the  meeting  voted  it  unsatisfactory.  A  smaller  com- 
mittee was  sent  to  say  that  nothing  would  satisfy  the  meeting  but 
a  total  and  immediate  removal  of  all  the  troops.  Samuel  Adams  was 
the  chairman.  Hutch  inson,  having  consulted  Colonel  Dalrymple  in  a 
whisper,  said  aloud  that  one  of  the  regiments  should  be  sent  away. 
Adams  replied  with  unhesitating  promptness,  "  If  the  Lieutenant-gov- 

ernor or  Colonel  Dalrymple,  or 
both  together,  have  authority  to 
remove  one  regiment,  they  have 
authority  to  remove  two  ;  and 
nothing  short  of  the  total  evacu- 
ation of  the  town  by  all  the  reg- 
ular troops  will  satisfy  the  pub- 
lic mind  and  preserve  the  peace 
of  the  province."1 

The  Governor  gave  way.  He 
was  ridiculed  in  England  for 
his  compliance,  and  the  colo- 
nists considered  it  a  triumph. 
But  there  is  no  doubt  that  he 
had  to  give  way  ;  and  his  com- 
pliance postponed  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  five  years.  A  promise 
was  given,  and  the  first  orders 
for  the  removal  of  the  troops 
were  issued.  Some  of  the  officers 

were  very  indignant,  and  expresses  were  sent  to  General  Gage,  in  the 
hope  that  he  would  recall  the  orders.     Another  town  meet- 

"  Sam  Ad-        .  ..  .  ._  .. 

Regi-  ing  was  called  to  quicken  the  movement.  On  application  to 
Dalrymple,  the  Twenty-ninth  Regiment  was  removed,  and 
the  next  day  the  Fourteenth.  Both  were  afterwards  called  by  Lord 
North  "  Sam  Adams's  Regiments."  The  final  removal  took  place  on 
the  10th  and  llth  of  March. 

From  this  time  until  the  arrival  of  Gage  in  1774,  no  troops  were 
quartered  in  Boston.  The  mistake  had  been  made,  however.  To  a 
people  not  yet  unwilling  to  recognize  the  authority  of  the  Crown,  the 
worst  symbol  of  that  authority  was  foolishly  displayed  in  a  most  ex- 
asperating way.2 

1  Governor  Hutchinson  says  this  remark  was  made  to  Colonel  Dalrymple.     But  it  is 
clear  that  all  present  heard  it. 

2  In  all  the  tumults  of  ten  years  before  the  war,  there  appear  to  have  been  seven  lives 
lost.     One  was  the  English  officer  of  the  Hose.     The  others  were  Attucks,  a  half-breed 


Samuel  Adams. 


1770.]  GRAFTON   AND  HILLSBOROUGH.  363 

Preston,  the  officer  in  command  on  the  night  of  the  "  Massacre," 
was  tried  for  murder.     He  was  defended  by  Josiah  Quincy 
and  John  Adams,  lawyers  of  the  highest  reputation  among  Praton-s 
the  patriots,  and  was  acquitted.     The  soldiers  were  also  ac- 
quitted, excepting  two,  who  were  found  guilty  of  manslaughter,  and, 
by  the  inhuman  law  of  that  time,  were  sentenced  to  be  branded  in 
the  hand.     Hutchinson,  the  Governor,  excuses  himself  for  permitting 
this  sentence  to  be  executed,  because  the  remission  would  have  had 
a  tendency  to  irritate  the  people,  and,  "being  of  little  consequence  to 
the  prisoners,  it  was  thought  most  advisable  not  to  interfere." 

The  history  of  America,  however,  was  not  to  be  decided  on  Amer- 
ican soil.  The  fickle  and  wayward  behavior  of  successive  English 
ministries  —  behavior  which  could  not  be  called  a  policy  —  swayed 
the  course  of  events  more  than  any  decisions  made  in  America. 
While  the  Duke  of  Grafton  supposed  that  he  directed  affairs  in  Eng- 
land, as  the  head  of  King  George's  Cabinet,  a  Cabinet  meeting  was 
called  on  the  first  of  May,  1769.  Grafton  urged  on  this  occasion  the 
remission  of  all  the  American  duties ;  but  in  opposition  to  his  opin- 
ion and  to  that  of  Camden,  Granby,  Conway,  and  Hooke,  tea  was 
still  retained  as  a  subject  of  taxation.  The  Cabinet  agreed,  however, 
that  the  circular  to  the  Colonial  Governors  should  "  contain  words  as 
kind  and  lenient  as  could  be  proposed  by  some  of  us,  with  encourag- 
ing expressions."  l  These  were  distasteful  to  other  members,  among 
whom  was  Hillsborough,  the  Secretary  for  the  Colonies.  When,  there- 
fore, Hillsborough  drew  up  the  instructions,  which  we  now  have,  all 
these  "encouraging  expressions,"  whatever  they  were,  disappeared. 
There  is  nothing  conciliatory  in  the  despatch,  excepting  the  statement 
that  his  Majesty's  present  administration  had  at  no  time  intended  to 
lay  any  further  taxes  on  America,  and  that  the  duties  on  Ren,igsion 
glass,  paper,  and  colors  are  to  be  remitted.  The  Duke  of  of  duties- 
Grafton  says  that  Hillsborough  not  only  garbled  the  minute  in  the 
Council  Records,  but  accompanied  it  with  a  circular  letter,  which 
Grafton  terms  "  unfortunate  and  unwarrantable,  calculated  to  do  all 
mischief,  while  our  real  minute  might  have  paved  the  way  to  some 
good."  In  his  manuscript  Memoirs,  he  distinctly  charges  that  Hills- 
borough  made  these  changes  at  the  instance  of  the  King. 

It  is  one  of  the  curious  questions  of  history  how  far  such  a  remis- 
sion of  all  duties  as  the  Duke  of  Grafton  proposed,  if  made  at  this 
early  period,  might  have  affected  the  subsequent  course  of  events. 

Indian  negro,  Can-  an  Irishman,  and  three  Americans,  Gray,  Caldwell,  and   Maverick, 
killed  in  the  Boston  Massacre,  and  u  German  boy,  Snyder,  killed  by  a  soldier  a  short  time 
before. 
1  These  arc  the  Duke's  words. 


364  END  OF  COLONIAL  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

On  the  other  hand,  this  is  certain,  that  where  the  administration  of  a 
nation  was  thus  the  prey  of  jealousies  and  intrigues, —  when  the  re- 
sponsible minister  was  thus  foiled  by  the  "  King's  friends,"  —  no  pol- 
icy which  deserves  that  name  was  possible.  Indeed,  he  best  reads 
the  history  of  America,  for  that  period  which  proved  so  critical,  who 
understands  that,  on  this  side  the  water,  her  affairs  were  directed 
with  substantial  unanimity  by  thoughtful  men  not  unused  to  govern, 
who  had  earned  the  confidence  of  the  great  majority  of  their  country- 
men, and  who,  for  all  the  years  of  this  crisis,  were  never  without  a 
specific  plan  to  which  they  gave  unbroken  attention.  The  same 
reader  must  understand  that,  in  England,  American  affairs  were  ad- 
ministered by  men  quite  ignorant  of  the  country  with  which  they 
dealt,  —  jealous  of  each  other,  and  mixed  up  in  every  sort  of  personal 
intrigue,  —  taking  office  or  leaving  it  according  to  the  event  of  certain 
local  controversies,  and  all  the  time  liable  to  be  thwarted  by  a  King 
who  was  very  lukewarm  in  his  love  of  constitutional  government,  and 
always  hoping  for  accessions  to  his  personal  power.  Let  this  reader 
remember  also  that  an  ocean  three  thousand  miles  wide  separated  the 
two  countries ;  that  all  the  disadvantages  of  this  separation  accrued 
to  England,  and  all  the  advantage  to  America.  He  will  then  under- 
stand that,  in  the  impending  controversy,  England,  though  she  had 
an  arm}r,  a  navy,  and  an  organized  government,  stood  no  real  chance 
of  subduing  the  United  Colonies.  Seven  million  people  in  England, 
indifferent  to  the  subject,  ignorant  as  to  the  real  matters  of  contro- 
versy, and  as  to  the  place  where  it  was  carried  on,  contended,  at  every 
disadvantage  excepting  those  of  numbers  and  wealth,  with  three  mil- 
lion people,  substantially  united,  who  maintained  institutions  to  which 
they  had  always  been  accustomed,  in  the  country  to  which  they  were 
born. 

The  King  met  Parliament  rather  earlier  than  usual  at  the  begin- 
TheKinRs  ninS  °f  1^70.  Even  in  England,  the  opening  of  the  royal 
speech.  speech  amused  people,  so  inadequate  did  the  etiquette  of 
the  occasion  seem  to  be  to  the  requisitions  of  an  empire.  At  a  mo- 
ment when  a  rupture  with  France  was  imminent,  when  Hyder  Ali 
was  in  the  flush  of  his  success  in  India,  and  when  America  was  wait- 
ing, eager  for  a  decision  as  to  the  policy  which  was  to  govern  her, — 
the  King  began  by  saying,  "  My  Lords  and  Gentlemen,  it  is  with 
much  concern  that  I  find  myself  obliged  to  open  the  session  of  Parlia- 
ment with  acquainting  you  that  the  distemper  among  horned  cattle 
has  lately  broke  out  in  this  kingdom."1  Neither  House  was  in  any 

1  Junius,  whose  central  passion  was  hatred  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  says :  "  Instead  of 
the  firmness  and  decision  of  a  King,  you  gave  us  nothing  but  the  misery  of  a  ruined  gra- 
zier." 


1770.] 


LORD  NORTH'S  MINISTRY. 


365 


. 


mood  to  be  satisfied  with  talk  about  diseases  of  cattle.     Lord  Chat- 

ham himself  moved  an  amendment  to  the  Address,  promising  atten- 

tion to  the  nation's  discontent,  —  discontent  arising  from  the  ejection 

of  Wilkes  from  the  House  of  Commons.     After  Chatham's  speech, 

Lord  Camden  rose  from  the  woolsack,  and  in  so  many  words  said  he 

had  been  trammelled  too  long  "  by  his  Majesty,  —  I  beg  par- 

don, —  by  his  Ministers."     Camden,  Conway,  and  Gran  by  at 

once  withdrew  from  the  Cabinet.     With  them  vanished  the 

last  real  hope  of  any  policy  conciliatory  to  America.     The  Duke  of 

Grafton    resigned  on    the    28th 

of    January,    and    Lord    North 

became   Prime   Minister.      The 

"King's    friends"    had    tri- 

umphed, and  their  laurels,  such 

as  they  were,  are  in  the  history 

of  the  next  twelve  years.     Lit- 

tle credit  is  it  to  Lord  North, 

that  he   personally  disapproved 

of  much  of  the  policy  to  which 

for  those  twelve  years  he  lent 

himself  ;  that  it  was  the  King's 

policy,  and  not  his.     No  Eng- 

lish nobleman  should  have  found 

himself  long  in  any  such  false 

position.     It  is  his  excuse  that 

he  knew  already  the  nature  of 

the  King's  malady,  which  was 

still  a  secret  to  all  but  a  very 

few. 

As  Lord  North  appeared  at  the  time,  and,  indeed,  as  he  has  been 
represented  in  history,  he  has  shown  few  of  the  traits  which 
we  associate  with  the  hero  of  tragedy.  A  commonplace 
man,  with  a  certain  knack  at  affairs,  who  had  the  absolute  confidence 
of  a  foolish  King,  and  who  used  that  confidence  till  he  lost  half  that 
King's  empire,  —  this  is  what  appears  at  first,  and  it  may  be  said  to 
be  the  true  verdict  of  history  regarding  him.  But  a  tragic  poet  might 
go  further,  and,  by  introducing  us  into  the  secrets  of  his  distresses  and 
his  decisions,  might  show  that  poor  Lord  North's  position  was  one  of 
the  most  pathetic  in  history.  His  world  was  indeed  "out  of  joint," 
nor  was  it  for  such  as  he  to  "  set  it  right."  Whenever  he  proposed  to 
abandon  the  enterprise,  —  as  it  is  easy  to  say  he  should  have  done,  — 
this  poor,  half-witted  King,  was  ready  with  the  appeal,  "  If  you  leave 
ine,  where  shall  I  go  ?  "  And  the  helpless  Minister,  without  the  possi- 


Lord  North. 


Lord  North. 


366  END   OF  COLONIAL  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

bility  of  advising  with  any  human  being,  had  to  consider  what  would 
come  to  England,  if,  in  the  sudden  shock  of  his  resignation,  his  King 
should  go  mad,  as  he  had  every  reason  to  suppose  he  would.  Such  a 
position  would  be  tragic,  indeed,  if  one  of  the  really  great  men  of  his- 
tory were  placed  in  it.  It  is  perhaps  more  tragic,  certainly  more  pa- 
thetic, when  such  questions  are  to  be  solved  by  the  unadvised  wisdom 
and  the  uninstructed  conscience  of  a  man  second-rate  in  everything. 
And  such  a  man  was  Lord  North. 

The  student  of  American  history,  reading  the  interesting  1'ecord  of 
the  three  years  with  which  Lord  North's  administration  began,  searches 
with  curious  interest  for  whatever  beginnings  he  may  find  of  the 
policy  which  made  the  United  States  an  independent  nation.  He  fol- 
lows thus  the  history  of  John  Wilkes,  of  the  prosecution  of  the  print- 
ers and  the  beginning  of  reported  debates;  he  studies  the  letters  of 
Junius  ;  he  reads  of  the  birth  of  the  East  Indian  Empire  of  England  ; 
he  follows  the  outbreak  about  the  Falkland  Islands  ;  he  is  involved  in 
the  tragedy  of  the  Queen  of  Denmark,  and  in  the  matrimonial  alli- 
ances of  the  King's  brothers.  But  these  events  and  these  scandals, 
while  they  intensely  excite  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  seem  to  have 
no  concern  with  the  fortunes  of  America.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
fortunes  of  America,  through  those  years,  seem  to  have  no  interest 
for  the  people  or  the  statesmen  of  England.  The  votes  on  American 
affairs  are  taken  in  houses  not  full,  and  the  views  of  the  Ministry  are 
always  sustained  by  very  strong  majorities. 

In  the  session  of  1770,  an  effort  was  made  to  repeal  the  tea  duty. 
But  Lord  North  carried  it  by  a  majority  of  seventy-two. 
repeal  the  Dr.  Franklin  thought  the  House  would  have  agreed  to  the 
motion  but  for  what  he  called  "  lying  letters,"  which  asserted 
that  the  non- importation  agreements  were  no  longer  favored  in  Amer- 
ica, and  that  the  zeal  of  the  patriots  was  chilled.  Two  years  after- 
wards Franklin  won  a  personal  triumph,  and  the  colonies  a  substantial 
one,  in  the  removal  of  Lord  Hillsborough  from  the  post  of  Colonial 
Secretary.  The  reader  has  seen  that  he  was  not  friendly  to  America, 
in  the  trial  of  strength  between  the  Duke  of  Grafton  with  his  friends 
and  Lord  North  with  the  King's  friends.  As  time  passed,  Franklin 
brought  forward  his  plan  for  a  company  for  the  settlement  of  Illinois, 
and  secured  the  interest  of  three  members  of  the  Privy  Council.  But 
when  the  petition  was  referred  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  Hillsborough 
reported  against  it.  He  even  took  the  ground  that  this  would  be  a 
place  of  refuge  for  offenders,  and  would  draw  away  too  many  people 
from  Great  Britain.  Franklin  replied  in  detail.  When  the  petition 
came  before  the  Privy  Council,  they  granted  it,  setting  aside  Lord 
Hillsborough's  report.  Hillsborough  resigned,  thinking,  perhaps,  that 


1773.]  THE   TEA  TAX.  367 

his  resignation  would  not  be  accepted.     But  his  colleagues  were  glad 
to  get  rid  of  him.     Lord  Dartmouth,  who  was  really  a  friend 

'  «*  Ilillsbor- 

of  the  colonies,  succeeded  him.     Dr.  Franklin  thought,  and  ough»uc- 

ceeUed  by 

had    reason   to  think,   that  such  an   incident   and    such  an   Dartmouth, 

.  as  Secretary. 

appointment  were  good  omens  tor  the  colonies,  Governor 
Hutchinson  notes  that  the  government  even  proposed  to  withdraw  the 
fleet  from  Boston  to  Halifax,  which  had  been  formerly  the  naval  sta- 
tion. Other  signs  seemed  favorable.  "  A  general  state  of  quiescence," 
wrote  Arthur  Lee,  "  seems  to  prevail  over  the  whole  empire,  Boston 
only  excepted."  *  But  these  hopes  were  illusive.  At  the  same  time 
a  negotiation  was  in  progress  which,  as  the  event  has  proved,  made 
vain  all  such  omens  of  peace.  True,  America  seemed  better  satisfied. 
The  removal  of  the  regiments  from  Boston  had  been  followed  by  the 
tranquillity  which  had  been  promised.  But  any  hope  of  a  permanent 
good  understanding,  or  of  a  gradual  forgetfulness  of  the  causes  of 
issues,  was  swept  away  at  once  by  a  blunder  of  Lord  North's.  This 
belongs  to  the  poor  tricks  which  James  the  First  used  to  honor  by  the 
name  of  "  king-craft,"  and  it  resulted  in  the  dismemberment  of  the 
empire. 

For  better  or  for  worse,  the  Crown  of  England  was  allied  to  the 
East  India  Company,  which  even  then  was  important,  and 
which  afterwards  became  imperial.  This  Company,  at  the 
end  of  a  series  of  bad  years,  of  which  the  misfortunes  were  due  in 
part  to  the  refusal  of  the  Americans  to  import  tea  from  England, 
found  itself  burdened  with  17,000,000  pounds  of  tea  in  its  English 
storehouses.  It  was  necessary  for  the  Government  of  the  nation  to 
save  the  company  from  bankruptcy  by  lending  it  a  million  and  a  half 
of  money.  The  proposal  was  therefore  matured,  that  the  Company 
might  export  to  America  as  much  tea  as  it  wished,  and  receive  back, 
as  drawback,  the  tax  of  sixpence  a  pound  which  the  teas  had  to  pay 
into  the  English  exchequer.  The  teas  would  then  have  to  pay  in 
America  only  threepence  a  pound,  the  one  remaining  tax  left,  after 
eight  years  of  dissension. 

Lord  North  probably  thought  that  in  this  way  he  should  please  two 
parties  not  easy  to  please.  He  served  the  East  India  Company,  and 
he  seemed  to  grant  to  the  Americans  what  they  wanted,  a  virtual  sus- 
pension of  the  Navigation  Act,  so  far  as  teas  were  concerned.  For 
this  plan  he  obtained  the  permission  of  Parliament.  The  wiser  di- 
rectors of  the  East  India  Company  distrusted  the  gift.  They  knew 
men  better  than  Lord  North.  They  begged  to  be  permitted  to  pay 
to  the  exchequer  the  sixpence  duty  in  England,  and  to  land  the  teas 
free  in  America.  But  this  Lord  North  refused,  probably  at  the  King's 

1  To  Reed,  February  18,  1773. 


368  END  OF  COLONIAL  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

direction.  "  There  must  be  one  tax,"  said  the  poor  King,  "  to  keep 
The  duty  on  UP  tne  right."  Lord  North,  therefore,  with  fatal  resolution, 
t™  refined.  j)ej(j  to  tne  pri,,cipie  involved.  He  confessed  that  the  whole 
revenue  obtained  would  be,  at  the  best,  but  twelve  thousand  pounds. 
The.  East  India  Company  consented  at  last  to  the  scheme,  and,  as  the 
summer  passed,  freighted  several  ships  for  America,  on  their  own  ac- 
count, consigning  them  to  merchants  in  the  different  sea-ports.  In- 
formation as  to  these  consignments  began  to  arrive  in  America  in 
September. 

Franklin's  hopes  of  peace  from  Lord  Dartmouth's  appointment,  or 

whatever  other  cause,  were  rudely  dispelled  by  another  incident,  of 

which  the  germ  showed  itself  in  this  same  year,  1773.     Confidential 

as   his   relations   were   with    many   members  of    Parliament 

The  Hutch-  i       c      i        /••<  •  • 

inM>i)  Advice  and  ot  the  Government,  it  was  mentioned  to  him  one  day, 

Letter*. 

apparently  as  no  secret,  that  the  Government  had  been 
guided,  in  quartering  the  troops  in  Boston  and  in  its  other  severe 
measures,  by  the  advice  of  Americans  born,  —  men  of  character  and 
position.  Franklin  said  he  did  not  believe  this.  To  satisfy  him, 
twelve  letters  were  brought  him,  written  by  Hutchinson,  the  Governor, 
and  Oliver,  the  Lieutenant-governor  of  Massachusetts,  both  natives 
of  that  province.  These  letters  confirmed  to  the  full  the  statement 
which  had  been  made  to  him.  They  proposed  the  introduction  of 
troops,  and  one  of  them  proposed  the  establishment  of  a  "  patrician 
order."  In  one  letter,  which  was  particularly  outspoken,  Hutchinson 
said  there  must  be  an  abridgment  of  what  are  called  *»  English  lib- 
erties." He  said  he  doubted  whether  it  was  possible  that  the  people 
of  a  colony  should  enjoy  all  the  liberty  of  the  parent  state. 

Franklin  obtained  permission  to  send  the  originals  of  the  letters  to 

America,  on  condition  that  they  should  not  be  copied  or 
ton  hy  printed,  and  sent  them  in  his  official  letter,  as  Agent  of  the 

House  of  Assembly,  to  the  chairman  of  their  Committee  of 
Correspondence.  They  might,  he  said,  be  read  to  that  committee  and 
a  few  other  gentlemen.  So  soon  as  they  arrived  in  Boston,  they  awak- 
ened a  storm  of  indignation  against  Hutchinson.  He  had  been  affect- 
ing a  conciliatory  part.  In  the  midst  of  the  contest  between  him  and 
the  Assembly,  —  which  was  eager  that  the  colony  should  pay  his  sal- 
ary in  accordance  with  the  ancient  usage,  —  he  had  affected  to  be, 
not  indeed  a  champion  of  the  extreme  views,  but  a  mediator  between 
the  colonies  and  the  Crown.  Here  came  evidence  that  in  all  such  af- 
fectation he  was  a  liar.  The  colonists  were  wounded  by  a  man  who 
should  have  been  their  friend.  A  Governor  of  their  own  religion,  of 
their  own  blood,  born  in  their  chief  town,  and  educated  among  them, 
had  turned  against  them. 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN. 
(After  the  jtortrait  by  />ujtle*xix  in  the  liotton  Public  Liltmry.) 


1774.]  FRANKLIN   INSULTED   BY    WEDDERBURN.  369 

Echoes  of  the  storm  which  rose  in  Boston  soon  resounded  in  Lon- 
don.    A  duel  between  Mr.  John  Temple  and  Mr.  Whately, 
brother  of  the  gentleman   to  whom  these  letters  were  ad- 


dressed,  made  the  matter  one  of  universal  interest.  The 
Privy  Council  itself  was  so  far  moved  that  it  took  up  the  petition  of 
the  Massachusetts  Assembly  for  the  removal  of  Hutchinson  and  Oli- 
ver, —  a  petition  which,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  would  have  been 
left  to  sleep.  There  followed  a  most  exciting  meeting  of  that  great 
body  of  state,  —  a  body  which  in  our  time  acts  only  on  occasions  of 
mere  form.  It  was  the  fullest  meeting  of  the  Council  which  Edmund 
Burke  remembered.  Everybody  of  note  was  there.  The  petition 
was  read,  with  the  resolutions  of  the  Assembly,  and  the  letters  on 
which  those  resolutions  were  founded.  John  Dunning,  afterward 
Lord  Ashburton,  supported  the  petition  as  counsel,  and  supported  it 
temperately  and  ably.  Then  followed  what  was  called  at  the  time  a 
"  bull-baiting."  Wedderburn,  a  lawyer  whom  Lord  North's  favor 
had  hurried  forward,  and  who  was  afterward  Lord  Chancellor,  under 
the  title  of  Lord  Lough  borough,  spoke,  as  Solicitor-general,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  petition.  He  spoke  for  three  hours,  —  largely  in  violent 
personal  attack  on  Dr.  Franklin,  who  of  course  was  present. 
He  charged  Franklin  with  stealing  the  letters  of  Hutchinson  intuit/  ' 
and  Oliver,  and  said  that  men  would  hide  their  papers  from 
him  in  future.  In  a  classical  allusion,  he  called  him  "  a  man  of  three 
letters,"  by  which  the  Romans  meant  a  thief,  and  charged  him  with 
intriguing  to  make  himself  Hutchinson's  successor.  His  triumph  was 
complete.  "No  speech  was  so  much  applauded,"  says  Hutchinson, 
"  since  those  of  Cicero  against  Anthony."  The  Council  pronounced 
the  petition  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts  ground- 
less and  scandalous.  In  the  method  which  the  Council  took  to  do 
this,  it  had  insulted  the  great  American  who  was  the  admiration  of 
half  England  and  of  all  Continental  Europe.  The  scene  excited  public 
criticism  everywhere.  The  wit  of  Wedderbunvs  address  was  highly 
praised  ;  but  the  dignity  of  Franklin's  manner  made  him  new  friends.1 
Afterward,  William  Pitt  the  younger,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  al- 
luded to  this  scene  in  the  "Cockpit."  2  He  bade  the  House  recollect 
how  the  future  Chancellor  of  England  had  called  the  future  plenipo- 

1  On  the  interview  iu  the  Council  Chamber,  Horace  Walpole  wrote  this  epigram  :  — 

"  Sarcastic  Sawney,  swollen  with  spite  and  prate, 
On  silent  Franklin  poured  his  renal  hate  : 
The  ralin  philosopher,  without  reply, 
Withdrew,  and  gave  his  country  liberty." 

2  The  Cockpit  and  Tennis  Court.     These  two  appendages  to  the  palace  at  Whitehall 
had  been  built  by  Henry  the  Eighth,  close  to  St.  James's  Park.     The  Treasury  now  occu- 
pies the  site  of  the  Cockpit,  and  the  Privy  Council  Office  the  site  of  the  Tennis  Court. 

VOL.  in.  24 


370  END   OF  COLONIAL   RtLE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

tentiary  of  the  United  States  "  a  hoary-headed  traitor,"  and  how,  as 
they  walked  away,  men  were  ready  to  toss  up  their  hats  and  clap  their 
hands  for  joy,  as  if  they  had  obtained  a  triumph.  "  Alas,  sir,  we 
paid  a  pretty  dear  price  for  that  triumph  afterwards."  What  they 
paid  is  shadowed  in  Wedderbu  rn's  own  speech  :  "  How  will  it  here- 
after sound  in  the  annals  of  the  present  reign,  that  all  America,  the 
fruit  of  so  many  years  of  settlement  by  this  country,  the  fruit  of  so 
much  blood  and  treasure,  was  lost  to  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain  in 
the  reign  of  George  the  Third  ?  " 

This  incident  took  place  on  the  '29th  of  January,  1774.  It  was,  in 
the  last  degree,  an  outrage  upon  Franklin,  but  was  not  in  itself  singu- 
larly important,  for  the  result  arrived  at  could  have  been  easily  pre- 
dicted. It  became,  however,  a  visible,  or  dramatic  exhibition  of  the 
conflict,  which  had  thus  far  been  somewhat  concealed  in  despatches  or 
debates.  But  this  conflict  had  already  passed  such  limits.  The  Eng- 
land which  applauded  the  speech  of  Wedderburn  as  nothing  had  been 
applauded  since  Cicero,  was  waked  now  by  a  sudden  shock,  —  to  feel 
that  the  real  contest  Avas  not  a  "bull-baiting"  in  "the  cockpit,"  as 
the  hall  of  the  Privy  Council  was  aptly  called.  It  was  to  be  on  an- 
other continent  and  on  a  larger  scale. 

On  the  27th  of  January  arrived  in  England  the  first  news  of  the 
reception  of  the  vessels  which  had  been  sent  out  with  the  East  India 
Company's  tea.  The  people  of  America  understood  very  well  who 
made  this  great  consignment.  Although  the  patriots  had  winked  at 
trifling  private  imports  from  England,  so  that,  in  certain  cases,  men 
had  paid  the  duty,  they  did  not  therefore  close  their  eyes  when  the 
Government  of  England,  by  the  agency  of  the  East  India  Company, 
invited  them  to  give  way  on  the  matter  of  principle.  The  offer  of  a 
drawback  for  the  Company's  benefit  and  a  consequent  reduction  of 
the  price,  was  only  an  insult  to  such  men,  as  Lord  North  might  have 
known  it  would  be.  The  Committees  of  Correspondence  provided 
for  the  occasion  long  before  the  teas  arrived.  They  must  be  sent 
back.  In  most  instances  they  were.  But  in  Boston  Hutchinson 
refused  to  give  a  permit  for  the  return  of  the  ships,  acting  with  that 
happy  obstinacy  about  trifles  which  distinguished  all  his  administra- 
tion. The  tea  was  at  the  wharf,  and  the  town  meeting  of  Boston 
was  called  to  consider  the  crisis. 

The  Dartmouth,  the  first  of  the  tea  vessels,  arrived  on  the  28th 
Arrival  of  ot  November.  A  town  meeting  was  called  the  next  da}-, 
theteashii*.  an(j  because  Faueuil  Hall  was  not  large  enough  it  adjourned 
to  the  Old  South  Meeting-house,  which  was  so  often  used  for  such 
purposes,  that  it  gained  the  name  from  an  English  Governor  of  being 
the  "  seed-bed  of  rebellion."  In  twenty  days  from  the  arrival  of  the 
first  ship  the  Collector  would  make  a  formal  demand  for  duties. 


1774.] 


THE  TEA  IN  BOSTON   HARBOR. 


371 


In  the  town  meeting  Samuel  Adams  himself  moved  the  action, 
which,  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Correspondence,  he  had  sug- 
gested to  the  other  colonies,  "  that  the  tea  should  not  b  ^  landed,  that 
it  should  be  sent  back  in  the  same  bottom,  to  the  place  from  which 
it  came,  at  all  events  ;  and  that  no  duty  should  be  paid  on  it."  This 
resolution  passed  unanimously,  and  the  owner  and  master  were  di- 
rected at  their  peril  neither  to  enter  the  tea  at  the  custom-house,  nor 
suffer  it  to  be  landed.  A  watch  was  set  on  the  ship,  and  six  post- 
riders  were  appointed  to  notify  the  country  towns  of  any  effort  to 
land  it  by  force. 

While  negotiations  were  going  forward  between  the  Committee  of 
the  town  and  the  consignees,  two  more  tea  ships  arrived.  By  direc- 
tion of  the  Committee,  they  were  anchored  near  the  Dartmouth,  that 
one  guard  might  be  enough  for  all.  This  Committee,  which  took  the 
whole  direction  of  the  controversy  on  the  part  of  the  people,  was  made 
up  of  the  Committees  of  Correspondence  of  Boston  and  from  neigh- 
boring towns,  which  "like  a  little  senate, "said 
Hutchinson,  met  daily  at  Faneuil  Hall. 

The  excitement  increased  from  day  to  day. 
At  last  the  twentieth  day  had  come.  Every- 
thing was  at  a  dead-lock.  The  Governor's 
Council  was  unanimous  in  accepting  a  report 
which  said  that  to  land  the  tea  would  Not  a,iowed 
be  to  accede  to  unconstitutional  tax-  tobelanded- 

ation.    The  Commit- 
tee would  not  permit 
the   landing   of   the 
tea.     The  Governor 
would  not  give  a  pass 
which  should  enable 
the    ship    to   go   by 
the  Castle  on  her  way 
back    to    London. 
The    Admiral    had 
placed    ships    of 
war  to  guard  the 
channels,     that 
no    vessel    with- 
out a  pass  should 
go  to  sea.     The 

meeting  of  the  people  was  held  again  at  the  Old  South,  which  was 
crowded.  It  was  no  longer  a  town  meeting.  A  citizen  of  Weston, 
Jonathan  Williams,  was  chosen  moderator,  as  if  to  show  that  the  coun- 


0  LOU-SOUTH 

CHURCH  GATHERED  1669 

FIRST  HOUSE  BUILT  It, 
L     ,f~     ii« ' 

1  THIS  HOUSE  BUILT  I7< 

CRMTD  BYBHITISH  TROOPS  I77S 


Old  South   Meeting-house. 


TAQLET  IN  TH£  TOWEK 


372 


END   OF  COLONIAL  RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


try  and  the  town  were  together.     When  it  had  been  kept  waiting  all 
A  public       day,  tl  messenger  came  from  the  Governor's  country  seat  on 


Milton  Hill,  at  a  quarter  before  six,  announcing  his  refusal 
to  grant  a  pass.  Samuel  Adams  said,  "  This  meeting  can  do  nothing 
more  to  save  the  country."  There  was  a  moment  of  silence.  A  voice 
in  the  gallery  cried,  "  Hurrah  for  Griffin's  wharf."  The  meeting  in- 
stantly dissolved,  and  the  immense  throng  proceeded  to  the  point 
where  the  ships  lay.  Two  bodies  of  young  men,  whose  faces  were 
blackened,  and  who  were  otherwise  so  disguised  that  they  should  not 
be  known,  were  all  ready  for  the  exigency. 

Passing  to  the  shore,  at  the  wharf  they  took  possession  of  the  ships. 
They  bade  the  captain  and  crew  furnish  hoisting-tackle,  and 
thrownover-  they  obeyed.    The  chests  were  lifted  on  deck  and  split  open, 
and  the  tea  poured  into  the  water.     The  great  majority  of 
the  men  of  Boston,  standing  on  the  shore,  watched  the  business,  as, 
through  the  moonlight  of  a  winter's  night,  the  chests  were  emptied 
into  the  silent  bay.     The  business  was  conducted  without  noise  or 
disorder.     When   every  box  was  destroyed,  the  working  party  with- 
drew their  sentinels, 
and  the  town  was  at 
peace.     It  was  well 
nigh  dawn. 

It  was  evident 
that  the  most  care- 
ful preparation  had 
been  made  bv  the 

if 

leaders  for  the  crisis. 
It  was  equally  clear 
that  their  orders 
were  well  obeyed. 
Even  in  the  tradi- 
tions of  Boston,  not 
more  than  two  or 
three  names  can  be 
certainly  given  of 
those  who  made  up 
the  working  party. 


Hutchinson's  Country  Seat. 

the  act.     But  not  more  than  fifty,  at  the  most,  joined  in  the  work. 
They  kept  their  secret,  which  had  probably  the  sanction  of  an  oath. 
It  is  believed  that  a  list  of  the  actors  was  preserved  for  more  than 
half  a  century,  but  this  list  probably  exists  no  longer.1 
1  So  well  was  this  great  secret  kept,  that,  with  two  or  three  exceptions,  it  is  certain  that 


1775.]  DISPOSITION   OF   THE   TEA.  373 

Attempts  were  made  by  some  of  the  spectators  to  carry  off  small 
portions  of  the  tea,  but  probably  with  little  success.  The  descendants 
of  one  of  the  party  on  board  the  vessel  long  preserved  as  a  sacred  relic 
—  perhaps  still  preserve —  a  few  leaves  which  their  ancestor  found  in 
his  shoes  on  returning  home.  A  heavy  bank  of  the  tea  leaves  was 
thrown  up  on  the  Dorchester  shore.  One  Captain  O'Connor,  it  is 
related,  filled  his  capacious  pockets,  but  was  seized  as  he  jumped 
from  the  vessel,  and  left  the  skirts  of  his  coat  in  the  hands  of  the 
person  who  attempted  to  stop  him.  O'Connor  was  a  well  known 
resident  of  Charlestown,  and  his  coat-tail  was  the  next  day  nailed 
to  the  whipping-post  in  that  town,  —  a  ludicrous  but  effective  penalty 
for  his  want  of  patriotism.1 

How  earnest  and  wide-spread  the  feeling  was  on  this  subject,  is 
shown  by  the  public  records  in  other  places  besides  Boston.  In  Fred- 
erick County,  Md.,  in  Norfolk,  Va.,  in  Piscataqua,  X.  H.,  and  in 
other  places,  petty  dealers  who  had  clandestinely  received  a  few 
pounds  wei'e  haled  before  public  committees  and  forced  to  confess 
their  misdeed  and  deliver  up  the  tea  for  destruction.  At  Stamford, 
Conn.,  in  June,  1775,  one  Sylvanus  Whitney  appeared  before  the 
Committee  of  Observation,  and  confessed  that  he  had  been  "  guilty 
of  buying  and  selling  Bohea  tea,  since  the  first  of  March  last  past, 
whereby  I  have  been  guilty  of  a  breach  of  the  Association  entered 
into  by  the  Continental  Congress ;  and  sensible  of  my  misconduct,  do, 
in  this  publick  manner,  confess  my  crime,  and  humbly  request  the 
favor  of  the  publick  to  overlook  this  my  transgression."  "  Where- 
upon," says  the  official  record,  "  the  committee  passed  sentence 
against  him,  agreeable  to  the  direction  of  the  Continental  Congress. 
His  punishment  being  greater  than  he  was  able  to  bear,  he  requested 
the  liberty  to  advertise  himself,  and  offering  to  deliver  up  the  unfortu- 
nate tea  to  be  burnt,  the  committee  were  of  the  opinion  that  it  would 
satisfy  the  publick,  who  are  requested  to  accept  of  the  following  con- 
cession as  a  satisfaction  for  his  crime."  In  the  evening  the  tea  was 
hung  upon  a  gallows  erected  for  the  purpose,  in  the  presence  of  a 
great  crowd  of  citizens,  and  finally  a  large  bonfire  was  built  under  it, 
"as  it  was  thought  dangerous  to  let  the  said  tea  hang  all  night,  for 
fear  of  an  invasion  from  our  tea-lovers."  2 

A  meeting  of  citizens  in  New  York  compelled  the  consignees  to 
decline  receiving  the  cargo  sent  thither,  and  when  the  ship  arrived,  a 

if  a  man's  descendants  say  "he  was  certainly  on  the  tea-party,  for  he  always  said  so,"  that 
man  was  not  of  the  working  party,  but  was  only  a  bystander.  If  on  the  other  hand  a  per- 
son who  was  questioned  in  old  age  declined  to  say  whether  he  was  of  that  partv,  there  is 
a  possibility  that  he  was. 

1  Memoirs  of  George  It.  T.  Hewes,  etc. 

-  Force's  American  Archives,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  ii.,  page  920. 


374 


END  OF   COLONIAL  RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


vigilance  committee  took  possession  of  her,  and  after  some  days  she 
sailed  again  for  England  with  all  her  tea  on   board.     The 
orttTin        captain   was  inclined  to  be  stubborn  ;  but  after  being  es- 
corted to  the  town,  he  was  convinced  that  any  attempt  to 
land  his  cargo  would  only  insure  its  destruction.     Another  ship  had 
brought  a  few  chests  as  a  private  venture,  and  when  the  fact  was  dis- 
covered, a  mob  threw  them  into  the  river.     The  ship  sent  to  Phila- 
delphia was  stopped  before  she  reached  the  city,  and  when  her  captain 
heard  what  had  happened  to  the  cargoes  in  Boston  harbor,  he  wisely 


Captain  O'Connor's  Coat  skirts  nailed  to  the  Whipping  post. 


turned  her  prow  toward  home.  The  tea  sent  to  Charleston  was 
landed,  but,  purposely  perhaps,  was  stored  in  damp  cellars,  and  in  a 
short  time  was  found  to  be  useless. 

Intelligence  from  Boston  reached  England  at  the  moment  when 
Wedderburn  was  uttering  his  new  philippics.  The  Government, which 
had  seriously  entertained  the  project  of  withdrawing  the  fleet,  heard  of 
this  act  of  defiance  in  the  harbor  where  that  fleet  lay.  The  King  was 
prompt  in  taking  up  the  quarrel.  On  the  7th  of  March  a  royal  mes- 
The  Boston  sage  was  sent  to  Parliament  with  the  principal  documents 
Port  BUI.  received  from  America.  On  the  14th  of  the  same  month  Lord 
North  brought  in  the  measure  which  proved,  in  the  event,  to  be  the 


1775.]  THE   BOSTON  PORT   BILL.  375 

declaration  of  war,  —  which  is  generally  known  as  the  Boston  Port 
Bill.1  This  bill,  by  way  of  punishing  Boston  as  the  hot-bed  of  rebel- 
lion, provided  that  after  the  18th  of  June,  no  persons  should  load  or 
unload  any  ship  in  that  harbor.  The  customs  and  com-  Ma5!iaci,u. 
merce,  it  was  hoped,  would  be  transferred  to  Salem.  An-  e^'j™" 
other  measure,  called  "the  Massachusetts  Government  Bill,"  Ul" 
revised  the  charter.  The  Council  was  to  be  appointed  by  the  Crown, 
and  the  magistrates  by  the  Governor.  A  third  bill  provided  for  the 
trial  in  England  of  persons  engaged  in  the  late  disturbances,  and 
a  fourth  provided  for  the  government  of  Quebec.  All  these  bills 
were  opposed  by  the  most  liberal  members,  who  were  regarded  as  the 
friends  of  America,  and  Pownal  and  Johnston,  who  had  been  Royal 
Governors,  and  generally  voted  with  the  ministry,  spoke  against  the 
Port  Bill.  Pownal  said  boldly  that,  in  Hutchinson's  case,  he  would 
have  called  on  the  troops  without  the  consent  of  the  Council,  —  for 
Hutchinson  had  excused  himself  by  the  Council's  backwardness.  He 
had  withdrawn  some  companies  from  Castle  William  and  posted  them 
in  neighboring  towns,  —  not,  however,  in  Boston.  But  the  truth  there 
was,  that  "  Sam  Adams's  regiments  "  were  nothing  as  against  the  array, 
not  of  a  mob,  but  of  an  organized  force  which  the  Committees  could 
have  brought  against  them.  It  is  in  Johnston's  speech  on  this  occasion, 
that  the  statement  occurs, — for  which  he  doubtless  had  good  war- 
rant: "If  you  ask  an  American  who  is  his  master,  he  will  tell  you 
he  has  none,  —  nor  any  Governor  but  Jesus  Christ."  The  bills  all 
passed  by  large  majorities.  The  Quebec  bill  was  opposed  with  most 
energy.  It  has  proved  in  a  hundred  years  the  source  of  great  diffi- 
culties in  the  civilization  of  Canada. 

These  acts  were  received  in  the  colonies  with  even7  token  of  dis- 
gust and  rage.  The  people  of  the  sea-port  towns  of  Massachusetts 
were  eager  to  show  that  they  would  not  profit  by  the  losses  of  Boston. 
The  people  of  other  colonies  were  eager  to  show  that  they  were  ready 
to  go  as  far  as  Massachusetts.  The  Port  Bill  was  printed  with  black 
lines  about  it,  as  if  it  described  a  tragedy,  and  with  the  title,  "A  bar- 
barous, cruel,  bloody,  and  inhuman  murder."  On  the  back  of  one  of 
the  editions  was  printed  a  private  letter  from  London,  without  a  name, 
which  contained  these  words  :  "  I  can  assure  you  that  the  commander 
has  private  orders  not  to  fight  unless  they  can  prove  you  to  be  aggres- 
sors, —  nay,  they  have  orders  not  to  commence  hostilities  without  or- 
ders." 

1  It  is  not  the  only  instance  where  a  law  generally  resisted  has  retained  the  title  of  a 
"  Bill,"  as  if  it  had  never  passed  from  that  embryo  condition  to  become  an  '•  act."  Thus  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  which  was  law  for  many  years  in  America,  is  still  sometimes  called 
the  "Fugitive  Slave  Bill." 


376 


END   OF  COLONIAL   RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


The  sympathy  of  the  other  colonies  had  been  promised  in  advance. 
The  Virginia  Assembly,  in  March,  1773,  had  formed  a  colo- 
the  Virginia  nial  Committee  of  Correspondence,  and  had  invited  all  the 
Assemblies  "on  the  continent"  to  join  them.  Printed  cop- 
ies of  their  resolution  were  sent  by  the  Massachusetts  Committee  of 
Correspondence  to  every  town  in  their  province.  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island,  and  New  Hampshire  joined  in  the  appointment  of  legislative 
committees,  and  a  second  Continental  Congress  was  proposed.  Curi- 
ously it  happened,  that,  at  the  moment  when  the  English  Ministry 
dismissed  Franklin  from  his  place  as  Postmaster-general,  the  colonists 
were  planning  a  post-office  of  their  own. 

The  Port  Bill  provided  that  the  trade  of  Boston  might  be  recovered 
on  proper  apology,  and,  in  particular,  if  the  tea  were  paid  for.  But 
a  meeting  of  the  towns  around  Boston,  held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  urged 
that  no  attention  should  be  given  to  this  offer  ;  they  prepared  to  join 
their  suffering  brethren  of  Boston  in  every  measure  for  relief.  They 
drew  a  circular  letter  proposing  general  cessation  of  trade  with  Eng- 
land. Other  colonies  resolved  to  assist  the  people  of  Boston.  "  Don't 
pay  for  an  ounce  of  the  damned  tea ! "  is  the  pointed  phrase  with 
which  Christopher  Gadsden  accompanied  a  generous  contribution 
from  South  Carolina. 

Had  Lord  North  advised  diligently  as  to  the  measures  best  fitted  to 
unite  the  colonies,  he  could  not  have  done  better  than  he 
pointed  did.  To  carry  out  those  measures  in  Boston,  he  appointed 
Massachu-  General  Thomas  Gage  Governor  in  Hutchinson's  place.  Af- 
ter a  very  short  passage  of  twenty-four  days  only,  Gage 
arrived,  immediately  after  the  news  of  the  passage  of  the  bill,  which 
would  close  the  harbor  on  the  first  of  June. 


jM-  ks«* 


Narrow  Pass.  Bunker  Hill.  Breed's  Hill.  Moulton's  Point. 

A   Profile  View  of  the  Heights  of  Charlestown. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

BEGINNING    OF   THE   WAR. 

LOYALTY  OF  THE  AMERICANS  TO  THE  CROWN.  —  OUTBREAK  OF  HOSTILITIES.  —  COLO- 
NEL LESLIE'S  MARCH  TO  SALEM.  —  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  MASSACRE. — AL- 
TERCATIONS WITH  THE  TROOPS.  —  EXCURSION  TO  JAMAICA  PLAIN. —  THE  COMMIT- 
TEE OF  SAFETY.  —  COLONEL  SMITH'S  MARCH  TO  LEXINGTON.  —  SIGNAL  LIGHTS  IN- 
NORTH  CHURCH  BELFRY. —  THE  FIRST  SHOT. — CONCORD  AND  CONCORD  BRIDGE. 
—  THE  FIGHT  AT  LEXINGTON.  —  THE  ENGLISH  RETREAT. — LORD  PERCY  AND  HIS 
REENFORCEMENT. —  THE  SIEGE  BEGINS.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  MORE  TROOPS  FROM 
ENGLAND.  —  SKIRMISHES  IN  BOSTON  HARBOR.  —  BUNKER  HILL  FORTIFIED  BY  THE 
AMERICANS.  —  THE  BATTLE.  —  RESULTS  OF  THE  BATTLE. 

A  CENTURY  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war  which  parted  the  United 
States  from  any  political  dependence  on  England,  the  recurrence  of 
the  anniversary  of  every  battle  of  that  war  was  enthusiastically  cel- 
ebrated by  the  people  of  every  place  concerned.  Tradition  yielded 
its  doubtful  authority ;  contemporary  records  gave  up  from  the  dead 
their  living  testimony ;  and  orators  and  poets  became  historians,  to 
make  real  the  finest  details  of  the  past  to  the  imagination  of  the  chil- 
dren's children  of  the  actors.  In  such  eager  study  of  every  detail  of 
history,  it  is  certain  that  the  springs  of  movement  and  the  precise 
facts  are  better  known  to  us  than  they  were  to  those  who  were  envel- 
oped in  the  dust  and  smoke  of  action.  The  time  has  come  when  the 
history  of  those  days  can  be  written  with  near  approach  to  accuracy. 

When  the  year  1775  opened,  it  found  the  colonies  exasperated  to 
the  last  degree  by  the  persistent  efforts  to  subject  them  to 
the  arbitrary  rule  of  the  King.  Unwilling  to  give  up  the  ft 
traditions  of  loyalty  by  which,  for  two  generations,  the 
House  of  Brunswick  had  been  regarded  as  the  apostles,  not  to  say 
martyrs,  of  Liberty,  the  popular  writers  and  orators  in  America 
charged  the  violations  of  their  rights  and  customs,  not  on  the  King, 
but  on  the  Ministry  of  the  time.  They  were  undoubtedly  sincere  in 
this  use  of  language.  The  unpopular  acts  were  spoken  of  as  the 
"  Ministerial  Acts,"  and  the  army  which  was  sent  to  enforce  them 
was  the  "  Ministerial  Army."  The  revelations  of  a  century  have 
proved  that  this  loyal  effort  to  palliate  the  conduct  of  George  III.  was 


378  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR.  [C  HA  p.  XV. 

all  wrong.  He  was  the  centre  of  the  whole  scheme  of  American  tax- 
ation. In  a  certain  wrong-lieadeclness  which  was  perhaps  the  first 
symptom  of  his  insanity,  he  imagined  that  in  the  colonies,  at  least,  he 
might  play  the  part  of  an  absolute  monarch.  The  satire  of  another 
generation  has  called  him  at  this  period  a  "  Brummagem  Louis  XIV.," 
and  that  phrase  perhaps  sufficiently  describes  his  relations  to  Amer- 
ican history.1 

In  this  aspect  of  affairs,  with  a  little  English  army  stationed  at 
A  conflict  Boston,  and  a  handful  of  royal  troops  at  other  capital  towns 
in  the  colonies,  it  was  a  question  of  time  only,  a  question 
even  of  clays  and  hours,  when  the  bolt  should  fall.  And,  since  it  has 
proved  that  a  new  empire  was  born  on  the  day  of  the  first  open  col- 
lision between  the  colonists  and  the  authorities  of  the  Crown,  every 
place  in  America  which  can  present  any  claim  to  that  honor  has 
urged  it  eagerly  at  the  bar  of  history. 

It  is  thus  that  the  people  of  Salem,  in  Massachusetts,  on  every  fit 

occasion,  are   proud    to   remind   their   countrymen   that  on 

meetingat     Sunday,  the  26th  of  February,  1775,  they  met  the  English 

?*nlt'in.  Mass.  ,  _  _  *  _  f 

troops  in  arms,  and  met  them  successfully,  .Nav,  more,  it 
seems  certain  that,  when  an  English  infantry  soldier  used  his  bayonet 
against  a  Salem  boatman,  the  first  blood  of  the  Revolution  was  shed 
there.  But,  fortunately  or  unfortunately,  as  the  reader  may  judge,  the 
royal  commander  withdrew  his  troops  without  battle  ;  and  the  very 
success  of  the  preparations  of  the  people  of  Salem  and  Essex  County, 
the  very  promptness  with  which  the  Essex  regiment  under  Timothy 
Pickering  stood  to  its  arms  that  day,  has  deprived  Salem,  in  the  mind 
of  the  American  people,  of  the  honor  of  beginning  the  American 
Revolution. 

At  the  request  of  some  friends  of  the  royal  government  in  Marsh- 
field,  Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts,  General  Gage  had  sent  a  small 
detachment  to  that  town,  to  protect  them  from  insult.  This  detach- 
ment had  landed  there,  and  had  taken  up  its  quarters  without  resist- 
ance from  the  people.  It  was,  perhaps,  because  he  was  encouraged  by 
this  slight  success  that  Gage  struck  next  at  Salem.  He  had  heard 
there  were  some  cannon  there.  He  sent  out  Colonel  Leslie,  with  a  de- 

1  A  passage  in  a  speech  of  Dunning,  afterwards  Lord  Ashburton,  denouncing  Lord 
North's  hill  for  the  government  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  intimates  a  feminine  influence  in  the 
Crown  counsels.  "  When  I  talk  of  the  Minister,  I  mean  to  speak  with  all  due  respect  to 
the  uohle  Lord,  though  I  do  not  consider  him  as  the  immediate  actor  of  all  this.  I  know 
not  the  age,  the  person,  or  the  sex ;  but,  that  I  may  not  he  wrong,  I  will  use  the  language  of 
Acts  of  Parliament,  which  I  imagine  will  comprehend,  and  will  say,  he,  she,  or  they,  —  to 
that  person  or  persons  alone  do  I  mean  to  nddress  myself."  —  Speech  in  House  of  Commons, 
May  2,  1774.  The  allusion  is  to  the  King's  mother.  Wai  pole  speaks  of  "that  cool  dis- 
simulation in  which  he  had  been  so  well  initiated  by  his  mother,  and  which  comprehended 
almost  tin;  whole  of  what  she  taught  him." 


1775.] 


COLONEL  LESLIE  AT   SALEM  BRIDGE. 


379 


tachment,  to  seize  them,  on  Sunday,  February  26,  1775.     The  party 
landed   at   Marblehead    in   the   morning,    while   the   people   Losses ex_ 
were  at  meeting,  and  set  out  by  land  for  Salem.     The  news  ^ 
had  been  sent  from   Marblehead  before   them,  and  the  Salem  people 
were  not  surprised.     The  detachment  marched  through  the  town  of 
Salem ;  but  when  they  reached  the  "  North  Bridge,''  they  found  the 
drawbridge  up,  and  the  commander  was  then  told  by  the  assembled 
people  that  really  this  was  a  private  way,  and  that  neither  Colonel 
Leslie  nor  any  one  else  could  use   it  without  the  owner's  permission. 
Colonel  Leslie  seems  to  have  recognized  that  they  had  the  law  on 


Salem  Bridge. 

their  side,  but  in  answer  he  appropriated  two  scows  or  "  gondolas,"  1 
and  began  to  embark  his  men.     On  this,  the  owners  of  the   u  Salem 
scows  leaped  into  them  with  the  soldiers,  and  began  to  scut-  Bndse- 
tie  the  boats.     Here  Colonel  Leslie's  respect  for  private  right  gave 
way,  and  the  owners  were  expelled  with  bayonet-thrusts.     This  was 
the  first  bloodshed  of  the  Revolution.2 

But  Leslie  did  not  follow  up  this  advantage.  One  of  the  Salem 
ministers,  Rev.  Thomas  Barnard,  had  proposed  a  compromise,  which 
he  accepted.  The  bridge  was  lowered,  and  the  troops  marched  over, 
and  fifty  yards  beyond.  Then  the  Colonel  shook  hands  with  the  miu- 

1  "  Gondola,"  the  Italian  word,  was  in  use  in  English  literature  as  early  as  Spenser's 
time.     "Scow"  is  a  local  phrase  in  New  England  for  a  large  flat-bottomed  boat,  gener- 
ally towed  from  place  to  place,  or  propelled  across  shallow  water  by  poles.     "  Gondola," 
pronounced  "gundalo,"  is  still  familiarly  used  in  New  England,  as  a  synonym  for  "  scow," 
by  people  who  never  heard  of  Venice. 

2  But  before  this  a  man  had  been  hanged  in  the  Hampshire  Grants,  now  Vermont,  for 
resisting  the  Crown  authority. 


380  BEGINNING   OF  THE   WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

ister,  and  marched  his  command  back  over  the  bridge.  As  he  left 
Salem,  the  Danvers  company  of  minute-men,  the  "flank  company" 
of  the  Essex  regiment,  arrived.  But  their  services  were  not  needed. 
Colonel  Leslie  continued  his  retreat  to  Marblehead  and  Boston  with- 
out seizing  the  cannon  he  was  sent  for. 

On  the  oth  of  March,  Dr.  Warren  delivered  the  fifth  annual  ora- 
tion  on  tne  Boston  Massacre,  in  that  town.  It  was  his  sec- 
on(j  oration  on  this  subject.  The  church  was  crowded  with 
people  of  both  parties.  Even  the  steps  of  the  pulpit  were  covered 
with  British  officers.  So  dense  was  the  crowd,  that  Warren  and  his 
friends  entered  the  church  by  a  ladder  through  the  pulpit  window. 
There  was  no  disturbance  while  the  orator  spoke.  The  oration  was 
pointed  and  vehement,  but  always  carefully  avoided  anything  which 
could  be  called  treason.  This  passage  hints  to  the  gentlemen  around 
him  what  Warren  and  his  friends  were  learning:  "Even  the  sending 
troops  to  put  these  acts  in  execution  is  not  without  advantages  to 
us.  The  exactness  and  beauty  of  their  discipline  inspire  our  youth 
with  ardor  in  the  pursuit  of  military  knowledge.  Charles  the  Invin- 
cible taught  Peter  the  Great  the  art  of  war.  The  battle  of  Pultowa 
convinced  Charles  of  the  proficiency  Peter  had  made."  He  said, 
as  had  been  said  before,  that  he  and  his  friends  were  not  seeking 
independence.  But  there  were  men  in  that  house  who  were.  "  But 
if  these  pacifick  measures  are  ineffectual,"  he  said,  "and  it  appears 
that  the  only  way  to  safety  is  through  fields  of  blood,  I  know  you 
will  not  turn  your  faces  from  your  foes,  but  will  undauntedly  press 
forward  until  tyranny  is  trodden  under  foot,  and  you  have  fixed  your 
adored  Goddess  Liberty  fast  by  a  Brunswick's  side  on  the  American 
Throne." 

George  III.  and  Liberty,  on  an  American  throne,  seated  side  by 
side,  like  William  and  Mary,  probably  made  their  last  appearance 
then,  even  in  prophecy.  The  oration  ends  with  these  words  :  "  Hav- 
ing redeemed  your  country,  and  secured  the  blessing  to  future  gen- 
erations, who,  fired  by  your  example,  shall  emulate  your  virtues,  and 
learn  from  you  the  heavenly  art  of  making  millions  happy  with 
heart-felt  303%  with  transports  all  your  own,  you  cry,  The  glorious 
work  is  done !  Then  drop  the  mantle  to  some  young  Elifiha,  and 
take  your  seats  with  kindred  spirits  in  your  native  skies." 

As  Warren  spoke,  an  officer  of  the  Welsh  Fusileers,  who  sat  on 
the  pulpit  stairs,  drew  from  his  pocket  a  handful  of  bullets  and  held 
them  out  in  his  hand  for  the  rest  to  see.  Warren  dropped  a  white 
handkerchief  over  them. 

The  theme  of  the  orators  on  all  these  occasions  was  the  danger  to 
liberty  and  order  when  standing  armies  are  quartered  in  towns. 


1775.] 


ANNIVERSARY   OF   THE   BOSTON   MASSACRE. 


381 


With  the  return  of  the  garrison  to  Boston,  the  necessity  of  this  lesson 
returned.  That  King  George  quartered  soldiers  among  the  people, 
became  one  of  the  indignant  complaints  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 


Warren's  Oration. 


peridence.     Only  a  week  after  Warren's  address,  appeared  an  illus- 
tration of  the  danger  he  described. 

A  man  named  Ditson,  from   Billerica,  had  bargained  with  a  soldier 
for  a  gun.     As  soon  as  he  had  paid  his  money  he  was  seized  by  half-a- 


382  BEGINNING   OF   THE   WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

do/en  of  the  soldier's  comrades  for  breach  of  the  act  against  trading 
with  soldiers.  They  kept  him  locked  up  all  night,  and  the  next 
Arrest  of  morning  the  officers  condemned  him  without  a  hearing,  to 

be  tarred  and  feathered.  The  soldiers  were  only  too  glad 
to  execute  this  punishment,  and  then  paraded  him  through  the 
streets  with  a  placard  inscribed  "American  Liberty,  or  a  Specimen 
of  Democracy." 

The  Billerica  selectmen  remonstrated  to  General  Gage,  in  a  pap  r 
which  ends  with  ominous  words:  "  May  it  please  your  Excellency, 
we  must  tell  you  we  are  determined,  if  the  innocent  inhabitants  of 
our  country  towns  must  be  interrupted  by  soldiers  in  their  lawful  in- 
tercourse with  the  town  of  Boston,  and  treated  with  the  most  brutish 
ferocity,  we  shall  hereafter  use  a  different  style  from  that  of  petition 
and  complaint." 

There  is  something  of  real  pathos  in  such  protests  from  the  gov- 
ernment of  little  country  towns,  which,  but  for  the  result,  would  seem 
ridiculous.  That  in  "-town  meeting"  a  town  which  had  not  fifty 
voters,  should  vote  money  to  buy  powder  and  flints  with  which  to  make 
war  against  a  King  who,  within  fifteen  years,  had  humbled  the  French 
monarchy,  seemed  absurd.  But  the  history  is  full  of  such  declarations. 
And  when  the  selectmen  of  Billerica  sent  their  warning  to  that 
King's  Lieutenant-general  in  America,  the  illustration  of  what  they 
meant  was  at  hand. 

To  try  the  country,  and  at  once   to  display  his  little  army  and  to 

exercise  it  after  a  winter  cramped  in  quarters,  General  Gage 

sent  out  on  the  30th  of  March,  a  large  body  of  troops  on  what 
was  called  "  an  excursion."  Earl  Percy,  afterwards  Duke  of  North- 
umberland, then  a  young  officer  of  high  rank  in  Gage's  army,  com- 
manded the  party,  which  consisted  of  five  regiments.  "•  It  marched  to 
Jamaica  Plain,  a  village  about  four  miles  south  of  Boston,  then 
crossed  the  country  to  Dorchester,  a  town  nearer  the  sea,  and  so  re- 
turned to  Boston,  after  a  march  of  about  ten  miles.  The  season  was 
early,  and  it  was  said  that  the  gardens  and  fields  of  the  farmers  were 
unnecessarily  injured  by  the  soldiers. 

It  was   to  check  just  such  "  excursions  "  that  the  "  Committee  of 

Safety,"  since  celebrated,  had  been  created  by  the  Provin- 
mittee  .n  cial  Congress  of  Massachusetts  as  early  as  February  9  of  this 

year.  This  committee,  consisting  of  five  men,  was  a  per- 
manent executive.  Its  "  business  and  duty  "  were,  to  "alarm,  muster, 
and  cause  to  be  assembled  with  the  utmost  expedition,  and  com- 
pletely armed,  accoutred,  and  supplied,  such  and  so  many  of  the  militia 
of  the  province  as  they  shall  judge  necessary,  and  at  such  place  and 
places  as  they  shall  judge  proper."  Such  levy  was  to  be  made  when 


ex- 


1775.]  THE   EXPEDITION   TO  CONTORT). 

the  committee  should  think  an  attempt  w;ts  made  by  force  to  cany 
out  the  "  Boston  Port  Bill."  The  committee  did  not  judge  that  such 
an  occasion  was  presented  by  Percy's  "excursion"  to  Jamaica  Plain. 
It  had  no  military  objective.  "It  marched  without  baggage  and  with- 
out artillery,"  says  Warren  in  a  letter  written  at  the  time.  "  But," 
he  adds,  "  had  they  attempted  to  destroy  any  magazines,  or  to  abuse 
the  people,  not  a  man  of  them  would  have  returned  to  Boston." 

The  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts  had  been  collecting  at 
several  points  such  stores,  both  of  arms  and  of  provisions,  as  their 
means  permitted.  One  of  the  most  indignant  outbursts  in  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament,  the  year  before,  was  in  ridicule  of  the  audacity  with 
which  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  had  sent  for  the  royal 
approval  a  bill  for  the  purchase  of  twelve  brass  cannon.  Many  stores 
had  since  been  purchased  without  King  George's  approval.  The 
towns  kept  theirs  in  their  own  magazines;  those  which  belonged  to 
the  province  were  at  Concord  and  Worcester,  the  county  towns  of 
Middlesex  and  Worcester  counties.  Concord  is  about  twenty  miles 
northwest  of  Boston.  General  Gage  first  sent  two  officers  in  dis- 
guise to  reconnoitre  each  of  these  places  and  the  routes  to  them,1  and 
on  Tuesday  evening,  the  18th  of  April,  he  sent  a  detachment  of  about 
eight  hundred  men  to  seize  and  destroy  the  guns,  munitions, 

J 


„  —,       .  .   .-  ,  .  ex- 

and  stores    at  Concord.     To  insure  a  surprise,   his  troops  p«Miition  to 
were  to  march  at  night.     Under  the  command  of  Colonel 
Smith,  they  left    Boston   in  the  boats  of  the  squadron  at  the  water 
edge  of  the  Common,2  landed  at  Lechmere's  Point,  now   East  Cam- 
bridge, and  marched  across  the  salt  marshes,  so  as  to  strike  the  road 
to  Menotomy,  or  West  Cambridge.     The  night  was  clear  and  frosty. 

Meanwhile  the  country  was  alarmed,  and  the  patriot  leaders  in 
Boston  were  well  informed  of  every  step  taken  by  the  General  and  his 
troops. 

Legend  and  poetry  have  illustrated  every  minute  of  that  night  ;  but 
no  imagination  can  make  incidents  more  dramatic  than  the  precise 
facts  as  they  come  out  in  their  purity,  after  all  the  tests  of  the  stern- 
est examination.  Dr.  Warren  had  returned  to  Boston  from  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Provincial  Congress  at  Concord.  It  was  as  early  as  the 
10th,  when  Gage  gave  warning  of  his  plans,  by  launching  the  boats 
of  the  transports,  which  had  been  laid  up  all  winter.  On  Sunday,  the 
10th,  Warren  sent  Paul  Revere  from  Boston  to  Lexington,  to  tell 
Hancock  and  Adams  that  the  boats  were  launched.  Paul  Revere 

1  It  was  not  a  hundred  years,  since  Worcester  had  received  that  name  in  direct  insult  to 
Andres,  in  memory  of  the  Worcester  where  the  son  of  the  Kiug  of  England  fled  for  his 
life  before  the  army  of  Cromwell. 

'2  Near  what  is  now  Park  Square. 


384  BEGINNING   OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAI-.  XV. 

was  a  coppersmith  and  engraver.  He  was  one  of  thirty  "North  End" 
mechanics  who  through  the  winter  had  made  it  their  business  to  patrol 
the  streets  of  Boston  at  night,  in  order  to  note  every  movement  of  the 
English  troops.  Revere  took  his  message  to  Hancock,  and  returned 
through  Charlestown.  At  Charlestown,  on  the  night  of  the  16th,  he 
agreed  with  "  Colonel  Conant  and  other  gentlemen  that  if  the  British 
went  out  by  water,  we  would  show  two  lanthorns  in  the  North  Church 
steeple,  —  and  if  by  land  one,  as  a  signal."  Returning  to  Boston,  he 
reported  his  arrangements  to  Warren. 

On  Monday  and  Tuesday  General  Gnge  did  nothing;  but  the  two 
Committees — of  Safety  and  Supplies  —  were  preparing  for  him  at 
Concord.  They  passed  more  than  twenty  votes  relating  to  the  removal 
and  disposition  of  cannon,  ammunition,  and  stores.  Tuesday  evening 
Warren  discovered  in  Boston  that  the  troops  were  to  move  at  once. 
He  sent  in  great  haste  for  Revere,  and  begged  him  to  set  off  for  Lex- 
ington. This  he  did,  first  calling  —  as  his  own  narrative  relates  — 
"  upon  a  friend,"  and  desiring  him  to  hang  out  the  two  signal  lan- 
terns from  the  tower  of  North  Church.1  He  took  his  coat  and 
boots  for  his  ride,  and,  in  his  boat,  which  was  in  readiness,  was  rowed 
over  by  his  men  to  Charlestown.  When  he  came  into  the  little  town, 
he  found  that  Colonel  Conant  and  others  had  already  seen  his  signals. 
Here  he  met  also  Richard  Devens,  who  had  just  returned  from  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Committee  of  Safety,  and  who  told  him  he  had  met  ten 
British  officers  riding  towards  Lexington  from  Cambridge.  These 
were  a  party  who  had  dined  at  Cambridge,  in  the  futile  hope  that 
by  disposing  themselves  on  the  road  to  Lexington  after  night-fall, 
they  might  cut  off  all  news  of  the  advance. 

Revere  found  a  good  horse  in  Charlestown,  he  says;  the  night  was 
pleasant,  and  at  eleven  o'clock  he  started  on  the  eventful  ride  which, 
in  Longfellow's  version  of  it,  has  made  him  immortal.  The  moon 
was  already  up.  He  had  scarcely  left  Charlestown,  and  was  passing 
"where  Mark  was  hung  in  chains,"  when  two  English  officers  on 
horseback  tried  to  take  him.  But  Revere  and  his  horse  were  too 
quick  for  them.  In  Medford  he  waked  the  captain  of  the  minute-men. 
From  Medford  to  Lexington  he  alarmed  almost  every  household.  He 
came  to  Lexington  about  midnight,  and  gave  his  news  to  Hancock  and 

1  "  I  left  Dr.  Warren,  called  upon  a  friend,  and  desired  him  to  make  the  signals,"  is 
Revere 'a  statement  (Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  v.).  Who  the  "friend"  was  is  a  disputed 
point,  on  which  there  is  no  evidence  except  family  tradition.  The  descendants  of  Robert 
Newman  claim  that  he,  who  was  the  sexton  of  Chri.»t  Church,  at  Revere 's  request  made 
the  signals.  The  descendants  of  John  Pulling  declare  that  he  was  the  intimate  friend  of 
Revere,  and  that  it  has  been  handed  down  in  their  fumily  from  generation  to  generation 
that  it  was  he  with  whom  Revere  had  an  agreement  to  hang  out  the  lanterns.  It  is  not 
even  certain  which  of  the  North  churches  was  used,  though  that  learned  body,  the  mayor 
and  aldermen  of  Boston,  have  decided  that  it  was  Christ  Church. 


1775.] 


THE   ALARM   IN  MIDDLESEX. 


385 


Adams,  who  were  at  Rev.  Mr.  Clarke's  house.  Here  he  was  joined  by 
William  Dawes,  whom 
Warren  had  sent  out  by 
land,  over  Boston  Neck. 
And  after  a  little  stay  with 
Dawes  and  Dr.  Prescott, 
"a  high  son  of  liberty,"  he 
started  for  Concord  between 
one  and  two  in  the  morning. 
Prescott,  who  was  thus  pre- 
ordained to  take  the  torch 
when  it  fell  from  the  hand 
of  the  first  messenger,  had 
lingered  thus  late,  on  that 
critical  night,  with  his 
sweetheart,  a  young  lady  of 
Lexington,  whom  he  after- 
ward married.  The  three 
rode  on  together  toward 
Concord.  On  the  way, 
while  Dawes  and  Prescott 
stopped  to  alarm  a  house, 
Revere  was  surrounded  by 
four  English  officers.  Pres- 
cott escaped,  and  reached 
Concord  with  the  news. 
Revere  was  taken  prisoner, 
and  carried  back  by  the 
English  officers  and  the 
other  six  of  their  party  to 
Lexington,  where  he  arrived 
a  little  before  the  column  of 
whose  movements  he  had 
given  information. 

The  Provincial  Commit- 
tee of  Safety  had  adjourned 
from  Concord  to  Menot- 
omy.1  On  the  sudden  ar- 
rival of  the  troops,  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  they 
were  awakened,  and,  with- 
out dressing,  ran  into  the 


VOL.    III. 


Signal    Lanterns  in   North  Church   Belfry. 

1  Afterwards  West  Cambridge,  now  Arlington. 
25 


386  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

fields  to  escape.  These  were  Orne,  Lee,  Gray,  and  Heath.  Dr. 
Warren,  the  lit'th  member  of  the  committee,  was  in  Boston,  watch- 
ing what  passed  there.  He  remained  till  about  seven  in  the  morning, 
when  he  left  Boston,  forever,  as  it  proved,  with  the  words:  "  They 
have  begun  it ;  that,  either  party  can  do  ;  and  we  '11  end  it ;  that,  only 
one  can  do." 

Colonel  Smith,  as  has  been  seen,  had  made  every  effort  to  arrest 
any  person  who  could  alarm  the  country,  but  had  wholly  failed. 
Conscious  of  his  failure,  he  sent  back  for  a  reinforcement.  Gage 
received  his  message  at  five  o'clock.  He  had  anticipated  it,  and  at 
four  o'clock  had  ordered  out  the  first  brigade,  under  Lord  Percy. 
But  by  a  series  of  those  petty  blunders  and  delays  which  befall  armies 
unused  to  war,  it  was  nine  o'clock  before  this  brigade  was  ready  in 
Tremont  Street,  in  Boston.  The  boats  could  not  be  used,  because 
they  were  at  Cambridge,  and  Percy  marched  by  the  circuitous  land 
route  through  Roxbury  and  Brookline.  Smith,  meanwhile,  pushed 
forward  six  companies  of  his  light  infantry  with  a  body  of  marines, 
under  Major  Pitcairn,  of  the  Marine  Corps,  directing  him  at  the 
earliest  moment  to  take  possession  of  the  bridges  over  the  Concord 
River  at  Concord.  This  was  a  military  precaution  against  attack 
from  the  militia  north  or  west  of  that  little  stream.  On  Major  Pit- 
cairn,  therefore,  and  his  immediate  command,  was  thrown  the  respon- 
sibility, which  soon  proved  so  critical,  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 

The  sun  had  not  yet  risen  when  Pitcairn,  hurrying  on  his  men,  ap- 
Pitoaim  nt  preached  Lexington  Common.  This  was  a  little  green  in 
Lexington.  front  of  tne  meeting  -house.  Obedient  to  the  alarm,  the 
Lexington  minute-men  had  formed  some  time  before.  They  had  sent 
scouts  down  the  silent  road,  who  had  returned  saying  there  was  no 
enemy,  so  slow  had  been  Smith's  progress.  On  this  announcement 
the  men  had  withdrawn  into  the  meeting-house  and  other  houses 
around  the  green.  At  a  second  alarm  they  paraded  again.  They 
were  under  the  command  of  John  Parker,  a  veteran  of  the  French 
war.  As  the  column  under  Pitcairn  approached,  each  party  could 
observe  the  numbers  of  the  other.  Parker  saw  that  his  command  was 
wholly  outnumbered,  and  directed  his  men  to  retire.  Pitcairn,  at  the 
same  moment,  rushed  forward,  with  the  words,  which  were  long  after 
repeated  in  every  household,  — 

'•  Disperse  !  rebels,  disperse  ! " 

On  each  side  there  was  the  most  eager  wish  that  the  responsibility 
of  the  first  shot  should  be  thrown  upon  the  other  party.  The  Con- 
tinental Congress  had  indicated  this  wish  earnestly.  The  Provincial 
Congress,  anxious  to  conform  to  its  directions,  had  cautioned  the  town 
committees  to  use  the  utmost  forbearance.  On  the  other  side  there 


1775.] 


THE    FIRST    SHOT. 


was  equal  caution.  General  Gage  went  to  the  verge  of  pusillanimity, 
in  directing  his  officers  not  to  assume  the  offensive.  Colonel  Leslie 
had  been  ridiculed,  not  in  print  only,  but  in  song  and  talk,  for  retir- 
ing without  a  struggle  at  Salem,  and  yet  he  had  simply  obeyed  Gage's 
instructions. 

Each  party,  in  a  word,  wanted  to  show  that  the  other  struck  first. 
And  it  has  long  been  one  of  the  mooted  questions  of  this  great 
struggle,  whether  the  English  or  the  Americans  fired  the  first  shot. 
Major  Pitcairn,  in  command  on  the  one  side,  and  Captain  John  Parker, 
who  commanded  on  the  other,  declared  that  their  orders  were  strict, 
that  no  man  should  fire  till  he  was  fired  upon.  But  that  somebody 
fired,  a  war  of  seven  long  years  was  the  evidence. 


Lexington  Green. 

Sifting  to  the  very  bottom  the  testimony  which  has  accumulated  on 
both  sides,  it  seems  that  the  witnesses,  Avho  spoke  with  can-  The  erst 
tion,  all  spoke  the  truth.  Pitcairn  probably  gave  no  order  "'""• 
to  fire,  —  even  commanded  his  men  not  to  fire,  as  he  always  said.  It 
is  admitted  on  all  hands  that  at  the  last  moment  he  struck  his  sword  or 
staff  down,  as  a  signal  to  them  to  forbear  firing.  Parker  ordeivd  his 
men  to  disperse,  and  not  to  fire,  —  very  properly  declining  to  attack 
with  seventy  men,  not  even  in  array,  a  column  of  six  companies  of 
royal  infantry.  But  Pitcairn  also  says  lie  saw  a  "flash  in  the  pan" 
on  the  other  side.  What  happened  was  probably  this  :  One  of  Par- 
ker's men.  without  order,  drew  trigger,  and  his  gun  missed  lire.  The 


- 


388  BEGINNING   OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

powder  flashed  in  the  pan.  Some  English  soldiers,  without  order 
also,  considered  this  to  be,  as  it  certainly  was,  a  sufficient  signal  that 
war  had  begun,  and  fired  some  irregular  shots  in  return.  These  shots 
hurt  no  one  ;  but  a  general  discharge  from  the  English  line  followed, 
in  which  many  of  the  Lexington  party  were  killed  and  wounded. 
They  then  returned  the  fire,  and  the  war  was  begun. 

Had  the  unknown  Protesilaus  lived,  the  flash  of  whose  disobedient 
musket,  in  the  gray  of  the  morning,  precipitated  at  that  moment  the 
certain  storm,  he  would  afterward  have  told  the  story.  It  was  not  a 
moment  to  be  forgotten,  nor  to  be  ashamed  of.  It  must  be  that  lie 
was  one  of  the  seven  men  who  were  found  by  their  wretched  wives 

«/ 

and  mothers  dead  on  Lexington  Common,  after  the  English  column 
had  passed  by.1 

It  is  true,  then,  that  the  Americans  did  not  fire  first.  It  is  also 
true  that  one  unknown  Lexington  soldier  tried  to  fire  and  failed.  It 
is  true  that  the  English  commander  and  his  men  did  not  mean  to  fire 
first.  It  is  also  true,  that  as  events  were  ordered,  they  fired  the  first 
shot,  and  took  the  first  lives  lost  in  the  war.  In  the  return  fire  of 
Parker's  men,  one  English  soldier  was  killed,  and  one  or  two  wounded. 
Of  Parker's  little  force  one  fourth  were  killed  or  wounded  by  one 
volley. 

The  English  troops  fired  another  volley,  in  triumph,  on  the  Com- 
The  march  mon,  and  pressed  on  to  Concord.  As  has  been  already  said, 
tagton  to  Colonel  Smith  knew  that  the  country  was  alarmed,  and  had 
concord.  gent  b^]-  for  reenforceinents.  From  Lexington  to  Concord, 
as  they  marched,  is  about  eight  miles,  by  a  road  which,  as  they  must 
have  noticed  then,  could  be  easily  obstructed  by  an  adverse  force.  It 
was  still  early  morning,  and  they  arrived  at  Concord  without  further 
interruption.  They  had  already  made  what  a  prudent  officer  would 
consider  a  good  day's  march,  and  had  been  without  sleep  through 
the  night.  The  General's  intention  must  have  been  that  they  should 
take  position  for  that  day  and  the  next  night,  at  least,  at  Concord. 

But  the  whole  country  was  now  alarmed,  and  the  towns  showed 
what  they  meant  when  they  defied  King  George.  The  arrangements 
made  by  the  committees  of  correspondence  and  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress, to  carry  information  of  any  emergency,  worked  wonderfully 
well.  To  this  hour  there  are  traditions  in  northern  Middlesex  and 
Worcester  counties  of  the  "man  on  the  white  horse,"  who  passed 
through  before  daybreak,  to  say  that  the  English  had  left  Boston,  and 

1  Ten  men  more  were  wounded,  —  seventeen  in  all,  out  of  seventy,  disabled  by  one  volley. 
This  fact  is  a  sufficient  evidence  that  their  military  array  was  not  considerably  broken,  and 
that  the  firing  was  at  very  close  range.  Such  a  proportion  of  loss  would  be  remarkable  at 
the  end  of  a  battle. 


1775.]  CONCORD   AND   CONCORD   BKIIXiK. 

that  the  war  hail  begun.  Nay,  it  would  not  be  hard  to  find  those  who 
have  heard  that  this  message  came  before  mortal  horse  could  have 
reached  the  spot  where  it  was  heard,  and  that  no  man  can  tell  who 
this  fatal  messenger  was,  or  whither  lie  went.  Without  supposing 
that  any  Castor  or  Pollux  of  the  eighteenth  century  brought  the 
fatal  tidings,  it  is  certain  that  they  advanced  with  a  celerity  till  then 
unknown.  The  reader  has  been  told  that  Colonel  Smith  had  notified 
General  Gage  that  he  should  need  reinforcements.  This  was  before 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  But  long  before  the  tardy  forms  of  the 
officials  in  Boston  had  sent  off  Percy's  brigade  to  him,  the  minute- 
men  of  the  colony,  for  thirty  miles  around,  had  been  summoned  hy 
the  prompt  prevision  of  the  patriot  authorities,  and  were  on  the  inarch. 

Thus  the  Concord  minute-men  had  formed,  and  some  of  their 
neighbors  from  Lincoln,  the  next  town,  had  joined  them  before  Pit- 
cairn  and  Colonel  Smith  arrived  there.  Some  of  the  companies 
marched  down  the  road  toward  Lexington,  far  enough  to  see  that 
they  were  quite  outnumbered,  and  then  withdrew.  They  formed  on 
a  bold  hill  eighty  rods  behind  the  village.  Here  Barrett,  their  Colo- 
nel, joined  them.  He  had  been  engaged,  under  personal  and  secret 
orders  from  the  Provincial  Congress,  in  concealing  musket-balls  and 
removing  provisions  which  the  colony  had  collected  there.  These 
were  beef,  flour,  molasses,  rum,  and  candles.  Barrett  found  that  he 
was  outnumbered,  and  withdrew  his  whole  force  across  the  Concord 
River,  where  he  held  them  watching  the  English  column  in  their  na- 
tive village.  Colonel  Smith,  the  English  commander,  attended  to  the 
duty  assigned  him.  He  broke  off  the  trunnions  of  three  new  can- 
non, which  Barrett  had  not  been  able  to  remove  ;  he  destroyed  some 
wooden  spoons  and  trenchers,  and  other  articles  in  the  humble  com- 
missariat provided  for  the  army  which  his  march  of  that  day  was 
calling  into  the  field.  But  this  did  not  last  long.  Shots  at  the  North 
Bridge  told  all  men,  if  any  man  had  doubted  before,  that  war  had 
begun. 

The  Concord  and  Lincoln  companies,  on  the  hill  above  the  North 
Bridge,  were  joined  by  different  companies  of  minute-men 
from   the  towns  of    northern    Middlesex.     They   could   see  OMM& 
smoke,  which  showed  that  the  English  were  firing  houses  or 
goods.    The  court-house  was  in  flames.    They  could  see  at  the  bridge 
three  companies  of  English  troops,  who  were  under  an  officer  named 
Laurie.     It  was  when  these  men  began  to  take  up  the  bridge  that 
the  little  army  of  militia  acted. 

The  Lincoln  minute-men  volunteered  to  clear  the  bridge.  Captain 
Davis,  of  Acton,  made  the  remark,  now  a  proverb,  "  There  is  not  a 
man  in  my  company  that  is  afraid."  Colonel  Barrett  commanded  the 


300 


I?  KG  INNING    OF   TIIK    WAR. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


column  to  pass  the  bridge  without  firing  ;  but,  if  fired  upon,  to  return 
the  fire.  The  New  England  passion  for  law  appears  in  the  language 
of  his  order.  "•  It  is  the  King's  highway,  and  we  have  a  right  to 
inarch  on  it  if  we  march  to  Boston.  Forward,  march  !  "  They 
marched  to  the  quickest  air  their  fifes  could  play  —  the  "•  White  Cock- 
ade." 

Laurie,  who  commanded  the  detachment  of  English,  recrossed  the 
bridge.  Major  Barrett,  in  command  of  the  .attacking  party,  hurried 
upon  it.  When  they  were  within  a  short  distance,  the  English  fired 
three  distinct  volleys,  and  Davis  and  Hosmer  were  killed.  The  Con- 
cord minister,  Mr.  Emerson,  was  nearer  to  the  English  than  either  of 


Concord   Bridge. 

them,  on  the  Concord  side  of  the  river.  He  wrote  in  his  diary  that 
night  that  he  "  was  very  uneasy  till  the  fire  was  returned."  When 
Davis  and  Hosmer  fell,  the  militia  returned  the  fire.  The  English 
retreated.  The  minute-men  crossed  the  bridge,  and  some  of  them 
ascended  the  bold  hill  where  the  Concord  men  had  formed  in  the 
morning.  Another  party  of  English,  with  Parsons  in  command,  re- 
turning from  Colonel  Barrett's  house,  crossed  the  bridge  from  the 
northern  side,  and  were  allowed  to  join  the  main  force  undisturbed. 

In  this  encounter  at  the  bridge,  the  American  militia  first  attacked 
the  King's  troops.  The  English  lost  here  one  soldier  killed  and  sev- 
eral wounded.  Colonel  Smith  now  abandoned  any  idea  of  posting 
himself  at  Concord.  As  soon  as  he  could  collect  proper  carriages  to 


1775.]  RETREAT    OF  THE   BRITISH.  391 

carry  his  wounded,  he  started  on  his  return.     Meanwhile,  from  every 
quarter,   the    minute-men   were    pouring  down.     They   did 

.         .         ,,        T,  ,  The  r<-tr--:it. 

not  know  what  was  the  true  "objective.  oat  they  meant 
to  be  in  time,  and  they  were  in  time.  The  whole  country  between 
Boston  and  Concord  was  aroused.  The  Provincials,  knowing  every 
inch  of  it,  chose  their  own  best  places  to  attack  the  King's  troops. 
So  soon  as  these  had  passed,  their  unseen  enemies  would  take  some 
cross-road  and  attack  again.  "  They  are  trained  to  protect  themselves 
behind  stone  walls,"  writes  General  Gage.  "They  seemed  to  drop 
from  the  skies,"  says  an  English  soldier.  Smith  and  his  men,  after 
their  hard  march  of  nearly  thirty  miles,  came  back  to  Lexington  ex- 
hausted. Smith  himself  was  wounded.  They  had  marched  from 
Concord,  nearly  eight  miles,  in  two  hours. 

"A  number  of  our  officers  wei*e  wounded,"  says  Bernicre,  an  Eng- 
lish eye-witness,  "so  that  we  began  to  run  rather  than  retreat  in  order. 
The  whole  behaved  with  amazing  bravery,  but  little  order." 

A  little  beyond  Lexington  Common,  at  about  three  o'clock,  Smith 
and  his  hard-pressed  party,  as  they  approached  Boston,  met  the  re- 
enforcement  under  Lord  Percy,  so  long  desired.  Lord  Percy  had 

•/  7  •/ 

moved  at  nine  in  the  morning,  in  a  direction  almost  directly  perry-g 
opposite  that  of  Lexington,  because  he  was  obliged  to  leave  column 
Boston  by  land.  It  was  remembered  afterwards,  that  as  he  passed 
through  Roxbury,  his  bands  played  "  Yankee  Doodle,"  and  that  a 
prophetic  boy  insulted  him  by  crying  out,  "You  march  to  Yankee 
Doodle;  you  will  come  back  to  Chevy  Chase."  This  allusion  to  the 
"  wof ul  hunting"  so  celebrated  in  literature  in  the  history  of  his 
house,  appeared  again  and  again  in  the  pasquinades  of  the  time.  At 
Cambridge  he  had  to  cross  Charles  River,  and  the  Committee  of 
Safety,  or  Colonel  Heath,  one  of  their  number,  had  directed  that  the 
planks  should  be  taken  from  the  bridge.  Percy  was  thus  still  further 
detained.  As  soon  as  possible  he  pressed  forward  with  his  troops, 
leaving  the  train  of  stores  to  follow  when  the  bridge  should  be  more 
firmly  repaired.  The  officer  in  command  of  this  convoy  lost  his  way, 
and  to  the  inquiries  he  made  in  Cambridge,  such  false  answers  were 
given  that  with  only  scant  military  escort,  he  fell  into  the  hands  of 
some  West  Cambridge  "exempts/'  led  with  intelligence  and  success 
by  a  negro  soldier  who  had  served  in  the  French  war. 

Lord  Percy,  without  his  train,  pressed  on  in  time,  as  has  been  said, 
to   meet  Smith  just  below  Lexington,   about  two   or  three   Ther,.turu 
o'clock.     His  field-pieces  are   always    spoken    of    as    awing  toBo>t0"- 
the    militia.     The   exhausted    columns    rested    a   while,    "the    men's 
tongues  hanging  from  their  mouths,  like  dogs;"  such  was  the  tradition 
repeated  for  generations.     The  united  force  then  took  up  the  march 


302  BEGINNING   OF  THE   WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

to  Boston,  and  mot  with  the  same  resistance  everywhere,  from  a 
force  constantly  increasing.  At  last,  as  the  sun  was  going  down,  the, 
head  of  the  column  crossed  Charlestown  Neck.  Beacon  Hill,  in 
Boston,  was  covered  with  people,  watching  for  their  return,  and,  as  it 
darkened,  one  could  see  thence  the  musket-flashes  on  the  road  from 
Cambridge  to  Charlestown.  Percy  had  to  use  his  field-pieces  again. 
At  West  Cambridge,  Dr.  Warren,  while  exposing  himself  to  the 
enemy's  lire,  had  the  pin  on  his  earlock  shot  away.  Bv  this  time 
Colonel  Heath,  of  the  Committee  of  Safety,  was  in  some  sort  com- 
manding. The  English  had  just  reached  Bunker  Hill  in  Charles- 
town,  when  one  of  Colonel  Pickering's  aids  rode  up  to  Heath  with  the 
MOWS  that  the  Essex  regiment  was  just  behind  him,  on  the  road  from 
Salem.  The  Danvers  companv  had  marched  direct  to  Menotomy;  the 
rest  of  the  regiment  had  gone  straight  to  Charlestown.  But  Heath 
thought  it  too  late  for  any  further  offensive  operations.  The  Eng- 
lish posted  sentries  on  their  side  of  Charlestown  Neck  ;  Heath  placed 
his  sentries  on  the  other  side,  and  ordered  the  militia  to  lie  on  their 
arms  at  Cambridge. 

The  loss  of  the  English  in  the  march  and  retreat  was  reported  by 
Gaffe   as   Bixtv-five    killed,  one    hundred    and    seventy-eiffht 

The  results.  ...  i  . 

wounded,  and  twenty-six  missing,  a  very  large  loss  from 
a  force  of  eighteen  hundred  men.  The  loss  of  the  Americans  was 
forty-nine  killed,  thirty-six  wounded,  and  five  missing.1 

All  that  night  the  march  of  the  minute-men  from  ever}'  town  in 
TUP  FithiT-     Massachusetts,   from    Rhode    Island,  from   Connecticut,  and 

from  New  Hampshire,  kept  the  country  towns  awake.     Be- 


Ainoriraii 
militia. 


fore  morning  on  the  20th,  before  Gage's  tired  troops  were 
ferried  back  from  Charlestown  to  their  barracks,  an  American  army 
was  at  Cambridge.  The  intelligence  had  flown  over  the  land,  that  the 
English  troops  had  fired  on  the  Lexington  militia,  and  with  it  had 
gone  the  news  that  the  column  had  been  driven  back  to  Boston.  The 
story  grew  as  it  went  from  province  to  province.  By  the  time  it  came 
into  western  Connecticut,,  it  took  a  form  which  was  carried  by  ex- 
press to  New  York,  and  was  there  relied  upon  as  in  some  sort  an  offi- 
cial narrative.  In  that  form  the  New  York  Committee  of  Safety 
despatched  it  southward,  and  so  it  sped  to  Charleston,  S.  C.,  rousing 
a  country.  No  fiery  cross  ever  stirred  a  nation  to  more  eager  enthu- 
siasm. That  despatch  is  therefore  worth  copying  now,  —  although,  in 
literal  fact,  every  material  statement  in  it  was  untrue.  It  was  in 
these  words :  — 

1  These  figures  are  taken  from  Gage's  return,  and  from  Fhinucy's  History. 


1775.]  THE   NEWS   CARRIED   SOUTHWARD.  393 

"  WAI.LINGFORD  [Conn.],  Monday  24th,  1775. 

"  DEAR  SIR  :  Colonel  Wadsivorth  was  over  in  this  place  most  of  yes- 
te i\l ay,  and  has  ordered  twenty  men  out  of  each  Company  in  i^kwood-g 
his  Regiment,  some  of  which  had  already  set  off,  and  others  lett<'r 
go  this  morning.  He  brings  accounts,  which  came  to  him  authenti- 
cated, from  Thursday  in  the  afternoon.  The  King's  troops  being  reen- 
forced  a  second  time,  and  joined,  as  I  suppose,  from  what  I  can  learn, 
by  the  party  who  were  intercepted  by  Colonel  Gardner,  were  then 
encamped  on  Winter  Hill,  and  were  surrounded  by  twenty  thousand 
of  our  men  who  were  intrenching.  Colonel  Gardner''*  ambush  proved 
fatal  to  Lord  Percy,  and  another  General  Officer,  who  were  killed  on 
the  spot  the  first  fire.  To  counterbalance  this  good  news,  the  story 
is,  that  our  first  man  in  command  (who  he  is  I  know  not)  is  also 
killed.  It  seems  they  have  lost  many  men  on  both  sides ;  Colonel 
Wadsivorth  had  the  account  in  a  letter  from  Hartford.  The  Country 
beyond  here  are  all  gone,  and  we  expect  it  will  be  impossible  to  pro- 
cure horses  for  our  wagons,  as  they  have  and  will,  in  every  place,  em- 
ploy themselves  all  their  horses.  In  this  place  they  send  a  horse  for 
every  sixth  man,  and  are  pressing  them  for  that  purpose.  I  know  of 
no  way,  but  you  must  immediately  send  a  couple  of  stout,  able  horses, 
who  may  overtake  us  at  Hartford  possibly,  where  we  must  return 
Mrs.  Noyess,  and  Meloy's  if  he  holds  out  so  far.  Remember  the 
horses  must  be  had  at  any  rate. 

"  I  am  in  the  greatest  haste,  your  entire  friend  and  humble  servant, 

"•  JAMES  LOCKWOOD. 

"N.  B.  Colonel  Gardner  took  nine  prisoners,  and  twelve  clubbed 
their  firelocks  and  came  over  to  our  party.  Colonel  Gardner's  party 
consisted  of  seven  hundred  men,  and  the  Regulars  one  thousand  eight 
hundred,  instead  of  one  thousand  two  hundred,  as  we  heard  before. 
They  have  sent  a  vessel  up  Jit/stick  River,  as  far  as  Temple's  farm, 
which  is  about  half  a  mile  from  Winter  Hill.  These  accounts  being 
true,  all  the  King's  forces,  except  four  or  five  hundred,  must  be  en- 
camped on  Winter  Hill."  1 

This  curious  mixture  of  the  account  of  personal  need  for  horses  and 
of  the  outbreak  of  a  civil  war,  is  hardly  intelligible  when  compared 
with  the  facts.  History  has  not  known  better  than  James  Lockwood 
who  was  "  the  first  man  in  command ''  on  the  American  side.  The 
rumor  of  his  death  probably  rose  from  the  death  of  Captain  Davis,  of 
Acton,  in  the  attack  on  Concord  Bridge.  The  account  of  Percy's 
being  intercepted  at  Winter  Hill  is  an  instance  where  the  wish  was 
father  to  the  thought.  For  a  generation  after,  Colonel  Pickering  was 

1  Preserved  at  Charleston,  S.  C.     Published  in  Marshall's  Remembrancer. 


394  BEGINNING   OF   THE   WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

blamed  unjustly,  because  be  did  not  effect  this  consummation  with 
the  Essex  regiment.1 

With  the  twentieth  of  April,  therefore,  the  "Siege  of  Boston" 
The  siege  of  Deg^»-  The  patriots  had  studied,  through  the  whole  win- 
Boston.  |.er^  a  p].in  for  withdrawing  all  the  inhabitants  from  Boston, 
which  Gage,  naturally  enough,  had  resented.  But,  with  the  shock  of 
battle,  the  departure  of  the  inhabitants  came  of  course  ;  and,  eventu- 
ally, when  Gage  found  he  was  really  besieged  on  the  land  side,  he  did 
not  oppose  iti 

As  the  minute-men  arrived,  they  were  posted  in  that  part  of 
Cliarlestown  (now  Somerville)  which  is  outside  Charlestown  Neck,  in 
Cambridge,  and  in  Roxbury.  Works  were  thrown  up  on  Charles 
River  and  on  the  salt  marshes,  to  prevent  any  movement  of  English 
troops  by  boats.  The  only  egress  from  the  city  by  land  was  over  Bos- 
ton Neck,  by  which  Percy  had  marched  out.  This  passage  was  com- 
Gener.il  Ar-  m-uided  completely  b'y  a  strong  fort  on  the  highland  above 
tcmas  Wara-  the  Roxbury  Meeting-house.2  General  Artemas  Ward,  of 
Shrewsbury,  was  the  senior  officer  in  command  of  the  Massachusetts 
troops,  and  a  deference  was  yielded  to  him  by  Spencer,  of  Connecti- 
cut, Greene,  of  Rhode  Island,  and  Folsom,  of  New  Hampshire.  These 
were  the  senior  officers  of  the  contingents  from  those  colonies.  But 
his  orders  to  them  take  the  form  of  requests.  And  his  own  commis- 
sion as  General  and  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Massachusetts  troops 
was  not  given  him  till  the  20th  of  May.  The  works  which  have  been 
alluded  to  were  planned,  and  well  planned,  by  Henry  Knox,  a  young 
Boston  bookseller,  who  had  interested  himself  in  military  studies,  and 
by  Gridley,  who  had  served  in  the  French  War.  During  all  this  pe- 
riod, there  was  a  wretched  deficiency  of  powder  in  the  stores  of  this 
suddenly  enlisted  army.  The  Provincial  Congress,  in  fear  of  a  bold 
attack  by  Gage,  which  very  probably  would  have  resulted  in  their  de- 
feat, made  provision  for  securing  their  records  and  stores,  such  as  they 
were,  in  case  of  the  necessity  of  a  retreat. 

As  early  as  the  26th  of  April,3  a  letter  from  Dr.  Warren  to  Gage 
proposed  that  the  people  of  Boston  be  allowed  to  leave  the 

The  exodus  _,  r       T  . 

from  BOS-      town.     Gage  agreed,  but  said  their  arms  must  be  given  up  ; 

and  on  the  27th  a  great  number  of  arms  were  deposited  at 

Faueuil  Hall.     The  military  habit  of  the  time  appears  in  the  fact  that 

there  was  almost  one  weapon  for  every  grown  man.     At  first,  Gage 

1  "  And  vanquished  Percy,  to  complete  the  tale, 

Had  hammered  stone  for  life  iu  Concord  jail."  —  LOWKU.. 

2  Now  a  little  ornamental  square,  in  which  is  the  stand-pipe  of  the  Boston  Water  Works. 

The  "  Meeting-honso  "  was  that  made  famous  l>y  the  ministry  for  half  a  century  of  Eliot, 

"  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians."     See  vol.  i.,  p.  539. 

a  Not  the  20th,  as  printed  hy  mistake  in  Force's  Archives. 


1775.] 


THE  NEWS  SENT   TO    ENGLAND. 


395 


allowed  the  inhabitants  to  depart  on  the  condition  that  only  thirty 
wagons  should  leave  the  town  daily.  But  so  large  a  number  left  that 
the  Tories  in  Boston,  remembering  the  patriot  plans  of  the  last  win- 
ter, took  alarm,  and  compelled  Gage  to  rescind  his  permission.  On 
the  day  of  the  expedition  to  Concord,  almost  two  hundred  Tories  were 
enrolled  under  General  Ruggles,  of  Hardwick,  said  to  be  the  best  sol- 
dier in  the  colonies.1  Fearing  that,  unless  the  inhabitants  should  re- 
main in  the  town,  it  would  be  burned  by  the  American  army,  they 
told  Gage  that  they  would  leave  the  town  themselves  if  the  emigra- 
tion were  not  stopped,  and  he  was  obliged  to  yield. 

The  Provincial  Congress,  immediately  after  the  events  of  Lexing- 
ton and  Concord,  prepared  an  account  of  the  battles,  con-  New_,  of  the 
firmed  by  depositions  from  the  principal  actors.  These  they  SJSJj^. 
entrusted  to  Captain  John  Derby,  of  Salem,  with  the  order  '""d 
to  sail  to  some  convenient  port  of  Ireland  and  thence  to  hasten  to 
London,  and  deliver  his  pa- 
pers to  the  agent.  With 
these  orders  Captain  Derby 
started,  and  outsailed  every 
other  vessel  on  the  way. 
Captain  Brown,  in  the 
Sukey,  with  Gage's  de- 
spatches, had  sailed  before 
him ;  but  Captain  Derby 
reached  London  eleven  days 
before  any  other  news  ar- 
rived. This  early  announce- 
ment of  the  outbreak,  which 
naturally  enough  took  the 
view  most  favorable  to  the 
patriots,  produced  an  imme- 
diate effect  in  England,  such 
as  the  government  depre- 
cated. The  impression,  of  course,  gained  ground  every  day  that  they 
had  news  which  they  dared  not  publish. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  so  distinct  a  rumor  was  circulated  at  Cam- 
bridge that  Gage  intended  to  march   out,  that  the  minute-   Moveuieau 
men  of   the   towns    near    Boston  were   called    into  service.  J£,*u"|!, 
Gage  had  another  opportunity  to  see   how  large  was  the  re-   Bo*to»- 
serve  force  at  the  service  of  his  enemy.     On  the  13th,  Israel  Put- 
nam—  who,  when  the  news  of  the  fight  at  Lexington  and  Concord 
reached  him,  left  his  plough  in  the  field  at  Pomfret,  Conn.,  mounted 
1  The  same  who  had  presided  ai  the  first  Continental  Congress,  ten  years  before. 


General  Gage. 


306  BEGINNING   OF   THE   WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

his  horse,  and  the  next  morning  was  in  Concord  —  marched  a  little 
army  of  two  thousand  three  hundred  men  from  Cambridge  to  Charles- 
town  Neck,  and  through  Charlestown  to  the  ferry  there.  Had  any 
permanent  works  on  Bunker  Hill  been  intended  by  Ward  and  the 
American  officers,  that  was  the  better  time,  before  Gage  was  reen- 
forced.  On  the  27th,  a  skirmish,  in  which  Putnam  led,  took  place  at 
Hog  Island,  northeast  of  Boston,  in  the  harbor.  Besides  the  sheep 
and  cattle  which  were  the  object  of  the  raid,  the  English  lost  a  sloop, 
twelve  swivels,  and  several  men.  An  exaggerated  account  of  the  ex- 
ploit gave  to  it  at  the  south  the  character  of  a  battle ;  and  it  was  to 
this  affair  that  Putnam  owed  a  certain  prominence  at  the  time,  which 
helped  in  securing  the  i-ank  given  him  in  the  Continental  army  a  few 
weeks  afterward. 

Several  skirmishes  of  this  character,  which  generally  resulted  to  the 
advantage  of  the  Americans,  gave  confidence  to  the  new  levies,  and 
showed  that  they  held  the  English  at  disadvantage.  They  were  the 
result  of  an  order  of  the  Committee  of  Safety,  passed  on  the  14th, 
that  such  live  stock  should  be  removed  from  the  islands,  and  they 
prepared  the  way  for  the  action  at  Bunker  Hill.  Gage  did  not  seem 
to  understand  how  soon  he  should  need  the  provisions  thus  taken 
from  him.  In  two  of  these  affairs  alone,  thirteen  hundred  sheep, 
which  he  might  have  used,  were  lost. 

On  the  25th  of  May,  Generals  Howe,  Clinton,  and  Burgoyne  ar- 
i  of  rived  with  large  reinforcements.  As  they  entered  the  har- 
bor,  tne.v  hailed  a  tender  bound  to  Newport,  and  asked  the 
ne\vs.  When  told  that  Boston  was  surrounded  by  ten  thou- 
sand men  in  arms,  they  asked  how  large  was  the  English  force,  and 
were  told  it  was  five  thousand  men.  "  Ten  thousand  peasants  keep 
five  thousand  king's  troops  shut  up  !  Let  us  get  in,  and  we  '11  soon 
find  elbow-room."  The  story  was  circulated  everywhere,  and  the 
nick-name  "  Elbow-room  "  was  applied  to  Burgoyne  all  through  the 
war,  never  with  more  sting,  of  course,  than  at  the  period  of  his  own 
reverses. 

The  highest  hill  on  the  peninsula  of  Charlestown  commands  the 
The  English  "orthern  part  of  Boston  and  the  northern  part  of  Boston 
harbor.  The  hills  on  the  southeast  of  Boston,  now  part  of 
South  Boston,  but  then  called  Dorchester  Heights,  on  Dor- 
towu  chester  Neck,  command  the  southern  part  of  Boston  and 

all  the  harbor.  Of  course  both  parties  saw  the  evident  necessity  of 
immediately  occupying  both  Charlestown  and  Dorchester  Heights. 
General  Burgoyne,  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Stanley,  says  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  that  the  English  should  occupy  these  heights,  and  that  it 
was  thought  best  to  begin  with  Dorchester.  He  says  he  has  never 


1775.] 


BOSTON  BESIEGED. 


397 


differed  from  Clinton  and  Howe,  and  they,  with  General  Gage, 
formed  the  plan.  The  troops  under  Howe  were  to  land  on  the  point 
of  Dorchester  Neck  now  known  as  City  Point,  Clinton's  in  the  cen- 
tre, while  Burgoyne  cannonaded  from  Boston  Neck,  if  necessary,  to 
keep  clear  the  line  of  approach  from  the  American  forces  in  Roxbury. 
These  operations  were  to  take  place  on  Sunday,  June  IS.  The  Pro- 
vincial Congress  and  General  Ward  knew  all  this  in  advance,  as  ap- 
pears from  their  Report  made  to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia.1 

"  June  20,   1775. 

"  We  think  it  an  indisputable  duty  to  inform  you  that  reenforce- 
ments  from  Ii-eland,  both  of  horse 
and  foot,  being  arrived  (the  num- 
bers unknown),  and  having  intel- 
ligence that  General  Gage  was 
about  to  take  possession  of  the 
advantageous  posts  in  Charles- 
town  and  on  Dorchester  Heights, 
the  Committee  of  Safety  advised 
that  our  troops  should  prepossess 
them,  if  possible." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in 
this  disturbed  state  of   affairs  the 
Committee  of  Safety  was  the  only 
executive  of  the  insurgents.     This 
report  to  the  Continental  Congress 
is  made  simply  for  their  informa- 
tion.    Under  an  order  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Safety,  General  Ward  formed  a  detachment  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  hill  above  Charlestown.     It  was  made  up  of  Prescott's, 
Frye's,  and  Bridge's  regiments,  under  Colonel  Prescott,  and   Measures 
a  party  of  Connecticut  men  drafted  from  several  companies  [^"uJjii. 
under    Captain    Thomas    Knowlton,    of    General    Putnam's  caus 
regiment.      They  were  ordered   to   furnish   themselves  with    packs, 
blankets,    intrenching    implements,    and    provisions    for    twenty-four 

1  Major  Wemyss,  who  served  under  Gage,  has  left  iu  his  manuscript  papers  the  follow- 
ing frauk  notice  of  this  general,  which  probably  contains  an  explanation  of  the  way  in  which 
news  leaked  out  from  his  counsels.  "  Lieut.-General  Gage,  a  commandcr-in-chief  of  mod- 
erate abilities,  but  altogether  deficient  in  military  knowledge.  Timid  and  undecided  iu 
every  emergency,  he  was  very  unfit  to  command  at  a  time  of  resistance  and  approaching 
rebellion  to  the  mother  country.  He  was  governed  by  his  wife,  a  handsome  American  ;  her 
brothers  and  relations  held  all  the  staff  appointments  in  the  army,  and  were,  with  less  abil- 
ities, as  weak  characters  as  himself.  To  the  great  joy  of  the  army,  he  went  to  England 
soon  after  the  disastrous  attack  at  Bunker  Hill  "  Mrs.  Gage  was  a  daughter  of  Stephen 
Kemble,  of  New  York. 


Artemas  Ward. 


398  BEGINNING    OF   THE    WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

hours.  Colonel  Gridley's  company  of  artillery,  with  two  guns,  made 
part  of  the  command.  The  expedition  started  from  Cambridge  at 
nine  o'clock  on  the  evening  before  the  17th,  crossed  Charlestown 
Neck,  and  reached  Bunker  Hill,  the  highest  point  of  Charlestown, 
about  ten.  From  the  English  battery  on  Copp's  Hill  to  Bunker  Hill 
is  about  one  mile ;  from  Beacon  Hill,  in  Boston,  to  Bunker  Hill  is 
Bunker  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half.  At  that  time  Beacon  Hill  was 

one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  feet  above  sea-level;  Bunker 
Hill  was  one  hundred  and  ten,  and  Copp's  Hill  about  sixty  feet.  If 
the  object  of  fortifying  Bunker  Hill  was  to  command  the  harbor, 
a  redoubt  there  would  hardly  carry  out  the  design,  because  a  spur 
projecting  southward  from  the  hill,  making  an  eminence  of  about 
sixty-two  feet  above  the  sea,  rose  between  the  top  of  Bunker  Hill  and 
the  sea,  and  would  protect  the  shipping  to  some  extent.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  design  was  merely  to  keep  the  English  from  seizing  the 
heights,  both  Bunker  and  the  southern  eminence,  afterwards  called 
Breed's  Hill,1  should  be  fortified  at  the  same  time.  If  the  Provincials 
had  contented  themselves  with  fortifying  the  higher  part  of  Bunker 
Hill  only,  the  English  troops  might  have  formed  under  cover  of  the 
lower  hill ;  or  their  commanders  might  have  intrenched  themselves  on 
the  south  side  of  that  hill,  where  they  could  not  be  reached  by  firing 
from  Bunker  Hill,  from  any  guns  in  use  at  that  time. 

When  the  American  officers  found  themselves  on  the  crest  of  Bun- 
ker Hill,  about  ten  in  the  evening,  Prescott  called  the  field-officers 
around  him,  and  showed  them  his  orders.  They  deliberated  for  a  long 
time  as  to  whether  it  would  be  more  advisable  to  fortify  the  top  of 
Bunker  Hill,  or  take  the  lower  eminence  from  which  they  could  with 
greater  ease  harass  the  English  fleet.  After  some  time  it  was  deter- 
mined to  proceed  to  the  lower  hill,  half  a  mile  nearer  to  Boston,  and 

take  post  there.     General  Putnam,  who  was  present,  strongly 

advocated  intrenching  the  upper  hill  as  well  as  the  lower  one. 

The  Committee  of  Safety,  after  the  event,  said  that  forti- 
fying a  point  so  near  Boston  was  a  mistake.  But  it  is  justified  by 
the  highest  military,  authority,  for  the  reasons  which  we  have  given. 
Colonel  Gridley,  the  engineer  officer,  insisted  on  some  decision  being 
made  without  furthtr  loss  of  time,  and  when  it  was  resolved  to  fortify 
the  lower  hill,  lie  marked  out  the  lines  of  a  redoubt  there.  This  re- 

1  The  height  on  which  the  battle  was  fought  had  no  distinctive  n;»me  before  that  time,  but 
was  known  as  pastures  belonging  to  different  men,  Breed  being  one  of  them.  After  the 
battle  the  hill  was  called  Breed's  Hill  ;  but  as  the  detachment  was  sent  to  put  up  fortifica- 
tions on  Bunker  Hill,  that  designation  clung  to  the  fight.  Hence  the  confusion  of  names 
which  puzzles  every  reader  out  of  Massachusetts.  Though  many  insist  upon  calling  the 
hill  on  which  the  tall  monument  stands,  to  commemorate  the  battle,  Breed's  Hill,  the  monu- 
ment itself  is  called  Bunker  Hill  Monument. 


1775.] 


THE   AMERICANS   OX   I5UXKEU    HILL. 


doubt  was  skilfully  planned.  It  measured  eight  rods  on  its  longest 
side,  which  fronted  Charlestown.  The  other  two  sides  were  not  quite 
so  long.  The  side  toward  Bunker  Hill  was  lower.  A  breastwork 
extended  for  about  a  hundred  yards  to  the  north,  and  stopped  at  a 
marshy  place  at  the  north  side  of  the  hill.  This  work  was  begun  at 
midnight  and  continued  till  nearly  eleven  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
Saturday,  when  the  intrenching-tools  were  sent  back  to  General  Put- 
nam, that  he  might  use  them  to  throw  up  fortifications  on  Hunker 
Hill  strong  enough  to  hold  that  height  as  well  as  the  other. 

It  was  a  clear  moonlight  night.     But   so  quiet  was  the   working 


Plan  of  Bunker  Hill. 


party,  that  it  attracted  no  attention  till  morning.  It  was  after  day- 
break when  Linzee,  the  commander  of  the  Lively  frigate,  which  lay 
in  the  stream  opposite  where  the  navy-yard  now  is,  saw  the  new  for- 
tification and  opened  fire  upon  it,  waking  the  town  to  the  bold  enter- 
prise of  the  night. 

It  was  the  morning  of  St.  Botolpli's  day,  the  festival  day  of  the 
saint  from  whom  Boston  derives  its  name. 

Colonel  Gridley  returned  Linzee's  fire  from  his  field-pieces,  and  the 
fire  from  the  ship  was  soon  suspended  by  Gage's  order.  He  was 
roused  from  his  repose,  and  on  conference  with  his  officers  determined 
to  attack  the  works  before  they  could  be  strengthened. 


400  BEGINNING   OF   THE   WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

The  English  and  American  accounts  of  the  battle  which  followed, 
differed,  at  the  time,  as  if  two  scenes  had  been  described. 
of  Hunker  The  best  English  account  published  in  London,  when  the 
news  arrived  there,  was  General  Burgoyne's,  in  a  letter  to 
Lord  Stanley.1  He  says  that,  seeing  that  the  enemy  had  fortified 
the  heights  of  Charlestown  during  the  night,  the  English  generals 
thought  it  necessary  to  attack  that  side  instead  of  seizing  Dorchester 
---;  Heights,  as  it  had  been  proposed  to  do  on  the  next  day. 
.  General  Howe,  and  under  him  General  Pigot,  with  about 
two  thousand  men,  landed  at  Moulton's  Point  (where  the  navy-yard 
now  is)  and  advanced  up  Bunker  Hill  where  the  strength  of  the 
enemy  lay.  "  Howe's  disposition  was  exceedingly  soldier-like."  As 
the  first  force  advanced  up  the  hill,  "  they  met  a  thousand  impedi- 
ments from  strong  fences,  and  were  also  injured  by  a  musketry-fire  from 
Charlestown."  Howe  sent  back  to  Burgoyne  on  Copp's  Hill,  in  Bos- 
ton, to  set  Charlestown  on  fire,  which  was  instantly  done  by  a  number 
of  red-hot  shot  from  the  batteries  which  afterward,  together  with  the 
shipping,  kept  up  a  vigorous  fire  upon  the  heights.  In  this  published 
letter,  Burgoyne  owns  that  Howe's  left  was  staggered,  and  that  reen- 
forcements  were  sent.  They  remained  upon  the  beach,  however,  not 
knowing  where  to  march.  Immediately  General  Clinton,  without 
waiting  for  orders,  crossed  in  a  boat  to  command  them,  and  arrived 
in  time  to  be  of  service. 

Burgoyne  closes  his  letter  by  saying:  "The  day  ended  with  glory, 
and  the  success  was  most  important,  considering  the  ascendency  it 
gave  the  regular  troops ;  but  the  loss  was  uncommon  in  officers,  for 
the  numbers  engaged." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Committee  of  Safety  published  an  account 
by  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  who  saw  from  the  eastern  side  of 

The  Amer-        ••»•»»•  i  111  i 

icanac-         Mystic   luver,  what    could   be  seen    by  a  spectator  there. 
This  was  sent  to  Arthur  Lee,  and  others,  in  London,  as  a 
correction  of  the  report  made  by  General  Gage  in  a  circular  letter 
to  the  governors  of  the  other  colonies. 

This  account  says  in  substance,  that  about  noon  several  barges  ap- 
proached Charlestown  and  landed  on  the  beach  westward  of  the 
American  works.  The  troops  formed  upon  landing,  and  waited  till  a 
second  detachment  arrived  from  Boston,  when  they  took  up  their 
march  to  the  redoubt.  They  moved  slowly,  with  large  flanking 
parties.  At  this  instant,  smoke  and  flames  arose  from  Charlestown, 
which  had  been  set  on  fire  by  the  enemy,  either  that  the  smoke  might 
cover  their  attack,  or  to  dislodge  one  or  two  regiments  of  provincials 
which  had  been  placed  in  the  town.  But  the  wind,  shifting  suddenly, 
blew  away  the  smoke. 

1  The  letter  already  referred  to  p.  396. 


1775.] 


THE    BATTLE    OF  BUNKER    HILL. 


401 


Meanwhile,  according  to  this  account,  the  Americans,  within  their 
intrenchments,  waiting  impatiently  for  the  enemy,  reserved  their  lire 
until  they  were  within  ten  or  twelve  rods,  and  then  delivered  a  ter- 
rible discharge  of  small  arms.  The  enemy  faltered,  stood  still  a 
minute,  and  then  ran  with  great  precipitation  towards  their  boats, 
some  even  seeking  refuge  in  the  boats  themselves.  Here,  the  specta- 
tors on  the  opposite  shore  could  see  the  officers  run  down  to  them 
and  urge  the  men  forward  with  passionate  gestures,  even  goading 
them  on  with  their  swords.  As  soon  as  they  had  rallied,  they  marched 
up  towards  the  intrenchments,  apparently  with  great  reluctance. 
Again  the  Americans  waited  until  they  were  within  six  or  seven 
rods,  and  then  fired,  and  again  put  the  regular  troops  to  flight. 


A.  Boston  Battery.    B.  Charlestown.    C.  British  Troops  attacking.     I).  Provincial  Linn. 
Bunker  Hill   Battle. 

From   a   Contemporary   Print,   entitled   "View  of  the   Attack   on    Bunker's   Hill,  with  the   Burning  of 

Charlestown,  June  17th,  1775." 

The  officers,  making  greater  exertions  than  ever,  once  more  urged 
on  the  men  to  a  third  assault.  This  time  they  brought  cannon  to 
bear  upon  the  breastwork,  raking  it  from  one  end  to  the  other,  so 
that  the  provincials  retired  within  their  redoubt.  The  "ministerial 
army  "  now  made  a  great  effort.  The  ships  and  batteries  redoubled 
their  fire,  the  officers  increased  their  exertions,  and  the  redoubt  was 
attacked  on  three  sides  at  once.  The  breastwork  outside  the  fort 
had  been  abandoned  ;  the  ammunition  of  the  provincials  was  ex- 
hausted, and  there  were  but  very  few  bayonets.  Not  until  the  re- 
doubt was  half  filled  with  the  British  was  the  word  given  to  retire. 
The  retreat  must  have  been  cut  off,  however,  had  not  the  flanking 
party,  whose  place  it  was  to  attack  the  rear  of  the  fort,  met  with  a 
body  of  provincials,  who  kept  them  from  advancing  farther  than  the 


VOL.  III. 


402  BEGINNING   OF   THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XV. 

beach.  These  two  parties  fought  with  the  utmost  vigor,  and  not  until 
the  provincials  saw  that  the  main  body  had  left  the  hill,  did  they 
retire.  Such  is  the  official  account  as  published  by  the  Committee  of 
Safety. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Thacher's  statement  that  there  were  three 
attacks  is  correct,  although  neither  Gage  in  his  despatches,  nor  Bur- 
goyne,  says  anything  about  them. 

While  Pigot  with  the  left  wing  was  attacking  the  main  body  of  the 
Americans,  General  Howe,  with  the  right,  marched  along 
Hank  move-  the  Mystic  River,  to  try  to  turn  the  American  flank  on 
its  left.  Against  him  Colonel  Preseott  had  sent  Captain 
Knowlton  with  his  Connecticut  men,  and  two  field-pieces.  Knowl- 
ton  had  taken  his  place  behind  a  fence  on  the  southern  slope  of 
Bunker  Hill  proper,  extending  northeasterly  toward  the  water. 
This  fence,  which  was  made  of  stones,  with  rails  of  wood  above,  he 
strengthened  by  a  parallel  line  of  fence,  filling  the  spaces  between 
with  new-mown  grass.  While  he  was  doing  this,  reinforcements  of 
New  Hampshire  troops  under  Stark  arrived. 

On  the  firmness  of  this  body  of  men  on  the  American  left,  event- 
ually depended  the  retreat  of  the  whole  party.  As  Howe  advanced, 
Colonel  Callender  opened  fire  on  him  with  his  field-pieces,  which  were 
between  the  redoubt  and  the  fence.  Knowlton 's  men  at  the  rail  fence 
held  their  fire  until  the  enemy  were  within  fifteen  rods.  When  they 
did  fire,  the  English  retreated,  terribly  cut  up,  at  about  the  same  time 
that  Pigot  was  repulsed  before  the  redoubt. 

In  the  second  attack,  Howe's  guns  were  charged  with  grape. 
Tli rough  the  whole  action  they  had  no  proper  balls.1  They  moved 
up  on  a  road  running  between  the  redoubt  and  the  rail  fence  nearly 
as  far  as  the  breastwork.  The  design  was,  to  rake  the  redoubt.  This 
time,  also,  Howe  was  on  the  right  of  his  attack  before  Stark  and 
Knowlton.  At  the  rail  fence  and  at  the  redoubt  the  Americans  held 
their  fire  till  even  a  shorter  distance  intervened. 

In  both  cases  the  English  broke  and  retreated.  It  was  at  this 
period  of  the  action  that  Clinton  arrived  from  Boston  with  reenforce- 
ments,  as  narrated  by  Burgoyne.  The  havoc  at  the  attack  thus  made 
by  Howe  in  person  was  even  more  terrible  than  that  at  the  redoubt ; 
the  annals  of  war  have,  perhaps,  no  pai-allel  to  it.  One  light  com- 

1  Thanks  to  the  "  dotage  of  an  officer  of  high  rank,  who  spends  all  his  time  with  the 
school-master's  daughters."  This  is  the  verdict  of  an  English  writer  of  the  day.  The  offi- 
cer was  General  Cleavelaud,  "  who  was  enamored  of  the  beautiful  daughter  of  Master 
Lovell,"  and  in  order  to  gain  favor  with  her  had  given  her  young  brother  an  appointment 
in  the  ordnance  department,  for  which  he  was  not  fitted.  The  beauty  of  the  lady  has 
been  handed  down  to  later  generations  by  transmission  more  sure  than  that  of  verbal 
tradition. 


1775.]  THE  BATTLE   OF   BUNKER   HILL.  403 

puny  of  the  Fifty-second  Regiment  had  every  man  killed  or  wounded. 
Howe  himself  bore  a  charmed  life,  but  every  officer  of  his  staff  was 
killed  or  wounded.  It  was  to  the  accuracy  of  the  marksmen,  whether 
at  the  redoubt  or  at  the  fence,  that  the  terrible  carnage  of  the  day 
was  due,  and  around  these  volleys  have  clustered  the  most  frequent 
traditions  of  the  fight.  The  efforts  made  by  American  officers  who 
had  been  under  fire  before,  to  restrain  the  eagerness  of  young  troops, 
are  recollected  in  a  hundred  stones.  "Fire  low,"  "Aim  at  the 
handsome  coats,"  "  Aim  at  the  waistbands."  And  there  is  no  boy  in 
America  who  does  not  believe  that  Putnam  and  Preseott  bade 
their  men  wait,  till  "they  could  see  the  whites  of  the  eyes"  of  the 
English.  This  order  was  probably  familiar  to  the  officers,  who  had 
studied  with  eagerness  the  memoirs  then  fresh  of  the  wars  of  Fred- 
erick. It  was  recorded  that  Prince  Charles,  when  he  cut  through  the 
Austrian  army  in  retiring  from  Jagendorf,  gave  this  order  to  his  in- 
fantry :  "  Silent,  till  you  see  the  whites  of  their  eyes."  This  was  on 
the  22d  of  May,  1745.  And  this  order,  so  successful  tliat  day,  was 
remembered  twelve  years  after  at  the  battle  of  Prague,  when  the 
general  Prussian  order  was,  "  By  push  of  bayonets,  —  no  firing  till 
you  see  the  whites  of  their  eyes." 

In  the  third  attack  the  English  artillery  gained  their  position  and 
drove  the  defenders  of  the  breastwork  into  the  fort.  Most  of  the 
Americans  had  now  only  one  round  of  ammunition,  and  few  had  more 
than  three.  But  Prescott  bade  them  hold  their  fire,  and  they  did 
so  until  the  enemy  were  within  twenty  yards.  The  English,  taught 
by  experience,  did  not  attack  in  platoons,  but  were  drawn  up  in  col- 
umn. The  column  wavered  under  the  fire,  but  the  men  rushed  on 
with  the  bayonet ;  and  Clinton's  and  Pigot's  men,  on  the  south  and 
east,  reached  the  walls.  At  Prescott's  order,  those  who  had  no  bay- 
onets retired  to  the  rear  of  the  redoubt,  for  their  ammunition  was  all 
gone.  The  men  in  the  front  rank,  as  they  scaled  the  walls,  were  all 
shot  down.  But  these  were  the  last  shots,  and  as  the  English  leaped 
over  the  parapet,  Prescott  unwillingly  gave  his  order  to  retreat. 
His  retreat  was  covered,  as  Thacher's  account  explains,  by  the  firm- 
ness with  which  Stark  and  Knowltoii  held  the  rail  fence.  The  Ameri. 
The  gap  between  the  breastwork  and  the  rail  fence  had  been  can  retreat- 
enfiladed  by  Howe's  artillery.  The  whole  action  had  lasted  about 
two  hours  of  a  hot  summer  afternoon.  The  English  once  in  the 
redoubt  had  little  spirit  to  follow  the  enemy.  On  the  other  hand, 
General  Putnam,  at  the  other  work,  on  the  crest  of  Bunker  Hill, 
found  it  impossible  to  hold  the  retreating  parties  there. 

As  the  party  in  the  redoubt  left  it.  General  Warren,  as  he  is  that 
day  called  for  the  first  time,  was  killed.     He  had  been,  till  this  ino- 


404 


BEGINNING   OF  THE   WAR. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


ment,  the  efficient  leader  of  the  popular  movements  in  Massachusetts 
since  Samuel  Adams  had  left  for  the  Congress  in  Philadelphia.  He 
drew  out  the  popular  enthusiasm  as  no  other  leader  had  done.  He 
had  shown  eloquence,  energy,  and  wisdom.  He  was  brave  —  so  brave 
as  to  throw  away  his  life.  But  the  records  of  the  Committee  of 
Safety,  and  his  own  letters,  show  that  he  knew  how  to  be  prudent. 
Only  three  days  before  the  battle  he  had  been  made  a  major-general 
by  the  Provincial  Congress,  to  hold  command  second  to  Ward.  His 

commission  had  not  been 
issued,  and  on  the  day  of 
the  battle  he  served  as  a 
volunteer.  But  his  pres- 
ence alone,  when  he  arrived 
at  the  redoubt  late  in  the 
day,  was  everything  to  the 
exhausted  men  there.  His 
death  was  regarded  as  a  na- 
tional calamity. 

Colonel  Prescott,  who 
from  first  to  last  had  com- 
manded the  movement,  and 
•who  ordered  the  retreat,  es- 
y     caped  unhurt.     But  he  was 
enraged  that  he  was  obliged 
to  leave  the  ground  which 
he  had  so  well  maintained. 
Joseph  warren.  When  he  returned  to  head- 

quarters, he  offered  to  take  both  sets  of  works  again,  if  he  might  only 
have  fifteen  hundred  men.  But  General  Ward  very  wisely  refused. 
Prescott  could  probably  have  done  what  he  promised  ;  but  there  was 
no  military  object  worth  the  attempt. 

Through  that   day,  and  afterwards,  it  was  suggested   that  Ward 
might  have    reenforced  the  working-partv  more   efficiently 

Ward's  ac-  ...  =*  r.       "       _  .  .J 

tion  re-         than  he  did.     But  the  criticism  is  unjust.     It  was  impossi- 

viewed. 

ble  that  Ward  could  believe  that  his  enemy  would  attack 
the  works  in  front  and  on  the  eastern  flank  only.  It  was  entirely  in 
Gage's  power  to  cut  off  the  Bunker  Hill  party  from  their  base  by 
landing  a  party  on  Charlestown  Neck,  under  the  protection  of  the 
men-of-war.  He  did  use  the  fire  of  the  ships  to  enfilade  the  Neck, 
and  materially  to  retard  all  movement  in  each  direction.  He  also 
kept  up,  all  day,  a  heavy  fire  on  Boston  Neck  from  his  works.  General 
Ward  had  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the  British  leaders  would 
thus  attempt  to  divide  his  army,  instead  of  taking  the  resolution 


1775.]  RESULTS   OF  THE   BATTLE.  405 

which  proved  so  nearly  fatal  to  them,  of  attacking  Prescott's  works 
in  front.  General  Ward  knew,  also,  what  he  would  not  tell,  even 
to  save  his  reputation,  that  on  the  day  of  the  battle  he  had,  for  the 
use  of  his  whole  army,  only  sixty-three  half-barrels  of  powder  (sixty- 
nine  hundred  pounds),  hardly  half  a  pound  for  every  soldier  in  his 
command.  General  Ward  had  been  overruled,  as  the  event  has 
proved,  wisely,  in  the  council  which  ordered  the  fortification  of 
Bunker  Hill.  He  had  himself  opposed  this  measure,  as  Warren  had 
done,  which  had  been  ordered  by  the  Committee  of  Safety  in  oppo- 
sition to  them.  He  now  decided,  and  decided  rightly,  not  to  risk 
more  than  a  reenforcement  comparatively  small  in  the  attempt  to 
hold  the  hill.  As  it  was,  he  had  men  enough  there,  could  he  only 
have  supplied  them  more  fully  with  ammunition.  Prescott  even  re- 
ported that  with  bayonets  he  should  have  successfully  resisted  the 
final  charge  of  the  English  left ;  and  at  his  instance  two  thousand 
spears  were  at  once  made  for  the  army.  But  all  the  bayonets  in  the 
world  would  not  have  protected  Prescott's  men  after  the  gap  between 
the  redoubt  and  Knowlton  had  been  passed  by  the  English.  That 
gap  was  already  covered  by  Howe's  field-pieces  when  Prescott  ordered 
the  retreat.  A  fair  review  of  the  day  shows  that  that  retreat  was 
oi-dered  at  the  proper  moment,  not  too  late  and  not  a  moment  too 
early. 

The  loss  of  the  Americans  in  this  battle  was  one  hundred  and  fifty 
killed,  two  hundred  and  seventv  wounded,  and  thirty  taken 

~  .   ,  .     ,  ,        ,  The  losses 

prisoners.     Gage  s  return  of  his  loss  was  two  hundred  and  b>  the  bat- 
twenty-four  killed,  and  eight  hundred  and  thirty  wounded. 
According  to  his  own  statement  of  the  English  engaged — about  two 
thousand  men,  —  this  was  more  than  half  the  attacking  force.     But 
the  British  force  was,  in  fact,  somewhat  larger  than  that  estimate. 
Of  his  total  loss  of  one  thousand  and  fifty-four,  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
seven  were  officers.     In  some  parts  of  the  field  the  havoc  was  without 
precedent.     Howe  is  said  to  have  exclaimed,  "  They  may  talk  of  their 
Mindens  and  their  Fontenovs,  but  there  was  no  such  fire  there  !  ' 

9 

The  remark  is  true,  whether  Howe  made  it  or  not.  And  it  is  certain 
that  the  impression  made  upon  Howe  and  Clinton  on  that  day,  gov- 
erned their  lead  of  the  British  armies  for  the  next  seven  vears. 

*/ 

They  were  wary  of  leading  troops  against  inti'enched  men. 

At  the  moment,  and  for  many  years  after,  the  memory  of  Bunker 
Hill  carried  with  it,  in  the  minds  of  New  Englauders,  especially  of 
those  in  the  army,  a  bitter  feeling  of  annoyance,  as  if  ki  some  one  had 
blundered  ;  "  as  if  a  victory  well  earned  had  become  a  disgraceful 
defeat.  The  implication  was  freely  made  that  some  American  officers 
misbehaved,  an  implication  never  sustained  by  evidence.  Courts- 


406 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


martial  were  held,  to  try  some  of  tlie  most  seriously  accused.  Colonel 
Callender  was  degraded  from  his  command,  for  inadequately  serving 
the  wretched  artillery.  But  in  seven  years  of  faithful  service  after- 
wards, this  misused  gentleman  amply  retrieved  his  reputation.  From 
the  recent  publication  of  Burgoyne's  letters,  we  now  know  that  the 
English  officers  thought  their  privates  misbehaved.1  This  was  never 
publicly  intimated  at  the  time,  either  in  published  dispatches,  or  by 
courts  of  inquiry  or  courts-martial.  The  charge  of  cowardice  made 
by  officers  hot  under  disappointment,  does  not  need  to  be  challenged 
by  men  proud  of  the  English  reputation  for  bravery.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  the  English  privates  were,  in  general,  as  new  to  actual 
war  as  their  enemies.  The  critic  who  reads  that  one  company  of  the 
Fifty-second  Regiment  had  every  man  killed  or  wounded  in  the  bat- 
tle, will  not  ask  many  questions  as  to  the  bravery  of  the  survivors. 

As  time  has  pnssed,  and  both  sides  of  the  picture  have  been  opened 
to  examination,  it  has  become  certain  that  that  battle  was  the  decisive 
battle  of  the  war.  From  that  moment  the  English  generals  under- 
stood that  they  were  contending  with  soldiers.2  From  that  moment 
the  Home  Government  had  really  no  permanent  policy  but  in  offers 
of  conciliation,  —  more  and  more  liberal  till  they  granted  the  whole. 
From  that  moment  there  was  no  possibility  of  a  return  to  a  colonial 
position.  And  though  more  than  seven  years  of  battle  followed  be- 
fore the  last  serious  conflict,  this  battle  of  the  beginning,  the  most 
bloody  of  all,  and  the  most  sharply  contested,  has  proved  to  be,  also, 
the  most  critical. 

1  Bnrgoyne  to  Lord  Rochford.     He  says  there  is  a  melancholy  rea«on  for  the  disparity  of 
the  loss  of  officers, —  that  not  only  were  they  left  unsupported  by  their  men  in  the  attack, 
hut  that  "all  the  wounds  of  the  officers  were  not  received  from  ihe  memy."     He  begs 
Rochford  that  this  shall  not   pass  "even  in  a  whisper"  to  any  but  the  King.     He  says  he 
trembles  as  he  writes. 

2  "The  men  in  all  the  corps  having  twice  felt  the  enemy  to  he  more  formidable  than  they 
expected,  it  will  require  some  training  under  such  Generals  as  Howe  and  Clinton,  before 
they  can    prudently   be   intrusted  in  many  exploits  against  such  odds."  —  Burgoyne  to 
Rochford. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   SIEGE   OF   BOSTON. 

WASHINGTON   APPOINTED    COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.  —  MA.IOR-GENF.RALS    COMMISSIONED 
BT  CONGRESS.  —  WASHINGTON'S  ARRIVAL  AT  CAMHRIDGK.  —  SCARCITY  OF  POWDER. 

—  WEAKNESS  OF  THE  AKMY.  —  RELATIVE  POSITIONS  OF  THE  CONTENDING  FORCES. 

—  HECAI.L  OK  GAGE! — CONDITION  OF  BOSTON.  —  PROPOSED   INTERVIEW  BETWEEN 

BUKGOYNE    AND    L.EE.  MEASURES    FOR    SUPPLIES    OF    AMMUNITION.  —  \AVAL 

PREPARATIONS.  —  MISREPRESENTATIONS    OF    THE    CAUSE    OF    THE    AMERICANS    IN 
EUROPE.  —  BURNING   OF  FALMOUTH  IN  MAINE. — CAPTURE    OF    AN    ENGLISH   VKS- 
SEL  WITH  SUPPLIES.  —  TREACHERY  OF    DR.  BENJAMIN  CHURCH.  —  HOWE'S   DIFFI- 
CULTIES AND  PROPOSALS  TO  THE  MINISTRY.  —  CONGRESS  SUGGESTS  THE    DESTRUC- 
TION OF  BOSTON. — DORCHESTER   HEIGHTS   FORTIFIED.  —  THE  TOWN  COMMANDED 
BY   THE   AMERICANS.  —  EVACUATED   BY    THE    BRITISH.  —  THE    AMERICAN    ARMY 
TAKES  POSSESSION. 

ON  that  hot  Saturday  in  June,  while  the  battle  was  fought  at  Bun- 
ker Hill,  the  Continental  Congress  at  Philadelphia,  all  un-   Waf,hington 
conscious  of  what  was  passing,  unanimously  appointed  George  ^j£|£jer. 
Washington,  of  Virginia,  to  be  General  and  Commander-in-  1D-chlef 
chief  of  the  armies  raised  for  the  maintenance  of  American  Liberty. 
They  appointed  Artemas  Ward,   of  Massachusetts,  his  First  Major- 
general,  Gates,  of  Virginia,  his  Adjutant-general,  with  the  Appoint. 
rank   of    Brigadier-general,   and    Charles    Lee,    an    English 
half-pay  officer,  the  Second  Major-general.     Two  days  after-  ernls 
ward,  Schuyler  and  Putnam  were  also  appointed   Major-generals.1 

The  nomination  of  Washington  had  been  pressed  upon  Congress 
by  the  leaders  of  opinion  in  Massachusetts,  and  by  no  man  more  than 
by  Warren  himself,  till  this  moment  the  popular  leader  of  Massachu- 

1  The  following  is  the  list  of  the  appointments  made  by  the  Continental  Congress  iu 
June  :  — 

George  Washington,  Esq.,  General  and  Commander-in-chief  of  all  the  forces  raised  or 
to  be  raised  for  the  defence  of  American  Liberty  ;  Artemas  Ward,  Esq.,  First  Major-general ; 
Charles  Lee,  Esq.,  Second  Major-general ;  Philip  Schuyler,  Esq.,  Third  Major-general  ; 
Israel  Putnam,  Esq.,  Fourth  Major-general ;  Seth  Pomerov,  Esq.,  First  Brigadier-general ; 
Hichard  Montgomery,  Esq.,  Second  Brigsidier-peneral  ;  David  Wooster,  Esq.,  Third  Brijja- 
dier-general  ;  William  Heath,  Esq.,  Fourth  Brigadier-general ;  Joseph  Spencer,  Esq.,  Fifth 
Brigadier-generni ;  John  Thomas,  Esq.,  Sixth  Brigadier-general ;  John  Sullivan,  Esq., 
Seventh  Brigadier-general;  Nathanael  Greene,  Esq.,  Eighth  Brigadier-general;  Horatio 
Gates,  Esq.,  Adjutant-general,  with  the  rank  of  Brigadier-general. 


408 


THE   SIEGE   OF  BOSTON. 


[CHAP.  XVI. 


setts.  On  the  day,  and  perhaps  at  the  hour,  when  the  direction  of 
the  war  passed  from  his  hands,  his  great  successor  was  appointed. 
The  nomination  of  Ward,1  who  was  actually  in  command,  as  the  sec- 
ond general,  was  almost  a  matter  of  course.  The  other  appointments 
of  this  day,  those  of  Gates  and  Lee,  were  suggested  by  the  natural 
feeling  that  the  great  deficiency  of  the  national  army  would  be  mili- 
tary skill.  Here  were  two  Englishmen,  who  had  attained  a  certain 
rank  in  the  English  army.  They  never  hesitated  about  proclaiming 
their  own  merits.  And  the  appointments  had  at  the  moment  the  ad- 
vantage that  they  gave  no  preeminence  to  one  colony  over  another. 

They  were  well 
received  by  the 
people;  but,  in 
the  end,  both 
appointments 
proved  signally 
un  fortunate, 
and  intensified 
the  national  dis- 
like of  every- 
thing English. 
Washington 
and  Gates  pro- 
ceeded almost 
immediately  to 
Cambridge.  At 
New  York  they 
met  the  news 
of  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill. 
A  well  authen- 

ticated anecdote  says  that  Washington  expressed  his  joy  at  learning 
that  the  American  soldiers  had  stood  as  firmly  as  they  did. 
But  he  was  still  six  days  from  the  army,  and  the  danger 
that  the  English  officers  might  follow  up  their  success  was 
imminent.  He,  his  aid,  Mifflin,  and  his  military  secretary,  Joseph 
Reed,  with  General  Lee,  travelled  together.  The  eagerness  of  the 
towns  through  which  they  passed  to  receive  the  little  party  with 
honor,  somewhat  delayed  their  progress.  But  on  Sunday  noon,  the 

-  It  is  one  of  the  mo*t  pathetic  bits  of  satire  in  American  history,  that  the  name  of  the 
first  commander  of  the  Continental  army  should  now  be  remembered  by  nine  people  in  ten, 
only  as  that  of  an  imagined  humorist,  —  half  philosopher,  half  showman.  Even  the  mis- 
spelling "  Artemus  "  of  the  showman  will  be  found  in  Judge  Marshall's  reference  to  the 
Major-general. 


House  of  the  President  of  Harvard  College. — Washington's  first  Cambridge 

Headquarters. 


I****" 


1775.]       WASHINGTON   TAKES   COMMAND   OF   THE   ARMY.         409 

2d  of  July,1  they  arrived  at  Cambridge,  where  they  were  received 
for  a  few  days  in  the  house  of  Langdon,  the  president  of  Hisarriviii 
the  college.  On  the  4th  of  July,  with  appropriate  cere-  ^,a0sfs"ireP" 
mony,  his  commission  was  read  in  the  presence  of  a  detach-  comiuana 
ment  of  the  army,  and  of  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts, 
and  he  assumed  the  command.  Nothing  is  more  interesting  than 
the  careful  deference  with  which,  all  along,  he  treated  the  local  au- 
thority, such  as  it  was,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  equal  deference 
with  which  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts  regarded  his 
wishes.  They  had  carried  o~n  their  affairs  without  any  chief  long 
enough  to  feel  the  need  of  one  in  war.  He  was  too  wise  to  trespass, 
in  the  least,  on  an  authority  which  was  so  freely  conceded.  He  was 
somewhat  disappointed  at  the  lack  of  military  precision  condition  of 
which  he  found  in  the  army  that  had  been  called  into  exist-  an 
ence  in  a  little  more  than  two  months,  and  was  greatly  alarmed  phes' 
at  the  deficient  supply  of  what  came  to  be  called  in  correspondence 
"  a  necessary  article."  By  this  circumlocution  men  tried  to  conceal  the 
fact  that  powder  hardly  existed  in  the  thirteen  States  in  sufficient 
quantity  for  the  use  of  one  general  action.2  Even  the  material  for 
manufacture  could  not  be  obtained  in  large  quantities.  Thus  the 
apothecaries'  shops  in  New  York  were  searched  for  saltpetre,  and,  in 
the  correspondence  of  the  leaders  of  the  time,  the  discovery  of  a  hun- 
dred pounds  of  that  article  is  spoken  of  as  if  it  were  indeed  a  price- 
less treasure. 

The  three  other  appointments  made  on  the  day  with  Washington's 
were  not  unfavorably  received  in  the  army ;  but  the  selec- 
tion of  officers  afterward  made  was  not  such  as  altogether  to  pointmenu 
satisfy  either  him  or  the  officers  of  highest  rank  who  were  ac- 
tually in  the  field.    In  addition  to  his  other  difficulties,  Washington  had 
the  care  of  persuading  officers  whom  he  wanted  to  remain  in  service, 
and  of  inducing  Congress  to  revise  their  estimate  of  others.     He  ap- 
pointed Joseph  Trumbull,  of  Connecticut,  Commissary -general,  and 
named  John  Trumbull  one  of  his  aids.     He  afterwards  recommended 
Henry  Knox  to  the  command  of  the  artillery.    After-experience  indi- 
cated the  profound  wisdom  of  these  appointments.     In  one  word,  it 
may  be   said   that  Washington   instantly  acquired    the   enthusiastic 

1  Not  the  3d,  as  by  an  oversight  Washington  himself  said  in  the  letter  usually  cited. 

2  At  the  battle  of  Bueua  Vista,  in  the  Mexican  war,  300,000  rouuds  of  ammunition  for 
musketry  were  used  by  the  American  army,  and  3,750  pounds  of  powder  by  the  cannon. 
This  is  a  consumption  of  four  tons  for  the  battle,  in  which  5,000  Americans  engaged  20,000 
Mexicans.     Colonel  Baylor,  of  the  American  army,  finds  on  observation  of  the  war  of  the 
Rebellion,  that  the  average  use  of  a  cannon  in  position  is  forty-two  rounds  a  day,  for  a 
battle.     The  amount  of  powder  is  about  one  quarter  the  weight  of  the  ball,  in  artillery. 
Washington's  stock  on  the  3d  of  August  was  9,937  Ibs.,  a  little  less  than  five  tons. 


410 


THE    SIEGE   OF   BOSTON. 


[CHAP.  XVI. 


love  of  New  England,  though  the  men  of  New  England  were  sup- 
posed to  be  so  widely  unlike  his  own  Virginians  ;  and  that  love  he 
never  lost. 

For  many  weeks,  all  military  men  in  the  American  army  lived  in 
expectation,  —  it  would  be  fair  to  say  in  dread,  —  of  an  at- 

N umbers  of  .        .  -.,        ..    .      _. 

the  opposing  tack  iroin  the  English  lines.      A  return  or  the  number  of 

the  army,  which  Washington  obtained  in  the  week  after  he 

arrived,  showed  a  total  of  sixteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and  sev- 


Washington  Elm,   Cambridge.1 

enty-one  New  Englanders,2  of  whom  nearly  two  thousand  were  sick, 
furlonghed,  or  absent  on  duty.  A  council  of  the  American  generals, 
held  on  the  9th,  determined  that  at  least  twenty-two  thousand  men 
were  needed  to  defend  the  lines.  Their  estimate  of  the  force  of  the 
English,  including  their  sailors  and  marines,  was  eleven  thousand  five 
hundred,  which  has  proved  to  be  correct.  The  English  generals  could 
make  their  choice  of  Charlestown  Neck,  or  Boston  Neck,  for  a  place 
of  egress,  if  they  chose  to  attack  the  American  lines.  These  extremi- 

1  This  tree,  under  which  Washington's  commission  was  read  to  the  army,  is  still  stand- 
inp. 

2  From  Massachusetts,  11,689;   from  Connecticut,  2,333;  from  Rhode   Island,  1,085; 
from  New  Hampshire,  1,664. 


1775.]  RECALL  OP  GENERAL   GAGE.  411 

ties  of  what  may  be  called  the  American  right  and  left  wing,  are 
many  miles  from  each  other,  by  circuitous  routes,  —  separated  also 
by  Charles  River,  over  which  the  Americans  had  but  one 

,.,  T  i  it  i  •  11          Their  rela- 

poor  bridge.     It  was  clear,  therefore,  that  in  any  attack  the  tiveposi- 
Arnerican  army  might  be  outnumbered.     Washington  had, 
however,  the  resource  —  of  which  he  availed  himself  when  he  needed 
—  of   calling  in   the  minute-men   from   the   neighboring  towns,   who 
were  always  ready  for  duty,  and  moved  with  a  promptness  worthy 
of  their  name.1 

But  the  English  generals  made  no  movement,  not  even  a  menace. 
The  truth  was,  their  loss  at  Bunker  Hill  had  been  more  severe  than 
the  Americans  at  first  suspected.  As  has  been  seen,  it  had  affected  the 
morale  of  their  men,  and  made  the  commanding  officers  much  more 
cautious.  In  the  heat  of  the  summer  the  wounded  fared  ill.  The 
report  from  England,  of  the  way  in  which  the  news  of  Lexington  and 
Concord  was  received,  was  not  encouraging  to  men  in  command.  Gage 
was  removed  from  his  bed  of  thorns,  and  recalled  to  England 
by  a  despatch  of  August  2d.  He  was  virtually  disgraced,  and 
no  other  command  was  ever  offered  to  him.  The  command  command  of 
of  the  army  was  given  to  Howe,  and  was  retained  by  him 
for  three  years,  when  he  in  turn  was  removed.  The  departure  of 
Gage  from  Boston,  in  October,  was  regarded  by  the  patriots  as  in 
some  sort  a  victory.  "  Through  this  pane  of  glass,"  wrote  Josiah 
Quincy,  with  a  diamond,  on  his  window,  "I  saw  Gen.  Gage  sail  out  of 
the  harbor  of  Boston." 

The  government  were  certainly  justified  in  removing  Gage.  They 
never  had  any  reason  for  appointing  him,  but  that  he  had  served  in 
America,  and  that  he  had  an  American  wife.  General  Burgoyne 
charges  on  this  handsome  wife  the  unintentional  communication  of 
all  Gage's  secrets  to  the  enemy. 

Boston  suffered  also,  all  through  the  summer,  from  the  lack  of  fresh 
provisions.    In  August,  Gage  was  willing  enough  to  renew  the 
arrangements  which  he  had  quashed  before,  and  to  permit  the 


egress  of  the  inhabitants.  They  were  sent  out,  day  after 
day,  by  way  of  Winnisimet,  and  on  their  arrival,  became,  in  manv  in- 
stances, a  charge  on  the  generous  charity  of  the  people  of  the  country 
towns.  While  the  population  diminished,  death  was  as  frequent  as 
it  had  ever  been  in  the  most  populous  days  of  Boston.  A  well  in- 
formed native  of  the  city  says  that  the  reinforcements  received  by 

1  This  recourse  was  so  considerable,  that  Hilliard  d'Auberteuil,  a  French  author  of 
matchless  absurdity,  coolly  doubles  Washington's  force  in  his  statements,  saying,  simply, 
that  one  half  was  not  kept  in  the  field,  but  was  occupied  in  cultivating  the  land  !  He  thus 
gives  Washington,  what  perhaps  he  would  have  been  glad  to  have,  an  army  of  CO.OOO.  lu 
similar  style  he  gives  Howe  50,000  in  Boston. 


412 


THE   SIEGE   OF  BOSTON. 


[CHAP.  XVI. 


Mtedto 


the  army,  before  September,  had  not  made  up  the  losses  caused  by 
battle  and  disease. 

Such  were  the  reasons,  so  far  as  we  can  state  them,  why  the  English 
officers  in  command  did  not  move  upon  Washington's  army  at  the  ter- 
rible period  when  it  had  not  powder  enough  even  for  a  few  hours' 
fighting.  The  news  of  Gage's  recall  was  received  early  in  September. 
In  the  despatches  then  sent,  Lord  Dartmouth,  Secretary  for  the  Colo- 
nies, distinctly  intimated  that  it  would  be  better  to  make 
no  further  inroads  into  the  country.  He  suggested  that  it 
would  be  better  to  leave  Boston  altogether,  and  take  post  at 
New  York.  If  this  were  impossible,  he  asked  if  the  army  could  not 
be  divided  between  the  ports  of  Halifax  and  Quebec. 

To  this  despatch  Howe  replied,  on  the  2d  of  October,  that  nothing 
could  be  gained,  except  reputation,  by  a  march  into  the  interior.     He 

considered  that 
New  York  should 
be  taken  and  held  ; 
that  the  "founda- 
tion of  the  war 
should  be  laid  "  by 
having  troops  in 
force  there,  large 
magazines  and 
stores,  and  the 
whole  well  fortified 
and  secured.  He 
savs  that  as  Castle 

»• 

William  in  Boston 
Harbor  is  of  no  use 
to  him,  he  had  de- 
stroyed the  shore 
batter}',  and  mined 
the  fort  so  as  to  de- 
stroy it  when  Bos- 
ton should  be  evac- 
uated. He  also  ad- 
vised the  seizing  of 
the  island  of  Rhode  Island.  Nothing  is  now  said  of  merely  reducing 
a  rebellion.  It  is  the  "foundation  of  war"  which  is  to  be  laid.  Nor 
is  a  word  now  said  about  punishing  Boston  for  its  factious  persistency, 
or  reducing  New  England,  as  an  example  to  the  rest.  The  drift  of  the 
letter  is,  that  it  will  be  better  to  operate  where  there  is  less  opposi- 
tion. In  truth,  New  England,  by  her  unyielding  firmness  in  the 


General   Howe. 


1775.]  THE   SUPPLY    OF   AMMUNITION.  413 

beginning  of  the  war,  earned  for  herself  the  exemption,  almost  com- 
plete, from  its  presence,  which  she  enjoyed  for  the  last  six  years  be- 
fore the  peace.  The  pressure  of  an  enemy's  army  was  to  be  chiefly 
felt  in  those  very  regions  which  the  Crown  officers  thought  at  first  least 
infected  by  the  contagion  of  rebellion. 

Soon  after  General  Lee  arrived  at  the  American  camp,  from  Vir- 
ginia, General  Burgoyne,  who  had  served  with  him  in  the 
English  army,  wrote  him  a  long  letter  from  Boston,  such  as  interview 
he  was  fond  of  writing.     He  proposed  an  interview  at  an  inn   Burgovue 
on  "Boston  Neck,"1  with  the  hope  of  bringing  about  some 
adjustment  of  grievances.     He  did  not  misapprehend  his  man.     They 
were  men  of   much  the  same  type,  —  conceited  and   arrogant,  with 
little  skill  in  words,  but  thinking  they  had  much,  and  with  far  less 
skill  in   arms  than  in  words.     Lee  sent  Burgoyne's  letter  to  the  Pro- 
vincial Congress  of  Massachusetts,  and  asked  their  instructions,  say- 
ing, at  the  same  time,  that  he  should  wish  some  American  gentlemen 
to  accompany  him  to  the  interview.     The  Congress  consented,  and 
appointed  Elbridge  Gerry  to  accompany  Lee ;   but  the  language  of 
their  reply  to  him  was  so  cool  that  he  abandoned  the  project. 

All  through  this  period  of  apparent  quiet,  the  utmost  efforts  were 
made  in  every  quarter,  by  the  American  authorities,  to  provide  pow- 
der, lead,  flints,  clothing,  tents,  and  other  material  for  a  campaign. 
Even  the  smallest  quantity  of  powder  or  of  saltpetre  was  begged  for. 
General  Cooke,  of  Rhode  Island,  Governor  Trumbull,  of 
Connecticut,  Robert  Livingston,  of  New  York,  and  Frank-  tion  of  am- 

•_**'••  COP  •       r-n  -i      iii«         munition. 

lin,  now  acting  on  the  Committee  of  Safety  in  1  hila<lelphia, 
appear  prominent  among  those  most  active.  Livingston  established 
a  powder-mill,  and  did  it  so  secretly  that  the  English  agent  who  had 
charge  of  the  government  stock  of  saltpetre  was  in  ignorance  of 
its  existence  till  a  bold  raid  on  his  stores  emptied  them,  and  taught 
him  its  value.  The  Committee  of  Safety  in  Georgia  got  hold  of  a 
supply  of  powder  intended  for  the  Florida  Indians.  A  bold  push  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  brought  back  a  hundred  barrels  from  a  trading 
vessel  there.  An  attack  on  Bermuda  brought  off  a  considerable 
quantity  from  that  island.  Far  away,  in  Orleans,  in  Louisiana, 
Oliver  Pollock,  an  American  citizen,  was  making  arrangements  to 
send  the  precious  commodity  up  to  Pittsburg  by  the  river.  So 
soon  as  the  English  cruisers  were  withdrawn  in  the  autumn,  Governor 
Cooke  sent  a  fast  sailing  vessel  of  eighty  tons  to  Bordeaux,  to  pur- 
chase powder  on  the  account  "of  the  Continent."  By  this  proud 
name,  which  should  never  have  been  given  up,  was  the  new  nation 

1  The  inn  was  the  "  George."     It  was  buriied  before  the  evacuation,  but  reappeared  as 
the  "  George  Washington." 


414  THE   SIKGE   OF  BOSTON.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

beginning  to  call  itself.     Lead  was  obtained  from  the  mines  of  Con- 
necticut, wliich  had  been  little  worked  in  times  of  peace. 

Meanwhile,  and  partly  in  connection  with  this  terrible  necessity,  a, 
little  navy  was  coming  into  existence.     As  early  as  the  5th 

The  genii  of  •  -~L  J  "    . 

mi  Auicri-      ot   May  the  people  ot  ^c\v  Bedford  and  Dartmouth,  in  Buz- 

can  navy.  ,      T 

znrus  Bay,  southwest  of  Cape  Cod,  indignant  at  the  in- 
cursions of  the  Falcon,  one  of  the  British  sloops  of  war,  fitted  out 
a  vessel  with  which  they  attacked  and  recaptured  one  of  her  prizes, 
with  fifteen  prisoners,  in  the  harbor  where  she  had  taken  refuge  in 
Martha's  Vineyard.  This  was  the  first  naval  victory  of  the  war. 

On  the  l:Mi  of  June  a  plan  was  formed  in  Machias,  in  Maine,  for 
taking  the  Margoretta^  an  armed  sloop  in  the  service  of  the  Crown, 
then  lying  at  that  port.  This  scheme  was  carried  out  with  success ; 
the  Margaretta^  another  King's  sloop,  and  a  sloop  that  was  loading 
with  lumber  under  her  protection,  being  taken.  Her  captain  and  one 
of  her  crew  were  killed,  and  five  wounded.  The  armament  of  the 
Mnrgaretta  was  then  transferred  to  another  vessel,  which  was  placed 
under  the  command  of  Jeremiah  O'Brien.  He  was  soon  afterwards 
made  marine  captain  by  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts, 
and  sent  to  intercept  vessels  bringing  supplies  to  the  troops  in  Boston. 
Many  other  affairs  similar  to  that  in  which  the  Margaretta  was  cap- 
tured took  place  on  various  parts  of  the  coast.  So  soon  as  Washing- 
ton's attention  was  called  to  the  possibility  of  cutting  off  the  supply 
vessels  of  the  English,  as  they  entered  Massachusetts  Bay,  he  com- 
missioned officers  in  command  of  vessels,  to  take  such  supplies.1 
Their  instructions  were  to  avoid  fighting,  even  if  they  were  of  equal 
force  with  their  enemy,  —  the  object  being  to  seize  supplies.  The 
Massachusetts  Provincial  Congress  at  once  legalized  such  captures. 
Washington  supplied  armaments  and  money  from  the  Continental 
treasury,  and,  with  little  delay,  six  small  vessels  were  commissioned, 
—  the  Lynchi  Franklin,  Lee,  Warren,  Washington,  and  Harrison. 
Rhode  Island  had  at  sea  a  vessel  under  Whipple,  who  went  as  far 
as  Bermuda,  where  he  found  the  inhabitants  friendly  to  the  Ameri- 
can cause,  but  terrified  by  Gage's  threats  of  vengeance  for  the  loss  of 
the  powder  stored  there.  Connecticut  had  a  small  vessel  in  service 
also. 

A  petty  war  on  sheep  and  oxen  on  the  coasts  was  kept  up  by  the 
smaller  British  vessels,  that  Boston  might  be  provisioned.  Yet  Gage 
hardly  brought  in  more  animals  by  such  raids,  —  which  embittered 
Destitution  a^'  tne  seaboard  against  him, — than  he  had  permitted  the 
at  Boston.  Americans  to  carry  off  from  under  his  own  eyes  in  Boston 
Bay.  So  severe  was  the  destitution  of  his  troops  that  on  the  4th 
1  The  first  of  these  commissioiis  dated  September  2,  1775. 


1775.] 


CONDITION    OF   THE   TWO    ARMIES. 


415 


of  September,  after  the  royal  cruisers  had  brought  in  more  than  a 
thousand  sheep  and  oxen,  the  cattle  brought,  at  a  public  sale  in  Bos- 
ton, prices  ranging  from  fifteen  to  thirty-four  pounds,  and  the  sheep 
thirty  shillings  and  upward.1 

While  the  English  army  was  thus  confined,  and  reduced  by  sick- 
ness, the  forces  under  Washington  were  steadily  enlarging.  Re- 
cruiting officers  were  bringing  up  the  numbers  of  the  regiments  more 
nearly  to  the  complement,  and  furloughs  were  granted  more  charily. 


The  Craigie   House,   Washington's   Headquarters  at  Cambridge. 

A  return  of  August  19th  shows  a  total  on  paper  of  10,060,  —  an  in- 
crease of  2,390,  in  six  weeks  since  Washington  took  the  command 
Among  the  recruits  were  several  companies  of  riflemen  from  Vir- 
ginia, —  one  of  them  under  the  command  of  Captain  Daniel  Morgan, 
who  at  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  had  started  on  the 
long  march  to  Boston.  These  skilful  marksmen,  who,  while  rapidly 
advancing,  could  hit  a  target  of  seven  inches  at  a  distance  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  yards,  were  posted  along  the  lines  and  were  espe- 
cially dreaded  by  the  enemy.  But  the  American  army,  as  well  as  the 

1  A  camp  song  of  the  period  asks  :  — 

"  And  what  have  you  got,  by  all  your  deigning, 
But  a  town  without  dinner  to  sit  down  and  dine  in  ?  " 


416  THE   SIEGE   OF  BOSTON.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

English,  suffered  from  sickness.  Thus,  at  the  end  of  August,  more 
than  a  quarter  of  the  Connecticut  contingent  were  returned  as  sick 
and  unfit  for  active  service. 

With  the  first  moment  of  relief  from  the  terrible  lack  of  powder, 

Washington   displayed  that  spirit  of  enterprise   which  was 

pushes  on      an  essential  trait  of  his  character.     He  advanced  his  works 

his  works. 

on  his  extreme  left  by  fortifying  Ploughed  Hill  ;  though  he 
supposed  this  might  bring  on  an  action,  as  the  fortifying  of  Bunker 
Hill  had  done.  The  enemy  did  not  move,  however.  Indeed,  their 
only  victory  of  the  summer  was  an  extraordinary  paper  victory.  In 
two  issues  of  the  "  Public  Advertiser  "  in  London,  full  detailed  ac- 
counts were  published  of  an  attack  led  by  General  Howe  in  person, 
on  the  rebel  works  in  Roxbury.  These  works  were  stormed  and 
taken,  and  Generals  Putnam  and  Lee  were  made  prisonei-s,  with 
twenty-five  hundred  of  inferior  rank.  The  English  loss  in  this  wholly 
fictitious  victory  was  one  hundred  and  fifty  killed.  For  all  this  detail 
there  was  not  the  slightest  foundation.  Later  intelligence,  of  course, 
showed  that  the  readers  of  London  had  been  imposed  upon.  It  is 
but  one  of  many  such  stories,  which  we  must  pass  without  mention, 
although  they  engaged  public  attention  in  their  day,  and  had  their 
share  in  influencing  the  opinion  of  the  world.  On  the  Continent 
such  fictions  were  not  so  easily  exposed  as  in  England.  Their  cir- 
culation resulted  in  the  most  extraordinary  notions  of  the  contest, 
—  absurd  to  any  well-informed  person,  but  not  the  less  received  be- 
cause absurd.  Such  notions  and  the  fictions  from  which  they  are 
formed,  are  not  yet  wholly  eradicated  from  the  popular  impressions 
of  Europe.1 

Until  October,  the  English  naval  force,  under  Admiral  Graves,  had 
made  no  attack  upon  any  point  on  the  coast,  except  for  the 

English  at-  .    .  _      ,  " .          .  „         .          .  . 

taok  on  seizing  of  sheep  or  oxen  for  the  army.  But  in  that  month, 
Graves,  having  consulted  with  Gage,  before  he  left,  sent  the 
Canceau,  Captain  Mowatt,  and  an  armed  transport,  the  Cat,  with  two 
other  vessels,  to  destroy  Cape  Ann  (by  which  Gloucester  is  meant) 
and  Falmouth,  now  Portland,  in  Maine.  In  Howe's  despatch  to  the 
ministry,  describing  the  result,  he  seems  to  wish  to  throw  the  re- 
sponsibility upon  Graves.  The  only  excuse  offered  for  burning  the 
towns  is,  that  they  were  distinguished  for  their  opposition  to  Govern- 
ment. 

The  selectmen  of  Falmouth  speak  of  the  affair  as  Captain  Mow- 

1  No  more  ridiculous  illustrations  of  such  exaggerations  can  be  found  than  in  Hilliard 
d'Auberteuirs  Essays,  already  alluded  to.  Under  the  pen  of  this  well-meaning  writer,  the 
forests  of  America,  being  as  old  as  she  is,  furnish  no  wood  young  enough  for  the  building 
of  large  ships !  Charles  Lee  appears  as  the  orator  whose  eloquence  created  the  Revolution, 
which  he  then  passed  to  Washington's  more  prudent  hand. 


1775.]  THE   BURNING   OF   FALMOUTH.  417 

att's  personal  retaliation  on  them,  because  he  had  been  seized  by 
some  provincial  troops  soon  after  the  battle  of  Lexington.  He  had 
been  released  at  that  time,  but  the  town  had  refused  to  give  up  their 
guns  or  to  send  away  the  troops.  Notice  had  afterwards  been  sent  to 
Falmouth,  that  unless  they  permitted  Captain  Coulson,  who  had  a 
ship  there,  to  sail  for  England,  their  town  should  be  "beat  about  their 
ears."  This  threat  was  accomplished  by  burning  it  on  the  17th  of 
October.  Captain  Mowatt  offered  at  the  last  to  spare  it  if  the  town 
would  give  up  their  cannons,  small  arms,  and  ammunition.  But  this 
was  refused.  One  hundred  and  fifty  houses  were  burned,1  with  all 
the  churches  and  other  public  buildings. 

This  attack  on  an  open  town  which  offered  and  could  offer  no  re- 
sistance, was  the  real  declaration  of  war  by  England  against  America. 
Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  a  lingering  notion  among  the  Ameri- 
cans that  the  army  in  Boston  was  the  objective,  and  that  war  existed 
only  in  Boston  Bay.  The  royal  commanders,  not  unnaturally,  did 
not  choose  to  be  confined  by  any  such  understanding.  Finding  no 
enemy  in  arms  anywhere  else,  they  had  nothing  to  attack  but  de- 
fenceless towns.  General  Greene  says,  in  a  letter  from  Cambridge  of 
this  date,  "  we  are  at  loggerheads  here,  but  at  other  places  only  spar- 
ring." The  conflagration  at  Falmouth  showed  the  country  that  war 
was  war,  —  lawless  and  cruel.  The  coi-respondence  and  journals  of 
the  time  all  show  that  in  this  event  a  step  and  a  long  step  was  taken. 
So  much  further  was  reconciliation  put  out  of  the  question. 

The  destruction  of  Falmouth  proved  the  imperative  necessitv  of 
measures  to  meet  the  enemy  on  the  sea  as  well  as  on  the  Be(,iniijng0f 
land.  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  had  been  peculiarly  auaTy- 
exposed,  during  the  autumn,  to  incursions  from  the  enemy.  It  was 
the  sufferings  of  their  people,  probably,  that  moved  the  delegates  of 
the  latter  province  in  Congress  to  suggest  the  formation  of  a  navy,  of 
which  Esek  Hopkins  was  appointed  commodore.  The  frigate  Rose, 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Wallace,  was,  with  a  number  of  other 
vessels,  stationed  along  the  southern  coast  of  New  England,  and  their 
depredations  upon  the  people  were  for  months  unceasing.  Newport 
was  seriously  threatened  in  October,  and  many  of  her  people  fled  with 
their  household  property  to  the  surrounding  country  in  the  midst  of 
a  violent  storm.  Wallace  consented  to  spare  the  town  only  on  con- 
dition of  being  supplied  with  fresh  pi'ovisions.  Bristol  fared  even 
worse,  for  the  town  was  bombarded,  and  many  houses  destroyed.  At 
Jamestown,  on  the  island  of  Conanicut,  opposite  Newport,  a  force 
landed  in  December,  burnt  houses  and  barns,  plundered  the  people, 
and  carried  off  all  their  live  stock.  Governor  Cooke  called  out  all  the 

1  Howe,  in  his  despatch  to  England,  says  five  hundred. 
VOL.  in.  27 


418  THE   SIEGE   OF  BOSTON.  [CiiAi-.  XVI. 

minute  men  of  the  province,  and  asked  of  the  commander-in-chief 
that  a  regiment  of  the  line  might  be  sent  for  its  protection.  The 
request  was  complied  with,  though  it  came  at  that  critical  moment 
when  Washington  was  reorganizing  the  army  around  Boston,  and  not 
long  after  the  troops  from  Connecticut,  whose  term  of  enlistment  had 
expired,  were  in  a  state  of  mutiny.  General  Lee  was  sent  to  New- 
port at  the  head  of  eight  hundred  men.1  He  so  disposed  them  as  to 
give  protection  to  the  inhabitants  in  that  neighborhood  ;  and  he  sup- 
pressed with  a  strong  hand  those  among  the  Tories  who  encouraged 
the  enemy  and  gave  information  which  made  the  depredations  upon 
their  neighbors  easy,  and  at  the  same  time  insured  their  own  pro- 
tection. 

The  equipment  of  the  little  fleet  of  the  New  England  colonies  was 
slow,  and  its  operations  were  insignificant,  till,  late  in  November,  by 
a  fortunate  stroke,  Manly,  in  the  Lee,  took  the  brigantine  Nancy, 
bound  from  London,  with  military  stores,  which  were  most  acceptable. 
"Two  thousand  muskets,"  "one  hundred  and  five  thousand  flints," 
"  sixty  reams  of  cartridge-paper,"  thirty-one  tons  of  musket-shot," 
"three  thousand  round-shot  for  12-pounders,  four  thousand  for  6- 
pounders."  Such  were  some  of  the  heads  of  the  invoice  of  her  stores 
as  it  opened  before  the  delighted  eyes  of  the  general  officers  and  their 
hard-pressed  chief  of  engineers,  who  not  long  before  had  prepared  a 
list,  not  dissimilar,  of  the  necessities  of  the  army.  For  the  rest,  the 
naval  service  was  not  yet  organized.  Washington  says,  bitterly,  in  a 
private  letter,  in  November,  "  Our  privateersmen  go  on  at  the  old 
rate,  —  mutinying  if  they  cannot  do  as  they  please."  Such  has 
proved  to  be  the  habit  of  privateersmen  in  most  wars. 

1  Lee  exacted  an  oath  from  the  Tories,  which  Washington  sent  to  Hancock  as  "  a  speci- 
men of  his  abilities  in  th;it  \v:iy."  This  "  irou-clad  "  oath,  Arnold  (History  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and) gives  in  full,  ns  follows  :  — 

"  I,  John  Bours,  here,  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  as  I  hope  for  ease,  honor,  and 
comfort  in  this  world,  and  happiness  in  the  workl  to  come,  most  earnestly,  devoutly,  and 
religiously  swear,  neither  directly  nor  indirectly  to  assist  the  wicked  instruments  of  minis- 
terial tyranny  and  villany,  commonlv  called  the  Kind's  troops  and  navy,  by  furnishing  them 
witli  provisions  or  refreshments  of  any  kind,  unless  authorized  by  the  Continental  Congress 
or  the  Legislature,  as  at  present  established  in  this  particular  colony  of  Rhode  Island.  I  do 
also  swear  by  the  same  tremendous  and  Almighty  God,  that  I  will  neither  directly  nor  indi- 
rectly convey  any  intelligence,  nor  give  anv  advice  to  the  aforesaid  enemies  so  described,  and 
that  I  pledge  myself,  if  I  should,  by  any  accident,  get  the  knowledge  of  such  treason,  to  in- 
form immediately  the  Committee  of  Safety.  And  as  it  is  justly  allowed,  that  when  the 
*acred  rights  and  liberties  of  a  nation  are  invaded,  neutrality  is  not  less  base  and  criminal 
than  open  and  avowed  hostility,  I  do  further  swear  and  pledge  myself,  :is  I  hope  for  eternal 
salvation,  that  I  will,  whenever  culled  upon  by  the  voice  of  the  Continental  Congress,  or 
that  of  the  Legislature  of  this  particular  colony,  under  their  authority,  take  arms  and  sub- 
ject myself  to  military  discipline  in  defence  of  the  common  rights  and  liberties  of  America. 
So  help  me  God.  Sworn  ut  Newport,  December  25,  1775. 

"JOHN   BOURSE." 


1775.]  TREACHERY   OF   DR.   CHURCH.  419 

The  attention  and  anxiety  of  the  army,  and  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  as  well  as  the  Congress  of  Massachusetts,  were  excited  in 
the  autumn  by  the  discovery  that  Dr.  Benjamin  Church,  a  member 
of  the  House  in  Massachusetts,  was  communicating  secretly  with  his 
brother-in-law  in  Boston.  Church  had  been  a  prominent  patriot, 
the  friend  of  Warren  and  of  the  other  Boston  leaders.  On  the  dis- 
covery of  a  letter  in  cipher  from  him  to  his  brother-in-law,  he  was 
arrested.  The  letter  was  deciphered,  and  proved  to  contain  accounts 
of  the  force  of  the  Americans,  with  disparaging  allusions  to  their 
commanders.  Church  was  expelled  from  the  Massachusetts  Assem- 
bly. In  his  defence  he  said  the  letter  was  written  not  long  after  the 
battle  at  Bunker  Hill.  "  Was  there  a  man,"  he  said,  "  who  church-8 
regarded  his  country,  who  would  not  then  have  sacrificed  treacherv- 
his  life  to  obtain  a  tolerable  accommodation  ?  "  He  called  attention 
to  his  exaggeration  of  the  resources  of  the  American  army,  and  af- 
fected to  have  carried  on  the  correspondence  in  the  true  interest  of  the 
country.  But  it  was  clear  enough  that  his  conception  of  that  interest 
was  not  that  of  men  who  were  now  committed  to  open  war.  The 
Continental  Congress  took  his  case  as  their  own,  and  put  him  in  close 
confinement.1 

The  Continental  Congress  was  still  urging  an  attack  upon  Boston, 
**  to  break  up  the  nest  there,"  as  Washington  says.  He  held  a  coun- 
cil of  general  officers  on  the  18th  of  October,  to  consider  the  subject. 
They  decided  unanimously  that  such  an  attack  was  impracticable. 
Meanwhile  the  army  itself  was  near  its  end.  The  enlistments  did 
not  hold  the  men,  except  in  a  few  instances,  beyond  the  close  of  the 
year.  A  committee,  consisting  of  Franklin,  Lynch,  and  Harrison, 
came  from  Philadelphia  to  Cambridge,  to  make  the  best  arrangements 
for  its  renewal.  But  this  renewal  was  attended  with  end-  condition  of 
less  care  and  anxiety  for  all  parties  concerned.  The  orig-  i 
inal  idea,  to  make  an  army  in  which  there  should  be  no 
regard  to  colonial  lines,  proved  impracticable.  Even  if  the  officers 
assented,  the  men  would  not  enlist  unless  they  knew  who  was  to  com- 
mand them.  The  abolition  of  the  old  colonial  systems,  which  gave 
small  regiments  in  some  colonies  and  large  ones  in  others,  made 
another  difficulty.  A  general  order  for  the  enlistment  of  the  new 
army  was  issued  as  early  as  October  22d,  but  on  the  28th  of  November 
only  3,500  men  had  enlisted  on  "  the  new  establishment,"  as  it  was 
called.  The  change  enabled  the  generals  to  drop  officers  of  the  lower 
grades,  who  had  in  any  way  forfeited  confidence,  and  in  the  end  it 
greatly  improved  the  condition  of  the  army.  Yet  to  disband  one 

1  He  remained  in  prison  for  some  months,  and  was  then  permitted  to  sail  for  the  West 
Indies.     The  vessel  in  which  he  took  ]  assage  was  never  heard  of  afterward. 


420 


THE   SIEGE   OF  BOSTON. 


[CHAP.  XVI. 


Union  Flag. 


army  and  recruit  another  in  the  face  of  an  enemy,  was,  as  Washing- 
ton often  said,  a  matter  for  the  most  serious  anxiety.  Changes,  how- 
ever, were  absolutely  necessary,  and  a  great  point  was  gained  when, 
by  the  first  of  the  year,  the  reorganization  was  complete,  though  the 
army  was  reduced  in  numbers. 

"  The  day  [January  2,  1776]  which  gave  being  to  the  new  army," 
The  Amen-  Washington  wrote  to  Reed,  "  but  before  the  proclamation 
can  Flag.  canie  to  hand,  we  had  hoisted  the  Union  Flag,  in  compli- 
ment to  the  United  Colonies.'"  It  happened  that  the  King's  speech 

had  just  been  received  in  Boston,  and  copies  of  it 
were  sent  out  to  the  Am'erican  camp.  The  raising 
of  this  flag,  and  the  discharge  of  thirteen  guns 
that  saluted  it,  were,  not  unnaturally,  supposed 
by  the  British  officers  to  be  a  token  of  rejoicing 
at  the  King's  speech  ;  for  the  flag  itself,  though 
it  contained  the  thirteen  stripes  emblematic  of  the 
thirteen  colonies,  still  retained  the  union  of  the 
British  standard,  the  Crosses  of  St.  George  and 
St.  Andrew.  The  Americans,  when  they  leai*ned 
of  the  misunderstanding  of  the  English,  indig- 
nantly made  a  bonfire  of  the  royal  speech,  and  it  was  in  allusion  to 
this  incident  that  Washington  wrote  to  Reed  the  words  we  have  just 
quoted. 

Previous  to  this  time  there  had  been  no  national  flags.  "Union 
Flags,"  as  they  were  called,  were  sometimes  used,  but  they  were  sim- 
ply the  British  Standard,  with  the  legend,  "Liberty  and  Property," 
or  "  Liberty  and  Union,"  inscribed  upon  the  field.  It  is  not  certain 
that  there  was  any  American  flag  displayed  at  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,  though  tradition  says  that  one  floated  over  Prescott's  redoubt 
emblazoned  with  the  words  "  Come  if  you  Dare  !  "  1  A  month  after 
the  battle,  however,  when  the  Declaration  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, setting  forth  the  causes  and  necessity  of 
taking  up  arms,  was  publicly  read  in  the  camp 
on  Prospect  Hill,  a  red  flag,  sent  from  Connecti- 
cut to  General  Putnam,  was  raised,  on  which 
were  inscribed  the  words,  "  Qui  transtulit,  sus- 
tinet,"2  and  "An  Appeal  to  Heaven."  The  flag 
of  Massachusetts  was  white,  with  a  pine  tree  in 
the  centre,  also  bearing  the  motto,  "An  Appeal 
to  Heaven,"  words  taken  from  the  closing  paragraph  of  the  "  Address 
of  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts  to  their  brethren  in  Great 

1  Frothingham's  History  of  the  Sieye  of  Boston. 

2  This  is  the  motto  of  Connecticut. 


Pine  Tree   Flag. 


1775.]  CRITICAL  CONDITION   OF   GENERAL  HOWE.  421 

Britain."    This  flag  was  on  all  the  floating  batteries,  was  borne  by  New 

Hampshire   as  well  as  Massachusetts  regiments,  and  was  suggested 

in  October  by  Reed  as  the  flag  of  all  naval  vessels.     A  blue  flag  with 

a  white  crescent  was  raised  over  the  fortifications  in  South  Carolina 

the  same  year,  and  the  first  naval  flag  was  yellow,  with  a  rattlesnake 

in  the  act  of  striking,  and  beneath,  the  motto,  u  Don't  tread  on  me  !  " 

But  the  first  recognized  Continental  standard  was 

that  alluded  to  by  Washington   in  his   letter  to 

Reed,  as  raised  in  the  camp  around  Boston  on  the 

2d  of  January,  1776.     This  was  superseded  by  a 

resolution  of  Congress,  on  the  14th  of  June,  1777, 

declaring  "  that  the  flag   of  the  thirteen  United 

Colonies   be  thirteen    stripes,  alternate   red  and         Rattiesn.ke  Fi«e. 

white,  and  the  union  be  thirteen  stars,  white  in 

a  blue  field,  representing  a  new  constellation."      With   the  addition 

of  stars,  this  has  continued  to  be  the  national  standard. 

But  General  Howe,  shut  up  in  Boston,  was  in  a  condition  even  more 
critical  than  that  which  gave  Washington  so  much  anx-  Howe!g  con. 
iety.  It  was  easy  enough  to  say  in  England  that  he  had  com-  dltlon- 
mand  of  the  sea.  But,  in  truth,  the  naval  force  was  crippled,  or  the 
officers  said  it  was,  for  want  of  seamen  ;  and  Howe  writes  earnestly 
that  more  may  be  sent  out.  So  weak  was  it,  that  he  could  not  even 
provision  his  little  army  from  the  raids  on  the  shores  of  a  continent 
which  his  vessels  should  -have  commanded  for  a  thousand  miles. 
There  was  also  a  serious  misunderstanding  between  Howe  and  Ad- 
miral Graves.  Provisions  of  every  kind,  not  only  salt  meats  and 
flour,  but  corn,  butter,  potatoes,  and  eggs,  were  shipped  to  Howe  from 
England  and  Ireland,  sometimes,  alas !  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
insignificant  American  cruisers  in  Boston  Bay.  Even  live  oxen,  sheep, 
and  hogs  were  sent  from  England  in  great  numbers.  But  the  vessels 
met  bad  weather  at  the  outset.  An  exaggerated  account,  published  in 
English  journals  at  the  time,  says  the  English  channel  was  covered 
with  the  bodies  of  sheep  which  had  been  thrown  overboard.  It  is  now 
known  that  not  one  animal  from  this  extraordinary  shipment  ever  ar- 
rived in  Boston.  That  the  Government  made  it,  was  a  concession 
that  their  cause  was  desperate.  How  could  they  expect  to  regain  a 
continent  on  which  a  little  army  of  ten  thousand  men  could  not  find 
enough  provisions  to  keep  them  alive? 

At  this  period  public  opinion  continued  to  declare  itself  in  England 
bv  the  generous  offerings  of  private  subscriptions,  either  to 

J,  ,  r  English  aid 

solace  the  army  by  national  sympathy,  or  to  rebuke  the  to  Howe's 

Government  by  charities  to  those  whom  it  was  oppressing. 

"The  King's  friends,"  through  all  England,  were  not  satisfied  with 


422  THK   SIEGE   OF   BOSTON.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

addresses  formally  presented,  and  subscribed  liberally  for  comforts  to 
be  sent  to  the  soldiers  and  sailors  in  Boston.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
the  news  of  the  repulse  at  Lexington  was  received  in  England,  friends 
of  America  placed  one  hundred  pounds  in  Franklin's  hands  for  the 
widows  and  orphans  of  the  men  killed  by  the  troops  that  day.  After- 
wards, even  to  the  end  of  the  war,  money  was  thus  raised  by  subscrip- 
tion for  American  prisoners. 

General  Howe  found  difficulty  even  in  providing  barracks  for  his 
troops  for  the  winter  season.  In  summer  many  of  them  were  en- 
camped on  Boston  Common  and  on  Bunker  Hill.  On  the  26th  of 
November,  he  wrote  a  despatch  to  Lord  Dartmouth,  explaining  that 
he  must  winter  in  Boston,  because  he  had  not  transports  sufficient  to 
move  the  force,  as  Dartmouth  had  suggested.  For  this  purpose,  he 
supposed  that  35,000  tons  of  shipping  were  needed,  and  the  whole 
force  at  his  command  was  not  26,000  tons.  Unwillingly,  therefore, 
he  stayed  through  the  winter.  He  pulled  down  one  meeting-house 
for  fuel.  He  even  mined  coal  in  Cape  Breton  for  the  use  of  his  army 
in  Boston.  As  late  as  the  27th  of  November,  some  of  his  regiments 
were  still  under  canvas.  At  this  period  he  sent  out  to  the  Americans 
three  hundred  more  of  their  countrymen,  mostly  women  and  children. 
These  were  provided  for  in  Hampshire  County,  in  western  Massachu- 
setts. 

To  amuse  the  officers  and  men,  theatrical  entertainments,  almost 
Amuse-  f°r  ^ne  ^rs^  time  in  Puritan  Boston,  were  given  in  Faneuil 


Bo"ton°fthe  Hall.  Up  to  this  time  General  Burgoyne's  reputation  had 
garrison.  \)Qen  that  of  a  man  of  letters  rather  than  a  soldier.  Indeed, 
his  military  fame  rested  on  a  success  in  Portugal  which,  according  to 
modern  notions  of  war,  can  scarcely  be  called  a  skirmish.  For  the 
present  purpose  Burgoyne  wrote  a  little  play  called  "The  Siege  of 
Boston."  While  the  play  went  on,  a  sergeant  rushed  upon  the 
scenes,  and  announced  that  the  Yankees  were  on  Bunker  Hill.  The 
audience  laughed,  regarding  the  announcement  as  a  part  of  the  per- 
formance. But  in  a  moment  more  the  officers  were  ordered  by  Gen- 
eral Howe  to  repair  to  their  posts,  and  the  audience  broke  up  in  the 
utmost  confusion  and  alarm.  One  of  Knowlton's  Connecticut  com- 
panies, by  a  bold  raid,  had  crossed  the  Neck  and  had  fired  the  bakery 
of  the  English  contingent  at  Charlestown.  In  the  midst  of  the  sever- 
ities of  the  campaign  and  the  summer,  Howe  reports,  with  just  pride, 
that  he  had  lost  but  thirty-three  men  by  desertion,  in  seven  months 
after  the  battle  of  Lexington.1  Burgoyne  gave  up  his  literary  and 

1  This  report  gives  a  good  test  of  the  accuracy  of  our  materials  for  history.  It  would 
not  be  difficult,  from  the  American  reports,  to  say  at  what  dates  most  of  the>e  men  de- 
serted. Indeed,  we  have  the  accounts  which  many  of  them  brought  in.  At  a  later  period 
the  desertions  from  the  English  force  weakened  it  sorely. 


1775.]  AN   ATTACK   SUGGESTED.  423 

military  duties  for  the  moment,  and  returned  to  England  at  the  end 
of  November.  He  had  been  six  months  in  Boston,  and  had  not  yet 
made  "  elbow-room." 

In  a  despatch  of  this  date,  General  Howe  confirms  the  ministry  in 
a  plan  they  had  already  determined  on,  for  raising  mercena-  Gerniim 
ries  in  Hanover  and  Hesse.  He  says  that  the  only  recruits  SrTheEilg'- 
they  can  send  from  Great  Britain  will  be  men  of  the  worst  llshan"-v- 
kind.  Six  or  seven  thousand  will  be  needed,  "  who  will  be  Irish 
Roman  Catholics,  certain  to  desert  if  put  to  hard  work,  and,  from 
their  ignorance  of  arms,  not  entitled  to  the  smallest  confidence  as 
soldiers."  To  obviate  this  difficulty,  lie  suggests  incorporating  with 
each  English  regiment  one  hundred  trained  soldiers  from  Hanover  or 
from  Hesse.  Such  were  the  reasons  for  Howe's  inactivity  during  the 
critical  period  when  Washington  was  renewing  his  army.  The  loss 
of  the  storeship  Nancy  brought  another  source  of  anxiety,  which  hung 
on  him  for  three  months  more. 

On  the  3d  of  December,  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Dartmouth,  he  says  : 
"  The  brigantine  Nancy  has  been  taken  with  four  thousand 
stand  of  arms.1     The  circumstance  is  unfortunate,  as  it  puts  foran attack 

,  'iii  r  •  i  /?  on  Boston 

in  the  enemy  s  hands  the  means  of  setting  the  town  on  tire,  as 
the  vessel  contains  carcasses  and  other  materials  of  like  nature." 
Howe  wrote  as  a  soldier,  and  contemplated  such  a  mode  of  attack  as 
it  might  have  been  his  duty  to  pursue  under  like  circumstances.  Had 
Washington  acted  only  as  a  soldier,  he  would  very  probably  have  fired 
the  town.  The  policy  of  doing  so  was  openly  considered  in  the  Amer- 
ican councils.  On  the  22d  of  December,  the  Continental  Congress 
resolved,  "  That  if  General  Washington  and  his  council  of  war  should 
be  of  opinion  that  a  successful  attack  may  be  made  on  the  troops  in 
Boston,  he  do  it  in  any  manner  he  may  think  expedient,  notwithstand- 
ing the  town  and  property  in  it  may  be  destroyed."  In  communi- 
cating this  resolve,  President  Hancock  wrote  :  "  You  will  notice  the 
resolution  relative  to  an  attack  upon  Boston.  This  passed  after  a 
most  serious  debate  in  a  committee  of  the  whole  house,  and  the  exe- 
cution was  referred  to  you.  May  God  crown  your  attempt  with  suc- 
cess. I  most  heartily  wish  it,  though  individually  I  may  be  the  great- 
est sufferer." 

But  Washington's  intention  was  to  cross  on  the  ice,  so  soon  as  the 
Charles  River,  and  what  was  known  as  the  "Back  Bay,"2 
should  freeze.    In  most  winters,  this  bay,  at  least,  was  frozen  xerkiaid 
over.     But  this  winter  proved  unusually  mild,  and  no  such 
opportunity  offered  itself  until  the  middle  of  February.     Washington 
then   called    a  council  of  war,  as  was  the  fashion  in  all  armies   at 

1  An  over-statement,  as  the  reader  has  seen. 
a  Now  covered  with  streets  and  houses. 


424 


THE   SIEGE   OF    BOSTON. 


.  XVI 


that  time,  and  as  lie  was  re- 
quired to  do  by  his  commission. 
To  his  disgust,  lie  was  outvoted 
in  council,  and  the  plan  of  attack 
over  the  ice  was  pronounced 
too  hazardous.  General  Howe, 
meanwhile,  availed  himself  of 
the  severe  weather  to  send  over 
a  party  on  the  ice,  on  the  13th  of 
February,  to  Dorchester  Neck. 
A  party  under  Colonel  Les- 
lie, from  the  forts,  and  another 
of  grenadiers  and  light  infan- 
try, destroyed  every  house  and 


'/        1 


Dragging  Cannon  over  the  Green   Mountains. 

all  other  "cover"  on  that  pen- 
insula. They  also  took  prison- 
ers the  American  guard  of  six 
men. 

In  his  despatch  announcing 
this  success l  Howe  says  he  had 
ascertained  that  the  enemy  in- 
tended to  take  possession  of  Dor- 
chester Point.  The  reader  has  al- 
ready seen  that  he  and  the  Eng- 
lish generals  had  the  same  inten- 

1  In  all  instances,  we  quote  from  Howe's  manuscript  despatches,  now  preserved  in  the 
English  State  Paper  Office.     Only  a  part  of  them  have  been  printed  in  full. 


1776.]  DORCHESTER   HEIGHTS   FORTIFIED.  425 

tion  as  early  as  June  of  the  preceding  year.  Why  they  did  not 
seize  these  heights,  after  they  were  reenforced,  it  is  difficult  to  say. 
Washington  had  refrained,  not  simply  for  want  of  powder,  but  from 
lack  of  heavy  artillery.  This  lack  was  now  supplied  by  the  capture 
of  the  Nancy  and  the  arrival  of  a  train  —  brought  as  never  cannon 
had  been  brought  before  —  from  Ticonderoga.  So  soon  as  the  snows 
of  winter  served,  the  heavy  guns  needed  for  the  American  lines  were 
brought,  under  the  admirable  direction  of  Henry  Knox,  now  at  the 
head  of  the  artillery,  on  forty-two  sleds,  drawn  by  long  teams  of  oxen, 
through  the  passes  and  over  the  ridges  of  the  Green  Mountains,  and 
down  through  the  hill  country  of  New  England,  over  roads  which 
never  bore  a  cannon  before  and  have  never  borne  one  since.  Their 
arrival  at  Cambridge  was  welcomed  with  enthusiasm.  Had  Howe 
only  known  it,  with  that  arrival  his  easy  winter  was  ended. 

Washington  asked  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts  to  call 
out  the   militia  of  the  neigh borhood,  and  this  was  imme- 
diately done.     Ten  regiments  of  soldierly  men  came  in  at  can  move- 
once,  and  so  far  reenforced  his  army.    Ward,  who  commanded  Dorchester 
at  Roxbury,  was  intrusted  with  the  oversight  of  the  move- 
ment upon  Dorchester  Heights,  and  the  immediate  direction  of  it  was 
intrusted  to  John  Thomas,  also  of  Massachusetts,  one  of  the  briga- 
dier-generals, an  officer  whose  early  death,  before  this  year  was  ended, 
was  a  serious  loss  to  the  American  cause.     The  earth  was  frozen  hard, 
so  that  such  works  as  were  thrown  up  on  a  summer's  night  at  Bun- 
ker Hill  were  impossible.     Fascines  were  collected,  and  what  the  mil- 
itary language  of  that  day  called  "  chandeliers,"  which  were  a  kind 
of  foundation  for  fascines. 

On  the  night  of  Saturday,  the  2d  of  March,  1776,  a  vigorous  can- 
nonade was  begun  from  the  American  works  to  the  north  of  Boston, 
and  it  was  maintained  through  the  nights  of  the  3d  and  4th,  to 
divert  the  attention  of  the  English.  At  the  least,  the  noise  of  the  can- 
nonade might  overpower  the  sound  made  by  Thomas's  long  train  as  it 
passed  over  frozen  ground.  As  soon  as  this  firing  began  on  Monday 
evening,  he  moved  from  Roxbury  with  twelve  hundred  men,  and  took 
possession,  without  discovery,  of  the  higher  hill,  that  farthest  from 
Boston,  which  at  that  time  commanded  Nook's  Hill,  nearer  to  the 
town.  Four  hundred  yoke  of  oxen  drew  the  materials  for  the  works, 
and  this  train  passed  unnoticed  by  the  English  sentries,  hardly  a  mile 
away  on  Boston  Neck.  When  Thomas  was  fairly  intrenched,  a  heavy 
reenforcement  joined  him.  The  movement  corresponded  precisely  to 
what  the  movement  on  Bunker  Hill  would  have  been  had  the  party 
intrenched  the  higher  summit  there.  The  men  worked  with  energy, 
and  by  morning  a  respectable  defence  and  battery  were  constructed, 


4:26- 


THE   SIEGE  OF  BOSTOX. 


>.  XVI. 


wholly  to  the  surprise  of  the  English  officers.  The  work  was  planned, 
as  was  that  so  well  tested  at  Hunker  Hill,  by  the  veteran  Gridley, 
who  had  the  assistance  of  Colonel  Putnam.  Howe  was  astonished. 
He  wrote  to  the  minister  that  this  must  have  been  the  work  of 
twelve  thousand  men.  One  of  his  officers  said  the  suddenness  of  the 
whole  recalled  the  wonderful  eastern  stories  of  enchantment  and  in- 
visible agency.  Howe  knew,  of  course,  and  the  Admiral  immediately 
notified  him,  that  the  fleet  could  not  remain  in  safety  under  the  fire 
of  these  guns.  That  evening,.  Howe  sent  three  thousand  men,  under 
Lord  Percy,  to  Castle  William,  which  is  on  an  island  about  a  mile 
from  the  extreme  point  of  Dorchester  Neck,  most  distant  from  the 
town. 


North   End  of   Boston.      From  an   Old   Print. 


Percy's  instructions  were,  to  attack  the  newly-built  works  on  their 
washing-  eastward  or  southern  side,  where  it  must  have  been  supposed 
ton's  plans.  tj)at  t|)ev  were  nO{;  so  strong  as  [n  frOnt.  But  a  violent 

storm  that  night  and  the  next  morning  broke  up  his  plan  of  attack, 
and  that  day  was  lost.  Washington,  of  course,  expected  such  an 
attack.  He  relied  on  Thomas  and  his  party  to  repel  it,  from  works 
which  were  much  stronger  than  those  on  Bunker  Hill.  While  it 
engaged  the  enemy,  Putnam  was  to  attack  the  town  on  the  western 
side,  where  Greene's  and  Sullivan's  brigades  of  four  thousand  men 
were  in  readiness.  Greene  was  to  have  landed  with  his  men  near  the 
ground  now  occupied  by  the  gardens  of  the  Massachusetts  Hospital. 
Sullivan  was  to  land  a  little  farther  south,  —  not  far  north  of  the 
present  line  of  Beacon  Street.  Had  they  succeeded,  they  would  have 
moved  south  on  the  English  works  at  Boston  Neck,  to  admit  the 
American  troops  at  Roxbury.  Three  floating  batteries  were  pre- 
pared, which  should  move  in  advance  of  the  troops,  and  clear  the 
ground  for  their  landing. 


'         -'       -          - 

1j 
I 


1776.]  THE  BRITISH   EVACUATE  BOSTON.  427 

We  shall  never  know  what  would  have  been  the  success  of  this  bold 
plan,  —  bold  enough  to  redeem  Washington  from  the  imputation, 
sometimes  thrown  at  him,  of  excessive  caution.  He  thought  well  of 
it.  His  officers  thought  well  of  it.  The  men  were  in  high  spirits  and 
well  led.  The  5th  of  March,  when  he  supposed  it  would  be  executed, 
was  the  anniversary  of  the  Boston  Massacre.  Only  a  year  before 
Warren  had  told  Knox  and  others  of  those  men  in  the  Old  South 
Meeting-house,  of  the  dangers  of  standing  armies.  Only  a,  year  ago 
he  had  painted  that  touching  picture  of  George  and  Liberty  seated 
together  on  an  American  throne.  Everything  had  happened  since 
that  commemoration  ! 

But  the  English  did  not  move  on  the  new  works,  which  with 
every  hour's  delay  grew  stronger.  Washington  now  prepared  to  ex- 
tend them,  and  to  seize  Nook's  Hill,  closer  to  Boston,  —  immediately 
opposite  it,  indeed.  To  continue  the  comparison  with  the  other  pen- 
insula, Nook's  Hill  was  for  Dorchester  Neck  what  Breed's  Farm,  the 
site  of  Prescott's  redoubt,  was  for  Bunker  Hill.  On  the  night  of  the 
9th  he  would  have  intrenched  that  hill.  But  on  the  8th  a  flag  of 
truce  from  Howe  appeared,  with  a  note  from  the  selectmen  of  Boston, 
giving  information  that  General  Howe  was  determined  to  leave  Bos- 
ton with  the  army  under  his  command.  They  said  that  he  had  as- 
sured them  he  would  not  destroy  the  town  unless  his  troops  were 
molested  in  their  embarkation.  They  said  their  fears  were  quieted 
with  regard  to  General  Howe's  intentions  ;  and  they  begged  4t  that 
they  might  have  some  assurance  that  so  dreadful  a  calamity  might  not 
be  brought  on  by  any  measures  from  without." 

Howe  was  not  unwilling  to  adopt  this  indirect  way  of  communica- 
tion with  his  enemy,  for  which  he  had  no  lack  of  precedents 
in   the   etiquette    of   the  wars   of    Frederick.     Washington   uatos  Bos- 
would  not  receive  the  message,  which  was  not,  indeed,  ad- 
dressed to  him.     But  it  answered  every  purpose,  and  without  other 
official  communication  on  either  side,  Howe  was  permitted  to  embark 
his  forces  without  molestation.     He  had  abandoned  the  plan  of  as- 
saulting Thomas's  works,  and  had  determined  to  evacuate  Boston. 

On  the  nights  of  the  9th,  10th,  and  llth,  Washington  continued  the 
bombardment,  and  the  enemy  replied.  But  these  were  the  last  move- 
ments of  offence  or  of  defence.  All  Saturday  night  the  explosions 
were  heard,  by  which  Howe  destroyed  the  property  he  could  not  take 
away.  On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  17th  of  March,  he  sailed  with 
his  whole  army,  hastened,  as  it  appeared,  by  the  work  on  Nook's  Hill, 
which  Washington  had  at  last  fortified.  It  was  just  three  months 
since  he  had  notified  the  English  minister  that  he  had  not  transports 
sufficient  for  more  than  two  thirds  of  his  force.  Not  a  vessel  had 


428  THE   SIEGE   OF  BOSTON.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

joined  him  in  the  interval.  But  under  the  spur  of  necessity  the  navy 
and  the  transports  proved  sufficient.  General  Putnam  immediately 
marched  into  Charlestown,  and  took  the  English  fort  on  Bunker  Hill, 
which  was  held  by  two  wooden  sentries.  General  Ward  sent  a  party 
from  Roxbury  across  the  Neck,  and  the  siege  of  Boston  was  ended. 

The  selectmen  notified  Wan!  that  the  small-pox  was  in  the  city,  and 
Entry  of  the  advised  that  those  of  the  army  not  "protected"  should  not 
Americans.  ent(>r>  \}ut  on  Monday  the  great  body  of  the  army  marched 
in.  The  returns  of  Howe's  force,  on  the  day  he  left,  show  that  he 
had  in  all  eight  thousand  nine  hundred  and  six  officers  and  men. 
They  sailed  in  seventy-eight  ships  and  transports.  With  him  he 
took  about  eleven  hundred  loyalists,  either  old  residents  of  Boston  or 
others  who  had  come  into  the  town  from  the  country  to  escape  the 
persecutions  of  their  neighbors.  Many  of  these  never  returned  to 
their  native  land.  A  large  number  of  them  settled  in  Nova  Scotia, 
and  were  a  valuable  addition  to  the  population  of  that  colony.1 

The  larger  part  of  Howe's  squadron  proceeded  directly  to  Halifax. 
The  naval  ships  loitered  in  the  outer  harbor  of  Boston,  and  elsewhere 
in  Massachusetts  Bay,  to  give  notice  to  vessels  from  England,  that 
they  might  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  American  army.  But  "  the 
continent,"  from  Canada  to  Florida,  was  freed  from  the  royal  army. 
Less  than  one  year  of  vigorous  assertion  of  the  rights  under  which 
they  had  lived  from  the  beginning,  had,  for  the  moment,  given  such 
an  answer  to  the  repressive  measures  of  the  English  Crown.  The 
joy  was  universal.  The  handful  of  residents  left  in  Boston  received 
the  army  as  liberators.  Washington  entered  the  town  with  ceremony 
which  is  still  remembered  in  tradition.  The  long  street  by  which  he 
came,  yielded  in  time  its  historical  names  to  his.  "The  Neck,"  which 
was  the  local  name  of  the  Isthmus,  "  Orange  Street,''  which  commemo- 
rated the  Liberator  of  England,  "  Newbury  Street,"  which  told  the  tale 
jf  Charles's  disgrace,  "  Marlborough  Street,"  named  in  honor  of  the 
conqueror  of  Blenheim,  and  "  Corn  Hill,"  which  fondly  recalled  mem- 
jries  of  London,  —  all  these  names  gave  way,  that  "Washington 
Street''  might  remind  the  town  of  him  who  freed  it  from  the  first 
army  of  strangers  that  ever  stood  within  its  borders.  Congress  or- 
dered a  gold  medal  struck,  to  be  presented  to  him.  It  is  the  first 
in  the  numismatic  history  of  independent  America,  and  bears  the 
proud  motto,  "HosTiBUS  PRIMO  FuGATis."2 

"  As  I  passed  through  the  town."  —  wrote  one  who  entered  it  the  day 
after  the  evacuation,3  —  "  it  gave  me  much  pain  of  mind  to  see  the 

1  See,  for  details,  Sabine's  American  Loyalists. 

-  The  original    medal,  in  the  fortunes  of  an  expiring  family,  and  afterward  of  civil  war, 
came  into  the  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 
8  Diary  of  Ezekiel  Price,  published  iu  Proceedings  of  Mass.  Hist.  S<>c.,  November,  1863 


1776.] 


CONDITION   OF   THE  CITY. 


429 


havoc,  waste,  and  destruction  of  those  houses,  fences,  and  trees  in  the 
town,  occasioned  by  those  sons  of  Belial,  who  have  near  a  year  past 
had  the  possession."  The  Old  South  Church  had  been  used  as  a 
riding-school  for  the  soldiers:  the  West  Church  and  the  church  in 
Hollis  Street,  at  the  South  End,  had  been  used  as  barracks  ;  the  Old 
North  had  been  taken  down  and  used  as  fire-wood,  —  in  revenge,  it 
was  said,  of  the  signal 
lanterns  hung  in  its 
belfry  on  the  eve  of 
the  movement  on  Con- 
cord. Faneuil  Hall 
had  been  made  a 
play-house.  But  the 
wonder  is  that  there 
had  not  been  more 
destruction  of  private 
and  of  public  prop- 
erty, when  it  is  re- 
membered that  this 
town,  beleaguered 
for  nine  months,  was 
in  possession  of  the 
enemy.  If  Howe 
made  use  of  public 
buildings,  and  permit- 
ted the  destruction  of  some  old  buildings  for  fuel,  let  it  be  said  that 
he  used  all  his  authority  to  restrain  wanton  destruction  and  robbery. 
There  was  much  of  it  in  the  last  week  of  British  possession,  but  he 
threatened  death  to  the  perpetrators. 

It  had  been  known  ever  since  October,  that  English  expeditions 
were  proposed  to  seize  Hudson  River  and  New  York.  To  arrange 
the  resistance  to  these,  General  Lee  had  been  stationed  at  New  York, 
and  extensive  works  of  fortification  had  been  planned.  Now,  when 
Howe  left  Boston,  Washington  believed  that  New  York  was  the  des- 
tination of  his  fleet  and  army.  He  immediately  sent  forward  General 
Heath  with  the  whole  bodv  of  riflemen  and  five  battalions,  and  Gen- 
eral Sullivan  with  six  battalions,  to  meet  this  expected  invasion. 
General  Putnam  was  ordered  to  New  York  to  take  command,  and  to 
carry  out,  so  far  as  he  thought  advisable,  Lee's  plans  of  defence,  till 
the  Commander-in-chief  should  arrive  and  assume  the  direction  of 
affairs. 


BOSTOMIUM  RECUPERATUM 

MARTI: 
MDCCUOCVI 


Washington's   Medal. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 


THE  NORTHERN   CAMPAIGN   OF    1775. 


THE  DISPUTE  CONCERNING  THK  TERRITORY  OF  VERMONT.  —  THE  GREEN  MOUNTAIN 
BOYS.  —  ALLEN'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  TICONDEROGA.  —  ARNOLD  CLAIMS  COM- 
MAND. —  CAPTURE  OF  TICONDEROGA  AND  CROWN  POINT.  —  EXPEDITION  DOWN  LAKE 
CHAMPLAIN. —  RICHARD  MONTGOMERY.  —  SIKGE  OF  ST.  JOHN'S.  —  EXPEDITION  TO 
FORT  CHAMBLY.  —  CAPTURE  OF  MONTREAL.  —  ARNOLD'S  EXPEDITION  THROUGH 
MAINE  TO  CANADA,  AND  ITS  SUPPOSED  IMPORTANCE.  —  ITS  UNEXPECTED  DIFFI- 
CULTIES. —  OPERATIONS  BEFORE  QUEBEC.  —  DEFEAT  AND  DEATH  OF  MONTGOM- 
ERY.—  WoOSTER  TAKES  COMMAND. —  THE  FlNAL  FAILURE. 


Citadel  of  Quebec. 


THE  country  now 
known  as  the  State  of 
Vermont  was  at  this 
time  a  wilderness,  just 
beginning  to  be  occupied,  and  was  the  scene  of  intercolonial  strife. 
The  Vermont  "  The  Grants  "  was  the  popular  name  for  a  tract  first  set- 
dispute.  tje(j  fry  enijgrallts  from  New  Hampshire,  who  held  the  title 
to  their  lands  under  grant  of  the  Governor  of  that  State.  But  New 


1775.]  THE   GREEN   MOUNTAIN   BOYS. 

York  claimed  a  prior  right  to  the  territory  as  far  east  as  the  Connect- 
icut River.     In  1749,  the  township  of  Bennington,  the  first  in  the 
territory,  was  granted  under  a  patent  from  Governor  Benning  \Vent- 
worth,  of  New  Hampshire ;  and  although  New  York  remonstrated, 
successive  grants  continued  to  be  made  until  1704,  when  an  appeal 
to  the  Crown  brought  the  decision  that  the  Connecticut  River,  north 
of  the  Massachusetts  line,  was  the  boundary  between  New  York  and 
New  Hampshire.     It  would  have  made  little  difference  to  the  settlers 
in  this  new  country,  who  had  come  not  only  from  New  Hampshire, 
but  from  the  western  districts  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  under 
which  colony  they  held  title  to  their  land,  but  the  New  York  govern- 
ment, under  this  decree  of  the  Crown,  began  to  grant  new  patents 
covering  the  property  already  occupied  and  improved,  and  requiring 
fees  and  other  charges  to  secure  New  York  titles.     The  colonists,  al- 
most without  exception,  resisted  these  claims,  and  a  warm  conflict  fol- 
lowed.    The    colonists   were  without    regular   government ;   condition  of 
they  had  no  town,  for  it  was  not  till  after  1780  that  Ben-  the  countr-v- 
nington  had  even  a  country  store.     There  were  no  wagon-roads,  and 
scarcely  even  foot-paths  through  the  wilderness ;    but    blazed  trees 
marked  the  thin  lines  of  routes  that  were  afterward  to  become  high- 
ways.    At  first  the  action  of  the  New  York  government  was  resisted 
in  the  courts  of  Albany,  and  that  proving  of  no  avail,  the  colonists  in 
the  Grants  formed  a  league  for  mutual  protection,  and  received  the 
officers  of  the  Crown,  who  came  with  writs  of  possession,  in  a  manner 
that  was  termed  rebellious  by  the  authorities,  and  self-defensive  by 
the  mountaineers.    Under  the  name  of  Green  Mountain  Boys, 

.I,,,  i  •«•  ••  i  •  Thp  fireen 

they  held  a  rude  military  organization,  and  resistance  to  the  Mountain 

processes  of  law  was  so  far  formal  and  combined  that  a 

price  was  set  on  the  heads  of  the  leaders,  and  the}7  were  treated  as 

outlaws. 

The  nearest  military  posts  were  Ticonderoga  and   Crown  Point. 
From  the  former,  especially,  officers  of  the  Crown  came  with 
their  demands  to  the  farms  that  lay  scattered  on  the  slopes  of  Ticonde- 
of  the  Green  Mountains,  and  the  fort  was  looked  upon  as 
the  gateway  to  the  Grants  from  New  York.     At  this  time  (1775),  it 
was  falling  out  of  repair,  and  was  garrisoned  by  about  fifty  men,  but 
contained  a  considerable  supply  of  military  stores.     It  held  at  once 
the  outlook  toward  Canada  and  the  nearest  approach  to  the  unruly 
people  of    the  Grants.     To   western    New   England   it  was  the  best 
known  fortified  post,  and  the  one  most  identified  with  the  frontier 
life,  while  in  the  East  it  had  a  wide  fame  through  its  recent  history. 
To  this  point,  therefore,  many  eyes  were  turned  when  the  difficulties 
with  Great  Britain  began  to  reach  open  warfare.     The  Green  Moun- 


432  THE  NORTHERN   CAMPAIGN   OF   1775.      [Cn.u>.  XVII. 

tain  Boys,  by  a  succession  of  individual  encounters,  had  become  ac- 
customed to  the  idea  of  fighting,  and  there  were  no  such  restraints 
upon  them  as  held  back  the  people  of  more  conservative  and  law-abid- 
ing sections.  The  first  tidings  of  war  found  them  eager  to  act  on  the 
offensive,  especially  toward  the  point  which  represented  to  them  the 
only  British  tyranny  they  had  known. 

In  the  winter  of  177o,  John  Brown,  of  Pittsfield,  a  lawyer   and  an 
John  ardent  patriot,  who  was  in  the  counsels  of  the  Boston  com- 

nUsslmAo      mittee,  made  a  journey  through  the  Grants  to  Canada,  to 

discover  the  temper  of  the  Canadians  towards  the  British 
Government,  and  to  secure,  if  possible,  assurances  of  organized  aid 
for  the  other  colonies.  In  his  letter  from  Montreal  to  the  Committee 
of  Correspondence  in  Boston,  —  Adams  and  Warren,  —  dated  March 
29,  177o,  he  informs  them  that  he  has  established  a  channel  of  com- 
munication through  the  New  Hampshire  Grants,  which  may  be 
depended  upon,  and  adds  :  "  One  thing  I  must  mention,  to  be  kept  a 
profound  secret.  The  Fort  at  Ticonderoga  must  be  seized  as  soon  as 
possible,  should  hostilities  be  committed  by  the  King's  troops.  The 
people  on  New  Hampshire  Grants  have  engaged  to  do  this  business, 
and,  in  my  opinion,  they  are  the  most  proper  persons  for  this  job." 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  Massachusetts  Committee  took,  at  the 
time,  any  steps  to  accomplish  this  object.  But  when  the  news  of  Lex- 
ington was  spread  abroad,  both  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  were 

alive   with  volunteers  hurrying  to  the  camp  at  Cambridge, 

Kffect  of  the         ,   .,        ,    ,  ^         J  .  ,  _..  5 

Battle  of       while  delegates  to  the  Congress,  about  to  assemble  at  Plnla- 

Lexingtou.         IT,.  .  i  ,1  •,    •  •    , 

delphia,  were  passing  through  the  country,  consulting  with 
patriots  on  the  road.  In  Connecticut  and  western  Massachusetts,  the 
first  thought  was  at  once  of  Ticonderoga  ;  its  stores  were  coveted,  and 
its  undefended  condition  was  known. 

Colonel  Parsons,  of  Connecticut,  wa,s  on  his  way  from  Oxford  to 
Hartford,  when  he  fell  in  with  Captain  Benedict  Arnold,  who  was 
harrying  from  New  Haven  over  the  same  road  to  Watertown.  Capr 
tain  Arnold's  intention  was  to  obtain  a  commission  from  the  Provin- 
cial Congress  at  Watertown,  that  he  might  raise  a  company  for  the 
capture  of  Ticonderoga.  Parsons  reached  Hartford  on  the  morning  of 
the  27th  of  April,  immediatelv  consulted  with  five  other 

Action  of  .         .  "  .,,... 

parsons  ana    gentlemen,  communicating  to  them  Arnolds  information,  and 

Arnold. 

proposed  that  thev  should  at  once  take  secret  measures  for  an 
expedition  against  the  fort.  Procuring  £300  from  the  treasury  on 
their  own  responsibility,  they  sent  off  two  men,  —  Romans,  who  had 
been  an  engineer  in  the  British  service,  and  Noah  Phelps,  of  Simsbury, 
on  their  way  to  the  Grants,  apparently,  for  no  positive  information 
exists  on  this  point, —  with  instructions  to  put  means  in  the  hands  of 


1775.J  THK   EXPEDITION   A(,AL\sT   TICOXDEROGA. 

the  Given  Mountain  Boys  to  carry  out  their  plans.1     On  Friday,  the 
28th,  Captain  Edward  Mott,  arriving  in   Hartford,  saw  Lellingwell, 
one  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  engaged  with  Parsons.     In  answer  t<> 
inquiries  respecting  affairs  at   Boston,  he  said  that  the  great  lack  of 
military  stores  could   be  best  remedied  by  a  sudden  attack  DeHi(?n!lon 
upon  Ticonderoga.     Leflingwell,  consulting  with  Parsons  and 
Silas  Deane,  determined   that  Mott  should  take  live  or  six   men  with 
him,  overtake  Romans  and  Phelps,  and  act  in  concert  with  them  ;  his 
instructions  being  to  proceed  at  once  to  the  Grants,  and  there  enlist 
men  for  the  expedition. 

Mott  overtook  Romans  and  Phelps  at  Salisbury  on  the  o«hh.  and 
the  party,  consisting  now  of  sixteen  men,  held  on  together  northward. 
At  Sheffield  they  sent  two  men,  Halsey  and  Stephens,  to  Albany,  to 
discover  the  temper  of  the  people  there,  and  proceeded  to  Pittsh'eld, 
which  they  reached  on  the  first  day  of  May.  Here  they  lodgt-d  at 
Colonel  Easton's,  and  fell  in  with  John  Brown.  Their  instructions 
had  been  to  keep  their  own  counsel,  and  not  to  enlist  men  until  they 
reached  the  Grants  ;  but  Brown,  who  knew  the  country  well,  and 
was  already  a  prominent  patriot,  at  once  won  their  confidence,  and, 
with  Easton,  strenuously  advised  them  to  raise  a  portion  of  their 
forces  in  the  more  closely-settled  country  in  which  they  then  were. 
Both  Easton  and  Brown  joined  them,  and  the  former  assisted  Mott 
in  enlisting  men  in  Williamstown  and  Jericho,  now  Hancock.  At 
Bennington  there  was  a  rendezvous,  and  two  men — Hickok  and 
Phelps  —  made  an  excursion  to  Ticonderoga  to  get  exact  informa- 
tion of  the  condition  of  the  fort.  Phelps,  disguising  himself,  en- 
tered the  fort  as  a  countryman  who  desired  to  be  shaved,  and,  while 
hunting  for  the  barber,  asked  questions  and  kept  his  eyes  open,  piny- 
ing  the  part  of  an  ignorant  rustic.  Men  were  sent  out  on  all  the 
roads  leading  to  the  lake,  to  intercept  passers  and  prevent  knowledge 
of  the  movement  reaching  the  fort,  and  the  whole  company  was  in- 
structed to  meet  at  Castleton  for  a  final  rendezvous.  Here 
Allen,  with  his  Green  Mountain  Boys,  was  ready  for  the  * 
attack,  and  the  command  of  the  principal  body  of  troops  was  given 
to  him.  On  the  8th  of  May  the  final  plans  were  laid.  Allen,  with 
one  hundred  and  forty  men,  was  to  go  to  the  lake  by  way  of  Shore- 

1  Romans  and  PhelpVs  expedition  became  at  once  merged  in  Mott'*.  whose  course  is 
clearly  laid  down;  but  in  Bernard  Romans'*  account  with  the  Colony  of  ronnccticut  for 
moneys  expended  in  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga,  there  is  this  itnn  :  "  Paid  llnmut  A/lm  >/<,- 
iiiff  e.r/,ress  after  Ethan  Allen,  120  milts,  .£2.  16s."  (Her.  PnfHrn.  vol.  iii.  p.  :>»;.)  Heman 
Allen  was  a  brother  of  Ethan,  living  in  Salisbury,  Conn.,  and  Ethan's  acknowledged  lead- 
ership of  the  Green  Mountain  Boys  indicates  that  Romans's  first  business  was  to  send  with 
despatch  to  the  leader  of  the  forces  that  were  relied  upon  to  take  Ticonderoy;a.  Some- 
thing, moreover,  of  the  nature  of  these  first  orders  may  be  inferred  from  the  s 
orders  given  to  Molt. 

VOL.  in.  -28 


434  THE   NORTHERN   CAMPAIGN    OF    177.J.      [CHAP.  XVII. 

ham,  opposite  Ticonderoga.  Thirty  men,  under  Captain  Herrick, 
were  to  advance  to  Skenesborough  and  capture  Major  Skene  and  his 
party,  and  then  drop  down  the  lake  to  join  Allen,  carrying  boats  from 
Skenesborough  to  assist  in  transporting  the  troops. 

Allen  had  gone  forward  to  Shoreham  on  the  8th,  and  the  party 

under  orders   for   Skenesborough  was   in    readiness,  when  suddenly 

an  officer  appeared  through  the  woods,  attended  bv  a  ser- 

Arnold  over-  '  .  •  *  * 

vant,  and  hurrying  to  the  camp.     It  was  Benedict  Arnold, 

•,•/-<         i      •  i  tir 

who  had  remained  in  Cambridge  and  U  atertown  only  long 
enough  to  lay  his  plans  before  the  Committee  and  to  receive  a  com- 
mission as  "  colonel  and  commander-iu  chief  over  a  body  of  men  not 
exceeding  four  hundred,"  to  be  enlisted  for  the  reduction  of  Ticonder- 
oga.  He  had  set  out  at  once  for  western  Massachusetts  to  raise  men 
for  his  command,  and  there  learning  that  a  party  from  Connecticut 
had  just  been  over  the  same  ground,  he  left  a  few  officers  to  enlist 
troops,  and  made  all  haste  to  Castleton.  Presenting  himself  before 

Mott  and  Easton,  he  announced  the  action  of  the  Massachu- 

And  claims 

the  com-       setts  Committee,  and  asserted  his  right  to  command  the  forces. 

maud. 

They  showed  him  their  plans  and  took  him  into  their  counsels, 
but  he  declared  they  had  no  proper  orders,  and  insisted  upon  his  own 
superior  rank  and  commission.  The  movement  on  their  part  was  in- 
deed voluntary,  appointed  by  a  self-elected  committee  in  Connecticut, 
and  associated  with  an  outlaw  military  organization.  Arnold's  claim 
was  strong,  if  the  Massachusetts  Committee  had  legal  authority,  with 
the  right  to  punish  for  contumacy  ;  but  then  Mott  and  Easton  had  the 
men  whom  they  had  engaged,  and  had  promised  they  should  be  com- 
manded by  their  own  officers.  The}'  refused  to  surrender  the  com- 
mand to  Arnold.  He  was  not  to  be  put  down,  but  the  next  morning 
set  off  to  overtake  and  supersede  Allen. 

He  came  up  with  Allen  apparently  some  time  before  nightfall  of 
the  same  day,  when  the  advance  party  was  at  Hand's  Cove,  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  the  lake,  preparing  to  cross.  Here  he  found  himself 
in  the  midst  of  men  making  ready  for  action.  With  them  he  took 
part  in  the  crossing  of  the  lake,  which,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  pro- 
curing boats,  was  not  wholly  effected  when  day  broke  on  the  morning 
of  the  10th  of  May.  Allen  was  impatient  of  delay,  and  fearful  lest 
if  they  waited  for  the  entire  body  to  cross  they  should  lose  the  golden 
opportunity  of  surprising  the  fort,  he  addressed  his  men,  eighty-three 
in  number,  telling  them  of  the  hazard  of  the  enterprise,  and  calling  for 
volunteers  to  follow  him  in  an  immediate  attack.  Not  one  of  the  men 
drew  back.  A  lad  living  near  by,  familiar  with  the  approaches,  was 
their  guide,  and  Allen  gave  the  word  to  advance.  Arnold  again 
stepped  forward  and  claimed  the  command.  He  was  a  reckless,  daring 


1775.]  ETHAN   ALLEN   CAPTURES   TICONDEROGA.  435 

man,  and  the  adventure  exactly  suited  his  nature,  but  it  was  an  adven- 
ture where  he  must  lead  and  not  follow.  Allen,  having  his  own  men 
behind  him,  was  no  less  courageous  and  was  naturally  enraged  at  this 
interference.  He  was  for  putting  Arnold  under  guard ;  but  one  of  his 
friends,  seeing  the  peril  of  the  enterprise,  if  the  dispute  continued, 
proposed  that  the  two  men  should  march  side  by  side.  The  compro- 
mise was  accepted,  and  the  column  advanced  quickly  to  the  wicket-gate. 
A  sentry  posted  there  snapped  his  fusee,  but  it  missed  fire,  Surpri«>of 
and  as  Allen  rushed  upon  him,  he  retreated  with  a  shout  thefort- 
through  the  covered  way  within  the  fort.  The  assailing  party  fol- 
lowed at  his  heels,  Allen  and  Arnold  vying  in  the  race  for  leadership. 
The  fort  was  surprised,  and  the  victory  was  already  won  without  a 
blow,  as  the  Green  Mountain  Boys  set  up  a  shout  on  the  parade  facing 
the  barracks. 

It  was  so  early  that  the  garrison  was  still  asleep.  Allen  forced  one 
of  the  sentries  to  show  him  the  commanding  officer's  quarters,  and 
standing  at  the  entrance  he  called  on  Captain  Delaplace  to  come  forth 
and  surrender  his  garrison.  The  Captain  sprang  out  of  bed,  and,  half 
dressed,  made  his  appearance  at  the  door:  "By  what  authority?" 
he  said.  "  In  the  name  of  the  great  Jehovah  and  the  Continental 
Congress !  "  1  was  Allen's  answer.  Delaplace,  seeing  the  uncouth 
figure  before  him,  was  ready  to  dispute  the  commission  ;  but  Allen, 
with  his  sword,  was  an  unequal  disputant.  The  commander  yielded, 
and  ordered  his  men  to  be  paraded  without  arms.  The  surrender 
threw  into  the  hands  of  the  Green  Mountain  Boys  one  captain,  one 
lieutenant,  and  forty-eight  subalterns  and  privates,  exclusive  of  women 
and  children,  all  of  whom  were  sent  to  Hartford.  The  capture  of 
stores  and  military  material  included  a  hundred  and  twenty  pieces  of 
cannon.2  The  first  surrender  of  the  British  was  on  the  dav  of  meet- 

*/ 

ing  of  the  second  Continental  Congress. 

While  these  events  were  occurring  in  the  fort,  Colonel  Setb  Warner 

1  This  swaggering  demand  rests  upon  Allen's  own   narrative,  and  has  been  called  in 
question  by  those  who,  looking   closely,  perceive  that  Allen  was  a  disteliever  in  Jehovah 
as  having  anything  to  do  with  American  affairs,  and  that  the  Congress,  though  called, 
had  not  actually  assembled.     It  is  quite  possible  that  Allen  has  glorified  himself  some- 
what ;  but  the  phrase  was  possible   to  him,  for,  though  a  vain,  he  was  a  genuinely  brave 
man. 

2  The  authorities  for  the  movement  against  Ticonderoga  are  chiefly  to  be  found  in  Cap- 
tain Mott's  Journal,  with  illustrative  documents,  published  in  Conn.  Hitt.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  i., 
pp.  163-188,  Ethan  Allen's  narrative  of  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga,  and  the  correspond- 
ence and  newspaper  reports  collected  in  the  appendix  to  Hon.  L.  E.  Chittenden's  address 
before  the  Vermont  Historical  Society,  October  2,  1872,  published  by  the  society.     See, 
also,  Governor  Hiland  Hall's  paper,  read  before  the  same  society,  October  19,  1869,  and 
other  contributions  to  the  controversy  by  B.  F.  De  Costa  in  The  Galaxy  magazine  for  De- 
cember, 1868,  Prof.  George  W.  Benedict,  in  the  Burlinyton  Free  Press,  and  J.  Hammond 
Trumbull,  in  the  Hartford  Courant. 


436 


THE   NORTHERN   CAMPAIGN   OF    1775.      [CHAP.  XVII. 


of 


and 


was  bringing  the  rear  guard  across  the  lake,  and  was  immediately  de- 
spatched  with  about  one  hundred  men  to  take  possession  of 
^l'own  Point,  which  was  garrisoned  only  by  a  sergeant  and 
twelve  men.     The  capture  was  effected  without  difficulty, 
a  hundred  cannon   were   secured.     The   party  sent    to  Skenes- 

bo  rough  sm%- 
prised  Major 
Skene,  and 
brought  away 
also  a  schoon- 
er and  several 
batteaux  to 
Ticonderoga. 


Allen  capturing  Delaplace. 


An  armed   force  was   now   in  possession    of   these   two  strongholds, 
with  considerable  material  of  war  and  transports.     The  quarrel  for 


1770.]  ARNOLD    AND   ALLEN    ON    LAKE    CIIAMPLAIN.  437 

command  was  at  once  i-enewed  by  Arnold.  He  wrote  letters  stating 
his  grievances  to  tlie  Massachusetts  committee  ;  but  Allen  was  the 
accepted  leader  of  the  men,  and  Massachusetts,  upon  an  understand- 
ing of  the  situation,  complimented  Arnold,  but  referred  him  for  orders 
to  Connecticut,  since  that  colony  had  actually  planned  the  expedition. 
Connecticut  was  in  no  mind  to  prefer  Arnold  to  Allen. 

Meanwhile,  the  operations  went  on,  and  Arnold  and  Allen  carried 
on  a  species  of  off-hand  f  reebooting  together,  for  Arnold's  Mjnor  oper. 
audacity,  and  a  knowledge  in  certain  directions  superior  to  atlou8- 
Allen's,  made  him  a  useful  ally.  There  was  a  sloop-of-war  lying  at 
St.  John's,  and  it  was  proposed  to  take  the  schooner  and  batteaux 
already  captured,  get  possession  of  the  sloop,  and  make  a  descent 
upon  the  garrison.  This  done.  Lake  Champlain  would  be  entirely 
in  the  hands  of  the  patriots.  Arnold,  as  the  better  seaman,  was 
placed  in  charge  of  the  schooner,  while  Allen  followed  with  the  bat- 
teaux. On  the  evening  of  the  17th  of  May,  Arnold,  being  within 
thirty  miles  of  St.  John's,  and  becalmed,  took  to  the  batteaux,  reached 
the  sloop  in  the  night,  surprised  it,  captured  a  few  men,  and  hastened 
back  to  Ticonderoga,  without  possessing  himself  of  the  place,  since  he 
learned  that  reenforcements  were  on  the  way  from  Montreal.  On  his 
return,  he  met  Allen  a  little  below,  who  undertook  to  form  an  ambus- 
cade and  intercept  the  reenforcements ;  but  his  men  were  fatigued, 
and  when  in  the  morning  they  were  attacked  by  a  superior  force,  they 
retreated  to  the  batteaux  and  returned  to  Ticonderoga  with  a  trifling 
loss  in  prisoners. 

Allen  urged  vehemently  the  immediate  use  of  Lake  Champlain  as 
a  basis  of  operations  against  Canada;  but  it  was  a  month   Timidity0f 
before  the  importance  of  the  position  was  clearly  seen,  and  ^"S"*8- 
meanwhile   the   Continental   Congress,  fearful  lest  these  operations 
should  bring  them  into  difficulty,  were  half  disposed  to  avoid  respon- 
sibility, and  required  a  complete  inventory  of  the  captured  stores  to 
be  taken,  against  a  possible  restoration  of  them  to  Great  Britain  in 
event  of  an  adjustment  of  the  differences.     Arnold,  unable  to  accept  a 
second  place  in  any  command,  took  up  his  quarters  at  Crown  Point, 
where  he  was  left  to  himself  by  Allen  and  Easton.     When  a  commit- 
tee arrived  from  Massachusetts  to  settle  the  disputes  which   Arnol(ril 
had  arisen,  he  instigated  his  few  followers  to  mutiny,  and   P*1*'*16110*- 
threatened  a  withdrawal  of  the  vessels  which  he  controlled  to  St. 
John's,  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  them  and  his  command  to  the  en- 
emy, if  he  could  not  carry  out  his  own  plans.     Colonel  Hinman,  with 
a  thousand  men,  had  been  appointed  by  Connecticut  to  take  posses- 
sion of  Ticonderoga,  and  the  difficulty  was  finally  settled  by  the  res- 
ignation of  Arnold  on  June  24. 


438  THE  NORTHERN  CAMPAIGN   OF   1775.      [CHAP.  XVII. 

When  it  became  known  to  Congress  that  General  Carleton,  Gov- 
ernor of  Canada,  was  fortifying  St.  John's,  building  boats,  and  pre- 
The  inva-  paring  to  re-occupy  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga,  a  reso- 
STwo.**"  lution  was  adopted  (June  27)  instructing  General  Schuyler 
posed.  £0  repajr  without  delay  to  Ticonderoga,  and  "  if  lie  found  it 
practicable,  and  it  would  not  be  disagreeable  to  the  Canadians,  imme- 
diately to  take  possession  of  St.  John's  and  Montreal,  and  pursue 
any  other  measures  in  Canada  which  might  have  a  tendency  to 
promote  the  peace  and  security  of  these  colonies."  The  attitude  of 
the  Canadians  towards  the  belligerents  was  one  of  great  uncer- 
tainty. Governor  Carleton  thought  the  gentlemen,  the  clergy,  and 
most  of  the  bourgeois  faithful  to  the  King  ;  but  he  was  scarcely  able 
to  raise  a  company  of  militia,  although  large  bounties  of  land  were 
offered  to  volunteers.  Schuyler,  on  his  part,  found  it  hard  to  secure 
any  trustworthy  intelligence  from  Montreal  and  Quebec.  There  were 
sympathizers  with  the  American  party  in  each  place,  and  a  com- 
mittee of  correspondence  at  Montreal ;  but  exact  information  as  to 
the  active  cooperation  which  might  be  expected  from  the  people  was 
not  easily  to  be  had.  The  general  impression  was,  that  the  common 
people  would  at  least  maintain  a  neutrality,  and,  in  event  of  the 
success  of  the  Americans,  would  range  themselves  on  their  side. 
The  attitude  of  the  Indian  tribes  gave  still  greater  anxiety.  The 
powerful  influence  exerted  by  Sir  William  Johnson  over  the  New 
York  Indians  had,  after  his  death  (1774),  passed  into  the  hands  of 
The  Indian  ^s  son-in-law  and  nephew,  Guy  Johnson,  now  Indian  Agent, 
element.  ail(j  ^is  8O1[l^  gjr  John  Johnson,  both  of  whom  were  bitter 
Tories.  At  first  covertly,  afterward  openly,  they  estranged  the  In- 
dians of  the  Mohawk  Valley  from  the  Americans,  and  brought  about 
an  active  alliance  with  the  authorities  in  Canada.  Schuyler  sent 
Ethan  Allen  and  Major  John  Brown  into  the  country  lying  be- 
tween Lake  Champlain  and  Montreal,  to  discover  the  true  condition 
of  affairs  there,  and  if  possible  to  persuade  the  Canadians  and  the  In- 
dians of  that  country  to  ally  themselves  with  the  Americans. 

Meanwhile  volunteers  came  in  slowly,  and  the  absence  of  any  con- 
trolling authority  not  only  caused  a  conflict  between  the  Provincial 
and  Continental  Congresses,  but  rendered  the  soldiers  insubordinate  and 
quarrelsome.  Supplies  and  ammunition  came  slowly  and  irregularly, 
so  that  it  was  the  middle  of  August  before  Schuyler  was  in  any  de- 
gree prepared  to  move  his  troops.  At  this  time  Major  Brown  re- 
turned and  reported  that  there  were  seven  hundred  regular  troops  in 
Canada,  three  hundred  of  whom  were  at  St.  John's,  and  that  Sir  John 
Johnson  was  at  Montreal  with  three  hundred  Tories  and  some  Indians, 
endeavoring  to  persuade  the  Caughnawagas  to  take  up  the  hatchet 


1775.] 


SCHUYLER   AND   RICHARD   MONTGOMERY. 


439 


for  the  King.     In  a  few  days  came  intelligence  that  Carleton  was 
about  to  move  up  the  lake  to  attack  Ticonderoga. 

At  length  the  expedition  of  about  twelve  hundred  men,  which  had 
waited  for  a  favorable  wind,  sailed   down   the   lake.     The 

Expedition 

whole  force  fell  short  of  two  thousand.     Schuyler's  chief  sub-  down  ijike 

Chauiplain 

ordinate  officer  was  General  Richard  Montgomery,  an  Irish- 
man, who  had   been  in  the  British  service,  and  was  with  Amherst  in 
the  campaign  of  1759  when   Wolfe   captured  Quebec,   but  had  sub- 
sequently settled  in  New  York  and  married  into  the  Livingston  family. 
He  was  a  tall,  handsome,  spirited  man,  who  drew  to  himself 
the   admiration    of   the  soldiers    and    the  confidence  of   his  Montgom- 

cry. 

fellow-officers.     Upon    him  the    command    shortly  fell ;    for 
Schuyler,  disabled    by    illness,  was    compelled    to    return    to    Ticon- 
deroga  by  the  middle   of   Sep- 
tember, before,  any  very  positive 
advance  had  been  made. 

At  the  Isle  aux  No'ix  a  boom 
was  thrown  across  the  channel 
to  prevent  the  passage  of  the 
enemy's  sloop  -  of  -  war,  and  an 
armed  camp  was  formed.  One 
or  two  skirmishes  occurred,  in 
which  the  insubordination  and 
cowardice  of  the  soldiers  almost 
completely  disheartened  Mont- 
gomery. "  I  am,"  he  writes  to 
his  wife,  "  so  exceedingly  out  of 
spirits  and  so  chagrined  with 
the  behavior  of  the  troops,  that 
I  most  heartily  repent  having 
undertaken  to  lead  them  .... 
Such  a  set  of  pusillanimous 
wretches  never  were  collected. 
Could  I,  with  decency,  leave  the  army  in  its  present  situation,  I 

would  not  serve  an  hour  longer We  were  so  unfortunate  as  to 

have  some  Canadians  witnesses  of  our  disgrace.  What  they  will  think 
of  the  brave  Bostonians,  I  know  not."  l  Montgomery  proceeded  to 
invest  St.  John's,  while  Schuyler,  remaining  at  Albany,  used  his 
utmost  exertions  to  forward  men  and  supplies. 

The  siege,  which  lasted  nearly  two  months,  was  a  severe  test  of  the 
raw,  undisciplined  troops.     Sickness  prevailed,  and  homesickness  was 

1  Biographical  Notes  concerning  General  Richard  Monti/ornery,  tnytthtr  with  hitlttrto  un- 
published Letters.  By  L.  L.  H.  1876.  p.  11.  "  Bostouiiiiis  "  was  a  term  frequently  ap- 
plied to  the  American  forces. 


Richard    Montgomery. 


440  THE   NORTHERN  CAMPAIGN   OF   1775.      [CHAP.  XVII. 

almost  as  potent,  while  the  insubordination  was  so  great  that  it  was 
st.     even  a  matter  of  policy  at  times  to  submit  important  move- 


John's.  ments  to  the  vote  of  the  rank  and  file.  The  independence 
and  self-assertion  of  the  soldiers  showed  itself  in  other  ways.  Ethan 
Allen,  on  his  way  to  Montgomery's  camp,  with  about  eighty  Canadi- 
ans whom  he  had  enlisted,  fell  in  with  Major  Brown  at  the  head  of 
two  hundred  Americans  and  Canadians.  Brown,  who  was  almost  as 
much  of  a  free  lance  as  Allen,  proposed  that  they  should  make  a 
sudden  attack  with  their  united  party  on  Montreal,  where  he  declared 
there  were  not  more  than  thirty  men  in  garrison,  and  where  the 
townspeople  were  largely  American  in  their  sympathies.  Allen 
eagerly  accepted  the  proposition.  The  plan  was,  to  cross  the  St. 
Lawrence  with  their  respective  forces  above  and  below  the 

Abortive  at-  .     .  111  •  .1 

tack  on  city  in  tne  night,  and  at  daybreak,  upon  a  given  signal,  to 
make  a  simultaneous  attack.  The  night  was  blustering,  and 
the  passage  of  the  river  dangerous  and  tedious;  but  by  early  dawn  all 
of  Allen's  band  stood  upon  the  shore,  waiting  anxiously  for  the  huz- 
zas from  Brown's  party.  They  waited  in  vain.  Brown  had  failed 
to  keep  his  agreement,  and  Allen's  forces,  too  weak  to  effect  the  sur- 
prise of  the  city  alone,  were  set  upon  by  the  garrison,  and,  after  a 
brave  defence,  in  which  some  forty  of  the  Americans  fell,  were  over- 
powered and  made  prisoners.  Allen  was  among  them,  and  was  sent  to 
England. 

This  affair  was  not  approved  by  Montgomery,  though  not  unknown 
to  him  ;  but  he  was  still  powerless  to  exercise  that  complete  control 
over  his  ill-assorted  troops  which  was  essential  to  military  discipline 
and  success. 

But  an  expedition  against  the  fort  at  Chambly  was  more  success- 
ful. The  fort  was  taken  with  the  aid  of  some  of  the  inhab- 

Kxpedition        .  p      i         i  •        •  i   •        i  p  •• 

to  Fort          itants  of  the  district,  and  its  large  stores  or  ammunition  and 

Chambly.  .    .  .  .    ,        .  ,  .  , 

provisions  were  of  material  aid  to  the  army  encamped  un- 
der the  walls  of  St.  John's.  Carleton  made  an  effort  to  relieve  the 
garrison  there,  but  was  repulsed,  and  at  length,  on  the  2d  of  Novem- 
ber, Major  Preston,  in  command  at  St.  John's,  hearing  of  Carleton's 
Surrender  of  impulse,  and  seeing  no  chance  of  relief,  surrendered  the  fort 
st.  Johns.  an(j  je(j  ouj.  ],jg  troOpSi  already  in  peril  of  starvation.  Nearly 
five  hundred  regular  troops,  the  greater  part  of  the  British  army  in 
Canada,  thus  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Americans. 

The  road  was  now  open  to  Montreal,  and  Montgomery,  advancing  to 
Sorel,  ordered  a  detachment  to  cross  the  St.  Lawrence.  He 
posted  his  forces  to  prevent  any  communication  between 


Montreal  and   Quebec,  and  established  batteries  upon  both 
banks  ot  the  river.    Carleton  was  in  the  town,  but  he  was  surrounded 


1775.] 


ARNOLD'S    EXPEDITION   THROUGH   MAINE. 


441 


by  a  timid  and  half-hearted  populace,  who  were  chiefly  fearful  lest 
their  property  should  be  destroyed.  He  left  them  to  their  fate,  tak- 
ing the  little  garrison  with  him,  and  on  the  13th  of  November  Mont- 
gomery marched  into  the  town. 

While  these  events  were  in  progress,  a  supporting  column  had  set 
out    for    Canada    by  another    route,  almost    simultaneously   Expedi(ion 
with  Montgomery's  departure   from  Ticonderoga,  and  had   through1* 
fought  its  way  against  natural  obstacles  more  serious  than   Maine 
the  forts  which  lay  in  Montgomery's  path.    While  Schuyler  was  per- 
fecting his  plans  for  the  northern 
campaign,  he  heard  rumors  that  a 
portion  of  the  British  fleet  had  left 
Boston  for  the  St.  Lawrence.     He 
wrote  to  General  Washington  for 
information,  and  was  assured  that 
no  such  movement  had  taken  place. 
Whether  or  not  Schuyler's  letter 
started    the   project  in   Washing- 
ton's   mind,    Washington,  wrote 
again,  five  days  after  the  assurance 
had  been  given,  outlining  an  expe- 
dition which  was  to  ascend  the 
Kennebec  River,   cross  the  high- 
lands that  divide  it  from  the  Chau- 
die"re,  and  descend  that  stream  to 
where  it  enters  the  St.  Lawrence, 
nearly  opposite  Quebec.     Such  a 
movement   he    conceived    would 
have  one  of  two   results.     Either 
it  would  recall  Carleton  from  the 
defence  of  Montreal,  and  so  facilitate  Schuyler's  plans,  or  it  would 
find  Quebec  unprepared,  and   the  division,  uniting  with   Schuyler's 
forces,  could  at  once  take  that  place  and  complete  the  conquest  of 
Canada.     The  design  was  in  all  probability  suggested  to  Washington 
by  Benedict  Arnold,  into  whose  hands  had  fallen  the  journal  of  Colonel 
Montresor,  an  officer  of  engineers  in  the  British  service,  who,  fifteen 
years  earlier,  had  conducted  an  exploring  expedition  from  Quebec  into 
the  interior  of  Maine,  covering  a  portion  of  the  route.     At  any  rate, 
Arnold  was  selected  to  take  command  of  a  detachment  num-  Arnold  in 
bering  about  1,100  men,  drawn  from  the  army  about  Boston.  commaml- 
From  the  nature  of  the  country  they  were  to  traverse,  it  was  impos- 
sible to  carry  field-pieces,  but  it  was  hoped  that  the  two  rivers  would 
afford  a  water  highway  most  of  the  distance  for  the  transportation  of 


Map  of  Arnold's  Route 


442  THE  NORTHERN   CAMPAIGN   OF   1775.       [CHAP.  XVII. 

men  and  provisions.  The  order  to  draft  the  men  was  given  on  the 
1st  of  September,  and  a  week  later  the  troops  set  out  across  the 
country  to  Newburyport,  where  they  were  to  be  transported  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Kennebec.  On  the  14th,  Washington  addressed  a  letter 
Hisinstruc-  to  Arnold,  with  specific  instructions,  in  which  he  enforced 
the  necessity  of  so  conducting  the  expedition  as  to  respect 
religiously  the  neutrality  of  the  Canadians,  and  to  win  them  if  possible 
to  the  American  cause.  Property  was  to  be  held  sacred  ;  religious 
scruples  were  to  be  tenderly  considered  ;  and  death  was  to  be  the 
penalty  for  any  injury  to  person  or  property  of  Canadian  or  Indian. 
A  handbill,  written  by  Washington,  was  printed  for  distribution 
amongst  the  Canadians,  setting  forth  the  friendliness  felt  by  the 
Americans  for  them,  and  declaring  that  the  armies  sent  into  the 
country  were  to  protect,  not  to  injure  them.  They  were  earnestly 
solicited  to  join  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  to  take  advantage  of  the 
presence  of  the  armies  on  their  soil  to  rise  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
British. 

From  the  letters  and  papers  of  the  day  it  is  evident  that  gi'eat  im- 
portance  was  attached  to  the  movements  in  Canada.  That 
country  had  been  the  scene  of  conflict  within  the  memory 
movement,  o£  j.jie  men  who  Wcrr  now  throwing  off  the  authority  which 
then  they  fought  to  extend.  The  splendid  river  St.  Lawrence,  with 
the  rocky  fortress  of  Quebec,  and  the  fertile  lands  that  stretched  to 
Montreal,  appealed  to  their  imagination,  and  the  frontiersmen  who 
had  penetrated  the  northern  forests  knew  that  no  natural  boun- 
dary separated  them  from  the  vast  country  beyond.  The  fortified 
places  which  once  had  been  centres  of  French  trade  were  now  threat- 
ening posts  of  the  British  enemy,  and  every  interest  suggested  the 
necessity  of  possessing  them.  Yet  the  people  of  Canada  had  little  in 
common  with  the  colonists,  and  their  prevailing  religion  was  distrust- 
ed and  hated  by  the  Americans.  Great  caution  and  address,  there- 
fore, were  used  in  making  the  invasion  of  Canada  an  act  of  hostility 
only  to  the  British  government,  and  one  of  emancipation  to  her  peo- 
ple. Nor  were  the  chances  of  war  despicable.  There  was  only  one 
weak  battalion  of  British  troops  in  all  Canada,  and  there  was  good 
evidence  that  the  people,  where  they  were  not  openly  sympathetic  and 
ready,  were  at  least  entirely  indifferent  to  the  continuation  of  British 
rule.  Schuyler's  army  was  moving,  and  Arnold's  detachment,  which 
reached  Fort  Western, — the  present  Augusta,  on  the  Kennebec, — 
the  23d  of  September,  was  expected  to  be  twenty  days  making  its 
inarch  of  about  two  hundred  miles.  Indeed,  there  was  some  solicitude 
lest  Arnold's  army,  reaching  Quebec  long  in  advance  of  Schuyler's, 
should  be  in  danger  of  repulse  for  want  of  support. 


1775.] 


UNEXPECTED   DIFFICULTIES. 


443 


It  would  seem  almost  as  if  Arnold's  enthusiastic  and  fiery  temper 

had  got  the  better  of  Washington's 
caution.  Montresor's  expedition 
had  indeed  been  effected  in  three 
weeks,  but  that  was  in  the  middle 
of  summer,  and  consisted  An<ntSdiffl- 
of  only  a  handful  of  men,  """"'^ 
lightly  equipped.  To  move  a  col- 
umn of  eleven  hundred  men  in  the 
short  days  of  autumn,  when  winter 
was  coming  on,  proved  to  be  a  dif- 
ferent matter.  It  was  sixty  days 
before  the  little  army,  reduced  by 


Arnold's   March. 


that  time  about  one  half,  reached  the  St.  Lawrence.     They  left  the 
last  white  family  at  Norridgewock,  on  October  3,  and  were  nearly  a 


444  THE   NORTHERN  CAMPAIGN   OF   1775.      [CHAP.  XVII. 

month  making  their  way  to  the  headwaters  of  the  ChaudieYe.  Their 
batteaux  were  swamped  in  the  rocky,  boiling  river ;  they  sank  to 
their  waists  in  vast  bogs ;  they  were  forced  to  make  wearisome  port- 
ages, and  to  cross  and  rtcross  the  same  ground,  to  carry  their  loads  ; 
they  lost  their  way  :  "  this  was  the  third  day,"  writes  a  surgeon  of 
the  party,  "  we  had  been  in  search  of  the  Chaudidre,  who  were  only 
seven  computed  miles  distant  the  28th.  Nor  were  we  possessed  of 
any  certainty  that  our  course  would  bring  us  either  to  the  lake  or 
river,  not  knowing  the  point  it  lay  from  where  we  started.  However, 
we  came  to  a  resolution  to  continue  it.  In  this  state  of  uncertainty 
we  wandered  through  hideous  swamps  and  mountainous  precipices, 
with  the  conjoint  addition  of  cold,  wet,  and  hunger,  not  to  mention 
our  fatigue,  —  with  the  terrible  apprehension  of  fainting  in  the  des- 
ert."1 Their  provisions  failed  them,  so  that  they  ate  dogs,  candles, 
shaving-soap,  pomatum,  and  lip-salve,  and  boiled  their  moccasons  in 
hopes  of  extracting  some  glutinous  nourishment  from  them.  They 
fought  like  beasts  for  succulent  roots  which  they  discovered  and 
grubbed  from  the  sand  ;  great  numbers  fell  sick  and  were  left  behind ; 
some  perished  by  the  way,  and  Colonel  Enos,  with  the  whole  rear 
division,  amounting  to  a  third  of  the  force,  when  near  the  Canada 
line,  being  instructed  by  Arnold  to  provide  for  the  return  of  the  sick, 
called  a  council  of  his  officers,  in  which  it  was  resolved  to  return 
in  a  body  to  the  coast,  lest  their  provisions  should  utterly  give  out. 
Enos  was  court-martialled  for  his  desertion  of  Arnold,  and  though 
acquitted,  never  regained  his  standing.  Arnold  himself  pushed  for- 
ward, after  reaching  the  Chaudie're,  to  send  back  cattle  and  other  sup- 
plies to  his  famished  followers.  When  the  men  received  them,  they 
fell  upon  them  like  wolves,  and  gorged  themselves  so  that  many  sick- 
ened and  some  died.2 

On  the  4th  of  November  the  straggling  band  reached  the  first  house 
in  Canada.    It  was  a  month  since  they  had  left  the  last  house 

(  M Ji;ii l.'t  •/ 

reached.  jn  ]Viame.  Their  progress  now  was  comparatively  easy,  and 
it  was  perhaps  owing  to  the  exhausted  condition  of  the  men  that  the 
last  thirty  miles  occupied  ten  days.  Yet  that  delay  may  be  regarded 
Quebec  re.  as  causing  the  failure  of  the  expedition.  On  the  5th  of  No- 
eniorced.  vember,  when  Arnold,  with  a  portion  of  his  army,  was  at  St. 
Mary's,  thirty  miles  from  Quebec,  a  vessel  from  Newfoundland  reached 
that  place,  carrying  a  hundred  men,  chiefly  carpenters.  They  found 

1  Senter's  Journal,  p.  21. 

2  The  details  of  this  march,  which  long  left  its  frightful  memory  in  the  minds  of  men, 
are  preserved  in  several  narratives  of  members  of  the  expedition,  chiefly  those  of  John 
Joseph  Heury  (Albany,  1877)  ;  Joseph  Ware,  in  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gen.  Reg.,  April,  1852; 
Isaac  Senter,  Bulletin  of  Penn.  Hist.  Soc.,  1846  ;  Return  J.  Meigs,  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
vol.  ii.,  2d  series  ;  James  Melvin,  Franklin  Club,  Philadelphia. 


1775.]  ARNOLD  BEFORE   QUEBEC.  445 

not  a  single  soldier,  we  are  told,  in  the  city,1  but  immediately  set  to 
work  repairing  the  defences  and  making  platforms  for  the  cannon. 
On  the  12th  Colonel  Maclean  arrived  with  a  hundred  and  seventy 
men,  enough  to  make  a  protracted  defence.  The  next  day  Arnold 
brought  his  forces  to  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river.  It  was 

T    •  i         i  i  •  Arnold  »r- 

intended  that  the  expedition  should  surprise  the  town,  and   rives  before 
Washington  had   urged  Arnold  to  use  great  precaution  to 
prevent  news  being  carried  by  sea  from   the  Kennebec  ;  but  Arnold 
himself  had   unfortunately  given  intelligence  of  his  movements,  by 
a  letter  sent  on  the  13th  of  October  to  General  Schuyler,  which  was 
intrusted  to  an  Indian,  who  proved  faithless.     While  at  St.  Mary's 
Arnold  opened   communication  with  General   Montgomery,  and   the 
junction  of  the  two  armies  now  became  a  matter  of  the  liveliest  con- 
cern. 

On  the  evening  of  the  13th  of  November,  just  as  Montgomery  had 
entered  Montreal,  Arnold  began,  under  cover  of  darkness,  to 
transport  his  troops  across  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  again  at 
daybreak  the  sentinels  on  the  walls  of  Quebec  looked  out 
upon  an  army  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham.  Arnold  had  followed  pre- 
cisely the  path  which  Wolfe  had  taken,  and,  as  Wolfe  had  done,  of- 
fered battle  with  three  fourths  of  his  entire  force,  —  five  hundred  and 
fifty  men.  But  Lieutenant-governor  Cramahd,  in  command,  having 
perhaps  Montcalm's  misfortune  in  mind,  did  not  accept  the  challenge. 
Moreover,  Arnold's  hope  was,  that  the  appearance  of  an  American 
army  would  be  a  signal  for  a  revolt  within  the  city,  and  that  the  ap- 
prehension of  it  would  be  a  check  upon  the  commander  of  the  town. 
The  Americans  shouted  triumphantly,  but  the  walls  of  Quebec  did  not 
fall  flat,  though  some  of  the  people  within  responded.  A  few  harm- 
less shots  were  fired,  and  a  formal  demand  was  made  for  surrender. 
Arnold  had  neither  the  means  to  make  a  breach  in  the  walls,  nor  the 
force  to  storm  them,  and  he  could  only  invest  the  place.  But  his  own 
position  was  perilous.  Carleton  had  escaped  from  Montreal,  and  was 
on  his  way  to  Quebec.  The  garrison  had  been  reenforced,  and  Arnold 
learned  that  he  was  shortly  to  be  attacked.  Accordingly, 

*  ,  °  J       But  retreats. 

he  soon  broke  camp  and  withdrew  to  Point  aux  Trembles  to 

await   Montgomery.      Montgomery  sirrived  on  the  1st  of   December 

and  assumed  command.     On  the  5th  the  army,  now  three  thousand 

men,  with  six  field-pieces  and  five   light  mortars,  encamped   before 

Quebec. 

The  ground  was  frozen  to  the  depth  of  many  feet,  and  buried  deep 
in  snow.    To  construct  earthworks  was  practically  impossible  ;  gabions 
and  fascines,  therefore,  were  set  up  and  filled  with  snow,  over  which 
1  Allen's  account  of  Arnold's  expedition,  in  Maine  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.  403. 


446  THE  NORTHERN  CAMPAIGN   OF   1775.      [CHAP.  XVII. 

water  was  poured  and  an  ice-battery  formed,  glittering  and  formidable 
to  the  eye,  but  in  reality  brittle  and  easily  destroyed.  At  the  first 
cannonading  from  the  walls  it  broke  in  pieces.  Three  weeks  wore  by, 
during  which  Montgomery  begged  for  reinforcements,  but  Schuyler 
was  powerless  to  raise  them  ;  the  men  were  growing  exceedingly  rest- 
less and  mutinous,  and  there  was  no  sign  of  any  weakening  of  the 
town.  At  Christmas  an  immediate  attack  was  decided  upon,  to  take 
place  the  first  stormy  night.  One  column,  led  by  Arnold,  was  to  ad- 
vance by  the  low  ground  between  the  St.  Charles  and  the  Heights  of 
Abraham,  and  penetrate  the  lower  town  at  a  point  where  a  gate 
communicated  with  the  upper  town,  unprotected  by  any  ditch  or 
drawbridge.  Another  column,  led  by  Montgomery,  was  to  advance 
between  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  rocky  heights  of  Cape  Diamond, 
push  into  the  lower  town,  and  take  advantage  there  of  an  easy  com- 
munication with  the  upper  town.  It  was  expected  that  once  in  pos- 
session of  the  lower  town,  the  merchants  within  the  city  would  compel 
Carleton  to  give  up  the  place  to  prevent  further  destruction  of  prop- 
erty. Aaron  Burr,  eager  to  take  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  attack, 
headed  a  forlorn  hope  which  was  to  scale  the  Cape  Diamond  bastion, 
and  he  drilled  his  men  and  prepared  his  ladders  with  great  care. 

The  night  of  the  30th  of  December,  chosen  for  the  assault,  was,  as 
the  assailants  hoped  it  would  be,  dark  and  stormy.  While  Colonel 
Livingston  and  Major  Brown  made  a  feint  on  the  upper  town  to  dis- 
tract the  garrison,  Montgomery  and  Arnold  were  to  advance  upon  the 
points  selected  for  assault.  Montgomery's  column,  taking  the  road 
along  the  river  bank,  made  its  way  over  blocks  of  ice  and  through  the 
heavy  drifts  of  snow,  till  it  reached  the  first  barricades  under  Cape 
Diamond.  These  were  passed  without  difficulty ;  but  beyond  was  a 
block-house,  pierced  for  muskets,  and  defended  by  two  small  field- 
pieces.  The  enemy  had  fled  after  the  first  ineffectual  fire;  but  as 
Montgomery  advanced  at  the  head  of  his  men,  exhorting  them  to  fol- 
low, with  the  words,  "Push  on,  brave  boys,  Quebec  is  ours!"  a  shot 
from  the  block-house  struck  and  killed  him  instantly.  His  aid,  Cap- 
tain Cheeseman,  Captain  M'Pherson,  and  two  privates  were  killed 
by  the  same  discharge ;  the  advance  was  checked,  and  then  fell  back 
in  confusion  and  flight. 

Arnold's  division,  almost  at  the  same  moment,  had  advanced  in 
single  file,  along  a  narrow  path  between  the  precipice  and  the  shore 
of  St.  Charles  Bay,  the  men  covering  their  guns  under  their  coats 
from  the  driving  storm.  The  town  was  now  awake ;  bells  were  ring- 
ing ;  an  uproar  of  confusion  filled  the  air,  from  the  rapid  firing  from 
batteries  and  barricades.  The  darkness  and  the  storm  favored  the 
assailants,  who  pushed  on  rapidly  past  isolated  houses  to  the  Palace 


1775.] 


DEFEAT   AND  DEATH   OF  MONTGOMERY. 


447 


Gate.  At  the  first  barricade  Arnold  was  wounded  and  carried  to  the 
rear.  The  command  devolved  upon  Captain  Daniel  Morgan,  who, 
at  the  head  of  his  Virginia  riflemen,  scaled  the  barricade  with  ladders, 
Morgan  himself  being  the  first  to  mount.  As  his  head  appeared 
above  the  palisades  a  discharge  knocked  him  down,  the  powder  burn- 


on  Quebec. —  Death  of  Montgomery. 

ing  his  face,  one  ball  passing  through  his  hat  and  another  through 
his  hair  at  the  side  of  his  head.  He  mounted  again,  calling  to  his  men 
to  follow,  and  the  barricade  was  carried,  and  the  enemy  driven  to  the 
houses  on  both  sides  of  the  narrow  streets.  In  these  the  fight  con- 
tinued, at  intervals,  for  hours,  and  had  Morgan's  men  been  properly 
seconded,  the  town  might  have  been  taken.  But  no  reinforcements 
came.  The  advance  party  were  cooped  up  between  the  two  barricades, 


448  THE  NORTHERN  CAMPAIGN   OF   1775.      [CHAP.  XVII. 

.  where  they  made  a  desperate  but  unequal  fight,  seeking  in  their  turn 
protection  in  the  houses.  From  the  Palace  Gate  a  sortie  had  been 
made,  and  Captain  Dearborn,  with  a  column  of  two  hundred  men,  had 
been  taken  prisoner.  Morgan  tried  to  cut  his  way  back.  He  had  lost 
probably  not  less  than  sixty  men  —  among  them  Captain  Hendricks 
of  the  Pennsylvania  riflemen,  Humphreys,  Morgan's  first  lieutenant, 
and  Lieutenant  Cooper  of  Connecticut.  The  men  were  discouraged ; 
further  resistance  was  seen  to  be  futile,  and  the  whole  party,  four 
hundred  and  twenty-six  in  number,  surrendered.  The  remainder  of 
Arnold's  party,  who  were  in  the  rear  as  a  reserve,  retreated  to  camp.1 

The  victorious  Englishmen  found  the  body  of  Montgomery  and  gave 
it  a  soldier's  burial  within  the  city.  Forty-two  years  afterwards  it  was 
removed  to  New  York  with  distinguished  honors,  and  placed  beneath 
a  monument  in  front  of  St.  Paul's  Church.  As  the  boat  bearing  it 
passed  slowly  down  the  Hudson,  the  aged  widow  sat  alone  upon  the 
porch  of  her  house  at  Rhinebeck,  watching  the  mournful  pageant.2 

The  command  of  the  wrecked  army  fell  now  upon  Arnold,  who  mus- 
tered his  forces  and  disposed  them  for  a  blockade,  hoping  meanwhile 
that  Schuyler,  to  whom  he  dispatched  a  messenger,  would  reenforce 
the  little  army.  Schuyler  earnestly  besought  Congress  to  send  for- 
ward troops,  and  in  the  course  of  the  winter  about  3,000  were  sent 
to  his  relief.  Carleton  made  no  attempt  to  drive  Arnold  away.  He 
could  not  afford  to  risk  the  chances  of  a  battle,  and  he  knew  that 
when  spring  opened  he  should  receive  help  from  England.  The  Ca- 
nadians continued  their  neutrality,  and  though  a  few  engaged  on 
either  side,  so  that  families  were  divided  against  one  another,  there 
was  a  general  loss  of  confidence  in  the  American  cause.  Congress 

1  Major  general   Sir  James  Carmichael  Smyth,  in   his  Precis  of  the   Wars  in  Canada, 
characterizes  the  enterprise  as  soldier-like,  but  thinks  Montgomery  should  have  reversed 
his  plan,  making  the  real  assaults  upon  the  points  which  were  selected  for  the  fiint,  aud 
false  attacks  only  on  the  lower  town.     "  There  was  no  necessity  upon  the  present  oc- 
casion to  move,  w'itli  narrow  columns,  into  confined  streets  and  lanes,  to  become  masters 
of  the  lower  town  ;  having  subsequently  the  upper  town,  separated  from  the  lower  town 
by  a  line-wall  with  flanks  in  it,  to  acquire.    It  would  surely  have  been  better  policy  to  have 
assaulted  the  upper  town  at  once,  and  to  have  endeavored  to  escalade,  at  the  same  moment, 
several  of    the  bastions In  endeavoring  to  penetrate   by  the  lower  town,  he  re- 
quired to  be  successful  in  two  operariotis.     Had  he  determined  to  assault  the  upper  towu, 
he  would  only  have  had  to  have  escaladcd  a  wall  of  eighteen  feet  high,  and  the  place  was 
his."  — p.  116. 

2  "  At  length,"  she  wrote,  "  they  came  by,  with  all  that  remained  of  a  beloved  husband, 
who  left  me  in  the  bloom  of  manhood,  a  perfect  being.     Alas !  how  did  he  return  ?     How- 
ever gratifying  to  my  heart,  yet  to  my  feelings  every  pang  I  felt  was  renewed.     The  pomp 
with  which  it  was  conducted  added  to  my  woe  ;  when  the  steamboat  passed  with  slow  and 
solemn  movement,  stopping  l>efore  my  house,  the  troops  under  arms,  the  dead  march  from 
the  muffled  drum,  the  mournful  music,  the  splendid  coffin  canopied  with  crape  and  crowned 
with  plumes,  you  may  conceive  my  anguish.     I  cannot  describe  it"  —  Bioyrnjjhicijl  Notes 
concerning  General  Richard  Montgomery,  p.  129. 


1775.]  GENERAL   WOOSTER  IN  COMMAND.  449 

was  anxious  to  attach  the  provinces,  and  still  believed  it  possible  to 
do  politically  what  had  not  yet  been  done  by  the  sword.  Additional 
proclamations  were  sent  forward,  and  a  commission  consisting  of 
Franklin,  Chase,  and  Carroll,  to  which  was  added  Carroll's  brother,  a 
Jesuit  priest,  afterward  Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  was  appointed  to 
visit  Canada  and  organize  if  possible  a  political  union.  Scarcely  had 
they  reached  Montreal  when  news  was  brought  of  the  arrival  of  a 
British  fleet  at  Quebec,  and  Franklin  hastened  back  to  Philadelphia, 
at  the  instance  of  his  colleagues,  to  urge  the  imperative  need  of  im- 
mediate reinforcements. 

In  March  Arnold  was  displaced  by  General  Wooster,  who  arrived 
with  fresh  troops.  He  remained  in  command  about  two  months,  but 
could  make,  though  he  attempted  it,  no  impression  upon  the  fortifica- 
tions of  Quebec.  Of  his  courage  and  high  character  there  was  no 
question,  but  he  wanted  military  experience.  He  was,  perhaps,  too 
old  to  learn,  and  his  conduct  of  affairs  had  aroused  much  dissatisfaction 
and  criticism.  He  was  accused  of  partiality  to  the  troops  from  his 
own  State  —  Connecticut  —  but  so  bitter  were  sectional  jealousies, 
both  in  Congress  and  in  the  army,  that  such  an  accusation  was  always 
sure  to  be  made  wherever  enmity  existed,  and  was  certain  to  be  ac- 
cepted, no  matter  how  unfounded.  The  difficulties,  moreover,  with 
which  Wooster  had  to  contend,  his  successors  found  equally  insur- 
mountable till  Canada  was  at  length  abandoned. 

When  Major-general  Thomas,  who  superseded  Wooster,  reached  the 
army  early  in  'May,  and  found  that  he  could  hardly  bring  into  the 
field  a  thousand  men,  he  determined  to  retreat.  Even  this  he  was  not 
permitted  to  do  unmolested  ;  the  garrison  of  Quebec  had  been  largely 
reenforced,  and  Carleton  attacked  the  American  position,  routed 
Thomas's  force,  and  captured  a  hundred  prisoners  and  most  of  the 
stores  and  provisions.  He  retreated  first  to  Descham  Vault  and  then 
to  the  Sorel  — a  wretched  march  of  a  disorganized,  disheartened,  half- 
starved,  and  rapidly  decreasing  force.  Their  miseries  were  aggra- 
vated by  small-pox,  brought  into  the  camp  by  a  girl  who  had  been  a 
hospital  nurse,  and  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sorel,  on  the  2d  of  June, 
General  Thomas  died  of  it. 

The  British  were  equally  successful  at  other  points.  Major  Butter- 
field,  with  nearly  four  hundred  men,  held  a  fortified  post  at  a  place 
called  the  Cedars,  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  about  forty  miles  above  Mon- 
treal. This  was  captured  on  the  18th  of  May  by  Captain  Foster  with 
a  detachment  of  regulars  and  Canadians,  and  a  large  body  of  Indians. 
The  next  day  Major  Sherburne,  on  his  way  to  relieve  Butterfield,  was 
attacked  in  the  woods  by  a  part  of  Foster's  force,  and  was  compelled 
to  surrender.  Arnold,  who  followed  a  few  days  later,  was  unsuccess- 

VOL.  in.  29 


450 


THE  NORTHERN   CAMPAIGN  OF  1775.      [CHAP.  XVII. 


ful  in  an  attempt  to  dislodge  the  enemy  from  their  strong  position  at 
Vaudreuil  and  Perrot  Island. 

Brigadier-General  John  Sullivan  succeeded  Thomas  and  arrived  at 
Sorel  early  in  June.  Ignorant  of  the  condition  of  the  army,  he  was 
over-confident,  and  wrote  to  Washington  that  he  could  "  put  a  new 
face  upon  affairs  here."  In  the  interval  of  four  days  between  Thomas's 
death  and  Sullivan's  arrival  General  Thompson  was  in  command,  and 
had  ordered  a  forward  movement  to  Three  Rivers.  Sullivan  approved 
it,  and  putting  the  expedition  under  the  command  of  Thompson, 
ordered  him  with  two  thousand  men,  under  Colonels  Wayne,  Maxwell, 
and  Irvine,  to  join  Colonel  St.  Clair,  who  was  already  at  Nicolet. 
On  the  evening  of  the  7th  the  combined  forces  crossed  the  river  at 
Point  Du  Lac,  and  found  themselves  in  the  morning  on  the  beach,  con- 
fronted by  Fraser,  with  artillery  and  a  force  three  times  their  own, 
exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  ships  in  the  river,  and  their  advance  impos- 
sible. One  hundred  and  fifty  were  taken  prisoners,  and  the  rest  re- 
gained their  boats.  Sullivan  resumed  the  retreat  which  Thomas  had 
begun,  falling  back  upon  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point.  The  Canada 
campaign  was  at  an  end  in  June,  the  British  holding  Isle  aux  No'ix  as 
their  advanced  post. 


I      fj^mBiagHpr 


Monument  to  Montgomery  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard,   New  Yor*. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

OPENING   OF   THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   1776. 

PARLIAMENT  SUPPORTS  THE  KING.  —  EFFORTS  TO  INCREASE  THE  BRITISH  FORCES. — 
EMPLOYMENT  OF  MERCENARIES. — MILITARY  IMPORTANCE  OF  NEW  YORK  CITY. — 
THE  PROVINCIAL  CONGRESS  OF  NEW  YORK  AND  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  SAFETY. — 
THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY.  —  EXPLOIT  OF  MARINUS  WILLETT.  —  ZEAL  OF  ISAAC 
SEARS.  —  LEE  TAKES  COMMAND.  —  FORTIFICATIONS  OF  BROOKLYN  AND  NEW  YORK. 
—  LORD  STIRLING.  —  THE  SOUTHERN  EXPEDITION.  —  BATTLE  OF  MOORE'S  CREEK 
BRIDGE. — ARRIVAL  OF  PARKER'S  FLEET.  —  SOUTH  CAROLINA  ADOPTS  A  TEMPO- 
RARY CONSTITUTION.  —  THE  BRITISH  ATTACK  THE  DEFENCES  OF  CHARLESTON,  AND 
ARE  REPULSED. 

THE  ministerial  plan  of  operations  in  America  had  been  gradually 
maturing  since  the  reception  of  the  news  of  the  Battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  which  had  touched  the  pride  of  the  nation  at  supports  the 
the  most  sensitive  point.  Parliament,  in  the  autumn  of  1775, 
voted  the  King  and  Ministry  all  the  men  and  material  the)r  called  for. 
It  mattered  little  that  the  friends  of  America  in  that  body  again  raised 
their  voices  for  concession  and  conciliation.  The  vigorous  appeals 
and  arguments  of  Burke,  Fox,  Barre",  Wilkes,  and  Conway  in  favor 
of  colonial  rights,  still  found  unwilling  ears,  or  were  listened  to  only 
as  the  vindictive  tirades  of  the  "opposition."  The  ministerial  party 
blindly  clung  to  the  policy  of  coercion  first  and  concession  afterwards, 
and,  in  their  address  to  the  King,  expressed  the  hope  that  they  should 
be  able,  "  by  the  blessing  of  God,"  to  put  such  means  into  his  Majes- 
ty's hands  as  would  soon  defeat  and  suppress  the  rebellion,  and  enable 
him  to  accomplish  his  "  gracious  wish  of  reestablishing  order,  tran- 
quillity, and  happiness "  throughout  his  empire.  The  disorders  in 
America,  the  King  said  in  his  speech,  "  must  be  put  down  by  the  most 
decisive  exertions."  Wisdom  and  clemency,  he  told  the  Commons, 
alike  demanded  this  course.1 

The  army  to  be  sent  for  the  subjection  of  the  colonies  was  to  be  in- 
creased to  nearly  forty  thousand  men,  supported  by  a  formi-   RecrtlitinK 
dable  fleet,  manned  by  over  twenty-two  thousand  seamen.   '"  E"Kland- 
If  the  parliamentary  majority  which  sustained  the  ministerial  policy 
1  King's  speoch  at  the  opening  of  Parliament,  October  26,  1775. 


452  OPENING   OF  THE   CAMPAIGN   OF  1776.    [CHAP.  XVIII. 

had  reflected  the  feeling  of  the  nation  at  large,  there  would  have  been 
no  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  additional  troops  required.  But  the  calls 
met  with  a  feeble  response.  The  necessary  complement  at  home  to 
fill  the  old  and  depleted  regiments  could  not  be  secured ;  and  the  gov- 
ernment, even  before  it  resolved  on  extreme  measures,  found  itself 
forced  to  draw  upon  its  garrisons  in  the  West  Indies,  Ireland,  and 
Gibraltar.  The  King,  as  Elector  of  Hanover,  could  do  as  he  pleased 
with  Hanoverian  troops,  and  by  putting  these  in  places  garrisoned  by 
English  soldiers,  he  was  able  to  add  about  twenty-three  hundred  men 
to  the  army  in  America.  The  opposition  in  the  House  of  Commons 
seized  upon  the  evident  lack  of  popular  sympathy  with  the  King's 
measures.  The  Ministry,  compelled  to  find  an  explanation,  replied 
that  the  general  prosperity  among  all  classes,  and  the  large  numbers 
enrolled  in  the  militia,  who  could  not  be  called  upon  for  foreign  ser- 
vice, was  a  sufficient  explanation  of  this  apparent  apathy.1  It  was 
an  excuse,  however,  rather  than  an  explanation,  and  one  in  which, 
pi-obably,  they  did  not  themselves  believe  ;  it  certainly  was  not  satis- 
factory to  those  statesmen  who  were  opposed  to  the  war.2 

The  King  cared  nothing  for  English  sympathy,  and  was  equally 
indifferent  as  to  whether  the  war  was  carried  on  with  Eng- 
fiTses  "o  aid  lish  or  with  foreign  soldiers.  It  was  a  question  of  pounds 
and  thalers,  not  of  flesh  and  blood.  Soldiers  could  be  bought 
at  a  fixed  price  per  head,  and,  while  that  was  so,  it  was  the  English 
treasury,  not  the  English  people,  that  need  be  consulted.  George, 
from  his  relations  to  Holland,  had  no  doubt  of  her  friendly  aid.  In 
an  autograph  letter  to  the  States  General,  he  asked  for  permission  to 
employ  their  Scotch  brigade.  He  was  refused.  "  Our  troops,"  said 
the  Baron  van  der  Capellen,  "  would  be  employed  toward  suppressing 
what  some  please  to  call  a  rebellion  in  the  American  Colonies ;  for 
which  purpose  I  would  rather  see  janissaries  hired  than  soldiers  of  a 
free  state.  Such  a  measure  must  appear  superlatively  detestable  to 
me,  who  think  the  Americans  worthy  of  every  man's  esteem,  and  look 
on  them  as  a  brave  people,  defending,  in  a  becoming,  manly,  and  relig- 
ious manner,  those  rights  which  as  men  they  derive  from  God,  not 
from  the  legislature  of  Great  Britain." 

The  ministers,  with  hardly  less  doubt  of  a  favorable  answer,  turned 
to  Russia.  The  Eastern  question  of  that  day  had  brought  the  Empire 
under  obligations  to  Great  Britain  for  aid  against  the  Turks.  In  re- 

1  Speech  iu  Parliament,  November  3,  1775,  by  Lord  Harrington,  of  the  War  Office. 

a  In  the  early  part  of  1775,  Lord  Camden  expressed  the  belief,  founded  on  observation, 
that  the  merchants,  tradesmen,  and  common  people  were  generally  opposed  to  a  war,  while 
the  landed  interest  supported  the  government.  At  the  opening  of  the  campaign  of  1776, 
the  King  probably  had  a  stronger  support  than  Camden  allowed  him  the  year  before.  But 
the  war,  nevertheless,  was  not  popular. 


1775.] 


ATTITUDE   OF   THE   GREAT   POWERS. 


453 


turn,  Catherine  would  now,  perhaps,  have  helped  the  English  King 
with  twenty  thousand  troops,  but  for  the  interference,  both  xoheipfrom 
open  and  secret,  of  the  other  powers.    For  more  than  a  dozen  "^1*'  or 
years  France  had  been  anxiously  watching  the  growing  alien-  1>ru"'a- 
ation  between  Great  Britain  and  her  American  colonies.     De  Font- 


British  and  Hessian  Soldiers. 


leroy  and  De  Kalb  had  been  sent,  after  the  French  war,  to  travel  in 
America,  to  observe  her  resources,  and  stud}7  the  causes  of  dissen- 
sion which  even  at  that  time  had  begun  to  show  themselves ;  and 
now,  when  hostilities  had  actually  broken  out,  so  far  as  France  had 
influence  with  other  European  powers,  it  was  sure  to  be  exercised, 
directly  or  indirectly,  in  favor  of  the  revolting  colonies.  Nothing  could 
be  expected  from  Prussia.  Said  Frederick  to  a  party  of  Englishmen  : 
"  If  you  intend  conciliation,  some  of  your  measures  are  too  rough  ;  and 
if  subjection,  too  gentle.  In  short,  I  do  not  understand  these  mat- 
ters ;  I  have  no  colonies.  I  hope  you  will  extricate  yourselves  advan- 
tageously ;  but  I  own  the  affair  seems  rather  perplexing."  And  as  to 
European  sentiment  generally,  John  Moore,  an  English  physician, 


\ 


454  OPENING  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN  OF   1776.    [CHAP.  XVIII. 

travelling  through  the  principal  cities  in  1775,  wrote  from  Vienna: 
European  "  At  present,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Continent  seem  as  impa- 
opimon.  tient  as  those  of  Great  Britain  for  news  from  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic  ;  but  with  this  difference,  that  here  they  are  all  of  one 
mind,  —  all  praying  for  success  to  the  Americans,  and  rejoicing  in 
every  piece  of  bad  fortune  which  happens  to  our  army."  1 

But  there  were  no  large  political  considerations  to  influence  the 
Aid  from  decisions  of  the  petty  German  princes  of  Hesse-Cassel,  Bruns- 
G>eern£ny  wick,  Hanau,  and  others,  when  England  asked  for  their  as- 
statcs.  sistance.  It  was  simply  a  question  of  the  purchase  of  so 
much  war  material,  and  negotiations  depended  upon  nothing  but  price, 
and  the  skill  of  buyer  and  seller.  As  early  as  the  summer  of  1775,  Sir 
Joseph  Yorke,  who  had  been  instructed  to  look  into  the  condition  of 
these  markets,  reported  that  men  enough  could  be  had  if  the  price 
could  be  agreed  upon.  In  due  time,  when  it  was  determined  that  the 
most  vigorous  measures  should  be  taken  for  the  campaign  of  1776, 
Colonel  William  Fawcett  was  sent  to  conclude  with  these  needy  princes 
the  purchase  of  their  subjects,  to  carry  on  a  foreign  war  for  the  sub- 
jection of  a  free  people.  There  was  little  or  no  voluntary  service, 
except  among  officers;  men  were  compelled  to  enlist,  and  a  stipulated 
price  per  head  was  paid  by  England  to  the  potentates  who  claimed 
the  right  to  dispose  of  their  people  as  suited  their  own  purposes. 

Even  George  III.  had  grace  enough  to  feel  some  compunction  at 
a  transaction  disgraceful  to  the  England  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
"  To  give,"  said  the  King,  —  when  offers  were  made  to  the  English 
agent  to  open  recruiting  offices,  —  "  German  officers  authority  to  raise 
recruits  for  me,  is,  in  plain  English,  neither  more  nor  less  than  to 
become  a  man-stealer,  which  I  cannot  look  upon  as  a  very  honorable 
occupation."  But  the  offices  were  opened,  the  men  were  forced  to  en- 
list, and  the  princes  were  paid  by  England.  The  Duke  of  Brunswick, 
—  who  was  surrounded  by  mistresses,  who  gave  the  manager  of  his 
opera  an  annual  salary  of  thirty  thousand  thalers,  and  his  librarian, 
Lessing,  three  hundred,  —  sent  off  his  quota  of  men  with  insufficient 
clothing,  without  overcoats,  with  no  supply  of  shoes  and  stockings ;  and 
their  commander,  Baron  Riedesel,  was  compelled  to  borrow  in  England 
five  thousand  pounds  to  meet  their  most  common  wants.2  The  first 
division  of  these  German  troops  sailed  from  England  for  Quebec  in 
April,  1776.  Others  followed,  in  the  course  of  the  summer  and  au- 
tumn, for  New  York.3  Months  before  the  evacuation  of  Boston,  it 

1  A  View  of  Society  and  Manners  in  France,  Switzerland,  and  Germany.    By  John  Moore, 
M.  D.     (London,  1786.)     Letter  96. 

2  See  The  German  Element  in  the  War  of  Independence.    By  George  Washington  Greene. 
8   The  whole  number  of  German  troops  sent  to  America  is  thus  given  by  Dr.  Kapp, 

after  a  careful  collation  with  the  statements  in  the  State  Paper  office  in  London  :  — 


1776.]         MILITARY  IMPORTANCE    OF  NEW  YORK  CITY.  455 

had  become  clear  that  the  base  of  future  operations  must  be  at  some 
other  point  along  the  coast.  To  increase  the  army  there,  and  attempt 
to  break  up  the  siege,  promised  no  gain  which  would  compensate  for 
the  loss  that  must  inevitably  follow.  Moreover,  the  rebellion  was 
gathering  force ;  and  it  was  evident  that  it  had  already  assumed  di- 
mensions so  formidable  that  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  crush  it  by 
a  single  blow  at  a  single  point,  as  was  at  first  supposed  might  be 
done.1 

It  was  determined,  therefore,  that  the  central  point  of  military  move- 
ments for  1776  must  be  New  York.    Here  was  an  unequalled 
harbor,  with  the  Sound  on  one  side  and  the  Hudson  on  the  a  base  of 

.      i>  ,•  i        T»    •   •  i          111  operations. 

other,  —  both  strategic  lines  for  the  British,  who  had  com- 
mand of  the  sea.  On  land  the  army  could  control  New  York  and  the 
Jerseys,  and  break  up  all  concert  of  action  between  New  England  and 
the  more  southern  provinces.  This  was  the  English  view  of  the  situa- 
tion, and  it  was  so  obvious  that  Washington  assumed  New  York  to  be 
Howe's  objective  point  on  evacuating  Boston,  and  took  his  own  meas- 
ures accordingly. 

In  New  York,  as  in  some  other  colonies,  the  functions  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Congress  had  devolved  upon  a  Committee  of  Safety 
of  a  hundred  members.     There  were  Tories  upon  this  com-  York  PTO- 

.  vincial  Con- 

mittee  ;  or  rather,  —  to  speak  with  entire  accuracy,  —  there  g™*  and 

J        _,      .  the  Corn- 

Were  conservative  members  who  afterwards  became  Tories.   mitteeof 

Things  had  gone  very  far  before  that  hard  and  fast  line  was 
drawn  which  made  the  impassable  barrier  between  Whig  and  Tory. 
To  this  party  belonged  many  of  the  best  and  the  wisest  of  the  colo- 
nists. John  Adams  put  them  at  about  one  third  of  the  whole  people. 
Their  names  are  often  found  attached  to  those  earlier  protests  and 
remonstrances  with  which  it  was  hoped  to  avert  the  despotic  purposes 
of  the  King  and  his  ministers.  They  held  to  the  hope  of  conciliation 
and  compromise,  long  after  their  neighbors  had  seen  that  there  was  no 
choice  but  absolute  submission  or  resistance  to  the  death.  There  were 

Brunswick     ....       5,723  Waldeck 1,225 

Hesse-Cassel       .     .     .     16,992  Anspach 1,644 

Hesse-Hanau      .     .     .      2,422  Auhalt-Zerbst    ...       1,1  CO 

Total 29,166 

Of  these,  17,313  returned  home,  leaving  11,853  to  be  accounted  for. 

1  A  change  of  base  was  talked  of  as  early  as  July,  1775,  as  appears  from  what  Burgoyne 
wrote  to  Lord  Rochford,  Secretary  for  the  colonies  :  "  General  Gage  seems  to  be  not  dis- 
inclined to  an  idea  of  evacuating  Boston,  if  he  can  make  himself  master  of  New  York,  and 
of  taking  up  his  winter  quarters  there ;  and  there  is  much  solid  reasou  iu  favor  of  it.  The 
po»t,  in  a  military  view,  is  much  more  important,  and  more  proper  to  begin  the  operations 
of  next  year's  campaign.  In  political  consideration,  yet  more  might  be  said  for  it,  and  in 
regard  to  general  supply,  the  neighborhood  of  Long  Island,  and  other  adjacent  Islands, 
would  afford  some  assistance  that  we  want  here." — Foublauque's  Burgoyttt,  p.  181. 


456 


OPENING  OF   THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   1776.    [CHAP.  XVIII. 


many  of  this  class  in  New  York ;  some  of  them  belonged  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  One  Hundred,  and  they  took  advantage  of  their  position  to 
aid  the  royal  cause  on  the  plea  of  preserving  the  peace. 

But  there  was  a  committee  within  the  Committee,  composed  of  that 
The  sons  of  class  °f  men  —  the  "Sons  of  Liberty"  —  who  had  little 
Liberty.  faith  in  Prince  or  Parliament,  who  had  a  strong  belief  in 
the  inherent  right  of  self-government,  and  were  quite  ready  to  stake 

everything  upon 
that  issue;  who 
were  quick  to  see 
and  ready  to  resent 
any  encroachment 
of  arbitrary  power. 
If  the  One  Hundred 
were  too  cautious, 
the  smaller  number 
were  always  ready 
for  any  emergency; 
if  these  sometimes 
were  regai'dless  of  a 
wise  prudence,  and 
Head-  their  actions  tended 
to  precipitate  a  con- 
test without  sufficient  preparation,  the  larger  number  by  their  very 
inertness  staved  off  catastrophe.  If  one  party  hastened  slowly,  there 
was  no  lack  of  watchfulness  in  the  other,  no  abatement  of  activity  to 
keep  up  the  movement  of  steady  and  uncompromising  resistance  to 
evei-ything  that  threatened  the  popular  cause. 

When   the  news  of  the   engagements  at  Lexington   and   Concord 
reached  New  York,  immediate  steps  were  taken  to  prepare 

New  York         ,  .,  .      r,,.  ,.  7,     , 

prepares  for  for  war,  it  war  was  to  come.  A  public  meeting  assembled 
in  the  City  Hall,  and  all  the  arms  and  munitions  in  the 
arsenal,  which  was  a  part  of  that  building,  were  secured.  A  com- 
pany, led  by  John  Lamb  and  Isaac  Sears,  two  of  the  most  active  of 
the  "  Sons  of  Liberty,"  arrested  all  the  British  vessels  in  port  about 
to  sail  for  Boston  ;  a  vessel  loaded  with  rum,  to  which  the  Collector 
had  refused  a  permit,  because  the  rum  Avas  supposed  to  be  for  the  use 
of  the  insurgents,  was  taken  possession  of,  and  her  cargo  discharged  ; 
the  keys  of  the  custom-house  were  demanded  of  the  Collector,  and 
the  building  closed.  A  military  company  was  formed,  the  arms  taken 
from  the  arsenal  were  put  into  their  hands,  cannon  were  collected, 
and  measures  promptly  but  quietly  taken  to  put  the  city  in  a  state  of 
defence.  The  imperative  need  was  arms  and  munitions  of  war.  At 


Burns's  Coffee-house,   Broadway,  opposite  Bowling  Green, 
quarters  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty. 


1776.] 


THE   SONS   OF   LIBERTY. 


457 


Turtle  Bay,  on  the  East  River,  was  a  deposit  of  military  stores  be- 
longing to  the  King.  Lamb,  with  some  of  his  associates,  approached 
it  by  night  from  the  river,  surprised  the  guard,  and  carried  off  every- 
thing of  value.  So,  when  the  British  garrison  were  ordered  to  join 
the  army  in  Boston,  they  were  not  permitted  to  take  with  them  any 


Marinus  Wiilett's  Exploit. 

arms  except  those  they  carried  in  their  hands.  It  was  agreed  that 
they  should  embark  unmolested,  and  this  was  one  of  those  acts  of 
prudence,  on  the  part  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  of  which 
their  more  ardent  compatriots  did  not  approve.  The  intention  un- 
doubtedly was,  to  avoid  a  collision,  which,  as  General  Wooster  was 
already  in  camp  outside  of  New  York  with  an  army  of  volunteers 
from  Connecticut,  might  have  been  easily  provoked.  It  was  believed, 


458  OPENING  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN  OF   1776.    [CHAP.  XVIII. 

on  the  one  hand,  that  the  whole  garrison  could  have  been  taken  prison- 
ers ;  on  the  other,  it  was  thought  best  not  to  run  the  risk  of  a  bombard- 
ment of  the  town  by  the  naval  vessels  in  the  harbor.  The  decision 
of  the  Committee  was  acquiesced  in,  but  the  acquiescence  went  only 
wmett'sex-  to  the  letter  of  the  agreement.  As  the  troops  marched  at 
vloit-  noon  down  Broad  Street,  preceded  by  five  carts  loaded  with 

arms,  they  were  met  at  the  corner  of  Beaver  Street  by  Marinus 
Willett,  who  boldly  seized  the  first  horse  by  the  head  and  brought  the 
whole  line  to  a  halt.  A  crowd  instantly  gathered,  among  them  the 
Mayor,  Whitehead  Hicks,  and  Gouverneur  Morris.  The  command- 
ing officer  demanded  the  reason  of  this  interruption.  Willetb  an- 
swered that  permission  was  given  only  that  the  troops  should  embark 
unmolested,  not  that  they  should  take  away  arms.  Hicks  and  Mor- 
ris expostulated.  "•  You  are  right ! "  shouted  John  Morin  Scott, 
an  eminent  Son  of  Liberty.  Willett  jumped  upon  the  cart,  and  de- 
clared the  arms  should  not  be  taken  to  be  used  against  their  "  Brethe- 
ren  in  Massechusettes."  If  the  soldiers,  he  said,  desired  to  "  Join  the 
Bloody  business  which  was  transacting  near  Boston,  we  were  ready  to 
meet  them  in  the  Sanguin  field,"  but  if  any  of  them  "felt  a  repug- 
nance to  the  unnatural  work,"  and  would  leave  the  ranks,  they  should 
be  protected.  He  then  led  the  first  cart  into  Beaver  Street  out  of 
the  line  of  march,  and  the  rest  followed,  the  officers  making  no  at- 
tempt to  stop  him,  and  no  reply  to  his  appeal.  Only  one  of  the  sol- 
diers, however,  accepted  his  invitation  to  desert,  and  marched  off  with 
the  carts,  cheered  and  protected  by  the  crowd.1 

A  few  weeks  later  the  Continental  Congress  made  a  requisition 
The  cannon  "Pon  New  York  for  cannon,  to  be  placed  at  several  points 
fhJETthe  on  ^e  Hudson  for  the  defence  of  the  course  of  that  river. 
Battery.  -pne  Provincial  Congress  ordered  the  Battery  to  be  dis- 
mantled, and  the  enterprise  was  entrusted  to  Captain  Lamb  with  a 
military  company,  and  Sears  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  volunteers. 
The  English  line-of-battle-ship  Asia  lay  at  anchor  not  far  distant ; 
she  sent  a  boat  ashore,  and  in  an  encounter  between  her  crew  and 
the  men  at  the  Battery,  several  of  the  sailors  were  wounded,  and  one 
was  killed.  The  Asia  opened  fire  upon  the  fort,  but  all  the  mounted 
guns  were  nevertheless  removed.2 

The  situation  grew  every  month,  almost  every  week,  more  critical. 

1  MarittHS    Willftt's  Narrative.     In  a  volume  of  original  papers  published  by  the  Mercan- 
tile Library  Association,  of  New  York,  under  the  title  :  New  York  City  During  the  Revolu- 
tion, with  a  valuable  introduction  by  Henry  B.  Dawsou. 

2  Six  months  afterwards  General  Lee    removed  the  remaining  puns  which   were   not 
mounted,  from  the  fort,  without  opposition  from  the  ships.     "  Indeed,"  he  says,  in  a  letter 
to  the  President  of  Congress,  "  I  even  consider  their  menaces  to  fire  upon  the  town  as  idle 
gasconade." —  Lte  Pajters,  vol.  i.,  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coil. 


1776.]  ZEAL   OF  ISAAC   SEARS.  459- 

Between  Whigs  and  Tories,  the  difference  was  irremediable ;  neither 
could  allow  that  one  might  be  mistaken  without  being  wick-  The  feeling 
ed ;  and  as  both  held  the  opinions  of  the  other  side  to  be  fe-  whT^Tand 
lonious,  persecution  was  inevitable  wherever  one  side  was  Tories 
stronger  than  the  other.     The  patriots  were  the  stronger  in  and  about 
New  York;  but  the  Tories  were  strong  enough  to  make  a  determined 
fight,  hoping  to  gain  the  ascendency  if  sufficiently  reenforced   from 
England.     "  Rivington's  New  York  Gazetteer  "  was  their  mouth-piece, 
and  was  bold  and  aggressive.     It  was  determined  to  suppress  it,  and 

THURSDAY  Nov.  23,  l?7»-  [ NT  i»6l 

RIVINGfO  Si's 

N 

Connecticut,  Hudfou's  River,      K^**^  Iraffi^v^       Newjerfev,  and  Quebec 

W   E   E    K  L  ADVERTISER. 

PRINTED  nl  his  OPEN  an*  UNINFLUENCED  PRESS  fronHiis  HANWER-SqcxRE . 
Head  of  Rivington's  Gazetteer. 

for  that  purpose  Isaac  Sears,  who  had  removed  to  New  Haven,  visited 
New  York  at  the  head  of  more  than  a  hundred  men.  On  OWM.^^ 
the  way  they  burned  a  sloop  at  Mamaroneck.  Entering  the  £„','„ ^ng' 
city,  they  rode  in  perfect  order  down  Broadway  and  Wall  ettcer-" 
Street,  at  the  foot  of  which  was  Rivington's  office.  This  they  com- 
pletely sacked,  carrying  away  the  type  to  cast  into  bullets,  and  offered 
to  give  Rivington,  in  return,  an  order  on  Lord  Dunmore,  of  Virgin- 
ia, for  a  new  supply,  he  having  seized  and  confiscated  a  printing-office 
in  Norfolk  which  belonged  to  a  Whig. 

Sears  was  never  so  happy  as  when  suppressing  Tories,  several  of 
whom  he  captured  on  this  expedition,  and  took  back  with 
him  to  New  Haven.  Some  months  later  Lee  made  him  an 
Adjutant-general,  with  the  rank  of  Lieutenant-colonel.  "  He  is,"  he 
wrote  to  Washington,  "  a  creature  of  much  spirit  and  publick  virtue, 
and  ought  to  have  his  back  clapped."  Sears's  first  duty  in  his  new 
office  was  to  suppress  the  Tories  of  Long  Island.  In  a  report  to  Lee, 
he  wrote  :  "  I  arrived  at  Newtown,  and  tendered  the  oath  to  four  of 
the  grate  Tories,  which  they  swallowed  as  hard  as  if  it  was  a  four 
pound  shot  that  they  ware  trying  to  git  down."  This  was  the  "  iron- 
clad "  oath  which  Lee  had  forced  upon  the  Tories  of  New  Haven. 

When  Lee  was  ordered  by  Washington  to  take  command  at  New 
York,  the  Committee  of  Safety  were  greatly  alarmed  lest  his 
appearance  should  provoke  Try  on  —  who  had  fled  to  one  of  command  at 
the   men-of-war  in  the    harbor  —  to  put  in  execution    his 
threat  to  bombard  the  town.     The  Committee  pleaded  the  defenceless 


460 


OPENING   OF  THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   1776.       [CHAP.  XVIII. 


condition  of  the  place,  and  especially  their  want  of  powder  ;  but  the 
more  ardent  patriots,  who,  by  such  actions  as  we  have  just  related, 

had  kept  up  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  people,  welcomed  the 
news  of  Lee's  coining.  Lee 
himself  wrote  the  Com- 
mittee that  they  might  be 
"  perfectly  easy."  "  If," 
he  said,  "  the  ships  of 
war  are  quiet,  I  shall  be 
quiet  ;  but  I  declare  sol- 
emnly that  if  they  make  a 
pretext  of  my  presence  to 
fire  on  the  town,  the  first 
house  set  in  flames  by  their 
guns  shall  be  the  funeral 
pile  of  some  of  their  best 
friends."  He  should  only 
bring  into  the  cit}7  enough 
men  to  protect  it  ;  but  "  If 
Mr.  Try  on  and  the  Captains 
of  the  ships  of  war  are  to 
prescribe  what  numbers  are, 
and  what  numbers  are  not, 
to  enter  the  town,  .... 
the  condition  is  too  humiliating  for  freemen  to  put  up  with." 

But  the  ample  bay,  the  two  navigable  rivers,  and  the  waters  of 
tne  Sound  beyond,  were  important  features  in  the  question 
of  ^efence.  Clearly,  whoever  commanded  the  sea  had  an 
important  advantage,  for  New  York  could  be  surrounded  by  a  fleet. 
The  width  of  the  North  River  appeared,  to  Lee  at  least,  to  render 
its  obstruction  to  the  passage  of  ships  impossible  ;  and  on  the  other 
side,  the  Sound  was  open  to  them  as  far  as  Hell  Gate.  A  hostile 
squadron  could  thus  take  up  a  position  on  the  flanks  and  in  the  rear 
of  Manhattan  Island,  and  with  the  assistance  of  land  forces,  compel 
the  evacuation  of  the  town.  The  General  saw  this  at  a  glance,  and 
so  reported  to  Washington  ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  believed  the 
position  offered  an  opportunity  for  delaying  and  embarrassing  an 

1  This  picture,  reproduced  iu  Moore's  Treason  of  Charles  Lee  (from  which  we  copy  it), 
was  originally  engraved  for  a  work  written  by  Dr.  Thomas  Girdlestone,  to  prove  that  Lee 
was  the  author  of  the  Junius  Letters.  It  is  from  a  likeness  taken  when  Lee  returned  from 
Poland,  in  his  uniform  as  aid-de-camp  to  King  Stanislaus.  Girdlestone  says  :  "  Though 
designed  as  a  caricature,  it  was  allowed,  by  all  who  knew  General  Lee,  to  be  the  only  suc- 
cessful delineatiou,  either  of  his  countenance  or  person." 


General  Charles   Lee.1 


New  York. 


1776.]      FORTIFICATIONS  OF  BROOKLYN  AND  NEW  YORK.         461 

enemy  ;  that  if  it  could  not  be  converted  into  a  permanent  military 
base  for  the  Americans,  it  could  be  made  a  costly  capture  for  the  Brit- 
ish ;  and  on  this  theory  he  proceeded  to  construct  a  system  of  de- 
fences, to  turn  New  York  into  what  he  termed  "  a  disputable  field  of 
battle." 

He  proposed  first  to  make  it  secure,  at  least  against  a  direct  attack 
in  front,  presenting  as  bold  a  face  toward  the  sea  as  the  sit- 

.  i  T  ...,  .          Works  on 

nation  admitted.  The  salient  point  he  judged  to  be  the  Brooklyn 
present  Columbia  Heights  on  the  Brooklyn  side  of  the  East 
River,  for  the  reason  that  it  commanded  the  city  and  the  river. 
There  he  laid  out  an  intrenched  camp  with  strong  redoubts,  one  of 
which  was  thrown  up  on  the  edge  of  the  bluff,  at  the  foot  of  the  pres- 
ent Clark  Street,  and  nearly  opposite  a  point  on  the  New  York  side 
between  Fulton  and  Wall  Street  ferries,  where  its  guns  could  sweep 
the  channel  or  bombard  New  York,  should  the  enemy  succeed  in 
landing  within  the  town  limits.  This  work  was  named  Fort  Stirling, 
and  was  the  most  important  in  Lee's  plan.  Several  batteries  Andinxew 
were  erected  on  the  New  York  side  of  the  river,  from  the  York 
ship-yards  to  Whitehall  Slip,  which,  in  conjunction  with  Fort  Stirling, 
were  expected  to  make  the  passage  of  men-of-war  along  that  chan- 
nel a  hazardous  venture.  To  prevent  their  coming  down  the  Sound, 
a  fort  was  built  by  Colonel  Drake's  Westchester  County  militiamen, 
at  Horn's  Hook,  opposite  Hell  Gate. 

For  the  protection  of  the  west  side  of  the  city,  nothing  was  at- 
tempted beyond  the  erection  of  works  at  various  points  below  Canal 
Street,  to  keep  the  ships  out  of  the  river.  No  attempt  was  made  to 
fortify  the  Jersey  side. 

At  Fort  George  and  the  Grand  Battery  at  the  foot  of  Broadway 
the  works  were  strengthened  ;  but  the  General  had  little  confidence  in 
their  ability  to  withstand  a  vigorous  bombardment.  That  the  enemy, 
however,  might  not  obtain  a  foothold  there,  he  tore  down  the  rear  of 
Fort  George,  threw  up  a  parallel  across  Broadway,  at  Bowling  Green, 
to  command  its  interior,  and  had  the  streets  in  the  vicinity  barricaded. 
In  a  word,  he  sought  to  turn  New  York  into  a  fortified  military 
camp. 

The  work  had  only  been  begun,  when,  on  the  6th  of  March,  Con- 
gress divided  the  southern  and  middle  colonies  into  two 

3  ...  ,  ,   T  ,     I/mlStir- 

military  departments,  and  transferred  Lee  to  the  command 
of  the  former,  leaving  Lord  Stirling  to  carry  out  the  plan  his 
predecessor  had  adopted.  Nothing  was  lost  by  the  change,  for  the 
new  commander  hurried  on  the  work  with  the  utmost  energy.  Wash- 
ington's orders,  now  that  he  saw  the  siege  of  Boston  near  its  end, 
were  imperative  that  no  time  should  be  lost  in  preparing  for  what  he 


462 


OPENING  OF   THE  CAMPAIGN   OF   1776.      [CHAP.  XVIII. 


knew  the  spring  would  bring.  Stirling J  recruited  troops  on  every  side, 
and  ordered  out  all  the  male  inhabitants  that  had  remained  in  town, 
black  and  white  alike,  to  dig  on  the  fortifications.  The  slaves  were 
to  work  every  day.  On  the  Brooklyn  side  the  scattered  residents 
were  directed  to  report  with  spades,  hoes,  and  pickaxes,  to  Colonel 
Ward,  whose  Connecticut  regiment  had  been  stationed  there.  The 

troops  under  Stirling  at  this 
point  consisted,  about  the  mid- 
dle of  March,  of  the  two  Con- 
necticut regiments  that  Lee 
brought  with  him,  New  York 
militia  from  Westchester,  Or- 
ange, and  Dutchess  counties, 
under  Colonels  Drake,  Swart- 
wout,  and  Van  Ness,  Stirling's 
New  Jersey  Continentals,  and 
other  small  detachments,  which, 
with  the  two  city  "  independ- 
ent" battalions,  made  up  an  ir- 
regular force  of  about  four  thou- 
sand men.  The  city  military 
companies  were  composed  of 
citizens  of  means  and  influence, 
under  Colonels  John  Lasher  and 
William  Heyer,  and  in  time  of 
peace  attracted  attention  by  their  varied  and  showy  uniforms.  Many 
of  them  were  now  found  true  to  the  colonies,  and  remained  in  the 
ranks.  One  of  their  number,  —  afterwards  Major,  —  Nicholas  Fish, 
tells  us  of  their  working  on  the  redoubts,  though  "  it  did  not  agree 
well  with  the  tender  hands  and  delicate  textures  of  many,"  and  doing 
their  part  with  "  amazing  agility  and  neatness." 

The  joyful  news  of  the  success  at  Boston  reached  the  busy  gar- 
wa.«hington  rison  while  matters  were  in  this  condition.  Washington 
?or"7*o"s  did  not  lose  a  moment,  after  Howe's  evacuation,  in  hur- 
NewYork.  rying  the  New  England  army  to  New  York.  The  Penn- 
sylvania and  Virginia  riflemen  had  already  been  sent  on,  when  Gen- 
erals Heath,  Sullivan,  Spencer,  and  Greene  reached  the  city  with  their 
forces  —  twenty-two  regiments  —  at  intervals  during  April.  The 
artillery  was  under  Knox,  and  Putnam  took  the  chief  command  till 
the  arrival  of  Washington.  Colonel  Rufus  Putnam,  the  chief  engi- 

1  This  officer,  who  henceforth  was  to  be  identified  with  the  fortunes  of  Washington's 
army  to  the  close  of  the  war,  was  a  native  of  New  York,  became  afterwards  a  resident  of 
New  Jersey,  and  claimed  the  title  to  an  earldom  through  his  Scotch  descent.  His  name 
was  William  Alexander. 


\ 


Lord  Stirling. 


1776.] 


NEW  YORK  A  MILITARY  CAMP. 


463 


neer,  was  also  sent,  with  instructions  to  stop  on  his  way  at  Provi- 
dence and  Newport,  and  lay  out  such  further  defences  as  might  be 
required  at   either   place.     Last  of   all   followed  the   Com- 
mander-in-chief, who  left  Cambridge  on  April  4th,  passed  arrives  m 
through  Providence,  and  arrived  at  New  York  on  the  13th. 
Here  he  fixed  his  headquarters  temporarily  at  a  house  in  Pearl  Street, 
at  the  foot  of  Cedar  Street. 

If  the   town  had  been    like  a  busy  camp  in  February  and  early 
March,  it  was  now,  with  its  great  garrison,  altogether  given 
over  to  the  hurry  of   military   preparation.     Families  has-  a  military 
tened  into  the  country  ;  often,  in  their  fear,  leaving  the  city 
in  the  worst  of  weather,  and  abandoning  their  dwellings  to  the  sol- 
diery. As  early  as  April  9th, 
Major   Fish   was  impressed 
with   the    change  that  had 
already  occurred,  and  wrote 
to  a  friend  that  the  society 
of  the  town  had  been  aban- 
doned by  "most  of  its  mem- 
bers,  especially  the   fair  ;  " 
the    barricading     of     the 
streets,  and   other   military 
matters   were,  he   said,   his 
"current      employment." 
Some  of    the    troops   were 
quartered  in  houses  at  the 
foot  of  Broadway,  and  mnde 
sad  havoc  with  their   inte- 
riors, to  the  great  grief  and 
loss   of  their  Tory  owners. 
The  few  merchants  who  re- 
mained  raised   their    goods 
to  an  enormous  price.     Rum,  sugar,  and  cotton,  went  up  immoderate- 
ly ;  some  articles  could  not  be  had  at  all.     One  writer  notes  that  there 
was  quite  a  panic  about  "pins."     In  every  way  this  lately  flourishing 
centre  of  colonial  trade  suffered  the  evils  of  a  military  occupation. 
One  Jacob  Harsin  told  the  whole  story  when  he  added,  in  a  postscript 
to  a  letter  to  a  friend,  "  We  are  now  a  City  of  Waar." 

While  there  was  such  strained  activity  here  at  the  central  point, 
the  British  plans  had  other  ends  in  view  than  the  capture  of 

The  South- 

the  metropolis,  and  in  one  quarter  at  least  these  plans  were 
already  working.  The  expedition  to  the  southern  colonies 
was  the  King's  favorite  project.  Dumnore  and  Martin,  the  royal  g<>v- 


Israel   Putnam. 


464  OPENING    OF   THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   1776.       [CHAP.  XVIII. 

ernors  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  had  made  such  sanguine  rep- 
resentations of  the  ease  with  which  both  colonies  could  be  brought 

O 

to  submission,  that  great  things  were  hoped  for  in  that  quarter  the 
moment  the  Governors  were  provided  with  a  small  force  to  back  their 
authority.  The  seven  regiments  sent  for  this  purpose  had  been  se- 
lected by  the  King  himself.  They  were  led  by  Earl  Cormvallis,  and 
the  fleet  was  commanded  by  Admiral  Peter  Parker ;  but  Clinton, 
who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been  detached  from  the  force  at  Boston, 
met  them  near  Wilmington  and  assumed  the  general  command.  The 
work  done  —  for  it  was  believed  it  would  be  short,  —  the  generals  had 
orders  to  return  north,  and  Cornwallis  was  to  go  at  once  to  Canada. 

Dunmore  and  Martin  misunderstood  the  popular  sentiment  of  their 
colonies.  Dunmore  had  already  exasperated  the  Virginians  with  his 
threats,  and  forays,  and  attempts  to  incite  insurrection  among  the 
slaves.  Martin,  in  North  Carolina,  issued  a  proclamation  on  the  10th 
of  January  denouncing  the  "  daring,  horrid,  arid  unnatural  rebellion  " 
existing  in  the  province,  and  calling  upon  all  faithful  subjects  to  erect 
his  Majesty's  standard  and  unite  in  its  support.  He  was  sure  of 
gathering  a  large  force  of  loyalists,  and  it  was  this  that  determined  the 
destination,  in  the  first  instance,  of  Cornwallis's  expedition.  The  set- 
tlers along  the  upper  part  of  Cape  Fear  River,  round  about  Cross  Creek 
(the  present  Fayetteville),  were  chiefly  Highlanders,  who  had  emi- 
grated from  Scotland  after  the  defeat  of  the  Pretender,  at  Culloden, 
thirty  years  before  ;  and  were  now,  out  of  gratitude  and  by  an  oath 
of  allegiance,  bound  to  take  up  the  King's  cause  in  America.  Among 
their  lenders  were  the  McDonalds,  the  McLeods,  and  the  Stuarts, 
and  to  them  Martin  issued  commissions  with  authoritv  and  orders  to 

V 

muster  their  men  at  Brunswick  on  the  15th  of  February,  and  then 
march  to  the  coast  to  cooperate  with  Clinton  and  Cornwallis.  Donald 
McDonald,  as  colonel,  quickly  gathered  a  force  fifteen  hundred  strong, 
mostly  Scotchmen  and  old  "  regulators,"  and  prepared  to  carry  out 
Martin's  instructions.  But  the  Governor's  January  proclamation  also 
had  another  response.  The  Highlanders  and  the  disaffected  were  no 
more  prompt  to  obey,  than  the  patriotic  party  were  to  disobey  it. 
The  resolute  and  conscientious  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  in  the  back 
counties,  and  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  along  the  coast,  took  up 
arms,  but  it  was  against  the  King;  Martin,  frightened  from  his  head- 
quarters at  Newbern,  was  compelled  to  issue  his  commands  from  on 
board  the  sloop-of-war  Scorpion,  anchored  off  Wilmington. 

When  the  mustering  of  McDonald's  elans  and  "  banditti "  was 
The  militia  heard  of,  the  provincial  militia  were  called  out,  to  prevent 
rilMJ  them  from  reaching  the  Governor.  Brigadier-general  James 

Moore,  of  New  Hanover,  with  his  regiment  of  five  hundred  State 


1776.] 


BATTLE    OF   MOORE'S   CREEK   BRIDGE. 


465 


troops,  and  some  others,  marched  to  Rockfish  Bridge,  within  seven 
miles  of  the  Scotchmen's  camp  at  Fayetteville.  On  the  19th  he  was 
joined  by  Colonel  Lillington  with  Wilmington  minute-men,  Colonel 
Kenon  with  Duplin  volunteers,  and  Colonel  Ashe  with  independent 
rangers.  Among  these  soldiers  were  "men  of  the  first  fortunes"  in 
the  State,  who,  to  encourage  others,  "footed  it  the  whole  time."1 
Moore's  force  was  still  one  or  two  hundred  less  than  McDonald's. 
On  the  20th,  the  latter  moved  within  four  miles  of  Moore,  and  gave 
him  until  noon  of  the  next  day  to  join  the  royal  standard.  Moore 
returned  the  Highlander's  consideration  by  allowing  him  exactly  the 
same  time  to  lay  down  his  arms  and  be  received  as  a  friend  and  coun- 
tryman of  America.  Otherwise,  he  should  be  treated  as  an  enemy. 

That  night   McDonald  gave  the  Americans  the  slip,  and,  passing 
them    by  a  rapid  march,  headed  for  the  coast.     Moore  in-  McD,maid 
stanllv  sent  expresses  in  all  directions  for  troops  to  gather  eluj«8them- 
at  certain  points  to  intercept  the  Scotchmen.     Colonel  Richard  Cas- 
well,   a  trusted  citizen  of 
Lenoir  County,  was  coming 
up  with  eight  hundred  mi- 
litia   from    Newbern  ;  and 
to  him  Avord   was  sent  to 
find  and  "  by  every  means 
in  his  power  distress,  har- 
ass, and  obstruct  "  the  en- 
emy  on  their    way,    while 
Colonel  Lillington  made  a 
forced    march    to    Widow 
Moore's    Creek     Bridge, 
twenty-five    miles    above 
Wilmington,  near  the  South 

River  aCrOSS  which  AIcDon- 

aid  would  have  to  move.  All  these  detachments,  directed  by  General 
Moore,  made  extraordinary  exertions  to  overtake  the  enemy.  Lilling- 
ton reached  the  bridge  on  the  26th,  some  hours  before  the  loyalists, 
and  was  joined  in  the  afternoon  by  Caswell,  who  took  command,  tore 
up  the  planks,  and  erected  a  breastwork  across  the  road  on  the  lower 
side.  The  lo\ralists  came  on  early  the  next  morning.  McDonald, 
their  chief,  who  had  fought  at  Culloden,  had  been  taken  ill  and  re- 
mained in  his  tent,  leaving  the  command  to  Colonel  McLeod,  a  vete- 
ran of  the  same  field.  In  the  ranks  were  the  husband  and  son  of 
Flora  McDonald,  who  had  won  the  affection  of  these  people  by  help- 
ing Charles  Edward,  the  Pretender,  to  escape  in  disguise,  and  who 

1  Letter  in  Force's.  American  Archives,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  v.,  p.  959. 
30 


Moore's  Creek  Bridee- 

P°sition8  of  the  Lo.v*1'8**  ;  3,  4,  positions  of  the  Americans. 


VOL.  m. 


466  OPENING  OF   THE  CAMPAIGN   OF   1776.      [CHAP.  XVIII. 

now,  an  emigrant  to  North  Carolina,  stood  faithful  to  King  George 
in  return  for  her  pardon. 

When  the  enemy  reached  the  bridge  to  attack,  Caswell's  post  on  the 
The  fight  at  opposite  side  appeared  to  them  to  be  abandoned.  McLeod, 
with  Captain  Campbell  following,  charged  across  the  still 
standing  timbers,  and,  with  part  of  the  force,  rushed  within 
thirty  paces  of  the  American  intrenchment,  when  Caswell's  and  Lill- 
ington's  men  rose  from  their  cover  and  delivered  a  terribly  destruc- 
tive fire,  killing  the  two  leaders,  and  wounding  or  killing  nearly  forty 
others.  Twenty  balls  pierced  McLeod,  who  had  almost  reached  the 
breastwork.  "  In  a  very  few  minutes,"  as  Moore  reported,  "  their 
whole  army  was  put  to  the  flight,"  and  numbers  were  captured,  among 
whom  was  McDonald.  The  victory  was  complete.  Eight  hundred 
and  fifty  were  taken  prisoners,  disarmed,  and  discharged,  and  fifteen 
hundred  excellent  rifles  were  secured,  besides  a  box  of  money  and 
chests  of  medicines.  Colonel  Moore  reached  the  ground  at  the  close 
of  the  battle,  and  the  united  provincial  force,  which  had  but  two  men 
wounded  in  the  action,  slept  that  night  on  the  field. 

This  affair  determined  the  fate  of  Toryism  in  North  Carolina,  break- 
ing Martin's  power  and  blasting  his  hopes.  Within  two  weeks,  nearly 
ten  thousand  men  were  in  arms  in  the  State  to  resist  the  threatened 
invasion.  For  four  years  after,  until  Cornwallis  reappeared  in  1780, 
North  Carolina  enjoyed  comparative  quiet,  and  lent  her  aid  to  other 
colonies. 

All  this  took  place  while  Clinton  was  at  Wilmington,  and  while 
Parker's  ^ne  ships  of  the  British  expedition  were  one  by  one  arriving 

fleet  arrives.    tQere       but    jfc  not     untjl    tne    33    Q£    ^aV    t|mfc  Admiral 

w 

Parker  reached  Cape  Fear  from  Cork  with  the  last  of  his  fleet.  The 
fifty-gun  ship  Bristol,  with  Cornwallis  on  board,  had  been  eighty- 
one  days  on  the  voyage.  Gales  and  calms  delayed  them.  Finding 
what  had  happened  in  Martin's  government,  Cornwallis  wrote  to 
Germain  :  "  I  must  still  more  lament  the  fatal  delays  that  pre- 
vented the  armament  from  arriving  in  time  in  this  Province."  Noth- 
ing remained  but  to  make  an  attempt  on  Charleston,  and  thither 
the  expedition  sailed  during  the  last  days  of  May. 

South  Carolina  stood  ready  to  bear  her  share  in  the  struggle.  Her 
Prepara-  early  sympathy  with  Massachusetts,  and  now  with  the  com- 
in°sou°hWar  mon  Continental  cause,  had  culminated  in  the  most  active 
Carolina.  preparation  for  the  defence  of  her  own  borders.  Much  had 
already  been  done.  Colonel  Christopher  Gadsden  had  been  appointed 
to  command  the  first  regiment  on  the  Continental  basis,  and  Wil- 
liam Moultrie  the  second.  William  Thompson  led  a  regiment  of 
rangers  or  riflemen,  all  approved  marksmen,  the  Colonel  being  the 


1776.]  THE   DEFENCES   OF  CHARLESTON.  467 

best  shot  among  them ;  and  the  militia  were  organized  to  be  ready 
at  the  earliest  call.  The  large  disaffected  part  of  the  population  was 
watched,  and  prevented  from  disturbing  the  measures  for  meeting 
the  enemy  at  the  sea.  The  militiamen  on  the  North  Carolina  border 
were  notified  to  march  to  the  assistance  of  their  sister  colony  on  the 
first  alarm ;  but  now  that  the  danger  had  passed  in  that  quarter, 
North  Carolina  had  already  sent  a  regiment  without  waiting  for  the 
summons. 

The  safety  of  the  colony  depended  in  the  present  emergency  upon 
the  security  of  Charleston  harbor.  Without  the  cooperation  of  the 
men-of-war,  Clinton  would  be  powerless ;  and  without  the  possession 
of  the  harbor  the  ships  could  not  cooperate.  To  hold  it  from  the 
enemy,  accordingly,  the  military  authorities  of  the  State  exerted  their 
best  energies.  The  defences  begun  in  1775  were  pushed  on  Defences  for 
rapidly.  At  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  on  the  north  side  charleston- 
lay  Sullivan's  Island,  a  long,  low,  marshy,  and  wooded  strip  of  land ; 
and  opposite,  on  the  south  side,  James  Island,  much  larger,  was  prac- 
tically a  part  of  the  main  coast.  Here  Gadsden  was  stationed,  while 
Sullivan's  Island  was  intrusted  to  Moultrie  and  Thompson.  On  the 
north  side,  nearer  the  city,  at  Haddrell's  Point,  Brigadier-general 
Armstrong,  whom  Congress  had  sent  down  from  Pennsylvania,  took 
command.  The  city  itself  was  subjected  to  much  the  same  treatment 
as  New  York.  Along  the  water-front,  batteries  and  breastworks  were 
thrown  up.  Valuable  storehouses  were  torn  down  at  the  docks,  to 
give  room  for  the  play  of  the  cannon ;  the  streets  were  barricaded ; 
the  leaden  weights  of  the  windows  of  the  churches  and  houses  were 
moulded  into  bullets,  and  boats,  wagons,  and  horses  impressed.  Lee 
arrived  on  the  4th  of  June  to  assume  command,  and  was  constantlv 
active  in  providing  further  means  of  defence. 

The  point  of  greatest  importance  in  the  harbor  defences  was  the 
fort  which  Colonel  Moultrie  and  his  men  had  been  building  on  Sul- 
livan's Island,  where  the  channel  ran  nearest  to  the  shore.  This  was 
Fort  Sullivan,  and  in  shape  and  size  it  resembled  Fort  George  at  the 
Battery  in  New  York,  —  a  square  with  four  bastions,  large  enough 
to  hold  a  thousand  men.  Night  and  day  the  soldiers  and  carpenters 
worked  on  it,  and  yet,  says  Moultrie,  it  was  not  nearly  done  when 
the  enemy  attacked.  Only  the  two  faces  fronting  the  channel  were 
complete,  and  on  these  thirty-one  guns  were  mounted.  But  the  best 
material  was  ready  to  their  hands.  The  palmetto  logs  which  entered 
lai-gely  into  the  construction  of  the  work,  with  their  tough  and  spongy 
fibre,  were  hardly  less  serviceable  than  a  mail  of  iron,  and  there  was 
plenty  of  sand  to  support  them.  The  walls  were  sixteen  feet  thick, 
and  the  centre  of  the  fort  was  a  swamp. 


468  OPENING   OF   THE   CAMPAIGN   OF   1776.       [CHAP.  XVIII. 

The  enemy  made  their  appearance  in  the  offing  on  the  31st  of  May. 
Though  expected,  the  news  startled  Charleston.  President 
fleet  a\>-  Rutledge  and  his  Council  immediately  sent  expresses  through- 
out the  State  to  hasten  the  march  of  the  militia  to  the  coast. 
Citizens  packed  off  their  families  into  the  country.  Everybody  went 
to  work  more  vigorously  on  the  defences,  —  slaves  and  masters  alike. 
Lee  showed  distrust  in  the  ability  of  Moultrie  and  his  fort  to  keep 
back  the  fleet,  and  once  he  recom mended  abandonment  of  the  post. 
At  all  events,  he  urged  the  immediate  building  of  a  bridge  of  boats 
between  Sullivan's  Island  and  the  main.  But  Moultrie  had  no  thought 
of  turning  back.  One  day,  when  Lee  visited  him,  he  took  him  aside 
and  asked,  ''Colonel,  do  you  think  you  can  maintain  this  post?" 
"Yes,  I  think  I  can,"  was  Moultrie's  reply.  When  finally  the  ships 
came  over  the  bar,  his  temper  was  again  tested.  "  Well,  Colonel," 
said  Captain  Lamperer,  an  old  sailor,  "  what  do  you  think  of  it  now?" 
"  I  think  we  shall  beat  them."  "  Sir,  when  those  ships  come  to  lie 
alongside  of  your  fort,  they  will  knock  it  down  in  half  an  hour." 
"Then  we  will  lie  behind  the  ruins  and  prevent  their  men  from  land- 
ing, "  replied  Moultrie. 

After  long  delay,  the  British  advanced  to  the  attack,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  28th  of  June.  The  land  forces  had  debarked 
on  Long  Island,  lying  north  of  Sullivan's  but  a  short  dis- 
tance ;  and  they  were  to  attack  Thompson  first  and  then  Moultrie,  in 
the  flank  and  rear,  while  the  fleet  should  bombard  the  fort  in  front. 
Between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  the  men-of-war  sailed  up  the  channel 
opposite  to  Moultrie's  palmetto  work,  and  the  action  opened.  There 
were  two  fifty-gun  ships,  the  BrutottatA  Experiment;  the  frigates 
Actfemi,  Active,  Solebay,  Sphynx,  and  Syren,  of  twenty-eight  guns 
each  ;  the  mortar-ship  Thunder  Bomb,  and  two  smaller  vessels.  Two 
hundred  guns  were  here  to  be  trained  on  the  devoted  post.  The 
Solebay  led  the  squadron,  with  the  Bristol,  flying  Admiral  Parker's 
pennant,  third  in  line.  As  they  approached  within  range,  the  Amer- 
ican? opened  fire  on  the  leading  vessels,  but  no  reply  was  made  until 
the  fleet  had  come  to  anchor  close  to  the  fort.  The  bombardment 
now  began,  and  was  sustained  in  "  one  continual  blaze  and  roar." 
Deserters  reported  that  Moultrie's  first  fire  killed  a  man  in  the  Bris- 
tol's tops,  whereupon  the  Admiral  ordered  the  tops  to  be  cleared.1 
Shot  poured  against  the  side  of  the  fort,  but  they  sank  into  the  logs, 
without  splintering  or  dislodging  them  ;  the  shells  that  fell  within 
plunged  mostly  into  the  marsh  or  deep  sand,  and  seldom  exploded,  so 
that  the  ships'  fire  proved  less  damaging  than  might  have  been  in- 
ferred from  the  sound  of  the  repeated  and  simultaneous  discharges. 

1  Gadsden  to  Moultrie.     Force. 


u 


1776.]  THE   BRITISH   REPULSED.  469 

Moultrie's  men  withstood  the  ordeal  with  unfailing  courage  and 
discipline.  The  Colonel,  who  was  suffering  from  the  gout,  smoked 
his  pipe  with  his  officers.  Their  guns  were  well  aimed,  and  the  balls 
tore  through  the  ships  with  fatal  effect.  All  through  the  long  and 
hot  afternoon  the  bombardment  was  kept  up,  and  neither  side  showed 
signs  of  yielding.  Once  the  flag  of  the  fort,  a  blue  banner  with  a 
silver  crescent,  bearing  the  word  "  Liberty,"  was  shot  away,  but  Ser- 
geant William  Jasper  boldly  leaped  the  parapet,  and  re-  jasper-gex. 
placed  it  securely  on  the  bastion  in  the  hottest  of  the  fire.  ploit- 
On  the  other  hand  the  Bristol's  cables  were  cut  by  the  shot,  and 
as  she  swung  around,  bringing  her  decks  within  range  of  the  American 
guns,  they  poured  in  a  deadly  fire.  The  ship  and  her  crew  suffered 
terribly.  Captain  Morris  was  taken  below,  wounded  in  several 
places,  and  his  arm  shot  away.  Every  man  on  the  quarter  deck  was 
either  killed  or  wounded,  the  Admiral  standing  alone  at  one  time  in 
the  thickest  of  the  shot.  He  escaped  with  his  clothes  torn  and  a 
slight  wound.  The  Experiment  suffered  hardly  less  than  the  Bristol. 
"  Mind  the  Commodore  !  "  "  Mind  the  fifty-gun  ships  !  "  was  Moul- 
trie's order  ;  and  their  death-roll  showed  how  effectively  the  artil- 
lerists did  their  work,  these  two  ships  alone  suffering  a  loss  of  sixty- 
three  killed  and  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  wounded.  Three  of 
the  other  ships  attempted  to  take  position  westward  of  the  fort,  but 
all  ran  aground.  The  Actceon  next  morning  was  abandoned  and 
burned.  By  seven  in  the  evening,  the  ships'  fire  slackened,  and  at  nine 
they  slipped  their  cables  and  withdrew  two  miles  from  the  Island. 
Clinton,  with  the  land  forces,  had  attempted  to  cross  from  Long 
Island  to  Sullivan's  Island,  but  the  fire  from  Thompson's  Thefinal  re. 
battery,  and  the  depth  of  the  ford,  frustrated  his  plans.  pulse- 

The  victory  was  complete.  Congratulations  poui-ed  in  upon  Moul- 
trie.  His  regiment  was  presented  with  a  pair  of  beautiful  banners. 
Lee,  who  had  visited  the  fort  during  the  engagement,  and  pointed  some 
of  the  guns  himself,  wrote  to  Washington  of  Moultrie's  men  :  "  The 
cool  courage  they  displayed  astonished  and  enraptured  me,  for  I  do 
assure  you,  my  dear  General,  I  never  experienced  a  hotter  fire. 
Twelve  full  hours  it  was  continued  without  intermission.  The  noble 
fellows  \vho  were  mortally  wounded,  enjoined  their  brethren  never  to 
abandon  the  Standard  of  Liberty."  1  The  garrison  lost  ten 
men  killed,  and  twenty-nine  wounded.  From  that  day  the 
fort  was  known  as  Fort  Moultrie.  The  decisive  character  of  this  ac- 
tion convinced  the  British  of  the  improbability  of  success  in  that 
quarter,  and  the  expedition  sailed  for  New  York. 

i   The  Lee  Papers.     N.  Y  Hist.  Soc.  Coll. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  —  PAIXE'S  "  COMMON  SENSE." — THE  MEN- 
DON  RESOLUTIONS.  —  THE  SUFFOLK  RESOLUTIONS.  —  THE  CHESTER  RESOLUTION. 
—  THE  MECKLENBURG  RESOLUTIONS.  —  ACTION  OF  THE  SEVERAL  COLONIES,  AND  OF 
THE  CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS.  —  LEE'S  RESOLUTIONS.  —  THE  COMMITTEE  TO  DRAFT 
A  DECLARATION  OF  REASONS. — INDEPENDENCE  DECLARED. — JEFFERSON'S  DEC- 
LARATION.—  THE  SLAVE-TRADE  CLAUSE.  —  RECEPTION  BY  THE  PEOPLE.  —  FORMA- 
TION or  THE  STATE  CONSTITUTIONS. 


UP   to   the  autumn    of    1775,    the    growth  of 
the  feeling  in  favor  of  proclaiming  independence  had  been 
very  slow.     But  after  the  royal  proclamation  had  severed  all 
relations  except  those  between 


a  government  and  rebels  who  have 


1776.] 


GROWTH  OF   THE  IDEA   OF   INDEPENDENCE. 


471 


"traitorously  levied  war"  against  it,  the  sentiment  spread  through 
the  country.     As  Hancock  said,  affairs  were  "hastening  fast 
to  a  crisis."     Views  which  a  twelvemonth  before  would  have  iudepoiid- 
beeii   denounced    as   treasonable    and   dangerous,  were   now 
freely  expressed  in  conversation,  in  letters,  and  in  pamphlets  that  had 
a  wide  circulation.    Franklin,  who  in  March,  1775,  personally  assured 
Lord  Chatham  that,  although  he  had  travelled  widely  in  America,  he 
never  had  heard,  "  in  any  conversation  from  any  person,  drunk  or 
sober,"  the  least  expression  in 
favor  of  independence,  wrote  to 
a  friend  in  Holland,  at  the  close 
of  the  year,  that  American  inde- 
pendence was  likely  to  be  de- 
clared before  long.     When  Con- 
gress assembled  in  May,  1775, 
the    Massachusetts    delegates 
were  suspected  of  leaning  tow- 
ard separation,  which  even  the 
most  active  Sons  of  Liberty  in 
Philadelphia    were    unprepared 
for,   and   they   said   to   Adams 
on  his  arrival,  "  You  must  not 
utter   the    word    independence, 
nor  give  the  least  hint  or  insin- 
uation   of    the   idea,   either    in 
Congress  or  in  any  private  con- 
versation ;  if   you   do,  you   are 
undone,  for  the   idea  is  as  un- 
popular in  Pennsylvania,  and  all  the  Middle  and  Southern  States,  as 
the  Stamp  Act  itself."     Early  in  1776  Adams  wrote  that  scarcely  a 
newspaper  was  issued  which  did  not  openly  vindicate  the  opinions  so 
recently  denounced. 

The  publication  which  had  the  widest  influence  at  this  juncture  was 
undoubtedly  Thomas  Paine's  "Common  Sense."     Paine  was 
an  Englishman,   with  literary  tastes  and  ambition,  who,  at  "common 
the  age  of  thirty-seven,  came  to  America  in  December,  1774, 
taught  pupils  in  Philadelphia,  and   edited  the  "  Pennsylvania  Maga- 
zine."    He  was  befriended  by  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  and  at  his  sugges- 
tion wrote,  under  that  famous  title,  a  pamphlet  which  presented  a 
strong  and  original  plea  for  independence.     It  appeared  anonymously 
in  January,  1776,  and  had  a  wide  circulation.    Everybody  read  it,  and 
nearly  everybody  was  influenced  by  it.     "All  men,  whether  in  Eng- 
land or  America,"  wrote  Paine,  "confess  that  a  separation  between 


Thomas  Paine. 


472  DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE.        [CHAP.  XIX. 

the  countries  will  take  place  one  time  or  other.     To  find  out  the  very 

time,  we  need  not  go  far,  for  the  time  hath  found  us There  is 

something  absurd  in  supposing  a  continent  perpetually  governed  by 

an  island Britain  is  the  parent  country,  say  some  ;  then  the 

more  shame  upon  her  conduct A  government  of  our  own  is 

our  natural  right We  have  boasted  the  protection  of  Great 

Britain  without  considering  that  her  motive  was  interest,  not  attach- 
ment ;  that  she  did  not  protect  us  from  our  enemies  on  our  account, 
but  from  her  enemies  on  her  own  account,  —  from  those  who  had  no 
quai-rel  with  us  on  any  other  account,  and  who  will  always  be  our  ene- 
mies on  the  same  account." 

The  Colonial  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  was  soon  to  fol- 
The  Mendon  1°W'  was  to  some  extent  anticipated  by  the  action  of  various 
Resolutions.  towns  an(j  counties.  The  first  of  them  all,  probably,  was 
the  town  of  Mendon,  Worcester  County,  Mass.,  which  in  1773  adopted 
these  resolutions :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  all  men  have  an  equal  right  to  life,  liberty,  and 
property.  Therefore, 

"  Resolved,  That  all  just  and  lawful  government  must  originate  in 
the  free  consent  of  the  people. 

"  Resolved,  That  a  right  to  liberty  and  property  (which  are  natu- 
ral means  of  self-preservation)  is  absolutely  inalienable,  and  can  never 
lawfully  be  given  up  by  ourselves  or  taken  from  us  by  others."  l 

Here  are  three  of  the  fundamental  propositions  of  the  great  Dec- 
laration, —  that  all  men  have  an  equal  right  to  life  and  liberty  ; 2  that 
this  right  is  inalienable  ;  and  that  just  government  must  originate  in 
the  free  consent  of  the  people.  Following  these  were  the  Suffolk  Res- 
The  Suffolk  olutions,  adopted  by  the  delegates  for  Suffolk  County,  Massa- 
Kesoiutions.  cnusetts,  in  a  meeting  at  Milton,  September  6,1774,  bearing 
a  similar  resemblance  to  the  Colonial  Declaration,  especially  in  the  cat- 
alogue of  grievances.  Dr.  (afterward  General)  Joseph  Warren  was 
chairman  of  the  committee  that  reported  them,  and  is  believed  to 
have  been  their  author.  The  preamble  declares  that  "  the  power  but 
not  the  justice,  the  vengeance  but  not  the  wisdom  of  Great  Britain, 
which  of  old  persecuted,  scourged,  and  exiled  our  fugitive  parents  from 
their  native  shores,  now  pursue  us,  their  guiltless  children,  with  un- 
relenting severity,"  and  that  "  if  a  boundless  extent  of  continent, 
swarming  with  millions,  will  tamely  submit  to  live,  move,  and  have 
their  being  at  the  arbitrary  will  of  a  licentious  ministry,  they  basely 
yield  to  voluntary  slavery."  It  also  recites  some  of  the  more  flagrant 

1  Proceedings  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  April  27,  1870. 

2  The  addition  of  "  the  pursuit  of  happiness  "  is  mere  rhetoric,  that  idea  being  already 
included  in  "liberty." 


1774.]  THE   SUFFOLK   RESOLUTIONS.  473 

causes  of  complaint,  such  as  the  mutilation  of  the  charter,  the  pres- 
ence of  ships  of  war,  military  murders  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  and 
the  law  designed  to  shield  the  murderers.  The  first  resolution  ac- 
knowledges George  III.  as  the  rightful  sovereign.  The  second  de- 
clares it  the  indispensable  duty  of  the  colonists  to  preserve  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  The  third  denounces  the  Boston  Port  Bill  and  kin- 
dred acts,  and  the  fourth  declares  that  no  obedience  to  those  acts  is 
due  from  this  province.  The  fifth  declares  that,  so  long  as  the  jus- 
tices of  the  several  courts  hold  their  places  by  any  other  tenure  than 
that  which  the  charter  and  laws  direct,  no  regard  ought  to  be  paid  to 
them  by  the  people  ;  and  the  sixth  pledges  the  county  to  support  and 
bear  harmless  all  officers  who  refuse  to  execute  the  orders  of  the 
courts,  at  the  same  time  recommending  that  disputes  between  citizens 
be  referred  to  arbitration.  The  seventh  advises  collectors  of  taxes  to 
retain  the  public  moneys  till  the  civil  government  is  placed  on  consti- 
tutional ground.  The  eighth  denounces  those  who  have  accepted 
seats  at  the  council  board  by  virtue  of  a  mandamus  from  the  King, 
and  calls  upon  them  to  resign,  or  be  considered  enemies  of  the  prov- 
ince. The  ninth  expresses  alarm  at  the  new  fortifications  on  Boston 
Neck..  The  tenth  advises  that  all  qualified  citizens  use  the  utmost  dil- 
igence to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  art  of  war,  and  meet  for  that 
purpose  at  least  once  a  week.  The  eleventh  declares  a  purpose  to  act 
merely  on  the  defensive,  so  long  as  that  is  consistent  with  self-preser- 
vation, and  assigns  "  affection  to  his  Majesty  "  as  the  reason  for  this. 
The  twelfth  suggests  that  if  any  citizens  who  have  been  conspicuous 
in  contending  for  violated  rights  are  arrested,  the  unconstitutional 
office-holders  should  be  seized  as  hostages.  The  thirteenth  declares 
the  necessity  for  a  Provincial  Congress  ;  and  the  fourteenth  promises 
respect  and  submission  to  the  measures  of  the  Colonial  Congress  for 
the  restoration  of  civil  and  religious  rights.  The  fifteenth  counsels 
order,  respect  for  the  rights  of  property,  and  "a  steady,  manly,  uni- 
form, and  persevering  opposition,  to  convince  our  enemies  that,  in  a 
contest  so  important,  in  a  cause  so  solemn,  our  conduct  shall  be  such 
as  to  merit  the  approbation  of  the  wise  and  good,  and  the  admiration 
of  the  brave  and  free,  of  every  age  and  every  country."  l  These  res- 
olutions were  sent  to  the  Continental  Congress,  which  approved  them 
on  September  17,  and  resolved  that  the  whole  continent  ought  to 
support  Massachusetts  in  resisting  the  unconstitutional  change  in  her 
government,  and  that  whoever  accepted  office  under  the  altered  state 
of  affairs  should  be  considered  a  public  enemy. 

The  committee  of  Chester  County,  Pennsylvania,  on  May  31, 1775, 

1  The  resolutions  may  be  found  in  the  appendix  to  Bradford's  History  of  J/assacAu- 
setts. 


474  DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE.        [CiiAP.  XIX. 

adopted  a  resolution  asking  the  citizens  to  pledge  themselves  to  "learn 
The  Chester  the  military  exercise,"  and  that  "  we  will,  at  all  times,  be 
Evolution,  in  readiness  to  defend  the  lives,  liberties,  and  properties  of 
ourselves  and  fellow-countrymen,  against  all  attempts  to  deprive  us 
of  them."  1  Other  counties  took  similar  action.  On  the  6th  of  June, 
]77o,  the  County  of  Cumberland,  New  York  (now  Southern  Ver- 
mont), passed  unanimously  a  series  of  resolutions,  the  first  of  which 
declared  that  the  late  revenue  acts  of  the  British  Parliament  were 
"unjust,  illegal,  and  diametrically  opposite  to  the  Bill  of  Rights;" 
and  the  second  "  That  we  will  resist  and  oppose  the  said  Acts  of 
Parliament,  in  conjunction  with  our  brethren  in  America,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  our  lives  and  fortunes,  to  the  last  extremity,  if  our  duty  to 
God  and  our  country  require  the  same."  2 

On  the  31st  of  May,  177.5  (the  very  day  that  Chester  County, 
Pennsylvania,  passed  its  resolution),  the  committee  of  Meck- 
lenburg       lenburg  County,  North  Carolina,  adopted  a  series  somewhat 

Kesolutious.       ...  i      "o     o>   n  i       •  •     i  IP  mi 

similar  to  the  outiolk  resolutions  of  the  vear  before.      Hie 

tf 

preamble  founds  this  action  upon  "  an  address  presented  to  his  Maj- 
esty by  both  Houses  of  Parliament  in  February  last,"  wherein  "the 
American  colonies  are  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  actual  rebellion." 
From  this  circumstance  the  Committee  say  they  "conceive  that  all 
laws  and  commissions  confirmed  by  or  derived  from  the  authority  of 
the  King  and  Parliament,  are  annulled  and  vacated,  and  the  former 
civil  constitution  of  these  colonies  for  the  present  wholly  suspended." 
The  first  resolution  declares  all  commissions  granted  by  the  Crown  to 
be  void.  The  second  declares  that  no  legislative  or  executive  power 
exists,  except  in  the  Provincial  Congress  of  each  province.  The  third 
to  the  fifteenth  are  devoted  to  a  code  of  procedure  for  civil  disputes 
and  the  collection  of  taxes.  The  sixteenth  declares  that  "  whatever 
person  shall  hereafter  receive  a  commission  from  the  Crown,  or  at- 
tempt to  exercise  any  such  commission  heretofore  received,  shall  be 
deemed  an  enemy  to  his  country,"  and  the  seventeenth  denounces 
as  equally  criminal  any  person  who  refuses  obedience  to  the  above 
rules.  The  eighteenth  pronounces  these  rules  to  be  in  force  till  the 
Provincial  Congress  shall  provide  otherwise,  "  or  the  legislative  body 
of  Great  Britain  resign  its  unjust  and  arbitrary  pretensions  with  re- 
spect to  America."  The  nineteenth  provides  for  the  arming  of  the 
county  militia,  and  the  twentieth  for  the  purchase  of  powder,  lead, 
and  flints.3  The  resolutions  bear  the  signature  of  Dr.  Ephraim  Bre- 
vard  as  Clerk  of  the  Committee,  and  he  is  believed  to  have  been  their 

1  Printed  in  Force's  American  Archives,  Fourth  Series,  vol.  ii ,  p.  859. 

2  Force's  American  Archives.  Fourth  Series,  vol.  ii.,  p.  918. 
8  Wheeler's  History  of  North  Carolina,  p.  235. 


1775]  THE  MECKLENBURG   RESOLUTIONS.  475 

author.  As  soon  as  they  were  adopted,  they  were  read  from  the  steps 
of  the  Court  House  in  Charlottetown,  and  a  copy  was  sent  by  special 
messenger  to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  They  were  published  in 
the  "  South  Carolina  Gazette  "  of  June  13,  1775,  and  a  copy  sent  to 
Earl  Dartmouth,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  by  Governor 
Wright  of  Georgia,  is  still  in  the  State  Paper  Office,  London.  In 
a  note  accompanying  it,  Governor  Wright  said :  "  By  the  enclosed 
paper  your  lordship  will  see  the  extraordinary  resolves  by  the  people 
in  Chavlottetown,  Mecklenburg  County ;  and  I  should  not  be  surprised 
if  the  same  should  be  done  everywhere  else."  It  required  no  great 
sagacity  to  surmise  that  the  same  would  be  done  everywhere  else,  in- 
asmuch as  it  had  been  done  already  in  so  many  other  places.  One 
month  later,  Governor  Martin,  of  North  Carolina,  writing  from  Fort 
Johnston  to  the  Secretary,  says  :  "  The  minutes  of  a  council  held  at 
this  place  the  other  day,  will  make  the  impotence  of  Government 
here  as  apparent  to  your  Lordship  as  anything  I  can  set  before  you. 
....  The  situation  in  which  I  find  myself  at  present,  is  indeed,  my 
lord,  most  despicable  and  mortifying The  resolves  of  the  com- 
mittee of  Mecklenburg,  which  your  Lordship  will  find  in  the  enclosed 
newspaper,  surpass  all  the  horrid  and  treasonable  publications  that 
the  inflammatory  spirits  of  the  continent  have  yet  produced."  The 
horrified  Governor  assigned  this  bad  preeminence  to  the  Mecklenburg 
resolutions,  not  because  of  their  intrinsic  character,  for  they  were 
less  audacious  and  forcible  than  some  of  the  others  quoted  above,  but 
because  they  were  uttered  in  his  own  province,  and  in  them  lie  rend 
his  own  deposition  from  power.  They  do  not  appear  to  have  attracted 
any  attention  in  Congress,  or  even  to  have  been  officially  received 
there,  —  perhaps  because  similar  ones  (notably  those  of  Suffolk 
County)  had  already  been  received  and  acted  upon.1 

1  The  Mecklenburg  resolutions  of  May  31  had  entirely  passed  from  memory,  when  in 
1819  the  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  Register  published  a  series  of  five  which,  according  to  :in  ac- 
companying statement  purporting  to  have  been  written  at  the  time,  wei-e  adopted  by  the 
people  of  that  county  on  the  twentieth  day  of  May,  1775.  Portions  of  these  resolutions  liore 
a  striking  likeness  to  the  most  familiar  parts  of  the  Colonial  Declaration  of  Independence 
—  so  striking  as  to  render  it  morally  certain  that  one  must  have  l>een  taken  from  ihe  other. 
This  was  especially  true  of  the  third:  "  That  we  do  hereby  declare  ourselves  a  free  and 
independent  people,  and  of  right  ouu'ht  to  be  a  sovereign  and  self-governing  association, 
under  the  control  of  110  power  other  than  that  of  our  God  and  the  general  government  of 
the  Congress;  to  the  maintenance  of  which  independence  we  solemnly  pledge  to  each  other 
our  mutual  cooperation,  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  most  sacred  honour."  The  accom- 
panying statement  declared  that  a  copy  of  the  resolutions  was  sent  to  the  North  Carolina 
delegation  in  Congress,  and  the  messenger  on  his  return  reported  that  they  "  were  individ- 
ually approved  by  the  memlrers,  but  it  was  deemed  premature  to  lay  them  before  the 
House."  The  original  manuscript  was  said  to  have  been  burned  on  the  6th  of  April.  1SOO, 
but  a  copy  had  been  sent  to  Dr.  Hugh  Williamson,  who  was  writing  a  history  of  North 
Carolina,  and  another  to  General  W.  li.  Davie.  But  William>ou  does  not  mention  them 


476  DECLARATIOX   OF   INDEPENDENCE.         [CHAI-.  XIX. 

By  the  spring  of  1776,  the  uppermost  thought  in  men's  minds,  all 
over  the  country,  had  come  to  be  independence  of  England, 

Prepare-  ,  .  .  l  ii-i 

tious  for  in-  a  more  pertect  union  of  the  colonies,  and  the  establishment 
of  a  local  government  for  each.  John  Adams,  in  the  previ- 
ous November,  had  written  a  letter  to  Richard  Henry  Lee,  in  which 
he  says  :  "  It  is  a  curious  problem,  what  form  of  government  is  most 
readily  and  easily  adopted  by  a  colony  upon  a  sudden  emergency." 
In  this,  and  in  another  letter,  written  the  following  January,  he 
sketched  a  plan  for  the  guidance  of  a  -people  seeking  "  to  get  out  of 
the  old  government  into  a  new  one."  l  The  desire  to  read  the  second 
letter,  —  which  was  the  more  elaborate,  —  was  so  great,  and  the  ap- 
plication for  copies  so  frequent,  that  it  was  printed,  but  without  the 
author's  name,  and  its  influence  was  felt  both  in  and  out  of  Con- 
gress.2 

in  his  history,  and  the  Davie  copy  was  accompanied  by  a  certificate,  dated  September  3, 
1800,  which  expressly  declared  it  to  be  compiled  solely  from  memory,  and  that  it  "might 
not  literally  correspond  with  the  original  record."  On  the  publication  of  this  document  in 
1819,  Jefferson  pronounced  it  "  a  very  unjustifiable  quiz,"  and  pointed  out  the  weakness 
of  its  claim  to  authenticity.  John  Adams  expressed  surprise  that  he  had  never  heard  of  it 
before,  and  wrote  to  William  Bentley,  August  21,  1819:  "I  was  on  social  friendly  terms 
with  Caswell,  Hooper,  aud  Hewes  (delegates  from  North  Carolina  in  the  Continental  Con- 
gress), every  moment  of  their  existence  in  Congress  ;  with  Hooper,  a  Bostonian  and  a  son  of 
Harvard,  intimate  and  familiar.  Yet  from  neither  of  the  three  did  the  slightest  hint  of  these 
Mecklenburg  resolutions  ever  escape  : "  and  to  Jefferson  he  wrote  :  "  You  know  that  if  I  had 
possessed  it  I  would  have  made  the  hall  of  Congress  echo  and  reecho  with  it  fifteen  months 
before  your  Declaration  of  Independence."  Furthermore,  it  has  been  shown  that  in  Au- 
gust, 1775,  the  members  of  the  North  Carolina  Provincial  Congress,  including  four  of  the 
reputed  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  May  20,  subscribed  their  names  to  a  test  of  loyalty 
to  the  British  Crown.  The  controversy  that  arose  upon  this  question  caused  the  Legislature 
of  North  Carolina,  in  1830,  to  appoint  a  committee  to  investigate  it.  In  1838  Peter  Force, 
compiling  his  American  Archives,  came  upon  an  abbreviated  copy  of  the  genuine  resolu- 
tions of  May  31,  and  in  1847  Dr.  Joseph  Johnson  found  the  entire  series  in  the  South 
Carolina  Gazette,  while  about  the  same  time  George  Bancroft  discovered  the  copy  in  the 
London  State  Paper  Office.  The  probable  explanation  then  becomes  obvious,  namely  :  that 
the  compiler  of  the  disputed  series  did  remember  the  circumstance  of  certain  resolutions  hav- 
ing been  passed,  — though  making  an  error  of  eleven  days  in  the  date,  —  and  in  attempting 
to  reproduce  them  was  influenced  by  an  unconscious  remembrance  of  the  far  more  striking 
expressions  of  the  Colonial  Declaration  of  July  4,  1776.  For  a  conclusive  discussion  of 
this  whole  subject,  see  an  article  by  Dr.  James  C.  Welling,  in  the  North  American  Review 
for  April,  1874. 

1  See  Appendix  to  vol.  ii.  of  Sparks's  Writings  of  Washington,  and  vol.  iv.  of  Works  of 
John  Adams. 

2  Among  the  Warren  Papers,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Winslow  Warren,  of  Boston,  is 
a  letter  from  John  Adams  to  James  Warren,  the  larger  portion  of  which  is  devoted  to 
"  the  rise  and  progress  "  of  this  pamphlet  on  the  formation  of  State  governments.     It  is 
interesting  and  valuable,  as  showing  how  much  the  earliest  State  constitutions  were  formed 
upon  the  suggestions  made  by  Mr.  Adams.     The  pamphlet  referred  to  is  in  Works  of  John 
Adams,  vol.  iv.,  but  this  letter  has  never  been  published,  and  is  much  fuller  than  anything 
heretofore  discovered  in  relation  to  a  subject  of  so  much  interest  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Adams, 
and  iu  the  constitutional  history  of  the  States.     Mr.  Adams  says:  ....  "Inclosed  you 
have  a  little  Pamphlet,  the  rise  and  progress  of  which  you  shall  be  told.     Mr.  Hooper  and 


1776.]  ACTION    OF   THE   SEVERAL   COLONIES.  477 

On  the  26th  of  March,  the  General  Assembly  of  South  Carolina, 
—  the  judges  of    her  courts  refusing  to  exercise  their  func- 
tions, —  adopted  a  Constitution  for  the  government  of  that  south  car- 
Province.     It  was  intended,  however,  only  as  a  temporary 
measure,  to  "  continue  to  the  21st  of  October  next  and  no  longer," 
or,  —  as  its  preamble  recited  —  "  until  an  accommodation  of  the  un- 
happy differences  between  Great  Britain  and  America  can  be  ob- 
tained, an  event  which,  though  traduced  and  treated  as  rebels,  we  still 
earnestly  desire."     North  Carolina  next  took  up  the  ques-   ^  Xorth 
tion  —  on  the  12th  of  April  — and  her  action  was  restrained   Carolma- 
by  no  avowed  expectation  of  possible  conciliation.     The  Congress  of 
that  Province  voted  that  her  delegates  "  in  the  Continental  Congress 
be  empowered  to  concur  with  the  delegates  of  the  other  colonies  in 
declaring  independency,  and  forming  foreign  alliances,"  reserving  at 
the  same  time,  —  in  which  her  example  was  followed  by  other  prov- 
inces, —  the  right  "  of  forming  a  Constitution  and  laws  for  this  col- 
ony." 

Rhode  Island,  a  little  later,  went  further.     On  the  4th  of  May  she 
declared  that  as  George  III.,  regardless  of  the  compact  be-  Of  Rhode 
tween  him  and    his  colonial   subjects,  was  endeavoring   to  Island- 
compel  them  "  to  submit  to  the  most  debasing  and  detestable  tyr- 
anny," it  therefore  "  becomes  our  highest  duty  to  use  every  means 
which  God  and  nature  have  furnished  us,  in  support  of  our  invaluable 

Penn,  of  North  Carolina,  received  from  their  friends  in  that  Colony  very  pressing  instances 
to  return  home  and  attend  the  Convention,  and  at  the  same  time  to  bring  with  them  every 
hint  they  could  collect  concerning  government. 

"  Mr.  Hooper  applied  to  a  certain  Gentleman  acquainted  with  the  tenor  of  his  letters,  and 
requested  that  Gentleman  to  give  him  his  sentiments  upon  the  subject.  Soon  afterwards 
Mr.  Penn  applied  to  the  same  Gentleman,  and  acquainted  him  with  the  contents  of  his  let- 
ters, and  requested  the  same  favor. 

"  The  time  was  very  short.  However,  the  Gentleman  thinking  it  an  opportunity,  provi- 
dentially thrown  in  his  way,  of  communicating  some  hints  upon  a  subject  which  seems  not 
to  have  been  sufficiently  considered  in  the  Southern  Colonies,  and  so  of  turning  the  thoughts 
of  gentlemen  that  way,  concluded  to  borrow  a  little  time  from  his  sleep,  and  accordingly 
wrote  with  his  own  hand  a  sketch,  which  he  copied,  giving  the  original  to  Mr.  Hooper  and 
the  copy  to  Mr.  Penn,  which  they  carried  with  them  to  Carolina.  Mr.  Wythe,  getting  a 
sight  of  it,  desired  a  copy,  which  the  Gentleman  made  out  from  his  memory  as  nearly  as 
he  could.  Afterwards  Mr.  Sergeant,  of  New  Jersey,  requested  another,  which  the  Gentle- 
man made  out  again  from  his  memory,  and  iu  this  he  enlarged  and  amplified  a  good  deal, 
and  sent  it  to  Princeton.  After  this,  Colonel  Lee  requested  the  same  favor,  but  the  Gen- 
tleman, having  written,  amidst  all  his  engagements,  five  copies  —  or,  rather,  five  sketches, 
for  no  one  of  them  was  a  copy  of  the  other  —  which  amounted  to  ten  sheets  of  paper  pretty 
full  and  iu  a  fine  hand,  was  quite  weary  of  the  office.  To  avoid  the  trouble  of  writing  any 
more,  he  borrowed  Mr.  Wythe's  copy,  and  lent  it  to  Colonel  Lee,  who  has  put  it  under  types 
and  thrown  it  into  the  shape  you  see.  It  is  a  pity  it  had  not  been  Mr.  Sergeant's  copy,  for 
that  is  larger  and  more  complete,  perhaps  more  correct.  This  is  very  incorrect,  and  not 
truly  printed.  The  design,  however,  is  to  mark  out  a  path  and  put  men  upon  thinking. 
I  would  not  have  this  matter  communicated." 


478  DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE.        [CiiAP.  XIX. 

rights  and  privileges,  to  oppose  that  power  which  is  exercised  only  for 
our  destruction/'  It  was  then  enacted  that  the  "  Act,  entitled  '  An 
Act  for  the  more  effectually  securing  to  his  Majesty  the  allegiance  of 
his  subjects  in  this  his  colony  and  dominion  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Providence  Plantations,'  be,  and  the  same  is,  hereby  repealed;  "  and 
it  was  provided  that  in  all  commissions  for  officers,  in  all  writs,  and 
in  all  processes  of  law,  "  wherever  the  name  and  authority  of  the 
said  King  is  made  use  of,  the  same  shall  be  omitted,  and  in  the  room 
thereof,  the  name  and  authority  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of 
this  colony  shall  be  substituted ; "  that  the  courts  of  law  be  no 
longer  entitled  nor  considered  as  the  King's  courts ;  and  that  no  in- 
strument in  writing,  of  any  nature  or  kind,  whether  public  or  private, 
shall  in  the  date  thereof,  mention  the  year  of  the  said  King's  reign." 
At  the  end  of  this  session  of  the  Assembly,  the  records  which,  says 
Arnold,1  had  always  closed  with  the  formula,  "  God  save  the  King," 
ended  now  with  the  words,  "God  save  the  United  Colonies."  Thus 
the  first  colony  to  declare  her  absolute  independence  of  the  Crown  was 
Rhode  Island. 

Massachusetts  was  not  far  behind,  though  her  first  official  action, 
of  Masoa-  like  that  of  South  and  North  Carolina,  was  prospective 
ehusetts.  ratner  than  positive.  On  the  10th  of  May  her  House  of 
Representatives  called  upon  the  people  to  assemble  in  town  meetings 
and  instruct  their  representatives  "  Whether,  if  the  Honorable  Con- 
gress should,  for  the  safety  of  the  said  colonies,  declare  them  inde- 
pendent of  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  they,  the  said  inhabitants, 
will  solemnly  engage,  with  their  lives  and  fortunes,  to  support  them 
in  the  measure."  A  month  later,  James  Warren  wrote  to  Elbridge 
Gerry  that  one  half  the  members  of  the  House  had  received  affirma- 
tive instructions,  and  that  probably  all  would  have  been  so  instructed 
had  the  resolution  reached  them  sooner.  "  Thus,  it  appears  to  me," 
he  adds,  "the  sentiments  of  our  colony  are  more  united  on  this  great 
question  than  they  ever  were  on  any  other ;  perhaps  ninety-nine  in  a 
hundred  would  engage,  with  their  lives  and  fortunes,  to  support  Con- 
gress in  the  matter."  One  town  only  in  the  Commonwealth  seemed 
to  hesitate.  The  vote  of  the  majority  in  Barnstable  —  the  birth- 
place of  James  Otis  —  was  in  the  negative  ;  but  the  same  record  bears 
the  protest  of  the  minority,  —  headed  by  Joseph  Otis,  a  younger 
brother  of  James,  —  and  their  protest  was  made  more  emphatic,  and 
with  added  numbers,  in  a  second  public  meeting  the  next  day.  Pitts- 
field  undoubtedly  represented  the  feeling  of  the  whole  province,  in 
instructing  its  representative  that  he  should  "  on  no  pretence,  what- 
ever, favor  a  union  with  Great  Britain,"  and  that  he  should  use  all 

1  History  of  Rhode  Island. 


1776.]  ACTION   OF    THE    SEVERAL   COLONIES.  479 

his  influence  with  the  House  to  assure  the  Congress  that  this  whole 
Province  are  waiting  for  the  important  moment  which  they  in  their 
great  wisdom  shall  appoint  for  the  declaration  of  Independence  and  a 
free  Republick." 

May,  indeed,  was  a  month  of  unusual  agitation.     Five  days  after 
Massachusetts  had  called   upon  her  towns  to  sanction    by  Action  of 
formal  vote  the  undoubted  determination  of  the  people,  —  nentarcdn- 
eleven  days  after  Rhode  Island  had  declared  herself  an  inde-  gress' 
pendent  Commonwealth, —  the  Continental   Congress,  on  the  loth, 
recommended  to  all  the  colonial  assemblies  to  form  such  governments 
as  should  "  best  conduce  to  the  happiness  and  safety  of  their  constit- 
uents in  particular  and  America  in  general  ;  "  for,  the  preamble  to 
the  resolution  declared,  the  people  being  excluded  by  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment from  the  protection  of  the  Crown,  "  it  is  necessary  that  the 
exercise  of  every  kind  of  authority  under  the  said  Crown   shall  be 
totally  suppressed,  and  all  the  powers  of  government  exerted  under 
the  authority  of  the  people  of  the  colonies." 

The  country  was  ready  for  this  final  and  conclusive  step.  Those 
colonies  that  had  not  already  spoken,  —  directly,  as  Rhode  Island, 
North  Carolina,  Massachusetts ;  indirectly,  as  South  Carolina  had 
done,  —  avowed,  with  a  single  exception,  in  the  course  of  the  next  six 
weeks,  their  determination  to  unite  in  declaring  their  independence. 
The  one  exception  was  New  York,  whose  Assembly  hesitated  on  a 
technicality,  giving  at  the  same  time  constructive  assent. 

Virginia  had  not  waited  for  the  suggestion  from  the  Continental 
Congi-ess  of  the  15th  of  May.     On  that  same  day  her  Con- 
vention —  which  had  displaced  the  Provincial  Assembly  — 
instructed  the  Virginia   delegates  in   Congress  to   urge  it   "  to  de- 
clare the  United  Colonies  free  and  independent  States,  absolved  from 
allegiance  to,  or  dependence  upon  the  Crown  or  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain  ; "  and  at  the  same  time  a  committee  was  appointed  to  pre- 
pare "  a  Declaration  of  Rights,  and  such  a  plan  of  government  as  will 
be  most  likely  to  maintain  peace  and  order  in  this  colony,  and  secure 
substantial  and  equal  liberty  to  the  people." 

On  the  14th  of  June  the  Connecticut  Assembly  resolved  unani- 
mously that  the  delegates  of  that  colony  to  the  Provin-  Of  Connect. 
cial  Congress,  be  instructed  to  propose  to  that  body  "to  lcut 
declare  the  United  American  Colonies  free  and  independent  States, 
absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  King,  and  to  give  the  assent  of 
this  colony  to  such  declaration,  when  they  shall  judge  it  expedient 
and  best."  So,  on  the  same  day,  the  Delaware  House  of  Representa- 
tives took  up  the  congressional  resolution  of  May  15,  and  gave  it 
their  unqualified  and  unanimous  approval. 


480  DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE.        [CHAP.  XIX. 

New  Hampshire  was  one  day  only  behind  Connecticut.  A  joint 
of  Xew  committee  of  the  Council  and  Assembly  were  appointed  to 
Hampshire,  draw  Up  H  declaration  of  opinion,  which,  on  the  loth,  was  re- 
ported and  unanimously  adopted.  It  pronounced  New  Hampshire 
"  free  and  independent  of  the  Crown,"  and  instructed  its  delegates 
in  the  Continental  Congress  to  support  a  measure  for  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  thirteen  colonies,  with  the  usual  reservation  of  local 
government. 

Whatever  immediate  influence  may  have  been  exercised  in  Phila- 
ot  Pennsyi-  delphia  itself  by  the  presence  of  Congress,  it  was  not  suffi- 
vaiiia.  cient  to  dispel  the  doubt  as  to  the  policy  which  the  Province 
of  Pennsylvania  might  insist  upon  maintaining.  Religious  convic- 
tions, with  Friends,  overruled  all  political  considerations;  with  them 
no  wrongs  justified  an  appeal  to  the  sword.  The  Proprietary  interest 
was  still  of  great  weight,  and  these  combined  influences  tempered  the 
ardor  of  the  most  determined  patriotism  to  that  degree,  at  least,  that 
moderation  and  caution  guided  and  checked  the  popular  movement. 
But  they  did  not  control  it.  When  the  advisory  Resolution  of  Con- 
gress came  before  the  Assembly,  it  was  determined  that  the  instruc- 
tions given  to  their  delegates  the  previous  November  should  not  be 
changed.  "  We  strictly  enjoin  you,"  said  those  instructions,  "  that 
you,  in  behalf  of  this  colony,  dissent  from  and  utterly  reject  any 
propositions,  should  such  be  made,  that  may  cause  or  lead  to  a  separa- 
tion from  our  mother  country,  or  a  change  of  the  form  of  this  gov- 
ernment." But  to  repeat  this  order  was  almost  the  final  act  of  Pro- 
prietary rule  in  this  Province.  On  the  20th  a  large  meeting  of  the 
people  of  Philadelphia  convened  in  the  State-house  yard.  It  de- 
clared that  the  government  was  no  longer  "  competent  to  the  exigen- 
cies of  our  affairs ;  "  that  "  a  Provincial  Convention  ought  to  be  chosen 
by  the  people,  for  the  express  purpose  of  carrying  the  said  resolve  of 
Congress  into  execution  ; ?'  and  directed  the  committee  of  the  city 
to  call  a  conference  of  the  committees  of  every  county  in  the  Prov- 
ince. 

The  Conference  assembled  on  the  18th  of  June  ;  on  the  19th  it 
resolved  that  the  Resolution  of  Congress  of  the  15th  of  May  was 
fully  approved ;  that  the  present  government  of  Pennsylvania  was 
incompetent,  and  that  a  Provincial  Convention  be  called  to  form  a 
new  one.  On  the  24th  a  committee,  appointed  for  that  purpose,  re- 
ported a  declaration  which,  after  an  explanatory  preamble,  declared 
that  "We,  the  Deputies  of  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  assembled  in 
full  Provincial  Conference  for  forming  a  plan  for  executing  the  Re- 
solve of  Congress  of  the  15th  of  May  last,  for  suppressing  all  author- 
ity in  this  Province  derived  from  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  and  for 


1776.] 


ACTION   OF   THE    SEVERAL   COLONIES. 


481 


establishing  a  government  upon  the  authority  of  the  people  only,  now, 
in  this  publick  manner,  in  behalf  of  ourselves,  and  with  the  approba- 
tion, consent,  and  authority  of  our  constituents,  unanimously  declare 
our  willingness  to  concur  in  a  vote  of  the  Congress  declaring  the 
United  Colonies  free  and  independent  States,  provided  the  forming 
the  government  and  the  regulation  of  the  internal  police  of  this  Col- 
ony be  always  reserved  to  the  people  of  the  said  Colony." 


Congress  Hall.  —  Room  where  the  Declaration  was  signed. 

On  the  30th  of  May,  Governor  Franklin,  of  New  Jersey,  a  son  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  issued  a  proclamation  calling  upon  the  Of  \ewjer- 
Congress  of  that  Province  to  meet  on  the  20th  of  the  next  sey- 
month.  That  body,  however,  assembled  on  the  10th  of  June,  full 
charged  with  zeal  and  courage  in  the  common  cause.  On  the  16th  it 
declared  that  the  Governor,  in  his  proclamation,  had  "  acted  in  direct 
contempt  and  violation  of  the  Resolve  of  the  Continental  Congress 
of  the  15th  day  of  May,"  and  that  he  had  "  discovered  himself  to  be 
an  enemy  of  the  liberties  of  his  country."  Within  a  day  or  two  he 
was  arrested,  and  soon  after  sent  to  Connecticut,  where,  the  House 

VOL.  in.  31 


482  DECLARATION    OF   INDEPENDENCE.         [CHAP.  XIX. 

said,  "  he  would  be  capable  of  doing  less  mischief  than  in  New  Jer- 
sey." On  the  21st  it  was  determined  to  form  a  new  government  in 
accordance  with  the  recommendation  of  Congress  ;  and  two  days  after- 
ward five  delegates  were  chosen  to  represent  the  Province  in  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  with  authority  "to  join  with  them  in  declaring  the 
United  Colonies  independent  of  Great  Britain." 

New  York  and  Maryland  moved  more  slowly  than  the  other  colo- 
otMary-  »ies ;  but  it  was  rather  from  the  tardy  caution  of  legislative 
liind  action  than  any  want  of  popular  enthusiasm.  In  both  there 

was  a  strong  Tory  party.  Maryland  had  first  to  rid  herself  of  a  royal 
and  proprietary  Governor.  Early  in  April  correspondence  between 
the  Ministry  and  Governor  Eden  had  been  intercepted,  and  more  nat- 
urally than  reasonably,  —  for  he  was  the  representative  of  the  King, 
and  the  colonies,  however  good  their  cause,  were  in  rebellion,  —  had 
aroused  great  indignation.  General  Lee,  then  in  command  of  the 
Southern  Department,  wrote  to  Samuel  Purviance,  the  Chairman  of 
the  Baltimore  Committee,  urging  Eden's  immediate  arrest.  "  The 
sin  and  shame,"  he  said,  in  his  impulsive  and  dictatorial  way,  "  be  on 
my  head.  I  will  answer  for  all  to  the  Congress."  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, a  question  of  sin  and  shame,  but  only  of  expediency,  and  wiser 
men  than  Lee  thought  that  Eden  at  liberty  in  England  would  be 
much  less  likely  to  do  harm  than  an  imprisoned  Governor  in  Mary- 
land with  a  party  behind  him.  The  Convention  advised  him  to  de- 
part, and  in  June  he  put  himself  out  of  reach,  on  board  an  English 
frigate.  On  the  9th  of  that  month  the  Committee  of  Safety  called 
upon  the  Convention  to  meet  on  the  20th,  and  that  body  resolved, 
when  it  came  together,  that  the  writs  issued,  in  the  name  of  the  Pro- 
prietary, for  a  new  election  of  members  of  the  Assembly,  should  not 
be  obeyed.  It  further  resolved,  on  the  25th,  "that  the  representatives 
of  the  colony  in  Congress,  or  a  majority  of  them,  or  any  three  or 
more  of  them,  be  authorized  and  empowered  to  concur  with  the  other 
United  Colonies,  or  a  majority  of  them,  in  declaring  the  United  Col- 
onies free  and  independent  states." 

On  the  24th  of  May  the  New  York  Congress  appointed  a  committee 
of  New  to  consider  and  report  upon  the  Congressional  Resolution  of 
York-  the  15th.  After  several  reports,  the  conclusion  reached,  on 

the  31st,  was,  that  inasmuch  as  the  existing  Congress  came  into  exist- 
ence under  the  old  government,  which  was  dissolved  by  the  hostile 
acts  of  the  King,  and  by  the  abdication  of  Governor  Tryon,  the  ques- 
tion of  a  new  government  must  be  decided  by  the  people  ;  and  there- 
fore there  should  be  an  election  of  a  new  Congress,  to  meet  not  later 
than  the  second  Monday  of  the  next  July.  The  delegates  in  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  therefore,  were  left  without  instructions.  What 


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:'  •'••-•; 
.-•<:.' 


•HEN  in  the  rcratfeofrnimanEverus.it  becomes 
t  for  one  People  to  diflblve  the  Political  Bands  which  have  con- 
J  nefled  iheo  with  another,  and'To  affume  among  tin  Powers 
:  «f  the  Earth,  the  federate  and  equal  Station  to  which  the  Laws  of  Nature 
/.arnd.bf  Nature's  God  entitle  them,  a  decent  Refpecl  to  the  Opinions  of* 
Mankind  requires  that  they  (hould  declare  the  Ciufe?  which  impel  them 
'•;to  the  feperaticri.  •  .'    •--.-.'••:.  J:A.- /";•".  ,:.^;'/:--'  -'•• '     .  •  .^  : .  'il 
i  hold  thefe  Troths  t»  MMf-evideiit.  thai  aU  Men  ire 'created 


For  cjuartfiug  l*ry Bodies <n  u mcu  TiOo^'afootM  us  ?         -.*   '  * ' \,_  *_ 
for  protecting  than,  by  a  mock  Trial,  from  Putuuaieat  for  roy  Hip* ' 
jsa^hktnbeir-lbould  commit  oo  the  Inhibitors  of  these  Stales :   -•'.•.,., 
For  cutting  off  our  Trade  with  all  Pans  of  the  Wojiii-r.C.ii  '"' 
for  impvung  Tales  en  us  without  our  Coafeot : 
For  depriving  us,  in  many  Gales,  of  .the  Benefits  of  Trial  i 
Tor  tranfporttog  us  beyond  Seas  to  be  tried  for  pretended  C 
For  aboliuitng  the  free  fyiiem  of  Englilh  Laws  to  a  nci^hbojring  Province,* 


^^lt  is  the  alight  of  the  People  to  alter  or  to  abolifh  it,  and  to  inltitule  new.  .:  pcr  fLfpcadieg  our  own  Legiflatures. 

'  s,  and  organizing  its    %>,h  Power  to  leuflatc  for  us  in  aU  Cafes  wharfocKT. 
to  egea  their 


.  cftablifts 

,'.  and  accord 
'poTed  to 


wife  bufaC 


_  the  Forrqs  to  which  they  are  accuftomed.    But  when  •  k>nS''pbai  the  Worts  of  Death,  Defouiion  i 

.Train  of  Abufcs  and  Ufurpations,  purfuinj  invariably  the  lame  Objea,    arcutcfiances  of  Crodty  and  Perfidy  fcarccly  paralleled' in  t 
wnces  i  DeCgn  to  reduce  them  suder  abfolute  Deipotifn.  it  a  iheit  -..„.„,  AgKj  „,)  loal|    .oworthy  the  Head  of  a  cmtoei  K 
R.Er,t,  it  is  their  Duty,  to  throw  off  fuch  Covernment,  and  to  provide  ;     He  ^  cooflnjo.,!  „„  fcUow  Gl;.cnl'  ttto  c^,,:  „„  ^  y-J,  e^,,  , 
jKwC.uards i  for  their  future  Security.    Suclthas  been  toepatient  Suf-    bar  Arms  aninft  ttxir  Coimiry,  lo  become  tte  &teculiaom  o<  cbclr  Frieoas 

* f  tiefe  Colonies,  and  Ijch  is  now  *e  Neceflity  which  con-    >nd  BrethrenVor  to  fall  themrelTcs  hy  their  Hands.    •"'-;•»•  '..••'."  L 

em  to  alter  ihcirformer  Synems  of  GovcrntnenT..     The  Hiftorj        Ht  hlj  ^^  DomtKc  infarrcaions  amongll  us,  ind  hat  en4cava«rc4  ' 
•fent  King  of  Grejt-Bmatn  is  .  y iftorispf  repea-ed  ln;unes  and  •  ,„  w     M  lbc  Tatoyan,,  of  „,  frontiers,  the  mcrcjci  IndUn  Savs-erf  r 

^™'S^z^^£32^*£^^!™"*°i*  °<  *"<>"• "  •.'^^^.p^q^y-a- 
JS^s^d^^,^^^^^^.^^^ 


',  -•••5»    Impornnce.  unlefs 


4-r  'to  then. 

H«  hai  refafed  to 


in  their  Operation  till  bra  Aflent  mould' , 
f  jTpcnded,  be  has  tttterty 

rX-...p    -«'f';  i:  ••'.••'.  i  f 


_. Co  oar  BriiiA  i/j^hr.'s.    W 

v  . -raroed  them  from  Time  to  Time  of  Attctrpu  by  ti«r  ieg'^imre  i 

•  extend  an  unwarrantable  Jarifdklxw  over  ttt.    We  hc«r  tnrird^  ibem  < 


of  Co,.'.'iCg:iiaiiv. 


ftanttromtlKDVntoryrftr^lMl^iUewdsJfaftJiefoW   »«  «ec  •»•»•««  Vo,«  of  Jal 
.t,Suins,h.n,intrCoc,Jli,ncewi;rrhi,MerfuiT..     '    •       ^fStS^^^Kf!f^.^n=ZJS^C'rZl 

^Hlhj»  diOol^RepretoiariveHoufes  repeatedly;  for  opooCmj  wiU(  Jj^"1 "  "*  .taU  lb<  ""S^ .  ""^  EaC™B  *  Wa;".Pn 

!e. ...      -  We,therefore.'OieReprereiiiaiiiesertt:UK;;.  ET  Jlt-AVES  O 


i  JUKI  uvouHmonxi)  iw  LZUIC  tnacri      ,    ...  i.  _   ,          ' •    .      -,  •  —  L,  !»•-•»'». 

?owers,  ineapableof  Annihilation,    AMER'C  *•,  1  GJ".""  5°2!i"J  aTetmJcv^riwatatr  to 
lave  returned  to  the  people  at  Urgt  lor' their  enrciie  ;  the  State  remain-  ?.uPraDI!  Judge  of  :bc  World  for  the  RetbtaJr  of_oor  IisjeLeoi,  do  SB  the  *  " 


*ppror.mtii>r,r  o:  Ljndr-          ,       ..-.-.•.      <v     A     •».<.         M.     ..«u«  •"«••  r«i*  ABB  i»"«r-»i»c»iT  STATCT,  ntj  ajve. 

V,  Ht'lusobf.raAc.-i  the  Adminiftaation  of  TqKcej  by  refunag  his  AAeCto  .'•?»  W"'  eoadude  Peace,  carsaAltxrii,e;la:-:;a  Co.-nmo 

'cK»wi  for  efUbUlhiu,;  Judiciary  Powers.  -  :  allo^AasMd  Things  si:cal,,si,rKt?.r_:*ir*r™! 

.  I-  Ht  ou  made  Jadjtsi.fei.ietK  oa  his  Will  alone,  for  tWTemuc  of  their--  tS~JS^K^d*'  Rc!t!300",',  "I"  "ra  '•^•:n? 
rtfft^«  .^i  ,1,.^  A~;.._,  — j  p ..  .ru..:. e.i.L_  trAaoBCf  I^staeProvitkzce.  ve  tLuraaliV  nleo>.e  so  (adi  och 


'ft  Commerce,  ad  to  "tau-1 


.  Offices,  uvj  the-  Amottnt  aad  Paymeaf  of  their  SaUHea*  •  .*  ^  -  — '  ™r 

\-  Hcte;   ercctciTa!  icultirjde  of  new  Offices,  nod  fine  timer  Swarms  of 

.Officers  tc  hirnfs  our  Peopt;,  ar.d  eat-oirt  their  Subftsoce.   .  ' '•"•  '-'| 

-     h  K  u  w  iLept  auong  us,  ic.  Tines  of  Peace,  Sanding  Armies,  without  tie 

Coafcnt  of  cut  Leuflararc*.  .          ,.»   ':  .-.:•.-  .  •    -  :.  .'    -••  '^  .  >^'.j:  4- 

,  V.Mr.'hKafle«ed  to  rcaiet  the  Military  independeat  of  and  fiperior     ' 

b  pie  civil  Power.          -  -  •  ^_v   •-; -.-...-.;,.     •      .--:'«• 


e  Providccce,  t  e  ouraal'v  pled-c  so  atcn  ether  < 
1  our  lacrcU  Hoacr.  •  .•'.:,' 


I' 


KEDUCED    FAC-SIMILE   OF   THE    BROADSIDE    DISTKIBU  J  ED 
THROUGH    THE   COUNTRY. 


1776.] 


RICHARD   HENRY  LEE'S   RESOLUTIONS. 


483 


these  instructions  would  be,  when  the  people  should  manifest  their 
wishes,  there  was  no  doubt,  and  the  event  justified  the  expectation. 

Congress,  meanwhile,  was  preparing  for  that  last  step  which  should 
trample  out  all  hope  and  all  possibility  of  any  reconciliation. 
On  the  7th  of   June,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  the  Virginia  iution«  in 
delegation,   offered  the  three   following  resolutions,   which 
John  Adams  seconded  :  — 

"  That  these  United  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and 
independent  states;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the 
British  Crown ;  and  that  all  political  connection  between  them  and 
the  State  of  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dissolved. 

"  That  it  is  expedient  forthwith  to  take  the  most  effectual  measures 
for  forming  foreign  alliances. 

"  That  a  plan  of  confederation  be  prepared  and  transmitted  to  the 
respective  colonies  for  their  consideration  and  approbation." 

Action  upon  these  resolutions  was  postponed  to  the  next  day,  Satur- 
da}*,  and  again,  on 
that  day,  to  Mon- 
day, the  10th.  On 
Monday,  it  was 
voted  in  Committee 
of  the  Whole,  that 
consideration  of  the 
first  resolution  be 
postponed  to  Mon- 
day, the  1st  day  of 
July  ;  and  in  the 
meanwhile,  that  no 
time  be  lost, "  in  case 
the  Congress  agree 
thereto,  that  a  com- 
mittee be  appointed 
to  prepare  a  Decla- 
ration to  the  effect 
of  the  said  first  res- 
olution." This  com- 
mittee was  chosen  the  following  day,  the  llth  of  June,  and  its  five 
members  were,  Thomas  Jefferson,  John  Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
Roger  Sherman,  and  R.  R.  Livingston.  On  the  12th,  committees 
were  appointed  to  carry  out  the  other  two  resolutions,  that  on  a  plan 
of  confederation  being  made  up  by  one  member  from  each  Province. 

The  Continental  Congress  and  the  Colonial  Assemblies,  under 
whatever  name,  marched  together,  deliberately  and  firmly,  step  by 


House  in  which  the  Declaration  was  written. 


484  DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE.        [CHAF.  XIX. 

step.  Neither  hurried,  neither  hindered  the  other.  The  Congress 
waited  while  the  colonies  deliberated,  and  while  all  who  had  not  al- 
ready reached  it,  were  coming  to  the  same  inevitable  conclusion,  Jef- 
ferson was  at  work  upon  the  great  Declaration.  Congress  moved 
with  the  dignity  and  formality  becoming  to  the  work  before  it.  On 
Friday,  the  28th  of  June,  the  Committee  reported  the  first  draft  of 
the  Declaration,  which  was  read,  and  ordered  to  lie  upon  the  table, 
and  the  House  adjourned  to  Monday,  the  1st  of  July,  the  day  ap- 
pointed three  weeks  before  for  its  consideration.  On  Monday,  after 
the  dispatch  of  other  business,  the  resolution  relating  to  Independence 
was  referred  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  the  House  then 
resolved  itself  into  Committee.  When  the  House  resumed  its  ses- 
sion, Mr.  Harrison,  from  the  Committee,  reported  a  resolution,  and 
on  this  being  read,  action  upon  it  was  postponed  till  the  next  day 
at  the  request  of  one  of  the  colonies,  —  South  Carolina  On 
encc  de-  the  2d  the  resolution  was  passed,  —  "  That  these  United 
Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent 
States;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British 
Crown,  and  that  all  political  connection  between  them  and  the  State 
of  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dissolved."  Every  col- 
ony voted  in  its  favor,  except  New  York,  whose  delegates,  being  still 
without  instructions,  did  not  vote  at  all.1 

Of  the  debates  of  these  two  days  there  is  no  record ;  but  that  on  the 
Debate  on  ^rs^  day,  when  the  question  was  carried  in  Committee  of 
tionIofelara  the  Whole,  was  the  fuller  and  more  conclusive.  In  a  letter 
Reasons  to  Samuel  Chasp,  John  Adams  said  of  it :  "  The  debate  took 
up  most  of  the  day,  but  it  was  an  idle  mispense  of  time,  for  nothing 
was  said  but  what  had  been  repeated  and  hackneyed  in  th.at  room  be- 
fore a  hundred  times  for  six  months  past."  But  from  other  letters 
of  his,  and  from  contemporary  writers,  it  is  plain  that  the  debate, 
however  wearisome  it  may  have  been  to  himself,  who  bore  the  chief 
burden  of  the  day,  was  of  great  importance.  There  were  delegates 
who  were  opposed  to  the  resolution,  or  hesitated  to  take  the  responsi- 
bility of  voting  for  it,  notwithstanding  the  instructions  of  those  they 
represented.  The  new  members  from  New  Jersey  were  of  the  latter 
class  and  were  anxious  to  hear  what  arguments  could  be  advanced  in  its 
favor.  To  satisfy  these,  Mr.  Adams  was  put  forward,  and  he  replied 
with  great  power  to  Mr.  Dickenson,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  represented 
the  cautious  policy  of  a  large  party  in  that  colony.  Mr.  Adams's 

1  Henry  Wisner  was  one  of  the  delegates  from  New  York,  and  Thomas  McKean,  a  dele- 
gate from  Delaware,  declared,  in  several  letters  written  at  different  times  in  subsequent 
years,  that  Wisrier  voted  for  independence.  But  as  the  vote  was  taken  by  colonies,  his  in- 
dividual vote  could  not  be  counted  if  the  rest  of  the  delegation  refrained  from  voting. 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 
(After  a  jxirtmit  by  Stuart. 


1776.]  INDEPENDENCE  DECLARED.  485 

speech  convinced  the  New  Jersey  delegates,  and  probably  carried,  if  it 
did  not  convince,  others.  All  the  members,  in  the  end,  signed  the  Dec- 
laration, but  —  wrote  Mr.  Adams  many  years  afterward  —  in  1813, — 
"as  far  as  I  could  penetrate  the  intricate,  internal  folding  of  their  souls, 
I  then  believed,  and  have  not  since  altered  my  opinion,  that  there  were 
several  who  signed  with  regret,  and  several  others  with  many  doubts 
and  much  lukewarmness."  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  mentioned  by 
him  in  the  same  letter,  that  although  North  Carolina  was  the  first 
colony  to  instruct  its  members  to  vote  for  independence,  a  majority 
for  the  measure  hung  at  one  time  upon  the  vote  of  Mr.  Hewes,  a  del- 
egate from  that  colony,  who  had  voted  against  it.  A  member,  one  day, 
showed  by  documents  from  all  the  colonies,  that  public  opinion  was 
everywhere  in  favor  of  the  measure,  when  Mr.  Hewes  "started  sud- 
denly upright,  and  lifting  up  both  his  hands  to  Heaven,  as  if  he  had 
been  in  a  trance,  cried  out :  '  It  is  done  !  and  I  will  abide  by  it ! ' 

Of  the  event  itself,  Adams  said  in  a  letter  to  his  -wife :  "  But  the 
day  is  past.  Tlie  2d  day  of  July,  1776,  will  be  the  most  memorable 
epoch  in  the  history  of  America.  I  am  apt  to  believe  that  it  will  be 
celebrated  by  succeeding  generations  as  the  great  anniversary  festival. 
It  ought  to  be  commemorated  as  the  day  of  deliverance,  by  solemn 
acts  of  devotion  to  God  Almighty.  It  ought  to  be  solemnized  with 
pomp  and  parade,  with  shows,  games,  sports,  guns,  bells,  bonfires,  and 
illuminations,  from  one  end  of  this  continent  to  the  other,  from  this 
time  forward,  forevermore."  Thus  far,  into  the  beginning  of  a  second 
century,  the  event  has  been  commemorated  in  precisely  the  way  that 
Adams  said  it  should  be,  but  commemorated — like  the  Landing  of 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  at  Plymouth  —  on  the  wrong  day.  For,  it  will 
be  observed,  the  resolution  passed  on  the  2d  day  of  July  was  the  for- 
mal declaration  of  the  independence  of  the  colonies  —  the  actual  sev- 
erance of  all  ties  of  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown ;  the  Declaration 
adopted  two  days  later  —  the  4th  —  was  the  declaration  of  the  reasons 
for  establishing  an  independent  government. 

This  statement  of  reasons  for  the  declaration  of  independence  was 
not  so  easily  agreed  upon  as  the  resolution  to  declare  it.  The  com- 
mittee, on  the  3d,  asked  leave  to  sit  again  after  a  second  day's  debate. 
Changes  had  been  made  in  Jefferson's  original  draft  by  his  colleagues 
on  the  committee  appointed  for  its  preparation ;  still  others  were 
made  by  the  House ;  but  none  were  so  important  or  so  significant  as 
the  omission,  in  deference  to  the  South,  of  the  following  pas- 

.  i  TT      I  The  slave- 

Sage  relating  to  the  slave  trade:  "  He  has  waged  cruel  war  trade  clause 

against  human  nature  itself,  violating  its  most  sacred  rights 
of  life  and  liberty  in  the  persons  of  a  distant  people  who  never  of- 
fended him,  captivating  and  carrying  them  into  slavery  in  another 


486 


DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE.        [CHAP.  XIX. 


hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable  death  in  their  transportation  thither. 

.This  piratical  war- 
fare, the  opprobri- 
um of  INFIDEL  pow- 
ers, is  the  warfare  of 
the  CHRISTIAN  king 
of  Great  Britain. 
Determined  to  keep 
open  a  market 
where  MEN  should 
be  bought  and  sold, 
he  has  prostituted 
his  negative  for  sup- 
pressing every  legis- 
lative attempt  to 
prohibit  or  restrain 
this  execrable  com- 
merce. And  that 
this  assemblage  of 

I  horrors  might  want 
no  fact  of  distin- 
guished dye,  he  is 
now  exciting  those 
very  people  to  rise 
in  arms  among  ust 
and  to  purchase  that 
liberty  of  which  he 
has  deprived  them, 
by  murdering  the 
people  on  whom  he 
also  obtruded  them ; 
thus  paying  off  for- 
mer crimes  commit- 
ted against  the  LIB- 
ERTIES of  one  peo- 
ple, with  crime* 
which  he  urges  them 
to  commit  against 
the  LIVES  of  anoth- 
er." 

But    the    great 

.body    of  the   docu- 
the  King',  statue  ment   was   left   as 


a 

a 

2 


y 


a 

— 


U) 

PC 


1776.]  THE    STATE   CONSTITUTIONS.  487 

Jefferson  had  written  it.     Finally,  late  on  the  afternoon  of  July  4,  it 
was  approved  and  passed,  and  ordered  to  be  printed.     At  Thei>eciar»- 
the  same  time  is  was  "  resolved,  that  copies  of  the  Declara-  j££,°*g 
tion  be  sent  to  the  several  assemblies,  conventions,  and  com-  ad°Pted 
mittees  or  councils  of  safety,  and  to  the  several  commanding  officers 
of  the  Continental  troops ;  that  it  be  proclaimed  in  each  of  the  United 
States,  and  at  the  head  of  the  array."  1 

It  was  not  till  the  8th  that  there  was  any  public  celebration  in  Phil- 
adelphia, perhaps  because  the  printed  copies  of  the  Declara- 
tion were  not  ready  earlier.  The  Committee  of  Safety  or-  tion  promui- 
dered  that  the  sheriff  of  Philadelphia  should  read,  or  cause 
it  to  be  read  and  proclaimed  on  that  day  at  12  o'clock.  At  that  hour 
the  Committee  of  Safety  and  of  Inspection,  the  officers  of  the  city 
government,  and  many  members  of  Congress,  filed  out  in  procession 
from  the  State  House  into  the  yard,  where  a  great  concourse  of  people 
gathered  around  the  observatory,  and  the  Declaration  was  read  from  its 
balcony  by  John  Nixon,  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety.  The 
day  was  given  up  to  public  festivity,  and  the  great  bell  in  the  tower 
of  the  State  House  led  the  rejoicing  peal  of  all  the  other  bells  of  the 
city,  to  "Proclaim  liberty  throughout  all  the  land  unto  all  the  inhab- 
itants thereof,"  in  accordance  with  the  legend  inscribed  thereon. 

Throughout  the  country,  in  the  army  and  in  town  meetings,  from 
time  to  time,  as  the  Declaration  was  received,  it  was   accepted  with 
similar  manifestations  of  jubilation,  tending  sometimes  to  acts  of  ex- 
travagance.    As  in  Philadelphia  the  people  tore  down  and  burned  all 
symbols  of  royal  authority  in  public  offices,  so  in  New  York  a  mob 
pulled  down  the  gilded  leaden  equestrian  statue  of    King  Pu,lin(? 
George  that  stood  in  the  Bowling  Green.     The  head  was  K0^'g-gtlie 
taken  off  and  placed  in  a  wheelbarrow  and  wheeled  to  the  8tatue- 
Governor's  house.    There  was  so  much  excuse  for  this  act,  —  that  lead 
was  greatly  needed.    Ladies  at  Litchfield,  Conn.,  principally  of  Oliver 
Wolcott's  family,  moulded  the  remainder  of  the  statue  into  forty-two 
thousand  bullets,  to  be  shot  at  the  soldiers  of  the  King. 

Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and 
North  Carolina  adopted  State  constitutions  in  1776  ;  New  York, 
South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  in  1777 ;  Massachusetts  in  1780,  and 
New  Hampshire  in  1781.  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  continued 
to  use  their  royal  charters  as  the  fundamental  law  of  the  State,  —  the 
former  till  1818,  the  latter  till  1842.  All  of  these  State  constitutions 

1  The  romantic  tradition  that  as  soon  as  the  adoption  of  the  Declaration  was  decided 
upon,  a  little  boy  on  the  pavement  clapped  his  hands  and  shouted  "King!  ring!"  to  the 
old  sexton  in  the  tower,  who  thereupon  seized  the  tongue  of  the  Liberty  Bell  and  pro- 
claimed the  momentous  tidings  to  a  waiting  crowd,  and  that  the  Secretary  of  Congress 
hastened  to  read  the  pnper  from  the  steps,  seems  to  be  without  foundation. 


488  DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE.         [CHAI-.  XIX. 

have  since  undergone  amendment,  and  several  have  been  entirely  re- 
modelled.    As  first  drawn  and  adopted,  they  contained  arti- 

Adoption  of  •' 

state  cousti-  cles  which  show  that  the  voung  States,  so  boastful  of  their 

tun. .11-.  * 

new  fledged  civil  liberty,  the  principles  of  which  they  set 
forth  with  admirable  force  and  clearness,  had  not  yet  fully  compre- 
hended the  no  less  important  necessity  for  religious  liberty. 

The  Constitution  of  South  Carolina  provided  that  all  persons  and 
societies  who  acknowledged  one  God  and  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and  punishments  should  be  "  freely  tolerated,"  and  that  "  the  Chris- 
tian religion  shall  be  deemed,  and  is  hereby  constituted  and  declared 
to  be,  the  established  religion  of  this  State."  No  church  could  be 
incorporated  until  its  membei-s  had  subscribed  to  five  articles  of  belief 
specified  in  this  Constitution  ;  these  were  to  the  effect  that  there  is 
one  God,  and  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments ;  that  He  is 
to  be  publicly  worshipped  ;  that  the  Christian  religion  is  the  true 
religion ;  that  the  Scriptures  are  divinely  inspired,  and  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  man,  being  thereunto  called  by  those  that  govern,  to 
bear  witness  to  the  truth.  In  accordance  with  these  provisions,  it  is 
further  stipulated  that  a  qualified  voter  must  acknowledge  the  being 
of  a  God  and  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments,  and  that 
"  no  person  shall  be  capable  of  any  place  of  honour,  trust,  or  profit, 
under  the  authority  of  this  State,  who  is  not  a  member  of  some 
church  of  the  established  religion  thereof." 

The  Constitution  of  New  Jersey  forbade  the  establishment  of  any- 
one religious  sect  in  preference  to  another,  and  provided  that  "no 
Protestant  inhabitant  shall  be  denied  the  enjoyment  of  any  civil  right 
merely  on  account  of  his  religious  principles,"  and  that  any  person 
who  professed  "  a  belief  in  the  faith  of  any  Protestant  sect "  might 
be  elected  to  office. 

The  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania  required  every  member  of  the 
Legislature,  before  taking  his  seat,  to  declare  his  belief  in  the  existence 
of  a  God  who  is  "the  rewarder  of  the  good  and  punisher  of  the 
wicked,"  and  that  the  Scriptures  are  "  given  by  Divine  Inspiration." 
The  seventh  section  of  the  second  chapter,  solemnly  considered  and 
adopted  with  the  rest,  can  scarcely  be  read  in  our  day  without  excit- 
ing a  smile.  It  provided  that  "  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
freemen  of  this  commonwealth  shall  consist  of  persons  most  noted  for 
wisdom  and  virtue,  to  be  chosen  by  the  freemen  of  every  city  and 
county  of  this  commonwealth  respectively."  The  thirty-second  sec- 
tion prescribed  a  penalty  for  any  elector  "  who  shall  receive  any  gift 
or  reward  for  his  vote,  in  meat,  drink,  monies,  or  otherwise;"  and 
the  thirty-sixth  declared  that  "  whenever  an  office,  through  increase 
of  fees  or  otherwise,  becomes  so  profitable  as  to  occasion  many  to  ap- 


1776.]  THE   STATE    CONSTITUTIONS.  489 

ply  for  it,  the  profits  ought  to  -be  lessened  by  the  Legislature.''  The 
final  section  provided  for  the  election,  every  seventh  year,  of  a  Coun- 
cil of  Censors,  whose  duty  should  be,  "  to  enquire  whether  the  Consti- 
tution has  been  preserved  inviolate  in  every  part,  and  whether  the 
legislative  and  executive  branches  of  the  government  have  performed 
their  duty  as  guardians  of  the  people,  or  assumed  to  themselves  or 
exercised  other  or  greater  powers  than  they  are  intitled  to  by  the  Con- 
stitution." 

The  Constitution  of  New  Hampshire  provided  that  members  of  its 
Legislature  must  be  "  of  the  Protestant  religion,"  and  this  clause  was 
not  formally  repealed  till  1877,  though  for  many  years  it  had  been 
disregarded  by  common  consent.  The  Constitution  of  Massachusetts 
provided,  in  its  forty-first  article,  "  that  sumptuary  laws  against  lux- 
ury, plays,  etc.,  and  extravagant  expenses  in  dress,  diet,  and  the  like, 
suited  to  the  circumstances  of  the  commonwealth  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Constitution,  shall  be  established  with  all  convenient  speed."  Ju- 
ries were  to  consist  of  fifteen  freeholders,  the  agreement  of  twelve  of 
whom  was  sufficient  for  a  verdict.  Every  minister  or  public  teacher 
of  religion  was  required  to  subscribe  to  the  Constitution,  and  to  read 
it  once  a  year  to  his  congregation. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


LOSS    OF   LONG   ISLAND    AND    NEW   YORK. 


THE  MILITARY  SITUATION  OF  NEW  YOKK.  —  AUKIVAI.  OF  THK  ENEMY.  —  SUMMARY 
OF  THK  FOHCES.  —  TllE  HoWKS  ATTEMPT  1JEACE  NEGOTIATIONS.  —  THE  BRITISH 
CKOSS  TIIE  BAY  —  DEFENCES  OF  BROOKLYN.  —  BATTLE  OF  LONG  ISLAND  —  DETAILS 
OF  THE  ACTION.  —  THE  LOSSES.  —  RETREAT  OF  THE  AMERICANS.  —  THEY  CROSS 
TO  NEW  YORK.  —  THE  QUESTION  OF  DESTROYING  THE  CITY. —  ENTRANCE  OF  THE 
ENEMY.  —  BATTLE  OF  HARLEM  HEIGHTS.  —  NEW  YORK  OCCUPIED  BY  THE  BRITISH. 
—  A  GREAT  FIRE  IN  THE  CITY.  —  EXECUTION  OF  NATHAN  HALE. —  HOWE'S  SECOND 
ATTEMPT  TO  NEGOTIATE  FOR  TEACE.  —  BATTLE  OF  WHITE  PLAINS.  —  SURRENDER 
OF  FORT  WASHINGTON. 

THE  opinion  held  by  Lee  sis  to  the  impracticability  of  making  New 
Lee  pushes  York  absolutely  defensible,  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
°wk"»t  shared  by  Washington  and  many  of  his  officers  who  came 
New  York.  wjj|,  j.j,e  3oston  army.  New  works  were  laid  out  by  the 
engineers,  and  new  points  occupied.  Washington  dearly  proposed  to 
hold  New  York  permanently.  Lee's  plan  was  judicious,  so  far  as  it 
went,  and  it  was  now  enlarged.  General  Putnam,  soon  after  his  ar- 
rival, decided  that  Governor's  Island,  at  the  entrance  to  the  East 
River,  was  a  point  of  great  importance.  Should  the  enemy,  he  said, 
"  get  post  there,  it  will  not  be  possible  to  save  the  city,  nor  could  we 
dislodge  them  without  great  loss."  Taking  a  thousand  men,  he  seized 
it  on  the  night  of  the  8th  of  April,  and  immediately  threw  up  breast- 
works to  protect  his  parry  against  attack  from  Tryon's  ships.  The 
point  of  Red  Hook  on  Long  Island,  just  below,  was  occupied  at  the 
same  time,  and  in  a  few  weeks  Paiilus  Hook,  on  the  Jersey  side  of 
the  Hudson,  nearly  opposite,  Cortlandt  Street,  was  also  fortified. 
Should  a  fleet,  therefore,  attempt  to  sail  up  the  East  River,  it  was 
believed  that  the  batteries  at  Red  Hook,  Governor's  Island,  and  Fort 
Stirling,  on  Long  Island,  with  those  on  the  New  York  side,  could 
damage  it  materially.  Transports  with  troops,  at  all  events,  could 
not  safely  pass  them.  As  a  further  defence,  hulks  were  sunk  later  in 
the  season,  in  the  channel  between  Governor's  Island  and  the  Battery. 

On  the  Hudson  River,  ten  miles  farther  up,  at  what  is  now  known 
as  Fort  Washington  Point,  the  river  narrowed  between  the  lowering 


1776.] 


DEFENSIVE    WORKS   AROUND   NEW    YORK. 


491 


Palisades  on  the  Jersey 
side,  and  the  rugged 
heights  of  nearly  equal 
elevation  on  Manhat- 
tan Island.  Upon  the 
Palisades  a  strong 
work  was  begun  dur- 
ing the  summer,  at  first 
known  as  Fort  Consti- 
tution, and  subse- 
quently as  Fort  Lee  ; 
and  on  the  New  York 
side,  where  is  now  One 
Hundred  and  Eighty- 
third  Street,  stood 
the  formidable  work, 
Fort  Washington. 
From  these  positions  a 
plunging  fire  could  be 
thrown  upon  vessels 
brought  to  a  stop  by 
hulks  and  chevaux-ds- 
frise  placed  in  the 
channel  of  the  river. 
Three  water-batteries 
were  also  built  along 
the  shore  from  lied 
Hook  to  Fort  Lee.  By 
the  month  of  June, 
eighty  pieces  of  cannon 
a  n  d  mortars  were 
mounted  or  ready  to 
be  mounted,  bearing 
upon  the  bay  and  the 
two  river  channels. 

To  carry  <»ut  the  en- 
gineers' plans,  the  ut- 
most diligence  was 
necessary,  for  Howe's 
arrival  was  expected 
daily.  Colonel  Rufus 
Putnam,  the  engineer, 
relates  how  busily  he 


MAP  OF 

MANHATTAN  ISLAND 
.    in  1776, 

Showing  the 


492 


LOSS   OF   LONG  ISLAND  AND  NEW  YORK.      [CHAP.  XX. 


Much  work 
accom- 
plished. 


was  employed  from  daylight  in  the  morning  until  night,  besides  some- 
times going  in  the  night  by  water  from  New  York  to  Fort 
Washington.  The  most  exposed  points  were  the  first  at- 
tended to ;  and  large  fatigue  parties  were  sent  every  day  to 
Governor's  Island,  Red  Hook,  the  Battery,  and  other  forts.  Besides 
the  water-batteries  around  the  city,  a  chain  of  strong  redoubts  was  ex- 
tended just  north  of  it,  along  the  line  of  Grand  Street.  The  largest 
Kortific*.  was  "  Bayard's  Hill  Redoubt,"  near  the  corner  of  Centre 
arouVo'the"1  Street.  This  hill  was  the  highest  in  the  vicinity,  with  a 
Clt)  commanding  range,  and  its  summit,  once  covered  with  cedars, 

was  cut  away  and  leveled  for  the  fortification.  Several  other  eleva- 
tions on  the  west  side,  as  far  up  as  Tenth  Street,  were  also  fortified. 
The  city  itself  was  literally  converted  into  an  intrenched  camp.  All 
the  streets  leading  to  the  water  were  barricaded.  The  City  Hall  Park 
was  surrounded  with  barriers.1  Fort  George  and  the  Grand  Battery 
were  greatly  strengthened  from  within.  Works  stood  behind  Trinity 
Church,  around  the  old  Hospital  at  Duane  Street,  at  the  ship-yards 
on  the  East  River,  and  wherever  a  landing  could  easily  be  made. 

It  was  not  until  the  closing  days  of  June  that  the  long  expected 
Arrival  of  enemy  arrived.  A  thousand  things  had  delayed  them.  They 
the  enemy.  jia(j  ^0  ^rjng  everything  they  needed  —  provisions  and  mu- 
nitions. The  first  to  arrive  was  the  General  himself,  Sir  William 

Howe,  in  advance 
of  his  Boston  army, 
now  on  its  way 
from  Halifax.  He 
reached  Sandy 
Hook  in  the  frigate 
Greyhound  on  the 
25th  of  June,  and 
was  warmly  wel- 
comed by  Governor 
Tryon  and  **  many 
gentlemen,  fast 
friends  of  govern- 
ment." The  troops 
followed  in  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty 
ships,  and  were  all  in  the  bay  by  the  29th  of  June.  Howe's  first  in- 
tention was,  to  land  on  Long  Island;  but  learning  that  the  Americans 
occupied  strong  positions  there,  the  troops  were  debarked  at  Staten 
Island.  "  Will  Hicks's  Mansion  House  "  was  the  General's  head- 

1  Sec  John  Hills'  Chart  of  New  York  in  1782. 


Rose  and  Crown  Tavern. 


1776.]  ARRIVAL   OF  THE   ENEMY.  493 

quarters.1  Then  came  Admiral  Howe,  Sir  William's  brother,  with 
troops  from  England,  and  finally,  on  the  12th  of  August,  the  Hes- 
sians arrived. 

These  forces  numbered  altogether  nearly  thirty-two  thousand  men, 
of  whom  not  quite  twenty-five  thousand  were  fit  for  ser-  strength  of 
vice.  This  was  six  thousand  more  than  Washington  could  theirarm>'- 
show  upon  his  rolls.  There  were  .four  battalions  of  light  infantry, 
the  flower  of  Howe's  army,  under  Brigadier-general  Leslie,  and  four 
more  of  grenadiers,  under  Major-general  Vaughan,  which  formed  a 
part  of  the  reserves  under  Cornwallis.  Brigadier-general  Cleaveland 
commanded  the  artillery,  three  brigades,  with  at  least  fifty  field-pieces. 
The  main  body  of  infantry  included  twenty-seven  regiments  of  the 
regular  line,  formed  into  eight  brigades  under  Generals  Robertson, 
Pigot,  Jones,  Grant,  Smith,  Agnew,  Erskine,  and  Matthews.  The 
command  of  the  last  named  consisted  of  two  battalions  of  the  King's 
Guards,  which  held  the  right  of  the  line.  A  few  troops  of  dragoons 
and  two  or  three  companies  of  American  loyalists  completed  the  Brit- 
ish forces.  Second  in  command  stood  Lieutenant-general  Clinton,  and 
next  in  rank  Lieutenant-general  Earl  Percy.  Among  Howe's  aids 
were  Captain  John  Montressor,  an  engineer,  who  had  lived  in  New 
York,  and  owned  the  present  Randall's  Island;  and  Major  Cuyler  of 
the  family  of  Albany  loyalists  of  that  name.  There  were  also  subor- 
dinate officers  who  distinguished  themselves  later  in  the  war  —  Maw- 
hood,  who  did  good  service  at  Princeton  ;  Musgrave,  who  thwarted 
the  American  plans  at  Germantown ;  the  brave  Monckton,  who  fell  at 
Monmouth  ;  and  the  accomplished  Webster,  who  ended  his  career 
with  Cornwallis  in  the  South. 

Hardly,  if  at  all,  inferior  to  the  English  were  the  eight  thousand 
Hessian  "allies."  De  Heister,  their  General,  was  an  old  The  Hesgian 
man,  and  a  veteran  of  many  European  campaigns.  The  te-  tro°Ps- 
dious  passage  of  thirteen  weeks  from  Spithead  had  sorely  tried  him, 
for  he  had  run  out  of  tobacco.  As  finally  arranged  on  Staten  Island, 
his  command  was  divided  into  four  brigades  under  Generals  Von 
Stirn  and  Mirbach,  and  Colonels  Donop  and  Lossberg.  Donop  had 
the  famous  Yagers,  or  sharpshooters,  and  the  grenadiers  under  Min- 
gerode,  Block,  and  Linsingen.  Among  the  Colonels,  Rahl  was  one 
of  the  ablest  commanders,  up  to  the  affair  of  Trenton,  where  his  con- 
tempt for  Washington's  army  brought  death  to  himself  and  disaster 
to  Howe.  The  private  soldiers  had  many  of  them  seen  service.  Most 
of  them,  no  doubt,  had  come  against  their  will,  and  some  had  actu- 

1  So  wrote  a  British  officer  on  July  9,  whose  letter  was  published  in  the  London  Chron- 
icle. Local  tradition  says,  that  the  "  Rose  and  Crown  "  tavern  —  a  house  lately  standing 
on  the  Richmond  Road,  near  New  Dorp  —  was  Howe's  headquarters.  Will  Hicks  may 
have  been  the  inn-keeper. 


494  LOSS    OF   LONG   ISLAND   AND  NEW    YORK.       [CHAP.  XX. 

ally  been  kidnapped.     They  were,  however,  good  soldiers,  and  were 
soon  dreaded  and  hated  alike  in  the  American  army.1 

The   best  that  could   be  said   for  Washington's  army  was,  that  it 
contained  good  material.     As  a  whole,  it  was  little  else  than 

Strength  •.•<•! 

and  comii-      a  posse  ot  armed  citizens,  tor  the  most  part  brave  and  de- 

tion  of  the  .         ,  .  .   .  „         .  . 

American  termuu'd  men,  but  lacking  effective  organization  and  disci- 
pline, and  most  of  them  without  experience. 

This  force  was  made  up  of  the  most  diverse  material.  There 
were  men  and  officers  from  ten  of  the  thirteen  States  —  from  New 
Hampshire  to  Virginia,  with  no  uniformity  in  arms,  dress,  discipline, 
or  manners.  Those  known  as  the  Continental  regiments  were  en- 
listed in  the  first  instance  under  the  regulations  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  served  in  its  pay  and  under  its  authority.  They  cor- 
responded to  our  modern  "  regulars,"  though  at  that  date  their  term 
of  service  was  only  a  year.  They  were  mainly  from  New  England, 
having  reenlisted  during  the  siege  of  Boston  to  serve  through  1776. 
But  there  were  two  regiments  from  New  York,  and  two  from  Penn- 
sylvania, making  not  over  twenty-five  in  all,  and  numbering  less  than 
nine  thousand  men.  The  forty-five  other  regiments  and  detachments 
were  State  troops,  raised  for  the  campaign  under  calls  from  Con- 
gress, and  militia  which  in  some  of  the  States  had  been  first  organized 
under  the  Colonial  governments.  The  soldiers  represented  all  classes 
of  society.  Among  officers  and  men  were  clergymen,  lawyers,  physi- 
cians, planters,  merchants,  farmers,  mechanics,  tradesmen,  and  labor- 
ers, mostly  native  Americans,  of  good  English  blood,  with  a  sprinkling 
of  Germans,  Scots,  and  Irishmen.  Most,  of  them  were  indifferently 
equipped.  The  old  flint-lock  piece  was  the  common  arm;  bayonets 
were  scarce,  and  so  also  were  uniforms.  The  two  regiments  which 
made  perhaps  the  best  appearance  on  parade  were  Smallwood's  Mary- 
landers  and  Haslet's  Delawares.  The  Delaware  men  wore  blue  uni- 
forms, looking  not  unlike  the  Hessians  ;  those  from  Maryland  were 
clothed  in  scarlet  coats  turned  up  with  buff.  The  Pennsylvania  and 
Maryland  riflemen,  on  Washington's  recommendation,  wore  long  hunt- 
ing-blouses and  pantaloons,  some  in  white,  some  in  black,  and  still 
others  in  green.  But  the  larger  number  of  the  troops  were  in  citi- 
zen's clothes.  The  officers  were  distinguished  by  different  colored 
sashes  and  cockades.  Washington  wore  blue  and  buff,  and  was  al- 
ways neatly  and  often  elegantly  dressed. 

The  organization  of  the  army  changed  with  the  coming  and  going 

1  Dunlap,  the  historian  of  New  York,  describes  the  Hessian  as  wearing  "a  towering 
brass-poiutcd  cap :  moustaches  colored  with  the  same  material  that  colored  his  shoes,  his 
hair  plastered  with  tallow  and  flour,  and  tightly  drawn  into  a  long  appendage  reaching 
from  the  back  of  his  head  to  his  waist,  and  his  blue  uniform  almost  covered  by  the  broad 
belts  sustaining  his  cartouch-box,  his  brass-hiked  sword,  and  his  bayonet." 


1776.] 


THE   AMERICAN    OFFICERS. 


495 


Tlie 

ami 


of  troops  during  the  campaign,  but  at  the  beginning  of  its  active  work 
in  August,  it  consisted  of  eleven  brigades  in  five  divisions. 

T->  •>         T     •    '  'lit  f  x 

Putnam  s  division  included  troops  from  New  York  under 
Brigadier-generals  James  Clinton  and  John  Morin  Scott, 
and  from  Massachusetts  under  Fellows.  General  Heath's  division 
consisted  mainly  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  men  under  Gener- 
als Mifflin  and  George  Clinton  ;  Spencer's  division  of  two  Connecticut 
brigades  under  Generals  Parsons  and  Wadsworth  ;  Sullivan's  division 
of  Maryland,  Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York  troops  under 
Generals  Stirling  and  McDougall  ;  Greene's  division  of  Massachu- 
setts, Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey,  and  Long  Island  men  under  Gen- 
erals Nixon  and  Heard.  General  Oliver  Wolcott  had  temporary  com- 
mand of  a  body  of  Connecticut  militia,  and  the  artillery  regiment 
from  Massachusetts  was  under  Colonel  Henry  Knox,  of  Boston. 

Washington's  aids  at  this  time  were,  Colonel  William  Grayson,  of 
Virginia,  Lieutenant-colonels    Richard   Gary,  of   Massachu-  Bashing- 
setts,  Samuel   B.  Webb,  of  Connecticut,  and  Tench  Tilgh-  ton'saids- 
man,  of  Philadelphia,  who  acted  as  a  volunteer,  but  subsequently  took 
rank  as  Lieutenant- 
colonel,    and   fought 
with  his  chief  to  the 
close    of     the     war. 
Alexander      Hamil- 
ton was  captain  of  a 
New    York   artillery 
company,    and    his 
post  was  at  the  Bat- 
tery.    Aaron    Burr, 
with    the    rank    of 
Major,  acted  as  aid 
to  Putnam.    Mercer, 
of     Virginia,     com- 
manded   the   militia 
in  New  Jersey,  and 
watched   the  enemy 
at  Staten  Island  from  that  side.     During  most  of  the  season  the  Gen- 
eral's headquarters  were  at  the  Mortier  House,  overlooking  the  Hud- 
son, just  above  the  line  of  Houston  Street,  near  Varick.    In  later  days 
the  place  was  better  known  as  Richmond  Hill,  where  Aaron  Burr  re- 
sided.1 

Admiral  Howe,  and   his   brother,  General  Howe,  who  had  been 

1  The  old  "  town  headquarters  "  were  the  Kennedy  house,  No.  1  Broadway,  still  standing, 
or  perhaps  oue  of  the  houses  above  it.     There  is  some  uncertainty  in  regard  to  this. 


Headquarters.  —  No.   I    Broadway. 


496  LOSS   OF  LONG  ISLAND   AND  NEW   YORK.    [CHAP.  XX. 

instructed  to  enter  upon  negotiations  for  peace,  sent,  on  the  14th 
of  July,  a  flag  of  truce  up  the  bay,  bearing  a  letter  to 
peac!Tnt>go-  the  Commander-in-chief .  Adjutant-general  Reed  and  Lieu- 
tenant-colonel Webb  were  sent  down  in  a  boat  to  meet 
it,  but  observing  the  letter  to  be  addressed  to  "  George  Washington, 
Esq.,"  they  refused  to  receive  it,  Reed  saying,  "  We  have  no  person 
in  our  army  with  that  address."  After  the  boats  had  parted,  the 
British  officer,  putting  about  again,  asked  by  what  title  Washington 
was  to  be  addressed.  "  You  are  sensible,  sir,"  answered  Reed,  "  of 
the  rank  of  General  Washington  in  our  army,"  and  the  conference 
was  ended.1  On  the  20th  another  flag  of  truce  was  sent  up.  The 
bearer,  Colonel  Patterson,  Howe's  Adjutant-general,  was  escorted  to 
Colonel  Knox's  headquarters,  now  No.  1  Broadway,  where  Washing- 
ton received  him  and  listened  to  his  proposals.  The  subject  of  ex- 
changing prisoners  was  discussed  ;  but  Washington  replied  to  the 
propositions  for  peace  by  pointing  out  the  fact  that  Howe  was  not 
empowered  to  acknowledge  American  independence,  and  the  Ameri- 
cans would  treat  for  peace  on  no  other  basis.  A  subsequent  inter- 
view between  Lord  Howe  and  a  committee  of  Congress  proved  equally 
fruitless. 

On  the  22d  of  August  the  British  troops  were  transferred  from 
Staten  Island  to  Gravesend  Bay,  on  Long  Island.  Four  frigates,  with 
bomb-tenders,  took  their  station  close  in  shore,  ready  to  protect  the 

1  Immediately  after  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  Samuel  B.  Webb  was  appointed  aid-de- 
camp to  General  Putnam,  and  on  the  21st  of  June,  1776,  then  twenty -two  years  of  age,  he 
was  appointed  private  secretary  and  aid-de-camp  to  General  Washington,  with  the  rank  of 
Lieutenant-colonel.  From  an  original  journal  now  in  the  possession  of  his  son.  General  J. 
Watson  Webb,  we  make  the  following  extract,  which  gives  the  details  of  this  incident :  — 

"New  York,  July  14,  1776.  — A  flag  of  truce  from  the  fleet  appeared,  on  which  Colonel 
Reed  and  myself  went  down  to  meet  it.  About  half  way  between  Governor's  and  Staten 
Islands,  Lieutenant  Brown  of  the  Eatjle  offered  a  letter  from  Lord  Howe,  directed,  GEORGE 
WASHINGTON,  ESQ.  :  which,  on  account  of  its  direction,  we  refused  to  receive,  and  parted 
with  the  usual  compliments. 

"New  York,  17th  July,  1776.  —  A  flag  from  the  enemy,  with  an  answer  from  General 
Howe  about  the  [letter]  sent  yesterday,  directed  George  Washington,  Esq.,  etc.  —  which 
was  refused. 

"New  York,  19th \Iuly,  1776. —  A  flag  appeared  this  morning,  when  Colonel  Reed  and 
myself  went  down.  An  aid-de-camp  of  General  Howe  met  us,  and  said,  as  there  appeared 
an  insurmountable  obstacle  between  the  two  Generals,  by  way  of  compounding,  General 
Howe  desired  his  Adjutant-general  might  be  admitted  to  an  interview  with  his  Excellency, 
General  Washington  ;  on  which,  Colonel  Reed,  in  the  name  of  General  Washington,  con- 
sented, and  pledged  his  honor  for  his  being  safely  returned.  The  aid-de-camp  said  the 
Adjutant-general  would  meet  us  to-morrow  forenoon. 

"New  York,  20th  July,  1776.  —  At  12  o'clock  we  met  the  flag,  took  Lieutenant-colonel 

Patterson  of  the Regiment  into  our  barge,  and  escorted  him  safe  to  town  to  Colonel 

Knox's  quarters,  where  his  Excellency,  General  Washington,  attended  by  his  suite  and  life 
guards,  received  and  had  an  interview  of  about  an  hour  with  him.  We  then  escorted  him 
back  in  safety  to  his  own  barge.  In  going  and  coming,  we  passed  in  front  of  the  guard 
battery,  but  did  uot  blindfold  him  ;  —  social  and  chatty  all  the  way." 


1776.] 


THE   BRITISH   CROSS   THE   BAY. 


497 


movement.     When  the  ships  were  fairly  in  position,  nearly  ninety 
batteaux  and  flat-boats,  filled  with  the  best  troops  of  the 

The  enemy 

army,  —  the   light  infantry  and  grenadiers,   four  thousand  "°Mthe 
strong,  with  gay  uniforms  and  glittering  arms,  —  pushed  off 
from  the  Staten  Island  beach,  and  were  rowed  by  sailors  from  the 

men-of-war  to  the  Gravesend  shore. 
The  flotilla  moved  across  the  Narrows 
in  ten  divisions ;  and  following  it  came 
transports  with  eleven  thousand  more 
troops  and  forty  pieces  of  artillery.  All 
were  debarked  before  noon.  These  fif- 
teen thousand  men  took  possession  of 
the  roads,  and  occupied  the  Dutch  vil- 
lages of  Utrecht,  Gravesend,  and  Flat- 


Passage  of  the  Troops  to  Long  Island. 

lands;  while  Cornwallis,  with  the  reserves  and  Donop's  Hessian  ya- 
gers and  grenadiers,  drove  back  Hand's  Pennsylvania  riflemen,  who 
had  been  patrolling  this  coast  since  May,  and  advanced  as  far  as  Flat- 
bush. 

The  American  plan  of  defence,  in  case  of  attack  on  this  side,  had 
been  well  matured.  Greene,  who  was  in  command  on  Long  Island,  be- 
lieved in  earthworks,  and  his  brigade  of  Varnum's  and  Hitchcock's 


VOL.    III. 


498  LOSS    OF    LONG   ISLAND   AND  .NEW    YORK.      [CHAP.  XX. 

Rhode   Islanders,   Little's    Massachusetts  men,  and  Hand's  riflemen, 
worked  well  here  through  the  trying  summer,  and  protected 
Greene  ami     themselves  witli  forts  and  intreiichinents  thrown  up  in  what 
ie-         is  now  the  heart  of   Brooklyn.     The  main  line   ran   from 

t?!1*. 

Wallabout  Bay,  the  present  Navy  Yard,  on  the  left,  to  what 
was  then  known  as  the  Goxvanus  Creek  and  marsh  on  the  right. 
Its  length  was  less  than  a  mile  and  a  half,  and  it  included,  at  varying 
distances,  five  strong  redoubts.  That  on  the  right,  near  the  marsh, 
which  extended  up  from  Gowanus  Hay  as  far  as  the  line  of  the  pres- 
ent Baltic  Street,  was  named  Fort  Box,  after  the  Brigade- major, 
Daniel  Box,  an  old  British  soldier  and  capital  drill- master  ;  next  stood 
Fort  Greene,  largest  of  all,  south  of  the  present  Fulton  Avenue,  not 
far  from  Bond  Street ;  then,  on  the  left  of  the  avenue,  was  the  "  Ob- 
long Redoubt,"  and  some  distance  fan  her  along,  Fort  Putnam  crowned 
the  hill  which  has  since  been  transformed  into  Washington  Park.  A 
little  redoubt  on  its  left  completed  the  line  in  front ;  while  the  short 
flank  to  the  Wallabont  was  protected  by  breastworks  and  abatis. 
Not  more  than  twenty  guns  were  mounted  in  the  works,  from  one  end 
to  the  other.1 

Between  the  Brooklyn  lines  and  the  coast  at  Gravesend  Bay  runs 
Topography  }l  continuous  ridge  of  hills,  from  the  harbor,  below  the  pres- 
of  the  fieia.  ent  Greenwood  Cemetery,  easterly  through  Jamaica  to  the 
end  of  the  island.  The  cemetery  and  Prospect  Park  lie  upon  the 
crest  and  slopes  of  this  ridge,  which  in  1776  was  covered  with  thick 
woods  and  underbrush.  From  the  other  side  of  the  hills  to  the  sea 
stretched  the  broad,  level  plain  on  which  stood  the  villages  of  Utrecht, 
Gravesend,  Flatlands,  and  Flatbush,  where  the  British  had  encamped 
after  their  landing.  The  distance  from  the  ridge  to  the  lines  varied 
from  a  mile  and  a  half  to  four  miles,  and  west  of  Jamaica  it  was  in- 
tersected by  four  roads,  all  joining  the  King's  highway  which  led  to 
the  ferry.  The  highway  itself  crossed  the  hills  four  miles  from  the 
lines,  half  way  to  Jamaica;  from  it  branched  two  roads  to  Flatbush, 
one  through  Bedford  village  ;  and  down  near  the  harbor  ran  the  Gow- 
anus road  to  the  Narrows.  Here  was  a  strong  natural  barrier,  which 
the  enemy  must  penetrate  from  the  plains  below  before  reaching  the 
Brooklyn  works,  and  here  Washington  now  purposed  to  hold  the  en- 
emy in  check  as  long  as  possible.  He  made  the  ridge  his  outer  line 
of  defence,  and,  as  the  enemy  could  advance  in  order  only  through 
the  roads  and  passes,  three  of  these  were  covered  with  strong  guards, 
and  the  fourth  —  the  distant  Jamaica  pass  on  the  left  —  was  watched 
by  patrols. 

1  The  Gowaiius  and  Wallabout  marshes  set  in  so  far  that  the  land  west  towards  New 
York  became  a  peninsula.    It  was  across  the  neck  that  Greene  formed  his  defensive  line. 


1776.]  THE   BATTLE  OF    LONG   ISLAND.  499 

On  the  announcement  that  the  British  had  landed,  six  regiments 
from  Stirling's,  Scott's,  and  Wadsworth's  brigades  were  or-  Putnam  and 
dered  to  cross  at  once  from  New  York  to  reenforce  the  fommlndon 
Brooklyn  wing.  The  prevailing  fever,  which  had  deprived  LonB  1*lHnd- 
the  army  of  the  services  of  many  of  its  officers,  had  most  unfortu- 
nately prostrated  General  Greene ;  and  at  the  moment  when  he  could 
least  be  spared,  it  became  necessary  to  relieve  him  and  to  give  the 
command  to  General  Sullivan.  The  change  occurred  on  August  20, 
and  four  days  later  Sullivan  was  in  turn  relieved  by  General  Put- 
nam ;  but  he  remained  with  the  Long  Island  forces  as  second  in  com- 
mand. 

The  battle  opened  on  the  road  leading  from  the  Narrows.     Very 
early  on  the  morning  of  the  27th,  the  American  guards  sta-  The  action 
tioned  beyond  the  Red  Lion,  or  about  half  a  mile  west  of  the  be8|n8- 
southwest  corner  of  the  present  Greenwood  Cemetery,  were  unexpect- 
edly attacked  by  Grant's  column.     It  was  not   yet  daylight,  and   in 
the  confusion  of  the  moment  the  pickets  retreated  rapidly,  leaving 
their  commanding  officer,  Major  Edward  Burd,  of  Reading,  Penn.,  a 
prisoner  in  the  enemy's  hands.     Brigadier-general  Parsons,  who  was 
the  field-officer  of  the  day,  hurried  down  the  road,  rallied 
a  few  of  the  scattered  guard,  and  waited  until  General   Stir-  marches  to 
ling,  whom  Putnam  had  ordered  forward  on  the  first  alarm, 
could  follow  with  reinforcements.    Stirling  was  advancing  with  three 
regiments,  a  company  of  riflemen,  and  a  battery  of  two  guns. 

The  first  step  in  the  plan  of  defence,  which  was  to  hold  the  Gow- 
anus  road  near  the  Red  Lion,  was  lost  by  this  flight  of  the  guards. 
Stirling's  duty  was  to  check  the  enemy  at  the  next  most  defensible 
point.  This  was  on  the  ridge,  afterward  known  as  Wyckoff's  Hill, 
which  stretched  up  from  the  shore.  Along  the  crest  of  this  hill,  about 
on  the  line  now  marked  by  Nineteenth  or  Twentieth  Street,  he  placed 
his  men.  He  had  already  sent  forward  Atlee,  with  his  two  hundred 
Pennsylvania  musketeers,  to  skirmish  with  Grant's  vanguard  at  a 
marsh  half  a  mile  in  advance.  Although  his  men  had  never  before 
been  under  fire,  their  commander  was  a  veteran  of  the  old  French 
war,  and  he  so  held  them  to  their  work  that  the  advance  of  the  enemy 
was  delayed  while  Stirling  formed  his  line  from  the  water-side  up  the 
hill  to  its  top.  On  the  left  of  this  line,  Atlee  drew  up  his  men  in 
good  order  when -compelled  to  fall  back. 

It  was  nearly  seven  o'clock  when  Grant  formed  his  line  of  battle 
within  easy  cannon-shot  of  Stirling.  Near  the  road  he  massed  his 
Fourth  Brigade  in  two  lines,  and  continued  the  Sixth  in  one  line 
toward  and  probably  within  the  limits  of  the  present  Cemetery  of 
Greenwood.  In  addition,  he  had  with  him  the  Forty-second  High- 


500  LOSS   OF  LONG   ISLAND   AND  NEW   YORK.     [CHAP.  XX. 

landers,  two  companies  of  New  York  loyalists,  and  ten  field-guns; 
against  Stirling's  seventeen  hundred  raw  troops,  he  brought  up  fully 
six  thousand  veterans.  Along  the  QowMina  road,  against  Stirling's 
right,  he  sent  forward  a  body  of  light  troops.  From  an  orchard  near 
by,  and  from  behind  hedges,  these  men  opened  a  brisk  fire,  and  a 
sharp  fight  followed  between  them  and  the  American  riflemen.  The 
old  Bennett  farm-house,  which  remained  for  many  years  after  the  war 
at  the  corner  of  Twenty-first  Street,  bore  the  marks  of  cannon-balls 
and  bullets  received  in  this  engagement,  and  near  by  were  pointed  out 
the  graves  of  English  soldiers  who  fell  here. 

The  advance  upon  the  left,  at  the  same  time,  threatened  to  overlap 
the  American  line,  and  Stirling  at  once  ordered  up  Parsons 

Parsons  and          -ITT          •  »  i  i       »  mi 

Atioe  in  with  Huiitmgtoii  s  and  Atlee  s  men.  Ihree  times  an  assault 
was  made  by  Grant's  regiments;  but  Parsons  held  his  posi- 
tion, probably  on  the  spot  now  known  as  "  Battle  Hill  "  in  Green- 
wood Cemetery.  Among  the  killed  were  Lieutenant-colonel  Parry, 
of  Atlee's  regiment,  and  Lieutenant-colonel  Grant,  of  the  Fortieth 
British  foot. 

But  while    Stirling  was  thus  making  a  successful  defence  on  the 

Narrows  road,  Howe  and  his  flanking  column — four  brig- 

flankinj;        ades,  the   light    infantry,  grenadiers,  guards,   dragoons,  and 

manoeuvre.  ...  "...  ,          ,  . 

artillery,  with  thirty  guns  —  were  elsewhere  in  motion. 
With  the  advance  rode  Clinton  ;  following  him  came  Cornwallis, 
then  Earl  Percy,  with  Howe.  The  column  had  left  Flatlands  at  nine 
o'clock,  the  night  before,  and,  guided  by  Tories,  marched  east  to- 
ward the  hamlet  of  New  Lots.  Leaving  the  Jamaica  road  on  their 
left,  they  struck  across  the  country,  and  at  about  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  reached  Howard's  Half- way  House  on  the  Jamaica  road,  a 
little  east  of  the  pass  where  it  cut  through  the  hills.  Thence  the  road 
ran  nearly  straight  through  Bedford  Village,  four  miles,  to  the  Brook- 
lyn lines. 

The  American  plan  of  defence  had  not  included  the  holding  of 
the  Jamaica  pass  by  any  considerable  force,  on  account  of  its  dis- 
tance. On  the  night  of  the  26th,  the  patrol  there  consisted  of  five 
mounted  officers  from  New  York  regiments.  While  they  were  look- 
ing out  for  the  enemy  beyond  the  pass,  the  British  appeared  across 
the  fields  in  their  rear,  and  all  five  were  captured.  Learning  from 

these  men  that  the  pass  was  unguarded,  they  pushed  through 
an  impor-  after  a  brief  rest,  and  reached  Bedford  between  eight  and 

nine  o'clock  on  the  27th,  where  they  were  as  near  as  the 
American  troops  were  to  the  Brooklyn  works.  The  successful  ex- 
ecution of  this  flank  move  decided  the  day. 

An  attack  was  now  made  upon  the  American  outposts  facing  Flat- 


1776.]  RETREAT   OF   THE   AMERICANS.  <">01 

bush,  while  a  part  of  the  column  continued  down  towai'ds  Brooklyn. 
The  extreme  left  of  the  outer  line  was  watched  by  Miles's  Pennsyl- 
vania battalion,  and  at  the  Bedford  and  Flatbush  passes  were  Wylly's 
and  Chester's  Connecticut  men,  Hitchcock's  Rhode  Islanders,  Little's 
Massachusetts,  and  Johnston's  New  Jersey  men.  A  line  of  sentinels 
along  the  ridge  through  Prospect  Park  and  Greenwood  connected 
with  Stirling.  By  some  fatality,  Miles  did  not  observe  that  And  sur. 
Howe  had  marched  around  him,  until  he  was  well  in  his 
rear.  More  than  half  his  two  battalions,  therefore,  fell  into 
the  enemy's  hands.  The  other  troops  just  named,  finding  themselves 
thus  surprised  on  the  left,  turned  to  reach  the  Brooklyn  camp  before 
they  should  be  intercepted.  Sullivan,  who  had  gone  out 

.    ,          ,  f     Surrender  of 

to  reconnoitre,  was  with  them.     As  they  retreated,  many  ot    *uiiivanan«i 
them  fought,  and  fought  well.     The  enemy  captured  three  coiooei 
guns  on  the  Flatbush   road,  only  by  a  desperate  fight  with 
the  artillerymen.     Sullivan  with  his   men  held   out  till  noon,  when 
the  General  was  captured.     Colonel  Philip  Johnston,  of  New  Jersey, 
fell  at  the  head  of  his  regiment. 

The  Hessians  had  been  ordered  to  remain  passive,  but  prepared,  un- 
til they  should   be  assured  of  Howe's  presence  on  the  left. 
At  the  first  sound  of  the  conflict,  they  marched  rapidly  and  »ian?  move 
with  flying  colors,  from    Flatbush,  along  the    eastern  sec- 
tion of  the  present  Prospect   Park.     Spreading   through  the  woods, 
they  attacked  and  dispersed  the  broken  detachments  in  retreat.    Thus, 
at  about  ten  o'clock,  ten  thousand  British  and  four  thousand  Hessians 
were  in  pursuit  of  not  quite  three  thousand  Americans  in  rapid  flight 
through  the  woods  and  over  the  hills  just  outside  the  Brooklyn  lines. 
No  assistance  could  be  sent  them,  but  much  the  greater  number  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  within  the  works. 

Stirling,  and  Parsons  on  his  left,  were  now  the  only  officers  with 
an  organized  force   in   the  field.     During  all  this  rout   and 
confusion  in  their  rear,  they  still  faced  Grant  .in  good  order,  forced  to  re- 
till  Stirling,  hearing  the  noise  of  the  battle  behind  him,  and 
finding  that  no  orders  could  reach  him,  fell  back  along  the  Gowanus 
road.      But  this  was  already  in  possession  of  Cornwallis,  who  held  it 
at  the  Cortelyou  House,  near  the  upper  end  of  the  Gowanus  marsh. 
Nothing  remained  for  Stirling  but  to  attempt  to  cross  the  marsh  at 
the  moirfh  of  the  creek.     It  was  high  water,  and  fording  was  diffi- 
cult;   nor  could  this  be  attempted  in  the   presence  of  the  spirited  con- 
enemy  without  great  loss.     He  determined,  therefore,  to  at-  jurjiLd1-6 
tack   Cornwallis  with  a  small  force,  while   the  rest  of  the  ' 

command  should  wade  or  swim  the  creek.     Taking  half  the  Marvland 

j 

battalion,  he  marched  boldly  upon  the  enemy,  aud  charged  them  re- 


Siege  of 


o02  LOSS    OF    LONG   ISLAND   AND  NEW   YORK.     [CiiAi-.  XX. 

peatedly.     But  before  overwhelming  numbers,  success  was  out  of  the 

question  ;  they  retreated  to  the  woods,  and  were  all  taken. 
r.(:nera\°  Stirling  surrendered  to  the  Hessian  commander,  De  Heis- 

ter.  Parsons's  and  Atlee's  men  were  also  captured,  though 
Parsons  himself  succeeded  in  hiding  at  night  and  escaping  to  camp 
at  dawn  next  morning. 

By  two  o'cloi-k  in  the  afternoon,  the  engagement  was  over.     Th;> 

enemy  had  captured  between  eight  hundred  and  one  thou- 

sand prisoners,  at  a  loss  to  themselves  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty-seven  officers  and  soldiers.  The  American  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  was  probably  less  than  three  hundred.1 

During  the  progress  of  the  engagement  Washington  had  crossed 
to  Brooklyn,  but  could,  of  course,  send  no  relief  from  the  main  lines 
while  the  British  threatened  them.  To  repair  his  losses  he  promptly 
sent  for  more  troops,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  28th  had  nearly  ten 

thousand  men  on    the   Long  Island  side.      The    British   ad- 
Brook-      vanced  their  intrenchments   to  within   range  of   Fort  Put- 

nam by  dawn  of  the  29th.  The  ground  favored  them,  and 
in  twenty-four  hours  more  their  superior  artillery  would  be  playing 
heavily  on  the  Brooklyn  works.  Eighteen  thousand  troops  were 
ready  to  storm  them  when  the  guns  should  be  silenced,  while  in  the 
rear  of  the  American  army  was  the  East  River,.  wider  than  now,  by 
a  thousand  feet,  at  its  narrowest  part.  But  it  rained  almost  con- 
stantly during  the  28th.  and  29th  ;  and  beyond  some  smart  skirmish- 
ing along  the  picket  lines,  nothing  occurred.  Washington,  however, 
knew  that  every  hour  was  full  of  danger,  and  he  was  almost  con- 
stantly in  the  saddle,  moving  along  the  lines,  giving  orders,  and  cheer- 
ing the  men. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  29th,  a  council  of  the  general  officers 

met  at  Philip  Livingston's  mansion,  and  it  was  determined 

lounoil  of  '  ill         IIT      i  .  111          11 

war  decides    to  retreat  from  Lon<j  Island.      V\  aslungton  had  already  be- 

to  retreat.  .  nil  i  'iii 

gun  preparations  by  sending  tor  all  the  boats  that  could  be 

found  anywhere  on  Manhattan  Island,  and  by  the  exertions  of  Heath, 
Quartermaster  Hughes,  and  Hutchinson's  men  from  Salem,  who  rowed 
the  boats  down  from  Fort  Washington,  every  variety  of  craft  had 
been  collected  at  the  Brooklyn  ferry  by  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
Glover's  men  from  Marblehead  manned  the  sail  and  row-boats,  and 
the  retreat  began. 

For  twelve  hours,  with  interruptions  that  almost  proved  fatal,  the 
troops  were  ferried  across.  The  regiments,  as  they  marched  down  to 

1  The  quostiou  of  the  losses  at  this  battle  is  discussed  in  The  Ctiiiifiaign  of  1776  Around 
New  York  and  Brooklyn,  recently  issued  by  the  Long  Island  Historical  Society,  p.  202. 
The  total  loss  for  the  Americans  is  there  put  at  about  ouc  thousand. 


K7G.] 


THE    AMERICANS   CROSS  TO  XE\V  YORK. 


the   ferry,  did   not   understand   the  movement.     General  orders  that 
afternoon  had  informed  them  that  Mercer  was  expectid  from   The  tr 
New  Jersey  with  reinforcements.     The  sick  had  previously  c'"'p:" 

v  *         ijiLTiir 

been  sent  to  New  York  on  the  plea  that  they  were  an  incuin-   Nt"  Y"rk 
brance,  and  that  the  quarters  they  occupied  were  needed  for  troops 
without  shelter. 

During  the  early  hours  of  the  night  the  storm  of  wind  and  rain  was 
violent,  and  the  passage  across  the  river  exceedingly  difficult.  M<  - 
Dougall,  who  had  the  transportation  in  charge,  once  gave  it  up,  and 
sent  word  to  Washington  that  its  accomplishment  was  not  to  be  hoped 
for.  Not  finding  the  General,  McDougall  took  no  responsibility,  but 
went  on  with  the  work  as  best  he  could.  "But,"  adds  the  historian 
Gordon,  "about 
eleven  the  wind 
died  a  way,  and 
soon  after  sprung 
up  to  southwest, 
and  blew  fresh, 
which  rendered  the 
sail-boats  of  use, 
and  at  the  same 
time  made  the  pas- 
sage from  the  island 
to  the  city,  direct, 
easy,  and  expedi- 
tious." l 

For  a  covering 
party  to  occupy  the 
works  to  the  last, 
Washington  had  detached  Mifflin  with  six  regiments,  with  orders  to 
remain  until  they  were  sent  for.  By  some  mistake,  Scammell.  one  of 
Washington's  aids,  brought  the  order  about  two  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing for  the  entire  body  to  march  to  the  ferry.  The  lines  were  accord- 
ingly deserted,  and  Mifflin's  men  well  on  their  way  to  the  ferry,  when 
the  Commander-in-chief  came  upon  them  in  the  darkness.  ••  A 
dreadful  mistake!"  he  exclaimed;  and  all  were  marched  back  again 
to  their  posts.  Fortunately,  the  enemy  were  still  unsuspicious.  Still 
more  fortunately,  as  Gordon  writes,  "  Providence  further  in- 
terposed in  favor  of  the  retreating  army,  by  sending  a  thick 
fog  about  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  which  hung  over  Long 
Island,  while  on  the  New  York  side  it  was  clear,  fnder  cover  of  this 


Howes   Headquarters.  —  Beexman   House. 


A  (It'll*)'  log 


Ulovriiiriit. 


1  •  Gordon  obtained  his  particulars  from  Colonel  Glover's  letters,  Dr.  R'Hlytrs's  Thunks<i'iK- 
iny  Sermon,  and  persons  who  were  present. 


504  LOSS   OF   LONG   ISLAND   AND   NEW    YORK.     [CIIAI-.  XX. 

fog  Mifflin's  men  finally,  about  sunrise,  withdrew  in  order  and  crossed 
safely.     Last  of  all  followed  the  Commander-in-chief. 

There  were  three  points  to  be  settled  immediately,  consequent  on 
shaii  New  this  retreat  from  Long  Island.  Shall  the  defence  of  New 
melted  York  City  be  continued  ?  If  evacuated,  shall  it  be  burned  ? 
Bud  bumcd?  aiu^  jn  tjmt  case?  what  position  shall  the  American  army 
take  next  ?  The  slow  movements  of  the  British  gave  the  generals 
and  Congress  two  weeks  to  decide.  The  enemy  moved  to  the  site  of 
the  present  Astoria,  to  Newtown,  and  along  the  East  River,  threaten- 
ing to  cross  to  West  Chester  County  above.  They  could  easily  have 
bombarded  the  town  from  Brooklyn  Heights,  and  from  Governor's 
New  Island,  of  which  the}'  had  taken  possession  on  the  30th. 
Hut  U()We  refrained  from  destroying  a  place  which  he  hoped 
soon  to  capture.  Greene  and  some  others,  expecting  that  it 
would  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  wished,  for  that  reason,  that 
it  should  be  destroyed.  Congress,  to  whom  the  question  was  referred, 
decided  that  no  harm  should  be  done  to  it,  influenced  by  the  same 
motive  that  governed  Howe,  —  that  its  possession,  at  some  future  time, 
would  be  of  far  greater  service  than  its  destruction.  Thus  both  par- 
ties agreed  that  it  should  remain  uninjured. 

Washington  would  have  attempted  the  city's  defence  even  now,  had 
not  his  faith  in  the  soldierly  qualities  of  the  majority  of  his  troops 
been  shaken  by  recent  experiences.  The  militia  were,  as  he  said, 
"dismayed,  intractable,  and  impatient  of  return,"  and  after  the  re- 
treat from  Long  Island  large  numbers  went  back  to  their  homes 
in  squads,  in  companies,  almost  by  regiments.  Discontent  bred  in- 
subordination, and  the  wisdom,  vigilance,  and  energy  of  Washington 
were  taxed  to  the.  utmost  to  maintain  the  semblance  of  an  army.  The 
men  were,  no  doubt,  dispirited  by  the  disasters  of  the  last  few  days; 
but  they  were  still  more  discouraged  by  privations  and  difficulties  for 
which  there  seemed  to  be  no  remedy.  They  were,  as  General  Scott 
frankly  told  the  New  York  Congress,  "  badly  paid  and  wretchedly 
fed."  No  wonder  that  many  of  them  despaired  of  being  either  bet- 
ter paid  or  sufficiently  fed,  for  the  real  difficulties  of  the  situation 
were  quite  as  apparent  to  them  as  they  were  to  their  superiors.  Fresh 
recruits,  however,  came  in  to  take  the  place  of  the  home-sick  men  who 
left,  and  the  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  army,  though  slow, 
A\as  steady.  On  the  2d  of  September,  however,  it  numbered,  accord- 
ing to  official  returns,  less  than  twenty  thousand  men. 

It  was  decided  in  a  council  of  war  on  the  6th  that  the  city  should 
be  held,  contrary  to  the  judgment  of  \Vashington,  Greene,  Putnam, 
and  perhaps  others.  On  the  10th,  Congress  voted  to  leave  the  ques- 
tion to  the  Commander-in-chief,  who  had,  however,  on  the  same  day 


1776.] 


POSITION    OF   THE   TROOPS. 


505 


made  preparations  for  leaving,  and  two  days  later  a  council  reversed 
the  decision  of  the  week  before.  The  evacuation  was  to  be  made  on 
the  loth,  and  the  utmost  activity  prevailed  on  the  two  previous  days. 
Howe  was  aware,  of  course,  of  this  movement,  and  meant  to  prevent 
it.  Several  ships  of  war  were  moved  up  the  North  and  East  rivers, 
and  the  larger  portion  of  the  American  army  was  posted  at  Harlem 
and  King's  Bridge  to  repel  any  attempt  of  the  enemy  to  cross  from 
Long  Island  in  their  rear.  The  troops  left  below  were  posifion  of 
Colonel  Silliman's  brigade  of  Connecticut  militia,  and  levies  thetro°Ps- 
in  the  city,  General  Parsons's  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  Conti- 
nentals at  Corlear's  Hook,  at  the  foot  of  Grand  Street  on  the  East 
River ;  General  Scott's  New  York  State  brigade  on  the  Stuy vesant 
estate,  about  Fourteenth  Street  on  the  river;  General  Wadsworth's 


J umel   Mansion.  —  Washington's  Headquarters. 

Connecticut  levies  at  Twenty-third  Street;  and  at  Thirty-fourth  Street, 
at  Kip's  Bay,  Colonel  Douglas,  with  more  Connecticut  militia.  All 
these  troops  lay  behind  lines  thrown  up  along  the  river  front  to  repel 
a  landing,  and  on  the  15th  were  to  fall  back  with  the  rest  of  the  army 
to  Harlem  Heights. 

The  five  British  men-of-war  in  the  East  River  had  anchored  in  Wal- 
labout  Bay,  and  behind  Blackwell's  Island,  with  flat-boats  and  trans- 
ports. On  Sunday  morning,  the  15th,  they  drew  up  in  line  close  to 
the  shore  at  Kip's  Bay,  opposite  Douglas  and  his  militiamen.  About 
ten  o'clock,  these  ships  suddenly  opened  their  broadsides  on  Douglas, 


506  LOSS   OF  LONG  ISLAND   AND   NEW   YORK.     [CHAP.  XX. 

making  a  "  thundering  rattle,"  as  a  Hessian  officer  wrote,  and  drove 
the    Americans  in  confusion   from    behind    the   low  works, 
»t  Kip's         which  could  afford  them  but  slight  shelter.     Under  protec- 
tion of  this  fire  a  body  of  light  infantry  and  grenadiers,  with 
Donop's  Hessians,  crossed  from  the  mouth   of    Newtown   Creek    in 
eighty-four  flat-boats.    Landing  without  opposition  just  above  Thirty- 
fourth  Street,  they  chased  the  fugitives  in  disorderly  flight  over  the 
fields  to  Murrav  Hill. 

v 

Washington,  who  on  the  14th  had  moved  his  headquarters  to  the 
mansion  of  Colonel  Roger  Morris,  on  Harlem  Heights,1  hastened,  at 
the  first  sound  of  the  cannonade,  to  the  front.  At  Murray  Hill, 
near  the  residence  of  Robert  Murray,  about  the  line  of  Thirty-sixth 
Street  and  Fourth  Avenue,  he  attempted  to  arrest  the  retreat.  It  was 
impossible  to  rally  the  militia.  Those  from  Massachusetts  followed 
the  example  of  Douglas's  men,  and  the  older  troops  of  Parsons  were 
carried  away  with  them.  Washington,  Putnam,  Parsons,  and  Fel- 
lows rode  in  among  the  men,  doing  their  best  to  bring  order  out  of  this 
confusion  and  arrest  their  flight.  The  Commander-in-chief 
ton's  au'iti-r  was  worked  up  to  the  highest  pitch  of  indignation.  Gordon, 
the  historian,  heard  that  he  drew  his  sword  and  threatened 
to  run  the  fugitives  through.  Greene  wrote  that  in  his  disgust  and 
wrath  he  sought  "death  rather  than  life,"  and  was  among  the  last  to 
leave  the  ground.  Tilghman,  Washington's  aid,  adds  that  he  "  laid 
his  cane  over  many  of  the  officers  who  showed  their  men  the  example 
of  running."  He  drew  his  sword,  snapped  his  pistols,  brandished  his 
cane,  dashed  his  hat  to  the  ground,  and  exclaimed,  "  Are  these  the 
men  with  whom  I  am  to  defend  America!"  But  for  one  of  his  at- 
tendants seizing  his  horse's  reins  and  turning  him  toward  Harlem 
Heights,  it  is  said  the  General  would  have  fallen  into  the  enemy's 
hands. 

Putnam,  hastening  down  to  New  York,  gathered  up  Silliman's  com- 
mand, and  by  extraordinary  exertions,  assisted  by  Aaron 
his  division  Burr,  his  aid,  marched  up  the  west  side  of  the  island  through 
the  woods,  and  at  dark  reached  Harlem  Heights  in  safety. 
Howe  was  in  close  pursuit  of  this  column,  and  there  seems  no  good 
reason  for  doubting  the  story  of  his  being  delayed  by  Mrs.  Murray. 
The  General  and  his  staff  stopped  at  her  door  to  ask  how  long  since 
Putnam  had  passed,  and  was  assured  by  that  lady  that  he  must  be 
already  beyond  successful  pursuit.  She  then  urged  the  officers  to  dis- 
mount. The  day  was  "  insupportably  hot,"  and  the  invitation  of  this 
charming  Quaker  lady  and  a  not  less  charming  daughter  was  irresist- 

1   The  present  Jumel   Mansion  at  One  Hundred  and  Sixtieth   Street,  east  of  Tenth 
Aveuue. 


1776.] 


THE   AMERICAN   ARMY   OX   HARLEM   HEIGHTS. 


507 


ible.  "  Mrs.  Murray,"  says  Tliacher,  in  his  military  journal,  "treated 
them  with  cake  and  wine,  and  they  were  induced  to  tarry  two  hours 
or  more,  Governor  Tryon  frequently  joking  her  about  her  American 
friends."  Those  American  friends,  when  Howe  and  his  staff  dis- 
mounted at  her  gate,  were  only  ten  minutes  ahead. 


Mrs.   Murray  and  General  Howe. 

The  American  army  rested  at  length  on  the  broken  ground  and 
along  the  southern  crest  of  Harlem  Heights.  Many  of  the  men  slept 
without  shelter,  in  clothes  drenched  by  a  rain  that  fell  at  evening ; 
cannon,  baggage,  stores,  and  provisions  were  lost,  and  lost  through 
their  own  want  of  obedience,  of  discipline,  and  of  courage.  But 
the  next  morning,  the  16th,  a  well  fought  action  at  the  front  put 
fresh  spirit  into  both  officers  and  men.  A  body  of  not  quite  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  rangers,  from  the  Connecticut  and  other  New  England 
regiments,  had  recently  been  organized  under  the  command  of  Lieu- 
tenant-colonel Thomas  Knowlton,  who  did  such  brilliant  service  as  the 


508  LOSS    OF   LONG   ISLAND   AND   NEW   YORK.      [CHAI-.  XX. 

captain  of  the  Connecticut  troops  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 
His  corps  was  intended  for  scouting  duty  along  the  enemy's  front. 
Rttti  (  Early  on  the  morning  of  the  16th  he  cautiously  approached 
iiari.-in  the  point  on  the  Bloomingdale  road  where  the  enemy  were 

Heights.  * 

supposed  to  have  encamped  on  the  previous  evening.  They 
were  soon  found,  a  little  over  a  mile  from  the  American  lines.  Their 
van,  as  usual,  consisted  of  the  light  infantry  brigade,  and  when 
Knowlton's  party  was  discovered  hovering  in  the  woods  in  front  of 
them,  the  second  and  third  battalions  were  ordered  out  to  chase  the 
rebels  back.  Knowlton  and  his  men  received  them  with  a  discharge 
of  eight  or  nine  rounds  from  behind  a  stone  fence,  before  their  num- 
bers compelled  him  to  retreat.  As  they  pressed  him  in  front  and 
flank,  lie  drew  back  toward  the  Heights,  the  infantry  following. 

A  report  of  the  skirmish  reached  Washington,  and  he  rode  at  once 
to  that  point.  In  a  short  time  Knowlton  and  his  rangers  came  in 
and  reported  that  the  detachment  in  pursuit  was  about  double  his 
own  force,  or  three  hundred  strong.  The  ground  favored  an  at- 
tempt at  the  capture  of  the  whole  party,  and  Washington  gave  his 
orders  accordingly.  Harlem  Heights  rose  abruptly  from  the  plain, 
with  the  extreme  southern  point  reaching  the  present  One  Hun- 
dred and  Twenty-sixth  Street  east  of  Ninth  Avenue.  Opposite,  not 
half  a  mile  distant,  were  the  Bloomingdale  Heights,  of  lower  eleva- 
tion, and  the  vale  between  them,  at  the  western  end  of  which  lies 
Manhattanville,  was  known  in  the  army  as  the  "hollow  way."  The 
British  infantry  had  followed  Knowlton  to  the  edge  of  the  Blooming- 
dale  Heights,  nearly  opposite  to  the  rocky  point  of  Harlem  Heights, 
where  Washington  was  directing  the  movements.  Halting  there, 
their  bugler  sounded  the  "  Tally-ho v  of  a  fox-chase,  and  they  sat 
pun  of  the  down  to  rest  themselves.  The  plan  of  capture  was,  to  make 
engagement.  a  (jiversion  jn  their  front,  while  a  detachment  should  gain 
their  rear  and  prevent  retreat.  This  movement  was  entrusted  to 
Knowlton's  rangers  reenforced  by  three  companies  of  Weedon's  Vir- 
ginia regiment  under  Major  Andrew  Leitch.  In  front  were  chiefly 
Rhode  Islanders  from  Nixon's  brigade,  under  Lieutenant-colonel 
Crary  ;  as  these  advanced,  the  British  ran  down  from  their  position 
to  a  rail  fence,  and  opened  fire.  Knowlton's  flanking  force,  concealed 
by  the  bushes,  made  a  detour  around  the  enemy's  right,  but  by  some 
mistake  they  began  their  attack  upon  the  flank  of  the  infantry.  Find- 
ing themselves  in  danger  of  being  surrounded,  the  enemy  gave  way, 
and  ran  up  the  hill  again,  with  the  Americans  in  pursuit.  The  flight 
continued  over  the  Bloomingdale  Heights,  through  a  piece  of  woods, 
and  to  a  field  beyond,  where  the  infantry,  being  reenforced  by  the 
Forty-second  Highlanders,  made  a  stand. 


1776.] 


BATTLE   OF  HARLEM   HEIGHTS. 


509 


To  drive  the  regulars  in   the   open   field  was  a  new  experience  for 
Washington's   men,  and   this  success  would  doubtless  have 
been  followed  up  but  for  the  fall  of  the  two  brave  leaders  Leitehand 

T      .      ,  Knoxvlton. 

of  the  flanking   party,  Knowlton  and  Leitch,  as  they  came 

up.     "  I  do  not  care  for  my  life,"  said  Knowlton  to  the  Captain  on 


Harlem   Plains. 

whom  the  command   now  devolved,  "if  we  do  but  win  the  day;" 
and  he  ordered  him  to  press  forward.1 

Washington  immediately  sent  forward  detachments  from  the  Mary- 
land brigade,  and  from  Nixon's  and  Sargent's,  which  swelled 
the  number  engaged  to  over  fifteen  hundred.     The   British   driven  ..v.-r 
infantry  being  also  reenforced  by  the   Forty-second  High-  dale"" 
landers,  two  field-pieces,  and  Donop's  yagers,  a  sharp  fight 
followed  of  an  hour's  duration,  at  a  buckwheat  field,  east  of  the  pres- 
ent Bloomingdale  Asvlum.      Putnam,  Greene,  George  Clinton,  Heed, 
and  members  of  Washington's  staff,  all  joined  in  the  affair,  holding 
the  men  well  up  to  their  work,  until  the  enemy,  surprised  to  find  such 
opposition,  again  retreated  through  an  orchard  towards  Bloomingdale. 
The  Americans  pursued  ;  but  Washington  feared  an  advance  in  force 
by  the  enemy,  and  sent  Tilghman,  his  aid,  to  bring  back  the  troops, 
who  returned  in  high  spirits. 

Knowlton  was  buried  the  next  day,  with  military  honors,  near  the 

1  Letter  from  the  Captain,  whose  name  is  not  given,  in  the  Connect  i'->tt   GazttU-,  Sep- 
tember 27. 


510 


LOSS   OF  LONG  ISLAND   AND  NEW  YORK.     [CHAP.  XX. 


roadside,  not  far,  it  is  supposed,  from  the  intersection  of  Tenth  Ave- 
IXKWS  on  nue  a"d  One  Hundred  and  Forty-fifth  Street.  Leitcli  died 
either  side.  on  j.jie  jgf.  of  October.  Resides  these  two  leaders  the  party 
lost  two  other  officers  —  Captain  Gleason,  of  Massachusetts,  and 
Lieutenant  Allen,  of  Rhode  Island  —  and  about  seventy-five  pri- 
vates in  killed  and  wounded.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  was  variously 
estimated,  at  the  time ;  Howe  reported  that  his  loss  was  fourteen 

killed  and  seventy 
wounded.  Coming 
so  immediately  upon 
the  panic  of  the  day 
before,  the  action 
was  important  in  its 
influence  upon  the 
men.  "  This  af- 
fair," Washington 
wrote  to  Congress, 
"  I  am  in  hopes, 
will  be  attended 
with  many  salutary 
consequences,  as  it 
seems  to  have  great- 
ly inspirited  the 
whole  of  our  troops."  It  was  this,  rather  than  any  importance  in 
the  movement  itself,  that  aroused  the  anxiety  of  the  generals,  and 
led  so  many  of  them  to  take  part  in  it.  "I  suppose,"  wrote  Adju- 
tant-general Reed,  "  many  persons  will  think  it  was  rash  and  impru- 
dent for  so  many  officers  of  our  rank  to  go  into  such  an  action,  but 
it  was  really  to  animate  the  troops,  who  were  quite  dispirited,  and 
would  not  go  into  danger  unless  their  officers  led  the  way."  De- 
spondency and  discontent,  however,  still  prevailed;  many  deserted, 
and  those  whose  enlistments  expired  went  home  during  the  next  four 
weeks,  in  which  there  was  little  to  do  except  to  strengthen  the 
Heights. 

\  et  there  was  no  want  of  exciting  events  in  this  interval  of  ces- 
sation from  fighting.      The    town  was   taken   possession   of 

Xrw  York  . 

urcnpitMi  b.v    by  the  hostile  armv,  with   much  "military  display,  and  not  a 

the  British.      ,.,...  J  ..  /  J 

little  rejoicing  among  the  loyalists,  who  gave  to  Governor 
Tryou  an  enthusiastic  welcome.  These  demonstrations  were  hardly 
over,  when  the  calamity  which  both  sides  had  hoped  might  be 
averted  fell  upon  the  town.  On  the  21st  it  was  well-nigh 
destroyed  by  a  fire,  which,  breaking  out,  from  some  un- 
known cause,  at  Whitehall  Slip,  swept  through  Stone,  Beaver,  and 


Ruins  of  Trinity  Church. 


A  great  fire. 


!776.]  EXECUTION   OF   CAPTAIN   NATHAN   HALE.  511 

Broad  Streets,  up  Broadway  to  Barclay  Street,  and  along  the  North 
River  to  King's  College,  which  was  saved  with  difficulty.  Five 
hundred  buildings,  among  them  Trinity  Church  and  the  Lutheran 
Church,  were  destroyed.  Several  women  and  children,  it  was  sup- 
posed, were  burnt  to  death,  and  their  shrieks,  wrote  the  Moravian 
pastor,  Shewkirk,  "  joined  to  the  roaring  of  the  flames,  the  crash  of 
falling  buildings,  and  the  widespread  ruin  which  everywhere  appeared, 
formed  a  scene  of  horror  great  beyond  description."  There  were  no 
bells  in  the  churches  to  give  a  timely  alarm,  these  having  been  re- 
moved by  order  of  the  Provincial  Congress ;  the  fire-engines  were  out 
of  order,  and  buckets  were  almost  useless  in  arresting  the  progress 
of  the  flames.  That  there  should  be  suspicions  of  incendiarism  was 
inevitable.  "  Numbers  of  people,"  says  the  Moravian  pastor,  "  were 
carried  to  jail  on  suspicion  to  have  had  a  hand  in  the  fire,  and  to  have 
been  on  the  rebels'  side,  —  it  is  said  about  two  hundred ;  however, 
on  examination,  the  most  men  were  as  fast  discharged." 

In  the  excitement  of  the  destruction  of  a  large  portion  of  the  city, 
and  the  arrest  of  so  many  suspected  rebel  incendiaries,  it  is  Exe(.utj0n 
not  likely  that  the  hanging  of  a  single  spy  in  the  neighbor-  ^f..'^^*111 
hood  of  the  town  attracted  much  attention.  It  is,  neverthe-  lule- 
less,  the  more  marked  incident  of  the  two,  both  from  the  character  of 
the  man  who  suffered  death,  and  as  a  precedent  which  no  doubt  influ- 
enced Washington  when  subsequently  he  was  called  upon  to  deride 
the  fate  of  a  spy.  The  morning  after  the  fire,  Captain  Nathan  Hale, 
of  Connecticut,  was  hanged  near  the  corner  of  East  Broadway  and  Mar- 
ket Street.  From  the  purest  motives  of  patriotism  he  had  volunteered 
to  go  within  the  British  lines  on  Long  Island,  and  obtain  information, 
indispensable  to  the  Commander-in-chief,  of  the  disposition  of  the 
forces  of  the  enemy.  He  was  arrested  on  his  return,  and  taken  to 
Howe's  headquarters,  the  Beekman  mansion  at  Turtle  Bay,  on  the 
East  River.  The  papers  found  upon  his  person  were  the  evidence  of 
his  purpose,  which,  indeed,  he  made  no  pretence  of  denying.  No  trial 
was  granted  him  ;  it  is  said  that  he  was  not  permitted  to  see  a  clergy- 
man, or  to  have  the  use  of  a  Bible  in  his  last  hours,  and  the  pro- 
vost martial  to  whom,  after  a  single  night's  confinement,  he  was  deliv- 
ered up  for  death,  destroyed  the  letters  he  had  written  to  his  mother 
and  sisters.  "  I  only  regret,"  he  said,  as  he  was  about  to  die,  "that 
I  have  but  one  life  to  give  for  my  country."  His  burial-place  is  un- 
known, and  no  monument  has  been  erected  to  him  bv  the  nation  in 

«, 

whose  service  he  met  an  ignominious  death.  Like  Andre,  he  was  a 
gentleman  of  education  and  high  character  ;  if,  by  the  laws  of  war, 
both  equally  merited  the  death,  the  risk  of  which  they  took,  there  is 
this  marked  difference  in  their  fates,  —  that  to  Andre  was  given  a  fair 


512 


LOSS   OF  LONG   ISLAND   AND  NEW   YORK.      [€HAP.  XX. 


tempt  at 
reconcilia- 
tion. 


and  impartial  trial  upon  the  evidence,  and  that  his  countrymen  re- 
membered, after  the  lapse  of  a  century,  to  give  his  body  a  grave  and 
his  memory  a  monument  among  the  most  honored  of  England's  dead. 
During  this  interval  of  comparative  quiet,  the  attempt  at  recon- 
A  »econa  at-  ciliatioii,  with  which  Howe  was  in  a  certain  degree  in- 
trusted, was  renewed.  General  Sullivan,  three  days  after 
his  capture  on  Long  Island,  went  on  his  parole  to  Congress 
at  Philadelphia,  bearing  a  message  from  the  English  Admiral  that  he 
desired  to  confer  on  the  subject  with  some  of  their  members  in  a 
private  capacity.  Congress  declined  to  treat  with  him  in  any  other 
way  than  as  the  representatives  of  America;  but  consented  to  send  a 

committee  to  ascer- 
tain what  powers  he 
possessed  as  a  civil 
commissioner. 
Franklin,  Adam  s, 
and  Rutledge  met 
him  on  the  llth  of 
September,  at  the 
Billop  House,  on 
Staten  Island,  op- 
posite Amboy ;  but 
the  conference  only 
brought  out  the  fact 
that  Lord  Howe  had 
no  authority  to  ne- 
gotiate with  the 
rebels  as  an  inde- 
pendent people,  and 
that  the  committee 
had  no  intention  of 
treating  with  him  on  any  other  basis.  Gordon  reports  that  the  latter 
managed  the  matter  "  with  great  dexterity,  and  maintained  the  dig- 
nity of  Congress." 

It  was  not  until  the  12th  of  October  that  Howe  was  prepared  to 
renew  the  offensive  measures  against  Washington.  The  position  of 
the  American  army  at  Harlem  Heights  was  too  strong  to  be  assaulted 
in  front,  and  the  British  commander  was  now  compelled  by  the  neces- 
sities of  the  situation,  rather  than  of  choice,  to  follow  out  his  favorite 
tactics  and  again  move  on  his  opponent's  flank  and  rear.  Washing- 
ton, on  his  part,  had  made  such  preparations  that  he  was  not  for  the 
third  time  to  be  taken  by  surprise.  Howe  decided  now  to  do  that 
which  he  might  have  done  immediately  after  the  battle  of  Long 


The  Billop  House. 


1776.]  MOVEMENTS   OF    GENERAL    HOWE.  513 

Island,  —  to  land  in  Westchester  County,   march  across  toward  the 
Hudson,  and  cut  the  American  communications.     But  in- 
stead of  landing  well  along  the  coast,  at  a  point  where  he  could  in  westrhM- 

i       •       ITT      i  •  i   •  i       ter  County. 

quickly  seize  the  main  roads  in  Washington  s  rear,  Ins  ad- 
vance division,  which  started  from  New  York  on  the  12th,  and  passed 
through  Hell  Gate  in  flat-boats  under  cover  of  a  fog,  stopped  at 
Throg's  Neck,  six  miles  distant,  which  then  had  no  strategical  im- 
portance whatever.  It  was  simply  a  projecting  tongue  of  land,  con- 
nected with  the  main  land  by  a  causeway,  which  the  Americans  had 
already  obstructed  and  covered  with  works.  Here  the  British  wasted 
five  days  waiting  for  provisions  and  stores,  and  Washington  improved 
the  time  by  preparing  for  the  next  attempt  upon  his  flank. 

This  evident  design  on  the  Westchester  roads  prompted  the  calling 
of  a  council  in  the  American  camp  on  the  16th.  It  was  decided  that 
Harlem  Heights  would  be  untenable  should  Howe  move  upon  them, 
and  preparations,  therefore,  should  be  made  to  evacuate  the  whole  of 
that  position,  with  the  exception  of  Fort  Washington.  That  post, 
the  council,  persuaded  chiefly  by  Greene's  opinion  of  its  importance 
and  impregnability,  decided  to  retain  with  a  sufficient  garrison.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  Commander-in-chief  gradually  withdrew  his  troops 
along  the  hills  west  of  the  Bronx  River,  which  runs  through  West- 
Chester  nearly  parallel  to  the  Hudson,  and  thus  held  the  army  well  in 
hand  to  face  the  enemy  wherever  they  appeared. 

On  the  18th  Howe  left  the  Neck,  and  debarked  again  at  Pell's 
Point,  a  short  distance  below  New  Rochelle.     Glover's  bri- 
gade, consisting  of  Reed's,  Shepherd's,  and  Bailey's  Massa-  towards  New 

i  i      i         i-    i        •     <•  f  i  Rochelle 

chusetts  men,  opposed  the  light  infantry  from  behind  stone 
walls,  with  an  effective  fire,  and  then  fell  back  slowly.     The  enemy 
advancing  took  post  in  the  vicinity  of  New  Rochelle,  where  they  de- 
layed again    until  the  22d,  giving  Washington  ample  time  to  place 
himself  at  White  Plains,  where  he   held    the    roads  leading  up  the 
Hudson  and  to  New  England.     If  Howe's  movement  was  merely  to 
compel  the  evacuation  of  Harlem  Heights,  it  was  successful ;  if  the  in- 
tention was  to  hern  in  the  whole  American  force  south  of  White  Plains, 
it  was  a  signal  failure.     On  the  evening  of  the  27th  the  two  armies 
were  only  four  miles  apart.     Washington's  line  of  woi'ks  — 
part  of  the  distance  a  double  line — ran  along  hilly  ground   white 
within  the  village  of  White  Plains,  in  a  southwesterly  direc- 
tion, the  left  resting  on  broken  ground  near  a  hollow  and   mill-pond, 
and  the  right  on  a  curve  of  the   Bronx,  which  protected  flank  and 
rear.     Just  across  the  Bronx  rose  Chatterton's   Hill,  a  little  in  ad- 
vance of  the  main  line,  and  presenting  a  steep  front.     Behind  the  in- 
trenchments  lay  the  four  divisions  of  the  army,  mustering  about  thir- 

VOL.  HI.  33 


514 


LOSS   OF   LONG  ISLAND   AND  NEW   YORK.     [CHAP.  XX. 


teen  thousand  men.  Chatterton's  Hill  had  not  been  fortified,  and 
Colonel  Putnam,  the  engineer,  had  gone  out  to  it  to  mark  a  line  of 
defence. 

The  British  moved  up  from  Scarsdale,  and,  driving  in  the  outpost 
parties  under  Spencer,  reached  Washington's  position  about  ten  o'clock. 
They  marched  in  two  columns,  —  Clinton  on  the  right,  De  Heister  on 
the  left,  —  in  numbers 'about  equal  to  the  Americans,  or,  according  to 
Stedman,  "  thirteen  thousand  effective  men."  The  purpose  seemed 


Chatterton's  Hill. 


to  be,  at  first,  to  attack  in  front,  and  a  company  of  dragoons  ap- 
proached Heath  on  the  left  to  reconnoitre,  but  were  checked  by  a 
battery.  Instead  of  attempting  a  direct  assault,  however,  the  enemy 
filed  off  to  the  left  and  extended  their  lines  in  the  plain  some  distance 
in  front  of  Chatterton's  Hill.  Here  the  main  body  halted,  and  the 
soldiei's  sat  down  on  the  ground,  while  a  column  four  thousand  strong 
proceeded  to  cross  the  Bronx  and  move  up  the  hill.  The  design  evi- 
dently was,  to  attempt  the  capture  of  that  point  as  preliminary  and 
necessary  to  subsequent  movements.  One  body,  under  General  Leslie 
and  Colonel  Donop,  forded  the  stream  in  front,  and  Rahl,  with  part 
of  his  Hessians,  crossed  farther  down.  To  cover  the  movement,  fif- 
teen or  twenty  pieces  of  artillery  opened  a  rapid  fire  on  the  Ameri- 
cans opposite. 

At   the   time   of    Howe's    approach,    Washington    was    riding   in 


1776.]  BATTLE    OF    WHITE    PLAINS.  515 

company  with  Lee,  Heath,  and  other  officers,  examining  a  stronger 
position  for  defence  farther  to  the  rear.1  An  orderly  brought 
word  of  what  might  be  expected,  and  the  generals  galloped  chatter-ton's 
back  to  their  posts.  Colonel  Brooks's  Massachusetts  militia 
were  sent  to  Chatterton's  Hill,  and  Haslet,  with  his  Delaware  men, 
soon  followed.  These  formed  in  good  positions,  the  militia  consider- 
ably to  the  right,  where  they  were  shortly  reenforced  by  McDougall's 
brigade  of  Continentals,  including  his  own,  Ritzema's,  Smallwood's, 
and  Charles  Webb's.  Captain  Alexander  Hamilton  brought  up  his 
two  field-pieces.  This  disposition  of  the  troops  was  hardly  made  along 
the  brow  of  the  steep  declivity,  when  the  enemy  came  on,  clambering 
straight  up  the  difficult  ascent.  The  situation  was  not  unlike  that  at 
Bunker  Hill.  Captain  William  Hull,  of  Webb's  regiment,  describes 
the  scene  as  exceedingly  imposing,  with  the  entire  British  army  in  full 
view,  and  the  attack  in  front,  combined  with  the  heavy  cannonade,  aa 
an  ordeal  which,  under  the  circumstances,  might  have  tried  the  nerves 
of  older  soldiers.  McDougall's  men  poured  a  hot  fire  into  Leslie's 
ranks,  before  which  they  recoiled,  and  sought  shelter.  A  second 
charge  up  the  slope  was  met  with  an  equally  determined  resistance, 
especially  from  Smallwood's  and  Ritzema's  men  in  the  centre.  For 
fifteen  minutes  the  enemy  were  held  in  check,  when  Rahl  and  his 
Hessians  appearing  on  the  American  right,  drove  the  militia  from 
their  posts.  This  break  on  the  right  made  it  impossible  for  McDou- 
gall  to  maintain  his  position,  and  he  was  compelled  to  retreat.  As 
the  fire  in  front  increased,  and  Rahl  was  now  on  their  flank,  the 
Americans  gave  way,  at  first  in  some  confusion  ;  but  a  portion  of 
them  kept  up  a  fire  from  behind  trees  and  fences,  and  the  whole 
force  succeeded  in  retiring  to  the  main  line  across  the  Bronx.  The 
loss  was  about  thirty  prisoners  and  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
killed  and  wounded.  The  enemy's  loss  was  nearly  a  hundred  greater. 
In  the  course  of  the  next  two  or  three  days,  Washington  removed 
his  army  to  an  impregnable  position  on  the  Northcastle 
Heights.  It  was  useless  to  follow  him,  and  Howe,  after  sev-  takes  posi°n 
eral  days'  delay,  inarched  to  the  Hudson  to  the  reduction  of  xonh^stie 
Fort  Washington.  All  the  evils  of  war  were  visited  upon 
the  people  of  the  neighborhood  ;  the  British  troops  lived  upon  the 
country,  and  the  court-house  and  a  part  of  the  village  of  White  Plains 
were  burnt  bv  the  Americans  after  the  enemv  left  it. 

•/  *J 

Whether  Fort  Washington  should,  if  possible,  be  held,  was  an  anx- 
ious question,   both    in  Congress  and  with  the  generals  in    Fort  ,ragh_ 
the  field.     Congress  wished  to  hold  it  at  any  cost,  to  guard  in«ton- 
the  Hudson.     Greene,  who  believed  that  Howe  contemplated,  as  his 

1  Heath's  Memoirs. 


516 


LOSS    OF   LONG   ISLAND   AND   NEW   YORK.     [CHAP.  XX. 


next  move,  a  descent  upon  New  Jersey,  still  urged  that  it  be  retained, 
to  compel  the  enemy  to  leave  part  of  their  force  in  its  vicinity,  and 
thus  distract  their  future  Operations.  Washington  was  far  more  anx- 
ious as  to  the  probable  transfer  of  the  campaign  to  New  Jerse)r,  and 
a  move  ou  Philadelphia.  The  fort,  he  thought,  even  if  it  should  be 
possible  to  repulse  such  a  force  as  Howe  could  place  before  it,  had 
already  ceased  to  serve 
the  purpose  for  which  it 
was  originally  intended. 
Two  of  the  enemy's  ships, 
on  the  7th  of  November, 
in  spite  of  attempts  to 
set  them  on  fire,  and  in 


Ships  passing  Fort  Washington. 

defiance  of  the  cannonading  from  the  fort,  had  broken  through  the 
impediments  placed  in  the  channel,  and  ran  up  the  river;  and,  only 
two  nights  before  the  final  attack,  thirty  or  forty  flat-boats  had  passed 
up  into  Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek,  unobserved  from  either  shore.  Wash- 
ington accordingly  wrote  to  Greene  that,  under  the  circumstances,  he 
did  not  think  it  u  prudent  to  hazard  the  men  and  stores  at  Mount 
Washington,"  but  at  the  same  time  left  it  discretionary  with  him  to 
give  the  necessary  orders  for  its  evacuation. 

The  commander  of  the  fort  was  Colonel  Robert  Magaw,  a  lawyer 
of   Philadelphia.     He  was   regarded   as  a  good  officer,  and  had  had 


1776.] 


THE    SIEGE   OF   FORT    WASHINGTON. 


sonie  experience  as  Major  of  Hand's  riflemen  at  the  siege  of  Boston. 
The  twenty-seven  hundred   or  more   troops  composing  the   CoionPl  Ma. 
garrison  were  chiefly  Pennsylvanians.     Rawling's  Maryland   j£Iu'^n'.n' 
riflemen  and  Bradley 's  Connecticut  levies  were  together  less  ' 
than  five  hundred  of  the  number.     Howe  demanded  a  surrender  on 
the  15th,  threatening  that  if  he  were  compelled  to  take  the  fort  by 
assault,   the  garrison  should  be   put  to  the  sword.     Magaw  replied 
that  to  propose  such  an  alternative  was  unworthy  an  officer  of  the 
British  nation,  and  that,  for  himself,  he  should  defend  the  fort  to  the 
last  extremity. 

Washington  had  been  absent  for  some  days,  with  several  of   his 


Washington,  at  Washington   Heights. 


principal  officers,  making  preparations  for  any  movement  farther  up 
the  river  and  on  the  west  side,  to  secure  the  important  pass  of  the 
Highlands  by  sufficient  fortifications.  On  his  return  to  Fort  Lee,  ou 
the  Jersey  side,  nearly  opposite  Fort  Washington,  he  was  surprised 
to  find  that  this  post  was  still  occupied.  On  the  16th,  he  crossed  the 


518  LOSS   OF   LONG  ISLAND    AND   NEW   YORK.     [CEIAP.  XX. 

river  with  the  purpose  of  coming  to  a  final  and  positive  decision,  upon 
the  spot,  of  the  question  of  defence  or  evacuation.  But  it  was  already 
decided.  Howe  had  begun  the  attack,  retreat  was  impossible,  and  the 
garrison  had  no  choice  but  defence  or  surrender.  "  As  the  disposition 
was  made,"  wrote  Greene,  "and  the  enemy  advancing,  we  durst  not 
attempt  any  new  disposition  ;  indeed,  we  saw  nothing  amiss.  We  all 
urged  his  Excellency  to  come  off.  1  offered  to  stay.  General  Put- 
nam did  the  same,  and  so  did  General  Mercer;  but  his  Excellency 
thought  it  best  for  us  all  to  come  off  together,  which  we  did,  about 
half  an  hour  before  the  enemy  surrounded  the  fort." 

The  British  directed  their  attack  from  three  sides,  under  cover  of  a 
Howe  s  line  furious  cannonade  from  Fordham  Heights  on  the  east  bank 
of  attack.  of  ^e  jjar}em>  Magaw  had  stationed  his  men  in  the  outer 
lines,  some  distance  above  and  below  the  fort.  Lieutenant-colonel 
Cadwallader,  with  Shee's  Pennsylvanians,  commanded  at  the  lowest 
of  the  triple  line  of  works  across  the  island.  Towards  King's  Bridge, 
on  the  high  ground  near  Inwood,  Rawling  and  his  Marylanders  were 
posted.  On  his  right,  Colonel  Baxter's  Pennsylvania  Rifles  occupied 
Laurel  Hill  on  the  Harlem,  near  where  Tenth  Avenue  terminates. 
The  rocky  and  precipitous  side  of  the  river,  north  and  south  of  the 
present  High  Bridge,  was  watched  by  small  parties.  The  distance  on 
this  defensive  line,  between  Cadwallader  below  and  Rawling  and  Bax- 
ter above,  was  two  and  a  half  miles. 

The  enemy  advanced  in  three  columns.  One  came  up  from 
Bloomingdale  and  Harlem  Plains,  led  by  Lord  Percy,  who  was  accom- 
panied by  Howe.  Knyphausen  moved  down  the  road  from  King's 
Bridge,  and  with  him  marched  Rahl  and  his  men,  only  a  little  nearer 
the  Hudson.  The  third  force,  under  General  Matthews,  supported 
by  Cornwallis,  appeared  in  boats  on  the  upper  Harlem,  heading  tow- 
ard Baxter.  The  fighting  began  everywhere  nearly  at  the  same  time, 
Percy  leading  off.  He  attacked  Cadwallader,  and  carried  a  small  re- 
doubt ;  but  as  Cadwallader  had  the  middle  and  a  much  stronger  line 
to  fall  back  to,  and  could  probably  hold  Percy  well  in  check,  Howe 
ordered  a  body  of  Highlanders,  led  by  Lieutenant-colonel  Sterling,  to 
move  up  in  boats,  and  land  above  Cadwallader.  Magaw,  observing 
this  movement,  sent  out  an  opposing  force ;  but  the  Highlanders  clam- 
bered up  the  hill-side  in  spite  of  the  destructive  fire  that  tore  through 
their  ranks,  and,  reaching  the  top,  took  a  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners, 
besides  compelling  Cadwallader  to  beat  an  immediate  retreat  to  the 
fort.  On  the  north  side,  the  Hessian  columns  met  in  Rawling  and 
his  riflemen  a  stubborn  enemy.  The  woods  resounded  with  the 
shouts  and  volleys  from  either  side,  until  the  Americans  were  pushed 
back  by  sheer  weight  of  numbers.  Baxter  fell  on  Laurel  Hill,  where 


.- 


1776.]  WASHINGTON'S   POSITION.  519 

Matthews  attacked  him,  and  the  entire  American  force  was  soon  hud- 
dled within  the  fort.     Knyphausen  then  demanded  an  immediate  sur- 
render.    Further  resistance  would  only  be  to  incur  great  loss  of  life  in 
a  work  now  crowded  with  nearly  three  thousand  men.     Ma-  surrenderof 
gaw,  therefore,  surrendered  on  honorable  terms.     The  cap-  theKort 
ture  cost  the  enemy  nearly  five  hundred  men  in  killed  and  wounded. 
The  American  loss  beyond  prisoners  was  hardly  a  third  of  this  number. 
New  York  City  and    Island,  from  the  Battery  to  King's  Bridge, 
were  now  in   the    possession  of    the    British.      Two    days   afterward 
Cornwallis  passed  up  the  river,  and  at  a  point  nearly  opposite  Yonkers, 
landed  with  six  thousand  men.     Fort  Lee  could  be  held  no  longer  in 
the  presence  of  such  a  force;  it  was,  therefore,  abandoned,    ETa<,uation 
and  the  American  army  withdrew  to  the  other  side  of  the  ofFortLee- 
Hackensack  River.     Howe  considered  the  reduction  of  these  two  forts 
of  vital  importance,  as  they  commanded  the  entrance  to  the  Hudson, 
or,  at  least,  made  it  perilous  for  the  passage  of  English  ships ;  and 
so  long  as  Fort  Washington  was  held  by  the  Americans,  the  commu- 
nication of  New  York  with  the  open  country  beyond  could  never  be 
safe  and   uninterrupted.     His  objective  point  in  the  campaign,  there- 
fore, was  so  far  gained.     His  reasons  for  reducing  Fort  Washington, 
were,  on  the   other    hand,  precisely  the    reasons  which  Greene,  and 
those  who  agreed  with  him,  had  urged  for  its  defence.     The  real  dif- 
ference of  opinion  among  the  American  generals,  was  not  so  much 
whether  it  was  desirable,  but   whether  it  was  possible  to   maintain 
that  position.     If  it  could  be  done,  it  ought  to  be  done ;  if  it  could 
not,  then  the  attempt  to  do  it  only  involved  a  loss  of  life  and  muni- 
tions.    The   further   question  —  whether  its  voluntary  abandonment 
without  fighting,  or  its  surrender  after  an  unsuccessful  defence,  would 
have  the  more  dispiriting  effect  upon  the  army  and  the  country  — 
was  a  question  that,  however  important,  could  not  be  permitted  to 
govern  the  final  decision.     There  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  loss  of 
the  fort  was  most  serious  ;  it  is  equally  certain  that  in  the  existing 
state  of  things,  the  loss,  and  the  method  of  losing  it,  were  governed 
by  the  inevitable  necessities  of  the  case.     Washington  was  not  strong 
enough  to  hold  it,  nor  had  he  authority  sufficient  to  compel 
its  evacuation  without  a  fight,  decided  as  his  own  judgment  tpnsposi- 
was,  that  that  was  the  wiser  thing  to  do.     Congress  hampered 
him  ;  and  affairs  had  not  yet  reached  that  point  where  he  could  demand 
implicit   obedience   from    his   Major-generals,  instead   of   suggesting 
measures  in  which  he  asked  their  cooperation.     That  time  came  the 
sooner,  probably,  that  he  was  not  in  haste  to  assert  and  assume  the 
power  that  should  properly  belong  to  the  Commander-in-chief. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 


THE   NEW   JERSEY   CAMPAIGN. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  ARMY.  —  RETREAT  THROUGH  NEW  JERSEY.  —  HOWE'S  PROCLAMA- 
TION OF  AMNESTY.  —  WASHINGTON  CROSSES  THE  DELAWARE.  —  CONDUCT  OF  GEN- 
ERAL LEE.  —  His  CAPTURE.  —  OUTRAGES  BY  THE  FOREIGN  TROOPS.  —  THE  HES- 

SIANS    SURPRISED     AND   CAPTURED    AT     TRENTON.  —  WASHINGTON     RECROSSES    THE 

DELAWARE.  —  BATTLE  OF  PRINCETON.  —  WINTER  QUARTERS  AT  MORRISTOWN.  — 
RESULTS  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN.  —  SUFFERINGS  OF  AMERICAN  PRISONERS  IN  THE 
HANDS  OF  THE  BRITISH.  —  THE  QUESTION  OF  EXCHANGE.  —  WASHINGTON'S  POSI- 
TION. 

LITTLE  doubt  remained  in  Washington's  mind   that  the   British 
•would  follow  up  their  successes  about  New  York  by  an  im- 

Washington  .  .  J  . 

apprehends    mediate  move  upon  Philadelphia.     This  was  the  opinion  of 

a  move  on  *  .  * 

the  council  of  war  at  White  Plains  when  Howe  relinquished 
further  operations  in  Westchester  County.  Washington, 
therefore,  left  Lee  at  Northcastle,  and  Heath  in  the  Highlands,  tak- 
ing Putnam,  Greene,  Stirling,  and  Mercer  with  him  southward. 
Something  over  four  thousand  men  composed  his  entire  force,  and 
many  of  these  were  to  leave  in  December. 

Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Livingston,  of  New  Jersey,  to  be 
prepared  for  the  invasion  of  his  province.  He  suggested  that  the  mi- 
litia be  in  readiness  for  instant  service,  and  recommended  the  people, 
in  the  strongest  terms,  to  remove  their  "  stock,  grain,  effects,  and  car- 
riages," for  the  enemy  in  their  progress  would  leave  them  nothing. 
"  They  have  treated  all  here,"  he  wrote  from  Westchester,  "  without 
discrimination  ;  the  distinction  of  Whig  and  Tory  has  been  lost  in  one 
general  scene  of  ravage  and  desolation."  What  could  not  be  re- 
moved, he  advised,  should  be  burned  "  without  the  least  hesitation." 

The  condition  of  his  army  still  gave  him  great  anxiety.  By  the  1st 
condition  of  °f  December  he  would  have  only  about  two  thousand  Con- 
nisarmy.  tinentals  on  the  Jersey  side,  to  oppose  Howe's  entire  force. 
The  several  legislatures  were  exceedingly  slow  in  raising  their  addi- 
tional quotas,  and  Congress  still  adhered  to  the  policy  of  short  enlist- 
ments. 

The  first  necessity  now  was  reinforcements.    Adjutant-general  Reed 


1776.] 


RETREAT  THROUGH  NEW  JERSEY. 


521 


was  sent  to  appeal  to  the  New  Jersey  Legislature  for  help,  and  Mifflin 
was  despatched  on  a  like  errand  to  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  Being 
a  popular  and  able  speaker,  he  addressed  meetings  in  that  city,  roused 
the  war  spirit  afresh,  and  by  the  middle  of  December  had  contributed 
much  toward  raising  new  troops  in  both  town  and  country.  The 
Philadelphia  "  associators,"  or  home-guards,  turned  out  in  large  num- 
bers. General  Schuyler  sent  down  from  the  Northern  Department 
seven  eastern  regiments  under  Gates  and  St.  Clair. 

The  enemy  had  renewed  operations  only  four  days  after  the  cap- 
ture of  Fort  Washington,  and  Fort  Lee  was  evacuated  so  hastily  by 
the  Americans  that  the  kettles  were  on  the  fire,  and  a  thousand  bar- 


View  of  Fort  Lee. 


rels  of  flour,  three  hundred  tents,  and  a  number  of  mounted  cannon 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Cornwallis.  As  Washington  reached  Hacken- 
sack  bridge,  the  British  van  appeared  in  sight  on  the  road  above.  By 
the  22d  the  whole  American  army  had  fallen  back  to  Newark.  On 
the  28th,  as  Washington  was  leaving  Newark  at  one  end  of  the  town, 
Cornwallis  entered  at  the  other. 

Northern  New  Jersey  was  thrown  into  a  panic  at  this  invasion. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  alarm,  the  two  Howes,  as  Peace 
Commissioners,  issued  a  proclamation  on  the  30th,  i'n  which   tionofam- 
they  offered  pardon  to  all  who  had  taken  up  arms  against 
the  King,  if  they  returned  quietly  to  their  homes,  the  offer  holding 
good  for  sixty  days.     Many  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  accepted 


522  THE  NEW  JERSEY   CAMPAIGN.  [CiiAr.  XXI. 

it.     Among  these  wits  Joseph  Galloway,  of  Philadelphia,  a  member 
of  the  first  Continental  Congress.1 

From  Newark  Washington  fell  back  to  Brunswick  on  the  Raritan. 
Most  of  the  flying  camp,  Jei'seymen  and  Pennsylvanians,  went  home, 
their  term  of  enlistment  having  expired.  The  British  came  on  through 
Elizabethtown,  Uniontown,  Woodbridge,  and  other  places,  impressing 
cattle,  horses,  and  wagons.  On  December  1st,  Washington  retreated 
by  a  night  march  to  Princeton,  where  he  left  Stirling  and 

Washington        *  ......  i  -i      i  -i 

reaches  the  Stephen,  ot  Virginia,  to  watch  the  enemy,  while  he  moved  to 
Trenton  with  the  other  half  of  his  force  to  transfer  stores 
and  baggage  across  the  Delaware.  Howe  unaccountably  ordered 
Cormvallis  to  halt  at  Brunswick.  In  the  lull  of  the  pursuit,  Wash- 
ington urged  Congress  to  raise  a  permanent  army  and  "  have  nothing 
to  do  with  militia  except  in  cases  of  extraordinary  exigency."  That 
he  might,  in  case  of  necessity,  make  a  safe  retreat  into  Pennsylva- 
nia, he  had  boats  in  readiness  at  Trenton,  and  to  prevent  pursuit  he 
ordered  every  sort  of  craft  removed  from  the  Jersey  side  for  seventy 
miles  up  and  down  the  Delaware.  He  gave  special  orders  that  the 
Durham  produce-scows  should  be  secured,  as  any  one  of  them  was 
large  enough  to  transport  a  whole  regiment.  Cornwallis.  on  the  8th, 
suddenly  pushed  on  again,  and  nearly  surprised  Stirling,  while  the 
and  crosses  entire  American  force,  less  than  three  thousand,  crossed  the 
Delaware  as  the  British  were  marching  into  Trenton.  Sted- 
man,  who  was  in  Howe's  army,  criticises  the  easy  pace  of  the  pur- 
suit. To  him  it  seemed  as  if  Howe  "  had  calculated  with  the  great- 
est accuracy  the  exact  time  necessary  for  his  enemy  to  make  his 
escape." 

As  the  two  armies  moved  southward,  the  panic  in  Jersey  and  Penn- 
sylvania increased.     Congress  thought  it  unsafe  to  remain 
in  Philadelphia,  and  adjourned  early  in   December  to  meet 
at  Baltimore.     Oliver  Wolcott,  a  delegate  from  Connecticut,  wrote 
that  "  it  was  judged  that  the  Council  of  America  ought  not  to  sit  in 
a  Place  liable  to  be  interrupted  by  the  rude  Disorder  of  Arms."    Put- 
nam and  Mifflin  were  ordered  there  to  put  that  city  in  a  state  of  de- 
fence. 

As  Washington  fell  back  slowly  through  New  Jersey,  warily  watch- 
ue-gcon-      'inS  everj  movement  of  the  enemy,  he  had  repeatedly  and  ur- 
gently ordered  Lee  to  join  him  with  his  whole  force.     But 
that  General  chose  to  construe  those  orders  as  conditional,  and  not  im- 
perative.    This  was  in  accordance  with  his  settled  purpose  to  acquire  a 

1  Howe  subsequently  made  him  superintendent  of  the  post  at  that  city,  but  lie  appears 
at  the  close  of  the  war  as  a  witness  in  Kngland  against  the  British  General  who  had  par- 
doned him,  who  was  accused  of  conducting  a  very  sluggish  campaign  iu  the  Jerseys. 


1776.]  CONDUCT    OF    GENERAL   LEE.  523 

separate  command  ;  more  than  this,  —  as  he  had  hoped  the  year  be- 
fore that  the  supreme  command  would  be  bestowed  upon  him,  so  lie 
still  hoped,  undoubtedly,  that  he  might  supersede  Washington.  He 
assumed  to  instruct  the  New  England  Governors,  and  even  Congress, 
upon  the  construction  of  the  army,  and  the  measures  which  should  be 
adopted  for  the  conduct  of  military  affairs.  In  November  he  wrote  to 
the  President  of  the  Massachusetts  Council,  James  Bowdoin,  that 
"  before  the  unfortunate  affair  of  Fort  Washington,  he  was  of  opinion 
that  the  two  armies  —  that  on  the  east  and  that  on  the  west  side  of 
North  River — must  rest  each  on  its  own  bottom;  that  the  idea  of 
detaching  ....  from  one  side  to  the  other  was  chimerical ;  but  to 
harbor  such  a  thought  in  our  present  circumstances  is  absolute  insan- 
ity." When  Washington  ordered  him  to  move,  he  saw  fit  to  act  upon 
his  own  judgment  rather  than  to  obey  the  orders  of  his  superior,  and 
directed  General  Heath  to  cross  the  river  and  join  the  main  army,  in- 
stead of  himself.  Heath  refused  to  obey,  properly  conceiving  that 
his  movements  were  to  be  governed  by  the  Commander-in-chief. 
"  The  Commander-in-chief,"  was  Lee's  reply,  "  is  now  separated  from 
us ;  I,  of  course,  command  on  this  side  the  water  :  for  the  future  I  will 
and  must  be  obeyed."  When,  at  last,  he  leisurely  took  up  his  line 
of  march  to  join  the  main  army,  where  the  aid  of  his  troops  was  so 
imperatively  needed,  he  wrote  that  he  was  "in  hopes  to  reconquer  the 
Jerseys,  which  were  really  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy  before  my  ar- 
rival." In  a  letter  to  General  Gates,  two  days  later,  he  says,  "  En- 
tre  nous,  a  certain  great  man  is  most  damnably  deficient.  He  has 
thrown  me  into  a  situation  where  I  have  my  choice  of  difficulties  — 
if  I  stay  in  this  Province,  I  risk  myself  and  Army,  and  if  I  do  not 
stay,  the  Province  is  lost  forever —  ....  I  must  act  with  the  great- 
est circumspection — .  .  .  .  as  to  what  relates  to  yourself,  if  you  think 
you  can  be  in  time  to  aid  the  General,  I  would  have  you  by  all  means 
go."  Even  Gates,  he  thought,  should  be  governed  by  his  own  discre- 
tion, rather  than  obey  positive  orders  ;  and  while  he  hesitated  whether 
he  should  stay  or  not  stay  in  Jersey,  Washington  had  four  times  writ- 
ten him  within  ten  days  —  "  hasten  your  march  as  much  as  possible, 
or  your  arrival  may  be  too  late  to  answer  any  valuable  purpose  : "' : — 
"  the  sooner  you  join  me  with  your  division,  the  sooner  the  service 
will  be  benefited :  "  —  "  march  and  join  me  with  all  your  whole  force 
with  all  possible  expedition:" — ''push  on  with  every  possible  suc- 
cor you  can  bring."  ! 

On  his  march  through  Jersey  he  compelled  the  inhabitants  to  fur- 
nish his  men  with  clothing,  of  which  they  were,   like  all  the  army, 

1  See   Treason  of  ^[ajo>•-general  Charles  Lee,  by  Georjjo  H.  Moore.    Lee  Paptrs,  X.   Y. 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1872. 


524  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

greatly  in  need,  promising  that  the  public  should  pay  for  it.1  He  did 
not  cross  the  Hudson  until  the  3d  of  December,  sixteen  days  after  he 
tu^p~  WaS  directed  to  march-  On  the  12th  he  was  no  farther 
than  Vealtown,  and  on  the  next  day  was  taken  prisoner. 
The  previous  evening,  he  had  pushed  on  with  his  staff  and  about  a 
dozen^guards  to  Baskingridge,  and  put  up  at  a  tavern.  "  A  rascally 
Tory,"  according  to  one  account,  noticed  Lee's  exposed  position,  and 


Capture  of  General   Lee. 


galloping  away  at  high  speed,  gave  the  information  that  night  to  a 
British  scouting-party  under  Lieutenant-colonel  Harcourt,  twenty 
miles  distant.  Harcourt  arrived  at  Baskingridge,  with  fifty  of  his 
dragoons,  about  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  13th.  Lee  had 

1  Tliis  order,  recently  discoverer!,  directs  Colonel  Chester  and  a  party  to  proceed  to  Har- 
ring-on  township  and  collect  all  the  serviceable  horses  and  spare  blankets  they  can  find, 
Irsiving  "  a  sufficient  number  to  cover  the  people  ; "  and  they  are  to  gather  shoes  and  great 
coats,  "to  serve  as  Watch  Coats."  "The  people  from  whom  they  are  taken,"  continues 
thy  order,  "  are  not  to  be  insulted  either  by  language  or  actions,  but  told  that  the  urgent 
necessity  of  the  troops  obliges  us  to  this  measure,  —  that,  unless  we  adopt  it,  their  liberties 
mu>t  perish." 


. 


THE  CROSSING  OF  THE  DELAWARE. 


•• 


1776.]  DISTRIBUTION    OF   THE   BRITISH   TROOPS.  525 

sent  for  liis  horses,  was  about  to  mount,  and  would  have  been  gone  in 
ten  minutes.  The  dragoons  approached  cautiously  and  surrounded 
the  house.  Some  resistance  was  made,  and  a  shot  cut  off  the  ribbon 
of  Colonel  Harcourt's  queue.  In  the  attempt  to  escape,  several  of 
the  Americans  were  wounded,  and  two  were  killed.  Captain  Brad- 
ford, Lee's  aid,  evaded  the  enemy  by  changing  his  clothes,  and  Major 
Wilkinson  hid  in  safety  behind  a  door.  Lee  was  placed  on  horseback, 
bound  hand  and  foot,  and  hurried  off  beyond  successful  pursuit. 

The  command  of  his  troops  fell  to  Sullivan,  who  lost  no  time  in  obey- 
ing the  orders  Lee  had  so  long  disregarded,  and  reported  at  headquar- 
ters on  the  20th.  The  strictest  watch  was  now  kept  upon  the  enemy 
across  the  river ;  scouts  were  sent  to  ascertain  their  position  and 
movements,  and  particularly  whether  they  were  building  boats.  The 
critical  state  of  affairs  urged  Washington  to  aggressive  measures. 
Bold  as  any  attempt  whatever  on  the  enemy  might  seem,  the  situa- 
tion demanded  it.  Something  must  be  done  to  offset  Howe's  sweep- 
ing progress ;  something  to  cheer  the  troops  ;  something  to  assure  the 
country  that  the  army,  at  least,  had  not  despaired  of  the  cause,  and 
only  required  vigorous  support  at  home  to  crown  it  with  success. 
Washington  appears  to  have  contemplated  a  move  of  this  nature  as 
early  as  the  14th,  when  he  wrote  to  Governor  Trumbull  of  the  effect 
"a  lucky  blow"  might  have  in  rousing  the  spirits  of  the  peo- 
ple, which  he  knew  were  quite  sunk  by  late  misfortunes,  surprise 
The  favorable  opportunity  soon  offered.  On  the  23d  of  De- 
cember he  wrote:  "Christmas-day  at  night,  one  hour  before  dav,  is 
the  time  fixed  upon  for  our  attempt  on  Trenton." 

Confident  in  their  strength,  and  believing  that  the  end  of  the  rebel- 
lion was  near,  the  British  distributed  their  forces  in  New 
Jersey  at  different  points  until  the  freezing  of  the  Delaware  o 
should  enable  them  to  cross  into  Pennsylvania  and  continue 
their  inarch  to  Philadelphia.  They  spread  themselves  over  as  much 
territory  as  possible,  to  afford  the  loyal  portion  of  the  inhabitants 
"protection,"  as  well  as  to  keep  recruits  from  joining  the  American 
army.  At  Brunswick,  they  collected  stores  and  provisions,  guarded 
by  cannon  and  six  or  eight  hundred  men ;  at  Cranberry  a  camp  for 
Tory  recruits  was  established.  Cornwallis  fixed  his  headquarters  at 
Princeton.  Donop  with  two  thousand  Hessians  commanded  in  Bur- 
lington County,  where  a  scout  found  his  men  u  scattered  through  all 
the  farmers'  houses,  —  eight,  ten,  twelve,  and  fifteen  in  a  house,  — 
and  rambling  over  the  whole  country;"  Rahl,  with  twelve  hundred 
more,  occupied  Trenton.  The  people  everywhere  were  given  over  to 
plunder.1  The  British  posts  were  hardly  within  easy  supporting  dis- 
1  A  letter  bearing  date  December  12,  1776,  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the  conduct  of  these 


526  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

tance  of  each  other;  indeed,  Rahl,  at  Trenton,  to  show  his  contempt 
for  the  Continentals,  would  have  no  supports,  and  refused  to  throw 
up  a  single  defensive  work.  Cornwallis,  even,  was  so  far  convinced 
that  the  campaign  was  over,  that  he  had  obtained  leave  of  absence  to 
return  to  England,  and  had  gone  from  Princeton  to  New  York,  leaving 
Grant  in  command  in  lower  Jersey.  That  officer,  equally  unsuspect- 
ing, assured  Donop,  on  the  edge  of  the  river,  that  while  he  and  Rahl 
should  be  on  the  watch,  there  was  nothing  to  apprehend  from  the 
rebels. 

Ascertaining  the  exact  position  of  the  enemy,  Washington  deter- 
mined to  cross  the  Delaware  at  night  above  and  below  Trenton,  fall 
upon  Rahl  and  his  Hessians,  surround  and  capture  them,  and  recross 
before  he  could  be  overtaken.  The  plan  required  the  cooperation  of 
all  the  troops  that  could  be  mustered.  To  engage  Donop's  attention 
below  Trenton,  a  body  of  militia,  under  Colonel  Griffin,  from  Phil- 
adelphia, skirmished  at  Burlington  and  Mount  Holly,  and  succeed- 
ed so  far  as  to  draw  off  part  of  his  force  eighteen  miles  southeast  of 
Rahl.  General  John  Cadwallader  was  directed  to  cross  at  Bristol  with 
a  force  of  Pennsylvanians,1  and  General  Ewing  had  been  ordered  to 

foreign  troops,  and  suggests  anew  the  question  whether  there  can  be  any  such  thing  as 
civilized  warfare.  The  writer  says  the  progress  of  the  British  and  Hessian  troops  through 
New  Jersey  was  attended  with  such  scenes  of  desolation  and  outrage  as  would  disgrace  the 
most  barbarous  nations ;  and  he  cites  half  a  dozen  incidents  which  he  declares  well  authen- 
ticated. William  Smith,  of  Smith's  farm,  near  Woodbridge,  hearing  the  cries  of  his 
daughter,  rushed  into  the  room  and  found  a  Hessian  officer  attempting  to  ravish  her.  "  In 
an  agony  of  rage  and  resentment,  he  instantly  killed  him  ;  but  the  officer's  party  soon 
came  upon  him,  and  he  now  lies  mortally  wounded  at  his  ruined,  plundered  dwelling." 
They  entered  the  house  of  Samuel  Stout,  Esq.,  in  Hopewell,  and  destroyed  his  deeds, 
papers,  furniture,  and  effects  of  every  kind,  except  what  they  plundered.  They  took  away 
every  horse,  and  left  his  house  and  farm  in  ruins.  "  injuring  him  to  the  value  of  two  thou- 
sand pounds  in  less  than  three  hours."  Old  Mr.  Philips,  his  neighbor,  they  pillaged  in 
the  same  manner,  and  then  cruelly  beat  him.  "  On  Wednesday  last,"  says  this  writer, 
"  three  women  came  down  to  the  Jersey  shore  in  great  distress ;  a  party  of  the  American 
Army  went  and  brought  them  off,  when  it  appeared  that  they  all  had  been  very  much 
abused,  and  the  youngest  of  them,  a  girl  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  had  been  ravished  that 
morning  by  a  British  officer."  Sixteen  young  women  in  Hopewell,  flying  from  the  enemy, 
took  refuge  on  the  mountain  near  Ralph  Hart's  ;  but  information  being  given  of  their 
retreat,  they  were  soon  carried  down  into  the  British  camp,  ''  where  they  have  been  kept 
ever  siuce."  The  settlements  of  Maidenhead  and  Hopewell  were  broken  up  ;  "  no  age  nor 
sex  have  been  spared  ;  the  houses  are  stripped  of  every  article  of  furniture,  and  what  is 
not  portable  is  entirely  destroyed.  The  stock  of  cattle  and  sheep  are  drove  off ;  every  ar- 
ticle of  clothing  and  house-linen  seized  and  carried  away.  Scarce  a  soldier  in  the  Army 
but  what  has  a  horse  loaded  with  plunder.  Hundreds  of  families  are  reduced  from  com- 
fort and  affluence  to  poverty  and  ruin,  left  at  this  inclement  season  to  wander  through 
woods  without  house  or  clothing."  —  Force's  Archives,  Fifth  Series,  vol.  iii.,  p.  1 188. 

1  Adjutant-general  Reed  was  sent  by  Washington  to  Cadwallader  to  cooperate  with  and 
aid  him  in  the  proposed  movements  across  the  Delaware.  Some  years  after  the  peace,  a 
controversy  sprang  up  between  Reed  and  Cadwallader,  which  was  embittered  bv,  if  it  did 
not  originate  in,  political  differences,  and  has  been  kept  alive  in  the  present  century  in  more 
than  one  history  of  the  Revolutionary  period.  The  essential  point  of  this  controversy  is 


1776.]  WASHINGTON'S   BOLD   DESIGN.  527 

make  a  similar  attempt  opposite  Trenton.  The  Commander-in-chief 
proposed  to  lead  the  main  column  himself  from  McConkey's  Ferry, 
nine  miles  up  the  river.  The  movement  was  to  begin  on  Christmas 
night,  and  every  preparation  was  made  to  insure  success. 

But  the  condition  of  the  river  threatened  to  defeat  this  bold  design. 
When  Cadwallader  attempted  to  cross  from  Bristol  he  found  the  ice 
so  piled  up  on  the  Jersey  shore  as  to  prevent  the  landing  of  artillery. 
He  could  do  nothing,  and  relinquished  the  attempt  in  despair.  Ew- 
ing  was  equally  unsuccessful.  These  two  cooperating  parties,  who 
were  to  have  cut  off  communication  between  Rahl  and  Donop,  being 
thus  effectually  baffled,  the  chances  of  the  success  of  the  main  force 
were  proportionately  lessened.  Washington  determined,  neverthe- 
less, to  push  on  at  all  hazards,  though  without  support.  He  could  at 
least  trust  the  troops  under  his  immediate  command.  The  best  gen- 
eral officers  then  in  the  service  were  to  go  with  them  ;  —  Greene, 
who  had  shared  his  chief's  hopes  and  anxieties  through  the  cam- 

a  charge  against  Reed  of  meditating  a  treacherous  abandonment  of  the  cause  of  his  coun- 
try, and  a  determination  to  go  over  to  the  enemy.  Evidence  as  to  the  alleged  words  and 
acts  of  the  Adjutant-general,  while  at  Bristol,  were  gathered  together  and  have  been  re- 
peatedly published  to  substantiate  the  charge,  and  he  and  his  friends — particularly  his 
grandson,  the  late  William  B.  Reed  —  have  been  called  upon  to  prove  a  negative.  For 
the  discussion  of  this  question  we  have  neither  space  nor  inclination.  At  the  same  time, 
we  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  difficult  task  of  proving  a  negative  was  never,  perhaps, 
more  completely  accomplished,  were  it  not  that  no  evidence  could  be  given  to  offset  the 
direct,  positive,  and  unbiassed  testimony  found,  a  few  yenrs  ago,  in  the  manuscript  journal 
of  the  Hessian  Colonel  Donop,  or  one  of  his  staff.  In  this  it  was  charged  that  Reed  had 
"  received  a  protection,"  and  "  had  declared  that  he  did  not  intend  any  longer  to  serve,"  — 
that  is,  in  the  American  army.  It  is  true,  that  Mr.  W.  B.  Reed,  having  got  sight  of 
the  original  Hessian  journal,  showed  that  this,  which  was  made  to  appear  as  the  assertion 
of  a  fact  by  a  mutilation  of  the  journal,  was,  in  reality,  the  assertion  of  a  rumor  only,  and 
one  among  others  so  confused  that  the  writer  of  the  journal  "  would  not  listen  any  more 
to  them."  But  before  this  was  made  to  appear,  the  first  published  extract  had  done  its 
work,  and  had  been  accepted  as  an  absolute  confirmation  of  the  original  charge  of  dis- 
loyalty made  against  Reed  by  Cadwallader. 

But  even  with  this'satisfactory  discovery  of  the  grandson  that  the  alleged  assertion  of  a 
fact  was  the  assertion  only  of  a  rumor,  the  existence  of  such  a  rumor,  recorded  in  a  con- 
temporary Hessian  journal,  while  it  could  not  prove  the  charge  afrainst  his  grandfather  to 
be  true,  was,  at  least,  very  damaging  collateral  evidence  of  the  truth  of  that  charge.  By 
a  fortunate  incident,  however,  it  appears,  at  last,  that  even  the  rumor  reported  by  the  Hes- 
sian was  a  blunder,  and  that  it  referred,  without  doubt,  not  to  Adjutant-general  Reed,  but 
to  another  officer  with  a  similar  name.  In  1876,  William  S.  Stryker,  Adjutant-general  of 
New  Jersey,  found  in  the  archives  of  his  office  a  report  of  Colonel  Donop,  made  to  the 
British  Major-general  Grant,  ou  December  21,  1776,  in  which  he  says  that  Colonel  Reed 
had  received  a  protection,  and  declared  to  General  Miffiin  that  he  would  serve  no  longer, 
whereupon  he  was  carried  off  a  prisoner  by  Mittiin.  Donop  knew  no  English  ;  the  com- 
mander at  the  time  and  place  referred  to  was  Colonel  Griffin  —  not  Mifflin ;  the  Colonel 
Reed,  then  and  there  arrested,  was  not  Joseph  Reed,  Washington's  Adjutant-general,  but 
Colonel  Charles  Read,  of  the  Burlington  militia,  who,  the  Memorandum  Book  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia Council  of  Safety  shows,  was  still  in  custody  a  month  later  in  that  city,  "  taken 
in  New  Jersey."  With  this  discovery  of  Adjutant-general  Stryker,  the  whole  case  against 
Joseph  Reed  may,  in  legal  phrase,  be  put  out  of  court. 


528  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

paign  ;  Stirling  and  Sullivan,  both  good  soldiers ;  Stephen,  who  had 
The  general  been  with  Washington  in  the  French  war;  Mercer,  rising  in 
officers.  reputation  ;  St.  Clair  from  the  Northern  Department ;  Knox, 
Hand,  and  Glover,  Poor,  Stark,  and  Patterson,  soon  to  be  Brigadier- 
generals.  Gates  was  offered  the  command  of  one  of  the  parties  farther 
down  the  river,  but  he  preferred  to  gallop  off  to  Philadelphia  to  discuss 
some  question  of  rank  before  Congress.  Twenty-four  hundred  men 
composed  the  expedition,  nearly  all  of  whom  had  seen  service  —  at 
Bunker  Hill,  in  Canada,  on  Long  Island,  at  Harlem  Heights,  and 
at  White  Plains  ;  men  from  every  province,  from  New  Hampshire 
to  Virginia. 

The  swift  current  of  the  river  was  filled  with  cakes  of  floating  ice. 
The  difflcui-  A  driving  storm  of  snow  and  sleet  pelted  the  half -clad  troops, 
ties-  benumbed  them  with  cold,  and  threatened  to  render  both 

guns  and  ammunition  useless.  But  officers  and  men  alike  were  insen- 
sible to  these  difficulties ;  they  knew  they  had  everything  to  win,  that 
failure  would  be  no  disgrace,  defeat  a  less  misfortune  than  to  go  back, 
and  that  victory  would  be  hailed  with  enthusiasm  by  the  whole  coun- 
try. As  they  entered  the  boats,  they  were  inspirited  by  the  calm  and 
resolute  bearing  of  their  chief.  Knox  shouted  his  orders  in  a  voice 
whose  loud  and  cheerful  tones  encouraged  the  troops ;  and  none  doubted 
of  the  safe  passage  of  the  river,  when  Glover,  with  his  Massachusetts 
fishermen,  —  as  good  sailors  as  they  were  soldiers,  — stepped  forward 
to  man  the  oars. 

It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  troops  and  cannon  were 
all  safe  on  the  Jersey  side,  when,  by  the  original  plan,  they  should 
have  been  there  by  midnight.  "  This,"  says  Washington,  "  made  me 
despair  of  surprising  the  town,  as  I  well  knew  we  could  not  reach  it 
before  the  day  was  fairly  broke  ;  but,  as  I  was  certain  there  was  no 
making  a  retreat  without  being  discovered  and  harassed  on  repassing 
the  river,  I  determined  to  push  on  at  all  events."  Despite  the  slip- 
pery road  which  made  quick  marching  difficult  at  first,  and  although 
many  of  the  men  were  almost  barefoot,  the  column  moved  on  in  good 
order,  without  a  murmur,  and  in  profound  silence.  But  they  were 
nearly  all  hardened  troops,  and  could  march  well ;  the  Eastern  regi- 
ments, under  St.  Clair,  had  just  come  down  from  Ticonderoga,  four 
hundred  miles  distant ;  the  troops  under  Lee  and  Sullivan  had  been 
on  the  road  three  weeks,  and  the  rest  had  found  rapid  travelling  their 
only  safety  in  the  Jersey  retreat.  Only  those  had  remained  behind 
who  were  too  foot-sore  or  too  destitute  of  clothing  to  leave  their 
quarters. 

When  Birmingham  village  was  reached,  the  force  divided  ;  one 
column,  under  Greene,  taking  the  Scotch  or  upper  road  ;  the  other, 


1776.] 


THE   HESSIANS   SURPRISED   AT  TRENTON. 


529 


under  Sullivan,  following  the  parallel  river  road  a  mile  to  the  south. 
With  Greene,  were  Stephen's,  Mercer's,  Stirling's,  and  De  Fermoy's  l 
brigades,  in  advance;  with  Sullivan,  Glover's,  Sargent's,  and  St. 
Glair's  followed.  Washington  took  the  upper  road  with  Greene.  The 
march  now  was  easier  and  swifter,  as  they  had  turned  their  backs 
to  the  storm.  Then  the  discovery  was  made  that  the  priming  for 
the  muskets  had  become  in  many  cases  too  wet  to  use.  Sullivan 
promptly  reported  this  to  Washington  ;  Washington  replied  that  they 
must  fight  with  fixed  bayonets. 

At  eight  o'clock  precisely,  Greene's  advance  guard,  headed  by  Cap- 
tain William  Washington,  of  Virginia,  and  guided  by  David  The  He«.i«ns 
Lanning,  of  Trenton,  came  upon  the  enemy's  outposts  on  8urPn8ed- 
the  skirts  of  the  town.     The  young  Hessian  lieutenant  in  charge  had 


just  time  to  turn  his  men 
out  and   deliver   one   fire, 
when  Captain  Washington 
and      Lieutenant      James 
Monroe  —  afterward  Presi- 
'   dent  —  dashed  after  them 
view  of  Trenton.  with  the  American  van,  and 

followed  the  Hessian  pickets  rapidly  into  Trenton.  Three  minutes 
later,  firing  was  heard  on  the  lower  road,  and  Washington  was  as- 
sured that  Sullivan's  wing  was  up  and  at  work.  Stark's  New  Hamp- 
shire men  led  the  advance  there,  and  had  fallen  upon  the  enemy  with 
a  shout  and  a  rush.  Notwithstanding  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  the 

1  A  French  officer,  lately  commissioned  a  brigadier  by  Congress.     His  regiments  were 
Hand's  riflemen  and  Hausegger's  German  battalion  from  Pennsylvania. 
VOL.  in.  34 


530  THE   NEW  JERSEY   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

surprise  was  complete.  Both  American  columns  moved  straight  on  in 
support  of  their  advance  parties.  Two  streets  running  through  the 
town  (then  King  and  Queen,  now  Warren  and  Greene)  converged 
where  the  upper  road  entered.  At  this  junction,  Captain  Forest 
planted  six  guns,  and  Washington  in  person  directed  their  fire  down 
King  Street,  in  which  the  Hessians  were  attempting  to  form.  The 
street  was  quickly  cleared.  The  enemy  then  brought  two  field-pieces 
to  reply  to  Forest,  but  the  column  under  young  Washington  and 
Monroe  charged  on  the  gunners,  drove  them  off,  and  disabled  the 
guns,  both  officers  receiving  slight  wounds.  No  chance  was  given  the 
enemy  to  rally. 

Many  of  the  Hessian  officers  had  been  engaged  through  the  night 
in  Christmas  festivities,  and  among  them  Rahl.  He  was  not,  prob- 
ably, in  a  condition  to  meet  an  emergency,  and  the  suddenness  of  the 
attack  helped  to  bewilder  him.  His  orders  were  wild  and  confused, 
though  he  boldly  faced  the  situation.  But  the  American  fire  was  so 
close  and  severe  from  behind  houses,  fences,  and  other  points  of  van- 
tage, that  the  Hessians,  brave  and  veteran  soldiers  as  they  were,  fled 
like  raw  recruits  for  their  lives.  A  part  attempted  to  break  through 
to  Princeton  ;  but  Hand's  riflemen  took  post  on  the  left,  and  checked 
them  in  that  quarter.  Sullivan's  attack  was  as  well  sustained  as 
Greene's,  and  a  party  of  British  troopers  and  yagers,  instead  of  fall- 
ing back  fighting,  retreated  in  haste  across  the  bridge  over  the 
Assanpink  Creek,  which  runs  through  the  eastern  part  of  Trenton, 
and  made  their  way  towards  Donop's  camp.  But  Sullivan's  men 
held  the  bridge,  and  when  one  of  Rahl's  regiments  attempted  to 
escape  over  it,  they  were  compelled  to  surrender.  The  whole  force, 
They  sur-  now  surrounded  and  thrown  into  confusion,  were  soon  corn- 
render,  pelled  to  lay  down  their  arms.  They  had  been  driven  back 
to  a  field  east  of  the  town,  where  Rahl  fell,  mortally  wounded.  Sup- 
ported by  two  sergeants,  he  gave  up  his  sword  to  Washington. 

The  Americans  took  nine  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners,  six  guns,  and 
many  small  arms  and  trophies,  besides  killing  seventeen  and  wound- 
ing nearly  eighty  of  the  enemy.  Their  own  loss  was  two  killed  and 
four  wounded.  Washington  recrossed  the  Delaware  that  evening 
with  all  his  prisoners,  and  the  next  morning  warmly  thanked  his 
troops  for  their  steady  and  brave  conduct.1 

1  Captain  William  Hull,  of  Webb's  Continentals,  who  distinguished  himself  subse- 
quently during  the  war,  wrote,  January  1,  1777,  of  the  action  at  Trenton  :  "  The  Resolu- 
tion and  Bravery  of  our  Men,  their  Order  and  regularity,  gave  me  the  highest  sensation 
of  Pleasure.  Genl.  Washington  highly  congratulated  the  Men  on  next  day  in  Genl.  Or- 
ders, and  with  Pleasure  observed  that  he  had  been  in  many  Actions  before,  but  always  per- 
ceived some  misbehaviour  in  some  individuals,  but  in  that  action  he  saw  none What 

can't  men  do  when  engaged  in  so  noble  a  cause  1"  —  Mrs.  Bonney's  Legacy  of  Historical 
Gleanings,  vol.  i..  D.  57. 


1777.]  WASHINGTON   RECROSSES   THE   DELAWARE.  531 

When  Donop,  at  Burlington,  heard  of  what  had  happened,  he  at 
once  abandoned  lower  New  Jersey,  and  Cornwallis  went  back  to 
Princeton.  A  party  of  British  hurried  down  to  reconnoitre,  but  only 
to  find  Trenton  empty  of  both  Hessians  and  Americans.  Washing- 
ton crossed  the  river  again  on  the  30th,  and  mustered  his  whole  force 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Trenton.  The  New  England  regiments, 
whose  term  of  service  expired  with  the  close  of  the  year,  were  per- 
suaded to  remain  six  weeks  longer,  and  these,  with  a  considerable 
number  of  Pennsylvania  militia,  recruited  mainly  in  Philadelphia, 
increased  the  army  to  about  six  thousand  men.1  Early  on  Xew 
Year's  morning,  Robert  Morris,  the  wealthy  and  patriotic  Philadel- 
phian  to  whom  Washington  had  applied  for  money  to  pay 
the  troops,  was  busy  borrowing  funds  from  his  friends.  He  money  for 
raised  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  specie,  and  sent  it  to  camp. 
On  the  same  date,  Washington  wrote  to  Congress  :  "  We  are  devising 
such  means  as  I  hope,  if  they  succeed,  will  add  as  much,  or  more, 
to  the  distress  of  the  enemy  than  their  defeat  at  Trenton."  But  his 
plans  were  largely  contingent  on  the  movements  of  the  enemy,  and 
these  were  speedily  developed. 

Hearing  that  Washington  had  again  crossed  the  Delaware,  Corn- 
wallis prepared  to  meet  him  and  blot  out  the  Trenton  dis-  Wa.ehington 
grace.  Concentrating  all  his  available  force  at  Princeton,  %^.££ 
—  seven  thousand  men,  British,  Highlanders,  Hessians,  and  again 
Waldeckers,  —  he  marched  on  the  2d  of  January,  1777.  De  Fermov, 
with  Hand's  and  Hausegger's  regiments,  was  sent  to  check  this 
advance.  Hand's  men,  as  usual,  behaved  well ;  but  Colonel  Hau- 
segger  was  made  prisoner,  and  is  said  to  have  proved  himself  a  traitor 
by  a  voluntary  surrender.  Some  other  troops  under  Greene  also 
harassed  Cornwallis  on  his  march,  and  prevented  his  reaching  Tren- 
ton until  evening.  Washington,  meanwhile,  drew  up  his  army  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Assanpink  Creek,  covered  the  crossing  at  the  bridge 
with  artillery,  and  guarded  all  the  fords  above.  The  enemy  came 
on,  driving  back  the  advance,  and  passing  through  Trenton,  were  on 
the  point  of  storming  the  Assanpink  Bridge,  when  thirty  pieces  of 
cannon  opened  upon  them,  as  Knox  said,  "  with  great  vociferation 
and  some  execution,"  and  compelled  them  to  withdraw  out  of  range. 

1  There  were  "  bounty-jumpers  "  in  those  days.  In  a  general  order,  issued  from  his  head- 
quarters at  Morristown  in  February,  1777,  Washington  called  attention  to  the  "frauds 
and  abuses  committed  of  late  by  sundry  soldiers,  who,  after  enlisting  in  one  regiment  and 
receiving  the  bounty  allowed  by  Congress,  have  deserted,  enlisted  in  others,  and  received 
new  bounties."  The  Commander-in-chief,  who  was  a  strict  disciplinarian  and  never  in- 
clined to  be  merciful  to  wrong-doers,  proceeded  to  declare  that  "  this  offence  is  of  the  most 
enormous  and  flagrant  nature,  and  not  admitting  of  the  least  palliation  or  excuse  ;  who- 
ever are  convicted  thereof,  and  sentenced  to  die,  may  consider  their  execution  certain  and 
inevitable." 


532  THE   NEW  JERSEY   CAMPAIGN.  [Ciix'p.  XXI. 

Hardly  had  the  two  armies  posted  their  pickets  and  lighted  their 
fires  along  either  bank  of  the  Assanpink,  when  Washington  called  a 
council  of  his  officers  to  discuss  their  position.  Obviously  it  was  crit- 
ical. The  Delaware  was  between  him  and  Pennsylvania,  and  filled 
with  floating  ice.  Its  passage  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy,  at  any 
point  below  Trenton,  was  out  of  the  question.  Retreat  in  that  direc- 
tion was  impossible.  To  cut  his  way  back  to  McConkey's  Ferry,  or 
beyond,  would  undoubtedly  have  involved  the  ruin  of  his  army,  and 
that,  he  knew,  would  be  the  end  of  the  war  then  and  there.  He 
might  be  able  to  hold  the  Assanpink  front  against  Cornwallis,  but  the 
stream  above  could  be  crossed,  and  his  right  flank  turned.  If  he  fore- 
saw —  as  it  is  to  be  assumed  he  did  —  the  possibility,  or  even  the  prob- 
ability of  placing  the  army  in  so  hazardous  a  position,  he  voluntarily 
encountered  a  great  risk  by  the  return  to  New  Jersey.  It  was  to  as- 
sume the  offensive  with  his  eyes  open  to  the  possible  consequences. 

From  Princeton  to  Trenton  the  main  highway  ran  nearly  in  a 
straight  course  through  the  village  of  Maidenhead,  and  it  was  along 
this  that  Cornwallis  had  advanced.  There  was  still  another  and  less 
travelled  route  between  the  two  places,  known  as  the  Quaker  road, 
which  followed  a  roundabout  line  east  of  the  Assanpink.  By  this 
road,  the  distance  to  Princeton  from  Washington's  camp  was  about 
seventeen  miles.  It  was  proposed  at  the  council  to  take  this  unfre- 
quented route,  make  a  night  march  to  Princeton,  reverse  the  situa- 
tion, and  find  a  safer  position  beyond.  The  feasibility  of  this  "  most 
extra  manoeuvre,"  as  Knox  describes  it,  was  demonstrated,  all  the 
generals  approved  it,  and  orders  were  issued  to  carry  it  out  imme- 
diately with  great  secrecy  and  precaution.1 

About  one  o'clock  at  night  the  march  was  begun.  St.  Clair  di- 
rected the  details  of  preparation.  The  baggage  was  first 


for      sent  to  Burlington,  for  no  encumbrance  on  the  road  could  be 

Princeton  .  .... 

permitted.  Along  the  front  appearances  were  maintained  as 
of  an  army  quiet  in  its  encampment.  A  party  left  behind  relieved 
the  guards  as  usual  through  the  night,  and  fence-rails  and  dry  wood 
were  piled  on  the  camp-fires  along  the  bank  of  the  Assanpink,  about 
which  the  pickets  gathered  closely  as  the  cold  increased.  Others 
were  at  work  with  picks  and  shovels  on  a  breastwork  near  the  bridge. 

1  In  his  brief  narrative  reviewing  his  military  cureer,  General  St.  Clair  claims  the  credit 
of  having  proposed  this  move  to  the  Council.  "The  General,"  he  says,  "summoned  a 
Council  of  the  general  officers  at  my  quarters,  and  after  stating  the  difficulties  in  his  way, 
the  probability  of  defent,  and  the  consequence  that  would  necessarily  result  if  it  happened, 
desired  advice.  I  hud  the  good  fortune  to  suggest  the  idea  of  turning  the  left  of  the  enemy 
in  the  night,  gaining  a  inarch  upon  him,  and  proceeding  with  all  possible  expedition  to 
Brunswick.  General  Mercer  immediately  fell  in  with  it,  and  very  forcibly  pointed  out  both 
its  practicability  and  the  advantages  that  would  necessarily  result  from  it,  and  General 
Washington  highly  approved  it ;  nor  was  there  one  dissenting  voice  iu  the  Council." 


1777.] 


THE   MARCH    TO   PRINCETON. 


533 


So  far  as  the  pickets  of  the  enemv  could  see,  or  conjecture,  the  Amer- 
icans were  resting  quietly  in  their  camp  all  the  night  through,  while 
the  troops,  ignorant  of  their  destination,  were  quietly  set  in  motion 
along  the  Quaker  road  toward  Princeton.  The  ground,  which  had 
been  muddy  during  the  day,  was  hard  from  a  sudden  frost,  and  the 
artillery  was  moved  without  difficulty.  As  the  men  pushed  on,  in 
silence  and  perfect  order,  though  sometimes  stumbling  over  rocks 
and  stumps,  and  shivering  in  the  keen  northwest  wind,  they  discussed 
among  themselves  what  the  General  meant  to  do.1  All  night  tin- 
pickets  piled  high  the  fires  in  front  of  the  deserted  camp,  and  when 
morning  broke  they  also  stole  quietly  away  on  the  line  of  march. 


The  Stolen   March. 

St.  Glair's  brigade  of  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  troops 
moved  at  the  head  of  the  column.  Captain  Isaac  Sherman,  of  Con- 
necticut, son  of  that  Roger  Sherman  who  signed  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  led  the  advance  guard.2  In  the  van,  also,  were  Captain 
Thomas  Rodney  with  an  independent  company  from  Delaware  and 
the  "  Red  Feather  company  of  Philadelphia  Light  Infantry,"  which 
alone  of  all  the  troops  pretended  to  be  in  uniform.  The  column  moved 
on  all  night  "  in  the  most  cool  and  determined  order,"  though  once 
the  cry  was  raised  in  the  rear  that  the  Hessians  \\ere  upon  them,  and 

1  .foiima/  <>/  C'li/itiint  I  Ituiuus  liuduty,  oj 
'-  Wilkinson's  Memoirs. 


534  THE   NEW   JERSEY   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

some  of  the  inilitia  took  fright  and  fled  toward  Burlington.  Washing- 
ton, as  usual,  kept  with  the  van.  The  only  cavalry  that  he  could  use 
for  guards,  couriers,  and  patrols  was  a  company  of  twenty-one  "gentle- 
men of  fortune  "  from  Philadelphia,  who  volunteered  their  services 
and  paid  their  own  way. 

It  was  a  little  after  daybreak  when  the  troops  neared  Princeton. 
At  Prince-  The  morning  was  bright,  serene,  and  extremely  cold.  Wash- 
ton,  ington's  plan  was  to  leave  the  main  column  with  Sullivan's 
division  in  advance,  wheel  to  the  right  and  surprise  the  town  on  the 
flank,  while  Mercer  should  keep  straight  on,  at  the  same  time  detach- 
ing a  party  to  break  down  the  bridge  over  Stony  Creek  on  the  main 
road,  to  retard  the  enemy's  pursuit  from  Trenton.  Thus  at  sunrise 
on  the  morning  of  January  3d,  the  situation  was  directly  the  reverse 
of  what  it  had  been  on  the  previous  morning.  Cornwallis  was  at 
Trenton,  Washington  at  Princeton.  Cornwallis  was  outgeneralled, 
and  the  American  army  once  more  saved  from  threatened  ruin. 

Some  serious  work,  however,  remained  to  be  done  before  the  suc- 
cess of  the  manoeuvre  was  completely  assured.  Three  British  regi- 
ments,— the  17th,  40th,  and  55th,  —  with  three  companies  of  dragoons, 
had  been  left  at  Princeton  as  a  rear  guard.  Two  of  them  had  been 
ordered  to  join  Cornwallis,  and  before  sunrise  this  morning  they  were 
on  the  road, — the  17th,  under  Lieutenant-colonel  Mawhood,  and  the 
dragoons  twenty  minutes  in  advance  of  him.  After  crossing  Stony 
Creek,  a  mile  below  the  town,  Mawhood  discovered  the  Americans  on 
the  Quaker  road  half  a  mile  to  his  left.  Unable  to  account  for  their 
appearance  there,  he  nevertheless  promptly  faced  about  and  recrossed 
the  creek  to  reconnoitre,  and,  if  necessary,  show  fight.  "  You  may 
judge  of  the  surprise  of  the  British,"  says  Knox,  "  when  they  saw  such 
a  large  column  marching  up.  They  could  not  possibly  suppose  it 
was  our  army,  for  that,  they  took  for  granted,  was  cooped  up  near 
Trenton.  They  could  not  possibly  suppose  it  was  their  own  army  re- 
turning by  a  back  road ;  in  short,  I  believe  they  were  as  much  aston- 
ished as  if  an  army  had  dropped  perpendicularly  upon  them." 

Mawhood,  believing  that  some  advantage  could  be  gained  by 
attacking  and  delaying  the  Americans,  hastened  to  take  position  just 
off  the  road,  on  a  hill  near  the  house  and  barns  of  a  Quaker  named 
Clark.  It  so  happened  that  Mercer,  with  a  small  Continental  brigade 
composed  of  the  remnants  of  Smallvvood's  and  Haslet's  regiments, 
and  a  detachment  of  Virginians  under  Captain  Fleming,  about  three 
hundred  in  all,  on  seeing  the  British  returning,  aimed  for  the  same 
Battle  of  point,  reached  it  first,  and  formed  behind  a  fence.  As  the 
Princeton.  enemy  came  up,  Mercer's  men  poured  a  volley  into  their 
ranks,  which  was  immediately  returned.  Major  Wilkinson,  of  St. 


1777.]  THE   BATTLE    OF   PRINCETON.  535 

Glair's  staff,  recollected  that  the  smoke  from  the  discharge  of  the  two 
lines  mingled  as  it  rose  and  went  up  "  in  one  beautiful  cloud."  Maw- 
hood,  riding  on  a  little  brown  pony,  with  two  favorite  spaniels  bound- 
ing in  front  of  him,1  directed  the  movements  of  his  small  force,  which 
he  held  under  thorough  discipline  and  now  brought  to  the  field  in 
the  best  fighting  condition.  Preserving  its  line,  the  Seventeenth  fol- 
lowed up  its  fire  with  one  of  those  irresistible  charges  for  which  the 
British  regular  has  been  famous  since  the  days  of  Marlborough  in 
Europe  and  Wolfe  in  America.  Despite  the  efforts  of  their  officers 
to  keep  them  to  their  ground,  Merger's  men,  who  had  but  few  bay- 
onets, took  to  flight.  General  Mercer  himself  was  unhorsed  at  the 
outset  and,  refusing  to  surrender,  struck  out  with  his  sword,  only  to 
be  bayoneted  on  all  sides  and  left  for  dead.  The  brave  Colonel 
Haslet,  of  the  Delawares,  while  endeavoring  to  rally  his  men,  Colonel 
Potter,  Captain  Fleming,  Captain  Neal  of  the  artillery,  and  other 
officers,  were  also  killed.  General  Cadwallader's  militia  brigade, 
which  had  been  sent  to  support  Mercer,  then  gave  way  before  Maw- 
hood. 

But  fortunately,  Captain  Moulder's  volunteer  artillery  from  Phila- 
delphia, and  Captain  Rodney's  men,  firing  under  cover  of  the  barns 
and  stacks  of  hay  in  the  vicinity,  temporarily  checked  the  enemy  and 
enabled  Washington,  who  was  now  at  the  front,  to  take  measures 
against  further  disaster.  He  sent  word  to  Nixon's  brigade  of  the  New 
England  Continentals,  then  commanded  by  Colonel  Daniel  Hitchcock, 
of  Providence,  to  come  up  on  the  enemy's  right,  while  Hand's  veteran 
riflemen  threatened  their  left.  The  Commander-in-chief  then  rode 
in  among  Mercer's  and  Cadwallader's  routed  troops,  regardless  of 
personal  danger,  and  succeeded,  with  others,  in  re-forming  the  greater 
part  of  them,  and  again  drew  them  up  in  front  of  the  British.  Both 
sides  opened  fire.  Hitchcock,  Hand,  and  Cadwallader  pushed  on,  and 
Mawhood,  finding  himself  in  danger  of  being  surrounded,  was  com- 
pelled to  retreat.  His  men  had  thus  far  fought  bravely,  but  now 
they  sought  safety  in  flight,  and  throwing  down  their  arms,  scattered 
down  the  road,  up  the  creek,  and  over  the  fields,  pursued  by  the 
shouting  Americans.  The  danger  was  over.  The  army  moved  on  to 
Princeton  and  drove  the  other  British  regiments,  who  had  posted 
themselves  in  the  College  building,  out  of  the  town.  The  exhausted 
troops  encamped  that  night  at  Somerset  Court  House,  fifteen  miles 
beyond.  The  intention  of  making  a  push  for  Brunswick,  where  Wash- 
ington had  hoped  to  capture  the  British  stores,  had  to  be  abandoned, 

1  Wilkinson's  Memoirs.  Wilkinson  was  St.  Clair's  Brigade-major,  afterward  General- 
in-chief  of  the  American  army,  and  gives  many  particulars  in  his  account  of  the  battles  of 
Trenton  and  Princeton. 


536  THE  NEW  JERSEY   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

for  the  men,  "having  been  without  rest,  rum,  or  pi-ovisions  for  two 
nights  and  days,  were  unequal  to  the  task  of  marching  seventeen  miles 
farther."  * 

In  the  fighting  of  this  day,  the  British  lost  over  sixty  killed,  and 

many  wounded,   besides    two   hundred  and    fifty  prisoners. 

The  American  loss  was  about  thirty  killed,  and  a  propor- 

tionate number  of  wounded  ;  but  among  them  was  the  gallant  Mer- 

cer, who  died  a  day  or  two  later,  and  Haslet,  whose  services  had  been 

valuable  from  the  beginning  of  the  campaign.     Hitchcock,  who  was 

thanked  by  Washington  in  person  for  his  conduct  in  the  battle,  died 

ten  days  later  from  the  hardships  of  the  campaign. 

When  Cornwallis  discovered  that  the  enemy  was  beyond  pursuit, 
he  at  once  marched  his  troops  to  Princeton,  and  entered  the  place 
an  hour  after  the  Americans  had  left.  They  came  on,  it  was  said, 
"in  a  most  infernal  sweat  —  running,  puffing,  and  blowing,  and  swear- 
ing at  being  so  outwitted."  2  Washington,  however,  could  not  be 
overtaken.  On  the  6th,  the  army  reached  Morristown,  and 


at     preparations  were  immediately  made  to  go  into  winter  quar- 

Morristown.  „,.  .  ,,  ,  , 

ters.  Ihe  campaign  was  virtually  over  for  that  winter, 
though  Heath  and  Lincoln  made  a  demonstration  toward  New  York  a 
few  days  later,  and  summoned  Fort  Independence  to  surrender.  The 
movement  served,  perhaps,  to  alarm  Howe  for  the  safety  of  New  York, 
but  was  otherwise  so  far  from  answering  the  purpose  intended,  that 
the  generals  in  command  were  rebuked  for  its  failure.  They  -permit- 
ted themselves  to  be  driven  from  the  investment  of  the  fort  by  a  sortie 
of  the  garrison.  "Your  summons,"  wrote  Washington  to  Heath,  "as 
you  did  not  attempt  to  fulfil  your  threats,  was  not  only  idle,  but  far- 
cical, and  will  not  fail  of  turning  the  laugh  exceedingly  upon  us." 
With  the  general  result  of  the  campaign,  however,  the  Commander- 

in-chief  had  every  reason  to  be  satisfied,  as  the  country  had 

every  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the  Commander-in-chief. 

The  wisdom  of  trusting  him  with  almost  irresponsible  power 
was  made  manifest,  as  it  became  plainer  every  day  that  he  knew  how 
to  use  and  would  not  abuse  supreme  authority.  In  about  six  month* 
he  had  completely  changed  the  aspect  of  affairs.  Successive  disasters 
—  the  loss  of  Long  Island,  the  evacuation  of  New  York,  the  surrender 
of  Fort  Washington,  the  retreat  through  New  Jersey  to  the  banks  of 

1  Captain  Rodney,  mentioned  above,  was  from  Dover,  Delaware,  and  was  a  brother  of 
Hon.  Caesar  Rodney,  delegate  in  Congress  from  that  State.    Writing  on  the  evening  of  the 
fight,  he  says  of  Princeton  :  "  This  is  a  very  pretty  little  town  on  the  York  road  twelve 
miles  from  Trenton  ;  the  houses  are  built  of  brick,  and  are  very  elegant,  especially  the 
College,  which  has  52  rooms  in  it;  but  the  whole  town  has  been  ravaged  and  ruined  by 
the  enemy." 

2  Kiiox,  in  letter  of  January  7,  1777. 


1777.] 


RESULTS    OF   THE   CAMPAIGN. 


the  Delaware,  the  apparently  impending  fall  of  Philadelphia  —  had 
made  the  most  sanguine  almost  despair  of  the  war.  But  the  main 
army  was  now  safely  and  firmly  seated  in  the  very  heart  of  Xew  Jer- 
sey;  anxiety  for  New  York  had  compelled  Howe  to  abandon,  at  least 
for  the  present,  his  designs  upon  Philadelphia;  Brunswick  and  Am- 
boy  were  the  only  towns  that  he  could  really  call  his  own  in  all  that 
province,  which,  a  little  while  before,  he  and  his  troops  believed  thev 
could  overrun  at  will ;  he  had  been  outgeneralled  by  the  rebel  chief 
whom  he  affected  to  despise,  and  his  veteran,  disciplined,  and  weli 
appointed  troops  had  been  out-fought  by  raw  militia,  just  taken  from 
the  plough  and  the  workshop,  and  about  to  return  there,  half-starved, 
half-clothed,  almost  shoeless  in  the  winter  weather,  almost  without 
any  of  the  ordinary 
appliances  of  the 
camp,  short  of  am- 
munition, short  of 
arms,  —  short  of 
everything  but  an 
invincible  determi- 
nation to  fight  to 
the  end,  and  an  in- 
telligent  under- 
standing of  what 
they  were  fighting 
for.  Trenton  and 
Princeton  had 
shown  that  at  the 
head  of  such  an  ar- 
my was  a  great  soldier,  one  who  knew  how  to  wait,  who  could  never 
be  hurried,  who  could  never  be  put  to  fear  ;  with  the  mental  re- 
sources of  foresight,  of  combination,  and  of  concentration  that  make 
military  genius.  The  English  Ministry  and  European  statesmen  rec- 
ognized in  the  New  Jersey  campaign  the  character  of  the  American 
Revolution  and  the  certain  coming  of  a  new  nation. 

Meanwhile  the  penalties  of  war  were  exacted  in  full  measure.     The 
sufferings  of  the  American  soldiers  who  had  fallen  into  the  suffering* of 
hands  of  the   British,  and  were  held  as  prisoners  in    New  Pri8oners 
York,  were  notorious  at  the  time,  and  have  long  been  famous  in  the 
annals  of  cruelty, — 

"  Since  man  first  pent  his  fellow  men 
Like  brutes  within  an  iron  den." 

A  writer  in  the  New  London  "Gazette"  gave  an  account  of  their 
treatment,  writing  it  down  from  the  recitals  of  some  of  the  prisoners 


Old    Sugar-House,    Liberty  Street. 


538  THE  NEW  JERSEY   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

themselves.  As  soon  as  they  were  taken,  they  were  robbed  of  their 
baggage,  money,  and  clothes.  Some  of  them  were  put  on  board  the 
prison-ships  and  thrust  down  into  the  hold,  where  they  were  so 
crowded  together  that  they  were  in  a  constant  perspiration  ;  and  from 
here  they  were  suddenly  transferred  to  some  of  the  churches  in  New 
York,  where,  without  any  covering  or  a  spark  of  fire,  they  suffered 
from  the  other  extreme  of  temperature,  "  and  the  consequence  was, 
that  they  took  such  colds  as  brought  on  the  most  fatal  diseases,  and 
swept  them  off  almost  beyond  conception."  The  food  that  was  given 
them  for  three  days  was  scarcely  enough  for  one  day,  "  and  in  some 
instances  they  went  for  three  days  without  a  single  mouthful  of  food 
of  any  kind."  "  For  the  bread,"  says  this  writer,  "  some  of  it  was 
made  out  of  the  bran  which  they  brought  over  to  feed  their  light- 
horse  ;  and  the  rest  of  it  was  so  mouldy,  and  the  pork  was  so  damni- 
fied, being  soaked  in  bilge-water  in  the  transportation  from  Europe, 
that  they  were  not  fit  to  be  eaten  by  human  creatures."  Sick  and 
well  were  thrust  in  together  in  the  churches,  than  which  no  buildings 
could  be  more  unfit  for  the  confinement  of  men  who  must  eat  and 
sleep  there ;  and  "  many  lay  for  six,  seven,  or  eight  days  in  all  the 
filth  of  nature  and  of  the  dysentery,  till  death,  more  kind  than  the 
Britons,  put  an  end  to  their  misery."  It  was  said  that  the  English 
officers  were  continually  cursing  the  prisoners  as  rebels,  and  threaten- 
ing to  execute  them  as  such,  and  that  at  one  time  they  ordered  each 
man  to  choose  his  halter,  out  of  a  parcel  offered,  wherewith  to  be 
hanged.  And  many  of  them  were  hanged,  the  executions  taking 
place  at  night  on  a  permanent  gallows  in  what  is  now  Chambers 
Street,  New  York.  Out  of  about  five  thousand  prisoners,  fifteen 
hundred  died  in  captivity,  and  many  others  scarcely  survived  to  reach 
their  homes  when  they  were  released. 

The  buildings  used  for  prisons  in  New  York  were  Van  Cortlandt's 
sugar-house,  at  the  northwest  corner  of  Trinity  church-yard  ;  Rhine- 
lander's  sugar-house,  corner  of  William  and  Duane  Streets  ;  another 
sugar-house  in  Liberty  Street,  a  short  distance  east  of  the  old  Post 
Office  ;  the  North  Dutch  Church,  still  standing  in  William  Street ; 
the  Middle  Dutch  Church,  of  late  years  the  Post  Office,  at  the  corner 
of  Liberty  and  Nassau  Streets  ;  the  Brick  Church,  formerly  at  the 
head  of  Nassau  Street ;  the  New  Jail,  now  the  Hall  of  Records  in 
City  Hall  Park  ;  and  the  New  Bridewell,  in  the  same  park,  which  has 
been  demolished.  Eight  hundred  prisoners  were  packed  into  the 
North  Dutch  Church. 

The  prison-ships  were  mainly  devoted  to  the  confinement  of  Amer- 
ican sailors.  The  principal  ones  were  the  Good  Hope,  anchored  in 
the  North  River,  and  the  Scorpion,  the  Falmouth,  the  Stromboli,  the 


1777.] 


THE  BRITISH   PRISON-SHIPS. 


539 


Hunter,  and  afterward  the  Jersey,  anchored  in  Wallabout  Bay,  the 
present  site  of  Brooklyn  Navy-yard.  As  the  agreement  con-  p,.^,,. 
cerning  prisoners  only  provided  for  exchanges  in  kind,  those  8hlps- 
on  the  prison-ships  were  left  much  longer  in  confinement  than  the 
other  captives  of  war,  since  they  were  mostly  privateers,  and  the  pri- 
vateering vessels  were  accustomed  to  parole  their  prisoners  instead 
of  bringing  them  into  port, — the  Americans  thus  being  left  without 
sailors  to  exchange  for  sailors.  At  one  time  the  British  authorities 
offered  to  exchange  these  seamen  for  soldiers ;  but  the  Americans  re- 
fused, as  that  would  only  fill  up  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  with  no  cor- 
responding benefit  to  their  own.  The  Jersey  was  an  old  sixty-four- 
gun  ship,  dismantled,  and  moored  about  twenty  rods  from  shore. 
Her  port-holes  were  closed  up, 
and  two  tiers  of  holes  twenty 
inches  square,  barred  with  iron, 
were  cut  in  her  sides.  For  a 
long  time  the  average  number 
of  prisoners  on  board  was  one 
thousand.  Their  allowance  of 
rations  was  two  thirds  the  quan- 
tity issued  to  British  seamen,  but 
with  no  fresh  vegetables  of  any 
kind.  The  rations  were  mostlv 

•/ 

cooked  in  an  immense  boiler 
called  "the  Great  Copper,"  the 
meat  being  boiled  in  sea-water, 
which  corroded  the  copper  and 
rendered  the  food  poisonous. 
There  was  some  relief,  however, 
for  those  of  the  prisoners  who 
happened  to  possess  any  money. 
An  old  woman  known  as  "  Dame 
Grant"  came  alongside  on  alternate  days,  in  a  boat  rowed  by  two 
boys,  and  sold  fresh  bread,  vegetables,  and  other  dainties,  prudently 
requiring  that  the  cash  be  placed  in  her  hand  before  the  goods  were 
delivered.  The  prisoners  had  no  means  of  washing  their  linen,  ex- 
cept by  dipping  it  in  sea-water  and  then  laying  it  on  the  deck  and 
treading  on  it.  No  light  or  fire  was  furnished,  and  every  night  there 
was  a  struggle  for  the  places  nearest  to  the  small,  grated  openings. 
The  prisoners  lost  almost  every  feeling  of  humanity  for  one  another ; 
and  the  principal  anxiety  of  the  volunteer  nurses  seemed  to  be  to 
claim  their  perquisites  by  robbing  the  dead  and  dying  of  their  cloth- 
ing. "Death  has  no  relish  for  such  skeleton  carcasses  as  we  are," 


Middle  Dutch  Church. 


540 


THE   NEW  JERSEY  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XXI. 


said  an  emaciated  prisoner  to  Captain  Dring,  as  he  went  on  board  ; 
"  but  he  will  now  have  a  feast  upon  you  fresh-comers."  The  Captain, 
finding  there  were  several  cases  of  small-pox  on  board,  at  once  inocu- 
lated himself,  using  a  common  brass  pin  for  a  lancet.  The  Rev. 
Thomas  Andros,  who  was  confined  on  the  Jersey,  says  an  armed  guard 
was  necessary  in  the  well-room,  to  compel  the  prisoners  to  work  the 
pumps  enough  to  keep  the  hulk  from  sinking,  and  they  would  not  use 
the  buckets,  brushes,  and  vinegar  which  were  furnished  for  the  cleans- 
ing of  the  ship.  The  highest  privilege  that  any  prisoner  could  aspire 
to  was  to  go  ashore  as  one  of  a  burying-party.  General  Johnson, 
who  lived  near  Wallabout  Bay,  estimated  the  number  of  deaths  on 
the  prison-ships  anchored  there  at  eleven  thousand  five  hundred.  No 
estimate  puts  it  lower  than  ten  thousand.1 

Finally  a  cartel  for  a  general  exchange  was  agreed  upon,  and  was 
The  question  at  once  carried  out  by  Howe,  who  had  everything  to  gain 
of  exchange.  an(j  nothing  to  lose  by  it.  He  gave  up  men  so  broken  down 
by  close  confinement,  short  rations,  and  barbarous  treatment,  that 

they  could  be  of  lit- 
tle further  use  as  sol- 
diers, and  expected 
to  receive  in  return 
an  equal  number  of 
well-fed  red-coats 
and  Hessians  who 
could  resume  their 
places  in  his  army 
at  once.  In  no  other 
way  could  he  get  re- 
cruits for  that  army, 
except  by  bringing 
them  three  thousand 
miles  across  the  sea. 
A  writer  of  the  time, 

in  a  letter  dated  Morristown,  January,  1777,  remarked  that  General 
Howe  had  "  discharged  all  the  privates  who  were  prisoners  in  New- 
York  :  one  half  he  sent  to  the  World  of  Spirits  for  want  of  food  ;  the 
other  he  hath  sent  to  warn  their  countrymen  of  the  danger  of  falling 
into  his  hands,  and  to  convince  them,  by  ocular  demonstration,  that 
it  is  infinitely  better  to  be  slain  in  battle  than  to  be  taken  prisoners 
by  British  brutes." 

1  See  Recollections  of  the  Jersey  Prison-ship.  From  the  original  manuscript  of  Captain 
Thomas  Dring.  Third  edition,  edited  by  Henry  B.  Dawson.  1865.  The  Americans  also 
had  a  prison-ship,  the  Retaliation,  moored  near  New  London,  Conn.,  for  captured  British 
sailors.  But  it  was  never  crowded,  and  presented  no  such  scene  of  wretchedness. 


Rhinelander's   Sugar-Mouse 


1777.] 


THE    QUESTION   OF   EXCHANGE. 


541 


In  April,  1777,  General  Howe  demanded  of  Washington  a  return 
for  a  considerable  number  of  officers  and  twenty-two  hundred  privates 
whom  he  had  released  and  sent  within  the  American  lines.     Washing- 
ton refused  to  make  the  return  by  releasing  an  equal  number  of  Brit- 
ish prisoners;    his  argument  in  support  of  this  refusal  being,   that 
though  the  enemy  had  kept  the  letter  of  the  contract,  they  had  delib- 
erately violated  its  spirit  and  nullified  its  purpose.      He  would  not 
hold  himself  bound,  he  told  Howe,  "either  by  the  spirit  of  the  agree- 
ment or  by  the  principles  of  justice,  to  account  for  those  prisoners 
who,  from  the  rigor  and  severity  of  their 
treatment,  were  in  so  emaciated  and  lan- 
guishing a  state  at  the  time  they  came  out, 
as  to  render  their  death  almost  certain  and 
inevitable,  and  which,  in  many  instances, 
happened  while  they  were 
returning  to  their   homes, 
and  in   many  others  after 
their  arrival."    The  Ameri- 
can commander  proceeded 
at  considerable  length   to 
lay  down  the  principles  ap- 
plicable to  the  case,  and  to 
charge  Lord  Howe  in  the 
most    direct    manner  with 
purposely     disabling     the 
prisoners    in     his    hands. 
"  The  object  of  every  cartel 
or  similar  agreement,"  he 
said,  "  is  the  benefit  of  the 
prisoners   themselves    and 
that     of     the     contending 
powers.     On  this  footing, 
it  equally  exacts  that  they 
should  be  well  treated   as 
that    they  should    be    ex- 
changed ;  the  reverse  is  therefore  an  evident  infraction,  and  ought 
to  subject  the  party  on  whom  it  is  chargeable  to  all  the  damage 
and  ill  consequences  resulting  from  it.     Nor  can  it  be  expected  that 
those  unfitted  for  future  service  by  acts  of  severity,  in  direct  violation 
of  a  compact,  are  proper  subjects  for  an  exchange.     In  such  a  case,  to 
return  others  not  in  the  same  predicament,  would  be  to  give  without 
receiving  an  equivalent,  and  would  afford  the  greatest  encouragement 
to  cruelty  and  inhumanity."     The  circumstances  that  called  for  an 


North  Dutch  Church. 


542 


THE  NEW  JERSEY  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XXL 


application  of  these  principles  were  as  forcibly  stated  as  the  principles 
themselves.  Washington  declared  that  he  was  "  compelled  to  consider 
it  a  fact  not  to  be  questioned,  that  the  usage  of  our  prisoners  whilst  in 
your  possession,  the  privates  at  least,  was  such  as  could  not  be  justi- 
fied. This  was  proclaimed  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all  who 
came  out ;  their  appearance  sanctified  the  assertion  ;  and  melancholy 
experience,  in  the  speedy  death  of  a  large  part  of  them,  stamped  it 
with  infallible  certainty."  He  proclaimed  his  purpose  to  retain  and 
care  for  these  released  prisoners,  as  an  act  of  humanity,  but  not  to 
consider  them  exchanged,  and  not  to  return  for  them  an  equal  num- 
ber of  able-bodied  British  soldiers. 

Howe  admitted  the  justice  of  the  principles  laid  down,  but  denied 
that  they  were  applicable  to  him.  He  claimed  that  the  prisoners  had 
been  supplied  with  the  same  food,  in  quantity  and  quality,  that  was 
issued  to  the  King's  troops  not  on  service;  that  the  sick  had  been 
received  into  British  hospitals,  and  that  he  was  entirely  at  a  loss  to 
account  for  the  great  mortality  among  them.  After  an  interval  of 
nearly  two  months  (June  10,  1777)  Washington  sent  him  a  long  re- 
joinder, going  over  the  ground  with  great  particularity  and  specifying 
the  methods  and  means  of  ill-treatment  which  had  been  pursued.  He 
closed  by  declaring  that  he  would  not  recede  from  his  position  on  the 
question,  but  was  extremely  anxious  for  a  general  exchange  on  equita- 
ble principles. 


The  Chew  House  at  Germantown. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  CAMPAIGN   IN   PENNSYLVANIA. 

THE  NEW  ARMY. — FRENCH  ASSISTANCE.  —  THE  BEAUMARCHAIS  TRANSACTIONS. — 
SYMPATHY  OF  THE  FRENCH  COURT.  —  SPAIN'S  ATTITUDE.  —  OPENING  SKIRMISHES 
OF  THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  NEW  JERSEY.  —  BURNING  OF  DANBURY,  CONNECTICUT.  — 
MEIGS'S  SAG  HARBOR  EXPEDITION. — GENERAL  HOWE  SAILS  FROM  NEW  YORK. — 
APPEARS  IN  THE  DELAWARE,  AND  THEN  IN  THE  CHESAPEAKE.  —  WASHINGTON 
MARCHES  TO  MEET  HlM.  —  BATTLE  OF  BRANDYWINE.  —  DEFEAT  OF  THE  AMER- 
ICANS.—  WAYNE  SURPRISED  AT  PAOLI.  —  PHILADELPHIA  OCCUPIED  BY  THE  BRITISH. 
—  BATTLE  OF  GERMANTOWN.  —  A  VICTORY  LOST. 

THE  work  of  the  winter,  after  the  troops  were  placed  in  winter 
quarters  at  Morristown,  was  the  formation  of  a  new  army  in  A  newarmy 
preparation  for  a  new  campaign.  Congress  had  decided  in  raised- 
August,  1776,  that  eighty-eight  battalions  be  raised,  to  take  the  place 
of  the  regiments  in  the  field  upon  the  expiration  of  their  terms  of 
service,  and  that  they  should  be  apportioned  to  the  several  States 
in  accordance  with  their  relative  populations.  The  appointment  of 
officers,  except  the  Generals,  was  given  to  the  State  Assemblies,  but 
the  commissions  issued  from  Congress.  The  power  of  removal  and 
appointment  of  all  officers  below  the  Generals  was,  however,  subse- 
quently given  to  Washington.  To  raise  this  army  and  put  it  into  the 
field,  was  an  exceedingly  slow,  vexatious,  and  laborious  process.  Even 
in  March,  Washington  had  not  four  thousand  men  on  his  muster  rolls. 

Indeed,  the  whole  number  of  men  called  for  by  Congress  was  never 
recruited   by  the  States.     The  strain  upon  the  population 

j  ,.1.  f          e  i         u       c  •  j-o:     Thediffi- 

was  severe,  and  the  question  of  length  or  service  was  a  dim-  euity  with 

cult  one  to  deal  with.     On  the  one  side,  it  was  contended 

that  an  effective  and  well-disciplined  army  could  never  be  organized 


544 


THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.      [CHAP.  XXII. 


with  men  whose  terms  would  expire  in  a  year;  on  the  other,  it  was 
declared  that  the  northern  farmers  and  mechanics  would  enlist  with 
alacrity  for  that  length  of  time,  and  keep  the  army  full,  but  could  not 
be  induced  to  leave  their  farms  and  workshops  for  a  period  so  long 
that  it  was  practically  their  ruin.  The  difference  of  opinion  marked 
the  difference  between  North  and  South.  The  Northerner,  with  his 
quick  intelligence  and  active  habits,  required  but  little  time  to  become 
a  good  soldier ;  and  he  was  not  willing  to  sacrifice  all  that  he  had  ac- 
quired, or  all  his  hopes  for  the  future,  by  a  long  enlistment,  though 
he  might  make  repeated  short  ones.  The  social  condition  of  the 
South,  on  the  other  hand,  produced  men  whose  lack  of  education,  and 

whose  smaller  in- 
telligence, required 
long  and  severe 
training,  and  to 
whom  a  long  term 
of  service  was  little 
or  no  sacrifice,  for 
their  stake  in  so- 
ciety was  small,  as 
they  left  neither 
farms  nor  work- 
shops behind  them. 
It  was  only  one  of 
those  questions 
which,  growing 
out  of  disparity  of 
race  and  social  con- 
ditions, and  the 
consequent  differ- 
ence of  civilization, 
have  always,  from 
the  first  moment 
of  the  political 
union  of  the  States, 
made  that  union 
precarious.  But 
when  the  summer 
campaign  fairly  began,  Washington  had  under  his  immediate  com- 
mand seven  thousand  three  hundred  Continentals.  The  army  south 
of  the  Hudson  was  divided  into  ten  brigades,  under  Generals  Con- 
way,  De  Haas,  Berre,  Maxwell,  Muhlenberg,  Scott,  Small  wood, 
Wayne,  Weedon,  and  Woodford. 


Door  of  Washington's  Headquarters  at  Morristown. 


1777.]  FRENCH   ASSISTANCE.  545 

From  the  first  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  1775,  to  the  opening  of  the 
campaign  of  this  year,  the  difficult}'  of  procuring  munitions  Scareity  of 
of  war  was  quite  as  serious  as  that  of  procuring  men  to  use  munitions 
them.     The  supply  of  gunpowder  depended  partly  upon  what  could 
be  picked  up   in  the  West  Indies  and  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and 
partly  upon  the  capture  of  English  vessels  by  the  privateers.     But  so 
limited  and  uncertain  was  this  resource,  that  powder-mills  were  estab- 
lished in  several  places ;  every  possible  encouragement  was  given  to 
the  domestic  production  of  saltpetre,  and  the  thrifty  farmer  turned 
his  barn-yard  into  a  laboratory.     Arms,  at  first,  were  equally  scarce, 
till  the  government  provided  for  that  want,  in  part,  by  establishing 
manufactories  in  Massachusetts  at  Springfield,  and  in  Pennsylvania 
at  Lancaster.     But  for  the  relief  of  this  dire  poverty  in  all  Aid  from 
that  made  the  continuance  of  war  possible,  the  reliance  was  France- 
largely  upon  the  friendly,  though  secret,  aid  of  France.     In  the  spring 
of  1776,  Beaumarchais,  an  agent  of  Vergennes,  proposed  to  Arthur 
Lee,  then  in  London,  to  provide  arms,  ammunition,  and  even  money, 
for  the  use  of  the  Americans.     The  negotiations  were,  of  course,  with- 
out any  apparent  sanction  of  the  French  government,  as  they  were 
in  violation  of  its  treaty  obligations  to  Great  Britain  ;    but  the  ar- 
rangement was  finally  concluded  with  Silas  Deane,  at  Paris.     Beau- 
marchais fulfilled  his  engagements  under  the  commercial  style  and 
name  of  Roderique  Hortales  &  Co.    Large  supplies  of  powder,  cannon, 
and  field  equipage  were  shipped  from  France  in  spite  of  the  protesta- 
tions of  the  English  minister  in  Paris.     The  French  government,  in 
reply,  regretted  that  any  of  its  subjects  should  be  so  regardless  of 
treaty  obligations,  denied  all  responsibility  for  such  illegal  acts,  pre- 
tended to  interfere,  but  let  the  ships  slip  out  to  sea  without  hindrance. 

But  in  January,  1777,  France  took  a  more  positive  position,  when 
the  Commissioners  —  Benjamin  Franklin,  Silas  Deane,  and  Arthur 
Lee,  whom  Congress  sent  to  Europe  —  asked  the  King  to  recognize 
the  independence  of  the  United  States.  This  decisive  step  the  King 
was  not  prepared  to  take ;  but,  he  said,  in  his  reply  to  the  Commis- 
sioners—  "to  prove  his  good  wishes  towards  the  United  States,  he 
had  ordered  two  millions  of  livres  to  be  paid  to  them  by  quarterly 
payments,  which  should  be  augmented  as  the  state  of  his  finances 
would  permit."  At  the  same  time  the  commissioners  were  to  be  at 
liberty  to  make  purchases  of  military  stores  and  forward  them  as  pri- 
vate merchandise.  A  year  was  yet  to  pass  before  France  was  quite 
ready  to  avow  publicly  the  sympathy  which  her  people  felt  in  the 
cause  of  the  Americans,  by  the  recognition  of  the  new  Republic, 
though  Vergennes  had  shown  for  a  dozen  years  his  anxiety  that  the 
old  enemy  of  France  should  be  crippled  by  the  loss  of  her  colonies. 

VOL.  in.  35 


546  THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.        [CHAP.  XXII. 

An  effort  was  made  to  enlist  Spain  on  the  side  of  America.  Lee 
spain-s  atu-  started  for  Madrid  in  February,  but  the  Spanish  Court 
would  not  admit  him  to  an  interview.  Yet  it  secretly  joined 
with  France  in  aiding  the  colonists  to  the  extent  of  a  million  livres. 
This  course  was  dictated  purely  by  policy.  Spain  desired  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  France;  but  the  independence  of  the  English  colonies 
in  America  she  dreaded  rather  as  a  mischievous  example  for  her  own, 
than  approved  of  it  as  a  struggle  for  the  liberties  of  a  people  which 
should  command  her  respect  and  sympathy. 

Frederick  of  Prussia  was  too  closely  bound  to  England  to  encourage 
Frederick's  openly  the  revolt  of  any  portion  of  her  subjects.  But  he 
opinion.  wag  noj.  want,jng  m  frankness  of  speech.  He  spoke  of  Parlia- 
ment as  acting  "  like  an  infuriated  fool  in  the  American  business." 
"I  like  those  brave  fellows,"  he  said  of  the  American  soldiers;  "and 
cannot  help  secretly  hoping  for  their  success."  He  exacted  the  pay- 
ment of  an  impost  duty  on  the  German  legionaries,  hired  by  England, 
when  they  passed  through  his  dominions  to  a  port  of  embarkation,  for, 
he  said,  "  they  are  cattle  exported  for  foreign  shambles."  If  England 
cared  for  the  approbation  of  Europe  in  her  efforts  to  subjugate  Amer- 
ica, she  found  little  anywhere  except  among  the  petty  princes  whose 
soldiers  she  purchased. 

At   Morristown,  N.  J.,  Washington's   headquarters  were  at  the 

Freeman    Tavern,   a   house   which    is    still    standing.     The 

town,  from   its  elevated  position,  conld  be  easily  defended, 

and  was  a  convenient  point  from  which  to  observe  the  movements  of 

the  enemy  during  the  winter.     The  army,  reduced  to  a  mere  handful, 

took  up  quarters  in  log  huts,  and  at  intervals  engaged  in  skirmishes 

with  the  English,  who  had  drawn  in  their  posts  close  to  Staten  Island 

and  New  York. 

A  party  of  New  Jersey  militia,  under  Colonel  Oliver  Spencer,  at- 
tacked an  equal  number  of  Waldeckers  at  Springfield  on  the 
in  New  5th  of  January,  two  days  after  the  battle  of  Princeton,  and 
routed  them,  taking  thirty-nine  prisoners.  On  the  20th, 
General  Philemon  Dickinson,  of  Trenton,  at  the  head  of  three  hun- 
dred New  Jersey  militiamen,  with  two  independent  companies  of  Con- 
tinentals, raised  under  Captains  Ransom  and  Durkee  in  the  Wyoming 
Valley,  defeated  an  English  foraging  party  sent  out  from  New  Bruns- 
wick to  seize  the  flour  in  a  mill  near  Somerset  Court  House.  The 
enemy  had  loaded  their  plunder  in  wagons,  and  were  about  to  carry 
it  off,  when  Dickinson's  men  waded  Millstone  Creek,  waist-deep,  and 
fell  upon  the  foragers  with  so  much  spirit  that  he  compelled  them  to 
fly,  leaving  wagons  and  flour  behind  them. 

Later  in  the  spring,  the  British  also  organized  raids  against  points 


1777.]  BURNING    OF   D ANBURY,  CONNECTICUT.  547 

where  American  stores  had  been  collected.  Peekskill,  on  the  Hud- 
son, was  a  general  depot  for  cattle,  provisions,  and  other  sup-  j^d,,^  the 
plies  for  the  troops.  Here  General  McDougall  was  posted,  Enslish- 
with  less  than  three  hundred  effective  men.  On  the  22d  of  March 
the  enemy  appeared  off  the  town  with  a  fleet  of  ten  sail,  from  which 
a  body  of  five  hundred  regulars,  under  Colonel  Bird,  landed  to  attack 
McDougall.  That  officer,  fortunately,  had  been  apprised  of  Bird's  ap- 
proach in  time  to  withdraw  the  garrison  and  a  considerable  part  of 
the  stores.  The  English  destroyed  all  that  remained,  and  burned  two 
or  three  houses.  Some  skirmishing  occurred  on  their  retreat,  in  which 
they  lost  nine  killed,  and  the  Americans  one. 

A  far  more  destructive  incursion  was  that  of  April  26th,  into  Con- 
necticut,  under  Ex-governor  Tryon.      With  two  thousand  n^my 
men,   Tryon,  who  had  been  made  a  Major-general  of  pro-  buraed 
vincials,  sailed  down  the  Sound  from  New  York,  and  on  the  25th,  late 
in  the  evening,  debarked  his  force  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Saugatuck 
River.     The  distance  from  this  point  to  Danbury  was  about  twenty 
miles.     Tryon,  keeping  on  the  east  side  of  the    Saugatuck,  marched 
with  but  slight  opposition  toward  Danbury,  where  he  arrived  at  two 
o'clock  the  next  day. 

The  neighboring  country  was  speedily  alarmed,  and  General  G.  S. 
Silliman,  of  Fairfield,  started  in  pursuit  with  five  hundred  militia. 
Major-general  Wooster,  of  the  State  troops,  Brigadier-general  Arnold, 
Lieutenant-colonel  Oswald,  of  the  artillery,  and  other  officers,  were  at 
New  Haven,  sixty  miles  distant,  and  they  rode  with  all  speed  toward 
Danbury.  A  heavy  rain  on  the  afternoon  of  the  26th  prevented 
any  considerable  numbers  of  the  militia  from  reaching  the  village  of 
Bethel,  two  miles  southeast  of  Danbury,  until  near  midnight.  The 
American  plan  was,  to  intercept  the  enemy  as  they  returned  to  their 
vessels  in  the  morning. 

Tryon  rapidly  accomplished  the  object  of  his  expedition,  destroying 
over  sixteen  hundred  tents —  a  loss  the  Americans  could  ill  sustain  — 
and  other  stores,  and  after  burning  all  the  buildings  belonging  to  reb- 
els, set  out  on  his  return.     Finding 
the  militia  in  force  on  the  road  by  — . 

which  he  had  come,  he  turned  west-    f      '^l& 
erly  toward  Ridgefield,  intending  to 

reach   his    ships    by   another   route.  wooster's  signature. 

Wooster,  Arnold,    and    Silliman   di- 
vided their  forces  to  meet  this  movement.     By  a  forced  march,  Ar- 
nold  reached   Ridgefield  before   noon   on   the    27th,   in    advance   of 
Tryon.     Wooster  was  in  pursuit  with  a  small  body.     If  his  courage 
had  ever  been  doubted  before,  he  proved  it  now.     Urging  his  men  to 


548  THE  CAMPAIGN   IN   PENNSYLVANIA.       [CHAP.  XXII. 

follow  him  to  the  attack  of  the  enemy,  he  fell,  mortally  wounded,  and 
was  carried  from  the  field  upon  his  sash. 

At  Ridgefield,  Arnold  attempted,  with  his  usual  daring,  to  check 
Arnold's  ^e  enemy,  but  could  effect  nothing  with  his  small  handful 
bravery.  o£  men  Here  he  had  a  horse  shot  under  him,  and  the  tra- 
dition is,  that  while  he  was  struggling  to  release  his  feet  from  the 
stirrups,  a  Tory  from  New  Fairfield,  named  Coon,  advanced  and  called 
to  him,  "  Surrender  !  "  "  Not  yet,"  returned  Arnold,  who  at  that 
moment,  having  extricated  himself,  drew  a  pistol,  shot  the  Tory,  and 
dashed  into  the  woods  amid  a  shower  of  bullets.  He  presently  reap- 
peared and  renewed  the  attack. 

Unable  to  check  the  retreat  of  the  enemy,  the  militia  gathered  at 
Saugatuck  Bridge  on  the  morning  of  the  28th,  where  Arnold,  Silliman, 
and  Colonel  Huntington,  with  a  small  party  of  Continentals,  prepared 
to  make  a  final  stand.  Lieutenant-colonel  Oswald  and  Colonel  Lamb, 
of  the  artillery,  had  guns  posted  advantageously ;  but  the  enemy 
crossed  the  stream  above,  and  passing  down  the  east  side  before  they 
could  be  attacked,  reached  Compo  and  their  vessels.  Their  loss  was 
forty  killed,  and  many  wounded  ;  on  the  other  side  eighty  were 
wounded,  and  twenty  killed,  among  them  Dr.  David  Atwater  of  New 
Haven,  and  Lieutenant-colonel  Gold. 

Other  marauding  expeditions  followed  this,  on  both  sides.  On  the 
21st  of  May,  Colonel  Return  J.  Meigs,  of  Parsons's  brigade, 
peiiition  to  then  at  New  Haven,  embarked  a  detachment  in  thirteen 
whale-boats  for  a  descent  on  Long  Island  ;  a  gale  compelled 
them  to  put  in  at  Guilford,  but  on  the  23d,  reembarking  with  one 
hundred  and  seventy  men,  he  crossed  the  Sound  under  convoy  of  two 
armed  sloops,  and  landed  at  Southold,  on  the  northern  shore  of  Long 
Island,  at  six  o'clock  P.  M.  Finding  that  the  enemy's  troops  at  that 
point  had  marched  for  New  York  two  days  before,  the  Colonel  de- 
termined to  surprise  the  detachment  guarding  stores  at  Sag  Harbor, 
fifteen  miles  distant,  on  the  south  side  of  the  island. 

Taking  one  hundred  and  thirty  men,  and  eleven  boats,  which  were 
carried  across  the  strip  of  land  to  the  broad  bay  on  the  other  shore, 
he  reached  a  point  four  miles  from  Sag  Harbor  about  midnight.  Con- 
cealing his  boats  in  the  woods,  he  led  his  men,  with  bayonets  fixed,  to 
the  assault  of  the  barracks  of  the  enemy —  who  were  chiefly  American 
loyalists.  The  attack  was  made  at  five  different  points  at  the  same 
moment ;  at  the  first  alarm  an  armed  schooner,  carrying  seventy  men 
and  twelve  guns,  lying  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  shore, 
opened  a  brisk  fire  of  grape  and  round  shot.  The  action  continued 
for  nearly  an  hour,  but  Meigs  succeeded  in  capturing  the  whole  of  the 
Tory  guards,  in  burning  twelve  brigs  and  sloops,  one  of  them  armed 


1777.] 


THE    CAPTURE   OF   GENERAL   PRESCOTT. 


549 


with  twelve  guns,  and  in  destroying  more  than  a  hundred  tons  of  hay, 
large  quantities  of  grain,  ten  hogsheads  of  rum,  and  other  stores.  Be- 
fore night  he  was  in  his  quarters  again  at  New  Haven,  without  having 
lost  a  man.  For  this  exploit  Congress  voted  him  a  sword,  with  an 
assurance  of  its  high  sense  of  "  the  prudence,  activity,  enterprise,  and 
valor,"  displayed  in  the  expedition. 

But  the  destruction  or  capture  of  military  stores  was  not  always  the 
object  of  these  raids.  On  the  night  of  July  20,  Lieutenant-  Coionei  Bar- 
colonel  William  Barton,  of  the  Rhode  Island  militia,  entered  £"u)£ap|tures 
upon  an  adventure  of  another  character,  for  which  the  corn-  Prescott 
mander  also  was  presented  a  sword  by  Congress.  The  British  Major- 
general  Prescott  was  in  quar- 
ters on  the  west  side  of  the 
island,  about  half  way  between 
Newport  and  Bristol  Ferry, 
and  Barton  determined  to 
make  him  prisoner.  With  a 


Meigs's  Expedition  to  Sag  Harbor. 


party  of  forty  men  in  five  whale-boats  he  pulled  through  the  British 
fleet  without  being  discovered,  landing  in  the  night  about  a  mile  from 
the  house  where  Prescott  lodged.  The  surprise  was  complete ;  the 
English  General  was  not  even  awakened  till  a  negro  with  Barton 
came  head  foremost,  as  the  easiest  way  of  forcing  it,  through  a  panel 


550  THE  CAMPAIGN   IN   PENNSYLVANIA.        [CHAP.  XXII. 

of  the  door  into  the  bedchamber.  The  capture  of  Prescott  was  con- 
sidered as  an  offset  to  that  of  Lee,  and  Washington,  as  well  as  Con- 
gress, hoped  that  they  might  be  exchanged  for  each  other.1 

That  Lee  should  be  restored  to  the  army  was  considered  at  that 
L^g  time,  by  most  people,  desirable  —  by  many,  as  absolutely 

treason.  necessary ;  yet  it  was  four  months  before,  in  March,  1777, 
that  he,  the  second  Major-general  in  the  American  army,  had  volun- 
tarily drawn  up  that  plan  of  a  campaign  for  the  Howes  by  which,  he 
believed,  Washington  and  his  army  could  be  isolated,  and  the  Middle 
States  cut  off  from  all  aid  from  the  North  and  from  each  other,  and 
then,  one  by  one,  reduced  to  submission,  so  that,  as  he  said,  "  I  will 
venture  to  assert  with  the  penalty  of  my  life,  if  the  plan  is  fully 
adopted,  and  no  accidents  (such  as  a  rupture  between  the  powers  of 
Europe)  intervene,  that  in  less  than  two  months  from  the  date  of  the 
proclamation  [of  pardon]  not  a  spark  of  this  desolating  war  remains 
unextinguished  in  any  part  of  the  Continent."  "  The  country,"  he 
said,  "  has  no  chance  of  obtaining  the  end  she  proposes  to  herself ;  " 
to  continue  the  war  was  to  waste  blood  and  treasure  on  both  sides ; 
he  put  it  upon  his  conscience  "  to  bring  matters  to  a  conclusion  in  the 
most  compendious  manner  and  consequently  the  least  expensive  to 
both  parties."  And  the  conclusion  he  proposed  was,  the  subjugation 
of  the  people  who  were  struggling  for  their  liberties,  who  had  lav- 
ished upon  him  their  confidence  and  regard,  and  whose  cause  he 
meant  to  betray  by  giving  to  their  enemies  the  benefit  of  his  assumed 
knowledge  of  how  that  cause  could  be  most  easily  and  most  speedily 
ruined.  His  conduct  was  none  the  less  base,  that,  unlike  Arnold,  the 
enemy  did  not  think  him  worth  heeding  or  buying.2 

The  summer  months  had  come  before  Howe  developed  his  proposed 
operations,  which  Lee  had  hoped  to  influence.  To  watch  him 
breaks"8  more  closely  and  be  in  a  position  to  follow  his  movements 
rapidly,  Washington,  on  the  28th  of  May,  broke  camp  at 
Morristown  and  marched  a  short  distance  southeast  to  Middlebrook, 
on  the  Raritan,  ten  miles  from  New  Brunswick.  His  force  now  num- 
bered seven  thousand  Continentals.  The  English  General  made  no 

1  Congress  bestowed  upon  Barton,  besides  the  usual  honor  of  a  sword,  a  tract  of  land  in 
Vermont.     He  was  distinguished  for  his  services  later  in  the  war,  and  attained  to  the  rank 
of  colonel.     When  Rhode  Island  adopted  the  Federal  Constitution  Colonel  Barton  was  the 
special  messenger  sent  to  announce  the  fact  to  Congress.    Later  in  life  he  was  unfortunate, 
and  was  imprisoned  for  debt  growing  out  of  some  irregularity  in  the  transfer  of  a  portion 
of  his  laud  in  Vermont.     Lafayette,  on  his  visit  to  the  United  States  in  1825,  heard  of  the 
unhappy  fate  that  had  befallen  the  veteran,  with  whose  services  he  was  probably  familiar, 
paid  the  claim  against  him,  and  he  was  released. 

2  The   remarkable  document  in  which   Lee    set  forth  his  plan  of  a  campaign  for  the 
Howes,  was  discovered  by  George  H.  Moore  about  twenty  years  since,  and  published  in  full 
and  in  fac-simile  in  his  Treason  of  Major-general  Charles  Lee. 


1777.] 


HOWE   SAILS   FROM  NEW   YORK. 


551 


iwe  s  ma- 
noeuvres. 


move  until  the  12th  of  June,  when  he  pushed  out  Cornwallis  to  sur- 
prise Sullivan  at  Princeton.  Failing  to  overtake  Sullivan,  who  fell 
back  to  Flemington,  or  to  disturb  Washington  in  his  strong  Ho, 
position  at  Middlebrook,  Howe  retired  toward  Staten  Island 
Sound,  and  the  Americans  advanced  to  Quibbletown  (the  present 
New  Market)  with  Stirling's  division  in  the  front  at  Metuchen.  Find- 
ing Washington  at  some  distance  from  his  old  and  well  fortified  camp, 
the  English  General,  on  the  26th  of  July,  again  moved  out  in  force 
to  bring  him  to  action  or  get  in  his  rear ;  but  Washington 

e  -i  •  i      Crosses  to 

thwarted  both  plans  by  a  timely  retreat  to  his  former  ground,  suten 
Cornwallis,  however,  encountered  Stirling,  and  took  from 
him  three  cannon  and  about  two  hundred  prisoners.    On  the  30th  the 
English  again  withdrew,  this  time  crossing  in  a  body  to  Staten  Island. 
From  this  moment,  for  six  weeks,  the  movements  of  the  enemy 
were  veiled  in  so  much  secrecy  that  Washington  at  times  was  &JU  from 
totally  at  a  loss  where  to  post  himself  most  advantageously.  New  York' 
His  anxiety  was  partly  dispelled  when,  on  July  23d,  Howe  set  sail 
from    New   York 
with  about  eighteen 
thousand  men,  leav- 
ing six  thousand  in 
the  city  under  Clin- 
ton.     His    destina- 
tion was  concealed, 
but  on  the  30th  the 
fleet  appeared  in  the 
Delaware,     and 
Washington  quickly 
put  his  army  in  mo- 
tion.     But    Howe, 
finding    the    Dela- 
ware so  obstructed 
that  he  could  make 
no    landing    above 
Christiana     Creek, 
again    put    to   sea. 
Washington  had  en- 
camped on  the  Neshaminy  Creek,  about  twenty  miles  north  of  Phila- 
delphia, in  the  vicinity  of   the  present  village  of   Hartsville,  where, 
for  two  weeks,  he  awaited  events  in  great  anxiety.1     To  venture  far 

1  Washington  made  his  headquarters  here  at  the  two-story  dwelling  still  standing  on 
property  owned  by  the  heirs  of  William  Bothwell.     At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  it  was 
of  the  best  finished  houses  in  the  neighborhood.  —  W.  J.  Buck  in  Penn.  Mag.,  i.  275. 


Washington's  Headquarters  at  Hartsville. 


THE  CAMPAIGN*    IX    PENNSYLVANIA.         [Cuxr.  XXII. 


from  Philadelpbui  would  have  been  hazardous,  and  yet  if  the  enemy 
should  sail  to  New  England,  and  a  junction  be  made  there  with 
Bnrgoyne.  they  would  gain  valuable  time  and  be  many  days'  march 
in  advance  of  the  American  army.  Greene  wrote  that  Howe's  move- 
ments were  so  strange  they  ''exceeded  all  conjecture."  When  ten 
days  had  passed  without  tidings  from  the  fleet,  and  Washington  was 
persuaded  that  Howe's  objective  point  was  not  Philadelphia,  he 

called  a  council  of  war.  The 
unanimous  opinion  of  this 
body  was,  that  as  the  enemy 
had  in  all  probability  sailed 
for  Charleston,  and  would 
arrive  there  long  before  any 
succor  could  reach  the  place, 
it  would  be  advisable  to  make 
a  retrograde  movement  to- 
ward the  Hudson.  There 
the  army  would  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  threaten  New  York 
or  resist  Burgoyne,  if  he 
should  succeed  in  defeating 
Gates  and  move  southward. 

But  fortunately  before 
there  was  time  to  carry  out 
this  intention  tidings  arrived 
that  the  British  fleet  had 
been  seen  off  the  capes  of  the 
Chesapeake.  This  intelli- 
gence was  confirmed  the  next 
day  by  a  despatch  from  one 
William  Bardly,  dated  the 
afternoon  of  August  21st, 
announcing  that  one  hundred  ships  had  anchored  off  the  river  Pa- 
tapsco,  and  that  their  number  was  continually  increasing. 
the  ehesa-  As  the  tide  was  running  a  strong  ebb  at  that  hour,  Bardly 
was  unable  to  report  whether  the  enemy  would  land  at  Bal- 
timore or  farther  up  the  bay.1  The  despatch  did  good  service  ;  it  was 
evident  that  Howe  had  not  relinquished  his  designs  upon  Philadel- 
phia, and  orders  were  immediately  given  to  break  camp  and  move  to 
meet  the  enemy.  While  the  soldiers  were  busy  with  their  prepara- 
tions, the  cheering  news  of  Stark's  victory  at  Bennington  was  brought 
to  them. 

1  Manuscript  letter  in  Collections  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 


Lafayette's  Statue,  Union   Square,   New  York. 


1777.]  BATTLE   OF   BRANDY  WINE.  553 

At  the  camp  on  the  Neshaminy,  Washington's  army  was  joined  by 
several  of  those  foreign  officers  who  subsequently  rendered  efficient 
and  distinguished  service  to  the  American  cause.  Lafayette,  a  young 
Frenchman,  of  noble  descent,  then  twenty  years  of  ag«',  first  learned 
of  the  war  in  America  and  its  character  while  stationed  at  Metz  as 
a  captain  of  dragoons,  and  he  determined  to  offer  it  his  personal  aid. 
As  Franklin  was  unable  to  provide  a  vessel  to  transport  him 

,  .  111  i  •  lafayette 

to  the  American  coast,  he  purchased  one  on  his  own  ac-  join*  UMh- 
count,  not  without  opposition  both  from  his  friends  and  at 
court.  He  secretly  set  sail  from  the  Spanish  port  of  Passage,  early 
in  1777,  and  arrived  at  Georgetown,  S.  C.,  in  April.  With  him  were 
twelve  other  officers,  among  them  Baron  John  De  Kalb.  Congress  at 
first  declined  to  commission  Lafayette,  on  his  arrival  at  Philadelphia  ; 
but  when  he  explained  that  he  came  as  a  volunteer,  and  wished  to 
serve  in  the  army  without  pay,  that  body,  on  the  31st  of  July,  gave 
him  the  honorary  rank  of  Major-general.  He  immediately  reported 
to  Washington,  and  was  made  a  member  of  his  military  family. 

De  Kalb  was  by  birth  a  German,  but  held  rank  in  the  French 
army.  Some  years  before  the  war  —  as  we  have  elsewhere 

De  K&lb 

mentioned  —  he,  as  well  as  a  M.  de  Fontleroy,  had  travelled 
through  the  American  Colonies,  by  direction  of  the  French  minister 
Choiseul,  to  learn  the  character  and  resources  of  the  people,  the  ex- 
tent of  the  disaffection  to  the  mother  country,  and  the  probabilities  of 
success  in  case  of  a  revolt.  De  Kalb  executed  his  commission  with 
ability,  and  had  since  watched  with  deep  interest  the  progress  of  rev- 
olution in  America.  In  September  Congress  gave  him  also  a  com- 
mission as  Major-general.  He  remained  with  Washington  till  he  was 
detached  in  1780  to  serve  in  the  southern  campaign,  where  he  fell  on 
the  field  of  battle. 

Washington  marched  his  army  in  good  order  through  Philadelphia 
on  the  22d  of  August,  and  proceeded  to  Wilmington.     On 
the  28th,  Howe  reached  the  head  of  the  Elk,  fift-four  miles 


from  Philadelphia,  and  on  the  10th  of  September,  after  skir- 
mishing with  General  Maxwell's  advance  corps,  concentrated  his  force 
at  Kennett  Square,  six  or  seven  miles  south  of  the  Brandy  wine  River. 
Here  Washington  determined  to  oppose  his  farther  progress. 

Howe's  position  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Brandy  wine  was  excellent 
for  defence.  By  commanding  the  principal  fords,  he  left  his  ^nlf  of 
antagonist  the  choice  of  assaulting  him  at  a  disadvantage  in  B*ndJwin«- 
front,  or  marching  circuitously  to  the  right.  The  crossing  on  the  line 
of  the  main  road  to  Philadelphia  was  known  as  Chads's  Ford.  Bren- 
ton's,  Jones's,  and  Wistar's  fords  were  above,  at  intervals  of  three  or 
four  miles,  and  a  few  miles  beyond,  where  the  river  forked,  there  were 


554  THE   CAMPAIGN  IN   PENNSYLVANIA.          [CHAP.  XXII. 

fords  on  each  branch.  The  American  army  lay  mainly  opposite  the 
middle  fords, —  a  position  selected  by  Greene.  At  Chad's,  Wayne 
was  posted  with  his  division  and  artillery.  Greene's  was  some  distance 
to  his  right,  and  still  farther  on  were  Stephen's,  Stirling's,  and  Sulli- 
van's divisions,  forming  the  right  wing  of  the  army,  commanded  by 
Sullivan,  the  senior  Major-general  on  the  field.  This  main  line 
stretched  along  the  thickly  wooded  bank  of  the  river  for  three  miles, 
and  the  farthest  crossings  on  the  right,  which  it  did  not  cover,  Sulli- 
van was  instructed  to  watch. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  llth,  the  English  flanking  division, 
under  Howe  and  Cornwallis,  marched  for  the  upper  crossings  at  the 
forks  of  the  river,  with  the  intention  of  moving  down  upon  Sullivan 
on  the  other  side  and  turning  his  flank.  Although  conducted  in  broad 
daylight,  and  occupying  nearly  eight  hours  in  its  execution,  the  ma- 
noeuvre was  successful.  The  Americans  were  distracted  by  conflicting 
intelligence,  —  or  rather  failed  to  assure  themselves  of  the  enemy's 
position.  To  ascertain  what  Howe  was  about,  Colonel  Theodoric 
Bland,  under  Washington's  instructions,  crossed  the  Brandywine  at 
Jones's  Ford.  He  sent  word  back  to  Sullivan  and  the  Commander- 
in-chief  that  Cornwallis  was  certainly  aiming  for  the  upper  fords  —  in- 
telligence which  was  confirmed  by  a  later  courier.  Washington  imme- 
diately decided  to  cross  the  river  with  his  own  force,  and  attack  the 
division  of  the  enemy  under  Grant  and  Knyphausen  opposite  Chad's 
Ford.  Sullivan  and  Greene  were  sent  to  engage  Howe's  flanking  col- 
umn. This  bold  move  on  the  part  of  Washington  promised  success, 
and  a  part  of  the  troops  had  already  forded  the  river,  when  Major 
Spear,  who  had  gone  in  the  direction  of  the  Brandywine  forks,  re- 
ported to  Sullivan  that  there  were  no  signs  of  the  enemy  in  that 
quarter.  Sullivan  accordingly,  on  his  own  responsibility,  halted  his 
column  and  sent  word  to  Washington  at  Chad's  Ford,  three  or  four 
miles  away,  that  the  first  report  of  Howe's  flanking  movement  must 
be  erroneous,  since  nothing  had  been  seen  of  it  by  the  scouts  who  had 
just  come  in  from  the  right.  Surprised  at  this,  as  he  believed  the 
first  reports  to  be  true,  the  Commander-in-chief,  nevertheless,  decided 
to  abandon  his  proposed  attack  upon  Grant  and  Knyphausen  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river. 

At    about  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  however,  'Squire  Thomas 

Cheney,   of   Thornbury  township,  galloped    into   Sullivan's 

flank  camp  with  a  report  that  the  English  had  crossed  the  forks  of 

movement.       .«        n         j__s  j  TV        •       i  4.- 

the  Brandywine  and  were  nearing  Birmingham  meeting- 
house, on  Sullivan's  right.  To  make  sure  that  his  information  reached 
headquarters,  Cheney  rode  on  and  informed  Washington  of  the  ene- 
my's approach.  Washington  hesitated  for  a  moment  to  accept  tidings 


MARQUIS    DE    LAFAYETTE. 
(After  a  c<nittmi>orary  jiorfralt,  1780.) 


1777.] 


BATTLE    OF   BRAXDYWINE. 


555 


so  directly  in  conflict  with  Sullivan's  latest  report.  "  If  you  doubt  my 
word,"  said  Cheney  promptly,  "put  me  under  guard  until  you  can  ask 
Anthony  Wayne  or  Persie  Frazer  if  I  am  a  man  to  be  believed  ; " 
and  then  turning  to  some  of  the  General's  staff,  who  were  less  in- 
clined to  believe  him  than  their  chief,  he  indignantly  exclaimed  :  "  I 


'Squire  CHeney   bringing  the   News. 

would  have  you  to  know  that  I  have  this  day's  work  as  much  at  heart 
as  e'er  a  blood  of  you  !  " l 

Cheney's  report,  however,  was  presently  confirmed  by  direct  intel- 
ligence from  the  right,  and  Washington  set  his  troops  in  motion  to 
meet  the  enemy.  Sullivan,  when  fully  assured  of  the  presence  of  the 
British  at  Birmingham  meeting-house,  ordered  the  right  wing,  con- 
sisting of  Stirling's,  Stephen's  and  his  own  divisions,  to  take  up  u 
1  Historical  Address  by  J.  Smith  Futhey,  Ptnn.  May.  nf  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  j>.  2'.»3. 


556  THE   CAMPAIGN  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.       [CHAP.  XXII. 

position  across  the  line  of  the  enemy's  march.  In  the  hurry  and  ex- 
citement of  the  movement,  Sullivan's  division,  while  manoDiivering  to 
get  into  the  general  line  on  the  left,  was  attacked,  and,  after  a  brief 
struggle,  forced  to  retreat.  The  divisions  under  Stirling  and  Stephen 
offered  better  resistance  ;  but  the  defection  on  the  right  confused  the 
entire  line,  and  in  spite  of  Sullivan's  personal  efforts  and  the  brave 
stand  made  by  Conway's  brigade,  the  whole  front  was  forced  back  by 
Howe's  vigorous  assault. 

To  recover  this  reverse,  Washington  hurried  Greene's  division  to  the 
support  of  the  right  wing.  But  after  a  forced  march  of  four  miles 
across  the  country,  it  could  do  no  more  than  cover  the  retreat.  Wee- 
don's  Virginia  brigade  succeeded  in  checking  the  enemy  until  dark ; 
and  the  entire  column  under  Sullivan  kept  on  toward  Chester.  Wayne, 
in  the  mean  time,  had  been  attacked  by  Knyphausen  and  Grant  at 
Chads's  Ford,  and  forced  back  with  the  loss  of  some  cannon. 

In  this  action  Lafayette  distinguished  himself,  and  received  a  wound 
in  the  leg  which  confined  him  to  his  quarters  for  two  months.1  The 
American  loss  was  nearly  three  hundred  killed,  five  hundred  wounded, 
and  ten  field-pieces.  The  English  lost  something  less  than  six  hun- 
dred in  killed  and  wounded. 

The  worn  and  broken  columns  of  the  American  army  found  rest 
that  night  at  Chester,  and  on  the  following  day  retreated 
toward  Philadelphia  and  Germantown.  On  the  15th  of 
September,  it  crossed  the  Schuylkill,  and  on  the  16th  drew  up  in 
position  near  Goshen  meeting-house,  on  the  Lancaster  road.  Howe 
advanced,  and  skirmishing  opened,  with  Wayne  in  the  American  ad- 
vance. A  stubborn  pitched  battle  appeared  to  be  imminent,  when  a 
storm  of  extraordinary  violence  set  in  and  compelled  the  cessation  of 
all  field  movements.  The  rain  so  damaged  the  arms  and  cartridges 
that  Washington  retired  to  French  Creek,  in  Warwick  township,  to 
repair  damages,  but  detached  Wayne,  with  fifteen  hundred  men  and 
four  field-pieces,  to  threaten  and  harass  the  enemy's  flank  and  rear 
whenever  opportunity  offered. 

On  the  19th,  Wayne  was  at  Paoli,  and  in  the  forenoon  was  able  to 
Wayne's  approach  within  half  a  mile  of  Howe's  encampment  without 
movement.  \>eing  observed.  He  reported  to  Washington  that  the  en- 
emy were  then  quiet,  "  washing  and  cooking,"  too  compactly  massed 
to  be  openly  attacked  by  his  small  force,  but  in  a  position  to  be  struck 
a  heavy  blow  if  the  Commander-in-chief  should  come  to  his  aid  with 
the  whole  army.  Howe,  he  learned,  was  about  to  take  up  his  line  of 
march,  and  though  his  pickets  and  patrols  were  thrown  well  forward, 

1  The  U.  S.  frigate  in  which  Lafayette  returned  to  France  at  the  close  of  his  visit  to 
this  country  in  1825,  was  appropriately  named  the  Brandywine. 


1777.]  ALARM   IN   PHILADELPHIA.  557 

Wayne  hoped  that  by  a  skilful  and  rapid  movement,  the  next  night, 
he  might  surprise  the  enemy  and  do  some  damage.  "  Here  we  are, 
and  there  they  go !  "  was  the  watchword  in  Wayne's  camp  that  night, 
where  it  was  believed  that  Howe  was  completely  ignorant  of  the 
movement  against  him.  But  some  vigilant  Tories  were  keeping  the 
British  General  exactly  informed  of  Wayne's  position  and  his  prob- 
able purpose,  and  he,  on  his  part  also,  had  a  surprise  in  store  for  his 
opponent. 

General  Grey  was  sent  out,  with  three  regiments  of  infantry  and 
some  dragoons,  toward  Paoli,  under  Tory  guides.  The  men  were  or- 
dered not  to  fire  a  gun,  but  depend  altogether  upon  the  bayonet. 
About  midnight,  two  hours  before  the  time  fixed  by  Wayne  for  his 
own  movement,  the  British  had  silently  approached,  and  surprised 
his  pickets,  killing  some  and  driving  the  rest  upon  the  main  body. 
Wayne  instantly  ordered  his  men  under  arms,  but  before  they  could 
form,  the  enemy  rushed  upon  the  camp,  cutting  down  and  bayonetting 
the  men,  now  thrown  into  utter  confusion.  Then  followed,  wrote 
an  English  officer  who  was  present,  "a  dreadful  scene  of  havoc." 
The  Americans  were  easily  distinguished  by  the  light  of  the  camp- 
fires,  as  they  fell  into  line.  It  offered  to  Grey's  men  an  advantage 
which  quickened  their  movements.  The  charge  was  furious,  and  all 
Wayne's  efforts  to  rally  his  men  were  useless.  They  were  driven 
through  the  woods  for  two  miles,  and  nearly  one  hundred  and  seventy 
were  killed.  It  was  the  chance  of  war  that  one  side  did  what  the 
other  hoped  to  do,  but  the  action,  nevertheless,  is  recorded  as  the 
"  Paoli  Massacre." 

The  steady  advance  of  the  English  upon  Philadelphia  threw  that 
city  into  great  panic.  It  was  one  o'clock  at  night  on  the  Philadelphia 
19th,  when  Aid-de-camp  Alexander  Hamilton  rode  into  aUrmed 
town  with  a  message  from  Washington  to  Congress  that  the  enemy 
had  crossed  the  Schuylkill,  and  could  be  in  the  town  in  a  few  hours. 
The  members  were  roused  in  their  beds  and  told  of  their  danger.  Nat- 
urally they  stood  not  upon  the  order  of  their  going.  One  sedate  del- 
egate, according  to  a  diary  of  the  time,  rode  off  bare-back.  Congress 
had  already  adjourned  to  Lancaster. 

Late  as  it  was,  the  news  spread  rapidly.  Thomas  Paine,  then  sec- 
retary of  one  of  the  committees  of  Congress,  describes  the  fright  and 
confusion  into  which  the  town  was  thrown.  "  It  was  a  beautiful,  still, 
moonlight  morning,"  he  wrote  to  Franklin,  "  and  the  streets  as  full  of 
men,  women,  and  children  as  on  a  market-day."  Some  moved  away 
at  once,  but  a  considerable  portion  of  the  inhabitants,  especially  the 
Tories  and  the  non-combatant  Friends,  many  of  whom  were  Tories, 
remained  in  their  homes.  The  excitement  and  terror  were  greatly 


558 


THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.        [CHAP.  XXII. 


pi.-sthe 

Olt  V 


increased  by  the  fear  that  the  town  would  be  set  on  fire,  as  was  done, 
whether  accidentally  or  purposely,  in  New  York,  the  year  before. 
For  several  nights  the  streets  were  patrolled  to  guard  against  this 
possible  danger. 

Howe  marched  leisurely  down  from  Swede's  Ford,  and  did  not  oc- 
cupy the  city  until  the  forenoon  of  the  26th.  On  the  even- 
ins;  before,  he  assured  the  inhabitants  that  those  who  re- 
inained  peaceably  at  their  homes  should  not  be  molested  in 
person  or  property.  In  the  forenoon  Cornwallis,  with  his  division  of 
English  ;ind  German  troops,  entered  the  city.  The  Tory  citizens  re- 
ceived them  with  loud  cheers,  as  they  marched  down  Second  Street, 
in  gay  uniforms  and  brilliant  array,  to  their  allotted  quarters  at  the 
Alms  House  and  the  State  House.  For  his  own  residence,  Howe 
first  occupied  the  house  of  General  Cadwallader,  on  Second  Street, 

below  Spruce,  and 
afterwards  the  man- 
sion on  Market 
Street  where  Wash- 
ington lived  during 
his  Presidency. 

From  two  inter- 
cepted letters  it  was 
learned,  a  few  days 
later,  that  Howe 
had  sent  down  a 
small  detachment 
to  reduce  the  Amer- 
ican forts  on  the 
Delaware.  It  took 
little  from  his 
strength,  but  when 
added  to  the  several 
battalions  under 

~  IT       •       T-»I  -i 

L/ornwalhs  in  Phil- 
adelphia, four  miles  from  the  main  camp,  the  decrease  in  Howe's 
force  was  sufficient  to  invite  an  attack  from  a  watchful  opponent. 
Washington  determined  to  seize  the  opportunity. 

Howe's  army  was  encamped  in  nearly  a  straight  line  from  the 
Schuylkill,  across  the  main  street  of  Gennantown,  to  a  point  called 
Luken's  Mill,  near  the  old  York  road.  There  were  four  approaches  to 
this  line  of  the  enemy:  the  Manatawny  road  near  the  river  ran  in  on 
their  extreme  left;  the  Reading  road,  or  Germantown  Street,  pierced 
the  centre  ;  the  Lime-kiln  road  at  Luken's  Mill  was  at  the  right, 


Howe's   Headquarters.  —  Cadwallader's  House. 


1777.]  BATTLE    OF   GERMANTOWN.  559 

and  the  York  road,  still  farther  to  the  right,  was  guarded  by  patrols 
and  Simcoe's  Rangers.     Washington's  plan  was   to  advance   on  all 
these  four  roads,  and   engage  the  enemy  along  the  whole   line  at   the 
same  moment.    His  orders  were,  that  the  attack  should  be  made  every- 
where at  "  precisely  five  o'clock  "  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  Octo- 
ber.    That  such  accuracy  in  the  movements  of  four  separate  columns 
would  be  observed  in  the  then  condition  and  discipline  of  the  Ameri- 
can troops,  was  hardly  to  be  expected ;  but  if  the  plan  should  be  only 
partially  carried  out,  it  promised  success.     The  main  reliance  was  on 
the  two  central  columns  of  Continental  troops.     That  which  was  to 
move  direct  upon  Germantown,  along  the  Reading  road,  was  under 
Sullivan's  command,  and  was  composed  of  his  own   and  Wayne's  di- 
visions, and  of  Con  way's  brigade  on  the  flank.     The  column  next  to 
the  left,  marching  by  a  longer  route  along  the  Lime-kiln  road,  was 
under  Greene,  and  included  his  own  and  Stephen's  divisions,  flanked 
by  McDougall's  brigade.     These  two   bodies  numbered  about  nine 
thousand   good  troops,  inclusive  of    Nash's  and    Maxwell's  brigades, 
which  formed  a  corps  de  reserve  under  General  Stirling.     The  remain- 
ing two  columns  on  the   right  and  left  were  militia,  without  artil- 
lery, commanded  respectively  by  Generals  Armstrong  and  Smallwood. 
Armstrong  was  ordered  to  move  down  the  Manatawny  road  by  Van 
Deering's  mills,  to  turn  the  enemy's  left,  while  Smallwood  and  For- 
man,  with  Maryland  and  New  Jersey  militiamen,  were  to  attempt  to 
turn  the  right.     Washington's  purpose  was  to  take  the  English  off 
their  guard  in  front  and  flank,  and  by  a  determined  attack,  break  and 
rout  their  line  before  reinforcements  could  arrive  from  Philadelphia. 

About  eight  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the  3d,  the  army  left  its 
encampment  on  Metuchen  Hill,  and,  marching  all  night,  «julliran-g 
reached  the  points  aimed  at  about  daybreak  on  the  4th.  attack- 
Sullivan's  column,  having  the  shortest  and  easiest  route,  reached 
Chestnut  Hill,  where  lay  the  centre  of  Howe's  main  line,  and  ad- 
vanced to  the  attack  before  the  other  columns  arrived.  The  enemy's 
pickets  were  posted  on  this  road  at  Mount  Airy,  a  mile  or  more  below 
Chestnut  Hill.  On  Mount  Pleasant,  a  short  distance  farther,  lav  their 
supports,  which  consisted  of  the  Second  Light  Infantry  Battalion. 
Nearly  half-way  between  them  and  the  main  line,  Colonel  Musgrave's 
Fortieth  Regiment  was  stationed,  opposite  the  stone  mansion  known 
by  the  name  of  its  late  occupant,  as  the  kt  Chew  house." 

The  night  had  been  dark,  and  the  morning  broke  in  clouds  and 
mist.  The  precautions  taken  by  the  Americans  ;igainst  giving  an 
alarm  on  the  march  had  succeeded,  and  they  were  on  the  outposts  of 
the  enemy  before  their  approach  was  known.  The  American  advance 
guard,  under  Captain  McLane,  of  Delaware,  charged  upon  the  pickets 


560  THE   CAMPAIGN  IN   PENNSYLVANIA.       [CHAP.  XXII. 

at  Mount  Airy  without  firing,  killed  the  sentries,  and  drove  the  others 
back  to  the  light  infantry.  Sullivan  detached  a  Maryland  and  a  Penn- 
sylvania regiment  to  follow  rapidly  in  support,  and  then  formed  his 
division  in  line  on  the  right  of  the  road.  The  British  infantry  held 
their  ground  for  a  few  minutes,  but  gave  way  before  superior  n um- 
bers. Wayne's  division  then  came  up,  and  Sullivan  formed  it  on  the 
left  of  the  road,  while  Conway's  brigade  was  transferred  to  the  right 
of  both  divisions.  Thus  aligned,  Sullivan's  and  Wayne's  troops  pushed 
forward  on  both  sides  of  the  road,  driving  before  them  both  the  in- 
fantry and  the  Fortieth  Regiment,  which  had  come  to  their  relief. 
Wayne's  men  rushed  eagerly  after  the  Second  Infantry,  and  sought  to 
revenge,  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,1  the  bloody  work  of  that  battal- 
ion at  the  "  Paoli  Massacre." 

It  was  an  auspicious  and  animating  opening  of  the  battle  for  the 
Ho»e  under  Americans.  When  Howe  heard  the  unexpected  firing  on  his 
front,  he  mounted  his  horse  and  dashed  up  the  road,  where  his 
men  were  falling  back  hurriedly  before  the  steady  advance  of  their  as- 
sailants. "  For  shame,  light  infantry  !  "  he  shouted :  "  I  never  saw  you 
retreat  before."  But,  warned  by  the  heavy  volleys  that  the  enemy 
was  upon  him  in  force,  he  turned  back  to  the  main  line  to  prepare  for 
a  general  battle.2  Sullivan's  and  Wayne's  columns  pressed  on,  im- 
peded, however,  by  the  many  fences  in  the  outskirts  of  Germantown, 
through  which  they  were  compelled  to  break  their  way.  It  was  not 
many  minutes  before  they  had  forced  their  way  to  within  half  a  mile 
of  the  British  line,  steadily  driving  the  enemy  before  them. 

But  here  an  unlooked-for  obstacle  interfered  with  the  forward 
chews  movement.  In  retreating  before  Sullivan,  Colonel  Musgrave 
house.  an(j  sjx  companies  of  the  Fortieth  Regiment  threw  them- 
selves into  the  Chew  house,  which  stood  a  short  distance  from  the 
road,  and,  barricading  the  lower  story,  converted  the  strong  build- 
ing into  a  temporary  citadel.  Sullivan  and  Wayne  passed  this  man- 
sion without  observing  that  Musgrave  occupied  and  was  prepared 
to  defend  it ;  but  this  was  seen  when  Stirling  came  up  with  the  re- 
serve. Washington,  Knox,  Reed,  Pickering,  the  'Adjutant-general, 
and  other  officers  of  the  staff,  rode  with  Stirling's  troops,  and  a  con- 
sultation was  held  as  to  the  propriety  of  attacking  this  stronghold. 
Knox  insisted  that  it  was  against  all  military  rule  to  advance  with  a 

1  Lieutenant  Hunter,  of  this  battalion,  writing  a  few  days  afterward,  says  :  "  When  the 
first  shots  were  fired  at  our  pickets,  so  much  had  we  all  Wayne's  affair  in  our  remem- 
brance, that  the  battalion  were  out  and  under  arms  in  a  minute Just  as  the  bat- 
talion had  formed,  the  pickets  came  in  and  said  the  enemy  were  advancing  in  force.     They 
had  hardly  joined  the  battalion  when  we  heard  a  loud  cry,  '  Have  at  the  bloodhounds  !    Re- 
venge Wayne's  affair  ! ' ' 

2  Moorson's  Historical  Record  of  the  Fifty-second  Regiment,  "  Lieut.  Hunter's  Diary." 


1777.]  BATTLE   OF  GERMANTOWN.  561 

fort  in  one's  rear,  and  it  was  accordingly  decided  to  send  a  flag  to 
Musgrave,  demanding  his  immediate  surrender.  Major  Caleb  Gibbs, 
of  Washington's  guard,  had  in  the  first  instance  offered  to  carry  the 
flag,  but  his  offer  was  then  declined.  Upon  the  final  decision,  Lieu- 
tenant-colonel Matthew  Smith,  of  Virginia,  an  accomplished  officer, 
acting  as  Assistant  Adjutant-general,  volunteered  to  make  the  de- 
mand; but  when  near  the  house,  he  was  fired  upon  and  received  a 
wound  from  which  he  afterward  died.  Maxwell's  brigade  of  the  re- 
serves was  then  called  up  and  ordered  to  attack  the  place.  Four  light 
field-pieces  —  no  large  ones  having  been  brought  with  the  army  — 
opened  upon  the  building,  but  it  effectually  resisted  bombardment. 
No  impression  could  be  made  upon  its  walls.  The  musketry-fire  was 
even  less  effectual.  Brave  as  Maxwell's  men  were,  the  garrison  with- 
stood them  quite  as  bravely.  The  defence  was  as  vigorous  as  the 
assault  was  fearless.  The  house  was  riddled  with  bullets,  as  may 
be  seen  to  this  day ;  the  chivalric  Duplessis  and  Lieutenant-colonel 
Laurens  recklessly  exposed  themselves  in  futile  attempts  to  set  it  on 
fire ;  so  hard  pushed  were  the  besieged  that  an  officer  had  his  horse 
shot  under  him  within  three  yards  of  the  building  ;  in  two  New 
Jersey  regiments  alone  the  loss  was  forty-six  officers  and  men.1 

For  more  than  an  hour  this  hot  contest  continued,  making  itself  the 
pivotal  point  of  the  battle,  —  not  so  much  from  any  importance  attach- 
ing to  the  possession  of  the  house,  as  from  the  effect  of  the  struggle  on 
the  general  movement.  It  arrested  at  this  point  all  Stirling's  reserve 
force  on  their  way  to  the  support  of  Sullivan  and  Wayne ;  and  not 
only  that,  but  it  alarmed  and  confused  Sullivan's  and  Wayne's  men  in 
the  centre,  who  did  not  understand  this  noise  of  an  engagement  in 
their  rear  ;  and  it  misled  Greene's  forces  on  the  left,  as  to  the  position 
of  the  enemy.  General  Stephen,  on  the  Lime-kiln  road,  hearing  the 
firing,  and  believing  that  he  should  find  the  enemy  in  that  direction, 
left  his  own  line  of  march  and  was  presently  engaged  in  a  warm  fight 
with  the  rear  of  Wayne's  troops,  each  mistaking  the  other  for  Brit- 
ish. The  fog  and  the  smoke  of  the  battle  made  the  early  morning 
almost  as  dark  as  night.  Wayne,  in  a  letter  written  two  days  after- 
ward, says  his  forces  were  already  in  possession  of  the  whole  camp  of 
the  enemy,  when  they  became  involved  in  this  blunder.  Victory,  he 
thought,  was  already  within  his  grasp,  when  his  men,  under  this  attack 
from  a  quarter  where  they  had  no  reason  to  look  for  it,  fell  back  two 
miles  in  confusion.  Greene's  column  was  to  have  come  up  on  Sulli- 
van's left  and  have  formed  a  continuous  line  directly  in  Howe's  front. 
The  advance  was  retarded  by  fences,  hedges,  and  thickets ;  the  heavy 
fog  rendered  every  movement  uncertain  ;  but  all  these  difficulties 

1  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History,  vol.  i. 
VOL.  in.  36 


562  THE   CAMPAIGN   IN   PENNSYLVANIA.        [CHAP.  XXII. 

might  have  been  surmounted  but  for  Stephen's  blunder,  and  possibly 
Stephen  would  not  have  blundered  but  for  the  attack  on  Chew's  house. 
It  was  shown  afterward,  before  a  court-martial,  —  by  whose  sentence 
Stephen  was  dismissed  the  service,  —  that  he  was  drunk,  and  nothing 
can  be  predicated  on  the  possible  conduct  of  a  drunken  man. 

As  it  was,  however,  the  battle  was  lost.  Howe  had  time  to  form 
The  Ameri-  'An&  to  make,  first,  a  vigorous  defence,  and  then  to  assume 
cans  retreat.  tjie  offensive.  Washington  ordered  a  retreat,  and  the  Amer- 
ican army  regained  its  position  on  Metuchen  Hill,  with  a  loss  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  prisoners  of  about  a  thousand  men.  On  the  other  side 
the  loss  was  about  half  that  number.  Howe  was  afterward  accused 
of  having  received,  the  night  before  the  battle,  information  of  Wash- 
ington's design.  If  this  were  true,  he  made  no  preparation  to  meet  it; 
and  it  remains,  therefore,  an  open  question,  whether  Washington's 
good  generalship  would  have  equally  availed  for  the  salvation  of  his 
army  had  Howe  been  prepared  for  him.  It  is  not  a  question,  if  the 
charge  were  true,  that  Howe's  besetting  sin  of  unreadiness  came  near 
proving  his  own  destruction. 

Howe  soon  withdrew  his  army  from  the  open  country  into  the  city, 
Howe  re-  as  a  sa^e  retreat  from  the  operations  of  his  active  and  ener- 
Phiudei-  getic  opponent,  as  well  as  to  find  comfortable  quarters  for 
phia-  the  winter.  That  those  quarters  should  be  comfortable, 

however,  one  thing  was  requisite.  On  the  land-side  communication 
with  the  country  was  cut  off  by  the  presence  of  the  American  army, 
which  constantly  intercepted  supplies,  and  it  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary, therefore,  that  there  should  be  free  access  to  the  city  by  the  Del- 
aware River.  So  long,  moreover,  as  it  was  commanded  by  the  Amer- 
icans, Howe  was  isolated  from  his  fleet,  and  he  was,  in  a  measure, 
subjected  to  some  of  the  inconveniences  of  a  beleaguered  position,  and 
to  its  possible  dangers. 

The  navigation  of  the  river  was  impeded  by  sunken  obstructions, 
and  until  these  were  removed,  no  vessel  of  war  could  pass 
a-  above  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill.  To  attempt  their  re- 
moval was  difficult  and  dangerous,  for  about  them  hovered 
a  fleet  of  galleys  of  light  draught  of  water  ;  on  one  side  of  the  river, 
just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill,  was  Fort  Mifflin,  on  Mud 
Island;  on  the  opposite  shore,  at  Red  Bank,  was  Fort  Mercer;  and 
at  different  points,  along  the  shore,  were  several  floating  batteries. 
Colonel  Christopher  Greene,  of  Rhode  Island,  commanded  at  Fort 
Mercer,  and  Lieutenant-colonel  Smith,  of  Baltimore,  at  Fort  Mifflin, 
and  each  had  been  reenforced  by  Washington  till  their  garrisons 
numbered  four  hundred  men.  Colonel  Sterling  had  taken  possession 
of  Billingsport,  farther  down  the  Delaware  on  the  Jersey  side,  on  the 


1777.] 


OPERATIONS   ON   THE   DELAWARE. 


563 


1st  of  October,  before  Howe  had  fallen  back  upon  Philadelphia.  The 
occupation  of  Billingsport  enabled  the  British  men-of-war  to  break 
through  the  chevaux-de-frise  placed  in  the  channel  at  that  point,  and 
pass  farther  up  the  river.  Sterling,  observing  the  importance  of  the 
position  at  Red  Bank,  then  feebly  garrisoned  by  the  Americans,  pro- 
posed to  take  that  also ;  but  Howe,  with  his  usual  procrastination,  de- 
layed his  consent,  till  Washington,  with  his  usual  promptness,  took 
advantage  of  the  blunder,  and  filled  the  fort  with  a  strong  garrison. 
Three  weeks  later  Howe  recognized  the  soundness  of  Ster-  ^tcnfe  ot 
ling's  advice,  and  the  Hessian  Colonel  Donop  was  sent  with  Fort  Mcrcer- 
twelve  hundred  men  to  reduce  Fort  Mercer.  The  exterior  works 


Fort  Mifflin. 

were  in  too  unfinished  a  condition  to  be  defended,  and  the  garrison 
withdrew  into  the  interior  lines,  but  not,  as  Donop  supposed,  from 
any  doubt  of  their  ability  to  hold  the  place.  The  assault  was  incau- 
tious to  rashness,  in  the  confident  expectation  of  immediate  success ; 
and  it  was  a  fatal  mistake.  Donop  and  his  Lieutenant-colonel,  Min- 
nigerode,  both  fell  with  mortal  wounds ;  the  loss  altogether  was  four 
hundred  of  the  twelve  hundred  Hessians  who  made  the  attack,  and 
in  less  than  an  hour  the  remainder  were  in  retreat  to  Philadelphia. 
Two  British  ships  which  moved  as  far  up  the  river  as  the  obstruc- 
tions would  permit,  to  aid  in  the  assault,  ran  aground ;  one  was 
blown  up  by  the  fire  from  the  fort,  the  other  was  burnt  to  escape 
capture. 


564  THE   CAMPAIGN  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.      [CHAP.  XXII. 

The  next  attempt  to  open  the  river  was  better  managed  and  more 
»nd  of  Fort  successful.  Fort  Mifflin  was  invested  by  the  British  fleet  on 

fflm-  the  10th  of  November,  and  some  heavy  guns  brought  to  bear 
upon  it  from  a  neighboring  island.  The  garrison  made  a  determined 
fight  so  long  as  there  was, any  hope  of  repelling  their  assailants.  But 
it  was  impossible  to  hold  out  long  against  the  heavy  metal  of  so  many 
vessels,  surrounding  the  fort  at  so  short  a  distance  that  hand-grenades 
could  be  thrown  over  the  walls  from  their  decks,  and  sharp-shooters 
in  their  tops  could  pick  off  the  gunners  as  fast  as  they  could  man  the 
guns.  The  fight  was  not  given  up,  however,  until  the  principal  offi- 
cers were  disabled,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  out  of  the  four 
hundred  of  the  garrison  were  either  killed  or  wounded.  The  place 
was  therefore  evacuated  at  night,  the  men  taking  refuge  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  in  Fort  Mercer. 

But  Fort  Mercer  could  be  maintained  only  a  few  days  longer. 
Both  forts  Cornwallis  moved  into  New  Jersey  at  the  head  of  so  large  a 
evacuated.  force  that  the  fort  was  cut  off  from  all  relief  in  case  of  an 
attack,  and  it  was  wiser  to  save  the  garrison  by  abandoning  the  post 
to  the  enemy.  The  Americans,  at  the  same  time,  burned  their  galleys, 
except  a  few  that  contrived  to  escape  to  Bristol,  and  the  Delaware 
below  Philadelphia  was  completely  under  the  control  of  the  British 
fleet. 

On  the  4th  of  December — the  American  army  then  being  encamped 
at  White  Marsh,  about  twelve  miles  from  Philadelphia,  and 
ctfestnut"  reenforced  by  twenty-two  hundred  men  —  Howe  moved  out 
as  far  as  Chestnut  Hill  with  fourteen  thousand  men,  to  feel 
the  enemy,  and  in  the  hope  of  provoking  him  to  battle.  Washington 
was  quite  ready  to  be  provoked  if  Howe  would  attack  him  in  po- 
sition ;  he  was  not  disposed  to  gratify  his  antagonist  by  going  out 
to  meet  him  where  the  advantage  of  position  would  be  on  his  side. 
On  the  5th  an  attack  was  made  on  the  American  right ;  and  though 
there  was  some  sharp  fighting,  the  loss  was  small  on  either  side,  and 
Washington,  with  the  main  army,  remained  immovable.  An  at- 
tempt on  the  7th  to  bring  about  a  general  action  was  equally  un- 
successful. An  attack  was  made  at  Edge  Hill,  on  the  American  left, 
which  was  met  by  Colonel  Gist  with  the  Maryland  militia,  and  by 
General  Morgan  with  his  corps  of  Virginia  riflemen,  who  had  recently 
arrived  from  the  northern  army.  They  gave  the  enemy  a  warm  re- 
ception, but  were  compelled  at  length  to  retire,  Morgan  and  his  men, 
however,  doing  great  execution  upon  the  enemy  with  their  unerring 
marksmanship  and  pursuing  them  through  the  woods.  But  the  retreat 
of  the  Maryland  militia  released  their  opponents  to  reenforce  those  in 
Morgan's  front ;  and  he  also  was  compelled  to  retreat.  The  loss  on 


1777.] 


WINTER   QUARTERS   AT  VALLEY   FORGE. 


565 


the  American  side  was  certainly  inconsiderable ;  but  as  more  than 
eighty  wagons  were  reported  as  going  into  Philadelphia  filled  with 
dead  and  wounded,  the  Virginia  rifles  must  have  made  great  havoc 
among  the  British  soldiers. 

Howe,  discouraged  by  the  result  of  this  attempt  to  bring  on  a  gen- 
eral battle,  retired  the  next  day  to  Philadelphia.     Washing-  u-inter 
ton,  a  few  days  later,  moved  to  his  chosen  winter  quarters  at  vaihsy1*" 
Valley  Forge,  and  the  inarch  of  his  army  over  the  frozen   Forge- 
ground  might  have  been  tracked,  from  the  want  of  shoes  and  stock- 
ings,  "from  White    Marsh   to   Valley   Forge  by   the  blood  of    their 
feet."1 

1  Gordon,  in  his  History  of  the  American  Revolution,  says:    "General  Washington  men- 
tioned it  to  me  when  at  his  table,  June,  3,  1784." 


Donop's  Grave. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 
BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN. 


BURGOYXE  SUPERSEDES  CARI.KTOX.  —  PLAN  OF  A  NORTHERN  CAMPAIGN.  —  EMPLOY- 
MKNT  OK  INDIANS.  —  DEATH  OK  JANE  MC("REA. — Loss  OF  TICONDEROGA. —  BAT- 
TLE <>K  Hl'BHAHDTON. —  ST.  LEGKll's  EXPEDITION  INTO  THE  MoiIAWK  VALLEY. 

BATTLE  OF  OKISKANY.  —  DEATH  OK  GENERAL  HKRKIMER.  —  BATTLE  OK  BENNING- 
TON.  —  MILITARY  JK VLOUSIES.  —  GATES  DISPLACES  SCHUYLER.  —  BATTLE  OK  FREE- 
MAX'S  FARM.  —  CLINTON'S  EXPEDITION  UP  THE  HUDSON  RIVER. — FALL  OF  FOUTS 

MoXTGOMERY    AND    Cl.lNTON.  SECOND    BATTLE    OF    STILLWATER,   OR    BlCMUS's 

HEIGHT*.  —  BUHGOYNE'S  SURRENDER. 

AT  the  close  of  the  campaign  of  1777  —  the  year  which  the  Tories 
loved  to  call  the  year  of  three  gibbets  —  the  British  were  in  quiet  pos- 
session of  two  of  the  three  principal  cities  of  the  new  Republic,  one  of 
them  its  capital;  the  national  legislature  was  a  fugitive  body;  the 
national  army,  after  successive  defeats,  had  marched  with  naked, 
"•bloody  feet,"  to  winter  quarters,  where,  neglected  by  Congress,  they 
were  for  months  to  suffer  with  hunger,  to  shiver  for  want  of  cloth- 
ing through  the  long  and  dreary  winter,  and  many,  when  the  power 
of  endurance  was  exhausted,  to  lie  down  and  die  of  privation  or  dis- 
ease. Yet,  notwithstanding  these  gloomy  and  threatening  clouds  hung 
over  the  dawn  of  the  new  year,  the  fading  light  of  the  year  that  was 
passing  away  was  ruddy  and  warm  with  the  glow  of  one  great  suc- 
cess—  a  golden  sunset  that  gave  promise  of  a  glorious  to-morrow. 

While  at  the  South,  Washington  had  been  able  only,  in  the  face  of 
enormous  difficulties,  to  avert  overwhelming  catastrophe  and 
.-in  cam-  hold  up  the  war  against  the  splendid  army  and  inexhaustible 
resources  of  Howe,  at  the  North  the  plans  of  the  ministry 
had  come  to  naught,  and  such  disaster  had  followed  as,  all  things  con- 
sidered, had  never  before  befallen  the  arms  of  England. 

For  reasons  chiefly  personal,  there  was  no  cordiality  between  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  colonies  and  the  Governor  of  Canada. 
Germain  disliked  Carleton.  Carleton  had  great  contempt  for  Ger- 
main. "That  there  is  great  prejudice,"  wrote  the  King  to  Lord 
North,  in  December,  1770,  kk  perhaps  not  unaccompanied  with  rancor, 
in  a  certain  breast  against  Governor  Carleton,  is  so  manifest  to  who- 


'.777.] 


PLAN    OF  A   XOHTIIKirX    CAMI'AKIX. 


567 


ever  lias  heard  the  subject  mentioned,  that  it  would  be.  idle  to  say  any 
more  than  that  it  is  a  fact.  Perhaps  Carleton  may  be  too  cold,  and 
not  so  active  as  might  be  wished,  which  may  make  it  advisable  to 
have  the  part  of  the  Canadian  army  which  must  attempt  to  join  Gen- 
eral Howe  led  by  a  more  enterprising  commander  .....  Burgoyne 
may  command  the  corps  to  be  sent  from  Canada  to  Albany." 

Burwovne,  on  his  return   to  England  about  this  time,  after  .seeing 

O      »/ 

the  end  of  the  American  campaign  in  Canada,  submitted  to   Blirgoj-ne-g 

the  Ministry  his  "-Thoughts  for  conducting  the  war  from  the   pla"- 

side  of  Canada."     At  a  Council  held  in   March  it  was  determined  to 

give  him  the  command,  and 

at  the  same  time  it  was  pro- 

vided   that    a    force    under 

Lieutenant-colonel  St.  Leger 

should  make  a  diversion  on 

the    Mohawk   River.      The 

instructions     addressed     to 

Carleton,        acknowledging 

that   '•  this   plan    cannot   be 

advantageously        executed 

without    the    assistance    of 

Canadians     and     Indians," 

bade  him  furnish   both  ex- 

peditions   with    "good    and 

sufficient    bodies    of    those 

men."      Carleton    at    once 

tendered   his  resignation  of 

the    governorship,    yet    did 

his    utmost    to    assist    Bur- 

goyne.    But  this  utmost,  it 

appears,  was  not  much,  for 

Hurgoyne  describes  the  Ca- 

nadians aS  "  ignorant  Of  the 

use  of  arms,  awkward,  disinclined 
Against  the  Indians  none  of  these  objections,  at  least,  could  be  urged; 
but  Burgoyne  understood  well  enough  the  more  serious  objections  to 
their  employment. 

Burgoyne's  plan  assumed  that  the  object  of  an  expedition  from  Can- 
ada would  be  to  obtain  possession  of  Albany,  control  the  Hudson 
River,  cooperate  with  Howe,  and  thereby  enable  that  General  to  act 
with  his  whole  force  to  the  southward.1  This,  in  the  main,  was  the 

1  I3nr(joy»t''s  Plan  of  th<>  Cn  /«/><(/>/"  from  ili<!  SiJij  <>t  C<u«nl>i,  with  tin-  Rrmuflc*  ikeretm  oj 
George  the  Third.     Fonblanque,  p.  483. 


General   John    Burgoyne. 

to  the   service,   and   spiritless." 


568  BURGOYXE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

old  project  which  had  been  broached  and  in  part  attempted  the  year 
before,  to  divide  New  England  from  the  other  States,  and  thus  reduce 
the  rest  with  greater  case.  In  the  prosecution  of  the  plan,  Burgoyne 
would  have  been  glad  to  be  allowed  a  certain  latitude  and  discretion, 
such  as  a  deviation  from  his  line  of  march  into  Massachusetts  and  down 
the  Connecticut ;  but  his  final  orders,  which  were  precise  and  imper- 
ative, left  him  no  choice  but  to  march  straight  upon  Albany  and 
"force  a  junction"  with  Howe.  Singularly  enough,  it  nowhere  ap- 
NO  instruo-  Pears  tnat  any  sue'1  obligation  was  put  upon  Howe  to  meet 
li'owt-'""" to  l*ljrg°yne'  and,  as  «vents  proved,  Howe  felt  no  such  obliga- 
tion. In  this  respect  the  scheme  was  fatally  weak  in  execu- 
tion. Cooperation  was  absolutely  enjoined  on  the  one  General,  but 
not  upon  the  other.1 

Bnrgoyne's  army  concentrated  at  St  John's,  on  St.  John's  River,  the 
Burgojncs  outlet  of  Lake  Champlain,  on  the  12th  of  June,  and  a  day 
or  two  later  embarked.  A  little  less  than  eight  thousand 
men  composed  the  force,  half  of  whom  were  British  regulars  and  Ca- 
nadian volunteers,  and  half  Hessian  contingents  under  General  Riede- 
f.el.  Forty  pieces  of  artillery  —  the  finest  train  in  America — made 
the  column  especially  formidable.  Burgoyne's  subordinate  officers 
were  experienced  and  skilful  soldiers,  including  Generals  Phillips, 
Riedesel,  Fraser,  Specht,  Hamilton,  and  Earl  Balcarras  and  Major 
Acklund,  who  respectively  commanded  the  two  choice  corps  of  light 
infantry  and  grenadiers.  The  English  fleet  on  the  lake,  consisting  of 
nine  vessels  carrying  one  hundred  and  forty-three  guns,  and  manned 
by  six  hundred  and  forty  seamen,  received  its  orders  from  Captain 
Lntwidge  of  the  Royal  George,  acting  as  Commodore. 

Encamping,  about  the  17th,  at  the  river  Bouquet,  on  the  western 
shore  of  the  lake,  the  English  General  at  once  prepared  for  active 
operations  against  Ticonderoga.  During  his  delay  at  this  point  he 
addressed  his  Indian  allies  in  an  intensely  rhetorical  speech  which  be- 
came the  subject  of  ridicule  with  Americans  and  opposition  members 

1  The  Earl  of  Shelhurne  thus  explains  the  origin  of  this  fatal  blunder.  In  writing  of 
Lord  George  Germain's  incapacity,  he  says:  "Among  many  singularities  lie  (Germain) 
had  a  particular  aversion  to  being  put  out  of  his  way  on  any  occasion  ;  he  had  fixed  to  go 
into  Kent  or  Northamptonshire  at  a  particular  hour,  and  to  call  on  his  way  at  his  office  to 
sign  the  despatches,  all  of  which  had  been  settled,  to  both  these  Generals.  By  some  mis- 
take, those  to  General  Howe  were  not  fair  copied,  and  upon  his  growing  impatient  at  it, 
the  office,  which  was  a  very  idle  one,  promised  to  send  it  to  the  country  after  him  while  they 
dispatched  the  others  to  General  Burgoyno,  expecting  that  the  others  could  be  expedited 
before  the  packet  sailed  with  the  first,  which,  however,  by  some  mistake,  sailed  without 
them,  and  the  wind  detained  the  vessel  which  was  ordered  to  carry  the  rest.  Hence  came 
General  Burgoyne's  defeat,  the  French  declaration,  and  the  loss  of  thirteen  colonies.  It 
might  appear  incredible  if  his  own  secretary  and  the  most  respectable  persons  in  office  had 
not  assured  me  of  the  fact ;  what  corroborates  it  is,  that  it  can  be  accounted  for  in  no  other 
way."  —  Fitzmaurice's  Lift,  of  Shelburne,  vol.  i. 


1777.]  DEATH  OF  JANE   McCREA.  569 

in  Parliament.     The  employment  of  savages  in  the  expedition,  sug- 
gested first  by  Burgoyne  and  then  sanctioned  by  the  King,1   indiangM 
had  been  defended  in  the  House  of  Lords  upon  grounds  of  allies- 
necessity,  and  also  as  permissible  on  principle.     "It  is  perfectly  justifi- 
able," said  Suffolk,  "  to  use  all  the  means  that  God  and  nature  has  put 
into  our  hands."     But  Lord  Chatham,  astonished  and  shocked  at  the 
proposition,  expressed  his  indignation  in  the  strongest  terms.     There 
were  many  officers  in  the  service  who  were  opposed  to  having  the  red 
men  as  companions  in  arms. 

Burgoyne  himself  appears  to  have  appreciated  the  possible  disgrace 
that  the  cruelties  of  these  forest  allies  might  bring  upon  his  army,  and 
in  his  address  he  invited  them  to  fight  for  the  King's  cause,  only  on 
condition  that  they  kept  to  the  King's  code.  "  I  positively  forbid 
bloodshed,"  he  told  them,  "  when  you  are  not  opposed  in  arms.  Aged 
men,  women,  children,  and  prisoners  must  be  held  secure  from  the 
knife  or  hatchet,  even  in  the  time  of  actual  conflict.  You  shall  re- 
ceive compensation  for  the  prisoners  you  take,  but  you  will  be  called 
to  account  for  scalps.  In  conformity  and  indulgence  to  your  customs, 
which  have  affixed  an  idea  of  honor  to  such  badges  of  victory,  vou 

*         v 

will  be  allowed  to  take  the  scalps  of  the  dead  when  killed  by  your 
fire  or  in  fair  opposition;  but  on  no  account  or  pretence  or  subtlety 
or  prevarication  are  they  to  be  taken  from  the  wounded  or  even  from 
the  dying,  and  still  less  pardonable  will  it  be  held  to  kill  men  in  that 
condition."  2 

The  unhappy  fate  of  Jane  McCrea,  which  was  indirectly  due  to 
the  employment  of  the  savaejes  by  the  English,  excited  everv- 

.  f,         ,  ,    •     j.  ,  •    *         Death  of 

where  the  deepest  horror  and  indignation,  not  merely  against 


the  Indians  —  though  that  could  hardly  be  increased  —  but 
against  the  invaders  who  had  made  of  these  savages  their  allies  and 
instruments.  The  manner  of  her  death  was  at  first  uncertain;  but  as 
the  horrible  story  sped  far  and  wide  through  the  country,  the  romance 
of  personal  considerations  gathered  about  a  tragic  incident  of  war.  and 
the  feeling  aroused  was  universal  and  intense.  The  certain  facts  ap- 
pealed to  the  tenderest  sympathies;  so  much  was  known  to  be  true, 
that  none  thought  of  asking  if  anything  could  be  false.  She  was 
young  ;  she  was  beautiful  ;  she  was  gently  nurtured  and  of  high 

1  The  King's  memorandum  on  Burgoyne's  plan  contains  the  sentence  :  "  Indians  must 
be  employed,  and  this  measure  must  be  avowedly  directed." 

2  In  ridicule  of  this  appeal,  Burke  indulged  in  an  illustration  which  delighted  the  House 
of  Commons.    "Suppose,"  he  exclaimed,  "there  was  a  riot  on  Tower  Hill.     What  would 
thei  keeper  of  his  Majesty's  lions  do?      Would  he  not  fling  open  the  dens  of  the  wild 
beasts,  and  then  address  them  thus:     '  My  gentle  lions  —  my  humane  bears  —  my  tender- 
hearted hyenas,  go  forth  !     But  I  exhort  you,  as  you  are  Christians,  and  members  of  civil- 
ized society,  to  take  care  not  to  hurt  any  man,  woman,  or  child  !  '  " 


570 


BURGO Y X K'S  C AMP  AIGX. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


social  position  ;  she  was  betrothed  and  about  to  be  married  to  a 
young  loyalist  officer  ;  she  met  her  sudden  death  when  in  the  hands 
of  two  Indians,  and  the  long  and  beautiful  hair,  torn  from  her  head, 
was  shown  afterward  at  Burgoyne's  headquarters.  So  much  was  true, 
and  it  was  enough  to  excite  universal  execration,  even  if  the  stories 
that  were  told  of  the  manner  of  her  death  were  untrue.  It  was  nat- 
ural enough  that  exaggeration  should  be  accepted  where  there  could 
be  no  doubt  of  so  much  that  was  sad  and  pitiful. 

Though  all   that  was  told  was  not  true,  the  incident  exercised  as 


Death  of  Jane  McCrea. 

deep  an  influence  then,  —  and  has  ever  since  in  its  various  forms  — 
as  if  it  were.  But  Jane  McCrea  was  not  killed  by  the  Indians,  though 
she  was  their  captive.  A  Mrs.  McNeal,  at  whose  house  she  was  visit- 
ing, near  Fort  Edward,  had  received  warning  that  there  were  Indians 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  she  must  take  refuge  at  Fort  Miller.  Lieu- 
tenant Palmer  with  twenty  men  was  sent  by  General  Arnold  as  an 
escort  for  the  family.  AVhile  waiting  for  the  household  goods  to  be 
packed,  Palmer  made  a  reconnoissance  in  the  neighborhood,  fell  into 
an  ambuscade  of  savages,  and  twelve  of  his  men,  with  Palmer  himself, 


1777.]  THE   BRITISH   BEFORE   TICOXDEROGA.  -~>71 

were  killed  at  the  first  (ire.  The  Indians  then  rushing  to  the  house, 
seized  Mrs.  McNeal  and  Miss  McCrea,  mounted  them  on  horseback, 
and  started  to  escape,  before  their  flight  should  be  intercepted  by  as- 
sistance from  the  fort.  The  soldiers,  however,  were  in  time  to  fire 
upon  them  before  they  were  quite  out  of  reach,  and  by  this  fire  Jane 
McCrea  fell.  She  alone,  sitting  upright,  was  killed,  as  the  Indians 
stooped  at  the  fire,  one  of  them  exclaiming,  "  Um  shoot  too  high  for 
hit!"  One  of  the  Indians,  though  in  rapid  flight,  paused  long  enough 
to  seize  her  long  hair  and  scalp  her,  exasperated,  probably,  at  the  loss 
of  the  reward  offered  by  Hurgoyne  for  white  prisoners.  "  I  never  saw 
Jenny  afterward,"  said  Mrs.  McNeal,  —  who  arrived  the  next  day  at 
the  British  camp,  and  related  the  facts,  —  "  nor  anything  that  apper- 
tained to  her  person,  until  my  arrival  in  the  British  camp,  when  an 
aid-de-camp  showed  me  a  fresh  scalp-lock  which  I  could  not  mistake, 
because  the  hair  was  unusually  fine,  luxuriant,  lustrous,  and  dark  as 
the  wing  of  a  raven."  Miss  McCrea  was  buried  the  next  day  by  the 
soldiers  who  attempted  her  rescue,  and  who  had  heedlessly  caused  her 
death.  Three  bullet-holes  were  found  in  her  body,  but  no  other 
wounds,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Colonel  Morgan  Lewis,  under 
whose  direction  the  interment  was  made.  When  many  years  after- 
ward the  remains  were  disinterred,  the  skull  was  unbroken  ;  no  savage 
tomahawk  had  ever  been  ."  sunk  "  in  it,  as  had  been  so  long  believed.1 
After  a  brief  stay  at  Crown  Point  the  British  army  appeared  be- 
fore Ticonderoga  on  the  1st  of  the  month,  and  im mediate! v  in- 
vested the  fortress.  This  stronghold,  the  key  of  the  North,  as  it  was 
then  assumed  to  be,  it  was  confidently  expected  would  prove  a  serious 
obstacle  to  Burgoyne's  farther  advance.  The  possibility  of  its  c;ip- 
ture  or  a  necessity  for  its  surrender  was  not  contemplated  by  the 
Americans,  and  this  over-confidence  in  the  strength  of  the  position  led 
to  that  careless  negligence  common  with  inexperienced  soldiers.  Gen- 
eral Arthur  St.  Glair,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  now  in  command  of  the 
post,  with  a  force  of  three  thousand  men,  and  this  he  believed  quite 
strong  enough  to  hold  it.  His  early  messages  had  been  so  assuring 
that  even  Washington  had  no  misgivings.  Major-general  Schuyler, 
who  had  superseded  Gates  in  the  command  of  the  Northern  Depart- 
ment, made  all  possible  haste  to  strengthen  the  chain  of  posts  from 
Ticonderoga  to  the  Hudson  and  Albany.  He  called  upon  the  gover- 
nors of  contiguous  States  which  this  invasion  immediately  threatened, 
for  speedy  assistance  ;  Putnam,  who  was  in  command  on  the  Hudson, 

1  The  evidence  on  this  subject  setMiis  conclusive.  Mrs.  McXeal  was  a  cousin  of  General 
Fmser,  and  in  his  tent  she  told  the  story  to  General  Burgoyue  the  day  after  her  own  escape 
and  the  death  of  Jane  McCrea.  It  was  related  to  Judge  Hay,  of  Saratoga,  who  verified 
it  fully  by  the  evidence  of  other  contemporary  witnesses.  All  the  testimony  is  carefully 
collated  in  an  article  in  the  (j'alnxy  mag.imic  for  January,  ISO",  l>y  William  L.  Stone. 


572 


BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


was  asked  to  send  up  regiments  from  Peekskill  ;  the  several  Commit- 
tees of  Safety  were  urged  to  diligence  to  provide  against  the  common 
danger,  and  word  was  sent  to  General  Herkimer,  up  the  Mohawk,  to 
be  prepared  for  the  enemy  on  the  western  frontier.  But  responses  to 
these  appeals  came  in  slowly,  and  Schuyler's  resources  for  meeting  the 
emergency  were  altogether  inadequate.  Moreover,  neither  lie  nor  St. 
Clair  had  fully  fathomed  Burgoyne's  designs.  They  did  not  know 
whether  his  move  upon  so  strong  a  post  as  Ticonderoga  was  simply  a 
feint  to  cover  an  extended  flank  manoeuvre,  or  whether  he  would 
march  directly  from  that  point  into  New  England.  St.  Glair's  force 
was  too  small  to  cover  every  exposed  point,  and  to  save  some  of  his 


Ruins  of  Old   Fort  at  Crown   Point. 


outpost     detachments 

he    withdrew    them. 

One  of   those  he  was 

compelled  to  abandon 

was   the  commanding  eminence  of  Mount  Hope.     Tliis  the  English 

General  Fraser  promptly  took  possession  of,  and  mounting  heavy  guns 

there  cut  off  the  communication  of  the  Americans  with  Lake  George. 

The  unexpected  occupation  of  another  point,  made  the  enemy  masters 

of  the  position  and  brought  to  their  opponents  disaster  that,  at  the 

moment,  seemed  irremediable. 

South  of  the  American  fortress  a  steep,  wooded  height  rose  more 
than  six  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  lake,  and  over- 
looked every  fortified  elevation  in  the  vicinity.  It  was  known 
as  Sugar  Loaf  Mountain,  and  because  of  its  supposed  inaccessibility 
had  been  neglected  in  former  wars,  and  thus  far  in  this.  The  pos- 
sibility of  dragging  cannon  to  its  summit  had  been  admitted  by  ofli- 


Fort  De 
fiance. 


1777.]  LOSS   OF  TICOXDEROGA.  573 

cers  in  the  American  camp,  but  it  was  not  supposed  that  the  enemy 
would  attempt  it,  and  St.  Clair,  even  had  he  occupied  it,  had  not  suffi- 
cient force  to  hold  more  ground  than  had  already  been  fortified. 
Burgoyne's  engineers,  however,  were  men  of  skill  and  energy.  No- 
ticing the  importance  of  this  eminence,  they  secretly  made  a  path 
over  which  artillery  could  be  hauled  to  the  top,  and,  on  the  morning 
of  the  5th,  surprised  the  Americans  with  a  line  of  nearly  completed 
works  whose  fire  could  not  be  endured  by  the  garrison  of  Ticon- 
deroga  for  an  hour.  The  aspect  of  affairs  was  suddenly  and  com- 
pletely changed. 

From  Fort  Defiance,  as  the  enemy  called  their  new  position,  a  ter- 
ribly destructive  cannonade  would  undoubtedly  be  opened 

...  ,  ill'  r  Evacuation 

within  twenty-four  hours,  and  to  the  plunging  shot  from  that  of  Ticomie- 
elevation  there  could  be  no  return.  A  council  of  war  was 
hastily  summoned,  and  it  was  decided  that  Ticonderoga  should  be 
evacuated  that  night,  though  it  was  hardly  hoped  that  it  could  be 
done  without  great  loss.  It  was  the  only  rational  thing  to  do.  The 
capture  of  the  place  was  inevitable,  and  resistance  would  be  mad- 
ness; there  was  just  a  chance  of  saving  the  garrison,  and  this  St. 
Clair  and  his  officers  wisely  concluded  to  attempt  before  it  was  too 
late.1  That  the  purpose  should  not  be  suspected  by  the  enemy,  firing 
was  kept  up  as  usual  through  the  day,  but  at  dusk  the  guns  were 
spiked,  tents  were  struck,  and  the  women  and  the  sick  were  sent  up 
the  lake  with  the  stores  in  boats  to  Skenesborough,  under  the  charge 
of  Colonel  Long's  regiment.  At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the 
6th  the  troops  marched  out  of  the  Ticonderoga  forts  and  moved 
toward  Castleton,  nearly  thirty  miles  southeast.  All  had  safely  Ic-ft 
the  place  without  giving  the  alarm,  when  suddenly  the  house  which 
General  De  Fermoy  had  occupied  as  his  headquarters  burst  into 
flames,  having  been  set  on  fire  contrary  to  orders.  Its  blaze  discovered 
the  Americans  on  the  retreat,  and  immediate  preparations  were  made 
for  pursuit. 

Generals  Fraser  and  Riedesel  pushed  after  St.  Clair,  while  Burgoyne 
and  Phillips,  with  the  fleet   and  right   wing  of  the  army, 
breaking  through  all   obstructions,   sailed  up  the  lake,  or  t 
South  River,  in  chase  of  Colonel  Long  and  the  American 
flotilla.     Long   and   his    party  reached    Skenesborough   about   three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  at  once  marched  to  Fort  Ann,  eleven 
miles  southward.     Here  Colonel  Long,  determined  to  retreat  no  far- 

1  The  subordinate  generals  at  the  post  were  Poor,  of  New  Hampshire,  Paterson,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  De  Fermoy,  a  French  officer.  The  troops  were  composed  of  2,500  Continen- 
tals, poorly  clothed  and  armed,  and  about  900  militia.  Both  Schuyler  and  St.  Clair  were 
tried  by  courts-martial,  as  being  responsible  for  the  supposed  disaster,  but  both  were  honor- 
ably acquitted. 


574  BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

tlier  without  a  fight,  faced  about.  The  next  day,  three  miles  north 
of  Fort  Ann,  at  Wood's  Creek  he  met  the  Ninth  regulars  under 
Lieutenant-colonel  Hill,  whom  he  handled  so  severely  that  hut  for 
the  arrival  of  a  party  of  Indians  the  enemy  would  have  been  dis- 
persed, if  not  captured  in  a  body.  Gathering  his  wounded,  Long 
abandoned  Fort  Ann,  and  fell  back  to  Fort  Edward,  thirteen  miles 
below. 

St.  Clair  was  less  fortunate.  He  retreated  all  day  through  the 
Battle  of  woods,  leaving  a  part  of  his  force  at  Hubbardton,  and  march- 
iiubbardton.  jng  with  t|)e  regfc  tQ  Castleton.  Fraser  followed  promptly  on 

their  heels,  with  ten  companies  of  light  infantry,  ten  of  grenadiers, 
and  two  companies  of  the  Twenty-fourth  regiment  —  in  all,  eight  hun- 
dred men.1  On  the  morning  of  the  7th  he  attacked  the  detachment 
St.  Clair  had  left  at  Hubbardton,  of  about  thirteen  hundred  men, 
under  the  New  Hampshire  Colonels  Warner,  Francis,  and  Hale.  A 
sharp  engagement  followed,  in  which  the  Americans  held  their  ground 
for  a  while,  in  spite  of  the  defection  of  Hale's  regiment,  which  aban- 
doned the  field.  But  Fraser  was  reenforced  by  Riedesel  with  fresh 
troops,  who  by  a  spirited  bayonet -charge  turned  the  right  wing  and 
compelled  a  retreat.  Warner  and  Francis,  however,  had  made  a  good 
fight.  The  American  loss  was  about  three  hundred  and  fifty ;  forty 
officers  and  men  —  among  them  Colonel  Francis  —  were  killed  ;  the 
rest  were  wounded  or  taken  prisoners.  The  subsequent  capture 
of  Colonel  Hale  and  many  of  his  men  increased  the  loss  in  prisoners 
to  more  than  three  hundred.  The  British  also  suffered  severely,2 
though  victory  remained  on  their  side.  The  American  force  dis- 
persed through  the  woods.  On  the  12th  inst.  General  St.  Clair,  after 
making  a  circuitous  march  of  more  than  a  hundred  miles,  reached 
Fort  Edward  with  the  remnant  of  the  army  which  he  had  led  from 
the  fort. 

The  loss  of  Ticonderoga  and  the  reverses  that  followed  it,  excited 
universal  alarm.  The  whole  Northern  Department  seemed  at  the 
mercy  of  the  enemy.  The  inhabitants  along  the  upper  Hudson  be- 
lieved that  nothing  could  hinder  Burgoyne  from  rapidly  advancing  to 
Albany,  and,  that  point  gained,  the  junction  with  Howe  would  be  all 
but  accomplished.  "  The  evacuation,"  wrote  Washington,  when  the 
news  reached  him,  "  is  an  event  of  chagrin  and  surprise  not  appre- 
hended, "nor  within  the  compass  of  my  reasoning.  This  stroke  is  severe 

1  Diary  of  Joshua  Pell,  Junior,  sin  officer  of  the  British  army  in  America,  1776-1777 
Magazine  of  Am.  Hist.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  107.     (1878.) 

2  According  to  Pell's  diary,  ante,  the  enemy's  loss  was  :  Major  Grant,  1  Captain,  and  ? 
Lieutenants  killed  ;  Majors  Balcarras  and  Ackland,  4  Captains,  and  8  Lieutenants  wounded 
Two  Sergeants  and  24  men  killed  ;   10  Sergeants  and  104  men  wounded.     The  Hessians 
lost  two  killed  and  one  Lieutenant  and  22  men  wounded. 


1777.]  SCHUYLER   REENFORCED.  575 

indeed,  and  has  distressed  us  much."  When  the  news  reached  Eng- 
land, it  was  received  there  with  as  much  exultation  as  it  aroused  de- 
spondency in  the  States.  As  the  first  important  and  successful  step  in 
the  campaign,  it  was  hailed  as  an  evidence  of  the  wisdom  of  the  Min- 
istry, as  well  as  a  proof  of  the  weakness  of  the  colonists.  In  the  first 
moment  of  triumph  on  one  side,  and  of  disappointment  on  the  other, 
the  fact  was  overlooked  that  the  loss,  on  one  side,  and  the  gain  on 
the  other,  of  even  a  commanding  position,  involved  no  question  of  the 
general  efficiency  of  either.  There  was  undoubtedly  an  error  of  judg- 
ment, and  —  if  Ticonderoga  was  of  the  importance  so  long  attached  to 
it  —  a  very  serious  error;  but  it  ought  to  have  been  remembered  that 
the  scientific  soldier  on  one  side  could  see  the  possibility  and  importance 
of  a  move,  which  the  civilian  lately  turned  soldier  on  the  other  side 
would  be  utterly  blind  to.  Had  either  Schuyler  or  St.  Clair  had  a 
military  training,  he  perhaps  would  have  seen  the  strategic  importance 
of  Sugar  Loaf  Mountain,  and  the  absolute  necessity  of  preventing  its 
being  occupied  by  the  British.  This  certainly  ought  to  have  been 
done,  though  there  were  those  who  were  by  no  means  disposed  to  look 
upon  the  loss  of  Ticonderoga  as  an  irremediable  misfortune.  "  It  is 
predicted"  —  wrote  Thacher,  in  his  "Military  Journal,"  under  date  of 
July  14th  —  "  by  some  of  our  well-informed  and  respectable  charac- 
ters, that  this  event,  apparently  so  calamitous,  will  ultimately  prove 
advantageous  by  drawing  the  British  army  into  the  heart  of  our  coun- 
try, and  thereby  placing  them  more  immediately  within  our  power." 
But  this  was  a  blind  trusting  in  Providence  without  regard  to  the 
condition  of  the  powder. 

All  the  troops  that  General  Schuyler  could  muster  at  Fort  Edward 
by  the  middle  of  July  numbered  barely  five  thousand,  —  militia  and 
Continentals.  Again  he  called  for  assistance.  Washington  sent  him 
Nixon's  and  Glover's  brigades  and  Morgan's  unequa-lled  rifle-  Rei;n{orcing 
men,  besides  guns,  ammunition,  and  tents  which  he  could  Schu.vler- 
ill  spare  from  his  own  army.  General  Arnold  and  General  Lincoln, 
of  Massachusetts,  were  also  ordered  to  report  to  Si-huyler.  Bur- 
goyne's  delay  gave  time  for  the  arrival  of  these  reinforcements,  and 
by  the  6th  of  August  the  Americans  numbered  six  thousand,  two 
thirds  of  whom  were  tolerably  well  armed  Continentals. 

Schuyler,  on  retreating  from  Fort  Ann  to  Fort  Edward,  tore  up 
the  roads,  felled  trees,  destroyed  all  the  bridges,  and  drove  off  the 
cattle,  to  the  great  disgust  and  delay  of  Burgoyne's  soldiers,  who 
had  hoped  that  their  recent  successes  would  insure  them  an  easy 

march  to  the  Hudson  River.1    They  were  seriously  delayed,  moreover, 

.'  j         j 

1  Colonel  John  Trumbull,  Schuyler's  Adjutant-general,  wrote  on   July  25  as  follows: 
"  Our  little  army  are  now  returned  to  Moses  Kill,  two  or  three  miles  below  Fort  Edward. 


576  BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

by  the  tardy  arrival  of  their  provisions,  which  had  to  be  brought  from 
Canada  by  a  long  and  tedious  route  through  the  lakes  and  over  diffi- 
cult portages.  The  month  of  July  had  almost  gone  before  they 
reached  the  i-iver  at  Fort  Edward.  Schuvler  abandoned  this  fort  on 

«/ 

the  22d,  to  take  a  better  position  on  Moses  Creek,  three  miles  be- 
low. Thence  he  fell  back  a  few  days  later  to  Saratoga,  then  to  Still- 
water,  and  finally  to  Van  Schaick's  Island,  where  the  Mohawk  runs 
into  the  Hudson. 

Burgoyne's  plan  of  the  campaign  included  a  cooperating  force  to  go 
up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Oswego,  and  through  the  Mohawk  Valley 
to  Albany,  there  to  join  the  main  body.  The  purpose  was,  to  distract 
the  Americans  on  their  flank,  crush  out  rebellion  in  the  valley,  secure 
the  active  cooperation  of  the  large  Tory  element  in  its  population, 
and  thus  bring  all  western  New  York  completely  under  control  of  the 
English  by  the  time  the  British  army  should  reach  Albany.  The 
force  sent  upon  this  expedition  to  the  Mohawk  Valley  was  composed 
of  seven  hundred  white  troops  of  all  arms,  including  regulars,  Sir  John 
Johnson's  Loyal  "  Greens,"  many  of  whom  had  their  homes  along 
<u  Lexer's  *ne  Mohawk,  and  about  one  thousand  Indians  under  Joseph 
expedition.  p,rant,  the  chief  of  the  Mohawk  tribe.  Barry  St.  Leger, 
Lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Thirty-fourth  Regiment  of  the  British  army, 
to  whom  the  preference  was  given,  both  by  Burgoyne  and  the  King, 
had  the  chief  command.  His  corps,  rather  less  than  eighteen  hundred 
strong,  reached  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Stanwix  on  the  3d  of  August. 

This  old  fortification,  built  in  the  previous  war,  on  the  Mohawk 
Fort  schuv-  Riveri  a  few  niiles  east  of  the  present  village  of  Rome,  was 
ier  invested.  now  be^er  known  as  Foi't  Scliuyler.  Recognizing  the  im- 
portance of  the  post,  the  Americans  had  garrisoned  it  with  about 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  New  York  and  Massachusetts  Continental 
troops  under  Colonel  Gansevoort,  of  New  York,  who  had  served  in 
Montgomery's  expedition  to  Canada.  He  had  put  the  place  in  an  ex- 
cellent condition  for  defence,  and  St.  Leger's  summons  for  surrender 
was  met  with  a  prompt  refusal. 

The  patriotic  people  of  the  valley,  warned  in  time  of  the  approach 
of  the  enemy,  and  yielding  neither  to  panic  nor  despair,  were  ready  to 

All  the  houses,  barracks,  stores,  etc.,  at  the  latter  place,  are  burned  and  destroyed.  It 
seems  a  maxim  to  General  Schuvler  to  leave  no  support  to  the  enemy  as  he  retires ;  all 
is  devastation  and  waste  when  he  leaves.  By  this  means  the  enemy  will  not  be  »l>le  to 
pursue,  so  fast  as  they  could  wish  ;  want  of  carriages,  I  am  told,  will  be  a  great  hindrance 
to  their  progress  ;  they  were  not  provided,  it  seems,  from  Canada Ten  days  or  a  fort- 
night, I  faucv,  will  put  our  people  into  a  situation  to  stand,  if  we  can  obtniii  that  time  from 
the  enemy,  and  in  that  time  are  reenforced  from  below  with  2,000  or  3,000  Continental 

troops I  wish  General  Washington  could  see  our  situation ;  am  sure  he  would  give 

us  a  reinforcement."  —  MS.  letter.  Trumbull  Papers,  in  the  possession  of  ihe  Massachu- 
setts Historical  Societv. 


1777.] 


ST.  LEGER  AND  GENERAL   HERKIMER. 


577 


throw  themselves  in  St.  Leger's  path,  and  save  the  fort,  their  farms, 
and  their  homes.     At  the  earliest  alarm,  the  militia  turned  out,  eight 
hundred  in  number,  and  hurried  forward  to  the  relief  of  Gansevoort, 
with  the  veteran  General  Nicholas  Herkimer  at  their  head.  IIerkinierg 
This  old  soldier,  an  energetic  German,  had  so  heartily  iden-  ^J^e 
tiffed  himself  with  the  popular  cause,  was  so  well  known   fort- 
through  central  New  York,  and  so  highly  esteemed  among  his  neigh- 
bors, that  his  leadership  was  in  itself  an  element  of  strength.     On  the 
4th  of   August,  the  militia  crossed   the  Mohawk  where  Utica   now 
stands,  and  the  following  day  Herkimer  sent  word  to  Gansevoort  of  his 
approach,  and  proposed  that  the  garrison  should  meet  him  at  an  ap- 


Fac-simile  of  an  Order  by  General  Herkimer.1 

pointed  time  by  a  sortie.     This  plan,  however,  was  defeated  by  some 
delays  in  the  march. 

St.  Leger  had  heard  of  Herkimer's  approach,  and  had  taken  meas- 
ures to  intercept  it.  Having  failed  in  his  first  purpose,  Herkimer 
would  have  moved  slowly  and  with  caution  ;  but  permitting  his  bet- 
ter judgment  to  be  overruled  by  the  reproaches  of  younger  officers  — 
especially  of  Colonel  Parris,  one  of  the  Committee  of  Safety,  and  of 
Colonel  Cox,  who  accused  him  of  want  of  energy  and  spirit  —  he  or- 

1  Explanation:  SIR,  —  You  will  order  your  battalion  to  march  immediately  to  Fort 
Edward,  with  four  d;iys'  provisions,  and  ammunition  fit  for  one  battle.  This  you  will 
disobey  [at]  your  peril.  From  [your]  friend,  NICOLAS  HERCIIHEIMEK. 

To  Colonel  PETER  BELLINGER,  at  the  Flats,  October  18,  1776. 
VOL.  in.  37 


578  BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXI II. 

dered  a  rapid  advance.  The  militia  of  the  Mohawk  Valley,  whose 
experience  of  Indian  warfare  should  have  taught  them  better,  marched 
carelessly  along  the  bends  of  the  river  and  through  ravines,  till  a  deep 
wooded  hollow  was  reached  near  Oriskany.  At  one  end  of  this  the 
Battle  of  British  regulars  lay  in  ambush,  and  the  Indian  allies  were  in 
oriskany.  concealment  on  both  sides.  When  Herkimer  and  his  men 
were  fairly  within  this  defile,  a  destructive  fire  was  opened  upon  them 
by  the  hidden  enemy ;  the  rear  guard  was  cut  off  from  the  main  body, 
driven  back,  and  dispersed,  many  being  taken  prisoners,  and  the  pro- 
vision train  captured.  Herkimer  was  mortally  wounded,  and  his  horse 
shot  under  him.  Seating  himself  upon  his  saddle  at  the  foot  of  a  tree 
where  he  could  overlook  the  field,  he  continued  to  give  orders  while 
he  calmly  smoked  his  pipe.  To  all  remonstrances,  urging  him  to  re- 
tire, he  said,  "  I  will  face  the  enemy."  His  men,  as  brave  now  as 
they  had  been  rash  before,  determined  to  fight  to  the  last.  In  groups 
of  two  or  three,  from  behind  trees,  or  any  point  of  advantage  that  the 
nature  of  the  ground  afforded,  they  met  or  assailed  the  enemy  ;  men 
encountered  each  other  in  hand-to-hand  fights  with  clubbed  rifles,  with 
tomahawks,  with  knives.  Captain  Gardener  killed  three  men  in  quick 
succession  with  his  spear.  Captain  Dillenback,  attacked  at  once  by 
three  men,  brained  the  first,  shot  the  second,  and  bayonetted  the  third. 
Henry  Thompson  rested  long  enough  to  take  his  lunch,  as  he  sat  upon 
the  body  of  a  dead  soldier,  and  then  resumed  his  fighting.1  Thirty 
men  of  Johnson's  Greens,  who  rushed  into  the  midst  of  the  fight  under 
the  pretence  of  reenforcing  the  Americans,  were  fallen  upon  and  in- 
stantly killed.  For  five  hours  the  desperate  battle  continued,  till  the 
ground  was  covered  with  the  dead  and  wounded,  nearly  two  hundred 
being  killed  on  each  side. 

At  length  the  welcome  sound  of  firing  was  heard  in  the  direction 
of  Fort  Schuyler.  The  messengers  sent  forward  the  day  be- 
Fortschuy-  fore,  had  reached  the  fort,  and  immediately  Gansevoort  or- 
ganized a  sortie  composed  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  New 
York  and  Massachusetts  men  under  Lieutenant-colonel  Willett,  of 
New  York.  The  party  made  a  rapid  dash  into  the  enemy's  camp, 
where  only  a  few  troops  remained,  captured  flags,  baggage,  stores,  and 
papers,  and  by  their  firing  relieved  Herkimer  of  the  enemy  on  his 
front  and  flanks. 

The  Indians,  having  lost  many  of  their  Avarriors,  were  the  first  to  re- 
treat at  the  sound  of  Willett's  musketry,  and  the  whole  British  force 
soon  followed,  leaving  the  Americans  in  possession  of  the  field.  It  was 
a  complete  check  to  St.  Leger's  proposed  movement,  though  he  still 
persisted  in  the  siege  of  the  fort.  When,  however,  soon  after,  rumors 

1  Address  at  the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  Oriskani/.     By  Ellis  II.  Roberts, 


1777.] 


THE   REPULSE   AT   ORISKAXY. 


579 


reached  him  of  the  approach  of  Arnold  with  a  second  relief  party  of 
Continentals,  whose  numbers  were  magnified  by  couriers  sent  design- 
edly into  the  enemy's  camp,  the  Indian  allies  became  alarmed,  and 
compelled  St.  Leger  to  abandon  the  siege  and  hurry  back  in  the  di- 
rection from  which  he  came. 

To  the  memory  of  Herkimer,  who,  ten  days  after  the  battle,  died 
"  like  a  philosopher  and  a  Christian,"  Congress  ordered  a  monument, 
—  which  has  never  been  erected  ;  to  Willett  it  presented  a  sword,  and 
to  Gansevoort  its  thanks.  It  was  not  an  over-estimate  of  the  impor- 
tance of  this  repulse  of  the  British  invasion  of  the  Mohawk  Valley. 
Burgoy ne's  plan  of  the  campaign  was  in  one  essential  part  entirely 


Herkimer  at  the  Battle  of  Onskany. 

frustrated,  while  soon  after  fresh  disaster  met  his  advance  in  another 
direction. 

At   Benningion,  Vt,,   then  known  as  the  "Hampshire   Grants," 
twenty-five    miles    east  of    Burgovne's    line    of    march,  the   , 

?    •/  Isattle  of 

Americans   had   established  a  depot  of  horses   and    stores,   Bcnni»g'°» 
which,  in  the  destitute  condition  of  his  armv,  was  much  coveted  b\ 

• 


580  BUHGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

the  English  commander.  His  provisions  were  giving  out,  and  a  timely 
supply  from  Canada  was  doubtful.  On  the  6th  of  the  month  there 
was  hardly  enough  on  hand  for  the  consumption  of  two  days.  En- 
couraged by  the  statements  of  Philip  Skene,  the  principal  loyalist  in 
that  region,  and  of  scouts  and  deserters,  Burgoyne  organized  a  secret 
expedition,  not  only  to  capture  the  Bennington  depot,  but  to  demon- 
strate toward  the  Connecticut  Valley,  overawe  the  country,  and  then 
to  return  by  a  circuitous  march  to  Albany.  For  the  leader  of  the 
raid  he  selected  Lieutenant-colonel  Baume,  an  accomplished  and 
trusted  German  officer,  and  gave  him  for  his  command  a  select  corps, 
about  five  hundred  strong,  consisting  of  Hessians,  dragoons,  English 
light  infantry  under  Captain  Fraser,  and  a  party  of  loyalist  rangers. 
About  one  hundred  Indians  also  hung  upon  the  column.  Receiving 
minute  instructions  from  his  commander-in-chief  as  to  what  he  was  to 
do  in  any  possible  emergency,  and  to  exercise  the  utmost  caution, 
Baume  left  the  main  army  on  the  llth,  and  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
13th  reached  the  township  of  Cambridge,  sixteen  miles  distant.  On 
the  next  day,  writing  "  on  the  head  of  a  barrel,"  he  sent  word  back 
to  Burgoyne,  that  the  rebels  were  now  apprised  of  the  expedition,  but 
that  the  Tories  were  flocking  in  to  him  ;  that  his  Indians  were  uncon- 
trollable, ruining  or  taking  everything  they  pleased  ;  and  that  reports 
made  the  strength  of  the  American  militia  at  Bennington  about  eight- 
een hundred,  all  told.  On  receiving  this  information,  Burgoyne  or- 
dered forward,  on  the  15th,  Colonel  Breyman  and  five  hundred  Bruns- 
wick chasseurs,  to  reenforce  Baume. 

In  the  old  farming  town  of  Dunbarton,  Merrimack  County,  New 
stark  leads  Hampshire,  still  stands  the  venei-able  mansion  from  which 
ihuivpshire  John  Stark  hurried  with  the  farmers  to  Boston,  at  the  news 
men-  of  the  fight  at  Lexington,  and  which  he  had  now  again  left 

to  meet  this  marauding  expedition  sent  against  his  own  neighbors. 
At  Bunker  Hill  and  Trenton  the  veteran  colonel  had  already  gained 
high  reputation,  and  in  this  exigency  he  was  the  man  above  all 
others  to  lead  whatever  troops  might  gather  at  Bennington.  All 
that  region  would  answer  his  call.  Why  he  was  not  with  Schuyler 
and  the  main  American  body  at  this  time,  is  to  be  explained  by  the 
unfortunate  jealousies  existing  in  that  department,  and  his  own  con- 
viction that  he  had  been  neglected  in  the  last  promotion  of  general 
officers.  But  his  patriotism  was  unimpeached,  and  at  such  a  moment 
he  was  ready  for  action.  Burgoyne's  approach  had  aroused  all  New 
Hampshire  to  renewed  efforts  to  do  her  duty  in  the  defence  of  the 
country.  "I  have,"  said  John  Langdon,  President  of  the  Assembly, 
"  three  thousand  dollars  in  hard  money  ;  my  plate  I  will  pledge  for 
as  much  more.  I  have  seventy  hogsheads  of  Tobago  rum,  which 


1777.] 


BATTLE  OF  BENNINGTON. 


581 


shall  be  sold  for  the  most  they  will  bring.  These  are  at  the  service 
of  the  State.  If  we  succeed,  I  shall  be  remunerated ;  if  not,  they  will 
be  of  no  use  to  me."  The  State  promptly  ordered  out  the  militia,  and 
gave  Stark  the  command. 

The  men  answering  to  the  summons  came  from  the  best  class  of 
people  in  the  "  Grants."  Stark's  brigade  consisted  of  fifteen  hundred 
militia  under  Colonels  Nichols  and  Stickney,  while  Colonels  Seth 
Warner,  Herrick,  and  Williams  reported  with  companies  of  Green 
Mountain  boys.  The  entire  force  which  gathered  to  resist  invasion 
was  not  far  from  twenty- 
two  hundred.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  14th  the  greater 
part  of  it  reached  Benning- 
ton,  Warner's  men  march- 
ing all  night  in  the  rain  from 
Manchester,  Vermont. 
Stark  had  heard  of  Baume's 
approach,  and  he  marched 
instantly  to  support  Lieu- 
tenant-colonel Gregg,  who 
had  been  detached  the  day 
before  to  skirmish  with  and 
delay  the  enemy.  During 
the  forenoon  of  the  14th 
the  forces  came  within  sight 
of  each  other,  and  Baume 
at  once  took  up  a  command- 
ing position  overlooking  a 
bend  in  the  Walloomscoik 
River. 

A  heavy  rain  prevented 
movements  on  the  loth. 
On  the  16th  Stark  moved  to  attack  the  enemy  on  three  sides  at  once. 
Colonels  Nichols  and  Herrick,  with  about  five  hundred  men,  made  their 
way  through  the  woods  to  his  left  and  rear,  their  approach  frightening 
the  Indians  off  the  field.  Colonels  Stickney  and  Hubbard  engaged 
some  detached  parties,  while  Stark  with  the  main  body  attacked  Baume 
in  front.  Tradition  runs  that,  as  soon  as  the  General  came  in  sight 
of  the  enemy,  he  exclaimed,  "See  there,  my  men!  —  there  are  the 
red-coats  !  Before  night  they  're  ours,  or  Molly  Stark  's  a  widow."  x 
For  two  hours  the  fight  continued,  the  Americans  pressing  upon 

1  The  tradition  may  be  wrong,  however,  as  tradition  so  often  is.    Mrs.  Stark's  name  was 
neither  Molly  nor  Mary,  but  Elizabeth. 


General  John  Stark. 


582  BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

the  enemy  with  the  steadiness  and  cool  persistency  of  men  used  to 
battle,  at  times  dashing  up  the  hill  at  the  earthworks,  in  spite  of 
the  warm  reception  given  them.  Surrounded  nearly  on  all  sides,  by 
this  determined  conduct  of  the  militia,  the  British  finally  gave  way, 
and  attempted  to  escape  by  their  only  road  of  retreat ;  but  in  this 
they  were  foiled,  and  the  entire  body  surrendered.  Baume  was  mor- 
tally wounded. 

Greatly  elated  by  their  success,  the  militiamen  scattered  to  plunder 
the  abandoned  camp.  In  this  disregard  of  discipline  and  loss  of  order, 
they  came  near  losing  all  the  advantage  they  had  gained  by  their 
courage  and  previous  good  behavior.  Colonel  Breyman  arrived  upon 
the  field  with  reinforcements,  and  all  that  had  been  won  would  have 
been  lost  had  not  Stark,  who  was  prompt  to  see  it,  met  this  new  emer- 
gency, and  sent  Colonel  Warner  with  a  fresh  regiment  to  the  rescue  of 
the  almost  discomfited  and  disordered  men.  Breyman  was  driven 
back  by  Warner  with  considerable  loss.  When  night  closed,  victory 
for  the  Americans  was  assured.  They  had  taken  four  cannon  and 
nearly  seven  hundred  prisoners,  with  a  loss  to  themselves  of  less 
than  a  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded. 

This  new  disaster  to  Buvgoyne,  following  so  closely  upon  the  re- 
pulse in  the  Mohawk  Valley,  gave  a  new  and  cheerful  aspect  to 
affairs  in  the  Northern  Department.  New  England  was  full  of  en- 
thusiasm, and  volunteers  hastened  from  all  quarters  to  strengthen  the 
American  army.  "Pray  let  no  time  be  lost,"  wrote  General  Glover 
to  James  Warren  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  to  urge  the  send- 
ing on  of  men  ;  "  a  day's  delay  may  be  fatal  to  America.  Let  the 
body  be  as  large  as  can  possibly  be  collected."  In  Connecticut 
hundreds  of  the  militia  pressed  forward.  As  an  evidence  of  the  gen- 
eral enthusiasm,  Noah  Webster  records  that  his  father,  his  two 
brothers,  and  himself  shouldered  their  muskets  and  marched  to  the 
field,  leaving  their  mother  and  sisters  alone  to  carry  on  the  farm. 
The  militia  in  northern  and  central  New  York  turned  out  with  equal 
alertness. 

Rivalries  and  disputes  as  to  precedence  and  the  right  of  promotion 
were  among  the  fruits  of  the  want  of  discipline  which  ex- 
the  North-  isted  in  the  Revolutionary  armies,  and  sometimes,  no  doubt, 
interfered  with  the  efficiency  of  military  operations.  But 
party  spirit  and  sectional  jealousies  not  nnfrequently  governed  Con- 
gress in  the  choice  of  major-generals ;  and  both  Arnold  and  Stark  had 
been  passed  over,  early  this  year,  and  their  juniors  preferred  to  them 
from  other  considerations  than  those  of  military  merit.  Arnold  never 
recovered  from  this  wound  to  his  pride  and  self-love ;  and  if  the  vin- 
dictiveness  it  engendered  did  not  lead  him  to  treason,  it  made  it  easier 


1777.] 


MILITARY   JEALOUSIES. 


583 


for  him  to  be  a  traitor.  Stark  was  of  different  stuff.  It  was  his  self- 
respect,  not  his  self-love,  that  was  wounded,  and  though  lie  retired 
from  the  army  where  his  past  services  entitled  him  to  recognition 
which  he  did  not  receive,  no  man  could  be  quicker  than  he  to  take  the 
field  again,  as  we  have  just  seen,  when  it  was  clear  that  his  services 
were  again  needed.  Nowhere  had  jealousy  and  misunderstanding  bred 
so  much  mischief  and  bitterness  as  in  this  Northern  Department.  One 
general  after  another  had  been  displaced,  and  each  had  been  exposed  to 
reprehension  where  each  had  probably  done  the  best  that  circumstances 
would  admit  of.  Wooster,  Thomas,  Sullivan,  Schuyler,  Gates,  had 
followed  each  other  in  rapid  succession,  till  the  autumn  of  1770,  when 
Schuyler  by  an  appeal  to  Congress  had  procured  his  reinstatement. 


Battle  field  of  Bennington. 

Both  he  and  Gates  had  strong  friends  and  bitter  opponents.  Schuyler 
had  little  confidence  in  the  New  England  troops,  and  the  New  England 
troops  and  their  representatives  in  Congress  had  just  as  little  confi- 
dence in  him.  Both  were  wrong  :  there  were  no  better  soldiers  in  the 
army  than  those  from  New  England  ;  there  was  no  more  devoted 
patriot,  nor  a  braver  soldier  in  the  country  than  Schuyler.  Pro- 
vincial jealousies,  as  old  as  the  French  and  Indian  wars,  had  much 
to  do  with  the  feeling  of  mutual  mistrust ;  and  Schuyler's  misfortunes 
rather  than  his  faults,  in  the  conduct  of  the  campaign  thus  far,  could 
be  easily  used  as  effective  weapons  against  him  by  those  who  sincerely 
doubted  his  military  ability,  or  who  resented  his  avowed  contempt 


584  BURGOYNE'S   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

of  the  New  England  troops.  When  Ticondevoga  was  lost,  it  was  at- 
tributed to  his  want  of  generalship,  and  befoi'e  that  was  atoned  for  by 
Gates  in  ^'ie  subsequent  successes  under  his  command,  Gates,  who  was 
command.  a  he^er  politician  than  soldier,  had  induced  Congress  to  give 
him  Schuyler's  place  at  the  very  moment  when  he  had  nothing  to  do 
but  reap  the  advantage  of  Schuyler's  successful  movements.  Con- 
gress had  not  heard  of  Herkimer's  and  Stavk's  victories  when  they 
reinstated  Gates  at  the  head  of  the  northern  army.1 

As  September  advanced,  the  distance  between  Gates  and  Burgoyne 
decreased.  On  the  12th,  the  former  moved  his  camp  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Mohawk  and  took  position  on  Bemus's  Heights  in 
Bemuds  the  town  of  Stillwater,  twenty-five  miles  north  of  Albany. 
The  site,  which  was  commanding,  and  capable  of  easy  de- 
fence, had  been  selected  by  Arnold  and  Kosciusko,  and  under  the  di- 
rection of  this  Polish  engineer  was  strengthened  by  a  line  of  breast- 
works and  redoubts.  With  the  right  resting  on  the  Hudson,  the  left 
on  ridges  and  woods,  and  the  front  made  impregnable  by  a  ravine 
and  abatis,  Gates  felt  himself  secure  against  direct  assault.  To  con- 
tinue his  march  to  Albany,  Burgoyne  must  first  crush  this  obstacle. 

The  difficulties  encountered  by  the  British  in  bringing  up  supplies, 
fatally  delayed  their  progress.  Recognizing  the  absolute  necessity  of 
pushing  on,  they  attacked  the  Americans  on  Bemus's  Heights  as 
soon  as  they  reached  that  point.  Both  sides  had  their  entire  force 
in  hand.  The  strength  of  Gates's  army  was  about  nine  thousand. 
On  the  right,  where  he  himself  commanded,  were  posted  Nixon's, 
Glover's,  and  Patterson's  Continental  brigades,  all  Massachusetts 
troops;  in  the  centre,  Learned's  brigade,  mainly  from  the  same  State; 
and  upon  the  left,  where  Arnold  was  assigned  the  command,  lay  Gen- 
eral Poor's  brigade  of  the  three  New  Hampshire  Continental  regi- 
ments under  Colonels  Cilley,  Scammell,  and  Hale;  the  third  and 
fourth  New  York,  under  Colonels  Van  Courtlandt  and  Henry  Liv- 
ingston, and  two  large  Connecticut  militia  regiments  under  Colonels 
Thaddeus  Cook,  of  Litchfield,  and  Jonathan  Latimer,  of  New  Lon- 
don County.  Attached  to  Arnold's  wing,  but  usually  operating  at  the 
front,  were  the  famous  rifle  corps2  under  Colonel  Daniel  Morgan, 

1  "  Gen.  Gates  is  a  happy  man  to  arrive  at  a  moment  when  Gen.  Schuyler  had  just 
paved  the  way  to  victory  ;  he  has  not  taken  any  measures  yet,  and  cannot  claim  the  honor 
of  anything  that  has  as  yet  happened."  —  MS.  tetter  from  Col.  Varick,  Albany,  Any.  23, 1 777. 
N.  Y.  Mercantile  Library. 

4  This  corps,  which  rendered  conspicuous  service  in  the  engagements  with  Burgoyne, 
was  made  up  of  good  marksmen  chosen  from  the  regiments  which  composed  Washington's 
army  at  Morristown  in  the  spring.  They  were  nearly  all  from  the  Middle  and  Southern 
States.  Morgan's  seconds  in  command  were  Lieutenant-colonel  William  Butler  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Major  Morris  of  New  Jersey.  Washington  organized  the  corps  for  his  own 
campaign,  but  sent  it  to  Gates,  upon  the  latter's  urgent  request  for  reinforcements. 


1777.]  BATTLE   OF  FREEMAN'S   FARM.  585 

of  Virginia,  and  a  body  of  about  three  hundred  Continental  light  in- 
fantry, detailed  for  the  campaign  and  commanded  by  Major  Henry 
Dearborn  of  New  Hampshire. 

Skirmishing  on  the  18th  warned  the  enemy  that  parties  for  forage 
could  go  out  safely  only  in  force.  A  party  of  soldiers  gathering  po- 
tatoes, a  mile  from  camp,  were  attacked,  and  killed  or  captured  by  the 
Americans.  Burgoyne  immediately  issued  an  order  threatening  in- 
stant death  to  every  man  who  ventured  beyond  the  advanced  sentries. 
No  useless  exposure  was  permitted.  "  The  life  of  the  soldier,"  he 
declared,  "  is  the  property  of  the  King." 

On  the  19th  serious  work  began.    Breaking  camp  at  Swords'  Farm, 
on  the  river  bank,  five  miles  north  of  Gates's  position,  Bur- 
govne  moved  forward  to  the  attack  in  three  columns.     Gen-  stuiwater, 

»   »  .  .  or  Free- 

erals  Phillips  and  Riedesel  followed   the  main   road  along  m»nR 
the  Hudson,  with  the  artillery ;  the  centre,  which  Buvgoyne 
accompanied,  moved  toward  Freeman's  Farm,  about  opposite  the  Amer- 
ican left;  while  General  Fraser  took  a  more  westerly  route,  with  the 
design  of  turning  Gates's  left  flank. 

The  intentions  of  the  enemy  being  evident,  the  regiments  of  Arnold's 
wing  were  successively  ordered  out  to  face  Fraser  and  Burgoyne, 
while  the  brigades  on  the  right  remained  at  their  posts  within  the 
works,  awaiting  events.  Fraser's  advance  consisted  of  Canadians  and 
Indians,  and  the  engagement  opened  towards  noon,  about  a  mile  from 
the  lines,  between  them  and  Morgan's  riflemen  and  Dearborn's  in- 
fantry. The  enemy's  skirmishers  were  at  first  driven  back,  but  on  the 
approach  of  Fraser's  supports,  Morgan  was  compelled  to  The  engage- 
retreat  in  some  confusion,  with  the  loss  of  a  captain  and  ""^'op6118- 
twenty  men  taken  prisoners.  Rallying  his  corps,  however,  with  his 
powerful  voice  and  the  call  of  his  shrill  whistle,  Morgan  was  soon  in 
position  again.  Scammell's  and  Cilley's  New  Hampshire  regiments 
had  been  already  sent  out  to  support  him,  and  in  a  short  time  nearly 
the  whole  of  Poor's  brigade  was  in  line  to  resist  the  advance  of  the 
enemy  on  that  flank. 

By  this  time,  between  one  and  two  o'clock,  Burgoyne's  central  col- 
umn had  reached  Freeman's  Farm,  and  with  Fraser  on  the  right  pre- 
sented a  determined  front.  The  left  column  was  still  advancing  along 
the  river.  But  as  Morgan  and  Poor's  brigade  had  now  concentrated 
in  front  of  Burgoyne,  Fraser  could  not  have  continued  his  independ- 
ent flank  movement  without  exposing  the  centre,  and  the  two  columns 
were  soon  compelled  to  join  their  fronts  as  a  continuous  line. 

Thick  woods,  interspersed  with  occasional  clearings  and  ravines, 
covered  the  battle-ground.  Taking  advantage  of  this  protection,  the 
contending  lines  could  approach  each  other  within  close  range.  As 


586 


BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


the  New  Hampshire  men  came  up  to  reenforce  Morgan,  and  the  action 
was  renewed,  the  firing  steadily  increased  in  volume  and  effect,  con- 
tinuing until  sunset.  For  some  distance  between  the  two  lines  lay  a 
hollow,  and  the  attempt  on  each  side  to  drive  the  other  from  its  posi- 
tion was  invariably  followed  with  serious  loss.  When  Cilley  first  be- 
came engaged,  so  many  of  his  men  fell  in  twenty  minutes  that  he 
could  save  himself  only  by  falling  back  on  reinforcements.  With 
these  the  regiment  went  into  the  fight  again  with  great  spirit,  and 
fought  till  night.  Colonel  Scammell  fearlessly  led  his  regiment 
where  the  fire  was  the  hottest.  Lieutenant-colonels  Adams  and  Co- 
burn,  of  the  Second  and  Third  New  Hampshire,  fell  dead  in  the  heat 
of  the  battle.  The  two  New  York  regiments,  which  were  sent  out 
during  the  action,  became  hotly  engaged,  especially  the  Second  under 

Colonel  Courtlandt.  Cook's  and 
Latimer's  Connecticut  militia- 
men also  distinguished  them- 
selves by  their  steadiness  and 
courage,  Cook's  losing  fifty  men 
killed  and  wounded,  or  more 
than  any  other  regiment  except 
Cilley's.  Major  William  Hull, 
of  Massachusetts,  lost  nearly 
half  of  three  hundred  men  under 
his  command.  For  four  hours 
the  battle  continued  in  the 
woods,  without  a  decisive  re- 
sult. The  enemy  fought  with 
desperation,  under  the  lead  of 
their  gallant  officei'S.  Their  four 
pieces  of  artillery  —  the  Ameri- 
cans having  none  on  the  field  — 
became  at  one  time  the  central 
point  of  the  contest.  A  party 
of  New  Hampshire  men  charged  upon  and  seized  a  twelve-pounder, 
only  to  be  driven  from  it  by  a  larger  body  of  the  enemy.  Again  it 
was  taken  by  the  Americans,  and  again  they  were  forced  back. 
Private  Thomas  Haines,  of  Concord,  sat  astride  the  muzzle  of  the 
piece  when  the  enemy  last  came  up,  and  killed  two  men  with  his 
bayonet  before  a  bullet  struck  him  down.1  Thirty-six  out  of  the 
forty-eight  British  gunners  in  this  desperate  struggle  were  either 
killed  01  wounded. 

Later  in  the  afternoon  Learned's  brigade  entered  the  field,  and  Ar- 

1  Journal  of  Lieutenant  Thomas  Blake. 


General    Horatio   Gates. 


1777.]  RESULT    OF   THE   BATTLE.  587 

nold's  entire  wing  was  thus  engaged.  The  General  himself  was  pres- 
ent during  at  least  a  portion  of  the  afternoon,  not  only  issuing  orders, 
but  keeping  the  troops  up  to  the  fight  by  his  daring  example.1  From 
the  nature  of  the  ground,  however,  and  as  the  troops  were  sent  into 
action  at  intervals  by  regiments,  the  movements  were  conducted 
mainly  by  the  colonels.  At  sunset  the  firing  ceased,  the  Americans 
withdrew  to  their  fortified  line,  and  the  enemy  were  left  in  possession 
of  the  field.  In  a  military  point  of  view,  it  was  a  drawn  battle ;  but 
it  had  checked  Burgoyne's  advance  and  was  in  reality  a  decisive  suc- 
cess for  the  army  under  Gates.2 

The  British  fortified  the  ground  they  held  from  the  river  to  Free- 
man's Farm.  Their  loss  had  been  heavy,  especially  in  officers,  the 
total  being  over  six  hundred  and  fifty,3  while  the  American  loss  was 
sixty-five  killed,  two  hundred  and  eighteen  wounded,  and  thirty-eight 
missing,  or  less  than  half  the  enemy's.  Of  the  Twentieth  and  Sixty- 
second  British  regulars,  scarcely  fifty  men  and  five  officers  survived 
the  battle. 

Eighteen  days  elapsed  before  there  was  any  further  movement.  In 
the  interval  Gates  grew  stronger,  Burgoyne  weaker.  The  action  of 
the  19th  and  its  result  were  hailed  with  joy  throughout  the  country. 
Militia  continued  to  march  northward.  General  Ten  Broeck  joined 
the  army  with  over  two  thousand  men  from  New  York;  Lincoln 
brought  in  as  many  from  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire.  Gen- 
eral Oliver  Wolcott,  of  Connecticut,  went  up  with  three  hundred 
volunteers,  the  majority  of  the  militia  from  that  State  being  retained 

1  Geueral  Wilkinson,  Gates's  Adjutant-general,  asserts  in  his  Memoirs  that  no  general  of- 
ficer was  on  the  field  ou  the  19th,  and  this  statement  is  adopted  by  Mr.  Bancroft  and  oth- 
ers, who  insist  that  Arnold  took  no  part  in  the  fight.     Beyond  the  authorities  which  have 
been  quoted  to  the  contrary,  we  have  the  Memoirs  of  Major  Hull  and  the  diary  of  Colonel 
Courtlandt,  both  of  whom  say  they  received  orders  from  Arnold  in  the  field.     General  Car- 
ringtou,  in  his  recent  Battles  of  the  Revolution,  properly  observes  that  it  would  be  utterly  in- 
consistent with  Arnold's  nature  and  the  position  he  occupied  to  suppose  that  he  remained 
quietly  in  camp  while  his  entire  division  was  out  fighting  the  enemy. 

2  General  Glover  briefly  described  the  action  as  follows,  in  a  letter  of  September  21 : 
'•  The  battle  was  very  hot  till  half-past  two  o'clock ;  ceased  about  half  an  hour,  then  re- 
newed the  attack.   Both  armies  seemed  determined  to  conquer  or  die.    One  continual  blaze, 
without  any  intermission,  until  dark,  when  by  consent  of  both  parties  it  ceased ;  during 
which  time  we  several  times  drove  them,  took  the  ground,  passing  over  great  numbers  of 
their  dead  and  wounded.     The  enemy  in  their  turn  sometimes  drove  us.     They  were  bold, 
iutrepid,  and  fought  like  heroes,  and  I  do  assure  you,  sirs,  our  men  were  equally  bold  and 
courageous  and  fought  like  men  fighting  for  their  all."  —  Essex  Institute  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  v. 
No.  3. 

8  The  enemy's  loss  on  the  19th  has  heretofore  only  been  estimated.  From  Pell's  diary, 
already  quoted,  we  get  the  details,  namely  :  4  captains,  9  subalterns,  11  sergeants,  219 
rank  and  file,  killed.  Two  lieutenant-colonels,  2  majors,  7  captains,  13  subalterns,  6  ser- 
geants, 400  rank  and  file,  wounded.  The  American  loss  is  given  by  Gordon,  who  took  it 
from  the  report  of  the  Board  of  War. 


588  BURGOYNE'S  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

at  Peekskill  under  Generals  Putnam  and  Silliman.  Stark  threatened 
Burgoyne's  communications  at  Fort  Edward.  Colonel  John  Brown, 
of  Pittsfield,  with  five  hundred  men,  made  a  dash  at  Ticonderoga,  and 
took  prisoners  and  guns. 

Around  the  enemy  a  net  was  forming,  which  they  must  break 
through  at  one  end  or  the  other,  or  be  captured.  One  gleam  of  hope 
remained  for  them.  Operating  in  dense  woods,  with  uncertain  means 
of  communication  with  New  York,  Burgoyne  had  for  weeks  been  in 
total  ignorance  of  the  progress  of  events  elsewhere.  He  had  advanced, 
expecting  every  hour  to  hear  that  a  cooperating  column  was  moving 
up  the  Hudson  to  Albany,  which  would  compel  Gates  to  fall  back 
Clinton's  co-  both  to  save  that  point  and  to  save  his  army.  As  time 
operation,  passed,  the  hope  of  this  relief  grew  stronger.  On  Septem- 
ber 21st  intelligence  came  from  Sir  Henry  Clinton  that  an  expedition 
would  sail  up  the  Hudson  in  about  ten  days,  for  the  purpose  of  at- 
tacking Forts  Clinton  and  Montgomery,  a  few  miles  below  West  Point, 
and  thus  create  a  diversion  which  must  be  in  Burgoyne's  favor. 

Clinton  kept  his  promise,  and  succeeded  in  doing  much  damage  and 

creating  much  alarm  along  the  Hudson.     On  the  3d  of  October  he 

left  New  York,  moving  with  a  large  force  by  land  and  water, 

Capture    of 

Forts  ciin-    and  on  the  nth  reached  Verplanck's  Point,  forty  miles  up  the 

ton  ami  .  T-I  i    •  •  i  -11  • 

Montgom-  river.  B  roui  this  point  a  large  detachment  was  sent  in 
boats,  convoyed  by  ships,  toward  Peekskill,  as  a  feint  to 
cover  the  crossing  of  the  main  body  early  on  the  6th,  to  King's  Ferry 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Hudson.  A  heavy  fog  favored  the  move. 
General  Putnam,  in  command  at  Peekskill,  was  deceived  \>y  this  ma- 
noeuvre and  took  no  precautions  against  the  advance  at  King's  Ferry. 
Following  a  circuitous  route  around  Dunderberg  mountain,  Clinton 
appeared  in  the  afternoon  before  Forts  Montgomery  and  Clinton,  and 
carried  both  by  assault.  Governor  George  Clinton  of  New  York  ex- 
erted himself  to  save  the  posts,  and  General  James  Clinton  received  a 
bayonet-wound.  The  American  loss  was  about  three  hundred,  of 
whom  sixty  or  seventy  were  killed  and  wounded.  The  British  dis- 
mantled the  forts,  burned  two  American  frigates,  destroyed  stores,  and 
Kingston  ended  their  incursion  by  marching  to  Esopus  (now  Kings- 
burned.  ton)  and  laying  it  in  ashes.  Putnam,  who  could  send  no 
assistance  to  the  forts  in  time,  retreated  farther  up  the  river,  aban- 
doning the  fortified  points,  and  took  post  at  Fishkill.  The  Hudson 
was  thus  left  open  to  the  fleet  of  the  enemy,  who,  satisfied  with  their 
success,  returned  to  New  York.  A  court  of  inquiry  relieved  Putnam 
from  responsibility  for  these  reverses  in  his  department,  serious  as 
they  were,  and  disastrous  as  they  might  have  been. 

Burgoyne's  situation  was  becoming  more  and  more  critical.     His 


1777.]  BATTLE  OF  BEMUS'S  HEIGHTS.  »89 

provisions  were  giving  out,  and  it  was  necessary  either  to  advance  or 
to  retreat.  He  determined  to  advance,  and  on  the  7th  of  October 
moved  with  a  select  detachment  of  fifteen  hundred  regulars  and  ten 
guns  to  turn  the  American  left.  His  best  general  officers  were  with 
l,im —  Phillips,  Riedesel,  and  Fraser.  Taking  position  in  open  ground 
within  less  than  a  mile  of  the  American  works,  his  advance  sought  to 
reach  the  American  rear. 

No  sooner  was  Gates  apprised  of  Burgoyne's  appearance  than  he 
ordered  out  Morgan  and  his  riflemen  "  to  begin  the  game." 
The  fighting  was  even  more  desperate  and  decisive  than  that  tie  of  smi- 
of  the  19th  of  September.    The  enemy's  advance  was  driven    nrmus'g 
in,  and  Morgan  made  his  way  to  Burgoyne's  right,  where 
Fraser  was  in  command.     Poor's  and  Learned's  brigades  were  ordered 
to  attack  the  left,  while  other  troops  were  held  in  readiness  to  enter 
the  action  where  needed.     As  Poor  and  Learned  advanced,  they  were 
met  by  a  sharp  but  ineffectual  volley  from  Ackland's  grenadiers,  to 
which  they  replied  with  close  and  telling    discharges.     The    attack 
soon  proved  decisive,  and  the  grenadiers  and  artillerymen  fled  from  the 
field,  leaving  Ackland  wounded  and  a  prisoner.     Nearly  at  the  same 
moment  Morgan  and  Dearborn  fell  upon  the  right  of  the  enemy  and 
routed  it  with  serious  loss.     The  centre  held  its  ground  until  driven 
back   by  further  reinforcements   from   Gates's   lines,  including    Ten 
Broeck's  New  York  militia.     Scarcely  one  hour  after  the  British  gave 
battle,  their  whole  line  was  retiring  in  disorder  towards  their  camp. 

At  this  juncture  Arnold  appeared  upon  the  field.     Personal  differ- 
ences with  Gates  had  led  to  his  removal  from  command  since   Arnoldand 
the  battle  of  the  19th,  but  he  had  remained  in  camp.    When   Gates- 
this  action  opened,  he  joined  his  old  division,  now  hotly  engaged,  and 
assumed  control  of  its  movements,  notwithstanding  his  removal.     On 
hearing  of  this  defiance  of  his  authority,  Gates  sent  an  aid  to  recall 
him  ;  but  Arnold,  keeping  out  of  the  way  of  the  messenger,  placed 
himself  at  the  head,  now  of  one  brigade  and  now  of  another,  and  led 
them  to  the  attack  at  different  points  with  good  judgment  and  un- 
daunted courage.     His  conduct  roused  the  troops  to  enthusiasm,  who 
cheered  and  followed  wherever  he  led.     As  he  entered  the  field  the 
British  line  was  already  breaking.     Under  his  impetuous  assaults,  first 
with   Patterson's  and  Glover's  brigades,  and   then  with  Learned's, 
the  enemy  gave  way  everywhere  in  confusion.     Even  when  driven 
to  their    intrench  men  ts,  at  dusk,  the  vigorous  charge  of  Arnold  and 
Morgan  on  the  extreme  right,  broke  through  the  line  of  works  and 
forced  the  Germans  to  abandon  their  position.     In  this  last   ArnoW 
charge  Arnold  was  wounded  as  he  was  entering  the  sally-   woulllled 
port.     In  his  report  of  the  action,  Gates  had  the  magnanimity  to  men- 


590  BURGOYXE'S   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

tion  Arnold's  services,  and  Congress  at  once  promoted  him  to  the 
rank  of  major-general. 

The  loss  on  the  side  of  the  Americans  in  this  well-fought  field  was 
remarkably  small  ;  not  over  fifty  were  killed,  and  about  one  hundred 
were  wounded.  On  the  other  side  the  loss  was  much  heavier,  their 
killed  alone  outnumbering  all  the  casualties  of  their  opponents.1 
Their  heaviest  blow  was  in  the  fall  of  General  Fraser.  Quite  as 
Death  of  brave  and  almost  as  reckless  as  Arnold,  his  example  was  no 
less  inspiriting  to  the  troops  he  led,  and  to  him  more  than  to 
any  other  British  officer  was  duo  their  desperate  resistance.  Morgan 
saw  the  contagion  of  his  example  ;  and,  if  tradition  may  be  trusted, 
pointed  him  out  to  three  of  his  unerring  riflemen  as  a  proper  object 
for  their  aim.  When  he  fell,  mortally  wounded,  the  tide  of  battle 
turned.  Not  even  Burgoyne,  who  also  exposed  himself  wherever  his 
presence  seemed  needed,  could  save  the  day.  Shot  through  the  hat 
and  waistcoat,  he  narrowly  escaped  a  fate  like  Eraser's,  and  only  re- 
turned to  his  camp  when  driven  back  with  his  troops.  His  principal 
aid,  Sir  Francis  Clerke,  was  mortally  wounded,  and  died  next  day  a 
prisoner  in  Gates's  tent.  Lieutenant-colonel  Breyman,  commanding 
the  Germans  on  the  right,  was  also  killed.  Eight  of  the  guns  brought 
into  the  field  were  lost. 

This  signal  defeat  of  the  enemy  on  the  7th  was  decisive.  Gates 
was  i.ow  more  than  twice  as  strong  as  his  antagonist.  Oon- 
scions  of  the  danger  of  his  situation,  Burgoyne,  on  the  night 
of  the  8th,  abandoning  everything  not  immediately  needed,  quietly 
retreated  to  Saratoga,  and  encamped  on  the  north  side  of  the  Fish- 
kill.  On  the  morning  of  this  day,  General  Lincoln,  while  reconnoiter- 
ing  the  enemy's  position,  received  a  severe  wound.  In  the  evening, 
Fraser  was  buried  with  military  honors  in  a  redoubt  near  the  Hud- 
son. Burgoyne,  Phillips,  and  other  general  officers,  with  their  start's, 
were  present  at  these  last  services  over  the  grave  of  their  comrade, 
where  the  requiem  was  the  fire  of  American  cannon  aimed  at  a  group 
easily  distinguished  by  the  artillerymen,  but  who  were  unconscious  of 
the  purpose  of  that  sad  and  solemn  gathering.2 

Gates  followed  the  enemy,  making  such  disposition  of  his  troops 

1  British  loss  on  October  7  —  Pell's  Diary:  One  General,  1    lieutenant-colonel,  2  cap- 
tains, 7  subalterns,  5  sergeants,  160  rank  and  file  killed.     [No  return  of  wounded.]     Two 
majors,  2  captains,  8  subalterns,  16  sergeants,  7  drums,  234  rank  and  file,  prisoners.     Esti- 
mating their  wounded   at  250,  their  total   loss  was  nearly  half  of  the   select  body  they 
brought  into  the  field. 

2  The  wives  of   several  officers  accompanied   Burgoyne's  expedition,  notably  those  of 
General  Riedesel  and  Major  Ackland,  and  suffered  all  the  hardships  of   the  campaign. 
Madam  Riederiel,  in  her  Memoirs,  describes  the  burial  of  Fraser  under  fire  of  the  Ameri- 
can artillery. 


1777.] 


THE  SURRENDER. 


591 


as  to  surround  them.  General  Fellows,  with  Massachusetts  militia, 
severed  their  line  of  retreat  by  holding  the  crossing  of  the  Hudson. 
Morgan,  Poor,  and  Learned  threatened  their  rear  on  the  west.  Nixon, 
Patterson,  and  Glover  remained  in  their  front,  and,  in  attempting  to 
advance  beyond  the  Fishkill  on  the  10th,  narrowly  escaped  collision 
with  the  entire  British  force,  which  had  not  yet,  as  supposed,  left 
its  position.  On  the  12th  Burgoyne  had  but  five  days'  rations  in 


jfe,  i^--    >:> 
' 


* 


V 

r  |  •'- 


I 

£     ^ 


\  \ 

~         J 


Fraser's  Burial. 


camp,  and  on   the  13th    his  desperate  situation  compelled    him    to 
summon  a  council,  and  propose  the  question  of  capitulation. 

His  officers  unanimously  declared  that  in  consideration  of  all   that 
the  army    had  already    suffered,    and   its    present    critical   pm,^!,,  of 
position,  proposals  for  surrender  could  be  made  without  dis-    8urrender- 
honor,  and  a  flag  was  accordingly  sent  to  the  American   commander.1 

1  "On  the  12th  frequent  cannonading  and  skirmishing  ;  conimandiiiir  officers  of  regi- 
ments were  sent  for  by  General  Burgoyue,  to  know  what  a  face  their  regiments  bore.    The 


502 


BURGOYXE'S   CAMPAIGN 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


caj.it 


On  the  17th,  after  the  negotiation  was  once  on  the  point  of  being 
broken  oft',  —  Bnrgoyne  receiving  information  which  led  him  to  hope 
for  reinforcements  from  the  south,  —  the  articles  of  capitulation,  or 
"  Conventions,"  as  they  were  officially  designated,  were  signed  by  Gates 
and  Burgoyne.  It  was  agreed  that  the  British  army  should  march 
out  with  all  the  honors  of  war,  and  have  free  passage  to  England, 
upon  condition  of  not  serving  again  during  the  war.  Five 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty-three  officers  and  men 
were  included  in  the  surrender.  On  the  forenoon  of  the 
17th,  they  marched  out  from  their  camps,  and  laid  down  their  arms 
in  a  field  near  Old  Fort  Hardy,  in  the  presence  only  of  Majors 
Wilkinson  and  Lewis  of  General  Gates's  staff.  Burgoyne  presented 
himself  to  Gates,  with  the  remark  that  the  fortune  of  war  had  made 
him  his  prisoner  ;  and  for  several  days  after  the  English  officers  were 
received  and  treated  with  every  mark  of  consideration  due  to  worthy 
foes. 

The  surrender  of  Burgoyne's  army  on  the  17th  of  October  was,  up 
to  this  time,  the  most  important  event  of  the  war;  and  the  battles  of 
September  19th  and  October  7th  are  counted  among  the  decisive  bat- 
tles of  the  world.  The  whole  country  was  jubilant,  not  only  that  so 
much  had  been  gained  where  so  little  had  been  hoped  for,  but  that  in 
that  gain  they  saw  the  promise  of  greater  things  to  come.  In  Eng- 
land the  tidings  of  disaster  and  defeat  were  received  with  bitter  dis- 
appointment, and  reproaches  were  heaped  upon  the  General  for  the 
failure,  of  a  campaign  in  the  plan  of  which  the  King  and  his  minister 
had  blundered.  Congress  presented  to  Gates  a  medal  for  completing 
the  work  which  others  had  begun  and  made  possible  if  not  inevitable; 
but  the  people  did  not  forget  to  be  grateful  to  the  brave  officers  and 
men  who  in  battle  after  battle  had  wrested  victory  from  as  brave  an 
army  as  England  could  send  to  the  field. 

nnswer  of  the  British,  they  would  fight  to  a  man.  The  German  officers  returned  to  their 
regiments  to  know  the  disposition  of  their  men  ;  they  answered  :  '  Nix  the  money,  nix  the 
rum,  nix  fighten.'  The  British  regiments  being  reduced  in  number  to  about  nineteen 
hundred,  and  having  no  dependence  on  the  Germans,  General  Burgoyne,  on  the  1  3th  Oc- 
tober. opened  a  treaty  with  Major-Geul.  Gates."  —  Pell's  Diary. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

ALLIANCE   WITH   FRANCE.  —  PROPOSALS    FOR   PEACE   REJECTED. 

THE  WINTER  AT  VALLEY  FORGE.  —  THE  CONWAY  CABAL.  —  BARON  vox  STEI:BEX. 

—  ALLIANCE  WITH  FRANCE.  —NORTH'S  PROPOSITIONS  FOR  PEACE.  —  LAFAYETTK  AT 
BARREN    HILL.  —  EVACUATION    OF    PHILADELPHIA. —  BATTLE    OF    MONMOUTII. — 
LEE'S  CONDUCT.  —  TRIED   BY  COURT-MARTIAL. —  THE   RHODE    ISLAND  CAMPAIGN. 

—  ARRIVAL  OF  A  FRENCH  FLEET  WITH  TROOPS.  —  THE  TORY  AND    INDIAN  WAR- 
FARE ix  CENTRAL   NEW  YORK.  —  THE  PIONEERS  OF  TENNESSEE  AND  KENTUCKY. 

—  COLONEL    CLARK'S    EXPEDITION    TO    ILLINOIS.  —  OPERATIONS    BEGUN    AT    THK 
SOUTH.  —  Loss  OF  SAVANNAH. — PARTISAN  WARFARE. — NAVAL  AFFAIRS.  —  FIGHT 

BETWEEN    THE    "  BOX    HOMME    HlCHARD  "    AND    THE    "  SfiRAPIS." 

THE  camp  at  Valley  Forge  was  laid  out  in  parallel  streets  of  log 
huts,  built  by  the  soldiers  with  timber  found  in  abundance 
in  the  neighboring  woods.  Each  brigade  was  encamped  by  went  «t  vai- 
itself ;  the  quarters  of  the  officers  were  opposite  their  respec- 
tive regiments  and  companies;  in  each  hut  —  measuring  fourteen  by 
sixteen  feet  —  were  lodged  twelve  privates.  The  headquarters  of  the 
Commander-in-chief  were  at  the  house  of  Isaac  Potts,  the  proprietor 
of  the  forge  which  gave  a  name  to  the  locality,  and  near  by  were 
those  of  Greene,  Steuben,  Lafayette,  and  other  officers  of  rank, — 
"small  barracks,"  wrote  Lafayette  to  his  wife,  "  which  are  scarcely  more 
cheerful  than  dungeons."  The  camp  was  protected  by  forts  and  in- 
trenchments  ;  in  advance  of  the  lines  Morgan  and  his  riflemen  were 
stationed,  and  more  distant  points  were  guarded  by  outposts  of  dra- 
goons and  militia.1 

The  army  was  well  sheltered,  for  a  log  house  is  a  comfortable  dwell- 
ing, and  the  woods  near  by  afforded  plenty  of  fuel.  But  in  every- 
thing else  there  was  absolute  impoverishment.  Had  food  been  abun- 
dant in  the  surrounding  country,  there  were  no  horses  and  wagons  to 
draw  it  to  camp  ;  even  had  there  been  no  lack  of  these,  the  roads 
were  almost  impassable  for  any  beast  of  burden  or  any  carriage.  Pro- 

1  "  General  Washington  keeps  his  station  at  Valley  Forge.  I  was  there  when  the  army 
first  began  to  build  huts.  They  appeared  to  me  like  a  family  of  beavers,  every  one  busy, 
some  carrying  logs,  others  mud,  and  the  rest  plastering  them  together.  The  whole  was 
raised  in  a  few  days,  and  it  is  a  curious  collection  of  buildings  in  the  true  rustic  order."  — 
Letters  from  Thomas  Paine  to  Dr.  Franklin.  Penn.  Mag.  of  Hist.,  voL  ii. 
VOL.  in.  38 


594  ALLIANCE    WITH   FRANCE.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

visions  of  all  kinds  were  scarce  and  poor,  and  wliat  there  were  the  men 
themselves  were  compelled  to  transport,  "  who,  without  a  murmur," 
a  Congressional  Commission  reported,  "  patiently  yoke  themselves  to 

little  carriages  of  their  own  making,  or  load  their  wood  and 
ings  of  the  provisions  on  their  backs.''  They  would  have  been  cheerful 

as  well  as  patient  had  they  been  in  a  condition  for  such 
work,  for  work  in  itself  is  no  hardship.  But  they  were  weak  from 
the  want  of  sufficient  and  proper  food  ;  they  went  to  their  labor  in 
thin  and  tattered  clothing  and  with  uncovered  feet ;  and  when  they 
sought  for  rest  and  vigor  in  sleep,  it  was  on  the  bare  earth  that  made 
the  floors  of  their  huts,  —  for  they  were  without  even  loose  straw  for 
their  beds.  This  last  necessitv  Washington  endeavored  to  relieve, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  secure  provisions,  by  issuing  an  order  to 
farmers  within  seventy  miles  to  thrash  out  all  the  grain  in  their  barns 
and  deliver  the  straw  in  camp  before  the  1st  of  March,  under  the 
penalty  of  having  "  all  that  shall  remain  in  sheaves  after  the  period 
above  mentioned  seized  by  the  commissaries  and  quartermasters  of 

the  armv  and  paid  for  as  straw/'     Bv  the  1st  of  February  the  want 

»•  t/  .< 

of  clothing  was  so  absolute   that  about  four  thousand  men  in  their 

huts  were  necessarily  relieved  from  duty  on  this  account.     From  des- 

*  •/ 

titution  came  sickness,  and  the  death-rate  increased  thirty-three  per 
cent,  from  week  to  week.  "•  Nothing,"  said  the  report  addressed  to 
the  President  of  Congress,  referred  to  already,  "  Nothing,  sir,  can 
equal  their  sufferings,  except  the  patience  and  fortitude  with  which 
the  faithful  part  of  the  army  endure  them."  There  were,  however, 
the  unfaithful  also,  whose  patriotism  was  not  proof  against  hunger 
and  cold  and  pestilence,  and  they  deserted  in  large  numbers.  In 
February  there  were  in  camp  only  about  five  thousand  effective  men. 
Congress  was  at  York,  Pennsylvania.  If  it  was  not  powerless  to 
relieve  the  poverty  which  was  so  sorely  trying  the  army,  then  it  was 
indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  the  men  on  whom  the  safety  of  the  coun- 
try so  largely  depended.  Both  propositions,  probably,  were,  in  a 
measure,  true.  Washington  was  authorized  to  take  supplies  wher- 
ever he  could  find  them  within  seventy  miles,  for  which  he  was  to 
pay  in  money,  if  he  had  it,  if  not,  in  certificates.  But  Congress 
failed  to  provide  for  the  redemption  of  these  certificates,  even  in  the 
depreciated  paper  money,  which,  poor  as  it  was,  at  least,  was  a  little 
better  than  nothing  at  all.  There  was  then,  as  there  is  now, 
of  procuring  a  considerable  portion  of  the  rural  population  of  Pennsyl- 
vania slow  to  understand,  and  slower  still  to  accept,  new 
ideas,  and  reconcile  themselves  to  new  relations.  These  were  either 
still  loyal  to  the  King,  or,  if  favorably  disposed  to  the  new  govern- 
ment, their  devotion  was  moderate  and  not  animated  with  any  very 


1778.] 


THE   WINTER    AT    VALLEY    FORGE. 


595 


deep  sense  of  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice.  In  Philadelphia,  where  the 
British  army  passed  the  winter  in  gayety  and  almost  riotous  plenty, 
the  farmers,  if  they  could  get  there,  were  paid  in  gold  for  their  prod- 
uce. The  ardent  patriotism  that  would  lead  them  to  Valley  Forge 
instead,  to  receive,  in  place  of  gold,  certificates  that  were  absolutely 
worthless,  was  a  patriotism  not  in  daily  use. 

Before   the  winter  was  over,  it  was  a  question  whether  the  army 
would   break   up  in  mutiny   or  be  dissolved  for  want  of   the  neces- 


Valley   Forge. 


saries  of  life.  The  burden  of  anxiety  and  responsibility  was  heavy 
upon  the  Commander-in-chief,  and  perhaps  for  that  reason  his  ene- 
mies thought  it  a  good  opportunity  to  bring  about  his  overthrow. 
The  success  of  the  northern  campaign  had  added  greatly  to  Gates's 
reputation.  Easy  as  it  is  to  see  now,  at  the  distance  of  a  hundred 
years,  that  the  laurels  which  he  gathered  should  have  been  bound 
upon  the  brows  of  others,  the  credit  he  had  acquired  stimulated  his 
own  ambition  and  made  him  the  central  figure  in  the  opposition  to 


596  ALLIANCE  WITH   FRANCE.  [CHAP.  XXTV. 

Washington,  both  in  Congress  and  in  the  army.  He  was  made  in  the 
autumn  President  of  the  Board  of  War  ;  Mifflin  was  one  of  its  mem- 
bers; Conway —  by  birth  an  Irishman,  but  by  adoption  a  Frenchman, 
a  colonel  in  the  French  army,  and  one  of  the  officers  whom  Silas 
Deane  had  sent  to  America  —  was  made  a  Major-general  over  the 
heads  of  his  seniors  in  commission,  and  was  appointed  Inspector-gen- 
eral. He  was  at  the  head  of  a  secret  movement  by  which  it  was 
intended  to  remove  Washington  and  put  Gates  in  his  place. 

This  was,  as  it  has  ever  since  been  called,  the  "  Conway  Cabal,"  and 
The "  con-  Conway  spent  the  winter  at  York  intriguing  with  Mifflin,  Lee, 
way  cabai."  — who  had  been  exchanged  —  and  some  members  of  Con- 
gress, to  bring  about  the  removal  of  Washington.  An  intrigue  of  this 
sort  could  not  long  remain  a  secret,  for  it  was  necessary  to  its  success 
that  various  influences  should  be  brought  to  favor  it.  The  correspond- 
ence between  Gates,  Mifflin,  and  Conway,  reflecting  upon  Washington, 
became  known  through  the  indiscretion  of  Wilkinson,  who  had  seen 
one  of  the  letters  and  repeated  its  purport  to  Stirling.  The  unfavor- 
able impression  produced  by  this  discovery  was  not  removed  when 
Gates,  with  some  bluster,  first  demanded  of  Washington  to  know 
who  had  tampered  with  his  letters,  and  then  denied  that  Conway  had 
written  the  letter  whose  words  had  been  quoted.  It  was  hoped  to 
secure  the  alliance  of  Lafayette  by  offering  him  the  command  of  a 
new  invasion  of  Canada,  which  came  to  nothing ;  he  would  only 
accept  it  on  condition  that  he  should  report  to  Washington  as 
Commander-in-chief.  Anonymous  letters  to  Patrick  Henry,  Governor 

of  Virginia,  and  to  Henry 
Lauren s,  President  of 
Congress,  were  at  once 
forwarded  by  those  gen- 

Sign.ture  of  Henry  Lauren,.  tlemeil       to        Washington 

himself.  Attempts  to  influence  State  legislatures  proved  equally 
abortive,  and  when  the  purpose  of  the  "Cabal"  became  known  to  the 
country  and  to  the  army,  it  met  with  universal  condemnation.1  The 
scheme  was  not  only  completely  frustrated,  but  its  principal  instiga- 
tors either  repented  of  their  share  in  it,  or  were  deprived  of  the  power 
of  attempting  further  mischief.  Gates  and  Mifflin  both  ceased  soon 
after  to  be  members  of  the  Board  of  War.  Gates  was  ordered  in  the 
spring  to  take  charge  of  the  fortifications  on  the  Hudson.  Mifflin  was 
brought  to  trial  for  mismanagement  in  the  affairs  of  the  quartermaster's 

1  Captain  Selden,  of  Connecticut,  writing  from  Valley  Forge,  in  the  spring,  undoubtedly 
reflected  the  feeling  of  the  army.  He  says :  "  I  am  content  if  they  remove  almost  any 
General  except  his  Excellency.  The  country,  even  Congress,  are  not  aware  of  the  Con- 
fidence the  Army  Places  in  him,  or  motions  never  would  have  been  made  for  Gates  to  take 
the  Command." —  Manuscript  fatter. 


1778.]  BARON    VON   STEUBEN.  597 

department,  in  which,  however,  nothing  was  proved  against  him  but 
incapacity  and  confusion  in  the  accounts.  He  resigned  his  commission 
as  Major-general,  but  acquired  some  distinction  afterward  as  a  member 
of  Congress.  The  next  campaign  brought  Lee  before  a  court-martial. 
Conway,  who  was  also  sent  in  March  to  the  Northern  Department, 
offered  his  resignation  to  Congress,  which,  contrary  to  his  expectation 
and  wishes,  was  accepted.  Not  long  afterward  he  was  shot  in  a  duel 
by  General  Cadwallader,  who  accused  him  of  cowardice  at  the  battle 
of  Brandy  wine.  Supposing  himself  fatally  wounded,  he  wrote  a  con- 
trite letter  to  Washington,  and  on  his  recovery  returned  to  France. 

But   notwithstanding   the   hardships   and    threatened   disasters    of 
the  winter  at  Valley  Forge,  there  came  to  the  army  in  that  encamp- 
ment one  signal  advantage  which  told  in  all  the  future  military  op- 
erations  of   the   war.     This  was  the   arrival    of  Frederick 
William  von  Steuben,  a  veteran  Prussian  General,  who  had  Baron  Ton 
learned  the  art  of  war  under  the  great  Frederick,  and  whose 
experienced  eye  saw  beneath  the  tattered  clothing  and  worn  frames 
of  the  men  the  material  for  excellent  soldiers.     He  proposed  to  in- 
troduce the  Prussian  system  of  minor  tactics,  and,  beginning  on  a  small 
scale,  he  gradually  brought  the  whole  army  to  an  admirable  condition 
of  drill  and  discipline.     Congress  appointed  him  to  the  office  of  In- 
spector-general, and  adopted  the  regulations  he  had  drawn  up  for  the 
American  service 1  —  regulations  which  were  rather  an  adaptation  of 
the  Prussian  system  to  the  character  of  the  men  before  him,  and  the 
needs  of  the  army,  than  a  rigid  adherence  to  its  tactics. 

The  soldiers  were  quick  enough  to  see  that  this  new  Inspector- 
general,  unlike  the  man  for  whom  the  office  was  created  —  Conway  — 
put  his  heart  into  his  work,  and  was  moved  by  no  pei-sonal  ambition, 
but  by  a  deep  interest  in  the  struggle  for  which  they  were  suffering 
so  much,  and  a  sincere  desire  to  tit  them  to  achieve  success.  His 
very  roughness  of  manner  and  quickness  of  temper  were  to  them  an 
evidence  of  his  sincerity.  The  grim  Prussian  veteran  appealed  irre- 
sistibly, without  perceiving  it,  to  the  sensitive  American  humor  when, 
having  exhausted  his  vocabulary  of  German  oaths  upon  an  awkward 
squad  at  drill,  he  would  cry  out  to  his  aid,  —  "  Come  and  swear  for 
me  in  English  ;  these  fellows  will  not  do  what  I  bid  them  !  "  When 
in  after  battle-fields  these  men  manoeuvered  with  the  precision  and 
coolness  of  a  grand  parade,  simply  because  they  knew  they  were 
parts  of  a  great  machine,  whose  effectiveness  defended  upon  the 
method  of  its  movement,  and  the  adaptation  of  the  parts  to  the 

1  For  details  of  the  special  services  and  their  importance  to  the  Revolutionary  War,  see 
Life  of  Steuben,  by  Frederick  Ifctpp  ;  and  The  German  Element  in  the  War  of  Independence, 
b  G.  W.  Greene. 


598 


ALLIANCE   WITH   FRANCE. 


[CiiAP.  XXIV. 


with  France. 


whole,  —  then  they  remembered  and  blessed  the  Baron  von  Steuben, 
and  the  way  he  hammered  tactics  into  them  with  his  big,  strange 
oaths.  In  other  respects  his  military  knowledge  was  of  immense 
value  in  various  ways,  and  of  all  the  European  officers  who  sought 
service  under  the  new  Republic,  he  did  more  than  any  other  in  aid 
of  its  complete  establishment. 

The  effect  in  Europe  of  Burgoyne's  surrender  was  not  long  in  mani- 
festhig  itself.  It  gave  strength  to  the  opposition  in  Eng- 
\iin^  which  was  shown  at  the  opening  of  the  next  session  of 
Parliament  ;  but  far  more  important  than  this,  it  decided  the  policy  of 
France.  It  was  easy,  under  the  new  aspect  which  the  annihilation  of 

one  army  in  the  North,  and  the 
vigorous  campaign  of  Washing- 
ton at  the  South,  gave  to  the 
war,  for  the  French  Minister  and 
the  American  Commissioners  in 
Paris  to  come  to  terms.  On  the 
6th  of  February  a  treaty  was 
concluded,  providing  that  if  war 
should  break  out  between  France 
and  England,  during  the  exist- 
ence of  that  with  the  United 
States,  it  should  be  made  a  com- 
mon cause  ;  that  neither  of  the 
contracting  parties  should  con- 
clude either  truce  or  peace  with 
Great  Britain  without  the  formal 
consent  of  the  other  first  ob- 
tained ;  and  they  agreed  not  to 
lay  down  their  arms  until  the  in- 
dependence of  the  United  States  should  have  been  formally  or  tacitly 
assured  by  the  treaties  that  should  terminate  the  war.  The  news  of 
this  important  step  reached  the  United  States  in  April  ;  on  the  2d 
of  May  the  treaty  was  ratified  by  Congress  ;  and  nowhere  were  the 
tidings  received  with  more  satisfaction  than  at  Valley  Forge,  where  a 
day  was  set  apart  for  public  rejoicing  with  all  the  demonstrations  that 
an  impoverished  military  camp  could  afford.1 

The  impending  event  in  Paris  was  no  secret  in  England.     The  op- 

1  M.  Capellan,  the  patriotic  Hollander,  who  made  a  speech  in  the  popular  House  of  the 
Dutch  government,  against  loaning  troops  to  England  in  1775—76,  wrote  this  letter  — 
hitherto  unpublished  —  to  Franklin  on  the  conclusion  of  the  French  alliance  :  — 

«•  ZWOLLI,  28  April,  1778. 

"SiR  :  As  I  have  been  the  first,  or  s:iy  better,  the  only  one  of  all  the  members  of  our 
State  who  has  dared  himself  to  declare  openly  for  ye  American  Cause,  and  that  in  a 


Baron  von  Steuben. 


1778.]  NORTH'S   PROPOSITIONS   FOR  PEACE.  599 

position  in  Parliament  sought  to  open  negotiations  with  the  American 
Commissioners  to  avert  the  French  alliance,  but  this  came  to  nothing. 
Lord  North,  knowing  that,  if  a  treaty  were  made,  war  be- 

*  English  at- 

tween  France  and  England  was  sure  to  follow,  was  reduced  trmptsat 

..  .  .  conciliation. 

to  a  humiliating  position  without  being  certain  that  even 
humiliation  would  keep  him  in  office.  In  February  he  brought  into 
Parliament  two  conciliatory  bills,  which  were  passed  in  March.  The 
plan  proposed  yielded  all  that  England  had  been  contending  against  — 
the  right  to  tax  the  colonies  —  and  Congress  was  recognized  as  a  legal 
representative  body,  by  the  appointment  of  Commissioners  to  treat  with 
it.  But  that  which  the  insurgents  contended  for  was  not  conceded 
—  their  right  to  be  entirely  independent  of  the  British  Crown.  The 
scheme  was  sure  to  come  to  the  ground,  —  would  have  come  to  the 
ground,  even  had  there  been  no  alliance  with  France,  —  but  it  was 
North's  best  as  it  was  his  last  card. 

A  part  of  the  opposition,  had  they  had  the  power,  would  have  con- 
ceded independence  to  the  revolted  colonies.  Others  would,  if  they 
could,  have  come  to  some  compromise,  not  essentially  differing  from 
that  proposed  by  North,  but  which  would  have  left  the  question  of 
independence  in  abeyance,  to  be  settled  afterward  when  peace  was 
once  restored.  There  was  faith  enough  in  such  a  policy  —  futile  as 
it  would  have  proved  —  to  have  overthrown  North,  and  restored 
Chatham  to  office,  had  it  not  been  for  the  obstinacy  of  the  King. 
He  hated  Chatham  with  the  intensity  that  belongs  to  unsettled 
reason,  and  refused  to  admit  him  to  his  presence.  "  I  solemnly 
declare,"  he  said,  "  that  nothing  shall  bring  me  to  treat  personally 
with  Lord  Chatham."  There  still  lurked  in  his  clouded  mind  the 
belief  that  the  colonies  could  yet  be  subdued.  Chatham,  he  said, 
would  insist  on  a  total  change. 

But  Chatham's  plan,  it  is  known,  involved  the  idea  that  the  States 
could  still  be  retained  as  English  colonies.  He  would  have  rescinded 
all  obnoxious  laws,  withdrawn  all  the  troops  from  America,  leaving 
garrisons  only  in  a  few  strongly  fortified  places,  and  concentrated  all 
the  strength  of  England  upon  a  struggle  with  France.  When  that 
was  ended — and  no  Englishman  could  permit  himself  to  doubt  what 
the  end  would  be  —  he  would  trust  to  the  common  ties  of  race,  of 
language,  of  religion,  and  of  interest,  to  bring  back  the  Americans  to 

problematical  time,  Congratulate  you  out  of  the  bottom  of  my  heart  of  the  happy  success 
with  which  providence  has  crowned  America. 

"  The  joy  I  fe!d  on  the  news  of  the  talking  the  army  of  General  Burgoyne,  which  will 
shine  iu  the  annalls  of  America  ami  its  Liberty,  surpassed  with  a  greater  joy  which  occa- 
sioned the  Treaty  concluded  with  France,  and  by  which  the  U.  S.  of  America  see  them- 
selfs  placed  amongst  the  Independent  Poweis  in  the  world."  —  MS.  in  Trumbull  Paptrs, 
in  the  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


600  ALLIANCE    WITH   FRANCE.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

their  allegiance.  "The  moment,"  said  Shelburne — who  thoroughly 
understood  Chatham's  views  —  "that  the  independence  of  America 
is  agreed  to  by  our  Government,  the  sun  of  Great  Britain  is  set,  and 
we  shall  no  longer  be  a  powerful  or  respectable  people."  1 

North's  scheme  of  reconciliation  was,  after  all,  no  more  impracticable 
than  those  devised  by  rival  statesmen.  Chatham's  plan,  whatever  it 
was,  he  could  not  have  carried  out,  had  he  again  come  into  power,  for 
he  died  on  the  llth  of  May.  When  he  fell  in  the  House  of  Lords  a 
month  before,  stricken  unto  death,  he  was  about  to  reply  to  the  Duke 
of  Richmond,  who  had  moved  a  resolution  for  an  address  to  the  Crown, 
asking  the  King  to  withdraw  his  fleets  and  armies  from  the  revolted 
provinces,  and  "to  effectuate  conciliation  with  them  on  such  terms  as 
might  preserve  their  good  will,"  —  by  which  the  duke  meant  that 
their  independence  should  be  acknowledged.  The  resolution  was  lost 
by  a  majority  of  only  seventeen,  notwithstanding  the  dying  words  of 
the  great  statesman  were  against  it. 

The  Commissioners,  with  Lord  North's  proposals  for  peace,  arrived 
in  June.  Their  credentials  were  immediately  presented  to  Congress, 
who  received  them  on  one  day,  and  gave  on  the  next  an  answer,  curt, 
conclusive,  and  almost  defiant.  Nothing,  they  said,  but  "an  earnest 
desire  to  spare  the  effusion  of  human  blood,  would  have  induced  them 
to  read  a  letter  that  so  reflected  upon  their  ally,  the  King  of  France  ; 
that  they  were  ready,  however,  to  enter  upon  the  consideration  of 
peace  whenever  the  King  of  Great  Britain  should  show  that  he  had 
any  "sincere  disposition  for  that  purpose;''  and  that  the  only  evi- 
dence of  that  sincerity  would  be  "an  explicit  acknowledgment  of 
the  independence  of  these  States,  or  the  withdrawing  his  fleets  and 
armies." 

It  was  near  midsummer  before  this  point  in  the  history  of  the  year 
was  reached.  Arms  had  rather  waited  upon  diplomacy.  For  though 
through  the  spring  there  were  some  military  movements,  there  were 
none  of  much  moment.  When  made,  they  were  less  to  gather  glory, 
Raids  in  an(^  HI  ore  to  gather  corn  and  cattle.  Two  such  expedi- 
New  jersey.  tjons  were  made  into  New  Jersey  in  March,  and  twice,  near 
Salem,  at  Quinton's  Bridge  and  at  Hancock's  Bridge,  the  militia  were 
called  out  to  resist  such  raids  upon  their  fields  and  barn-yards.  A 
like  attempt  at  plunder  was  made  at  Montgomery,  in  Pennsylvania, 
on  the  1st  of  May.  To  check  these  incursions,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
to  have  a  force  near  by  in  case  Philadelphia  should  be  abandoned -~- 
of  which  already  there  was  some  expectation  —  Washington  ordered 
Lafayette,  with*  about  two  thousand  men,  to  take  a  position  at  Bnr- 
ren  Hill,  half  way  between  Valley  Forge  and  the  city.  This  move- 

1  Fitzmaurice's  Life  of  the  Earl  of  Shelburne. 


1778.]  EVACUATION   OF   PHILADELPHIA.  601 

ment  Howe  determined  to  defeat,  and  he  sent  out  Grant  with  five 
thousand   men  to  surround  and  capture  this  force  under   Lafayette. 
When  apprised  of  his  danger,  Lafayette  made  a  feint  of  at- 
tacking   Grant,    and    then    by  a   rapid    inarch    crossed   the   i^"*n 
Schuylkill  at  Matson's  Ford  before  he  could  be  intercepted. 
Tiie  affair  ended  with  little  loss  on  either  side,  and  at  the  time  was 
considered  a  brilliant  piece  of  manoeuvring  on  the  part  of  Lafayette. 
To  the  enemy  it  was  a  source  of  chagrin  and  disappointment. 

The  British  had  occupied  Philadelphia  for  more  than  eight  months 
with  a  force  superior  to  Washington's,  but  had  failed  to  establish 
themselves  in  the  State  at  large.  With  the  Peace  Com- 

•      •  -I  XT  ir      i  rr«i  The  British 

missioners  came  orders  to  return  to  JSew  York.  The  con-  i«n-cphiia- 
centration  of  their  forces  had  become  of  greater  importance 
than  the  occupation  of  territory.  On  the  18th  of  June  the  move- 
ment was  begun,  hastened,  doubtless,  by  a  report  that  a  French  fleet 
under  D'Estaing  was  on  its  way  to  blockade  the  English  in  the  Dela- 
ware. Between  the  hours  of  three  and  ten  o'clock  A.  M.,  the  entire 
army  had  been  ferried  across  the  river,  and  immediately  took  up  the 
march  northward  through  the  Jerseys.  All  told,  it  numbered  about 
fourteen  thousand  effective  men,  under  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  Howe  hav- 
ing been  relieved  of  his  command,  with  a  baggage  and  provision  train 
eight  or  ten  miles  long,  which  included  officers'  luggage,  and  plunder 
from  Philadelphia  in  carriages,  saddle-horses,  servants,  women,  and 
"  every  kind  of  other  useless  stuff."  The  heat  was  oppressive,  rains  had 
made  the  roads  difficult  of  travel,  and  the  way  before  them  was  long. 
During  this  tedious  march,  between  six  hundred  and  eight  hundred 
Hessians  deserted  in  safety. 

V 

The  moment  Washington  was  positively  informed  of  Clinton's 
start,  he  broke  camp  at  Valley  Forge  and  followed  in  pur-  Was 
'suit.  Maxwell's  brigade  was  pushed  forward  to  join  Dick-  Pursues 
inson's  militia,  to  aid  in  the  destruction  of  bridges,  and  delay  the 
enemy.  On  the  21st,  the  American  army  crossed  the  Delaware  at 
Coryell's  Ferry,  the  present  Lambertville ;  on  the  26th,  reached 
Kingston,  twenty  miles  west  of  Freehold  ;  and  on  the  28th  it  struck 
the  rear  of  Clinton's  columns,  and  the  battle  of  Monmouth  Court- 
house followed.1 

A  council  of  war,  held  at  Hopewell  on  the  24th,  expressed  a  divided 
opinion  as  to  the  advisability  of  bringing  on  a  general  engagement  with 
Clinton.  Six  generals,  including  Lee,  advised  that  the  enemy  should 
be  followed  up  and  harassed  by  separate  and  cautious  attacks,  at  vari- 

1  Clinton's  first  intention  was  to  march  to  Araboy  ;  but  hearing  at  Allentowu  that  Wash- 
ington was  nearing  him,  and  might  dispute  the  passage  of  the  Raritau,  lie  turned  eastward 
to  Sandy  Hook,  ciu  Freehold  or  Monmouth  —  Clinton's  Report. 


€02 


ALLIANCE   WITH   FRANCE. 


[CHAP.  XXIV. 


ous  points,  upon  the  retreating  columns.  Six  of  the  generals,  among 
whom  were  Greene  and  Lafayette,  proposed  more  vigorous  measures. 
Washington  himself  was  clearly  unwilling  to  permit  the  enemy  to 
cross  New  Jersey  without  receiving  an  effective  blow.  As  he  ap- 
proached Clinton,  strong,  select,  and  ably-led  detachments  were  sent 
in  advance  of  the  main  army.  In  the  van  was  a  corps  about  five 
thousand  strong,  exclusive  of  Dickinson's  militia  on  the  left,  and 
Morgan's  riflemen,  who  were  ordered  to  threaten  the  enemy's  right 


Bah  way 
°  Quibbletown 


RARITASBAT          'sandy  Hook 


S      E     Y 


NEW 

Princeton 


Long  Branch 
oFreeholft  / 


Map  of  New  Jersey. 

flank.     The  command  of  this  force  was  given  first  to  Lafayette,  but 
finally  to  Lee,  as  he  claimed  it  on  the  ground  of  rank. 

A  little  after  noon  on  the  27th,  Inspector-general  Steuben  recon- 
noitred the  enemy  in  person,  and  reported  that  they  lay  encamped 
on  the  main  road  by  Monmouth  Court-house,  in  a  strong  position. 
Washington  instructed  Lee,  in  case  Clinton  resumed  his  march  the 
next  morning,  to  attack  him  at  once.  The  distance  between  the  two 
armies  on  the  night  of  the  27th  was  only  five  miles,  the  American 
advance  corps  being  at  the  little  village  of  Englishtown,  west  of  Mon- 


•« 

1778.]  BATTLE  OF   MONMOUTH.  603 

mouth.  Although  requested  by  the  Commander-in-chief  to  unite 
upon  some  plan  of  action  with  the  generals  in  his  command,  Lee 
failed  to  name  anything  definite,  preferring,  he  said,  to  be  governed 
by  circumstances.  During  the  night,  several  hundred  men  were 
moved  to  points  nearer  the  enemy. 

At  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  28th,  word  came  to  head- 
quarters that  the  enemy  were  moving.  Knyphausen  marched  with 
the  baggage  train  and  its  strong  convoy,  while  Clinton,  with  his  best 
troops,  followed  about  eight  o'clock.  Washington  sent  word  to  Lee 
to  hasten  in  pursuit  and  bring  on  an  engagement,  unless  some  urgent 
reason  to  the  contrary  existed.  The  main  army,  leaving  its  packs, 
moved  forward  to  support  the  advance  corps. 

General  Dickinson's  militia  first  engaged  the  enemy,  between  seven 
and  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and,  supposing  himself  to  ^uleot 
have  encountered  the  advance  of  the  returning  British,  when  Monlnouth- 
in  fact  it  was  merely  a  small  flanking  party,  he  sent  for  aid,  while 
holding  his  ground,  and  the  British  presently  fell  back.  At  this  time 
conflicting  reports  were  brought  to  General  Lee,  some  of  the  scouts 
thinking  that  the  enemy  were,  and  others  that  they  were  not,  return- 
ing in  force.  Hence  there  was  much  marching  and  countermarching, 
and  it  was  not  until  after  nine  o'clock  that  it  was  certainly  known 
that  the  British  were  continuing  their  march  toward  Middletown. 
In  this  uncertainty,  the  opportunity  for  striking  the  left  flank,  accord- 
ing to  Washington's  plan,  was  lost. 

The  second  skirmish  took  place  between  Colonel  Butler  and  a  small 
party  of  the  enemy's  horse,  which  was  quickly  driven  through  the 
village,  Colonel  Butler  following  with  artillery  and  occupying  a  slight 
eminence  while  the  other  brigades  came  up.  Here  the  British  light 
dragoons  charged  vigorously,  but  were  repulsed  by  Colonel  Butler. 

Up  to  this  point  the  advantage  was  on  the  side  of  the  Americans. 
The  several  regiments  were  well  posted,  in  spite  of  the  absence  of 
any  general  leadership  in  the  morning's  movements,  and  a  determined 
advance  would  have  taken  Knyphausen 's  column  at  great  disadvan- 
tage. At  this  stage  of  the  conflict,  Lee  sent  orders  to  Wayne  to 
move  to  the  right,  and  capture  the  enemy's  rear-guard.  The  other 
commanders,  who  were  without  orders,  understood  this  movement  to 
be  a  retreat,  as  they  saw  that  the  enemy  was  moving  and  apparently 
threatening  their  connection  with  Wayne.  They  abandoned  their  po- 
sitions, and  had  fallen  back  some  distance  when,  too  late,  orders  came 
from  Lee  to  stand  fast.  By  this  time  the  entire  division  was  in  re- 
treat. By  half-past  eleven,  the  British  had  discovered  the  confusion 
attending  these  various  movements,  and  had  turned  back  in  consider- 
able force.  Lee  watched  the  retreat  of  his  detachments  across  a  ra- 


604  ALLIANCE  WITH  FRANCE.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

vine,  remained  to  see  the  last  of  his  men  safely  over,  and  then  followed 
them,  to  find  that  Washington  had  come  up  with  the  main  army  and 
assumed  command  in  person. 

The  change  of  command  was  instantly  felt  among  the  troops  who 
were  retreating,  and  many  of  them  at  once  rallied  and  formed  a  line. 
The  regiments  of  Colonels  Stewart,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Ramsay,  of 
Maryland,  which  were  nearest  at  hand,  Washington  posted  on  the 
left  of  the  road,  with  two  guns,  saying,  "  Gentlemen,  I  depend  upon 
you  to  hold  the  ground  until  I  can  form  the  main  army."  On  the 
right  of  the  road  he  placed  Wayne,  Varnum,  Oswald,  and  Living- 
ston. The  other  retreating  regiments,  broken,  but  by  no  means 
panic-stricken,  passed  through  the  new  line  to  re-form,  many  of  them, 
however,  voluntarily  joining  the  troops  already  in  position. 

With  the  last  of  the  retreating  force  came  Lee,  and  that  remark- 
able interview  with  Washington  followed,  in  which  he  showed  that 
"  sublime  wrath  "  to  which  he  sometimes  gave  way,  and  which  was 
not  incompatible  with  his  equally  sublime  patience  and  usual  self- 
command.  As  Lee  approached  him,  he  instantly  expressed  his  as- 
washi  ton  tonislimeiit  at  the  unaccountable  retreat.  "  I  wish  to  know, 
rebukes  Lee.  gj^"  ]je  exclaimed,  "what  is  the  reason — why  this  dis- 
order and  confusion  ?  "  Overawed  by  Washington's  manner  and  sting- 
ing rebuke,  Lee  could  only  reply  that  he  saw  no  other  confusion  than 
might  naturally  arise  from  disobedience  of  orders.1  Washington  may 
have  understood,  even  then,  that  the  confusion  was  not  from  diso- 
bedience of  orders,  but  from  the  want  of  them,  and  that  Lee  was 
throwing  upon  others  the  responsibility  for  disaster  which  was  the 
result  of  his  own  incapacity  or  treachery.  The  tradition  is,  that  the 
commanding  General  was  so  moved  that  ordinary  language  did  not 
suffice  to  express  the  depths  of  his  indignation,  and  that  he  cursed 
Lee  with  emphasis  and  heartiness.  Whether  he  did  or  did  not  some- 
times lapse,  when  angry,  into  a  manner  of  speech  more  common  in 
that  century  than  in  this,  is  a  question  that  can  never  be  settled  now 
by  any  positive  evidence.  He  had  more  than  one  human  weakness, 
givat  and  good  man  as  he  was,  and  it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that 
swearing,  under  great  provocation,  was  one  of  them.  But  when  the 
storm,  on  this  occasion,  had  blown  over,  Lee  offered  to  bring  the 
troops  into  some  order  in  the  front,  and  finally,  being  greatly  fatigued, 
took  command  of  the  various  bodies  that  had  made  their  way  to  the 
rear.  This  was  the  end  of  his  military  career,  as  he  was  soon  after 

1  This,  substantially,  is  the  version  of  the  famous  meeting,  as  Lee  gave  it  himself  in  his 
written  defence  before  the  court-martial  which  tried  him  for  disobedience.  The  proceed- 
ings of  the  court,  and  the  testimony  of  officers,  out  of  which  alone  can  a  correct  account  of 
the  battle  be  unravelled,  have  been  published  in  different  forms,  and  most  recently  in  the 
Lee  Papers,  published  by  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 


1778.]  ARRIVAL   OF   A   FRENCH   FLEET.  605 

brought  to  trial  before  a  court-martial,  found  guilty  of  disobedience 
to  orders,  misbehavior  before  the  enemy,  and  disrespect  to  the  Com- 
mander-in-chief, in  two  letters  written  after  the  battle,  and  sentenced 
to  suspension  from  command  for  a  year. 

Colonels  Ramsay  and  Stewart  soon  felt  the  British  advance,  and 
their  resistance  brought  on  the  general  engagement  of  the  day.     Both 
stood  firm  until  compelled  to  fall  back  before  superior  num- 
bers.    Ramsay  held  his  ground  desperately,  and  refused  to  lumxay-s 
yield,  until  he  was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.1     Lafay- 
ette formed  a  second  line  just  in  time  to  prevent  Clinton  with   his 
main  body  from  out-flanking  the  position  on  both  sides.     The  sharp- 
est fighting  took  place  near  the  road  where  Washington  first  checked 
the  retreat.     Here  Lieutenant-colonel  Monckton,  of  the  Royal  Gren- 
adiers, was  killed,  and  his  body  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Ameri- 
cans.    Firing  continued  until  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  the 
British,  failing  to  make  any  impression,  fell  back.     The  losses  of  the 
two  armies  were  nearly  equal.     Clinton  reported  355,  and 
Washington  362,  killed,  wounded,  and  missing;  but  on  the 
side  of  the  Americans  there  were  many  stragglers  who  had  been  over- 
come with  the  heat,  and  afterward  reported  to  their  respective  regi- 
ments. 

Clinton  continued  his  march  to  New  York  without  further  molesta- 
tion, Washington  following  and  taking  his  position  at  White  Plains, 
to  be  in  readiness  for  future  movements.  All  eyes  were  soon  directed 
towards  Rhode  Island,  where,  late  in  July,  the  Count  D'Es-  Arrivai0f 
taing  arrived  with  a  squadron  of  twelve  ships,  carrying  four  D'K?talns 
thousand  French  troops.  This  fleet  was  intended  to  relieve  Philadel- 
phia, but  did  not  reach  the  Delaware  till  after  that  city  was  evacu- 
ated. There  was  not  depth  enough  of  water,  D'Estaing  believed,  to 
admit  the  ships  into  New  York  harbor,  and  he  therefore  passed  on  to 
Newport.  At  his  approach,  twenty-one  English  vessels,  large  and 
small,  were  burned  to  avoid  capture. 

Large  hopes  and  eager  curiosity  waited  upon  this  appearance  of  a 
French  fleet  with  a  French  army  as  the  first  fruit  of  the  new  alliance. 
The  disappointment  was  great  that  D'Estaing  could  not  find  his 

1  "  While  his  men  were  on  the  retreat  he  [Ramsay]  was  attacked  by  one  of  the  enemy's 
dragoons,  who  charged  him  very  briskly.  The  Colonel  w:is  on  foot.  It  was  for  some  time 
between  them  a  trial  of  skill  and  courage.  After  the  horseman  fired  his  pistol,  the  Colonel 
closed  in,  and  wounded  and  dismounted  him.  Several  dragoons  now  came  up  to  support 
their  comrade  ;  the  Colonel  engaged  them  cominus  ease,  giving  and  receiving  very  serious 
wounds,  till  at  length,  attacked  in  his  rear,  and  overpowered  by  numbers,  he  was  made 
prisoner.  General  Clinton  paid  a  proper  attention  to  such  uncommon  prowess,  and  gen- 
erously liberated  the  Colonel  the  following  day  on  his  parol."  —  Revolutionary  Letter,  Mag. 
of  Am.  Hist..  June,  1879. 


606  ALLIANCE  WITH  FRANCE.  '  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

way  into  New  York  bay,  capture  or  destroy  the  smaller  English  fleet 
there,  and  blockade  Clinton  in  his  principal  stronghold.  It  was 
thought  that  something  else  was  wanting  besides  depth  of  water  on 
the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor  ;  but  this  was  soon  forgotten,  when 
the  English  burnt  their  vessels  at  Newport,  and  the  reduction  of  that 
place,  which  General  Pigot  held  with  six  thousand  British  and  Hes- 
sians, seemed  a  certain  and  speedy  event.  Sullivan  was  in  command 
of  ten  thousand  men  —  militia  and  Continentals  —  in  Rhode  Island, 
with  Greene  and  Lafayette  as  division  commanders,  Varnum  and 
Glover  as  brigadier-generals.1 

The  French  and  American  armies  were  to  cooperate  in  an  attack 
upon  Newport,  to  be  made  on  the  10th  of  August.  Sullivan,  to 
take  advantage  of  the  abandonment  of  the  north  end  of  the  island 
by  the  enemy,  moved  before  the  time  agreed  upon.  He  neglected 
to  notify  D'Estaing  of  his  change  of  purpose,  and  out  of  this  misun- 
DUasterto  derstanding  came  delay  which,  in  the  end,  defeated  the  en- 
hu  fleet.  terprise.  When,  on  the  9th,  the  French  were  ready  to  co- 
operate, a  fleet  of  thirty-six  vessels,  under  Lord  Howe,  from  New 
York,  appeared  in  the  oifing.  D'Estaing  reembarked  his  men,  gath- 
ered his  ships  together,  and  put  to  sea.  A  northeast  wind  gave  him 
the  weather-gage  of  the  Englishmen,  who  declined  battle.  A  furious 
storm  followed,  which  scattered  both  fleets.  For  ten  days  they  were 
at  sea,  when  Howe  returned  to  New  York,  and  D'Estaing  to  New- 
port, his  ships  so  shattered  by  the  storm  that  he  determined  to  take  his 
fleet  to  Boston  to  refit. 

Sullivan  had  pushed  on,  notwithstanding  the  absence  of  the  French 
troops.  He  had  compelled  the  enemy  to  withdraw  within  their  lines 
of  intrenchments  stretching  from  Newport  harbor  to  Eaton's  Pond, 
and  covered  his  own  men  by  earth-works  at  various  points,  while 
waiting  for  D'Estaing's  return.  That  the  fleet  needed  to  refit,  there 
could  be  no  doubt ;  the  orders  of  the  government  were  that  in  such 
an  emergency  D'Estaing  should  go  to  Boston,  and  that  was  the  best 
port  for  his  purpose.  The  public  disappointment,  nevertheless,  was 
keen  and  bitter.  It  was  easy  to  understand  that  sails  and  rigging 
might  need  to  be  replaced ;  that  hulls  and  spars  must  be  repaired ; 
that  water-butts  should  be  refilled,  and  the  stock  of  provisions  be 
replenished.  It  was  not  easy  to  understand  why  four  thousand  sol- 
diers should  remain  on  board  to  watch  the  progress  of  this  refitting. 
There  was  a  prevalent  feeling  that  these  troops  might  have  been  left 
on  Rhode  Island  to  do  a  little  fighting,  and  that  the  ship-car- 
penters, stevedores,  calkers,  and  riggers  in  Boston  would  have  done 

1  In  Varnum's  brigade  was  a  negro  regiment,  organized  with  Washington's  approval, 
composed  of  slaves  emancipated  on  condition  of  enlisting. 


1778.]  THE   RHODE  ISLAND   CAMPAIGN.  607 

quite  as  well  without  their  presence.  But  D'Estaing  gave  little  heed 
to  such  reasoning  as  this.  He  seemed  to  think  that  his  ships  and  his 
soldiers  were  not  to  be  separated ;  that  together  they  formed  an  expe- 
dition which  would  be  broken  up  if  either  acted  independently  of  the 
other.  The  Frenchman  was  very  polite  but  very  persistent,  and  went 
to  Boston  —  ships,  sailors,  and  soldiers.  The  American  general  was 
more  frank  than  polite,  when  he  said  in  General  Orders,  that  Amer- 
ica might  "  be  able  to  procure  that  by  her  own  arms  which  her  allies 
refuse  to  assist  in  obtaining."  The  popular  feeling  was  on  his  side ; 
Frenchmen  were  not  always  safe  in  the  streets  of  Boston  while  the 
ships  lay  in  that  harbor,  and  one  officer  was  killed  in  a  brawl.  Con- 
gress and  the  Commander-in-chief  did  all  that  could  be  done  to 
soothe  the  wounded  feelings  of  the  French  officers,  that  there  should 
be  no  disturbance  of  the  cordiality  between  the  two  governments. 

Sullivan  determined  to  attack  on  the  29th.     If  anything  was  to  be 
done,  it  must  be  done  quickly,  for  the  volunteers,  doubtful 
of  success  without  the  assistance  of  the  French,  were  return-  Hhode  1*1- 

&ud. 

ing  to  their  homes  in  large  numbers.  The  roads  leading  to 
the  town,  and  the  hills  near  it,  known  as  Quaker,  Turkey,  and  Butt's, 
were  taken  possession  of  by  the  Americans.  The  British  advanced 
from  their  works,  and  attacked  at  several  points  with  great  vigor,  but 
were  repulsed  with  equal  steadiness.  The  fighting  was  desperate  for 
several  hours,  though  of  Sullivan's  five  thousand  men  only  fifteen  hun- 
dred had  ever  before  seen  the  smoke  of  battle.  None  behaved  better 
than  the  raw  troops  of  Greene's  colored  regiment,  who  three  times  re- 
pulsed the  furious  charges  of  veteran  Hessians.  The  Americans  were 
driven,  at  length,  from  some  of  their  positions,  but  their  loss  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  missing  was  only  a  few  more  than  two  hundred,  while 
that  of  the  other  side  was  over  a  thousand.1 

A  dispatch  from  Washington  the  next  day  warned  Sullivan  that 
Pigot  was  about  to  be  reenforced  by  Clinton  with  five  thousand  men. 
To  risk  a  battle  and  attempt  to  hold  the  open  country  against  supe- 
rior numbers,  would  have  been  little  else  than  madness.  A  retreat 
was  begun,  and  in  the  course  of  the  night  the  whole  army  crossed  to 
the  mainland  at  Tiverton  in  safety.  It  was  just  in  time ;  the  reen- 
forcements,  on  board  a  hundred  English  vessels,  were  in  Newport 
harbor  the  next  morning.  As  Sullivan  had  escaped,  Clinton  recon- 
ciled himself  to  that  disappointment  by  burning  New  Bedford  and 
Fairhaven,  and  all  the  vessels  at  their  wharves.  Howe  sailed  for 
Boston,  and  challenged  D'Estaing  to  battle,  who  was  not  yet  ready 
for  sea.  When  his  fleet  was  refitted,  he  sailed  for  the  West  India 
station,  without  any  further  attempt  then  to  aid  the  Americans. 

1  Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island. 


608 


ALLIANCE  WITH  FRANCE. 


[CHAP.  XXIV. 


In  other  j'.arts  of  the  country  there  were,  in  the  course  of  the  sum- 
Tories  and  iner  an^  autumn,  military  movements  having  no  immediate 
Sew  connection  with  those  along  the  coast,  but  which  were  nev- 
ertheless  of  great  interest  to  those  immediately  concerned, 
and  sometimes  of  general  importance.  Through  all  the  West  the 
Indians  were  instigated  to  hostility,  —  in  New  York  by  Sir  John 
Johnson  and  other  leading  Tories,  and  in  more  distant  regions  by  the 
English  governors  at  Niagara  and  Detroit.  The  battle  of  Oriskany, 

the  year  before,  where  more 
than  a  hundred  warriors  had 
been  sped  on  their  way  to 
the  happy  hunting-grounds, 
had  aroused  in  several  tribes 
of  the  Six  Nations  a  thirst 
for  vengeance  not  easily  sat- 
isfied. Joseph  Brant  was 
the  most  powerful  of  all 
their  chiefs,  and  education 
among  the  whites,  in  failing 
to  change  his  savage  nature, 
had  given  him  the  added 
power  of  a  cultivated  mind. 
His  relations  to  the  Johnson 
family  —  Brant's  sister  hav- 
ing been  the  mother  of  sev- 
eral of  Sir  William  John- 
son's children  —  attached 
him  to  the  Tory  interest, 
and  to  that  interest,  stronger 
Joseph  Br»nt.  in  Central  New  York  than 

in  any  other  part  of  the  country,  he  was  a  formidable  ally.  His 
name  was  a  terror  among  the  Whig  population,  for  wherever  he  ap- 
peared, death  and  devastation  were  sure  to  follow. 

From  July  to  November,  from  the  valley  of  the  Susquehanna  north- 
ward through  the  country  west  of  Albany,  then  called  Tryon  County, 
a  merciless  warfare  was  carried  on  by  the  Tories  and  Indians,  in 
which  the  Tories  were  sometimes  even  more  savage  than  their  savage 
allies.  Whole  settlements  were  given  to  the  flumes,  and  as  little 
mercy  was  shown  to  old  women,  and  to  infants  in  the  cradle,  as  to 
men  with  arms  in  their  hands.  At  Wyoming  — 

"  On  Susquehanna's  sid3;  fair  Wyoming  !  "  — 

on  the  last  days  of  June,  two  of  the  forts  were  taken,  and  many  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  valley  compelled  to  fly  for  refuge  to  a  third, 


1778.]         TORY   AND  INDIAN    WARFARE   IN   NEW  YORK.  609 

called  "  Forty  Fort."  The  garrison  was  under  the  command  of  Colo- 
nel Zebulon  Butler,  who,  overruled  by  rash  counsel,  led  his  men  to 
battle  against  a  superior  force  of  Tories  and  Indians  under  Attllckon 
Colonel  John  Butler.  The  result  was  a  disastrous  defeat,  «>min« 
in  which  only  about  sixty  of  the  three  hundred  American  soldiers 
escaped.  As  the  news  spread  through  the  valley,  those  who  had  not 
already  left  their  homes  fled  to  the  woods  and  mountains,  or  sought 
safety  in  Fort  Wyoming.  This,  in  a  day  or  two,  was  weakly  surren- 
dered by  Colonel  Dennison,  with  a  stipulation  that  the  settlers  should 
be  permitted  to  return  to  their  farms  and  be  unmolested.  The  stipu- 
lation was  disregarded  in  the  destruction  of  property,  and  many  per- 
sons were  killed,  though  it  is  questionable  whether  a  general  massacre 
followed.1  Nor  is  it  certain  that  Brant  was  engaged  on  this  expedi- 
tion. 

In  others,  however,  he  was  the  chief  actor.  He  had,  a  few  days 
before,  entered  the  settlement  of  Springfield,  on  Otsego  Jogeph 
Lake,  and  burnt  every  house  excepting  one,  in  which  he  had  Brant 
placed  the  women  and  children  in  safety.  Indian  scouts  and  scnlping- 
parties  roamed  through  the  summer  along  the  banks  of  the  Schoharie. 
Late  in  August  or  early  in  September,  Brant,  with  a  large  body  of 
followers,  laid  waste  the  settlements  on  German  Flats,  in  the  valley 
of  the  Mohawk,  leaving  for  ten  miles  not  a  house,  a  barn,  or  a  stack 
of  grain  of  the  lately  gathered  harvest,  standing,  and  driving  off  all 
the  cattle.  This  act,  however,  was  fully  avenged  a  few  days  later  in 
the  destruction  of  the  Indian  towns  of  Unadilla  and  Oghkwaga  by 
Colonel  William  Butler,  with  a  Pennsylvania  regiment  and  a  detach- 
ment of  Morgan's  riflemen,  who  had  been  sent  for  the  protection  of 
the  harassed  people. 

More  pitiful  than  all  was  the  fate  that  befell  Cherry  Valley  early 
in  November.     Walter  N.  Butler,  a  son  of  the  Tory  Colonel  TheMas. 
John  Butler,  who  had  been  a  prisoner  at  Albany,  had  re-  ^^f 
cently  escaped,  and,  as  a  signal  act  of  vengeance,  he  deter-  Valle>- 
mined  to  destroy  a  village  noted  for  the  refinement  and  virtue  of  its 
inhabitants,  as  well  as  for  their  devotion  to  the  revolutionary  cause. 
Lafayette,  when  at  Albany,  the  year  before,  to  prepare  for  that  abor- 

1  Stone,  in  his  Life  of  Brant,  denies  it.  Dr.  Thacher,  in  his  Military  Journal,  gives  some 
stories  current  at  the  time,  which  are  almost  incredible.  See  also  Moore's  Diary  of  the 
American  Revolution,  for  contemporary  rumors.  Weld,  in  his  Travels  through  the  States  of 
North  Amtrica  during  the  Years  1795,1796,1797,  visited  Wyoming— then  Wilkesharre 

—  and  says:  "It  was  here  the  dreadful  massacre  was  committed Several  of  the 

houses  in  which  the  unfortunate  victims  retired  to  defend  themselves,  on  beiujr  refused  all 
quarter,  are  still  standing,  perforated  in  every  part  with  balls  ;  the  remains  of  others  that 
were  set  on  fire  are  also  to  be  seen,  and  the  inhabitants  will  on  no  account  suffer  them  to 
be  repaired." 

VOL.  m.  39 


610  ALLIANCE  WITH  FRANCE.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

tive  expedition  against  Canada  which  he  was  to  lead,  had  ordered  that 
a  fort  be  built  at  Cherry  Valley,  the  command  of  which  was  given  to 
Colonel  Ichabod  Alden,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  Indian  ways.  He 
had  warning  of  the  approach  of  Butler  and  Brant,  but  took  no  pre- 
cautions. He  assured  the  villagers  that  there  was  no  reason  for  appre- 
hension, and  they  remained  in  their  houses  till  they  were  startled  by 
the  savage  war-cry.  Alden  himself  was  outside  the  fort,  and  was  pur- 
sued by  an  Indian  as  he  ran  with  all  his  speed  to  get  within  the  gates. 
He  turned  and  snapped  his  pistol,  as  he  ran,  again  and  again  at  his 
pursuer,  who,  before  the  fort  was  reached,  came  near  enough  to  bury 
his  tomahawk  in  the  head  of  the  unfortunate  Colonel.  Nearly  fifty 
persons  were  killed  in  the  course  of  the  day,  and  all  but  sixteen  of 
these  were  women  and  children.  There  were  cases  of  peculiar  atrocity, 
even  for  Indian  warfare  ;  the  savage  Butler  or  the  savage  Brant,  either 
by  choice  or  chance,  marked  the  massacre  to  be  remembered  by  the 
murder  of  women  venerable  in  character  and  years.  The  fort  was 
not  taken,  but  most  of  the  buildings  in  the  village  were  burned. 
The  only  mercy  shown  was  to  release  most  of  the  women  and  chil- 
dren taken  prisoners ;  Mrs.  Campbell  and  Mrs.  Moore,  with  their  chil- 
dren, being  still  detained  because  their  husbands  were  leading  Whigs. 
The  motive  of  Butler's  clemency,  —  the  motive  of  the  attack  on  the 
village,  —  it  may  be,  was  the  fact  that  his  mother  and  several  of  her 
children  were  prisoners  at  Albany,  and  these  taken  at  Cherry  Valley 
were  offered  in  exchange.1 

But  this  Indian  warfare  was  not  confined  to  Central  New  York, 
western  Though  the  war  so  absorbed  the  resources,  the  interest,  and 
pion«er«.  ^e  energies  of  the  people  between  the  mountains  and  the 
sea,  in  the  western  valleys  the  pioneer  of  civilization  was  fighting  his 
way  into  the  wilderness,  not  much  concerned  about  the  higher  con- 
test that  was  going  on  behind  him.  In  1775  Daniel  Boone  had  made 
his  first  "•  blazed  trace  "in  the  wilderness  west  of  Virginia,  soon  to  be 
known  as  Kentucky  ;  the  territory  of  the  present  State  of  Tennessee 
was  organized  in  1776  as  the  County  of  Washington  in  North  Caro- 
lina ;  Ohio  was  known  as  the  District  of  West  Augusta ;  in  1777  Ken- 
tucky had  three  military  stations,  Boonesborough,  Logan's  Fort,  and 
Harrod's  Station,  on  the  "dark  and  bloody  ground,"  the  common 
hunting-fields  of  the  northern  and  southern  Indians ;  Boone,  Logan, 
Harrod,  Kenton,  Patterson,  Galloway,  Montgomery,  and  many  others, 
were  names  known  and  dreaded  by  the  Indian  tribes,  as  they  pen- 
etrated through  all  this  unbroken  wilderness,  —  men  who  have  left 
behind  them  memories  of  mighty  hunters  and  of  mighty  fighters, 
whose  lives  were  filled  with  romantic  adventure,  with  deeds  of  daring 

1  Stone's  Life  of  Brant.     Campbell's  Central  New  York  in  the  Revolution. 


1778.]  CLARK'S   EXPEDITION   TO   ILLINOIS.  611 

and  endurance,  which  have  no  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  settlement 
of  any  other  part  of  the  continent. 

For,  it  was  not  merely  that  these  pioneers  encountered  the  jeal- 
ousy  and   fears  of  natives  dreading  the  encroachment  of  the  white 
men  upon  their  lands.     To  that  natural  dread  the  war  lent  a  new 
and  intense  incitement.     The   commanders  of   the  English   posts  at 
the  west  and   northwest    were   diligent  in  arousing   the  hostility   of 
the  tribes  to  the  Americans,  and  many  an  Indian  expedition  was  in- 
stigated at  Detroit,  at  Vincennes,  and  at  Kaskaskia,  on  the  river  of 
that  name,  two  miles  from  the  left  bank  of  the  Mississippi.     Colonel 
George  Rogers  Clark,  one  of  the  hardy  and  brave  pioneers  Clark.gex 
of  Kentucky,  determined  to  strike  at  the  source  of  this  evil,  *j«»£.gto 
and  on  making  known  his  bold  plan  to  Governor  Patrick 
Henry,  received  his  approbation  and  aid.     To  his  success  it  was  due, 
that  in  the  negotiations  for  peace  between  the  powers  in  1782,  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  not  the  Alleghany  range,  was  made  the  western 
boundary  of  the  United  States. 

In  May,  1778,  Clark  went  down  the  Ohio  with  only  a  hundred  and 
fifty  men.  At  Corn  Island,  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  he  remained  a 
few  days  to  receive  additions  to  his  company,  and  to  build  a  block- 
house as  a  depot  of  provisions.  Here  he  left  five  men,  who,  after  he 
had  gone,  removed  to  the  mainland,  made  clearings,  and  built  log 
cabins  where  Louisville  was  to  be.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee 
Clark  left  his  boats  and  marched  across  to  the  Kaskaskia.  On  the 
evening  of  the  4th  of  July  he  crossed  that  river,  and  surrounded  and 
took  the  town,  whose  inhabitants  were  not  aware  of  the  approach  of 
an  enemy.  The  Governor,  Rocheblave,  he  sent  prisoner  to  Virginia  ; 
the  people  he  pacified  by  lenient  treatment,  and  exacted  from  them 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States.  Cahokia,  farther  up  the 
river,  was  then  taken  in  the  same  way,  and  afterward  Vincennes  on 
the  Wabash.  In  the  autumn  the  county  of  Illinois  was  recognized 
and  a  civil  commandant  appointed. 

Governor  Hamilton  of  Detroit  soon  recovered  Vincennes,  where 
Clark  had  left  only  two  men  in  the  fort;1  but  late  the  following 
winter,  Clark  marched  from  Kaskaskia,  through  a  country  much  of 
which,  at  that  season,  was  under  water,  retook  the  fort,  and  sent 
Hamilton  as  a  prisoner  of  war  to  Virginia.  This  signal  success,  and 
the  judicious  as  well  as  brave  conduct  of  Clark,  so  influenced  the  In- 
dian tribes  of  the  Illinois,  that  from  bitter  enemies  they  became  either 

1  Governor  Hamilton  approached  the  fort  with  eight  hundred  men  and  demanded  a  sur- 
render. Captain  Helm  —  with  his  one  soldier  —  refused  till  he  knew  the  terms.  Hamilton, 
not  knowing  the  weakness  of  the  garrison,  conceded  the  honors  of  war  :  the  eight  hundred 
men  were  drawn  up  to  receive  with  proper  ceremony  the  retiring  garrison. 


612 


ALLIANCE  WITH   FRANCE. 


[CHAP.  XXIV. 


friends  of  the  Americans,  or,  at  worst,  neutrals  in  the  war.  It  was 
more  by  skilful  management,  however,  than  by  any  display  of  ma- 
terial force — which  was  not  at  his  command  —  that  Clark  brought 
about  this  result.  He  gave  the  savages,  he  says,  "  harsh  language 
to  supply  the  want  of  men,  well  knowing  that  it  was  a  mistaken  no- 
tion in  many  that  soft  speeches  was  best  for  Indians  ; "  he  assured 
them  "  they  would  see  their  great  father,  as  they  called  him,  given  to 
the  dogs  to  eat."  l 


Capture  of  Fort  Vincennes  by  Governor  Hamilton. 


Operations 
at  the  south. 


Towards  the  close  of  the  year  the  war  was  shifted  to  the  South, 
where  the  ministry  made  its  final  move  for  the  subjection 
of  fae  rebellious  colonies.  Lieutenant-colonel  Campbell  was 
sent,  as  the  initial  step,  with  two  thousand  men  to  reduce  Savannah. 
General  Robert  Howe,  of  North  Carolina,  was  in  command  at  that 
point  with  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hundred  men.  With  a  lagoon  in 
front,  a  morass  on  his  right,  the  swamps  of  the  river  on  his  left,  and 
the  works  of  the  town  in  his  rear,  he  thought  himself  safe  from  as- 
sault. But  Campbell  soon  discovered  that  a  path  through  a  swamp 
had  been  left  unguarded,  over  which,  led  by  a  negro,  a  detachment 

1  A  letter  of  Colonel  Clark,  iu  which  he  gives  a  narrative  of  his  expedition  to  Illinois, 
and  the  journal  of  his  second  in  command,  Major  Bowman,  —  both  documents  belonging 
to  the  Kentucky  Historical  Society,  —  were  published  for  the  first  time  a  few  years  since, 
with  notes  by  Mr.  Henry  Pirtle  of  Louisville. 


1779.]  PARTISAN   WARFARE   AT   THE    SOUTH.  613 

gained  and  turned  Howe's  right.  A  simultaneous  attack  was  made 
in  front,  and  the  Americans,  taken  by  surprise,  fell  back  through  the 
town,  losing,  in  a  confused  retreat,  over  five  hundred  men  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  as  prisoners,  with  their  baggage  and  artillery.  The 
loss  on  the  other  side  was  trifling,  and  Savannah  was  the  prize  of  their 
victory.  A  few  days  later  General  Prevost  advanced  from  St.  Augus- 
tine, taking  Sunbm-y  on  his  way.  By  the  end  of  January,  Campbell 
was  in  possession  of  Augusta,  and  the  royal  rule  seemed,  for  tho 
moment,  once  more  restored  over  the  whole  of  Georgia. 

But  only  seemed.  Throughout  that  State,  and  in  South  and  Nortli 
Carolina,  there  broke  out  a  partisan  warfare  which  had  had  Partisiin 
no  parallel  in  any  other  part  of  the  country.  The  loyal  and  warfare- 
the  patriot  parties  were  so  nearly  equally  divided  that  each  was  confi- 
dent of  gaining  the  ascendency,  and  the  bitterness  of  personal  detes- 
tation intensified  to  cruelty  the  evils  of  ordinary  war.  A  district 
of  country  remained  loyal  or  patriot  so  long  as  it  was  occupied  by 
the  troops  of  either  one  side  or  the  other.  Citizens  served  as  militia 
when  organized  militia  operations  promised  success ;  when  success 
seemed  hopeless,  or  protection  was  no  longer  afforded  by  the  presence 
of  regular  troops,  they  fled  to  the  swamps  and  woods  and  cai'ried  on  a 
murderous  and  predatory  warfare  against  their  neighbors  who  were 
on  the  other  side.  Soon  after  Augusta  was  taken,  a  Colonel  Boyd 
marched  with  a  body  of  Tories  from  the  back  counties  of  Carolina  to 
join  Campbell.  Colonel  Andrew  Pickens  gathered  together  a  band 
of  patriots  from  the  district  of  Ninety-Six,  intercepted  and  defeated 
Boyd,  took  seventy  of  his  men  prisoners,  tried  them  for  treason,  and 
five  were  hanged.  The  next  month,  in  March,  Colonel  Ashe,  with 
fifteen  hundred  North  Carolina  militia,  was  ordered  by  General  Lin- 
coln —  who  had  taken  Howe's  place  —  to  move  down  the  Savannah 
toward  the  enemy,  who  had  left  Augusta.  At  Briar  Creek  Ashe  had 
a  strong  position,  but,  exposing  his  camp  on  one  flank,  he  was  sur- 
prised by  the  enemy,  two  hundred  of  his  men  were  either  killed  or 
wounded,  and  his  command  disappeared  like  a  mob  that  had  been  fired 
upon,  almost  all  of  them  returning  to  their  homes,  a  hundred  or  two 
only  rejoining  Lincoln's  army.  These  two  instances  are  fair  indica- 
tions of  the  nature  of  the  contest  at  the  South.  Nowhere  else,  except 
to  a  limited  degree  in  Central  New  York,  was  the  war  so  entirely  a 
desperate  civil  war,  where  neighbor  was  arrayed  in  deadly  hatred 
against  neighbor,  each  holding  his  life  at  the  price  of  sleepless  vigi- 
lance, each  knowing  that  the  death  of  the  other  was  his  only  real  se- 
curity. Little  reliance  could  be  placed  upon  the  aid  of  militia,  where 
at  any  moment  the  troops  might  turn  their  backs  upon  the  command- 
ing officer  and  hasten  home  to  the  protection  of  their  own  firesides 


614 


ALLIANCE  WITH  FRANCE. 


[CHAP.  XXIV. 


against  personal  enemies.  This  condition  of  things  gave  an  adven- 
turous and  romantic  aspect  to  the  partisan  warfare  in  that  region, 
and  rendered  all  military  movements  uncertain. 

Through  the  spring,  Lincoln  and  Prevost  moved  from  point  to 
point  in  the  open  country,  each  striving  to  out-manoeuvre 
the  other,  without  any  important  result.  On  the  llth  of 
May,  the  English  commander  was  before  Charleston,  and 
summoned  it  to  surrender.  Some  of  the  civil  authorities  were  quite 
willing  to  compound  for  the  safety  of  the  town,  by  agreeing  that 


Movements 
at   the 
South. 


Charleston  in  1780. 


the  State  should  remain  neutral ;  but  neither  would  Governor  Rut- 
ledge,  Moultrie,  and  other  military  leaders  consent  to  abide  by  such 
an  agreement,  if  made,  nor  would  Prevost  accede  to  it.  Lincoln  at- 
tacked the  works  of  the  enemy  at  Stono  Ferry,  without  success  and 
with  considerable  loss.  But  Prevost  at  length  fell  back  upon  Savan- 
nah, and  the  belligerents,  by  the  middle  of  summer,  were  in  about  the 
same  relative  positions  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  year. 

Expeditions  were  sent  out  in  the  course  of  the  spring  and  summer 
by  Clinton,  more  for  the  purpose  of  plunder  and  of  distressing  the 
people,  than  with  any  hope  of  conquest.  General  Matthews,  with 
twenty-five  hundred  men,  landed  in  Virginia,  destroyed  large  quan- 
tities of  merchandise  at  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth,  burned  or  carried  off 
the  tobacco  along  the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  destroyed  many 


1779.]  RAIDS  IN  CONNECTICUT.  615 

houses  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  merchant  vessels,  and  broke  up  thou- 
sands of  barrels  of  pork,  pitch,  and  turpentine,  inflicting  distress  and 
ruin  upon  a  population  hitherto  exempt  from  the  evils  of  war. 

On  the  5th  of  July,  General  Tryon  landed  at  New  Haven  with 
three  thousand  men,  where  there  was  no  force  to  oppose  him.  f^idgin 
The  people,  nevertheless,  bravely  defended  their  homes.  Connectlcut 
The  Yale  students  formed  themselves  into  a  military  company  under 
Captain  James  Hillhouse ;  the  Reverend  Dr.  Daggett,  President  of 
the  College,  after  sending  his  daughters  to  a  place  of  safety,  shoul- 
dered his  musket,  and  with  his  sons  went  out  to  fight  the  invaders. 
He  was  taken  prisoner.  The  townspeople  tore  up  the  planks  of  West 
Bridge,  and  with  a  few  field-pieces  checked  the  advance  in  that  direc- 
tion. They  took  advantage  of  every  commanding  point  about  the 
town,  of  every  bit  of  wood  where  an  ambush  could  be  made  to  annoy 
the  troops  and  to  impede  their  progress.  But  the  British  and  Hes- 
sian soldiers  overran  the  town  ;  women  were  outraged,  and  men  were 
murdered;  houses  were  ransacked  for  plate,  watches,  jewelry,  and 
clothing,  and  what  could  not  be  carried  off  was  recklessly  destroyed. 
It  was  a  scene  of  robbery  and  debauchery  disgraceful  to  civilized  sol- 
diers, doubly  disgraceful  to  Tryon  and  the  other  officers  of  his  com- 
mand. It  was  a  mere  raid  for  the  purpose  of  plunder,  and  the  next 
morning  the  drunken  soldiers  were  marched,  or  driven,  or  carried  on 
board  the  ships,  to  sail  for  Fairfield.  This  fared  even  worse  than 
New  Haven.  It'was  first  given  over  to  rapine,  and  then  its  eighty- 
five  dwelling-houses,  two  churches,  fifty  or  sixty  barns,  and  a  court- 
house were  burned  to  the  ground.  Green's  Farms  and  Norwalk  were 
next  visited,  and  the  same  pitiless  destruction  inflicted  upon  both. 
Houses,  churches,  barns,  and  vessels  were  given  to  the  flames. 

Before  these  raids,  Clinton  had  made  a  purely  military  movement  up 
the  Hudson,  and  captured  the  half-finished  forts  at  Verplank's  Land- 
ing and  Stony  Point,  then  held  by  small  garrisons.  Washington 
inarched  at  once  to  cover  West  Point,  making  his  headquarters  at 
New  Windsor,  determined  to  recapture  both  places.  The  first  at- 
tempt was  upon  Stony  Point,  and  was  eminently  successful.  The 
details  were  planned  by  the  Commander-in-chief,  and  their  execu- 
tion intrusted  to  General  Wayne,  whose  courage  and  dash  especially 
fitted  him  for  so  difficult  an  enterprise.  His  attacking  column  con- 
sisted of  four  regiments,  under  Colonels  Febiger  of  Virginia,  Butler 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  Meigs  of  Connecticut,  and  Majors  Hill  and 
Murfree  of  Colonel  Putnam's  regiment.  The  attack  was  to  be  made 
at  midnight  on  July  15  ;  and  at  eight  o'clock  that  evening,  Wayne, 
who  had  made  that  day  with  his  men  a  difficult  march  over  the  moun- 
tains from  Fort  Montgomery,  was  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  fort. 


616 


ALLIANCE   WITH   FRANCE. 


[CHAP.   XXIV. 


After  a  careful  reconnoissance  in  person,  he  divided  his  force  into  two 
columns  and  moved  forward.  The  men  were  to  depend  on  the  bay- 
onet alone,  and  an  order  was  issued  that  the  nearest  officer  should  in- 
stantly cut  down  any  soldier  who  took  his  gun  from  his  shoulder  before 
the  word  was  given.  That  they  might  distinguish  each  other  in  the 
darkness,  a  bit  of  white  paper  was  fastened  to  their  hats,  and  they 
were  to  shout,  "  The  fort 's  our  own  !  "  as  they  entered  the  works. 

The  neck  of  land  leading  to  the  Point  was  covered  by  a  high  tide 
capture  of  with  two  feet  of  water.  The  delay  in  crossing  this  gave 
stony  Point,  tjme  to  the  enemy  to  discover  the  movement,  and  fire  was 
opened  upon  the  advancing  columns  by  the  pickets.  The  whole  gar- 


stony  Point. 

rison  were  immediately  at  their  posts.  Wayne's  men  were  more  than 
twenty  minutes  in  scrambling  up  the  steep  ascent,  under  heavy  but 
random  firing,  climbing  over,  where  they  could  not  tear  down,  the 
abatis,  but  not  firing  a  shot.  Shouts  came  —  says  a  contemporary 
account  —  from  the  fortifications  of  "  Come  on,  ye  damn'd  rebels  ; 
come  on!"  —  to  which  the  assailants  answered,  "Don't  be  in  such 
a  hurry,  my  lads  ;  we  will  be  with  you  presently."  l  Lieutenant- 
colonel  Fleury  first  scaled  the  parapet  and  struck  the  British  colors  ; 
the  right  column  poured  in  after  him  ;  Wayne  was  struck  down  by  a 
ball  in  the  forehead,  but  soon  recovered,  and  was  carried  in  by  his 

1  Moore's  Diary  of  the  Revolution. 


1779.]  NAVAL   AFFAIRS.  617 

men.  The  capture  was  complete  in  less  than  half  an  hour  from  the 
firing  of  the  first  shot,  with  a  loss  of  fifteen  killed  and  eighty-three 
wounded.  Nearly  five  hundred  prisoners,  fifteen  pieces  of  cannon, 
and  large  quantities  of  stores  and  ammunition  were  the  prizes  of  the 
victory.1 

The  works  at  Stony  Point  were  destroyed,  and  the  place  aban- 
doned, to  be  again  occupied  soon  after  by  the  British.  Preparations 
to  attack  the  fort  at  Verplank's  Point,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river, 
were  given  up,  as  Clinton  moved  to  its  support.  These  hostile  dem- 
onstrations, however,  and  especially  so  signal  an  exploit  as  that  of 
Wayne's,  induced  Clinton  to  postpone  indefinitely  a  movement  upon 
Connecticut,  to  support  which  he  had  moved  a  portion  of  his  troops 
to  Mamaroneck.  Of  the  danger  of  leaving  so  active  an  enemy  be- 
hind him,  by  undertaking  any  distant  expedition,  he  received  an- 
other warning  the  next  month  by  the  surprise  of  the  post  at  pauiugHook 
Paulus  Hook,  now  Jersey  City.  Before  daylight  on  the  surPnsed 
19th  of  August,  Major  Henry  Lee,  with  five  companies  of  Southern 
troopers,  carried  the  place  by  assault  without  firing  a  shot,  —  took 
a  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners,  and  retired  in  safety,  though  hotly  pur- 
sued by  reinforcements  from  New  York. 

In  a  naval  expedition  sent  out  by  Clinton  in  August,  the  success 
was  altogether  on  the  side  of  the  English.  Massachusetts 
sent  a  militia  general,  Lovell,  with  a  thousand  men,  to  re- 
duce  a  British  post  within  her  territory  on  the  Penobscot. 
With  Lovell  went  three  ships  of  the  Continental  navy,  three  of  the 
Massachusetts  navy,  with  thirteen  privateers,  altogether  carrying 
three  hundred  guns,  under  the  command  of  Commodore  Saltonstall. 
The  fort  was  too  strong,  or  the  investment  was  mismanaged,  and  re- 
enforcements  were  sent  for.  But  the  delay  gave  time  for  aid  to  be 
sent  to  the  besieged.  Admiral  Collier  arrived  in  the  bay  with  five 
ships,  which  Saltonstall  saw  fit  to  run  away  from  instead  of  fighting. 
Several  of  his  vessels  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  but  the  rest 
he  burned.  The  troops  made  their  way  back  to  Massachusetts  as 
best  they  could  through  the  wilderness,  and  for  a  while  no  question 
was  so  warmly  discussed  in  that  State  as  which  of  the  leaders,  Lovell 

1  Wayne  wrote  at  2  A.  M.  that  morning  to  Washington  :  "  The  fort  and  garrison,  with 
Colonel  Johnston,  are  ours.  Our  officers  and  men  behaved  like  men  who  are  determined 
to  be  free  "  The  same  day  Colonel  Febiger  wrote  to  his  wife  :  — 

"Mv  DEAR  GIRL  :  I  have  just  borrowed  pen,  ink,  and  paper  to  inform  you  that  yester- 
day we  marched  from  Fort  Montgomery,  and  at  12  o'clock  last  night  we  stormed  this  con- 
founded place,  and,  with  the  loss  of  about  fourteen  killed  and  forty  or  fifty  wounded,  we 
carried  it.  I  can  give  you  no  particulars  as  yet.  A  musqnet-ball  scraped  my  nose.  No 
other  damage  to  '  Old  Denmark.'  God  bless  you.  Farewell.  FEBIGER.'' 

—  [From  original  MS.  in  possession  of  Col.  Geo.  L.  Febiger,  U.  S.  A.,  New  York  city.] 


018  ALLIANCE  WITH   FRANCE.'  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

or  Saltonstall,  was  the  more  responsible  for  the  disaster,  and  had 
more  completely  covered  himself  with  disgrace. 

Within  one  day  of  this  disaster,  John  Paul  Jones  sailed  from  the 
coast  of  France.  A  month  later  he  fought  a  battle  without  parallel 
in  naval  history,  and,  in  its  consequences,  more  important  than  any 
other  event  of  the  year.  Hitherto  the  contest  upon  the  sea  had  been 
mainly  a  predatory  warfare  of  privateers,  aimed  at  the  destruction  of 
commerce  and  the  plunder  of  merchant  vessels.  The  young  republic 
was  without  a  navy  proper.  "  To  talk  of  coping  suddenly  with  G. 
B.  at  sea,  would  be  Quixotic  indeed,"  wrote  John  Adams  in  1775. 
"  The  only  question  with  me  is,  can  we  defend  our  rivers  and  har- 
bors?" But  to  the  work  of  forming  a  navy  Congress  early  ad- 
dressed itself,  and  no  one  more  earnestly  than  John  Adams  himself. 

Five  frigates  and  a  number  of  smaller  vessels  were  built  or  bought, 
Naval  in  the  course  of  four  years,  by  Congress,  but  two  of  the 

affaire.  frigates  never  were  sent  to  sea,  being  burned  in  port  to  save 
them  from  the  enemy  ;  each  province  had  a  squadron  of  small  ves- 
sels, and,  though  they  could  none  of  them  cope  with  the  heavier 
British  ships,  they  were  always  ready  to  meet  those  of  their  own 
weight  of  metal.  The  foreign  commerce  of  the  country  was  destroyed 
by  the  war,  and  capital  and  men  sought  remuneration  for  its  loss  in 
privateering.  How  successful  they  were  in  helping,  in  this  way,  both 
themselves  and  their  country,  is  shown  by  the  commercial  reports. 
Thus,  two  hundred  and  fifty  British  vessels  in  the  West  India  trade, 
with  cargoes  of  the  aggregate  value  of  ten  million  dollars,  were  cap- 
tured by  the  American  cruisers  before  the  1st  of  February,  1777.  In 
the  course  of  that  year  the  number  taken  was  four  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven  ;  of  the  two  hundred  engaged  in  the  African  trade,  only  forty 
escaped  ;  thirty-five  only  were  left  of  the  fleet  of  sixty  vessels  that 
traded  directly  between  Ireland  and  the  West.  Indies  ;  and  in  Mar- 
tinique, where  many  prizes  were  carried,  the  market  was  so  over- 
stocked that  silk  stockings  could  be  bought  for  a  dollar  a  pair,  and 
Irish  linen  at  two  dollars  the  piece. 

Paul  Jones  was  one  of  the  most  daring  of  these  cruisers.  He  had 
made  many  prizes  in  British  waters,  and  his  name  was  a 
terror  all  along  the  coast.  Among  the  earliest  recollections 
Richard.  of  gjr  \vai(-er  Scott  was  the  excitement  aroused  by  the  en- 
trance of  Jones  by  night  into  the  harbor  of  Whitehaven,  seizing  the 
sentinels  and  spiking  the  guns  of  the  fort,  burning  some  of  the  ship- 
ping, while  a  fleet  of  more  than  two  hundred  colliers  escaped  destruc- 
tion only  by  chance.  To  the  "pirate  Jones"  —  as  the  English  called 
him  for  retaliating,  in  a  mild  way,  on  the  coast  of  England,  the  atroci- 
1  Letter  to  James  Warren,  iu  Warren  manuscripts. 


FIGHT  OF  THE  BON  HOMME  RICHAUU  AM)  THE  SERAPIS. 


1779.] 


JOHN  PAUL  JONES. 


619 


ties  committed  on  the  coast  of  America — the  King  of  France  gave 
an  old  Indiaman,  to  be  fitted  out  as  a  man-of-war.  In  compliment 
to  Dr.  Franklin's  "  Poor  Richard,"  Jones  called  her  the  Bon  Humme 
Richard,  and  in  her  put  to  sea  on  the  14th  of  August. 

After  a  cruise  of  more  than  a  month  along  the  west  coast  of  Ire- 
land and  the  north  of  Scotland,  on  the  22d  of  September,  the  Richard, 
with  two  consorts,  the  Alliance  and  Pallas,  came  in  sight  of  a  fleet  of 
merchantmen  under  convoy  of  the  frigate  Serapis,  of  fifty  guns,  and 
the  Countess  of  Scarborough,  of 
twenty -two,  off  Flam  borough 
Head,  on  the  coast  of  Yorkshire. 
Jones  gave  signal  for  pursuit, 
though  his  own  men  were  di- 
minished by  drafts  to  man  prizes, 
and  his  prisoners  on  board  were 
two  thirds  as  numerous  as  his 
crew.  Landais,  the  commander 
of  the  Alliance,  who  through- 
out the  cruise  had  been  insub- 
ordinate and  regardless  of  the 
Commodore's  orders,  intimated 
that  their  duty  was  to  escape. 
Speaking  the  Pallas,  he  told 
her  commander  that  if  the  Eng- 
lish vessel  were  a  fifty-gun  ship 
they  had  nothing  else  to  do. 
The  Serapis  was  a  new  frigate, 
built  that  spring.  She  was 
rated  at  forty-four  guns,  but  carried  fifty.  She  had  twenty  guns  on 
each  of  her  decks,  main  and  upper,  and  ten  lighter  ones  on  her  quarter 
deck  and  forecastle.  The  Richard  had  six  ports  on  each  side  of  her 
lower  deck,  but  only  six  guns  there,  which  were  intended  to  be  used 
all  on  the  same  side.  On  her  proper  gun-deck,  above  these,  she  had 
fourteen  guns  on  each  side  —  twelves  and  nines.  She  had  a  high 
quarter  and  forecastle,  with  eight  guns  on  these.  She  was  of  the  old- 
fashioned  build,  with  a  high  poop,  and  was  thus  much  higher  than  the 
Serapis,  so  that  her  lower  deck  was  but  little  lower  than  her  antag- 
onist's .main  deck. 

It  was  an  hour  past  sunset,  under  a  full  moon,  when  the  Richard 
came  within  hail  of  the  Serapis.     Captain  Pearson  spoke  Fightwith 
her  twice.     Jones  did  not  answer,  but  opened  fire,  to  which   the  SeraPu- 
the  Serapis  instantly  replied.     At  the  first  fire  of  the   Richard,  two 
of  the  heavy  guns  on  her  lower  deck  burst.     The  men  on  this  deck 


John   Paui  Jones. 


620  ALLIANCE   WITH  FRANCE. '  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

who  were  not  killed  by  the  explosion  went  up  to  the  main  deck,  and 
the  guns  on  the  lower  deck  were  not  fought  afterward. 

After  his  first  broadside,  Jones  caught  the  wind  again,  and  closed 
with  the  Serapis,  striking  her  on  the  quarter  just  after  her  second 
broadside.  He  grappled  their  vessel,  but,  as  he  could  not  bring  a 
gun  to  bear,  he  let  them  fall  off.  Captain  Pearson  asked  if  he  had 
struck.  Jones  answered,  "  I  have  not  begun  to  fight !  "  The  Eng- 
lish sails  filled,  Jones  backed  his  top-sails,  and  the  Serapis  wore  short 
round.  As  she  swung,  her  jib-boom  ran  into  the  mizzen-rigging  of 
the  Richard.  It  is  said  that  Jones  himself  then  fastened  the  boom 
to  his  mast.  Somebody  did,  and  it  did  not  hold,  but  one  of  her 
anchors  caught  his  quarter  ;  and  so  they  fought,  fastened  together, 
each  ship  using  its  starboard  batteries. 

On  board  the  Serapis,  the  ports  were  not  open  on  the  starboard 
side,  because  she  had  been  firing  on  the  other.  As  they  ran  across 
and  loosened  those  guns,  the  men  amidships  found  they  could  not 
open  their  ports,  the  Richard  was  so  close.  They  therefore  fired 
their  first  shots  through  their  own  port-lids,  and  blew  them  off. 

The  fire  from  the  eighteen-pounders  on  the  main  deck  of  the  Sera- 
pis,  though  it  was  probably  that  which  sank  the  Richard  the  next 
day,  passed  for  nothing  so  far  as  immediate  execution  went,  for  there 
was  no  one  on  the  lower  deck  of  the  Richard,  and  her  main  deck 
was  too  high  to  be  in  danger.  The  main  deck  was  a  match  for  the 
upper  deck  of  the  Serapis,  and  her  upper  guns  did  execution,  while 
those  of  the  Serapis  had  too  little  elevation.  On  the  quarter  deck, 
Jones  had  dragged  across  a  piece  from  the  larboard  battery,  so  that 
he  had  three  nine-pounders  almost  raking  the  Serapis.  There  was 
very  little  musket-practice  in  the  smoke  and  darkness. 

Thus  the  firing  went  on  for  two  hours,  neither  side  trying  to  board, 
till  an  incident  occurred  to  which  both  Jones  and  Pearson  ascribed 
the  final  capture  of  the  Serapis.  The  men  in  the  Richard's  tops 
were  throwing  hand-grenades  upon  the  decks  of  the  Serapis,  and 
one  sailor  worked  himself  out  to  the  end  of  the  main-yard,  carrying 
a  bucket  filled  with  these  missiles,  lighted  them  one  by  one,  and 
threw  them  down  her  main  hatchway.  Here,  in  the  centre  of  the 
deck,  stretching  the  whole  length  of  the  ship,  was  a  row  of  eighteen- 
pounder  cartridges,  which  the  powder-boys  had  left  there  when  they 
went  for  more.  One  of  the  grenades  lighted  the  row,  and  the  flash 
passed  fore  and  aft  through  the  ship.  Some  twenty  of  the  men  amid- 
ships were  blown  to  pieces.  There  were  other  men  who  were  stripped 
naked,  leaving  nothing  but  the  collars  of  their  shirts  and  their  wrist- 
bands. Farther  aft  there  was  not  so  much  powder,  perhaps,  but  the 
men  were  scorched  and  burned  more  than  they  were  wounded. 


1779.]  CAPTURE   OF  THE    SERAPIS.  621 

Soon  after  this  an  attempt  was  made  to  board  the  Richard.  About 
ten  o'clock,  an  English  officer,  a  prisoner  on  board  the  Richard, 
scrambled  through  one  of  the  ports  of  the  Serapis.  He  told  Captain 
Pearson  that  the  Richard  was  sinking ;  that  they  had  had  to  release 
all  her  prisoners  from  the  hold  and  spar-deck,  himself  among  them, 
because  the  water  came  in  so  fast ;  and  that  if  the  English  could  hold 
on  a  few  minutes  more  the  ship  was  theirs,  —  all  of  which  was  true 
excepting  this  last. 

On  this  news,  Pearson  hailed  Jones  again,  to  ask  if  he  had  struck. 
He  received  no  answer,  for  Jones  was  at  the  other  end  of  his  ship,  on 
his  quarter,  directing  the  fire  of  his  three  nine-pounders.  Pearson 
then  called  for  boarders ;  they  formed  hastily,  and  dashed  on  board 
the  Richard.  But  she  had  not  struck,  though  some  of  her  men  had 
called  for  quarter.  Her  crew  were  ready  under  cover.  Jones  himself 
seized  a  pike  and  headed  them,  and  the  English  fell  back  again. 

This  was  their  last  effort.  About  half-past  ten  Pearson  struck. 
His  ship  had  been  on  fire  a  dozen  times,  and  the  explo-  surrender  of 
sion  had  wholly  disabled  his  main  battery,  which  had  been  the  *"*•»"*• 
his  chief  strength.  But  so  uncertain  and  confused  was  it  all,  that 
when  the  cry  was  heard,  "They've  struck!"  many  in  the  Serapis 
took  it  for  granted  that  they  had  taken  the  Richard.  In  fact, 
Pearson  had  struck  the  flag  with  his  own  hands,  as  the  men,  half  of 
whom  were  disabled,  would  not  expose  themselves  to  the  fire  from 
the  Richard's  tops.  For  his  victory  Jones  was  largely  indebted  to 
the  ability  of  his  subordinate  officers,  especially  Lieutenant  Richard 
Dale,  who  was  severely  wounded,  but  kept  his  post  to  the  last,  and 
at  one  time  was  left  entirely  alone  at  the  guns  below. 

When  Pearson  delivered  his  sword  to  Jones,  he  is  reported  to  have 
said,  "  I  cannot,  sir,  but  feel  much  mortification  at  the  idea  of  surren- 
dering my  sword  to  a  man  who  has  fought  me  with  a  rope  round  his 
neck."  To  which  Jones,  returning  the  sword,  replied,  "  You  have 
fought  gallantly,  sir,  and  I  hope  your  king  will  give  you  a  better 
ship."  Afterward,  when  Jones  heard  that  Pearson  had  been  knighted 
for  his  gallant  though  unsuccessful  action,  he  remarked,  "  He  deserved 
it!  and  if  I  fall  in  with  him  again,  I  will  make  a  lord  of  him." 

The  morning  after  the  battle,  the  Richard  was  found  to  be  in  a 
horrible  condition.  She  was  still  on  fire,  and  wherever  her  antag- 
onist's main  battery  could  reach  she  had  been  torn  to  pieces.  There 
was  a  complete  breach  from  the  main-mast  to  the  stern.  For  the 
Serapis,  the  jib-boom  had  been  wrenched  off,  at  the  beginning,  the 
main-mast  and  mizzen-top  fell  as  they  struck,  and  at  daybreak  the 
wreck  was  not  cleared  away.  First,  all  the  wounded  were  removed 
to  the  Serapis,  then  all  the  crew,  and  at  ten  the  Richard  went  to 
the  bottom. 


6-22 


ALLIANCE  WITH   FRANCE. 


[CHAP.  XXIV. 


While  this  desperate  fight  was  in  progress,  the  Pallas  had  engaged 
and  taken  the  Countess  of  Scarborough.  Landiiis  in  the  Alliance  had 
occupied  himself  between  both  vessels.  Once  and  again  her  shot 

wounded  men  on  board  the 
Richard,  so  that  some  of  her 
people  supposed  the  Alliance 
was  in  English  hands.  It  was 
even  charged  that  she  had  de- 
liberately poured  more  than  one 
broadside  into  the  Richard. 
Jones  took  his  prize  into  Hol- 
land, when  the  Serapis  and 
Scarborough  were  transferred  to 
the  French  government.  In  or- 
der to  relieve  the  Dutch  from 
diplomatic  difficulties,  Jones 
took  command  of  the  Alliance, 
and  went  to  sea.  Landais  sub- 
sequently sailed  in  the  Alliance 
for  America,  but  on  his  return 
was  deposed  from  his  command 
for  insanity,  and  afterward  was 
expelled  from  the  navy.  Jones 
also  returned  to  America  in  the 
Ariel;  and,  after  an  absence 
of  three  years,  reached  Phila- 
delphia on  the  18th  of  February, 
1781.  Congress  had  given  him 
a  vote  of  thanks,  and  the  King 
of  France  had  presented  him 
with  a  sword. 

The  effect  produced  by 
Jones's  exploits  may  be  judged 
from  the  statistics  of  trade. 

The  number   of   vessels  that  left   Newcastle  for  foreign  trade  that 

year  was  little  more  than  half  the  number  in  1777.     The  coasting 

trade  diminished   almost  as  much.      To   defend  the  coast, 

Popular  in-  . 

donation  in  volunteer   bodies   were   organized   m   every  district.      The 

England.  IT  .  i 

popular  discontent  with  naval  management  had  shown 
itself  in  the  spring,  in  the  strong  vote  for  Mr.  Fox's  motion,  con- 
demning the  government  for  sending  out  Admiral  Keppel  with  an 
insufficient  fleet.  Keppel  himself  had  given  most  damaging  testi- 
mony as  to  the  inefficiency  of  the  arrangements  of  the  Admiralty. 


John   Paul  Jones's   Medal. 


1781.]  THE   FLEET    OF   PRIVATEERS.  623 

Fox's  motion  was  defeated  in  a  full  house  by  a  majority  of  only  thirty- 
four,  —  a  majority  secured  by  Lord  North's  assuming  the  responsi- 
bility, which,  in  those  days,  might  have  been  left  for  the  Admiralty 
alone  to  bear. 

The  action  between  the  Serapis  and  the  Richard  was  the  last  im- 
portant action  between  English  and  American  ships  in  the  war.  The 
French  fleet  was  relieving  the  American  Government  from  the  ex- 
pensive necessity  of  meeting  at  sea1  the  greatest  naval  power  in  the 
world.  And  the  various  reverses  of  five  years  of  hard  fighting  had 
reduced  the  American  fleet  to  a  very  small  establishment.  Early 
in  1780,  the  Providence,  the  Queen  of  France,  the  Boston,  and  the 
Ranger  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English  at  the  capture  of  Charles- 
ton. But  few  frigates  now  remained  to  the  United  States.  Massa- 
chusetts still  had  the  Protector  and  the  Defence,  besides  merchant 
vessels  employed  as  has  been  described.  The  fleet  of  privateers 
was  perhaps  larger  than  ever.  What  their  number  was,  it  is  now 
impossible  to  say.  But  the  Admiralty  Court  of  the  Essex  district 
in  Massachusetts  —  the  largest  of  the  three  Admiralty  districts  — 
had  condemned  eight  hundred  and  eighteen  prizes  in  1780.  In  the 
single  month  of  May,  1779,  eighteen  prizes  were  brought  into  New 
London.  In  1781,  the  privateer  fleet  of  the  port  of  Salem  alone 
was  twenty-six  ships,  —  twelve  of  which  carried  twenty  The  prjv;i. 
guns  or  more, — sixteen  brigs,  and  seventeen  smaller  ves-  teerfleet 
sels.  Here  was  a  fleet  of  fifty-nine  vessels,  which  carried  nearly 
four  thousand  men,  and  mounted  seven  hundred  and  forty-six  guns. 
It  is  true  that  the  guns  were  light.  But  so  were  those  of  the  enemies 
with  whom  they  had  to  contend.  So  small  was  the  public  force  of 
the  Americans  after  so  severe  losses,  that  for  the  remainder  of  the 
war  most  of  the  naval  actions  were  those  of  these  privateers. 
1  The  English  estimates  for  1779  provided  for  87,000  seamen  and  marines. 


TABLE  OF  DATES. 


1659.     Settlement  of  Nantucket. 
1678.     Jeffries,  Governor  of  Virginia. 
1680.     Culpepper,  Governor  of  Virginia. 

Brockholst,  Lieutenant-governor  of  New  York. 

1683.  Dongan,  Governor  of  New  York. 

First  popular  Assembly  in  New  York. 

1684.  Effingham,  Governor  of  Virginia. 

1688.  Boundary  Line  between  New  York  and  Connecticut  fixed. 

1689.  AVilliam  and  Mary  proclaimed. 
Nicholson,  Lieutenant-governor  of  New  York. 
Leisler  Revolution. 

Revolution  in  Maryland. 

War  with  the  French  and  Indians. 

1690.  Destruction  of  Schenectady. 
First  Newspaper  in  Boston. 
Nicholson,  Lieutenant-governor  of  Virginia. 
Copley,  Governor  of  Maryland. 

Church  of  England  established  in  Maryland. 

1691.  Sloughter,  Governor  of  New  York. 
Execution  of  Leisler. 

1692.  Nicholson,  Governor  of  Maryland. 
Andros,  Governor  of  Virginia. 
William  and  Mary  College  chartered. 
Fletcher,  Governor  of  New  York. 

1693.  Expedition  against  the  French  under  Schuyler. 
1696.     Kidd  sails  from  New  York. 

1698.  Bellomont,  Governor  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Hampshire. 

1699.  Penn  returns  to  Pennsylvania. 
Dudley,  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

1701.  Kidd  hanged. 

Andrew  Hamilton,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania. 

1 702.  Cornbury,  Governor  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey. 
Nathaniel  Johnson,  Governor  of  South  Carolina. 
Government  of  New  Jersey  surrendered  to  the  Crown. 

1 703.  Boundary  Line  between  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  fixed. 
John  Evans,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania. 

1704.  Indian  War  in  New  England. 
VOL.  in.  40 


626  TAI5LE   OF  DATES. 

1706.     French  invade  South  Carolina. 

1708.  Lovelace,  Governor  of  New  York. 

1709.  Gookin,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania. 

1710.  Port  Royal  taken. 
Revolution  in  North  Carolina. 
Hunter,  Governor  of  New  York. 
Spotswood,  Governor  of  Virginia. 

1711.  Indian  War  in  North  Carolina. 
Expedition  against  Canada. 

1713.  Five  Nations  become  Six  by  the  addition  of  the  Tuscarora  Tribe. 
Eden,  Governor  of  North  Carolina. 

1714.  Proprietary  Government  restored  in  Maryland. 

1715.  Indian  War  in  South  Carolina. 

1717.  Proposed  Settlement  of  the  "  Margravate  of  Azilia"  in  Georgia. 
Robert  Johnson,  Governor  of  South  Carolina. 

Keith,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania. 

1718.  William  Penn  died. 

Suppression  of  Piracy  on  the  Carolina  Coast. 
Scotch  Presbyterians  settled  in  New  Hampshire. 

1719.  Revolution  in  South  Carolina. 

1 720.  Burnet,  Governor  of  New  York. 
Nicholson,  Governor  of  South  Carolina. 

1 722.     Third  Indian  Wai  in  New  England. 

Benning  Wentwortli,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire. 

Drysdale,  Governor  of  Virginia. 
1725.     Gordon,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania. 

1728.  Gooch,  Governor  of  Virginia. 
Montgomerie,  Governor  of  New  York. 

1729.  The  Carolinaa  purchased  of  the  Proprietaries  by  the  Crown 
Baltimore  laid  out. 

1730.  Belcher,  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

1732.  Charter  of  Georgia  granted. 
Cosby,  Governor  of  New  York. 
Trial  of  Zenger  for  libel. 

Spencer  Phips,  Lieutenant-governor  of  Massachusetts. 

1 733.  Oglethorpe's  Colony  settles  in  Georgia. 

1734.  Salzburgers  settle  in  Georgia, 

Gabriel  Johnston,  Governor  of  South  Carolina. 
1 736.    First  Printing-press  established  in  Virginia. 

Clarke.  Lieutenant-governor  of  New  York. 
1 73<>      Robert  Johnson,  reappointed  Governor  of  South  Carolina. 

1740.  George  Whitefield's  first  visit  to  New  England. 

1741.  Negro  Plot  in  New  York. 
Shirley,  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

1 743.  Lewis  Morris,  Governor  of  New  Jersey. 
Clinton,  Governor  of  New  York. 

1 744.  War  between  England  and  France. 

1 745.  Capture  of  Louisburg. 

1747.  Belcher,  Governor  of  New  Jersey. 

1748.  Ohio  Company  formed.     Louisburg  restored  to  France. 

1749.  Settlement  of  Halifax,  N.  S. 


TABLE   OF  DATES.  627 

1752.  Dinwiddie,  Governor  of  Virginia.  • 

1 753.  DeLancey,  Governor  of  New  York. 

1 754.  Colonial  Congress  at  Albany,  and  Proposed  Union. 

1755.  Braddock's  Defeat. 
Battle  of  Lake  George. 
Banishment  of  the  Acadians. 

1 756.  Fort  Oswe«x>  surrendered  to  the  French. 

O 

1757.  Massacre  of  Fort  William  Henry. 
Pownall,  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

1 758.  Defeat  of  Abercrombie  at  Fort  Ticonderoga. 
Fort  Ticonderoga  taken  by  Amherst. 
Recapture  of  Louisburg. 

Capture  of  Fort  Niagara  by  the  English. 

1759.  Wolfe  captures  Quebec. 

1 760.  Bernard,  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

1761.  Attempt  to  enforce  Writs  of  Assistance  in  Massachusetts. 
Golden,  Lieutenant-governor  of  New  York. 

1763.  Pontiac's  War. 

1764.  Passage  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

1 765.  Meeting  of  First  Continental  Congress. 

1766.  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act 
1768.  British  Troops  quartered  in  Boston. 

1770.  Boston  Massacre. 

British  Troops  re-moved  from  Boston. 

1771.  Hutchinson,  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

1773.  Tax  on  Tea  exported  to  the  Colonies  by  the  East  India  Company. 
Destruction  of  Tea  in  Boston  and  elsewhere. 

1774.  Boston  Port  Bill  passed. 

Gage,  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

1775.  February  26,  Troops  sent  to  Salem,  Mass.,  to  seize  Cannon. 
April  19,  Fight  at  Lexington  and  Concord. 

May  10,  Capture  of  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point. 

June  15,  Washington  appointed  Commander-in-chief.     June    17,   Battle  of 

Bunker  Hill.     Siege  of  Boston  begins. 
October  1 7,  Burning  of  Falmouth. 

November  13,  Montreal  taken  by  Montgomery.     Arnold's  March  to  Quebec. 
December  30,  Death  of  Montgomery.    Daniel  Boone  settles  in  Kentucky. 

1776.  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Caro- 

lina, adopt  Constitutions. 

County  of  Washington,  N.  C.  (Tennessee),  organized. 

January  2,  Union  Flag  raised  at  Cambridge,  Mass. 

February  27,  Battle  of  Moore's  Creek  Bridge. 

June,  Arrival  of  British  Fleet  in  New  York  Bay.  June  28,  Attack  on  Fort 
Sullivan,  Charleston,  S.  C. 

July  2,  Declaration  of  Independence  by  Congress. 

August  27,  Battle  of  Long  Island. 

September  15,  Americans  abandon  New  York.  September  16,  Battle  of  Har- 
lem Plains.  September  21,  Burning  of  New  York. 

October  28,  Battle  of  White  Plains. 

November  16,  Surrender  of  Fort  AVashington. 

December  13,  Capture  of  General  Lee.     December  26,  Battle  of  Trenton. 


628  TABLE   OF  DATES.    • 

1777.    New  York,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  adopt  Constitutions. 
January  3,  Battle   of  Princeton. 
April  26,  Tryon's  Attack  on  Danhury,  Conn. 
May  21,  Meigs's  Attack  on   Sag  Harbor. 
June  14,  Flag  of  Stars  and  Stripes  adopted  by  Congress. 
July  6,  Burgoyne  captures  Ticonderoga.     July  23,  Howe's  Army  sails  from 

New  York  for  Chesapeake  Bay. 

Auyust  6,  Battle  of  Oriskany.     Auyust  1C,  Battle  of  Bennington. 
September  10,  Battle   of   Brandywine.      September   19,    "  Paoli    Massacre." 

First  Battle  of   Still  water. 
October  4,  Battle  of  Germantown.     October  6.  Forts  Clinton  and  Montgomery 

taken  by  the    British.     October  1,   Second  Battle  of  Stillwater.     October 

17,  Surrender  of  Burgoyne.     Howe  occupies  Philadelphia. 

1778.  Con  way  Cabal. 

Commissioners  sent  to  Congress  by  Lord  North  with  Proposals  for 

Peace. 

Alliance  with  France. 
May,  Clark's  expedition  to  Illinois. 
June,  Attack  on  Wyoming.     June  18,  British  leave  Philadelphia.     June  28, 

Battle  of  Monmouth. 
July,  Trial  of  General  Lee  by  Court-martial.    Arrival  of  French  Fleet  under 

D'Estaing.     July  29,  Battle  of  Rhode  Island. 
November,  Attack  on  Cherry  Valley. 
December  29,  Savannah  taken  by  the  British. 

1779.  May  11,  Charleston,  S.  C.,  threatened  by  the  British. 

July  5,  Try  on  attacks  New  Haven  and  other  towns.     July  15,  Capture  of 

Stony  Point. 

August  19,  Assault  on  Paulus  Hook. 
September  22,  Fight  between  the  Bon  Homme  Richard  and  the  Serapis. 


1  '/ 


L  I  B  RAR.Y 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 

PRESENTED  BY 

Miss  Ethel  Ricker 


from  the 

Library  of  her  Father 
Nathan  Clifford  Ricker 
Head  of  the  Department  of 
Architecture,  1873-1911 


973 
B84P 

1896* 
v.4 


Return  this  book  on  or  before  the 
Latest  Date  stamped  below. 


University  of  Illinois  Library 


.-    -•>      r  / 


'Jill  2  ?  1 


L161  — 1141 


SCRIBNER'S 

POPULAR    HISTORY    OF 
THE   UNITED  STATES 


SCRIBNER'S 

POPULAR  HISTORY  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES 


FROM    THE    EARLIEST    DISCOVERIES    OF   THE    WESTERN 
HEMISPHERE  BY  THE  NORTHMEN  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


BY 

WILLIAM    CULLEN    BRYANT 

SIDNEY    HOWARD   GAY 

NOAH    BROOKS 


WITH    MORE    THAN    SIXTEEN    HUNDRED 
ILLUSTRATIONS   AND    MAPS 


VOLUME    IV 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1896 


COPYRIGHT,  1880,  1881,  t8g6,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


RIGHT  Of   TRANSLATION  RESERVED 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


fc-ff 


• 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

SULLIVAN'S  EXPEDITION.  —  FALL  OF  CHARLESTON.  —  ARNOLD'S 

TREASON. 

PAG* 

WASHINGTON'S  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  INVASION  OF  CANADA.  —  SULLIVAN'S  EXPE- 
DITION IN  CENTRAL  NEW  YORK.  —  THE  BATTLE  OF  NEWTOWN.  —  INDIAN 
SETTLEMENTS  LAID  WASTE.  —  BRODHEAD'S  EXPEDITION.  —  BRANT'S  REVENGE. 

—  SPAIN   DECLARES  WAR  AGAINST   ENGLAND. —  OPERATIONS  IN  THE   SOUTH- 
WEST.—CONDITION  OF  THE   AMERICAN  AND  BRITISH   FORCES.  —  ATTACK  ON 
SAVANNAH.  —  SIEGE  AND  CAPTURE  OF  CHARLESTON.  —  A  SEVERE  WINTER.  — 
RAIDS  IN  NEW  JERSEY.  —  SPRINGFIELD  BURNED.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  ROCHAMBEAU. 

—  ARNOLD'S   TREASON.  —  CORRESPONDENCE   WITH   ANDRE.  —  IMPORTANCE  OF 
WEST  POINT.  —  THE  CONFERENCE  BETWEEN  ARNOLD  AND  ANDRE.  —  ANDRE'S 
CAPTURE  AND  ARNOLD'S  ESCAPE.  —  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  AFFAIR 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE   SOUTHERN   CAMPAIGN. 

THE  EFFECTS   OF  ARNOLD'S  TREASON.  —  BUFORD  DEFEATED  ON  THE  WAXHAW. 

—  CORNWALLIS  MISCALCULATES  HIS  TASK.  —  ACTIONS  AT  ROCKY  MOUNT  AND 
HANGING  ROCK.  —  PARTISAN  WARFARE.  —  GATES  ASSUMES   COMMAND  IN  THE 
SOUTH.  —  THE  MILITARY  SITUATION.  —  BATTLE  OF  CAMDEN. —  SKIRMISHES. — 
BATTLE  OF  KING'S  MOUNTAIN.  —  GREENE  SUPERSEDES  GATES.  —  His  PLAN.  OF 
CAMPAIGN.  —  BATTLE   OF  COWPENS.  —  CONDITION  OF  GREENE'S  ARMY.  —  His 
RETREAT.  —  RECEIVES    REINFORCEMENTS.  —  BATTLE    OF    GUILFORD    COURT- 
HOUSE.—  CORNWALLIS  RETREATS  TO  WILMINGTON 30 

CHAPTER   III. 

END  OF   MILITARY   OPERATIONS. 

ARNOLD'S  EXPEDITION  TO  VIRGINIA.  —  MUTINY  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  LINE. — 
ITS  CAUSE.  —  LAFAYETTE  SENT  SOUTHWARD.  —  CORNWALLIS'S  PLANS.  —  DISAP- 
PROVED OF  BY  CLINTON.  —  LAFAYETTE  ADVANCES  FROM  MARYLAND. — JOINED 
BY  WAYNE  AND  STEUBEN. —  His  CAMPAIGN  IN  VIRGINIA.  —  CORNWALLIS  AT 
WILLIAMSBURG.  — FIGHT  AT  JAMES  ISLAND.  —  GREENE'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  SOUTH 
CAROLINA.  —  BATTLE  OF  HOBKIRK'S  HILL.  —  RAWDON  ABANDONS  CAMDEN. — 
FORTS  MOTTE  AND  GRANBY,  ORANGEBURG  AND  AUGUSTA,  TAKEN  BY  GREENE. 

—  SIEGE  OF  NINETY-SIX. — ABANDONED  BY  THE  BRITISH. —  HANGING  OF  COLO- 
NEL II AVNE.  —  BATTLE  OF  EUTAW  SPRINGS.  —  GREENE'S  GENERALSHIP.  —  MOVE- 

VOI..    IV. 


. 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


MI: NT  OF  THE  ALLIED  ARMIES.  —  OPERATIONS  AOAIKST  NEW  YORK  ISLAND. — 
THEY  MARCH  SOUTHWARD.  —  ARNOLD'S  EXPEDITION  TO  NEW  LONDON.  —  AR- 
RIVAL OF  ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  FLEETS  FROM  THE  WEST  INDIES.  —  ALLIED 
ARMIES  IN  VIRGINIA.  —  CORNWALLIS  BESIEGED  AT  YOHKTOWN.  —  His  SDH- 
RENDER 49 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FIRST   YEARS   OF   PEACE. 

EFFECT  OF  THE  SURRENDER.  —  ACKNOWLEDGMENT  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  —  A 
TREATY  OF  PEACE  NEGOTIATED  AND  SIGNED.  —  THE  VERMONT  QUESTION. — 
ITS  FINAL  SETTLEMENT.  —  CONDITION  AND  TEMPER  OF  THE  ARMY.  —  THE 
NEWBDRGH  ADDRESSES.  —  CESSATION  OF  HOSTILITIES. —  EVACUATION  OF  NEW 
YORK.  —  WASHINGTON'S  FAREWELL.  —  INDEPENDENCE  ACKNOWLEDGED.  —  RE- 
LATIONS OF  THE  FEDERAL  AND  STATE  GOVERNMENTS.  —  NECESSITY  FOR  UNION. 

—  COMMERCIAL  POLICY.  —  THE  ARMY. —  THE  NORTHWEST  TERRITORY.  —  THE 
ORDINANCE  OF  1787. —  THE  QUESTION  OF  REVENUE.  —  SHAYS'S  REBELLION    .    75 

CHAPTER  V. 

UNDER    THE    CONSTITUTION. 

ADOPTION  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION.  —  INAUGURATION  OF  WASHINGTON.  —  MANNERS 
OF  THE  TIMES.  —  ADJUSTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  DEBTS.  —  GROWTH  OF  POLITICAL 
PARTIES.  —  THE  NATIONAL  BANK.  —  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF.  —  CULTIVATION  OF 
COTTON.  —  CONSTITUTIONAL  COMPROMISE  WITH  SLAVERY.  —  GENERAL  EDUCA- 
TION.—  WESTWARD  EMIGRATION.  —  DEFEAT  OF  HARMAR  AND  ST.  CLAIR. — 
WAYNE'S  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  THE  INDIANS.  —  THE  WHISKEY  INSURRECTION. 

—  FRIES'S  INSURRECTION.  —  HAMILTON  AND  JEFFERSON.  —  FRENCH  INFLUENCE. 

—  GENET. — JAY'S  TREATY.  —  POPULAR  DISSATISFACTION  WITH  IT 100 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ADMINISTRATIONS   OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFEBSON. 

THIRD  ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT.  —  NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  JEALOUSY.  —  THE 
CHIEF  OF  ONE  PARTY  THE  SUCCESSOR  TO  THE  CHIEF  OF  THE  OTHER. —  SEN- 
SITIVENESS OF  PUBLIC  MEN  AND  VIRULENCE  OF  THE  PRESS.  —  ALIKN  AND 
SEDITION  LAWS.  —  THE  CARRYING  TRADE  OF  THE  WORLD.  —  FRANCE  AND 
AMERICA.  —  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA.  —  THE  CONDESCENSION  OF  FOREIGNERS. 

—  ENVOYS  TO  FRANCE. —  THE  X.  Y.  Z.  CORRESPONDENCE.  —  NAPOLEON'S  AC- 
CESSION TO  POWER.  —  YELLOW  FEVER  IN  AMERICA.  —  WASHINGTON'S  DEATH. 

—  THREATENING   OF  WAR  WITH   FRANCE.  —  PREPARATIONS   AGAINST   SPAIN. — 
NAVIGATION  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. — WILKINSON'S  CORRUPT  INTRIGUES.  —  SPAIN'S 
DREAD  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  HAMILTON  AND  MIRANDA.  —  FOURTH  ELEC- 
TION OF  PRESIDENT.  —  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA.  —  AARON  BURR'S  EXPE- 
DITION.—  His  TRIAL  FOR  TREASON 127 

CHAPTER  VII. 

JEFFERSON  AND   MADISON. 

THE  BARBARY  STATES.  —  WAR  WITH  TRIPOLI.  —  THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  LOUISI- 
ANA.—  INCREASE  OF  POPULATION  AND  WEALTH. — JEFFERSON'S  CREED  AND 


CONTENTS.  vii 

HIS  POLICY.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  WEST.  —  LEWIS  AND  CLARKE'S  EXPEDI- 
TION.—  FOBEIGN  COMMERCE  AND  ITS  DIFFICULTIES.  —  THE  BERLIN  AND  MILAN 
DECREES,  AND  THE  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL.  —  CONDITION  OF  THE  NAVY.  —  THE 
AFFAIR  OF  THE  "CHESAPEAKE."  —  THE  EMBARGO.  —  MADISON'S  ACCESSION.  — 
THE  "PRESIDENT"  AND  THE  "LITTLE  BELT." — BATTLE  OF  TIPPECANOE. — 
CLAY  AND  CALHOUN.  —  PREPARATIONS  FOR  WAR,  AND  ITS  DECLARATION  .  .  154 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

WAR    WITH   ENGLAND. 

MESSAGE  AND  REPORT  ON  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  —  DIVISION  OF  PARTIES  ON  THE 
WAR. —  RIOT  IN  BALTIMORE. —  HULL'S  SURRENDER  OF  THE  NORTHWEST. — 
FIRST  CAMPAIGN  ON  THE  NIAGARA.  —  NAVAL  BATTLES  OF  THE  FIRST  YEAR. — 
WAR  ON  THE  LAKES.  —  DESTRUCTION  OF  YORK.  —  PERRY'S  VICTORY.  —  HARRI- 
SON'S INVASION  OF  CANADA.  —  TERRITORY  OF  MICHIGAN  RECOVERED. —  WIL- 
KINSON'S DISASTERS  ON  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE. —  SECOND  CAMPAIGN  ON  THE  NIAG- 
ARA.—  INDIAN  WAR  IN  THE  SOUTH,  JACKSON'S  CAMPAIGN. —  NAVAL  BATTLES 
OF  THE  SECOND  YEAR 185 

CHAPTER  IX. 

WAR   WITH   ENGLAND. 

V 

NEGOTIATIONS  FOR  PEACE. — JACKSON'S  MOVEMENTS  AT  THE  SOUTH.  —  THIRD 
CAMPAIGN  ON  THE  NIAGARA.  —  BATTLE  OF  LUNDY'S  LANE.  —  BATTLE  OF  PLATTS- 
BURG.  —  CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON.  —  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  BALTIMORE.  —  NA- 
VAL BATTLES  OF  THE  THIRD  YEAR. —  BITTERNESS  OF  PARTY  FEELING.  —  THE 
REMEDY  OF  DISUNION.  —  THE  HENRY  CONSPIRACY.  —  THE  HARTFORD  CONVEN- 
TION.—  DEFENCE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  —  THE  TREATY  OF  GHENT 209 

CHAPTER  X. 

MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION. 

THE  NEWS  OF  PEACE.  —  ITS  EFFECT  UPON  THE  HARTFORD  MOVEMENT. —  CHAR- 
ACTER OF  THE  TREATY  OF  GHENT.  —  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR. — THE  ALGERINE 
WAR.  —  CONDITION  gfc  THE  UNITED  STATES  —  FINANCIAL  QUESTIONS.  — EFFECT 
OF  THE  TARIFF  UPON  NEW  ENGLAND  CITIES.  —  CHARACTER  OF  MADISON. — 
ELECTION  OF  MONROE.  —  THE  FIRST  SEMINOLE  WAR.  —  REASONS  FOR  ANNEX- 
ING FLORIDA.  —  THE  AFFAIR  AT  AMELIA  ISLAND.  —  JACKSON'S  CAMPAIGN. — 
His  EXECUTION  OF  PRISONERS. —  His  DISPUTE  WITH  MONROE.  —  CESSION  OF 
FLORIDA 238 

CHAPTER  XI. 

MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION. 

THE  MISSOURI  QUESTION.  —  EXTENSION  OF  SLAVERY.  —  DOMESTIC  SLAVE-TRADE. 
—  INCREASE  OF  THE  SLAVE  POWER.  —  THE  COMPROMISE  LINE  OF  36°  30'. — A 
NORTHERN  MEASURE.  —  CONGRESSIONAL  STRATEGY.  —  No  ADMISSION  OF  FREE 
STATES  WITHOUT  SLAVE  STATES.  —  RANDOLPH'S  "DOUGH-FACES."  —  COMPRO- 
MISES IN  CONGRESS  AND  CABINET. —  LIMITED  MEANING  OF  FOREVER.  —  CLOS- 
ING YEARS  OF  MONROE'S  SECOND  TERM.  —  THE  TARIFF.  —  INTERNAL  IMPROVE- 
MENTS.—  STEAM  ON  THE  LAKES.  —  FIRST  OCEAN  STEAMER. — THE  "MONROE 
DOCTRINE."  —  ELECTION  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS  TO  THE  PRESIDENCY  .  .  .  260 


viii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ADAMS  AND  JACKSON. 

THE  ERA  OF  GOOD  FEELING.— ADMINISTRATION  OF  JOHN  QDINCY  ADAMS.  —  THE 
PROPOSED  CONGRESS  OF  SOUTH  AMERICAN  STATES.  —  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  SLAVE- 
HOLDERS.—  POLITICAL  EDUCATION,  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  —  A  SOLID  SOUTH. — 
INDIAN  TROUBLES  AND  STATE  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  GEORGIA.  — THE  TARIFF  MADE 
A  SECTIONAL  QUESTION. —  THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR. —JACKSON'S  CHARACTER,  . 
AWD  HIS  POPULARITY.  —  HE  ESTABLISHES  THE  SYSTEM  OF  REMOVALS  FROM  OF- 
FICE.—  THE  EATON  SCANDAL.  —  THE  CONTEST  OVER  THE  UNITED  STATES  BANK. 
—  REELECTION  OF  JACKSON. —  ANTI-MASONRY. —  NULLIFICATION.  —  PREPARA- 
TIONS FOR  WAR  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  THE  COMPROMISE  BILL. — THE  PUBLIC 
LANDS.  —  MATERIAL  PROGRESS.  —  INCREASING  USE  OF  STEAM-POWER.  —  THE 
FIRST  RAILROADS.  —  EARLY  MANUFACTURING 282 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

SLAVERY   AND  ANTI-SLAVERY. 

A  NEW  ERA.  —  THE  MODERN  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT. — GARRISON  AND  "  THE 
LIBERATOR."  —  His  EARNESTNESS  AND  DETERMINATION.  —  DEBATE  ON  SLAVERY 
IN  VIRGINIA. — THE  SOUTHAMPTON  INSURRECTION.  —  PANIC  AT  THE  SOUTH. — 
THE  SOUTHERN  IDEA  OF  GOVERNMENT.  —  SLAVERY  MET  ON  A  NEW  ISSUE. — THE 
ABOLITIONISTS.  —  THE  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPRESS  THEM. — PENAL  LEGISLATION 
PROPOSED.  —  THE  RESORT  TO  VIOLENCE.  —  THE  REIGN  OF  MOBS.  —  INFLUENCE 
OF  SLAVERY  ON  MORALS,  MANNERS,  LITERATURE,  AND  COMMERCE 316 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

PROGRESS   OF   SOUTHERN  RULE. 

THE  SECOND  SEMINOLE  WAR. —  REMOVAL  OF  THE  CHEROKEES. —  COST  OF  A  SLAVE- 
HUNT. —  TROUBLE  ON  THE  CANADIAN  FRONTIER.  —  BURNING  OF  "THE  CARO- 
LINE."—  TRIAL  OF  McLEOD.  —  THE  LOG-CABIN  CAMPAIGN  OF  1840.  —  DEATH  OF 
PRESIDENT  HARRISON. — SUCCESSION  OF  VICE-PRESIDENT  TYLER.  —  HE  BREAKS 
WITH  THE  WHIGS. —  His  SOUTHERN  POLICY.  —  THE  ASHBDRTON  TREATY.  — 
EASTERN  AND  NORTHWESTERN  BOUNDARIES.  —  THE  DORR  WAR  OF  RHODE 
ISLAND.  —  THE  ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  — THE  MANNER  AND  PURPOSE  OF  IT. — 
ELECTION  OF  JAMES  K.  POLK.  —  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  —  ITS  RESULTS.  —  ANNEX- 
ATION OF  CALIFORNIA  .  .  350 


CHAPTER  XV. 

- 

THE  COMPROMISES  OF   1850. 

ELECTION  OF  TAYLOR  TO  THE  PRESIDENCY.  —  CALIFORNIA.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD. 
—  THE  COMPROMISES  OF  1850. — THE  NEW  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. — ADMINIS- 
TRATION OF  FlLLMORE.  —  ELECTION  OF  PlERCE.  —  DOUGLAS'S  KANSAS-NEBRASKA 

BILL.  —  REPEAL  OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  KANSAS. — 
MASSACHUSETTS  EMIGRANT  AID  SOCIETY.  —  REEDER  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR. — 
INVASION  OF  KANSAS  BY  "  BORDER  RUFFIANS  "  .  .  .  . 


387 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE    KANSAS    STRUGGLE  —  BUCHANAN. 

THE  FRAUDULENT  ELECTIONS  IN  KANSAS.  —  THE  TERRITORIAL  LEGISLATURES.  — 
THE  KANSAS  CODE.  —  BORDER  RUFFIANS  AIDED  FROM  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  SACK 
OF  LAWRENCE.  —  JOHN  BROWN  OF  OSSAWATOMIE.  —  DISPERSION  OF  THE  TOPEKA 
LEGISLATURE.  —  ELECTION  OF  BUCHANAN.  —  LECOMPTON  CONSTITUTION  AND  THE 
ENGLISH  COMPROMISE.  —  THE  MORMONS.  —  WALKER'S  EXPEDITION.  —  ATLANTIC 
TELEGRAPH  CABLE.  —  JOHN  BROWN'S  INVASION  OF  VIRGINIA.  —  His  CAPTURE  AND 
EXECUTION.  —  ELECTION  OF  LINCOLN 410 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

OPENING    OF    THE    WAR. 

THE  SECESSION  IDEA  NOT  UNFAMILIAR  IN  THE  SOUTH.  —  ACTS  OF  SECESSION  LED 
BY  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  —  PROPOSED  PEACE 
COMPROMISES.  —  SEIZURE  OF  UNITED  STATES  FORTS  AND  ARSENALS.  —  TWIGGS'S 
SURRENDER.  —  INDECISION  IN  WASHINGTON.  —  FEDERAL  OCCUPATION  OF  FORT 
SUMTER.  —  INAUGURATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. — SECRETARY  SEWARD  OUTLINES 
A  POLICY  FOR  THE  NEW  ADMINISTRATION.  —  THE  GUN  AT  SUMTER.  —  SECESSION 
OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  VIRGINIA.  —  THE  FIRST  CALL  FOR  TROOPS.  —  SECESSION 
MOB  IN  BALTIMORE.  —  FIGHT  AT  BIG  BETHEL.  —  MILITARY  OPERATIONS  IN  WEST 
VIRGINIA.  —  BATTLE  OF  BULL  RUN.  —  MCCLELLAN  IN  COMMAND  .  .  435 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE    FIGHT    FOR    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 

INSURGENT  OPERATIONS  TO  HOLD  VICKSBURG. — ATTEMPTS  TO  CAPTURE  ST.  Louis. — 
FAILURE  OF  THE  PLANS  OF  CLAIBORNE  F.  JACKSON.  —  CAPTAIN  LYON  CAPTURES 
THE  INSURGENT  CAMP  JACKSON.  —  CIVIL  WAR  BEGUN  IN  MISSOURI.  —  OUTBREAK 
OF  GUERILLA  WARFARE.  —  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  ENTREATED  TO  AID  THE  NORTH- 
WESTERN STATES  TO  HOLD  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  —  FREMONT  IN  COMMAND.  —  DEATH  OF 
GENERAL  LYON.  —  CIVIL  TROUBLES  IN  MISSOURI.  —  FREMONT'S  EMANCIPATION  AND 
REPRISAL  PROCLAMATION.  —  His  SUBSEQUENT  REMOVAL.  —  GENERAL  HALLECK  IN 
COMMAND.  —  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  KENTUCKY.  —  THAT  STATE  BECOMES  THE  BATTLE- 
GROUND OF  THE  WAR  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST  .  .  472 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

EXPANSION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY. 

DISPERSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  FLEET  FOR  THE  BENEFIT  OF  THE  REBELLION.  — 
A  GREAT  NAVAL  CONTINGENT  IMPROVISED.  —  EXTENT  OF  THE  LINE  TO  BE  BLOCK- 
ADED. —  GUNBOATS  REQUIRED  ON  WESTERN  RIVERS.  —  CAPTURE  OF  PORT  ROYAL 
ENTRANCE.  —  THE  TRENT  INCIDENT.  —  BURNSIDE'S  EXPEDITION  TO  NORTH  CARO- 
LINA. —  ROANOKE  ISLAND.  —  THE  FIGHT  OF  THE  IRON-CLADS  IN  HAMPTON  ROADS  .  489 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   XX. 


THE    PENINSULAR    CAMPAIGN. 


CAPTURE  OF  FORT  PULASKI.  —  GKNBRAL  HUNTER  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  His 
TREATMENT  OF  THE  NEGRO  QUESTION.  —  ANOTHER  PROCLAMATION  OF  EMANCI- 
PATION OVERRULED.  —  McCLELLAN'S  MOVEMENT  TO  THE  PENINSULA.  —  THE  SlEOE 

OF  YORKTOWN.  —  THE  CONFEDERATE  RETREAT.  —  ON  THE  CHICKAHOMINY.  — 
"STONEWALL"  JACKSON  IN  THE  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY.  —  ALARM  IN  WASHINGTON. 
—  BATTLE  OF  SEVEN  PINES.  —  R.  E.  LEE  IN  COMMAND  OF  THE  CONFEDERATES.  — 
J.  E.  B.  STUART'S  RAID  AND  RECONNAISSANCE.  —  THE  SEVEN  DAYS'  FIGHTING.  — 
McCLELLAN'S  CHANGE  OF  BASE.  —  I.KK.'s  SUPERIOR  STRATEGY.  —  BATTLE  OF 
MALVERN  HILL.  —  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  FEDERALS  TO  HARRISON'S  LANDING.  — 
END  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN.  —  DEVELOPMENT  OF  MCCLELLAN'S  POLITICAL  AMBITIONS  .  509 


CHAPTER  XXL 

NORTHERN    VIRGINIA    AND    MARYLAND. 


THE  ARMY  OF  VIRGINIA  UNDER  POPE.  —MCCLELLAN'S  RELUCTANCE  TO  LEAVE  THE 
PENINSULA.  —  EXPOSTULATIONS  FROM  THE  ADMINISTRATION. — POPE  FIGHTS  AND 
LOSES  THE  SECOND  BATTLE  OF  BULL  RUN.  —  A  GREAT  DISASTER.  —  MCCLELLAN 

ONCE    MORE     IN     COMMAND    OF  THE   ARMIES.  —  LEE'S    INVASION     OF     MARYLAND.  — 

BATTLE  OF  ANTIETAM.  —  MCCLELLAN  DECLINES  TO  MOVE.  —  His  REMOVAL  FROM 
COMMAND.  —  BURNSIDE  IN  COMMAND  OF  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  —  THE 
BATTLE  OF  FREDERICKSBURG.  —  ANOTHER  NATIONAL  DISASTER.  —  BURNSIDE'S 
FUTILE  ATTEMPTS  TO  RETRIEVE.  —  "FIGHTING  JOE  HOOKER"  AT  THE  HEAD  OF 
THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC .  .  .  547 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS,  VOLUME  IV. 


STEEL    PLATE. 


Title. 


PORTRAIT  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  .     . 
From  a  photograph  from  life  by  Brady. 


Engraver. 

Charles  Burt 


To  face 

Title 


FULL-PAGE    ENGRAVINGS. 


Title. 


Designer. 

T.  de  Thulstrup 
A.  R.  Waud  .     . 
A.  B.  Frost  . 


Sngraver. 


H.  Karst    . 
J.  P.  Davis 

J.  Earst 


To  face 
page 

1 

.     24 

72 


THE  FIRST  GUN  FROM  FORT  SUMTER 
CAPTURE  OF  MAJOR  ANDRE     .     .     . 
THE  SURRENDER  o*  CORNWALLIS 
PARTING    OP    WASHINGTON     AND     HIS 

OFFICERS W.  L.  Sheppard .  J.  Karst    ...     89 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  ADAMS .     .  128 

After  a  portrait  by  Stuart,  about  1800. 
PORT  OF  BUFFALO  IN  1815 W.  H.  McCrackcn  211 

From  a  contemporary  print  in  the  Port  Folio. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN .     .  244 

From  the  portrait  by  King  at  the  Corcoran  Art  Oallery. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS .     .  284 

From  a  portrait  by  Stuart. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON .     .  300 

After  a  daguerreotype. 

EMIGRANTS  TO  THE  WEST W.  M.  Gary  .     .  P.  Meeder     .     .  310 

PORTRAIT  OF  HENRY  CLAY .     .  368 

After  a  daguerreotype. 

PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  FIRST  CABINET .     .  444 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS'S  VICE-PRESIDENT  AND  CABINET      .     .  .     .  445 

HARPER'S  FERRY Caroline  A.  Powell  462 

From  a  war-time  photograph. 
THE  SHOOTING  OF  COLONEL  ELLSWORTH, 

AT  THE  MARSHALL  HOUSE,  ALEXANDRIA  G.  W.  Peters      .  .     .  492 
THE  MERRIMAC  RAMMING  THE  CUMBER- 
LAND       J.  M.  Burns  .     .  .     .  502 

PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  WITH  GENERAL  MCCLERNAXD   AND 

ALLAN  PINKERTON  AT  ANTIETAM,  IN  OCTOBER,  1862  .  Caroline  A.  Powell  568 

From  a  photograph  by  Jirady. 


XII 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN   TEXT. 


Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

MOHAWK  VILLAGK  IN  CENTRAL  NEW 

YOKK Warren     .     .     .  J.  P.  Davis     ...       1 

PORTRAIT  OF  GENERAL  SULLIVAN Knapp 2 

From  the  painting  by  Trumbull. 

DESTRUCTION  OF  INDIAN  VILLAGES    .   Waud  ....  Pierson     ....       5 
PORTRAIT  OK  GKNERAL  LINCOLN Jansen     ....      9 

From  the  original,  in  the  possession  of  Isaac  Winslow,  Esq., 

Hinyham,  Mass. 
FALL  OF  SERGKANT  JASPER  ....  Kappes      .     .     .  J.  Clement    ...     11 

JAMES  AND  ARDESOIF Reinhart  .     .     .  Meeder     ....     14 

PORTRAIT  OF  BENEDICT   ARNOLD    .     .  Beech.     .     .     .  Cozzens     ....     17 

From  the  portrait  by  Du  Simitier. 
ROBINSON'S  HOUSE Bonwill     .     .     .  Smart 19 

From  a  sketch  for  this  work. 
FAC-SIMILE  OF  ANDREWS  PASS     .     .     .  Runge  ....  Leggo 23 

From  ' '  A  ndriTs  Trial. ' ' 

ARNOLD'S  ESCAPE Waud.     .     .     .  Hellawell.     ...     27 

SIGNATURE  OF  NATHAN  HALK Leggo 29 

From  a  manuscript  in  the  New  Haven  Historical   Society's 

Collections. 
SIGNATURE  OF  SUMTER Leggo 32 

From  an  original  letter  in  the  possession  of  Samuel  Wilde, 
ES<J  ,  New  York. 

MARION  IN  CAMP Sheppard  .     .    .  Geraty      ....     33 

SIGNATURE  OF  MARION Leggo 34 

From  an  original  letter  in  the  possession  of  Samuel  Wilde, 
Esq.,  New  York. 

DE  KALB  WOUNDED Shelton     .     .     .  E.  Clement  .    .    .     37 

A  WOMAN  RECONNOITRING    ....  Reinhart  .     .     .  E.  Clement  ...     39 
PORTRAIT  OF  DANIEL  MORGAN.    .     .  Beech.    .     .     .  Knapp 41 

From  the  painting  by  Trumbull. 
ENCOUNTER  BETWEEN  TARLETON  AND 

COLONEL  WASHINGTON Gary     ....  Annin 44 

PORTRAIT  OF   GENERAL   NATHANAEL 

GREENE Beech  ....  Treat 47 

From  the  painting  by  Trumbull. 
NEW    YORK    AT    THE    TIME    OF    THE 

REVOLUTION;  SEEN  FROM  THE  REAR 

OF  COLONEL  RUTGER'S  HOUSE,  EAST 

RIVER J.  Karst    ....    49 

After  a  contemporary  prwl. 
MUTINY     OF      THE      PENNSYLVANIA 

LINE Taylor ....  Winham  ....     51 

FRENCH  AND  AMERICAN  UNIFORMS    .   Waud   ,  .  J.  Karst  ....     55 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.                                              Designer.       \                  Engraver.           Page. 
PORTRAIT  OF  LORD  CORNWALLIS X_  .  Treat 57 

From  a  painting  by  Hoppner. 

PREPARING  TO  BURN  FORT  MOTTE  .  Kappcs.  .  .  .  J.  Clement  ...  59 
WATER-CARRIERS  OF  NINETY-SIX  .  .  Sheppard  .  .  .  Hellawell  ....  61 
THE  WEBB  MANSION  (KOCHAMBEAU'S 

HEADQUARTERS),     WETHERSFIELD, 

CONN Filler    ....  Holsey      ....     65 

From  a  photograph  for  this  work. 
NEW  LONDON Runge  ...       Leggo 68 

Fac-simile  from  an  original  sketch  in  1776. 
"  LORD,    NOW    LETTEST    THOU    THY 

SERVANT  DEPART  IN  PEACE"      .    .  Fredericks     .     .  Pierson     ....     "0 
"  ELIZABETH   TOWN   STAGE    WAGON. 

Two  DAYS  TO  PHILADELPHIA  "  .     .  Runge  ....  Leggo 74 

From  a  newspaper  advertisement,  1781. 
PORTRAIT  OF  COUNT  DE  VERGENNES Nichols    ....     76 

From  a  painting  by  Callet,  1786. 

SCENE  IN  THE  GREEN  MOUNTAINS  .  Gibson  .  .  .  J.  Hellawell  ...  79 
PORTRAIT  OF  Gov.  GEORGE  CLINTON Nichols  ....  81 

From  the  painting  by  Ames. 
HEADQUARTERS  AT  NEWBURGH  .     .     .  Filler   .     .     .     .  H.  Karsl  ....     84 

From  a  sketch  for  this  work. 
SIGNATURE  OF  ARMSTRONG Leggo 87 

From  an  original  letter. 
FRAUNCES'S  TAVKRN Hosier  .     .     .     .  J.  Minton     ...     90 

From  a  picture  in  Scribner's  Magazine. 
A  NEW  ENGLAND  FARMHOUSE,  1790  .  Warren     .     .     .  Winham   ....     92 

A  PLANTER'S  RESIDENCE,  1790.     .     .  Sheppard.     .     .  Rae 93 

A  LUMBERING  SCENE Taylor      .     .     .  Bogerl      ....     94 

THE  FRANKLIN  PENNY,  FIRST  UNITED 

STATES  COIN Cary     ....  Leggo 96 

From  a  specimen  in  the  possession  of  the  author. 
DOLLAR  OF  1794 Cary     ....  Leggo 97 

From  Dickeson's  Numismatic  Manual. 

A  SCENE  IN  SHAYS'S  REBELLION  .  .  Taylor  ....  Winham  ....  98 
THE  PRESIDENT'S  CHAIR Wand  ....  Clement  ....  100 

From  a  fketch  for  this  work. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON Heinemann  .     .     .  102 

From  an  engraving  by  Rogers  of  the  Talleyrand  miniature. 
CELEBRATING  THE  ADOPTION  OF  THE 

CONSTITUTION Fredericks     .     .  J.  Karsl  .     .     .     .104 

SIGNATURE  OF  RICHARD  HENRY  LEE Leggo 106 

From  a  fac-similf.  of  the  signatures  to  the  Declaration. 

THE  COTTON  PLANT Warren     .     .     .  T.  Hellawell      .     .108 

FORT  WASHINGTON,  CINCINNATI     .     .  Murphy     .     .    .  Foy Ill 

From  a  painting  in  the  Council  Chamber  at   Cincinnati, 

copied  from  a  contemporary  sketch. 
THE    INDIANS'    ROCK,    NEAR    PORTS- 
MOUTH, ON  THE  OHIO Warren     .     .     .  J.  Hellawell  .     .     .  113 

From  a  photograph  for  this  work. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver. 

PORTRAIT  OF  GENERAL   ARTHUR   ST. 

CLAIR Beech  ....  Pierson     .     .     .     .115 

From  a  print. 
PORTRAIT     OF     GENERAL     ANTHONY 

WAYNE Treat 117 

From  the  painting  by  Herring. 

A  MOUNTAIN  STILL Kappes      .     .     .  Heinemann   .     .     .119 

VIKW  OF  PITTSBURG  IN  1790     .     .     .   Cary     ....   Heinemann  .     .     .120 

From  the  print  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Historical  Society  of 

Pennsylvania,  vol.  vi. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  JAY Beech  ....  Treat 124 

From  Gilbert  Stuart's  Painting. 
FRANKLIN'S  GRAVE  IN  PHILADELPHIA  Hosier.    .     .     .  Maurice   ....  126 

From  a  picture  in  Scribner'y  Magazine. 
PORTRAIT    OF    CHIEF  JUSTICE  MAR- 
SHALL      D.  Nichols    .     .     .133 

From  a  drawing  by  AVwxam  from  Inman's  painting. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ELBRIDGK  GERRY E.  Clement  .    .     .135 

From  the  painting  by  Vanderlyn. 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  THK  CAPITOL.     .   Runge.     .     .     .  H.  Karst .     .     .     .  136 

From  a  contemporary  print  by  Birch. 
MOUNT  VERNON  IN  1797 Warren     .     .     .  Knapp      ....   137 

From  a  print  in  Weld's  "  Travels  in  North  America.1' 
PORTRAIT  OF  AAROX  BURR Treat 142 

From  the  picture  by  Vanderlyn. 
FLAT-BOAT  GOING  DOWN  THK  MISSIS- 
SIPPI   Taylor  ....  Meeder     ....   148 

VIEW  ON  BLENNERHASSETT'S  ISLAND    Gibson      .     .     .  Andrew    ....   150 

From  a  photograph  for  this  icork. 

PARADE  OF  BURR'S  FORCE     ....  Taylor  ....  Langridge     .     .     .  152 
TRIPOLI Warren     .    .     .  Annin 155 

From  a  print  in  the  Tour  du  Monde. 
PORTRAIT  OF  STEPHEN  DECATUR Bross 157 

From  the  painting  by  Sully. 

DECATUR  AND  THE  TURK Davidson  .     .     .  Heinemann  .     .     .   159 

THE  SUGAR  PLANT Warren     .     .     .  T.  Hellawell      .     .   1C2 

WHITNEY'S  COTTON-GIN Warren     .     .     .  F.  Karst  ....   164 

Sketched  for  this  work  from  the  original  model  in  the  pos- 
session of  Eli  Whitney,  Esq. 

MONTICELLO,    THE   HOME    OF   JEFFER- 
SON      E.  Clement   .     .     .167 

COURT-HOUSE  AT  CHILLICOTHE,  OHIO.  Warren     .     .    .  Holsey      ....  168 
From  an  old  print. 

FULTON'S  FIRST    STEAMBOAT     .     .     .  Warren     .     .     .  Heinemann  .     .     .   169 
From  an  old  print. 

GATE   OF    THE    MOUNTAINS,   ON   THE 

UPPER  MISSOURI Cary    ....  Knapp      .     .     .     .171 

From  a  sketch. 

TAKING  DESERTERS  FROM  THE  CHESA- 
PEAKE      Fredericks     .     .  E.  Clement  .     .     .176 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xv 

Title.  Designer.  Entjrttver.  Page. 

PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  MADISON  .     .    .  Beech  .     .    .     .  J.  Karst  .     .     .     .178 

From  the  painting  by  Stuart. 
PORTRAIT  OF  WILLIAM  HENRY  HAR- 
RISON  Beech  ....  Knapp      ....  182 

From  the  picture  by  Lambdin. 
BATTLE-FIELD  OF  TIPPECANOE   .    .    .  Warren    .    .     .  Heinemann  .     .     .183 

From  a  recent  print. 
THE  TOMB  OF  WASHINGTON  ....  Warren    .    .     .  Edwards  ....  184 

From  a  photograph. 
DETROIT  IN  1815 H.  Karst  ....  185 

From  an  old  print. 

BATTLE  OF  CHICAGO Sheppard.     .     .  McCracken  .     .     .  189 

MAP  OF  NIAGARA  RIVER Servoss    .     .     .     .191 

BATTLE  OF  FORT  STEPHENSON  .    .    .  Gary    ....  Knapp     .     .     .     .195 
SACKETT'S  HARBOR,  1814 Warren     .     .     .  Laugridge     .     .     .  197 

From  the  Port  Folio  for  1815. 
PORTRAIT    OF     COMMODORE     O.     H. 

PERRY Beech  ....  Treat 199 

From  the  painting  by  Jarcis. 
PORTRAIT  OF  TECUMSEH Beech  ....  Treat 200 

From  the  drawing  by  Pierre  Le  Dru. 

SIGNATURE  OF  RICHARD  M.JOHNSON Leggo 201 

THK  CANOE  FIGHT Shirlaw      .     .     .  J.  P.  Davis .     .     .   204 

THE     GRAVES    OF     THE     CAPTAINS, 

PORTLAND,  MAINE Warren     .     .     .  Schultz     ....  208 

From  a  photograph  for  thin  icork. 

MILLER'S  CHARGE  AT  LUNDY'S  LANE.  Bolles  ....  Hellawell      .     .     .212 
PLATTSBURG .  Warren    .    .    .  Meeder    .    .     .     .215 

From  a  photograph. 

STONINGTON  BOMBARDED Waud  ....  Annin.    .    .     .     .217 

COCKBURN  IN  THE  CHAIR Fredericks     .     .  J.  Karst  ....   221 

FORT  McHENRY Mayer.     .     .     .  Annin 223 

THE  ARMSTRONG  AT  FAYAL  ....  Waud  ....  Andrew  ....  224 
OLD  STATE  HOUSE,  HARTFORD F.  Karst  ....  230 

From  a  photograph  for  this  work. 
JACKSON'S  HEADQUARTERS,  NEW  OR- 
LEANS       Warren     .     .    .  Pierson    .     .     .     .234 

From  an  old  picture. 
WASHINGTON Warren     .     .     .  E.  Bookhout     .     .  238 

From  a  sketch  made  about  1880. 

DECATUR  AND  THE  DEY  OF  ALGIERS  .  Waud  ....  Mollier     ....   243 
THK     OLD     UNITED    STATES     BANK, 

PHILADELPHIA Scliell .     .     .     .  F.  Karst  .     .     .     .245 

From  a  sketch. 
PORTRAIT  OF  DANIEL  D.  TOMPKINS Treat 247 

From  the  painting  by  Jar  via. 

INDIANS  IN  AMBUSH Bolles .     .     .     .  J.  Hellawell .     .     .250 

AMELIA  ISLAND Waud  ....  Varley     .     .     .     .251 

From  a  print. 
CAPTURE  OF  INDIAN  CHIEFS  ....  Cary    ....  McCracken  .    .     .254 

VOL.    IV.  b 


xvi  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  MONROE J.  Karst  ....  257 

From  a  portrait  by  Vanderlyn. 

CHOTEAU'S  POND,    1820,   NOW   IN   ST. 

Louis Warren    .     .     .  Clement  ...     .263 

From  a  painting  in  the  possession  of  O.  W.  Collett,  Esq., 
St.  Louis. 

A  SLAVE-COFFLE  PASSING  THK  CAPI- 
TOL       Taylor ....  Langridge     .     .     .266 

A  SUGAR  PLANTATION Sheppard  .     .     .  Winliam  ....   269 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  RANDOLPH Pierson     ....  271 

From  a  print. 

LOCKS  AT  LOCKPORT,  N.  Y Warren    .     .     .  McCracken  ...  273 

STEAMBOAT  WALK-IN-THE-WATEU Heinemann  .     .     .   275 

From  an  old  print  preserved  in  Detroit. 

PORTRAIT    OF    WILLIAM    H.     CRAW- 
FORD     Treat 277 

From  a  painting  by  Jarvis. 

THE  ADAMa  MANSION,  QUINCY,  MASS.  Warren     .    .    .  Langridge     .    .     .283 
From  a  photograph. 

PORTRAIT  OF  HENRY  CLAY J.  Karst  ....  287 

From  a  print  by  Ritchie,  after  a  daguerreotype. 

NORTHERN  INDUSTRY Share   .    .     .     .  J.  Karst  ....  292 

SOUTHERN  INDUSTRY Taylor  ....  Pierson     ....  293 

BATTLE  OF  BAD  AXE Cary     ....  Heinemann  .     .     .  296 

THE      HERMITAGE  —  RESIDENCE     OF 

GENERAL  JACKSON Warren    .    .     .  Mollier     ....  298 

From  a  print. 

PORTRAIT  OF  ROGER  B.  TANEY Knapp      ....  302 

From  a  print  of  a  portrait  from  life. 

A  HICKORY  POLE  ELECTION    ....  Bolles  ....  McCracken   .    .     .  304 

MAKING  COCKADES Beech  ....  Varley      ....  307 

FIRST  LOCOMOTIVE  BUILT  IN  AMER- 
ICA  Warren     .     .     .  Bookhout.     .     .     .  314 

From  a  print  after  a  contemporary  drawing. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SAMUEL  SLATER Treat 315 

From  a  portrait  in  the  possession  of  the  family. 

HKAD  OF    "  THE  LIBERATOR,"   FAC- 
SIMILE       Photo-Eng.  Co.      .  316 

PORTRAIT  OF  WILLIAM  LLOYD  GAR- 
RISON   J.  Karst  .     .     .     .317 

From  a  daguerreotype. 

DISCOVERY  OF  NAT  TURNER.     .     .     .  Shelton    .     .     .  Clement   ....   321 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN Treat 323 

From  a  print  after  a  miniature  by  Blancliard. 

PORTRAIT  OF  WENDELL  PHILLIPS Knapp     ....  326 

From  a  photograph. 

THE  DOMESTIC  SLAVE-TRADE      .     .     .  Gary      .     .     .     .  Leggo 32D 

From  the  Anti-slavery  Record,  1835. 

THE  ALTON  RIOT Warren     .     .     .  Bookhout ....  330 

From  the  Alton   Trials,  by  W.   S.   Lincoln,  New  York, 
1838. 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xvn 

Title.                                              Designer.  Engraver.  Pagt. 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  G.  WHITTIER J.  Karst   ....  331 

From  a  portrait  taken  in  1838. 
RUINS  OF   PENNSYLVANIA   HALL    .     .  Warren     .     .     .  Heinemann   .     .     .  333 

From  a  print  in  the  History  of  Pennsylvania  Hall. 
BURNING  MAIL-MATTER  IN  CHARLES- 
TON      Sheppard  .     .     .  H.  Karst.     .     .     .337 

PORTRAIT  OF  CINQUK Heinemann.     .     .  343 

From  a  portrait  from  life  by  Jocelyn. 
THE  NEGRO-PEW Andrew  ....  348 

From  a  sketch  made  in  the  old  Church  at  Hingham,  Mass. 

OSCEOLA  AT  THE  COUNCIL     ....  Shirlaw .     .     .     .   Heinemann.     .     .  351 
A  CUBAN  BLOODHOUND Beard    .     .     .     .  J.  Karst  ....  353 

From  a  sketch. 
PORTRAIT  OF  WILLIAM  J.  WORTH Knapp    ....  354 

From  a  print  published  during  the  Mexican  War. 
PORTRAIT  OF  MARTIN  VAN  BUREN Treat 358 

From  a  print  after  a  daguerreotype. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  TYLER F.  Karst ....  359 

From  Dick's  print  from  a  daguerreotype  by  Morand. 
THE  ALAMO Warren  ....  Holsey     ....  362 

From  a  print  published  during  the  Mexican  War. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SAM  HOUSTON Langridge  .     .     .  364 

From  an  etching  after  a  drawing  from  life. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  K.  POLK J.  Karst.    .     .     .  368 

From  the  painting  by  Healy. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SANTA  ANNA Treat 371 

From  a  print  published  during  the  Mexican  War. 
PLAN  OF  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUENA  VISTA Leggo      ....  374 

From  Colonel  Mansfield's  Map. 

VERA  CRUZ Warren   ....  Britt 376 

PORTRAIT  OF  WINFIELD  SCOTT F.  Karst ....  380 

From  the  painting  by  Weir. 
CHAPULTEPEC Warren  ....  Pierson    ....  382 

From  a  photograph. 

THK  PLAZA  OF  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO  .  Taylor    ....  Holsey     ....  385 
SITE  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO,  IN  1848     .     .  Cary McCracken       .     .  387 

From  an  engraving  published  in  1855. 
SUTTER'S  MILL Cary H.  Karst ....  388 

From  an  engraving  published  in  1855. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ZACHARY  TAYLOR.    .     .  Beech    .     .     .     .  J.  Karst  ....  390 

From  a  print  published  during  his  Presidency. 
PORTRAIT  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER J.  Karst ....  393 

From  a  'daguerreotype. 
ADVERTISEMENTS  OF  FUGITIVE  SLAVES  Warren     .     .    .  Photo-eng.  Co.      .  395 

Copied  from  newspapers  of  the  time. 
PORTRAIT  OF  MILLARD  FILLMORE J.  Karst ....  397 

From  a  print  published  during  his  Presidency. 

RENDITION  OF  ANTHONY  BURNS   .    .     .  Taylor  .     .    .    .  J.  Karst ....  401 
PORTRAIT  OF  FRANKLIN  PIERCE      . Knapp     ....  404 

From  the  print  by  Ormsby. 


xviii  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.                                               Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

PORTRAIT  OK  STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS Langridge    .    .    .  407 

From  a  photograph. 
LAWRENCE,  KANSAS Parsons  .  H.  Karst     .     .     .  409 

From  a  print. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  TROOPS  IN  MISSOURI  Share     ....  Held 412 

JOHN  BROWN'S  LOG  HOUSE     ....   Parsons.     .     .     .  Pierson  ....  413 

From  a  print. 

BORDER  RUFFIANS  INVADING  KANSAS   Share     .     .     .     .  J.  Karst.     .     .     .  414 
PORTRAIT  OF  CHARLF.S  SUMNER Heineman    .     .    .  419 

From  a  daguerreotype. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  BUCHANAN J.  Karst.    .     .     .  423 

From  a  daguerreotype. 
SALT  LAKE  CITY Hosier  ....  Lauderbach      .     .  427 

From  a  picture  drawn  for  Scribner's  Magazine. 
FAC-SIMII.E  OF   CHARACTERS  OF  THE 

MORMON   PLATES Photo-eng.  Co.     .  428 

JOHN  BROWN J.  Karst ....  429 

From  print  of  a  portrait  taken  from  life  in  Boston  about  1858. 

ARSENAL  AT  HARPER'S  FERRY   .    .    .  Parsons.     .     .     .  Winham  .    .    .     .  430 
JOHN  BROWN'S  PIKE Warren  ....  Le<rgo      ....  431 

In  the  possession  of  Albert  G.  Browne,  Jr.,  New  York: 
LINCOLN'S  EARLY  HOME,  ELIZABETH, 

KENTUCKY Warren      .     .     .  Meeder    ....  433 

From  a  drawing. 
ON  THE  PARAPET  AT  FORTRESS  MONROE    Verbeek 435 

Fr<nn  a  tear-time  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  HENRY  A.  WISE Kruell     ....  437 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JACOB  THOMPSON "        ....  438 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  B.  FLOYD "        ....  439 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS "        ....  441 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS "        ....  441 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  'OF  JOHN  J.  CRITTENDEN "         ....  446 

From  a  photograph . 
THE  INTERIOR  OF  FORT  MOULTRIE  IN  1861 Powell    ....  449 

From  a  photograph. 
AN  INTERIOR  VIEW  OF  FORT  SCMTER  IN 

1861,  SHOWING  HOW  THE  WALLS  WERE 

STRENGTHENED "         ....  450 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  G.  P.  T.  BEAUREGARD Kruell    ....  452 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ROBERT  ANDERSON "        ....  452 

From  a  photograph. 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS.  xix 

Title.  Designer*  Engraver.  Page. 

THE  EXTERIOR  OF  FORT  SUMTER,  SHOWING 

THE  CHEVAUX-DE-FRIBE Powell  ....  453 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  EDMUND  RUFFIN Kruell  ....  454 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AHNKK  DOUBLEDAT "        ....  455 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  B.  MAORUDER "       ....  457 

From  a  photograph. 
FORTRESS  MONROE Powell ....  459 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  BENJAMIN  F.  BUTLER Kruell  ....  460 

From  a  photograph. 
A.  NEGRO  FAMILY  ARRIVING  WITHIN  THE 

UNION  LINES Verbeek 461 

From  a  war-time  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  IRWIN  MCDOWELL Kruell  ....  463 

From  a  photograph. 
BLACKBURN'S    FORD,     BULL    RUN.     ON 

JULY  4,  1862 Fenn 464 

From  a  photograph. 
RUINS   OF  THE   STONE  BRIDGE  ACROSS 

BULL  RUN  ON  THE  WARRENTON  TURN- 
PIKE   Fenn 465 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ROBERT  E.  PATTERSON     .......  Kruell  ......  467 

From  a  photograph  by  Gutekunst. 
PORTRAIT  OF  GEORGE  B.  MCCLELLAN "      ....  468 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  EDWARD  D.  BAKER "      ....  469 

From  a  photograph. 
PIVOT  GUN   BATTERY  ON   THE  BLUFFS 

AT  VICKSBURG Kausotu 473 

From  a  photograph  hitherto  unpublished. 
PORTRAIT  OF  NATHANIEL  LYON Kruell  ....  475 

From  a  photograph. 

A  TYPICAL  ROADSIDE  SCENE  NEAR  VICKS- 
BURG, Miss Peters 476 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT    OP   LEONIDAS    POLK  IN   HIS 

BISHOP'S  ROBES Kruell  ....  477 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  GIDEON  J.  PILLOW "      ....  479 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  C.  FREMONT "      ....  480 

From  a  photograph. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Title  Designer.  Engraver.  Page. 

TYPICAL  CONTRABANDS Ransom 481 

*  From  a  photograph  hitherto  itnpiMitthed. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SIMON  B.  BUCKNER Kruell  ....  484 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  FELIX  K.  ZOLLICOFFER "       ....  484 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ALBERT  SIDNEY  JOHNSTON "      ....  480 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  BERIAH  MAGOFFIN "       ....  487 

From  a  photograph. 
\    TYPICAL    CONFEDERATE     BLOCKADE 

RUNNER,  THE  TEAZER Ransom 489 

From  a  photograph . 
U.  S.  STEAMER  PITTSBURO " 490 

From  a  photograph. 
U.  S.  STEAMER  CAIRO " 491 

From  a  photograph . 
PORTRAIT  OF  ELMER  E.  ELLSWORTH Kruell  ....  492 

From  a  photograph. 
A  VIEW  ON  THE  SMITH  PLANTATION  AT 

BEAUFORT,  S.  C.,  SHOWING  FIVE  GEN- 
ERATIONS OF  A  NEGRO  FAMILY  .     .     .  Perard 494 

From  a  photograph  in  March,  1862. 
BUILDING    A   PONTOON    BRIDGE    ACROSS 

PORT  ROYAL  RIVER  AT  BEAUFORT.  S.  C.  Ransom 495 

From  a  photograph  in  March,  1862. 
PORTRAIT  OF  CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS Kruell  ....  496 

/•' '/•</ m  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SAMUEL  F.  DUPONT "      ...  497 

From  a  photograph  6y  Outektinst. 
PORTRAIT  OF  CHARLES  WILKES "      ....  498 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  MURRAY  MASON "      ....  499 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  SLIDELL ....       "      ....  499 

From  a  photograph. 

BUGLER  AT  FORT  MACON H.  Pyle     .     .     .  Closson     .     .     .501 

JOHN  ERICSSON Kruell  ....  502 

From  a  plu.1  ograph. 
DECK  VIEW  OF  THE  MOIWTOR  LOOKING 

FROM  THE  Bow Perard 503 

From  a  photograph  in  July,  1862. 
CREW  ON  DECK  OF  THE  MONITOR 504 

From  a  photograph. 
COMMANDER  WORDEN  AND  THE  OFFICERS 

OF  THE  MONITOR 505 

From  a  photograph. 


LIST    OP    ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxi 

Title.  Detigner.  Engraver,  Page. 

PORTRAIT  OF  FRANKLIN  BUCHANAN Kruell  ....  506 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  L.  WORDEN "       ....  506 

From  a  photograph. 
THE  MONITOR'S  CREW  ON  DECK Powell  ....  507 

From  a  photograph. 
THE  INTERIOR  OF  THE  MONITOR  DURING 

THE  FIGHT  WITH  THE  MERRIMAC  .     .  Davidson  .     .     .  H.  Karst   .     .     .  508 
YORKTOWN Parsons     .     .     .  Annin  ....  509 

From  a  print  published  in  1862. 
PORTRAIT  OF  EDWIN  M.  STANTON Pierson     .     .     .  510 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  DAVID  HUNTER Kruell  ....  512 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  RUFUS  SAXTON "       ....  512 

From  a  photograph. 
QUAKER    GUN    IN    THE    CONFEDERATE 

FORTIFICATIONS  AT  CENTREVILLE,VA.  Fenn 515 

From  a  photograph  made  in  March,  1862. 
BATTERY  No.  1  IN  FRONT  OF  YORKTOWN Powell  .     .     .     .516 

From  a  photograph. 
BATTERY  No.  4  IN  FRONT  OF  YORKTOWN "          ...  517 

From  a  photograph. 
SERVANTS  AT  HEADQUARTERS,  ARMY  OF 

THE  POTOMAC,  MAY,  1862      ....  Fenn 518 

From  a  photograph. 
THE  FRENCH  OFFICERS  OF  MCCLELLAN'S 

STAFF  AT  YORKTOWN,  MAY,  1862 519 

From  a  photograph. 

EXPLODED  GUN  IN  CONFEDERATE  BAT- 
TERY AT  YORKTOWN Fenn 521 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  PHILIP  KEARNEY Kruell  ....  522 

From  a  photograph. 

PANIC  IN  RICHMOND Sheppard .     .     .  Andrew    .     .     .  523 

PORTRAIT  OF  THOMAS  J.  ("STONEWALL") 

JACKSON Kruell  ....  524 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  SAMUEL  P.  HEINTZELMAN "      ....  525 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  ERASMUS  D.  KEYES "      ....  525 

From  a  photograph. 
ROBERTSON'S  BATTERY  NEAR  FAIR  OAKS, 

VA.,  IN  JUNE,  1862 Verbeek 526 

From  a  photograph. 
BATTLE-FIELD  OF  SEVEN  PINES Powell      .     .     .  527 

From  a  photograph. 


xxii  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Page, 

FLYING  ARTILLERY — BENSON'S  BATTERY, 

2o  U.  S.  MOUNTED  ARTILLERY — NEAR 

FAIR  OAKS,  JUNE,  1862 Peters 528 

From  a  photograph. 
FIELD   HOSPITAL  AT  SAVAGE'S   STATION 

AFTER  THE  BATTLE  OF  JcNE  27.  1863  .  Ransom 529 

From  a  photograph. 
LOWE'S  MILITARY  BALLOON  AT  GAINES'S 

MILLS,  VA Verbeek 530 

From  a  photograph. 
INFLATING    THE    BALLOON   AT   G'AINES'S 

MILLS,  VA Verbeek 531 

From  a  photograph. 
BATTLE-FIELD  OF  MALVERN  HILL Powell  ....  532 

From  a  photograph. 
THE  WHITE   HOUSE   NEAR   YORKTOWN, 

MCCLELLAN'S  BASE  OP  SUPPLY  .     .     .  Parsons     .     .     .  Pierson     .     .     .  535 

From  a  print  published  in  1862. 
MILITARY  BRIDGE  ACROSS  THE  CHICKA- 

HOMINY Cary     .     .     .     .  J.  Karst    .     .     .  537 

From  a  photograph. 
HANOVER  COURT  HOUSE Fitter  ....  Langridge     .     .  538 

From  a  sketch  made  during  the  War. 
COLD  HARBOR Waud  ....  Andrew     .     .     .  541 

From  a  sketch. 

GUNBOATS  AT  MALVERN  HILL  ....  Taylor ....  Knapp  ....  543 
WET  WEATHER  ON  THE  CHICKAHOMINY  .  Waud  .  .  .  .  H.  Karst  .  .  .  544 
A  TYPICAL  SLEEPING-TENT.— LIEUT.  S. 

W.  OWEN,  PA.  CAVALRY,  AT  WESTOVER 

LANDING,  AUGUST,  1862 546 

From  a  photograph. 
FREDERICKSBURG Warren     .     .     .  Winham   .     .     .  547 

From  a  picture  puldished  in  1862. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JOHN  POPE Eruell  ....  548 

From  a  photograph . 
PORTRAIT  OF  HENRY  W.  HALLECK "      ....  549 

From  a  photograph. 
THE  BATTLE-FIELD  OF  CEDAR  MOUNTAIN  .  Harper 550 

From  a  photograph  in  August,  1862. 
THE  HOUSE  IN  WHICH  GENERAL  WINDER 

WAS  KILLED  AT  CEDAR  MOUNTAIN      .  Ransom 552 

From  a  photograph. 
CEDAR  MOUNTAIN Waud  ....  Bogert.     .     .     .  553 

From  a  sketch. 

STUART'S  RAID  UPON  CATLETT'S  STATION 
ON  THE  NIGHT  OF  AUGUST  22,  1862    .  Gary     ....  1 1  dn  em  an  n     .     .  555 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS.  xxiii 

Title.  Designer.  Engraver.  Paje. 

CONFEDERATE    WINTER    QUARTERS    AT 

MANASSAS Fenn 557 

from  a  photograph. 
FUGITIVE  NEGROES  CROSSING  THE  RAP- 

PAHANNOCK   AFTER    POPE'S   RETREAT 

IN  AUGUST,  1862  ........  Ransom 558 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  FITZ-JOHN  PORTER Krucll  ....  559 

From  a  photograph. 
ANTIETAM  CREEK Waud  ....  Langridge     .     .  561 

From  a  sketch  made  during  the  War. 
THE     BRIDGE     OVER     THE     ANTIETAM, 

LOOKING  NORTHWEST Fenn 562 

From  a  photograph. 
A  SIGNAL  STATION  ON  ELK  MOUNTAIN, 

NEAR  ANTIETAM Verbeek 565 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  J.  E.  B.  STUART Kruell  ....  567 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  WILLIAM  B.  FRANKLIN     ....•„..       "       ....  569 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  EDWIN  V.  SUMNER "      ....  569 

From  a  photograplt. 
THE  WEST  SIDE  OF  THE   HAGERSTOWN 

ROAD  AFTER  THE   BATTLE  OF  ANTIE- 
TAM, SEPTEMBER,  1862  . Powell  ....  570 

From  a  photograph. 
LINCOLN  AND  MC€'LELLAN  AT  ANTIETAM 

IN  OCTOBER,  1862     .     .     .     , "       ....  573 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  LONGSTREET Kruell  ....  575 

From  a  photograph. 
CULPEPPER  COURT  HOUSE Warren     .     .     .  Pierson      .     .     .  577 

From  a  photograph. 
PORTRAIT  OF  AMBROSE  E.  BURNSIDE Kruell  ....  578 

From  a  photograph. 
THE  WALL  AT  FREDERICKSBURG  AFTER 

THE  BATTLE Davidson .     .     .  Bookhout       .     .  579 

From  a  photograph  taken  the  next  day. 
PORTRAIT  OF  CONRAD  F.  JACKSON Kruell  ....  580 

From  a  photograph. 
A  TYPICAL  INCIDENT  OF  THE  WAR  IN 

VIRGINIA  —  A   FAMILY   LEAVING    THE 

OLD  HOMESTEAD Perard 581 

From  a  photograph. 


xxiv 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FULL-PAGE  MAPS  AND  P AC-SIMILES. 


Title. 


To  face 
page 


SIGNATURES  TO  THE  TREATY  OF  PEACE  (1783)  . 1)0 

/>';/  permission,  from  the  original  in  the  Deportment  of  State  at  Washington. 

SIGNATURES  TO  THE  TREATY  OF  GHENT 241 

By  permission,  front  the  original  in  the  Department  of  State  at  Washington. 

MAP  SHOWING  TREATY  BOUNDARIES 258 

A  PAGE  FROM  THE  LOG-BOOK  OF  THE  STEAMER  SAVANNAH 276 

From  the  original,  by  permission  of  Mrs.  .S.  A.  Ward,  Xew  York. 

MAP  OF  THE  PENINSULA  OF  VIRGINIA  ,          ....  520 


A   Mohawk  Village  in  Central   New  York,   about  1780. 


CHAPTER  I. 

SULLIVAN'S  EXPEDITION.  —  FALL  OF  CHARLESTON.  —  ARNOLD'S 

TREASON. 

WASHINGTON'S  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  INVASION  OF  CANADA.  —  SULLIVAN'S  EXPEDITION 
IN  CENTRAL  NEW  YORK.  —  THE  BATTLE  OF  NEWTOWN.  —  INDIAN  SETTLEMENTS 
LAID  WASTE.  —  BRODHEAo's  EXPEDITION.  —  BRANT*S  REVENGE.  —  SPAIN  DECLARES 
WAR  AGAINST  ENGLAND.  —  OPERATIONS  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST.  —  CONDITION  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  AND  BRITISH  FORCES.  —  ATTACK  ON  SAVANNAH.  —  SIEGE  AND  CAPTURE 
OF  CHARLESTON.  —  A  SEVERE  WINTER.  —  RAIDS  IN  NEW  JERSEY.  —  SPRINGFIELD 
BURNED.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  ROCHAMBEAU. — ARNOLD'S  TREASON.  —  CORRESPONDENCE 
WITH  ANDRE.  —  IMPORTANCE  O*F  WEST  POINT.  —  THE  CONFERENCE  BETWEEN 
ARNOLD  AND  ANDRE.  —  ANDRE'S  CAPTURE  AND  ARNOLD'S  ESCAPE.  —  ANALYSIS  OP 
THE  AFFAIR. 

IT  was  not  without  difficulty  that,  through  the  winter  of  1778-79, 
Washington  persuaded  Congress  that  its  favorite  plan  for  the  Waghington 
conquest  of  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia  was  unwise.     That  he  °^Sanhe 
advanced  many  arguments,  and  urged  them  with  earnest-  scUeme- 
ness  and  warmth  ;  that  they  were  listened  to  with  impatience,  and 
acceded  to  at  last  with  reluctance,  we  know.     The  wisdom  and  pru- 
dence of  the  Commander-in-chief  on  this  subject  seem  in  nowise  re- 
markable.    It  would  seem  rather  that   the  military  judgment  of  a 
corporal  should  have  been  sufficient  to  decide  upon  the  absurdity  of 

VOL.  IV.  1 


2 


SULLIVAN'S  EXPEDITION. 


[CHAP.  I. 


such  a  movement  under  the  existing  circumstances,  and  that  a  Con- 
gress that  proposed  it  must  have  been  composed  of  members  quite 
unfit  for  the  conduct  of  a  great  war. 

But  Washington  so  far  yielded  to  a  scheme  which  he  could  not 
wholly  defeat,  as  to  approve  of  a  proposal  to  take  the  British  fort  at 
Niagara.  It  was  not,  however,  that  he  thought  the  capture  of  the 
fort  of  so  much  moment,  as  that  an  expedition  against  it  must  in- 
clude another  object  which  he  considered  of  greater  importance.  This 
was  the  protection  of  the  people  of  the  frontier  from  the  hostilities 

of  the  Indians,  who  were 
encouraged  and  aided  by 
the  British  from  Canada. 
Preparations  were  made 
early  in  1779  for  carry- 
ing the  war  into  Central 
New  York  and  Western 
Pennsylvania,  with  so 
much  vigor  that  it  was 
hoped  the  power  of  the 
savages,  and  their  hardly 
less  savage  allies,  would 
be  completely  broken, 
and  tranquillity  secured 
by  their  extermination 
or  expulsion. 

The  command  of  this 
expedition  was  offered  to 
Gates,  who  declined  it  in 
a  letter  which  the  Com- 
mander-in-chief justly 
considered  as  little  less 

General   Sullivan.  • 

than    insolent.     It    was 

then  given  to  Sullivan,  who  went  to  work  with  his  usual  energy, 
suiiivan's  though,  perhaps,  quite  conscious  that  the  task  he  had  under- 
«xpedition.  ta].en  was  niore  useful  than  glorious.  The  ostensible  object 
was,  at  least  in  part,  the  capture  of  the  fort  at  Niagara ;  but  the  real 
and  essential  purpose  was  the  punishment  of  the  Six  Nations.  Had 
both  been  feasible,  both,  no  doubt,  would  have  been  done ;  but  one 
only  was  possible  with  the  means  and  force  at  command,  and  Sulli- 
van did  not  approach  within  seventy-five  miles  of  Niagara  River. 
Washington's  judgment  in  opposing  the  still  more  hazardous  and 
expensive  project  of  an  invasion  of  Canada  was,  as  usual,  uner- 
ring. 


1779.]  THE  PLAN.  3 

None  knew  so  well  as  the  Commander-in-chief  the  difficulty  of  even 
holding  the  army  together,  and  how  impossible  it  would  be  Illsui>orilj. 
to  provide  the  men  and  means  for  aggressive  measures  be-  x*tw>"«M>y 
yond  the  boundaries  of  the  States.  When,  early  in  May,  tTO°v*- 
the  New  Jersey  Brigade  was  ordered  to  move  from  winter  quarters  at 
Elizabethtown,  the  officers  of  an  entire  regiment  sent  in  their  resig- 
nations. They  were  impoverished  for  want  of  pay ;  their  families 
at  home  were  suffering  for  the  necessaries  of  life  ;  they  would  not 
abandon  those  who  were  dependent  upon  them,  and  their  repeated 
appeals  to  the  Legislature  for  relief  were  unheeded.  Such  insubor- 
dination, by  military  law,  was  deserving  of  punishment.  Washington 
preferred  rather  to  appeal  to  the  patriotism  of  the  men  and  their 
pride  of  character,  and  the  New  Jersey  Legislature  was  moved  at 
length  to  relieve  their  necessities.  Troubles  like  these,  though  inev- 
itable from  the  poverty  of  the  people,  were  aggravated  by  the  diffi- 
culty of  carrying  on  a  war  conducted  by  a  confederation  of  States, 
each  giving  or  withholding,  for  a  common  purpose,  as  suited  their 
own  convenience  or  inclination,  but  without  mutual  submission  to  a 
common  will. 

The  expedition  was  to  move  in  three  divisions,  —  the  centre,  under 
Sullivan  himself,  from  Wyoming ;  the  right  wing,  under 
General  James  Clinton,  from  the  Mohawk  ;  the  left,  under 
Colonel  Daniel  Brodhead,  from  Pittsburg,  —  all  to  be  under  Sullivan 
when  the  forces  were  united.  It  was  no  fault  of  Sullivan's  that  the 
spring  and  summer  were  consumed  in  preparations,  from  early  in 
May  till  late  in  August,  for  his  commissary  department  was  so  tardily 
and  so  wretchedly  supplied  that  he  luid  neither  food  nor  clothing  for 
his  men.  His  complaints  and  remonstrances  were,  at  length,  listened 
to,  but  his  frankness  raised  up  enemies  against  him  in  Congress,  and 
made  him  unpopular  in  Pennsylvania.  In  that  State,  a  large  party 
was  opposed  to  the  expedition,  partly  because  the  Friends  denied  the 
necessity  of  hostile  measures  against  the  Indians,  and  partly  because 
Pennsylvania  was  expected  to  assume  a  large  share  of  the  burden  of 
protecting  her  western  territory. 

Clinton  was  at  the  outlet  of  Otsego  Lake,  where  it  flows  into  the 
Susquehanna  River,  early  in  July,  with  1,700  men.     Here  clintons 
he  awaited  orders  for  about  a  month,  but  occupied  the  time  moT*ment- 
in  building  a  dam  across  the  head  of  the  river,  to  store  water  enough 
to  float  his  boats  down  the  stream,  in  case  of  a  summer  drouth,  when 
the  advance  should  be  made.     The  lake  was  raised  three  or  four  feet 
in  height ;   on   the  9th  of  August  the  dam  was  broken,  and  the  lib- 
erated waters  filled  the  bed  of  the  river  to  its  brink,  bearing  along 
the  two  hundred  and  twenty  boats  upon  its  full  tide,  to  the  astonish- 


4  SULLIVAN'S  EXPEDITION.  [CHAP.  I. 

merit  and  alarm  of  the  Indians  at  this  sudden  flood.  Near  the  pres- 
ent village  of  Union  the  division  was  met  by  a  detachment  from  Sul- 
livan, under  General  Poor  ;  and  on  the  20th  of  August  the  com- 
bined forces  moved  from  Fort  Sullivan  on  Tioga  Point,  now  the 
village  of  Athens,  in  Pennsylvania. 

The  long  and  elaborate  preparations  for  the  campaign  had  not  been 
unheeded  by  the  English  and  the  Indians.  As  early  as  April,  a  detach- 
ment from  Fort  Schuyler  of  six  hundred  men,  under  Colonel  Van 
Schaick,  had  entered  the  Indian  country  and  destroyed  a  town  of  the 
Onondagas.  In  July,  the  enemy,  alarmed  at  the  progress  of  the  army, 
had  attempted  to  divert  it  from  its  purpose  by  an  attack  upon  a  fort 
on  the  Susquehaima,  and  on  the  settlements  in  Orange  County  and 
on  the  Laekawaxen  River.  Sullivan,  early  in  August,  had  destroyed 
the  Indian  village  of  Chemung,  not  without  resistance,  and  with  some 
loss. 

A  few  miles  above  this  point,  on  the  Chemung  River,  was  the  In- 
Battieof  dian  village  of  Newtown,  now  Elmira.  Here  Sullivan  found 
New-town.  j.j)e  enemv  ju  force,  numbering  altogether,  probably,  about 
twelve  hundred  men,  made  up  of  British  regulars,  Tories,  and  In- 
dians, under  Captain  Macdonald  of  the  British  army,  the  Tor}7  par- 
tisans Colonel  John  Butler  and  his  son,  Captain  Walter  N.  Butler, 
and  the  Mohawk  chief,  Joseph  Brant. 

On  a  steep  ridge  between  a  creek  and  the  river,  this  force  was  dis- 
posed in  a  position  protected  on  two  sides  by  a  bend  in  the  river, 
and  skilfully  strengthened  in  front  by  a  breastwork,  partially  con- 
cealed among  pine  trees  and  shrub  oaks  and  branches  artfully  placed 
among  them.  It  was  meant  as  an  ambush ;  the  advancing  Ameri- 
cans, it  was  supposed,  would  wind  along  the  base  of  the  ridge  by  an 
open  path,  parallel  to  the  breastwork,  and  when  their  flank  was  com- 
pletely exposed,  a  deadly  fire  from  twelve  hundred  hidden  rifles  was 
to  be  poured  into  them  from  the  heights  above.  Sullivan  commanded 
not  less  than  three  thousand  men,  led  by  able  and  experienced  sol- 
diers. If  stratagem  did  not  succeed  against  them,  there  was  little 
chance  of  hindering  their  advance. 

The  stratagem  \vas  not  successful.  The  earthworks  were  discov- 
ered by  the  advanced  guard,  and  from  a  tall  tree  a  rifleman  descried 
the  whole  plan  of  offence  and  defence.  Discovery  was  equivalent  to 
defeat.  A  portion  of  the  army  under  General  Hand  was  brought  in 
front  of  the  enemy  into  line,  which  Brant  and  his  Indians,  by  repeated 
and  desperate  sorties,  attempted  to  break.  While  they  were  so  occu- 
pied in  front,  Generals  Poor  and  Clinton  were  quietly  making  their 
way  through  woods  and  swamps  for  an  attack  on  the  rear  and  flank. 
The  enemy  were  caught  in  the  trap  which  they  had  hoped  would  be 


1779.]  INDIAN   SETTLEMENTS   LAID   WASTE.  5 

fatal  to  their  opponents.  The  artillery,  under  Colonel  Proetor,  opened 
fire  upon  the  breastworks  and  their  defenders  at  tlie  moment  that 
Poor's  men,  followed  by  Clinton's,  rushed  up  the  hill  in  the  rear  with 
the  cry  of  "  Remember  Wyoming ! "  The  English  and  their  allies 
\vere  outgeneralled  as  well  as  outnumbered,  and  though  they  fought 
with  courage,  they  were  driven  at  length  to  headlong  flight.  Their 
loss  was  so  heavy,  —  while  Sullivan's  was  slight, — and  their  defeat 
so  complete,  that  neither  Brant's  power,  the  influence  of  the  Tories, 
nor  the  promises  of  the  English,  could  rally  the  Indians  again  in  any 
large  numbers  to  oppose  Sullivan's  progress. 


Destruction  of  Indian  Villages. 

Two  days  later  the  army  resumed  its  march,  and  for  weeks  its  prog- 
ress was  marked  by  utter  desolation.  The  Six  Nations  Thriftofthe 
had  achieved  a  degree  of  civilization  unknown  before  that  Six  Natlon8 
time  to  the  American  Indians,  and  never  since  attained  by  them 
except  among  the  Cherokees.  They  had  gathered  together  in  towns; 
log-huts,  and  even  frame-houses,  convenient,  rudely  furnished,  and 
well-painted,  had  taken  the  place  of  wigwams.  Their  subsistence 
they  gained  in  part  by  agriculture ;  their  habitations  were  sur- 
rounded by  many  hundreds  of  cultivated  acres,  and  they  had  planted 
thousands  of  fruit-trees,  many  already  in  full  bearing. 

n    11.  •   i  i  i  i      •  •  Their  coun- 

oullivan   spared    neither  the    people   nor  their  possessions,   try  aeras- 

He  met  sometimes  with  desperate  resistance,  and  the  most 

cruel  tortures  were  inflicted  upon  some  of  his  men  who  fell  into  the 


6  SULLIVAN'S  EXPEDITION.  [CHAP.  I. 

hands  of  the  Indians.  The  provocation,  on  the  other  hand,  was  ter- 
rible. Of  forty  villages,  some  of  them  containing  more  than  a  hun- 
dred houses,  not  a  trace  was  left,  except  in  ashes.  Every  fruit-bearing 
tree  was  cut  down,  and  in  one  orchard  alone  there  were  fifteen  hun- 
dred peach  trees ;  two  hundred  thousand  bushels  of  Indian  corn,  im- 
mense quantities  of  potatoes,  beans,  and  other  products  of  their  farms 
and  gardens,  which  the  thrifty  natives  were  about  to  harvest  for  win- 
ter use,  were  destroyed. 

The  objective  point  of  the  expedition,  probably,  was  really  not 
Niagara,  but  the  Seneca  Castle,  or  town,  the  chief  westernmost  set- 
tlement of  the  Six  Nations,  the  extreme  western  door  of  the  Long 
House,  as  they  designated  their  confederacy.  At  this  point,  not  far 
from  Geneseo,  on  the  Genesee  River,  Sullivan  retraced  his  footsteps. 
The  work  was  done  thoroughly,  with  a  loss  to  him  of  not  more  than 
forty  men.  The  Indians  had  neither  shelter  nor  food  to  carry  them 
through  the  ensuing  winter,  which  happened  to  be  one  of  the  severest 
on  record,  and  many  of  them  perished  from  want  and  disease.  Their 
power  \\ras  broken,  and  though  they  resumed,  the  following  year,  their 
depredations  upon  the  border  settlements,  they  ceased  from  that  time 
to  be  the  formidable  enemy  whose  alliance  with  the  English  was  an 
important  incident  in  the  progress  of  the  war.  Sullivan  resigned 
his  commission  soon  after  rejoining  Washington's  army,  and  it  was 
accepted  by  Congress  ;  not,  however,  because  of  any  disapprobation 
of  his  merciless  warfare  against  the  Indians,  but  because  he  had  in- 
curred the  enmity  of  many  members  of  Congress  by  his  frank  and 
perhaps  imprudent  reflections  upon  the  conduct  of  the  war.1 

Colonel  Daniel  Brodhead,  who  was  in  command  of  the  fort  at  Pitts- 
Brodhead-s  burg,  started  early  in  August,  in  obedience  to  instructions 
expedition.  from  fjle  Commander-in-chief,  on  an  expedition  up  the  Alle- 
ghany  River,  with  about  six  hundred  men.  It  was  to  have  started 
some  months  earlier,  and  to  join  Sullivan  in  an  attack  upon  Niagara  ; 
but  the  purpose,  at  last,  was  only  to  punish  the  Indians,  destroy  their 
villages  and  corn-fields,  and  in  so  doing  make  a  diversion  that  should 
be  of  effectual  aid  to  Sullivan's  more  general  campaign.  The  march 
was  almost  wholly  within  the  boundaries  of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  the 
course  of  it  they  crossed  "  a  creek  called  Oil  Creek,"  to  be  famous 
nearly  a  century  afterward.  In  the  oil  which  the  soldiers  found  float- 
ing upon  the  top  of  a  spring,  they  bathed  their  joints,  to  "  the  great 
relief  of  the  rheumatism  with  which  they  were  afflicted." 

The  expedition,  though  occupying  a  comparatively  short  time  and 

1  The  fullest  and  most  accurate  history  of  Sullivan's  campaign  is  given  in  the  Centennial 
Addresses  of  the  Rev.  David  Craft,  at  the  celebration  in  August,  1879,  at  Elmira,  Waterloo, 
and  Geneseo,  N.  Y. 


1779.]  WAR  IN   THE   SOUTHWEST. 

few  men,  was  of  signal  service,  in  the  general  plan  of  striking  a  blow 
at  the  Six  Nations  that  should  be  fatal  to  the  strength  of  that  con- 
federacy. In  his  month's  absence  from  Pittsburg,  B redhead  destroyed 
many  villages  and  hundreds  of  acres  of  growing  corn,  without  the  loss 
of  a  man.  The  tribes  he  attacked  were  too  much  taken  up  in  their 
own  defence  to  reenforce  those  whom  Sullivan  was  driving  before  him, 
and  a  number  of  hostile  chiefs  hastened  to  Pittsburg  at  Broilhead's 
return,  with  solemn  promises  of  their  future  good  behavior.1  Some  of 
them  may  have  kept  these  promises  ;  but  many  more,  doubtless,  were 
mindful  rather  of  their  wrongs.  How  well  these  were  remembered, 
Brant  and  three  hundred  of  his  warriors  showed  the  next  Brant-g  re_ 
summer,  when,  in  conjunction  with  a  force  of  British  troops  vcnge- 
and  Tories,  a  raid  was  made  into  the  Mohawk  Valley,  its  farms  laid 
waste,  the  dwellings,  barns,  and  crops  given  to  the  flames,  cattle  and 
sheep  destroyed,  and  no  mercy  shown  to  either  man  or  woman. 

The  declaration  of  war  made  this  summer  by  Spain  against  Eng- 
land, strengthened  the  bonds  of  friendship  between  Spain  ^arinthe 
and  the  United  States,  and  John  Jay  was  sent  out  as  minis-  Southwest- 
ter  with  power  to  negotiate  for  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
and  a  loan  of  five  million  dollars.  The  injury  done  to  England,  how- 
ever, was  much  greater  than  any  immediate  benefit  to  the  United 
States.  Galvez,  the  young  and  ambitious  Governor  of  Louisiana, 
moved  up  the  Mississippi  with  a  force  of  nearly  fifteen  hundred  men 
—  Oliver  Pollock,  the  agent  of  Congress,  with  a  company  of  volun- 
teers, making  a  part  of  the  expedition  —  and  soon  captured  the  Brit- 
ish posts  of  Fort  Manchac,  Baton  Rouge,  and  Natchez.  These  suc- 
cesses were  followed  by  others ;  eight  English  vessels  were  captured 
on  Lake  Pontchartrain  and  on  the  Mississippi  soon  after  the  fall  of 
the  forts,  and  a  few  months  later  Mobile  was  taken,  the  last  post  in 
West  Florida,  except  Pensacola,  in  British  possession.  That  also  was 
reduced  by  Galvez  the  next  year.  But  important  as  these  conquests 
seemed  at  the  time  to  Spain,  and  to  Spain  alone,  they  were,  in  the 
end,  of  infinitely  more  moment  to  the  United  States.  Had  England 
been  in  possession  of  the  Mississippi  as  well  as  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
at  the  negotiation  of  peace,  —  however  idle  it  may  be  to  speculate 
upon  what  might  have  been,  in  that  case,  the  history  of  the  North 
American  Continent  for  the  next  hundred  years,  —  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  that  the  United  States  would  have  had,  in  all  human  proba- 
bility, quite  another  destiny. 

1  Brodhead's  expedition  has  usually  been  considered  of  little  moment,  and  it  has  even 
been  denied,  or  doubted,  by  some  writers,  that  it  ever  took  place.  Its  incidents  are  for  the 
first  time  carefully  collated  and  fully  told  by  Obed  Edsou,  in  The  Magazine  of  History  for 
November,  1879. 


8  THE   WAR  AT   THE   SOUTH.  [CHAP.  I. 

What  was  not  Avas  not  to  be ;  else  one  might  indulge  also  in  specu- 
lation as  to  the  probable  result  of  the  war,  had  not  the  Brit- 
ofthf  new  ish  ministry  determined  that  the  basis  of  operations  should 
be  removed  from  the  Northern  to  the  Southern  States.  The 
attempt  to  suppress  rebellion  in  the  North  had  been  baffled  for  nearly 
five  years ;  it  would  be,  it  was  thought,  a  wiser  plan,  and  more  easily 
accomplished,  to  overrun  the  sparsely  populated  southern  country, 
separate  its  States  from  the  Union,  and  compel  its  people  to  return  to 
their  allegiance  to  the  King.  Congress  and  the  Commander-in-chief 
had  good  reason  to  be  alarmed  at  this  determination. 

It  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  they  could  deal  with  the  perils 
which  already  confronted  them,  and  reduced  them  often  almost  to 
despair.  The  army  mustered  only  about  fifteen  thousand  men  en- 
listed for  the  war,  and  of  these  not  more  than  eleven  or  twelve 
thousand  were  in  the  ranks.  The  terms  of  service  of  about  twelve 
thousand  additional  militia  would  expire  at  intervals  during  the  first 
half  of  1780,  and  whether  these  would  reenlist,  or  their  places  could 
be  supplied  by  raw  recruits,  was  a  contingency  beyond  control  or 
calculation.  The  pay  of  the  soldiers  was  months  in  arrears;  they 
were  always  without  sufficient  clothing  and  the  ordinary  necessities 
of  comfort  in  camp  life,  often  without  provisions  for  two  days  in 
advance,  and  sometimes  without  rations  for  the  passing  day.  The 
one  thing  that  was  plentiful  was  paper  money,  and  that,  at  the  cur- 
rent rate  of  forty  to  one,  was  the  one  thing  that  was  almost  good  for 
nothing.  As  it  would  pay  for  so  little,  and  was  so  little  pay  for 
what  it  bought,  it  hardly  added  to  the  general  distress  that  the  neces- 
sities of  the  army  were  met  by  requisitions  upon  the  country  for  food 
and  forage  wherever  they  could  be  found.  The  government  was 
kept  afloat  by  foreign  loans. 

With  this  miserable  army  Washington  confronted  Clinton,  who 
commanded  a  well-appointed  force  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  men,  in 
New  York  and  its  dependencies.  To  be  always  on  the  vigilant  defen- 
sive, and  to  watch  warily  for  every  chance  to  strike  a  telling  blow  at 
any  unguarded  or  carelessly  guarded  point,  was  the  policy  of  the 
American  General.  It  was  fortunate  for  him  that  Clinton,  with  his 
greater  strength  and  superior  resources,  either  from  want  of  energy 
or  courage,  was  even  less  aggressive.  He  was  content  to  watch 
Washington,  as  Washington  wras  compelled  to  watch  him. 

But  there  was  this  important  difference  in  their  conditions :  Clin- 
ton could  threaten  more  than  one  point  by  detachments  from  the 
army  with  which  he  perpetually  menaced  the  Northern  and  Middle 
States  ;  while  Washington  had  neither  men  nor  means  to  meet  any 
such  movements.  Clinton  knew,  quite  as  well  as  he,  the  difficul- 


1779.] 


ATTACK   ON   SAVANNAH. 


9 


ties  of  the  situation,  and  that,  so  far  as  the  main  army  in  the  field 
was  concerned,  either  the  North  or  the  South  must  be  left  defence- 
less. The  conclusion  was  obvious,  —  the  conquest  of  either  North  or 
South  would  be  easy  and  inevitable,  and  the  conquest  of  one  was  the 
conquest  of  both.  Sound  as  the  reasoning  seemed,  it  was  a  fatal 
mistake. 

Lincoln's  success  in  maintaining  his  position  at   Charleston  sug- 
gested, perhaps,  that  the  aspect  of  affairs  would  seem  less 
hopeless  if  Savannah  could  be  retaken.     D'Estaing  was  in   in  the 
the  West  Indies,  where  he  had  gained  more  credit  for  the 
French  arms  than  in  his  abortive  movements  about  Rhode  Island  the 
year  before.     He  consented  to  give  his  aid  in  a  brief  campaign  in 
Georgia,  and  early  in  September  appeared  off  the  coast  with  a  fleet 
of  about  forty  ships,  carrying  six  thousand  troops. 

D'Estaing  had  sent  word  of  his  approach  to  General  Lincoln,  who 
immediately  left  Charleston  for  Savannah,  with  the  Conti-  Attackon 
nental  force  under  his  command  and  a  bodv  of  militia.     Be-  s*™"1*11 

«/ 

fore  his  arrival,  D'Estaing  had  invested  the  town  and  summoned  it 
to  surrender,  not,  however, 
in  the  name  of  the  allied 
powers,  but  in  that  of  the 
King  of  France.  This 
breach  of  military  etiquette, 
if  it  was  no  worse,  was  either 
explained  or  overlooked,  — 
perhaps,  even,  would  have 
been  altogether  forgotten, 
had  not  the  French  com- 
mander, by  his  want  of 
promptness  now,  as  by  his 
want  of  promptness  the  year 
before  at  Rhode  Island, 
thrown  away  the  opportu- 
nity of  achieving  success.  To 
his  demand  for  surrender, 
the  British  General,  Prevost, 
asked  for  a  truce  of  twenty- 
four  hours,  and  it  was 
granted.  In  the  time  thus 
gained  he  completed  his 
works  of  defence,  and  was 
reeuforced  by  Lieutenant-colonel  Maitland  with  eight  hundred  vet- 
erans then  stationed  at  Beaufort.  Before  their  arrival,  the  city  was 


General    Lincoln. 


10  THE   WAR  AT   THE  SOUTH.  [CHAP.  I. 

at  D'Estaing's  mercy  ;  for  not  more  than  ten  guns  were  mounted  then 
upon  the  unfinished  earthworks.  With  such  an  addition  to  its  gar- 
rison, Prevost's  final  answer  to  the  demand  for  surrender  was  an  an- 
swer of  defiance.  Within  a  few  days  his  defences  were  completed, 
and  surmounted  by  eighty  heavy  guns. 

About  a  month  had  elapsed  since  the  arrival  of  the  French  fleet, 
and  D'Estaing  was  in  haste  to  return  to  his  station  in  the  West  In- 
dies, partly  to  escape  the  probable  storms  of  the  autumn,  and  partly 
to  avoid  the  possible  arrival  of  an  English  fleet  from  New  Yoi'k. 
Either  the  siege  must  be  abandoned,  or  the  place  carried  by  assault, 
for  D'Estaing  either  could  not  or  would  not  await  the  completion  of 
trenches.  On  the  9th  of  October  the  attempt  was  made. 

Here,  at  least,  there  was  no  reason  for  reflecting  upon  D'Estaing. 
He  was  twice  wounded  as,  with  Lincoln,  he  led  the  attack.  The  com- 
bined forces  engaged  in  the  assault  numbered  more  than  four  thou- 
sand men,  and  they  were  aided  by  a  cannonade  of  shot  and  shell  from 
the  French  fleet.  But  the  defence  was  conducted  with  great  skill 
and  courage,  and  with  an  advantage  from  behind  abatis  and  earth- 
works that  outweighed  numbers.  The  assailants,  crowded  together 
within  the  redoubt,  were  exposed  for  nearly  an  hour  to  a  terrible  fire, 
while  the  utmost  they  could  do  was  to  plant  a  French  and  an  Amer- 
ican standard  upon  the  ramparts. 

This  was  the  centre  of  in  tensest  interest.  Sergeant  Jasper,  who 
had  restored  the  flag  to  its  place  when  shot  down  at  Fort  Moultrie  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  wras  here  mortally  wounded  in  defence  of 
his  colors ;  three  lieutenants,  Bush,  Thomas,  and  Grey,  fell  with  the 
staves  in  their  hands,  —  Bush  with  the  flag  beneath  him  ;  and  one 
only  of  the  standards  was  rescued  from  the  hands  of  the  enemy  by 
Sergeant  McDonald,  who  escaped  unhurt.  The  British  lost  less  than 
fifty  killed,  and  not  many  more  wounded  and  missing  ;  while  on  the 
other  side  the  loss,  in  killed  and  wounded,  was  between  eleven  and 
twelve  hundred,  including  many  officers,  and  chief  among  them  the 
Count  Pulaski,  who  fell  mortally  wounded  at  the  head  of  his  bat- 
talion. Jt  was  the  end  of  the  siege  of  Savannah  ;  in  ten  days  the 
French  fleet  was  under  sail  for  the  West  Indies,  and  Lincoln  was 
compelled  to  return  to  Charleston. 

Georgia  was  virtually  restored  to  the  Crown,  so  far  as  the  province 
was  under  any  civil  government  at  all,  and  Clinton,  encour- 
to  charies-  aged  by  the  repulse  at  Savannah,  resolved  upon  energetic 
measures  for  the  reduction  of  the  whole  South.  Late  in  De- 
cember, he  embarked  with  seven  thousand  five  hundred  men  for 
Charleston,  leaving  Knyphausen  in  command  at  New  York,  with  force 
enough  to  occupy  Washington's  attention,  who,  compelled  to  detach 


1779-80.] 


A  SEVERE   WIXTER. 


11 


the  Virginia  and  Maryland  troops  for  Southern  service,  could  under- 
take no  aggressive  movements  of  importance. 

The  winter  was  one  of   exceptional  severity,  and   the  American 
army  at  Morristown  endured  almost  the  extremity  of  suffer-  ^^^y  of 
ing  from  cold,  from  want  of  food,  and  want  of   clothing.   thcw'Dter- 
Even  the  British  troops,  in  their  comfortable  quarters  in  New  York, 
were  compelled  to  submit  to  many  privations,  while  they  could  not 
relax  their  vigilance  for  an  hour.     They  were  in  perpetual  fear  of 


Fall  of  Sergeant  Jasper. 

attack,  for  the  town  could  be  approached  on  either  side  over  the  solid 
ice  which  closed  the  North  River,  the  East  River,  and  the  bay  for 
miles.  Each  army  did  all  it  could  to  harass  the  other  during  the 
winter.  Lord  Stirling  crossed  the  Kill  on  the  ice,  at  Elizabethtown, 
to  Staten  Island,  marched  two  thousand  men  nearly  to  the  Narrows, 
and  burned  a  fortified  house  and  several  vessels,  with  slight  loss.  A 
few  days  afterward  a  party  of  the  enemy  crossed  from  the  Island 
to  Elizabethtown,  and  burned  the  Presbyterian  meeting-house,  the 


12  THE   WAR   AT  THE   SOUTH.  [CHAP.  I. 

court-house,  and  some  private  dwellings  ;  and  the  same  night  another 
party  crossed  the  North  River  in  sleighs,  marched  to  New- 
ark, burned  the  academy,  and  sacked  some  of  the  houses. 
These  and  similar  excursions  served  to  exercise  the  vigilance  and 
keep  up  the  discipline  of  the  men  on  both  sides  through  the  winter 
months. 

It  was  near  the  middle  of  March  before  Clinton  could  take  any 
effectual  steps  for  investing  Charleston,  for  his  voyage  from  New 
York  was  tempestuous,  and  several  of  his  transports  were  lost.  The 
garrison  of  the  town  was  about  three  thousand  men,  and  General 
Lincoln  believed  he  could  hold  it,  provided  it  was  approached  from 
the  land  side  only.  Commodore  Whipple  was  in  the  harbor  with 
nine  small  vessels,  and  with  these,  and  the  guns  of  Fort  Moultrie,  he 
was  confident  the  British  fleet  could  be  prevented  from  crossing  the 
bar.  But  the  bar  was  passed  without  difficulty  or  opposition,  and 
Whipple  could  put  his  small  fleet  to  no  better  use  than  to  sink  the 
whole  of  it,  with  the  exception  of  one  ship,  at  the  mouth  of  Cooper 
River,  to  obstruct  that  channel.  A  few  days  later,  the  enemy  passed 
Fort  Moultrie  and  anchored  in  front  of  the  town. 

Clinton  in  the  mean  time  had  made  good  his  position  in  the  rear 
siege  of  °f  the  town,  where  Lincoln  had  thrown  up  fortifications  and 
Charleston,  fag  a  cana}  across  the  low  lands  between  the  two  rivers. 
These  works  were  not  formidable,  as  Lincoln  had  not  feared  an  attack 
from  that  direction  that  he  could  not  repel  so  long  as  the  harbor  was 
in  his  possession.  With  a  fleet  in  front,  holding  the  town  under  its 
guns,  Clinton  could  make  his  approaches  at  his  leisure,  and  wait  for 
reinforcements  from  Savannah. 

With  the  completion  of  his  first  parallel  on  the  10th  of  April,  at  a 
distance  of  about  a  thousand  yards,  the  town  was  summoned  to  sur- 
render. Lincoln  replied,  that  "  duty  and  inclination  pointed  to  the 
propriety  of  supporting  it  to  the  last  extremity,"  for  he  might,  he 
said,  have  abandoned  it  at  any  time,  had  he  seen  fit,  during  the  sixty 
days  that  had  elapsed  since  the  siege  began.  This  was  quite  true 
during  the  earlier  weeks  of  the  siege,  so  far  as  his  movements  could 
be  controlled  by  the  enemy  ;  but  it  was  not  quite  true  that  his  action 
and  judgment  had  been  entirely  unrestrained.  The  question  had  been 
warmly  discussed,  in  more  than  one  council  of  war,  after  the  British 
fleet  had  crossed  the  bar,  whether  it  was  not  wiser  to  save  the  army 
by  retreat,  rather  than  await  almost  certain  capture  ;  and  the  decis- 
ion to  remain  Avas  influenced,  if  it  was  not  absolutely  determined,  by 
the  threats  of  the  townspeople,  that  if  the  attempt  were  made  "  they 
would  cut  up  his  [Lincoln's]  boats,  and  open  the  gates  to  the  en- 
emy." l 

1  Moultrie's  Memoirs. 


1780.]  SURRENDER   OF   CHARLESTON.  13 

But  retreat  soon  ceased  to  be  possible.  The  cavalry  stationed  at 
Monk's  Corner,  about  thirty  miles  up  the  Cooper  River,  were  sur- 
prised  and  dispersed ;  a  like  misfortune  befell  a  post  on  the  Santee, 
where  Colonels  White,  Washington,  Jamieson,  and  other  officers  saved 
themselves  by  swimming  the  river ;  some  smaller  posts  nearer  the 
city  were  necessarily  abandoned,  and  Lincoln's  only  available  road  of 
escape,  between  the  Cooper  and  Santee  rivers,  was  cut  oft0.  Clinton 
closed  slowly  but  surely  around  the  city.  Early  in  May,  Fort  Moul- 
trie  was  surrendered ;  the  third  parallel  was  finished  a  few  days  later 
within  a  few  yards  of  the  canal ;  the  canal,  the  first  barrier  of  the 
besieged,  was  drained  and  occupied  by  the  enemy  ;  and  the  town 
was  then  at  his  mercy.  Negotiations  were  begun  on  the  8th  of  May, 
and  concluded  on  the  12th,  by  honorable  capitulation.  The  surren,ierof 
Adjutant-general,  John  Andre,  reported  the  number  of  male  tbecit^- 
citizens  as  prisoners  at  nearly  six  thousand  ;  these  and  the  militia 
were  released  on  parole,  while  the  Continental  troops  and  seamen  were 
held  as  prisoners  of  war. 

The  failure  to  take  Savannah  the  previous  autumn,  and  the  loss 
now  of  Charleston  and  of  the  whole  southern  army  at  a  single  blow,, 
were  most  serious  disasters  to  the  cause  of  the  Americans.  The  Brit- 
ish army  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  numbered  nearly  fourteen 
thousand  men,  and  with  Charleston  and  Savannah  as  their  base,  the 
easy  and  early  subjugation  of  all  the  Southern  States  seemed  certain. 
Clinton  spoke  with  entire  confidence  of  the  absolute  possession  of 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  but  his  conduct  showed  at  first  CHnton-8 
that  he  looked  upon  the  population  of  both  as  a  people  f°liey- 
still  to  be  conciliated,  and  not  as  one  already  subdued.  Had  he  con- 
tinued in  this  temper,  he  would  have  left  a  less  difficult  task  to  his 
successor.  A  large  number  of  persons  had  given  their  paroles  and 
accepted  protections,  with  the  understanding  that  they  should  be  ex- 
empt from  any  participation  in  the  war  on  either  side.  But  Clinton, 
in  a  second  proclamation,  required  that  "  all  persons  should  take  an 
active  part  in  settling  and  securing  his  Majesty's  government,"  and 
that  those  who  neglected  to  do  so  should  be  considered  as  "  enemies 
and  rebels." 

There  were  many  who  would  consent  to  remain  in  an  attitude  of 
neutrality  in  the  contest,  who  were  by  no  means  willing  to  take  up 
arms  against  their  own  countrymen.  A  Major  James  was  sent  as  the 
representative  of  some  of  this  class  to  ask  of  Captain  Ardesoif,  the 
commander  of  the  British  post  at  Georgetown,  an  explanation  of  the 
proclamation.  The  answer  he  received  was,  that  "  his  Majesty  offers 
you  a  free  pardon,  of  which  you  are  undeserving,  for  you  all  ought  to 
be  hanged ;  but  it  is  only  on  condition  that  you  take  up  arms  in  his 


14 


THE   WAR   AT   THE    SOUTH. 


[CHAP.  I. 


cause."  James  replied  that  those  whom  lie  represented  would  not 
submit  to  such  conditions.  "  Represent !  "  shouted  the  British  officer ; 
"  you  damned  rebel !  if  you  dare  speak  in  such  language,  I  will  have 
you  hung  up  at  the  yard-arm  !  "  James,  who  was  unarmed,  knocked 
him  down  with  a  chair,  for  answer,  and  left  him  senseless.  The  five 
brothers  of  the  James  family  were  from  that  moment  among  the  most 
active  partisans  of  the  State.1  Many  followed  their  example.  Clinton 


James  and  Ardesoif. 


foolishly  compelled  them  to  fight,  and  under  that  compulsion  they 
preferred  to  fight  against  the  King,  —  not  for  him. 

When  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Charleston  reached  New  York,  Knyp- 
liausen  was  persuaded  that  it  would  so  discourage  the  soldiers  of 
the  American  army  in  New  Jersey,  whose  privations  and  complaints 

1  Lift  of  Francis  Marion,  by  W.  G.  Siiums. 


1780.]  RAIDS  IN   NEW  JERSEY.  15 

were  well  known  to  him,  that  they  would  be  an  easy  conquest.  On 
the  6th  of  June,  he  crossed  with  six  thousand  troops  from 
Staten  Island  to  Elizabeth  town  Point,  and  marched  toward  invades  N>" 
the  village  of  Connecticut  Farms,  seven  miles  beyond  Eliza- 
bethtown.  The  militia,  under  Colonel  Elias  Dayton,  and  a  brigade 
of  Continental  troops  under  General  William  Maxwell,  from  whom 
Knyphausen  expected  a  welcome,  disputed  every  foot  of  the  road 
from  sunrise  till  dark,  as  the  British  advanced.  They  fell  back  step 
by  step  before  a  superior  force,  but  it  was  with  the  utmost  coolness 
and  good  order.  In  the  course  of  the  day  the  village  of  Connecticut 
Farms  was  burned,  and  the  wife  of  the  clergyman,  the  Rev.  James 
Caldwell,  was  killed  by  a  shot  through  the  window  of  the  room 
where  she  was  sitting  surrounded  by  her  children.  It  was  asserted 
in  the  contemporary  reports  in  the  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania 
newspapers,  that  this  was  the  deliberate  deed  of  a  passing  British 
soldier,1  and  the  statement,  though  denied  on  the  other  side,  was  gen- 
erally believed,  and  excited  universal  indignation. 

When  at  last  the  Americans  crossed  the  Rahway,  at  Springfield, 
and  Washington  had  advanced  to  their  support,  if  needed,  Knyphau- 
sen fell  back  the  way  he  came.  "At  the  middle  of  the  night,"  — 
wrote  Maxwell,  to  Governor  Livingston,  of  Xew  Jersey,  —  "the  en- 
emy sneaked  off  and  put  their  backsides  to  the  Sound  near  Elizabeth- 
town."  They  held  the  road  from  Eli/abethtown  to  De  Hart's  Point 
on  the  Kill  van  Kull. 

On  the  17th  of  June,  Clinton,  having  taken  unwittingly  the  first 
step  in  the  train  of  events  that  was  to  lead  to  the  loss  of  the 
cause  entrusted  to  him,  arrived  from  Charleston.     Six  days 


afterward  he  ordered  another  movement,  the  preparations 
for  which  were  watched  with  anxiety.  Washington  at  first  supposed 
an  attack  upon  West  Point  was  intended,  but  he  divined  Clinton's  in- 
tention in  season  to  meet  the  advance  into  New  Jersey.  Greene  was 
put  in  command  of  about  fifteen  hundred  men  at  Springfield,  and  with 
Maxwell's  and  Stark's  brigades  and  Lee's  infantry,  was  ready  to  give 
the  enemy  a  warm  reception.  Colonels  Angell,  Shreve,  and  Dayton, 
with  their  respective  regiments,  opposed  one  column  of  the  enemy, 
and  Major  Lee  with  his  cavalry  and  Colonel  Ogden  with  his  regiment 
checked  the  other.  Dayton's  militia  were  inspired  by  the  presence 
and  example  of  their  chaplain,  Caldwell,  whose  wife  had  been  shot 
only  a  few  days  before.  When  the  men  were  in  want  of  wadding  for 
their  guns,  he  distributed  hymn-books  among  them,  with  the  springficld 
exhortation,  "  Put  Watts  into  them,  boys  !  "  2  Springfield,  turned- 
however,  was  taken  and  burned,  and  the  enemy  then  returned  to 
Staten  Island. 

1  See  Moore  '9  Diary  of  the  Revolution.  2  Irving's  Life  of  Washington. 


16  ARNOLD'S  TREASON.  [CHAP.  I. 

On  the  llth  of  July,  five  thousand  French  troops,  under  De  Ro- 
chambeau,  arrived  at  Newport,  the  first  division  of  an  army 
of  twelve  thousand  men  which  Lafayette  had  induced  the 


King  to  promise  should  be  sent  to  America.  Again,  for  a 
time,  the  French  alliance  proved  rather  a  hindrance  than  a  help.  The 
enthusiasm  aroused  by  Rochambeau's  arrival  was  almost  extravagant, 
and  important  and  decisive  measures,  it  was  supposed,  would  imme- 
diately follow.  Washington  proposed  to  move,  supported  by  the 
French,  upon  the  city  of  New  York.  But  it  was  the  15th  before  the 
French  troops  were  all  landed,  and  nearly  one  fifth  of  them,  sick  from 
a  voyage  of  seventy  days,  were  sent  into  hospitals ;  on  the  21st,  an 
English  fleet  Avas  seen  in  the  offing ;  on  the  25th,  a  messenger  was  sent 
by  Rochambeau  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts  to  ask  that  the 
troops  of  that  province  might  be  ordered  to  reenforce  his  army,  as  he 
had  just  learned  from  Washington  that  Newport  was  to  be  attacked 
by  the  British.1  That  it  was  not  attacked,  was  due  solely  to  a  disa- 
greement between  Sir  Henry  Clinton  and  Admiral  Arbuthnot.  When, 
a  little  later,  a  squadron  under  Admiral  Rodney  joined  that  of  Arbuth- 
not to  make  the  blockade  of  Newport  effectual,  a  considerable  force 
was  detached  from  the  American  army  to  aid  in  the  defence  of  the 
allies  and  their  fleet. 

It  was  an  autumn  of  enforced  inactivity  and  of  hope  deferred  ;  and 
Arnold's  while  the  country  was  under  these  depressing  influences,  it 
treason.  was  showed  by  the  disclosure  of  Arnold's  long  premeditated 
treachery,  which,  had  it  been  successful,  would  have  led,  no  doubt,  to 
the  most  disastrous  consequences.  For  eighteen  months  he  had  been 
in  communication  with  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  to  whom,  through  Major 
John  Andre",  Adjutant-general  of  the  British  army,  he  had  given,  from 
time  to  time,  much  valuable  information.  His  schemes  were  now 
complete,  through  which  he  believed  that,  by  the  sacrifice  of  his  coun- 
try, he  could  achieve  rank,  and  fame,  and  wealth  for  himself. 

It  is  not  unusual  to  explain  Arnold's  crime  by  the  suggestion  of 
jits  charac-  some  extraordinary  impulse  —  as  that  a  proud  and  haughty 
spirit  could  not  brook  certain  humiliations  which  had  been 
put  upon  him  in  the  American  army  —  that  a  lofty  ambition  led  him 
to  extravagances  in  his  way  of  living  from  which  it  was  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  to  extricate  himself,  while  the  very  heedlessness  with 
which  they  were  incurred  was  the  evidence  only  of  a  warm  and  gen- 
erous temper.  It  is  difficult  to  admit  that  his  conduct  may  be  so 
explained  when  his  whole  career,  both  before  and  after  his  treason, 
is  considered.  He  was  certainly  distinguished  for  wonderful  energy 

1  Journal  of  Claude  Bluncliard,  Commissary  of  the  French  Auxiliary  Army  sent  to  the  United 
States  during  the  American  Revolution,  1780-1783. 


1780.] 


CORRESPONDENCE   WITH   ANDRE. 


17 


and  remarkable  physical  courage;  and  as  a  soldier  these  seem  to 
have  been  his  chief  merits.  But  there  was  something  in  the  way  of 
his  success  which,  from  the  beginning  of  his  public  life,  always  con- 
fronted him  among  those  who  knew  him  best,  and  those  whose  duty 
it  was  to  fathom  his  true  character.  There  was  an  apparently  in- 
surmountable distrust  of  his  integrity,  and,  with  some,  a  vague,  but 
positive,  suspicion  of  his  loyalty.  His  dash  excited  admiration,  and 
at  first  won  him  hosts  of  unthinking  friends ;  but  the  more  reflecting 
looked  for,  and  did  not  find,  in  his  conduct,  that  rigid  rule  of  a  severe 
morality  and  that  keen  sense  of  honor  of  which  he  was  so  apt  in 
boasting.1  The  treatment  he  received  from  Congress,  in  1777,  in 
relation  to  his  commission  as 
Major-general,  is  in  itself  al- 
most his  condemnation,  as  it 
could  not  have  been  without 
strong  reasons ;  that  he  should 
not  have  immediately  retired 
from  public  life  on  being  so 
treated,  is  a  remarkable  proof  of 
that  absence  of  self-respect  that 
fully  justifies  the  withholding  of 
respect  in  others. 

While  in  command  at  Phila- 
delphia, he  had  married  a  second 
wife,  a  daughter  of  Edward 
Shippen,  a  distinguished  Tory. 
In  the  gay  winter  of  1777,  when 
Sir  William  Howe  occupied  the 
city,  this  young  lady  was  a  fa- 
vorite  of  the  British  officers,  and 
after  her  marriage  she  kept  up 
a  correspondence  with  Major  Andre".  The  assertion,  so  generally 
made,  that  Arnold  took  advantage  of  this  correspondence  to  put 
himself  in  communication  with  Andre,  can  hardly  be  true ;  for  Mrs. 
Arnold  was  ignorant,  till  the  last  moment,  of  the  treacherous  rela- 
tion her  husband  had  established  with  the  enemy,  and  Andre*  and 
Sir  Henry  Clinton  were  for  a  long  time  unable  to  ascertain  the  real 
name  of  the  person  to  whom  they  were  indebted  for  much  valuable 
information.  Arnold  may  have  detected  something  in  the  tone 
of  the  letters  to  his  wife,  that  led  him  to  believe  he  would  find  in 
Andre*  one  with  whom  he  could  safely  conspire  in  his  intended  trea- 
son ;  but  he  could  not  have  availed  himself  of  the  communication  al- 


Benedict  Arnold. 


VOL.  IV. 


1  See  Sparks's  Life  of  Benedict  Arnold. 
2 


18  ARNOLD'S  TREASON.  [CHAP.  I. 

ready  existing,  -without  exciting  suspicion  in  his  wife,  or  betraying 
his  identity  to  her  friend. 

The  correspondence  that  followed  was  conducted  under  the  pre- 
tence of  being  upon  commercial  affairs,  Andre*  assuming  the 
race  with      name  of  "  John  Anderson,"  and  Arnold  that  of  "  Gustavus." 
For  months  it  was  necessarily  confined  to  keeping  the  Brit- 
ish officer,  and  through  him  the  British  Commander-in-chief,  carefully 
informed  of  military  and  civil  intelligence  that  could  be  of  use  to  the 
enemy.     The  estimation  in  which  this  was  held  was  much  increased 
when  Clinton  was  led   by  several  circumstances  to  conjecture  the 
name  of  his  correspondent,  and  was  then  assured  that  still  more  im- 
portant services  were  to  come. 

While  in  command  in  Philadelphia,  various  charges  had  been 
preferred  against  Arnold  by  the  State,  which  brought  him  in  the  end 
before  a  court-martial.  When  again  restored  to  active  service,  — 
after  receiving  a  public  rebuke  from  the  Commander-in-chief,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  sentence  of  the  court,  —  he  contrived,  under  pre- 
tence that  an  old  wound  unfitted  him  for  duty  in  the  field,  to  get  the 
appointment  of  commander  of  West  Point.  It  was  perfectly  char- 
acteristic of  the  man — of  his  self-conceit  and  his  insolence,  of  his 
reckless  disregard  of  truth,  of  his  bold  hypocrisy  and  pretence  of  honor 
—  that  he  should  have  said  before  the  court-martial,  after  recount- 
ing his  own  services  and  merits :  "  When  our  illustrious  General  was 
retreating  through  New  Jersey  with  a  handful  of  men,  I  did  not  pro- 
pose to  my  associates  basely  to  quit  the  General,  and  sacrifice  the 
cause  of  my  country  to  my  personal  safety,  by  going  over  to  the  enemy 
and  making  my  peace."  The  allusion  was  to  President  Reed,  of 
Pennsylvania,  about  whom  there  were  some  whispered  suspicions J  — 
then  for  the  first  time  publicly  alluded  to.  Yet  at  this  moment  Ar- 
nold had  been  already  for  months  in  secret  communication  with  the 
enemy,  and  was  only  delaying  some  final  act  of  stupendous  treachery 
till  he  was  in  a  position  to  make  it  the  most  disastrous  to  his  country. 
He  had  attained  to  that  position  in  the  command  of  West  Point, 
and  had  skilfully  manoeuvred  to  acquire  it  for  the  sole  pur- 
ofTl^t"0  pose  of  betraying  his  trust,  and  selling  himself  at  a  high 
price.  When  he  proposed  to  Clinton  to  put  him  in  pos- 
session of  the  place,  that  general  wrote  to  the  Ministry  that  it  was 
worth  being  secured  "at  every  risk  and  at  any  expense."  As  a  mil- 
itary post,  its  acquisition  would  be  as  important  to  one  party  as  its 
loss  would  be  serious  to  the  other.  It  commanded  the  navigation  of 
the  Hudson,  and,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  communication  with  Canada, 
and  between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States  ;  it  and  its  dependen- 

1  See  vol.  iii.,  p.  526,  note. 


1780.] 


THE   CONFERENCE  WITH  ANDRE. 


19 


cies  were  held  by  garrisons  numbering  more  than  three  thousand 
men ;  they  were  defended  by  about  one  hundred  guns,  and  contained 
large  stores  of  provisions  and  ammunition.  With  the  betrayal  of  the 
place,  a  large  portion  of  the  men  and  property,  it  was  supposed,  would 
be  captured. 

It  Avas  necessary  that  the  final  arrangement  should  be  made  by  a 
personal  interview,  and  it  Avas  by  both  Clinton's  and  Ar- 
nold's wish  that  this  was  intrusted  to  Andre*,  through  whom  em*  with 
the  correspondence  had  all  along  been  conducted.     To  one 
other  person  only  in  the  British  army  —  Colonel  Beverley  Robinson, 
commanding  a  regi- 
ment of  American 
Loyalists  —  was  the 
negotiation  known. 
Arnold  was   too 
wary  to  trust  any 
one  on  his  own  side 
with    a   knowledge 
of  his  contemplated 
villany.   Robinson's 
estate  was  opposite 
West  Point,  on  the 
other    side    of    the 
river,  and  the  house 
was     occupied     by 
Arnold  as  his  head-  Robmson-,  House 

quarters.  Under  a  pretence  of  asking  for  a  conference  in  regard  to 
the  restitution  of  this  confiscated  property,  Robinson  attempted  to 
bring  about  a  meeting  between  the  conspirators.  To  allay  suspicion, 
the  letter  —  which  on  its  face  seemed  innocent  enough  —  was  shown 
to  Washington,  who  objected  to  the  interview,  as  the  question  seem- 
ingly proposed  to  be  discussed  could  only,  he  said,  bo  settled  by  the 
civil  authorities. 

Arnold  had  some  days  before  attempted  to  get  Andre*  within  the 
American  lines  as  a  merchant,  under  the  name  of  "  John  Anderson," 
and  had  directed  Colonel  Sheldon,  in  command  of  a  post  at  Lower 
Salem,  Westchester  County,  to  receive  and  have  him  conducted  to 
headquarters.  Probably  the  hazard  of  going  openly  within  the  ene- 
my's lines  under  an  assumed  name,  and  with  a  pretended  purpose, 
deterred  Andre  from  this  undertaking ;  for  he  could  hardly  have 
failed  to  reflect  that  if  his  true  character  were  discovered  he  would 
be  arrested  as  a  spy,  and  the  exposure  of  the  plot  would  follow. 
There  is,  indeed,  no  other  supposable  reason  for  his  rejecting  this 


20  ARNOLD'S   TREASON.  [CHAP.  I. 

method  of  bringing  about  the  desired  and  essential  interview  ;  and 
had  he  never  abandoned  that  cautious  conduct,  but  had  compelled 
Arnold  to  take  the  risk  which  in  any  case  would  attend  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  purpose,  the  less  guilty  of  the  two  conspirators 
would  have  escaped  an  ignominious  death.  At  any  rate,  Andre*  de- 
clined Arnold's  invitation,  and  appointed  to  meet  him  at  Dobbs 
Ferry.  Arnold  attempted  this,  but  failed  for  want  of  proper  pre- 
caution somewhere,  was  fired  upon  by  the  guard-boats,  and  came 
near  being  taken  prisoner.  Two  days  later  he  again  attempted  to 
induce  Andre*  to  come  within  the  American  lines,  promising  that  a 
trusty  person  should  meet  him  at  Dobbs  Ferry  and  conduct  him,  in 
disguise,  to  a  place  of  safety,  where  the  interview  should  take  place. 
At  the  same  time,  in  case  Andre*  should  have  changed  his  mind,  and 
be  willing  now  to  take  the  hazard  of  a  ride  to  headquarters  through 
the  American  posts,  the  General  wrote  to  Major  Tallmadge,  at  North 
Castle,  if  one  John  Anderson  arrived  there,  to  send  him  forward 
under  an  escort. 

But  Andre*  had  not  changed  his  mind.  Arnold  had  given  him  the 
alternative  of  meeting  a  messenger  at  Dobbs  Ferry,  or  on  board  the 
British  sloop-of-war  Vulture,  then  lying  off  Teller's  —  now  Under- 
bill's—  Point,  just  above  Sing  Sing.  Clinton's  positive  orders  to  his 
Adjutant-general  were,  that  he  should  neither  go  within  the  American 
lines,  assume  a  disguise,  nor  accept  papers.  It  was  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  these  orders  that  Andrd  did  not  remain  at  Dobbs.  Ferry 
to  wait  for  a  messenger,  but  pushed  on  to  the  Vulture.  There  he 
would  still  be  under  the  British  flag,  and  would  be  nearer  Arnold's 
headquarters,  who,  he  hoped,  would  meet  him  on  board  the  ship. 

This  was  on  the  evening  of  the  20th  of  September,  and  up  to  this 
time  it  is  quite  plain  that  Arnold,  in  that  intense  and  remarkable 
selfishness  which  always  governed  his  conduct,  was  determined  that 
all  the  dangers  of  the  enterprise  should  fall  to  others,  and  the  chief 
reward  to  himself  ;  and  it  is  equally  plain  that  Andre*  understood  these 
dangers  and  was  determined  to  avoid  them.  Great  reward  was  to  be 
his  also,  if  the  treacherous  business  could  be  brought  to  a  successful 
end  ;  but  so  long  as  he  remained  in  New  York,  his  own  cool  judg- 
ment, and  that  of  the  commanding  General,  were  quite  sufficient  to 
convince  him  that  the  hope  of  reward,  however  great,  could  not  jus- 
tify the  enormous  risk  of  being  captured  as  a  spy.  He,  no  doubt,  felt 
that  he  would  be  quite  as  strong  to  resist  temptation  on  board  the 
Vulture  as  in  his  quiet  quarters  in  New  York. 

It  was  now  three  weeks  since  the  interview  had  been  talked  about, 
and  there  were  many  reasons  why  some  conclusion  should  be  speedily 
reached.  It  was  known  to  a  number  of  persons  that  there  was  some- 


1780.]  THE   CONFERENCE   WITH  ANDRE.  21 

thing  urmsual  and  mysterious  going  on  between  the  American  Gen- 
eral and  the  enemy  ;  and  though  nobody  suspected  its  real  character 
and  purpose,  some  unlucky  accident,  where  watchfulness  had  been 
once  aroused,  might  lead  at  any  moment  to  a  catastrophe.  Military 
reasons,  moreover,  were  imperative.  Washington  and  Rochanibeau 
were  in  conference  at  Hartford ;  a  movement  might  be  made  that 
would  prevent  the  attack  upon  West  Point  by  the  British,  which  was 
an  essential  part  of  Arnold's  plan  ;  while,  if  the  movement  of  the  allied 
armies  should  be  anticipated  by  the  capture  of  that  stronghold,  all 
Washington's  plans  would  be  completely  defeated. 

It  was  impossible  that  such  obvious  considerations  should  not  greatly 
influence  Andre"  s  mind,  and  induce  him  at  last  to  yield  to  circum- 
stances which  he  could  not  control.  Another  day  Avas  lost,  and  days 
now,  —  even  hours,  —  were  very  precious  ;  but  as  possibly  Arnold,  or 
his  massenger,  might  have  gone  or  sent  to  Dobbs  Ferry,  —  presuming 
that  his  confederate  would  stop  at  the  point  nearest  to  New  York,  — 
it  was  necessary  to  let  him  know  that  John  Anderson  awaited  him  on 
board  the  Vulture.  A  pretext  was  found  for  sending  a  letter  to  the 
American  General,  which  was  countersigned  "  John  Anderson,  Secre- 
tary." In  the  evening  of  the  21st  a  boat  with  muffled  oars  came 
alongside  the  ship ;  but  it  brought,  instead  of  Arnold,  one  Joshua 
Hett  Smith,  who  supposed  that  he  was  to  take  back  to  shore  the  Tory 
Colonel,  Beverley  Robinson.  Arnold,  it  was  plain,  meant  to  take  no 
personal  risk  for  himself,  and  calculated,  perhaps,  how  great  this 
temptation  would  be  to  an  impetuous  young  man  to  brave  what  did 
not  seem  to  be  a  very  great  danger,  for  the  sake  of  an  interview  on 
which  so  much  depended,  and  for  which  there  might  not  be  another 
opportunity. 

Both  Captain  Sutherland  of  the  Vulture,  and  Colonel  Robinson, 
it  is  said,  earnestly  advised  Andre"  not  to  leave  the  ship;  but 
throwing  aside  the  caution  which,  apparently,  had  hitherto  governed 
him,  or  had  been  imposed  upon  him  by  superior  authority,  he  was 
deaf  to  their  counsels.  If  Arnold  would  not  come  to  him,  he  must 
go  to  Arnold ;  and  it  seemed  possible  to  do  so,  under  existing  circum- 
stances, without  any  very  great  hazard.  Concealing  his  uniform 
under  a  long  overcoat,  he  took  boat  with  Smith,  was  rowed  to  the 
west  bank  of  the  river,  and  met  Arnold  at  the  foot  of  the  Long  Clove 
Mountain,  about  six  miles  below  Stony  Point. 

The  conference  between  the  two  conspirators,  concealed  in  the 
bushes,  lasted  for  several  Ijours,  till  Smith  warned  them  that,  as  day- 
light was  approaching,  it  was  not  safe  either  for  them  or  the  boat  to 
remain  longer.  Smith,  in  his  narrative,  published  years  afterward  in 
England,  declares  that  Arnold  urged  him  and  the  boatmen  to  return 


22  ARNOLD'S  TREASON.  [CHAP.  I. 

to  the  Vulture  with  their  passenger  ;  but  the  boatmen  — two  brothers, 
named  Colquhoun,  who,  both  because  they  were  fatigued,  and  be- 
cause they  thought  a  secret  expedition  in  the  night  to  a  British  vessel 
was  wrong,  had  at  the  outset  refused  to  be  engaged  in  it  till  Arnold 
threatened  them  with  arrest  —  testified  on  Smith's  trial  that  they 
did  not  see  Arnold  at  all,  that  Smith  only  asked  if  they  were  willing 
to  go  back  to  the  ship,  and  they  replied  in  the  negative.  The  point 
is  not  unimportant.  There  is  not  the  least  evidence  that  Andre"  pro- 
posed or  wished  to  return  ;  much  still  remained  to  be  arranged,  and 
he  consented,  apparently  without  hesitation  or  protest — knowing 
that  he  was  within  the  enemy's  lines  and  was  not,  as  he  afterward 
confessed,  under  the  protection  of  a  flag — to  go  with  Arnold,  to 
Smith's  house,  about  three  miles  distant.  Arnold  had  provided  for 
this  contingency  by  having  a  horse  in  readiness,  and  by  requiring 
Smith,  a  day  or  t\vo  before,  to  send  his  family  from  home. 

To  take  advantage  of  treachery  on  the  other  side,  is  held  to  be  jus- 
tifiable in  war.  Andre" s  first  error  was  when,  to  gain  that  advantage, 
he  quitted  the  protection  of  his  own  flag ;  his  second  step  was  irrep- 
arable and  fatal  in  entrusting  his  life  without  reserve  to  his  accom- 
plice. Perhaps  he  became  conscious  of  this  almost  immediately  after 
his  arrival  at  Smith's  house,  from  the  windows  of  which  he  saw  the 
Vulture  drop  down  the  river  under  a  heavy  cannonade  which  Colonel 
Andres  di-  James  Livingston  had  ordered  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
lemma.  ]ier  from  Teller's  Point.  She  returned,  however,  in  the 
course  of  the  day,  and,  as  evening  approached,  Andre  showed  great 
anxietv  to  be  taken  on  board.  But  Smith,  in  whose  hands  Arnold 

v 

had  left  the  spy,  was  now  too  much  alarmed  to  venture  again  upon 
the  river,  and  Andre*  had  no  alternative  but  to  accept  the  risk  of  that 
ride  through  the  country  which  he  had  so  steadily  refused  to  take, 
when  under  the  guidance  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  and  free  to  exer- 
cise his  own  common  sense.  He  had  placed  himself  in  a  position 
where  he  could  no  longer  govern  his  own  actions,  but  must  trust  to 
chance. 

Arnold  was  hardly  less  helpless.  To  Smith,  who  had  made  it  his 
business  for  a  considerable  time  to  gather  news  from  inside  the  Brit- 
ish posts,  there  was  nothing  in  the  case  before  him  to  distinguish  it 
from  others  with  which  he  was  in  daily  familiarity.  So  far  as  he 
knew,  here  was  only  an  ordinary  spy  who  had  voluntarily  exposed 
himself  to  the  dangers  which  a  spy  must  always  encounter.  He  was 
quite  willing  to  help  him  to  the  usual  facilities  of  avoiding  such  dan- 
gers, but  felt  under  no  obligation  to  expose  his  own  life  by  venturing 
again  to  board  the  Vulture,  now  so  closely  watched.  Arnold  evidently 
did  not  dare  to  exercise  absolute  authority,  for  that  would  quicken 


1780.] 


ANDRE'S  DILEMMA. 


23 


the  suspicions  of  Smith,  who  already  knew  more  than  could  easily  be 
explained.  He  therefore  left  Andre"  to  Smith's  mercy  ;  and  that  he 
knew  what  Smith  Avould  do,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  lie  provided 
a  pass  for  Andre*  to  go  by  land  to  White  Plains,  and  persuaded  him 
to  substitute  for  his  uniform  coat  a  plain  one  of  Smith's,  explaining  to 
that  gentleman  that  it  was  only  vanity  in  this  tradesman,  John  Ander- 
son, that  had  led  him  to  appear  in  the  garb  of  a  British  major.  It 
was  determined  that  he  should  return  to  New  York  by  land,  and  the 
journey  was  begun  at  night.  They  crossed  the  river  at  Verplanck's 


*t+??~*^7     &"?      *>*-2.      ' °d  t^e^Z*^***'' 

'       '     <r 

^^^  * 

^,cs^?&tr&&  t^-jZ* 

*  ^"T 


Fac-simile  of   Andre's   pass. 


Point,  and  at  Crompond,  eight  miles  farther,  learned  from  Captain 
Boyd,  who  was  in  command  of  a  patrolling  party,  that  a  band  of  Cow- 
boys, —  or  marauders  in  British  pay,  who  infested  the  country  above 
New  York  —  was  probably  in  the  neighborhood,  and  they  had  better 
iTelay  their  journey  till  morning. 

The  road  they  were  on  led  to  Pine's  Bridge,  over  the  Croton  River, 
and  at  this  point,  in  the  morning,  Smith  left  Andre*  to  pursue  his 


24  ARNOLD'S   TREASON.  [CHAP.!. 

way  alone,  presuming  that  he  would  keep  on  by  the  most  direct  way 
to  White  Plains.  But  Andre"  had  heard  the  night  before  from  Cap- 
tain Boyd  that  the  Cow-boys  were  on  the  Tarry  town  road,  along  the 
east  bank  of  the  Hudson,  and  his  wish  was,  of  course,  not  to  avoid 
but  to  fall  in  with  some  of  these  people,  with  whom  he  would  be  safe. 
After  parting  with  Smith,  therefore,  he  left  the  White  Plains  road 
for  the  road  to  Sing  Sing,  and  hurried  forward  to  strike  the  Tarry- 
town  road. 

He  had  reached  to  within  half  a  mile  of  Tarrytown  when  he  was 
stopped  by  three  men  —  John  Paulding,  Isaac  Van  Wart, 

Hi-  capture.  A  . 

and  David  Williams  —  who  were  out  in  pursuit  of  the 
Cow-boys.  He  hoped,  he  said,  incautiously,  that  they  belonged  to 
the  "  Lower  Party ;  "  and  on  being  assured  they  did,  he  declared  that 
he  was  a  British  officer,  abroad  on  particular  business,  and  must  not 
be  detained.  They  ordered  him  to  dismount,  and  guessing  now  that 
he  had  committed  a  blunder,  he  exclaimed,  u  My  God  !  I  must  do 
anything  to  get  along,"  and  pulled  out  Arnold's  pass  to  John  Ander- 
son. It  was  too  late.  When  Paulding  was  asked  at  Smith's  trial 
why  he  did  not  release  the  prisoner  when  the  pass  was  shown,  he  an- 
swered, 4k  Because  he  said  before  he  was  a  British  officer.  Had  he 
pulled  out  General  Arnold's  pass  first,  I  should  have  let  him  go." 
They  led  him  out  of  the  road,  behind  some  bushes,  took  off  his  boots 
and  stockings,  and  within  the  stockings  found  the  papers  revealing 
Arnold's  treason.  He  was  asked  by  Williams  if  he  would  give  his 
horse,  saddle,  bridle,  watch,  and  a  hundred  guineas  if  they  would 
release  him.  He  offered  not  only  these,  but  any  sum  of  money  or 
quantity  of  dry  goods  they  should  ask  for,  to  be  sent  to  any  place 
they  should  name.  "No,  by  God,"  said  Paulding;  "if  you  would 
give  us  ten  thousand  guineas,  you  should  not  stir  a  step." 

The  nearest  military  post  was  North  Castle,  where  Colonel  Jame- 
son was  in  command,  and  thither  the  prisoner  was   taken. 

Col.  Jame-  .  .  ... 

eon's  biun-  This  officer  was  utterly  bewildered.  He  was  familiar  with 
Arnold's  handwriting,  and  it  was  impossible  to  doubt  that  it 
lay  before  him  in  the  pass  to  "  John  Anderson  "  and  the  documents 
found  in  his  stockings.  There  is  no  intimation  anywhere  that  Jame- 
son supposed  it  possible  that  these  papei-s  might  be  forged.  He  prob- 
ably believed  that  here  was  some  deep  and  wicked  plot  altogether 
beyond  his  power  of  unravelling ;  but  that  the  commanding  General 
was  a  monstrous  traitor,  was  an  idea  absolutely  beyond  his  compre- 
hension. He  was  dazed  and  stunned,  and  utterly  incapable  of  using 
what  little  judgment  he  possessed.  Naturally,  he  did  the  most  unwise 
thing  he  could  do  ;  the  papers  he  dispatched  to  Washington,  by  a 
messenger,  whose  chance  of  missing  was  quite  as  great  as  of  meeting 


w 

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1780.]  ANDRE'S   DEFENCE.  25 

the  Commander-in-chief,  then  on  the  road  somewhere  between  Hart- 
ford and  West  Point ;  but  the  prisoner  he  sent  under  guard  to  Ar- 
nold, with  a  letter  explaining  the  circumstances  of  his  arrest. 

Fortunately,  the  Major  of  the  regiment,  Benjamin  Tallmadge,  was 
not  destitute  of  discretion,  nor  incapable  of  facing  an  emergency.  He 
was  absent  from  camp  through  the  day,  but  when  on  his  return  in  the 
evening  he  heard  from  Jameson  of  the  arrest  of  the  man  called  John 
Anderson,  and  of  the  character  of  the  papers  found  upon  him;  and 
that  the  man  had  been  sent  to  Arnold  with  a  letter;  he  comprehended 
at  once  that,  if  here  was  a  revelation  of  some  infamous  act  of  trea- 
son, the  most  effectual  step  possible  for  the  escape  of  the  traitor  and 
his  accomplice  had  been  taken  by  the  Colonel.  His  own  judgment 
was  helped  by  a  conviction  of  many  years'  standing,  that  Arnold  was 
not  to  be  trusted,  and  by  remembering  that  some  days  before  Arnold 
had  ordered  him  to  send  one  John  Anderson,  should  he  fall  into  his 
hands,  to  headquarters.  But  it  was  useless  to  argue  on  this  point 
with  Jameson.  He  was  persuaded  to  send  a  messenger  for  the  return 
of  Anderson  ;  but  nothing  could  induce  him  to  recall  the  letter  to 
Arnold.  The  guard  was  overtaken,  and  returned  in  the  morning  to 
North  Castle.  Tallmadge  saw  by  his  gait  that  the  prisoner  was  a 
soldier,  and  he  was  evidently  in  disguise ;  he  was  therefore  sent  in  the 
course  of  the  day  to  the  headquarters  of  the  regiment  at  Lower 
Salem,  for  safer  custody. 

Andre"  wrote  at  once  to  Washington,  and  announced  his  true  name 
and  condition.  "It  is  to  vindicate  my  fame,"  he  said,  "that 

T  i  i  T    •  >i«      *^T  i      i  Andre's  let- 

1  speak,  and  not  to  solicit  security.  Nevertheless,  the  letter  ter  to  wash- 
was  meant  as  a  defence  and  a  solicitation  —  an  anticipation 
of  a  probable  indictment  and  a  possible  verdict.  As  yet  there  had 
been  no  accusation  ;  he  was  himself  the  first  to  put  a  construction 
upon  the  facts  of  the  case.  He  had  been  betrayed,  he  said,  "  into 
the  vile  condition  of  an  enemy  in  disguise,  within  your  posts:  "  —  "I 
was  involuntarily  an  impostor."  Thus  his  standing  before  the  court 
of  public  opinion,  for  that  time  and  for  all  time  to  come,  was  fixed  by 
himself,  as  an  enemy  in  disguise  —  in  a  vile  position  —  as  an  impos- 
tor. Was  it  true  that  this  was  his  misfortune  rather  than  his  fault  ? 
— that  he  was  the  victim  of  treachery,  betrayed  in  spite  of  himself 
into  a  false  position  ? 

The  case  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  value  of  the  first  word. 
Eight  days  afterward,  the  2d  of  October,  Andre"  was  hanged   Analygj80f 
as  a  spy  at  Tappan,  N.  J.,  —  hanged  by  the  sentence  of  thecase- 
a  court-martial  consisting  of  fourteen  Major-generals  and  Brigadier- 
generals  of  the  American  army.     As  he  in  his  letter  to  Washington 
acknowledged,  he  was  captured   when   in  the  vile  condition   of   an 


26  ARNOLD'S   TREASON.  [CHAP.  I 


enemy  in  disguise,  and  as  an  impostor;  so  they  therefore  decided  that 
as  a  spy  ho  deserved  to  suffer  an  ignominious  death.  The  falsehood, 
that  lie  was  betrayed,  against  his  will,  into  that  unhappy  position,  had 
no  weight  with  the  court.  Every  step  he  had  taken  was  taken,  as  we 
have  shown,  of  his  own  free  will.  He  left  the  Vulture  with  alacrity, 
against  the  advice  of  his  friends;  he  made  no  effort  to  return  to  the 
ship  that  night,  but  went  willingly  to  Smith's  house  with  Arnold  to 
conclude  the  arrangements  for  the  nefarious  business  that  had  brought 
them  together,  and  for  the  successful  accomplishment  of  which  he 
was  to  be  made  a  brigadier-general.  That  circumstances  intervened 
which  prevented  his  return  to  the  ship  the  next  day,  was  a  contin- 
gency of  which  he  took  the  risk  when  he  left  her  ;  he  accepted  a  dis- 
guise ;  he  hid  upon  his  person  the  documents  which  would  enable  his 
commander  to  strike  a  terrible,  if  not  a  fatal,  blow  at  the  enemy  ;  all 
his  acts  were  the  acts  of  a  spy  ;  he  assumed  the  responsibility  they 
inevitably  involved  against  the  judgment  of  his  friends,  against  the 
positive  orders  of  his  General,  against  even  his  own  better  sense  of 
prudence  when  lie  was  free  to  jndge  with  coolness. 

Nevertheless,  for  a  hundred  years  that  first  statement  of  his, — 
that  he  had  been  betrayed  into  a  false  position,  —  has  been  accepted 
by  multitudes  of  people  as  true,  and  in  spite  of  its  sophistry  and 
falsehood,  has  spread  a  deceptive  light  over  the  whole  transaction. 
He  was,  indeed,  the  one  victim  of  Arnold's  abortive  treachery  to  his 
country ;  but  this  was  not  treachery  to  him  ;  his  betrayal  was  self- 
betrayal,  when  in  a  moment  of  rashness  and  over-confidence  he  forgot 
the  laws  of  war,  and  ventured  upon  a  step  which,  indeed,  if  success- 
ful, would  help  himself  as  well  as  his  King,  but  if  unsuccessful  would 
lead  down  to  death.  That  he  was  a  gentleman,  a  man  of  culture 
and  of  many  accomplishments,  of  an  agreeable  person  and  capti- 
vating manners,  and  that  he  talked  much  of  his  high  sense  of  honor, 
should  not  —  as  it  did  not  with  his  judges  —  cover  up,  in  the  least, 
the  true  character  of  the  conduct  that  has  made  him  famous,  rather 
than  infamous.  The  sympathy  that  regrets  the  fate  of  one  with 
many  admirable  qualities,  degenerates  into  mawkish  sentimentality 
when  it  remembers  only  those  qualities  and  forgets  the  crime  which 
the  possession  of  such  qualities  does  not  palliate,  and  ought  to  have 
prevented.  His  associates  and  superiors  in  the  British  army  had  no 
other  plea  to  offer  on  his  behalf  than  that  he  acted  under  a  flag  of 
truce.  He  acknowledged  this  was  not  true,  and  rested  on  the  de- 
fence that  lie  was  treacherously  dealt  with.  One  plea  was  as  false 
as  the  other.  Had  the  great  crime  in  which  lie  was  an  accessory, 
succeeded,  the  execrations  which  the  world  has  always  visited  upon 
his  principal  would,  no  doubt,  have  fallen  upon  him  in  equal  measure. 


1780.] 


ESCAPE   OF   ARNOLD. 


Because  the  greater  criminal  went  unpunished  and  gained  his  reward, 
the  lesser,  whom  the  other  tempted,  was  first  pitied  and  then  made  a 
hero  of. 

It  is  a  curious  instance  of  how  accident  may  dominate  the  judgment 
of  men,  and  how  little  real  merit  may  have  to  do  with  fame.  The 
country  that  Andre"  meant  to  serve  if  he  was  well  rewarded,  and  the 
country  that  he  meant  to  ruin,  are  not  yet  tired  of  raising  monuments 
to  his  memory  ;  but  for  that  other  noble  gentleman,  Nathan  Hale,  ac- 
complished, highly  educated,  young,  and  attractive,  who  suffered  death 
in  the  same  way,  and  technically  for  the  same  crime  as  Andrews,  his 
countrymen  have  no  honors  and  no  tears,  almost  no  memoi-y.  ^  et 
one  had  accepted  an  odious  task  as  an  imperative  duty  to  his  country, 


Arnold's  Escape. 

and  purified  the  deed  by  the  motive  of  its  performance  ;  the  other 
braved  the  consequences  of  a  legal  crime  in  the  hope  of  receiving  a 
great  professional  reward.  Hale  mounted  the  scaffold  saying  only 
that  he  wished  he  had  another  life  to  give  to  his  country.  Andre" 
remembered  himself  as  the  central  figure  of  a  tragic  drama,  and  called 
upon  the  bystanders  to  observe  that  he  met  his  fate  like  a  brave 
man,  —  that,  as  a  more  vulgar  criminal  would  have  said,  he  "  died 
game." 

The  letter  sent  to  Arnold  by  Jameson  reached  him  at  the  Robinson 
house  on  the  morning  of  the  25th,  while  he  was  at  bi-eakfast  Escape  of 
with  two  of  Washington's  aids.     A  glance  at  it  revealed  to  Arnold 
him   that  his  treason  was  discovered  and  he  must  fly  for  his  life. 
Showing  no  emotion,  and  arousing  no  suspicion,  he  went  quietly  to 
his  wife  in  another  room,  explained  to  her  in  a  few  hurried  and  ter- 


28  ARNOLD'S  TREASON.  [CHAP.  I. 

rible  words  the  peril  in  which  he  stood,  and  then  left  her  insensible. 
With  the  same  imperturbability  he  mounted  a  horse  at  the  door,  rode 
to  the  river-side,  took  boat,  and  ordered  his  men  to  pull  down  the 
river,  tying  his  white  handkerchief  to  his  cane  and  raising  it  as  a  flag 
of  truce.  It  was  not  till  the  afternoon  that  he  was  missed  at  head- 
quarters or  his  treason  known.  Jameson's  messenger,  with  the  papers 
found  on  Andre*,  had  missed  Washington  on  the  road  from  Hartford, 
and  had  followed  him  to  Robinson's  house.  Arnold  was  then  safe  on 
board  the  Vulture. 

The  most  earnest  efforts  were  made  by  General  Clinton  to  save  his 
friend  and  Adjutant-general  from  the  fate  to  which  he  had  been 
condemned  by  the  most  deliberate  judgment,  and  after  the  most  care- 
ful and  dispassionate  consideration  of  all  the  evidence  in  the  case. 
As  we  have  already  said,  his  friends  had  no  other  serious  plea  to 
offer  on  his  behalf  than  that  he  had  acted  under  the  protection  of  a 
flag  of  truce.  It  was  a  mere  pretext,  which  it  was  impossible  to  sus- 
tain. It  would  then  have  been  weakness,  not  mercy,  to  permit  an 
act  to  go  unpunished  which,  both  by  the  laws  of  war  and  by  act  of 
Congress,  was  a  capital  crime  —  a  crime,  in  this  case,  so  monstrous, 
that  had  it  succeeded,  it  would  have  cost  thousands  of  lives,  and  per- 
haps the  liberty  of  a  whole  people. 

Clinton  could  have  saved  Andrd  —  as  Washington  let  him  know 

—  by  the  surrender  of   Arnold  ;  and  it  is  to  the  honor  of  the  British 
General  that  he  would  not  betray  his  plighted  faith  to  a  traitor  even 
to  save  his  friend.     The  penalty  of  the  crime  fell  upon  the  accom- 
plice ;  the  chief  criminal  was  paid  his  price  in  a  commission  as  Brig- 
adier-general, and  six  thousand  three  hundred  and  fifteen   pounds 
sterling  in  money.     Pensions  of  five  hundi-ed  pounds  a  year  to  Mrs. 
Arnold,  and  of  a  hundred  pounds  a  year  to  each  of  her  children, 
were  also  awarded  when  Arnold  took  his  family  to  England.     His 
three  sons  by  his  first  wife  —  the  eldest  being  only  twelve  years  of 
age,  and  the  youngest  eight  years  at  the  time  of  their  father's  treason 

—  were  given  commissions  as  lieutenants  of  cavalry  in  his  American 
Legion,  and  received  half-pay  as  retired  officers  to  the  end  of  their 
lives.     To  all  the  sons  by  the  second  wife  were  given,  besides  their 
pensions,  military  education  and  commissions  in  the  British  army.1 
England  was  not  ungrateful. 

Immediate  steps  were  taken  by  Washington  for  the  capture  of 
Arnold,  nor  were  they  ever  pretermitted  so  long  as  he  remained  in 
the  country.  Even  before  Andr£  was  executed  —  and  partly  with 
the  hope  that  the  less  guilty  of  the  conspirators  might  be  saved  by 
the  capture  of  the  chief  —  a  hazardous  enterprise  was  set  on  foot  for 

1  See  Life  of  Benedict  Arnold,  by  Isaac  N.  Arnold  (1880). 


1780.]      SERGEANT  CIIAMPE'S  ATTEMPT  TO  CAPTURE  ARNOLD.     29 

this  purpose.  Sergeant-major  John  Champe,  a  young  and  deserving 
soldier  belonging  to  Lee's  legion,  deserted,  to  the  astonishment  of 
all  his  comrades.  He  was  pursued  within  the  hour,  on  the  road  to 
Elizabethtown  Point,  and  only  escaped,  when  nearly  overtaken,  by 
abandoning  his  horse,  rushing  into  the  sea,  and  swimming  off  to  a 
Hritish  vessel  in  the  bay.  The  desertion  was  only  feigned,  however, 
and  made  at  Lee's  request  at  the  suggestion  of  Washington.  On  the 
Sergeant's  arrival  in  New  York  he  was  taken  to  Arnoldvand  enrolled 
in  a  corps  the  traitor  was  already  raising,  of  loyal  Americans.  After 
much  difficulty  and  delay,  a  well-contrived  plan  was  arranged  to  seize 
the  General  in  a  garden  attached  to  his  lodgings,  where  he  was  known 
to  walk  late  at  night,  and  to  take  him  across  the  river  to  Hoboken, 
where  a  company  of  dragoons  was  to  be  in  waiting  to  receive  the 
prisoner.  The  arrangements  were  all  carefully  laid,  and  would  have 
been  successful  probably,  had  it  not  happened  that  on  the  day  of  the 
evening  appointed,  Arnold  changed  his  lodgings,  and  the  corps  to 
which  Champe  belonged  was  ordered  on  board  ship.  It  was  a  year 
and  a  half  before  the  Sergeant  could  find  an  opportunity  to  rejoin  his 
old  corps  —  then  in  South  Carolina  —  where  he  was  received  with  great 
coldness  and  distrust  by  his  old  comrades  till  the  true  explanation  of 
his  absence  was  made  known  by  Major  Lee,  and  his  devotion  and 
courage  recognized  by  the  Commander-in-chief. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  SOUTHERN  CAMPAIGN. 
THE   EFFECTS  OF  ARNOLD'S   TREASON. —  BUFORD  DEFEATED  ox  THE   WAXHAW. — 

CORNWALLIS  MISCALCULATES  HIS  TASK.  —  ACTIONS  AT  ROCKY  MOUNT  AND  HANG- 
ING ROCK.  —  PARTISAN  WARFARE.  —  GATES  ASSUMES  COMMAND  IN  THE  SOUTH. — 
THE  MILITARY  SITUATION. —  BATTLE  OF  CAMDEN. —  SKIRMISHES.  —  BATTLE  OF 
KING'S  MOUNTAIN.  —  GREENE  SUPERSEDES  GATES.  —  His  PLAN  OF  CAMPAIGN. — 
BATTLE  OF  COWPENS.  —  CONDITION  OF  GREENE'S  ARMY. —  His  RETREAT.  —  RE- 
CEIVES REINFORCEMENTS. — BATTLE  OF  GUILFORD  COURT-HOUSE.  —  CORNWALLIS 
RF.TREATS  TO  WILMINGTON. 

"  WHOM  can  we  trust  now  ?  "  was  Washington's  despairing  excla- 
mation to  Lafayette  and  General  Knox,  when  he  received 
Arnold's  the  papers  disclosing  Arnold's  treason.  There  was  not  dur- 
ing the  war  a  gloomier  moment.  No  material  harm,  indeed, 
came  of  that  monstrous  crime,  for  it  was  happily  discovered  in  sea- 
son to  prevent  it ;  but  the  moral  effect  of  such  treachery,  both  in 
the  army  and  upon  the  people,  might  lead  to  that  despair  which  is  the 
first  step  to  ruin.  Then  the  news  of  Arnold's  crime  followed  close 
upon  the  news  of  the  utter  defeat  of  Gates  by  Cornwallis  in  South 
Carolina.  It  might  well  be  feared  that  the  plan  of  the  Ministry  in 
England,  —  to  reduce  each  State  in  detail,  while  all  were  rendered 
incapable  of  a  mutual  defence,  —  would  succeed,  if  treason  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  lack  of  military  ability  on  the  other,  should  come 
to  the  help  of  the  British  General. 

The  capture  of  Charleston  was  not  merely  the  loss  of  a  seaport ;  it 

was  the  loss  of  the  army  on  which  the  State  relied  for  its 

de"eat»t       defence,  and  the  opening  of  a  gate  through  which  a  hostile 

Wfcxhaw  , .,,  .,       . 

army  was  to  enter.  Inere  were  none  to  oppose  its  imme- 
diate progress.  Col.  Abraham  Buford,  who  was  sent,  with  about 
four  hundred  Virginia  troops,  to  the  relief  of  Charleston  —  for  which 
he  was  too  late  —  was  followed  on  his  return  by  a  force  of  about 
three  hundred  cavalry  and  mounted  infantry,  under  command  of 
Lieutenant-colonel  Banastre  Tarleton.  By  a  forced  march  of  two 
days,  he  overtook  the  Virginians  on  the  banks  of  the  Waxhaw.  A 
flag  of  truce,  sent  on  in  advance,  demanded  a  surrender,  which  was 


1780.]  CORNWALLIS  MISCALCULATES   HIS   TASK.  31 

refused.  Giving  Buford  no  time  to  prepare  for  an  attack,  the  British 
dragoons  immediately  fell  upon  the  Americans  with  irresistible  im- 
petuosity. Some  few  attempted  to  defend  their  lives  ;  some  threw 
away  their  arms  and  begged  for  mercy ;  others  fled  before  a  charge 
which  no  time  was  given  them  to  meet.  Buford  escaped  with  about 
one  fourth  of  his  men  ;  more  than  one  third  of  the  whole  force  were 
killed  on  the  spot,  without  regard  to  their  prayers  for  quarter ;  about 
fifty  were  taken  away  as  prisoners,  and  the  rest  were  left  upon  the 
ground  so  severely  wounded  that  they  could  not  be  moved.  It  was 
not  a  battle,  but  a  massacre  of  men  who  had  ceased,  or  had  not  at- 
tempted, to  fight,  —  of  men  who  had  thrown  away  their  arms  and 
begged  that  their  lives  might  be  spared.  From  that  moment,  Tarle- 
ton  was  as  much  feared  for  his  cruelty  as  he  soon  became  famous  for 
the  celerity  of  his  movements  ;  and  the  character  of  the  warfare,  on 
both  sides,  for  many  months  to  come,  was  determined  by  the  slaugh- 
ter on  the  Waxhaw. 

Georgia  was  considered  as  already  permanently  restored  to  the 
Crown.  By  concentrating  troops  at  Augusta,  Ninety-Six,  cornwaius-s 
and  Camden,  Lord  Cornwallis  hoped  to  hold  South  Carolina  error 
in  subjection,  and  bring  to  an  end  the  desperate  resistance  of  her  re- 
bellious people,  when  they  should  be  cut  off  from  all  possibility  of 
help,  by  the  conquest  of  North  Carolina.  The  distribution  of  troops 
through  the  summer  was  made  with  reference  to  a  movement  north- 
ward, as  well  as  for  holding  the  country  assumed  to  be  already  sub- 
dued. But  Cornwallis  had  yet  to  learn  by  protracted  and  painful 
experience  that  rebellion  was  not  suppressed  by  holding  a  few  strong 
posts,  and  that,  till  rebellion  was  suppressed,  the  holding  of  those 
posts  was  of  small  moment.  The  partisan  was  almost  always  certain 
to  be  heard  of  where  he  was  least  expected  and  was  most  unwelcome, 
and  it  was  quite  as  certain  that  when  he  was  looked  for  he  was  not 
to  be  found.  The  nearer  Cornwallis  approached  to  North  Carolina, 
the  wider  was  the  unconquered  country  he  left  behind  him ;  and  the 
garrisons  of  isolated  posts,  if  they  were  so  fortunate  as  to  be  unmo- 
lested, or  were  able  to  maintain  their  ground,  enforced  submission 
only  so  far  as  their  guns  could  carry. 

These  posts,  moreover,  were  perpetually  harassed.    Sumter,  in  con- 
junction with  Major  Davie,  another  of  the  most  active  par-  Rock 
tisans,  determined  in  July  to  carry  two  of  them,  —  Rocky  nan"^1""1 
Mount  and  Hanging   Rock,  on   opposite  sides  of   the  Ca-  Rock- 
tavvba,  and  both  within  thirty  miles  of  Camden.     Though  neither 
place  was  taken,  much  damage  was  inflicted  upon  the  enemy.    Davie, 
as  he  approached  Hanging  Rock,  fell  in  with  a  portion  of  the  garri- 
son, out  upon  a  foraging  expedition,  killed  almost  the  whole  of  them, 


32 


THE   SOUTHERN  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  II. 


and  brought  off  sixty  horses  and  a  hundred  muskets  and  rifles,  — 
booty  of  no  small  value  to  men  who  needed  always,  from  their 
method  of  warfare,  to  be  well  mounted,  with  whom  arms  were  so 
scarce  that  saws  were  made  into  swords,  and  whose  fire-arms  were 
only  those  which  each  man  brought  from  his  own  home.  At  Rocky 
Mount,  Sumter  made  three  successive  assaults,  and  his  want  of  suc- 
cess in  carrying  the  place  was  due  rather  to  the  demoralization  of  his 
own  militia,  —  who  scattered  to  rifle  that  portion  of  the  hostile  camp 
they  had  carried,  —  than  to  the  obstinate  defence  by  the  British. 
But  the  activity  shown  by  movements  of  this  character  was  of 
much  more  moment  in  their  influence  upon  the  people  than 
the  capture  of  a  post,  or  the  cutting  off  of  a  detachment.  The 
timid  were  strengthened,  the  lukewarm  encouraged,  the  brave  made 
more  determined,  and  the  Tories  led  to  doubt  if  their  choice  of  sides 
had  been  wise.  One  Lieutenant-colonel  Lisle,  in  command  of  a  bat- 
talion of  loyalist  militia  —  which  had  been  enrolled,  after  the  fall  of 


Partisan 
warfare. 


Signature  of  Sumter 


Charleston,  in  the  districts  on  the  Ennoree  and  Tiger  rivers  — 
marched  off  when  his  men  were  thoroughly  armed  and  equipped,  and 
put  them  under  the  rebel  Colonel  Neale,  who  led  them  to  reenforce 
Sumter.  It  was  "  an  instance  of  treachery,"  Tarleton  said,  "  which 
ruined  all  confidence  between  the  regulars  and  the  militia."  Nor 
was  it  the  only  instance  of  "•  treachery  "  of  this  kind.  Major  Mc- 
Arthur,  in  command  at  Camden,  sent  away  a  hundred  of  his  men  to 
go  into  hospital  under  escort  of  a  body  of  supposed  loyalists;  when  far 
enough  from  camp  to  do  so  with  impunity,  they  secured  the  sick  and 
their  own  officers  as  prisoners,  and  marched  them  off  into  North  Caro- 
lina. The  bitterness  of  the  warfare  between  the  loyalists  and  the 
rebels  was  relieved  by  those  occasional  evidences  that  patriotism  was 
a  deeper  feeling  than  the  assumed  allegiance  to  the  King. 

Cornwallis  was  not  long  in  learning  that  even  with  his  army  of 
nearly  seven  thousand  men,  most  of  them  trained  soldiers,  the  contest 
must  be  a  hard,  if  not  a  hopeless  one,  in  such  perfectly  unscientific 
warfare  witli  men  fighting  for  their  homes;  —  with  bodies  of  troops 


1780.] 


PARTISAN   WARFARE. 


33 


which  could  dissolve  in  a  night  into  individual,  quiet  husbandmen,  or, 
if  holding  together,  Avould  escape  all  search  by  hiding  in  forests  and 
swamps;  who  would  appear  in  companies  of  fifty  or  a  thousand,  as 
the  exigency  of  the  moment  required,  when  least  expected  and  least 
prepared  for ;  whose  vigilance  Avas  sure  to  observe  Avhen  a  post  Avas 
weakest,  when  a  foraging  party  was  off  its  guard  and  could  be  cut  to 

pieces,  or  Avhen  a  detachment 
could  be  found  beyond  the  reach 
of  succor.  The  pursuit  of  such 
leaders  as  S  u  m  t  e  r,  Marion, 
Davie,  Pickens,  and  Davidson 
Avas  almost  hopeless ;  to  bring 
„  them  to  fight  Avas  gen- 


Marion  in  Camp. 

erally  impossible,  except  on  their  own  terms,  and  in  positions  of  their 
own  choosing.1  Probably,  the  British  General  began  already  to  feel 
as  he  wrote  a  few  months  later  to  General  Phillips,  in  Virginia  — 
"  I  am  quite  tired  of  marching  abo'ut  the  country  in  quest  of  adven- 
tures." He  kneAv,  at  any  rate,  that  the  devoted  patriotism  of  the 

1  Lieutenant-colonel  Lee  relates  in  his  Memoirs  that  when  sent  by  General  Greene  to 
make  a  junction  with  Marion, — who  was  sometimes  in  North  Carolina,  sometimes  in 
South  Carolina,  sometimes  concealed  in  the  swamps  of  the  Pedee,  sonn-times  in  those  of 
the  Black  River,  but  nobody  ever  knew  exactly  where,  —  lie  only  found  that  active  parti- 
san by  accidentally  falling  in  with  a  small  detachment  of  his  men  ;  and  even  they  were 
compelled  to  search  some  hours  before  they  reached  the  camp  of  their  General,  hidden  in 
the  swamps  of  the  Pedee. 
VOL.  iv.  3 


34  THE   SOUTHERX   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  II. 

people  could  never  be  overcome  so  long  as  they  were  animated  by  the 
hope  that  aid  could  reach  them  from  the  North,  and  there  was  any 
thing  left  for  them  to  fight  for. 

When,  therefore,  it  was  known  that  tl*e  Baron  de  Kalb  was  on  the 
march  southward  with  the  Maryland  and  Delaware  troops 

Gates  takes  e       t         i-  11  i          •     •         -i   i        i       -i  « 

command  in  of  the  line,  and  that  these  were  to  be  ioined  by  bodies  of 

the  South.  ...  ... 

militia  from  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  under  Stevens  and 
Caswell,  Cornwallis  determined  to  intercept  their  progress.  At  Hills- 
borough,  N.  C.,  General  Gates,  who  had  been  appointed  by  Con- 
gress to  conduct  the  campaign,  overtook  and  superseded  De  Kalb. 
Gates  took  the  shortest  route  to  meet  the  enemy,  unfortunatelv 
through  a  sterile  and  impoverished  country,  where  forage  was  scarce, 
and  where  his  men  were  compelled  to  rely  largely  upon  green  maize 
and  unripe  fruit  for  their  subsistence.  Unfortunately,  also,  in  his 
haste  to  get  forward,  he  neglected,  or  refused,  to  take  measures  for 
filling  up  the  cavalry  regiments  of  Colonels  Washington  and  White  — 
the  arm  of  the  service  which,  if  not  more  important  than  any  other, 

was    absolutely   indispensable 
in  the  mode  of  warfare  made 
necessary  by  the  character  of 
the  country  and  of  the  inhab- 
itants.    By 
hisfirst 
mistake 

Gates  di_ 

Signature  of  Marion. 


J 


his  force  by  sickness,  and  led  into  action,  when  the  time  came,  a 
body  of  men  enfeebled  from  want  of  sufficient  food  ;  by  the  second, 
he  was  compelled  to  accept  defeat  when  efficient  cavalry  might  have 
turned  disaster  into  success. 

De  Kalb  led  his  line  forward  toward  Camden  by  a  more  circuitous 
The  military  route,  but  through  a  fertile  region,  and  his  men,  therefore, 
situation.  were  in  a  better  condition  to  face  the  enemy.  Lord  Raw- 
don,  who  was  in  command  at  Camden,  went  out  to  meet  Gates  about 
fifteen  miles  from  the  town.  The  American  army  numbered  about 
three  thousand  men,  mainly  raw  recruits,  ill-clothed,  ill-fed,  and  un- 
disciplined. The  British  force,  though  fewer  in  numbers,  were  in 
good  condition,  and  almost  all  veteran  troops.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, it  would  have  been  wiser  on  the  part  of  the  American  Gen- 
eral to  avoid  the  enemy  ;  even  had  the  disparity  in  effective  force  not 
existed,  there  was  too  much  depending  upon  the  issue  of  a  general 
battle  to  justify  a  resort  to  it,  if  it  could  be  avoided,  unless  the  result 
could  be  anticipated  with  almost  absolute  certainty.  Gates  does  not 


KtfO.]  GATES   AND   CORXWALLIS.  35 

seem,  till  it  was  too  late  to  recede,  to  have  admitted  a  doubt  of  a  fa- 
vorable result.  He  sent  Marion,  who  had  joined  him,  into  South  Caro- 
lina on  a  reconnoissance,  ordering  him,  it  is  said,  to  destroy  all  the 
bridges  and  boats  and  scows  in  his  way,  that  the  British  might  have 
no  means  of  escape  in  their  coming  flight  to  Charleston.1 

The  reasons  which  should  have  led  the  American  commander  to 
avoid  a  general  battle  were  precisely  the  reasons  which  led  Corn- 
wallis  to  seek  it.  The  enthusiasm  of  rebellion,  encouraged  by  the 
arrival  of  an  army  from  the  North,  was  already  at  its  height  in  both 
the  Carolinas.  The  difficulties  in  his  way  would  not  be  greatly  in- 
creased by  a  reverse,  and  a  reverse,  by  no  means  irreparable,  was 
all  that  could  happen  to  him.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  could 
achieve  a  victory,  which,  with  his  superiority  in  artillery,  in  cavalry, 
and  in  the  military  character  of  his  army,  he  might  reasonably 
expect,  that  victory  would  be,  not  merely  a  reverse,  but  a  terrible 
disaster  to  the  enemy  ;  it  would  strike  with  paralysis  the  brave  and 
devoted  people  who  would  face  poverty,  starvation,  and  death  so  long 
as  hope  was  left  them,  and  would  stir  their  opponents  to  fresh  enthu- 
siasm, courage,  and  hostility.  For  four  days  the  armies  lay  encamped 
on  the  opposite  banks  of  Lynch's  Creek,  each  waiting  for  the  other 
to  move.  During  this  time  Gates,  in  his  over-confidence  of  his 
strength,  detached  four  hundred  men  from  his  little  army  to  inter- 
cept a  convoy  at  a  ferry  on  the  Wateree,  near  Camden.  Then  mov- 
ing on  the  right  of  Rawdon,  that  General  fell  back  and  was  followed 
by  Gates  with  the  purpose  of  bringing  him  to  battle.  Had  Gates 
instead  moved  with  more  celerity  up  the  Creek  by  a  forced  march, 
he  could,  Tarleton  asserts  in  his  "  Memoirs,"  have  pushed  Lord  Raw- 
don's  flank,  reached  Camden  before  him,  and  captured  that  impor- 
tant magazine  of  British  stores. 

On  the  13th  of  August,  Cornwallis  arrived  and  took  command  of 
the  army.  He  was  as  anxious  as  Gates  to  fight,  and  with  far  B&tt}e  of 
better  reason.  On  the  night  of  the  15th,  both  armies  moved,  c*mden 
each  intending  to  surprise  the  other.  The  American  vanguard  was 
led  by  Colonel  Armand,  a  brave  French  officer,  whose  command  of 
less  than  a  hundred  men,  most  of  them  deserters, 'broke  and  fled  at 
the  first  onslaught,  and  were  pursued  by  the  enemy.  Some  confusion 
followed  in  the  front  division  ;  but  Colonel  Potterfield  and  Major 
Armstrong,  with  the  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  militia,  came  up 
from  both  flanks  and  checked  the  advance.  Both  armies  now  waited 
for  daylight. 

Gates  immediately  called  a  council  of  war.  He  knew  from  pris- 
oners that  the  army  in  front  was  commanded  by  Cornwallis  in  person. 

1  Simms's  Life  of  Marion. 


36 


THE    SOUTHERN   CAMPAIGN. 


[ClIAP.  II. 


and  he  had  learned  the  day  before,  for  the  first  time,  from  the  re- 
turns of  his  Generals,  that  his  whole  force  was  only  about  three 
thousand  men.  Less  than  half  of  these  were  regulars.  Perhaps 
now  he  felt  the  need  of  advice,  and  doubted  the  correctness  of  his 
own  judgment.  "Has  the  General  given  you  orders  to  retreat  the 
army?  "  —  asked  the  Baron  de  Kalb,  when  called  to  the  council  by 
the  Adjutant-general.  But  the  council,  when  convened,  had  no 
advice  to  give.  General  Stevens,  of  the  Virginia  militia,  said  it  was 
too  late  to  retreat.  This  was  acquiesced  in  only  by  silence.  "  Then 
we  must  fight,"  replied  Gates.  "  Gentlemen,  please  to  take  your 
posts." 

In  the  line  of  battle  that   was  soon   formed,  Cornwallis  carefullv 

tf 

observed  the  disposition  of  the  opposite  army,  and  took  advantage  of 
it.  To  the  untried  militia  he  opposed  his  best  troops,  under  his  best 
officer,  Colonel  Webster.  These  opened  the  battle  with  a  spirited 
charge,  before  which  the  Virginia  militia  broke,  and  after  firing  a 
single  shot,  threw  away  their  arms  and  fled.  The  contagion  of  a 
senseless  panic  seized  upon  the  North  Carolina  militia,  and  they  also 
scattered  in  every  direction.  The  Generals  of  these  two  brigades, 
Stevens  and  Caswell,  assisted  by  Gates,  made  vain  efforts  to  reas- 
sure and  rally  them  ;  but  the  whole  left  wing  fled  almost  without  a 
blow.  On  the  right  the  Continentals  under  De  Kalb  and  Gist,  and  a 
North  Carolina  regiment  under  Dixon,  held  their  ground  with  great 
firmness  and  coolness  and  pushed  the  enemy  before  them,  De  Kalb,  at 
one  point,  breaking  their  line  by  a  furious  charge  with  the  bayonet. 
But  the  whole  American  line  was  forced  to  give  way,  when  Web- 
ster, released  by  the  easy  and  rapid  rout  of  the  left  wing,  enabled 
Cornwallis  to  concentrate  his  whole  force  on  the  right.  More  than 
a  third  of  the  Continentals  were  killed  and  wounded,  and  the  rest 
sought  safety  in  the  woods  and  swamps.  De  Kalb,  at  the  head  of 
his  Mary  landers,  fell  under  eleven  wounds,  was  stripped  of  his  cloth- 
ing by  the  soldiers,  and  was  rescued  from  further  indignity  by  the 
fortunate  appearance  of  Cornwallis.  He  died  three  days  afterward. 

Gates's  army,  as  an  organized  force,  was  annihilated.  The  militia 
—  as  their  custom  often  was  in  the  southern  campaigns  when  they 
deemed  their  services  no  longer  needed,  or  when  they  became  irksome 
for  any  reason  —  generally  dispersed  to  their  homes.  The  General 
himself,  before  the  day  was  over,  was  sixty  miles  from  the  field  of 
battle  ;  for  several  following  days  scattered  remnants  of  his  command 
reached  Charlotte  and  other  towns,  and  these  he  proceeded  to  gather 
together  as  a  nucleus  for  a  new  army,  making  his  headquarters  at 
Hillsborough,  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  from  the  field  of  his 
overwhelming  defeat. 


1780.] 


SKIRMISHES. 


37 


Two  days  after  that  defeat,  another,  though  smaller  misfortune, 
befell  the   American  arms.     Sumter,   to  whom  Gates  had    8umter  „„,. 
sent  a  reenforcement  to  enable  him  to  intercept  a  British  pri8cd 
convoy  from  Charleston,  had  succeeded  in  that  enterprise,  but  was 
taken  off  his  guard  by  Tarleton.     The  baggage  train  Sumter  had  cap- 


De  Kalb  wounded. 


tured  was  recovered,  and  so  complete  was  the  dispersion  of  his  force 
of  eight  hundred  men,  that  only  three  hundred  could  be  mustered 
when  the  fight  was  over. 

Early  in  September,  Cornwallis  was  again  in  motion,  confident  that 
North  Carolina  would  now  be  an  easy  conquest  before  Con-  gkirmjshat 
gress  could  send  another  army  to  dispute  his  progress.  The  Wahab's- 
main  body  advanced  from  the  Waxhaw  Settlement  toward  Charlotte, 
Tarleton  moving  through  the  country  on  the  left,  and  Lieutenant- 
colonel  Ferguson  keeping  still  nearer  to  the  frontier  with  a  corps  of 


38  THE   SOUTHERN   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  II. 

provincial  troops.  The  partisan  leaders,  notwithstanding  the  late 
reverses,  had  lost  none  of  their  spirit  and  activity  ;  before  Cornwallis 
moved,  Colonel  Davie  had  surprised  a  party  of  loyalists  and  of  the 
British  Legion  at  a  place  called  Wahab's  plantation,  had  put  them  to 
flight,  and  captured  about  a  hundred  horses,  with  their  equipments, 
and  a  hundred  and  twenty  stands  of  arms. 

It  was  Tarleton's  and  Ferguson's  business  to  find  and  disperse  these 
troublesome  parties  of  patriots,  while  Ferguson  was  also  to  add  to  his 
own  numbers  by  reassuring  and  rallying  the  loyalists.  At  Gilbert- 
town  he  learned  that  a  force  of  militia  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
State,  under  Colonel  Clarke,  had  attacked  Augusta,  Georgia,  where 
Lieutenant-colonel  Browne  was  in  command  ;  that  he  and  the  garri- 
son had  been  reduced  to  extremity,  and  the  place  was  on  the  point  of 
being  taken,  when  Clarke  was  compelled  to  withdraw  by  the  appear- 
ance of  a  body  of  loyalists.  Ferguson  received  orders  from  Corn- 
wallis to  intercept  Clarke  on  his  retreat.  He  had  hardly  left  Gilbert- 
town,  in  obedience  to  this  order,  when  a  large  body  of  riflemen  from 
Kentucky  and  North  Carolina  arrived,  on  their  way  to  Augusta  to 
the  assistance  of  Clarke.  As  Ferguson  had  gone  in  pursuit  of  Clarke, 
so  fifteen  hundred  of  these  hardy  mountaineers,  each  armed  with  his 
own  rifle,  each  mounted  upon  his  own  horse,  started  in  pursuit  of 
Ferguson. 

They  overtook  him  on  the  8th  of  October,  at  King's  Mountain,  near 

the  boundary-line  between  North  and  South  Carolina,  and 

KinB-s          west  of  the  Catawba  River,  —  a  hill  of  moderate  elevation 

Mountain.  in  i  i  i 

covered  with  wood.  Ferguson  had  encamped  on  the  sum- 
mit. The  Americans  approached  in  three  divisions,  led  respectively 
by  Colonels  Cleveland,  Shelby,  and  Campbell,  ascending  the  hill  at 
different  points.  Cleveland  first  reached  the  summit,  and  his  moun- 
tain riflemen  first  opened  fire  from  behind  the  trees.  Ferguson 
charged  upon  them  furiously  with  the  bayonet  and  pushed  them  down 
the  hill.  Then  from  another  quarter  came  Shelby,  who  poured  volley 
after  volley  into  Ferguson's  flank  or  rear.  Another  bayonet  charge 
met  this  second  assault,  and  Shelby  fell  back.  Campbell  gained  the 
top  of  the  hill  as  Shelby's  men  retired,  and  for  a  third  time  Ferguson 
was  compelled  to  meet  and  to  repulse  a  fresh  assailant.  Even  when 
the  three  columns  were  united  and  advanced  upon  him  in  one  body, 
he  held  his  ground  against  superior  numbers,  with  indomitable  cour- 
age. The  fight  lasted  for  almost  an  hour,  and  was  only  brought  to 
an  end  by  the  death  of  Ferguson.  His  officers  and  men  surrendered 
when  no  longer  inspirited  by  his  brave  words  and  brave  example. 
The  loss  of  the  British  Avas  three  hundred  killed  and  wounded  ;  eight 
hundred  prisoners  were  taken,  and  double  that  number  of  stands  of 


1  780.] 


GREENE   SUPERSEDES  GATES. 


39 


arms,  intended  for  the  loyalists,  who  would,  it  was  hoped,  join  the 
corps  as  it  advanced  through  the  country.  The  force  was  chiefly 
loyal  militia,  and  some  of  the  most  obnoxious  of  them  were  hanged 
by  their  captors  —  an  indefensible  and  barbarous  retaliation  ;  but  the 
example  had  been  set  them  by  Cornwallis,  who  had,  not  long  before, 
issued  a  proclama- 
tion to  the  rebel- 
lious people,  com- 
manding them  to 
return  to  their  al- 
legiance, and,  for 
the  encouragement 
of  the  rest,  had  put 
to  death  some  of 
those  whose  con- 
duct was  the  most 
determined,  and 
whose  influence, 
was  most  to  be 
dreaded. 

B  y  Ferguson's 
defeat,  the  effec- 
tive fighting  force 
under  Cornwallis 
was  reduced  one 
fourth,  and  his  far- 
ther advance  into 
North  Carolina 
checked  for  the 
present.  While 
waiting  for  a  reen- 
forcement  under 
General  Leslie  —  who  had  left  New  York  for  the  South  —  the  army 
was  not  idle.  Its  most  energetic  officers  were  occupied  in  attempts 
to  meet,  under  favorable  circumstances,  with  S unite r  or  Marion,  or 
some  other  of  the  partisan  leaders  who,  from  the  Black  River  to  the 
Broad,  now  here  now  there,  coming  down  from  the  mountains,  or 
tip  from  the  swamps,  kept  up  perpetual  hostilities  against  the  enemy, 
foreign  and  domestic,  and  fanned  into  perpetual  flame  the  sacred  fires 
of  rebellion.  Sumter,  in  an  encounter  with  Tarleton  at  Blackstock 
Hill  on  the  Tiger  River  —  of  whose  coming  Sumter  was  gkirmjsll(lt 
warned  by  a  country-woman,  who  watched  the  approach  of  Blackstock 
the  enemy  from  the  edge  of  a  wood,  and  then  hastened  through  a  by- 


A  Woman   Reconnoitering. 


40  THE    SOUTHERN  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  II. 

way  to  Sumter's  camp  with  the  information — was  grievously  wound- 
ed, and  his  men,  deprived  of  their  favorite  commander,  dispersed  for 
a  time  to  their  homes.  And  this  was  almost  the  sole  advantage  that 
Cornwallis  gained  during  the  autumn  before  Greene  arrived  to  take 
command  of  the  remnant  of  the  army  which  Gates  for  three  months 
had  been  diligently  engaged  in  recruiting  and  reorganizing. 

Greene  arrived  at  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  on  the  2d  of  Decem- 
ber.    "  I  think  I  am  giving  you  a  general,''  Washington  said 
supersedes      to  a  member  of  Congress ;  "  but  what  can  a  general   do 
without  men,  without  arms,  without  clothing,  without  stores, 
without  provisions?"     A  general,  however,  was  all   that   could   be 
spared,  at  that  moment,  to  strengthen  the  southern  army  ;  even  as  it 
was,  Congress  wanted  means  to  feed  and  clothe  it,  and  Greene  reported 
that  it  "  may  literally  be  said  to  be  naked."     But  a  good  general  was 
worth  many  battalions. 

qf 

Greene's  plan  of  a  campaign  was  the  reverse  of  that  which  Gates 
had  acted  upon.  It  was,  to  avoid  as  long  as  possible  any  general 
battle,  but  to  hinder  the  enemy  at  every  step  of  his  progress  ;  to  annoy, 
harass,  perplex,  disgust,  and  exasperate  him  ;  to  defeat  him  in  detail, 
and  to  convince  him,  at  length,  of  the  hopelessness  of  his  labor. 

On  this  plan  he  acted  at  once.  The  army  moved  into  South  Caro- 
lina in  two  bodies,  the. larger  under  the  personal  direction 
of  the  General  commanding,  and  the  other  under  General 
Morgan.  Morgan  entered  upon  the  country  between  the  Catawba 
and  Black  rivers,  as  far  as  the  Pacolet.  Greene  moved  down  the 
Pedee  till  he  was  about  seventy  miles  east  of  Cornwallis  at  Winns- 
borough.  General  Leslie  had  arrived  at  Charleston,  and  was  ordered 
to  march  at  once,  with  a  thousand  men,  to  Camden  ;  but  when  Corn- 
wallis was  apprised  of  Greene's  movement,  and  that  the  enemy  was 
within  from  fifty  to  seventy  miles  on  both  his  flanks,  his  attention  was 
necessarily  turned  to  this  new  condition  of  affairs,  and  he  again  aban- 
doned his  purpose  of  advancing  immediately  into  North  Carolina. 

Tarleton  was  at  once  detached  in  pursuit  of  Morgan,  who,  it  was 
feared,  threatened  the  whole  line  of  posts  in  the  rear  of  the  British 
army,  including  Ninety-Six  and  Augusta.  About  the  same  time, 
Cornwallis  moved  from  Winnsborough  to  intercept  Morgan,  in  case 
he  should  retreat  before  Tarleton,  and  attempt  to  cross  Broad  River 
to  rejoin  Greene.  Cornwallis  paused,  however,  after  marching  a  few 
miles,  to  wait  for  Leslie,  whom  he  ordered  to  join  him  with  all  pos- 
sible haste  ;  for  it  suddenly  occurred  to  him  that,  while  he  was  in 
pursuit  of  Morgan,  Greene  might  take  advantage  of  that  movement 
to  intercept  Leslie.  The  wisdom  of  the  disposition  of  his  forces  by 
the  American  General  was  already  apparent. 


1781.] 


BATTLE  OF  COWPENS. 


41 


Tarleton  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Paeolet  on  the  15th  (January, 
1781).     Morgan,  thoroughly  informed  of  the  movements  of   Battle  of 
both  his  antagonists,  fell  back  to  a  point  about  six  miles  C0"'!*118- 
from   Broad   River,  called   the  Cowpens,  on   the   farm    of  a  grazier 
named  Hannah.     Here  he  determined  to  abide  the  issue  of  battle. 
It  was  a  decision  of  exceeding  boldness,  but  was  not  a  rash  one  ;  for 
to  attempt  to  cross  the  river  while  Tarleton  was  in  hot  pursuit,  — 
and  Tarleton  was  never  so  much  to  be  dreaded  as  when  his  foe  was  in 
flight  before  him,  or  was  taken 
by  surprise, — with  Cormvallis 
possibly  on    the   other   side  to 
dispute  the   passage,  would   be 
so  hazardous  an  undertaking 
that  the  militia  would  disperse, 
and  leave  the  regular  troops  to 
almost  certain  destruction.    But 
here  Morgan  could  choose  his 
own  ground;    he  had  only  one 
antagonist  to  contend  with,  and 
that  not  so  much  his  superior 
in  numbers  and  in  arms  as  to 
make    the    contest    hopelessly 
unequal ;    and    there    was    just 
enough  of  the  desperate  in  the 
situation  to  arouse  his  men  to 
the  highest  point  of  enthusiasm, 
if  bravely  led.     He  determined, 
therefore,  to  fight ;  and  it  was 
the  determination,  not  only  of  a  brave  man,  but  of  an  able  soldier. 

The  ground  chosen  by  Morgan  was  a  field  of  open  woods,  in  which 
cavalry  could  manoeuvre  easily,  extending  in  length  about  five  hun- 
dred yards.  From  the  front,  the  ground  ascended  with  a  gradual 
slope  for  three  hundred  yards  to  the  highest  point  in  the  field  ;  then 
gently  falling  off,  like  a  rolling  prairie,  for  another  hundred  yards, 
rose  again  to  a  second  elevation.  On  the  first  eminence  were  posted 
about  four  hundred  men,  under  Lieutenant-colonel  Howard, — his 
own  battalion  of  nearly  three  hundred  Maryland  regulars,  two  com- 
panies of  Virginia  militia,  but  composed  of  veterans,  and  two  of 
Georgia  riflemen.  This  was  the  main  body,  on  which  Morgan  chiefly 
relied  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  battle,  from  its  numbers,  discipline, 
and  position.  Directly  in  its  front,  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  yards,  was  the  first  line,  composed  of  Colonel  Pickens's  militia 
of  nearly  three  hundred  men,  with  skirmishers  thrown  out  in  front. 


Gen.  Daniel   Morgan. 


42  THE    SOUTHERN   CAMPAIGN.  [CiiAP.  II. 

Colonel  Washington's  famous  cavalry,  and  a  corps  of  mounted  in- 
fantry, numbering  altogether  a  hundred  and  twenty  men,  were  placed 
as  a  reserve  on  the  second  eminence  ;  and  behind  them  were  picketed 
the  horses  of  the  militia,  ready  for  whatever  use  the  issue  should  de- 
termine—  whether  pursuit  or  flight.  On  the  field  were  about  eight 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  placed  with  great  military  skill  and  in  the 
most  imposing  order ;  when  Tarleton,  in  the  early  morning,  came  in 
sight  of  them,  he  reckoned  that  about  two  thousand  men  confronted 
him. 

Morgan  rode  along  his  lines  in  the  hush  of  expectation  of  the  com- 
ing struggle,  encouraging  each  separate  corps  with  such  stirring  words 
as  would  best  arouse  their  local  pride  and  personal  courage.  The 
skirmishers  he  told  to  scatter  and  fight  from  tree  to  tree,  and  check 
the  enemy's  advance  by  their  good  marksmanship.  Pickens's  first 
line  of  militia  he  exhorted  to  stand  firm,  and  when  the  British  were 
within  fifty  yards,  to  give  them  twice  a  cool  and  well-directed  fire, 
and  then  fall  back  in  good  order  to  the  left  of  the  main  body ; 
a  panic,  he  told  them,  would  insure  their  destruction ;  if  they 
fought  with  manly  courage,  as  they  had  often  done  before,  victory 
was  sure  to  follow.  To  the  veterans  under  Howard  he  explained  his 
plan  of  battle,  prepared  them  for  the  falling  back  of  the  militia  upon 
their  line,  directed  them  to  stand  firm  and  fire  low,  and,  if  they  were 
forced  to  retire,  to  move  leisurely  and  in  order  to  the  second  emi- 
nence, to  be  strengthened  by  the  cavalry. 

The  enemy  came  on,  — a  force  of  a  thousand  men,  most  of  them 
of  the  best  troops  in  the  British  army,  —  veteran  soldiers,  accustomed 
to  victory,  and  strengthened  by  two  pieces  of  artillery.  When  they 
had  dislodged  the  skirmishers  from  behind  their  trees,  they  rushed 
with  a  shout  upon  Pickens's  militia,  who  received  them  with  a  deadly 
fire,  repulsed  Tarleton's  dragoons,  emptying  fifteen  of  their  saddles, 
and  only  yielded  their  ground  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  and  be- 
fore the  fire  of  the  two  pieces  of  artillery  on  their  flanks.  When 
their  line  was  once  broken,  some  of  them,  as  the  inveterate  habit  of 
the  undisciplined  militia  was,  fled  for  safety  to  their  horses,  in  the 
extreme  rear,  each  to  take  care  of  himself  ;  but  most  of  them  fell 
back  without  panic  upon  Howard's  left. 

The  enemy  advanced  now  upon  the  second  line  with  a  vigorous 
charge,  which  was  met  so  steadily  that  Tarleton  ordered  up  his  re- 
serve. With  this  reinforcement,  the  charge  was  renewed,  falling 
most  heavily  upon  Howard's  right  flank.  To  meet  the  danger  of  this 
flank  attack,  the  order  to  change  front  was  given  to  the  right  com- 
panv,  but  was  misunderstood  ;  the  company,  instead  of  wheeling  to  the 
right  to  repel  a  flank  movement,  faced  about  and  inarched  toward  the 


1781.]  BATTLE   OF   COWPENS.  43 

rear.  The  whole  line,  supposing  that  to  be  the  order,  followed  their 
example.  The  movement  was  made,  however,  with  the  precision  and 
coolness  of  men  upon  parade.  "  Men  were  not  beaten,  who  retreated 
in  that  order,"  Howard  said  to  Morgan,  who  rode  up  rapidly  from 
the  left  where  he  had  re-formed  Pickens's  militia  and  ordered  an  ad- 
vance. He  saw  at  a  glance  that  Howard  was  right,  and  that  the 
misunderstanding  of  the  order  could  be  turned  into  an  advantage. 

Pickens's  men  had  moved  forward  again  and  opened  fire  on  the 
British  right.  Washington  with  his  horse  charged  upon  that  wing 
at  the  same  moment,  with  such  impetuosity  that  he  broke  through 
their  lines,  then  wheeled,  and  charged  again  upon  their  rear,  and 
scattered  them  to  the  right  and  left.  The  pursuit  of  the  flying  cav- 
alry had  brought  him  in  the  rear  of  the  advancing  British  left, 
which,  supposing  Howard  to  be  in  retreat,  was  about  to  fall  upon 
him,  and  end  the  battle,  as  Tarleton  thought,  by  pushing  the  Amer- 
icans into  a  disastrous  flight.  But  as  Washington  reached  the  British 
rear  he  sent  word  to  Morgan,  "  They  are  coining  on  like  a  mob ;  give 
them  a  fire,  and  I  will  charge  on  them."  At  the  instant  Morgan 
ordered  Howard's  line  to  halt  and  wheel,  shouting,  "  Face  about  boys  ! 
give  them  one  fire,  and  the  victory  is  ours  !  "  The  order  was  promptly 
obeyed ;  the  enemy,  within  thirty  or  forty  yards,  recoiled  before  the 
steady  fire  with  which  they  were  met,  and  the  bayonet  charge  which 
followed  it  up.  Washington  fell  upon  their  rear,  and  the  rout  was 
utter.  Some  threw  away  their  arms  and  fled  ;  others  threw  them 
down  and,  kneeling,  prayed  for  quarter.  "  Tarleton's  quai'ter  !  "  rang 
along  the  line,  and  it  was  with  much  difficulty  that  the  officers  with- 
held the  men,  who  recalled  Tarleton's  bloody  fields,  from  turning  the 
victory  into  a  massacre. 

In    the    excitement   of  pursuit,  Washington  at  one  time  had  ad- 
vanced some    distance  ahead  of    his    troops,  when    he  was 
charged   upon    by   three    British   officers.     Sergeant-major  coionei 
Perry  came  up  just  in  time  to  parry  the  blow  and  disable 
the  sword-arm  of  one  of  them  as  he  swung  his  sabre  to  cut  down 
Washington ;  another  on  the  other  side  was  pressing  him  hard,  when 
a  young  trumpeter  named  Collins,  too  small  to  wield  a  sword,  brought 
the  assailant  down   with  a  pistol-shot ;  the  sword-thrust  of  a  third, 
supposed  to  be  Tarleton,  was  parried  by  Washington  himself ;  but 
he  received  a  pistol-shot  in  the  knee  from  the  officer  as  he  retired 
from  the  contest. 

Tarleton  calls  the  result  of  the  battle  a  "decisive  rout."  When  he 
fled  precipitately  with  a  handful  of  men,  he  left  behind  him,  out  of  his 
whole  force  of  a  thousand  men,  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  six 
hundred  prisoners,  one  hundred  dead  upon  the  field,  his  two  guns, 


44 


THE    SOUTHERN   CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAI-.  II. 


his  colors,  eight  hundred  muskets,  a  hundred  dragoon  horses,  and 
a  large  part  of  his  baggage-train.  It  is  not  the  least  I'emarkable 
thing  in  this  remarkable  battle,  that  the  casualties  on  the  side  of 
the  Americans  were  only  twelve  killed  and  sixty  wounded. 

It  is  a  striking  evidence  of  the  forlorn  condition  of  the  American 
arms  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  year  of  the  war,  that  little  could 
be  done  to  take  advantage  of  so  brilliant  a  victoi-y.  It 
had  cost  Cornwallis  a  fourth  of  his  army,  and  Tarleton 
complains  that  his  chief  lost,  by  hesitation  and  delay,  the 
opportunity  to  repair  that  misfortune.  But  Greene  was  in  no  con- 
dition to  avail  himself  of  Morgan's  achievement.  His  army  was 
destitute  of  almost  everything;  many  of  his  men  had  absolutely  no 


Encounter  between  Tarleton  and  Colonel  Washington. 

clothing  except  a  strip  of  cloth  around  the  loins,  —  and  this  in  the 
winter,  though  it  was  the  winter  of  the  Carolinas.  His  force  was 
largely  militia,  who  came  and  went  as  their  own  inclination  or  inter- 
est dictated,  and  could  not  be  relied  upon  for  any  continuous  service. 
Any  immediate  aid  in  men  or  supplies  from  the  North  was  out  of 
the  question,  for  Brigadier-general  Arnold  had  sailed  from  New 
York  for  the  invasion  of  Virginia,  in  the  latter  part  of  December, 
with  sixteen  hundred  men.  How  the  developments  of  the  next  few 
months  were  to  make  this  movement  of  the  great  traitor  the  first  of  a 
series  of  events  which  should  bring  about  the  final  catastrophe,  was 
not  then  foreseen.  But  it  was  apparent  enough  that  to  save  the 


1781.]  GREENE'S    RETREAT.  45 

more  Southern  States,  should  Virginia  be  lost,  would  be  hopeless  ; 
to  save  Virginia,  therefore,  was  now  the  primary  object  of  the  Com- 
mander-in-chief. Greene  must  be  left  to  take  care  of  himself. 

Greene's  plan  of  defence  was  still  as  imperative  as  ever  —  to  avoid 
a  general  battle,  to  lead  the  enemy  into  a  protracted  pursuit,  and  to 
harass   his   march.     Morgan  retreated  with  great   deliberation    and 
coolness    before  Cornwallis,  to  rejoin  the    main  army.     Greene  fell 
back  toward  Salisbury,  where   he  proposed  that   several  bodies   of 
militia  should  unite  with  him.     It  was  desirable  to  keep  Cornwallis 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Catawba  as  long  as  possible  ;  but  he  crossed 
at  McGowan's  Ford,  where  General  Davidson,  wTith    three 
hundred  North  Carolina  militia,  was  posted  to  dispute  the  McGowan's 
passage.     The  river  at  this  point  was  five  hundred  yards  in 
width,  the  current  rapid  and  waist-deep ;  but  a  British  detachment, 
under  Lieutenant-colonel  Hall,  crossed  in  the  darkness  on  the  1st  of 
February,  far  enough  below  the  usual  ford  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of 
Davidson's  fire  till  they  were  safely  over.    In  the  fight  that  followed, 
both  the  commanders  were  killed. 

The  road  to  Salisbury  was  now  open  to  Cornwallis,  and  pursuit 
was  renewed.  Greene  pushed  on  to  Guilford,  putting  the  Greene's  re- 
Yadkin  between  him  and  the  enemy,  and  there  waited  till  trcat 
Cornwallis  crossed  at  the  upper  fords.  The  next  river  was  the  Dan, 
then  swollen  with  freshets,  and.  Cornwallis  hoped,  impassable.  But 
Greene  still  eluded  him,  having  provided  boats  for  such  an  emergency, 
and  passed  over  into  Halifax  County,  Virginia.  Here  he  had. leisure 
to  rest  his  wearied  troops,  and  to  wait  for  reenforcements  of  militia; 
for  Cornwallis,  baffled  and  vexed  with  his  fruitless  efforts  to  overtake 
him,  retired  to  Hillsborough  and  contented  himself  for  the  present 
with  issuing  a  proclamation,  announcing  that  as  he  had  driven  the 
enemy  out  of  tiie  State,  the  loyal  people  of  North  Carolina  might 
now  safely  return  to  their  allegiance. 

There  were  more  Tories  than  Whigs  in  North  Carolina,  and  Greene 
was  confronted  with  a  new  danger.  Should  he  not  return  to  the  State, 
the  royal  rule  might  be  completely  restored  by  the  encouragement 
given  to  the  loyalists  by  his  apparent  discomfiture,  and  by  the  sub- 
mission of  the  patriots  who  would  believe  themselves  abandoned. 
The  loss  of  North  Carolina  was  the  loss  also  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia.  The  time  had  come,  therefore,  for  a  change  of  policy,  and 
to  risk  a  temporary  defeat  by  a  general  battle.  Recrossing  the  Dan, 
he  moved  back  upon  Guilford,  but  baffling  and  eluding  Cornwallis  — 
who  again  started  in  pursuit  —  as  before,  till  he  was  confident  enough 
in  his  own  strength,  and  in  a  field  of  his  own  choosing,  to  try  the 
issue  of  a  fight. 


46  THE   SOUTHERN    CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  II. 

The  American  army  had  been  reenforced  with  Virginia  and  Caro- 
lina militia  to  a  total  of  forty-three  hundred  men  ;  but  of 
icansretn-  this  force  nearly  three  quarters  were  raw  recruits.  Corn- 
wallis  commanded  twenty-four  hundred  veteran  troops,  thor- 
oughly equipped  and  disciplined,  used  to  fighting,  and  accustomed  to 
success.  General  Morgan,  whom  ill-health  had  compelled  to  retire, 
wrote  to  General  Greene  in  February  :  "  I  expect  Lord  Cornwallis 

will  push  you  until  you  are  obliged  to  fight  him You  '11  have, 

from  what  I  see,  a  great  number  of  militia.  If  they  fight,  you  '11 
beat  Cornwallis ;  if  not,  he  '11  beat  you,  and  perhaps  cut  your  regu- 
lars to  pieces." 

On  the  15th  of  March,  Greene,  choosing  his  ground  near  Guilford 
Battle  of  Court-house,  and  forming  his  line  of  battle,  awaited  the  en- 
[•ou'rt""1  emy-  His  army  was  deployed  in  three  lines,  —  the  first, 
made  up  of  North  Carolina  militia,  under  Generals  Butler 
and  Eaton  ;  the  second,  of  Virginia  militia,  under  Stevens  and  Law- 
son  ;  the  third,  entirely  of  regulars.  The  lines  were  about  three 
hundred  yards  apart,  and  the  flanks  of  the  militia  were  supported  by 
Washington's  cavalry,  the  legion  of  Lee,  and  Campbell's  riflemen. 
Gen.  Isaac  Huger  commanded  the  Virginia  brigade  on  the  right 
wing,  Col.  Otho  Williams  that  from  Maryland,  on  the  left.  In  front, 
the  ground  was  open,  bordered  by  trees  and  fences,  behind  which  the 
first  line  was  sheltered  ;  thence  there  was  a  gradual  ascent  of  thickly- 
wooded  land  for  about  half  a  mile  to  Guilford  Court-house.  It  was 
a  well-chosen  battle-field  ;  every  advantage  of  ground  was  made  avail- 
able ;  the  men,  who  were  well  commanded,  were  placed  with  great 
skill,  and  they  were  sufficient  in  numbers ;  but  Greene's  fatal  weak- 
ness was  the  want  of  tried  soldiers. 

When  the  British  army  advanced  in  a  steady,  unbroken  line,  the 
North  Carolina  militia  —  nearly  equal  in  numbers  —  delivered  a  scat- 
tering fire  from  their  secure  position  behind  the  trees  and  fences,  and 
then  fled  precipitately,  throwing  away  their  arms  and  knapsacks. 
Some  sought  safety  in  the  thick  woods  behind  Campbell's  riflemen  ; 
the  rest  tumbled  back  upon  the  second  line,  which  received  them  qui- 
etly, and,  opening  its  ranks,  passed  them  to  the  rear.  This  second  line 
of  Virginia  militia  bravely  held  their  ground  till  the  British  charged 
with  the  bayonet,  when  they  also  broke  and  took  refuge  in  the  woods 
or  behind  the  third  line  of  regulars.  The  brunt  of  the  battle  now  fell 
upon  this  portion  of  Greene's  force,  numbering  only,  with  the  cav- 
alry, between  sixteen  and  seventeen  hundred  men,  to  Cornwallis's 
twenty-four  hundred. 

Lieutenant-colonel  Webster,  on  the  British  left,  pushed  on  over 
the  ground  from  which  he  had  driven  the  Virginia  militia,  and  struck 


1781.] 


BATTLE   OF   GUILFORD  COURT-HOUSE. 


the  First  Regiment  of  Maryland  Continentals,  under  Colonel  Gunby. 
The  Marylanders  met  the  attack  with  a  steady  and  destructive  fire, 
before  which  Webster  recoiled,  and  then,  charging  with  the  bayonet, 
compelled  him  to  retreat  across  a  ravine  to  a  hill  on  the  other  side, 
where  he  waited  for  assistance.  Lieutenant  colonel  Stuart,  with  the 
first  battalion  of  the  Guards, 
followed  by  other  corps,  hur- 
ried forward  at  Webster's  dis- 
comfiture, and  attacked  the  Sec- 
ond Maryland  Regiment,  on  the 
left  of  the  First,  which  at  that 
moment  was  hidden  from  sight 
in  the  woods.  The  Second  Regi- 
ment fled,  pursued  by  Stuart  ; 
but  Lieutenant-colonel  Howard, 
Gunby  being  dismounted, 
wheeled  and  led  the  First  Regi- 
ment in  a  vigorous  bayonet 
charge  upon  Stuart's  battalion, 
while  Washington,  as  Stuart 
wavered,  charged  with  his  cav- 
alry. Stuart  encountered  per- 
sonally Captain  John  Smith,  of 
the  Maryland  regiment,  and 
was  killed  ;  an  expert  swords- 
man of  Washington's  cavalry  cut  down  thirteen  of  the  enemy  before 
they  yielded. 

A  repulse  at  this  point  and  at  that  moment  was  so  critical,  that 
Cornwallis  ordered  artillery  to  open  upon  the  Americans,  regardless  of 
the  fact  that  his  guards  were  exposed  to  the  same  fire.  Two  other  Brit- 
ish regiments  were  advanced.  Colonel  Webster  recrossed  the  ravine, 
over  which  the  First  Maryland  had  driven  him,  to  reengage  in  the 
fight.  Tarleton,  with  his  horse,  and  the  Second  Battalion  of  Guards, 
came  in  from  the  other  wing,  where  they  were  less  needed,  concen- 
trating at  this  spot,  near  the  Court-house,  a  force  witU  which  Greene 
saw  it  was  useless  to  contend,  as  any  possible  advantage  in  victory 
could  not  compensate  for  certain  loss.  What  had  become  of  Lee's 
legion  and  Campbell's  riflemen,  who  were  separated  from  the  main 
body  when  the  North  Carolina  militia  fled  in  a  panic,  and  left  the 
ground  they  should  have  held  to  be  occupied  by  the  enemy,  the  com- 
manding General  did  not  at  that  moment  know.  Had  he  known  that 
they  had  fought  their  way  successfully,  with  great  damage  to  the  en- 
emy, and  were  already  at  hand  near  the  Court-house,  Greene  might 


Gen.   Nathanael  Greene. 


48  THE    SOUTHERN   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  II. 

have  continued  the  battle.  As  it  was,  with  nearly  the  whole  weight 
Greene-s  °f  CornwalHs's  force  bearing  upon  a  portion  of  his  own,  he 
defeat.  ordered  a  retreat.  But  it  was  a  retreat,  not  a  flight.  The 
army  fell  back  in  good  order  for  about  twelve  miles,  to  Troublesome 
Creek,  upon  ground  selected  to  be  used  in  case  of  a  reverse. 

How  well  fought  a  field  it  was,  is  plain  from  the  report  of  casual- 
ties. About  thirteen  hundred  of  the  Americans  were  returned  as 
dead,  wounded,  or  missing,  though  probably  a  thousand  of  these  were 
only  missing  militiamen  who  had  run,  after  shutting  their  eyes  and 
firing  a  shot,  and  opened  them  again  only  to  find  the  way  home. 
The  loss  of  Cornwallis  was  nearly  a  fourth  of  his  army,  or  about  five 
hundred  and  fifty  killed  and  wounded.  Some  of  his  most  valuable 
and  distinguished  officers  were  on  this  list,  among  them  Lieutenant- 
colonel  Webster,  who  was  mortally  wounded.  Greene  wrote,  before 
the  day  was  over :  "  The  enemy  gained  his  cause,  but  is  ruined  by 
the  success  of  it."  Fox  said  in  the  House  of  Commons,  when  the 
news  reached  England:  "Another  such  victory  would  ruin  the  Brit- 
ish army."  The  ruin  came  without  the  victory. 

Greene  was  prepared  for  and  expected  an  attack  the  next  day. 
Cornwallis  wrote  to  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  at  New  York,  that 
the  ^tigue  of  his  troops  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  con- 
ton-  tinue  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy,  or  again  to  offer  battle.  "  I 

thought  it  was  time,"  he  adds,  "  to  look  for  some  place  of  rest  and 
refreshment."  But  there  was  a  thought  beneath  this.  He  had  al- 
ready determined  to  abandon  the  Carolinas,  where  he  was  "  tired  of 
marching  about  in  search  of  adventures."  When  he  had  reached  his 
place  of  rest,  he  wrote :  "•  If  we  mean  an  offensive  war  in  America, 
we  must  abandon  New  York,  and  bring  our  whole  force  into  Virginia. 
....  If  our  plan  is  defensive,  let  us  quit  the  Carolinas  (which  can- 
not be  held  defensively  while  Virginia  can  be  so  easily  armed  against 
us)  and  stick  to  our  salt  pork  at  New  York,  sending  now  and  then  a 
detachment  to  steal  tobacco,  etc."  Two  days  after  the  battle  of  Guil- 
ford  Court-house,  he  was  on  the  march  for  Wilmington.  When 
Greene  discovered  his  purpose,  he  started  in  hot  pursuit ;.  but  he 
could  no  more  overtake  Cornwallis  than  Cornwallis  had  been  able  to 
overtake  him. 


New  York  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution. 


CHAPTER    III. 


END   OF   MILITARY   OPERATIONS. 

. 

ARNOLD'S  EXPEDITION  TO  VIRGINIA.  —  MUTINY  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA  LINE.  —  ITS 
CAUSE.  —  LAFAYETTE  SENT  SOUTHWARD.  —  CORXWALLIS'S  PLANS.  —  DISAPPROVED 
OF  BY  CLINTON.  —  LAFAYETTE  ADVANCES  FROM  MARYLAND. — JOINED  BY  WAYNE 
AND  STEUBEN. —  His  CAMPAIGN  IN  VIRGINIA.  —  CORNWALLIS  AT  WILLIAMSBCRG. — 
FIGHT  AT  JAMES  ISLAND.  —  GREENE'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  BATTLE  OF 
HOBKIRK'S  HILL.  —  RAWDON  ABANDONS  CAMDEN. —  FORTS  MOTTE  AND  GRANBY, 
ORANGEBURG  AND  AUGUSTA,  TAKEN  BY  GREENE.  —  SIEGE  OF  NINETY-SIX.  —  ABAN- 
DONED BY  THE  BRITISH. —  HANGING  OF  COLONEL  HAYNE.  —  BATTLE  OF  EUTAW 
SPRINGS.  —  GREENE'S  GENERALSHIP.  —  MOVEMENT  OF  THE  ALLIED  ARMIES.  —  OPE- 
RATIONS AGAINST  NEW  YORK  ISLAND.  —  THEY  MARCH  SOUTHWARD  — ARNOLD'S 
EXPEDITION  TO  NEW  LONDON.  —  ARRIVAL  OF  ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  FLEETS  FROM 
THE  WEST  INDIES.  —  ALLIED  ARMIES  IN  VIRGINIA.  —  CORNWALLIS  BESIEGED  AT 
YORKTOWN.  —  His  SURRENDER. 

"  To  steal  tobacco,  etc.,"  was  the  object  of  Arnold's  expedition  to 
Virginia,  rather  than,  by  a  well-conceived  plan,  to  subjugate 
the  State  and  bring  back  the  people  to  their  allegiance  to  peauion  to 
the  King.     No  better  instrument  could  be  chosen  for  such  a 
work,  —  no  man  so  ready  as  the  unhappy  traitor  to  harass  and  to  rav- 
age any  part  of  the  country  against  which  his  rage  glowed  so  fiercely, 
because  his  abortive  attempt  to  ruin  it  had  brought  him,  on  all  sides, 
hatred,  contempt,  and  imperishable  infamy.     Clinton  knew  how  well 

VOL.  iv.  4 


50  END    OF   MILITARY    OPERATIONS.  [CHAP  III. 

he  could  depend  upon  the  renegade  General  as  a  marauder  ;  but 
never  after  that  fatal  morning  when  he  fled  to  the  British  man-of-war 
Vulture,  had  Arnold  shown  any  of  those  soldierly  qualities  which  had 
once  distinguished  him.  The  opportunity,  indeed,  for  any  splendid 
achievement  was  lost  to  him  ;  but  fear  Avould  have  held  him  back  even 
had  opportunity  been  given.  What,  he  anxiously  asked  of  a  prisoner, 
taken  in  this  raid  into  Virginia,  would  be  done  with  him  if  captured? 
'•Why,  sir,"  wras  the  reply,  "if  I  must  answer  your  question,  you 
must  excuse  my  telling  you  the  plain  truth  ;  if  my  countrymen  should 
catch  you,  I  believe  they  would  cut  off  that  lame  leg,  which  was 
wounded  in  the  cause  of  freedom  and  virtue,  and  bury  it  with  the 
honors  of  war,  and  afterwards  hang  the  remainder  of  your  body  in 
gibbets.''  lie  must  have  known  how  anxious  Washington  was  for  his 
capture,  and  fear  never  forsook  him.  He  wras  no  longer  the  brave  and 
dashing  soldier ;  what  little  of  courage  there  was  left  in  him  could 
only  face  small  dangers  ;  he  saw  in  every  bush,  not  merely  an  officer, 
but  a  hangman. 

Virginia  was  singularly,  perhaps  unavoidably,  unprepared  for  an 
invasion.  Arnold  landed  at  Westover,  on  James  River,  and  marched 
thence,  at  the  head  of  nine  hundred  men,  to  Richmond,  almost  with- 
out sign  of  opposition.  Four  hundred  of  his  troops  were  detached, 
under  Lieutenant-colonel  Simcoe,  to  move  upon  Westham.  Military 
stores,  private  property,  and  many  of  the  public  archives  were  de- 
stroyed at  Richmond  ;  at  Westham,  besides  much  else,  a  powder-mill 
and  the  only  cannon  foundery  in  the  State.  On  the  return  of  the 
troops  down  the  James,  they  were  annoyed  by  a  body  of  militia,  under 
Baron  Steuben,  which  had  been  hastily  called  out  ;  but  Arnold 
reached  Portsmouth,  where  he  intended  to  establish  a  post,  having 
inflicted  immense  damage  upon  the  enemy,  especially  upon  private 
citizens,  with  a  loss  to  his  own  force  of  only  half  a  dozen  men. 

The  movement  was  one  of  serious  import,  and  demanded  the  imme- 
diate attention  of  Congress  and  of  the  Commander-in-chief, 
thei'eiinxvi-  And  it  happened  at  a  moment  when  they  were  sorely  per- 
plexed by  an  unlooked-for  event  in  the  Northern  army, 
which  threatened  even  more  serious  consequences.  The  whole  Penn- 
sylvania line,  consisting  of  thirteen  hundred  men,  mutinied,  and  pro- 
claimed their  determination  to  return  to  their  homes.  The  authority 
of  their  officers  was  defied,  some  of  whom  were  dangerously  wounded, 
and  one,  Captain  Billing,  was  killed.  Several  of  the  mutineers  were 
also  killed  in  this  first  outbreak  of  the  insurrection  ;  but  when  a  bay- 
onet was  presented  at  the  breast  of  Wayne,  that  brave  General,  who 
did  not  know  what  fear  was,  was  compelled  to  yield  to  save  his  own 
life  and  the  lives  of  his  officers.  The  regiments  then,  under  the  com- 


1781.] 


MUTINY    OF   PENNSYLVANIA   TROOPS. 


51 


mand  of  their  sergeants,  marched  off  for  Princeton,  taking  with  them 
six  field-pieces. 

A  successful  revolt  might  become  contagious,  for  some  of  the  griev- 
ances of  these  men  —  the  want  of  pay,  the  want  of  food,  and  the  want 
of  clothing — were  the  grievances  of  the  whole  army.  An  attempt 
to  compel  their  return  to  duty  by  leading  troops  against  them,  might 
prove  a  dangerous  experiment,  not  merely  because  there  was  a  com- 
munity of  suffering  in  the  whole  army,  but  because  that  of  which  the 


Mutiny  of  the   Pennsylvania   Line. 

Pennsylvania  troops  specially  complained  entitled  them  to  a  good 
deal  of  sympathy.  There  had  been  either  fraud  or  blundering  at  the 
time  of  their  enlistment,  and  it  was  this  injustice,  rather  than  the 
ordinary  hardships  of  army  life,  which  all  bore  alike,  that  had  led,  at 
last,  to  mutiny. 

The  law  of  Congress  under  which  they  were  enlisted  provided  that 
the  term  of  service  should  be  either  for  three  years  or  for  the 
war  —  one  or  the  other.     The  ambiguity  of  its  terms  either 
misled  or  was   taken  advantage  of.     Most  of  the   men  declared  that 


52  END   OF   MILITARY   OPERATIONS.  [CHAP.  III. 

they  had  rightfully  understood  the  text  of  the  statute,  and  having  en- 
listed, not  for  the  war,  but  for  three  years  only,  they  were  now  enti- 
tled to  their  discharge.  It  was  claimed,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
enlistment  was  for  thi'ee  years  in  any  event,  and  for  the  war,  should  it 
extend  beyond  that  period. 

The  question  became,  therefore,  one  of  legal  interpretation,  and  was 
wisely  left  to  the  civil  authorities.  In  the  settlement,  other  matters 
were  taken  into  consideration,  and  arrearages  of  pay  and  a  supply  of 
clothing  were  provided  for.  That  it  was  no  want  of  patriotism,  but  a 
sense  of  gross  wrong,  in  addition  to  absolute  physical  suffering,  that  led 
those  men  to  resort  to  so  desperate  a  measure  as  revolt,  they  showed 
by  one  very  unequivocal  act.  When  Sir  Henry  Clinton  sent 
emi-saries  emissaries  among  them  to  aggravate  the  difficulty  by  offer- 
ing to  the  mutineers  aid  and  protection,  and  to  receive  them 
within  his  own  lines,  these  messengers  were  delivered  to  the  proper 
authorities  to  be  executed  as  spies.  There  were,  however,  men  in  the 
army  who,  without  the  same  reason  for  dissatisfaction  that  existed  in 
the  Pennsylvania  line,  had  none  of  their  scruples.  A  brigade  of  New 
Jersey  troops,  soon  after  the  adjustment  of  the  first  difficulty,  revolted 
in  the  hope  of  extorting  concessions.  Washington  ordered  a  detach- 
ment, under  General  Howe,  to  reduce  them  to  obedience,  and  to 
hang  the  ringleaders  without  delay,  and  his  orders  were  promptly 
executed. 

Threatening  as  these  events  appeared  at  the  moment,  the  real  con- 
dition of  affairs  was  more  hopeful,  at  this  period,  for  the  Americans 
than  for  the  other  side.  The  States  raised  a  large  sum  of  money  to 
appease  the  not  unreasonable  clamors  of  the  soldiers,  and  to  put  the 
army  in  a  better  condition  than  it  had  ever  been  before.  It  was, 
moreover,  evident,  after  the  suppression  of  the  mutiny  in  the  Jersey 
brigade,  that  the  earnest  patriotism  of  the  troops  —  which  must  be 
after  all  the  essential  element  of  their  efficiency  —  could  be  implicitly 
relied  upon.  There  was  a  certain  freedom  of  action  in  Congress,  — 
as  in  substituting  for  the  clumsy  committees,  through  wThich  the  pub- 
lic business  had  been  carried  on,  bureaus  of  foreign  affairs,  of  finance, 
of  war,  and  of  the  navy,  to  be  intrusted  to  secretaries, —  which  indi- 
cated a  larger  statesmanship  mid  a  higher  confidence  in  themselves  as 
the  representatives  of  a  nation.  And  the  States,  by  the  adoption  of 
the  Articles  of  Confederation,  — which  had  been  under  dis- 
t;onfe<jera-  cussion  for  five  years,  —  were  drawn  together  in  a  more  de- 
cided bond  of  federal  union,  which,  however  imperfect,  was 
an  evidence  of  their  faith  in  the  establishment  of  a  national  exist- 
ence. The  English  ministry,  blind  to  these  signs  of  the  times,  were 
never  more  sanguine,  than  at  this  period,  of  the  early  suppression  of 


1781.]  LAFAYETTE   SENT   SOUTHWARD.  .  53 

what  they  still  looked  upon  as  only  a  rebellion  ;  they  were  uncon- 
scious all  the  while  that  in  the  divided  counsels  among  their  generals 
in  America  lay  an  element  of  weakness  which  was  leading  slowly 
but  surely  to  final  disaster. 

Washington  recognized  the  significance  of  Arnold's  invasion  of 
Virginia,  and  in  February  made  preparations  for  a  campaign 
in  that  State.  A  detachment  of  twelve  hundred  men,  mainly  s«.'.nt!to. 
of  New  England  troops,  under  Lafayette,  was  ordered  to  the 
head  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  to  embark  for  the  lower  part  of  Virginia. 
The  British  fleet  under  Arbuthnot,  blockading  the  French  at  New- 
port, had  been  recently  disabled  by  a  storm,  and  Washington  pro- 
posed to  Rochambeau  and  Admiral  Destouches  that  advantage  should 
be  taken  of  this  accident  to  send  the  whole  squadron  to  Chesapeake 
Bay  in  aid  of  the  movement  under  Lafayette.  There  was  a  month's 
delay  before  the  whole  fleet  put  to  sea,  though  in  the  mean  time 
three  of  the  ships  sailed  for  Portsmouth  and  found  Arnold  too  strong- 
ly posted  to  be  meddled  with  by  so  small  a  force.  When  Destouches 
afterward  went  to  sea  he  was  overtaken  by  Arbuthnot  off  the  Capes 
of  Virginia,  and  an  engagement  followed  which  sent  the  French  fleet 
back  to  Newport. 

"There  seems  but  little  wanting,"  —  Clinton  wrote  to  Cornwallis 
early  in  March,  —  "to  give  a  mortal  stab  to  rebellion,  but  a  proper 
reenforcement,  and  a  permanent  superiority  at  sea,  for  the  next  cam- 
paign." He  only  waited  to  hear  that  the  French  fleet  had  returned 
to  Newport,  when  General  Phillips  was  sent  with  an  additional  force 
of  two  thousand  men  to  take  command  in  Virginia.  The  campaign 
that  followed  was  a  continuation  of  that  which  Arnold  had  begun. 
There  was  much  marching  and  countermarching  up  and  down  the 
Peninsula;  detachments  embarked  at  several  points,  to  land  at  others 
which  were  undefended;  trading  vessels  were  destroyed;  much  tobacco 
and  many  stores  of  provisions  were  burned ;  Phillips  pursued  Steuben 
and  Steuben  pursued  Phillips,  with  no  great  harm  to  either  :  but  the 
whole  country  was  ravaged,  and  consternation  and  suffering  visited 
upon  the  inhabitants  on  both  sides  the  James.  No  attempt,  however, 
was  made  to  fortify  or  to  hold  any  other  place  than  Portsmouth. 

These  operations  were  intended  only  to  help  Cornwallis  at  the 
South  by  depriving  Greene  of  men  and  supplies  —  except,  of  course, 
the  general  aim  of  all  war  to  bring  the  most  distress  upon  those 
who  least  deserve  it  and  are  most  defenceless.  That  more  compre- 
hensive idea  of  Cornwallis — that  there  must  be  an  absolute  con- 
quest and  possession  of  Virginia  —  evidently  had  little  influence  over 
Clinton's  plans.  He  clung  to  his  original  policy  of  conquering  the 
South  from  Georgia  northward,  while  he,  with  the  help  of  the  fleet, 


54  END   OF   MILITARY    OPERATIONS.  [Cn.\r.  III. 

should  hold  Washington  and  Rochambeau  immovable  on  the  Hudson 
and  at  Newport. 

"  Greene  took  the  advantage  "  —  Cornwallis  wrote  to  Phillips  late 
cornwaiiis-g  *n  April  from  Wilmington  —  "of  my  being  obliged  to  come 
plans.  j.0  t],js  p]ace?  an(j  i,as  marched  to  South  Carolina."  Disaster, 

he  apprehended,  would  follow  to  Lord  Rawdon  ;  but  it  was  not  in  his 
power,  he  thought,  to  succor  him.  The  truth  was,  he  did  not  wish  to 
help  Rawdon  ;  neither  did  he  mean  to  be  helped  himself  to  hold  the 
Carolinas.  He  wrote  to  Clinton  a  month  later,  with  great  coolness, 
that  if  Greene  should  continue  offensive  operations  in  South  Carolina, 
Rawdon  would  probably  be  compelled  to  abandon  Camden  and  Nine- 
ty-Six, quit  "  a  part  of  the  country,  which  for  some  months  past  we 
have  not  really  possessed,"  and  content  himself  with  limiting  the 
defence  of  that  province  to  the  line  of  the  Congaree  and  the  Santee. 
But  now,  in  April,  the  Commander-in-chief  was  notified  of  the  in- 
tended movement  into  Virginia,  and  in  accordance  with  that  deter- 
mination, Cornwallis  ordered  Phillips  to  meet  him,  if  possible,  at 
Petersburg.  When  Clinton  received  this  despatch  his  reply  was,  that 
had  it  been  "  intimated  "  to  him  earlier  that  such  a  movement  was 
proposed,  ;t  I  should  certainly  have  endeavored  to  have  stopped  you, 

as  I  did  then  as  well  as  now  consider  such  a  movement  as 
ofhvi'iin-     likely   to  be  dangerous    to   our    interests   in    the   Southern 

Colonies."     With  this  clash  of  opinion  and  of  purpose,  all 
cordialitv  of  feeling  ceased  between  the  two  Generals,  and  with  it  all 

if 

efficient  cooperation  in  the  conduct  of  the  war. 

Lafayette,  after  a  delay  of  some  weeks,  had  been  ordered  to  inarch 
Lafavette  to  Virginia,  from  Baltimore,  much  to  the  discontent  of  his 
advances.  New  England  men,  who  dreaded  exposure  to  the  heat  of  a 
Southern  summer.  To  quell  a  threatened  mutiny,  one  of  the  ring- 
leaders was  executed,  and  the  rest  were  then  told  that  those  who 
chose  to  desert  their  country  in  time  of  danger  were  at  liberty  to  go 
home.  It  was  the  end  of  insubordination  ;  not  a  man  left  the  ranks. 
Lafayette  borrowed  twro  thousand  guineas  on  his  personal  credit,  and 
used  this  sum  in  the  purchase  of  shoes  and  of  cotton  cloth  which  the 
ladies  of  Baltimore  made  into  shirts  for  his  men.  In  nine  days  the 
inarch  was  made  from  Baltimore  to  Richmond. 

When  Arnold  —  General  Phillips  having  died  at  Petersburg,  of 
fever,  before  Cornwallis  reached  there  —  was  reen forced 
overrun  by  by  Coi'iiwallis,  Lafayette's  force  was  largely  outnumbered, 
and  he  fell  back  to  make  a  junction  with  Wayne,  who  was 
approaching  with  eight  hundred  of  the  Pennsylvania  line.  To  pre- 
vent this  junction  was  Cornwallis'a  first  object;  his  second  to  overrun 
the  country,  and  to  destroy  tobacco  and  all  public  stores  of  provisions. 


1781.] 


MOVEMENTS    IX    VIRGINIA. 


55 


Of  Lafayette  lie  said,  "  The  boy  cannot  escape  me.v  Of  the  ac- 
cumulations of  provisions  in  private  hands,  his  orders  were  that  only 
so  muc-h  was  to  be  spared  as  supplied  the  immediate  necessities  of  the 
families.  In  work  of  this  kind,  Tarleton  and  Simcoe  were  especially 
active;  for,  mounting  their  men  on  the  best  horses  to  be  found  on  the 
plantations,  they  moved  with  great  celerity,  and  had  no  scruples  in 
obeying  the  orders  of  destruction  to  the  very  letter.  In  one  of  these 
excursions  Tarleton  was  only  a  few  minutes  too  late  at  C'harlottes- 


French  and  American  Uniforms. 

ville  to  capture  Governor  Jefferson  and  the  whole  Legislature  of  the 
State.1 

1  Jefferson's  plantation  of  "  Mouticello  ''  was  taken  by  the  enemy,  and  he  there  also 
narrowly  escaped  capture.  Expeditious  into  the  interior  of  the  State  were  made  by  water 
as  well  as  by  laud,  and  one  of  these,  anchoring  opposite  Mount  Veriion,  seut  on  shore  for 
provisions.  They  were  supplied  by  Lund  Washington,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  estate. 
When  he  reported  to  the  Comnuinder-in-cliief  the  losses  consequent  u|xm  this  visitation. 
Washington  wrote  in  reply :  "  I  am  sorry  to  hear  of  your  loss.  I  am  a  little  sorry  to  hear 
of  my  own.  But  that  which  gives  me  most  concern  is,  that  you  should  have  gone  on  board 
the  vessels  of  the  enemy  and  furnished  them  with  refreshments.  It  would  have  been  a  less 
painful  circumstance  to  me  to  have  heard,  that  in  consequence  of  your  non-compliance  with 
their  request,  they  had  burnt  my  homo  and  laid  the  plantation  in  ruins." 


56  END   OF  MILITARY   OPERATIONS.  [CHAP.  111. 

Lafayette  was  not  overtaken,   and    the  pursuit  was  relinquished 
when  he  was  joined,  first  by  Wayne,  and  a  day  or  two  after 


by   Stenben,  with  a  considerable    body  of   militia.     Disap- 
pointed in  his  immediate  object,  Cornwallis  countermarched 
down  the  valley  of  the  James,  leaving  Richmond  on  the  20th  of  June, 
called  in  his  detachments  under  the  bold  riders,  Tarleton  and  Simcoe, 
and  arrived  at  Williamsburg  on  the  25th.     The  first  fighting  of  the 
campaign  was  when,  within  half-a-dozen  miles  of  that  place,  Colonel 
Butler,  aided  by  Wayne,  struck  the  rear-guard  of  the  enemy  under 
Simcoe,  and  came  near  bringing  on  a  general  battle.     The  loss  on 
each  side  was  about  thirty  killed  and  wounded,  Lafayette  withdrawing 
when  lie  saw  that  the  whole  British  force  was  preparing  to  engage. 
The  day  after    his    arrival  at  Williamsburg,   Cornwallis    received 
dispatches  from  Clinton,  the  expectation  of  which,  and  the 

Cormvnllis  ,  ,    ,     .  ,  . 

-it  Williams-  orders  he  supposed  the}"  would  bring  him,  had  influenced 
him  in  his  retreat  from  the  upper  country.  Clinton  wrote 
that  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  New  York  was  about  to  be  be- 
seiged  ;  that  as  Cornwallis  was  evidently  not  disposed  to  act  upon 
the  plan  which  the  Commander-in-chief  had  laid  down  for  the  con- 
duct of  the  campaign  —  a  movement  up  the  Chesapeake  and  an  attack 
upon  Philadelphia  —  and  then  to  move  on  to  New  York  —  the  next 
best  thing  to  be  done  was  for  Cornwallis  to  put  himself  behind  de- 
fences at  Portsmouth  or  Yorktown,  and  send  three  thousand  men 
from  his  force  to  Clinton's  relief. 

Cornwallis  obeyed,  but  obeyed  sullenly.  The  difference  between 
them  was  irreconcilable.  Clinton  clung  to  the  policy  of  the  conquest 
of  the  southernmost  States  first,  as  the  only  wa}7  to  end  the  rebellion. 
Cornwallis  had  tried  that  plan,  as  he  believed,  thoroughly,  and  found 
it  utterly  impracticable.  For  the  sake  of  driving  in  the  wedge  that 
was  to  split  the  confederacy  in  halves,  he  had  said  it  would  be  bet- 
ter even  to  abandon  New  York  and  concentrate  in  Virginia.  Lord 
George  Germaine  rather  agreed  with  him,  not  at  all  because  he  had 
taken  the  trouble  to  qualify  himself  to  form  an  intelligent  judgment 
upon  the  subject,  but  because  he  believed  in  the  Earl  of  Cornwallis 
and  did  not  much  believe  in  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  Clinton,  neverthe- 

«/ 

Differences  less»  was  Commander-in-chief,  and  now  that  he  chose  to  give 
peremptory  orders,  Cornwallis  rendered  that  kind  of  implicit 
ooecUence  which  is  almost  certain  to  defeat  its  object.  He 
would  do  nothing  to  avert  failure,  should  failure  come,  where  his 
counsel  had  been  disregarded.  He  was  plainly  quite  willing  that 
Clinton  should  have  every  opportunity  to  prove  himself  in  the  wrong, 
though  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  he  apprehended  the  final  catastrophe 
which  would  bring  disaster  and  disgrace  to  both. 


1781.] 


GREENE'S  CAMPAIGN    AT   THE   SOUTH. 


His  preparations  for  retiring  to  Portsmouth  were  soon  completed, 
and  on  the  4tli  of  July  the  march  was  begun.  Lafayette  fol-  Fi(Chtat 
lowed  in  close  pursuit,  and  on  the  6th,  supposing  the  main  •lamestown- 
body  of  the  enemy  to  have  crossed  to  Jamestown  Island,  an  attack 
was  made  upon  what  he  presumed  to  be  the  rear-guard.  Cornwallis, 
anticipating  this  movement,  had  remained  upon  the  north  bank  of 
the  river,  and  confronted  the  advance  with  his  whole  force.  The 
Americans  were  driven  back,  and,  but  for  a  bold  charge  with  the 
bayonet  made  by  Wayne  and  his  Philadelphia  troops,  might  have 
been  signally  defeated. 

The  situation  of  affairs  was  one  that  might  well  give  both  the  Eng- 
lish Generals  great  anxiety.  While  Cornwallis  sullenly  obeyed  the 
orders  of  his  superior,  by 
which  he  felt  that  Virginia 
was  lost  to  them,  he  sub- 
mitted it  to  the  considera- 
tion of  Clinton  whether  it 
was  "worth  while  to  hold  a 
sickly,  defensive  post  in  this 
Hay,"  liable  always  to  sud- 
den attack,  which  neither 
facilitated  predatory  excur- 
sions into  the  State  —  if  that 
was  all  that  was  to  be  done 
—  nor  was  of  assistance  to 
movements  f  arthe  r  so  u  th.  It 
was  plain,  moreover,  by  this 
time,  that  those  Southern 
States,  to  regain  which  so 
much  time,  so  much  treas- 

ure, and  so  many  lives,  had  been  spent,  were  lost  —  lost,  Cornwallis 
of  course  believed,  because  his  plan  of  driving  the  wedge  home  in 
Virginia  had  been  rejected  ;  lost,  Clinton  of  course  believed,  because 
his  well-conceived  plan  of  Southern  conquest  had  been  abandoned 
for  a  scheme  which,  if  carried  out,  would  compel  him  to  exchange 
New  York  for  Richmond,  —  New  York  Bay  for  James  River. 

For  Greene  had  "taken  advantage,"  —  as  Cornwallis  said,  —  of  his 
abandonment  of  North  Carolina,  and  marched  southward. 
Lee  was  detached  to  join  Marion  and  cut  off  Lord  Raw- 
don's  communication  with  Charleston,  on  which  he  de- 
pended for  supplies.  This  was  done  by  the  capture  of  Fort  Watson 
on  the  Santee.  The  besiegers  were  without  artillery,  but  Major 
Maham  suggested  the  erection  of  a  wooden  tower  of  logs,  the  top  of 


Lord  Cornwailis. 


58  END   OF  MILITARY    OPERATIONS.  [CHAP.  IH. 

which  would  overlook  the  stockade.  When  this  was  completed,  the 
sharp-shooters  from  behind  a  breastwork  could  pick  off  the  garrison 
at  their  leisure,  and  a  white  flag  was  speedily  hung  out  in  token  of 
surrender.  The  fall  of  the  place  gave  the  Americans  command  of 
the  road  from  Charleston  to  Camden,  and  a  force  of  five  hundred 
men,  under  Major  Watson,  on  the  way  to  reenforce  Rawdon,  was 
compelled  to  fall  back  and  seek  another  route. 

Marion  and  Lee  were  to  join  Greene  at  Camden,  when  they  should 
have  reduced  Fort  Watson  ;  before  their  arrival,  however, 
Hobkirk's  Greene,  who  had  encamped  upon  a  low  ridge  called  Hob- 
kirk's  Hill,  near  the  town,  was  attacked  on  the  25th  of  April 
by  Rawdon,  who  hoped  to  repulse  him  before  reinforcements  could 
come  to  his  help.  Greene  was  taken  by  surprise ;  but  the  British 
advance  was  delayed  by  his  pickets  long  enough  to  enable  him  to 
form  a  battle  line.  The  attack  was  made  with  great  spirit.  Both 
wings  of  the  enemy,  however,  were  wavering  under  the  warm  recep- 
tion given  them  by  the  Virginia  brigade,  under  General  Huger,  on  the 
right,  and  the  Maryland  brigade,  under  Colonel  Williams,  on  the  left, 
while  Colonel  Washington  dashed  in  upon  their  rear  with  his  cav- 
alry. But,  at  the  critical  moment,  the  veteran  regiment  of  Colonel 
Gunby,  of  the  Maryland  brigade,  was  seized  with  an  unreasonable 
panic,  and  fell  back  in  disorder.  Into  the  gap  thus  made  the  enemy 
rushed  with  a  shout,  the  whole  line  was  thrown  into  confusion,  and 
the  summit  of  the  ridge  was  carried.  It  was  impossible  to  rally  the 
veterans,  who  had  lost  some  of  their  best  officers ;  the  reserve  in  the 
rear,  consisting  only  of  militia,  could  not  be  relied  upon,  and  Greene, 
therefore,  ordered  a  retreat  to  save  his  army.  His  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  was  two  hundred  and  seventy-one,  out  of  a  total  of  about 
fourteen  hundred  men  ;  that  of  Rawdon  was  even  larger,  being  two 
hundred  and  fifty-eight  out  of  about  nine  hundred. 

Like  the  victory  of  Guilford  Court-house,  it  was  a  victory  without 
gain.  By  the  sacrifice  of  nearly  one  third  of  his  men,  Rawdon  de- 
layed, for  about  two  weeks  only,  what  it  was  Greene's  object  to 
compel  him  to  do,  when  the  American  army  should  be  reentorced  by 
Marion  and  Lee.  These  two  officers  could  not  prevent  Watson  from 
joining  Rawdon,  by  which  his  strength  was  nearly  doubled  ,  but  nei- 
ther could  Rawdon  compel  Greene  to  risk  a  second  general  battle,  nor 
to  leave  him  unmolested.  With  communications  between  Charleston 
and  the  interior  already  actually  interrupted,  or  likely  to  be  so,  either 
by  Greene,  Marion,  or  Lee,  Camden  was  abandoned  on  the 
10th  of  May  by  Rawdon,  who  burned  all  the  stores  he  could 
ish  not  take  away,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  the  town.  Or- 

ders were  given  at  the  same  time  for  the  evacuation  of  other  posts, 
but  were  not  obeyed,  because  the  despatches  were  intercepted. 


1781.] 


CAPTURE   OF   FORT   MOTTE. 


59 


From  Camden,  Rawdon  marched  toward  Motte's  Fort,  on  the  Con- 
garee,  above  the  junction  with  the  Wateree,  at  that  moment  besieged 
by  Lee  and  Marion,  that  he  might  relieve  the  garrison  and  save  the 
most  important  post  between  Ninety-Six  and  Charleston.  Greene 
moved  toward  the  same  point  by  another  way,  that  he  might  be  at 
hand  to  protect  the  besiegers  in  case  of  necessity.  This  fort  was  a 
spacious  family  mansion,  situated  upon  a  hill,  prepared  to  withstand 
a  siege,  and  holding  a  garrison  of  nearly  two  hundred.  The  owner, 
a  Mrs.  Motte,  had  been  turned  out  of  it  and  compelled  to  remove  to 


Preparing  to  burn   Fort  Motte.1 

a  farm-house  upon  an  opposite  hill,  not  many  yards  distant.  From 
this  point,  the  siege  was  conducted  with  not  much  hope  of  success  by 
ordinary  measures.  When  the  news  of  Rawdon's  approach  reached 
the  camp,  Marion  and  Lee  determined  that,  as  no  time  was  to  be  lost, 
the  house  should  be  set  on  fire,  to  compel  its  surrender  or  evacuation. 
Arrows  were  to  be  used,  with  burning  flax  attached  to  them,  by 
which  the  wooden  shingles  of  the  roof  could  be  ignited  in  many 
places  at  the  same  moment.  The  decision  was  announced  to  Mrs. 
Motte  with  great  reluctance  ;  but  she  not  only  cheerfully  acquiesced 

1  The  figure  representing  Mrs.  Motte  in  this  picture  is  from  a  portrait  in  the  possession 
of  her  descendants. 


HO  KXD    OK   MILITARY   OPERATION'S.  [CiiAiv  III. 

in  it,  but  brought  out  a  well-made  Indian  bow  and  some  arrows,  as 
Fort  Mott.-  better  adapted  to  the  purpose  than  any  that  the  men  could 
make  on  the  instant.  The  roof  was  soon  ablaze  in  several 
places.'  No  measures  could  be  taken  to  extinguish  it  by  the  garrison, 
under  the  fire  of  the  sharp-shooters,  and  the  commanding  officer  has- 
tened to  hang  out  a  white  flag. 

From  Fort  Motte,  Lee  pushed  on  to  Fort  Granby.  farther  up  the 
river  toward  Ninety-Six,  and  reduced  it  in  a  few  hours.  An- 
r.OiMM*-  other  of  the  line  of  posts  between  Ninety-Six  and  Charles- 
Ai'i^ii*'!;"  ton,  at  Orangeburg,  was  captured  about  the  same  time  by 
Sumter.  who  had  taken  the  field  again  with  a  body  of  militia. 
A  few  days  later,  Georgetown,  on  the  coast,  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Marion.  Rawdon.  unable  to  follow  his  active  enemy  at  so  many 
points,  and  discouraged  by  these  repeated  disasters,  fell  back  behind 
the  Santee  to  Monk's  Corner,  and  soon  after  to  Charleston.  Of  all 
the  inland  posts  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  Ninetv-Six  and  Au- 
gusta alone  remained  in  British  possession  by  the  1st  of  June.  On 
the  ">th  of  that  month,  Pickens  and  Lee  —  having  first  reduced  the 
small  post  known  as  Fort  Galphin,  a  dozen  miles  below  Augusta,  on 
the  Savannah  River  —  compelled  the  surrender  of  Augusta,  ending  a 
long  siege  by  bringing  to  bear  upon  the  interior  works  a  "  Maham 
tower*'  of  logs,  by  means  of  which  Fort  Watson  had  been  reduced  a 
few  weeks  before.  By  these  successive  and  rapid  captures,  many  pris- 
oners and  large  stores  of  provisions  and  ammunition  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  Americans. 

While  the  siege  of  Augusta  was  in  progress,  Greene  sat  down  be- 
siege of  f°re  Ninety-Six.  The  place  —  so  called  because  it  was 
Ninety-six.  ninetv-six  miles  from  tile  chief  town  of  the  Cherokee  Nation 
—  was  an  important  post,  and  therefore  strongly  fortified  ;  its  five 
hundred  and  fifty  men  were  all  Americans,  commanded  by  Lieuten- 
ant-colonel John  Harris  Cruger,  a  loyalist  from  New  York :  and  it 
was  certain,  therefore,  that  the  defence  would  be  desperate.  There 
was  nothing  the  Tories  so  much  dreaded  as  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  Whigs,  as  there  was  nothing  the  Whigs  so  much  dreaded  as  to 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Tories.  It  would  be  hardly  true  to  say  that 
Cruger  was  peculiarly  obnoxious  ;  for,  as  no  Tory  leader  would  per- 
mit himself  to  be  outdone  by  any  other  Tory  leader  in  cruel  persecu- 
tion of  the  patriots,  so  they  were  all  obnoxious  alike.  Cruger  had 
hanged  many  of  the  opposite  party  who  had  fallen  into  his  hands,  and 
he  hoped,  he  said,  to  hang  many  more.  The  gibbet  was  the  sign  un- 
der which  both  sides  hoped  to  conquer,  so  far  as  the  war  was  a  civil 
war,  and  Cruger  and  his  followers  knew  that  military  discipline  was 
not  always  strong  enough  to  save  men  from  the  gallows,  even  though 


1781.] 


NINETY-SIX. 


61 


they  were  prisoners  of  war,  who  were  themselves  hangmen  when  the 
chance  was  on  their  side.  Under  Greene's  immediate  command,  out- 
rages of  this  character  were  unknown  ;  yet  the  enthusiasm  of  his  army 
was  at  fever-heat  when  brought  before  the  last  stronghold  in  the 
State,  west  of  Charleston,  held  by  the  enemy,  and  that  defended  by 
Tories  alone. 

The   approaches  were  diligently  made  under  the  skilful  direction 
of  Kosciusko,  and  among  these  was  the  "  Maham  tower,"  which   had 

proved  so  efficient  in  other 
places.     As  a   protection 
against    the 


The  Water-carriers  of  Ninety-Six. 


fire  which 
from  this 

structure  could  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  garrison,  sand-  ;;! 
bags  were  piled  upon  the  par- 
apets. The  siege  was  pressed 
with  great  vigor  from  the  22d  of  May  to  the  19th  of  June,  and  the 
garrison  was  reduced  almost  to  extremity  for  want  of  water,  which 
could  only  be  brought  in  small  quantities  by  a  few  negroes  at  night  — 
stripped  naked,  that  they  might  be  invisible  in  the  darkness.  The 
place  would  probably  have  fallen  from  sheer  exhaustion,  had  the  in- 
vestment been  continued  for  three  or  four  days  longer. 

But  news  was  received  that  Kawdon,  strengthened  by  the  recent 
arrival  of  three  Irish  regiments,  had  left  Charleston,  and  was  march- 
ing to  the  relief  of  his  last  stronghold  in  the  interior.  A  countryman. 


62  END  OF  MILITARY  OPERATIONS.  [CHAP.  III. 

—  or,  as  some  say,  a  woman  —  contrived  to  get  within  the  fortress 
with  this  important  intelligence,  and  Greene,  who  had  not  half  the 
force  that  Rawdon  was  bringing  against  him,  was  compelled  either  to 
carry  the  place  by  an  immediate  assault,  before  his  preparations  were 
quite  ready,  or  lose  altogether  the  labors  of  a  month.  The  attack 
was  made  in  the  night-time  at  three  separate  points,  one  column  at- 
tempting to  pull  down  the  sand-bags  from  the  parapets,  opposite  the 
Maham  tower,  with  iron  hooks,  while  assaults  were  made  at  two 
other  places  to  get  within  the  defences.  The  resistance  of  the  garri- 
son was  so  spirited,  that  it  was  soon  evident  to  Greene  that,  if  the 
place  could  be  carried  at  all,  it  could  only  be  at  a  greater  sacrifice  of 
his  men  than  his  numbers  warranted,  and  he  ordered  a  retreat. 

Rawdon  arrived  three  days  afterward,  and  though  Ninety-Six  was 
for  the  moment  saved,  Greene  was  beyond  his  reach.  Rawdon  pur- 
sued the  American  army  northward  for  a  few  days,  but  without  over- 
taking it,  and  then  reversed  his  march  to  Ninety-Six,  pursued,  in  his 
turn,  by  Greene.  To  hold  the  country  with  that  single  fortress,  in 
the  face  of  a  formidable  enemy,  was  obviously  impossible ;  it  was 
already  nearly  midsummer,  when  the  climate  forbade  any  very  active 
Ninetv-six  operations.  Rawdon,  therefore,  ordered  that  Ninety-Six 
abandoned,  gjjoy)^  be  abandoned,  that  its  Tory  garrison  and  the  Tory 
neighbors  should  seek  refuge  in  Charleston,  while  he  and  his  army, 
at  the  same  time,  moved  in  the  same  direction.  The  pursuit  was  con- 
tinued till  the  whole  British  force  was  on  the  southern  side  of  the 
Santee  River.  Greene  then  retired  to  the  High  Hills  on  the  north  of 
that  river,  to  rest  and  recruit  his  wearied  troops.  Rawdon,  broken 
down  in  health,  sailed  for  England,  leaving  Lieutenant-colonel  Stew- 
art in  command.1 

One  more  battle  only  remained  to  be  fought  between  the  contend- 
ing armies  of  the  South.  Late  in  August,  Greene  took  the  field  again, 
his  men  invigorated  by  rest  and  the  wholesome  air  of  the  hills.  A 
recent  incident  had  intensified  the  enmity  which  so  peculiarly  charac- 
terized the  war  in  the  Carolinas,  and  the  men  on  both  sides  could 
Hanging  of  hardly  fail  to  be  reanimated  by  that  feeling.  Colonel  Isaac 
coi.  iiayne.  Jjayn6i  an  estimable  citizen  and  warm  patriot,  was  hanged 
in  Charleston  by  order  of  Lord  Rawdon  and  Lieutenant-colonel 
Balfour,  who  was  in  command  in  that  city  and  the  adjoining  dis- 
tricts. "  The  affair,"  says  Lee,  in  his  Memoirs,  "  would  probably 
have  led  to  a  war  of  extermination,  had  not  the  fast  approach  of 
peace  arrested  the  progress  of  a  system  deliberately  adopted  by 

1  Kawdon  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  taken  by  a  French  cruiser,  was  carried  to 
Chesapeake  Bay,  and  was  present  at  the  final  discomfiture  of  his  late  commander,  Com- 
wallis. 


1781.]  BATTLE   OF  EUTAW   SPRINGS.  63 

, 

Greene,  and  ardently  maintained  by  every  individual  of  his  army." 
General  Greene  had  issued  a  proclamation,  with  the  earnest  approba- 
tion of  the  officers  of  his  army,  that  the  death  of  Hayne  should  be  re- 
taliated, not  upon  "  the  deluded  Americans  who  had  joined  the  royal 
army,"  but  upon  "  the  officers  of  the  regular  forces." 

Hayne  was  one  of  those  who,  taken  prisoners  at  the  surrender  of 
Charleston,  were  released  on  parole.  Another  class  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, also  held  at  first  on  parole,  were  afterward  required  to  give  in 
their  allegiance  to  the  British  Government,  and  to  take  up  arms,  if 
required,  in  its  defence.  The  distinction,  however,  between  the  two 
classes  was  probably  soon  forgotten  ;  it  was,  at  any  rate,  in  the 
case  of  Colonel  Hayne,  and  rather  than  be  parted  from  his  wife  and 
children  at  a  time  when  they  were  in  peculiar  need  of  his  care  —  all 
being  ill  with  small-pox,  and  three  of  them  fatally  —  he  consented  to 
promise  allegiance  to  the  King.  To  this  promise  he  was  faithful  till 
the  British  were  driven  out  of  the  district  in  which  he  lived.  That, 
he  conceived,  released  him  from  an  obligation  which  it  was  a  breach 
of  faith  to  enforce,  and  to  which  circumstances  compelled  him  to  sub- 
mit under  protest.  He  once  more  took  up  arms  on  the  side  of  his 
country,  was  unfortunately  captured,  and,  without  any  regular  trial, 
condemned  and  executed.  The  indignation  of  the  people  and  the 
army  was  almost  ungovernable  at  what  they  considered  an  atrocious 
abuse  of  military  power. 

By  a  circuitous  march,  crossing  the  Wateree  and  the  Congaree, 
Greene  transferred  his  army  to  the  southern  side  of  the  Santee,  and 
followed  Stewart  to  Eutaw  Springs,  a  small  stream  flowing  into  the 
lower  part  of  that  river.  In  falling  back  forty  miles  to  this  point  to 
meet  a  convoy  from  Charleston,  Stewart  seems  not  to  have  been  aware 
how  closely  he  was  followed  by  Greene,  though  constantly  annoyed  by 
Lee,  till  the  two  armies  confronted  each  other  at  Eutaw  Springs  on 
the  7th  of  September.  The  numbers  on  each  side  were  about  equal, 
being  a  little  over  two  thousand  men. 

The  Americans  advanced,  early  in  the  morning  of  the  8th,  in  two 
columns,  and  met  a  body  of  the  enemy  about  four  miles  from 
their  camp,  who  were  speedily  put  to  rout.     Still  advancing,  Eutaw 
the  British  were  found  drawn  up  in  single  line  in  front  of 
their  tents,  and  here  the  battle  began  in  earnest.    The  South  Carolina 
militia,  forming  a  part  of  the  first  line,  fell  back  under  a  severe  fire, 
though  not  without  some  spirited  resistance.     The  rest  of  the  line 
stood  their  ground  with  great  firmness,  and  the  gap  made  by  the  re- 
treat of  the  militia  was  filled  up  instantly  from  the  centre  of  the  sec- 
ond line.     All  along  the  line  the  advance  was  steady.    First  with  fire, 
and  then  by  a  charge  with  the  bayonet,  which  was  irresistible,  while 


64  KXP   OF   MILITARY   OPERATIONS.  [CHAP.  III. 

Lee,  at  the  same  moment,  by  a  flank  movement  turned  the  left  of  the 
enemy,  who  were  forced  back  and  driven  beyond  their  camp.  In  the 
pursuit,  three  hundred  prisoners  and  two  piece's  of  artillery  were 
taken  by  the  Americans. 

But  as  the  main  body  of  the  British  fled,  Major  Majoribanks,  with  a 
reserve  of  a  battalion  of  grenadiers  and  light  infantry,  moved  into  ac- 
tion, and  Washington  with  his  cavalry  was  sent  to  get  in  his  rear. 
In  attempting  this  the  horse  were  impeded  by  underbrush  through 
which  they  forced  their  way  with  great  difficulty,  while  under  a  mur- 
derous fire  from  the  enemy,  advantageously  posted  in  the  woods. 
Washington's  horse  was  shot  under  him,  and,  entangled  in  its  fall,  lie 
was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  Most  of  his  officers  and  men  were 
either  killed  or  wounded,  and  so  complete  was  the  destruction  of  the 
corps,  that  Majoribanks  was  free  almost  immediately  to  turn  to  the 
assistance  of  the  defeated  main  bodv. 

tf 

Near  the  road,  along  which  the  pursuit  was  necessarily  made,  stood 
a  large  brick  house,  and  on  its  possession  largely  depended  the  fate 
of  the  day.  A  party  of  British  threw  themselves  into  it,  followed  so 
closely  by  a  party  from  the  other  side  that  a  struggle  of  sheer  physi- 
cal strength  took  place  at  the  door-way  to  secure  the  entrance.  The 
Americans  being  excluded  and  the  door  barred,  a  fire  was  opened 
from  the  three  tiers  of  windows,  which  was  terribly  destructive.  Ar- 
tillery was  brought  up  to  make  a  breach  in  the  walls,  b^t  it  was  inef- 
fectual. The  American  advance  was  checked ;  Stewart  had  time  to 
rally  his  flying  troops  ;  the  lost  ground  was  recovered,  the  camp  re- 
taken, —  quite  as  much,  however,  because  it  was  impossible  for  the 
American  officers  to  recall  the  men  from  plundering  the  tents  and 
from  the  barrels  of  rum,  as  from  the  prowess  of  the  enemy,  —  and 
Greene  was  compelled  to  retreat. 

The  battle  was  one  of  unusual  severity,  lasting  three  hours.  The 
British  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners  was  nearly  seven  hun- 
dred ;  that  of  the  Americans  was  somewhat  less.  The  British  claimed 
the  victory  ;  but,  as  the  case  was  in  all  Greene's  decisive  battles  at  the 
South,  the  essential  advantage  was  his.  Stewart  retreated  the  next 
day,  and  Greene  followed  him  to  within  twenty  miles  of  Charleston. 
And  to  within  twenty  miles  of  Charleston  the  British  forces  were 
south  caro-  confined  till  the  war  was  ended,  the  troops  of  the  two  armies 
lure  <^u'-i8la"  never  again  facing  each  other,  except  in  the  casual  skir- 
venej.  mishes  of  detachments.  Within  a  short  time  after  this  final 

battle  at  Entaw  Springs,  Governor  Rutledge  convened  the  Legisla- 
ture of  South  Carolina  within  thirty-five  miles  of  Charleston. 

'•  I  give  you  a  General,"  Washington  said,  when  he  sent  Greene 
to  take  command  at  the  South.  It  was  generalship  that  was  most 


1781.] 


MOVEMENTS   OF   THE    ALLIED    ARMIES. 


6f> 


needed.  Clinton's  grand  scheme  for  ending  the  war  by  the  subjuga- 
tion of  the  Southern  States  had  come  to  this —  that  not  a  corporal's 
guard  of  the  British  army  could  be  found  in  Georgia  or  the  Caro- 
linas,  except  in  the  near  vicinity  of  Charleston,  Savannah,  and  Wil- 
mington. 

Clinton  had  not  taken  counsel  of  his  fears  only  when  he  wrote  to 
Cornwallis  that  troops  must  be  returned  to  him.  for  he  was 

.  (•    i      •          i        •  i    •       -v  XT'  if      i  •  Movement* 

apprehensive  of  being  besieged  in  New  i  ork.     Washington  <>f  teamed 

and  Rochambeau  held  a  conference  in  May  at  Wethers- 
field,  Conn.,  at  which  it  was  proposed  that  the  capture  of  New  York 
should  be  undertaken,  with  the  aid  of  the  French  fleet  at  Newport, 
and  that  of  the  Count  de  Grasse,  from  the.  West  Indies,  who  was 
ordered  to  spend  the  summer  on  the  American  coast.  That  a  demon- 
stration against 
New  York  was  de- 
cided upon,  Clinton 
knew  from  inter- 
cepted letters ;  he 
did  not  know  that 
an  ulterior  purpose 
was  also  under  con- 
sideration ;  that  as 
the  French  com- 
manders doubted 
the  wisdom  of  at- 
tempting to  invest 
the  city  by  sea,  and 
as  De  Grasse 's  stay 
was  limited  to  Oc- 
tober, it  was  still 
an  open  question 
whether  the  real 
campaign  of  the 

summer  should   be   on  the   Bay  of   New   York   or  on   Chesapeake 
Bay. 

Early  in  June,  Rochambeau  issued  marching  orders  to  his  army  of 
four  thousand  men.  Moving  in  lour  divisions,  they  marched  through 
Connecticut,  in  the  exhausting  summer  heat,  in  perfect  order  and 
discipline,  many  of  the  officers  leading  them  on  foot.1  North  Castle, 
in  Westchester  County,  New  York,  was  reached  from  the  2d  to  the 

1  For  a  minute  and  clear  narrative  of  the  march  of  the  French  army  from  Connecticut 
to  New  York,  ami  the  subsequent  operutious  of  the  allied  armies  east  of  the  Hudson.  ><-e 
The  M<Kjnzine  of  American  History,  for  January,  1880. 
VOL.  iv.  5 


The  Webb   Mansion  (Roehambeau's  Headquarters),  Wethersfield.  Conn. 


66  END   OF  MILITARY   OPERATIONS.  [CHAI-.  III. 

4th  of  July,  and  by  the  6th  the  allied  armies  were  encamped  in  a 
line  from  Dobbs  Ferry,  on  the  Hudson,  to  the  Bronx  River. 

Washington  had  advanced  his  army  from  the  neighborhood  of  West 
Point  a  few  days  before,  and  was  in  readiness  for  active  op- 

Operations  .  TT  ,  in  .  •>•         t         t 

on  New  York  crations.  He  proposed  to  take  and  destroy  immediately  the 
posts  on  the  upper  end  of  New  York  Island,  and  on  the  3d 
of  July,  General  Lincoln,  with  eight  hundred  men,  dropped  down  the 
North  River  in  boats,  witli  this  object,  and  landed  at  the  mouth  of 
Spyten  Duyvel  Creek.  The  legion  of  the  Duke  de  Lauzun  was  de- 
tached from  the  French  army,  and  ordered,  by  a  forced  march,  to  be 
at  Morrisania  at  the  same  time  to  cut  off  Colonel  Delancey,  who,  at 
the  head  of  a  corps  of  refugees,  held  all  Westchester  County  in  per- 
petual dread.  The  detachments  were  to  support  each  other  in  case 
of  necessity,  and  Washington  moved  the  rest  of  his  army  to  within 
four  miles  of  King's  Bridge,  to  be  within  supporting  distance  of  both. 
The  movement  only  served  to  alarm  and  warn  the  enemy.  Lincoln 
was  promptly  met  by  a  British  force,  and,  to  avoid  the  possibility  of 
being  surrounded,  fell  back.  Lauzun  was  too  late  to  find  Delancey, 
who  had  left  Morrisania. 

Quite  as  much  was  accomplished,  perhaps,  as  was  hoped  for.  De- 
sirous as  Washington  was  of  capturing  New  York,  he  never  meant  to 
make  a  serious  attempt  to  do  so  with  a  probability  of  failure.  If  Clin- 
ton should  be  led  to  believe  that  he  entertained  such  a  purpose  now, 
and  should  recall  troops  sent  to  Virginia,  that  would  be  a  relief  to 
Lafavette  ;  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the  Commander-in-chief  intended 

V  V 

more  than  this  at  this  juncture,  when  it  was  uncertain  whether  De 
Grasse  would  consent  to  attempt  to  enter  the  Bay  of  New  York  with 
—  as  Clinton  afterward  called  them  —  his  "  long-legged  "  ships.  The 
apprehension  of  a  siege  had  already  induced  the  British  General  to 
withdraw  from  Cornwallis  a  considerable  portion  of  his  force  ;  the 
appearance  of  a  siege  might  induce  him  to  withdraw  Cornwallis  him- 
self from  Virginia. 

The  Commander-in-chief,  in  truth,  was  making  a  fool  of  Clinton. 
Washington  knew  on  the  14th  of  July  that  De  Grasse  had  decided  to 
go  to  the  Chesapeake,  and  that  determined  his  own  action.  Yet, 
seven  days  afterward,  the  British  were  alarmed  by  a  reconnoissance 
of  five  thousand  men,  pushed  across  Harlem  Creek  to  Throg's  Neck, 
which  occupied  two  days.  It  was  apparently  of  so  much  importance 
that  the  movement  was  personally  directed  by  Washington  and  Ro- 
chambeau.  Parties  of  observation  were  often  seen  at  the  most  favor- 
able points  for  overlooking  the  city.  The  gathering  of  stores,  the 
accumulation  of  boats,  the  laying  out  of  camp-grounds,  the  building 
of  ovens,  and  the  massing  of  troops  in  New  Jersey  opposite  the  north 


1781.]  MOVEMENT   OF   THE   ALLIED  ARMIES.  67 

shore  of  Staten  Island,  seemed  unmistakable  preparations  for  an  in- 
vasion of  that  island,  which  commands  the  entrance  to  Xew  York 
Bay.  Clinton  busied  himself  in  strengthening  his  works  on  all  sides 
to  meet  the  expected  siege,  and  he  was  greatly  relieved  when,  early 
in  August,  a  reinforcement  of  three  thousand  Hessians  arrived  in 
New  York  from  Bremen. 

Washington,  meanwhile,  had  written  Lafayette  to  hold  Cornwallis 
where  he  was,  and  to  guard  especially  against  his  escape  into  Xorth 
Carolina.  He  wrote  also  to  Philadelphia,  —  to  Robert  Morris,  the 
financial  agent  of  the  government,  —  for  information  as  to  the  quan- 
tity of  stores  to  be  procured  for  the  use  of  the  army,  and  the  number 
of  vessels  to  be  had  for  transportation  down  the  Delaware  and  Ches- 
apeake Bays.  About  the  middle  of  the  month  came  definitive  news 
from  De  Grasse  that  he  would  be  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chesapeake  by 
the  end  of  August.  The  time  had  come  for  which  Washington  had 
been  waiting,  though  probably,  even  now,  not  a  man  in  the  allied 
armies  —  with  the  exception  of  the  Commander-in-chief  himself,  Ro- 
chambeau,  and  General  Heath,  who  was  to  be  left  in  command  of  the 
force  to  remain  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson — was  aware  of  the 
splendid  strategetical  movement  about  to  begin,  though  a  few  may 
have  suspected  it,  and  hoped  for  it. 

On  the  morning  of  the  19th  of  August  the  American  army  was 
ordered  under  arms,  with  its  face  toward  Xew  York,  an  ad-  The  allied 
vance-guard  having  been  sent  forward  to  clear  the  road  in  "™JTh 
that  direction.     But  when  the  order  to  march  was  given,   southward 
the  troops  were  faced  to  the  right  and  put  in  rapid  motion  for  King's 
Ferry,  on  the  North  River.     On  the  22d  they  had  safely  crossed  the 
river  and  were  encamped  at  Haverstraw.     On   the  19th,  also,  the 
French  army  moved,   marching   to  King's   Ferry  by  way  of   Xorth 
Castle,  occupying  all  the  roads  in  their  rear  to  guard  against  pursuit 
from  New  York,  should  Clinton  be  active  enough  to  attempt  it  — 
which  he  was  not.     It  was  not  till  the  26th  that  their  rear-ofuard  had 

o 

crossed  the  river.  u  To  misguide  and  bewilder  Sir  Henry  Clinton," 
wrote  Washington,  his  column,  about  two  thousand  strong,  marched 
toward  Springfield,  dragging  boats  upon  wheels,  as  if  Staten  Island 
were  the  object  of  the  movement.  The  French  marched  directly  for 
Trenton,  the  advance-guard  being  well  on  their  way  before  the  rear- 
guard had  crossed  the  Hudson. 

Clinton  did  not  discover  till  the  2d  of  September  that  the  supposed 
siege  of  New  York  was  raised,  and  that  the  allied  armies  —  with  the 
exception  of  Heath's  three  thousand  men  encamped  at  Fishkill  —  had 
disappeared.  The  American  troops  that  day  were  passing  through 
Philadelphia.  The  French  followed  them  on  the  3d.  There  could 


68 


END    OF   MILITARY   OPERATIONS. 


[CHAP.  III. 


]M''lii  ic.n  to 
New  I/ Hi- 
don. 


be  no  further  concealment  of  the  destination  of  the  armies.  They 
were  received  by  the  citi/.ens  with  unrestrained  enthusiasm,  for  none 
were  so  deaf  that  they  could  not  hear  in  the  steady  tramp  of  that 
armed  host  a  certain  prophecy  of  the  coming  of  great  events. 

It  may  have  been  with  the  hope  of  recalling  Washington  by  a 
threat  of  overrunning  New  England,  as  is  often  said,  that 
Clinton  despatched  an  expedition  against  New  London.  As 
the  expedition  sailed,  however,  on  the  very  day  he  learned 
that  the  allied  armies  were  well  on  the  way  to  Virginia,  the  plan  of 
sending  Arnold,  at  the  head  of  seventeen  hundred  men,  to  New  Lon- 
don, must  have  been  already  arranged.  Clinton,  indeed,  may  have 
hoped  that  it  would  influence  Washington's  movements;  but  its  origi- 
nal purpose  was  simply  a  predatory  raid  which  would  gather  rich 
booty,  and  inflict  great  loss  on  the  enemy  ;  for  New  London  was 

a  privateering 
port,  to  which 
valuable  car- 
goes were  of- 
ten taken.  A 
London  ship, 
t  li  e  Hannah, 
had  not  long 
before  been 
carried  in 
there  by  Cap- 
tain Dudley 

Saltonstall,  of  the  privateer  Minerva,  laden  with  the  richest  cargo 
that  had  been  shipped  to  America  during  the  war.1 

Arnold  landed  his  force  at  the  mouth  of  the  Thames  on  the  6th 
of  September,  and,  dividing  it  into  two  columns,  advanced  up  both 
banks  of  the  river.  That  on  the  New  London  side  Arnold  com- 
manded in  person,  and  between  him  and  the  town  was  only  a  single 
Aveak  fortification  —  Fort  Trumbull  —  held  by  only  three  or  four  and 
twenty  men,  under  Captain  Shapley,  who,  after  a  single  volley  which 
killed  several  of  the  enemy,  fled,  and  crossed  the  river  to  join  the 
garrison  of  Fort  Griswold,  on  the  Groton  side.  This  stronger  posi- 
tion might  have  made  good  its  defence,  had  not  the  militia  in  the 
neighborhood  declined  to  come  to  its  help,  though  willing  to  face  the 
enemy  on  the  open  field.  Lieutenant-colonel  Ledyard,  nevertheless, 
refused  to  surrender,  when  summoned,  even  under  the  threat  of  no 
quarter  should  the  place  be  carried. 

The  assailants  numbered  between  six  and  seven  hundred  men  ;  the 

1  History  of  New  London,  by  Miss  Caulking. 


New   London  —  Fac-limile  from  an  original  sketch   in   1776- 


1781.]  ARNOLD   AT  NEW   LONDON.  69 

garrison  only  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  or  forty.    The  assault  was 
on  two  sides  at  the  same  moment,  and  was  met  witli  great 
spirit.     Here  Colonel  Eyre  was  wounded  and  carried  f rom   Fort 

r  •/ 


wold. 


the  field.  On  the  other  side,  Major  Montgomery  led  his 
men  up  the  embankment,  and,  as  he  reached  the  top,  was  killed  with  a 
spear  by  Jordan  Freeman,  the  colored  servant  of  Colonel  Ledyard. 
But  a  struggle  with  such  .overwhelming  numbers  could  not  last  long. 
The  British  swarmed  over  the  ramparts,  and,  as  further  resistance 
was  useless,  Ledvard  ordered  his  men  to  throw  down  their  arms. 

*> 

Submission  only  invited  slaughter;  it  was  seven  men  to  one,  and  by 
sword  and  bullet  and  bayonet  tire  devoted  garrison  fell  on  all  sides. 
"Who  commands  this  fort?"  shouted  Major  Bromfield,  now  the 
British  commanding  officer.  "  I  did  ;  but  you  do  now,"  said  Ledyard, 
as  he  presented  his  sword.  Either  with  that  sword,  or  with  another 
in  the  hand  of  some  other  officer,  —  tradition  has  left  the  point  unset- 
tled,—  he  fell  on  the  instant,  transfixed  and  dead.  No  order  was 
given  to  stay  the  massacre  till  eighty-seven  of  the  garrison  were  killed 
and  thirty  wounded,  and  of  these  three  only  were  killed  before  Led- 
vard gave  the  order  to  surrender.  The  dead  were  stripped  of  their 
clothing,  and  when  preparations  were  made  for  blowing  up  the  mag- 
azine of  the  fort,  a  wagon,  on  which  the  wounded  were  piled,  was 
rolled  by  its  own  impetus  down  the  steep  declivity  of  the  hill,  tortur- 
ing all  and  killing  some  when  it  brought  up  suddenly  against  a  tree. 
That  region  had  known  much  of  Indian  warfare  in  the  early  years  of 
its  settlement,  but  the  barbarity  of  the  English  at  the  capture  of  Fort 
Griswold  had  no  parallel  in  the  cruelties  of  the  savage. 

Arnold,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  among  his  old  friends  and 
neighbors,  —  his  birthplace  and  the  home  of  his  youth  were  at  Nor- 
wich, a  few  miles  distant,  —  had  entered  New  London.  For  the  atroc- 
ities committed  at  Fort  Griswold  he  was  not  responsible,  and  in  the 
town  he  gave  orders  that  the  property  of  some  of  those  whom  he  rec- 
ognized should  be  spared ;  but  the  pillage  generally  was  unchecked. 
The  wharves,  and  all  the  shipping,  except  a  few  small  vessels  that 
escaped  up  the  river,  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  buildings  —  among 
them  the  Episcopal  church,  the  court-house,  the  custom-house,  the 
jail,  and  the  market,  —  were  destroyed.  Clinton  publicly  expressed 
regret  that  the  town  was  burned,  and  Arnold  said  it  was  an  accident. 
It  is  impossible  to  prove  that  it  was  not,  and,  so  far  as  Arnold  is  con- 
cerned, hardly  worth  while  to  disprove  it,  for  a  crime  more  or  less 
adds  little  to  his  infamy.  Accident,  however,  —  if  it  was  accident 
that  overruled  his  conduct,  —  was  singularly  consistent,  for  fire  left 
even  less  of  Groton,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  than  it  did  of  New 
London.  The  tradition  is,  that  he  carefully  directed  the  work  of 


70 


EXD   OF  MILITARY    OPERATIONS. 


[CHAP.  III. 


destruction  ;  and  it  is  related  that  a  Mrs.  Himnan  —  whose  guest 
Arnold  had  often  been  in  former  years,  and  whose  property,  for  the 
sake  of  that  old  friendship,  he  now  ordered  should  be  spared  —  was 
so  incensed  at  all  she  saw  done  by  his  orders,  that  she  seized  a  musket 
and  aiming  at  him,  as  he  sat  on  horseback  in  front  of  her  house,  would 
have  killed  him  then  and  there,  had  not  the  gun  missed  tire. 

Sir  G.  B.  Rodney,  the  British  Admiral  in  the  West  Indies,  learning 
The  west       that  De  Grasse  had  sailed  for  the  American  coast,  detached 


Heets.    Admiral  Sir  Samuel  Hood  in  pursuit,  with  fourteen  ships 
of  the  line.     He  arrived  in  the  Chesapeake  on  the  25th  of  August, 


"  Lord,  now  iettest  tnou  tny  servant  depart  in 


but  not  finding  the  French  .fleet, 
either  there  or  in  Delaware  Bay, 
kept  on  to  New  York.  On  the 

day  of  his  arrival  at  Sandy  Hook,  with  the  intelligence  that  De 
Grasse  was  somewhere  near  the  coast,  Clinton  heard  that  De  Barras 
had  sailed  from  Newport  with  the  French  fleet  under  his  command 
at  that  port.  Admiral  Graves,  with  five  ships  of  the  line  from  the 
squadron  in  New  York  Harbor,  reenforced  by  Hood,  put  to  sea,  in- 
tending, if  possible,  to  fall  in  either  with  De  Grasse  or  De  Barras 
before  they  could  form  a  junction,  not  doubting  that  the  British  fleet 


1781.]  THE   ALLIED   ARMIES  IN   VIRGINIA.  71 

was  more  than  a  match  for  either,  if  encountered  alone.  Not  meeting 
with  De  Ban-as,  they  sailed  for  the  Chesapeake,  where  De  Grasse 
had  arrived  on  the  30th. 

But  De  Grasse  alone  was  stronger  than  the  British  Admirals  had 
supposed,  and  on  the  5th  of  September  he  stood  out  to  sea  NBTal  en. 
to  give  battle.  His  force  was  twenty-four  ships,  to  nineteen  ^gte,™e"«pes 
of  the  enemy,  but  the  enemy  had  the  advantage  of  being  to  of  Virsima 
windward.  The  British  Admiral,  however,  failed  for  some  reason  to 
bring  all  his  ships  into  action,  and  the  result  of  the  encounter,  if  it 
was  anything  more  than  a  drawn  battle,  was  a  victory  for  the  French, 
as  they  destroyed  one  of  the  enemy's  vessels,  and  the  rest  were 
roughly  handled.  For  the  next  four  days,  De  Grasse  kept  at  sea, 
drawing  in  slowly  to  the  Capes  of  Virginia,  and  avoiding  another  en- 
gagement. His  object  was  gained  in  crippling  his  antagonist  ;  an 
absolute  victory  was  not  worth  the  risk  of  defeat,  for  the  loss  of  the 
possession  of  Chesapeake  Bay  would  be  the  ruin  of  the  expedition, 
which,  without  his  aid,  would  end  in  disaster.  To  Graves,  defeat 
would  be  only  the  loss  of  a  naval  battle  —  a  failure  to  gain  the  su- 
premacy in  the  Chesapeake,  for  which  he  was  contending ;  the  risk  of 
defeat,  therefore,  was  nothing  compared  to  the  importance  of  possi- 
ble victory.  One  avoided  further  encounter  by  which  he  might  lose 
everything,  and  could  gain  nothing  worth  fighting  for ;  the  other 
sought  a  battle  which,  if  successful,  would  give  him  all  he  was 
striving  for,  but,  if  lost,  would  leave  him  no  worse  off  than  before. 
De  Grasse  returned  to  his  anchorage  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  where  he 
found  De  Barras,  who,  by  keeping  well  out  to  sea,  had  escaped  his 
pursuers.  Graves  returned  to  Xew  York  baffled,  and  in  fact  defeated. 
Seaward  there  was  no  hope  for  Cornwallis. 

On  the  25th  of  September,  the   allied  armies  —  a  small  portion 
coming  by  water  down  the  Delaware  and  the  Chesapeake  — 
had  arrived  at  Williamsburg,1  where  they  were  joined  by  armies  m 
the  army  under  Lafayette.     Early  in  August,  Cornwallis,  in 
obedience    to  orders  from  Clinton,  had  evacuated  Portsmouth,  and 
taken  possession  of  and  fortified  Yorktown  and  Gloucester,  on  the  op- 

1  An  incident  occurred  on  this  march  which  we  do  not  remember  to  have  ever  seen  in 
print.  The  authority  for  it  is  General  Knox,  who  related  it  to  the  author's  father.  When 
passing  through  Pennsylvania,  General  Washington  and  his  staff,  General  Knox,  and 
others,  stopped  at  a  farm-house  to  breakfast.  When  the  meal  was  finished,  and  the  partv 
were  waiting  for  their  horses,  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  were  admitted  to  pay  their 
respects  to  the  Commander-in-chief,  for  whom  the  popular  love  and  admiration  were  uni- 
versal. Among  the  visitors  was  an  old  and  venerable  man,  evidently  the  patriarch  of  the 
place,  who  approached  Washington  and  stood  before  him  for  a  few  moments,  gazing  in 
his  face  without  speaking.  The  attitude  of  the  aged  patriot  was  observed  by  all  in  the 
room  in  perfect  silence,  when,  raising  his  hands  and  eyes  to  heaven,  he  exclaimed,  in  tones 
of  mingled  pathos  and  veneration  —  "  Lord,  now  lettcst  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace, 
for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation." 


72  EXD  OF  MILITARY  OPERATIONS.  [CHAP.  III. 

posite  banks  of  York  River.  In  accordance,  apparently,  with  his 
fixed  purpose  of  obeying  his  superior  officer,  on  whom  he 
at  York-  chose  tlitit  the  full  responsibility  should  rest,  he  made  no 
remonstrance,  though  not  approving  the  order.  He  was,  of 
course,  no  more  aware  then  than  Clinton  was,  that  subsequent  events 
would  prove  how  fatal  a  mistake  that  movement  was  ;  he  only  be- 
lieved that  his  enforced  inactivity  would  show  in  the  end  that  he  was 
right  and  Clinton  wrong,  while  apprehending  that  no  other  evil  would 
follow  than  the  loss  of  opportunity  for  a  successful  campaign.  There 
seems  to  be  almost  a  spice  of  satisfaction  in  the  curt  brevity  of  his 
despatches  to  Clinton  announcing  the  arrival  of  De  Grasse;  but  when 
he  learns  that  Washington  is  at  Williamsburg,  he.  sees  how  desperate 
his  position  is,  and  writes  to  Clinton  —  "If  you  cannot  relieve  me 
very  soon,  you  must  be  prepared  to  hear  the  worst ; ''  and  it  was  only 
after  he  was  compelled  to  surrender,  that  he  declared  the  post  was 
one  which  he  had  never  looked  upon  "in  a  favorable  light," — that  it 
could  "only  be  reckoned  an  intrenched  camp,''  —  that  "  nothing  but 
the  necessity  of  fortifying  it  as  a  post  to  protect  the  navy  could  have 
induced  any  person  to  erect  works  upon  it."  Clearly  as  he  saw  the 
end,  however,  when  he  knew  that  the  French  fleet  was  in  possession 
of  the  bay,  and  that  Washington  and  Rochambeau  were,  with  Lafay- 
ette, within  twenty  miles  of  him  on  the  Peninsula,  he  did  not  lose 
courage.  The  desperate  condition  of  affairs  seems,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  have  completely  bewildered  and  unnerved  Clinton.  He  had  no 
orders  to  give  Cornwallis — who  was  immovable  without  them  —  to 
provide  for  his  safety,  when  such  orders  might  possibly  have  saved 
him.  He  wrote  that  he  should  come  to  the  aid  of  his  unfortunate 
lieutenant ;  but  he  only  came  when  it  was  too  late. 

By  the  30th  of  September  Yorktown  was  surrounded,  from  a  point 
Yorktown  on  tne  river  above  to  another  below,  the  French  being  on 
besieged.  t]ie  ,-jght,  the  Americans  on  the  left.  Cornwallis  retired 
within  his  works,  and  for  the  next  nine  days  he  saw  weaving  around 
him  a  mingled  web  of  ditches,  redoubts,  and  batteries,  from  which  he 
could  never  break.  He  kept  up  a  frequent  fire  upon  the  busy  sol- 
diers, whose  task  was  never  intermitted,  by  night  or  by  day,  and  who 
were  sometimes  brought  down  dead  or  wounded ;  but  there  was  no 
reply  till  the  9th  of  October,  when  the  first  parallel  was  finished. 
A  battery,  on  that  day,  under  command  of  Col.  John  Lamb,  of  the 
artillery,  opened  fire,  the  match  being  applied  by  the  Commander-in- 
chief  to  the  first  gun  discharged.  Governor  Nelson,  of  Virginia,  was 
asked  to  direct  the  cannonading  of  the  town.  He  pointed  out  a  cer- 
tain house  as  likely  to  be,  from  its  size  and  appointments,  the  British 
headquarters.  The  house  was  his  own.1 

1  Sparks's  Writings  of  Washington. 


.. 

1781.]  SURRENDER   OF  CORNWALLIS.  73 

For  four  days  the  fire  was  incessant  ;  most  of  the  batteries  of  the 
enemy  were  ruined,  and  their  guns  dismounted ;  the  largest  English 
man-of-war  and  two  transports  in  the  harbor  were  set  on  fire  and 
destroyed.  The  situation  of  Cornwallis  was  becoming  daily  more 
desperate  ;  of  his  seven  thousand  men,  two  thousand  were  in  hospital, 
incapable  of  service  ;  his  assailants  were  not  less  than  fifteen  thou- 
sand, and  by  a  second  parallel  they  had  advanced  to  within  three  hun- 
dred yards  of  his  works.  But  Clinton  had  assured  him  that  on  the 
5th  he  should  sail  from  New  York  with  five  thousand  men,  and  come 
to  the  rescue.  Cornwallis  held  out  in  the  hope  of  his  coming. 

On  the  14th,  his  two  most  important  redoubts  were  carried  by  as- 
sault, —  one  by  Lafayette,  the  other  by  the  Baron  de  Viomenil.  On 
the  16th,  a  sortie  was  made,  before  daybreak,  on  the  other  side,  a 
hundred  Frenchmen  killed,  and  some  cannon  spiked  ;  but  reenforce- 
ments  coming  up  from  the  trenches,  the  British  were  driven  back 
within  their  works.  Eleven  days  had  passed,  and  Clinton  had  not 
come. 

Cornwallis  now  determined  to  trust  to  his  own  devices,  and  to  wait 
no  longer  for  help  from  New  York.     He  wrote,  indeed,  to 
Clinton  on  the  15th,  —  "The  safety  of  the  place  is  so  pre-  **•§»* 
carious  that  I  cannot  recommend  that  the  fleet  and  army 
should  run  great  risque  in  endeavouring  to  save  us."     The  sortie  had 
failed  even  to  gain  time ;  the  only  thing  left  was  to  save  the  army  by 
flight,  or  to  surrender  instantly.     Enough  of  the  convalescents  from 
the  hospitals  were  to  be  posted  upon  the  ramparts  for  a  pretence  that 
the  place  was  still  occupied ;  then  his  whole  effective  force  was  to  be 
embarked,  on  the  night  of  the  16th,  to  cross  the  river  to  Gloucester, 
leaving  behind  the  baggage,  the  stores,  the  sick,  and  the  wounded, 
commending  these   by  letter  to  the   humanity  of  Washington,  into 
whose  hands  they  were  about  to  fall. 

Gloucester  was  invested  by  three  thousand  five  hundred  men.  under 
General  Choise".  These  Cornwallis  proposed  to  fall  upon  suddenly, 
and,  breaking  through  them,  make  good  his  escape  into  the  upper 
country.  On  the  way  he  hoped  to  seize  horses  enough  to  mount  his 
army,  by  rapid  marches  delay  pursuit,  and  baffle  interruption  by  leav- 
ing it  uncertain  whether  his  object  was  to  retreat  to  North  Carolina 
or  join  Clinton  at  New  York. 

At  midnight  the  weather  favored  him,  and  the  first  division  crossed 
the  river.  But  as  the  boats  were  returning  for  the  second  Surrenderof 
division,  there  came  on  a  sudden  and  violent  storm,  which  Yorktowu 
dispersed  and  drove  them  down  the  river.  They  were  not  recovered 
till  after  daylight,  and  then  the  troops  that  had  crossed  were  brought 
back.  Yorktown  was  no  longer  tenable,  and  before  sunset  of  that 


74  END   OF   MILITARY  OPERATIONS.  [Cn.\r.  III. 

day  Cornwnllis  offered  to  surrender.  On  the  19th  the  terms  of  capit- 
ulation were  concluded.  In  the  imposing  ceremonies  of  surrender 
Cormvallis  took  no  part,  but  was  represented  by  General  O'Hara,  the 
second  in  command,  whose  sword,  when  presented  to  General  Lin- 
coln, was  immediately  returned  to  him.  The  commanding  General 
pleaded  illness  in  excuse  for  his  absence,  and,  in  truth,  he  had  reason 
for  illness ;  but  it  is  hardly  uncharitable  to  see  in  this  the  token  of 
that  insubordinate  and  impatient  temper  which  had  led,  in  some 
measure,  to  this  great  catastrophe.  That  had  happened  which,  he 
ought  to  have  reflected,  was,  in  certain  contingencies,  sure  to  happen  ; 
but  he  seems  to  have  thought  it  quite  as  great  an  outrage  that  he 
should  be  compelled  to  submit  to  the  inevitable,  as  that  he  should 
be  required  to  submit  to  the  judgment  and  authority  of  a  superior 
officer. 

On  that  day,  also,  Clinton  sailed  from  New  York  to  the  relief  of 
Yorktown  — to  sail  back  again  when,  on  the  24th,  off  the  Capes,  he 
learned  that  every  British  soldier  in  Virginia  was  a  prisoner  of  war. 
If  he  remembered  then  to  regret  his  own  dawdling,  it  was  probably, 
to  regret  only  that  he  had  been  too  cautious  ;  if  he  was  moved  to 
sympathy  for  his  unfortunate  countrymen,  tliat  sympathy,  perhaps, 
was  swallowed  up  in  reflections  upon  the  man  whose  obstinate  self- 
will,  he  believed,  had  first  frustrated  the  plans  of  his  Commander-in- 
chief,  and  then,  by  a  faithless  obedience  to  a  forced  construction  of 
orders,  brought  ruin  upon  his  army,  and  upon  his  country  disaster  for 
which  there  was  no  remedy. 


"Elizabeth  Town  Stage  wagon.     Two  days  to   Philadelphia." 
From  a  newspaper  advertisement,  1781. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

FIRST   YEARS   OF   PEACE. 

EFFECT  OF  THE  SURRENDER.  —  ACKNOWLEDGMENT  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  —  A  TREATY 
OF  PEACE  NEGOTIATED  AND  SIGNED. — THE  VERMONT  QUESTION.  —  ITS  FINAL 
SETTLEMENT.  —  CONDITION  AND  TEMPER  OF  THE  ARMY.  —  THE  XEWBURGH  AD- 
DRESSES.—  CESSATION  OF  HOSTILITIES.  —  EVACUATION  OF  NEW  YORK.  —  WASH- 
INGTON'S FAREWELL.  —  WEAKNESS  OF  CONGRESS.  —  RELATIONS  OF  THE  FEDERAL 
AND  STATE  GOVERNMENTS.  —  NECESSITY  FOR  UNION.  —  COMMERCIAL  POLICY.  — 
THE  ARMY.  —  THE  NORTHWEST  TERRITORY. —  THE  ORDINANCE  OF  1787.  —  THE 
QUESTION  OF  REVENUE.  —  SHAYS'S  REBELLION. 

THE  surrender  of  Cornwallis  was  virtually  the  end  of  war  between 
England  and  America.  On  the  25th  of  November,  the  dis-  Effe(.toftbe 
agreeable  tidings  reached  London.  The  struggle  thence-  6Urrender- 
forth  was  to  be  a  struggle  of  party,  not  of  arms.  Parliament  met 
two  days  afterward,  and  amendments  were  moved  in  both  houses  to 
that  portion  of  the  King's  address  in  which  a  vigorous  prosecution  of 
the  war  was  proposed,  notwithstanding  this  crowning  disaster  at 
Yorktown.  Any  appeal  in  the  Upper  House  to  common  sense  or  to 
the  sense  of  national  justice,  was  of  coui'se  hopeless.  In  the  Com- 
mons the  opposition  grew  day  by  day  more  vigorous.  Outside  of 
both,  a  large  body  of  the  people  were  tired  of  wasting  life  and  treas- 
ure to  no  purpose,  and  were  alarmed  at  the  rapid  progress,  both  by 
sea  and  by  land,  of  the  French  in  the  insular  English  colonies. 

Lord  George  Gennaine  was  first  thrown  over  to  appease  the 
clamor  for  peace.  It  was  not  enough.  In  February,  1782,  a  res- 
olution was  passed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  declaring  that  they 
who  advised  a  continuation  of  the  war  in  America  were  enemies  of 
their  country.  Two  or  three  weeks  later,  repeated  motions  of  cen- 
sure of  the  Ministry  and  of  want  of  confidence  were  only  lost  by 
small  and  decreasing  majorities  at  each  motion.  The  indignant  King 
threatened  to  retire  to  Holland  ;  but  the  threat  frightened  nobody. 
In  March,  Lord  North  announced  the  dissolution  of  his  administra- 
tion, and  a  new  one  was  soon  formed,  with  Lord  Rockingham  at  its 
head,  and  the  Earl  of  Shelburne  as  Secretary  for  the  Colonies. 


76 


FIRST   YEARS   OF   PEACE. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


Independ- 
ence ac- 
knowledged 


The  first  condition  of  Rockingham's  consent  to  accept  office  was 
the  independence  of  the  United  States.  Informal  measures 
to  that  end  were  taken  in  April,  when  Mr.  Richard  Oswald 
was  sent  by  Shelburne  to  Paris  to  confer  with  Franklin,  one 
of  the  American  Commissioners  in  Europe,  with  John  Adams,  John 
Jay,  and  Henry  Laurens.1  Delay  arose  in  the  first  place  from  a  dif- 
ference between  the  two  Secretaries  of  State,  Shelburne  and  Fox, 
each  claiming  that  negotiations  with  America  belonged  to  his  office. 
But  this  embarrassment  ended  when,  on  the  death  of  Rockingham  in 

July,  Shelburne  became  First 
Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  Fox 
retired  from  office.  This,  how- 
ever, disposed  of  only  an  initial 
difficulty  ;  for,' when  official  rela- 
tions were  established  between 
the  English  and  American 
Commissioners,  the  preliminary 
question,  whether  independence 
should  be  acknowledged  before 
negotiations  were  entered  upon, 
or  whether  it  should  be  an  arti- 
cle of  the  treaty  itself,  had  first 
to  be  settled.  Jay  especially 
insisted  upon  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  independence  as  a  nec- 
essary preliminary  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  a  treaty.  Both  he 
and  Adams  believed  that  this 
was  contrary  to  the  wishes  and 
purpose  of  Vergennes,  the  French  minister,  and  that  his  influence 
was  secretly  used  against  America  on  the  question  of  the  boundaries 
and  that  of  the  fisheries  It  was,  moreover,  the  interest  of  Eng- 
land that  the  negotiations  between  the  several  powers  should  be  sep- 
arate and  distinct.  With  France  and  Spain  the  reverse  was  true, 
as  they  hoped,  by  prolonging  negotiations  and  entangling  the  Amer- 
ican claims  and  proposals  with  their  own,  to  make  better  terms  for 
themselves. 

1  LauiTiis  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  of  London  for  nearly  two  years,  having  been 
captured  on  his  way  to  Holland  in  the  summer  of  1780.  Among  his  papers  was  found 
the  draft  of  a  treaty,  which  had  neither  the  sanction  of  the  States  General  nor  of  Con- 
gress, but  had  been  drawn  up  by  William  Lee  and  certain  private  persons  in  Amsterdam. 
It  was  held,  however,  in  England,  to  be  evidence  of  hostility  on  the  part  of  Holland,  and 
led  to  a  rupture  between  the  two  governments.  Laurens  was  exchanged  for  Cornwallis 
after  the  negotiations  for  peace  between  the  United  States  and  England  were  begun. 


Cour.t  de  Vergennps. 


1782.]  THE   PRELIMINARY   TREATY.  77 

A  satisfactory  settlement  of  these  questions  was  at  length  reached, 
the  most  difficult  —  that  relating  to  the  preliminary  acknowledgment 
of  independence  —  by  the  assent  of  Jay  to  the  use  of  the  term  "  the 
thirteen  United  States  of  America,"  instead  of  naming  each  State, 
as  the  equivalent  of  preliminary  recognition.  In  the  discussion  of  the 
details  of  a  treaty,  the  disagreements,  though  serious,  were 

i        TI        i*       j»         •    -ij.  ,  .  Negotiation 

overcome  by  England  s  yielding  on  the  more  important  ques-  of  a  treaty 
tions  to  the  determination  of  the  United  States.  England 
wished  to  retain  the  valley  of  the  Ohio ;  to  extend  the  western  line 
of  Nova  Scotia  so  as  to  enclose  a  larger  portion  of  the  territory  of 
Maine ;  to  insure  compensation  to  Tories  for  their  losses ;  to  deprive 
Americans  of  the  right  to  fish  on  the  Grand  Bank,  and  the  privilege 
of  drying  fish  on  British  territory.  But  by  the  treaty  the  eastern 
boundary-line  of  the  United  States  was  made  the  St.  Croix ;  the 
northern,  the  St  Lawrence  and  the  Lakes ;  the  western,  the  Missis- 
sippi —  which  was  to  be  free  to  both  nations  —  to  its  supposed 
source  ;  the  southern,  not  differing  essentially  from  the  present  north- 
ern line  of  Florida  when  extended  to  the  Mississippi.  Restitution  of 
property  to  Loyalists  by  Congress  was  impossible,  as  confiscation  was 
the  act  of  the  States.  The  Commissioners  could  only  agree  that  the 
several  States  should  be  advised  to  make  compensation  ;  knowing 
very  well,  and  saying  so  frankly,  that  not  the  least  heed  would  be 
paid  to  that  gratuitous  suggestion.  It  was  provided,  however,  that 
there  should  be  no  further  confiscations,  and  no  impediments  should 
be  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  collection  of  debts  incurred  before  the 
war.  The  right  to  the  fisheries  in  eastern  waters,  and  the  privilege 
of  drying  fish  on  the  uninhabited  lands  of  the  coast,  were  secured 
to  the  Americans  by  the  persistence  of  John  Adams,  who  would  not 
desert  the  interests  of  Northern  industry.  Laurens,  the  Southern 
Commissioner,  was  also  careful  to  I'emember  the  Southern  working- 
men  ;  he  guarded  against  their  asserting  their  right  to  the  "  pur- 
suit of  happiness,"  in  the  prohibition  of  "  carrying  away  any  ne- 
groes" in  the  withdrawal  of  British  troops  and  ships  from  the  United 
States. 

These  were  the  essential  stipulations  of  the  preliminary  treaty,  the 
first  article  of  which  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  late 
colonies  —  for  that,  as  the  unhappy  King  had  said,  was  "  the  dread- 
ful price  "  of  peace.  It  was  signed  on  the  30th  of  November,  1782, 
but  the  final  ratification  was  delayed  nearly  a  year.  The  three  allied 
powers  were  pledged  to  each  other  not  to  conclude  a  peace  except 
by  common  consent ;  and  the  United  States,  therefore,  was  compelled 
to  wait  for  the  more  difficult  adjustment  of  the  differences  between 
Great  Britain  and  France  and  Spain. 


78  FIRST  YEARS  OF  PEACE.  [CHAP.  IV. 

That  long  season  of  waiting  was  a  time  of  trial  in  the  United 

States  —  trials  both  civil  and  military.     Civil  war  on  the  northern 

frontier  had  more  than  once  seemed  inevitable  in  the  course 

The  Vor- 

mom  HUPS-  of  the  current  years,  as  a  consequence  of  the  determination 
of  Vermont  to  maintain  her  existence  as  an  independent 
State  in  spite  of  the  territorial  claims  of  New  York  on  one  side,  of 
New  Hampshire  on  the  other,  and  the  support  which  both  received 
from  Congress.  The  case  was  one  always  of  serious  import ;  and  in 
the  spring  of  1781  it  put  on  a  new  and  alarming  aspect. 

Vermont  had  repeatedly  asked  for  admission  into  the  Union,  but 
this  had  been  denied  her,  partly  because  of  the  opposition  of  her 
neighbors,  who  claimed  her  territory,  and  partly  because  of  the 
jealousy  of  the  Southern  States,  who  feared  then,  as  they  have  feared 
ever  since,  the  admission  of  any  Northern  State  without  a  Southern 
State  to  counterbalance  it. 

But  Vermont,  claiming  now  to  be  a  State,  had  no  political  existence 
as  a  distinct  colony  of  the  Crown  at  the  time  when  the  other  thirteen 
States  were  created  by  an  agreement  between  the  representatives  of 
thirteen  revolting  royal  colonies.  The  thirteen  new  States,  therefore, 
were  under  no  legal  obligation  to  admit  that  community  of  citizens 
into  their  confederacy  as  a  fourteenth  State.  And  of  course  it  was 
equally  true  that  those  citizens,  if  they  had  established  an  autonomy 
of  their  own,  were  quite  as  free  from  any  obligation  to  the  Union  as  the 
Union  was  to  them.  If,  however,  the  half  of  Vermont  belonged  to 
New  York  and  the  other  half  to  New  Hampshire,  the  question  involved 
another  consideration.  As  the  members  of  the  confederacy  were 
bound  to  defend  the  territory  of  one  another,  then  the  duty  of  Con- 
gress was  clear  if  the  claims  of  those  two  States  were  unquestionable. 

But  there  was  no  such  easy  solution  of  the  difficulty.  The  ques- 
tion involved,  in  the  first  place,  the  interpretation  of  the  original 
patent  to  the  Plymouth  Company,  in  1620,  and  their  grants  in  the 
several  New  England  States;  and  in  the  second  place,  the  meaning 
of  the  terms  of  the  grant  to  James,  Duke  of  York,  in  1664,  and  its 
renewal  in  lb'74.  Even  the  most  modern  title  to  the  lands  west  of 
the  Connecticut,  on  which  New  York  could  rely,  —  that  the  King 
and  Council,  induced  to  do  so,  it  was  alleged,  by  false  representations, 
had  declared,  in  176.3,  that  the  west  bank  of  the  river  was  her  east- 
ern boundary,  —  was  offset,  in  a  measure,  by  a  royal  order  of  1767, 
forbidding  New  York  to  make  any  more  grants  of  land  in  the  dis- 
puted territory.  This  order  was  never  rescinded,  and  the  Crown, 
therefore,  it  was  declared,  had  resumed  authority  over  the  region  in 
question  as  royal  domain. 

At  the  breaking  out  of   the   Revolution,   the  "  Green    Mountain 


1782.] 


THE   VERMONT   QUESTION. 


79 


The  flreen 
Mountain 
Bo>8. 


Boys,"  as  they  called  them- 
selves, were  in  ac- 
tual  possession  of 
the  countiy  ;  for, 
though  New  York  had  dis- 
obeyed the  royal  injunction, 
and  had  continued  to  grant 
the  lands,  she  was  unable  to 
establish  her  authority  in 
the  disputed  territory.  On 
whom,  then,  when  the  royal 
prerogative  ceased,  did  the 
title  devolve?  The  "Green 
Mountain  Boys,"  by  con- 
ventions and  committees, 
and  actual  service  in  the 
field,  took  their  share  in 
the  work  of  revolt,  as  a  dis- 
tinctive people.  In  1777 
they  declared  themselves  an 
independent  State,  adopted 
a  Constitution,  and  elected 
a  Governor  and  other  State 


853 


/  Cr' 


Scene  in  the  Green   Mountains. 


80  FIRST  YEARS   OF   PEACE.  [CHAP.  IV. 

officers.  Their  right  to  political  existence  was  precisely  the  same 
as  that  of  any  of  the  late  colonies,  —  the  right  of  successful  rebellion 
and  of  successful  self-government  in  the  country  they  occupied  and 
were  able  to  defend  against  all  coiners. 

Threatened  by  the  public  enemy  on  their  northern  border ;  threat- 
ened in  the  possession  of  the  homes  they  had  made  for  themselves  in 
that  rugged  and  inhospitable  region  ;  frowned  upon  by  Congress ; 
seeing  the  face  of  no  really  earnest  friend  anywhere  except  in  Massa- 
chusetts, the  lot  of  the  sturdy  mountaineers,  who  from  the  beginning 
had  never  swerved  in  their  devotion  to  the  American  cause,  was  a 
hard  one.  In  1780  a  fresh  appeal  was  made  to  Congress  for  admis- 
sion to  the  Union,  declaring  that,  should  it  be  still  in  vain,  they 
would  propose  to  the  other  New  England  States  and  to  New  York, 
"  an  alliance  and  confederation  for  mutual  defence,  independent  of 
Congress  and  of  the  other  States."  If  neither  Congress  nor  the 
Northern  States  would  listen  to  them,  then,  said  the  memorial, 
"  they  are,  if  necessitated  to  it,  at  liberty  to  offer  or  accept  terms  of 
cessation  of  hostilities  with  Great  Britain  without  the  approbation 
of  any  other  man  or  body  of  men  .  .  .  for  she  has  not  the  most 
distant  motive  to  continue  hostilities  with  Great  Britain,  and  main- 
tain an  important  frontier  for  the  benefit  of  the  United  States,  and 
for  no  other  reward  than  the  ungrateful  one  of  being  enslaved  by 
them." 

The  reception  of  the  Vermont  agents  by  Congress  was  unsatis- 
factory ;  the  proposal  was  made  to  the  neighboring  States  for  an 
alliance,  but  this,  of  course,  was  unsuccessful.  The  Legislature  of 
New  York,  however,  was  so  impressed  with  the  seriousness  of  the 
crisis  as  to  be  able  to  see  that  Vermont  had  justice  on  her  side. 
In  February,  1781,  the  Senate  of  that  State,  with  only  a  single  dis- 
senting vote,  proposed  to  recognize  the  independence  of  Vermont. 
The  House  voted  to  take  up  the  resolutions  sent  from  the  Senate, 
when  a  message  was  received  from  Governor  Clinton,  which  put  an 
end  to  the  proceedings.  The  Governor  threatened  that  if  the  sub- 
ject were  not  dropped,  he  would  prorogue  the  Legislature. 

Affairs  put  on  presently  a  new  and  more  serious  aspect.  In  the 
inTasion  spring  a  force  of  ten  thousand  men  from  Canada  threatened 
threatened.  an  jnvasion  across  the  northern  border.  Washington  could 
not  spare  a  man  from  his  army,  and  New  York  and  Vermont  were 
left  to  provide  for  their  own  defence.  The  panic  was  intense,  and 
the  people  of  northern  New  York  were  preparing  to  abandon  their 
homes  and  fly  before  an  enemy  whom  there  was  not  sufficient  force 
to  resist.  Vermont  met  the  emergency  by  sending  Ira  Allen  —  a 
brother  of  Ethan  Allen  —  as  a  'toaimissioner  to  Isle  aux  Noix,  in 


1782.]  THE   VERMONT    QUESTION.  81 

May,  to  meet  commissioners  from  Canada.  An  armistice  and  an 
exchange  of  prisoners  were  agreed  upon,  the  temporary  cessation  of 
hostilities  including  New  York  as  well  as  Vermont. 

This  power  Vermont  assumed  as  an  independent  State  ;  but  it  had 
more  significance  than  the  conclusion  of  a  temporary  peace.  The 
anomalous  position  of  her  people  had  been  for  some  time  an  object 
of  interest  to  the  British  Government.  Haldimand,  Governor  of 
Canada,  had  written  to  Lord  George  Germaine,  nearly  two  years 
before,  of  the  differences  between  Vermont  and  her  neighbors,  and 
Germaine  had  replied  that  "much  advantage  might  be  derived"  from 
that  circumstance,  should  the  hope  be  held  out  to  them  of  being 
made  a  separate  province  under  the  King. 

In  March,  1781,  Beverley  Robinson,  the  refugee  Colonel,  wrote  on 
behalf  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  to  Ethan  Allen,  repeating 

.  J  .  Vermont 

Germaine  s  suggestion,  and  urging  the  return  ot  the  people   tempted  to 
of  Vermont  to  their  allegiance  to  the  King.     No  response  urituh 

Province. 

was  made  to  this  letter  by  Allen,  and  in  February  of  the 
next  year  it  was  repeated,  but  with  the  suggestion,  now  changed  into 
a  positive  assurance,  that  the 
reward  of  a  revolt  against  the 
Union  into  which  Vermont 
Avas  not  admitted,  should  be  her 
independence  as  a  British  prov- 
ince. The  next  month  Allen, 
after  consultation  with  the  Gov- 
ernor and  others,  sent  both  let- 
ters to  the  President  of  Con- 
gress. In  April  they  were  laid 
before  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  State.  Ira  Allen  went, 
a  month  later,  to  meet  Haldi- 
mand's  commissioners  and  ne- 
gotiate an  armistice  and  cartel, 
and  then  an  earnest  discussion 
was  held  upon  this  subject. 
Allen,  at  first,  talked  only  of 
neutrality,  with  the  under- 

•'  Governor  George  Clinton. 

standing    that    when    the    war 

was  over,  they  would  give  their  allegiance  to  the  ruling  power,  who- 
ever it  might  be,  on  condition  of  receiving  a  free  charter;  but  without 
that,  he  said,  —  like  his  brother  Ethan,  he  was  prone  "to  wreak  him- 
self upon  expression,"  —  "they  would  return  to  the  Mountains,  turn 
Savages,  and  fight  the  Devil,  Hell,  and  Human  Nature  at  large." 
VOL.  iv.  6 


82  FIRST  YEARS   OF  PEACE.  [CHAP.  IV. 

"  The  conduct  of  the  Vermontese,"  wrote  General  Schuyler  to 
Washington,  about  this  time,  "  is  mysterious."  Dangerous  conse- 
quences, he  thought,  might  follow  this  intercourse  with  the  enemy, 
though  he  did  not  believe  that  the  people  generally  understood  it  to 
be  anything  else  than  a  scheme  to  alarm  New  York  and  Congress, 
that  the  independence  of  Vermont  might  be  acknowledged.  The 
only  way  to  end  this  unhappy  condition  of  things,  and  to  test  the  con- 
duct of  the  leaders,  was  to  admit  the  State  into  the  Union. 

The  mystery  which  Schuyler  saw  in  the  conduct  of  the  Vermontese 
has  been  a  mystery  ever  since.  The  negotiations  continued  from 
that  time,  and  the  question  has  been,  and  still  is,  whether  the  Aliens, 
Chittenden,  and  their  associates  had  any  serious  intention  of  becom- 
ing a  British  province,  or  whether  they  meant  to  deceive  and  amuse 
the  British,  on  the  one  hand,  and  alarm  the  Americans,  on  the  other, 
that  they  might  secure  their  admission  to  the  Union.  The 

Negotiations  . J  '  .  . 

with  the       conclusion  reached  by  many  writers  is,  that,  in  the  one  case. 

British.  .  J  J  T 

their  conduct  was  hardly  that  of  honorable  men,  and,  in  the 
other,  that  of  men  who  were  traitors  to  their  country.  But  the  more 
obvious  construction  seems  also  the  most  rational :  By  right  of  revo- 
lution the  country  they  occupied  was  their  own  ;  if  the  war  did  not 
secure  independence  to  them,  as  it  did  to  the  colonies  of  the  Union, 
they  reserved  to  themselves,  as  they  frankly  said,  the  right  of  choice 
of  sovereigns ;  they  preferred  to  be  an  independent  province  under 
the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  rather  than  cease  to  be  a  province  at  all, 
and  become  the  subjects  of  a  State  they  detested.  The  justification 
of  the  revolt  of  the  colonies  was  their  justification.  They  prayed  to 
be  a  part  of  that  Union  which  none  believed  in  more  firmly,  or  fought 
for  more  earnestly ;  if  that  was  denied  them,  they  meant  to  take  the 
next  best  thing,  —  a  union  with  Great  Britain  rather  than  submis* 
sion  to  New  York.  They  said  this  frankly,  and  they  meant  to 

deceive  nobody.     They  would  have  gladly  accepted  union 

Their  pur-  J  .   i         ••         TT    •       i     n  i  •! 

pose  and  re-  at  any  moment  with  the  United  btates ;  they  temporized 
with  Great  Britain  because  they  did  not  mean,  except  in 
the  last  extremity,  to  be  driven  into  her  embraces.  They  restricted 
their  boundaries  on  the  New  Hampshire  side  for  the  sake  of  peace ; 
they  gave  up  on  the  New  York  side,  by  order  of  Congress,  territory 
they  had  annexed,  —  no  doubt  injudiciously  and  wrongfully,  but  in 
the  hope  of  strengthening  their  position, — as  both  concessions  were 
required  as  the  price  of  admission  to  the  Union,  though  the  promise 
was  not  kept.  And  more  than  all,  two  indubitable  facts  testify  to 
the  patriotism  of  the  "  Vermontese,"  and  to  the  rightfulness  of  all 
they  contended  for:  When  peace  was  declared,  Vermont  was  not  a 
British  province,  though  the  State  was  not  admitted  to  the  Union 


1782.]  THE   ARMY   WAITING   FOR   PEACE.  83 

till  1791 ;  and  her  western  boundary  to-day  is  that  which  she  main- 
tained in  her  struggle  with  New  York,  —  twenty  miles  east  of  the 
Hudson  River.1 

During  the  two  years  of  negotiation  and  waiting  for  the  final  con- 
summation of  peace  between  the  allied  powers,  there  were  Waiting  {or 
no  general  military  operations.  The  distant  rumbling,  as  fetce- 
of  a  retiring  storm,  of  Indian  hostilities  in  the  new  settlements  of  the 
South  and  West,  and  of  skirmishes  with  marauding  parties  in  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  was  the  only  indication  in  the  clash  of  arms 
that  the  long  struggle  was  not  yet  quite  finished.  But  the  letters  of 
the  Commander-in-chief  during  this  period  show  how  anxious  and 
dubious  he  was  as  to  the  prospect  of  a  permanent  peace,  and  whether 
he  might  not  be  compelled  to  enter  upon  a  new  campaign  with  an 
army  smaller  and  more  destitute  than  ever,  and  behind  it  a  people 
incapable,  perhaps,  of  being  aroused  again  to  that  height  of  enthu- 
siasm and  devotion  which  had  hitherto  sustained  them.  Financial 
difficulties  continued  to  beset  the  Republic,  whose  paper  money,  both 
national  and  state,  had  become  almost  absolutely  worthless ;  the  in- 
dustry of  the  country  was  paralyzed ;  commerce  was  almost  annihi- 
lated ;  large  portions  of  the  States,  especially  at  the  South,  were 
devastated ;  poverty  was  universal ;  and  the  revulsion  of  a  long  war 
brought  its  own  inevitable  troubles. 

Clinton  was  recalled  soon  after  the  surrender  of  Yorktown,  and 
Sir  Guy  Carleton  arrived  at  New  York  to  take  his  place.  As  Carle- 
ton  was  much  the  better  soldier,  as  well  as  abler  man,  his  appoint- 
ment was  not  encouraging  to  the  Americans  in  the  event  of  a  renewal 
of  hostilities.  He  not  only  continued  to  hold  New  York,  but  even 
Savannah  was  not  evacuated  till  the  summer  of  1782,  nor  Charleston 
till  the  following  December.  It  was  impossible  to  disband  the  Amer- 
ican army  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy ;  and  while  negotiations 
dragged  their  slow  length  along  at  Paris,  Washington,  with  his  im- 
poverished and  impatient  troops  at  Newburgh,  watched  Carleton  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Hudson. 

That  an  army  half-starved,  half-naked,  without  pay,  and  with  noth- 
ing to  do,  should  become  also  discontented  and  grow  ripe  for 

•      i  •    e     •  i  11  rr>i  i  Condition 

mischief,  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.      I  he  wonder  rather  is,  and  temper 

i  "iiiii  i  i  11  T  -i  °'  '^e  army. 

that  evil  should  have  been  threatened  only  and  not  done  ; 
that  men  who  had  taken  cities  should  be  great  enough,  with  arms 
in  their  hands,  to  rule  their  own  spirits,  put  aside  their  own  wrongs 
and  many  provocations,  submit  to  the  first  command  of  discipline, 
and  listen  to  the  first  sober  injunction  of  common  sense  and  patriot- 

1  See  Collections  of  Vermont  Hist.  Soc.,  vols.  i.  and  ii.,  and  Documents  and  Records  relating 
to  New  Hampshire,  vol.  x. 


. 


84 


FIRST  YEARS   OF  PEACE. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


ism.  Some  of  them  knew  almost  no  other  government  than  military 
rule ;  they  felt  its  strength  in  the  creation  of  a  nation,  and  the  instru- 
ments of  that  achievement  they  held  in  their  own  hands.  For  such 
civil  government  as  there  was,  they  had  small  respect ;  for  they  saw 
its  imbecility  in  the  long-suffering  of  years,  in  hunger,  in  nakedness, 
in  the  poverty  to  which  their  own  devotion  to  their  country  had 
brought  their  wives  and  children  at  home.  There  was  little  promise 
of  future  pensions  in  the  long  arrears  of  pay  which  Congress  could 
not,  or  —  as  they  sometimes  suspected — would  not,  discharge.  If 
their  wrongs  were  ever  to  be  righted,  they  felt  that  they  must  be 


Headquarters  at   Newburgh. 

righted  by  themselves,  and  righted  now  while  it  was  in  their  power. 
What  reliance,  they  asked  each  other,  can  we  have,  when  the  army  is 
dissolved  and  we  are  scattered  and  helpless,  upon  the  gratitude  of  a 
i-ountry  which,  while  we  are  together  and  powerful,  denies  us  justice  ? 
Justice  was  all  that  most  of  the  men  asked,  though  there  were  dem- 
agogues and  mischief-makers  among  them  who  had  quite  other  pur- 
poses. Greene  hanged  one  of  these  in  his  camp,  in  South  Carolina, 
who  stirred  up  a  mutiny,  one  design  of  which  was  to  kidnap  the  Gen- 
eral, and  deliver  him  as  a  prisoner  to  the  British  in  Charleston.1  But 

1  There  is  a  tradition  at  Newbur<;h  that  a  similar  plan  to  capture  Washington  and 
deliver  him  a  prisoner  at  New  York,  was  revealed  to  the  Commander-in-chief  by  the 
daughter  of  the  man  who  made  the  attempt.  It  was  frustrated  by  the  warning  given,  and 
the  man  was  arrested,  but  permitted  to  leave  the  country,  in  kindness  to  his  daughter 
No  soldier,  however,  was  engaged  in  this  conspiracy  —  if  it  ever  existed. 


1782.]  CONDITION   AND  TEMPER   OF   THE   ARMY.  85 

no  such  desperate  measures  were  ever  revealed  in  the  army  on  the 
Hudson.  The  troops  would  have  followed  Washington  to  Philadel- 
phia at  a  nod,  and  dispersed  Congress,  if  their  demands  were  not 
acceded  to ;  but  there  was  no  insubordination,  no  wish  to  usurp 
power  and  displace  civil  with  military  rule.  There  were  some  who 
seem  to  have  doubted  the  wisdom  of  attempting  to  establish  a  repub- 
lic ;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  were  many  or  very  earnest  in 
that  opinion. 

'One  of  these,  a  Colonel  Lewis  Nicola,  a  foreigner  by  birth  and 
education,  a  meritorious  officer,  esteemed  by  Washington, 
wrote,  in  the  spring  of  1782,  a  remarkable  letter  to  the  proposed  to 
General,  in  which  it  is  alleged  that  he  spoke  for  some  others 
as  well  as  himself.  The  occasion,  however,  was  one  where  conjec- 
ture was  not  in  the  least  likely  to  fall  short  of  the  truth.  Nicola 
was  alone  responsible  for  the  letter,  and  no  great  importance,  perhaps, 
would  ever  have  attached  to  it,  had  it  not  been  that  Washington 
thought  it  worthy  of  a  signal  rebuke.  The  wretched  condition  of 
the  country,  and  the  distress  and  poverty  of  the  troops,  were  the  mov- 
ing cause  of  the  appeal,  and  these  were  attributed  to  the  imbecility 
of  government,  —  the  fatal  weakness  inherent  in  republics.  A  mixed 
government,  it  was  argued,  was  more  conducive  to  the  happiness  of 
the  people,  and  this  might  be  established  under  that  great  chief  who 
had  led  the  army  in  a  successful  war  of  eight  years.  In  obedience 
to  popular  prejudice,  "it  might  not  at  first  be  prudent  to  assume  the 
title  of  royalty,"  but  when  "all  other  things  were  once  adjusted,  the 
title  of  King"  might  be  admitted.  It  was,  Washington  said,  "with 
a  mixture  of  surprise  and  astonishment  "  that  he  read  this  letter ;  no 
occurrence  during  the  war  had  given  him  more  painful  sensations 
than  the  assurance  that  such  ideas  existed  in  the  army,  and  he 
viewed  them  with  abhorrence  and  reprehended  them  with  severity. 
He  conjured  his  friend  to  banish  such  thoughts  from  his-  mind,  if 
he  had  any  regard  for  his  country,  concern  for  himself  or  his  pos- 
terity, or  respect  for  his  chief.  Had  the  movement,  if  it  was  im- 
portant enough  to  deserve  that  designation,  been  very  much  stronger 
than  it  was,  Washington's  decisive  and  indignant  reply  would  have 
made  an  end  of  it. 

The  complaints  of  the  army,  however,  were  not  silenced  ;  they 
grew  louder  as  the  months  wore  on ;  the  men  were  still  without  pay, 
and  were  not  permitted  to  return  to  their  homes  ;  violent  outbreaks 
were  not  unfrequent  among  the  least  intelligent  of  the  soldiers,  and 
many  doubted  whether  thev  were  not  cruelly  trilled  with  by  conceal- 

t/  •/«/*. 

ing  from  them  the  fact  of  the  supposed  conclusion  of  peace  between 
the  two  governments.  They  could  not  easily  comprehend  the  nature 


86  FIRST   YEARS   OF  PEACE.  [CHAP.  IV. 

and  the  necessity  of  the  protracted  negotiations  carried  on  at  Paris 
and  London. 

But  in  the  winter  of  1782—83,  the  proposed  redress  of  griev- 
ances assumed  a  more  practical  form  than  that  presented  in  Colonel 
Nicola's  letter,  and  received  the  hearty  approval  of  the  Com- 
mander-in-chief. A  memorial,  assented  to  by  the  principal  officers 
of  the  army,  as  a  calm  and  candid  presentation  of  its  claims 
upon  the  Government,  was  taken  to  Congress  by  a  committee  of 
three,  —  General  McDougal,  Colonel  Ogden,  and  Colonel  Brooks. 
Immediate  attention  was  given  to  it,  and  the  friends  of  the  army  in 
Congress  probably  did  the  best  they  could  in  a  proposed  adjustment 
of  arrears  of  pay,  and  the  question  of  future  pensions.  But  party 
politics  had  too  much  weight  even  upon  a  question  which  should  have 
been  settled  upon  the  single  principle  of  common  justice.  Neither 
the  thing  done,  therefore,  nor  the  way  of  doing  it,  was  satisfactory  at 
Newburgh,  and  affairs  put  on  a  more  threatening  aspect  than  ever. 
The  camp  was  a  magazine,  which  needed  only  a  torch,  applied 
at  the  right  place  and  at  the  right  moment,  to  produce  a  terrible 
explosion. 

The  torch  was  lighted,  but  fortunately  the  strong  hand  was  ready 
to  extinguish  it  on  the  instant.  On  the  10th  of  March  an  anony- 
mous notice  was  circulated,  calling  a  meeting  of  the  general 
burgh  Ad-  and  field  officers,  a  commissioned  officer  from  each  company, 
and  a  delegate  from  the  medical  staff,  to  consider  the  late 
action  of  Congress,  "  and  what  measures,  if  any,  should  be  adopted  to 
obtain  that  redress  of  grievances  which  they  seem  to  have  solicited  in 
vain."  With  the  notice  was  issued  an  address,  —  written,  it  was 
found  years  afterward,  by  John  Armstrong,1  then  a  Major  and  an 

1  Gordon,  in  his  History  of  the  American  Revolution  (London,  1783)  says  of  the  ad- 
dresses that  they  were,  "  though  anonymous,  known  since  to  have  been  drawn  up  by  Major 
Armstrong."  For  this  information  Gordon  was  indebted  to  General  Gates,  according  to  a 
letter  from  Gates  to  Armstrong,  published  forty  years  afterward  by  Armstrong  himself. 
This  letter  is  in  a  note  in  a  review  of  Johnson's  Life  of  Greene,  published  in  The  United 
Staffs  Magazine  of  January,  1823,  and,  though  unacknowledged,  written  —  as  we  know 
positively  —  by  Armstrong.  Johnson,  in  the  Life  of  Greene,  attributed  to  Gouvemeur 
Morris  the  authorship  of  the  Newburgh  Addresses,  and  the  main  point  and  object  of  Arm- 
strong's review  was  to  deny  this  theory,  and  to  show  that  they  were  written  by  himself, 
—  "  Major  Armstrong,  a  very  young  man  (the  aid-de-camp  of  General  Gates),  who.  yielding 
to  the  solicitations  of  his  friends,  in  a  few  hours  produced  an  address  which  was  believed  to 
be  peculiarly  adapted  to  its  purpose."  In  the  chain  of  evidence  on  this  point,  there  are 
some  statements  that  are  inexplicable,  and  some  that  are  irreconcilable  ;  and  through  it 
all  there  is  apparently  a  design  to  cover  up  the  essential  fact  in  regard  to  the  actunl  origin 
of  the  addresses  by  the  substitution  of  another  fact  which  reveals  only  half  the  truth.  It 
may  be  quite  true  that,  as  Gates  says,  and  as  he  informed  Gordon,  "  the  letters  were  writ- 
ten in  my  quarters  by  you  "  [Armstrong] ;  but  it  does  not  follow  therefore,  that  they  were 
written — as  Armstrong  attempts  to  show  —  on  the  sudden  impulse  of  the  moment,  nor 
that  there  was  not,  behind  the  mere  writing,  some  potent  influence  which  inspired  that 


1782.]  THE   NEWBURGII    ADDRESSES.  87 

aid-de-camp  of  General  Gates,  —  in  which  was  discussed  with  much 
ability  and  great  warmth  the  condition  of  the  army.  "  What," 
asked  the  writer,  "  have  you  to  expect  from  peace  when  your  voice 
shall  sink  and  your  strength  dissipate  by  division  ;  when  those  very 
swords,  the  instruments  and  companions  of  your  glory,  shall  be  taken 
from  your  sides,  and  no  remaining  mark  of  military  distinction  left  but 
your  wants,  infirmities,  and  scars  ?  Can  you,  then,  consent  to  be  the 
only  sufferers  by  this  Revolution,  and,  retiring  from  the  field,  grow 
old  in  poverty,  wretchedness,  and  contempt  ?  Can  you  consent  to 
wade  through  the  vile  mire  of  despondency,  and  owe  the  miserable 
remnant  of  that  life  to 
charity  which  has  hitherto 
been  spent  in  honor  ?  If 
you  can,  go,  and  carry  with  ^  * 

you  the  jest  of  Tories  and  Signature  of  Armstrone- 

the  scorn  of  Whigs  ;  the  ridicule,  and,  what  is  worse,  the  pity  of  the 
world  !  Go,  starve,  and  be  forgotten  !  But  if  your  spirits  should 
revolt  at  this  ....  awake,  attend  to  your  situation,  and  redress 
yourselves  !  If  the  present  moment  be  lost,  every  future  effort 
is  in  vain  ;  and  your  threats  then  will  be  as  empty  as  your  entrea- 
ties now."  And  this  was  his  counsel:  "I  would  advise  jou,  there- 
fore, to  come  to  some  final  opinion  upon  what  you  can  bear,  and  what 
you  will  suffer.  If  your  determination  be  in  any  proportion  to  your 
wrongs,  carry  your  appeal  from  the  justice  to  the  fears  of  govern- 
ment. Change  the  milk-and-water  style  of  your  last  memorial." 
And  let  that,  he  said,  be  not  a  memorial,  but  a  *k  last  remonstrance," 
and  Congress  should  be  told  in  this  "  that  the  slightest  mark  of 
indignity  now  must  operate  like  the  grave,  and  part  you  forever  ; 
that  in  any  political  event,  the  army  has  its  alternative.  If  peace, 
that  nothing  shall  separate  you  from  your  arms  but  death ;  if  war, 
that  courting  the  auspices,  and  inviting  the  direction  of  your  illus- 
trious leader,  you  will  retire  to  some  unsettled  country,  smile  in  your 
turn,  and  *  mock  when  their  fear  cometh  on.' ' 

It  is  not  likely  that  Washington  overrated  the  possible  influence  of 

writing,  dictated  its  tone,  its  terms,  and  its  aim,  and  constituted  the  real  authorship.  To 
ussunie  this,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  is  to  assume  a  great  deal,  is  to  put  upon  the  whole 
transaction  a  new  face,  involving  an  essentially  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  that  period. 
But  that  Washington  believed  there  was  much  more  in  the  matter  than  met  the  eye,  is 
evident  enough  from  his  own  letters ;  and,  indeed,  his  energetic  conduct,  the  unusual 
warmth  of  feeling  displayed  in  his  address  to  the  meeting  which  he  assembled,  and  the 
importance  he  attached  to  the  crisis  which  he  felt  called  upon  to  meet  in  so  unusual  a  man- 
ner, are  hardly  explicable  on  any  other  supposition.  Any  presentation  of  the  subject,  how- 
ever, on  this  side  of  it,  would  require  an  analysis  of  evidence,  the  citation  and  comparison 
of  contemporary  writings,  and  the  production  of  testimony,  hitherto  unpublished,  which 
the  limits  of  this  work  forbid. 


FIRST  YEARS   OF  PEACE.  [CHAP.  IV. 

words  like  these,  appealing  to  the  most  violent  passions  of  men  al- 
i-eady  inflamed  to  the  point  of  desperation.  It  was  an  emergency  to 
be  met  by  the  promptest,  but,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  cautious 
and  judicious  action.  Any  attempt  at  coercion  was  out  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  indeed,  where  was  any  instrument  of  coercion  to  be  found  ? 
If  his  personal  influence  was  not  sufficient  to  control  the  army,  there 
could  be  little  hope  now  of  any  moderate  measures. 

The  day  after  the  appearance  of  the  call  for  the  meeting  and  the 
address,  they  were  made  the  subject  of  general  orders.  The  reputa- 
tion and  true  interest  of  the  army,  the  Commander-in-chief  said, 
made  it  his  duty  to  avow  "  his  disapprobation  of  such  disorderly  pro- 
ceedings," though  he  was  "  fully  persuaded  that  the  good  sense  of  the 
officers  would  induce  them  to  pay  very  little  attention  to  such  an 
irregular  invitation."  His  reliance,  nevertheless,  was  more  upon  his 
own  good  sense  than  theirs  ;  for  he  asked  that  the  representatives  of 
the  army  should  assemble  at  his  invitation  on  the  following  Saturday, 
the  15th,  instead  of  on  that  day,  the  llth,  which  the  anonymous 
call  had  named.  The  purpose  of  the  writer  of  the  siddress,  and  his 
associate  conspirators,  was  thus  checkmated.  The  meeting  of  Tues- 
day was  not  held ;  four  days  of  calm  consideration  of  the  inflamma- 
tory appeal  were  secured,  though  its  author  made  a  weak  attempt, 
during  those  four  days,  to  cover  his  own  defeat  by  a  second  address,  in 
which  he  claimed  that  Washington's  order  was  favorable,  and  meant 
to  be  favorable,  to  the  writer's  purpose. 

The  army  had  only  to  wait  till  Saturday  to  know  the  truth.     The 

meeting  was  opened  by  Washington  himself.     In  a  calm  but 

addresses       forcible  address,  he  answered  every  statement  and  appeal  of 

the  army.  • 

the  anonymous  writer,  and  showed  how  unwise  and  intem- 
perate that  counsel  was  which  instigated  a  rebellion  against  Con- 
gress. "  My  God  !  "  he  exclaimed,  "  what  can  this  writer  have  in 
view  by  recommending  such  measures  ?  Can  he  be  a  friend  to  the 
army  ?  Can  he  be  a  friend  to  this  country  ?  Rather  is  he  not  an  in- 
sidious foe?  —  some  emissary,  perhaps,  from  New  York,  plotting  the 
ruin  of  both  by  sowing  the  seeds  of  discord  and  separation  between 
the  civil  and  military  powers  of  the  continent  ?  And  what  a  compli- 
ment does  he  pay  to  our  understandings,  when  he  recommends  meas- 
ures in  either  alternative  impracticable  in  their  nature  ?  "  Then  he 
urged  them  to  patience,  to  rely  upon  the  justice  of  Congress  ;  he 
pledged  his  own  utmost  exertions  on  their  behalf,  and  begged  them 
to  "  give  one  more  distinguished  proof  of  unexampled  patriotism  and 
patient  virtue,  rising  superior  to  the  pressure  of  the  most  compli- 
cated sufferings." 

Washington  retired  when  his  speech  was  finished,  and  the  meeting 


WASHINGTON   TAKING    LEAVE   OF   HIS   OFFICERS. 


1782.]  CESSATION    OF   HOSTILITIES. 

then  —  Major-general  Gates  presiding  as  senior  officer  —  passed  a 
series  of  resolutions,  setting  forth  their  own  grievances,  as  had  been 
so  often  done  before,  but  avowing  their  confidence  in  Congress,  and 
declaring  that  the  army  viewed  with  abhorrence  and  rejected  with 
disdain  the  infamous  propositions  of  the  anonymous  address,  and  re- 
sented with  indignation  the  attempts  to  collect  the  officers  together 
in  a  manner  totally  subversive  of  all  discipline  and  good  order.  The 
crisis  was  over ;  nor  was  it  among  the  least  of  the  commanding  Gen- 
eral's many  victories  that  by  his  energy  and  prudence  he  saved  the 
country  from  a  possible  revolt  that  would  have  threatened  its 
existence. 

Though  general  orders  announced,  a  few  days  later,  the  cessation 
of  hostilities,  and  the  news  was  received  with  almost  ex-  Ccssation  of 
travagant  demonstrations  of  joy  by  the  army  at  Newburgh,  hostllltles- 
there  were  months  of  weary  delay  before  actual  peace  was  de- 
clared and  all  the  worn-out  soldiers  were  permitted  to  return  to 
their  homes.  Many  were  discharged  in  the  course  of  the  summer 
and  autumn  ;  but  the  whole  army  was  not  disbanded  till  December. 
The  question  of  pay  was  not  settled  without  much  discussion  and  dis- 
appointment, but  it  gave  rise  to  no  further  trouble,  except  in  Phila- 
delphia, where  a  body  of  about  eighty  raw  recruits  mutinied,  and  took 
possession  of  the  State  House.  Congress  adjourned  to  Princeton. 
Fifteen  hundred  troops  were  ordered  to  inarch  from  the  Hudson  to 
suppress  this  insurrection ;  but  before  they  reached  Pennsylvania  it 
was  ended. 

On  the  25th  of  November,  Xew  York  was  evacuated  by  the  British, 
Washington,  with  so  much  of  his  army  as  remained,  and 
Governor  Clinton,  with  the  other  civil  officers  of  the  State,  oir  "NOW  ' 
marching  in  to  take  possession.     On  the  4th  of  December, 
a  ceremony  of  less  pomp,  but  involving  far  deeper  feeling,  took  place 
at  Fraunces's  Tavern,  in  Broad  Street,  where  the  Commander-in-chief 
parted  witli    his  companions  in  arms.     In    October,  he    had  taken 
leave  of  his  army  in  an  affectionate  address ;  but  the  parting  now  was 
from  those  officers,  with  many  of  whom  he  had  been  in  the  Farewell  to 
most  intimate  personal  as  well  as  official  relations.     Such  a  thearm>- 
separation  could  not  be  without  great  emotion  on  both  sides.     "•  I 
cannot  come  to  each  of  you,"  he  said,  after  a  few  words  of  farewell, 
k4  to  take  my  leave,  but  shall  be  obliged  if  each  of  you  will  come  and 
take  me  by  the  hand."     Not  another  word  was  spoken,  —  hardly  was 
another  word  possible  at  such  a  parting  of  such  men.     On  the  23d  of 
the  same  month  he  returned  his  commission  to  Congress,  then  at  An- 
napolis, in  public  session. 

On  the  3d  of  September,  1783,  the  final  treaty  of  peace  was  signed 


90 


FIRST  YEARS   OF   PEACE. 


[€HAP.  IV. 


Boundaries. 


at  Paris,  by  which  Great  Britain  acknowledged  the  United  States  to 
be  "free,  sovereign,  and  independent." 

The  absence  of  a  solid  sovereignty  in  which  the  Commonwealths 
Necessity  for  could  rest,  had  long  been  a  serious  injury  to  the  separate 
union.  States.  Each  had  its  own  interior  history,  its  institutions 
modified  if  not  produced  by  its  own  circumstances,  and  it  was  possi- 
ble for  this  individuality  to  assert  itself  finally  in  a  petty  sover- 
eignty. In  the  first  Congress,  Patrick  Henry  had  expressed  the 
larger  thought  which  was  at  work  :  "  The  distinctions  between  Vir- 
ginians, Pennsylvanians,  New  Yorkers,  and  New  Englanders  are  no 
more.  I  am  not  a  Virginian  —  lam  an  American."  But  this  was 
the  inspiration  of  a  great  mind  at  a  great  moment.  The 
boundaries  of  the  colonies  still  existed,  and  in  the  slow7  years 
of  the  war,  and  slower  years  of  the  peace  that  followed,  were  more 

sharply  defined. 
The  treaty  with 
Great  Britain 
had  fixed  as  the 
limits  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  the 
Atlantic  Ocean, 
the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, the  Missis- 
sippi River,1  and 
the  Great  hakes ; 
Florida  being 
excepted,  as  be- 
longing to  Spain. 
The  western 
boundaries  of  the 
Southern  States, 
drawn  at  the 
great  river,  were 
political  bounda- 
ries only;  between  that  line  and  the  scattered  settlements  which 
reached  out  from  the  seacoast,  there  was  a  vast  and  almost  unex- 
plored region.  Pittsburg  was  an  advanced  military  post.  A  trail 
through  the  wilderness  extended  from  Johnson's  house  on  the  Mo- 
hawk to  the  Great  Lakes. 

1  In  triiciiig  out  this  boundary,  the  Missouri  was  considered  the  main  branch  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  line  followed  up  that  stream.  But  from  lack  of  exploration  about  the 
headwaters,  there  was  confusion  as  to  the  northwest  boundary,  which  in  fact  was  undeter- 
mined. There  was  a  similar  confusion  as  to  the  northeastern  boundary,  which  was  net 
settled  till  1842. 


Fraunces's  Tavern. 


« 


1782.]  THE   NEW   NATION.  91 

The  Southern  States  had  somewhat  over  a  million  of  inhabitants, 
while  the  Middle  States  and  New  England  divided  equally  between 
them  a  million  and  a  half.  The  three  great  States  were  Virginia, 
with  its  400,000  inhabitants,  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts,  each 
with  350,000.  Hut  the  character  and  influence  of  the  three  States 
varied  in  accordance  with  the  inherent  differences  in  the  character 
of  the  people  and  their  social  and  industrial  systems.  In  Virginia 
there  was  no  single  important  centre ;  but  large  plantations,  occupy- 
ing the  broad  lands  in  the  middle  and  eastern  portions,  gave  singular 
importance  to  particular  families.  The  Northern  traveller,  as  he 
moved  southward,  no  longer  saw  contiguous  villages  and  small,  well- 
cultivated  farms  along  the  road,  but  large,  ill-built,  isolated  houses, 
surrounded  with  groups  of  rude  shanties  or  log-huts  for  the  negro- 
quaiters.  Within  he  found  the  rough  hospitality  of  a  people  with- 
out neighbors,  and  with  few  intellectual  resources  to  relieve  the 
tedium  of  their  lives,  living  in  the  coarse  plenty  of  the  plantation, 
self-confident  in  tone,  and  overbearing  in  manners  from  the  constant 
practice  of  petty  tyranny  over  their  helpless  slaves.  There  were  two 
classes  only,  the  very  poor  and  the  very  rich.  And  already  the  soil  of 
the  eastern  counties  of  these  slave  States  showed  signs  of  exhaustion 
under  the  excessive  drain  of  the  tobacco  crop,  and  the  planters  were 
heavily  indebted  to  English  capitalists  and  merchants.  The  war  had 
stayed  the  collection  of  these  debts,  but  the  fear  lest  their  creditors 
should  force  their  claims  through  the  General  Government  made  the 
planters  suspicious  of  increasing  in  any  way  the  powers  of  Congress. 
Yet  the  half-feudal  life  in  the  Old  Dominion  and  neighboring  States, 
and  the  absence  of  any  pursuit  save  that  of  politics,  gave  their  lead- 
ing men  an  undue  influence  in  public  affairs. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  Philadelphia  was  the  chief  city  in  the 
country,  its  population  of  forty  thousand  being  double  that 
of  Boston,  and  more  than  three  times  that  of  New  York. 
It  became  the  fashion,  shortly  after  this  date,  to  celebrate  public 
events  by  processions  of  tradesmen  and  mechanics,  and  in  one  such 
pageant  in  Philadelphia,  nearly  fifty  distinct  trades  were  repre- 
sented ;  companies  existed  for  the  better  protection  of  the  interests 
of  the  trades,  and  a  library  had  been  founded  fifty  years  before, 
chiefly  by  this  class.  Upon  the  solid  foundation  of  manufactures  and 
trade  had  been  built  a  society  living  in  comfort  and  ease,  and  the 
social  manners  of  the  city  marked  it  as  the  most  agreeable  on  the 
continent.  New  York  was  still  paralyzed  from  the  occupation  by  the 
British  and  from  the  ravages  of  fire.  New  England,  with  its  restless 
population  centering  about  seaports,  was  busy  with  ship-building  and 
with  the  coasting-trade,  which  extended  to  the  West  Indies,  its  best 


FIRST  YEARS    OF  PEACE. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


market.  The  forests  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire  sent  vast  quan- 
tities of  lumber  to  the  seaboard  ;  and  Newport,  Providence,  and  the 
harbors  on  the  Connecticut  coast  drove  a  thriving  trade  with  the 
Bahamas  and  Bermuda.  On  the  return  of  peace  the  markets  were 
flooded  with  British  goods,  and  the  courts  were  filled  with  suits  of 
British  creditors. 

The  policy  which  Great  Britain  had  so  long  maintained,  of  regard- 
ing the  colonial  trade  as  existing  only  for  her  own  benefit,  could  not 


A   New   England    Farmhouse — 1790. 

at  once  be  changed ;  that  country  aimed  at  a  monopoly  of  the  trade 
of  the  new  States,  and  the  Crown,  authorized  by  Parliament,  issued 
commercial  two  proclamations,  the  first  of  which  required  the  importa- 
policy-  tion  of  the  produce  of  the  United  States  to  be  committed 
either  to  British  vessels,  or  to  vessels  belonging  to  the  particular  State 
of  which  the  cargo  was  the  produce ;  the  second,  with  special  reference 
to  the  West  Indies,  prohibited  American  vessels  or  citizens  from  trad- 
ing to  the  British  colonies.  The  effect  was  threefold :  commercial 
treaties  with  other  nations  were  encouraged,  the  several  States  passed 


1  782.] 


COMMERCIAL  POLICY. 


resolutions  conferring  large  power  on  Congress,  and  local  retaliatory 
acts  were  passed,  all  tending  to  derange  commercial  relations  and  to 
intensify  the  hatred  of  England.  But  the  unequal  operation  of  State 
laws  drove  commerce  from  one  port  to  another,  and  still  further  wi- 
dened the  breach  between  the  States.  Maryland,  by  lower  duties, 
gained  the  commerce  of  Virginia.  Madison  had  been  suspicious  of  a 
proposed  measure  of  Hamilton's,  that  it  would  inure  to  the  benefit 
of  the  Eastern  States ;  but  those  States  themselves  drove  away  com- 


A  Planter's  Residence  — 1790. 

merce  by  retaliatory  regulations.  The  remedies  proposed,  while  look- 
ing sometimes  to  closer  alliances  with  neighboring  States,  were  all  in 
the  direction  of  conflict  of  interests  throughout  the  Union  ;  commer- 
cial leagues  were  formed  between  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  be- 
tween Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  a  competition  sprang  up  for  secur- 
ing trade  by  the  reduction  of  duties. 

All  the  while  the  balance  of  trade  against  the  country  was 
rapidly  increasing.  Within  two  years  after  peace  was  declared,  the 
value  of  goods  imported  from  England  into  the  United  States  wsis 


94 


FIRST  YEARS   OF   PEACE. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


not  far  from  thirty  million  dollars,  while  the  exports  during  the 
same  time  were  only  between  eight  and  nine  millions.  This  great 
influx  of  goods  crushed  the  feeble  manufactories  which  had  been 
started  during  the  war,  and  drew  off  nearly  all  of  the  specie  which 
still  remained  behind  the  great  volume  of  depreciated  paper  money. 
There  was  no  mint,  and  the  States  as  well  as  Congress  issued 
money.  In  April,  1783,  the  debt  of  the  United  States  was  esti- 
mated at  $4-2,000,000,  and  that  of  the  separate  States  at  $20,000.000. 


A  Lumbering  Scene. 

Congress  vainly  implored  the  States  to  provide  the  means  for  meet- 
ing its  debts.  England  held  by  her  policy  of  monopoly,  and  more- 
over made  the  difficulty  of  collecting  debts  due  from  American  mer- 
chants to  her  citizens  a  further  excuse  for  delaying  compliance  with 
the  provision  of  the  treaty  of  peace  which  called  for  the  evacuation 
of  the  frontier  posts.  The  disorganized  state  of  the  country  aroused 
a  belief  in  England  that  the  restoration  of  the  colonies  to  Great 
Britain  was  not  impossible. 

Congress  was  already  making  use  of  the  public  lands  for  settling 


1786.]  WEAKNESS  OF  CONGRESS.  95 

the  claims  of  its  creditors,  and  among  these  creditors  the  soldiers  of 
the  late  army  held  preference.  A  movement  at  once  began,  which 
for  a  hundred  years  has  been  changing  the  face  of  the  country.  Wash- 
ington held  lands  in  the  West,  and  made  a  journey  toward  the  more 
remote  of  his  possessions,  his  mind  full  of  schemes  which  took  shape 
in  the  Potomac  and  James  River  companies.  Timothy  Pickering,  who 
had  thought  of  buying  wild  lands  in  Vermont,  was  tempted  rather  by 
the  reports  of  the  fertile  fields  of  Ohio,  and  in  company  with  many 
officers  of  the  army,  devised  a  plan  for  the  formation  of  a  new  State 
west  of  the  Ohio  River,  —  ''  the  total  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the 
State  to  form  an  essential  and  irrevocable  part  of  the  Con- 

.          .          ,,       r—.,  ,  .        ...  The  Ordi- 

stitution.       ihe  plan  formed  by  that  company  or  omcers  in  imnceof 
camp  at  Newburgh,  though  crude  and  incomplete,  was  one 
of  the  earliest  steps  in  that  series  of  popular  and  legislative  acts  which 
issued  finally  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787. 

The  one  political  institution  which  claimed  to  hold  the  country 
together —  the  Congress  of  Delegates —  was  losing  its  power  weakness  of 
and  reputation  with  astonishing  celerity.1  "  Is  it  not  among  Coneress 
the  most  unaccountable  things  in  nature,"  wrote  Washington  to 
Grayson,  July  26,  1786,  "  that  the  representation  of  a  great  country 
should  generally  be  so  thin  as  not  to  be  able  to  execute  the  functions 
of  government?"  Congress  was  frequently  compelled  to  adjourn 
for  want  of  a  quorum.  The  States,  in  their  jealousy  of  one  another, 
dreaded  a  phantom  power  in  Congress,  and  exercised  their  ingenuity 
in  sending  their  delegates  instructions  which  repeatedly  blocked  the 
measures  of  the  General  Government. 

Jefferson  had  been  sent  as  Commissioner  to  France,  John  Adams 
as  Minister  to  England  in  1786,  and  the  relations  with  Spain  Foreign,^. 
were  negotiated  by  Jay,  the  new  Secretary  of  Foreign  Af-  lation8- 
fairs  at  home.  Jefferson  was  impeded  by  his  own  free-trade  theories, 
and  by  his  disagreement  with  Congress  ;  Jay  was  embarrassed  bv  the 
claims  of  Spain  to  control  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi ;  Adams 
had  to  contend  against  the  obvious  failure  of  separate  States  to  ob- 
serve the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  peace.  The  imbecility  of  Congress, 
joined  to  the  determination  of  England  to  maintain  her  monopoly 
(if  the  sea,  made  it  seem  impossible  for  Adams  to  m;ike  any  headway 
in  negotiating  a  commercial  treaty.  The  United  States  acquired  no 

1  The  president  of  Congress,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  wrote  to  Samuel  Adams,  under  date 
of  November  18,  1784  :  "  It  is  now  eighteen  days  since  Congress  ought  to  have  assembled 
here  [Trenton],  and  as  yet  we  have  but  five  States  ;  and  it  surprises  me  that  these  rive  are 
southern ;  none  but  the  worthy  Dr.  Holton,  from  your  State,  being  yet  arrived  from  the 
eastward,  whence  formerly  we  used  to  derive  much  punctuality,  alacrity,  and  judicious 
despatch  of  public  business.  And  yet  there  are  many  subjects  of  great  importance,  that 
demand  the  speedy,  temperate,  wise,  and  firm  discussion  of  Congress." 


96 


FIRST   YEARS   OF   PEACE. 


[CHAP.   IV. 


Internal 
troubles. 


respect  as  a  nation.  "  The  most  remarkable  thing,"  wrote  Adams, 
"  in  the  King's  speech  and  the  debates  is,  that  the  King  and  every 
member  of  each  house  has  entirely  forgotten  that  there  is  any  such 
place  upon  the  earth  as  the  United  States  of  America.  We  appear 
to  be  considered  as  of  no  consequence  at  all  in  the  scale  of  the 
world."  Washington  summed  up  the  situation  a  few  months  later, 
when  he  wrote:  "Without  them  [i.  e.,  adequate  powers]  we  stand 
in  a  ridiculous  point  of  view  in  the  eyes  of  the  nations  of  the  world, 
with  whom  we  are  attempting  to  enter  into  commercial  treaties, 
without  the  means  of  carrying  them  into  effect,  who  must  see  and 
feel  that  the  Union,  or  the  States  individually,  are  sovereigns,  as 
best  suits  their  purposes  ;  in  a  word,  that  we  are  one  nation  to-day, 
and  thirteen  to-morrow." 

The  dangers  at  home  were  even  greater.     Not  only  were  the  States 
arrayed   against    Congress   whenever   their   local    interests 
seemed  in  jeopardy,  but  popular  conventions  and  neighbor- 
hood meetings  began  to  arrogate  mtbority.     "  Bodies  of  men,"  wrote 

Samuel  Adams  in  April, 
1784,  "under  any  denom- 
ination whatever,  who 
convene  themselves  with 
a  design  to  deliberate  up- 
on and  adopt  measures 
which  are  cognizable  by 
legislatures  only,  will,  if 

The  Franklin  Penny— First  United  States  Coin.  COlltillUed,  SOO11   bring  leg- 

islatures  to  contempt  and  dissolution."  Washington  again,  in  1786, 
wrote  with  warning  to  his  nephew  Bushrod  against  societies  formed 
in  Virginia  for  the  indirect  management  of  public  affairs :  "  Socie- 
ties, nearly  similar  to  such  as  you  speak  of,  have  lately  been  formed 
in  Massachusetts  ;  but  what  has  been  the  consequence  ?  Why,  they 
have  declared  the  Senate  useless,  many  other  parts  of  the  Constitu- 
tion unnecessary,  salaries  of  public  officers  burthensome,  etc.  To 
point  out  the  defects  of  the  Constitution,  if  any  existed,  in  a  decent 
way,  was  proper  enough  ;  but  they  have  done  more.  They  first  vote 
the  courts  of  justice,  in  the  present  circumstance  of  the  State,  oppres- 
sive, and  next,  by  violence,  stop  them,  which  has  occasioned  a  very 
solemn  proclamation  and  appeal  from  the  Governor  to  the  people. 
You  may  say  no  such  matters  are  in  contemplation  by  your  society. 
Granted.  A  sno\v-ball  gathers  by  rolling."  The  power  issuing  from 
the  people  was  being  reclaimed  by  them  individually,  from  lack  of  a 
supreme  authority  in  which  the  incomplete  fragments  of  the  state 
could  rest. 


1786.] 


INTERNAL   TROUBLES. 


The  indications  of  this  extreme  logic  of  local  sovereignty  were 
many  and  frequent.  When  the  authority  of  the  Government  was 
weakened  over  the  old  States,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the  frontier 
would  show  more  open  independence.  In  the  Wyoming  country  of 
Pennsylvania  there  had  been  a  long-continued  dispute  between  the 
Pennsylvania  Government  and  that  of  Connecticut,  which  had  sent 
emigrants  to  occupy  the  wilderness.  The  boundaries  and  respect- 
ive rights  of  the  States  were  open  questions  then  ;  but  it  was  finally 
settled  that  the  Wyoming  country  was  under  Pennsylvania's  juris- 
diction. There- 
upon the  State 
claimed  that  the 
settlers  from 
Connecticut 
could  hold  their 
lands  only  under 
fresh  titles.  The 
settlers,  well 
used  by  long  con- 
troversy to  a  re-  Dollar  of  l794- 

bellious  attitude,  took  up  arms  and  resolved  to  form  a  new  State,  but 
were  suppressed  as  rioters. 

The  western  counties  of  North  Carolina  set  up  an  independent 
Government,  organizing  themselves  into  the  State  of  Frank- 

mi  Quarrels 

land.     There  arose  at  once  a  local  quarrel.      I  he  portion   over  new 

^tittPS 

of    Virginia    which   afterwards    became    Kentucky   set   up 
similar  claims  to  independence.      Maine,  a  province  of    Massachu- 
setts, struggled  for  a  separate  government,  and  finally  in    Massa- 
chusetts the  disorganizing  and  rebellious  elements   broke  out  into 
formal  and  armed  insurrection.     The  accumulation  of  debts  shays's  Re- 
rendered  the  courts  of  justice,  in  the  minds  of  many,  mere  b*"ion- 
"  engines  of  destruction  ; "  the  increasing  distress  in  private  affairs, 
the  depression  in  commerce,  and  the  burden  of   Federal  taxation, 
swelled  the  popular  discontent.     The  old  methods  of  opposition  to 
British   tyranny  were  resumed   in  this  new  opposition  to  what  was 
imagined  to  be  Federal  tyranny.     Local  conventions  were  held,  and 
committees  formed,  and  the  movement  was  spreading  into  the  neigh- 
boring States.1     Congress   ordered   troops   to  be   raised,  pretending 

1  "The  number  of  these  people  amounts  in  Massachusetts  to  about  one  fifth  part  of 
several  populous  counties,  and  to  them  may  be  collected  people  of  similar  sentiments  from 
the  States  of  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire,  so  as  to  constitute  a  body 
of  about  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  desperate  and  unprincipled  men.  They  are  chiefly  of 
the  young  and  active  part  of  the  community."  —  Knox  to  Washington,  in  Writings  of 
Washington,  ix.,  207. 
vou  iv.  7 


.    . 


98 


FIRST    YEARS   OF   PKACE. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


that  they  were  for  service  against  the  Northwestern  Indians.  Fortu- 
nately the  Government  of  Massachusetts  had  a  man  of  force  at  its 
head  in  Governor  Bowdoin.  At  Worcester  and  at  Springfield  an 


A  Scene  in   Shays's   Rebellion. 

attempt  was  made  to  prevent  the  sitting  of  the  Courts,  and  at  the 
latter  place  was  ludicrously  unsuccessful.1     Here  also  the  insurgents 

1  "  Previous  to  Shays  appearing  at  the  head  of  au  armed  mob,  so  called,  an  attempt  was 
made  to  stop  the  courts  of  justice.  A  court  was  to  be  held  at  Springfield  ;  a  few  warm 
partisans  had  assembled  about  the  court-house,  in  plain  sight  of  the  old  brick  school-house, 
where  I  attended  school,  and  from  my  windows  saw  all  that  was  going  on.  Mr.  Sheriff 
Porter,  with  his  insignia  of  office  and  side-arms,  preceded  the  judges;  and  when  the  Sheriff 
came  to  the  door-steps,  which  had  been  taken  possession  of  by  the  mobility,  he  sung  out  at 
the  top  of  his  voice,  'Clear  the  way  for  the  court ! '  But  the  party  in  possession  did  not 
Imilge  an  inch,  until  the  Sheriff  drew  fortli  his  glittering  sword  and  made  several  bold  and 
cutting  thrusts  upon  the  naked  air.  At  this  moment  a  young  man  full  of  zeal  stepped  for- 
ward, seized  the  leader  by  the  collar,  aud  drew  him  forth.  The  others  gave  way,  the  court 
entered,  opened,  and  closed  in  due  form,  O  yes!  The  two  persons  clenched  each  other, 
rough  and  tumble,  and  both  rolled  into  the  brook,  which  passed  under  the  court-house.  I 
had  looked  on  with  intense  interest,  but  could  no  longer  resist  the  impulse,  but  sung  out, 
'  Master,  they  are  at  it ! '  detaching  my  hat  from  the  peg,  without  leave  or  license,  and 


1786.]  MOVEMENT   TOWARD   UXIOX.  99 

threatened  the  arsenal,  under  the  lead  of  Daniel  Shays,  who  had  been 
a  captain  in  the  Continental  army.  The  State  militia,  under  General 
Lincoln,  drove  the  rebels  from  Springfield  to  Petersham,  and  finally 
dispersed  them.  At  Exeter,  N.  H.,  two  hundred  armed  men  had  as- 
sailed the  Assembly  and  demanded  the  emission  of  paper  money  as 
a  relief  from  unendurable  burdens.  They  held  the  legislative  cham- 
ber for  a  day,  but  gave  way  at  the  appearance  of  formidable  oppo- 
sition. 

That  the  difficulties  of  the  country  sprang  from  the  lack  of  a  close 
and  authoritative  union  in  which  all  the  members  could  rest,  was 
forced  upon  the  minds  of  men.  At  a  meeting  of  commissioners  from 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  at  Alexandria,  for  the  purpose  of 
regulating  the  navigation  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Poto-  toward 
mac,  a  convention  of  the  States  was  suggested.  Five  States 
sent  commissioners  to  Annapolis  in  September,  1786.  Alexander 
Hamilton,  who  h;id  foreseen  this  necessity  six  years  before,  proposed 
a  national  convention  to  meet  at  Philadelphia  in  May,  1787,  "  to  take 
into  consideration  the  situation  of  the  United  States,  to  devise  such 
further  provision  as  shall  appear  to  them  necessary  to  render  the 
constitution  of  the  federal  government  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  Union,  and  to  report  such  an  act  for  that  purpose  to  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled,  as,  when  agreed  to  by  them,  and  after- 
wards confirmed  by  the  legislature  of  every  State,  will  effectually  pro- 
vide for  the  same."  l  A  memorial  signed  by  Governor  Dickinson, 
chairman  of  the  meeting,  was  addressed  to  the  legislatures  represented 
by  the  Commissioners.  Virginia  at  once  responded  in  a  grave  and 
noble  address,  which  recognized  the  crisis  and  accepted  the  proposed 
measure.  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  and  Delaware 
followed.  In  Congress  the  party  which  feared  the  consolidation  of 
power  was  in  the  ascendancy  ;  but  it  finally  assented  to  a  conven- 
tion, provided  it  confined  itself  to  "the  sole  and  express  purpose 
of  revising  the  articles  of  Confederation."  Delegates  were  elected 
from  the  other  States,  except  Rhode  Island,  and  the  instructions 
given,  or  the  character  of  the  men  elected,  foreshadowed,  in  some 
degree,  the  probable  result  of  the  important  labor  on  which  they 
were  about  to  enter. 

rushed  out  of  the  school  to  see  the  whole  fun  and  mingle  with  the  crowd.    The  master  anil 
whole  posse  of  urchins  soon  followed."  —  Daniel  Stebbins,  in  the  American  Pioneer,  i.,  385. 
1  J.  C.  Hamilton's  Life  uf  Alexander  Hamilton,  iii.,  166. 


CHAPTER  V. 


UNDER    THE    CONSTITUTION. 

ADOPTION  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION.  —  INAUGURATION  OF  WASHINGTON. — MANNERS  OF 
THE  TIMES. —  ADJUSTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  DEBTS.  —  GROWTH  OF  POLITICAL  PARTIES. 

—  THE    NATIONAL    BANK.  —  PROTECTIVE   TARIFF.  —  CULTIVATION  OF   COTTON. — 
CONSTITUTIONAL   COMPROMISE  WITH    SLAVERY.  —  GENERAL   EDUCATION. —  WEST- 
WARD EMIGRATION.  —  DEFEAT  OF  HARHAR  AND  ST.  CLAIR.  —  WAYNE'S  CAMPAIGN 
AGAINST  THE  INDIANS.  —  TlIE  WlIISKEY  INSURRECTION.  —  FRIES's  INSURRECTION. 

—  HAMILTON  AND  JEFFERSON. — FRENCH   INFLUENCE.  —  GENET. — JAY'S   TREATY. 

—  POPULAR  DISSATISFACTION  WITH  IT. 

THE  Convention  met  at  Philadelphia,  on  the  14th  of  May,  1787, 
adjourned  from  day  to  day  until  enough  delegates  were  present  for  or- 
ganization, and  began 
to  work  on  the  2oth 
dav    of    the    same 

•/ 

month.  It  met  in  the 
chamber  where  the 
Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence had  been 
signed.  The  chair 
which  had  been  filled 
by  Peyton  Randolph, 
when  Johnson  of 
Maryland  had  nom- 
inated the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of 
the  army  in  1776  ;  by 

John  Hancock,  when  presiding  over  the  Continental  Congress  which 
affirmed   the  independence  of  the  States ;   and  by   Henry 
tion  of  the     Laurens,  when  the  Articles  of  Confederation  were  signed, 
was   taken   now   by   the   delegate    from   Virginia,    George 
Washington.    Many  of  these  men  assembled  in  Independence  Hall 
had  been  members  of  the  old  Continental  Congress  or  of  succeeding 
ones.     Those  who  had  achieved  independence  were  still  leaders  of  pub- 
lic opinion.      Langdon,  Gerry,  Sherman,  Franklin,  Morris,  Clymer, 


The  President's  Chair. 


1787.]  A   CONVENTION   OF  THE   STATES.  101 

Wilson,  Read,  Wythe,  Dickinson,  Daniel  Carroll,  were  in  this  Con- 
vention. With  these  were  others  of  national  note,  including  two 
young  men  who  were  to  have  preeminence  in  the  councils  of  the  na- 
tion —  Alexander  Hamilton  and  James  Madison. 

The  members  represented  two  unformed  parties  ;  yet  as  the  Con- 
stitution slowly  issued  out  of  the  contest  of  debate,  the  very  names 
by  which  these  parties  were  called  seemed  finally  to  be  transposed. 
The  rules  of  the  body  having  been  determined,  including  one  enjoining 
secrecy,  and  one  giving  a  vote  to  each  State,  Randolph  of  Virginia 
submitted  fifteen  resolutions,  proposing  a  national  legislature  of  two 
branches,  a  national  executive,  and  a  national  judiciary  embracing 
grades  of  courts.  Pinckney  of  South  Carolina  brought  in  a  similar 
but  more  elaborate  plan.  Both  plans  were  discussed  in  committee 
of  the  whole.  The  Virginia  plan,  as  it  was  called,  gathered  The Virginill 
to  itself  those  in  favor  of  the  national  government.  Its  fun-  plan" 
damental  proposition  was  finally  embodied  in  the  first  resolution 
adopted  :  "  Resolved,  that  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  Committee  that 
a  national  government  ought  to  be  established,  consisting  of  a  supreme 
Legislative,  Judiciary,  and  Executive."  The  debate  was  chiefly  upon 
two  points,  —  the  power  of  the  General  Government  to  coerce  the 
States,  and  that  representation  in  Congress  should  be  proportioned  to 
population.  The  one  gave  Congress  an  unquestioned  supremacy  ; 
the  other  referred  all  power  directly  to  the  people. 

The  resolutions  were  re-committed  to  the  Convention  on  the  13th 
of  June.  Two  days  later  Patterson  of  New  Jersey  presented  The  Jeraey 
resolutions  of  the  minority.  They  maintained  that  the  Con-  plan- 
vention  was  only  to  revise  the  Articles  of  Confederation  in  accordance 
with  the  call  of  Congress  ;  hence  the  Jersey  plan,  as  it  was  called, 
contemplated  the  enlargement  of  the  powers  of  Congress,  without  any 
radical  change  in  the  principles  of  the  Confederation,  recognizing  the 
States  as  both  equal  to  each  other  and  superior  to  the  Confederation. 
Those  who  supported  this  plan  were  at  first  called  the  Federal 
party,  favoring  a  federal  or  league  government ;  the  supporters  of  the 
Virginia  plan  were  known  as  Anti-federalists.  Patterson's  resolutions 
were  referred  to  the  committee  of  the  whole,  and  at  once  Rutledge, 
seconded  by  Hamilton,  moved  a  recommitment  of  the  Virginia  reso- 
lutions which  had  been  adopted  by  the  Convention,  so  that  the  two 
plans  might  be  placed  on  an  equal  footing.  The  Virginia  resolutions, 
by  being  first  on  the  floor,  had  the  advantage  at  the  start.  The  op- 
ponents could  now  rally  about  an  equally  concrete  plan.  The  larger 
States  naturally  favored  the  first,  which  based  representation  upon 
population  ;  the  smaller  favored  the  other,  which  gave  but  one  house 
and  an  equality  of  power  to  the  States,  irrespective  of  population. 


102 


UNDER  THE   CONSTITUTION. 


[CHAP.  V. 


Hamilton  brought  in  a  proposition  of  his  own,  which  went  beyond 
the  Virginia  resolutions  in  providing  for  a  centralized  power,  rather 
as  a  well-defined  criticism  of  those  plans  which  were  before  the  Con- 
vention than  as  an  independent  system.  Back  of  all  the  discussions 
lav  the  consideration  that  if  the  work  of  the  Convention  should  be 

v 

accepted,  it  would  not  be  as  the  triumph  of  a  party,  but  as  the  adjust- 
ment of  practical  difficulties,  the  very  existence  of  which  had  called 
the  Convention  into  existence.  When  the  Constitution  should  be 
presented  to  the  States  for  ratification,  the  question  would  turn 
upon  its  principles,  not  upon  any  abstract  consideration  of  the  power 
of  the  convention  framing  it.  Hence  the  great  questions  which  divided 

the  Convention  were  settled, 
not  by  forcing  the  will  of 
the  majority,  which  would 
have  been  only  a  barren  vic- 
tory of  debate,  but  by  the  dis- 
covery of  a  common  ground 
which  should  give  a  practical 
trial  to  the  controversy  at 
issue.  By  giving  the  States 
an  equal  representation  in 
the  Senate,  and  assenting  to 
the  fatal  compromise  of  per- 
mitting three  fifths  of  the 
slaves  to  be  counted  in  form- 
ing the  basis  of  popular  rep- 
resentation in  the  House, 
the  Convention  transferred 
the  questions  which  agitated 
them  to  other  arenas  and  to 
later  days.  It  accomplished 

its  work  of  providing  a  bond  of  union  under  which,  if  the  people 
accepted  it,  the  whole  country  might  organize  and  present  a  single 
front  to  the  world. 

On  Monday,  the  17th  of  September,  1787,  the  Constitution,  finally 
agreed  upon,  was  signed  by  the  delegates — Gerry  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  Edmund  Randolph  and  Mason  of  Virginia, 
alone  withholding  their  signatures  —  and  submitted  to  Congress,  which 
in  turn  called  upon  the  States  in  separate  conventions  to  act  upon  the 
instrument,  the  acceptance  of  nine  States  being  requisite  before  it  could 
be  declared  adopted.  The  debates,  which  had  been  secret,  were  now 
renewed,  not  only  in  the  several  State  conventions  but  in  the  public 

press  and  bv  every  fireside.     The  discussions  of  the  winter  of  1787-8H 

*          «/ 


Alexander   Hamilton. 


The  Consti- 
t  ution . 


1788.]  ADOPTION   OF   THE   CONSTITUTION.  103 

. 

were  the  political  education  of  Americans.  The  series  of  papers 
which  have  been  collected  under  the  title  of  "  The  Federalist  "  present 
the  defence  of  the  Constitution  by  those  who  had  most  to  do  with  its 
formation.  The  name,  which  now  became  the  name  of  the  party 
maintaining  national  as  distinguished  from  confederate  principles, 
indicates,  in  spite  of  its  anomalous  application,  the  spirit  of  the  domi- 
nant party.  The  contest  was  over  the  necessity  of  a  strong  central 
government ;  and  those  who  thought  this  the  paramount  need  of  the 
country  took  the  name  of  Federalists  as  the  distinction  between  them- 
selves and  those  who  would  have  made  State  authority  supreme.  As 
the  positive,  aggressive,  and  structural  pa|ty,  they  threw  upon  the 
opposition  the  necessity  of  accepting  the  negative  title  of  Anti-federal- 
ists, a  name  which  was  accepted  unwillingly,  and  finally  left  behind 
when  those  who  had  borne  it  found  themselves  in  power. 

The  opposition  to  the  Constitution  was  mainly  in  the  large  States. 
In  the  smaller  States  it  was  quickly  seen  that  their  only  hope  of  se- 
curity was  in  a  general  government  so  defined  that  the  assumption 
of  undue  power  by  the  larger  States  would  be  restrained  by  the 
( 'onstitution  and  the  laws.  Various  conventions  tried  hard  to  evade 
the  naked  issue,  and  to  put  limitations  upon  their  consent.  North 
Carolina  drew  up  amendments,  and  made  her  assent  conditional 
upon  their  acceptance  ;  Massachusetts,  giving  a  bare  majority,  strongly 
recommended  certain  amendments,  and  other  States  followed  her  ex- 
umple.  One  by  one  the  States  fell  into  line,  until  on  the  21st  of 
June,  1788,  New  Hampshire,  the  ninth  State,  ratified  the  Constitu- 
tion. Two  conventions  were  still  in  session  at  that  date  in  the  im- 
portant States  of  Virginia  and  New  York.  When  on  the  2oth  of  the 
same  month  Virginia  ratified,  it  was  under  the  supposition  that  her 
vote  had  finally  decided  the  result.  The  vote  was  not  reached  with- 
out a  hard  struggle.  The  ratification  was  carried  by  a  majority  of 
only  ten  in  a  convention  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight,  and  was 
hampered  with  several  proposed  amendments  and  a  bill  of  rights. 

The  New  York  Convention  was  in  session  at  Poughkeepsie  while 
Congress  was  sitting  in  New  York.  But  all  interest  centred  about 
the  Convention.  The  important  geographical  position  of  the  State, 
and  the  dawning  commercial  greatness  of  her  chief  port,  made  her 
decision  of  the  utmost  importance.  The  opponents  of  ratification, 
ably  led  by  Clinton  and  Lansing  and  Smith,  fought  bitterly  to  the 

ff 

last.  Against  them  stood  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  behind  him 
was  a  strong  popular  opinion.  The  unceasing  activity  of  Hamilton, 
and  his  persuasive  eloquence,  gave  the  contest  a  dramatic  interest. 
The  opposition  yielded  inch  by  inch,  taking  its  stand  finally  on  a 
conditional  acceptance.  There  the  last  struggle  came,  and  a  major- 


104 


UNDER  THE  CONSTITUTION. 


[CHAP.  V. 


ity  of  two  was  given  in  favor  of  the  Constitution.  The  final  decision 
was  reached  on  the  25th  of  July,  when  the  Constitution  was  ratified 
by  a  vote  of  thirty  to  twenty-seven.  The  man  who  at  the  age  of 
thirty-one  had  achieved  this  victory,  returned  to  his  seat  in  Congress 
in  New  York,  and  presented  the  result  of  the  Convention's  work.  Dur- 
ing the  last  days  of  the  Convention  the  city  had  been  in  a  tumult  of 

apprehension  and  anticipation  ; 
upon  the  receipt  of  the  news,  it 
broke  out  into  clamorous  rejoic- 
ings, and  on  the  return  of  Hamil- 
ton a  great  festival  was  held. 
The  ratification  was  celebrated 
by  a  joyous  procession  of  traders, 
merchants,  artisans,  and  profes- 
sional men,  in  which  banners  bore 
the  mingled  names  of  Washington 


Celebrating  the  Adoption  of  the  Constitution. 

and  Hamilton,  while  the  Federal  ship 

Hamilton,  a  frigate  fully  manned,  was 

borne  on  wheels,  its  cannon  saluting  and  receiving  salutes  through- 

out the  course  of  the  pageant. 

The  first  Congress  assembled  in  New  York  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1789,  but  it  was  a  month  before  a  quorum  could  be  ob- 
tained,  and  the  government  was  not  fairly  organized  until 
the  30th  of  April.  The  votes  of  the  presidential  electors 

had  been  counted,  and  the  unanimous  first  choice  was  for  George 


ton- 


1789.]  INAUGURATION  OF  WASHINGTON.  105 

Washington.  Of  the  other  candidates,  John  Adams  received  the 
largest  number,  thirty-four  out  of  sixty-nine,  and  was  declared  Vice- 
president.  Washington  was  notified  of  his  election  by  a  special 
messenger  sent  by  the  President  of  the  Senate,  and  two  days  later 
he  set  out  for  the  seat  of  government.1  His  journey  to  New  York 
was  through  files,  as  it  were,  of  uncovered  heads,  and  when,  on  the 
30th  of  April,  he  took  the  oath  of  office  upon  the  balcony  of  the  hall 
in  which  Congress  was  assembled,  the  vast  concourse  before  him 
maintained  a  religious  silence.  Services  had  been  held  in  all  the 
churches  of  the  city,  and  after  the  delivery  of  his  inaugural  speech, 
the  President  went  on  foot  to  St.  Paul's  Church,  where  prayers  were 
read  by  Bishop  Provoost.  In  the  evening  the  city  was  brilliant  with 
illuminations  and  fireworks. 

The  work  which  most  needed  to  be  done  pertained  immediately 
to  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Hamilton,  Hamilton  « 
strongly  recommended  by  Morris,  and  proved  by  his  own  ^"iraus-0* 
essays  to  be  the  fit  man  for  the  place,  was  appointed  to  ur)- 
the  office,  and  his  extraordinary  administrative  power  was  at  once 
employed  in  organizing  the  department  with  such  completeness  of 
detail  that  subsequent  officers  have  never  found  it  necessary  to  mod- 
ify his  plans  in  any  essential  particular.  An  incredible  number  of 
minor  affairs  were  submitted  to  the  Secretary  by  Congress,  or  intro- 
duced by  his  own  fertile  brain,  —  as  the  sale  of  public  lands,  naviga- 
tion laws,  regulation  of  the  coasting  trade,  the  purchase  of  West 
Point,  establishment  of  revenue  cutters,  number  and  condition  of 
light-houses,  petitions  for  claim  and  relief,  plans  for  collecting  the 
revenue,  and  various  legal  questions  growing  out  of  the  hitherto  con- 
fused relations  of  government  and  people. 

The  great  question  of  the  day,  however,  was  that  suggested  by  res- 
olutions of  the  House  of  Representatives,  passed  September  21,  1789, 
ten  days  after  Hamilton  received  his  commission,  in  which  he  was 
called  upon  to  report  such  measures  as  he  should  deem  expedient  for 
providing  for  the  national  debt  and  sustaining  the  public  credit.  The 
debt  of  the  Confederation,  including  the  interest  arrears,  amounted  to 
fifty-four  millions  ;  the  debts  of  the  States,  incurred  for 
general  objects,  amounted  to  twenty  -six  millions.  Between 


January  and   November,   1789,  the   public   securities  rose 
thirty-three  per  cent.,  and  by  the  beginning  of  1790,  when  Hamil- 

1  On  the  day  of  his  departure  he  wrote  in  his  Diary  :  "  About  ten  o'clock  I  bade  adieu 
to  Mount  Veruou,  to  private  life,  an<l  to  domestic  felicity  ;  and,  with  a  mind  oppressed 
with  more  anxious  and  painful  sensations  than  I  have  words  to  express,  set  out  for  New 
York  in  company  with  Mr.  Thompson  and  Colonel  Humphreys,  with  the  best  disposition 
to  render  service  to  my  countiy  in  obedience  to  its  call,  but  with  less  hope  of  answering  its 
expectations." 


106  UNDER   THE   CONSTITUTION.  ['CHAP.  V. 

ton  made  his  report,  advanced  still  higher.  The  means  which  he 
proposed  was,  briefly,  to  fund  the  entire  debt,  issuing  new  certificates. 
The  whole  principle  of  Hamilton's  measure  was  an  emphatic  notice 
to  the  world  that  the  new  Federal  Government  was  the  organic  suc- 
cessor of  the  old  confederation,  assuming  all  its  obligations  and  pro- 
viding, as  that  could  not,  for  their  discharge. 

The  most  important  branch  of  the  subject  was  the  assumption  of 
the  State  debts.  Again  the  two  great  parties  divided  upon  this  ques- 
tion. Hamilton  and  those  who  thought  with  him  were  in  favor 
of  their  assumption.  The  opposition,  acting  upon  various  grounds, 
but  resting  finally  upon  State  supremacy,  maintained  a  solid  front 
not  easily  secured  on  any  less  vital  point.  They  understood  the  im- 
mense cohesive  power  which  lay  in  the  assumption.1  The  Federal 
Political  Party  was  in  the  minority ;  but  as  the  special  upholder  of 
parties.  £ne  new  Government  it  was  the  more  forcible  and  deter- 
mined. The  Anti-federal  party  was  in  the  majority ;  when  it  could 
act  in  concert  it  could  defeat  the  measures  of  the  minority  ;  but  the 

very  con- 

stitution 
of  the  par- 

ty  as  the 

Signature  of  Richard   Henry   Lee. 

aggregate 

of  representatives  of  various  local  interests,  made  it  lack  cohesion. 
But  the  lines  of  party  were  not  yet  firmly  fixed.  Madison,  for  in- 
stance, who  had  been  one  of  the  principal  writers  in  the  "  Federalist," 
was  a  leader  now  among  those  opposed  to  assumption.  The  question 
at  issue  was  seen  by  Hamilton  to  be  vital.  He  was  once  defeated, 
but  gained  success  by  a  political  mano3uvre.  Men  who  opposed  as- 
sumption were  still  more  eager  to  secm*e  certain  local  ends.  The 
question  of  the  seat  of  national  government  was  one  appealing  to 
some  of  these  men  with  great  force  —  especially  to  the  Virginians ; 
and  Virginia,  having  a  greatly  reduced  State  debt,  was  opposed  to 
assumption.  White  and  Lee,  from  that  State,  under  Hamilton's  in- 
fluence, changed  their  votes  in  consideration  that  Hamilton  and  Rob- 
ert Morris  should  use  their  influence  to  secure  the  establishment  of 
the  capital  upon  the  banks  of  the  Potomac.  By  this  bargain,  Ham- 
ilton gained  his  point. 

In  1791,  Hamilton  carried  another  measure  for  the  relief  of  govern- 
ment from  financial  embarrassment.  There  were  at  the  time  but 

1  "  A  greater  thought  than  this  of  assumption,"  said  Stone,  of  Maryland,  an  Anti-feder- 
alist, "  had  never  been  devised  by  man,  and  if  put  into  execution,  would  prove  to  the  Fed 
eral  Government  a  wall  of  adamant,  impregnable  to  any  attempt  on  its  fabric  or  opera- 
tions." 


1791.]  THE  BANK   AND   THE   TARIFF.  107 

three  banks  in  the  country  —  one  in  Philadelphia,  one  in  New  York, 
and  one  in  Boston.  These  were  all  State  institutions.  He  The  Nation- 
recommended  the  establishment  of  a  bank  which,  under  alblulk 
private  direction,  was  yet  to  serve  the  Government,  by  making  it 
owner  of  one  fifth  of  the  capital  stock  of  ten  million  dollars,  and  a 
preferred  borrower  to  the  same  amount.  The  subscriptions  were  to 
be  paid,  one  quarter  in  gold  and  silver  coin,  three  quarters  in  the  six- 
per-cent.  certificates  of  the  national  debt.  This  measure  was  also 
the  signal  for  fresh  antagonism  between  the  two  nascent  parties,  but 
the  division  took  place  mainly  upon  sectional  grounds ;  the  planting 
States  opposing  it,  the  commercial  States  favoring  it,  and  gaining  the 
point.  The  establishment  of  the  bank  gave  occasion  for  a  remark- 
able evidence  of  the  strengthening  of  public  credit ;  for  the  whole 
number  of  shares  offered  was  taken  up  in  two  hours. 

The  borrowing  of  money,  however,  could  be  but  a  temporary  ex- 
pedient ;  it  was  necessary  to  make  provision  for  permanent  Protective 
means  of  support.     The  adoption  of  the  Constitution  made  tariff- 
a  uniform  tariff  possible,  and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  Congress  was  to 
pass  a  tariff  bill.     The  measure  was  necessarily  temporary,  and  it 
was  not  until  1791  that  Hamilton  made  his  great  report  upon  manu- 
factures, in  which  he  took  ground  distinctly  in  favor  of  a  system  of 
protection  as  the  only  one  he  thought  possible  in  that  stage  of  na- 
tional life  and  in  the  condition  then  of  the  civilized  world. 

He  proposed  the  exemption  of  the  materials  of  manufacture  from 
duties,  prohibition  of  rival  articles,  and  other  methods  which  taken 
together  were  to  comprise  "  one  great  American  System,  superior  to 
the  control  of  transatlantic  force  or  influence,  and  able  to  dictate  the 
connection  between  the  Old  and  New  World."  x  A  bill  embodying 
the  recommendations  of  this  report  was  passed  February  9,  1782. 
The  power  of  a  sovereign  state  was  also  exercised  in  the  coining  of 
money,  and  a  mint  was  established.  A  bill  had  also  passed,  impos- 
ing a  duty  upon  imported  and  domestic  spirits,  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  the  revenue  up  to  the  required  point. 

There  were  circumstances  in  the  times  which  gave  a  great  impetus 
to  American  enterprise.     The  French  Government,  in  1787, 
issued  a  decree  placing  American  citizens  commercially  on 
the  same  footing  with  Frenchmen,  and  admitting  American  produce 
free  of  duty  ;  and  as  France  had  a  free-trade  treaty  with  England, 
this  act  practically  nullified  British  hostility  to  American  commerce. 
Then  upon  the  breaking  out  of  war  between  France  and  England, 
the  carrying  trade  of  the  world  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  United 
States,  and  an   immense  stimulus  was  given  to  the  exportation   of 

1  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  on  the  Subject  of  Manufactures, 
presented  to  the  House  of  Representatives. 


108 


UNDER   THE  CONSTITUTION. 


[CHAP.  V. 


American  produce.  The  trade  with  the  West  Indies,  which  England 
had  manoeuvered  to  keep  in  her  own  hands,  became  almost  wholly 
American.  French  ships  could  not  safely  trade  there,  Spanish  trade 
was  carried  on  under  a  neutral  flag,  and  even  English  merchants 
found  it  safer  to  employ  American  bottoms.  At  this  time  arose 
also  those  great  commercial  houses  which  sought  out  and  held  the 
China  and  East  Indian  trade,  and  American  commerce  nurtured  a 
bold  and  hardy  race  of  seamen  who  united  mercantile  sagacity  with 
courage,  honesty,  and  enterprise.1 

During   this  period  one   industry  received  an   extraordinary  and 

momentous  impetus.  The  ex- 
port of  cotton  in  1792  was  only 
138,328  pounds;  in  1795  it  had 
risen  to  6,276,300.  So  little  at- 
tention did  this  export  attract, 
however,  that  neither  Jay  nor  the 
English  ministers  with  whom  he 
negotiated  his  treaty  in  1794,  re- 
membered that  cotton  was  a  prod- 
uct of  the  United  States.  This 
is  the  more  remarkable,  inasmuch 
as  its  culture  had  long  been  nur- 
tured in  the  Southern  States. 
Nearly  twenty  years  before,  the 
State  of  South  Carolina  had  giv- 
en to  one  of  her  citizens  a  reward 
of  two  hundred  pounds  for  in- 
venting a  cotton  card,  and  official 
measures  were  taken  to  bring  it 
into  use.2  Whitney  invented  the 
cotton-gin  in  1793,  and  from  that  moment  the  question  of  slavery 
assumed  an  importance  which  was  to  make  it  paramount  to  all  others 
for  the  next  seventy  years. 

1  A  view  of  the  exports  of  the  country  shows  a  steady  increase  from  $19,012,041  in  1791, 
to  $67,064,097  in  1796.  They  fell  off  the  next  year,  to  increase  again  in  1798.  The  fisheries, 
which  had  suffered  during  the  war  and  had  not  recovered  in  1790,  revived  again  under  the 
impulse  of  a  special  bounty  and  the  resumption  of  trade. 

8  The  following  report  is  from  the  original  manuscript,  in  the  possession  of  Samuel  Wilde, 

Esq.,  of  New  York  :  — 

"  IN  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLT, 
the  ZW  rtay  of  August,  1777. 

"  Report  of  the  Committee  to  whom  the  Petition  of  Thomas  Leuoir  was  referred,  as 
amended  and  agreed  to  bv  the  House. 

J 

"  That  they  have  considered  the  Petition  of  Mr.  Lenoir,  and  have  had  sufficient  evidence 
to  convince  your  committee  that  the  said  Petitioner  is  qualified  to  carry  on  the  business 


The  Cotton  Plant. 


1783.]  COMPROMISE  WITH  SLAVERY.  109 

The  continued  existence  of  slavery  was  one  of  the  most  difficult 
questions  of  settlement  and  compromise  in  the  formation 
and  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  The  Convention 
hoped  it  had  been  put  to  rest  forever  by  securing  the  termination  of 
the  slave  trade  in  1808.  Opposition  to  that  trade  and  to  slavery  was 
with  many,  and  especially  the  Friends,  a  religious  conviction.  In  the 
first  year  of  the  new  government  petitions  were  sent  in  from  mem- 
bers of  that  society  in  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  New  Jersey,  ask- 
ing for  its  abolition.  One  from  a  Delaware  Quaker,  Warner  Mifflin, 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  was  returned  to  the  petitioner.1  The 
ground  was  generally  taken,  however,  that  Congress  had  no  power 
over  slavery  in  the  States.  In  the  Territories,  indeed,  it  had  power, 
and  it  exercised  it  with  geographical  distinctions. 

In  1783,  the  several  States  claiming  the  right  of  domain  in  the  re- 
gion northwest  of  the  Ohio  River  ceded  those  claims  to  the  United 
States,  and  in  March,  1784,  a  committee  was  appointed  by  Congress, 
with  Jefferson  as  chairman,  to  report  a  plan  for  its  government.2  By 
that  plan,  slavery  was  prohibited,  but  not  till  the  year  1800.  This 
was  Jefferson's  famous  Ordinance,  for  which  so  much  credit  has  been 
awarded  him  ;  but  fortunately  this  portion  of  it  relating  to  slavery 
was  defeated  for  want  of  Southern  votes.  Had  the  slaveholders 
been  wise  enough  to  accept  it,  and  maintained  the  right  of  posses- 
sion from  1784  to  1800,  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  the  move- 
ment of  half-a-dozen  years  later,  led  by  William  Henry  Harrison, 

both  of  drawing  the  wire  and  making  as  good  wool  and  cotton  cards  as  are  usually  im- 
ported into  this  State,  and  do  therefore  recommend  that  the  sum  of  Two  hundred 
Pounds  be  immediately  given  to  Mr.  Lenoir,  as  a  reward,  he  being  the  first  Person  that 
has  begun  that  business,  and  a  farther  sum  of  Eight  hundred  pounds  advanced  him  on 
his  giving  an  obligation  to  deliver  to  Joseph  Kershaw,  Esquire,  at  Camden,  and  in  case  of  his 
death  or  absence  from  the  State,  to  such  Person  a-t  mat/  be  appointed  by  the  President  for  the 
time  being  to  receive  the  same,  to  be  sold  on  account  of  the  public,  after  giving  twenty  days  Pub- 
lic notice  of  such  Sale,  Forty  jtair  of  good  cotton  cards  at  the  end  of  one  year,  and  forty  pair 
equally  good  at  the  end  of  the  second  Year,  proved  upon  oath  to  have  been  all  manufactured  by 
the  said  Thomas  Lenoir  within  this  State. 

"  Ordered,  That  the  Commissioners  of  the  Treasury  be  served  with  a  copy  of  the  fore- 
going Report,  and  that  they  advance  the  sums  of  money  and  take  the  obligatiou  therein 
mentioned.  "  By  order  of  the  House.  THO.  BEE,  Speaker." 

"  Received,  August  22,  1777,  from  the  Com'srs  of  the  Treasury,  One  Thousand  Pounds 
of  the  within  Resolution  of  the  Gen.  Assembly.  "  THOS.  LESOIU." 

1  "As  I  do  feel  alarmed,"  —  Siiid  Miffliu  in  commenting  on  the  refusal  to  receive  his 
petition,  —  "  when  I  consider  that  the  solemn  professions  so  lately  made  in  time  of  extrem- 
ity and  danger,  and  held  up  as  the  national  faith,  should  so  soon  on  this  important  occa- 
sion seem  to  be  regarded  as  mere  trick*  of  State,  what  can  be  thought  will  be  the  issue  ? 
May  it  not  be  considered  as  trifling  with  omnipotence  ?  "  —  A  Serious  Expostulation  with  the 
Members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  Slates. 

2  The  Ordinance  reported  provided  that  the  States  into  which  the  region  was  to  be 
eventually  divided  should  have  the  fanciful  names  of  Sylvania,  Michigania,  Chersonesus, 
Asseuisipia,  Mesopotamia,  Illinoia,  Saratoga,  Washington,  Polypotamia,  and  Pelcsipia. 


110  UNDER   THE   CONSTITUTION.  [CHAP.  V. 

to  make  Illinois  and  Indiana  slave  States,  would  Lave  been  success- 
ful. 

But  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  all  the  territory  northwest  of  the 
Ohio,  then  belonging  to  the  United  States,  and  comprising  the  pres- 
ent States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  was 
saved  for  free  men  and  free  labor  bv  the  interdiction  of  slavery  then 

«/  •/ 

nnd  forever.  It  was  expected  that  this  western  country  would  be 
settled  by  emigrants  from  the  Northern  States,  and  millions  of  acres 
were  bought  for  that  purpose  by  a  Massachusetts  Land  Company, 
and  others,  at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  Ordinance.  It  was 
probably  for  this  reason  that  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  Massachu- 
setts were  made  the  basis  of  the  Ordinance,  and  the  work  of  framing 
it  was  intrusted  to  Nathan  Dane,  a  member  of  Congress  from  that 
State  ;  and  for  this  reason,  probably,  the  Southern  members  of  the 
committee,  to  whom  the  subject  was  referred,  acquiesced  in  the  pro- 
hibition of  slaverv  in  a  region  where  thev  did  not  believe  it  would 

V  «/ 

flourish.1 

It  was  held  by  some  that  the  Ordinance  of  1787  applied  to  all  the 
Territories  ;  but  when,  in  1789,  North  Carolina  ceded  her  western 
lands  to  the  Union,  under  the  condition  "that  no  regulation  made  or 
to  be  made  by  Congress  shall  tend  to  the  emancipation  of  slaves,"  the 
cession  was  accepted  with  that  condition. 

The  necessity  for  general  education  had  been  recognized  in  the 
Ordinance  of  1787,  and  the  measures  then  taken  were  per- 

Education.  1-10  e  m 

petuated  in  the  States  formed  out  of  the  lerritones.  Jn  the 
older  States  the  necessity  had  been  felt,  and  provision  made  in  differ- 
ent degrees  ;  but  in  nearly  all  the  new  State  constitutions,  educational 
interests  were  acknowledged.  The  great  movement  for  compulsoi-y  and 
universal  education  came  at  a  later  date  ;  the  people  were  still  some- 
what influenced  by  old  habits  which  separated  the  great  body  of  un- 

1  An  attempt  was  made  in  The  North  American  Revitic  for  April,  1876,  by  Mr.  W.  F. 
Poole,  to  show  that  Dr.  Manasseh  Cutler,  and  not  Nathan  Dane,  was  the  real  author  of 
the  Ordinance  of  1787.  Dr.  Cutler  was  the  agent  of  the  Ohio  Land  Company  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  other  proposed  purchasers  of  Western  lauds,  and  the  purchases  depended, 
apparently,  upon  the  character  of  the  government  to  l>e  established  over  that  region.  It  is 
quite  probable,  therefore,  that  Cutler  may  have  been  permitted  to  read  the  Ordinance  be- 
fore it  was  reported  to  the  House,  and  he  may  have  suggested  some  changes.  The  evi- 
dence that  he  wrote  the  article  relating  to  the  prohibition  of  slavery  depends  upon  the 
assertion  of  Dr.  Cutler's  son  in  1849,  that,  forty-five  years  before,  he  heard  his  father  say 
—  twenty  years  after  the  date  of  the  Ordinance  —  that  the  article  relating  to  slavery  was 
his.  But  the  evidence  that  it  was  written  by  Dane  is  his  own  handwriting,  on  a  printed 
copy  of  the  instrument  found  among  the  archives  of  the  United  States.  An  earlier  attempt 
to  take  away  the  honor  from  Dane,  and  to  bestow  it  upon  Jefferson,  was  made  by  Senators 
Bcnton  and  llayne,  in  a  debate  with  Webster  in  1830,  in  the  United  States  Senate.  But 
the  Ordinance  of  1784,  which  Jefferson  wrote,  did  not  prohibit  slavery  till  1800,  and  even 
that  never  became  the  law,  uor  was  there  any  essential  similarity  in  the  two  ordinances. 


1787.] 


GENERAL   EDUCATION. 


Ill 


educated  from  the  small  body  of  educated  men.  Nevertheless,  the 
growth  of  free  government  was  the  growth  of  education  for  all. 
Noah  Webster,  a  man  of  narrow  but  forcible  intellect,  in  1788  began 
the  publication  of  elementary  school-books,  and  continued  xo»hw«-h- 
his  work  amidst  ridicule  and  against  obstacles  which  would  st<;r 
have  appalled  a  man  less  obstinate  and  self-confident.  He  avowed 
his  purpose  to  be  kt  to  diffuse  an  uniformity  and  purity  of  language 
in  America,  to  destroy  the  provincial  prejudices  that  originate  in  the 
trifling  differences  of  dialect  and  produce  reciprocal  ridicule,  to  pro- 
mote the  interest  of  literature  and  the  harmony  of  the  United  States/' 
He  preached  a  crusade  of  nationalism,  and  had  dreams  of  an  Ameri- 


Fort  Washington — Cincinnati. 


can  language.  Societies  for  the  preservation  of  historical  material 
began  also  to  come  into  existence,  and  the  scattered  and  feeble  repre- 
sentatives of  literature  and  science  to  combine  into  associations. 
Society  itself  was  undergoing  a  change  in  manners  and  gradation, 
under  the  enthusiasm  of  republican  ideas  ;  but  the  distinctions  of 
rank  did  not  disappear  suddenly.  At  Philadelphia,  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment, they  were  still  rigidly  insisted  upon.  The  President  rode 
out  to  take  the  air,  with  six  horses  to  his  coach,  and  two  footmen. 
He  held  a  republican  court  in  which  the  unwritten  laws  of  etiquette 
were  carefully  regarded.  It  was  proposed,  and  the  proposition  de- 
bated with  ardor,  that  he  should  be  addressed  as  his  "  High  Mighti- 
ness." His  birthday  was  celebrated  in  the  cities,  and  odes  were  often 


112  UNDER   THE  CONSTITUTION.  [€HAP.  V. 

addressed  to  him.  Much  of  this  state,  however,  grew  out  of  the  per- 
sonal regard  in  which  Washington  was  held.  The  judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  wore  robes  of  scarlet  faced  with  velvet ;  clergymen 
wore  wigs  with  gowns  and  bands  ;  and  gentlemen  and  ladies  were 
distinguished  by  the  richness  and  elaborateness  of  their  dress.  Col- 
lege customs  imitated  in  miniature  the  ranks  and  grades  of  society  in 
the  outer  world.  The  Revolution  had  made  many  inroads  upon  these 
customs,  but  the  years  following  peace  saw  them  still  carefully  ob- 
served by  many  people,  especially  in  the  cities.1 

North  Carolina  had  given  in  her  adhesion  shortly  after  the  formation 
of  the  Government,  and  Rhode  Island  followed  in  a  few  months,  — 
the  last  of  the  original  thirteen.  Vermont  was  admitted  in  1791, 
Kentucky  in  1792,  and  Tennessee  in  1796. 

In  the  North,  the  western  part  of  New  York  was  still  the  Great 
westward  West ;  but  the  Ohio  country  was  receiving  settlers  from 
emigration,  jfew  England,  Kentucky  from  Virginia,  and  Tennessee  from 
North  Carolina.  The  removal  of  the  western  frontier  was  accom- 
panied by  the  same  conflict  which  had  gone  on  since  the  discovery 
of  the  country.  Every  step  taken  over  the  mountains  into  the  fer- 
tile lands  of  the  West  was  taken  in  teiTitory  held  by  Indian  tribes. 
John  Cleves  Symmes,  afterward  famous  for  his  theory  that  the  earth 
is  hollow,  with  openings  at  the  poles,  obtained  in  1788  a  grant  of  one 
million  acres  bounded  south  by  the  Ohio  and  west  by  the  Miami  — 
extending  twenty  miles  on  the  Ohio,  and  about  eighty  on  the  Miami. 
Here  two  principal  settlements  were  begun,  —  North  Bend  and  Cincin- 
nati. The  former  seemed  likely  to  become  the  centre  of  trade  for 
the  Miami  country,  but  a  personal  incident  decided  otherwise.  En- 
sign Luce,  sent  thither  to  make  a  fortification  for  the  protection  of 
the  settlers,  became  enamoured  of  a  beautiful  woman,  the  wife  of  a 
settler,  and  the  prudent  husband  presently  removed  with  her  to  Cin- 
cinnati. Thereupon  the  Ensign  began  to  doubt  the  strategic  impor- 
tance of  North  Bend,  and  against  the  protestations  of  Judge  Symmes, 
he  removed  his  command  to  Cincinnati,  and  put  up  a  substantial 
block-house,  and  the.  necessity  for  protection  soon  drew  after  him 
most  of  the  inhabitants  of  North  Bend.  A  few  years  later  the  block- 
house was  replaced  by  a  work  called  Fort  Washington.2 

Some  of  the  frontier  posts  which,  under  the  treaty  of  1783,  should 
Hostilities  in  have  been  surrendered,  were  still  retained  by  England. 
From  these  posts,  communication  was  kept  up  with  the  In- 
dians, who  were  made  to  believe  that  the  Americans  had  no  claim  to 
any  territory  beyond  the  Ohio,  and  were  incited  to  continual  acts  of 

1  For  muiiy  details  on  these  points,  sue  Recollections  by  Samuel  Breck,  Watson's  Annal* 
of  Philadelphia,  and  The  Harvard  Book. 

2  Buruet's  Notes  on  the  Northwestern  Territory. 


1788.] 


INDIAN   HOSTILITIES. 


113 


hostility-     A   cruel   warfare  upon   settlers  was  gradually  developed. 

Men  went  out  in  the  morning  to  plough,  and  at  evening  were  found 

dead  in  the  furrow.     Women  and  children  were  killed  in  their  houses. 

The  savages  lay  in  concealment  along  the  lines  of  travel,  and  fired 

upon  all,  whether  white 
people  or  negroes,  who 
passed.  The  great  rivers, 
being  the  principal  high- 
ways, were  the  scene  of 
many  of  these  tragedies. 
A  lofty  rock  on  the  south- 
ern shore  of  the  Ohio,  a 
short  distance  above  the 
mouth  of  the  Scioto,  com- 
mands a  view  of  the  river 


The  Indians'   Rock,  near  Po'tsmouth,  on  the  Ohi< 


for  a  long  distance,  and  was  used  as  a  watch-tower  for  the  discovery 
of  boats  descending  the  stream.  Often  a  white  prisoner  was  sent  to 
the  water's  edge,  to  decoy  them  to  the  shore,  and  after  the  bloody 

vol..  iv.  8 


114  I  NDKK    TIIF.   roXSTITt'TIOX.  CCIIAI-.  V. 

work  was  done,  the  boat-load  of  corpses  was  sent  adrift  to  tell  its 
ghastly  story  to  the  settlements  below.  Several  incipient  villages 
were  plundered  and  burned,  and  their  scattered  inhabitants  never  re- 
built them.  Judge  Harry  Innis  declared  that  to  his  knowledge  fif- 
teen hundred  persons  had  been  killed  or  captured  by  the  Indians  on 
or  near  the  Ohio  since  17S:V  and  the  number  of  horses  stolen  was 
estimated  at  twenty  thousand. 

Antoine  Gamelin,  who  liad  been  an  Indian  trader.  Avas  sent  out  in 
the  spring  of  1700  to  visit  the  disaffected  tribes  and  invite  them  to 
enter  into  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  United  States,  or  confirm  the 
treaty  that  had  been  made  at  Marietta  the  previous  year.  He  found 
the  older  people  generally  disposed  to  be  peaceful,  but  the  young  men 
were  not  so  pacific.  Said  a  chief  of  the  Kickapoos,  "  You  invite  ns 
to  stop  our  young  men.  It  is  impossible  to  do  it,  being  constantly 
encouraged  bv  the  British."  All  the  tribes  told  him  they  could  not 

»•  •/ 

give  a  final  answer  till  they  had  conferred  with  the  British  authorities 
at  Detroit.  When  it  was  found  that  peace  through  peaceable  means 
was  hopeless,  Congress  authorized  General  St.  Clair.  Governor  of  the 
Territory,  to  call  for  five  hundred  militiamen  from  Pennsylvania,  and 
a  thousand  from  Kentucky,  and  with  these  and  a  ivgiment  of  four 
hundred  regulars  under  General  Harmar.  make  a  campaign  against 
iiarnwr  s  some  of  the  principal  Indian  villages.  By  the  1st  of  October 
campaign.  j.jie  expedition,  commanded  by  Harmar,  was  fairly  in  motion. 
It  passed  up  the  valley  of  the  Little  Miami,  and  found  the  Indian 
villages  at  the  head-waters  deserted.  Here  the  troops  girdled  the 
fruit-trees  and  destroyed  the  winter  store  of  corn.  Thence  the  line 
of  inarch  was  westward,  crossing  the  Great  Miami  at  Piqua,  and 
thence  northwesterly  about  thirty  miles,  when  a  halt  was  made.  The 
principal  village,  Girty's  Town,  was  fifty  miles  distant,  near  the  pres- 
ent site  of  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  and  Colonel  Hardin  was  cent  for- 
ward with  six  hundred  men  to  surprise  it.  They  found  it  deserted 
and  burned,  and  went  into  camp  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  main 
body.  Four  days  later,  October  20,  Colonel  Hardin  was  sent  with 
a  hundred  and  fifty  militiamen  and  thirty  regulars  to  destroy  a  town, 
six  miles  southward,  on  the  St.  Mary's.  This  detachment  fell  into 
an  ambuscade,  and  the  militia  at  once  broke  and  fled.  The  regu- 
lars  stood  their  grouiul,  and  fought  bayonet  against  tomahawk,  till 
all  were  killed  but  two  officers  and  two  privates,  who  escaped  to  a 
swamp.  General  Harmar  immediately  resolved  to  make  his  way 
back  to  Fort  Washington  ;  but  he  had  only  marched  eight  miles 
when  intelligence  came  that  the  Indians  had  re-occupied  their  village. 
Hardin  begged  for  an  opportunity  to  retrieve  his  disaster,  and  was 

1  Letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  July  7,  1790. 


1791.] 


EXPEDITIONS    AGAINST   THK   INDIANS. 


11. 


's  raid. 


permitted  to  turn  back  with  six  hundred  militia  and  sixty  regulars. 
He  made  skilful  dispositions,  and  attacked  vigorously ;  but  the  savages 
were  more  skilful  than  he.  They  pretended  to  be  defeated,  fell  back 
across  the  Maumee,  and  then  retreated  up  the  St.  Joseph,  followed 
for  two  miles  by  the  militia.  But  a  portion  of  them  had  remained 
behind  in  ambush  to  intercept  the  regulars,  and  now  fell  upon  them 
in  overwhelming  numbers.  The  fight  was  desperate,  and  largely 
hand-to-hand,  and  but  eight  of  the  regulars  escaped.  The  militia 
were  unable  to  overtake  the  Indians  in  their  front,  and  on  their  re- 
turn down  the  St.  Joseph  were  annoyed  by  a  continuous  fire  from 
both  banks.  The  remnant  of  Harmar's  force  returned  to  Fort  Wash- 
ington, having  lost  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  killed  and  forty 
wounded,  but  had  not  killed  more  than  fifty  Indians.  Harmar  and 
Hardin  were  court-martialed,  but  acquitted. 

The  next  spring,  Gen.  Charles  Scott,  of  Kentucky,  organized  a 
brigade  of  mounted  riflemen,  crossed  the  Ohio  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Kentucky,  surprised  and  destroyed  several  Indian 
villages  on  the  Wabash  and  Eel  Rivers,  laid  waste  their  corn-fields, 
and  returned  in  June  with 
fifty-eight  prisoners,  with- 
out having  lost  a  man,  and 
with  only  five  wounded. 
In  August  a  similar  raid, 
with  similar  success,  was 
made  by  Colonel  Wilkinson 
against  the  villages  on  the 
northern  tributaries  of  the 
Wabash. 

Meanwhile  General  St. 
Clair  was  organizing  a  more 
formidable  expedition,  con- 
sisting of  about  two  thou- 
sand men,  with  cavalry  and 
artillery.  Leaving  Fort 
Washington  on  October  3, 
this  force  advanced  twenty 

miles  tO  Fort     Hamilton    011  General  Arthur  St.   Clair. 

the  Miami,  thence  twenty  miles  farther  north,  and  erected  Fort  St 
Clair,  and  thence  twenty  miles  farther  and  erected  Fort  St_  (,Mr.f 
Jefferson,  near  the  present  boundary  between  Ohio  and  In-  cau'i)aig" 
diana.     The  force  was   now  considerably  reduced,  not   only  by  the 
detachments   for  garrisons,  but   by  numerous  desertions.     St.  Clair 
pushed  forward  into  the  wilderness,  and  on  November  3  encamped 


116  UNDER  THE  CONSTITUTION.  [CHAP.  V. 

on  a  wooded  plain  among  the  southeastern  sources  of  the  Wabash. 
Before  sunrise  next  morning  a  horde  of  Indians,  led  by  Blue  Jacket, 
Little  Turtle,  and  Simon  Girty,  fell  upon  the  camp  of  the  militia, 
who  at  once  retreated  in  disorder  upon  the  main  camp,  and  threw 
it  into  confusion.  The  Indians  pressed  close  after  them,  and  attacked 
furiously,  especially  on  the  centre,  where  the  guns  were  posted.  Con- 
siderable execution  was  done  by  these  ;  but  the  gunners  were  repeat- 
edly driven  from  their  pieces.  Several  bayonet  charges  routed  the 
savages  on  either  flank  in  succession  ;  but  each  time  they  rallied  and 
returned  to  the  attack,  their  numbers  apparently  undiminished,  while 
the  American  forces  were  constantly  decreasing,  the  loss  of  officers 
being  especially  heavy.  At  last  the  artillery  was  silenced,  half  of  the 
army  had  fallen,1  and  the  remainder  began  a  retreat  that  quickly  de- 
generated into  a  disgraceful  rout  in  which  everything  was  abandoned. 
The  Indians  pursued  only  a  short  distance,  and  then  returned  to  de- 
spatch the  wounded  and  scalp  the  dead.  Several  of  their  prisoners 
were  burned  at  the  stake.  During  the  fight,  British  officers  in  full 
uniform  were  seen  on  the  field.  They  had  come  from  Detroit  to 
witness  the  exploits  of  their  savage  friends. 

After  these  defeats,  a  peaceful  settlement  was  more  hopeless  than 
\vayne?  ever.  Repeated  flag-parties  sent  out  to  open  negotiations 
campaign.  were  treacherously  murdered.  The  renegade  Simon  Girty, 
a  Pennsylvania!!  in  the  British  service,  who  had  great  influence  with 
the  savages,  declared  that  he  would  "  raise  all  hell  to  prevent  a 
peace,"  and  Lord  Dorchester,  in  the  autumn  of  1793,  issued  a  procla- 
mation to  the  Indians,  in  which  he  said  :  "  From  the  manner  in 
which  the  people  of  the  United  States  push  forward,  act,  and  talk, 
I  should  not  be  surprised  if  we  are  at  war  with  them  in  the  course 
of  the  present  year.  If  so,  a  line  will  have  to  be  drawn  by  the 
warriors."  The  only  remedy  was  vigorous  war,  and  the  most  vigor- 
ous man  to  prosecute  it  was  Anthony  Wayne. 

This  dashing  soldier  of  the  Revolution  was  appointed  Major-gen- 
eral in  1792,  and  given  the  supreme  command  in  the  West,  with 
power  to  raise  three  additional  regiments  of  infantry  and  two  thou- 
sand dragoons,  for  a  term  of  three  years.  Early  in  1793,  he  began  to 
concentrate  troops  and  supplies  at  Fort  Washington  ;  but  recruiting 
was  slow,  and  it  was  September  before  he  could  advance.  Then  he 
marched  northward  eighty  miles,  built  Fort  Greenville,  —  the  present 
site  of  Greenville,  Darke  County,  Ohio,  —  and  went  into  winter  quar- 


ht  officers  and  six  hundred  privates  were  killed  or  missing,  and  twenty-one 
officers  and  two  hundred  and  forty-two  privates  wounded.  Amonp  the  camp-followers 
were  two  hundred  and  fifty  women,  fifty-six  of  whom  were  killed,  and  most  of  the  others 
captured. 


1794.] 


WAYNE'S   CAMPAIGN    AGAINST   THE   INDIANS. 


117 


ters.  At  the  same  time,  Governor  Simcoe  marched  from  Detroit 
with  a  detachment  of  British  troops,  and  established  a  military  post 
at  the  rapids  of  the  Maumee.  All  winter  the  Indians  were  vigilant, 
and  they  seldom  failed  to  attack  any  small  party  that  ventured  far 
from  the  fortifications.  They  seemed  to  understand  that  a  decisive 
struggle  was  at  hand,  and  quotas  were  sent  from  nearly  all  the 
northern  and  western  tribes.  In  June,  a  strong  detachment  sent 
out  by  Wayne  to  the  scene  of  St.  Glair's  defeat,  buried  the  bleaching 
bones  of  six  hundred  men,  and  built  Fort  Recovery.  This  work  was 
attacked,  on  June  30  and  July  1,  by  a  large  body  of  Indians,  assisted 
by  a  considerable  number  of  French  Canadians  with  blackened  faces, 
and  encouraged  by  a  few  British  officers  whose  brilliant  uniforms  were 
conspicuous  on  the  field. 
The  Americans  lost  twenty- 
five  killed  and  thirty 
wounded  ;  but  the  assailants 
were  driven  off  with  heavy 
loss.  The  Indians  were  em- 
ployed two  nights  in  carry- 
ing away  their  dead  and 
wounded. 

In  July,  Wayne  was  re- 
enforced  by  1,600  mounted 
Kentuckians  under  General 
Charles  Scott,  and  having 
now  nearly  four  thousand 
men,  he  set  out  for  the  In- 
dian towns  on  the  An  Glaize. 
He  had  been  minutely  in- 
structed by  President  Wash- 
ington, whose  experience  of 
savage  warfare  dated  back  General  Anthony  Wayne' 

to  Braddock's  defeat,  and  the  orders  were  carefully  observed.  He 
inarched  with  open  files,  to  secure  quickness  in  forming  a  line  in 
thick  woods,  or  prolonging  the  flanks.  He  kept  his  army  together, 
and  always  halted  in  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  encamped  in  a 
hollow  square,  and  surrounded  it  with  a  rampart  of  logs.  On  the 
2d  of  August  he  arrived  at  St.  Mary's  River,  where  he  erected  Fort 
Adams  and  left  a  garrison.  Thence  he  crossed  the  Au  Glaize,  and 
marched  down  that  stream,  through  villages  and  fertile  fields,  all 
deserted,  to  its  junction  with  the  Maumee,  where  he  built  Fort  Defi- 
ance. Meanwhile  the  cavalry  were  laying  waste  the  country  for 
miles  on  either  side  the  line  of  march.  The  next  advance  was  down 


118  UXDKR   THE   CONSTITUTION.  [CHAP.  V. 

the  Maumee,  to  the  head  of  the  rapids,  within  seven  miles  of  the 
British  Fort  Maumee,  where  Wayne  built  Fort  Deposit.  He  now 
had  two  thousand  regulars  and  eleven  hundred  mounted  riflemen,  all 
well  disciplined.  On  the  morning  of  August  20,  the  Americans  ad- 
vanced in  three  columns,  and  found  the  Indians  and  Canadians 
formed  in  three  lines,  their  left  resting  on  the  river,  and  their  right 
extending  nearly  two  miles  to  a  dense  thicket.  While  the  cavalry 
attempted  to  turn  their  flanks,  the  infantry  advanced  with  trailed 
arms  against  the  centre,  roused  the  enemy  with  the  bayonet,  poured 
a  volley  into  them  as  they  turned  their  backs  to  retreat,  and  then 
continued  the  charge  so  impetuously  that  the  line  was  completely 
broken,  and  the  fugitives,  pursued  for  two  miles,  took  refuge  under 
the  guns  of  the  British  fort. 

In  this  action  Wayne  lost  forty-four  killed  and  a  hundred  wounded. 
The  loss  of  the  enemy  was  not  ascertained.  The  victorious  troops 
were  encamped  for  three  days  in  sight  of  the  British  post,  and  de- 
stroyed all  the  houses  and  property  in  the  vicinity.  They  then  re- 
turned to  Fort  Defiance,  laying  waste  the  country  as  they  went,  and 
continued  the  march  to  the  Miami  villages,  at  the  confluence  of  the 
St.  Joseph  and  St.  Mary's,  where  Fort  Wayne  was  built.  This 
campaign  put  an  end  to  Indian  hostilities  for  the  time,  and  rendered 
the  name  of  Wayne  a  terror  to  the  savages,  which  no  persuasions  of 
their  English  friends  could  allay.  In  179o  a  treaty  was  made  at  Fort 
Greenville,  by  which  the  Indians  ceded  a  large  tract  of  land  to  the 
United  States,  and  the  close  of  these  Indian  hostilities  marks  the  be- 
ginning of  the  rapid  and  safe  settlement  of  the  West. 

In  the  recommendation  of  an  excise  on  distilled  spirits,  made  by 
Secretary  Hamilton  in  his  report  of  1790,  he  asserted  that 

The  whiskey 

iuHum. -  such  duties  were  not  novel,  as  several  of  the  State  govern- 
ments had  imposed  them,1  and  that  all  ground  for  objection 
might  be  removed  by  giving  the  officers  no  summary  jurisdiction,  and 
restricting  their  search  to  depositories  which  the  dealers  themselves 
should  designate.  A  bill  drawn  up  by  him  was  passed  by  Congress, 
in  March,  171H,  after  a  long  debate,  and  went  into  operation  in  July. 
It  increased  the  duty  on  imported  spirits,  making  it  from  twenty  to 
forty  cents  a  gallon  and  laid  a  tax  on  distillation.  The  law  met  with 
violent  opposition,  especially  in  central  North  Carolina  and  Western 
Pennsylvania.  The  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  had  instructed  their 
representatives  in  Congress  to  vote  against  it,  and  the  people  of  the 
western  counties  —  sustained  by  several  eminent  men,  among  whom 
was  Albert  (Jallatin — held  meetings,  appointed  committees,  and 

1  This  was  true.  But  it  was  also  true,  that  ill  some  of  the  States,  uotably  Peimsyls-ania. 
it  hud  been  found  impossible  to  collect  them. 


1791.] 


THE   WHISKEY    INSURRECTION. 


119 


adopted  resolutions  demanding  an  unconditional  repeal.  So  violent 
was  the  feeling,  that  General  John  Neville  —  who,  at  his  own  ex- 
pense, had  equipped  and  marched  a  company  to  Boston  in  1776,  who 
was  known  far  and  wide  for  his  benevolence,  and  in  years  of  scarcity 
had  thrown  open  his  wheat-fields  to  his  poor  neighbors  —  was  insulted 
and  mobbed,  and  finally  had  his  house  burned  down,  because  he  ac- 
cepted the  office  of  collector  for  Western  Pennsylvania. 

The  counties  west  of  the  Alleghanies — Fayette,  Washington,  Al- 
legheny, and  Westmoreland  —  contained   about  70,000    inhabitants, 


A   Mountain   Still. 


including  a  considerable  number  of  recent  Irish  emigrants,  who  had 
brought  with  them  their  traditional  hatred  of  excise  laws  and  their 
habitual  methods  of  opposing  them.  Several  of  Neville's  deputies 
were  tarred  and  feathered  ;  others  yielded  to  the  clamor  of  the  mob, 
and  resigned.  It  was  pleaded  on  behalf  of  the  insurgents  that  the  tax 
bore  heavily  upon  the  poor  people  of  this- region,  who  had  no  trans- 
portation over  the  mountains  except  by  pack-horses,  and  had,  there- 
fore, no  market  for  their  grain  unless  they  reduced  it  to  spirits,  —  a 
fallacious  argument,  though  even  now  believed  in,  since  all  taxes  are 
added  to  prices  and  ultimately  come  out  of  the  consumer.  It  was  not 
the.  tax  on  the  whiskey  they  sent  over  the  mountains  that  reallv 


120 


UNDER  THE  CONSTITUTION. 


[CHAP.  V. 


troubled  these  people, 
but  on  that  which  they 
drank  themselves,  said 
to  be  no  inconsiderable 
portion  of  their  whole 
product. 

The  rebellion  rapidly 
gathered  head,  till  final- 
ly there  was  a  thorough 
organization  for  resist- 
ance to  the  law.  On 
July  15,  1794,  General 
Neville's  house,  barri- 
caded and  occupied  by 
his  servants  and  a  few 
friends,  was  attacked 
by  forty  armed  men, 
who  were  fired  upon 
and  driven  off,  six  of 
them  being  wounded. 
The  next  day  the  mob 
returned,  increased  to 
five  hundred,  and  led 
by  John  Holcroft,  who 
had  become  notorious  as 
"  Tom  the  Tinker,"  and 
under  that  signature 
had  written  seditious 
articles  which  the  news- 
papers did  not  dare  re- 
fuse to  publish.  But 
the  party  in  the  house 
had  been  reenforced  by 
a  dozen  soldiers,  and 
the  demand  for  surren- 
der was  rejected.  The 
rioters  attacked  the 
house,  and  received  a 
volley  which  killed 
their  chosen  military 
leader,  one  MeFarlane, 
and  wounded  several 
others.  The  outhouses 


1794.]  FRIES'S   INSURRECTION.  121 

were  then  set  on  fire,  the  defenders,  three  of  whom  were  wounded, 
were  compelled  to  surrender,  and  the  mansion  itself  was  soon  in 
flames.  A  few  days  later,  the  mail  to  Philadelphia  was  intercepted, 
and  several  letters  which  gave  accounts  of  the  riotous  proceedings 
subjected  their  writers  to  special  persecution. 

The  insurgents  next  summoned  the  militia  to  meet  on  Braddock's 
Field,  August  1,  armed  and  provisioned  for  four  days,  and  seven  thou- 
sand responded.  William  Bradford  assumed  command,  and  marched 
them  into  Pittsburg ;  but  they  were  unwilling  to  carry  out  his  design 
of  capturing  Fort  Pitt,  and  gradually  dispersed.  Governor  Mifflin, 
on  various  excuses,  declined  to  call  out  the  militia  to  suppress  the 
insurrection,  and  it  was  spreading  to  contiguous  States.  President 
Washington,  who  feared  that  successful  resistance  to  one  law  might 
be  the  beginning  of  rebellion  against  all  law,  called  on  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  for  15,000  men,  and  sent  com- 
missioners to  the  scene  of  the  disturbance  with  power  to  arrange  for 
peaceful  submission  any  time  before  September  14.  Ten  days  after 
that  date,  they  returned  to  Philadelphia,  having  failed  to  make  a 
satisfactory  settlement.  The  troops  were  promptly  put  in  motion, 
the  Governors  of  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia  command- 
ing their  respective  quotas.  The  left  wing,  marching  by  Braddock's 
route,  captured  more  than  a  hundred  insurgents  at  Hagerstown  ;  the 
right,  marching  through  Carlisle,  had  an  encounter  with  the  popu- 
lace, and  killed  a  man  and  a  boy.  It  is  said  that  many  of  the  sol- 
diers died  of  disease  contracted  while  crossing  the  Alleghanies  in 
inclement  weather.  On  the  appearance  of  the  troops,  the  insurrec- 
tion subsided.  Some  of  the  leaders  left  the  country ;  many  hastened 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  proffered  amnesty  ;  others  were  arrested 
and  brought  to  trial.  Two  only  were  convicted  of  treason,  and  they 
were  pardoned  by  the  President. 

Five  years  later,  a  similar,  but  much  less  violent,  insurrection  took 
place  in  another  section  of  Pennsylvania.  Discontent  with  Frieg-s  in. 
the  window-tax  began  to  manifest  itself  in  1798,  and  in  the  surrection- 
spring  of  1799  a  rebellion  against  it  broke  out  in  Northampton 
County,  and  quickly  spread  into  adjoining  counties.  Most  of  the  in- 
surgents were  Germans,  or  of  German  descent.  The  President 
promptly  called  out  the  militia,  and  in  a  short  time  the  leaders,  de- 
serted by  their  followers,  submitted  to  arrest.  The  chief  of  them, 
John  Fries,  was  put  upon  trial  in  May,  for  high  treason.  The  trial 
lasted  nine  days,  and  resulted  in  a  verdict  of  "guilty."  A  new  trial 
was  granted,  and  held  in  April,  1800,  with  the  same  result,  and  Fries 
was  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  Against  the  advice  of  every  member  of 
his  Cabinet,  the  President  not  only  pardoned  him,  but  issued  a  gen- 


1-2  UNDER    THE   CONSTITUTION.  [CHAP.  V 

eral  amnesty  for  all  the  offenders.1  Fries  had  declared  that  "great 
men  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  business,"  but  he  gave  no  names,  and 
there  was  only  his  own  word  to  justify  the  statement.  Oliver  Wol- 
cott,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  writing  to  the  President,  said : 
"  B.  McClenachan,  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  was  certainly  an 
agitator  among  the  insurgents,  but  I  do  not  know,  nor  do  I  believe, 
that  the  insurgents  had  any  general  views,  other  than  to  defeat  the 
execution  of  the  act  of  assessment."  Fries  subsequently  opened  a  tin- 
ware shop  in  Philadelphia,  and  became  rich  and  respectable.  The 
pecuniary  cost  of  this  insurrection,  to  the  government,  was  compara- 
tively trifling  —  eighty  thousand  dollars.  The  Whiskey  Insurrection 
had  cost  eleven  hundred  thousand. 

Hamilton's  associate  in  office  was  Thomas  Jefferson,  who,  as  Sec- 
retarv  of  State,  represented  the  relations  which  the  country 

Hamilton          -i     i  t        •  j     r>  T      • 

ami  jeifer-     held  with  Europe.     It  is  true  that  so  far  as  those  relations 

POD 

were  commercial,  —  as  they  chiefly  were,  —  they  belonged 
to  Hamilton's  department,  and  the  two  Secretaries  were  brought  into 
close  communion.  That  the  contact  was  one  of  conflict  was  inevita- 
ble, both  from  the  nature  of  the  men  and  from  the  widely  opposing 
views  which  they  represented.  Hamilton,  possessed  of  the  keenest 
intellect  and  the  most  aggressive  nature  in  the  Federalist  ranks, 
boldly  stood  in  the  front  upon  all  the  great  national  questions. 
His  leadership,  moreover,  was  of  men  having  a  clear  conception  of 
the  work  needed  in  establishing  the  government.  The  opposing 
party  blindly  and  fiercely  attacked  the  Federalist  measures,  but  not 
until  it  found  its  leader  in  Jefferson  did  it  discover  its  own  power 
as  a  party.  Gradually  it  dropped  the  negative  title  of  Anti-federal, 
French  in-  an(l  adopted  that  of  Republican.  Jefferson  came  back  from 
fluence.  France  filled  with  the  popular  ideas,  which  were  looked 
upon  as  the  manifestation  of  a  new  humanity,  and  he  found  a  large 
number  of  people  ready  to  kindle  to  enthusiasm  at  the  mention  of 
France.  His  adherents  were  among  those  who  were  moved  by  a 
constant  jealousy  of  a  strong  central  government.  France  was  estab- 
lishing the  "  Rights  of  Man  ;  "  they  had  themselves  taken  part  in  the 
deliverance  of  their  own  country  from  British  tyranny,  and  they 
feared  in  Hamilton  and  his  associates  a  party  which  would  forge  new 

1  It  was  argued  by  the  prisoner's  counsel  that  resistance  to  a  specific  law  was  not  high 
treason,  but  simply  riot,  —  except  in  the  case  of  the  militia  law,  resistance  to  which  was 
tantamount  to  resisting  all  laws,  since  they  all  depended  upon  this  for  their  enforcement. 
Mr.  Adams  appears  to  have  adopted  this  view,  for  which  he  was  severely  criticised  by 
Hamilton.  Timothy  Pickering,  Secretary  of  State,  had  written  to  the  President:  "Pain- 
ful as  is  t  In1  idea  of  taking  the  life  of  a  man,  I  feel  a  calm  and  solidjsatisfaction  that  an  o|>- 
portunitv  is  now  presented,  in  executing  the  just  sentence  of  the  law,  to  crush  that  spirit 
which,  if  not  overthrown  and  destroyed,  may  proceed  in  its  career  and  overturn  the  govern- 
ment." 


1793.]  RELATIONS  WITH   ENGLAND   AND   FRANCE.  123 

chains  for  them.  Clubs  sprang  up  all  over  the  country,  in  imitation 
of  the  French  republican  clubs,  and  the  dress  and  names  of  the  French 
heroes  of  the  hour  were  enthusiastically  copied  in  the  streets  of  Phil- 
adelphia, New  York,  and  Boston. 

The  Federalists,  reviled  for  their  supposed  English  proclivities,  were 
certainly  not  helped  by  those  whose  allies  they  were  charged  Eng,and -s 
with  being.  England,  in  1791,  had  tardily  sent  George  attitude 
Hammond  to  represent  her  in  the  United  States ;  but  she  continued 
to  treat  them  as  if  they  were  still  rebellious  colonies.  The  effort 
made  by  Hammond  on  his  arrival  to  negotiate  a  commercial  treaty 
was  obstructed  by  Jefferson.  The  sharpest  controversy  between  the 
two  countries  arose  when  England,  at  war  with  France,  undertook  to 
control  the  commercial  movements  of  the  world.  In  June,  1793,  she 
ordered  that  the  goods  of  a  neutral  power,  if  consisting  of  provisions 
for  the  enemy,  were  to  be  captured  or  bought  up,  unless  shipped  to  a 
friendly  port.  In  November,  she  declared  all  vessels  laden  with  the 
produce  of  a  French  colony  to  be  lawful  prize,  and  claimed  the  right 
of  search,  with  power  to  impress  into  her  service  all  seamen  of  Brit- 
ish birth,  wherever  found.  These  acts  created  the  bitterest  feeling 
against  England,  and  fanned  into  a  stronger  flame  the  zeal  of  the 
French  party. 

But  the  French  were  no  less  aggressive.  In  April,  1793,  Edmund 
Charles  Genet  landed  at  Charleston,  accredited  to  the  United 
States  from  France.  He  came  fresh  from  the  councils 
which  had  sent  Louis  XVI.  to  the  scaffold,  and  was  received  with 
enthusiasm  by  the  French  party  in  the  United  States.  Without 
waiting  to  present  himself  at  Philadelphia,  he  issued  commissions 
to  privateers  and  ordered  that  their  prizes  should  be  tried  and  con- 
demned by  French  consuls  in  the  United  States.  He  fancied  that 
the  people  who  welcomed  him  constituted  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  or  at  least  could  control  it.  He  threatened  to  appeal 
to  the  people  against  the  decisions  of  the  officers  of  the  administra- 
tion, and  became,  at  last,  so  violent  in  his  insolence,  that  there  was  no 
decent  or  dignified  course  to  pursue  but  to  demand  his  recall.  The 
Neutrality  Act  of  179-4  was  passed  by  Congress  as  a  defensive  meas- 
ure at  this  critical  juncture. 

A  British  order  in  council,  issued  in  November  of  this  year,  direct- 
ing the  cruisers  to  make  prize  of  any  vessel  carrying  the   Dallgero{ 
produce  of   a    French  colony,  or  transporting   supplies  to  war 
such  colon)',  became  public  two  months  later,  and  created  great  ex- 
citement in  the  United  States.     This  was  intensified  by  the  speech 
of  Lord  Dorchester,  already  referred  to.    An  embargo  for  thirty  days, 
afterward  extended  to  sixty,  was  at  once  laid  by  joint  resolution  of 


124 


UNDER   THE   CONSTITUTION. 


[CHAP.  V. 


Jay's  treaty. 


Congress,  and  measures  for  strengthening  the  military  power  were 
introduced  ;  a  resolution  for  the  sequestration  of  debts  due  to  British 
subjects,  was  debated  ;  and  one  to  discontinue  all  commercial  inter- 
course with  Great  Britain  till  the  western  posts  had  been  surrendered, 
passed  the  House,  and  was  only  lost  in  the  Senate  by  the  casting  vote. 
To  avert  war,  Washington  determined  to  send  an  envoy  extraordinary 
to  London  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  amity  and  commerce,  and  after 
careful  consideration  conferred  the  appointment  upon  Chief  Justice 
Jay,  who  sailed  in  May,  1794. 

He  found  Lord  Grenville,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  apparently 
quite  as  anxious  as  himself  to  place  the  relations  of  the  two 
governments  on  a  better  footing,  and  by  November  they  had 
agreed  upon  a  treaty  which  was  ratified  by  the  Senate  in  June,  1795, 

and  went  into  opera- 
tion in  February,  1796. 
The  first  ten  articles, 
which  were  intended 
to  be  perpetual,  pro- 
vided for  the  with- 
drawal of  British 
troops  and  garrisons 
from  the  western  posts 
by  June  1,  1796 ;  for 
free  inland  navigation 
and  trade  to  both  na- 
tions upon  lakes  and 
rivers,  except  that  the 
United  States  were  ex- 
cluded from  the  do- 
main of  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company  ;  for 
the  admission  of  Brit- 
ish vessels  to  the  rivers 
and  harbors  on  the  sea- 
coast  of  the  United 
John  Jax  States,  but  closing  to 

the  vessels  of  the  latter  the  rivers  and  harbors  of  the  British  colo- 
nies on  the  continent,  except  to  small  vessels  trading  between  Mon- 
treal and  Quebec  ;  the  Mississippi  to  be  open  to  both ;  a  joint  survey 
of  the  head-waters  of  the  Mississippi ;  a  commission  to  determine 
what  was  meant  by  the  St.  Croix  River,  and  fix  the  northeastern 
boundary ;  the  United  States  to  guarantee  payment  of  debts  to 
British  creditors  in  all  cases  where  they  would  be  collectable  by  an 


1795.]  JAY'S   TREATY.  125 

American  creditor ;  Great  Britain  to  pay  for  losses  by  irregular  cap- 
tures by  British  cruisers;  citizens  of  either  country  to  be  permitted  to 
hold  landed  property  in  the  territory  of  the  other;  and  no  private 
property  to  be  confiscated  in  case  of  war.  By  the  twelfth  article, 
which  was  to  become  void  two  years  after  the  close  of  the  existing 
war,  trade  between  the  United  States  and  the  West  India  Islands,  in 
the  productions  of  either,  might  be  carried  on  on  equal  terms  in  both 
American  and  British  vessels  ;  but  the  former  were  prohibited  from 
carrying  West  Indian,  products  from  the  islands  or  from  the  States  to 
any  other  part  of  the  world.  It  provided  for  further  negotiation  at 
the  end  of  the  two  years.  The  remaining  articles,  whose  operation 
was  limited  also  to  two  years,  —  unless  the  negotiation  then  under  the 
twelfth  article  should  decide  otherwise,  —  provided  that  American 
vessels  might  trade  to  the  East  Indies,  but  in  time  of  war  must  not 
take  thence  any  rice  or  military  or  naval  stores,  without  special  per- 
mission, and  must  not  carry  anything  to  any  place  but  the  United 
States  ;  established  liberty  of  commerce  between  the  British  domin- 
ions in  Europe  and  the  United  States  ;  provided  for  the  regulation  of 
duties,  the  appointment  of  consuls,  the  proceedings  with  prizes  cap- 
tured at  sea,  and  the  rules  of  blockade,  defined  contraband  of  war, 
regulated  privateering,1  and  promised  to  punish  piracy  ;  citizens  of 
either  country  were  not  to  accept  commissions  from  any  state  at  Avar 
with  the  other,  on  pain  of  being  treated  as  outlaAvs  ;  no  reprisals  were 
to  be  made  till  a  demand  for  satisfaction  had  been  refused  ;  ships  of 
war  Avere  to  be  received  in  each  other's  ports  ;  foreign  priArateers  were 
not  to  arm,  or  sell  prizes,  in  the  ports  of  either,  if  warring  on  the 
other  ;  in  case  of  war  betAveen  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
citizens  of  either  in  the  other's  territory  were  not  to  be  molested ; 
and  criminals  escaping  from  one  country  to  the  other  Avere  to  be  de- 
livered up. 

This,  as  its  friends  admitted,  was  not  altogether  a  good  treaty ;  it 
Avas  much  more  favorable  to  England  than  to  the  United  States.  But 
they  argued  that  to  the  United  States  it  was  better  than  no  treaty, 
better  than  war,  better  than  a  continual  liability  to  war.  Washing- 
ton favored  it,  and  all  his  cabinet,  except  Randolph,  agreed  with  him. 
The  opposition  to  it  Avas  very  violent.  Public  meetings  to  denounce 
it,  Avith  riotous  demonstrations,  Avere  held  in  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Charleston,  and  elsewhere.  When  it  came  before  the 
House  of  Representatives,  the  opposition  of  the  Democrats  Avas  bitter 
and  unrestrained.  The  President's  instructions  to  Jay,  and  all  other 
papers  relating  to  the  treaty,  were  demanded.  The  President,  with 

1  Mr.  Jay  had  proposed  an  article  abolishing  privateering  altogether,  by  citizens  of  either 
power  against  the  commerce  of  the  other ;  but  Lord  Grenville  would  not  agree  to  it. 


126 


TXDER    THE   CONSTITUTION. 


[CHAP.  V. 


the  assent  of  his  Cabinet,  denied  that  the  House  could  rightfully 
make  any  such  demand,  and  refused  to  comply  with  it.  The  treaty- 
making  power  was  conferred  by  the  Constitution  exclusively  upon 
the  President  and  Senate ;  but  the  Democrats  proposed  to  nullify 
the  supreme  law  by  withholding  the  necessary  appropriations  to  carry 
out  the  terms  of  the  treaty.  Their  ground  was,  that  where  the  execu- 
tion of  any  treaty  —  and  treaties  with  Spain,  with  Algiers,  and  with 
the  Northwestern  Indians,  as  well  as  with  Great  Britain,  were  at 
this  moment  before  the  House  —  depended  upon  appropriations,  they 
might  be  made  or  withheld  at  the  pleasure  of  the  House;  that  as  re- 
garded this  particular  treaty,  it  favored  England,  it  was  opposed  to 
France,  it  was  for  the  benefit  of  Northern  trade,  it  failed  to  provide 
for  the  loss  of  slaves  who  fled  with  the  British  armies  at  the  close  of 
the  Revolution.  The  resolution  to  make  the  needed  appropriations, 
however,  passed  after  a  long  and  hot  debate ;  but  it  was  carried  by 
Northern  votes,  only  four  votes  from  States  south  of  the  Potomac  be- 
ing given  in  its  favor.  The  South  was  already  quick  to  oppose  any- 
thing that  did  not  add  to  its  own  strength.  The  cloud,  at  first  not 
bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  was  growing  visibly  larger. 


Franklin  s   G'ave   in    Philadelphia. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

ADMINISTRATIONS   OP    ADAMS    AND   JEFFERSON. 

THIRD  ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT.  —  NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  JEALOUSY.  —  THE 
CHIEF  OF  ONE  PARTY  THK  SUCCESSOR  TO  THE  CHIEF  OF  THE  OTHER.  —  SENSITIVE- 
NESS OF  PUBLIC  MEN  AND  VIRULENCE  OF  THE  PRESS.  —  ALIEN  AND  SEDITION  LAWS. 

—  THE  CARRYING  TRADE  OF  THE  WORLD.  —  FRANCE  AND  AMERICA.  —  ENGLAND  AND 
AMERICA.  —  THE   CONDESCENSION  OF    FOREIGNERS.  —  ENVOYS  TO  FRANCE.  —  THE 
X.  Y.  Z.  CORRESPONDENCE.  —  NAPOLEON'S  ACCESSION  TO  POWER.  —  YELLOW  FEVER 
IN  AMERICA.  —  WASHINGTON'S  DEATH.  —  THREATENING  OF  WAR  WITH  FRANCE.  — 
PREPARATIONS  AGAINST  SPAIN.  —  NAVIGATION  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  —  WILKINSON'S 
CORRUPT  INTRIGUES.  —  SPAIN'S  DRBAD  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  HAMILTON  AND 
MIRANDA.  —  FOURTH   ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT.  —  THE  PURCHASE  OF  LOUISIANA. 

—  AARON   BURR'S  EXPEDITION.  —  His  TRIAL  FOR  TREASON. 

WITH  the  autumn  of  1796  caine  the  period  prescribed  for  the  third 
election  of  President.  Through  the  summer  it  was  not  known, 
excepting  to  Washington  himself,  perhaps,  and  possibly  to 
some  confidential  friends,  whether  he  would  serve  for  a  third 
term.  He  had  requested  Madison  and  Hamilton  to  prepare  drafts 
for  a  farewell  address,  —  but  this  he  had  done  in  1792,  at  the  end  of 
his  first  term.  There  was  then  no  precedent  which  suggested  that 
eight  years  was  the  period  of  a  full  presidency  ;  nor  do  any  of  the 
authors  of  the  Constitution  seem  to  have  committed  themselves  for 
or  against  such  a  suggestion.  So  far  was  it  uncertain  whether  Wash- 
ington would  consent  to  serve  that,  in  the  nomination  of  electors,  both 
parties  aimed  to  strengthen  themselves,  if  possible,  by  naming  candi- 
dates who  were  certain  to  vote  for  him  if  he  would  stand.  The  other 
candidates  were  John  Adams,  who  was  supported  by  the  Federalists, 
and  Jefferson,  who  had  received  four  electoral  votes  in  the  election 
for  the  second  term. 

It  may  well  be  believed  that  Washington  permitted  the  doubt  as 
to  his  purpose  in  the  hope  of  strengthening  the  canvass  of  Adams's 
friends.  And  probably  it  had  some  effect  in  this  direction.  Hut  it 
was  easy  for  the  Democratic  leaders,  who  worked  under  very  careful 
counsels  from  their  own  candidate,  to  name  electors  whose  first  vote 
would  have  been  given  to  Washington.  This  was  done  in  Virginia,  and 


128      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JKFFERSOX.     [CHAP.  VI. 

probably  in  other  States.  The  voters  of  the  Federal  party  voted  for 
electors  with  the  intention  of  making  Adams  President,  if  they  could, 
and  Thomas  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina,  Vice-president.  The  in- 
tention of  Democratic  voters  was  to  make  Jeffeison  President,  and  to 
elect  as  Vice-president  Aaron  Burr,  of  New  York,  who  had  received, 
four  years  before,  one  electoral  vote  thrown  away  in  South  Carolina. 
The  reader  must  remember,  however,  that  it  was  impossible  for  the 
electors  in  the  most  distant  States  to  confer  with  one  another  in  the 
period  between  their  own  election  and  the  day  when  they  met  to 
choose  the  President.  The  North  was  jealous  of  the  South,  and  the 
South  of  the  North.  In  the  fear,  therefore,  at  the  North,  that  Mr. 
Pinckney  might  be  chosen  President  at  the  South  over  Mr.  Adams, 
the  New  Hampshire  electors  threw  away  their  six  votes  for  Oliver 
Ellsworth  of  Connecticut.  One  elector  in  Massachusetts  and  four  in 
Rhode  Island  did  the  same.  Five  of  the  Connecticut  electors  voted 
for  Jay  instead  of  Pinckney.  In  South  Carolina,  to  have  the  whole 
government  in  the  hands  of  Southern  men,  the  electors,  regardless  of 
other  party  ties,  gave  their  eight  votes  for  Jefferson  and  Pinckney, 
though  one  was  a  Federal  candidate  and  the  other  a  Democrat.  This 
was  exactly  what  the  Northern  electors  had  feared.  Pinckney  also 
lost  four  votes  in  Georgia,  which  were  given  to  George  Clinton.  The 
result  was,  that  while  Adams  had  seventy-one  votes,  just  the  number 
necessary  for  a  choice,  Mr.  Pinckney  had  but  fifty-nine.  Jefferson, 
whose  votes  were  all  given  by  persons  in  opposition  to  Adams,  had 
sixty-eight  votes  —  not  a  majority.  The  Senate  had  to  choose  him 
or  Pinckney  Vice-president,  and  chose  Jefferson.  Thus  the  head  of 
one  party  was  chosen  President,  and  the  head  of  the  other,  Vice-pres- 
ident, of  the  Republic. 

To  the  eyes  of  the  actors  in  the  politics  of  those  four  years,  unac- 
customed as  they  were  to  the  larger  movements  of  nations,  their  con- 
tests seemed  of  supreme  importance  ;  and  certainly  they  were  con- 
ducted with  an  acrimony  that  had  never  been  known  in  America 

before,  and  never  has  been  known  since.  The  writers  for 
ness  of  poii-  the  press  were,  unfortunately,  in  many  cases,  adventurers 

from  other  lands,  who  had  nothing  at  risk,  and  were  quite 
unacquainted  with  the  traditions  of  America,  and  with  those  underly- 
ing and  fundamental  characteristics  of  a  nation,  which  cannot  be  ex- 
pressed, even  in  constitutions,  but  which  need  to  be  recognized  in  all 
its  policy.  To  the  bitterness  of  the  invective  and  satire  of  such 
writers,  the  public  men  of  the  country  were  new.  Of  the  impotence 
of  such  invective  and  satire  they  had  no  experience.  Their  letters 
and  their  public  addresses,  therefore,  are  full  of  such  allusions  to 
the  venomous  and  hateful  slanders  of  the  press  as  must  have  de- 


JOHN    ADAMS. 
(Af/fi-  a  portrait  hy  S/uai-t  at/out 


1798.]  THE    ALIEN    AND   SEDITION   LAWS.  129 

lighted  the  assailants,  really  insignificant,  whose  spite  thus  gained  far 
more  influence  than  it  deserved. 

The  violence  of  such  invective  drove  the  Government  to  propose  a 
measure,  passed  by  Congress,  which  was  in  fact  aimed  at 
these  very  writers.  On  the  18th  of  June,  1798,  this  act  was  and  smuion 
approved.  The  facility  of  naturalization  was  restricted,  and 
the  President  was  permitted  to  send  out  of  the  country  such  aliens  as 
he  thought  dangerous  to  the  United  States.  He  might  give  license 
to  aliens  to  remain  during  his  pleasure ;  he  might  require  bonds  for 
their  good  behavior.  Aliens  who  had  no  licenses  might  be  impris- 
oned ;  and  masters  of  vessels  who  brought  them  might  be  fined  for 
not  reporting  their  arrival.  This  statute  was  certainly  not  in  the 
tone  of  those  trumpet  proclamations  which  represented  America  as 
the  home  of  the  oppressed  of  all  nations.  It  did  not  meet  with  a 
very  hospitable  welcome  from  those  travellers —  more  remarkable  for 
their  former  rank  than  for  their  numbers  —  who  in  the  troubles  of 
Europe  sought  America  as  the  land  of  promise.  Volney,  Talleyrand, 
and  Chateaubriand,  and  the  son  of  Philippe  1'Egalitd,  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  are  representatives  of  this  class  of  travellers,  some  of  whom 
had  some  thought  of  becoming  citizens  of  the  Republic.  The  framers 
of  the  law  had  not  such  men  in  mind,  so  much  as  men  of  whom  Cob- 
bett  and  Duane  are  the  better  types,  who  had  brought  sharp  pens 
with  them,  which  they  were  ready  to  use  whenever  they  could  sting 
men  to  madness  or  draw  hot  blood.  It  is  still  a  question  whether 
this  law  was  unconstitutional.1  Handled  as  it  was  by  the  writers 
whom  it  was  meant  to  terrify,  it  certainly  proved  obnoxious. 

It  was  coupled  in  the  popular  opinion  with  what  was  called  the 
Sedition  Law.  The  "-Alien  and  Sedition  Laws"  stood  and  fell  to- 
gether as  monuments  of  what  their  friends  called  the  courage,  and 
their  enemies  the  folly,  of  the  Federal  party.  The  Sedition  Law 
made  five  offences  penal,  which  have  been  briefly  described  as  "  de- 
faming Congress  or  the  President,"  "  exciting  the  hatred  of  the  people 
against  them,"  "stirring  up  sedition  in  the  United  States,"  "  raising 
unlawful  combinations  for  resisting  the  laws,"  and  "aiding  foreign 
nations  against  the  United  States."  It  cannot  be  doubted,  that  in 

1  Vou  Hoist  (Constitutional  History  of  the  United  St(ttes)  savs,  "for  a  long  time  thev  had 
been  considered  in  the  United  States  as  unquestionably  unconstitutional."  This  is  t<>o 
strong.  But  Chief  Justice  Marshall  is  said  to  have  intimated  it.  There  is  a  letter  of  Cnl- 
houn's  which  Von  Hoist  probably  had  in  mind,  in  which  he  says  that  "  no  constitutional 
question  of  a  political  character  which  has  been  agitated"  —  since  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  —  "  has  ever  been  settled  in  the  public  mind,  except  that  of  the  uueonstitu- 
lionality  of  the  Alien  anil  Sedition  Laws,  and,  what  is  remarkable,  that  was  settled  against 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court."  Hut  the  Supreme  Court  never  gave  anv  decision, 
although  all  the  judges  of  the  time,  except  Judge  Chase,  in  different  decisions  pronounced 
them  constitutional. 

VOL.  iv.  9 


130      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  .TF.FFKRSON.     [CiiAi-.  VI. 

the  organization  of  the  government  some  legislation  on  such  points 
was  necessary.  Such  legislation  has  been  silently  approved  and  as- 
sented to  in  later  times.  Hut  in  the  process  of  forming  national 
opinion  and  a  national  life,  this  particular  measure  met  the  same 
storm  of  dissent  which  fell  upon  the  Alien  Act.  That  act  had  the 
additional  misfortune  of  being  based  on  an  English  model.  The 
English  Alien  Law,  indeed,  had  given  to  the  English  Government  the 
power  of  banishing  some  of  those  strangers  whose  comfort  here  was 
now  threatened  bv  the  sister  act  in  America.1 

w 

Both  acts,  and  the  bitter  discussion  which  accompanied  them, 
m'ght  have  fallen  into  the  forgetfulness  in  which  lie  many 
other  laws  passed  and  repealed  in  times  of  great  partisan 
excitement,  but  for  the  comments  made  on  them  by  the 
legislatures  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky.  In  resolutions  which  for 
half  a  century  were  celebrated,  —  referred  to,  indeed,  more  often 
than  they  were  read,  —  these  legislative  bodies  declared,  that  when 
Congress  passed  acts  beyond  its  constitutional  powers,  the  States 
were  not  bound  to  obey,  and  that  each  State  had  the  right  to 
determine  the  question  of  constitutionality.  The  resolves  had  the 
more  importance  because  they  were  secretly  dictated  by  Vice-pres- 
ident Jefferson,  the  leader  of  the  Democratic  party.  In  the 
W*  nuiii-  Kentucky  resolutions,  the  significant  word  "  nullification  " 
first  occurs.  In  the  original  draft  of  the  Resolutions  of  1798, 
written  by  Jefferson  himself,  he  says  :  "  Where  powers  are  assumed 
which  have  not  been  delegated,  a  nullification  of  the  act  is  the  right- 
ful remedy  :  that  every  State  has  a  natural  right,  in  cases  not  within 
the  compact,  to  nullify,  of  their  own  authority,  all  assumptions  of 
power  by  others  within  their  limits."  Though  this  passage  was 
omitted  in  the  resolutions  of  that  year,  it  was  restored,  with  some 
slight  verbal  changes,  in  those  adopted  a  year  later.  The  resolutions 
were  transmitted  to  the  legislatures  of  the  other  States.  They  be- 
came matters  of  eager  discussion,  and  were  for  half  a  century  the 
declaration  of  the  tk  State  Rights  "  theory  of  the  Constitution.  As, 
in  point  of  fact,  Jefferson  became  President,  in  an  election  where 
these  resolutions  made  the  programme  of  his  supporters,  as  he  never 
had  any  thought  afterward  of  abandoning  any  power  which  the  Fed- 
eral Government  could  claim,  and  as  his  successors  followed  the  same 
convenient  precedents,  the  "  nullification  "  resolutions  never  had  any 
practical  effect,  until  South  Carolina,  led  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  attempted 
to  carry  out  the  doctrine,  a  generation  afterward.  For  the  present, 

1  "  During  this  debate,  an  Irish  representative  remarked  to  a  stranger  in  the  lobby,  that 
nearly  one  fourth  of  the  members  then  present  were  natives  of  Europe. "  —  American  Annual 
Register,  vol.  ii.  The  debate  was  on  the  stamp-tux  on  naturalization  papers,  July  1,  1797. 


1798.]  COMMERCIAL   RELATIONS.  131 

the  resolutions  gave  the  rallying  cry  to  the  Republican  or  Democratic 
party  for  the  overthrow  of  President  Adams  and  his  supporters. 

Foreign  negotiations,  meanwhile,  occupied  attention  and  interest, 
such  as  belonged  to  a  struggle  in  Europe  in  which  every  Foreignre. 
fundamental  principle  was  involved.  That  struggle,  from  latlons 
the  very  nature  of  the  case,  interested  the  sailors  and  merchants  of 
the  United  States.  It  appeared  already  that  a  "carrying  trade  "  was 
possible  for  American  vessels,  because  they  were  neutrals,  which 
might  become  a  trade  of  very  great  value.  Between  Europe,  Amer- 
ica, and  the  East  Indies,  and  between  the  different  ports  of  Europe, 
American  vessels  could  go  and  come,  while  the  vessels  of  bellige- 
rent powers  were  restrained  by  frequent  blockades.  This  profitable 
commerce  gave  a  development  which  even  later  times  would  call 
large,  to  the  ship-building  and  mercantile  life  of  the  United  States, 
especially  in  those  States  whose  people  had  most  experience  on  the 
sea. 

But  it  was  fettered  by  many  annoyances.  England  had  never 
abandoned  the  custom,  which  now  seems  so  barbarous,  of 

i-r-  i  Restriction* 

impressing  into  the  naval  service  of  the  King  such  seamen   on  com- 

merce 

as  might  be  needed,  wherever  they  were  found.  In  the 
voyages  of  English  cruisers,  the  commanders  did  not  scruple  to 
search  for  English  seamen  on  board  of  American  merchant  ships. 
They  often  abused  a  privilege  which  was  at  best  but  the  right  of  the 
stronger,  and  would  take  from  an  American  vessel  Amer-  .^  .<ri_ht 
ican  seamen,  under  the  pretext  that  they  were  English.  o£8earoh-" 
Commanders  of  blockading  squadrons,  also,  when  they  had  over- 
hauled an  American  merchantman,  did  not  readily  abandon  such  a 
prize  because  she  was  a  neutral.  The  vessel  would  be  turned  from 
her  voyage,  and  sent  into  a  convenient  port  for  adjudication.  Even 
if  the  court  there  pronounced  the  seizure  illegal,  and  released  the 
vessel,  the  delay  of  her  voyage  was  an  insult  to  the  nation  and  a  seri- 
ous injury  to  her  master,  crew,  and  owners.  As,  generally  speaking, 
half  Europe  was  at  war  against  the  other  half,  every  American  vessel 
sailing  from  one  belligerent  port  to  another  had  to  pass  two  blockad- 
ing squadrons,  if  the  blockades  which  had  been  proclaimed  were  en- 
forced. It  may  readily  be  supposed  that  the  unprotected  merchant- 
men of  a  nation  far  away  were  by  no  means  sure  of  friendly  inves- 
tigation by  officers  of  such  squadrons. 

Nor  were  considerations  of  interest  the  only  ones  which  brought  the 
people  of  the  United  States  into  close  relationship  with  European 
politics.  The  sympathy  of  France  with  America  through  the  Revo- 
lution had  been  close  and  efficient.  The  present  war  was  the  result 
of  an  effort  made  by  Frenchmen  to  establish  a  republic,  and  they 


132      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.     [CiiAi-.  VI. 

were  eager  to  acknowledge  that  they  had  taken  their  first  lessons  in 
republican  government  in  America.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  from 
a  war  with  England  that  the  United  States  was  only  now  recovering. 
All  along  the  coast  were  traces  of  the  incursions  of  English  soldiers 
or  English  sailors.  War  had  assumed  all  those  forms  of  personal 
resentment  which  are  inevitable  where  hostile  armies  land  on  an 
unprotected  coast,  and  where  the  first  object  of  the  invasion  is  to 
strip  the  farms  of  the  food  which  may  be  necessary  to  the  invader. 
Such  memories  do  not  die  in  one  generation.  In  this  instance  they 
left  a  bitterness  against  England  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  which  was  never  vainly  appealed  to  by  the  leaders  of 
parties,  till  half  a  century  had  gone  by. 

The  proceedings  of  Genet,  Adet.  and  Fonchet  in  representing  the 
French  Government  in  America  had  been  exasperating  to 

AttitU'li'  of 

Kmirhen-  Washington.  To  that  air  of  condescension  still  observable 
in  all  foreigners  in  America,  they  added  the  arrogance  which 
reminded  their  hosts  of  the  bounties  of  Louis  XVI.,  —  and  an  arrogance 
of  their  own,  as  representatives  of  pure  republicanism,  in  comparison 
with  which  they  considered  that  of  America  but  a  sham.  More 
than  one  of  these  diplomatists  met  the  rebuke  of  Washington  and  his 
cabinet.  In  these  rebukes  even  Jefferson  was  obliged  to  join  some- 
times, though  it  was  well  enough  understood  that  he  and  his  party 
favored  the  French,  and  were  willing  to  apologize  for  the  indiscretion 
and  insolence  of  their  envoys.  But  to  diplomatic  insults,  which 
aroused  some  indignation  in  the  country,  was  added  the  blow  to 
American  commerce,  as  vessel  after  vessel  was  seized  by  one  or  an- 
other French  cruiser,  detained  for  examination,  and  perhaps  con- 
demned. Nearly  a  thousand  vessels,  thus  detained  or  captured,  were 
named  in  the  authenticated  despatches  published  by  the  Government, 
and  of  the  1'ie  Directory  of  France  justified  such  measures  only  by 
pleading  their  displeasure  at  the  Jay  Treaty.  They  went 
so  far  as  to  refuse  to  receive  Pinckney,  whom  the  American  Govern- 
ment had  sent  out  as  its  envoy,  and  ordered  him  to  quit  the  Re- 
public. 

On  this  news  the  President  called  an  extra  session  of  Congress. 
He  named  Pinckney,  John  Marshall,  and  Elbridge  Gerry  as  a  com- 
mission to  renew  the  negotiation.  In  this  appointment  he  not  only 
tried  to  pacify  France,  but  to  satisfy  the  opposition  to  his  own  admin- 
i>t  ration  by  numing  Elbridge  (jerry  from  the  number  of  his  oppo- 
nents. The  first  news  received  from  them  was  not  favorable.  It 
was  a  decree  of  the  Directory  and  Council  that  all  neutral  ships 
bearing  any  English  commodities  should  be  good  prize,  and  that 
French  ports  should  be  closed  against  all  neutral  vessels  which  had 


1798.] 


ENVOYS   TO   FRANCE. 


133 


touched  ports  under  the  English  flag.  The  next  report  informed  the 
Government  that  on  their  arrival  in  France  they  had  been  met  by 
unofficial  agents,  who  assured  them  that  they  would  not  be  received 
until  they  had  offered  suitable  bribes  to  officers  of  the  government. 
Talleyrand  himself,  who  was  then  Foreign  Minister  of  France,  was 
implicated  in  this  disgraceful  proposal.1  Externally,  any  reception 
was  refused  to  the  three  envoys  by  the  Directory.  Privately  they 
were  made  certain  that  if  they  paid  the  bribes  they  would  be  re- 
ceived, with  good 
probability  of  suc- 
cess ;  "  money  is 
needed,  a  great 
deal  of  m  o  n  e  y." 
Once  received, 
the  American 
Government 
would  be  asked  to 
make  a  handsome 
loan  to  the  French 
Republic,  the  cred- 
it of  which  was  at 
a  verv  low  ebb. 

mf 

If  this  loan  was 
granted,  the  Di- 
re c  t  o  r  y,  on  its 
part,  would  make 
concessions.  The 
envoys  rejected  the 
humiliating  propo- 
sal. They  were 
then  ordered  out 
of  the  country, 
with  the  exception 
of  Mr.  Gerry, 
who,  as  an  adherent  of  Jefferson's,  it  was  supposed  might  prove  more 
pliable. 

The  report  made  by  its  envoys  was  at  once  published  b}-  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  and  republished  in  England 
and  France.     In  place  of  the  names  of  the  three  unofficial 
agents,  the  letters  X,  Y,  and  Z  were  substituted  in  the  pub- 
lication, and  the  correspondence  has  been  known  ever  since  as  "  the 

1  Of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt.     Gerry's  letter  proves  it.    Napoleon  knew  it  to  IK;  true. 
Compare  Sir  Henry  Uulwer's  sketch  of  Talleyrand. 


Chief  Justice   Marshall. 


134      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.     [CHAP.  VI. 

X.  Y.  Z.  correspondence."  *  The  disgraceful  proposal  aroused  the 
whole  country  to  indignation.  Congress  ordered  an  enlargement  of 
the  standing  army  by  twelve  regiments.  It  ordered  the  construction 
of  a  navy  of  twenty- four  vessels,  and  authorized  merchantmen  to  arm 
themselves  against  the  French  vessels  of  war.  So  far  as  the  acts  of 
their  cruisers  went,  the  two  nations  were,  in  fact,  at  war.  It  was  not 
so  long  since  the  privateering  of  the  Revolution  but  that  seamen  and 
merchants  could  fit  out  their  ships  for  fighting  in  the  most  effective 
way.  In  the  West  Indies  two  serious  conflicts  took  place.  The  Dela- 
ware, of  the  United  States  navy,  captured  a  heavy  French  privateer, 
and  the  Constellation  took  V Inmrgente,  a  French  frigate.  Both  ves- 
sels were  sent  into  port  as  prizes. 

Had  that  unwise  and  ill-fated  body,  the  Directory,  led  France  any 
Napoleon's  longer  toward  her  ruin,  war  would  certainly  have  been  pro- 
p°llcy-  claimed  on  one  side  or  on  both.  But  the  young  Napoleon, 
when  he  seized  the  reins  of  power,  had  sense  enough  to  see  the  mad- 
ness of  the  claims  on  which  the  Directory  had  insisted.  He  received, 
with  the  most  cordial  welcome,  the  new  embassy  sent  out  by  Adams. 
It  consisted  of  Chief  Justice  Ellsworth,  William  R.  Davie,  and  Wil- 
liam Van  Murray.  Napoleon  had  already  learned  that  Talleyrand 
was  not  above  suspicion  in  matters  where  pecuniary  integrity  was 
involved.  He  made  his  own  brother  Joseph  the  head  of  the  three 
plenipotentiaries  appointed  to  treat  with  the  Americans.2  Orders 
were  immediately  given  to  French  cruisers  to  avoid  the  molestation 
of  American  vessels,  and  that  cordial  understanding  between  the 
countries  began  of  which  the  important  result  was  the  cession  of  Lou- 
isiana two  years  later. 

Meanwhile,  in  America,  every  step  of  the  negotiation,  and  every 
turn  in  the  politics  of  France,  was  marked  by  new  appeals  to  the  one 
political  party  or  the  other.  The  national  feeling  inevitably  stood 
with  the  party  which  seemed,  at  the  moment,  most  zealous  for  na- 
tional honor.  All  political  discussion  was  impregnated  with  senti- 
ments which  sprang  from  the  sympathy  of  the  parties  with  the  dif- 
ferent combatants  in  Europe.  In  the  Federal  party  itself,  great  dis- 
affection was  aroused  at  every  step  by  which  the  President  attempted 
either  to  conciliate  their  opponents  or  to  take  a  middle  course  be- 
tween extremes.  His  appointment  of  another  mission  to  France, 
without  consulting  his  Cabinet,  in  spite  of  the  contemptuous  treat- 
ment of  the  late  envoys,  in  spite  of  his  own  declaration  that  he 
would  never  send  another  minister  to  that  government  till  he  was 

1  X.  was  Hottingner,  a  banker ;  Y.,  Bellamy,  of  Hamburg ;  Z.,  Hautval,  a  Frenchman. 

2  Joseph  Bonaparte,  as  Count  de  Survilliers,  afterward  resided  for  many  years  in  Amer- 
ica. 


1798.] 


YELLOW   FEVER   IN    AMERICA. 


135 


assured  of  a  cordial  reception,  alienated  the  confidence  of  some  of 
the  most  influential  leaders  of  his  party.  The  result  of  this  dis- 
affection, and  of  the  unpopular  Sedition  Law,  appeared  in  the  issue 
of  the  election  of  1800.  By  that  issue  the  administration  of  govern- 
ment was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Federalists,  to  fall  into  and 
remain  in  the  hands  of  the  Democrats  for  the  next  quarter  of  a 
century. 

The  country  had  other  interests  of  great  importance  which  were 
quite  independent  of  these  European  complications.  In  the  Yenow  fe. 
summer  of  1798,  yellow  fever,  that  disease  which  is  still  as  Ter 
mysterious  in  its  movements  as  it  was  then,  established  itself  in  most 
of  the  principal  seaports  of 
the  Atlantic  coast.  Con- 
gress fled  from  Philadel- 
phia before  its  approach. 
The  administration  of  the 
government  was  seriously 
affected  by  the  absence  of 
leading  members.  Trade 
of  course  suffered,  espe- 
cially commerce  with  for- 
eign nations.  In  the  ne- 
gotiations with  the  Barba- 
rians on  the  Moorish  coast, 
our  envoys  even  apologized 
to  the  Dey  of  Tripoli  for 
the  cessation  of  our  govern- 
ment while  the  pestilence 
had  driven  men  from  the 

Capital.       In    the  Summer  Of  Elbridge  Gerry. 

1800  the  capital  was  removed  to  Washington,  "  the  Federal  City  "  as 
it  was  at  first  called. 

While  the  preparations  for  war  with  France  were  impending,  and 
for  war  with  Spain  under  the  pretext  of  war  with  France,  D^^  of 
the  whole  country  was  moved  with  profound  sorrow  by  the  Waiihin8ton 
announcement  of  the  death  of  Washington,  December  14, 1799,  at  his 
home  at  Mount  Vernon.  For  some  years  past,  his  resolute  sympathy 
with  the  national  policy  of  the  Federalists  had  brought  on  his  head 
some  of  the  most  rancorous  abuse  of  the  opposition  journals  of  Phila- 
delphia. The  English  writers,  who  then  attempted  to  lead  public 
opinion,  were,  as  they  have  often  been  in  later  cases  of  history,  es- 
pecially bitter.  But  all  such  abuse  ceased  when  his  death  was  an- 
nounced. The  whole  country,  even  in  its  smaller  towns,  arranged 


136       ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.     [CiiAi-.  VI. 

public  solemnities  by  which  to  express  its  grief.  From  that  time 
it  hiis  been  difficult  to  discuss  the  character  or  exploits  of  Wash- 
ington with  the  same  impartiality  with  which  those  of  any  other  man 
are  regarded.  It  was  felt  at  the  time,  and  has  been  felt  ever  since, 
that  his  services  through  the  war,  and  through  the  crystallization  of 
the  Constitution  in  its  first  years,  were  such  as  no  other  man  could 
render.  A  single  passage  in  the  address  made  before  Congress  by 
General  Henry  Lee  has  become  proverbial.  It  pronounced  him 
'•  First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  country- 


men." l 


The   Beginning  of  the   Capitol,  —  From   an  old  print. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  Washington  had  been  appointed  Lieuten- 
ant-general of  the  enlarged  army,  with  a  view  to  its  organ  i- 


zation  for  what  was  called  the  war  with  France.  But  he 
did  not  suppose,  nor  did  the  President,  nor  did  Hamilton, 
who  was  first  in  command  under  Washington,  suppose  that  France 
would  invade  America.  Of  course  they  did  not  propose  that  America 
should  invade  France.  Twelve  new  regiments  were  to  be  recruited 
and  stationed  at  Fort  Washington  —  now  Cincinnati.  At  that  post 
General  Wilkinson,  who  commanded  in  the  West,  was  directed  to 
Wilkinson.  \)U\\^  flat-boats  sufficient  to  carry  the  army  thus  formed 
down  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi.  The  plan  of  the  campaign  was 
digested  between  Hamilton  and  Wilkinson  by  conference  in  part, 

1  The  resolutions  passed  by  Congress  on  the  death  of  Washington,  contained  the  words, 
'  to  the  memory  of  the  man,  first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  nnd  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow- 
citizens."  Marshall  (Life  of  Washington)  says  the  resolutions  were  written  by  General 
Lee,  though  read  by  another  member.  In  the  oration  pronounced  before  both  Houses  of 
Congress  by  General  Henry  Lee,  the  words  used  were  -"first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and 
first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen."  It  is  a  fact  worth  noting  that  Henry  Lee,  the  son 
<»f  the  General,  in  a  note  to  the  second  edition  of  his  father's  Memoirs,  says  the  oration  be- 
fore Congress  was  delivered  by  Marshall.  It  is  a  remarkable  mistake  to  make,  but  that 
it  is  a  mistake,  there  can  !»•  no  question. 


1799.] 


NAVIGATION'    OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 


13" 


Hi*  treason. 


and  in  part  by  letters.  Wilkinson  was,  in  truth,  the  last  person  who 
should  have  been  entrusted  with  any  such  business.  He  had  left  the 
army  at  the  end  of  the  Revolution,  and  settled  in  Kentucky.  He 
had  soon  after  entered  into  personal  communication  with 
Miro,  the  Spanish  Governor  of  Louisiana,  which  resulted 
in  his  receiving,  regularly  but  secretly,  an  annual  payment  from  the 
Spanish  Government,  to  buy  his  services  for  detaching  Kentucky 
and  the  Western  States  from  the  Union.1  Such  wras  the  traitor  into 
whose  hands  Adams  and  Hamilton  gave  with  confidence  the  corn- 


Vernon   in   1797.  —  From  an  old   print. 


maud  of  what  was  called  "  The  Legion  of  the  West."  Such  was 
the  man  who  afterward  had  the  fortune  of  arresting  —  if  he  did  not 
first  desert  —  the  movement  of  Aaron  Burr,  and  compelling  him  to 
that  flight  in  which  he  became  a  prisoner  to  the  United  States. 

The  determination  to  strike  at  Orleans,2  and  wrest  it  from  Spain, 
was  forced  on  the  Government  by  the  exasperation  of  the 
people  of  the  States  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  when  their 
trade  by  the  great  river  was  suddenly  arrested.     From  the 
time  of  the  treaty  of  1783  they  had  been  ill  at  ease.     Under  that 
treaty  Spain  held  the  mouth  of  the  river.     For,  though  the  eastern 

1  This  treason,  suspected  at  the  time,  is  now  made  certain  by  the  documents  copied  from 
the  Spanish  archives  for  the  Slate  of  Louisiana.     See  Gayarre's  Louisiana. 

2  So  it  was  generally  called  till  the  cession  of  Louisiana,  though  the  official  name  was 
"  Nouvi'lle  Orleans.." 


138      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.    [CHAP.  VI. 

side  of  the  Mississippi  had  been  granted  to  the  new  nation,  the  west- 
ern side  was  left  to  Spain,  the  ally  of  the  United  States  as  against 
England.  Spain  also  had  the  eastern  side,  south  of  31°  N.  latitude, 
partly  because  Orleans  was  on  the  eastern  side,  and  partly  because 
the  boundary  between  Florida  and  Louisiana  had  never  been  deter- 
mined. But,  before  1783,  there  were  settlers  from  the  sea-coast 
States  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  As  they  increased  in  number, 
the  necessity  for  a  route  to  the  sea  by  the  river  was  more  and  more 
manifest.  Such  was  the  severity  of  the  Spanish  colonial  policy,  that 
all  goods  sent  down  the  river  had  to  be  transhipped  at  Orleans,  and, 
indeed,  to  be  sold  to  Spanish  purchasers.  Tobacco,  a  large  part  of 
the  produce  of  Kentucky,  could  be  sold  only  to  the  Spanish  Ci-own, 
which  assumed  the  monopoly  of  that  trade.  All  these  impositions 
enforced  by  the  Spanish  Government  Were  regarded  by  the  new  set- 
tlers as  the  greatest  hardship,  as,  indeed,  they  were.  Many  of  the 
settlers  had  emigrated  to  escape  taxation  at  the  East;  but  they 
found  their  agriculture  and  commerce  in  their  new  home  hampered 
by  restrictions  more  severe  than  any  Eastern  taxation.  Their  dis- 
affection showed  itself  from  time  to  time  in  different  forms. 

Some  men  thought  of  independence  of  the  United  States,  with  close 
alliance  with  Spain  ;  some  proposed  to  submit  to  Spain,  as  a  part 
of  her  colony  of  Louisiana ;  others  dreamed  of  seizing  Orleans,  and 
making  war  with  Spain,  by  the  unaided  force  of  the  West ;  others 
hoped  to  induce  Congress  to  declare  war ;  and  still  others  proposed 
an  alliance  with  France,  and  to  persuade  her  to  reassert  her  empire 
over  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Of  course  the  great  body  of 
settlers  were  ignorant  of  such  intrigues.  But  such  schemes,  more 
or  less  distinctly  formed,  were  in  the  minds  of  all  leading  men. 
They  did  not  lack  counsellors  from  without.  Miro,  the  shrewd 
Spanish  Governor  of  Orleans  and  Louisiana,  held  Wilkinson  in 
his  pay,  as  has  been  said,  for  many  years.  Nor  was  the  Governor 
slow  in  bribing  other  politicians  or  employing  other  agents.  Lord 
Dorchester,  in  Canada,  known  to  the  officers  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution as  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  —  the  ablest  officer,  except  Cornwallis, 
whom  Great  Britain  then  employed  in  high  command  in  America,  — 
was  on  the  alert  to  fed  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  West  by  his  agents. 
Genet,  the  envoy  of  the  French  Republic,  freely  issued  commissions 
in  the  West,  to  such  as  adhered  to  the  broad  schemes  of  the  Directory 
for  the  universal  emancipation  of  mankind.  Into  the  details  of  such 
intrigues  it  is  not  more  necessary  to  go  than  into  the  history  of  the 
intrigues  of  any  other  self-seeking  politicians,  who,  in  the  end,  attain 
no  object  of  public  importance. 

The  relations  of  the  United  States  with  Spain  came  to  one  crisis 


1799.]  RELATIONS   WITH   SPAIN.  139 

when  Adams  sent  Ellicott,  as  a  scientific  commissioner,  with  an  escort, 
to  Natchez,  to  run  the  line  of  31°  N.  latitude,  in  conjunction  with 
the  Spanish  authorities.  The  Spanish  Governor,  still  relying  on  his 
plans  for  separating  the  Western  States  from  their  alle-  Troubles 
giance,  deferred,  to  the  very  last,  the  withdrawal  of  Spanish  "panilh"™- 
garrisons  from  territory  which  was  confessed  to  belong  to  ' 
the  United  States.  When  Ellicott  arrived  with  his  escort  at  Natchez, 
the  American  troops  occupied  one  cantonment,  while  the  Spanish 
troops  still  held  the  old  forts  at  Nogales.1  The  surveys  went  for- 
ward, and  Ellicott,  as  American  commissioner,  steadily  pressed  the 
removal  of  the  Spanish  garrison.  Castilian  diplomacy  and  politeness 
exhausted  themselves  in  the  long  delays,  but  these  lasted  till  the  end 
of  March,  1799.  Captain  Guion,  commander  of  the  American  forces, 
finally  told  Gayoso,  the  Spanish  commander,  that  he  would  storm  the 
forts  if  they  were  not  evacuated  before  the  1st  of  April.  This  threat 
prevailed.  The  Spaniards  sent  their  guns  down  the  river,  and,  with- 
out any  notice,  either  to  the  commissioner  for  the  boundary,  or  to 
the  military  commander,  withdrew  silently  and  sullenly  on  the  29th 
of  March,  just  in  time  to  avoid  a  collision. 

A  policy  more  likely  to  be  effective  on  their  part,  would  have 
been,  to  soothe  the  Western  settlers  by  every  concession  possible. 
Hut  the  traditional  severity  of  the  colonial  laws  of  Spain  did  not  per- 
mit such  concession ;  and  there  is  mixed  up  in  all  the  Spanish  di- 
plomacy of  the  period,  a  curious  distrust  of  the  future  enmity  of  the 
people,  whose  good-will  at  the  moment  the  governors  at  Orleans 
should  have  been  attempting  to  obtain.  As  early  as  1776,  when,  at 
the  instance  of  Oliver  Pollock,2  Governor  Unzaga  was  supplying 
powder  to  the  American  insurgents  by  way  of  Pittsburg,  in  obedience 
to  commands  from  Madrid,  he  wrote  to  Madrid :  "•  I  suspect  that  at 
any  moment  the  royalists  and  insurgents  may  make  up  their  quarrel 
and  unite  to  take  possession  of  one  of  the  domains  of  some  European 
power."  This  was  fifteen  days  before  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. The  same  suspicion  haunted  the  Spanish  officers  in  all  the 
after  negotiations.  In  1787,  Navarro  wrote  home:  "I  see  clouds 
rising  and  threatening  us  with  a  storm  which  will  soon  burst  on  this 
province,  and  the  damage  would  be  still  greater  if,  unfortunately, 
the  inundation  extended  itself  to  the  territories  of  New  Spain." 
Acting  under  this  terror,  he  and  his  successors  attempted  to  guard 
against  the  Americans  by  keeping  them  away.  With  a  policy  as 
wise  as  that  which  should  have  dammed  the  Mississippi  itself,  in 
dread  of  such  an  inundation-  as  Navarro's  metaphor  suggests,  the 
successive  Spanish  governors  of  Louisiana  attempted  to  hold  back 

1  Now  knowu  as  "  Walnut  Hills."  -  See  vol.  iii..  j>.  413. 


140      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.    [CHAP.  VI. 

the  settlers  from  any  access  to  the  sea.  Once  and  again,  in  the 
course  of  seventeen  years,  between  the  treaty  of  1783  and  the  trans- 
fer of  the  province  back  to  France,  the  indignant  Kentuckians  en- 
rolled their  hunters  to  go  down  on  the  flood  of  the  river  and  take 
possession  of  the  little  capital.  The  French  envoy,  Genet,  who 
founded  Jacobin  clubs  in  the  West,  whispered  promises  of  similar 
invasion.  In  1796,  as  a  result  of  negotiation  in  Madrid,  the  pre- 
ceding year,  the  malcontents  on  the  river  were  in  a  measure  satisfied 
by  a  concession  on  the  part  of  Spain  of  the  "right  of  deposit"  at 
Orleans.  This  meant  simply  that  the  settlers  might  send  their 
goods  there,  to  store  them  and  await  a  market. 

But,  in  1799,  as  soon  as  these  three  years  had  expired,  Morales, 
who  was  the  Intendant  of  Commerce  at  Orleans,  announced,  by  an 
unexpected  decree,  that  this  concession  would  be  allowed  no  longer. 
Once  more  the  rage  of  the  Western  States  burned  hot.  Once  more 
contempia-  they  threatened  to  take  law  into  their  own  hands.  It  was 
ondNewCor-  tn^en  tnat'  under  the  pretext  of  the  war  with  France,  Presi- 
leang.  dent  John  Adams  began  the  enlistment  of  the  twelve  regi- 

ments for  service  in  the  West.  They  reported  for  duty  at  Fort  Wash- 
ington, and  here  flat-boats  were  built  to  convey  them  to  the  attack 
on  Orleans.  Spain  had  no  force  there  to  resist  them.  The  garri- 
son of  Orleans  was  but  a  handful.  Its  defences  were  a  bare  picket 
fence.  And,  as  was  just  now  said,  the  commanding  post  at  Nogales, 
near  Natchez,  had  been  abandoned  at  the  pressing  instance  of  Cap- 
tain Guion  of  the  United  States  army. 

In  this  willingness  to  attack  the  little  Spanish  post,  it  may  be 
said  that  all  parties  of  influence  among  the  Americans  joined.  The 
Western  men  were  eager;  they  filled  the  ranks  of  the  newly-enlisted 
army.  President  Adams  had  been  always  determined  to  secure 
access  to  the  sea  by  the  Mississippi,  and  he  had  no  hesitation  in  tak- 
ing decisive  measures.  Hamilton,  who  was  practically  first  in  com- 
mand, seems  to  have  been  led  on  not  only  by  these  considerations, 
but  by  the  eagerness  of  a  successful  soldier,  still  young,  for 
andMiran-  a  field  worthy  of  his  ambition.  He  had  become  interested 
in  Miranda,  a  Spanish  adventurer,  who  only  lacked  success 
to  earn  a  more  honorable  name  in  history.  Miranda  had  persuaded 
Hamilton  that  the  English  Government  would  support  him  in  a 
scheme  for  overthrowing  the  Spanish  authority  in  the  Spanish  Main ; 
and,  without  committing  himself  to  the  plan,  in  any  public  document, 
he  entertained  the  hope  of  leading  the  armies  of  the  United  States  in 
an  attack  on  their  Southern  neighbors.  It  is  interesting  to  observe 
that  he  had  thus  enlisted  himself  in  an  enterprise  not  differing 
widely  from  that  which  proved,  a  few  years  after,  to  be  the  crisis  in 
the  life  of  Aaron  Burr. 


1799.]  HAMILTON   AND   MIRANDA.  141 

Miranda's  acquaintance  in  the  United  States  was  as  early  as  the 
Revolutionary  War.  He  was  said  to  know  more  of  its  families  and 
parties  than  any  man  in  the  country.1  His  talk  of  the 

,    ~          ,  .  mm,  .,          1-11         Their  Plans. 

resources  of  South  America,  and  the  ease  with  which  the 
Spanish  yoke  could  be  thrown  off,  fascinated  young  men  eager  for 
adventure  ;  and  all  the  correspondence  of  the  time  shows  that  such 
schemes  were  largely  entertained  among  adventurous  people  in  the 
West.2  The  project  took  definite  form  when,  in  December,  1797, 
four  men,  who  professed  to  be  commissioners  of  disaffected  South 
American  constituents,  prepared  a  "  Convention  "  in  Paris.  These 
men  were  Miranda,  Sucre,  Salas,  and  Duperon.  Their  plan  pro- 
posed a  union  of  an  English  fleet  and  an  American  army  with  the 
Spanish  rebels  who  were  to  throw  off  the  yoke.  The  ninth  article 
of  this  Convention  proposed  that  the  United  States  should  be  in^ 
vited  to  join  in  a  treaty.  The  possession  of  the  two  Floridas  and  of 
Louisiana  was  to  be  guaranteed  to  them,  and,  in  exchange,  the  United 
States  was  to  furnish  to  South  America  an  auxiliary  force  of  five 
thousand  infantry  and  two  thousand  cavalry.  Miranda,  in  an  "adroit 
letter  "  to  President  Adams,  written  on  the  24th  of  March,  commu- 
nicated to  him  the  probability  of  such  an  effort,  without  giving  the 
details  of  the  plan.  To  Hamilton  he  was  more  explicit :  "  It  seems 
that  the  time  of  our  emancipation  draws  near,  and  that  the  estab- 
lishment of  liberty  in  the  whole  Continent  of  the  New  World  is 
entrusted  to  us  by  Providence.  The  only  danger  which  I  foresee  is 
the  introduction  of  French  principles,  which  will  poison  liberty  in  its 
cradle,  and  will  finish  soon  by  destroying  yours." 

While  the  President  himself  looked  incredulously  on  a  scheme  so 
bold,  three  members  of  his  cabinet  approved  it,  and  were  in  cor- 
respondence with  Hamilton  to  carry  it  forward.  In  Hamilton's  mind 
it  involved  the  necessity  that  he  should  be  the  head  of  the  movement. 
So  soon,  therefore,  as  the  new  army  was  ordered,  he  was  eager  to 
secure  its  real  command.  Adams  wished  to  make  him  second, 
under  General  Knox,  —  Washington  being  the  nominal  head.  But 
Hamilton  refused  subordination  to  any  but  his  old  chief.  Wash- 
ington had  already  pronounced  in  Hamilton's  favor.  Pinckney  was 
made  second,  and  Knox  third,  the  President  himself  acceding  to 
Washington's  proposal.3  Hamilton  found  himself,  therefore,  so  near 
the  object  of  his  wishes  as  to  be  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  West- 

1  John  Adams  to  Lloyd,  March  6,  1815. 

2  Thus  Philip  Nolan,  quoted  in  Moor's  deposition  of  1797,  said,  "I  look  forward  to  the 
conquest  of  Mexico  by  the  United  States,  and  I  expect  my  patron  and  frieud,  the  General, 
will,  in  such  an  event,  give  me  a  conspicuous  command."     The  General  was  Wilkinson. 

8  See  a  number  of  interesting  letters  on  this  subject  from  distinguished  Federalists  in 
chap.  vi.  of  Life  and  Letters  of  George  Caltot.     By  Henry  Cabot  Lodge.     1877. 


142      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.     [CHAP.  VI. 


ern  riflemen,  with  easy  access  to  Orleans,  and  a  good  cause  of  quarrel 
with  Spain.  Miranda  gave  good  reason  to  hope  that  the  English 
fleet,  an  important  part  of  the  combination,  would  be  ready  in  time. 

But  all  these  plans,  fine-drawn  at  the  very  best,  fell  to  pieces, 
influence  of  when  to  the  game  of  European  politics,  which  thus  far  had 
Nnpoieon.  been  played  by  the  cooperation  of  many  bunglers,  there 
came  one  master  player.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  took  in  one  hand  the 
varied  enterprises  which  had  confused  the  Directory,  and  which  the 
Directory  had  so  mismanaged.  With  his  accession  to  power,  the 
envoys  of  the  American  Government  were  again  welcomed  cour- 
teously. The  seizure  of  American  vessels  ceased  for  a  time.  Navi- 

w 

gation   on  the  Mississippi  was  again  permitted.     Cause  of  war  with 

France  was  thus  removed 
from  the  complicated  plan. 
The  opposition  to  the  Ad- 
ministration, and  the  na- 
tional dislike  of  standing 
armies,  were  too  intense  to 
permit  a  large  armed  force 
at  Cincinnati  without  an 
ostensible  object.  It  has 
since  been  surmised,  by 
some  of  the  few  pei'sons 
who  have  paid  any  atten- 
tion to  this  piece  of  history, 
which  at  the  time  was  care- 
fully concealed,  that  if  Mr. 
Adams  had  promptly  given 
his  support  to  Miranda,  the 
English  Government  would 
have  done  the  same.  In 
that  event  Hamilton  and 

Wilkinson  would  probably  have  captured  Orleans  when  the  high 
water  of  1799  raised  the  Mississippi.  The  invasion  of  South  America 
would  have  followed,  and  Hamilton's  after  career  would  have  been 
left  to  the  chances  of  war  in  Venezuela.  It  is  interesting  to  observe 
that  one  of  his  anxieties  in  assuming  the  command  which  Washing- 
ton's favor  had  secured  for  him,  was  his  fear  that  he  might  not  have 
the  choice  of  his  subordinates,  and  in  particular  that  he  might  have 
Aaron  Burr  as  quartermaster  in  his  new  campaign.  So  sensitively  do 
men  dread  the  presence  of  those  who  hate  them.1 

1  It  would  seem  as  if  all  who  were  interested  in  this  first  "fflibotteriag"  expedition 
wished  to  conceal  the  record  of  it.     The  fact  that  the  new  nrinv  made  rendezvous  nt   Fort 


Aaron   Burr. 


1800.]  DEFEAT   OF   THE  FEDERALISTS.  143 

As  the  nation  became  a  nation,  and  grew  unconsciously  to  that 
unity  of  life  which  the  makers  of  the  Constitution  hoped  for,  Therigeof 
but  dared  not  expect,  national  parties  took  more  definite  v*rtle*- 
form.  When  the  election  of  1800  approached,  the  Federalists  named 
Adams  and  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina,  with 
the  general  wish  that  Adams  might  be  first  and  Pinckney  second. 
With  this  critical  election  the  Federal  party  lost  its  control  Defeat0fthe 
of  the  nation,  and  it  never  regained  it  under  that  name.  F<'der»1"lte- 
The  loss  is  generally  ascribed  to  that  distrust  of  the  people  which, 
from  the  beginning,  hampered  the  leaders  of  that  party,  and  which 
deserved  the  recompense  of  failure.  But  this  interpretation  comes 
after  the  fact,  and  is  not  warranted  by  the  details  of  the  contest. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  national  position  assumed  by  Mr. 
Adams  in  the  controversy  with  France,  increased  his  popularity  in 
the  nation  at  large.  The  distrust  of  him  which  was  entertained  by 
Hamilton  and  by  other  of  the  Federal  leaders,  rather  improved  his 
popularity  in  States  not  immediately  under  their  control.  The  Se- 
dition Act  was  the  cause,  and,  so  far  as  the  final  vote  shows,  the  chief 
cause,  of  Adams's  defeat,  and  it  was  only  within  a  single  State  that 
that  cause  proved  important.  That  State  was  New  York.  In  the 
two  elections  of  1796  and  1800  she  won  the  title  of  the  "  Empire 
State,"  by  exerting  the  power  which  she  has  so  often  used  since  in 
determining  the  election  of  President.  In  1796,  her  twelve  electors, 
chosen  by  the  Legislature,  voted  for  Adams.  As  early  as  April, 
1800,  the  new  Legislature  was  chosen,  which  would  elect  the  pres- 
idential electors  in  November  of  that  year.  This  State  election 
proved  decisive.  The  city  of  New  York  had  the  year  before  given  a 
Federal  majority  of  nine  hundred.  This  year  it  elected  Republican 
members  to  the  Legislature.  This  result  was  due  in  part  to  local  con- 
tentions among  the  great  families  which  then  governed  New  York, 
and  in  part  to  the  skill  with  which  Aaron  Burr  conducted  the  canvass, 
he  having  had  the  address  to  see  that  his  own  name,  which  was  at 
the  moment  unpopular,  was  not  on  the  Republican  ticket.  More  sur- 
prising to  the  Federalists  was  their  loss  of  the  western  district  of  the 
State.  This  loss  was  due  to  the  severity  of  proceedings  under  the 
Sedition  Law.  As  the  result  of  these  elections,  it  was  known,  early 
in  1800,  that  the  Legislature  of  New  York  would  give  all  its  twelve 
votes  in  the  Electoral  College  for  the  Republican  candidates.  Only 

Washington,  was  of  course  known  at  the  time,  and  roused  the  jealousy  of  the  Spanish 
ambassador.  But  no  publication  of  the  plans  of  Government  was  made  in  Congress  or 
elsewhere.  Even  in  the  Life  of  Pickering,  who  was  Secretary  of  State,  no  allusion  is  made 
to  probable  war  in  the  West.  The  Life  of  Hamilton  furnishes  little  information.  But  no 
doubt  of  the  facts,  as  stated  in  the  text,  will  rise  in  the  mind  of  readers  of  John  Adams's 
Life,  of  his  letter  to  Lloyd,  of  Stoddard*>  Louisiana,  of  the  letters  of  Miranda,  and  of  Ham- 
ilton's unpublished  private  correspondence  with  Wilkinson. 


144      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.     [L'HAP.  VI. 

the  year  before,  the  Republicans  of  the  State  had  attempted  to  choose 
the  electors  by  popular  vote,  by  districts.  They  would  gladly  have 
acceded  to  such  a  plan,  which,  in  practice,  would  have  nearly  neu- 
tralized the  vote  of  the  State.  But  the  Federalists,  confident  in 
their  strength,  had  refused  to  make  this  concession. 

All  Mr.  Adams's  gains  elsewhere  were  insufficient  to  overcome  this 
defection  of  the  State  of  New  York.  In  face  of  the  discouragement 
of  such  an  event,  which  made  almost  a  foregone  conclusion  of  the 
presidential  election,  his  friends  gave  him  seven  more  votes  in  Penn- 
sylvania than  he  received  in  1796,  and  three  more  in  North  Caro- 
lina. He  lost  two  in  Maryland,  and  that  State  gave  one  vote  less 
than  in  1796.  The  result  of  the  election,  therefore,  gave  Jefferson 
and  Burr,  the  Democratic  candidates,  seventy-three  votes  each,  while 
Mr.  Adams  had  but  sixty-five. 

Warned  by  the  risks  which  the  last  contest  had  disclosed,  the  Re- 
Burrand  publican  electors  voted  "  solidly  "  for  each  candidate.  Burr 
Jefferson.  jia(j  as  many  votes  as  Jefferson.  This  consolidation  of  the 
Democratic  vote  brought  about  a  result  which  may  have  been  antic- 
ipated by  the  makers  of  the  Constitution,  but  was  none  the  more  ac- 
ceptable to  Jefferson.  As  he  had  received  the  same  number  of  votes 
with  Burr,  the  election  was  thrown  into  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, under  the  constitutional  provision.  The  Federalists  were  there- 
fore called  upon  to  say  which  of  the  two  Democratic  candidates  they 
preferred.  After  some  hesitation,  they  determined  to  support  Burr. 
Hamilton  used  all  his  influence  with  the  Federal  leaders  in  Jefferson's 
favor.  In  Burr  the  Northern  States,  who  had  all  supported  Adams, 
had  at  least  a  Northern  man  to  vote  for.  Here  was  also  the  best 
chance  for  the  discomfiture  of  Jefferson,  whom  the  Federalists  hated 
with  a  very  perfect  hatred.  A  long  and  bitter  contest  in  the  House 
followed.  Thirty-five  ballots  were  taken,  with  the  same  result, — 
eight  States  voting  for  Jefferson,  six  for  Burr,  and  two  being  divided. 
At  last,  at  a  Federal  caucus,  "  all  acknowledged  that  nothing  but  des- 
perate measures  remained,  which  several  were  disposed  to  adopt,  and 
but  few  were  willing  to  disapprove."  The  words  are  those  of  Bayard 
of  New  Jersey.  On  the  thirty-sixth  ballot,  the  Federalist  votes  of 
Vermont  and  Maryland  were  wanting.  The  result  gave  Jefferson  ten 
States,  and  he  was  elected.  He  owed  his  election  to  the  influence  of 
Hamilton  and  the  action  of  Bayard  in  caucus.  The  extreme  Federal- 
ists wished  to  prevent  any  election,  and  leave  the  President  of  the 
Senate  the  acting  President  for  an  interregnum.  But  Jefferson  and 
his  friends  were  determined,  "  one  and  all,  that  the  day  such  an  act 
was  passed,  the  Middle  States  would  arm,  and  no  such  usurpation 
should  be  submitted  to."  These  are  Jefferson's  words,  and  John 


1802.]  PURCHASE    OF   LOUISIANA.  145 

Randolph  afterwards  added  the  local  color  and  detail.  "  Had  we 
not,"  lie  said,  "•  the  promise  of  Darke's  Brigade,  and  of  the  arms  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  which  he  engaged  to  secure?"  All  such  plots  be- 
came unnecessary,  when  the  Federalists,  under  Hamilton's  and  Bay- 
ard's influence,  gave  way.  And  in  after  years  all  parties  would  have 
been  glad  to  consign  such  plots  to  oblivion.1 

So  soon  as  Jefferson  was  inaugurated,  it  proved  that  his  dread  of  a 
consolidated  government  had  vanished,  now  that  it  came  jeffergon-s 
under  his  control.  The  forecast  of  Hamilton  proved  true,  ^°llcy- 
that  Jefferson  would  calculate  on  what  would  promote  his  own  inter- 
est. The  inaugural  speech  contained  a  phrase  which  afterwards  be- 
came proverbial :  "  We  are  all  Republicans ;  —  we  are  all  Federal- 
ists ;  "  and  as  the  nation  became  a  nation  indeed,  and  grew  in  strength, 
Jefferson,  and  his  followers  in  the  presidency,  were  as  willing  as  any 
men  to  wield  the  national  power.  His  first  act,  the  purchase  of  Louis- 
iana, was  quite  outside  all  constitutional  provisions.  It  was  wholly 
justified  by  the  great  necessity ;  and  the  results  have  shown  that  no 
single  act  of  an  American  President,  down  to  Lincoln's  emancipation 
of  the  slaves,  has  been  so  important.  But  no  strict  construction  of 
the  Constitution  permitted  any  such  act,  and  this  Jefferson  and  his 
advisers  knew. 

Indeed,  the  purchase  of  the  immense  region  known  as  Louisiana 
was  no  plan  of  his,  or  of  theirs.  On  his  accession  to  office,  Pmy.^,,  of 
he  found  the  negotiation  with  France  in  the  most  promising  Loui("an*- 
condition  which  it  had  presented  for  many  years.  All  immediate 
cause  of  quarrel  with  France  was  over.  Jefferson,  moreover,  was 
ready  to  do  anything  that  France  asked  because  she  asked  it  without 
asking  questions.  It  soon  became  an  open  secret  among  diploma- 
tists that,  by  a  private  article  in  the  Treaty  of  St.  Ildefonso,  signed 
on  the  18th  of  October,  1800,  Spain  had  again  ceded  to  France  the 
territory  of  Louisiana,  —  meaning,  as  the  reader  must  always  remem- 
ber, not  merely  the  State  now  known  under  that  name,  but  the  region 
north  of  Florida,  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  a  line  drawn  though  the  Sabine,  Red,  and  Arkansas 

1  To  guard  against  such  dangers  in  future,  Jefferson  provided  for  a  change  in  the  Con- 
stitution, and,  since  that  time,  the  Vice-president  and  Presideut  have  been  designated  by 
the  electors.  In  this  celebrated  election,  the  vote  of  South  Carolina  was  doubtful.  The 
opposition  to  Adams  in  that  State  offered  to  unite  on  Jefferson  and  Pinckney,  as  four  jears 
before  the  State  Legislature  had  united  on  Jefferson  and  the  other  Pincknev.  But  Charles 
C.  Pinckney,  loyal  to  his  leader,  refused  to  consent  to  such  an  arrangement.  Had  he 
agreed  to  it,  he,  and  not  Burr,  would  have  had  the  second  number  of  votes.  Pinckney 
would  have  been  Vice-president  and  Jefferson  President.  That  is  to  say,  the  same  condi- 
tion of  things  that  had  resulted  from  the  election  of  1796  would  now  have  recurred,  but 
with  the  Democrats  first  and  the  Federalists  second.  Probably  the  makers  of  the  Consti- 
tution foresaw  such  contingencies. 

VOL.  iv.  10 


146      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.     [CHAP.  VI. 

rivers.1  At  home  the  Government  was  goaded  by  constant  appeals 
from  the  Western  States  to  secure  open  passage  to  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico for  their  products.  Actuated  by  a  sort  of  madness,  which  has 
never  been  fully  explained,  the  Spanish  Intendant,  Morales,  in  1802, 
suspended  a  second  time  even  the  right  of  deposit  at  Orleans.2 
Again  the  Western  States  roused  themselves,  and  protested  that  they 
would  take  the  city  and  sweep  the  Spaniards,  if  necessary,  into  the 
sea.  Impelled  by  their  indignation,  Jefferson  sent  new  powers  to 
Livingston,  our  Minister  in  France,  to  whom  Monroe  was  joined, 
and  bade  the  two  propose  to  the  First  Consul  the  purchase  of  the 
island  on  which  Orleans  stands,  and  the  right  of  passage  to  the  sea. 

The  commissioners  were  authorized  to  offer  the  First  Consul  two 
and  a  half  million  dollars.     Before  Monroe's  arrival,  however,  Liv- 

1  In  the  map,  entitled  "  Acquisition  and  Transfer  of  Territory,  1780  to  1870,"  published 
iu  vol.  i.   of  The  Ninth   Census  of  the   United  States,  1870,  the  "Province  of  Louisiana, 
1803,"  appears  as  extending  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  on  the  southeast,  to  a  north- 
western limit,  on  the  Pacific  coast,  including  Oreeon  and  Washington  Territory.     This 
map  is  erroneous,  inasmuch  as  the  Province  of  Louisiana  did  not  extend,  either  under  Spain 
or  France,  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.    The  mistake  probably  arose  from  want  of  care  in 
distinguishing  between  the  line  agreed  upon  by  the  United  States  and  Spain  to  mark  their 
boundaries  in  the  Florida  Treaty  of  1819,  and  that  line  understood  to  be  the  western  boun- 
dary of  Louisiana  in  the  treaty  of  1803.     It  is  worth  while  to  correct  the  error,  as  it  has 
been  repeated  in  popular  school-books  since  the  publication  of  the  official  map  in  the  vol- 
ume of  the  Census,  and  probably  on  its  authority. 

The  original  territory  of  Louisiana,  as  a  French  province,  comprised,  under  the  title  of 
"  The  Government  of  Louisiana,"  in  general  terms,  the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi,  the 
Ohio,  the  Missouri,  and  the  Illinois.  At  the  close  of  the  French  war  in  1763,  France  ceded 
to  Great  Britain  all  that  portion  of  Louisiana  lying  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of 
the  Iberville,  or  Bayou  Manchac,  about  a  hundred  miles  above  Orleans ;  and  at  the  same 
time  transferred  to  Spain  all  the  rest  of  her  territory  on  the  western  side  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. In  1800,  the  province  was  retroceded  to  France  by  Spain  by  the  treaty  of  St.  II- 
defonso,  "  with  the  same  extent,"  so  runs  the  treaty,  "that  it  now  has  in  the  hands  of 
Spain,  and  that  it  had  when  France  possessed  it."  And  it  was  precisely  these  words, 
quoted  from  the  Treaty  of  St.  Ildefonso,  that  were  chosen  to  describe  the  Territory  of 
Louisiana  when  Napoleon  sold  it  to  the  United  States  in  1803.  Its  southern  portion  was 
bounded  on  the  west  by  the  region  held  or  claimed  by  Spain ;  the  northern  jxmiou  by 
the  mountain  ranges  which  separate  the  Pacific  slope  from  the  region  whose  waters  flow 
into  the  valleys  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi.  In  1819,  however,  the  United  States 
and  Spain  agreed,  in  the  treaty  of  Florida,  upon  the  dividing  line  between  their  possessions 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  Spain  agreeing  to  relinquish  all  claim  to  any  territory  east  and 
north  of  it,  and  the  United  States  surrendering  her  pretensions  to  all  south  and  west  of  it. 
This  line  was  from  the  mouth  of  the  Sabiue  to  the  32d  parallel,  thence  north  to  the 
Red  River,  and  along  that  river  to  the  100th  meridian,  thence  north  to  the  Arkansas, 
and  along  that  river  to  its  source  in  the  42d  parallel,  and  thence  west  to  the  Pacific. 
It  is  this  boundary  which  is  erroneously  designated  in  the  census  map  of  "  Acquisition  and 
Transfer  of  Territory"  as  the  western  boundary  of  the  "Province  of  Louisiana,  1803." 
See  an  exhaustive  discussion  of  the  whole  question  in  an  article  by  Albert  Salisbury,  in 
the  Wisconsin  Journal  of  Education  for  May,  1880. 

2  October  16,  1802.     The  measure  almost  caused  famine  in  Orleans.     His  own  statement 
was,  that,  by  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  Spain  had  regained  a  direct  commerce  with  England  ; 
that  the  "  right  of  deposit  "  had  only  been  justified  by  the  state  of  war,  and  that  it  cease 
because  peace  had  returned. 


1802.]  PURCHASE  OF   LOUISIANA.  147 

ingston  was  met  by  a  proposal  which  astounded  him.  Napoleon  was 
sure  by  this  time  that  the  existing  peace  with  England  would  not  last 
long.  England  had  the  supremacy  of  the  sea,  and  so  soon  as  war 
began,  her  fleet  would  seize  Orleans  and  the  mouths  of  the  river. 
When  the  journals  announced  that  the  new  American  envoy  was  on 
his  way,  he  sent  for  Marbois,  his  Minister  of  the  Treasury,  and  bade 
him  meet  the  commissioners  immediately  and  offer  to  sell  them  the 
whole  region  for  fifty  million  francs.  Marbois  was  in  every  way  a 
proper  person  for  the  negotiation.  He  had  been  an  envoy  of  France 
in  the  Revolution,  had  lived  in  Philadelphia,  and  was  intimate  with 
Livingston,  the  head  of  the  American  mission,  who  at  that  time  was 
American  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs.  Marbois  told  the  young 
Consul  that  the  price  proposed  was  too  small,  and  obtained  permis- 
sion to  name  harder  terms  at  the  outset.  Accordingly,  as  soon  as 
Livingston  arrived,  Marbois  met  him  with  the  proposal  to  sell  him 
this  empire  for  one  hundred  million  francs,  with  the  additional  pro- 
posal that  the  United  States  should  pay  to  the  American  merchants 
who  had  suffered  from  French  spoliation  all  their  fair  claims  against 
France. 

Livingston  was  surprised  at  an  offer  so  extraordinary.  Marbois 
hastened  to  say  that  he  knew  the  sum  was  exorbitant,  but  the  Con- 
sul had  suggested  that  the  Americans  could  borrow  it.  Livingston 
and  his  companions  asked  time  to  send  the  proposal  home.  But 
delay  was  dangerous,  for  England  might  at  any  moment  declare  war 
by  seizing  the  mouths  of  the  river.  Marbois  pressed  Livingston  in 
turn  to  name  a  price,  and  finally  suggested  that  he  would  try  to  per- 
suade the  Consul  to  accept  sixty  million  francs.  All  this  was  the 
by-play  of  diplomacy.  As  we  have  said,  Marbois  was  instructed  to 
take  fifty  million  francs,  if  he  could  get  it.  The  bargaining  ended 
when  the  American  envoys  agreed  to  give  sixty  million  francs,  in 
stocks  bearing  six  per  cent,  interest,  and  to  assume  the  payment  of 
all  that  was  due  from  France  to  her  own  merchants,  not  exceeding 
twenty  million  francs  more.  As  the  United  States  Government,  for 
three  quarters  of  a  century,  has  neglected  to  pay  these  claims,  they 
have  proved  to  be  only  a  feather-weight  in  the  great  negotiation. 
It  is  curious  to  see  that,  when  Marbois  went  back  to  his  principal, 
well  pleased  with  his  success  in  obtaining  ten  million  francs  more 
than  he  was  authorized  to  sell  for,  Bonaparte  rebuked  him  that  he 
had  not  obtained  a  hundred  million.  But  when  the  secretary  re- 
minded him  of  his  own  original  proposal,  he  expressed  himself  de- 
lighted with  the  result.  "  There  is  nothing  left  to  ask,"  he  cried ; 
"  sixty  million  for  an  occupation  that  will  not  last  a  day,  perhaps. 
Let  France  enjoy  this  unexpected  capital."  In  fact,  he  dictated  a 


148       ADMINISTRATION'S  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.   [CHAP.  VI. 

decree  for  the  construction  of  five  canals  with  it.  But  the  American 
payment  was  sunk  in  the  renewal  of  the  fleet  of  ti'ansports  gathered 
at  Boulogne  for  the  invasion  of  England,  and  in  the  equipment  of  the 
other  fleet  which  was  scattered  at  Trafalgar.  Napoleon,  however,  had 
at  heart  a  policy  which  looked  further.  In  his  joy  of  success  he  said, 
"  This  accession  of  territory  strengthens  forever  the  power  of  the 
United  States.  I  have  given  England  a  rival." 

The  consent  of  the  commissioners  to  this  great  purchase  was  not 
HOW  it  was  received  in  America  with  the  enthusiasm  which  it  deserved, 
received.  They  did  not  themselves  in  the  least  know  how  well  they 
had  builded.  When,  in  the  previous  negotiation,  Talleyrand  had 


Flat-boat  going  down  the   Mississippi 

asked  if  the  Americans  wanted  the  whole,  Livingston  had  stoutly  said 
"  No,"  and  had  said  truly.  In  one  of  his  letters,  he  was  careful  to 
impress  on  the  French  that  the  United  States  would  not  for  a  hundred 
years  make  any  settlements  west  of  the  river.  "  I  told  him  we  had 
no  wish  to  extend  our  boundary  across  the  Mississippi."  These  were 
Livingston's  words,  and  the  same  indifference  to  territorial  aggran- 
dizement may  be  observed  in  all  the  public  utterances  of  the  time. 
Before  the  invention  of  the  steamboat,  indeed,  the  regions  acquired 
were  so  nearly  inaccessible  that  statesmen  may  be  pardoned  who  did 
not  foresee  their  exceeding  value  to  the  nation. 

It  will  be  more  convenient  to  the  reader  to  anticipate  in  this  chap- 
ter the  course  of  events,  so  far  as  to  trace  the  first  results  of  this 


1805.]  AARON   BURR'S  EXPEDITION.  149 

great  acquisition.  The  Government  took  possession  of  the  new  ter- 
ritory by  a  public  act  on  the  20th  of  December,  1803.  General  Wil- 
kinson, so  long  in  the  secret  pay  of  Spain,  was  now  commander  of 
the  American  army,  and,  with  Claiborne,  Governor  of  the  Territory 
of  Louisiana,  was  authorized  to  receive  possession.  For  this  purpose 
the  Spanish  Government  made  the  cession  to  the  French  Prefect, 
Laussat,  who  had  been  appointed,  as  it  proved,  for  this  purpose  of 
ceremony  only.  The  joy  of  the  West  was  unbounded.  At  the  East, 
the  wisest  men  looked  gloomily  on  the  prospect  of  the  depletion  of 
the  old  States  by  emigration  into  these  rich  valleys. 

With  the  next  summer  a  new  element  displayed  itself.     Aaron  Burr 
had  been  chosen  Vice-president  in  1800.     But  he  had  lost 
all  his  friends  in  'both  parties  in  the  election.     In  the  course 
of  a  bitter  political  quarrel  in  New  York,  in  1804,  he  chal- 
lenged Hamilton  to  a  duel.     Hamilton  was   mad  enough  to  accept 
the  challenge,  and  was  killed.1     Even  after  this  event  Burr  presided 
in  the  Senate ;  but,  with  the  election  of  1 804,  when  Jefferson  was 
reflected  and  George  Clinton  became  Vice-president,  Burr  lost  office, 
as  he  had  lost  friends  before.      Moved  by  the  very  same  spirit  that 
had  disposed  Hamilton  to  coquet  with  Miranda,  he  took  up 
the  thread  of  the  very  same  adventure  which  Hamilton  had   trr\ou* m: 
been  forced  to  lay  down,  and  after  some  private  correspond- 
ence in  the  East  with  men  who  were  to  furnish  money,  and   prob- 
ably with  Miranda,  he  went  down  the  Mississippi  River,  almost  as  a 
conqueror  seeking  a  new  empire.      To  take  the  expressive  phrase 
which  the  West  has  since  invented,  Burr  was  "  prospecting  "  on  this 

1  There  is  a  prevalent  error  in  regard  to  the  house  in  which  Hamilton  died,  which  is 
worth  correcting,  if  only  to  show  how  little  tradition  is  to  be  trusted.  The  duel  between 
him  and  Burr  was  fought  at  Weehawken,  in  New  Jersey ;  Hamilton,  mortally  wounded, 
was  immediately  taken  back  to  New  York,  the  boat  landing  at  what  is  now  the  foot  of 
Gansevoort  Street,  and  he  was  carried  to  the  nearest  house,  that  of  his  friend,  William  Bav- 
ard.  This  house  stood  between  the  present  Greenwich  and  Washington  Streets,  about  the 
centre  of  what  is  now  Horatio  Street.  The  common  belief  is  (see  Historical  Magazine,  vol. 
x.,  1866),  that  the  house  now  standing  at  No.  82  Jane  Street  was  the  Bayard  House  where 
Hamilton  died.  But  that  house  stood  a  block  farther  north  —  on  Horatio  Street,  as  we  have 
just  explained  —  and  the  house  at  No  82  Jane  Street  was  another  country  residence  known 
at  that  time  as  the  Ludlow  House.  The  estates  joined  on  the  line  of  Jane  Street,  and  this 
house  occupied  the  block  south  of  the  line,  as  the  Bayard  House  did  the  block  north  of  it. 
When,  about  half  a  century  ago,  the  land  of  that  neighborhood  was  filled  in  from  about  the 
line  of  Washington  Street  to  the  present  bank  of  the  river,  and  streets  were  opened  and 
graded,  the  Ludlow  House  was  turned  round  and  placed  on  the  south  side  of  Jaue  Street 
—  No.  82  —  and  the  Bayard  House  was  demolished. 

The  late  Hon.  Henry  Meigs,  long  an  eminent  and  highly,  esteemed  citizen  of  New  York, 
occupied  both  these  houses  alternately  for  many  years.  His  children  grew  up  in  them,  and 
from  two  of  his  sons,  Henry  and  Charles,  these  facts  are  obtained.  One  of  these  gentlemen 
has  preserved  a  water-color  drawing  by  his  father  of  the  Ludlow  House,  while  his  family 
occupied  it,  and  of  its  identity  with  the  house  No.  82  Jane  Street,  there  can  be  no  question. 


150      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JKFFEUSOX.     [CHAP.  VI. 

journey.  What  his  plans  were,  history  is  not  yet  able  to  say  pre- 
cisely. Probably  they  "were  not  precise.  Probably  he  would  have 
found  it  as  difficult  to  explain  them  clearly  as  it  is  to  the  historian 
after  seventy  years.  Those  who  wanted  to  make  their  fortunes  in 
adventure,  thought  he  was  going  to  take  possession  of  Mexico.  To 
those  whose  suspicions  he  wanted  to  disarm,  he  said  he  was  going  to 
settle  on  the  Baron  Bastrop's  lands  on  the  Washita  River.  Those 
who  thought  they  knew,  supposed  he  was  going  to  take  Orleans  and 


View  on   Blennerhassett's   Island. 

establish  a  Western  empire.  He  undoubtedly  interested  adventur- 
ous people  in  the  West,  who  still  maintained  the  hatred  for  Spain 
which  the  Spanish  authorities  had  so  steadily  fanned.  Thus  he  would 
1'iiiiipXo-  cultivate  the  indignation  which  had  been  roused  by  the  vio- 
lation of  the  safeguard  of  Nolan,  and  the  death  of  that  pop- 
ular young  adventurer.  Philip  Nolan  was  an  agent  of  Wilkinson's, 
who  had  gone  into  Texas  to  collect  horses  for  the  Spanish  post  at 
Orleans,  under  a  pass  from  the  Governor  of  Texas  and  Coahuila. 


180G.]  AARON  BURR'S   EXPEDITION.  151 

The  Spanish  Governor,  alarmed  by  new  orders  from  home,  had  sent 
to  arrest  him.  In  the  skirmish  which  followed,  Nolan  was  killed. 
All  his  companions  were  captured  and  sent  to  the  mines.  Event- 
ually one  was  shot.  From  the  time  of  La  Salle  down,  Spain  had 
been  jealous  of  any  interference  from  the  East  with  her  silver  mines 
in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona.  Her  statesmen,  although  purblind, 
could  foresee  what  has  come  in  the  present  generation.  To  this 
jealousy  Nolan  and  his  companions  owed  their  fate,  and  every  such 
act  of  cruelty  on  the  part  of  Spanish  viceroys  hastened  the  inev- 
itable issue.  The  death  of  the  Kempers  in  Florida  was  a  similar 
transaction. 

On  such  chords  Burr  played  on  his  first  voyage  down  the  river. 
He  visited  Blennerhassett's  Island,  in  the  Ohio,  not  far  B]ennerhas. 
from  Marietta,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  Harman  Blen-  sett- 
nerhassett  and  of  his  charming  wife.  They  had  emigrated  from  Ire- 
land in  1798,  and  had  made  of  the  island  what  the  writers  of  that 
day  describe  as  a  paradise.  Blennerhassett  himself  was  quite  ready 
by  this  time  for  new  adventure,  and,  when  Burr  wrote  to  him  after- 
wards, enlisted  readily  in  the  enterprise.  From  point  to  Burr's  prog- 
point,  as  Burr  stopped  on  the  river,  he  was  received  with  "*"• 
enthusiasm.  Public  dinners  were  made  for  him ;  and,  in  vague 
terms,  he  intimated  that  he  was  to  come  again  at  the  head  of  an 
army.  When  he  met  WilkinsonT  he  had  long  private  conferences 
with  him.  These  were  followed  through  the  next  winter  by  corre- 
spondence in  cipher.  Of  what  passed  in  the  conferences,  the  ac- 
counts differ  absolutely.  Burr  declares  that  Wilkinson  committed 
himself  entirely  to  his  views.  Wilkinson  declares  that  he  declined 
all  complicity.  As  we  now  know  that  Wilkinson  was  a  traitor  to  his 
country  long  before,  very  little  weight  is  to  be  given  to  his  uncon- 
firmed asseveration. 

Encouraged  by  his  reception,  Burr  made  the  attempt,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1806,  of  which  he  had  given  such  fair  warning.  But  Jeffer80n-g 
Jefferson  at  last  roused  himself  to  take  notice  of  an  enter-  attion- 
prise  so  audacious.  The  Spanish  Government  had  been  watching  it 
from  the  first  with  the  most  intense  curiosity.  The  best  account  of 
it  would  now  be  found  in  their  archives,  for  all  that  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  knew  of  it  was  destroyed  when  the  State  De- 
partment was  burned  in  1814,  —  if  it  had  not  been  earlier  destroyed 
by  order  of  Jefferson.  So  vindictive  did  his  treatment  of  Burr  ap- 
pear afterwards,  that  it  seemed  as  if  he  wished  to  lure  him  to  his 
fate  by  the  indifference  with  which  his  first  movements  were  met, 
and  by  the  civility  with  which  Wilkinson  was  permitted  to  treat  him. 
However  this  may  be,  when  Jefferson  acted  he  acted  decisively. 


152      ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.     [CHAP.  VI. 

Burr  made  his  first  rendezvous  at  Blennerhassett's  Island.  Blen- 
nerhassett  himself  had  provided  boats  and  provisions,  and  arms  and 
ammunition  were  here  placed  on  the  boats.  A  considerable  party  of 
men  joined  the  expedition  here,  and  recruits  were  added  at  different 
points  on  the  way.  But  Jefferson  published  a  proclamation  denoun- 
cing the  whole  scheme,  and  the  United  States  marshals  of  Virginia, 
Ohio,  and  Kentucky  made  attempts,  more  or  less  zealous,  to  arrest  it. 
The  expedition,  as  it  advanced,  was  flying  from  pin-suit  while  going 


Parade  of  Burr's   Force. 


to  conquest ;  and  the  danger  from  behind  was  such  that  the  arrange- 
ments made  to  secure  victory  before  were  at  best  sadly  hurried. 
Still  he  stopped  at  the  various  forts  on  the  way,  asked  favors  and 
received  them,  and  gained  a  few  recruits.  At  the  mouth  of  the 
Cumberland  River,  two  boats  and  a  few  men  joined  him.  He  now 
had  thirteen  boats  and  sixty  men.  He  drew  them  up  on  the  shore 
and  addressed  them,  but  did  not  reveal  his  plans.  This  parade  was 
subsequently  called  the  array  in  arms  of  a  military  force. 


1807.] 


BURR'S  TRIAL  FOR  TREASON. 


153 


With  this  force  Burr  came  within  thirty  miles  of  Natchez,  to  learn 
that  Wilkinson  had  betrayed  him.  That  is  his  way  of  stating  it. 
Wilkinson  says  he  had  received  Swartwout,  an  envoy  of  En(lofthe 
Burr's,  had  amused  him  by  pretended  sympathy,  and  had  ent<irpn^. 
dismissed  him.  Wilkinson  probably  changed  his  mind  at  some  period 
in  the  matter,  and  determined  to  stand  by  Jefferson  rather  than  Burr; 
or,  on  Burr's  first  visit,  he  may  have  well  supposed  that  all  this  was 
done  with  Jefferson's  connivance.  The  little  party  found  the  mili- 
tia of  the  Territory  in  arms  to  oppose  them,  and  were  all  taken  to 
Natchez  as  prisoners  of  war.  A  grand  jury  was  impanelled  at  once. 
True  to  the  general  sympathy  for  Burr,  they  presented  the  military 
force  raised  against  him  as  a  grievance,  and  declared  that  he  Avas 
guilty  of  no  crime.  Burr  awaited  no  further  inquiry,  lie  disguised 
himself  as  a  boatman,  and  disappeared  in  the  wilderness.  But  in  his 
attempt  to  cross  the  country  to  the  Atlantic,  he  was  recognized  in 
Alabama,  arrested,  and  sent  home  for  trial.  In  1807  he  was  tried  at 
Richmond  for  treason.  The  Government  attempted  to  make 
out  that  he  had  enlisted  troops  within  its  jurisdiction  for  an 
attack  on  one  of  its  allies,  the  King  of  Spain.  The  charge  was,  that 
this  constituted  treason.  Judge  Marshall,  who  presided,  instructed 
the  jury  that  the  overt  act  of  embodying  an  army  must  take  place 
within  the  State  where  the  trial  was  held.  On  this  point  Burr  was 
acquitted.  Jefferson's  rage  at  his  escape  could  not  contain  itself. 
But  from  that  moment  Burr  was  without  a  shadow  of  his  old  power. 
After  times  have  seen  many  similar  enterprises  attempted  in  the 
United  States,  mostly  against  Spain  or  Mexico ;  but  none  has  ever 
attracted  the  universal  attention  of  Burr's.  Mvsterv  has  alwavs  sur- 

mt  •/  »/ 

rounded  its  history.  The  downfall  of  a  man  who  came  within  a  single 
vote  of  holding  the  highest  office  in  the  state,  to  be  an  adventurer 
without  friends,  often  literally  a  beggar,  was  a  fall  too  profound  not 
to  be  noted  by  the  moralists.  A  complete  absence  of  moral  prin- 
ciple is  enough  to  account  for  such  utter  failure. 


Burr's  trial. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

JEFFERSON    AND   MADISON. 

THE  BARBARY  STATES.  —  WAR  WITH   TRIPOLI.  —  THE   IMPORTANCE  OF   LOUISIANA. 

—  INCREASE  OF  POPULATION  AND  WEALTH.  —  JEFFERSON'S  CREKD  AND  HIS  POLICY. 

—  SETTLEMENT  OF   THE  WEST.  —  LEWIS  AND  CLARKE'S    EXPEDITION.  —  FOREIGN- 
COMMERCE  AND  ITS  DIFFICULTIES.  —  THE  BERLIN  AND  MILAN  DECREES,  AND  THE 
ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL.  —  CONDITION  OF  THE  NAVY.  —  THE  AFFAIR  OF  THE  "  CHESA- 
PEAKE." —  THE  EMBARGO.  —  MADISON'S  ACCESSION.  —  THE  "  PRESIDENT  "  AND  THE 
"LITTLE   BELT." — BATTLE  OF    TIPPECAXOE.  —  CLAY  AND   CALIIOUN.  —  PREPARA- 
TIONS FOR  WAR,  AND  ITS  DECLARATION. 

To  Mr.  Jefferson's  administration  was  due  a  partial  settlement  of 
il  long-standing  grievance,  the  existence  of  which  was  not 
altogether  creditable  to  the  management  of  the  foreign 
affairs  of  the  government  in  its  earliest  years.  American 
ships  had  been  compelled  to  submit  to  spoliation  by  the  corsairs  of 
the  Barbary  States  for  twenty  years,  and  from  time  to  time  large 
sums  had  been  paid  to  redeem  the  captured  crews  from  slavery.  In 
1787,  a  treaty  was  ratified  with  Morocco,  for  which  Congress  paid 
eighty  thousand  dollars;  in  1790  another  was  made  with  Algiers,  by 
which  it  was  agreed  to  pay  forty  thousand  dollars  for  the  release  of 
thirteen  Americans  held  as  slaves  in  that  State,  a  large  amount  in 
cash  besides,  and  an  annual  tribute  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  as 
the  price  of  exemption  from  future  aggressions.  Delay  occurring  in 
the  first  remittance,  still  further  exaction  was  submitted  to,  and  a 
ship  of  war,  costing  about  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  was  sent  t,o 
the  Dey,  ostensibly  as  a  present  to  his  daughter.  Eventually  the 
treaty  was  made  to  cost  even  more  than  these  large  sums  ;  as  the 
tribute  was  to  be  paid,  when  required,  in  naval  stores  at  stipulated 
prices,  and  these  were  so  far  below  the  cost  of  the  stores  that  the 
expenditure  was  often  several  hundred  per  cent,  above  the  estimate. 

The  humiliation  that  was  submitted  to  at  the  hands  of  these  pirates 
was  as  remarkable  as  the  consent  to  purchase  their  forbearance.  The 
subsidy  for  1800  was  sent  to  Algiers  in  the  frigate  George  Washing- 
ton, commanded  by  Captain  William  Bainbridge.  The  Dey  ordered 
his  own  tribute  to  the  Sultan  —  consisting  partly  of  slaves  and  wild 


1801.] 


WAR   WITH    TRIPOLI. 


155 


animals  —  to  be  taken  on  board  and  carried  to  Constantinople,  and 
that  the  American  flag  should  be  hauled  down  and  his  own  hoisted  in 
its  place.  Bainbridge  assented,  by  advice  of  the  American  Consul, 
but  declared  that  he  hoped,  should  he  ever  again  be  sent  with  trib- 
ute, he  might  deliver  it  from  the  mouths  of  his  guns.  Unless,  as 
has  been  asserted,  he  ran  up  the  national  flag  again  after  leaving 
port,  the  first  American  ship  that  ever  passed  the  Dardanelles  sailed 
as  the  vassal  of  a  vassal.  "  You  pay  me  tribute,"  the  Dey  had  said, 
"•  by  which  you  become  my  slaves  ! 

The  next  year  (1801)  war  was  declared  by  Tripoli,  because  the 
Dey  was  dissatisfied  with  his  pecuniary  relations  with  the   «-ar«ith 
United  States.     It  was  a  war  of  naval  engagements,  —  al-  Tr'i>°l1 
most  of  duels,  —  and  in  these  battles  some  of  the  men  who  in  later 


Tripoli. 

years  placed  their  names  highest  in  the  naval  annals  of  their  countn-, 
won  their  first  laurels.  Indeed,  these  operations  in  the  Mediterranean, 
for  the  next  two  or  three  years,  were  of  importance,  not  so  much  for 
the  immediate  result  —  for  that  could  have  been  secured  at  any  time 
—  as  for  the  fact  that  in  them  and  the  men  who  conducted  them  we 
find  the  germ  of  that  navy  which  in  the  next  war  saved  the  country 
from  the  most  absolute  humiliation,  if  not  from  political  destruction. 
And  nothing  exemplifies  so  pointedly  the  extreme  partisanship  of  the 
times  as  that  Jefferson  and  his  followers  —  who  opposed  the  creation 
of  an  efficient  navy  because  the  Federalists  demanded  it — would  not 


156  JEFFERSOX.  [CHAP.  VII. 

or  could  not  see  that  just  so  far  forth  as  America  had  reason  to  be 
jefforcons  proud  of  her  miMul  achievements  in  the  Mediterranean,  just 
so  far  she  had  ijeason  to  be  ashamed  of  Jefferson's —  em- 
phatically Jefferson's —  naval  system  at  home.  By  that  it  was  as- 
sumed to  be  sufficient  for  the  defence  of  a  continent  that  a  small  fleet 
of  gunboats  should  be  kept  in  dock-yards,  carefully  housed  to  protect 
them  from  the  weather,  ready  to  be  floated  in  case  of  emergency. 

The  first  engagement  of  note  was  fought  in  August  by  Lieutenant 
Sterrett,  in  the  Enterprise,  of  twelve  guns  and  ninety  men,  with  a 
Tripolitan  vessel  of  fourteen  guns,  off  Malta.  The  enemy  had  struck 
after  a  two  hours'  fight,  and  then  treacherously  discharged  another 
broadside  when  the  Americans  had  left  their  guns  and  were  cheer- 
ing for  their  victory.  The  battle  began  again,  and  again  the  Tripo- 
litans  struck,  when  defeated  in  their  attempt  to  board  the  Enterprise. 
Then  ranging  under  her  quarter,  they  once  more  resumed  the  fight, 
hoisting  a  bloody  flag.  Sterrett  raked  his  treacherous  enemy  from 
stem  to  stern,  shot  away  his  mizzen-mast,  riddled  his  hull,  killed 
and  wounded  fifty  of  his  men,  and  kept  up  this  terrible  fire  till  the 
captain  begged  for  mei'cy  with  frantic  gestures,  and  tossed  his  colors 
into  the  sea.  He  was  ordered  to  throw  overboard  also  all  his  arms 
and  ammunition,  his  remaining  masts  were  cut  away,  his  ship  was 
completely  dismantled,  and  then,  under  a  jury-mast  and  a  single  sail, 
he  was  left  to  make  his  way  home,  with  Lieutenant  Sterrett's  com- 
pliments to  the  Dey.  Notwithstanding  the  length  of  the  fight,  and 
the  repeated  attempts  to  take  the  Americans  by  surprise,  they  did 
not  lose  a  single  man. 

As  a  naval  power,  these  semi-barbarians  were  contemptible  ;  what 
Minor  en-  fighting  faculty  they  had,  they  exhibited  only  in  hand-to- 
gag«m-iit.s.  i,anti  encounters,  just  as  they  were  formidable  as  pirates  in 
boarding  peaceful  merchant  ships.  Naval  engagements  were  frequent, 
in  which  their  vessels  and  crews  were  destroyed,  wholly  or  in  part, 
without  the  loss  of  a  man  to  the  Americans.  In  July,  1802,  the  frig- 
ate Constellation,  Captain  Murray,  fought  nine  gunboats,  off  Tripoli, 
and  drove  five  of  them  ashore,  while  the  others  escaped  into  the  har- 
bor. In  June,  the  next  year,  a  Tripolitan  cruiser  of  twenty-two  guns 
was  driven  into  a  bay  seven  leagues  east  of  Tripoli,  where  she  an- 
chored with  springs  on  her  cables,  while  nine  gunboats  were  sweep- 
ing along  the  shore  to  her  assistance,  and  a  body  of  cavalry  appeared 
on  the  beach.  The  John  Adams,  Captain  Rodgers,  and  the  Enter- 
prise, Lieutenant  Isaac  Hull,  stood  in  and  gave  battle  at  point-blank 
range.  In  three  quarters  of  an  hour  the  enemy's  guns  were  silenced, 
and  her  people  leaped  overboard.  The  Americans  manned  their 
boats  to  take  possession,  when  a  boat-load  of  Tripolitans  returned  to 


1804.] 


THE  MEDITERRANEAN  SQUADRON. 


157 


her  and  reopened  fire.  The  Adams  replied,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
the  Tripolitan's  colors  came  down,  then  her  guns  were  all  discharged 
at  once,  and  the  next  instant  she  blew  up  with  an  explosion  that 
tore  her  hull  to  fragments. 

In  1803,  the  squadron  in  the  Mediterranean  numbered  nine  ships, 
carrying  two  hundred  and  fourteen  guns.  The  Philadelphia  cap- 
tured a  Moorish  cruiser  which  the  Governor  of  Tangier  had  author- 
ized to  prey  upon  American  commerce.  Commodore  Treble  entered 
that  harbor  with  four  of  his  fleet,  and  demanded  an  explanation  of 
the  Emperor,  who  disavowed  the  act  of  the  Governor,  and  the  treaty 
between  the  United  States  and 
Morocco  was  renewed.  The 
Philadelphia  soon  after  struck 
upon  a  reef  in  the  harbor  of 
Tripoli,  when  in  pursuit  of  a 
blockade-runner.  In  this  help- 
less condition  she  was  attacked 
by  gunboats,  and  Captain  Bain- 
bridge  was  compelled  to  surren- 
der. She  promised  to  be  a  val- 
uable prize  to  the  enemy,  when, 
floated  by  an  unusually  high 
tide,  she  was  hauled  off  and  re- 
fitted. 

But  Bainbridge's  misfortune 
was  remedied  by  the  daring  act 
of  a  young  lieutenant,  Stephen 
Decatur.  Running  into  the 
harbor  one  night  in  February, 
1804,  in  a  small  prize  vessel 
which  had  been  named  the  Intrepid,  he  made  fast,  under  pretence 
of  being  a  merchantman  and  that  he  had  lost  his  anchors,  to  the 
Philadelphia.  At  a  given  signal,  his  men  rose  from  the  deck  and 
poured  over  the  frigate's  side  and  through  her  ports.  With  a  cry  of 
"  A merikanos  !"  the  terrified  Tripolitans  ran  below  or  plunged  into 
the  water.  In  twenty-five  minutes,  Decatur  cleared  the  decks,  car- 
ried combustibles  to  every  part  of  the  ship,  and  set  fire  to  them. 
Regaining  his  own  vessel,  he  cast  off  and  sailed  out  to  sea -as  the 
flames  ran  up  the  rigging,  and  the  heated  guns  of  the  burning  ship 
fired  her  last  broadside. 

In  July,  Preble  was  off  Tripoli  with  his  fleet.  On  the  3d  of  Au- 
gust he  entered  the  harbor,  and  for  two  hours  bombarded  the  town 
from  his  mortar-boats,  while  his  frigates  and  schooners  attacked  the 


Stephen   Oecatur. 


158  JEFFERSOX.  [CHAP.  VII. 

batteries.     It  was  intended  that  the  six  gunboats  should  engage  the 

enemy's  boats  at  close  quarters  ;  but  one  of  them  fell  off  to 

ment  of        leeward,  another  had  her  lateen  yard  shot  away,  and  a  third 

Tripoli.  J  J 

obeyed  an  erroneous  signal  of  recall.  The  other  three 
closed  with  the  enemy.  One  of  them,  commanded  by  Lieutenant 
James  Decatur,  a  brother  of  Stephen,  attacked  a  Tripolitan  gun- 
boat, and  fired  a  volley,  when  her  antagonist  struck.  As  Decatur 
stepped  upon  her  deck,  the  Tripolitan  commander  shot  him  through 
the  head,  the  boats  drifted  apart,  and  for  the  time  being  the  enemy 
escaped. 

Stephen  Decatur,  in  command  of  another  boat,  poured  a  shower 
of  musket-balls  into  the  nearest  enemy,  and  then  laying  alongside, 
boarded.  His  men,  dividing  into  two  parties,  charged  around  each 
side  of  the  open  hatchway,  bayonetted  all  who  resisted,  or  who  did 
not  leap  overboard,  and  compelled  the  surrender  of  the  rest.  De- 
catur next  turned  to  the  boat  where  he  knew  his  brother  had  just 
met  his  death.  Throwing  himself  on  board  with  his  men,  he  sin- 
gled out,  after  a  general  fight  of  twenty  minutes,  the  Captain,  who 
had  shot  Lieutenant  James  Decatur.  He  was  a  large  and  powerful 
man,  and  defended  himself  with  a  pike.  As  he  made  a  thrust  with 
this,  Decatur  attempted  to  cut  off  the  head  with  a  blow  of  his  sword  ; 
Exploits  of  but  the  blade  struck  the  iron,  and  broke  at  the  hilt.  The 
Decatur.  next  thrust  he  partially  parried  with  his  naked  arm,  but  the 
point  of  the  pike  entered  his  breast.  Tearing  this  out,  he  wrenched 
the  staff  from  the  Turk,  and  grappled  with  him,  and  they  rolled  upon 
the  deck  together.  While  the  Turk  strove  to  use  his  poniard,  De- 
catur held  his  arm  with  one  hand,  and  with  the  other  cocked  a  pistol 
in  his  own  pocket,  and,  without  drawing  it,  shot  his  antagonist.  The 
wound  was  mortal,  and  the  dying  Turk  relaxed  his  grasp.1 

While  this  contest  was  going  on,  a  Tripolitan  officer  aimed  a  blow 
at  Decatur  from  behind  ;  but  a  young  sailor  named  Keulien  James 
interposed  his  arm, — according  to  one  version,  his  head,  because 
both  arms  had  been  disabled,  —  and  saved  the  life  of  his  commander 
at  the  expense  of  the  arm,  which  was  shorn  clean  off.  Of  the  eighty 
men  in  the  two  boats  captured  by  Decatur,  fifty-two  were  killed  or 
wounded. 

A  similar  desperate,  personal  encounter  occurred  upon  another  of 
the  gunboats,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Trippe,  who,  by  the  re- 
bound of  his  own  boat  in  an  attempt  to  board  another,  was  left  on 
the  deck  of  the  enemy,  with  only  ten  men.  The  commanders  met 

1  There  are  various  versions  of  this  famous  encounter.  The  one  here  given,  from  Mao- 
kenzie's  Life  of  Decatur,  professes  to  have  been  obtained  from  the  hero  himself  by  two  of 
his  intimate  friends. 


1804.] 


ASSAULTS    UPOX   TRIPOLI. 


159 


and  fought,  —  Trippe  with  a  pike,  his  antagonist  with  a  sabre.  The 
American  was  forced  to  the  deck,  covered  with  wounds  ;  but  muster- 
ing all  the  strength  that  was  left  him,  he  succeeded  in  transfixing 
the  Turk  with  his  pike.  At  the  fall  of  their  Captain,  the  crew,  of 


Decatur  and  the  Turk. 


whom  twenty-one  were  killed  or  wounded,  submitted.  The  result 
of  the  battle  was,  three  of  the  enemy's  boats  sunk,  and  three  others 
captured,  with  a  loss  to  the  Americans  of  only  fourteen  killed  and 
wounded. 

Four  other  assaults  were  made  upon  the  city  in  the  course  of  Au- 
gust and  September ;  but  with  little  impression,  because,  as  it  was 
afterward  ascertained,  of  the  poor  quality  of  the  bomb-shells.  Ex- 


160  JEFFERSON.  [CfcAp.  VII. 

perience,  moreover,  had  taught  the  enemy  to  avoid  coming  into  close 
quarters  with  the  American  gunboats,  and  to  fight  at  long  range. 
In  a  cannonade  which  lasted  three  hours,  Preble  lost  eighteen  men  ; 
and  a  single  hot  shot  from  a  battery,  exploding  the  magazine  of  one 
of  his  gunboats,  cost  him  more  than  would  have  befallen  him  in  the 
capture  of  a  half-dozen  of  the  enemy's  vessels.  Though  with  her 
stern  under  water,  her  brave  crew  loaded  and  fired  a  last  shot  from 
their  long  gun,  and  gave  three  cheers  as  her  decks  sank  under  them. 
Meanwhile  the  bomb-ketch  Intrepid  had  been  fitted  up  as  an  kk  in- 
fernal," and  the  night  of  September  4  was  selected  as  the 
of  th..  in-  time  for  sending  her  into  the  harbor.  Two  rooms  had  been 

trepul. 

planked  up  in  the  hold,  and  filled  with  a  hundred  barrels  of 
powder  and  missiles.  On  the  deck  over  this  were  piled  a  hundred 
and  fifty  heavy  shells,  and  a  large  quantity  of  shot  and  fragments  of 
iron.  Captain  Richard  Somers,  Lieutenant  Henry  Wads  worth,  and 
eleven  men  were  to  take  her  in  among  the  Tripolitan  fleet,  fire  the 
combustibles,  and  escape  in  two  boats.  The  stars  were  visible,  but 
a  thick  haze  overspread  the  water.  The  Intrepid,  accompanied  part 
way  by  several  of  the  smaller  vessels,  made  for  the  western  entrance 
of  the  harbor,  said  a  low  farewell  to  her  consorts,  and  disappeared 
in  the  darkness.  As  she  passed  out  of  sight  of  her  friends,  she 
came  within  view  from  the  enemy's  batteries,  and  they  opened  fire. 
One  observer,  who  tracked  her  with  his  night-glass,  presently  saw  a 
light  move  horizontally  along  her  deck  ;  then  it  suddenly  dropped 
out  of  sight,  as  if  carried  down  a  hatchway,  and  the  next  instant 
there  was  a  tremendous  explosion;  a  great  column  of  fire  shot  up 
from  the  vessel,  the  mast,  with  its  rigging  and  canvas  ablaze,  rose 
into  the  air,  and  bomb-shells  were  seen  flying  in  every  direction. 
Two  days  afterward,  thirteen  mangled  bodies,  not  one  of  which 
could  be  identified,  were  found  —  some  in  the  hulk  and  some  in 
the  water.  Several'  of  them  had  been  pierced  by  grape-shot.  The 
cause  of  the  explosion  has  never  been  ascertained.  The  Intrepid 
was  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  her  destination  when  she  blew 
up,  and  probably  did  no  damage  to  the  enemy. 

On  the  10th  of  November,  Preble  was  superseded  by  Commodore 
Samuel  Barron,  who  arrived  with  the  President  and  the  Constellation, 
making  the  Mediterranean  squadron  the  largest  force  the  United 
States  had  ever  assembled  at  sea,  —  ten  vessels,  carrying  two  hundred 
and  sixty-four  guns. 

The  reigning  Bashaw  of  Tripoli,  Jussuf  Caramalli,  had  gained 
the  throne  by  deposing  his  elder  brother,  Hamet,  who  was  now 
an  exile  in  Egypt.  William  Eaton,  the  American  Consul  at  Tunis, 
sought  the  deposed  prince,  and,  with  the  sanction  of  the  Govern- 


1805.]  PEACE   WITH    TRIPOLI.  161 

ment,  proposed  to  reinstate  him.     They  got  together  a  small  force, 

—  adventurers  from  various   nations,  —  and  early  in   1805   Ailian(.e 
marched    upon    Derne.     Within    three  miles  of   the  place,   with  n*met- 
arms  and  ammunition  were  lauded  from  the  fleet,  and  several  vessels 
took  position  in  the  harbor.     On  the  27th  of  April  fire  was  opened 
on  the  town  and  batteries.     After  a  bombardment  of  an  hour,  which 
drove  the  enemy  from  their  guns,  the  land  force,  numbering  (^ 
about  twelve  hundred,  carried  the  works  by  storm,  hauled   Dorne 
down  the  Tripolitan  flag,  and  raised  the  American  flag,  —  the  first 
time  it  ever  floated  over  a  fortification  on  that  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
The  guns  were  turned  upon  the  town,  which,  being  assailed  at  the 
same  time  from  the  other  side,  soon  capitulated.     The  victors  lost 
only  fourteen  men. 

The  reigning  Bashaw  was  now  more  than  willing  to  make  peace, 
and  on  the  3d  of  June  a  treaty  was  negotiated  bv  Tobias 

"' 

Lear,  Consul-general  at  Algiers.  All  payment  of  tribute 
was  abolished  ;  an  exchange  of  prisoners  was  effected,  and  for  those 
still  remaining  in  the  hands  of  the  Tripolitans  a  ransom  of  sixty 
thousand  dollars  was  agreed  upon.  Hamet  retired  to  Syracuse,  and 
the  Bashaw  retained  custody  of  his  wife  and  children,  as  hostages  for 
his  peaceful  behavior  in  the  future.  Two  years  later,  Hamet.  justly 
thinking  that  he  had  not  been  fairly  treated  by  his  powerful  ally, 
addressed  a  pathetic  letter  "  To  their  Most  Serene  Highnesses."  — 
meaning  the  United  States  Congress.  —  in  which  he  said:  "I  have 
lost  my  family  ;  I  have  lost  my  inheritance  ;  my  acquisitions  and  my 
fair  prospects  are  lost  also.  ...  To  my  own  individual  sufferings  I 
ought  to  annex  also  those  of  my  faithful  people,  whose  attachment 

to  me  has  involved  them  in  the  same  wretchedness I  will  not, 

like  the  world,  reproach  the  representatives  of  the  American  nation 
with  ingratitude.     I  rather  implore  their  commiseration  toward  me, 

—  at  least  so  far  as  to  restore  me  to  my  family,  and  to  grant  me  a 
competence." 

Eaton  was  as  little  satisfied  as  Hamet.  That  prince,  Eaton  be- 
lieved and  asserted,  had  only  been  used  as  an  instrument  by  the 
United  States  to  further  their  own  purposes,  to  be  abandoned,  when 
these  were  attained,  to  an  unhappy  fate.  This  treachery  he  ascribed 
to  Lear,  the  Consul-general,  whom  he  accused  at  the  same  time  of 
betraying  the  best  interests  of  his  own  government.  Tripoli,  Eaton 
asserted,  could  have  been  easily  taken,  and  the  Bashaw  compelled  to 
submit  to  any  terms  that  the  United  States  had  seen  fit  to  dictate. 
On  his  return  to  this  country,  Congress  and  the  Administration  were 
reluctant  to  admit  the  merit  of  his  services,  and  even  the  settlement 
of  his  accounts  was  delayed  for  years.  Massachusetts  was  more  grate- 

VOL.    IV.  11 


162 


JEFFERSON. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


ful;  her  Legislature,  "desirous  to  perpetuate  a  remembrance  of  heroic 
enterprise,"  presented  him  with  ten  thousand  acres  of  land  in  her 
province  of  Maine. 

It  was  this  Eaton  who,  in  the  Burr  trial,  was  the  most  important 
Eaton  and  witness.  The  plan  of  the  proposed  Southern  expedition  had 
Burr-  been  confided  to  him  by  Burr  himself ;  and  it  is  not  at  all 

unlikely  that  at  the  outset  he  was  dazzled  by  an  enterprise  which 
seemed  to  promise  so  much  of  brilliant  adventure,  and  offered  a 
temptation  to  which  he  was  peculiarly  open  from 
his  African  experience.  But  there  seems  no  good 
reason  for  doubting  his  integrity  of  purpose  when 
he  turned  against  Burr,  and,  whether  mistakenly 
or  not,  denounced  him  as  having  aimed,  not  only 
at  foreign  conquest,  but  at  the  subversion  of 
the  Federal  Union. 

The  acquisition  of  Louisiana  was  by  far 
the  most  important  transaction  of 
Jefferson's  administration.  But  it  of  u>uisi- 
was  not  so  regarded  at  the  time,  ex- 
cepting by  the  settlers  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  who  made  no  loud  expressions  of 
their  joy,  and  by  those  who  thought  the  ac- 
quisition important  because  they  believed  it 
would  prove  disastrous.  As  in  the  preced- 
ing administrations,  the  politics  of  Europe 
engaged  the  chief  attention  of  the  people  of 
the  Atlantic  States,  who  had  not  yet  learned 
what  was  to  be  the  true  independence  of  the 
nation.  Nor  had  any  public  man,  so  far  as 
appears,  any  sufficient  prescience  of  the 
power  which  his  country  had  gained  when 
she  secured  for  every  child  rights  often 
given  to  the  first  born  only ;  when  she  pro- 
vided for  general  education ;  when  she  put 
away  the  temptations  and  the  expense  of  a 
standing  army,  and  virtually  gave  to  every  man  who  asked  it,  a  share 
Powerofthe  °f  tne  public  domain.  It  has  proved  that  in  those  years, 
new  nation,  these  privileges,  and  others  closely  connected  with  them, 
were  working  changes  in  the  state  of  affairs  so  great  and  so  rapid 
that  history  finds  it  difficult  to  record  them.  But  the  men  in  the 
midst  of  them  had  no  sense  of  their  grandeur.  They  were  as  prone 
as  men  always  are,  to  say  their  country  was  going  to  ruin  ;  and  they 
mistook,  as  men  are  apt  to  do,  some  failure  in  their  own  plans,  for  a 


The  Sugar  Plant. 


1807.]  INCREASE  OF  POPULATION  AND  WEALTH.  163 

check  in  the  general  prosperity.  Least  of  all,  had  the  country  learned 
the  great  lesson  that  the  general  administration  ought  not  in  strict- 
ness to  be  called  the  government  of  the  country.  In  truth,  it  was 
governed  not  only  at  Washington,  but  in  a  thousand  other  places. 
It  was  governed  in  its  town  meetings,  or  in  its  State  legislatures; 
in  the  assemblies  which  made  its  ecclesiastical  rules,  or  in  the  agree- 
ments which  set  on  foot  its  emigration.  In  a  thousand  ways,  under 
the  instinct  for  local  government  which  has  been  the  salvation  of  this 
race  since  its  history  began,  these  people  were  governing  themselves. 
But  the  delusion  still  possessed  most  of  them,  as  it  possessed  all  the 
writers  for  the  press,  and  many  of  the  members  of  the  national  Ad- 
ministration, that  they  were  governed  by  the  President  and  Congress, 
as  France  was  governed  by  Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV.  The  move- 
ments of  local  government  are  such  as  journals  did  not  then  record, 
while  the  speeches  in  Congress,  and  the  messages  of  Presidents,  had 
some  chance  for  being  circulated  and  read.  The  mistake  is  easily 
accounted  for  which  rejects  the  element  of  power  that  is  unseen  and 
unheard. 

Meanwhile,  the  population  of  the  country  nearly  doubled  in  twenty 
years,  though  there  was,  as  yet,  no  such  large  number  of  Growth  of 
emigrants  from  Europe  as  Washington  and  other  far-sighted  thecountrJ'- 
men  hoped  for.  At  the  end  of  the  first  ten  years  of  the  century,  the 
census  showed  a  population  of  seven  million  two  hundred  and  forty 
thousand.  The  Abbe*  Raynal,  in  his  flattering  prophecy  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  new  nation,  then  much  quoted,  had  fixed  ten  million  as 
the  maximum  number  of  its  people.  Wealth  was  increasing  in  a  pro- 
portion vastly  greater.  Reference  has  been  made,  in  another  chapter, 
to  the  rapid  increase  of  the  cotton  crop,  resulting  from  Whit-  The  cotton 
ney's  invention.  From  the  merely  nominal  amount  of  one  crop- 
hundred  and  eighty-nine  thousand  pounds  exported  in  1791,  the  ex- 
port rose  to  sixty-two  million  pounds  in  1811,  the  year  before  the  war 
with  England,  and,  so  soon  as  that  war  was  over,  to  eighty-three  mil- 
lion. That  is  to  say,  this  single  export  multiplied  one  hundred  and 
sixty  fold.  There  was  no  other  important  article  of  commerce  in 
which  the  increase  was  so  large.  But  the  exports  in  all  articles, 
which  were  valued  at  only  eighteen  million  dollars  in  1701,  rose  in 
value  to  one  hundred  and  eight  million  in  1807  —  increasing  six  fold 
in  sixteen  years.  This  increase  was  not  steady.  There  was  flux  and 
reflux,  caused  chiefly  by  the  wantonness  of  foreign  Avars  and  the  fol- 
lies of  legislation  at  home.  But,  in  face  of  all  obstacles,  and  while 
private  fortunes  were  often  wrecked  in  changes  so  sudden,  the  nation 
was  increasing  in  strength  in  a  proportion  larger  than  those  ever 
dreamed  who  thought  they  were  its  rulers.  Of  what  was  visible  in 


164 


JEFFERSON. 


[CHAP.   VII. 


Jeffprson's 
creed 


its  prosperity,  the  features  most  important  were  its  foreign  com- 
merce, and  the  shipbuilding  and  fisheries  which  were  tributary  to 
this,  the  emigration  to  the  West,  and  the  exploration  of  the  wilder- 
ness. The  improvement  <>f  internal  communications,  and  the  devel- 
opment of  manufactures  were  not,  though  begun,  so  obvious  till  the 
second  decade  of  the  century,  though  in  both  directions  a  beginning 
was  made. 

In  this  first  decade,  it  was  the  great  good  fortune  of  the  country 
that  Jefferson,  elected  President  after  a  struggle   of   such 
bitterness,  was  committed,  in  every  form  of  language,   to 
the  statement  that  the  people  could  be  intrusted  with  the  manage- 

ment of  their  affairs. 
True,  it  proved  on 
many  occasions  that 
Jefferson  was  not 
able  to  resist  the 
temptations  which 
press  on  all  men  in 
authority.  He  often 
thought  he  knew 
better  than  the  peo- 
ple he  had  praised. 
But  in  his  long  an- 
tagonism with  Wash- 
and Adams, 
had  constantly 


ington 


he 


owned,  what  was  at 
bottom  his  political 
creed,  that  the  less 

Whitney's  Cotton  Gin  (from  the  Original   Model).  JlH'll     \VCre     tTOVenied 

from  above  the  better,  and  the  more  they  governed  themselves,  the 
wiser  would  the  government  be.  Whenever,  therefore,  he  yielded 
to  temptation,  and  forced  a  policy  on  an  unwilling  nation,  he  knew, 
and  all  men  knew,  that  he  contradicted  his  own  theory,  and  lie  often 
blundered.  His  was  a  character  of  not  uncommon  type,  which  starts 
in  life  with  lofty  principles  and  purposes,  but  is  ruled  by  circum- 
stances, and  often  led  into  courses  directly  opposed  to  what  were 
once  cherished  convictions. 

It  was  a  misfortune  that  he  fancied  himself  a  philosopher ;  for  he 
was  not  one,  in  any  real  sense  of  that  word.  But  in  his 
residence  in  France,  he  had  made  acquaintance  with  those 
fanciful  speculators  among  the  Encyclopedists,  who  thought  that  the 
world  was  to  be  at  once  made  over  on  the  plans  of  an  advanced 


and  char- 
acter. 


1801.]  THE   PRESIDENT'S  POLICY.  165 

philanthropy.  Many  of  these  men  in  Europe  had  come  to  an  un- 
timely end  in  the  horrors  of  the  Revolution.  So  soon  as  the  young 
Napoleon  took  the  helm,  little  indulgence  was  given  to  their  dreams 
or  fancies.  Of  the  whole  circle,  Jefferson  was  the  only  one  who,  in 
a  certain  irony  of  destiny,  had  been  promoted  to  be  the  chief  of  a 
state.  He  was  too  steadfast  to  abandon  then  the  theories  which,  in  a 
position  less  distinguished,  he  had  proclaimed.  To  these  fancies  the 
country  owed  more  than  one  of  the  absurdities  which  nearly  para- 
lyzed its  energies  during  the  years  of  his  administration.  And  when 
he  left  the  seat  of  the  President  he  had  to  be  satisfied  with  the  poor 
reflection  that,  as  a  friend  of  peace,  he  had  not  made  war  himself, 
although  he  had  done  everything  in  the  power  of  one  man  to  drive 
the  country  into  war  under  his  successor. 

In  his  inaugural  address,  with  a  comprehensive  courage  which 
gratified  all  parties,  he  accepted  as  his  own  the  policy  of  the  Fed- 
eralists ;  and,  from  that  moment,  for  a  generation,  nothing  was  re- 
ally heard  from  his  followers  of  the  demands  for  State  rights,  which 
had  been  discussed  for  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  theoretically  main- 
tained by  the  Democratic  party.  For,  so  soon  as  it  held  ThepoiiCy 
office,  following  his  lead,  that  party  assumed  habits  of  na-  •***•••**• 
tional  administration,  such  as  no  Federal  leader  even  had  ever  dared 
to  propose.  For  the  next  genei-ation,  the  armory  from  which  States 
or  men  in  opposition  should  draw  their  sharpest  weapons  would  be 
the  resolutions  of  State  rights  framed  by  Jefferson  and  his  compan- 
ions in  the  bitter  controversies  with  Adams.  Majorities  were  to 
govern  now  that  the  Democrats  were  in  the  majority.  "  All  ,Iig  inaugu. 
will  bear  ^in  mind,"  he  said,  "  this  sacred  principle,  that  raL 
though  the  will  of  the  majority  is  in  all  cases  to  prevail,  that  will,  to 
be  rightful,  must  be  reasonable  :  that  the  minority  possess  their  equal 
rights,  which  equal  laws  must  protect,  and  to  violate  would  be  op- 
pression." Again  he  said  :  "  We  have  called  by  different  names 
brethren  of  the  same  principle.  We  are  all  Republicans  ;  we  are  all 
Federalists."  .  ..."  I  know,  indeed,  that  some  honest  men  fear 
that  a  republican  government  cannot  be  strong,  that  this  government 

is  not  strong  enough I    believe  this,  on  the  contrary,  the 

strongest  government  on  earth Let  us,  then,   with  courage 

and  confidence,  pursue  our  own  Federal  and  Republican  principles." 

In  another  part  of  the  address  he  enumerates  these  principles. 
"  Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men,  of  whatever  state  or  persuasion, 
religious  or  political ;  peace,  commerce,  and  honest  friendship  with 
all  nations,  entangling  alliances  with  none ;  the  support  of  the  State 
governments  in  all  their  rights,  as  the  most  competent  administra- 
tions for  our  domestic  concerns,  and  the  surest  bulwarks  against  anti- 


166  JEFFERSON.  [CHAP.  VII. 

republican  tendencies ;  the  preservation  of  the  general  government 
in  its  whole  constitutional  vigor,  as  the  sheet-anchor  of  our  peace  at 
home  and  safety  abroad  ;  a  jealous  care  of  the  right  of  election  by 
the  people,  a  mild  and  safe  corrective  of  abuses  which  are  lopped  by 
the  sword  of  revolution  where  peaceable  remedies  are  unprovided ; 
absolute  acquiescence  in  the  decisions  of  the  majority,  the  vital  prin- 
ciple of  republics,  from  which  is  no  appeal  but  to  force,  the  vital  prin- 
ciple and  immediate  parent  of  despotism  ;  a  well-disciplined  militia, 
our  best  reliance  in  peace,  and  for  the  first  moments  of  war,  till  reg- 
ulars may  relieve  them  ;  the  supremacy  of  the  civil  over  the  military 
authority  ;  economy  in  the  public  expense,  that  labor  may  be  lightly 
burdened  ;  the  honest  payment  of  our  debts,  and  sacred  preservation 
of  the  public,  faith  ;  encouragement  of  agriculture,  and  of  commerce 
as  its  handmaid  ;  the  diffusion  of  information,  and  arraignment  of 
all  abuses  at  the  bar  of  the  public  reason  ;  freedom  of  religion  ;  free- 
dom of  the  press  ;  and  freedom  of  the  person,  under  the  protection  of 
the  habeas  corpus  ;  and  trial  by  juries  impartially  selected." 

As  Jefferson  and  his  friends  interpreted  these  principles,  they  meant 
a  strong  central  government.  As  the  nation  grew  in  wealth  and 
power,  that  government  grew  in  patronage  and  consideration.  With 
even-  year  the  laurels  and  the  prizes  which  any  State  government 
could  offer  to  ambitious  or  to  selfish  men,  became  of  less  importance, 
in  comparison  with  those  the  general  government  had  in  hand.  Year 
by  year  the  extreme  doctrines  of  State  rights,  as  proclaimed  in  1798, 
were  confined  more  and  more  to  the  eloquence  of  debating  societies 
and  public  dinners.  In  practice,  the  Republican  or  Democratic  party 
became  the  national  party.  Confident  of  popular  support,  the  Presi- 
dent and  his  followers  were  able  to  carry  forward  such  measures  as 
they  thought  the  national  interests  required  ;  and,  for  the  first  twelve 
years  of  the  century,  even  while  local  irritations  were  strong  enough 
to  keep  up  very  bitter  partisan  animosities,  they  fortunately  never 
offered  any  hindrance  to  the  maintenance  of  a  definite  national  policy 
abroad,  —  hud  the  President  ever  determined  on  such  a  policy,  — 
nor  any  check  on  the  development  of  healthy  national  sentiment  at 
home. 

In  Jefferson's  first  years,  a  Federal  majority  in  the  Senate  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  restrained  the  full  adoption  of  such  measures  as  a  con- 
sistent fulfilment  of  the  promises  of  the  canvass  would  require.  The 
checks  of  the  constitutional  system  often  give  such  fortunate  delay  in 
the  work  of  eager  partisans,  affording  a  relief,  which  a  seaman  would 
call  lee-way,  giving  the  ship  of  state  sufficient  time  to  change  her 
course.  But  success  had  its  accustomed  fruits.  State  after  State 
turned  out  its  Federal  rulers,  and  took  part  with  the  Republicans. 


1801.] 


THE   REPUBLIC  AX   PARTY. 


167 


Side  by  side  with  the  legitimate  political  discussions  of  the  people, 
ecclesiastical  discussions  of  the  first  interest  were  going  forward,  in 
which  the  older  order  of  church  establishments  were  giving  way  to 
the  more  popular  adjustment  of  what  we  now  call  the  "  voluntary 
system."  In  New  England,  the  clergy  —  who  in  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  were  settled  for  life,  and,  in  a  fashion,  took  on  them- 
selves some  of  the  offices  of  an  aristocracy,  —  were  threatened  by  the 
change  which  has  long  since  left  the  appointment  and  maintenance  of 
the  ministry  to  the  order  of  the  congregations.  A  very  large  major- 


Monticello  —  the  Home  of  Jefferson 


ity  of  the  ministers,  as  of  the  lawyers  of  New  England,  had  allied 
themselves  to  the  Federal  party  ;  in  truth,  the  ministers  and  lawyers 
had  led  it.  The  opposers  of  the  system  which  maintained  them,  —  a 
system  clearly  in  opposition  to  the  general  drift  of  democratic  institu- 
tions,—  naturally  allied  themselves  to  the  Republican  party.  In  the 
newer  regions  of  the  country,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  enthusiastic 
followers  of  the  eager  preachers  of  religious  I'evivals  were  found  in 
like  alliance  with  the  Republican  party.  Chilled  by  the  suspicion  or 
antagonism  of  the  more  decorous  established  clergy,  they  readily  op- 
posed any  political  scheme  which  that  clergy  was  supposed  to  uphold. 
In  one  part  of  the  country,  therefore,  Jefferson's  friends  had  the  as- 
sistance of  the  increasing  body  of  what  were  called  "  Free-thinkers  ; " 
in  another  part,  the  ready  support  of  religious  enthusiasts.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  former  leaders  of  the  Federalists  were  left  with  no 


168 


JEFFERSON. 


['CHAP.  VII. 


Settlement 
of  the  West. 


spell  to  conjure  with.  They  could  only  appeal  to  the  cultivated  and 
thoughtful  men  with  whom  politics  was  a  science,  not  an  amusement 
or  a  game,  —  men  who  knew  that  in  the  long  run  government  would 
succeed  or  would  perish  as  it  adhered  to  or  abandoned  certain  great 
fundamental  principles.  Jefferson  permitted  himself  to  be  governed 
by  these  principles  when  it  suited  his  purpose,  and,  when  it  did  not, 
was  quite  ready  to  set  them  at  defiance  to  defeat  his  opponents  on 
detailed  questions  of  administration,  which  were  often  settled  before 
the  discussion  of  them  could  well  be  brought  before  the  popular  tri- 
bunals. Communication  was  difficult  between  different  parts  of  the 
country;  the  seat  of  government  itself  was  an  outpost  in  a  wilder- 
ness ;  and  the  diffusion  of  popular  information  by  a  vigilant  press  was 
in  its  infancy,  —  as  we  speak  of  it  to-dav,  it  was  wholly  unknown. 

•/  *  •/  *  •/ 

The  rapid  increase  of  the  settlements  west  of  the  Alleghanies  had 
already  shown  itself  in   the   results  of  the  census  of  1800. 
That  part  of  the  Northwest  Territory  which  we  now  know 
as  Ohio,  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  State  soon   after  Jeffer- 
son's   accession    to 
office.      Its    people 
adopted  a  Constitu- 
tion by  a  convention 
which  met  at  Chilli- 
cothe  in  November, 
1802.    In  admitting 
the  new  State,  Con- 
gress adopted  some 
principles  which 
have    become  prec- 
edents of  the  very 
first  importance. 
In  a  wise  determi- 
nation to  encourage 
settlement,  the  new 
State    Constitution 
provided,  by  an  or- 
dinance which  could 
not   be    repealed, 
that  for  four  years  after  any  settler  purchased  land  of  the   United 
States,  no  local  taxes  should  l>e  laid  upon  it.     Congress  met  this  lib- 
Lands  given   ^rality  of  the  new-born  State  by  a  gift  more  than  princely 
for  schools     jn  i{.g  munif;Cence,  which  has  been  made  a  precedent  in  all 
subsequent  legislation.     The  law  granted  to  the  State  one  township 
in   each  section  of  the   survey  for  the   establishment  of  its   schools. 


Courthouse  at  Chlllicothe,  O.,   1801   — From  an  old  picture. 


1807.] 


THE    FIRST   STEAMBOAT. 


169 


. 


That  is  to  say,  one  thirty-sixth  part  of  the  public  domain  has  been 
Consecrated  since  that  time  to  the  purposes  of  public  education.  A 
grant  so  munificent,  under  a  policy  so  large,  has  given  to  what  are 
still  called  the.  "new  States"  in  America,  opportunities  for  a  system  of 
public  education  unequalled  in  the  world.  In  some  instances,  where 
statesmen  of  prudence  have  been  able  to  administer  this  fund  from 
the  beginning,  such  a  system  of  public  education  has  been  attained. 

With  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  and  the  consequent  free  right  of 
navigating  the  Mississippi,  the  States  in  the  valley  of  that  river  at- 
tained every  advantage  which  the  boldest  of  their  leaders  dared  to 
ask.  The  increase  of  emigration  into  territories  of  such  match- 
less fertility  and  luxuriant  beauty  was  proportionate.  Not  one  of 
those  leaders,  how- 
ever, dared  to  fore- 
cast the  great  in- 
vention of  the 
steamboat,  w  h  i  c  h 
was  necessary  to 
give  to  their  terri- 
tory its  full  value. 
The  experiments  of 
John  Fitch  in  driv- 
ing barges  by  steam 
had  been  tried  on 
the  Delaware, 
where  there  was 
really  no  local  trade 
sufficient  to  give  much  interest  to  his  enterprise.  In  an  early  vol- 
ume of  the  k*  American  Philosophical  Transactions,"  Mr.  Latrobe, 
the  engineer  of  most  reputation  in  the  country,  expresses  his  regret 
that  American  inventors  waste  so  much  time  in  futile  ef- 
forts to  drive  boats  by  steam,  instead  of  turning  their  at- 
tention to  the  improvement  of  the  steam-engine  for  its  work  on  land. 
As  early  as  1804,  the  year  after  the  United  States  had  acquired  Lou- 
isiana, the  American  Robert  Fulton  was  urging  upon  Napoleon,  in 
Paris,  his  own  plans  for  the  steamboat.  But  the  experimental  vessel 
was  too  slightly  built ;  the  boiler  and  engine,  too  heavy  for  it,  broke 
through  and  sank  to  the  bottom  of  the  Seine,  and  the  discouraged 
inventor  was  dismissed  in  disgrace.  The  first  successful  experiment 
was  to  be  made  in  this  country.  In  the  summer  of  1807,  a  boat  called 
the  Clernwnt  made  the  trip  from  New  York  to  Albany  in  thirty-two 
hours,  and  back  again  in  thirty.  This  was  at  the  rate  of  about  five 
miles  an  hour  ;  and,  although  the  experiment  was  ridiculed  as  im- 


Fulton's  First  Steamboat. 


Steamboats. 


170  JEFFERSON.  [CHAP.  VII. 

practicable  before  it  was  made,  and  useless  afterwards,  it  was,  never- 
theless, so  conclusive  from  the  start,  that  the  speed  attained  on  the 
first  trip  was  nearly  half  as  great  as  that  at  which  many  ferry-boats 
are  run  in  the  harbor  of  New  York,  more  than  seventy  years  later. 
'•  The  morning  I  left  New  York,"  wrote  Fulton,  "  there  were  not, 
perhaps,  thirty  persons  in  the  city  who  believed  the  boat  would  ever 
move  one  mile  an  hour."  It  was  not  until  1812  that  a  steamboat 
navigated  the  waters  of  the  Ohio.1 

Long  before  this  time,  however,  Jefferson,  in  the  spirit  of  scientific 
Lewis  and      research,  which  gives  dignity  to  every  period  of  his   life, 

had  commissioned  two  officers  of  the  army  —  Meriwether 
Lewis  and  William  Clarke  —  to  explore  the  waters  of  the  Missouri 
River,  cross  the  mountain  range,  and  descend  to  the  Pacific.  This 
commission  they  successfully  fulfilled  in  1804  and  the  two  following 
years.  With  a  large  party,  they  embarked  on  a  considerable  flo- 
tilla of  boats,  and  stemmed  the  rapid  current  of  the  Missouri  for 
twenty-six  hundred  miles.  Leaving  their  flotilla  there  with  a  garri- 
son, they  crossed  the  mountains  with  the  remainder  of  the  party, 
mounted  on  horses  Avhich  they  hud  captured,  and  were  thus  the 
discoverers  of  the  two  streams  still  known  as  the  Lewis  and  Clarke 
Rivers.  They  followed  these  rivers  to  their  junction  in  Columbia 
River,  which  they  then  traced  to  the  sea.  This  great  river  had 
already  been  discovered  by  Robert  Gray,  of  Salem,  Massachusetts, 
commander  of  the  ship  Columbia  Rediviva,  in  May,  1792.  On  these 
two  discoveries  —  first  of  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  then  of  its 
course  —  rested,  in  part,  the  claim  of  the  United  States  for  its  terri- 
tories west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.2  In  this  journey,  the  party  of 
explorers  met  many  Indian  tribes  who  had  never  before  seen  white 
men,  —  some  who,  it  was  supposed,  had  never  heard  of  white  men. 
It  was  the  first  journey  ever  made  to  the  Pacific  by  the  whites,  north 
of  the  line  of  Mexico.3 

The  rapid   development  of  the  Western   country   was  really   the 

feature  of  most  importance  in  the  history  of  the  nation  in 
ment°oPf  the  the  first  decade  of  the  century.  But  the  great  law  held, 

under  which  men  do  not  at  the  moment  fully  estimate  the 
force  of  the  deeper  currents  on  which  they  are  borne.  Some  of  the 

1  This  vessel  was  the  Orleans,  built  by  Fulton  and  Livingston,  at  Pittsburg.     She  had  a 
stern-wheel  and  masts,  and  this  seems  to  have  been  the  first  successful  experiment  with  the 
stern-wheel. 

2  It  eventually  acquired  by  the  Treaty  of  Florida  nil  the  claims  of  Spain  to  that  region. 
8  The  first,  through  northern  Mexico,  was  that  of  Cabeea  de  Vaca,  already  described, 

vol.  i.,  p.  156.  By  absurd  errors,  the  biographical  dictionaries  often  say  that  the  same  jour- 
ney was  accomplished  by  Carver  in  1767,  and  by  Chateaubriand  in  1791.  These  errors 
are  due  to  the  ignorance  of  writers  iu  Europe  on  points  of  American  geography. 


1805.] 


FOREIGN    COMMERCE. 


171 


most  thoughtful  men  in  the  country  deprecated  the  Western  emigra- 
tion. They  thought  it  would  reduce  the  Atlantic  States  to  insignifi- 
cance, and  endanger  the  permanence  of  the  Union. 

In  the  immense  development  of  the  physical  wealth  of  the  nation, 
the  large  increase  of  its  foreign  commerce  attracted  atten-  Foreipll 
tion  more  general.     The   rapid  increase  of  exports,  which   commer< 
has  been  alluded  to,  was  due  not  only  to  the  increase  of  domestic 


Gate  of  the   Mountains,   on  the   Upper   Missouri. 

productions,  but  to  the  commercial  necessities  of  the  world,  while  the 
European  wars  lasted.  Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  great 
carrying  trade  which  the  European  war  almost  forced  upon  the 
fortunate  American  merchants.  For  such  an  article  as  sugar,  for  in- 
stance, such  countries  as  Holland,  Italy,  and  France  were  largely 
dependent  on  importations  in  American  vessels.  To  a  considerable 
extent,  the  course  of  trade  brought  sugar  from  the  West  Indies  to 
ports  in  the  United  States,  —  in  accordance  with  the  rule  enforced 
by  England,  in  regard  to  neutrals,  —  whence  it  was  shipped  again  to 


172  JEFFERSON.  [CHAP.  VII. 

Europe.  Of  this  single  article,  not  then  produced  largely  in  Louisi- 
ana,1 the  export  from  the  United  States  in  the  three  years  1805, 1806, 
1807,  exceeded  four  hundred  million  pounds.  The  export  of  coffee 
from  the  United  States  was  only  less  valuable,  —  the  amount  being 
one  hundred  and  thirty  million  pounds.  Although  drawbacks  were 
allowed  at  the  custom-houses  on  the  principal  foreign  articles  thus 
exported,  on  foreign  imports  reexported  which  had  no  drawbacks  the 
treasury  received  four  million  dollars  in  those  years.  This  single 
item  of  revenue,  wholly  paid  by  foreign  consumers,  was  nearly  equal 
to  one  quarter  of  all  the  expenditures  of  the  national  administration 
in  the  same  time. 

It  would  also  happen  in  the  course  of  trade,  that  an  American  ves- 
sel in  a  foreign  port  would  find  a  profitable  voyage  to  some  other 
port,  without  returning  home.  Freedom  from  danger  of  capture  was, 
of  course,  an  immense  premium  in  favor  of  the  charter  of  such  ves- 
sels. Once  in  the  foreign  trade,  —  or  the  "carrying  trade,"  as  it 
came  to  be  called,  —  an  American  vessel  might  not  return  to  the 
United  States  for  many  years.  From  a  stimulus  so  remarkable,  ship- 
building and  maritime  commerce  increased  in  a  ratio  larger  than  that 
of  the  population,  while  the  national  prosperity  was  in  every  way 
quickened  by  such  enlargement  of  the  means  for  obtaining  wealth. 
The  earliest  statistics  are  of  the  years  when  the  Constitution  went 
into  operation,  and  even  then  the  maritime  activity  of  the  new  na- 
tion was  considerable.  From  that  time,  in  seventeen  years  ending 
with  1810,  the  increase  of  tonnage  owned  by  citizens  of  the  United 
States  was  nearly  threefold.  The  amount  increased  from  four  hun- 
dred and  eighty-nine  thousand  tons  to  one  million  three  hundred 
and  ninety  thousand.  It  will  be  observed  that  while  the  population 
of  the  country  doubled  in  twenty-two  years,  the  tonnage,  the  best 
index  of  its  maritime  success,  was  almost  trebled  in  seventeen.  It 
was  observed  with  pride  that,  in  commercial  rivalry  with  Great 
Britain,  the  new  nation  already  almost  equalled  the  old  in  her  ship- 
ping on  the  seas.2 

It  was  a  matter  of  course  that  a  trade  so  lucrative,  which  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  American  merchants  merely  from  the  folly  that 
kept  the  European  sovereigns  and  states  in  constant  war,  should  be 
looked  on  with  jealousy  by  all  nations.  The  great  law  insisted  on 

1  In  1810,  the  production  of  Louisiana  was  about  ten  million  pounds.     The  production 
of  maple  sugar  in  the  Northern  States  was  nine  and  a  half  million  pounds. 

2  In  1807,  the  tonnage  of  American  vessels  engaged  in  foreign  trade,  which  entered  the 
ports  of  the  United  Stntes,  was  one  million  one  hundred  thousand  tons.     That  of  Great 
Britain,  which  entered  her  ports,  was  one  million  five  hundred  thousand  tons.     In  eacli 
case  the  repented  voyages  were  counted.     But  no  estimate  appeared  of  the  large  American 
commerce  which  did  not  return  in  the  year  to  American  ports. 


1805.]  COMMERCE    AND  ITS  DIFFICULTIES.  173 

by  Catherine  and  the  other  neutral  powers  in  the  war  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, that  neutral  ships  should  make  neutral  goods,  was  hardly  yet 
accepted  as  a  part  of  the  international  code  of  the  world.  Even  had 
it  been  accepted,  its  interpretation  in  practice  was  not  left  to  jurists, 
but  to  the  commanders  of  cruisers  eager  to  make  prizes,  and  often 
indifferent  to  the  questions  of  national  or  personal  privilege  involved 
in  the  particular  case  in  hand.  In  many  instances,  indeed,  the  seiz- 
ure of  a  merchantman,  followed  by  a  reference  to  a  prize  court  of  the 
questions  regarding  her  voyage,  was  in  itself  an  injury  hardly  less 
than  her  confiscation.  Her  cargo  might  be  perishable,  or  its  value 
might  depend  on  the  rapidity  of  her  voyage. 

For  such  reasons,  and  a  hundred  others,  it  happened,  with  every 
day  of  this  lucrative  commerce  of  the  Americans,  that  some 
indignity  was  committed  by  some  commander  of  a  blockad-  ofthecan-y- 
ing  cruiser,  which  was  fairly  accounted  an  insult  to  the  flag 
of  the  new  nation,  and  involved  serious  loss  to  those  engaged  in  the 
carrying  trade.  In  such  indignities  and  insults,  as  well  as  in  the  en- 
forcement of  real  blockades,  every  belligerent  nation  that  had  a  gun 
afloat  participated.  But  of  course  it  happened  that  England  was  the 
greatest  offender,  because  her  navy  was  the  largest;  and  eventually,  as 
the  victories  of  Nelson  and  others  of  her  admirals  captured  or  swept 
out  of  existence  the  war-ships  of  other  nations,  she  became  indeed 
the  monarch  of  the  seas.  In  her  relations  with  the  United  States, 
there  were  also  other  causes  of  antagonism.  The  older  officers  and 
seamen  remembered  the  time,  not  distant,  when  the  two  nations  were 
at  war.  The  very  trade  which  was  so  lucrative  to  America  was  trade 
that  had  been  carried  on  by  English  ships  in  days  of  peace.  A  mat- 
ter that  proved  very  difficult  of  adjustment,  and  a  constant  cause 
of  ill-feeling,  was  the  identity  of  the  language,  not  to  say  the  habits, 
of  the  sailors  of  the  two  nations.  In  the  impressment  of  seamen, 
already  alluded  to,  officers  who  were  seeking  deserters  from  the  King's 
service  felt  at  liberty  to  overhaul  American  vessels,  and  look  for  such 
deserters  there.  The  indignity  of  a  search  was,  of  course,  in  itself, 
exasperating  to  a  proud  people.  And  when,  as  sometimes  happened, 
seamen  who  declared  they  were  born  in  America,  were  taken  from 
American  vessels,  the  outrage  touched  the  national  heart  most  sen- 
sitively.1 

1  So  indiscriminate  were  English  officers  in  these  outrages,  that  it  sometimes  happened 
that  black  men  were  seized  as  English  seamen.  At  that  time,  the  public  opinion  of  the 
world  was  such  that  few  statesmen  troubled  themselves  much  about  the  rights  of  negroes. 
But,  iu  another  generation,  when  it  proved  convenient  in  the  United  States  to  argue  that 
free  negroes  hud  never  been  citizens,  it  was  remembered  that  the  cabinets  of  Jefferson  and 
Madison,  in  their  diplomatic  discussions  with  Great  Britain,  had  been  willing  to  argue  that 
the  impressment  of  a  free  negro  was  the  seizure  of  an  American  citizen. 


174  JEFFERSON.  [CHAP.  VII. 

Difficult  of  settlement  as  these  various  questions  were,  the  fact 
should  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  their  discussion  was  governed  by 
recognized  principles  of  international  law  at  that  time,  and  the  tre- 
mendous strain  to  which  England  was  subjected  by  her  wars  with 
Napoleon  and  his  rapid  progress  in  the  subjugation  of  all  Europe. 
The  natural  right  of  the  subject  to  change  his  national  allegiance 
was  not  then  acknowledged,  and  once  an  Englishman  always  an 
Englishman,  was  held  to  be  a  legal  axiom.  That  England,  how- 
ever, was  not  disposed  to  push  this  to  extremity,  cannot  be  doubted 
in  the  light  of  the  diplomatic  correspondence  of  the  time.  She  was 
not  only  willing,  but  anxious,  that  the  question  of  the  assumed  right 
of  impressment,  and  the  assumption  of  sovereignty  over  her  citizens 
who  had  repudiated  their  allegiance,  should  be  reconciled,  if  possible, 
to  the  American  demand  of  the  inviolability  of  the  American  flag. 
In  1806,  Monroe  and  William  Pinkney  concluded  a  treaty  with  Great 
Britain  which,  had  it  been  ratified,  would  have  essentially  changed 
the  relations  of  the  two  powers,  and  would,  perhaps,  have  prevented 
a  recourse  to  war  and  the  calamitous  measures  which  preceded  it. 
In  transmitting  the  treaty  to  the  President,  the  ministers  wrote  on 
the  subject  of  impressment:  "  That,  although  this  Government  did 
not  feel  itself  at  liberty  to  relinquish,  formally,  by  treaty,  its  claim  to 
search  our  merchant  vessels  for  British  seamen,  its  practice  would, 
nevertheless,  be  essentially  if  not  completely  abandoned.  That  opin- 
ion has  been  since  confirmed  by  frequent  conferences  on  the  subject 
with  the  British  commissioners,  who  have  repeatedly  assured  us  that, 
in  their  judgment,  we  were  made  as  sure  against  the  exercise  of  their 
pretension  by  the  policy  which  their  Government  had  adopted  in  re- 
gard to  that  very  delicate  and  important  question,  as  we  could  have 
been  made  by  treaty/'  But  a  treaty  with  England  would  have 
placed  America  in  an  inimical,  if  not  hostile,  attitude  toward  France, 
and  it  was  Jefferson's  policy,  so  far  as  he  had  any,  that  this  should 
not  be  done.  He  quietly,  therefore,  put  the  treaty  into  a  pigeon-hole 
and  said  nothing  about  it  to  the  United  States  Senate. 

All  these  restrictions  on  American  commerce,  vexatious  enough  be- 
fore, culminated  in  the  proclamations,  which  were  so  fruit- 
in'coul.ciT,    ful  a  source  of  controversy  and  disaster,  known  in  history 
»nd8n'iIMi-  as  the  "  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  "  and  the  "  Orders  in 
Council."     By  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees,  Napoleon,  in 
the  pride  of  his  power,  declared  the  English  islands  to  be  in  a  state 
of  blockade,  and  claimed  the  right  to  seize  all  vessels  trading  with 
England  or  her  dependencies.1     To  the  Berlin   Decree  the  English 

1  The  date  of  the  Berlin  Decree  is  November  20,  1806  ;  that  of  the  Milan  Decree,  Decem- 
ber 17,  1807.     The  Orders  in  Council  were  dated  November  11,  1807. 


1807.]  THE    NAVY.  175 

Government  replied  by  the  King's  "  Orders  in  Council,"  prohibiting 
all  commerce  with  those  ports  of  the  Continent  of  Europe  which 
were  under  the  dominion  of  France  or  her  allies.  This  meant,  in 
substance,  all  Europe  except  Russia.  By  these  decrees,  American 
merchant  ships  were  subject  to  seizure  wherever  they  might  be.  If 
a  naval  commander  of  England  suspected  that  a  merchantman  which 
he  overhauled  was  on  her  way  to  a  European  port,  ho  captured  the 
vessel  and  sent  her  into  an  English  port  for  trial.  Or,  if  a  French 
cruiser  overhauled  a  merchantman,  and  suspected  she  was  going  to  an 
English  harbor,  he  arrested  the  voyage  and  sent  her  to  France. 
Against  these  paper  blockades  the  United  States,  now  the  chief  neu- 
tral power,  protested,  as  Russia  and  the  neutral  states  had  success- 
fully protested  in  the  war  of  independence.  In  its  diplomacy,  the 
United  States  maintained  the  position  which  is  now  accepted  as  fun- 
damental in  the  public  law  of  the  world,  that  the  blockade  of  a  port 
must  be  maintained  by  a  competent  force  upon  the  spot. 

Unfortunately,  the  United  States  was  in  no  position  to  give  dig- 
nity to  its  diplomacy  by  a  naval  force  of  its  own.  The  ad-  ,.OIKli,ionof 
ministration  of  Adams  had  made  the  beginning  of  a  navy.  tht>n!iv-v- 
and  the  Navy  Department  w;is  separated  from  the  Department  of 
War  as  early  as  1708.  But  one  of  the  charges  of  extravagance  made 
against  the  Federalists  was  connected  with  their  building  a  few  frig- 
ates, and  preparing  to  build  a  few  more.  So  soon  as  Jefferson's  ad- 
ministration came  in,  the  timber  in  the  dock-yards  was  sold,  with  a 
certain  affectation  of  economy.  Thus  it  happened,  that  at  a  time  \vhen 
a  proud  government  would  have  been  glad  to  convoy  its  fleets  of 
merchantmen  with  a  protection  competent  against  insolent  cruisers, 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  though  the  proudest  of  all,  had 
almost  no  vessels  of  war  for  such  a  purpose.  This  Government  was 
obliged,  therefore,  to  see  the  carrying  trade,  which  was  really  so  prof- 
itable to  all  parties,  bullied  almost  out  of  existence,  and  could  only 
make  its  protests  in  well-argued  ami  bitter  despatches. 

Jefferson  had  more  than  parsimonious  reasons  for  avoiding  the 
building  of  a  fleet.  One  of  the  theories  on  which  he  most  valued 
himself  involved  the  idea  that  war  was  unnecessary.  He  supposed, 
and  he  taught,  that  nations  could  be  conquered  by  letting  them  alone. 
Like  other  patriots  who  remembered  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution, 
he  supposed,  falsely  in  fact,  that  the  non-intercourse  acts  of  the  colo- 
nies had  largely  affected  public  opinion  in  England.  All  Americans 
thought  too  largely  of  the  place  of  their  country  in  the  councils  of  the 
world.  The  Virginians  had  more  of  this  conceit  than  other  Ameri- 
cans ;  and,  of  all  Virginians,  whether  as  an  individual  or  as  an 
American,  Jefferson  was  the  most  conceited.  His  philanthropy,  his 


176 


JEFFERSON. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


The  pun- 
*  st.  m. 


American  pride,  and  this  profound  self-conceit,  all  united  in  direct- 
ing a  series  of  measures  by  which  he  hoped  to  gain  the  advantages  of 
war  without  its  disasters.  In  place  of  a  navy  fit  to  go  to  sea, 
]ie  pr0pOStH]?  anj  Congress  adopted,  that  system  of  gunboats 
for  harbor  defence  already  mentioned.  Each  vessel  was  to  carry  one 
heavy  gun.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  were  to  be  built  in  ten  years. 
They  were  to  be  kept  under  sheds  in  time  of  peace,  and  in  war  to  be 
manned  by  the  seamen  or  militia  of  the  town  attacked.  No  fortifica- 
tions were  to  be  required  for  harbors,  which  were  to  be  protected  by 


Taking  Deserters  from  the  Chesapeake. 

cannon  on  wheels,  kept  in  readiness  to  be  dragged  from  place  to  place 
when  needed. 

At  the  moment  when  the  annoyances  to  merchants  reached  their 

height  from  the  proclamation  of  the   Berlin    Decree,  the  in- 

the  chesa-     suits  offered  bv  English  naval  officers  to  the  American  marine 

peake.  " 

culminated.     Berkeley,  the  English  Admiral  on  the  North 
American  station,  issued  an  order  to  his  captains  (June  1,  1807),  re- 


1807.]  AFFAIR   OF   THE   CHESAPEAKE.  177 

quiring  them,  in  case  they  met  the  United  States  frigate  Chesapeake 
at  sea,  to  search  her  for  some  deserters  from  the  English  navy  who 
were  on  board.  The  men's  names'  were  given,  and  it  was  said  to  be 
matter  of  notoriety  that  they  were  on  board  the  Chesapeake.  As  the 
result  of  this  order,  when  the  Chesapeake,  after  six  months  of  prepara- 
tion, went  to  sea  from  Norfolk,  Virginia,  whence  she  was  ordered  to 
the  Mediterranean,  the  English  ship  Leopard  accompanied  her  from 
that  port.  As  soon  as  both  vessels  were  well  at  sea,  the  captain  of 
the  Leopard  hailed  the  Chesapeake,  asking  leave  to  send  despatches 
on  board.  James  Barron,  commander  of  the  Chesapeake,  not  having 
the  slightest  suspicion  of  violence,  received  the  boat.  It  brought  to 
him  Admiral  Berkeley's  letter  and  a  demand  for  the  deserters,  which 
demand,  after  half  an  hour's  reflection,  he  refused.  So  soon  as  his 
note  was  received  on  the  Leopard,  her  commander  hailed;  and,  say- 
ing that  Admiral  Berkeley's  orders  must  be  complied  with,  fired  sev- 
eral broadsides  into  the  Chesapeake.  Such  was  the  encumbered  con- 
dition of  the  American  vessel,  which  had  gone  to  sea  without  any 
expectation  of  war,  that  her  officers  were  not  able  to  fire  a  gun.  No 
match  could  be  found,  even,  when  guns  were  loaded.  At  last  Barron 
struck  his  flag,  —  at  which  moment  one  gun  on  the  American  ship 
was  fired  by  a  hot  coal  from  the  galley.  Several  English  officers  then 
boarded  the  ship,  mustered  her  crew,  and  carried  off  four  deserters. 
That  they  were  deserters,  there  was  no  doubt ;  but  they  said  they 
had  been  impressed  from  American  ships.  Three  of  them  were  black 
men,  whose  nation  was  the  United  States.  Two  of  them  were  born 
in  Maryland,  and  one  had  been  brought  up  in  Massachusetts,  though 
born  in  South  America. 

An  outrage  like  this,  inflicted  not  by  accident  or  the  brutality  of  a 
separate  commander,  naturally  excited  the  whole  nation  to  the  utmost. 
Jefferson  interdicted  American  harbors  and  waters  to  all  vessels  of  the 
English  navy,  and  forbade  intercourse  with  them.  He  sent  a  vessel 
of  war  with  a  special  minister  to  London  to  demand  satisfaction.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  English  Admiral  hanged  the  deserter  and  dis- 
missed the  three  black  men  with  a  reprimand,  blaming  them  for  dis- 
turbing the  peace  of  two  nations.  So  soon  as  his  account  of  the  affair 
reached  England,  George  Canning,  as  foreign  secretary,  disallowed  it, 
and  offered  reparation,  recalling  Berkeley  from  his  command.  But  at 
the  same  time  a  royal  proclamation  was  issued,  directing  commanders 
to  make  a  "  demand  "  for  all  English  seamen  serving  on  foreign  ships 
of  war,  and,  in  case  of  refusal,  to  report  such  refusal.  That  the  out- 
rage did  not  end  in  immediate  war,  was  due  partly  to  Canning's  con- 
cessions, and  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  Americans  had  no  navy  to 
fight  with.  After  the  attack  on  the  Chesapeake,  the  English  fleet 

VOL.   IV.  12 


178 


JEFFERSOX. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


anchored  outside  the  capes  of  James  River,  brought  to  every  vessel 
by  firing,  and  even  threatened  to  cut  out  the  French  frigate  Sybil, 
which  lay  in  Norfolk  harbor.  The  whole  transaction  was  one  of  the 
incidents  most  efficient  in  producing  the  situation  that  led  to  war. 

In   the  midst  of  such  irritation  Congress  met  in  the  autumn  of 
The  1807.     The  Milan  Decree  had  not  yet  arrived  in  America  ; 

embargo.  j^j.  g()  soon  as  tne  Orders  in  Council  were  made  certain,  the 
President  sent  to  Congress  a  message  pointing  out  the  results  of  the 
Berlin  Decree,  and  other  papers  that  showed  the  "dangers  with 
which  our  vessels,  our  seamen,  and  our  merchandise  are  threatened 
on  the  high  seas  and  elsewhere  from  the  belligerent  powers  of  Eu- 
rope." Jefferson  asked  Congress  for  an  "  inhibition  of  the  departure 

of  our  vessels  f  rom  the  ports 
of  the  United  States,"  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  de- 
sirable to  keep  in  safety 
our  maritime  resources. 
Congress  immediately 
passed  the  act  proposed, 
after  short  debate  in  secret 
session,  by  a  strong  party 
vote,  —  nearly  two  to  one 
in  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives. It  prohibited  the 
departure  from  American 
ports  of  all  American  ves- 
sels, and  of  all  foreign  ves- 
sels except  those  in  ballast. 
No  merchandise  whatever 
was  to  be  exported.  The 
act,  therefore,  was  not,  in 
fact,  merely  a  law  for  sav- 
ing American  ships  from 
danger,  as  the  message  suggested  ;  it  was  a  measure  of  aggression 
against  England.  It  was  a  measure  unpopular,  of  course,  in  pro- 
portion as  men  were  or  were  not  engaged  in  commerce.  The  men 
of  New  England  and  New  York,  whose  ships  and  seamen  were  ex- 
posed, did  not  thank  the  philanthropy  that  kept  them  in  port.  But 
the  planters  and  farmers  of  the  South  and  West  were  pleased  with 
the  thought  that  they  Avere  making  war  against  England  without 
firing  a  gun  or  taxing  themselves  a  dollar.  The  maritime  States 
thought  the  agricultural  States  took  a  special  satisfaction  in  a  quasi 
war,  of  which  all  the  burden  fell  at  first  upon  commerce. 


James   Madison. 


1808.]  THE   EMBARGO.  179 

But  it  proved,  of  course,  as  a  wiser  political  economy  knows,  that 
the  burden  at  length  became  universal.     True,  the  foreign 

,  °    .  .  .  ,  Its  effect. 

powers,  at  whom  this  pacific  war  was  aimed,  were  hardly 
aware  of  its  pressure.  It  furnished  one  of  the  stimulants  much 
needed  for  the  manufacture  of  beet  sugar  in  France  ; l  England  cared 
little  for  the  loss  of  American  products,  which  she  could  easily 
supply  from  other  places  ;  and  in  the  immense  convulsions  of  Eu- 
ropean politics,  it  commanded  little  notice.  At  home  the  men  whose 
tobacco  and  cotton  and  corn  could  not  be  sent  to  market,  soon 
learned  that  they  also,  as  well  as  the  carriers  of  those  products,  were 
paying  a  heavy  tax  by  this  interdiction  of  commerce.  In  the  sea- 
board cities  it  was  said,  without  a  metaphor,  that  grass  was  growing 
in  the  streets  and  on  the  piers.  What  followed  at  once,  to  Jefferson's 
undying  mortification,  was  rebellion  from  their  allegiance  to  him  of 
his  partisans  in  the  maritime  States,  and  the  disloyalty  of  many  of 
those  most  relied  upon  in  other  quarters.  A  presidential  election 
came  on  at  this  crisis.  With  the  customary  Virginian  conceit,  two 
Virginians,  Madison  and  Monroe,  offered  themselves  as  candidates. 
To  New  York,  Jefferson  had  owed  his  election,  and  George  Clinton, 
of  New  York,  appeared  as  a  Republican  candidate  against  the  Vir- 
ginians. Jefferson  determined  that  Madison  should  succeed  him. 
The  election  showed,  however,  that  the  Democratic  party  was  every- 
where losing  the  triumphant  majority  which  had  returned  Jefferson 
for  a  second  time,  and  in  his  last  message  to  Congress  he  wrote  with 
the  knowledge  that  his  favorite  policy  of  war  without  fighting  had 
not  been  approved  by  the  country.  The  message  stated  briefly  the 
failure  abroad  of  that  "  candid  and  liberal  experiment,"  to  end  the 
embargo  by  a  proposition  to  Great  Britain  and  France  that  they 
should  first  recall  their  orders  and  decrees  against  neutral  com- 
merce, and  left  to  the  "  wisdom  of  Congress  "  a  decision  as  to  its  con- 
tinuance. Congress  took  the  matter  immediately  in  hand,  and,  in 
entire  subservience  to  the  President,  passed  -resolutions  for  enfor- 
cing the  act,  by  majorities  even  stronger  than  those  by  which  it  was 
passed. 

This  enforcing  act  proved  the  last  straw  on  the  patience  of  the 
maritime  States.  The  vehemence  of  the  protest  of  their  towns 
showed  itself  in  every  form,  not  always  pacific.  The  partisan  ma- 
jority vote,  which  was  as  strong  as  eighty-four  to  thirty  on  the  7th  of 

1  An  American  epigram  of  the  time  is  worth  preserving. 

"I've  a  substitute  found,"  says  Boney:  "  No  more 

Of  yonr  sugar  will  I  taste  the  sweet." 
"  Very  well,"  says  John  Bull,  "  while  I  hold  the  cane, 

You  're  welcome,  indeed,  to  get  beet." 


180  MADISON.  [€UAP.  VII. 

December,  1808,  vanished  under  the  pressure  of  public  opinion,  and 
so  sudden  was  the  change  that  on  the  2d  of  February  the 
embargo  was  repealed.  The  Administration  tried  to  stem 
the  torrent  so  far  as  to  fix  the  1st  of  June  as  the  day  for  reopening 
commerce,  but  its  followers  followed  no  longer,  and  on  the  3d  of  Feb- 
ruary the  1st  of  March  was  agreed  upon.  This  curious  and  imme- 
diate change  of  opinion  was  ascribed  by  Jefferson  to  a  kind  of  panic 
among  the  New  England  and  New  York  members.  Joseph  Story, 
afterwards  Judge  Story,  had  come  on  as  a  new  member  of  Congress, 
and  to  his  influence  in  the  House  Jefferson  imputed  the  revolution. 
Jefferson  left  office  with  the  mortification  of  seeing  his  favorite  scheme 
of  peaceful  war  abandoned,  and  with  the  additional  mortification  of 
seeing  Congress  reject  the  policy  and  plan  of  Madison,  whom  he  had 
named  as  his  successor. 

In  the  accession  of  Madison,  the  country  had  the  advantage  of 
President  choosing  a  magistrate  who,  if  not  endowed  with  genius,  had 
Madisou.  gtjji  t])e  temperate  or  judicial  habit  which  a  great  statesman 
or  legislator  needs.  The  duties  of  the  Executive,  however,  as  many 
nations  have  learned  to  their  cost,  are  not  simply  those  of  a  legislator 
or  of  a  constitution-maker.  For  an  executive  office,  experience  in 
action  seems  necessary,  and  of  this,  Madison's  careful  training  at  the 
bar  and  in  diplomacy  had  given  him  little.  There  are,  therefore,  ele- 
ments of  pathos  almost  dramatic  in  his  life.  In  the  first  half  of  it 
he  was  overshadowed  by  his  great  leader,  Jefferson.  After  work  of 
the  first  ability  in  making  the  Constitution  and  securing  its  adoption, 
lie  was  forced  for  twenty  years  to  work  in  public  life  as  the  subordi- 
nate of  one  who  was  absent  in  Europe  when  the  Constitution  was 
made,  and  who  was  always  proud  to  say  that  he  was  not  responsible 
for  its  details.  At  last,  Madison  was  emancipated  from  such  control. 
His  master  condescended  to  name  him  as  his  successor,  and  bade 
his  junior,  Monroe,  wait  his  turn. 

But  at  this  moment  a  new  generation  was  stepping  upon  the 
stage  ;  the  counsels  and  plans  of  that  older  generation,  to  which 
Madison  belonged,  were  now  to  be  pushed  by  as  old-fashioned.  And, 
through  his  administration,  Madison,  who  had  served  so  patiently  un- 
der his  master  of  the  generation  that  was  gone,  was  obliged  to  serve 
for  eight  years  more  under  the  young  masters  of  the  generation  that 
was  to  come.  Decrees  of  destiny,  less  bitter,  have  been  chosen  sub- 
jects with  tragic  poets.  For  this  is  not  the  world's  accustomed  les- 
son, in  which  a  weak  man  is  moulded  by  circumstances.  This  is  the 
picture  of  a  strong  man,  who  seems  fitted  for  better  things,  but  who 
cannot  avoid  what  the  Greeks  would  have  called  his  destiny. 

The  new  President  had  been  Secretary  of  State  under  the  late  ad- 


tlon- 


1809.]  MADTSOX'S   ACCESSION. 

ministration.  But  he  and  his  friends  found  themselves  powerless  to 
direct  the  panic-stricken  Congress,  which  went  out  of  power  at  the 
same  time  with  Jeffei-son.  The  best  that  could  be  done  was,  to  ac- 
company the  repeal  of  the  embargo  by  a  provision  which  forbade 
imports  from  Europe.  This  partial  continuance  of  the  non-inter- 
course system  diminished,  of  course,  the  joy  with  which  the  maritime 
towns  received  the  news  of  their  victory. 

From  this  policy  of  non-intercourse,  and  from  the  other  difficulties 
which,  in  a  state  of  war,  hindered  importations  from  Eu-  Effect  of  the 
rope,  was  unexpectedly  born  that  gigantic  system  under  £WM£I; 
which  the  United  States  has  become  a  great  manufacturing  icy- 
nation.  An  interesting  symbol  of  the  new  industry  is  observed  in 
the  fact  that  the  new  President,  at  his  inauguration,  was  dressed  in  a 
suit  of  cloth  of  American  manufacture,  which  had  been  presented  by 
Chancellor  Livingston  for  this  use.  Early  in  May,  Madison  met  his 
new  Congress.  The  Democratic  majority  in  name  was  diminished  ; 
but  that  deceptive  good  fortune,  which  had  always  seemed 
to  wait  on  him  through  life,  did  not  yet  fail  him.  Concilia- 
tory  despatches  came  from  Canning.  The  younger  Erskine, 
a  gentleman  of  honor  and  liberal  views,  came  over  as  English  Minister. 
From  a  real  and  sensible  hope  for  accommodation  on  both  sides,  such 
arrangements  were  made  that  restrictions  on  English  commerce  were 
removed.  The  maritime  States  were  rejoiced.  Again  "  men  were  all 
Federalists,  and  all  Republicans."  A  fleet  of  more  than  a  thousand 
merchantmen  rushed  across  the  ocean  to  take  advantage  of  the  con- 
ciliation. Everything  seemed  to  become  new. 

But  all  parties  reckoned  without  their  host.  So  soon  as  this  news 
arrived  in  England,  the  Tory  Ministry  of  the  Duke  of  Portland  re- 
jected Erskine's  treaty.  He  had  exceeded  his  authority,  and  Madi- 
son was  accused  of  having  persuaded  him  to  do  so  in  the  hope  that 
the  ministry  would  take  the  course  they  did.  Mr.  Jackson,  known 
as  "Copenhagen  Jackson,"  was  sent  out  as  Erskine's  successor  — 
an  appointment  not  agreeable  in  America,  and  probably  not  meant 
to  be.  The  Government  finally  refused  to  deal  with  him,  and  when 
Congress  met,  at  the  close  of  1809,  it  sustained  the  refusal.  Madi- 
son's friends  now  brought  forward  an  American  Navigation  Act. 
It  excluded  all  French  and  English  vessels  from  American  harbors. 
It  placed  its  restrictions  on  the  Europeans,  and  not  on  the  Ameri- 
cans. But  to  this  bill  the  Senate  could  not  be  made  to  agree.  The 
President  could  not  control  his  own  party.  Commerce  was  thus 
finally  left  to  take  care  of  itself.  Meanwhile  the  revenue  from  cus- 
toms was  diminishing.  Seventeen  millions  of  surplus  with  which 
the  Administration  had  proudly  gone  into  the  embargo  policy,  was 


182 


MADISOX. 


[CHAI-.   VII. 


dentami 


absorbed.  The  English  Government  appointed  no  successor  to  Mr. 
Jackson.  Everything  drifted,  in  the  relations  between  America  and 
England,  as  might  have  been  expected,  when  the  Cabinet  of  one 
country  disavowed  the  acts  of  its  own  Minister,  and  the  President 
of  the  other  could  not  direct  the  policy  of  Congress.  That  Congress 
went  out  of  service  amid  the  general  contempt  which  attaches  to 
bodies  that  have  done  nothing. 

At  about  the  same  time  it  happened  that  the  American  frigate 
President  had  a  collision  at  sea  with  the  English  sloop-of- 
war  Little  Belt.  Following  the  presumptuous  example  of 
the  Leopard,  the  Little  Belt  had  thrown  a  shot  into  the 
President,  which  she  answered  by  a  series  of  broadsides  that  badly 
crippled  her  assailant.  There  was  also  a  little  war-cloud  on  the  fron- 

tier. The  Indian  chief  Tecum- 
seh  and  his  brother  "the  Proph- 
et "  had  been  for  some  time  en- 
deavoring to  induce  the  western 
tribes  to  abstain  from  whiskey 
and  return  to  the  customs  and 
weapons  of  their  ancestors,  — 
with  no  better  success  than  at- 
tended the  similar  efforts  of 
Pontiac,  half  a  century  before, 
—  when  they  found  a  grievance 
in  the  treaty  made  in  1809  by 
William  Henry  Harrison,  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Indiana  Territory, 
with  several  of  these  tribes. 
For  presents  to  the  value  of 
eight  thousand  dollars,  and  stip- 
ulated annuities,  a  tract  on  the 
Wabash,  above  Terre  Haute, 
was  ceded  to  the  Government. 

Tecumseh  held  that  all  the  lands  belonged  to  all  the  tribes,  and  none 
could  be  sold  without  the  consent  of  all.  Harrison  invited  the  war- 
rior and  his  brother  to  a  friendly  conference,  which  just  escaped 
ending  in  a  massacre.  Depredations  on  the  frontier  suggested  the 
propriety  of  a  post  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Wabash,  and  in  1811 
Harrison,  with  two  thousand  men,  ascended  that  stream  and  estab- 
lished one  at  Terre  Haute.  An  attempt  to  open  friendly  communi- 
cations  with  the  Prophet  was  repelled,  and  Harrison  then 
marciie(j  agajnst  his  town,  encamping  within  ten  miles  of  it, 
en  the  Tippecanoe.  Before  daybreak,  on  the  morning  of  November 


W7,       >,-• 


William   Henry   Harrson. 


1811.] 


CLAY   AND  CALIIOUN. 


183 


7,  the  savages  burst  upon  his  camp  with  a  terrific  whoop.  The  sol- 
diers put  out  their  camp-fires,  and  stood  their  ground  manfully  in 
the  darkness,  while  the  Indians  tried  in  vain  to  break  the  square  in 
which  they  were  formed.  At  sunrise  the  mounted  men  made  a 
gallant  charge,  and  the  enemy  withdrew,  carrying  off  their  wounded. 
The  next  day,  Harrison  found  the  Prophet's  town  deserted,  and 
burned  it. 

Everything  in  the  foreign  relations  tended  to  irritation  ;  and  the 
elections  of  1811  showed  the  determination  of  the  country  to  adopt  a 
national  policy,  if  anybody  were  wise  enough  to  say  what  that  policy 
should  be.  The  President,  in  his  message,  proposed  an  "  armor  and 
attitude  corresponding  with  the  national  spirit."  If  this  had  meant 
preparations  for  defence,  —  the  assertion  of  the  right  to  trade  any- 


Battle-field  of  Tippecanoe. 

where,  of  any  American  to  go  where  he  pleased  with  arms  in  his 
hands  to  protect  himself  and  his  commerce,  —  the  country  to  a  man 
would  have  rallied  at  his  call.  But  already,  with  the  first  two  years 
of  his  administration,  the  control  of  affairs  had  passed  from  his 
hands.  A  party  had  come  into  power  who  meant  to  have  war,  but 
with  England  only.  It  was,  moreover,  a  Southern,  sectional  party, 
ambitious  of  power,  and  believing  that  the  surest  way  to  attain  to 
it  was  to  "  stand  by  their  order  "  as  slaveholders,  against  the  intel- 
ligence and  the  free  labor  of  the  North.  The  leaders  of  this  party 
who  have  since  been  best  remembered,  were  Henry  Clay,  of  Ken- 


184  MADISON'.  [CHAP.  VII. 

tucky,  and  John  Caldwell  Callioun,  of  South  Carolina.  These  two 
ciay  and  men,  afterward  such  bitter  rivals,  stood  together  in  the  out- 
set as  the  most  eager  advocates  of  war.  By  an  error,  which 
they  long  regretted,  these  young  Hotspurs,  as  they  have  since  been 
called,  and  the  men  who  followed  them,  distrusted  the  power  at  sea 
of  the  young  nation.  Vainly  did  the  New  England  speakers  plead 
for  a  fleet,  if  it  were  only  of  thirty  frigates.  The  West  and  the 
South  would  not  trust  New  England,  even  when  she  offered  to  fight 
for  them.  Their  plans  were  made  for  invading  Canada,  by  the  en- 
largement of  the  regular  army  and  the  help  of  the  militia.  A  new 
embargo  was  ordered.  New  regiments  were  added  to  the  army.  The 
President  was  authorized  to  call  out  a  hundred  thousand  militia,  to 
Preparation  invade  Canada  for  the  protection  of  sailors'  rights  and  free 
for  war.  trade  at  sea.  Still  Madison  wavered.  He  still  hoped  for 
peace.  But  a  committee,  headed  by  Clay,  waited  upon  him,  and 
told  him  that  if  he  did  not  declare  for  war,  he  should  not  be  re-nom- 
inated as  the  candidate  for  the  Presidency.1  Both  Monroe  and  Clin- 
ton were  quite  willing  to  accept  the  nomination  as  war  candidates. 
The  threat  was  sufficient ;  the  President  yielded,  and  war  against 
England  was  declared  on  the  18th  of  June,  1812. 

1  It  was  denied  that  any  such  bargain  was  made,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  such 
was  the  understanding  enforced  by  Clay's  committee. 


F      .  V  ..  -  -4, 

"^  '•'. V'-SSSHK*  '.'/    '^ 


- a 


The  Tomb  of  Washington. 


• 


Detroit  in   I8i5- 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

WAR   WITH   ENGLAND. 

MESSAGE  AND  REPORT  ON  WAK  WITH  ENGLAND. —  DIVISION  OF  PARTIES  ox  THE  WAR. 
—  KIOT  IN  BALTIMORE.  —  HULL'S  SURRENDER  OF  THE  NORTHWEST.  —  FIRST  CAM- 
PAIGN ON  THE  NIAGARA.  —  NAVAL  BATTLES  OF  THE  FIRST  YEAR.  —  WAR  ox  THB 
LAKES.  —  DESTRUCTION  OF  YORK.  —  PERRY'S  VICTORY.  —  HARRISON'S  INVASION  OF 
CANADA. —  TERRITORY  OF  MICHIGAN  RECOVERED.  —  WILKINSON'S  DISASTERS  ON 
THB  ST.  LAWRENCE.  —  SECOND  CAMPAIGN  ON  THE  NIAGARA.  —  INDIAN  WAR  IN 
THE  SOUTH,  JACKSON'S  CAMPAIGN. —  NAVAL  BATTLES  OF  THE  SECOND  YEAR. 

THE  confidential  message  of  President  Madison  on  the  1st  of  June, 
and  the  report  thereon  of  the  House  Committee  on  Foreign  Thedeciani- 
Relations,  through  its  chairman,  Mr.  Calhoun,  set  forth  at  tiouofwar- 
length  the  reasons  for  a  declaration  of  war  against  England,  with  great 
force  and  distinctness.  The  modern  reader  of  those  documents,  how- 
ever, will  look  in  vain  in  either  of  them  for  any  evidence  of  unself- 
ish patriotism,  or  of  the  grasp  of  the  statesman  ;  but  he  will  be 
amazed  at  the  boldness  of  the  political  partisan.  There  had  been 
reasons  enough,  for  more  than  fifteen  years,  for  going  to  war  with 
more  than  one  nation,  provided  war  was  the  only  way  in  which  the 
United  States  could  protect  her  rights  and  her  interests.  In  the 
mighty  struggle  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  the  little  power  in 
America  had  been  in  danger  of  being  crushed  out  of  existence.  It 


186  WAR    WITH   ENGLAND.  fCiiAP.  VIII. 

was  certainly  true  that  the  upper  and  the  nether  millstones  of  that 
terrible  mill  ground  hard,  but  it  was  no  less  true  that  they  ground 
alike ;  and  the  victim  of  their  weight  had  persisted  in  the  most  fatu- 
ous way  in  remaining  under  their  pressure,  and,  while  groaning  at 
its  cruelty,  had  declared  with  obstinate  persistence  that  it  was  only 
the  upper  stone  that  hurt.  Whatever  justification  there  was  for  war, 
applied  equally  to  France  and  to  England  ;  whether  the  party  trained 
by  Jefferson  —  who  so  loved  the  doctrines  and  the  action  of  the 
French  Revolutionists  —  meant  or  did  not  mean  to  aid  France  at 
first,  and  then  Napoleon,  every  step  they  took  was  in  favor  of  France  ; 
but  whether  war  was  justifiable  for  any  reason,  with  any  power,  it 
was  plainly  evident  that  Jefferson's  naval  policy  —  of  gunboats  under 
sheds,  and  a  system  of  movable  fortification  by  cannon  on  wheels  — 
had  put  the  nation  in  a  condition  as  unfit  for  war  as  if  the  discipline 
and  doctrine  of  the  Society  of  Friends  had  been  adopted  as  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution. 

The  decree,  however,  had  gone  forth,  and  the  war  of  a  faction, 
which  was  the  price  of  Madison's  nomination  for  reelection,  was  to 
be  declared.  Mr.  Madison  in  his  message  and  Mr.  Calhoun  in  his 
report,  when  both  papers  were  stripped  of  specious  argument,  really 
presented  the  determination  of  a  war  with  England  as  a^  party  meas- 
ure. The  President  acknowledged  that  the  very  outrages  which 
called  for  that  war  "  have  been  practised  on  our  vessels  and  our  citi- 
zens," and  that  quite  recently,  by  France ;  but  he  added,  "  I  abstain, 
at  this  time,  from  recommending  to  the  consideration  of  Congress 
defensive  measures  with  respect  to  that  nation,"  because  there  might 
be  further  negotiation :  implying  that  the  possibility  of  negotiation 
with  England  was  closed  ;  though  if  it  were,  it  had  only  become  so  by 
Jefferson's  contemptuous  rejection  of  the  Monroe-Pinckney  treaty. 
And  Mr.  Calhoun  in  his  report,  with  equal  obliviousness  to  the  force 
of  his  acknowledgment,  said  "  The  committee  do  not  hesitate  to 
declare  that  France  has  equally  injured  the  United  States,  and  that 
satisfactory  reparation  has  not  been  made  for  many  of  these  injuries. 
But  that  is  a  concern  which  the  United  States  will  look  to  and  settle 
for  themselves  :  "  —  by  which  he  meant,  if  he  meant  anything,  that 
the  United  States  would  not  be  dictated  to  by  Great  Britain  as  to 
her  policy  toward  France  ;  forgetting,  or  not  choosing  to  remember, 
that  in  their  policy  towards  Great  Britain  they  had  submitted  to  the 
dictation  of  France. 

Congress  sat  with  closed  .doors  to  consider  the  confidential  message, 
opposition  But  even  the  Democrats  were  not  of  one  mind.  There  were 
to  the  war.  peace-democrats  then,  as  in  later  years  and  more  perilous 
times  there  were  "  war-democrats."  In  a  full  house  the  Democratic 


1812.]  OPPOSITION   TO   THE   WAR.  187 

majority  was  seventy  ;  the  bill  for  the  declaration  of  war  was  carried 
by  a  majority  of  thirty  only.  In  the  Senate  the  vote  was  seventeen  to 
thirteen,  six  Democrats  voting  with  the  minority  to  the  end,  and  even 
then,  Senator  Bayard  said,  it  would  not  have  been  carried  but  for  a 
difference  of  opinion  in  the  Senate  on  other  proposed  measures.  A 
protest  against  the  war,  in  the  form  of  an  address  to  their  constituents, 
was  drawn  up  by  Josiah  Quincy,  of  Massachusetts,  and  signed  by 
thirty-eight  members  of  the  House.  They  complained  of  the  tyranny 
of  the  majority  in  passing  in  secret  session  a  bill  of  so  much  import- 
ance, without  permitting  it  to  be  debated ;  they  denounced  the  war 
as  a  pretext  to  give  aid  to  Napoleon  against  England  ;  they  showed 
how  unprepared  the  nation  was,  without  either  army  or  navy,  to  begin 
a  contest  with  the  strongest  nation  in  the  world ;  and  they  warned 
their  countrymen  of  the  madness  of  that  party  policy  which  disre- 
garded the  danger  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  when  the  gov- 
ernment was  still  "in  no  small  degree  experimental,  composed  of 
powerful  and  independent  sovereignties  associated  in  relations,  some 
of  which  are  critical  as  well  as  novel." 

Intense  opposition  to  the  war,  which  showed  itself  in  mass-meetings, 
in  pulpits,  in  newspapers,  and  in  pamphlets,  was  met,  on  the  other 
hand,  by  support  not  less  earnest.  The  first  blood  was  drawn,  not  in 
military  movements,  but  in  domestic  violence,  and,  as  in  a  later  and 
greater  war,  in  the  streets  of  Baltimore.  In  the  night  of  RiotinBai- 
June  22d  a  mob  sacked  the  office  of  the  "  Federal  Repub-  timore- 
lican,"  edited  by  Alexander  Hanson,  and  extended  the  outrage  to 
dwellings  of  Federalists  and  vessels  in  the  harbor.  A  month  later 
the  paper  was  reissued,  and  Hanson,  aided  by  numerous  friends,  was 
prepared  to  defend  his  property.  Again  the  office  was  attacked,  but 
the  defenders  fired  upon  the  mob,  killing  one  and  wounding  others. 
The  militia,  tardily  called  out,  arrested,  not  the  rioters,  but  Hanson 
and  his  party,  and  lodged  them  in  jail,  where  they  were  again  at- 
tacked by  the  mob,  who  killed  General  Lingan  in  the  most  cruel  and 
cowardly  manner,  lamed  General  Henry  Lee  for  life,  and  assaulted 
others.  The  ringleaders  were  tried  and  acquitted. 

The  regular  army  numbered  six  thousand  men,  but  the  enlistment 
of  twenty-five  thousand  had  been  authorized,  and  now  by  an- 
other act  the  President  was  empowered  to  accept  fifty  thou- 
sand volunteers  and  call  out  a  hundred  thousand  militiamen.     Henry 
Dearborn,  of   Massachusetts,  was  appointed  to  the  chief  command. 

General  William   Hull,  the  Governor  of  Michigan,  was  appointed 
commander  in  the  west,  and  was  ordered  to  be  in  readiness  Th<.OTH,uing 
to  invade  Canada  in  the  event  of  war.     He  seems  to  have  moTeinent- 
understood  clearly  enough  the  preparations  and  resources  needed  to 


188  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

give  to  such  a  project  any  promise  of  success ;  but,  unfortunately  for 
himself,  accepted  his  appointment  without  waiting  for  the  assurance 
of  the  Government  that  his  counsel  should  be  heeded  and  his  necessi- 
ties provided  for.  He  marched  from  Ohio  with  about  two  thousand 
men,  chiefly  militia,  more  uncontrollable  and  insubordinate,  even, 
than  troops  of  that  class  usually  are.  When  the  declaration  of  war 
readied  him  ho  crossed  the  Detroit  River,  a  few  miles  below  Detroit, 
with  the  avowed  purpose  of  taking  Fort  Maiden,  and  issued  a  procla- 
mation assuring  the  inhabitants  of  protection,  but  declaring  that  no 
quarter  would  be  given  to  those  who  should  be  found  fighting  in 
company  with  the  Indians.  Had  the  Government  taken  the  precau- 
tion to  advise  him  of  the  declaration  of  war  a  few  days  earlier,  and 
before  the  news  of  it  could  have  reached  Canada,  Hull's  first  step 
might  have  had  a  different  issue.  But  for  the  want  of  such  advices 
the  first  step  was  the  enemy's,  not  his  ;  the  fort  at  Michilimackinac 
was  taken  by  surprise  and  compelled  to  surrender,  and  that  first  suc- 
cess decided  the  hesitating  Indian  tribes  to  join  their  large  force  to 
that  side  which  promised  to  be  the  stronger.  It  was  the  fear  of  these 
savages  that  a  few  days  later  so  influenced  Hull  and  brought  about 
the  disastrous  opening  of  the  war. 

A  detachment   sent  out  under  Major  Thomas  B.  Van  Home  to 

guard    a  supply  train  was   defeated   by  an    overwhelming 

force  of  English  and  Indians  at  Brownstown.     But  another, 

under  Lieutenant-colonel  James  Miller,  sent  to  open  communication 

with  the  base  of  supplies  at  Raisin  River,  found  an  ambuscade  at 

Maguaga,  and  after  a  gallant  fight  of  two  hours  routed  the  enemy, 

who  took  to  their  boats.     Nearly  a  hundred  Indians  lay  dead  on  the 

field,  and  the  English  lost  about  fifty  men. 

Captain  Nathan  Heald,  in  command  of  Fort  Dearborn,  where 
Battle  of  Chicago  now  stands,  was  ordered  by  Hull  to  abandon  it  and 
Chicago.  j0jn  njm  aj.  Detroit.  Heald  promised  the  friendly  Indians 
the  property  in  the  fort  which  he  could  not  take  away ;  but  in  the 
night  he  destroyed  the  fire-arms,  gunpowder,  and  liquor,  the  arti- 
cles they  most  wanted.  On  the  morning  of  August  15th  he  set  out, 
with  fifty  soldiers,  accompanied  by  several  families.  As  they  moved 
down  the  shore  of  the  lake  they  were  suddenly  attacked  by  a  large 
band  of  Indians  posted  on  a  low  range  of  sand-hills  at  a  point  now 
within  the  city  limits.  A  battle  ensued,  in  which  the  women  fought 
as  bravely  as  the  men.  After  heavy  losses,  including  a  wagon-load  of 
twelve  children,  who  were  all  tomahawked  by  one  Indian,  the  sur- 
vivors surrendered,  and  of  these  all  the  wounded  were  scalped.1 

On  the  16th,  General  Isaac  Brock  crossed  Detroit  River  with  over 

1  The  British  Colonel  Proctor,  at  Maiden,  had  offered  a  premium  for  American  scalps. 


1812.] 


HULL'S  SURRENDER   OF   THE  NORTHWEST. 


189 


two  thousand  regulars  and  Indians,  and  demanded  the  surrender  of 
that  city,  to  which  Hull  had  retreated.  Hull,  who  had  .qurreilderof 
about  eight  hundred  and  fifty  men,  half  his  force  having  Detrolt- 
been  detached  on  distant  expeditions,  made  admirable  arrangements 
for  a  stubborn  defence ;  but  at  the  moment  when  the  conflict  was 
expected  to  begin  he  hung  out  a  white  flag,  and  surrendered. 

Brock,  in  demanding  surrender,  had  declared  he  could  not  restrain 
his  allies,  the  Indians,  from  rapine  and  murder  in  case  the  place 
should  be  carried  by  assault.  Hull  did  not  believe  he  could  depend 
upon  the  militia  for  any  serious,  much  less  for  any  desperate,  fighting, 
and  he  knew  that  the  officers  had  en- 


Battle  of  Chicago. 


tered  into  a  conspiracy  for  his 
deposition  from  command. 
This  mutual  lack  of  confi- 
dence gave  small  promise  of 
successful  defence,  and,  if  unsuccessful,  he  dreaded  the  fate  that 
might  await  the  women  and  children  of  the  town,  among  whom 
were  a  daughter  of  his  own  and  her  children.  In  this  stern  conflict 
between  the  sense  of  soldierly  duty  and  the  feelings  of  a  humane 
man  and  a  father,  the  soldier  yielded.  Whether  right  or  wrong,  the 
act  of  the  soldier  could  not  be  forgiven,  and  the  popular  clamor  de- 
manded a  victim  for  the  loss,  not  only  of  Detroit,  but  of  the  whole 
Northwest  territory,  ami  the  failure  to  invade  Canada.  Hull  was 
tried  by  court-martial,  and  condemned  to  be  shot.  Though  his  crime 
was  compared,  in  the  heated  temper  of  the  time,  to  Arnold's  treason, 
he  was  nevertheless  pardoned  by  Madison,  in  consideration  of  his  past 


190  AVAR    WITH    ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

services.1  The  President  could  hardly  do  less  than  grant  his  life  to 
a  man  left  in  so  terrible  a  position  by  the  neglect  of  the  Government ; 
their  own  fault  was  acknowledged  in  permitting  the  Secretary  of  War, 
Eustis,  to  resign  his  office. 

The  second  attempt  to  invade  Canada,  more  disastrous  than  Hull's 
surrender,  —  for  more   men   were   killed   or  wounded   than 

Bnttlc  of  IT     11    1        1    •         I   •  •  i  i          -VT- 

Querns-  [lull  had  in  Ins  entire  command,  —  was  made  on  the  Niag- 
ara frontier.  General  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,  in  command 
there,  resolved  to  capture  the  heights  of  Queenstown,  and  on  the 
morning  of  October  13th  sent  two  small  columns  across  the  river. 
Several  of  the  boats  lost  their  way  ;  others  succeeded  in  landing,  under 
a  fire  from  the  vigilant  enemy.  The  regulars,  under  Captain  John 
E.  Wool,  charged  up  the  hill,  and  took  position  on  the  plateau.  Here 
the  enemy  attacked  him,  but  after  sharp  fighting  were  diiven  back. 
The  whole  American  force  then  retreated  to  the  beach,  where  Wool 
was  reen forced  and  ordered  to  scale  the  heights,  which  WHS  imme- 
diately done,  and  a  battery  at  the  top  of  the  slope  was  captured. 
General  Brock,  who  had  ridden  at  full  speed  from  Fort  George,  or- 
ganized a  force  to  retake  the  battery,  and,  after  some  fighting,  the 
Americans  were  driven  to  the  very  edge  of  the  precipice.  At  tins 
critical  juncture,  Wool,  by  exhortation  and  example,  inspired  his  men 
with  courage  for  a  charge  so  furious  that  the  British  broke  and  fled 
down  the  slope.  Brock  led  a  fresh  attack,  in  which  he  fell  mortally 
wounded.  Three  other  officers,  on  whom  the  command  successively 
fell,  were  all  either  killed  or  desperately  wounded,  and  the  attempt 
was  abandoned. 

Lieutenant-colonel  Winfield  Scott  now  crossed  the  river  with  a 
small  reenforcement,  and  assumed  command  on  the  heights.  He  ex- 
pected to  be  followed  by  the  militia  ;  but  the  militia  fell  back  upon 
their  privilege,  and  stubbornly  refused  to  be  taken  out  of  the  State. 
While  Scott  was  preparing  the  position  for  defence,  he  was  attacked 
by  a  heavy  force  of  British  and  savages.  Twice  he  repelled  them 
with  the  bayonet;  but  a  fresh  column  approaching,  the  Americans 
were  driven  to  retreat.  Scrambling  over  the  edge  of  the  bank,  they 
let  themselves  down  from  ledge  to  ledge  and  bush  to  bush,  till  they 
reached  the  water.  But  the  boats  were  not  there  to  receive  them, 
and  they  were  compelled  to  surrender.  The  entire  American  loss  in 
this  action  was  about  one  thousand. 

The  British  navy  at  this  time  comprised  more  than  a  thousand  ves- 

1  He  had  served  through  the  Revolution  with  (lisliuction.  Much  of  the  obloquy  which 
lias  been  heaped  IIJMJII  him  is  probably  due  10  Lewis  Cass,  who  hastened  to  Washington 
with  the  first  news,  :ind  gave  it  a  coloring  larsrelv  supplied  by  his  imagination.  Cass's 
letters,  written  before  aud  after  the  surrender,  flatly  contradict  each  other  as  to  the  state 
of  affairs  at  Detroit. 


1812.] 


NAVAL   AFFAIRS. 


191 


sels,  manned  by  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand  sailors.  The 
United  States  had  twenty  large  war  vessels  and  a  few  gun- 
boats, together  carrying  about  three  hundred  guns.  The 
war  party,  faithful  to  Jefferson's  naval  policy,  and  confident  of  the 
subjection  of  Great 
Britain  by  the  easy 
conquest  of  Canada, 
rejected  with  scorn 
all  suggestions  of 
naval  warfare.  But 
in  spite  of  this,  and 
in  spite  of  the  ad- 
vice of  his  cabinet, 
Madison  yielded  to 
the  solicitations  and 
earnest  arguments 
of  Captains  Bain- 
bridge  and  Stewart, 
and  consented  that 
the  navy,  small  as 
it  was,  should  not 
be  allowed  to  re- 
main idle. 

Within  one  hour 
after  he  was  notified 
of  the  declaration  of 
war,  Commodore 
John  Rodgers  put  to 
sea  in  the  President, 
—  remembered    for 
her  encounter  with 
the   Little    Belt    in 
1811,  —  and  on  the 
morning    of     June 
23d  gave  chase  to 
the    frigate     Belvi- 
dere,  which  escaped,  with  the  loss  of  seven  men.     The  President  lost 
twenty-two,  —  sixteen  by  the  bursting  of  a  gun.     Rodgers 
continued  his  cruise  across  the  Atlantic,  captured  an  Eng-  uMiMfi- 
li.sh  privateer  and  seven  merchantmen,  and  re-took  an  Amer- 
ican prize.     At  the  same  time,  an  English  squadron  captured,  off  Xew 
York,  several  merchantmen  and  the  brig-of-war  Nautilnx. 

The  Essex,  Captain  David  Porter,  sailed  from  New  York  soon  after 


Map  of 
NIAGARA  RIVER 

MILES 


3     4 


Map  of  Niagara   River. 


• 


192  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

the  President,  captured  several  prizes,  and,  on  the  13th  of  August, 
fought  the  Alert,  which  struck  her  colors  in  eight  minutes.  Only  a 
week  later,  the  frigate  Constitution,  Captain  Isaac  Hull, 
tinu'anu  fought  the  British  frigate  Guerriere.  After  rapid  broad- 
side firing  and  skilful  manoeuvring  at  close  range,  the  ships 
grappled,  and  both  parties  attempted  to  board  ;  but  the  sea  was  so 
rough  and  the  musketry  fire  so  deadly  that  this  was  found  to  be  im- 
possible. The  Constitution  freed  herself  from  her  antagonist  and 
shot  ahead,  just  as  the  Guerrieres  mainmast  and  foremast  came 
down.  Her  mizzen  mast  had  already  gone  by  the  board,  and,  as  the 
Constitution  was  in  a  position  to  rake  her  fore  and  aft,  she  struck. 
The  Americans  had  lost  fourteen  men,  the  British  seventy-nine.1 
The  next  morning  it  was  found  necessary  to  blow  up  the  Guerriere, 
as  she  was  in  danger  of  sinking.  The  admiration  and  enthusiasm 
of  the  Americans  at  the  result  of  this  battle  were  only  equalled  by 
the  astonishment  and  anger  of  the  English.  It  was  true  that  the 
American  vessel  was  slightly  superior  in  men  and  metal,  but  the 
essential  difference  between  the  two  ships  was  in  seamanship  and 
gun-practice.  The  fact  remained  that  frigate  had  met  frigate  in  a 
contest  for  which  both  were  ready  and  willing,  and  in  half  an  hour 
the  one  with  all  the  prestige  in  her  favor  was  reduced  to  a  helpless 
wreck,  while  the  other,  whose  defeat  would  have  been  confidently 
predicted,  lost  less  than  one  fifth  as  many  men  as  her  antagonist,  and 
only  returned  to  port  to  dispose  of  her  prisoners.  When  Captain 
Hull  landed  in  Boston,  the  whole  population  turned  out  to  welcome 
him ;  the  streets  were  gay  with  bunting,  triumphal  arches  were 
erected,  and  he  and  his  officers  were  entertained  at  a  public  din- 
ner. New  York  and  Philadelphia  paid  him  like  honors;  Congress 
voted  him  a  gold  medal,  and  his  crew  fifty  thousand  dollars. 

In  October  the  sloop-of-war  Waxp,  Captain  Jacob  Jones,  fought 
wasp  and  the  brig  Frolic.  The  firing  was  at  close  range,  and  the 
Frolic.  spars  of  the  Wasp  were  soon  shot  away,  while  the  Frolic 
was  hulled  at  every  discharge.  When  the  vessels  grappled,  and  the 
Americans  sprang  upon  the  deck  of  their  antagonist,  they  found  only 
the  man  at  the  wheel  and  two  or  three  officers,  who  at  once  surren- 
dered. The  loss  of  the  Frolic  was  frightful ;  fewer  than  twenty  of 
the  crew  were  unhurt.  The  Wasp  had  lost  only  ten  men.  But  be- 
fore night  the  British  man-of-war  Poictiers  captured  both  vessels. 

A  week  later  (October  2oth)  Commodore  Stephen  Deca- 
tur,  cruising  in  the  frigate  United  States,  after  capturing 
a  packet  with  a  large  amount  of  specie,  fell  in  with  and  en- 

1  The  American!}  had  placed  sights  upon  large  gun*,  which  the  English,  as  yet,  had  not 
adopted.      Hence  the  greater  accuracy  of  the  American  firing. 


1812.]  NAVAL   VICTORIES.  193 

gaged  the  frigate  Macedonian.  The  fight  lasted  two  hours,  when  the 
enemy  struck.  She  had  lost  one  hundred  and  four  meh ;  Decatur 
but  twelve.  The  prize  reached  New  York  on  New  Year's  Day,  and 
Decatur  met  another  such  reception  as  had  been  given  to  Hull. 

It  was  Bainbridge's  turn  next.  He  sailed  from  Boston,  in  the 
frigate  Constitution,  in  October ;  but  it  was  December  be-  Congtitution 
fore  he  fell  in  with  the  British  frigate  Java,  off  the  coast  and  Jaya- 
of  South  America.  After  two  hours  of  alternate  firing  and  manoeu- 
vring, the  Java  struck.  She  was  a  complete  wreck,  every  spar  hav- 
ing been  shot  away,  and  she  lost  a  hundred  and  twenty  men,  her  cap- 
tain being  among  the  mortally  wounded.  The  Constitution  lost 
thirty-four  men  only.  The  wounded  were  transferred  to  the  Ameri- 
can ship,  and  the  Java  was  blown  up.  This  action  gave  the  Consti- 
tution the  title  of  "  Old  Ironsides,"  1  and  Bainbridge  was  received 
on  his  return  as  enthusiastically  as  his  brother  captains  had  been. 

Thus  in  the  first  six  months  of  the  war,  that  had  brought  only 
defeat  to  the  land  forces  of  the  Americans,  their  little  navy,  which 
the  Administration  had  proposed  to  lay  up,  which  had  no  friends  but 
the  party  out  of  power,  for  which  Congress  had  done  nothing,  and  of 
which  nothing  was  expected,  had  six  encounters  with  the  enemy,  and 
in  every  one  came  off  victorious.  England  was  astounded  at  the  suc- 
cessful dispute  of  her  supremacy  on  the  sea,  and  her  naval  histories 
abound  with  ingenious  excuses  to  explain  away  what  their  authors 
want  the  manliness  to  acknowledge. 

Besides  these  victories,  nearly  three  hundred  British  merchantmen 
had  been  captured  and  brought  into  American  ports.  The  prisoners 
numbered  over  three  thousand.  In  this  service  the  navy  had  been 
largely  aided  by  privateers,  which  not  only  seized  merchantmen,  but 
sometimes  fought  with  armed  cruisers.  If  the  joy  of  the  war-party 
at  these  brilliant  achievements  was  tempered  by  their  mortification 
at  the  repeated  defeats  on  land,  that  of  the  opposition  party  was 
unalloyed  at  successes  obtained  where,  they  had  maintained,  if  war 
was  justifiable  at  all,  the  provocation  for  it  had  been  given. 

Early  in  the  winter  of  1812  a  new  army,  of  about  ten  thousand, 
enlisted  almost  entirely  from  the  Western  States,  was  put  ^Me  of 
under  command  of  General  William  Henry  Harrison,  whose  Frenchtown- 
military  reputation  had  been  gained  by  his  victory  at  Tippecanoe. 
His  immediate  object  was  to  concentrate  the  militia  of  the  Western 
States  for  an  expedition  against  Detroit  and  Maiden,  for  the  recovery 
of  the  territory  lost  by  Hull's  surrender.  An  advance  detachment, 
occupying  Frenchtown  (now  Monroe,  Michigan),  was,  on  January 

1  English  journals,  in  ridiculing  the  American  navy,  had  described  this  vessel  as  "  a 
bunch  of  pine  boards  under  a  bit  of  striped  bunting." 
VOL.  iv.  13 


WAR   WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

2'2,  1813,  attacked  by  fifteen  hundred  British  and  savages,  under 
Colonel  Henry  Proctor.  The  Americans  were  partially  sheltered  be- 
hind the  "  puncheon  "  fences  that  inclosed  the  village  gardens,  but 
the  enemy  had  the  advantage  of  six  pieces  of  artillery.  The  Amer- 
ican right  wing  was  soon  broken,  and  General  Winchester  became  a 
prisoner.  The  left  was  more  stubborn,  and  inflicted  heavy  loss  upon 
the  English.  Of  sixteen  men  in  charge  of  one  howitzer,  thirteen 
were  killed  by  the  Kentucky  sharpshooters.  Proctor,  seeing  little 
opportunity  of  success,  so  wrought  upon  the  fears  of  his  prisoner  by 
threats  of  wholesale  slaughter  that  Winchester  sent  word  to  Colonel 
Madison,  his  successor  in  command,  to  surrender,  which  Madison  did, 
under  Proctor's  solemn  promise  of  protection  against  the  Indians. 
The  pledge  was  broken,  and,  although  the  fact  has  been  disputed  on 
English  authority,  the  evidence  is  beyond  question  that  the  British 
commander  left  the  wounded  to  the  mercy  of  his  savage  allies,  who 
not  only  killed  all  the  prisoners,  but  subjected  them  in  many  in- 
stances to  cruel  torture.  "  The  Indians  are  excellent  surgeons,"  said 
a  half-breed  chief,  named  Elliot,  who  was  in  Proctor's  army,  when 
an  appeal  was  made,  before  the  massacre,  that  surgical  aid  be  sent  to 
the  wounded  Americans. 

In  consequence  of  this  disaster  Harrison  built  Fort  Meigs,  at 
siege  of  Fort  the  rapids  of  the  Maumee,  on  the  right  bank.  Proctor  laid 
siege  to  this  work  in  April,  with  his  usual  threat  of  mas- 
sacre in  case  of  resistance.  Harrison  sent  back  a  defiant  reply,  and 
hurried  forward  reinforcements,  under  General  Green  Clay.  Clay's 
detachment  came  down  the  river  in  two  bodies,  one  on  either  bank. 
Those  on  the  left  carried  the  batteries  gallantly,  and  spiked  the 
guns,  but  were  drawn  into  a  fight  in  the  woods  with  the  Indians,  and 
were  finally  dispersed  or  captured.  Those  on  the  right  fought  their 
way  through  to  the  fort,  and  at  the  same  time  a  strong  sallying  party 
carried  and  spiked  the  enemy's  lower  battery.  With  his  means  of 
offence  so  crippled,  and  the  fort  made  stronger  by  the  reinforcement, 
Proctor  was  compelled  to  raise  the  siege. 

Three  months  later,  Proctor  and   Tecumseh,  with  five  thousand 
English  and  savages,  attacked  Fort  Stephenson,  on  the  San- 
Fort'  dusky,    where    Fremont   now   stands.     The  garrison,  com- 
manded by  Major  George  Croghan,  numbered  but  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  men,  and  had  but  a  single  gun.     To  the  summons  to 
surrender  and  threat   of  massacre.   Croghan   replied   that  when  the 
fort  should  be  taken   there  would  be  none  left  to  be  killed.     After  a 
long  bombardment  from  gunboats  and  field  artillery,  the  British  ad- 
vanced to    the  attack   on  two  sides  simultaneously.       Croghan   had 
placed  his  single  gun  where  it  would  enfilade  the  north  ditch,  loaded 


1813.J 


OPERATIONS   ON   THE   LAKES. 


195 


it  to  the  muzzle,  and  masked  it.  The  attacking  party  leapt  into  the 
ditch,  led  by  a  lieutenant,  who  shouted,  "  Show  the  damned  Yankees 
no  quarter !  The  next  moment  the  discharge  of  the  gun  swept 
down  nearly  every  man,  including  the  lieutenant,  who  at  once  raised 
his  handkerchief  on  the  point  of  his  sword  to  ask  for  quarter.  An- 
other column  entered  the  ditch  and  met  the  same  fate ;  and  the  re- 
mainder of  the  storming  party  retreated  in  confusion  before  a  sharp 
fire  of  musketry.  A  single  volley  repelled  the  attack  on  the  other 
side.  The  battle  was  ended,  and  Proctor  retired  at  night. 

Neither  belligerent  could  suffer  the  other  to  attain  supremacy  on 
the  lakes,  if  it  could  be  prevented,  for  on  that  must  depend  largely  the 
successful  invasion  or  defence  of  Canada.  Had  Hull's  advice  been 


Battle  of  Fort   Stephenson. 

listened  to  in  season  on  this  point,  his  disgrace  and  the  loss  of  his 
army  might  have  been  avoided ;  but  measures  to  remedy  the  blunder 
were  not  long  delayed.  Neither  energy  nor  money  was  spared  on 
either  side  to  occupy  the  lakes  with  formidable  fleets  by  the  spring  of 
1813,  and  on  these  all  movements  by  land  were  to  depend.  Isaac 
Chauncey  was  the  American  commodore  and  Sir  James  Yeo  the 
British  admiral. 

Late  in  April,  1813,  Commodore  Chauncey's  fleet  carried  General 
Dearborn  and  fifteen  hundred  men  from  Saekett's  Harbor,  and  landed 
them  two  miles  west  of  York  (now  Toronto),  at  the  other  end  of 
the  lake,  which  was  then  the  capital  of  Upper  Canada.  Ostensibly 


196  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

tliis  was  the  first  movement  of  a  new  campaign  for  the  invasion  of 
Canada  ;  in  reality  it  was  an  expedition  for  the  capture  of 
<i"smi<-tiou  a  large  ship  then  building  at  York,  the  possession  of  which 
Chauncey  thought  would  give  him  command  of  the  lakes. 
It  was  the  plan  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  Armstrong,  to  open  the 
campaign  by  an  attack  upon  Kingston,  the  headquarters  of  both  the 
armv  and  navy  of  the  enemy,  where  even  partial  success  would  have 
been  a  telling  blow,  and  complete  success  would  have  secured  the 
command  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Excepting  that  some  stores  were  cap- 
tured, — -  to  be  lost  again  before  the  month  was  over,  —  the  expedi- 
tion against  York  was  not  merely  a  mistake  as  the  first  step  of  inva- 
sion, but  a  waste  of  time,  by  which  nothing  was  gained.  The  ship 
which  Chauncey  coveted  had  sailed  before  his  fleet  arrived  there. 

When  the  landing  was  made,  under  the  protection  of  a  schooner 
commanded  by  Captain  Elliot,  the  body  of  English  and  Indians 
under  General  Sheaffe,  who  had  disputed  it,  fell  back  behind  fortifi- 
cations near  the  town,  closely  followed  by  the  Americans,  led  by 
General  Zebulon  M.  Pike.  Here  a  halt  was  called  to  wait  for  the 
artillery  to  come  up  and  aid  in  the  assault,  when  suddenly  a  maga- 
zine near  the  works,  containing  a  hundred  barrels  of  powder,  ex- 
ploded, killing  or  wounding  two  hundred  of  Pike's  men  —  he  himself 
among  the  fatally  injured  —  and  a  few  also  of  the  enemy.1  The 
check,  however,  was  only  for  the  moment,  as  the  Americans  quickly 
rallied,  and  pressed  forward  into  the  town.  After  holding  the  place 
four  days,  they  fired  the  government  buildings  and  departed.2 

With  the  spoils  of  York,  Chauncey  returned  to  Sackett's  Harbor, 
on  his  way,  however,  landing  Dearborn  and  his  force  near  the  mouth 
capture  of  °^  Niagara  River.  At -this  point  they  remained  nearly  a 
FO«  ueorge.  month  awaiting  Chauiicey's  return  with  an  additional  force, 
when  Fort  George  was  taken. 

While  this  was  going  on  at  the  west  end  of  the  lake,  Yeo,  with 
General  Prevost,  at  the  east  end  was  on  his  way  to  Sackett's  Har- 
bor, which  Dearborn  left  almost  defenceless.  When  Colonel  Electus 
Backus,  in  command  of  the  post,  heard  of  Yeo's  approach  he  sent  for 
General  Jacob  Brown,  a  militia  officer  of  the  neighborhood,  who  in 
a  few  hours  gathered  the  militia  from  the  surrounding  country,  to  be 

1  It  has  been  affirmed  and  denied  that  the  magazine  was  fired  by  the  defenders.     Except 
as  a  question  of  accuracy,  there  is  no  reason  why,  according  to  the  usual  English  method 
of  conducting  war,  there  should  be  any  denial. 

2  It  is  a  disputed  cjuestion  whether  this  was  done  under  orders.     A  human  scalp  was 
found  hanging  as  a  trophy  on  the  wnll  of  the  legislative  chamber;  and  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  the  sight  of  this  ghastly  reminder  of  a  merciless  warfare  prompted  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  buildings.     The  scalp,  together  with  the  Speaker's  mace  and  a  British  stand 
ard,  was  sent  to  Washington,  where  the  English  soldiers  found  them  when  they  in  turn 
destroyed  the  American  Capitol  a  year  later. 


1813.] 


OPERATIONS   ON    THE   LAKES. 


197 


added  to  the  small  force  of  regulars  and  volunteers.  A  body  of  In- 
dians was  put  ashore  in  the  night  from  the  British  vessels  to  attack 
the  Americans  in  the  roar,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  29th 

Sackotfs 

a  landing  and  advance  was  made  in  front  under  fire.     The  Harbor 

Utacked. 

militia  broke  and  fled  at  once  ;  but  the  regulars  and  volun- 
teers, with  a  few  pieces  of  artillery,  stood  till  pressed  back  by  sheer 
weight  of  numbers,  when  they  took  refuge  in  the  log  barracks.  As 
the  English  advanced,  General  Brown,  who  had  rallied  a  few  of  the 
militia,  made  a  feint  of  marching  for  the  boats  ;  and  General  Prevost, 
fearing  that  his  escape  would  be  cut  off,  ordered  a  retreat.  It  was 
made  in  great  disorder,  two  hundred  and  sixty  dead  and  wounded 
being  left  behind.  The  loss  on  the  other  side  was  hardly  less  severe; 
both  the  colonels,  Mills  and  Backus,  were  killed,  and  a  hundred  and 


Sackett  s  Harbor,    1814. 

thirty  others  either  killed  or  wounded ;  the  stores,  worth  half  a  mil- 
lion dollars,  were  destroyed,  set  on  fire  by  a  frightened  lieutenant. 

As  Dearborn  did  not  land  in  person  till  the  day  after  the  fall  of 
Fort  George,  General  Vincent,  its  commander,  had  ample  time  to 
put  himself  in  a  defensive  position  at  Burlington  Bay.  Battk>of 
Here  he  was  overtaken  by  two  brigades  sent  in  pursuit  un-  stonyCreek- 
der  General  Chandler.  The  Americans  took  a  strong  position  on  the 
eastern  bank  of  Stony  Creek  where  it  crosses  the  great  highway  that 
skirts  the  lake  shore,  and  posting  a  guard  at  a  little  chapel  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  in  advance,  one  regiment  encamped  in  the  meadows 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  creek,  but  withdrew  after  night-fall  to  the 
heights  above,  leaving  their  camp-fires  burning.  This  final  move- 
ment Vincent  had  not  observed,  and  he  believed,  therefore,  that  he 


WAR    WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

could  surprise  and  destroy  the  camp  by  a  stealthy  attack  at  night. 
At  midnight  his  men  advanced  without  firing,  and  dispatched  the 
guard  at  the  chapel.  When  the  deserted  camp-ground  was  readied, 
they  rushed  upon  it  with  a  shout,  expecting  to  arouse  the  bewildered 
soldiers  from  their  sleep  to  become  an  easy  prey.  But  they  came 
only  upon  the  deserted  camp-fires,  and  as  they  halted  in  their  waning 
light  they  suddenly  found  themselves  a  target  for  artillery  and  mus- 
ketry from  along  the  whole  American  line.  But  they  soon  rallied 
and  pressed  on,  broke  over  the  intrenchments,  captured  several  guns, 
and  became  intermingled  with  their  foes.  A  few  shots  iu  the  rear 
alarmed  General  Chandler,  who  faced  about  a  portion  of  his  line  to 
meet  an  expected  attack  from  that  quarter,  and  the  confusion  was 
hopelessly  confounded.  In  the  darkness  and  tumult.  Generals  Chand- 
ler and  Winder  became  prisoners ;  and  as  the  British  retreated  bear- 
ing them  off,  they  left  behind  their  own  commander,  General  Vin- 
cent, who  lost  his  way  in  the  woods  and  was  found  next  day  in  a 
pitiful  plight.  The  Americans  returned  to  Fort  George,  Colonel 
Burn,  on  whom  the  command  devolved,  hesitating,  unfortunately,  to 
follow  the  advantage  whicli  his  troops  had  manifestly  gained. 

One  more  mishap  remained  to  finish  the  campaign  for  that  season 
on  the  Niagara  frontier.  Colonel  Charles  Boerstler  was  sent  at  the 
head  of  his  regiment  of  six  hundred  men  to  take  a  British  post  seven- 
teen miles  distant  from  Fort  George,  commanded  by  Colonel  Bishopp. 
When  about  to  attack  the  stone  house  in  which  Bishopp  was  in- 
trenched. Boerstler's  force  was  suddenly  surrounded  by  a  body  of  In- 
dians and  English,  and  compelled  to  surrender.  Three  weeks  after- 
ward Bishopp  made  a  similar  attempt  on  the  American  post  at 
Black  Rock,  on  the  Niagara  River,  but  was  intercepted,  as  he  was 
about  to  retire  with  his  booty,  by  a  small  force  from  Buffalo,  and  he 
and  many  of  his  men  were  killed.  On  the  15th  of  July  Dearborn  re- 
tired, by  permission  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the  army  under 
General  Boyd  remained  shut  up  in  Fort  George,  constantly  threat- 
ened by  General  Vincent  till  late  in  October. 

But,  inglorious  as  the  summer's  work  was  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Ontario,  Lake  Erie  was  the  scene  of  an  exploit  as  brilliant  as  it  was 
decisive.  Early  in  June  a  squadron  at  Presq'  Isle  (now  Erie)  was 
placed  under  command  of  Captain  Oliver  Hazard  Perry.  By  August 
he  was  afloat  with  ten  vessels,  carrying  fifty-five  guns,  and  went  in 
search  of  the  British  squadron  of  six  vessels,  armed  with  sixty-five 
guns  and  commanded  by  Captain  Barclay. 

On  the  10th  of  September,  while  at  anchor  in  Put-in  Bay,  the 
enemy  was  seen  approaching,  and  Perry  made  ready  for  battle.  The 
British  line  was  drawn  up  with  a  small  vessel  in  advance,  and  the 


1813.] 


PERRY'S  VICTORY. 


199 


£rie 


flag-ship  Detroit  next.     Perry  placed  two  of  his  small  vessels  in  a 

similar  position,  the  flag-ship    Lawrence    following.      The 

American  line  was  somewhat  straggling,  and  several  of  the 

enemy  concentrated  their  fire  on  the  Lawrence.     They  used 

long  guns,  and  before  the  flag-ship  could  get  near  enough  for  effective 

fire  she  suffered  terribly.     In  two  hours  she  was  reduced  to  a  wreck, 

and  dropped  out  of  the  action,  and  Perry,  taking  a  boat,  made  his 

way  amid  a  shower  of  balls  to  the  Niagara.      By  great  effort  his  line 

was  closed  up  and  brought  to 

close  quarters,  and  the  fortune 

of  the  day  presently  turned.   In 

attempting  to  form  a  new  line 

of  battle,  the  British  squadron 

was  thrown  into  some  confu- 

sion, and  the  Niagara,  favored 

by    a    sudden    breeze,    sailed 

through   it,  delivering    broad- 

sides right  and  left  ;  then  luff- 

ing across  their  bows,  she  raked 

two  or  three  of  them,  while  the 

small    vessels    came    up    and 

poured  in  grape  and  canister. 

Twenty  minutes  of  this  work 

•/ 

decided   the   contest,  and   the 

whole  British  fleet  surrendered. 

Perry  announced  his  victory  in 

a  despatch  to  General  Harri- 

son which  has  become  famous:   "  We  have  met  the  enemy,  and  they 

are  ours  ;  two  ships,  two  brigs,  one  schooner,  and  one  sloop."' 

Harrison,  meanwhile,  had  prepared  to  invade  Canada  at  the  west, 
by  collecting  his  forces  on  the  peninsula  near  Sandusky.  A  mounted 
regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson,  was  sent  to 
Detroit  by  land  ;  the  remainder,  transported  by  Perry's  fleet,  were 
landed  on  the  Canada  shore  of  Detroit  River.  As  these  advanced  on 
Maiden,  the  English  General,  Proctor,  sot  fire  to  that  place,  and  re- 
treated rapidly,  intending  to  make  his  way  to  the  Niagara.  Johnson's 
regiment  having  rejoined  him,  Harrison  started  in  pursuit,  Perry 
carrying  his  baggage  and  supplies  through  Lake  St.  Clair  and  fifteen 
miles  up  the  Thames.  Sixty  of  Proctor's  Indians  deserted  him  in  a 
body,  and  offered  themselves  to  Harrison,  who  declined  their  serv- 
ices.1 On  the  5th  of  October  Proctor  faced  his  pursuers,  and  re- 

1  Not  solely  because  they  were  Indians  •,  for  two  hundred  friendly  red  iiifii  accompanied 
HarrboB. 


Commodore  0.   M     Perry. 


200 


WAR   WITH   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


solved  to  give  battle  at  a  point  about  forty  miles  up  the  Thames, 
near  Moravian  Town. 

The  road  from  Detroit  here  skirted  the  river  on  the  right  or  north- 
Battieofthe  ern  bank.  The  edge  of  a  marsh,  five  hundred  yards  dis- 
tant, ran  parallel  with  it  for  two  miles,  and  midway  be- 
tween this  and  the  road  was  a  smaller  marsh.  Proctor  planted  his 
guns  in  the  highway,  deployed  his  regulars  between  that  and  the 
little  marsh,  placed  a  body  of  British  and  Indians,  under  Tecumseh, 

between  the  two  marshes,  and 
threw  forward  the  remainder  of 
the  Indians  in  the  edge  of  the 
larger.  The  ground  was  nearly 
covered  by  an  open  growth  of 
trees,  without  underbrush.  Har- 
rison placed  his  mounted  infan- 
try in  front,  behind  them  two 
thirds  of  his  remaining  troops, 
and  the  rest  on  the  left  flank, 
turned  at  a  right  angle  to  face 
the  Indians  in  the  marsh.  At 
the  sound  of  the  bugle  the 
horsemen  advanced.  Moving 
slowly  at  first,  though  under 
fire,  they  increased  their  pace, 
till  with  irresistible  force  they 
rode  through  the  enemy,  kill- 
ing, capturing,  or  scattering  the 
regulars  in  a  few  minutes.  Proctor  —  fearful  of  being  called  to  ac- 
count for  his  cold-blooded  massacres  —  drove  away  in  his  carriage; 
but,  being  hotly  pursued  by  a  dozen  well-mounted  men,  abandoned 
the  carriage,  took  to  the  woods,  and  escaped.  Between  the  marshes 
the  fighting  was  more  protracted.  Tecumseh's  Indians  stood  their 
ground  till  their  chief  was  killed,  and  then,  at  the  advance  of  three 
or  four  fresh  regiments,  they  broke  and  fled.  The  savages  posted  in 
the  marsh  escaped  into  the  woods.1  This  battle  restored  to  the  Amer- 
icans what  Hull  had  surrendered,  the  Territory  of  Michigan.  Three 
weeks  later,  Harrison  and  his  troops  returned  to  Buffalo. 

General  Armstrong,  the  Secretary  of  War,  chagrined  at  the  failure 
of  the  summer  campaign  on  Lake  Ontario,  and  attributing  it  to  the 
neglect  of  his  own  plan  for  the  invasion  of  Canada,  arrived  about  this 

1  Whether  Tecumseh  was  shot  by  Colonel  Johnson,  who  was  wounded  in  this  charge,  is 
one  of  those  unimportant  questions  that  have  been  made  interesting  merely  by  being  dis- 
puted. 


Tecumseh. 


1813.]  WILKINSON  ON  THE   ST.    LAWRENCE.  201 

time  at  Sackett's  Harbor,  determined  that  the  attempt  should  be  re- 
newed under  his  immediate  direction.     Dearborn  had   re- 

.,,.,.    i          ...  ..  •,    .          i         T»  Expedition 

tired,  with  his  high  military  reputation,  gained  in  the  Kev-  down  the  st. 

ii  i  TT    111      i       i    i  Lawrence. 

olution,  almost  as  completely  shattered  as  Hull  s  had  been 
the  year  before.     Wilkinson,  Dearborn's  successor,  was  soon  to  meet 
a  similar  fate.     Wilkinson  had  been  called  from  the  south  to  take 
command  of   this  Northern  army,  consisting  of  Harrison's  force  at 
Buffalo,  Boyd's  at  Fort  George,  Lewis's  at  Sackett's  Harbor,  and  the 
right  wing  on  the  Vermont  frontier,  under  the  command  of  Wade 
Hampton,  numbering  altogether  about  twelve  thousand  men.     With 
the  exception  of   detach- 
ments left  behind  to  gar- 
rison  two  or  three  posts, 
Wilkinson  was  to    move 
down   the   St.    Lawrence 
with    the    left    wing    in 

Signature   o'   Richard    M.   Johnson 

boats,    while    Hampton 

was  to  advance  overland  to  some  point  on  the  river,  where  a  junction 

was  to  be  made,  and  the  whole  army  to  move  on  Montreal. 

It  was  not  till  late  in  October  that  Wilkinson  had  gathered  his 
forces  together  at  Sackett's  Harbor,  and  some  days  later  before  they 
were  fairly  embarked  on  three  hundred  boats.  Chauncey  cleared  the 
way  by  driving  Yeo  into  port  and  keeping  him  there,  and  it  was  not 
apprehended  that  the  British  could  muster  men  enough  on  shore  to 
impede  the  progress  of  the  expedition.  Disaster,  nevertheless,  at- 
tended it  from  the  start.  The  weather  was  unpropitious,  the  lake 
and  river  rough ;  many  of  the  boats  were  unfit  for  service ;  some  were 
driven  ashore,  and  some  went  to  the  bottom,  to  the  inevitable  delay  of 
the  whole  flotilla  to  supply  their  places.  Every  mile  of  the  way  was 
disputed  by  the  enemy,  in  front  and  in  rear,  sometimes  on  the  river 
and  sometimes  from  its  banks ;  the  general-in-chief  was  always  ill 
and  frequently  drunk,  and  with  such  a  head  the  body  was  generally 
discouraged  and  often  inefficient.  At  Prescott  the  whole  army  was 
debarked  to  march  around  that  fortified  post,  while  General  Brown 
undertook  to  take  the  flotilla  through  the  river  at  night,  —  which  he 
did  with  great  coolness,  losing  only  a  single  man,  and  not  one  of  his 
three  hundred  boats  receiving  a  shot  from  the  constant  fire  through 
which  they  passed. 

At  Williamsburg,  dangers  thickened.  Troops  were  brought  up  from 
Kingston  and  other  places  to  the  number  of  from  fifteen  hundred  to 
two  thousand,  and  farther  progress  was  stayed  unless  these  could  be 
dispersed.  General  Boyd  was  ordered  out  with  fifteen  hundred 
men,  —  at  a  place  known  as  Chrystler's,  —  and  for  two  hours  the 


202  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAR  VIII. 

ground  was  contested  with  great  spirit.  It  was  so  far  a  drawn  battle 
that  both  parties  retired  from  the  field  in  good  order,  with  a  loss  of 
about  a  hundred  killed  and  two  hundred  and  forty  wounded  on  each 
side,  —  among  the  Americans  General  Covington.  It  would  have 
been  probably  anything  but  a  drawn  battle,  had  not  Brown  been  de- 
tached, and  he  and  Boyd  parted  at  this  critical  moment  by  a  fifteen 
miles'  march.  A  victory  at  this  point  would  have  secured  the  way 
to  Montreal,  almost  without  further  opposition  But  Wilkinson  was 
neither  in  a  mental  nor  physical  condition  to  conduct  such  an  expedi- 
tion, and  when,  the  day  after  the  fight  at  Williamsburg,  word  was  re- 
ceived from  the  other  imbecile  General  on  the  right  wing,  Wade 
Hampton,  that  he  would  not  make  the  junction  agreed  upon,  Wilkin- 
son eagerly  seized  upon  that  pretext  to  go  into  winter-quarters. 
Hampton  had  started  from  Lake  Champlain  with  nearly  or  quite  five 
thousand  men  to  march  on  Montreal  at  the  same  time  that  Wilkin- 
son's flotilla  had  left  Grenadier  Island.  Lieutenant-colonel  de  Sal- 
aberry,  with  a  force  of  four  or  five  hundred  men,  —  hundreds  to 
Hampton's  thousands,  —  had  successfully  baffled  his  advance. 

With  the  main  army  thus  disposed  of,  the  commander-in-chief  in 
Fort  Georee  Canada  was  at  liberty  to  turn  his  attention  to  other  points 
abandoned.  Qn  foe  boi'dcr.  General  Drummond  appeared,  in  Decem- 
ber, on  the  peninsula  west  of  the  Niagara  River,  between  Lakes 
Ontario  and  Erie.  At  his  approach  the  costly  acquisition  of  the  pre- 
ceding summer,  Fort  George,  was  abandoned,  the  garrison  ruthlessly 
burning  the  village  of  Newark  as  they  fled  to  Fort  Niagara  for  refuge. 
This  the  enemy  captured  at  night,  a  week  later,  without  resistance, 
killing  eighty  of  the  garrison,  even  those  in  the  hospital,  without 
mercy.  Lewiston,  Youngstown,  Tuscarora,  and  Manchester  —  now 
Niagara  Falls  Village  —  were  destroyed,  and  all  the  farms  of  that  re- 
gion laid  waste  by  the  invaders.  At  Buffalo  and  Black  Rock  a 
militia  force  made  some  resistance  ;  but  this  was  soon  dispersed,  and 
Riall's  regulars  and  savages  sacked  the  two  villages  and  laid  them  in 
ashes,  putting  to  death  most  of  the  few  inhabitants  who  had  not  fled. 
While  the  campaign,  on  the  whole  so  disastrous,  was  going  on  along 
The  creek  the  northern  border,  there  was  more  successful  fighting  else- 
where, though  only  of  local  importance,  except  that  it  was 
the  beginning  of  the  career  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Wilkinson,  before 
removing  from  the  Southern  Department,  had  taken  Mobile  from  the 
Spaniards  without  resistance.  This  was  in  accordance  with  the  claim 
which  the  United  States  maintained  and  Spain  denied,  that  the  east- 
ern boundary  of  Louisiana  was  the  Perdido  River.  The  seizure  of 
Mobile  was  resented,  and,  though  Spain  professed  to  be  neutral,  the 
powerful  tribe  of  the  Creeks  were  aroused  to  hostilities  by  supplies 


1813.]  INDIAN    WAR   IN    THE   SOUTH.  203 

of  arms  and  ammunition  distributed  at  Pensacola.  Whether  this  was 
instigated  by  England  or  not,  it  is  at  least  probable  that  Tecumseh 
was  encouraged  to  go,  if  he  was  not  directly  sent,  from  Canada  to  in- 
flame the  Southern  Indians  against  the  Americans  by  his  influence 
and  eloquence.  Though  the  Creeks  had  attained  to  some  degree  of 
civilization,  and  their  old  men  were  averse  to  war,  the  young  men 
listened  eagerly  to  the  persuasions  of  the  powerful  Northern  chief 
and  to  temptations  held  out  to  them  by  the  Spaniards. 

The  militia  of  the  Southwestern  States  were  called  out  to  meet  this 
emergency,  and  at  the  first  encounter,  at  Burnt  Corn  Creek,  Mawacpemt 
a  body  of  them  were  defeated.  At  Fort  Mimms,  on  Lake  Fort  Mimu"' 
Tensas,  a  stockade  erected  by  a  farmer  of  that  name  to  protect  his 
buildings  and  cattle,  a  large  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  neigh- 
borhood took  refuge,  and  Governor  Claiborne  sent  for  its  defence  a 
garrison  of  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  volunteers.  This  place  was 
surprised  on  the  30th  of  August  by  a  band  of  a  thousand  Creeks,  un- 
der the  command  of  a  noted  half-breed,  William  Weathersford.  The 
garrison  had  been  repeatedly  warned,  but  when  the  savages  appeared 
before  the  fort  there  were  no  sentinels,  the  arms  of  the  men  were 
stacked,  and  the  outer  gate  stood  wide  open.  The  defence,  neverthe- 
less, was  obstinate  and  prolonged  for  hours,  for  men  were  fighting, 
not  merely  for  their  own  lives,  but  that  their  wives  and  children 
might  escape  death  by  torture.  Large  numbers  of  the  Indians  were 
killed,  but  when  they  succeeded  in  setting  the  buildings  on  fire  it  was 
no  longer  a  fight,  but  a  massacre.  Twelve  only  of  the  garrison  es- 
caped across  the  lake,  and  of  the  rest  they  were  fortunate  who  had 
fallen  early  in  the  day  in  fair  fight. 

For  these  atrocities  the  Creeks  suffered  a  severe  and  speedy  retribu- 
tion.     The  Legislature  of  Tennessee  appropriated  three  hun-  Jackson-s 
dred  thousand  dollars  for  the  campaign,  and  placed  five  thou-   camPai«n- 
sand  men  under  command  of  General  Andrew  Jackson.     For  the  work 
in  hand,  no  better  material  could  have  been  asked  than  these  Western 
pioneers;  many  were  mounted,  and  all  were  skilled  in  forest-fighting. 
Among  them  were  Sam  Houston  and  Davy  Crockett,  afterward  so 
noted.     The  most  serious  trouble  was  in  forwarding  supplies,  and  to 
secure  these   Jackson    built    Fort    Deposit,  on   the  Tennessee.     He 
foraged  on  all  sides,  and  burned  every  Indian  village  in  his  path. 

The  enemy  were  first  found  at  Talluschatches  (now  Jacksonville, 
Alabama),  where  Colonel  John  Coffee,  with  a  thousand  mounted  men, 
attacked  them.  No  quarter  was  asked,  and  none  was  given,  and  not 
an  Indian  was  left  alive,  except  the  squaws  and  children,  who  were 
taken  prisoners.  At  Fort  Talladega  Jackson  killed  three  hundred 
out  of  a  thousand  who  had  surrounded  a  body  of  friendly  Indians. 


204 


WAK    WITH    ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


At  the  same  time  General  John  Floyd  moved  from  Georgia  with  a 
force  of  four  hundred  Indians  and  a  thousand  whites.  The  Creeks 
were  between  two  fires,  and  Floyd  was  as  relentless  as  Jackson,  and 
npt  much  less  successful.  From  the  West  also  came  an  avenging  force, 
under  General  F.  L.  Claiborne.  He  discovered  a  town  of  refuge,  called 
Econochaca,  on  the  Alabama.  It  was  built  on  holy  ground,  and  no 
patli  led  to  it.  Here  the  women  and  children  had  been  sent  for 
safety,  and  here,  in  a  little  square,  the  prophets  performed  their  relig- 
ious rites.  Captives  of  both  sexes  were  standing  bound  to  stakes, 


The  Canoe  Fight. 

ready  to  be  burned,  when  Claiborne's  columns  appeared.  The  In- 
dians fought  desperately  for  a  while,  and  then  scattered  in  every  di- 
rection, while  Claiborne  sacked  and  burned  the  town.  It  was  now 
late  in  December;  the  forces  were  melting  away  by  the  expiration  of 
enlistments,  and  operations  for  that  season  were  closed. 

Among  the  many  episodes  of  the  campaign,  and  characteristic  of 
this  frontier  fighting,  is  the  story  of  Captain  Sam  Dale's  canoe  fight. 
He  saw  floating  down  the  Alabama  a  large  canoe  containing  eleven 
Indians.  Five  of  these  were  shot  from  the  shore,  and  Dale  then 
pushed  off  in  a  small  boat,  with  three  men,  to  finish  the  work.  Or- 


1813.]  DOINGS   OF   THE    BRITISH   SQUADRON.  205 

dering  one  of  his  companions  to  hold  the  boats  together,  Dale  at- 
tacked the  Indians,  with  a  foot  on  each  canoe,  till  the  current  drifted 
them  asunder,  leaving  him  on  the  larger,  confronting  four  of  the  en- 
emy. One  was  shot  from  the  other  boat ;  two  Dale  killed  ;  the  only 
one  then  left  alive  was  a  famous  Indian  wrestler,  Tar-cha-cha.  "  Big 
Sam  ! "  he  shouted,  "  I  am  a  man  —  I  am  coming  —  come  on  !  "  Club- 
bing his  rifle,  he  dealt  Dale  a  blow  that  dislocated  his  shoulder,  and 
at  the  same  moment  he  received  Dale's  bayonet  through  his  body. 

*/  •/ 

The  brilliant  naval  achievements  of  the  year  1812,  —  which  had 
aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  both  parties,  and  had  almost  rec-  Thc  COMt 
onciled  many  to  the  war  who  had  hitherto  opposed  it, —  •*>*•*•*. 
were  wanting  in  1813,  and  there  was  nothing,  therefore,  to  compen- 
sate for  the  continued  disasters  on  the  Northern  frontier.  In  March, 
a  blockade,  previously  declared,  was  extended  from  Montauk  Point, 
on  the  eastern  extremity  of  Long  Island,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. A  British  squadron,  under  Admiral  Warren,  of  six  seventy- 
fours,  thirteen  frigates,  and  eighteen  sloops-of-war,  was,  of  course, 
altogether  inadequate  to  guard  so  extensive  a  coast,  but  was  quite 
sufficient  for  serious  interference  with  commerce  and  the  distress  of 
unprotected  maritime  towns.  Admiral  Cockburn,  Warren's  second  in 
command,  was  the  terror  and  scourge  of  the  people  along  the  shores 
of  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina.  He  waged  a 
predatory  warfare  upon  an  almost  defenceless  people,  letting  his  sail- 
ors loose  upon  little  villages  and  farms,  who  robbed,  and  burned,  and 
harried,  often,  apparently,  for  no  other  reason  than  mere  wanton  bar- 
barity, without  restraint  from  their  officers.  In  some  places,  where 
there  were  the  means  of  defence,  as  at  Lewes,  on  Delaware  Bay,  and 
Craney  Island,  near  Norfolk,  they  were  repulsed ;  but  where  this  was 
impossible,  their  depredations  lost  the  character  of  war,  and  became 
simply  those  of  freebooters.  They  enticed  away  the  slaves,  not  to 
emancipate,  but  to  sell  them  in  the  West  Indies.  They  were  accused 
of  atrocities  of  which  even  savages  are  seldom  guilty,  and  though, 
perhaps,  the  charges  were  exaggerated,  there  is  evidence  enough  to 
prove  that  Englishmen  showed  themselves  here,  as  they  have  often 
done  elsewhere,  to  be  in  war  the  most  brutal  and  merciless  of  civilized 
nations.  In  July,  the  squadron  threatened  Washington,  and  but  for 
the  want  of  energy  in  Admiral  Warren  it  could  have  been  taken  as 
easily  then  as  it  was  a  year  later  by  Ross  and  Cockburn. 

Congress  authorized,  in  the  course  of  the  year,  the  building  of  four 
ships  of  the  line,  six  frigates,  six  sloops-of-war,  and  as  many  vessels 
on  the  lakes  as  the  operations  there  might  require.  A  large  number 
of  privateers  were  commissioned,  and  these  vessels  sometimes  did 
more  honorable  service  than  the  capture  of  unarmed  merchantmen. 


206  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  [€IIAP.  VIII. 

The  privateer  Dewliir  captured  the  war  schooner  Dominica  in  an 
action  in  which  both  vessels  fought  with  great  spirit.  A  still  more 
signal  adventure  was  achieved  on  the  5th  of  July  off  Sandy  Hook 
by  a  fishing-smack,  named  the  Yankee.  With  forty  well-armed  men 
concealed  below,  but  showing  on  deck  only  three  men,  a  calf,  a  sheep, 
and  a  goose,  she  sailed  out  of  New  York,  and  soon  met  with  the 
British  sloop-of-wur  Eagle*  in  want  of  fresh  provisions.  When  the 
Yankee  was  safely  along-side,  her  forty  men  sprang  on  board  the  sloop- 
of-war,  and,  by  a  well-directed  fire,  killed  several  of  her  men,  drove 
the  rest  below,  and  took  possession.  They  sailed  up  the  bay  with 
their  prize,  and  were  welcomed  by  the  cheers  of  thousands  on  the 
Battery,  who  were  celebrating  the  anniversary  of  American  inde- 
pendence. 

There  were  other  naval  engagements,  watched  by  spectators  on 
shore  with  the  in  tensest  interest.  The  brig  Enterprise,  on  a  cruise 
along  the  coast  of  Maine  in  search  of  privateers,  fell  in  with  the  Eng- 
lish'brig  Boxer,  and  the  fight  between  them,  which  lasted  three  quar- 
ters of  an  hour,  was  within  sight  of  Portland,  Maine.  The  Boxer's 
colors  were  nailed  to  the  mast,  and  when  she  surrendered  that  expla- 
nation was  given  for  not  hauling  them  down  sooner.  Both  Lieuten- 
ant Burrows,  commander  of  the  Enterprise,  and  Captain  Blythe,  of 
the  Boxi-r,  were  killed,  and  buried  side  by  side  in  Portland.  The 
American  brig  Arf/m  was  less  fortunate.  She  cruised  off  the  coast 
of  England,  taking  many  merchantmen,  till  at  last  she  captured  one 
laden  with  wine.  In  transferring  the  cargo,  the  crew  were  allowed 
to  help  themselves,  till  all  were  drunk.  The  prize  was  set  on  fire, 
and  the  light  was  seen  by  the  English  brig  Pelican,  who  bore  down 
upon  the  Ar^u*  and  captured  her ;  not,  however,  till  after  a  gallant 
resistance  and  the  killing  of  the  English  captain. 

The  assumed  blockade  of  the  coast  was  soon  practically  extended 
to  all  New  England,  and  in  June  several  ships  were  cruising 
in  Massachusetts  Bay.  The  Chesapeake  was  getting  ready 
in  Boston  harbor  to  go  to  sea,  under  the  command  of  James 
Lawrence,  who  had  won  fame  when,  as  Captain  of  the  Hornet,  he 
sunk  the  English  sloop-of-war  Peacock  off  the  coast  of  British  Gui- 
ana. One  of  the  English  fleet,  the  Shannon,  stood  off  and  on  at  the 
entrance  of  Boston  harbor  for  days,  challenging  Captain  Lawrence 
to  come  out  and  fight  him.  The  written  challenge,  offering  the 
choice  of  time  and  latitude,  unfortunately  did  not  reach  Boston  till 
after  the  Cheaapeake  had  put  to  sea  ;  for,  had  Lawrence  felt  at  liberty 
to  postpone  the  encounter  till  his  ship  and  crew  were  in  a  condition 
to  meet  it,  whatever  might  have  been  the  result,  there  would  have 
been,  at  least,  some  equality  between  the  antagonists.  As  it  was,  the 


1813.]  NAVAL  BATTLES.  207 

fight  was  between  ships,  one  of  which  was  in  perfect  sea-going  con- 
dition, in  thorough  fighting  trim,  her  officers  and  crew,  familiar  with 
and  confident  in  each  other  and  their  ship,  under  admirable  disci- 
pline ;  the  other,  not  ready  for  sea,  with  a  new  crew,  many  of  whom 
were  discontented  and  almost  mutinous  for  want  of  prize-money  al- 
ready due,  with  officers  wanting  experience  and  unknown  to  each 
other  and  to  the  men,  and  all  without  the  discipline  so  absolutely 
essential  for  a  naval  battle.  If  unwritten  tradition  may  be  trusted, 
both  the  officers  and  men  of  the  Chesapeake  were  seen  about  the 
streets  of  Boston  on  the  morning  of  the  day  she  sailed,  in  a  condition 
that  rendered  it  easy  to  foresee  the  result  of  the  impending  battle. 
The  popular  excitement  and  enthusiasm,  however,  hardly  left  to 
Lawrence  any  alternative  but  to  accept  Broke's  evident  defiance.  As 
the  Chesapeake  got  under  way,  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  June, 
multitudes  watched  her  from  the  high  hills  along  the  coast,  saw  both 
ships  enveloped  in  the  smoke  of  battle,  and  knew  the  result  when  the 
smoke  cleared  away  and  both  stood  out  to  sea. 

The  Shannon  opened  fire  as  soon  as  her  guns  could  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  her  opponent,  but  the  Chesapeake  was  silent  till  a  broad- 
side could  be  effective,  and  then  for  about  eight  minutes  the  roar  was 
continuous.  By  this  exchange  the  British  frigate  appears  to  have 
been  the  greater  sufferer  in  men,  but  the  American  was  so  injured 
that  she  became  unmanageable ;  her  mizzen-rigging  fouled  with  the 
Shannon  s  forechains,  and  she  was  open  to  a  raking  fire.  The  board- 
ers were  called  ;  but  at  this  moment  Lawrence  was  shot  through  the 
body,  and,  as  he  was  carried  below,  his  last  commands,  it  is  said, 
were  :  "  Tell  the  men  to  fire  faster,  and  not  give  up  the  ship.  Fight 
her  till  she  sinks  !  "  The  order  was  given,  "  Boarders  away ! ''  —  but 
in  the  absence  of  all  discipline,  before  the  boarders  could  be  brought 
to  quarters,  the  enemy  had  swarmed  over  the  decks,  and  were  pour- 
ing a  destructive  fire  down  the  hatchways.  The  ship  was  theirs  after 
an  engagement  that  lasted  only  fifteen  minutes.  For  so  short  a  bat- 
tle, the  loss  of  life  was  unusually  large,  as  the  Chesapeake  had  forty- 
eight  killed  and  nearly  a  hundred  wounded  ;  the  Shannon,  twenty- 
three  killed,  and  over  fifty  wounded.  Broke  was  badly  wounded,  and 
Lawrence  died  in  a  few  days. 

On  the  same  day  with  this  unfortunate  encounter  in  Massachusetts 
Bay,  which  aroused  more  despondency  on  one  side  and  more  exulta- 
tion on  the  other  than  such  a  catastrophe  warranted,  Decatur  was 
chased  into  New  London  with  the  Macedonian,  the  United  States, 
and  the  Hornet,  by  a  larger  force  of  the  blockading  squadron.  Nor 
did  any  of  the  ships  get  to  sea  again  while  the  war  continued. 
They  were  not  in  danger  of  capture,  for  the  militia  of  Connecticut 


208 


WAR   WITH   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


rallied  to  the  defence  of  the  harbor  in  such  numbers  as  to  render  anv 

v 

attack  upon  the  ships  hopeless  ;  but  the  naval  commanders  chafed 
under  their  enforced  idleness,  and  made  more  than  one  attempt  to 
evade  the  ships  of  the  enemy.  Decatur  complained  that  all  these 
attempts  were  defeated  by  traitors  on  shore,  who  warned  the  ships 
outside  of  his  proposed  movements  by  burning  blue-lights.  He  and 
his  brother  officers  unquestionably  believed  that  this  was  done,  though 
it  was  as  emphatically  denied  by  some  of  the  most  respectable  inhabi- 
tants of  the  town  that  any  such  signals  were  given.  It  was  probably 
true,  though  less  frequently,  perhaps,  than  was  asserted.  But  if  true, 
it  is  far  more  likely  that  the  treachery  was  confined  to  some  very  few 
persons,  if  more  than  one  was  engaged  in  it,  than  that  it  was  the  act 
of  many.  Nevertheless,  so  violent,  bitter,  and  unreasoning  was  the 
partisan  rancor  of  the  time  that  the  whole  Federal  party  was  held 
responsible  for  this  aid  given  to  the  enemy,  and  all  Federalists  stig- 
matized henceforth,  so  long  as  the  party  had  a  name  to  live  by,  as 
"  Blue  Lights."  That  Decatur's  ships  remained  safely  at  anchor  till 
the  end  of  the  war,  protected  from  a  powerful  British  squadron  by 
the  Federal  State  of  Connecticut,  was  lost  sight  of  in  the  determina- 
tion to  make  those  obnoxious  who  believed  the  war  was  unwise,  that 
nothing  would  be  gained  by  it,  and  who  gave  to  it,  therefore,  no  vol- 
untary support. 


Tne  Giaves  of  the  Captains,  Portland,  Maine 


CHAPTER    IX. 

• 

WAR   WITH    ENGLAND. 

NEGOTIATIONS  FOR  PEACE.  —  JACKSON'S  MOVEMENTS  AT  THE  SOCTH.  —  THIRD  CAM- 
PAIGN ON  THE  NIAGARA.  —  BATTLE  OF  LCNDY'S  LANE.  —  BATTLE  OF  PLATTSBURG. 
—  CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON.  —  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  BALTIMORE.  —  NAVAL  BAT- 
TLES OF  THE  THIRD  YEAR.  —  BITTERNESS  OF  PARTY  FEELING.  —  THE  REMEDY  OF 
DISUNION.  —  THE  HENRY  CONSPIRACY.  —  THE  HARTFORD  CONVENTION.  —  DEFENCE 
OF  NEW  ORLEANS. — THE  TREATY  OF  GHENT. 

AT  the  opening  of  the  year  1814  the  prospects  of  the  war  were 
gloomy  in  the  extreme.     The  power  of  Napoleon  had  been 

i  ¥      •       •          i        T»    •    •    i  •         »  •  Condition  of 

broken  at  Leipsic,  the  British  armament  in  American  waters  affairs  m 
was  gradually  increasing,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no  reason 
—  unless  she  was  tired  of  war  —  why  England  might  not,  with  unlim- 
ited reinforcements  of  veteran  troops,  speedily  overwhelm  the  Amer- 
icans. It  was  only  after  much  debate  that  an  act  was  passed  to  in- 
crease the  regular  army  to  sixty-six  thousand  men,  enlisted  for  five 
years,  with  a  bounty  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-four  dollars  to  every 
recruit.  That  this  increased  army  should  not  be  used  for  purposes  of 
invasion,  but  should  be  confined  to  defensive  measures  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  rights  infringed  upon  by  Great  Britain,  was  voted  down 
by  a  strictly  party  vote.  Congress  also  authorized  a  new  loan  of 
twenty-five  million,  and  a  re-issue  of  ten  million  in  treasury  notes. 

Three  times  during  the  war,  the  Russian  Government  had  offered 
its  services  as  mediator  for  peace,  which  had  been  declined  by  Eng- 
land. But  now  a  proposition  was  offered  for  direct  negotia-  Xegotiations 
tions,  either  at  London  or  at  Gottenburg.  This  was  ac-  forfe&ce- 
cepted  at  once ;  Gottenburg  was  chosen  as  the  place,  and  John  Quincy 
Adams,  James  A.  Bayard,  Henry  Clay,  and  Jonathan  Russell  were 
appointed  commissioners,  to  whom  Albert  Gallatin,  then  in  Europe, 
was  afterward  added.  Their  instructions  were  at  first  to  insist  upon 
an  absolute  discontinuance  of  search  and  impressment,  and  to  repeat 
the  offer,  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  to  exclude  British  sea- 
men from  American  vessels  and  to  surrender  deserters,  —  a  compro- 
mise which,  had  it  been  offered  any  time  during  the  ten  previous 
years,  would  have  made  war  almost  impossible. 

VOL.    IV.  14 


210  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX 

Active  preparations  were  made,  meanwhile,  for  the  campaigns  of 
the  liew  year.  At  the  South,  Jackson,  who  had  been  cora- 
missioned  a  major-general,  was  left  at  Fort  Strotlier  in  Jan- 
uary with  nine  hundred  raw  recruits,  liis  late  army  having  gone  home 
at  the  expiration  of  their  tei-m  of  service,  in  spite  of  all  entreaties. 
With  his  fresh  recruits  and  two  hundred  Indians  he  marched  into  the 
country  of  the  Creeks,  fought  two  battles,  and  lost  about  a  hundred 
men.  In  February  his  army  was  increased  by  fresh  enlistments  to 
five  thousand  men,  including  a  regiment  of  regulars. 

At  Horseshoe  Bend,  in  the  Tallapoosa,  where  a  peninsula  of  a  hun- 
dred acres,  with  a  neck  not  more  than  five  hundred  feet  wide,  is  en- 
closed by  the  stream,  a  thousand  Creek  warriors  had  encamped  and 
thrown  up  a  rude  breastwork  across  the  neck.  While  Jackson 
man-lied  directly  against  this  with  nearly  three  thousand  men,  he  sent 
General  Coffee,  with  the  mounted  men  and  friendly  Indians,  to  gain 
the  enemy's  rear.  A  two  hours'  cannonade  had  no  effect  on  the  breast- 
work ;  but  when  a  cloud  of  smoke  showed  that  Coffee  had  crossed 
the  river  and  set  fire  to  the  village,  Jackson's  men  stormed  the  work, 
fought  hand  to  hand  through  the  loop-holes  for  a  while,  and  then, 
leaping  the  defences,  charged  with  the  bayonet,  and  the  Indians 
broke  and  fled.  They  neither  asked  for  quarter  nor  received  it. 
Whether  attempting  to  hide  themselves  in  the  thickets,  or  to  swim 
the  stream,  they  were  hotly  pursued,  and  if  overtaken  were  mer- 
cilessly shot. 

The  opening  movements  at  the  North  were  discouraging,  and 
seemed  to  promise  a  repetition  of  the  failures  of  the  two  preceding 
years.  An  attempt  was  made  to  recover  Michilimackinac,  which 
ended  in  the  repulse  of  the  force  landed  on  the  island,  and  the  capture 
afterward  by  the  English  of  the  two  schooners  sent  upon  the  expedi- 
tion. Wilkinson  ended  as  he  had  begun,  in  imbecile  efforts 
apii'nin-  which  accomplished  nothing.  Advancing  from  his  winter- 
quarters  on  Salmon  River  to  Lake  Champlain,  he  planned  an 
expedition  into  Canada  which  should  cut  off  the  upper  from  the 
lower  province.  As  the  first  step  he  proposed  to  take  La  Colle  Mill. 
A  considerable  force  was  sent  from  Champlain  Village  over  a  difficult 
road  when  the  whole  country  was  buried  in  a  foot  of  snow,  and 
though  the  assault  was  made  with  much  spirit  it  was  easily  repulsed. 
The  act  was  the  last  of  Wilkinson's  military  career.  A  spring 
Wilkinson  freshet  forbade  farther  advance  movements,  and  he  with- 
<'mm-bmar-  drew  his  army  within  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States. 
"*'•  He  was  called  to  answer  for  his  many  mishaps  and  want  of 

generalship  before  a  court-martial,  and  though  he  was  acquitted  by 
the  court  he  was  condemned  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion. 


b. 
U- 


fc. 

c 


1814.]  BATTLE    OF   CIIIPPEWA.  211 

The  Secretary  of  War,  General  Armstrong,  still  adhered  to  his 
plan  for  the  invasion  of  Canada  by  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  and,  as  a 
necessary  preliminary  step,  the  taking  of  Kingston.  To  mask  this 
movement,  and  that  he  might  leave  no  enemy  in  his  rear,  General 
Brown,  who  had  been  made  a  major-general,  commenced  operations 
on  the  peninsula  between  Erie  and  Ontario.  On  the  evening  of  the 
2d  of  July  he  crossed  the  river  from  Buffalo,  invested  Fort  Erie,  and 
compelled  its  surrender.  Following  up  this  advantage,  he  pursued  a 
British  corps  of  observation  down  the  river,  till  it  crossed  Battleof 
Chippewa  Creek  and  united  with  the  main  force  under  Ri-  ^PP**™- 
all.  The  American  advance  fell  back  across  Street's  Creek,  where  it 
was  joined  by  the  main  body  on  the  morning  of  the  5th.  In  the 
afternoon  Scott  ordered  out  his  brigade  for  a  dress  parade  in  the 
little  plain  beyond  the  creek.  As  he  approached  the  bridge,  General 
Brown,  riding  in  from  the  front,  exclaimed,  "  You  will  have  a  bat- 
tle ! "  and  galloped  past  to  bring  up  Ripley's  brigade.  The  head  of 
the  column  was  scarcely  on  the  bridge  when  the  British,  concealed  by 
the  woods  that  fringed  the1  creek,  opened  fire.  "  Nothing  but  Buffalo 
militia !  "  said  Riall,  as  the  Americans  came  into  view  ;  but  when  he 
saw  them  pass  the  bridge  without  wavering,  and  deploy  under  fire, 
"  Why,  these  are  regulars  I "  he  exclaimed,  with  profane  emphasis. 
General  Peter  B.  Porter,  with  a  force  of  militia  and  Indians,  press- 
ing forward  on  Scott's  left,  attacked  the  British  right.  Porter's  men 
fought  well  till  a  heavy  column  charged  them  with  the  bayonet,  when 
they  gave  way.  But  Major  Jesup  moved  up  and  covered  the  exposed 
flank,  and  the  fighting  became  furious  along  the  whole  front.  When 
Scott  observed  that  the  British  right  wing  had  separated  from  the 
line  to  engage  Jesup,  he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  regiment  and 
charged  obliquely  against  the  exposed  flank,  while  at  the  same  time, 
and  in  the  same  manner,  Leavenworth's  regiment  charged  the  left. 
Through  the  gap  between  these  charging  columns,  Towson's  battery 
poured  in  canister  with  rapidity  and  effect.  The  British  line  first 
crumbled,  and  then  retreated  in  great  disorder.  Jesup  at  the  same 
time  defeated  the  detached  wing,  and  the  rout  was  complete.  Riall 
sent  a  portion  of  his  troops  to  the  forts  at  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara, 
and  with  the  remainder  retreated  to  Burlington  -Heights.  His  In- 
dians, disgusted  at  the  defeat,  all  deserted  him. 

With  this  well-fought  battle  the  invasion  of  Canada  seemed  more 
promising.  Brown  determined  to  move  upon  Kingston  along  the 
lake  shore,  trusting  to  the  cooperation  of  Chauncey's  fleet.  "  For 
God's  sake,  let  me  see  you,"  he  wrote  to  Chauncey.  "  All  accounts 

agree  that  the  force  at  Kingston  is  very  light We  can  threaten 

Forts  George  and  Niagara,  carry  Burlington  Heights  and  York,  and 


212 


WAR  WITH   EXGLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


proceed  direct  to  Kingston  and  carry  that.  We  have  between  us  suf- 
ficient means  to  conquer  Canada  in  two  months,  if  there  is  prompt 
and  zealous  cooperation,  before  the  enemy  can  be  greatly  reenforced." 
But  no  cooperation  came  ;  Chauncey  was  ill  in  body,  —  still  more  ill 
in  mind.  He  had  something  better  to  do,  he  thought,  than  carry  pro- 
visions and  stores  for  the  troops  on  shore,  —  and  did  nothing. 

To  move  down  the  lake  without  the  aid  of  the  fleet,  was  manifestly 
impracticable,  and  Brown  was  compelled  to  turn  back  upon 
learning  that  Riall  was  at  Queenstown,  and  had  been  reen- 
forced by  General  Drummond  from  York.     Scott  —  now  a 
brigadier-  general  —  was  sent  forward  with  a  corps  of  observation. 


Lun.iy  .s 


Miller's  Charge  at   Lundy's  Lane. 


As  his  troops  emerged  into  a  cleared  space,  bounded  on  the  north  by 
Lundy's  Lane,  —  a  road  that  runs  at  right  angles  to  the  river,  nearly 
opposite  the  Falls,  —  they  were  confronted  by  the  entire  British  force, 
drawn  up  in  the  lane.  The  Americans  deployed  in  line  of  battle,  and 
Scott  at  once  engaged  the  right  wing,  sending  Jesup's  battalion  to 


1814.]  BATTLE    OF  LUNDY'S  LANE.  213 

turn  the  left.      Both  movements  were    successful,  Jesup  taking  be- 
tween two  and  three  hundred   prisoners,  among  them  General   Riall 
and  some  other  officers,  though  most  of  the  men  soon  afterward  es- 
caped.    The  fight  had  continued  for  an  hour  before  reinforcements 
reached  the  ground,  General  Brown  leading  the  way.     But  notwith- 
standing the  discomfiture  of  the  enemy,  the  General  saw,  on  a  survey 
of  the  field,  that  no  permanent  impression  could  be  made  upon  their 
position    while  their  centre  held    an  eminence   on  which    they  had 
planted  seven  guns.    Colonel  James  Miller,  being  ordered  to  take  this 
battery,  answered  briefly,  "  I  '11  try,  sir,"  and  put  his  men  in  motion. 
It  was  now  dusk,  and  their  approach  was  hidden  by  a  fence.     The 
gunners  were  standing  with   lighted  matches  in   their  hands,  when 
Miller's  men,  in  obedience  to  whispered  orders,  crept  silently  up  to 
the  fence,  thrust  their  muskets  through  it,  shot  down  every  man  at 
the  guns,  rushed  forward  in  the  face  of  a  sharp  infantry  fire,  and 
captured  them.    The  American  line  was  re-formed,  at  right  angles  to 
its  first  position,  facing  west.     The  British  also  re-formed,  and  made 
two  desperate  but  vain   attempts  to  retake   the  battery.     Generals 
Brown  and  Scott  were  wounded,  and  the  command  devolved   upon 
Kipley,  who,  after  waiting  half  an  hour  in  expectation  of  a  fresh  at- 
tack, withdrew  from  the  field,  carrying  off  his  wounded.     The  enemy 
returned,  and  encamped  on  the  deserted  ground.     The  battle  of  Lun- 
dy's  Lan  e  —  or  Bridgewater,  or  Niagara,  as  it  is  variously  called  — 
was  one  of  the  hardest  ever  fought,  considering  its  numbers.     Of  the 
two  thousand  Americans  engaged,   seven    hundred   and   forty-three 
were  killed  or  wounded;    of  the  four  thousand  British,  eight  hun- 
dred and  seventy-eight.     Brown,  Scott,  and  Jesup  were  all  seriously 
wounded,  —  Scott  so  severely  as  to  withdraw  him  from  active  service 
for  the  rest  of  the  war. 

The  army  was  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  the  camp  on  the  Chip- 
pewa,  for  want  of  food  and  water,  and  the  enemy  claimed  the  victory 
as  the  latest  occupants  of  the  field.  Ripley,  who  wanted  energy  and 
perseverance,  but  not  courage,  left  the  guns  captured  by  Miller  upon 
the  hill,  and  the  enemy  recovered  them.  For  this  negligence,  and 
for  an  unnecessary  hasty  retreat  to  Fort  Erie,  when  he  should  have 
held  the  banks  of  the  Chippewa,  Ripley's  command  was  given  to 
General  Edmund  P.  Gaines,  till  the  Major-general's  wounds  should 
permit  him  again  to  take  the  field.  Drummond  followed  up  the 
army  to  Fort  Erie,  where  a  midnight  assault  on  the  14th  of  August 
cost  him  nearly  a  thousand  men,  and  proved  an  utter  failure.  In 
the  regular  siege  that  followed,  Drummond  brought  his  siege  of  Fort 
works  so  close  that  shells  and  hot  shot  were  thrown  daily  Erie- 
into  the  fort.  One  of  these  disabled  General  Gaines,  and  General 


214  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Brown  resumed  the  immediate  command.  The  enemy's  camp  was 
two  miles  in  the  rear,  and  one  third  of  his  force  was  thrown  forward 
each  day  to  work  on  the  parallels.  On  the  17th  of  September  a  sud- 
den sortie  with  two  thousand  men  overwhelmed  the  working  party, 
dismounted  the  guns,  and  destroyed  the  works.  But  this  was  not 
done  without  hard  fighting,  in  which  the  Americans  lost  nearly  five 
hundred  men,  and  the  British  nine  hundred.  Four  days  later,  Drum- 
mond  abandoned  the  siege,  and  in  October  the  Americans  destroyed 
Fort  Erie,  and  returned  to  their  own  shore.  This  campaign  on  the 
Niagara  had  indeed  no  practical  result,  except  the  destruction  of  a 
village  or  two  and  the  digging  of  a  thousand  graves;  but  it  served  to 
dispel  the  despondency  to  which  even  the  war  party  had  yielded  un- 
der the  reverses  of  the  two  previous  years,  and  aroused  a  hope  in 
those  who  opposed  the  war  that,  though  it  might  be  unwise,  it  was 
not  to  be  dishonorable. 

But  the  summer  passed  away,  and  both  armies  —  the  British  being 
now  much  the  larger  —  still  stood  on  the  defensive  on  their  own  side 
of  the  border.  Sir  George  Prevost  proposed,  or  was  ordered  by  the 
Home  Government,  to  invade  New  York  as  far  as  Crown  Point,  at 
least,  by  the  pathway  contended  for  so  often  in  previous  wars. 
Chance  favored  him  early  in  September,  for  General  Izai'd,  who  had 
succeeded  Hampton  in  the  command  of  the  right  wing  of  the  Amer- 
ican army,  was  ordered,  late  in  August,  to  relieve  General  Brown,  be- 
leaguered at  that  time  in  Fort  Erie  by  General  Drummond.  Izard 
moved  reluctantly  —  indeed  he  never  moved  in  any  other  way  — 
from  Plattsburg,  leaving  General  Alexander  Macomb  behind  him  in 
command  of  a  small  force,  with  the  cheerful  and  encouraging  predic- 
tion that  it  and  the  commander  would  soon  be  in  the  hands  of  the. 
enemy.  Before  advancing  to  Crown  Point,  Prevost  believed  it  to  be 
absolutely  necessary  to  reduce  Plattsburg,  and  Macomb  —  not  in  the 
least  influenced  by  Izard's  prophecy,  unless  it  were  that  he  was  stim- 
ulated to  prove  it  false  —  prepared  with  great  skill  and  energy  to 
give  the  enemy  a  warm  reception.  In  all  that  he  did  he  was  ably 
sustained  by  Lieutenant  Thomas  Macdonough,  with  a  fleet  of  ten 
barges  or  gunboats  and  four  larger  vessels  on  the  lake.  Izard  had 
left  not  more  than  about  twenty-five  hundred  effective  men  at  Platts- 
burg, and  to  these  Macomb  added  three  thousand  more  of  volunteer 
militia,  by  appeals  to  New  York  and  Vermont.  Prevost  advanced 
with  fourteen  thousand  men  along  the  shores  of  the  lake,  accom- 
panied by  four  ships  and  twelve  barges,  under  the  command  of  Cap- 
tain Downie. 

At  Plattsburg  the  Saranac  runs  nearly  parallel  with  the  lake  shore 
for  a  short  distance,  and  then  turning  sharply  flows  into  the  Bay.    On 


1814.] 


BATTLE   OF   PLATTSBURG. 


215 


the  little  peninsula  the  Americans  had  constructed  three  redoubts  and 
two  block  houses,  and  these  the  British  proposed  to  carry  by  an  ap- 
proach from  the  rear,  while  Downie  should  engage  Macdon-   Batt)c  of 
ough  on  the  lake,  and  fleet  and  town  be  taken  together.   1>latt*bur8- 
Tn  accordance  with  this  plan,  when,  on  the   lltli  of  September,  the 
British  flotilla  rounded   Cumberland  Head  and  the  naval  fight  was 
begun,  the  troops  on  shore,  under  a  heavy  artillery  fire,  attempted  to 
cross  the  Saranac  at  several  points,  at  all  of  which   they  were  either 
speedily  driven    back,  or  soon   recalled  by  intelligence  of  Downie's 
utter  defeat. 

When  the  British  Admiral  advanced  to  the  attack  he  found  Mac- 
donough's  four  vessels  drawn  up  in  line   nearly  across  the  mouth  of 


Plattsburg. 

the  harbor,  with  his  ten  galleys  inside  and  opposite  the  intervals  be- 
tween the  larger  vessels,  calmly  awaiting  his  opponent.1  The  Eng- 
lish bore  down  steadily,  firing  as  they  advanced.  The  first  American 
gun,  pointed  by  Macdonough  himself,  raked  the  deck  of  the  English 
flag-ship  Confiance ;  then  the  whole  line  opened,  and  for  an  hour 
everything  was  ablaze,  and  the  fire  only  slackened  as  gun  after  gun 
was  disabled.  The  first  broadside  from  the  Confiance  struck  down 
forty  men  on  the  flag-ship  Saratoga,  and  ultimately  every  gun  of  her 

1  Macdonough  had  eighty-six  guns  and  eight  hundred  and  fifty  men ;  Dowiiie  ninety- 
five  guns  and  a  thousand  men,  and  two  more  barges  thau  Macdonough. 


216  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

starboard  battery  was  disabled.  But  Macdonough  had  laid  a  kedge 
broad  off  each  bow,  by  means  of  which  she  was  now  swung  com- 
pletely round,  and  the  larboard  battery  brought  to  bear  upon  her 
antagonist.  The  same  manoeuvre  was  attempted  on  board  the  Con- 
fiance,  but  unsuccessfully,  and  she  was  soon  compelled  to  strike  her 
colors.  Those  that  had  not  already  surrendered  followed  her  example, 
though  most  of  the  galleys  drifted  out  into  the  lake,  before  they 
could  be  taken  possession  of,  and  escaped.  The  victory  was  com- 
plete both  on  the  water  and  on  shore.  Prevost  immediately  recalled 
his  troops  and  abandoned  his  plan  of  invading  New  York. 

As  the  British  army  in  Canada  had  been  largely  reenforced  by 
troops  released  by  the  close  of  the  war  in  Europe,  the  result  of  the 
attack  on  Plattsburg,  where  many  of  these  veterans  were  so  sig- 
nally defeated,  renewed  the  spirits  of  the  war  party  ;  and  it  was 
sadly  in  need  of  encouragement,  for  along  the  sea-coast  the  sum- 
mer was  one  of  disaster.  Ships,  as  well  as  land  forces,  were  re- 
leased by  peace  abroad  ;  the  blockading  squadron  was  increased  ;  the 
whole  coast  was  kept  in  a  state  of  perpetual  alarm  at  every  appearance 
of  a  sail  in  the  offing.  Sir  Thomas  Hardy  van  into  Eastport  in 
July,  captured  that  place  without  resistance,  and  declared  by  procla- 
mation that  the  islands  of  Passamaquoddy  Bay  were  restored  to  the 
Crown.  The  frigate  Adams,  which  had  gone  into  the  Penobscot  to 
refit,  was  destroyed  at  the  village  of  Hampden,  and  Castine,  a  few 
miles  below,  was  taken  by  General  Gosselyn,  after  the  small  garrison 
at  that  post  had  bloAvn  up  the  fort  and  retreated.  At  Machias  the 
fort  was  abandoned,  and  the  place  taken  without  much  resistance  by 
General  Pilkington.  There  was  no  force  in  that  part  of  the  country 
to  resist  so  formidable  an  invasion,  except  the  militia,  not  half  armed, 
and  without  discipline,  and  the  valley  of  the  Penobscot  was  seized  as 
a  conquered  province. 

In  August,  Hardy  appeared  off  Stonington,  Connecticut,  but  met 
there  with  another  kind  of  reception.  He  gave  the  inhabitants  one 
hour  to  remove  the  women  and  children,  and  then  bombarded  the  lit- 
tle town  steadily  for  three  days,  throwing  into  it  fifty  tons  of  iron  in 
solid  shot,  bomb-shells,  carcasses,  and  stink-pots.  The  defence  was 
gallantly  conducted  by  about  a  score  of  men,  who  handled  two  or 
three  old  guns  so  well,  particularly  an  eighteen-pounder  at  the  point 
of  the  peninsula,  as  not  only  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  landing, 
but  to  inflict  upon  him  a  loss  of  seventy  men,  killed  or  wounded. 
Of  the  defendants  seven  only  were  wounded. 

But  an  event  more  disastrous  than  the  loss  of  the  villages  and  a 
portion  of  the  domain  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  country,  and  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  stubborn  defence  of  Stonington,  occurred 


1814.] 


CAPTURE   OF   WASHINGTON. 


217 


in  the  capture  of  Washington.     On  the  eastern  coast  the  enemy  ap- 
peared suddenly  when  he  appeared  at  all,  would  make,  or 
threaten  to  make,  a  landing  as  he  found  the  militia  more   march  to 
or  less  ready  to  receive  him  ;  and  these  were  more  or  less 
ready  as  their  towns  were  likely,  for  any  reason,  to   be  attacked. 
In  all  cases  the  attacks  were  surprises.     But  at  Washington,  in  all 
the  complication  of  miserable  circumstances,  there  was  no  element 
of  suddenness,  no  palliation  possible  for  want  of  warning,  no  excuse 
for  want  of  time.     The  capture  of  the  city  was  an  absolute  and  un- 
mitigated disgrace,  involving  in  dishonor  every  member  of  the  Gov- 


Stonington  Bombarded. 

eminent,  and  inflicting  upon  the  people  a  humiliation  which  no  other 
nation,  in  the  loss  of  its  capital  under  like  circumstances,  was  ever 
called  upon  to  bear. 

In  August,  General  Ross,  with  thirty-five  hundred  men,  the  finest 
regiments  from  Wellington's  army,  arrived  in  the  Chesapeake,  where 
he  was  reenforced  by  a  thousand  marines  from  Cockburn's  blockad- 
ing squadron.  The  whole  force  was  landed  at  Benedict,  on  the 
Patuxent,  about  forty  miles  below  Washington.  There  was  nothing 
surprising  in  this  approach  of  a  formidable  force.  Cockburn's  fleet 
for  more  than  a  year  had  commanded  and  harassed  the  coast  of  the 
Middle  States,  expeditions  from  it  continuing  to  descend  at  will  upon 
defenceless  villages,  plundering  without  mercy  and  destroying  with- 


218  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

out  reason,  with  small  regard  to  the  ordinary  laws  of  war,  the  farms 
and  plantations  near  the  shore.  The  year  before,  as  has  been  already 
related,  this  fleet  had  moved  up  the  Chesapeake,  and  so  infatuated 
was  party  feeling  that  a  proposition  in  Congress  to  adopt  some  meas- 
ures to  avert  a  threatened  danger  was  denounced  as  an  attack  upon 
the  Administration.  It  was  better  to  suffer  from  fear  of  the  enemy 
than  to  owe  safety  to  the  suggestion  of  the  opposition.  Even  two 
months  before  Ross  landed  at  Benedict,  the  Government  had  been 
wanied  by  Mr.  Gallatin  in  London  of  the  object  of  the  reenforce- 
ments  sent  to  Chesapeake  Bay,  and,  though  the  subject  was  brought 
before  a  cabinet  meeting  by  the  President,  no  efficient  steps  were 
taken.  There  needed  to  be  still  more  "  braying  in  a  mortar  "  before 
the  driving  out  of  foolishness.  Madison  consented  to  be  alarmed, 
but  would  not  condescend  to  take  advice  from  Armstrong,  the  Sec- 
retary of  War,  whom  he  personally  disliked.  The  Secretai-y  of  State, 
Monroe,  was  too  wise  to  accept  warning  from  either  circumstances  or 
persons. 

But  when  Ross  had  actually  landed  at  the  head  of  forty-five  hun- 
dred veteran  troops,  with  the  evident  purpose  of  marching  either 
upon  Annapolis,  Alexandria,  or  Washington,  there  was  a  sudden 
awakening  to  the  necessity  of  defence.  Brigadier-general  William 
H.  Winder  had,  indeed,  been  placed  in  command,  a  few  weeks  before, 
of  a  district  where,  at  most,  there  were  only  five  hundred  regulars  and 
two  thousand  militia  to  respond  to  his  orders.  No  effective  prep- 
arations, however,  were  made  to  put  even  this  small  force  in  a  condi- 
tion to  take  the  field,  and  no  requisitions  were  made,  till  too  late,  for 
forces  from  the  neighboring  States. 

Ross  advanced  up  the  peninsula  with  great  caution,  and  even  hesita- 
tion. He  could  not  believe  that  the  path  was  open  before  him  to  go 
where  he  pleased  without  let  or  hindrance,  and  the  concurrent  testi- 
mony of  all  English  narratives  of  that  march  is,  that  it  could  have 
been  turned  back  any  day  had  a  few  determined  persons  obstructed 
the  road  by  felled  trees.1  It  was  not  till  Cockburn  joined  Ross  that 

1  The  late  Judge  William  Crunch,  of  Washington,  an  eye-witness  of  the  invasion, 
wrote  on  the  llth  of  September,  1814,  to  his  sister  in  Massachusetts :  "  On  Thursday, 
August  18,  information  wa<  received  that  the  Enemy  was  ascending  the  Patuxent  in  large 
force,  and  the  militia  of  the  District  and  adjacent  parts  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  were 
called  upon  to  turn  [out]  en  ma8*e.  The  requisition  was  obeyed  slowly.  The  Fairfax 
militia,  In-ing  that  nearest  to  Alexandria,  was  not  ordered  to  muster  untill  the  Tuesday 
following  (the  23d).  On  Saturday,  the  20th,  information  was  received  that  the  enemy  was 
disembarking,  and  had  landed  a  large  force.  Reports  varied  as  to  their  number  from 
3,000  to  17,000,  and  what  is  astounding  is  that  General  Winder  had  no  correct  information 
on  that  subject."  Further  on,  in  the  same  letter,  he  says:  "The  number  of  the  British 
forces  which  were  in  the  expedition  to  Washington  is  not  yet  satisfactorily  ascertained.  I 
am  inclined  to  believe  from  all  I  hear  that  the  number  did  not  exceed  4,000.  Winder  had 


1814.]  CAPTURE  OF   WASHINGTON.  219 

some  energy  and  determination  was  put  into  the  General's  movements 
by  the  Admiral's  advice  to  push  on  to  Washington.  It  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  Ross  had  proposed  at  first  to  do  anything  more  than  to 
destroy  Admiral  Barney's  flotilla  of  gunboats,  which  had  been  a  con- 
stant annoyance  to  the  British  in  Chesapeake.  Bay,  but  had  now  been 
compelled  to  withdraw  for  safety  up  the  Patuxent  as  far  as  Marlbor- 
ougli.  Instead  of  protecting  these  boats  by  troops  and  staying  Koss's 
progress  at  that  point,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Jones,  saved  the 
British  General  the  trouble  of  removing  this  impediment  out  of  his 
way,  by  ordering  the  fleet  to  be  burned,  and  Barney  and  his  na.^.-^,,. 
men  to  retreat  toward  Washington.  It  was  only  that  frenzy  "llaburned- 
of  terror  which  had  seized  all  official  persons  that  could  have 
prompted  an  act  depriving  the  Americans  of  their  best  arm  of  de- 
fence, and  giving  the  invaders  an  advantage  which  alone  would  have 
been  worth  the  risk  of  the  expedition. 

Inspirited  by  this  success  thrown  at  their  heads,  Ross  and  Cock- 
burn  pushed  on  to  Bladensburg,  where  Winder  had  formed  his  line 
of  battle  in  a  commanding  position.  The  General  had  no  confidence 
in  his  troops,  and  little  in  himself,  and  listened  to  conflicting  advice 
on  all  sides,  when  he  should  have  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  everybody ; 
permitted  Monroe  to  change  his  disposition  of  troops,  almost  at  the 
last  moment,  without  remonstrance;  more  anxious  that  his  officers 
should  understand  which  way  they  should  take  in  retreat  than  zeal- 
ous in  urging  them  not  to  retreat,  but  to  fight,  and  fearful,  apparently, 
lest  somebody  should  be  hurt.  Madison  and  his  cabinet  were  on  the 
field,  all  anxious  to  instruct  the  unfortunate  and  perplexed  General, 
except  the  President,  who  occupied  himself  with  pencilled  bulletins  to 
his  wife  at  Washington,  urging  her  to  flight,  and  who  said,  —  as  Wil- 
kinson asserts,  —  "  Come,  General  Armstrong,  come,  Colonel  Monroe, 
let  us  go,  and  leave  it  to  the  commanding  General."  In  truth,  it  mat- 
tered but  little  to  whom  it  was  left,  for  Winder  was  quite  right  in 
assuming  that  no  dependence  could  be  placed  on  the  crowd  of  men 
gathered  upon  the  hills  with  arms  in  their  hands,  but  utterly  without 
military  discipline  and  confronted  by  veteran  soldiers. 

They  fled  as  the  Congreve  rockets  of  the  enemy  burst  in  their 
faces,  and  the  real  fighting  Avas  left  for  Commodore  Barney  and  Cap- 
tain Miller  of  the  marines,  with  six  hundred  men,  who  rushed  for- 

5,000,  but  they  wore  princip:illy  raw  militia  huddled  together  not  an  hour  before  the  battle, 
without  any  confidence  in  each  other.  Yet,  I  believe  the  fault  was  in  the  officers.  But 
the  great  fault  was  in  the  Administration  in  taking  no  measures  of  defence  after  the  re- 
peated menaces  and  warnings  they  have  had.  There  has  been  a  wanton  sacrifice  of  the 
public  property  and  the  national  pride.  A  wound  is  inflicted  which  ages  will  not  cure,  and 
a  sear  will  be  left  which  time  will  scarcely  efface."  —  MS.  papers  in  the  possession  of  Judge 
Crouch's  daughter,  Mrs.  Erastus  Brooks. 


2'20  WAR    WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

ward  to  dispute  the  passage  of  a  bridge.  The  artillery  they  served 
swept  down  the  advancing  British  column,  and  compelled  it  to  give 
way.  For  more  than  an  hour  this  small  band  of  seamen  and  marines 
held  the  enemy,  outnumbering  them  three  or  four  to  one,  at  bay, 
returned  charge  for  charge,  and  again  and  again  broke  into  their 
serried  ranks.  Had  the  least  support  been  given  them,  the  fortune  of 
the  day  might  have  been  turned ;  but  the  only  body  of  militia  which 
covered  their  flank,  and  had  not  already  run  away,  broke  and  fled  at 
the  first  charge.  Barney's  men,  thus  exposed,  were  surrounded  ;  he 
and  Miller  were  both  shot  down  and  severely  wounded,  and  were 
compelled  at  last  to  surrender.  Around  them  lay  as  many  dead  of 
the  enemy  as  the  sailors  and  marines  numbered  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fight. 

The  Americans  fell  back  upon  Washington,  if  that  can  be  said  of 
a  precipitate  flight,  when  many  were  seeking  for  safety,  no  matter 
where,  like  the  President  and  other  official  gentlemen,  many  making 
their  way  to  their  homes.  When  Washington  was  reached,  however, 

—  and  the  British  followed  close  that  evening  upon   their  footsteps, 

—  Winder,  still  true  to  his  one  comprehensive  rule  of  military  tac- 
tics and  the  art  of  war,  ordered  farther  retreat,  and  the  city  was 
abandoned  to  the  destroyers, — the  destroyers  that  came,  as  well  as 
those  who  remained,  the  chief  difference  between  them  being  that  one 
side  destroyed  what  was  their  own,  the  other  the  property  of  an  en- 
emy.    The  worst  the  British  could  have  done  to  the  navy  yard  below 
the  city,  if  they  could  have  taken  a  place  so  easily  defended,  would 
have  been  to  destroy  it ;  and  in   anticipation  of  that  possibility  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  ordered  that  it  should  be  given  to  the  flames. 
The  loss  in  provisions,  in  marine  stores,  in  guns,  in  munitions  of  war, 
in  ships  on  the  stocks  or  afloat,  in  buildings,  in  arms,  was  enormous ; 
but  it  did  not  seem  to  occur  to  President,  generals,  or  cabinet  officers 
that  even  if  this  great  accumulation  of  property  was  not  saved  by  de- 
fence, there  was  at  least  the  chance  of  its  being  spared  by  accident. 
But  in  the  frenzy  of  a  popular  panic  like  this,  men  take  leave  of  their 
reason. 

The  spirit  of  wanton  destruction  seemed  to  be  aroused  by  the 
craze  of  wild  affright.  The  lurid  glare  of  the  burning  of  the  largest 
navy  yard  in  the  country  by  those  who  should  have  protected  it  at  all 
hazards,  was  responded  to  by  the  glow  of  the  lesser  fires  kindled  in 
the  city  by  the  enemy.  There  were  orders  to  spare,  and  some  at- 
tempt to  save,  private  property,  and  the  Post-office  building  was  per- 
mitted to  remain  unharmed  because  it  contained  the  Patent  Office, 
which  was  of  value  to  civilization.  But  the  President's  mansion  and 
the  unfinished  Capitol  were  burned,  —  one  of  the  stories  of  the  time 


1814.] 


CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON. 


221 


being  that  Cockburn  leaped  into  the  Speaker's  chair,  as  his  follow- 
ers filled  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  shouted,  "  Shall  this  harbor  of 
Yankee  democracy  be  burned  ?  All  for  it  will  say  Aye  !  "  The  pub- 
lic libraries  and  such  of  the  public  archives  as  had  not  previously 
been  removed  to  a  place  of  safety  were  burned.  Nothing  was  spared, 
except  the  Patent  Office  and  jail,  that  could  be  considered  public 


Cockburn  in  the  Chair. 

property,  or  that  could  be  put  to  public  use.1  The  next  night  the 
-invaders  retired  with  the  utmost  caution  and  without  beat  of  drum, 
leaving  their  camp-fires  burning  brightly,  lest  they  should  be  pursued 
by  the  force  which  Ross  believed  the  destruction  of  the  capital  must 
needs  arouse  to  overwhelm  him.  But  he  regained  his  ships  without 
molestation,  except  some  annoyance  from  the  country  people. 

1  "  They  destroyed  everything  public  except  the  Patent  Office  ami  the  jail.  The  Patent 
Office  was  spared  at  the  intercession  of  Doctor  Thornton  who  superintends  it,  and  who  as- 
sured the  officer  that  it  contained  nothing  but  private  property  and  models  of  the  arts  of 
the  utmost  use  to  the  world." — Letter  of  Judge  Cranch. 


222  WAR  WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

It  was  a  natural,  almost  inevitable,   consequence  that  this  exploit 

should  be  followed  by  some  other  of  a  similar  character. 
npinst  Bai-  On  the  6th  of  September  Cochrane's  fleet  moved  up  the 

Chesapeake ;  on  the  llth  entered  the  Patapsco,  and  landed 
nine  thousand  men  at  North  Point,  a  dozen  miles  below  Baltimore. 
They  were  not  unexpected.  Sir  Peter  Parker,  some  days  before,  had 
landed  a  force  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  and  in  a  skirmish 
with  militia  was  killed  The  citizens  of  Baltimore,  warned  in  time, 
had  put  up  fortifications,  and  Major-general  Samuel  Smith,  in  com- 
mand, called  out  the  available  troops  to  repel  invasion.  Ross,  on 
landing  at  the  head  of  his  advance,  was  picked  off  by  a  sharp-shooter, 
and,  mortally  wounded,  carried  to  his  boats,  where  he  died  in  a  few 
minutes.  There  was  to  be  no  repetition  here  of  the  experiences  be- 
Battieof  low  Washington.  For  three  hours  the  three  thousand  vol- 
North Point.  unteers,  from  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  led  by  General 
John  Strieker,  withstood  the  enemy,  till  the  right  wing  was  turned, 
when  they  fell  back  upon  the  intrenchments.  The  British  did  not 
follow  till  next  day,  but  finding  their  opponents  reenforced  and 
strongly  placed,  retired  in  the  darkness  of  the  ensuing  night. 

Meanwhile  sixteen  vessels  moved  up  the  bay,  and  opened  fire  upon 
the  immediate  defences  of  Baltimore.  For  twenty-four  hours  they 
poured  an  uninterrupted  stream  of  rockets  and  shells  into  Fort 
McHenry,  Fort  Covington,  and  the  connecting  intrenchments.  Fort 
McHenry  was  compelled  to  bear  this  bombardment  almost  in  silence, 
as  its  largest  guns  could  not  reach  the  enemy's  vessels,  anchored  at  a 
safe  distance.1  At  night  a  strong  force  was  landed  to  attack  the  forts 
in  the  rear  ;  but,  being  discovered,  it  was  subjected  to  a  fire  of  red- 
hot  shot,  that  inflicted  severe  loss  and  thwarted  the  project.  The 
enterprise  was  then  abandoned,  and  Cochrane  retired  with  his  fleet. 
Of  the  four  notable  battles  this  year  on  the  ocean,  all  but  the  first 

resulted  in  victory  for  the  Americans.  Captain  David  Por- 
gageuients  tcv,  in  the  frig.ite  Ettwx,  had  made  a  long  cruise  round 

Cape  Horn,  creating  terrible  havoc  with  British  commerce 
in  the  Pacific,  and  securing  many  rich  prizes,  one  of  which  he  con- 
verted into  a  war-ship,  and  named  her  the  Essex  Junior.  But  the 
English  Admiralty  sent  out  the  frigates  Phoebe  and  Cherub,  under 
Captain  James  Hillyar,  with  orders  to  destroy  or  capture  the  IZssez  at 
all  hazards,  and  by  these  two  ships  Porter  was  blockaded  in  the  har- 
bor of  Valparaiso.  On  one  occasion  the  hostile  vessels  almost  fouled, 
and  Porter  called  away  his  boarders,  and  in  a  moment  more  would 
have  been  on  the  Englishman's  deck;  but  Hillyar  so  earnestly  pro- 

1  While  watching  the  flag  oil  this  fort,  Francis  S.  Key,  who  had  gone  to  the  British  fleet 
to  negotiate  an  exchange  of  prisoners,  wrote  the  first  draft  of  the  Star-Spantjled  Banner. 


1814.] 


NAVAL   BATTLES   OF  THE  THIRD  YEAR 


223 


tested  lie  had  no  intention  of  attacking  in  a  neutral  port,  that  he  was 
permitted   to   withdraw  his  ship   from  her   suspicious   position.     At 
length,  on  the  28th  of  March,  Porter  attempted  to  put  to  sea;  but 
the  Essex  was  suddenly  disabled  by  a  heavy  squall,  and  being  pur- 
sued, he  tacked  about  and  reentered  the  harbor.     The  enemy  fol- 
lowed, and,  regardless  of  the  neutrality  of  the  port,  took  ERSexand 
position  under  the  stern  of  the  Essex,  and  opened  fire.     The   1>hljebe- 
American  ran  out  three  long  guns  at  the  stern  ports,  and  in  half  an 
hour  compelled  both  of  his  antagonists  to  draw  off  for  repairs.     On 
returning  to  the  attack,  they  took  position  on  Porter's  starboard  quar- 


- 


Fort  McHenry. 

ter,  out  of  reach  of  carronades,  and  with  their  long  guns  fired  at  the 
Essex  as  at  a  target.  Porter  then  ran  down  upon  the  Cherub,  and 
after  a  short  but  lively  action  at  close  range,  she  was  driven  off.  But 
the  Phoebe  edged  away,  and  kept  up  a  steady  fire ;  at  one  gun  on 
board  the  Essex  three  whole  crews  were  swept  away  in  succession. 
Porter  tried  to  run  her  ashore  ;  but  the  wind  suddenly  shifted,  the 
springs  on  his  cables  were  repeatedly  shot  away,  and,  to  complete  his 
misfortunes,  the  ship  took  fire.  As  the  flames  burst  up  the  hatch- 
ways, he  ordered  all  who  could  swim  to  jump  overboard  and  make 
for  the  shore.  The  helpless  wreck  was  easily  raked,  three  fifths  of 
her  men  were  killed  or  wounded,  and  at  last  Porter  struck  his  colors. 


, 


224 


WAR   WITH   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


The  sloop-of-war  Peacock,  Captain  "\Varrington,  captured  the  Brit- 
other  en-  M1  ^VIS  Epervier,  on  the  29th  of  April,  after  an  action  of 
gi.gom.nts.  f0,-ty  minutes;  and  her  sister  ship,  the  Wasp,  Captain  Blake- 
ley,  captured  the  brig  Reindeer,  after  a  hot  battle,  in  June,  and  in 
September  so  badly  injured  the  brig  Avon  that  she  sank.  Within 
twenty  days  the  Wasp  took  three  more  prizes,  and  she  was  never 
heard  from  afterward.  The  American  privateer,  General  Armstrong, 
Captain  Samuel  C.  Reid,  had  put  into  the  port  of  Fayal,  Azores,  in 


The  Armstrong  at   Fayal. 


September,  when  three  British  cruisers  entered  the  harbor,  and  sent 
four  boats  to  cut  her  out.  But  they  were  driven  off  with  heavy  loss. 
The  Governor  remonstrated  with  the  English  commander  against  this 
flagrant  violation  of  neutrality,  but  was  answered  that  the  privateer 
must  be  destroyed,  and  if  she  were  protected  lie  would  bombard  the 
town.  At  midnight,  fourteen  launches,  each  containing  fifty  men, 
were  sent  against  her.  She  opened  on  them  with  murderous  effect, 
and  when  two  or  three  of  them  succeeded  in  getting  alongside,  a 
hand-to-hand  conflict  ensued,  which  left  scarcely  a  man  in  them  alive. 


1814.]  OPPOSITION   TO   THE   WAR.  225 

Next  morning,  one  of  the  cruisers  engaged  the  privateer,  but  was 
soon  obliged  to  haul  off  for  repairs.     Captain   Reid,  seeing   Destruction 
that  the  ultimate  destruction  of  his  vessel  was  certain,  de-  "-e^i 
stroyed  her  himself,  and  went  ashore  with  his  men.     Only   Armstron«- 
t\vo  of  his  crew  had  been  killed,  and  seven  wounded,  while  the  ascer- 
tained loss  of  the  British  was  a  hundred  and  twenty  killed,  and  ninety 
wounded.     The  English  commander  had  the  effrontery  to  demand 
that    the    authorities   deliver   to   him  as   prisoners   the   gallant  crew 
whom   he   had  failed  to  capture.     This,  of  course,  was  refused,  and 
Captain  Reid  and  his  men  took  possession   of   an  old  convent,  de- 
claring they  would  defend  themselves  to  the  last.     An  apology  was 
made  to  Portugal  for  the  violation  of  neutrality,  but  the  owners  of 
the  Armstrong  never  obtained  any  indemnity. 

There  were  other  actions  at  sea  in  the  course  of  the  next  few 
months,  which  added  new  laurels  to  the  American  navy.  Decatur, 
in  the  President,  fought  the  Endymion,  and  reduced  her  to  a  wreck, 
when,  three  other  ships  coming  to  her  aid,  he  was  compelled  to  sur- 
render to  this  overwhelming  force.  Stewart,  in  the  Constitution,  was 
more  fortunate,  as  he  captured  the  Cyane  and  the  Levant.  Riddle, 
in  the  brig  Hornet,  fought  one  of  the  most  brilliant  naval  battles 
of  the  Avar  with  the  Penguin,  and  took  her.  All  these  actions,  how- 
ever, in  the  winter  or  spring  of  1815,  were  after  peace  was  declared 
in  December. 

But  naval  exploits,  however  brilliant,  only  served  to  convince  those 
who  from  the  beginning  had  opposed  the  war,  that  its  con-  opposition 
duct  on  shore  was  unwise  and  its  aim  misdirected.  Henry  tothewar 
Clay  at  the  outset  had  declared  that  with  volunteers  from  Kentucky 
alone  he  could  in  a  short  time  overrun  Canada ;  but  Canada,  at  the 
opening  of  the  winter  of  1814,  was  as  far  from  being  a  conquest  of  the 
United  States  as  when,  in  the  summer  of  1812,  Hull  had  been  driven 
out  of  it  and  compelled  to  surrender.  The  disasters  of  two  years  on 
the  northern  frontier  had  been  atoned  for  in  some  degree  by  the 
later  battles  on  the  Niagara  peninsula  and  before  Plattsburg.  But 
these  comparatively  small  successes  —  which  only  showed  that  Amer- 
icans had  not  yet  lost  the  faculty  of  fighting  —  did  not  seem  to  the 
opponents  of  the  Avar  to  justify  so  enormous  an  expenditure  of  means 
and  of  men  for  a  purpose  that  not  only  had  failed  utterly,  but,  they 
believed,  should  never  have  been  attempted ;  and  much  less  did  such 
successes  reconcile  the  maritime  and  commercial  people,  especially 
of  New  England,  to  a  policy  which  was  proving  their  ruin.  To 
the  want  of  any  better  i-esult  on  the  northern  borders,  was  added, 
moreover,  the  loss  to  Massachusetts  of  a  considerable  portion  of  her 
eastern  territory,  which  the  Administration  had  neglected  to  defend  ; 

VOL.  IV.  15 


226  WAR   WITH  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

the  humiliating  reflection  that  the  whole  country  had  been  outraged 
by  the  capture  and  destruction  of  its  capital,  the  mortifying  spectacle 
of  a  fugitive  government,  too  imbecile  to  take  proper  measures  for 
defence,  and  too  destitute  of  spirit  to  atone  for  its  blunders  by  some 
show  of  courage.  Those  who  had  opposed  the  war  were  not  only 
more  than  ever  persuaded  that  it  was  conceived  for  a  sinister  pur- 
pose, but  that  the  result  showed  how  incompetent  the  Administration 
was  to  carry  it  on,  —  equally  incompetent  either  to  continue  it  with 
success  or  to  end  it  with  honor. 

The  feeling  on  the  other  side  was  not  less  bitter.  The  Federalists 
The  strife  of  were  denounced  as  the  British  party.  The  accusation  told 
P"*168-  with  terrible  force  upon  the  minds  of  ignorant  and  unre- 
flecting Democrats,  and  was  used,  therefore,  without  scruple  for  years 
by  those  who  knew7  that  sympathy  with  Great  Britain,  at  that  period, 
only  meant  abhorrence  of  that  monstrous  military  despotism  with 
which  England  was  in  deadly  encounter.  The  charge  of  British 
sympathy  and  of  a  wish  to  be  reannexed  to  the  Crown,  carried  with 
it,  of  course,  a  charge  of  a  purpose  to  dissolve  the  Union.  And  en- 
mity to  the  Union  was  now,  for  the  first  time,  looked  upon  as  a  crime, 
because  of  this  supposed  ulterior  object. 

A  separation  of  the  States,  up  to  the  time  of  the  immediate  events 
which  led  to  the  War  of  1812,  was  the  familiar  remedy  suggested  for 
all  differences  between  the  States.  It  originated  in  the  fruitful  brain 
of  Jefferson,  who,  notwithstanding  his  abstract  love  of  peace,  declared 
that  the  tree  of  liberty  must  be  watered  with  the  blood  of  patriots 
and  tyrants  once  in  twenty  years,1  —  who  was  opposed  to  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  who  meant  by  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky 
Resolutions  of  1798  to  provide  for  its  nullification,  and  to  secure 
the  right  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  whenever  it  should  seem 
good  to  any  single  State.  It  was  a  threat  always  on  the  lips  of 
Democratic  orators,  whenever  any  new  step  was  proposed,  or  any 
new  measure  carried  by  the  Federalists,  to  consolidate  and  strengthen 
the  Government  of  the  Union  ;  and  the  menace  was  as  promptly 
resorted  to  by  the  Federalists  when  they  in  their  turn  saw,  or  thought 
they  saw,  a  determination  on  the  part  of  one  portion  of  the  States 
to  encroach  upon  another.  The  suggestion,  made  indifferently  by 
either  party,  was  more  or  less  serious,  according  to  the  seriousness  of 
the  occasion  that  called  it  forth  ;  but  that  it  was  a  perfectly  proper 
and  legitimate  one  to  make,  was  never  questioned  till  party  cunning 

1  "  God  forbid  we  should  ever  be  twenty  years  without  such  a  [Shays]  rebellion 

What  signify  a  few  lives  lost  in  a  century  or  two  ?  The  tree  of  liberty  must  be  refreshed 
from  time  to  time  with  the  blood  of  patriots  and  tyrants.  It  is  its  natural  manure."  —  Jef- 
ferson's Works,  vol.  ii.,  p.  267. 


1814.]  THE   REMEDY   OF   DISUNION.  227 

managed  to  confuse  a  proposition  of  disunion  with  a  design  to  betray 
popular  government  by  the  restoration  of  colonial  dependence  upon 
England.  That  there  was  never  the  slightest  truth  in  this  accusa- 
tion, may  be  asserted  with  entire  confidence. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  serious  question  in  the  minds  of 
the  wisest  of  American  statesmen,  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  was, 
whether  a  popular  government  was  not  a  chimera.  When,  after  a 
few  years'  trial,  it  was  concluded  that  such  a  government  might  be 
possible  under  favorable  circumstances,  it  was  next  doubted  whether  a 
republic  resting  upon  a  union  between  the  slave  and  free  States  could 
be  permanent,  —  if,  indeed,  such  a  government  could  be  called  a 
republic.  Very  few  years  passed  away  before  such  men  as  Alexan- 
der Hamilton,  Gouverneur  Morris,  Timothy  Pickering,  Rufus  King, 
Josiah  Quincy,  George  Cabot,  and  other  distinguished  statesmen  of 
the  time,  earnestly  and  frankly  discussed  the  character  of  such  a 
union,  and  its  evident  failure  as  a  just  and  rational  form  of  govern- 
ment. .Some  of  them  were  eager  to  abandon  the  attempt  to  reconcile 
the  irreconcilable  ;  others,  with  that  timidity  and  hesitation  which 
have  been  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  American  politics  from  tlie 
beginning,  preferred  rather  to  temporize,  and  postpone,  and  compro- 
mise, —  to  do  anything  rather  than  face  an  evil  to-day,  if  it  could  be 
put  off  till  to-morrow.  Naturally,  this  want  of  boldness  provoked 
and  invited  aggression  from  those  with  whom  audacity  h;id  to  do 
service  for  right  and  justice.  Merely  to  denounce  the  Federalists  as 
disunionists  was,  by  itself,  a  feeble  accusation ;  for,  if  they  were  dis- 
unionists  simply  because  it  was  plain  to  their  minds  that  there  could 
be  no  just  and  equal  commingling  between  mediaeval  and  modern 
civilization,  so  their  accusers  were  equally  disunionists  when  they 
feared  that  the  supremacy  which  the  slaveholding  representation  in 
the  Government  gave  them  was  threatened  by  the  progress  and  the 
power  of  a  free  people.  But  when  disunion  was  made  to  seem  a 
crime  against  republicanism,  by  the  charge  that  it  was  only  the  first 
step  to  a  restoration  of  monarchy,  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  passions 
of  the  people,  which  was  overwhelming.  Monarchy  was  known  and 
hated ;  slaveholding  despotism  was  an  abstract  dread,  which  faded 
away  in  the  presence  of  a  possible,  immediate,  and  known  evil. 

The  formation  of  a  Northern  Confederacy  was  undoubtedly  consid- 
ered by  some  of  the  wisest  and  the  best  of  the  Federal  leaders  as  not 
merely  possible,  but  desirable.  But,  it  should  not  be  lost  sight  of, 
this  was  only  as  a  means  to  an  end  ;  it  was  disunion  for  the  sake  of  a 
more  perfect  union ;  the  creation  of  an  independent  Northern  Con- 
federacy, which  the  weaker  Southern  States,  in  self-defence,  would 
be  compelled  to  join  on  terms  of  reconstruction  which  would  secure 


228  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

equality  of  representation,  and  give  the  greater  weight  to  liberty,  and 
not  to  slavery.  It  was  the  misfortune  of  the  Federal  partv  that  un- 

J  L  f 

scrupulous  opponents  had  the  opportunity  to  invent  evidence  to  show 
that  the  desire  to  create  such  a  Confederacy  covered  a  design  to 
make  it  a  part  of  the  British  Empire.  Mr.  Madison  eagerly  seized 
upon  a  pretext  of  this  sort  not  long  before  the  declaration  of  war 
in  1812,  partly  to  strengthen  his  own  party,  but  mainly  to  heap  ob- 
loquy upon  the  opponents  of  this  war. 

An  adventurer  of  the  name  of  John  Henry  appeared  at  Washing- 
ton, with  a  marvellous  tale  of  a  conspiracy  by  which  New 

John  Henry.  r  J       * 

England  was  to  be  detached  from  the  United  States  and  re- 
stored to  the  British  Crown.  This  man  —  an  Englishman  by  birthv 
but  married  to  a  respectable  American  lady,  and  familiar  with  Amer- 
ican affairs  —  had  persuaded  the  Governor  of  Canada,  in  1809,  to 
send  him  as  a  political  spy  to  Boston,  believing  that  he  would  find 
there  the  materials  for  organizing  a  plot  —  if  it  did  not  already  exist 
—  for  a  revolution  in  favor  of  England.  The  papers  laid  by  him, 
three  years  later,  before  the  President,  by  the  President  laid  before 
Congress,  and  afterward  published,  proved  conclusively  that  the  man 
was  of  that  vulgar  class  of  knaves,  known  in  the  detective  slang  of 
our  day  as  "  confidence-men."  He  was  not  the  accredited  agent  of 
the  British  Government ;  he  had  discovered  nothing  ;  he  had  nothing 
to  relate  but  what  he  might  have  heard  at  any  time  in  the  common 
talk  of  men  in  the  streets  of  New  York,  or  Philadelphia,  or  Boston, 
or  even  Washington,  or  might  have  read  in  any  Federal  news- 
paper ;  nothing  to  reveal  that  was  not  quite  as  well  known  to  Mr. 
Madison  as  to  himself,  of  common  Federal  opinion  ;  not  a  single  item 
of  evidence,  whether  hearsay  or  confidential,  to  bring  against  any  in- 
dividual of  any  complicity  in  any  plot;  nor  any  shadow  of  proof  that 
any  plot  existed  either  in  England  or  America. 

In  the  interval  between  his  visit  to  Boston  and  his  appearance  at 
Washington,  Henry  had  been  to  England,  and  presented  a  claim  for 
services.  It  may  be  that  he  originally  proposed  only  to  persuade  the 
Ministry  that  he  had  acquired  some  valuable  and  important  informa- 
tion in  New  England,  for  which  he  deserved  a  large  reward ;  and  his 
want  of  success  there  may  have  suggested  the  more  promising  scheme 
of  pandering  to  the  party  purposes  of  Mr.  Madison  and  his  friends. 
At  any  rate,  the  English  Ministry  repudiated  him  and  his  pretended 
revelations  ;  and  when  it  was  clear  that  nothing  was  to  be  gained  in 
that  quarter,  the  adventurer  appeared  in  Washington,  where  he  was 
eagerly  welcomed  by  the  President  and  his  Secretary  of  State,  Mon- 
roe, who  imposed  him  upon  the  American  people,  —  as  he  would  have 
imposed  himself  upon  the  English  Ministry,  —  as  one  charged  with 


1814.]  THE    HENRY   CONSPIRACY.  220 

a  marvellous  tale  of  conspiracies,  plots,  and  treasons.  The  tale  itself 
would  have  been  laughed  at  by  all  right-minded  men  for  its  evident 
and  absolute  failure  to  fulfil  its  promise,  but  for  the  pretence  that 
it  covered  a  design  of  Great  Britain  to  recover  some  of  her  lost  colo- 
nies. Partisan  passion  and  credulity,  however,  were  large  enough 
for  the  deglutition  of  anything  on  that  subject.  The  Federalists,  of 
course,  made  no  reply,  for  the  case  was  beyond  the  reach  of  any  ap- 
peal  to  argument,  common  sense,  or  common  justice.  The  story  was 
told,  not  because  he  who  invented  it,  or  they  who  promulgated  it, 
could  have  maintained  before  any  justice  of  the  peace  that  there  was 
any  truth  in  it,  but  because  the  one  had  hit  upon  an  ingenious  plan 
to  raise  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  the  others  were  ready  to  pay  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  anything,  true  or  false,  that  would  bring  odium 
on  the  opposition  party.  To  propagate  this  purely  partisan  calumny, 
Mr.  Madison  paid  one  sixth  as  much  as  the  House  of  Representatives 
appropriated  for  the  support  of  the  navy  at  the  outbreak  of  a  war 
with  the  strongest  naval  power  in  the  world. 

The  influential  men  among  the  Federalists,  who  sincerely  questioned 
whether  the  Union  had  not  proved  a  failure,  and  whether  QuesUon  of 
the  only  remedy  was  not  a  reconstruction  of  States  on  a  ane'vL'nion- 
new  basis,  were  not  likely  to  be  reconciled  to  the  existing  condition 
of  things  by  an  attempt  to  prove  that  because  they  held  to  this  be- 
lief they  were  therefore  disloyal  to  a  republican  form  of  government. 
Their  hostility  to  the  war  and  to  the  war-party  was  intensified  by 
antagonism  so  unscrupulous,  and,  because  it  was  an  appeal  to  prej- 
udice and  passion  so  hard  to  meet.  Massachusetts  refused  to  respond 
to  the  call  for  troops  at  the  outset,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  for 
the  Governor  of  a  State,  and  not  for  the  President,  to  decide  whether 
in  any  given  case  there  was  good  and  sufficient  reason  for  calling 
upon  the  militia ;  and  Connecticut,  as  well  as  Massachusetts,  refused 
to  put  the  State  troops  under  the  command  of  United  States  officers. 
On  the  second  point  both  States  were  only  maintaining  a  right  re- 
served to  the  States  under  the  Federal  Constitution  ;  but  on  the  first 
point  Massachusetts  simply  took  her  stand  upon  the  unalienable  right 
of  revolution,  asserted  in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolutions  of 
1798  ;  for  her  act  was  clearly  one  of  nullification. 

It  was  a  natural  and  easy  step  to  the  Hartford  Convention,  two 
years  afterward.  The  war,  which  had  proved  disastrous,  and  till 
recently  —  except  on  the  sea  —  uniformly  disgraceful  to  the  Ameri- 
can arms,  had  fallen  with  peculiar  severity  upon  New  England.  Most 
of  her  people  believed  that,  bad  as  the  war  was,  it  was  still  more 
badly  conducted  —  that  the  Administration  was  as  imbecile  as  it  was 
unprincipled.  The  ruin  of  the  country,  they  thought  and  said,  could 


230 


WAR   WITH   ENGLAND. 


[€HAI>.  IX. 


only  be  averted  first  by  the  overthrow  of  such  an  Administration  as 
an  immediate  measure  of  relief,  and  then  by  such  radical  changes  in 
the  terms  of  union  between  the  States  as  should  secure  at  least  the 
chance  of  a  free  and  virtuous  government  in  the  future. 

The   Convention  was  called  by  a  resolution  of  the  Massachusetts 

Legislature,   passed   in   October,   1814.       Twelve  delegates 

font  convcn-   \\ere  appointed  "to  meet  and  confer  with  delegates  from 

the  other  New  England  States,  or  any  other,  upon  the  subject 

of  their  public  grievances  and  concerns  ....  of  defence  against  the 

enemy  ;  .  .  .  .  and  also  to  take  measures,  if  they  shall  think  it  proper, 

for  procuring  a  convention  of  delegates  from  all  the  United  States, 

in  order  to  revise 
the  Constitution 
thereof,  and  more 
effectually  to  se- 
cure the  support 
and  attachment  of 
all  the  people,  by 
placing  all  upon 
the  basis  of  fair 
representation." 
It  was  ordered 
that  the  resolu- 
tion, of  which  this 
is  the  essential 
substance,  should 
be  sent  to  the  Gov- 
ernors of  all  the 
States.  In  the  let- 
ter written  in  obe- 
dience to  that  or- 
der, the  President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  were  careful  to  say  that  "  the  general  objects  of  the 
proposed  conference  are,  first,  to  deliberate  upon  the  dangers  to  which 
the  eastern  section  of  the  Union  is  exposed  by  the  course  of  the  war, 
which  there  is  too  much  reason  to  believe  will  thicken  round  them 
in  its  progress  ;  and  to  devise,  if  practicable,  means  of  security  and 
defence,  which  may  be  consistent  with  the  preservation  of  their  re- 
sources from  total  ruin,  and  adapted  to  their  local  situation,  mutual 
relations,  and  habits,  and  not  repugnant  to  their  obligations  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Union."  This  was  the  immediate  object  of  the  Conven- 
tion ;  but  the  ulterior  object  —  that  which  went  beyond  relief  from 
the  temporary  evils  of  a  disastrous  war  —  was  to  inquire  "whether 


Old  State  House  —  Hartford. 


1814.]  THE   HARTFORD   CONVENTION.  231 

the  interests  of  these  States  demand  that  persevering  endeavors  be 
used  by  each  of  them  to  procure  such  amendments  to  be  effected  in 
the  national  Constitution,  as  may  secure  to  them  equal  advantage, 
and  whether,  if  in  their  judgment  this  shall  be  deemed  impracticable 
under  the  existing  provisions  for  amending  that  instrument,  an  ex- 
periment may  be  made  without  disadvantage  to  the  nation,  for  ob- 
taining a  convention  from  all  the  States  in  the  Union,  or  such  of 
them  as  approve  of  the  measure,  with  a  view  to  obtain  such  amend- 
ment." This  only  meant  —  put  in  briefer  words  —  a  proposition  to 
amend  the  Constitution,  if  possible,  with  the  assent  of  all  the  States ; 
but  if  that  was  not  possible,  then  the  formation  and  adoption  of  a 
new  Constitution  by  so  many  of  the  States  as  agreed  upon  the  ne- 
cessity. In  the  last  analysis,  this  was  disunion,  as  the  corollary  of 
reconstruction,  —  but  disunion  that  a  free  and  equable  republican 
government,  a  government  "  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for 
the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

This,  it  should  not  be  lost  sight  of,  was  peaceful  disunion  for  the 
sake  of  union.  For  it  was  never  doubted  that  a  slaveholding  oli- 
garchy, strong  only  by  an  alliance  with  a  weak  minority  at  the 
North,  would  assent,  by  the  necessity  of  the  case,  to  the  just  demands 
of  a  Northern  majority  when  a  refusal  involved  the  creation  of  an 
independent  Northern  confederacy.  In  the  relative  conditions  of 
the  free  and  slave  States,  and  in  the  clean-cut  line  between  geograph- 
ical parties  at  that  period,  this  calculation  upon  speedy  Southern 
submission  was  probably  well  founded.  Nearly  half  a  century  was 
to  pass  away  before  the  slaveholding  oligarchy  was  strong  enough 
to  take  the  bold  ground  that  the  extension  and  perpetuation  of 
human  slavery  was  the  price  of  union.  The  new  Union,  which  the 
Hartford  conventionists  aimed  at  only  as  a  political  policy,  was  then 
achieved  with  a  broader  and  higher  purpose,  but  at  enormous  cost. 
Not,  however,  that  the  North  of  1814  was  less  in  earnest  than  the 
North  of  1860 ;  had  the  war  with  England  continued  a  year  or  two 
longer  to  widen  the  breach  between  the  North  and  the  South,  the 
War  of  Rebellion,  perhaps,  would  never  have  been  fought.  The 
new  Union  was  delayed  by  the  peace  for  half  a  century. 

The  Convention  met  on  the  15th  of  December,  and  remained  in 
session  for  three  weeks.1  It  sat  with  closed  doors  —  an  unfortunate 

1  The  delegates  were  :  From  Massachusetts  —  George  Cabot,  William  Prescott,  Harri- 
son Gray  Otis,  Timothy  Bigelow,  Stephen  Longfellow,  Jr.,  Daniel  Waldo,  George  Bliss, 
Nathan  Dime,  Hodijah  Baylies,  Joshua  Thomas,  Joseph  Lyman,  Samuel  S.  Wilde.  From 
Rhode  Island  —  Daniel  Lyman,  Samuel  Ward,  Benjamin  Hazard,  Edward  Manton.  From 
Connecticut — Chauncey  Goodrich,  James  Hillhouse,  John  Tread  well,  Zephaniah  Swift, 
Calvin  Goddard,  Nathaniel  Smith,  Roger  Minot  Sherman.  From  New  Hampshire  — 
Benjamin  West,  Mills  Olcott.  From  Vermont — William  Hall,  Jr.  The  last  three  were 
not  appointed  by  their  State  governments,  but  by  committees  of  certain  towns. 


232  WAK   WITH    ENGLAND.  [CHAI-.  IX. 

necessity,  if  a  necessity  at  all.  It  was  watched  with  great  interest, — 
on  one  side  with  hope,  on  the  other  with  anxiety  and  apprehension. 
Madison,  always  more  than-  half  doubtful  of  the  policy  of  his  own 
party,  was  in  trepidation,  and  Major  Jesup  was  sent  to  Hartford, 
ostensibly  to  fill  up  his  regiment  by  recruiting,  but  in  fact  to  watch 
the  Convention  and  send  bulletins  of  all  he  could  gather  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  State.  But  in  truth  there  was  nothing  to  fear,  if  any 
overt  act  was  looked  for  to  justify  the  interference  of  either  civil  or 
military  authority.  In  revolutions,  discussion  must  precede  action  ; 
this  Convention  was  not  only  met  for  deliberation  and  counsel ;  it  was 
probably  meant  in  some  degree  to  stave  off  rash  and  hasty  action. 

There  was  material  enough  in  the  report  which  the  members  of  the 
Convention  made  to  their  constituents  to  serve  as  a  basis  for  future 
revolutionary  action,  should  future  events  call  for  it.  For  abuses, 
it  said,  *•  reduced  to  a  system,  and  accumulated  through  a  course  of 
years,"  clothed  in  "  the  forms  of  law,"  enforced  by  an  executive,  and 
spreading  corruption  everywhere,  there  was  no  "summary  means  of 
relief  "  but  "  direct  and  open  resistance."  But  only  necessity  could 
sanction  such  resistance  when,  after  full  deliberation,  the  people 
were  "  determined  to  change  the  Constitution."  Though  many  be- 
lieved that  "  the  time  for  a  change  is  at  hand,"  there  were  consider- 
ations which  still  held  out  a  "  hope  of  reconciling  all  to  a  course 
of  moderation  and  firmness  which  might  avert  the  evil,  or  at  least 
insure  consolation  and  success  in  the  last  resort."  There  might  yet 
be  "  a  reformation  of  public  opinion,  resulting  from  dear-bought  ex- 
perience, in  the  southern  Atlantic  States They  may  discard 

the  influence  of  visionary  theorists,  and  recognize  the  benefits  of  a 
practical  policy."  But  "  events  may  prove  that  the  causes  of  our 
calamities  are  deep  and  permanent ;  "  and  when  that  shall  appear,  "  a 
separation  by  equitable  arrangement  will  be  preferable  to  an  alliance 
by  constraint  among  nominal  friends,  but  real  enemies,  inflamed  by 
mutual  hatred  and  jealousy,  and  inviting,  by  intestine  divisions,  con- 
tempt and  aggression  from  abroad."  A  separation,  then,  was  to  be 
the  ultimate  remedy,  unless  dangers  and  grievances  could  be  averted 
by  measures  which  the  report  discussed  at  length  and  embodied 
finally  in  a  series  of  resolutions,  proposing  :  That  unconstitutional 
drafts  of  militia  should  be  prevented ;  that  the  States  should  be  em- 
powered to  defend  their  own  territory  ;  that  only  the  free  inhabitants 
of  a  State  should  be  counted  in  the  apportionment  of  representatives 
and  direct  taxes  ;  that  a  two-thirds  vote  should  be  required  to  admit 
a  new  State,  to  interdict  commercial  intercourse,  or  to  declare  offen- 
sive war;  that  embargoes  for  more  than  sixty  days  should  be  for- 
bidden ;  that  naturalized  citizens  should  not  be  eligible  to  federal 


1814.]  DEFENCE    OF   NEW  ORLEANS.  233 

offices  :  that  the  President  should  be  ineligible  for  a  second  term, 
and  should  not  be  chosen  from  any  State  twice  in  succession  ;  and 
finally,  that  if  these  ends  were  not  attained,  and  peace  not  concluded, 
another  convention  should  be  held  in  Boston  in  June. 

But  that  convention  never  met.  Some  of  the  immediate  causes  of 
discontent  were  removed  by  the  sudden  termination  of  the  war,  which 
soon  followed  ;  and  in  the  universal  rejoicing  at  the  return  of  peace 
the  radical  evil  which  threatened  the  permanence  of  the  Union  was 
for  a  little  while  lost  sight  of,  and  left  to  be  dealt  with  by  another 
generation  in  another  way. 

The  British  forces,  meanwhile,  had  taken  virtual  possession  of  the 
Spanish  town  of  Pensacola,  and  used  it  as  a  station  to  fit  out 
expeditions  against  Mobile  and  New  Orleans.  To  this  place  on 
they  invited  their  savage  allies,  equipped  them  for  war,  and 
attempted  to  drill  them  in  military  organization.  The  commander 
also  offered  Lafitte,  the  so-called  pirate  of  Barataria  Bay,  a  captain's 
commission  and  liberal  grants  of  land  from  the  territory  to  be  con- 
quered, together  with  the  less  substantial  boon  of  "  the  blessings  of 
the  British  Constitution,"  if  he  would  assist  with  his  fleet  in  the  cap- 
ture of  Mobile  and  New  Orleans.1 

With  new  levies  of  troops,  raised  principally  in  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky,  Jackson  marched  southward  to  meet  this  new  invasion. 
In  September  an  attack  on  Fort  Bowyer,  at  Mobile,  by  the  British, 
was  repulsed,  with  a  loss  to  the  enemy  of  one  ship  and  many  men. 
At  Pensacola  they  blew  up  and  abandoned  Fort  Barrancas  at  Jack- 
son's approach  in  November,  and  he  took  possession  of  the  city.  The 
next  month  he  was  at  New  Orleans,  where  he  made  vigorous  prep- 
arations to  defend  that  port,  which,  if  taken,  would  give  to  Great 
Britain  possession  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and,  it  was  hoped, 
the  command  of  the  western  territory  of  the  United  States.2 

• 

Jackson  was  not  in  the  least  appalled  at  the  magnitude  and  impor- 
tance of  the  work  before  him.  He  called  out  the  militia;  he 

Jackson  at 

appealed  to  the  free  negroes,  who  enlisted  in  considerable  *'*'  Or- 

numbers  ;  he  enrolled  the  convicts  ;  he  accepted  the  services 

of  Lafitte  and  his  followers  ;  he  hurried  Coffee  with  two  thousand  men 

1  Lafitte  was  not  strictly  a  pirate,  but  a  receiver  of  goods  captured  by  half  piratical 
privateers.     When  he  hud  obtained  from  the  British  commander  a  full  committal  in  black 
and  white,  he  sent  the  letters  to  Governor  Claibome,  and  offered  his  services  in  defending 
the  coast,  on  condition  of  ail  act  of  oblivion  as  to  his  past  offences.     A  council  of  military 
and  naval  officers  decided  that  the  letters  were  forged,  and  an  expedition  under  Commo- 
dore Patterson  broke  up  his  establishment. 

2  An  officer  in  the  expedition,  after  describing  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  wrote: 
"  Whatever  nation,  therefore,  chances  to  possess  this  place,  possesses  in  reality  the  com- 
mand of  a  greater  extent  of  country  than  is  included  within  the  boundary-line  of  the 
whole  United  States."  —  Gleig's  Campaigns  at  Washington  and  New  Orleans.     The  London 


234 


WAR   WITH   ENGLAND. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


from  Mobile  to  New  Orleans  ;  he  inspected  every  rood  of  ground 
about  the  city ;  he  made  intrenchments,  proclaimed  martial  law,  in- 
spired the  people  with  his  own  confidence,  and  animated  them  with 
his  own  energy. 

The  British  had  captured  the  American  gunboats  in  Lake  Borgne, 
and  landed  twenty-four  hundred  men  nine  miles  below  the  city. 
With  about  two  thousand,  Jackson  went  down  to  meet  them.  It  was 
late  in  the  day  —  December  23  —  when  he  reached  his  enemy,  and 
the  attack  was  made  after  dark.  The  schooner  Carolina,  lying  in  the 
Mississippi,  discharged  a  broadside  which  enfiladed  the  British  left 
wing,  and  this  was  the  signal  for  the  onset.  There  was  almost  ab- 
solute darkness,  except  as  the  flashes  of  the  guns  lighted  up  one  and 


Jackson's  Headquarters — New  Orleans. 

another  part  of  the  field.     In  a  lit- 
tle while  the  two  armies  became 

largely  intermingled,  and,  as  a  participant  wrote,  "  no  man  could  tell 
what  was  going  forward  in  any  quarter,  except  where  he  himself 
chanced  immediately  to  stand."  After  two  or  three  hours  of  fight- 
ing, the  Americans  withdrew  to  their  fortifications  four  miles  from 
the  city.  Each  side  had  lost  more  than  two  hundred  men.1 

Hardly  was  this  action  over,  when  heavy  reinforcements  of  British 
troops  arrived,  and  with  them  Generals  Sir  Edward  Pakenham  and 
Samuel  Gibbs.  Pakenham  was  a  brother-in-law  of  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, and  had  won  distinction  in  the  Peninsular  war.  He  found 
the  army  he  had  come  to  command  encamped  on  a  narrow  strip  of 
low  and  level  land ;  on  one  side  was  a  broad  river  where  it  had  no 

Times  announced  that  "  most  active  measures  are  pursuing  for  detaching  from  the  do- 
minion of  the  enemy  an  important  part  of  his  territory." 

1  Unofficial  reports  by  British  officers  made  their  loss  over  five  hundred. 


1815.]  DEFENCE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  235 

shipping,  on  the  other  a  morass  ;  in  front  were  fortifications,  manned 
by  an  enemy  of  unknown  strength ;  two  vessels  in  the  river  annoyed 
the  camp  day  and  night,  and  frequent  frost  and  rain  filled  up  the 
catalogue  of  miseries. 

Pakenham  brought  a  few  heavy  guns  across  the  Peninsula,  and 
with  hot  shot  destroyed  one  vessel  and  drove  the  other  up  stream. 
After  a  costly  reconnoissance,  he  determined  upon  siege  operations, 
and  in  a  single  night  erected  bastions  of  hogsheads  of  sugar,  and 
mounted  thirty  guns.  On  the  morning  of  the  new  year  fire  was 
opened  upon  these  bastions  ;  sugar  offered  small  resistance  to  cannon- 
balls,  and  in  a  little  while  the  whole  treacherous  rampart  crumbled 
away.  Jackson  had  used  cotton  bales,  which,  though  impenetrable  by 
shot,  were  knocked  out  of  place  and  set  on  fire.  But  they  answered  a 
temporary  purpose  till  he  could  construct  earthworks  a  mile  and  a 
half  in  the  rear. 

In  the  week  that  followed,  both  sides  were  reenforced.  The  British 
dug  a  canal  across  the  isthmus,  and  dragged  boats  through  from  the 
lakes  to  send  a  force  against  the  batteries  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
river.  On  Saturday,  January  7,  Pakenham  climbed  a  tall  pine  tree 
and  surveyed  the  American  lines,  while  at  the  same  time  Jackson, 
standing  on  a  high  building,  with  an  imperfect  spy-glass  in  his  hand, 
was  watching  the  operations  of  the  enemy,  whom  he  saw  making  lad- 
ders and  binding  up  sugar-cane  into  fascines. 

Pakenham  intended  to  attack  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  before 
dawn  of  the  8th.  But  there  was  delay  in  the  passage  of  the  river  ; 
the  sun  rose ;  the  fog  began  to  roll  away,  and  he  impatiently  sent  up 
the  signal  rocket  and  ordered  his  men  forward  long  before  those  on 
the  west  side  were  ready.  The  Americans,  as  well  as  their  enemy, 
understood  the  signal,  and  as  many  fire-arms  as  could  be  laid  across 
the  parapet  were  pointed  down  the  Peninsula,  while  a  thirty-two 
pounder  was  loaded  to  the  muzzle  with  musket-balls.  The  enemy 
advanced  in  two  columns,  each  preceded  by  a  regiment  bearing 
ladders  and  fascines,  while  midway  between  were  placed  a  thousand 
Highlanders  ready  to  support  an  attack  on  both  wings  of  the  Ameri- 
cans ;  and  in  the  rear  was  a  strong  reserve.  Jackson's  men  were  un- 
erring with  the  rifle,  and  the  artillery  was  served  with  coolness  and 
precision.  When  the  thirty-two  pounder  discharged  its  bushel  of 
musket-balls,  the  entire  van  of  one  column  melted  away.  Both  of 
the  pioneer  i-egiments  wavered,  and  there  was  no  means  of  crossing 
the  ditch  till  the  men  could  be  rallied  and  the  lines  re-formed.  In 
the  attempt  to  do  this  under  a  withering  fire,  Pakenham  was  killed. 
General  Gibbs  was  wounded  mortally,  General  Keene  seriously,  and 
Colonel  Dale  fell  at  the  head  of  his  Highland  regiment.  Three  offi- 


236  WAR   WITH   ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

cers  who  reached  the  breastwork  were  instantly  shot,  and  fell  into  the 
ditcli  together  ;  of  three  others  who  reached  it  at  another  point,  two 
were  riddled  as  they  mounted  it,  and  when  the  thii'd  demanded  the 
swords  of  two  Americans  who  confronted  him,  he  was  smilingly  told 
to  look  behind  him.  He  turned,  and  found  that  the  men  he  sup- 
posed to  be  following  him  had  utterly  vanished  away.  In  twenty- 
five  minutes  the  action  was  over,  and  the  British  had  lost  seven 
hundred  killed,  fourteen  hundred  wounded,  and  five  hundred  prison- 
ers, while  the  American  loss  was  but  seventeen.  The  force  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  river  had  carried  the  American  works,  and  were 
pursuing  the  militia,  when  they  were  ordered  to  return.  The  British 
fleet,  ascending  the  river,  failed  to  pass  Fort  St.  Philip,  and  General 
Lambert,  on  whom  the  command  had  devolved,  disheartened  at  the 
disasters  which  had  befallen  the  enterprise,  abandoned  it  and  re- 
treated to  his  shipping. 

So  brilliant  a  campaign,  with  the  successes  at  the  North,  under 
General  Brown,  would  certainly  have  given  a  more  hopeful 
start  to  a  third  year  of  war,  had  the  war  been  continued. 
But  peace  was  concluded  at  Ghent  on  the  24th  of  December,  a  fort- 
night before  the  battle  of  New  Orleans.  The  glory  of  the  battle  was 
the  glory  of  the  skilful,  successful  defence  of  raw  militia  against 
the  best  veteran  troops  of  Europe,  and  from  that  there  can  be  no  de- 
traction. But  it  had  no  influence,  either  upon  continuing  the  war  or 
upon  ending  it. 

Two  incidents,  occurring  toward  the  close  of  this  campaign,  illus- 
trated Jackson's  despotic  and  violent  temper  as  well  as  his  stern, 
though  often  narrow,  sense  of  duty.  Both  became  formidable  weap- 
ons in  the  hands  of  partisan  opponents  when,  in  later  years,  he  became 
the  head  of  a  political  party.  After  the  unofficial  news  of  peace  had 
reached  New  Orleans,  and  when  the  official  announcement 
ofX.HUU '  was  daily  expected,  six  militia-men,  sentenced  by  court-mar- 
tial to  be  shot  for  desertion,  four  months  before,  were  ex- 
ecuted near  Mobile,  with  Jackson's  approbation.  These  men  —  one 
of  them  a  simple-minded,  conscientious  Baptist  preacher,  who  had  en- 
listed that  he  might  be  near  a  son  of  sixteen  who  was  also  in  the 
army  —  had  gone  home  after  the  expiration  of  their  three  months' 
service,  believing  that  to  be  the  full  time  for  which  they  could  be 
legally  held.  One  of  them  —  a  captain  —  was  not  even  guilty  of  this 
crime,  if  it  was  a  crime,  but  was  condemned  on  some  very  doubtful 
evidence  of  having  incited  others  to  desertion.  Three  months'  service 
had  been  up  to  that  time  both  the  law  and  the  custom,  and  these 
men  were  clearly  ignorant  of  any  law  that  could  hold  them  longer, 
though  there  was  a  recent  six  months'  enlistment  act  of  Congress 


1815.]  GENERAL  JACK  SOX.  237 

under  which,  it  was  assumed,  they  had  been  enlisted  on  proclamation 
of  the  Governor  of  the  State.  The  question  involved  —  an  honest  mis- 
understanding of  the  terms  of  enlistment  —  was  essentially  the  same 
as  that  which  led  to  the  revolt  of  the  whole  Pennsylvania  line  in  the 
War  of  the  Revolution,  which  Washington  settled  by  conciliatory 
measures.  But  Jackson  was  not  Washington.  The  stern  sense  of 
justice  in  Jackson  was  not  mollified  by  mercy.  He  saw  only  dis- 
obedience to  military  law,  and  was  unmoved  by  the  consideration 
that  the  war  was  probably  over,  and  that  the  service  would  not  be 
harmed  by  the  pardon  of  men  who  had  erred  through  ignorance. 
They  were  all  shot. 

In  New  Orleans  the  General  came  into  conflict  with  the  civil  au- 
thorities.    The  citizens  were  impatient  of  the  continuance 

.    ,   ,  ,  ,  i  •      i         i        i  i  11     Contest  with 

of  martial  law,  when  there  was  little  doubt  that  peace  had  the  cmi 
been  concluded,  though  the  authoritative  announcement  had 
not  yet  been  received.  The  newspapers  were  forbidden  to  publish 
any  statement  upon  the  subject  until  authorized  to  do  so  by  orders 
from  headquarters.  French  citizens,  who  had  not  been  backwai'd  in 
the  presence  of  real  danger,  sought  to  escape  military  service  when 
they  thought  it  no  longer  necessary,  by  asking  the  protection  of  the 
French  Consul.  He,  and  all  who  had  taken  certificates  from  him, 
were  ordered  to  leave  the  town  as  if  they  were  public  enemies.  A 
Mr.  Louaillier,  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  distinguished  for  his 
zeal  and  activity  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy,  was  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned for  protesting,  through  the  columns  of  a  newspaper,  against 
the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the  commanding  General.  Judge  Hall, 
who  issued  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  Louaillier's  favor,  was  also 
arrested  on  a  charge  "of  abetting  and  exciting  mutiny,''  imprisoned, 
and  then  banished  beyond  the  city  limits.  He,  however,  was  of  a  no 
less  determined  temper  than  Jackson  himself  ;  when,  a  few  days  after, 
peace  was  officially  declared,  he  summoned  the  General  before  him 
for  contempt  of  court,  and  fined  him  a  thousand  dollars,  which  Jack- 
son had  the  good  sense  to  pay  without  resistance,  even  refusing  to 
avail  himself  of  some  popular  tumult  that  was  raised  on  his  behalf. 
The  country  learned  from  these  early  incidents  in  his  cai'eer  the  char- 
acter of  the  man,  and  they  were  not  forgotten.  Four  years  afterward 
President  Monroe  thought  of  appointing  him  minister  to  Russia,  and 
asked  Mr.  Jefferson's  advice.  Jefferson's  answer  was  —  '•  Why,  good 
God !  he  would  breed  you  a  quarrel  before  he  had  been  there  a 
month  ! " l 

1  Diary,  when  Secretary  of  State,  in  Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 


Washington,  from  a  Sketch  made  about  1830. 


CHAPTER   X. 


MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


THE  NEWS  OF  PEACE.  —  ITS  EFFECT  UPON  THE  HARTFORD  MOVEMENT.  —  CHARACTER 
OF  THE  TREATY  OF  GHENT.  —  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR.  —  THE  ALGERINE  WAR. — 
CONDITION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  FINANCIAL  QUESTIONS. —  EFFECT  OF  THE 
TARIFF  UPON  NEW  ENGLAND  CITIKS.  —  CHARACTER  OF  MADISON.  —  ELECTION  OF 
MONROE. —  THE  FIRST  SEMINOLE  WAR.  —  REASONS  FOR  ANNEXING  FLORIDA. — 
THE  AFFAIR  AT  AMELIA  ISLAND.  —  JACKSON'S  CAMPAIGN'.  —  His  EXECUTION  OF 
PRISONERS.  —  His  DISPUTE  WITH  MONROE.  —  CESSION  OF  FLORIDA. 

THE  enthusiasm  and  joy  at  the  news  of  peace  were  absolutely  hila- 
Thenewg  nous  among  all  classes  of  the  people.  There  was  no  waiting 
of  peace.  ^Q  fcnow  ^\}e  terms  on  which  it  had  been  concluded  ;  it  was 
enough  to  know  that,  honorable  or  dishonorable,  advantageous  or  dis- 
advantageous, just  or  unjust,  wise  or  foolish,  terms  of  some  kind  had 
been  agreed  upon,  and  the  war  was  over.  In  truth,  it  was  better  to 
rejoice  first  and  reflect  afterwards.  Federalists  and  Democrats  could 
exult  that  there  was  war  no  more  ;  middle-aged  gentlemen  of  both 
parties,  eminent  for  the  grave  dignity  and  quiet  respectability  of  their 
lives,  could  mount  the  tables  at  public  dinners  and  dance  together  in 
white-top  boots,  among  the  empty  bottles,  in  token  of  amity  and  fra- 
ternity. There  was  time  enough  for  sober  after-thought  when  the 


1815.]  THE   NEWS   OF  PEACE.  239 

Government  should  see  fit  to  give  more  definite  intelligence.  In  the 
mean  while  both  parties  had  reason  enough  for  rejoicing :  one,  that  it 
was  extricated  from  a  war  which  had  proved  to  be  as  unwise  and  as 
useless  as  its  opponents  had  declared  at  the  outset  it  would  be  ;  the 
other,  that  their  wisdom  was  justified,  and  the  prophet's  reward  was 
theirs;  and  both  were  glad  to  agree  to  disagree  no  longer.  The 
news  from  Ghent  met  the  delegates  from  the  Hartford  Convention  at 
Washington.  It  was  not  a  time  to  present  their  report  of 

1  hffert  upon 

grievances,  and  they  made  no  sign.  It  was  thoroughly  Amer-  the^ifartford 
ican  to  seize  the  opportune  moment  to  silence  the  solemn 
appeal  to  reason  by  an  appeal  to  the  national  love  of  humor  and  the 
national  love  of  forgetting  anything  serious.  Otis  and  his  companions 
were  advertised  by  the  Democrats  as  strayed  or  stolen,1  and  a  suit- 
able reward  offered  for  their  return  to  their  anxious  friends  in  Boston. 
The  men  who  could  have  bravely  faced  a  gibbet,  trembled  and  fled 
before  a  joke. 

The  real  absurdity  of  the  situation,  nevertheless,  attaches  to  their 
opponents.  The  war  had  been  carried  on  upon  a  single  issue.  The 
Orders  in  Council  had  been  revoked  almost  at  the  outbreak  of  hostili- 
ties, and  Dearborn  and  Admiral  Warren  had  even  agreed  upon  a 
temporary  armistice  in  the  summer  of  1812,  which  the  Administration 
had  overruled  mainly  on  grounds  of  diplomatic  technicalities.  This 
left  the  impressment  of  seamen  the  sole  cause  of  quarrel.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Foreign  Relations  in  Congress,  in  a  report  upon  the  war.  in 
January,  1813,  said  :  "  The  impressment  of  our  seamen  being  deserv- 
edly considered  a  principal  cause  of  the  war,  the  war  ought  to  be 
prosecuted  until  the  cause  was  removed,"  notwithstanding  the  repeal 
of  the  Orders  in  Council.  When,  early  the  same  year,  commissioners 
were  appointed  to  negotiate  a  peace  on  the  proposed  mediation  of  Rus- 
sia, if  England  should  accept  it,  Secretary  Monroe  said  in  his  instruc- 
tions to  the  Commissioners :  "  If  this  encroachment  [impressment]  of 
Great  Britain  is  not  provided  against,  the  United  States  have  ap- 
pealed to  arms  in  vain.  If  your  efforts  to  accomplish  it  should  fail, 

1  ADVERTISEMENT.  —  MISSING.  —  Three  well-looking,  responsible  men,  who  appeared 
to  be  travelling  towards  Washington,  disappeared  suddenly  from  Gadsby's  Hotel  in  Balti- 
more on  Monday  evening  last,  and  have  not  since  been  heard  of.  They  were  observed  to 
l>e  very  melancholick  on  hearing  the  news  of  peace,  and  one  of  them  was  heard  to  say,  with 
a  great  sigh,  "  Poor  Caleb  Strong  ! "  [Federal  Governor  of  Massaehu>etts.]  They  took 
with  them  their  saddlebags,  so  that  no  apprehension  is  entertained  of  their  having  any 
intention  to  make  away  with  themselves.  Whoever  will  give  any  information  to  the  Hart- 
ford Convention  of  the  fate  of  these  unfortunate  and  tristful  gentlemen  by  letter  (post-paid) 
will  confer  a  favor  upon  humanity.  The  newspapers,  particularly  the  Federal  newspapers, 
are  requested  to  publish  this  advertisement  in  a  conspicuous  place,  and  send  in  their  bills 
to  the  Hartford  Convention.  —  P.  S.  One  of  the  gentlemen  was  called  Titus  Dates  [Har- 
rison Gray  Otis]  or  some  such  name.  —  National  Advocate,  February,  1815. 


240  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CiiAr.  X. 

....  you   will  return  home  immediately."     It   was  next  proposed 

to  open  negotiations  at  Gottenburg,  and  the  Secretary  wrote  again 

in  the  same  tone  :    "  This  degrading  practice   must  cease ; 

Instructions  ,,  ,  , ,        JT     .,      ,     ,-, , 

toc'ommis-    our  nag  must  protect  the  crew,  or  the  United  States  cannot 

cioners.  •  i  i  •      ^  i  •          ,.        n>i 

consider  themselves  an  independent  nation.  The  changed 
accent  of  the  same  voice,  a  few  months  later,  is  in  ludicrous  contrast 
with  the  eagle-scream  of  these  war-cries.  Early  the  next  year  —  in 
February —  Monroe  wrote  to  the  same  Commissioners  that  "should 
peace  be  made  in  Europe,  as  the  practical  evil  of  which  we  complain 
in  regard  to  impressment  would  cease,  it  is  presumed  the  British  Gov- 
ernment would  have  less  objection  to  a  stipulation  to  forbear  that 
practice  for  a  specified  term,  than  it  would  have,  should  the  war  con- 
tinue. In  concluding  a  peace  ....  it  is  important  to  the  United 
States  to  obtain  such  a  stipulation."  The  mind  of  the  Secretary 
changed  like  the  colors  of  the  chameleon.  Three  months  later  he 
wrote  to  the  Commissioners :  "  You  may  concur  in  an  article  stipu- 
lating that  the  subject  of  impressment  ....  be  referred  to  separ- 
ate negotiation.''  And  two  days  after  ordering  that  concession  the 
still  more  significant  instructions  were  sent,  to  "  ornit  any  stipula- 
tion on  the  subject  of  impressment,  if  found  indispensably  neces- 
sary to  terminate  it''  [the  war].  Thus,  "the  principal  cause  of 
the  war,"  as  the  Democratic  Congressional  committee  declared  it 
to  be  in  1813,  —  the  grievance  which  by  war  alone  could  be  set- 
tled, if  the  United  States,  as  Secretary  Monroe  said  in  1814,  were 
to  "consider  themselves  an  independent  nation,"  —  was  deliberately 
abandoned. 

The  American  Commissioners  at  Ghent 1  implicitly,  in  the  letter 
The  treaty  anc^  'n  tne  spirit,  obeyed  their  instructions.  In  the  course 
of  Ghent.  o£  j.jje  negotiations  with  the  English  Commissioners  they  de- 
clared that  "  the  causes  of  the  war  having  disappeared  by  the  mari- 
time pacification  of  Europe,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  does 
not  desire  to  continue  it  in  defence  of  abstract  principles  "  —  mean- 
ing by  abstract  principles  the  impressment  of  American  seamen  — 
"  which  have,  for  the  present,  ceased  to  have  any  practical  effect." 
Accordingly,  in  the  treaty  then  and  there  made,  the  subject  of  im- 
pressment was  not  even  alluded  to.  The  cost  of  the  war  in  human 
life  was  thirty  thousand  men ;  in  money  expended,  and  represented  by 
a  national  debt,  one  hundred  million  dollars  :  the  loss  in  public  and 
private  wealth,  in  the  paralysis  of  industry  and  prosperity,  was  be- 
yond any  estimate.  In  the  official  volume  of  Treaties  and  Conven- 
tions, published  by  the  United  States,  the  subject  of  the  Treaty  of 

1  The  American  Commissioners  were  :  John  Quiucy  Adams,  James  A.  Bayard,  Henry 
Clay,  Jonathan  Russell,  and  Albert  Gallatiu. 


4g^^ 

r 


FAC-SIMILES   OF  SIGNATURES   TO   TREATY   OF  GHENT. 


1815.]  THE  TREATY   OF   GHENT.  241 

Ghent  is  indexed  as  "  Peace,  Boundary,  Slave-trade."  Peace  it  cer- 
tainly secured  ;  the  question  of  boundaries  was  left  to  be  further  con- 
sidered by  commissioners  to  be  subsequently  appointed,  and  to  vex 
both  governments  for  another  thirty  years  ;  on  the  abolition  of  the 
slave-trade,  by  an  empty  generality  it  was  agreed  that  "  both  the  con- 
tracting parties  shall  use  their  best  endeavors  to  accomplish  so  desir- 
able an  object."  The  treaty  in  fact  was  not  so  good  as  that  con- 
cluded by  Jay  in  1794,  for  negotiating  which  he  was  burned  in  effigy 
in  the  streets  of  New  York  ;  nor  was  it  so  favorable  to  the  United 
States  as  that  sent  home  in  1806  by  Monroe  and  Pinckney,  which 
Jefferson  refused  to  submit  to  the  Senate.  It  concluded  peace,  and 
it  concluded  nothing  else. 

The  negotiations  were  prolonged  for  five  months.  Mr.  Adams  in 
his  diary  frequently  alludes  to  the  insolent  and  supercilious  tone  as- 
sumed by  the  English  towards  the  American  Commissioners,  and  often 
predicts,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  discussions,  that  they  could  last 
only  a  few  days  longer,  and  must  end  in  disagreement.  But  both 
parties  were  sincerely  desirous  of  peace,  and  it  was  easy  to  agree  upon 
that  when  at  last  it  was  determined  that  all  questions  between  the 
two  nations  should  be  left  essentially  where  they  were  when  the  war 
began.1  Six  months  afterwards,  however,  a  commercial  convention 
was  entered  into,  which  provided  for  reciprocity  of  trade  between  the 
two  countries,  but.  otherwise  was,  for  the  most  part,  a  repetition  of  the 
Jay  Treaty.  In  one  essential  particular,  however,  it  differed  from  the 
Jay  Treaty.  One  strong,  if  not  the  strongest,  objection  urged  against 
that  treaty  was,  that  it  failed  to  settle  the  question  of  the  payment  for 
slaves  who  had  escaped  to  the  British  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution. 
Now  Mr.  Monroe,  though  he  could  abandon  the  rights  of  Northern 
sailors,  on  whose  behalf,  it  was  pretended,  the  war  was  begun,  did  not 
forget  the  interests  of  the  slaveholders.  "  The  negroes  taken  from 
the  Southern  States,"  —  he  instructed  the  Commissioners  at  Ghent, — 
"  should  be  returned  to  their  owners,  or  paid  for  at  their  full  value." 
This  was  insisted  upon  by  the  Commissioners,  and,  it  was  thought, 
secured.  The  English  commanders  of  vessels,  however,  when  the  ren- 
dition of  the  slaves  was  demanded,  would  only  return  those  who  had 
been  taken  prisoners,  refusing  to  surrender  those  who  had  sought  pro- 
tection on  board  their  ships.  On  such  a  point  the  Government  w;is 
unyielding.  The  demand  was  insisted  upon  for  a  dozen  years  with 
unbending  pertinacity,  till  at  length,  Russia  construing  the  treaty  in 
favor  of  the  United  States,  England  paid  about  twelve  hundred  thou- 

1  Mr.  Clay  said,  in  a  conference  of  the  American  Commissioners  the  day  before  the  final 
agreement,  that  "  We  should  make  a  damned  bad  Treaty,  and  he  did  not  know  whether 
he  would  sign  it  or  not."  —  Diary  in  the  Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 
VOL.  iv.  16 


242  MOXROE'S    ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  X. 

sand  dollars  to  remunerate  the  slaveholders,  principal  and  interest, 
for  their  loss  in  slaves. 

The  end  of  the  war  was  as  inconclusive  as  the  beginning  was  un- 
Kffectof  wise,  and  its  conduct  imbecile.  To  all  this  it  is  both  an 
inefficient  and  illogical  answer  that  nevertheless  out  of  so 
much  that  \vas  evil  there  came  some  good.  Whatever  there  was  of 
good,  it  had  been  the  policy  of  the  Federalists  to  strive  for,  as  it  had 
been  the  policy  of  the  other  party  to  oppose,  through  the  sixteen 
years  of  the  administrations  of  Jefferson  and  Madison.  The  two  par- 
ties had  not  changed  places ;  but  the  Federal  party  —  partly  through 
their  own  mismanagement,  partly  through  the  essential  unity  of  a 
"solid  South,"  with  a  Northern  minority  —  was  overcome;  while 
the  Democratic  party  was  forced  by  the  progress  of  events,  and 
their  irresistible  pressure  —  the  war  among  them  —  first,  to  suc- 
cumb to,  and  then  to  accept  and  maintain  as  their  own,  the  political 
ideas  and  principles  they  had  so  long  resisted.  From  the  close  of 
the  war  of  the  Revolution  to  the  close  of  the  second  war  with  Eng- 
land, the  Federalists  maintained  that  the  United  States,  to  be  re- 
spectable and  respected,  must  be  a  strong  government,  literally  one 
and  indivisible,  not  merely  a  confederation  of  thirteen  independent 
States  ;  —  a  nation  free  from  the  entanglement  of  European  politics, 
with  a  navy  strong  enough  to  maintain  its  neutrality,  to  protect  its 
foreign  commerce,  and  defend  its  rights  upon  the  sea.  Great  revo- 
lutions have  not  been  often  successful  without  a  second  struggle ; 
and  it  was,  perhaps,  absolutely  inevitable  that  there  should  be  a 
second  war  with  England,  not  merely  to  wipe  out  old  grudges,  but 
that  the  people  of  the  United  States  should  be  brought  to  under- 
stand that  their  independence  was  not  achieved  till  they  were  united 
as  one  nation. 

It  did  not  hurt  England  so  far  as  her  desperate  struggle  with 
Napoleon  was  concerned,  but  the  war,  nevertheless,  had  its  lesson  for 
her  also  as  well  as  for  her  opponent.  Her  supremacy  as  a  naval 
power  was  no  longer  unquestioned.  Though  her  navy  was  the  largest 
in  the  world,  she  could  boast  no  longer  that  she  ruled  the  seas,  when 
a  young  nation,  that  three  years  before  was  almost  without  any  navy 
at  all,  could  meet  her  on  equal  terms,  and  beat  her  in  better  seaman- 
ship and  in  the  better  fighting  qualities  of  captains  and  men.  It 
was  a  humiliation  to  all  England,  —  not  to  be  rejoiced  in  on  that 
account,  though  even  in  that  not  altogether  unpleasing  to  the  un- 
regenerate  mind,  —  and  a  thing  to  be  proud  of,  inasmuch  as  it  secured 
to  the  United  States  that  respect  which  is  always  accorded  to  the 
strong.  The  Democrats  exulted  that  this  was  the  result  of  their 
war  ;  the  Federalists  —  while  not  reluctant  to  remind  their  opponents 


1815.] 


WAR  WITH   ALGIERS. 


243 


that  they  for  years  had  done  their  best  to  make  that  impossible  of 
which  they  now  boasted  —  rejoiced  in  that  naval  prowess  the  possibil- 
ity of  which  they  had  never  doubted.  Though  no  acknowledgment 
was  asked  for,  and  none  given,  that  the  visitation  of  American  ships 
and  the  impressment  of  American  seamen  were  national  outrages; 
and  though  no  stipulation  was  required,  nor  any  offered,  that  hence- 
forth they  should  cease  forever,  they  were  not  likely  to  occur  again, 
now  it  was  seen  with  how  much  vigor  they  were  sure  to  be  resented. 


Decatur  and  the   Dey  of  Algiers. 

Before  the  country  could  settle  down  into  absolute  quietude  there 
was  one  other  question  of  foreign  hostilities  to  be  disposed  of,  which 
related,  in  some  degree,  to  the  late  war.     The  Dey  of  Algiers,  dissat- 
isfied with  the  measure  of  the  usual  tribute,  had  declared  war  against 
the  United  States,  and  renewed  his  depredations  upon  Anier-  w.,rHitll 
ican  commerce.     In  the  spring  of  lSlf>,  Decatur  was  sent   A1e'ers- 
with  a  squadron  of  nine  vessels  to  the  Mediterranean.      In  June  he 
fell  in  with  an  Algerine  frigate  and  a  brig  of  twenty-two  guns,  and 


244  MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  X. 

captured  both  within  a  day  or  two  of  each  other.  A  few  days  after- 
ward his  whole  squadron  anchored  in  the  harbor  of  Algiers,  and 
Decatur  demanded  the  immediate  negotiation  of  a  treaty.  This  was 
acceded  to,  and  the  negotiation  was  carried  on  on  the  quarter-deck 
of  his  own  ship.  The  Dey  begged  hard  that  there  might  be  a  con- 
tinuation of  tribute,  if  only  a  little  powder,  for  form's  sake ;  for  the 
humiliating  deference  paid  to  these  piratical  principalities,  he  well 
knew,  if  boldly  broken  by  one  nation  would  no  longer  be  submitted 
to  by  the  rest.  "  If  you  insist  upon  receiving  powder  as  tribute," 
Decatur  replied  to  the  Dey's  demand,  '•  you  must  expect  to  receive 
balls  with  it,"  —  a  threat  to  do  that  which,  fourteen  years  before, 
Bainbridge  wished  might  be  done,  —  the  payment  of  tribute  from  the 
mouths  of  cannon.  The  threat  was  enough,  and  a  treaty  was  con- 
cluded with  Algiers,  to  be  followed  by  others  with  Tunis  and  Trip- 
oli ;  and  these  put  an  end  to  that  remarkable  submission  of  civilized 
nations  to  semi-barbarous  states,  which  had  existed  so  long  and  with 
so  little  reason. 

The  country  was  left  in  a  deplorable  financial  condition  as  a  result 
condition  °f  tne  war?  and  to  provide  some  remedy  for  this  was  the 
united  first  work  of  the  Administration.  The  banks,  excepting 
those  in  Boston,  had  suspended  specie  payments ;  the  paper 
currency  was  at  a  large  discount,  with  the  consequent  derangement 
of  the  business  of  the  country  ;  foreign  commerce  had  been  almost 
suspended,  and  the  people  were  burdened  with  taxation.  A.  J.  Dal- 
las, the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  proposed  as  a  measure  of  relief 
for  the  universal  distress,  that  a  new  national  bank  should  be  char- 
tered, with  a  larger  capital  and  enlarged  powers,  and  that  the  tariff 
Financial  should  be  readjusted.  This  plan  was  adopted  ;  a  bank  was 
measures.  chartered  for  one  and  twenty  years,  with  a  capital  of 
$35,000,000,  a  portion  of  the  stock  to  be  owned  by  the  Government, 
and  to  be  represented  in  the  management  by  five  government  direc- 
tors in  a  board  of  twenty-five.  By  the  tariff  he  recommended,  the 
average  duties  on  imports  amounted  almost  to  a  prohibition,  and  were 
avowedly  intended  as  an  encouragement  and  protection  to  American 
manufactures. 

This  policy  was  sustained  by  the  Democratic,  or  Southern,  party, 
conflicting  and  opposed  by  the  Federalists,  especially  of  New  England, 
interests.  jj.  wag  noj.  so  much  a  question  of  abstract  political  economy 
that  divided  the  parties,  as  one  of  sectional  interest.  The  capital  of 
New  England  was  invested  in  commerce,  and  she  deprecated  the 
adoption  of  a  policy  which  in  repulsing  articles  of  foreign  production 
would  ruin  the  carrying  trade  and  compel  those  engaged  in  it  to  find 
a  new  use  for  their  capital.  The  South,  on  the  other  hand,  were 


JOHN    C.   CALHOUN. 
(From  a  j/ortr<ii>  by  Kiliij  at  th<-   ('in<-i>i-<in  Ail  f;<tlli-ry.) 


1816.] 


FINANCIAL  QUESTIONS. 


245 


anxious  to  create  a  home  market  for  their  great  staple,  cotton, — 
against  which  there  was  a  discriminating  duty  in  England,  —  and  to 
encourage  the  domestic  manufacture  of  those  coarse  fabrics  indispen- 
sable in  a  cotton -growing  and  slave-holding  region,  which  were  now 
imported  and  made  of  India  cotton.  The  question  really  was  one  of 
slave  labor  against  free  labor,  though  it  was  wrapped  up  in  the  eu- 
phemism of  protec- 
tion to  American 
industry  —  the  free 
trade  party  being 
led  by  Daniel  Web- 
ster, of  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  tariff 
party  by  John  C. 
Calhoun,  of  South 
Carolina.  So  im- 
mediate was  the  ef- 
fect of  this  policy, 
that  the  value  of  the 
imports  fell  off  the 
first  year  about 
thirty-two  per  cent, 
although  the  in- 
crease the  first  year 
of  peace,  —  by 
which  the  renewed 
prosperity  of  the 

*  J.  U  ~>~ 

country  was  measured,  —  had  been  about  nine  hundred  per  cent. 
Nor  was  this  the  whole  of  the  price  which  Northern  commerce  had 
to  pay,  that  cotton  might  have  a  wider  market  at  home  by  the  in- 
crease of  domestic  manufactures.  In  the  adjustment  of  cap- 

•  •    i  »•  Effect  upon 

ital  and  trade  to  an  enforced  industrial  policy,  the  country  Xew  En«- 

.    ,          .    .  *       land  cities. 

was  compelled  to  pass  through  a  commercial  crisis  ot  great 
severity,  and  a  paralysis  fell  upon  the  flourishing  seaports  of  New 
England,  from  Portsmouth  to  Long  Island  Sound,  from  which  they 
never  recovered.  Newburyport,  Salem,  Plymouth,  New  London, 
Newport,  and  other  places  which  had  been  centres  of  an  important 
and  lucrative  foreign  commerce,  sank  into  insignificance,  or,  if  they 
recovered  some  measure  of  prosperity,  acquired  it  in  other  ways.  It 
is  true,  Manchester,  Lowell,  Lawrence,  Fall  River,  Pawtucket,  Wa- 
terbury,  and  many  other  places  became,  in  the  course  of  years,  the 
seats  of  great  manufacturing  enterprise  and  wealth,  but  they  owe 
their  existence  to  the  indomitable  energy  and  industry  of  a  people 


The  Old  United   States   Bank,    Philadelphia. 


246  MOXROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  X. 

which  no  legislative  interference  with  the  natural  laws  could  sup- 
press. 

The  ensuing  Presidential  contest  was  decided  by  the  result  of  the 
war.  Xot  only  was  the  anti-war  party  annihilated,  but  power  re- 
Political  mained  in  the  almost  undisputed  possession  of  that  faction 
which  had  taken  it  from  the  Federalists  sixteen  years  before, 
and  had  held  it  ever  since.  As  Madison  had  succeeded  Jefferson,  so 
it  was  determined  that  Monroe  should  succeed  Madison.  The  sov- 
ereignty of  the  Union  was  in  the  South,  and  the  South  was  Virginia. 
The  Northern  wing  of  the  party  was  strong  enough  as  an  ally  to 
make  it  all-powerful ;  it  was  not  strong  enough  to  assert  any  ascen- 
dency of  its  own.  It  would  have  made  a  Northern  man  President  if 
it  could,  and  its  choice  would  have  fallen  upon  Daniel  D.  Tompkins 
of  New  York.  Tompkins  was  the  "  war-Governor  "  of  that  period. 
By  his  energy,  executive  ability,  and  personal  pecuniary  sacrifices, 
he  had  done  as  much,  perhaps  more,  than  the  Administration  itself, 
in  conducting  the  war  on  the  borders  of  Canada.  His  qualifications 
for  the  chief  magistracy  were  far  superior  to  those  of  Monroe,  who, 
though  an  amiable  man,  had  little  strength  of  character,  and  little  apti- 
tude for  affairs  of  moment ;  was  more  anxious  for  personal  popularity 
than  the  independence  and  dignity  of  his  administration  ;  tenacious 
upon  petty  questions  of  Presidential  etiquette,  which  he  was  more 
fitted  by  nature  to  control  than  affairs  of  state.  But  Monroe  was  a 
Virginian,  devoted  to  the  slave-power,  while  Tompkins,  the  war-Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  was  disqualified  by  Northern  birth. 

Nominations  for  the  Presidency  and  Vice-presidency  were  at  that 
Election  of  time  made  in  a  Congressional  caucus,  and,  —  as  under  the 
Mouroe.  equally  pernicious  system  of  national  conventions  now  in  use, 
—  the  only  share  the  people  had  in  filling  those  high  offices  was  in  go- 
ing through  the  formality  of  voting  for  the  choice  of  the  party  leaders. 
The  vote  in  the  Electoral  College  for  Monroe  as  President,  and  for 
Tompkins  as  Vice-president,  —  for  the  Northern  Democrats  were  per- 
mitted to  have  that  honorary,  but  otherwise  insignificant  and  power- 
less office,  —  was  one  hundred  and  eighty-three,  while  only  thirty-four 
were  given  to  the  opposing  Federal  candidate,  Rufus  King. 

The  tranquillity  of  Monroe's  administration  was  soon  seriously 
threatened  by  the  renewal  of  trouble  with  the  Southern  Indians  ;  or, 
rather,  such  measures  were  taken  by  General  Jackson  in  dealing 
with  the  hostile  movements  of  a  handful  of  savages,  that  grave  and 
The  erst  .*em-  well-founded  apprehensions  were  felt  that  the  country  was 
inoiewar.  aboiit  to  be  forced  into  a  war  with  both  Spain  and  Eng- 
land. The  origin  of  the  difficulty  \va.s  twofold  :  first,  the  injustice 
which  has  always  marked  the  treatment  of  Indian  tribes  whose  lands 


1816.] 


THE    FIRST   SEMIXOLE   WAR. 


247 


were  coveted  by  the  whites ;  and  secondly,  the  revival  of  the  old 
grievance,  that  Florida  was  a  refuge  for  the  fugitive  slaves  of  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina.  The  treaty  made  at  Fort  Jackson  at  the  end  of 
the  campaign  of  1814,  by  which  the  Creeks  were  compelled  to  sur- 
render a  large  portion  of  their  territory  in  Georgia  and  Alabama, 
was  repudiated  by  many  of  them.  They  resented  any  encroachment 
upon  those  lands,  and  it  was  easy  to  kindle  that  resentment  into  open 
hostility.  Naturally  they  made  common  cause  with  the  Seminoles  of 
Florida ;  and  they,  ever  since  their 
expulsion  from  Georgia  in  the  co- 
lonial wars  of  the  previous  cen- 
tury, had  been  objects  of  hostility 
to  the  planters  of  that  State.  The 
greed  of  land  and  the  greed  of 
slaves  combined  were  the  most  pow- 
erful incentives  to  an  Indian  war. 

The  Seminoles  had  never  with- 
held a  welcome  to  the  Georgia 
negro  who  preferred  their  wild 
freedom  to  the  lash  of  an  over- 
seer on  a  cotton  or  rice  plantation. 
The  Georgians  could  never  forget 
that  the  grandchildren  of  their 
grandfathers'  fugitive  slaves  were  Daniel  D-  TomPkins 

roaming  about  the  Everglades  of  Florida,  mere  unproductive  capital, 
and  that  to  these  there  were  constant  additions  of  other  ignorant 
creatures  Avho  stupidly  abandoned  the  lovely  and  ameliorating  in- 
fluences of  the  Christianity  and  civilization  of  the  plantation,  for  life 
among  the  Seminoles.  The  American  Revolution  was  a  mockery, 
and  republicanism  a  snare,  if  this  state  of  things  was  to  continue. 
The  first  duty  of  the  Federal  Government,  the  Georgians  thought, 
was  to  catch  all  these  runaway  negroes ;  and  the  Federal  Government 
only  needed  to  be  reminded  of  its  duty.  The  first  treaty  made  by 
the  United  States,  in  1790,  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
was  one  with  the  Creeks  for  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves ;  and  to  give 
the  form  of  legality  to  any  steps  that  might  be  taken  for  their  recla- 
mation, it  was  assumed  that  the  Seminoles  were  a  party  to  the  treaty, 
though  not  a  man  of  that  tribe  had  anything  to  do  with  the  nego- 
tiation. But  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has  always  been 
remarkable  for  the  ingenuous  simplicity  of  its  devices  to  accomplish 
its  ends  where  slavery  was  concerned.  So  long  as  there  were  Semi- 
noles in  Florida,  and  so  long  as  Florida  belonged  to  Spain,  just  so 
long  would  the  negroes  of  Georgia  find  an  asylum  in  Florida  with 


248  MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION!  [CHAP.  x. 

the  Seminoles.  If  at  any  time  it  should  be  desirable  to  declare  war 
against  these  Indians,  and  prudent  to  invade  the  Spanish  province 
in  pursuit  of  them,  what  could  be  more  convenient  than  to  have 
somewhere  about  the  Secretary  of  State's  office  a  violated  Seminole 
treaty  ? 

A  Avar  with  the  Indians  of  Florida,  therefore,  was  always  literally 
and  emphatically  a  slave-hunt.  A  reclamation  for  fugitives  was 
always  repulsed  by  the  Seminoles  and  the  Spaniards,  and,  as  they 
could  be  redeemed  in  no  other  way,  Georgia  was  always  urging  the 
Federal  Government  to  war.  It  was,  of  course,  desirable  for  other 
reasons,  that  Florida  should  become  a  part  of  the  United  States ; 
but  the  paramount  reason  for  all  movements  against  either  the  Semi- 
noles or  Florida,  was  the  determination  to  capture  negroes  who  had 
been  running  away,  for  several  generations,  and  to  deprive  others, 
who  might  escape  in  future,  of  a  place  of  refuge.  This  was,  of  course, 
perfectly  natural  on  the  part  of  the  Georgia  slaveholders ;  the  point 
to  be  observed  is,  the  recognition,  almost  unquestioned,  of  the  assump- 
tion that  the  protection  of  slavery  was  the  great  duty  of  the  Federal 
Government,  and  that  it  was  never  to  be  permitted  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  those  who  did  not  believe  this  to  be  its  chief  end  and  aim. 
In  1811  a  secret  act  was  passed,  authorizing  the  seizure  of 

Seizure  of  r 

Amelia  Florida,  and  a  General  Mathews  of  Georgia  took  possession 
of  Amelia  Island.  Spain  remonstrated,  and  Madison  dis- 
avowed the  act  of  Mathews,  and  recalled  him,  probably  because  the 
foreign  relations  of  the  Government  were  too  critical  at  that  mo- 
ment to  admit  of  any  other  course.  But  the  project  was  only  post- 
poned, not  abandoned. 

After  the  departure  of  the  British  army,  in  1814,  Colonel  Nichols 
"  Negro  remained  in  Florida,  induced  to  do  so,  apparently,  from  sym- 
Fort  "  pathy  with  the  Indians.  He  built  a  fort  for  them  on  the 
Appalachicola,  not  far  above  its  mouth,  and  within  the  boundaries  of 
Florida,  supplying  it  with  large  quantities  of  arms  and  ammunition. 
On  his  return  to  England,  —  taking  with  him  some  of  the  chiefs  with 
whom  he  had  pretended  to  negotiate  a  treaty  on  behalf  of  the  English 
Government,  but  without  the  slightest  authority,  —  he  left  the  fort 
in  the  hands  of  the  Seminoles.  From  their  possession  it  soon  passed 
into  that  of  the  negro  refugees,  and  for  a  year  or  more  General  Ed- 
mund P.  Gaines,  who  was  in  command  on  that  frontier,  was  unwearied 
in  his  complaints  to  the  Government  at  Washington  of  the  dangerous 
character  of  this  "Negro  Fort."  It  is  quite  likely  that  the  complaint 
was  well  founded  ;  for  such  a  post  outside  of  the  boundaries  of  the 
United  States  was  so  convenient,  and  apparently  so  safe  a  refuge  for 
fugitive  slaves  as  to  be  a  serious  threat  to  the  quiet  possession  of 


1816.]  INVASION   OF   FLORIDA.  249 

slave  property.  Gaines's  complaints  were  listened  to  by  the  Admin- 
istration, and  the  subject  was  referred  to  General  Jackson.  There 
was  no  doubt  on  his  part  as  to  what  should  be  done.  He  wrote  with 
entire  frankness  to  Gaines,  that  the  fort  "  ought  to  be  blown  up,  re- 
gardless of  the  ground  on  which  it  stands,"  —  in  the  territory  of  a 
friendly  power,  —  and  "  the  stolen  negroes  and  property  returned  to 
their  rightful  owners." 

This  was  the  real  reason  for  an  advance  upon  the  fort  by  a  de- 
tachment under  Colonel  Duncan  L.  Clinch,  in  July,  1816.  The  pre- 
text was,  that  a  fleet  of  boats,  then  coming  up  the  river  from  New 
Orleans  with  supplies  for  the  American  Fort  Scott,  might  be  inter- 
rupted in  its  progress.  Clinch's  advance,  with  an  evidently  hostile 
purpose,  would,  of  course,  provoke  such  an  interruption,  whether  it 
had  been  previously  intended  or  not.  A  boat's  crew  was  fired  upon 
as  the  fleet  approached. 

The  gunboats,  under  Sailing-master  Loomis,  then  warped  up  stream 
and  made  an  attack.  It  did  not  last  long.  A  red-hot  shot  from  the 
fleet  entered  the  magazine  of  the  fort,  where  were  stored  nearly  eight 
hundred  barrels  of  gunpowder.  The  explosion  that  instantly  fol- 
lowed laid  the  fort  in  ruins,  killed  immediately  two  hundred  and 
seventy  of  the  three  hundred  and  thirty-four  inmates  ,  —  negroes  and 
Indians,  men,  women,  and  children  ;  and  of  the  sixty-four  left  alive, 
all  were  so  grievously  wounded  that  most  of  them  soon  died.  Of  the 
few  survivors,  an  Indian  chief,  and  Gannon  the  negro  commander, 
were  given  to  some  friendly  Seminoles  in  Clinch's  detachment,  to  be 
put  to  death  after  the  Indian  manner.  This  was  in  retaliation  of  the 
death  by  torture  of  one  of  Loomis's  men,  who  had  been  taken  pris- 
oner a  few  days  before. 

Neither  Seminoles  nor  negroes  needed  other  warning  or  other  in- 
centive to  the  most  desperate  hostility  than  this  signal  chastisement. 
A  year  passed,  however,  before  Gaines  found  another  pretext  for 
attack.  Now  and  then  settlers  were  murdered  and  settlements  robbed 
by  the  Indians;  but,  said  King  Hatchy,  "while  one  American  has 
been  justly  killed,  while  in  the  act  of  stealing  cattle,  more  than  four 
Indians  have  been  murdered,  while  hunting,  by  these  lawless  free- 
booters." He  probably  spoke  the  truth.  Gaines  accused  him  of  re- 
ceiving "  a  great  many  of  my  black  people  among  you."  "  I  harbor 
no  negroes,"  answered  the  King ;  and,  he  added.  "  I  shall  use  force 
to  stop  any  armed  Americans  from  passing  my  lands  or  my  towns." 

At  Fowltown,  on  Flint  River,  the  Indians  erected  the  war-pole,  and 
danced  the  war-dance  around  it.     The  chief  warned  Colonel  FoW|town 
Twiggs,  in  command  at  Fort  Scott,  not  to  cross  the  Flint  destr°yed 
River.     "  That  land  is  mine,''  he  said.     "  I  am  directed  by  the  pow- 


250 


MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION; 


[CHAP.  X. 


ers  above  and  the  powers  below  to  protect  it.  I  shall  do  so."  Gaines 
arrived  at  Fort  Scott  with  a  reenforcement  of  regular  troops,  and 
summoned  the  chief  before  him.  He  refused  to  obey.  Twiggs 
marched  upon  the  town,  and  killed  some  of  the  people.  Gaines, 
soon  after,  burned  the  village  to  the  ground. 

For  this  act  there  came  swift  vengeance.  A  few  days  later  the 
Seminoles  lay  in  ambush  on  the  river  near  Fort  Scott,  surprised  a 
passing  boat  containing  forty  soldiers  under  Lieutenant  Scott,  besides 
some  women  and  children,  and —  except  four  of  the  men,  who  swam 


Indians  in  Ambush. 


to  the  opposite  bank,  and  one  of  the  women,  who  was  held  as  a  pris- 
oner by  a  chief  —  killed  them  all. 

Affairs  were  now  ripe  for  the  appointment  of  Jackson  to  bring  this 
border  war  to  a  conclusion.  Not  that  there  was  any  want  of  soldierly 
ability  in  Gaines,  nor  any  lack  of  earnestness  in  driving  Indians  from 
the  lands  they  claimed  as  their  own,  or  in  running  down  the  slaves 
who  had  escaped  from  their  masters.  But  he  was  ordered  upon 
another  service. 

Amelia  Island,  at  the  mouth  of  St.  Mary's  River,  on  the  coast  of 
Florida,  had  long  been  the  resort  of  lawless  men,  whence 
goods  were  smuggled  to  the  mainland,  where  fugitive  slaves 
were  supposed  to  find  a  refuge,  and  slaves  imported  from  Africa  were 
landed.  As  the  foreign  slave-trade  was  prohibited  by  law,  its  exist- 


Amelia 
Island. 


1816.] 


AMELIA  ISLAND. 


251 


ence  —  if  it  did  exist  to  any  extent  —  on  Amelia  Island  was  a  spe- 
cious ground  of  complaint  against  its  people.  But  it  was  only  a 
hollow  pretence  of  national  virtue  ;  for  negroes  were  imported  from 
Africa  at  the  rate  of  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  a  year  long  after 
that  trade  was  declared  illegal ;  no  serious  effort  was  ever  made  by 
the  Federal  Government  to  put  a  stop  to  it,  and  Southern  members 
of  Congress  openly  defied  any  attempt  to  enforce  the  law.  If  the 
island,  therefore,  was  of  any  essential  aid  to  that  traffic,  Georgia  and 
South  Carolina  would  have  insisted  that  it  be  let  alone.  There  were 
other  and  more  imperative  reasons  for  its  seizure. 

It  was  probable  that  Florida  might  soon  be  transferred  by  Spain  to 
the  United  States,  provided  the  spirit  of  revolution  and  independence, 


Amelia   Island. 


which  was  rapidly  stripping  Spain  of  all  her  American  possessions, 
should  leave  her  Florida  to  transfer.  It  was  for  the  interest,  there- 
fore, of  the  United  States  to  permit  no  outrages  but  her  own  to  be 
visited  upon  Florida.  The  South  American  revolutions  had  attracted 
thither  European  adventurers  of  various  nationalities,  and  some  of 
them  at  length,  when  the  revolutionary  business  was  dull  in  other 
places,  found  their  way  to  Amelia  Island.  Some  of  them  bore  South 
American  and  Mexican  commissions,  and,  with  that  island  as  a  ful- 
crum, Florida  was  to  be  shot,  as  a  star  of  lesser  magnitude,  into  the 
constellation  of  new  republics.  Sir  Gregor  McGregor,  a  Scotchman, 
whose  lieutenant  was  one  Woodbine,  an  English  officer,  declared  that 
he  meant  to  hand  over  the  province,  when  its  independence  should 
be  achieved,  to  the  United  States.  Nobody  seems  to  have  believed 
him ;  but  his  intentions  were  of  small  consequence,  for  he  was  driven 


252  MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  X. 

off  by  an  Englishman  named  Hubbard.  But  next  came  a  Commodore 
Aury,  an  associate  of  McGregor,  and  he  drove  off  Hubbard.  The 
Administration  at  Washington  now  thought  it  time  to  interfere;  for 
these  adventurers  were  too  strong  for  the  Spanish  authorities  of 
Florida  to  cope  with,  and  if  the  province  was  to  be  acquired  by 
treaty,  its  safety  must  be  insured  against  the  designs  of  the  South 
American  revolutionists.  To  aid  in  carrying  out  this  policy,  Gaines 
was  sent  to  the  coast,  though,  before  he  arrived,  Aury  had  surren- 
dered to  Commodore  Henley. 

A  few  days  before  Jackson  received  orders  from  the  Secretary  of 

War,  Calhoun,  to  take  command  of  the  expedition  against 

opinions  on    the  Seminoles,   the  General  wrote  a  private  letter  to  the 

the  war. 

President,  in  which  he  plainly  set  forth  the  plan  which  he 
thought  should  be  adopted  in  conducting  the  campaign.  The  letter 
was  written  as  a  commentary  upon  the  orders  sent  to  Gaines, — 
which  Jackson  had  read,  —  authorizing  him  to  cross  the  frontier  in 
pursuit  of  the  Indians,  "  but  to  halt  and  report  to  the  department  in 
case  the  Indians  should  shelter  themselves  under  a  Spanish  fort." 
"  Permit  me  to  suggest,"  wrote  Jackson,  "  the  catastrophe  that  might 
arise  by  Genei-al  Gaines's  compliance  with  the  last  clause  of  your 
order."  Should  Gaines,  he  said,  defeat  the  Indians,  and  they  should 
take  refuge  with  the  Spaniards  at  Pensacola  or  St.  Augustine,  and  he 
should  then  halt  there  for  further  orders  from  Washington,  the  dis- 
contented militia  would  desert  him,  leaving  him  only  the  regulars 
with  which  to  defend  his  position.  Then  the  Indians,  reenforced  by 
the  Spaniards,  perhaps  by  Woodbine's  partisans,  or  by  Aury,  with  a 
force  from  Amelia  Island,  might  attack  Gaines,  and  the  result  would 
be  probably  "  defeat  and  massacre." 

To  guard  against  this  possible  catastrophe  consequent  upon  certain 
improbable  contingencies,  —  that  is,  the  desertion  of  the  militia,  and 
Gaines's  neglect  to  retreat,  as  an  act  of  common  prudence,  when  thus 
abandoned  ;  the  renewal  of  hostilities  by  the  beaten  Indians  ;  the  in- 
itiation of  war  with  the  United  States  by  the  Spaniards  ;  an  alliance 
with  Woodbine  or  Aury,  who  had  invaded  Florida  that  they  might 
wrest  it  from  Spain,  —  to  guard  against  the  "  defeat  and  massacre  " 
which  was  to  follow  this  concatenation  of  events,  Jackson  declared 
that  '•  the  arms  of  the  United  States  must  be  carried  to  any  point 
within  the  limits  of  East  Florida  where  an  enemy  is  permitted  and 
protected."  This  would  be  to  leave  it  to  the  discretion  of  a  young 
general  to  involve  the  country  in  a  war  with  Spain,  perhaps  with  other 
powers,  without  waiting  for  consultation  with  the  Government  at 
Washington,  without  authority  from  the  President,  without  regard  to 
that  provision  of  the  Constitution  which  restricts  the  right  to  declare 
war  to  Congress  alone. 


1816.]  JACKSON'S  CAMPAIGN   IN   FLORIDA  253 

The  great  soldier  was  always  more  frank  than  clear-headed.  All 
East  Florida,  he  said,  ought  to  be  seized  simultaneously  with  the 
seizure  of  Amelia  Island,  —  forgetting,  or,  if  not  forgetting,  indiffer- 
ent to  the  fact  that  Amelia  Island  was  to  be  taken,  not  because  it  was 
a  part  of  East  Florida,  but  because  the  authorities  of  that  province 
were  not  strong  enough  to  hold  the  island  against  the  revolutionary 
adventurers,  who  were  to  be  driven  out  of  it  by  a  friendly  force, 
partly  that  it  might  be  restored  to  Spain.  But  he  was  clear  enough 
as  to  his  own  motives,  declaring  that  the  province  should  be  "  held 
as  an  indemnity  for  the  outrages  of  Spain  upon  the  property  of  our 
citizens."  And  those  outrages  were  —  what?  Solely  that  the  fugi- 
tive slaves  of  Georgia  were  free  when  they  crossed  the  border-line  of 
Florida.  He  was  clear,  also,  in  this:  that  this  act  of  war  against  Spain 
might  involve  us  in  "  a  war  with  Great  Britain  or  some  of  the  Con- 
tinental powers  combined  with  Spain."  His  method  of  avoiding  this 
difficulty  was  perfectly  characteristic.  "  This  [the  seizure  of  Florida] 
can  be  done  without  implicating  the  Government.  Let  it  be  signified 
to  me,  through  any  channel  (say  Mr.  J.  Rhea),  that  the  possession 
of  the  Floridas  would  be  desirable  to  the  United  States,  and  in  sixty 
days  it  will  be  accomplished."  If,  in  other  words,  the  Government 
wished  to  outrage  and  rob  Spain,  but  wanted  courage  to  assume  the 
responsibility,  with  its  probable  consequences,  he,  Andrew  Jackson, 
who  was  not  responsible  to  other  governments,  was  ready  to  help  his 
own  to  commit  an  act  of  war  without  incurring  the  penalty,  if  the 
Government  would  only  give  him  a  private  hint. 

In  this  letter  is  the  plan,  baldly  and  frankly  laid  down,  of  his  cam- 
paign against  the  Seminoles.  When  the  order  to  assume 
command  reached  him,  regardless  of  the  direction  to  call  upon  pafgn  ,i 
the  militia  of  the  border  States  through  their  governors,  he 
raised  a  volunteer  force  among  his  old  companions  in  arms  in  Tennes- 
see, who  would  follow  him  anywhere.  With  these  and  the  troops  left 
by  Gaines,  he  marched  into  Florida.  On  the  site  of  the  Negro  Fort  he 
built  and  garrisoned  another,  which  he  called  Fort  Gadsden.  From 
that  point  he  advanced  towards  the  Bay  of  St.  Marks,  almost  with- 
out resistance,  and  easily  dispersing  the  few  Seminoles  who  ventured 
to  impede  his  progress.  The  Spanish  Governor  of  the  fort  at  St. 
Marks  was  in  no  condition  to  make  a  defence,  and  Jackson,  on  the 
plea  that  some  of  the  enemy  were  harbored  there,  marched  in  on  the 
7th  of  April,  hauled  down  the  Spanish  flag,  and  raised  the  American 
in  its  place.  An  American  armed  vessel  had  arrived  in  the  bay  a 
day  or  two  before,  and,  by  displaying  English  colors,  had  enticed 
on  board  two  well-known  Seminole  chiefs,  the  prophet  Francis,  and 
Himollemico,  who  was  supposed  to  have  been  the  leader  in  the  mas- 


254 


MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION. 


[ClIAP.  X. 


sacre  of  Captain   Scott's  party  on   the  Appalaehicola.     They  were 
brought  on  shore,  and  immediately  hanged  by  Jackson's  orders. 

After  two  or  three  days'  delay  the  inarch  was  resumed,  a  strong 
garrison  being  left  at  St.  Marks.  The  intention  was  to  surprise  and 
destroy  the  chief  Billy  Bow-legs  and  his  band  at  the  Indian  town 
Suwannee,  a  place  of  resort  for  negro  refugees.  The  town  was  a  hun- 
dred miles  distant,  and  Jackson  was  too  late.  Warning  of  his  coin- 
ing had  been  received  from  St.  Marks  ;  the  women  and  children  had 


Capture  of  Indian  Chiefs. 

been  sent  to  a  place  of  safety  across  the  river,  and  the  men,  after 
some  slight  resistance,  followed. 

At  St.  Marks  Jackson  had  taken  prisoner,  as  he  was  about  to  mount 
his  horse  to  escape,  one  Alexander  Arbuthnot,  a  Scotchman 

Arbuthnot  TT  T  TT  i  '     *          e 

and  Aiubris-  and  an  Indian  trader.  He  had  a  depot  ot  goods  near  Su- 
wannee, and  had  written  his  son  to  remove  them  to  a  place 
of  safety.  By  this  means  the  Indians  were  warned  of  the  advance 
of  the  Americans.  Jackson  chose  to  look  upon  this  man  as  an  enemy, 
and  he  was  kept  in  confinement  till  the  army,  on  its  return  march, 
reached  St.  Marks.  At  Suwannee,  an  Englishman,  Robert  C.  Am- 
brister,  an  officer  of  the  British  army  who  had  been  suspended 
from  duty  for  a  year  for  being  engaged  in  a  duel,  blundered  into  the 
camp,  intending  to  join  the  Indians,  and  was  also  detained  as  a  pris- 
oner. On  his  arrival  at  St.  Marks,  Jackson  ordered  both  men  to  be 
tried  by  a  court  martial,  over  which  Gaines  presided. 


1816.]  EXECUTION    OF   PRISONERS  BY  JACKSOX.  255 

Both  were  found  guilty.  Arbuthnot  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged, 
and  Ambrister  to  be  shot.  The  verdict  in  Ambrister's  ease,  how- 
ever, was  reconsidered  by  the  court,  and  a  sentence  for  the  infliction 
of  fifty  lashes  and  a  year's  imprisonment  substituted  for  that  of  death. 
Jackson  preferred  the  first  sentence;  or,  rather,  he  chose  to  ThPjrexocu- 
reject  the  final  decision  of  the  court,  and  the  man  was  shot  ' 
by  his  orders.  He  approved  the  finding  in  the  case  of  Arbuthnot, 
and  he  was  immediately  hanged.1 

Neither  in  the  law  of  nations,  the  laws  of  war,  the  law  of  neces- 
sity, nor  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  was  there  any  justification 
for  these  executions.  There  was  hardly  even  the  respectability  of 
a  "  Lynch  "  court  attached  to  the  court  martial  ;  for  that  wild  form 
of  justice  sometimes  has  the  excuse  of  the  absence  of  any  other  law 
for  the  punishment  of  crime,  or  the  aroused  indignation  of  a  com- 
munity refuses  to  restrain  itself  and  await  the  slower  process  of  law. 
No  such  plea  could  be  made  in  these  cases.  Neither  Arbuthnot  nor 
Ambrister  was  a  dangerous  criminal,  if  they  were  criminals  at  all. 
The  offence  of  the  latter  was  that  in  an  idle  mood  he  had  come  to 
Florida  from  New  Providence,  —  his  uncle  was  the  Governor  of  the 
Bahamas,  —  and  in  the  mere  love  of  adventure  had  joined  the  In- 
dians, whose  wrongs  aroused  his  sympathy.  Taken  in  arms  against 
the  United  States,  though  not  within  her  territory,  he  was  a  pris- 
oner of  war,  and  the  rights  as  well  as  the  penalties  of  that  con- 
dition were  his.  Arbuthnot's  case  was  far  stronger  even  than  this. 
He  was  not  a  soldier,  but  a  peaceful  trader.  His  sympathies  also 
were  enlisted  on  behalf  of  the  Indians;  but,  whatever  influence  he 
had  gained  over  them  was  exercised  always  to  restrain  them  from 
going  to  war.  There  was  no  evidence  produced  before  the  court  to 
show  that  he  had  urged  them  to  hostilities  that  was  not  either  clearly 
false,  —  as  the  testimony  of  unscrupulous  rivals  in  trade,  —  or  abso- 
lutely inconclusive ;  and  the  proof  was  abundant  and  irrefragable  of 
his  earnest  efforts  to  preserve  the  peace.  But  Jackson's  mind  was 
incapable  of  weighing  evidence,  and  with  him  headlong  credulity 
and  headstrong  passion  usurped  the  seat  of  judgment. 

1  Jackson,  who  could  shoot  or  hang  prisoners  of  war  without  regard  to  the  law  of 
nations,  the  laws  of  his  country,  or  the  laws  of  humanity,  when  a  negro  was  taken  at 
Suwannee,  whose  acts  were  those  of  an  open  and  dangerous  eneuiv,  could  oulv  see  in  him 
the  chattel  personal  who  had  run  away.  The  General  took  to  himself  great  credit  for  hav- 
ing restored  to  a  lady  in  Georgia  her  fugitive  slave,  whom,  as  an  able  military  leader,  lie 
would  have  hanged  without  ceremony  had  the  negro  been  either  a  white  man  or  an  Indian. 
That  heroic  impetuosity  of  character,  that  exalted  sense  of  duty,  which  his  worshippers 
delight  in  believing  so  completely  governed  all  the  actions  of  his  life,  at  this  time  hid  from 
his  sight  so  momentous  a  possibility  as  involving  nations  in  war ;  but  these  great  qual 
ities  which,  it  is  declared,  always  distinguished  him,  always  palliated  his  errors  of  judg- 
ment or  of  passion,  were  under  the  calmest  and  most  complete  control  in  the  mollifying 
presence  of  a  thousand-dollar  negro. 


256  MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  X. 

Jackson  had  reached  Fort  Gadsden,  on  his  return  march,  when  a 
protest  against  this  invasion  of  Spanish  territory  was  sent  him  by  the 
seizure  of  Governor  of  Pensacola.  He  turned  back  on  the  instant,  oc- 
Pcnsacoia.  CUpieJ  Pensacola,  and  then  took,  with  slight  resistance,  the 
fort  of  Carries  de  Barrancas,  to  which  the  Governor  had  fled.  He 
regretted  afterward,  in  a  letter  to  a,  friend,  that  he  had  not  stormed 
the  fortress,  taken  the  Governor,  and  hanged  him,  for  an  alleged 
atrocity  perpetrated  by  a  band  of  Indians.1 

The  execution  of  the  Englishmen,  the  act  of  war  against  Spain  by 
the  invasion  of  Florida,  the  building  of  a  fort  within  her  boundaries, 
and  the  occupation  of  her  own  forts,  were  all  subjects  of  warm  and 
protracted  debates  in  Congress.  Jackson's  defence  was,  that  the  Sec- 
retary of  War  had  given  to  him  full  power  to  conduct  the  campaign 
as  should  seem  best  to  himself.  Spain,  he  said,  had  failed  to  fulfil 
that  article  of  the  treaty  by  which  she  was  bound  to  restrain  the 
Indians  within  her  borders  from  hostilities  against  the  United  States  ; 
and  assuming  to  himself  the  right  to  judge  whether  the  treaty  had  been 
violated,  and  what  should  be  the  remedy  in  case  it  had,  he  deter- 
mined that  the  punishment  of  the  Seminoles  should  be  used  as  an 
occasion  for  outraging  Spain,  though  that  act,  if  resented,  might 
bring  on  war  not  only  with  her  but  with  one  or  more  of  her  Euro- 
pean allies.  The  obvious  and  unanswerable  reply  was  —  that  it  was 
for  the  Government,  not  a  general  in  the  field,  to  decide  whether  a 
friendly  power  had  disregarded  a  treaty  ;  that  the  sovereign  prerog- 
ative of  deciding  upon  war  or  peace  could  not  be  usurped  either  by 
the  President  or  the  Secretary  of  War,  much  less  by  a  major-general 
of  the  army  ;  that  the  assumption  of  these  rights,  and  the  arbitrary 
hanging  and  shooting  of  prisoners,  were  acts  of  military  despotism  not 
to  be  tolerated  by  a  free  people  under  a  constitutional  government. 
Partisan  feeling,  nevertheless,  was  strong  enough  to  permit  Jackson 
to  escape  even  a  Congressional  rebuke. 

But  it  was  not  till  thirty-five  years  afterward  that  Jackson's  real 
defence  was  made  known  in  an  '•  Exposition  "  written  by 
him,  and  published  after  his  death.2  The  letter  to  Monroe 


—  the  substance  of  which  we  have  given  —  and  an  answer 
to  which  Jackson  declared  he  received,  he  fell  back  upon  as  the  real 
justification  of  his  conduct.  As  in  that  letter  he  had  stated,  in  the 
most  unequivocal  terms,  what  he  believed  should  be  the  conduct  of  a 
campaign  against  the  Seminoles,  so  now  he  maintained  that  the  Ad- 
ministration knew  precisely  what  he  would  do  when  it  gave  him  com- 
mand ;  and  that  in  the  absence  of  an  answer,  he  had  the  right  to  as- 

1  See  letter  to  G.  W.  Campbell,  in  Parton's  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  vol.  ii. 

2  In  Thirty  Years  in  the  United  States  Senate,  by  Thomas  H.  Bentou,  vol.  i. 


1819.] 


JACKSON   AND  MONROE. 


257 


sume  that  silence  was  an  implied  assent  to  all  that  he  proposed  to 
do.  But  he  was  not  left  even  to  draw  an  inference.  "  Let  it  be 
signified  to  me,"  he  had  written,  "through  any  channel  (say  Mr.  J. 
Rhea),  that  the  pos- 
session of  the  Flori- 
das  would  be  desira- 
ble to  the  United 
States,  and  in  sixty 
days  it  will  be  ac- 
complished." And 
Mr.  Rhea, —  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress 
from  Tennessee,  — 
Jackson  avers,  did 
write  him  "  a  con- 
fid  en  tial  letter," 
and,  by  direction  of 
the  President,  as- 
sured him  that  "  he 
[the  President]  ap- 
proved of  his  sug- 
gestions." 

If  this  were  true, 
then  it  was  Monroe 
who    was   responsi- 
ble for  the  outrage- 
ous violation  of  the 
Constitution  perpetrated  by  Jackson,  for  his  contempt  of  the  faith  of 
treaties,  his  disregard  of  the  dangers  of  foreign  wars,  his 
relentless  cruelty  which  trampled  all  law  under  foot.     But  tion  of  re- 

111  11  i  iini  cponsibility. 

unfortunately  the  letter  could  not  be  produced.  ihea  de- 
clared that  he  had  written  it ;  another  person  averred  that  he  had 
read  it ;  but  it  had  been  destroyed,  Jackson  says,  at  the  President's 
request,  in  the  spring  of  1819,  lest  "it  should  fall  into  the  hands  of 
those  who  would  make  an  improper  use  of  it.*'  The  gentle  and  com- 
pliant General,  though  at  that  moment  his  conduct  was  under  debate 
in  the  United  States  Senate  and  before  the  whole  country,  though  it 
was  a  question  whether  his  utter  ruin  and  utter  dishonor  were  not 
impending,  meekly  burnt  the  letter  which  was  his  complete  justihYa- 
tion. 

The  account  which  others  gave  of  this  correspondence  is  not  less 
remarkable.  Monroe  acknowledged  that  he  had  received  the  Gen- 
eral's letter,  but  that,  being  ill,  he  gave  it  to  Calhoun,  who  read  and 


» 


James    Monroe. 


VOL.    IV. 


17 


258  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  X. 

returned  it,  remarking  that  it  was  confidential,  and  that  the  Presi- 
dent must  answer  it.  The  President  declares  that  he  did  not  answer, 
that  he  even  forgot  its  existence,  and  did  not  read  it  till  long  after- 
ward. The  question  is  thus  narrowed  down  to  one  of  veracity,  or 
accuracy  of  memory,  between  Monroe  on  one  side,  and  Jackson,  with 
his  two  friends,  on  the  other.  Perhaps  the  President  forgot ;  per- 
haps he  lied.  He  was  not  a  very  strong  or  a  very  wise  man  ;  but  he 
was  a  weaker  man  than  he  has  ever  been  accused  of  being,  if,  know- 
ing Andre\v  Jackson  as  he  must  have  known  him,  he  threw  aside 
and  forgot  a  letter  which  his  Secretary  of  State  had  read,  and  said 
was  confidential,  and  "  he  must  answer." 

But  whether  Jackson's  letter  was  answered  or  not,  it  was  quite 
sufficient  for  his  purpose  that  it  should  not  be  answered.  When 
Calhonn  read  the  bold  proposition  of  this  man  to  seize  Florida  on 
his  own  responsibility,  if  the  Administration  feared  to  have  it  done 
by  their  orders,  he  could  hardly  have  failed  to  know  what  was  about 
to  happen  unless  hindered  by  prompt  and  energetic  interference. 
But  he  did  nothing  ;  the  President  did  nothing ;  and  tlie  moral  re- 
sponsibility for  this  was  hardly  less  than  if  they  had  approved  di- 
rectly of  all  they  knew  Jackson  would  certainly  do. 

In  this  entanglement  of  assertion  and  contradiction,  the  truth  will 
probably  never  be  known.  Either  Jackson  and  his  two  friends  as- 
serted what  they  knew  to  be  absolutely  false,  in  regard  to  the  letter, 
or  Monroe  failed  to  remember  what  it  would  seem  impossible  for  him 
to  forget,  or  else  deliberately  denied  what  he  knew  to  be  true.  Even 
then,  there  remains  the  enigma  of  Calhoun's  course,  who,  knowing  pre- 
cisely what  Jackson  proposed  to  do,  did  nothing  to  prevent  it,  and 
yet  gave  it  afterward,  in  all  the  cabinet  discussions,  according  to  Mr. 
Adams's  Diary,  his  unqualified  disapprobation.  Was  he  honest  in 
this  disapprobation?  This  at  least  is  certain  —  that  the  acquisition 
of  Florida  was  determined  upon  by  the  Administration.  During  all 
these  months  the  Spanish  Minister  in  Washington,  Onis,  and  the 
Secretary  of  State,  Adams,  were  in  negotiation  upon  a  treaty.  An 
irresponsible  seizure  of  the  province  might  hasten  Spain  to  come  to 
terms  lest  there  should  be  nothing  left  her  to  come  to  terms  about. 
Should  she  refuse  to  come  to  any  terms,  and  the  Administration  be 
determined  to  take  Florida  by  force,  it  would  be  a  good  initiative 
war  measure  to  have  American  garrisons  in  several  of  her  important 
forts.  If  this  was  the  policy  of  the  Administration,  no  more  effectual 
instrument  to  carry  it  out  could  be  found,  though  he  might  be  an 
unconscious  one,  than  Andrew  Jackson. 

The  Spanish  Minister  protested  against  the  invasion  of  the  terri- 
tory of  his  sovereign,  but  he,  nevertheless,  hastened  —  whether  it 


Cfi 

•2 


1819.]  JACKSON   AND   MONROE.  259 

was  intended  or  not  that  he  should  be  so  influenced  —  the  negotia- 
tions for  a  treaty.     In    February,  1819,  it  was  concluded,   CcsBionof 
though  the  ratification  was  delayed  for  two  years  by  Spain,  fi,1""^^ 
The   Floridas  were  ceded  to  the  United  States,  the  latter  State8- 
agreeing  to  pay  the  claims  of  American  citizens  upon  Spain  to  the 
amount  of  five  million  dollars.      The    Sabine,    instead   of   the    Rio 
Grande,  was  agreed  upon  as  the  dividing  line  between  the  territories 
of  the  two  governments  west  of  the  Mississippi ;  —  that  line  to  run 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Sabine  to  the  32d  parallel,  thence  north  to 
the  Red  River  and  along  it  to  the  100th  meridian,  thence  north  to 
the  Arkansas  and  along  it  to  its  source  on  or  near  the  42d  parallel 
and  thence  west  to  the  Pacific.1 

1  See  page  146,  supra. 


CHAPTER  XL 


MONROE  S    ADMINISTRATION. 


THE  MISSOURI  QUESTION.  —  EXTENSION  OF  SLAVERY.  —  DOMESTIC  SLAVE-TRADE. — 
INCREASE  OF  THE  SLAVE  POWER.  —  THE  COMPROMISE  LINE  OF  36°  30'.  —  A 
NORTHERN  MEASURE.  —  CONGRESSIONAL  STRATEGY.  —  No  ADMISSION  OF  FREE 
STATES  WITHOUT  SLAVE  STATES.  —  RANDOLPH'S  "  DOUGH-FACES."  —  COMPROMISES 
IN  CONGRESS  AND  CABINET.  —  LIMITED  MEANING  OF  FOREVER.  —  CLOSING  YEARS 
OF  MONROE'S  SECOND  TERM.  —  THE  TARIFF.  —  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS. — 
STEAM  ON  THE  LAKES.  —  FIRST  OCEAN  STEAMER.  —  THE  "MONROE  DOCTRINE." 
—  ELECTION  OF  JOHN  QUINCV  ADAMS  TO  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

WHILE  the  Florida  question  was  under  consideration  in  Congress, 
there  suddenly  arose  another,  not  less  significant  as  to  the 

Slavery  re-  J  ° 

reives  anew  nctual  cliiiracter  of  the  government,  and   far  more  momen- 

impetus. 

tons  in  its  influence  upon  the  welfare  of  the  people  and 
their  future  history.  The  two  antagonistic  elements  struggling  for 
mastery  in  the  Union  —  the  civilization  of  the  North  achieving  results 
in  intellectual,  moral,  political,  and  material  happiness  that  only  the 
labor  of  the  heads  and  hands  of  free  men  can  achieve  ;  and  that  rude 
condition  of  society  at  the  South  where  the  laborer  was  little  more 
than  a  beast  of  burden,  existing  for  the  convenience  of  a  small  privi- 
leged class  which  recognized  neither  the  dignity,  the  beauty,  nor  the 
power  of  an  equality  of  rights  as  the  true  order  of  human  society — 
these  two  forces  were  brought  for  the  first  time  fairly  and  squarely 
face  to  face.  The  compromise  agreed  upon  in  framing  the  Constitu- 
tion, which  unfortunately  had  acknowledged  that  slavery  might  have 
a  legal  existence,  was  about  to  do  its  perfect  work.  The  permission 
to  exist  unmolested  was  thought,  at  first,  all  that  the  Constitution 
granted ;  but  with  toleration  the  system  had  grown  strong  enough 
to  assert  that  it  had,  not  merely  the  right  to  exist,  but  the  power  to 
govern. 

"  Let  us  alone,"  the  slaveholders  had  cried  out  at  the  formation  of 
the  Constitution.  Some  of  them  really  believed,  as  all  the  North  was 
sincerely  persuaded,  that  so  unprofitable  a  system  as  that  of  slave- 
labor  would  soon  be  abandoned  when  the  cheap  supply  from  Africa 
ceased,  and  there  were  no  longer  any  fresh  and  virgin  lands  to  retreat 


1818.]  THE   DOMESTIC   SLAVE-TRADE.  261 

to  from  the  worn-out  fields  of  the  Atlantic  States.  Whatever  force 
there  was,  if  there  were  any,  in  this  view  of  the  subject,  was  nullified 
first  by  Whitney's  invention  of  the  cotton-gin,  and  next  by  the  ac- 
quisition of  Louisiana.  The  demand  for  cotton  for  manufacture  was 
enormously  increased  when  the  seed  could  be  freed  from  two  hundred 
pounds  of  the  fibre  in  a  single  day  by  the  gin,  whereas  only  a  single 
pound  or  two  could  be  so  cleansed  in  a  day  by  hand.  The  value  of 
slave-labor  rose  in  proportion,  though  this  would  have  soon  reached 
;»  limit  had  not  the  new  lands  ou  the  lower  Mississippi  opened  a  vast 
field  for  the  profitable  employment  of  slaves  in  the  production  of 
sugar  and  tobacco,  as  well  as  of  cotton. 

In  the  eastern  portion  of  the  older  States,  where  the  soil  was 
already  exhausted,  or  was  sure  soon  to  be,  slaves  became  a  more  val- 
uable possession  than  ever.  A  market  that  it  seemed  almost  impos- 
sible to  over-stock,  was  opened  for  the  surplus  production  of  men  and 
women  on  the  worn-out  lands  where  they  soon  would  have  been  a 
burden.  The  extension  of  slavery  saved  it  from  gradual  extinction, 
in  this  opening  of  a  new  slave-trade  which  no  foreign  legislation  could 
render  precarious,  and  no  domestic  legislation  would  be  per- 

'  The  domes- 

Ill  It  ted  tO  tOUCh.      Its  importance  to  eastern  stock-breeders,   tic  slave- 

trade. 

when  fully  established,  was  shown  in  a  report  of  a  south- 
western agricultural  society,  which  avowed  it  to  be  a  sound  princi- 
ple, in  the  management  of  a  plantation,  to  work  up  a  gang  of  negroes 
in  seven  years,  and  supply  its  place  by  new  purchases,  rather  than 
attempt  to  prolong  the  lives  of  a  gang  in  hand  by  moderate  labor. 
The  demand  for  slaves,  in  a  market  so  active  as  that,  was  as  certain 
as  the  demand  for  beeves  in  the  shambles  of  a  great  city. 

There  was  some  avowed  natural  abhorrence,  even  among  those  who 
profited  by  it,  to  this  inter-State  traffic  in  the  colored  natives  of  the 
South.  The  leading  men  of  that  part  of  the  country  and  their  sub- 
servient followers  of  the  North  —  remembered  chieflv  for  that  sub- 
serviency —  maintained,  indeed,  with  increasing  zeal  the  comprehen- 
sive doctrine  announced  many  years  before  by  a  Northern  man,  — 
Sedgwick,  a  member  of  Congress  from  Massachusetts,  —  who  said, 
"  to  propose  an  abolition  of  slavery  in  this  country  would  be  the 
height  of  madness."  But  there  were  some  among  the  slaveholders, 
like  the  eccentric  John  Randolph  of  Virginia,  who,  while  upholding 
slavery,  denounced,  without  restraint,  the  traffic  carried  on  at  the 
kitchen-doors  and  in  the  huts  of  Southern  plantations,  regardless  of 
any  other  consideration  than  the  market  price  and  the  soundness  in 
wind  and  limb  of  the  young  men  and  women  torn  from  their  homes 
for  the  allotted  seven  years  of  life  and  service  in  the  southwest. 

Thus  in  the  progress  of  mechanical  invention  in   the  production 


262  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  XI. 

and  manufacture  of  cotton,  and  by  the  acquisition  of  new  territory, 
slavery  had  come  to  put  on  quite  another  aspect  from  that  which  it 
presented  when  Southern  statesmen  had  wept  over  it  as  a  burden 
imposed  on  the  colonies  by  a  tyrannical  step-mother.  They  had, 
indeed,  never  taken  any  effectual  steps  to  rid  themselves  of  that 
burden,  and  if  they  were  not  quite  frank  enough  to  thank  England 
for  her  share  in  the  bestowal  of  what  they  now  accepted  as  a  bless- 
ing, there  were  many  who  were  grateful  for  the  foresight  that  had 
cherished  it.  It  was  for  the  children  now  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  fathers.  Of  what  value  would  the  compromises  of 
the  Constitution  be  to  them  if,  by  the  admission  of  new  free  States, 
Necessity  —  while  the  number  of  the  slave  States  remained  unaltered 
*ioneof""ave  or  only  s^gntly  increased,  —  they  should  be  shorn  of  polit- 
ical power?  There  must  be  new  slave  States  in  which  five 
slaves  should  be  counted  as  three  Northern  freemen  in  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  South  in  the  lower  house  of  Congress  —  new  slave 
States  to  keep  the  balance  of  State  representation  even  in  the  Senate. 
As  an  industrial  system,  slavery  would  sting  itself  to  death  if  not  per- 
mitted to  uncoil  and  expand ;  as  a  political  system,  it  would  be  stran- 
gled in  the  hands  of  the  young  giant  by  its  side,  if  checked  in  its 
growth  for  want  of  nutriment. 

The  South  could  not,  therefore,  afford  to  give  up,  without  a  valu- 
able equivalent,  a  foot  of  territory  whose  soil  was  suitable  for  the 
products  of  slave- labor.  By  the  Spanish  treaty,  at  this  time  under 
discussion,  the  claim  to  all  the  region  between  the  Sabine  and  the 
Rio  Grande  was  abandoned  ;  and,  though  Florida  was  to  be  gained 
for  the  occupation  of  slavery,  and  that  safe  refuge  for  self-emanci- 
pated slaves  was  to  be  broken  up  forever,  yet  the  surrender  of  all 
claim  to  the  southwestern  region  was  looked  upon  as  a  great  sacri- 
fice. The  possible  ai'ea  of  the  extension  of  slavery  was  by  so  much 
limited,  and  the  South  was  all  the  more  determined  to  defend  the 
remaining  territory,  where  slaves  could  be  profitably  used,  against  the 
encroachments  of  free  men  and  free  labor. 

In  March,  1818,  the  citizens  of  Missouri  asked  permission  of  Con- 
gress to  form  a  State  constitution,  and  to  be  admitted  to  the 
soifriques-  Union.  It  was  too  late  for  any  action,  beyond  the  report  of 
a  committee,  at  that  session  ;  but  when  action  should  be 
taken  it  would  settle  the  question  whether  the  fundamental  principle 
of  the  Republic  was  liberty  or  slavery  ;  whether  the  rights  of  free 
men  and  of  free  labor  must  yield  to  the  privilege  claimed  by  slave- 
holders for  the  exclusive — necessarily  exclusive  —  occupation  of 
the  soil  by  their  slaves  whenever  a  conflict  should  arise  between 
these  two  forces  ;  and  whether  the  government  of  the  country  should 


1818.] 


THE   EXTENSION    OF   SLAVERY. 


•263 


be  in  the  hands  of  the  people  or  in  the  hands  of  a  class  who  derived 
their  power  from  their  ownership  of  slaves.  By  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  the  people  had  consented  to  leave  the  respon- 
sibility for  the  continuance  of  slavery  to  those  States  where  it  then 
existed.  It  was  maintained,  as  a  just  consequence  of  that  agree- 
ment, that  slavery  might  be  carried  into  territory  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  Mississippi,  belonging  originally  to  those  States,  and  that  new 
States  created  out  of  that  territory  should  be  admitted  to  the  Union 
with  the  right  to  hold  slaves  unquestioned.  But  the  purchased  Ter- 
ritory of  Louisiana,  on  the  western  side  of  the  river,  belonged  to  the 
United  States,  not  to  several  States  ;  and  the  question  now  was, 


Choteau's    Pond,   1820,  —  now  in  St.    Louis. 

whether  the  Federal  Government  should  deliberately  establish  slavery 
by  law  where  hitherto  it  had  existed,  if  it  existed  at  all,  by  suffer- 
ance only. 

The  clumsy  pretence  had  been,  that  the  responsibility  for  slavery 
did  not  rest  upon  the  whole  country,  in  spite  of  the  constitutional 
provisions  —  the  toleration  of  the  foreign  slave-trade  for  twenty 
years  ;  the  representation  of  property  in  slaves  by  the  three-fifths 
rule  ;  and  the  rendition  of  fugitives,  which  made  the  law  of  slavery 
paramount  to  the  natural  law  of  freedom,  to  the  remotest  corner  of 
the  Union.  This  soothing  figment,  that  the  North  had  nothing  to 
do  with  slavery,  lulled  the  sluggish  Northern  conscience  and  befogged 
Northern  intelligence ;  and  it  was  a  convenient  plea  for  the  slave- 


264  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  XI. 

holders  to  assert,  when  it  suited  their  purpose,  that  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment had  nothing  to  with  the  system.  But  to  establish  slavery 
de  novo  in  territory  belonging  to  the  United  States,  by  the  action  of 
Congress,  would  be  to  take  away  both  pretence  and  plea.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  Constitution  was  primarily  "  to  establish  justice,  insure 
domestic  tranquillity,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty."  The  enslavement  of  a  portion  of  the  people 
was  to  violate  justice,  jeopard  domestic  tranquillity,  interfere  with 
the  general  welfare,  and  deny  the  blessings  of  liberty,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  all  who  were  not  slaveholders.  The  framers  of  the 
Constitution  had  weakly  consented  to  let  slavery  alone  ;  but  neither 
in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  that  instrument,  nor  by  any 
rightful  exercise  of  power  pertaining  to  human  governments,  could 
such  a  system  be  created  as  a  legal  condition  by  act  of  Congress  or 
by  State  legislation. 

Nevertheless,  the  fathers  had  eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the  children's 
Power  of  the  teeth  were  set  on  edge.  The  Constitution  had  put  political 
power  into  the  hands  of  the  slaveholders  as  a  class,  and  the 
alternative  presented  now,  as  when  the  Constitution  was  adopted,  was 
submission,  or  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  The  North,  though  in  the 
majority  in  Congress,  were  defeated,  after  a  long  and  anxious  struggle, 
first,  by  superior  organization,  and  secondly,  by  the  adherence  of  a  few 
Northern  allies  to  the  party  determined  upon  the  extension  of  slavery. 
"The  slave-drivers,  as  usual,"  —  wrote  John  Quincy  Adams,  the  Sec- 
retary of  State,  in  his  Diary,  —  "whenever  this  topic  is  brought  up, 
bluster  and  bully,  talk  of  the  white  slaves  of  the  Eastern  States,  and 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  oceans  of  blood  ;  and  the  Northern 
men,  as  usual,  pocket  all  this  hectoring,  sit  down  in  quiet,  and  submit 
to  the  slave-scourging  republicanism  of  the  planters."  They  were  not 
many  who  thus  submitted,  but  they  were  enough.1 

1  Mr.  Adams  doubted  if,  under  the  Constitution,  Congress  had  the  right  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  a  territory  where  it  already  existed.  But  he  did  not  shrink  from  a  considera- 
tion of  the  question  of  dissolution.  "  If,"  he  wrote,  "  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  should 
result  from  the  .--hive  question,  it  is  as  obvious  as  anything  that  can  be  foreseen  of  futurity, 
that  it  must  shortly  afterwards  he  followed  by  the  universal  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  .  .  . 
A  dissolution,  at  least  temporary,  of  the  Union  as  now  constituted,  would  be  certainly 
necessary  [for  emancipation],  and  the  dissolution  must  be  upon  a  point  involving  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery,  and  no  other.  The  Union  might  then  be  reorganized  on  the  principle  of 
emancipation.  This  object  is  vast  in  its  compass,  awful  in  its  prospects,  sublime  and  beau- 
tiful in  its  issue.  A  life  devoted  to  it  would  be  nobly  spent  or  sacrificed."  He  neverthe- 
less approved  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  while  foreseeing  its  consequences,  believing  it 
the  only  way  then  of  meeting  the  difficulty.  But  after  it  was  passed  he  said,  "  Perhaps 
it  would  have  been  a  wiser  as  well  as  a  bolder  course  to  have  persisted  in  the  restriction 
upon  Missouri,  till  it  should  have  terminated  in  a  Convention  of  the  States  to  revise  and 
amend  the  Constitution.  Tin's  would  have  produced  a  new  Union  of  thirteen  or  fourteen 
States,  unpolluted  with  slavery  ;  with  a  great  and  glorious  object  to  effect,  namely,  that  of 


1819.]  THE   EXTENSION   OF    SLAVERY.  265 

In  February,  1819,  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, for  the  admission  of  Missouri.  James  Tallmadge, 
Jr.,  of  New  York,  proposed  as  a  condition  of  admission,  that  admit  >iis- 
from  that  moment  there  should  be  no  personal  servitude 
within  the  State,  except  of  those  already  held  as  slaves,  and  that 
these  should  be  manumitted  within  a  certain  period.  This  proposal 
he  subsequently  modified  by  moving  as  an  amendment  to  the  bill 
that  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  the  State  should  be  prohibited, 
but  that  those  already  slaves  within  the  territory  should  remain  so. 
and  their  children  after  them  to  the  age  of  twenty-five  years.  Here 
at  the  outset  was  a  weak  concession,  for  instead  of  the  absolute  ex- 
clusion of  slavery,  it  permitted  the  enslavement  of  a  generation  as 
yet  unborn.  The  bill  was  passed  with  the  amendment,  however,  by 
a  small  majority,  and  sent  to  the  Senate,  where  it  was  rejected.  As 
the  two  Houses  could  not  agree,  the  question  went  over  to  another 
vear. 

v 

The  debate  from  the  beginning  had  been,  on  the  part  of  the  Xorth. 
an  earnest  appeal  to  reason,  to  patriotism,  to  humanity,  and  to  funda- 
mental law ;  on  the  part  of  the  South,  which  presented  a  stern,  un- 
broken front,  impassioned,  overbeai'ing,  defiant,  and  threatening.  The 
North  was  told  to  "  beware  of  the  fate  of  Caesar  and  of  Rome  :  "  a 
Northern  member  was  denounced  as  "no  better  than  Arbuthnot  and 
Ambrister,  and  deserves  no  better  fate ;  "  Cobb  of  Georgia  said  that 
this  attempt  to  interfere  with  slavery  was  "  destructive  of  the  peace 
and  harmony  of  the  Union  ;  "  that  those  who  proposed  it  "  were  kind- 
ling a  fire  which  all  the  waters  of  the  ocean  could  not  extinguish.  It 
could  be  extinguished  only  in  blood  !  "  For  that  pi-ophecy  he  deserves 
that  his  name  should  go  down  in  history.  While  the  debate  was  in 
progress,  a  striking  illustration  of  what  the  South  was  contending  for 
was  —  said  Tallmadge  in  his  speech — "witnessed  from  the  windows 
of  Congress  Hall,  and  viewed  by  members  who  compose  the  legislative 
councils  of  Republican  America !  "  Missouri  must  be  secured  as  a 
negro-market.  "A  slave-driver,"  he  said,  "a  trafficker  in  human 
flesh,  as  if  sent  by  Providence,  has  passed  the  door  of  your  Capitol, 
on  his  way  to  the  West,  driving  before  him  about  fifteen  of  these 
wretched  victims  of  his  power.  The  males,  who  might  raise  the  arm 
of  vengeance,  and  retaliate  for  their  wrongs,  were  handcuffed  and 
chained  to  each  other,  while  the  females  and  children  were  marched 
in  their  rear,  under  the  guidance  of  the  driver's  whip  ! " 

rallying  to  their  standard  the  other  States  by  the  universal  emancipation  of  their  slaves." 
Had  the  "  wiser  and  bolder  course  "  been  persisted  in,  and  the  question  of  disunion  met  and 
settled  in  1820,  who  can  doubt  that  civilization  and  free  and  intelligent  government  would 
have  been  advanced  forty  years,  without  the  enormous  sacrifice  which  waiting  forty  years 
demanded  ? 


266 


MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION. 


[CHAP.  XI. 


The  Arkan- 
sas I'.,.: 


The  Missouri  question  being  thus  disposed  of  for  that  session,  the 
cognate  question  of  the  establishment  of  a  government  for 
the  southern  part  of  the  Missouri  Territory,  south  of  36° 
30'  —  the  Arkansas  country  —  was  taken  up.  Both  in  the  House  and 
in  the  Senate  an  amendment  to  prohibit  slavery  therein  was  moved 
and  lost,  and  the  first  step  in  the  controversy  was  gained  by  the 
South.1  In  the  course  of  the  debate  Louis  McLane,  a  representative 


A  Slave-Coffle  passing  the  Capitol. 


in  the  House  from  Delaware,  suggested  as  a  compromise  a  division 
of  the  Western  territory  between  the  free  and  slave  States. 

The  next  session,  convened  in  December,  the  contest  was  renewed, 

1  Wilson,  in  his  liiae  uiul  /'a//  of  the  Slace  Pou-f-r  in  Aiitericti,  i.s  in  error  in  assigning  the 
action  of  Congress  on  the  Arkansas  Bill  to  the  following  December.  This  is  not  merely  an 
error  in  date:  —  the  passage  of  the  bill  would  have  lost  much  of  its  significance  had  it 
been  postponed  ten  month*.  It  should  be  remembered  that  on  the  16th  of  February, 
Tallmadge's  amendment  to  the  Missouri  Bill,  prohibiting  slavery,  had  passed  the  House. 
Immediate  alarm  was  taken  ;  the  Arkan>as  Bill  was  introduced  the  next  dny,  and  before 
sunset  the  perpetuation  of  slavery  south  of  30°  30'  was  assured  in  the  territory  west  of  the 
Mississippi.  It  was  a  great  point  gained.  The  precedent  was  secured  of  establishing  slav- 


1819.]  CONGRESSIONAL  STRATEGY.  267 

the  North,  meanwhile,  in  resolutions  of  State  legislatures,  and  the 
unequivocal  expressions  of  public  opinion,  condemning  the  exten- 
sion and  perpetuation  of  slavery  under  the  protecting  power  of  the 
national  government.  A  northeast  wind  could  not  have  been  less 
heeded  at  the  South.  "  They  may  philosophize  and  town- 

,  ,  ,  „  .  ,      »,  Sentiments 

meeting  about   it  as   much   as  they  please,      said   Macon,  of  the 

a   North  Carolina  Senator,  with   contemptuous  insolence  ; 

"  but,  with  great  submission,  they  know  nothing  about  the  question." 

In  the  House,  the  question  was  presented,  as  at  the  previous  ses- 
sion —  a  bill  for  the  admission  of  Missouri,  with  an  amendment,  pro- 
posed by  John  W.  Taylor,  of  New  York,  prohibiting  slavery,  except 
in  regard  to  those  who  were  already  slaves  in  the  Territory.  The 
anti-slavery  men,  led  by  Taylor,  kept  that  issue  clearly  in  view  for 
several  weeks  of  hot  and  passionate  debate,  and  did  not  permit  them- 
selves to  be  turned  from  their  purpose  by  propositions  and 
resolutions,  some  of  which  were  treacherous  and  some  only 
stupid.  These,  however,  it  should  be  said,  came  often  from 
Northern  members,  who,  having  determined  to  betray  the  North, 
aimed  to  do  so  by  rendering  service  as  conspicuous  as  it  was  possible 
to  make  it,  compatible  with  the  degree  of  ignominy  it  was  their  aim 
to  avoid.  Chief  among  these  were  John  Holmes,  from  the  Maine  dis- 
trict of  Massachusetts,  and  Henry  R.  Storrs,  of  New  York.  The  bill 
was  finally  passed  by  a  vote  of  ninety-one  to  eighty-two,  the  prohib- 
itory amendment  being  first  adopted  by  a  majority  of  eight. 

But  this  was  a  defeat  only  of  the  advanced  guard.  The  real  strug- 
gle was  in  the  Senate,  where  the  final  victory  was  bv  parliamentary 
strategy,  which  first  confused  and  divided,  and  then  dispersed  the 
weaker  Northern  column.  To  a  bill  for  the  admission  of  Maine  the 
admission  of  Missouri  was  attached  as  an  amendment.  The  Maine 
bill  was  sent  to  the  Senate  from  the  House,  possibly  before  it  oc- 
curred to  anybody  that  use  might  be  made  of  it  to  influence  the 
other  question.  The  suggestion  of  a  resort  to  this  stratagem  was,  at 
any  rate,  first  made  in  a  speech  in  the  House  by  the  Speaker,  Henry 
Clay,  on  the  20th  of  December,  who  declared  "•  that  he  did  not  mean 
to  give  his  consent  to  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Maine  into  the 
Union,  so  long  as  the  doctrines  were  upheld  of  annexing  conditions 
to  the  admission  of  States  into  the  Union  from  bevond  the  moun- 

M 

tains."  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that  there  was  no 
just  parallel  in  the  two  cases.  The  right  of  Maine  to  admission  as  a 

cry  by  positive  legislation  in  territory  not  belonging  to  the  United  States  at  the  time  of  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  ;  and  the  difficulty  was  avoided,  in  the  further  consideration 
of  the  Missouri  question,  of  there  being  free  territory,  or  territory  still  to  dispute  over, 
south  of  the  parallel  of  36°  30'. 


268  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  XI. 

part  of  one  of  the  original  thirteen  States,  with  a  republican  form  of 
government,  was  absolute  under  the  Constitution.  The  question  with 
regard  to  Missouri  was  whether,  under  the  Constitution,  Congress 
had  the  right  to  create  a  new  State  out  of  purchased  territory,  and 
admit  it  to  the  Union  without  a  republican  form  of  government. 

But  Clay's  threat  in  the  House  was  improved  in  the  Senate.  The 
memorial  from  the  Legislature  of  Missouri  was  taken  from  the  files 
of  the  last  session  and  referred  to  the  judiciary  committee  of  the 
Senate.  A  few  days  afterward,  a  bill  for  the  admission  of  Maine  was 
received  from  the  House,  and  that  was  referred  to  the  same  commit- 
tee. In  accordance  then  with  a  suggestion  from  Barbour,  of  Virginia, 
—  in  a  notice  of  a  proposed  motion,  —  the  judiciary  committee  re- 
ported the  House  bill  for  the  admission  of  Maine,  but  adding  to  it 
an  amendment  for  the  admission  of  Missouri. 

An  unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  to  defeat  this  trickery.  Jona- 
than Roberts,  of  Pennsylvania,  moved  to  amend  the  amendment  by 
prohibiting  slavery  in  Missouri.  This  was  rejected  by  a  majority 
of  eleven,  six  of  the  number  being  Senators  from  free  States.  Had 
the  six  Northern  votes  been  added  to  the  sixteen  given  in  favor 
of  the  amendment  by  the  other  Northern  Senators,  it  would  have 
been  carried  by  a  majority  of  one.  There  was  still,  however,  a 
chance  to  defeat  the  bill  on  the  proposition  to  make  the  admission  of 
Division  of  Maine  dependent  upon  the  admission  of  Missouri.  But  that 
the  vote*.  a]so  wag  carrjeci  by  Northern  votes.  The  majority  was  two 
in  the  affirmative,  the  Senators  from  Illinois,  Edwards  and  Thomas, 
and  one  of  the  Indiana  Senators,  Taylor,  voting  for  it.  The  whole 
forty-four  votes  of  the  Senate  were  cast  on  this  question  ;  as  Van 
Dyke  and  Horsey,  of  Delaware,  voted  with  the  North,  the  majority 
would  have  been  four  against  the  bill,  had  the  three  Senators  from 
Illinois  and  Indiana  been  faithful  to  the  cause  of  the  free  States.1 

The  two  Houses  now  stood  directly  opposed  to  each  other.  The 
Representatives  would  not  recede  from  their  decision  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  Missouri,  nor  accept  the  Senate's  amendment  to  make  the 
admission  of  Missouri  the  condition  of  the  admission  of  Maine.  The 
Senate  was  equally  determined  that  Missouri  should  come  into  the 
Union  as  a  slave  State,  and  that  unless  that  point  was  yielded,  no  free 
State  should  be  admitted.  Had  the  House  maintained  its  ground,  the 
United  States,  for  the  next  half  century,  would  have  had  another 
history. 

*/ 

But  Thomas,  of  Illinois,  who  had  voted  thus  far  with  the  South, 
now  came  forward  with  the  compromise  measure,  in  accepting  which 

1  The  vote  on  prohibition  was  27  to  16;  that  on  adding  the  admission  of  Missouri  to 
the  Maine  bill,  23  to  21. 


1819.] 


THE   MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. 


269 


the  North  gave  up  the  essential  principle  that  the  opponents  of  slav- 
ery had  all  along  contended  for.  Present  peace,  indeed,  was  Thecompro- 
gained,  —  if  peace  were  really  in  jeopardy,  —  but  it  was  mise 
only  by  smothering  a  fire  which  at  a  future  day  was  to  break  forth 
with  a  violence  ;md  destructive  force  of  which  it  was  at  that  time  in- 
capable. The  gain  on  one  side  was  the  extension  of  slavery  and  the 
admission  of  a  new  slave  State  ;  on  the  other  was  the  promise  of  a 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  future  States,  the  fulfilment  of  which  was 
only  secured,  when  the  time  came,  by  fighting  for  it. 


A  Sugar  Plantation. 

Thomas's  proposition  was,  to  prohibit  slavery  in  all  that  portion  of 
the  Louisiana  purchase  lying  north  of  36°  30',  excepting  Missouri. 
This  make-shift  was  acceded  to  by  twenty  Northern  Senators,  two 
only  voting  against  it ;  and  by  fourteen  Southern  Senators,  eight  vot- 
ing against  it.1  A  second  vote  on  this  proposition  —  on  a  motion  to 
recede  from  it  —  was  the  same,  except  that  Senator  Sanford,  of  New 
York,  voted  against  it  instead  of  for  it,  as  on  the  first  ballot.  Yet, 
when  the  bill  came  up  for  its  final  passage,  two  days  later,  it  was 

1  The  vote  was  34  to  10. 


270  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  XI. 

passed  by  a  majority  of  four  only,  —  Edwards  and  Thomas,  of  Illi- 
nois, Hunter,  of  Rhode  Island,  and  Parrott,  of  New  Hampshire. 

A  committee  of  conference  from  the  two  Houses  had  met  in  the 
mean  time,  and  recommended  that  the  Senate  recede  from  the  amend- 
ment which  added  the  admission  of  Missouri  to  the  bill  admitting 
Maine,  and  that  the  House  recede  from  its  amendment  prohibiting 
the  introduction  of  slavery  into  Missouri,  and  accept,  instead,  the 
compromise  line  of  36°  30'  adopted  by  the  Senate.  But  this  the 
House  had  already  done  before  the  committee  of  conference  had  re- 
ported,—  receding  from  its  own  amendment  by  a  vote  of  ninety  to 
eighty -seven.  Twelve  Northern  men  voted  in  the  affirmative,  —  three 
times  as  many  as  were  needed  to  secure  a  majority.  The  compromise 
measure  was  then  passed  by  the  overwhelming  vote  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  to  forty-two ;  and  among  the  forty-two,  thirty-seven 
were  from  the  slaveholding  States,  leaving  five  opponents  only  from 
the  free  States.  The  more  radical  of  the  slaveholders  denied  the 
right  of  fi'ee  labor  to  any  territory  whatever. 

The  measure  was  a  Northern  measure,  canned  by  Northern  votes. 
With  some  the  threats  of  disunion  wei-e  a  sufficient  influence  ; l  some, 
whom  in  the  debate  Randolph  called  "dough-faces,"  did  not  need 
even  that.  The  Southerners  stood  bv  their  order  without  failure  and 

v 

without  faltering.  The  threat  to  keep  out  Maine,  unless  Missouri 
were  admitted,  did  its  work,  nor  did  the  Senate  recede  from  that 
HOW  it  was  menace  till  the  House  had  succumbed.  There  was  even 
secured.  another  trick  still  in  reserve.  Before  the  House  bill  was 
sent  to  the  Senate,  Randolph  moved  a  reconsideration,  that  the  ques- 
tion might  be  reopened,  in  the  hope  of  defeating  the  compromise  and 
saving  the  territory  north  of  36°  30'  for  slavery.  Clay,  the  Speaker, 
declared  the  motion  out  of  order  till  the  ordinary  business  of  the 
House  —  the  reading  of  the  journal — was  disposed  of.  While  this 
was  going  on,  the  Speaker  hurried  off  the  bill  to  the  Senate,  and, 
Avhen  Randolph  renewed  his  motion,  pronounced  it  again  out  of 
order,  as  the  bill  was  no  longer  in  possession  of  the  House.  Ran- 
dolph's anger  was  unrestrained.  He  moved  that  the  clerk  had  been 
guilty  of  a  violation  of  the  privileges  of  a  member  ;  and,  when  that 
was  negatived,  he  moved  that  the  rule  securing  to  members  the  priv- 
ilege he  had  exercised  in  regard  to  a  motion  of  reconsideration  be 
expunged  as  useless.  The  question  was  serious  enough  to  call  for  an 

1  "  In  the  hottest  paroxysm  of  the  Missouri  question  iu  the  Senate,  James  Barbour,  one 
of  the  Virginia  Senators,  was  going  round  to  all  the  free-State  members  and  proposing  to 
them  to  call  a  Convention  of  the  States  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  agree  upon  the  terms  of 
separation  and  the  mode  of  disposing  of  the  public  debt  and  of  the  lands,  and  make  other 
necessary  arrangements  of  disunion." — Adams's  Diary. 


1820.] 


THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. 


271 


. 


explanation  from  Clay,  at  the  next  session  of  Congress ;  but  the  only 
true  explanation  was,  that  the  victory  having  been  once  gained,  it  was 
not  to  be  jeoparded  by  another  struggle  through  obedience  to  par- 
liamentary law. 

There  was  still  another  compromise  to  be  made,  and  that  was  in 
the  Cabinet.  When  the  bill  came  to  the  President,  he  asked  advice 
on  two  points.  First,  whether  Congress  had  a  constitutional  right  to 
prohibit  slavery  in  a  Territory  ?  The  Cabinet  were  agreed  Action  of 
that  the  right  existed.  Then  he  asked  if  the  section  prohib-  ^nt^d'hi* 
itiug  slavery  "  forever  "  referred  only  to  the  territorial  con-  Cabinet 
dition,  or  was  also  applicable  when  a  Territory  should  become  a  State? 
The  Cabinet,  except  Mr.  Adams, 
agreed  that  u  forever  "  applied 
only  to  the  territorial  condition  ; 
but  the  Secretary  of  State  main- 
tained that  "  forever"  meant  lit- 
erally forever,  whether  in  Terri- 
tory or  State.  The  President 
wished  the  answers  to  be  in 
writing ;  to  which  Mr.  Adams 
said  that,  as  he  stood  alone,  in 
his  reply  to  the  second  question 
he  should  wish  to  give  his  rea- 
sons. To  escape  this,  it  was 
proposed  to  avoid  the  question  of 
"  forever  "  as  relating  to  States, 
and  ask  only  whether  the  section 
prohibiting  slavery  in  the  Terri- 
tories forever  was  constitutional.  And  on  this  the  order  of  proceeding 
was  reversed :  Mr.  Adams  was  only  to  reply  in  the  affirmative  without 
his  reasons,  while  the  rest  were  to  explain  in  writing,  that  the  prohibi- 
tion was  constitutional,  but  "forever"  meant  only  while  the  territorial 
condition  existed.  With  this  mental  reservation  on  the  part  of  the 
President  and  his  Cabinet  —  Mr.  Adams  excepted  —  the  bill  was 
signed,  and  in  it  was  the  whole  pith  and  meaning  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  as  the  country  learned  thirty-five  years  afterward.  It 
was  a  promise  and  agreement  given  to  the  ear  and  broken  to  the  hope. 
When  at  that  later  time  these  written  opinions  of  Monroe's  Cabinet 
were  searched  for  in  the  Department  of  State,  "  it  is  a  singular  cir- 
cumstance," says  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  in  a  note  to  his  father's 
Diary,  "  that  nothing  was  found  but  what  appeared  to  have  been  an 
envelope  referring  to  them  as  enclosed." 

But  even  yet  the  pretended  compromise  was  not  quite  finished. 


X 


John   Randolph. 


272  MONROE'S  ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  XI. 

The  next  session  Missouri  sent  her  Constitution  to  Congress,  and 
asked  admission.  An  article  of  that  Constitution  declared 
c.on'utu-8  that  "  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Legislature  to  pass  laws  to 
prevent  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  from  coming  to  and  set- 
tling in  the  State,  under  any  pretext  whatsoever."  The  question  of 
the  admission  of  the  State  was  reopened,  though  upon  new  ground. 
Her  Constitution  must  be  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  that  declared  that  "  the  citizens  of  each  State  shall 
be  entitled  to  all  the  immunities  and  privileges  of  the  several  States." 
Were  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  citizens  ?  If  they  were,  the  Con- 
stitution of  Missouri  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  she  was  not  entitled  to  admission. 

For  three  months  the  debate  on  this  question  continued  in  the 
same  spirit,  with  much  of  the  same  asperity  and  menace  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  same  faltering  on  the  other.  The  House  was  for  a 
while  as  firm  as  it  was  before  against  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a 
slave  State,  and  the  Senate  was  equally  firm  that  the  colored  citizens 
of  other  States  should  be  denied  citizenship  by  her  if  she  so  pleased. 
It  came  at  last,  as  before,  to  a  conference  committee,  and  the  ques- 
tion, as  before,  under  the  leadership  of  Clay,  was  compromised.  It 
was  decided  that  the  State  should  be  admitted  when  her  Legislature 
should  agree  that  the  section  of  the  Constitution  in  question  should 
not  be  construed  as  authorizing  a  law  excluding  any  citizens  of  other 
States  from  any  immunities  and  privileges  to  which  they  were  enti- 
tled under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  that  no  such 
law  should  be  passed.  Such  a  pledge  the  Legislature  of  Missouri 
gave ;  but  the  objectionable  clause  remained  in  her  Constitution,  and 
the  power  remained  with  her,  notwithstanding  the  act,  to  decide 
whether  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  were  citizens  in  other  States, 
and,  if  they  were  not,  to  deny  them  citizenship  in  Missouri  under 
her  Constitution. 

It  was  three  years  from  the  time  the  Missouri  question  first  came 
before  Congress  (March,  1818)  to  this  final  compromise  (February, 
1821),  by  which  the  slaveholders  gained  all  they  contended  for,  and 
the  Federal  Government  made  itself  responsible,  not  merely  for  the 
toleration  of  slavery,  but  for  its  establishment  where  it  could  exist 
only  because  it  was  so  established.  The  slaveholders  had  learned 
how  to  govern,  and  the  secret  lay,  first,  in  the  perfect  organization  of 
their  own  order,  and  secondly  in  holding  in  their  pay  a  menial  party 
at  the  North,  — called  sometimes  by  one  name,  sometimes  by  another, 
—  on  whose  obedience  they  could  always  count,  and  with  whose  aid 
they  were  almost  always  invincible.  In  the  admission  of  Missouri 
there  was,  for  the  first  time,  a  clean-cut,  unmixed  issue  on  the  ques- 


1821.] 


TRIUMPH   OF   THE   SLAVEHOLDERS. 


273 


tion  of  a  free  government  or  a  slaveholding  government  in  the  United 
States ;  and  the  slaveholders  trampled  the  principles  of  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  rights  and  interests  of  freemen  beneath  their  feet. 
Henceforth  the  inevitable  conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery  was 
an  open  one,  and  it  could  only  end  in  the  dissolution  and  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  Union.  Cobb's  prophecy  was  to  come  true,  though  not  in 
the  way  lie  meant. 

The  completeness  of  the  triumph  of  the  slaveholders  was  plain  to 
all  men,  and  those  who  were  wise  saw  in  the  almost  immediate  use 


f    *r-.f=r- 


made   of   it   what   the   future 
might     bring     forth. 
Foremost  among  the 

treacherous  representatives  of  the  Northern  States  in  the 
late  struggle  had  been  the  Senators  of  Illinois  and  Indiana, 
and  that  treachery  was  followed  up,  as  the  next  step,  by  an  attempt 
to  make  them  both  slaveholding  States,  notwithstanding  the  funda- 
mental and  binding  law  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  The  project  was 
defeated,  however,  by  a  popular  movement,  led  in  Illinois  by  Gover- 
nor Edward  Coles. 

But  even  this  failed  to  arouse  a  suspicion  of  the  price  the  future  was 
to  pay  for  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  that  what  had  been  so  fatu- 


VOL.    IV. 


18 


274  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  XT. 

ously  mistaken  for  a  bargain  was  meant  to  be  a  gigantic  fraud.  The 
mass  of  the  people  in  1820,  at  the  North  at  least,  were,  without 
doubt,  heartily  sick  of  the  subject,  and  were  anxious  for  peace  on 
almost  any  terms.  Missouri  was  then,  and  was  likely  to  continue  to 
be,  a  far-off  and  unknown  land  to  most  of  the  people  of  the  Northern 
Atlantic  States.  Why  need  they  care  whether  there  were  slaves  there 
or  not?  Why,  especially,  need  they  be  troubled  that  free  negroes 
were  to  have  no  rights  in  Missouri  ?  Was  it  quite  certain  that  free 
negroes  had  any  rights  anywhere,  though  in  some  States  they  were 
tolerably  secure  in  the  privilege  of  not  being  slaves  ?  The  question 
was  soon  forgotten. 

"  So  with  a  sullen  '  All 's  for  best,' 
The  hind  seemed  settling  to  its  rest." 

Topics  of  more  immediate  interest,  and  generally  esteemed  of  more 
importance,  engaged  the  popular  attention.  The  question  of  internal 
internal  im-  improvements  grew  in  importance  year  by  year,  and  noth- 
provements.  }„„  marked  ,,,,,,•,.  distinctly  the  departure  of  the  dominant 
party  from  the  principles  by  which  it  had  been  governed  in  its  ear- 
lier days.  It  was  a  favorite  doctrine  of  the  earlier  Federalists,  that, 
both  for  the  good  of  the  people,  and  for  the  sake  of  consolidating  the 
Union,  such  improvements  were  a  legitimate  object  of  the  fostering 
care  of  the  Federal  Government.  The  strict  constructionists  —  as 
the  Democrats  assumed  to  be  —  opposed  this  doctrine.  The  Jeffer- 
sonian  party  held  no  more  positive  principle  than  that  works  of  pub- 
lic improvement  should  be  left  to  the  States  or  to  private  enterprise, 
and  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  Constitution  that  warranted  the 
assumption  of  such  a  duty  by  the  Federal  Government.  One  of 
Madison's  last  acts  was  to  veto  a  bill  passed  by  Congress  "  to  set 
apart  and  pledge  certain  funds  for  internal  improvements." 

But  it  was  not  difficult  for  strict  constructionists  to  find  sufficient 
authority  in  the  general  purposes  of  the  Constitution  to  warrant  the 
interference  of  the  Federal  Government  when  it  suited  them  to  change 
their  policy.  More  than  a  million  dollars  were  expended  during  Mon- 
roe's administration  to  build  the  national  road  from  Cumberland,  in 
Maryland,  to  Ohio  ;  other  roads  and  canals  were  projected  then,  or  a 
little  later,  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  which,  before  they  were 
finished,  received  of  the  Government  still  larger  sums.  It  would  be 
an  instructive  inquiry  to  examine  the  cost,  the  usefulness,  and  the  end 
of  some  of  the  works  thus  undertaken  for  the  public  good  at  the  pub- 
lic expense,  and  to  learn  how  far  they  have  been  outstripped  and  su- 
perseded by  works  built  by  private  energy,  with  private  capital. 

But  whether  Federal  legislation  was  wise  or  foolish  under  the  im- 
pulse of  material  progress,  that  progress  was  rapid  and  general  during 


1818.] 


INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS. 


275 


this  period,  sometimes  with  the  aid  of  State  Legislatures,  sometimes 
through  the  unassisted  labors  of  private  citizens  of  large  brain  and 
iron  will.     In  the  face  of  unsparing  ridicule,  De  Witt  Clin-  The  Erie 
ton  dug  his  "ditch"  three  hundred  and  sixty-three  miles  Canal- 
long,  connecting  Lake  Erie  and  all  the  upper  lakes  with  the  tide-water 
of  the  Atlantic.     On  the  4th  of  July,  1817,  the  first  spade-full  of 
earth  was  turned  in  this  great  work,  and  in  October,  1825,  the  largest 
canal  in  the  world  was  open  for  traffic.      Its  route  was  through  a 
region  of  almost  unsurpassed  fertility,  much  of  it  then  a  wilderness, 
and  new  towns  sprang  up  along  its  banks,  some  of  them  to  grow,  in 
a    few    years, 
to  large  cities. 
Its     original 
cost  was  seven 
million   six 
hundred  thou- 
sand   dollars, 
and  its  annual 
earnings  have 
sometimes 
been    nearly 
half  that  sum, 
while     the 
amount    of 
traffic  has  sur- 
passed that  of 
the    River 
Rhine.1 
Steamboats 


were   no 


Ion- 


Steamboat  "  Walk-in-the-Water." 


ger  a  novelty 

and  an  experiment  in  eastern  waters,  where  they  were  coming  grad- 
ually into  favor.     At  the  West,  in  1818,  the  long  smoke- 
pennant  floated  over  Lake  Erie  from  the  steamer  Walk-in-  boat  on  the 
the-  Water,  which  ran  regularly  to  Detroit.     The  next  year 
a  more  memorable  event  occurred,  in  the  first  passage  of  a  steamship 
across  the  Atlantic.     On  the  roll  of  honored  names  of   those  who 
gave  their  energies  to   the   successful  application  of  steam  to  navi- 
gation belongs,  among  the  first,  that  of  Moses  Rogers,  of  New  Lon- 
don, Connecticut.     It  was  he  who  first  ventured  out  to  sea  in  com- 
mand of  the  steamboat  Phoenix,  sent  by  John  Stevens,  of  New  York, 

1  The  project  of  the  Erie  Canal  is  believed  to  have  been  originated  by  Jesse  Hawley, 
who  in  1807-8  published  a  series  of  articles  upon  its  feasibility  aud  value. 


276 


MONROE'S    ADMINISTRATION. 


[CHAP.  XL 


in  1808,  from  that  port  to  Delaware  Bay.  In  the  summer  of  1819, 
in  command  of  the  ship  iSavannah,  of  three  hundred  tons,  he  sailed 
First  ocean  an(l  steamed  —  for  he  used  both  sails  and  wheels  —  from 
steamship.  j^w  York  to  Savannah,  thence  to  Liverpool,  and  thence 
up  the  Baltic  to  St.  Petersburg.  His  ship  carried  seventy-five  tons 
of  coal  and  twenty-five  cords  of  wood,  and  to  economize  these  he 
depended  on  hi.s  sails  when  the  wind  was  favorable.  When  under 
sail,  and  in  stormy  weather,  the  wheels  were  unshipped  and  taken  on 
board. 

The  voyage  was  nine  days  to  Savannah  from  New  York,  and 
twenty-five  days  from  Savannah  to  within  sight  of  the  coast  of  Ire- 
land. When  seen  from  on  shore,  she  was  sxipposed  to  be  a  ship  on 
fire,  and  a  revenue  cruiser  went  out  from  Cork  to  offer  her  relief. 
The  Savannah  was  built  in  New  York,  and  her  engines  made  at 
Morristown,  New  Jersey.  The  enterprise  was  purely  American,  but 
its  importance  found  no  recognition  by  Congress.  Captain  Rogers 
visited  Washington  in  his  ship,  after  his  return  from  Russia,  and  an 
attempt  was  made  to  sell  her  to  the  Government.  The  ship  and 
her  remarkable  vovage  seem  1o  have  been  utterly  unnoticed  by  that 

*•  v  •/ 

body  of  men,  who  could  hardly  give  themselves  rest  for  a  single 
session  from  months  of  discussion  upon  American  industry.  This 
transatlantic  voyage  had  no  immediate  influence  upon  the  commerce 
of  the  world,  and  the  attempt  was  not  repeated  for  twenty  years  ;  it 
was,  nevertheless,  an  advancement  in  the  art  of  navigation,  as  im- 
portant in  the  intercourse  of  nations  as  that  obtained  by  the  inven- 
tion of  the  mariner's  compass.1 

The  last  two  years  of  Monroe's  administration  were  crowded  with 
political  intrigues  for  the  presidential  succession.  The  Pres- 
i'lent  himself  sank  almost  into  insignificance  as  his  power 
waned  ;  and  it  is  pitiful  to  see  how  the  man  who.  from  the 
very  birth  of  the  Republic,  had  been  among  the  most  distinguished 
of  her  statesmen,  was  pushed  aside,  as  his.  long  career  drew  towards  a 
close,  and  is  hardly  visible  at  all  except  in  the  attitude  of  a  suppliant 
to  the  new  men  for  some  arrearages  of  pay  for  forgotten  services.  In 
his  Cabinet  were  three  candidates  —  Adams,  Crawford,  and  Calhouiv 
—  for  the  chair  he  was  about  to  vacate  ;  for  the  early  rule  had  not  yet 
fallen  into  desuetude,  that  the  fit  person  to  fill  the  office  of  chief  mag- 
istrate was  to  be  found  among  those  whose  unquestioned  ability,  faith- 
ful public  service,  and  long  experience  in  other  responsible  positions, 
entitled  them  to  the  confidence  of  their  fellow-citizens.  It  was  not 

1  Captain  Rogers  died  within  two  years  of  his  return  from  this  voyage.  His  log-book, 
from  which  we  make  a  fac  simile  extract,  was  kindly  lent  me  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  S.  A. 
Ward,  of  New  York. 


cio»e  of 


tlou- 


1823.]  CLOSE   OF  MONROE'S   SECOND   TERM.  277 

till  years  afterward  that  this  wise  unwritten  law  was  departed  from 
in  the  nomination  of  James  K.  Polk.  From  that  time  till  now,  how- 
ever, its  violation,  under  the  despotism  of  the  National  Convention, 
has  been  rather  the  rule  than  the  exception,  the  selection  of  a  Presi- 
dent depending,  not  upon  the  wishes  or  the  will  of  the  people,  nor 
the  eminence  for  character,  ability,  and  distinguished  services  of  a 
candidate,  but  upon  the  combinations  —  matured  or  momentary,  but 
always  selfish  and  often  corrupt  —  of  party  leaders. 

But  besides  the  three  Cabinet  candidates,  there  were  two  others  — 
Clay  and  Jackson  —  and  around  each  clustered  many  warm 
and  earnest  partisans.  Fortunately  this  large  number  to 
choose  from  made  it  possible  to  get  rid  of  the  imperious  power  of 
dictation  which  had  grown  out  of  the  method  of  presidential  nomina- 
tions by  the  Congressional  caucus. 
As  Crawford  had  the  largest  fol- 
lowing among  the  members  of 
Congress,  a  caucus  nomination, 
should  it  be  accepted,  was  a  fore- 
gone defeat  of  all  his  competi- 
tors. The  first  necessity,  therefore, 
was  to  set  aside  such  a  nomina- 
tion, and  Crawford's  opponents 
could  unite  in  this  if  they  could 
agree  in  nothing  else.  When,  in 
due  season,  the  caucus  was  called, 
they  refused  to  attend  it,  and  the 
decision  of  the  followers  of  Craw- 
ford was  held  to  be  not  binding 
upon  the  party.  The  people  were  Wi:iiam  H-  Crawford 

free  to  vote  for  whomsoever  they  pleased.  The  other  candidates 
were  all,  it  should  be  remembered,  of  the  same  party ;  although  that 
"era  of  good  feeling,"  —  which  was  held  to  be  significant  of  Monroe's 
administration,  really  because  the  Federal  party  was  finally  exter- 
minated, and  the  Republicans,  or  Democrats,  were  left  in  unques- 
tioned possession  of  power  —  had  resulted  in  dividing  the  Republicans 
into  as  many  factions  as  there  were  acknowledged  leaders.  But  be- 
neath this  division  lay  a  deeper  discord, —  the  hidden  consequence  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  which  the  "era  of  good  feeling"  had 
made  possible,  —  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  end  of  the  twenty- 
four  years  of  the  Virginia  dynasty,  and  the  election  of  a  Northern 
President. 

There  were  cabals,  intrigues,  and,  no  doubt,  bargains  without  num- 
ber in  this  struggle  of  factions,  this  strife  of  ambitious  politicians, 


278  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  XI. 

amid  the  final  explosion  of  fraternal  amiability.1  This  condition  of 
Anew  things  had  its  influence  upon  all  subjects  which  came  be- 
fore Congress  for  discussion  and  settlement.  The  revision 
of  the  tariff,  which  occupied  the  attention  of  both  Houses  for  nearly 
three  months  in  the  session  of  1823-24,  was  decided,  more  than  ever, 
by  considerations  of  geographical  interests.  With  more  distinctiveness 
and  determination  than  ever,  it  was  maintained  that  duties  upon  im- 
ports should  be  enforced  for  the  encouragement  and  protection  of 
manufacturing  industry  at  home,  rather  than  with  reference  to  the 
easiest  way  of  providing  a  revenue  for  the  necessities  of  the  govern- 
ment. Revenue,  indeed,  needed  no  consideration,  provided  the  tariff 
was  so  adjusted  that  the  price  of  all  foreign  manufactures  should 
be  made  sufficiently  high  to  give  a  large  profit  to  the  domestic  com- 
petition, but  not  so  high  as  to  prohibit  importation. 

The  South  had  already  changed  her  mind  upon  this  subject.  It 
had  become  evident  that  slave-labor  could  only  be  used  in  the  rudest 
kind  of  manual  industry ;  intelligent  artisans  could  not  be  made  from 
a  people  whose  only  incentive  to  diligence  was  the  lash,  and  the  im- 
parting to  whom  even  a  knowledge  of  the  alphabet  was  a  penal 
offence  by  statute.  The  Federal  Government  had,  in  the  Southern 
mind,  only  one  reason  for  being  —  to  protect  slavery  and  enlarge  the 
area  for  the  cultivation  of  its  coarse  products.  To  develop  those 
varied  industries  to  which  the  labor  of  freemen  only  could  be  profita- 
bly applied,  was  an  iniquitous  policy  if  it  enhanced  the  price  of  negro- 
cloth  and  cotton  bagging.  New  England  still  adhered  to  the  doctrine 
of  free  trade,  partly  because  the  larger  portion  of  her  capital  still 
remained  invested  in  foreign  commerce,  and  partly  because  she  be- 
lieved her  infant  manufactures  would  develop  into  as  healthy  a  growth 
as  they  were  capable  of,  without  any  legislative  nursing.  But  the 

1  The  jealousies  of  rival  candidates  greatly  disturbed  the  harmony  of  the  Cabinet.  The 
more  earnestly  Mr.  Monroe  strove  to  maintain  an  attitude  of  perfect  neutrality,  the  more 
he  was  suspected  by  at  lenst  one  of  his  secretaries — Crawford,  —  perhaps  by  more  than 
one,  of  partisanship.  The  significance  of  an  anecdote  told  by  Mr.  Adams  in  his  Diary  is 
a  curious  evidence  of  this  alienation  between  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, due  partly  to  Crawford's  resentment  on  this  subject.  He  had  waited  upon  the  Presi- 
dent to  ask  for  certain  appointments  to  office  among  his  followers,  to  which  Mr.  Monroe, 
on  good  grounds  no  doubt,  objected.  The  Secretary's  reply  was  so  disrespectful  as  to  call 
for  rebuke.  Whereupon  —  relates  Mr.  Adams  —  "  Crawford,  turning  to  him,  raited  his  cane, 
as  in  the  attitude  to  strike,  and  said,  'You  damned,  infernal  old  scoundrel!'  Mr.  Mon- 
roe seized  the  tongs  at  the  fire-place  for  self-defence,  applied  a  retaliatory  epithet  to  Craw- 
ford, and  told  him  he  would  immediately  ring  for  servants  himself,  and  turn  him  out  of  the 
house  ;  upon  which  Crawford,  beginning  to  recover  himself,  said  he  did  not  intend,  and  had 
not  intended  to  insult  him,  and  left  the  house.  They  never  met  afterwards."  Mr.  Adams 
tells  this  story  after  his  own  election,  on  the  authority  of  Samuel  L.  Southard,  who  had 
received  it  from  Monroe  immediately  after  the  occurrence.  The  writer  adds,  "If  I  had 
known  it  at  the  time,  I  should  not  have  invited  Mr.  Crawford  to  remain  in  the  Treasury 
Department."  To  that  invitation,  Monroe,  when  consulted,  had  made  no  objection. 


1823.]  THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE.  279 

Western  and  Middle  States,  with  a  few  votes  from  other  parts  of  the 
country,  were  strong  enough  to  give  to  the  new  tariff-bill  a  small 
majority.  From  that  time  the  imposition  of  protective  duties  marked 
the  dividing-line  between  political  parties,  and  the  tariff  policy 
thenceforth  lost,  in  a  great  degree,  the  character  of  a  scientific  ques- 
tion, properly  discussed  only  in  the  light  of  the  invariable  laws  of 
political  economy. 

To  no  act  of  his  life  was  Monroe  so  indebted  for  the  preservation 
of  his  name  from  oblivion  as  to  a  passage  in  his  annual  ad-  The  Monroe 
dress  to  Congress  in  1823,  announcing  what  has  ever  since  ! 
been  called  "  The  Monroe  Doctrine."  The  doctrine  was  not  the  less 
excellent  because  it  is  so  often  supposed  to  be  American  international 
law,  or  mistaken  for  a  principle  rather  than  an  opinion  ;  nor  is  it 
the  less  creditable  to  Monroe  that  it  was  first  suggested  to  him  by 
his  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Adams,  and  carefully  discussed  and  ap- 
proved by  every  member  of  the  Cabinet.  Its  annunciation  was  called 
forth  by  a  conjunction  of  circumstances  which  has  never  occurred 
since  and  is  never  likely  to  occur  again,  and  is  therefore  as  little 
applicable  as  the  old  Articles  of  Confedei'ation  are  to  the  condition  of 
our  time,  or,  probably,  of  any  time  to  come. 

But  the  declaration  then  had  a  peculiar  fitness.  The  allied  sov- 
ereigns of  France,  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria  had  seen  fit  to  re- 
store, in  1822,  through  the  arms  of  France,  to  the  Spanish  King, 
Ferdinand,  those  royal  prerogatives  of  which  he  had  been  deprived 
by  the  Cortes  three  years  before.  The  Holy  Alliance  assumed  thus 
to  check  in  Spain  what  was  conceived  to  be  a  dangerous  defiance  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  ;  and  succeeding  in  this  first 
measure,  it  was  next  proposed  by  Ferdinand  that  the  Alliance  should 
aid  him  in  reducing  to  obedience  those  revolted  colonies  of  his  in 
America,  which  had  not  only  thrown  off  their  allegiance  to  him,  but, 
following  the  example  of  the  United  States,  had  resolved  themselves 
into  independent  republics. 

It  was  to  this  condition  of  things  that  the  declaration  of  Monroe 
was  addressed.  In  the  war  between  Spain  and  her  colonies  the 
United  States,  he  said,  had  observed  and  should  continue  to  observe, 
the  strictest  neutrality.  "  But,"  he  added,  "  with  the  Governments 
who  have  declared  their  independence,  and  maintained  it,  and  whose 
independence  we  have,  on  great  consideration,  and  on  just  principles, 
acknowledged,  we  could  not  view  any  interposition  for  the  purpose 
of  oppressing  them,  or  controlling,  in  any  other  manner,  their  destiny, 
by  any  European  power,  in  any  other  light  than  as  the  manifestation 
of  an  unfriendly  disposition  towards  the  United  States."  Hardly 
less  than  this  could  be  said,  if  anything  was  said  at  all,  by  the  lead- 


280  MONROE'S   ADMINISTRATION.  [CHAP.  XI. 

ing  power  among  the  republics  of  tlie  Western  hemisphere  when 
the  possible  interference  of  the  Holy  Alliance  with  those  of  South 
America  was  contemplated  ;  and  it  was  hardly  possible  to  avoid  saying 
something,  for  England  —  disapproving  from  the  beginning  of  all  that 
had  been  done  by  the  allied  sovereigns  on  behalf  of  Ferdinand  —  had 
invited  the  United  States  to  join  with  her  in  some  effectual  measure 
for  the  protection  of  the  independence  of  the  new  American  repub- 
lics. The  declaration  was  altogether  cautious  ;  it  might  mean  much 
or  it  might  mean  little  —  a  threat  of  armed  resistance,  or  an  expres- 
sion only  of  harmless  and  pacific  sentiment ;  what  it  really  did  mean 
was  the  subject  of  long  and  hot  debate  in  the  first  year  of  the  next 
administration,  when  Mr.  Adams  proposed  to  send  ministers  to  a 
congress  of  representatives  of  American  states  to  assemble  at  Pan- 
ama. The  President,  in  another  paragraph  of  the  same  message,  in- 
formed Congress  that  an  agreement  had  been  made  with  England 
and  with  Russia  to  settle,  by  amicable  negotiation,  any  question  of 
conflicting  rights  on  the  northwest  coast.  In  the  discussions  upon 
this  subject  it  had  been  proper  to  assert,  he  said,  as  a  principle,  that 
the  American  continents  were  "  henceforth  not  to  be  considered  as 
subjects  for  future  colonization  by  any  European  power."  This  also 
is  sometimes  held  to  be  a  part  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  But  it 
seems  to  have  had  no  deeper  meaning — considering  it  in  connection 
with  the  topic  to  which  it  specifically  related  —  than  that  thereafter 
it  should  be  considered  that  the  unsettled  country  within  the  acknowl- 
edged boundaries  of  American  states  was  exclusively  their  own,  and 
not  subject  to  foreign  occupation.  It  certainly  was  no  new  doctrine, 
though  it  might  be  proper  to  repeat  it  on  such  an  occasion,  that  the 
United  States  would  always  protect  her  own  territory. 

In  the  presidential  election  there  was  no  choice  by  the  Electoral 
College.    Adams  received  the  popular  vote  of  all  New  Eng- 

Electionof  l  r    *  __      ,  .   ,  ° 

Adams  as       land,  and  a  maiority  of  that  of  New  1  ork,  with  a  minority 

President.  i-vV  »•'««»••«  i       in*        • 

vote  from  Delaware,  Maryland,  Louisiana,  and  Illinois. 
The  popular  vote  in  three  of  the  Northern  States,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Indiana,  was  given  to  Jackson,  and  this,  with 
that  of  seven  Southern  States,  gave  him  a  majority  in  ten  States. 
The  votes  in  other  States  were  divided  between  Crawford  and  Clay, 
and  the  election,  therefore,  was  thrown  into  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, where  a  choice  was  to  be  made  between  the  three  highest  can- 
didates, Jackson,  Adams,  and  Crawford.  Adams  was  elected  by  a 
majority  of  the  States  voting  by  their  delegations  —  thirteen.  In 
addition  to  those  States  whose  votes  he  received  in  the  Electoral  Col- 
lege, he  now  received  the  three  which  had  been  given  to  Clay,  two 
which  had  been  given  to  Jackson,  and  one  which  had  been  divided 


1824.]  ELECTION    OF   JOHN    QUIXCY   ADAMS.  281 

in  the  choice  of  electors.  Calhoun,  whose  name  had  been  withdrawn 
from  the  list  of  presidential  candidates,  had  been  already  chosen 
Vice-president  in  the  Electoral  College. 

Jackson,  who  in  the  House  had  been  voted  for  by  seven  States 
only,  had  received  a  plurality  in  the  vote  for  electors,  both  politicili 
as  to  States  and  as  to  the  popular  vote.  There  had  been  calumny- 
charges  of  a  corrupt  bargain  between  Adams  and  Clay,  even  before 
the  election.  These  charges  were  now  pressed  with  added  bitterness 
when  the  States  which  had  chosen  Clay  electors  gave  their  votes  for 
Adams  in  the  House,  the  Kentucky  delegation  disregarding  the  in- 
structions of  the  State  Legislature,  —  as  they  had  a  perfect  right  to 
do.  But  when  Clay  was  appointed  Secretary  of  State  by  the  new 
President,  the  act  was  considered,  by  the  party  in  opposition,  as  con- 
clusive proof  that  the  two  highest  offices  in  the  Government  had  been 
bought  and  sold.  There  was,  however,  no  other  evidence  than  these 
circumstantial  coincidences  on  which  to  found  this  partisan  slander. 
It  was  a  slander,  however,  that  did  not  easily  die,  and  it  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  next  presidential  canvass.  But  it  was  always 
met  with  the  most  positive  and  indignant  denial  by  both  the  gentle- 
men accused,  and  by  unquestionable  proof  of  the  avowed  determina- 
tion of  Clay,  previous  to  the  time  of  the  alleged  bargain,  to  use  his 
influence  —  if  not  available  for  his  own  election  —  on  behalf  of 
Adams.  One  must  have  a  very  imperfect  comprehension  of  Character  of 
the  character  of  Adams  to  accept  as  true  that  which  gives  Adain8- 
the  lie  to  every  other  act  of  his  long  and  eventful  life.  He  some- 
times erred  in  judgment ;  and  sometimes,  like  all  other  men  that  ever 
lived,  he  committed  acts  of  weakness ;  but  he  was  the  wisest  and 
purest  of  the  statesmen  of  the  middle  period  of  the  first  century  of 
the  Union.  He  must  look  with  distorted  vision  upon  the  career  of 
this  remarkable  man,  who  believes  him  capable  of  even  entertaining 
the  thought  of  condescending  to  any  political  baseness  under  any  pos- 
sible temptation. 


Political 
transition. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


ADAMS   AND   JACKSON. 


THE  ERA  OF  GOOD  FEELING. — ADMINISTRATION  or  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.  —  THE 
PROPOSED  CONGRESS  OF  SOUTH  AMERICAN  STATES.  —  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  SLAVE- 
HOLDERS.—  POLITICAL  EDUCATION,  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  —  A  SOI.ID  SOUTH.  —  IN- 
DIAN TROUBLES  AND  STATE  SOVEREIGNTY  IN  GEORGIA.  —  THE  TARIFF  MADE  A 
SKCTIONAL  QUESTION. —  THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR. —JACKSON'S  CHARACTER,  AUD 
HIS  POPULARITY.  —  HE  ESTABLISHES  THE  SYSTEM  OF  REMOVALS  FROM  OFFICE. — 
THE  EATON  SCANDAL.  —  THE  CONTEST  OVER  THE  UNITED  STATES  BANK. — RE- 
ELECTION OF  JACKSON. —  ANTI-MASONRY. —  NULLIFICATION.  —  PREPARATIONS  FOR 
WAR  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  THE  COMPROMISE  BILL.  —  THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. — 
MATERIAL  PROGRESS.  —  INCREASING  USE  OF  STEAM  POWER.  —  THE  FIRST  RAIL- 
ROADS.—  EARLY  MANUFACTURING. 

THE  administration  of  Monroe  was  a  period  of  transition  in  which 
the  old  party  divisions  upon  questions  having  only  a  tem- 
porary interest  gradually  disappeared.  But  beneath  the 
apparent  calm  of  the  "  ei*a  of  good  feeling  "  new  parties  were  slowly 
forming  upon  essentially  radical  principles,  on  the  overthrow  or  es- 
tablishment of  which  must  ultimately  rest  the  stability  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  welfare  of  the  people.  Not  that  these  differences 
were  at  first  distinctly  seen  or  generally  understood ;  but  under  the 
force  of  circumstances  —  the  increase  of  population ;  the  settlement  of 
new  country  ;  the  increase  of  material  prosperity ;  the  new  applica- 
tions of  industry  ;  the  greater  earnestness  of  the  struggle  for  politi- 
cal power  between  the  two  systems  of  society,  one  resting  on  the 
rights  of  freemen,  the  other  on  the  privileges  of  the  holders  of  slaves 
—  parties  took  new  and  more  positive  forms.  Nor  was  it  that  in 
that  process  of  growth  either  party  was  absolutely  wrong  or  abso- 
lutely right,  whether  upon  fundamental  principles  or  upon  questions 
of  temporary  interest ;  but  that  a  marked  division-line  was  drawn, 
growing  ever  wider  and  deeper,  leading  at  last  to  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union  and  to  civil  war.  That  dividing-line  even  civil  war  and  the 
reconstruction  of  the  Union  has  not  yet  obliterated. 

On  the  accession  of  Adams  to  the  Presidency,  parties  were  reor- 
of  ganized,  on  the  single  question  at  first,  of  supporting  or  op- 
posing  his  Administration.    On  the  surface  there  was  appar- 
ent, for  the  moment,  no  other  cause  of  political  difference  than  whether 


1825.] 


PROPOSED   SOUTH   AMERICAN    CONGRESS. 


283 


he  should  be  reflected  or  whether  he  should  be  succeeded  by  Jackson 
or  Calhoun.  That,  indeed,  was  comprehensive  enough,  for  the  real 
question  was  the  old  one  of  a  Northern  or  a  Southern  President.  The 
opposition  to  Adams  at  once  drew  together  the  party  composed  mainly 
of  Southern  slaveholders,  which,  with  a  sufficient  Northern  alliance, 
has  been  able,  with  occasional  interludes,  to  maintain  always  the  po- 
litical ascendency  under  whatever  party  name.  To  the  support  of  the 
Administration,  on  the  other  hand,  rallied  that  instinctive  antagonism 
to  a  slaveholding  Democratic  party,  which  survived  as  a  living  prin- 
ciple, often  feeble,  its  existence  often  denied,  or  not  recognized,  but 
still  always  active  in  various  political  organizations,  whether  known 
as  National  Republican,  or  Whig,  or  finally  as  the  Republican  party. 


The  Adams  Mansion,  Quincy,   Mass. 


Mr.  Adams,  in  his  first  message  to  Congress,  presented  an  oppor- 
tunity for  concerted  ppposition  which  was  instantly  seized 
upon ;  and  it  was  the  more  significant  of  how  earnest  that  AmeriJiL 
opposition  was  to  be,  that  there  was,  on  his  part,  no  inten- 
tional provocation.      The  South  American  states  had  agreed  to  hold 
a  Congress  at  Panama,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  consider  their 
relations  to  each  other  and  to  foreign  states,  political  and  commercial, 
and  the  expediency  of   a  league  among  themselves.      In  this  Con- 
gress the  United  States  had  been  invited  to  be  represented,  and  Mr. 
Adams  announced  that  the  invitation  had  been  accepted,  and  that 
ministers  would  be  sent  to  take  part  in  the  deliberations,  "  so  far  as 
may  be  compatible  with  that  neutrality  from  which  it  is  neither  our 


284  ADAMS   AND  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

intention,  nor  the  desire  of  the  other  American  States,  that  we  should 
depart."  As  the  mission  would  involve  the  United  States  in  no  al- 
liance with  these  South  American  states  without  the  assent  of  the 
President  and  Senate,  while  it  gave  the  ministers  who  should  attend 
the  Congress  the  opportunity  of  understanding  and  of  influencing  its 
purposes,  no  harm,  at  least,  could  come  of  the  President's  decision. 
Had  the  decision  been  otherwise,  there  would  have  been  quite  as 
much  reason  for  hostile  criticism,  and  it  would  have  been  seized  upon 
with  equal  eagerness,  probably,  to  oppose  the  Administration. 

The  papers  relating  to  the  subject  wer^  sent  confidentially  to  the 
Senate,  and  considered  in  secret  session.  It  was  determined,  obviously 
for  the  influence  that  might  be  exercised  upon  the  popular  mind,  that 
the  debates  and  the  documents  should  be  made  public.  The  Presi- 
dent was  asked  if  the  removal  of  the  injunction  of  secrecy  would  be 
injurious  to  any  pending  negotiations.  A  negative  answer  was  ex- 
pected, as  no  negotiation  was  pending.  But  Mr.  Adams  was  too  wary 
a  man  to  be  entrapped  into  am7  assumption  of  a  responsibility  which 
did  not  belong  to  him,  but  which  the  Senate  proposed  to  throw  from 
their  OAvn  shoulders  upon  his.  His  reply  was,  that  that  body  was  the 
best  judge  of  how  their  proceedings  should  be  conducted.  Here  was 
new  cause  for  complaint,  and  the  answer  WTHS  denounced  as  little  else 
than  insolent.  It  had  to  be  accepted,  however,  and  the  Senate  opened 
the  doors  which  the  President  declined  to  open  for  them. 

What  the  character  of  the  debate  should  be — what  it  was  that 
Randolph  *ne  people  were  to  be  called  upon  to  listen  to  —  was  settled 
riMvcy  beforehand.  A  Virginia  Senator  sounded  the  key-note, 
question.  There  was  often  method  in  the  madness  of  that  political 
mountebank,  John  Randolph  ;  as  he  himself  once  said  in  debate  with 
a  Congressman  who  had  been  a  carpenter,  he  "knew  a  hawk  from  a 
handsaw."  Before  the  Senate  determined  to  discuss  the  Panama  mis- 
sion with  open  doors,  he  moved  a  resolution  —  which  could  only  be 
meant  to  be  laid  on  the  table,  and  was  laid  on  the  table,  with  his  con- 
sent, when  his  speech  upon  it  was  finished  —  that  the  President  be 
requested  to  give  the  Senate  any  information  in  his  possession,  "  touch- 
ing the  principles  and  practice  of  the  Spanish  American  states,  or 
any  of  them,  late  colonies  of  old  Spain,  in  regard  to  negro  slavery." 
That  the  President  could  have  any  information  to  give  upon  such  a 
subject  that  WHS  not  open  to  all  the  rest  of  the  world  as  well,  neither 
Randolph  nor  any  other  member  of  the  Senate  could  suppose  for  a 
moment.  The  Spanish  American  states,  like  the  United  States, 
professed  a  belief  in  the  natural  right  of  all  men  to  liberty ;  and 
their  practice  —  unlike  that  of  the  United  States  —  was  in  accord- 
ance with  their  principles,  and  had  been  to  sweep  negro  slavery,  so 


JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS. 


"  fnjr/mit  lit/  >'////(//. 


1825.]  OPPOSITION    OF   THE  SLAVEHOLDERS.  '285 

far  as  they  could,  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  the  object 
of  the  resolution  was  gained  when  Randolph,  in  a  characteristic 
speech,  denounced  the  proposal  to  send  representatives  to  a  Congress 
of  those  foreign  states  who  had  set  the  pernicious  example  of  giving 
freedom  to  negroes ;  where  the  black  Republic  of  Hayti  might  be  rec- 
ognized; where  the  independence  of  Cuba,  so  dangerously  near  to  our 
own  shores,  and  the  possible  emancipation  of  her  slaves,  might  be  dis- 
cussed. To  send  representatives  to  such  a  Congress  was  to  touch 
slavery,  and  slavery  must  be  "  let  alone."  That  it  would  not  be  let 
alone,  Randolph  said,  was  "  a  great  danger — a  danger  that  has  in- 
creased, is  increasing,  and  must  be  diminished,  or  it  must  come  to  its 
regular  catastrophe  ;  "  and  therefore  the  consideration  of  all  other  in- 
terests which  the  United  States  might  have  in  common  with  the 
South  American  republics  must  be  put  aside  that  slavery  be  pro- 
tected from  the  danger  even  of  discussion  by  foreigners  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Federal  representatives. 

For  nearly  the  whole  session  the  Panama  Congress  was  debated  in 
the  Senate  under  one  or  another  pretext ;  it  came  before  the  The  Monroe 
House  on  the  question  of  an  appropriation,  and  a  large  por-  doctnne 
tion  of  the  time  was  given  to  it  there  from  January  to  April.  That 
the  neutrality  of  the  United  States  might  be  jeoparded  by  the  official 
recognition  of  the  Congress,  was  urged  as  one  reason  for  rejecting  the 
nominations  of  the  President ;  but,  inasmuch  as  it  was  expressly  pro- 
vided that  such  neutrality  should  remain  intact,  that  argument  had 
little  weight.  The  attack  on  the  Administration  was  pressed  with 
much  more  vigor  on  the  proper  interpretation  of  u  The  Monroe  Doc- 
trine." A  meaning  was  given  to  it,  it  was  declared,  which  its  terms 
did  not  warrant,  by  the  assurance  of  Mr.  Poinsett,  the  Minister  to 
Mexico,  sanctioned  apparently  by  Mr.  Clay,  the  Secretary  of  State. 
that  in  that  declaration  a  pledge  of  protection  was  made  to  the  South 
American  states  in  the  event  of  European  aggression.  It  was  de- 
nied, and  the  denial  generally  accepted,  that  "  The  Monroe  Doctrine  " 
was  meant  to  convey  an  assurance  so  dangerous  to  the  future  peace  of 
the  country. 

But  all  this  was,  for  the  most  part,  a.  skirmish  of  words.  The 
question  more  important  than  all  others  was  the  question  of  slavery, 
and  on  this  the  debate  was  in  dead  earnest.  A  Congress  of  American 
nations,  some  of  whom  believed  in  the  right  of  all  men  to  liberty  ;  a 
Congress  that  would  recognize  Hayti  as  a  sister  republic;  a  Congress 
that  might  lead  to  the  independence  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  and  to 
the  emancipation  of  their  slaves,  was  not  a  body  in  which  the  United 
States  should  be  represented.  The  one  interest  in  the  United  States, 
absorbing  and  supreme,  was  the  interest  of  slavery.  It  must  govern 


286  ADAMS    AND  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

in  the  foreign  relations  of  the  Government,  as  it  was  meant  it  should 
govern  at  home. 

To  enforce  this  doctrine  was  the  object  of  the  debate ;  the  Congress 
itself  was  only  a  secondary  matter.  The  South  has  always  under- 
stood the  importance  of  political  education,  and  the  necessity  of  in- 
Poiitica  culcating  great  primary  principles.  These  were,  that  the 
ucationof  true  foundation  of  democratic  government  w;is  negro  slav- 

the  South. 

ery ;  that  the  supreme  power  should  rest  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  thousand  white  men  —  generally  about  one  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  population  of  the  country  —  by  virtue  of  their  ownership  of 
negro  slaves  ;  that  the  highest  and  most  imperative  function  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union  was  the  support  of  a  government  so 
constituted  ;  and  that  the  Union  must  cease  to  exist  the  moment  the 
Federal  Government  was  perverted  from  that  end,  and  the  sanctity 
and  peace  of  slavery  were  imperilled.  From  generation  to  genera- 
tion the  young  men  of  the  South  have  sat  at  the  feet  of  their  proph- 
ets to  learn  this  lesson.  The  divine  right  of  kings  was  never  enforced, 
even  when  taught  as  an  article  of  religions  faith,  with  the  earnest- 
ness that  the  cognate  doctrine  was  enforced  at  the  South.  But  there 
was  no  political  education  to  answer  to  this  in  the  North.  The 
strength  of  firm  convictions  and  abiding  faith,  on  the  one  hand,  was 
met  with  hesitation  and  doubt  on  the  other.  The  South  believed 
in  slavery  with  its  whole  soul,  and  knew  what  it  wanted  ;  the  North 
was  not  quite  sure  whether  it  believed  in  it  or  not,  and  was  by  no 
means  certain  of  what  it  was  that  the  South  was  aiming  at. 

When  enough  had  been  said  in  both  Houses  to  show,  as  had  been 
so  often  shown  before,  and  would  be  so  often  shown  again,  that 
slavery  must  never  be  meddled  with,  but  that  all  moral  and  political 
forces  must  be  bent  to  its  support,  the  nomination  of  the  delegates 
to  Panama  was  confirmed,  and  the  appropriation  made.  In  itself 
the  act  was  of  no  consequence,  for  the  Congress  never  met.  But 
some  of  the  Southern  senators  were  quite  willing  that  the  delegates 
should  be  appointed,  if  instructed  to  use  their  influence  as  repre- 
sentatives of  the  United  States  to  pi-event  the  recognition  of  Hayti, 
and  arrest  any  movement  in  aid  of  the  independence  of  Cuba.  In 
reality  there  was  no  anxiety  on  either  point.  There  could  be  no 
misconception  of  the  position  of  the  Government,  as  represented  by 
the  Secretary  of  State.  Mr.  Clay  had  earnestly  urged  the  interven- 
nay-sposi-  t'on  °^  Russia  with  Spain,  to  induce  her  to  recognize  the 
tion  independence  of  her  late  colonies,  that  she  might  retain 

Cuba  ;  and  he  had  persuaded  those  colonies  to  delay  any  movement 
against  Cuba,  in  the  hope  that  recognition  would  leave  that  island 
and  Porto  Rico  in  the  possession  of  Spain.  Mr.  Clay  was  an  enthu- 


1825.] 


A   "  SOLID  SOUTH." 


287 


siast  in  the  cause  of  liberty  in  South  America  ;  nor  did  he  stop  to 
ask  what  races  —  white,  black,  or  copper-colored,  pure  or  mixed  — 
might  enjoy  that  liberty  in  those  far-off  countries.  But  his  enthusi- 
asm was  under  perfect  control,  and  the  new  republics  were  made  to 
understand  that  no  pernicious  example  of  the  abolition  of  slavery 
was  to  be  tolerated  so  near  the  United  States  as  in  Cuba.  Nor  was 
there  the  slightest  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Government  under 
Mr.  Adams  would  interfere  with  slavery  ;  but  with  that  wise  fore- 
thought which  the  South 
never  lost  sight  of,  the  op- 
portunity was  seized  to  set 
forth  by  months  of  debate 
the  radical  doctrine  that  the 
Union  only  existed  for  the 
support  of  slavery,  and  that 
when  it  ceased  to  do  that 
it  must  cease  to  exist. 

The    Republic   was    al- 
ready  nearly  a   half   cen- 
tury old,  and  once  before 
there  had  been  a  Northern 
President,  and  he   chosen 
against    the    will    of    the 
South.     In  this  fact  there 
was    danger,   and    it    was 
time    to    rally    a    "  solid 
South  "   in    an   opposition 
party.      Innovations   must 
be  met  at  the  outset.     "  I  will  cry  out  obsta  principiis"  said  Ran- 
dolph.    In  this  first  encounter  with  a  Northern  Executive,  A  golid 
he  said,  "  The  step  you  are  about  to  take  is  a  match  "  —  South- 
to  so  much  gunpowder  —  "enough  to  blow.  —  not  the  first  of  the 
Stuarts  —  but  the  last  of  another  dynasty,  —  sky-high  —  sky-high/' 
And   Hayne  replied,  that  when  "•  the  policy  of  that  portion  of  the 
Union  [the  South]  should  be  called  in  question,  or  their  safety  endan- 
gered, ....  the  whole  South  will  be  as  one  man." 

The  doctrine  of  State  Rights  —  however  precious  and  true  it  may 
be   when    rightly   interpreted    in    a    union   of   reallv   free 

c,  ,   .  .  ,  T. 

States  —  meant  nothing  in    this  slaveholders    organization 
but  the  supremacy  of  slave  States.     Georgia  soon  made  this 
manifest  in  her  conduct  in  regard  to  the   Indians  still  within  her 
boundaries.     A  condition  of  the  cession  of  her  western  territory  to 

w 

the   Federal   Government  was,  that  the  title    to   the    Indian    lands 


Henry  Clay. 


Indian  trou- 


288  ADAMS    AND  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

should  be  acquired  by  the  United  States  and  transferred  to  her.  The 
Government  was  willing  to  redeem  this  promise ;  but  it  had  been 
long  deferred  because  of  the  unwillingness  of  the  Creeks  and  Cher- 
okees  to  part  with  tlieir  land.  A  council  of  Creek  chiefs  resolved, 
as  firmly  as  men  could  resolve,  not  to  sell  a  foot,  and  to  visit  the 
penalty  of  death  upon  any  chiefs  who  should  disregard  the  resolution. 
Commissioners  were  appointed,  and  in  1825  they  concluded  a  treaty 
with  Melntosh  and  some  other  chiefs  at  Indian  Springs,  by  which 
the  lands  were  conveyed  to  the  United  States  ;  and  thereupon  the 
Creeks  made  good  their  word  by  putting  the  signers  of  the  treaty 
to  death.  The  State  of  Georgia  meanwhile  had  ordered  a  survey  of 
the  territory  occupied  by  the  Indians,  and  if  this  were  carried  out 
a  conflict  between  the  surveyors  and  the  Indians  was  inevitable. 
The  treaty,  which  had  been  ratified  by  the  Senate  and  the  Presi- 
dent, continued  the  Creeks  in  possession  till  September  1,  1826,  and 
there  could  be  no  color  of  right  under  the  treaty  even,  much  less  out- 
side of  it,  for  interference  by  Georgia.  But  the  Governor,  George  M. 
Troup,  assumed  at  once  a  position  which  ignored  laws  and  treaties, 
Beginning  ant'  rested  upon  the  title  of  a  sovereign  State.  In  his  eor- 
iughts*on°  respondence  with  the  Government,  he  assumed  in  the  bald- 
test  est  and  boldest  language  the  independence  of  Georgia,  and 

insolently  informed  the  President  that  the  survey  would  go  on.  The 
Governor  professed  to  see  in  the  attitude  of  the  Government  a  secret 
hostility  to  slavery,  and  called  upon  the  Legislature  to  act  in  self- 
defence.1  A  committee  of  the  Legislature  reported,  in  very  tem- 
pestuous language,  that  the  time  had  come  for  united  action  on  the 
part  of  the  South  in  resistance  to  the  Federal  Government. 

A  long  discussion  then  ensued,  between  the  Governor  on  the  one 
side  and  General  Gaines,  who  had  been  sent  to  Georgia  to  keep  the 
peace,  and  the  Secretary  of  War,  on  the  other.  The  President  was 
firm,  and  near  the  end  of  July,  1825,  he  instructed  the  Secretary 
of  War  to  write  to  the  Governor  that,  pending  a  new  consideration 
of  the  treaty  by  Congress,  the  terms  of  the  recent  treaty  were  such 
as  to  forbid  the  survey.  "  I  am,  therefore,"  writes  the  Secretary, 

1  "  Soon,  very  soon,  therefore,"  said  Governor  Troup,  "  the  United  States  Government, 
discarding  the  mask,  will  openly  lend  itself  to  a  combination  of  fanatics  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  everything  valuable  in  the  Southern  country  ;  one  movement  of  the  Congress,  un- 
rcsisted  by  you,  and  all  is  lost.  Temporize  no  longer;  make  known  your  resolution  that 
this  subject  shall  not  be  touched  by  them  but  at  their  peril.  But  for  its  sacred  guarantee 
bv  the  Constitution,  we  never  would  hnve  become  parties  to  that  instrument.  At  this 
moment  you  would  not  make  yourselves  parties  to  any  constitution  without  it.  Of  course 
you  will  not  be  a  party  to  it  from  the  moment  the  General  Government  shall  make  that 
movement.  If  this  matter  be  an  evil,  it  is  our  own  ;  if  it  be  a  sin,  we  can  implore  the  for- 
giveness of  it ;  to  remove  it,  we  ask  not  either  their  sympathy  or  assistance  ;  it  may  be  our 
physical  weakness  —  it  is  our  moral  strength." — Niles's  Register,  xxviii.  240. 


1827.]  STATE   SOVEREIGNTY  IN  GEORGIA.  289 

"directed  by  the  President  to  state  distinctly  to  your  Excellency 
that,  for  the  present,  he  will  not  permit  such  entry  or  survey  to  be 
made."  A  new  treaty  was  negotiated  at  Washington,  and  new  cause 
of  complaint  loudly  declared  in  Georgia.  Troup,  who  had  been  re- 
elected  Governor  by  a  bare  majority,  again  ordered  surveys  upon  the 
basis  of  the  former  treaty.  The  Indians  appealed  to  Adams,  who  pre- 
sented the  whole  subject  afresh  to  Congress.  The  message,  throw- 
ing the  burden  upon  Congress,  was  a  clear  statement  of  the  case ;  but 
the  people  were  not  prepared  to  test  the  relative  authority  of  Union 
and  State.  The  interests  involved  were  of  little  moment  to  the  peo- 
ple at  large.  The  dispute  was  only  over  a  tribe  of  Indians  who 
blocked  the  way.  The  President  was  expected  to  maintain  treaty 
obligations,  but  no  authority  was  given  him  by  Congress  to  assert 
the  authority  and  dignity  of  the  Federal  Government  when  it  in- 
volved direct  collision  with  a  State.  A  let-alone  policy  was  accepted ; 
Georgia  triumphed,  and  the  Administration  and  the  Indians  went  to 
the  wall. 

The  advantage  gained  over  the  Creeks  was  repeated  immediately 
in  a  contest  with  the  Cherokees,  which  lasted  from  1826  to  1837. 
By  a  series  of  enactments  the  Georgia  Legislature  pressed  hard  upon 
the  unfortunate  Indians.  The  authority  of  the  State  was  extended 

w 

over  the  entire  territory,  and  was  so  exercised  as  to  make  life  in 
Georgia  unendurable  to  the  Cherokees.  The  missionaries  living 
among  them  were  treated  as  felons,  and  the  longer  the  Indians  pre- 
sented a  passive  resistance  the  more  malignant  was  the  persecution 
visited  upon  them.  The  State,  having  once  secured  its  position  be- 
fore a  temporizing  Congress,  resisted  effectively  every  attempt  on  be- 
half of  the  Indians.  When  Jackson  succeeded  Adams,  he  declared 
officially  to  the  Cherokees  that  they  had  no  choice  except  to  obey  the 
laws  of  the  State  or  "  to  remove,  and,  by  associating  with  your 
brothers  beyond  the  Mississippi,  to  become  again  united  as  one  na- 
tion ;  "  but  the  declaration  ignored  the  fact  that  the  Cherokees  were 
still  a  nation,  by  treaty,  with  the  United  States  ;  it  yielded  the 
whole  question  to  Georgia. 

The  Indians  appealed  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  and 
William  Wirt,  the  ex-Attorney-general,  appeared  on  their  behalf. 
But  here  the  anomalous  political  position  of  the  Cherokees  confronted 
the  judges,  and,  as  interpreters  of  the  law,  they  were  obliged  to  give 
a  decision  contrary  to  their  own  sense  of  justice.  In  the  complaint, 
the  Cherokees  had  been  described  as  a  foreign  state,  having  adopted 
a  constitution  for  their  own  government ;  but  as  such  they  could  not 
bring  a  case  before  the  Federal  courts.  But  Chief  Justice  Marshall, 
in  rendering  the  decision,  said,  "  So  much  of  the  argument  as  was  in- 

VOL.    IV.  19 


290  ADAMS    AND   JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XIL 

.* 

tended  to  prove  the  character  of  the  Cherokees  as  a  state,  as  a  dis- 
tinct political  society,  separated  from  others,  capable  of  managing  its 
own  affairs,  and  governing  itself,  has,  in  the  opinion  of  the  majoi'ity 
of  the  judges,  been  completely  successful.  They  have  been  uni- 
formly treated  as  a  state  from  the  settlement  of  our  country.  The 
acts  of  our  Government  plainly  recognize  the  Cherokee  nation  as  a 
state,  and  the  courts  are  bound  by  those  acts." 

The  Court  soon  came  into  more  direct  conflict  with  the  State  on  a 
question  of  jurisdiction,  and  both  Governor  and  Legislature  treated 
the  order  of  the  Supreme  Court  as  an  interference  with  the  rights  of 
Georgia,  and  paid  no  heed  to  it.  Another  occasion  arose  later  still, 
The  case  of  when  a  Presbyterian  minister,  named  Worcester,  was  con- 
worcester.  JemneJ  to  four  years'  imprisonment  at  hard  labor  for  the 
crime  of  remaining  in  the  territory  with  a  dying  wife  beyond  the  ten 
days  allowed  him  for  leaving.  The  case  of  Worcester  was  appealed 
to  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  act  of  the  State  of  Georgia  was  de- 
clared void.  Nevertheless,  the  State  court  paid  no  attention  to  the 
decision,  and  Clayton,  of  Geoi-gia,  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
said  that  "  before  the  decree  of  the  Supreme  Court  should  be  carried 
into  execution,  Georgia  should  be  made  a  wilderness."  The  country 
was  stirred  to  indignation,  but  rather  at  Georgia's  inhumanity  than 
at  her  rebellion  against  the  Union,  and  it  was  found  convenient  by 
the  Federal  Government  to  avoid  a  crisis  on  behalf  of  the  Indians. 

Thus  through  two  administrations  the  Federal  Government  was 
defied  by  a  single  State  ;  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights,  as  it  was  un- 
derstood at  the  South,  was  carried  to  its  legitimate  conclusion  ;  and 
Georgia  assumed,  and  proved  herself,  to  be  as  absolutely  independent 
of  and  above  the  authority  and  laws  of  the  Union,  where  her  special 
interests  were  concerned,  as  if  the  Union  had  ceased  to  exist.  The 
controversy  was  upon  too  remote  an  interest  to  alarm  the  North  as  to 
its  real  character ;  nor  has  the  sense  of  justice  and  humanity  toward 
the  Indian  ever  been  so  keen  that  the  cruelty  visited  upon  the  Creeks 
should,  at  that  time,  arouse  the  sympathies  of  the  country  on  behalf 
of  that  unhappy  people.  But  the  conduct  of  Georgia  was  sustained, 
directly  or  indirectly,  by  her  sister  States  of  the  South,  and  her  suc- 
cess rejoiced  in  as  a  complete  and  triumphant  assertion  of  the  South- 
ern policy.  There  was  no  long  time  to  wait  before  another  struggle, 
with  essentially  the  same  result. 

The  question  of  the  tariff  was  becoming  moi-e  and  more  a  sectional 
question.     The  breach  between  North  and  South  was  wid- 
a  sectional      ened  as  the  inevitable  antagonism  between  free  labor  and 
slave  labor  was  made  more  manifest  by  the  protective  pol- 
icy.    The  recuperative  power  of  the  North  was  irrepressible.     She 


1828.]  THE   TARIFF   A    SECTIONAL   QUESTION.  291 

grew  rich  and  prosperous,  whether,  under  free  trade,  her  energies 
were  devoted  to  agriculture  and  commerce,  or  whether,  under  a  pro- 
tective tariff,  her  capital  and  labor  were  forced  into  the  development 
of  manufacturing  interests.  It  was  just  the  reverse  at  the  South. 
Slavery  and  prosperity  were  incompatible,  and  while  the  North  flour- 
ished under  either  free  trade  or  tariff,  the  South  grew  poor  un- 
der both.  All  the  North  asked  for  was  a  steady  and  uniform  pol- 
icy ;  she  also  wanted  to  be  "  let  alone."  Hut  the  South,  which  had 
first  established  the  protective  policy  for  her  own  supposed  advan- 
tage, now  demanded  a  return  to  free  trade  for  the  same  reason.  The 
North,  she  believed,  gained  by  her  loss,  for  she  could  not  under- 
stand that  the  North  could  accommodate  herself  to  any  policy  be- 
cause her  labor  was  free,  but  that  there  could  be  no  like  prosperity 
at  the  South  because  her  laborers  were  slaves.  It  was  certainly  true 
that  the  cheaper  everything  else  was,  the  greater  was  the  value  of 
a  crop  of  cotton  or  tobacco.  To  sell  it  at  the  highest  possible  price, 
and  to  buy  in  return  all  that  was  needed  on  a  plantation  at  the 
cheapest,  was  a  very  simple  problem  in  political  economy.  But  there 
were  other  terms  to  the  problem  ;  the  North,  against  her  will,  had 
been  compelled  to  invest  her  capital  and  labor  in  a  variety  of  in- 
dustries, and  she  demanded  that  as  legislation  had  put  her  in  that 
position,  legislation  should  protect  her.  It  was  not  a  question  of  po- 
litical economy  between  the  two  sections  of  the  Union,  whatever  it 
might  be  in  the  abstract;  but  whether  the  ability  in  capital  and 
industry  in  one  portion  of  the  country  should  be  directed  and  con- 
trolled by  the  inability  in  both  of  the  other  portion.  But  cotton  was 
king,  and  kings  are  not  necessarily  held  to  reason. 

The  tariff  of  1828  was  a  more  comprehensive  measure,  and  more 
distinctly  adjusted  to  encourage  American  industry  than  any  previ- 
ously enacted.  All  New  England  and  most  of  the  Middle  and  West- 
ern States  were  now  united  on  this  subject,  and  in  1827  a  large 
National  Convention  of  Protectionists  was  held  at  Harrisburg  to  con- 
sider their  various  interests  and  to  influence  legislation.  The  number 
of  articles  —  wool,  iron,  lead,  hemp,  distilled  spirits,  and  others  of 
smaller  general  importance  —  demanding  protection  was  increased. 
The  question  was  made,  more  positively  than  had  been  done  four 
years  before,  one  of  party  politics. 

It  only  influenced,  however,  without  governing  parties,  for  there 
were  protectionists  who  voted  for  Jackson,  though  there  were  no 
anti-protectionists  who  voted  for  Adams.  At  the  present  rharacterof 
time,  with  the  general  diffusion  of  information  and  the  Jackson- 
rapid  communication  between  the  different  parts  of  the  country,  the 
people  usually  have  a  pretty  clear  understanding  of  the  character  of 


292 


ADAMS   AND  JACKSON. 


[CHAP.  XII. 


presidental  candidates,  when,  as  still  sometimes  happens,  there  are 
candidates  who  have  any  characters  to  be  understood.     But  it  is  not 


Northern  Industry. 


to  be  wondered  at  that  fifty  years  ago  Jackson  was  voted  for  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  Union  for  precisely  opposite  reasons. 

It  seems,  at  first  sight,  difficult  to  find  in  General  Jackson's  per- 


1828.] 


JACKSON'S   CHARACTER. 


293 


sonal  qualities  the  cause  of  his  great  popularity.     He  was  neither  a 
wise  nor  a  good  man,  and  in  many  respects  he  was  both  a  foolish  and 


Southern  Industry. 


a  bad  one.  He  was  not  only  illiterate  —  which  may  be  a  misfortune 
without  being  a  fault  —  but  ignorant;  he  was  easily  provoked  to 
anger,  and  his  rage  was  not  only  cruel  but  uncontrollable ;  in  temper 


294  ADAMS   AND  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

he  was  as  despotic  as  he  was  fearless,  and  lie  was  as  free  from  scruples 
as  he  was  without  fear.  As  a  brave  and  successful  soldier,  he  was 
known  to  the  people ;  if  he  was  capable  also  of  strong  domestic  at- 
tachments and  of  warm  friendships,  which  —  no  doubt  truly — is  al- 
leged of  him,  that  could  have  had  little  to  do  with  his  popularity,  as  it 
could  not  be  generally  known.  The  worst  and  the  largest  side  of  him 
is  that  which  for  thirty  years  was  presented  to  the  public,  and  either 
because  of  it  or  in  spite  of  it,  the  larger  number  of  the  people  admired 
and  honored  him.  But  that  large  part  —  at  least  in  his  first  election 
—  was  from  the  Southern  States,  and  his  popularity  there  is  easily  ac- 
counted for.  The  strong  points  in  his  character  were  precisely  those 
engendered  and  developed  in  the  mastership  of  a  gang  of  negro  slaves, 
and  the  education  of  the  plantation.  "The  whole  commerce  between 
master  and  slave,"  said  Jefferson,  "is  a  perpetual  exercise  of  the  most 
boisterous  passions  ;  the  most  unremitting  despotism  on  the  one  part, 

and  degrading  submissions  on  the  other The  parent  storms, 

the  child  looks  on,  catches  the  lineaments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same 
airs  in  the  circle  of  smaller  slaves,  gives  loose  to  his  worst  passions, 
and  thus  nursed,  educated,  and  daily  exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot  but 
be  stamped  by  it  with  odious  peculiarities.  The  man  must  be  a  prod- 
igy who  can  retain  his  manners  and  morals  undepraved  by  such  cir- 
cumstances." An  education  of  this  sort  had  in  Jackson  been 

Reasons  for  111-  •  /»     i    i        i  •      i  •  i 

his  popular-  rounded  and  intensified  by  his  long  experience  in  the  pecul- 
iar warfare  carried  on  against  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  South. 
The  slaveholders  saw  in  him  a  magnified  reflection  of  themselves, 
and  they  admired  and  esteemed  him  accordingly.  That  his  popular- 
ity should  have  extended  subsequently  to  the  North,  admits  of  some- 
thing of  the  same  explanation.  As  a  result  of  "  the  most  boisterous 
passions  "  engendered  by  slavery,  Jefferson  deduces  "  degrading  sub- 
missions," as  well  as  '•  unremitting  despotism."  There  has  been 
always  a  singular  servility  in  the  character  of  a  portion  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  In  that  class  the  slaveholder  has  always  found  his 
Northern  servitor.  Randolph  first  gave  it  a  name  to  live  by  in  the 
term  "  doughface."  It  always  loves  to  recognize  a  master,  as  the 
slave  is  always  most  abject  under  the  lash  that  cuts  the  keenest  and 
oftenest.  It  was  this  class  that  loved  Jackson  simply  because  they 
saw  a  master  in  his  despotic  will,  which  no  scruple  ever  controlled. 
Besides  this,  there  was  that  other  weakness  of  the  American  charac- 
ter which  has  so  much  to  answer  for  —  the  capacity  of  being  aroused 
to  an  irrepressible  enthusiasm  on  the  most  factitious  pretexts,  and  of 
raising  the  most  ordinary  mortals  to  immortality  with  shouts  so  fran- 
tic that  they  come  at  length  to  be  believed  sincere. 

It  was  during  the  closing  years  of  Adams's  administration  that  the 


1832.]  THE   BLACK    HAWK    WAR.  295 

last  serious  Indian  war  occurred  within  the  borders  of  the  present 
northwestern  States.  In  1830  a  treaty  was  made  with  the  The  Bla(.k 
tribes  of  Sacs  and  Foxes,  by  which  their  lands  in  Illinois  lliiwkwar- 
were  ceded  to  the  United  States.  They  were  nevertheless  unwilling 
to  leave  their  country,  and  Governor  Reynolds,  of  Illinois,  called  out 
a  militia  force  to  remove  them  beyond  the  Mississippi.  Black  Hawk, 
a  chief  of  the  Sacs,  then  about  sixty  years  of  age,  refused  submission, 
and  the  next  year  returned  with  a  small  force.  He  was  driven  back 
by  the  troops  at  Rock  Island,  but  in  March,  1832,  he  reappeared,  at 
the  head  of  about  a  thousand  warriors,  —  Sacs,  Foxes,  and  Winne- 
bagos,  —  and  penetrated  into  the  Rock  River  valley,  declaring  that 
he  came  only  to  plant  corn.  But  either  he  would  not  or  could  not 
restrain  his  followers,  and  the  devastation  of  Indian  warfare  soon 
spread  among  the  frontier  settlements.  Farms  were  laid  waste,  farm- 
houses given  to  the  flames,  and  their  occupants  put  to  death.  The 
force  at  Rock  Island  was  sent  out  to  stay  these  ravages,  and  Generals 
Scott  and  Atkinson  ordered  from  Buffalo  with  a  reenforcement, 
which  on  the  way  was  greatly  diminished  by  cholera  and  desertions. 
The  Governor  of  Illinois  called  for  volunteers,  and  an  effective  force 
of  about  twenty-four  hundred  men  was  soon  marched  against  the 
enemy.  Black  Hawk's  band  fled  before  it.  General  Whiteside,  who 
was  in  command,  burned  the  Prophet's  Town,  on  Rock  River,  and 
pursued  the  Indians  up  that  stream.  But  his  advance  under  Major 
Stillman  was  led  into  ambush  at  a  point  about  twenty  miles  from  the 
present  town  of  Dixon,  and  defeated.  The  Indians  were  overtaken 
and  badly  defeated  on  Wisconsin  River ;  and  the  survivors,  still  re- 
treating northward,  were  again  overtaken  near  Bad  Axe  River,  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Mississippi.  Here  Black  Hawk  attempted  to  get 
his  main  body  (across  the  Mississippi,  himself  and  twenty  warriors 
forming  a  rear-guard  to  make  a  show  of  force  and  keep  the  pursuers 
at  bay.  But  his  movements  were  understood,  the  rear-guard  soon 
driven  in  to  the  main  body,  and  that  was  surrounded.  Many  of  the 
Indians  were  shot  in  the  water  while  trying  to  swim  the  stream; 
others  were  killed  on  a  little  island  where  they  sought  refuge.  Only 
about  fifty  prisoners  were  taken,  and  most  of  these  were  squaws  and 
children.  The  dispersion  was  complete,  and  the  war  was  soon  closed 
by  the  surrender  oc  capture  of  Black  Hawk,  Keokuk,  and  other 
chiefs.  Many  persons  are  still  living  who  can  remember  the  melan- 
choly progress  of  these  warriors  on  their  way  to  Washington  to  ac- 
knowledge their  subjection. 

In  the  presidential  election  of  1828  the  Norther n  dynasty  was 
blown,  as  Randolph  said  it  should  be,  "  sky-high  —  sky-high."  Adams 
received  the  electoral  vote  of  New  England,  of  Delaware,  and  a  por- 


296 


ADAMS   AND  JACKSOX. 


[CHAP.  XII. 


tion  of  that  of  Maryland.  All  the  rest  were  given  to  Jackson,  rnak- 
Eiectionof  mg  a  total  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  electoral  votes 
Jackson.  to  Adams's  eighty-three.  There  was  at  least  one  man  in 
the  country  who  was  not  surprised  at  this  result;  Adams  had  ex- 
pected it,  and  had  prepared,  though  with  great  reluctance,  to  retire 
to  private  life.  Calhoun  was  again  elected  to  the  vice-presidency. 

At  the  inaugural  ceremonies  in  the  following  March,  a  larger  crowd 
assembled  at  Washington  from  all  parts  of  the  country  than  had  ever 


•     . 


•^  '  "•  u* 
-  #;    -' 


Battle  of   Bad  Axe. 

before  come  together  on  a  similar  occasion.  Mr.  Adams  was  con- 
spicuous by  his  absence,  — a  fact  commented  upon  then,  and  remem- 
bered ever  since  against  him,  by  those  who,  perhaps,  did  not  know 
that  the  incoming  President  had  carefully  abstained  from  showing 
him,  before  the  inauguration,  the  usual  courtesies  due  to  the  retiring 
chief  magistrate.  The  matter  was  considered  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance for  Mr.  Adams  to  seek  counsel  from  his  friends,  and  to  be 
guided  by  their  advice.1 

1  The  excuse  made  for  Jackson  in  Parton's  Life  of  Jackson  — that  he  took  this  method 


1829.]  THE   SYSTEM  OF  REMOVALS   ESTABLISHED.  207 

The  inaugural  address  rather  surprised  both  parties,  and  disap- 
pointed those  who  expected  a  condemnation  of  the  tariff.  ni8in«uKu- 
On  that  subject  it  was  moderate  enough  to  encourage  the  •*••*•• 
protectionists  to  hope  that  the  established  policy  would  not  be  med- 
dled with.  Upon  the  necessity  of  reform  —  that  much-abused  word 
in  American  politics  —  the  address  was  pronounced  and  emphatic. 
In  saying  that  a  "correction  of  those  abuses  that  have  brought  the 
patronage  of  the  Federal  Government  into  conflict  with  the  freedom 
of  elections  "  was  required,  nothing  was  meant,  probably,  but  a  re- 
flection upon  the  preceding  Administration.  It  was  a  rash  charge  to 
make,  however,  for  whatever  other,  political  sins  might  be  attributed 
to  Mr.  Adams,  that  of  an  undue  use  of  patronage  was  certainly  the 
one  of  which  he  was  absolutely  innocent.  Jackson  had,  indeed,  dis- 
tinguished himself  years  before,  by  urging  Monroe  to  disregard  party 
in  the  choice  of  his  secretaries  ;  and,  when  in  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate, he  had  proposed  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  forbidding 
the  appointment  of  members  of  Congress  to  any  office  whatever,  ex- 
cept upon  the  bench.  However  unjust,  then,  the  implied  accusation 
against  Mr.  Adams  might  be,  it  was  assumed  that  the  President  really 
meant  to  lay  down  a  rule  for  himself.  The  country  had  not  to  wait 
a  month  to  see  how  ludicrous  the  word  reform  was  in  his  mouth. 
Members  of  his  Cabinet  were  taken  from  the  Senate  and  the  House, 
and  it  was  soon  understood  that  not  to  have  been  in  favor  neegtab. 
of  his  election  was  to  be  held  as  forfeiture  of  office,  that  ^^of 
places  might  be  given  as  a  reward  to  his  active  partisans.  reinoT»l8- 
In  the  forty  years  of  previous  administrations  there  had  been  sev- 
enty-three removals  ;  Jackson  removed  a  larger  number  in  the  first 
month  of  his  administration.  Before  the  year  was  out,  six  hundred 
and  ninety  of  his  partisans  were  rewarded  with  places  made  vacant 
for  them,  and  these,  in  their  turn,  punished  and  rewarded  hundreds 
more  of  subordinates.1  The  character  of  the  government  was  com- 
pletely changed  by  the  introduction  of  this  new  system  of  the  tenure 
of  office ;  an  element  of  corruption  was  introduced,  for  which  no 
remedy  has  yet  been  found  ;  and  an  injury  done  to  the  morals  of 
the  people,  and  to  the  cause  of  republican  government,  so  monstrous 
that  it  would  have  been  better  had  Andrew  Jackson  never  been 
born.  It  was  this  partisan  spirit  that  distinguished  his  adminis- 
tration for  eight  years,  and  made  it,  though  in  some  things  excel- 

of  showing  his  resentment  at  some  reflections  made  upon  his  wife,  in  a  newspaper  supposed 
to  he  the  political  organ  of  the  Administration  in  Washington  —  only  shows,  if  true,  how 
incapable  Jackson  was  of  discretion  whore  his  feelings  or  his  passions  were  concerned. 

1  Washington  made  nine  removals  from  office  ;  John  Adams,  nine ;  Jefferson,  thirtv-uine  ; 
Madison,  five  ;  Monroe,  nine ;  John  Quincy  Adams,  two  ;  Jackson  made,  and  caused  to  be 
made,  probably  not  less  than  two  thousand. 


298 


JACKSON. 


[CllAI-.    XII. 


lent,  of  so  evil  example.  He  esteemed  himself  not  a  part  of  the 
State,  but  the  State.  In  one  week  he  vetoed  more  bills  sent  him  by 
Congress  than  all  his  predecessors  had  vetoed  in  forty  years. 

Martin  Van   Buren  was  his  Secretary  of  State;    the  rest  of  his 
Cabinet,  excepting  John  M.  Berrien,  the  Attorney-general, 

His  Cabinet.  .  ~. 

were  men  who  left  no  mark  upon  their  time.     His  "Kitchen 
Cabinet,''  as  it  was  called  in  the  slang    of  the  day  —  William  B. 

Lewis,  Duff  Green, 
Amos  Kendall,  and 
Isaac    Hill  —  were 
the  advisers  and 
confidants   of   the 
head  of   the  State. 
The  official  Cabinet 
was   scattered,   o  r 
scattered  itself,  be- 
fore the  end  of  the 
first    term,    moved 
thereto    by   a   per- 
sonal scandal  which 
Jackson  wanted  the 
dignity  and  d  e  1  i- 
cacy  to  smother, 
but  insisted  instead 
upon    forcing  upon 
the  public.     It  oc- 
cupied too  i  m  p  o  r- 
tant  a  place  in  the  political  history  of  those  years  to  be  forgotten. 
John  H.  Eaton,  the  Secretary  of  War,  had  married  a  Mrs.  Timber- 
lake,  who,  it  was  said,  had  been  his  mistress  while  her  first 
husband  was  living.     Whether  this  was  true  or  not,  it  was 
believed,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  woman  was  of  bad   reputation  be- 
fore Eaton  married  her.     The  families  of  other  members  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  those  of  foreign  Ministers,  as  well  as  those  of  the  better 
class  of  people  generally  in  Washington,  refused  to  recognize  or  admit 
her  to  their  houses.     There  was  a  touch  of  chivalry  in  the  impetu- 
osity and  passion  with  which  Jackson   came  to  the  defence  of  this 
woman.      From   the  same  remarkable  incapacity  of   weighing  testi- 
mony which  he  showed  on  other  occasions,  he  assumed  this  case  to  be 
parallel   to  his  own  ;  and   by  the  zeal   with  which  he  defended  an 
apparently  indefensible  cause,  acknowledged,  in  the  minds  of   many 
people,  the  justice  of  the  charges  that  had  long  been  brought  against 
himself  and  his  own  wife.     Eaton,  it  is  true,  was  his  personal  friend, 


The   Hermitage  —  Residence  of  General  Jackson. 


The  Eaton 
scandal. 


1829.]  THE   EATON    SCANDAL.  299 

and  Mrs.  Timberlake  and  her  family  had  long  been  known  to  him. 
But  it  would  be  doing  him  great  injustice  to  suppose  that  there  was 
no  deeper  influence  than  ordinary  friendship,  no  other  impulse  at 
work  than  headlong  obstinacy,  to  impel  him  to  a  course  of  conduct 
which  so  controlled  the  first  three  years  of  his  administration.  Th^ 
defence  of  Mrs.  Eaton  was  the  defence  of  his  own  wife,  dead  not 
many  weeks,  and  mourned  with  a  passionate  sorrow.  There  was 
really  no  parallel  in  the  two  cases,  nor  could  Jackson  see  that  it  was 
he  who  was  reflecting  upon  the  memory  of  his  dead  wife  by  admitting 
any  possible  similarity.  When,  nearly  forty  years  before,  he  had 
married,  she  was,  as  both  believed,  fully  divorced  from  a  former  hus- 
band. When  this  was  found  to  be  a  mistake,  the  proper  legal  steps 
were  taken,  and  they  were  married  again.  Years  afterward  this 
perfectly  innocent  error  was  seized  upon  and  tortured  by  political 
malice  into  a  cruel  scandal ;  and  it  seemed  to  him  a  sort  of  vindication 
of  the  memory  of  his  wife,  and  a  righteous  resentment  for  what  she 
had  been  made  to  suffer,  to  defend  another  woman  who  seemed  to 
him  visited  with  similar  injustice.  It  did  not  occur  to  him  that  in 
inviting  comparison  he  was  confessing  judgment. 

Moved  by  such  an  impulse,  his  pertinacity  and  violence  on  this 
topic  are  less  to  be  wondered  at,  and  even  from  one  view  to  be  ap- 
plauded. It  was  characteristic  of  the  man,  however,  that  he  should 
permit  this  purely  personal  feeling  to  override  all  other  considerations. 
He  might  have  conceded  so  much  to  an  almost  universal  belief  as  to 
have  consented  that  his  public  conduct  should  not  be  governed  by  his 
private  opinion.  But  to  this  his  imperious  temper  could  never  con- 
sent. Harmony  in  his  Cabinet  meant  that  the  wives  of  his  secreta- 
ries should  open  their  doors  to  Mrs.  Eaton.  Because  they  would  not 
submit  to  this  interference  with  their  domestic  relations,  and  yield 
their  sense  of  decency  and  of  moral  obligation  to  his  dictation,  Cab- 
inet meetings  became  less  and  less  frequent,  were  at  length  given  up 
altogether,  and  finally  the  Cabinet  was  broken  up,  in  part,  at  least, 
from  this  want  of  harmony.  He  threatened  to  dismiss  a  foreign 
minister  whose  wife  declined  to  recognize  Mrs.  Eaton  ;  he  sent  Mrs. 
Donelson  and  her  husband  —  his  nephew  and  secretary  —  who  resided 
with  him  in  the  presidential  mansion,  back  to  Tennessee,  because  she 
declined  to  receive  Mrs.  Eaton  ;  and  he  was  almost  beside  himself 
with  imbecile  rage  when,  in  those  private  parlors  where  he  had  pro- 
cured her  admission,  the  ladies  of  Washington  retired  from  before  her 
as  if  her  presence  were  a  contamination.  Jackson  was  himself,  undoubt- 
edly, as  chaste  as  a  virtuous  woman  ;  but  it  was,  nevertheless,  through 
the  overbearing  self-will  of  this  man  that  the  simplicity  and  purity  of 
a  republican  Administration  was,  for  the  first  time,  and  so  far  for  the 


300  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

last,  smirched  with  the  scandalous  intrigues  that  in  earlier  times  dis- 
tinguished the  courts  of  monarehs. 

The  President's  hostility  to  the  United  States  Bank,  which  dis- 
Th,  rnite.i  tinguished  his  first  term  of  office,  and  had  more  to  do,  prob- 
"lk  ably,  than  anything  else  with  his  reelection,  showed  itself  in 
his  first  message.  As  the  Hank  would  soon  ask  for  a  renewal  of  its 
charter,  which  would  expire  in  183b\  he  called  the  attention  of  Con- 
gress to  the  constitutionality  and  expediency  of  the  law  creating  it. 
It  had  failed,  he  said,  in  establishing  a  sound  and  uniform  currency, 
and  he  suggested  that  a  National  Bank,  founded  upon  the  credit  and 
revenues  of  the  Government,  might  be  devised  which  would  be  con- 
stitutional, and  be  beneficial  to  the  finances  of  the  country. 

It  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  struggle  which  convulsed  the  coun- 
try as  long  as  it  lasted.  That  its  final  result  was  beneficial,  was  not 
long  doubted  after  the  party  passion  the  encounter  excited  had  sub- 
sided :  nor  is  it  incredible  that  the  motives  of  Jackson's  hostility  were 

•/ 

what  he  professed  they  were,  though  their  first  impulse  may  have 
been  purely  personal.  Certain  it  is  that  those  private  counsellors  of 
his  who  were  soon  known  as  the  "  Kitchen  Cabinet"  had  already  had 
an  encounter  with  the  officers  of  the  Bank,  and  to  this  is  usually 
traced  the  immediate  hostility  of  the  Administration.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  that  year,  1829.  an  attempt  was  made  to  remove  the  President, 
Jonathan  Mason,  of  the  branch  bank  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H.  Com- 
plaints were  made  of  its  management  by  Isaac  Hill  and  Levi  Wood- 
bury,  both  active  politicians  and  warm  friends  of  the  Administration 
in  that  State.  Ingham,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  held  a  long 
correspondence  with  Nicholas  Biddle,  President  of  the  parent  bank, 
at  the  conclusion  of  which  the  Bank  firmly  and  with  some  asperity 
declared  its  intention  to  pursue  a  course  entirely  independent  of  polit- 
ical dictation.  As  the  appointments  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Direct- 
ors, the  victory  was  for  the  time  complete.  But  it  was  a  victory 
which  aimed  a  direct  blow  at  Jackson,  and  from  that  time,  till  he 
was  able  to  strike  a  fatal  blow  in  return,  he  continued  in  successive 
messages  to  press  the  subject  upon  the  attention  of  Congress. 

The  Bank  was  accused  meanwhile  of  using  its  means  and  its  in- 
fluence to  bring  the  question  of  a  re-charter  within  the  arena  of  party 
politics.  It  became,  at  any  rate,  a  party  question  in  the  canvass  for 
the  next  presidential  election,  the  Clay  party  hoping  to  defeat  the 
Jackson  party  either  by  procuring  the  re-charter  of  the  Bank  by  Con- 
gress, or  by  an  appeal  to  the  country  should  that  attempt  fail.  In  the 
session  of  1832  the  Bank  asked  that  its  charter  be  renewed,  and  an 
act  was  passed  by  large  majorities ;  but  when  the  President  vetoed 
the  bill,  there  was  not  a  two-thirds  vote  in  the  Senate  to  sustain  its 


ANDREW   JACKSON. 
(Afttr  ti  </it(ruen-toty/>e.) 


1832.]  THE    UNITED    STATES   BAXK.  301 

previous  action,  and  the  bill  failed.  At  the  beginning  of  the  session 
of  1832-33  the  President  expressed  doubts  of  the  solvency  of  the 
Bank,  and  recommended  the  removal  of  the  deposits  of  public  money, 
which,  by  the  act  incorporating  the  Bank,  was  subject  to  the  order  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  was  required  to  give  to  Congress 
his  reasons  for  removal.  When  Congress  refused  to  authorize  such 
action,  the  President  assumed  the  responsibility  himself.  Technically 
he  was  free  to  do  so,  through  tlie  Secretary,  and  to  give  his  reasons 
afterward ;  but  the  action  of  Congress  upon  his  message  was  virtually 
a  refusal  to  sanction  such  a  proceeding.  Jackson's  argument,  reiter- 
ated in  many  forms,  was  that  the  Bank  was  buying  up  members  of 
Congress,  and  would  obtain  a  two-thirds  majority  at  the  next  session 
unless  he  crippled  it  at  once,  and  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  not 
solvent.  He  read  to  his  Cabinet  a  long  paper  on  the  subject,  in  which 
he  accused  the  officers  of  the  Bank  of  the  most  flagrant  mismanage- 
ment and  corrupt  practices,  and  concluded  with  the  announcement 
that  he  had  fully  determined  upon  the  removal,  and  should  assume 
the  entire  responsibility.  He  sent  Amos  Kendall  on  a  tour  of  inquiry 
among  the  State  banks,  with  a  proposition  that  certain  of  them  should 
receive  the  deposits,  and  give  a  combined  guaranty  for  their  safety. 

The  Bank  made  a  stubborn  fight  for  its  life.  The  management 
acknowledged  that  in  four  years  it  spent  fifty-eight  thousand  dollars 
in  defending  itself.  On  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  Mr.  Benton  was  the 
representative  of  Jackson's  enmity  to  the  Bank,  while  its  chief  de- 
fenders were  Mr.  Dallas  and  Mr.  Webster.  Though  nearly  the  whole 
debate  was  confined  to  the  question  of  the  character  and  management 
of  this  institution,  strong  objections  had  been  urged  from  the  first 
against  the  existence  of  any  United  States  Bank  at  all.  Jackson  had 
opposed  the  scheme  in  Hamilton's  day,  being  at  that  time  a  Senator 
from  Tennessee.  The  argument  for  a  bank,  briefly  stated,  was,  that 
it  would  give  the  country  a  uniform  and  comparativelv  stable  cur- 
rency,—  money  that  would  pass  at  one  value  in  every  State  of  the 
Union,  making  prices  steady  and  business  safe;  while  at  the  same 
time,  when  an  unusual  amount  was  wanted  in  one  section  —  as  at  the 
West,  when  the  crops  were  to  be  moved  —  the  surplus  of  other  sec- 
tions could,  through  a  bank  with  branches  in  every  State,  be  readily 
drawn  upon.  The  argument  against  it  was,  that  to  create  such  a  cen- 
tralized money  power  and  monopoly  was  dangerous  to  the  Govern- 
ment, whose  elections  and  legislation  it  might  control,  and  dangerous 
to  the  people,  whom  it  might  impoverish  for  its  own  gain ;  while  it 
was  contended  that  all  the  benefits  might  be  secured  by  some  other 
system  of  banking,  and  these  perils  avoided.  Mr.  Webster,  who  was 
now  in  favor  of  the  Bank,  had  opposed  it  when  it  was  chartered  in 


302  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

1816  ;  and  he  was  not  the  only  member  of  Congress  who  had  changed 
sides  on  the  question.  It  became  necessary  for  the  President,  in 
carrying  out  his  object,  to  remove  Secretary  Duane,  because  of  his 
refusal  to  transfer  the  deposits.  His  successor,  Roger  B.  Taney, 
afterward  Chief  Justice,  complied  with  the  President's  wishes,  and 
the  deposits  were  thereafter  placed  in  several  selected  banks.1  The 
Senate  resolved  that  the  reasons  for  removing  the  deposits  were  un- 
satisfactory, and  that  the  President  had  usurped  unconstitutional 
power  over  the  Treasury  by  removing  the  Secretary ;  the  House  re- 
solved that  the  Bank  ought  not  to  be  re-chartered,  nor  the  deposits 
restored. 

Before  the  conclusion  of  this  struggle  over  the  Bank,  a  new  presi- 
dential election  had  come  and  gone. 
There  is  a  prevalent  belief  that  Jack- 
son was  reflected  by  an  unprecedented 
majority.  But  of  the  eight  presi- 
dential elections  from  the  elder  to  the 
younger  Adams  —  including  both  — 
the  successful  candidates  in  four  of 
them  were  chosen  by  larger  majorities 
than  were  given  to  Jackson.  It  was 
only  that  there  was  more  noise  than 
ever  before,  with  the  result  that  the 
country  then  formed  the  pernicious 
habit  of  depending  more  upon  noise 
than  reflection  in  the  selection  of  a 
chief  magistrate.  But  though  this  en- 
thusiasm produced  an  erroneous  im- 
pression, there  was  evidence  enough 
of  the  President's  great  popularity  in  two  hundred  and  nineteen  elec- 
toral votes  cast  for  him,  out  of  a  total  of  two  hundred  and 
eighty-six.  His  course  in  regard  to  the  Bank,  though  not 
the  sole  cause  of  his  popularity,  undoubtedly  had  much  to  do  with  it. 
A  thorough  knowledge  of  fiscal  affairs  and  the  true  functions  of  a 
bank  was  not  necessary  to  an  intelligent  comprehension  of  the  fact, 
that  there  might  be  a  far  wiser  and  more  prudent  disposition  of  the 
public  finances  than  to  intrust  them  to  a  banking  institution  con- 
trolled by  private  persons,  and  that  they  might  be,  when  so  placed, 

1  Knowiug  what  would  be  the  fate  of  this  appointment,  Jackson  refrained  as  long  as 
possible  from  sending  Mr.  Taney 's  name  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation.  When,  in  the 
last  week  of  the  session,  he  did  present  it,  it  was  promptly  rejected  by  a  vote  of  two  to 
one.  The  "  removal  of  the  deposits  "  did  not  consist  in  any  actual  withdrawal  of  funds 
from  the  Bank,  but  in  making  all  deposits  thereafter  at  certain  other  designated  banks. 


Roger  B.  Taney. 


Reelection 
of  Jackson. 


1632.]  ANTI-MASONRY.  303 

perverted  to  personal  or  party  purposes.  With  such  a  substratum 
of  sound  argument,  it  was  easy  to  arouse  almost  unbounded  enthu- 
siasm for  the  man  who,  on  this  plea,  could  be  made  to  appear  as 
the  poor  man's  friend  as  against  the  rich,  as  the  protector  of  the 
rights  of  the  many  as  against  the  few. 

Clay  in  this  election  was  Jackson's  competitor,  and,  besides  the 
suffrages  of  the  high-tariff  party,  it  was  expected  that  he 
would  acquire  great  strength  from  the  support  of  the  Anti-  the  Anti- 
masons.  This  party  originated  in  the  murder,  in  1826,  of 
one  William  Morgan,  who  professed  to  expose  in  a  book  the  secrets 
of  the  order,  and  was,  therefore,  deliberately  killed  by  direction  of 
his  official  superiors.  Out  of  this  incident  grew  a  political  party,  op- 
posed to  all  secret  societies,  and  determined  to  suppress  the  Masonic 
order  by  law.  It  was  stronger  in  New  York  than  anywhere  else,  for  in 
the  western  part  of  that  State  Morgan  had  lived  and  was  murdered  ; 
and  it  was  there  that,  a  year  afterward,  a  coroner's  jury  was  either 
induced  or  cajoled  by  some  clever  political  knaves  to  declare  that  a 
dead  body  found  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Ontario  was  that  of  Morgan. 
This  body  was  of  a  man  recently  drowned  ;  Morgan  had  disappeared 
a  year  before.  Morgan  was  a  smooth-faced,  bald-headed  man  ;  the 
face  and  head  of  the  corpse,  when  first  found  —  its  appearance  was 
changed  in  a  few  hours  in  these  particulars — were  well  covered  with 
hair ;  the  drowned  person  was  four  inches  taller  than  Morgan  was 
known  to  be ;  and  finally  a  Mrs.  Monroe  appeared  and  recognized  the 
corpse  as  that  of  her  husband,  who  was  drowned  a  few  weeks  before, 
and  the  clothes  it  had  on  as  those  she  had  mended  with  her  own 
hands  ;  and  the  man  who  was  with  Monroe  when  he  fell  overboard 
from  a  boat  also  identified  him.  But  up  to  this  time  it  was  a  disputed 
point  whether  Morgan  was  alive  or  dead ;  it  was  necessary  to  the 
Anti-masonic  frenzy  that  his  death  should  be  proved  ;  and  on  this 
verdict  of  a  coroner's  jury  a  political  tornado  swept  the  country.1 
Its  violence  was  too  far  spent,  however,  to  withstand  the  counter  gale 
of  Jackson's  popularity  in  the  election  of  1832. 

But  there  were  other  causes  besides  his  conduct  toward  the  bank 
that  aroused  enthusiasm  on  behalf  of  Jackson.     The  reve-  Jackson-8 
nue  during  his  administration  had  far  exceeded  expenditure,   P°PuUrit>- 
and  the  national  debt  was  in  process  of  rapid  extinction.     His  mod- 
erate tariff  views  commended  him  to  that  large  class  of  persons  who 
would  levy  imposts  only  for  revenue,  giving  protection  an  incidental 

1  The  essential  facts  relating  to  the  origin  of  this  remarkable  political  episode  in  the  his- 
tory of  parties  in  the  United  States  are  first  fully  set  forth  in  a  recent  monograph  entitled, 
American  Political  Anti-masonry,  with  its  "  Good  Enough  Muryan,"  by  Henry  O'Rielly. 
Mr.  O'Hielly  was  at  that  period  editor  of  the  Rochester  Daily  Advertiser,  the  first  daily 
newspaper  west  of  the  Hudson  River. 


304 


JACKSON. 


[CHAP.  XII. 


consideration.  He  had  saved  the  government  from  enormous  expen- 
ditures by  his  vetoes  of  bills  for  internal  improvements,  for  the  Dem- 
ocrats of  that  day  believed  that  such  use  of  the  public  funds  was  un- 
wise as  well  as  unconstitutional.  The  long-standing  difficulty  between 
England  and  the  United  States,  in  regard  to  the  West  India  trade, 
had  been  favorably  settled  by  Louis  McLane,  the  Minister  at  London, 
though  at  the  price,  the  opposition  declared,  of  the  dignity  of  the 


A  Hickory-pole   Election. 

Government.  But  the  trade  was  opened  ;  and  Jackson's  popularity 
was  not  injured  in  his  own  party,  that,  in  bringing  about  a  result  so 
desirable,  he  had  made  concessions  to  England  which  Adams  had  con- 
sidered humiliating.  For  all  these  reasons,  he  had  become  almost  as 
popular  at  the  North  as  he  had  long  been  at  the  South  —  not,  per- 
haps, among  the  most  intelligent  of  the  people,  who  could  not  forget 
the  radical  defects  of  the  man,  nor  the  corrupt  influence,  in  many  re- 
spects, of  his  administration,  but  among  those  whose  admiration  for 
his  courage  and  strength  of  will  blinded  them  to  his  other  qualities, 


1832.]  A   SURPLUS   OF  REVENUE.  305 

and  who  believed  that  he  was  as  pure  as  he  was  strong.  So  absolute 
and  intense  was  the  character  of  this  singular  man,  that  he  so  com- 
pletely absorbed  the  attention  of  those  who  saw  one  side  of  him  only, 
that  the  other  side  was  totally  invisible,  and  he  was  accordingly  either 
beloved  and  admired,  or  detested  and  feared. 

The  country  was  becoming  embarrassed  with  a  difficulty  hitherto 
unknown  in   the  histories  of  states.      Unencumbered  with  AeuTpluao{ 


revenue. 


debt,  as  it  would  be  presently,  its  revenue  would  be  larger 
than  it  could  have  any  possible  use  for.  The  problem  did  not  seem 
to  be  one  difficult  of  solution,  as  the  source  of  revenue,  the  tar- 
iff, could  be  reduced,  and  this  would  not  only  render  a  surplus  im- 
possible, but  would  at  the  same  time  lift  a  burden  of  taxation  from 
the  shoulders  of  the  people.  But  what  in  that  case  would  become  of 
protection  ?  Mr.  Clay  answered  the  question  by  pushing  through 
Congress,  in  1832,  a  bill  which  provided  for  a  reduction  of  duties 
upon  foreign  products,  except  where  they  came  in  conflict  with  arti- 
cles of  domestic  manufacture.  As  sufficient  revenue  could  be  pro- 
duced without  a  resort  to  such  an  expedient,  this  was  an  announce- 
ment that  the  Northern  protective  policy  was  accepted  absolutely  as 
the  policy  of  the  Government,  in  spite  of  the  Southern  slaveholding 
interest.  It  was  a  signal  of  a  renewal  of  the  conflict  between  free 
labor  and  slave-labor,  which  broke  out  soon  after  in  the  nullification 
contest  with  South  Carolina. 

There  had  been  some  preliminary  skirmishing,  for  South  Carolina 
had  shown  signs  of  revolt  in  public  meetings  after  the  pas- 
sage of  the  tariff  bill  of  1828,  and  Georgia  sent  in  an  earnest  Webster  de- 
but solemn  protest  against  it.  In  1830,  the  constitutional 
question  involved  was  settled,  so  far  as  argument  could  settle  it,  in  a 
memorable  debate  between  Hayne  and  Webster,  in  the  Senate.  A 
resolution  was  offered  by  Samuel  A.  Foot,  of  Connecticut,  directing 
an  inquiry  into  the  expediency  of  suspending,  for  a  time,  the  sale 
of  public  lands,  and  under  it  Mr.  Hayne  brought  up  the  question 
of  State  Rights.  His  argument  was  the  old  one — old  as  the  Consti- 
tution itself —  that  the  "consolidation  of  the  government"  was  the 
one  great  evil  to  be  dreaded  and  resisted.  Webster  took  his  stand 
upon  the  ground  of  the  early  Federalists,  that  the  United  States  was 
a  Nation.  It  was  not  the  servant  of  four  and  twenty  masters,  but 
"the  people's  Constitution,  the  people's  Government  ;  made  for  the 
people  ;  made  by  the  people  ;  and  answerable  to  the  people."  It  was 
not  "  the  creature  of  State  Legislatures;"  it  was  the  "independent 
offspring  of  the  popular  will."  Jackson  was  attached  to  the  Union 
with  all  the  strength  of  his  impulsive  nature,  and  did  not  need  to  be 
aroused  to  the  impending  conflict ;  but  Webster's  speech  made,  prob- 

vou  iv.  20 


306  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

ably,  a  deeper  and  more  abiding  impression  on  the  minds  of  the 
Northern  people  than  any  other  ever  delivered  in  the  halls  of  Con- 
gress, before  that  time. 

Nullification  was  a  practical  application  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Nuinfica-  Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798.  It  was  not,  its 
supporters  maintained,  necessarily  secession  nor  war,  though 
it  might  in  the  last  resort  lead  to  both.  The  first  duty  of  the  citizen 
was  to  the  State,  not  to  the  Federal  Government.  The  State  —  was 
Calhoun's  argument  —  having  determined  to  protect  its  citizens  by 
an  act  of  nullification,  would  put  an  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
any  penalty  imposed  by  the  Federal  courts  for  obedience  to  that  act. 
The  nullification,  he  contended,  did  not  disturb  the  legal  relation  be- 
tween the  State  and  the  Union,  but  rather  confirmed  it.  Force 
could  not  be  employed  by  the  Federal  Government,  not  only  because 
no  such  power  was  intrusted  to  it  by  the  Constitution,  but  because, 
the  question  being  a  moral  one,  no  physical  opposition  would  be 
found.  Even  should  the  final  step  of  secession  be  taken,  —  and  he 
granted  that  under  certain  conditions  it  might  be  necessary,  —  force 
could  then  only  be  applied  after  due  formalities,  the  seceding  State 
being  now  in  law  and  in  fact  a  foreign  government.  His  argument 
found  ready  listeners,  to  whom  it  seemed  conclusive.  Moreover, 
there  was  a  strong  precedent  in  the  summary  and  unrebuked  manner 
in  which  Georgia,  not  long  before,  had  defied  the  authority  of  the 
General  Government,  and  refused  to  obey  the  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court.  The  difficulty  with  South  Carolina  lay  deeper,  inas- 
much as  it  involved  wider  interests  and  the  peaceful  relations  of 
different  sections  of  the  Union ;  but  the  essential  question  was  the 
same  in  both  cases.  As  that,  however,  related  to  the  rights  of  In- 
dians, while  now  it  was  a  question  of  the  supremacy  of  slaveholders 
as  slaveholders,  the  position  was  so  -much  the  stronger. 

As  the  power  to  act  in  such  an  emergency  must  come  directly  from 
the  people,  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina  called  a  Con- 
tion  ordi-  vention.  This  assembled  on  the  24th  of  November,  1832, 
south  caro-  and  an  ordinance  was  passed,  declaring  the  tariff  acts  to  be 
null  and  void ;  that  the  payment  of  duties  should  not  be  en- 
forced within  the  State  ;  and  that  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
Federal  Government  to  enforce  its  laws  would  absolve  the  State  from 
all  connection  with  the  Union,  and  it  would  immediately  establish  a 
separate  and  independent  government.  Nullification,  if  not  assented 
to,  was  to  be  followed  by  secession. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature  immediately  afterward,  the 
Governor,  in  his  message,  said  that  the  ordinance  was  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  State ;  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  that  body  to 


1832.] 


NULLIFICATION. 


307 


Preparations 


"  look  to  and  provide  for  all  possible  contingencies."     Various  acts, 
accordingly,  were  passed  to  meet  the  emergency.    The  Gov- 

"          ,         .         ,  .  e 

ernor  was  authorized  to  accept  the  services  or  volunteers; 

fortifications  were  ordered  to  be  repaired  ;  old  arms  were  to 

be  put  in  order,  and  new  ones  manufactured  ;  ammunition  to  be  pro- 

vided, and  everything  done  that  could  be  done  to  prepare  for  war. 

A  martial  rage  took  possession  of  the  people  ;  the  men  everywhere 

devoted  themselves 

to  military  drilling  ; 

the  women  had  no 

occupation    but    to 

make     palmetto 

cockades    and    pre- 

pare battle-flags  and 

ensigns  of  State  sov- 

ereignty;  the  Uni- 

ted States  flag  was 

raised  union  down, 

while  some  of   the 

volunteer  regiments 

had  provided  a  red 

standard  with  a  sin- 

gle black  star  in  the 

centre,    to    be    un- 

furled  at   the  mo- 

ment  secession 

should   be  pro- 

claimed.      Two    or 

three   mass  m  e  e  t- 

ings   were    held 

every  week,  to  keep 

up  the  enthusiasm. 

At   one  of   these 

meetings,  Governor  Miking  cockades. 

Hamilton    told  the 

crowd  that,  to  try  whether  the  Federal  authorities  would  dare  to 

enforce  the  revenue  laws,  he  had  ordered  several   boxes  of   sugar 

from  Havana.     "  And,"  he  added,  "  if  Uncle  Sam  puts  his  robber 

hand  on  the  boxes,  I  know  you  '11  go  to  the  death  with  me  for  the 

sugar  !  "  —  a  declaration  that  was  received  with  immense  applause. 

But  when  the  sugar  arrived,  it  was  quietly  locked  up  in  one  of  the 

forts  in  Charleston  harbor. 

The  President  replied  to  the  ordinance  with  a  proclamation  and  a 


308  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

message  to  Congress,  which  left  no  doubt  of  the  temper  in  which  he 
would  meet  any  attempt  at  disunion.1     He  denied  the  right 

Position  of,..  1 1  •  X         •  •  •  11 

the  Presi-  of  either  nullification  or  secession,  pointed  out  the  absurd- 
ity of  State  sovereignty,  and  assured  the  South  Carolinians 
that  if  they  resisted  the  laws  they  would  be  coerced  by  the  combined 
power  of  the  other  States.  Finally,  as  a  fellow  citizen  and  a  native 
of  their  State,  he  entreated  them  to  give  up  their  foolish  scheme. 
tk  Contemplate  the  condition  of  that  country  of  which  you  still  form 
an  important  part.  Consider  its  government  uniting  in  one  bond  of 
common  interest  and  general  protection  so  many  different  States,  giv- 
ing to  all  their  inhabitants  the  proud  title  of  American  citizen, 
protecting  their  commerce,  securing  their  literature  and  their  arts, 
facilitating  their  intercommunication,  defending  the  frontiers,  and 
making  their  name  respected  in  the  remotest  parts  of  the  earth. 
.  .  .  Behold  it  as  the  asylum  where  the  wretched  and  the  oppressed 
find  a  refuge  and  support.  Look  on  this  picture  of  happiness  and 
honor,  and  say,  We  too  are  citizens  of  America.  .  .  .  And  then  add, 
if  you  can,  without  horror  and  remorse,  This  happy  Union  we  will 
dissolve;  this  picture  of  peace  and  prosperity  we  will  deface;  this 
free  intercourse  we  will  interrupt ;  these  fertile  fields  we  will  deluge 
with  blood ;  the  protection  of  that  glorious  flag  we  renounce  ;  the  very 
name  of  Americans  we  discard  !  " 

General  Scott  was  summoned  to  Washington,  and  it  was  deter- 
mined that  strong  garrisons  should  at  once  be  thrown  into 
s'cott  sent  to  Fort  Moultrie,  Castle  Pinckney,  and  the  arsenal  at  Augusta, 
Georgia,  and  a  sloop-of-war  and  several  revenue  cutters  be 
sent  to  Charleston  harbor.  "  Proceed  at  once  and  execute  those 
views,"  said  Jackson.  "  You  have  my  carte  blanche,  in  respect  to 
troops  ;  the  vessels  shall  be  there,  and  written  instructions  shall  follow 
you."  Scott  went  to  Charleston,  with  sufficient  military  and  naval 
force  under  his  command,  to  carry  out  the  President's  orders.  He 
maintained,  however,  amicable  relations  with  the  citizens,  and  often 
invited  individuals  or  parties  to  the  forts,  that  they  might  see  what 
they  would  have  to  encounter  if  it  came  to  war.2 

Calhoun,  who  had  resigned  the  office  of  Vice-president,  had  taken 
his  seat  in  the  Senate,  in  the  place  of  Hayne.     Although  it  was  un- 

1  Two  years  before  a  public  dinner  was  given,  nominally  to  celebrate  the  birthdav  of  Jef- 
ferson, but  really  as  an  impetus  to  the  doctrine  of  nullification.    The  President,  being  called 
upon  for  the  first  volunteer  toast,  gave  that  which  has  passed  into  a  proverb,  "  Our  Federal 
Union  :  it  must  be  preserved."     Mr.  Calhoun  was  next  called  upon,  and  gave  this  :  "  The 
Union  :  next  to  our  liberty  the  most  dear :  may  we  all  remember  that  it  can  only  be  pre- 
served by  respecting  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  distributing  equally  the  benefit  and  bu/- 
den  of  the  Union."    The  incident  was  accepted  as  a  sign  of  what  was  coming.  —  Betitou's 
Thirty  Years'  View,  i.,  148. 

2  Scott's  Memoirs. 


1832.]  COMPROMISE.  309 

der  his  teachings  that  South  Carolina  had  been  led  into  her  present 
position,  it  was  also  his  determination  to  keep  the  contest  Popuiar 
within  the  bounds  of  speech;  and  while  Jackson  was  equally  feelin« 
in  earnest  in  his  purpose  to  use  force  if  necessary,  it  became  plain,  as 
the,  weeks  wore  on,  that  the  fury  displaying  itself  in  proclamations 
and  laws  was  not  yet  ungovernable.  It  is  by  110  means  certain  that  the 
President  would  not  have  preferred  to  compel  South  Carolina  to  re- 
turn to  her  allegiance  to  the  Union,  by  force  of  arms  ;  and  it  is  certain 
that  many  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  agreed  with  Adams  and  Web- 
ster that  no  concession  should  be  made  till  the  State  had  receded  from 
her  rebellious  attitude  either  voluntarily  or  by  compulsion.  How  far 
the  country  at  large  would  have  approved  of  extreme  measures,  it  is 
impossible  to  tell,  but  it  is  probable  that  Jackson's  great  popularity 
would  have  carried  the  Northern  wing  of  his  party  with  him,  and 
the  National  Republicans  would  have  united  with  it.  Most  of  the 
States,  through  their  legislatures,  assumed  positions  upon  the  abstract 
doctrine  of  nullification.  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
Delaware,  Indiana,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri  condemned  it.  Virginia 
passed  conciliatory  resolutions,  and  appointed  a  special  messenger  to 
carry  them  to  South  Carolina.  North  Carolina  and  Alabama  con- 
demned nullification,  but  pronounced  the  tariff  unconstitutional  and 
inexpedient.  Georgia  did  likewise,  and  proposed  a  convention  repre- 
senting Virginia,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  the  Carolinas.  and 
Georgia,  to  devise  some  relief  from  the  protective  system. 

But  there  was  compromise  in  the  very  air.     The  President  asked 
that  special  and  enlarged  powers   should  be  given  him  to  The 
meet  the  emergency,  and  a  bill  was  introduced  for  that  pur-  J'romise 
pose,  called  the  Force  Bill.     It  hung  fire ;  it  was  not  till  it  was  no 
longer  necessary  that  it  became  a  law.    But  compromise  did  not  hang 
fire.     The  great  champion  of  protection,  Clay  himself,  introduced  a 
new  tariff  which  essentially  abandoned  the  policy  of  protection  and 
conceded  to  South  Carolina   the   principle    for  which  she  was  con- 
tending.    It  provided  that  where  ad  valorem  duties  exceeded  twenty 
per  cent.,  one  tenth  of  the  excess  should  be  remitted  after  December 

30,  1833 ;  one  tenth  thereafter  on  each  alternate  year,  till  December 

31,  1841,  when  half  of  the  remaining  duty  was  to  be  remitted ;  and 
after  June,  1842,  all  duties  were  to  be  reduced  to  twenty  per  cent., 
on  a  home  valuation,  to  be  paid  in  cash.     Mr.  Clay  and  his  friends 
conceded  thus  far  for  the  sake  of  peace,  reserving  only  this  modified 
protection  for  nine  years  to  come.     Mr.  Calhoun  and  the  nullifiers 
graciously  assented  not  to  ruin  at  a  single  and  sudden  blow  those 
who  had  invested  largely  in  manufacturing  under  a  protective  tariff. 
As  Pinckney  went  home,  at  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Constitu- 


310  JACKSON.  [CHAP.  XTI. 

tion,  and  explained  to  South  Carolina  that  she  could  safely  accept 
that  instrument  as  a  sufficient  guaranty  of  slavery,  so  Calhoun  now 
went  back,  and  persuaded  the  people  of  the  State  that  they  could 
safely  lay  down  their  arms,  for  their  cause  had  triumphed.  The  bill 
in  the  Senate  was  passed  on  the  1st  of  March,  by  a  vote  of  twenty- 
nine  to  sixteen. 

In  the  House,  meanwhile,  a  bill,  introduced  by  Mr.  Verplanck  of 
The  ver-  New  York,  was  painfully  and  tediously  dragged  along  from 
pianck  Bill,  ^ygg^  to  week.  Its  object  was  to  make  the  needed  reduc- 
tion in  the  revenue,  but,  at  the  same  time,  to  save  the  protective  pol- 
icy. It  was  disposed  of,  and  Mr.  Clay's  bill  made  to  take  its  place 
by  one  of  those  strategic  movements  by  which  compromise  measures 
have  more  than  once  been  carried  in  similar  struggles.  Senator  Ben- 
ton  —  who,  as  a  Southern  representative,  opposed  any  concession  to 
the  Protectionists — is  our  witness.  Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  25th 
of  February,  he  says,  "  Mr.  Letcher  of  Kentucky,  the  fast  friend  of 
Mr.  Clay,  rose  in  his  place,  and  moved  to  strike  out  the  whole  Ver- 
planck bill  —  every  word  of  it,  except  the  enacting  clause,  —  and  in- 
sert, in  lieu  of  it,  a  bill  offered  in  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Clay This 

was  offered  in  the  House,  without  notice,  without  signal,  without  pre- 
monitory symptom,  and  just  as  the  members  were  preparing  to  ad- 
journ. Some  were  taken  by  surprise,  and  looked  about  in  amaze- 
ment ;  but  the  majority  showed  consciousness,  and  what  was  more, 
readiness  for  action.  The  Northern  members,  from  the  great  manu- 
facturing States,  were  astounded,  and  asked  for  delay,"  —  which  was 
not  granted.  Thus,  he  continues,  "  the  bill  which  made  its  first  ap- 
pearance in  the  House  late  in  the  evening,  when  members  were  gather- 
ing up  their  overcoats  for  a  walk  home  to  their  dinners,  was  passed 
before  those  coats  had  got  on  the  back ;  and  the  dinner  which  was 
waiting  had  but  little  time  to  cool  before  the  astonished  members, 
their  work  done,  were  at  the  table  to  eat  it." l  It  is  a  striking  pic- 
ture of  Southern  legislation  by  one  of  their  own  artists.  But  South 
Carolina  was  appeased ;  the  Union  was  once  more  saved,  after  the 
Southern  manner ;  and  the  North  meekly  turned  away  to  see  what 
next  she  could  do  with  her  dollars  and  her  labor. 

There  were  many  who  believed  that  it  would  have  been  better  had 
the  question  of  disunion  been  then  and  there  settled.  But  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly doubtful  if  it  could  have  been.  Jackson  would  have  en- 
forced the  laws  and  suppressed  the  insurrection  with  an  unrelenting 
will,  for  he  did  believe  in  the  Union,  and  he  did  long,  it  was  asserted, 
for  an  opportunity  to  hang  Calhoun.  But  the  difference  between 
the  North  and  the  South  lay  deeper  than  a  division  upon  a  revenue 

1  Thirty  Years'  View.  By  Thomns  H.  Benton. 


H 

w 

S 
o 

H 

x 

H 
Z 

O 

w 


1832.]  THE   PUBLIC   LANDS.  311 

or  a  protective  tariff.  One  might  be  wise  and  the  other  foolish  ;  the 
North  could  grow  prosperous  and  rich  under  either,  while  the  South, 
so  long  as  slavery  existed,  would  be  poor  and  ignorant,  and  only  half 
civilized,  under  both.  It  would  have  been  more  manly  to  have  sup- 
pressed South  Carolina.  It  was  her  statesmen,  more  than  all  others, 
who,  in  1816,  had  compelled  the  North  to  accept  the  policy  which 
now,  in  1832,  that  State,  rather  than  obey,  would  scatter  the  Union 
into  fragments.  It  would  have  been  well  enough,  for  the  dignity 
and  the  political  morality  of  the  nation,  had  there  been  only  left 
some  fragments  of  South  Carolina  ;  but  that  would  have  left,  after 
all,  the  great  and  inevitable  battle  still  to  be  fought.  Liberty  and 
Slavery  could  not  exist  forever  in  one  Union.  The  final  conflict  be- 
tween them  must  come  upon  a  broader  field  than  a  tariff  of  duties. 

Next  to  the  tariff  the  public  lands  were,  during  the  administration 
of  Jackson,  a  fruitful  source  of  debate  in  Congress,  not 
merely  for  their  own  sake.  An  interest  so  immense  could  be 
easily  made  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  affairs  of  political  par- 
ties. It  was  part  of  Clay's  compromise  that  the  West  should  be  rec- 
onciled to  the  reduction  of  duties  by  a  division  of  the  proceeds  of  the 
sales  of  public  lands  among  the  States  within  whose  boundaries  the 
sales  were  made.  The  President's  veto  nullified  that  part  of  the  bar- 
gain. Then  Western  politicians  used  the  question  of  the  price  and 
disposition  of  the  public  domain  to  further  their  private  ambitions. 
There  could  be,  however,  no  question  of  the  right  of  Congress  to 
control  all  lands  in  territory  not  organized  into  States  ;  but  when  the 
State  was  formed  it  was  maintained  by  many  persons  that  the  lands 

V  V  i 

became  its  property  —  a  position  stoutly  and  successfully  contested  by 
Webster  and  others.  From  the  first,  the  importance  of  these  lands 
as  sources  of  revenue  was  never  lost  sight  of.  The  price,  reduced 
in  1820  from  two  dollars  to  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  an  acre,  continued 
for  many  years.  The  action  of  Congress  was  generally  favorable  to 
actual  settlers.  In  1835  and  1836  the  purchases  were  much  larger 
than  was  required  for  occupation,1  although  the  encouragement  given 
by  Congress  had  a  steadily  appreciable  effect  upon  foreign  immigra- 
tion. New  settlers,  finding  lands  preoccupied  and  held  at  high  prices, 
passed  beyond  the  frontier  surveyed,  to  settle  where  no  immediate 
payment  was  necessary. 

The  tables  of    immigration  during  the  decade  show  a  fluctuation 
which  is  interesting,  as  indicating  the  waves  of  prosperity  in 

m,  .        .,  nm  ,  c       i'  •    '       •      Immigration. 

the   country.      Ihus,    in   18ol,  the  number  or  alien   immi- 
grants was  nearly  twenty-three  thousand  ;  the  next  year  it  was  over 

1  Rising  from  less  than  five  millions  in   1834  to  over  fourteen  millions  in  1835,  and 
nearly  twenty-five  millions  in  1836. 


312  JACKSOX.  [CHAP.  XII. 

fifty-three  thousand.  In  1834  the  number  was  sixty-five  thousand  ; 
in  1835  it  had  fallen  off  to  forty-five  thousand.  It  increased,  until  in 
1837  it  was  nearly  eighty  thousand ;  but  the  next  year  after  that  dis- 
astrous one  it  fell  to  less  than  thirty-nine  thousand.  In  1840  the 
number  was  eighty-four  thousand.  The  immigration  had  already,  in 
Jackson's  time,  begun  to  affect  personal  politics,  and  the  Irish  vote 
was  spoken  of  as  a  constituency  to  be  respected. 

There  came,  in  the  mean  time,  the  financial  crisis  of  1837.  The 
United  States  Bank,  on  the  refusal  of  Congress  to  extend  its  charter, 
had  procured  a  new  one  from  Pennsylvania,  but  it  differed  from  the 
State  banks  only  in  the  magnitude  of  its  operations.  The  State 
banks,  under  the  impetus  given  by  the  breaking  up  of  the  United 
States  Bank,  had  increased  their  issue  of  paper  from  sixty-one  mil- 
lions in  1830  to  a  hundred  and  forty-nine  millions  in  1837. 

Large  quantities  of  these  notes  had  been  received  in  payment  for 
The  panic  of  public  land,  when,  alarmed  at  the  accumulation  of  so  much 
paper  of  uncertain  value,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  by 
order  of  the  President,  issued  a  circular  instructing  the  agents  in 
charge  of  the  land-offices  to  receive  only  gold  and  silver.  This  at 
once  caused  a  demand  for  specie,  which  could  only  be  met  by  those 
banks  where  the  government  funds  were  deposited.1  Most  of  the 
others  suspended.  And  when,  a  little  later,  the  Government  called 
for  its  deposits,  in  order  to  make  the  distribution  of  surplus  revenue 
to  the  States,  many  of  the  favored  banks  were  involved  in  the  gen- 
eral ruin,  and  the  panic  of  1837  was  the  grand  result. 

The  attacks  upon  the  Bank  shook  public  confidence  in  it.  The  re- 
moval of  the  deposits,  and  the  refusal  to  extend  the  charter,  weakened 
the  Bank  itself,  and  led  to  an  unlimited  extension  of  local  banks. 
The  immediate  enormous  increase  of  paper  gave  a  specious  show  of 
wealth,  and  while  the  paper  floated  on  the  public  debt,  it  was  used 
both  for  promoting  new  industrial  schemes  and  for  luxuries.  The 
final  result  of  the  Congressional  debates  over  the  currency  and  the 
banking  system  was  the  establishment,  in  1840,  of  the  sub-treasury 
system,  a  measure  which  had  been  proposed  by  both  parties  alter- 
nately, and  was  looked  upon  as  ending  the  controversy.  Henceforth 
the  Government  was  to  transact  all  its  business  by  means  of  a  metal- 
lic currency,  and  to  be  completely  dissociated  from  all  general  finan- 
cial operations. 

A  single  fact  must  be  observed,  from  its  conspicuous  and  yet  appar- 
v-  ently  feeble  influence  upon  the  state  of  affairs.  In  June, 
1836,  when  the  public  debt  was  nearly  extinguished,  au  act 
was  passed  providing  that  after  January  1,  1837,  all  surplus  revenue 

1  Called,  in  the  slang  of  the  day,  "  pet  banks." 


1837.]  DISTRIBUTION   OF  SURPLUS   REVENUE.  313 

exceeding  five  million  dollars  should  be  divided  among  the  States  as 
a  loan,  only  to  be  recalled  by  direction  of  Congress.  This  unpre- 
cedented problem  perplexed  the  statesmen  of  the  time,  but  mainly  as 
to  the  principle  of  distribution.  The  ghost  that  could  never  be  laid, 
stalked  again  into  the  halls  of  Congress.  Should  the  money  be 
divided  according  to  population  ?  If  the  slaves  were  counted,  that 
would  be  to  pay  an  unequal  share  to  their  masters  ;  if  they  were  not 
counted,  the  slave  States  would  receive  only  their  just  proportion 
according  to  the  number  of  citizens.  Compromise,  as  usual,  healed 
the  difference  at  the  expense  of  the  North.  The  electoral  vote  was 
made  the  rule  of  distribution.  Thus  Pennsylvania,  whose  electoral 
vote  was  thirty,  received  about  three  million  eight  hundred  thousand 
dollars  ;  yet  its  population  was  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  more 
than  the  free  population  of  the  six  slave  States,  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Kentucky,  whose  elec- 
toral vote  was  fifty-three,  and  their  aggregate  share  of  the  surplus 
fund  over  six  million  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.1 

The  distribution,  which  extended  over  a  year,  amounted  to  twenty- 
eight  million  dollars,  and  none  of  it  was  ever  recalled.  Before  the 
amount  was  all  expended,  it  was  evident  that  there  would  be  a 
deficit  in  the  treasury.  The  States  used  the  surplus  variously :  some 
involved  themselves  in  extensive  improvements ;  some  divided  the 
amount  received  among  their  citizens  in  petty  sums.  Never  was 
there  a  more  unsatisfactory  business  operation. 

After  the  blow  of  1837,  States  as  well  as  persons  found  themselves 
insolvent.  The  expanded  credit  which  an  over-sanguine  confidence 
had  sought  and  granted,  had  been  especially  applied  to  the  enterprises 
of  States.  The  widespread  bankruptcy  made  it  easy  for  certain 
States  to  persuade  themselves  that  they  also  might  take  advantage  of 
the  common  course  and  put  in  the  bankrupt's  plea.  A  large  part  of 
the  State  bonds  was  held  abroad,  and  ever}'  effort  was  made  by  the 
bondholders  there  to  bring  moral  force  to  bear  upon  the  repudiating 
States.  Congress  was  petitioned  to  assume  the  debts  of  the  States, 
in  accordance  with  the  precedent  of  1791,  but  after  a  long  debate 
refused  to  take  any  action. 

Notwithstanding  financial  disturbance,  commercial  disaster,  politi- 
cal strife  and  corruption,  the  country  shared  with  the  rest  orowthof 
of  the  world  in  the  wonderful  material  progress  and  pros-  tUecountry- 
perity  which  mark  this  period.  Steam  came  into  general  use  as  a 
motive  power  in  communication  by  water  and  by  land,  and  in  the 
numberless  uses  to  which  it  has  since  been  put  by  inventive  genius 
and  human  industry.  One  born  within  the  last  twenty  years  to  the 

1  A   View  of  the  Federal  Government  in  behalf  of  Slavery.    By  William  Jay. 


314 


JACKSON. 


[CHA1>.  XII. 


First  rail- 
roads. 


common  hcirship  of  the  present  time,  can  hardly  conceive  how  great 
a  change  has  been  wrought  within  only  half  a  century  by  a  single 
agency.  Indeed,  it  is  hardly  fifty  years  since  confidence  in  it  was 
so  far  established  as  to  command  the  energies  and  the  capital  of  men 
and  of  States. 

The  first  timid  experiment  in  railroads  was  a  tramway  in  Quincy, 
Mass.,  built  in  1826,  chiefly  by  Thomas  H.  Perkins  and  Grid- 
ley  Bryant,  of  Boston.  Its  only  purpose  was  for  the  easier 
conveyance  —  by  horses  —  of  building-stone  from  the  granite  quarries 
of  Quincy  to  tide-water.  It  was  the  germ,  however,  of  a  mighty 
movement  in  this  country.  The  first  railway  in  America  for  passen- 
gers and  traffic  —  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  —  was  chartered  by  the 
Maryland  Legislature  in  March,  1827.  The  capital  stock  at  first 

was  only  half  a  million  dol- 
lars, and  a  portion  of  it  was 
subscribed  by  the  State  and 
the  city  of  Baltimore.  Horses 
were  its  motive  power,  even 
after  sixty-five  miles  of  the 
road  were  built.  But  in  1829 
Peter  Cooper,  of  New  York, 
built  a  locomotive  in  Balti- 
more which  weighed  one  ton 
and  made  eighteen  miles  an 
hour  on  a  trial  trip  to  Elli- 
cott's  Mills.  In  1830  there 
were  twenty-three  miles  of  railway  in  the  United  States,  which  was 
increased  the  next  year  to  ninety-five,  in  1835  to  one  thousand  and 
ninety-eight,  and  in  1840  to  nearly  three  thousand. 

Manufactures  at  the  same  time  were  rapidly  increased,  though  this 
Develop-  was  a  long-established  interest.  A  single  mill  for  the  man- 
manuflc-  wfacture  of  cloths  and  cassimeres  was  in  operation  in  Hart- 
tures.  £or(j^  Connecticut,  in  1791.  Three  years  later  one  was  es- 

tablished in  By  field,  Massachusetts,  and  in.  1809,  one  at  Oriskany, 
New  York.  One  which  was  built  at  Middletown,  Connecticut,  in 
1812,  Avas  able  to  turn  out  from  thirty  to  forty  yards  of  broadcloth  a 
day,  and  was  considered  very  large.  In  1810  the  total  woollen  manu- 
factures in  the  United  States  were  estimated  at  twenty-six  million 
dollars ;  but  these  were  nearly  all  home-made.  The  rise  of  the 
cotton  industry  diminished  the  production  of  woollen  goods,  so  that 
its  value,  in  1820  only  four  and  a  half  million  dollars,  rose  in  1830 
to  fourteen  and  a  half  million,  and  in  1840  to  twenty-one  million. 
Samuel  Slater,  who  had  been  apprenticed  to  Strutt  and  Arkwright 


First  Locomotive  built  in  America. 


1840.J 


EARLY   MANUFACTURING. 


315 


in  England,  and  had  assisted  Strutt  in  improving  his  inventions,  came 
to  New  York  in  1789,  bringing  in  his  head  the  whole  idea  of  tlieir 
cotton-spinning  machinery.  The  exportation  of  the  patterns  had 
been  prohibited  by  act  of  Parliament,  with  heavy  penalties,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature  had  offered  a  bounty  for 
their  introduction.  Slater  set  up  three  carding-machines  in  Paw- 
tucket  in  1790,  and  three  years  later  began  to  erect  mills  in  Oxford 
(now  Webster),  Massachusetts. 
In  1821  the  water-power  at  Low- 
ell, on  the  Merrimac,  was  pur- 
chased by  Boston  capitalists,  who 
planted  there  the  enterprises 
which  have  developed  what  was 
then  a  village  of  two  hundred  in- 
habitants into  a  large  city. 

But  water-power  soon  ceased 
to  be  an  absolute  necessity  for 
manufacturing  purposes,  as  steam- 
engines  came  into  use.  Other 
cities  and  towns  grew  up  all  over 
the  country,  wherever  labor  could 
hold  in  its  hands  any  other  imple- 
ment than  a  hoe.  The  railroads 
annihilated  space  and  time,  and  as 

they  carried  the  multitudes  from  the  sea-coast  to  the  prairies  to  peo- 
ple a  continent,  so  the  fruits  of  all  industries  could  be  brought  back 
rapidly  and  cheaply.  The  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  for  the  right 
to  which  nations  once  contended,  ceased  to  be  in  a  few  years  of  any 
other  than  local  importance,  as  travel  and  commerce  found  a  shorter 
way  across  the  Alleghauies  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  eastern  slope  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains. 

In  1840  S.  F.  B.  Morse,  of  New  York,  obtained  a  patent  for  an  ap- 
paratus by  which  instantaneous  communication  could  be  carried  over 
wires,  for  any  distance,  by  electricity.  Four  years  afterward  it  was 
put  to  practical  use  between  Washington  and  Baltimore.  The  net- 
work of  wire  that  has  since  been  woven  about  the  globe  has  changed 
the  relations  of  the  human  family. 


Samuel   Slater. 


Head  of  "The  Liberator." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


SLAVERY   AND  ANTI- SLA  VERY. 


A  NEW  ERA.  —  THE  MODERN  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT.  —  GARRISON  AND  "  THE  LIB- 
ERATOR." —  His  EARNESTNESS  AND  DETERMINATION.  —  DEBATE  ON  SLAVERY  IN 
VIRGINIA.  —  THE  SOUTHAMPTON  INSURRECTION. —  PANIC  AT  THE  SOUTH.  —  THE 
SOUTHERN  IDEA  OF  GOVERNMENT.  —  SLAVERY  MET  ON  A  NEW  ISSUE.  —  THE  ABOLI- 
TIONISTS. —  THE  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPRESS  THEM.  — PENAL  LEGISLATION  PROPOSED. — 
THE  RESORT  TO  VIOLENCE.  —  THE  REIGN  OF  MOBS. — INFLUENCE  OF  SLAVERY  ON 
MORALS,  MANNERS,  LITERATURE,  AND  COMMERCE. 

IN  1831  appeared  the  first  sign  of  a  movement  which,  when  con- 
Theanti-  temporaneous  passions  and  prejudices  shall  have  passed 
slavery  era.  awaVi  WJH  be  recognized  as  the  beginning  and  largely  the 
source  of  a  new  era  in  American  history.  It  was  a  natural  consequence 
of  the  old  slaveholding  dispensation  that  the  generation  that  has 
passed,  or  is  just  passing  away,  should  be  made  to  believe  that  "  Abo- 
litionism "  —  not  slavery  —  was  the  sum  of  all  villanies ;  it  was  almost 
inevitable  that  the  next  generation  should  fail  to  recognize  in  the 
influence  which  governs  their  time,  that  very  movement  of  which 
they  know  little  except  that  their  fathers  hated  and  reviled  it.  But 
hated  as  it  was,  by  those  who  had  eyes  enough  to  see  into  to-morrow, 
despised  as  it  was,  by  the  vulgar  and  the  ignorant  who  have  eyes 
that  can  hardly  see  even  to  day,  the  future  will  discern  in  this  move- 
ment the  germ  of  one  of  those  revolutions  that  overturn  dynasties, 
save  nations,  and  insure  continued  progress  in  human  affairs. 

It  was  in  that  year  that  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  a  young  printer, 
from  a  country  town  in  Massachusetts,  established  in  Boston 

and  "The     a  newspaper,  which  he  called  "The  Liberator,"  to  be  de- 
Liberator/' 

voted  to  the  abolition  of  slavery.  He  saw,  with  the  vision 
of  a  prophet,  the  long  and  terrible  struggle  before  him,  as  he  said  in 
the  first  number  of  that  journal  with  the  eloquence  of  a  sublime  pur- 


1831.] 


GARRISON   AND  THE  LIBERATOR. 


317 


pose,  —  "  I  am  in  earnest ;  I  will  not  equivocate;  I  will  not  excuse  ;  I 
will  not  retreat  a  single  inch ;  and  I  will  be  heard."  And  he  kept  his 
word.  From  that  time  till  slavery  was  abolished,  "  The  Liberator  " 
appeared  weekly,  weighed  down  often  with  discouragements  and  diffi- 
culties, reviled,  hated,  and  feared,  but  never  faltering,  never  untrue 
to  the  great  idea  of  its  founder,  who  would  never  equivocate,  never 
excuse,  never  retreat  a  single  inch,  and  was  never  afraid.  In  its  ear- 
liest days  one  of  Garrison's  staunchest  supporters  said  to  him,  "  My 
friend,  do  try  to  moderate  your  indignation  and  keep  more  cool ; 
why,  you  are  all  on  fire."  "  Brother,"  he  answered,  "  I  have  need  to 
be  all  on  fire,  for  I  have  mountains  of  ice  about  me  to  melt."  It  was 
a  flame  that  soon  set  the  nation  ablaze. 

It  is  with  moral  as  it  is  with  material  discoveries  —  they  go  for 
nothing  till  the  world  is  ready 
for  them.  Garrison  was  not  the 
first  to  discover  that  slavery  was 
an  evil  and  ought  to  be  done 
away  with.  That  thought  was 
as  old  almost  as  the  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong.  It 
was  no  more  questioned  than  that 
original  sin  was  an  evil,  or  that 
an  earthquake  or  a  flood  was  a 
disaster.  But  then  the  compen- 
sating doctrine  was,  that  it  could 
no  more  be  eradicated  than  the 
natural  tendency  to  moral  or 
physical  weakness  could  be  done 
away  with ;  no  more  be  brought 
under  control  than  a  convul-  >> 

sion  of  the  earth;  no  more  be    /r       *gfst-i 
stayed  than  the  rush  and  roar 
of  mighty  waters.      The  slaveholders,  indeed,  for  that  very  reason, 
could  hardly  help  looking  upon  themselves  as  the  elect  of  Thenew 
Heaven  ;  for  where  else  in  all  the  economy  of  creation  was  doctnne- 
there  a  sin  that  needed  no  repentance,  —  a  crime  for  which  a  whine 
was  always  sufficient  atonement?     Where  else  was  there  a  wrong, 
of  man's  own  devising,  for  which  there  was  no  remedy? 

Garrison's  startling  proposition  w;is,  that  all  this  involved  a  stu- 
pendous lie  ;  that  there  was  no  more  necessity  for  the  continuance 
of  slavery  than  for  the  continuance  of  murder  or  robbery  or  dishon- 
esty, for  wrong  or  outrage  of  any  kind  that  one  man  might  commit 
upon  another ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  could  and  should  be  brought 


318  SLAVERY  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

to  an  immediate  end  ;  that  the  slaveholder  must  stop  holding  slaves, 
as  the  murderer  should  cease  to  kill,  or  the  robber  to  steal,  or  the 
knave  to  cheat,  or  the  criminal  of  any  kind  to  continue  in  his  evil 
courses.  If  Garrison  had  talked  of  slavery  as  the  divines  preach  of 
man's  inherent  depravity,  as  a  thing  that  came  in  with  Adam,  and 
might  go  out  with  the  Second  Advent,  nobody  would  have  minded. 
I3ut  lie  said,  here  is  a  gigantic  wrong  of  man's  contrivance;  for  the 
sake  of  humanity  and  in  obedience  to  the  laws  of  God,  there  is  one 
way  to  deal  with  it,  and  one  only,  —  make  an  end  of  it  now,  not  wait 
for  the  Second  Advent. 

The  slaveholders  heard  presently  of  this  new  doctrine  with  conster- 
nation. Slavery  to  them  was  wealth  and  power,  social  supremacy  and 
supremacy  in  the  state.  They  were  not  forgetful  of  the  attending  dan- 
gers—  the  degradation  of  the  many  of  their  own  race,  kept  in  igno- 
rance and  poverty  which  must  needs  be  a  continual  menace  ;  and  the 
possible  vengeance  of  a  still  lower  class  which  was  none  the  less  to 
be  dreaded  because  their  condition  was  but  just  above  that  of  the 
brutes.  But  eternal  watchfulness  was  the  price  of  slavery,  and  its 
privileges  were  valued  by  the  few  who  profited  by  them,  more  than 
its  dangers  were  feared.  The  pleasure  of  possession  was  enhanced  by 
the  impudent  acknowledgment  that  such  a  state  of  society  was  ab- 
stractly wrong ;  but  that  the  responsibility  rested  on  wicked  people 
of  two  or  three  centuries  back,  and  the  penalty  would  fall  upon  those 
who  were  to  come  some  centuries  hence.  "  But  as  for  me  and  my 
house,"  said  the  slaveholder,  "  we  will  serve  the  Lord." 

There  came  an  end  to  this  contentment  and  tranquillity,  in  the  light 
of  this  new  doctrine,  —  that  it  was  not  the  century  before  the  last 
that  this  evil  was  begun,  nor  the  century  after  the  next  that  some- 
thing should  be  done  about  it ;  but  that  the  sun  which  rose  this  morn- 
ing looked  down  upon  a  wrong  done  anew  this  day,  and  that  before 
it  set  it  should  shine  upon  penitence.  Garrison  spoke  to  an  awaken- 
ing Northern  intelligence.  Calhoun  said  somewhere,  when  the  North- 
ern conscience  is  aroused,  and  religious  conviction  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  this  question,  then  the  Union  will  be  dissolved,  or  slavery  be 
abolished.  What  the  result  must  needs  be  was  evidently  foreshad- 
owed in  Calhoun's  own  mind,  by  this  concession  that  the  case  was 
one  to  be  carried  into  the  court  of  conscience  with  religion  for  its 
counsel.  And  these  two  men  represented,  with  equal  intellectual  in- 
tegrity, the  two  antagonistic  ideas  which  were  to  save  or  destroy  the 
Republic. 

It  was  a  notable  coincidence  that  within  the  year  of  the  appearance 
of  "The  Liberator,"  Virginia  should  have  proved  in  a  debate  of 
weeks  in  the  State  Legislature,  how  impotent  were  all  the  plans  that 


1831.]  DEBATE   ON   SLAVERY  IN  VIRGINIA.  319 

slaveholders  could  devise  for  the  extirpation  of  slavery ;  how  fear- 
ful its  continuance  was  among  them,  and  how  completely, 
nevertheless,  the  love  of  power,  which  the  system  secured 
to  them  in  so  many  ways,  could  overcome  all  other  consid- 
erations.  The  debate  was  remarkable  for  the  thorough  exposure  of 
the  evils  which  march  with  slavery  with  even  stride  —  of  its  degrada- 
tion of  all  manual  labor,  its  destruction  of  material  prosperity,  the 
ignorance  it  enforces,  the  immorality  it  engenders.  But  not  less  re- 
markable was  it  that  in  all  this  it  was  the  white  man  wlio  was  referred 
to ;  there  was  little  consideration  of  the  rights  of  the  men  who  were 
black.  These  were  not,  in  Southern  estimation,  exactly  men  and 
women,  but  chattels  personal,1  although  endowed  with  certain  human 
attributes,  such  as  the  gift  of  articulate  speech,  and  the  habit  of  walk- 
ing on  their  hind  legs.  He  best  spoke  to  the  moral  sense  of  that 
Assembly  who  said  that  "the  owner  of  land  had  a  reasonable  right  to 
its  annual  profits,  the  owner  of  orchards  to  their  annual  fruits,  the 
owner  of  brood  mares  to  their  products,  and  the  owner  of  female 
slaves  to  their  increase."  There  was  just  a  tinge  of  sarcasm  pointed 
at  the  supposition — if  anybody  should  make  it — that  these  colored 
women  could  be  anything  but  breeders  for  the  vigintial  crop  of  Vir- 
ginia slaves;  but  it  was  meant  to  be,  nevertheless,  a  bold  statement 
of  a  matter  of  fact.  It  was  the  opposite  doctrine  that  gave  power  to 
the  new  anti-slavery  movement  in  Massachusetts,  and  so  aroused  the 
whole  nation,  —  that  an  infernal  wrong  was  done  to  men  and  women 
in  the  South,  and  that  there  must  be  an  immediate  end  of  it.  The 
difficulty  was  in  making  it  plain  that  they  were  men  and  women,  and 
not  brood  mares  and  stallions,  or  other  cattle  ;  but  when  that  should 
be  done,  none  understood  so  well  as  the  slaveholders  themselves  the 
mighty  meaning  of  that  word  immediate. 

The  debate  was  significant  in  another  respect  —  it  was  the  result  of 
abiect  fear.    The  Southampton  insurrection,  as  it  was  called, 

J  The  South- 

had  occurred  the  previous  August,  and,  though  speedily  sup-  ampton  in- 
pressed,  and  involving  only  a  limited  district  of  country,  was 
magnified  by  the  terror  of  the  white  inhabitants  into  a  formidable 
outbreak.  Its  leader  was  one  Nat  Turner,  who  believed  himself 
chosen  of  the  Lord  to  lead  his  people  to  freedom.  For  a  long  time 
he  had  heard  voices  in  the  air  and  had  seen  signs  in  the  sky ;  por- 
tents were  written  on  the  fallen  leaves  of  the  woods  and  in  spots  of 
blood  upon  the  corn  in  the  fields,  to  warn  him  of  a  divine  mission  ; 
his  Bible,  which  he  knew  by  heart,  he  found  full  of  the  prophecies  of 
the  great  work  he  was  called  upon  to  do.  Fanaticism  like  his  has 
led  men  to  great  deeds,  but  Turner  wanted  followers  like  himself, 
1  In  Louisiana  negro  slaves  were  real  estate. 


320  SLAVERY   AND   ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

and,  though  he  was  believed  to  be  a  man  of  unusual  mental  power 
and  resources,  he  was  singularly  wanting  in  any  plans  or  preparations 
that  could  promise  success. 

Only  six  men  were  in  his  confidence.  With  these  he  started  at  an 
appointed  time  to  go  from  house  to  house,  to  kill  every  white  person, 
of  whatever  age,  sex,  or  condition,  to  inspire  universal  terror,  and 
arouse  the  whole  slave  population.  Beginning  at  Turner's  own  home, 
they  first  killed  his  master,  and  going  then  to  other  plantations,  were 
joined  by  their  slaves.  An  advance  guard  on  horseback  surrounded 
each  house  in  turn,  holding  it  till  their  followers  on  foot,  armed 
with  axes,  scythes,  and  muskets,  came  up  to  complete  the  work  of 
destruction,  while  the  horsemen  rode  on  to  the  next  house.  In  forty- 

•/ 

eight  hours,  fifty-five  white  persons  were  killed  without  loss  to  the 
insurgents,  who  by  this  time  had  increased  to  about  sixty.  The  band 
then  moved  toward  Jerusalem,  the  county  seat,  where  they  expected 
to  find  plenty  of  fire-arms,  and  to  be  joined  by  large  numbers.  But 
on  the  way,  against  Turner's  protest,  the  majority  insisted  upon  stop- 
ping at  a  plantation  to  enlist  some  of  their  friends.  Here  the  band 
became  separated,  and  were  attacked  by  two  bodies  of  white  men, 
•who,  after  some  fighting,  dispersed  them.  In  forty-eight  hours  the 
insurrection  was  suppressed.  In  the  nature  of  things,  no  other  re- 
sult than  a  speedy  end  of  it  was  possible. 

It  now  only  remained  to  hunt  down  the  offenders,  and  make  an  in- 

«/ 

discriminate  slaughter  of  suspected  blacks,  or  those  who  were  not 
suspected  but  were  only  black.  Turner,  who  had  escaped  to  the 
woods,  dug  a  hole  under  a  pile  of  fence-rails  and  lived  in  it  for  six 
weeks,  recording  the  weary  days  by  notches  on  a  stick,  and  leaving 
his  shelter  only  at  midnight.  He  was  accidentally  discovered,  and 
compelled  to  change  his  quarters.  For  ten  days  he  hid  among  the 
wheat-stacks  on  a  plantation.  Again  he  was  discovered  and  shot 
at,  but  again  escaped.  The  whole  county  was  alive  with  armed  men 
in  search  of  him ;  and  as  he  crept  one  day  from  a  hole  beneath  some 
felled  pine  trees,  he  was  confronted  by  a  man  with  a  leveled  rifle, 
and  surrendered.  Turner  was  marched  off  to  Jerusalem,  where  he 
was  given  a  sort  of  trial,  was  of  course  found  guilty  of  murder,  and 
one  week  later  (November  11,  1831)  was  hanged. 

This  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  retribution.  Turner's  young 
wife,  a  slave,  was  tortured  under  the  lash  to  compel  her  to  produce 
papers  which,  probably,  had  no  existence.  Fifty-three  negroes  were 
formally  tried,  of  whom  seventeen  were  convicted  and  hanged,  in- 
cluding one  woman  ;  twelve  were  transported,  and  the  remainder  were 
acquitted.  But  the  extra-judicial  punishments  were  much  more 
numerous.  Negroes  suspected  of  complicity  were  tortured,  burned, 


1831.] 


THE   SOUTHAMPTON  INSURRECTION. 


321 


shot,  and  mutilated.     The  heads  of  some  of  these  were  set  up  along 
the  highways  as  a  warning  to  their  fellow  slaves.     The  panic  contin- 
ued till  late  in  the  autumn.     On  the  least  alarm,  families  abandoned 
their  homes  and  fled  to  the  woods  for  safety.     The  terror  gpread  of 
had  spread  from  Southampton  County  all  over  the  State,   the  f^tuc' 
and  not  only  through  Virginia,  but  as  far  west  as  Kentucky,  as  far 
south  and  southwest  as  Georgia  and  Louisiana.     But  nowhere  could 
there  be  found,  though  arrests  were  made  in  many  places,  and  dili- 


./  »> 


c  .        > 


f  ,-x 


Discovery  of  Nat  Turner. 

gence  and  watchfulness  were  everywhere  unremitting,  the  slightest 
trace  of  any  concerted  movement,  or  that  the  plot  extended  beyond 
Nat  Turner  and  his  six  followers.  Could  any  have  been  found,  ven- 
geance would  have  been  swift  and  sure  in  the  universal  terror;  it  was 
only  nine  years  before,  without  this  incitement,  that  twenty-five  slaves 
were  hanged  at  one  time,  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  by  order  of  a 
justice's  court,  without  indictment  and  without  a  jury,  on  mere  sus- 
picion of  plotting  insurrection. 

VOL.   IV.  21 


322  SLAVERY   AND   ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

It  was  the  theory  of  slavery  to  deny  that  the  black  was  really  a 
man ;  but  his  manhood  was,  nevertheless,  too  thoroughly  believed  in 
to  admit  of  a  doubt  that  he  longed  for  freedom  and  thirsted  for  ven- 
„  geance.  There  was  always  an  avowed  dread  therefore,  of  insurrec- 
tion, which  was  sincere  enough  when  there  was  any  real  danger. 
But  when  danger  was  not  immediate,  its  possibility  was  made  good 
use  of  to  excite  the  sympathies  of  those  who  knew  of  slavery  only 
by  report,  and  who  would  be  less  likely  to  meddle  with  it  if  con- 
vinced that  the  slaveholders  reluctantly  submitted  to  what  they  could 
not  help,  and  were  entitled,  therefore,  to  pity  rather  than  deserving 
of  blame.  It  is  remarkable  how  seldom  the  negroes,  in  the  course  of 
two  hundred  years,  attempted  to  redress  their  own  wrongs  ;  while 
the  frantic  fears  aroused  by  those  infrequent  attempts  show  the  keen 
consciousness,  on  the  part  of  the  masters,  of  how  terrible  the  wrongs 
were  that  sometimes  provoked  retaliation.  It  was  this  fear  and  this 
consciousness  that  had  aroused  the  law-makers  of  Virginia. 

But  the  panic  soon  subsided,  the  danger  was  forgotten, — or  re- 
membered only  as  something  that  might  return  again  for  a  few  hours 
to  some  future  generation,  —  and  old  thoughts  resumed  their  sway. 
Those,  it  is  said,  who  had  made  themselves  most  conspicuous  in  this 
momentary  revolt  against  the  order  of  Southern  society  were  driven 
from  public  life,  and  were  henceforth  marked  as  men  who  needed 
watching.  In  later  years  it  was  declared  by  the  Northern  opponents 
of  the  Abolitionists  that  it  was  their  measures  which  defeated  this 
movement  against  slavery  in  Virginia.  But  Garrison's  "  Liberator  " 
was  then  only  in  its  first  year,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  at  that  time 
not  a  member  of  the  Virginia  Legislature  could  have  ever  heard 
of  him  or  of  it.  The  simple  truth  was,  that  a  cry  of  despair  rent  the 
air  when  the  volcanic  flames  illumined  the  heavens ;  but  when  they 
sank  again  and  vanished,  it  was  treason  to  say  that  the  land  was 
not  fair,  and  that  beneath  its  thin  crust  the  fires  were  still  burning. 

Hitherto,  whatever  struggle  there  had  been  with  those  who  held 
struK(?ie  slavery  as  an  organized  power,  it  was  almost  purely  polit- 
on^'oiit^a.?  ical.  The  contest  was  unequal,  because  on  one  side,  under 
the  Constitution,  was  the  representation  only  of  numbers; 
on  the  other  was  the  representation  both  of  numbers  and  of  property. 
Numbers,  on  one  side,  might  be,  and  were,  divided  in  opinions  and  in 
interests ;  property,  on  the  other  side,  held  opinions  and  interests  to- 
gether in  a  single  compact  organization  which,  whenever  slavery  was 
in  question,  could  never  be  broken.  Then  slavery  was,  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  always  aggressive.  Its  contest  was  with  the  laws  of  the 
universe  ;  the  very  stars  in  their  courses  were  against  it ;  the  strug- 
gle for  mastery  was  with  all  that  is  wise,  with  all  that  is  good,  with 


1831.] 


SOUTHERX  IDEA   OF   GOVERNMENT. 


323 


all  that  contributes  to  the  progress,  the  virtue,  the  manliness,  and  the 
happiness  of  the  human  race.  To  be  passive  was  to  perish  ;  it  could 
only  live  by  continual  conquest ;  and  this,  if  not  always  easy,  w.is 
always  sure,  when  worth  its  while,  so  long  as  its  opponents  would 
consent  to  confine  the  struggle  to  the  field  of  politics.  There  it  had 
become  irresistible  by  the  force  of  centralization  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Federal  Government,  through  the  power  con-  ThPsUvp. 
ferred  by  the  Constitution  upon  slaveholders  as  an  order. 
"  Domestic  slavery,"  said  Governor  McDuffie,  of  South  Caro- 
lina,  "  instead  of  being  au  evil,  is  the  corner-stone  of  our  republican 
edifice,"  because  it  superseded 
"  the  necessity  of  an  order  of 
nobility  and  all  the  other  ap- 
pendages of  a  hereditary  system 
of  government."  This  was  the 
Southern  theory  of  the  Repub- 
lic —  not  that  it  was  a  popular 
government,  but  a  government 
in  which  the  slaveholders  were 
the  ordained  rulers.  They  as- 
sumed to  be  a  privileged  aris- 
tocracy, an  order  set  apart  from 
and  above  the  people,  whose 
Constitution  recognized  the 
fact.  To  call  the  government 
a  republic,  was  only  a  conces- 
sion to  popular  sentiment.  It 
was  intended  that  the  suprem- 
acy and  perpetuation  of  the  or- 
der should  be  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  government,  and  the  moment  the  Constitution  was 
perverted  from  that  purpose,  then  from  that  moment  the  allegiance 
of  the  order  ceased.  For  more  than  half  a  century  the  history  of  the 
government  was  made  to  conform  to  this  theory.  McDutrie's  order 
of  nobility  —  whose  coat-armor  was  a  slave-whip  and  handcuffs  — 
practically  reigned,  though  not  altogether  to  the  satisfaction  of  men 
like  Calhoun  and  McDuffie,  who  believed  that  tin;  ideal  government 
would  not  be  reached,  nor  a  perfect  social  condition  be  established, 
till  all  laborers  were  slaves.  They  were  thoroughly  logical.  If  the 
true  theory  of  government  was  an  aristocracy,  the  essential  basis  of 
which  was  the  ownership  of  the  laboring  class,  then  emigrants  from 
Ireland  and  Germany  should  be  brought  in  and  held  as  slaves,  as  well 
as  emigrants  from  Africa.  It  was  maintained  at  the  South  that  a 


John  C    Calhoun. 


324  SLAVERY   AND   ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

fatal  mistake  was  made  when  assent  was  given  to  the  prohibition  of 
the  introduction  of  laborers  from  Africa  to  be  held  as  slaves,  while 
there  was  no  restriction  upon  the  coming  of  the  corresponding  class 
at  the  North  who  were  recognized  as  freemen.  The  balance  should 
have  been  kept  even,  either  by  the  unrestricted  introduction  of  slaves, 
or  the  prohibition  of  free  emigrants. 

It  was  not  long  before  Garrison  made  himself  heard,  and  gathered 
about  him  a  small  band  of  men  and  women  as  determined  as  himself. 
The  political  aspect  of  the  question  was  not  to  them  of  chief  impor- 
tance. They  acknowledged  at  the  outset  the  limitations  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  avowed  in  the  clearest  and  most  unmistakable 
thePAtoii-  way  their  determination  not  to  invoke  Federal  legislation  to 
interfere  with  slavery  in  the  States.  Where,  however,  Fed- 
eral responsibility  existed,  as  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  terri- 
tories, and  the  domestic  slave  trade,  there  they  demanded  action. 
But  even  for  that  purpose  they  neither  formed,  nor  proposed  to  form 
a  political  party,  only  praying  that  Congress  should  take  into  consid- 
eration the  condition  of  the  people  who  were  under  its  control,  and, 
by  its  laws,  were  held  in  bondage.  They  were  not  so  foolish  as  to  as- 
sume that  there,  or  in  the  States,  legislation  would  precede  conviction, 
and  it  was  to  the  task  of  conviction,  therefore,  that  they  addressed 
themselves.  The  slaves,  they  said,  were  robbed  of  their  birthright, 
of  their  manhood,  of  the  fruits  of  their  toil,  of  all  material  well-be- 
ing, of  intellectual  growth,  of  religious  culture,  of  equality  and  pro- 
tection under  the  law,  of  their  rights  as  husbands,  wives,  and  par- 
ents ;  that  all  that  made  human  life  worth  having  was  taken  from 
them.  They  were  reduced  to  the  condition  of  the  brute,  and  like 
beasts  of  burden  bought  and  sold  in  the  market. 

The  appeal  was  to  the  humanity,  the  mercy,  and  the  consciences  of 
the  people,  on  behalf  of  these  two  million  of  their  countrymen, 
whose  condition  had  no  parallel  among  civilized  nations.  But  the 
Abolitionists  counselled  no  sudden  or  violent  measures ;  the  slaves 
themselves  —  if  their  words  could  reach  them  —  they  would  exhort 
to  patience,  forbearance,  and  longer  suffering ;  the  masters  they 
urged,  by  argument,  remonstrance,  and  exhortation,  to  repent  of 
wrong-doing  and  "let  the  oppressed  go  free;"  but  above  all  they 
addressed  themselves  to  the  great  body  of  the  Northern  people,  who, 
without  the  excuse  of  immediate  contact  with  slavery,  free  from  the 
influence  of  personal  interest  in  its  continuance,  belonging  to  a  higher 
grade  of  civilization  than  is  ever  possible  where  slavery  exists,  yet 
stood  in  the  presence  of  this  monstrous  wrong  with  profound  indif- 
ference to  its  existence,  or  in  criminal  apathy  at  their  own  moral  and 
political  responsibility.  Slavery,  the  Abolitionists  said,  is  an  offence 


1331.]  ANTI-SLAVERY   AGITATION.  325 

of  such  magnitude  that  none  can  innocently  uphold  it,  directly  or  in- 
directly. The  North  was  not  less  guilty  than  the  South,  and  it  was 
meet  that  they  should  first  call  the  North  to  repentance. 

In  this  brief  statement  is  the  whole  body  of  doctrine  of  modern 
Abolitionism,  —  the  full  measure  of  its  offending.  In  the  progress  of 
events,  it  is  true,  there  came  up  side  issues,  growing  out  of  some  inev- 
itable application  of  fundamental  principles,  when  followed  to  logical 
consequences,  or  unlooked-for  complications  to  which  that  gave  rise. 
But  all  was  comprised  in  the  assertion  of  the  truth  that  a  black  man 
was  no  less  a  man  because  he  was  black  ;  that  to  hold  him  as  a  slave 
was  a  sin  ;  that  for  sin  there  was  one  remedy,  and  one  only,  in  ethics 
and  religion,  —  immediate  repentance  and  immediate  atonement.  It 
was  as  simple  as  the  Gospel  ;  and  its  preaching,  like  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel,  brought  not  peace,  but  a  sword.  Many  received 
it  gladly  as  the  word  they  had  waited  for;  many  were  faith- 


ful  to  the  end  ;  nvany  fainted  by  the  way  ;  many  proved  that 
they  were  of  a  generation  of  backsliders.  Those  who  preached  it, 
preached  according  to  their  gifts,  for,  whatever  other  charges  were 
laid  to  the  Abolitionists,  it  was  not  one  of  them  that  they  were  not 
independent  in  thought  and  word,  each  man  for  himself  and  no  re- 
specter of  authority.  Some  were  as  gentle  as  the  Apostle  whom  the 
Master  loved  ;  some,  like  the  Master,  cried,  "  Woe  unto  you  !  scribes 
and  pharisees,  hypocrites  !  "  Others  were  filled  with  the  spirit,  and 
sometimes  with  the  power,  of  the  older  prophets,  and  with  Jeremiah 
cried  out,  "Woe  unto  him  that  buildeth  his  house  by  unrighteousness, 
and  his  chambers  by  wrong  ;  that  useth  his  neighbor's  service  with- 
out wages,  and  giveth  him  not  for  his  work  !  "  One  of  the  most  po- 
tent and  the  most  ludicrous  of  the  arguments  brought  against  them 
was  that  their  language  was  harsh  and  intemperate.  The  baser  sort 
rebuked  it  with  oaths,  revilings,  and  brickbats,  to  inculcate  modera- 
tion ;  the  less  violent,  but  no  less  earnest,  opponents  of  emancipation 
professed,  with  a  fine  contempt  of  logic,  to  deprecate  the  use  of  lan- 
guage which  made,  they  said,  emancipation  almost  impossible. 

It  was,  however,  what  the  Abolitionists  said,  not  how  they  said  it, 
that  raised  against  them  a  storm  of  calumny  and  persecution  the  like 
of  which  is  unknown  in  any  civilized  community  of  modern  times. 
They  were  not  misunderstood  ;  rather  they  were  understood  too  well. 
The  whole  country  seemed  to  recognize  the  ominous  sounds  of  an  im- 
pending conflict  in  which  the  two  great  forces  of  liberty  and  slavery 
were  arrayed  against  each  other  for  the  first  time  in  dead  earnest  and 
for  a  final  struggle.  There  was  not  an  interest  or  a  relation,  social, 
political,  or  commercial,  that  would  not  be  involved  in  this  strife, 
and  the  first  popular  impulse  was  to  meet  and  suppress  a  movement, 


SLAVERY   AND   AXTI-SLAVEKY. 


[CllAP-   XIII. 


the  immediate  cost  of  which  was  apparent,  while  the  ultimate  good 
seemed  dim  and  uncertain.     The  South  was  quicker  than  the  North 
to  apprehend  the  danger,  nor  did  her  far-seeing  leaders  make  a  mis- 
take as  to  where  that  danger  lay.     Calhoun  ridiculed  the  notion  that 
the  Abolitionists  proposed  to    liberate  the  slaves  by  force  of  arms. 
"  The  war,"  he  said,  "  which  they  wage   against  us  is  of  a 
preh<maionP    very   different   character,   and   far   more  effective,  —  it    is 
waged,   not  against  our   lives,    but  our  character."     "We 
do   not  believe,"  said  Duff  Green,  a  Washington  editor,  "  that  the 

Abolitionists  intend,  nor  could  they 
if  they  would,  excite  the  slaves  to 

insurrection It    is    only    by 

alarming  the  consciences  of  the 
weak  and  feeble,  and  diffusing 
among  our  people  a  morbid  sensi- 
bility on  the  question  of  slavery, 
that  the  Abolitionists  can  accom- 
plish their  object."  It  was  pre- 
cisely because  they  exposed  the  true 
character  of  slavery  and  slavehold- 
ers, and  because  they  appealed  to 
conscience,  that  the  South  was 
alarmed  and  that  the  North  was 
called  upon  to  arrest  the  agitation. 
Before  "The  Liberator"  had  made 
itself  known  in  Boston,  except  to  the  few  who  sympathized  with 
its  editor,  an  eminent  legal  gentleman  of  a  Southern  State  wrote 
to  the  Mayor  of  that  city,  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  in  1831,  complaining 
of  the  publication  of  the  paper,  and  commending  it  to  his  official 
A  Northern  consideration.  The  Mayor  replied  that  this  was  to  him  the 
response.  gj.^  intimation  of  the  existence  of  such  a  sheet,  but  he  had 
verified  it  by  repeated  and  diligent  inquiries.  He  found  that  it  had 
received  only  "  insignificant  countenance  and  support,"  and  that 
the  South  had  nothing  to  fear  from  Boston.  But,  should  there 
ever  be  indications  that  "  opinion  was  taking  a  wrong  direction,"  offi- 
cial application  for  its  correction  would  receive  "prompt  and  respect- 
ful attention." 

If  a  quick  response  like  this  could  come,  at  the  first  intimation  of 
peril,  from  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  Massachusetts,  —  one  who,  as 
a  leader  in  the  Hartford  Convention,  not  twenty  years  before,  had 
discerned,  on  political  grounds  alone,  that  between  liberty  and  sla- 
very there  could  be  no  unity,  —  if  such  response  from  such  a  source 
could  come  when  the  sharpened  vision  only  of  the  slaveholder  could 


Phillips 


1831.]  THE   ABOLITIONISTS.  327 

see  the  first  red  spark  of  fire,  what  was  to  be  expected  when  the 
whole  horizon  was  kindled  into  flame  ?  First  tens,  then  hundreds, 
then  thousands,  tens  of  thousands,  hundreds  of  thousands  were  drawn 
together  by  a  new-born  zeal,  animated  by  a  common  religious  convic- 
tion, inspired  by  pity  for  human  suffering,  demanding,  with  one 
voice,  from  Heaven  and  from  man,  justice  and  mercy  for  those  who 
were  dumb.  These  people  were  the  stuff  that  martyrs  are 

p    •  11  XT  i  i  Ohnrartpr  of 

made  of  in  all  ages.     .None  doubted,  none  can  doubt,  that  thcAboii- 

•         i  .       i      i  c       i  i.  tionists. 

they  were  single-minded,  of  the  purest  lives,  the  longest- 
headed,  the  picked  and  chosen  of  the  body  politic,  the  men  and 
women  most  esteemed,  most  trusted,  in  all  things  else  save  this  of 
anti-slavery,  in  the  several  communities  where  they  were  known  for 
their  individual  characters.  But  a  broad  and  sharp  dividing-line 
was  soon  drawn  between  them  and  their  countrymen.  Some  were 
called  upon  to  be  literally  martyrs,  even  unto  stripes,  imprisonment, 
and  death.  Social  ostracism  was  visited  upon  them  all.  Fanatics, 
fools,  traitors,  infidels,  incendiaries,  were  their  mildest  designations; 
the  climax  of  objurgation  was  reached  with  "  nigger  !  '  The  South 
demanded  their  suppression  as  public  enemies,  and  the 

Their  sup- 

North  obeyed.  Commerce,  it  was  proclaimed,  was  in  peril ;  prewion  de- 
the  state  was  in  peril ;  the  church  was  in  peril ;  civil  society 
was  in  peril ;  religion  was  to  be  trampled  under  foot ;  civilization 
was  to  be  wiped  out ;  the  throats  of  all  the  masters  were  to  be  cut  by 
their  slaves  ;  all  the  white  women  were  to  be  given  up  to  the  blacks  ; 
all  white  men  were  to  take  black  wives.  The  intelligent  and  educated 
class  —  in  whose  hands  were  the  wealth  and  all  that  intelligence  and 
wealth  command  in  the  organization  of  society  —  were  to  be  brought 
into  subjection  by  one  sixth  of  their  number,  ignorant  to  the  last 
degree,  possessed,  as  their  share  of  the  material  resources  of  the 
country,  of  a  knife  and  a  bludgeon.  It  may  be  questioned  which 
madness  of  that  time  is  the  most  marvellous  —  the  atrocities  visited 
upon  the  Abolitionists,  or  the  pleas  put  forward  to  justify  them.  But 
almost  the  whole  North  and  the  whole  South  became  possessed  of  the 
devil,  because  these  people  said  that  black  men,  as  well  as  white,  k'  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  unalienable  rights,"  and  that  to  the 
nineteenth  century  after  Christ  was  as  long  a  delay  in  the  establish- 
ment of  that  fact  as  could  be  reasonably  tolerated. 

The  plans  of  the  Abolitionists  were  as   simple  as  their  aim  was 
direct.     They  organized  societies  with  brief  but  clear  decla- 
rations of  principles.     They  printed  newspapers  and  pam- 
phlets, and  sent  forth  speakers  to  disseminate   these  principles  and 
influence   public  opinion.      Could   they   bring  others  to   see  as  thev 
themselves  saw,  that  slavery  was  a  sin  to  be  at  once  abandoned,  the 


328  SLAVERY    AND   ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  Xlll. 

work  would  be  done.  They  denied  that  slavery  was,  as  the  slave- 
holders loved  to  call  it,  an  Institution.  As  well,  they  said,  talk  of 
the  institution  of  counterfeiting,  of  forgery,  of  house-breaking,  of 
horse-stealing.  A  slave  was  originally  a  man  stolen,  and  the  robbery 
was  perpetuated  in  him  or  his  descendants  by  sheer  brute  force.  It 
w;is  simply  a  system  of  man-stealing,  they  said,  and  was  no  more  to 
be  tolerated  than  any  other  monstrous  wrong.  As  they  were  in 
earnest  and  meant  to  be  heard,  it  was  easy  to  see  what  the  end 
\\ould  be  if  they  could  not  be  answered.  It  is  our  character  that 
is  at  stake,  said  Calhoun  ;  it  is  our  consciences  they  appeal  to,  said 
Dull  Green.  Then  they  must  not  be  heard,  and  the  readiest  way  to 
silence  them  was  by  violence. 

To  emancipate  the  blacks  even  by  common  consent,  would  neces- 
Thproicn  sarily  involve  some  sacrifices,  and  there  were  formidable 
obstacles  to  be  overcome  before  that  consent  could  be  ob- 
tained. If  to  these  difficulties  was  added  the  fear  of  terrible  dis- 
asters, of  anarchy,  of  the  shedding  of  innocent  blood,  it  would  be 
easy,  it  was  thought,  to  trample  out  agitation  as  though  it  were  a 
pestilence.  The  whole  country,  therefore,  gave  itself  over  to  a  dis- 
pensation of  lies  —  some  to  creating,  some  to  believing  them,  but 
all  to  make  them  the  apology  for  violence.  For  years  the  mob 
reigned. 

Large  rewards  were  offered  in  some  of  the  slaveholding  States  for 
Southern  ^ne  apprehension  of  several  of  the  leading  Abolitionists. 
The  Legislature  of  Georgia  passed  a  law  appropriating  five 
thousand  dollars  to  be  paid  to  any  person  who  should  arrest,  bring  to 
trial,  and  prosecute  to  conviction,  under  the  laws  of  that  State,  the 
editor  of  k-  The  Liberator."  Mr.  Williams,  the  publisher  of  *'  The 
Emancipator  "  in  New  York,  who  never  in  his  life  had  been  in  the 
State  of  Alabama,  was  indicted  for  declaring  that  man  should  not  be 
held  as  property,  and  his  rendition  was  demanded  as  a  fugitive  from 
justice,  by  the  Governor  of  that  State.  Virginia.  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  called  upon  the  Northern  States  to 
suppress  the  anti-slavery  societies  by  penal  enactments.  Governor 
W .  L.  Marcy,  of  New  York,  and  Governor  Edward  Everett,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, earnestly  commended  the  subject  to  the  legislatures  of  those 
opi.-sitmn  States,  and  a  committee  of  the  New  York  Legislature  re- 
!!,'•  m',d«/  ported  that  such  laws  would  be  enacted  the  moment  they 
pe";ii  seemed  necessary.  A  bill  was  reported,  though  not  passed, 

by  a  committee  of  the  Rhode  Island  Legislature, ior  the  trial  and  pun- 
ishment of  Abolitionists.  At  a  public  meeting  in  Mississippi,  it  was 
resolved  that  whoever  should  circulate-anti-slavery  publications,  "was 
justly  worthy  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man  of  immediate  death,"  and 


1833.] 


PERSECUTION   OF    ABOLITIONISTS. 


329 


that  such  would  be  the  penalty  in  any  part  of  that  State.     In  South 
Carolina  persons  were  appointed  to  examine  all  travellers  ar- 

,  .  ..  ...  P«mciiti..!i< 

riving  at  (  harleston    by  steamboat  or  rail,  ana  to  deliver  «'"»• 

S  i  u  th 

over  to  the  Vigilance  Committee  all  suspected  of  anti-slavery 
opinions.  In  Tennessee.  Amos  Dresser,  a  travelling  agent  of  the 
Bible  Society,  in  whose  possession  were  found  some  anti-slavery  pub- 
lications, not  for  sale  but  for  his  own  use.  was  sentenced,  at  a  public 
meeting,  at  which  the  Mayor  presided,  to  be  punished  with  thirty 
lashes  upon  his  bare  back.1  In  Washington.  Dr.  Reuben  Crandall, 
it  was  accidentally 
discovered,  had  re- 
ceived some  pack- 
ages, the  wrappers 
of  which  happened 
to  be  anti-slavery 
newspapers.  He 
was  thrown  into 
prison  and  was 
kept  there  for  nine 
months  before  h  e 
was  permitted  to 


answer    to    an     m- 


The  Domestic  Slave-trade 


dictment  for  pub- 
lishing a  malicious  and  wicked  libel  with  an  intent  to  excite  the 
slaves  to  insurrection.  A  Mr.  Black,  an  agent  of  the  Bible  Society, 
when  it  became  known  in  New  Orleans  that  he  hud  offered  a  Bible 
to  a  slave,  was  compelled  to  fly  for  his  life  from  the  mob,  after  being 
severely  reprimanded  in  a  court  of  justice.  The  local  society  pub- 
licly apologized  for  Black's  conduct,  with  the  acquiescence  of  silence 
in  the  parent  society  in  Xew  York. 

Manifestations  like  these  —  for  these  are  a  few  only  among  many 
—  show  the  spirit  then  aroused  at  the  South  at  what  the  South 
instinctively  recognized  as  an  attack  upon  slavery  that  must  inevi- 
tably lead  to  its  destruction.  The  appeal  to  the  North  was  met  in 
a  like  spirit.  The  legislative  committee  of  New  York  did  not  recom- 
mend immediate  legislation  for  the  punishment  of  the  Abolitionists, 
because  they  believed,  as  Marcy  suggested,  that  the  popular  oppo- 
sition to  the  movement  would  soon  make  an  end  of  it.  A  perpetual 

1  One  of  the  books  found  iu  Dresser's  |x>ssessiou  w;i>  called  The  Aiiti-Slnct/y  licord, 
it  IK!  it  contained  the  engravinjr  of  which  we  jrive  a  fac-simile.  "  This,"  savg  Dresser  in  his 
narrative,  "  added  considerably  to  the  jreneral  excitement."  He  adds:  '•  Mr.  Stout,"  who 
had  caused  Dresser's  carriage  to  lie  searched,  "  told  me  tli.it  the  scene  represented  in  the 
cut  was  one  of  by  no  means  uufrequent  occurrence  —  that  it  was  accurate  in  all  its  parts, 
and  that  he  had  \vitue>sed  it  again  and  again.  Mr.  Stout  is  himself  a  slaveholder." 


330 


SLAVERY    AND    ANTI-SLAVERY. 


[CHAP.  XIII. 


conflict  was  waged  with  the  mob.  In  1834,  the  house  of  Lewis  Tap- 
pan,  a  wealthy  and  distinguished  merchant  of  New  York,  was  sacked, 
Northern  aiu^  the  furniture  destroyed.  In  October,  1835,  on  one  and 
persecution.  ^]le  same  cjay  a  mob,  led  by  the  most  prominent  citizen 
of  the  town,  broke  up  an  anti-slavery  meeting  at  Montpelier,  Ver- 
mont ;  another  at  Utica,  New  York,  with  the  member  of  Congress 
from  that  district  and  a  county  judge  at  its  head,  dispersed  a  meet- 
ing of  the  National  Society,  ami  compelled  it  to  adjourn  to  the  house 
of  Gerrit  Smith,  at  Peterborough ;  in  Boston  a  meeting  of  women 
was  beset  by  a  mob  of  "  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing  "  — 
as  the  newspapers  of  the  town  styled  them  in  justification  of  their 
conduct ;  Garrison  was  rescued  from  the  rioters,  with  a  rope  already 


The  Alton  Riot  —  From  an  old  Print. 


tied  about  his  boay,  and  lodged  in  the  city  jail  for  safety,  by  order 
of  the  Mayor,  who  seemed  to  think  it  best  he  should  not  be  hanged, 
though  his  life  was  not  worth  the  suppression  of  a  riot.  The  ladies 
found  refuge  in  the  private  house  of  Francis  Jackson.  The  next 
summer,  the  press  and  types  of  "  The  Philanthropist,"  a  newspapei 
established  in  Cincinnati  by  James  G.  Birney,  —  a  Southerner  by 
birth,  who  had  been  a  slaveholder,  but  had  given  freedom  to  his 
slaves,  —  were  thrown  into  the  Ohio.  "  Gentlemen,"  said  the  Mayor 
to  the  rioters,  when  the  work  was  finished,  "  it  is  now  late  at  night, 
and  time  we  were  all  in  bed  ;  by  continuing  longer  you  will  dis- 
turb the  citizens  or  deprive  them  of  their  rest,  besides  robbing  your- 


1836.] 


THE   REIGX   OF  MOBS. 


331 


Burning  of 

Pennsyiva- 


selves  of    rest.     No  doubt  it  is  your  intention  to  punish  the  guilty 
and  leave  the  innocent  .....  We  have  done  enough  for  one  night.  ' 
The  following  year  a  mob  attacked   a  warehouse  in   Alton,  Illinois, 
where  a  printing-press  was  stored  belonging  to  the  Rev.  E.   Murder  of 
P.  Lovejoy.     Here,  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  in  ****&• 
Missouri,  his  newpaper,  "  The  Observer,"  had  been  three  times  sus- 
pended by  the  destruction  of  his  printing  materials.     This 

.  J  e  .       r 

time,   the  fourth,  the  suppression  was  permanent,   for  the 

editor  was  murdered.    The  news  was  received  by  what  some 

of  the  leading  citizens  of  Boston  tried  to  turn  into  a  congratulatory 

meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  ;  but  which  gave  to  anti-slavery  a  convert, 

Wendell  Phillips,  whose  career, 

destined  to  be  so  marked  in  its 

influence   upon    the   history   of 

the  next  thirty  years,  began  at 

that  moment.    Six  months  after- 

ward, Pennsylvania  Hall,  a 

costly  building  erected  in  Phila- 

delphia, that  there  might  be  one 

place  there  always  open  to  free 

discussion,  was  for  that  reason 

burned  to  the  ground.     It  was 

dedicated  the  previous  day  by  an 

anti-slavery  meeting,  at  which 

a  poem  by  the  young  poet  Whit- 

tier  was  read.     The  keys  were 

given    to    the    Mayor   that   he 

might    be    responsible    for  its 

safety  ;  but  no  effort  was  made 

either  to  suppress  the  rioters  or 

to  extinguish  the  fire. 

The  vears  of  these  incidents 

• 

were  especially  marked  by  such  evidence  of  the  popular  determina- 
tion to  suppress  at  any  cost  this  dangerous  movement  against  slavery. 
But  these  were  only  the  more  remarkable  instances  of  the  character 
of  that  violent  opposition  ;  it  was  continued,  sometimes  with  greater, 
sometimes  with  less  bitterness,  down  to  the  very  eve  of  the  rebellion, 
according  to  the  temper  of  the  moment.  During  all  that  time,  as 
the  voice  of  the  anti-slavery  lecturer  and  press  never  ceased  in  the 
land,  proclaiming  the  only  issue  on  which  slavery  could  ever  be  suc- 
cessfully met,  namely,  its  inherent  and  absolute  sinfulness,  so  to  the 
end,  till  the  contest  was  virtually  over,  there  was  always  the  sole  re- 
sponse that  had  any  force  in  it,  namely,  trample  out  that  doctrine 


John  G.  Whittier.     (1838.) 


332  SLAVERY   AND  ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

and  those  who  preach  it.  When  a  generation  or  two  more  have 
passed  away,  it  will  be  easier  to  see  and  to  understand  how  the  scat- 
tered seed  of  a  new  faith  yielded  a  thousand-fold  of  fruitfulness,  and 
the  North  was  gradually  educated  to  meet  the  question  of  a  govern- 
ment of  and  for  the  people,  or  the  rule  of  and  for  an  oligarchy  of 
slaveholders. 

The  condition  of  the  free  negro  was  one  result  of  slavery  which  the 
Abolitionists  could  not  overlook.     They  exposed  the  charae- 

Thc  foloni-  .,,  .         . 

ter  oi  the   Colonization  society,  established  in  1816,  which, 


at  the  North,  sought  the  support  of  philanthropists  under 
the  pretence  of  facilitating  emancipation,  by  returning  at  last  all  the 
slaves  to  Africa;  while  at  the  South  its  avowed  purpose  was  to  expa- 
triate all  free  negroes,  lest  by  their  presence  the  slaves  should  be  re- 
minded that  their  bondage  was  not  altogether  hopeless.  It  was  not 
one  of  the  least  of  the  anti-slavery  offences  that  Garrison  and  Judge 
William  Jay  so  thoroughly  stripped  that  society  of  its  hypocritical 
pretence.  Gerrit  Smith,  the  Tappans,  Birney,  and  many  others  of 
the  earliest  and  most  earnest  of  the  anti-slavery  people,  were  Coloniza- 
tionists,  till  they  discovered  that  in  supporting  that  scheme  they  had 
been  the  dupes  of  the  slaveholders  ;  nor  could  it  longer  rely  upon  the 
aid  and  countenance  of  the  Federal  Government,  which  had  hitherto 
been  given  it  almost  without  question.  The  popular  opposition  to 
the  anti-slavery  movement  was  strengthened,  therefore,  by  the  hos- 
tility of  the  Colonization  ists,  who  gave  the  whole  weight  of  their 
influence  to  add  to  the  torrent  of  misrepresentation  and  persecution. 

The  condition  of  Northern  free  blacks-  was  hardly  better  than  that 
The  Free  °^  *he  same  class  in  the  Southern  States.  They  were  pa- 
Biacks.  riahs  ;  if  the  law  recognized  them  at  all,  it  was  to  oppress, 
not  to  protect  them  ;  no  calling  was  open  to  them,  save  the  lowest 
menial  service  ;  their  presence  among  whites  in  public  places  was  a 
forbidden  intrusion  ;  the  schools  were  shut  in  their  faces  ;  if  they 
were  permitted  to  worship  God  in  common  with  their  fellow-creatures, 
it  was  only  in  the  negro-pew,  above  the  galleries,  close  under  the  ceil- 
ing, as  far  as  they  could  be  removed  from  the  rest  of  the  congrega- 
tion ;  should  enough  of  the  spirit  of  the  white  man's  Christianity 
reach  them  there  to  lead  to  a  wish  to  commemorate  the  Last  Supper, 
they  were  taught  that  the  Lord  had  spread  for  them  a  second  table  ; 
and  when  at  last  dust  unto  dust  was  pronounced  over  their  poor  black 
bodies,  it  was  in  some  remote  corner  of  the  grave-yard,  lest  when  the 
trumpet  of  the  resurrection  sounded  there  should  be  a  disagreeable 
confusion  of  persons.  In  all  the  more  ferocious  mobs  it  was  the  in- 
nocent colored  people  who  were  the  chief  sufferers.  The  rage  against 
the  Abolitionists  would  yield,  even  at  white  heat,  to  the  deeper  hatred 


1836.] 


THE  FREE  BLACKS. 


333 


of  the  blacks.  When  Pennsylvania  Hall  was  burned,  the  rioters  wei-e 
easily  turned  aside,  when  on  their  way  to  attack  the  private  houses 
of  some  of  the  leading  anti-slavery  people,  by  a  cry,  "  to  the  nigger 
school-house !  "  raised  by  one  who  put  himself  at  their  head  to  divert 
their  blind  rage  from  the  taking  of  life  to  the  destruction  only  of 
property.  In  New  York,  in  Boston,  in  Cincinnati,  and  in  other 
places,  it  was  a  sort  of  sportive  relief  from  the  serious  business  of 
suppressing  anti-slavery  gatherings  to  sack  the  meeting-houses  and 
the  dwellings  of  negroes. 


• 


Ruins  of  Pennsylvania  Hall. 

It  was  only  where  the  blacks  were  very  numerous  that  they  were 
permitted  to  acquire  the  merest  rudiments  of  education  in  ty..^^ 
schools  of  their  own.  The  promise  of  anything  more  was  re-  denledthem- 
sented,  so  true  was  the  logical  instinct  that  every  advanced  step  of 
the  free  colored  man  was  one  step  nearer  the  freedom  of  his  race.  It 
was  therefore,  that  when  Miss  Prudence  Crandall  of  Cantei-bury, 
Connecticut,  opened  a  school  for  colored  young  women,  she  was  pur- 
sued with  months  of  persecution,  her  furniture  destroyed,  her  house 
set  on  fire,  the  lives  of  her  pupils  endangered,  she  herself  thrown  into 
prison,  and  an  act  passed  by  the  Legislature  forbidding  schools  of 
that  character  within  the  boundaries  of  the  State.  When  a  few  col- 
ored boys  were  admitted  into  an  academy  at  Canaan,  New  Hamp- 
shire, it  was  declared  by  a  vote  in  town-meeting,  that  the  school  was 
a  nuisance ;  and  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  assembled  with  a 


334  SLAVERY  AND   ANTI-SLAVERY.  [€HAP.  XIII. 

hundred  yoke  of  oxen,  dragged  the  building  from  its  foundations  for 
some  distance,  and  left  it  in  ruins.  At  Zanesville,  Ohio,  a  young 
woman  opened  a  school  for  colored  children,  but  it  was  broken  up  by 
the  destruction  of  her  furniture  and  the  books,  and  the  teacher  driven 
from  the  town  by  personal  abuse.  In  Brown  County,  in  the  same 
State,  a  school-house  was  burnt  to  the  ground,  with  all  it  contained, 
and  the  teacher  compelled  to  leave  the  place,  for  the  same  offence.  It 
was  proposed  to  establish  a  collegiate  school  in  New  Haven,  Connecti- 
cut, for  the  education  of  colored  boys  ;  but  the  Mayor,  when  he  heard 
of  it,  called  a  public  meeting,  and  the  citizens  declared  that  they 
would  resist  the  establishment  of  such  a  school  in  that  town,  and  the 
scheme  was  necessarily  abandoned. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  acts  like  these  were  the  acts  of  mere 
ruffians.     The  mobs  of  that  period  were  often  l^d  in  person, 

Character  of  ,,  ..,.  /•       -i         i   .    i 

Northern      and  always  incited,  by  men  of  the  inchest  social,  political, 

moba.  i          i-     "  •    •  TFII  •  1-1- 

and  religious  position.  If  the  law  was  invoked,  it  was  to 
justify  riot ;  if  the  officers  of  the  law  interfered,  it  was  to  protect  the 
rioters.  It  was  assumed  that  the  interests  of  politics,  of  commerce, 
of  literature,  of  art,  of  education,  of  religion,  were  involved  in  the 
speedy  suppression  of  the  agitation  against  slavery.  At  the  second 
anniversary  of  the  National  Society,  in  New  York,  a  leading  member 
was  called  out  of  the  meeting  by  one  of  the  principal  merchants  of 
Northern  ^ne  city  t°  give  him  this  warning,  —  "We  cannot  afford  to 

let  you  and  your  associates  succeed  in  your  endeavor  to  over- 
throw slavery.  I  have  called  to  let  you  know,  and  to  let  your  fel- 
low-laborers know,  that  we  do  not  mean  to  allow  you  to  succeed. 
We  mean  to  put  you  down,  by  fair  means  if  we  can,  by  foul  means  if 
we  must."  The  Faculty  of  Lane  Theological  Seminary,  at  Cincin- 
nati —  of  which  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  was  President  —  ordered  its 
students  to  break  up  an  anti-slavery  society  they  had  formed  among 
themselves,  a  mandate  which  they  obeyed  by  nearly  breaking  up 
the  seminary,  for  they  left  it  almost  in  a  body.  One  of  the  largest 
publishing  houses  in  the  country  said  in  a  letter  published  in  a  South- 
ern newspaper,  "  it  must  be  pretty  generally  understood  in  your  sec- 
tion, as  well  as  elsewhere,  that  we  uniformly  decline  publishing  works 
calculated  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  Southern  rights  and  Southern 
institutions."  In  the  same  letter  they  said :  kk  Since  the  receipt  of 
your  letter,  we  have  printed  an  edition  of  the  '  Woods  and  Fields '  in 
which  the  offensive  matter  has  been  omitted."  The  "  Woods  and 
Fields"  was  an  English  book  of  tales,  reflecting  somewhere  upon 
slavery,  of  which  the  New  York  publishers  had  inadvertently  printed 
an  edition  without  mutilation.  They  wrote  directly  to  another  South 
ern  newspaper  "  that  they  had  refrained  from  republishing  a  certain 


1834.]  NORTHERN  BASENESS.  335 

English  work,  very  ably  written  and  likely  to  be  profitable,"  because 
the  author  was  an  "Abolitionist,  and  we  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
him."  In  Hinton's  "History  of  the  United  States"  —  republished  by 
another  Northern  house  in  numbers  —  there  was  something  objection- 
able to  the  slaveholders ;  all  the  numbers,  containing  it,  that  could 
be  found  in  New  Orleans  were  seized  and  burned,  and  the  agent  com- 
pelled to  flee  for  his  life  ;  in  Charleston  they  were  withdrawn  from 
circulation,  and  the  New  York  publishers  printed  a  new  and  expurgated 
edition.  Do  these  things  seem  too  base  and  too  cowardly  to  be  credi- 
ble ?  They  are  only  a  few  instances  among  many  that  showed  the 
servile  spirit  of  the  time.  It  pervaded  all  things  and  governed  even-- 
where. Intense  excitement  and  debate  was  aroused  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  at  Washington  because  there  had  been  placed  upon 
the  shelves  of  the  Congressional  Library  a  work  upon  political  econ- 
omy, in  which  a  chapter  was  given  to  the  consideration  of  slavery 
purely  as  a  question  in  social  science.  Dr.  Wayland,  President  of 
Brown  University,  in  a  work  upon  Moral  Philosophy,  asserted  the 
natural  equality  of  all  men,  and  that  the  enslavement  of  any  part  of 
the  human  race  was  incompatible  with  that  law.  The  protest  at  the 
South  against  ever  again  sending  Southern  youth  to  that  college,  was 
loud  and  earnest. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  great  mass  of  the  Northern  people 
were  absolutely  destitute  of  any  humanity  for  the  blacks,  or  any 
principle  in  regard  to  slavery.  They  knew  nothing  of  the  character 
of  the  Slave  Code  —  unmatched  for  its  atrocities  in  any  body  of  law 
reduced  to  writing  within  the  last  thousand  years  —  and  they  cared 
nothing  for  the  condition  of  those  who  under  it  were  held  as  property 
and  treated  as  beasts.  But  they  believed  that  any  interference  with 
slavery  would  convulse  the  political,  commercial,  and  social  relations 
of  the  country,  and,  though  it  might  be  confessed  an  evil,  its  cure  was 
not  worth  such  a  convulsion.  It  may  be  said  also,  in  their  defence,  a 
defence  that  can  be  made,  however,  only  at  the  expense  of  Northern 
intelligence,  that  they  honestly  believed  the  Abolitionists  meant  to 
arouse  the  slaves  to  insurrection.  The  lie  was  purely  a  Southern 
invention,  accepted  by  the  thoughtless,  or  used  as  a  pretext  for  vio- 
lence by  those  who  knew  it  to  be  a  lie.  It  hardly  needs  now  to  be 
said,  that  in  the  whole  range  of  anti-slavery  publications,  in  all  the 
constitutions  of  anti-slavery  societies,  in  the  speeches  of  anti-slavery 
lecturers  for  thirty  years,  not  a  single  word  was  ever  printed  or  ever 
spoken  that  sustains  this  accusation.  On  the  contrary,  till  John 
Brown  went  to  Virginia,  in  1859,  all  appeals  to  the  slaves  were  dis- 
avowed, officially,  individually,  in  thousands  of  ways,  on  thousands  of 
occasions.  Moreover,  the  very  philosophy  of  the  movement  showed 


336  SLAVERY  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

the  absurdity  of  the  calumny.  That  was  nothing  if  not  moral ;  it 
relied  on  no  arm  of  flesh  ;  no  Abolitionist  ever  lifted  his  hand  even 
to  repel  outrage  upon  himself ;  his  faith  was  absolute  in  the  appeal 
to  reason  and  to  conscience,  and  if  this  failed  he  had  no  hope  left. 

That  such  a  chai'ge  was  accepted,  only  proves  the  readiness  of  the 
Pro-fiavery  Northern  people  to  secure  their  own  peace  by  the  sacrifice  of 
accusations.  JKJ  j]ijong  of  their  colored  countrymen,  by  assuming  a  pretext 
which  both  North  and  South  knew  to  be  false.  They  not  only  knew 
it  to  be  false,  but  they  also  knew  that  no  such  appeal  could  be 
made  to  the  slave,  nor  would  it  be  heeded  if  it  could.  The  African 
in  America,  whether  bond  or  free,  either  from  inherent  quality  of 
race,  or  from  the  habit  of  submission,  patience,  and  long-suffering  en- 
gendered by  centuries  of  subjection,  has  rarely  shown  any  spirit  of 
revolt.  He  may  sometimes  run  away,  but  he  does  not  resist.  The 
Abolitionist  was  too  wise  and  too  merciful  to  attempt  to  stir  up  a 
servile  war,  which  could  only  end  in  prolonging  the  servitude  of  the 
blacks ;  the  slaveholders  laughed  that  the  great  majority  of  the 
Northern  people  were  either  so  stupid  or  so  wicked  as  to  consent  to 
be  duped  by  so  absurd  a  pretext.  But  the  few  who,  after  all,  made 
the  public  opinion  of  the  North  were  not  dupes,  however  it  might  be 
with  the  rabble  who  followed  them.  If  slavery  were  really  in  danger, 
much  else  would  be  in  danger  also.  From  1830  to  1840  the  whole 
country  was  afloat  upon  a  wild  sea  of  speculation ;  the  price  of  cotton 
went  up  in  the  course  of  that  decade  from  six  cents  to  twenty,  and 
fluctuated  anywhere  between,  as  there  was  access  or  decrease  of  the 
public  fever  ;  more  than  twenty  million  acres  of  public  lands  were 
condition  of  bought  in  the  southwest;  nearly  four  hundred  thousand 
the  country.  8}aves  were  transferred  from  the  slave-breeding  to  the  cotton 
and  sugar  States,  for  the  cultivation  of  these  lands  ;  all  this  was  done, 
mainly,  with  borrowed  capital,  and  plantations,  slaves,  cotton-crops 
were  mortgaged  directly  or  indirectly  to  Northern  capitalists,  through 
public  or  private  credit,  and  whatever  threatened  to  disturb  it  threat- 
ened great  pecuniary  loss.  With  all  this  was  involved  the  never- 
ceasing  struggle  of  the  slaveholders  for  the  perpetuity  of  their  political 
ascendency,  who  offered  their  favor  to  the  highest  bidder  among 
Northern  politicians.  These  influences,  however  little  they  may  pal- 
liate the  pro-slavery  furor  of  the  time,  are  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  in 
any  consideration  of  its  history.  The  North  thought,  at  least,  that 
its  rage  was  not  altogether  without  reason. 

But  the  lie  was  sent  forth  to  the  world  with  the  highest  sanction. 
President  Jackson,  in  his  annual  message  to  Congress  in  1835,  called 
"attention  to  the  painful  exitement  produced  in  the  South  by  at- 
tempts to  circulate  through  the  mails  inflammatory  appeals  addressed 


I 


1835.] 


PRO-SLAVERY   ACCUSATIONS. 


337 


to  the  passions  of  the  slaves,  in  prints,  and  in  various  sorts  of  publica- 
tions, calculated  to  stimulate  them  to  insurrection,  and  to  produce  all 
the  horrors  of  a  servile  war."  It  is  quite  likely  that  he  believed  this 
to  be  true,  for  he  never  permitted  himself  to  be  embarrassed  by  evi- 
dence in  coming  to  a  conclusion  ;  and  accordingly,  he  urged  Congress 

to  pass  a  law  to  pre- 
vent "  the  circula- 
tion in  the  South- 
ern States,  through 
the  mail,  of  incen- 
diary publications 


Burning   Mail-matter  in  Charleston. 

intended  to  instigate  the  slaves  to  insurrection."  Of  course  the  pur- 
pose was  to  prohibit  the  use  of  the  mails  for  the  conveyance  of  any- 
thing that  touched  the  question  of  slavery.  The  sagacity  of  Calhoun 
was  not  at  fault,  when  as  chairman  of  the  committee  to  whom  the 
subject  was  referred,  he  reported  that  it  should  be  left  to  the  States 
to  decide  what  was  an  incendiary  publication.  This  was  in  accord- 
ance with  his  State-Rights  theory,  that  the  slave  State  should  decree 
and  the  Union  execute;  and  he  knew,  besides,  that  even  then  there 
were  Northern  members  of  Congress  who  would  not  consent  to  self- 
stultification,  but  would  demand  the  evidence  of  the  existence  of  anv 

•/ 

publication  addressed  to  the  slaves  or  designed,  in  the  remotest  de- 
gree, to  excite  them  to  insubordination,  and  that  no  such  evidence 

VOL.  iv.  22 


338  SLAVERY   AND    ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

could  be  found.  Nor  did  the  slave  States  need  any  such  law.  Six 
mums  the  months  before  the  message,  the  mails  had  been  seized  in 
Charleston,  S.  C.,  and  some  few  anti-slavery  publications, 
addressed  to  influential  gentlemen  for  their  possible  enlightenment, 
taken  out  and  publicly  burned.  The  precedent  was  one  which  every 
postmaster  at  the  South  was  ready  to  follow  ;  even  the  postmaster  at 
New  York  had  assumed  the  power  of  rifling  the  mails  of  everything 
which  he  thought  might  offend  the  South ;  and  the  Postmaster-gen- 
eral, Amos  Kendall,  had  written  to  his  subordinates  both  in  Charles- 
ton and  New  York,  justifying  their  assumed  censoi'ship  of  the  press, 
though,  as  he  acknowledged,  there  was  no  law  to  authorize  it. 

But  neither  laws  nor  lawlessness,  neither  tyranny  nor  subserviency, 
The  right  of  neither  sagacity  nor  stupidity,  could  stay  the  tumult  of  dis- 
petitiou.  eussion  that  swept  over  the  country.  Every  obstacle  it  met 
only  served  to  add  to  its  strength,  and  on  all  sides  questions  arose  in 
unexpected  ways  that  increased  the  agitation.  The  slaveholders  and 
the  slaveholders'  friends  put  into  the  hands  of  the  anti-slavery  people 
a  tremendous  weapon,  by  denying  them,  for  years,  the  right  of  peti- 
tion. Keeping  carefully  within  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  law, 
they  prayed  that  Congress  would  exercise  its  undoubted  right  of  abol- 
ishing slavery  in  the  national  domain  under  its  exclusive  control,  and 
of  interdicting  the  domestic  slave-trade.  Their  prayers  would  have 
been  soon  silenced,  had  they  been  simply  received  and  denied ;  but 
when  the  attempt  was  made  to  destroy  even  the  right  to  pray,  then 
for  every  petition  rejected  there  came  a  thousand  new  ones.  For  ten 
years  they  were  hurled  like  fire-brands  as  if  against  a  fortress  of 
straw,  and  bastion  and  battlement  were  in  a  constant  blaze  and  the 
magazines  in  continual  explosion.  A  few  brave  men  in  Congress, 
led  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  fought  that  fight  against  all  the  forces, 
Northern  and  Southern,  of  slavery.  Session  after  session  the  attempt 
to  get  the  petitions  before  the  House  was  defeated,  by  a  standing 
TheAther-  ru^e  known  as  the  "Atherton  gag"  —  so  called  from  one 
ton  gag.  Atherton,  of  New  Hampshire,  who  belonged  to  the  class  of 
Northern  "white  trash,"  bearing  the  same  political  relation  to  the 
slaveholders  that  the  poor  whites  of  the  South  occupied  socially,  too 
degraded,  that  is,  to  be  respected  even  by  slaves.  But  session  after 
session  the  agitation  widened,  and  the  demand  grew  louder  that  when 
Northern  citizens  spoke  they  should  be  respectfully  listened  to,  no 
matter  what  they  said.  When,  in  1842,  Mr.  Adams  presented  a  peti- 
tion from  some  persons  in  Massachusetts,  asking  for  a  dissolution  of 
the  Union,  and  resolutions  of  severe  rebuke  were  offered,  his  defence 
of  himself  and  of  the  right  of  petition  aroused  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  the  Northern  people  to  indignation  and  reflection  upon  the  true 
meaning  of  the  conflict  out  of  which  that  incident  grew. 


1835.]  THE    ATHERTOX    GAG.  339 

The  "Atherton  gag,"  however,  was  only  the  perfected  rule  for 
excluding  from  Congress  the  consideration  of  any  subject  reflecting 
unfavorably  upon  slavery  —  though  whatever  favored  it  was  never 
prohibited  and  was  always  in  order.  The  initiative  step  was  taken 
nearly  three  years  before,  in  a  resolution  offered  by  Pinckney  of 
South  Carolina,  upon  which  Mr.  Adams  refused  to  vote,  declaring, 
"  I  hold  the  resolution  to  be  a  direct  violation  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  the  rules  of  this  House,  and  the  rights  of  my  con- 
stituents." The  ground  was  thus  clearly  taken  at  the  outset :  on 
the  one  hand  the  inviolability  of  Slavery,  and,  on  the  part  of  Adams 
and  a  few  others,  the  saciedness  of  the  right  of  petition.  The  de- 
fenders of  that  right  never  yielded  a  single  inch  ;  petitions  were 
sometimes  presented  by  the  hundreds  in  a  single  day,  and  of  the 
thousands  who  signed  them  to  assert  the  abstract  right,  many  came 
at  length  to  feel  hardly  less  interest  in  the  immediate  object  of  the 
prayer.  Pinckney's  rule  was  renewed  at  the  opening  of  the  next 
Congress,  and  Mr.  Adams,  a  few  days  afterward,  asked  if  a  paper 
in  his  possession,  purporting  to  come  from  twenty-five  slaves,  would 
be  laid  on  the  table,  without  any  action  upon  it,  under  the  rule. 
The  turmoil  that  followed,  though  paralleled  many  times  since, 
was  then  without  a  precedent  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  The  mob- 
ocratic  spirit  which  ruled  in  Northern  towns  and  cities,  blazed  up  in 
the  House.  It  was  gratuitously  assumed  that  a  petition  from  slaves 
was  a  petition  for  their  freedom,  and  the  slaveholders  and  A  ^m^ 
the  slaveholders'  friends  vied  with  each  other  in  denouncing  from  8laTes- 
a  proposition  so  monstrous,  and  the  audacity  of  the  man  who  dared  to 
ask  for  it  a  hearing.  Public  censure  at  the  bar  of  the  House  was  the 
mildest  punishment  proposed  for  him;  one  member  from  South  Caro- 
lina denounced  him  as  having  rendered  himself  liable  to  the  penal 
laws  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  threatened,  that  should  he  per- 
sist in  presenting  such  a  petition,  he  would  expiate  the  offence  within 
the  walls  of  the  penitentiary.  The  first  onslaught  of  the  storm  soon 
exhausted  itself  by  its  own  fury  ;  but  it  broke  out  again  Avith  renewed 
violence  when  Mr.  Adams  reminded  his  sissailants  that  he  had  not  yet 
presented  the  petition,  but  only  inquired  as  to  its  probable  disposition 
under  the  rule  if  he  should  present  it,  and  then  informed  them  that, 
whether  genuine  or  not,  it  was  not,  as  they  had  assumed  it  must  be, 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  but  that  slavery  be  let  alone. 

A  similar  and  not  less  extraordinary  scene  occurred  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  next  session,  when  William  Slade  asked  that  a  petition  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia be  referred  to  a  committee,  with  instructions  to  bring  in  a  bill 
granting  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners.  It  was  the  first  time  such  a 


340  SLAVERY   AND   ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

proposal  had  been  made,  and  the  House  was  immediately  in  an  up- 
roar. Slade  was  speedily  silenced  by  points  of  order,  which  were  as 
quickly  violated  by  Southern  members  with  impunity.  Representa- 
tlves  from  several  Southern  States  called  upon  their  col- 
leagues  to  leave  the  House,  and  when  a  motion  to  adjourn 
tb«  House.  wag  madei  an  the  members  of  those  States  were  invited  to 
come  together  to  take  this  crisis  into  consultation.  Rhett  called  it, 
in  a  report  to  his  constituents,  "  the  memorable  secession  of  the 
Southern  members,"  and  the  word  was  cherished.  He  prepared 
resolutions  declaring  it  "  expedient  that  the  Union  should  be  dis- 
solved," and  that  a  committee  be  appointed  of  "  two  members  from 
each  State  to  report  upon  the  best  means  of  peaceably  dissolving  it." 
But  another  "gag"  rule  was  passed  the  next  day,  and  the  South  was 
again  appeased  by  enjoining  silence  once  more  upon  the  North.  It 
only  taught  the  North  to  think  the  more  and  talk  the  louder. 

Elsewhere  than  in  Congress  events  were  constantly  occurring  at 
that  period  —  and  from  that  time  forward  were  constantly  cumulating 
—  to  intensify  the  public  excitement,  and  to  strengthen  the  North  in 
the  final  struggle  which  was  at  some  time  inevitable,  and,  it  was  now 
evident,  could  not  be  long  delayed.  Not  that  such  events  had  never 
occurred  before  ;  but  that  to  the  awakened  observation  and  conscience, 
to  which  the  anti-slavery  people  were  perpetually  appealing,  such 
events  no  longer  passed  by  unheeded.  Thus,  in  1839,  the  Governor 
of  Virginia  demanded  of  the  Governor  of  New  York  the  ren- 
dition  of  three  sailors  as  criminals  charged  with  aiding  a 


and  vir-  slave  who  had  secreted  himself  on  board  their  vessel  to  es- 
cape from  bondage.  The  demand,  a  few  years  earlier,  would 
have  been  complied  with  without  hesitation.  But  now  no  Abolition- 
ist of  the  extremest  school  could  have  taken  higher  ground  than  that 
taken  by  Governor  Seward  in  his  refusal.  The  laws  of  New  York, 
he  said,  did  not  recognize  property  in  man,  and  to  aid  a  person,  there- 
fore, to  escape  from  slavery  was  not  a  crime.  His  exposition  of  nat- 
ural law  and  of  the  law  of  slavery  was  masterly  and  unanswerable, 
and  in  the  long  controversy  that  followed,  Virginia  was  driven  to  the 
ultima  ratio  of  the  slaveholder  —  a  threat  to  dissolve  the  Union.  The 
Virginian  Governor  appealed  for  sympathy  to  the  other  States  ;  but 
Mr.  Seward  was  neither  alarmed  by  threats,  nor  moved  from  his 
position  by  an  attempt  at  retaliation.  While  the  controversy  was 
pending,  he  asked  for  the  rendition  of  a  forger  who  had  escaped  to 
Virginia,  and  the  request  was  refused  until  the  prior  demand  of  Vir- 
ginia was  complied  with.  But  on  this  point,  the  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia went  a  little  further  than  even  his  own  Legislatui'e  would  sus- 
tain him,  and  he  indignantly  resigned  his  office.  An  act  was  passed, 


1839.]     CONTROVERSY  BETWEEN  FREE  AND  SLAVE  STATES.    341 

however,  requiring  that  all  New  York  vessels  in  the  ports  of  Vir- 
ginia should  be  searched  when  about  to  sail,  on  the  presumption  that 
slaves  were  secreted  on  board  ;  and  this  law  was  to  continue  in  force 
till  the  alleged  fugitives  from  justice,  whom  Seward  had  refused  to 
surrender,  were  returned  and  the  recent  act  of  New  York,  giving  a 
trial  by  jury  to  all  persons  claimed  as  fugitive  slaves,  was  repealed. 
The  Governor  was  sustained  by  his  own  party,  though  the  opposition 
—  the  Democrats — in  the  Legislature,  passed  resolutions  upholding 
the  pretence  of  Virginia  to  make  the  laws  of  New  York  subordinate 
to  her  own. 

A  similar  controversy  arose  between  New  York  and  Georgia,  about 
the  same  time,  with  a  like  result,  in  which  the  Governor  NewYork 
of  the  latter  State,  profiting  by  the  experience  of  Virginia,  aDdGeorK'» 
hoped  to  succeed  in  his  purpose  by  stratagem.  He  demanded  the 
return  of  a  colored  sailor  on  board  a  New  York  vessel,  on  a  charge 
of  stealing,  first,  a  quantity  of  wearing  apparel,  and  second,  a  slave. 
Governor  Seward  chose  to  go  behind  the  indictments  ;  according  to 
natural  law,  no  crime  had  been  committed  in  aiding  a  slave  to  escape 
from  bondage,  and  there  was,  therefore,  no  criminal  to  return  ;  and 
the  knavish  cunning  of  the  Georgians  he  refused  to  be  taken  in  by, 
as  the  clothes  the  man  was  charged  with  stealing  were  the  clothes 
worn  by  the  slave  who  had  attempted  to  escape.  Georgia  was  also 
unfortunate  about  the  same  time,  in  a  controversy  with  Maine,  where 
a  like  demand  for  the  rendition  of  an  alleged  fugitive  from  justice 
was  made  and  peremptorily  refused.  It  was  the  old  question,  — 
always  recognized  and  inculcated  as  the  fundamental  principle  of 
state-craft  at  the  South  —  of  the  subordination  of  the  Union,  and  the 
free  States,  to  the  law  of  slavery. 

That  the  North  was  learning  a  new  lesson,  and  learning  it  rapidly, 
is  plain  to  see  when  it  is  remembered  that  only  four  years  before 
Mr.  Seward  declared  that  New  York  did  not  recognize  property  in 
man,  a  "joint  committee  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 

1111-11  i  •     i  <•       i  ii  •        Attitude  of 

had  declared  that  "•  the  right  of  the  master  to  the  slave  is  Massachu- 
as  undoubted  as  the  right  to  any  other  property,"  and  that 
"  any  attempt,  whether  direct  or  indirect,  to  deprive  the  slaveholder 
of  this  property,  as  of  any  other,  is  a  violation  of  the  fixed  laws  of 
social  policy,  as  well  as  of  the  ordinary  rules  of  moral  obligation." 
This  report,  signed  by  George  Lunt  as  chairman  of  the  committee, 
was  in  response  to  the  message  of  Governor  Everett,  in  which  he 
commended  to  the  consideration  of  the  Legislature  the  demands  of 
five  of  the  slaveholding  States,  that  the  discussion  of  slavery  should 
be  made  a  penal  offence.  The  rebuke  of  this  pro-slavery  fanaticism, 
however,  was  not  long  delayed  in  Massachusetts.  Only  two  years 


342  SLAVERY   AND   ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

later  another  joint  committee  of  the  Legislature  —  in  a  report  de- 
claring that  Congress  had  the  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  Federal 
domain,  to  interdict  the  domestic  slave-trade,  and  to  refuse  admission 
to  the  Union  of  any  new  slave  State,  —  said,  "  There  is  little  differ- 
ence of  opinion  in  this  Commonwealth  as  to  the  moral,  social,  and 
political  character  of  domestic  slavery.  It  is  regarded  by  all,  or  nearly 
all,  as  a  wrong  in  itself,  and  an  evil  in  all  its  relations  and  influences. 
....  The  wrong  is  the  greatest  which  man  can  inflict  upon  his 
fellow,  and  the  evil  deep,  certain,  and  aggravated."  The  chairman 
of  this  committee  was  James  C.  Alvord,  and  the  report  one  of  the 
firebrands  which  Adams  shook  in  the  face  of  Congress  from  session 
to  session,  till  the  slaveholders  were  ready  to  tear  him  limb  from 
limb.  Marshall,  a  member  from  Kentucky,  acknowledged  in  open 
debate  that  the  venerable  ex-president  would  probably  be  lynched 
should  he  venture  into  that  State,  and  threats  of  assassination  were 
sent  him  almost  daily  by  mail  from  the  South. 

The  position  taken  by  the  governors  of  New  York  and  Maine,  in 

answer  to  the  demands  of  slave  States,  was  only  one  of  the 
dareques-  indications  of  the  rapid  growth  of  anti-slavery  opinion  at  the 

North.  Events  were  leading  to  nice  distinctions.  If,  for 
example,  to  aid  a  man  to  escape  from  slavery  was  not  recognized  as  a 
crime  in  Northern  jurisprudence,  how  happened  it  that  the  escaping 
man  must  be  returned  to  bondage  ?  Hitherto  there  was  no  question 
anywhere,  except  perhaps  among  a  few  Philadelphia  Quakers,  as  to 
the  return  of  fugitive  slaves  ;  but  the  doctrine  spread,  that  if  there 
were  a  bond  for  a  pound  of  flesh,  no  drop  of  blood  must  be  spilled  in 
tearing  it  from  the  living  tissue.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  number 
of  slaves  attempting  to  escape  was  increased ;  but  those  who  did  now 
found  a  multitude  of  friends  ready  to  invoke  the  law,  so  far  as  it  was 
possible,  in  defence  of  liberty,  and  where  that  could  not  be  done, 
there  were  many  more  who  were  swift  to  obey  what  they  believed  to 
be  a  law  higher  than  that  of  the  Constitution.  Thousands  of  fugi- 
tives passed  stealthily  through  the  free  States,  aided  from  point  to 
point,  to  a  safe  refuge  in  Canada;  others  stopped  on  the  way  in 
Northern  cities,  but  always  ready  for  further  and  instant  flight  if  the 
word  of  warning  came,  that  the  chase  was  on  their  tracks.  Every  case 
that  came  before  the  courts  aroused  profound  interest,  and  set  men  to 
thinking  upon  the  character  of  slavery,  and  the  nature  of  funda- 
mental law.  In  every  arrest  that  was  made  public,  where  no  oppor- 
tunity was  given,  or  none  existed,  for  an  appeal  to  judicial  decisions, 
the  appeal  to  pity  for  the  unfortunate  fugitives  was  irresistible  with 
the  thoughtful  and  humane.  What  right  has  one  man  to  hold  another 
in  bondage  ?  How  far  shall  the  municipal  law  of  the  slave  States  be 


1839.] 


FUGITIVE   SLAVE   QUESTION. 


343 


permitted  to  override  all  law  in  the  free  States,  where  tlie  end  of 
government  is  the  protection  of  the  citizen  in  his  right  to  life,  to 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness?  As  every  incident  in  the 
debates  of  Congress  and  of  State  legislatures,  in  the  courts,  in  the 
action  of  Northern  governors,  in  the  attitude  of  religious  organiza- 
tions, in  the  persecution  of  individuals,  and  in  the  thousand  attempts 
of  the  mob  to  suppress  free  speech,  aroused  reflection  and  intensified 
the  struggle,  so  it  was  because  the  question  of  slavery  had  come  be- 
fore the  people  in  a  new  aspect,  and  was  seen  with  anointed  eyes. 

Where  did  a  man's  right  to  himself  begin,  and  where  did  it  end? 
In  1839  the  United  States  brig  Washington,  Captain  Gedney,  over- 
hauled, near  the  coast,  and 
brought  into  New  London,  a 
Spanish  vessel,  the  Amistad, 
having  on  board  a  number  of 
Africans,  who  had  been  kid- 
napped in  their  own  country, 
and  sold  as  slaves  in  Cuba. 
On  their  way  to  another  Span- 
ish island  in  the  West  Indies, 
they  captured  the  vessel,  under 
the  leadership  of  one  Cinque, 
killed  the  captain  and  cook  in 
fair  fight,  and  put  the  rest  of 
the  crew  and  the  white  passen- 
gers, among  them  their  pre- 
tended owners,  in  confinement. 
Knowing  nothing  of  naviga- 
tion, they  ordered  one  of  the 
Spaniards  to  steer  the  vessel 
for  Africa.  He  obeyed  in  the  daytime,  when  his  captors  could  tell 
by  the  sun  which  way  the  vessel  was  heading,  but  at  night  TheAmistlul 
he  reversed  her  course,  till  he  brought  her  upon  the  Amer-  ease- 
ican  coast.  These  men,  born  free,  reduced  to  bondage  contrary  to 
the  law  of  nature  and  of  nations,  were  thrust  into  jail  to  await  a 
trial,  on  the  assumption  that  they  were  slaves  and  pirates.  From 
the  State  courts  the  case  was  taken  up  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  where  the  final  decision  was.  that  the  prisoners  had 
been  kidnapped  in  Africa  and  carried  unlawfully  to  Cuba  ;  that  their 
present  pretended  owners  had  purchased  them  knowing  these  facts ; 
that  as  they  were  not  slaves  they  could  not  be  pirates  in  taking  the 
measures  they  did  to  regain  their  freedom  .  and  that,  therefore,  they 
should  be  discharged.  In  the  contest  for  justice  to  these  helpless 


Cinque. 


344  SLAVERY   AND   ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

strangers,  their  friends  were  compelled  to  fight  every  step  of  the  way 
against  the  influence  of  President  Van  Buren's  Secretary  of  State, 
John  Forsyth,  of  Georgia,  and  the  Attorney-general,  Felix  Grundy, 
of  Tennessee,  who  were  anxious  that  these  men,  who,  had  they  been 
white,  would  have  been  welcomed  as  heroes,  should  either  be  surren- 
dered as  slaves,  or  sent  back  to  Cuba  to  the  merciless  disposition  of 
Spanish  law. 

The  fate  that  might  befall  these  native  Africans  had  no  relation  to 
American  slavery,  except  as  it  touched  the  abstract  question  of  prop- 
erty in  man.  But  this  was  enough,  for  the  slaveholders  never  forgot, 
and  the  North  was  beginning  to  learn,  that  on  this  question  hinged 
the  whole  controversy.  But  in  1841  there  happened  a  similar  occur- 
rence that  came  closer  home.  An  American  slaver,  the  Creole, 
sailed  from  Richmond  with  a  cargo  of  one  hundred  and 

The  Creole 

thirty-five  slaves,  gathered,  not  from  the  wilds  of  Africa,  but 
the  slave  huts  and  kitchens  of   the  Virginia  and   Maryland  planta- 
tions.    Among  them  was  one  whose  very  name  was  revolutionary  — 
Madison  Washington.     This  man  knew  something  of  liberty,  for  he 
had  been  a  fugitive  in  Canada,  and  had  gone  back  thence  to  Virginia 
to  release  his  wife  from  bondage;  but  he  had  been  retaken  and  sold, 
as  was  usually  done  with  those  whose  intelligent  discontent  marked 
them  as  dangerous,  for  the  depleting  discipline  and  the  safer  distance 
from  Mason  and  Dixon's   Line,  of  a  southwest  plantation.     Early  in 
November,  when  the  Creole  was  near  the  Bahamas,  the  black  Wash- 
ington, putting  himself  at  the  head  of  nineteen  of  his  fellows,  whose 
arms  altogether  were  only  four  knives,  attacked  the  crew,  and  after  a 
struggle,  in  which  one  white,  a  slave-trader,  was  killed,  and  the  cap- 
tain and  some  others  wounded,  the  blacks  obtained  possession  of  the 
vessel.     They  compelled  the  captain  to  take  her  into  Nassau,  New 
Providence,  where  those  not  immediately  engaged  in  the  revolt  were 
declared   to   be   free.     Washington    and   his    eighteen   companions, 
who,  the  captain   of  the  Creole  demanded,  should  be  surrendered  to 
him  to  be  taken  to  the  United  States  for  trial  for  mutiny  and  mur- 
der, were  detained  ostensibly  to  be  tried  in  the  English  courts.     The 
whole  cargo  was  a  loss  to  the  slaveholders  ;  but  there  were  thousands 
of  people  at  the  North  who  persisted  in  considering  it  not  in  the  light 
of  a  loss  of  property,  but  as  a  restoration  to  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
five    human  beings  of   the  liberty  of  which  they  had  been  robbed 
since  their  birth.     Calhoun,  Clay,  and  other  Southern  senators  de- 
nounced the  English  Government  for  stretching  its  protecting  arm 
over  acts  which  they  looked  upon  as  piracy  and  murder,  and  for  refus- 
ing to  permit  the  United  States  to  extend  its  slaveholding  law  into 
its  dominion.     Not  a  voice  in  the  Senate  was  raised  to  defend  the 


1841.]  CASE    OF   THE   CREOLE.  345 

inalienable  rights  which  Madison  Washington  and  his  companions 
had  asserted  for  themselves.  Daniel  Webster,  the  Secretary  of  State 
of  the  acting  President,  Vice-president  Tyler,  wrote  instructions  to 
Edward  Everett,  then  Minister  to  England,  which  satisfied  even 
Calhoun.  In  the  House  of  Representatives  a  scene  of  characteristic 
violence  ensued  when  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  offered  a  series  of 
resolutions,  the  essential  point  of  which  was,  that  every  man  has  a 
natural  right  to  himself,  and  that  the  slaveholding  laws  of  the  South- 
ern States,  however  potent  they  might  be  at  home,  whatever  sanction 
they  might  receive  from  the  Federal  Constitution,  were  void  beyond 
their  boundaries.  A  vote  of  censure  was  immediately  passed  by  an 
overwhelming  majority,  and  the  bold  member  who  thus  challenged 
the  legitimacy  of  slavei-y,  as  instantly  resigned  his  seat,  and  Keiljgnatjon 
before  the  sun  set  was  on  his  way  to  Ohio  to  appeal  to  his  ' 
constituents.  "  I  hope  we  shall  soon  see  yon  back  again,"  said  Adams 
with  emotion,  as  Giddings  took  leave  of  him.  The  wish  Avas  ful- 
filled; the  interval  was  long  enough  only  for  a  new  election,  when  he 
was  back  with  an  increased  majority  of  thousands.  The  doctrine  ad- 
vanced by  Calhoun  was  not  new,  but  partly  because  of  the  peculiar 
character  of  the  case  of  the  Creole,  partly  because  of  the  agitation  of 
the  public  mind,  it  had  never  before  attracted  attention  so  serious. 
Within  the  ten  previous  years  three  American  vessels  engaged  in  the 
coastwise  slave-trade  had  been  wrecked  at  different  times  in  the  West 
India  Islands,  or  driven  into  port  by  stress  of  weather.  So  long  as 
slavery  existed  in  her  colonies,  England  consented  to  make  compensa- 
tion for  the  American  slaves  who  were  thus  liberated  ;  but  after  that 
event  she  declined  any  such  concession  —  would  hardly  acknowledge 
that  the  principle  involved  was  worthy  of  discussion. 

Almost  at  the  very  moment  that  Congress  was  so  hotly  debating 
the  nature  of  slaveholding  law,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  ^p  p,.; 
United  States  was  pronouncing  what  that  law  was,  so  far  case- 
as  it  governed  the  right  of  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves.  More 
than  once  in  former  years  attempts  had  been  made  to  induce  Con- 
gress to  put  an  end  to  the  kidnapping  of  free  negroes  along  the 
border  between  the  free  and  slave  States ;  but  it  had  hardly  been 
possible  to  arouse  attention  enough  to  the  subject  to  listen  to  a  mo- 
tion. In  1826  Pennsylvania,  after  conferring  with  Maryland,  passed 
an  act  intended  to  prevent  and  punish  kidnapping  while,  at  the  same 
time,  it  enforced  the  returning  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  prescribed  the 
method  of  seizure.  In  1839  one  Edward  Prigg  went  into  Pennsylva- 
nia, and,  in  disregard  of  the  Act  of  1826,  carried  out  of  the  State  a 
colored  woman,  Margaret  Morgan,  and  her  children,  to  restore  them 
to  a  former  mistress,  Margaret  Ashmore,  in  Maryland,  from  whom 


346  SLAVERY   AND  ANTI-SLAVERY.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

the  woman  and  her  children — except  one  born  in  Pennsylvania  — 
had  escaped  some  years  before.  Prigg  was  brought  to  trial  and  found 
guilty  of  kidnapping,  not,  however,  because  he  had  taken  fugitive 
slaves,  but  because  he  had  taken  them  without  regarding  the  method 
prescribed  by  the  law  of  the  State.  The  case  was  carried  to  the 
Supreme  Court  by  agreement  between  the  States  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Maryland,  and  its  decision  excited  universal  discussion,  and  quite 
as  universal  surprise  and  resentment.  Many  learned,  for  the  first 
time,  what  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution  really  meant,  though 
few,  probably,  saw  foreshadowed  in  this  decision  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Act  of  1850,  and  the  decision  of  the  same  court  in  the  Dred  Scott 
case  in  1856. 

The  court  declared  that  to  secure  to  the  slaveholders  the  complete 
Decision  of  right  and  title  of  ownership  in  their  slaves,  as  property,  in 
the  court.  everv  State  of  the  Union,  to  which  they  might  escape,  was  a 
fundamental  article  of  the  Constitution  without  which  the  Union 
could  not  have  been  formed.  That  this  positive,  unqualified  right,  no 
State  law  could  qualify,  regulate,  control,  or  restrain.  That  the  slave- 
owner could  seize  his  fugitive  slave  wherever  he  found  him,  if  he 
could  do  so  without  a  breach  of  the  peace,  could  seize,  that  is,  one 
claimed  as  a  slave,  without  question  of  his  right  or  title,  in  the  streets 
of  Boston,  as  he  would  unquestioned  in  New  Orleans  or  Charleston. 
Hut  though  the  Constitution  thus  executed  itself,  it  was  the  duty  of 
Congress  to  enforce  this  right  by  special  law,  which  it  had  done  by  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1793  ;  and  as  the  right  to  legislate  upon  the 
subject  belonged  to  that  body  alone,  all  State  legislation  —  whatever 
its  object,  whether  to  protect  its  own  citizens,  to  require  evidence  of 
the  legality  of  the  ownership  of  the  slave,  or  even  to  aid  the  claim- 
ant in  the  recapture  —  was  unconstitutional  and  void.  One  privilege, 
however,  was  left  to  the  free  States  :  they  might  forbid  their  own 
magistrates  to  act,  as  the  law  of  1793  required  them  to  do,  though 
the  magistrates  might  act  unless  they  were  so  forbidden.  Yet  under 
their  general  police  power,  the  States  might  pass  laws  for  the  arrest 
of  fugitive  slaves,  to  remove  them  from  their  borders  or  otherwise 
protect  themselves,  —  a  saving  clause  intended  for  the  protection  of 
those  States  which  presumed  all  colored  persons  to  be  slaves  who 
could  not  prove  they  were  free,  and  sold  them  to  the  highest  bidder 
at  public  sale,  if  no  owner  appeared  to  take  them  away,  which  was 
the  law  in  the  District  of  Columbia  :  and  finally,  the  law  of  Pennsyl- 
vania of  1826  — a  part  of  the  title  and  object  of  which  was,  "  the  pro- 
tection of  free  people  of  color  ;  and  to  prevent  kidnapping  "  —  under 
which  Prigg  was  indicted,  was  pronounced  unconstitutional  and  void. 
Hy  this  decision  the  country  was  taught  that  the  law  of  slavery  was 


1841.]  THE   PRIGG   CASE.  347 

supreme  in  the  free  as  in  the  slave  States;  that  the  right  of  the  slave- 
holder to  his  human  property  could  tolerate,  under  the  Constitution, 
no  interference  even  for  the  sake  of  protecting  the  liberties  of  free- 
men. It  rudely  interrupted  the  controversy  then  going  on  between 
Governor  Seward  and  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  by  deciding  that  the 
law  of  New  York,  giving  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  to  a  fugitive  slave, 
was  unconstitutional.  There  were  differences  of  opinion  among  the 
justices  on  some  points  of  the  decision,  mainly  upon  whether  Congress 
had  so  exclusive  a  control  of  the  subject  as  to  prohibit  any  legislation 
by  the  States.  On  this  point  Chief  Justice  Taney  went  far  beyond 
the  Court,  though  agreeing  with  it  in  the  main  ;  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  free  State,  he  thought,  to  legislate,  not  for  the  protection  of  its 
own  citizens,  or  on  behalf  of  any  unfortunate  person  who  might  be 
unjustly  seized  as  a  fugitive  from  labor,  but  to  aid  the  slaveholder 
everywhere  in  recapturing  the  slave.  In  the  doctrines  here  advanced 
by  him  was  the  germ  of  the  decision  in  the  Dred  Scott  case  ^^  g,.^ 
in  1856,  when  Taney  gave  it  as  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  declslon 
Court,  that  as,  at  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  the  negro  was 
regarded  as  one  who  "had  no  rights  which  the  white  man  is  bound 
to  respect/'  so  he  was  not,  and  never  could  be,  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  —  the  doctrine  which  at  this  moment,  fifteen  years  after  eman- 
cipation, rules  the  thought  and  the  action  of  the  South,  that  this  is 
"  a  white  man's  government." 

So  everywhere  the  anti-slavery  agitation  made  its  way,  and  con- 
vulsed the  nation.  And  nowhere  else  was  that  agitation  so  pro- 
found, or  the  result  more  significant  or  more  permanent,  than  in  the 
Church.  The  Southern  Church,  in  its  defence  of  slavery,  The  Church 
was  driven  to  maintain  its  divine  character ;  at  the  North  and  8laTe|7- 
the  world  and  the  Church  were  agreed  that  the  cost  of  meddling 
with  the  subject  —  of  measuring  Southern  conduct  and  Northern  re- 
sponsibility by  the  New  Testament  and  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence —  would  be  too  great.  The  chief  religious  organizations  by 
their  acts  and  by  their  words  gave  the  support  of  their  enormous  in- 
fluence and  power  to  slavery,  till  one  after  another  they  divided  into 
New  and  Old,  into  the  Church  North  and  the  Church  South ;  for  the 
earnest  anti-slavery  minority  strove,  year  after  year,  to  bring  them  to 
deal  with  man-owning  and  man-selling,  which  they  all  condemned  in 
the  abstract,  as  they  dealt  with  other  sins.  No  newspapers  were  so 
bitter  in  their  hostility  to  the  anti-slavery  movement  as  the  religious 
journals  which  represented  the  old  organizations  ;  no  one  class  of  the 
community  reflected  so  faithfully  and  so  zealously  that  hostility  as 
tlieir  clergymen ;  keen  as  the  eyes  of  the  world  were  to  detect  the 
colored  intruder  in  any  place  of  public  resort,  they  were  not  so  keen 


348 


SLAVERY    AND   ANTI-SLAVERY. 


[CHA1-.    XIII. 


as  the  eyes  of  the  Church  in  discovering  any  trace  of  African  blood 
in  one  who  should  kneel  in  prayer  anywhere  but  in  the  negro-pew, 
or  ask  for  admission  to  the  Lord's  Table.  The  natural  and  inevita- 
ble result  was  that  in  the  end,  while  the  Church  could  only  hinder 
and  delay  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  multitudes  of  their  own 
members  were  emancipated  from  ecclesiastical  domination.  It  was 
no  less  an  insult  to  the  common  sense  than  to  the  religious  convic- 
tions of  many  serious  Christians,  that  the  General  Assembly  of  the 

Old  School  Presby- 
terians should  reject 
a  resolution  calling 
upon  them  "  to  pu- 
rify the  Church  of 
this  great  iniquity  " 
by  treating  it  as 
they  treated  "  all 
other  sins  of  great 
magnitude."  For 
while  declaring 
that  they  did  "not 
think  it  for  the  ed- 
ification  of  the 
Church  for  this 
body  to  take  any 
action  on  the  sub- 
ject," the  same 
meeting  declared 
"promiscuous 
dancing "  to  be  so 
"  entirely  unscrip- 
tural,"  and  "so 
wholly  inconsistent  with  the 
spirit  of  Christ,"  and  with  "  pro- 
priety of  Christian  deportment  and 

The   Negro- Pew.     [An   Actual  V.ew.]  purity   ()f    heart,"    aS  to  Call   for  tll6    6X- 

ercise  of  Church  discipline.  They  did  not  choose  to  remember  that 
in  the  Southern  churches,  which  they  "fellowshipped,"  there  was  no 
rebuke  for  that  promiscuous  relation  between  the  men  and  women 
of  three  millions  of  people  which  had  taken  the  place  of  legal  and 
Marriage  Christian  marriage.  In  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  it  had 
among"  been  considered  for  the  edification  of  Baptist  associations  to 
slaves.  declare  that  where  husband  and  wife  were  separated  by 
sale,  for  the  pecuniary  benefit  of  the  master,  either  might  take  a 


1841.]  THE    QUESTION   IN   THE  CHURCHES.  349 

new  husband  or  a,  new  wife.  It  was  difficult  to  evade  the  question,  if 
these  people  were  men  and  women,  and  not  brutes  to  be  held  as  prop- 
erty, whether  their  pretended  owners  were  to  be  recognized  as  unof- 
fending Christians  by  churches  which  maintained  the  right  of  disci- 
pline over  their  members.  It  was  a  question  which  shook  the  Church 
to  its  foundations  and  could  not  be  stilled.  As  the  gradual  encroach- 
ments of  the  slaveholding  dynasty  proved  how  grievously  the  second 
and  third  generations  had  departed  from  the  political  faith  of  the 
founders  of  the  Republic,  so  the  anti-slavery  agitation  in  the  churches 
showed  that  they  had  fallen  away  even  more  lamentably  from  the 
testimonies  and  the  discipline  of  earlier  days.  From  the  sowing  of 
such  seed,  the  red  harvest  was  ripening. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


PROGRESS   OF   SOUTHERN   RULE. 


THE  SECOND  SEMINOLE  WAR  —  REMOVAL  OF  THE  CHEROKEES  —  COST  OF  A  SLAVE- 
HUNT.  —  TROUBLE  ON  THE  CANADIAN  FRONTIER.  —  BURNING  OF  THE  CAROLINE.  — 
TRIAL  OF  McLEOD.  —  THE  LOG-CABIN  CAMPAIGN  OF  1840.  —  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT 
HARRISON.  —  SUCCESSION  OF  VICE-PRESIDENT  TYLER.  —  HE  BREAKS  WITH  THE 
WHIGS.  —  His  SOUTHERN  POLICY.  —  THE  ASHBURTON  TREATY.  —  EASTERN  AND 
NORTHWESTERN  BOUNDARIES.  —  THE  DORR  WAR  OF  RHODE  ISLAND.  —  THE  AN- 
NEXATION OF  TEXAS.  —  THE  MANNER  AND  PURPOSE  OF  IT.  —  ELECTION  OF  JAMES 
K.  POLK.  —  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  —  ITS  RESULTS.  —  ANNEXATION  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


sem- 


THE  second  Seminole  War,  though  begun  under  the  administration 
°^  Jackson,  dragged  slowly  through  all  the  years  of  that  of 
yan  guren?  an(j  was  no^  indeed,  quite  finished  till  the  sum- 
mer of  1842.  It  was  a  war,  like  all  other  Indian  wars,  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  lands  of  the  natives;  but  it  arose  primarily  —  like  the 
former  war  with  the  Seminoles  —  from  a  wish  to  reduce  to  slavery  the 
maroons  of  Florida,  and  the  determination  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia  not  to  have  so  near  their  borders  an  asylum  for  fugitive  slaves. 
It  was  not  because  the  Seminoles  were  not  sufficiently  peaceable  when 
unmolested,  that  their  removal  to  a  reservation  beyond  the  Missis- 
sippi was  demanded  ;  the  chief  reason  for  hostility  against  them  was, 
that  they  would  not  give  up  to  slavery  the  blacks  who  by  long  asso- 
ciation and  intermarriage  had  become  identified  with  their  tribe,  and 
who  in  the  swamps  and  Everglades  led  a  free  and  happy,  if  a  savage 
life.  So  long  as  this  state  of  things  continued,  Florida  was  not  practi- 
cally slave  territory,  and  to  make  slave  territory  was  the  object  of  the 
purchase  from  Spain. 

A  treaty  had  been  signed  at  Camp  Moultrie,  a  few  miles  south  of 
St.  Augustine,  in  1823,  by  which  the  Indians  were  confined  to  a  res- 
ervation on  the  eastern  peninsula;  but  this  did  not  cure  the  difficulty, 
and  the  territorial  Legislature  petitioned  Congress  for  their 
removal.  By  the  Treaty  of  Payne's  Lauding,  negotiated  in 
May,  1832,  it  was  stipulated  that  seven  chiefs  of  the  Semi- 
noles should  examine  the  country  assigned  to  the  Creeks,  west  of  the 


's° 


1832.] 


THE    SEMIXOLES. 


351 


Mississippi,  and  if  they  found  it  satisfactory,  and  that  the  two  tribes 
could  live  together  amicably,  the  Seminoles  were  to  be  removed  thither 
within  three  years  ;  surrendering  all  their  lands  in  Florida,  and  receiv- 
ing fifteen  thousand  dollars  and  an  annuity,  besides  certain  supplies. 
It  was  also  stipulated  that  the  demands  for  "slaves  and  other  prop- 
erty" stolen  or  destroyed  by  the  Seminoles  should  be  investigated, 
and,  if  proved  just, 
be  liquidated  by  the 
United  States  to  the 
amount  of  seven 
thousand  dollars. 
President  Jackson, 
determined  that  the 
Seminoles  should  re- 
move at  all  hazards, 
sent  a  special  com- 
mission to  the  West, 
to  convince  the  seven 
chiefs  that  the  coun- 
try was  eminently 
desirable,  and  a  sup- 
plementary treaty 
was  obtained  from 
those  seven,  who 
signed  it  without  con- 
sulting the  rest  of  the 
tribe. 

A  portion  of  the 
Seminoles  were  un- 
alterably opposed  to 
removing,  as  thev 

•/ 

feared  to  come  under 
the  domination  of 
the  Creeks,  from 
whom  they  had  se- 
ceded eighty  years  before.  Among  the  leaders  of  this  party  was  a 
young  chief  named  Osceola,  son  of  a  half-breed  woman  and  Oscoola  and 
an  Englishman.  His  wife,  the  daughter  of  a  slave,  had  his  p^rt>~ 
been  treacherously  seized  and  carried  off,  to  be  surrendered  to  her 
mother's  master.  At  a  council,  Osceola  drew  his  knife  and  drove 
it  into  the  table,  saying,  "  The  only  treaty  I  will  execute  is  with 
this!"  The  exact  point  of  the  controversy  turned  upon  the  interpre- 
tation of  a  pronoun  in  the  Treaty  of  Payne's  Landing.  The  pream- 


Osceola  at  the  Council. 


-s  mas- 


352  PROGRESS  OF   SOUTHERN  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

ble,  after  providing  for  the  mission  of  the  seven  chiefs,  stipulated  that, 
''should  they  be  satisfied  with  the  character  of  the  country,"  etc.,  the 
removal  was  to  take  place.  President  Jackson  held  that  "  they"  re- 
ferred only  to  the  seven  deputies;  Osceola  and  his  party  held  that  it 
referred  to  the  opinion  of  the  whole  tribe  after  they  should  hear  the 
report  of  the  deputation.  Osceola's  party  swore  to  punish  with  in- 
stant death  any  Indian  who  should  prepare  for  removal,  and  the  thi'eat 
was  executed  upon  one  of  the  chiefs. 

Hostilities  broke  out  in  1835,  and  under  Osceola's  leadership  the 
Seminolcs  were  aggressive,  vigilant,  and  merciless.  In  De- 
cember, Major  Francis  L.  Dade,  with  about  a  hundred  and 
forty  men,  set  out  from  Tampa  Bay  on  an  expedition  against  the  hos- 
tile Indians.  When  they  reached  the  Big  Withlacoochee,  they  were 
fired  upon  by  an  unseen  foe,  and  Dade  and  nearly  half  of  his  men 
fell  at  the  first  volley.  The  remainder  took  shelter  behind  trees,  and 
the  skilful  service  of  a  six-pounder  with  grape  and  canister  drove  off 
the  Indians,  who  had  been  hidden  in  the  tall  grass.  The  survivors 
of  Dade's  command  immediately  erected  a  small  breast-work  of  logs; 
but  in  less  than  an  hour  the  savages  returned  in  immense  numbers, 
and  fired  steadily  upon  the  little  band  from  every  direction,  till  all 
were  shot  down.  After  they  had  gone  with  the  arms  and  accoutre- 
ments, a  band  of  negroes  came  up  and  butchered  the  wounded,  except 
two  who  escaped.  Three  days  later,  General  Clinch  defeated,  on  the 
Withlacoochee,  a  band  of  Seminoles  under  Osceola. 

The  Territory  was  now  in  a  general  state  of  alarm.  The  settle- 
ments in  the  interior  were  broken  up,  and  the  white  inhabitants 
General  flocked  to  the  larger  towns  and  forts.  General  Gaines  with 
Games.  seven  hundred  men  sailed  from  New  Orleans  in  February, 
1835,  landed  at  Fort  Brooke  on  Tampa  Bay,  and  attempted  a  march 
across  the  country.  But  as  he  was  without  sufficient  provisions,  and 
had  no  knowledge  of  the  ground,  he  was  soon  compelled  to  turn 
back,  and  was  attacked  at  a  point  on  the  Withlacoochee  where  he 
had  expected  to  find  a  ferry.  While  he  constructed  rafts,  he  was 
held  in  close  siege  by  the  Indians,  and  would  perhaps  have  been  de- 
feated, had  not  Clinch  finally  corne  to  his  assistance.  General  Scott, 
who  resented  Gaines's  movement  as  "  interloping,"  then  assumed 
command  in  Florida.  The  Indians  improved  every  opportunity  to 
murder  express  riders  and  isolated  families  and  to  cut  off  wagon- 
trains,1  and  attacked  in  force  the  post  at  Micanopy,  but  were  driven 
off.  The  summer  of  1836  was  exceedingly  sickly,  and  the  forces  at 
all  the  posts  were  depleted  by  disease.  Fort  King  and  Fort  Drane 

1  It  was  said  that  these  outrages  were  often  the  work  of  white  men  in  disguise,  and  in 
t'.vo  cases  this  was  proved  to  be  the  fact. 


1835.] 


THE   SECOND  SEMINOLE    WAR. 


353 


had  to  be  abandoned,  and  later  in  the  summer  Micanopy,  —  which 
gave  up  a  large  tract  of  country  to  the  Indians.  In  an  action  near 
Newnansville,  the  Indians  were  defeated,  and  in  the  autumn  a  force 
under  General  Call  routed  them  on  the  Withlacoochee,  but  failed  to 
drive  them  from  the  Wahoo  Swamp. 

Once  more  a   change   of   commanders   was  tried,   when  General 
Thomas    S.    Jesup   superseded    Call,    witli  eight    thousand  G(.neral 
men,  and  entered  upon  a  winter  campaign.     The  Indians  Jesup 
were  forced  from  their  positions  on  the  Withlacoochee,  and  pursued 
toward  the  Everglades,  till  in  February,  1837,  they  sued  for  peace. 
Nevertheless,      five 
days  afterward  they 
made  a  determined 
though  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  take  Fort 
Mellon.    In  March, 
at  Fort  Dade,  five  of 
the  chiefs  signed  an 
agreement  to  cease 
from  war,  and  await 
the  decision  of  the 
Government   as   to 
whether  they  might 
remain  in   Florida. 
General  Jesup  hav- 
ing  vainly    urged 
that   such    permis- 
sion be  given,  about 
seven    hundred    In- 
dians and  negroes  were  secured  before  the  decision  was  announced  to 
them,  and  sent  off  to  Tampa  for  shipment.     Osceola  and  a  few  others 
were  sent  to  Charleston  as  prisoners,   where  Osceola  soon  died  of 
grief.     In   May,  1837,   General  Zachary  Taylor  succeeded  General 
Jesup.     The  remaining  Indians  and  maroons  were  now  so  Ta>lor- 
wary,  and  scattered  themselves  so  widely  in  the  swamps  and  woods, 
that  it  was   exceedingly  difficult  to  follow  them  with  an  organized 
force.      Jesup  had  taken  measures  to  procure  bloodhounds  Useofbiood- 
from  Cuba,  to  track  the  refugees ;  perhaps  because  a  dog  hounds- 
of  more  sagacity  was  needed  than  the   common  hound  trained  for 
negro-hunts  on  the  Southern  plantations.    Taylor  and  the  Administra- 
tion approved  the  plan,  and  thirty-three  hounds,  with  five  Spaniards 
to  manage  them,  were  imported  from  Cuba,  at  an  expense  of  several 

VOL.  iv.  23 


A  Cuban   Bloodhound 


354 


PROGRESS   OF  SOUTHERN   RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


General 
Worth. 


thousand  dollars.1    But  the  dogs,  trained  only  to  track  negroes,  would 
not  take  the  scent  of  an  Indian,  and  proved  useless. 

Taylor's  plans  were  disarranged  by  the  President,  who  sent  Gen- 
eral McComb  to  make  peace  with  the  Indians,  and  though  Taylor 
had  defeated  them  at  Okechobee  on  Christmas  day,  1837,  he  too 
was  obliged  to  retire  from  the  command,  which  then  devolved  upon 
General  VV.  R.  Armistead.  During  all  this  time,  robbery  and  massa- 
cre had  been  going  on,  and  as  fast  as  small  parties  of  Seminoles  and 
negroes  were  captured  they  were  sent  to  the  reservation  beyond  the 
Mississippi  —  all  save  those  whom  any  individual  slaveholder  chose  to 
claim  as  his  property.  One  more  change  of  commanders  was  resorted 
to,  when  General  William  J.  Worth,  a  man  of  more  ability  and  more 
discretion  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  in  the  spring  of  1841  suc- 
ceeded Armistead.  In  a  summer  campaign,  Worth's  troops, 
in  small  parties,  ascended  the  rivers  and  penetrated  the 
swamps  to  the  islands,  where  they  destroyed  not  only  the  shelters  of 

the  enemy  but  many  of  the  crops 
on  which  they  must  depend  for 
the  next  winter.  Worth  then 
made  use  of  a  chief  who  had 
been  brought  to  Tampa  in  irons, 
to  secure  a  peace.  Assuring 
him  that  he  (Coacoochee)  was 
a  powerful  chief,  and  could  bring 
the  war  to  a  close,  Worth  bade 
him  name  five  of  his  fellow  cap- 
tives and  set  a  time  which  should 
be  long  enough  for  them  to  reach 
the  tribe,  and  tell  them  that  un- 
less they  appeared  at  Tampa  and 
gave  themselves  up  within  that 
time,  Coacoochee  and  his  fellow  prisoners  would  be  promptly  hanged. 
In  a  few  days  they  surrendered  themselves,  and  from  this  beginning 
General  Worth  soon  received  the  surrender  of  all  the  bauds,  and  sent 
them  to  the  West. 

The  war  was  ended  at   last,  and   it  only  remained  to  count  the 

gains,  and  the  cost.     Somewhat  over  five  hundred  persons 

an.?  the'       had  been  reduced  from   freedom  to  bondage,  and  Florida 

was  no  longer  an  asylum  for  fugitive  slaves.     That  was  the 

1  "  I  wish  it  distinctly  understood,"  wrote  the  General  to  the  Department,  "  that  my 
ol>jcct  in  employing  dogs  is  only  to  ascertain  where  the  Indians  can  be  found,  not  to  worry 
them."  And  the  Secretary  of  War,  Hon.  Joel  It.  Poinsett,  of  South  Carolina,  who  had 
authorized  the  purchase  of  the  hounds,  outdid  Taylor  in  his  humane  notions,  directing  that 
the  dogs  be  "  mu/.zled  and  held  in  leash  while  following  the  enemy." 


William  J     Worth. 


1837.]  TROUBLE   ON  THE  CANADIAN  FRONTIER.  355 

gain.  The  cost  had  been  about  forty  million  dollars  —  twice  as  much 
as  was  paid  for  the  territories  of  Louisiana  and  Florida  together,  — 
and  an  unknown  number  of  lives.  It  was  estimated  that  for  each 
person  reduced  to  slavery,  eighty  thousand  dollars  and  the  lives  of 
three  white  men  had  been  expended. 

But  the  war,  long  and  costly  as  it  was,  as  it  dealt  only  with  Indians 
and  negroes,  seemed,  at  the  moment,  of  less  consequence  than  a  men- 
ace of  hostilities  on  the  northern  border.  A  rebellion  broke  out  in 
Canada  in  1837,  and  so  great  was  the  sympathy  for  the  insurgents 
on  the  American  side,  that  General  Scott  was  sent  with  a  small 
regular  force,  and  with  power  to  call  upon  the  Governors  of  New 
York  and  Michigan  for  volunteers  in  case  of  any  serious 
difficulty.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  to  maintain  the  neutrality 
of  the  United  States,  a  small  American  steamboat,  the  a«araRiver- 
Caroline,  made  regular  trips  across  Niagara  River  to  carry  supplies 
to  a  party  of  five  hundred  insurgents  on  Navy  Island.  Captain. 
Drew  was  sent  from  Chippewa  with  a  considerable  force  on  the  29th 
of  December,  1837,  to  capture  this  vessel.  Not  finding  her  at  Navy 
Island,  Drew  crossed  to  Grand  Island,  which  was  American  territory, 
boarded  her,  and,  in  the  struggle  with  those  on  board,  killed  twelve 
of  them.  The  boat  was  towed  into  the  stream,  set  on  fire,  and  left 
adrift  to  be  carried  down  the  rapids  and  hurled  over  the  falls  of  Ni- 
agara. . 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  at  once  demanded  redress ; 
but  no  definite  and  satisfactory  reply  could  be  obtained  for  three 
years.  But  in  1840,  one  McLeod,  who  boasted  that  he  had  partici- 
pated in  the  affair,  and  had  "  killed  a  damned  Yankee "  with  his 
own  hands,  visited  the  American  side  of  the  river,  where  he  was 
under  indictment  for  murder.  He  was  at  once  arrested,  and  held  for 
trial.  The  British  Government  promptly  came  to  the  rescue  with 
a  demand  for  his  release,  on  the  ground  that  what  he  had  done  was 
an  act  of  war,  performed  under  the  orders  of  his  commanding  officer, 
for  which  he  could  not  be  punished  by  any  civil  tribunal.  The  Pres- 
ident replied  that  no  answer  had  yet  been  received  to  the  question, 
asked  three  years  before  and  many  times  repeated,  whether  the  de- 
struction of  the  Caroline  was  an  authorized  act  of  war ;  and  that,  in 
any  case,  the  Administration  had  no  power  to  prevent  a  State  court 
from  trying  persons  indicted  within  its  jurisdiction.  The  Ministry 
assumed  a  hostile  attitude,  and  threatened  war  in  case  McLeod  were 
not  released.  The  trial  proceeded  after  the  regular  forms,  and  seemed 
likely  to  bring  the  two  countries  into  conflict ;  but  this  calamity  was 
happily  averted  by  a  verdict  of  acquittal  on  the  question  of  fact. 
It  was  proved  that  McLeod  had  been  asleep  in  Chippewa  at  the  time 


356  PROGRESS  OF  SOUTHERN  RULE.     [CHAI-.  XIV. 

of  the  affair,  and  his  story  was  wholly  the  product  of  his  imagination. 
The  natural  excitement  to  which  such  a  trial  and  its  possible  results 
gave  rise  was  intensified  by  the  attitude  either  of  indifference  or 
obstinacy  assumed  by  the  acting  President,  Tyler.  In  spite  of  the 
indignant  remonstrances  of  Governor  Seward,  a  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney  for  New  York  was  permitted  to  act  as  counsel  for 
McLeod,  and  retain  his  office,  presenting  the  remarkable  spectacle  of 
a  law  officer  of  the  Government  attempting  to  prove  that  in  a  case 
which  might  lead  to  war  his  own  Government  was  wrong. 

The  political  revolution  of  1840,  by  which  Mr.  Van  Huron  was 
defeated,  and  General  Harrison  elected,  was,  as  we  now  know,  an 
entire  surprise  to  the  President  himself.  Looking  back  upon 
son  ram-  it,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  dissatisfaction  with  the  mechanical 
administration  of  party  power,  had  as  much  to  do  with  the 
change  as  the  popularity  of  the  new  President,  or  any  measures  to 
which  his  partisans  were  committed.  The  financial  crisis  of  1837  had 
spread  to  every  part  of  the  country.  The  West  at  last  felt  the 
"  pressure,"  as  the  pecuniary  disturbance  was  popularly  called,  as 
much  as  the  financial  centres.  The  attitude  of  the  Government  in 
refusing  any  effort  for  temporary  relief,  irritated  men  who  could  sell 
nothing,  could  buy  nothing,  and  had  debts  to  pay.  Still  the  State 
elections  of  1839,  as  has  been  seen,  had  been  favorable  to  the  Admin- 
istration. They  seemed  to  confirm  Mr.  Van  Buren  in  his  appeal  to  a 
"sober  second  thought,"  which  became  fora  generation  proverbial. 
The  Whig  members  of  Congress  proposed  a  national  convention,  to 
which  should  be  intrusted  a  nomination  for  the  Presidency  —  the  first 
in  the  series  of  such  meetings,  which  in  their  turn  were  to  outgrow 
their  usefulness.  This  convention  was  held  at  Harrisburg  on  the  4th 
of  December,  1839,  fifteen  months  before  the  President  to  be  elected 
could  take  his  chair.  The  firmness  of  the  opposition  appeared  at  once 
in  the  representation.  Every  State  sent  delegates,  except  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas. 

On  the  first  ballot  Mr.  Clay  had  one  hundred  and  three  votes,  Gen- 
eral Harrison  ninety-four,  and  General  Scott  fifty-seven.  On  the 
fifth  ballot  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  votes  were  given  to  Harrison, 
and  he  was  named  as  the  candidate.  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  was 
named  as  the  Vice-president.  It  was  the  custom  afterward  to  speak 
of  him  as  an  accident.  But  at  the  period  of  the  Convention  the 
leaders  of  the  new-formed  party  had  no  such  confidence  of  success 
that  they  could  neglect  support  anywhere.  They  wanted  the  votes 
of  all  who  were  disaffected  toward  Mr.  Van  Buren.  The  State  of 
Virginia  threw  twenty-three  votes  at  that  time.  All  these  had  been 
given  to  Mr.  Clay  in  the  Convention.  It  was  clearly  wise  to  concil- 


1840.J 


THE   LOG-CABTX   CAMPAIGN.  357 


iate  so  strong  a  State,  and  the  nomination   of  Mr.  Tyler  was  due  to 
the  desire  to  do  so. 

The  canvass  which  followed  this  nomination  began  a  new  era  in 
elections.  The  same  changes  in  travel  which  had  made  the  MaM.mect. 
Convention  possible  made  possible  immense  gatherings  of  "lg" 
the  people  at  central  points,  for  what  was  called  the  kk  ratification  *'  of 
the  nomination  of  the  opposition.  Only  too  late  did  the  leaders  of 
the  Administration  party  learn  the  value  of  such  mass-meetings,  as 
they  came  to  be  called.  On  the  4th  of  May  nearly  twenty  thousand 
young  men  gathered  at  Baltimore,  the  largest  assembly  ever  held  in 
the  country.  More  than  one  thousand  came  from  a  State  as  distant 
as  Massachusetts.  The  only  object,  of  course,  was  to  show  the  at- 
tachment of  the  members  to  the  cause  they  upheld ;  they  showed  it 
in  songs,  in  the  applause  of  eager  speeches,  in  fervid  resolutions,  and 
adjourned  to  meet  in  Washington  at  the  inauguration  of  General 
Harrison  on  the  4th  of  March.  At  the  same  time  the  smaller  Con- 
vention, authorized  by  the  Democratic  leaders  to  make  their  nomina- 
tions, met  in  the  same  city.  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  named  as  the 
candidate  for  President  unanimously.  But  for  Vice-president  no 
nomination  was  made,  and  the  determination  was  left  to  the  respec- 
tive States. 

The  popular  canvass  which  followed  was  marked  with  the  same 
differences  as  those  which  characterized  the  two  Conventions.  The 
Whigs  held  everywhere  those  enormous,  jovial  meetings,  and  the 
Administration  party  ridiculed  them  as  unworthv  the  occasion.  The 
parts  played  by  the  Jackson  men  of  1825  and  their  antagonists 
seemed  to  be  wholly  reversed.  In  the  midst  of  the  canvass,  a  phrase 
thrown  out  by  a  Baltimore  journal,1  in  its  ridicule  of  General  Harri- 
son, gave  a  rallying  cry  to  the  opposition  which  was  remembered  for 
a  generation.  The  editor  said  of  Plarrison  that  if  anybody 
would  give  him  a  pension  of  a  few  hundred  dollars  and  a 
barrel  of  hard  cider,  he  would  sit  down  in  his  log  cabin  con-  deriiimb«u- 
tent  for  life.  Some  happy  observer  in  the  West  seized  on  the  un- 
fortunate sneer.  To  ridicule  the  log  cabin,  in  which  every  West- 
ern man  was  born,  ill  became  the  representative  of  the  democracy  of 
Andrew  Jackson.  From  that  moment  the  "  log  cabin  "  became  the 
symbol  of  the  opposition.  Log  cabins  were  set  on  wheels  and  drawn 
in  processions.  Large  log  cabins  were  built  in  the  midst  of  crowded 
cities,  to  be  used  as  rallying  places  for  the  faithful.  Ardent  politi- 
cians wore  log-cabin  buttons  and  handkerchiefs,  and  smoked  log-cabin 
cigars.  Even  laundresses  advertised  that  they  were  able  to  do  up 
shirts  in  the  most  approved  log-cabin  style.  Log-cabin  songs  were 

1  The  Baltimore 


358 


PROGRESS  OF   SOUTHERN  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 


heard  everywhere,  —  often  sung  with  choruses  of  tens  of  thousands, 
—  uniting  in  enthusiasm  for  "  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too.'' 

Between  sucli  popular  excitement  on  the  one  side,  and  the  decorous 
methods  of  the  Administration,  the  prestige  which  Andrew  Jackson 
had  given  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  vanished.  His  only  considerable 
van  Buren -s  strength,  as  it  proved,  was  that  which  he  had  gained  by  his 
potion.  loyalty  to  the  South.  That  loyalty  even  Calhoun  —  for 
years  his  rival  and  political  enemy  —  could  not  doubt ;  for  Van 

Buren,  as  President 
of  the  Senate,  had 
given,  in  1836,  his 
casting  vote  in  favor 
of  Calhoun 's  bill 
making  it  a  penal 
offence  in  postmas- 
ters knowingly  to 
permit  any  anti-sla- 
very matter  to  be 
delivered  from  the 
mails ;  and  he  had 
assured  the  South 
that  he  "  must  go 
into  the  Presidential 
chair  the  inflexible 
and  uncompromising 
opponent  of  any  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of 
Congress  to  abolish 
slavery  in  the  Dis- 
\'  trict  of  Columbia, 

Martin  Van  Buren.  against  the  wishes  of 

the   slaveholding 

States."  And  even  in  this  he  gave  the  benefit  of  a  doubt  to  the 
slaveholders,  for,  as  he  said  in  the  same  letter,  he  was  not  quite  sure 
that  Congress  had  not  complete  power  over  the  subject  in  the  District. 
The  nomination  of  John  Tyler  by  the  Whigs  did  not  give  them  Vir- 
ginia. That  State,  with  South  Carolina  and  Alabama,  voted  for  Van 
Buren.  His  friends  only  carried  Illinois,  Missouri,  and  Arkansas,  in 
the  West,  all  small  States  then,  —  and  the  ever-faithful  New  Hamp- 
shire, in  New  England.  All  the  Middle  States  voted  for  Harrison, 
though  this  was  the  section  to  which  Mr.  Van  Buren  himself  belonged. 
It  was  not  the  first  nor  the  last  instance  in  which  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidency  could  not  gain  the  support  of  the  region  from  which 


1841.] 


ACCESSION   OF   TYLER. 


359 


ands 


in: 


strong 


lie  came.  These  few  States,  loyal  to  the  memory  of  Jackson  and  the 
instructions  of  Calhoun,  could  only  give  the  President  sixty  votes  ; 
the  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  electoral  votes  of  the  other  States 
were  given  to  General  Harrison.  His  majority  of  the  ballots  given 
by  the  people  themselves  was  about  146,000  in  a  vote  of  2,403,000, 
of  all  the  States  but  South  Carolina.  In  that  State  the  Legislature 
threw  the  vote,  and  no  precise  estimate,  therefore,  could  be  made  of 
the  popular  preference. 

On  the  4th  of  April,  after  a  short  illness,  the  President  died,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-seven  years  —  the  first  chief  magistrate  of  the  Harrison's 
United  States  who  had  died  in  office.  In  his  brief  term  he  death 
had  retained  the  Western  openness  of  which  his  friends  had  boasted : 
he  had  permitted  himself  to  be 
overwhelmed  by  visits  of  those 
who  would  congratulate,  would 
advise,  or  would  seek  office,  and, 
fairly  exhausted  by  such  de- 
on  his  good  nature,  the 
constitution  gave  way, 
which  had  not  quailed  in  fron- 
tier life  or  Indian  warfare.  His 
death  brought  into  office,  by  the 
united  vote  of  the  Northern  States, 
a  Virginian,  whose  whole  public 
life  had  committed  him  to  the 
State  Rights  theory,  as  Jeffer- 
son proclaimed  it.  The  next 
four  years  proved  that  Mr.  Tyler 
was  a  person  with  whom  self- 
conceit  led  to  arrogance,  while 
it  blinded  him  to  considerations  of  a  large,  national  policy,  even 
it'  he  were  capable  of  grasping  one.  The  control  of  the  Accewsionof 
Executive  office  by  a  bigot  to  the  Southern  policy,  precipi-  Tyler- 
tated,  as  it  proved,  what  has  since  been  called  the  irrepressible  con- 
flict. At  the  outset,  the  Cabinet,  and  Mr.  Clay,  who  held  quite  as 
large  a  share  as  Mr.  Webster  in  leading  the  party,  tried  to  persuade 
themselves  that  Mr.  Tyler  would  be  true  to  the  power  which  had 
made  him  what  he  was.  He  took  the  oath  prescribed  for  the  Presi- 
dent u  for  greater  caution,"  although  he  considered  that  no  other 
oath  was  necessary  than  that  which,  as  Vice-president,  he  had  already 
taken.  In  an  address  to  the  people,  he  expressed  the  opinion  that 
there  should  be  a  radical  change  in  the  method  of  appointing  the 
agents  entrusted  with  the  custody  of  the  public  moneys.  He  de- 


John  Tyler. 


360  PROGRESS  OF    SOUTHERN   RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

nounced  removal  from  office  for  none  but  political  reason,  but  said 
that  active  partisanship  was  sufficient  reason.  As  to  the  financial 
embarrassment  of  the  country  and  the  relation  to  it  of  the  Adminis- 
tration, he  condemned  the  Sub-treasury  Act  of  Van  Buren,  and  said 
he  should  give  his  sanction  to  any  constitutional  measures  which 
Congress  might  propose  for  the  restoration  of  a  sound  cir- 
culating medium.  The  address  was  received  with  satisfac- 
tion by  the  Whigs,  as  announcing  good  Whig  doctrine.  But  the 
extra  session  of  Congress,  summoned  by  President  Harrison  to  meet 
in  May,  soon  showed  that  the  President  meant  to  have  a  policy  of 
his  own.  In  this  first  message  he  recognized  the  veto  of  the  United 
States  Bank  as  approved  by  the  nation,  —  the  failure  of  the  State 
bank  system  was  obvious,  —  but  as  some  "  fiscal  agent "  was  neces- 
sary, the  selection  of  that  agent  should  be  left  to  the  wisdom  of  Con- 
gress, and  any  constitutional  measure,  he  promised,  should  receive 
his  approval. 

Whether  Mr.  Tyler  then  meant  to  break  with  the  Whig  party  and 
its  leaders,  has  never  been  made  known.  In  truth,  he  was  not- a  man 
of  whose  purposes  or  intentions  much  need  ever  be  said,  so  freely 
was  he  moved  by  impulses,  whether  of  flatterers  or  of  passions.  The 
understanding  that  he  had  doubts  as  to  the  rights  of  Congress  to  es- 
tablish fiscal  institutions  anywhere  within  the  States,  led  to  a  plan 
for  a  central  bank  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  certainty  that 
his  views  were  speculative  or  theoretic  rather  than  such  as  were  de- 
rived from  a  practical  knowledge  of  finance,  and  a  wish  to  apply  it 
in  a  practical  way,  led  Congress  to  the  unusual  course  of  asking  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  submit  a  plan  for  a  fiscal  agent.  Mr. 
Ewing  accordingly  submitted  such  a  plan.  The  details  are  now  of 
no  importance.  The  opposition  in  the  Whig  party  and  out  of  it  was 
strong  enough  to  change  the  project  materially  before  the  President 
received  it  for  his  signature,  and  returned  it  with  his  veto.  He 
objected  especially  to  the  discount  power  of  the  proposed  branches. 
Congress  was  persuaded  by  the  leaders  of  the  Whig  party  to  pass  a 
new  bill  which  did  not  grant  the  privilege  of  discount  banks.  This 
also  was  vetoed  by  the  President  on  the  9th  of  September,  on  the 
ground  that  it  created  "  a  national  bank  to  operate  per  se 
over  the  Union."  With  this  veto  came  a  final  breach  be- 
tween him  and  the  party  that  had  elected  him.  The  Cabinet,  ex- 
cepting Mr.  Webster,  resigned.  They  put  their  resignation  on  the 
ground  that  he  had  not  kept  faith  with  them.  They  were  careful  to 
say  that  he  was  entitled,  of  course,  to  his  opinion  on  the  subject  of 
the  Bank.  But  they  declared  that  he  had  asked  his  Cabinet  to  stand 
by  him  and  procure  the  passage  of  such  a  bill  as  he  now  vetoed. 


1841.]  TYLER  BREAKS   WITH   THE   WHIGS.  361 

They  had  done  so,  and  the  President  had  then  failed  to  keep  his 
promises.  To  these  attacks  no  reply  was  made  ;  perhaps  none  could 
be  made.  From  that  moment  to  his  death,  his  reputation  for  polit- 
ical integrity  was  lost  with  the  country. 

The  consequences  of  this  first  struggle  between  the  President  and 
the  Whig  party  were  of  much  more  importance  and  signifi-  FiDanciai 
cance   than    any  that   attached   to  it   as  a   mere    financial  affairs- 
measure.     The  rapid  increase  of  the  country  in  wealth,  soon  gave  rise 
to  operations  in  exchange  and  other  details  of  finance  so  large  that 
the  business  of  the  Government  was  no  longer  of  special  importance ; 
and  the  simple,  almost  Arcadian,  device  of  the  Sub-treasury  proved 
quite  sufficient  for  the  administrations  of  the  next  twenty  years, 
which  were  always  spending  up  to  the  very  edge   of  their  income. 
Mr.  Tyler's  declaration  of  personal  independence  threw  him  and  the 
country  into  the  arms  of  the  extreme  Southern  interest,  at  a  moment 
when    it  seemed  as  if  that  interest  had   received  its  severest  check. 
Van  Buren  had  played  the  part  of  a  "  Northern  man  with  South- 
ern principles,"  till  he  had  hesitated  to  open  the  door  of  the  Union 
when   the  slaveholders  knocked  for  the   admission   of    Texas.     His 
recompense  was  the  scanty  vote  of  four  Southern  States,  —  while  he 
was  deserted  everywhere  else  but  in  New  Hampshire,  Illinois,   and 
Missouri.     So  stern  a  lesson  was  given,  even  thus  early,  to  the  alli- 
ance between  the  Northern  Democrats  and  the  Southern  slaveholders. 
But  the  moment  when  Tyler  broke  with  the  party  which  chose  him, 
he  fell  back  for  support  upon  his  own  State  and  the  extreme  South. 
He  soon  made  close  alliance  with  Calhoun,  and  what  was  left  of  his 
administration  was  devoted  to  an  extreme  Southern  policy. 

Of  this  change  of  policy  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  United 
States  was  the  first  result.  The  first  communication  'which  Phiiipxoian 
citizens  of  the  United  States  had  with  that  territory  was  in  In  Texl"- 
a  few  expeditions  made  by  Philip  Nolan,  an  adventurous  Kentuckian, 
for  the  capture  of  wild  horses.  He  made  these  expeditions  in  1801 
under  license  of  the  Spanish  government  of  New  Orleans.  But  so 
jealous  was  the  Spanish  Crown  of  encroachments  from  the  United 
States,  that  by  special  order  from  Spain,  the  Spanish  Governor  of 
Chihuahua  surrounded  Nolan's  party,  killed  him,  and  took  them  pris- 
oners, in  entire  violation  of  his  pass  of  safe-conduct.  From  that  time 
to  1820,  a  series  of  incursions  were  made  into  the  territory  by  adven- 
turers from  the  western  part  of  the  United  States,  —  all  of  whom 
were  driven  off,  or  killed,  or  imprisoned  by  the  Spanish  authorities. 
In  1820,  however,  Moses  Austin,  an  American,  obtained  a  grant  of 
land  in  Texas,  and  his  son  Stephen  Austin  in  1822  took  a  body  of 
colonists  to  settle  there. 


PROGRESS  OF  SOUTHERN  RULE. 


[CiiAi-.  XIV. 


By  the  constitution  of  Mexico,  slavery  WHS  prohibited  in  Texas, 
The  Texas  ail(^  that  alone  was  sufficient  reason  why  the  South  should 
question.  wish  to  control  it.  Separation  was  the  first  step  to  be 
taken  ;  the  rest  would  follow.  Jackson,  when  President,  tried  to 
buy  the  province,  as  Adams  had  done  before  him,  but  this  failing, 
other  measures  were  resorted  to.1  Mr.  Poinsett,  the  Minister  to 
Mexico,  wrote  home  that  "  we  can  never  expect  to  extend  our  bound- 
ary south  of  the  Sabine  without  quarrelling  with  these  people." 
The  quarrel  was  undertaken  by  General  Samuel  Houston,  a  Tennes- 


The    Alamo. 

seean,  and  a  friend  of  the  President's,  who  went  to  Texas,  ostensibly 
as  an  emigrant,  actually  as  a  revolutionist.  All  this  was  an  open 
secret  hardly  disguised,  never  seriously  denied.  In  the  autumn  of 
1835  the  province  declaimed  its  independence  ;  in  the  spring  of  1836, 
—  about  a  month  after  the  siege  of  Alamo,  where  the  Texan  garrison 
was  killed  to  a  man,  —  the  decisive  battle  of  San  Jacinto  was  fought, 

1  Adams  in  his  Diary  says  that  "Jackson  was  so  sharp-set  for  Texas,  that  from  the  first 
year  of  his  administration  he  set  his  double  engines  to  work,  of  negotiating  to  buy  Texas 
with  one  hand,  and  instigating  the  people  of  that  province  to  revolt  against  Mexico  with 
the  other.  Houston  was  his  agent  for  the  rebellion,  and  Anthony  Butler,  a  Mississippi 
land-jobber  in  Texas,  for  the  purchase.  Butler  kept  him  for  five  years  on  the  tenter-hooks 
of  expectation,  negotiating,  wheedling,  promising,  and  finally  boasting  that  he  had  secured 
the  bargain  by  bribing  a  priest  with  half  a  million  of  dollars."  That  method  of  negotia- 
tion, however,  Jackson  absolutely  forbade.  The  priest  was  to  compass  his  end  by  the  use 
of  influence  ;  precisely  how,  can  only  be  conjectured,  —  but  he  was  the  father-confessor  of 
the  sister-in-law  of  Santa.  Anna,  the  Mexican  President. 


1844.]  TYLER'S   POLICY.  383 

Houston  being  in  command  of  the  Texans ;  Santa  Anna,  the  Presi- 
dent of  Mexico,  was  taken  prisoner,  and  he  agreed  that  the  inde- 
pendence of  Texas  should  be  acknowledged. 

When  the  newspaper  report  of  this  event  reached  Washington, 
and  before  any  official  tidings  could  be  received,  the  Senate, 
in  indecent  haste,  took  up  the  question  of  recognition.  PIM>«^ 
Calhonn  urged,  not  merely  recognition,  but  immediate  an- 
nexation. The  times  were  not  yet  ripe,  however,  for  that  measure, 
and  all  that  could  be  done  at  the  moment  was  to  provide  by  a  resolu- 
tion, offered  by  Clay,  that  the  independence  of  the  State  should  be  ac- 
knowledged when  there  was  sufficient  evidence  that  she  could  main- 
tain it.  Another  year  passed,  and  that  evidence  was  not  forthcoming. 
Then,  only  three  or  four  days  before  the  expiration  of  Jackson's  term 
of  office,  an  amendment  was  made  to  the  appropriation  bill  providing 
for  the  pay  of  a  diplomatic  agent  to  Texas,  as  an  independent  power, 
should  the  lacking  evidence  of  her  ability  to  be  one  be  received  by 
the  President.  Andrew  Jackson  was  not  the  man  —  as  the  reader 
has  seen  in  more  than  one  instance  —  to  be  hampered  by  legislative 
restraints  if  they  stood  in  the  way  of  his  purposes.  Almost  the  last 
act  of  his  official  life  was  to  sign  the  appropriation  bill  with  this 
amendment,  and  immediately  appoint  the  official  agent  to  Texas, 
thereby  acknowledging  her  independence.  The  first  step  in  the 
great  conspiracy  to  get  possession  of  territory  large  enough  for  five 
new  slave  States,  was  secure. 

From  that  moment  the  project  of  annexation  was  pushed   with 
great  persistence,  but  without  much   apparent  success  till  about  the 
middle  of  Tyler's  administration.     It  was  charged  that  a  corrupt  in- 
terest in  well-nigh  worthless  Texan  stocks  influenced  Ty-  Tv|er-a 
ler's  counsels  ;  it  can  hardly  be  questioned  that  speculations  P0"'1100- 
in  Texan  lands  gave  great  vigor  to  the  proposed  measure.     But  it  was 
the  interests  of  States,  not  of  individuals,  that  gave  to  the  scheme  its 
importance  and  strength.     An  ex-president  of  Texas,  but  a  native  of 
the  United  States,  — General  Mirabeuu  B.  Lamar,  —  when  on  a  visit 
to  Georgia  in  1844,  wrote  a  letter  in  reply  to  a  request  to  deliver  a 
public  address,  in  which  he  sets  forth  with  great  frankness   the  rea- 
sons for  annexation,  —  with   the  more  frankness,  probably,   1<nmar.s 
that  his  letter  was  addressed  to  a  Southern  audience,  printed   lctter- 
obscurely  in  a  Southern  city,  and  not  intended  for  Northern  reading. 
Annexation,  he  said,  "addressed  itself  with  special  and  peculiar  force 
to  the  people  of  the  South."     On  the  question   of  slavery  their   in- 
terest and  that  of  Texas  were  identical,  and  the  "  overthrow  of  the 
system  in  either  country  would  lead  to  its  extirpation  in  the  other." 
There  was  great  danger  of  that  catastrophe.     The  majority  of  the 


364 


PROGRESS   OF   SOUTHERN   RULE.  [CiiAi>.  XIV. 


people  were  not  the  owners  of  slaves  ;  if  the  independence  of  the 
State  were  much  longer  deferred,  —  Mexico  under  the  alleged  influ- 
ence of  England  refusing  it  till  slavery  was  prohibited,  —  this  ma- 
jority of  non-slaveholders  might  soon  begin  to  ask,  "  How  long  shall 
we  suffer  for  the  benefit  of  slaveholders?"  And  this  majority  was 
constantly  augmenting  by  the  immigration  of  free  laborers,  while  the 
timid  slaveholders,  with  laborers  that  were  property,  held  back  till 
annexation  should  settle  the  question.  "  I  do  not  see  how  it  is  pos- 
sible," he  said,  "  in  her  present  unacknowledged  condition  to  main- 
tain it  [slavery]  against  the  tremendous  efforts  which  will  be  made 
for  its  subversion.  And  when  slavery  gives  way  in  Texas,  the  ruin 
of  the  Southern  States  is  inevitable."  That  ruin,  he  predicted, 

might  come  within  half  a  century, 
through  the  moral  influence  of 
a  great  free  republic  on  the  south- 
west, combining  with  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  "  in  a  sleepless  cru- 
sade," while  slaves,  for  whom 
there  was  no  outlet,  would  so 
accumulate  that  they  would  ex- 
haust the  soil  of  the  Southern 
States,  cease  to  be  valuable  to 
their  owners,  and  become  a  bur- 
den. But  if  Texas  was  annexed 
to  the  Union,  how  brilliant  a 
future  was  presented  to  the  slave 
States  !  In  that  immense  and 
fertile  region  was  an  almost  ex- 
haustless  field  of  wealth  in  rais- 
ing cotton  by  slave-labor,  an  al- 
most exhaustless  market  for  the  surplus  crop  of  negroes  at  the  South. 
This,  in  brief,  was  the  argument  of  this  remarkable  letter,  and  no 
Abolitionist  could  have  stated  the  case  with  more  frankness  or  with 
more  truth.  It  covered  the  whole  ground. 

When  Texas  asked  for  admission  during  Van  Buren's  administra- 
tion, and  the  President  declined,  it  killed  him  politically.     Mr.  Web- 
ster's unwillingness  to  abet  it,  as  Tyler's  Secretary  of  State,  caused 
his  removal  from  the  Cabinet.     He  tried    to  persuade    his 

The  ques- 
tion of  ad-      old  friends  at    the  North  to   interest  themselves  in   united 

mission. 

opposition  to  the  measure,  and  failed  ;  and  this  failure,  it 
was  supposed,  was  one  source  of  the  irritation  which  he  afterwards 
showed  when  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  country  sought  his 
help  in  vain.  Before  long  the  country  knew  that  the  danger  was 


Sain    Houston. 


1842.]  THE   ASHBURTOX   TREATY.  365 

real.     Mr.  Webster  was  removed,  and  Mr.  Upshur  of  Virginia  took 
his  place. 

Had  Mr.  Webster's  public  career  come  then  and  there  to  an  end, 
his  memory  would  have  been  revered  for  his  devotion  to  principle. 
As  a  statesman  he  had  already  signalized  his  administration  of  the 
office  of  Secretary  of  State  by  the  adjustment  of  the  boundary  ques- 
tion with  Great  Britain,  which  had  been  for  more  than  half 
a  century  a  menace  to  the  pence  of  the  two  nations.  Lord  burton" 
Ashburton  was  sent  by  England  to  this  country  in  1842 
on  a  special  mission,  and  the  terms  of  a  treaty  were  agreed  upon  be- 
tween him  and  Mr.  Webster.  The  most  difficult  question  in  the  set- 
tlement related  to  the  northeastern  boundary  defining  the  limits  of 
the  State  of  Maine.  Between  the  line  claimed  by  England  and  that 
claimed  by  Maine,  —  for  which  her  people  were  at  one  time  anxious 
to  involve  the  country  in  war,  —  lay  a  territory  of  over  twelve  thou- 
sand square  miles,  or  larger  than  the  whole  of  Vermont.  Much  of 
it  is  of  little  worth,  either  for  agriculture  or  for  any  possible  military 
operations.  The  worst  part  of  the  route  of  Arnold's  expedition 
against  Quebec  in  1775,  lay  through  this  tract,  and  that  operation 
was  never  likely  to  be  repeated.  The  line  was  agreed  upon  as  it 
now  stands  on  all  modern  maps  of  Maine,  giving  to  the  United  States 
seven  thousand  square  miles  of  the  disputed  territory,  and  to  Great 
Britain  five  thousand,  with  a  stipulation  for  free  navigation  of  St. 
John's  River.  The  northern  boundary  of  Vermont  and  New  York 
was  supposed  to  be  the  forty-fifth  parallel  of  latitude.  But  it  had 
been  shown  that  the  line  surveyed  as  such  was  slightly  erroneous, 
and  a  correction  of  it  would  have  thrown  Rouse's  Point,  and  a  narrow 
strip  of  land  held  in  good  faith  by  citizens  of  Vermont,  on  the  Canada 
side.  It  was  agreed  not  to  make  the  correction. 

On  the  northwestern  boundary,  St.  George's  Island,  containing 
forty  square  miles,  in  the  passage  between  Lakes  Superior  and  Huron, 
was  given  to  the  United  States ;  as  was  also  Isle  Royale,  near  the 
western  end  of  Lake  Superior.  The  line  was  thence  traced  from 
the  mouth  of  Pigeon  River  up  through  the  chain  of  rivers  and  small 
lakes  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  and  thence  along  the  forty-ninth 
parallel  to  the  Gulf  of  Georgia,  on  the  Pacific  coast, — as  it  now 
stands  on  all  good  maps. 

The  Treaty  also  provided  for  the  rendition  of  fugitives  charged  in 
either  country  with  "  the  crime  of  murder,  or  assault  to  commit  mur- 
der, or  piracy,  or  arson,  or  robbery,  or  foi-gery,  or  the  utterance  of 
forged  paper,"  on  the  production  of  sufficient  evidence  to  warrant 
the  arrest  and  trial  of  the  person  so  accused  in  the  place  where  he 
should  be  found.  And  it  also  gave  pledges  of  renewed,  efforts  to  sup- 


366  PROGRESS  OF   SOUTHERX  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

press  the  African  slave-trade.  Ratifications  were  exchanged  at  Lon- 
don in  October,  and  the  Treaty  was  proclaimed  by  the  President  on 
the  10th  of  November.  It  was  officially  designated  as  the' Treaty  of 
Washington,  but  was  popularly  called  the  Ash  burton  Treaty.  The 
opposition  in  England  called  it  "  the  Ashburton  capitulation  ;  "  and 
fault  was  also  found  with  it  in  the  United  States,  as  conceding  too 
much  to  England,  though  it  was  probably  as  good  a  settlement  as 
could  then  have  been  made. 

By  a  subsequent  Treaty  ratified  in  July,  1846.  the  boundary -line 
was  continued  westward  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  along  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel  to  the  middle  of  the  channel  between  Vancouver's 
Island  and  the  continent,  thence  southerly  through  that  channel  and 
Fuca  Straits  to  the  Pacific,  reserving  the  right  of  navigation  in  the 
channel  and  straits  to  both  parties.  For  more  than  twenty  years 
Oregon  had  been,  by  agreement,  in  the  common  occupancy  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  subject  to  termination  by  either  party 
at  twelve  months1  notice.  The  expediency  of  giving  the  notice  was 
the  subject  of  long  and  heated  debate  in  both  Houses  of  Congress 
during  the  winter  of  1845-46.  There  was  much  talk  of  war;  patri- 
otic members  —  as  one  of  them  said  —  "had  rather  make  that  ter- 
ritory the  grave  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  color  its  soil  with  their 
blood,  than  to  surrender  one  inch  of  our  soil."  It  was  for  the  bound- 
ary of  54°  40' —  "fifty-four  forty  or  fight,"  was  the  cant  phrase  of  the 
hour  —  that  these  belligerent  members  were  so  ready  to  lay  down  the 
lives  of  their  constituents  ;  but  the  final  settlement  of  this  long  vexed 
question  on  the  forty-ninth  parallel  was  acquiesced  in  by  the  people 
at  large  with  entire  equanimity. 

The  year  was  marked  by  another  event,  which  wore,  at  one  time,  a 
The  Dorr  threatening  aspect.  Though  technically  it  was  a  rebellion, 
War-  and  though  it  may  be  questioned  whether  the  object  aimed 

at  could  not  have  been  attained  in  a  less  turbulent  way,  the  reform 
at  last  secured  was  one  which  should  have  been  granted  long  before. 
Rhode  Island  was  still  governed  by  her  old  colonial  charter,  by  which 
the  right  of  suffrage  was  restricted  to  freeholders,  by  ownership  or 
lease,  and  to  their  eldest  sons,  and  the  popular  representation,  under 
the  old  apportionment,  had  become  exceedingly  unequal.  Thus  Prov- 
idence was  given  four  representatives  in  the  lower  house  of  the  Legis- 
lature, and  Newport  six  ;  but  in  1840  Providence  had  twenty-three 
thousand  inhabitants,  and  Newport  but  eight  thousand.  Similar  dis- 
crepancies existed  in  other  parts  of  the  State,  so  that  in  the  Legisla- 
ture of  that  year  twenty-nine  thousand  of  the  inhabitants  were  rep- 
resented by  seventy  members,  and  eighty  thousand  by  thirty-four 
members.  Here  was  reason  enough  for  popular  discontent. 


1841.]  THE   DORR  WAR   IN  RHODE  ISLAXD.  367 

Repeated  and  vain  appeals  to  the  Legislature  to  take  measures  for 
a  reform  of  the  Constitution  failing,  the  people  at  length  took  the 
matter  into  their  own  hands.  A  new  Constitution  was  formed  by  a 
popular  convention  in  October,  1841,  submitted  to  the  people  in  De- 
cember, and  accepted  by  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  the  male  adult 
population  of  the  State.  Under  it  an  election  was  held  the  following 
April,  and  Thomas  Wilson  Dorr  was  chosen  Governor.  The  crisis 
was  reached  on  the  3d  of  May,  when  Dorr,  and  the  other  State  officers 
elected  with  him,  attempted  to  assume  the  government  and  were  re- 
sisted by  those  who  held  office  under  the  charter,  at  the  head  of  whom 
was  Governor  Samuel  W.  King.  Both  sides  took  up  arms,  and  an 
appeal  was  made  to  the  Federal  Government.  The  Dorr  party  were 
twice  —  May  18th  and  June  25th  —  dispersed  without  bloodshed. 
Dorr  was  convicted  of  high  treason,  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment 
for  life,  but  after  three  years  was  released  under  a  general  amnesty, 
and  in  1851  was  restored  to  full  citizenship.  Meanwhile  the  Legis- 
lature —  yielding  to  the  inevitable  —  had  called  a  convention  to  draw 
up  a  constitution  ;  but  its  work,  submitted  to  the  people  in  March, 
1842,  was  rejected.  Another  convention  was  called,  and  another  con- 
stitution was  formed,  which,  being  satisfactory  to  the  people,  was  rati- 
fied, and  went  into  effect  in  May,  1843. 

The  negotiations  with  Texas,  at  once  opened  by  Secretary  Upshur, 
were  suddenly  interrupted  by  his  death.1  The  President  then  called 
to  his  assistance  the  master  to  fill  the  place  of  the  man.  In  the  last  of 
March,  1844,  he  made  Mr.  Calhoun  Secretary  of  State.  He 
believed  in  the  annexation  at  any  cost,  and  no  scruples  on  any  comet,  ^re- 
man's  part  now  retarded  the  negotiation.  Mr.  Tyler  justi-  tary° 
fied  his  invitation  to  Texas  to  join  the  United  States  by  what  he 
thought,  or  pretended  to  think,  the  certainty  that  Great  Britain  was 
engaged  in  diplomatic  intrigue  to  abolish  slavery  there.  Four  Pretexte  for 
times  —  in  verbal  assurances  to  the  American  Minister  at  «nne]I»tion- 
London,  Mr.  Everett,  and  in  written  assurances  to  the  English  Min- 
ister at  Washington,  Mr.  Pakenham  —  Lord  Aberdeen  had  declared 
that  his  Government  had  not  interfered,  and  did  not  intend  to  in- 
terfere with  slavery  in  Texas.  It  suited  Mr.  Calhoun  to  assume  the 
contrary,  and  to  take  measures  therefore  to  annex  that  State  to  the 
United  States  for  the  protection  of  slavery,  —  the  one  paramount 
function  of  the  Federal  Union.  He  made  a  treaty  with  Texas,  which 
was  sent  to  the  American  Minister  at  Mexico  to  communicate  it  to 
the  Government.  He  represented  that  the  efforts  which  Great  Britain 
was  making  to  abolish  slavery  compelled  the  United  States  to  make 
the  treaty  without  the  assent  of  Mexico.  But  he  offered  Mexico  ten 
1  He  was  killed  by  the  explosion  of  a  cauuon  on  board  the  Princeton,  in  the  Potomac. 


368 


PROGRESS   OF   SOUTHERX   RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 


million  dollars  as  indemnity.  On  the  same  day  the  treaty  was  sent  to 
the  United  States  Senate,  where  it  was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  thirty- 
five  to  sixteen.  It  had  not  even  the  support  of  the  Democratic  party. 
Mr.  Benton  opposed  it  hotly,  but  was  supposed  to  carry  an  old  ani- 
mosity to  Calhoun  into  his  objection.  Mr.  Van  Bui-en,  who  was  the 
prominent  candidate  of  the  Democrats,  in  the  pending  election,  pub- 
licly opposed  it  also.  Mr.  Clay,  who  was  the  Whig  candidate,  led  his 
party  with  this  question  as  the  great  issue  of  the  Presidential  campaign. 
The  opposition  of  these  statesmen  sealed  their  political  fate.  The 
Election  of  Democratic  Convention  nominated  Mr.  Polk  of  Tennessee, 
Poik.  wno  was  m  favor  Of  annexation,  and  Mr.  Van  Buren's  public 

life  was  over.    Mr.  Benton  by  his  opposition  lost  the  favor  of  Missouri. 

The  Whigs  had  nom- 
inated    Mr.     Clay 
unanimously ;  but  the 
sincerity  of  his  oppo- 
sition  to    annexation 
was   not  believed   in 
by    the     anti-slavery 
voters,  and  he  lost  the 
support  of  both  New 
York    and    Pennsyl- 
vania.   In  New  York 
a  sufficient  number  of 
voters  gave  their  vote 
to   the    candidate  of 
the  new  Liberty  Par- 
ty, James  G.  Birney, 
to  give   Mr.   Polk   a 
plurality;    and   in 
Pennsylvania    he 
avowed     moderate 
tariff  sentiments,  just 
in  time  to  secure  a  majority  there.    These  two  States,  which  together 
gave  sixty-two  electoral  votes,  decided  the  election.     Mr.  Folk's  plu- 
rality in  New  York  was  only  5,106  out  of  a  vote  of  485,000,  and 
his  plurality  in  Pennsylvania  was  only  6,332  out  of  350,000  votes. 
Though  he  had  not  a  majority  in  the  popular  vote,  his  electoral  vote 
was  170,  against  105  for  Mr.  Clay. 

The  certainty  of  this  result  stimulated  the  action  of  the  dying 
Congress.  The  new  candidate  used  all  his  influence  to  obtain  an 
adjustment  of  the  matter  before  his  inauguration.  As  a  treaty  with 
Texas  was  impossible,  a  vote  of  two  thirds  of  the  Senate  being  nec- 


James  K.   Polk. 


HENRY   CLAY. 
(After  a  dayutrreotype.) 


1845.]  ANNEXATION   OF   TEXAS.  369 

essary,  a  joint  resolution  annexing  Texas  was  introduced.     Jt  passed 
the  House  after  a  protracted  discussion,  which  rent  in  two 

_v  .  i-i  •  ri-vi  Annexation 

the  Democratic  party,  to  winch  a  section  or  the  .Northern  by  joint 

.       ,  .  ,      resolution. 

part  wns  never  again  united.  A  proviso  was  annexed, 
necessary  to  meet  some  men's  constitutional  scruples,  which  pro- 
vided that  the  new  President  might  act,  if  he  preferred,  by  treaty. 
The  Senate,  which  in  April,  1844,  had  rejected  the  treaty,  by  the  vote 
of  thirty-five  to  sixteen,  was  induced  to  accept  the  joint  resolution. 
This  was  the  1st  of  March,  when  President  Tyler's  term  had  three 
days  to  run.  On  the  same  day  when  the  joint  resolution  passed,  .Mr. 
Calhoun  sent  a  messenger  to  Texas  to  bring  her  in  under  the  joint 
resolution.  Mr.  Polk  had  promised  that  he  would  act  under  the  treat}' 
proviso,  but  as  Mr.  Tyler  had  taken  the  responsibility  of  acting  under 
the  joint  resolution,  Mr.  Polk  considered  himself  discharged  from  his 
promise.  Thus  in  the  confusion  of  the  last  moments  of  a  Congress, 
and  of  an  administration,  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  carried,  as 
under  precisely  similar  circumstances  the  acknowledgment  of  its  in- 
dependence had  been  carried  eight  years  before.  So.  by  a  resort  to 
similar  tactics,  the  Missouri  Compromise  had  been  forced  through  the 
House  in  1820,  and  the  Nullification  Compromise  in  1833. 

Polk  came  into  power  with  the  certainty  of  a  war  with  Mexico  on 
his  hands.  Before  Secretary  Upshur  was  killed,  Mr.  Van  p^., 
Zandt,  one  of  the  Texan  ministers  at  Washington,  had  ad-  P°IIC-V 
dressed  him  a  letter,  asking  whether,  in  case  of  annexation,  Texas 
could  rely  upon  the  United  States  for  aid  against  Mexico  ?  Mexico, 
it  was  assumed,  would  end  the  armistice  then  existing  between  her 
and  her  revolted  province,  and  the  negotiations  then  going  on  for 
peace,  and  renew,  or  threaten  to  renew  hostilities.  The  inquiry 
was  made  in  January,  1844,  but  was  not  replied  to  by  Mr.  Cal- 
houn, Upshur's  successor,. till  the  following  April.  The  reply  was 
for  some  time  withheld  from  the  papers  sent  to  the  Senate.  In 
the  mean  time  the  treaty  had  been  rejected,  and  it  seemed,  there- 
fore, of  comparatively  little  consequence  then  that  the  Secretary  had 
assured  the  Texan  ministers  that  in  expectation  of  the  ratification  of 
the  treaty,  a  strong  naval  force  had  been  sent  into  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, and  all  the  disposable  military  force  ordered  to  the  southwestern 
frontier.  The  significance  of  this  preparatory  movement  was  better 
understood  when,  in  the  following  March,  annexation  was  accom- 
plished by  joint  resolution. 

The  United  States  army,  in  1845,  numbered  about   five  thousand 
men,  and  three  thousand  six  hundred  of  them  were  at  Cor-  warwitll 
pus  Christi,   Texas,  under  General    Zachary  Taylor.      In  Mexico 
March,  1846,  Taylor  moved  southward  to  a  point  on  the  Rio  Grande 

VOL.  iv.  24 


370  PROGRESS   OF  SOUTHERN  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

opposite  Matamoras,  at  the  same  time  calling  upon  the  Governors  of 
Louisiana  and  Texas  for  five  thousand  volunteers.  On  the  1st  of 
May  he  moved  eastward  with  his  main  body,  to  open  communication 
with  Point  Isabel.  To  intercept  his  return,  the  Mexican  General 
Battle  of  Arista  moved  with  about  six  thousand  men  to  Palo  Alto, 
Raio  Aito.  njne  mjies  from  Matamoras,  and  planted  his  force  across 
the  road.  Taylor's  returning  column  struck  this  position  on  the  8th, 
and  gave  battle.  Two  eigh teen-pounders  and  two  light,  batteries  made 
dreadful  havoc  in  the  close  ranks  of  the  Mexican  infantry,  while  an 
attempt  to  turn  the  American  right  was  promptly  thwarted.  The 
prairie-grass  between  the  contending  lines  took  fire,  and  behind  the 
curtain  of  smoke  Arista  drew  back  his  left.  Taylor  made  a  corre- 
sponding change,  advanced  his  artillery  again,  and  renewed  the  fight. 
A  movement  to  turn  the  American  left  was  discovered  through  the 
smoke,  when  two  guns  were  wheeled  round  to  meet  it,  and  under 
their  steady  fire  the  attacking  column  was  finally  put  to  flight. 

Early  next  morning  the  Mexicans  fell  back  to  Resaca  de  la  Palma, 
Battle  of  anc^  *°°k  position  on  both  edges  of  a  deep  ravine  that 
curved  somewhat  in  the  shape  of  a  horseshoe,  the  open  side 
toward  the  advancing  Americans.  The  point  where  the 
road  crossed  this  ravine  was  commanded  by  three  batteries,  and  the 
whole  position  was  obscured  by  thick  chaparral.  Taylor  deployed  a 
large  part  of  his  force  as  skirmishers,  and  Captain  May's  dragoons 
overran  the  most  advanced  Mexican  battery.  An  American  battery 
was  advanced  to  the  crest,  while  a  regiment  from  the  reserves  charged 
down  the  road  in  column,  crossed  the  ravine,  and,  joined  by  a  portion 
of  the  skirmishers  who  had  clambered  through  at  other  points, 
sei/ed  the  enemy's  artillery,  and  after  hard  fighting  in  the  chaparral, 
put  the  infantry  to  flight.  On  the  13th  of  May,  before  news  of 
these  events  could  have  reached  Washington,  Congress  declared  war 
and  authorized  the  President  to  call  for  fifty  thousand  volunteers  for 
one  year.1 

1  President  Polk,  in  his  message  of  May  16,  1846,  and  in  several  later  ones,  labored  to 
show  that  the  territory  of  the  United  States  had  been  invaded  by  the  Mexicans,  and  the  blood 
of  her  citizens  shed  on  her  own  soil,  whereupon  Abraham  Lincoln,  then  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  introduced  in  that  body  what  became  famous  as  "  the  Spot  Res- 
olutions," wherein  the  President  was  called  upon  to  inform  the  House  as  to  the  exact  loca- 
tion of  the  spot  where  this  blood  was  shed,  with  reference  to  the  boundaries  of  the  Spanish 
possessions,  and  also  "  whether  our  citizens  whose  blood  was  shed,  as  in  his  messages  de- 
clared, were  or  were  not  at  that  time  armed  officers  and  soldiers,  sent  into  that  settlement 
by  the  military  order  of  the  President ;  "  and  "whether  the  military  force  of  the  United 
States  was  or  was  not  so  sent  into  that  settlement  after  General  Taylor  had  more  than 
once  intimated  to  the  War  Department  that,  in  his  opinion,  no  such  movement  was  neces- 
sary to  the  defence  or  protection  of  Texas."  Mr.  Lincoln's  speech,  supporting  these  res- 
olutions, and  making  a  sharp  analysis  of  the  whole  question,  is  printed  in  full  in  Lamon's 
Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  283. 


1846.] 


WAR   WITH   MEXICO. 


371 


General  Taylor  was  told  that  the  public  were  impatient,  and  with- 
out waiting  for  reinforcements  lie  must  "  take  foot  in  hand,  and  off 
for  the  halls  of  Montezuma,"  he  being  distant  from  those  halls  nearly 
five  hundred  miles,  as  the  crow  flies.  Before  he  could  open  his  cam- 
paign, he  was  embarrassed  by  conflicting  instructions,  but  gave  it  as 
liis  opinion  tliat  the  operations  from  the  Rio  Grande  should  only  be 
for  the  purpose  of  holding  the  northern  provinces.  His  movements 
were  also  delayed  by  the  necessity  of  sending  for  light-draught 
steamers  to  ascend  the  river.  These  and  the  volunteers  arrived  at 
length,  and  in  July  General  Worth's  division  established  itself  at 
Camargo,  where  Taylor  organized  an  expedition  to  Monterey,  ninety 
miles  distant. 

While  this  movement  was  in  pi'og- 
ress,  one  of  those  revolutions  without 
which  her  people  never  seem  content, 
broke  out  in  Mexico,  and  the  garri- 
sons of  Vera  Cruz  and  San  Juan  de 
Ulloa  pronounced  for  the  return  of 
Santa  Anna  to  power.  Commodore 
Connor,  commanding  a  squadron  that 
had  blockaded  Vera  Cruz,  was  or- 
dered to  permit  Santa  Anna,  who  in 
1845  had  been  banished  for  ten  years, 
to  reenter  the  country ;  and  Presi- 
dent Polk,  to  create  a  feeling  that  his 
war  was  just,  sent  a  proposition  to 
negotiate  for  peace,  knowing  that,  in 
the  disturbed  condition  of  Mexican 
affairs,  it  was  not  likely  to  be  entertained.  By  the  middle  of  Sep- 
tember, Santa  Anna  reached  the  city  of  Mexico  and  assumed  military 
command  as  President. 

Monterey  is  in  a  valley  at  the  eastern  base  of  the  Sierra  Madre,  on 
the  high  road  from  the  Rio  Grande  to  the  city  of  Mexico.  Capture  of 
It  was  protected  by  a  strong  citadel  on  the  northern  out-  Monterey- 
skirt  of  the  town,  by  several  lunettes  on  the  east,  and  by^two  forti- 
fied hills  that  rose  on  either  side  of  the  river  just  above  the  town. 
Taylor,  with  six  thousand  six  hundred  men,  sat  down  before  it  on  the 
19th  of  September.  On  the  20th,  Worth's  division  passed  above  the 
city  and  planted  itself  on  the  enemy's  line  of  retreat.  Garland's 
brigade  led  the  attack,  and  advancing  between  the  citadel  and  the 
first  lunette,  and  enfiladed  by  both,  reached  the  streets  of  the  city,  but 
with  heavy  loss.  Three  companies,  moving  to  his  support,  attacked 
the  lunette  in  front,  but  at  the  first  discharge  of  its  guns  one  third  of 


Santa  Anna. 


372  PROGRESS  OF   SOUTHERN   RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

their  numbers  fell,  and  the  remainder  retreated.  Two  other  compa- 
nies passed  to  its  rear,  and  from  the  roof  of  a  tannery  poured  into  its 
open  gorge  such  a  fire  of  musketry  that  the  crowded  Mexicans,  on 
whom  every  bullet  told,  made  all  haste  to  abandon  the  work,  which 
Quitman's  brigade  soon  occupied.  An  attempt  to  capture  the  second 
lunette  was  unsuccessful,  as  the  streets  through  which  the  troops  ad- 
vanced were  swept  by  an  artillery  fire,  and  the  loss  was  severe. 

On  the  morning  of  the  21st  Worth  sent  a  strong  force  to  capture 
the  fortified  eminence  south  of  the  river,  called  Loma  Federacion. 
The  enemy  not  only  directed  a  plunging  artillery  fire  upon  the  ad- 
vancing troops,  but  sent  a  cloud  of  skirmishers  half  way  down  the 
rocky  slopes  to  resist  the  ascent.  In  the  face  of  this  the  Americans 
advanced  steadily  by  companies,  with  sharpshooters  skirmishing  on 
the  flanks,  till  they  clambered  over  the  parapet  and  turned  the 
guns  upon  the  flying  Mexicans,  who  took  refuge  in  Fort  Soldado, 
at  the  extremity  of  the  ridge.  Thence  they  were  quickly  driven 
by  two  supporting  regiments  moving  along  the  slope.  At  night 
Worth  sent  out  a  detachment  which  at  daybreak  carried  Loma  d'ln- 
dependencia,  the  hill  on  the  north  side  of  the  river,  and  then  dis- 
lodged the  Mexicans  from  the  ruins  of  the  Obispado,  half  way  down 
the  hill.  These  two  positions  commanded  the  western  half  of  the 
city,  upon  which  fire  was  opened,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  23d  the 
troops  east  of  the  city  fought  their  way  into  it ;  but  the  streets  were 
bamcaded  and  stoutly  defended,  and  the  attempt  on  that  side  was  at 
length  given  up.  On  the  west,  however,  Worth's  men  pushed  into 
the  town,  fully  prepared  for  a  slow  fight.  When  they  reached  a 
point  where  the  streets  were  swept  by  Mexican  artillery,  the  troops 
of  the  line  broke  through  the  inner  walls  of  the  houses,  and  thus 
worked  their  way  from  square  to  square,  while  the  sharpshooters 
mounted  to  the  roofs,  and  by  a  continual  dropping  fire  did  effective 
work.  This  steady  advance  was  continued  through  the  night,  and 
in  the  morning  Ampudia  capitulated,  and  an  armistice  of  eight  weeks 
was  agreed  upon. 

In  May  a  movement  was  made  in  a  new  direction.     Colonel  Philip 

Kearny  was  ordered  to  organize  an  expedition  for  the  occu- 
ot^ew  "  pation  of  New  Mexico  and  Upper  California,  and  by  the 

end  of  July  he  had  collected  eighteen  hundred  men,  at  Bent's 
Fort,  on  Arkansas  River,  at  the  head  of  whom  he  marched  into  New 
Mexico  unopposed,  and  arrived  at  Santa  FC"  on  the  18th  of  August. 
Here  he  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  the  inhabitants  absolved  from 
allegiance  to  Mexico,  organized  the  State  as  a  Territory  of  the  United 
States,  appointed  a  civil  governor,  and  on  the  6th  of  October,  with 
a  small  cavalry  force,  set  out  for  California. 


1847.]  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  373 

An  exploring  expedition  under  Captain  John  C.  Fremont  was 
overtaken  in  May,  by  a  messenger  bearing  letters  from  Sec- 
retary of  State  James  Buchanan  and  Senator  Benton,  where-  of  caufor- 
in  it  was  hinted  that  he  should  remain  in  California,  to 
thwart  any  designs  that  foreigners  might  have  upon  the  territory. 
As  no  foreigners  but  Americans  were  at  all  likely  to  have  any  such 
designs,  it  was  not  difficult  for  Fremont  to  understand  what  the  Ad- 
ministration wanted,  though  war  had  not  then  been  declared.  He 
returned  to  Sacramento,  learned  that  De  Castro,  the  Mexican  com- 
mandant, was  about  to  expel  American  settlers,  and  at  once  assumed 
the  offensive.  On  the  15th  of  June  he  captured  Sonoma,  after  which 
he  marched  into  the  interior,  enlisted  men,  and  returned  in  time  to 
drive  away  De  Castro.  He  then  called  a  meeting  of  settlers  at  Sonoma, 
and  advised  them  to  declare  independence,  which  they  did.  Meanwhile 
Commodore  Sloat  was  taking  possession  of  the  towns  on  the  coast. 
Late  in  July  he  was  superseded  by  Commodore  Stockton,  who  organ- 
ized an  expedition,  drove  De  Castro  out  of  his  camp  at  Los  Angeles, 
joined  Fremont,  and  on  the  13th  of  August  took  possession  of  Monte- 
rey, then  the  capital  of  California.  Proclaiming  his  conquest  of  the 
territory,  he  set  up  a  provisional  government,  with  himself  at  its  head. 
Before  the  news  of  this  reached  Washington,  the  Government  had 
sent  to  California  a  company  of  artillery,  in  the  storeship  Lexington^ 
which  was  two  hundred  days  making  the  passage  round  Cape  Horn. 
In  this  company  were  Lieutenants  William  T.  Sherman,  Henry  W. 
Halleck,  and  E.  O.  C.  Ord.  The  ship  was  commanded  by  Theodorus 
Bailey,  who,  sixteen  years  later,  led  the  first  division  of  Farragut's 
fleet  when  it  captured  New  Orleans. 

In  pursuance  of  its  purpose  to  cut  off  the  northern  provinces,  the 
Administration  planned  an  expedition  to  Chihuahua,  under 
command  of  General  John  E.  Wool ;  but  it  went  no  farther  against  chi- 
than  Parras,  a  hundred  miles  west  of  Monterey.     Taylor's 
armistice  at  Ampudia  was  disapproved  by  the  Administration,  and  in 
November  he  advanced  to  Saltillo.    In  the  same  month,  General  Win- 
field  Scott  was  ordered  to  Mexico,  to  take  chief  command  and  5^^,^  M 
conduct  the  war  according  to  his  own   plan.     This  was,  in  Me3UCO 
brief,  to  carry  an  expedition  against  Vera  Cruz,  reduce  its  defences, 
and  then  march  on  the  cit}'  of  Mexico  by  the  shortest  route.     On 
his  arrival  at  Camargo  in  January,  1847,  he  made  a  requisition  for 
about  ten  thousand  of  Taylor's  troops,  which  left  Taylor  not  quite 
seven  thousand.     A  duplicate  of  the  despatch  was  intercepted  and 
carried  to  Santa  Anna,  who  at  once  prepared  to  strike  while  his  enemy 
was  divided  and  weakened. 

Taylor  had  advanced  to  Agua  Nueva,  but  learning  of  the  approach. 


374 


PROGRESS   OF   SOUTHERN   RULE. 


[C HAP.  XIV. 


of 


ta, 


PL  AN  OPTOE  BATTLE 

OF 

BUENA  VISTA 

NOKNINO  23*Ke.t8t7 


of  an  overwhelming  Mexican  force,  and  knowing  that  his  rear  might 
be  gained,  he  fell  bark  to  a  strong  position  south  of  Saltillo. 
'pj^  now  famous  battle-ground,  which  takes  its  name  from 
the  neighboring  estate  of  Buena  Vista,  is  a  section  of  a  rugged  val- 
ley from  two  and  a  half  to  four  miles  wide,  between  mountain  walls 
a  thousand  feet  high.  The  slopes  on  either  side  are  cut  by  deep 
ravines,  and  in  the  midst  is  a  broad  plateau,  whose  borders  are  in- 
dented by  the  bluffs  that  alternate  with  the  ravines.  The  fighting 

took  place  on  and 
around  this  plateau. 
Taylor  had  present 
five  thousand  two 
hundred  men  ;  San- 
ta Anna's  force  was 
probably  twelve 
thousand.1  The  na- 
ture of  the  ground 
precluded  the  em- 
ployment of  cavalry, 
and  rendered  use- 
less much  of  the  ar- 
tillery of  the  attack- 
ing party,  while  it 
gave  special  advan- 
tages to  that  of  the 
Americans.  Taylor 
placed  his  forces  — 
in  groups,  rather 
than  in  line  —  on 
the  crests  of  some  of 
the  bluffs,  at  the 
base  of  the  eastern 
mountain,  and  near 
the  front  or  southern 
edge  of  the  plateau. 
The  battle  opened  in  the  afternoon  of  the  22d  of  February  on  the 
left,  where  the  light  Mexican  troops  attempted  to  flank  the  position 
by  scaling  the  steep  mountain  wall,  but  were  checked  by  a  counter 
movement.  At  the  same  time  the  Mexican  cavalry,  under  General 
Mifion,  gained  the  rear  by  a  detour,  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  the 

1  It  has  been  commonly  stated  at  twenty  thousand  ;  hut  there  seems  to  be  no  other  au- 
thority for  this  than  the  fact  that  when  Santa  Anna  summoned  Taylor  to  surrender,  he 
boasted  that  his  force  numbered  twenty  thousand. 


MEXICAN    l 

UNITED  STATBSs 


Infantry  £  CutMrr  |  ArlMcrf  MeruiJ  bCJuAtUct 
$  Artilieiy  Receiving  UuAtUeK. 


1847.]  WAR  WITH   MEXICO.  375 

Americans  in  their  expected  retreat.  At  dawn  of  the  23d  the  action 
was  renewed  on  the  left,  where  the  Mexicans  had  taken  possession  of 
the  crest  during  tlie  night.  Santa  Anna  prepared  to  attack  in  front 
with  his  main  force,  in  three  columns,  intending  that  the  light  troops 
should  at  the  same  time  descend  from  the  mountain  and  fall  upon  the 
flank.  Under  Taylor's  personal  direction,  the  Mexican  cavalry  in  the 
rear  was  driven  back  by  the  dragoons.  These  being  ordered  to  the 
plateau,  the  Mexican  horse  returned  and  attacked  two  unsupported 
companies  of  volunteer  cavalry,  and  a  fierce  hand-to-hand  fight  en- 
sued, friend  and  foe  being  mingled  in  confusion,  around  the  hamlet  of 
Buena  Vista  ;  but  on  the  return  of  the  regular  dragoons,  the  Mex- 
ican cavalry  retreated.  The  Mexican  columns  attacking  in  front, 
came  on  steadily  in  spite  of  all  resistance.  Two  regiments  fled  before 
one  of  them,  which  then,  with  a  heavy  battery,  concentrated  its  fire 
upon  an  advanced  American  battery,  and  soon  compelled  its  with- 
drawal. The  column  next  made  a  junction  with  another,  which  had 
also  ascended  the  plateau,  and  with  the  light  troops  moving  down 
from  the  mountain,  and  the  combined  mass  turned  the  American  left. 
The  third  column,  led  against  the  American  right,  was  shattered  by 
the  artillery,  thrown  into  confusion,  and  compelled  to  retreat.  To 
meet  the  flank  movement,  the  Americans  had  formed  a  new  front. 
The  Mexicans  found  it  impossible  to  cross  the  plateau  in  the  face  of 
this,  and  were  attempting  to  gain  the  rear  by  skirting  the  base  of  the 
eastern  mountain,  when  Taylor  put  in  motion  two  regiments  of  infan- 
try, supported  by  artillery  and  dragoons,  who  advanced  down  the 
plateau  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  steadily  firing  into  the  heavy  mass 
as  they  approached  it.  The  coolness  and  intrepidity  with  which  this 
movement  was  executed,  saved  the  day.  The  Mexican  column  broke 
before  it,  and  Taylor,  making  a  combined  attack  upon  their  right, 
drove  it  up  the  slopes  of  the  eastern  mountain,  and  seemed  likely  to 
isolate  it.  But  at  this  moment  a  flag  of  truce  appeared,  and  the  fir- 
ing was  stopped  in  expectation  of  a  surrender.  It  was  only  a  ruse, 
which  enabled  the  endangered  wing  to  escape.  As  soon  as  this  was 
accomplished,  Santa  Anna  formed  his  whole  force  into  one  column, 
and  advanced  up  the  plateau.  Several  regiments  gave  way,  and  some 
guns  were  lost ;  but  most  of  the  artillery  was  placed  where  it  could 
plough  the  column  through  and  through,  and  was  served  with  great 
rapidity.  At  the  same  time  the  Americans  slowly  fell  back,  and  at 
nightfall  they  held  only  the  northwest  corner  of  the  plateau.  When 
morning  broke,  the  enemy  had  retreated.  The  Americans  had  lost, 
killed,  wounded,  or  missing,  seven  hundred  and  forty-six  men  ;  the 
Mexicans,  about  two  thousand.1 

1  Among  the  slain  were  Colonels  John  J.  Ilnrdin,  William  H.  McKee,  and  Archibald 


376 


PROGRESS   OF   SOUTHERN   RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


Scott's  ex- 

pedition  to 

Mexico. 


On  the  7th  of  March,  the  fleet  with  Scott's  army  came  to  anchor  a 
few  miles  south  of  Vera  Cruz,  and  two  days  later  he  landed 

-  J 

his  whole  force  —  nearly  twelve  thousand  men  —  by  means  of 

* 

surf-boats.  Vera  Cruz  was  a  city  of  seven  thousand  inhabi- 
tants, strongly  fortified.  About  a  thousand  yards  off  shore,  on  a  reef, 
stood  the  Castle  of  San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  commanding  the  channels  of 
the  harbor.  This  was  supposed  to  be  very  strong,  and  the  Mexicans 
had  assumed  that  any  approach  to  the  city  would  necessarily  be  under 
its  guns.  Lines  of  investment  were  drawn,  and  siege  batteries  erected, 


Bombard- 
Vera  Cruz. 


Vera  Cruz. 

with  little  opposition.  On  the  22d  the  investment  was  complete.  A 
summons  to  surrender  being  refused,  the  batteries  opened, 
and  the  bombardment  was  kept  up  for  four  days,  the  small 
war-vessels  joining  in  it.  The  Mexican  batteries  and  the 

castle  replied  with  spirit,  and  with  some  little  effect ;  but  the  city  and 

castle  were  surrendered  on  the  27th. 

The  want  of  draught  animals  and  wagons  delayed  till  the  middle 
of  April  the  march  upon  the  capital  of  the  country,  two 
hundred  miles  distant.  The  first  obstacle  was  found  at 

Cerro  Gordo,  fifty  miles  northwest  of  Vera  Cruz,  where  the  Mexicans 

Yell,  and  Lieutenant-colonel  Henry  Clay,  a  son  of  the  Kentucky  statesman.  Some  idea  of 
the  desperate  nature  of  the  fighting  may  be  gained  from  the  fact  that  Colonel  Clay,  dis- 
abled by  a  shot  in  the  thigh,  was  home  off  in  the  retreat  till  his  men  were  obliged  to  drop 
him,  and  then  lay  on  his  back,  fighting  with  his  sword,  while  his  enemies  pierced  him  with 
lances.  Colonel  Yell  received  a  lance  in  his  mouth,  which  tore  off  his  jaw  ;  and  Colonel 
Hardiu  was  also  killed  with  a  lance.  The  Mexican  cavalry  did  a  great  deal  of  execution 
with  that  ancient  weapon.  Among  the  troops  that  rendered  most  efficient  service  on  the 
American  side  were  the  Mississippi  riflemen,  commanded  by  Colonel  Jefferson  Davis. 


Battle  of 


1847.]  WAR   WITH   MEXICO.  377 

had  taken  position  on  the  heights  around  a  rugged  mountain  pass, 
with  a  battery  commanding  every  turn  of  the  road.  A  way  was 
found  to  flank  the  position  on  the  extreme  left,  and  on  the  morning  of 
April  18th,  the  Americans  attacked  in  three  columns.  Pillow's  brigade 
advanced  against  the  Mexican  right,  where  three  hills,  in  the  angle 
between  the  road  and  the  Rio  del  Plan,  were  crowned  with  batteries. 
Shields's  brigade  made  the  detour  and,  climbing  up  by  a  path  that 
Santa  Anna  said  he  did  not  believe  a  goat  could  ascend,  fell  upon  the 
enemy's  left  and  rear.  The  divisions  of  Twiggs  and  Worth  left  the 
road  at  a  point  within  the  pass,  and,  bearing  to  the  right,  attacked 
the  enemy  on  a  hill  called  El  Telegrafo,  carried  it,  and  then  attacked 
the  height  of  Cerro  Gordo,  where  the  Mexicans  were  most  strongly 
intrenched,  and  where  Santa  Anna  commanded  in  person.  This  being 
carried  by  storm,  its  guns  were  turned  first  upon  the  retreating  Mex- 
icans, and  then  upon  the  advanced  position  that  Pillow  was  assault- 
ing in  front.  The  Mexicans,  finding  themselves  surrounded,  soon 
surrendered.  Santa  Anna,  with  the  remainder  of  his  troops,  fled 
toward  Jalapa,  where  Scott  followed  him  and  took  the  place.  Here 
he  waited  for  reinforcements,  the  last  of  which  arrived  on  the  6th  of 
August  under  Brigadier-general  Franklin  Pierce. 

At  this  point,  Santa  Anna  opened  secret  negotiations  with   Scott, 
offering  to  bring  about  a  peace  without  any  more  fighting,  in   ^^  Anna 
consideration  of  one  million  dollars  to  be  paid  to  him  person-  ^117 place 
ally:  ten  thousand  dollars  at  once,  and  the  remainder  after  foraPnce 
the  establishment  of  peace.    The  communications  were  made  through 
the  British  consuls.     Scott  paid  the  ten  thousand  dollars  ;  but  Santa 
Anna  failed  to  convince  the  Mexican  Congress  that  the  situation  was 
desperate,  and  the  temper  of  the  country  seemed  to  warrant  the  de- 
termination to  hold  out  in  hope  of  a  victory. 

After  calling  in  all  the  garrisons  except  that  of  Vera  Cruz,  Scott  had 
about  fourteen  thousand  men,  and  leaving  the  convalescents 
to  garrison  Puebla  and  to  care  for  the  sick,  he  resumed  his  on  the  <api- 
march  toward  the  capital.  On  the  10th  of  August  the  lead- 
ing division  passed  over  the  crest  of  the  Rio  Frio  mountains ;  the 
city  of  Mexico,  in  the  midst  of  a  fertile  basin  dotted  with  spark- 
ling lakes,  was  in  sight.  Northeast  and  southeast  of  Mexico,  within 
a  radius  of  twenty  miles,  are  three  lakes.  The  land  immediately  sur- 
rounding the  city  was  entirely  under  water  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
invasion,  but  it  had  been  drained,  and  the  capital  was  now  approached 
by  causeways  crossing  low  and  marshy  ground.  Out  of  this  plain 
rose  numerous  rocky  hills  ;  and  wherever  one  commanded  a  causeway, 
it  was  fortified.  Reaching  Lake  Chalco,  the  one  farthest  from  the 
city,  to  the  southeast,  the  American  forces  paused  for  a  choice  of 


378  PROGRESS   OF   SOUTHERN  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

route.  It  was  found  that  the  city  was  strongest  on  its  eastern  side, 
and  weakest  on  the  south  and  west.  Accordingly,  Scott  passed  around 
Lake  Chalco,  and  thence  west,  skirting  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake 
that  was  nearer  the  city. 

Santa  Anna,  who  had  been  guarding  the  eastern  approaches,  moved 
southward  to  intercept  the  Americans,  taking  up  his  headquarters  at 
San  Antonio,  five  miles  from  the  city.  His  position  was  flanked  on 
the  west  by  a  rugged  field  of  broken  lava,  called  the  Pedregal,  and 
on  the  east  by  marshy  ground.  West  of  the  Pedregal  another  road 
led  to  the  city,  and  this  road  could  be  reached  by  a  mule-path  across 
the  southwest  corner.  Pillow's  division  was  converted  into  a  work- 
ing-party to  make  of  this  mule-path  a  road  for  the  passage  of  the 
trains.  But  the  Mexican  General  Valencia  had  taken  up  a  fortified 
Battle  of  position  on  the  slope  of  a  hill  commanding  the  junction  of 
concerns.  tjie  mu]e.path  with  the  road,  and  not  far  from  the  village 
of  Contreras.  In  front  of  this  camp  was  a  deep  and  rugged  ravine. 
When  Pillow  had  completed  half  the  road,  the  Mexican  artillery 
opened  upon  him.  Twiggs's  division  passed  to  the  front,  and  drove 
in  the  Mexican  skirmishers.  Twiggs  then  ordered  Riley's  brigade 
to  cross  the  Pedregal  by  an  oblique  movement  to  the  right,  to  secure 
a  position  on  the  road  at  the  village  of  San  Geronimo,  and  flank  the 
Mexican  left.  Cadwallader's  brigade  was  sent  to  his  support,  while 
Pierce's  reenforced  Smith's  at  the  front.  The  ground  was  as  bad 
as  troops  were  ever  compelled  to  clamber  over.  General  Pierce  was 
severely  hurt  by  the  fall  of  his  horse,  which  had  stepped  into  a  cleft 
of  the  rocks  ;  and  later  in  the  day  Twiggs,  though  on  foot,  received  a 
similar  fall  and  injury.  The  artillery  horses  and  caissons  were  shel- 
tered behind  huge  blocks  of  stone  ;  but  the  howitzers,  which  had  been 
advanced  with  immense  labor,  were  no  match  for  the  heavier  guns  of 
the  Mexicans. 

Valencia  had  neglected  to  occupy  the  crest  of  the  hill  in  rear  of 
his  camp,  and  Riley  proposed  to  occupy  it  in  the  darkness  of  the 
ensuing  night,  and  swoop  down  upon  him  at  daybreak.  Meanwhile 
Santa  Anna  sent  orders  to  Valencia  to  spike  his  guns,  destroy  his 
stores,  and  retreat  by  the  mountain  paths ;  but  Valencia  refused  to 
stir,  and  Santa  Anna  left  him  to  his  fate.  Riley's  movement,  de- 
layed till  daylight,  was  discovered,  but  the  men  pressed  on,  supported 
by  the  brigades  of  Cadwallader  and  Smith.  Taking  the  Mexican 
intrenchments  in  reverse,  they  rushed  into  them  in  a  body.  One 
regiment  cut  off  retreat  southward,  while  Smith  stopped  it  north- 
ward. The  Mexicans  were  thrown  into  utter  confusion  ;  many  were 
cut  down  on  the  spot,  others  escaped  through  the  gaps  in  the  Amer- 
ican lines ;  more  were  made  prisoners  by  the  troops  of  Smith  and 


1847.]  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  379 

Shields,  thrown  across  the  road  to  the  city.  The  loss  of  the  Mexi- 
cans in  killed  and  wounded  was  estimated  at  two  thousand,  while 
nearly  a  thousand,  including  four  generals,  were  captured.  Twenty- 
two  guns  and  all  the  stores  and  ammunition  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  victors,  who  had  lost  sixty,  killed  or  wounded.  The  Americans 
followed  the  flying  enemy  toward  Churubusco,  on  the  main  B.ltt](,0f 
road  to  the  capital,  where  Santa  Anna,  retiring  before  ('hurubusc< 
Worth,  had  concentrated  his  whole  force.  The  river  here  runs  in  a 
straight,  artificial  channel,  protected  by  levees.  The  head  of  the 
bridge  was  strongly  fortified,  and  the  convent,  a  large  stone  building, 
had  been  pierced  for  the  use  of  muskets,  and  surrounded  by  a  strong 
field-work.  Here  all  was  ready  for  action,  but  the  remninder  of  the 
Mexican  force  was  in  much  confusion,  and  the  fortification  around 
the  bridge  was  blocked  up  by  the  ammunition  train  which  had  broken 
down  at  this  point. 

The  battle  opened,  when  the  advance  of  Worth's  forces,  charging 
the  works  at  the  bridge,  was  stopped  by  a  heavy  fii-e  from  the  con- 
vent. At  the  same  time  Pillow  took  position  in  the  corn-fields  on 
the  right,  and  Twiggs  made  a  determined  but  useless  attack  on  the 
convent.  This  building,  says  an  eye-witness,  "  was  one  sheet  of 
flame  and  smoke,  and  wherever  the  assailants  were  exposed,  their 
loss  was  excessive."  l  The  brigades  of  Pierce  and  Shields  had  been 
ordered  to  make  a  detour  and  come  upon  the  main  road  in  the  rear  of 
Churubusco.  As  they  reached  it,  they  struck  the  Mexican  reserves, 
and  all  the  troops  on  both  sides  were  then  engaged.  The  fighting  was 
obstinate  and  bloody  throughout.  Pierce  and  Shields  were  largely 
outnumbered,  and  would  perhaps  have  been  defeated,  but  Worth  and 
Pillow  carried  the  head  of  the  bridge  in  time  to  save  them.  Their 
men,  creeping  closer  and  closer,  taking  advantage  of  every  ditch  and 
dike,  yet  with  sad  losses,  at  last  established  themselves  so  close  to  the 
Mexican  left  that  it  gave  way.  A  detachment  of  Americans  crossed 
the  river  and  threatened  the  bridge  from  the  rear,  and  immediately 
Worth  drew  his  whole  force  to  the  right,  across  the  road,  and  poured 
it  in  upon  the  broken  Mexican  line.  Through  the  ditches,  waist-deep 
in  water  and  over  the  parapets,  they  went  with  a  rush  and  a  shout,  and 
the  battle  of  Churubusco  was  won.  A  captured  gun,  being  brought 
to  bear  at  close  range  upon  the  flank  of  the  reserves,  broke  it,  and 
relieved  Shields  and  Pierce.  A  gun  at  the  bridge  was  then  served 
upon  the  convent,  and  a  position  was  discovered  where  a  battery 
could  command  the  surrounding  field-work,  but  as  this  battery  was 
about  to  open  fire,  a  white  flag  rose  above  the  walls.  The  American 
loss  in  this  battle  was  one  thousand  killed  or  wounded,  among  them 
seventy-six  officers. 

1  Major  R.  S.  Ripley,  in  his  History  oftlir  War  with  Mexico. 


380 


PROGRESS  OF  SOUTHERN  RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


Battle  of 


The  Americans  now  occupied  several  villages  in  the  suburbs  of 
the  capital.  At  the  instance  of  the  English  Embassy,  who  came  out 
from  the  city,  an  armistice  was  agreed  upon.  Negotiations  followed, 
lasting  for  a  fortnight,  till  Scott,  finding  that  Santa  Anna  only  aimed 
to  gain  time  and  strengthen  his  position,  put  an  end  to  the  armis- 
tice. The  American  commander  now  had  about  eight  thousand 
five  hundred  effective  men,  and  sixty-eight  guns.  His  first 

_       '  J  ,,    ,.  .    ,    _. 

movement,  September  7th,  was  upon  the  Molino  del  Key 
(King's  Mill),  a  group  of  stone  buildings  where,  he  had  been 
informed,  the  church-bells  of  the  city  were  being  cast  into  cannon. 

This  group  forms  the  western 
side  of  the  enclosure  surround- 
ing the  gardens,  rock,  and  castle 
of  Chapultepec.  It  is  eleven 
hundred  yards  from  the  castle, 
and  that  is  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  from  the  city  wall.  The 
buildings,  five  hundred  yards 
long,  had  been  barricaded  and 
loopholed,  and  provided  with 
sand-bag  parapets.  Five  hun- 
dred yards  west  of  the  northern 
corner  was  the  Casa  Mata,  a 
strong,  square,  stone  building, 
also  prepared  for  defence.  Be- 
tween these  positions  the  Mex- 
icans had  planted  a  four-gun 
battery,  and  stretched  a  line 
of  infantry.  When  he  sent 
Worth's  division,  on  the  even- 

ing of  the  7th,  to  destroy  the  supposed  foundry,  Scott  was  not  aware 
that  the  enemy  had  occupied  the  position  in  force.  When  Worth 
discovered  this  he  asked  that  he  might  delay  the  attack  till  sunrise  of 
the  8th,  and  extend  the  operation  so  as  to  include  the  capture  of 
Chapultepec.  To  the  first  request  Scott  assented  ;  the  other  he  de- 
clined. His  purpose  was  to  enter  the  city  by  the  south,  and  he 
therefore  considered  the  castle  of  no  importance,  as  it  only  com- 
manded the  western  approach. 

Scott  supposed  the  fight  for  the  Molino  would  be  but  a  skirmish  ; 
Worth  knew  it  would  be  a  desperate  struggle.  His  plan  was,  to 
pierce  the  Mexican  centre,  while  making  strong  movements  against 
the  flanks.  Garland's  brigade  and  two  field-pieces  were  to  advance 
and  cut  off  support  from  Chapultepec.  On  the  left  of  these,  two 


Winfield  Scott. 


1847.]  WAR  WITH   MEXICO.  381 

twenty-four  pounders  were  to  be  supported  by  a  light  battalion. 
Five  hundred  picked  men,  under  Major  Wright,  were  to  storm  the 
battery  in  the  Mexican  centre.  A  brigade  under  Lieutenant-colonel 
M'Intosh,  with  a  battery,  was  to  attack  the  Casa  Mata.  And  the 
cavalry  were  to  form  on  the  extreme  left,  under  Major  Sumner.  Cad- 
wallader's  brigade  formed  the  reserve.  All  these  positions  were 
taken  while  it  was  yet  dark,  on  the  morning  of  the  8th.  A  little 
after  three  o'clock  the  twenty-four  pounders  sent  their  shot  crash- 
ing through  the  walls  of  the  Molino,  and  a  few  minutes  later  the 
storm  ing-party  advanced  toward  the  point  where  the  battery  had 
been  observed  the  day  before.  But  its  place  had  been  changed,  and 
the  first  appearance  of  life  in  the  enemy  was  when  it  suddenly  opened 
on  the  flank  of  the  five  hundred,  with  round  shot  and  grape.  A 
rush  was  made  for  it,  and  the  gunners  were  driven  back,  but  in  the 
face  of  the  infantry  fire  at  once  concentrated  on  the  captors,  it  could 
not  be  held.  Eleven  of  the  fourteen  officers  in  the  storming-party 
fell,  and  almost  a  like  proportion  of  the  rank  and  file.  The  re- 
mainder retreated,  while  the  Mexicans  came  forward  and  deliberately 
killed  every  wounded  man  on  the  ground,  save  two. 

The  light  battalion  advanced  through  the  shattered  ranks  of  the 
storming-party  to  renew  the  assault;  and  as  the  Mexicans  were  at  the 
same  time  attacked  on  the  flank  by  Garland's  brigade,  they  fell 
back.  One  company,  finding  shelter  under  the  edge  of  a  low  bank, 
acted  as  sharpshooters  to  clear  the  flat  roofs.  Drum's  battery  was 
run  forward  to  a  position  where  it  could  rake  the  Mexican  battery  at 
close  range,  and,  with  the  aid  of  a  steady  infantry  fire,  soon  drove 
away  the  gunners  and  their  support,  and  the  guns  were  seized.  The 
fighting  on  this  part  of  the  field  then  became  a  struggle  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  Molino.  General  Leon  led  a  spirited  but  unsuccess- 
ful sortie,  in  which  he  was  mortally  wounded.  While  the  sharp- 
shooters were  picking  off  the  men  who  ventured  upon  the  roof,  and 
Drum's  battery  was  pounding  at  the  walls,  parties  of  infantry  sur- 
rounding the  building  were  firing  in  at  the  windows  and  trying  to 
pry  open  or  batter  down  the  gates.  At  last  the  southern  gate  gave 
way,  and  the  assailants  poured  in,  but  only  to  renew  the  fight  inside 
with  bayonet  and  sword.  In  this  desperate  conflict  Worth  lost  a 
large  number  of  the  very  flower  of  his  forces.  At  last  the  surviving 
Mexicans  retreated  to  Chapultepec,  —  all  but  seven  hundred,  who 
being  on  the  roof,  with  no  escape,  surrendered. 

On  the  left,  Duncan's  battery  and  M'Intoslfs  brigade  advanced 
against  the  enemy,  but  were  received  with  a  murderous  fire  from  a 
low  embankment,  from  the  Avorks,  and  from  the  Casa  Mata.  M'In- 
tosh fell  mortally  wounded  ;  his  successor  in  command  was  shot  dead, 


382 


PROGRESS  OF  SOUTHERN  RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


and  the  next  officer  was  soon  disabled.  The  men  had  approached 
within  thirty  yards  of  the  Casa  Mata,  and  had  suffered  accordingly. 
A  large  portion  of  the  survivors  fell  back  ;  a  remnant  still  kept  up 
the  struggle.  At  this  point  in  the  action,  Santa  Anna  sent  cavalry 
and  infantry  against  the  American  left ;  but  they  were  driven  back. 
The  whole  artillery  was  then  brought  to  bear  upon  the  walls  of  the 
Casa  Mata  and  the  surrounding  works,  which  the  Mexicans  were  soon 
compelled  to  abandon.  A  few  old  cannon-moulds  were  found  inside 
the  Molino,  but  there  was  no  foundry.  Except  as  an  outpost  to  Cha- 
pultepec,  it  had  no  strategic  value,  and  Scott's  orders  positively  for- 
bade Worth  to  take  Chapultepec.  In  fact,  after  the  prisoners  were 


Chapultepec. 


secured,  and  the  American  dead  and  wounded  removed,  Worth,  by 
Scott's  order,  drew  back  his  whole  command,  and  left  to  the  enemy 
the  field  that  had  been  won  at  so  dear  a  price.  About  three  thousand 
five  hundred  Americans  had  been  actually  in  the  fight,  and  seven  hun- 
dred and  eighty-seven  had  fallen,  including  fifty-nine  officers. 

Near  the  eastern  end  of  an  enclosure  a  mile  long  and  one  third  of 
a  mile  wide,  rises  the  rock  of  Chapultepec,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  high,  bearing  the  great  castle,  once  the  palace  of  a 
Spanish  viceroy,  now  a  military  school.  The  northern  side  was  abso- 
lutely inaccessible ;  the  eastern  and  a  portion  of  the  southern,  nearly 
so ;  the  southwestern  and  western  could  be  scaled.  The  regular  ac- 
cess was  by  a  long  zigzag  road  on  the  southern  side,  which  was  swept 


Chapultepec. 


1847.]  WAR   WITH   MEXICO.  383 

by  a  battery  planted  in  its  angle.  The  crest  of  the  rock  was  strongly 
fortified,  and  the  castle  had  been  provided  with  sand-bag  parapets. 
The  grounds  around  it  were  broken  by  walls,  aqueducts,  and  ditches. 
The  southern  line  of  the  enclosure  was  a  long,  heavy  stone  wall,  with 
a  redan  at  its  central  point.  The  northern  side  was  formed  by  an 
aqueduct  whose  arches  had  been  filled  up  with  masonry.  The  Mo- 
lino  del  Rey  was  the  western  side.  From  the  great  gate  on  the  east 
two  divergent  causeways  led  into  the  city  of  Mexico.  The  place  was 
garrisoned  by  two  thousand  men  ;  thirteen  heavy  guns  were  mounted 
to  be  used  in  its  defence,  two  to  sweep  the  main  approach.  After 
many  reconnoissances  it  was  determined,  in  a  council  of  war,  that  the 
castle  must  be  reduced  before  the  city  could  be  taken. 

When  a  bombardment  from  three  heavy  batteries  had  proved  that 
the  place  could  not  be  reduced  by  artillery  fire  alone,  a  select  party 
advanced  at  a  run  and  seized  the  Molino, — Captain  Joseph  Hooker 
having  first  approached  alone,  and  found  that  it  was  unoccupied,  — 
and  at  night  Pillow  tln*ew  his  whole  force  into  it.  Then  at  dawn  of 
the  loth,  fire  was  reopened  upon  the  castle,  and  upon  the  Storming  of 
Mexican  lines  south  of  the  city.  At  eight  o'clock  the  iiifan-  c^P"116?6*- 
try  advanced.  A  fire  from  a  light  battery  was  directed  across  the  re- 
dan that  covered  an  opening  in  the  southern  wall  of  the  enclosure ; 
and  when  the  defenders  had  sought  shelter,  a  battalion  of  voltigeurs  and 
a  storm  ing-party  rushed  upon  the  redan,  went  over  the  works  in  the 
face  of  a  musketry  fire,  advanced  through  the  grounds  of  the  enclos- 
ure, and  took  in  reverse  the  in  frenchmen  ts  that  crossed  it  facing  the 
Molino.  At  the  same  time  a  similar  force,  rushing  from  the  Molino, 
had  assaulted  these  intrenchments  in  front.  The  two  forces  united, 
and,  using  the  shelter  of  the  trees,  which  here  formed  a  large  grove, 
gradually  pressed  back  the  Mexicans. 

Reenforced  by  a  storming-party,  the  combined  forces  pushed  up  the 
hill.  Its  western  slope  was  filled  with  mines,  but  the  Mexican  offi- 
cer, as  he  was  about  to  explode  them,  was  shot  down.  The  as- 
sailants gained  the  crest  in  spite  of  the  plunging  fire  from  a  work 
at  that  point  and  from  the  castle.  The  scaling-ladders  not  being 
at  hand,  they  took  shelter  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks,  and  employed 
the  interval  in  picking  off  the  Mexican  artillerymen.  At  the  same 
time  a  regiment  passed  around  the  northern  front  of  the  rock  to 
cut  off  the  Mexicans  who  were  letting  themselves  down  the  almost 

o 

perpendicular  eastern  face.  When  at  length  the  ladders  arrived  the 
walls  were  rapidly  scaled,  in  face  of  a  destructive  fire ;  and  Cap- 
tain Howard,  with  a  considerable  force,  safely  gained  the  parapet. 
Ladders  were  thrown  across  the  ditch,  and  the  whole  force  on  the 
western  side  joined  their  comrades.  Meanwhile  another  storming- 


384  PROGRESS   OF   SOUTHERN  RULE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

party  had  climbed  up  the  southern  slope,  pushed  up  the  main  road, 
running  over  the  small  work  at  the  angle  with  two  guns,  entered  at 
the  great  gate,  and  joined  the  other  party.  The  whole  castle  was 
now  occupied  by  the  Americans,  and  their  fire  was  directed  upon  the 
lower  batteries.  The  enemy  was  dislodged,  and  the  way  was  opened 
for  the  advance  of  Quitman's  troops  through  the  grounds,  who  took 
a  large  number  of  prisoners  as  they  fled  from  the  castle. 

It  only  remained  to  pursue  the  flying  enemy  into  the  city,  and 
capture  of  take  possession  of  the  capital.  But  this  was  still  a  difficult 
task.  The  approach  was  by  two  roads ;  one  to  the  Belen 
gate,  the  other  to  the  San  Cosme,  each  along  an  aqueduct  supported 
on  stone  arches.  Quitman's  infantry  fought  their  way  slowly  from 
ai'ch  to  arch,  toward  the  Belen,  sheltered  by  the  piers ;  but  the  artil- 
lery, advancing  by  the  open  road,  was  more  exposed  and  suffered 
heavy  loss.  At  last  the  Mexicans  were  pressed  back  into  the  city, 
and  Quitman's  whole  command  entered  the  first  work.  Here  he 
confronted  the  citadel,  where  Santa  Anna  commanded,  and  a  fire  so 
terrible  swept  all  approaches,  that  further  advance  was  impossible. 

On  the  San  Cosme  road  a  detachment  under  Colonel  Trousdale, 
fighting  the  Mexicans  while  the  storming  of  the  castle  was  going  on, 
had  cleared  the  first  barricade.  Worth's  column  now  followed  up 
this  advantage,  and  pursued  the  enemy  to  a  second  barricade,  at  an 
angle  in  the  aqueduct.  This  was  assaulted  by  two  advanced  parties, 
—  one  operating  directly  in  front,  under  Lieutenant  Gore,  the  other 
to  the  left,  under  Lieutenant  U.  S.  Grant.  It  was  soon  carried,  and 
the  Mexicans  retired  into  the  suburb.  As  soon  as  Worth's  column 
could  be  concentrated,  the  advance  was  continued.  But  it  was  hard 
fighting  and  slow  work.  When  they  arrived  at  the  suburb,  one  bri- 
gade passed  through  the  arches,  to  the  right  of  the  aqueduct,  and 
then  all  began  breaking  their  way  through  the  walls  of  the  houses. 
The  fortunate  discovery  of  a  quantity  of  engineering  tools  greatly 
facilitated  this  work.  As  the  Americans  gained  possession  of  one 
building  after  another,  howitzers  were  hauled  to  the  roofs,  and  served 
upon  the  main  gate,  which  at  last  was  carried  with  a  charge,  by  a 
storm  ing-party  under  Captain  McKenzie. 

It  was  now  nightfall.     The  Mexicans  held  a  council  of  war  in  the 

O 

citadel  and  determined  to  withdraw  their  army  from  the  city,  liber- 
ate the  convicts  in  the  prisons,  arm  them,  and  instigate  these  and  the 
inhabitants  to  a  war  from  the  house-tops,  as  a  last  desperate  measure. 
But  before  morning  a  deputation  from  the  civil  authorities  appeared 
at  Worth's  headquarters  and  proposed  a  capitulation.  Scott,  consid- 
ering that  the  city  was  already  his,  refused  to  grant  any  terms.  At 
dawn,  Quitman  found  the  citadel  abandoned,  inarched  to  the  grand 


1848.] 


THE  WILMOT  PROVISO. 


385 


plaza,  and  occupied  the  palace.  An  hour  or  two  later,  General  Scott 
took  up  his  headquarters  there.  Presently  gangs  made  up  of  the  lib- 
erated convicts,  deserters,  leperos,  and  thieves  began  firing  upon  the 
soldiers  from  the  houses,  and  casting  down  the  paving-stones  which 
had  been  carried  up  in  immense  numbers  and  stacked  in  convenient 
piles  upon  the  flat  roofs.  It  became  necessary  to  sweep  the  streets 
with  grape  and  canister,  and  to  turn  the  artillery  upon  some  of  the 
houses,  after  which  they  were  given  up  to  plunder.  By  the  morning 
of  the  15th,  order  was  restored,  hospitals  were  established,  and  the 


The  Plaza  6f  the  City  of  Mexico. 

American  commander  was  in  quiet  possession  of  the  capital  of  the 
country. 

The  treaties  which  ended  the  war  gave  to  the  United  States,  not 
only  Texas,  the  apple  of  discord,  but  New  Mexico,  California,  and 
Arizona.  The  old  question  instantly  arose,  Should  these  be  slave  ter- 
ritories or  free  ?  David  Wilmot,  a  Democratic  Representative  from 
Pennsylvania,  had  moved,  as  early  as  1846,  that,  in  all  territory  ac- 
quired from  Mexico,  slavery  should  be  prohibited.  So  hot  was  the  pres- 
sure behind  Democratic  members  of  Congress  at  their  homes,  that, 
when  Mr.  Wilmot  introduced  this  "  Proviso  "  it  commanded  almost 
every  Northern  Democratic  vote.  As  the  war  went  on,  the  The  Wilmot 
division  of  the  Democratic  party  became  evidently  incura-  Proviso- 
ble.  At  the  Democratic  Convention  to  name  a  President  in  Mav, 

«/    * 

1848,  one   branch  of  the  double  Democratic  delegation   from  New 

VOL.  iv.  25 


386 


PROGRESS   OF    SOUTHERN   RULE. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


The  election 

1481 


York  insisted  on  the  "  Wilraot  Proviso."  The  Convention  proposed 
to  them  that  they  should  divide  the  vote  of  New  York  with  the  rival 
delegation.  This  they  refused  to  do,  and  retired.  The  field  was  left 
to  Democrats  who  opposed  the  Proviso,  and  General  Cuss  was  nomi- 
nated. 

The  Whigs,  at  their  convention,  passed  by  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Web- 
ster,  so  long  the  leaders  of  their  party,  and  nominated  Gen- 
eral  Taylor  of  Louisiana,  the  hero  of  the  war  just  ended. 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  who  had  yielded  to  the  decision  of  his  party  four 
years  before,  and  had  canvassed  New  York  for  his  successful  rival, 
was  now  named  —  with  Charles  Francis  Adams  as  candidate  for  the 
second  office  —  as  the  candidate  of  the  "  Wilmot  Proviso"  men,  who 
took  the  name  of  the  "  Free-Soil  Party."  Van  Buren  received  more 
than  half  of  the  Democratic  votes  of  New  York  ;  Cass  came  third  ; 
General  Taylor  received  the  plurality  vote  of  the  State,  and  was 
elected  by  the  country.  New  York  again  justified  her  name  as  the 
41  Empire  State."  The  electoral  votes  were  163  for  General  Taylor, 
127  for  General  Cass.  Of  the  popular  vote  General  Taylor  liud 
1,360,101  ;  General  Cass  1,220,544  ;  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  291,263. 
So  important  a  factor  had  the  u  Free  Democracy  "  already  become. 

In  the  short  session  which  followed  General  Taylor's  election,  he- 
fore  he  assumed  office,  Calhoun  organized  a  series  of  meetings  of 
caihoun's  slaveholding  members  of  Congress,  which  were  attended  by 
manifesto.  seventy  or  eighty  members.  Calhoun,  as  chairman  of  a  sub- 
committee, reported  an  address,  which  was  signed  by  forty-eight  Sen- 
ators and  Representatives.  It  denied  the  power  of  Congress  to  ex- 
clude slavery  from  California  and  the  other  new  Territories.  Nor  did 
it  stop  here,  for  it  denied  the  power  of  the  legislatures  or  inhabitants 
of  the  Territories  to  exclude  it.  The  South  was  to  hold  no  connection 
with  any  party  at  the  North  not  prepared  to  enforce  the  Constitu- 
tional guarantees  in  favor  of  the  South.  Among  the  failures  of  the 
North  to  do  this,  was  named  the  neglect  to  enforce  the  old  Fugitive- 
Slave  Law. 


Site  of  San  Francisco,  in  1848. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   COMPROMISES   OF    1850. 

ELECTION  OF  TAYLOR  TO  THE  PRESIDENCY.  —  CALIFORNIA. —  DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD. — 
THE  COMPROMISES  OF  1850.  —  THE  NEW  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW. —  ADMINISTRA- 
TION OF  FlLLMORE.  —  ELECTION  OF  PlERCE.  —  DOUGLAS'S  KANSAS  -  NEBRASKA 

BJLL. —  REPEAL  OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  KANSAS. — 
MASSACHUSETTS  EMIGRANT  AID  SOCIETY. —  REEDER  APPOINTED  GOVERNOR. — IN- 
VASION OF  KANSAS  BY  "BORDER  RUFFIANS." 

IN  February,  1848,  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Mexico  —  the  Treaty 
of    Guadalupe    Hidalgo  —  was  concluded.     Almost  at  the 

Discovery  of 


same  hour  the  discovery  of  gold  was  made  in  California.  On 
the  ranch  of  Colonel  Sutter,  a  Swiss  emigrant,  who  had 
lived  for  many  years  in  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento,  some  laborers 
were  opening  a  trench,  for  conducting  water  to  a  mill.  They  turned 
up  earth,  which  may  be  precisely  described  in  the  words  of  Shel- 
vocke,  used  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  years  before,  "  black  earth 
spangled  with  gold."  If  any  effort  was  made  to  keep  the  discovery 
secret,  that  effort  was  futile.  It  was  soon  known  that  the  alluvial 
deposits  of  that  great  river  —  and  as  it  afterwards  proved,  of  other 
waters  flowing  from  the  Sierra  Nevada  —  were  largely  charged  with 
gold.  The  only  wonder  was,  that  it  had  not  been  discovered  before. 
In  1844,  the  crew  of  the  United  States  ship  Peacock,  with  the  geol- 


388 


THK   COMPROMISES   OF   1850. 


[CHAI-.  XV. 


ogist  of  the  exploring  expedition  to  which  she  had  belonged,  passed 
down  this  very  valley  to  San  Francisco,  encamping  every  night  upon 
the  placers,  or  gold-dust  beds,  now  known  to  be  invaluable.  Similar 
experiences  are  related  by  officers  and  soldiers  who  served  in  the 
war.  But  none  of  these  pioneers  had  discovered  gold.  The  sugges- 
tion has  been  made  that  Jesuits  and  Franciscans  both  had  made  the 
great  discovery,  but  had 
withheld  it  from  civiliza- 
tion, in  dread  of  the  mis- 
eries it  would  inflict  upon 
the  province  and  upon  man- 
kind. But  those  fraterni- 


Sutler's   Mill. 

ties  have  shown  no  other  instances  of  such  timidity.     The  truth'  is, 

that  the  discovery  by  Slitter's  workmen  was  a  surprise  to  all  mankind. 

A   tide   of  emigration   immediately   set  in   upon  California,  from 

all  parts  of  the  world.  Its  population,  including  the  In- 
to caiifor-  dians  who  had  taken  up  fields,  was  estimated  at  15,000  when 

the  century  began.  It  was  not  much  larger  in  1846,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Mexican  war.  But  before  the  census  of  Septem- 
ber, 1850,  it  numbered  92,597.  By  far  the  larger  part  of  this  increase 
•was  due  to  the  emigration  consequent  upon  the  discovery  of  gold, 
and  it  came  chiefly  from  the  northwestern  and  northeastern  States. 
From  the  West,  adventurers  in  great  numbers  went  with  their 
cattle  and  horses,  by  routes  till  then  scarcely  known,  through  the 
passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierras.  From  the  East,  men 
Avent  round  Cape  Horn,  or  by  the  route  till  then  little  used  for  two 
centuries,  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

So  large  a  population  as  this,  of  people  mostly  bred  in  the  United 
States,  was  naturally  not  satisfied  without  a  government  of  its  own. 


1849.]  CALIFORXIA.  389 

The  new  administration  of  President  Taylor  eagerly  seconded  its 
wishes.  The  President  despatched  an  agent  to  California,  imme- 
diately after  his  inauguration,  urging  the  people  to  apply  for  admis- 
sion as  a  State.  He  felt  that  such  an  application  would  so  far  relieve 
Congress  from  the  exciting  slave  question  as  to  its  position  while 
a  Territory.  General  Riley,  the  military  commander,  issued  a  proc- 
lamation on  the  3d  of  June,  1849,  calling  a  convention  to  make  a 
State  constitution.  This  Convention  met,  prepared  a  constitution 
for  the  new  State,  and  sent  it  to  Washington  for  approval.  All 
this  was  done  without  an  "  Enabling  Act,"  or  provision  by  Admission 
Congress  for  such  a  convention.  The  constitution  was  a-"aState- 
so  far  made  under  the  influence  of  the  Northern  settlers  that  slavery 
in  the  new  State  was  forever  prohibited. 

By  this  overture  to  California  the  policy  of  General  Taylor  may 
be  well  enough  discerned.  He,  and  a  group  of  men  around 
him,  were  hoping  against  hope,  perhaps,  that  the  slavery  iwte* 
questions  might  be  "  tided  over,"  that  they  might  adjust 
themselves  one  by  one,  without  Congressional  action.  If  California 
could  arrange  her  own  matters,  if  New  Mexico  could  be  left  to  the 
old  Mexican  law,  and  all  territory  north  of  the  line  of  36°  30'  left  to 
the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820,  there  would  be  no  vacant  terri- 
tory open  for  the  application  of  the  "  Wilrr.ot  Proviso,"  which  at  this 
time  was  the  embarrassing  question  to  both  parties  in  Congress.  For 
the  other  territories,  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  acquired  from  Mexico, 
the  President  recommended  that  they  should  be  left  under  Mexican 
law.  This  disposition  of  the  question  irritated  the  Southern  members 
of  Congress  of  both  parties.  But  it  was  readily  accepted  by  such 
men  as  Mr.  Seward,  the  Senator  from  New  York,  and  by  the  other 
Northern  statesmen  who  opposed  the  extension  of  slavery. 

When  the  new  Congress  met  in  December,  1849,  the  composition 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  showed  at  once  that  the  Partieg  in 
sway  of  the  old  parties  must  be  modified.  Although  Gen-  Coneres«- 
eral  Taylor  had  a  decided  majority  in  the  Electoral  College,1  he  was 
in  a  minority  of  the  popular  vote,  having  received  but  1,360,101 
votes  out  of  a  total  of  2,871,908.  The  Free-Soil  party  had  given 
291,263  votes  for  Mr.  Van  Buren.  The  strength  of  this  third  party 
showed  itself  in  the  House,  and  at  the  same  time  there  appeared  an 
unwillingness  in  Southern  members  to  ally  themselves  with  the  Whig 
party  in  any  measures  which  seemed  to  run  counter  to  the  interest 
of  slavery.  All  the  elements  of  discord  showed  themselves  in  the 
election  of  Speaker.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts,  the  Whig 
Speaker  in  the  last  Congress,  was  again  the  candidate  of  his  party. 
1  163  Electoral  votes,  to  127  given  for  General  Cass. 


390 


THE   COMPROMISES   OF   1850. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


But  the  Free-Soil  members  were  not  satisfied  with  his  record,  while 
at  the  same  time  five  Southern  Whigs  refused  to  vote  for  him.  In 
thirty-eight  ballots,  therefore,  he  failed  to  receive  the  support  of 
either  of  the  extremes  of  those  nominally  connected  with  the  Whig 
party,  and  he  withdrew  his  name  after  the  thirty-ninth  ballot.  Mr. 
Brown,  a  Democratic  member  from  Indiana,  had  received  in  that 
ballot  a  larger  mimber  of  votes  than  any  other  candidate.  Some  of 
the  Free-Soil  members,  having  received  from  him  an  assurance  that 

he  would  constitute 
the  committees  on 
the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, the  Judici- 
ary, and  the  Ter- 
ritories so  as  to  be 
satisfactory  to  them, 
voted  for  him  on  the 
fortieth  ballot.  He 
failed  of  an  election 
by  two  votes  only. 
So  close  an  approach 
to  an  alliance  be- 

t  \vccn  the  Demo- 
(.,,irs  ;in(]  the  Free. 

Soil  members 
alarmed  the  South- 
ern portion  of  both 
parties.  They  unit- 
ed so  far  as  to  carry 
a  vote  that  a  plural- 
ity should  elect.  On 
the  next  trial,  How- 

ell  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  received  one  hundred  and  two  votes.     Mr.  Win- 

throp  received  one  hundred  only. 

Standing  committees  which  would  protect  to  the  utmost  the  extreme 

Southern  interest  were  thus  secured.    This  issue  of  a  long  and  heated 

controversy  was  even  less  important  than  the  discussion  which  accom- 
panied it.     Southern  members  of  both   parties  not  merely 

Slavery  in  * 

made  threats  of  dissolution,  but  declared  that  the  Union 
would  virtually  be  dissolved  if  slavery  were  suppressed  in 
the  Territories.  The  steadiness  with  which  this  threat  was  uttered, 
and  the  desire  of  the  friends  of  the  Union,  as  men  between  the  ex- 
tremes began  to  call  themselves,  to  avert  such  an  issue,  can  alone 
account  for  the  abatement  of  the  zeal  of  a  large  number  of  North- 


Zachary  Taylor. 


1850.]  CLAY'S  RESOLUTIONS.  391 

ern  members.  On  the  fourth  of  February,  1850,  Mr.  Root's  resolu- 
tion, prohibiting  slavery  in  the  new  Territories,  was  laid  on  the  table 
by  a  majority  of  twenty-six.  Only  five  weeks  before,  a  motion  to  the 
same  effect  had  been  rejected.  Forty  votes  had  been  changed  in  the 
mean  while.  So  far  as  men  justified  this  change,  it  was  on  the  ground 
that  the  question  was  really  settled  without  the  prohibitory  proviso, 
and  that  the  preservation  of  the  Union  was  the  overruling  neces- 
sity. But,  whatever  the  form  of  the  justification,  the  truth  was  that 
the  solid  front  offered  by  Southern  statesmen  of  all  parties  alarmed 
the  more  timid  of  the  Northern  Representatives. 

In  the  midst  of  the  excitement  which  showed  itself  every  day,  Mr. 
Clay,  who  had  returned  to  the  Senate,  offered  himself  once  more  as 
the  conciliator  of  extreme  views,  as  he  had  done  in  1820  and  in  1833. 
He  was  now  to  make  his  last  appearance  in  public  life  in  an  attempt 
to  assuage  a  greater  storm  than  he  had  dealt  with  on  those  two  pre- 
vious occasions.     As  if  by  way  of  preparation   for  this  new  effort, 
he  had,  in  his  own  State,  recently  offered  a  proposal  for  the  extinction 
of  slavery.     Kentucky  was  making  a  new  Constitution,  and  Mr.  Clay 
tested  his  own  power  with  the  community  which  was  so  proud  of 
him,  by  public  expressions  that  condemned,  in  principle,  the  system 
of  slavery.     In  a  letter  written  in  February,  1849,  he  de- 
nounced the  doctrine  that  "  slavery  was  a  blessing,"  and  ««•>"  pro- 
he  proposed  a  gradual  emancipation,  with  the  condition  that  Kentucky 
all  slaves  born  after   1855  or  1860  should  be  made  free 
when  they  were  twenty-five  years  old,  and  be  colonized  in  Africa. 
The  scheme  was  absurdly  impossible.     The  only  result  of  it  was  a 
more  decisive  victory  of  the  friends  of  slavery  in  the  Kentucky  con- 
vention than  they  dared  expect.     But  the  occasion  had  shown  that 
Mr.  Clay  did  not  choose  to  be  counted  among  those  extreme  adher- 
ents of  the  system  of  slavery,  who,  by  a  certain  felicity  of  colloquial 
expression,  now   began   to    be    called    '•  Fire-eaters."      He 
availed  himself  of  his  position  on  the  29th  of  January,  1850,  misesof 
by  introducing  eight  resolutions  which  he  offered  as  a  com- 
promise on  all  pending  issues.    These  resolutions  were  meant  to  cover 
all  the  open  questions.      They  admitted  California  without  restric- 
tion.    They  established  territorial  governments  without  conditions 
regarding  slavery.     They  carried  the  boundary  of  Texas  to  the  Rio 
Grande,  providing  for  her  debt  "  to  a  limited  extent,"  on  condition 
that  she  relinquished  her  claim  to  New  Mexico.      They  declared  it 
inexpedient  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  they 
prohibited  the  introduction  of  slaves  into  the  District  for  merchan- 
dise or  ti-ansportation.     They  made  more  effectual  provision  for  the 
recovery  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  they  declared  that  Congress  had  no 


392  THE   COMPROMISES   OF    1850.  [CHAP.  XV. 

power  to  obstruct  the  trade  in  slaves  between  the  States.  On  these 
resolutions,  and  on  other  measures  already  before  the  Senate,  a  de- 
bate sprang  up,  which  really  lasted,  with  little  break,  until  Con- 
gress adjourned  in  September. 

General  Taylor  and  his  Cabinet  were  hoping,  from  the  beginning, 
to  hold  to  a  course  between  extremes,  and  the  President  did  not  look 
with  particular  favor  on  Mr.  Clay's  efforts  at  conciliation.  Perhaps  he 
thought  it  would  have  been  better  for  the  country  had  they  not  been 
made.  The  majority  of  the  Whig  representatives  of  free  States  in  the 
Webster  s  Senate  and  the  House,  were  willing  to  go  with  the  Presi- 
pooition.  (jent  ag  £ar  as  j)e  wen^  but  no  farther.  When,  therefore, 

Mr.  Clay  went  beyond  him  in  the  compromise  plan,  and  when  Mr. 
Webster  joined  him,  as  he  did  in  a  speech  which  became  celebrated, 
on  the  7th  of  March,  Mr.  Seward  of  New  York,  who  had  steadily 
represented  the  Northern  sentiment,  became  really  the  leader  of  the 
friends  of  the  Administration  in  the  Senate.  General  Taylor  did  not 
take  kindly  the  unwillingness  of  the  leaders  of  his  own  party  in  the 
Senate  to  support  his  plan  ;  but  it  was  not  the  first  time,  nor  the  last, 
•when  a  President  has  found  that  the  leaders  of  his  party,  in  Senate  or 
in  House,  cared  little  for  his  policy  or  his  suggestions. 

Mr.  Webster's  course,  in  supporting  the  resolutions  of  Mr.  Clay,  ex- 
cited great  indignation  among  his  constituents,  great  surprise  among 
many  of  his  friends,  and  was,  indeed,  a  crisis  in  his  life.1  When,  in 
Mr.  Tyler's  time,  he  became  acquainted  with  the  details  of  the  plan 
for  annexing  Texas,  he  tried,  in  private,  to  arouse  his  friends  in  the 
Whig  party  to  the  danger  which  the  North  would  incur  in  such  an 
enlargement  of  the  country.  Undoubtedly  he  was  disappointed,  not 
to  say  angered,  by  the  reception  which  was  then  given  to  his  efforts 
by  men  of  character  and  influence  at  the  North.  It  would  seem  as  if 

«/ 

he  persuaded  himself  that  the  favorable  opportunity  had  then  been 
lost ;  and  he  determined  that  he  would  not  attempt  again  to  sac- 
rifice himself  to  create  a  national  feeling  in  communities  which  had 
once  failed  to  respond  to  his  wish.  If  they  would  not  follow  when  he 
led,  he  would  not  lead  at  all.  When  in  the  spring  of  1850  he  had 
to  determine  whether  he  would  sustain  Mr.  Clay's  system  of  com- 
promise, or  take  the  side  which  Mr.  Seward  took,  in  resolute  sup- 
port of  all  measures  which  would  arrest  the  extension  of  slavery,  this 
old  dissatisfaction  probably  acted  on  his  mind.2  From  the  memoirs  of 
gentlemen  prominent  in  maintaining  the  Northern  policy,  it  appears 
that  they  were  confident  of  Mr.  Webster's  support.  And  when  in 

1  Mr.  Adams,  however,  wrote  iu   his  Diary  as  early  as  1843  :  "  Daniel   Webster  is  a 
heartless  traitor  to  the  cause  of  human  freedom." 

2  See,  for  details,  Wilson's  Slave  Power  in  America,  vol.  ii.,  241. 


1850.] 


WEBSTER'S   POSITIOX. 


393 


a  speech  carefully  considered,  and  pronounced  with  all  the  dignity 
which  belonged  to  a  great  crisis,  lie  abandoned  them  and  theirs,  when 
afterward  he  told  Massachusetts  even  that  she  must  "conquer  her 
prejudices,"  they  were  personally  indignant, —  as  if  a  tried  compan- 
ion had  deserted  them,  —  while  they  lamented  the  loss  In(lj|rnatinn 
which  the  true  policy  of  the  country  had  sustained.  Thev  agai"st  '"'"• 
thought,  and  the  country  thought,  that  Mr.  Webster  was  consumed 
by  the  ambitious  hope  of 
becoming  President.  If  the 
motives  of  public  men  may 
ever  be  judged  of,  this  be- 
lief in  regard  to  Mr.  Web- 
ster was  true.  It  did  not 
need  even  his  great  sagac- 

c  o 

ity  to  see  that  thus  far  in 
the  history  of  the  country, 
the  Southern  road  was  the 
road  to  power.  His  green- 
est laurels  had  been  won  as 
the  defender  of  the  Consti- 
tution. Every  representa- 
tive of  Southern  opinion, 
from  Calhoun  down  to  the 
meanest  of  the  disciples  at 
his  feet,  was  proclaiming 
disunion,  and  if  the  Union 
was  to  be  preserved,  it  must 
be,  Mr.  Webster  thought,  on  their  own  terms.  Perhaps  he  would 
have  preferred  that  it  should  be  saved  for  the  sake  of  freedom ;  but  he 
had  no  convictions  upon  the  question  of  slavery  that  could  prevent  his 
accepting  the  other  alternative,  especially  if  it  might  give  him  the 
Presidency,  as  well  as  save  the  Union.  Anti-slavery  principles  now 
seemed  to  him  only  sentimental  and  morbid  prejudices.  He  would 
not  or  could  not  see  that  the  question  was  not  simply  one  of  the  own- 
ership of  black  men,  but  of  the  supremacy  of  an  ill-born,  ill-bred,  un- 
educated, and  brutal  handful  of  slaveholders  over  a  people  of  a  higher 
strain  of  blood,  with  centuries  of  gentle  breeding,  and  a  high  degree 
of  moral  and  intellectual  cultivation  behind  them.  He  undervalued 
the  power  in  the  long  run  of  those  "  prejudices  "  which  he  bade  the 
Massachusetts  people  conquer,  —  prejudices  created,  he  said,  "by  the 
din  and  roll  and  rub-a-dub  of  Abolition  presses  and  Abolition  lectur- 
ers, beaten  every  month,  every  day,  and  every  hour''  as  an  appeal  to 
the  feelings  of  the  North. 


Daniel  Webster. 


394  THE   COMPROMISES   OF    1850.  [CHAP.  XV. 

Mr.  Calhoun,  the  third  of  the  trio  of  statesmen  of  another  genera- 
tion, was  also  in  the  Senate.  But  he  was  dying.  A  speech  written 
by  him  on  the  issues  before  the  country,  was  read  by  Mr.  Mason  of 
Virginia.  This  Senator  had  prepared  the  bill  for  the  more  effectual 
surrender  of  fugitive  slaves,  which,  as  the  result  proved,  was  the 
most  odious  measure  to  the  people  of  the  North  ever  passed  by  Con- 
gress. Mr.  Calhoun  died  on  the  31st  of  March,  1850. 

So  much  power  had  the  various  agencies  brought  to  bear  in  these 

great  debates,  that  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  which  had  a  ma- 
Adoption  of    °    .  '  . 

compromi.se  jontv  in  tlie  House  when  the  session  began,  was  defeated,  as 
lias  been  said,  on  the  4th  of  Februai-y,  by  a  vote  which 
showed  a  change  in  forty  members.  Mr.  Clay's  eight  resolutions 
did  not  pass  Congress  in  the  form  in  which  they  were  drawn.  But 
bills  based  upon  their  principles,  worked  their  slow  way  through  a 
session  which  lasted  through  the  heat  of  summer  into  September. 
As  that  hot  summer  of  excitement  passed,  the  body  of  Northern 
statesmen  lost  such  strength  as  they  had  gained  from  the  midway 
Death  of  policy  of  General  Taylor  and  his  Cabinet.  The  President 
died  suddenly  on  the  9th  of  July,  and  the  Vice-president, 
Millard  Fillmore,  succeeded  him.  General  Taylor  had  the  advantage, 
in  any  measures  of  conciliation,  of  being  a  Southern  man  and  a  slave- 
holder. He  was  determined  to  support  the  Union,  and  had  said  that 
if  any  State  left  it,  he  would  lead  the  army  which  should  reduce  it 
to  submission,  and  that  for  this  army  he  would  not  ask  for  one  North- 
ern man.  He  and  his  Cabinet  would  probably  have  been  as  well 
pleased  if  Mr.  Clay  had  not  lent  his  influence  to  measures  so  odious 
as  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  of  Mr.  Mason.  By  the  President's  death, 
which  placed  a  Northern  Whig  in  his  chair,  any  sympathy  which  the 
South  had  with  a  Southern  President  was  withdrawn  from  the  parti- 
sans of  a  midway  policy.  Mr.  Fillmore  took  Mr.  Webster  into  his 
Cabinet  as  Secretary  of  State.  This  was  a  public  notification  that 
the  new  Administration  would  support  the  measures  of  compromise. 
They  passed  Congress,  one  by  one,  after  debates  which  went  to  the 
very  foundations  of  society  and  of  morals,  and  excited  the  whole  na- 
tion to  the  quick,  and  Mr.  Fillmore  signed  them  all. 

Among  these  measures  was  a  bill  which  established  the  boundaries 
°f  Texas,  and  secured  to  her,  for  the  relinquishment  of  her 
cjaims  O11  ^e\v  Mexico,  ten  million  dollars.  While  all  the 
other  States  had  ceded  their  public  lands  to  the  Union,  Texas  alone 
had  been  permitted  to  retain  hers,  an  appanage  of  wealth  untold.  In 
addition  to  this  gift,  ten  million  more  were  now  offered  to  her.  This 
bill  passed  the  Senate  by  a  majority  of  ten.  It  was  driven  through 
the  House  by  a  strong  combination,  which  made  it  necessary  to  set 


1850.]  THE   FUGITIVE    SLAVE   LAW.  395 

aside  even  a  decision  of  the  Speaker,  and  finally  passed  by  a  majority 
of  eleven.     Before  this  bill  was  introduced,  the  public  debt  of  Texas 
was  worth  only  seventeen  cents  on  a  dollar.     So  soon  as  the  bill 
passed  it  rose  to  par,  which  it  has  almost  always  maintained  since 
that  time.     The  country  believed,  of  course,  that 
the  holders  of  Texan  securities  bought  the  passage 
of  the  bill.      But  the  President,   himself  a   states- 
man of  personal  honesty,  signed  this  with  all  the 
others.      The  other  bills  admitted  California  with 
its  Constitution ;  provided  that  when  Utah  should 
be  admitted  it  should  be  with  or  without  slavery, 
as  its  constitution   might  prescribe  ;  and  provided 
the  most  rigid  measures  for  the  surrender  of  fugitive  slaves. 

Of  these  "  adjustments  "  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  that  which 
most  challenged  the  public  indignation  of  the  North,  and, 
from  the  inquisitorial  character  inseparable  from  such  an  tivesii^e 
act,  provoked  the  most  determined  opposition  whenever  its 
provisions  were  put  in  practice.  With  the  great  increase  of  travel  to 
and  fro,  which  had  in  a  thousand  forms  changed  the  whole  character 
of  the  nation,  the  frequency  and  ease  of  escapes  from  slavery  were 
largely  increased  beyond  anything  possible  in  earlier  times.  The 
events  of  twenty  years,  and  the  persistent  labors  of  the  Abolitionists, 
had  shown  nowhere  else  more  significant  results  than  in  the  universal 
sympathy  felt  for  a  fugitive  slave.  Those  known  as  Garrisonians 
openly  declared  that  they  would  not,  for  conscience'  sake,  obey  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws  on  this  subject.  The  exercise  of  political 
rights  implied  an  oath  to  the  Constitution,  and  they 
would  not  swear  obedience  to  a  government  whose 
laws  they  defied.  They  were,  therefore,  non-voters, 
and  they  declared  they  had  no  union  with  slave- 
holders, for  right  was  higher  than  law.  Others,  less 
scrupulous  than  they  as  to  the  sanctity  of  an  oath, 
or  else  persuading  themselves  that  the  citizen  could 
put  his  own  construction  upon  his  oath  by  a  mental 
reservation,  —  others  still  who  were  influenced  by  mere  humane  feel- 
ing, were  equally  disobedient.  An  escaping  slave  found  friends  the 
moment  he  crossed  the  border  ;  he  was  passed  openly  or  secretly, 
as  the  exigency  of  the  case  required,  from  friend  to  friend,  finding 
everywhere  aid,  shelter,  and  advice,  and  was  forwarded  on  his  way  to 
Canada,  or  the  more  retired  parts  of  the  North.1  Whole  villages  of 

1  It  was  estimated  that  more  than  30,000  fugitive  slaves  found  homes  in  Canada  during 
the  thirty  years  of  the  anti-slavery  agitation  ;  and  that  at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  act 
of  1850  there  were  not  less  than  20,000  in  the  free  States.  Advertisements  for  "  runaways  " 
were  always  illustrated  as  above  in  Southern  newspapers. 


396  THE   COMPROMISES   OF  1850.  [CHAP.  XV. 

refugee-slaves  grew  up  in  Canada,  settled  by  the  exodus  from  the 
Southern  States.  To  reclaim  such  slaves  from  the  more  distant 
Northern  and  Northwestern  States,  had  proved  difficult.  From  the 
States  on  the  border,  they  were  often  brought  back  by  brute  force. 
The  men  who  pursued  them  relied,  in  earlier  years,  largely  on  the 
indifference  of  the  inhabitants,  who,  very  frequently,  shared  in  the 
Southern  contempt  for  those  counted  of  an  inferior  race.  But  as 
the  facilities  for  escaping  from  slavery  increased,  and  as  those  who 
were  left  behind  learned  from  those  who  had  preceded  them  that 
they  were  comparatively  safe  when  once  they  had  reached  a  free 
State,  and  absolutely  safe  when  they  had  crossed  the  Canadian  line, 
so  it  became  more  and  more  difficult,  as  time  went  on,  and  the  feel- 
ing against  slavery  at  the  North  increased,  to  enforce  the  statute  of 
1793.  A  new  act,  therefore,  was  demanded,  and  one  was  drawn  by 
Mr.  Mason,  a  Senator  from  Virginia. 

The  difficulties  which  surrounded  it  were  pointed  out  from  its  birth, 
Proposed  m  *ne  debates  in  both  Houses.  Mr.  Webster  had  prepared 
a  provision  giving  the  fugitive  a  jury  trial.  This  amend- 
,nenfc  AVas  introduced  by  Mr.  Dayton,  but  failed.  When 
men  afterward  held  that  the  act  was  unconstitutional,  this  failure 
to  grant  jury  trial  was  one  of  the  features  they  relied  upon.  An 
amendment,  offered  by  Jefferson  Davis,  provided  that  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  should  be  responsible  for  the  expenses  of  the 
slave's  delivery.  This  was  adopted.  Mr.  Davis,  a  Massachusetts 
Senator,  offered  an  amendment  providing  that  when  free  colored  sea- 
men were  imprisoned  in  Southern  ports,  the  United  States  District 
Attorney  should  sue  out  writs  of  habeas  corpus  for  their  delivery. 
But  this  failed.  For  thirty  years  South  Carolina  had  imprisoned 
all  colored  sailors  entering  her  ports,  and  they  would  be  reduced  to 
slavery,  if  by  any  accident  they  were  not  taken  away  again  in  the 
vessel  in  which  they  came.  England  had  complained  more  than  once 
of  this  outrage  upon  British  subjects  ;  the  law  had  been  pronounced 
unconstitutional,  but  South  Carolina  defiantly  maintained  it,  and  other 
States  had  followed  her  example.  In  1844  Massachusetts  had  sent 
Mr.  Samuel  Hoar  to  South  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Henry  Hubbard  to  Loui- 
siana, to  seek  redress  for  this  grievance;  but  both  gentlemen  had 
been  compelled,  by  threats  of  being  lynched  by  mobs,  to  make  their 
escape  from  Charleston  and  New  Orleans.  Had  Mr.  Davis's  amend- 
ment passed,  it  would  only  have  subjected  the  North  to  new  indignities. 

By  the  new  law  the  alleged  fugitive  was  denied  a  trial  by  jury,  was 
denied  the  right  of  testifying  to  the  court  that  he  was  not  the  slave  of 
the  claimant,  or  that  he  was  not  a  slave  sit  all  ;  but  any  court  of  rec- 
ord or  judge  therein  was  required  to  surrender  him  to  the  claimant 
on  his  word.  As  courts  mi^ht  not  be;  always  accessible,  the  act  pro- 


1850.] 


THE   FUGITIVE  SLAVE   LAW. 


397 


vided  for  special  commissioners,  wliose  decision  should  be  absolute  in 
all  cases,  and  whose  fee,  when  they  decided  in  favor  of  the  claimant, 
should  be  double  that  when  the  decision  was  against  him.  The  posse 
comitatus  might  be  called  upon,  if  the  officers  making  the  arrest 
thought  necessary;  all  good  citizens  were  "commanded"  to  aid  the 
execution  of  the  law,  and  if  they  helped  the  prisoner,  they  were 
subject  to  heavy  penalties.  When  the  bill  came  before  Congress 
there  were  some  Northern  members  who  declined  to  vote  ;  but  it  was 
passed  by  a  large  majority,  signed  by  the  President,  and  pronounced 
constitutional  by  the  Attorney-general. 

The  last  of  the  five  measures,  which  was  meant  to  meet  North- 
ern susceptibilities  as  to  the 
slave  trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  authorized  the  city 
authorities  of  Washington  and 
Georgetown  to  abate  the  traffic 
in  slaves  brought  into  the  Dis- 
trict for  sale.  It  did  not  in- 
terfere with  the  sale  between 
residents  in  the  District,  nor 
prevent  their  selling  slaves  to 
be  taken  from  it.  Mr.  Sew- 
ard  moved  to  amend  by  abol- 
ishing slavery  in  the  District, 

•/ 

and  appropriating  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  compen- 
sation. But  this  amendment, 
of  course,  failed. 

As  if  to  test  the  submissive- 

ness  of  the  North,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  was  put  into  immediate 
operation.  The  alarm  of  the  colored  population  was  intense,  among 
those  who  were  free  as  well  as  those  who  had  escaped  from  slavery. 
And  as  it  happened,  the  first  arrest  was  that  of  a  freeman,  for 
whose  surrender  to  the  slave-hunter  the  Commissioner  earned  his 
double  fee,  though  the  slaveholder  to  whom  the  alleged  slave  was 
taken,  was  frank  enough  to  acknowledge  that  he  had  never  seen 
the  man  before.  But  the  indignation  of  the  North  did  not  wait 
upon  the  execution  of  the  law.  It  broke  out  all  over  the  country, 
and  found  expression  in  public  meetings,  in  the  pulpit,  in  the  press, 
in  the  solemn  resolution  of  many  thousands  that  they  would  never 
help  in  the  return  of  a  fugitive  from  slavery,  and  that  they  would 
hinder  if  they  could.  On  the  other  hand,  that  large  class  of  con- 
servative people  who,  like  Mr.  Webster,  valued  the  Union  more 


Millard 


398  THE   COMPROMISES   OF   1850.  [CHAP.  XV. 

than  liberty — at  least  more  than  the  liberty  of  those  who  were  poor 
and  helpless  —  were  not  silent.  Great  public  meetings  were  held 
in  New  York,  in  Boston,  and  in  other  cities,  in  which  men  distin- 
guished in  society,  lawyers,  merchants,  clergymen,  insisted,  with  all 
the  weight  of  influence  that  wealth,  position,  and  ability  could  give, 
that  the  compromise  measures  must  be  sustained,  and,  chief  of  all, 
that  requiring  the  capture  of  all  runaway  negroes,  or  those  said  to 
be  runaways,  in  the  free  States.  If  the  duty  had  been  made  obnox- 
ious, so  much  the  more  merit  in  its  performance ;  for  it  was  the 
price  of  the  Union,  and  would  leave  commerce  and  trade  undis- 
turbed. To  those  who  asked  what  such  a  Union  was  worth,  and 
what  was  to  become  in  the  end  of  government  by  the  people,  if  the 
laws  of  the  country  were  to  be  dictated  by  slaveholders  for  their  ex- 
clusive benefit,  some  of  the  more  eminent  of  the  clergy,  like  Dr. 
Moses  Stuart,  a  professor  in  the  Theological  School  at  Andover,  Mas- 
sachusetts, Dr.  Lord,  the  President  of  Dartmouth  College,  Bishop 
Hopkins,  of  Burlington,  Vermont,  Dr.  Nehemiah  Adams,  a  leading 
evangelical  clergyman  of  Boston,  Dr.  Taylor,  of  the  Theological  De- 
partment of  Yale  College,  and  Dr.  Orville  Dewey,  a  Unitarian  clergy- 
man of  New  York,  came  forward  to  enforce  the  moral  and  religious 
obligation  of  saving  the  Union  by  implicit  submission.  Those  who 
wished  to  be  justified,  justified  themselves  by  such  teachings;  those 
who  thought  with  Seward  that  there  was  "  a  higher  law  than  the 
Constitution,"  and  those  who,  like  the  Abolitionists,  declared  that  a 
rightful  property  in  man  was  impossible,  were  shocked  at  a  fanati- 
cism as  short-sighted  as  it  was  unchristian. 

One  writer  upon  the  events  of  this  period  has  estimated  that  more 
fugitive  slaves  were  reclaimed  under  this  Act  in  a  single  year  than 
had  been  returned  for  the  previous  sixty  years  of  the  Government.1 
There  are  no  statistics  to  warrant  any  such  assumption,  and  it  could 
only  be  made  through  an  erroneous  estimate  of  the  temper  of  the 
times.  In  the  earlier  years,  the  Constitution,  —  as  it  was  said,  in  the 
decision  in  the  Prigg  case,  it  might  —  literally  "  executed  itself." 
One  searching  for  and  finding  a  runaway  slave,  took  him,  whether 
in  a  slave  State  or  a  free  State,  with  as  little  question,  generally,  and 
as  little  formality,  as  if  he  were  a  horse  which  had  strayed  from  its 
owner.  Philadelphia  was  the  only  place  in  the  country,  probably, 
where  any  feeling  upon  the  subject  asserted  itself.  And  there  it  was 
chiefly  confined  to  Friends,  one  of  whom,  Isaac  T.  Hopper,  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  century,  aided  and  found  safe  places  of  refuge  for 
hundreds  of  the  flying  bondmen.2  But  it  was  because  the  recapture 

1  Greeley's  American  Conflict. 

"  See  a  curious  and  interesting  record  of  his  labors  in  the  Life  of  Isaac  T.  Hopper,  by 
Lydia  Maria  Child. 


1850.]  THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   LAW. 

of  fugitives  was  so  easy,  and  the  indifference  to  the  subject  was  gen- 
erally so  great,  that  the  kidnapping  of  free  negroes  became  so  com- 
mon along  the  border  that  Maryland  had  more  than  once  called  the 
attention  of  Congress  to  the  subject  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  century, 
and  finally  had  induced  Pennsylvania  to  pass  that  law  under  which 
Prigg  was  convicted.  As  the  Anti-slavery  movement  grew  in  strength 
in  the  North,  the  facilities  for  escape  and  the  difficulties  of  recapture 
increased  ;  and  when,  at  length,  the  Act  was  passed  which  was  to 
trample  Northern  "  prejudices  "  and  Northern  law  alike  under  foot, 
few,  if  any,  slaves,  or  alleged  slaves,  were  arrested  without  arousing 
immediate  resistance.  It  seemed  to  the  careless  observer  that  this 
was  a  new  thing,  because  hitherto  it  had  passed  without  observation. 
In  reality  the  cases  of  capture  were  few,  partly  because  the  fugitives 
now  were  less  willing  to  take  the  risk  of  remaining  in  the  free  States, 
and  partly  because  the  dangers  and  difficulties  of  recapture  were 
multiplied  a  thousand-fold. 

The  law  was  simply  defied,  as  not  being  justified  either  by  reason, 
by  right,  or  by  the  Constitution.  If  the  terms  of  the  Union  enforced 
the  obligation  to  surrender  fugitive  slaves,  it  was  demanded  that  at 
least  the  obligation  should  be  shown  to  be  valid  in  every  given  case. 
The  law  that  refused  this  was  considered  a  breach  of  the  contract, 
and  the  obligation  being  disregarded  on  one  side  was  held  to  be  no 
longer  binding  on  the  other.  Wherever  it  was  possible  to  appeal  to 
the  laws  and  courts  of  the  State,  the  appeal  was  made.  The  doctrine 
of  State  Rights,  hitherto  maintained  only  for  the  protection  of  slavery, 
was  declared  to  be  at  least  of  equal  virtue  for  the  protection  of  lib- 
erty. When  the  State  courts  failed  to  protect  the  alleged  fugitive, 
he  was,  if  possible,  rescued  from  the  hands  of  the  officers  of  the  law 
and  sent  to  a  place  of  safety.  Not  many  years  before,  an  Anti-slavery 
gathering  anywhere  brought  together  a  mob,  and  he  who  gave  utter- 
ance to  a  word  of  condemnation  of  slavery,  did  so  at  risk  of  life  and 
limb.  Now  a  rumor  of  the  seizure  of  one  accused  of  being  a  slave, 
assembled  a  multitude  of  the  most  thoughtful  and  most  worthy  in 
every  Northern  community,  to  resent  the  outrage  and  insult  which, 
in  the  person  of  that  outcast,  were  offered  to  the  North. 

The  most  significant  enforcements  of  the  law  were  made  in  Boston. 
A  slave  named  Shadrach  was  taken,  by  a  sudden  dash  of  his   Fugitire 
friends,  from  the  court  room  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  slaTeca!*s 
State,  when  it  was  plain  that  there  was  no  hope  of  help  from  the 
law.     In  the  next  case  in  that  city  the  grip  upon  the  fugitive  was 
firmer.     The    precaution    was    taken,    in    the    first    place,    to    arrest 
Thomas  M.  Simms  on  a  charge  of  theft,  and  then  to  hold  him  as  a 
fugitive  from  slavery.     The  contempt  felt  for  the  superserviceable 


400  THE   COMPROMISES   OF   1'850.  [CHAP.  XV. 

. 

zeal  of  the  United  States  officers,  who  wanted  the  manliness  to  re- 
fuse to  hold  offices  to  be  put  to  such  base  uses,  was  not  limited 
to  those  who  were  ready  to  resist  them  at  every  turn.1  That  zeal 
was  never-failing,  but  at  no  time  was  it  so  active  as  in  that  deepest 
humiliation  of  Massachusetts,  and  supreme  triumph  of  slaveholding 
ascendency  —  the  surrender  of  Anthony  Burns.  The  attempt  to 
rescue  him  —  in  an  attack  made  upon  the  Court  House,  in  which 
one  man  was  killed  —  failed,  but  the  extreme  measure,  nevertheless, 
of  upholding  civil  authority  by  force  of  arms  was  resorted  to.  The 
militia  of  Boston  were  called  out,  and  the  Marshal  made  requisition 
for  all  the  United  States  troops  in  the  vicinity,  on  the  day  appointed 
for  the  surrender  of  the  slave.  The  events  of  that  day  are  as  mem- 
orable as  some  that  occurred  in  those  same  streets  nearly 
Burn*  «ur-  a  hundred  years  before.  At  the  end  of  one  of  the 
wharves  lay  a  revenue  cutter,  sent  by  President  Pierce  to 
convey  this  poor  fugitive  back  to  Virginia.  The  streets  were  cleared 
and  held  by  the  military  ;  the  banks  and  other  places  of  business  on 
the  line  of  march  were  closed;  flags  draped  in  mourning  and  at  half- 
mast  were  hung  out  in  many  places ;  at  the  appointed  hour,  Marshal 
Devens,  with  his  prisoner  surrounded  by  more  than  a  hundred  civil 
officers  of  Boston,  marched  out  of  the  Court  House  in  a  hollow 
square  formed  by  United  States  Marines  and  a  company  of  United 
States  Artillery.  Massachusetts  was  not  yet  organized  for  revolu- 
tion, to  repel  invasion,  or  to  suppress  insurrection,  but  in  the  silent 
multitude,  from  Boston  Court  House  to  Long  Wharf,  who  watched 
that  spectacle,  lay  the  suppressed  fire  that  blazed  into  a  fierce  red 
flame,  when  seve»  years  afterward  the  Massachusetts  Sixth  marched 
through  Baltimore. 

Nowhere  else  was  there  quite  the  pomp  of  enforced  submission  dis- 
played under  the  law  that  the  slaveholders,  and  the  creatures  who 
lived  on  the  breath  of  slaveholders,  chose  should  be  made  in  Boston. 
For  Boston  —  or  rather  all  Massachusetts — still  stood  where  she  hail 
stood  for  a  century,  at  the  head  of  the  host  that  was  gathering  to  join 
battle  again  when  the  time  should  come,  for  freemen  and  a  free  gov- 
ernment. But  the  spirit  that  animated  her  broke  out  in  many  places. 
Elsewhere  as  there,  when  the  appeal  to  law  failed,  force  was  resorted 
to  and  fugitives  were  rescued.  Arms  were  put  into  their  hands,  and 

1  "  How  much  trouble  poor  Devens  makes  for  himself.  I  never  had  any  trouble  about 
these  niters.  And  I  was  very  careful.  Whenever  they  came  to  me  and  said  they  wen- 
looking  for  a  nigger,  I  would  go  myself  and  hunt  for  him.  I  would  go  over  to  '  Nigger 
Hill '  [a  district  in  Boston]  at  once,  and  >ay,  '  Boys,  have  any  of  you  seen  such  a  man ''. 
If  you  sec  him  briug  him  to  my  office.'  Many  's  the  time  I  've  gone  to  look  for  'em.  But 
I  never  found  one."  Such  was  the  shrewd,  amusing,  and  contemptuous  commentary  of  a 
Democratic  ex-Marshal,  on  the  si;i\ c-humini;  y.eal  of  Marshal  Charles  Devens. 


1854.] 


FUGITIVE   SLAVE  CASES. 


401 


they  were  told  to  use  them.  Now  and  then  lives  were  lost  on  both 
sides  ;  arrests  were  made  and  sometimes  punishments  were  inflicted 
for  resistance  to  the  law.  In  some  States  the  use  of  prisons  and  the 
services  of  State  officers  in  the  arrest  of  fugitives  were  forbidden  by 


Rendition  of  Anthony   Burns. 

State  legislation.     Even  some  of  the  Southern  statesmen  were  wise 
•enough  to  see  that  they  had  committed  an  enormous  blunder. 

But  the  South  was  lighting  in  her  own  cause.  Mr.  Fillmore  and 
Mr.  Webster  were  looked  upon  as  traitors  to  the  cause  of 
the  North,  and  it  was  neither  forgotten  nor  forgiven.  Other- 
wise, in  the  administration  of  national  affairs  of  less  mo- 
ment, the  President  won  some  credit.  It  was  under  that  adminis- 
tration that  postage  was  further  reduced,  that  the  Agricultural  Bureau 


Fillmore  "s 

Aduiiuistra- 

tion. 


VOL.   IV. 


402  THE   COMPROMISES   OF   1850.  [CHAP.  XV. 

was  established,  that  the  first  steps  toward  a  Pacific  Railroad  were 
taken,  and  the  great  enlargement  of  the  Capitol  was  begun.  He  sent 
out  Commodore  Perry  to  Japan,  on  a  mission  which  was  the  first  of 
the  measures  that  have  opened  Japan  to  the  world.  Had  it  not  been 
for  the  black  cloud  of  the  slavery  question  which  would  not  be  dis- 
sipated, Mr.  Fillmore  had  a  fair  chance  for  the  honor  which  he  cer- 
tainly coveted,  of  being  elected  directly  to  the  Presidency.  But  that 
cloud  grew  blacker  and  blacker.  The  men  in  public  life,  or  eager 
in  the  management  of  parties,  tried  to  persuade  themselves  that  the 
"  Compromises  "  had  ended  the  discussion.  They  had  only  brought 
it  to  the  beginning  of  the  end. 

Before  the  thirty-first  Congress  adjourned,  forty-three  members,  of 
whom  ten  were  from  free  States,  published  a  compact  in 

Presidential  r 

nomina-  which  they  pledged  themselves  not  to  support  lor  Presi- 
dent, or  Vice-president,  for  Congress  or  any  State  Legisla- 
ture, any  man  not  opposed  to  the  renewal  of  the  agitation  of  slavery. 
Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Cobb,  as  leaders  of  the  Whig  and  Democratic  par- 
ties, headed  the  subscription.  The  record  of  the  Democratic  party 
was  sufficiently  clear  in  these  matters.  The  division  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  which  had  given  her  vote  to  President  Taylor  and  had 
elected  him,  was  now  healed.  The  "  Free  Democracy  "  of  that  State 
acted  again  in  sympathy  with  the  party  throughout  the  country. 

Each  party  held  its  Convention  for  the  nomination  of  a  candidate 
Democratic  at  Baltimore.  That  of  the  Democrats  met  first,  on  the  1st 
conrention.  of  june?  1852.  The  prominent  candidates  were  James  Bu- 
chanan of  Pennsylvania,  Lewis  Cass  of  Michigan,  Stephen  A.  Doug- 
las of  Illinois,  and  William  L.  Marcy  of  New  York.  On  the  first  bal- 
lot Mr.  Buchanan  had  the  largest  number  of  votes,  one  hundred  and 
sixteen.  But  this  was  not  enough  for  his  nomination.  A  protracted 
series  of  ballotings  followed,  which  ended  with  the  forty-ninth,  when 
General  Franklin  Pierce  of  New  Hampshire  received  all  the  votes 
but  six.  Such  distinction  as  he  had,  he  had  earned  in  the  command 
of  the  New  Hampshire  volunteers  in  the  Mexican  war ;  but  his  name 
was  wholly  unknown  to  the  country  when  he  was  nominated.  In  his 
letter  of  acceptance  he  said  that  no  word  or  act  of  his  life  was  in 
conflict  with  the  principles  of  the  resolutions  of  the  Convention.  He 
was  adopted  as  a  candidate,  on  the  principle,  by  this  time  familiar 
to  the  statesmen  of  the  South  who  controlled  these  conventions,  of 
choosing  "•  a  Northern  man  with  Southern  principles."  One  of  the 
earliest  acts  of  his  administration  —  the  rendition  of  Burns  —  showed 
that  here,  at  least,  they  had  made  no  mistake. 

The  Whig  Convention  met  on  the  16th  of  June.  At  the  opening 
of  the  session  of  Congress,  six  months  before,  it  had  seemed  as  if  Mr. 


1852.]  WHIG   AND   FREE-SOIL   CONVENTIONS.  403 

Fillmore  might  be  adopted  as  the  candidate  of  the  party,  and  it  was 
also  certain  that  the  friends  of  Mr.  Webster,  his  Secretary  \vhigcon- 
of  State,  would  support  him.  The  Whig  party,  as  a  party  Teiltlon- 
of  voters,  could  not  be  confidently  counted  on,  as  the  Democratic 
party  could,  to  sustain  the  Compromise  Measures.  It  was  certain  that 
a  nomination  strictly  committed  to  those  measures  would  lose  votes  in 
the  canvass  in  the  Northern  States.  Still  the  Convention  adopted 
the  measures  in  a  resolution  which  said,  "  We  will  maintain  this  sys- 
tem as  essential  to  the  nationality  of  the  Whig  party,  and  the  integ- 
rity of  the  Union."  This  resolution  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  two 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  to  seventy-six.  When  the  ballot  for  can- 
didates came,  Mr.  Fillmore  and  General  Scott  had  nearly  equal  num.- 
bers,  and  Mr.  Webster  twenty-nine,  enough  to  prevent  either  of  the 
others  from  receiving  a  majority.  Nor  did  this  state  of  the  vote 
change  materially  till  the  fifty-ninth  ballot,  when  General  Scott  re- 
ceived a  majority,  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  votes.  William  A. 
Graham  of  North  Carolina,  a  member  of  Mr.  Fillmore's  Cabinet,  was 
made  candidate  for  Vice-president.  The  hope  of  the  supporters  of 
General  Scott  was,  that  his  military  reputation  would  rally  strength 
for  him,  which  neither  of  the  recognized  chiefs  of  the  party  could 
command. 

The  third  Convention,  called  by  those  men  who  were  wholly  dissat- 
isfied with  the  Compromises,  and  who  saw  that  the  slavery  Free^oil 
question  was  the  only  question  of  vital  import  in  the  politics  Convention- 
of  the  nation,  was  held  at  Pittsburg,  on  the  llth  of  August.  They 
had  lost  the  strength  which  the  breach  in  the  Democratic  party  of 
New  York  gave  them  four  years  before.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
had  the  additional  power  given  them  by  the  indignation  through  the 
North  aroused  by  the  enactment  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  In  their 
proclamation  of  principles  they  declared  slavery  to  be  a  "  sin  against 
God  and  a  crime  against  man  ;"  they  denounced  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Act  as  a  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  of  the  common  law,  hos- 
tile to  the  spirit  of  Christianity  and  in  opposition  to  the  sentiments  of 
the  civilized  world.  They  declared  the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties 
both  hopelessly  corrupt  and  unworthy  of  confidence. 

The  resolutions  Avere  drawn  by  Mr.  Giddings,  who  had  been  once 
virtually  expelled  from  Congress  for  maintaining  these  principles 
which  the  Abolitionists  had  laid  down  as  the  foundations  of  their  so- 
cieties twenty  years  before.  Even  these  resolutions  were  criticised  in 
the  Convention  as  not  sufficiently  thorough  for  the  exigency,  but  thev 
were  accepted  as  its  proclamation  to  the  people.  The  Convention 
named  for  the  candidate  for  President  John  Parker  Hale  of  New 
Hampshire,  who  had  left  the  Democratic  party  on  the  admission  of 
Texas  ;  for  Vice-president,  George  W.  Julian  of  Indiana. 


404 


THE   COMPROMISES    OF   1850. 


[CHAP.  XV. 


This  election  is  of  historical  interest,  as  the  first  and  the  last  in 
which  the  two  great  parties  presented  to  the  country  as  candidates 
men  who  were  not  very  highly  esteemed  even  by  the  persons  who 
nominated  them.  On  both  sides,  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  par- 
ties were  set  aside,  for  the  nomination  of  men  who  were  called 
u  available  ''  in  the  language  of  party.  The  result  of  the  election 
showed  that  the  ingeniously  contrived  Compromises,  joined  with  the 
adjustment  of  the  dissensions  of  the  New  York  Democrats,  had  really 

had  some  effect  in 
diminishing  the  vote 
given  at  the  North 
for  the  candidates  of 
"  Free  Soil,"  or  the 
Free  Democracy. 

V 

In    neither    election 
had  the  "third  par- 
ty" expected  to 
choose  a  single  Pres- 
idential   Elector. 
But   in    1848,   they 
gave   291,263   votes 
for  Martin  Van  Bu- 
ren  ;    and    in    1852 
they  gave  only  156,- 
149  votes  for  John 
P.  Hale.   Their  prin- 
cipal loss  was  in  the 
State  of  New  York, 
where     the     Demo- 
cratic   party   united 
in   supporting   Gen- 
eral Pierce,  and  the  vote  of  the  Free  Democrats  was  therefore  re- 
duced by  nearly  one  hundred  thousand.     General  Pierce  gained,  in 
the  popular  vote,  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  on  the  vote  given 
for  General   Cass,  four  years   before.      General   Scott   gained  only 
twenty-six  thousand  on  the  vote  given  for  General  Taylor.     In  the 
electoral  vote,  the  defeat  of  General  Scott  was  overwhelming.     He 
had  onlv  forty-two  electoral  votes,  those  of  Massachusetts  and  Ver- 

•/  * 

mont  in  the  East,  with  those  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  in  the 
West.  Twenty-seven  other  States,  giving  an  electoral  vote  of  two 
Election  of  hundred  and  fifty-four,  pronounced  in  favor  of  General 
Pierce.  Never  was  a  more  complete  victory.  The  Dem- 
ocrats who  had  supported  the  Compromise  Measures  were  thus  tri- 


Franklin   Pierce. 


1854.]  ELECTION   OF   PIERCE.  405 

umphantly  sustained.  The  Whig  leaders  who  had  supported  them, 
had  the  mortification  of  destroying  their  party,  without  other  advan- 
tage for  the  general  welfare  than  such  as  could  be  hoped  for  from 
an  administration  committed  to  extreme  pro-slavery  measures. 

At  the  end  of  Pierce's  administration,  it  was  said  that  he  came 
into  office  with  very  little  opposition,  and  went  out  without  any. 
The  language  abridges  into  an  epigram  the  history  of  four  fatal 
years.  It  was  not,  however,  the  first  time  that  an  immense  popular 
success  has  proved  fatal  to  a  man  or  to  a  party.  In  his  first  message 
he  spoke  with  a  certain  doubt  of  his  own  power,  which  , 

His  course 

only  foreshadowed  too  well  a  fatal  weakness  by  which,  ap-  {oTf- 

•'  .  J  r      shadowed. 

parently  with    no  will  of  his  own,  he  became  the  tool  of 
different  managers,  and  in  consequence  of  which  his  party  was  re- 
duced to  a  minority  among  the  people,  and,  in  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury,  it   has    never   recovered   the   ascendency.      In    the    inevitable 

»/  *  «/ 

conflict  of  which  his  administration  makes  an  important  part,  it  hap- 
pened that  its  failure  belongs  to  a  part  of  the  history  of  slavery. 
But  the  weakness  of  the  man  was  such  that  it  is  impossible  that 
even  in  the  happiest  time  he  could  have  directed  large  measures 
with  any  success. 

In  his  inaugural  address  he  used  the  strongest  language  with  re- 
gard to  the  Compromise  measures  and  the  question  of  slavery.  "  I 
fervently  hope,"  he  said,  "that  the  question  is  at  rest,  and  that  no 
sectional  or  ambitious  or  fanatical  excitement  may  again  threaten  the 
duration  of  our  institutions  or  obscure  the  light  of  our  prosper- 
ity." At  the  end  of  the  same  year,  in  his  message  he  spoke  of  the 
repose  which  had  followed  the  Compromises,  and  said,  "  that  this  re- 
pose is  to  suffer  no  shock  during  my  official  term  if  I  have  power  to 
avert  it,  those  who  placed  me  here  may  be  assured."  Only  six  weeks 
after,  on  the  4th  of  January,  Mr.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  one  of  the  un- 
successful competitors  for  the  nomination  in  the  Democratic  , 

Douglas's 

Convention,  introduced  in  the  Senate  a  bill  for  opening  the  *el'ra*k* 
territory  of  Nebraska  to  settlement.  Before  this  time  all 
territory  west  of  Iowa  and  Missouri  had  been  closed  against  emi- 
grants, that  is,  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  secure  their  farms  if  they 
should  settle.  By  the  word  "  Nebraska,"  in  this  bill,  was  meant  all 
the  territory  north  of  the  line  of  Texas  and  west  of  the  States 
named,  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Mountains.  On  the  16th  of  January,  Mr. 
Dixon,  of  Kentucky,  moved  that  in  the  territory  thus  opened  the 
Missouri  Compromise  should  not  apply,  and  on  the  23d,  Mr.  Douglas 
introduced  a  second  bill  including  that  provision.  These  two  gentle- 
men thus  reopened  the  slavery  discussion  which  the  President  six. 
weeks  before  had  spoken  of  as  closed  forever. 


406  THE  COMPROMISES   OF   1850.  [CiiAP.  XV. 

It  is  difficult  for  another  generation  to  understand  how  entirely  the 
Missoui'i  Compromise,  born  in  excitement  and  rejected  at  first  by 
the  most  steadfast  Northern  feeling,  had  come  to  be  regarded 
throughout  the  Northern  States  as  virtually  belonging  to  an  unwrit- 
ten Constitution.  At  the  East,  "  Mason  and  Uixon's  line  "  between 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  had  been  spoken  of  for  a  generation  as 
the  line  between  freedom  and  slavery.  At  the  West,  the  parallel  of 
36°  30',  fixed  upon  in  1820,  was  regarded  as  making  the  same  separ- 
ation. Men  even  spoke  as  if  a  certain  eternal  line  of  climate  were 
represented  by  this  imaginary  parallel,  so  that  it  parted  countries  in 
which  slave  labor  could  be  productive  from  countries  in  which  slave 
labor  would  be  impossible.  Even  the  school-books  which  children 
read  fostered  this  sentiment  without  intending  it,  and  among  things 
settled,  which  conservative  people  were  determined  not  to  unsettle, 
nothing  can  be  named  more  fixed  than  this  dividing  line.  To  over- 
leap this  boundary  now  and  remove  all  barriers  to  the  extension  of 
slavery,  was  the  determination  of  the  South,  or  presently  became  so. 

When  on  the  4th  of  January,  Mr.  Douglas,  from  the  Committee  on 
Territories,  reported  a  bill  for  the  organization  of  Nebraska,  the 
report  questioned  the  original  validity  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
and  declared  that  the  new  Compromise  of  1850  left  all  question  of 
Proposed  re-  slavery  to  the  decision  of  the  people  residing  in  any  given 
MifUniri  e  territory.  This  is  the  doctrine  which  in  the  discussions  of 
the  next  six  years  was  called  "Squatter  Sovereignty,"  a 
phrase  originally  given  to  it  by  General  Cass.  As  announced  by 
Mr.  Douglas,  it  may  be  considered  an  illustration  of  his  interest  in 
the  new  settlers  of  the  WTest,  and  his  determination  to  stand  by 
their  rights.  But  it  was  impossible  to  say  that  any  abrogation  of  the 
Compromise  of  1820  had  been  contemplated  by  the  men  who  united 
in  the  Compromise  Measures  of  1850.  The  text  of  these  measures 
admitted  of  no  such  construction,  and  a  careful  examination  of  the 
debates  of  the  session  in  which  they  were  passed,  actually  showed  that 
no  allusion  to  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  made,  or  any  proposal  to 
overthrow  it.  In  all  the  discussions  South  or  North  upon  the  sub- 
ject, it  had  seemed  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  Compromise  of 
1820  was  eternal,  or,  as  has  been  said,  that  it  was  now  an  unwritten 
article  of  the  Constitution.  It  afterwards  appeared,  that  in  the  sum- 
mer following  Pierce's  election,  a  warm  discussion  had  sprung  up  in 
the  western  counties  of  Missouri  among  persons  who  wished  to  take 
up  the  rich  bottom  lands  of  what  is  now  Kansas  and  cultivate  them 
as  slave  territory ;  that  in  that  discussion  it  had  been  held  that  the 
Missouri  Compromise  was  no  longer  binding.1  In  fact,  the  Missouri 

1  A  pamphlet  by  "  Lynteus  "  avowed  this  view,  and  is  now  oue  of  the  curiosities  of  Amer- 
icaii  history. 


1854.] 


REPEAL   OF   THE  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE. 


407 


Compromise  had  been  disregarded  when  the  State  of  Missouri,  with 
the  consent  of  Congress,  had  added  to  her  territory  that  triangle 
in  the  northwestern  part  of  it  which  was  known  as  the  Platt  Pur- 
chase. It  is  probable  that  the  wishes  of  these  Missouri  speculators 
were  reflected  in  Mr.  Douglas's  proposal.  Mr.  Douglas,  also,  though 
he  was  a  man.  of  large  Northern  popularity,  probably  was  not  ex- 
empt from  that  eager  desire  to  secure  popularity  at  the  South  which 
governed  so  many  of  the  statesmen  of  the  hour.  He  was  in  the  \K>- 
sition  of  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  so  that  he  was 
obliged  to  take  ground  on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  He  always 
insisted  that  the  clause  which  he  introduced  was  neither  a  pro- 
slavery  clause  nor  an  anti-slavery 
clause,  —  that  it  simply  left  the  in- 
stitutions of  the  Territory  to  the  de- 
cision of  those  who  were  to  reside 
u*pon  its  soil. 

Whatever  Mr.  Douglas  meant  or 
did  not  mean,  whatever  the  Southern 
statesmen  who  applauded  his  fatal  pro- 
vision meant  or  did  not  mean,  the 
proposed  abrogation  of  the  compro- 
mise line  of  1820  was  received  through- 
out the  Northern  States  as  a  proposal 
to  change  by  Act  of  Congress  an  ar- 
ticle of  the  Constitution  would  have 
been  received.  It  was  plain  that  the 
South,  having  obtained  every  advan- 
tage it  could  claim  under  the  Missouri 

Compromise,  in  the  admission  of  the  States  of  Florida,  Arkansas, 
and  Missouri  as  slave-holding  States,  now  chose  to  throw  away  that 
agreement,  when  for  the  first  time  any  advantage  was  to  come  to 
the  North.  It  was  felt  throughout  the  Northern  States  that  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  an  "  uncalled  for  and  un- 
necessary act,  even  a  violation  of  plighted  faith."  These  are  the 
words  of  Mr.  Kenneth  Ray  nor  of  North  Carolina,  in  an  address  made 
the  next  year. 

The  original  bill  proposed  the  creation  of  a  Territory  to  be  known 
as  Nebraska.  An  early  amendment  separated  the  region  by  the  line 
which  still  parts  Kansas  from  Nebraska.  But  the  name  first  chosen 
still  attached  to  the  bill,  and  the  debate  was  generally  called  the 
"  Nebraska  debate."  After  a  week  or  two  of  silent  surprise,  the 
whole  North  showed  its  indignation  at  the  destruction  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  This  indignation,  if  nothing  else,  united  the  Southern 


Stephen  A.   Douglas 


408  THE   COMPROMISES    OF    1850.  [CHAP.  XV. 

Senators  and  Representatives  in  its  favor,  and  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill  passed  into  a  law  on  the  30th  of  May,  after  the  most 

Kansas-  .        ,      ,.  .  •        i        i      TT  TI*  •       i 

Nebraska  excited  discussion  in  both  Houses.  In  that  vote,  as  it  has 
proved,  was  the  last  step  of  that  Southern  domination 
which  had  controlled  the  country  since  the  election  of  Jefferson. 
Many  Northern  Whigs  and  Democrats,  who  had  felt  bound  in 
honor  to  support  the  Compromises,  now  felt  themselves  released 
from  that  obligation.  From  this  moment  there  wras  no  longer 
any  reason  which  could  be  urged  on  men  of  honor  for  their  sup- 
port. If  the  South  would  not  hold  to  these  measures  except  when 
it  suited  her,  why  should  the  North  be  bound  by  them  ?  But  it 
happened,  the  proposal  for  "  Squatter  Sovereignty  "  started  a  larger 
emigration  than  that  of  a  few  partisans  from  the  western  counties 
of  Missouri.  All  the  Northwest  was  eager  to  furnish  "Squatters." 
The  discussion  had  roused  the  country,  and  especially  that  part  of  it 
which  furnishes  emigrants  for  new  States.  Slaveholders  with  slaves 
do  not  care  to  take  them  into  doubtful  regions.  Men  without  slaves 
can  move  far  more  quickly.  In  the  northwestern  States,  men  who 
had  thus  far  opposed  the  Southern  policy  by  their  votes  alone,  saw 
that  now  they  had  the  opportunity  to  oppose  it  more  directly. 

In  the  Eastern  States,  Eli  Thayer  conceived  an  organization  of  the 
emigration  of  the  year,  with  the  view  of  directing  it  to  Kan- 
emigration     sas.     On  the  20th  of  April,  before  the  Nebraska  Act  passed 

to  K:in>:i>.          _  ,  ,    ,   .       .    .          ,  .  ,  i  •»  r 

Congress,  he  and  his  friends  were  incorporated  as  the  "  Mas- 
sachusetts Emigrant  Aid  Company."  They  were  permitted  to  hold 
a  capital  of  five  million  dollars.  A  ready  exaggeration,  made  in  a 
hostile  interest,  announced  that  they  had  this  capital.  In  fact,  that 
company  had  not  collected  twenty  thousand  dollars,  when  the  year 
closed.  But  the  fame  of  its  wealth  answered  the  purpose  as  well  as 
the  possession.  Undecided  men  were  willing  to  throw  in  their 
chances,  where  an  organization,  supposed  to  be  so  strong,  led  the 
way.  The  glove  thrown  down  too  hastily,  in  a  challenge  to  the 
Northern  emigrant,  was  taken  up  on  the  instant.  On  the  last  days 
of  July,  as  soon  as  the  Territory  was  open  to  settlement,  the  pioneer 
party  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  took  up  claims  at  the  point  now 
known  as  Lawrence.  Before  winter,  this  company  had  sent  from  New 
England  five  hundred  emigrants.  From  other  free  States  had  poured 
in  enough  more  to  make  a  population  of  eight  thousand.  These 
pioneers  had  experienced  some  difficulty  in  passing  through  Missouri. 
The  men  on  the  borders  of  that  State  —  the  "border  ruffians "  as 
they  soon  and  most  appropriately  came  to  be  called  —  had  under- 
taken the  task,  which  soon  proved  hopeless,  of  damming  the  tide. 
A  winter  unexpectedly  open  favored  the  settlement.  On  the  other 


1854.] 


SETTLEMENT    OF    KANSAS. 


409 


hand,  no  man  had  dared  take  into  the  Territory  property  so  valuable 
as  slaves  then  were,  with  the  slave's  propensity  to  leave  his  home. 
The  great  contest,  the  moment  it  was  reduced  to  rivalry  in  settling 
a  new  region,  was  evidently  an  unequal  one. 

Side  by  side  with  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  in  Con- 
gress, treaties  had  been  quietly  made  in   Washington  with   <!0,tl<,mpnt 
the  half-civilized  Indian  tribes,  already  in  possession,  under  cfLa"reuce- 
which  they  gave  up  their  lands  for  settlement.      But  the  Indian  titles 


were  not  extinguished  when  the  first  New      _-„.  - 

England  colony  arrived,  and  it  therefore 

planted  itself  at  Lawrence,  the  first  available  point  as  yet  free  from 
Indian  claims.     Meetings  of  men  in  the  slave  interest  were  held  in 
Missouri,  in  which  they  pledged  themselves  to  remove  any  and  all 
emigrants  who  should  go  to  Kansas  under  the  auspices  of  the  Em- 
igrant Aid   Societies.      President    Pieive  appointed  A.  H.   ApPomt- 
Reeder,  of  Pennsylvania,  Governor  of  the  Territory,  and  he   ReetLrL 
arrived  in   October.      From  all   regions  of  the  Northwest  ^°VCTnor 
settlers  poured  in,  and  met  with  occasional  outrages  on  the  Missouri 
line,  sometimes  involving  loss  of  life. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 


THE   KANSAS   STRUGGLE. — BUCHANAN. 


THE  FRAUDULENT  ELECTION'S  IN  KANSAS.  —  THE  TERRITORIAL  LEGISLATURES.  — 
THE  KANSAS  CODE.  —  BORDER  RUFFIANS  AIDED  FROM  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  SACK 
OF  LAWRENCE.  —  JOHN  BROWN  OF  OSSAWATOMIE.  —  DISPERSION  OF  THE  TOPEKA 
LEGISLATURE.  —  ELECTION  OF  BUCHANAN.  —  LECOMPTON  CONSTITUTION  AND  THE 
ENGLISH  COMPROMISE.  —  THE  MORMONS.  —  WALKER'S  EXPEDITION.  —  ATLANTIC 
TELEGRAPH  CABLE.  —  JOHN  BROWN'S  INVASION  OF  VIRGINIA.  —  His  CAPTURE  AND 
EXECUTION.  —  ELECTION  OF  LINCOLN. 

Ox  the  20th  of  November,  an  election  was  ordered  in  Kansas,  to 
choose    a  delegate    to   Congress.     Immediately   the    border 

Election  of  .  &  •> 

delegate  to    counties  of  Missouri  prepared  to  send  over  voters.    The  Sen- 

Congress. 

ator  in  Congress  from  Missouri,  David  Atchison,  gave  this 
direction  in  a  public  speech  :  v'  When  you  reside  within  one  day  of 
the  Territory,  you  can  send  five  hundred  of  your  young  men  who  will 
vote  in  favor  of  your  institutions."  Such  directions  were  literally 
complied  with.  The  election  day  was  a  day  of  invasion,  and  the  can- 
didate of  the  slaveholding  interest  was  chosen,  by  an  enormous  ma- 
jority. Indeed,  he  received  eleven  hundred  votes  more  than  the 
number  of  legal  voters  in  the  Territory  three  months  afterward. 
The  census  was  taken  in  February.  It  showed  a  population  of 

5,128  men,  and  3,373  women;  of  these  3,469  were  minors. 

i  •      i        i  ,1111  -i 

A  iittle  less  than  five  hundred,  as  has  been  said,  was  the 
number  of  emigrants,  greatly  denounced  in  Missouri,  from 
New  England.  Most  of  the  remainder  were  from  the  Northwest.  Of 
the  whole  number,  2,905  had  the  qualifications  for  voting.  Governor 
Reeder  now  appointed  a  second  election,  at  which  the  Legislature  of 
the  Territory  should  be  chosen.  An  organized  movement  was  made 
in  Missouri,1  by  which  companies  of  men  from  that  State  were  sent 
into  every  council  district  of  Kansas.  Many  of  the  resident  voters,  in 
the  face  of  this  invasion,  refused  to  sanction  at  the  ballot- 
box  the  violence  that  only  condescended  to  use  a  legal  for- 
mality. The  result  was  the  fraudulent  election  of  thirteen 
councillors,  and  twenty-six  members  of  the  lower  house,  —  a  portion 

1  See  Congressional  Report. 


Second  elec- 

tionap- 


LeKi*iat 


1855.]  THE    SHAWXEE   MISSION   LEGISLATURE.  411 

of  them  Missourians  —  by  six  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty 
votes,  more  than  twice  the  number  of  legal  voters  in  the  Territory, 
only  about  half  of  whom,  or  exactly  thirteen  hundred  and  ten, 
went  to  the  ballot-box.  If  history  repeats,  so  it  often  reverses  itself. 
In  this  preliminary  outbreak  of  the  slaveholders'  conspiracy  against 
civilization  and  republican  government  the  resort  was  to  a  fraudulent 
ballot  before  the  seizure  of  the  bayonet;  in  the  next  stage,  —  the 
rebellion  of  1860,  —  armed  insurrection  came  first,  and  that  failing 
fraudulent  voting  is  relied  upon  to  subvert  the  government. 

But  the  Legislature  thus  chosen,  the  first  result  of  "Squatter  Sov- 
ereignty," was  recognized  at  Washington.  Its  first  act  was  to  eject 
the  single  free-soil  councillor  who  was  returned,  whereupon  the  only 
member  of  the  party  in  the  House  resigned.  The  next  step  was  to 
quarrel  with  the  Governor,  Reeder,  who  they  soon  found  was  not  to 
be  counted  on  to  support  these  outrages.  They  h;id  met  at  Pawnee, 
a  hundred  miles  from  Missouri,  but  adjourned  to  the  Shawnee  Mi>- 
sion,  which  was  nearer  to  their  base  of  operations.  Reeder  declared 
them  dissolved  by  this  adjournment  ;  but  they  proceeded  to  Ita  procped. 
act.  A  code  of  laws,  of  a  thousand  pages,  was  passed  by 
copying  the  Missouri  Statute  Book,  and  changing  the  word  "State  " 
to  "  Territory."  They  provided  that  every  officer  in  the  Territory  for 
the  next  two  years  should  be  appointed  by  themselves,  and  of  course 
these  officers  were  selected  from  their  own  body.  They  recognized 
slavery  in  the  most  stringent  legislation,  and  decreed  the  punishment 
of  death  for  decoying  slaves  from  their  masters. 

Governor  Reeder,  indignant  at  this  absurd  parody  on  legislation, 
reported  his  views  at  Washington.     But  the  President  did 
not  wish  any  half-way  interpretation  of  his  compacts  with  r«T^ies  s' 
the  South,  and  at  once  removed  Reeder.  to  appoint  Wilson 
Shannon,  a  man  of  a  different  stamp.     Meanwhile  the  people  of  the 
Territory,  in  frequent  meetings,  disclaimed  the  whole  of  the  legisla- 
tion of  the  usurping  body,  and  a  convention  was  called,  to  be  held  at 
Topeka  in  September,  specially  to  form  a  State  Constitution,  and  to 
ask  admission  as  a  State   into  the  Union.     Reeder,  whose  upright 
course  had  commended  him  to  the  Free-State  party,  was  elected  as 
their  delegate  to  Congress,  on  a  different  day,  however,  from  that  ap- 
pointed by  the  Shawnee  Mission  Legislature.     On  that  appointed  day 
the  slavery  party  chose  .John  W.  Whittield. 

The  two  conventions  of  the  Free-State  party  were  held  at  Topeka, 
one  preliminary,  one  to  make  a  State  Constitution.  The  second  Con- 
vention prepared  a  draft  of  a  Constitution,  which  was  accepted  by 
their  constituents.  The  issue  was  thus  joined  between  the  two  par- 
ties,—  the  k>  border-ruffians  "  and  the  ••  Abolitionists,"  as  they  desig- 
nated each  other  on  the  spot. 


412 


TIIK   KANSAS  STRUGGLE. 


[CHAP.  XVI. 


Between  these  parties  a  protracted  civil  war  followed,  provoked 
i  war  in  by  outrages  upon  the  actual  settlers,  leading  inevitably,  not 
Kansas.  merely  to  defence  but  to  retaliation.  Governor  Shannon 
culled  out  the  militia,  ostensibly  to  keep  the  peace;  but  his  call 
was  answered  by  numerous  volunteers  from  Missouri,  for  his  sym- 
pathies were  well  understood.  The  town  of  Lawrence  was  threat- 
ened in  the  later  months  of  1855,  but  escaped  destruction  for  the 
time  by  the  readiness  of  its  leading  citizens  to  go  into  arrest  and 
test  in  the  courts  the  charges  of  their  accusers.  With  the  spring 
of  1850,  however,  a  military  company  from  South  Carolina  under 


South  Carolina  Troops  in   Missouri. 


Major  Buford  arrived,  pledged  to  war.  They  bore  a  red  flag  with 
the  motto,  "  South  Carolina  and  State  Rights."  This  year  the  at- 
tack on  Lawrence  was  renewed,  under  the  direct  authority  of  the 
Government  at  Washington.  It  was  the  policy  of  the  Free-State  men 
never  to  resist  this  authority,  while  they  never  submitted  to  border 
outrage.  The  Free-State  Hotel  and  the  dwelling  of  Governor  Rob- 
sa<-kiiiKof  inson,  the  Governor  under  the  Topeka  Constitution,  were 
burned  and  the  town  was  sacked.  In  the  mutual  attacks 
of  these  months  many  lives  were  lost  on  both  sides,  and  the  animosity 
on  both  sides  became,  if  possible,  more  and  more  bitter.  The  whole 
influence  and  power  of  the  Administration  at  Washington  was  thrown 
against  the  Free-State  party,  and  the  United  States  troops  at  Leaven- 
worth  were  often  used  by  Shannon  to  carry  out  his  purposes,  direct 


1857.] 


TOPEKA    LEGISLATURE    DISPERSED. 


413 


or  indirect,  to  assist  the  invaders  from  the  slave  States.  The  grand 
jury  called  by  the  Territorial  authorities  found  indictments  for  high 
treason  against  Robinson  and  others  of  the  Free-State  leaders,  and 
Robinson  was  kept  for  four  months  under  arrest.  The  Free-State 
Legislature  met,  and  were  dispersed  by  the  United  States  forces,  to 
which,  as  always,  they  deferred. 

Governor  Shannon  at  length  either  resigned  or  was  displaced  by 
President  Pierce  for  failing  to  bring  the  Free-State  party  to 
terms,  and  John  W.  Geary  was  appointed  in  his  place.    At-  points  GOT- 
chison,  of  Missouri,  led  another  army  into  the  Territory.    A 
detachment  of  his  force  destroyed  the  village  of  Ossawatomie,  then 
the  home  of  John 
Brown,    who    was, 
however,  absent  in 
pursuit  of  a  party 
of  the  "border-ruf- 
fians," who  held  as 
prisoners  two  of  his 
sons  and  kept  them 
in  chains.    Another 
son  of  his  had  been 
some    time    before 
inhumanly       mur- 
dered.    So  soon  as 
the      Free-State 
forces    approached, 
Atchison  led  back 
his  men  into  Missouri.      Geary.     - 
on  arrival,  called   on  both   parties  to 
disarm,  but  was  met  by  a  new  invasion 
from  Missouri.   A  murder  having  taken 

place  almost  in  his  own  presence,  he  arrested  the  murderer,  aud  at 
once  lost  favor  in  the  eves  of  the  slavery  party. 

V       ' 

He  reported  at  length   to   the    President  that  ••  peace  and  order  "' 
were  established.     With  the  beginning  of  1857  the  Topeka 
Legislature   met;  but  the   United  States   Marshal   imniedi-  a'tT0|*ka 
ately  arrested  the  prominent  members,  and  left  both  Houses 
without  a  quorum.      The  Territorial  Legislature  also  met  at  Lecoinp- 
ton  aud  provided  on  their  part  for  a  State  Constitution.      Meanwhile, 
on  a  report  from  a  committee,  the  National  House  of  Representatives 
had  declared  void  all  the  Territorial  enactments ;  but  the  bill  did  not 
pass  the  Senate.     At  the  same  time  Governor  Geary  resigned,  dis- 
gusted  with   the   failure   of   President  Pierce    to  support  him,  aud 


Jonn   Brown  s    Log   House. 


414 


THE   KANSAS   STRUGGLE. 


[CHAP.  XVI. 


Robert  J.  Walker,  of  Mississippi,  was  named  in  his  stead.  Walker, 
however,  was  alsq  deposed,  for  no  reason  but  the  simplest  adherence 
to  good  faith  with  the  settlers,  and  J.  W.  Denver  became  Territorial 
Governor.  The  Free  State  men  refused  to  vote  for  the  Le- 

..  IITI-II 

comnton  C  onstitution  ;  and  so  completeiv  did  it  lack  popular 

. 

support  that  when  again  submitted  ten  thousand  votes  were 

.  rr  .  11- 

given  against  it  ;  and  when  Congress  renewed  the  experi- 
ment the  same  result  was  gained.    Governor  Denver  resigned  in  turn, 


Adversc 

vote*  on 

Lecompton 


tion. 


Border  Ruffians  invading  Kansas. 


and  Samuel  Aledary  was  appointed  in  his  place.  The  bitter  struggle 
—  the  real  opening  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  which  followed  —  soon 
came  to  an  end.  The  attempt  to  force  a  pro-slavery  Constitution 
was  given  up.  Franklin  Pierce,  the  weak  creature  who  filled  the 
chair  of  the  President  during  the  most  of  these  outrages,  had  retired 
to  his  original  obscurity.  A  Constitution  which  repudiated  slavery 
in  Kansas  was  made  and  ratified  in  1850,  and  Charles  Robinson  was 
the  first  Governor  chosen.  But  it  was  not  until  the  slave  States  had 
gone  out  of  the  Union  that  Kansas  was  permitted  to  come  in. 


18.>G.]  WEAKNESS   OF    PRESIDENT    PIEKCK. 

Such  are  the  external  turning-points  only  of  a  history  of  bloodshed 
and  terror,  then  wholly  new  in  the  annals  of  the  United  St;ites. 
Every  step  in  it  was  marked  with  intense  interest.  The  vacillations 
of  President  Pierce,  as  it  went  on,  were  pitiable.  One  day 

-      .  iii  Weakness  of 

he  announced  that  he  had  no  power  to  preserve  the  peace ;  ti,.-  i-resi- 
another  day  he  employed  the  army;  another  day  he  left  the 
military  commander  to  take  the  responsibility  of  his  action.  Two 
days  after  the  destruction  of  Lawrence,  when  that  atrocity  was  not 
known  in  Washington,  an  agent  who  had  travelled  night  and  day 
from  that  town  to  explain  to  him  the  state  of  affairs,  called  upon  the 
President  in  Washington.  He  was  distressed  by  the  intelligence,  and 
shed  tears  —  possibly  maudlin  tears  —  in  expression  of  his  sorrow. 
He  drew  a  despatch  which  he  sent  to  Governor  Shannon  at  once,  bid- 
ding him  dismiss  the  "militia"  so  called,  and  rely  only  on  the 
regular  forces.  This,  he  declared,  had  been  his  intention  from  the 
beginning;  but  when  the  different  parties,  eager  to  justify  them- 
selves, produced  their  several  orders,  it  proved  that  Governor  Shannon 
had  been  directed  not  to  employ  the  regular  army  unless  he  found 
the  "  militia  :'  insufficient.  Such  a  scene  is  a  fit  illustration  of  the 
vacillation  of  a  man  unfortunately  intrusted  with  power,  who  may 
not  have  been  absolutely  bad,  but  who  was  so  weak  and  so  destitute 
of  a  political  conscience  that  he  was  a  mere  tool  in  the  hands  of  the 
stronger  men  about  him. 

As  early  as  the  moment  when  the  abrogation  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise was  proposed,  a  committee  of  Free  Democrats,  led  by  Mr. 
Vinton  of  New  York,  had  waited  on  the  President  to  ask  him  the  dis- 
position of  the  Administration.  The  President  said  in  reply  that  he 
had  certainly  calculated  on  the  support  of  the  "  softs,'' }  as  these  men 
were  familiarly  called,  for  he  had  shown  them  at  least  equal  consider- 
ation in  the  distribution  of  patronage.  This  remark  on  a  question 
which  involved  the  most  serious  moral  principles,  is  chai-acteristic  of 
the  man.  In  an  interview  with  Mr.  Marcy,  on  the  same  day,  the 
committee  learned  that  Mr.  Douglas  and  some  Southern  gentlemen 
had  had  two  long  discussions  with  the  President.  They  had  at  last 
compelled  him  to  assent  to  their  views,  and  he  had  himself  put  in 
writing  the  passage  which  related  to  the  abrogation  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  This  was  the  fulfilment  of  his  promise,  that  the  coun- 
try's repose  on  the  slavery  question  should  ••  suffer  no  shock  during  my 
official  term  if  I  have  power  to  prevent  it/'  The  interview  between 
ibis  committee  and  the  President  may  be  compared  to  the  celebrated 

1  The  Democratic  party  of  New  York  was  divided  into  two  factions,  respectively  called 
the  '  Hard  Shells  "  and  the  "  Soft  Shells."  The  former  were  iu  alliance  with  the  slavery 
propagandists  of  the  South. 


416  THE   KANSAS   STRUGGLE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

interview  between  the  young  Democrats  of  1811  and  Mr.  Madison, 
when  they  compelled  him  to  assent  to  war  with  -England.  As  always 
in  such  cases,  the  aggressors  were  able  to  threaten  their  victim  with 
the  loss  of  a  second  term  of  his  office.  When  the  President  yielded 
he  falsified  every  statement  he  had  made  up  to  this  period,  and,  of 
course,  lost  the  prize  which  he  had  coveted.  From  this  moment  the 
Democratic  party  was  again  divided.  All  persons,  indeed,  who  were 
determined  that  slavery  should  never  be  extended  beyond  its  existing 
limits,  all  persons  who  wished  that  the  new  Territories  should  be  for- 
ever free,  could  now  act  together  untrammelled  by  real  or  supposed 
obligations  of  honor. 

At  this  period  appeared  a  new  combination  in  the  politics  of  the 
country,  of  which  the  full  history  has  never  yet  been  written, 
nothing  and,  from  its  vei-y  nature,  perhaps  never  will  be.  A  secret 
society  had  been  formed  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  the  yea'- 
1853,  with  the  purpose  of  checking  foreign  influence,  especially  the 
influence  of  the  Pope,  purifying  the  ballot,  and  maintaining  the  use 
of  the  Bible  in  public  schools.  Whether  these  were  or  were  not  the 
only  objects  of  the  founders,  they  have  never  yet  told  the  world.  But 
these  objects  alone  were  such  as  could  be  readily  made  acceptable  to 
most  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  native  voters  of  either  party,  and 
with  the  fascination  which  attends  well-organized  secret  movements 
would  of  themselves  secure  for  it  a  large  support.  The  organiza- 
tion called  itself  the  American  Party,  but  was  popularly  named  the 
44  Know-nothings,"  one  of  the  habits  of  its  members,  under  their 
mutual  agreement,  being  to  say  to  unlicensed  inquirers  that  they 
knew  nothing  of  its  secret  proceedings. 

The  organization  was  increasing  in  numbers  when  the  abrogation 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  in  1854,  completely  dissolved  all  old 
party  ties  at  the  North.  Men  of  all  shades  of  opinion,  thus  set  free 
from  old  companionships,  were  glad  to  use  the  new  machinery. 
Among  these  men  at  the  North  were  some  of  the  more  intelligent  of 
the  anti-slavery  politicians,  who  thought  that  here  was  the  opportu- 
nity which  they  had  sought  in  vain  before  for  a  national  organization 
friendly  to  their  plans.  At  the  South  a  considerable  number  of  men 
who  distrusted  the  extreme  measures  of  the  "  fire-eaters  "  joined  them, 
in  hope  that  this  organization  might  be  used  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  Union.  And  as  always  happens  in  such  cases,  a  large  number  of 
discontented  men  of  all  views  or  of  no  views,  who  thought  they  had 
not  been  sufficiently  considered,  offered  themselves  as  leaders  in  its 
councils. 

So  rapid  was  the  enrolment  of  members,  that  more  than  a  million 
and  a  half  of  voters  had  accepted  its  pledges  before  the  year  1855.  Jn 


1855.]  THE   KNOW-NOTHING   PARTY.  417 

the  elections  of  the  autumn  of  1854,  they  carried  the  vote  of  many  of 
the  Northern  States,  and  in  all  well-nigh  paralyzed  the  efforts  of  the 
old  organizations.  The  indignation  of  the  North  at  the  overthrow 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  the  power  of  this  "  American  "  or- 
ganization, resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the  Democratic  party  through 
the  Northern  States.  The  Whig  party  was  broken  in  pieces.  The 
elections  of  that  year  indicated  to  the  President  and  those  who  had 
advised  him,  that,  whatever  else  was  uncertain,  it  was  certain  that 
they  had  lost  the  support  of  the  Northern  constituencies. 

The  new  organization  of  the  "  Americans  "  was,  however,  no  bet- 
ter able  than  the  old  parties  to  hold  together  those  who  wished  and 
those  who  did  not  wish  to  extend  slavery.     Kenneth  Raynor,  of  North 
Carolina,  had  suggested  establishing  in  it  a  "  third  or  Union  degree," 
by  which  its  members  pledged  themselves,  in  what  is  described  as 
a  very  serious  and  impressive  ceremonial,  "  to  maintain   the   Union 
of  the  States,   against  any  and  all  assaults."      Before  six 
months  had  passed,  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  men,   Mmajnth* 
North  and  South,  had  taken  this  pledge.     But,    after  all, 
the  pledge  meant,  for  the  most  conscientious,  the  Union  as  they  un- 
derstood it;   for  those  less  conscientious,   as  events   have  proved,  it 
seems  to  have  meant  nothing. 

The  frequent  alliances  between  the  "  American  "  party  and  the 
Free-Soilers  at  the  North,  did  not  escape  attention  at  the 

oictf  •      i  1  •  •  i          Alliances 

oouth.      oo   tar    as    anti-slavery    men    were   directing   the   «uh  t-ree- 
"  American  "  councils,  the  friends  of  slavery  at  the  South 
saw  the  direction  given.     The  result  of  such  observation  showed  itself 
in  Virginia  in  the  spring  elections  of  1855.     Henry  A.  Wise,  one  of 
the  most  notorious  and  insolent  of  the  Virginian  leaders,  had  been 
counted,  in  earlier  times,  as  one  of  the  most  influential  men  among 
the  Whigs.     He  now  led  the  Democratic  party  of  Virginia  Defeated  in 
in  a  triumphant  canvass,  the  result  of  which  entirely  over- 
threw the  new  organization  there.    The  hopes  of  its  leaders  to  become 
a  national  party  were  rudely  blighted  by  this  defeat. 

Still  the  "  National  Council "  which  represented  the  organization, 
was  the  organ  of  nearly  a  million  and  a  half  of  men  who  had  pledged 
themselves  to  support  its  measures.  No  President,  at  this  time,  had 
ever  received  seventeen  hundred  thousand  votes.  If  the  members 
of  the  subordinate  lodges  could  be  kept  united,  the  National  Council 
could  be  well-nigh  sure  of  the  next  President.  In  that  Council  almost 
every  State  was  represented,  generally  by  seven  delegates  each.  The 
Northern  and  Southern  views  at  once  expressed  themselves.  The 
Council  proved  to  be  only  another  Congress,  with  every  element  rep- 
resented in  it,  which  would  have  been  found  in  the  Senate  or  the 

VOL.  iv.  27 


418 


THE   KANSAS   STRUGGLE. 


[CiiAi>.  XVI. 


House  of  Representatives  in  Washington.  Two  weeks  were  spent  in 
M.-etin  of  *ne  PreP:irjlti°n  of  resolutions  :  and  the  majority  proved  to 
its  council,  be  in  favor  of  suppressing  all  discussion  of  slavery.  Of 
course  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  then  fresh  in  all  mem- 
ories, was  discussed.  It  was  then  that  Kenneth  Raynor  used  the 
expression  which  has  been  already  cited.  "  I  have  to  say,"  he  said. 
'•  that  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  an  uncalled  for  and 
unnecessary  act,  an  outrage  even,  a  violation  of  plighted  faith  ;  and 
1  would  have  seen  my  right  arm  withered  and  my  tongue  palsied 
before  I  would  have  voted  for  it."  He  proposed  an  amendment, 
declaring  that  the  American  party  recognized  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  of  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  ;  that  all  questions  touching  its  agitation  should  be  ignored 
and  discouraged,  but  that,  should  this  party  "come  into  power,  it 
would  so  dispose  of  that  question  as  to  mete  out  justice  to  all  sec- 
tions and  interests."  But  this  amendment  was  rejected.  The  North- 
ern resolutions  were  also  rejected.  The  Southern  resolutions  were 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  eighty  to  fifty-nine. 

This  was  the  last  act  of  the  National  Council  in  which  it  could 
be  said  to  represent  the  whole  country.  The  Northern  delegates 
met,  and  agreed  to  an  address  to  the  order,  which  demanded  the 
restoration  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  the  admission  of  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska  as  free  States,  and  the  protection  by  the  national 
Government  of  actual  settlers  in  the  free  exercise  of  the  elective  fran- 
chise. The  interference  with  the  elections  in  Kansas  by  invasion 
from  Missouri  suggested  the  last  demand.  For,  at  this  moment,  the 
impression  in  the  wavering  fancies  of  President  Pierce,  was  that  he 
had  no  right  to  give  such  protection. 

The  majority  of  the  order  were  thus  freed  from  the  embarrassments 
of  anti-slavery  alliance,  while  they  lost  the  support  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  their  Northern  constituents.  In  the  autumnal  elections  of 
185"),  the  party  carried  the  States  of  New  York,  California,  and 
Massachusetts  ;  but  the  division  enabled  the  Democrats  to  carry  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  In  all  these  cases  the 
victory  was  that  of  a  plurality,  not  a  majority  of  voters. 

Under  such  lurid  skies,  the  President  met  the  thirty-fourth  Con- 
gress in  December.  So  complicated  were  the  partisan 

N.  P.  Bank.     *?.    .    .  ,    ,      ,   .          .        TT 

speaker  of  divisions,  that  two  months  passed  before  the  House  organ- 
ized  itself  by  the  election  of  a  Speaker.  Two  years  before, 
after  a  similar  contest,  the  extreme  Southern  candidate  was 
chosen.  Tin's  year,  —  under  the  plurality  rule,  as  then,  —  Nathaniel 
P.  Banks,  of  Massachusetts,  was  chosen,  receiving  one  hundred  and 
three  votes,  while  William  Aiken,  of  South  Carolina,  received  one 


1855.] 


THE   KNOW-NOTHING  PARTY. 


419 


hundred.  Nineteen  members  were  absent,  eleven  scattering  votes 
were  given,  and  there  was  one  vacancy.  Meanwhile  the  Presi- 
dent had  brought  the  affairs  of  Kansas  before  Congress  by  a  special 
message  on  the  24th  of  January.  The  affairs  of  that  Territory,  al- 
ready the  scene  of  civil  war,  attracted  largely  the  attention  of  Con- 
gress through  the  session.  Even  Mr.  Douglas,  the  champion  of 
"  Squatters  and  Squatter  Sovereignty,"  in  a  report  from  the  Commit- 
tee on  Territories,  denounced 
the  action  of  the  "  New  Eng- 
land Emigrant  Aid  Company," 
and  the  President  went  so  far 
as  to  characterize  the  Eastern 
settlers  in  Kansas,  as  persons 
"foreign"  to  its  interests.  A 
committee  of  the  House  visited 
the  Territory  in  person.  They 
obtained  official  records  which 
verified  the  history,  now  cer- 
tain, of  the  constant  armed  in- 
vasions from  Missouri  on  davs 

*/ 

of  election. 

In  the  course  of  the  discus- 
sion in  the  Senate,  Charles 
Sumner,  Senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts, delivered  on  the  19th 
and  20th  of  May  a  speech  which,  when  published,  he  called  "  The 
Crime  against  Kansas."  He  was  replied  to  bv  Senators  Cass, 

°  ...  *  .  Sumner's 

Douglas,  Mason  of  Virginia,  and  Butler  of  South  Carolina,   speech  on 

K  aiit»AS 

in  speeches  whose  tone  is  indescribable,  except  by  the  slang 
phrase  which  distinguishes  a  certain  grade  of  language  and  of  man- 
ners :  they  "  blackguarded  "  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  in  terms 
to  which  ordinary  decency  set  no  limit.     Unfortunately,  in  his  reply, 
he  permitted  himself  to  retaliate  in  something  of  the  same  temper. 

A  reference  to  Mr.  Butler  was  the  ground  of  an  assault  made 
on  Mr.  Sumner  two  days  after.  The  Senate  had  adjourned.  ^ssaulu>d  in 
Mr.  Sumner  remained  at  his  desk  writing.  Preston  S.  the!*I'»t«- 
Brooks,  a  Representative  from  South  Carolina,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Keitt,  another  member  from  the  same  State,  as  an  accomplice,  ap- 
proached him  and  said:  "  I  have  read  your  speech  twice  over  care- 
fully ;  it  is  a  libel  upon  South  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Butler,  who  is  a 
relative  of  mine."  While  he  spoke,  he  struck  Mr.  Sumner  over  the 
head  with  a  heavy  stick,  as  he  sat  confined  by  the  desk  at  which 
he  was  writing,  and  the  blows  were  continued  till  he  fell  stunned,. 


Charles   Sumner. 


420  THE   KANSAS    STRUGGLE.  [CnAP.  XVI. 

insensible,  and  bleeding  to  the  floor.  The  injuries  that  he  received, 
seemed  to  threaten  his  life  at  first ;  and  it  was,  indeed,  not  till  the 
end  of  four  years,  that  his  medical  advisers  permitted  his  return  to 
his  active  duties.  During  that  period,  the  State  of  Massachusetts  was 
not  unfitly  represented  in  the  Senate  by  his  empty  chair. 

Mr.  Wilson,  his  colleague,  called  on  the  Senate  the  next  day  to 
Action  in  vindicate  its  dignity.  The  temper  of  the  Senate  and  of  the 
the  senate.  tjme  appears  m  {\}e  fact  fa^  t]ie  Senate  chose  a  committee 

of  five  Democrats  to  report  on  the  assault.  They  reported,  that  as 
Mr.  Brooks  Avas  a  member  of  the  House,  the  Senate  had  no  jurisdic- 
tion, and  should  take  no  action.  In  a  subsequent  debate,  Mr.  Slidell 
said:  "When  AVC  heard  that  some  one  was  beating  Mr.  Sumner,  Ave 
heard  the  remark  \vithout  any  particular  emotion.  I  remained  very 
quietly  in  my  seat.  The  other  gentleman  did  the  same.  We  did 
not  move."  Mr.  Douglas  said:  "My  first  impulse  Avas  to  come 
into  the  Senate  Chamber  and  help  to  put  an  end  to  the  affray,  if  I 
could.  But  it  occurred  to  my  mind  in  an  instant,  that  my  relations 
to  Mr.  Sumner  Avere  such  that  if  I  came  into  the  hall,  my  motives 
might  be  misconstrued,  and  I  sat  doAvn  again."  Mr.  Toombs  said, 
"  I  probably  said  I  approved  what  Mr.  Brooks  did.  That  is  my 
opinion." 

Such  Avere  the  manifestations  of  opinion  among  Senators.  Senator 
senator  \vii-  Wilson,  Mr.  Sumner's  colleague,  Avas  challenged  by  Brooks 
lenged'bjr  ^or  calling  the  assault  "brutal,  murderous,  and  coAvardly." 
Mr.  Wilson  declined  the  challenge  on  the  ground  that  duel- 
ling was  a  part  of  the  barbarism  Avhich  dictated  the  attack.  When 
Mr.  Burlingame,  of  Massachusetts,  subsequently  accepted  a  challenge 
from  Brooks  and  proposed  to  meet  him  in  Canada,  Brooks  declined, 
on  the  ground  that  the  state  of  Northern  feeling  Avas  such  that  he 
could  not  safely  travel  there.  It  was  generally  believed  that  his  real 
reason  was  a  fear  of  Mr.  Burlingame's  rifle. 

The  House,  on  a  report  of  its  committee,  voted  to  expel  Brooks,  by 
Action  of  a  v°te  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  to  ninety-five.  For 
the  House,  expulsion,  under  the  rules,  a  vote  of  tAvo  thirds  was  neces- 
sary, so  he  retained  his  seat.  A  vote  of  censure  Avas  adopted  by  a 
large  majority.  In  an  insolent  speech  he  then  resigned  his  seat 
His  constituents  at  once  returned  him,  and  in  two  Aveeks  he  took  the 
oaths  again.  Southern  statesmen  of  the  first  rank  Avere  eager  in  con- 
gratulations. Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  said,  "  I  know  of  no  represen- 
tative Avhose  public  career  I  hold  more  worthy  of  the  full  and  cordial 
approbation  of  his  constituents."  Jefferson  Davis  said,  "  I  have  only 
to  express  my  sympathy  Avith  the  feeling  Avhich  prompts  the  sons  of 
Carolina  to  welcome  the  return  of  a  brother  Avho  has  been  the  sub- 


1856.]  PRESIDENTIAL   NOMINATIONS.  421 

ject  of  vilification,  misrepresentation,  and  persecution,  because  he  re- 
sented a  libellous  assault  upon  the  representative  of  their  mother." 
Mr.  Buchanan,  however,  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  Mr.  H rooks  was 
"•  inconsiderate."  Brooks  died  within  the  year.  In  a  eulogy  on  him 
in  the  House  Mr.  Savage,  of  Tennessee,  said,  "  History  records  but 
one  Thermopylae  ;  there  ought  to  have  been  another,  and  that  one  for 
Preston  S.  Brooks.  The  scene  in  the  Senate  Chamber  shall  carry  the 
name  of  the  deceased  to  all  future  generations."  History  would,  in- 
deed, be  incomplete  without  such  record  of  the  passions  of  the  time, 
though,  the  man  who  at  the  moment  seems  a  hero  to  his  friends, 
stands  revealed  in  the  future  to  all  men  as  only  a  ruffian  and  a  bully 
of  a  not  uncommon  type. 

With  such  excitements,  —  with  the  destruction  in  Kansas  even  of 
the  theory  of  Squatter  Sovereignty,  —  with  the  approval  by 

J  a  i        PraidentuU 

the  Southern  leaders  of  a  murderous  assault  upon  a  Worth-  canvass  in 
ern  Senator,  —  all  parties  made  their  preparation  for  another 
election  of  President.  The  "  American "  Convention  had  met  in 
Philadelphia  on  the  22d  of  February,  the  anniversary  of  Washing- 
ton's birthday.  Mr.  Perkins,  of  Connecticut,  after  an  exciting  debate 
on  the  issues  of  the  day,  said,  "  There  are  two  great  questions  before 
the  people :  one  the  reform  in  the  naturalization  laws,  one  the  restora- 
tion of  freedom  in  Kansas."  He  proposed  that,  as  the  Convention 
would  riot  consider  the  latter  question,  those  who  thought  it  a  real 
issue  should  withdraw,  and  fifty  members  withdrew.  The  remaining 
members  gave  Mr.  Fillmore  one  hundred  and  seventy-nine  votes,  and 
he  was  made  their  candidate.  Andrew  Jackson  Donelson  was  made 
candidate  for  Vice-president. 

On  the  same  day  a  convention  was  held  at  Pittsbnrg  to  perfect  the 
national  organization  of  what  was  now  called  the  Repub-  TheRepub_ 
lican  Party,  in  which  name  it  was  hoped  the  different  ele-  llcan  Party- 
ments  of   opposition  to  the  extension   of  slavery  might   be   united. 
This  meeting  proposed  a  national  convention  on  the  17th  of  June, 
supposed  to  be  an  auspicious  day  in  the  history  of  American  rebel- 
lion, because  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 

On  the  2d  of  June  there  met  at  Cincinnati  the  Convention  of  the 
Democratic  party.  President  Pierce,  who  had  come  in  with  v,,mncniic 
little  opposition,  was  to  go  out  with  none.  It  was  no  longer  c'onveutlon- 
a  time  for  unknown  men  or  weak  men.  Yet,  with  the  power  which 
always  belongs  to  an  administration,  he  was  brought  forward  as  a 
candidate.  Mr.  Douglas  was  another.  James  Buchanan,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, was  another.  Fortunately  for  him,  he  had  been  Minister  in 
England  when  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  repealed,  and  in  that 
matter  his  hands  were  clean.  The  Convention  balloted,  without  any 


422  TUB   KANSAS   STRUGGLE.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

nomination,  sixteen  times,  the  rules  adopted  requiring  a  vote  of  two 
thirds.  On  the  sixteentli  ballot  Mr.  Buchanan  received  one  hundred 
and  sixty-eight  votes,  Mr.  Douglas  one  hundred  and  twenty-one. 
There  were  but  six  others.  On  the  seventeenth  ballot  Mr.  Buchanan 
received  a  unanimous  vote  and  was  chosen  candidate.  John  C.  Breck- 
inridge  was  made  candidate  for  Vice  president. 

The  Convention  of  the  new  Republican  party  met  at  Philadelphia 
Republican  on  the  17th  of  June,  just  after  Lawrence  was  sacked,  Mr. 
roi.T™tion.  Sumner  beaten  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  Mr.  Brooks  con- 
gratulated on  the  deed  of  an  assassin.  Men  of  very  varied  antece- 
dents met  there.  Here  was  Preston  King,  of  New  York,  the  life-long 
friend  of  Governor  Marcy.  Here  was  Cassius  M.  Clay,  of  Kentucky, 
a  relative  of  the  great  Senator.  Here  was  Henry  Wilson,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, fresh  from  the  Senate  Chamber  where  Sumner  had  been  as- 
saulted. Here  was  Francis  P.  Blair,  the  friend  of  General  Jackson. 
Here  was  David  Wilmot,  whose  good  fortune  it  was  to  move  the  Wil- 
mot  Proviso.  The  Convention,  on  its  first  ballot,  gave  to  John 
Charles  Fremont  three  hundred  and  fifty-nine  votes.  Judge  McLean, 
of  Ohio,  received  one  hundred  and  ninety-six.  General  Fremont  was 
thus  made  the  candidate.  William  L.  Dayton  received  the  majority 
of  votes  for  Vice-president,  though  one  hundred  and  ten  were  given 
to  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois. 

Fremont  was  well  known  to  the  country,  and  favorably,  as  the  ex- 
oenenii  plorer  of  the  mysterious  regions  of  the  West.  As  early  as 
Fremont.  }g42,  a  young  officer  in  the  army,  he  had  been  sent  out,  at 
his  own  request,  into  the  "great  American  desert"  of  those  days. 
He  had  shown  rare  temper,  perseverance,  and  executive  ability,  in  a 
series  of  explorations  carried  forward  by  him  ;  he  had  corrected  many 
grave  mistakes  in  American  geography  ;  had  opened  California  to 
Western  emigration  ;  and  had,  indeed,  laid  the  foundations  for  the 
Pacific  Railway  of  after  years.  For  the  purposes  of  the  new  party 
organization,  it  was  desirable,  not  to  say  necessary,  that  its  candi- 
date should  have  had  no  close  connection  with  either  political  party. 
It  has  been  a  habit  of  officers  in  the  regular  army  to  keep  themselves 
almost  proudly  free  from  any  such  connection.  It  was  certainly  an 
advantage  that  Colonel  Fremont  was  the  son-in-law  of  a  statesman  so 
Senator  distinguished  as  Colonel  Benton,  for  a  generation  Senator 
from  Missouri.  This  Senator,  though  a  slaveholder,  and  a 
slaveholder  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  had  in  many  critical  moments 
refused  to  act  with  th«  Fire-eaters,  and,  in  face  of  the  current  of 
public  opinion  in  Missouri,  had  shown  himself  the  friend  of  the  set- 
tlers in  Kansas. 

The  seceders  from  the  American  Convention  had  met  in  New  York 


1856.] 


ELECTION   OF  BUCHANAN. 


423 


slavery. 


on  the  12th  of  June.      They  had  proposed  for  the  Presidency,  the 
Speaker  of  the   House,  Mr.  Banks;  and  for  Vice-president. 

TIT  -11-  T-       T    i  t     rt  i    '      •  rr-i  -,  •  ,  Nominations 

William   v.  Johnson,  of   Pennsylvania.       These  candidates   -f  "i. •  *«n«rr- 
ct.  J         -iUJ  ican  |i:irt>' 

were  afterwards  withdrawn. 

Three  candidates  for  the  Presidency  were  thus  before  the  people  ; 
and  for  the  first  time  in  many  years,  each  represented  a  real  wi«c«iN« 
conviction.  Each  indeed  was  a  man  who  had  given  proof 
of  real  ability.  Mr.  Buchanan  stood  for  the  South  and  its  ors- 
policy.  Colonel  Fremont  stood  for  the  non-extension  of 
Mr.  Fillmore  stood 
for  the  Union  of  the 
States,  and  for  that 
strong  conservative 
feeling  which  re- 
garded all  questions 
as  little,  in  compari- 
son with  this  Union. 
An  incident  of  the 
autumn,  which  fore- 
shadowed what  was 
to  follow,  was  a  pro- 
posal made  by  Gov- 
ernor Henry  A.  Wise, 
of  Virginia,  for  a 
conference  of  the 
Governors  of  South- 
ern States,  to  take 
into  consideration 
the  state  of  the  coun- 
trv.  The  invitation 

•/ 

was    on    the    whole 

kindly  received,  but  there  was  no  meeting  except  of  the  Governors 

of  Virginia  and  the  two  Carol inas. 

The  election   resulted  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  which  was 
due  wholly  to  the  division  of  his  antagonists.     Of  the  pop-  Tho «,!,,,,. 
ular  vote  he  received  1,838,16'J.     Here  were  more  than  two  tio"- 
hundred  thousand  votes  more  than  President  Pierce  had  received,  so 
intense  was  the  excitement  of  the  canvass.      But  he  was  still  in  a 
minority  of   nearly  four  hundred    thousand.     Colonel   Fremont  had 
1,341,000  votes.     Mr.  Fillmore  had  875,000.     Of  the  Electoral  votes 
Mr.  Buchanan  received  one  hundred  and  seventy-four.     Colonel  Fre- 
mont had  one  hundred  and  fourteen,  and  Mr.  Fillmore  the  eight  votes 
of  Maryland, — which  showed  itself  true  to  its  mid-way  position  be- 


James  Buchan»n. 


424  THE   KANSAS   STRUGGLE.  [C HAP.  XVI. 

tween  North  and  South.  Mr.  Buchanan  owed  his  election  to  the  vote 
of  Pennsylvania.  As  the  canvass  went  forward  in  this  State,  he  had 
pledged  himself  to  insure  to  Kansas  an  honest  vote  of  her  own  people. 
With  this  assurance,  Mr.  Buchanan  obtained  a  plurality  of  the  vote 
of  Pennsylvania,  which  proved  essential  for  his  election.1 

But  when  he  came  into  office,  the  auspices  were  all  against  him. 
No  President,  except  the  second  Adams,  had  ever  been  chosen  by  so 
small  a  proportion  of  the  popular  vote.2  Of  the  Northern  States, 
Mr.  Buchanan  had  received  the  votes  of  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, 
Illinois,  and  Indiana.  But  in  two  of  these  he  \vas  in  a  minority.  In 
Pennsylvania,  his  majority  was  only  one  thousand  and  twenty-five  in 
a  vote  of  four  hundred  and  sixty  thousand;  and  in  Indiana  it  was  not 
two  thousand  in  a  vote  of  nearly  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand. 
The  days  of  Northern  men  with  Southern  principles  were  over. 

Still  Mr.  Buchanan  was  not  so  weak  a  man  as  his  forgotten  prede- 
Buchanan  as  cessor.  He  was  not  a  fool,  though  his  political  career  was 
President,  j^y  no  means  free  froin  vacillations  and  inconsistencies.  He 
probably  hoped,  in  his  old  age,  that  with  the  prestige  of  the  name  of 
President,  he  could  control  such  spirits  as  he  had  in  his  Cabinet ; 
such  men  as  Howell  Cobb,  and  Floyd,  who  afterward  abused  their  of- 
ficial position  under  his  eyes,  to  prepare  for  war  against  the  nation 
which  they  pretended  to  serve.  The  President's  first  message  re- 
peated the  assurances  that  the  discussion  of  slavery  had  come  to  an 
end.  It  was  remembered  afterward  for  its  attack  on  the  clergy  of 
the  country,  whom  he  charged  with  fomenting  the  disturbance  which 
had  so  endangered  its  institutions.  But  in  that  message,  he  declared 
himself  friendly  to  the  admission  of  Kansas  into  the  Union  with  a 
constitution  agreeable  to  a  majority  of  the  settlers.  He  referred  to 
a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  —  soon  to  be  made,  —  and  asked  for 
acquiescence  in  it,  whatever  its  character.  Such  a  reference,  from  a 
President  to  an  undelivered  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  a 
novelty.  It  soon  appeared,  however,  that  he  had  reason  for  going 
outside  of  precedent. 

The  decision  referred  to,  of  which  the  new  President  had  had  some 
The  Dred  early  intimation,  was  the  decision  in  the  "  Dred  Scott  "  case. 
Scott  case.  ^n  a(^ion  na(j  been  begun  by  Dred  Scott,  a  negro,  in  the  cir- 
cuit court  of  Missouri,  for  his  freedom  and  that  of  his  children.  His 
claim  was  that  he  had  been  removed,  in  1884,  to  Illinois,  then  a  free 

1  The  details  of  this  transaction  are  given  in  a  very  curious  speech  by  Mr.  J.  \V.  Forney, 
who  obtained  the  pledge  from  Buchanan,  —  read  at  the  Quarter  Century  celebration  of  the 
settlers  of  Kansas,  at  Bismarck  Grove,  September  20,  1880. 

2  Mr.  Adams's  vote  in  1824  was  only  29.92  percent,  of  the  popular  vote.      In  1844,  Mr. 
Folk's  wns  49.55  per  cent.     In  1848,  General  Taylor's  was  47.36  per  cent.     Mr.  Buchanan's 
was  45.34. 


1857.]  THE   DRED    SCOTT   CASE.  425 

State,  by  his  master,  and  afterwards  taken  into  territory  north  of  the 
Compromise  line  ;  that  in  1838  only  had  he  been  taken  back  into 
Missouri  and  sold  again  to  his  present  master.  To  this  Sanford,  his 
master,  replied  that  Scott  was  not  a  citizen  of  Missouri,  and  could  not 
bring  an  action ;  and  also  that  he  and  his  children  were  Sanford's 
slaves.  The  lower  courts  had  differed,  and  the  case  came  before  the 
full  bench.  The  case  was  twice  argued  with  care.  When  the  de- 
cision came,  for  which  the  new  President  asked  attention  and  concur- 
rence, it  swept  the  whole  ground  indeed.  The  opinion  of  the  Court 
was  prepared  by  Judge  Taney,  the  Chief  Justice.  It  dismissed  the 
case  on  Sanford's  first  reply,  namely,  that  Died  Scott  was  not  a  cit- 
izen of  Missouri.  Black  men  could  not  be  citizens,  the  Court  said  vir- 
tually. The  opinion  went  historically  back  to  the  origin  of  the  Con- 
stitution. Referring  even  to  the  words  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, that  all  men  are  equal,  the  Court  said  it  was  plain  that  its 
authors  did  not  embrace  the  negro  race,  which,  by  common  consent, 
had  been  excluded  from  the  civilized  governments,  in  the  family  of 
nations,  and  devoted  to  slavery.  In  the  Constitution,  the  Court  said, 
the  idea  could  not  be  entertained  that  negroes  were  citizens,  "as  the 
only  two  provisions  which  point  to  them  and  include  them,  treat  them 
as  property." 

With  this  statement  the  case  itself  ended.  The  Chief  Justice,  avail- 
ing himself  of  the  fact  that  the  plaintiff  rested  his  plea  for  freedom 
on  the  ground  that  his  owner  had  taken  him  into  territory  made 
free  by  the  Missouri  Compromise,  went  beyond  the  record  to  declare 
the  Missouri  Compromise  to  be  unconstitutional.  From  the  decision 
Judge  McLean  and  Judge  Curtis  dissented ;  but  it  was  in  itself  suffi- 
cient, as  Mr.  Benton  said,  to  make  a  new  departure  in  the  working  of 
the  Federal  Government.  It  made  slavery  the  organic  law  of  the  land. 
"  No  longer  the  exception  with  freedom  the  rule  ;  but  slavery  the  rule, 
with  freedom  the  exception."  Such  a  decision  moved  the  heart  of 
the  whole  North,  and  showed  to  the  most  conservative  that  the  whole 
line  of  argument  and  of  action  was  forever  changed. 

The  new  Congress  met  in  December,  1857.  The  Democrats  were 
able  to  choose  their  own  Speaker,  the  division  between  the  American 
and  the  Republican  parties  giving  a  House  in  which  the  Democrats 
had  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  votes,  the  Republicans  ninety -two, 
and  the  Americans  fourteen. 

To  the  difficulties  of  a  minority  in  the  popular  vote,  and  a  general 
distrust  through  the  North,  were  now  added  those  of  a  great 
commercial  revulsion.     One  of  those  ebb-tides  of  trade  for  disasters  of 
which  no  man  has  yet  fully  accounted,  and  which  have  been 
referred  by  bold  physicists  even  to  changes  in  the  heavenly  bodies, 


426  THE   KANSAS   STRUGGLE.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

swept  over  the  world.  Such  crises  always  follow  periods  of  great 
commercial  activity  and  supposed  prosperity.  In  this  case  the  im- 
mense treasure  drawn  from  the  mines  of  California  had  greatly  en- 
larged the  banking  operations  of  the  counti-y.  The  great  railroad 
system,  which  secured  for  the  agricultural  States  the  markets  of  the 
world,  was  developed  with  rapidity  that  would  have  once  seemed 
fabulous.  New  institutions  of  credit,  on  a  scale  gigantic  to  the  enter- 
prise of  earlier  times,  were  established  in  the  larger  cities.  It  was 
the  failure  of  one  of  these  —  the  "Ohio  Life  and  Trust  Company" 
—  which  precipitated  the  fatal  discovery.  The  world  of  commerce 
found  how  large  was  the  "  inflation  "  and  how  hollow  the  promise, 
on  which  this  great  prosperity  had  been  reared.  The  civilized  world 
felt  the  shock,  and  commerce  did  not  recover  from  it  for  many  years. 
The  Treasury  of  the  United  States  was  emptied  in  the  crash,  and  the 
new  Government  was  not  even  able  to  pay  its  officers. 

The  vote  on  the  Lecompton  Constitution  in  Kansas  was  the  test  of 

that  pledge  of  a  "fair  election"  which  Buchanan  had   given  to  the 

Pennsylvania  Democrats.     He  said  that  now  the  question  was  a  mere 

point  of  honor,  which  the  North  could  afford  to  yield  ;  that 

Buchanan's      ' 

faithless-  all  men  knew  that  Kansas  would  be  free  ;  that,  so  soon  as 
admitted,  the  State  could  change  its  Constitution,  and  the 
South  could  not  then  complain  that  her  rights  had  been  abandoned. 
In  this  declaration  he  broke  faith  with  a  large  portion  of  the  party 
which  had  till  now  sustained  him.  In  the  Senate  a  bill  was  passed 
to  admit  Kansas  under  this  Constitution.  But  the  old  Democratic 
majority  could  no  longer  be  relied  upon.  Bell,  Broderick,  and  Stuart, 
and,  most  fatal  sign  of  all,  Douglas,  voted  for  a  substitute  offered  by 
Mr.  Crittenden,  but  not  adopted  :  that  the  Constitution  should  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  people  of  Kansas,  who,  should  they  reject  this,  would  be 
authorized  to  take  the  preliminary  steps  for  the  formation  of 

Admission  • 

of  Kansas      another.     In  the  House  the  substitute  was  again  presented 

proposed. 

by  a  Democrat,  Montgomery,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  adopted, 
and  the  two  Houses  disagreeing,  a  committee  of  conference  was  ap- 
pointed which  drew  up  a  compromising  bill,  Seward  of  the  Senate  and 
Howard  of  the  House  dissenting.  From  the  name  of  its  author,  this 
plan  was  called  the  "  English  Compromise."  It  proposed  a  submis- 
sion to  the  people,  but  only  on  the  hard  conditions  that,  if 
iish  com-  they  refused,  they  should  lose  their  allotments  for  education 
and  for  internal  improvements,  and  should  not  be  admitted 
until  their  population  numbered  ninety-three  thousand  three  hundred 
and  fifty  inhabitants,  the  quota  at  that  time  for  one  Representative. 
This  "  compromise  "  passed.  The  Constitution  was  sent  to  Kansas, 
and,  as  has  been  seen,  the  people  absolutely  rejected  it.  The  vote 
was  1,788  in  its  favor  and  11,300  against  it. 


1857.] 


THE   MORMONS. 


427 


In  the  autumn  of  1857,  the  defiant  resolution  of  the  Mormons  in 
Utah  compelled  the  President   to  remove  their  Governor,   TheMor 
Brigham  Young,  and  appoint  Alfred  Cuming,  an  officer  of   1"°"< 
the  army,  his  successor.     Young  was  the  "  prophet,"  so  called,  the  im- 
mediate successor  of  the  founder  of  the  Mormon  Church.     As  the  tide 
of  emigration  rolled  westward,  the  colony  of  this  remarkable  people 
had  become  of  national  importance,  with  vitality  enough  in  their  faith 
to  gather  together  a  church  of  from  thirty  to  forty  thousand  people, 
and,  as  the  Church  was  the  State,  with  strength  enough  to  defy  the 

^ 

Federal  Government.     Driven  first  from  Missouri  to  Illinois,  in  1838, 


Salt    Lake  City. 

and  thence,  ten  years  afterward,  into  the  wilderness,  they  sought  a 
resting-place  and  refuge  in  what  was  then  called  "The  Great  Amer- 
ican Desert,"  and  pitched  their  tents  and  built  their  tabernacle  on  the 
shores  of  Salt  Lake.  Their  government  was,  and  is,  a  hierarchy ; 
their  faith  was  founded  on  the  pretended  discovery  of  a  new  revela- 
tion written  on  golden  plates  that  had  lain  buried  for  centuries  in  a 
hill  at  Manchester,  Xew  York,  and  were  dug  up  by  Joseph  Smith  ;  on 
this,  in  after  years,  the  lecherous  temper  of  their  chief  saints  had  im- 
posed the  system  of  polygamy  as  a  later  revelation  to  Smith  ;  and  it  is 
hard  to  say  which  is  the  greater  marvel  —  that  there  should  be  cre- 
dulity and  ignorance  enough  among  the  civilized  peoples  of  the  nine- 


428  THE  KANSAS   STRUGGLE.  [€HAP.  XVI. 

teenth  century  for  tlie  formation  of  such  a  sect,  or  that  an  enlight- 
ened government  should  have  so  long  tolerated  organized  immorality 
under  the  guise  of  a  religion.  "  The  twin  relic  of  barbarism,"  as  it  waa 
called  by  Owen  Lovejoy,  could  not,  like  slavery,  seek  protection  un- 
der the  sheltering  compromises  of  the  Constitution. 

With  an  army  of  only  three  hundred,  the  new  Governor  was  sent  to 
his  destination.  The  Mormon  prophet  forbade  his  entrance  into  the 
city,  and  it  was  only  by  a  mortifying  submission  that  this  force  was 
allowed  to  remain  unmolested,  in  its  encampment.  With  the  next 
summer  the  army  was  reenforced,  the  Mormons  yielded  ;  and  since 
that  time,  the  national  Government  lias  appointed  a  "  Gentile,"  so 
called,  to  the  government  of  the  Territory. 


Fac-simlle  of  Characters  of  the   Mormon  Plates. 


President  Pierce  had  permitted  the  departure  from  the  country  of 
an  adventurer  named  William  Walker,  who  attempted  to 
make  himself  master  of  Nicaragua,  with  a  force  of  four  hun- 


dred men.  He  had  even  held  some  communication  with  an 
envoy  of  Walker's.  Once  and  again  Walker  had  been  forced  to  re- 
turn. But  on  the  24th  of  November,  1857,  he  landed  at  Greytown 
again,  in  sight  of  a  vessel  of  the  United  States  navy.  Commodore 
Paulding  arrested  him  and  sent  him  back  for  trial.  The  jury,  how- 
ever, when  he  was  tried  at  New  Orleans,  failed  to  agree. 

In  the  summer  of  this  year,  on  the  4th  of  August,  the  first  tele- 
Atuntic  graphic  message  passed  from  America  to  Europe.  The 
Telegraph.  cabje  na(j  been  laid  successfully  with  the  assistance  of  the 
governments  of  England  and  the  United  States.  The  communi- 
cation was  soon  interrupted  by  an  accident,  but  before  long  the  regu- 
lar transmission  of  public  and  private  news  between  the  continents 
was  established. 

The  elections  of  1858  taught  even  the  President  that  he  had  relied 
too  far  on  the  large  vote  which  elected  him.  In  the  State  of 

Proposal  to  ° 

pun-base        Jsew  1  ork  only  lottt  Democrats  were  returned  to  the  House 

('lll)'L 

of  Representatives.  The  extreme  Southern  party,  however, 
brought  forward,  at  the  short  session,  a  bill  to  permit  the  Government 
to  purchase  Cuba  for  thirty  million  dollars.  It  met  the  full  Republi- 
can opposition,  and  was  at  last  abandoned  by  its  friends. 


1858.] 


JOHN  BROWN. 


429 


John  Brown. 


Among  the  early  emigrants  from  New  York  to 


In  the  midst,  however,  of  the  victories  and  defeats  of  the  men  who 
were  prominent  before  the  country,  careless  of  the  hopes 
and  fears  of  politicians  or  of  statesmen  a  poor  man,  un- 
known to  them  all,  was,  in  his  wild  way,  concerting  the  plans  which 
precipitated  the  crisis  of  the  nation's  history.  John  Brown  had  al- 
ready devised  a  movement  of  those  whom  lie  called  the  "  True 
Friends  of  Freedom."  It  has  been  remembered  that  he  was  of  Puri- 
tan blood.  His  whole  life  was  characterized  by  Puritan  enthusiasm, 
as  well  as  by  the  personal  purity  and  stern  will  which  belong  to  the 
Puritan  character. 
Kansas  who  determined  to  make 
it  a  free  State,  he  was  one. 
Among  all  the  brave  and  devot- 
ed men  of  that  struggle,  none 
were  braver  or  more  devoted, 
and  none  more  dreaded  by  the 
"  border -ruffians,"  than  John 
Brown,  of  Ossawatomie.  He 
no  more  forgave  than  he  forgot 
the  atrocious  murder  of  one  of 
his  sons,  and  that  another  had 
been  driven  to  insanity  by  cruel 
treatment  when  a  prisoner. 
From  that  moment  he  devoted 
his  life,  all  that  he  was,  and  all 
that  he  had,  to  one  single  pur- 
pose, —  the  extirpation  of  sla- 
very. He  believed  that  God 
hated  it,  and  he  believed  that  he  was  God's  messenger  to  destroy 
it.  Early  in  1858  he  called  together  at  Chatham,  in  Can-  ThemeetinK 
ada,  a  quiet  convention  of  the  "  True  Friends  of  Freedom,"  atchathaln 
where,  with  the  utmost  secrecy,  was  drawn  up  a  "  Provisional  Con- 
stitution for  the  people  of  the  United  States.''  It  is  not  probable 
that  more  than  two  or  three  persons  were  present,  but  they  chose 
Brown  commander-in -chief.  Richard  Realf  Secretary  of  State,  and 
J.  H.  Kagi  Secretary  of  War.  As  early  as  the  autumn  of  1857 
Brown  had  organized  a  small  body  of  men,  and  had  undertaken  to 
give  them  military  instruction. 

From  this  time  forward  he  proposed  the  invasion  of  Virginia  by  a 
small  military  force,  with  the  expectation  of  arousing  the  ,,is  plan  of 
slaves  in  that  State  so  that  they  should  assert  their  own   inrasion- 
freedom.     He  was  able  to  control  some  small  part  of  the  arms  which 
had   been    freely   provided   for  the    use   of   the    Free-State   men  in 


John    Brown. 


430 


THE  KANSAS  STRUGGLE. 


[CHAP.  XVI. 


Kansas;  and  he  was  in  communication,  from  time  to  time,  with  the 
truest  friends,  in  New  England,  of  the  Kansas  settlers.  From  a  se- 
cret committee  in  Boston  he  received  about  four  thousand  dollars  in 
money,  and  about  twice  that  value  in  arms.  Of  these  gifts  the 
larger  part  were  made  by  George  L.  Stearns,  a  conscientious  and  un- 
flinching friend  of  Kansas  through  the  whole  period  of  troubles.  An 
Englishman  named  Forbes,  a  retired  officer  of  the  British  army,  who 
had  been  employed  as  a  military  drillmaster  of  recruits  for  Kansas, 
informed  Senators  Seward,  Hale,  and  Wilson,  in  May,  1859,  that 


Arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry. 

the  arms  furnished  for  the  Kansas  settlers  had  been  obtained  by 
Brown,  who  would  use  them  unlawfully.  This  information  the  Sen- 
ators sent  to  the  Massachusetts  Kansas  Committee,  who  at  once  wrote 
Brown  that  the  arms  must  not  be  used  except  for  the  defence  of 
Kansas.  His  plans  were  thus  for  the  moment  checked.  But  as  the 
summer  passed,  Mr.  Stearns  obtained  possession  of  that  portion  of 
the  arms  which  were  his  own,  and  transferred  them  to  Brown,  with 
four  hundred  dollars.  Brown  at  once  went  to  Marvland  and  estab- 

tf 

M,,*,.,  into  lished  himself  five  miles  from  Harper's  Ferry,  at  the  Ken- 
virginia.  nedy  Farm.  Of  this  the  Secretary  of  War  was  apprised  as 
early  as  August,  but  he  took  no  notice  of  the  information.  On  the 
16th  of  October,  with  fourteen  white  men  and  four  negroes  armed 
and  equipped  for  war,  Brown  took  possession  of  the  United  States 
Armory  buildings  at  Harper's  Ferry,  stopped  the  railroad  trains,  cap- 


1859.]  JOHN   BROWN  IX   VIRGINIA.  431 

tured  several  citizens,  liberated  several  slaves,  and  held  the  to\vn 
about  thirty  hours.  Virginia  was  in  a  paroxysm.  The  whole 
country  thrilled  to  the  heart.  The  invasion  of  Kansas  from 
Missouri  to  establish  slavery  did  not  create  anything  like  the 
excitement  aroused  by  this  invasion  of  Virginia  by  fifteen 
white  men  and  four  negroes,  to  give  freedom  to  the  slaves. 
Brown's  own  hope  was,  that  the  slaves  of  Virginia  would 
immediately  rally  about  him  and  assert  their  freedom.  But 
there  has  never  been  any  evidence  that  he  had  negotiated 
with  them,  nor  did  they  ever  show  any  intention  of  sustaining 
him. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  at  once  sent  troops 
to  Harper's  Ferry.     Brown  retired  to  the  "engine- 

r  »  •'»-.•«  Capture  at 

house,     where  he  was  attacked  and  captured  by  a  Harpers 
detachment  of  United  States  marines.     They  were 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee,  soon  to  be  him- 
self the  commander-in-chief  of  an  insurrection,  at  that  time  on 
the  staff  of  General  Scott.     Brown  was  wounded  in  several 
places.     Thirteen  of  his  band,  including  two  of  his  sons,  were 
killed  or  mortally   wounded.     Brown    and   his   six   followers 
were  at  once  tried,  convicted,  and  executed.1 

Three  days  after  his  execution  the  new  Congress  met  at 
Washington.  Every  effort  was  made  to  convict  the  leaders  of 
the  Free-State  party  of  complicity  with  Brown  in  this  effort. 
Through  the  whole  country  it  gave  occasion  for  the  friends  of 
the  Union  to  point  out  the  danger  which  they  thought  latent 
in  all  efforts  to  arrest  the  course  of  slavery.  At  the  South  it 
conveyed  the  impression  that  the  Free-State  men  of  the  North 
meant  insurrection  and  liberation.  From  tliis  time,  at  least, 
the  intention  to  divide  the  Union  at  any  moment  Effeotofhis 
when  Southern  supremacy  ceased  to  be  absolute,  be-  attemPt- 
came  the  universal  Southern  idea.  In  the  minds  of  most  of  the 
Southern  leaders  such  had  been  the  intention  long  before,  and 
there  can  be  hardly  a  doubt  that  had  Fremont  been  elected  in 
1856  the  attempt  would  then  have  been  made  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  which  the  election  of  Buchanan  postponed  only  for 
four  years. 

The  new  Constitution  of  Kansas,  ratified  by  the  people  in 
John  October,  was  laid  before  Congress  at  this  session.  So  strong 
p>ke.  "  was  the  Northern  sentiment  in  the  House  that  a  bill  admitting 

1  John  Brown's  body  was  given  to  his  friends  and  was  buried  at  North  Elba,  New  York. 
That  "  his  soul  goes  marching  on  "  was  the  refrain  of  a  song,  to  the  music  of  which  many 
a  Northern  regiment  marched  in  less  than  two  years  to  suppress  the  Southern  rebellion. 


432  THE  KANSAS   STRUGGLE.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

the  new  State  passed  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  to 
seventy-three.  But,  what  may  be  called  the  dying  act  of 
the  party  of  slavery  was  the  refusal  of  the  Senate,  on  the 


disposed  of.       _   ,          ,.      ,  11-111  f 

7th  of  June,  to  take  up  the  bill,  by  a  vote  of  thirty-two 
to  twenty-eight.  The  next  winter,  when,  on  the  21st  of  January, 
1861,  the  Southern  Senators,  with  some  characteristic  effort  at  dra- 
matic effect,  withdrew  from  the  Senate,  the  first  Senators  from  Kan- 
sas entered  it  as  the  representatives  of  a  free  State. 

The  country  approached  the  canvass  for  the  next  Presidential  elec- 

tion with  a  distinct  understanding  of  the  threat  of  the  ex- 

PreMilrntial 

«-inip:iign  of  treme  southern  leaders  that  the  success  of  the  Republican 

IgtjU. 

party  should  be  the  signal  for  disunion.  So  far  as  this 
threat  was  believed,  it  induced  conservative  men  to  withdraw  their 
support  from  the  Republican  party  and  to  attempt,  at  least,  some 
midway  course.  But  it  was  not  generally  believed  through  the  North- 
ern States.  Arrogance  was  considered  to  be  a  habit  of  the  planta- 
tion, and  to  govern  by  threats  to  be  the  policy  of  masters  who  were 
used  to  slaves.  As  a  token  of  conciliation  the  Democratic  party  held 
its  convention,  not  at  one  of  the  central  cities,  but  at  Charleston, 
Democratic  South  Carolina.  Mr.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  was  the  member 
convention,  of  the  party  who  carried  the  most  popularity  at  the  North, 
but,  as  has  been  already  said,  he  had  refused  his  support  to  the  Le- 
compton  Constitution.  He  would  have  lost  his  own  constituency  by 
any  other  course  ;  but  from  that  moment  the  Southern  leaders  op- 
posed him  with  bitter  but  undeserved  hatred. 

When  the  Convention  met,  its  committee  on  credentials  had  to 
decide  at  once  on  the  claims  of  two  delegations  from  New  York,  and 
those  of  two  delegations  from  Illinois.  In  both  cases  they  decided  in 
favor  of  Mr.  Douglas's  friends.  For  nearly  a  week  a  debate  raged 
on  the  resolutions  to  be  presented  as  the  "platform"  of  the  Con- 
vention. The  result  showed  that  the  Douglas  faction  were  in  the 
majority.  They  had  been  satisfied  with  the  platform  of  four  years 
before,  while  the  Southern  delegates  insisted  *'  that  there  was  no 
power  to  prevent  slavery  in  the  Territories,"  and  that  Government 
ought  to  "  protect  the  rights  of  person  and  property  on  the  high 
seas."  The  last  statement  was  supposed  to  cover  the  African  slave- 
trade.  So  soon  as  this  vote  was  announced,  the  delegations  from 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  Florida,  and  Texas,  withdrew,  and  a  part  of 
those  from  Louisiana,  South  Carolina,  Arkansas,  Delaware,  and  North 
Carolina.  The  seceders  were  encouraged  by  the  most  extravagant 
approval  of  the  citizens  of  Charleston.  On  the  ninth  day  of  the 
Convention  a  vote  was  reached.  It  had  been  decided  that  two  thirds 
of  the  votes  should  be  necessary  to  a  nomination.  In  fifty-seven  bal- 


I860.] 


THE   PRESIDENTIAL   CAMPAIGN   OF  1860. 


433 


lotings  Mr.  Douglas's  vote  reached  a  clear  majority.  A  motion  was 
then  made  to  adjourn  to  Baltimore  on  the  18th  of  June.  By  this 
adjourned  Convention  Mr.  Douglas  was  named  the  Democratic  can- 
didate, and  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  of  Alabama,1  the  candidate  for  Vice-pres- 
ident. But  this  was  not  till  the  delegates  of  seven  States,  and  a  part 
of  those  from  Massachusetts,  had  withdrawn.  The  seceding  delega- 
tions held  a  Convention  on  the  28th  of  June,  and  named  J.  C.  Breck- 
inridge  of  Kentucky,  and  Joseph  Lane  of  Oregon,  as  their  candidates 
for  President  and  Vice-president. 

On  the  9th  of  May  the  "  Constitutional  Union  National  Conven- 
tion "  met.     It  was  called  in  good  faith  by  the  remnants  of 
the  old  Whig  and  American  parties,  who  still  hoped  to  avoid   tionai' union 
the  inevitable  conflict.     On  the  second  ballot,  John  Bell  of 
Tennessee  was  made  the  candidate  for  President ;  Edward   Everett 


Lincoln's  Early  Home  —  Elizabethtown,   Ky. 

of  Massachusetts,  who  had  expressly  charged  his  friends  in  the  Con- 
vention not  to  permit  his  nomination  MS  President,  was  nominated 
for  Vice-president,  because  he  had  neglected  to  say  he  would  not  be 
second  when  he  had  refused  to  be  first.  He  did  not,  however,  decline 
the  nomination. 

On  the  16th  of  May  the  Republican  Convention  met.  The  choice 
lay  between  Mr.  Seward,  who  had  wisely  led  the  Republican  forces 
in  the  Senate,  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  so  well 

1  Fitzpatrick  declined,  aud  H.  V.  Jolmsoii,  of  Georgia,  was  iiauicd  in  his  place. 
VOL.  iv.  28 


434 


THE   KANSAS    STRUGGLE. 


[CiiAr.  XVI. 


known  as  Mr.  So  ward  at  the  East,  but  in  the  West  he  had  distin- 
Repubiiesn  guishi'd  himself  in  a  canvass  of  profound  interest,  in  which 
convention.  jie  jia(j  |)een  opposed  to  Douglas.  For  Vice-president  the 
Convention  named  Hannibal  Ilamlin  of  Maine.  The  four  candidates 
were  not  unworthy  of  the  crisis.  They  represented  the  principles  of 
the  voters  who  supported  them.  The  days  of  available  or  make-shift 
candidates  were  in  the  past  and  the  future. 

The  canvass  was  intensely  earnest  and  anxious.  All  felt  it  to  be 
the  most  momentous  the  country  had  ever  known  ;  some  understood 
that  it  was  a  question  of  Avar,  of  free  government  at  the  North,  and 
of  liberty  in  the  Southern  States.  In  the  Southern  States  no  votes 

w 

were  given  to  the  Republican  candidates,  excepting  in  Virginia,  where 
Mr.  Lincoln  received  less  than  two  thousand,  and  in  Kentucky,  where 
lie  received  thirteen  hundred.  Of  the  popular  vote  he  received 
Election  of  1,866,000,  the  largest  vote  which  had  then  ever  been  given 
for  any  President.  But  even  this  vote  was  not  a  majority 
of  the  whole.  Mr.  Douglas  received  1,37;~>,000  votes  ;  Mr.  Breckin- 
ridge,  848,000  ;  Mr.  Bell,  691,000.  But  in  the  division  of  the  Electo- 
ral vote  Mr.  Lincoln  had  one  hundred  and  eighty  —  being  that  of  all 
the  free  States,  except  New  Jersey,  who  gave  him,  however,  four  out 
of  her  seven,  —  being  a  clear  majority  of  fifty-seven  over  all.  Mr. 
Breckinridge  had  sevent}r-two  votes  ;  Mr.  Bell  thirty-nine  ;  Mr. 
Douglas  twelve. 


-i        .**fr : 


* 

' 


:  'ttf^mWM"™ 


On  the  Parapet  at  Fortress   Monroe. 
Drairnby  Gitslav  Verbftkfrom  aji/totograph. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 


OPENING    OF   THE    WAK. 

THE  SECESSION  IDEA  NOT  UNFAMILIAR  IN  TIIK  SOUTH. —  ACTS  OF  SECESSION  LED 
BY  SOUTH  CAROLINA. — ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  GoUTOEBACY. —  PI:OPOSEI>  PEACE 
COMPROMISES.  —  SEIZURE  OF  UNITED  STATES  FORTS  AND  ARSENALS.  —  T\VIG>.»'- 

SCRRENDER.  INDECISION    IV    WASHINGTON.  FEDERAL    OCCUPATION    OK    FORT 

SFMTER. —  INAUGURATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. — SECRETARY  SEWARD  OUTLINES 
A  POLICY  FOR  THE  NEW  ADMINISTRATION. — THE  GUN  AT  SUMTER. —  SECESSION- 
OP  SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  VIRGINIA.  —  THE  FIKST  CALL  FOR  TKOOP*. —  SECESSION 
MOB  IN  BALTIMORE. —  FIGHT  AT  BIG  BETHEL. —  MILITARY  OPERATIONS  IN  WEST 
VIRGINIA.  —  BATTLE  OF  BULL  RUN. — McCi.Ei.i.AN  IN  COMMAND. 

THE  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  immediate  pretext  for 
the  beginning  of  the  Southern  insurrection.  But  the  mind  of  the 
Southern  people  had  long  been  familiarized  with  the  proposition  of 
secession  ;  and  threats  of  disunion  had  been  so  often  made  in  the 
South  that  the  revolutionary  movements  which  followed  the  election 
of  1860  appeared  to  be  logical  consequences,  unexpected  though  they 
were  to  the  majority  of  the  people  of  the  non-slaveholding  States. 
The  extremely  radical  doctrine  of  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  the  in- 
dividual States  was  taught  in  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Legisla- 
tures of  Virginia  and  Kentucky  in  1798-09,  when  the  young  Republic 
was  just  recovering  from  the  effects  of  the  long  and  exhausting  war 
of  the  Revolution.  The  right  of  secession  was  frankly 
avowed  by  the  State  of  South  Carolina  in  1832,  when  the  and  the  ee- 

i  •'•«_•  "o  i  11  i      •       w"s>oii  idtM. 

people  of  that  State  were  ready  to  take  themselves,  then- 
State,  and  their  communities  out  of  the  Federal  Union  because  they 


430  OPENING  OF  THE   WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

were  dissatisfied  with  a  newly  enacted  tariff  law.  While  Congress 
hesitated  over  the  proposition  to  admit  Texas  to  the  Union,  in  1843- 
44,  the  Southern  leaders,  set  upon  the  adoption  of  that  scheme,  de- 
manded that  Texas  he  admitted  or  disunion  would  surely  follow. 
During  the  agitation  that  flamed  throughout  the  nation  when  the 
so-called  compromise  measures  of  1850  were  under  discussion  in  Con- 
gress, this  pernicious  doctrine  was  once  more  brought  to  the  fore  in 
South  Carolina,  where  it  was  solemnly  declared  that  the  Palmetto 
State  would  quit  the  Union  in  case  any  legislation  hostile  to  the 
cherished  institution  of  slavery  were  seriously  attempted.  Again, 
two  years  later,  the  dogma  of  the  right  of  secession  was  re-stated,  and 
South  Carolina,  having  affirmed  that  right,  magnanimously  declined 
to  exercise  it,  in  deference  to  the  desires  of  other  States  whose  provo- 
cation was  no  less  aggravated. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  had  long  been  a  wide  differ- 
ence between  the  people  of  the  North  and  the  people  of  the  South  on 
this  very  question  of  the  right  of  a  State  to  leave  the  Union,  with  or 
without  the  consent  of  the  other  members  of  the  Federation.  It  must 
be  admitted  that  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  Republic's  existence,  dis- 
cussion of  this  proposition  had  not  been  confined  to  the  people  of  the 
Southern  States.  When  by  the  purchase  of  a  vast  tract  of  territory 
—  known  as  Louisiana  in  1803  —  the  area  of  the  slaveholding  section 
of  the  United  States  was  greatly  enlarged,  many  Northern  men  boldly 
proposed  that  a  separation  of  the  free  States  from  the  slaveholding 
States  was  becoming  necessary.  And  later,  when  the  material  in- 
terests of  New  England  excited  the  people  of  that  section  to  a  bitter 
opposition  to  the  war  with  England  in  1812,  the  thought  of  separation 
became  prominent  in  local  discussion  ;  and  the  famous  Hartford  Con- 
vention, in  1814-15,  adopted  a  report  which,  while  denying  any  pres- 
ent intention  to  dissolve  the  Union,  admitted  that  if  such  a  dissolution 
should  ever  be  necessary,  "  by  reason  of  the  multiplied  abuses  of  bad 
administrations,  it  should,  if  possible,  be  the  work  of  peaceable  times 
and  deliberate  consent."  Finally,  the  more  advanced  leaders  of  the 
Abolitionist  party  had  so  often  urged  that  a  peaceable  sepa- 
ration  of  the  non-slaveholding  States  was  better  than  a  con- 
dition of  perpetual  alarm  and  friction,  that  the  mere  threat 
of  secession  had  to  some  degree  lost  its  terrors  in  both  sections  of  the 
Union. 

But  it  must  also  be  admitted  that,  jvhile  the  idea  of  separation  was 
never  received  with  general  hospitality  in  the  North,  that  idea  gradu- 
ally found  greater  favor  in  the  South.  And,  although  all  talk  of  a 
peaceable  secession  ceased  among  the  Northern  people,  the  Southern 
people  were  so  familiar  with  the  topic  that  when  there  arose  a  possi- 


I860.]  THREATS  OF  SECESSION.  437 

bility  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  would  elect  a  President 
who  was  inflexibly  opposed  to  the  further  extension  of  slavery,  they 
unhesitatingly  declared  that  such  an  election  would  be  the  signal  for 
their  abrupt  departure  from  the  confederation  of  States.  They  did 
not  hesitate  to  threaten  that  disunion  would  follow  the  election  of 
Lincoln.  They  did  not  stop  to  urge  that  there  was  even  a  possibility 
that  his  election  would  be  accomplished  by  any  but  lawful  and  regu- 
lar agencies,  as  provided  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
Before  the  election  had  been  held,  the  Southern  leaders,  in  Congress 
and  in  the  political  field  at  home,  averred  that  the  success  of  Lincoln 
would  be  sufficient  cause  for  secession,  and  that  that  step  would  be 
taken  as  soon  as  the  event  was  assured. 

Accordingly,  South  Carolina,  which  had  always  been  the  leader  in 
the  boldest  discussion  of  the  right  of  a  State  to  quit  the  Union  at  its 
own  pleasure,  led  in  preparations  for  quitting  as  soon  as  the  proba- 
bilities of  Lincoln's  election  became  tolerably  certain.  In  October, 
1860,  one  month  before  the  Presidential  election  came  off, 
the  Governor,  Congressmen,  and  leading  politicians  of  South 
Carolina  met  in  solemn  conclave  and  prepared  a  resolution  ('arolnia 
to  the  effect  that  their  State  ought  to  withdraw  from  the  Federal 
Union  if  Lincoln  should  be  elected.  Similar  action  was  taken  in 
Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  and  Mississippi,  although  it  did  not  ap- 
pear then  or  afterwards  that  declarations  of  this  sort  were  so  well 
received  by  the  people  of  those  States  as  they  were  by  the  people  of 
South  Carolina,  where  the  bare  proposition  of  secession  had  obtained 
a  wide  popular  favor.  The  Governor  of  South  Carolina  sent  a  secret 
circular  to  the  executive  officers  of  all  the  slaveholding  States,  inform- 
ing them  that  his  State  would  leave  the  Union  if  others  would  go 

with  her ;  or  South  Carolina  would 
go  alone,  if  any  other  State  would 
promise  to  follow.  Although  the 
right  of  secession  was  claimed  as  in- 
alienable and  unquestionable,  even 
South  Carolina  was  unwilling  to  go 
out  alone  and  set  up  for  herself  an 
independent  sovereignty. 

The  election  of  Lincoln  having 
been  assured  by  the  popular  will,  as 
expressed  at  the  ballot-box,  Novem- 
ber 6th,  1860,  South  Carolina  was  in 
haste  to  be  gone.  In  that  State  still 
prevailed  the  ancient  custom  of  choos- 

Henry   A.    Wise,   of   Virginia.  .  •  1        A-     i       i  i  IT 

(Afterwards  Brigadier-General,  C.  S.  A.)  l"g  presidential  electors  by  the  LeglS- 


438 


OPENING  OF  THE  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


lature,  not  by  the  people  ;  and  when  that  body  assembled  on  the  day 
appointed  to  choose  electors,  the  Governor  of  the  State  sent  in  a  mes- 
sage recommending  that  in  the  event  of  Lincoln's  election  a  conven- 
tion of  the  people  should  be  immediately  called  to  consider  the  means 
to  be  adopted  to  secure  redress  ;  and  he  declared  that  in  his  opinion 
there  would  be  no  alternative  for  South  Carolina  but  secession  from 
the  Federal  Union.  Next  day,  the  7th  of  November,  the  choice  of  v 
the  people  of  the  United  States  being  assured,  the  Federal  officials  in 
Charleston  resigned  their  commissions  ;  on  the  10th  of  the  month  the 
United  States  Senators  from  South  Carolina,  Messrs.  Hammond  and 
Chesnut,  resigned  their  seats  in  the  Senate  ;  on  that  day  a  conven- 
tion was  called  to  meet  December  17th,  to  consider  the  situation,  the 
delegates  to  be  chosen  December  6th  ;  on  the  13th  the  Legislature  of 
the  State  ordered  the  staying  of  the  collection  of  all  debts  due  to 
citizens  of  non-slaveholding  States  from  citizens  of  South  Carolina; 
on  that  day,  Francis  W.  Pickens,  having  been  elected  Governor  of 
the  State,  he  appointed  a  "  cabinet,"  as  if  the  separate  nationality  of 
South  Carolina  were  already  assured  ;  the  so-called  cabinet  consisted 
of  the  following  members:  A.  G.  Magrath,  Secretary  of  State;  David 
F.  Jamison,  Secretary  of  War;  C.  G.  Memminger,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  ;  W.  W.  Harlee,  Postmaster-General  ;  and  Albert  C.  Gar- 
lington,  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  This  amusing  comedy  was  played 
before  the  adoption  of  the  ordinance  of  secession  ;  that  ac- 

.,,  . 

tion  by  the  convention  selected  for  that  purpose  was  taken 

December  20th,  1860. 

In  the  Northern  States  these  proceedings  were  viewed  with  alarm. 
But  it  was  at  first  believed  that  the  secession  fever,  so  excited  in 
South  Carolina,  would  not  spread  be- 
yond the  boundaries  of  that  State.  In 
South  Carolina,  however,  every  means 
had  been  adopted  to  "  fire  the  South- 
ern heart,"  as  the  popular  phrase  then 
went.  The  action  of  the  Secession 
Convention  was  joyfully  ratified  by 
the  people;  bells  were  rung,  salutes 
fired,  processions  and  pageants  organ- 
ized, meetings  of  congratulation  held, 
and  every  possible  demonstration  of 
approval  and  satisfaction  made  by  the 
people  of  Charleston  and  other  cities 
and  towns  of  the  Palmetto  State. 
Not  only  so,  but  it  became  evident  Jacob  Tho-"Pso".  of  Mississippi. 

,,  .,  .  i  i  (Secretary  of  the  Interior  under  President 

that  the  agencies  employed  to  secure  Buchanan.) 


Action 

the 


I860.]  THE  SOUTHERN  LEADERS.  439 

the  cooperation  of  other  slaveholding 
States  would  prevent  a  recurrence  of 
the  failure  of  1832,  when  the  solitary 
attempt  of  South  Carolina  to  defy 
the  authority  of  the  government  of 
the  United  States  was  summarily 
defeated  by  the  vigorous  measures 
ordered  by  President  Andrew  Jack- 
son. 

Cannon  salutes,  bells,  bonfires,  and 
other  tokens  of  joyous  applause  were 
the  response  of  several  of  the  slave- 
John  B.  Fioyd,  of  Virginia.  holding  States  to  the  act  of  secession 

proclaimed    by   South    Carolina.     In 

many  of  these  States  steps  were  at  once  taken  to  follow  the  lead 
of  South  Carolina.  But  it  required  much  persuasion  and  some  force 
to  induce  the  people  of  those  States  to  consent  to  the  act  of  secession. 
With  rare  inconsistency,  while  the  Southern  leaders  loudly  protested 
against  the  attempt  to  "  coerce  a  sovereign  State  "  to  remain  in  the 
Union,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  apply  the  most  forcible  means  to  coerce 
their  own  people  to  declare  themselves  and  their  local  governments 
out  of  the  Union.  The  organization  of  the  conspiracy  of  rebellion 
was  exceedingly  complete  and  effective.  Messengers  were 
sped  from  State  to  State  and  from  city  to  city,  from  hamlet  >»  other 

*  State*. 

to  hamlet,  and  from  plantation  to  plantation,  exhorting  to 
immediate  action,  inciting  to  rebellion,  and  warning  the  people  that 
this  was  the  day  of  their  deliverance  from  "  the    thraldom  of   the 
North." 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  identify  some  of  the  leaders  in  this  move- 
ment. They  are  vaguely  known  as  "  plotters  and  disunionists ;  "  but 
their  names  were  on  the  tongue  of  every  man  during  the  stormy  days 
which  followed  the  presidential  election  of  1860.  Of  the  South  Caro- 
linians who  participated  in  the  meeting  held  in  October,  1860,  at  the 
house  of  United  States  Senator  Hammond  were  the  following :  W. 

O 

H.  Gist,   then  Governor  of  the   State ;  ex-Governor  J.  H.   I>Mders  in 
Adams;  James  L.  Orr,  formerly  Speaker  of  the  National  secei"<i011 
House   of   Representatives ;    Representatives  John   McQueen,   Law- 
rence M.  Keitt,  Milledge  L.  Bonham,  John  D.  Ashmore,  and  Wil- 
liam W.  Boyce,  and  Senators  Hammond  and  Chesnut ;  besides  these 
were  several  other  prominent  politicians.     Of  the  other  "  fire-eaters  " 
from  that  State  mention  may  be  made  of  Robert  Barnwell  Rhett, 
who  had  declared  that  "  all  true  statesmanship  in  the  South  consists 
in  forming  combinations  and  shaping  events  so  as  to  bring  about  as 


440  OPENING  OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

speedily  as  possible  a  dissolution  of  the  present  Union,  and  a  South- 
ern Confederacy."  In  Virginia,  where  the  zeal  of  the  secession 
leaders  far  outran  the  willingness  of  the  people  to  secede,  the  most 
conspicuous  of  the  disunionists  were  ex-Governor  Henry  A.  Wise, 
ex-President  John  Tyler,  United  States  Senators  R.  M.  T.  Hunter 
and  J.  M.  Mason  ;  John  B.  Floyd,  Secretary  of  War,  and  Thomas 
S.  Flournoy,  all  of  whom  subsequently  proved  their  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  secession  by  their  activity  in  promoting  that  cause  —  up  to 
the  verge  of  fighting. 

Of  the  leaders  in  other  States  it  is  not  necessary  now  to  speak  ; 
but  four  of  the  chiefs  who  remained  in  Washington,  in  the  cabinet 
of  President  Buchanan,  were  not  only  notably  active,  but  especially 
influential  in  hurrying  the  steps  that  led  up  to  the  attempt  to  dissolve 
the  Union.  These  were  Howell  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  ;  John  B.  Floyd,  of  Virginia  (already  mentioned).  Secre- 
tary of  War ;  Jacob  Thompson,  of  Mississippi,  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior; and  W.  H.  Trescott,  of  South  Carolina,  who,  as  Assistant 
Secretary  of  State,  was  a  valuable  member  of  the  cabal  and  central 
bureau  of  intelligence,  although  not  exactly  a  member  of  the  cabinet. 
While  these  men  were  drawing  pay  from  the  treasury  of  the  United 
States,  they  were  plotting  for  the  destruction  of  the  Union  of  the 
States  ;  and  while  they  were  holding  confidential  relations  with  the 
Chief  Executive,  they  were  in  constant  communication  with  the  in- 
surgents, sending  them  information  accessible  only  to  the  high  officials 
of  the  government ;  and  they  remained  in  place  as  long  as  they  could 
best  serve  their  fellow-conspirators  without  exceeding  the  bounds  of 
their  personal  safety. 

As  a  curious  example  of  the  astuteness  and  the  intelligence  with 
which  one  of  these  men,  John  B.  Floyd,  had  calculated  the  possibili- 
ties and  probabilities  of  secession,  quotation  may  be  made  from  a 
letter  written  by  him,  November  20th,  1860,  while  he  was  yet  exer- 
cising the  functions  of  Secretary  of  War.  Writing  to  a  friend  (a 
Mr.  Peterson,  of  Mississippi),  Floyd  said :  "  South  Carolina  will  go. 
I  consider  Georgia  and  Florida  as  certain.  Alabama  probable.  Then 
Mississippi  must  go.  But  I  want  Louisiana,  Texas,  Arkansas,  Ten- 
nessee, North  Carolina,  Virginia  ;  and  Maryland  will  not  stay  behind 

long." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  South  Carolina  having  passed  an  ordinance  of 

secession  on  the  20th  of  December,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mis- 
tio?r"fzthe  sissippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  followed  her  during  the  first 
tonf»-d-rn  two  months  of  the  next  year,  1861.  In  February  of  that 

year,  delegates  from  these  seven  States  met  at  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  and  organized  a  provisional  government  for  "  The  Confed- 


1861.]  JEFFERSON   DAVIS.  441 


Jefferson    Davis.  Alexander   H.    Stephens. 

THE    HEADS   OF   THE    CONFEDERACY. 

erate  States  of  America  ;  "  and  on  the  9th  of  that  month  Jefferson 
Davis,  of  Mississippi,  and  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  were 
chosen  as  provisional  President  and  Vice-President,  to  hold  office 
for  one  year. 

Jefferson  Davis  was  a  native  of  Kentucky,  and  was  fifty-three  years 
old  when  he  was  chosen  Provisional  President  by  the  Montgomery 
delegates.  He  had  served  his  adopted  State  of  Mississippi  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  leaving  that  body  only  when  his  presence  at 
the  national  capital  was  no  longer  useful  to  his  section.  He  was  Sec- 
retary of  War  during  the  administration  of  President  Pierce,  and  had 
faithfully  promoted  the  interests  of  the  institution  of  slavery  wherever 
and  whenever  he  had  an  opportunity.  Although  "cold  as  a  lizard," 
according  to  one  who  knew  him  well,1  he  could  on  occasion  pose  as  a 
"  fire-eater,''  as  a  ridiculous  episode  in  his  career  manifested.  ,Tefferson 
W.  H.  Bissell,  a  Representative  in  Congress  from  Illinois,  I)avls- 
who  had  been  a  colonel  in  the  Mexican  War,  corrected  a  misstatement 
made  in  Congress  by  a  Virginia  member,  relating  to  the  conduct  of  a 
Mississippi  regiment  commanded  bv  Davis  :  and  Davis  took  it  upon 
himself  to  challenge  Bissell  to  mortal  combat  for  words  spoken  in 
debate,  having  violently  distorted  those  words  to  suit  his  purpose.  A 
suggestion  of  fighting  the  duel  with  muskets  resulted  in  Davis's  with- 
drawal from  the  bloodless  field  of  honor.  Davis  was  an  ardent  sup- 
porter of  the  most  radical  doctrine  of  State  Rights,  and  had  desired 
to  wear  the  mantle  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  the  Great  Nullifier.  As 
early  as  November,  1858,  when  the  Republican  party  had  begun  to 
show  itself  formidable,  Davis  said  in  a  public  speech  at  Vicksburg 

1  General  Sam.  Houstou. 


442  OPENING  OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

that,  in  case  that  party  should  elect  a  President  in  1860,  he  "  was  for 
resistance  —  stern  resistance.  Rather  than  see  the  Executive  chair 
of  the  nation  filled  by  a  sworn  enemy  of  our  [Southern]  rights,  he 
would  shatter  it  into  a  thousand  fragments  before  he  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  taking  his  seat."  And  the  declaration  of  Mississippi,  on  seced- 
ing from  the  Union,  was  undoubtedly  that  of  Davis.  "  Our  position," 
said  the  Mississippi  declaration,  "  is  thoroughly  identified  with  the 
institution  of  slavery — the  greatest  material  interest  in  the  world." 
Davis  was  the  logical  candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the  Confederacy. 

Mr.  Stephens,  being  a  member  of  the  Congress  from  Georgia,  was 
at  once  sworn  into  office  as  Vice- President ;  Davis,  who  had  remained 
at  his  home  in  Mississippi,  arrived  in  Montgomery  a  few  days  later, 
and  was  inaugurated  with  as  much  pomp  as  was  possible  under  the 
circumstances,  amid  the  fervid  cheers  and  enthusiasm  of  the  throngs 
that  filled  the  improvised  capital  of  the  new  Confederacy. 

The  new  constitution  was  modelled  on  the  lines  of  the  old,  with  a 

few  radical  changes.     State  sovereignty  was  sought  to  be  recognized 

in  this  instrument  by  substituting  the  phrase  of  "each  State, 

Conftitution  .  .  f  -,--,-, 

of  the  con-  acting  in  its  sovereign  and  independent  character,  for  the 
simpler  "  we,  the  people,"  employed  in  the  framing  of  the 
preamble  of  the  Federal  constitution.  The  new  constitution  did  not 
recognize  the  right  of  any  member  of  the  new  Confederacy  to  take 
itself  out  of  the  combination  under  any  circumstances  whatever.  On 
the  contrary,  while  the  constitution  was  declared  to  be  binding  on  all 
judicial  and  executive  officers,  courts,  and  tribunals  of  the  Confederate 
States,  no  provision  was  made  for  the  withdrawal  of  a  State  from  the 
compact ;  and  the  dogma  of  State  Rights,  on  which  the  secessionists 
had  laid  so  much  stress,  was  left  to  be  inferred  in  the  instrument;  it 
was  passed  by  in  silence. 

On  his  way  to  Montgomery,  Davis  made  many  speeches  to  the 
multitudes  that  assembled  along  his  route  to  do  him  honor;  these 
speeches  were  reported  in  the  Southern  newspapers,  and  were  calcu- 
lated to  "  fire  the  Southern  heart  "  with  their  bloodthirstiness  and 
warlike  tone.  Years  afterwards,  when  the  piping  times  of  peace  gave 
the  ex-President  of  the  Confederacy  ample  time  to  correct  his  judg- 
ments and  to  write  a  book,  he  complained  that  he  had  been  misre- 
ported,  and  that  he  had  not  indulged  in  the  fireworks  and  inflamma- 
tory rhetoric  with  which  the  newspapers  had  decorated  his  remarks. 
In  his  inaugural  address,  Davis,  while  he  expressed  a  willingness  to 
receive  the  so-called  Border  States  into  the  new  Confederacy,  took 
occasion  to  say  that  his  understanding  of  the  situation  was  that  "  a 
reunion  with  the  States  from  which  we  have  separated  is  neither 
practicable  nor  desirable." 


1861.]  HOPES  OF  A  COMPROMISE.  443 

Davis  proceeded  to  the  formation  of  his  cabinet,  which  was  as  fol- 
lows :  Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  Secretary  of  State  ;  C.  G.  Mem- 
minger,  of  South  Carolina,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  L.  P. 
Walker,  of  Alabama,  Secretary  of  War  ;  S.  R.  Mallory,  of  federate 
Florida,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ;  J.  H.  Reagan,  of  Texas, 
Postmaster-General  ;  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  of  Louisiana,  Attorney- 
General.  The  Provisional  Congress  authorized  the  establishment  of 
a  regular  army  of  about  ten  thousand  men,  and  called  for  one  hun- 
dred thousand  volunteer  troops,  to  serve  one  year  under  the  so-called 
national  (or  Confederate)  authority  ;  at  the  same  time  it  was  ordered 
that  the  State  troops  already  raised  should  be  incorporated  into  the 
Confederate  army.  The  distinction  between  regular  and  volunteer 
troops  was  to  be  observed  with  rigid  punctilio.  Among  other  sover- 
eign acts  of  the  new  Congress  were  the  authorization  of  a  loan  of  fifteen 
million  dollars,  an  export  duty  on  cotton,  and  the  establishment  of  a 
navy  whose  nucleus  was  to  consist  of  ten  steam  gunboats.  Then  it 
was  joyfully  proclaimed  that  the  Southern  Confederacy  was  in  work- 
ing order. 

The  Confederate  President  now  formally  assumed  control  of  mili- 
tary affairs  in  the  States  that  had  joined  the  Confederacy,  and  by  his 
orders  the  Secretary  of  War,  who  had  been  borrowed  from  the  "  cabi- 
net "  of  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  issued  a  call  for  ten  thousand 
volunteers  to  serve  at  points  along  the  border  and  coast-line  of  the 
newly  created  Confederacy.  Agents  were  appointed  to  buy  war 
material  in  Europe  and  to  labor  with  the  governments  of  foreign 
countries  to  secure  immediate  recognition  of  the  Confederacy.  And 
then  a  commission  of  three  persons  was  appointed  to  proceed  to 
Washington  to  procure,  if  possible,  the  consent  of  the  remaining 
members  of  the  old  Union  to  a  peaceable  dissolution. 

Meantime,  peace-loving  men  were  busy  framing  propositions  for  the 
adjustment  of  the  questions  on  which  the  South  had  so  long  threat- 
ened secession.     During  the  winter  of  1860-61,  the  "  Crit- 
tenden  Compromise."  as  it  was  called  from  its  author,  a 


Senator  from  Kentucky,  was  continuously  before  the  Senate, 
and  was  once  lost  for  want  of  Southern  —  not  Northern  Republican  — 
votes,  because  the  South  preferred  disunion.  Yet  it  gave  up  to  slav- 
ery all  territory  south  of  36°  30'  ;  it  forbade  Congress  to  abolish 
slavery,  even  in  places  under  its  exclusive  jurisdiction  within  the 
States  or  in  the  District  of  Columbia  so  long  as  it  existed  in  Virginia 
and  Maryland  ;  it  provided  for  the  legal  transportation  of  slaves,  as 
slaves,  through  the  free  States  ;  it  secured  to  the  slaveholder  payment 
by  the  United  States  for  his  fugitive  slave  if  his  capture  had  been 
obstructed  ;  and  it  prohibited  Congress  from  interfering  with  slavery 


444  OPENING  OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

anywhere.  It  was  not  till  the  confusion  of  the  closing  hours  of  the 
session  that  this  measure  was  defeated  by  a  single  vote;  but  then 
it  mattered  little  what  was  done  by  a  body  whose  members  from  the 
seceded  States  had  been  permitted  to  withdraw  with  much  ceremony 
of  leave-taking,  instead  of  being  ordered  into  the  custody  of  the  ser- 
geant-at-arms. 

In  both  Houses,  committees  were  appointed  to  devise  some  other 
way  of  meeting  the  threatened  troubles  than  the  direct  one  of  the 
immediate  suppression  of  insurrection  and  the  punishment  of  treason. 
One  of  these  committees  reported  a  joint  resolution,  which  passed 
both  Houses,  proposing  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  prohibit- 
ing Congress  to  interfere  with  slavery  anywhere,  without  the  consent 
of  all  the  States.  The  House  passed  resolutions  —  reported  by  the 
same  committee  of  one  from  each  State — affirming  that  all  State 
legislation  interfering  with  the  capture  of  fugitive  slaves  should  be 
repealed ;  that  slavery  should  not  be  prohibited  in  New  Mexico ;  and 
that  the  North  disclaimed  all  intention  of  meddling  with  it  in  the 
States. 

In  February,  1861,  a  Peace  Congress,  suggested  by  Virginia,  con- 
vened  at  Washington.  In  it  were  represented  all  the 
Northern  States,  except  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota, 
California,  and  Oregon,  and  all  the  Southern  States  except  the  eight 
that  had  already  seceded.  The  result  of  its  three  weeks  of  delibera- 
tion was,  as  Senator  Sumner  said,  to  propose  "  to  give  slavery  positive 
protection  in  the  Constitution,  making  it  national  instead  of  sectional." 
The  resolutions  it  adopted  were  conceived  in  essentially  the  same 
spirit  that  suggested  the  Crittenden  Compromise  and  the  resolutions 
of  the  committee  which  the  House  had  adopted.  It  was  the  North 
that  was  arraigned  as  criminal ;  the  North  that  must  repent  of  her 
evil  ways ;  the  North  that  must  clothe  herself  in  sackcloth,  and 
sprinkle  ashes  upon  her  head. 

If  the  South  needed  encouragement  to  secede,  she  had  far  more 
than  she  could  have  ever  hoped  for.  Party  leaders  at  the 

Position  of  r  *' 

Northern        North  were  as  ready  to  sacrifice  everything  for  the  sake  of 

politicians.  J  ,          ,      . 

peace  and  of  union,  or  to  avow  openly  their  sympathy  with 
the  slaveholders,  as  the  majority  of  Congress  were  to  offer  a  submis- 
sion that  was  almost  abject.  The  Mayor  of  New  York,  Fernando 
Wood,  proposed  to  the  Common  Council  early  in  January,  that, 
should  there  be  a  separation  of  the  States,  the  city  should  declare 
itself  independent  of  them  all.  How  sincerely  he  hoped  for  the  suc- 
cess of  disunion  he  showed  before  the  end  of  the  month,,  by  avowing 
his  regret  that  he  had  no  power  to  punish  the  police,  who  seized  a 
quantity  of  arms  about  to  be  sent  to  the  insurgent  State  of  Georgia. 


Salmon  P.  Chase,  Treasury.  William  H.  Seward,  State. 

Simon  Cameron.  War.  Montgomery  Blair,  Post.  Gen.  Edward  Bates,  Atty.  Gen. 

Caleb  15.  Smith,  Interior.  Gideon  Welles,  Navy. 

PRESIDENT   LINCOLN'S    FIRST   CABINET. 


Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Vice-President.       Robert  Toombs,  State. 

C.  G.  Memminger,  Treas.  Leroy  P.  Walker.  War.  John  H.  Reagan,  Post.  Gen. 

Stephen  R.  Mallory,  Navy.  Judali  P.  r.L-njamin,  Ally.  Gen. 

JEFFERSON    DAVIS'S    VICE-I'KESIDEN  I     AND    CABINET. 


1861.]  TAKING  THE   FIRST  STEPS.  445 

A  Democratic  Convention  assembled,  about  the  same  time,  at  Albany, 
whose  object  was  to  protest  against  the  use  of  force  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  an  insurrection  of  slaveholders.  The  party  was  represented 
at  that  meeting  by  its  most  eminent  leaders  in  the  State,  and  no 
expression  of  opinion  there  met  with  so  hearty  a  response  as  the 
declaration,  that  if  force  were  used  it  should  be  "  inaugurated  at 
home,"  —  an  echo  of  the  assurance  given  by  ex-President  Pierce  to 
Jefferson  Davis,  some  months  before,  that  should  there  be  fighting,  it 
would  be  within  "our  own  borders,  in  our  own  streets,"  between  the 
anti-slavery  people  and  their  opponents.  In  December,  a  great  meet- 
ing in  Philadelphia  passed  resolutions  of  submission  as  absolute  as  if 
Pennsylvania  were  already  a  conquered  province. 

Some  of  the  early  steps  taken  by  the  newly  installed  Confederate 
Government  were  to  possess  itself  of  the  arsenals  and  forts  within 
the  territory  over  which  it  claimed  jurisdiction.  Some  of  these  had 
already  been  seized  by  the  authorities  of  the  seceding  States.  The 
arsenals,  which  Mr.  Buchanan's  Secretary  of  War,  John  B.  , 

J  Seizure  of 

Floyd,  had  recently  supplied  with  arms  belonging   to  the  f-n*  «n.i 
United  States  Government,  were  easily  taken.     The  forts 
on  the  Mississippi,  below  New  Orleans,  and  those  at  the  entrance 
of  Mobile   Bay,  were   also    secured   without    a  struggle.     But  when 
the  Pensacola  navy-yard  was  seized,   Lieutenant  Adam  J.  Slemmer, 
commanding  at  Fort  McRae,  transferred  his  small  garrison  to  Fort 
Pickens,  a  stronger  work,  on  Santa  Rosa  Island,  where  he  was  subse- 
quently reenforced  by  troops  brought  in  two  United  States  vessels, 
and  the  post  was  held  by  the  national  forces  throughout  the  war.    The 
forts  at  Key  West  and  the  Tortugas  were  also  held.     The  greater  part 
of  the  regular  army  of  the  United  States  was  in  Texas,  com-  TV^-,, 
manded  by  General  David  E.  Twiggs.     Three  commission-  furrender- 
ers   from  a  so-called  Committee  of   Public  Safety  met  him  at  San 
Antonio,  February  18th,  where  they  demanded  and  received  the  capit- 
ulation of  the  entire  force,  and  a  surrender  of  all  the  military  prop- 
erty of  the  United  States  in  Texas,  valued  at  about  a  million  and  a 
half  of  dollars.     The  troops  were  permitted  to  retain  their  arms  and 
march  to  the  coast  to  embark  for  the  North. 

While  these  portentous  events  were  happening  at  the  South, 
public  opinion  in  the  North  was  divided  ;  and,  although  gloom  and 
alarm  pervaded  the  ranks  of  the  thinking  people,  sluggish-  «ituation  in 
ness  and  inaction  were  the  condition  under  which  they  lay.  the  Xorth- 
The  indecision  of  the  National  Administration,  so  far  as  that  was 
exemplified  in  the  conduct  of  President  Buchanan,  was  reflected  in 
the  general  temper  of  the  people,  so  far  as  that  was  expressed  in  the 
public  press  and  by  speakers.  There  appeared  to  be  a  grave  doubt 


440 


OPENING  OF  THE  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


as  to  whether  the  Nation  possessed  the  power  to  coerce  a  sovereign 
State  to  remain  in  the  Union,  and  whether  a  Union  maintained  by 
such  coercion  were  worth  maintaining  at  all.  These  were  the  ques- 
tions actually  discussed  by  leading  members  of  the  Republican  party 
whose  votes  had  just  elected  Abraham  Lincoln  President  of  the 
United  States. 

President  Buchanan,  while  he  conceded  that  "  the  long-continued 
and  intemperate  interference  of  the  Northern  people  with  the  question 
of  Slavery  in  the  Southern  States*'  had  produced  estrangements  and 
troubles,  argued  that  the  election  of  a  President  obnoxious  to  the 
citizens  of  one  section  of  the  Republic  was  no  excuse  whatever  for 
the  rebellion  and  secession  of  the  offended  citizens  of  that  section. 
In  like  manner,  members  of  the  more  conservative  Democratic  party 
of  the  North,  while  they  exultingly  cried,  "  We  told  you  so  ! "  as 
their  prophecies  of  ill  were  fulfilled  by  the  swift  recurrence  of  acts  of 
secession,  plaintively  pleaded  with  their  erring  Southern  brethren 
to  remain  in  the  Union,  and  submit  once  more  to  a  trial  of  their 
patience  and  forbearance.  Generally,  the  spirit  of  patriotism  in  the 
North  lay  dormant.  Confusion  reigned  in  the  councils  of  the  people ; 
public  opinion  refused  to  crystallize  ;  apparently  nothing  but  a  blow 
would  precipitate  these  floating  elements  into  definite  and  concrete 
shape. 

The  chief  public  interest,  North  as  well  as  South,  now  centred  in 
the  defences  of  Charleston  Harbor.  Commanding  the  chan- 
nel, stood  Fort  Su inter,  on  an  artificial  island  built  up 
with  large  blocks  of  stone  and  chips  from 
Northern  stone-yards.  It  was  not  yet 
finished,  and  the  garrison  maintained  at 
this  point l  occupied  Fort  Moultrie,  on 
the  northern  side  of  the  harbor.  This 
small  force  was  under  command  of 
Lieutenant-Colonel  John  L.  Gardner,  a 
veteran  of  the  war  of  1812,  who  in 
November  was  relieved  by  Major  Rob- 
ert Anderson,  a  Kentuckian.  In  De- 
cember the  question  of  reenforcing  Fort 
Moultrie  was  discussed  iu  the  Cabinet, 
and  the  project  was  opposed  by  the  Pres- 
ident, who  carried  his  point.  Thereupon 
Mr.  Cass  resigned  the  Secretaryship  of 
State,  and  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  of  Penn- 


Fort  Sum- 
ter. 


John  J.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky. 


(The  originator  of  tbc  "  ('rittendeu  Com- 
promise.'7) 

1  Seven  officers,  sixty-one  men,  and  thirteen  musicians,  of  the  First  United  States  Anil 
lery. 


18G1.]  ANDKRSOX   IN   FORT  SUMTER.  447 

sylvania,  succeeded  him.  The  fort,  which  had  become  somewhat 
dilapidated  and  was  overlooked  by  immense  sand-heaps  that  had  accu- 
mulated near  it,  was  put  into  better  repair;  but  it  was  evident  that 
it  could  not  be  held  with  so  small  a  force  —  if  at  all —  against  any 
serious  attempt  to  take  it  by  the  thousands  of  armed  men  gathering 
at  Charleston  and  clamoring  for  the  expulsion  of  every  United  States 
soldier. 

Left  to  his  own  resources  by  an  Administration  that  was  afraid 
to  withdraw  him  for  fear  of  exasperating  the  North,  and  afraid  to 
reenforce  him  for  fear  of  precipitating  war,  Anderson  determined 
to  leave  an  untenable  work  for  one  that  at  least  promised  safety.  In 
the  night  of  December  26th,  he  secretly  removed  his  command  to 
Fort  Sumter,  taking  with  him  all  his  portable  supplies,  dismounting 
the  guns  of  Moultrie,  and  burning  the  carriages.  On  the  same  day 
three  commissioners  from  South  Carolina  arrived  in  Washington,  to 
negotiate  for  the  surrender  of  the  forts  and  other  public  property. 
By  order  of  Secretary  Floyd,  a  force  of  workmen  had  been  previ- 
ously sent  to  Fort  Sumter,  to  put  it  in  repair,  and  mount  the  guns, 
evidently  to  enhance  its  value  for  the  insurgents  when  they  should 
have  seized  it.  Many  of  these  laborers  were  found  wearing  secession 
cockades  when  the  garrison  landed,  and  they  angrily  asked,  "  What 
are  these  soldiers  doing  here?"  They  were  driven  into  the  fort,  and 
made  prisoners.  There  was  great  excitement  in  Charleston  next 
morning,  and  that  day  a  body  of  State  troops  took  possession  of  Fort 
Moultrie  and  of  Castle  Pinckney,  a  small  round  fort  in  the  harbor, 
nearer  the  city. 

The  removal  of  his  force  to  Fort  Sumter  was  in  accordance  with 
the  instructions  sent  to  Major  Anderson  from  Washington.  It  was 
accepted  by  the  insurgents  at  Charleston  as  a,  sign  of  hostility,  though 
the  same  orders  which  justified  it  also  instructed  Anderson  to  re- 
frain from  all  hostile  acts  unless  compelled  to  resort  to  them  in  self- 
defence.  The  commissioners  at  Washington  had  telegraphed  to  Gov- 
ernor Pickens  to  hasten  the  preparations  for  war.  and  the  insolence 
of  their  tone,  in  their  communications  with  the  President,  was 
enough  to  rouse  even  him  to  take  some  vigorous  step.  The  sloop-of- 
war  Brooklyn,  then  at  Fortress  Monroe  and  ready  for  sea,  was 
ordered  to  Charleston  with  three  hundred  men  to  reenforce  Sumter. 
But  delay  occurred  for  a  day  or  two,  in  deference  to  the  courtesy 
which  the  President  thought  due  to  the  South  Carolina  commission- 
ers, from  whom  he  awaited  some  further  communication,  and  then 
the  order  was  countermanded  at  the  suggestion  of  General  Scott,  who 
feared  that  Fortress  Monroe  would  be  dangerously  weakened  by  tak- 
ing from  it  so  large  a  portion  of  its  garrison.  That  this  could  have 


448  OPENING   OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

been  avoided,  however,  and  the  Brooklyn  sent  upon  her  errand,  is 
certain.  A  proposal  was  sent  from  New  York  to  provide  an  equal 
number  of  men  from  the  military  organizations  of  that  city,  but  the 
offer  was  rejected.  In  place  of  the  Brooklyn,  a  side-wheel  merchant 
steamer,  the  Star  of  the  West,  was  sent,  laden  with  provisions  and 
recruits.  On  the  9th  of  January  she  entered  Charleston  harbor,  and 
was  repulsed  by  fire  from  the  insurgent  batteries,  against  which  she 
was  powerless ;  nor  was  a  single  shot  fired  in  her  defence  from  Fort 
Sumter.  No  attempt  had  been  made  to  conceal  the  object  of  this 
expedition  ;  nor/indeed,  would  it  have  availed  if  there  had  been,  for 
the  offices  of  the  Government  of  Washington  were  filled  with  South- 
erners who  acted  as  spies. 

The  condition  of  the  isolated  fort,  surrounded  by  watchful  enemies, 
remained  unchanged  for  the  remainder  of  the  winter,  except  that  it 
was  growing,  day  by  day,  less  able  to  make  any  effectual  resistance, 
by  the  rapid  consumption  of  its  provisions,  while  the  insurgents  grew 
stronger  by  the  erection  of  new  l-atteries,  and  the  accumulation  of 
the  munitions  of  war.  A  new  commission  of  two,  one  from  Major 
Anderson  and  one  from  Governor  Pickens,  was  sent,  by  agreement, 
to  Washington,  but  it  only  served  to  add  one  more  influence  to  the 
general  policy  of  indecision  and  delay.  It  was  not,  however,  to  be 
regretted:  the  real  danger  was,  that  the  rebellion  would  not  be  left 
to  be  dealt  with  by  the  incoming  Administration,  but  would  be  con- 
doned by  some  disgraceful  and  disastrous  compromise. 

On  the  23d  of  February,  Mr.  Lincoln  arrived  at  Washington, 
having  escaped  a  concerted  plot  for  his  assassination  at  Baltimore,  by 
inaugura-  taking  an  earlier  train  than  that  in  which  he  was  expected 
Abraham  ^°  ar''ive-  On  the  4th  of  March  he  was  duly  inaugurated,  to 
Lincoln.  confront  a  civil  war  which  Mr.  Buchanan  wanted  either  the 
will  or  the  nerve  to  avert  or  to  meet.  The  inaugural  address  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  couched  in  the  most  conciliatory  and  winning  language. 
While  he  argued  that  the  Federal  Union  was  indestructible  save  by 
the  consent  of  all  the  States,  and  expressed  his  determination  to  sanc- 
tion no  invasion  of  the  Constitution  under  which  slavery  had  existed 
and  flourished  in  the  several  States,  he  gave  notice  that  the  Admin- 
istration of  the  Government  now  committed  to  his  hands  would  con- 
tinue the  conduct  of  affairs  as  usual,  unless  interrupted  and  hindered 
by  rebellious  malcontents.  The  mails  would  be  carried  and  the 
customs  collected,  and  the  ordinary  functions  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment exercised  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States.  Appealing 
to  those  who  were  malcontent,  he  said  :  "  In  your  hands,  my  dissatis- 
fied fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of 
civil  war.  The  Government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no 


1861.] 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


449 


The   Interior  of   Fort   Moultrie  in    1801. 
From  a  photograph. 

conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You  have  no  oath 
registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the  Government,  while  /shall  have 
the  most  solemn  one  to  '  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it.' ' 

There  was  affectionate  pleading  in  his  conclnding  sentence  :  "  I 
am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not 
be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break, 
our  bonds  of  affection.  The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching 
from  every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave,  to  every  living  heart  and 
hearthstone,  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the 
Union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better 
angels  of  our  nature." 

The  cabinet   of   the    newly  installed    President   was   as    follows : 

•/ 

Wm.  H.  Seward,  of  New  York,  Secretary  of  State :  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
of  Ohio,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;   Simon  Cameron,  of 
Pennsylvania,  Secretary  of  War ;  Gideon   Welles,  of  Con- 
necticut, Secretary  of  the  Navy ;  Caleb  B.  Smith,  of  Indiana,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior  ;  Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri,  Attorney-General ; 
Montgomery  Blair,  of  Maryland,  Postmaster-General.     Of  these  men, 
four,  Seward,  Cameron,  Chase,  and  Bates,  had  been  presented  to  the 
Republican  National  Convention  of  1860  as  candidates  for  the  nomi- 
nation which  subsequently  fell  to  Lincoln.     Of  the  four,  Mr.  Seward. 


VOL.    IV. 


450 


OPENING   OF  THE   WAR. 


[CHAP.  XYIL 


An    Interior   View   of   Fort   Sumter   in    1861,   showing   how  the  wails   were  strengthened 

From  a  photogrnph. 

by  his  statesmanlike  treatment  of  the  great  questions  that  had  occu- 
pied the  attention  of  Congress  while  the  issues  of  war  and  peace  were 
hanging  in  the  balance,  was  regarded  as  the  ablest  and  the  wisest. 
It  was  naturally  expected  that  he  would  be  called  to  the  first  place 
in  the  cabinet ;  and  although  the  title  of  "  Premier  "  is  entirely  un- 
known to  the  legal  usage  of  the  United  States,  that  dignifying  prefix 
appeared  to  be  more  rightfully  Mr.  Seward's,  when  he  went  into  the 
cabinet  of  the  rough  western  politician,  than  it  ever  had  been  when 
applied  to  other  Secretaries  of  State. 

Possibly  Mr.  Seward  was  conscious  of  the  oppressiveness  of  his 
official  duties,  charged  as  he  was,  not  only  with  the  responsibilities  of 
a  great  place  in  time  of  war,  but  also  with  the  management  of  deli- 
cate matters  of  government  under  the  administration  of  one  who  was, 
to  say  the  least,  unfamiliar  with  statecraft.  Lincoln,  it  was  tacitly 
understood,  was  to  be  the  figure-head  of  the  new  Administration ; 
its  policy  was  to  be  framed  and  carried  out  by  Secretary  Seward. 
Acting  upon  this  theory,  which  did  not  seem  unreasonable  to  those 
who  were  more  familiar  with  Seward's  talents  than  with  Lincoln's 
genius,  there  would  have  been  no  surprise  expressed  if  it  had  been 
made  known  that  the  Secretary  early  manifested  his  intention  to 
"run  things,"  as  the  popular  phrase  went.  Accordingly,  while  the 


1861.]  LINCOLN   AND  SEWARD.  451 

President,  with  his  habitual  steadiness  and  deliberation,  waited  for 
active  developments  in  the  insurrectionary  States,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  April  1st,  1861,  drew  up  for  the  consideration  of  his 
chief  a  memorandum  l  in  which,  after  noting  that  no  policy,  »r-J '»  memo- 

'  r          J'     raudum. 

foreign  or  domestic,  had  yet  been  formulated  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, he  proposed  that  the  question  before  the  people  be  changed 
from  one  concerning  slavery  to  one  of  Union  or  Disunion.  The  issue 
should  be  withdrawn  from  Fort  Su rater,  he  suggested,  and,  by  a 
blockade  of  the  insurrectionary  States  and  a  reenforcement  of  the 
forts  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  question  of  Union  or  Disunion  would 
be  distinctly  raised. 

More  amazing  than  this  was  the  proposition  of  the  Secretary  that 
"  explanations  "  should  be  demanded  from  Spain  and  France  at  once, 
and  that  "  explanations  "  less  imperative  should  also  be  sought  from 
Great  Britain  and  Russia,  and  emissaries  sent  into  Canada,  Mexico, 
and  Central  America  to  excite  a  vigorous  spirit  of  resistance  against 
European  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the  American  continent. 
Unless  immediate  and  satisfactory  explanations  were  received  from 
France  and  Spain,  war  should  be  declared  against  them.  It  was 
evidently  the  hope  of  Mr.  Seward  that,  the  issue  of  Union  or  Dis- 
union being  settled  in  favor  of  the  first  member  of  the  proposition,  a 
foreign  war  would  so  unify  the  sentiment  of  the  entire  nation  that 
further  danger  of  secession  would  pass. 

The  President's  reply  to  this  communication  expressed  his  deter- 
mination to  abide  by  the  policy  outlined  in  his  inaugural,  viz.,  to  use 
the  power  confided  in  him  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  places 
belonging  to  the  Government,  and  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts. 
The  President  further  said  that  he  could  not  see  how  the  reenforce- 
ment of  Fort  Sumter  could  be  done  on  a  slavery  or  party  issue,  while 
that  of  Fort  Pickens,  for  example,  could  be  done  on  a  more  national 
and  patriotic  one.  The  Secretary,  in  his  memoi'andum.  had  suggested 
that  as  some  one  must  be  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  details  of 
his  plan,  he  would  not  shrink  from  the  responsibility.  The  Presi- 
dent, in  his  reply,  simply  said,  "  If  this  must  be  done,  I  must  do  it;  " 
but  he  expressed  the  wish  that  on  all  matters  of  policy  he  should 
have  the  advice  of  all  the  cabinet.  Here  the  matter  rested  ;  the 
Secretary  addressed  himself  with  ardor  and  patriotism  to  the  duties 
of  his  office  ;  the  President  made  no  comment  to  any  one  on  the 
remarkable  proposal  of  the  Secretary  to  undertake  to  guide  the 
Administration;  and,  with  singular  accord  and  perfect  trust  in  each 
other,  these  two  great  men  went  forward  together  in  the  work  of 
defending  and  restoring  the  Federal  Union. 

1  The  Nicolay-Hay  Life  of  Lincoln,  vol.  iii.  p.  445. 


452 


OPENING   OF   THE    WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


All  eyes  were  now  turned  toward  Fort  Sumter.  By  common  con- 
sent, this  fortification  commanding  the  channel  entrance  of  Charles- 
ton harbor,  was  regarded  as  the  key  of  the  situation.  South  Carolina, 
in  the  exercise  of  its  claim  to  be  a  sovereign  and  independent  State, 
demanded  that  the  work  be  turned  over  to  its  government, 
tionof  Fort  with  the  other  defences  of  the  harbor.  Concession  here,  by 


Suuiter. 


the  Government  of  the  United  States,  would  be  a  virtual 
acknowledgment  of  the  independence  of  South  Carolina,  and,  inci- 
dentally, a  concession  of  the  whole  question  at  issue.  In  the  North 
the  question  was,  Will  the  rebels  dare  to  use  force  to  get  hold  of 
those  works  ?  In  the  South  the  question  was,  Will  the  Administra- 
tion dare  to  reenfoice  any  of  these  forts  in  the  face  of  our  expressed 
determination  to  have  and  hold  them  ?  The  crisis  came  at  last. 

On  the  8th  of  April  President  Lincoln  notified  the  Governor  of 
South  Carolina  that  the  Government  had  determined  to  provision 
Fort  Sumter  at  all  hazards.  General  G.  P.  T.  Beauregard  — 
who  had  resigned  a  commission  in  the  United  States  army 
to  join  in  the  rebellion  —  being  now  in  command  of  the  works  erected 
for  the  destruction  of  the  fort,  at  once  telegraphed  to  the  government 
at  Montgomery  for  instructions,  and  on  the  10th  was  ordered  to  open 
fire.  He  first  sent  two  of  his  staff  to  demand  a  surrender ;  this  Major 
Anderson  declined,  volunteering  the  information  that  he  would  soon 
be  starved  out.  That  evening  another  messenger  came,  to  ask  what 
day  he  would  evacuate,  if  he  were  not  attacked,  and  he  answered,  at 
noon  of  the  15th,  unless  he  was  previously  relieved  or  received  fresh 
instructions.1  Before  daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  12th,  Beaure- 


The  bom- 
barduifut. 


Lieutenant-General  G.    P.  T.   Beauregard, 
C.   S.   A. 


Colonel  (afterwards  brevet  Major-General) 
Robert   Anderson. 


1  As  we  had  pork  enough  on  hand  tn  last  for  two  weeks  longer,  there  w«s  110  necessity 
fur  tixing  so  early  a  day.     It  left  too  little  margiu  for  naval  operations,  as,  in  all  probaliil- 


1861.] 


THE   FIRST  SHOT   FIRED. 


453 


The  Exterior  of  Fort  Sumter,  showing  the  cheveaux-de-frise. 
From  a  photograph. 

gard  sent  word  to  Anderson  that  in  one  hour  he  should  open  fire. 
The  first  shot  was  fired  from  the  Curnmings  Point  battery,  by  an 
aged  secessionist,  Edmund  Ruffin,  of  the  most  rabid  type,  who  had 
come  from  Virginia  to  beg  that  privilege.  It  was  answered  by  a  gun 
fired  at  that  battery  by  Captain  (afterward  General)  Abner  Double- 
day,  and  the  civil  war  was  actually  begun. 

The  bombardment  continued,  with  little  intermission,  from  day- 
light of  the  12th  till  midday  of  the  13th,  and  was  replied  to  as  briskly 
as  the  condition  of  the  fort  and  its  armament  would  admit.  Nineteen 
batteries  rained  shot  and  shell  upon  it,  from  every  direction  except 
that  of  the  open  sea.  The  barracks  and  officers'  quarters  were  set  on 
fire,  and  to  prevent  an  explosion  ninety  barrels  of  gunpowder  were 
thrown  overboard  and  the  magazine  was  closed.  The  ammuni- 
tion being  thus  exhausted,  and  the  fort  filled  with  stifling  Theoapitu- 
smoke,  a  capitulation  necessarily  followed,  and  the  garrison  latlon- 
marched  out  next  day,  with  the  honors  of  war.  In  saluting  the  flagT 
one  of  their  number  was  killed  by  the  premature  discharge  of  a  gun. 
The  fleet,  outside  the  harbor,  had  witnessed  the  conflict,  but  were 
powerless  to  take  part  in  it.  All  the  buoys  that  marked  the  chan- 

ity,  the  vessels,  in  case  of  any  accident  or  detention,  would  arrive  too  late  to  be  of  service- 
This  proved  to  be  the  case.  —  Doubleday's  Rtminiscenct*. 


454 


OPENING   OF  THE   WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


Edmund  Ruffin,  of  Virginia,  who  fired  the  first 
gun  in  the  Civil  War,  —  from  the  Point  Cum- 
mings  battery  against  Fort  Sumter. 

(Mr.  Ruffln  committed  suicide  just  before  the 
end  of  the  war,  when  the  ruin  of  the  Con- 
federate cause  became  apparent.) 


nels  had  been  removed,  and  the  prin- 
cipal vessel  was  aground  on  a  shoal. 

The  gun  fired  at  Fort  Sumter  was 
the  blow  that  was  needed  to  crystal- 
lize public  sentiment  at  the  North. 
Thenceforth  there  was  no  question  as 
to  the  intention  of  the  insurgents, 
none  as  to  the  temper  of  the  loyal 
people  of  the  United  States.  The 
gun  was  the  signal  for  an  outpouring 
of  the  patriotic  people  who  had  deter- 
mined that,  now  that  the  arbitrament 
of  war  had  been  invoked  by  their 
misguided  brethren  of  the  South,  the 
war  must  be  fought  out  to  the  end. 
The  response  of  the  people  of  the 
slaveholding  States  was  equally  deci- 
sive and  clear.  It  was  evident  that 
secession  would  be  no  longer  confined  to  the  States  that  had  so  fai- 
led the  van. 

Nevertheless,  the  insurgent  leaders  found  some  difficulty  in  precipi- 
tating other  slaveholding  States  into  the  vortex  of  secession.  When 
the  gun  was  fired  upon  Sumter,  only  seven  of  the  fifteen  slaveholding 
States  had  adopted  ordinances  of  separation.  Virginia,  "  the  mother 
of  Presidents,"  whose  departure  from  the  Union  would  place  the 
verge  of  battle  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  hesitated  to  take  the 
fatal  plunge.  Virginian  politicians,  like  Roger  A.  Pryor  and  Edmund 
Ruflin,  had  early  gone  to  South  Carolina,  to  assist  in  the  work  of 
inflaming  the  people  of  Charleston,  while  the  fate  of  Sumter  hung  in 
the  balance ;  and  men  of  their  stamp  were  urgent  in  Richmond  while 
the  convention  deliberating  over  the  ordinance  of  secession  was  in 
session.  That  convention  met  in  the  middle  of  February; 
the  middle  of  April  came  without  any  decisive  action  having 
been  taken  to  further  the  wishes  of  the  ardent  secessionists 
who  hung  about  the  lobbies,  urging  and  arguing  immediate  secession. 
The  central  junta  at  Montgomery  used  all  means  available  for  the 
coercion  and  the  enticement  of  the  unwilling  delegates.  In  the  face 
of  storm  and  blandishment,  the  convention,  as  late  as  April  4th,  refused 
by  a  vote  eighty-nine  to  forty-five  to  declare  for  secession. 

Evidently,  something  must  be  done  to  drive  the  State  out  of  the 

•/  *  ^y 

Union.  Accordingly,  when  even  the  crisis  of  Sumter  had  failed  to 
inflame  the  hearts  of  the  loyal  delegates  so  that  they  were  willing 
to  vote  Virginia  out  of  the  Union,  threats  were  resorted  to,  and  the 


The  situa- 
tion in 
Virginia. 


1861.] 


VIRGINIA   SECEDES. 


455 


Captain  (afterward  Major-General)  Abner 
Doubleday,  who  fired  the  first  shot  from 
Fort  Sumter. 

From  a  photograph  made  directly  after 
his  return  from  the  fort. 


Union  members  were  plainly  told  that 
they  must  vote  for  secession,  absent 
themselves  at  roll-call,  or  be  hanged. 
Terrorized,  they  either  abstained  from 
voting  or  acted  with  the  minority  who 
desired  secession.  The  convention, 
which  had  shown  a  majority  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-three  against  seced- 
ing, now  adopted  the  ordinance  by  a 
majority  of  thirty -three  ;  the  total  vote 
had  shrunk  to  a  figure  below  that  of 
the  original  majority  for  the  Union. 
The  ordinance  provided  for  its  submis- 
sion to  a  popular  vote  ;  but  the  conspir- 
ators cared  little  for  that.  Before  the 
date  of  the  popular  election  arrived,  the 
convention,  which  remained  in  session, 
had  entered  into  a  league  with  the  Montgomery  government,  placing 
the  command  of  the  Virginia  troops  in  the  hands  of  Jefferson  Davis  ; 
the  Provisional  Constitution  was  ratified  by  the  same  body  ;  delegates 
were  appointed  to  the  Confederate  Congress  which  was  about  to 
assemble ;  provision  was  made  for  the  raising  and  equipment  of  an 
army  and  navy  ;  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  coadjutors  were  invited  to 
remove  their  seat  of  government  to  Richmond ;  and,  finally,  the  so- 
called  annexation  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia  to  the  Confed- 
eracy was  officially  proclaimed.  And  all  this  before  the  people  had 
voted  on  the  proposition  to  secede  from  the  Federal  Union. 

The  determined  temper  of  the  insurgent  leaders  was  best  exemplified 
in  a  letter  written  by  United  States  Senator  James  M.  Mason,  and 
printed  in  the  "•  Winchester  Virginian,"  May  16th,  one  week  before 
the  date  of  the  popular  election.  In  that  document  the  Senator  urged 
that  a  defeat  of  the  ordinance  by  vote  of  the  people  would  be  a  viola- 
tion of  "  the  sacred  pledge "  given  by  those  who  had  already  con- 
cluded a  league  with  the  Montgomery  government.  And  he  said  of 
those  who  could  not  conscientiously  vote  for  disunion,  "  They  must 
leave  the  State."  This  threat  settled  the  case.  On  the  23d  Virpma 
of  May,  the  ordinance  of  secession  was  ratified  by  a  vote  of  seceUes- 
125,950  against  23,373.  The  people  of  the  northwestern  part  of  the 
State  defied  the  secessionists ;  they  had  assembled  at  Wheeling,  where, 
following  the  notable  example  set  them  in  Richmond,  they  took  steps 
preliminary  to  a  formal  secession  from  Virginia.  Their  votes  were 
not  accounted  for  in  the  popular  election  of  May  23d. 

The  exuberance  of  the  insurgent  leaders  knew  no  bounds  when  the 


456  OPENING  OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

State  of  Virginia  was  declared  out  of  the  Union.  All  over  the  South 
there  prevailed  great  joy  at  the  prospect  of  a  speedy  invasion  of  the 
North  and  the  capture  of  the  national  capital,  now  that  the  soil  of 
the  Old  Dominion,  which  bordered  on  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland, 
was  to  be  the  tattle-ground  of  the  contending  armies  about  to  be 
arrayed  against  each  other.  "On  to  Washington!"  was  the  cry  of 
politicians  and  press  ;  and  some  of  the  more  sanguine  expressed  the 
hope  that  before  three  months  should  pass  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment would  be  installed  in  the  offices  of  the  Federal  capital.1  Fran- 
tic efforts  had  been  made  in  North  Carolina  to  force  the  State  out  of 
the  Union ;  Governor  John  VV.  Ellis  and  United  States  Senator  T.  L. 
Clingman  being  foremost  in  the  difficult  work  of  instilling  the  people 
with  the  notion  that  their  welfare  and  honor  lay  in  the  direction  of  a 
separate  confederation.  But  the  people,  voting  on  the  proposition  of 
Convention  or  No  Convention,  ordered  by  the  Legislature,  decided 
against  a  convention  to  consider  separation.  But,  after  months  of 
wearying  pressure  and  intimidation  from  within  and  without,  a  con- 
vention called  by  the  Legislature  adopted  an  ordinance  of  secession 
on  the  anniversary  of  the  so-called  "  Mecklenburgh  Declaration  of 
Independence,"  2  May  20th,  1861. 

The  proceedings  in  other  States  in  which  ordinances  of  secession 
were  ultimately  adopted  were  similar  in  character  to  those  already 
other  states  described  as  having  been  taken  in  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
co'nfed-  lina.  Although  the  Union  sentiment  of  the  South  was  full 
eracy>  and  strong,  the  machinations  of  the  conspirators,  their 
thi'eats  and  bullying,  sufficed  to  bring  on  a  reign  of  terror,  during 
which  the  form  of  adopting  acts  of  secession  was  gone  through  with ; 
and,  on  the  slightest  pretext,  the  junta  at  Montgomery  and  their 
supporters  in  the  coerced  States  loudly  proclaimed  successive  acces- 
sions to  the  Confederate  cause. 

On  the  15th  of  April,  two  days  after  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sum- 
The  first caii  *er'  tne  President  called  for  75,000  troops.  The  first  to 
for  troop*.  arrive  in  Washington  were  530  Pennsylvanians,  who  were 
there  on  the  19th.  On  that  day  —  the  anniversary  of  the  fight  at 

1  The  dates  at  which  the  several  Stales  seceded,  and  the  votes  on  the  ordinances  in  con- 
vention, were  as  follows:  South  Carolina.  December  2,  1860,  unanimous;  Mississippi,  Janu- 
ary 9,  1861,84  to  15;  Alabama,  January  11,  61  to  39  ;  Florida,  January  11,62  to  7;  Georgia, 
January  19,  208  to  89 ;  Louisiana,  January  26,  103  to  17  ;  Texas,  February  1 ,  166  to  7  ;  Vir- 
ginia, April  17,  88  to  55;  Arkansas,  May  6,  69  to  1  ;  North  Carolina,  May  20,  unanimous. 

2  The  Mecklenburph  Declaration  was  so  called  from  a  tradition  that  a  convention  of 
patriotic  citizens  of  Mecklen burgh  County,  North  Carolina,  met  May  20th,  1775,  and  prepared 
a  declaration  of  independence  from  Great  Britain,  using  some  of  the  phraseology  that  was 
subsequently  employed  iu  the  Declaration  of  Independence  of  July  4ih,  1776.     As  there  is 
no  contemporaneous  evidence  that  such  a  document  was  written,  its  authenticity  is  seriously 
questioned. 


> 


18G1.] 


THE  FIRST  BLOODSHED. 


457 


Major-General  John  B.  Magruder,  C.  S.  A. 


Lexington,  Mass.,  at   the    beginning 
of    the    Revolution  —  por- 

•  *•  Fight  with 

tions   of  the  Sixth    Massa-  "«•  mob  in 

Baltimore. 

chusetts  and  Seventh  Penn- 
sylvania regiments,  passing  through 
Baltimore  to  the  defence  of  the  na- 
tional capital,  were  attacked  by  a  vast 
mob  of  insurgents,  who  had  the  sanc- 
tion of  many  of  the  wealthier  and 
more  respectable  citizens.  Two  hun- 
dred Massachusetts  men,  having  been 
separated  from  their  regiment,  were 
surrounded  by  a  dense  throng  of 
rioters,  estimated  to  number  nearly 
10,000.  The  troops  marched  slowly, 
headed  by  the  Mayor  and  a  detachment  of  police,  and  exhibited  ad- 
mirable discipline  in  refraining  from  retaliation  when  pelted  with 
brick-bats  and  paving-stones  and  fired  at  with  revolvers ;  the  missiles 
coming  not  only  from  the  crowd  but  from  windows  of  the  houses. 
At  last,  when  three  of  their  number  had  been  killed l  and  eight 
wounded,  the  troops  fired  into  the  mob,  of  whom  they  killed  seven, 
and  wounded  an  unknown  number.  One  1'ioter  was  killed  by  the 
Mayor,  who  had  begged  that  the  soldiers  might  not  be  permitted  to 
fire,  but  seeing,  at  length,  the  necessity  of  defence,  seized  a  musket 
and  shot  the  most  conspicuous  leader  of  the  assailants. 

The  indignation  aroused  by  this  outrage  was  intense  all  over  the 
country.  The  Seventh  Regiment  of  New  York,  under  Colonel  Lef- 
ferts,  had  already  volunteered  their  services  for  one  month,  and  were- 
under  arms  when  the  news  from  Baltimore  reached  the  city.  They 
marched  down  Broadway  amid  the  cheers  of  an  immense  multitude, 
and  embarked  the  next  morning  at  Philadelphia  for  Annapolis. 
There  they  joined  General  B.  F.  Butler,  with  the  Eighth  Regiment 
of  Massachusetts,  who  had  also  avoided  Baltimore,  at  Perryville  had 
seized  a  steamboat,  and  reached  Annapolis  on  the  21st.  The  com- 
bined force,  under  General  Butler,  took  up  the  line  of  march  for 
Washington.  A  portion  of  the  railroad  track  had  been  torn  up  and 
the  locomotives  disabled  by  the  insurgents,  but  they  were  repaired 
with  little  delay.  The  officers  called  for  men  who  understood  track- 
laying,  bridge-building,  or  the  construction  and  management  of  loco- 
motives, and  such  men  at  once  stepped  out  from  the  ranks  of  the 
Massachusetts  Eighth,  many  of  whom  were  mechanics. 

1  The  names  of  the  killed  were  Luther  C.  Ludd,  Suinuer  El.  Xeedhara,  aud  Addisou  O 
Whitney. 


458  OPENING  OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

The  arrival  of  the  Pennsylvanians  in  Washington,  however,  was  a 
great  disappointment  to  the  plotters  who  infested  the  national  capi- 
tal. It  had  been  hoped  that  the  few  squads  then  hovering  around 
Washington  would  be  strong  enough  to  seize  the  seat  of  government, 
occupy  its  buildings,  and  hold  it  for  the  advance  of  Jefferson  Davis 
and  his  colleagues  in  the  insurrectionary  government.  The  Pennsyl- 
vanians were  mostly  unarmed;  they  had  departed  in  haste  from  their 
homes,  and  their  number  was  not  large  enough  to  make  them  very 
Arrival  of  formidable  under  any  circumstances.  But  the  event  of 
wilTiilg.  tne  arrival  was  greatly  magnified  in  importance ;  and  after 
they  had  been  quartered  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  Washington  the  word  went  forth  that  2,000  soldiers,  armed  with 
Minie  rifles,  were  in  the  city  for  its  defence.  The  secessionists  had 
no  stomach  for  the  fighting  which  seemed  to  them  imminent ;  they 
made  no  attack. 

Still,  the  capital  was  far  from  safe.  After  the  interruption  of  rail- 
way travel  through  .Maryland,  a  portentous  cloud  seemed  to  settle  upon 
Washington.  The  survivors  of  the  volunteers  who  were  attacked  in 
the  streets  of  Baltimore  made  their  appearance  and  were  affection- 
ately received  and  welcomed  by  the  distressed  and  anxious  President. 
But  after  these  had  been  disposed  in  their  temporary  quarters,  there 
were  no  more  military  demonstrations  in  Washington.  Anxiety  and 
gloomy  forebodings  were  in  every  loyal  heart ;  it  appeared  likely  that 
at  any  moment  the  slumbering  volcano  which  was  believed  to  lie 
under  the  surface  of  Washington  would  burst  forth,  and  carnage  and 
bloodshed  would  rage  in  the  streets.  The  mental  tension  of  waiting 
men.  —  waiting  for  the  blow  to  fall  or  relief  to  come,  was  terrible. 
But  on  the  25th,  the  Seventh  Regiment  of  New  York  reached  the 
beleaguered  and  isolated  capital  early  in  the  afternoon.  The  regi- 
ment marched  straight  to  the  White  House,  where  it  was  thankfully 
greeted  by  the  President ;  and  along  its  route  it  was  welcomed  by 
happy  and  loyal  people.  The  danger  was  over.  The  National 
capital  was  safe. 

At  the  end  of  April,  General  B.  F.  Butler,  who  commanded  the 
department  within  which  Baltimore  was  situated,  had  under  his  con- 
trol 10,000  men,  his  headquarters  being  in  Annapolis,  the  capital  of 
the  State,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Severn,  on  Chesapeake  Bay.  By  a 
dexterous  movement,  on  the  5th  of  May,  he  seized  and  occupied  the 
most  important  point  on  the  railway  between  Baltimore  and  Wash- 
ington, nine  miles  from  the  first-named  city.  The  presence  of  a 
Butier  in  large  force  of  Federal  troops  at  this  junction  strengthened 
Baltimore.  j.Re  Union  sentiment  of  Baltimore  and  overawed  the  insur- 
gents. Thenceforth  there  was  no  more  active  opposition  to  the  passage 


1861.] 


THE  SAFETY  OF  WASHINGTON   ASSURED. 


459 


Fortress  Monroe. 

of  national  soldiers  through  the  city.  Availing  himself  of  a  heavy 
thunderstorm,  during  the  night  of  May  13th,  Butler  marched  into 
Baltimore,  occupied  a  commanding  position  on  Federal  Hill,  over- 
looking the  city,  and  the  doom  of  secession  in  Maryland  was  sealed. 

Other  events,  big  with  importance,  were  meanwhile  occurring  in 
various  parts  of  the  Union.  The  blockade  which  had  been  Inid  by 
the  proclamation  of  the  President  upon  the  ports  of  the  seven  States 
claiming  to  be  the  Southern  Confederacy  was  now  (April  27th) 
extended  to  the  ports  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  ;  and  on  the 
3d  of  May,  the  President  issued  another  proclamation  calling  for 
42,000  three-years'  volunteers  ;  22,144  officers  and  men  to 
serve  in  the  regular  army  and  18,000  seamen  for  the  navy, 
The  previous  call,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  was  in  the 
nature  of  a  requisition  for  75,000  men  of  the  State's  militia,  to  serve 
three  months,  as  duly  provided  by  law.  But  the  loyal  States  had 
already  responded  to  the  Government  with  a  fulness  and  freeness  that 
bespoke  their  readiness  to  sustain  the  Union  at  all  hazards  and  at 
any  cost.  More  than  150,000  men  were  either  under  arms  or  were 
ready  to  be  mustered  into  service  when  the  call  of  May  3d  was  made; 
and  at  that  time  offers  of  financial  assistance  to  the  amount  of  more 
than  -$40,000,000,  from  individuals,  corporations,  societies,  and  asso- 
ciations, had  reached  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 

Up  to  this  time,  the  insurgent  leaders  had  confidently  counted  on 
the  sympathy  and  support  of  their  ancient  allies  in  the  Democratic 


. 


460 


OPENING  OF  THE  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


Attitude  of 

Northern 

Democrats. 


party  of  the  Northern  States.  The  most  vociferous  opponents  of 
"  coercion,"  as  applied  to  States  that  professed  to  have  seceded  from 
the  Union  of  States,  were  the  leaders  of  that  party.  Their  orators 
and  the  newspapers  were  loud  in  their  expressions  of  sympathy  with 
"  the  down-trodden  South  "  while  the  preliminary  acts  of  the  secession 
drama  were  being  marshalled  upon  the  stage.  But  when  the  crisis 
actually  came,  and  men  must  choose  between  Union  or  Disunion,  vast 
num tiers  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  North  forsook  that  organiza- 
tion and  supported  war  measures  and  war  candidates.  From  that 
time  to  the  end  of  the  rebellion  these  were  known  as  "  War 
Democrats."  The  party  which  they  abandoned  preserved 
its  name  and  organization,  and  the  sympathy  which  it  had 
heretofore  extended  to  the  slaveholding  politicians  of  the  South  was 
not  withdrawn  from  them  now  that  they  had  lifted  the  standard  of 
revolt.  Under  the  pretext  of  a  strict  adherence  to  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution and  a  rigid  construction  of  its  provisions,  they  thereafter 
opposed  all  war  measures  in  Congress  and  obstructed  the  war  policy 
of  the  Government  in  every  possible  way.  But,  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses, this  sincere  attempt  to  aid  the  Southern  revolt  was  to  the 
insurgents  disappointingly  inefficient. 

The  Confederate  capital  was  removed  from  Montgomery  to  Rich- 
mond, the  first  meeting  of  the  Congress  there  being  appointed  for 
Payment  of  Juty  20th.  It  was  not  till  June  1st,  1861,  that  mail  service 
in  the  rebellious  States,  on  the  existing  United  States  con- 
tracts, was  discontinued.  But  the  lines  were  being  rapidly 
drawn.  Southern  tradesmen  refused  to  pay  their  Northern  debts,  an- 
ticipating the  act  of  the  insurgent  Congress  of  May  21st  requiring 
that  such  debts  should  be  paid  into  the  Confederate  treasury.  All 
the  ecclesiastical  organizations,  the  Masonic  and  other  benevolent  fra- 
ternities, and  the  Bible  and  mission- 
ary societies,  that  extended  over  the 
whole  country,  snapped  in  twain  on 
the  line  between  the  free  and  the 
slave  States. 

A  serious  disaster  to  the  Union 
cause  was  the  destruction  of  a  num- 
ber of  naval  vessels  at  the  Gosport, 
Virginia,  navy-yard,  on  the  21st  of 
May.  This  establishment,  being  near 
Norfolk  and  at  a  point  from  which  a 
naval  force  could  have  been  employed 
with  efficiency,  had  been  the  object  of 

the    earnest    Solicitude    Of    the    Admin-  Major-Gener.l  Benjamin  F.  Butler. 


Northern 
debts  for- 
bidden. 


1861]  THE  FIRST  FIGHTING.  461 


A  Negro  Family  arriving  within  the  Union  lines. 
Dmicnby  Gustav  Verbeek  from  ap/ioto%ra/ifi 

istration  in  Washington.  But  the  greater  number  of  officials  in  charge 
of  the  yard  were  secret  enemies  of  the  Union  and  were  ready  D 
to  exercise  their  authority  in  the  premises  so  as  to  prevent  p 
the  use  by  the  Government  of  the  vessels  and  the  war  mate-  Yard- 
rial  of  which  they  were  the  faithless  guardians.  The  buildings  were 
set  on  fire  and  the  ships  scuttled  and  sunk,  the  pretence  being  that 
they  would  otherwise  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  insurgents. 

It  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  the  peaceful  character  of  the  Southern 
negro,  that  neither  in  the  confusion  of  the  beginning  of  hostilities, 
nor  in  all  the  subsequent  years,  when  opportunity  was  even  greater, 
was  there  the  slightest  attempt  at  the  insurrection  in  mortal  dread  of 
which  the  South  had  always  professed  to  be  living.  As  the  Federal 
armies  approached  the  border,  many  of  the  slaves  sought  protection 
and  liberty  within  their  lines,  only  to  be  given  up  by  Union  officers, 
when  their  masters  appeared  and  demanded  their  property,  —  so 
imperative  for  a  while  was  the  habit  of  Northern  subserviency.  For- 
tunately a  wiser  precedent  was  soon  given  for  meeting  such  emergen- 
cies, by  General  Butler,  then  in  command  at  Fortress  Mon- 

J  .  '  Slaves  "coc- 

roe.     Some  fugitives  and  their  claimants  were  brought  be-  tratmndof 
fore  him,  and  he  decided  that  this  species  of  property,  like 
any  other  which  could  be  of  use  to  the  enemy,  was  contraband  of  war, 
and  ordered  them  to  be  fed  and  clothed  and  put  to  work  upon  his  for- 
tifications.    Thereafter  the  fugitives  were  universally  called  "contra- 
bands." 

The  insurgents'  forces  on  the  peninsula  between  York  and  James 
livers  were  under  command  of  General  J.  B.  Magruder.     General 
Butler,  at  Fortress  Monroe,  commanded  the  National  volun-  Fightat 
teers  in  the  same  territory,  for  whom  he  had   established  ^B8*"1*1- 
camps  of  instruction  at  Newport  News  and  near  Hampton  village. 
These  being  annoyed  by  raids  from  Big  Bethel,  where  Magruder  had 
intrenched  himself  with  a  considerable  force,  General  Butler  planned 


462  OPENING  OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

an  expedition  against  that  place,  which  was  but  a  dozen  miles  distant 
from  Fortress  Monroe.  It  was  placed  under  command  of  General 
Pierce,  and  was  to  march  by  night,  on  the  9th  of  June,  in  two  col- 
umns, which  were  to  unite  at  Little  Bethel,  rout  any  force  that  might 
be  there,  and  push  on  to  Big  Bethel,  four  miles  farther,  and  capture 
the  place.  The  expedition  was  mismanaged  from  first  to  last.  As 
portions  of  the  two  columns  came  in  sight  at  daybreak,  they  opened  fire 
upon  each  other,  and  did  not  discover  their  mistake  till  ten  men  had 
fallen.  No  enemy  was  discovered  at  Little  Bethel,  and  at  Big  Bethel 
he  was  found  so  strongly  intrenched,  with  a  clear  space  in  front  and 
a  thick  wood  behind,  that  any  attack  was  imprudent,  unless  some 
way  could  be  found  to  take  him  in  flank.  Nevertheless,  a  front 
attack  was  made  with  much  spirit,  but  was  repulsed.  The  Union  loss 
was  fourteen  killed,  forty-nine  wounded,  and  five  missing.  Among 
the  killed  were  Lieutenant  John  T.  Greble,  of  the  regular  army,  who 
served  a  piece  of  artillery  with  great  gallantry  and  effect,  and  Major 
Theodore  Winthrop,  an  aid  of  General  Butler,  who  had  volunteered 
to  go  with  the  expedition,  and  was  shot  as  he  rushed  forward  and 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  men  in  a  desperate  charge  on  the  left. 
After  the  fight  was  over,  the  enemy  fell  back  to  Yorktown. 

General  Robert  E.  Lee,  who  had  at  first  refused  to  quit  the  service 
of  the  United  States,  in  which  he  had  discharged  his  duties  with  honor 
and  credit,  "  went  with  his  State,"  even  before  Virginia  adopted  the 
act  of  secession  ;  he  said  that  he  could  not  take  arms  against  his 
native  State,  and  accepted  the  command  of  the  Virginia  troops.  One 
of  his  first  acts  was  to  send  a  force  into  western  Virginia, 
western  under  Colonel  Porterfield,  to  obtain  recruits  and  suppress 
secession  from  the  Confederacy  in  that  portion  of  the  State. 
General  George  B.  McClellan,  in  command  of  the  Federal  Depart- 
ment of  the  Ohio,  who  had  hitherto  remained  on  the  free-State  side 
of  the  river,  met  this  movement  by  promptly  crossing  over  with  a 
considerable  force  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy.  In  a  brief  campaign,  the 
insurgents  lost  about  250  killed,  over  1,000  prisoners,  and  five  guns, 
while  the  Union  loss  was  but  20  killed  and  60  wounded.  These 
actions  were  small  affairs,  from  a  military  point  of  view ;  but  they 
had  considerable  importance  in  saving  western  Virginia  to  the  Union. 
The  reputation  they  gave  to  General  McClellan  raised  him  soon  after- 
ward to  the  chief  command,  in  place  of  General  Scott. 

Meanwhile  the  material  for  a  considerable  army  had  gathered  at 
The  Army  of  Washington,  and  was  in  camp  across  the  Potomac,  where 
thePotouiuc.  £ne  recrnit;S  Were  instructed  and  drilled  under  the  eye  of 
General  Scott,  with  General  Irwin  McDowell  in  immediate  command. 

Impatience  at  the  long  inaction  of  what  seemed  to  be  a  powerful 


1861.] 


THE   BATTLE   OF   BULL   RUN. 


4G3 


Major-General  Irwin  McDowell. 


army,  at  length  broke  forth  in  the  cry 
of  "  On  to  Richmond  !  "  and  prepara- 
tions were  made  to  attack  the  in- 
surgent force  which,  under  General 
Beauregard,  had  taken  up  a  posi- 
tion around  Manassas  Junction,  about 
thirty  miles  west  by  south  from 
Washington.  Harper's  Ferry,  aban- 
doned and  burned  by  the  National 
forces  on  the  18th  of  April,  was  now 
evacuated  in  turn  by  the  Patterson's 
Confederate  force  of  about  m°™"'"«'- 
9,000  men,  under  General  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  who  in  June  retired  toward 
Winchester,  so  as  either  to  cooperate 
with  Beauregard  or  to  be  able  to  unite  their  forces.  General  Robert 
Patterson,  who  had  been  gathering  a  force  at  Chambersburg,  mainly 
of  Pennsylvania  troops,  for  the  recapture  of  Harper's  Ferry,  now  occu- 
pied that  place.  He  afterwards  advanced  to  Martinsburg,  and  thence 
to  Bunker  Hill.  Here  he  was  expected  to  hold  Johnston  in  check, 
though  Johnston  was  nearer  than  he  to  the  grand  centre  of  operations. 
The  army  under  General  McDowell,  of  about  30,000  men,  contained 
less  than  1,000  regulars.  The  rest  were  volunteers  and  most  of  them 
three-months'  men,  whose  term  of  service  would  soon  expire.  <.0nto 
Being  assured  by  General  Scott  that  Patterson,  with  his  Rifhn">n<1-" 
18,000  men,  would  either  hold  Johnston  in  check  or  attack  him,  Mc- 
Dowell planned  an  advance  movement.  His  plan  was,  in  general 
terms,  to  march  to  Fairfax  Court  House,  there  turn  southward,  and 
crossing  Oecoquan  Creek,  place  his  army  on  Beauregard's  line  of 
communication. 

The  army  broke  camp  in  the  afternoon  of  the  16th  of  July,  and 
marched  in  four  divisions,  under  Generals  Tyler.  Hunter,  Bnttleof 
Heintzelman,  and  Miles,  leaving  one  division  to  protect  BullKun- 
Washington.  They  moved  in  four  columns,  by  nearly  parallel  roads, 
found  Fairfax  Court  House  abandoned,  and  next  day  reached  Centre- 
ville.  Beauregard's  arrny  was  in  position  on  the  line  of  Bull  Run,  -^- 
a  stream  running  in  a  channel  sharply  cut  through  red  sandstone, — 
occupying  for  about  five  miles  the  southern  bank  from  Sudley  Spring 
to  Union  Mills,  where  the  Orange  and  Alexandria  Railroad  crosses. 
Within  this  distance  are  six  or  seven  fords,  and  a  stone  bridge  where 
the  Warrenton  turnpike  crosses.  General  McDowell  found  that  his 
plan  of  turning  the  enemy's  right  flank  was  not  practicable,  from  the 
nature  of  the  ground.  Two  days  were  spent  in  reconnoitering.  On 


464 


OPENING   OF  THE  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVIL 


Blackburn's  Ford,  Bull  Run.  on  July  4th,   I  862. 
Drairn  by  Harry  Finn  from  a  photograph. 

the  18th,  Tyler's  division  had  an  engagement  at  Blackburn's  Ford, 
across  the  stream,  each  side  losing  half  a  hundred  men.  A  new 
movement  was  planned,  by  which  the  divisions  of  Hunter  and  Heint- 
zelman  were  to  move  up  stream,  cross  at  Sudley  Ford,  and  sweeping 
down  the  right  bank,  uncover  the  other  crossings.  The  other  divi- 
sions were  then  to  cross,  and  all  together  advance  upon  the  enemy. 

At  three  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning,  the  21st,  the  Union  army 
was  in  motion.  Tyler's  division  took  the  main  road  to  the  stone 
bridge.  Hunter  and  Heintzelman  diverged  to  the  right,  and  crossed 
at  Sudley  Ford,  about  nine  o'clock.  Beauregard,  ignorant  of  this 
movement,  ordered  an  attack  on  the  Union  left;  but  his  order  miscar- 
ried. Colonel  Evans,  however,  holding  the  extreme  left  of  the  insur- 
gent line,  whose  suspicions  had  been  aroused,  marched  up  stream  with 
half  a  brigade,  and  confronted  the  turning  column  beyond  the  turn- 
pike. Instead  of  deploying  in  line  of  battle,  and  sweeping  away  the 
obstruction  at  once,  Hunter  sent  successive  detached  regiments  and 
brigades  against  it.  Time  was  lost,  during  which  Evans  was  heavily 
reenforced,  and  took  up  a  new  position  a  little  in  the  rear.  Hunter 
was  also  reenforced  by  Sherman's  and  Keyes's  brigades.  The  com- 
bined force  steadily  drove  back  the  enemy  to  the  plateau.  They 
were  in  great  confusion,  and  Beauregard  and  Johnston,1  besides  niak- 

1  This  General  was  the  ratikiug  officer,  and  real  commauder,  but  had  adopted  Beau  re- 
gard's plans. 


18G1.J 


THE   BATTLE   DECIDED. 


465 


vj. 


Ruins  of  the  Stone  Bridge  across  Bull  Run  on  the  W»rrenton  Turnpike. 
Draicn  by  Harry  Fenn/rom  a  photograph. 

ing  personal  efforts  to  rally  them,  ordered  up  all  tlieir  reserves,  and 
formed  a  new  line  of  battle  of  six  thousand  five  hundred  men,  with 
thirteen  guns  and  two  companies  of  cavalry.  McDowell  attempted 
to  work  around  the  enemy's  left,  and  ordered  the  batteries  of  Griffin 
and  Ricketts  to  take  position  on  a  ridge  overlooking  a  height  which 
formed  the  strongest  point  in  the  rebel  line.  General  T.  J.  Jackson 
(afterward  known  as  "  Stonewall "  Jackson)  sent  a  regiment  to  take 
this  battery,  and  the  movement  succeeded,  the  cannoneers  supposing 
it  to  be  a  New  York  regiment  coming  to  their  support.  The  guns 
were  speedily  retaken,  however,  when  fresh  supports  were  brought 
up,  and  the  fight  renewed  around  these  batteries.  But  at  this 
moment  there  arrived  by  rail  seven  regiments  of  Johnston's  troops  ; 
these  were  ordered  to  fall  upon  the  right  flank  of  the  Union  army. 
Assisted  by  a  battery  and  five  companies  of  cavalry,  the 

,  .  '  r  ,  i      ,  •  The  (Meat. 

order  was  obeyed  with  promptness  and  vigor,  and  this  de- 
cided the  battle.     About  half-past  four  o'clock  the  Union  right  broke 
and  retreated  in  confusion,  soon   followed    by  the  centre  and    left, 
though  in  less   disorder.      The   retreat    became  a  panic ;    infantry, 
VOL.  iv.  30 


466  OPENING  OF  THE  WAR.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

artillery,  trains,  ambulances,  members  of  Congress,  and  private  citi- 
zens who  had  come  out  on  horseback  or  in  carriages  to  see  the  fight, 
were  mingled  in  a  confused  crowd  upon  the  roads  to  Washington. 
No  pursuit  was  made,  except  by  small  bodies  of  cavalry,  who  took 
some  prisoners.  The  i-egulars,  forming  the  left  of  the  line,  brought 
up  the  rear  in  good  order,  while  the  reserves  also  preserved  their 
organization  and  were  ready  to  repel  pursuit. 

The  forces  engaged  on  each  side  of  this  disastrous  fight  were  about 
equal  in  number.  The  Federal  losses  were  as  follows  :  460  killed, 
1,124  wounded,  1,312  captured  or  missing;  total,  2,896.  The  Con- 
federate losses  were:  387  killed,  1,582  wounded,  13  captured  or 
missing ;  total,  1,982.  The  defeat  was  the  result  of  a  combination  of 
causes.  General  Patterson,  a  Pennsylvania  volunteer  officer,  but  a 
veteran  of  the  Mexican  war,  had  been  instructed  to  hold  Johnston's 
army  in  check  at  Winchester,  in  the  Shenandoah  valley,  while  Mc- 
Dowell should  attack  Beauregard  at  Manassas  Junction,  on  Bull 
Run.  Lieutenant-General  Winfield  Scott,  who,  up  to  this  time  was 
the  military  chief  of  the  United  States  forces,  with  headquarters  in 
Washington,  had  planned  the  battle  and  had  expected  that  his  orders, 
frequently  repeated  to  the  two  commanders  in  the  field,  would  be 
implicitly  carried  out.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  McDowell's  con- 
duct of  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  the  responsibility  for  the  escape  of 
Johnston's  force  in  season  to  reenforce  that  already  at  Bull  Run  rests 
on  Patterson.  An  accident  caused  the  panic  that  ensued  when  the 
arrival  of  these  troops  was  followed  by  the  fatal  break  in  the  Union 
lines. 

For  a  time,  however,  the  Confederates  did  not  realize  the  extent 
of  their  success.  It  was  even  reported,  after  the  breathless  scare  on 
the  Federal  side  had  somewhat  subsided,  that  both  armies  fled  wildly 
in  opposite  directions.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Jefferson  Davis,  who  had 
come  out  from  Richmond  to  see  the  field,  did  subsequently  reproach 
his  generals  with  having  failed  to  follow  up  their  victory.  But  this 
was  said  long  after  the  war  was  over,  when  he  had  leisure  and  incli- 
nation to  fight  his  battles  over  again  and  show  how  fields  might  have 
been  won.  One  of  the  generals  thus  criticised  by  the  ex-President 
of  the  Confederacy  replied  that  Davis  had  forgotten  that  his  army 
"  was  more  disorganized  by  victory  than  that  of  the  United  States 
by  defeat." 

The  troops  on  both  sides  were  raw  and  undisciplined.  One  of  the 
reasons  for  the  rout  of  the  Federals,  when  defeat  seemed  certain,  was 
the  natural  reflection  of  the  three-months'  men  that  their  time  was 
on  the  eve  of  expiring.  Why  should  they  not  run  away  when  it  was 
not  expected  of  them  that  they  would  be  ready  to  fight  another  day  ? 


1861.]  A  GREAT  UNIOX  DISASTER.  467 

They  had  gone  to  Bull  Run,  as  one 
critic  said,  "an  aggregation  of  town 
meetings."  It  required  years  of  dis- 
cipline in  the  hard  school  of  war  to 
make  seasoned  veterans  of  these  green 
novices  in  the  art  of  military  fighting. 
On  the  whole,  neither  side  engaged 
in  the  battle  had  real  cause  for  humil- 
iation on  account  of  the  behavior  of 
the  men.  Whatever  may  be  said  of 
the  strategy  employed,  the  fighting 
was  sufficiently  courageous. 

Major-General  Robert  E.  Patterson.  Tlle    effeCt  °f    this    dgfeat    UP°n    the 

whole  country  was  marked.     In   the 

South  the  feeling  was  one  of  exultation,  after  the  fact  was  realized 
that  the  first  fighting  on  a  large  scale  had  resulted  in  a  vie-   Reguitsof 
tory   to   the   Confederate   arms.     The    old    boast    that    one   UullRun- 
Southerner  could  put  five,  and  possibly  ten,  "  Yankees  "  to  flight  was 
renewed  with  many  glowing  additions.     While  the  demoralized  ranks 
of  Johnston  were   repairing  the  breaches  made  by  the  fight,  there 
arose  in  their  rear  a  clamorous  demand  that  they  should  at  once  pre- 
cipitate themselves  upon  Washington,  now  well  fortified  and  strongly 
garrisoned. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  throngs  of  holiday-makers  who  had 
come  out  from  Washington  to  see  the  fight,  much  as  city  folk  would 
go  to  a  horse-race  in  the  suburbs,  fled  in  disorder  to  the  capital,  they 
carried  with  them  the  news  of  a  defeat  which  their  fears  and  inex- 
perience enormously  exaggerated.  Terrifying  stories  were  told  of  the 
strength  of  the  Confederate  forces ;  and  it  would  not  have  been  sur- 
prising if  the  people  of  Washington,  panic-struck  by  the  tales  of  these 
pallid  civilians  and  by  the  demoralized  condition  of  soldiers  who  were 
only  civilians  in  uniform,  had  made  ready  for  instant  flight  or  surren- 
der. But  the  foe  came  not.  He  was  fully  occupied  with  nursing  his 
wounds.  In  the  North  there  was  soreness  over  defeat,  consternation 
over  the  possibilities  of  other  such  disasters  immediately  to  come. 
Timorous  men  considered  the  day  utterly  lost  and  the  end  of  all 
things  nigh  at  hand.  In  the  blackness  of  his  own  despair,  the  editor 
of  the  foremost  Republican  newspaper  in  the  land  thus  advised  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  : l  "If  the  Union  is  irrevocably  gone,  an  armistice  for 
thirty,  sixty,  ninety,  one  hundred  and  twenty  days  —  better  fireeiey^ 
still  for  a  year  —  ought  to  be  proposed  at  once,  with  a  view  advice- 
to  a  peaceful  adjustment.  Then  Congress  should  call  a  National 

1  Horace  Greeley  to  President  Lincoln  ;  the  Nicolay-Hay  Life  nf  Lincoln,  vol.  iv.  p.  366. 


468 


OPENING  OF  THE  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


Major-General  George  B.  McCleMan. 


Convention,  to  meet  at  the  earliest 
possible  day.  And  there  should  be 
an  immediate  and  mutual  exchange 
or  release  of  prisoners  and  a  disband- 
inent  of  forces." 

But  patriotism  and   popular  cour- 
age soon  rallied.     The  people  of  the 
loyal    States    were   determined    that 
the    Union   should   be    preserved,    if 
men  and    money  could   save  it.     In 
the  hamlets  and  villages,  cities  and 
towns  where  the  cruel   tidings  from 
Bull  Run  had  carried  mourning  and 
lamentation,  the  fires  that  were  kin- 
dled   when    Sumter   fell    flamed    up 
anew.     Mass  meetings  were  held  to  incite  the  raising  of  more  troops 
for  the  field  and  the  pledging  of  more  funds  for  the  outfitting  and  the 
succor  of  those  who  were  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  Union.     Inspirit- 
ing songs  were  written  and  sung  to  "swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union  " 
and  to  express  the  patriotic  determination  of  the  loyal  people.     With 
that  grim  sense  of  humor  which  even  the  horrors  of  war  never  blunted, 
the  people  took  up  some  of  the  grotesque  incidents  of  the  Bull  Run 
disaster  and  made  them  seasonable  jests.     The  scared  correspondent 
of  a  London  newspaper  wore  "  Bull  Run  "  before  his  own  proper  name 
for  years  afterward ;  then  too  came  into  general  popular  use  some 
of  the  phrases  that  had  been  coined  to  express  the  conditions  of  the 
fight;  and  men  were  "demoralized,"  or  they  "skedaddled,"  as  they 
incorporated   these    volunteer   military    terms   into    their   humorous 
speech. 

On  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  General  George  B.  Mc- 
Clellan,  who  had  won  fame  by  a  short  and  brilliant  campaign  in 
Western  Virginia,  was  called  to  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  as  the  forces  immediately  around  Washington  were  now 
called.  McClellan  was  a  favored  child  of  fortune,  his  ante- 
cedents, culture  and  social  environment  having  been  of  the 
highest  order.  He  was  a  graduate  of  the  United  States  Military 
Academy,  had  seen  some  service  in  Mexico,  and  had  been  assigned 
to  sundry  posts  of  honor  and  distinction  while  in  the  army.  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  when  he  was  again  commissioned  in  the 
army  from  which  he  had  retired  to  civil  life,  he  gave  up  an  impor- 
tant po^t  as  railroad  president.  He  was  an  engineer  of  acknowledged 
skill,  a  scholar  well  versed  in  military  science,  and  as  an  organizer  of 
forces  was  without  a  superior.  He  took  hold  of  the  work  of  building 


General 
UcClellan. 


1861.] 


ENTER  GENERAL  McCLELLAN. 


469 


Colonel  Edward  0.  Baker. 

(Senator  from  Oregon  when  killed  at  Ball's 

Bluff.) 


up  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and 
systematizing  the  fortifications  of 
Washington  with  such  splendid  zeal 
that  the  fickle  public,  heretofore  rest- 
ing with  confidence  on  the  courage, 
prowess,  and  military  experience  of 
Lieutenant  -  General  Scott,  fondly 
hailed  "  Little  Mac  "  as  the  deliverer 
of  the  imperilled  Union,  the  savior 
of  his  country. 

On  October  31st,  General  Scott, 
then  in  the  seventy-sixth  year  of  his 
age,  pleading  his  infirmities,  resigned 
from  active  service  and  was  placed 
upon  the  retired  list.  General  Mc- 
Clellan,  who  had  worried  the  old  gen- 
eral and  bad  embittered  his  last  days  of  service  by  disobedience  of 
his  orders  and  an  affected  ignorance  of  his  high  official  station,  now 
succeeded  to  the  command  of  all  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  with 
headquarters  in  Washington.  In  little  more  than  a  half-year,  General 
McClellan  had  passed  from  civil  life  to  the  post  of  commander  of  all 
the  armies  of  the  United  States,  subject  only  to  the  orders  of  the 
President,  who,  by  virtue  of  his  exalted  office,  was  Commander-in- 
Chief. 

Congress,  then  in  session,  rose  to  the  emergency  and  at  once  took 
steps  to  sustain  the  hands  of  the  President  in  his  efforts  to  put  down 
the  rebellion.  On  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  John  J.  Crit- 
tenden,  whose  proposals  for  a  compromise  earlier  in  the  struggle  had 
made  his  name  famous,  and  who  was  now  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  offered  a  resolution  pledging  Congress  to  full 
support  of  the  war  which  was  waged,  as  the  resolution  declared, 
"  to  defend  and  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution,  and  to 
preserve  the  Union  with  all  the  dignity,  equality  and  rights  of  the 
several  States  unimpaired.''  The  resolution  passed  both  houses  of 
Congress  almost  unanimously  ;  and  on  that  day  Congress  voted  for 
the  raising  of  an  army  of  500,000  men,  and  the  appropriation  of 
$500,000,000  for  the  expenses  of  the  war. 

In  October  an  affair  hardly  less  discouraging  than  that  of  Bull  Run 
occurred  at  Ball's  Bluff,  on  the  upper  Potomac.  General  Charles 
P.  Stone,  commanding  a  corps  of  observation,  ordered  The affair  at 
Colonels  Devens  and  Lee,  with  the  Fifteenth  and  Twen-  B»lisBluff 
tieth  Massachusetts  Regiments,  to  cross  the  river  —  here  divided  by 
Harrison  Island  —  on  the  night  of  the  20th,  and  surprise  an  insurgent 


470 


OPENING  OF  THE  WAR. 


[CHAP.  XVII. 


camp  said  to  have  been  discovered  in  the  direction  of  Leesburg.  The 
crossing  was  made  in  three  scows,  a  life-boat,  and  two  skiffs,  all  of 
which  would  hold  but  150  men  at  a  time,  and  the  force  was  nearly 
700.  No  hostile  camp  was  found ;  but  in  the  morning  the  troops 
were  attacked  by  a  heavy  force  concealed  in  the  woods,  and  driven 
back.  In  the  forenoon  Colonel  E.  D.  Baker,  of  California,  then  Sena- 
tor from  Oregon,  crossed  the  river  with  a  supporting  column  of  1,900 
men,  and  assumed  command.  But  the  enemy  was  reenforced  ;  Baker 
was  killed,  and  at  dusk  his  men  were  driven  back  over  the  bluff. 
Three  of  the  boats  were  sunk,  and  under  an  unremitting  fire  the  rem- 
nant of  the  Union  forces  straggled  back  in  one  way  and  another  to 
the  Maryland  shore.  They  had  lost  nearly  1,000  men.  The  loss  of 
General  Baker,  who  was  a  brilliant  and  accomplished  man,  gave  the 
public  a  severe  shock.  The  disaster,  not  by  any  means  insignificant 
in  itself,  was  unduly  magnified  ;  and  the  depression  of  the  people 
was  correspondingly  great.  General  Stone  was  naturally  selected  as 
the  most  available  scapegoat  for  this  emergency.  He  was  arrested 
without  the  preferring  of  charges  and  was  thereafter  treated  with 
unexplained  severity. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE   FIGHT  FOR   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

INSURGENT  OPERATIONS  TO  HOLD  VICKSBDRO.  —  ATTEMPTS  TO  CAPTURE  ST.  Louis. — 
FAILURE  OF  THE  PLANS  OF  CLAIBORNE  F.  JACKSOX.  —  GENERAL  LYON  CAITURES 
THE  INSITROENT  CAMP  JACKSON.  —  CIVIL  WAR  BEGUN  IN  MISSOURI.  —  OUTBREAK 
OF  GUERILLA  WARFARE. —  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  ENTREATED  TO  AID  THE  NORTH- 
WESTERN STATES  TO  HOLD  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  —  FREMONT  IN  COMMAND.  —  DEATH  OF 
GENERAL  LYON.  —  CIVIL  TROUBLES  IN  MISSOURI. — FREMONT'S  EMANCIPATION  AND 
REPRISAL  PROCLAMATION. —  His  SUBSEQUENT  REMOVAL.  —  GENERAL  HALI.ECK  IN 
COMMAND.  —  THE  STRUGGLE  IN  KENTUCKY.  —  THAT  STATE  BECOMES  THE  BATTLE- 
GROUND OF  THE  WAR  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. 

EARLY  in  the  conflict  it  became  evident  that  there  must  be  a 
struggle  for  the  control  of  that  great  waterway,  the  Mississippi  River, 
and  its  tributaries.  Perceiving  the  importance  of  prompt  TheMi^g. 
occupation  of  sucli  a  commanding  position  on  the  lower  por-  F1PP|KlTer- 
tion  of  the  stream  as  would  hold  with  a  firm  hand  its  navigation,  the 
insurgents  planted  cannon  on  the  bluffs  of  Vicksburg,  in  January, 
1861,  with  a  determination  to  hail  and  examine  every  vessel  that 
should  attempt  to  pass.  Among  the  first  acts  of  the  Montgomery 
Congress  was  the  ordering  of  a  "  Confederate "  custom-house  at 
Neine's  Landing,  on  the  northern  boundary  of  the  State  of  Missis- 
sippi. 

In  the  next  great  centre  of  population  on  the  river,  to  the  north- 
ward, the  elements  of  secession  were  already  seething  ;  St.  Louis  was 
not  only  one  of  the  most  important  and  influential  cities  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,  but  it  was  the  chief  city  of  Missouri,  a  State  which 
was  ardently  coveted  by  the  conspirators  in  Montgomery.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State,  inaugurated  in  January,  1861,  was  Claiborne  F. 
Jackson,  who,  while  wearing  a  thin  pretence  of  devotion  to  the  Federal 
Union,  was  at  heart  a  rebel  and  a  secessionist.  The  Legislature  which 
assembled  that  year  was  largely  of  Jackson's  way  of  thinking;  it 
readily  seconded  his  motion  to  call  a  convention  of  the  peo- 
ple "to  consider  Federal  relations;  "  but  the  plotters  were  ti"nin 

...  Missouri. 

greatly  dismayed  to  find  that  the  convention,  when  it  as- 
sembled at  the  end  of  the  following  month,  was  almost  unanimously 


41-2          THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.      [CHAP.  XVIIL 

opposed  to  separation  ;  there  were  a  few  secret  secessionists  in  the 
convention,  and  a  few  "  Conditional  Unionists,"  as  the  lukewarm 
were  beginning  to  be  called ;  but  there  was  an  overwhelming  major- 
ity against  every  form  of  open  disunion.  A  "  Commissioner  "  from 
Georgia  was  permitted  to  address  the  convention  in  behalf  of  the 
Confederacy,  but  his  sophistries  fell  on  unheeding  ears,  and  the  spec- 
tators in  the  galleries  hooted  the  speaker. 

Jackson  could  hope  for  nothing  from  that  convention,  and  he  turned 
his  attention  to  the  Legislature,  from  which  he  now  procured  such  leg- 
islation as  would  enable  him  to  drag  the  State  out  of  the  Union.  He 
assumed  the  lofty  tone  of  a  State  Executive  striving  against  unjust 
and  unlawful  oppression.  When  the  President's  call  for  State  troops 
came,  Jackson  had  insolently  replied:  "  Your  requisition,  in  my  judg- 
ment, is  illegal,  unconstitutional,  and  revolutionary  in  its  objects, 
inhuman  and  diabolical,  and  cannot  be  complied  with."  Under  the 
inspiration  of  Daniel  M.  Frost,  a  native  of  New  York  and  a  graduate 
of  the  National  Military  Academy,  Governor  Jackson  seized  the  United 
States  arsenal  at  Liberty,  Missouri,  distributed  among  the  disloyalists 
the  arms  thus  stolen,  applied  to  the  authorities  of  Louisiana  for  a 
share  in  the  plunder  of  the  arsenal  at  Baton  Rouge,  and  established 
a  military  camp  near  St.  Louis  for  the  nominal  purpose  of  military 
instruction  for  the  State  militia.  But  the  capture  of  the  United 
States  arsenal  at  St.  Louis,  with  its  large  stores  of  munitions  of  war, 
was  the  object  of  the  most  ardent  desire  with  the  secession  leaders. 
The  institution  was  under  the  command  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Lyon, 
a  brave  officer  of  the  United  States  army,  who,  with  the  assistance 
of  Frank  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  secured  permission  to  enroll  loyal  citizens  of 
St.  Louis  in  the  military  service  of  the  United  States,  the  number  not 

•/ 

to  exceed  10,000.  On  the  19th  of  May,  hearing  that  cannon 
captain  and  mortars  had  been  secretly  taken  into  the  so-called  camp 

1  v  on  H  t 

camp  of  instruction,  known   as  Camp  Jackson,  Lyon  surrounded 

Jackson.  *•  J 

the  grounds  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  State  troops, 
numbering  some  1,200;  Lyon's  force  was  vastly  superior  in  numbers, 
and  Frost,  who  had  been  put  in  command  of  the  militia  forces,  sur- 
rendered. Lyon  offered  to  release  his  prisoners  on  condition  that 
they  would  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  declining 
which,  they  were  locked  up  until  calmer  reflection  convinced  them 
that  this  was  their  wiser  course. 

The  dispersion  of  the  nest  of  secession  at  Camp  Jackson  and  the 
evident  miscarriage  of  their  plans  to  seize  the  St.  Louis  arsenal,  filled 
the  Missouri  disunionists  with  consternation  and  rage.  The  Legisla- 
ture proceeded  to  put  the  State  on  a  war  footing,  placing  all  military 
control  in  the  hands  of  the  Governor  and  authorizing  the  raising  of  a 


1861.]  BARNEY'S   UNFORTUNATE  TACTICS.  473 


Pivot  Gun  Battery  on  the  BMfs  at  Vicksburg. 

(The  view  is  taken  looking  southwest,  and  shows  in  the  distance  De  Soto  Point.) 
Draicn  by  F.  C.  Ransom  from  a  contemporary  photograph  hithrrto  itn]»iblishnl. 

large  loan  for  war  purposes.  Meanwhile,  General  "W.  S.  Harney,  who 
was  the  actual  commander  of  the  military  department  which  included 
St.  Louis,  but  who  had  been  absent  from  the  post,  returned  and  began 
to  undo  what  had  been  done  to  assure  the  State  to  the  Federal  Union. 
He  entered  into  a  compact  with  Sterling  Price,  the  President  of  the 
State  Convention,  then  a  general  of  the  State  militia,  by  which  Price 
pledged  himself  to  maintain  order,  and  Harney  agreed  that  no  further 
military  movements  should  be  made  as  long  as  order  was  maintained. 
The  obvious  purpose  of  the  plotters  was  to  gain  time  and  collect  mu- 
nitions of  war.  The  compact  was  disallowed  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, to  whom  General  Harney  had  reported  it  for  approval,  but 
Price,  craftily  assuming  that  it  was  still  in  force,  ever  after  conducted 
his  affairs  as  if  it  were  a  substantial  basis  of  agreement.  Harney  was 
removed  from  command,  and  Lyon,  who  had  been  promoted  to  be  a 
brigadier-general,  succeeded  to  his  post,  now  denominated  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Missouri.  After  a  few  fretful  struggles  against  the  Na- 
tional authority,  Price  and  Jackson  withdrew  to  Jefferson  City,  the 
capital  of  the  State,  whence  the  Governor  fulminated  a  proclamation 
advising  the  people  of  Missouri  that  their  first  allegiance  was  due  to 
their  own  State,  and  that  they  were  under  no  obligations  whatever 
to  obey  "  the  unconstitutional  edicts  of  the  military  despotism  which 
had  enthroned  itself  at  Washington,  nor  to  submit  to  the  infamous 
and  degrading  sway  of  its  minions  in  this  State."  It  was  the  role  of 


474          THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.       [CHAP.  XVIII. 

all  such  inciters  to  rebellion  to  assume  that  the  President  of  the 
United  States  was  a  usurper,  and  that  all  laws  and  regulations  enacted 
after  his  election  were  null  and  void. 

Civil  war  was  now  begun  in  Missouri.  The  State  troops,  which 
civil  war  m  ^Ia(^  been  reorganized  and  reenforced  "for  the  purpose  of 
Missouri.  repelling  invasion,"  were  set  in  motion.  Important  railway 
bridges  between  the  capital  and  St.  Louis  were  burned  and  the  tele- 
graph lines  were  cut.  Price,  under  the  orders  of  the  Governor, 
marched  to  take  possession  and  hold  the  important  towns  of  Lexing- 
ton and  Booneville,  on  the  Missouri  River.  General  Lyon,  having 
meantime  seized  and  fortified  Bird's  Point,  an  important  strategic 
position  on  the  Mississippi  opposite  the  city  of  Cairo,  followed  in  pur- 
suit of  Price  and  Jackson,  who,  burning  their  bridges  behind  them, 
were  moving  into  the  western  part  of  the  State.  Lyon's  forces,  how- 
ever, took  the  water  route,  ascending  the  Missouri  River  by  steamer, 
so  that  the  device  of  bridge-burning  to  avoid  successful  pursuit  availed 
the  insurgents  nothing.  At  their  approach  to  Booneville,  Price, 
alleging  a  sudden  attack  of  illness,  fled  to  Lexington,  and  the  scared 
Jackson  directed  that  no  resistance  be  made.  But  J.  S.  Marmaduke, 
then  a  colonel  in  the  State  forces,  attempted  to  withstand  the  advance 
of  Lyon,  who,  after  a  short  engagement,  captured  the  insurgent  camp 
with  a  large  number  of  prisoners,  most  of  whom,  being  young  men 
who  had  been  impressed  into  the  service,  or  enlisted  under  false  pre- 
tences, were  released. 

The  two  leaders,  Jackson  and  Price,  who  had  kept  at  a  safe  dis- 
tance from  the  fighting,  now  gathered  up  all  available  troops  and  fled 
still  further  to  the  west,  finally  halting  at  Montevallo,  Vernon  County, 
on  the  extreme  western  verge  of  the  State.  General  Lyon  held  se- 
cure control  of  the  entire  eastern  part  of  Missouri  and  of  that  portion 
Guerilla  which  lies  north  of  the  Missouri  River.  A  vexatious  guerilla 
warfare.  \varfare  now  broke  out  all  over  the  State.  Civilians  with 
very  little  pretence  of  military  organization  raided  the  rural  districts 
and  infested  the  small  towns.  When  troops  were  sent  against  them, 
only  men  working  peaceably  in  their  fields  or  shops  would  be  found ; 
but  no  sooner  were  the  backs  of  the  soldiers  turned  than  these  mis- 
creants were  in  the  saddle  to  kill  or  kidnap  Union  men,  burn  their 
barns  and  houses  and  harry  Union  districts  with  desperate  mischief. 
Unavoidable  delays  hindered  the  immediate  advance  of  the  National 
forces  ;  and  in  the  mean  while  the  insurgents,  now  in  the  southwestern 
corner  of  the  State,  were  cheered  by  accessions  to  their  number  from 
Arkansas.  General  Leonidas  Polk,  "  the  fighting  bishop  "  of  Missis- 
sippi, was  maturing  plans  to  respond  to  the  call  for  aid  which  came 
from  the  despairing  Governor  of  Missouri.  From  Memphis,  Tennes- 


18C1.] 


DISCONTENT  IN  THE  NORTHWEST. 


475 


Captain  (afterwards  Brigadier-General) 
Nathaniel  Lyon. 


see,  where  he  had  been  stationed  to 
secure  command  of  that  portion  of 
the  Mississippi  River,  Polk  reported 
his  intention  to  send  25,000  men 
under  Ben  McCulloch,  the  Texan 
Ranger,  against  Lyon,  who  was  then 
at  Springfield ;  and  to  despatch  an- 
other column  into  southeast  Missouri 
under  General  Gideon  J.  Pillow  and 
William  J.  Hardee.  Although  this 
ambitious  scheme  was  not  executed, 
the  situation  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  daily  grew  more  critical. 
In  Kentucky  there  was  an  absolute 
suspension  of  all  military  operations, 
the  month  of  September,  1861,  being 
fixed  upon  as  the  very  earliest  date  on  which  active  military  move- 
ments of  any  kind  should  be  permitted.  The  closing  of  the  great 
waterway  from  the  Northwestern  States  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  had 
begun  to  be  felt  disastrously  all  over  these  States.  It  was  seen  that 
the  languishing  of  the  fight  in  Missouri,  the  supineness  of  the  Union 
element  in  Kentucky,  and  the  activity  of  the  insurgents  in  the  South- 
west were  not  adequately  counteracted  by  the  Federal  Government, 
already  harassed  by  the  pressing  necessity  of  effective  military  opera- 
tions along  the  line  of  the  Potomac.  The  vast  resources  of  the  West, 
in  men  and  money,  were  waiting  to  be  employed  in  the  opening  of 
the  blockaded  Mississippi.  It  was  loudly  demanded  that  the  North- 
western States  should  be  permitted  to  embark  on  military  under- 
takings for  this  purpose.  Later  on  in  the  war,  when  Western  men 
were  transferred  to  the  armies  operating  in  the  East,  it  was  bitterly 
complained  by  the  Confederates  and  their  sympathizers  in  the  North 
that  the  Westerners  were  being  employed  for  "the  subjugation  of 
the  South,"  in  direct  violation  of  obligations  which  were  thus  re- 
motely suggested  but  never  specified. 

Finally,  a  conference  of  the  Governors  of  the  Northwestern  States 
was  held  to  consider  the  dangerous  situation,  and  a  formal 

J.....  ,,r         .  Action  of 

request  was  made  upon  the  Administration  at  Washington   the  Govern- 
to  move  forward  and  make  the  line  of  the  Ohio  River  secure   Northwest- 
by  occupying  advanced  posts  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
organize  the  war  material  ready  to  its  hand  in  the  West,  and  appoint 
a  competent  commander  who  should  take  charge  of  a  grand  military 
movement  which  might  open  the  great  river  to  free  navigation  and 
divide  the  insurgent  States  of  the  Southwest  in  twain.     By  very  gen- 


47G  THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.      [CHAP.  XVIII. 


johnc. 

Fremont. 


A  Typical  Roadside  Scene  near  Vicksburg,  Miss. 
Drairn  by  G.  W.  Peters  from  a  photograph. 

eral  consent,  public  opinion  had  already  selected  as  the  leader  in  tins 
tremendous  task  John  C.  Fremont,  who,  allied  to  the  family  of  the 
Missouri  Bentons  by  marriage,  a  Western  explorer  of  renown  and 
romantic  interest,  a  dashing  soldier  and  a  brilliant  actor  in  the  drama 
of  the  organization  of  California  into  a  free  American  commonwealth, 
was  thought  to  have  peculiar  qualities  for  the  work  desired 
of  him.  Fremont,  as  the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party 

.  •  J 

in  1856,  when  defeat  seemed  certain,  had  gained  a  National 
reputation  and  had  established  a  claim  upon  the  grateful  recognition 
of  the  party  now  in  power.  On  arriving  home  from  a  winter  in  Eu- 
rope, early  in  July,  1861,  Fremont  was  commissioned  a  major-general 
in  the  regular  army  and  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  West,  which  consisted  of  the  State  of  Illinois  and  all  the 
States  and  Territories  between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  It  was  thought  that  the  hour  and  the  man  had  come  in 
the  West. 

After  a  long  and  inexplicable  tarry  in  New  York,  General  Fremont 
reached  his  headquarters  in  St.  Louis  July  25th,  at  a  most  critical 
time.  Recruits  were  to  be  had  in  plenty,  but  arms  and  munitions  of 
war  were  not  ready  to  hand.  Fremont  began  by  organizing  an  im- 
mense and  showy  staff  ;  useless  and  unscientific  fortifications  were 
built  at  extravagant  cost  ;  regiments  without  equipments  were  rushed 
off  to  the  front  ;  and  a  wild  confusion  of  orders  and  countermands  took 
the  place  of  the  moderate  military  proceedings  that  had  been  carried 
on  at  headquarters  up  to  this  time.  There  was  apparently  very  little 
system  in  the  organization  of  the  forces  at  Fremont's  command.  Yet 
among  those  forces  were  such  men  as  Grant,  Pope,  Logan,  Blair,  Lyon, 
Schofield,  McClernand,  Curtis,  Palmer,  Sturgis,  Hurlbut,  and  others 
whose  names  are  illustrious  in  the  history  of  war,  to  say  nothing  of 


1861.] 


A  CRITICAL  SITUATION. 


477 


the  sturdy  soldiers  in  the  ranks  and  in  tue  field  who  were  more  than 
ready  to  hew  their  way  to  the  Gulf. 

Before  Fremont  left  New  York,  the  guerilla  warfare  in  the  north- 
western portion  of  Missouri  had  become  so  aggravating  that  General 
Lyon's  adjutant  at  headquarters  had  selected  Brigadier-general  John 
Pope  to  take  the  field  with  eight  Illinois  regiments  to  attempt  to 
restore  order,  General  Fremont  having  given  permission  by  telegraph 
that  these  steps  should  be  taken.  On  his  arrival  at  St.  Louis,  there- 
fore, the  new  commander  found  this  situation  :  Cairo,  the  key  to  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  was  believed  to  be  menaced  by  an  overwhelming 
force  which  had  been  gathered  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  it;  the  insur- 
gent General  Gideon  J.  Pillow  had  crossed  the  Mississippi  into  Mis- 
souri at  New  Madrid  with  6,000  men;  great  numbers  of  fighting 
men  were  swarming  over  the  southwestern  border  of  the  State  from 
Arkansas  and  Texas,  led  by  Ben  McCulloch  and  General  Pearce,  of 
Arkansas ;  and  Lyon,  his  little  force  daily  crumbling  in  consequence 
of  the  expiration  of  the  terms  of  enlistment  of  his  men,  was  occupying 
a  defensive  position  near  Springfield,  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the 
State.  Colonel  Franz  Sigel,  with  a  detachment  of  Lyon's  forces,  had 
meanwhile  executed  a  series  of  brilliant  marches,  and,  after  dealing 
a  severe  blow  against  the  insurgents  at  Carthage,  Jasper  County, 
southwest/tff  Springfield,  had  fallen  back  upon  the  last-named  place, 
pressed  by  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  enemy,  now  heavily 
reenforced.  Troops  were  pouring  into  Missouri  from  the  southwest : 
and  no  attention  was  being  paid  to  the  arming  and  the  supporting  of 
the  Nationals,  well-nigh  shut  up  in  the  vicinity  of  Springfield.  The 
demands  made  upon  General  Fremont  were  enormous ;  his  skill  and 

his  military  resources  were  taxed  to 
their  utmost. 

Early  in  August,  Lyon  found  him- 
self confronted  by  an  insurgent  force 
of  about  20,000  men.  The  Union 
force  was  about  5,000,  but 


Battle  of 


Creek. 


Lieutenant-General  Leonidas  Polk,  C.  S.  A., 

in  his  Bishop's  robes. 


...  . 

Lyon,  after  waiting  in  vain 

» 

for  expected  reenforcements, 
determined  to  attack  rather  than  at- 
tempt a  retreat  which  could  hardly 
fail  to  be  disastrous  in  the  face  of  a 
force  four  times  larger  than  his  own. 
On  the  night  of  the  9th  of  August, 
Sigel  moved  to  gain  the  right  flank 

of  tllC  6116111  y  aild   fall   UpOll   it  by  day- 

light.      Lyon,   with   3,700  men   and 


478  THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.      [CHAP.  XVIII. 

ten  guns,  gained  the  enemy's  left,  and  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning 
attacked  it  vigorously,  continually  gaining  ground  and  advancing  his 
line  against  greatly  superior  numbers.  Sigel  was  also  successful  at 
first ;  but  his  men  fell  to  plundering  the  camps,  when  the  enemy 
rallied  and  defeated  him  in  turn,  capturing  five  of  his  guns  and  many 
men.  Lyon  was  twice  wounded  early  in  the  action,  and  was  after- 
ward killed  at  the  head  of  the  First  Iowa  Regiment,  which 

Death  of 

General  was  brought  up  to  repel  a  movement  on  Ins  flank.  "  Who 
will  lead  us  ?  "  said  the  men,  for  their  colonel  was  absent. 
"I  will  lead  you  !  Onward,  brave  boys  of  Iowa  !  "  answered  Lyon, 
as  he  rode  forward  waving  his  hat.  He  fell  soon  after  with  a  bullet 
through  his  heart.  The  enemy,  despite  his  great  superiority  of  num- 
bers, was  driven  from  the  field.  But  retreat  of  the  National  forces 
was  also  necessary,  and  Major  Sturgis,  upon  whom  the  command 
devolved,  brought  them  in  the  course  of  a  week  to  Rolla,  some  150 
miles  to  the  northeast  of  Springfield.  Fremont  was  bitterly  re- 
proached for  the  disaster  at  Springfield,  and  was  even  charged  with 
being  indirectly  responsible  for  the  death  of  the  gallant  Lyon.  His 
defenders  pleaded  that  Fremont  had  no  reinforcements  to  send  to 
Lyon.  But  his  critics  forcibly  replied  that  Lyon,  overwhelmed  by 
superior  numbers  and  constantly  weakened  by  the  expiration  of  enlist- 
ments in  his  little  army,  should  have  been  recalled.  Momentarily  in 
expectation  of  a  support  which  never  came,  and  deprived  of  even  a 
word  of  explanation,  Lyon  was  left  to  perish. 

These  disasters  turned  public  attention  angrily  upon  Fremont,  who 
was  now  the  object  of  much  harsh  and  unjust  criticism,  and  was 
likely  to  share  the  fate  of  other  popular  idols,  who,  after  a  few  weeks 
or  months  of  sunshine,  were  consigned  to  gloom  and  oblivion.  Roused 
by  these  assaults,  Fremont  widened  his  circles  of  fortifications  and 
evinced  an  intention  to  put  himself  on  the  defensive  rather  than 
begin  the  grand  campaign  which  had  been  so  eagerly  expected  of 
him.  Political  troubles  also  assailed  him  from  within  the  State. 
Jackson  having  vacated  the  governorship  and  fled,  the  lieutenant- 
governor,  Reynolds,  had  taken  up  the  reins,  and,  in  a  bombastic  and 
ridiculous  proclamation,  avowed  his  determination  to  maintain  the 
independence  of  the  sovereign  State  of  Missouri.  The  State  Conven- 
tion, before  alluded  to,  was  reconvened,  and  its  patriotic  members 
proceeded  to  organize  a  provisional  government,  H.  R.  Gamble  being 
selected  to  perform  the  duties  of  Provisional  Governor,  pending  a 
regular  popular  election.  Although  admonished  from  Washington 
that  he  should  cooperate  with  Gamble  as  far  as  possible,  Fremont 
studiously  disregarded  him  in  all  his  movements,  civil  and  military, 
arrogating  to  himself  the  powers  and  duties  of  a  military  dictator. 


1861.]  A  FAMOUS  PROCLAMATION.  479 

The  climax  came  when  Fremont, 
justly  indignant  at  the  impunity 
with  which  marauders  and  assassins 
harassed  the  Union  citizens  of  Mis- 
souri, issued  liis  famous  proclama- 
tion of  reprisals  and  eman-  Fremont-g 
cipation.  This  document, 
sent  forth  on  the  31st  of 
August,  placed  the  State  tion> 
under  martial  law,  prescribed  the 
death  penalty  for  bridge-burners 
and  telegraph-cutters,  and  contained 
this  remarkable  clause  :  "  The  prop- 
erty, real  and  personal,  of  all  per- 

Brigadier-General  Gideon  J.  Pillow,  C.  S.  A.  SQns    jn    the    g^g    Qf    Missour^    wnQ 

shall  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States,  or  who  shall  be  directly 
proven  to  have  taken  active  part  with  their  enemies  in  the  field,  is 
declared  to  be  confiscated  to  the  public  use ;  and  their  slaves,  if  any 
they  have,  are  hereby  declared  free  men." 

Two  days  after  the  proclamation  was  issued,  the  President  wrote  a 
private  letter  to  Fremont,  taking  exception  to  the  two  main   points. 
"Should  you  shoot  a  man,"  wrote  Mr.  Lincoln,  "nccording  to  the 
proclamation,  the  Confederates  would  very  certainly  shoot   Mr  Uncoln 
our  best  men  in  their  hands  in  retaliation ;  and  so,  man  for  £"„£,"£"  prec_ 

man,  indefinitely I  think  there  is  great  danger  that  lauiatlon- 

the  closing  paragraph,  in  relation  to  the  confiscation  of  property,  and 
the  liberating  slaves  of  traitorous  owners,  will  alarm  our  Southern 
Union  friends,  and  turn  them  against  us  ;  perhaps  ruin  our  rather  fair 
prospect  for  Kentucky.  Allow  me,  therefore,  to  ask  that  you  will, 
as  of  your  own  motion,  modify  that  paragraph  so  as  to  conform  to  the 
first  and  fourth  sections  of  the  Act  of  Congress  entitled,  'An  act 
to  confiscate  property  used  for  insurrectionary  purposes,'  approved 
August  6,  1861."  This  act  confiscated  such  property  and  slaves  as 
were,  with  the  consent  of  the  owner,  used  in  any  hostile  service  to 
the  United  States.  Fremont  declined  to  change  his  proclamation 
"as  of  his  own  motion,"  and  suggested  that  if  it  was  to  be  modified, 
the  President  himself  should  do  it  openly,  —  which  he  did. 

As  from  this  incident  arose  what  in  the  course  of  time  came  to  be 
regarded  as  a  serious  issue  in  the  West,  —  "the  Missouri  quarrel,"  it 
is  well  to  consider  some  of  the  circumstances  with  minuteness.  The 
Blair  family,  —  Frank  P.,  senior,  living  on  the  outskirts  of  Washing- 
ton ;  Montgomery,  in  the  cabinet  of  Lincoln  ;  and  Frank  P.,  junior, 
now  a  Representative  in  Congress  from  Missouri,  had  from  the  first 


480 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.      [CHAP.  XVIII. 


been  the  warm  friends  of  Fremont  and  the  enthusiastic  defenders  of 
his  soldierly  reputation.  They  were  amazed  when  Fremont's  want 
of  generalship  began  to  sow  uneasiness  where  implicit  confidence  in 
the  "  Pathfinder  "  had  before  existed.  And,  as  this  incapacity  began 
further  to  develop  itself,  and  politics,  rather  than  military  success, 
engaged  the  general's  attention,  the  friendly  Blairs  took  the  alarm. 
When  popular  clamor  against  Fremont  began  to  be  heard,  Montgom- 
ery Blair,  being  naturally  regarded  by  the  President  as  the  fittest 
man  to  advise  confidentially  with  the  headstrong  Fremont,  was  sent 
to  St.  Louis ;  he  was  accompanied  by  Quartermaster-general  Meig.s, 
who  was  instructed  to  look  over  matters  in  St.  Louis,  General  Fre- 
mont having  been  accused  of  harboring  about  him  sundry  speculators 
who  were  enriching  themselves  by  means  of  fat  contracts,  giving  very 
little  for  the  great  compensation  which  they  received. 

This  mission  of  the  Postmaster-general,  Fremont  chose  to  regard 
as  a  personal  affront  to  himself.  He  had  also  become  embroiled  with 
Quarrel  be-  Colonel  Frank  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  in  an  unseemly  quarrel,  and  had 
placed  that  officer  under  arrest.  Colonel  Blair  retorted  by 
preferring  charges  of  incapacity  against  Fremont,  and  from 
that  day  the  quarrel  between  the  Missouri  "  Conservatives "  and 
"  Radicals  "  increased  in  bitterness  and  rancor.  It  is  impossible  to 
resist  the  conclusion  that  Fremont  had  become  engrossed  with  politics, 
to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else ;  his  ambition  had  been  fired  by 
the  opportunities  of  his  position  ;  and  he  assumed  the  attitude  of  a 
dictator,  setting  np  a  bureau  of  abolition  and  issuing  manumission 
papers,  long  before  the  President  of  the  United  States  had  begun  to 
consider  the  advisability  of  availing  himself  of  emancipation  as  a 
war  measure,  to  be  exercised  by  the  supreme  executive  power  of  the 


tween  Fre- 
mont and 
Blair. 


United  States. 

Another  frightful  military  disaster 
complicated  the  situation  in  Missouri 
and  hastened  the  popular  verdict  that 
Fremont  as  a  commander  was  a  failure. 
The  insurgent  commanders  had  quar- 
relled among  themselves,  and  the  three 
armies  under  them  had  separated, 
Pearce  with  his  Arkansas  forces  re- 
turning home,  McCulloch  taking  his 
three  regiments  back  to  the  border  of 
the  Indian  Territory,  where  he  re- 
sumed his  post  of  watchfulness,  and 
Price  slowly  leading  his  Missourians 
northward  to  the  Missouri  River,  his 


Major-General  John  C.   Fremont. 


1861.] 


PRICE'S  VICTORIES. 


481 


Typical  Contrabands. 

Drawn  by  F.  C.  Ransom  from  a  irar  photograph 
hitherto  unpublished. 


objective  point  being  Lexing- 
ton, an  important  town  on 
that  stream.  Colonel  James 
A.  Mulligan,  commanding  the 
famous  Irish  Brigade,  of  Chi- 
cago, was  sent  forward  to  the 
relief  of  Lexington,  and,  with 
a  small  reinforcement  which 
joined  him  on  the  way,  he  oc- 
cupied th«  place  with  2,800 
men  and  eight  guns.  The  in- 
surgent force  under  Price  now 
numbered  about  20,000  men, 
with  thirteen  guns.  On  the 
18th  of  September  ?ifKeof 
began  the  siege  of  ^""s'00 
Lexington,  Mulligan  having 
fortified  himself  on  College 
Hill,  in  the  suburbs  of  the 
city.  His  water  supply  was 
soon  cut  off;  his  entrench- 
ments were  filled  with  the 
wounded  and  the  dead  ;  and,  after  a  hot  and  gallant  fight  of  fifty- 
two  hours,  Mulligan  surrendered. 

It  was  charged  with  a  show  of  justice  that  some  of  the  available 
troops  at  various  points  might  have  been  gathered  up  and  hurried 
forward  to  the  relief  of  Mulligan,  during  the  leisurely  march  north- 
ward of  his  assailant.  Fremont  telegraphed  to  Washington  that  ho 
was  about  to  take  tlte  field  himself  and  that  he  hoped  to  destroy 
Price's  army  before  it  could  escape  southward.  But  this  expectation 
was  not  realized.  Price  got  away  with  an  immense  booty,  part  of 
which  was  the  great  seal  of  the  State  and  the  official  records,  which 
had  been  brought  to  Lexington  by  the  Union  troops  from  Jefferson 
City,  and  the  possession  of  which  greatly  elated  Price,  who  appeared 
to  regard  his  capture  as  something  in  the  nature  of  a  palladium. 

The  growing  scandals  relating  to  Fremont's  incapacity  and  his 
inattention  to  details  of  management  called  for  an  investigation ;  and 
about  the  middle  of  October,  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  Adjutant- 
general  of  the  Army  were  sent  by  the  President  to  St.  Louis  on  a 
special  mission  of  inquiry.  The  Secretary  was  armed  with  a  letter 
from  the  President  ordering  Fremont's  removal  from  command,  which 
he  was  to  use  at  his  discretion.  This  order,  though  privately  shown 
to  the  general,  was  not  officially  pnsented.  But  a  consensus  of 

VOL.    IV.  31 


482  THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.       [CHAP.  XVIII. 

opinion  from  the  generals  immediately  under  Fremont's  command 
showed  that  they  had  lost  all  confidence  in  his  ability  to  conduct  any 
military  movement  of  importance.  This  was  the  verdict  of  such 
general  officers  as  David  Hunter,  John  Pope,  and  Samuel  R.  Curtis. 

So  vice-regal  had  become  the  surroundings  of  General  Fremont  in 
St.  Louis,  and  so  personal  was  his  following  in  the  army  of  quarter- 
masters and  provost-guards  that  surrounded  headquarters,  that  it  was 
even  intimated  that  he  could  not  be  removed  from  his  command  with- 
out disturbance  and  resistance.  But  on  the  24th  of  October,  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  directed  that  an  order  relieving  Fremont  from  command 
and  assigning  General  Hunter  as  his  successor  be  sent  by  messenger 
to  General  Curtis  at  St.  Louis.  The  order  was  enclosed  in  a  letter 
to  General  Curtis  in  which  that  officer  was  directed  to  deliver  it  to 
General  Fremont  unless  at  the  time  of  its  receipt  in  St.  Louis,  Fre- 
moiit  should  have  won  a  battle,  or  should  then  be  actually 
engaged  in  a  battle,  or  be  in  the  actual  presence  of  the 
mand-  enemy.  Neither  of  these  contingencies  being  actual,  Fre- 
mont was  relieved  from  command  and  Hunter  succeeded  him  without 
the  least  friction.  For  a  time  at  least  Missouri  now  appeared  to 
have  been  abandoned  to  the  insurgents.  Active  military  operations 
ceased. 

Meanwhile,  the  ostensible  attitude  of  the  authorities  of  Kentucky 
had  been  one  of  studious  neutrality.  In  this  respect,  Kentucky  was 
quite  as  inconsistent  as  Virginia  ;  for  the  last-named  State,  while 
vigorously  protesting  against  the  "  invasion "  of  her  sacred  soil  by 
the  forces  of  the  United  States,  had  virtually  made  that  soil  the 
camping-ground  of  the  army  of  the  Confederates.  Before  the  ordi- 
nance of  secession  was  passed  upon,  and  while  the  State  was  yet  nom- 
inally in  the  Union,  Virginia  welcomed  to  her  fields  the 

Thesitua-  ....  .  .  . 

tion  in  Ken-  recruits  which  were  set  in  motion  by  the  signatories  of  the 

tuokv. 

Montgomery  compact.  In  like  manner,  while  the  Governor 
of  Kentucky,  Beriah  Magoffin,  boisterously  insisted  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  must  respect  the  neutrality  of  his  State, 
he  was  openly  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  rapidly  assembling 
cohorts  of  the  insurgents.  Recruiting  for  the  Confederate  army  and 
for  the  Tennessee  militia  was  carried  forward  in  Kentucky  without 
let  or  hinderance  from  local  authority  ;  and  when  the  loyal  citizens  of 
the  State  began  to  assemble  at  military  rendezvous,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Lovell  H.  Rousseau  and  William  Nelson,  two  patriotic  sons 
of  Kentucky,  Governor  Magoffin  sent  a  querulous  complaint  to  Wash- 
ington protesting  against  this  violation  of  "  neutrality." 

A  more  flagrant  instance  of  double-dealing  on  the  part  of  the  in- 
surgents was  the  seizure  of  Columbus,  Kentucky,  by  "  the  fighting 


1861.]  APPEARANCE  OF  U.  S.  GRANT.  483 

Bishop  of  Mississippi,"  Polk,  in  order  to  influence  the  loyal  Legis- 
lature of  the  State,  just  then  assembling  (September  4th,  1SG1). 
The  insurgent  Seci-etary  of  War  ordered  Polk  to  withdraw,  but  Jeffer- 
son Davis,  the  higher  power,  telegraphed  to  the  militant  churchman 
approving  of  his  act  and  adding  the  comforting  reflection,  "  The 
necessity  must  justify  the  act."  Magotfin  contented  himself  with 
asking  the  Governor  of  Tennessee  why  troops  from  that  State  were 
entrenched  on  the  soil  of  Kentucky;  to  this  mild  request  for  infor- 
mation Governor  Harris  replied  that  he  was  very  sorry  indeed  to 
learn  that  an  event  so  untoward  had  occurred  ;  he  would  telegraph 
to  "  President  "  Davis  requesting  the  immediate  withdrawal  of  the 
troops.  But  the  Legislature  passed  a  series  of  spirited  resolutions 
directing  the  Governor  to  "  expel  and  drive  out  the  invaders  ;  "  and 
it  was  further  resolved  that  the  assistance  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment  be  invoked  to  the  end  that  the  sacred  soil  of  Kentucky  be  freed 

0 

from  "  the  lawless  invaders  "  who  were  camped  in  the  State.  Ma- 
goffin,  who  had  lectured  the  Legislature  on  the  folly  and  sin  of  per- 
mitting the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  enlist  troops  in 
Kentucky  in  violation  of  its  extremely  precious  neutrality,  had  now 
no  alternative  but  to  obey  the  legislative  mandate  ;  with  ill  grace  he 
carried  out  the  order,  after  he  had  vetoed  ineffectually  the  resolutions, 
which  were  passed  over  his  veto.  He  mildly  proclaimed  that  he  had 
been  instructed  that  "  Kentucky  expects  the  Confederate,  or  Tennes- 
see, troops  to  withdraw  from  her  soil  immediately."  This  ended  the 
neutrality  of  Kentucky  so  far  as  its  rebel  politicians  were  concerned. 
Henceforth,  the  military  forces  were  to  fight  out  the  issue  without  the 
moral  aid  of  the  Governor. 

While  these  events  were  in  progress.  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant, 
then  in  command  of  a  district  which  included  the  city  of  Cairo,  Illi- 
nois, whose  defence  he  had  been  specially  commissioned  to  look  after, 
took  military  possession  of  Paducah,  Kentucky,  at  the  mouth  ,;eDer,, 
of  the  Tennessee  River.  Secession  flags  were  flying  there,  u- s- Grant- 
and  Tennessee  troops  were  encamped  at  Columbus  and  Hickman. 
Grant,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  after  drilling  a  regiment  of  Illi- 
nois troops,  but  having  no  command,  had  ventured  to  hope  that 
General  McClellan,  when  he  was  organizing  his  forces  at  Cincinnati, 
would  offer  him  a  place  on  his  staff ;  but  McClellan,  although  he  had 
known  Grant  in  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  and  knew  that 
he  was  ready  to  reenter  the  army,  failed  to  perceive  any  opportunity 
to  give  active  employment  to  his  old  classmate.  An  offer  of  Grant's 
services  to  the  War  Department  had  been  pigeonholed  in  the  hurry 
and  confusion  of  the  time  ;  and  there  was  every  probability  that  Mr. 
Grant  would  remain  in  civil  life,  when  Governor  Richard  Yates,  of 


484  THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.       [CHAP.  XVIII. 


Lieutenant-General  Simon  B.  Buckner, 
C.  S.  A. 


Brigadier-General  Felix  K.  Zollicoffer, 
C.  S.  A. 


Illinois,  for  hick  of  any  other  available  man  to  put  in  command  of  a 
regiment,  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  21st  Illinois  Volunteers. 
He  was  first  sent  to  aid  in  the  task  of  putting  an  end  to  the  bush- 
whacking and  guerilla  warfare  in  Missouri,  but  his  orders  were 
changed  and  he  was  set  to  work  in  the  southeastern  part  of  that 
State,  and,  after  various  service  in  the  region,  was  placed  in  command 
at  Cairo,  then  an  important  military  depot  and  rendezvous.  By  his 
Padueah  sudden  march  upon  Paducah,  Kentucky,  he  checkmated  the 
occupied.  rebel  occupation  of  Columbus,  from  which  stronghold  a 
column  was  about  to  be  sent  out  by  the  insurgent  commander,  who 
now  had  his  hands  full  with  the  Union  forces  under  Grant  within 
easy  striking  distance. 

General  Robert  Anderson,  commanding  the  department  of  Ken- 
tucky, learning  that  the  insurgent  General  S.  B.  Buckner  was  moving 
upon  Louisville,  the  chief  city  of  the  State,  sent  out  a  considerable 
force  under  the  command  of  his  lieutenant,  General  W.  T.  Sherman, 
to  head  off  the  invader.  Buckner,  checked  by  Sherman's  advance, 
established  himself  at  Bowling  Green  where  he  intrenched  himself, 
and,  after  the  fashion  of  the  day,  issued  a  proclamation.  That  was  a 
time  of  turgid  and  windy  proclamations  and  pronunciamentos ;  and 
Buckner's  was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  He  abused  the  National 
Government  in  good  "set  terms,  declared  that  he  had  been  solicited 
by  "  the  people  of  Kentucky  "  to  come  in  and  help  preserve  that  in- 
valuable neutrality  of  which  it  was  then  the  custom  to  speak  with 
bated  breath,  and  admonished  everybody  that  he  was  at  "  the  head  of 
a  force,  the  advance  of  which  is  composed  entirely  of  Kentuckians  " 
whose  duty  it  would  be  to  enforce  the  strictest  neutrality  "against  the 


1861.]  THE  ARMY  OF   THE   CUMBERLAND.  485 

two  belligerents  alike."  This  grotesque  fanfaronade,  which  deceived 
nobody,  was  followed,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  add,  by  a  counter- 
proclamation  from  General  Anderson. 

General  Sherman,  having  established  a  rendezvous  near  Elizabeth- 
town,  Kentucky,  devoted  his  energies,  which  were  abundant,  fien,>nil  w 
to  laying  the  foundation  of  the  military  organization  after-  T  Shermsn- 
wards  known  as  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  He,  too,  was  a 
graduate  from  the  United  States  Military  Academy,  and  had  seen  ser- 
vice in  the  war  with  Mexico.  The  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war 
found  him  at  the  head  of  a  military  school,  which  post  he  left  and 
accepted  a  colonelcy  in  the  army.  He  was  subsequently  put  in  com- 
mand of  a  brigade  and  participated  in  the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  Now, 
in  consequence  of  General  Anderson's  continued  ill  health,  Sherman 
was  placed  in  command  of  the  Department  of  the  Cumberland,  which 
included  the  State  of  Tennessee,  —  two  very  important  points  to  be 
held  on  the  line  of  the  Ohio,  if  control  of  the  Mississippi  valley  was 
to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  National  Government.  General  Sherman 
fretted  because  the  plenteous  outpouring  of  the  loyal  men  of  the 
North  was  not  more  promptly  made  available  ;  and  when  he  asked 
for  100,000  men  for  the  defence  of  the  line  of  the  Ohio  and  declared 
that  the  Government  would  need  an  army  of  twice  that  number  to 
expel  the  insurgents  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  which  they  had 
now  overrun,  he  was  regarded  by  many  superficial  critics  of  public 
affairs  as  being  insane.  Even  the  Secretary  of  War  discredited  Sher- 
man's judgment,  after  this  expression  of  opinion  ;  he  was  subse- 
quently removed  from  his  command. 

By  the  middle  of  November,   the  insurgents  had  secured  a  firm 
foothold  in  Tennessee;  and  they  had  so  established  them- 
selves in  Kentucky  that  they  virtually  held  its  entire  south-  ferrate* in 

•  •  F  i  •  •»»•      •      •         •     Tennessee. 

ern  tier  or  counties,  trom  the  mountains  to  the  Mississippi 
River  ;  and  in  Missouri  they  roved  almost  unchecked  over  the  western 
portion  of  the  State.  Polk  held  the  western  end  of  the  Confederate 
line  in  Kentucky  ;  Buckner,  at  Bowling  Green,  was  near  the  centre, 
and  General  Felix  Zollicoffer,  who  had  invaded  the  State  from  Ten- 
nessee, with  Humphrey  Marshall  and  others,  was  posted  at  the  eastern 
end,  where  he  kept  guard  over  the  mountain  passes.  The  Union  out- 
look here  was  gloomy. 

Once  more  the  lines  of  military  subdivisions  were  changed,  and  on 
the   9th    of    November,   General    Henry  W.    Halleck,    who  Oenerai 
had  been  employed  in  the  practice  of  law  after  his  retire- 
inent  from  the  army  and  previous  to  the  breaking  out  of 
the  insurrection  in  the  South,  was  assigned  to  the  command   Ml(*oun 
of  the  new  Department  of  the  Missouri;  this  included  Missouri,  Iowa, 


486          THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.      [CHAP.  XVIII. 


General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  C.  S.  A. 


Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Ar- 
kansas, and  that  portion  of  Kentucky 
which  lies  west  of  the  Cumberland 
river.  General  Hunter,  who  had  tem- 
porarily superseded  Fremont,  was  now 
assigned  to  the  Department  of  Kan- 
sas ;  General  Don  Carlos  Buell,  in 
the  mean  time,  had  superseded  Gen- 
eral Sherman,  and  was  in  command 
of  the  Department  of  the  Ohio,  which 
included  the  State  of  Ohio  and  that 
part  of  Kentucky  which  lies  east  of 
the  Cumberland  River,  and  which  had 
formed  part  of  the  old  Department  of 
the  Cumberland. 

General  Halleck's  military  rule  was  characterized  by  great  strict- 
ness, not  to  say  severity.  He  cleared  out  cliques  of  secessionists  who 
had  made  St.  Louis  their  headquarters,  gave  aid  and  refuge  to  the 
multitudes  of  hapless  Unionists  who  had  been  plundered  and  stripped 
by  the  brutal  insurgents,  assessed  wealthy  rebels  for  the  expense  of 
maintaining  a  relief  fund,  and  issued  stringent  orders  for  the  arrest, 
trial,  and  punishment  of  spies  and  others  guilty  of  conveying  infor- 
mation to  the  enemy.  The  spirit  of  patriotism  revived  again  ;  loyal 
citizens  of  Missouri  began  to  pluck  up  courage  and  assert  them- 
selves still  faithful  to  the  cause  of  the  Federal  Union.  In  his  zeal, 
General  Halleck  doubtless  made  some  blunders,  his  order  forbidding 
fugitives  from  labor  to  enter  or  remain  within  his  lines  being  an 
error  which  subsequent  events  corrected.  But  by  the  end  of  the 
year  comparative  order  had  been  restored  in  St.  Louis  and  vicinity  ; 
General  Pope  had  partially  cleared  the  western  part  of  the  State  of 
guerillas,  and  had  captured  an  insurgent  camp  on  the  Blackwater, 
with  much  plunder  and  many  important  prisoners  ;  and  martial  law 
had  been  declared  in  St.  Louis  and  over  all  the  railroads  and  their 
immediate  neighborhood. 

Although  the  action  of  the  loyal  Legislature  of  Kentucky  had 
checkmated  the  treasonable  plans  of  Governor  Magoffin,  he  did  not 
relinquish  the  scheme  to  set  up  at  least  a  semblance  of  Confederate 
authority  in  the  State  which  had  so  bluntly  repudiated  him  and  his 
policy.  In  October,  1861,  Kentucky  was  included  in  the  so-called 
Western  Military  Department  of  the  Confederacy ;  that  subdivision 
of  the  insurgent  territory  was  under  the  command  of  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston,  an  officer  of  the  Federal  Army,  who,  coining  from  Cali- 
fornia, where  he  had  a  command  at  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  had 


1861] 


COMPLICATIONS  IN  KENTUCKY. 


487 


Governor  Beriah  Magoffin,  of  Kentucky. 


enlisted  under  the  banner  of  the 
Montgomery  government.  Under  his 
protection,  his  headquarters  being  at 
Nashville,  Tennessee,  the  secession- 
ists of  Kentucky  got  behind  the  lines 
of  insurgent  troops  that  were  stretched 
across  the  State  from  east  to  west 
and  proceeded  to  "•  secede "  on  their 
own  private  account.  They  met  at 
the  county  town  of  Logan  county, 
on  the  29th  of  October,  and  gravely 
proclaimed  themselves  and  their  con- 
stituents independent  of  Fed- 

•  111         Efforts  to 

eral  authority.     As  the  dele-  <•»">•  K"»- 

J  .  .       tucky  into 

gates    Who    assisted     in     this    the  Confed- 
eracy. 

extraordinary  performance  were  not  elected  by  the  people 
of  the  counties  which  they  pretended  to  represent,  their  independ- 
ence was   personal,  not  representative  ;  but  it  served  the  desperate 
purpose  of  the  plotters. 

That  purpose,  of  course,  was  the  nominal  adhesion  of  the  State  of 
Kentucky  to  the  Montgomery  compact.  So,  having  formally  seceded 
from  the  Federal  Union  by  adopting  an  ordinance  of  secession,  the 
little  cabal  organized  a  "  Provisional  Government "  by  choosing  a 
governor,  legislative  council,  treasurer,  and  auditor.  Bowling  Green 
was  selected  as  the  capital  of  the  newly  organized  State,  the  lawful 
capital  being  at  that  time  in  possession  of  "  the  invader."  Next, 
commissioners  were  appointed  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  the 
"  Confederate  Government"  looking  to  the  admission  of  Kentucky  to 
the  so-called  Confederacy ;  in  due  time  this  arrangement  was  com- 
pleted and  ten  men  were  selected  by  the  so-called  legislative  council 
to  represent  the  sovereign  State  of  Kentucky  in  the  Confederate  Con- 
gress. This  solemn  farce  was  kept  up  during  the  war ;  and  it  was 
pretended  by  the  disloyalists  that  Kentucky  was  an  integral  part  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy,  and  that  persons  who  derived  their 
authority  from  others  than  the  people  were  representatives  of  the 
commonwealth  in  the  "  Congress  "  of  the  insurgents. 

With  amusing  effrontery,  General  Zollicoffer,  whose  invasion  of 
Kentucky  with  his  Tennesseeans  has  been  already  noticed,  carried 
out  the  military  portion  of  this  programme  by  issuing  a  proclamation 
in  which  he  announced  that  he  came  as  a  "  liberator  from  the  Lin- 
coln despotism,"  to  defend  the  people  from  the  ravages  of  "the 
Northern  hordes."  Although  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  part  of  Zollicof 
fer's  mission  was  to  harry  the  Unionists  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky 


488  THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.      [CHAP.  XVIII. 

so  that  they  would  flee,  or  submit  to  the  despotism  of  the  Confed- 
eracy, he  bravely  proclaimed  that  he  and  his  Tennesseeans  had 
arrived  to  repel  those  who  were  "attempting  the  subjugation  of  a 
sister  State."  With  fictions  like  these  was  the  progress  of  the  insur- 
rection profusely  decorated  and  masked. 

It  now  became  more  than  ever  patent  that  the  key  of  the  situation 
in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  was  the  possession  of  the  region 
drained  by  the  Tennessee  and  Cumberland  rivers.  The  first-named 
of  these  rises  in  the  tumultuous  mountain  region  of  southwestern 
Virginia,  with  tributaries  from  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  ;  it 
sweeps  through  northern  Alabama  with  a  curve  of  some  three  hun- 
dred miles,  thence  passes  into  Tennessee,  and,  taking  a  course  nearly 
due  north,  enters  Kentucky  and  traverses  that  State  in  a  northwest- 
erly direction  and  empties  into  the  Ohio  River  seventy  miles  above  its 
mouth.  The  stream  is  navigable  by  light-draught  steamers  for  five 
hundred  miles  above  its  junction  with  the  Ohio.  The  Cumberland 
river  rises  in  the  Cumberland  Mountains  of  Eastern  Kentucky,  and, 
after  a  broad  curve  to  the  southward,  pursues  a  course  generally  par- 
allel to  that  of  the  Tennessee,  and,  like  that  stream,  falls  into  the 
Ohio.  It  is  navigable  for  light-draught  steamers  for  a  distance  of 
more  than  five  hundred  miles  from  its  mouth.  Along  these  lines 
were  to  be  fought  some  of  the  most  decisive  battles  of  the  war  in 
the  Southwest. 

Louisville  was  the  objective  point  of  the  Confederate  campaign. 
To  hold  the  great  waterway  of  the  West,  the  war  must  be  carried 
up  into  valleys  traversed  by  the  most  important  tributaries  of  the 
stream  ;  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the  armies  of  the  Union  would 
soon  sweep  down  the  system  of  rivers  here  outlined  ;  and 
the"bSlttil.  unless  the  Confederates  should  seize  and  hold  Louisville, 


Paducah,  and  Cairo,  in  the  Ohio  system,  the  Union  forces 
would  pour  into  the  Confederacy  and  ravage  the  extreme 
southern  States  thereof,  splitting  in  twain  the  Southwest  by  opening 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf.  This  made  Kentucky  (the  Dark  and 
Bloody  Ground  of  colonial  tradition)  the  theatre  of  war  for  years 
afterward,  precisely  as  Virginia  became  the  field  of  strife  until  the 
final  collapse  came. 

If  these  two  States  had  early  cast  in  their  lot  unreservedly  with 
those  who  stood  by  the  Federal  Union,  they  would  not  have  suffered 
so  poignantly  from  the  horrors  of  war  ;  but  strategic  reasons,  not  sen- 
timental considerations,  made  them  both  the  theatre  of  many  de- 
structive and  desolating  campaigns  before  peace  came  again. 


A  Typical   Confederate   BlocUade-Runner  —  The    Ttastr. 
Drairn  from  a  photograph  by  F.  C.  Hansom. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

EXPANSION   OF   THE   FEDERAL   NAVY. 

DISPERSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  FLEET  FOR  THE  BENEFIT  OF  THE  REBELLION. — 
A  GREAT  NAVAL  CONTINGENT  IMPROVISED.  —  EXTENT  OF  THE  LINE  TO  BE  BLOCK- 
ADED.—  GUNBOATS  REQUIRED  ON  WESTERN  RIVERS.  —  CAPTURE  OF  PORT  ROTAI, 
ENTRANCE.  —  THE  TRENT  INCIDENT.  —  BURNSIDE'S  EXPEDITION  TO  NORTH  CARO- 
LINA.—  ROANOKE  ISLAND. —  THE  FIGHT  OF  THE  IRON-CLADS  IN  HAMPTON  ROADS. 

AT  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  the  navy  of  the  United  States 
consisted  of  ninety  vessels,  of  which  forty-two  were  in  commission, 
twenty-seven  were  out  of  commission,  and  twenty-one  were  unservice- 
able. With  the  intention  of  putting  the  serviceable  vessels  The  Unlted 
where  they  could  not  be  made  available  in  the  suppression  ^'^  "St? 
of  insurrection,  the  conspirators  in  President  Buchanan's  breakofw»r- 
cabinet  had  managed,  on  one  pretext  aud  another,  to  scatter  them  to 
distant  parts  of  the  globe.  Thus  the  largest  screw  frigate  in  the 
navy,  the  Niagara,  was  at  Cape  Town,  South  Africa ;  the  Hartford, 
at  Hongkong  ;  the  Richmond,  Susqueh'inna.  and  Iroquois,  in  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  others  were  in  the  waters  of  Brazil,  the  East  Indies, 
the  Pacific,  or  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  Of  the  forty-two  vessels  in 
commission,  only  eleven,  carrying  about  one  hundred  and  thirty-four 
guns,  were  in  American  waters ;  and  of  these  four  of  the  most  for- 
midable were  in  the  harbor  of  Pensacola,  Florida. 

A  blockade  had  been  declared  by  the  President,  but  the  coast-line 
to  be  guarded,  in  case  that  blockade  was  to  be  other  than  one  of 
paper,  required  a  naval  force  many  times  greater  than  the  little  fleet 
then  under  the  control  of  the  Government.  From  Chesapeake  Bay 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande  —  the  coast-line  of  the  insurgent 


490 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX. 


The  block- 
ade. 


States  —  is  a  shore  indented  with  innumerable  harbors  and  intricate 
inlets,  the  entire  line  being  some  three  thousand  miles  in  extent. 
To  patrol  this  coast  with  a  force  ample  enough  to  shut  out  blockade 
runners  loaded  with  war  munitions  and  material,  foreign  mails  and 
the  commodities  absolutely  necessary  to  a  successful  prosecution  of 
the  insurrection,  seemed  a  physical  impossibility.  Unfriendly  foreign 
critics,  viewing  the  situation  with  a  skepticism  born  of  their  dislike 
for  everything  American,  declared  that  no  civilized  power  could 
respect  a  mere  paper  blockade.  And  the  over-confident  insurgents 
regarded  the  President's  proclamation  of  the  blockade  as  ridiculously 
inoperative. 

But  if  the  southern  coast-line  demanded  an  efficient  navy  to  main- 
tain a  real  blockade  to  strangle  the  Confederacy,  much  more  did  the 
campaign  in  the  Southwest  require  a  strong  fleet  to  operate 
on  the  numerous  streams  with  which  the  country  is  inter- 
laced. Gunboats  carrying  heavy  guns  and  armored  so  as  to  enable 
them  to  pass  fortifications  planted  along  river  banks  were  needed  to 
open  the  Mississippi,  and,  by  cooperating  with  land  forces,  to  clear 
the  river  system  of  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Ohio,  preliminary  to 
freeing  the  Father  of  Waters  so  that  he  might  go  u  unvexed  to  the 
sea." 

For  the  use  of  the  navy  along  the  coast-line  and  on  the  ocean,  the 
Government  immediately  began  to  expand  its  force,  buying  every 
merchant  vessel  that  could  be  made  available  for  fighting  purposes  or 
for  the  transportation  of  men  and  war  material.  Eight  sloops  of  war 
were  ordered  to  be  built,  and  contracts  were  made  for  the  construc- 
tion of  heavily  plated  gunboats.  For  service  on  the  rivers,  thirty- 
The  river  nme  gunboats  were  constructed  on  entirely  new  plans.  Some 
gunboats.  Qf  tnese  boats  were  adapted  from  the  river  steamers  already 
in  use  on  the  Western  rivers ;  and  others  were  built  for  the  emer- 
gencies of  war.  Generally,  they  were  sidewheel  and  double-enders, 
the  paddle-wheels  being  protected  from  shot.  They  were  very  broad 
in  proportion  to  their  length,  being  usually  about  fifty  feet  wide  and 
one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  feet  long.  These  pro- 


portions  gave  them  the 
steadiness  of  a  floating 
battery ;  and  their  sides 
were  covered  with  thick 
iron  plates,  sloping  down- 
ward under  water  and 
upward  above  from  the 
water-line  at  an  angle  of 


U.  S.  Steamer  Pillsburg. 


1861.] 


THE  POTOMAC   BLOCKADED. 


491 


U.    S.    Steamer    Cairo. 


forty-five  degrees,  so  that  the  shot  of  an  enemy  should  glance  off  harm- 
less. These  novel  gunboats  were  light-draught,  so  that  they  could 
navigate  the  rivers  on  which  they  were  expected  to  serve,  ascending 
the  streams  as  far  as  most  of  the  merchant  steamers  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  go  in  peaceful  times. 

The  insurgents  had  early  removed  the  buoys  and  other  marks  along 
the  Potomac  River,  and  had  lined  the  banks  of  the  stream  with  bat- 
teries to  maintain  an  effectual  blockade  of  that  line  of  commu- 
nication with  the  National  capital.  The  work  of  re-surveying  and 
marking  out  the  channel  by  the  vessels  of  the  United  States  was  a 
difficult  one,  and  was  undertaken  and  carried  out  under  the  guns  of 
frowning  fortifications  on  either  hand.  In  this  arduous  duty,  Com- 
mander J.  H.  Ward,  a  brave  and  accomplished  officer  of  the  navy, 
was  killed  early  in  the  war ;  his  death  was  one  of  a  series  of  calami- 
ties which  greatly  moved  the  loyal  people.  About  the  same  time, 
the  steam  frigate  Pawnee,  cooperating  with  Ellsworth's  Zouaves, 
compelled  the  evacuation  of  Alexandria,  where  the  insurgents  had 
long  flaunted  their  flag  in  sight  of  the  capitol  in  Washington.  In 
the  act  of  hauling  down  the  flag  from  a  tavern  in  Alexan-  T))e  Rhoot. 
dria,  Colonel  Ellsworth  was  shot  by  the  tavern-keeper,  who,  jfSl?1^ 
in  turn,  was  instantly  killed  by  Ellsworth's  sergeant.  The  worth 
death  of  the  gallant  Ellsworth  was  another  of  the  tragical  events 
which,  at  the  beginning  of  hostilities,  when  the  people  were  unused 
to  the  grisly  terrors  of  war,  created  a  deep  and  mournful  impression 
and  possibly  weakened  somewhat  the  ardor  of  some  who,  while  they 
loved  their  country,  were  sickened  by  the  bloodiness  of  the  sacrifices 
required  for  its  preservation. 

On  the  26th  of  August  a  small  expedition  left  Fortress  Monroe, 
Hampton  Roads,  and  in  two  days  arrived  at  Hatteras  Inlet,  North 
Carolina,  the  principal  entrance  to  Pamlico  Sound.  Here  insurgent 


492 


KXPANSION   OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX. 


The  Hut 
teras  ex- 
pedition. 


Colonel  Elmer  E.  Ellsworth. 


earthworks  had  been  thrown  up 
mounting  fifteen  guns.  The 
expedition  —  five  war  -  ves- 
sels, two  transports,  and  a 
tug,  with  800  soldiers  —  was  com- 
manded by  General  Butler  and  Com- 
mander Silas  H.  Stringham.  Fire 
was  opened  at  once  on  the  works, 
principally  with  shells,  and  after  a 
bombardment  of  two  days  the  enemy 
surrendered.  Their  loss  was  thirty 
or  forty  men  killed  or  wounded,  and 
nearly  700  prisoners.  Blockade-run- 
ners had  already  begun  to  swarm 
along  the  coast,  and  this  inlet  was  one 
of  the  most  convenient  approaches. 

The  secret  of  the  expedition  had  been  so  well  kept  that  for  several 
days  these  vessels  continued  to  come  in,  and  of  course  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Federals.  Besides  the  capture  of  the  men,  1,000  stand 
of  arms,  35  cannon,  and  two  strong  forts  were  among  the  results  of 
this  business-like  expedition.  The  inlet  had  been  a  favorite  channel 
through  which  blockade-runners  had  been  accustomed  to  slip  out  and 
in.  The  State  of  North  Carolina,  as  soon  as  the  ordinance  of  seces- 
sion had  been  pushed  through,  fitted  out  a  small  steamer,  the  Wins- 
low,  which,  under  the  command  of  an  ex-officer  of  the  United  States 
navy,  committed  many  depredations  on  the  commerce  along  the  coast. 
The  avenue  through  which  these  operations  had  been  conducted  was 
now  permanently  closed. 

The  Hatteras  expedition,  as  well  as  others  which  followed  it,  was 
undertaken  at  the  suggestion  of  a  board  of  officers  convened  by  Pres- 
ident Lincoln  for  the  purpose  of  examining  maps  and  charts,  coast 
defences,  arid  other  accessible  data  for  formulating  a  comprehensive 
plan  of  operations.  This  board  was  composed  of  Captain  Samuel  F. 
Dupont  and  Captain  Charles  H.  Davis,  of  the  navy  ;  Major  John  G. 
Barnard,  of  the  army,  and  Alexander  D.  Bache,  of  the  United  States 
coast  survey.  The  next  expedition,  more  important  than  any  which 
had  been  projected,  was  organized  at  Fortress  Monroe,  Hampton 
Roads,  Virginia,  for  the  purpose  of  closing  the  Port  Royal  entrance 
to  one  of  the  most  intricate  portions  of  the  coast  of  South  Carolina, 
below  Charleston.  At  the  head  of  the  bay  of  Port  Royal  was  the 
flourishing  town  of  Beaufort,  and  the  region,  intersected  by  several 
small  streams,  was  one  of  the  most  fertile  of  the  cotton-producing 
sections  of  the  State.  The  expedition  sailed  with  sealed  orders  on 


Drawn  by  G.  II'.  !\!, 


THE   SHOOTING  OF  COLONEL  ELLSWORTH    AT  THE   MARSHALL 

HOUSE,   ALEXANDRIA. 


1861.]  A  FORMIDABLE  FEDERAL  FLEET.  493 

October  29th,  and  was  instructed  to  stop  at  Charleston  bar,  on  the 
way  southward,  in  order  to  mislead  the  enemy.  But  the  efficiency 
of  the  insurgent  spy  system  was  handsomely  vindicated  on  this  occa- 
sion. General  Drayton,  commanding  the  confederate  land  forces  at 
Port  Royal,  was  warned  from  Richmond,  under  date  of  November  1st, 
that  the  fleet  was  ordered  to  attack  his  forts.  The  expedition  con- 
sisted of  a  heavy  frigate,  the  Wabash^  fourteen  gunboats, 

I.,*  i  •••••  i         The  Port 

thirty-four  steam  transports,  and  twenty-six  sailing  vessels.  Rojai  ex- 
Most  of  these  vessels  were  taken  from  the  merchant  marine, 
including  some  of  the  largest  and  swiftest,  among  which  were  the 
Great  Republic  and  the  Vanderbilt.  Altogether  there  were  about 
10,000  troops,  and,  including  the  crews,  about  22,000  men  in  all. 
The  ships  were  commanded  by  Commander  Samuel  F.  Dupont,  the 
troops  by  General  Thomas  W.  Sherman.  In  a  storm  off  Cape  Hat- 
teras  four  transports  were  lost,  and  two  vessels,  rendered  useless  by 
throwing  their  armament  overboard,  put  back  to  Fortress  Monroe. 
When  it  cleared,  not  a  single  sail  could  be  seen  from  the  deck  of  the 
flag-ship ;  but  the  scattered  craft  came  up  one  by  one,  and  three  war- 
ships left  blockading  stations  to  join  the  fleet,  till  all  had  gathered 
at  the  rendezvous  off  Port  Royal.  The  entrance  to  this  harbor, 
two  and  a  half  miles  wide,  was  commanded  by  heavy  earthworks  — 
Fort  Walker  on  Hilton  Head,  the  southern  shore,  and  Fort  Beaure- 
gard  on  the  northern.  The  channel  buoys  had  been  removed,  but 
soundings  were  made,  and  new  buoys  placed,  under  fire  from  the  Con- 
federate fleet  of  five  small  steamers,  under  Josiah  Tatnall,  a  former 
officer  of  the  United  States  navy.  His  diminutive  vessels  were 
known  as  "  Tatnall's  Mosquito  Fleet,"  but  they  did  not  fulfil  the 
high  expectations  of  their  inventor.  The  attack  was  made  on  the 
7th,  by  the  naval  force  alone.  The  gunboats  ran  into  the  harbor, 
holding  Tatnall  in  check,  while  the  larger  war-ships,  sailing  round 
and  round  in  an  ellipse  between  the  two  forts,  for  four  hours  poured 
in  an  incessant  fire  till  the  guns  of  both  forts  were  silenced,  and  the 
garrisons  were  compelled  to  abandon  them,  leaving  their  flags  flying. 
The  loss  of  the  fleet  was  only  eight  men  killed  and  twenty-three 
wounded.  Not  only  were  the  forts  abandoned,  but  every  white  in- 
habitant fled  from  Beaufort.  The  insurgent  losses  were  66  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  missing.  Attempts  to  rekindle  the  Union  sentiment 
of  the  people  of  this  part  of  South  Carolina,  by  the  circulation  of  a 
proclamation,  were  useless.  There  was  no  response  to  the  alluring 
pronunciamentos  that  were  put  forth  by  the  Union  officers.  General 
Sherman's  appeal,  couched  in  ridiculously  wild  terms,  addressed  to 
the  "  proud  and  hospitable  people  among  whom  he  had  passed  some 
of  the  pleasantest  days  of  his  life,"  was  treated  with  derision. 


494 


EXPANSION   OF  THE  FEDERAL   NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX. 


A  View  on  the  Smith  Plantation  at  Beaufort,    S.   C.,  showing 
five  generations  of  a  negro  family. 

Drawn  by  Victor  S.  Perard  from  a  photograph. 


The  Port  Royal  expedition,  which  gave  the  Federal  Government 
one  of  the  most  notable  and  important  successes  of  the  early  part  of 
the  war,  brought  great  encouragement  to  the  loyal  people  of  the 
North,  who  now  began  to  hope  for  the  immediate  reduction  of 
Charleston  and  Savannah  ;  indeed,  it  was  believed  that  both  of  these 
insurgent  strongholds  would  soon  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  prowess  of 
the  Union  forces.  All  over  the  North  there  was  great  rejoicing ; 
bells  were  rung,  flags  hung  out,  and  salutes  fired  to  express  the  gen- 
eral joy.  The  Departments  of  War  and  Navy  publicly  thanked  the 
commanders  of  the  expedition  and  their  men,  and  salutes  were  ordered 
to  be  fired  at  all  the  navy-yards  of  the  United  States  in  honor  of  this 
signal  victory.  As  an  illustration  of  the  parting  of  some  families  in 
the  South  upon  the  question  of  loyalty  to  the  government  of  the 
Union,  it  was  noted  that  the  commander  of  one  of  the  United  States 
war-ships,  the  Pocahontas^  Captain  Percival  Dray  ton.  and  the  com- 
mander of  the  insurgent  forces  on  land,  General  T.  F.  Drayton,  were 
brothers. 

A  few  days  after  this  famous  victorj^  of  the  Federal  arms  in  the 
suppression  of  rebellion,  the  act  of  an  officer  of  the  navy  brought 
on  a  serious  complication  in  the  relations  of  the  United  States  with 


1861.] 


SEIZURE  OF  MASON  AND  SLIDELL. 


495 


>rv-       ..     # 


Building  a  Pontoon   Bridge  across   Port   Royal   River,  at   Beaufort,    S.   C. 
Drawn  by  F.  C.  Ransom  from  a  photograph  made  in  March.  1862. 

England.  James  M.  Mason  and  John  Slidell  —  both  of  whom  had 
left  the  United  States  Senate  to  join  in  the  rebellion  —  hav-  Theaffairof 
ing  been  appointed  Commissioners  to  the  courts  of  London  theTreut- 
and  Paris,  sailed  on  a  blockade-runner  from  Charleston  harbor,  and 
reached  Havana,  whence  they  took  passage  for  England  on  the  Brit- 
ish mail  steamer  Trent.  Captain  Charles  Wilkes,  in  the  United 
States  steamship  San  Jacinto,  watching  for  this  vessel,  overhauled 
her  on  the  8th  of  November  in  the  Bahama  Channel,  took  off  the 
Commissioners  and  their  secretaries,  and  then  allowed  the  Trent  to 
proceed  on  her  voyage.  By  the  law  of  nations,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  British  proclamation  of  neutrality,1  he  might  have  brought 
the  Trent  into  port  as  a  prize.  His  reason  for  not  doing  so  was,  that 
he  could  hardly  spare  men  for  a  prize  crew,  and  he  especially  desired 

1  The  Queeu'a  proclamation,  dated  May  13th,  1861,  warned  her  subjects  that  "if  any  of 
them  shall  presume  to  do  any  nets  in  derogation  of  their  duty  as  subjects  of  a  neutral  sov- 
ereign, or  in  violation  or  contravention  of  the  law  of  nations,  as  ...  by  carrying  officers, 
soldiers,  despatches,  arms,  military  stores,  or  materials,  or  any  article  or  articles  considered 
and  deemed  to  be  contraband  of  war,  according  to  the  law  or  modern  use  of  nations,  for 
the  use  or  service  of  either  of  the  contending  parties,  all  persons  .so  offending  will  incur 
and  be  liable  to  the  several  penalties,  etc.  .  .  .  And  all  our  subjicts  who  may  misconduct 
themselves  in  the  premises,  will  do  so  at  their  peril,  and  of  their  own  wrong,  and  they  will 
in  no  wise  obtain  any  protection  from  us  against  any  liability  or  peual  consequences." 


490 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX. 


Charles  Francis  Adams. 


not  to  inflict  injury  upon  innocent 
persons  by  delaying  the  mails  and 
the  passengers.  On  receipt  of  the 
news  in  Liverpool,  a  meeting  was 
called  at  the  Cotton  Exchange,  where 
the  most  violent  harangues  were 
loudly  applauded,  and  the  few  speak- 
ers who  counselled  moderation  could 
scarcely  get  a  hearing.  The  excite- 
ment spread  to  all  classes,  and  the 
feeling  was  general  in  England  that 
there  must  be  an  immediate  release  of 
the  prisoners,  and  an  apology  for  this 
interference  with  an  English  ship  on 
the  high  seas,  or  a  declaration  of  war. 

Secretary  Seward  instructed  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  Amer- 
ican Minister  in  London,  to  assure  the  British  Government  that  in 
the  capture  of  the  Commissioners  Captain  Wilkes  had  acted  without 
any  instructions,  and  that  the  American  Government  would  be  ready 
to  discuss  the  matter  in  a  friendly  spirit  when  the  ground  taken  by 
the  British  Government  should  be  made  known.  The  official  com- 
munication of  Earl  Russell,  under  date  of  NoArember  30th,  after  recit- 
ing the  statement  of  the  Captain  of  the  Trent,  —  in  which  the  fact  that 
the  men  seized  were  known  to  him  and  to  everybody  else  to  be  insur- 
gent emissaries,  was  avoided,  —  proceeded  to  say,  "  It  thus  appears 
that  certain  individuals  have  been  forcibly  taken  from  on  board  a 
British  vessel,  the  ship  of  a  neutral  power,  while  such  vessel  was 
pursuing  a  lawful  and  innocent  voyage,  an  act  of  violence 
wijjch  was  an  affront  to  the  British  flag  and  a  violation  of 
international  law,"  after  which  it  demanded  "  such  redress  as  alone 
could  satisfy  the  British  nation,"  namely,  the  liberation  of  the  pris- 
oners, and  a  suitable  apology.  At  the  same  time  England  began 
naval  preparations  for  war,  and  ordered  troops  to  Canada.1 

Mr.  Seward's  answer,  dated  December  26th,  discussed  the  subject 
at  considerable  length,  in  all  its  bearings,  arguing:  First,  that  the 
persons  named  and  their  despatches  were  contraband  of  war;  Sec- 
ond, that  Captain  Wilkes  might  lawfully  stop  and  search  the  Trent 
for  them  ;  Third,  that  he  exercised  the  right  in  a  lawful  and  proper 
manner  ;  Fourth,  that  he  had  a  right  to  capture  the  Commissioners  ; 

1  It  is  a  ludicrous  fact  that  the  transports  bringing  these  troops  found  the  ports  of  Can- 
ada frozen  up,  and  the  British  Government  was  under  the  humiliating  necessity  of  asking 
permission  of  the  American  Government  to  land  at  Portland  and  convey  across  American 
territory  the  very  troops  with  which  it  was  preparing  to  make  war  on  the  American  people. 
The  permission  was  graciously  granted. 


The  corre- 


1861.]  SURRENDER  OF  THE  COMMISSIONERS.  497 

but,  Fifth,  that  he  did  not  exercise  that  right  in  the  manner  allowed 
and  recognized  by  the  law  of  nations,  because  he  decided  for  himself 
the  question  whether  the  prisoners  were  contraband,  and  voluntarily 
released  the  vessel,  instead  of  bringing  both  vessel  and  prisoners 
to  port  for  adjudication  in  a  prize  court.  On  this  ground  he  ordered 
the  release  of  the  prisoners,  who  had  been  confined  in  Fort  Warren, 
Boston  Harbor,  and  they  were  at  once  transferred  to  a  British  war- 
vessel  which  was  waiting  for  them  at  Provincetown. 

If  the  American  people  felt  a  momentary  chagrin  at  the  surrender 
of  the  insurgent  Commissioners,  they  could  not  fail  to  see  that  Sec- 
retary Seward  had  skilfully  averted  what  would  hardly  have  failed 
to  be,  in  the  condition  of  the  country  at  that  moment,  a  disastrous 
foreign  war.  Calmer  second  thought  suggested  that  England  could 
have  hardly  permitted  such  an  act  as  that  of  Captain  Wilkes  to  pass 
unchallenged.  But  the  sympathy  of  the  more  influential  part  of  her 
people  for  the  slaveholders'  rebellion  had  been  so  loudly  and  so  offen- 
sively avowed,  that  this  incident  gave  intensity  to  a  resentment  al- 
ready deep  and  keen.  The  result  of  the  affair,  however,  was  a  bitter 
disappointment  to  the  secessionists,  who  had  hoped  for  a  war  be- 
tween England  and  the  United  States,  which  might  lead  to  an  alliance 
between  England  and  the  Confederacy. 

The  dignity  and  moderation  with  which  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment conducted  these  delicate  and  embarrassing  proceedings 
greatly  served  to  disarm  the  unfriendly  foreign  criticism  with  which 
it  had  been  pursued.  The  language  of  some  of  the  English  news- 
papers, while  the  case  was  yet  pending,  was  brutal  and  highly  offen- 
sive; leading  journals  vied  with  each  other  in  the  bitterness  of  their 
comments  on  the  Trent  incident.  And,  to  the  credit  of  the  American 
people,  it  should  be  recorded  that  the  surrender  of  the  Commissioners, 

when  that  step  was  resolved  upon,  was 
acquiesced  in  with  wonderful  patience 
and  moderation.  Although  some  of 
the  hare-brained  politicians  and  news- 
papers of  the  Republic  clamored 
against  the  Administration  for  its  al- 
leged timidity,  the  mass  of  the  people, 
readily  perceiving  that  ''we  can  have 
only  one  war  on  hand  at  once/'  ac- 
cepted the  action  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment with  confidence  in  the  patriotism 
and  sagacity  of  Secretary  Seward  and 
the  President.  Xor  should  it  be  for- 

Rear-Admiral  Samuel  F.  Dupont.  gotten  that  tll'lS  aCCCptailCC  of  the  Slt- 

VOL.  iv.  32 


498 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX 


Rear-Admiral   Charles  Wilkes,    U.   S.   A. 


nation   was  rendered   more  difficult  by 
the    elation    that    had    been 

Difficulties  .    .          ..  ,      ,        ,  . 

of  the  Trent  caused  in  all  parts  <>t  the  loyal 
North  by  the  capture  of  the 
two  insurgent  envoys.  When  Congress 
met,  soon  after  the  capture  of  Mason 
and  Slidell,  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives passed,  without  a  dissenting  vote, 
a  resolution  thanking  Captain  Wilkes 
for  "  his  brave,  adroit,  and  patriotic  con- 
duct," and  other  resolutions  requested 
the  President  to  treat  the  prisoners 
with  something  of  the  severity  which 
had  characterized  the  treatment  of 
Union  captives  in  Confederate  prisons. 

Captain  Wilkes  had  been  publicly  thanked  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  for  "  the  great  public  service  "  which  he  had  rendered,  and  the 
city  (if  Boston  gave  the  hero  of  the  hour  a  handsome  banquet.  The 
revulsion  of  feeling  which  took  place  when  the  cause  of  all  this  grat- 
ulation  was  surrendered  to  Great  Britain  was  obviously  sharp  and 
painful.  It  was  effected  without  any  hesitation. 

The  next  important  expedition  was  organized  for  operations  in 
Pamlico  and  Albemarle  sounds,  on  the  coast  of  North  Carolina. 
The  Union  forces  held  Hatteras  inlet  and  the  cape.  The  insurgents, 
fortified  on  Roanoke  Island,  to  the  northward,  where  Roanoke  and 
Croatan  sounds  lead  into  Albemarle  Sound,  were  meditating  an 
attack  on  the  Union  position.  To  dislodge  them  and  to  clear  the  way 
to  the  inner  coast-line  of  North  Carolina,  north  and  south  of  Roanoke 
Island,  a  naval  and  military  expedition  was  organized.  Accordingly, 
x-  on  *ne  12th  of  January,  1862,  a  fleet  of  thirty-one  gunboats 
an(|  fifty-seven  transports,  commanded  by  Commodore  Louis 
M.  GoldsboroHgh,  left  Fortress  Monroe  under  sealed  orders.  On  the 
transports  were  about  11,000  troops,  under  General  Ambrose  E. 
Bnrnside,  divided  into  three  brigades,  commanded  respectively  by 
Brigadier-generals  John  G.  Foster,  Jesse  L.  Reno,  and  John  G.  Parke. 
The  fleet  was  formed  into  two  columns  for  active  service,  commanded 
by  two  naval  officers,  Commanders  S.  C.  Rowan  and  S.  F.  Hazard. 
The  aggregate  armament  of  these  vessels  was  ninety-four  guns. 

On  Roanoke  Island  were  three  heavy  earthworks,  mounting  alto- 
gether twenty-four  guns,  behind  which  were  about  3,000  men.  To 
reduce  this  was  the  preliminary  work  of  the  expedition,  and  that  w;is 
done  early  in  February.  On  the  12th  of  March  the  fleet  ascended  the 
Neuse  River,  from  Pamlico  Sound,  and  the  next  morning  landed  the 


1862.]  FEDERAL  SUCCESSES  IN   NORTH   CAROLINA.  499 


James   Murray   Mason.  John   Slidell 

THE   CONFEDERATE    COMMISSIONERS   TO    LONDON    AND   PARIS. 

troops  on  the  west  b;mk  seventeen  miles  below  the  city  of  Xewbern. 
A  well-constructed  breastwork  stretched  from  the  river  to  a  swamp ; 
batteries  were  placed  along  the  bank,  and  the  stream  was  1{attl(,of 
filled  with  formidable  obstructions.  All  day  the  troops  N>wbern- 
were  moving  slowly  up  toward  the  city  by  roads  heavy  with  long 
rains,  while  the  gunboats,  commanded  by  Rowan,  preceded  them, 
silencing  the  batteries  and  removing  the  obstructions  in  the  river. 
The  real  battle  was  fought  at  the  breastwork,  three  miles  below  the 
city,  on  Sunday,  the  14th.  This  work  was  well  provided  with  artil- 
lery, and  behind  it  were  about  3,000  men.  The  assault  in  front  was 
determined  but  not  successful,  though  si  few  guns  were  temporarily 
captured  ;  but  when  the  Union  left  wing  had  flanked  it  at  the  weakest 
point,  and  swept  down  the  line,  taking  everything  in  reverse,  while 
si  little  hiter  the  right  wing  burst  upon  the  Confederate  left,  the 
defenders  took  to  flight,  sivailinsj  themselves  of  a.  train  of  cars  to 
hasten  their  escape  to  the  city.  To  prevent  pursuit  they  set  fire  pre- 
maturely to  the  railway  bridge  over  the  Trent,  and  those  who  were 
left  behind  became  prisoners.  The  Union  troops,  crossing  the  river  in 
the  gunboats,  followed  to  the  town,  and  pushed  the  enemy  to  still 
further  flight ;  but  not  till  they  had  kindled  a  fire  which  destroyed 
large  quantities  of  cotton,  turpentine,  and  military  stores,  the  court- 
house, a  hotel,  and  some  private  residences.  The  Union  loss  in  this 
battle,  killed  and  wounded,  was  471.  The  Confederate  loss  was  578. 
The  city  was  permanently  occupied,  and  General  Foster  was  made 
military  governor.  On  the  20th  of  March,  Burnsidc,  with  Parke's 
brigade,  marched  into  Beaufort.  A  small  detachment  was  sent  at 
the  same  time  to  occupy  Washington,  on  Tar  River,  where  the  inhab- 
itants were  for  the  most  part  still  loyal  to  the  Union.  Fort  Macon, 


500  EXPANSION   OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX. 

which  commanded  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  of  Beaufort,  was  taken 
Reduction  of  on  the  25th  of  April.  The  faithfulness  of  many  of  the 
Fort  Macon.  peOpie  of  North  Carolina  to  the  National  Government  was 
shown  in  a  picturesque  incident  at  the  surrender  of  the  fort.  When 
An  incident  the  rebel  flag  was  struck,  and  the  national  standard  took  its 
of  the  Hag.  piace?  an  oij  man>  with  a  long  white  beard,  leaped  upon  the 
ruined  rampart,  with  a  silver  bugle  in  his  hand,  and  blew  the  notes 
of  the  "  Star-Spangled  Banner."  1 

The  results  of  this  expedition  were  highly  important  to  the  Union 
cause.  Roanoke  Island  was  one  of  the  chief  defences  of  Norfolk, 
and  it  commanded  the  entrance  to  Albemarle  and  Currituck  sounds ; 
its  possession  by  the  Federal  troops  gave  the  Government  full  control 
of  all  approaches  to  the  river  and  canal  system  of  North  Carolina, 
besides  affording  a  safe  harbor  and  undisputed  command  of  a  great 
line  of  sea-coast,  from  Cape  Henry  on  the  north  to  Cape  Lookout  on 
the  south.  Great  was  the  joy  of  the  loyal  North  over  this  capture 
of  an  important  strategic  position  on  the  mainland  of  one  of  the  sea- 
board insurgent  States  ;  and  equally  great  was  the  depression  of  the 
insurgents,  who  sought  for  official  heads  to  hold  responsible  for  the 
disaster.  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  who  at  that  time  was  acting  as 
Confederate  Secretary  of  War,  was  blamed  by  a  committee  of  the 
Confederate  Congress  for  his  failure  to  provide  adequate  defences 
at  Roanoke  Island  and  thus  prevent  the  calamity  that  had  befallen 
them.  In  spite  of  this  censure,  however,  Jefferson  Davis  subse- 
quently promoted  Benjamin  to  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State. 

During  one  of  the  engagements  that  cleared  Albemarle  Sound  of 
the  insurgents,  a  shell  from  a  shore  battery  entered  the  gunboat 
Valley  City,  and,  exploding,  set  on  fire  the  woodwork  of  the  maga- 
zine. John  Davis,  gunner's  mate,  seeing  the  danger  of  firing  a 
barrel  of  gunpowder  from  which  he  had  been  serving,  deliberately 
sat  in  the  open  head  of  the  barrel  and  remained  there  until  the  fire 
was  extinguished.  For  this  act  of  heroism  Davis  was  rewarded  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  with  a  promotion  to  the  rank  of  gunner 
and  the  gift  of  the  naval  medal  of  honor ;  and  citizens  of  New  York 
made  up  a  purse  of  81,100  for  him. 

The  most  remarkable  addition  to  the  navies  of  the  world  was  that 
Ericsson's  °f  ^ie  little  iron-clad  Monitor,  built  under  the  direction 
Monitor.  Qf  jtg  jnventOr,  John  Ericsson,  and  commissioned  in  the 
United  States  navy  February  25th,  1862.  Captain  Ericsson  was 
born  in  Sweden,  in  1803,  and,  after  a  somewhat  checkered  life,  dur- 
ing which  he  had  met  with  indifferent  success  in  his  endeavors  to 
interest  courts  and  sovereigns  of  Europe  in  some  of  the  plans  and 
1  Victor's  History  of  the  Southern  Rebellion. 


1862.] 


BUILDING  OF  THE  "MONITOR." 


501 


The   Bugler  at   Fort   Macon. 

inventions  which  his  genius  had  evolved,  he  migrated  to  the  United 
States,  arriving  here  in  1839.  From  that  time  forward  he  was  busily 
engaged  in  the  production  and  perfection  of  many  useful  and  nota- 
ble inventions.  Among  these  was  the  screw  propeller,  which  revo- 
lutionized the  ocean  carrying  trade  and  the  naval  construction  of  the 
world.  Notwithstanding  a  rebuff  from  the  Navy  Department  of  the 
United  States,  he  persisted  in  urging  upon  the  Federal  authorities 
his  plan  for  an  iron-clad  vessel  which  was  the  first  to  include  the 
principle  of  the  revolving  turret.  The  novel  craft  which  he  subse- 
quently constructed  for  the  Government  in  the  brief  space  of  one 
hundred  days  was  named  the  Monitor,  because,  said  its  inventor, 
"  this  structure  will  admonish  the  leaders  of  the  Southern  Rebellion 
that  the  batteries  on  the  banks  of  their  rivers  will  no  longer  present 
barriers  to  the  entrance  of  the  Union  forces.  The  iron-clad  intruder 
'will  thus  prove  a  severe  monitor  to  those  leaders."  And  he  added 
that  there  were  other  leaders  who  would  be  admonished  ;  to  the  slow- 
going  British  Admiralty,  with  whose  inertness  he  had  already  had 
some  experience,  the  new  craft  would  be  "  a  monitor  suggesting 
doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of  completing  those  four  steel-clad  ships 
at  three-and-a-half  millions  apiece." 


502 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  FEDERAL   NAVY.       [C  HAP.  XIX. 


Thi-  Mer- 
rinmc. 


When  the  Gosport  navy-yard,  near  Norfolk,  Virginia,  was  so  dis- 
gracefully abandoned  and  destroyed  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebel- 
lion, one  of  the  ships  burned  was  the  steam  frigate  Merrimac,  of 
3,500  tons  and  40  guns.  During  the  succeeding  summer,  the  insur- 
gents raised  the  hull  of  the  vessel,  and,  with  marvellous  skill  and 
dexterity,  converted  her  into  a  floating  battery.  The  craft  was  so 
altered  and  reconstructed  that  her  former  berth-deck  was  brought 
just  to  the  water's  edge,  and  amidships  was  built  a  sloping 
iron-clad  roof  covering  so  much  of  the  gun-deck  as  was 
required  to  mount  the  guns  to  be  placed  in  position.  This  roof  was 
170  feet  in  length  and  was  seven  feet  above  the  gun-deck.  Under  it 
•were  mounted  ten  guns  of  six,  seven,  and  nine-inch  bore,  respectively. 
The  deck  of  this  structure  was  70  feet  long  at  each  end  of  the  vessel, 
and  was  covered  with  heavy  iron  plates.  The  bow  was  armed  with 
a  formidable  iron  ram  ;  the  draught  of  the  vessel  was  22  feet.  News 
of  her  building  had  been  carried  into  the  Union  lines,  and  great 
apprehension  as  to  her  impregnability  and  fighting  qualities  had  been 
excited  all  over  the  North. 

Work  on  the  Merrimac  had  so  far  proceeded  that  no  large  vessel 
could  be  built  in  time  to  meet  her  when  she  should  be  ready  for 
offensive  operations.  The  Monitor  was  a  fighting  machine  drawing 
only  ten  feet  of  water,  with  a  submerged  lower  hull  122  feet  long 
and  34  feet  wide,  joined  to  an  upper  hull  172  feet  long  and  41  feet 
wide.  The  revolving  turret  on  the  deck  (which  was  almost  level 
with  the  water)  was  20  feet  in  diameter  and  ten  feet  high;  it  con- 
tained two  guns  of  eleven  inches  bore.  The  vessel  was  commanded 
by  Lieutenant  John  L.  Worden,  and  on  her  way  to  Hampton  Roads, 
where  she  had  been  ordered  from  New  York,  the  officers  and  crew 
suffered  many  hardships  from  their 
confinement  in  the  novel  craft,  which 
encountered  a  severe  storm.  The  ex- 
periment of  navigation  had  not  been 
made  before  on  board  the  new  ship, 
and  her  management  then  and  after- 
wards was  necessarily  embarrassed  by 
lack  of  experience  with  this  strange 
fighting  machine;  the  storm  at  sea 
tried  the  courage  and  endurance  of 
the  men  as  it  did  the  buoyant  qual- 
ities of  the  ship. 

On  Saturday  noon,  March  8th, 
the  long-expected  and  much-dreaded 
Merrimac  was  seen  making  her  way  John  Ericsson. 


1862.] 


AN  HISTORIC   NAVAL  DUEL. 


503 


Deck  View  of  the  Monitor,  looking  from  the  bow. 
Drawn  by  Victor  S.  Perard  from  a  photograph  marie  in  July,  1862. 

down  the  Elizabeth  River  from  Norfolk  towards    Hampton    Roads, 
where  then  lay  a  considerable  fleet  of  Federal  naval  vessels, 
gunboats,  and  transports.     The  sailing  frigate  Congress,  50  mackttL-k« 


guns,  and  the  sloop  of  war  Cumberland,  24  guns,  lay  at  an- 
chor  in  the  mouth  of  the  James  River,  not  far  from  the  place 
of  entrance  of  the  Merrimac,  as  that  craft  came  into  the  watery  arena. 
The  frigates  Roanoke  and  Minnesota  were  lying  at  anchor  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  Hampton  Roads,  several  miles  distant  ;  and  when  the  Merri- 
mac  steered  directly  for  the  ships  in  the  mouth  of  the  James,  those  at 
Fortress  Monroe  were  signalled  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  their 
threatened  comrades.  They  could  not  reach  them  in  time  to  render 
much  aid.  In  the  face  of  broadsides  from  the  Congress  and  the  Cum- 
berland, the  Merrimac  pushed  on  for  the  last-named  ship  and  rammed 
her  so  vigorously  on  her  starboard  fore-channels  that  an  enormous  rent 
through  which  the  water  rushed  in  torrents  was  made  in  her  wooden 
hull.  Lieutenant  Norris,  temporarily  in  command,  fought  bravely 
with  the  iron  monster,  but,  after  a  hopeless  struggle,  the  doomed 
ship  went  down  in  54  feet  of  water,  her  colors  flying  as  she  sunk.  A 
greater  part  of  the  crew  saved  themselves  by  jumping  overboard  and 
swimming  for  their  lives  ;  about  one  hundred  sick  and  wounded  went 
down  with  the  ship. 

Meanwhile,  two  Confederate  gunboats  had  engaged  the  Congress, 
and,  after  a  -gallant  fight,  she  grounded  in  shallow  water,  where  she 
was  next  assailed  by  the  Merrimac,  the  Cumberland  having  been  sent 
to  the  bottom.  Unable  to  reach  the  frigate  to  board  her,  the  enemy 


504 


EXPANSION   OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX. 


poured  hot  shot  into  her  hull,  and,  after  a  fire  that  raked  her  fore 
and  aft,  during  which  the  commander  of  the  Congress,  the  gallant 
Lieutenant  Joseph  B.  Smith,  was  killed,  the  Merrimac  was  interfered 
with  by  the  Minnesota,  which  had  now  come  up  from  Fortress  Mon- 
roe. During  the  diversion  which  followed,  the  crew  of  the  Congress 
managed  to  escape,  the  white  flag  of  surrender  having  been  hoisted 
on  the  ship.  Later  on,  the  Merrimac  returned  and  set  fire  to  the 
Congress,  then,  darkness  having  set  in,  she  returned  to  the  Elizabeth 
River,  her  officers  and  crew  well  satisfied  with  the  destruction  that 
they  had  wrought,  and  confident  of  finishing  the  rest  of  the  Federal 
fleet  on  the  morrow. 

During  that  night  the  little  Monitor  stole  into  the  Roads  and  took 
up  a  position  near  the  menaced  Minnesota.  On  Sunday,  March  9th, 
the  news  of  the  great  disaster  to  the  Federal  fleet  in  the  Roads  flew 
all  abroad.  In  the  Confederacy  there  was  joyful  exultation  beyond 
anything  that  had  ever  been  known  since  the  war  began.  It  was 
believed  that  the  National  capital  would  now  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the 
terrible  Merrimac,  that  the  great  metropolis  of  New  York  would  be 
laid  under  contribution,  and  that  a  naval  war  would  be  carried 
to  the  closing  of  the  ports  of  the  North  which  had  sent  forth  so 
many  fighting  ships  for  the  "  subjugation  of  the  South."  In  the 
loyal  North  there  was  alarm  and  grief.  The  disaster  seemed  irre- 


Crew  on  Deck  of  the  Monitor. 


1862.]  FINAL  DEFEAT  OF  THE   "MERRIMAC."  505 


Commander  Worden  and  the  Officers  of  the  Monitor. 

trievable ;  the  result  of  the  fighting  of  Saturday  apparently  left  no  hope 
for  the  escape  of  the  remainder  of  the  fleet  when  the  monster  should 
again  emerge  from  her  lair  on  Sunday.  Panic  was  felt  in  Washing- 
ton ;  it  was  reflected  thence  to  all  the  great  cities  of  the  Union,  from 
Maine  to  California. 

On  Sunday  morning,  when  the  Merrimac,  coming  down  in  the 
early  dawn,  saw  the  minute  floating  battery  that  glided  out 
from  behind  the  lofty  Minnesota,  the  astonishment  of  the  to  the 
Confederates  was  very  great.  "  A  tin  can  on  a  shingle  !  " 
was  the  exclamation  of  some ;  "  A  cheese-box  on  a  raft !  "  had  been 
the  surprised  comment  of  others  who  beheld  this  strange  appearance. 
The  duel  opened.  The  Monitor's  circular  turret  began  to  move,  and 
from  her  port-holes  burst  forth  tremendous  shot  in  quick  succession. 
In  vain  the  Merrimac  manoeuvred  to  get  out  of  the  range  of  the  battery 
of  the  Monitor ;  whichever  way  she  moved  the  guns  of  the  Monitor 
followed  her  with  feverish  lips.  The  broadsides  of  the  Merrimac 
fell  harmless  on  her  antagonist ;  and  the  ponderous  shot  of  the  Monitor 
apparently  produced  no  effect  whatever  on  the  Confederate  iron-clad. 
After  a  fierce  and  terrible  struggle  that  resulted  in  nothing  definite, 
the  duellists  separated,  the  Merrimac  leaving  her  impregnable  foe 
and  making  once  more  for  the  Minnesota,  still  aground  on  the  edge 
of  this  novel  naval  battle.  Hardly  regarding  the  broadside  that  the 
frigate  sent  upon  his  sloping  iron  deck,  the  commander  of  the  Mer- 
rimac fired  a  shell  into  the  hull  of  the  frigate,  setting  the  ship  on 


506 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX. 


Admiral   Franklin   Buchanan,  C.  S.  A. 


Rear-Admiral  John   L.  Worden. 


fire  and  doing  other  serious  damage.     The  flames  were  extinguished, 
and  the  little  Monitor  bore  down  upon  the  Merrimac,  com- 

Thefirstbat-  .     r  . 

tie  of  iron-  pellmg  her  to  change  position,  in  doing  which  she  went 
aground  and  was  for  a  critical  moment  in  deadly  peril :  but 
she  was  soon  got  off  and  started  for  her  anchorage  up  the  river.  Pur- 
sued by  the  Monitor,  she  turned  once  fiercely  and  attempted  to  ram 
her  plucky  adversary  ;  but  her  prow  glanced  from  the  iron  deck  of 
the  Monitor  without  inflicting  the  least  damage,  and  another  heavy 
shot  striking  the  iron  sides  of  the  Merrimac,  made  a  great  indentation 
which,  if  followed  by  another,  would  probably  have  penetrated  her 
fortress.  She  sullenly  drew  out  of  the  fight  and  proceeded  up  the 
river  in  safety.  The  day  of  wooden  fighting  ships  was  done. 

It  was  the  errand  of  the  Merrimac  to  destroy  the  Federal  fleet  in 
Hampton  Roads,  and  so  change  the  whole  course  of  the  war.  That 
errand  failed.  The  presence  of  the  Monitor,  so  providential  and 
so  wonderfully  opportune,  saved  the  fleet,  preserved  the  lines  estab- 
lished by  the  Government  forces,  and  neutralized  forever  the  formid- 
able engine  of  destruction  on  which  the  Confederates  had  lavished 
so  much  time,  money,  and  ingenuity.  It  was  a  drawn  battle  in  the 
regard  that  neither  ship  was  destroyed.  It  was  a  Federal  victory, 
for  the  Confederate  plan  was  defeated ;  and  the  fleet  and  the  line  of 
the  James  river  were  saved  to  the  forces  that  had  been  organized  to 
crush  the  rebellion. 

This  remarkable  and  memorable  sea-fight,  according  to  one  of  the 
participants  in  it,  "showed  the  power  of  resistance  of  two  iron-clads, 
widely  differing  in  construction,  model,  and  armament,  under  a  fire 
which  in  a  short  time  would  have  sunk  any  other  vessel  afloat."  l  The 

p 

1  John  Taylor  Wood,  C.  S.  A.,  in  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War. 


1862.] 


IMMEDIATE  RESULTS  OF  THE  FIGHT. 


507 


The  Monitor's  Crew  on   Deck. 

depression  which  had  pervaded  the  Xorth  when  the  destruction  of  the 
two  sailing  ships  was  announced  from  Fortress  Monroe,  was  speedily 
replaced  by  a  great  cheer  that  spread  all  over  the  country.  The 
names  of  Ericsson  and  Worden  were  on  the  lips  of  everybody ;  and 
in  foreign  lands  the  news  of  the  first  fight  between  iron-clads  was 
conned  with  thrilling  interest.  Both  of  the  vessels  sustained  dam- 
age, but  neither  was  fatally  crippled.  Franklin  Buchanan,  who  com- 
manded the  Merrimac,  was  wounded  during  the  engagement,  and 
his  place  was  taken  by  Lieutenant  Catesby  Jones.  Captain  Worden, 
commanding  the  Monitor,  was  wounded  by  the  explosion  of  a  shell 
oil  the  outer -side  of  the  peep-hole  of  the  pilot-house,  through  which 
he  was  looking  at  the  time,  and  the  command  of  the  ship  then 
devolved  on  Lieutenant  S.  D.  Greene,  the  executive  officer,  at  that 
time  only  twenty-two  years  of  age. 

The  Merrimac  took  no  active  part  in  the  subsequent  hostilities, 
although  she  occasionally  steamed  down  from  Xorfolk  to  offer  battle 
to  her  wary  antagonist,  the  Monitor,  which  was  under  orders  to  guard 
the  Roads  and  accept  no  challenge  to  fight.     Early  in  May 
the  Confederate  forces,  in  consequence  of  military  operations  evacuation 

,,  ,       ,  ,,        ,,. *    ,  ,     T  .  of  Norfolk. 

on  the  peninsula  between  the  lork  and  James  rivers,  evacu- 
ated Norfolk  without  making  any  communication  to  the  commander 


50M 


EXPANSION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  NAVY.       [CHAP.  XIX. 


The  Interior  of  the  Monitor  during  the  Fight  with  the  Merrirnar. 

of  the  Me.rrimac.1  The  officers  of  the  iron-clad,  noting  the  absence 
of  their  flag  from  the  batteries  at  the  mouth  of  the  Elizabeth,  set 
about  to  search  for  the  reason  ;  they  soon  discovered  that  their  mili- 
tary friends  had  fled  from  Norfolk.  Nothing  remained  but  destruc- 
tion. Norfolk  was  occupied  by  Federal  troops ;  they  were  between 
two  fires.  Accordingly,  on  the  llth  of  May,  the  once-dreaded  mon- 
ster was  run  ashore  and  blown  up. 

The  Monitor  had  some  part  in  subsequent  operations  on  the  James 
Kiver,  but  she  never  again  met  a  foeman  worthy  of  her  steel.  In 
November,  1862,  she  was  sent  to  sea  under  sealed  orders,  encountered 
a  gale  off  Cape  Hatteras,  and  went  to  the  bottom.  Nearly  all  of  her 
officers  and  crew  were  rescued  by  the  steamer  acting  as  her  convoy. 
A  fleet  of  iron-clads  was  built  upon  the  model  of  Ericsson's  marvel ; 
to  her  successors  was  given  the  generic  name  of  the  original  proto- 
type, and  thereafter  that  class  of  fighting  machine  was  known  as 
monitors. 

1  The  official  name  of  the  vessel  was  the  Viryinia,  but  she  was  usually  known  by  her 
original  name,  the  Alerrimac. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


THE   PENINSULAR   CAMPAIGN. 

CAPTURE  OF  FORT  PULASKI. —  GENERAL  HUNTER  ix  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  —  His  TREAT- 
MENT OF  THE  NEGRO  QUESTION. —  ANOTHER  PROCLAMATION  OF  EMANCIPATION  OVER- 
RULED.—  MC-CLELLAN'S  MOVEMENT  TO  THE  PENINSULA.  —  THE  SIEGE  OF  YORK- 
TOWN. —  THE  CONFEDERATE  RETREAT.  —  ON  THE  CHICKAHOMINY. — "STONEWALL" 
JACKSON  IN  THE  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY. —  ALARM  IN  WASHINGTON.  —  BATTLE  OF 
SEVEN  PINES.  —  R.  E.  LEE  IN  COMMAND  OF  THE  CONFEDERATES.  —  J.  E.  B.  STUART'S 
RAID  AND  RECONNAISSANCE.  —  THE  SEVEN  DAYS'  FIGHTING.  —  MCCLELLAN'S  CHANGE 
OF  BASE.  —  LEE'S  SUPERIOR  STRATEGY.  —  BATTLE  OF  MAI.VERN  HILL.  —  THE 
FLIGHT  OF  THE  FEDERALS  TO  HARRISON'S  LANDING. —  END  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN. — 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  MCCLELLAN'S  POLITICAL  AMBITIONS. 

As  the  civil  war  wore  on  into  its  second  year,  its  effects  began  to 
be  apparent  in  the  habits,  methods,  and  thoughts  of  the  Effects  of 
American  people.  A  stranger  might  have  said  that  a  condi-  th<MVar- 
tion  of  war  had  become  permanent  in  the  minds  of  men,  notwithstand- 
ing the  earnestness  with  which  peace  was  hoped  and  prayed  for,  and 
notwithstanding  the  irksomeness  of  the  burdens  laid  upon  the  peo- 
ple. Military  phrases  became  incorporated  into  the  popular  speech  ; 
military  and  naval  strategy  was  the  study  of  everybody ;  the  frequent 
visits  in  the  homes  of  non-combatants  of  men  hot  from  the  front  of 
battle,  and  their  letters  from  the  field,  kept  families  well  informed 
as  to  the  details  of  army  life ;  and  copious  newspaper  accounts  of 
battles,  sieges,  and  skirmishes  made  even  the  children  of  remote  and 
peaceful  towns  familiar  with  the  progress  of  the  war  and  with  innu- 
merable incidents  of  individual  heroism  and  bravery  on  land  and  sea. 
There  were  not  many  households  in  which  the  badge  of  mourning 


510 


THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


Edwin  M.  Stanton. 


was  not  worn.  The  news  from  the 
field  of  battle,  after  any  general  en- 
gagement, was  scanned  in  innumera- 
ble  homes  with  eager  eyes  and  anx- 
ious hearts. 

The  Avar  drama  was  acting  along 
the  border  of  the  slaveholding  States  ; 
it  was  hardly  time  for  it  to  make  its 
appearance  on  the  mimic  stage  of  the 
theatre  ;  but  war  songs  resounded  in 
the  streets  of  cities,  towns,  and  ham- 
lets. Rhymesters,  poets,  and  com- 
posers tickled  the  popular  ear  with 
ballads  and  lyrics  in  which  the  smoke 
of  battle,  the  throbbing  of  the  drums, 
the  rattle  of  musketry  and  the  clangor  of  arms  were  mingled  with 
songs  of  victory,  the  plaint  of  mothers  bereft  of  their  sons,  the  war- 
cries  of  soldiers  pressing  to  the  front,  and  the  tramp  of  marching 
regiments.  Then  came  the  comic  travesties  of  the  satirists  and  the 
humorists.  The  elastic  spirits  of  the  people  turned  gratefully  to  the 
writers  who  found  food  for  laughter  in  the  thick  of  the  grim  realities 
of  war.  The  strain  of  anxiety  and  suspense  was  relieved  by  grotesque 
fun  which  men  managed  to  extract  from  even  the  darkest  of  days  of 
doubt  and  despondency. 

The  sudden  demand  for  ships,  arms,  supplies  of  clothing,  rations, 
and  multitudinous  materials  required  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war 
created  a  vast  army  of  contractors,  exhausted  warehouses  that  had 
been  filled  with  goods,  swept  the  markets  bare  of  certain  commodi- 
ties in  a  single  day,  and  brought  on  a  fever  of  speculation  that  did 
not  abate  until  long  after  the  war  was  over.  Fortunes  were  realized 
in  a  month  ;  the  sharp  exigencies  of  the  Government  would  not  wait 
for  the  customary  slow  processes  of  purchase  in  times  of  peace. 
Prices  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  as  well  as  of  those  which  were  drawn 
into  the  uses  of  army  and  navy,  were  suddenly  sent  up  to  high  figures. 
Bad  men  cheated  the  Government  with  false  bids  and  worthless  goods; 
then  was  brought  into  use  the  word  "shoddy,"  which,  from  being 
applied  to  a  fraudulent  fabric  of  woollen  cloth,  came  to  be  known  as 
the  apt  title  of  those  who  had  become  suddenly  rich  by  means  which 
would  not  bear  too  close  a  scrutiny. 

Although  the  great  heart  of  the  people  was  sound  and  true,  dishon- 
est men  battened  on  the  woes  of  the  Nation,  and  the  very  name  of 
that  patriotism  which  bound  the  Northern  people  to  the  Union  was 
worn  as  a  livery  to  serve  the  selfish  purposes  of  adventurers.  And  it 


1862.]  CALLS  FOR   EMANCIPATION.  511 

came  to  pass  at  last  that  a  profession  of  loyalty  was  suspected,  and 
men  who  were  ready  to  find  fault  with  the  conduct  of  the  war  and  to 
criticise  its  purpose  were  equally  ready  with  their  sneers  for  those 
whose  loyalty  might  be  under  suspicion  for  its  selfishness.  Men  in 
high  places  were  suspected  of  conniving  at,  if  not  participating  in, 
profitable  and  loosely  drawn  contracts  with  the  Government ;  the 
secret  enemies  of  the  Republic  were  swift  to  accuse  and  slow  to  acquit 
those  whose  ardent  and  pure  patriotism  offended  them. 

Politics  in  the  non-slaveholding  States  soon  became  agitated  over 
the  status  of  the  slaves  of  the  South,  as  well  as  with  the  s,atU!i(>f 
conduct  of  the  war.  The  patient  President,  waiting  for  the  tlu'slaT<' 
opinions  of  the  loyal  Xorth  to  crystallize,  was  beset  by  radical  leaders 
who  urged  him  to  hasten  the  steps  that  were  to  free  the  l>ondman, 
while  the  conservatives  were  equally  clamorous  that  nothing  be  done 
to  alienate  the  support  of  the  men  of  the  border  States  with  whom 
slavery  was  yet  a  cherished  institution.  The  action  of  Congress  early 
struck  the  shackles  from  the  limbs  of  the  blacks  who  had  been  em- 
ployed by  the  insurgents  in  their  prosecution  of  the  war.  Federal 
commanders  were  given  instructions  to  employ  these  "contrabands" 
whenever  that  employment  gave  them  military  advantage :  and  the 
time  drew  near  for  the  drafting  of  the  black  men  into  the  active  mili- 
tary forces  of  the  Union.  The  ill-advised  proclamation  of  Fremont, 
granting  emancipation  to  the  slaves  under  certain  circumstances, 
raised  a  tempest  in  the  Xorth  :  but  it  was  impossible  to  overlook  or 
gainsay  the  fact  that  any  attempt  to  give  freedom  to  the  black  man 
whose  slavery  had  been  one  of  the  causes  of  the  rebellion  was  greeted 
with  applause  from  a  majority  of  the  people. 

To  arm  the  ex-slaves  was  the  next  step.  Their  ultimate  freedom 
was  now  regarded  as  inevitable.  During  the  latter  part  of  1861,  the 
Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Simon  Cameron,  prepared  his  annual  report  to 
the  President,  to  accompany  the  President's  message  to  Congress : 
but,  contrary  to  usage,  did  not  first  submit  it  to  the  President.  The 
document  was  mailed  to  distant  parts  of  the  country  under  seal  of 
privacy,  to  be  released  when  the  announcement  was  made  of  the 
delivery  of  the  message  to  Congress.  Inquiry  developed  the  fact  that 
the  Secretary  had  anticipated  somewhat  the  march  of  events  and  had 
proposed  to  Congress  that  the  time  had  come  when  it  might  be  the 
duty  of  the  Government  to  arm  and  equip  the  ex-slaves  and  turn 
them  against  the  insurgents  "  under  proper  military  regulation,  dis- 
cipline, and  command."  President  Lincoln,  while  he  agreed  with  the 
Secretary  in  the  proposition  that  the  Government  had  the  right  to 
use  the  ex-slaves  against  their  masters  in  any  lawful  capacity,  did  not 
think  that  the  time  had  come  to  form  them  into  marching  regiments. 


512 


THE    PENINSULAR   CAMPAIGN*. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


Major-General  David  Hunter. 


Brevet  Major-General  Rufus  Saxton. 


War. 


He  accordingly  cancelled  that  part  of  the  Secretary's  report;  and  the 
revised  document,  having  been  recalled,  was  sent  in  to  Congress  with- 
out the  argument  and  suggestion  of  the  Secretary.  The  immediate 
outcome  of  this  incident  was  the  first  change  made  in  the  cabinet  of 
President  Lincoln.  Mr.  Cameron  withdrew,  accepting  a  diplomatic 
appointment  to  Russia  ;  and  Mr.  Edwin  M.  Stanton  succeeded  him 
in  the  War  Department. 

The  new  Secretary  of  War  was  in  the  very  prime  of  life  when  he 
took  office  under  President  Lincoln.     He  had  been  trained 

Stanton  as  .  .  ..... 

y  of  a  lawyer,  and  his  energy,  eminent  abilities,  and  skill  had 
raised  him  to  a  high  place  in  his  profession.  During  the 
melancholy  collapse  of  President  Buchanan's  cabinet,  not  long  before 
the  accession  of  Lincoln,  Stanton  became  Attorney-general  at  the 
President's  invitation.  With  most  of  the  other  members  of  the  Buch- 
anan cabinet,  Mr.  Stanton  went  under  a  cloud  as  soon  as  he  retired 
from  office,  March  4th,  1861,  and  it  might  have  been  supposed  that  he 
would  be  heard  of  no  more.  His  correspondence  at  that  time  shows 
that  he  was  embittered  against  the  new  Administration  and  that  he 
had  a  very  mean  opinion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  talents.  He  referred  to 
the  '•  painful  imbecility  "  of  the  newly  inaugurated  President,  to  the 
"venality  anil  corruption"  that  reigned  in  high  places,  and  to  the 
possibility  that  there  would  be  no  change  for  the  better  "until  Jef- 
ferson Davis  turns  out  the  whole  concern."  He  was  called  into  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Lincoln  without  any  knowledge  on  the  part  of 
the  President  that  he  was  secretly  chafing  over  what  seemed  to  him 
a  chaos  of  mismanagement  and  WHS  writing  ignorantly  of  matters 
entirely  beyond  any  possibility  of  his  comprehension  while  he  was 
outside  of  the  counsels  of  the  Government.  Stanton  soon  became  one 


1862.]  MAINTAINING   THE   BLOCKADE.  513 

of  the  most  dominant  and  powerful  figures  which  the  civil  war 
developed  in  the  United  States.  When  he  knew  Lincoln  better,  he 
gave  him  his  hearty  personal  service ;  and  to  his  country  he  rendered 
the  most  unswerving  loyalty  and  the  devotion  of  all  his  powers  and 
his  genius. 

Events  were  now  taking  place  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  which 
were  destined  to  change  greally  the  political  complexion  of  the  w;ir 
and  divert  the  attention  of  the  Confederates  from  blockade-running 
to  a  more  ardent  defence  of  their  military  lines.  General  Quincy  A. 
Gillmore,  being  ordered  to  reconnoitre  Fort  Pulaski,  which  com- 
manded the  mouth  of  the  Savannah  River,  late  in  November,  1S61, 
entered  upon  that  important  duty  in  the  following  month.  The  fort 
was  situated  on  a  low  island  between  the  two  channels  that  form  the 
mouth  of  the  river.  The  work  covered  nearly  the  whole  of  the  island, 
and  its  walls  were  twenty  feet  high  and  seven  feet  thick,  Rp,iuction  o{ 
mounting  forty  heavy  guns,  and  defended  by  nearly  400  F 
men.  The  General  reported  that  it  could  be  reduced  by  batteries  on 
Big  Tybee  Island  and  Venus  Point,  and  he  received  orders  to  carry 
out  his  plan.  A  portion  of  February  and  the  whole  of  March  was 
spent  in  the  erection  of  the  works  and  placing  the  guns,  which,  from 
the  softness  of  the  ground,  could  only  be  accomplished  with  enormous 
labor,  and  from  the  nearness  to  the  fort  could  only  be  done  at  night. 
Thirty-six  rifled  guns  and  heavy  mortars  were  at  length  in  position, 
some  of  them  having  been  dragged  for  miles,  on  movable  platforms, 
over  a  deep  morass,  requiring  250  men  to  move  them.  The  distance 
of  the  batteries  from  the  fort  was  from  less  than  a  mile  to  two  miles. 
On  the  10th  of  April,  1862,  fire  was  opened.  The  rifled  guns  made 
enormous  breaches  in  the  walls,  and  soon  reduced  them  to  ruins.  In 
the  afternoon  of  the  llth,  the  fort  was  surrendered.  Ten  guns  had 
been  dismounted,  one  of  the  garrison  killed  and  a  few  wounded.  Tho 
assailants  lost  one  man  killed.  The  Savannah  River  was  now  perma- 
nently closed  to  blockade-runners.  The  Atlantic  coast  was  lost  to  the 
Confederates. 

Major-General  David  Hunter,  formerly  commanding  in  Kansas,  who 
on  the  last  day  of  March  had  been  placed  in  command  on  the 
South   Carolina  and  Georgia  coast,  issued  a  general  order  rpiaoripa- 
on  the  9th  of  May,  wherein  he  said,  k*  Slavery  and  martial 
law  in  a  free  country  are  incompatible.     The  persons  in  these  States 
—  Georgia,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina  —  heretofore  held  as  slaves, 
are  therefore  declared  forever  free."     Ten  davs  later  the  President 

9 

issued  a   proclamation  annulling  Hunter's,  and  adding:   '•  I   further 
make  known  that,  whether  it  be  competent  for  me,  as  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  to  declare  the  slaves  of  any  State  or 
VOL.  iv.  33 


514  THE  PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XX. 

States  free ;  and  whether  at  any  time,  or  in  any  case,  it  shall  have 
become  a  necessity  indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  the  govern- 
ment to  exercise  such  supposed  power,  are  questions  which,  under  my 
responsibility,  I  reserve  to  myself,  and  which  I  cannot  feel  justified  in 
leaving  for  the  decision  of  commanders  in  the  field."  At  the  same 
time,  the  President  made  an  appeal  to  the  border  States,  still  holding 
on  to  slavery,  to  avail  themselves  of  the  generous  offer  of  Congress  to 
pay  for  their  slaves  if  they  would  of  their  own  accord  abolish  human 
slavery.  He  gently  reminded  them  that  "  the  signs  of  the  times  " 
pointed  to  the  certain  destruction  of  this  long-cherished  institution. 
They  might  anticipate  the  day  of  its  doom. 

Another  important  movement  of  General  Hunter  while  he  was  in 
command  in  South  Carolina,  was  the  raising  of  a  regiment  of  col- 
ored troops,  the  first  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States. 
Very  soon  after  his  assignment  to  the  Department  of  the  South, 
Hunter  had  asked  the  Secretary  of  War  for  authority  to  enlist  colored 
men,  the  country  in  which  he  was  operating  being  then  filled  with  fugi- 
tives, or  masterless  slaves.  General  Hunter,  conceiving  that  a  showy 
uniform  would  take  the  fancy  of  the  negroes  and  promote  enlistments, 
asked  for  fifty  thousand  pairs  of  scarlet  pantaloons,  and  added,  "  This 
is  all  the  clothing  I  shall  require  for  these  people."  The  experiment 
was  not  immediately  successful.  The  colored  men  did  not  volunteer 
with  the  readiness  that  was  expected  of  them ;  and  conscription 
frightened  them.  In  the  course  of  time,  the  Government  was  moved 
to  take  steps  looking  to  a  general  enlistment  of  colored  troops  all  over 
the  lines  into  which  the  fugitives  from  labor  had  come.  One  com- 
coioreo  Pany  in  Hunter's  command  was  gradually  developed  into  a 
troops.  flne  regiment  and  was  known  as  the  First  South  Carolina 
Volunteers ;  it  was  commanded  by  Colonel  Thomas  Wentworth  Hig- 
ginson.  The  men  were  well  drilled  and  their  evolutions  were  alto- 
gether admirable.  Congress  having  given  the  necessary  authority, 
the  Secretary  of  War  (August  25,  1862)  instructed  General  Kufus 
Saxton,  in  command  at  Port  Royal,  South  Carolina,  to  enlist  5,000 
colored  troops. 

But,  although  these  experiments  were  not  markedly  successful,  and 
the  forces  then  raised  were  not  by  any  means  formidable,  the  fact 
that  ex-slaves  were  being  formed  into  bodies  of  fighting  men  threw 
the  Southern  people  into  hysterics  of  rage  and  fright.  The  old  bogy 
of  "  a  servile  war  "  was  brought  into  requisition,  and  the  project  of 
enlisting  colored  men  was  declared  to  be  a  violation  of  the  laws  of 
war.  In  Congress,  those  who  secretly  sympathized  with  the  rebellion 
professed  vast  indignation  at  the  course  of  General  Hunter  and  others 
who  speedily  imitated  his  example.  One  of  these  sympathizers 


1862.] 


ARMIXG  THE   EX-SLAVES. 


515 


"  Quaker  Gun  "  in  the  Confederate  Fortifications  at  Centreville,  V«. 
Drawn  by  Harry  Fenn  from  a  photograph  taken  in  Slnrrh,  1862. 

with  rebellion,  a  Representative  from  Kentucky,  introduced  in  the 
House  a  resolution  asking  for  information  on  the  subject,  which  was 
adopted.  The  Secretary  of  War  referred  the  resolution  to  General 
Hunter ;  and  Hunter,  with  due  decorum  and  gravity,  replied  :  "  No 
regiment  of  fugitive  slaves  has  been  or  is  being  organized  in  this 
department.  There  is,  however,  a  fine  regiment  of  persons  whose  late 
masters  are  fugitive  rebels  —  men  who  everywhere  fly  before  the 
appearance  of  the  National  flag,  leaving  their  servants  behind  them 
to  shift  as  best  they  can  for  themselves.  ...  In  the  absence  of  any 
fugitive-master  law,  the  deserted  slaves  would  be  wholly  without  rem- 
edy, had  not  their  crime  of  treason  given  the  slaves  the  right  to  pur- 
sue, capture,  and  bring  back  these  persons  of  whose  protection  they 
have  been  so  suddenly  bereft."  The  Confederate  authorities,  how- 
ever, affected  to  take  a  more  serious  view  of  the  matter.  General 
Lee,  remonstrating  with  General  Halleck,  in  behalf  of  the  insurgents, 
complained  that  "  Major-General  Hunter  has  armed  slaves  for  the 
murder  of  their  masters,  and  has  thus  done  all  in  his  power  to  inaugu- 
rate a  servile  war/'  The  Confederate  authorities  solemnly  denounced 
General  Hunter  and  others  engaged  in  the  work  of  enlisting  colored 
troops,  as  outlaws  and  felons  who,  if  captured,  were  to  be  executed  as 
robbers  and  criminals  deserving  death.  This  was  in  1862.  Two 
years  later,  the  Confederate  Congress,  with  the  otticial  approval  of 


510 


THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


Battery  Number  I  in  Front  of  Yorktown. 

(At  that  time  the  heaviest  battery  in  the  world  :  5  one-hundred-pounders,  and  2  two-hundred-pound, 

eight-inch,  rifled  guus.) 

General  Lee,  passed   a  bill  authorizing  Jefferson  Davis  to  "  ask  for 

and  accept  from  the  owners  of  slaves  the  services  of  such  number  of 

able-bodied  negro  men  as  he  may  deem  expedient  for  and  during  the 

war,  to  perform  military  duty  in  whatever  capacity  he  may  direct." 

Early  in  March,  1862,  it  seemed  that  the  long  inactivity  of  the 

Army  of  the  Potomac  was  to  come  to  an  end.     The  Confed- 

The  Army  * 

of  the  erates  foresaw  this,  and  began  to  move  away  from  the  posi- 

tions whence  they  had  threatened  the  National  capital.  By 
the  9th  it  was  known  that  they  were  leaving  Centreville  and  Manas- 
sas.  On  the  next  day  General  McClellan  started  in  that  direction. 
He  thought  it,  he  said,  a  good  opportunity  for  his  men  to  learn  some- 
thing of  marching,  and  he  took  care  not  to  move  while  there  was 
any  danger  of  that  exercise  being  interrupted.  The  infantry  halted 
at  Centreville,  but  McClellan  rode  on  to  Manassas,  and  a  body  of 
cavalry  was  pushed  a  few  miles  farther.  They  found  that  the  Con- 
federates were  falling  back  rapidly,  but  in  good  order. 

At  Fairfax  Court  House  McClellan  and  his  four  corps-command- 
ers —  Sumner,  McDowell,  Heintzelman,  and  Keyes  —  agreed  upon  a 
plan  of  operations  ;  and  on  the  13th  the  President  put  forth  an  order 
directing  the  mode  of  its  execution :  "  First,  leave  such  a  force  at 
Manassas  Junction  as  shall  make  it  entirely  certain  that  the  enemy 
shall  not  repossess  himself  of  that  position  and  line  of  communica- 
tion. Second,  leave  Washington  entirely  secure.  Third,  move  the 


1862.] 


THE   ARMY   IN  MOTION. 


517 


Battery  Number  4  in  Front  of  Yorktown. 

remainder  of  the  force  down  the  Potomac,  choosing  a  new  base  at 
Fortress  Monroe,  or  anywhere  between  here  and  there;  or,  at  all 
events,  move  such  remainder  of  the  army  at  once  in  pursuit  of  the 
enemy,  by  some  route." 

On  the  14th,  McClellan  issued  an  address  to  the  army,  in  which 
he  said  that  the  period  of  inaction  had  passed,  and  that  he  was  now 
about  to  lead  to  the  battle-field  "  a  real  army,  magnificent  in  mate- 
rial, admirable  in  discipline  and  instruction,  excellently  equipped  and 
armed."  This  was  intelligence  which  the  country,  discouraged  by 
the  long  delay,  amused  for  so  many  months  by  the  assurance  that  "  all 
is  quiet  along  the  Potomac,"  heard  with  gladness.  There  would  have 
been  less  satisfaction  had  it  been  then  known  that  the  direction  of 
the  proposed  movement  was  against  the  wishes  and  the  judgment  of 
the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  War.  The  President's  plan  was 
"to  move  directly  to  a  point  on  the  railroad  southwest  of  Manassas," 
as  involving  less  expenditure  of  time  and  money,  more  likely  to  break 
the  enemy's  line  of  communication  and  lead  to  success,  and  as  insur- 
ing an  easier  line  of  retreat  in  case  of  disaster.  In  deference,  how- 
ever, to  General  McClellan,  who  insisted  upon  moving  upon  Rich- 
mond by  going  down  the  Chesapeake  and  up  the  Peninsula  between 
the  York  and  James,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  ordered,  about  the  middle  of 
February,  a  council  of  war,  determined  to  abide  by  its  decision.  At 


THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX 


Servants  at  Headquarters,  Army  of  the  Potomac,  May,   I  862- 
Drawn  by  Harry  Fennfrom  a  photograph. 

this  council  the  two  plans  were  carefully  discussed,  and  although  the 
older  generals  —  the  wiser  and  the  better  soldiers  —  agreed  with  the 
President  and  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  younger  men  agreed  with 
their  commanding  general.  It  was  a  majority  of  numbers  against 
weight  of  judgment ;  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  unfortunately,  permitted  him- 
self to  be  governed  by  the  popular  rule  of  decision  by  mere  numbers. 

McClellan's  general  plan  was  to  capture  Yorktown,  where  the  Con- 
federates  had  thrown  up  strong  works,  held  by  men  under 
General  J.  B.  Magruder;  thus  to  open  the  York  River,  as 
West  Point  on  that  stream  was  to  be  the  base  of  supply  for  his  army 
in  its  inarch  toward  Richmond  ;  for  the  more  direct  route,  by  way  of 
the  James,  was  thought  to  be  barred  by  the  Merriment.  Had  he  ascer- 
tained how  weak  was  the  force  in  his  front,  he  might  easily  have 
marched  up  the  Peninsula  without  even  touching  Yorktown.  He  did 
indeed  make  a  feeble  movement  in  this  direction  ;  but  vastly  over- 
estimating the  enemy,  he  determined  to  lay  regular  siege  to  York- 
town.  This  cost  a  month.  Herein  lay  the  initial  error  in  the  cam- 
paign. Richmond  was  at  this  time,  and  for  four  weeks  and  more 
afterward,  utterly  without  defence. 

Much  was  to  be  done  before  the  siege  could  even  be  begun. 
Leagues  of  road  were  to  be  made  through  forest  and  swamp.  Miles 
of  trenches  were  to  be  dug,  redoubts  raised,  and  batteries  constructed. 
All  this  time  the  army  suffered  more  severely  in  health  and  condition 
than  it  would  have  done  in  confronting  the  enemy  in  the  field.  But 
at  length  on  the  3d  of  May  the  engineering  work  was  considered  as 


1862.] 


TWENTY-THREE  THOUSAND   MISSING  MEN. 


519 


finished.  Three  days  more  were  to  be  devoted  to  final  arrangements, 
and  on  the  6th  fire  was  to  be  opened  from  every  battery.  McClellan's 
attitude  was  actually  one  of  defence.  He  was  intrenched  behind 
extensive  works,  with  nearly  one  hundred  heavy  pieces  of  artillery  in 
position. 

In  the  mean  time,  however,  Johnston  had  sent  down  the  Confeder- 
ate force  from  Manassas,  arriving  himself  on  the  17th  of 
April.  He  brought  with  him  35,000  men,  raising  his  forces 
to  53,000.  McClellan's  information  was  again  at  fault.  Ten  days 
before  Johnston's  arrival  he  telegraphed  to  Washington:  "Johnston 
arrived  at  Yorktown  yesterday  with  strong  reinforcements.  It  seems 
clear  that  I  shall  have  on  my  hands  the  whole  force  of  the  enemy  — 
not  less  than  100,000  men,  possibly  more.  When  my  present  com- 
mand all  joins  me,  I  shall  have  about  85,000.  With  this  army  I 
could  assault  the  enemy's  works,  and  perhaps  carry  them  ;  but  were 
I  in  possession  of  their  intrenchments,  and  assaulted  by  double  my 
numbers,  I  should  not  fear  the  result."  The  President  replied : 
"When  I  telegraphed  to  you  on  the  6th,  that  you  had  more  than 
100,000  men,  I  had  just  obtained  a  statement,  taken  from  your  own 
returns,  making  108.000  with  those  going  or  on  the  way.  You  say 
that  you  have  but  85,000.  Where  are  the  other  23,000  ?  "  A  month 


Due  de  Chartres.  Comte  de  Paris.  Prince  de  Joinville. 

THE  FRENCH  OFFICERS  OF  McCLELLAN'S  STAFF  AT  YORKTOWN,   MAY,    1862. 


520  THE   PENINSULAR   CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XX. 

before  he  had  written,  "There  is  a  curious  mystery  about  the  num- 
ber of  troops  now  with  you."  It  continued  for  some  weeks  longer. 
As  a  matter  of  record  it  may  be  said  that  General  McClellan's  report, 
signed  by  his  own  hand  and  dated  April  13th,  1862,  showed  the  fol- 
lowing: "Number  of  troops  composing  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
after  the  disembarkation  on  the  Peninsula :  Aggregate  present  for 
duty,  100,070 ;  on  special  duty,  sick,  and  in  arrest,  4,205 ;  aggregate 
absent,  12.4<%:  total  aggregate,  117.721."  l 

Johnston  had  no  idea  of  holding  Yorktown.     On  the  afternoon  of 
May  3d,  a  desultory  but  harmless  fire  was  opened  upon  the 

KrnniiiMon  i  " 

advanced  works  of  the  Union  army,  lasting  until  midnight. 
On  the  morning  of  the  4th,  it  was  reported  from  the  front 
that  there  was  a  great  fire  in  the  town.  General  Heintzelman  went 
up  in  a  balloon,  from  which  he  could  overlook  the  Confederate  lines. 
Their  camp-fires  were  nearly  all  out,  and  the  guns  at  Yorktown  were 
gone.  Johnston  with  his  whole  force  had  retired,  taking  with  him 
everything  worth  carrying  away.  McClellan  telegraphed  jubilantly 
to  "Washington:  "We  have  the  ramparts;  have  guns,  ammunition, 
camp  equipage.  We  hold  the  entire  lines  of  the  enemy's  works.  I 
have  thrown  all  my  cavalry  and  horse-artillery  in  pursuit.  No  time 
shall  be  lost.  I  shall  push  the  enemy  to  the  wall." 

The  Confederates  had  a  good  start,  and  before  the  retreat  was  fairly 
known  their  trains  and  artillery  were  well  on  the  way  to  Richmond. 

«/  *• 

General  George  Stoneman's  cavalry  followed  them,  and  a  little  after 
noon  came  in  view  of  some  works  near  Williamsburg.  They  halted 
for  the  infantry  to  come  up.  Meanwhile  General  Joseph  Hooker,  of 
Heintzelman's  corps,  had  set  out  in  pursuit,  through  a  heavy  rain, 
which  made  the  march  slow  and  difficult;  but  he  pressed  on  until 
midnight,  and  then  halted  for  rest.  An  hour  after  daybreak  the  next 
morning  they  were  in  front  of  Fort  Magruder,  into  which  the  Confed- 
erates were  driven.  Hooker  sent  back  word  that  he  had  the  enemy 
in  a  vise,  and  could  hold  him  there  until  more  men  should  come  up. 
But  there  was  no  actual  commanding  officer  at  Yorktown.  McClellan 
was  doing  quartermaster's  duty  in  directing  the  movements  of  Frank- 
lin's corps,  which  had  arrived  by  water.2  Heintzelman  had  been  put 
in  charge  of  the  movements  in  front ;  but  in  the  evening,  General  E. 

1  It  is  difficult  to  see  how,  in  the  face  of  these  official  figures,  General  McClellan  could 
subsequently  declare,  as  he  did  in  his  paper  on  the  Peninsular  campaign  (Battles  and  Lend- 
trs  in  the  Civil  War,  Vol.  ii.  p.  171),  that  he  had  at  that  lime  "only  some  67,000  for  battle  " 
available. 

a  Franklin's  corps,  sent  to  McClellan  in  response  to  his  strenuous  call  for  rei-nforcements, 
had  idly  laiu  in  the  transports  in  the  river  for  two  weeks.  According  to  McClellan's 
own  official  report,  he  had,  on  April  30th,  an  aggregate  of  112,392  men  present  for  duty. 
Johnston  left  Yorktown  with  about  50,000  men. 


1862.] 


THE  CONFEDERATE   RETREAT. 


521 


Exploded  Gun  in  Confederate  Battery  at  Yorktown. 
Drawn  by  Harry  Fcnnfrom  a  photograph. 

V.  Sumner  came  up,  and  although  lie  brought  no  troops  with  him,  he 
took  the  command  by  right  of  seniority. 

The  works  near  Williamsburg,  on  the  line  of  retreat  up  the  Penin- 
sula,  had   been    lightly  held ;    but    Longstreet.    who    com- 
manded the  rear  of  the  Confederate  retreat,  saw  that  the    "imams- 

burz. 

pursuit  must  be  held  in  check  until  the  trains  and  artillery 
were  beyond  reach.  He  turned  back,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  4th 
of  May  took  the  defensive."  He  was  hotly  assailed  by  Hooker,  with 
inferior  numbers,  hoping  every  hour  to  be  reenforced.  Sumner,  mis- 
understanding the  position,  sent  Hancock  in  another  direction,  where 
he  gained  a  decided  advantage  over  the  enemy.  Hooker  kept  up  the 
fight  from  daybreak  until  late  in  the  afternoon,  when  his  ammunition 
began  to  fail.  At  this  moment  General  Philip  Kearny  came  up. 
For  six  hours  he  had  been  struggling  along  a  single  miry  road.  He 
outranked  Hooker,  who  gladly  yielded  the  command  to  him.  Kearny 's 
opportune  arrival  turned  the  wavering  balance.  The  Confederates, 
having  gained  their  point,  abandoned  the  field.  Late  in  the  day 
McClellan  came  up,  and  "•  pushed  the  enemy  to  the  wall,"  by  orders 
that  the  pursuit  should  not  be  resumed  in  the  morning,  as  he  had 


522 


THE  PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


Panic  in 
Richmond. 


other  arrangements  in  mind.  The  cavalry  picked  up  a  few  stragglers, 
and  four  or  five  guns,  which  had  stuck  fast  in  the  mud.  The  Federal 
loss  in  the  battle  was  468  killed,  1,442  wounded,  and  373  missing,  of 
whom  more  than  two  thirds  were  from  Hooker's  division.  Hooker 
complained  bitterly  of  his  division  being  left  to  fight  an  overwhelming 
force,  "unaided  in  the  presence  of  more  than  30,000  of  their  comrades 
with  arms  in  their  hands."  There  seemed  to  be  no  responsible  officer 
at  the  head  of  affairs.  The  corps  and  division  commanders  were 
apparently  left  to  fight  or  retreat  in  their  own  way.  The  Confeder- 
ate losses  in  this  battle  were  288  killed,  975  wounded,  and  297  cap- 
tured or  missing. 

When  General  McClellan  came  up  and  surveyed  the  field  on  which 
the  real  horrors  of  war  were  depicted  in  sanguinary  colors,  he  took 
alarm  at  once,  and  telegraphed  to  Washington :  "  I  find  General  Joe 
Johnston  in  front  of  me  in  strong  force,  probably  greater  a  good  deal 
than  my  own."  But  Johnston,  with  his  50,000  men  or  less,  was 
rapidly  falling  back  on  Richmond.  The  Confederate  capital  was 
about  fifty  miles  distant.  The  march  of  the  Union  army 
was  very  slow ;  beginning  on  the  8th  of  May,  the  advance 
did  not  reach  the  Chickahominy  until  the  20th.  During  this  month 
stirring  events  had  occurred.  New  Orleans  had  been  captured  by 
Farragut,  Norfolk  had  been  surrendered,  and  the  Merrimae^  "  the  iron 
diadem  of  the  South,  worth  50,000  men,"  had  been  blown  up.  From 
the  moment  when  it  was  known  that  the  Federal  army  had  landed 
on  the  Peninsula,  dismay  had  reigned  at  Richmond.  The  Confed- 
erate Congress  adjourned  on  the  21st  of  April,  and  the  government 
archives  were  sent  to  Lynchburg  and  to  South  Carolina.  All  places 
of  business  were  ordered  to  be  closed 
at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and 
all  able-bodied  men  were  ordered  to 
drill  for  four  hours  daily. 

But  the  condition  of  Richmond 
was  not  so  desperate  as  it  seemed. 
In  three  or  four  days  Johnston  ar- 
rived from  Yorktown,  bringing  with 
him  47,000  men.  The  Merrimac 
had  been  blown  up  on  the  llth  of 
May ;  but  the  Federal  gunboats, 
among  which  was  the  Monitor,  in 
attempting  to  ascend  the  James, 
were  checked  at  Fort  Darling,  eight 
miles  below  the  city,  and  could  go 

nO    farther.        Their     guns     COuld    not  Major-General  Philip  Kearny. 


1862.] 


ON  THE  CHICKAHOMINY. 


523 


reach  the  fortified  heights  above  them.     Huger  had  come  up  from 
Norfolk  with  7,000  men,   and   Branch  and   Anderson   were  coining 
down  from  the  Rappahannock  with  13,000  more.     So  that  when,  near 
the  end  of  May,  McClellan  reached  the  Chickahominy  with  ThPrhi<-k- 
about  135,000  men,  the  Confederate  force  at  Richmond  num-  ahomi»-v- 
bered  67,000.     The  real  defence  of  Richmond  at  this  time  was  the 

Chickahominy,  which  rises  in 

*/ 

swampy  uplands  northwest  of 
Richmond,  flows  southward  for 
fifty  miles,  parallel  with  and 


Panic  in  Richmond. 


nearly  midway  between  the  James  and  the  York,  and  empties  into  the 
James.  Below  Richmond  its  course  from  six  to  ten  miles  is  little 
more  than  a  brook.  In  dry  summer  seasons  the  channel  is  only  a  few 
yards  broad,  and  hardly  four  feet  deep  ;  but  a  continuous  rain-fall,  or 
a  sudden  shower,  floods  the  swamp  and  bottom-land.  This  season  had 
been  an  unusually  wet  one ;  the  low  lands  were  flooded,  so  as  to  be 
impassable  for  cavalry  or  artillery,  though  infantry,  if  unopposed, 
might  have  picked  their  way  across  at  one  point  or  another.  Thus 
the  narrow  Chickahominy,  with  its  bordering  swamps,  was  more  for- 
midable as  a  military  obstacle  than  a  broad  river  would  have  been, 
over  which  pontoon  bridges  could  be  thrown.  McClellan's  army  had 


524 


THE  PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


The  White 
House. 


Lieutenant-General  Thomas  J.  ("  Stonewall  ") 
Jackson,  C.  S.  A. 


now  been  organized  into  five  corps: 
the  old  corps  of  Sumner, 
Heintzelman,  and  Keyes;  a 
new  one  under  Fits-John  Porter ;  and 
the  fifth  was  Franklin's,  which  had 
arrived  on  the  day  of  the  Confeder- 
ate abandonment  of  York  town.  The 
base  of  supply  was  for  the  present 
established  at  West  Point,  or  rather 
at  the  White  House,  five  miles  up 
the  Pamunkey. 

On  the  20th  of  May  the  advance 
of  the  Federal  army  reached  the 
Chickahominy  at  Bottom's  Bridge, 
which  had  been  partly  destroyed,  but 
the  abutments  remained,  and  in  a  few 

days  the  bridge  was  restored.  Keyes's  corps,  and  a  part  of  that  of 
Mccieiian-g  Heintzelman,  30,000  men  in  all,  were  sent  over,  and  their 
positions.  advanced  posts  on  the  west  side  were  within  half  a  dozen 
miles  of  Richmond.  They  met  with  no  opposition,  for  Johnston's  force 
was  some  miles  farther  up,  watching  points  which  it  was  expected 
would  be  attacked.  As  McClellan's  other  divisions  came  up,  they 
were  posted  for  a  distance  of  some  fifteen  miles  along  the  east  side  of 
the  Chickahominy.  The  army  was  thus  practically  divided  into  two 
parts.  Between  them  lay  the  Chickahominy,  with  its  flooded  swamps. 
The  entire  position  was  in  shape  somewhat  like  the  letter  V,  only  the 
right  arm  was  two  or  three  times  longer  than  the  other.  This  was  a 
grave  military  error,  which  was  nowhere  better  set  forth  than  by  Mc- 
Clellan  himself,  not  long  after.  He  said :  "  The  only  available  means 
of  uniting  our  forces  at  Fair  Oaks  for  an  advance  upon  Richmond  was 
to  march  the  troops  from  points  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Chickahominy 
down  to  Bottom's  Bridge,  and  thence  over  the  Williamsburg  road  to 
a  position  near  Fair  Oaks,  a  distance  of  about  twenty-three  miles.  In 
the  condition  of  the  roads  at  that  time  this  march  could  not  be  made 
with  artillery  in  less  than  two  days." 

McClellan  had  all  along  urged    that  McDowell's  corps  should  be 
sent  to  him  on  the  Peninsula.     On  the  morning  of  the  24th 

Jackson  °n          .  ,  _  ,  .  i     i  i  • 

the  shenan-  of  May  a  despatcli  announced  that  this  corps  would  soon  be 
with  him ;  but  in  the  afternoon  another  despatch  informed 
him  that  the  execution  of  the  order  to  McDowell  had  been  suspended. 
The  reason  for  this  sudden  change  is  to  be  found  in  the  bold  and 
skilful  operations  of  "Stonewall  "  Jackson  in  the  great  valley  of  the 
Shenandoah.  This  remarkable  Confederate  officer  was  a  graduate 


1862.]  ALARM  IN   WASHINGTON.  525 


Major-General  Samuel  P.  Heintzelman.  Mijor-General  Erasmus  D.  Keyes. 

of  the  United  States  Military  Academy,  in  morals  a  purist,  in  reli- 
gion a  fanatical  zealot,  and  in  military  strategy  a  scientific  expert. 
It  is  not  certain  that  he  would  have  been  successful  as  commander  of 
a  great  army.  But  as  chief  of  an  army  corps  he  was  a  tremendous 
power.  His  courage  was  like  adamant ;  he  knew  no  fear.  It  was 
said  that  his  opinion  was  that  the  South  should  take  no  prisoners 
alive.  When  Johnston  moved  towards  Yorktown,  Jackson  had  been 
left  behind  in  the  Shenandoah  valley  with  about  6,000  men,  and 
Ewell  with  as  many  more  on  the  Rappahannock,  their  forces  being 
soon  after  united.  By  the  23d  of  May,  Jackson  had  driven  the  Fed- 
eral forces  from  the  valley,  and  was  supposed  to  be  marching  upon 
Washington.  On  the  25th  the  Secretary  of  War  telegraphed  to  the 
Governors  of  the  Northern  States :  "  Intelligence  from  various  quar- 
ters leaves  no  doubt  that  the  enemy  in  great  force  are  inarching  upon 
Washington.  You  will  please  organize  and  forward  immediately  all 
the  militia  and  volunteer  forces  in  your  State ; "  and  on  the  same 
day  the  President  took  possession  of  the  railroads,  to  be  used  for 
transmitting  troops  and  munitions  of  war.  General  McDowell,  with 
40,000  men,  and  Fremont  with  20,000,  were  sent  by  different  routes 
against  Jackson,  who  had  barely  16,000.  By  rapid  marches  he  eluded 
both  for  a  while ;  but  on  the  8th  of  June  the  Federals  and  the  Con- 
federates came  within  sight  of  each  other  at  Port  Republic,  a  little 
hamlet  near  the  junction  of  the  north  and  south  forks  of  the  Shenan- 
doah. Here  ensued  a  desultory  engagement,  known  as  the  battle  of 
the  Cross  Keys.  Both  sides  claimed  this  as  a  victory ;  but  the  real 
advantage  lay  with  Jackson,  who  gained  his  object  of  escaping  across 
the  South  Fork  of  the  Shenandoah.  He  remained  there  for  a  fort- 
night, when  he  was  summoned  to  the  Chickahominy. 


526 


THE  PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


The  Pres- 
ident and 
McClellan 
differ. 


To  the  order  depriving  him  of  McDowell's  corps,  McClellan  mainly 
ascribes  the  disastrous  result  of  his  campaign.  The  Presi- 
dent explained  in  reply  that  General  N.  P.  Banks  had  been 
driven  to  Winchester,  and  from  Winchester  to  Martinsburg; 
that  the  advance  of  the  enemy  seemed  a  general  one,  and  not  as  "  if 
he  was  acting  upon  the  purpose  of  a  very  desperate  defence  of  Rich- 
mond." He  adds :  "  I  think  the  time  is  near  when  yon  must  either 
attack  Richmond  or  give  up  the  job  and  come  to  the  defence  of 
Washington."  However  willing  the  rebels  might  be  to  exchange 
Richmond  for  Washington,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  disposed  to  take  that 
risk  by  leaving  the  capital  defenceless  for  the  sake  of  reenforcing  the 
army  in  the  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy. 

One  or  two  gleams  of  apparent  success  preluded  the  dark  days  to 
come.  Intelligence  was  received  that  a  considerable  force 
of  the  enemy  were  near  Hanover  Court  House,  a  few  miles 
to  the  northeast  of  McClellan. "s  right,  and  partly  in  his  rear, 
"  in  a  position,"  he  said,  "  either  to  reenforce  Jackson  or  to  impede 
McDowell's  junction,  should  he  finally  move  to  join  us."  It  was  sup- 
posed that  this  force  had  been  sent  from  Richmond,  whereas  it  really 
consisted  of  L.  O'B.  Branch's  North  Carolinians,  who  had  just  been 
ordered  to  Virginia  after  their  defeat  by  Burnside  at  Newbern.  Fitz- 
John  Porter  was  sent  against  them.  On  the  27th  he  found  them  well 


Battle  of 
Hanover 
Court 
House 


Robertson's  Battery  near  Fair  Oaks,  Va.,  in  June,  1862. 
Drawn  by  Guftav  Verbetkfrom  a  photograph. 


186-2.]  A  SUCCESSION  OF  FIGHTS.  527 


Battle-field  of  Seven  Pines. 


posted  near  the  Court  House.  They  were  driven  from  the  field  ;  but 
most  of  them  made  their  way  to  Richmond.  The  results,  as  given  by 
McClellan,  were,  "  Some  200  of  the  enemy's  dead  buried  by  our  troops, 
730  prisoners  sent  to  the  rear.  Our  loss  amounted  to  53  killed,  344 
wounded  and  missing."  Fitz-John  Porter,  on  this  occasion,  handled 
his  troops  with  great  skill  and  spirit. 

Johnston  —  the  wariest,  and  some  think  the  ablest,  of  the  Confed- 
erate generals  —  could  not  fail  to  perceive  the  faulty  disprtsi-  nattle  o{ 
tion  which  McClellan  had  made  of  his  army.  The  left  Se™pin<*- 
wing,  across  the  Chickahominy,  apparently  invited  attack.  Johnston 
thought  only  Keyes's  corps  was  over,  whereas  a  part  of  Heintzelman's 
was  there,  making  the  whole  number  not  less  than  30.000.  Upon 
this  the  Confederate  general  undertook  to  throw  in  his  whole  dispos- 
able force,  consisting  of  the  divisions  of  Huger,  Longstreet,  D.  H. 
Hill,  and  G.  W.  Smith,  numbering  in  all  nearly  50.000.  Longstreet 
and  Hill  were  to  attack  in  front,  Huger  on  the  Federal  left,  and 
Smith  on  their  right.  But  Huger  lost  his  way,  and  did  not  come  up, 
so  that  the  actual  attacking  force  was  something  less  than  40,000. 
The  attack  was  to  be  made  on  the  31st  of  May.  On  the  preceding 
afternoon  a  furious  storm  set  in,  which  retarded  the  movements. 

The  attack  was  to  be  made  at  daybreak ;  but  it  was  eight  o'clock 
before  Longstreet  and  Hill  were  in  position  on  the  front.  They 
waited  until  a  little  past  noon  for  Huger  to  strike  upon  the  Federal 
left.  He  did  not  come,  and  Longstreet  opened  the  fight.  The  bulk 
of  Keyes's  corps  was  slightly  intrenched  at  Seven  Pines,  on  the  Wil- 
liamsburg  road,  half  way  between  the  Chickahominy  and  Richmond. 
Casey's  division  had  been  pushed  a  mile  farther ;  but  he  was  soon 


528 


THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


Flying  Artillery  —  Benson's  Battery,  2d  U.  S.  Mounted  Artillery  —  near  Fair  Oaks,  June,   1862. 
Dratrn  by  G,  W.  Peters  from  a  photograph. 

forced  back  to  Seven  Pines,  where  the  fighting  was  hot  for  two 
hours,  when  Casey's  troops  gave  way,  and  fell  back  in  some  disorder. 
Couch's  division  took  a  road  to  the  right,  where  it  soon  found  itself 
engaged  in  the  quite  separate  battle  of  Fair  Oaks.  At  dusk  Heintzel- 
man  and  Keyes,  with  mere  fragments  of  regiments,  formed  a  new  line. 
This  poured  in  so  hot  a  fire  tlmt  the  Confederates  recoiled.  The  Fed- 
eral troops  then  fell  back  a  mile  or  two,  and  both  armies  lay  upon 
their  arms.  The  battle  of  Seven  Pines,  although  indecisive,  had 
been  in  favor  of  the  enemy,  Longstreet  and  Hill  having  forced  back 
the  Federal  left  and  centre.  If  things  had  gone  as  well  with  Smith 
on  the  Confederate  right,  a  complete  victory  might  be  expected  the 
next  day.  Johnston  had  taken  his  place  with  Smith's  division,  in 
order,  as  he  savs,  "  that  I  might  be  on  a  part  of  the  field  where  I 
could  observe  and  be  ready  to  meet  any  counter  movement  which  the 
enemy  might  make  against  our  centre  and  left.  Owing  to  some 
peculiar  condition  of  the  atmosphere,  the  sound  of  the  musketry  did 
not  reach  us.  I  consequently  deferred  giving  the  signal  for  General 
Smith  to  attack  until  four  o'clock."  By  this  time  an  unexpected 
Federal  force  had  come  upon  that  part  of  the  field. 

The  noise  of  the  opening  action  at  the  Seven  Pines,  inaudible  to 
Hattieof  Johnston,  four  miles  away,  was  heard  at  McClellan's  head- 
Fair  u;,k-.  qlU4rters  on  the  other  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  eight  or  ten 
miles  distant  in  a  straight  line.  McClellan  was  ill,  but  he  ordered 


18G2.] 


FAIR   OAKS. 


529 


Sumner,  who  had  constructed  two  shaky  bridges  over  the  stream,  to 
hold  himself  in  readiness  to  cross.  Sumner  was  more  than  ready  to 

* 

obey.  The  water  had  begun  to  rise,  and  the  approaches  to  the 
bridges  were  like  floating  rafts.  Sumner,  with  a  single  division,  that 
of  Sedgwick,  crossed,  and  guided  by  the  noise  of  the  firing  marched 
toward  the  battle-field.  At  Fair  Oaks  Station  on  the  railroad,  lie 
met  Couch,  who  said  that  in  falling  back  from  the  Seven  Pines  his 
division  became  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  corps,  and  that  he  was 
in  momentary  expectation  of  being  attacked.  Before  Sumner  could 
bring  his  troops  into  line,  the  enemy  attacked.  The  action  lasted 
two  or  three  hours.  "  The  strength  of  the  enemy's  position,"  says 
Johnston,  "  enabled  him  to  hold  it  until  dark/'  Sumner  then  ordered 
a  charge,  by  which  the  assailants  were  driven  back,  and  both  armies 
bivouacked  on  the  field  so  close  to  each  other  that  their  sentinels 
were  within  speaking  distance. 

The  battle  of  Seven  Pines  had  gone  in  favor  of  the  Confederates  ; 
that  of  Fair  Oaks  in  favor  of  the  Union  forces ;  yet  neither  was 
decisive.  All  depended  on  what  should  be  done  the  next  day.  Just 


Field  Hospital  at  Savage's  Station  after  the  Battle  of  June  27,  I  862. 
Drawn  by  t~.  C.  Hnnsnm  from  a 


VOL.    IV. 


530 


THE   PENINSULAR   CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


at  sunset  Johnston  was  struck  by  the  fragment  of  a  shell,  and  was 
borne  away,  it  was  thought  fatally  wounded.  The  command  devolved 
upon  G.  W.  Smith,  by  right  of  seniority.  After  the  action  was  over, 
Richardson's  division  of  Sumner's  corps  came  up,  and  was  posted  so 
that  it  could  take  part  in  the  expected  fight  of  the  next  day.  In  the 
morning  Smith  found  that  Longstreet  at  the  Seven  Pines  was  in  no 
condition  to  renew  the  battle  in  that  quarter ;  but  it  was  resumed  at 
Fair  Oaks,  where  Suraner  had  been  fm%ther  strengthened  by  Hooker's 
division  of  Heintzelman's  corps.  In  an  hour  all  was  over,  and  the 
entire  Confederate  force  fell  back  in  disorder  to  Richmond.  About 
noon  McClellan  came  over.  He  was  quite  satisfied  with  what  had 
been  achieved,  and  had  no  special  orders  to  give.  In  the  judgment  of 
all  his  corps-commanders,  if  the  pursuit  had  been  pressed,  Richmond 
would  have  fall- 
en. The  Fed- 
eral losses  in 
this  double  bat- 
tle are  officially 
given  as  890 
killed,  3,627 
wounded,  and 
1,222  missing, 
—  5,732  in  all. 
The  Confeder- 
ate loss  was  980 
killed,  4,749 
wounded,  405 
missing, — 6,134 
all  told.  Smith's 
command  of  the 
Confederate  ar- 
my lasted  only 
three  days.  He 
had,  it  is  said, 
a  slight  para- 
lytic stroke,  and 
the  command 
was  given  to 
General  Robert 
E.  Lee. 

After  the  bat- 
tle of  Fair  Oaks 
McClellan  occu- 


Lowe's  Military  Balloon  at  Gaines's  Mill,  Va, 


(Many  ascensions  were  made  in  this  balloon  just  before  the  battle  of 

Gaines's  Mill  for  purposes  of  observation.) 
Drawn  by  Gustav  Veror.ek  from  a  photograph. 


18C2.] 


McCLELLAN'S   DELAYS. 


531 


• 

'*'• 


. 

y-^  * ,,  i  ,  ,•••' 


ment8- 


Inflating  the  Balloon  at  Gaines's  Mill. 
Drawn  by  Gustav  Verbeckfrom  a  photograph. 

pied  himself  for  nearly  a  month  in  building  bridges  across  the  Chick- 
ahominy.  There  were  eleven  of  them  ;  but  only  eight  ap-  Bridge. 
pear  to  have  been  necessary.  For  a  week  after  the  battle  of  buildins- 
Fair  Oaks,  the  general  complained  of  the  weather.  The  river  rose 
and  flooded  the  entire  bottom,  and  the  country  was  impassable  for 
artillery  and  cavalry  except  upon  the  narrow  roads.  No  movement, 
he  said,  was  possible  against  the  enemy,  and  he  asked  that  detachments 
should  be  sent  him  from  Halleck's  army.  But  Halleck's  army  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley  had  gained  signal  successes,  and  was  now 
engaged  in  operations  which  rendered  it  unadvisable  that  it 
should  be  weakened.  McDowell's  corps,  or  at  least  McCall's  division 
of  it,  had  been  again  promised  to  McClellan.  He  had  apparently 
been  satisfied  with  this,  for  on  the  7th  of  June  he  wrote  :  "  I  shall  be 
in  perfect  readiness  to  move  forward  and  take  Richmond  the  moment 
McCall  reaches  here,  and  the  ground  will  admit  the  passage  of  artil- 
lery." McCall's  division,  10,000  strong,  arrived  on  the  12th  ;  about 
the  same  time  several  regiments,  numbering  5,000  men,  had  been 
sent  up  from  Fortress  Monroe,  raising  the  force  under  McClellan's 
immediate  command  to  the  highest  point  which  it  reached  during  this 
campaign.  The  returns  for  June  14  showed  158,838  men,  of  whom 
115,152  were  present  for  duty. 

On  the  13th  of  June  headquarters  were  moved  across  the  Chicka- 


532 


THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


hominy.  On 
that  day  the 
Confederate 
cavalryman, 
General  J.  E. 
B.  Stuart,  with 
1,500  cavalry, 
set  out  upon  a 
bold  raid  clear 
around  the  Fed- 
eral lines.  He 
crossed  the 
Chickahominy 
some  distance 


Battle-field    of  Malvern  Hill. 


above  McClellan's  extreme  right,  then,  turning  southeastward!}*,  he 
dashed  to  the  White  House,  destroying  some  depots  of  provisions,  and 
recrossed  the  Chickahominy  some  miles  below  the  extreme  Federal 
left.  He  brought  with  him  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  prisoners  and 
twice  as  many  horses,  having  lost  only  one  man.  This  reconnoitering 
expedition  did  not  appear  to  disturb  McClellan. 

The  corps  of  Heintzelman,  Keyes,  and  Sumner  were  already  across 
Fin«i  prepa-  *ne  Chickahominy  ;  that  of  Franklin  was  soon  brought  over, 
rations.  leaving  only  Porter's  corps  and  McCall's  division  on  the 
north  side.  On  the  18th  of  June  McClellan  telegraphed  to  the  Pres- 
dent :  "  Our  army  is  well  over  the  Chickahominy.  The  rebel  lines 
run  within  musket  range  of  ours.  A  general  engagement  may  take 
place  at  any  hour.  After  to-morrow  we  shall  fight  the  rebel  army  as 
soon  as  Providence  permits.  We  shall  await  only  a  favorable  condi- 
tion of  earth  and  sky,  and  the  completion  of  some  necessary  prelim- 
inaries." Another  week  passed,  marked  mainly  by  occasional  picket- 
firing.  On  the  25th,  he  said,  "  the  bridges  and  intrenchments  being 
completed,  an  advance  of  our  picket  line  on  the  left  was  ordered, 
preparatory  to  a  general  advance  movement,"  the  object  being  to 
ascertain  the  nature  of  a  belt  of  swampy  ground  a  mile  beyond  the 
Seven  Pines.  The  movement  was  opposed,  and  there  was  a  desultory 
conflict,  lasting  from  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  five  in  the 
afternoon.  The  insurgents  called  this  the  battle  of  King's  School 
House.  Each  side  lost  five  or  six  hundred  men.  McClellan  says 
this  "  was  not  a  battle,  but  merely  an  affair  of  Heintzelman's  corps, 
supported  by  Keyes,  with  some  aid  from  Sumner."  At  five  o'clock 
he  telegraphed  to  Washington  :  "  The  affair  is  now  over,  and  we  have 
gained  our  point.  All  is  now  quiet." 

Within  less  than  two  hours  he  put  upon  the  wires  quite  a  different 


1862.]  THE  SEVEN   DAYS'  FIGHTING.  533 

despatch.  Jackson's  advance,  he  said,  was  at  Hanover  Court  House  ; 
Beauregard  was  at  Richmond  ;  a  force  of  200,000  men  was  Mcci«iun-» 
opposed  to  him,  and  he  would  probably  be  attacked  the  next  £t'ars" 
day,  and  should  have  to  contend  against  vastly  superior  numbers.  He 
would  do  all  he  could,  but  if  his  army  was  destroyed,  he  could  at  least 
die  with  it,  and  share  its  fate.  There  was  no  use  of  asking  for  further 
reinforcements.  If  the  result  should  be  disaster,  the  responsibility 
could  not  be  thrown  upon  his  shoulders.  There  was  not  in  all  this 
that  entire  accuracy  to  be  looked  for  in  affairs  of  great  importance  at 
decisive  moments  from  officers  in  posts  of  great  responsibility.  Beau- 
regard  was,  in  fact,  hundreds  of  leagues  away  in  Alabama,  and  had 
been  removed  from  his  command  in  the  Mississippi  region.  This  only 
was  true,  —  that  Jackson  was  not  very  far  from  Hanover  Court  House, 
and  McClellan  was  to  be  attacked  the  next  day.  But  there  was  no 
overwhelming  force  against  him.  The  numbers  on  each  side  were 
about  equal,  neither  varying  much  from  100,000  men  ;  the  National 
force  being  reported  at  105,000,  the  Confederate  at  80.000  to  00,000. 
Thursday,  June  26th,  had  been  fixed  upon  by  both  Lee  and 
McClellan  for  a  decided  offensive  movement.  Lee  took  the 
initiative.  According  to  his  plan,  Magruder  and  Huger  «e»ver  nam 
were  to  remain  in  front  of  Richmond,  and  Holmes  at  Fort 
Darling,  on  the  James,  ready  to  cross  the  river  when  ordered.  On 
this  side  of  the  Chickahominy  were  about  33,000  men,  besides  cavalry. 
On  that  side  McClellan  had  fully  70,000.  The  divisions  of  A.  P. 
Hill,  Longstreet,  and  D.  H.  Hill,  34,000  in  all,  were  to  cross  the  Chick- 
ahominy above  the  Federal  right,  unite  with  Jackson,  and  then,  about 
60,000  strong,  to  press  down  upon  Porter,  whose  corps,  with  McCall's 
division,  numbered  30,000,  besides  cavalry.  Longstreet  and  the 
Hills  began  their  march  during  the  night  of  the  25th.  Early  the 
next  morning  they  reached  the  river  and  waited  until  afternoon  for 
the  coming  of  Jackson,  whose  march  had  been  delayed.  At  four 
o'clock  A.  P.  Hill  crossed  and  attacked  the  extreme  right  of  the 
Federal  army,  thus  beginning  the  actual  fighting  of  the  historic 
Seven  Days.1  The  Federal  position,  held  by  two  brigades  of  McCall's 
division  of  6,000  men,  was  a  strong  one.  In  front  WHS  Beaver  Dam 
Creek,  five  or  six  yards  wide,  and  four  feet  deep,  with  steep  banks, 
beyond  which  was  an  open  field  that  the  assailants  must  cross  under 
the  fire  of  the  Federal  artillery.  The  attack  made  by  the  two  Hills 
was  with  about  12,000  men.  They  were  repulsed  at  nightfall,  and 

1  The  actions  during  this  periixl  have  been  variously  designated.  That  of  the  26th  has 
been  styled  the  battle  of  Beaver  Creek  Dam,  or  of  Mechanicsville  ;  that  of  the  27th,  the 
hattle  of  Cold  Harbor,  Giiines's  Mill,  or  the  Chickahoiuiuy  ;  that  of  the  30th,  the  battle 
of  Frazier's  Farm,  or  of  Charles  City  Court  House. 


534  THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XX. 

•withdrew,  having  lost  about  1,500  men,  the  loss  on  the  other  side 
being  not  more  than  300.  This  position  was  held  merely  to  check 
the  advance  of  the  enemy,  and  during  the  night  McCall  was  with- 
drawn to  join  Porter  in  his  position  at  Cold  Harbor,  five  miles  below. 

Early  the  next  morning,  D.  H.  Hill  bore  a  little  northward  to  unite 
Battle  of  \vit\i  Jackson,  under  whose  command  his  division  remained 
cold H.rbor  for  the  rest  of  ^  campaign.  A.  P.  Hill  and  Longstreet 
moved  down  the  bank  of  the  Chickahominy.  Their  advance  was 
slow,  for  they  might  come  at  any  moment  upon  the  Federal  troops. 
At  noon,  Hill,  who  was  in  the  advance,  reached  Gaines's  Mill,  where 
a  slight  skirmish  ensued.  A  little  beyond  the  Federal  force  was 
drawn  up  on  the  opposite  side  of  a  shallow  creek,  in  front  of  which 
was  a  swampy  plain  a  quarter  of  a  mile  broad,  bordered  by  a  tangled 
undergrowth.  Porter's  line  was  drawn  tip  semi-circularly,  so  as  to 
cover  the  bridge  across  the  Chickahominy. 

At  half-past  two  Hill  began  the  attack.  His  brigades  dashed  across 
the  plain,  floundered  through  the  swamp,  and  pressed  up  the  opposite 
Hiirs  re-  slope,  under  a  fierce  fire  of  artillery  and  musketry.  For 
pulse'  two  hours  the  contest  was  obstinate;  then  the  Confederate 

troops  gave  way,  and  fell  back  in  apparent  rout.  Longstreet  was 
now  ordered  to  support  Hill,  by  making  a  feint  on  the  left;  but  he 
found  it  necessary  to  bring  on  his  whole  force,  and  make  a 
real  attack.  At  this  moment  Jackson's  command  came 
*on'  down,  and  Lee  ordered  a  general  advance  along  the  whole 

line.  It  was  now  past  four  o'clock.  Two  hours  before  this  Porter 
had  sent  over  to  AlcClellan  for  aid.  McClellan,  foreseeing  the  prob- 
able necessity  of  this,  had  ordered  earl}'  in  the  morning  a  part  of 
Franklin's  corps  to  cross,  and  had  soon  sifter  countermanded  the 
order.  But  they  were  now  directed  anew  to  cross,  and  came  upon 
the  field  8,000  strong,  soon  after  the  general  attack  had  begun.  Still 
the  Confederates  had  nearly  three  to  two,  their  whole  force,  with  the 
exception  of  a  single  brigade,  1,400  strong,  kept  in  reserve,  being 
hotly  engaged.  An  hour  before  sunset  the  great  preponderance  of  the 
assailants  had  enabled  them,  though  at  a  fearful  cost,  to  pass  the 
swamp  and  thus  place  themselves  upon  equal  ground.  The  Federal 
line  was  severely  pressed,  and  began  to  give  way  at  every  point.  It 
was  not  yet  a  rout,  though  fast  threatening  to  become  one.  The  core 
of  every  division  was  still  solid,  but  fragments  were  breaking  off. 
All,  whether  soldiers  or  fugitives,  were  pressing  towards  the  bridge. 
Just  at  dusk  the  Federal  brigades  of  French  and  Meagher  appeared 
from  the  other  side.  Dashing  up  to  the  crest  of  the  bluff,  they 
moved  straight  upon  the  Federal  rear,  now  to  become  the  front. 
Those  who  had  been  retreating  faced  round,  and  a  firm  line  was 


18G2.] 


THE   BATTLE  OF  GAIXES'S  MILLS. 


535 


formed.  The  Confederates  paused  in  the  pursuit,  gave  a  few  volleys, 
and  fell  back,  as  darkness  was  setting  in. 

When  morning  broke,  the  Union  forces  were  safely  across  the 
Cliickahominy.  Their  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  about 
4,000,  besides  some  2,000  prisoners,  consisting  mainly  of 
three  rfgiments,  who  had  been  cut  off  during  the  Confederate  rush. 
They  also  lost  twenty-two  guns.  The  enemy,  attacking  under  a 
heavy  fire,  suffered  far  more  severely.  Their  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  was  about  9,500. 

While  this  battle  was  in  progress  McClellan  had  fully  70,000  men 
on  his  side  of  the  Chiekahominy.     Between  him  and  Rich- 
mond were  only  linger  and  Magruder.  with  barely  25,000   ciuckahom- 
men.     But  this  force  was  so  handled  that  even  Suinner  and 
Franklin  thought  that  it  was  as  much  as  they  could  do  to  hold  their 
positions.      The   ground    in  front   of  them    was   cut   up   by   ridges, 

wooded  swamps, 
and  ravines,  which 
shut  out  all  sight  of 
what  was  passing  a 
few  hundred  yards 

«/ 

awav.     A  body  of 

»-  V 

the  enemy  appear- 
ing at  any  point 
might  be  a  single 
regiment,  or  the 
head  of  a  division. 
The  Confederates 
showed  themselves 
at  one  point  and 
soon  after  at  an- 
other, thus  appar- 
ently doubling  or 

The  White  Houie.  near  Yorktown,  McClellan's  Base  of  Supply.  trebling     their     real 

numbers.      It    was 

Magruder's  role  to  rattle  around  in  front  of  the  Union  forces,  bewil- 
dering them  so  that  McClellan  might  think  his  enemy  four  times  as 
numerous  as  he  was.  The  ruse  was  successful.  There  was,  however, 
no  real  fighting  on  that  side  of  the  river  until  about  sunset,  when 
General  "  Bob"  Toombs  undertook,  with  two  regiments,  to  drive  in  a 
Federal  picket  station.  In  that  action  Toombs  lost  nearly  200  men 
from  his  650. 

The  results  of  this  fight,  known  as  the  battle  of  Gaines's  Mill,  filled 
McClellan  with  consternation.     He  imagined  that  the  annihilation 


536  THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XX. 

of  his  army  was  imminent;  he  prepared  an  order  for  the  destruction 
of  military  baggage,  and,  according  to  some  authorities,  actually  con- 
templated the  capitulation  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.1      Towards 
midnight  McClellan  held  a  council  of  war.     It  was  decided 

Mcflellnn  to 

the  swr."-      to   make  a   "change  of  base,    by  abandoning  the  Chicka- 

tary  of  War.  .  '   . 

hominy  and  retreating  to  the  James.  He  then  wrote  a 
bitter  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  He  now  knew,  he  said,  the 
whole  history  of  the  day.  On  the  left  bank  of  the  Chickahominy 
his  men  had  done  all  that  men  could  do,  but  they  had  been  repulsed 
by  vastly  superior  numbers.  On  the  right  bank  lie  had  repulsed 
several  strong  attacks.  If  he  had  20,000  or  even  10,000  more  fresh 
troops  he  could  take  Richmond  to-morrow ;  but  he  had  not  a  man  in 
reserve,  and  he  should  be  glad  to  retreat  and  save  the  men  and  mate- 
rial. He  asserted  that  the  government  had  not  sustained  the  army, 
and  if  this  were  not  done  at  once,  "  the  game  was  lost."  "  If  I  save 
this  army  now,"  he  concluded,  "  I  tell  you  plainly,  that  I  owe  no 
thanks  to  you  or  to  any  other  person  in  Washington.  You  have 
done  your  best  to  sacrifice  this  army."  To  this  the  patient  President 
replied  :  "  Save  your  army  at  all  events ;  you  are  ungenerous  in  assum- 
ing that  reinforcements  have  not  been  sent  as  fast  as  possible.  Your 
repulse  is  the  price  we  pay  for  the  safety  of  Washington."  The 
impulsive  Secretary,  if  left  to  himself,  would  hardly  have  been  so 
forbearing. 

If  Richmond  could  only  be  taken  by  a  long  siege,  the  James  was 
Peril  of  *ne  Dest  position.  But  it  must  have  fallen  in  a  few  hours 
Richmond.  ha(j  McClellan  made  a  direct  assault  upon  the  28th.  To 
defend  the  long  line  of  works  there  were  only  Magruderand  Huger, 
with  about  25,000  men.  Lee,  with  less  than  50,000,  after  his  losses, 
was  on  the  other  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  could  not  make  the 
march  back  by  the  way  he  had  come  in  less  than  two  days.  Right 
between  the  two  Confederate  bodies  was  McClellan's  whole  force, 
fully  95,000  strong  after  all  its  losses.  A  force  of  25,000  men  could 
have  prevented  any  passage  of  the  river  by  Lee,  and  70,000  could 
have  been  hurled  in  a  body  upon  the  Confederate  capital.  Magruder 
was  fully  aware  of  the  peril  of  the  situation.  He  says:  "Had 
McClellan  massed  his  whole  force  in  column  and  advanced  it  against 
any  point  of  our  line  of  battle,  though  the  head  of  the  column  would 
have  suffered  greatly,  its  momentum  would  have  insured  him  suc- 
cess, and  the  occupation  of  our  works  about  Richmond,  and  conse- 
quently of  the  city,  might  have  been  his  reward."  Richmond  lost,  it 
is  not  easy  to  conceive  how  the  Confederate  army  could  have  failed 
to  go  to  pieces,  for  Lee  had  marched  out  with  rations  for  not  more 

1  See  memorandum  of  Secretary  Chase,  Sliuckers's  Life  nf  S.  P.  Chase,  p.  447. 


1862.] 


RICHMOND  WAS  NOT  TAKEN. 


537 


Military  Bridge  across  the  Chickahominy. 

than  four  days,  and  within  a  hundred  miles  of  him  there  was  not,  out 
of  Richmond,  food  enough  for  a  week's  supply  for  his  army.  Rich- 
mond was  not  taken,  but  why,  nobody  appeared  to  be  competent  to 
answer. 

Keyes  moved  first  and  took  up  a  position  on  White  Oak  Creek,  so 
as  to  protect  the  passage  of  the  trains,  guarded  by  Franklin's  ^^ge-., 
and  Porter's  corps.     Heintzelman  and  Stunner,  who  lay  near-  statlon- 
est  Richmond,  came  down  to  Savage's  Station,  destroyed  such  stores 
as  could  not  be  taken  away,  and  then  moved  on  toward  Malvern  Hill. 
They  were  followed  by  Magruder,  with  two  or  three  brigades.     An 
attack  was  made  upon  Sumner,  Magruder  losing  about  400  men,  the 
Union    general  about   600.      At  midnight   Sumner  abandoned  this 
point,  leaving  behind  him  2,500  sick  and  wounded  in  the  hospital. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  that  day  Lee  had  become  assured  that 
McClellan's  entire  army  was  retreating  to  the  James.     He  ^.g 
resolved   upon  a  bold    but  hazardous    movement.     Jackson   strateey- 
was  to  cross  the  Chickahominy  by  the  New  Bridge,  which  Magruder 
had  already  repaired,  and  fall  upon  the  rear  of  the  retreating  army. 
Longstreet  and    A.    P.    Hill   were   to   cross  by   Simmer's   (irapevine 
Bridge,  make  a  long  detour  almost  to  Richmond,  and  then,  joined  by 
Magruder,   Huger,   and   Holmes,   fall  upon   the  flank.     It  was  esti- 
mated that  70,000  men  were  available  for  this  combined  movement. 
It  failed  mainly  because  only  A.  P.  Hill  and  Longstreet  performed 


538 


THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


the  part  assigned  to  them.  Jackson  crossed  the  Chickahominy  on 
the  morning  of  the  30th,  and  at  noon  came  up  with  the  rear  of  the 
Federal  force  at  White  Oak  Creek.  The  bridge  had  been  destroyed, 
and  all  the  approaches  were  covered  by  artillery.  His  men  could 
not  be  brought  to  face  the  fierce  fire  to  which  they  were  exposed, 
and  all  that  afternoon  he  was  compelled  to  listen  idly  to  the  noise  of 
the  battle  at  Frazier's  Farm,  hardly  two  miles  distant.  Holmes  had 
crossed  from  Fort  Darling,  on  the  James,  and  early  in  the  morning 
came  in  sight  of  the  head  of  the  retreating  Federal  column.  A  few 
rounds  of  artillery  and  a  few  shells  from  the  gunboats  in  the  James 
scattered  his  raw  troops.  This  was  the  only  part  which  they  took  in 
the  operations  of  the  Seven  Days. 

Longstreet  and  Hill  crossed  the  Chickahominy  on  the  morning  of 
the  29th,  and  at  night  encamped  near  the  head  of  the  White 
Oak  Swamp.  They  had  made  a  forced  march  under  the 
hot  midsummer  sun,  and  many  of  their  men  dropped  from 
sheer  exhaustion.  Resuming  their  march  in  the  morning,  at  noon  of 
the  30  th  they  came  close  upon  the  centre  of  the  Federal  column,  the 
head  of  which  had  already  reached  Malvern  Hill,  the  rear  being  in 
the  White  Oak  Swamp.  The  Confederate  generals  waited  three 
hours  for  the  arrival  of  Huger,  who  did  not  come  up  at  all,  having  lost 
his  way,  as  he  had  done  at  the  Seven  Pines.  At  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  the  onset  was  begun  by  Longstreet,  Hill  soon  following. 
The  fight  lasted  un- 
til dark,  but  owing 
to  the  nature  of  the 
region  it  was  a  se- 
ries of  combats  be- 
tween brigades, 
rather  than  a  regu- 
lar battle,  yet  ra- 
ging almost  contin- 
uously along  the 
whole  line,  each  side 
alternately  gaining 
and  losing  ground. 
Of  few  battles  are 
the  accounts  given 
by  the  various  trust- 
worthy actors  so  dis- 
cordant. Sumner 
says  :  "  After  a  furi- 

ous   Contest,    lasting  Hanover  Court  Houie. 


• 


1862.]  RETREAT  TO  MALVERN   HILL. 

until  dark,  the  enemy  was  routed  at  all  points  and  driven  from  the 
field."  But  there  was  no  rout,  and  the  Confederates  at  the  close  re- 
mained in  possession  of  the  field.  A.  P.  Hill  gives  a  clearer  account. 
He  says :  "  On  our  extreme  right  matters  seemed  to  be  going  badly. 
Two  brigades  of  Longstreet's  division  had  been  roughly  handled,  and 
fallen  back.  Archer  was  sent  in,  and  affairs  were  soon  restored  in 
that  quarter.  About  dark  the  enemy  were  pressing  us  hard  along  our 
whole  line,  and  my  last  reserve  was  directed  to  advance  cautiously. 
Heavy  reserves  of  the  enemy  were  brought  up,  and  it  seemed  that  a 
tremendous  effort  was  made  to  turn  the  fortunes  of  the  battle.  The 
volume  of  fire  that,  on  approaching,  rolled  along  the  whole  line,  was 
terrific.  Seeing  some  troops  of  Wilcox's  brigade,  who  had  rallied, 
they  were  rapidly  re-formed,  and  being  directed  to  cheer  long  and 
loudly,  they  moved  again  to  the  fight.  This  seemed  to  end  the  con- 
test, for  in  less  than  five  minutes  all  firing  ceased,  and  the  enemy 
retired." 

As  soon  as  it  was  clear  that  there  would  be  no  more  fighting,  the 
Federal  troops  resumed  their  march,  and  in  the  morning  the 

r  e  Result?. 

last  of  them  arrived  at  Malveru  Hill.  The  Confederates 
remained  upon  the  battle-field,  and  so  won  a  formal  victory.  But 
the  divisions  of  Longstreet  and  Hill  were  so  shattered  and  exhausted 
that  they  were  not  called  upon  to  take  part  in  the  great  battle  of  the 
next  day.  Hill  had  marched  from  Richmond  four  days  before  with 
14,000  men  ;  here  and  at  Beaver  Dam  and  Cold  Harbor  he  lost  3,780 
killed  and  wounded.  Longstreet  had  marched  with  10,000 ;  here  and 
at  Cold  Harbor  he  lost  4,182  killed  and  wounded,  and  nearly  300  miss- 
ing. The  losses  are  not  given  separately  for  each  action.  At  Frazier's 
Farm  the  loss  of  the  Confederates  was  about  2,000  killed  and  wounded. 
The  Federal  loss  was  about  1,800  killed  and  wounded,  besides  30  pris- 
oners and  20  guns,  captured  at  the  beginning  of  the  action. 

Malvern  Hill  is  an  elevated  plateau,  sixty  feet  high,  a  mile  and  a 
half  long  and  half  as  broad.     Along  the  front  are  ravines 

&  Battle  of 

passable  only  where  they  are  crossed  by  roads.  As  the  Mairem 
troops  came  up,  they  were  assigned  positions  by  General 
Barnard,  the  chief  engineer ;  for  McClellan  had  gone  to  select  a  posi- 
tion upon  the  river  to  which  the  army  might  continue  its  retreat. 
Sumner,  by  seniority  of  rank,  was  left  in  command,  without  having 
been  formally  invested  with  it,  or  receiving  instructions.  The  entire 
force  was  nearly  90,000.  Both  flanks  rested  upon  the  James,  and 
were  protected  by  gunboats.  On  the  crest  of  the  hill  were  seven 
heavy  siege  guns,  and  the  remainder  of  the  artillery  were  so  posted 
that  the  fire  of  sixty  pieces  might  be  concentrated  upon  any  point 
from  which  the  enemy  could  approach. 


540  THE  PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XX. 

Jackson  moved  on  as  soon  as  the  Federal  position  on  White  Oak 
Creek  was  abandoned.  His  command  had  suffered  severely  at  Cold 
Harbor,  and  now,  including  1).  H.  Hill's  division,  it  could  not  have 
numbered  more  than  30,000.  Hill's  advance  brought  him  at  nine 
o'clock  in  front  of  the  Federal  line.  "  Tier  after  tier  of  batteries," 
he  says,  "  were  grimly  visible  on  the  plateau,  rising  in  the  form  of 
an  amphitheatre.  We  could  reach  the  first  line  of  batteries  only  by 
traversing  an  open  space  of  three  or  four  hundred  yards,  exposed  to  a 
murderous  fire  of  grape  from  the  artillery,  and  of  musketry  from  the 
infantry.  If  that  was  carried,  another  and  another  still  more  formi- 
dable, remained  in  the  rear."  He  thought  an  attack  would  be  hazard- 
ous, and  urged  Lee  not  to  make  the  attempt.  But  Lee  was  not  ready 
to  abandon  his  elaborately  conceived  plan,  although  lie  could  not 
bring  many  more  than  50,000  men  to  its  execution,  and  Jackson  was 
ordered  to  begin  the  assault.  At  ten  o'clock  Hill  advanced  Ander- 
son's brigade  so  that  it  came  within  reach  of  the  Federal  artillery. 
4i  This  brigade,"  he  says,  "  was  roughly  handled  :  the  division  was 
halted,  and  the  Union  position  was  reconnoitered." 

Magruder,  in  command  of  his  own  division,  and  virtually  of  that  of 
Huger,  came  up.  Upon  him  the  real  work  of  attack  was  to  fall,  prep- 
arations for  which  were  completed  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 
Lee  wrote  to  each  of  his  division  commanders:  "Batteries  have  been 
established  to  act  upon  the  enemy's  lines.  If  they  are  broken,  as  is 
probable,  Armistead,  who  can  witness  the  effect  of  the  fire,  has  been 
ordered  to  charge  with  a  yell.  Do  you  the  same."  Each  of  these 
forty  words  cost  him  a  hundred  men.  Fire  was  opened  by  the  Con- 
federate batteries  at  six  o'clock,  and  the  real  battle  of  the  day  began. 

Hill  says  that  "  Instead  of  one  or  two  hundred  pieces,  only  a  single 
battery  opened,  and  that  was  knocked  to  pieces  in  a  few  minutes ; 
and  one  or  two  others  shared  the  same  fate  of  being  beaten  in  detail." 
He  wrote  to  Jackson  that  "  the  fire  from  the  batteries  was  of  a  most 
farcical  character;"  but  received  for  reply  that  he  must  advance  as 
ordered,  as  soon  as  he  heard  Armistead's  yell.  Armistead  drove  in  a 
few  skirmishers,  and  gave  the  expected  yell.  Lee  ordered  Magruder 
to  press  forward  the  whole  line,  and  follow  up  Armistead's  success. 
In  a  few  minutes  Magruder' s  command  was  confronting  a  deadly  fire. 
"  The  battle-field,"  he  says,  "  was  enveloped  in  smoke,  relieved  only 
by  flashes  from  the  contending  troops.  Round  shot  and  grape  crashed 
through  the  woods  ;  shells  of  enormous  size,  which  reached  far  beyond 
the  headquarters  of  the  commander-in-chief,  burst  amid  the  artillery 
parked  in  the  rear.  Belgian  missiles  and  minie  balls  lent  their  aid  to 
this  scene  of  stupendous  grandeur  and  sublimity."  This  fire  made  no 
impression  upon  the  Federal  lines,  not  even  disturbing  a  single  bat- 


1862.] 


FRIGHTFUL  LOSSES  OX   BOTH   SIDES. 


541 


Cold  Harbor. 


tery.  Darkness  set  in,  and  then,  continues  Magruder.  "I  concluded 
to  let  the  battle  subside."  Hill  in  the  mean  time  had  heard  Armi- 
stead's  yell,  and  an  hour  and  a  half  before  sunset  pushed  his  division 
forward.  "  We  advanced  alone,"  he  says,  not  quite  accurately ; 
"neither  Whiting  on  the  left,  nor  Huger  on  the  right,  moved  for- 
ward an  inch.  The  division  fought  heroically,  but  in  vain.  Finally 
Ewell  came  up,  but  it  was  after  dark,  and  nothing  could  be  accom- 
plished. I  advised  him  to  hold  his  ground,  and  not  to  attempt  a  for- 
ward movement."  Hill's  division,  8,000  strong  at  the  beginning  of 
this  attack,  lost  1,709  killed  and  wounded  in  that  hour  and  a  half. 
The  remainder  of  Jackson's  command  hardly  touched  the  battle  at  all. 

The  entire  Federal  loss  during  the  six  days  is  officially  stated  at 
15,249,  of  whom  1,582  were  killed,  7,709  wounded,  and 
6,958  missing.  The  Confederate  losses  in  the  divisions  of 
Jackson,  D.  H.  Hill,  Longstreet,  and  A.  P.  Hill  are  given  in  Lee's 
Report.  They  amount  to  14,645,  of  whom  2,472  were  killed,  11,774 
wounded,  and  399  missing.  Magruder's  losses  may  be  estimated  at 
about  4,500  in  all ;  making  the  entire  Confederate  loss  something 
more  than  19,000. 

The  pitiable  condition  of  the  Confederate  army  after  the  battle  of 
Malvern  Hill  is  set  forth  by  Trimble's  account,  embodied  in   Theflight 
Lee's    report.      He  says :    4i  The  next  morning  by  dawn  I   I^u^uid- 
went  off  to  ask  for  orders,  when  I  found  the  whole  army  in  ing- 
the  utmost  disorder.    Thousands  of  straggling  men  were  asking  every 


Losses. 


542  THE  PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN.  [CHAP.  XX. 

passer-by  for  their  regiments ;  ambulances,  wagons,  and  artillery  were 
obstructing  every  road,  and  altogether,  in  the  drenching  rain,  present- 
ing a  scene  of  the  most  woful  and  heart-rending  confusion."  The 
Federal  army  in  its  retreat  from  the  Chickahominy  had  suffered  lit- 
tle, except  that  small  portion  engaged  at  Frazier's  Farm ;  it  outnum- 
bered the  enemy  by  more  than  three  to  two,  and  was  in  far  better 
plight.  Yet  when  in  the  gray  dawn  the  Confederates  looked  up  to 
Malvern  Hill,  they  saw  no  trace  of  the  grim  batteries  and  serried 
lines  against  which  they  had  dashed  themselves  in  pieces.  In  the 
darkness  and  storm,  through  mud  and  mire,  McClellan  had  fled  from 
the  field  of  a  great  victory,  as  though  it  had  been  one  of  a  crushing 
defeat.  "  The  greater  portion  of  the  transportation  of  the  army," 
says  McClellan,  "  having  been  started  for  Harrison's  Landing  during 
the  night  of  the  30th  of  June  and  1st  of  July,  the  order  for  the  move- 
ment of  the  troops  was  at  once  issued  upon  the  final  repulse  of  the 
enemy  at  Malvern  Hill." 

By  midnight  the  army  was  on  its  weary  march  along  a  single  narrow 
passage.  This  retreat  was  a  flight.  "  We  were  ordered  to  retreat," 
says  Hooker,  "  and  it  was  like  the  retreat  of  a  routed  army.  We  re- 
treated like  a  parcel  of  sheep.  Every  one  was  on  the  road  at  the 
same  time,  and  a  few  shots  from  the  rebels  would  have  panic- 
stricken  the  whole  command."  Keyes,  who  commanded  the  rear- 
guard, was  thus  instructed:  "Bring  along  all  the  wagons  you  can; 
but  they  are  to  be  sacrificed,  of  course,  rather  than  imperil  your 
safety.  Celerity  of  movement  is  the  sole  security  of  this  position." 
The  distance  was  only  fifteen  miles,  but  the  last  of  the  trains  did 
not  reach  Harrison's  Landing  until  noon  of  the  3d  of  July.  On  that 
day  McClellan  telegraphed  to  Washington  that  the  army  was  thor- 
oughly worn  out.  It  was  quite  impossible  to  estimate  his  losses,  but 
he  doubted  if  there  were  more  than  50,000  men  with  their  colors. 
He  hoped  that  the  enemy  were  in  no  better  plight,  and  that  he  should 
have  a  breathing-space  before  he  was  again  attacked ;  but  in  order  to 
capture  Richmond,  reinforcements  should  be  sent  to  him,  "rather 
much  more  than  less  than  100,000  men." 

With  the  flight  from  Malvern  Hill,  properly  closed  this  ill-omened 
Peninsular  Campaign,  though  the  army  remained  on  the  James  until 
the  middle  of  August.     During  this  period  much  was  proposed,  but 
nothing  was  done,  and  little  attempted.     To  McClellan 's  re- 
son  •«  Laud-    peated  requests  for  large  reinforcements,  first   for  50,000, 
then  for  100,000  men,  even  "  more  rather  than  less,"  the 
President  had   replied   that   the  demands  were  absurd   and   compli- 
ance impossible,  for  there  were  not,  at  that  time,  outside  of  the  army 
on  the  Peninsula,  seventy-five  thousand  troops  in  the  service  east  of 


1862.] 


END  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN. 


543 


Gunboats  at  Malvern  Hill. 


the  mountains.  McClellan's  own  plans  had  contemplated  75,000  for 
the  protection  of  the  National  capital.  The  campaign  from  York- 
town  to  Harrison's  Landing  was  three  months  of  disastrous  failure. 
McClellan's  attempt  to  throw  the  responsibility  upon  the  Govern- 
ment because  it  declined  to  supply  him  with  all  the  men  he  asked 
for  was  meant  to  hide  an  unwilling  service  or  a  confession  of  his 
incapacity  to  cope  with  the  enemy  unless  he  outnumbered  him  at 
least  three  to  one.  There  is  not,  perhaps,  in  history  so  remarkable 
an  instance  of  the  patience  and  forbearance  of  a  government  with  a 
general  commanding  its  armies  in  the  field.  It  is  the  more  remark- 
able that  General  McClellan  should  at  this  time  have  had  the  pre- 
sumption to  write  to  the  President  a  letter  of  advice  as  to  the  "civil 
and  military  policy"  which  he  —  McClellan — thought  should  be 
adopted.  In  this  amazing  epistle,  dated  at  Harrison's  Landing,  Vir- 
ginia, July  7th,  1862,  the  defeated  general  lectured  the  President  in 
good  set  terms  and  advised  him  that  the  time  had  come  "  when  the 
Government  must  determine  upon  a  civil  and  military  policy  cover- 


•• 


544 


THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


Wet  Weather  on  the  Chickahominy. 


letter. 


ing  the  whole  ground 
of  our  national  trouble." 
The  determination  of 
that  policy,  he  went  on 
to  say,  must  be  taken 
by  the  President,  "or 
our  cause  is  lost."  He 
proceeded  to  outline 
such  a  policy,  confining 

himself  chiefly  to  the  military  branch  thereof,  but  he  insisted  that  "a 
declaration  of  radical  views,  especially  upon  slavery,  will 
rapidly  disintegrate  our  present  armies."  And  he  modestly 
suggested  that  as  a  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  would  be  needed 
he  was  willing  to  sacrifice  himself  for  the  sake  of  the  accomplishment 
of  the  object  proposed.  President  Lincoln,  sorely  distressed  with 
matters  of  more  immediate  and  pressing  importance  than  the  framing 
of  a  "  policy,"  took  no  notice  of  McClellan's  missive. 

As  we  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  consider  General  McClellan 
as  a  political  leader,  it  may  be  said  that  from  this  point  in  his  career 
he  became  more  and  moi'e  identified  with  politics.  He  had  not  been 
regarded  as  "  a  political  general  "  of  the  class  of  which  there  were 
already  too  many  in  the  army.  But  as  soon  as  he  touched  the  zenith 
of  his  military  fame,  it  became  bruited  abroad  that  he  had  formerly 
acted  with  the  Democratic  party  whenever  he  had  taken  any  position 
at  all  on  the  political  questions  of  the  times.  Efforts  had  been  made 
to  induce  him  to  identify  himself  with  that  organization  ;  but  for  a 


1862.]  McCLELLAN'S  COMMENTS.  545 

long  time  he  refrained  from  taking  any  step  whatever  in  the  direction 
of  a  definition  of  his  political  views.  No  man  can  tell  what  were  the 
mental  exercises,  what  the  personal  ambitions  of  General  McClellan 
while  he  was  conducting  the  campaign  on  the  Peninsula,  a  campaign 
destined  to  end  in  defeat  and  humiliation.  But  it  is  certain  that  at 
that  time  his  heart  was  filled  with  bitterness  and  hostility  to  the 
Administration  whose  officer  he  was. 

McClellan's  letters,  printed  by  his  literary  executors,  reveal  his 
state  of  mind  during  his  stay  at  Harrison's  Landing,  after  the  Seven 
Days.  He  wrote  home :  "  I  have  no  faith  in  this  Administration.  .  .  . 
I  am  tired  of  serving  fools.  .  .  .  Marcy  l  and  I  have  just  been  discuss- 
ing the  people  in  Washington,  and  conclude  they  are  'a  mighty  tri- 
fling set.'  ...  I  begin  to  think  they  wish  this  army  to  be  destroyed. 
When  you  contrast  the  policy  I  urge  in  my  letter  to  the  President 
with  that  of  Congress  and  Mr.  Pope,2  you  can  readily  agree  with  me 
that  there  can  be  little  natural  confidence  between  the  Government 
and  myself.  We  are  the  antipodes  of  each  other.  I  am  satisfied  that 
the  dolts  in  Washington  are  bent  on  my  destruction."  In  the  failure 
of  the  Administration  to  accede  to  his  preposterous  demands,  McClel- 
lan apparently  saw  evidence  of  a  determination  to  crush  a  formidable 
and  rapidly  developing  political  power. 

While  General  McClellan  was  continually  demanding  additions  to 
his  army,  it  appeared  that  over  38,000  men  were  absent  on  furlough, 
granted  on  his  authority.  On  the  8th  of  July  the  President,  deter- 
mined to  see  for  himself  the  condition  of  affairs,  visited  the  army ;  on 
the  9th,  he  summoned  a  council  of  war  at  the  general's  headquarters, 
and  on  requiring  from  each  corps-commander  the  return  of  men  fit  for 
duty  that  morning,  he  found  the  aggregate  36.000  more  than  the  gen- 
eral had  telegi'aphed  to  him,  after  the  army  had  reached  Harrison's 
Landing.3 

On  the  4th  of  August  the  divisions  of  Hooker  and  Sedgwick  took 
possession  of  Malvern  Hill,  and  made  reconnaissances  some  miles  to- 
ward Richmond.  "  I  feel  confident,"  telegraphed  McClellan,  "  that 
with  reeuforcements  I  could  march  this  army  there  in  five  days." 
Next  morning  peremptory  orders  were  received  from  Halleck  that  the 
army  should  be  withdrawn  from  the  Peninsula,  and  Malvern  Hill  was 
again  abandoned.  McClellan  urged  that  the  order  for  withdrawal 

1  McClellan's  father-in-law. 

2  General  John  Pope,  in  command  of  the  Army  of  Virginia. 

3  "I  polled  the  corps-commanders,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  deseiibing  the  scene,  a  few  dav8 
afterward,  in  a  private  conversation,  "as  one  who  polls  a  jury.     I  asked  of  each  the  return 
of  men  present  for  duty  in  his  corps  that  morning,  put  down  the  figures,  added  them  up, 
and  then  passed  the  sheet  to  General  McClellan,  without  a  word.     The  difference  between 
the  sum  and  his  statement  was  thirty-six  thousand." 

VOL.  iv.  35 


546 


THE   PENINSULAR  CAMPAIGN. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


A  Typical  Sleeping  Tent.  —  Lieutera- 1  S.  W.  Owen,  Pa.  Cavalry,  at  Westover  Landing,  August,  I  862. 

should  be  rescinded.  Hooker  thought  it  should  be  disiegarded.  They 
had  sufficient  men,  he  said,  to  capture  Richmond.  If  the  attempt 
should  fail,  it  would  probably  cost  McClellau  his  head,  '"  but  he  might 
as  well  die  for  an  old  sheep  as  for  a  lamb."  For  a  moment  McCIellan 
seemed  inclined  to  run  the  risk.  On  the  10th  Hooker  received  a 
written  order  which  was  communicated  to  the  whole  army,  to  provide 
himself  with  three  days'  rations,  and  hold  himself  in  readiness  to 
march  on  the  llth.  "I  firmly  believe,"  says  Hooker,  "that  this 
order  meant  Richmond  ;  but,  before  the  time  came  for  executing  it,  it 
was  countermanded." 

On  the  16th  of  August  the  stores  and  the  sick  were  embarked. 
A  pontoon  bridge  for  the  passage  of  the  troops  had  been 

f  °  .         r  Withdrawal 

thrown  across   the  Chickahommy  towards  its   mouth.     On    from  the 

i  11  •  i  Peninsula. 

the  loth  the  rear-guard  was  over,  and  the  bridge  was  taken 
down.  McCIellan  had  apprehended  an  attack  upon  his  rear,  and  was 
ill  at  ease  until  the  Chickahominy  was  between  him  and  the  enemy. 
But  for  days  and  weeks  there  had  been  hardly  the  show  of  a  Con- 
federate force  near  him.  Jackson  and  A.  P.  Hill  had  been  sent  to- 
wards the  Rappahannock  ;  Lee  with  most  of  the  remainder  of  his 
army  had  followed  on  the  13th.  At  and  near  Richmond  were  only 
the  weak  division  of  D.  H.  Hill  and  a  few  thousand  raw  conscripts. 


Fredericksburg. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND. 

THE  ARMY  OF  VIRGINIA  TXDER  POPE. —  MCCLELLAN'S  RELUCTANCE  TO  LEAVE  THE 
PEXINSI-LA.  —  EXPOSTILATIOXS  FROM  THE  ADMINISTRATION. —  POPE  FIGHTS  AM> 
LOSES  THE  SECOND  BATTLE  OF  Bri.i,  RTN. —  A  GREAT  DISASTER.  —  McCi.Ei.i.AN 

ONCE    MORE     IX    COMMAND     <>F     THE    ARMIES.  —  LEE'S     INVASION     OF     MARYLAND. — 

BATTLE  OF  AXTIETAM.  —  McCi.Ei.LAX  DECLINES  TO  MOVE.  —  His  REMOVAL  FROM 
COMMAND.  —  BTRNSIDE  IN  COMMAND  OF  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.  —  TIIF. 
BATTLE  OF  FHEDERICKSBI'RG.  —  ANOTHER  NATIONAL  DISASTER.  —  BURNSIDE'S 
Frxii.E  ATTEMPTS  TO  RETRIEVE.  —  "FIGHTING  JOE  HOOKER"  AT  THE  HEAD  OF 
THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC. 

ON  the  26th   of  June,  1862,  while  the  first  of  the  Seven  Days' 
Fight  on  the  Peninsula  was  in  progress,  General  John  Pope, 
who  had  been  in  command  of  the  armv  corps  known  as  the   Pope  in 

......  .    "  if  command  of 

Army  of  the  Mississippi,  WHS  put  in  command  of  a  new  the  Army  of 
military  organization  called  the  Army  of  Virginia.  This 
body  was  composed  of  the  armies  under  Fremont,  Banks,  and 
McDowell.  The  three  armies  were  scattered  over  the  northern  part 
of  Virginia,  without  much  cooperative  plan  or  intimate  communica- 
tion with  each  other ;  Fremont  and  Banks  being  at  Middletown,  in 
the  Shenandoah  valley;  McDowell's  command  east  of  the  Blue 
Ridge,  one  division  (King's)  being  at  Fredericksburg,  on  the  Rap- 
pahannock,  and  the  other  (Ricketts's)  at  and  beyond  Manassas 
Junction,  not  far  from  the  field  of  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  fought  in 
1861.  All  three  of  these  commanders  were  Pope's  military  seniors; 
Fremont  declined  to  serve  under  an  officer  who  was  his  junior.  He 


548 


NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXL 


was  replaced  accordingly  by  General  Franz  Sigel,  who  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  East  from  Missouri,  where  he  had  been  fighting  earlier 
in  the  war. 

On  the  day  after  Pope's  taking  command,  his  army,  according  io 
the  official  records,  showed  an  aggregate  strength  of  50,600  effective 
men,  distributed  as  follows:  Headquarters,  200;  Sigel's  (formerly 
Fremont's)  corps,  13,200;  Banks's,  12,100;  McDowell's,  19,300; 
cavalry,  5,800.  The  discovery  of  an  error  in  Banks's  return  subse- 
quently reduced  this  total  somewhat.  Pope  had  been  graduated,  in 
1842,  from  the  United  States  Military  Academy,  in  the  same  class 
with  James  Longstreet,  D.  H.  Hill,  Lafayette  McLaws,  Mansfield 
Lovell,  G.  W.  Smith,  R.  H.  Anderson,  A.  P.  Stewart,  and  Earl  Van 
Dorn,  now  in  the  Confederate  service;  and  John  Newton,  W.  S. 
Rosecrans,  George  Sykes,  and  Abner  Doubleday,  now  in  the  Federal 
service.  By  one  of  the  strange  vicissitudes  of  fate,  these  men  were 
to  confront  each  other  on  opposite  sides  of  a  long  and  sanguinary 
conflict.  Pope  was  an  imaginative  man  with  a  hopeful,  even  san- 
guine, temperament;  and  he  was  not  always  accurate  in  his  state- 
ments nor  in  his  conclusions.  His  general  appearance  and  demeanor 
were  the  exact  opposite  of  McClellan ;  for  while  the  commander  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  scrupulously  exact  and  orderly  in  his 
bearing  and  dress,  precise  in  his  methods  and  a  martinet  in  his 
organizing  of  forces,  Pope  was  loose  in  his  methods  and  generally 
ramshackle  or  disorderly  in  his  bearing  and  military  habits. 

To  a  certain  extent,  Pope's  transfer  to  the  consolidated  armies  in 
Northern  Virginia  was  an  experiment.  McClellan  had  so  far  dis- 
appointed the  Administration  that  it  had  become  evident  that  he 
would  win  no  battles  on  the  Peninsula ;  his  withdrawal  had  become 
inevitable.  The  creation  of  the 
Army  of  Virginia  from  the  scattered 
forces  already  described  was  intended 
to  provide  for  the  defence  of  Wash- 
ington and  for  offensive  operations 
against  the  Confederate  forces  around 
Richmond,  so  as  to  draw  off  from 
Lee's  army  as  many  men  as  possible, 
Lee  then  being  in  front  of  McClellan, 
on  the  Chickahominy.  But  it  was 
very  well  known  that,  if  McClellau's 
and  Pope's  armies  were  to  be  so 
manoeuvred  that  they  must  act  in  co- 
operation with  each  other,  or  as  one 
army,  the  commander  of  the  Army  Major-Generai  John  Pope. 


1862.]  A  TRYING  MILITARY   SITUATION.  549 

of  the  Potomac,  who  was  the  general- 
in-cliief  of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States,  would  not  only  outrank  the 
commander  of  the  Army  of  Virginia, 
but  he  would  naturally  regard  with 
jealousy  a  junior  commander  who 
might  appear  to  him  as  a  possible  rival. 
To  bridge  over  the  apparent  gap  be- 
tween the  two  generals,  a  new  compli- 
cation became  necessary.  General 
Halleck,  who  had  been  operating 
against  the  Confederate  forces  in 
Northern  Mississippi,  was  ordered  to 
Washington  to  act  as  military  adviser 

Major-General  Henry  W.  Halleck.  °  .  ,  .* 

to  the  President  with  the  title  of  gen- 

eral-in-chief.     This  was  practically  a  superseding  of  General  McClel- 
lan,  and  he  so  regarded  it. 

General  Pope  indiscreetly  discomposed  the  situation  still  further 
by  an  order  which  he  made  on  taking  command.  If  his  Pope.g 
purpose  was  to  anger  the  officers  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto-  order- 
mac,  and  deeply  incense  its  commander,  he  admirably  succeeded. 
Among  other  things,  he  said :  "  I  have  come  to  you  from  the  West, 
where  we  have  always  seen  the  backs  of  our  enemies  ;  from  an  army 
whose  business  it  has  been  to  seek  the  adversary  and  to  beat  him 
when  found  ;  whose  policy  has  been  attack,  not  defence.  ...  I  pre- 
sume that  I  have  been  called  here  to  pursue  the  same  system  and  to 
lead  you  against  the  enemy.  It  is  my  purpose  to  do  so,  and  that 
speedily.  .  .  .  I  desire  you  to  dismiss  from  your  minds  certain  phrases 
which  I  am  sorry  to  find  so  much  in  vogue  amongst  j'ou.  I  hear 
constantly  of  '  taking  strong  positions,  and  holding  them ; '  of  *  lines 
of  retreat,'  and  of  '  bases  of  supplies.'  Let  us  discard  such  ideas." 
It  is  not  surprising  that  this  address,  which  Pope  expected  and 
intended  should  animate  and  inspirit  his  men,  provoked  a  storm  of 
wrath  and  ridicule.  Sent  forth,  as  it  was,  just  after  a  series  of  con- 
flicts on  the  Peninsula,  during  which  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  had 
been  constantly  "taking  strong  positions  and  holding  them,"  until 
forced  back  upon  "  lines  of  retreat,"  the  bombastic  order  appeared 
to  be  a  satire  on  the  operations  of  General  McClellan,  who  was 
greatly  beloved  by  his  command ;  and  the  country  at  large,  impartial 
in  any  quarrel  between  the  two  commanders,  laughed  at  the  swelling 
periods  and  inflated  rhetoric  of  the  newly-arrived  general,  who,  in  an 
hour,  had  so  seriously  damaged  the  admirable  reputation  which  he 
had  won  in  the  West. 


550 


NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXL 


The  Battle-field  of  Cedar  Mountain,  seen  from  the  West. 
Drawn  by  W.  St.  John  Harper  from  a  photograph  taken  in  August,  1862. 


In  his  own  narrative,  printed  after  the  war  was  over,  Pope  admits 
that  he  entered  on  the  new  command  "  with  great  reluctance  and 
serious  forebodings."  Neither  Pope  nor  Halleck  approved  of  the 
tactics  adopted  by  McClellan  during  his  peninsular  campaign  ;  and 
neither  of  these  generals  appeared  to  regard  the  commander  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  with  admiration  for  his  military  abilities. 
McClellan's  retreat  to  the  James  River  naturally  disturbed  Pope's 
equanimity  still  further;  McClellan  was  calling  for  reinforcements 
which  it  was  impossible  to  give;  it  had  become  necessary  that  the 
two  armies  should  be  united  as  soon  as  possible ;  the  question  of  the 
supreme  command  of  the  consolidated  forces  was  one  of  great  diffi- 
culty ;  and,  to  crown  all,  an  angry  and  bitter  controversy  arose  over 
the  final  action  of  McClellan  in  retreating  to  the  James  River. 

Finally,  the  objects  of  the  approaching  campaign  of  the  Army  of 
pian  of  the  Virginia  were  declared  to  be  twofold:  (1)  To  cover  the 
campaign,  approaches  to  Washington  from  any  enemy  advancing  from 
Richmond,  and  to  delay  any  such  advance  in  order  to  give  time  for  the 
transfer  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  from  the  James  River  to  some 
other  point  nearer  the  capital ;  and  (2)  to  operate  on  the  lines  of 
communication  of  the  enemy,  with  Gordonsville  and  Charlottesville, 
so  as  to  divert  the  attention  of  Lee  from  McClellon,  and  to  that 


1862.]  McCLELLAN  LEAVES  THE  JAMES.  551 

extent  facilitate  the  withdrawal  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  It 
was  expected  that  the  two  armies  would  be  united  on  the  line  of  the 
Rappahannock,  and  Pope  was  instructed  to  hold  fast  to  his  lines  of 
communication  with  Fredericksburg,  through  which  place  it  was 
expected  that  McClellan  would  effect  his  junction  with  the  Army  of 
Virginia.  It  was  subsequently  found  that  that  line  was  too  far  to  the 
front,  and  it  was  abandoned. 

General  McClellan  relinquished  his  field  of  operations  on  the  James 
River  with  great  unwillingness.  As  we  have  seen,  he  signalized  his 
arrival  on  the  James  by  the  announcement  that  he  had  saved  his  army, 
but  would  require  at  least  50,000  men  before  he  could  safely  resume 
offensive  operations.  A  little  later,  after  it  had  been  resolved  that 
his  withdrawal  from  the  Peninsula  was  imperatively  necessary  (July 
3d),  he  declared  that  the  needed  reinforcements  should  be  "  rather 
much  over  than  much  less  than  100,000  men."  The  cordial,  almost 
affectionate,  note  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  addressed  to  General 
McClellan,  met  with  a  cold  response;  the  commander  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  reproached  the  Secretary  of  War  with  his  official 
conduct  towards  him,  which,  he  said,  had  been  "  marked  by  repeated 
acts  done  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  deeply  offensive  to  my  feelings, 
and  calculated  to  affect  me  injuriously  in  public  estimation."  Natu- 
rally, McClellan  regarded  the  order  for  his  withdrawal  from  the 
James  as  equivalent  to  a  rebuke.  He  undertook  the  work  Mecieiun's 
with  reluctance  and  after  many  protests.  For  a  time  he  attltude- 
paid  no  attention  to  the  order  from  Washington  for  the  removal  of 
his  sick ;  and  when  that  order  was  repeated,  he  replied,  after  some 
delay,  that  he  could  do  nothing  unless  he  were  informed  as  to  the 
ultimate  destination  of  his  army.  He  added :  "  If  I  am  longer  kept 
in  ignorance  of  what  is  to  be  effected,  I  cannot  be  expected  to  accom- 
plish the  object  in  view."  As  if  the  general  who  had  retreated  now 
declined  to  change  his  base  still  further  unless  the  plans  of  future  cam- 
paigns were  laid  before  him  for  approval.  In  reply  to  this  despatch, 
General  Halleck  simply  notified  McClellan  that  he  was  expected  to 
send  off  his  sick,  according  to  orders,  without  waiting  to  find  out 
what  were,  or  would  be,  the  instructions  of  the  Government  concern- 
ing future  movements.  On  the  13th  of  July  he  was  again  ordered 
to  send  away  his  sick.  He  moved  tardily  and  with  manifest  sullen- 
ness,  and,  although  admonished  of  the  danger  that  now  threatened 
Pope,  he  still  delayed  his  movements.  Finally,  on  the  17th  of  August, 
McClellan  telegraphed  to  Washington  that  he  had  left  his  camp  on 
the  James;  ten  days  later,  he  reported  for  duty  at  Alexandria,  Vir- 
ginia. At  that  time  Pope's  campaign  had  reached  its  most  critical 
stage. 


552 


NORTHERN   VIRGINIA   AND   MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 


confederate 


As  soon  as  Pope  had  begun  to  develop  his  plan  of  campaign,  which 
was  to  threaten  the  Confederate  line  of  communication  with  Gordons- 
ville,  Lee  saw  the  significance  of  the  movement  and  hastened  to  meet 

^-     ^n  tne  l^1  °f  Juty  ne  sen^  Jackson,  with  his  own  divi- 

gjon  an(j  ^^  o{  Ewell,  to  Govdonsville,  with  the  promise  of 
reinforcements.  Jackson  found  that  Pope  was  too  strong  to  war- 
rant offensive  operations,  and  contented  himself  with  occupying 
Gordonsville.  A  fortnight  passed,  when  it  was  learned  that  Burn- 
side's  corps  had  sailed  from  Nortli  Carolina,  and  arrived  at  Fortress 
Monroe  ;  thence  it  had  gone  to  the  Rappahannock  instead  of  going  to 
McClellan  on  the  James.  On  the  27th  Lee  sent  A.  P.  Hill's  division 
to  Jackson  at  Gordonsville,  raising  his  force  to  35,000.  Jackson  then 
moved  northward,  while  Pope  had  already  begun  to  move  southward. 
Quite  by  accident  the  advance  of  the  two  armies  came  into  collision 

on  the  9th  of  August  at  Cedar  Mountain,  twenty  miles  north 
Cedar  Moun-  of  Gordonsville.  Banks  was  here  with  8,000  men,  and  was 

attacked  by  Ewell  with  about  as  many.  For  a  while  the 
fight  was  in  favor  of  the  National  troops;  but  Confederate  reinforce- 
ments coming  up,  Banks  was  driven  back,  pursued  by  the  enemy. 
Pope  was  a  few  miles  away  with  the  bulk  of  his  force.  He  hurried 
up,  and  at  dark  checked  the  pursuit.  Jackson  then  fell  back  to  the 
battle-field  of  the  morning.  For  two  days  the  armies  lay  fronting 
each  other,  neither  commander  caring  to  attack.  Jackson,  then  learn- 
ing that  Pope  had  received  reinforcements  from  Burnside's  corps,  fell 
back  across  the  Rapidan.  The  Confederate  loss  at  Cedar  Mountain 
is  given  at  1,314, 
of  whom  223  were 
killed,  1,060 

wounded,  and  31 
missing.  Pope  put 
his  at  about  1,900 
killed,  wounded, 
and  missing. 

Meanwhile  the 
force  at  Richmond 
had  been  largely 
augmented  by  con- 
soription.  By  the 
13th  of  August  it 
was  certain  that 
the  Federal  army 

.  .     rf  The  House  in  which  General  Winder  (Confederate)  was  killed  ai 

WaS       tO       be      With-  Cedar  Mountain. 

drawn       from       the  Drau-n  by  F.  C.  Ransom  from  a  photograph. 


1862.] 


LEE  CONFRONTS  POPE. 


553 


Cedar  Mountain. 

Peninsula.     Pope  learned  that  the  enemy  were  moving  upon  him  in 
great  force,  and  fell  back  across  the  Rappahannock.     Lee  J>w.-sa<i. 
came  up  to  the  river  with  80,000  men ;  Pope,  with  45,000,  ju|,<j£lh£nt.h<> 
confronted  him  on  the   other  bank,  being  assured  that  he  nock- 
should    be  largely  reenforced  within  three  days.     On   the  20th    his 
pickets  were  driven  in.     For  two  days  Lee   sought  to  find  an    un- 
guarded place  to  cross  the  river;  but  Pope  was  always  in  front  of  him 
in  force  sufficient  to  meet  any  serious  attempt. 

On  the  stormy  night  of  the  22d  an  incident  occurred  which  gave 
shape  to  the  campaign.  Pope's  headquarters  were  at  Cat-  Cntietf« 
lett's  Station,  ten  miles  in  the  rear  of  the  centre  of  his  line,  Station- 
guarded  by  1,500  infantry  and  a  few  companies  of  horse.  Stuart, 
with  1,500  cavalry,  crossed  the  river  some  distance  above  Pope's  right, 
and,  guided  by  a  negi-o,  dashed  through  the  darkness  upon  the  tents 
occupied  by  Pope's  staff,  some  of  whom  were  made  prisoners.  Before 
the  alarm  could  be  given,  he  rode  off,  having  lost  but  two  men  in  this 
daring  raid.  But  he  had  secured  a  prize  which  proved  of  inestimable 
value.  This  was  Pope's  despatch-book,  containing  precise  informa- 
tion of  the  numbers  and  positions  of  the  forces  then  with  him,  of  the 
reinforcements  promised  to  him,  and  the  quarter  from  which  they 
were  to  come.  This  information  rendered  it  possible,  and  even  prob- 
able, that  if  the  entire  Confederate  army  could  be  flung  upon  Pope's 
rear,  his  communications  might  be  cut  off,  and  his  army  routed  before 


554  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 

it  could  be  reenforced  from  the  Arm)'  of  the  Potomac.  This  move- 
ment must  be  a  surprise ;  and  to  give  it  success  the  first  part  must  be 
made  with  a  celerity  impossible  for  an  army  incumbered  with  trains. 
Lee  must  therefore  divide  his  force  for  some  four  days,  in  face  of  an 
enemy  probably  outnumbering  either  division,  though  much  inferior 
to  both  combined.  There  was  danger  in  the  attempt;  but  the  chances 
of  success  were  thought  sufficient  to  warrant  the  risk. 

The  initial  movement  was  committed  to  Jackson,  who  began  his 
Jackson's  march  on  the  morning  of  the  25th  of  August.  Unincum- 
marcn.  bered  by  anything  except  his  artillery,  he  moved  rapidly  up 
through  the  narrow  valley  on  the  east  side  of  the  Bull  Run  Moun- 
tains, by  rude  country  roads  and  across  the  fields.  At  midnight  he 
reached  the  head  of  Thoroughfare  Gap,  through  which  the  mountains 
must  be  passed.  This  narrow  gap  might  have  been  held  for  hours  by 
five  thousand  men  against  fifty  thousand.  It  was  wholly  unguarded, 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  Jackson  passed  through,  and  headed 
southward  for  Bristoe  Station,  an  important  point  on  the  railroad 
which  formed  Pope's  main  source  of  supply.  Leaving  Ewell  here,. 
Jackson  went  northward  to  Manassas  Junction,  where  was  an  im- 
mpnse  depot  of  stores,  almost  unguarded.  These  were  taken,  and 
what  could  not  be  consumed  on  the  spot  were  destroyed.  Pope  had 
in  the  meanwhile  learned  of  this  movement,  and  had  despatched 
Hooker  towards  Bristoe.  A  sharp  encounter  took  place  that  evening, 
in  which  Ewell  was  worsted. 

Jackson's  position  was  now  critical.  Pope  was  aroused ;  his  corps 
were  approaching  from  different  points,  and  in  a  few  hours 

Jackson's  .  •    11  -r  •  i  •  T 

defensive  might  fall  upon  Jackson  in  greatly  superior  force.  Long- 
street's  corps  had  begun  to  move,  but  it  was  distant  two 
days'  march,  and  perhaps  more.  Jackson's  course  was  speedily 
decided  upon.  He  would  fall  back  towards  Thoroughfare  Gap,  and 
take  up  a  position  which  he  hoped  to  hold  until  Longstreet  came  up. 
To  mask  his  purpose  he  first  moved  northeastward  to  Centreville, 
then  turned  westward,  and  took  up  his  defensive  position  upon  the 
spot  where  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  had  been  fought,  a  little  more 
than  a  year  before.  The  position  was  strong,  part  of  it  lying  along 
an  abandoned  railroad,  whose  deep  cutting  formed  an  admirable  in- 
trenchment. 

The  battle  was  fairly  opened  on  the  morning  of  the  29th.     It  raged 

from  daylight  until  after  dark,  Jackson  standing  upon  the 

GroTeton.      defensive.     After  midnight  Jackson  withdrew  his  left,  so  HS 

August  29.  .  -IT 

to  enable  it  to  connect  with  Longstreet,  whose  advance  was 
now  at  the  head  of  Thoroughfare  Gap.  To  Pope  this  looked  like  a 
forced  retreat,  and  early  next  morning  he  wrote  to  Washington : 


1862.] 


RETREAT  TURNED  INTO   BATTLE. 


555 


"  We  fought  a  terrific  battle  here  yesterday  with  the  combined  forces 
of  the  enemy,  which  lasted  from  daylight  until  dark,  by  which  time 
the  enemy  was  driven  from  the  field,  which  I  now  occupy.  The  news 
has  just  reached  us  from  the  front  that  the  enemy  is  retreating  to  the 
mountains.  I  go  forward  to  see."  On  the  morning  of  the 
30th  more  troops  had  come  up,  raising  his  force  to  40,000.  uroveton, 

•        i  •  i-  August  30. 

At  noon  he  was  confirmed  in  his  belief  that  the  enemy 
was  retreating.  McDowell  was  ordered  to  press  on  in  pursuit.  The 
supposed  flight  and  pursuit  soon  became  a  battle,  in  which  nearly  the 
entire  force  on  both  sides  was  at  last  engaged.  The  Federal  troops 
attacked  along  Jackson's  whole  front,  and  gained  some  advantage. 
Jackson  says:  "At  four  o'clock  the  Fedei'al  infantry  advanced  in 


Stuart's  Raid  upon  Catlett's  Station  on 
the  Night  of  August  22,   I  862. 

several  lines,  first  engaging 
our  right,  but  soon  extend- 
ing the  attack  to  the  centre 

and  left.  In  a  few  moments  our  entire  line  was  engaged  in  a  fierce 
and  sanguinary  struggle  with  the  enemy.  As  one  line  was  repulsed 
another  took  its  place.  So  impetuous  and  well-sustained  were  these 
onsets  as  to  induce  me  to  send  to  the  commanding  general  for  reen- 
forcements."  Lee  ordered  Longstreet  to  send  aid  to  Jackson.  But 
Longstreet  brought  artillery  to  bear  upon  the  Federal  ranks,  and  their 
advance  was  checked.  Then,  he  says,  "nay  whole  line  was  rushed 
forward  at  a  charge." 


556  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 

Longstreet's  line  was  nearly  at  a  right  angle  with  that  of  Jackson, 
but  quite  out  of  sight,  being  concealed  from  the  Federal  view  by  the 
formation  of  the  ground.  Fitz-John  Porters  corps,  and  some  other 
troops,  were  close  to  the  angle  made  by  these  lines.  Hard  by  was  a 
hillock  from  which  Reynolds's  division  had  fallen  back  before  Long- 
street's  battery.  Warren — then  a  colonel,  soon  to  be  a  major-gen- 
eral —  seized  this  point,  with  two  weak  New  York  regiments  and  a 
battery,  and  held  it  until  he  was  fairly  enveloped  by  the  advancing 
enemy.  Out  of  990  men,  he  lost  443.  The  brunt  of  Longstreet's 
charge  now  fell  upon  Fitz-John  Porter's  corps.  Outnumbered  three 
to  one,  outflanked  on  the  left,  and  unsheltered  on  the  right,  where 
Heintzelman  was  falling  back  before  Jackson's  advance,  this  corps 
retreated  in  good  order,  still  showing  a  firm  front,  and  checking  the 
pursuit.  It  had  entered  into  the  action  9,000  strong,  and  had  sus- 
tained a  loss  of  2,174.  Next  morning  the  Federal  army,  defeated 
but  not  routed,  crossed  the  Bull  Run,  and  fell  back  to  Centre ville. 

These  consecutive  actions  have  been  called  "  the  Second  Bull  Run," 
or  "  the  Second  Manassas."  A  better  designation  is  the 
Battle  of  Groveton,  from  a  little  hamlet  close  by.  The 
entire  Confederate  loss  since  the  27th  was  1,553  killed,  and  7,921 
wounded  —  9,474  in  all.  The  Federal  loss,  from  the  Rappahannock 
to  the  Potomac  was  as  follows :  1,747  killed,  8,-J52  wounded,  and 
4,263  missing  —  total  14,462.  But  the  diminution  in  the  force  was 
much  greater,  in  all  fully  20,000.  Lee  claims  to  have  taken  7,000 
unwounded  prisoners.  Pope  says,  "Half  the  great  diminution  in 
our  forces  was  occasioned  by  skulking  and  straggling.  Thousands 
of  men  straggled  away  from  their  commands,  and  were  never  in  any 
action." 

On  the  31st  a  heavy  rain-storm  set  in,  but  Lee,  resuming  his 
tactics,  sent  Jackson  across  the  Bull  Run  to  turn  the  Federal  right. 
McDowell  and  Heintzelman  were  sent  to  head  him  off,  and  at  dusk 
on  the  1st  of  September  the  two  forces  met  at  Chantilly.  There 
were  several  severe  skirmishes,  but  no  great  battle.  During  these 
encounters,  however,  the  Federals  lost  two  able  and  valuable  generals. 
In  the  darkness  General  Philip  Kearny,  a  brave,  loyal,  and  cool- 
headed  soldier,  mistook  a  force  of  the  enemy  for  his  own  troops. 
Riding  up  to  the  men,  he  put  an  inquiry  to  them  which  disclosed  the 
situation  at  once.  Perceiving  his  mistake,  and  refusing  to  comply 
with  a  demand  to  surrender,  he  put  spurs  to  his  horse  and  attempted 
to  ride  away.  A  volley  laid  him  low,  and  his  body  fell  inside  of  the 
Confederate  lines.  General  1. 1.  Stevens,  formerly  governor  of  Wash- 
ington Territory,  was  a  brave  and  able  officer.  He  was  killed  while 
leading  a  charge  against  the  enemy,  and  he  carried  in  his  hands 


1862.] 


POPE'S   SORRY   EXIT. 


557 


Confederate  Winter  Quarters  at  Manassas. 
Drairn  by  Harry  Fennfrom  a  photograph. 

the  colors  of  a  New  York  regiment,  just  fallen  from  the  hands  of  a 
wounded  sergeant. 

On  the  2d  of  September  Pope's  situation  at  Centreville  was  not 
unfavorable.  Banks  and  some  others  of  his  own  army  had  joined 
him.  The  corps  of  Franklin,  after  inexplicable  delays,  had  come  up 
from  Alexandria,  and  these,  with  Sumner's  troops,  fresh  men  from 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  augmented  Pope's  forces  to  70,000  or 
thereabouts.  Lee  had  also  been  reenforced  by  D.  H.  Hill's  division, 
which  had  been  hurried  from  Richmond  with  great  celerity  ;  and  the 
numerical  strength  of  the  two  antagonists  was  very  nearly  equal. 
Pope  had  the  advantage  of  entrenchments,  and  he  could  be  still  fur- 
ther reenfoi-ced  from  Washington,  while  Lee  could  not  expect  another 
man  from  any  quarter.  But  General  Halleck  gave  orders  for  the 
Army  of  Virginia  to  fall  back  upon  the  capital. 

This  was  done  forthwith,  and  Pope's  repeated  application  to  be 
reassigned  to  a  command  in  the  West  was  granted.  McClel- 

i  .  ,  .,  ,       ,      , to      ,        .„  ,    End  of  the 

Ian  was  assigned  to  the  "  command  of  the  fortifications  of  Army  of 
Washington,  and  of  all  the  troops  for  the  defence  of  the 
capital."     The  troops  lately  under  the  command  of  Pope  were  ab- 
sorbed into  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  the  Army  of  Virginia,  after 
an  existence  of  less  than  seventy  days,  disappeared  from  the  rolls  of 
the  armies  of  the  United  States. 

It  was  obvious  that  McClellan  had  organized  a  party  for  his  sup- 
port in  the  army.  The  Administration  was  unwilling  to  affront  the 
McClellan  party  there  and  in  the  country.  Although  many  generals 


558 


NORTHERN   VIRGINIA  AND   MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXL 


^:£W?fr^     ''       ^.i^^uii^::^:  ••--:;     -;:,; 

r'?^         *to-«  t   iy  «      •       -    •"-   ^         ••-•  .    •  •'     .'-•--^»       '  r  •  5*'-      V-  -  -          -    '  .     •••• 

*  I  r7*(t^r^^   lulJi  SfifH  ••."•'*:  -77  V-''     --rf    -•*    •»  '*-"V*  "      '"A "~  •'  -  ""."   .    "*.r     '';.**.••'•        •  •  •"    ' '-     -     ,; 


Fugitive  Negroes  crossing  the  Rappahannock  after  Pope's  Retreat  in  August,   1862. 
Drairn  by  F.  C.  Hansom  from  a  photograph. 

and  many  military  critics  who  were  devoted  to  McClellan  complained 
bitterly  of  the  "  political  generalship  "  which  was  still  too  prominent 
in  the  conduct  of  the  war,  the  partisanship  on  which  McClellan 
relied,  both  in  and  ont  of  the  army,  was  at  once  political  and  personal. 
The  men  in  the  ranks,  unwilling  or  unable  to  have  their  faith  shaken, 
still  held  him  in  affectionate  respect.  They  believed  him  capable  of 
leading  them  to  great  victories,  even  after  long  and  disastrous  cam- 
paigns. They  welcomed  his  return  to  command,  after  the  failure  of 
the  experiment  with  the  Army  of  Virginia  had  been  made  complete; 
and  the  enthusiasm  and  effusiveness  of  the  greeting  which  lie  received 
when  he  joined  the  army  attested  the  strong  hold  which  he  had  upon 
the  men  under  his  command.  Nevertheless,  it  is  evident  that  the 
failure  of  the  campaign  of  the  Army  of  Virginia  was  chiefly  due  to 
the  unwillingness  of  McClellan  and  his  party  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  to  aid  Pope,  who  had  made  himself  so  obnoxious  to  them. 
On  the  27th  and  29th  of  August,  while  dispositions  were  being 
made  for  the  battles  that  ensued,  Pope  sent  peremptory 

The  Fitz-  .  r        . 

John  Porter   orders  to  Fitz-Johu  Porter  to  move  up  to  the  support  of  the 
Federal    left.     These    orders    were   not   obeyed.      Porter's 

•/ 

defence  was  that  the  force  in  front  of  him  was  too  strong  to  permit 


1862.] 


THE  CASE   OF  FITZ-JOHN  PORTER. 


559 


an  immediate  obedience  of  the  order  of  his  commander.  Pope  attrib- 
uted the  failure  of  his  campaign  to  Porter's  inactivity  during  the 
critical  moments  of  the  fighting  on  the  two  days  above-mentioned. 
These  charges,  which  were  very  grave,  were  considered  by  a  court- 
martial  composed  of  officers  of  high  rank,  and,  after  a  long  and  fair 
trial,  Porter  was  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  be  cashiered.  The 
sentence  of  the  court  was  approved  by  the  President,  and  Porter  was 
dismissed  from  the  army  in  disgrace.  After  the  war  was  over,  and 
the  military  records  of  the  Confederates  were  made  accessible  to  the 
world,  Porter,  who  had  persistently  protested  against  the  injustice 
which  he  declared  had  been  done  him,  sought  to  have  his  case  re- 
opened. In  addition  to  the  zealous  championship  of  the  military  and 
political  parties  which  would  naturally  espouse  his  cause,  General 
Porter  now  had  the  cordial  advocacy  and  friendship  of  some  of  those 
who  had  fought  on  the  Confederate  side  during  the  \var.  But  an 
elaborate  defence  of  the  cashiered  officer,  prepared  by  himself,  which 
was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
long  after  the  close  of  the  war,  did  not  avail  to  procure  from  the 
President  (U.  S.  Grant)  at  that  time  an  order  for  the  reopening  of 
the  case.  After  his  retirement  from  the  presidency,  General  Grant 
changed  his  mind  and  wrote  a  paper  in  favor  of  General  Porter. 
Later,  an  advisory  board,  during  the  presidency  of  General  R.  B. 
Hayes,  appointed  to  reexamine  the  case,  acquitted  Porter  of  all  blame 
but  for  indiscreet  and  unkind  criticism  of  his  superior  officer.  Still 
later,  a  bill  was  passed  by  Congress  restoring  him  to  the  army.  It 
was  disapproved  by  the  President  (Mr.  Arthur),  who,  however, 
removed  from  Porter  the  disabilities  imposed  upon  him  by  sentence 
of  the  court.  Finally,  some  twenty-five  years  after  the  battle  in 

which  these  offences  had  been  com- 
mitted, both  houses  of  Congress  hav- 
ing become  Democratic,  a  bill  was 
passed  restoring  General  Porter  to 
the  army  from  which  he  had  been 
dismissed;  and  he  was  honorably  re- 
tired. By  this  time  the  question, 
which  was  partly  military  and  partly 
political  when  first  raised,  had  become 
wholly  political.  General  Porter's  re- 
instatement was  "  a  political  issue  ; " 
the  Democratic  party  in  Congress 
voted  solidly  for  the  bill  for  his  relief. 
But,  to  resume  the  thread  of  nar- 
Potter.  rativc  of  military  events  taking  place 


560  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA   AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXL 

along  the  borders  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  :  A  movement  into  Mary- 
land, and  a  menace  at  least  against  Pennsylvania,  had  long 

The  inva-  •   i       T      i  T  ,  T 

sionof  been  a  favorite  idea  with  Jackson.  It  now  seemed  to  Lee 
that  the  time  had  come  when  this  might  be  attempted. 
The  movement  was  begun  on  the  3d  of  September,  and  on  the  5th 
the  army  crossed  the  Potomac  at  a  point  thirty  miles  above  Washing- 
ton. The  entire  force  was  rather  less  than  60,000 ;  for  by  casualties 
in  battle,  exhaustion,  and  desertion,  Lee  had  lost  fully  30,000  men  in 
six  weeks.  The  march  from  Manassns  to  the  Potomac  had  been 
especially  trying.  On  the  7th  the  army  reached  Frederick 
City,  where  Lee  issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  Mary- 
Mar>iand.  land.  The  people  of  the  Confederate  States,  he  said,  had 
long  watched  the  wrongs  inflicted  upon  the  citizens  of  a  common- 
wealth to  which  they  were  bound  by  so  many  ties,  and  wished  to  aid 
them  in  throwing  oft'  this  "  foreign  yoke."  There  would  be  no  com- 
pulsion or  intimidation,  "  and  while  the  Southern  people  will  rejoice 
to  welcome  you  to  your  natural  position  among  them,  they  will  only 
welcome  you  when  you  come  of  your  own  free  will."  Bradley  John- 
son, a  Marylander  in  the  Confederate  service,  put  forth  a  call  for 
recruits  :  "  We  have  arms  for  you,"  he  said,  "  and  I  am  authorized 
to  muster  in  for  the  war  companies  and  regiments.  Let  each  man 
provide  himself  with  a  stout  pair  of  shoes,  a  good  blanket,  and  a  tin 
cup.  Jackson's  men  have  no  baggage."  Less  than  500  Marylanders 
responded  to  this  appeal. 

McClellan  rapidly  reorganized  the  Federal  army,  and  in  less  than  a 
Mocieiian-g  week  had  172,000  men,  of  whom  100,000  were  to  form  the 
movements.  movable  force,  the  remainder  to  be  retained  for  the  defence 
of  the  capital.  Banks  was  placed  in  command  of  the  fortifications  at 
Washington,  his  old  corps  being  given  to  Mansfield.  Sumner,  Frank- 
lin, Porter,  and "  Burnside  retained  their  old  corps,  considerably  in- 
creased from  the  former  Army  of  Virginia,  while  Hooker  received 
that  of  McDowell,  between  whom  and  McClellan  there  was  no 
friendly  feeling.  On  the  7th  McClellan  moved  towards  Lee,  whose 
force  he  estimated  at  120,000,  —  more  than  twice  its  actual  number. 

On  the  10th  Lee  moved  northwestward,  his  immediate  destination 
Harper's  being  Hagerstown,  Maryland.  He  had  to  cross  the  South 
Ferry.  Mountain,  a  steep  range  one  thousand  feet  high,  cut  through 
to  a  depth  of  four  hundred  feet  by  Turner's  and  Crampton's  Gaps, 
six  miles  apart.  The  Federal  advance  reached  Frederick  on  the  12th. 
Here  accident  threw  into  McClellan's  hands  a  copy  of  Lee's  general 
order  for  the  movements  and  operations  of  the  next  few  days.  At 
Harper's  Ferry  were  14,000  or  15,000  raw  Federal  troops,  under 
Colonel  Miles,  whom  Lee  wished  to  capture  or  drive  away.  The 


1862.] 


LEE'S  PLAN  OF  CAMPAIGN. 


561 


Ferry,  in  a  narrow  valley  at  the  junction  of  the  Potomac  and  Shen- 
amloah,  is  commanded  on  three  sides  by  heights.  If  these  were  occu- 
pied, a  force  below  would  be  subject  to  a  plunging  fire,  to  which 
they  could  make  no  reply.  Lee  purposed  to  take  these  heights  by 
surprise.  To  do  this  he  must  divide  his  army  into  two  parts.  Jack- 
son's corps,  now  15,000  strong,  was  to  pass  through  Turner's  Gap, 
then  make  a  wide  de*tour,  crossing  the  Potomac  some  miles  above  the 
Ferry,  and,  going  down,  seize  Bolivar  Heights  on  the  west.  McLaws, 
with  two  divisions  of  Longstreet's  corps,  15,000  strong,  was  to  go  by 
the  way  of  Crampton's  Gap  and  seize  Maryland  Heights  on  the  east, 
while  Walker,  with  4,000,  was  to  move  up  the  Potomac  and  seize 
Loudon  Heights  on  the  south.  With  Lee  there  would  be  Longstreet's 


Antietam  Creek. 


two  remaining  divisions,  D.  H.  Hill's  and  the  cavalry,  26,000  in  all. 
Harper's  Ferry  captured,  the  whole  army  was  to  be  reunited  at 
Hagerstown. 

McClellan    availed  himself  of  this  valuable  information.     Frank- 
lin's corps  was  to  follow  McLaws,  overtake  him  if  possible,  Cramptoll.g 
or  in  any  case   bar  his   direct  way  of  rejoining  Lee.     But  Gap- 
McLaws  had  gained  Maryland  Heights  before  Franklin  had  cleared 
Crampton's  Gap.     On  the  14th   McLaws   sent  back  three  brigades 
with  orders  to  hold  the  pass,  if  it  cost  the  last  man.     These  brigades 
were  brushed  away  after  a  fight  in  which  the  Federal  loss  was  115 

VOL.  iv.  36 


562 


NORTHERX  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXL 


Surrender 
of  Harper's 
Ferrr. 


The  Bridge  over  the  Antietam,  looking  Northwett. 
Drawn  by  Harry  Fennfrom  a  photograph  made  in  Srptcmber,  1862. 

killed  and  416  wounded  ;  the  Confederate  loss  was  something  more,  as 
they  left  behind  600  prisoners,  mostly  wounded.  Franklin  debouched 
into  Pleasant  Valley,  six  miles  from  Harper's  Ferry,  from  which 
firing  was  heard,  showing  that  the  place  had  not  yet  fallen.  Walker 
had  already  gained  London  Heights. 

Jackson  gained  Bolivar  Heights,  marching  eighty  miles  in  three 
days.  Harper's  Ferry  was  now  quite  untenable,  but  there  was  no- 
thing to  prevent  the  troops  there  from  marching  away  up  the  Poto- 
mac. The  cavalry,  some  2,000  in  number,  did  so,  and  got 
off.  The  infantry  were  raw  men,  with  inexperienced  offi- 
cers. Miles  raised  the  white  flag  in  token  of  surrender,  but 
before  it  was  seen  he  was  mortally  wounded.  Unconditional  surren- 
der was  Jackson's  only  terms ;  and  12,520  men  laid  down  their  arms, 
and  were  at  once  paroled.  The  Confederates  gained  «lso  72  guns, 
13,000  small  arms,  and  some  stores.  In  a  few  hours  Jackson  was 
summoned  to  rejoin  Lee,  with  whom  things  had  gone  ill,  and  who 
was  sorely  bestead  fifteen  miles  away.  There  was  brief  time  for 
rest.  Jackson's  old  division,  "  the  Stonewall,"  were  ordered  at  three 
o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the  16th  to  prepare  rations  for  three 
days.  The  march  commenced  at  an  hour  after  midnight,  and  in  the 
gray  dawn  of  the  17th  such  of  the  men  as  could  endure  the  march 
appeared  on  what  was  to  be  the  battlefield  of  Antietam,  and  were 
forthwith  assigned  their  place  in  the  line.  Jackson  brought  only 
5,000  men. 


1862.]  LEE  INVADES  MARYLAND.  563 

In  the  mean  time  Lee  and  those  with  him  had  marched  through 
Turner's  Gap,  heading  leisurely  for  Hagerstown.  In  the  Turners 
afternoon  of  the  13th  he  learned  that  the  Federals,  whom  Gap 
he  supposed  to  be  quietly  resting  at  Frederick,  were  following  him 
through  the  Gap.  He  saw  the  peril  of  his  situation.  He  had  barely 
26,000  men,  stretched  for  two  score  miles  along  the  road,  and  should 
his  pursuers  pass  the  Gap,  their  whole  force  would  be  between  him 
and  Harper's  Ferry.  Ordering  his  trains  to  cross  the  Potomac,  at 
a  point  further  up  than  Harper's  Ferry,  D.  H.  Hill,  whose  division 
was  in  the  rear,  was  turned  back  to  hold  the  Gap  until  he  could  be 
aided  by  Longstreet.  Hill,  with  5,000  men,  reached  the  crest  of  the 
Gap  at  noon  on  the  14th.  just  as  the  Federal  army  —  Hooker  in  ad- 
vance—  appeared,  coming  up  from  the  other  side.  For  four  hours 
Hill  contested  the  steep  and  narrow  way,  but  was  slowly  pressed 
back.  A  part  of  Longstreet's  corps  now  came  up,  but  they  were 
too  late  to  change  the  fortune  of  the  day.  When  night  fell,  the  Gap 
was  clear  for  the  passage  of  the  whole  Federal  force  in  the  morning. 
Its  loss  in  this,  the  battle  of  the  South  Mountain,  was  312  killed  and 
1,234  wounded  ;  among  the  killed  was  General  Reno.  The  Con- 
federate loss  was  greater,  probably  not  less  than  2,000  killed  and 
wounded.  Hill  says  that  of  his  5,000  he  had  only  3,000  left.  Long- 
street's  loss  was  also  considerable. 

Lee  turned  his  retreat  in  the  direction  of  Harper's  Ferry,  and  on 
the  morning  of  the  15th  took  up  a  defensive  position  on  the  Antietam 
west  side  of  Antietam  Creek,  near  the  little  village  of  Creek- 
Sharpslaurg.  The  stream,  fordable  in  many  places,  and  crossed  by 
three  stone  bridges,  was  no  formidable  defence,  but  beyond  it  the 
ground  consisted  of  low  swells  with  narrow  valleys  intervening,  cut 
up  by  patches  of  woodland,  cultivated  fields,  with  sunken  roads, 
fences,  and  stone  walls.  The  limestone  ridges  crop  up  here  and  there 
waist-high  above  the  surface  of  the  soil,  giving  good  shelter  to  troops. 
It  was  a  position  which  20,000  men  might  hope  to  hold  against 
30,000,  or  which  a  commander  with  30,000  might  venture  to  assail 
against  20,000.  Lee  had  now  not  more  than  22,000,  besides  cavalry, 
which  could  here  be  of  little  service,  but  if  he  could  hold  his  ground 
for  two  days  he  might  hope  to  be  joined  by  as  many  more  from 
Harper's  Ferry,  of  the  capture  of  which  he  was  well  assured.  Mc- 
Clellan  reached  the  east  bank  of  the  Autietam  in  the  afternoon.  He 
had  with  him  over  70,000  men,  besides  Franklin's  corps  a  few  hours 
distant.  He  thought  it  too  late  to  attack  that  day  ;  all  the  next  dav 
he  thought  it  too  soon. 

His  plan,  as  finally  decided  upon  was,  as  he  says,  "  to  attack  the 
enemy's  left  with  the  corps  of  Hooker  and  Mansfield,  supported,  if 


564  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 

necessary,  by  Franklin's,  and  as  soon  as  matters  looked  favorable 
there  to  move  the  corps  of  Burnside  against  the  enemy's  extreme 
right;  and  whenever  either  of  these  flank  movements  should  be  suc- 
cessful, to  advance  our  centre  with  all  their  forces  then  disposable." 
This  attacking  "  in  driblets,"  as  General  Sumner  called  it,  enabled 
Lee  to  mass  his  comparatively  small  force  upon  the  point  of  immedi- 
ate action,  so  that,  in  fact,  the  forces  engaged  upon  either  side,  at  any 
one  time  and  place,  were  very  nearly  equal. 

Hooker  began  his  attack  early  in  the  morning  of  the  17th,  the 
The  battle  onset  falling  upon  Jackson,  who  was  speedily  forced  back, 
of  Antietam.  a]thOugh  reenforced  by  Hood.  Mansfield  soon  followed,  and 
by  nine  o'clock  Hooker  thought  he  had  gained  a  great  victory,  and 
sent  word  to  Sumner  to  advance.  A  few  minutes  later  Mansfield  was 
killed,  and  Hooker,  wounded  in  the  foot,  was  borne  from  the  field. 
McLaws  and  Anderson,  who  had  just  come  up  from  Harper's  Ferry 
with  7,000  men,  —  half  the  number  of  their  divisions  —  hurried  up, 
and  by  the  time  that  Sumner  reached  the  field  the  corps  of  Hooker 
and  Mansfield  were  streaming  away  in  rout.  They  took  little  further 
part  in  the  action.  The  arrival  of  Sumner's  strong  corps  wrought  an 
immediate  change.  Lee  now  brought  to  this  point  every  available 
man,  stripping  his  right  until  there  were  hardly  2,500  men  to  with- 
stand Burnside's  14,000  who  lay  idly  in  their  front.  The  battle  raged 
fiercely  with  varying  fortunes,  each  side  alternately  gaining  or  losing 
a  little  ground  at  one  point  or  another.  The  fighting  ceased  about 
the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  both  sides  being  utterly  exhausted.  At 
the  close  both  parties  held  nearly  the  ground  which  they  had  oc- 
cupied when  Sumner  entered  the  fight.  All  this  time  Porter's  corps 
and  two  thirds  of  that  of  Franklin,  25,000  in  all — more  by  half 
than  Sumner  had  —  were  within  cannon-shot,  but  were  not  sent  into 
action. 

Burnside  was  to  attack  the  enemy's  right  as  soon  as  he  received 
orders  so  to  do.  McClellan  says  that  such  an  order  was  sent 
advance  and  at  eight  o'clock.  Burnside  says  that  it  did  not  reach  him 
until  ten.  Be  this  as  it  may,  he  did  not  cross  the  Antietam 
until  one  o'clock.  Then  there  was  another  delay  of  two  hours ;  and 
it  was  nearly  four  o'clock  when  his  real  attack  began.  The  heights 
opposite  Sharpsburg  were  carried,  and  a  position  gained  from  which 
the  Confederate  lines  might  be  enfiladed.  At  this  moment  A.  P. 
Hill  came  up  from  Harper's  Ferry,  bringing  with  him  4,000  men, 
who  had  marched  seventeen  miles  that  day.  Hill  flung  himself  into 
the  fight;  but  it  was  over  before  he  could  bring  more  than  half  his 
men  into  action.  Burnside's  corps  fled  back  in  wild  disorder  to  the 
creek,  which  they  crossed  the  next  morning.  In  this  whole  futile 


1862.] 


A  LAME  CONCLUSION. 


565 


Lee's  escape. 


A  Signal  Station  on  Elk  Mountain,  near  Antietam. 
Draicn  by  Gustap  Verbtekfrom  a  photograph. 

movement  Burnside   lost  2,293  killed,  wounded,  and   missing.     The 
Confederates  lost  in  all  about  1,000. 

During  the  night  Lee  fell  back  a  little,  contracting  his  lines  around 
Sharpsburg.  McClellan  would  not  renew  the  action  next 
day.  The  reason  he  gave  was,  that  *'  the  National  cause 
could  afford  no  risk  of  defeat.  One  battle  lost,  and  almost  all  would 
have  been  lost.  Lee's  army  might  then  march  as  it  pleased  on  Wash- 
ington, Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  or  New  York,  and  nowhere  east  of 
the  Alleghanies  was  there  another  organized  force  able  to  resist  its 
march."  During  the  18th  he  was  joined  by  the  divisions  of  Couch 
and  Humphreys,  14,000  strong,  and  he  proposed  to  attack  the  next 
morning.  But  the  next  morning  there  was  no  enemy  to  attack. 
During  the  night  Lee  had  quietly  slipped  away,  and  was  safely  across 
the  Potomac. 

The  battle  of  Antietam,   says  Lee,  "  was  fought  with  less  than 
40,000  men."     All  told,  he  had,  first  and  last,  about  40,000  ;   Forcesand 
of  these  all  except  half  of  A.  P.  Hill's  4,000  were  hotly  en-  Io8se8- 
gaged.     McClellan  had  87,164,  of  whom  60,000  were  engaged,  succes- 
sively and  in  "driblets."     The  entire  Federal  loss  was  2,010  killed, 
9,416  wounded,  and  1,043  missing,  — 12,469  in  all.     Including  the 
losses  at  Crampton's  and  Turner's  Gaps  from  September  3d  to  20th, 
it  was  15,203.     This  does  not  include  the  losses  at  Harper's  Ferry. 


566  NORTHERN   VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 

The  Confederate  loss  is  a  matter  of  question.  As  summed  up  in  Lee's 
Report,  there  were  1,567  killed,  and  8,274  wounded, —  10,291,  besides 
the  missing;  but  a  collation  of  the  subsidiary  reports  appended  shows 
at  least  2,000  killed,  10,000  wounded,  and  5,000  missing,  — 17,000  in 
all.  Including  the  losses  at  Turner's  and  Crampton's  Gaps,  the  en- 
tire loss  must  have  been  at  least  20,000. 

As  a  mere  passage  of  arms,  the  battle  of  Antietam  was  indecisive. 
For  the  Confederates  it  was  a  defeat  inasmuch  as  it  turned  back  that 
invasion  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  which  had  been  planned  for 
the  purpose  of  raiding  the  rich  and  fertile  regions  of  those  States  for 
the  replenishment  of  the  commissary  department  of  their  army,  and 
to  transfer  the  seat  of  war  to  the  States  still  loyal  to  the  Federal 
Union.  The  projected  invasion  had  been  repelled ;  that  was  all. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  North,  where  the  loyal  people  were  always  ready 
to  hail  with  joy  any  semblance  of  triumph  to  the  Union  arms,  the 
battle  was  regarded  as  a  notable  victory.  The  result  of  the  fighting 
known  as  the  Second  Battle  of  Bull  Run  had  been  profoundly  depress- 
ing to  the  hopes  of  the  people.  The  great  loss  of  life,  which  carried 
lamentation  and  grief  into  thousands  of  homes  in  the  North,  inflicted 
upon  the  long-suffering  and  patient  people  a  blow  from  which  they 
did  not  readily  recover.  But  the  repulse  of  the  invader  at  Antietam, 
accomplished  though  it  was  by  another  frightful  sacrifice  of 
life,  was  popularly  accepted  as  an  indication  that  the  tide  of 
battle  had  at  last  turned,  and  that  other  and  more  decisive  victories 
would  follow  until  the  capital  of  the  insurgents  should  fall  before  the 
prowess  of  the  advancing  hosts  of  the  Nation. 

This  view  of  the  situation   emboldened   President  Lincoln  to  put 
forth  his  premonitory  proclamation  for  the  abolition  of  slav- 

The  prelim-  ,11  i  i,r  • 

inary  proc-    erv,  which  he  had  prepared  months  before,  announcing  that 

lauiation  "  •    .«  •  T  i  i      1 1  •  11 

ofemanci-  if  on  the  1st  of  the  ensuing  January  the  rebellion  should 
still  continue,  he  should  in  virtue  of  his  power  as  Com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States,  order 
and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves  in  the  rebellious  sections, 
"  are  and  henceforth  shall  be  free,"  and  that  "  the  Executive  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  including  the  military  and  naval  powers 
thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons. 
.  .  .  And  such  persons  of  suitable  condition  will  be  received  into 
the  armed  service  of  the  United  States." 

The  expediency  of  issuing  this  proclamation  had  been  a  topic  of 
discussion  in  the  President's  cabinet  for  some  months.  Various  rea- 
sons for  withholding  it  had  been  presented  by  some  of  the  members 
of  that  council ;  and,  although  there  was  no  opposition  to  its  ultimate 
promulgation,  the  mind  of  the  President  was  chiefly  affected,  it  would 


1862.]  A  LONG  PAUSE  IN  THE  FIGHTING.  567 

appear,  by  the  suggestion  that  the 
most  opportune  time  to  send  forth 
the  proclamation  would  be  just  after 
a  military  success,  not  when,  in  the 
midst  of  alarm  and  depression,  it 
would  come  like  a  cry  of  distress. 
President  Lincoln,  not  long  after  the 
proclamation  made  its  appearance,  ex- 
plained to  a  Massachusetts  Represen- 
tative in  Congress  how  he  chose  the 
time  for  the  promulgation  of  the 
proclamation.  He  said:1  "When  Lee 
came  over  the  river  (the  Potomac)  I 
made  a  resolution  that  if  McClellan 

Lieutenant-General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  C.  S.  A. 

drove  him  back  I  would  send  the  pro- 
clamation after  him.  The  battle  of  Antietam  was  fought  Wednesday, 
and  until  Saturday  I  could  not  find  out  whether  we  had  gained  a  vic- 
tory or  lost  a  battle.  It  was  then  too  late  to  issue  the  proclamation 
that  day ;  and  the  fact  is  I  fixed  it  up  a  little  Sunday,  and  Monday  I 
let  them  have  it." 

After  crossing  the  Potomac,  Lee's  army  fell  back  to  Winchester, 
Va.,  where  he  had  ordered  a  rendezvous  for  the  troops  of  Theoppog. 
stragglers  who  had  fallen  out  of  the  ranks  while  the  Confed-  J3fer°Antie- 
erate  army  was  in  Maryland.  On  the  30th  of  September,  tam- 
when  many  of  these  had  come  up,  his  muster  rolls  showed  a  total  of 
nearly  63,000  present,  but  only  52,609  were  reported  as  "  present  for 
duty."  At  that  time,  McClellan's  reports  showed  that  he  had  with 
him  present  and  fit  for  duty,  under  his  immediate  command,  100,144 
men;  of  this  the  total  number  of  the  forces  under  his  command,  in- 
cluding those  under  Banks  in  Washington  was  303,959  ;  but  of  this 
vast  number,  101,756  were  absent,  28,458  were  on  special  duty,  and 
Banks's  effectives  numbered  73,601.  So  that,  leaving  out  of  the  cal- 
culation the  absentees  and  those  on  the  sick  list  or  on  special  duty, 
General  McClellan's  actual  effective  force  was  over  100,000,  with 
73,601  more  men  within  supporting  distance. 

While  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  resting  and  recuperating 
after  the  exhausting  struggle  at  Antietam,  Lee  was  again  reorganizing 
and  reenforcing  his  army.  Having  discovered  indications  that  the 
enemy  was  accumulating  men  and  material,  McClellan  was  filled  with 
the  gravest  apprehensions  for  his  own  safety.  Although  he  had  an 
army  of  200,000  fighting  men,  he  dreaded  attack  ;  he  could  not  find 
in  the  long  delay  of  the  enemy  in  his  front  any  opportunity  for  him 

1  The  Lawyer,  the  Statesman,  and  the  Soldier,  by  George  S.  Boutwell. 


568  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 

to  attack.  Accordingly,  he  renewed  his  habitual  clamor  for  more 
men  and  material.  On  the  23d  of  September,  nearly  a  week  after 
the  battle  of  Antietam,  lie  called  for  reinforcements  for  the  army  of 
more  than  100,000  men,  which  he  then  had  fully  in  hand.  On  the 
27th  he  renewed  his  demand,  and  informed  the  Government  that  he 
should  stay  where  he  was  and  "  attack  the  enemy  should  he  attempt 
to  recross  into  Mai-yland."  His  chief  anxiety  was  that  he  might  at 
once  receive  more  men  and  supplies,  horses  and  equipments,  and  he 
hoped  that  the  river  might  rise  so  as  to  present  a  natural  obstacle  to 
any  attack  of  the  enemy  on  the  other  side. 

The  President,  inexpressibly  wearied  with  these  delays,  again  went 
to  the  army  headquarters,  as  he  had  gone  when  the  camp 
head-  was  at  Harrison's  Landing,  to  see  for  himself  what  could  be 

effected  by  a  personal  interview  with  the  general  command- 
ing the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  McClellan  was  shrewd  enough  to 
see  that  the  President's  visit  had  some  relation  to  a  possible  forward 
movement,  which  he  (McClellan)  was  determined  should  not  be 
made  with  his  consent.  In  a  letter  written  at  this  time  to  a  member 
of  his  own  family,  McClellan  said,  referring  to  the  President's  visit : l 
"  His  ostensible  purpose  is  to  see  the  troops  and  the  battle-field.  I 
incline  to  think  that  the  real  purpose  of  his  visit  is  to  push  me  into 
a  premature  advance  into  Virginia."  During  this  visit  President 
Lincoln,  accompanied  by  a  friend,  walked  to  a  hill  from  which  they 
could  see  nearly  the  whole  of  the  vast  encampment,  the  white  tents 
of  the  mighty  hosts  shining  in  the  light  of  the  rising  sun.  Gazing 
on  the  inspiriting  sight  for  a  moment,  the  President  said  to  his 
companion,  "  Do  you  know  what  this  is?"  "It  is  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,"  was  the  astonished  reply.  "  So  it  is  called,"  responded 
the  President,  "  but  that  is  a  mistake ;  it  is  only  McCIellan's  body- 
guard." i 

On  the  6th  of  October  Halleck  wrote  to  McClellan  a  despatch, 
under  instructions  from  the  President,  directing  him  to  cross 
ordert<ian  the  Potomac  and  drive  the  enemy  southward.  He  was  in- 
formed that  he  might  move  by  the  line  eastward  of  the 
mountains,  where  he  could  be  reenforced  with  30,000  men  ;  or  he 
might  move  up  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  where  his  reenforce- 
ments  would  not  be  more  than  12,000  or  15,000  men,  since  the  latter 
movement  would  to  a  certain  extent  uncover  Washington.  McClel- 
lan ultimately  chose  the  interior  line  of  advance,  keeping  himself 
within  reach  of  the  greater  number  of  reinforcements.  But  he  still 
declined  to  move,  persistently  clamoring  for  military  supplies  and 

1  McCIellan's  Own  Story. 

a  The  Nicolay-Uay  Life  of  Lincoln,  vol.  vi.  p.  175, 


Pinkerton 


Lincoln 


McClernand 


PRESIDENT   LINCOLN  WITH  GENERAL  McCLERNAND  AND 
ALLAN  PINKERTON,  AT  ANTIETAM,  IN  OCTOBER,  1862. 


1862.] 


McCLELLAN'S  DEMANDS.  569 


Major-General  William  B.  Franklin.  Major-General  Edwin  V.  Sumner. 

material  of  various  sorts.  Many  days  were  consumed  in  expostula- 
tions and  recriminations  between  the  War  Department  and  the  gen- 
eral commanding  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  No  sooner  was  one 
requisition  honored  than  another,  apparently  hitherto  unthought-of, 
was  made.  At  one  time  during  this  exasperating  and  unprofitable 
controversy  (for  the  exchange  of  messages  soon  became  a  contro- 
versy), McClellan  suddenly  asked  how  long  it  would  take  to  give 
him  three  or  four  thousand  hospital  tents.  This  happy  thought  was 
responded  to  by  the  quartermaster-general  with  the  statement  that  a 
sufficient  supply  of  these  tents  had  already  been  sent  to  the  army, 
and  that  it  would  require  a  long  time  and  an  expenditure  of  half  a 
million  dollars  to  give  him  the  additional  number  suggested  in  the 
inquiry. 

While  this  debate  was  going  on,  the  dashing  Confederate  cavalry- 
man, J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  derisively  insulted  the   Federal  com- 
mander, as  he  had  done  once  before  on  the  Peninsula,  by  to'cham- 
riding   all   the    way   around   the   Army   of    the    Potomac. 
Crossing  the  river  on  McClellan's  right,  at  Williamsport,  with  1,800 
cavalry,  Stuart  pushed  on  to  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  where  he 
destroyed  a  large  amount  of  military  stores,  supplies,  and  other  prop- 
erty, and  captured  and  paroled  several  hundred  sick  in  the  military 
hospitals.     Then,  sweeping  around  McClellan's  army,  he  recrossed  the 
Potomac  at  White's  Ford,  on  the  left  of  the  army,  around  which  he 
had  made  a  complete  circuit.     This  mortifying  incident  apparently 
had  no  other  effect  upon  McClellan  than  to  induce  him  to  renew  his 
demand  for  horses.     He  complained  that  he  was  unable  to  mount 
more  than  1,000  cavalrymen,  on  account  of  the  shortness  of  his  supply 
and  the  sickness  that  prevailed  among  his  horses.     This  led  to  an 


570 


NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 


acrimonious  dispute,  the  President  having  naturally  demanded  expla- 
nations of  the  department  charged  with  the  duty  of  supplying  the 
army  with  needed  animals.  The  fact  was  then  brought  out  that 
there  had  been  sent  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  during  the  six  weeks 
previous  to  the  preferring  of  these  complaints,  no  less  than  10,254 
horses  and  a  large  number  of  mules.  In  reply  to  McClellan's  com- 
plaint that  his  horses  were  used  up  by  fatigue,  the  patient  President 
asked  him,  with  an  unwonted  touch  of  asperity,  "  Will  you  pardon 


:••'"•:  ;;.;,„,- 


The  West  Side  of  the  Hagerstown  Road  after  the  Battle  of  Antietam,  September,  I  862. 


Further 
delay  by 
McClellan. 


me  for  asking  what  the  horses  of  your  army  have  done  since  the 
battle  of  Antietam  that  fatigues  anything  ?  " 

The  partisans  of  McClellan  had  spread  abroad  reports  that  there 
was  a  systematic  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  in 
Washington  to  cripple  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  by  with- 
holding material  needed  for  its  efficient  activity.  This  was 
urged  with  much  vehemence  by  newspapers  which,  while  they  habit- 
ually deprecated  the  war  and  opposed  its  vigorous  prosecution,  were 
ready  to  complain  of  their  favorite  general  that  he  was  not  properly 
supported  or  fairly  treated.  The  Administration  was  roundly  abused 
for  not  giving  him  what  he  absolutely  required  to  execute  the  work 
laid  upon  him.  The  Secretary  of  War  demanded  of  General  Hal- 
leek  an  explanation  and  a  report  upon  the  subject  in  dispute.  It  then 


1862.]  McCLELLAN'S  POLITICAL  COURSE.  571 

appeared  that  every  requisition  from  General  McClellan  had  been 
immediately  and  promptly  filled  save  one,  —  the  articles  called  for 
not  being  in  store  at  the  time  when  they  were  demanded.  It  was 
added  that  "no  armies  in  the  world,  while  in  campaign,  have  been 
more  promptly  or  better  supplied  than  ours."  An  explanation  of 
the  delay  to  move  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  incidentally  supplied 
in  the  report  of  a  member  of  McClellan's  staff  at  that  time.  Gen- 
eral Ingalls,  chief-quartermaster  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  in  a 
letter  dated  October  26th,  said :  "  I  have  frequently  remarked  that 
an  army  will  never  move  if  it  waits  until  all  the  different  commanders 
report  that  they  are  ready  and  want  no  more  supplies.  It  has  been 
my  pride  to  know  the  fact  that  no  army  was  ever  more  perfectly 
supplied  than  this  has  been  as  a  general  rule."  The  explanation  of 
McClellan's  inaction  must  be  sought  for  in  other  directions  than  that 
of  the  quartermaster's  department. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  his  remarkable  letter  of  advice  to 
the  President,  dated  at  Harrison's  Landing,  after  his  retreat 
to  the  James,  McClellan  warned  Mr.  Lincoln  against  taking  »ddrewto 
any  radical  stand  on  the  question  of  slavery.  When  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was  promulgated  to  the  armies  in 
general  orders,  September  24th,  1862,  the  general  was  much  disturbed. 
In  a  private  letter,  dated  September  25th,  he  said  :  "  The  President's 
late  proclamation,  the  continuation  of  Stan  ton  and  Halleck  in  office, 
render  it  almost  impossible  for  me  to  retain  my  commission  and  self- 
respect  at  the  same  time."  After  long  meditation  on  the  subject, 
he  issued  an  address  to  the  army,  dated  October  7th,  in  which  he 
deprecated  any  excited  or  intemperate  discussion  of  "  public  measures 
determined  upon  and  declared  by  the  Government,"  as  if  he  antici- 
pated and  feared  a  mutiny  among  his  troops.  He  added,  that  "  the 
remedy  for  political  errors,  if  any  are  committed,  is  to  be  found  only 
in  the  action  of  the  people  at  the  polls."  The  natural  inference  from 
this  incident  was  that  the  general  commanding  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  while  he  profoundly  disapproved  of  the  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation,  magnanimously  counselled  his  army  to  submit  without 
mutiny  or  demoralizing  protest,  relying  upon  the  popular  verdict  at 
the  ballot-box;  to  rebuke  or  chastise  the  Administration  for  its  "  po- 
litical error." 

Earlier  than  this,  however,  an  indication  of  the  prevailing  temper 
at  McClellan's  headquarters  had  been  given  in  the  trial  of  Thecaseof 
one  of  his  officers.     Major  John  J.  Key,  brother  to  Colonel  Mai°r  Key- 
Thomas   M.   Key,  of  McClellan's  staff,   was  reported  to  have  said, 
when  replying  to  the  question,  "  Why  was  not  the  rebel  army  bagged 
immediately  after  the  battle  of  Sharpsburg  ? "     "  That  is  not  the 


572  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 

game  ;  the  object  is  that  neither  army  shall  get  much  advantage  of 
the  other ;  that  both  shall  be  kept  in  the  field  till  they  are  exhausted, 
when  we  will  make  a  compromise  and  save  slavery."  Major  Key 
and  the  officer  to  whom  this  remark  was  made  were  summoned  before 
the  President.  No  defence  having  been  made  by  Key,  except  in  the 
statement  that  he  was  loyal  to  the  Union,  the  President  endorsed 
upon  the  record  of  the  case  these  words  :  "  In  my  view  it  is  wholly 
inadmissible  for  any  gentleman  holding  a  military  commission  from 
the  United  States  to  utter  such  sentiments  as  Major  Key  is  within 
proved  to  have  done.  Therefore,  let  Major  John  J.  Key  be  forth- 
with dismissed  from  the  military  service  of  the  United  States." 
Speaking  of  this  matter  afterwards,  President  Lincoln  said  :  "  I  dis- 
missed Major  Key  because  I  thought  his  silly,  treasonable  expressions 
were  '  staff  talk,'  and  I  wished  to  make  an  example."  1 

In  his  despatch  of  October  6th,  directing  an  advance  of  the  Army 
A  race  for  °^  *ne  Potomac,  Halleck  left  with  McClellan  the  choice  of 
Richmond.  routes  southward.  McClellan  chose  the  line  on  the  eastward 
of  the  Blue  Ridge,  Lee  being  on  the  westward,  in  the  Shenandoah 
Valley.  Then  began  a  race  for  Richmond,  McClellan  having  finally 
crossed  the  Potomac ;  he  reported  himself  fully  over  the  river  No- 
vember 2d.  It  was  hoped  and  expected  that  McClellan,  with  his 
greatly  superior  force  and  equipment,  would  be  able  to  outflank  the 
enemy,  and,  by  striking  him  through  the  passes  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
full  on  his  flank,  destroy  his  army  or  cripple  him  so  severely  that  he 
would  be  unable  to  offer  serious  resistance  to  the  advance  of  the 
Federal  troops  upon  Richmond.  But  Lee,  as  usual,  was  too  quick 
for  him.  Anticipating  McClellan's  movement,  Lee  sent  Longstreet's 
corps  through  the  gaps  of  the  mountain  range,  and,  at  Culpepper  Court 
House,  once  more  flung  an  army  between  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
and  Richmond.  But  this  was  a  dividing  of  Lee's  forces,  which,  with 
an  alert  and  skilful  commander  on  the  other  side,  might  have  re- 
sulted most  disastrously  to  the  Confederates.  Was  McClellan  such  a 
commander  ?  Some  of  his  friends  and  partisans  contended  that  he 
was,  and  that  if  he  had  been  left  to  himself  he  would  have  finally 
profited  by  the  good  fortune  so  often  put  into  his  hands  and  so  often 
rejected.  But  it  would  appear  that  when  the  news  reached  Wash- 
ington that  Lee  had  outstripped  McClellan  in  the  race  on  parallel 
lines  for  Richmond,  the  waning  confidence  in  McClellan's  ability  to 
fight  and  win  battles  finally  vanished. 

President  Lincoln  sent  an  order,  dated  November  5th,  relieving 
McClellan  from  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  naming 
as  his  successor  Major-general  A.  E.  Burnside,  then  commanding  the 

1  The  Nicolay-Hay  Life  of  Lincoln,  vol.  vi.  p.  188. 


1862.] 


BURNSIDE  SUCCEEDS  McCLELLAN. 


573 


Ninth  Corps  of  that 
army.  This  order  was 
borne  to  McClellan's 
headquarters  at  Rec- 
tortown,  Virginia,  by 
General  C.  P.  Buck- 
ingham, from  the  War 
Department.  Gen- 
eral McClellan  was 
instructed  to  turn  over 
his  command  to  Gen- 
eral Burnside,  and  to 
report  at  Trenton, 
New  Jersey.  When 
the  two  generals, 
Buckingham  and 
Burnside,  presented 
themselves  with  their 
orders,  McClellan  re- 
ceived them  with 
calmness,  and  "  read 
the  papers  with  a 
smile."  But  as  soon 
as  he  was  left  alone, 
he  sadly  ejaculated, 
"  Alas  for  my  poor 
country  !  "  l  The 

news  of  his  removal 
from  command  was 
distressing  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  army,  most  of  whom  still  clung 
to  him  with  blind  and  unreasoning  affection.  To  the  officers  who 
more  immediately  surrounded  him  with  their  adulation  and  their 
zealous  partisanship,  his  removal  was  a  frightful  blow.  In  later  years 
McClellan  put  on  record  the  fact  that  some  of  these  advised  him  to 
head  a  mutiny  of  his  troops.  He  said  :  2  "  Many  were  in  favor  of 
my  refusing  to  obey  the  order,  and  of  marching  upon  Washington  to 
take  possession  of  the  Government."  Fortunately  for  him,  McClellan 
declined  so  perilous  an  undertaking.  He  issued  to  the  army  McClelian'» 
a  touching  and  eloquent  farewell  order,  and  retired  to  the  farewe11- 
capital  of  New  Jersey.  Henceforth  was  to  begin  his  strictly  political 
career.  His  military  career  was  ended. 

1  McClellan 's  Own  Story,  p.  662. 

2  Ibid.  p.  652. 


Lincoln  and  McClellan  at  Antietam  in  October,   I  862. 


574  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 

Irresolution,  rather  than  cowardice  or  disloyalty,  appears  to  have 
cause  of  been  the  cause  of  McClellan's  repeated  failures  in  the  field, 
his  failures,  jf  jje  jjij  not  distrust  his  own  abilities,  he  constantly  dis- 
trusted and  underrated  his  own  resources.  And  he  as  constantly 
overestimated  the  resources  of  his  opponent.  It  was  notorious  that 
the  Confederate  quartermaster's  and  commissary  departments  were 
far  inferior  to  those  of  the  National  troops.  Lee's  brave  men  fought 
under  every  disadvantage  of  physical  privation,  poor  equipment,  and 
scantiness  of  supply.  The  captives  from  his  forces,  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  Federals,  had  no  need  to  tell  tales  of  hunger,  poverty, 
and  raggedness.  Their  personal  appearance  was  eloquent  witness  of 
their  condition.  They  marched  with  marvellous  celerity  and  fought 
with  indomitable  courage,  notwithstanding  the  slenderness  of  their 
outfit  and  the  scantiness  of  their  war  material.  But  while  these  ill- 
clad,  ill-fed  troops  were  capering  derisively  around  his  army,  or  were 
tricking  him  with  wooden  guns  and  dummy  fortifications  and  sen- 
tries, McClellan  continually  exaggerated  the  numbers  of  the  troops 
confronting  him,  and  listened  with  credulity  to  fantastic  tales  of  the 
reenforcement  of  the  enemy  from  distant  parts  of  the  United  States. 
He  dreaded  the  coming  of  Beauregard  and  Bragg  to  the  support  of 
Lee,  when  those  redoubtable  chieftains  were  hundreds  of  miles  away, 
fully  occupied  with  most  arduous  labors.  His  anxiety  for  more  men, 
more  guns,  more  ammunition,  more  supplies  of  every  sort  and  de- 
scription, amounted  to  a  mania.  This  was  harshly  satirized  by  one 
of  the  humorists  of  the  time,  who  represented  that  the  army  was 
waiting  for  a  supply  of  umbrellas  before  undertaking  a  forward 
movement.  A  peerless  organizer,  a  skilful  engineer,  he  excelled  in 
planning  and  manning  defences  ;  he  would  have  been  invaluable  in 
the  defensive  works  around  Washington.  He  certainly  did  not  have 
the  qualities  of  a  fighter. 

General  Burnside's  first  act  was  to  change  the  organization  of  the 
Bunwide'g  Army  of  the  Potomac  by  the  consolidation  of  its  six  army 
«o°ngoTtht  corps  into  three  grand  divisions  of  two  corps  each.  The 
*"**•  right  grand  division  was  commanded  by  General  E.  V. 

Sumner,  and  was  composed  of  the  Second  Corps,  under  General 
Couch,  and  the  Ninth,  under  General  Wilcox ;  the  centre,  under 
General  Joseph  Hooker,  was  made  up  of  the  Third  Corps,  under 
General  Stoneman,  and  the  Fifth,  under  General  Butterfield  ;  and  the 
left  division,  under  General  W.  B.  Franklin,  was  composed  of  the 
First  Corps,  under  General  Reynolds,  and  the  Sixth,  under  General 
W.  F.  Smith.  Twice  before  Burnside  had  been  offered  the  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  he  now  accepted  it  only 
from  a  stern  sense  of  duty.  Taking  command,  as  he  did,  in  the  face 


1862.] 


A  RACE  FOR  FREDERICKSBURG. 


575 


of  the  enemy,  and  oppressed  by  the  magnitude  of  the  trust  so  sud- 
denly thrust  upon  him,  he  was  naturally  cautious.  Instead  of  going 
forward  to  offer  battle,  as  it  was  supposed  McClellan  might  have 
done,  or  proposed  to  do,  Burnside  prepared  a  new  plan  of  campaign, 
and  occupied  about  ten  days  in  getting  in  hand  his  army,  which  had 
to  be  reorganized  to  a  certain  extent.  The  perfect  marching  and 
fighting  weather  of  an  American  autumn  had  been  wasted  while  Mc- 
Clellan was  making  his  elaborate  preparations  for  a  forward  move- 
ment in  which  he  had  neither  heart  nor  confidence.  November  was 
well  advanced  before  Burnside  could  say  that  he  had  his  army  well 
in  hand.  It  cannot  be  said  that  that  army  welcomed  him  with  cor- 
diality or  regarded  with  confidence  any  possibility  of  victory  that 
might  be  promised  in  his  plans.  For  the  general  was  not  only  told 
that  he  must  take  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  but  he 
must  say  what  he  proposed  to  do  with  it.  Two  days  after  he  had 
taken  command,  and  while  the  work  of  reorganization  was  going  on, 
he  had  his  plan  ready  for  approval. 

Instead  of  moving  toward  Richmond  by  way  of  Gordonsville,  Burn- 
side  proposed  to  make  "  a  rapid  move  of  the  whole  force  Burnside.g 
to  Fredericksburg,  with  a  view  to  a  movement  upon  Rich-  plwi' 
mond  from  that  point."  This  plan  was  accepted,  and  on  the  15th 
of  November  the  movement  was  begun,  masked  by  a  feint  toward 
Gordonsville.  Lee  was  not  deceived  by  this  device,  but  divining  the 
intent  of  Burnside,  he  headed  his  force  toward  Fredericksburg.  The 
armies  moved  down  the  Rappahannock,  but  upon  opposite  sides,  Lee 
upon  the  south  side,  Burnside  upon  the  north.  Burnside  had  sev- 
eral days  the  start,  and  on  the  17th  his  advance,  under  Sumner, 
reached  Falmouth,  where  it  bad  been  purposed  to  cross  the  Rappa- 
hannock to  Fredericksburg.  But  when 
he  reached  that  point  he  found  that 
the  bridges  had  all  been  destroyed,  and 
the  pontoons  which  were  to  have  been 
there  had  not  been  sent.  Before  these 
came,  Lee  had  brought  down  his  whole 
force,  now  numbering  nearly  80,000 ; 
had  fortified  the  heights,  and  was 
awaiting  the  further  movements  of 
Burnside,  whose  force  numbered  fully 
113,000. 

After  a  delay  that  appears  to  have 
been  fatal  to  the  plan  of  the  command- 
ing general,  the  pontoons  for  crossing 

Lieutenant-General  James  Longstreet,  .,  .  /»       11  •        i  i  .1 

c.  s.  A.  the   river  finally  arrived,  and   on  the 


576  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 

10th  of  December  Burnside  decided  to  lay  down  several  bridges  and 
Fredericks-  cross.  It  was  no  part  of  Lee's  plan  seriously  to  obstruct  the 
burg-  passage.  He  preferred  to  let  the  enemy  cross  and  attack 

him  in  his  strong  position.  The  passage  of  the  river  was  made  on  the 
llth  and  12th,  followed  on  Sunday,  the  13th,  by  the  disastrous  battle 
of  Fredericksburg.  This  was  a  vain  effort  to  carry  an  almost 
Freaeericks-  impregnable  position,  held  by  an  almost  equal  force.  Be- 
ginning at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  attempt  after  attempt 
was  made  to  force  the  Confederate  lines  at  several  points.  Here  and 
there  the  assailants  for  a  brief  space  won  a  little  ground,  but  were 
soon  hurled  back.  The  hottest  fighting  took  place  at  the  foot  of 
Marye's  Hill,  just  behind  Fredericksburg.  This  hill,  crowned  by  bat- 
teries, falls  off  abruptly  to  a  sunken  road,  faced  on  the  city  side  by  a 
low  stone  wall.  This  sunken  road,  which  really  formed  a  ditch  for 
the  defence  of  the  fortress  hill,  was  the  decisive  point  in  the  battle. 
The  first  assault  upon  Marye's  Hill  was  committed  to  the  divisions  of 
French  and  Hancock  of  Sumner's  grand  corps,  "  two  of  the  most  gal- 
lant officers  in  the  army,"  says  Sumner,  "  and  two  divisions  which  had 
never  turned  their  backs  to  the  enemy."  The  front  to  be  carried  was 
so  narrow  that  scarcely  more  than  a  brigade  could  be  brought  upon  it 
at  once.  Brigade  after  brigade  rushed  forward  only  to  be  swept  back 
so  rapidly  that  it  seemed  like  a  single  assault.  Something  like  10,000 
men  took  part  in  it,  and  it  lasted  two  hours  and  more  ;  of  these  fully 
4,000  were  killed  or  wounded.  Twice  as  many  men  could  not  have 
carried  the  hill  in  face  of  the  forces  opposed  to  them.  The  first  line 
of  the  Confederate  entrenchments  had  not  been  carried.  The  dead 
bodies  of  the  Federal  troops,  lying  in  winrows,  marked  the  extreme 
point  of  the  advance,  twenty  or  thirty  paces  from  a  stone  wall,  behind 
which  the  enemy  stood  secure. 

Burnside,  from  across  the  river,  had  watched  the  fight.  "  That 
The  final  crest,"  he  said  to  Hooker,  "must  be  carried  to-night." 
assault.  Hooker  crossed  the  river,  and  consulted  with  Hancock, 
French,  and  others,  all  of  whom,  with  a  single  exception,  thought  that 
it  could  not  be  done.  But  Burnside  was  inflexible,  and  ordered  a 
fresh  assault  to  be  made.  Night  was  fast  approaching  when  Hooker 
was  ready  to  attack.  He  began  by  a  fierce  artillery  fire,  hoping  to 
make  "  a  hole  sufficiently  large  for  a  forlorn  hope  to  enter."  It  made 
no  more  impression,  he  says,  "  than  if  it  had  been  made  against  a 
mountain  of  rock."  The  Confederate  fire  from  the  crest  had  ceased, 
their  ammunition  being  exhausted.  At  sunset  Hooker  ordered 
Humphreys,  with  4,000  men,  to  "  make  the  assault  with  empty 
muskets,  for  there  was  no  time  to  load  and  fire."  Looking  upward 
from  the  base  of  the  hill,  all  that  they  could  see  was  a  steep  slope, 


1862.] 


A  FRIGHTFUL  SLAUGHTER. 


577 


Culpepper  Court  House,  Va. 

with  a  low  stone  wall,  near  the  base.  The  sunken  road  below  was 
quite  invisible,  and  they  knew  nothing  of  its  existence.  But  in 
it  troops  were  standing  four  deep,  and  perfectly  protected  from  any 
fire.  Humphreys  pushed  to  within  a  few  rods  of  this  road,  when  his 
column  was  met  by  a  solid  sheet  of  lead  and  fire,  before  which  it 
melted  away  like  a  snow-drift  before  a  jet  of  steam.  The  whole 
affair  lasted  barely  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  but  in  that  brief  space  out 
of  4,000  assailants  fully  1,700  were  killed  or  wounded,  while  not  a 
man  of  the  enemy  appears  to  have  been  struck.  Then,  says  Hooker, 
grimly,  "  finding  that  I  had  lost  as  many  men  as  my  orders  required 
me  to  lose,  I  suspended  the  attack."  There  was  no  complaint  of  any 
lack  of  ardor  on  the  part  of  Hooker's  men.  "  They  ran  hurrahing." 
And  he  adds :  "  The  head  of  Humphrey's  column  reached  a  point 
about  fifteen  or  twenty  paces  from  the  stone  wall,  which  proved  the 
advance  line  of  the  rebels,  and  then  was  driven  back  as  quickly  as  it 
had  come.  The  time  taken  was  probably  not  fifteen  minutes,  and  it 
left  behind  1,760  men  out  of  4,000." 

The  battle  of  Fredericksburg  was   over.     But    Burnside  did  not 
give  up  without  a  struggle  his  hope  of  carrying  the  impreg-  Afterthe 
nable  lines  in  the  rear  of  the  little  city.     After  the  final  and  battle- 
deadly  repulse,  he  called  a  council  of  corps  and  division  commanders : 
even  the  veteran  and  well-seasoned  Sumner  had  expostulated  with 


VOL.    IV. 


37 


578 


NORTHERN   VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXL 


Major-General  Ambrose  E.  Burnside. 


him  over  the  wasteful  and  hopeless 
attacks  on  the  insurgent  line  of  in-  S 
trenchments.  The  council  voted 
unanimously  against  the  proposed 
attack.  Burnside,  although  ago- 
nized by  the  fearful  loss  of  life  al- 
ready incurred,  could  not  readily 
yield.  He  crossed  the  yver  to  ascer- 
tain the  opinion  of  other  officers  who 
were  not  of  the  council.  Every- 
where he  met  with  the  same  reply. 
Further  attack  was  hopeless.  Fi- 
nally, Franklin,  whose  military  skill  * 
and  courage  were  undoubted,  pro- 
nounced against  the  proposed  at- 
tempt. During  two  days  the  army  kept  a  bold  front.  It  remained  on 
the  line  of  battle  before  an  enemy  who  made  no  sign  of  renewing  the 
fight.  The  dead  and  wounded  lay  exposed  on  the  snowy  ground  be- 
tween the  lines  of  the  opposing  armies.  At  night  there  were  frequent 
alarms  caused  by  picket-firing ;  and  marauders  from  the  insurgent 
lines  stripped  the  bodies  of  Union  soldiers  lying  dead  or  dying  on  the 
field.  A  woman  who  lived  near  the  edge  of  the  battle-field  said 
that  on  "  the  morning  after  the  battle  the  field  was  blue ;  but  on  the 
morning  after  the  Federals  withdrew  the  field  was  white."  The 
blue  ujiiforms  of  the  Federal  soldiers  often  served  the  insurgents  a 
double  purpose,  —  they  covered  their  own  nakedness  and  disguised 
them  to  the  eyes  of  their  foes. 

The  forces  engaged  in  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  and  the  losses 
that  accrued   to  each,  were  greatly  disproportionate.     The 

The  forces.  V          i  /-, 

aggregate  of  the  several  corps  under  the  command  of  Gen- 
eral Burnside,  according  to  his  own  report,  on  the  morning  of  De- 
cember 13th,  was  113,000  men.  This  was  about  3,600  less  than  he 
had  reported  on  the  10th  of  that  month  as  "  present  for  duty 
equipped."  The  total  Federal  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  was 
12,653.  There  is  no  official  record  of  the  number  of  Lee's  forces  at 
the  battle  of  Fredericksburg.  His  return  for  December  10th  showed 
a  "  present  for  duty "  of  78,513.  But  this  included  the  cavalry, 
which  was  not  directly  involved  in  the  engagement  ;  and  from  it 
should  be  deducted  the  usual  proportion  of  non-combatants,  the 
absent  on  leave,  and  the  cavalry  engaged  in  other  fields.  One 
authority  1  says :  "  Less  than  20,000  Confederate  troops  (about  one 
fourth  of  the  army  under  General  Lee)  were  actively  engaged  "  in 
1  Taylor's  Four  Years  with  General  Lee,  p.  81. 


1862.] 


A  GREAT   DISAPPOINTMENT. 


579 


The  results. 


this  battle.     The  Confederate  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing, 
was  5,377. 

Once  more  an  enormous  disaster  had  fallen  upon  the  people  in  the 
loss  of  a  great  battle.  When  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
returned  to  its  camps  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock,  it  withdrew  in  good  order  and  without  the  evident  demoraliza- 
tion of  defeat.  For  a  few  days  the  people,  ignorant  of  what  had 
happened  and  purposely  deprived  of  exact  intelligence  from  the  seat 
of  war  on  the  Rappahannock,  dreamed  of  an  immediate  renewal  of 
the  attack.  None  outside  of  military  or  governmental  circles  knew 
what  a  frightful  havoc  had  been  wrought  in  the  lines  of  the  Federal 
army.  When  the  truth  gradually  leaked  out,  and  the  vast  losses 
sustained  were  fully  comprehended,  the  popular  feeling  at  the  Xorth 
was  one  of  wrathful  grief  and  indignation.  Burnside  was  harshly 
berated,  and  his  military  ability  derided ;  and  corps  commanders  who 
had  deserved  well  of  their  country  were  angrily  denounced  as  traitors 
and  cowards,  who  had  allowed  partisanship  to  control  them  even  to 
the  throwing  away  of  a  battle.  Never  was  there  a  more  unjust 
assault  made  upon  the  generals  of  any  command.  But  in  their  blind 
fury,  civilian  critics  involved  nearly  all  the  military  leaders  in  their 
volleys  of  objurgation. 

General  Burnside  turned  the  edge  of  hostile  criticism  by  his  assum- 
ing without  demur  the  entire  responsibility  for  the  disaster  at  Fred- 


The  Wall  at  Fredericksburg  after  the  Battle. 


580 


NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXI. 


ericksburg.  In  his  report  to  the  general -in-chief,  on  the  19th,  he 
said  that  he  owed  everything  to  the  brave  officers  and  soldiers  who 
had  performed  most  difficult  feats  ;  and  he  added  :  "  For  the  failure 
in  the  attack,  I  am  responsible."  He  began  at  once  to  rally  his  army 
and  to  plan  new  movements  against  the  enemy.  He  now  proposed 
to  make  a  feint  on  the  right  of  his  army,  as  if  he  were  meditating 
an  attack  above  Fredericksburg ;  but  to  cross  the  river  at  the  Seddon 
farm,  about  six  miles  below  the  city,  with  the  main  body  of  the  army 
and  turn  the  Confederate  right.  At  the  same  time  a  large  body  of 
cavalry  was  to  cross  the  river  at  Kelley's  Ford,  the  Rapidan  at  Rac- 
coon Ford,  and  the  James  at  a  point  some  thirty  miles  above  Rich- 
mond, pass  around  the  city  at  a  distance,  going  south  of  Petersburg, 
destroying  the  Confederate  communications  in  every  direction,  and 
finally  joining  the  forces  of  General  Peck,  then  in  Suffolk. 

The  details  of  the  plan  were  carefully  worked  out  and  everything 
A  new  plan  was  ^n  readiness  by  the  30th  of  December.  Roads  through 
of  campaign.  ^e  woods  to  the  Seddon  House  had  been  opened  and  made 
passable  for  trains  of  artillery  and  wagons ;  the  detachments  of  cav- 
alry designed  to  mask  the  coming  movement  were  at  their  posts ;  a 
brigade  of  infantry  had  even  made  a  demonstration  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  river ;  and  General  Averill  was  at  the  head  of  his  column 
of  cavalry  at  Kelley's  Ford,  when  everything  was  brought  to  a  stand- 
still by  an  order  from  the  President  directing  Burnside  to  undertake 
no  general  movement  without  first  consulting  him.  Burnside  was 
thunderstruck.  He  had  communicated  his  plans  to  none  but  his 
generals.  He  believed  that  he  had  been  left  to  carry  out  his  own 
scheme ;  and  he  was  amazed  and  indignant  that  he  was  so  suddenly 
and  arbitrarily  interfered  with  just  when  he  was  on  the  eve  of 
beginning  a  new  campaign.  He 
hastened  to  Washington,  where  he 
learned  that  two  of  his  generals  — 
Newton,  commanding  the  third  divi- 
sion of  the  Sixth  Corps,  and  Coch- 
rane,  commanding  a  brigade  in  the 
same  division  —  had  been  to  Washing- 
ton and  had  communicated  directly 
with  the  President,  repre- 

ComplaintB  .  . 

against         senting  to  him  that  the  armv 

Burnside.  .  e  J 

was  in  a  demoralized  state, 
resulting  largely  from  its  want  of 
confidence  in  the  commanding  gen- 
eral, and  that  the  movement  then 

.  Brigadier-General  Conrad  r.  Jackson. 

probably    under    contemplation    (as  (Killed  at  Fredericksb 


1862.] 


BURNSIDE'S  PATIENCE  TRIED. 


581 


A  Typical   Incident  of  the  War  in  Virginia,  — a  family  leaving  the  old  homestead. 
Drawn  by  Victor  S.  Ptrard  from  a  photograph. 

they  judged  from  appearances)  was  foredoomed  to  failure.  It  was 
generally  supposed,  when  these  facts  became  known,  that  Xewton 
and  Cochrane  were  merely  the  mouthpieces  of  others  who  had  no 
confidence  in  Burnside's  ability  to  carry  out  a  plan  of  campaign. 
Burnside's  subsequent  actions  showed  that  he  entertained  that  belief. 
The  details  of  the  proposed  movement  were  soon  made  known  to  the 
Confederate  leaders  through  their  spies  in  Washington ;  the  plan 
was  definitely  abandoned. 

Another  scheme  of  attack  was  immediately  formed  by  the  general. 
This  time  he  proposed  to  cross  the  river  at  Banks's  and  the  rhangeg  of 
United  States  Fords,  above  Fredericksburg,  flank  the  enemy  plan- 
and  then  give  him  battle.  This  time  he  had  a  qualified  consent  for 
his  movement ;  and  the  two  grand  divisions  of  Franklin  and  Hooker 
went  up  the  river  on  parallel  roads,  while  Couch's  division  made  a 
feint  below  the  city.  The  troops  were  overtaken  by  a  fierce  storm 
of  rain  and  sleet.  The  men  were  exposed  to  the  pitiless  peltings  of 
the  blast ;  wagons,  artillery,  and  horses  were  inextricably  mired  in 
the  bottomless  soil  of  Virginia,  and,  after  the  three  days'  cooked 
rations  were  gone,  the  army  was  led  back  to  its  camps,  where  it 
remained  for  the  remainder  of  the  winter.  This  movement,  under- 
taken in  the  depth  of  winter,  and  thwarted  by  storms  that  delayed 


582  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA  AND  MARYLAND.      [CHAP.  XXL 

and  betrayed  it,  is  known  in  the  history  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
as  the  famous  Mud  March. 

General  Burnside's  patience  and  forbearance  had  now  given  way 
under  an  accumulation  of  trials  and  disappointments.  He  went  to 
Washington  with  an  order  dismissing  from  the  service  Major-generals 
Joseph  Hooker,  John  Newton,  and  W.  T.  H.  Brooks,  whom  he 
charged  with  fomenting  discontent  in  the  army ;  and,  by  the  same 
order,  Generals  W.  B.  Franklin,  W.  F.  Smith,  John  Cochrane,  and 
Edward  Ferrero,  and  Lieut.-colonel  J.  H.  Taylor  were  to  be  relieved 
from  duty  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  The  President  was  sorely 
tried.  He  appreciated  the  patriotic  services  and  the  soldierly  quali- 
ties of  Burnside  ;  he  could  not  sympathize  with  him  in  his  denun- 
ciation of  the  officers  who  had  taken  it  upon  themselves  to  protest 
against  movements  which,  under  the  circumstances,  appeared  to  be 
certain  to  lead  to  the  destruction  of  the  army.  He  liked  Burnside, 
and  admired  his  courage  and  his  much-enduring  patience,  but  he  was 
not  prepared  to  say  that  the  criticisms  that  had  been  made  upon  his 
strategy  were  unjust.  After  talking  familiarly  and  intimately  with 
Burnside,  the  President  finally  consented  that  the  general 
succeeded  should  be  relieved  from  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac. At  the  same  time  Franklin  and  Sumner  were  re- 
lieved, the  latter  at  his  own  request.  General  Joseph  Hooker  was  now 
assigned  to  the  command  relinquished  by  Burnside.  Burnside  had 
been  at  the  head  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  less  than  ninety  days. 


TABLE    OF   DATES. 


1779.  Sullivan's  Expedition. 

1780.  May,  Capture  of  Charleston  by  the  British. 
July,  Arrival  of  Rocharabeau. 

August  15,  Battle  of  Camden. 
September,  Arnold's  Treason. 

1781.  January  17,  Battle  of  Cowpens. 

March  15,  Battle  of  Guilford  Court  House. 

September  8,  Battle  of  Eutaw  Springs. 

October  19,  Cornwallis's  Surrender  at  Yorktown. 

1782.  November  30,  Preliminary  Treaty  of  Peace  signed. 

1783.  September  3,  Final  Treaty  of  Peace  with  Great  Britain  signed. 
November  25,  Evacuation  of  New  York. 

December  4,  Washington  takes  leave  of  his  officers. 

1784.  Jefferson's  Northwest  Ordinance  proposed. 

1786.  Shay's  Rebellion. 

1787.  Northwest  Territory  organized,  and  Ordinance  adopted. 
May  14,  Constitutional  Convention  met  at  Philadelphia. 

September  17,  Constitution  of  the  United  States  signed  by  the  Delegates. 

1788.  June  21,  Constitution  ratified  by  New  Hampshire,  securing  its  adoption. 

1789.  March  4,  First  Congress  assembled  in  New  York. 
April  30,  Washington  inaugurated  President. 

1790.  Cotton-spinning  established  in  the  United  States. 

1791.  First  National  Bank  established. 

1793.  Wayne's  campaign  against  the  Indians. 
Cotton  Gin  invented  by  Eli  Whitney. 

1794.  The  Whiskey  Insurrection. 

1795.  Jay's  Treaty  ratified. 

1797.  March  4,  John  Adams  inaugurated  President. 

1798.  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  enacted. 

1799.  Fries's  Insurrection. 

December  14,  Death  of  Washington. 
1801.     March  4,  Jefferson  inaugurated  President. 
War  with  Tripoli. 

1803.  Louisiana  purchased. 

1804.  Lewis  and  Clarke's  Expedition. 

1805.  Treaty  of  Peace  with  Tripoli. 

1806.  Aaron  Burr's  Expedition  to  the  Southwest. 
Monroe  and  Pinkney  Treaty,  suppressed  by  Jefferson. 
November  20,  The  Berlin  Decree  issued. 

1807.  Trial  trip  of  Fulton's  first  steamboat. 


584  TABLE  OF  DATES. 

1807.     November  11,  The  Orders  in  Council  issued. 

December  17,  The  Milan  Decree  issued. 

December,  The  Embargo  Bill  passed. 
1809.     March  4,  Madison  inaugurated  President. 

181 1.  November  7,  Battle  of  Tippecanoe. 

1812.  June  18,  War  declared  against  England. 
August  16,  Hull's  surrender  of  Detroit. 

1813.  March  4,  Madison  inaugurated. 
September  10,  Perry's  victory  on  Lake  Erie. 
October  5,  Battle  of  the  Thames. 

Jackson's  campaign  against  the  Southern  Indians. 

1814.  Campaign  on  the  Niagara;  Battles  of  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane. 
August  25,  Capture  of  Washington  by  the  British. 

September  11,  Battle  of  Plattsburg. 
December  15,  Hartford  Convention  met. 
December  24,  Treaty  of  Peace  signed  at  Ghent. 

1815.  January  8,  Battle  of  New  Orleans. 
War  with  Algiers. 

1816.  United  States  Bank  chartered. 
First  Seminole  War. 

1817.  March  4,  Monroe  inaugurated  President. 

1818.  Steam  navigation  begun  on  the  Western  lakes. 

1820.  Missouri  Compromise  passed. 

1821.  Ratification  of  Treaty  of  1819,  ceding  Florida  to  the  United  States. 

1825.  March  4,  John  Quincy  Adams  inaugurated  President. 

1826.  Murder  of  Morgan,  and  rise  of  the  Anti-masonic  Party. 
July  4,  Death  of  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson. 
First  railroad  built  in  the  United  States. 

1829.     March  4,  Jackson  inaugurated  President. 

1831.  Garrison  established  "The  Liberator." 
August,  The  Southampton  Insurrection. 

1832.  The  Black  Hawk  War. 
Nullification  in  South  Carolina. 

1833.  Removal  of  deposits  from  the  United  States  Bank. 
1835.     Second  Seminole  War  begun. 

Texas  declared  her  independence  of  Mexico. 
1837.     March  4,  Van  Buren  inaugurated  President. 
1839.     Capture  of  the  Amistad,  and  trial  of  Africans. 

1841.  March  4,  Harrison  inaugurated  President. 
Case  of  the  Creole. 

1842.  The  Dorr  War  in  Rhode  Island. 

The  Prigg  Case  in  the  Supreme  Court. 
The  Ashburton  Treaty  concluded. 

1845.  Texas  annexed  by  joint  resolution. 
March  4,  Polk  inaugurated  President. 

1846.  May  8,  Battle  of  Palo  Alto,  beginning  of  the  Mexican  War. 
August  8,  David  Wilmot  introduced  his  Proviso  in  Congress. 

1847.  February  22,  23,  Battle  of  Buena  Vista. 
March  27,  Surrender  of  Vera  Cruz. 

September  14,  City  of  Mexico  occupied  by  the  American  forces. 

1848.  February,  Treaty  of  Peace  with  Mexico  concluded. 


TABLE  OF  DATES. 


585 


1848.  Gold  discovered  in  California. 

1849.  March  4,  Taylor  inaugurated  President. 

1850.  The  Clay  Compromises — including  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law — passed. 

1853.  March  4,  Pierce  inaugurated  President. 
Rise  of  the  Know-Nothing  Party. 

1854.  May  30,  The  Kansas-Xebraska  Bill  became  a  law. 

1856.  Lawrence,  Kansas,  sacked. 

1857.  March  4,  Buchanan  inaugurated  President. 
March  6,  The  Dred  Scott  case  in  the  Supreme  Court. 
August  4,  First  message  sent  by  Atlantic  cable. 

1859.  October,  John  Brown's  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry. 

1860.  November,  Lincoln  elected  President. 
December  20,  South  Carolina  seceded. 

1861.  January,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  and  Louisiana  seceded. 
February,  Texas  seceded ;  provisional  Confederate  Government  organized. 
March  4,  Lincoln  inaugurated  President. 

April  12,  13,  Bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter. 

April  17,  Virginia  seceded. 

April  19,  First  blood  shed,  in  Baltimore. 

May,  Arkansas  and  Xorth  Carolina  seceded. 

June  10,  Battle  of  Big  Bethel. 

July  21,  Battle  of  Bull  Run. 

August  10,  Battle  of  Wilson's  Creek ;  death  of  General  Lyon. 

August  26,  The  Hatteras  Exdedition  sailed. 

August  31,  Fremont's  Emancipation  Proclamation  issued. 

October  29,  The  Port  Royal  Expedition  sailed. 

November  8,  The  Confederate  envoys  taken  from  the  Trent  by  Captain  Wilkes. 

1862.  January  12,  The  Roanoke  Expedition  sailed. 
March  9,  Fight  of  the  Merrimac  and  Monitor. 

May  4,  Yorktown  evacuated  by  the  Confederates ;  Battle  of  Williamsburg. 

May  9,  Hunter's  Emancipation  Order  issued. 

May  27,  Battle  of  Hanover  Court  House. 

May  31,  Battle  of  Fair  Oaks. 

June  26,  The  Seven  Days'  battles  before  Richmond  begun. 

August  29,  Battle  of  Groveton,  or  Second  Bull  Run. 

September,  Invasion  of  Maryland ;  Battle  of  Antietam. 

The  President's  preliminary  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  issued. 
December  13,  Battle  of  Fredericksburg. 


